Jaunted

Borat

Kazakhstan is just like the U S and A

July 31, 2006 at 8:48 AM | 0 Comments

Probably because of our Borat fetish, we were sent the following tip from either a outraged Kazakh or someone posing as a Kazakh:

As a kazakh, I'm outraged that Cohen still has the balls to continue with the movie, even after the EMA scandal. I don't think that he has any moral or ethical right to portray a kazakh because the facts are:

1. Cohen hasn't ever been to Kazakhstan.
   
   
2. Cohen doesn't speak a word of kazakh. Rather, he passes off polish/gibberish/georgian as kazakh.
   
   
3. This movie DOES contribute to a rather negative and depreciating view of kazakhs/Kazahstan. He makes the world think that kazakhs are vile dimwits that like raping, shooting dogs, throwing jews down the well, kissing men but not women, etc.

Kazakhstan's geographical features are varied - from snowcapped mountains with ski resorts, to deserts, "grand-canyon"esque landscapes, forests and plateaus. Because of all this, Kazakhstan's popularity for tourism is growing, mostly among the ecotourists.

And I would just like to say for the record that the way Borat portrays it is completely inaccurate. Not only are the kazahzstani people warm and welcoming, but they are far more advanced technologically than Borat seems to give them credit for.

Sure, problems do exist over there. The wine tastes like horse urine.

We found more of this type of outrage on the IMDb message boards, and we have been able to verify that Cohen actually speaks a mixture of Polish/Hebrew gibberish when doing Borat, the Borat theme music is actually Georgian, and the Kazakh scenes in the forthcoming Borat film were actually shot in Romania.

What does all this mean? Geographically speaking Kazakhstan sounds a lot like America and later this year, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan just might make us forget all about Snakes on a Plane, thankfully.

Related Stories:
· Borat Coverage [Jaunted]
· Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan [IMDb]
· Kazakhstan Embassy [Official Site]