I finally saw the Borat movie–a pirate edition was handed to me in a smoky cafe, in plain white paper, the discs enscribed “We <3 Kazakhstan” like it was the samizdat in Soviet times. So no money from the Kazakhstan economy went to Mr. Cohen from me, unlike some other non-patriots who pushed Borat to number one on the Amazon.co.uk website for sales in Kazakhstan!

Although I still believe the main point of the film is to shame Americans with their own inherent ignorance and racism, and to revel in toilet humor, there were some major insults to the Kazakh nation:

• Several scenes showed Borat on the bed with his shoes and suit on. No citizen of Kazakhstan would dream of leaving his dirty shoes on inside, let alone putting that filth on the bed. It would be much more typical to take off your dirty outside clothes too before touching the bed.
• Not once did Borat drink tea. Not one time. He never even said, “Boy, I have a headache because I didn’t have tea this morning.” Real Kazakhs love their tea!
• When he went to visit various people, he never brought any presents. A good Kazakh will always bring at least some flowers and chocolate, especially when invited for dinner. The implication that Kazakhs are bad guests is truly an insult to the nation.
• Finally, the implication that Kazakhstan TV doesn’t get all the trashiest of American TV is totally false. Why, I’ve seen Baywatch Hawaii on regular broadcast TV! Surely all Kazakhs know exactly who Pamela Anderson is.

While a lot of attention has been paid to the ongoing process of administrative reforms in Kazakhstan in the area of increasing Parliamentary powers, not much has been heard about the plans to reform the civil service. There have been research projects and discussion in the areas of linking government salaries to performance, reducing corruption in the civil service, and boosting the role of the private sector as well as NGOs to limit the role of the government. However a major new plan has been announced that will completely reform the government, and introduce a new precedent for government organization in the world. Starting next year, the government will be run like a corporation.

On the 6th of March, Aslan Musin, Deputy Vice-Minister and Minister of the Economy and Budget Planning led a meeting with the Senate to explain the new proposal.
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