Perhaps some think that Borat can get away with mocking Kazakhstan because it is not a particularly powerful country and because it is pretty remote from the US and the UK, where Sascha Baron Cohen does most of his filming. But when Mr. Cohen was spotted by a world champion in boxing from Kazakhstan, things got a little up close and personal.

Wladimir Klitschko, 220 pounds and 6 foot 6 inches tall (3 inches taller than Mr. Cohen), was born in Kazakhstan although he now lives in the Ukraine. When he spotted Borat and his wife, Isla Fischer, dining in the same LA restaurant, Mr. Klitschko decided to have a little fun. According to The Daily Star, Klitschko said:

“As he walked past me I turned to face him and said, ‘Hey, I think you are an arsehole for what you said about Kazakhstan’.
“Unbelievably, he started to defend himself – but before he could continue I stood up and was towering over him.
“I said, ‘I have broken people’s necks for less than what you have done’.
“He looked frightened – like he had picked a fight with the wrong man. And then I owned up and told him I really think his Borat character is amazing.
“He looked pretty relieved!”

The New York Times has a nice article up on how Kazakhstan feels about Mongol’s nomination. There’s a little confusion here–the NYT doesn’t seem to realize that Sergei Bodrov, the director and co-writer, is Russian. Nonetheless there’s great content here about Kazkahstan’s film industry and national pride. And of course we all have our fingers crossed as Oscar Night starts in about 24 hours!

EDIT: Unfortunately, Mongol lost to The Counterfeiters, an Austrian movie about a group of prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp who are used as part of a plot to counterfeit US and UK currency in order to flood the Allied markets and cause financial collapse. It was Austria’s first Oscar win.

Even when it has nothing to do with him, Sascha Baron Cohen’s journalist character manages to pop into the news.

US Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi announced Monday that he will retire from the Senate after a long career. Analysts think the Governor may choose Mississippi Representative Chip Pickering as Lott’s replacement until the election which will be on Nov. 4th 2008. If Pickering decides to run, then the big question will clearly be his role in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. No, he wasn’t seen in Washington answering stupid questions presented by the most famous journalist in Kazakhstan. He was caught on film in a Pentecostal revival attended by Borat where he was cheered by the crowd as he swore to love Christ forever. The Chief Justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court and according to the Huffington Post, so was Representative Pickering.

In all serious I don’t see this scene causing Pickering too many problems, but it is amazing how Cohen manages to insert himself into the news!

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.

Sean Roberts has an article up about nation branding and (inevitably) Borat. Upon the occasion of yet another big paid article in the Washington Post, Who Needs Borat? Here’s the Kazakh President, highlighting the President’s new devil may care attitude to the comedian (which itself did not emerge until after Sascha Baron Cohen did an interview in Rolling Stone saying officially that the joke was not on Kazakhstan.

Roberts points out that the article was produced by a consulting company that specializes in nation-branding, East-West Communications. For more on nation branding, see Diplomatic Traffic but it is what it sounds like, treating a nation as brand name that must be promoted, preserved, manipulated. Lest you laugh, let me point out that “PR” and “imeidge” are slipping into the local Kazakhstani newspapers, bulletin boards, and mailing lists and as people discuss Borat, Nomad and the President’s trips here and there. There was a wonderful commercial on Khabar television showing a student giving his graduation speech (in English!) and everyone cheering as he flies into the air. Then the screen flashes up the message that Education is a key part of increasing the economic competitiveness of the nation. Even students are apparently supposed to put the ranking of the nation in the WEF report first!

Overall, the Kazakhstan public seems happy with the idea that Kazakhstan is a brand-name. Roberts discusses the idea of nation as corporation versus ideology (and Borat as marketing!). But it reminded me to post something I’ve been waiting to see in the newspapers: (more…)

Jantik, a DJ in Almaty, showed up at the London premire of Borat’s film in London, dressed in traditional Kazakh robes and claimed to be Borat’s brother. Apparently he came late, without a ticket, and was refused admission. Most British papers are picking up on this aspect of it, which will sadly give people more reason to laugh at Kazakhs, though they should realize that disregard for formal measures of time is an important part of Kazakh culture!

The BBC coverage of the opening is here and has this to say about Jantik:

Real-life Kazakh TV star Jantemir Baimukhamedov - also known at Jantik - arrived at the premiere to give his “brother” Borat some “horse-meat sausages” from home.

He arrived on the red-carpet in a black fur hat and full Kazakh national costume, flanked by Borat’s “mother and relative”, who were wearing equally eye-catching clothes.

But they were quickly and politely escorted away by officials when it transpired they did not have a ticket.

The Navi.kz (link in Russian) article goes into a bit more detail. Apparently Jantik brought eggs (a common euphemism for testicles) with him, claiming Borat had lost them in school when they were cut off. He also said the reason Borat couldn’t come to let his “brother” in was that he was busy with a frozen penis. Apparently he felt he could out-shock the shock comic. Navi concludes that this is the last thing Kazakhstan needs right now. While Zhantik professes to follow the higher road of Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to Britain, Idrissov, who said the film was kind of funny but basically toilet humor, that it had nothing to do with Kazakhstan, and that government reactions to repress Cohen were ultimately hurtful, in fact he shows that he “doth protest too much.” This is something Jantik had apparently been planning for a long time, and the BBC article does sort of paint him as obsessed with Borat.

His press-conference in London where he tried to speak the truth about Kazakhstan was poorly attended. But maybe he didn’t advertise well the fact that there would be free khazi, horsemeat sausage. That alone was worth coming out for.

Frankly I’m disapointed it didn’t turn out better (And so is Navi.kz). It was a good idea. Bringing apashka was an awesome move, and free horsemeat sausage was a nice touch. It was something fun in place of economic and social-political statistics. Perhaps Idrissov would agree to an open day at the Embassy where Kazakh goodies are served, and everyone wears traditional dress. Perhaps a demonstration of Kazakh horse skills and other fun stuff…

This is hopefully my last post on Borat ever, but my attention was caught by Sean Robert’s
post on the pseudo-national anthem at the end of Borat’s film. He discusses the suspicious Armenian conspiracy (and while he dismisses it, why is President Kocharayan in Astana on the week after the opening of the film?).

However, the “national anthem” is actually a pretty well-targeted parody of Kazakhstan’s own PR campaigns, internal and external. And Kazakhstan must learn that statistics and industry do not capture the public imagination. The politicians and businessmen who are excited about economic growth already know about Kazakhstan and therefore do not need to see the PR.

Some excerpts from the lyrics of the anthem:

Kazakhstan Number one exporter of potassium; All other countrues have inferior pottasium.
Kazakhstan home of Tinshien Swimming Pool; its length 30 meters and width 6 meters.
Kazakhstan industry best in the world; we invented toffee and the trouser belt.

Which are reminiscent of such points of pride that Kazakhstan has almost 100% of all the elements in the periodic table in its territory, that the Medeu skating rink is the largest in the world, etc…

It’s particularly poignant now that Kazakhstan is filming a television serial, to be shown on Caspionet in English and Kazakh, on Innovations of Kazakhstan (seen on Khabar last night). The film will basically advertise new ideas that began in Kazakhstan and the first episode will be on the Kazakh-British Technical University, a joint project. The director said that it was exciting because no where in the CIS do you see a former Communist Party building being given to a university or other civil society institution.

I am also constantly amused by an advertisement on Khabar which shows a young man apparently preparing his valedictorian speech and he stays up all night not coming up with any ideas. While he is standing on the stage at graduation, flustered, a fellow graduate tells him that Education is the future. The ad ends by telling us that education is one of the key instruments for economic competiveness of the country. “Get educated so your country can become the 50 most competitive countries”? Not a compelling argument.

The plan that economic reform comes first and then social and political reforms is questionable because once you fill your government with economists and financists and people who love balance sheets, it’s very hard to get them to even understand social problems. Outside the context of economics. As Kazakhstan begins more social reforms, as well as Social Business Corporations one hopes they will be able to muster the ability to get beyond macroeconomics. After all, the latest WEF Competitveness report, giving Kazakhstan an overall rating of 56, did rate the macroeconomy as 10th in the world. 10th. S0 paying attention to other areas, such as basic education and social services, may actually boost their economy as well.

On another note, is Kazakhstan really the number one exporter of pottasium? I can’t dismiss it out of hand, and that is a good sign of effective parody.

EDIT: The words are here. The mp3 download on that page is only the first 30 seconds–not worth downloading.

The Kazakhstan Embassy in the United States puts out a newsletter, had two items on Borat today.

The first is the Take That, Borat program to show Westerners the real Kazakhstan.

The tours, called “Kazakhstan vs. Boratistan” and “Jagzhemash!!! See the Real Kazakhstan”, include visits to the cosmopolitan Almaty and its beautiful surroundings, tours of ancient sites such as the Hodja Akhmed Yassaui Mausoleum in Turkestan, as well as plentiful opportunities to meet and interact with the real Kazakhs. In addition to sightseeing, tours also include visits to local colorful bazaars, artifact shops and high fashion boutiques, as well as trying kumyss, the deliciously tasting Kazakh traditional drink made from fermented horse milk.

Molotsi, it’s about time someone tried to launch a tourism campaign to get Westerners here. The nation has a lot to offer, but I think the tourism angle gets ignored because the profits aren’t in the billions of dollars, or out of shame–”Who would want to come here? Kazakhs themselves vacation in Turkey and Europe!”

Second, Kazakh Aul of the US (aul means village), an organization dedicating to promoting Kazakh culture for children adopted by Americans, and aiming to open a cultural center in the US, has made a statement regarding Borat’s movie and its effect on adopted children here.

We can expect adults to process the humor and get that the joke is not on Kazakhs, but we really can’t expect kids to. Especially kids that may already have a sense of shame or alienation associated with Kazakhstan–in so far as someone brought them out of that country “to lead a better life”:

Another adoptive mother described her children watching an announcer on VH1 segue from a story on Madonna’s recent adoption of an African boy to a story on Borat, saying something along the lines of, “And, now, a country you wouldn’t want to adopt from, Kazakhstan…” The woman’s 7-year-old Kazakh daughter burst into tears.

What a 7-year old child was doing watching VH-1, I don’t know, and I’m not arguing for censoring or banning the film, but it is something to think about, particularly as other people pick up on the joke, such as Boris, Borat’s brother! In their heart of hearts, do Kurt Loder or this Boris guy really think Kazakhs are stupid savages? Probably not. Do they care? Probably not.

EDIT: Pic found on a message board for Kazakhstani studying in the US. If it’s copyrighted, let me know and I’ll take it down

Two Borat-related videos came to my attention.

Chris Merriman has put up the BBC coverage of the London premiere of Borat’s film, with discussion of the uproar, Aliyev’s invitation, and his insistence on remaining in character.

Second, the first four minutes of the Borat film, the bit set in Kazakhstan:

It’s not particularly funny to me, but I never went for that line of comedy anyway.

EDIT: A Bolashak Scholar in New Zealand spoke to the news there about Borat.
Video here Click on the video below Archive, where it says

We talk to some visiting Kazakstani’s about their reaction to the upcoming “Borat” movie.

Borat’s defense in my mind was always that he had nothing against Kazakhstan itself. And many say that Kazakhstan has brought the personal war on themselves. But, this might be going too far. While Nazarbayev is in the US, Borat gave a press conference in front of the Kazakhstan Embassy in Washington, claiming that the spokesperson for the Embassy, Roman Vassilenko, is in fact an imposter from Uzbekistan and that the President is hosting a screening of his fim followed by cocktails at Hooters.

His statement is here

Despite this article in the New York Times claiming that many Kazakhs are untouched by the Borat scandal, and may even find him quite funny, this latest stunt, to be percieved as openly mocking the President and the government, may bring it home for them.

This is at the same time that Nazarbayev is unveiling a Monument to Independence in the Embassy. From the Kazakhstan Embassy press release, put out by Vassilenko:

President Nursultan Nazarbayev, visiting Washington for official talks with President George W. Bush and U.S. officials, today unveiled the Monument of Independence of Kazakhstan in the American capital. Group of more than 200 guests shared the moment, including U.S. Secretary of Energy Sam Bodman.

Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to the United States Kanat Saudabayev opened the ceremony, saying “This truly historic event is new evidence of the growing relationship based on true friendship and strategic partnership between our two countries.”
…
The monument, standing 13 feet high, is cast in bronze and depicts a young warrior astride a winged snow leopard.

The monument embodies the spirit of an archaeological find in Kazakhstan from the fourth century B.C. The Saka nomadic civilization existed in Kazakhstan at that time, leaving behind very vivid artifacts. Commonly known as the Golden Warrior Prince, this figure, found near Almaty in 1970, is perhaps the best known symbol of Kazakhstan’s long history and rebirth as a modern nation.

Pictures and description from Sean Roberts here

Алтын адам has arrived in Washington!

Personally, I think Mr. Borat has crossed a line now, and he really needs to hire some lawyers and possibly bodyguards.