Borat: Cultural Learnings for Pissing Off Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Culture and History, Kazakhstan30 Comments
I saw “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” this weekend. My review is simple: Borat delivers. There isn’t really much more to say. If you have seen any of the shows, you know what to expect; the movie is an hour and a half of the same, but admirably held together with a (relatively) coherent plot. Though hilarious, it is probably a good thing that they kept it relatively short.
If you have been following the media at all, you already know that (most) of the Kazakh government is spitting mad over this film. Perhaps a more interesting question than “was the movie funny” (yes it was) is “do the Kazakhs who are offended by Borat have a point?” Consider the following two sets of arguments, then vote and / or write your own point of view in the comments. These arguments are not necessarily my own; they are a compilation drawn from blog posts, articles, and conversations.
Argument: Borat is harmless, and maybe even good for Kazakhstan
The Kazakhstani government is getting bent out of shape over nothing. In fact, for a country so obsessed with being modern, nothing illustrates how out of touch they are with the rest of the world than their reaction to one comedian. In America and Europe, both culture and politicians are lampooned in the media so regularly that the offensive nature of Borat fails to even register (consider Comedy Central’s now canceled “That’s My Bush,” a sitcom in which the US president is the main character). By being such a poor sport about it, people around the world will assume that there is actually truth to the jokes made in Borat.
Furthermore, Kazakhstan is missing the point. Borat actually makes fun of America, not Kazakhstan. Americans show their ignorance about the world when they fall for Borat’s antics. Worse, viewers worldwide see Americans agreeing with Borat’s anti-Semitic, homophobic, and misogynistic comments. Sometimes they dig an even deeper hole for themselves by making insensitive comments with little prompting from Borat. Bush should be the one worrying about his country’s already damaged reputation after the release of “Borat,” not Nazarbayev.
Finally, Borat is free publicity for a country few people in the rest of the world have even heard about. People ignorant enough to believe the stereotypes spread by Borat will probably never have any real influence in world affairs anyway, and those who don’t will be motivated to find out more about the Central Asian country.
Counter-Argument: Kazakhstan has a right to be angry
The movie “Borat” is insensitive, irresponsible, and illustrates incredible hypocrisy in the West. Sure, there are lots of shows lampooning America, but the general public is also exposed to a wide variety of alternative depictions of American and European culture in the media. In contrast, Borat will henceforth be the first thing that comes to mind when anyone hears the word Kazakhstan.
Especially in a society so obsessed with political correctness, the amount of tolerance for the ignorant stereotypes spread by Borat is staggering. For instance, imagine that instead of being a Kazakh journalist, he was an Arab one. Instead of jokes about all Kazakhs being rapists, the jokes were about all Arabs being terrorists. Instead of a chicken falling out of Borat’s suitcase on the New York metro, a bomb does. Would people find that so humorous? Or what if Borat pretended to be a black person from America, and spread stereotypes about African Americans in Europe. Would that be as tolerated? Kazakhstan being relatively isolated and unknown is no excuse for encouraging an astounding level of bigotry.
While Kazakhstan is indeed getting more press, it is now all Borat-related. As Kazakhstan is developing rapidly and increasingly becoming a regional player, important events such as the recent riots in Atyrau tale a backseat to interviews of Kazakhs asking what they think of Borat. Kazakhstan didn’t need Borat’s help to make the news; he is just ensuring that the content is superficial, pointless, and counterproductive.
What do you think?
Vote in the poll and / or add your argument to the comments.
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I really feel that if we can’t laugh then we might as well not live. I think that the there are valid points on both sides, but we all need to loosen up. When politics and world relations stop the world from laughing, whether it is at ourselves or others then I don’t know if that is a world I want to live in.
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This movie is so funny….I almost pee’d a little.
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I don’t think that Kazakhstan should be angry (and we are speaking about Government really, ordinary people have a more diverse opinion on it), but I tend to agree more with the arguments in the second part of your post, James :)
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Anyone who has seen any of Baron-Cohen’s previous incarnations (such as Ali G) will have realised that his skills of parody and comedic farce are excellent and he should be recognised as the revolutionary comic genius he so clearly is.
Anybody who feels that this character is puerile, unintelligent and anti-semitic is clearly in the dark about Sacha Baron-Cohen’s Jewish heritage and his education at no less an establishment than Cambridge University!
On a weekly basis, comedians mock and parody stereotypes of characters, factual and fictional, from around the world without any great uproar (simply watch any popular sketch or comedy chat show). I believe that this very humourous molehill has been built into a mountain simply because the nation concerned is one that people have not previously been educated about.
If everyone knew all about Kazakhstan, everyone would laugh at Borat. Those ignorant enough to fall for his antics and consider them reality should take a seat and learn some geography, if only that they might then have a good giggle at a talented performer with a clean conscience and a greater appreciation for some of the fellow humans with whom they share the planet!
Watch the film. Watch the series. This is genius!
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James,
You should have put up a third option for the vote, somewhere in between the two, because that’s where the feelings of most of the Kazakhs converge. As someone who has been involved in reacting and commenting on Borat for the past several months (being the spokesman of the Embassy of Kazakhstan to the USA), I want to say a few things. First, the media made up most of the reaction from the Kazakhs into an over-reaction, because that’s what the media does usually. Secondly, those who saw the movie and the series understand Borat’s satire and its direction, but at the same time a lot of the people are concerned that indeed the first thing that will come to an American mind when they hear Kazakhstan would be Borat. Hence, we needed to react in order to bring our message across, and if you check our website http://www.kazakhembus.com, you will see that’s what we have been doing.
In a nutshell, the Borat phenomenon and its impact on Kazakhstan can be better described as a blessing in disguise, and it will take a lot of efforts on our behalf to remove that disguise.
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Borat makes Kazakhstan to be one of the most backwards nations in the world. And the people he interacts with fall for hit, hook, line and sinker. He doesn’t even look Kazak, but the people he interviews are the ones who are ignorant. Obviously, they cannot tell spoken Hebrew from any other foreign language either.
The best part is that here is someone supposedly from (what he makes out to be) the most mysoginsistic, racist, anti-semetic, backwards society in the world, but look how much the people he interacts with in the “Civilized” US agree with even Borat’s most horrid views.
Cohen is brilliant; it’s scary how easy it is to peel away civility and reveal the ignorance that still infects American society on all levels.
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Borat’s Big Opening…
Originally worried about how Borat would do in its opening weekend, Fox scaled back the first weekend to about 800 screens across the US and Canada. Turns out their fears were for naught. Borat came in number one in the weekend box office, beating out …
Dear James,
You should have put up a third option for the vote, somewhere in between the two, because that’s where the feelings of most of the Kazakhs converge. As someone who has been involved in reacting and commenting on Borat for the past several months (being the spokesman of the Embassy of Kazakhstan to the USA), I want to say a few things. First, the media made up most of the reaction from the Kazakhs into an over-reaction, because that’s what the media does usually. Secondly, those who saw the movie and the series understand Borat’s satire and its direction, but at the same time a lot of the people are concerned that indeed the first thing that will come to an American mind when they hear Kazakhstan would be Borat. Hence, we needed to react in order to bring our message across, and if you check our website http://www.kazakhembus.com, you will see that’s what we have been doing.
In a nutshell, the Borat phenomenon and its impact on Kazakhstan can be better described as a blessing in disguise, and it will take a lot of efforts on our behalf to remove that disguise.
So, Americans, do go and see the movie, and then do go and see the real Kazakhstan.
With best wishes,
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Dear Mr. Vassilenko,
First of all, thank you for participating in the discussion here on neweurasia. You and your colleagues are always more than welcome to join in.
Your point is well taken. Most people’s opinions are undoubtably more nuanced than the extreme choices available in the poll on this post, which is why I encouraged readers to elaborate on their views in the comments section (which many, including yourself, have already). The poll itself is just an easy and quick way to contribute; naturally, it would never stand up to any real survey standards for a whole host of reasons, including phrasing (as you noted).
And of course you will find no disagreement from neweurasia that there is a lot more going on in Kazakhstan worth paying attention to than Borat….
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Since meeting him this summer, I’m more and more impressed by Roman Vassilenko. Go Roman! My feeling about Borat is also in the middle — it’s not my kind of humor in the least, but sheesh, the guy is smart (and he sings well. He had a big hit with the tweeners with “I Like To Move It” from the movie Madagascar ) On the one hand, debating the Borat question is a game you can really only win by not playing. On the other hand, Kazakhstan has been playing well lately, and doing what looks a lot like winning.
If SBC had done precisely the same schtick, except as Borat from the Central Asian Republic of Moldovia (isn’t that where the parody travel guide is set?) or “Stanmenistan”, it would have been exactly as funny (or not) and exposed American biogotry in the same way. But would there have been the staggering quantity of free publicity, and consequently opened #1 at the box office? I think not.
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[...] Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat, the story/mockumentary telling a “Kazakh” journalist’s quest across America to marry Pamela Anderson, opened over the weekend in North America much of Europe and neweurasia looks at different perspectives on how the movie affects Kazakhstan. Nathan Hamm [...]
I was seriously underwhelmed by the movie. Yes, there are funny (and socially biting) bits but the scatological content overpowered them.
The argument of “it’s not KZ that SBC is mocking, it’s America!” doesn’t fly. Most of the movie is about the horridness of KZ, and there were only 2.5 bits* about the horridness of the US.
*1. The rodeo = Americans are racist, genocidal, and gay bashers to boot.
2. Frat boys = Americans are mysoginist and anti-Semitic.
Half: gun store owner = Americans might be anti-Semitic but they follow the laws and won’t actually act on their wishes.
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the movie was funny, it was crazy! my stomach hurt when i left the theatre. the formal dinner and the naked wrestling will be stuck in my mind for years. (i can do without the face-sitting, tho.. dammit!)
also, a little tidbit of trivia.. that wasn’t kazakhstan and those weren’t kazaks. it was filmed in a romanian village. i’m half-romanian, half hungarian and born in buchurest, romania. if he were to have made himself out to be romanian -where the offshore scenes were really shot- i’d consider any fellow countryman upset by ‘the great borat’ as a total idiot.
-giulianni and borat in ’08!!!
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[...] I just bought the soundtrack of this film (and I hope this is my last post related to Mr. Cohen, although it seems that this pledge has been made before and not adhered to). It’s hot stuff – like one could already grasp sitting in the theatre and shaking one’s head to the rhythm of the predominantly Balkan beats. [...]
I have not seen the movie, but have seen most of Cohen’s work on TV. I believe that the Borat character has definitely benefited Kazakhstan as far as making people aware of the nation. People are now looking up for information on this wonderful country. All people with intelligence realise that Borat is not a real character and that he doesn’t portray the real Kazakhstan, but he has made the world more aware of the country and a definite tourist destination.
Most countries have false stereo-typing aimed at them, but it makes people even the more curious to see the country for themselves. I believe that the Kazakhstan authorities must lighten up a bit and “seize the opportunity” and give Cohen just a little credit, at the very least.
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That movie was so funny but the funniest part is that they don’t even speak in Kazakhstan language they speak Armenian in the movie.
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I think Kazakhstan should be very grateful that a lot of people have now placed them on the map. So what if Borat made a little satire? Be happy! This was free PR which Almaty would never have had!
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OK I went to watch it last week-end, here are my 2 eurocents…
My overall impression is, that the movie is a as much a parody on the United States as it is on something presented as ‘Kazakhstan’. When you see who Borat meets during his US endeavour — agressive, bitter big city folks; silicone bimbos; evangelical wackos and right-wing rodeo types; and the decabrats who give Bora a ride in their mobilhome – it does not particularily paint a rosey picture of the US really even if a lot of it is as cliché as the rest. This said, the most hilarious scenes for me where those in the Jewish-run b&b in Nevada (?) and the Texas rodeo where the horse of the cowgirl holding the stars ’n stripes collapses in the background :))))) .
As most of us know, physically, Borat, his home village and the caricatures, as well as the landscape where it is situated, bear no ressemblance to Kazakhstan even if part of the mess shown can be found in parts of Kazakhstan and other former Soviet (and Yugoslav) republics for that matter.
They probably filmed that somewhere in a Gypsy settlement in Slovakia. Many of the clichés and caricatures are outright grotesque and puberal, and if they had ever made this film about Iran, Moqtada al Sadr or even Kosovo instead of Kazakhstan, the makers would likely have been in serious trouble by now.
Perhaps they had better taken a fictious country pretty much like the makers of the hilarious ‘travel guide’ on Molvania in the Jetlagtarvelseries did.
On the other hand, some of the types do make sense as far as reality in Kazakhstan goes. I am more specifically referring to Borat’s neighbour Nursultan Tuyakbai, who always want to have and do what his better-off neighbor has and does. In my opinion, this is quite typical for the mindset of the Kazakhstani elite and newly rich. Kazkahstan is a society which is traumatised and frustrated by the impoverishment and general loss of status that came in the wake of the Soviet collapse in the nineties.
Now that the oil and gas dollars come in — at least in certain centres and among some coats of society — they try to compensate that by indeed quite doing what Borat’s neighbour does: conspious consumption, imitate Western and Russian ‘nouveau riche’ lifestyles; plump grandiose buildings and façades everywhere; bold rethoric etc… – but that’s certainly not st. unique to Kazakshtan. It does explains the constipated reactions from the Kazkah estbalishment though: the Borat thing falling from the sky at a time that they are trying to be taken seriously internationally.
And yes, it’s a good thing that they kept it relatively short.
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Cf. Marc’s
“I believe that the Borat character has definitely benefited Kazakhstan as far as making people aware of the nation.”
I don’t agree. First, Borat is a hype and as every hype it will fade away soon and people will forget about it. Second, aware of whàt, and how? For the Western masses, Kazakhstan is, and will remain, a caricature — something grotesque.
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Sure it’s nothing more than humor. For those who know Kazakhstan or care to follow world affairs that much is true. And you can go on for years telling yourself no one should really be upset about it just because you will not be. The reality is not so. Mass media does have a great leverage over how most shape their conceptions, especially when the issue at hand is not of their immediate concern. So yeah, does the Kazakh government have the right to be upset about Borat? Yes, of course. But that doesn’t mean Borat cannot screen elsewhere and people still laugh.
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Borat movie was filmed in Romania, Glod village.
And for all you clueless: Borat joke is on you – redneck America.
http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/reviews.cfm/id/1165/page/borat.html
The rodeo also brought forth the familiar, though no less necessary
image of American jingoism. As Borat screamed in favor of President
Bush’s “war of terror” and the hope that he would soon be
drinking the blood of Iraqi men, women, and children, the crowd
cheered, whistled, and bellowed as if at the Super Bowl. It’s the
same illogic that went into the idea that a country must be destroyed
in order to save it. After all — there are actually people in this
country who would be content to murder every last Iraqi because then,
and only then, could we declare victory and go home. It’s further
proof that for all the rhetoric about the lives of “the people”
post-Saddam, we really don’t give a shit about carnage that doesn’t
end with a flag-draped coffin being deposited in an American cemetery.
It should also be no surprise that the gathering of fools doesn’t
begin to boo and hiss until Borat starts butchering the song. A
celebration of mass murder is all well and good, but fuck up “our”
anthem and we’ll have your head.
Q: Do you not know who is Jill Metzger?
A: Then visit http://www.militarycorruption.com/metzger3.htm
Uzbeki’s terrorist ogres snatched Major Jill Metzger from USAF
airbase in Kyrgyzstan, it’s Kazakhstan’s best friend country,
it’s nice, and blamed all it on Kazakh Borat.
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Borat makes it problematic when I tell people about my trip to Ekibastuz.
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hey guys, personally i thought the film was pretty funny. It was as good as it could have been really, although i did kind of leave the theatre wanting more.
anyways, i was wondering if borat is actually speaking a complete language in the movie, or is it semi gibberish/semi Kazakh?
thanks
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The language that Borat and his ‘producer’ speak is neither Kazakh nor Russian. It sounds like a West Slavisc language. I thought I recognized Polish terms e.g. ‘zenkuyu’ = thank you? The generic’s background is in Russian.
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[...] Roman Vassilenko continues to put up videos about Kazakhstan on Youtube. Together with the fact that he remains the only state official that has ever commented on neweurasia. The latest one he put up is about the tourist destination Kazakhstan: [...]
I am an American and I have long been interested in the people, history and culture of Central Asia in general.
And this movie is incredibly dumb and insulting to them.
I think it was arrogant of these media mavens to make a movie about a yokel from Kazakhstan who comes and shows America an unflattering mirror of itself. Kazakhstan, being a remote place not many people have heard of, and a small player on the world theater, was deemed by these movie makers to be an easy target for their mockery because they didn’t think it could fight back for whatever reason. If all they wanted to do was to poke fun at America (which, being “Americans”, supposedly, would be their right – and note, Kazakh people, who makes the movies in America) they should have come up with a character from a fictitious nation to be the vehicle for their satire. Borat could have been from some generic “-stan” if they wished. I think the makers of movies such as these and others that drive cultural and religious wedges between ourselves and the (admittedly different) Arab societies in our world have an agenda of their own, and I wish Americans would look at it, and them, a lot closer than they are doing now.
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I just watched BORAT and it really is funny. I would, however, comment that the film is deliberately factually distorted and almost everything about Kazakhstan and the former Soviet Union is erroneous.
Kazakhstan is a multiethnic country that counts Kazakhs, Russians, Ukrainians, as well as Kirgiz and Uzbeks among the ethnic mosaic. The Kazakhs, Kirgiz, and Uzbeks are Turkic people who not only speak languages that are considered the forerunners of Turkish, they are also genetically the original Turks who – if you look at old Turkish manuscripts with illuminations and pictorial depictions – LOOK LIKE JAPANESE, KOREANS, and MONGOLIANS.
That’s right, folks… Real Kazakhs don’t look Middle Eastern or Eastern European.
The village where it was filmed was in Romania (I guessed it when I saw it because Romania stereotypically has unpaved mud-paths in the villages depicted on Time and Newsweek).
As to the language that Borat and Azamat were “speaking” with each other, it’s largely gibberish taken from different languages, sometimes inverted or jumbled up… In one scene, where Borat greets the camera, he says “Djyen Dobree” which is an inverted form of the Russian “DOBREE DYEN” (Good Day!) greeting.
The accent Borat uses when speaking English is obviously a modified (though diluted) “Russian” or “Slavic” accent.
The promotional poster for the movie uses Cyrillic letters that don’t spell out the word “BORAT” but instead spell out “VORDT” since the letter standing in for “A” was a Cyrillic “DELTA” while the Cyrillic “B” is pronounced as a “V”, but then again, that’s what spoofing to those who don’t know any better is all about.
Some of the scenes that showed maps really did have correct Russian names for places (these probably ripped ‘em off from real Russian maps), but there were some scenes where the Cyrillic letters were just randomly jumbled up.
Kazakhstan is an up and coming country that is – in the manner that Singapore and Malaysia moved up to become extremely prosperous – becoming a model for Post-Soviet Republics to emulate, just as Singapore is the model for many Southeast Asian (as well as post-colonial third world countries) to emulate.
It has a highly literate population, and its religious harmony is seen to be well managed as its Muslim and Orthodox Christian populations do not seem to display any signs of religious or ethnic tensions. (Not only do they have different religions, they LOOK DIFFERENT —> and this is why they used multireligious and multiethnic Malaysia [and Singapore] as a developmental and societal model to learn from.)
Nope, no ethnic group in Kazakhstan “follows the hawk.” (Where did that come from???)
In the end, I laughed a lot and I think the movie was really funny. But I still do think that they should have just come up with a totally FICTITIOUS country. I mean, who knows? Totally ignorant folks might really think Kazakhs – who in reality are quite sophisticated, educated, and thanks to the high price of OIL – quite PROSPEROUS – are backward, primitive, and filthy.
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Falconry and associated sports are a long tradition there.
Natural that some “sports expressions” would have entered the language, perhaps? Just a guess.
Check this nifty site out – ever heard of hawk hoods?:
http://www.avmv20.dsl.pipex.com/Equipment/Equipment%20page.htm
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falconry
As for the ethnic origins of modern-day Kazakhs, ancient textiles are continually being unearthed that are revealing – in their materials and designs – a more complex cross-fertilization of cultures and broader “mutual trade and influence areas” than Western scholars previously realized existed in ancient times.
Exciting.
Here’s another interesting link:
http://www.seeingisdreaming.com/id7.html
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Mr Cohen might have full rights to boast of Kazakh origin and Turkic-Mongolian Heritage!
http://www.khazaria.com/
Most modern day Jews are the descendants of Khazars, Turkic-Mongolian nation, converted to Judaism.
The Jewish surname Cohen is derived from Turkic-Mongolian Cahan, or Khan – the King.
http://www.khazaria.com/turkic/kazakhstan.html
Medieval Kingdom of Khazaria, 652-1016
Over a thousand years ago, the far east of Europe was ruled by Jewish kings who presided over numerous tribes, including their own tribe: the Turkic Khazars. After their conversion, the Khazar people used Jewish personal names, spoke and wrote in Hebrew, were circumcised, had synagogues and rabbis, studied the Torah and Talmud, and observed Hanukkah, Pesach, and the Sabbath. The Khazars were an advanced civilization with one of the most tolerant societies of the medieval period. It hosted merchants from all over Asia and Europe. On these pages it is hoped that you may learn more about this fascinating culture.
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What I’ve heard is that it’s largely Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe (most esp. in what became part of Russia) who would have intermarried with the Jewish-convert Khazars and absorbed them so that there are no known Khazars left today.
Sephardim and Mizrahim, on the other hand, would most likely say that they’re purely of Semitic origin.
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