Posted on 11/28/2005 10:08:27 AM PST by LdSentinal
NEW YORK As if responding to the escalating battle with famed TV personality Borat Sagdiyev, a character on HBO's "Da Ali G Show," the Kazakhstan government today published a four-page advertising section in The New York Times. The section, titled, "Kazakhstan in the 21st Century," carried testimonials to its oil production, its democracy, education system, and purported "power and influence" of women.
The feud has been simmering for the past year, after Borat and his frank depictions of life in his homeland (where, he claims, gypsies are still hunted for sport and women rank somewhere below farm animals in the pecking order) gained wide popularity in both the U.S. and the U.K. He also wrote the popular folk song, “Throw the Jew Down the Well.” A feature length film, “Borat: The Movie,” is currently in production.
Many suspect Borat is actually comic Sacha Baron Cohen, also accused of playing Ali G.
The latest round of charges began this month when Borat appeared on an MTV awards show in Europe accompanied by a drunken, one-eyed Kazakh pilot and mentioned the joys of shooting dogs. (He also suggested that Madonna was a transvestite.) He signed off with: "To the world, I love you, apart from Uzbekistan, a--holes."
A Kazakh foreign ministry official responded: "We view Mr. Cohen's behavior at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners, which is completely incompatible with ethics and civilized behavior." He added: "We do not rule out [the possibility] Mr Baron-Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way.” A lawsuit was mentioned.
Borat fired back at his Web site, http://www.borat.kz/, with this statement:
"I like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my government's decision to sue this Jew.
"Since the 2003 reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world. Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats and age of consent has been raised to 8 years old.
"Please, I invite you to come to Kazakhstan, where we have incredible natural resources, hard-working labor and some of the cleanest prostitutes in all of central Asia. Goodbye."
In its New York Times ad today, Kazakhstan claims that it is a "model" for gender equality, at least in terms of women in "senior government positions."
Meanwhile, the daily newspaper, The Independent, in London has taken this all seriously enough to carry, earlier this month, a list of 50 things about Kazakhstan “you won't learn from Borat.” Among them: It is almost as big as western Europe, four times the size of Texas, and is "the ninth-largest country in the world.”
Also: "Despite Borat's suggestions that, in Kazakhstan, people hunt bears 'for fun,' hunting is no longer a popular pastime."
A British web site observed in a headline that his homeland "Kannotstand" Borat.
K-stan is ill-advised to get into a pissing match with him.
Lighten up, Kazakhstan.
Respect.
Booyakasha!
It's quite an accomplishment as a comedian for one of your jokes to be funny because an entire nation is not in on the joke.
That's not me Julie!
Gen X ping... (Sacha Baron Cohen is 34.)
" He also suggested that Madonna was a transvestite "
He forgot Ugly,
ugly transevtite.
He's the best.
No kidding: see #10.
Cool shooting ranges, too.
I thought it was all just schtick until I got to the part about Madonna. This guy could be onto something.
Ali-G: Let's say he didn't have mustard and the "B.L.T.'s" just was plain would you been able to go in there then
Buchanan: No
Ali-G: Is it ever worth fighting a war over sandwiches
Buchanan: Is it ever worth fighting a war — yes
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/cat_ali_g_video.html
Islam is the dominant religion comprising some 47% of the population. Orthodox Christianity is also represented in around 44% of the population. Protestant Christianity accounts for around 2% of the population.
They are tired of having to insist that shooting a dog and then having a party is not a favourite national pastime and of denying that their wine is made of fermented horse urine and that women are kept in cages.
...
A Kazakh foreign ministry spokesman, Yerzhan Ashykbayev, said yesterday: "We do not rule out that Mr Cohen is serving someone's political order designed to present Kazakhstan and its people in a derogatory way."
ROFL!
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