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Chirol
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Chirol

Date

November 14th, 2005

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Borat Doomed to a Gulag?

Chirol’s favorite Kazakh seems to be in a spot of bother as Nathan has noted.

“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,” Kazakh Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news briefing.

“We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind.” He declined to elaborate.

Read the full article at yahoo. The sad thing is that this is best publicity Kazakhstan will probably get for a long time. I found it funny enough that the Foreign Ministry has complained so much about it but the fact that they’d not only threaten legal action and imply there is some political smear campaign behind him really gives me an good reason to be optimistic about Kazakhstan’s development.

Comments to this entry

ElamBend
November 14, 2005
9:18 pm
They should be saying,"Just make sure you spell and pronounce Kazakhstan right. Please, take a tourism pamphlet."

If they were really saavy they'd let Baron-Cohen do a bit from their embassy. However, they're still stuck in the everything-is-an-insult-unless-otherwise-proven mentality.
davesgonechina
November 14, 2005
10:17 pm
Borat is indeed the best thing going for Kazakhstan's reputation at the moment, in light of this: Kazakh leader's critic found dead:

Mr Nurkadilov's lawyer said his client, a former key ally of the president, was shot twice in the chest and once in the head on Saturday evening...

Mr Nurkadilov lost his job last year after accusing Mr Nazarbayev of authoritarianism and calling for him to quit.

Earlier this year, he was convicted of slandering the president after he alleged that Mr Nazarbayev was responsible for the death of a journalist.

Mr Nurkadilov was backing the candidate of the opposition movement For A Just Kazakhstan, Zharmakhan Tuyakba, in the election.

Mr Nurkadilov had earlier compared the president to Romania's ousted dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu.

President Nazarbayev has ruled the central Asian nation since 1989 and analysts say he is widely expected to win a new seven-year term.


I'd say the Foreign Ministry has bigger fish to fry than Baron-Cohen.
Nathan
November 14, 2005
11:15 pm
In regards to the publicity he provides for Kazakhstan, I strongly recommend reading this post.
Chief Wiggum
November 15, 2005
3:31 am
Clearly, Monty Python has never been on Kazakh TV.
Dan
November 16, 2005
1:38 am
The story everyone is missing is: if Kazakhstan criminalizes gypsy-catchers, only criminals will catch gypsies!
Younghusband
November 17, 2005
11:55 pm
"Kazakh press secretary on NPR":http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5016875&ft=1&f=1004 talking about Borat. A nice little tidbit right at the end... I won't spoil it. ;)
davesgonechina
November 18, 2005
2:25 am
A nice little tidbit right at the end...


ROFL! Sweet.
Chirol
November 18, 2005
11:24 am
Absolutely priceless!!!!
LazyNomad
November 18, 2005
2:11 pm
Today I was very surprised to read in the russian newspaper "Novaya gazeta' the article http://2005.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2005/86n/n86n-s17.shtml about Kazakhstan (judjing by it`s praisal tone probably organized by pro-Nazarbayev circles on the threshold of coming presidential election) in which journalist says that Borat was specially invited from Astana (Kazakhstan) to do the show on MTV`s Europe Music Awards Ceremony.
The author of the article puts this fact as a proof of growing recognition of Kazakhstan by the world community.
Even if in the bordering Russia people can`t distinguish facts and fiction then how can we (kazakhs) expect that western auditory would distinguish whether the whole Borat thing is a joke or not.
ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » Jeepers, Mongolians aren’t bloodthirsty savages!
November 23, 2005
12:04 am
[...] If you’d been reading Kaplan you would have known about this two years ago. And there’s more: for example, the author is flabbergasted that Mongolian women aren’t barefoot in the kitchen. Perhaps he’s been watching too much Borat? What say you? [...]
ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » Borat speaks!
November 25, 2005
2:58 pm
[...] Kazakhstan’s 6th Most Famous ManA gracious meetingJeepers, Mongolians aren’t bloodthirsty savages!Borat Doomed to a Gulag?Cabinet Reshuffle in Japan: Yuriko Koike [...]
Dan
December 9, 2005
2:25 pm
At least the poor oppressed people of Central Asia have rallied: Kazakhstanis Against Borat
Chirol
December 9, 2005
5:52 pm
I'll bet anything Sacha Baron Cohen is behind that.