The Ali G Show is one of the best shows. Ever. While the comedic gems are plentiful, Borat is – hands down – genius. Unfortunately, the country of Kazakhstan does not share my opinion. For those of you who haven’t seen the Ali G show, Sacha Baron Cohen plays Borat, a Kazakh citizen visiting the West. While Kazhakstan is the ninth largest country in the world, most people would be hard-pressed to point it out on a map (south of Russia, west of China and north of Uzbekistan) much less any semblance of what the culture is like.
Borat portrays Kazakhs as Jew-haters (drop the Jew down the well), slave owners, womanizers (let’s also not forget the incest), drunks, and anything else terrible (but still amusing). The greatest thing about Borat is just how willing Americans are to accept him as he is.
Unfortunately, Kazakhstan has caught on to Borat and is threatening legal action against him and accusing him of being a spy of sorts. My favorite part is the quote from the Kazhak Foreign Ministry Spokesman below:
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
The first thought that comes to mind is that people pretty much have no idea if Kazakhstan is really a country, much less do they have any concrete opinions as to the state of affairs there. Secondly, while I appreciate the paranoid state at the Foreign Ministry, who do they think wants to tarnish Kazakhstan’s shining image in the world?