(Click here to sing along with Kazakhstan's National Anthem)
Kazakhstan greatest country in the worldAfter watching the film - Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which obviously was meant to be a mock-cumentry, I was surprised by how much of what Borat (aka. Sacha Baron Cohen) said and represented about Kazakhstan were true.
all other countries are run by little girls
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium
other countries have inferior potassium
Kazakhstan home of Tinshein swimming pool
it's length thirty meter and with six meter
filteration system a marvel to behold
it remove 80 percent of human solid waste
Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place
from plains of Tarashek to northern fence of Jewtown
Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan
they very nosey people with bone in their brain
Kazakhstan industry best in the world
we incented toffee and trouse belt
Kazakhstan's prostitutes cleanest in the region
except of course Turkmenistan's
Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place
from plains of Tarashek to norther fence of Jewtown
come grasp the might phenis of our leader
from junction with the testes to tip of its face!
According to Eric Weiner's article in Slate.com, Kazakhstan does have a problem with prostitution.
In the 1990s, Kazakhstan was a big exporter of prostitutes, and human trafficking was a problem. Now, given wealth amassed from the oil boom, prostitutes are even more popular, and the country is importing them, as well. Every evening, one street in Almaty is packed with prostitutes looking for customers, and newspapers devote pages of classified ads to "massage girls."
Although Kazakhstan does not have "Shurik" (Borat described it as "shoot dogs in a field and have a party"), but Buzkashi is a legitimate sport.
Buzkashi (literally "grabbing the dead goat"). In this popular game (a precursor to polo), players on horseback try to control the "ball"—the headless carcass of a goat or sheep. Then they have a party.
In the film, Borat called the nation of Uzbekistan as "assholes", that is true. Many Kazakhs dislike the Uzbeks, and the two nations have squabbled over territory in the past.
I hung out with some Kazhaks when I was in Xinjiang... they were fun loving people, it seemed. Yes, they were hostile towards Uzbeks, but the grudgingly bought all the Uzbek music.
ReplyDeleteI loved that movie. High five!
ReplyDeleteFunniest. Movie. EVER.
ReplyDeleteI must watch it many times more.
I didn't really like that movie.
ReplyDelete......NOT!!!!
I like. You like!
ReplyDeleteThe things in the movie that you observe are true are very superficial, as any sociologist or historian would tell you. You mention from slate:
ReplyDelete"In the 1990s, Kazakhstan was a big exporter of prostitutes, and human trafficking was a problem. Now, given wealth amassed from the oil boom, prostitutes are even more popular, and the country is importing them, as well. Every evening, one street in Almaty is packed with prostitutes looking for customers, and newspapers devote pages of classified ads to "massage girls.""
Have you looked at Craigslist lately under erotic encounters? Look up any major metropolitan area in the U.S., such as NYC or SF Bay area! Every country has places where sex is bought and sold, but that does not indicate that a country has a problem with this. If you look up Prostitution in Europe on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Kazakhstan#Prostitution_in_Kazakhstan
You will see that the prostitution problems in Kazakhstan do not seem to be anything special when compared to other countries in Europe, or the United States.
You also mention problems between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but again this is a very superficial observation. You can almost pick any two adjacent countries in the world, and they would have had some border disputes, and possibly continue to have ongoing border disputes and rivalries. U.S., Mexico had a war, Germany, France, Iraq, Iran, China, Taiwan, etc, etc...
Again the movies observations are superficial.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie. And for the record, I am not Kazakh, I am an American living in the SF Bay Area. But I would hesitate to think that it contained any genuine insight beyond the pedestrian.
I couldnt agree more with the comment above. In Spain for example they may not shoot dogs, but they stab to death bulls and then have the party, thousands of american and first world tourists travel to "San Fermin" every year in Spain AND participate in a tradition largely much more worlwide famous than the dead-goat-polo thing of Kzjstan.
ReplyDeleteAnd the prostitution thing... I dare to say that prostitution is equal or worse in some ´hoods of cities of the U.S (and other first world countries) as it is in Kjstan and third world countries.
The Borat movie was the best satire ever, not on third world savageness, but on the first world ignorance and prejudices refering to the third world, and with all due respect, the fact that some people may be trying to find "truth" in the satire is not helping to defend their own case about it :P
Your blog is cool by the way, congratulations, I´ll keep on reading