Kazakhstan seems determined to help British comic Sacha Baron Cohen promote his latest movie by publicly decrying the character he plays as an insult to the Kazahk nation. The largest movie chain in Kazakhstan has even banned Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation Kazakhstan. These are the kinds of moves which, far from vindicating Kazakhstan, probably only confirms in the minds of many that the country is an obscure, backwards place which doesn’t quite get the joke.
But, maybe they have a point. After the jump check out this chart (courtesy of Bandarlog) of the Kazakh currency, which started losing badly against the U.S. dollar immediately after the trailer for Borat came out this summer. Maybe having your country portrayed as a nation of sex-crazed anti-Semites whose favourite drink is fermented horse urine, isn’t so funny afterall.
Technical Analysis: The Borat Effect [Bandarlog]
Except for maybe the tourism industry, there really is no such thing as bad publicity.
If the ‘Stan was playing along, it would probably benefit them in the long run.
I think it interesting and ironic.
The joke is’nt about ‘Stan’ but the West’s
conception about other countries not part of the western culture and thinking are backward and lost.
Mr Cohen has high lighted our arrogance and ignorance to such an obvious level that we may in fact be laughing at ourselves.
I don’t normally go along with post-modernism, but I think bruce q has a good point.