Kazakhstan Learns to Love Borat

Kazakhstan leaders were appalled at how the movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” portrayed their nation as backward and anti-Semitic. The comedy-documentary, with a British actor posing as a Kazakh journalist seeking to learn lessons from the US, has yet to be shown in either Kazakhstan or Russia. Initial Kazakh reactions to the film – such as removing Borat’s website from the .kz internet domain – only confirmed some insecurity. But the shock has since worn off, and Kazakhs have come to realize that the film actually criticizes irrational fears of other cultures, the greed of capitalism, and the strange mixture of insecurity and self-assumed superiority of the US, particularly throughout the South. Kazakh outrage turned to amazement and perhaps even gratitude as the popular film sparks widespread investor and tourism interest in the former Soviet republic, the world’s ninth largest nation in terms of area and rich in oil. National directors of tourism can only dream of such publicity. – YaleGlobal