MSNBC reports that authorities in Kazakhstan have shut down www.borat.kz, the “official Web site of Borat,” presumably because Borat has responded to their legal threats for insulting the country’s honor with more earnestly-delivered, left-handed insults about women riding on the inside of the bus and what not.
Borat’s dominant personality, Sacha Baron Cohen, cleverly set up the Kazakh domain name to give his character some authentic dog-like flavor, but he’s been found out in spite of Borat’s admonition that he has nothing whatsoever to do with Cohen and that he supports the efforts of his government to “sue this Jew.”
Says Nurlan Isin, President of the Association of Kazakh IT Companies: Weve done this so he cant badmouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name…He can go and do whatever he wants at other domains.
And you can be sure he will…
Hat tip to Jewish Blogmeister.
Those people are taking this too seriously. Before I first saw the Ali G show on HBO last year and saw the Borat skits I hardly even rememebered that Kazakhstan even existed! They should be glad they are receiving so much publicity. All publicity is good. There is a popular fan site for Borat that i’ve seen that actually show you the real beauty of Kazakhstan in a seperate menu section. They should captialize on this publicity for their tourism trade. Instead they want to be anti-social and show a lack of a sense of humor (Borat would say “a senses of humor”). Frankly I think Kazakhstan looks worse by taking this joke the bad way. Makes me wonder what kind of represive government they have that can’t take a joke!
Even the state of Idaho fully embraced the “Napoleon Dynamite” movie and give the movie makers an official statement of gratitute. I thought the folks in the movie looked dull and rediculous. But the government of Idaho has profited from the new attention that their state is recieving from this film in the form of new tourism and even a “Napoleon Dynamite” festival in Preston, Idaho.
Kazakhstan should use Borat to their advantage in the same way. Sadly they look like sour, humor-less, jerks with their actions against Borat.
That’s my 2 cents!
I understand very well reaction of Kazakhstan authorities. It could have been predicted and expected. Kazakhs are fiercely proud folks. That cost them dearly in Soviet times, by the way. In attempts to subdue them Stalin and his gang staged hunger that took 20% of population. Even though with authoritarian regime, Kazakhstan is a quite modern and civilized country with peaceful coexistence of appxy 50% of Christians of all stripes and 50% of moderately religious Muslims, home to a dozen of ethnic minorities, including Ashkenazic and Bukharan Jews. Not many countries in the world can boast that! The clown, totally ignorant of what he selected as a butt for his jokes, reminds me a kid happily playing with explosives. That’s not the fault of explosives that they explode!
P.S. I’ve lived in Kazakhstan 9 years.
YOU ARE A SEXXX MONKEY AND I WANT YOU LET’S HAVE BABIES!!
-Sam
Misha, I applaud Kazakhstan for their diversity and for the beauty of the country and it’s people, but they could have diplomatically handled the situation better. It was still a joke and it has brought alot of attention to Kazakhstan, attention that money can’t buy. They should promote how tollerant they are and how hospitable the country is to the western world, this might bring in new tourism and outside business. My point is that they should lighten up and use the situation to their advantage without letting their “pride” make them look like sour folks.
All know is that if the people of Kazakhstan weren’t anti-semetic before, I bet they are now!
I didnt even know that Kazakhstan was a country before him. they need to get the sand out of their pussies and stfu/.