By Peter Hannaford on 12.1.06 @ 12:07AM
Kazakhstan is too nice a place to be judged by the likes of a cheap jokester cashing in on public ignorance.
Martin Luther King famously described dreaming of a day when his
children "will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the
content of their character." Racial and ethnic stereotyping hasn't
been eliminated in the 43 years since he said that, but it has been
diminished a good deal.
Tolerance has disappeared for Polish jokes, Italian jokes,
Chinese jokes, even Dumb Blonde jokes -- in short jokes the teller
uses to proclaim his/her superiority by demeaning others.
The only exception: lawyer jokes, because lawyers chose their
trade; it was not an accident of birth.
Now comes a movie in which Sacha Baron Cohen, an Orthodox Jewish
comedian from England, plays Borat, a supposed television reporter
from Kazakhstan in Central Asia, touring the United States
interviewing Americans supposedly at random. His ostensible purpose
is to learn about America and Americans and report his findings to
his government. (The full title of the film is Borat: Cultural
Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of
Kazakhstan.) Cohen's intention is to satirize sexism, racism
and other isms by getting his real-life interview subjects to say
bigoted things. With the exception of a couple of South Carolina
college students, however, his subjects are scrupulously polite,
not quite sure what to make of this boorish, racist, sexist yokel
from afar.
Some of the scenes are very funny and if an Oscar were awarded
for best pre-release hype, this film would win it, but a new genre
it is not. Rather, it is the latest twist in faux reality
television which began decades ago with Candid Camera. In
media interviews, Cohen always appears in character as Borat. We
never see or hear the man behind the role, thus reinforcing the
"realism" of Borat and the impression that Kazakhstan and
its people are fit subjects of merriment.
While Cohen's Borat fails to show that ordinary Americans are
hopeless bigots, his satiric technique tells us he thinks that
making an entire country and its people the butt of his shtick is
okay. Thus, we "learn" that in Kazakhstan fermented horse urine is
the national drink (it is actually fermented mare's milk, an
acquired taste, to be sure); most women are prostitutes (Borat's
sister is the country's Number Four hooker); and mentally
handicapped citizens are caged. At one point, Borat introduces his
11-year-old son and the boy's wife along with their baby, which is
for sale.
The audience understands this is all for laughs, but not one in
a million Americans is going to take the trouble to learn about the
real Kazakhstan, so will be left with the impression that, at best,
it is a very backward place.
In reality, it is very rich in oil and other minerals; a big
producer of wheat; has 15 million people (about the population of
The Netherlands) in an area larger than all Western Europe. The
Kazakhs are descendants of the soldiers of Genghis Khan. When they
settled in Central Asia, they did so as nomads, moving about the
steppe as their livestock sought greener pastures. They lived in
yurts, ingeniously efficient, comfortable structures that could be
easily folded and packed on the backs of horses.
The horse is central to Kazakh culture. It was a faithful worker
to the nomads. When it died, virtually every part of it was used:
meat, skin, tail, hooves. The Kazakhs love horse meat, as well as
fermented mare's milk.
Kazakhstan was the first of the former Soviet states to
voluntarily give up all nuclear weapons after the collapse of the
USSR.
Democracy has been coming gradually but steadily to Kazakhstan
-- not as quickly as government opponents would like, but
inexorably. The middle class is growing. The country has a steadily
growing per-capita Gross Domestic Product (now $8,300 annually).
Its capital, Astana, once a dusty wheat-loading railroad town, is
filled with handsome new buildings. Almaty, the business center,
has a dramatic mountain backdrop and many cultural activities.
Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev is playing the good
sport, saying he understands that Borat is all in fun. I'd
bet that in private he doesn't think it's very funny. Meanwhile,
Cohen, co-producer Jay Roach, and director Larry Charles are
laughing all the way to the bank, proving that at least one kind of
bigotry is acceptable in Hollywood.
topics:
Trade, Television, Business, Hollywood, Law, Nuclear Weapons, Oil
