The American Spectator

p> BORAT-FREE ZONE br> Re: Peter Hannaford’s Borat the Soft Bigot : /p>

At best, Kazakhstan is a very backward place. I work in Kazakhstan and saw very little indicating any movement toward democracy. This is shown by the housing riots in Almaty that were put down Soviet style (as was reported by the Economist and elsewhere). Recently there was a major oilfield riot where thousands of Kazakh workers attacked all of the Turks on site resulting in over 300 injuries requiring medical attention. Very many of those injured had to be evacuated back to Turkey to get adequate medical care. One of the injured was in a coma for several weeks afterward and at least one other was sodomized with scaffold pipe. This made the Turkish national news and was shown on the news for many days afterward. In the weeks following the Kazakh workers then went about intimidating the Indian and Filipino workers, resulting it half of them leaving. The Kazakhstan police have shown minimal interest in catching and punishing any of the workers responsible.

Kazakhstan has two cities that are reasonably presentable; Astana and Almaty. Other than in these two cities Kazakhstan is a backward place and is not dramatically more advanced than suggested by Borat. Kazakhstan President Nazerbayev was not initially a “good sport” about Borat and called for him to be censored in the free world, much as it would be in Kazakhstan and is in Russia.

p>I am withholding my name because I intend to continue to work here. Because of the terrible conditions salaries are good. br> — Name Withheld /p> p> Thank you for your article about the real Kazakhstan. I lived and worked there for a year and found it to be a very remarkable country with deep and rich heritage. The people are friendly and not backward as Borat portrays them. I was fortunate to be able to travel across the country and see the wide diversity from modern cities like Almaty and Astana to rural hamlets where life is still slow and colorful. Most American do not know that Kazakhstan is home to the Russian space center. The native food is delicious and is centered on meat, especially horse meat and lamb. I do find it appalling that a British Jewish comedian (who lives in California) decides to ridicule and make fun of a nation which has more culture and sense of pride than he will ever have. br> — Ron Hallmark