13.9.06

What is it with Middle Easterners' Sensitivity Levels?

I have before mentioned the Muslim problem of not being able to laugh at themselves but sometimes they take their face-saving efforts to ridiculous levels. The latest slight to Muslim and Middle Eastern sensibilities is the new Sacha Baron Cohen movie, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan." Borat is a fictional Kazakh journalist made popular in Cohen's "Da Ali G Show" and loathed by the Kazakh government, which has previously removed the Borat website from Kazakhstan's official .kz domain.

The latest protest against the Borat character is expected to be brought up in upcoming discussions between President Bush and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev. It astounds the mind that the Kazakhs would make such a big deal out of this. Not only will they waste President Bush's time on such a trivial matter, the Kazakh government plans to buy television air time to show educational pieces about the "real" Kazakhstan in order to save the country's reputation. Wasting millions to prevent embarrassment by a fictional movie character says more about that country's leaders than it does about a made-up journalist.

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