Борат говорит тише
Act 1
Sreyas : I am very happy to be in conversation with world famous reporter Borat Sagdiyev (Борат Сағдиев) who has been to “U,S & A” to make a documentary about society and culture . He has a rather grand title for it . What do you call it Mr Borat?
Borat : It is called , “ Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”
*Borat pauses,I hear sounds of gunfire in the distance *
Me: Mr Borat, are you alright?
Borat : Jagshemash, we are talk on skype ? No problem , kids from the kindergarten playing with guns . They shoot a gypsy. Very funny game.
Me: That is disheartening to hear .
Borat : The gypsy is dead, very nice!
I pause for a few seconds, unwittingly bearing witness to a murder . I recover my composure and resolve to continue.
Me: Mr Borat, let me introduce you to my friends reading about our conversation. Mr Borat Sagdiyev hails from the town of Kuzek , he has been a man with multiple faces. He’s been an ice maker ,a gypsy catcher ,an animal puller (one who produces semen from animals) and computer maintenance engineer (removing dead birds from computer casing vents).He now works as a professional journalist and announcer on Kazakh television.
Me : Mr Borat, tell me about your family, friends and people at Kuzek.
Borat : Yas ! I have a wife , her name Oksana. She very strong , like an ox. Good with plough. But she dead.
Me: That’s quite unfortunate!
Me: How…How did it happen, I’m so very sorry!
Borat: She was on plough in the fields one day and a hunter mistook her to be a bear. He shot her.
Me : ….
Borat : My sister Natalia is also from kuzek, she number 4 prostitute in all Kazakhstan. She very nice. I will lend you my sister when you come to Kazakhstan.
Me: Thanks for the offer, but I’d pass.
Borat : Did I tell you about Nursultan? That annoying fellow.
Me : Not yet…
Borat : He is a pain in my assholes, if I get a window from a glass , he must get a window from a glass.If I get a step, he must get a step.If I get a clock radio, he cannot afford!Great success!
Me : Haha! Looks like you’ve got a competitive thing going.
Act 2 : Through the looking glass
Me : Your film “ Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” has received a lot of critical flak for its anti-semetism , racism and blatant sexism.
Let’s examine Borat on feminism :
Borat : Yas, that’s me ! Hello world!
Here, We take a break and I address the reader directly. Takes me time to get through to Borat who keeps telling me he wants to go to the potty, well….
Here are some things you must know:
Borat is a fictitious character : A master piece created by Sacha Baron Cohen.
Borat was a film made as a documentary — People in the film are unaware that Borat was a fictional character.
Borat has a strong back story as you could see in Act 1, his community , his past and his character are well defined and not left to the viewer’s imagination.
From our brief introduction with Borat we could call him Child-like, Inquisitive, different in outlook (in thought and action) and blatantly honest. On the flip side one could also call him Grotesque , gauche and peg him for a simpleton.
To understand how his belief system is constructed one must examine him in context.
His Premise
He hails from a small village far from the technological and cultural complexity involved in navigating the United states . He begins (in his film) as an individual who is unaware about how an American would live his life and tries to understand the nuts and bolts through dialogue.
When he gets to know about the different modes of interaction between artefacts and people Borat (like anyone else) asks the following questions:
1)Does the event/ activity fit into any of the models I’ve been exposed to earlier?
Feminism or feminists are new to Borat, he finds it rather strange that a group of women might want to get together in a place and discuss, it is confusing to him about what they actually do.
2) Does it fit my beliefs and value systems ?
According to Borat, women do not deserve equal rights as men.
He’s been nurtured in a system that propagates this.
Hence, Can one deem Borat to be objectively wrong?
Well then, how might one qualify such a view : To an individual such as you or me , we might find it normative for men and women to be valued equitably in society.
Therefore is our belief objectively true ? while Borat and his people wrong?
My goal here is not to answer whether Borat is morally right or not, but rather point at differences in thought and value systems which lead to grossly differing opinions.
3) If it does fit my value system , how do I incorporate it?
In Borat’s situation he believes that equity cannot exist, hence they do not deserve equal treatment. In another video clip from the movie , one can see Borat introducing mutliple women from his life — he is married to multiple women and also introduces multiple love interests and sexual partners. Polygamy seems to be quite normal in his culture. The constructed nature of identity could point to a reason as to why certain groups are more equal than others?
On a side note , a google search of Moral Progress could give you examples of how ideas which seemed to be ethically right in a period in the past and currently deemed morally wrong. An example could be the Idea that men and women deserve equal treatment : which is something that emerged in the last two centuries.It was only after the 19th amendment of the US constitution in the 1920s did women get a right to vote in the US , and its fascinating that the state of Mississippi signed the amendment 60 years after initially rejecting the amendment in 1920.
