The country of Kazakhstan is rasing the white flag to Borat. They've waged a long, and completely unsuccessful campaign to correct him, corral him, and shut him up, but now they're changing tactics. They're inviting him over for dinner.
The country's Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat Aliyev has invited Sacha Baron Cohen, the guy behind fictional Kazakhstan TV reporter Borat, to visit their country. He says, "His trip could yield a lot of discoveries - that women not only travel inside buses but also drive their own cars, that we make wine from grapes, that Jews can freely attend synagogues and so on." He almost sounds like he's in on the joke.
Basically, they've given up and resigned themselves to being the butt of his jokes. Aliyev now says, "we must have a sense of humour and respect other people’s freedom of creativity." This from the country that shut down his website to get him to stop making fun of him. "It’s useless to offend an artist and threaten to sue him. It will only further damage the country’s reputation and make Borat even more popular." Better to figure that out late than never.
If Sacha goes, let's hope he goes in character and bring a video crew.
For reference, check out Sacha Baron Cohen's most recent comments on Kazakhstan below:
