A Kazakh athlete recently took home a gold medal at an “international shooting event” in Kuwait (which, as I imagine it, involves shooting a goat carcass with a Kalashnikov then fetching it with a hawk), and during the official medal ceremony, she received her trophy to the tune of the parody anthem from Borat rather than her country’s actual national anthem.
She seems pretty calm about the whole thing, listening to lyrics like “Kazakhstan’s prostitutes cleanest in the region/Except of course Turkmenistan’s” and “Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place/From Plains of Tarashek to Norther fence of Jewtown” with only a mild scowl. (Mind you, “mild scowl” is the official facial expression of Eastern Europe and Central Asia).
UPDATE:
The team asked for an apology and the medal ceremony was later rerun.
The team’s coach told Kazakh media the organisers had downloaded the parody from the internet by mistake.
Coach Anvar Yunusmetov told Kazakh news agency Tengrinews that the tournament’s organisers had also got the Serbian national anthem wrong.
“Then Maria Dmitrienko’s turn came,” he said. “She got up on to the pedestal and they played a completely different anthem, offensive to Kazakhstan.”
The film outraged people in Kazakhstan and was eventually banned in the country. The government also threatened Baron Cohen with legal action.
Reports say the film is also banned in Kuwait. [BBC]
Of course, it’s also likely that Dmitrienko didn’t understand enough English to even know what she was listening to. In Kazakhstan, we have saying. We say “Woman with education is like a monkey with a gun!”
[Arbroath via TheDailyWhat]
Actual Kazakh anthem lyrics:
Sky of golden sun,
Steppe of golden seed,
Legend of courage –
Take a look at my country!From the antiquity
Our heroic glory emerged,
They did not give up their pride
My Kazakh people are strong!Chorus:
My country, my country,
As your flower I will be planted,
As your song I will stream, my country!
My native land My Kazakhstan!The way was opened to the posterity
I have a vast land.
Its unity is proper,
I have an independent country.
It welcomed the time
Like an eternal friend,
Our country is happy,
Such is our country.
Borat version:
Kazakhstan greatest country in the world.
All other countries are run by little girls.
Kazakhstan number one exporter of potassium.
Other countries have inferior potassium.Kazakhstan home of Tinshein swimming pool.
It’s length thirty meter and width six meter.
Filtration system a marvel to behold.
It remove 80 percent of human solid waste.Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place.
From Plains of Tarashek to Norther fence of Jewtown.
Kazakhstan friend of all except Uzbekistan.
They very nosey people with bone in their brain.Kazakhstan industry best in the world.
We incented toffee and trouser belt.
Kazakhstan’s prostitutes cleanest in the region.
Except of course Turkmenistan’sKazakhstan, Kazakhstan you very nice place.
From Plains of Tarashek to Norther fence of Jewtown.
Come grasp the might phenis of our leader.
From junction with the testes to tip of its face!