0 0 " Sw The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, October 10, 2007 Cultural learnings of Kazakhstan: A Peace Corps volunteer finds no sign of Borat i C t ', hF# hree years ago, if I had told my friends I was going to Kazakhstan with the Peace Corps, their response would have been a mix of confusion and mystification. The first question undoubtedly would have focused on why I want to "give up" two years of my life. The second ques- tion would have been "Where's Kazakhstan?" However, after the film "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," what they say is "Say hi to Borat for me." If the 140 current Peace Corps volunteers in Kazakhstan all found Borat and said hi, I imagine he'd be slightly overwhelmed and prefer to retreat to the country with his new wife - the former prostitute meets while filming. Much of the Karakhstani popu- lation acknowledges that the film "Borat" was a mixed blessing. Because of it, more people learned that Kazakhstan exists, but this realization has been accompanied by a few unflattering misconcep- tions of the country. While I've only lived here for about two months, I've been here long enough to weed out Borat's fiction from fact. Kazakhstani society is com- plicated, with all the problems of a country attempting to reinvent itself in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. Its government is taking significant steps to aid its 15 million citizens, many of whom still live in very rural communi- ties. The government has focused on its two largest cities, Astana and Almaty, grooming both to become oil industry leaders and competi- tive international financial centers. Kazakhstan is likely to emerge the second largest oil and natural gas producer in the world within 10 years. The progress, innovation and intellectual merit of Kazakhstan (it has a 99 percent literacy rate) was not portrayed in "Borat." Instead, in the crude caricature of Kazakh- stan, drawn by "Borat" creator Sasha Baron Cohen, suggests ram- pant anti-Semitism and unchecked violence against women. But that's not what makes it funny. What's really funny aren't the lines like "Look, there is a woman in a car. Can we follow her and maybe make a sexy time with her?" which he asks a driving instructor at one point. It's how the Americans he runs into don't see through the act. Even though I knew much of the material in "Borat" was aimed at making Americans seem foolish, and not as acritique of Kazakhstan, I was still worried about anti-Semi- tism and Anti-Americanism on my way here. But rather than anti- Semitism or a hatred of America, I have been confronted with friendly curiosity regarding Judaism and. a welcome interest in the diversity of religious beliefs. Almaty has two synagogues and a very warm Jew- ish community. I have already had a number of intellectually stimu- lating conversations about religion with some new local friends in a town near Almaty where my group is training and living. In two months here, I have seen only two swastikas, one painted on a tree and another in graffiti on the side of a building; I know that there may be more extreme seg- ments of the population with these views, but it looks to be an extreme minority. Unlike the portrayal of Kazak- stanis in "Borat," I have found Kazakhstanis of all ethnic and religious affiliation to be open and generally warmly accepting of and interested in the variety of beliefs that exist around the world and within Kazakhstan. I'm pretty sure no one here sings "Throw the Jew down the well." Some of the villages look similar to the images in "Borat." Even in my town, only 45 minutes outside of Almaty, there is a donkey that often watches over our soccer games,. goats tied up outside of houses and stray dogs running amok, yelping and fighting at all hours of the day and night. on the road to Almaty, we've encountered herds of cows and sheep meandering down the middle of the street, sometimes accompanied by a herder. Many houses are small farms with ten- ants who grow their own crops and raise a number of animals next to the house. There may be running water, but not always hot water, so showers often involve traveling to the local banya, which means bath- house. But Almaty isn't the 30th most expensive city in the world because of the nearby grazing grounds. There's the city: stores d selling lt shashlicl &.Co., an tinental] new fina is a hug: you cou] heads. I'm ti towns fa which is est in the At] W b K no runni satellite may be n towns, t with vidi the futur America needs. The pe erous, ki hating A for "Bo beginnin to know love tell You can rapid development, and least two glasses of chai tea, usual- seems to add new luxury ly accompanied by chocolate, bread aily. Small street stores and other candy, multiple times a acal foods like samsa and day. People delight in opening their h stand alongside Tiffany's house to you and always want you Apple Store, an InterCon- to feel at home. Hotel and the site for the Sometimes it's awkward. When ncial district. Also nearby it's just you and a new friend who e bazaar selling anything speaks no English, sharing a few id want, including sheep cups of tea, you realize that gestur- ing only allows a certain degree of old that in many small depth, and while visual aids might rther out into the country, help, no one has ever showed me physically the ninth larg- naked pictures of their family world, many villages have members, as Borat was wont to do. _ I don't always know what's being said around me, and it's a best, "Borat" tough realization that third grad- ers speak better Russian than I ras a mixed probably will even after two years living in the country. The lan- lessing for guage, however, is not an insur- mountable barrier. The warmth of azakhstan the people helps. Kazakhstan is a nation of contra- dictions, conflations of identity and emerging and resolving conflicts. ng water, yet houses have While "Borat" painted millions a television. Where there distinct picture of the people and o banks or hospitals in the the country, the picture is wrong. here are still cell phones The five universities in Almaty eo. Here, there's a focus on speak to the broader and greater re despite the lack of what depth of knowledge than the ste- ns would consider basic reotypes supply. There's much we can learn from and about our eople are wonderfully gen- neighbors. We can laugh at others' nd and curious. Instead of differences and very often embrace merica - we are blamed this freedom of expression, but I'd rat," despite its British prefer to laugh alongside the locals gs - Kazakhstanis want rather than at them. more about us. and also ing us about themselves. 't escape from having at -Perry Teicher graduated from the University in 2007.