Borat no make rumor with Kazakh Bank make spelling wrong "bank" on currency!!!

Oddly enough, this is NOT a fake story about Kazakhstan put out by Borat (aka Sasha Cohen, aka Ali G). Nevertheless, the timing of this story could not be worse for the Central Asian republic -- with Borat's movie coming out in a few days, and Kazakstan furiously buying PR time on TV to counter-act the image of Kazakstan portrayed in the movie.

Apparently, the Kazakstan Central Bank has printed currency that misspells the word, "bank." Although urged by the other central banks in Asia to withdraw the currency, the Kazakh central bank has decided to go ahead and issue the currency with the word, "bank," misspelled.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1768360.htm

Kazakhstan misspells bank on new money
The Kazakhstan central bank has misspelled the word "bank" on its new notes.

The bank plans to put the misprinted notes into circulation in November and then gradually withdraw them to correct the spelling.

The move has drawn the ire of the central Asian state's politicians. They have urged the bank to abandon the notes altogether.

<unquote>

More seriously, the article suggests that the misspelling is intentional, and has to do with whether a Russian/Cyrillic spelling/pronunciation would be used or a Kazak spelling/pronunciation would be used.

Through his antics as Borat, we see:

1) Americans are, for the most part, ignorant about much of the rest of the world-- including Kazakhstan .

2) Many Americans are willing to believe that the rest of the world is even sicker and darker than it really is.

3) Many Americans are willing to go well out of their way to accommodate strangers with strange customs, even if it makes us uncomfortable.

4) Many Americans are willing to express racist and bigoted sentiments to outsiders when they believe that their comments won't be heard by their peers.

5) Many Americans would accept many of the dark and terrible customs that Borat claims are practiced in Kazakhstan.

Borat shows us both the best and worst of America.

If you want some laughs and some shocking moments, look him up on YouTube and Google Video.


See also:

Who wants to have a Bar Mitzvah at Country West in Tucson, AZ
Topic started by IanDB1 on Oct-21-06 08:36 PM (0 replies)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=316&topic_id=995

Of course, Borat is making fun of Americans for those reasons, but he is also ridiculing a predominantly Muslim central Asian country. I find the show a guilty pleasure, but I also think it borders on anti-Muslim by broadcasting some really horrific stereotypes -- including that all Muslims are extremely and reflexively anti-Semitic.

Also, Kazakhstan's government has taken Borat extremely seriously, which just makes their country look even more silly. Apparently, Borat is to be the subject of high level discussions between President Bush and the president of Kazakhstan during the latter's upcoming visit.

But to the point of the OP, it seems that the Kazakhstan Central Bank has misspelled "bank" on its currency. But even this story is somewhat misleading. Reporters seem to be jumping on the Borat bandwagon of Kazakhstan as the stupidest country on earth. The fine print of the reporting is that the misspelling is deliberate and some kind of nationalist signal about how "bank" should be pronounced and spelled.

Surprise no one he like the post with Borat?