Kazakhs warm to Borat's humour

A Kazakh novelist says actor Sacha Baron Cohen, creator of the character Borat, deserves a national award for popularizing Kazakhstan.

Sapabek Asip-uly, known for several novels describing the Russian colonization of the former Soviet state, called on the Kazakh Club of Art Patrons to give Baron Cohen its annual award.

He joins a growing chorus of Kazakhs praising Baron Cohen's fictional character Borat, a Kazakh journalist who mangles the English language and expresses anti-Semitic and sexist views.

Borat "has managed to spark an immense interest of the whole world in Kazakhstan, something our authorities could not do during the years of independence," Asip-uly said in a letter published by the Vremya newspaper on Thursday.

"I truly hope my initiative will be supported for the benefit of the glorious nation of Kazakhstan," Asip-uly said.

Last week another media outlet in the capital Almaty flew a correspondent to Vienna to see the film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, which has been banned in Kazakhstan.

His review of the film was positive. He found the film very funny and said it mocks American attitudes rather than demeaning Kazakhs.

Then, on Tuesday, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev announced in Britain that he understands the joke.

"There is a saying that any publicity is good publicity. This film was created by a comedian, so let's laugh at it. That's my attitude," he said, after an official visit with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

He invited Baron Cohen to visit the Central Asian state, saying Borat has helped to make Kazakhstan better known in the West.

Borat is doing a great service for the country, Asip-uly said.

"If state officials completely lack a sense of humour, their country becomes a laughing stock," he said.

Government officials in the former Soviet republic have been objecting to Borat's antics for months and shut down a Borat website earlier this year, saying it makes a laughing stock of Kazakhstan.

The "Kazakh" village portrayed in the Borat film actually a Romanian village is depicted as poor and backward.

It's also generated controversy in North America, over whetherBorat's overt racism and sexism is funny or offensive.