What ever happened to southern hospitality

The General doesn't care much for foreigners, but I have to admit that I have a lot of respect for Borat Sagdiyev. For those of you who don't recognize that name, Borat is the sixth most famous man in Kazakhstan and the star of the HBO documentary series, Borat in America.

After watching his show for awhile, I realized that even though he isn't an American, we have a lot in common. I can't say exactly when I understood this. It might have been after I saw him going door-to-door campaigning for James Broadwater, a conservative Christian and a candidate for Congress in Mississippi's Second District. One Good Move has a brief transcript from that episode:

Broadwater: I'm running for United States Congress in District 2.

Borat: He is a strong man. He will crush his opponents and he will be powerful like Stalin and not tolerate people who are bad.

Broadwater: Well, actually, I wouldn't compare myself to Stalin ...

Borat: Will you vote for my friend?

Woman: Well, I probably will, but I don't ever tell people who I vote for before I vote.

Borat: If you do not vote for him, he will take power!

Woman: Well, it depends on whether he gets enough votes or not.

Borat: I will not leave until you swear on the eyes of your child that you will vote for him

As you can see, Borat shares many of the same values that we American conservatives hold so dear. Elections are just too important to be entrusted to the people. Sometimes, a strong leader needs to step in and grab what is rightfully his.

My respect for Borat grew even more when he demonstrated his love for traditional values by conducting a sing-a-long for a bunch of patriots in a Nashville country and western bar. I bet the traditional Kazak folk song, Throw the Jew Down the Well (video), never sounded that good in its original tongue--the bar crowd sure enjoyed it. Their voices grew louder with each refrain.

That's why it saddened me so to hear that he was treated badly at a recent rodeo in Salem, Virginia. The Roanoke Times has the story:

Introduced as Boraq [sic] Sagdiyev from Kazakhstan, he was said to be an immigrant touring America. A film crew was with him, doing some sort of documentary. And he wanted to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" to show his appreciation, the announcer told the crowd.

Speaking in broken English, the mysterious man first told the decidedly pro-American crowd - it was a rodeo, of all things, in Salem, of all places - that he supported the war on terrorism.

"I hope you kill every man, woman and child in Iraq, down to the lizards," he said, according to Brett Sharp of Star Country WSLC, who was also on stage that night as a media sponsor of the rodeo.

An uneasy murmur ran through the crowd.

"And may George W. Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq," he continued, according to Robynn Jaymes, who co-hosts a morning radio show with Sharp and was also among the stunned observers.

[...]

Then the man took off his hat and sang what he said was his native national anthem. He then told the crowd to be seated, put his hat back on, and launched into a butchered version of "The Star-Spangled Banner" that ended with the words "your home in the grave," Sharp said.

By then, a restless crowd had turned downright nasty.

"If he had been out there a minute longer, I think somebody would have shot him," Jaymes said. "People were booing him, flipping him off."

"Had we not gotten them out of there, there would have been a riot," said Rowe, who has been bringing his Imperial Rodeo Productions to Salem for years.

As his wife, Lenore, put it: "It's a wonder one of these cowboys didn't go out there and rope him up."

Saunders agreed. "I was concerned for his personal safety," he said.

Once the film crew members and their star realized the severity of the situation, Bobby Rowe said, "they loaded up the van and they screeched out of there."

I think it must have been the anthem that set them off (certainly, patriots who support torture and death squads wouldn't be upset by a suggestion that Our Leader drink our enemies' blood). That's a shame. Borat doesn't speak American very well. It's not surprising that he'd get the lyrics wrong. At least he tried.