Life Imitates Art

In another case of life imitating art there was chaos at the shooting championships in Kuwait when the organisers first got the Serbian national anthem wrong, playing an old version. Then in a moment that must have made the comedian Sacha Baron Cohen laugh out loud, they played the spoof Kazakhstan national anthem from his movie 'Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan' while the gold medal winner Maria Dmitrienko tried not to laugh.    

Amongst other things the Borat anthem praises Kazakhstan for its 'superior potassium exports' and for having 'the cleanest prostitutes in the region'.

 

 

 

National anthems are always a nightmare for organisers when countries that few people have much contact with suddenly turn up and win a medal ..... there have been numerous blunders in the past.

• Instead of singing "we love your mountains" in his attempt on the Croatian anthem, an English opera singer sings "my penis is a mountain".
• Swiss TV ran the obsolete words "Deutschland uber alles" in subtitles over the German national anthem.
• The island of Grenada plays rebel province Taiwan's national anthem at a ceremony inaugurating a Chinese funded stadium.
• The Saudis play the Syrian anthem for the Lebanese football team.
• Belgian party leader Yves Leterme sings French anthem when asked to sing the Belgian anthem .... easy mistake to make in that divided nation.
• Electronic Arts had to apologise for a culturally sensitive blunder in the game UEFA Euro 2008, in which they have the Northern Ireland football team stand to 'The Soldier's Song', traditionally sung at United Ireland sporting events.
• In 2011 the Bermudan Football Association had to apologize for playing the wrong national anthem before Bermuda’s World Cup win over Trinidad .... they played the 'US anthem' instead of 'God Save the Queen' as the teams lined up before kick-off.
• At the South Asian Games in Dhaka the wrong version of the Nepali national anthem was played, explanations were required. 

So as you can see, something of a mine field and maybe the Kuwaitis can take some comfort from that.