Since we are talking about MP3s, music and the like – okay, a degree or two of separation exists here – I want to point out a rather fascinating music video clip that I saw recently. It is a dance track by British group Faithless, called I Want More (link for streaming video). The song will not be to everyone’s taste, but the video clip offers a pretty remarkable view of the preparation and execution of a North Korean propaganda spectacular. Parts of it are surprisingly candid – in one shot of the Pyongyang skyline, the viewer catches a shadowy glimpse of the sinister-looking Ryugyong Hotel.
I am led to believe, by a fellow I know who has visited the North, that this monument to collectivist misallocation of resources officially does not exist in the Hermit Kingdom (despite the highly convincing optical illusion) so it is surprising to see it turn up in a clip that must have been sanctioned by the authorities. I like the way the vision of a gymnast with a sore back is juxtaposed with an onlooker writing down presumably critical pointers in a notepad. The expression on the boy’s face when he is late to turn a page in his giant colour display book made me laugh. I also like the shot of the utterly bored and po-faced military brass clapping along like robots.
As the track rolls on, the show starts getting highly impressive. However, by the time the song’s over the sinister and tragic undercurrents are resonating the most. So much talent – such potential – is wasted celebrating the hideous reign of men who routinely deny their people the basic necessities of life, like food and freedom. It surprised me how such a dazzling display of skill and synchronicity could provoke such a combination of fascination and revulsion.
There is something deeply creepy about all those children being turned into a mass of dancing objects with forced smiles, watched by unsmiling men in military uniforms clapping by rote. Lyrca Totalitarianism. Sheesh.
But yes, it is fascinating.
Those interested in North Korea’s bizarreness may enjoy a travelogue at http://www.1stopkorea.com/index.htm?nk-trip6-dmz.htm~mainframe
This particular page includes a picture of the hotel in question.
You’re right – it is deeply bizarre.
Another video from the same band…
Sorry. This is the link
So the Daily Constitutional is defunct then? How are you going to swear about Barnaby Joyce on Samizdata? They won’t know who the hell you are talking about. Or why.
Sigh.
Ok,
I’ll take the Daily off my list then shall I?
The display is nothing that a western country might not turn out if the occasion warranted it, although this case, the Dear Leaders birthday, was not something we would have made such a fuss about.
We don’t make such an issue about gymnastics, but we could certainly stage something of that magnitude.
No, the thing which most disgusts me about this was that all those people, children included, had trained, and trained, and trained some more, in the knowledge that the Dear Leader himself would be there to watch them perform in his honour. These people have been brought to understand that this was, for themselves, possibly the greatest honour they would ever experience, in all their lives.
You know what happened? The tousle haired piece of shit couldn’t be bothered going.
If any western leader had demonstrated that level of contempt they would have been pilloried, but in North Korea? No, children accepted, with tears in their eyes, that the son of the Great Leader and President for Eternity (I kid you not), was unable to attend because he was too busy working for their welfare.
More likely the bloke was drunk as a skunk and failing to screw his mistress.
#2 Paul, thanks for that link, it was a good read.
The sooner this miserable dictatorship is pummuled into humiliating defeat, the better. It sickens me that Kim Jong Il has been able to keep these people so opressed for so long.
Bring on the shock and awe, I say.
I am reminded of something I have long thought: The Koreans are a handsome race. Though of course the ones in the video are the ones who have been specially selected, fed and provided for, like livestock, since they are employed as amusement-robots for the Dear Leader.
I hope to God that the malign regime will disintegrate without too much violence. These people have suffered enough. What a catastrophe if the NK regime provokes a war and its people who have never known anything else die in droves on its behalf. That would be the culmination of six decades of abject waste.
Do you think the guy who turned his page late was shot?
Brutally awful music, btw. View with sound off, imho.
Does anyone know when the NK footage was shot?
I saw lots of photos of Kim Il Sung, and none of Kim Jong Il, the current Dear Leader.
If this was prepared some years ago, I wonder how many of the children shown have subsequently starved to death in the intervening years of famine.
So sad….