When I was young I spent most of my time sitting in front of the small chest with books in our school. Everything better than paying attention to the teacher and as I did well I was allowed my dreamy time off.
That 'library' was filled with books at least a decade older so most of my new knowledge was already outdated. It didn't affect my joy in reading about the heroes of centuries ago. The stories of explorers, conquerors, kings and emperors filled my brain while helping me escape from the daily class routine.
One book however was different; it had lots of photos which was rare anyway and they came from all over the world. Now mind that in the early sixties photo books were a luxury and television was not a common good so these pictures really defined my outlook of the contemporary world.
The photos showed me places I hardly understood: New York's sky scrapers (our highest building at that time was 10 floors), Mumbai's busy exotic life, the bare cold tundras of Siberia and endless rain forests. I was fascinated by these photos and they defined my outlook on the world. It took me ages to realize that New York is more than Manhattan, that India had vast deserts and that rain forests were on the way out.
However my most persistent memory is a photo of Africa. Black people (I had never seen one in real life) wearing straw skirts photographed dancing in front of a primitive hut. As with all impressions I absorbed it and filed it as 'life in Africa'
Later on I went to high school, learned more about the world and quietly replaced my first photo images with new knowledge. However, the image of Africa still stood. Yes we learned all kind of demographics and I could have made the jump that the image was incorrect, but it never happened.
It took me two decades to get rid of that specific image representing Africa thanks to one new photo. A picture of Lagos (the largest city in Africa, population 21 million!) showing a coast line full of sky scrapers.
I guess it's hard for readers to understand that only then it dawned on me that I had never made the switch from that fifties photo of an isolated African village to the reality of the continent. Thanks to television we now can daily adjust our prejudices. I'm not sure everyone does, but at least we have the chance.
It's with this long introduction that I invite you to look at this promotional video of Pyongyang, the capital of poor North-Korea. It surprised me to see sky scrapers (seems to be a constant factor in my life ;), a metro, decent clothes and some rare smiles by skating children. True, the only really bright colors seen in this city life came from a DHL delivery van (but I didn't expect to find their services anyway) and a female traffic cop on, yes, high heels.
I don't know about you, but for me it was an eye opener. Yes, it's a poor country and yes people are kept in prisoner camps starving to death, but there's is another side and so far I had completely missed it.
The video doesn't change reality, but it does change my perception of the complexities of the world and maybe it helps others to realize that too often we have a limited outlook on the world.
I would be happy if it just helps one other boy aged seven sitting in a library in understanding the world and saving him two decades of outdated preconceptions.
#North-Korea #BlogsOfAugust#Politics
Did you read any of the back story of this video?
It's a completely fabricated reality. They were only allowed to shoot in certain places and only present them in a positive light.
Pyongyang itself is a constructed set, full of buildings and places used to showcase the lie they sell the outside world.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamiefullerton/this-timelapse-video-of-pyongyang-north-korea-is
FTA:
North Korea would only allow a video such as this to be made if it was displaying a heavily vetted, entirely positive image of the city. Beneath this artifice, life is very different for the citizens of North Korea.
This makes North Korea to almost look like a normal country.
I wrote my own story, but I checked the back story through the Guardian +Christopher Gaul The filmmakers says their every move was monitored by the National Tourism Administration. They were subject to the same restrictions of all foreign tourists: no shots of construction sites, underdeveloped locations or anyone from the army, but said they did not have to pretend to be supporters of the DPRK at any point in the filming.
“Amazingly, we were given complete editorial control in the making of this piece”, said Singh.
Love this! It is so easy to demonize a group of people or their beliefs or a country. There is good and bad in all of us and in every country. Great video. Time for the North Koreans to be connected to the rest of the world, even if it is censored and limited because freedom once tasted by the people, begins to take a life of its own! Thanks +Max Huijgen
If I showed up in North Korea with a camera, I would be quickly arrested. So I wonder how much of this is propaganda?
The Leader is full of pleasant surprises . If only
given a chance . The US heaping sanctions upon
them to protect their little baby in the form of South
Korea . I must warn the Leader of impending invasion
by the US as there has been a discovery of huge
amounts of rare metal ore in the Socialist State .
Is it so unlikely that a totalitarian state can have people walking around in a city? They are not retards living in hovels made with their own feces, eating babies because their government starves them because they hate our freedom.
North Korea seem like an exceedingly shitty place, but I am not particularly surprised that they have buildings and the occasional clear sky.
C EST CA QUE TU VEUX NOUS METTRE EN FRANCE CAMARADE PCF- CGT ???
Very true +Max Huijgen . I, too, had those books and it was only when I lived and worked in Africa, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore that I got the true impression to replace the textbook version.
Pyongyang is a city intended to put on a front. It is a city for the elite and a city for tourism. Pyongyang is in no way representative of North Korea or it's conditions across the rest of the country. Satellite imagery, tortured defectors that have told their story, and other tourists that have gone paint a completely different picture than the contrived one shown in the video.
While I don't necessarily think they intended this to be a DPRK propaganda piece, it sure comes off that way, and is still mostly void of humanity.
I don't excuse our media for having propaganda of our own when it comes to other countries, but I believe there's enough data that without our own media's issues, to still understand what an unrealistic view of the DPRK that this video demonstrates.
However, that being said, the filmmakers' intent seems to be fine, and it's still a short fun watch of a video to see North Korea in a timelapse like this. Just, knowing what we know about NK makes it a little unnerving.
To quote myself Yes, it's a poor country and yes people are kept in prisoner camps starving to death, but there's is another side and so far I had completely missed it.
The video doesn't change reality, but it does change my perception of the complexities of the world
+Brandon Adkins +Tormod Renberg Lerøy
+Max Huijgen Your argument is like saying people that don't like cats should go see the musical "Cats" so they can learn what cats are really like.
Not only is this movie a complete fabrication (it's a tourism ad after all, they're one sided everywhere ) but the entire city of Pyongyang is nothing more than a huge set, created to show a false image of NK as a modern, high tech, prosperous country, full of happy, progressive people. It's in no way representative of the reality of the rest of the country.
The most unfortunate thing here is that your original point is valid, it's just that this video is a poor example of it.
All societies create showrooms where they sell their image. I'm sorry you find NKs showroom so hard to swallow, but don't let that prevent you from realising that NK is a place with humans in it.
this is not an endorsement of state propaganda or the super shitty regimes of the world. Terms and conditions may apply for a mortgage at the nearest bank. China will rule South East Asia before long.