My Second Chance to Make a First Impression
Let’s start this here blog off with a nice, non-controversial topic that everyone can agree on: North Korea totally sucks. This amateur photo essay, taken by a Russian tourist and later posted into a military history discussion forum, is interesting, but not particularly surprising. Creepy scary dystopian nightmare--yeah, that's North Korea for you. The photos are in color but the country is so bleak they may as well be black and white.
The one detail which haunted me the most: all the public spaces are far too clean. If you took even the most hardcore environmentalist and made him live in that preternaturally tidy country for a year, he'd come out writing odes to the beauty of litter. Yes, it’s annoying when you see things like food wrappers lying on the ground, but at least then you know there’s food to buy.
DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Jim Henley at Unqualified Offerings,
who offered me a guest spot on his blog a couple of weeks ago; Jesse Walker of Hit and Run, who called attention to it; and Number 6 of Grylliade, who brought Jesse's post to light.
Anybody whom I might offend here should bear in mind that if not for the actions of the aforementioned men, I probably never would even have started this blog. Think about that.
Let’s start this here blog off with a nice, non-controversial topic that everyone can agree on: North Korea totally sucks. This amateur photo essay, taken by a Russian tourist and later posted into a military history discussion forum, is interesting, but not particularly surprising. Creepy scary dystopian nightmare--yeah, that's North Korea for you. The photos are in color but the country is so bleak they may as well be black and white.
The one detail which haunted me the most: all the public spaces are far too clean. If you took even the most hardcore environmentalist and made him live in that preternaturally tidy country for a year, he'd come out writing odes to the beauty of litter. Yes, it’s annoying when you see things like food wrappers lying on the ground, but at least then you know there’s food to buy.
DISCLAIMER: Thanks to Jim Henley at Unqualified Offerings,
who offered me a guest spot on his blog a couple of weeks ago; Jesse Walker of Hit and Run, who called attention to it; and Number 6 of Grylliade, who brought Jesse's post to light.
Anybody whom I might offend here should bear in mind that if not for the actions of the aforementioned men, I probably never would even have started this blog. Think about that.
posted by Jennifer Abel at 10:41 PM
3 Comments:
Wow. A picture does say a thousand words.
Regarding the lack of litter, I've seen that in other nations more socialistic than the U.S. I wonder if there's any significance to it.
Other than that, you're right, what a bleak country. Kim Jong IL - the Sun of 21st century! one of their signs read. Poignant, since it seems the sun never shines there.
So you can read Korean, Linguist? Cool. Are there any other ironic slogans in any of those pictures?
"Regarding the lack of litter, I've seen that in other nations more socialistic than the U.S. I wonder if there's any significance to it."
Two theories: one, citizens of a socialist nation may be more likely to view public sapces as "theirs"; or two, a socialist government, being more prone to do things in an attempt to end unemployment, is more likely to hire people to clean those places.
North Korea's just that there is nothing to litter with in the first place.
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