Vietnam & Korea, DPR

Vietnam



As I walked on the banks of the lake in central Hanoi, I noticed the most astonishing thing: a clean, non polluted, quite beautiful environment, in which the sunset, sunrise or indeed the midday heat radiated the exuberant awesomeness´ of the city. Hanoi, whether because of a heightened sense of pride due to the victory over 1,90m heavy armed Americans, or a well adjusted sense of superiority due to their apparent political orientation, has excelled in creating a society worthy of recognition. A society of people with spunk and sass, pride and prejudice, and a distinguished ´to hell with everyone because we do not take shit from anyone after what we have been through”. Whether the government is oppressive and applies censorship whenever it feels giddy, the people hold their heads high and even the less fortunate of society, the beggars and riff raff have a more aggressive attitude towards tourist. When a beggar child of the subcontinent runs up to you and starts mumbling something incomprehensible while relying on hand gestures to act out “i’m hungry”, a Vietnam child will yell out “Hey!!!, you rich, me poor, you give me money now”. Local beauties walk down the streets of Hanoi and Saigon, turning heads and emitting Nancy’s “these boots were made for walking” with every step. The food is to die for, with its simplicity and freshness knocking you off your chair. All in all, Vietnam is heaven on earth and not a perfect country to visit if one is looking for cool, calm and collected oppression.


Korea, DPR


No crime, no prisons, no hunger, no strife, no illiteracy, no electrical shortages, no opposition, no underground, no drugs, no prostitutes, overall no misery. These are the words our guides used to describe the socialist paradise they call home. At first skepticism shot down my spine as these seemingly nice people showed no indication of doubt concerning the nations state of affairs. However, I soon realized that they were not lying. This is the truth of the DPRK. This is a country where sociological analysis will evaluate an entire nation who have been rerouted into another realm of reality. When the world collectively marched towards the future after WWII, the DPRK created another world, a world of personal idolatry towards the great leader, a world were the government tells the people everything the ‘need’ to know about the horrors of the imperialistic west, which is still dominated by the colonial expansionist policies of the capitalist whores of the US of A. The brilliance of my experience in Korea was my own personal confusion when I considered the sources of my preexisting concept of korea. A commie regime controlled by an evil villain who wants to destroy the west, bomb the south back to the stone age and eat small children. As I listened to the convictions of our guides, I found myself doubting all that I had ever heard of the country due to the biased reporting of the west. An initial reaction of mine was to believe our guides, pleasant people who spoke to us throughout our stay there, and disregard my previous beliefs. However, after a few days, after the shock, stress and excitement had filtered out of my system, I came to the conclusion that I would rather believe what I had been told my entire life, rather than place my faith in people kept in the dark regarding anything and everything. There was not a news program or breaking news flash that had nothing to do with the great leader, nor was there any indication that these grand events he was visiting were in fact taking place. Each time the newsflash spoke of Kims visit to a coal mine, or a steel factory which had excelled its production, there were no videos, there was never any real footage of the high heeled dwarf at these celebrations. Only still photos, usually the same ones, despite supposedly being from different locations.
The nation is a nation of slaves, with the high elite controlling everything from goods to information. A socialist can hold on to his convictions after visiting Vietnam, China, Cuba, and after reading the progress of the Soviets, despite all the difficulties, but will become a fervent believer of right wing politics after visiting the so called socialist paradise. Saudi Arabia calls itself Muslim, the DPRK calls itself communist, rednecks call Obama a left wing traitor to the cause. These are all of the same ridiculous calibre when it comes to the basic facts.

Grimulfur Finnbogason