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5DII does North Korea

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Me, too. But the shot that you see there is not a photographic discovery. That is a typical building left from the communist times. Back then, all residential buildings built by the idiotic regime looked like this. Now, it is like 70-80% of them. Just look at the Pyongyang photo above. That was it.
ARShutterbug said:
I've seen dilapidated buildings like that in America, complete with the satellite dishes for entertainment hanging out of their windows. They can afford the satellite TV subscriptions, but they can't maintain their own living establishment. I've seen houses that look like they're about to fall down, with a trashed front yard and rotting siding, but there's a $50,000 luxury SUV parked outside. If you can afford the SUV and the entertainment subscriptions, you can afford to fix up your property!

--
http://www.alexanderrogge.net/arshutterbug
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Peter 13 said:
You should know better. There were many ways to manipulate foreign tourists and > "left intellectuals" by the old Eastern Block.
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I failed to see your point and how it relates to what I said. I do know better, this is the look of new developments all over the Soviet Union. But then again, what was your point and what does it have to do with what I said?

Did I say anything about the NK regime being nice or the quality of life there being high? I did say though that it's good to see and realize that real people lived in that country and in those buildings, which is not the picture most people (i.e. Americans) have in their heads. When you see N Koreans, Vietnamese, etc. just as a faceless mass of Commies (again, a la Rambo style), it's much easier to justify actions of your government that don't fit into humanistic standards and which you would not want to experience yourself or by your family and kids from somebody else.

I was born in Kiev in a communal apartment, where three other families lived besides us, into a very loving and educated family. But somebody like you could just take a picture of our building and use it for their senseless and pointless propaganda.

You talk about the Eastern Block propaganda? Sure, but you posting those photos here in the way you did is an even worse propaganda because it comes from you personally and is not ordered by some government. NK propaganda is cartoonish and stupid. On the other hand, if you want something more subtle, turn on your TV set, pretty much any news channel. Btw, you are not watching FOX News by any chance, do you? Because if you do, it would explain a lot of what you said. If not, my apologies.

The reason why those "left intellectuals," as you call them, were so easily lured by the Eastern Block propaganda, the fact that I do not defend but am just trying to explain, was because they were sick and tired of the hypocrisy and propaganda that they were seeing in their own "free" and "democratic" countries.

Igor.
 
Or, man, what did I say to deserve this? Fox News, Rambo, "democratic" and "free" in quotes, calling what I wrote propaganda, etc. You read too much Pravda, or maybe watch too much CNN.

I was born in one of those buildings. I was raised there, studied and even worked for a while behind the Iron Curtain. As soon as the gates opened, I got out. The best day of my life.

The only actions of a foreign government that I suffered personally was the Soviet regime change that lasted 45 years and turned back that part of Europe to the Stone Age. Now I am "free" in a "democratic" country, where Fox News, together with a network owned by a communist billionaire, a tax-payer supported leftist TV and radio network, religious fundamentalist media (Christian), etc., can coexist. Not to mention the Internets. Try that in NK.
IgorCU said:
IgorCU said:
You should know better. There were many ways to manipulate foreign tourists and > "left intellectuals" by the old Eastern Block.
Click to expand...
I failed to see your point and how it relates to what I said. I do know better, this is the look of new developments all over the Soviet Union. But then again, what was your point and what does it have to do with what I said?

Did I say anything about the NK regime being nice or the quality of life there being high? I did say though that it's good to see and realize that real people lived in that country and in those buildings, which is not the picture most people (i.e. Americans) have in their heads. When you see N Koreans, Vietnamese, etc. just as a faceless mass of Commies (again, a la Rambo style), it's much easier to justify actions of your government that don't fit into humanistic standards and which you would not want to experience yourself or by your family and kids from somebody else.

I was born in Kiev in a communal apartment, where three other families lived besides us, into a very loving and educated family. But somebody like you could just take a picture of our building and use it for their senseless and pointless propaganda.

You talk about the Eastern Block propaganda? Sure, but you posting those photos here in the way you did is an even worse propaganda because it comes from you personally and is not ordered by some government. NK propaganda is cartoonish and stupid. On the other hand, if you want something more subtle, turn on your TV set, pretty much any news channel. Btw, you are not watching FOX News by any chance, do you? Because if you do, it would explain a lot of what you said. If not, my apologies.

The reason why those "left intellectuals," as you call them, were so easily lured by the Eastern Block propaganda, the fact that I do not defend but am just trying to explain, was because they were sick and tired of the hypocrisy and propaganda that they were seeing in their own "free" and "democratic" countries.

Igor.
Click to expand...
 
Peter 13 said:
Or, man, what did I say to deserve this? Fox News, Rambo, "democratic" and "free" in quotes, calling what I wrote propaganda, etc. You read too much Pravda, or maybe watch too much CNN.
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Oh, you poor little thing.

So, instead of saying something else, I'll just copy and paste my previous question that you still did not answer. You called the short film a propaganda, I wrote this:

Propaganda by who? Is the photographer a N Korean spy? And, his whole story is just a cover?

http://www.stevegongphoto.com/

On the other hand, may be he was just trying to say that real people do live there as well (I know that, I was born in the Soviet Union and real people lived there despite the stupid government), which ruins your ability to demonize them and see them all just as a bunch of stupid Commies (a la Rambo style), and may be this is the real propaganda the same photographer produced?:

http://www.stevegongphoto.com/...efighters/7771928_bdf5u#502838030_SSKgN-L-LB

Then you wrote:

You should know better. There were many ways to manipulate foreign tourists and "left intellectuals" by the old Eastern Block.

And I said:

I failed to see your point and how it relates to what I said. I do know better, this is the look of new developments all over the Soviet Union. But then again, what was your point and what does it have to do with what I said?

Did I say anything about the NK regime being nice or the quality of life there being high? I did say though that it's good to see and realize that real people lived in that country and in those buildings, which is not the picture most people (i.e. Americans) have in their heads. Etc.

So, what WAS the point you tried to make and how was it a reply to what I said?

Igor.
 
I saw this with a mix of extreme curiosity and a bit of sadness.

Normal people, living normal lives under such a contrived, unnatural and bizarre society.

...Our tour on this earth is really a cosmic-sized unfair prank lottery, isn't it?....although, all things considered, our North Korean fellow planet inhabitants are, still, better of than many others, I guess...

(...and, what's with Communism and sumptuous undergrounds...is there a mass-psychological underlying sub-text to it?...)

Thank you for one of the 2 most engaging videos I've seen in the last few months (the other being the late Tim Hetherington's "Diary" http://vimeo.com/18497543 )

PK

--
“Loose praise may feed my ego but constructive criticism advances my skills”
************************************************************
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http://www.pbase.com/photokhan
(PBase Supporter)
 
Khanh Vo said:
Great peace of propaganda. This is someone who lived for years under Communism.
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Really...?...Say why then...

PK

--
“Loose praise may feed my ego but constructive criticism advances my skills”
************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/photokhan
(PBase Supporter)
 
Having interacted with North Koreans, I can provide a couple of observations.

People in Pyongyang are definitely better off, often resulting in more pride and so on. Abject poverty is easily visible outside Pyongyang.

The people depicted in the video are far from the party line.

To call it propaganda and try to substantiate that absurd claim with incomparable personal biography and antecedent conditions really insults what the video captures as well as reveals the utter ignorance of the claim.
 
And yeah this is the first time I watched the thing. Great stuff.
 
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