According to BBC News, “BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes andteam expelled from North Korean” (2016), the BBC team went to Pyongyang, North
Korea to report about the Worker Party Congress which is first in 36 years. They
are deported after reporting about aspect of life in the capital, Pyongyang. In
their video report “North Korea: BBC team begins week in Pyongyang” the
reporter said that more traffic on the road than his last visit 12 years ago. They
were served with nice accommodation and nice view although it restricted to go
out of the boundary without officer assist. In Pyongyang, there is a nice
playground as it showed in the video “May day at a North Korea playground”. It
was unexpected to see for the team. They were also surprised with many young people
can speak English, and yet they could not answer what major they are taking in the
university and this is the first time for them to meet a foreigner. The video
showed the biggest children hospital in Pyongyang and give some comments as it
is a nice, clean, modern and highly equipment. The children are considered as
patients are healthy looking, the doctors are not real according to the comment
of an important guest, a researcher. The reporter tried to approach a local
people but they run away from them. And others were hardly to answer question
about their opinion because they are watched. In the Kim Il Sung University,
everyone have to bow in front of Kim Il Jung image before enter the building,
according to “A rare look inside North Korea’s Kim Il Sung University.” They
said the student can access internet with no restricted website to do research
but in the video show that they even do not know how to search on the internet.
The reporter said that “everything we see look like a setter.”
_______________________________________
My Yes/No question is:
Are you good in pretense?
My answer is:
No, I'm not.
I don't said that I've never pretended myself. I did pretend in some situations that I though I have to but honestly saying that it is really hard in pretending, better be yourself. I feel the hardship of the Korean when they have to pretend to the outsiders about the country with full of food in the store but yet high malnutrition rate, clean, modern and most equipment hospital but yet un-real doctor and patient, joyful youth in the playground and advance in education but yet can't search on internet by themselves.
Everything in North Korea which show to the world seem to be in setter. People dare not to answer the foreigner, dare not to express themselves. Everything, every action seem to be controlled and watched.
Although you are a good pretender, your face expression is the one betray you. In the video we saw that the faces of the people are very stressful, serious and careful. It seem like they know what they have to do but yet it is not real for them.
Why do they have to pretense? Why can't they speak out? Why can't they express themselves? I don't have the answer. I may know the answer but yet I need a proven answer.
___________
Reference
Wingfield-Hayes, R. (2016, May 9). BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and team expelled from North Korean. BBC News. Retrieved
from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36244994
Wingfield-Hayes, R. (2016,
April 30). North Korea: BBC team begins week in Pyongyang. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36176895
Wingfield-Hayes, R. (2016,
May 1). May day at a North Korea playground. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36183688
Wingfield-Hayes, R. (2016,
May 4). A rare look inside North Korea’s Kim Il Sung University. BBC News. Retrieved from
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36199683
I'm not sure that I agree that North Koreans are not genuinely happy with the successes of their country, or that they do not truly love, respect, admire and believe in their great leader, the third in his dynasty. They certainly look and sound happy and devoted to me.
ReplyDeleteBut I do agree with Ai that those beliefs about their own country are pretty much entirely false. North Korea seems to me a great example showing the falseness of the popular belief that the people who are citizens of a nation must be better able to know and understand it than foreigners: in at least some cases, that is plainly not true. Most people outside of North Korea can better understand what is going on inside that country than can the subject people of that unhappy nation.
Of course, we all have opinions that are wrong, but in the case of countries like North Korea, more than the usual percentage of opinions people have are likely to be wrong.
A very different topic to Ae's yoghurt! Perhaps not so smooth, but certainly tasty.
I think the North Korean either a good pretender or they accept it as apart of life according to what they had taught and hadn't been experience freedom or understand the word "freedom" correctly in their concept.
ReplyDeleteI'm also not good at pretence. I think it is not a good thing to be done, but sometimes it is necessary to do it. For example, there might be a situation where I have to pretend I don't know. I kept saying to myself that I don't know for over ten times although I knew about it. This makes me feel really bad. So, if it is not a really serious situation and I don't have to pretend, I won't do it.
ReplyDeleteI rarely pretend in my life because it usually makes me become unhappy. However, sometimes, pretending your emotion is a good idea. For example, if you feel upset and you immediately express your feelings, not only you will feel sad, but people around you will feel unhappy too. In contrast, you should pretend your feelings to other peoples and try to solve your problems.
ReplyDeleteRegarding freshmen orientation, some sophomores (second-year) and junior (third-year) like to pretend that they are freshmen. Furthermore, they join and do activities with freshmen. For instance, I went to Freshmen Welcoming Ceremony at Mahidol University last month, at first, I didn't know that some students were pretending freshmen. firstly, I thought Sun, one of freshmen, was a real freshman. Therefore, I talked by using rude words with him. Finally, when I knew that he was a sophomore, I suddenly told him I had been sorry. Fortunately, he didn't mind and we also laughed simultaneously.
Even pretending isn't sounds good in general ,sometimes we'd better pretense than show the true side. People in North Korea, for example, could be dying to tell us the truth and run away from this insane country. Unfortunately, they can't ,or they will certainly die for real.
ReplyDeletePeople mostly don't love to be the deceivers ,but sometimes it'd be better if they don't express their real thoughts and emotions.
How's about this idea, The North Korea doesn't pretend to the outsider, but they just want to show what they want other to see. I heard that the rural of North Korea still be undeveloped, people have a hard time there.
ReplyDeleteTo compare with human being, sometime people don't lie to someone, but they choose to tell some part of the truth.
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ReplyDeleteof course, we have a right to show people what we want others to see. And most of us, I believe we all want people see a good side of us. But, what about if we show other what we don't really have. Like in the article and video showed that the North Korea want to show that the students can do research and able to access to any website but they even do not know how to search. I wonder that is this a good thing that they want the world to see or they just pretend they have it.
ReplyDeleteI think that everyone did pretend at least once in their life. Though it's not a good idea to express yourself, pretense is needed when your true colors aren't accepted in the society. I do understand north Korea. It has to pretend to show the world that it's doing fine while it may be not.
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ReplyDeletePretense is not a great idea, but people do them sometimes. I don't think i'm good at pretending but when it's needed i always know how to do it. Doesn't seem like a good thing to do but if it's necessary then it's a good exception to it once.
ReplyDeleteThere is, I think, an interesting point of disagreement between some of us.
ReplyDeleteDo North Korean people truly love their leader or are they merely said by the official media to love their leader, being perhaps too scared of prison to say anything else?
Ai seemed aware of this when she presented as solid supporting evidence the facial expressions of people, something I'm not sure I agree with, as my comment suggests. Similarly, if we make claims in an essay about what the people of a country believe about values, we need some solid support for that claim: is it truly a value, or is it only claimed to be a value?
Australians are claimed to love alcohol, and the statistcs do support this: Australians consume on average 12.2 litres of alcohol/year compared to 7.1 for Thais.
I may not know much about the situation of North Korea in details. Yet, I see why North Koreans have to do like that.
ReplyDeleteI am in favor of the combined ideas between Fang’s and Nuke’s. No one wants to be deceived, but sometimes no expression is necessary. Otherwise, we may avoid lie by saying incompletely.
By the way, whether they are proud of their country or not is the question I do not know the answers. I just hope that someday they will be able to have a real happy life without any pretense for some reasons.