The WaPo ran this piece on the North Korean cheering squad, which gives some insight into how and why perceptions of the North have changed so dramatically in recent years. I know a single quote does not a social trend make, but still, there is something SERIOUSLY wrong when you have people making statements like this:
“They give me chills of excitement,” said Park Seung Jin, a 27-year-old restaurateur who came to the games just to see the women. “We are one nation divided by foreign powers. These women help us to see Korea as one. … North Korea is no longer my enemy. It is not South Korea’s enemy either.”
MBC, by the way, played a special on the girls last night - even my fiance, who spent her youth as a Young Pioneer in Soviet-dominated Mongolia, was absolutely horrorfied by what she saw, both from the cheering girls themselves and the South Korean fans who seemingly bought into their bullshit.
(Hat tip to Kevin at IA)
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Disgusting stuff. South Koreans will have only themselves to blame (not that that will stop them from blaming others) for any consequences of their moral and intellectual disarmament in the face of North Korea’s tried and tested propaganda schemes.
It seems that maybe the SouKos are buying problems from the same shop that the Saudis and Egyptians were shopping from a coupla decades back.
If I may quote myself: “Last week was a week full of wonder and awe, one in which we saw how delightful and enchanting tyranny can be.”
There’s a little part in all of us that longs in a big way for a utopia, and tyranny is the only way by which we can gratify it. By contrast, freedom is almost invariably messy, ugly and offensive. Freedom is disgusting. Freedom makes us sick. It looks and talks like George W. Bush.
Park Seung Jin saw utopia.
freedom makes you sick?
fine but dont push your anti-freedom shit on me.
Quick Question: After reading this article here: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/.....erleaders/
I have to ask, did this one event backfire on the Norks? Is the response to this more appeasement or a heartfelt step backward saying “what the hell is this?”
I’m trying to give more perspective to people arguing politics on a movie website…
you “non-koreans” don’t understand…
In Koreans, North and South… There is a burning desire for reunification in all of our hearts…
We have been tragically divided nation for 50 years now… and prospects for reunification are looking brighter with the advent of the Sunshine policy and policies of engagement
Its only natural, and even desirable that South Koreans should embrace their Northern brothers.
How would you feel if, during the American Civil War, the Confederate South had successfully separated from the North?? The result would have been unimaginable despair, deep bitterness and hatred, economic turmoil, and forever-lost opportunities…
Korea has suffered all of this and more…. and we are sick and tired of it… Its time we reunited…
America should help us… not destroy our dreams…