BALANCE of CULTURE

North Korea's Hollywood Dreams and a Hidden Famine

The underprivileged lives of North Koreans are hardly a secret to those who bother to read the news once in a while, but sometimes the details are (understandably) lost in the spectacle of the country's rural poverty. John Everard recently shared some of his own experiences with Pyongyang's elite class and their infatuation with Hollywood and South Korea while he served as Britain's ambassador to the DPRK:

I was often asked for medicines, but not as often as I was asked for DVDs of television soap operas, usually but not always from South Korea. These portrayed a world of which North Koreans can only dream--of people who eat well in smart restaurants, have their own cars and live in flats where the heating always works--and my contacts devoured them ravenously. I once lent one set of DVDs of Desperate Housewives and met the same person the next day with big rings under their eyes. They had sat up all night and watched the entire series in one setting.

While detractors may dismiss a story like this as evidence of a lack of a severe humanitarian crisis, let's remember that this is a country with millions of people--many of whom still barely exist due to the most recent "hidden famine."

Hidden Aquifers around Africa

Hidden water reserves were recently discovered and mapped across the African continent. Lying thousands of miles beneath the terrain, these untouched aquifers could be critical paths to new approaches regarding climate change and food production (click image for high-res version):

Related research: quantitative maps of groundwater around Africa and climate change in Africa.

Refocusing Haiti's Infrastructure

Remember Haiti? I kid (sort of, considering how the nation's rebuilding has literally fallen off the media map since last year). But according to Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Paul Altidor, the Haitian government is trying to focus on moving away from "survival mode to investment mode." 

Good call, since traditional humanitarian aid as we know it oftentimes does not lead a community out of the hole of poverty. And evidently at least eight very familiar American hotel chains are planning to either build or expand properties around the island, including Marriott, Comfort Inn, and Best Western. 

Recent Security Issues in Zanzibar, Tanzania

View from our small plane landing at Zanzibar's modest airport, Spring 2011.

I was one of the relatively few Americans among 200,000 (mostly European) foreigners who spent time in Zanzibar and Tanzania last year, so the recent security issues of this East African island is saddening to hear. Even the UK, the largest source of tourism to Zanzibar, has issued a travel warning to its travelers in reaction to two separate incidents--four tourists who were mugged in the Tanzanian capital Dar es Salaam, while growing political protests on Zanzibar have "vagabond youths" torching churches and threatening tourist bars and grocery marts.

Police teams have been released on the streets after hotels and businesses demanded some extra support. The nationalities of the mugged tourists have yet to be released.

Most residents I met in Zanzibar are Muslim, and criminal acts--even petty theft--are considered extremely wrong in their community. Despite a strengthening tourist industry, most locals remain quite poor and lack even basic necessities such as running water and electricity. As such, an act of thievery is considered a highly gross insult.

Upon arrival in Tanzania, I was advised that if anybody tried to pickpocket or mug us, to yell out, "Simama, mwizi!" This means "Stop, thief!" in Swahili and apparently it isn't uncommon for a large group to form around the suspect, oftentimes killing or seriously injuring them. Theft in Swahili culture isn't questionable at all; this is based upon the group mentality of being in poverty and how no individual person deserves to have material possessions above others, especially through the act of stealing. 

But perhaps some of this traditional belief is swaying now, as so much is changing in people's sensibilities about the world. We see protests growing in all corners of our planet, so in an impoverished yet connected land like Tanzania perhaps we should expect to see citizens express their own discontent in rather anomalous ways. Tourists from wealthy nations are easy targets because the message will get through to the the media, perfectly demonstrated by the UK's travel advisory and even this blog post. 

That said, we still plan to return to East Africa sooner rather than later. The first time was right when the Arab Spring burst, perhaps next time will be even more dramatic. 

Tuonane baadaye, Zanzibar!

 

Late Pizza Deliveries Teach Paraguayans About Hunger

Part prank, part do-gooder, this aggressive ad campaign is definitely a bold move. Knowing that most people get relatively cranky when they're hungry, a Paraguayan ad agency concocts a unique campaign of deliberately late pizza deliveries to ornery customers--a simple plan helping ordinary people to understand what it's like to be hungry for more than just one evening.

ONIRIA/TBWA teamed up with the Food Bank Foundation to work with two pizzerias in Paraguay. Both pizzerias assured customers their food would arrive in 45 minutes but deliveries were purposely completed much later, prompting angry inquiry calls.

Once the food finally does arrive, customers find a note that reads, "When you're hungry, you understand hunger." The pizzas are free of charge but any money given goes directly to the Food Bank Foundation, which helps those who are hungry on a regular basis. 

A Wrong Turn in Pyongyang Finally Reveals the Real North Korea

So it finally happened: a North Korean press bus in Pyongyang, filled with journalists invited to document the week's celebration of Kim il-Sung's centennial, made a wrong turn and gave people a sight they usually never see in the country--the real North Korea.

Dusty, pot-holed streets, forlorn passersby, and decrepit concrete buildings were a stark contrast to the manufactured images of prosperity that North Korean tours regularly spin to their audience.

Strangely enough, the government minders didn't instruct the journalists to look away or turn their cameras off. Perhaps they were too distracted by the significant error to think of censoring their guests; some have questioned if the regime is adopting a more lenient stance on journalists and information-gathering within their borders, a somewhat unlikely circumstance even with the new young leader Kim Jong-un.

The bus driver, a woman named Ru Jinju, continued speaking once the staff realized she had turned the vehicle in an unauthorized direction. But her fear of punishment is evident:

"I hope that the journalists present here report only the absolute truth," said Ri Jinju, her voice trembling, her hair frozen with hairspray. "The truth about how much our people miss our comrade Kim Jong Il, and how strong the unity is between the people and leadership, who are vigorously carrying out the leaders' instructions to build a great, prosperous and powerful nation."

 

A Long-Awaited Thaw Between the US and North Korea

North Korea and the US have finally come to an agreement after years of stagnated nuclear talks: the DPRK will disable their nuclear reactor and facilities as well as allow IAEA inspectors to verify and monitor the moratorium, and in exchange the US will resume food aid to the impoverished nation, which was suspended in early 2009.

For myself, to hear this after years of working on North Korea's human rights -- a subject that was consistently overshadowed by the nuclear issue to the dismay of myself and my colleagues, I should add -- I have high hopes for the global community to analyze North Korea in a more appropriately open-minded manner.

It's also always interesting to see how two countries advertise these sorts of high profile talks and agreements to the world. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's take:

The United States, I would be quick to add, still has profound concerns. But on the occasion of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's death, I said that it is our hope that the new leadership will choose to guide their nation onto the path of peace by living up to its obligations.Today's announcement represents a modest first step in the right direction.

North Korea's government-run news agency, KCNA, separately provided a statement by the state's Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman:

The U.S. reaffirmed that it no longer has hostile intent toward the DPRK and that it is prepared to take steps to improve the bilateral relations in the spirit of mutual respect for sovereignty and equality. The U.S. also agreed to take steps to increase people-to-people exchanges, including in the areas of culture, education, and sports.

Clearly we are in the closest position in a long time to establishing better relations with North Korea. While diplomacy isn't always the most effective solution to a crisis -- Syria being a perfect example right now -- it is undoubtedly the most important first step to take before exploring military interventions.

This reminds me of the Cuban Missile Crisis decades ago. While the world was on the brink of nuclear war, President Kennedy took it upon himself to publicly suggest a path for peace, prompting Khrushchev to express his own desires for a peaceful solution shortly afterwards.

I understand that 1962 is a world of difference from 2012, but one lesson from that decade is clear: it is only through direct, mature, and reasoned communication and diplomacy that we even have a chance of avoiding much more harmful ways of "dealing" with global conflicts.

Perhaps with this small positive development, the world can finally start focusing on North Korea's human rights issues without being distracted by such a compelling hard power problem.

North Korea is our "intelligence failure"

NYT:

Kim Jong-il, the enigmatic North Korean leader, died on a train at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in his country. Forty-eight hours later, officials in South Korea still did not know anything about it — to say nothing of Washington, where the State Department acknowledged “press reporting” of Mr. Kim’s death well after North Korean state media had already announced it.

Of course it's true what the New York Times asserts above -- Kim Jong-il's death was indeed an "extensive intelligence failure." But I'd take it even further...

It's not just about the man's death…the elusiveness and mystery of North Korea's context as a whole -- in 2011, smack in between a rapidly rising China and first-world South Korea/Japan -- is the true extent of the intelligence failure. It's not that easy for a country to maintain rogue status yet simultaneously scrape by with unpredictable yet sufficient negotiations with its cautious neighbors.

North Korea, not merely Kim Jong-il's death, is the real intelligence "failure."

 

Hip hop's global pull

Is hip hop music one of the driving forces behind the Arab Spring? It sure isn't hindering the highly-charged political atmosphere in the Middle East and North Africa, where many Libyan rebels listen to Tupac exclusively before going to battle Gaddafi's boys. Most likely these young men absorbed hip hop in the city of Benghazi, where the genre has found a strong local fan base.

Likewise for Egypt, where hip hop has found perhaps another unlikely home. The backbone of most lyrics -- even embedded within the blinged-out, high roller lifestyle -- often articulates large-scale experiences of socio-political and socio-economic inequality. Though originating from the United States, globalization has allowed hip hop to be adopted despite boundaries once thought to be iron blocks of communication.

A real hip hop song today won't likely be comprised of lyrics that the dictators of the Middle East want to hear. Though it took about 30 years for such music to enter the strictly censored Arab world, according to Egyptian rapper/poet Mohamed El Deeb, artists of the genre have found ways to circumvent such social mores.

Deeb confirms: "There was a high chance that you'd be locked up for speaking the truth. I had to censor a lot of my lyrics. I could never say the word 'government' or 'president'…I would use metaphors instead of direct name references."

It's amazing how music from impoverished America has infiltrated and given meaning to individuals in completely foreign lands and contexts. My guess is that the scale of hip hop's worldwide growth actually trumps many other types of music genres -- the representation of class/racial marginalization is something that people in all parts of the world understand.

 

 

Ride with us or collide with us...

"I only listen to 2Pac before going to shoot Gaddafi boys."

While most of us can relate to how we use music to motivate ourselves at work, the gym, or when trying to relax, I've always thought it was so interesting to hear about what soldiers listen to before going out to fight their battles.

It seems fit that the choice tunes of Libyan rebels include the works of Tupac Shakur. Though representing the "Westside"/Los Angeles even in his death, Tupac's music resonates with millions around the world not only for his gangster lifestyle but even more importantly for his articulation on class marginalization, racial politics and unforgiving poverty.

Tupac's popularity throughout the vast continent of Africa makes perfect sense. A barber shop/shack we visited even in Zanzibar earlier this year very proudly boasted a hand-drawn mural of the infamous rapper, even though the men inside didn't have a working radio at the time...

Tomorrow, September 13, 2011 is the fifteenth anniversary of Tupac Shakur's death. Check out this cool mix of his hits available from Mixtape Download!