The news coverage of North Korea is very odd. Reports of a massive explosion with several killed and over a thousand injured and what does North Korean TV say – nothing.
The idea that you can deny all knowledge of an event to the people of the country seems very naive but that’s what they are doing. All North Korean TV has on is the Army Choirs, Sunsets and a woman talking very fervently about the achievements of the ruler.
It reminds me a little of Prague (we visited last summer – it’s a really cool place, a little touristy but really cool). The largest building in Prague is the TV tower that was used to block out all external TV signals. For years they were broadcasting how rubbish capitalism was and that the rest of the world was falling apart whilst Czechoslovakia (as it was) was living in communist splendor.
The thing I find funny is that all the visitors to Prague seemed to say ‘lovely view – shame about that big tower’. This seems to me to be missing the point. Yes, ok, the TV tower is far from beautiful but it represents a very important part of the country’s history so it would seem wrong for it not to be there – ugly or not
