Looks like 1984, waiting for 1776 to arrive

Boston Globe's BIG PICTURE site always has amazing pictures (albums from the Olympics and the Paralympics, which I blogged about previously come to mind) but I wanted to highlight a recent album with pictures from North Korea, a country we do not see much of due to their isolation.












Both pictures were taken by and are © Eric Lafforgue. I am merely using them here to highlight what he has beautifully capture in these pictures viz. the insignificance of the individual in the North Korean society ...with their dictators and the large red country colors looming large over them everywhere they go.

In the caption for one of the pictures (#16), Eric Lafforgue, writes:

"You can find a famous satellite picture on the net showing a map of the Korean peninsula by night, with a huge difference between the north and south. In North Korea, there is no public lighting, and people use very low wattage bulbs in their houses. The North Korean capital is as surreal by night as it is by day. Due to the fuel crisis there's hardly any traffic to be heard after dark, and nightlife is virtually non-existent. Only monuments are lit during local festivities. Every hour, on the hour, from 6 am to midnight, loudspeakers blast out a patriotic song. Tourists are totally forbidden from leaving their hotels to walk around town, even though Pyongyang is safe, that's the rule."

That said, a country is not only that which reinforces our stereotypes -- human beings and their lives and emotions, though twisted and molded by a totalitarian government, are the same at some basic level and one sees glimpses of that through these pictures. Like one of the comments (#42 by Steve) made at the link by someone who has visited the nation, says (and I paraphrase): a visit to the nation, despite the closely monitored itinerary for Western tourists, is enough to shatter all preconceptions about the place, while confirming some of them.

P.S. A link to Eric's photostream on Flickr which has hundreds of pictures from his world travels (including 186 pictures from a trip to India!). In an interview, Eric mentions he started taking pictures professionally only in 2005! Also, a few other North Korea albums that were mentioned in the comments: 1, 2, 3.

P.P.S. The title comes from a comment (#103 by j boat) at the link. It's a great line! Without passing any judgement about "happiness" of the people in the pictures or the country, I think that comment captures the essence of what I see as life in the DPRK.