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Topic: Best Thing Ever To Emerge from
a Celebrity Trip to North Korea |
Best Thing Ever To Emerge from
a Celebrity Trip to North Korea
PJ Media, by Claudia Rosett
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Original Article
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Posted By:earlybird, 1/21/2013 12:18:49 PM
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| When former New Mexican Governor Bill Richardson made yet another of his many trips to North Korea, bringing with him Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, I was skeptical than anything good would come of it. (Snip)Google’s Schmidt brought with him his teenage daughter, Sophie. She turns out to be a worldly young woman with a flair for photography, keen observation, and wry humor. She has now posted a travelogue, sophieinnorthkorea, which with photos and commentary, under the caption “It might not get weirder than this,”
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Comments:
As a participant in a "celebrity trip", rather than an official trip, this civilian has apparently revealed in real time much that we have heard about North Korea. It is not pretty. Starting with freezing everywhere but in the "state guest house".
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
Msctex1, 1/21/2013 12:23:42 PM (No. 9130090)
One of the more horrifying sights life has to offer is a satellite view of North Korea at night.
It might as well be 1000 years ago.
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Reply 2 - Posted by:
earlybird, 1/21/2013 12:24:06 PM (No. 9130092)
From Sophie´s travelogue (url is in intro):
#1 Caveat: It´s impossible to know how much we can extrapolate from what we saw in Pyongyang to what the DPRK is really like. Our trip was a mixture of highly staged encounters, tightly-orchestrated viewings and what seemed like genuine human moments. We had zero interactions with non-state-approved North Koreans and were never far from our two minders (2, so one can mind the other).
On a personal trip to China in the late 80s, arranged by the HSBC, we too were housed in "state guest houses" (where the government can keep eyes and ears on one), had the requisite two minders at every destination for three weeks, and were never permitted to interact with ordinary citizens.
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Reply 3 - Posted by:
whyyeseyec, 1/21/2013 12:30:38 PM (No. 9130113)
Richardson was served the finest North Korea field grass w/bernaise sauce made from the egg of an Iranian Yak - oh, an a coke with no ice.....
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Reply 4 - Posted by:
earlybird, 1/21/2013 12:42:46 PM (No. 9130146)
Have never been to either Korea, but in China a guide to what you´d eat was keeping an eye on what was in the street markets in a particular place. Food was a pretty local situation. So in Yantai, the meal was five courses of shrimp - different sizes, different preparations.
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Reply 5 - Posted by:
horacer, 1/21/2013 12:55:01 PM (No. 9130177)
She´s really done an excellent job. She captures the sterile, horror of the country. When the power goes out in the subway station everyone pulls out their flash light. The populace is totally brainwashed.
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Reply 6 - Posted by:
pnstrpilot, 1/21/2013 12:57:27 PM (No. 9130182)
From the travelouge:"We left our phones and laptops behind in China, since we were warned they´d be confiscated in NK, and probably infected with lord knows what malware."....and you actually believe your phones and computers were not infected with "lord knows what malware" in china?
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Reply 7 - Posted by:
catfur27, 1/21/2013 1:07:15 PM (No. 9130222)
....link to her blog...it´s worth the read ...young Sophie is pretty bright....and NK is weird
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Reply 8 - Posted by:
MisterDickens, 1/21/2013 1:10:58 PM (No. 9130232)
Coming soon to a country near you... very near indeed.
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Reply 9 - Posted by:
mythman, 1/21/2013 1:27:47 PM (No. 9130290)
Sophie has some serious talent.
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Reply 10 - Posted by:
lazlototh, 1/21/2013 1:31:57 PM (No. 9130302)
I guess Eric Schmidt has decided he never will go to North Korea again, since you´re responsible there for whatever your relatives do as well as what you do.
It would be nice if Schmidt got weirded out enough by the experience to see how creeping totalitarianism works even in democracies, but given his Obama adulation that´s unlikely.
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Reply 11 - Posted by:
philly_patriot, 1/21/2013 1:41:15 PM (No. 9130328)
It is tragic that in the 21st c., the ´world community´ [ie UN] abides this nationwide Slave Labor Camp that their good friends the Chinese protect.
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Reply 12 - Posted by:
truthfetish, 1/21/2013 2:55:45 PM (No. 9130505)
Yes, read her blogpost linked in the story. And, yes, fellas, a separate search for her picture is worth the few extra clicks in google images. She´s easy to look at!
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Reply 13 - Posted by:
mackrand, 1/21/2013 3:05:17 PM (No. 9130521)
"Sophies´ World" seems to be interesting. I expect to see more of her candid observations on the world scene.
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