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I got the idea that the author does understand quite well. From the very first paragraphs: #1 Caveat: It's impossible to know how much we can extrapolate from
by justinhj 14y ago
I got the idea that the author does understand quite well. From the very first paragraphs:
#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).
- tlear 14y agoThose genuine human moments were not genuine, but otherwise yeah
- notahacker 14y agoShe also compared the experience to the Truman Show and interpreted even relatively innocuous things like a computer lab full of rather robotic "students" as an "e-Potemkin village". I'm not sure she could have sounded much more sceptical about what she was shown without punctuating every sentence with political asides, and frankly her account had more credibility because she didn't do that.