http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/world/asia/10koreans.html?pagewanted=all
That's not very far from Soviet Union in early 1980s.
That's not very far from Soviet Union in early 1980s.
That sure brings some memories...
- Thread starter p m
- Start date
Wow....
On paper, he said, a Chongjin state construction company employs him. But the company has few supplies and no cash to pay its employees. So like more than a third of the workers, the worker said, he pays roughly $5 a month to sign in as an employee on the company?s daily log ? and then toil elsewhere.
Such payments, widespread at smaller state companies, are supposed to keep companies solvent, said one 62-year-old woman who is a trader in Chongjin. Even a major enterprise like the city?s metal refinery has not paid salaries since 2007, she and others said, though workers there collect 10 days worth of food rations each month.
?How would the companies survive if they didn?t get money from the workers?? she asked without irony.
On paper, he said, a Chongjin state construction company employs him. But the company has few supplies and no cash to pay its employees. So like more than a third of the workers, the worker said, he pays roughly $5 a month to sign in as an employee on the company?s daily log ? and then toil elsewhere.
Such payments, widespread at smaller state companies, are supposed to keep companies solvent, said one 62-year-old woman who is a trader in Chongjin. Even a major enterprise like the city?s metal refinery has not paid salaries since 2007, she and others said, though workers there collect 10 days worth of food rations each month.
?How would the companies survive if they didn?t get money from the workers?? she asked without irony.
"How would GM survive if it didn't get money from the taxpayer?" Obama asked without irony.
P M -- do you have photos? Any scanned?
P M -- do you have photos? Any scanned?
Scary to think that people live like that. Even worse when you really stop and think about people in worse places than N. Korea.
quick128 said:
Agreed - living in a place like Somalia or Darfur would really be unthinkable, and Afghanistan isn't much better - at least there are safe-er parts than others... but at the same time, in a situation like those, there is really a lot more onus on the individual for survival and for freedom... N. Korea is so... institutionalized, on every level - EVERYTHING is controlled, and it strips the individual of identity, freedom, wealth, freedom of thought... hell, everything. The prospect of an individual regaining any of those things is impossible in N. Korea, unless they somehow have connections and are able to rise through the ranks of the military and the party, but in other places what people are able to accomplish is a direct result of their own abilities and gumption. Sadly however, this usually requires one become a warlord and do all sorts of really terrible things - but I'd guess that Darfur, Somalia, and Afghanistan are easier to leave than NK.
Not too many... I might dig some up.RBBailey said:
Here's a cheerful one:
http://3rj.org/NNov/IMAGE0175.JPG
Sign of times:
http://3rj.org/NNov/IMAGE0070.JPG
(written on the fence: "Hands off private property!")
Some _old_ photos - meaning before Reagan's Star Wars that bankrupted the country:
http://www.kcmeesha.com/2010/02/08/old-photoswindow-shopping-in-the-ussr/
That tape player on the photo - I had one like it. It was actually a very good player, if one replaced some vacuum tubes with newer ones, the heads with narrow gap ones, and tweaked the frequency response of the preamp...
http://www.kcmeesha.com/2010/02/08/old-photoswindow-shopping-in-the-ussr/
That tape player on the photo - I had one like it. It was actually a very good player, if one replaced some vacuum tubes with newer ones, the heads with narrow gap ones, and tweaked the frequency response of the preamp...
When I was there in 1990, there was nothing on the shelves in the "shopping center". A few jackets, a few hats, three model airplanes (I bought two) and a room full of odds and ends. The place was four levels, only one had anything in it. It was a small room, packed with people looking at stuff. It looked like a Goodwill going out of business sale -- but with less color.
That picture of the Lenin Statue made me chuckle. While most sane people would look at a statue of Lenin in disgust, the freaks that live in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle look at their Lenin Statue with romantic notions of utopia.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/vladimir-lenin-seattle
Just read the comments from these lunatics.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/vladimir-lenin-seattle
Just read the comments from these lunatics.
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Mike_Rupp said:
LOL - well, at least the local yuppies have a sense of humor about it and dress him up in scarves and such.
uke:
knewsom said:
I'm sure that these Che t-shirt cladded dbags would just love to be referred to as a yuppie.
ptschram
Well-known member
As my brother in law put it well, "they pretended to pay us, we pretended to work".
The Yugoslavians have an "interesting" view on communism.
The Yugoslavians have an "interesting" view on communism.
that's a good one.Mike_Rupp said:
Speaking of Che, "The Motorcycle Diaries" is a great book (and the movie is good as well). For something that was written in his communist years, it is remarkably apolitical.
