Feel the Kimjongmania!

North Korea is full to bursting today with things for Kim Jong Il to do to celebrate his 65th birthday: film screenings, mass dances, military parades, parties, a visit to the site of his birth on the sacred Mount Paekhtu and flower shows. How is he possibly packing it all in?

From dawn, people have gathered at the giant bronze statue of Kim Il Sung, Kim's father, in Pyongyang to lay flowers under banners showing "2.16", the moment of the Dear Leader's arrival in the world.

Perhaps they were expecting a phenomenon. Back in 1942, according to the official version, a double rainbow rose in the sky, and since then various supernatural occurrences have fallen on his birthday: including brilliant dawns, exploding frosts and fast-thawing lakes.

Then the dancing started. Television pictures from Pyongyang today showed thousands of North Koreans, wearing hanbok -- brightly colored, loose-fitting traditional costumes -- perfoming one of the country's signature jamborees. If the gala was in tune with some of the festivities earlier this week, such numbers as My Happiness is in the Bosom of the Respected General; For the Motherland; and All Servicepersons and People Will Become Human Bullets and Bombs might have got a run out. We are not sure what this is, but it sounds a lot like If You Are Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands".

For lunch, news agencies in Pyongyang reported queues at stalls selling Korean pancakes, sweets and discount liquors. As his father did, Jong Il has been to make his birthday one of munificence for North Korea's poorly nourished population. Reports today said that, buoyed by the oil deliveries that will come as part of this week's deal over the country's nuclear programme, the Dear Leader has ordered the electricity to run all night long.

Perhaps then there will be time to consider the official notices of congratulation from the various organs of the one-party state and North Koreans abroad. Like this:

“You, who broke the dawn of a great prosperous powerful nation, going through grim ordeals beyond human imagination, are the peerlessly great man, the supreme incarnation of love for the country and the people and the supreme defender of socialism." (A message from a group of North Koreans in Japan).

Or this more business-minded joint note from the Communist party, cabinet and armed forces:

“People’s Army soldiers and the people will maintain war preparedness to the full to deal with US imperialists’ manoeuvres for aggression. If the enemies dare ignite the fire of war, we will mobilise all our powerful combat potential built up through the maelstrom of Songun (military-led) revolution, mercilessly crush the enemies and achieve the historic task of national unification."

Surely a film on his birthday for the Hollywood aficionado and nightmare producer, whose works include Five Guerrilla Brothers and The Sea of Blood? A film festival to coincide with Kim's birthday has held screenings in Laos, Austria, Nepal, India and Equatorial Guinea, according to North Korea's official news agency. Perhaps there will be time today for The Great Leader Comrade Kim Jong Il Gives On-the-Spot Guidance to Work in Different Fields or maybe the less technical: The Respected Comrade Kim Jong Il Is a Great Thinker and Theoretician.

None of which must get in the way of a visit to the 11th Kimjongilia festival, which is celebrating the red hybrid begonia created in Kim's honour by a Japanese horticulturalist in the 1980s. More than 25,000 Kimjongilias, designed to bloom around the time of Kim's birthday, are on show in Pyongyang, alongside a lot of Kimilsungias, North Korea's other national flower, which was made for his father.

Any anxieties about how Kim will make it through a day like this, after all, on the cusp of what many consider to be retirement age, must be relieved by a little glance through this partial list of his achievements. The man has a photographic memory, writes operas, flies jet aircraft, plays golf like nobody else and, like other rulers before him, doesn't get much sleep.

Comments

[Viper40]

Hard to sleep looking over your shoulder all the time. Thousands in Pyongyang? Hard to imagine the great leader affording the diesel fuel to bus them all in. Not many folks live in Pyongyang. Maybe on you next birthday you can expect to see another brilliant dawn....

[yay]

yay

[Lewis Goudy]

"Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until the author has approved them."

Is this not an example of the kind of oppression of freedom of speech that one associates with communist states such as North Korea?! - Discuss if this is displayed!
------------------------------
No, quite the contrary--this weblog
is a private demesne, not the
public square. Its very existence
is what sets free societies apart
from communist states such as North
Korea, where such fora are not
tolerated. That is why such states
are called totalitarian: they aim
at total control of production,
consumption, communication, and
cognition. Ironically, you worship
the very thing you demonize: the
outlawry of autonomy.

If the webmaster declines to publish
your comment you remain free to find
another venue or to self-publish it.
Thus your freedom to speak is not
infringed, and the webmaster enjoys
like protection in that his freedom
*not* to speak is preserved as well.
By contrast, in totalitarian states
the speech per se is oppressed: no
alternative venues are allowed. All
speech is deemed public speech, and
so subject to censorship in the
"public interest" (identified by
the regime with its own interest).

[David]

Due to the repressive nature of the government controlled capitalist press none of us here in America had notice the Beloved Leader 's birthday . Otherwise we would have had great festivities planned attended by as many as a dozen people . Great revelry with a spontaneous outpouring of adoration and screenings of "Kim Jong Il's Tractor Repair for the Complete Idiot " assuming we had a tractor or fuel to run it or anything to plow .Well , maybe next year .Have your people call my people and we'll do something special.

[Vili Lehdonvirta]

Mark, freedom of speech does not mean that other people would be obliged to carry your messages. Each media outlet is free to choose what content they carry. Thanks to freedom of speech, you may also set up your own media outlet should you wish to do so.

Of course not everyone can possess a high-calibre media outlet, so in practice some people have more "ability of speech" than others. Fortunately, while the Times Online is free to e.g. remove critical comments from their website, it is doubtful whether that would make good business sense, given how the word spreads in the 'net.

[Whys]

A busy night for the joy brigade, I'm sure.

[Walt O'Brien]

Larfed till tears ran down my face. Thanks for making my Saturday. Wish someone would lay into Taleban doctrine with such wit and candour: there's no reason why not, as it's easier for the NK's to get to witty British journalists than it is for weirdo girliemen in beards who can't get any from the Planet Kablamistan.

[David]

Mark commented:
_____
"'Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until the author has approved them."

Is this not an example of the kind of oppression of freedom of speech that one associates with communist states such as North Korea?! - Discuss if this is displayed!"
_____
Nope, it's not. Censorship is a government function. This newspaper is a private enterprise (something which doesn't exist under communism) and is free to publish or not publish whatever comments it chooses.

[David Nigel Braham]

Now I know why Italies communist party leaders (three) will not be in Vicenza today,for the anti American rally,they are all in Pyongyang.
For those who do not know,America wants to enlarge their base,the commies do not want it for obvious reasons.

[Mark]

"Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this weblog until the author has approved them."

Is this not an example of the kind of oppression of freedom of speech that one associates with communist states such as North Korea?! - Discuss if this is displayed!