INSIDE North Korea - Personal Experiences

North Korea or its Official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is not as well-known as many other countries. Many descriptions of DPRK also do not provide a fair and balanced holistic "big picture" of the beautiful country known by the many who actually have visited her.

Embedded as a DPRK Business Mission Team member is Mediacorp journalist Ms Wong Pei Ting. Her first person account of the Historic Mission is unconventional, fair, balanced, honest and wonderfully informative. 

Read the following:  

The Big Read: A charmed life in Pyongyang, despite crippling sanctions

Karaoke, selfies and heart-to-heart talks: My 72 hours in North Korea

Return to the Original DPRK Mission Report:

At The Dawn of Peace

 

Anyone interested in the above projects or be part of the next DPRK expeditions or just interested in DPRK can contact me:

miko.heng@gmail.com

The Americans are so pathetic

After pledging to give US$113m for a regional cyber infrastructure, read as building castle in the air or space, a pittance to any of the natural aristocrats in Singapore, the Americans are pledging to give another US$300m to Asean for security cooperation. What a joke? A pauper is a pauper. When you have no money, don't pretend to be a rich man and throw a few pieces of crumbs and expect the recipients to be grateful for it. And this is the sorry state of the American Empire, wasting all its money in fighting wars instead of doing something useful for its people and the people of the world, especially its allies.

How big are these few hundred millions compare to the US$350 billion China is contributing to the Belt and Road Infrastructure project for the whole of Asia? This is like a tiny drop in the ocean.

Below was reported in the Channel News Asia.

"SINGAPORE: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged on Saturday (Aug 4) to provide nearly US$300 million in new security funding for Southeast Asia.
Pompeo unveiled the figure to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other officials from around the world in Singapore.
"As part of our commitment to advancing regional security in the Indo-Pacific, the United States is excited to announce nearly US$300 million dollars of new funding to reinforce security cooperation throughout the entire region," he said.
"This new security assistance will advance our shared priorities, especially to strengthen maritime security, develop humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping capabilities and enhance programmes that counter transnational threats.""

Just like the US$113m, where are the details? Or it is just another hot air? At most, the US$300m would be tied to buying American weapons, weapons that they have over produced and have no use for except to fight wars. And to make the weapons meaningful to the Asean countries, the Americans would be agitating and provoking more tensions in the region and then tell the Asean countries, "See, China or North Korea is going to invade and conquer Asean countries. Quick, quick, here are the weapons, take them as cheap price. The low interest rate would be paid by the US$300m we pledged to help Asean."

How many silly Asean countries would fall to this trap again?

The Americans have become another one trick pony. Conduct wars, start wars and sell weapons. There is nothing good coming from the Americans except wars and more wars. They did not know what else they can do to make the world a more peaceful and prosperous place except to conduct wars and create tensions everywhere they go.

Who is behind all the terrorist groups in the world?

When would world leaders, especially little USAs and American cronies, admit that the USA is behind all the terrorist movements and groups attacking legally elected and legitimate govts? The denials or looking the other way cannot go on anymore. The Americans are the number One terrorist organization breeding, training, funding and supporting all the terrorist movements all over the world, from Latin America through Europe, Central Asia, China’s Xinjiang, Middle East, Africa and SE Asia, including those in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Myanmar, are all funded by the Americans.
 
The most glaring example is Syria. The rebels and ISIS were all babies of the Americans. They have been defeated and at the last stage of being totally annihilated by the combined forces of Syrian govt, Russian and Iranian armies, holed up in Idlib.
 
The Americans are desperately trying to protect and save them and have unleashed Israel to attack, bomb and strike at Syrian and Iranian soldiers fighting the ISIS and rebels. The Americans have also inserted their Special Forces into Syria and have done the inevitable, direct contact with Russian Special Forces. Both sides are fighting fiercely without admitting the direct clashes between two of the most well trained special forces in the world. The Americans struck first and inflicted big casualties on the Russians, killing a Russian general, and the latter had hit back to exact revenge.
 
The Americans continue to build up more conventional forces around Syria, more warships and attack aircraft to match the Russian presence, all in a last ditch effort to save their poodles in the rebel movements and ISIS. Die, die the Americans want to save them to fight another day. They cannot accept defeat in the hands of the combined Russian, Iranian and Syrian forces. More American Special Forces are moving into Syria to confront the Russians in a situation they have been avoiding but forced to do so now.
 
There is no reason for the Evil Empire to risk a major war with the Russians just for some rebels and terrorist groups unless these are American assets that they seriously and desperately wanted to preserve and save to be redeployed in other theatres of war at their disposal. This showed how important the rebels and terrorist groups are to the Americans, that they are terror arms of the Americans.
 
The Americans are still trying to deceive the world, hiding under their deceptions, that the Americans are in Syria to fight the terrorists but in reality helping the terrorists, protecting the terrorists but fighting the Syrian, Iranian and Russian forces instead.
 
Where is the UN to openly condemn this American mischief and call a spade a spade and put an end to this devious American terrorism?

The bad old bus-ing days

The recent news that Singaporeans were more satisfied with buses than the MRT hit me like a freight train.  I never thought I would live to see the day when buses would outperform MRT trains which debuted 30 years ago to save Singaporeans from our ramshackle buses.  But it’s not fake news!  A survey by the Singapore Management University’s Institute of Service Excellence (ISE) actually showed that public buses scored 65.6 points compared to 63.3 points for MRT last year in the land and air transport Customer Satisfaction index.  This astonishing revelation triggered memories of my past bus-ing experience which I am pleased to share below. 

Growing up in the 60s, my most fearsome bogeyman was not my father, my teacher or the schoolyard bully.  It was the bus conductor.  God help you if he is in a bad mood, which was almost always.  Before you board the bus, be sure you know exactly where you are going otherwise the health warning is “Don’t board”. Never, never ask (even in the meekest fashion and the mildest tone) “where does this bus go uh?” because that’s the surest way to invite a earful. “You don’t know how to take bus lah! (as though you need a PhD to take bus) Bus go to so many places. Don’t even know where you go, how to tell you?!”

These guys were also not beneath getting physical if the bus was sadine-packed (which again was almost always). Whether you are man or woman, young or old, you better do as told. “Masuk dalam! Masuk dalam! (Move inside, move inside)” or you stand a good chance of being physically and involuntarily pushed in. This roughhouse tactic is played out against the soundtrack of dripping sarcasm - “Masuk dalam! Dalam tadak hantu! Kalau takut hantu, ambil teksi!” (“Move inside, inside no ghost, if scared of ghost, take taxi!”).  But they had their qualities too.  Such as the eagle-eyed sharpness with which they spot commuters who underpaid their fares. “Ha, want to cheat, is it?  This place is 30 cents, not 20 cents! No bargain!” Any attempt at apology is rudely dismissed with a snort of “Sorry no cure!” 

Oh sorry, I forgot about the hardware. Not only were the buses coming apart at the joints, they were also conspicuous by their absence. In short, lousy frequency and lousy buses. Air-con buses? Never heard of them. Count yourself lucky if they run - even if they run late.  But sometimes, just sometimes, so that you can’t even depend on them being late, they come early, with buses of the same service arriving in two- or three-somes.  It gave birth to the uniquely Singaporean term of “bus bunching”, which incidentally provided drivers and conductors with their moment of devilish fun. Seeing commuters flagging at his less crowded bus, the driver merrily wheeled away to the delight of his co-conspirator, the conductor who intoned - “Serve you right! Got bus don’t take, want to choose. Let you wait!” Whether the commuters are guilty of choosiness is debatable but one this is certain. Waiting for buses back then was like seeing the doctor - the wait was always longer than the journey.

Fastforward to the present.  We have gotten rid of the bus conductor.  The bus driver is more polite (in fact there is a warning to commuters not to abuse the drivers!). There was also an additional 1,000 new buses, all air-conditioned and many double-decked, as well as 80 new bus services introduced between 2012 and last year. As such, there is shorter waiting time and reduced crowds during peak hours. In fact there is a better chance of one getting a seat on a bus than a train. So I am really happy at the improvement because as one who have experienced the bad old bus-ing days, I daresay I speak with perspective - something that Vblogger Nas Daily (Nuseir Yassin) said Singaporeans lack.

Professor Lam Khin Yong – Singapore’s top scientist

In the news, thenewpaper reported, ‘For more than three decades, Professor Lam Khin Yong has pushed for scientific research that impacts society and has personally played a key role in shaping Singapore’s pool of scientific talent.’
 
The Vice President of NTU ‘pushed strongly for collaboration between industry, academia and public agencies and led multiple mergers and organizations, such as the Institute of High Performance Computing.’
For a life time of work, the professor was the recipient of the President’s Science and Technology Awards, the country’s highest honours for scientific achievement.
 
With such an accomplished academic, a full fledged Singaporean, why was there a need to go around the world to head hunt third world academics to head our universities? Why are Singaporeans not good enough, after contributing a life time of good work to benefit Singapore and Singaporeans, to head our academia?
 
When would Singaporeans like Professor Lam be deemed good enough to be head of NTU? Would it be easier for him to take on a foreign citizenship then be scouted from across the globe by foreign headhunting companies before he is good enough to head NTU? Would he be made President of NTU earlier if he was an angmoh or foreigner?
 
There is a saying, a prophet would not find honour in his home town. A local talent would not be recognized at home, only foreigners are considered good, because you did not know the full background of the foreigners. A local, probably you know him well, with all the scars and black spots, so not too attractive.
It would be sad if highly qualified and accomplished Singaporeans would have to make way for unknown foreigners for top positions in our very own country and have to be hired by other countries, to be recognized by other countries than their own countrymen.
 
There must be many distinguished Singaporeans academics in our midst waiting to be found to head our academia but found wanting by their Singaporean decision makers because the grass over the fence is greener. Ang moh tua kee or foreigners are better than Singaporeans. Fake or dubious certificates are tolerable, bearable, acceptable, no crime.
 
What do you think? If a country does not nurture and promote its own talents and always looking out for foreign talents, its own talents would have lesser chance to gain the experience and recognition in top positions. And the sillies would say they don’t have the experience, the exposure, because their fucking country would give the opportunity to foreigners to gain the exposure and experience.
 
What do you think?