Why did the North Korean soccer player cry at the World Cup?

| Thursday June 17, 2010 00:00

Just two days ago I had the privilege of watching the North Korea versus Brazil World Cup game.

I had made up my mind before the game that I will rally behind North Korea because it was evident that already there was a stampede on the side of Brazil.  As the teams sang their national anthems, I was touched by images of a Korean player who was captured with tears rolling down his cheeks.

I couldn't understand whether it was tears of joy or he was hurting inside.

Earlier in the week I bumped into an article in the New York Times by Sharon laFraniere; a shocking piece revealing how a government can hold its people hostage to the extent that they are not allowed to watch external TV, radio, movies or even owning cellphones.

The reporter made interviews concerning a 30 percent currency devaluation in the country last year, which, according to the people, totally killed their livelihoods as well as savings.

The interviewees told the paper that the government tells the citizens that they are under threat from its enemies, United States of America, South Korea and Japan and they should be prepared for an invasion anytime.

There are others who are sceptical about the government's propaganda.  The paper quoted a former primary school teacher saying: 'We always wait for the invasion. My son says he wishes the war would come because life is too hard, and we will probably die anyway from starvation.'

According to the article, the government does not want its citizens to consume any information it did not sanction for fear of reprisals against the leadership hence only government radio and TV channels are allowed.

The 30 percent devaluation was intended to force state workers to return to their employer. The devaluation left many families with absolutely nothing after years of savings.

The interviewees said that they are forced to exchange a limited amount of their savings for the new currency, but some people with political connections are spared the suffering.

One woman said the local bank director allowed her relatives to exchange three million won 30 times the official limit.

'The party official's wife, hair softly curled, a knock-off designer purse by her side, boasted about her six-room house with two colour televisions and a garden. In the next breath, she praised the devaluation as well-deserved punishment for those who had cheated the state, even though she acknowledged that it led to chaos and noted that a top finance official was executed for mismanaging the policy.

'A lot of bad people had gotten rich doing illegal trading with China, while the good people at the state companies didn't have enough money,' she said. 'So the haves gave to the have-nots,' the paper quoted the woman with political connections.

The paper further said that those North Koreans who have never crossed the border have no way to make sense of their tribulations. There is no Internet. Television and radio receivers are soldered to government channels.

Slowly, however, information is seeping in, the paper said. Traders return from China to report that people are richer and comparatively freer, and that South Koreans are supposedly even more so. Some of the traders have cellphones that are linked to the Chinese cellular network and can be surreptitiously borrowed for exorbitant fees.

Punishment for watching foreign films and television shows is stiff. The paper said a 35-year-old man spent six months in a labour camp last year after he was caught watching Twin Dragons, a farcical Hong Kong action film starring Jackie Chan.

Yet there are those who still take similar risks every day.

Her sister is married to a government official in the capital, Pyongyang, she said, but neither is a fan of Kim Jong-il. On her most recent visit, she said, her sister whispered to her, 'People follow him because of fear, not because of love.'

Whether this article is relevant to Batswana, is for individuals to decide, but I have a feeling our country is headed there. 

That player who cried just before the game left me wondering what was going through his head and his image will never leave my mind for I am increasingly getting scared of my government.

For fear of exposing its people to the outside world, the Tuesday night match commentators said, the government of North Korea had decided not to broadcast the game to the 24 million people of that country.