Richard Lloyd Parry reviews ‘The Impossible State’ by Victor Cha · LRB 9 May 2013. The Choco Pie is a mouth-drying, individually wrapped slab of cake, marshmallow and chocolate, and in South Korea it is as important a part of childhood as Britain’s Mars bar or the American Twinkie. It is manufactured by the Orion company of Seoul, exported across Asia, and consumed in an arc of countries from Japan to Uzbekistan. In 2004, South Korean manufacturers began to set up factories in the North Korean city of Kaesong, an unprecedented experiment in co-operation between the fraternal enemies, and the core of what the South Korean government called its Sunshine Policy. Along with South Korean managers, manufacturing technology, telephone lines and a motorway, they brought the Choco Pie. Within a few months, the bosses from Seoul began slipping their North Korean workers a Choco Pie or two as a perk.
Stripped of its cuteness, the story contains two lessons. The Choco Pie story also reveals a susceptibility to outside influence in a society commonly regarded as impenetrable. Ben Faccini – Street children. Years ago, along the cacophonous roads leading from Ramses Train Station in Cairo, I came across a small girl with a bright red headscarf weaving her way in and out of the slow-moving traffic, her bare feet shrouded in a haze of exhaust fumes. I watched as she banged on the windows of vehicles, the red of her headscarf a lurching traffic light forcing buses and trucks to a sudden halt. When drivers opened their windows to shoo her away, the girl pleaded for a chance to say something, running alongside the traffic to keep up. Uncowed by dismissive hand gestures or hastily resealed windows, she visited car after car, like a bee in a field of giant flowers, looking for a chance to speak to someone. She accepted the dregs of a water bottle and the tossed remains of snacks, but it wasn’t until she made one driver laugh, then another, that she finally received two precious coins.
Intrigued by the scene, I asked some Egyptian colleagues to help me talk to the girl.
North Korean tensions: Inside the cult of Kim. Coping with North Korea: Korean roulette. Watch Kimjongilia (2009) Free Online. North Korea Through the Eyes of Witnesses. China. China's internet: A giant cage. Cancer Villages - China. Ghost Cities - China. Inside Story - The human cost of China's rapid development. The unfriendly skies: Chinese passengers' outrageous behaviour.
Chinese official flips-out at airport Communist Party official Yan Linkun smashes two boarding gate computers and tries to break a window after missing his second flight at Kunming Changshui airport, China. No sound. P 6, 2013 February 2013 might have been the worst month ever to be an employee of an airline flying in or out of China. Blame, however, can't be laid at the feet (or landing gears) of the airlines that seek to exploit one of the world's fastest growing air-travel markets.
This state of affairs must be pinned on an ornery cast of Chinese passengers. The lowlights are noteworthy: On the planes I found the people weren't human at all. That list is just the start. Stranded travellers argue with police and airport officials at Changshui International Airport earlier this year. Of course, unruly, rude, demeaning and even dangerous behaviour isn't the sole provenance of Chinese passengers.
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