http://www.smh.com.au/world/pyongyang-propaganda-with-a-light-touch-in-indonesia-20110408-1d7oj.html
Pyongyang propaganda with a light touch in Indonesia Tom Allard April 9, 2011 The main attraction ... waitresses performing. Photo: Sarah Allard JAKARTA: After the craziness of Jakarta's early evening traffic, the ambience is oddly calming, an ersatz oasis from the barely contained chaos outside. Synthetic ivy and orange blossoms climb walls adorned with paintings of Korean landscapes, silk flowers fill the vases and the karaoke machine pumps out hits as the dinner crowd fills Pyongyang, an incongruous outpost of North Korean culture and cuisine in the steaming, teeming streets of the Indonesian capital. One of more than a dozen eateries around Asia owned and operated by Kim Jong-il's reclusive communist regime, the restaurant is a much-needed source of foreign currency and a unique exercise in public diplomacy for a rogue state pilloried across the world. The restaurants may also be a front to launder money generated by the North Korean government's illicit activities - weapons sales, counterfeiting and drug trafficking. Advertisement: Story continues below Whatever their true purpose, they appear hugely successful. Jakarta's franchise is a couple of years old and does a bustling trade; a new one opened in Dubai last year and another is reportedly planned for Amsterdam, the first foray into the heart of the decadent West. The food is tasty and exotic, although we steer clear of the dog meat, served in a soup or casserole, and a favourite with Korean expats and Indonesians. But it's the waitresses who are the star attraction, graduates from the three-year course at North Korea's catering and hospitality university and selected for their beauty, grace and singing skills. Splendid in their billowing saekdongot dresses, they seem to hover as they glide between tables, effortlessly serving customers or serenading them from the stage or floor. ''It's a pretty exciting and desirable job for North Koreans,'' says Danielle Chubb, an expert in North Korean society from the Australian National University. ''It's one of the few opportunities they would get to travel abroad. ''They would usually be people from elite families loyal to the regime, pinpointed for their talents early on, groomed and rigorously ideologically educated.'' Still, there have been reports of defections of staff from other restaurants. Last year a manager at the Nepalese franchise sought asylum in India, reportedly after making off with some of the takings. In between mouthfuls of boar's head in aspic, succulent roast pork swimming in a sweet soy sauce and Pyongyang's signature dish, naeng-myon or cold buckwheat noodle soup, I manage snatches of conversation in halting Indonesian with our busy waitress. She is charming and chatty, although there are signs of her ideological bent. When we talk about Jakarta's flashy shopping malls, she rolls her eyes. And a flash of disdain crosses her face when I ask if many South Koreans frequent the restaurant. Her thinly veiled contempt might have been prompted by the rowdy South Korean businessmen at the table nearby, already halfway through a bottle of Chivas Regal, their wandering hands and eyes testament to their lascivious intent. The waitress says she lives with the other staff at a nearby house, not at the embassy compound, and is free to move around Jakarta. As a propaganda outlet, the restaurant has a light touch by North Korean standards. There are no giant portraits of the Dear Leader or toiling workers rendered in the socialist realist style. There was a hint of totalitarian indoctrination, however, at the end of the performance by the waitresses, a showstopping rendition of Celine Dion's epic, ''My Heart Will Go On'', the Oscar-winning theme from Titanic. The soothing nature scenes on the TVs suddenly switched to a pulsating montage of Pyongyang's socialist monuments, expansive squares and rows of sparkling apartments, as if to deflect any suggestion North Korea may share the same fate as the doomed ''unsinkable'' vessel. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
