Post on 04-Apr-2018
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InternatIonal relatIons socIety
S I R ,
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EditorialWelcome to the newest addition to the International Relations Society brand:Sir, a journal. The name is odd. But made you curious enough to open up the
magazine. Plus it has IR in the name, which is a nice nod to the guys that fund
us. Sir, is also the standard opening line of letters written to the Economist, a
slightly more well known publication. You can consider these articles personal
letters written to you by friends, friends who are very concerned about im-
proving your international affairs awareness.
It might take awhile for you to trust us with providing you with your current
affairs knowledge. To build trust Ill let you on to a little secret: this journal al-
most did not happen. Haydon Croker, the current President of IRSoc, originally
wanted to do away with the publication. He originally thought it was nothing
but a money drain. However, being a reasonable man, and even more so after
a good drink, Haydon let me persuade him to keep the publicationprovided
that I do all the work.
I did not do all of the work, not my nature really. My deputy editor, Claire, and
the copy-editors have worked very hard to bringy you this journal and I cannot
thank them enough for their help--and patience.
Here is what you can expect from Sir,. We are different from other Internation-
al Relations journalswere prettier. We are also interesting. There is a lot to
write about within the eld of International Relations, and a lot of it has already
been written about over and over again. Our goal is to bring you a collection
of stimulating ar ticles within the eld of International Relations. We want to re-ward original ideas and unique topics. This edition includes a rst-hand account
of a students visit to North Korea, and interview with a Brahin Moraccan, and
an in-depth look at Russias invovlement with APEC. We hope you learn some-
thing.
MASHA
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President's Address
TeamEditordEputy Editor
Copy Editors
CovEr photo
Masha Gindler
Claire Dumbil
Helen Reid, Iona Richards,
James Horton
Peter M. Hrtanek
Dear Sir,
It's been a busy and exciting term for IRsoc. We had a fantastic start to our
speaker events, with Annie Machon pulling in a crowd that was too large for
the Christchurch lecture theatre. Perhaps the most daunting part of the term
was the U.S. Embassy-organised event on U.S. foreign policy. Due to my lack of
direct contact with the speakers I was unsure of the format the debate would
take. Five minutes before the event was due to start it became apparent that I
was expected to moderate and lead the discussion. I quickly thought up some
questions and spent the next hour umm-ing and ahh-ing about when it
was polite to intervene and move the discussion on. I'll let those who camebe the judge of whether I pulled it off! Of course none of the events this term
would have been possible without a great committee. I cannot thank them
all individually here, but I think it has been a great effort from everyone and I
hope you have all enjoyed it!
Perhaps the biggest innovation of this term is this, the Sir, journal. To be honest,
due to the cost of the journal in previous terms I was considering scrapping
the project. But Masha convinced me to give it one last go, and I am very glad
she did. I think you will agree that Masha, Claire and the other copy-editorshave done a fantastic job and set the journal up to become success for many
future terms.
Best wishes,
Haydon
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Debriefing
Chronicle:Caucasus conflct
Page 15
Israeli airstrikes
on Iran
Page 13
Nigeria: Boko Haram
Page 10
The Great
Persian Firewall
Page 7
Bulletin:The Faulkland
Dispute
Page 5
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B u l l e t i n :The Falklands Dispute
The thirtieth anniversary of the warin the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) was
marked by renewed regional and global
tensions surrounding the proper owner-
ship of the islands, which have been Brit-
ish-administered since1833. In particular, the
Argentine government
of Cristina Kirchner
took the opportunity to
remind the world of its
continuing unhappiness
with the status quo in
the islands, thirty years
after those same feelings
prompted Argentina to
invade and briey annex
them before they were
recaptured by British
special forces. With a
number of other island
disputes also in the
news, it is worth takinga moment to reect on what Argentina
seeks to gain from its present agitation.
The islands themselves are an
unlikely target. Certainly, a renewed mili-
tary struggle looks wholly improbable: the
islands defences are far better now than
they were in 1982, while the range of of-
fensive options available to the Argentine
government is much the same as it was
thirty years ago.
The diplomatic route to Argen-
tine annexation does not seem much eas-
ier; although 61% of Ar-gentine citizens support
their countrys claim, the
forthcoming referendum
in the Falklands them-
selves expected to show
that more than 95% of
the islanders are in favour
of continued union with
Britain. Consequently,forcing Britain to negoti-
ate when it has nothing
to gain but everything to
lose is likely to prove
impossible. This is despite
UN Assembly resolution
37/9, which called on the
UK to negotiate a settle-
ment with Argentina.
Kirchner is aware of these limi-
tations, if one is to believe the frequent
purported leaks from her ofce. By con-
trast, the indications are that Kirchner en-
joys agitating over the Falklands precisely
because she knows it will bcecome a
simple case of being cold-shouldered by
ArgentinaThe first country to adopt finger-printing as a method of identifica-
tion.
CapitalBuenos Aires
Official Language
SpanishMost Popular Religion
Roman Catholic (97%)Military Expenditure
0.8% of GDP (50th lowest in theworld)
Airports
1,149 (UK - 462)
Sir, MT12
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colonialist Britain, with each rejection
boosting poll ratings and relations with
other South American countries, at least
temporarily.
These seem like far more im-
portant ends for the Kirchner govern-
ment, which is struggling with slowing
economic growth and widespread al-
legations of corruption. The rhetoric
not only distracts from these issues, but
it also increases support for the admin-
istration among the many Argentineswho feel that their country should stand
up to Europe more regularly an issue
characterised by the recent forced na-
tionalisation of oil giant YPF from its Ibe-
rian owners, much to the anger of the
Spanish government.
If Argentina is to continue its
hard-line approach on such issues, it
will need local allies, and there too the
Falklands issue seems to be helping. By
highlighting its common ground with
other former colonies in South America,Argentina has bolstered a new array of
political alliances, winning the support of
countries as diverse as Chile, Brazil and
Venezuela over the question of the Falk-
lands.
Consequently, the Kirchner gov-
ernment, however long it may last, will
undoubtedly continue to agitate overthe Falklands on both the regional and
international levels. Britain would do well
to avoid trivialising these feelings, how-
ever articial they appear to an outsider.
If it does not, it risks badly damaging its
relations with the rest of the Americas;
and if there is one lesson from the Falk-
lands it is that when time heals, it does so
only slowly.
6
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Harry Burt
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the GePesn
Few
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Two of the ws in the World WideWeb might be concerned with theglobalism of the internet, but recent
events in Iran are a blunt reminder that
state control of electrons is as stringent
as through the physical iron curtains
and closed borders of the past. Ourlives are caught in this enveloping web
of threads that seem impossible to cut.
But on 23 September, Iran turned off
Google.
Internet censorship is a strange
beast where deliberately vague terms
like offensive material can mean a jailsentence. Some are happy for the inter-
net to surge away Estonia is rated as
having the most internet freedom but
virtual walls have gone up particularly
across Asia and South America. Cuba
keeps its populace in the dark by relying
on the fact that though the average sal-
ary is $16 a month, computers routinely
costs $722. There are different sore
points: in Thailand 77% of blocked
content is unattering material about
the King whereas in Pakistan, sites like
Flickr or Facebook are usually bannedfor religious reasons.
The United States of Amer-
icas federal agencies play electronic
cat and mouse with repressive gov-
ernments, deploying free shield-
ing software or moving dissenting
web pages to temporary addresses
where they can hide and stay live
for a few more days. This plays into
Americas self-crafted image as the
shining knight of freedoms. On the
other hand, the Wikileaks scandal
saw the U.S. Air Force ban the web-
sites of prominent media publications
like The Guardian or NY Times; and
Obamas ban on federal employeesreading the documents was like using
chewing gum to ll holes in a dam.
Irans recent blockade has
been tied to Googles failure to de-
lete an online video mocking the
prophet Muhammad. Ofcial state-
ments said their actions were due tothe repeated demands of the people,
but the proposition that this ban was
for the benet of the general popu-
lace is to be viewed with scepticism.
The last major slate of banned inter-
net content was composed of sites
used to rally mass anti-government
protests after the disputed re-elec-
tion of President Ahmadinejad in
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8
Sir, MT12
2009, like Facebook and YouTube. Teh-
ranturned bandwidth into a dribble, mak-ing it almost impossible for the average
citizen to even share a video, and last year
they announced the creation of a cyberpolice force, which banned any content
deemed insulting. In January 2012 the
cyber-police arrested two men and two
women for constructing a Facebook page
where viewers could vote on the attrac-
tiveness of peoples photos.
17 million Iranians still manage
to have Facebook accounts and count-
less newsfeeds have seen comments in
protest over this most recent censorship.
Access to more than 5 million websites is
ltered in Iran, including those of western
media organisations like the BBC, CNN
and the Guardian. Many Iranians access
blocked addresses with help from proxy
servers or VPN services which fool theregulators into thinking the computer is
in another country, and have spent a total
of $4.5 million on proxy services to reach
blocked sites during September 2012.
The recent anti-Muslim videowas the boiling point after a year of heat-
ed exchanges between the state and the
giant search engine, during which the Ira-
nian chief of police derided Google as a
tool of western espionage. Google Maps
found itself in more hot water when they
failed to name the expanse of water that
Iran calls the Persian Gulf. The Iranian
Foreign Minister threatened legal action;
unsurprising, as in 2012 airlines using the
term Arabian Gulf on in-ight monitors
were barred from Iranian airspace. Of-
cials are now saying that the Google block
was a just an unintended consequence of
an attempt to reinforce the block on You-
Tube, despite such a history of animosity
and a public announcement to Iraniansthat Gmail would be blocked.
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Currently, Google is once again
accessible in Iran, but this u-turn aside,the incident suggests that governments
plans to wall off a corner of cyberspace
for a national Internet might be gaining
momentum. Iran announced in 2011 that
it was developing a domestic alternative
to Google, dubbed Yahaq, or Oh Lord
in Farsi. This would push Iranians towards
more closely monitored channels into
the Web, where dissent can be more
easily tracked. With presidential elections
coming up this year, it is unsurprising that
the screws are being tightened.
An Iranian IT expert with close knowl-
edge of this project told the Guardian
that Iran has fears of an outside cyber-
attack like that of Stuxnet, a computer
worm which hit specic nuclear facilitiesin 2010 and was described as a marks-
man job. The knee-jerk response seems
much broader: the plan to build an
internal internet, isolated from the out-
side world and spun as a moral effort to
build a genuinely halal (lawful) network.
The government claimed that 60% of all
Iranian internet users were already using
the system and that it intended the rest
to join within the next two years. The
rst year is nearly up.
The ofcial Islamic Republic
News Agency has said the Internet must
not be given the authority to challenge
national and ethical principles, but oth-
ers have tamped down fears, suggesting
that cutting Iran off would be impossible.
The obvious difculties that Iran would
face might, however, be sidelined by the
temptation to bolster its image as the
Muslim worlds scientic pioneer that
sends satellites into orbit, faces down the
West over its nuclear program and has
claimed advances in cloning and stem-cell
research.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt oncesaid that the decision to engage with
China was based on the idea that once
the Chinese experienced a taste of
Google, the government would never be
able to take it away. The world will watch
to see whether this infamous failure will
repeat itself in countries like Iran, and
whether the World Wide Web is a mis-
leading name.
Elizabeth Culliford
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Nge:Bk Hm
Since 2009, Boko Haram, a militantgroup demanding the implementa-tion of extreme sharia law in Nigeria, have
become ever more violent and capable of
destruction against a Nigerian government
they see as lacking legitimacy and promot-
ing Western ideas and lifestyle. More than
1,000 people have been killed this year asa result of their actions, and as the govern-
ment and military struggle to effectively re-
spond, the international community looks
on, fearful of just what Boko Haram could
evolve into as their struggle for supremacy
continues in one of the most powerful na-
tions in Western Africa.
In a US-congressional report in
November 2011, it was warned that Boko
Haram was an emerging threat to the
U.S. and its interests. But this group was not
always the international threat that the U.S.
now perceive.
In 2002, Boko Haram was born as
men in Nigerias northern state of Bornobegan listening to the sermons of Muham-
mad Yusuf, an eccentric and conservative
but non-violent imam who, amongst other
things, demanded strict adherence to the
Koran, rejected the theory of evolution and
taught that the earth is at. As the sermons
grew in popularity, government response
resulted in the death of hundreds of both
Boko Haram members and innocent by-
standers. The expected destruction of a
perceived threat to the governments om-
nipotence transformed instead into a BokoHaram that was quickly radicalising
.
By 2009, the presence of secu-
rity forces had increased. Their actions had
killed hundreds with many more held with-
out trial. Muhammad Yusuf was captured by
government forces and later killed. Yet the
governments violent tactics were failing
to have the desired effect. Yusuf became a
martyr in the transformation of Boko Har-
am into an effective insurgency of Islamic
extremist militants headed by a younger,
more extreme leader, Abubakar Shekau.
Returning from exile in neighbouring coun-
tries came men with links to the grow-
ing extremist sects in Mali and Niger, and
Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM). Theirmethods and capabilities developed from
shootings from the back of motorbikes to
suicide attacks and the bombing of the UN
headquarters in Abuja, killing 23 people in
August 2011.
10
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12
Sir, MT12
have turned to Boko Haram through
a combination of frustration and des-
peration will not be prepared to forgo
their allegiance unless the government
reforms and the detrimental and arbi-
trary response of security forces ceases.
If the necessary process to ef-
fect these changes at least begins there
is likely to be a decrease in support for
Boko Haram as the negative actions of
the government, which have blinded an
impoverished population to the horrors
of Boko Harams actions, are removed.
In tandem with this vital change mustcome an increased precision in military
response. Although Nigeria has one of
Africas better armies it does not have
the necessary training or experience
to ght an insurgency. In some of the
most conict heavy areas police have
been retrained and intelligence and
army units have nally been brought
under a unied command. However, the
necessary skills Nigerian forces capable of
tackling this growing threat have not yet
fully developed and it may well be that
Western military advisers are required, if
not already present, if the U.S. seriouslyrecognises Boko Haram as a danger to
its interests. When this capability is real-
ised, security forces should hopefully be
able to move away from current arbitrary
actions and build up a useful intelligence
picture to eliminate the leadership and
subsequently lower the threat the group
poses. In many eyes, and rightly so, this plan
seems far more simple in theory than real-ity. However, in spite of its difculty it is the
most plausible and effective strategy the
Nigerian government could implement as
its northern crisis continues to intensify
and becomes very much a national one.
Samuel Rodrigues
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ise askes on in
Countries in the United Nations, forthe sake of order and equality, areordered in English alphabetical order
A to Z. Separating the delegates of Is-
rael and Iran however, is a conveniently
placed Irish diplomat one can only
imagine the tenseness of his position.Iran and Israel are also separated geo-
graphically by thousands of kilometers
Tehran and Tel Aviv are hardly neigh-
bours in the more traditional sense.
So what makes these nations tick, and
why are they positioning themselves
in a war of choice and not necessity?
Well, for starters, it doesnt helpthat Iran uses language of elimination
consistently in the same breath as Israel,
(the Zionist regime is another popular
turn of phrase). The precipitation of con-
frontation has, therefore, been
a long time coming. Every day
the two countries seem to
inch ever closer to war,
with Irans
highest military general describing mili-
tary action as inevitable and Netan-
yahu demanding for a red line to be
drawn even going so far as to pro-
duce a diagram to make his point to
the General Assembly this September.
But with the certainty of some
kind of military action increasing, the ac-
tual chance of ending the Iranian nuclear
programme is diminishing. The rhetoric
of conict has become the main me-
dium of dialogue between these two
diametric states. Regardless of whether
Israel is justied in launching a preemp-
tive strike, the question has to be asked:will it do anything? While such a strike
would perhaps hinder nuclear prolifera-
tion, it would at the same time further
convince Iran of the need for a deter-
rent. The entire purpose of disabling
the nuclear programme becomes
obsolete if the airstrikes are only
going to strengthen Tehrans
resolve to develop the bomb.
So what is Israel thinking? Sen-
What is in Israels Best Interests?
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ior military strategists have been debat-
ing and planning for months now, with a
variety of leaks revealing both strategies
and hypothetical casualty counts from
the heart of government. The answer, it
seems, lies not with the attitudes in Je-
rusalem but of those in Washington. Any
Israeli strike on Iran would be redundant
without unilateral American support. Isra-
el certainly has the military might to take
a chunk out of the nuclear project, but
not enough to deliver the fatal blow. For
this, the United States would be needed
to back up military threats and commit
to action to dissuade Tehrans obsession.
But its clear to see that there isbarely any appetite across the Atlantic to
begin to talk about any kind of military
action especially in an election year.
The Obama administration, for now, is
committed to sanctions and tough talk,
but reticent to set down a red line, as
Netanyahu has asked for time after time.
Even if this administration wereas gun-ho as many in the Israeli govern-
ment would like, the actual chances of
succeeding in permanently disabling Irans
nuclear programme looks slim. While Is-
rael has indeed launched similar attacks in
the past, against Syria and Iraq, this time
the logistics are much more complicated.
For instance, Iraqs Osirak reac-
tor in 1981 and Syrias al-Kibar complex
in 2007 were both single-strike missions
within relatively easy range of Israel. At-
tacks on Iran, on the other hand, would
require circumnavigation over a variety of
hostile countries (one of the likely routes
is Saudi Arabia) and even then there are
over a dozen supposedly well-defended
sites involved in nuclear proliferation.
Netanyahu and his government
know that strikes now would only elicit
a half-hearted response. So they wait,
and hope the exigencies of an increas-
ingly belligerent Iran will provoke theWest into another Middle Eastern con-
ict without thinking about the con-
sequences. Certainly Iran must not be
allowed to develop nuclear weapons,
and Israel does indeed have the right
to defend itself. But if war comes at
an even greater cost than the value of
the assigned objective, then it must be
questioned whether conict is indeedin Israels interests, and if another less
confrontational solution can be found.
Tyrone Steele
14
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Chronicle:Caucasus confict
At the southern end of theCaucuses, about two hun-dred kilometres west of the
Caspian Sea, endless mountains
carpeted in dense, dark-green for-
est spread out in every direction.
According to myth, hidden some-
where in these highlands is mountArarat, where Noah set down his
ark and received gods promise
to never again lay waste to the
world. To someone unaware of
its history, this broad and quiet
landscape might appear a tting
setting for this covenant of peace.
However, over the centuries it has
been trampled underfoot by eve-
ryone from the Romans to the
Soviets. Today it is subject to an
on-going and often violent owner-
ship dispute. This region is called
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Karabakh is an enclave in
modern-day Azerbaijan, although
its population is predominantly
Armenian and Orthodox Chris-
tian (Azeris by contrast are almost
exclusively Muslim), and it was
once part of the ancient Kingdom
of Armenia. However, since the
end of an ethnically driven war
from May 1988 to February 1994,
the Nagorno-Karabakh region hasbeen under effective Armenian
control. And it remains a ash-
point for violence.
In September the ten-
sions between Armenia and Azer-
baijan resulting from the disagree-
ments over this territory came to
the attention of the internationalmedia. RamilSafarov, an Azeri lieu-
tenant who had decapitated an
Armenian citizen whilst he slept
at a peace training course in Hun-
gary in 2004 was pardoned, pro-
moted, and treated like a national
hero upon his return to Azerbai-
jan.
The conict is mired in
ancient history. Having both been
subject to intermittent imperial
hegemony for the better part of
two millennia, the borders be-
tween the Azeri and Armenian
lands grew to be very complex.
Karabakh is an enclave
in modern-day Azerbaijan,
once part of the ancientKingdom of Armenia
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Since antiquity, many Armenians
have lived in small enclaves within
present-day Azerbaijan and Az-
eris within present day Armenia.
The Azeri-dominated region of
Nakhchivan lies in south-west of
Armenia, bordering Iran and to-
tally separated from Azerbaijan
by the Syunik province. The chaos
of the Russian revolution in 1905
saw outbreaks of ethnic violence
in these areas. And then, whenthe Bolsheviks overthrew Rus-
sias provisional government in the
October revolution, both Armenia
and Azerbaijan were briey freed
from rule by the Russian empire.
It did not take long for the short-
lived republics that emerged to
start ghting over these areas.
The Armenians, with the
tacit support of the Bolsheviks,
began to massacre Azeri Muslims
in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
Turkish intervention to defend the
Azeri Muslims quickly followed.
This solidied the Azerbaijani po-
sition, allowing them to capture
Nagorno-Karabakh, although theN-K leadershipdid not recognise
the Azeri rule. By 1920 tensions
had risen again, with a revolt in
Karabakh leading to the outbreak
of war. This time it was the Azer-
baijanis turn to partake in sense-
less slaughter. Vast swathes of men,
women and children were killed
and their homes burnt as Azerbai-
jan proceeded to obliterate the
rebel town of Shusha. However,
a powerful Armenian offensive
pushed back the Azeris and won
Karabakh for the Armenians.
Then in in mid-1920, be-
fore homes could be rebuilt and
tensions relieved, the Bolsheviks
quickly seized control of both
states and removed Nagorno-
Karabakh from Armenian author-
ity. Nakhchivan and Karabakh
were given the status of autono-mous oblasts and the Armenian
and Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist
Republics were put under careful
supervision. This put a lid on ten-
sions that would remain for sixty
years.
Towards 1988 national-
ist sentiments began to rise. Withthe increased freedom of expres-
sion under the late Soviet policy
Glasnost, the N-K Armenians
were free to protest the cultural
suppression in place under Soviet
rule.
This time it was the Azer-
baijanis turn to partake in
senseless slaughter
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Sir, MT12
Armenian was not taught in
schools, nor was Armenian lan-
guage television allowed in Kara-bakh. When their demands were
not met, the calls got louder and
turned towards independence.
Ethnic clashes sparked up one
again between Armenians and Az-
eris in Karabakh. In February 1988
Azerbaijani media reported that
two Azeri girls had been raped in a
hospital by Armenians. The Azerisresponded with a pogrom against
Armenians in the Azeri capital of
Baku. Waves of ethnic mass mur-
ders spread across Armenia and
Azerbaijan in response to reports
of similar actions by the other side.
An endless tit-for-tat of increasing
severity emerged that the Soviets
were powerless to stop. By this
point head of the USSR Mikhail
Gorbachevs offers to concede to
the original N-K demands were all
but ignored.
The Azerbaijan Popular
Front mixed efforts against Arme-
nia with resistance to Soviet rule.
In 1989 they successfully forced
a rail blockade on Armenia. The
period of escalating violence thatfollowed became known as Black
January.
The Soviets responded
to the crisis with an operation
aimed at disarming the Armenians
in Karabakh. Named Operation
Ring it achieved little success and
served to stir up further angeramongst the Armenians. When
the Soviets nally withdrew in
December of 1991 they left a gi-
gantic cache of heavy weaponry
behind, which fell into the hands
of both Armenians and Azeris.
An all-out war soon fol-
lowed. Armenia pushed to cap-
ture the Lachin Corridor, a stretch
of land linking Armenia with N-K,
whose soldiers left atrocities in
their wake. Eventually as the war
progressed they began to incur
into unambiguously Azerbaijani
territory to the north and south
of the corridor to create a bufferconnecting Armenia with Kara-
bakh, to much international out-
cry.
Eventually, by 1994 ght-
ing had settled down, with N-K
and the Azerbaijani territory to
When the Soviets finally
withdrew, they left a gigan-
tic cache of heavy weap-
onry behind
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Sir, MT12
its west under Armenian control.
After six years of immense suffer-
ing and bloodshed a ceasere was
nally agreed.
The Nagorno-Karabakh
dispute was disastrous for the
populations of both countries. For
Armenia it was utterly devastating.
Azerbaijans trade blockade, which
is still in place, the damage to an
already fragile infrastructure and
a barely affordable war effort left
the Armenian economy in tatters.
The bitterly cold winter of 1992
followed the close of the Met-
samor nuclear plant and brought
urgent power and food shortag-
es in its wake. Meanwhile, as the
war progressed Azerbaijan faced
a growing refugee crisis: count-less displaced Azeris were left in
crowded camps handled by Azer-
baijan and Iran. Civilian massacres
on one side were met with civilian
massacres on the other. The eye-
for-an-eye violence that had prolif-
erated at the wars inception was
leaving both states blind. Armenia
in particular, seemed to be ghtingfor gains that could not possibly
outweigh the tremendous costs
to its suffering population.
But this was not just a war
for territory, nor was it simply a
war for self-determination. It was a
war for pride. Azerbaijan was Tur-
kic and Muslim and, in response to
domestic pressure, the Turks had
begun to aid the Azerbaijani war
effort. Armenia had suffered cen-turies of Ottoman oppression as
well as the periodic suppression
of its proud and ancient strain of
orthodox Christianity. The brutal
and revolting treatment it had re-
ceived at the hands of the Turks in
the late 19th and early 20th cen-
turies had culminated in the mas-
sacre which literally dened the
term genocide. Seen before this
background the intense, pugna-
cious anger of the Armenians no
longer seems surprising.
The murder of at least 32
Armenians (the ofcial estimate,
in reality probably many more)
and the rape and violence against
many others in the Azerbaijaniseaside town of Sumgait during
the ethnic clashes of the late 80s,
had been reminiscent of the Ar-
menian massacre. In the brief pe-
riod before Soviet annexation, the
Azerbaijani leaders in Nagorno-
Karabakh had been accused of
pan-Turkism.
But this was not just a
war for territory, nor was
it simply a war for self-determination. It was a war
for pride.
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The Azeris had, in part, become a
proxy for Armenian anger towards
their former Turkish oppressors.
Territorial gain was not
the primary motivational factor
here. The adherence to a strong
national myth; memories of gran-
deur and the once great Kingdom
of Armenia that spread across the
Caucuses; and the ever-present
and seething anger at their treat-
ment under Muslim rule: these
were the root causes of the chaot-
ic ethnic violence that broke out.
Nagorno-Karabakh was the birth-
place of the Armenian alphabet, a
landlocked shrine to a once more
extensive and powerful Arme-
nia. Its return to Armenian hands
meant the restoration of dignity.It meant the wrongs of the past
could be put right. To fail to pro-
tect the rights of its nationals there
would be unthinkable.
And so, like the abused
bully that takes the lessons he has
learnt from his violent upbringing
into the playground, Armenia hasgrown up to commit the atrocities
that it once suffered at the hands
of another state. And then, the Az-
eris met violence with violence.
This was a war built on
hatred and frustration, and one
that emerged from centuries of
oppression. This is the reason for
its brutal character and hence
the reason for the intense enmi-
ty that has remained almost twodecades after the ceasere was
brokered. At present there seems
little reason to presume that the
ceasere will not hold, but as the
conict makes very plain: this is a
region where historical grudges
are seldom forgotten soon. Per-
haps a more stable peace could
be achieved if Azerbaijan nally
agreed to negotiate on the recog-
nition of Nagorno-Karabakhs in-
dependence, but considering the
emotions involved it seems unlike-
ly that this will happen in the near
future. And, given that the west is
slow to condemn Azerbaijan, their
oil-rich and strategically invaluableally in the Middle East, there is lit-
tle hope that international pres-
sure could force such a move. It is
a sad fact that the brutality of the
past continues to fuel the brutality
of the future.
Sir, MT12
Ben Deaner
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INDIA:a perspective
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India is changing rapidly. Whilst it is the tenth largest economyin the world and is currently developing its own technology forspace travel, India is rife with absolute poverty and still clings onto the infamous caste system. In this series of photos I have triedto convey the variety of perspectives to which India lends itself.
From the black and white photographs of what seems like Indiaunder British rule to the sepia tone of the Keralan man rowing ahouseboat, I have hoped to emphasise the dynamic relationship be-tween past and present, rich and poor and traditional and modern.
Although India may be fast-moving, and slowly Westernising, it is notlosing any of its wonderful idiosyncrasy.
Sir, MT12
Katie Ebner-Landy
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APEC p.30
North Korea p.33
24
Sir, MT12
Russia and APEC p.30
We Arent Arab p.26
FEATURES
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Sir, MT12
We aen abInterview with a Morrocan Activist
Few people nowadays would haveany difculty including Moroccoand indeed the whole of the Maghreb
region as part of the Arab world: these
countries are part of the Arab League,
their ofcial language and religion
shared by every country to the east
as far as Iraq and Saudi Arabia. People
who have studied the country in a littledetail might have heard or read about
the indigenous ethnic group, known as
the Berbers, and are lead to believe
they make up a signicant minority. The
Berber identity can be traced further
back in Moroccan history than that of
the Arabs who (we assume because
this is what most Moroccan guidebooks
tell us) are now in the majority, having
taken over during the Arab conquest in
the 7th century. This Berber minority
is ghting to preserve its culture and
languages in modern day Morocco.
Such was my view
when
Brahim and his Berber colleagues,
who ran the youth hostel I stayed
in, sat me down with a mint tea to
tell me their version of the truth
about the Berbers in Morocco.
Brahim and his collegues are
all originally from Berber villages and
moved to Marrakesh for universityand then work in the tourism industry.
Like most Moroccans, Brahim they are
comfortably multilingual. They grew
up speaking their own Berber dialects,
spoke darija (Moroccan Arabic) to
some of their classmates, studied in
classical Arabic - which is drastically
different from Moroccan darija - went
to university in French and then learnt
English and Spanish to work in the
tourist industry. Like many Moroccans
they are Muslim, but uninterested in
having an Islamic government and
seem repulsed by extremism, telling me
how disconcerted they are about the
rising numbers of women they have
seen wearing burkas in the streets.Political activism is still a risky
business in Morocco but today
Brahim wanted to explain why
the Berber issue
is at the root
of so many
of Moroccos
social and
political
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26
Sir, MT12
problems.
As Braham explained, the
Berbers are a suppressed culture. But I
had to understand that all Moroccans,
though perhaps unwilling to admit it,
are Berber. There are many Moroccans
perhaps %30-20 - who consider
themselves Arab and not Berber,
Brahim explains, But the roots of all
Moroccans are Berber. There are people
who speak Arabic, listen to Arab music
and imitate the traditions of the east inplaces like Syria and Lebanon. They walk
and talk like Arabs - they have become
like a colony of the East! But their roots
are Berber - they have been Arabized.
It was the rst time I had heard this
word used in a negative sense. Normally,
it refers to the anti-colonial efforts of
Arabs to reinstate their language and
culture in their countries after yearsof foreign rule. But to the Berbers
of Morocco it means the imposition
of yet another foreign culture and
language. Genetically speaking, almost
the whole of Morocco is Berber .
Culturally speaking, some Moroccan
consider themselves Arab and speak
Arabic, some claim joint Arab/Berber
heritage and many straightforwardlyconsider themselves Berber.
Brahim makes a point of
emphasising the divide between people
who consider themselves Berber and
those who consider themselves Arab
in terms of culture, language and way
of life. The difference between the
Tamazight, the main Berber dialect, and
Arabic is clear. Tamazight is written from
left to right in the tinagh alphabet which
bears no resemblance to the Arabic
script. Generally, Arabic speakers are
from richer families who have been living
in the cities for generations. The Arab
heritage they claim is a point of pride
it makes them part of a great, ancient
civilization. Brahim is indignant: he sees
no reason to maintain such a pretence
when the Berbers have a civilization
with a fascinating history of its own.Arabization is a subtle ideology based
on the idea of there being one Islamic
homeland from the Gulf to the North
West of Africa, with one united culture,
Brahim counters. It has both secular and
religious undercurrents. The rst issue
in the way of this cultural unity is the
Berbers: if there is to be a united Arab
Islamic homeland the Berber cultureand language must be removed. Many
Moroccans have not spoken Berber for
generations, proudly calling themselves
Arab and refusing to be associated
with Berber culture and language.
This is noticeable if you bring
up the issue of Berber activism among
university students. Student protests arehave been common in Morocco over
the past year but clashes have arisen
between Berber activists and other
groups, who claim they are undermining
Islamic unity and/or Pan-Arabism by
trying to dissociate from the Arab world.
This, Brahim told me, is the effect of
Arabization on the Moroccan population.
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Sir, MT12
We can divide Arabization into two
stages. The rst stage began with
the arrival of Islam in North Africa
via trade with countries further
east. Brahim is again referring to
the spread of Islam in the late 7th
century. Berber traders welcomed
this religion: they and others adopted
it willingly. But Islam came carrying
the Arab culture with it, along with
a mistaken belief that if you want
to be a Muslim, then you must also
become Arab. This is where Brahimtakes issue with the conventional
Moroccan view of their history, that
the Islamization of the Maghreb
would naturally lead to its Arabiza-
tion: Iran is an Islamic Republic, so
are Pakistan and Afghanistan. Do they
speak Arabic or call themselves Arab?
No. The biggest Muslim population in
the world is in Malaysia. If they didntArabize, why then must Moroccans
try to be Arab to prove we are Mus-
lim? But for some reason people feel
this need. They justify themselves by
saying that Arabs came from the East
to North Africa and we are there-
fore their descendents. They do not
seem to realise the Arabs who came
were very few in comparison to the
Berbers already living in Morocco:
they cant have changed the gene
pool much.
This is the rst phase. The
second phase was more deliberate
and started with the foundation of
the modern government in Morocco
after colonisation. After the inde-
pendence from the French the Mo-
roccan government set about Arabiz-
ing administration
and education to
erase the traces of
French inuence
They set up the
media, in schools
and education
in a way that
suppressed theBerber communi-
ties, replacing the
Berber language
and Moroccan cul-
ture with Arabic.
The government
adopted the idea
of pan-Arabism
and Moroccansfelt they were join-
ing the Arab world
in throwing off the
chains of colonisa-
tion. In this phase
separating the
Berber people and
Islam came carrying the
Arab culture with it, along
with a mistaken belief thatif you want to be a Muslim,
then you must also become
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28
Sir, MT12
the Arabization of the country began
the Berber language was banned,
everything was in Arabic.
Brahim assures me thatBerber culture has been affected
signicantly by Arabization: Women,
for example. In Berber culture they
have a great respect for women.
Things vary a bit from tribe to tribe
regarding marriage and whether a
woman or a man is head of the family
but in general in Berber society the
woman is like a man
there is equality.
The word woman
in Berber is tam
art which means a
freewoman: the
woman is her own
judge. But after
Arabization, Ber-bers have begun to
think that women
are just for sex. In
the Arab mind the
woman is thought
about only in terms
of her body and
sex and now this
attitude has gotteninto Berber culture
and this isnt how
things should be.
Berbers should
think of woman as a
person and not as a
body. This is just one
example of the difference between
Berber and Arab cultures.
There are other parts of the
status quo that are heavily inuencedby Arabization. Because being Arab
is so closely associated with being
Muslim, activists who would prefer an
Islamic form of governance are more
inclined to link Morocco with the
rest of the Arab-Muslim world. But
as Pan-Arabism also has signicant
secular and communist movements,
it is also a useful ideology for left
wing groups to associate with. King
Muhammad VI of Morocco legitimises
his rule by claiming that he is a direct
descendent of the Prophet Muham-
mad. If his Berber identity conicted
with this he might lose his legitimacy;
or indeed if the country were to dis-
sociate from the rest of the Muslimworld, then his religious claim to rule
would lose its legitimacy regardless.
Yet the protests of Brahim and hisfellow activists have not gone un-
heard. Didnt Berber become an of-
cial language of Morocco last year?,
I asked. Yes, he replies, Before, it
was written in the constitution that
Arabic was the only ofcial language
and that Morocco was an Arab coun-
try, referred to in Arabic as the Arab
The word woman in Ber-
ber is tam art which means
a freewoman:
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Kingdom of Morocco. It was a racist
constitution that suppressed the Berber
people: the native people of the country
and the majority we arent a minor-
ity, as our Arabized government would
have people believe - the majority of
the people. After many demonstrations
and protests we managed to obtain
our right to have Berber as an ofcial
language next to Arabic. So what is our
next aim? We need Berber in education,
in the media, administration and min-istries and in commerce and advertis-
ing its our mother tongue, we need
it in everything. There are three main
dialects of Berber in Morocco of which
Tamazight is the most widely spoken
and all dialects, I am assured, are mutu-
ally understandable. Making Berber an
ofcial language in practice as well as
in theory is possible, and could be the
next step along the road to freeing Mo-
rocco from the effects of Arabization.
And nally we want to
change outsider perceptions of Mo-
rocco. Morocco is a country of many
cultures; we arent like part of Saudi,
he says with a shudder, as if nothing
could be worse to the liberal Moroc-
can mindset than the Islamic Arab
Monarchy that is Saudi Arabia, We
will never be like Saudi. My message tothe West, to Europe and America who
mistake us for Arabs is this: We arent
Arab and dont want to be viewed
as Arab by the West, or by anyone.
Alice Crocker
Sir, MT12
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aPEC 2012This September, as panic returnedto Europe after a quiet August, theleaders of the Asia-Pacic Economic
Cooperation (APEC) gathered for their
24th annual summit, held on a tiny island
nearly 1,000 km east of Moscow. APEC,
a forum founded in 1989, consists of 21
Pacic Rim countries and, according to
its mission statement, aims to support
sustainable economic growth and
prosperity in the Asia-Pacic region,
promoting policies encouraging freetrade and investment, regional economic
integration and cooperation to achieve
this aim. In many ways APECs creation
was incentivised by globalization,
increasing interdependence of regional
economies and with the image
of European integration in mind
the rise of regional trade blocs.
Russia joined APEC in 1998,
presumably signalling its interest in
reinstating its role in the region. Since the
breakdown of the Soviet Union, Russian
attention has turned away from the East;
its focus has been predominately on the
West. This stood in contrast to Russias
state emblem of a double-headed eagle,
with each heads facing simultaneouslyin opposite directions. Currently, the
European Union (EU) is Russias largest
trading partner accounting for just
over %50 of total trade while Russias
share in APEC members foreign trade
is just %1. Russias domestic situation
reiterates this inequality: most Russians
now live west of the Ural Mountains,
while the east remains sparsely
populated and underdeveloped.
The idea of redirecting Russias
focus towards Asia was picked up by
Putin when he came to power in 2000,
though little progress was made on this
issue until 2007, when a program for the
development of Russias eastern region
was generated. More recently, the
country has reiterated its intention to
refocus on the Asia-Pacic region when
it agreed to host the APEC summit for
the rst time and chose the Far Easterncity of Vladivostok as the venue.
In many ways, moving east is a
necessity for Russia due to mounting
strains in its relations with the West.
The rst of the recent serious tensions
surfaced in 2008: the controversy of
the Russian-Georgian war heightened
criticism of the country abroad, whilethe nancial crisis led to the current
European sovereign-debt crisis which
is impacting Russias exports. More
recently, Putins disputed return to
power, the Pussy Riot affair and the
antitrust investigation of Gazprom
have exacerbated tensions. The
result is that Russia now needs new
partners for trade, developmentand modernization. It needs to open
up new markets for energy export,
and at the same time attract more
investment for its domestic projects.
Heightened engagement with
the Asia-Pacic therefore seems like a
perfect solution to Russias problems.
Indeed, the region has much to offer.
30
Russiaseeksnewfriends
10
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summit, reportedly around 21$ billion
thats 5$ billion more than the price tag
of the London Olympics was spent on
the development of infrastructure and on
construction in and around Vladivostok.
Particularly stunning was what had becomethe symbol of the summit: a bridge linking
Russky Island where the meeting was held,
and mainland Russia. At a cost of 1$ billion, it
is now the longest cable suspension bridge
in the world; yet this structure has faced
much criticism and ridicule. The grandiose
bridge connects mainland to an island
inhabited by just 5,000 people; mockingly,
a Foreign Policy article has dubbed it a
bridge to nowhere. More embarrassingly,
during the construction this bridge actually
caught re, while elsewhere in the region
a newly build road collapsed during severe
rainfall and the construction of two luxury
hotels was not even completed in time for
the summit.
Though these failures may seem
relatively minor, they illustrate the domestic
problems Russia faces which undermine its
position on the international stage. There is
a certain Russian mentality in which foreign
countries are perceived as inherently
hostile, leading people to a conclusion that
in order to full its objectives, it is abroad
that Russia has to work to mend relationsand achieve its goals. Yet the source of
many of Russias problems lies inside, not
outside it. Russia aspires to be perceived
as an advanced, developed country, yet
reality is that Russia has not completed
state building; it is not a consolidated
state. Corruption, mismanagement and a
lack of rule of law have become a part of
life. A director of a local policy think tank
estimates that at least half of Moscows
The geopolitics of energy are moving
east and Asia in particular is showing
promising growth in primary energy
demand, furthering its appeal to Russia.
China is at the moment the primary
customer though there is great potentialin Japan too, especially after an increase
in its energy imports following the
Fukushima disaster of 2011.
Though Russias involvement in
APEC is undoubtedly benecial for the
forum as a whole, the countrys desire
to encourage trade and investment in
the region has undermined the very
purpose of the summit. The priorities
set by Russia for this year were not
particularly extraordinary; in Putins own
words, Russia suggested that the dialogue
should focus on freeing up trade and
investment. Despite an added focus
on food security this agenda seemed
nothing more than standard in that nonew, substantial issues were brought
forward. It does not come as a surprise
that fur thering dialogue was not high on
the countrys list of priorities. For Russia
this meeting had far greater signicance
than previous summits: it was supposed
to be a turning point, one at which the
country would again be recognized as
one of the leading powers in the region;a reminder to the world that two thirds
of Russia is in Asia and that it can act
as a bridge between Europe and this
region. Moreover, the government was
desperate to show the great potential for
development and economic growth in its
far eastern corner.
Russia denitely worked hard in
order to please. In preparation for the
Sir, MT12
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money spent on the preparation for the
summit was stolen . Ironically, Russias
Far East is in fact very representative of
these problems: geographically removed
from the central government, this area
has been practicing independent politics,with numerous instances of corruption
for years. There had been no signicant
development or investment from the
government in this neglected region until
the run-up to the APEC meeting. These
issues of corruption, red tape and bad
infrastructure are likely, if left unresolved,
to result in Russia missing out on the
booming markets of the Pacic Rim.
The outcomes of the summit
itself are not disappointing, but not
impressive either. Russia is not entirely
to blame for this: despite claiming that
APECs initiatives turn policy goals into
concrete results and agreements into
tangible benets, it is a mechanismgoverned by consensus and as a result is
not known for generating any substantial
policy breakthroughs. The outcome
of the summit was predominantly a
reafrmation of previous resolutions for
freer trade, eradication of corruption and
enabling the uctuation of exchange rates.
Food security has also been touched on,
with Putin remarking that it is one ofthe most acute problems of our time;
Anna Brezhneva
once again no revolutionary propositions,
let alone decisions, were made.
On the other hand, in much of Russian
media APEC has been claimed to have been
a great success, at least for Putin himself.
At rst glance, Russia has indeed comethrough, impressing foreign leaders and
businessmen, proving that it can modernise
and develop regions even seven time zones
away from Moscow. Yet pouring billions into
a scarcely populated part of Russia without
much agenda for proper reform does not
constitute sustainable development in the
Far East, nor will it immediately ameliorate
relations with its Eastern neighbours.
Russia is right to turn its attention to
the East: this is something that should have
been done years earlier. Yet it is impor tant
to understand that the very same issues
that are currently causing tensions between
Russia and the West issues that often stem
from domestic factors have the capacityto cause the same tensions for Russias
relations with the Asia-Pacic. Thus in trying
to reposition itself internationally, it is the
domestic situation that most desperately
needs reworking before new partnerships
can be built. In the Asia-Pacic Russia will
face new challenges, particularly in the light
of the re-merging territorial disputes in the
region, but this does not mean that the oldones will not come back to haunt it.
32
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Almost everyone (except perhaps
a few nostalgic Russians and East
Germans) agrees that being a North
Korean would not be ideal. For cen-
turies merely the location of the Ko-
rean peninsula was a problem for
those living there; squashed between
the Empires of China and Japan, Ko-
rea has been fought over, occupied,
and systematically plundered morethan almost any other nation, most
recently by Japan who invaded, oc-
cupied, and annexed Korea in 1910.
At the end of the Second World War
the Japanese were forced out of Ko-
rea, but the problems were only just
beginning for those living north of the
38th parallel. As part of the Japanese
Empire, the Korean peninsula was di-vided between the victorious nations
- Soviets in the North and the rest in
the South. Stalin was quick to install
a leader who he ap-
proved of in Korea and
settled on the Korean
nationalist Kim Il-Sung.
This was the start of
North Koreas current
problems. Despite
the fact that almost all
of the industry in the
Korean peninsula was
located in the north
at the time of division,
Kim Il-Sungs national
philosophy of Juche
(self-reliance) and his son Kim Jong-
ils policy of Songun (military rst)
have driven the North Korean econo-
my into the ground. While Seoul has
enough neon-lit signs to make Tokyo
cringe, their neighbours 60km to the
north dont have enough electricity to
light their major city streets at night.
The Democratic PeoplesRepublic of Korea (as they prefer
to call themselves) is now the most
isolated country in the world. I was
lucky enough to visit the country in
April 2012, during the 100th birthday
celebrations for the Eternal President
of the Republic, Kim Il Sung. Visiting
the country is surprisingly easy but
can only be done through the NorthKorean government as there is next
to no private enterprise and certainly
no booming tourist industry. Our tour
group, like all tourists in
the DPRK, was assigned
guides by the govern-
ment who met us be-
fore we even left the
border entry check-
point and were not
more than ten metres
from us until we passed
the border on our way
out; though not before
checking our cameras
to make sure all our
holiday snaps por-
a Vs Nh KeSir, MT12
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trayed Nor th Korea as a socialist par-
adise. Everything that any foreigner
ever sees or does while there is ap-
proved by the government: the clos-
est any tourist can get to the real lifeof a citizen of this country is a quick
look down a street that you arent al-
lowed to walk down, or a glimpse of
a country village as you speed down
the empty motorway to the next site
dedicated to glorifying the Kim family
and their exploits.
For us, like all trips to theDPRK, most nights were spent in one
of the hotels in the capital, Pyongyang,
a city of wide spotless avenues and
impressive Soviet-era architecture;
but we were not allowed to pass the
hotel guards on the door without
our guides. There is a reason for this.
Though Pyongyangs buildings are im-
pressive examples of 1960s construc-
tion, Pyongyang is a mask. While it
serves to house the few visitors to the
country, its primary function seems to
be as propaganda for the Korean peo-
ple. To be a Pyongyanger you must
have shown your allegiance to the rul-
ing party: the Workers Party of Ko-
rea. For the 18 million North Koreanswho dont live in the city, Pyongyang is
the dream, the pinnacle of all that the
great workers of Korea have accom-
plished having thrown off the chains
of the Japanese and US Imperialists.
Pyongyang is full of museums, monu-
ments and bizarre districts such as
the sports district containing nothing
but stadiums and training facilities for
sports from taekwondo to football.
Of all the museums in Pyong-
yang - and we were shepherded through
many during our stay - the VictoriousFatherland Liberation (what the west
would call the Korean war) Museum
deserves a special mention. In all mu-
seums in the country the government
employs someone to take a guided tour
leading you through the endless halls of
weapons, tanks, planes, and maps show-
ing the movement of the Korean Peo-
ples Army. When a woman dressed in
military uniform constantly told us how
the US Imperialists started the Korean
war, how General MacArthurs incred-
ible marine landings at Incheon and
Busan were, in fact, a tactical retreat by
the military genius Kim Il Sung and how
the Korean people alone fought off the
Americans, it was difcult not to notice
that every gun, tank and aeroplane isSoviet made.
The willingness of the guides to lie
constantly and outright was striking.
Upon asking one of our guides - all of
whom are Pyongyangers - how long
the 105-story pyramidal Ryugyong ho-
tel, unmissable from almost anywhere in
Pyongyang, took to build,
Sir, MT12
34
Though Pyongyangs buildingsare impressive examples of
1960s construction, Pyong-
yang is a mask.
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I got an answer of about 5 years. A
quick google search (which of course is
not possible in the only country in the
world with no internet) will show that
construction on the Ryugyong hotel
was started in 1987. Anyone who lived
in Pyongyang during the 1990s would
have frequently seen this iconic struc-
ture on an almost daily basis and yet the
lies keep coming.
Strangely, propaganda is not
based on how fantastic North Korea is,
but on how terrible the rest of the world
is - a best of a bad bunch argument.
According to them, Maoist China is indevastating famine from failed commu-
nism (making sure to add that that they
are socialist, not communist), the Soviet
Union had similar problems which Rus-
sia has inherited and corruption is run-
ning rampant, and Afghanistan is being
attened by the Americans. The other
key part of the brainwashing of the na-
tion is the cult of personality around theKim family. While the population is told
from childhood that they have nothing
to envy about the rest of the world,
everything that makes North Korea the
best country in the world is directly at-
tributed to one of the Kims, or occa-
sionally all three. At one point we were
told that photos of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong
Il, and Kim Jong Un all have the same
meaning. Later, my guide told me that
as part of the celebrations for the 100th
birthday of Kim Il Sung, that the govern-
ment had given her family two cartons
of juice and some pork, and that she
was grateful to the Supreme Leader forthis. It was evident that these were not
everyday foodstuffs, even for a Pyong-
yanger. In every town that we visited
the statues and murals of the Kim family
were simultaneously spotless and being
cleaned while just a street away children
would be sifting through rubbish lled
rivers just to nd a tiny bit of food or
picking weeds by the roadside just tohave something to stave off the hunger
that is quite literally eating them from
the inside.
As a result of this kind of prop-
aganda, most North Koreans really do
believe that they live in the most pros-
perous country in the world and that
they are justiably grateful to the Kimsfor making the DPRK such a great na-
tion, which needs no assistance and is
always ready to defend itself. The para-
noia and xenophobia are so deeply in-
grained into every North Korean I saw
and met, that they were all very hesitant
to look at me, let alone speak to me.
7/29/2019 Sir, Michaelmas 2012
39/39
Despite their isolationist
mindset, we were taken around the
International Friendship Exhibition, a
vault cut deep into a mountain with
vast marble atriums and lavishly deco-
rated corridors. The exhibition was
supposed to demonstrate how loved
and admired the Kim dynasty was by
other world leaders, but far from im-
prove the respectability of the Kim
family, the halls upon halls of gifts
from the likes of Stalin, Mao, Ceaus-escu, Gadda, Mugabe, and Assad
only made me think even less of the
Kims than before. By far the strangest
room of the museum contained a life-
size, picture-perfect waxwork of Kim
Il Sung which we were instructed to
bow to and not to turn our back on,
even when exiting the room. Bow-
ing to a waxwork of a diminutive longdead Korean man, was so surreal that
many of my group, myself included,
had to stie a laugh which may well
have got us deported.
In the west, we see North
Korea as a breakaway, ultra radical
and hypersensitive nation of brain-
washed masses and mysterious un-known leaders. While these ideas
certainly have an element of truth to
them, we often forget that the peo-
ple who live in this shut off world are
more like us than we would like to
think. Its not all sombre faced mili-
tary groups; people laugh, joke, play
and love despite their unfortunate place
in the world. There are two reasons that
most of us hear about the North Korean
regime, either as a threat to us or as a
threat to its own citizens. Travelling to
the country made me think that brand-
ing them as part of the axis of evil was
unfair; it is not a threat to anyone else,
it is simply a paranoid cult of personal-
ity. However, the regime is extremely
dangerous for those that live under it,
even on an intensely guided tour, they
could not keep from us the reality of life
in this starving Stalinist state. There re-ally is nothing to envy in the Democratic
Peoples Republic of Korea.
Sir, MT12
Propaganda is based
not on how fantasticNorth Korea is, but
on how terrible the
rest of the world is - a
best of a bad bunch
argument.