North Korea - what the hell is happening?

[amateur51]

Rather skating over where & how the USA got the knowledge resources from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEJ9HrZq7Ro

:winkeye:

[Cornet IV]

Oddly enough, that is what I have always thought about the Northern Americans, since before the time of Kennedy. The "United States" with all their bombs and bullies constitute one of the few countries of this world in which I would never wish to reside.

Had you experienced such residence, your view might be different. I lived there for nearly 20 years and would happily return tomorrow if I could suffer the demeaning "security" processes at the airport - the paucity of changeringing would almost be compensated by the wealth of some of the world's finest organs but I'm now sentenced to suffer under Dave, his posh chums and the godawful British weather.

Pabmusic's summary from the perspective of one living through those times, substantially is correct and it is timely that he commented as he did. However, one might from even the most cursory brush with history, find the puerile rants of Kim Whatsit surprisingly analogous to those of Wilhelm II -for a while, they even shared similar hairstyles. It would seem that both behave/behaved as they do/did for substantially the same reasons although the former does not have that architect of so much 20th century devastation, Otto von Bismarck at his side. The insecurities of Kaiser Bill seemed shared by the NK leader, leading to broadly similar responses. Sadly, the advances in weaponry have allowed the Korean the ability to lay waste much more than was possible a century ago.

Let's hope that the changes in weaponry are matched with advances in diplomacy and maturity.

[vinteuil]

- the paucity of changeringing would almost be compensated by the wealth of some of the world's finest organs .

... the organs of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain will do for me. Can the US really compete?

But the real deficiency which America cannot conceal - they have nothing to match the cheeses of France, England, Italy, Spain....

[french frank]

- they have nothing to match the cheeses of France, England, Italy, Spain....

Our mighty arsenal:

http://flipside.theiet.org/weird/38/cheese-rolling.jpg

[Flosshilde]

You Brits are so quaint!

[french frank]

You Brits are so quaint!

Quaint nothing! This is a job for hard, trained professionals http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GdVnzDFyLg

[Serial_Apologist]

You Brits are so quaint!

Cheese a jolly good fellow! :biggrin:

[Cornet IV]

... the organs of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain will do for me. Can the US really compete?

But the real deficiency which America cannot conceal - they have nothing to match the cheeses of France, England, Italy, Spain....

Willing to concede on the cheese issue. It is possible to obtain excellent local cheeses in the States but they tend to be a bit "boutiquey", certaiinly no match for the established European varieties. However, in respect of their pipe organs, my response is "Yes, they do compete and very effectively too."

France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain represent three genres of building which are so different that they defy direct comparison. There are organs in other than the "Northern" tradition and these represent the bulk of Organo Americano; Cassavant Freres following CC and Aeolian Skinner, Willis, for example. I have little interest in French instruments (unless they are harpsichords by Blanchet or Taskin . . .) and less in the Iberian trumpets; my reference, although not obvious, was to the Northern European ethos and it is this which has been captured in the last thirty years or so by a number of American builders who have eschewed the smothering dictates of the 19th century and started again with Werkprinzip. It is a silly notion but as a principle, I would pit offerings by Pasi, Taylor and Boody, Brombaugh, Fisk, Noack and others against the might of Barok Europe. One of my favourite instruments is the Fritts-Richards in Seattle - one of life's joys was playing the E flat major P&F (St Anne) here and this was every bit as pleasurable as the same programme on the much bigger instrument in Breda a few years earlier. And they'll knock the pants off any Silberman other than a Gottlieb in my experience. (Now to duck the flak).

For us, the United States is rather distant and once there, these organs are geographically remote from each other - it's an enormous place - so the opportunities to play these instruments are infrequent. Such a pity because this remoteness breeds the sort of parochialism expressed above.

[Pabmusic]

...However, one might from even the most cursory brush with history, find the puerile rants of Kim Whatsit surprisingly analogous to those of Wilhelm II -for a while, they even shared similar hairstyles. It would seem that both behave/behaved as they do/did for substantially the same reasons although the former does not have that architect of so much 20th century devastation, Otto von Bismarck at his side...

I'd not thought of this, which is quite a good analogy. But Bismarck was dropped very quickly by Wilhelm II ('dropping the pilot' is the Punch cartoon) so he was never really at Kaiser Bill's side - Wilhelm I's, very much so.

[Serial_Apologist]

I suppose if N Korea launches nuclear weapons we could always give the S Koreans large Stiltons to cannonade the rockets with.

[DracoM]

What I don't get is how a nation as manifestly impoverished as N.Korea can afford the enormous costs of
[a] one the biggest standing armies in the world
[b] all the ongoing kit of a nuclear weapons programme.

Where are they getting the money from?????

[Petrushka]

What I don't get is how a nation as manifestly impoverished as N.Korea can afford the enormous costs of
[a] one the biggest standing armies in the world
[b] all the ongoing kit of a nuclear weapons programme.

Where are they getting the money from?????

Perhaps that's why they are 'manifestly impoverished'?

[Serial_Apologist]

What I don't get is how a nation as manifestly impoverished as N.Korea can afford the enormous costs of
[a] one the biggest standing armies in the world
[b] all the ongoing kit of a nuclear weapons programme.

Where are they getting the money from?????

China would be my guess; maybe Iran as well?

I sometimes get the sneaky feeling that China's reason for backing its neighbour - apart from the historical ones - is that the one party apparatchiks have half a mind on thinking that were the capitalist road to collapse, the N Korea model might prove a necessary reversion model.

[Flosshilde]

What I don't get is how a nation as manifestly impoverished as N.Korea can afford the enormous costs of
[a] one the biggest standing armies in the world
[b] all the ongoing kit of a nuclear weapons programme.

Where are they getting the money from?????

Perhaps they impoverished because they have a & b.

[Boilk]

Food and shelter in N Korea are not things to be taken for granted. So the attraction of going into the army (assuming they are not press-ganged) may be that these 'comforts' are at least guaranteed - not that there's any private enterprise to otherwise employ educated people. If there is a salary, it's certainly a pittance, so the real costs are the military hardware and (low-paid?) scientific brains.