{"id":1971,"date":"2010-12-23T15:38:18","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T20:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=1406"},"modified":"2010-12-23T15:38:18","modified_gmt":"2010-12-23T20:38:18","slug":"christmas-jeers-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=1971","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Jeers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Kim Dynasty is about to be swarmed by millions and millions of bees (aka insectus ouchus Kimjongstingya)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On December 18th internationally acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi (1995\u2019s White Balloon<\/strong>, 2006\u2019s Offside<\/strong>) was convicted<\/a> of \u2018colluding\u2019 against the Iranian Islamic Republic by the country\u2019s courts and sentenced to 6 years in jail. Additionally, for the next 20 years he\u2019s banned from writing scripts, making films, travelling abroad, and giving any interviews \u2013 this within a week after a 7-day retrospective<\/a> \/ celebration (Dec. 2-9) of the director\u2019s work at the Tiff Bell Lightbox.<\/p>\n

A number of acclaimed American directors have spoken out<\/a> against the conviction & heavy sentencing, but what\u2019s happened isn\u2019t a justice system meting out punishment for breaking rules \u2013 it\u2019s just bullying, using every available venue of punishment under its control, which unfortunately is everything within the legal and judicial system.<\/p>\n

Panahi\u2019s sentence also seems ludicrous and archaic because it\u2019s what one would\u2019ve read about when China and the former Soviet Union were more secretive and totalitarian; suppression of films and talent goes on, but at least among some of the former high-profile perpetrators, things have changed because of economics (money = good), and the need to be perceived as having embraced free-thinking, free-market concepts; some level of criticism is allowed because it presents the image of a permissive regime when there\u2019s probably still sensitive figures whose first instinct would be to crush, but they only react when the annoying independent voice just won\u2019t shut the hell up.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s maybe Panahi\u2019s dilemma, but it hardly helps Iran\u2019s international image.<\/p>\n

The woman who made international headlines for being sentenced to death by stoning<\/a> for murdering her husband with her lover was briefly \u2018released\u2019 this month<\/a> so that she could return to the \u2018scene of the crime\u2019 and recreate for TV viewers<\/a> how she allegedly killed her sleeping husband. From the brief excerpts in the western media, it looked like some trashy reality show, except it was a government sanctioned, high-concept production: \u2018Let\u2019s reinforce the image of the woman\u2019s guilt for the masses so at least people at home will be on our side and find international pleas and criticisms offensive.\u2019 Reportedly included in the broadcast were stills of the dead husband\u2019s corpse to reinforce a sense of horror.<\/p>\n

Those in media-savvy countries are bombarded by commercial abuses of technology that warps the morality and public taste. There are reality shows on everything, but our exposure to mundane and garbage subject matter, as well as manipulative filmmaking techniques, means our collective sense of when the bullshit smells is High. We know when we\u2019re being provoked.<\/p>\n

Ergo, the woman\u2019s \u2018return to the scene of the crime\u2019 may be a violation of her civil rights and an exploitation of a sad situation, but it\u2019s also crass exploitation no different than putting a an alleged killer and the family of his \/ her victim on stage, with a Jerry Springer-styled audience designed to sweeten the provocative meeting for the cameras and sound mixers.<\/p>\n

The Iranian broadcast of that \u2018How I did it to my sleeping husband\u2019 put the network on par with Fox TV; the content wasn\u2019t important, but its effect on viewers was vital, and so it goes with Panahi\u2019s conviction. Admittedly, there is a difference between spousal murder and protesting with the Green movement (which is what ultimately exhausted the regime\u2019s patience for Panahi), but the government\u2019s handling of the cases is about affecting the public for control, not to reinforce what\u2019s morally right.<\/p>\n

The dilemma for the government is that it\u2019s trying to maintain a restrictive hand on a culture that\u2019s old, wise, and is media savvy, and the use of Twitter during the 2009 elections, as well as getting video footage of abuses inflicted upon Green members to international media markets demonstrates ordinary people can use images and sounds just as effectively in getting their personal points across. Unlike North Korea, Iran is tech-savvy, and they have the gear to disseminate their own information.<\/p>\n

Panahi\u2019s sentencing reads like a plot extract from some HBO TV movie or documentary<\/a> about a Soviet era composer silenced by Stalin because he disliked the composer\u2019s use of satire and socio-political commentary. Dimitri Shostakovich managed not only to persevere and still write music, but he outlived the despotic sonofabitch and won.<\/p>\n

Only one of the two is admired, studied, and respected around the globe as a cultural influence; the other\u2019s just a monster whose lone virtue was firming up a nation against Nazi invaders during WWII, and whipping their arses on the snow.<\/p>\n

In a classic capitalist society, if your work sucks, no one will buy it. If the studio has little faith in it, they\u2019ll dump it on Labor Day weekend or video. If a studio or producer destroys it or shelves it, you can go to the media and embarrass your target(s) with the worst case scenario being a defamation suit – not arrest, government suppression and conviction for protesting too much.<\/p>\n

Panahi will be able to write scripts in his mind, but the prison term will break something, and additional 14 years of silence might destroy the desire to persevere and express ideas again on film. It\u2019s not a crime against the republic; it\u2019s a nasty regime saying \u2018We told you to shut up, and you didn\u2019t listen. Now we\u2019re going to destroy you.\u2019<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

*\u00a0\u00a0 *\u00a0\u00a0 *<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Meanwhile, as this drama breaks wind in the media, the tensions between North and South Korea keep getting tighter, and creepier. It\u2019s as though the North\u2019s Kim Jong-Il is repeatedly egging the South if it wants to play a game of Global Thermonuclear War<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The North is like a big child in the corner who screams and spittles whenever it feels no one is coming over from the big group of kids in the sunny playground to play a private game of checkers because everyone knows you cheat.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also because you\u2019re a creepy kid and habor weird ideas of self-adulation, as evidenced by a crayon drawing of you being ten feet tall in a green field, the other kids kissing your bare feet, and the teachers nailed to crosses that pepper the mountain horizon. You didn\u2019t even put X\u2019s on the their faces; you drew eyes with big blobs of tears falling to the ground where they help germinate some brightly coloured flower named after you.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re not liked because you\u2019ve created a cult in which you\u2019re a God, and instead of flinging elastic bands and spitballs at others, you just tell them if they don\u2019t love you unconditionally, you\u2019re going to kill something they love, and maybe take away their lunches and dinners for the next 10 years.<\/p>\n

N.C. Heikin\u2019s documentary, Kimjongilia<\/strong> <\/a>(2009) [M<\/strong><\/a>]\u2013 named after a reddish flower<\/a> in honor of the Son of Dear Leader – isn\u2019t perfect, but there are enough disturbing tales by refugees from the North that paint a portrait of a weird world that\u2019s Orwellian and Gilliam (minus the bossa nova tune).<\/p>\n

In the 2006 documentary Comrades in Dreams<\/a><\/strong>,<\/strong> we\u2019re shown a clip from a North Korean film about a daughter who isn\u2019t crazy about an arranged marriage to a man devoted to the cultural improvement of pickled, spicy cabbage (kimchi<\/em>). In the end she acquiesces, presumably because he\u2019s either got a great cucumber between his legs, she\u2019s swayed by family honor issues, the secret police stepped on her pet goldfish (improperly named \u2018Kimjongcuda\u2019), or the allure of cabbage proved too forceful.<\/p>\n

I dunno, but it\u2019s the kind of product made in a vacuum created by a regime steeped in ideology and a mandate to keep the cult saturated within the human brain, and that\u2019s what makes Kimjongilia<\/strong> so horrific \u2013 the scarred lives and brutalized psyches the regime knows are unable to mount any kind of change from within or outside its borders.<\/p>\n

The cruelties in the 2009 doc are contrasted by the regime\u2019s fixation on order, grand architecture, and blazing pastel colours \u2013 elements beautifully captured by photographer Eric Lafforgue<\/a>, samples of which are archived on Flickr.<\/p>\n

After reading the review of Lorber\u2019s DVD, do check out Lafforgue\u2019s really beautiful photos, starting with a festival devoted to the Kimjongilia flower, and the weird mega-dance<\/a> that brings thousands to the central square in Pyongyang for one hour<\/span>.<\/p>\n

That kid in the corner needs special medication.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s Blog on the plight of Jafar Panahi, and a DVD review of the 2009 documentary Kimjongilia (Mongrel \/ Lorber) of life under a big fist…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[233,231,232],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-vN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}