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(Continued from page 31)
ity, are twice as likely as those who are Catholic to vote Republican.
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Seeking a soul, and some logic, amid the eeriness of North Korea's mass spectacles
• PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- From across the city, they are summoned to pay reverence.
• So on a chilly April evening, tens of thousands of people come to honor their new ruler, as towering statues of his father and grandfather are unveiled on a Pyongyang hilltop. The crowds bow before the statues in practiced unison and shake bright, fake flowers in choreographed praise. Some weep with joy to be in the presence of the baby-faced Kim Jong Un, who is now their Illustrious General, their Leader, their Supreme Commander.
• For years, this is how the world has seen the people of this secretive nation: as Stalinist automatons in meticulously staged mass spectacles that glorify one-family rule. And there's plenty of truth in that.
• But look closer.
• Go downtown on that April evening and mingle among the thousands of people walking to their trolley stops after the ceremony, when the streets are closed to traffic and crowds fill the night with laughter. Most have spent the entire day squatting in a hilltop plaza the size of a small cornfield, waiting to stand on cue and wave their flowers for a few minutes in well-practiced devotion. They should be exhausted.
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Thousands play their role in North Korea's parades and other mass spectacles
• The world knows North Korea through its gigantic public displays.
• There are the immense military parades, with tens of thousands of soldiers pounding thunderous goose-steps through the heart of the capital. The rallies where bureaucrats chant their willingness to die for the ruling family. The autumn festival where 30,000 young people flip small placards with military precision, creating stadium-sized mosaics of political slogans.
• For the people of Pyongyang, they are simply a part of life. Residency is tightly restricted for the capital city, where life is far easier than it is for most North Koreans, who live with staggering rates of poverty and malnutrition. For the elite in Pyongyang, though, there is electricity at least part of the time, better schools and (Continued on page 33)
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