Friday 14 September 2012

The Rungna People's Pleasure Park

                                                          
During my visit to the DPRK during September 2012 I was able to visit the newly built People's Pleasure Park on Rungra island in Pyongyang. This is a complex that includes a dolphinarium, an outdoor leisure complex and 2 fun fairs. It has an area of 100 hectares It is always crowded with ordinary working people. The Rungra People's Pleasure Park was opened on the 25th  July by the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un . He  personally tried the rides in the funfair saying that he too must use the same rides as the working people.
                                                                         
 I visited the dolphinarium in the  afternoon first and the funfair in the evening. The central attraction of the dolphinarium is the dolphins. They delight the audience with their tricks and playful activities. There are many different fish tanks and a cave as well. The dolphinarium is not simply a place for entertainment but has an educational and intellectual role as well people can learn about the sea here through video explanation.
                        
                       In the evening the funfair was an explosion of bright lights, colours and the laughter of people. The imperialist reactionaries try to propagandise that Pyongyang is completely dark at night but one could see just how foolish such an idea is. The funfair keeps going until after midnight and the power for it is kept  on all the time . This is the people-orientated policy of the dear respected Marshal Kim Jong Un and the Workers' Party of Korea,

Pyongyang city boasts of many funfairs. Not only the newly built Rungna fun fair but also the Kaeson Youth Park (my guide said she went there lots of times), the Mangyondae fun fair. It certainly has more funfairs than London. In London there is just one small fun fair in Jubilee Gardens. Battersea Funfair which was famous closed in 1974 . There are some amusement parks such as Thorpe Park but it is far from London . It costs £43 for an adult and £33 for a children or a £138 for a family !(and you are restricted to just 6 rides) My guide told me that at Rungra working people visit and the cost is met by their workplace or trade union. It is indeed a Peoples Pleasure Park. In the DPRK many things have the name People in them such as the People's Army, Grand Peoples Study House, Peoples Hospital and People's Theatre.
                              In the UK  funfairs had a negative association for some people because of a high rate of accidents, exploitation of fun fair workers and were seen by intellectuals as commercial money making enterprises providing low intellectual entertainment. However in the DPRK the funfairs like the Rungna Peoples Pleasure Park serves the people and is visited by people of all ages and all strata of working people.
                           Visiting the funfair one could learn more about the mentality and character of Korean people. The mindset of people in the DPRK is a positive forward thinking one. Korean people have a strong mentality without neurosis. DPRK people know how to enjoy themselves knowing no depression. In the UK 1 in 4 people experience mental illness. Working people in the UK are oppressed by fear of losing their job, debts etc. However in the DPRK under the people-centred socialist system people are taken care of and do not need to worry about things.  Freed from worries and carries Korean people enjoy themselves to their hearts content. This is the reality I witnessed on the night of the 7th September in Pyongyang.

No comments: