Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Socialism in a decaying concrete nutshell.

If you want to see everything wrong with communism in one easily-framed photograph, you have to look no further than downtown Pyongyang. There, a 1,083-foot pile of badly-reinforced crumbling concrete remains a monument to the fact that in the whole of the Korean peninsula north of the 38th parallel there was not one single marketing guy to step up and say "Uh, yeah, great idea and all. But out of six and a half billion people on the planet, where are we going to find 3,000 who actually want to rent a room in Pyongyang?"

13 comments:

BobG said...

Makes you wonder who was the genius who came up with the idea to build it.

An award , from a reader.

NotClauswitz said...

The Maximum Perpetual Divine Leader?!
It's not an economic theory, it's a religious cult for dumbasses.

Bonnie said...

Two words: Pyramid. Memphis.

They built it in the early 90s, intending for it to be THE arena in this area. Several years later, the Grizzlies were in town, and they didn't want anything to do with it. They wanted their OWN, original arena. So the Pyramid was delegated for high school graduations and the occasional concert. Then they built the Cannon Center. There goes the concert venue aspect for the Pyramid...and there just aren't enough year-round graduations to pay the rent.

It's still got $30 million left in payments for the property, and they've sold it to Bass Pro Shops for use as a mega-store with an aquarium (last I heard, anyway).

The best part is that the mayor (King Willie) wants to build ANOTHER arena for the college sports teams, along with a new parking garage and mass transit system that would only cater to people attending the college games. Again, so I've heard.

theirritablearchitect said...

I have a morbid fascination with building failures. Professional affliction of some sort.

I'd like to see the whole thing come down at once, for various, and obvious reasons.

Anonymous said...

"Marketing guy"? Bieng negative? In PYONGYANG?!
I think Tam needs some sleep...

trainer said...

Yep, this is commies we're talking about any way. 3rd string commies at that.

MUCH better to have a gigantic monument to the leadership of 'lil Kim than a couple of rice balls on the table.

I think the whole NoKo aggravation is caused by jealousy. 'Lil Kim can't sleep at night just thinking about what he could do if he as a senator from California. He's too conservative tho to get elected.

staghounds said...

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

P.B.S.

staghounds said...

Of course, you've seen

The fabulous ruins of Detroit.

phlegmfatale said...

That thing's gonna kill a lot of people when it collapses.

Anonymous said...

squeeky wheel beat me to it, but he left out the best part:

After the $250M FedEx Forum was built (without a referendum), the University of Memphis State Tigers (Tiger High) decided the Pyramid wasn't good enough for them, either, and had to play in the Forum.

In otder to get the Holy NBA team, the locals gave away the store to the Forum, giving them first option on any concerts that came to town.

Proposals to literally "Give it back to the Indians" to open a casino were shot down, because "We don't WANT no gamlin' in Memphis, it causes too many problems."

And let's not even talk about the diversion of Federal Mass Transit funds used to build the Forum.

"We're 'Murkins! Anything those commies, can do, we can do better!

Anonymous said...

That thing doesn't even scratch the surface of North Korean Looniness:

A cliff face has a 1300-foot tall prayer for Kim Il-Sung's good health (he had an army of doctors caring for him until his demise--wonder what happened to them).

All up and down the border with South Korea are "Propaganda Villages," empty, uniform hamlets that were built to convey the illusion of North Korean propsperity. They are perfectly identical: a block or two of flats, a factory, a row of shops and three or four houses. All are painted--you guessed it--beige.

There is no glass in the windows, no interior walls in the buildings; all the lights in the entire "village" go on at the flick of a master switch, and the only guy who lives there is the guy who changes the lightbulbs.

The North Koreans blare propaganda and Stalinist martial music across the border, which no one listens to. The South Koreans blare any of several commercial pop-music stations.

People risk their lives to defect to CHINA. That ought to tell you everything you need to know about North Korea.

North Korea is the weirdest place in the whole wide wacky world.

gvi

Unknown said...

I posted a comment about this on your blog last year:

A vindication of just how ahead-of-my-time-I-am.

:-)

Cowboy Blob said...

The Beloved Leader is a filmmaker, ya know:
http://img283.imageshack.us/img283/2010/ryugyong9nn.gif

Hoarked from:
http://belovedleader.blogspot.com