N. Korea conducts mass testing in Pyongyang, people who refuse testing are labeled “disloyal”
North Korean authorities are conducting mass testing in Pyongyang and other areas of the country to track down fever patients, and people who refuse testing are labeled “disloyal,” Daily NK has learned.
“The authorities are mainly relying on taking people’s temperatures for coronavirus testing,” a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Friday. “If someone has a fever for more than two days along with coughing and difficulty breathing, they are designated to be quarantined.”
As we know, there was strong pressure to comply with a range of government coronavirus measures. Even though the word was not used, it could easily be said that refusal was portrayed as a form of disloyalty to the common good. Strengthen that level of political pressure and we are on the way to a destination we should be actively avoiding.
North Korean authorities are conducting mass testing in Pyongyang and other areas of the country to track down fever patients, and people who refuse testing are labeled “disloyal,” Daily NK has learned.
“The authorities are mainly relying on taking people’s temperatures for coronavirus testing,” a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Friday. “If someone has a fever for more than two days along with coughing and difficulty breathing, they are designated to be quarantined.”
Our pandemic situation in the UK cannot be compared to that in North Korea, but in a limited sense it is worth making a point about that word 'disloyal'.
2 comments:
The North Koreans at least had the sense that they were loyal to their great leader, or to the state. We merely had a sense of unthinking conformity. People getting irate and informers springing up and officials getting above themselves, but for what, exactly? A war against a virus. When you ask what motivated people, it all melts away.
Sam - it's as if unthinking conformity is the norm, political leaders and senior bureaucrats know it, but aren't the right people for making the best of unthinking conformity.
Post a Comment