North Korea Pics

Well no real historic houses out here but we have the shawnee reservation in addition to other indian reservations etc . The houses are different depending upon the location and what part of the community you live in . For example in colubus and its suburbs ( dublin etc) you’ll find the best of the best houses by big builders etc and plenty of golf communities etc Out here in springfield we have some very good communities but houses are modest in sizer in most communities , and people are more then happy to live a conservative lifestyle and even the rich folks dont like to show off as they rich guys do in NY or LA . My house is in one of the better neighborhoods in the city and it is something like 400-500K for a 3600Sqft house on a 1.5 acre lot which is great for me since i have grown up on a big lot all my life and can never imagine living and raising a family in a house which is cramped and doesnt have a decent sized back yard , plus i own about 6 dogs ( i show dogs as a hobby) which would have been imposible had the house not been accomodating . The landscape atleast in the countryside is marked by corn feilds and snow all over in the winter . 20 minutes we have Wright Patt AFB so we get a lot of sevicmen and women that we see on a day to day occasion . Other then that ohio is comming up in a big way in the services sector so you see a ballooning of high priced ( moderate to high) living communities , golf cources comming up etc etc specially near the big cities like columbus ohio , cleevland , cincinati and dayton etc IIRC columbus got declared one of the best cities to live in the US some years back , it is a great city if you are a mid 30’s kinda guy who wants to raise a family in a suburban enviroment , get a good quality lifestyle at an affordable price , have plenty of job opp. , still have a Team sport ( big in the US) be it hockey or Soccer. Infact this is my big argument with my friends who live in NY or even chicago who probably earn 10-15% more then what i do but are trying to raise a family out of a modular apartment with a 45 minute commute to work whilest i am chillin in my back yard and have a 15 minute commute regardless of traffic .

Very right! For the very same reasons I refused to get a job in our capital which is pretty much booming these days. Yes, you get some 20% more on regular basis but the real quallity of life is incomparable. I think we pretty much share the same philosophy..

Central Europe is a bit more condensed, if you ask me. As pretty much everything in Europe is a bit smaller, the roads thinner, etc., you won’t find vast open spaces here. But the major difference is that from every place here history comes out, 600-700 year old nicely reconstructed houses in the center are very common, satellites and suburbs are usually of dull communist block-like architecture.. Cars resemble southern Italy, mainly smaller and cheaper Fiats, Renaults, Peugeots and yes, czech Skodas. Girls are considerably more attractive (no offense meant) and everything pretty miuch resembles Germany as it was 20 years ago (of course, plus Plasma TVs and Internet). Contrary to USA you cannot switch to Chicago-like cities, there simply ain’t any except Wien, everything over 600.000 is already a huge conglomerate.

The yearly income per capita is considerably less than in the US (roughly $12.000), estate prices are considerably cheaper (some $70.000 – $120.000 for a very decent 250sq/m house in the city suburbs depending on location), food is cheaper, too, but other comodities are comparable, especially those related to world prices. And yes, petrol is good 2 times as expensive as in the States (in absolute values, not relative). People are friendly, but also love to stick their noses into personal issues

Well no real historic houses out here but we have the shawnee reservation in addition to other indian reservations etc . The houses are different depending upon the location and what part of the community you live in . For example in colubus and its suburbs ( dublin etc) you’ll find the best of the best houses by big builders etc and plenty of golf communities etc Out here in springfield we have some very good communities but houses are modest in sizer in most communities , and people are more then happy to live a conservative lifestyle and even the rich folks dont like to show off as they rich guys do in NY or LA . My house is in one of the better neighborhoods in the city and it is something like 400-500K for a 3600Sqft house on a 1.5 acre lot which is great for me since i have grown up on a big lot all my life and can never imagine living and raising a family in a house which is cramped and doesnt have a decent sized back yard , plus i own about 6 dogs ( i show dogs as a hobby) which would have been imposible had the house not been accomodating . The landscape atleast in the countryside is marked by corn feilds and snow all over in the winter . 20 minutes we have Wright Patt AFB so we get a lot of sevicmen and women that we see on a day to day occasion . Other then that ohio is comming up in a big way in the services sector so you see a ballooning of high priced ( moderate to high) living communities , golf cources comming up etc etc specially near the big cities like columbus ohio , cleevland , cincinati and dayton etc IIRC columbus got declared one of the best cities to live in the US some years back , it is a great city if you are a mid 30’s kinda guy who wants to raise a family in a suburban enviroment , get a good quality lifestyle at an affordable price , have plenty of job opp. , still have a Team sport ( big in the US) be it hockey or Soccer. Infact this is my big argument with my friends who live in NY or even chicago who probably earn 10-15% more then what i do but are trying to raise a family out of a modular apartment with a 45 minute commute to work whilest i am chillin in my back yard and have a 15 minute commute regardless of traffic .

RR like Rolls Royce?

I wish!!! RR was refering to the Range rover!!

A shame Peter Jackson beat the North Koreans in filming the Lord of the Rings. What will Pyong Yang do with the Mount doom they built now? :confused:

Yeah thats what I would have suggested. thanks… 🙂

well this migth be rather hard to answer but I will ask it anyway.
Have you got any Idea of how Finland was wieved among the warsav pact countryes? Becouse I remember that during the Prague Spring, someone made demand for Soviets to let Chekoslovakia to be “similary free as Finland is let”. Its unnaturally huge thing for us finns to know wheter we were held as part of the east or west during the cold war. Many westeners have admitted seeing us under Soviet arm, but how about in the East?

I can definitely tell you about how they were viewed from the side of simple citizens. Finns were ‘them’, ergo ‘rotten West’. I understand that there were slight nuances and that Finns were closer to Russia than Netherlands or comparable countries, but this played absolutely no role in the black and white polarization of the Cold War world.

Regarding the Scandinavian countries, from time to time some info leaked in about Scandies having a well-developed social system but such data was obviously considrered as quite dangerous for the Commie elite because it put a lot if holes into their theories about how workers in the west were exploited and misused by bad bad monopoly enterprises.

Interestingly enough, Yugoslavia was viewed as ‘us, Commies’. Somewhat strange Commies with western-made cars and developed tourism, but still our brothers. I think this also had much to do with their Slavian origin. Anyway, Yugoslavia was widely regarded as open gate to the West and was a preferred route you would choose to emigrate. Getting visa for the whole family to Yugo’ was a very demanding and complicated task but you still could hide behind the family vacation idea and it was definitely doable upon some bribing.

Don’t hesitate to ask more, I will gladly tell you what I remember from those times.

well this migth be rather hard to answer but I will ask it anyway.
Have you got any Idea of how Finland was wieved among the warsav pact countryes? Becouse I remember that during the Prague Spring, someone made demand for Soviets to let Chekoslovakia to be “similary free as Finland is let”. Its unnaturally huge thing for us finns to know wheter we were held as part of the east or west during the cold war. Many westeners have admitted seeing us under Soviet arm, but how about in the East?

I hope central europe is a bit less boring as compared to what is here !! most of the mid west isnt as flashy as say new york , LA , San fran etc etc and the heart of it is quite boring if you ask me personally . During college we would often gather up and drive to chigago etc to go and spend some quality vacation time ( quality means bar hoppn and partyin etc) , Columbus is comming up well but then again it is catered more towards the blue collar work class type partyn etc rather then new york etc which have everything one can ask for interms of social entertainment . Obviously growing up in the mid west had its advantages but to put it straight up here cincinati , cleevland , indianapolis (IN), columbus etc just dont cut it when it comes to a top class social life . Personally I quite like it here due to everything being pretty darn cheap , i mean i probably wont be able to afford a house 1/3 the size of my current house had i been living in one of the far far suburbs of new york or LA , my sister works out of manhattan , lives in Stamford CT which is about a 30-40 minute train ride every morning and still payed close to 700K for a house that is so small that i’d never want to live in it let alone raise a family in . There are tradeoffs,everyone by’n large is happy and mingles well with neighbors etc here in the mid west but we also have issues regarding the per capita not being high enough etc etc but the level of friendlyness is quite good and why only talk about mid western states , most southern states are likewise and people are very very hospitable . I read Readers digest’s story on how NY was the most respecting city , personally i almost fell off my chair when i read that , when i go to NY ( atleast half a dozen times a year for buisness) i come across people who are rude beyond description , you cant even ask for directions most of the time without people making faces etc but then again we give them credit cuz the whole darn city is working like crazy tryin to run the finances of the country and we let them do their own stuff.. Chicago is one big city where people are very polite but then again there is nothing once you go past the shopping and buisness district but polution … All in all most people would be surprised to see how freindly US people are when you go out of the NY , LA , phoenix etc etc and visit the other areas where the vast majority of the people live .

Central Europe is a bit more condensed, if you ask me. As pretty much everything in Europe is a bit smaller, the roads thinner, etc., you won’t find vast open spaces here. But the major difference is that from every place here history comes out, 600-700 year old nicely reconstructed houses in the center are very common, satellites and suburbs are usually of dull communist block-like architecture.. Cars resemble southern Italy, mainly smaller and cheaper Fiats, Renaults, Peugeots and yes, czech Skodas. Girls are considerably more attractive (no offense meant) and everything pretty miuch resembles Germany as it was 20 years ago (of course, plus Plasma TVs and Internet). Contrary to USA you cannot switch to Chicago-like cities, there simply ain’t any except Wien, everything over 600.000 is already a huge conglomerate.

The yearly income per capita is considerably less than in the US (roughly $12.000), estate prices are considerably cheaper (some $70.000 – $120.000 for a very decent 250sq/m house in the city suburbs depending on location), food is cheaper, too, but other comodities are comparable, especially those related to world prices. And yes, petrol is good 2 times as expensive as in the States (in absolute values, not relative). People are friendly, but also love to stick their noses into personal issues 😉

Some galleries from my current hometown (some 300.000 people)
http://www.cassovia.sk/10pohladov/20poh.php

Its a Black Supercharged RR sport

:confused: RR like Rolls Royce? I am not aware of any supercharged RR sports car..

Happiness, it’s all in the mind…

Well my level of social happiness really got up when i got my new car 🙂 🙂

Depends on what part of the free world your lookin at , People acc. new york or LA when they talk about the US but there is a lot lot more between manhattan and hollywood here . I welcome you guys to come to the mid western states . here in ohio we live very very good lives , the working class ( middle and upper middle class aswell) works hard but also is far more layed back and friendly with neigbors etc .

I guess it’s up to the individual, but I am not driven by materialism, I find the simple things in life much more rewarding. Ok I have a few gadgets but they are just grown up Toys for big Boys. My real happiness comes from Work and meditating. I like watching the natural world in my tiny Garden, and lazing about. That’s my idea of happiness, being satisfied with what little one has. 🙂
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It is said that Ohio resembles central Europe pretty much in terms of landscape, as well as friendliness of the people living there.

I hope central europe is a bit less boring as compared to what is here !! most of the mid west isnt as flashy as say new york , LA , San fran etc etc and the heart of it is quite boring if you ask me personally . During college we would often gather up and drive to chigago etc to go and spend some quality vacation time ( quality means bar hoppn and partyin etc) , Columbus is comming up well but then again it is catered more towards the blue collar work class type partyn etc rather then new york etc which have everything one can ask for interms of social entertainment . Obviously growing up in the mid west had its advantages but to put it straight up here cincinati , cleevland , indianapolis (IN), columbus etc just dont cut it when it comes to a top class social life . Personally I quite like it here due to everything being pretty darn cheap , i mean i probably wont be able to afford a house 1/3 the size of my current house had i been living in one of the far far suburbs of new york or LA , my sister works out of manhattan , lives in Stamford CT which is about a 30-40 minute train ride every morning and still payed close to 700K for a house that is so small that i’d never want to live in it let alone raise a family in . There are tradeoffs,everyone by’n large is happy and mingles well with neighbors etc here in the mid west but we also have issues regarding the per capita not being high enough etc etc but the level of friendlyness is quite good and why only talk about mid western states , most southern states are likewise and people are very very hospitable . I read Readers digest’s story on how NY was the most respecting city , personally i almost fell off my chair when i read that , when i go to NY ( atleast half a dozen times a year for buisness) i come across people who are rude beyond description , you cant even ask for directions most of the time without people making faces etc but then again we give them credit cuz the whole darn city is working like crazy tryin to run the finances of the country and we let them do their own stuff.. Chicago is one big city where people are very polite but then again there is nothing once you go past the shopping and buisness district but polution … All in all most people would be surprised to see how freindly US people are when you go out of the NY , LA , phoenix etc etc and visit the other areas where the vast majority of the people live .

What type was it?

Its a Black Supercharged RR sport

Martin,
a very interesting insight from you mate, it seems to me consumer products were limited under Communism. What was it like when you first experience “capitalism”?

Well my level of social happiness really got up when i got my new car 🙂 🙂

:diablo: What type was it?

Depends on what part of the free world your lookin at , People acc. new york or LA when they talk about the US but there is a lot lot more between manhattan and hollywood here . I welcome you guys to come to the mid western states . here in ohio we live very very good lives , the working class ( middle and upper middle class aswell) works hard but also is far more layed back and friendly with neigbors etc .

It is said that Ohio resembles central Europe pretty much in terms of landscape, as well as friendliness of the people living there.

must have the latest gadget etc etc dosn’t make for real social happiness.

Well my level of social happiness really got up when i got my new car 🙂 🙂

Families are spread all over the place, unlike the old days when they lived close to one another. WE are now slaves to the Machine, and that includes this computer I am using..

Depends on what part of the free world your lookin at , People acc. new york or LA when they talk about the US but there is a lot lot more between manhattan and hollywood here . I welcome you guys to come to the mid western states . here in ohio we live very very good lives , the working class ( middle and upper middle class aswell) works hard but also is far more layed back and friendly with neigbors etc .

Keep smiling..

The main difference I can see is orientation on individualism in the free west. People are not so much interested in absolute values of their living standard (which is very high even in the case of the poorer ones) rather than relative values compared to all neighbours, relatives and friends. The ones that are individually sticking out are happy, the rest is frequently frustrated even if they don’t really lack anything.

It was pretty surprising for me to find Cubans on the 6th place of the world most satisfied nation rankings but it only shows that absolute living standard has rather little to do with happiness.

Even the most primitive Tribes on the Planet are much happier than we are. Stress in this modern World , Individualism, isolation, must have the latest gadget etc etc dosn’t make for real social happiness. We have lost real happiness, we don’t even talk to our neighbours any more like we used to. Families are spread all over the place, unlike the old days when they lived close to one another. WE are now slaves to the Machine, and that includes this computer I am using.. :confused:
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There are times when I feel here in the so called free west, that things have gone to far. Exploitation rules supreme, anything goes, nothing left to the imagination. Those old communist countries may have been hard, but they had a better social cohesion, then free western countries have these days.
The NK pictures are very good , nice to see NK on the net. 🙂
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The main difference I can see is orientation on individualism in the free west. People are not so much interested in absolute values of their living standard (which is very high even in the case of the poorer ones) rather than relative values compared to all neighbours, relatives and friends. The ones that are individually sticking out are happy, the rest is frequently frustrated even if they don’t really lack anything.

It was pretty surprising for me to find Cubans on the 6th place of the world most satisfied nation rankings but it only shows that absolute living standard has rather little to do with happiness.

Exactly as long as the govt manage to keep people isolated from outside world.. A fresh wind of change, that is what they fear most.

There are times when I feel here in the so called free west, that things have gone to far. Exploitation rules supreme, anything goes, nothing left to the imagination. Those old communist countries may have been hard, but they had a better social cohesion, then free western countries have these days.
The NK pictures are very good , nice to see NK on the net. 🙂
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Well, social life was pretty much developed, I must admit. Despite all disadvantages of those times there was plenty of something modern people do not have – time. You worked from eight to three and that was it. No reeducation courses, no working overtime, no spending 30% nights in hotels.. Carreer was something strictly political, you were not taught to work hard to achieve something. Ergo, you had much time to spend with kids. Cinemas, theaters, concerts, museums, fests, everything was state-funded and you only paid a symbolic price. Skiing in High Tatra (local mountains) was something everyone could afford almost every weekend (at modest services, of course). Today you can call it a luxury since the services are now worldwide-oriented and as such more suited to the income of Germans, Dutch or rich Russians which are present in large numbers.

But, of course, even the culture was very limited. Either local artists and performers or some pretty unknown ones from Warsaw Pact countries. Forget Dire Straits, Rolling Stones or Madonna, these were symbols of ‘rotten imperialism’. Only after the iron curtain has fallen we have learnt that many local top chart hits were nothing but stolen ideas from english or american musicians, albeit given censored Czech or Slovak lyrics. Usually the Western ones were considered as too abusive or sexual. Now it seems almost funny, but yeah, those were some crazy, insane times. But in some wicked way I am very glad to have such experience you won’t gain otherpalce else. If from time to time PII tries to teach us about how we take freedom for granted, I only must smile. He who haven’t lost the freedom never will understand its true value and also the burden of responsibility it brings..

Now time to take my beloved girlfriend and to take her dancin. SALSA!!!!

Can” he was eleven , i dont think going to bars and tryin to pick up chicks was something he was doing at that time;) 🙂

Yeah, but he did go to school and I’m interested to know how much education was influenced by Communism. If school is count as part of a social thing with friends and stuff.

Can” he was eleven , i dont think going to bars and tryin to pick up chicks was something he was doing at that time;) 🙂

Socially were life as boring though?