North Korea - River View Observer https://riverviewobserver.net A lifestyle and entertainment publication serving the Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne, Weehawken, West New York, North Bergen, Cliffside Park, Edgewater, Secaucus and Guttenberg Waterfront Communities Thu, 07 Feb 2013 04:15:00 +0000 en hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Views from her Camera- Jersey City Resident and World Traveler Leila Bowie Photographs North Korea https://riverviewobserver.net/views-from-her-camera-jersey-city-resident-and-world-traveler-leila-bowie-photographs-north-korea/ Thu, 07 Feb 2013 03:40:46 +0000 http://riverviewobserver.net/?p=6068 By Sally Deering All photos by Leila Bowie 2012  Growing up in Jersey City, Leila Bowie dreamed of traveling the world and once she set out to accomplish her dream, Bowie traveled to more than 25 countries including her most recent trip to North Korea.  “I’ve lived in Tokyo and Australia, and I’ve been to … Continue reading Views from her Camera- Jersey City Resident and World Traveler Leila Bowie Photographs North Korea →

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]]> By Sally Deering

All photos by Leila Bowie 2012 

Leila Bowie (far right) with her son Nile Bowie and their tour guide Shunee
Leila Bowie (far right) with her son Nile Bowie and their tour guide Shunee

Growing up in Jersey City, Leila Bowie dreamed of traveling the world and once she set out to accomplish her dream, Bowie traveled to more than 25 countries including her most recent trip to North Korea.

 “I’ve lived in Tokyo and Australia, and I’ve been to Thailand, Indonesia, Shanghai Beijing, Pakistan, and all over Europe,” Bowie says. “I think I inherited my passion for traveling from my grandfather who was born in Louisiana and part of a traveling circus. I knew I wanted to travel the world by the age four or five.”

 In December, accompanied by her son, Nile Bowie, a TV correspondent based in Malaysia, Leila traveled to North Korea and took pictures of the countryside and its capital city Pyongyang during her 11-day stay. Although tourism is controlled by the government – approximately 1,500 tourists are allowed in each year— Leila and Nile visited historic landmarks in Pyongyang and country villages outside the city – always accompanied by a tour guide. Leila says: “They never let you go anywhere without guides.”

School of Opera North Korea www.riveviewobserver.net
School of Opera
North Korea
Leila Bowie 2012

 

 

Circus in North Korea www.riverviewobserver.net
Circus North Korea
Leila Bowie 2012

 

City of Pyongyan in North Korea www.riverviewobserver.net
Pyongyan
Leila Bowie 2012

Everywhere she went, Leila Bowie took photographs of what she saw, sometimes from the window of a moving car. Bowie has exhibited her photographs in New York and has four pieces in the Brooklyn Museum’s permanent collection.

 “Visiting North Korea was an interesting experience,” Bowie says. “I was in the north and the south and we were in a blizzard. Everyone has to clear the miles of roads from ice and snow. People are out there chopping at the ice with tiny shovels the size you would give kids at the seashore. Once we were in folklore village, there was no electricity, no heat; we were freezing.”

 During her stay, Bowie felt constantly barraged by the voices heard on loudspeakers which are everywhere and on from sunrise to sunset.

 “Every apartment has a loudspeaker,” Bowie says. “It can be turned down but not turned off. You always hear propaganda, speeches, all the waking hours of the day, and always different voices, but mostly male voices; and some music, too.”

 

Statue of North Korean Leaders www.riverviewobserver.net
Statue of Leaders
North Korea
Leila Bowie 2012

Touring the capital city of Pyongyang, Bowie says it was bustling with people traveling on bicycles, trolleys and subways. And everywhere she went, the locals were friendly and curious. She and her son were even invited to see a musical presentation.

 “We were taken to a school and treated to an opera by five or six young women,” Bowie says. “Their voices and instruments and the way the children performed was incredible. After school the children were cleaning the schoolyard of snow.”

 Bowie and her son were the only Americans on the DMZ, she says, where a five-star colonel gave them a tour.

 “They took us where the treaty was signed and the colonel made reference to the fact that my son and I were Americans,” Bowie says.

 During her visit to North Korea, Bowie was surprised that government officials didn’t stamp her passport.

 

A traffic cop in North Korea www.riverviewobserver.net
Traffic Cop
North Korea
Leila Bowie 2012

 “They give you a tourist visa to give back at the end of the stay,” Bowie says. “There’s no record. My passport doesn’t say anything. Nobody knows that I’ve been there. We had to pass through several checkpoints, but they never gave us a problem.”

 For all its mystery, North Korea provided Bowie with excellent medical care when she got sick toward the end of her trip.

 “I stayed a few extra days because I was put in the hospital with septic poisoning,” Bowie says. “It was awful. We didn’t think I was going to live. I was in a hospital for foreign diplomats and the healthcare was wonderful. They took very good care of me.”

Back home, for now, Bowie says she would like to go back to her favorite country Thailand and open a free school to teach English to the girls who live in the mountains. Bowie relates more to the everyday people, she says, no matter where she visits.

 “I’ve lived in pool halls, I slept in rice bins,” Bowie says. “I’d rather be with the villagers. I’ve been so welcomed, people have taken me into their homes to live. It’s been amazing. I’m lucky I guess. One guy was holding me hostage on a camel but after a few choice words, he let me off the camel. At the time I was a 23 year-old New Yorker in Egypt. ”

  

 

 

 

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]]> What Is The World’s Riskiest Hotspot? https://riverviewobserver.net/what-is-the-world%e2%80%99s-riskiest-hotspot/ https://riverviewobserver.net/what-is-the-world%e2%80%99s-riskiest-hotspot/#respond Sat, 19 Sep 2009 15:26:53 +0000 http://riverviewobserver.net/?p=1505 While most Americans are focused on conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, primarily because we have troops in active combat there, potentially significant threats to the U.S. are simmering elsewhere, from China to Russia, from India to Pakistan – and one of the world’s most secluded celebrity tourist destinations may prove to be the Cuba of the new millennium.

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Hint: It’s Not Iraq or Afghanistan, But Rather,

A Celebrity Vacation Haven

                                                                                                                                                                                      scnewz 

While most Americans are focused on conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, primarily because we have troops in active combat there, potentially significant threats to the U.S. are simmering elsewhere, from China to Russia, from India to Pakistan – and one of the world’s most secluded celebrity tourist destinations may prove to be the Cuba of the new millennium.

 

That’s the opinion of Sir James Mancham, the first president of an island country called the Republic of Seychelles, a favourite vacation destination for stars like Keanu Reeves, Sean Connery, Jodie Foster and Prince William. Situated near the center of the Indian Ocean, Seychelles is a nation of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean, 930 miles east of mainland Africa, northeast of the island of Madagascar. More importantly, it sits in a position that makes it advantageous strategically in a military conflict for any aggressor near the Indian Ocean – China, India, Pakistan, Russia, North Korea – who needs a refueling station for aircraft or a port for ships.

 

All the countries in the region have active embassies in Seychelles, while the U.S. is conspicuously absent, Mancham said.

 

“I remember a time when Cuba was considered an inconsequential little sandbar off the Florida coast, filled with casinos and showgirls,” Mancham said. “That is, until Marxists took over and the Russians deposited some missiles there, a scant 90 miles from the United States. Suddenly, it became a very important little sandbar.”

 

Mancham speaks from experience. Seychelles was given independence from Great Britain in 1976, and Mancham was elected its first president. A year later, Marxist rebels staged a coup d’état, ousting Mancham from office. He escaped the country and lived in exile for 20-plus years until the Cold War ended. He returned to Seychelles as an elder statesman with a view to reunify his divided country country.

 

“No country is small if it is surrounded by the sea,” Mancham said. “Consider that this region houses China, whose impact on the U.S. economy is immeasurable. In addition, India and Pakistan are two neighbors whose religious malevolence towards each other surpasses even that of the myriad Middle Eastern conflicts. Also, they both have nuclear capability and absolutely no fear of the bomb. To our east is Africa, whose natural resources are of great interest to China as well as American business interests. For the U.S. not to have a diplomatic presence in Seychelles – where embassies represent each of their allies in the region – is an unconscionable omission of mythic proportions.”

 

The growing competition for power and influence in the Indian Ocean, the world’s primary energy and trade seaway has certainly put the Seychelles at the center of superpower rivalry. Only on the 1st of September, 2009, China and Seychelles signed an agreement for military collaboration. Two days later, the U.S. sent the Stuttgart-based Commander of the U.S. Africa Command, General William Ward to assure Seychelles that the U.S. is committed to a partnership towards “the common objective of peace and security in the region and around the world.”

 

“The U.S. supports new democracies, but China holds great power over the U.S. economy. Diplomacy would rule the day, but with no embassy in a strategic, as well as neutral, country in the region, the U.S. would lack a powerful tool and ally for stabilization and peace,” Mancham stated.

Mancham, whose autobiography, Seychelles: Global Citizen (www.paragonhouse.com) traces the roots of the country and how it has grown into its strategic and diplomatic significance, believes that global geo-politics is not a regional phenomenon. Instead, it is a complex, but singular, tapestry. The slightest pulled thread in the Far East can have wide ranging implications in the west.

 

 

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