If they reported a household for failing to clean them – we once saw them shine a flashlight at an angle to see if they could discern a single mote of dust on the glass – the family would be punished. About once a month officials wearing white gloves entered every house in the block to inspect the portraits. This holy trinity we called the Three Generals of Mount Paektu. She was the first wife of Kim Il-sung and the sainted mother of Kim Jong-il. Public buildings, and the homes of high-ranking cadres of the Party, were obliged to display a third portrait – of Kim Jong-suk, a heroine of the anti-Japanese resistance who died young. No other pictures or clutter were permitted on the same wall. They had to be the highest objects in the room and perfectly aligned. If we needed to gesture towards them, we did so with the palm of the hand facing upward, with respect. Hyeonseo Lee, The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story tags: challenge, glamour, interview, magazine, obstacle, path, road, ted, ted-talks, thegirlwithsevennames 72 likes Like This is when I understood that we can do without almost anything our home, even our country. ‘Never do that.’ Pointing, I learned, was extremely rude. Once, when I pointed a finger at them, my mother scolded me loudly. Even as a toddler I knew that the portraits were not like other household items. We used a special cloth provided by the government, which could not be used for cleaning anything else. “From an early age I helped my mother clean them.
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