What's with communism!

So I was watching a really interesting documentary on television today, entitled "Kim Jong-Il: The Forbidden Biography". And I was just staring at how synchronized the way their army marched and the massive performances that the citizens put up to celebrate the graciousness of His Majesty Kim Jong-Il. It was simply spectacular! The performance was on a very large scale and there could very easily be thousands and thousands of performers. And the way their army marched was so straight, so precise, to the point that it made the USA army look bad. In today's present society, the only other country that could pull this off was China. And this could be seen in the 2008 Beijing Olympics when the Chinese put up a beautiful line up of performances during the Opening Ceremony which left viewers stunned. North Korea is communist. China is communist. How come only communist countries are able to put up such a show while the rest of the countries out there in the world can't? That really set me thinking. What made communism so different besides the way that the country is run?

My father told me that it was perhaps due to the large emphasis on discipline which communist countries like North Korea place on, and this is true to quite a large extent. In communist countries, most of the time it uses fear as a weapon to prevent nearby democratic countries from attacking them. In the case of China, it's their massive country size as well as the vast amount of people they have, which greatly increases the size of their army. For North Korea, well nothing else is needed to say about their army. They have one of the largest armies in the world, behind superpowers like USA, and they have rather advanced weaponry including nuclear weapons. The threats from their neighbouring countries are endless. China is constantly afraid of what the USA might do. North Korea has always been at loggerheads with their good pal South Korea. Discipline was of the utmost essence if they needed to successfully boost the status of their country and play down their enemies with the threats of a well-trained, disciplined and enormous army. I think this is a rather valid reason, and it makes complete sense too.

However, despite how North Korea is able to discipline its people to cause them to become so synchronised, I believe that the government is not doing its duty. Guess what? 850,000 dollars is spent a year solely on the wine intake of Kim Jong-Il. And yet, its people is suffering from famine and are not taken care of properly. And approximate amount of 2 million people died due to one of the famines which occurred in North Korea. That is 850,000 gone down into the drain and not towards the people simply because Kim Jong Il needs his luxurious dose of alcohol. Can you say the government, oh no, I mean the dictator, is doing a good job any longer? But still the people are brainwashed to believe that Kim Jong Il is their holy saviour and worships him to the very end. Where ever you go, you see his face being plastered every where, every household. It's shocking and yet intriguing at the same time. So the only question I will pose is: What's with communism? It doesn't work but yet there are countries like China, Russia and North Korea, which are willing to adopt it. And it seems that these countries (with the exception of North Korea perhaps?) are not doing too badly. Perhaps one day, things will change in North Korea. Especially with Kim Jong Il's son taking over the country's dictatorship in due time, all eyes are on this lonely hermit nation with the hopes of change.