He didn't seem to care if we weren't listening. So North Korea today. After 10 days travelling throughout the country, it is clear that the old socialist system of surveillance, party loyalty and rigid social hierarchy is still intact. It is also clear that no one believes in it any more: the smell of cynicism is so strong that no perfumed propaganda can mask it.Everywhere the relics of the past are visible - the statues of Kim Il Sung, the showcase museums celebrating the revolution, the sprawling heavy industrial complexes that are out of fuel, cold and unstaffed. He had not heard of the Italian tenor, but he recognised the tune of Funiculi Funicula and, as happens with people wearing earphones, he began to sing along without realising how loud he was. As we passed an enormous bronze statue of a horse, one of the guides began the standard commentary: when the Chollima Horse Statue was built, how heavy it is, how the work troupes laboured day and night on its construction and how it symbolises the North Korean people's determination to work ever harder in the service of the revolution under the supreme guidance of the Great Leader, Kim Il Sung.
His police are worse than the Jews,'' a young man said.If yesterday's truce is to hold, Mr Arafat must soon prove such people wrong.. International donors have reneged on pledges of help and Palestinians have felt increasingly ignored by politician ``peacemakers'' and their own leadership. Many Palestinians believe Mr Arafat has signed a deal which forces him to do Israel's bidding ``Arafat does what Rabin tells him. Others, however, say the violence is simply the inevitable result of a peace deal that cannot work. If it doesn't work in Gaza, it will not work anywhere.For nearly five months Mr Arafat has been trying to prove to his people that the deal he signed with Israel would bring hope for the future. Gazans have been patient, prepared to wait for their dreams to be fulfilled, knowing Israel would block progress at every turn.But the people wanted something - anything - to make up for their past sacrifices. Those who rose up against the Palestinian police and Mr Arafat were not just Islamic militants intent on destroying the agreement ``It was all the ordinary people who threw stones It was not just Hamas and Jihad.
It was people with no money and no jobs,'' said a Palestinian student ``My brother was not Hamas or Jihad. He was a Palestinian citizen,'' said Zuher Abu Assi, as his brother lay groaning from bullet wounds.Since Mr Arafat's arrival economic misery has only deepened in Gaza as Israel has barred Palestinians from jobs in Israel. Others believe it is the first round in a Palestinian civil war. Everyone in Gaza knows, however, that it matters little who fired the first shot. ``It was Arafat's police who started it - Arafat traitors,'' said the supporters of the Islamic militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.