a b "Equatorial Guinea Reports Coup". The New York Times. Associated Press. 6 August 1979. p.1. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023 . Retrieved 30 August 2021.

Monica Macias - London, England, United Kingdom - LinkedIn Monica Macias - London, England, United Kingdom - LinkedIn

World: Africa: Equatorial Guinea". Archived from the original on 14 March 2012 . Retrieved 19 April 2017. It is an interesting story of post-colonialism, the Cold War and a certain North Korean life during the 1970s and 1980s. Hardly representative however and the author, although enjoying remarkable freedoms, seems ignorant to the circumstances of ordinary North Koreans. Her father is killed during the political chaos of post-colonial EG, in the early years of her time in NK. Yet she remains there, a guest of the government and grows up essentially Korean. She speaking the language, looses her Spanish and enjoying the food and lifestyle. Her mindset is very much positive towards her adopted country and she sees little to fault. While of course, being critical of the West and naturally the United States. Mereth, Martin (2011). África. Intermón Oxfam Editorial. ISBN 9788484525950 . Retrieved 4 April 2017. a b c d e Gardner, Dan (6 November 2005). "The Pariah President: Teodoro Obiang is a brutal dictator responsible for thousands of deaths. So why is he treated like an elder statesman on the world stage?". The Ottawa Citizen (reprint: dangardner.ca). Archived from the original on 12 June 2008. I was so scared. I thought "oh my god, it's an American". My palms were sweating and I just started to run. He was shouting "hey, stop! I'm not going to eat you".'Victoria Coren Mitchell gives birth! TV host, 51, welcomes second child with comedian husband David, 49, as proud parents confirm tot's sweet name Gardner, Dan (6 November 2005). "The Pariah President: Teodoro Obiang is a brutal dictator responsible for thousands of deaths. So why is he treated like an elder statesman on the world stage?". The Ottawa Citizen. Archived from the original on 12 June 2008. a b Buale Borikó, Emiliano, ed. (1989). El laberinto guineano. Debate político. Madrid: IEPALA Ed. ISBN 978-84-85436-73-6. This may sound harsh, but whenever she does try and expose her value system, her prose is reminiscent of an undergraduate-level politics essay. Grand statements that mean very little, waffly overarching generalisations, 'love don't hate'-style statements... such a missed opportunity, so many glaring omissions, and yet a lot of time is devoted to her time as a Leroy Merlin employee - only Spanish readers and/or anyone sufficiently acquainted with the Spanish home furniture market will realise how bonkers that sentence is.

Monica Macias | Consultant | Collaborative Social Change Monica Macias | Consultant | Collaborative Social Change

This is an excellent read. Many of my fellow Goodreads readers are offended by the fact of her being, and by the sheer effrontery of her advancing her view on things; I, however, am not. I think there is much value in her entreaty to consider the perspective we use to judge world leaders, because, as she points out, history is written by the victor (or, perhaps, in the case of North Korea, by the all-powerful Superpower), sometimes to the detriment of real progress. However, I did find myself sneering, too, at her attempts to sanitise the images of her two fathers: we all know that if the devil is your bestie, you’ll be moved to comment on his cute curls and how he used his fork to help plough your field that one time you really needed help. In other words, no one is truly the caricature that those who demonise them claim; but that can never mean they have not committed – or are not able to commit – atrocities. Macias cannot be blamed for speaking for those she cares for or loves. Caden, Cynthia. GUINEA ECUATORIAL EL AUSCHWITZ DE ÁFRICA (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 March 2016 . Retrieved 11 April 2022. Monica spent a somewhat confused and happy childhood at a strict, military boarding school in Pyongyang, where she lived a relatively privileged existence as the daughter of a close comrade and friend of Kim Il Sung. Scafidi, Óscar (2015). Equatorial Guinea. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 9781841629254 . Retrieved 13 April 2017. El Jefe de Estado español rechazó una absurda acusación de Macías contra la Guardia Civil" (in Spanish). 9 April 1969 . Retrieved 20 February 2017.Suzanne Cronjé (1976). Equatorial Guinea, the forgotten dictatorship: forced labour and political murder in central Africa. Anti-Slavery Society. ISBN 978-0-900918-05-6. But you don’t have to buy all of Macias’s conclusions to admire her attitude. As social media algorithms herd us all into bubbles which “protect” us from the discomfort of differing worldviews, we could all learn a lot from her lifelong quest to challenge her own prejudices. She remains open minded and makes no claim to have access to absolute truths. We can apply her commitment to critical thinking on smaller scales too, always asking ourselves who has a vested interest in spinning which stories. We might still decide that some people really are the baddies. But we should all, constantly, be questioning the symbols on our own hats. Pictured: British mother, 66, found stabbed to death in her picture postcard Italy home in crime that stunned expat community - as police hunt for her missing partner As the daughter of Francisco Macias, the first president of Equatorial Guinea following its independence from colonial Spanish rule, and as someone who grew up in North Korea, then proceeded to live in Madrid, New York, London and Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, this had the makings of a fantastic social and political tour-de-force. However, for the most part, her observations only ran skin deep and felt like incredibly biased and misplaced generalisations. She has been very closely involved at the highest levels of two countries that are generally regarded, in the west, as being despotic. Her central thesis is that's it's important to understand every country's viewpoint from its own perspective. I am more than happy to accept that. I have no doubt that the west has done terrible things in the past; that may influence the way in which it reports on other countries; and it may cause the west to continue to behave in ways which are not always just or fair. However, despite Macias saying several times that she wanted to investigate and understand Equatorial Guinea and North Korea, she failed to make it clear that this is what she did.

Fond Recollections of Dictators, Colored Later by the Lessons Fond Recollections of Dictators, Colored Later by the Lessons

Monica left North Korea after graduation and moved to Spain, desperate to learn more about where she came from. Feeling abandoned by her family, the young Monica struggled to fit into Korean society. At first she rebelled against its military discipline but eventually chose Korean culture over her own. Her Great Leader had promised her father that he would educate her and send her home to serve her own country. So he employed a Spanish teacher to ensure she kept up with her native language, but she refused to learn it and cleaved ever closer to Kim’s dictatorial regime, until the incident with the Syrian student and the newspaper.

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Monica was seven years old when her father was killed. She had been Spanish-speaking, but lost her language and culture during her education (and, frankly, indoctrination) at the military boarding school she attended just outside of Pyongyang. This book is the story of her life from her earliest childhood memories, through her years in North Korea, her leaving, and later, as she made her way as a woman with a complicated identity. Her decision to leave was driven by her desire to see the outside world, to connect to her past, and to find out whether her father really was a cruel dictator.

Communism, uprooting and dictatorships: Mónica Macías, the

Max Liniger-Goumaz (1988) Small is Not Always Beautiful: The Story of Equatorial Guinea, C. Hurst and Company, ISBN 1-85065-023-3. p.64 John B. Quigley (2006) The Genocide Convention: An International Law Analysis, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd, ISBN 0-7546-4730-7. p.31, 32 Within just a matter of months, her father had been executed in a military coup; her mother became unreachable. Effectively orphaned, she and two siblings had to make their life in Pyongyang. At military boarding school, Monica learned to mix with older children, speak fluent Korean and handle weapons on training exercises. Comments about structural racism feel tired and clichéd - whereas Monica could have had a fascinating perspective as someone with very mixed-race antecedents who has moved from Africa to Asia to Europe, and who speaks a variety of languages. For all her claims about the importance of education, there's not much evidence in here of critical thinking above a most basic level.

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Son of two retired Met police officers who avoided jail despite killing two pedestrians while drug-driving faces arrest for the eighth time for refusing to attend court She claims that she feels “grateful” towards Kim Il-sung, who has always been interested in her studies. It’s an interesting book at times and Macias has clearly led a very interesting life. The above quote though by Macias, referencing her experience of academic analysis of the North Korean regime, sums up my main gripe with the book. I originally requested this book because I am fascinated by North Korea and thought that I would learn more this mysterious country. Francisco Macías, un tirano fruto del colonialismo español". El País. 5 August 1979 . Retrieved 30 May 2016.