Queries from departed 'Dear Leader’s' send-off

Njoroge Kinuthia

Let's revist the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Not the death per se, but how he was mourned. The mourning was unprecedented in recent history. It was as if an entire nation had suddenly been caught up in collective delirium. North Koreans would gather in the open in huge numbers in cities, towns and villages and weep uncontrollably – weep, weep for, as he was known, for departed ‘Dear Leader’. Some outside the country derisively referred to the mourning as ‘mass hysteria’.