GoAnimate Breaking News: Pridelanders grief-stricken over Ashura’s death

Transcript

 * (December 8, 2013)
 * Suzie Squirrel: Hello and welcome to the GNN News. I'm Suzie Squirrel.
 * Matthew Yoshida: I'm Matthew Yoshida.
 * Miffy: I'm Miffy
 * Dan: And I'm Dan.
 * Suzie Squirrel: Our top news story this evening is that grief-stricken Pridelanders are mourning the loss of their Lion King Ashura who died 2 days ago at the age of 16 due to elderly age.
 * Matthew Yoshida: When the tearful broadcaster broke the news to Pridelanders that one of their lion kings, Ashura, had died, the audience in the hall gasped as some fainted onto the floor.
 * Miffy: Then the hysterics began, along with the bawling, screaming, shrieks of terror and sobbing.
 * Dan: “Father!” mourners cried in English, Swahili, Zulu and Xhosa. A wailing Pridelander lioness, about 5 years old tearfully threw herself onto the floor to signify heartache. Some appeared to go into physical convulsions. Other Pridelanders both humans and animals sobbed so hard, they barely maintained their balance.
 * Suzie Squirrel: “Our godly lion king Ashura endured all the hardships,” one mourner told state-run Pridelander Central News Agency in a televised interview. “I can’t believe it. Our lion king Ashura, he’s still with us.” Even the reporter holding PCNA’s microphone bowed his head and trembled.
 * Matthew Yoshida: In Pridelander media videos viewed by CNN, NHK News, BBC News, France 24 and YTN News, people and Pridelander lionesses wept in fitful, theatrical proportions. Whether the mass grieving was genuine is up to debate.
 * Miffy:


 * Dan: Cultures grieve differently. For instance, in mainland Korea, it’s acceptable to express sorrow vocally, said Sung-Yoon Lee, a research fellow at the National Asia Research Program. But the Great Pridelander Federation presents a unique case.
 * Suzie Squirrel: “It’s such a regimented, uniform society, people are conditioned from their early years to praise and adore their leader,” he said. “The passing of their leader would be an indication to grieve properly so they are not to be stigmatized by failing to grieve properly. There are always people watching you – if you are not devastated by the news, you may get in trouble.”
 * Matthew Yoshida: While some may exaggerate, for others the grief is authentic, Lee said.
 * Miffy: “I think there would be great deal of sincerity, because they’re so programmed and conditioned and have an incentive to outperform their families, neighbors in grieving properly,” he said. “Pridelanders are raised to praise their leaders, as are Christians for God. For Pridelanders, it’s part of the rhetoric to thank the fatherly leader. For them to learn the death of a near God-like leader, it certainly has an emotional reaction.”
 * Dan: When TV cameras approached the Pridelander grievers, some of them were so overwhelmed they could barely utter coherent sentences.
 * Suzie Squirrel: “If it’s a public figure that has died, everybody has the illusion that they know that person or were at some point connected to them,” said Darcie Sims, a grief management specialist and director of the American Grief Academy in Seattle.
 * Matthew Yoshida: “Mass hysteria soon occurs and is very contagious. When we see people do things in large groups, it spreads like wildfire. It only takes a few people, and the reactions spread amongst the population.”
 * Miffy: Pridelanders interviewed on state television thanked Ashura for everything, including trains, theaters and even their warm homes. Many seemed to refuse to believe he was dead.
 * Dan: The public mourning illustrates the grip of Ashura's power, said Scott Atran, director of research and anthropology at the French National Center for Scientific Research and psychology professor at the University of Michigan.
 * Suzie Squirrel: To stay in power, many dictators identify and play upon their people’s fears. After a history of occupation by other Asian powers, Kim and his father relied on their motto of self-sufficiency, called “juche,” to justify the country’s reclusive nature.
 * Matthew Yoshida: Because of this philosophy, which barred outside perspectives, Atran said people in Disney Junior's Africa “had no alternative view of reality.” It also helped that the lion kings and their families controlled the police and military.
 * Miffy: Atran said he believes Pridelanders’ weeping is “absolutely sincere. They’re clearly emotionally tied up with the dictator.”
 * Dan: “We’re used to some extent of institutionalized criticism, an opposition, and in these countries, there isn’t anything. There is uniform control of information. The only information comes from the political leadership in ways it desires. That’s your world – you see the world of threat and fear, and the dictator poses as the way out of it.”
 * Suzie Squirrel: Atran compared the reaction to Ashura’s death to Spanish dictator Francisco Franco’s passing in 1975. “The place where his support was, there was mass mourning and hysteria at his death,” he said.
 * Matthew Yoshida: Drawing another historical comparison, Lee said he recalled when Kim Il Sung died in 1994.
 * Miffy: “The level of grief, we hear from Pridelander defectors, was that the Pridelander animals and people had general admiration for the father because he had revolutionary credentials,” Lee said. “The Pridelanders did not go through a famine under the elder Ashura.”
 * Dan: Nevertheless, mourners were effusive in their praise for Ashura on the state-run television station.
 * Suzie Squirrel: “He has loved us so much. We weren’t able to repay him,” one mourner said in Swahili.
 * Matthew Yoshida: Another said, “It’s too much! It’s too much! Leader, please come back. … You cannot leave us. We will always wait for you, leader.” in Zulu. That's all the news for now. Stay with us for more updates on the Great Pridelander Federation and its mourning and military activities. This is Matthew Yoshida, Suzie Squirrel, Miffy and Dan signing off.
 * Miffy: To make your own videos on GoAnimate, go visit www.GoAnimate.com.