N. Korean escapees

Freedom.


Such a bittersweet story. It's amazing how this family of four managed to survive a six day, 900 km (roughly 560 mi) journey in a small boat.

"It took a week for us to come here for freedom," they said. "We headed for Japan since South Korea and North Korea have strong security on their borders. We planned to kill ourselves with the poison if we were caught by the North. We want to go to South Korea."

Dude. That's what you call determination. I can't imagine...floating in a teeny boat on the sea for six days straight, with no real guarantee that I'd even make it to any safe shore. And then to carry a bottle of poison with me, in case I decided that my trip had failed.

Bittersweet.

Sweet because it makes me more grateful that I live here, where I have so many freedoms...even if my every action online is being watched, recorded, analyzed. That's so miniscule compared to fleeing for my life, compared to floating aimlessly in a small boat, not knowing if the rest of my family or I would make it out alive.

Bitter because the reality is that there are so many people left behind on the northern half of the Korean peninsula, so many more who will never live to see anything outside of North Korea, so many more who will die miserable deaths after having lived miserable lives.

Yet all I do is sit here and type away at my laptop...

Chinese journalist wins press freedom award

Yay for Shi Tao!


At least some good came of this whole issue. It's kind of ridiculous how the Chinese government claimed that "that the Chinese constitution protected press freedom." Haha. Hahaha. Good one.

We are not impressed by this argument," Brock said. "Such freedoms do not exist in China today. If they did, Shi Tao would not be in prison, nor would dozens of others."

-George Brock, World Editors Forum (WEF) president

Apparently "the WAN (World Association of Newspapers) and WEF would start a public campaign pressing for Shi's release." =)

He's already served two years--let's get him out of there ASAP.

Study Says Youth Less Interested in Politics

So this is in Russia.

But I've a feeling that it's applicable to the U.S. as well. Why is it that youth is so apathetic? Perhaps it's because we have been taught to be individualistic, to work for our own gain, to zero in on how to improve our own lives. I guess what we fail to realize is that politics, the government, plays a huge role in influencing our standard of living.

I have to admit, I'm guilty of this political apathy as well. I guess that's why I'm "politically clueless" in the first place. For a while there I'd forgotten that I'm of age now--I can actually vote. Thank goodness for this assignment, for this blog. Else I would probably have stayed in my state of political ignorance and complacency for a while longer.

Time to take a stand and actually start caring.

The Cost of Education...

U.S. Puts Limits on Lenders’ Ties to Universities

I wish the government was more active in helping students get through school. It's so darn expensive...and there are plenty of us who have loans that we do need to pay off--not all of us can afford to pay for our education up front. The UK seem to be a lot more in tune with the students' financial shortcomings and consequential needs.

The Government is reversing years of under-investment with an increase in funding for higher education averaging more than 6 per cent – over and above inflation – for the next three years. Funding for student support will rise sharply – including new grants for students from lower income families – and the science settlement is the most generous for a decade. This extra investment will boost access and enable universities to tackle many of their immediate problems.

It'd be great if the U.S. government was the same way.

Then again, maybe they are. Maybe I just haven't researched it enough...hm.

We learn from our mistakes, no?

Romney’s Political Fortunes Tied to Riches He Gained in Business

Mitt Romney owes his nearly $350 million fortune and his political career to a delicate negotiation with his boss in the summer of 1983.

Okay. So Romney can do what he's doing because he made bank back in the day. Nothing wrong with that, right? He used his skills of persuasion and logic to succeed in the business world--granted, he did make a couple of mistakes, as are pointed out in the article. But the article focuses in on two incidents--that's two incidents out of about fifteen years. If those are the only two screw ups that can really be picked at, I say Romney did a pretty dang good job. He's human, and people make mistakes. I think too often we forget that politicians were normal people before they became what we view them as today. Though...that's not to say that politicians aren't normal people. Actually, I guess they really aren't. But that's an entirely different story...

Does wealth really "breed violence and export terror?"

According to Bush...

"When we help lift societies out of poverty, we create new markets for American goods and new jobs for American workers. When we help reduce chaos and suffering, we make America safer, because prosperous nations are less likely to breed violence and export terror."

I don't think wealth is necessarily a good way to measure how likely a nation is to "breed violence and export terror." Going back to an earlier an entry, It seems that the UK and US are breeding grounds for rebellious, crime mongering youth. From the article from that entry...

While an ageing, ever more crowded Europe looks on anxiously at the stress behaviour currently being exhibited by its own dysfunctional young – be it Parisian car barbeques or riots in Denmark and Germany – our continental cousins can’t help but notice that many of these behaviours debuted in Anglo-American cultures.

The US and UK are among the wealthiest, the most developed...yet

According to the Unicef report, which measured 40 indicators of quality of life – including the strength of relationships with friends and family, educational achievements and personal aspirations, and exposure to drinking, drug taking and other risky behaviour – British children have the most miserable upbringing in the developed world. American children come next, second from the bottom.

Lovely.

"Prosperous nations are less likely to breed violence and export terror."

Hardly. We need to look past just wealth. Judging from personal observations, it seems that those with the most money and free time are the ones who cause the most trouble. Violence and terror don't stem from poverty; violence and terror stem from issues much deeper than just financial stability.

This is not to say that wealth and poverty have nothing to do with this issue at all--just to say thta they are not the only contributing factors.

Sex Sells

Porn Tycoon Offers $1M For Sex Scandal

Dude. Are you freaking serious? The article is short enough for me to post it here...

Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt is offering $1 million to anyone who can provide proof of an illicit sexual encounter with a high-ranking government official.

In a full-page ad in The Washington Post, Flynt asked for "documented evidence of illicit sexual or intimate relations with a congressperson, senator or other prominent officeholder."

He said he would pay up to $1 million for material that could be verified and published in Hustler.

Flynt ran a similar ad in October 1998, during the height of the Monica Lewinsky scandal that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton.

The publisher took credit for the resignation of House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston, who admitted he'd had extramarital affairs after word got out that Flynt was investigating him.

Is this what politics boils down to? I guess sex really does sell. Maybe this is what it'll take for some people to gain an interest in anything even slightly politically related.

What's the point of this, anyway? Oh dear...