Inside North Korea (Part 2)

I think what people fail to realize is that for the most part, North Koreans are genuine in their worship and praise of Kim Jung Il and Kim Il Sun. Think about it-these people have never known anything outside of North Korea. The government makes sure that there is no outside influence, and they control every aspect of life. How can the people be discontented with something when they have no way of finding a measure of comparison? Most, if not all, North Koreans truly believe that their way of life is the best, and that it is their duty to educate and spread their way of life to the rest of the world. That's kind of what the Juche ideology is about as well.

North Korea...such a complicated nation. How can we help a peoople so far gone, so firm in their beliefs that they don't need any help? Hm...

Inside North Korea

This is the first part of a National Geographic documentary about North Korea.

Part 1


Quite possibly one of the most depressing video clips I have ever seen.

Just one thing--according to Micheal Breer, "the juche philosophy basically means 'up yours' to the outside world. We can make everything ourselves, we don't need you."

The Juche ideology is much more than just that--it is a religion, a way of viewing the world. It is God's gift to the North Koreans, for them to spread throughout the world. They believe that they are some kind of Jerusalem of the East, that it is their destiny, their duty, their calling, to share with the world what God has blessed them with. And they want to start by dominating the South and indoctrinating them as well.

Part 2 to come later.

1984

A video I've watched several times, and one that I won't get sick of. =)

To be honest, I like it more for the technical side, not for the political implications. It's crazy how much creativity flows from some people's minds...

www.challengeofthesuperduperfriends.com

HAHAHAHAHA.

Wow. That's pretty dang funny...

A New Generation of Politics

Citizen Tube

I must say this is pretty awesome, though some of it is kind of stupid. I'm glad they're trying to bring the candidates and the campaigns to the Net, to Youtube, to the people, to the youth. Now if only people tuned in more and did more than just sit, watch, and type responses. Let's take it to the next level, yes?

Nixon vs. Kennedy in relation to...

today.

In August President Eisenhower, who had long been ambivalent about Nixon, held a televised press conference in which a reporter mentioned Nixon's claims that he had been a valuable administration insider and advisor. The reporter asked Eisenhower if he could think of any Nixon advice or suggestions that he had heeded. Eisenhower responded with the flip comment that "if you give me a week I might think of one." Although both Eisenhower and Nixon later claimed that Ike was merely joking with the reporter, the remark hurt Nixon, as it undercut his claims of having greater decision-making experience than Kennedy. The remark proved so damaging to Nixon that the Democrats turned Eisenhower's statement into a television commercial criticizing Nixon.

I guess what we're experiencing with the Internet (ie. Youtube) these days is something that's been going on and has been kind of a big deal for far longer than I thought. I'm taking a class at school entitled Blogs, Politics and the Media, and the other day we were talking about how it's crucial that people are careful of what they say, because it can be recorded, posted on the Net, and repeated everywhere long after the act. On top of that, it can incite people who care enough to dig up things of the past, things you thought were long forgotten. I guess it was the same way with Nixon. That sucks...

That, my friends, is what you call a joke gone bad. Really bad.

U.S. Says Macau to Release $25M in Frozen N. Korean Funds

Nuclear North Korea + Money = bad idea


(Photo from http://flapsblog.com/)


How wise is it, really, to trust the North Koreans? Yes, I realize that nobody has much of a choice and that we need to cooperate with the upper half of the Korean peninsula...but still. How can we even know for sure that they'd really stop production and what not? North Korea may be poor, and the people starving, dying and disappearing...but that doesn't mean that the government is stupid. In fact, the fact that this nation still exists goes to show just how smart the government officials are. They've managed to keep a dying nation alive for far longer than it should have been. We have a hard time finding any real figures and stats about this place, because it is so closed and so private. How can we rest assured that they would stop nuclear production? Even if they stop the physical production, we don't know that they would go and improve their technology on paper.

Then again, what can we do? Not much. I say we gather all the North Korean officials and send them off in a rocket up onto Mars. Maybe they'll figure out a way for human life to subsist on this planet, a mystery yet to be solved, simply as a result of their belief that they are superior than all others. And I'm half kidding. I suppose that the only way we can really deal with this insolent group is to just go about doing what we're doing--though we may trip, fall, and totally destroy ourselves in the process of groping around in the dark, there's actually a chance that we might find the light switch and be able to deal with this matter in a better informed and well guided way.

Until then, I say we put Kim Jong Il on a one way rocket to Mars.

Wow.

Seriously, people like to pick everything apart. Sometimes, we need to step away from such tiny details and take a look at what really matters. When you zero in on the pixels in a photo, you can't really see the photo as it was meant to be seen. When you nitpick and tear sentences from speeches apart, chances are you're not looking at the speech as a whole, what it really meant.

Let's take a step back, people. Let's look at the big picture.

Yahoo helped Chinese to prosecute journalist

Dude...this sucks.

But I must say...perhaps it wasn't so wise of the journalist, Shi Tao, to post through Yahoo. Well, to post anything on the Internet, at least. Especially because he was and is living in China as he criticizes it. I know a few missionaries in China right now who are extremely careful about even the words they post. They refrain from posting any words with religious connotations, and are very roundabout in their explanations about the work they are doing, if ever they do mention it at all.

Aside from that, Yahoo could have been more careful. But maybe it was included in the user agreement somewhere, that all their information could be forfeited to the government. Ugh. I know this is slightly old news, but it still saddens me.

Welcome

So this is it--this is my political blog. Too bad I don't really know much about politics to begin with..

Bear with me. I'm still learning. =)