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...

Japanese revising their constitution?

Asia worried by changes in Japanese Constitution

How legitimate are their fears?

Many analysts see constitutional change as a step toward a more assertive Japan that could rattle Asian neighbors still harboring bitter memories of Japanese imperialism during the past century.

"Although Japan doesn't have the intent of becoming a military power, revising the Constitution could be seen by neighboring countries as a move toward militarism," said Hiro Katsumata, a defense analyst at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

During Monday's vote, about 500 protesters - including Buddhist monks and students - rallied outside the parliament, accusing Abe of aiming to change the constitution to allow Japan to go to war.

Understandable. The Japanese literally and figuratively raped their neighboring countries in the past--why would anyone want to let them have any power ever again?

Then again, back then, their neighboring countries had little military power and were far less developed than they are right now. Take South Korea, for example--its military force is formidable enough. At least, much more so than it was however many years ago. South Korea is most definitely capable of defending itself from Japanese attacks and second occupation.

Besides...

Geographically, Japan is at a disadvantage. It's an island with very limited resources, and it's puny, to name a couple of drawbacks.

I don't think we have much to worry about...at least, not for the time being.