Obsession of the Day: North Korea

Yesterday a friend sent me a link to a 14 part video series called the Vice Guide to North Korea, about these guys who manage to get into North Korea and take video of their experience. I watched all 14 parts, and was so fascinated that I now and have spent the greater part of the day researching North Korea further.

I think the idea that a country has managed to completely remove itself from the progress of time, to maintain a giant political fiction for 50 plus years, and to keep its own people in the dark about the truth (quite literally--they don't have electricity)--is just--well there are no words for it. There was even a famine in the mid-1990s (brought on by the collapse of the Soviet Union) that killed nearly 3 million people in three years. Yes while we were distracted by the OJ trails and the death of Kurt Cobain, the people of North Korea were fading away. I am just flabbergasted that such a regime could have existed, and exists to this day, and that the people didn't revolt in the streets even as their children were starving to death.

I am especially taken with their Mass Games, which is this enormous festival that employs over 100,000 (young) people 6 days a week for 2 months every year, until their "retirement." What is especially amazing is that they use people holding flashcards as a kind of human-powered giant LCD monitor--see the pictures below. I find this kind of thing mesmerizing, no less for the coordination, training, and self-discipline such a feat requires, as for the kind of government that concentrates funds to put on a show of this magnitude:

Absolutely amazing, and horrifying at the same time, when you know what's behind it all. What would happen in America if the lights suddenly didn't work anymore, and there were no streetlights, no electricity, no distractions? Would people just quietly accept it, as the North Koreans did, or would they immediately protest in the streets? You have to wonder.

In America, we prefer that things wind down slowly instead of grind to a halt, avoiding public outrage by making quiet little changes here and there. And it's never anything so dramatic as the lights going out--changes to health care plans and policies are more our speed, bankrupting people by degrees. Last year my company saw fit to pass on the rising costs of group health insurance to its employees, thereby raising our premiums and effectively reducing our take-home pay, all for benefits that cover less than before. Now for the first time I am having to pay cash out of pocket for routine dental visits, and possibly hundreds of dollars for a recent trip to the emergency room to have 5 stitches put in (no bill has been received yet, but I see the way the wind is blowing from the EOB I received in the mail).

Yes, with a husband who has been out of work for over a year now (give or take a few weeks), carrying enormous student loan and credit card debt, plus a mortgage and car payment, I can really afford higher premiums, less coverage, and more out-of-pocket expenses. And I'm HEALTHY, people. I don't even get cavities--my doctor and dental visits are nothing more than routine maintenance visits at this point. Just imagine what they would be if we had major problems! I shudder to think.

North Koreans have been taught not to envy others, because they believe that their country is the greatest, that the Eternal Leader Kim Il-Sung (dead) is still god and father to his people, and that, even though they may have hardships, they are told it is much worse in other places, so they consider themselves lucky.  One can only imagine how their country would implode if communication with outsiders was permitted. Here in America, we have freedom of information, and the truth is out there if you choose to find it--yet it still doesn't make much difference, at the end of the day. Complacency is hard to fight.