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mood

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stunned

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just watched two short documentaries about north korea, first a national geographic special featuring lisa ling, the other called 'Kimjongilia', which actually is named after a flower created for kim jong il to represent "peace, love, wisdom, and justice". i can't believe that's not a joke. i am sickened, i am horrified. and having spent so many hours reading about this and reading or watching accounts from people who reached the brink of death trying to escape, i cannot understand why it seems like no one is doing anything about this, not on a large scale. how. how can people have all of this information available to them and not DO anything? how can your heart not weep knowing that our family in north korea is suffering every single day? i sound like a PSA or a hippie i know, but i can't recall ever feeling so strongly about a political issue--except this isn't really a political issue, it is a matter of human rights. i have never felt so lucky to have the myriad of privileges in my life. and now i want to take control of my life more than ever so that i can be involved. i hope this feeling lasts. for the past few days somehow i have gone from a person with no opinion or information about this to someone who feels horrified and passionate about reaching out to my fellow human being. i can't believe that there are so many people being tortured under the illusion of splendor and normalcy, being sent to camps, being indoctrinated into a belief system that only causes pain and suffering...now? in 2011? for the past 5 decades? how sick. how very very fucking sick.

these people are demonized under the name of patriotism--people seem to see north koreans as a nation of horrible communist bastards who threaten our existence when they are really just people. they are indoctrinated people, and yes, they do not respect the US, maybe some of them don't even know anything is wrong--but that is because they have spent their entire lives under the rule of a regime that totally cuts them off from the reality of the world around them. they have no basis for comparison. they have no spectrum of information to consider like we do here. they can't look on wikipedia and read about the difference between democrats, republicans, and libertarians. they can't go to the library and check out a George Orwell book. they can't watch CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, they can't visit different kinds of churches--they can't even go to church--and they can't diverge. i can sit here if i want and tell the world every reason why i don't love Obama. they say a word against their "Dear Leader"/"President for Life" and it's off to prison camp, or surveillance. they don't have the information or the freedom to make something much better for themselves, unless maybe they are one of the few who live in the capital, who can aim to be higher up members of the military, and maybe even eat two or three meals a day! such excitement.

people can complain all they want about capitalism and how no man is truly free, and though i agree, that is an entirely different topic. what i don't agree with is how all of these people dwell on what is wrong in their hometown, how prices go up, (and yes that is completely valid) but pay no attention to atrocities occurring to people who breathe the same air as us, have the same emotions as us, need the same things we do. i picture my own family being shipped off to a fucking prison camp for doing something "wrong" and i'm sick to my stomach, i can't even really imagine it. and it's no different for them.