The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
Over on the Member Feed, Maggie Somavilla posted a link to a National Review book review of the horrifying memoir, Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West.
Reading NR's two page review of the book is overwhelming. We learn of the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, a young North Korean man who had spent his entire life from infancy in a North Korean gulag with up to 200,000 other prisoners. He and his fellow prisoners were kept as animals; they lived in squalor, disease, and brutality. Shin witnessed the beatings and executions of classmates and family members, and was even instrumental in bringing about his mother's and brother's hangings. The details of his existence in the prison camp reveal a human darkness beyond comprehension.
Being overpowered by sadness and disgust, I shared the review with a handful of close friends so that I wouldn't be alone with the burden of this horrific knowledge. One friend was outraged by the powerlessness he felt upon reading the review. "Why isn't the U.S. intervening?" he demanded. "Someone needs to do something!"
And then his anger over the situation turned into frustration toward me for making him aware of such an awful reality. "Well then there is no benefit in the media informing me about atrocities taking place in the res to of the world if no one is helping. I would prefer to remain ignorant in my San Franciscan community, and go to Giants games and shop at Whole Foods," he concluded.
That's the mentality that our own Claire Berlinski butts in to with her reporting of the goings on in Turkey. It's a fury induced by powerlessness that people feel when learning about atrocities in a faraway corner of the world. Either that, or an apathy that results from a desensitization to this kind of news; there will always be madmen and violence and horror in the world, and aside from praying, there's so little that any of us on our own can do about that.
Even if they often fall short, it's easy to see a clear purpose of domestic media—government must be held accountable by the citizens, and the citizenry must be kept informed in order to do that. But what's the purpose of the media when it comes to reporting on global issues? Why, for instance, is it important that some nobody like me knows about the horrors that seize North Korea? Is it merely knowledge for the sake of knowledge?
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Feb '11
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
It isn't merely knowledge for the sake of knowledge. But it also foolishness to think you can do something about it right now which is the impulse of many people. And what exactly is it you would do if you could do something about it? Something destructive? Something expensive? Kill people to keep people from being killed? Spend billions in some program where half the money winds up in secret bank accounts of corrupt officials as in Afghanistan?
Not all problems have solutions. And there are those who are closer and could supposedly do something about it themselves (South Korea), but they either don't want to or don't have a clue as to what to do. Pretty presumptuous of us to think we can, isn't it?
Nov '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
I watched recently The Vice Guide to North Korea. It depicts something pretty grim and utterly surreal, though of course I'd heard the reality is much worse.
I was curious to watch other YouTube videos about the situation, particularly the gulags.
The truth is horrific beyond belief; things that eclipse the level of sadism of the Nazi death camps. God help those people.
Oct '11
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
War. That's the answer. The Kim government should be destroyed.
I'm serious.
Nov '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
Perhaps it's so we realize that the freedoms we take for granted are an historic and geographic anomaly. President Reagan once said:
Sep '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
Tyranny, slavery and poverty are the norm of man. If you fail to stand up for liberty & property. This is your destiny. To be ruled by despots. They have to make a choice, to die on their feet free or to die on their knees licking the hands of their masters.
Dec '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
Diane, I would suggest that your friend who got angry with you quite likely bought into the whole Kony 2012 campaign as well. One of the greatest assets our (US) society has is its "can-do" attitude. Unfortunately, it's also one of our greatest faults.
Not all problems have a clear cut, immediate solution. I find stories like this to actually be a help to me - it helps me keep focused on how incredibly blessed I am to live in this country. And I'm intentionally using the word "blessed" - I certainly didn't do anything to deserve the benefits I have of living here.
I've come to accept that when it comes to global tragedies, I can only pick one small piece to make a difference. I visited Uganda and saw the deprivations, but just felt totally helpless to do anything. Until I visited an orphanage run by a woman and her teenage sons. I ran a fund raising campaign when I came home and came up with almost $10K to help feed and educate those kids.
Will this story make a difference in some child's life? I hold on to the hope that it will.
Sep '11
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
This has value for the same reason history does - so we understand the world and can act to shape it, even if we can't solve particular problems.
Aug '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
The value is threefold.
First, we are given this opportunity to pray for the deliverance of those people.
Second, we learn what the long term consequences of appeasement are - to a degree that cannot even be denied by those on the left. This is the result of 60 years of toleration and the story must be told and repeated.
Third, this is the perpetual lesson of what will happen to those remaining if the progressives are ever given the power to do what they desire.
When I was in South Korea, one of my co-workers mentioned that we are not just there to protect the South, but also to prevent the South from forcible reunification - I replied that we should leave then - some things ought not be tolerated.
Jul '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
Dr. Sowell has said [quoting from memory],"The question isn't,'when did slavery end?,' but,'when did Freedom begin?'"
It's none of Our business. We have borders for a reason.
Dec '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
Albert Arthur: War. That's the answer. The Kim government should be destroyed.
I'm serious. · 2 hours ago
I tend to agree, but then I ask myself, "and then what?" I'm not sure there has ever been a nation of people so completely, intentionally dehumanized, even under Mao, Pol Pot, or Stalin. Where do you start to rebuild normal human relations in a society where starving children steal from their own parents the little food the family is given? Or, where mother and son are pitted against each other for their very survival, spying and snitching on one another? What is the hope of anything transcendent, like love, or even common decency, when people are reduced to animals with language? It's horrifying. But, maybe it's better to "nuke" the seat of power and see what falls out, than to sit by and do nothing. I don't know.
Apr '11
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
There are problems with no solution (or with no solution we're willing to impose).
North Korea, any country in Africa, Syria, Egypt... We cannot police the world, we cannot afford to, and policing efforts usually blow up in our faces.
As wretched as NK is, it's not in our interest to intervene (thus taking on China).
Aug '11
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
There may be no direct or immediate action we can take to improve things, but the Norks sure don't want this known about so that in itself is a good reason to to make it known.
Apr '11
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
"Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair."
Elie Wiesel
Does chronicling and remembrance serve any useful purpose? Apparently so, if the continual justified outpouring of anti-fascist art and writing are any indication. We humans feel the need to remember, warn and remonstrate. Lest we forget, the Nazis are forced to relive their crimes in front us day after day, month after month, year after year in films, books and plays.
But are the crimes of Marxism, communism, socialism admitted equally? These reports from North Korea exceed any atrocity of the Nazis. Yet how many will hear this story, how many will admit this knowledge into their consciousness?
Oddly it was the French who collated the long, barbarous, bloody history of communism into one volume, one of the most important books of our recent past. This terrible tale of a multigenerational Korean communist gulag will remain un-noted by conventional wisdom, to be added to some future edition of the chronicle which is The Black Book of Communism. Until such a day as the crimes of the right and the left, the crimes of the fascists and the communists are treated equally.
Sep '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
What did the right do? Fascism and Communism are simply on opposite sides of street of the road to Serfdom.
Edited on May 1, 2012 at 3:17amNov '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
Uhh... yeah.
Hang On:
Not all problems have solutions. And there are those who are closer and could supposedly do something about it themselves (South Korea), but they either don't want to or don't have a clue as to what to do. Pretty presumptuous of us to think we can, isn't it? · 4 hours ago
It's not presumptuous at all. Most countries in the world are full of losers and softies. South Korea is no exception.
Feb '12
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
Can we at least start with moral clarity. George Bush got his share of ridicule when he called Iraq, Iran and North Korea axis of evil. In our "post-American" world we send troops to Haiti to replace pro-American dictator with anti-American; we threaten pro-American regimes in Columbia and Honduras; we pour billions to Palestinian Authority, hundreds of millions of which make their way to Hamas.
True, countries evolve on their own schedules - Cuba and North Korea may have years or decades until they fall apart. But with UN obsessed with the hoax of Palestinian sufferings - it would be nice to realize that some peoples are really destitute!
May '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
I understand the impulse of your friend. It's the same one that makes a child want to hide under the covers when something scary is happening. We prefer not to know about what we're not equipped to deal with.
It's human, but it's not okay. Even if we can't see what to do about it, it's not okay to choose not-knowing. To refuse to listen to the truth is to add to the suffering of the victims.
This is something I learned in the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church. So many of us shut our ears. We didn't want to believe that priests were capable of such things. We preferred to believe that the victims were lying.
Here's an ineluctable truth: the first and indispensable step to overcoming evil is acknowledging evil for what it is. If we refuse to do that, we're adding to the moral climate that keeps it in power.
Jun '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
Jimmy Carter
It's none of Our business. We have borders for a reason. · 4 hours ago
What borders? For all the success we've had at keeping people and things out, we might as well not have borders.
None of our business? If we ignore the situation long enough, it will become our business with a vengeance.
Jun '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
The price of intervention goes way beyond dollars. We shouldn't intervene if we aren't willing to pay the full price, to go all the way until the job is finished.
America does not know how to win a war. We can win the battles, and we do, but we end up losing the war because we don't know what to do after the battles are won.
Jun '10
Re: The Weight of the Horrors in North Korea
I'd be happy if we stopped supporting the North Korean government. We send food that doesn't get to the hungry. The money saved by the DPRK is then used to by weapons. This kind of thing could only make sense to a madman, or a politician, but I repeat myself.