Best Thing Ever To Emerge from a Celebrity Trip to North Korea
When former New Mexican Governor Bill Richardson made yet another of his many trips to North Korea, bringing with him Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, I was skeptical than anything good would come of it. North Korea has a long record of turning to its own advantage any overtures from the Free World, official or not. From former President Jimmy Carter to former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, from Bush Administration envoy Chris Hill to the New York Philharmonic, from the travels of American nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker to the more than half dozen forays by Richardson himself, these overtures to North Korea have resulted chiefly in American concessions, to which the Pyongyang totalitarian Kim-dynasty regime has replied with such stuff as ballistic missile and nuclear tests, munitions and missile traffic with Middle East trouble-makers including Iran, a refusal to render up all abducted citizens of other countries, and the continuing grotesque repression of North Korea’s own people.
About the best that can be said, and it is not a happy message, is that when Bill Clinton went to Pyongyang in 2009 — upon the insistence of the Kim regime — North Korea did allow him to bring home two American employees of Al Gore’s Current TV channel (that was before Gore sold out to Al Jazeera) who had been imprisoned and were facing horrific sentences for the blunder of trespassing from China into North Korea. Clinton’s visit, which included posing for a photo-op dignifying the late Kim Jong Il with the company of a favor-seeking former leader of the Free World, was effectively the payment of a ransom demanded by North Korea.
In sum, the visit of yet another high-profile delegation to Pyongyang — whether official or not — did not bode well. If either Richardson or Google’s Eric Schmidt achieved some marvelous breakthrough with this journey, we have yet to hear about it. But this latest Richardson expedition did produce one surprise. — the best thing ever to emerge from a celebrity trip to North Korea. Google’s Schmidt brought with him his teenage daughter, Sophie. She turns out to be a worldly young woman with a flair for photography, keen observation, and wry humor. She has now posted a travelogue, sophieinnorthkorea, which with photos and commentary, under the caption “It might not get weirder than this,” conveys the kind of gritty reality that most big name delegations don’t tell you about. Starting with the note that the group had no interactions with any non-state-approved North Koreans, and everywhere they went, apart from the bizarre state guest house, it was freezing. The buildings had no heat. They were never far from their two minders “(2, so one can mind the other).” In a leading library, so cold you could see your breath, they were offered a glimpse of some 90 people seated at desks, staring fixedly at computers, and doing… nothing. And Sophie brings us this marvelous summary of some of the developments available to at least some members of the elite, on the tech front: “North Korea has a national intranet, a walled garden of scrubbed content taken from the real Internet.”
What’s special about this is not so much that there is news to be found in these observations — most of the totalitarian details here, possibly all, have been reported before (though I don’t think I’ve read anywhere else about Kim Jong Il’s beloved 15″ Macbook Pro being displayed beside his embalmed corpse). But this account comes from someone who went not as a lowly reporter, but as a member of a celebrity group whose doings were sure to get plenty of attention — and instead of coming home with canned statements and hedged diplomatic pronouncements, she told it like it was. Good going, Sophie. Here it is again, sophieinnorthkorea. The only thing I’d add is, when you look through it, keep in mind that the government that runs this horror show has also been making and testing nuclear weapons, and ballistic missiles that could be capable of reaching, say, California.
Also read:
Sophie still has her perception for accurately filtering reality intact. Thank goodness. But she and her photos illustrate precisely why altering the perceptual filtering lens has become an explicit part of of UNESCO inspired global ed “reform.” With the US enthusiastically joining in in the actual Common Core implementation documents and poorly appreciated aspects of Race to the Top.
http://www.invisibleserfscollar.com/changing-the-filtering-perception-the-way-we-see-the-world-is-key/ explains precisely how this works using quotes from actual documents. It is why Outcomes Based education always comes back in function if not name. Because different motivating values and attitudes coupled to false beliefs about the nature of the world all bundled up in emotion are powerful drivers of future behavior.
Thanksgiving week this Administration released the new Social Studies Common Core Framework. It is called the new College, Career and Civic Life (C3) Framework and is full of factual misrepresentations about the nature of the relationship in the US between citizen and state. But it will become the basis for what is believed by the next generation. It even mentions wanting students to practice daily with the “lenses” created by the described relationships as citizen or member of a system.
Thank goodness there was no C3 Framework for Sophie.
I never quite understood why we are always appeasing the madmen in Pyongyang. I know the official reason, which is that America and South Korea keep appeasing North Korea in fond hopes that they will not attack the South or that they will somehow magically “change” their leadership and become a model of Jeffersonian democracy. Well, 60 years after the end of the Korean War and what did all that appeasement get us? Not much. If anything, the country is way more dangerous now because of the nuclear weapons it not only possesses, but is also determined to sell to other dangerous nations, like Iran.
But what if we tried some other tactic? What if we just said “NO” to the North Koreans? No more money, no more bribes, no more food, just a lot of nothing. What would they do?
Many would say that North Korea would then attack South Korea, killing perhaps millions. But would China really allow that to happen? China knows how we, the South Koreans, and possibly even the Japanese would react to that and they also know it really wouldn’t end well for the North Koreans. Sure, the North Koreans would probably kill a lot of people, but North Korea would be wiped off the map, either with conventional or nuclear weapons, and China knows it. Does China really, really, want all of this happening on its southern border? Does China really, really, want to see its largest trading partner, the United States, in an open war with a country on its southern border? And with all this fighting going on in North Korea, does China want to risk other disputes with countries on its border, like Vietnam, India, or Russia?
The Chinese have to be made to understand that THEY have a lot more to lose with a rogue North Korea than we do. For all I care, the North Koreans can keep mistreating their own people all they want. It is their country and if that’s the way they want to live, who am I to say they can’t? And if the North Korean people are too stupid or brainwashed not to do anything about how badly their country is being run, there really isn’t a lot we can do about it, short of invading North Korea and going for regime change there. And, given our recent “successes” with trying to do just that in Iraq and Afghanistan, I really wouldn’t say that’s a great idea.
No, the best thing to do to North Korea is to isolate it even more. If they really do run out of money and are unable to feed their own people, maybe the generals in North Korea will see that it really is time for a change and will stage a coup. People can tolerate a lot of things, but starvation is NOT one of them. If enough people go hungry long enough, they will overthrow the government that is starving them, regardless of who the government blames for their lot in life.
And if North Korea launches an attack on South Korea, fight back. The North Koreans have been spoiling for a fight since 1953, the end of the last Korean War. The ultimate confrontation WILL come. It has to, simply because the North will eventually run out of money and will either have to use their military forces or lose them. But if we can strangle North Korea economically and convince the generals that better times are coming if they just get rid of Kim and his clan, then you may just have the beginnings of a strategy that could end the madness in North Korea. And if China sees that we’re serious about not backing down over North Korea and are really willing to obliterate it if the North Koreans decide to invade the South, I really think the Chinese will back down. After all, is the Chinese government willing to risk everything it has for a failed state like North Korea? I doubt it. All that is needed is the resolve and the courage to stand up to tyrants, and one of the biggest ones in the world lives in Pyongyang.
For all I care, the North Koreans can keep mistreating their own people all they want. It is their country and if that’s the way they want to live, who am I to say they can’t? And if the North Korean people are too stupid or brainwashed not to do anything about how badly their country is being run, there really isn’t a lot we can do about it, short of invading North Korea and going for regime change there.
I can’t make you care about the North Koreans; that is strictly up to you. But I am astonished at your assumption that North Koreans are living the way they are because they want to. North Korea is NOT a democracy and never has been. Since the Kim Dynasty came to power, they have NOT asked for the consent of their subjects and it is very unlikely those subjects would have granted their consent if they’d had some way of doing so. The people of North Korea live at the behest of the Kim Dynasty and are surely just as miserable as any other oppressed people. Read about their labor camps. Read accounts of those who have escaped. There is no reason whatever to believe that they are living the way they want to live.
Perhaps you’re thinking that they should just overthrow their oppressors. Well, that’s a great idea but tell me how they would do it? The regime has all the guns and the regime makes sure the people in the military are fed to keep them loyal. No one else has guns and the West has shown a profound unwillingness to help the North Koreans since the armistice that stopped (not ended) the Korean War in 1953.
People can tolerate a lot of things, but starvation is NOT one of them. If enough people go hungry long enough, they will overthrow the government that is starving them, regardless of who the government blames for their lot in life.
I’m afraid your belief that people won’t tolerate starvation is not supported by history. I’d suggest you read about Mao’s Great Leap Forward from 1958 to 1962 where tens of millions of Chinese starved to death due to incredibly stupid economic policies that caused a man-made famine. Historians argue about the numbers who died but most of them estimate somewhere between 35 and 70 million Chinese died in that famine. Also, I suggest you look into the famines brought on by collectivization in the USSR in the early 1930s. Again, historians argue over the numbers but most estimates have the death toll in the 5 to 10 million range. Neither country saw major armed uprisings due to this famine.
As for your proposal to stop making concessions to North Korea, I’m inclined to agree with you. But please don’t make the mistake of thinking that there will be no significant cost to such an approach. Seoul is a huge city and is very close to the border, well within artillery range. The North Korean artillery batteries are very well-protected and is very substantial. Millions of South Koreans are at risk if the Young General decides that he is willing to attack the South. It may be the last order he ever gives because I think it will seal the fate of his regime and his close followers but it will be a very bloody thing.
Reaching Kahlifornia, you say?
What’s not to like?
Think I’m kidding?
Notes about Sophie:
1. – no pictures of real people, real suffering, real humanity. Gee Sophie, why bother?
2. – clever and glib. Just like today’s Internet. In the face of unspeakable evil. Gee Sophie, why bother?
3. – Gee, the place doesn’t look as bad as I had expected. Mission accomplished, Sophie? Really, Sophie, why bother?
Finally, here’s Sophie taking pictures of unspeakable evil: never forget
I remember back in the middle of 80th, back in the USSR, I and friends stumbled upon some gorgeously printed magazines from North Korea, in Russian. I remember how we laughed at that miserable hysterically unbelievable propaganda that read like being from another planet.
Now, looking back at those young people (i.e friends and I) who were brainwashed from the birth and were totally immersed in the “victorious developed socialism” ethos, who at best would say about our own history when iron curtain began leaking and step by small step falling away, OK this and that was not true, but everything can’t be possibly a lie, right? Those people, who were brought up in the victorious surrealism, where laughing at miserable schmucks whose life’s surrealism surpassed our own my few magnitudes.
What a nightmare!
Since leaving office in New Mexico, and leaving the state in financial distress, Mr. Richardson badly needs a job. He likely sees his Korean “expertise” as a potential means of getting some Obama foreign policy appointment. I even suspect he will show up at the Kerry Secretary of State hearings just to get face time, perhaps expecting an appointment shot via that route.
North Korea is vexing and explosively dangerous especially given the Chinese inability to really influence the leadership,and the Obama administration’s lack of any real foreign policy beyond appeasement and non-action. The ability to throw rockets with a nuclear warhead an appreciable distance by the North Koreans is matched by the even more dangerous fact that they will sell that technology to anyone.
Greetings:
Whenever one of these North Korean excursions occurs, I can’t help wonder why our intrepid media types never seem interested in the economics of the trip, in a “Follow the money.” kind of way. Who pays and/or who gets paid? What’s left of my inquiring mind wants to know.
And what exactly is Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt planning to do with the Nork government? Some evil, perhaps?
Funny you should mention that.
[blush]
This comment should have been in response to #9 Professor Guvinoff below.
It’s a very curious report and a very curious journey into a very curious country. Maybe some of the officials there are sending a subtle message, like “Help!” The problem being that even pointing it out, could get them shot.
Our own PC maniacs would like to lead us on the road to North Korea. This absurdity is not a specific attribute of the people of North Korea. It’s a specific human attribute. If we don’t resist it, it takes over, freedom and prosperity leaves, and gloom invades everything, and ultimately there is precious little left to validate any claim that we are superior to animals.
If you care about your freedom, fight to keep it!
Is it really a coincidence if our PC maniacs are precisely the cynics who profess that we are just some complicated and difficult animals in need of domestication? By whom?
No coincidence at all.
Somehow, the language and style of that report don’t sound like those of a 19 year old. The pictures seem rather distant and impersonal as well. And, many of the observations seemed strangely ‘disconnected’. Coupled with the fact that she calls her supposed father by his first name – as though she were a colleague, not a ‘daughter’ – while I found the page interesting, it is indeed ‘curious’ (as perhaps Josh, above, was saying more succinctly than I have).
Why is Pyongyang still standing?
Thank you for the link to sophieinnorthkorea – good article kudos to Sophie – though to tell the truth I avoid google like the plague – way to liberal/fascist/progressive/socialist for me. Having said that – loved the observations by Sophie, with comments and observations like this she will never get a job with CNN/ABC, CBS, NBC, Wa Post, and I would be surprised if she ever went to NK again.
Given the political leaning of google -is Sophie now in a re-education camp? I am mildly surprised this article has not been taken down.