For those in the North…..

I was browsing through Youtube to find some videos to use in my club activity.

It was all going well, as I found more videos than expected.

Yet, I spotted one very disturbing video.

Posted by a user claiming to be a “Swedish Communist,” the video basically says that

North Koreans are living normal lives and that all the terrible things about North Kore is just propaganda.

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????????????????????

How could people actually be believing in such sh**?

Don’t you see people dying of hunger?

Don’t you see people crossing the North Korean-Chinese border just to get food?

Don’t you see Kim Jong-Il sticking to his very ineffective country management?

Don’t you see him gloating on his caviar?

Wake up, everybody.

Seriously.

Ignorance is bliss no more, since it can get your throat slit by someone.

Communism is  failed government model.

North Korea, despite being more monarchic than communistic, has also failed.

Why are so many people blind to the truth???

I strive to be a logical person.

Although I have many emotions, such as fondness or hate, I try to repress most of them, because except for relationships with one’s family and close friends, emotions only serve to be obstacles in the way one thinks.

Or at least I thought it was so, and for quite some time too.

Yet, I realized the true value of emotions during winter break.

I used to be a Catholic, but discarded my faith on the basis of logic, believing that there was no guarantee that Go would be like the God as described in the Bible. To me, religious dogma only came in my way of becoming a rational and free-minded individual. However, all that changed just by a line from Dickens’s Tale of Two Cities. Nearly towards the end, a character who wasted much of his talent and his life repeats the following phrase: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me shall live, even when they die.” Coupled with that powerful message, the self-sacrificing actions of that character strongly touched my mind. Such sublime actions could be done only when one has emotions. Realizing the powerful impact of emotions on human beings, I somewhat recovered my emotional part of life, and returned to be a Catholic again.

Logic is very important in human life, but emotions are almost as important.

Today I participated in the 4th Annual Asian Human RIghts Forum.

The Forum is hosted annually by the Asian Center for Human Rights, and many distinguished guest speakers come to give their research results and opinions on various issues regarding human rights in Asia. Today, the topic was the contribution of migrant workers in Asia and the perception towards them.

As I continued my often-unstable ourney for North Korean Human Rights, I realized that human rights have to be dealt with in general, since it would be unfair to care for some people (North Korean refugees/escapees). Obviously, my interests expanded immediately to the human rights of migrant workers in Korea. Not Caucasians or Blacks, but the people from Southeast Asia. In the Korean Peninsula, I daresay that they are the most oppressed group after North Korean residents.

Although my commitment to Asian human rights would not directly aid me in my pursuit of Liberty in North Korea, I strongly believe that it will shed a light on my course of action, and plan effective mechanisms to carry out my purpose of raising awareness on North Korean human rights. Therefore, I stayed very concentrated during the Forum.

Starting tomorrow, the Workshop for Young Human Rights Activists takes place at Korea University. I plan to give it my best there to organize myself as a human rights activist.

http://www.dailynk.com/korean/read.php?cataId=nk02600&num=62100

According to Congressman Park Sun Young, only 74 of the 538 prisoners of war have returned to Korea, not through the efforts of the government, but by themselves, escaping North Korea.

This fact is shocking, amazing, and embarassing. During the last two administrations, the government was so eager to show off their progress and success in the diplomatic relationship between the North and the South. However, nobody in the government, not even the president, who has the responsibility to protect his people, ever mentioned the reture of the prisoners of war as an issue. God damn Kim Dae Jung, and God damn Roh Moo Hyun. Their other policies aside, this is such a great crime; they simply ignored those soldiers and pretended they didn’t exist. They should be asahmed of themselves, and try to do everything they can using their influence to the North to ensure the return of the brave men who faught against the Communists to defend their nation. But the thing is, they will never do so, because they are cowards and pawns of Kim Jong Il, and nothing more. Just look at the US. No matter how Koreans hate them (which is really unreasonable), the US presidents at least care for their soldiers who have died fighting or who have been taken as prisoners of war.

President Lee Myung Bak does not seem to me as a nice alternative for the previous presidents. Although he does mention North Korean Human Rights, he isn’t taking any action, or at least it seems so to me. I can’t imagine what he will do to get our soldiers back; I do not have much hope on such a thing actually happening.

At the end of this very unorganized and chaotic post, one thing remains clear: we should get our soldiers back.

The British magazine, The Times, marked Kim Jong-Il as the No.1 corrupt dictator in history.

http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2008/09/the-10-most-dec.html

Kim Jong-Il was the only one who is sill alive and in power until now.

It seems that the world is finally recognizing that Kim Jong-Il is the most corrupt dictator in the world. From 1994 when he came into power until now, 2008, he has created numerous concentration camps across North Korea to hold political adversaries and their families, created “pleasure brigades” that comprises young and beautiful women who are molested by Kim Jong-Il to satisfy his sexual desires, and caused millions of North Koreans to die of hunger by puposely witholding the foreign food aid from the general public. These crimes are not even the tip of an iceberg. Anyway, the point is that Kim Jong-Il is worse than Hitler. At least Hitler didn’t have his own people starving (until Germany started to lose the war)

Kim Jong-Il…. He is certainly the Devil incarnate.

According to various sources including NKChosun and KONAS.net, Madame Suzann Scholte was announced as the winner of the Seoul Peace Prize for her exceptional efforts in addressing the North Korean Human Rights Problem starting from 1996.

Her efforts have prompted the Northeast Asian and Pacific Committee in the US Senate to hold a hearing on April 1999, and she has testified on various issues including the Human Rights Situation in North Korea, gulags, detention centers, and refugees in China. Finally, she led to the testimony of Mr. Hwang Jang Yeop in the US Congress to reveal the truth about Kim Jong Il to the World.

To all the North Korean refugees, Madame Scholte’s winning of the prize would be very significant, as it means that some people are finally recognizing the issue of North Korean human rights, and also because this event would be a great chance to call people’s attention to the problem of North Korean Human Rights.

Also, I think that this would be the start of much more, as this is the first public recognition of the contributions of activists for North Korean human rights, not just as efforts of individual activists, but more as contributions to peace and to humanity.  What had to be recognized years ago is finally being recognized.

However, there still are limitations. Government officials who are dealing with the issue of North Korean human rights are not very passionate. According to some sources, those in charge are the very ones who ignored the problem in the last administration. These people should be fired and replaced with people like Madame Scholte, for one.

Recognizing an activist is not enough. Realistic and effective assistance need to be given to the North Korean refugees already in South Korea, and more should be given to those who are planning to escape or who have escaped but cannot find a way into ROK.

Still, a start is significant in itself.

Clarinet

Today, I just decided to write a speculation on the clarinet, my loyal friend.

As people around me would know, I am a hardcore amateur clarinetist. My favorite hobby is clarinet playing, and I would spend and hour or so on finding music for clarinet(but no more lol). At first I started clarinet to get into the school orchestra, but after a while, I became truly interested in the instrument, and began researching everything about clarinet. It has been the joy of my life for quite a while.

What I felt from playing clarinet is that only passion and immeasurable practice will bring progress in anything. If I wasn’t so hardcore, I wouldn’t have been this good by now. This might seem like a self-evident truth, but I think it is especially so, for several reasons. After hearing several recordings, I formed my notion of a nice playing style, and strived endlessly to achieve that (unsuccessfully). That tone cannot be made with pure passion or practice. It requires immense will and understanding of the instrument, as well as some musical talent. since I lack the musical talent, I had to practice even harder.

Then that leads me to another thing. Do people try harder on things they consider to be harder to them, or do people try harder to achieve things that they consider are difficult? For me, it was a strange blend of the two. Since I lacked musical talent, I thought that I had to make up for it with immense practice, so I did. On the contrary, I also put a great deal of effort into mastering foreign languages, which is a talent that I value. Nobody will know the answer after all, maybe.

Anyway, that was a train of thoughts I had from the subject “clarinet”. I am very glad that I have met clarinet a year ago, and I’m glad that I’ve found a real passion. Now I will try to put in the same passion into studying..LOL XD!!