Book Club: North Korea

Last year, while I was in Asia, my friend Hanna suggested we go to Korea for a week. I had never been particularly interested in Korea (China's my jam, for whatever reason), but I like Hanna and I like travel, so I agreed to go. We had a grand old time, and it sparked a fiery interest in me, in regards to North Korea. Over the trip, it crept up on me, until it developed into a minor obsession. I couldn't believe this country had been around for so long and only now did I take the time to learn about it. It was like having a platonic friend that you fall in love with. "You've been here the whole time and I never realized how amazing you are!" Except for North Korea, replace "amazing" with "completely twisted and utterly insane."

Since returning to the States, I've read two books on the subject and watched this documentary. One book is called UNDER THE LOVING CARE OF THE FATHERLY LEADER by Bradley K. Martin. It's 718 pages and it took me about five months to read. That being said, it's a fantastic book and probably invaluable if you're doing any sort of serious study on North Korea.

Martin is a good writer with a sense of humor, as well as an unfortunately noticeable case of yellow fever. For example, on page 355: "[Kim Jong-Il] had encouraged girls and young women to fix themselves, wear makeup, and look nicer. North Korean women - among the most beautiful in the world to begin with - obviously were taking far more care with their appearance than a decade earlier." Emphasis mine. Also, ew.

The other book is called NOTHING TO ENVY by Barbara Demick. It's 296 pages and you can probably glean the same amount of information as "Under the Loving Care..." Because it follows the lives of ordinary North Koreans and tells their stories in a novelistic way, it's gripping in a way that Martin's book, although extremely interesting, often isn't.

Demick's book can be painful and graphic. She tells of the famine that struck in the 1990's: "People did not go passively to their deaths. When the public distribution system was cut off, they were forced to tap their deepest wells of creativity to feed themselves... North Koreans learned to swallow their pride and hold their noses. They picked kernels of undigested corn out of the excrement of farm animals. Shipyard workers developed a technique by which they scraped the bottoms of the cargo holds where food had been stored, then spread the foul-smelling gunk on rooftops to dry so that they could collect from it tiny grains of uncooked rice and other edibles."

Demick also follows love stories, defection, family ties, medicine, and a plethora of other storylines. Even if you're not particularly interested in North Korea, I can't recommend it highly enough. And in case you don't feel like reading either book, here are some things that I learned in my studies:

WE CREATED THE NORTH AND THE SOUTH

For about 1,300 years, Korea was a unified country. In 1910, Japan "annexed" Korea and began an oppressive and cruel regime over the country. The occupation only ended when Japan lost World War II in 1945. At that point, it would make sense to let Koreans rule Korea, right? WRONG! What happened instead was that two American army officers drew an arbitrary line on a map and split the country into North and South. The North went to the USSR; the South went to the United States. As one could probably predict, a war broke out. At the end of the war, the border was pretty much back to where it was in 1945. So like most things in the world, a great deal of the conflict in Korea was generated by Western control and hubris and Domino Theory paranoia.

NORTH KOREA OPERATES ON A POLICY KNOWN AS JUCHE

Kim Il-Sung, the founder/leader of the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea, created the phrase juche, which roughly translates to "national self-reliance" and permeates many aspects of domestic and international policy. This, despite the fact that the country has often depended on aid and other assistance. One North Korean defector, Dong, tells Martin in his book: "There's an amusing story about Kim Il-Sung and foreign cars. In the mid-1970s, he met with foreign reporters. Someone asked him, 'You hate the United States so much, how can you ride in an American car?' He replied, 'I'm not riding in it. I'm driving it.' Just seeing it made me proud. [However], now that I have come to South Korea, I'm used to free thinking. I feel a discrepancy between juche and his riding in a foreign car."

KIM IL-SUNG WASN'T TOTALLY THE WORST

Like most Communist leaders, the beginning of Kim Il-Sung's rule was pretty positive. After the Japanese occupation and the horrors of war, people were grateful to have food, electricity, water, free education, and a perceived end to the hierarchy and patriarchal traditions of old Korean society. That's when Communism is super exciting and I honestly wonder what it must be like to be in the throes of that kind of ideology and devotion.

Although later, Kim Il-Sung would greatly exaggerate his role in the fall of Japan, he was a guerilla fighter as a young man and did fight to help free Korea from Japanese rule. He did some reprehensible things later on, wasted tons of money on personal luxuries, and brewed up a bizarre and looming personality cult - yet, there was still a great deal of reverence for him as a "savior" of the country and restorer of national pride.

KIM JONG-IL IS PRETTY MUCH THE WORST

Unlike his father, Kim Jong-Il had no reasonable claim to leadership. He was born to the Great Leader and thus did not earn the respect and adoration of the people in the way that Kim Il-Sung did. "Under The Loving Care..." includes many reported stories of Kim Jong-Il's extreme cruelty and complete lack of regard for human life. On a less tragic but equally interesting note, he's also a huge movie fan. So while his citizens are subject to Communist propaganda films, he has a collection of upwards of 20,000 DVDs. He also kidnapped South Korean filmmakers to force them to make films for North Korea. No joke.

INSTEAD OF FEEDING THE PEOPLE, THEY MOSTLY FOCUSED ON SEX...
From "Under the Loving Care...":

From mere philandering, Kim Il-Sung had advanced to presiding over something not far removed from a harem. The "volunteer" corps was a small-scale operation at first, said a former elite official, but "the extravagance built up year after year." As a birthday present for Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il greatly expanded the operation. Female companions had been organized into three corps. Members of the "Happy Corps" were actresses and singers who entertained at parties and might have slept with Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il. The "Satisfaction Corps" was more explicitly focused on sexual services. So, too, was the "Felicity Corps" - whose members were recruited from the Workers' Party organization and from female bodyguards.

About two thousand girls were selected each year and given a year of training. Some five to six hundred who were expected to be available for sex would be assigned to the lodges and villas. Others were given secretarial and other jobs where, officially, they were not expected to provide sexual services.

AND MANSIONS...

For his sixtieth birthay, Kim got the most expensive mansion up to that point, costing the equivalent of tens of millions of dollars. The funds came from gold mining. "North Korea can mine up to 50 tons of gold a year, so they can afford that sort of thing."

AND GIFT-GIVING...

"Party rules prohibit gift-giving among members," a former elite official told me. "But Kim Jong-Il gave gifts to try to buy people off from forming factions against him." Besides cars, Kim Jong-Il's gifts included television sets, radios, and watches - all foreign-made, of course. The overall scale of his gift-giving soon grew so enormous as to affect the economy seriously. Various sources confirm that a special unit in the party, dubbed Room 39 on account of its office location, was given the mission of bringing in foreign exchange to pay for Kim's purchases. Because of Room 39 activities, the government had no bank reserves and became nearly broke.

...AND OF COURSE, THE MASS GAMES, WHICH ARE CRAZY.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBWOEdy_-qM

(They wouldn't let me embed it, but please, click on it. Flip cards.)

Grandma's House: A Tour

With my new schedule, I have Mondays off, so recently I visited my parents and borrowed their car to see my grandmother. Here are a few snapshots.

Even though we usually go out for a huge amount of deli food at Buddy's, she always feels the need to feed me when we return to her house. My favorite things to eat there are sliced green apples and refrigerated Chips Ahoy cookies.

When I was growing up, I thought this ceramic sculpture was the most beautiful thing in the world.

A photograph of two sisters: Her biological mother (left) and the mother who raised her (right).

A letter to my great-grandfather after he emigrated to America. It reads:

Dear Mr. Glass -

I had the pleasure of presiding at the term of Court which admitted you to the privileges and obligations of American citizenship and I want to drop you this little line of congratulations and good wishes.

I know from the report of the Government and from my observation of you that the country has gained a good and loyal citizen.

I am enclosing a copy of the oath of allegiance, which is recited in our schools, and I hope you will put it in a conspicuous place, because we will all be better citizens through knowing it by hear and reciting it frequently.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Frank S. Gannon, Jr.

And a picture of my baby cousin Sam, for good measure.

International Women's Day

I first read Sojourner Truth's speech Ain't I A Woman when I was in fourth grade. Some research states that the speech was embellished by Francis Dana Gage, but it still gives me chills.

AIN'T I A WOMAN?

by Sojourner Truth

Delivered 1851 at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

The Most Dangerous Place

There has been a lot of talk recently about the billboard that went up (and then quickly down) in Soho. One of the best comments I've read came from one of the readers at Sociological Images

Bea Strike 2:03 pm on February 28, 2011 | # | Reply

Interesting.

I’d think the most dangerous place for an African American child would be in in our nation’s inner cities and small towns in which their parents are under and unemployed so the children are subsequently undernourished and mal-nutritioned, under-educated, and poorly housed while suffering health neglect that ultimately leads to, among other things, unplanned and unwanted pregnancies.

I’d think the most dangerous place for an African American child is a state that is hostile to their equal human rights but wants to use the specific tragedies and travesties of African American history to distort and distract from that fact.

But, that’s what I get for thinking.

(My) Top Ten 30 Rock Episodes: PART THREE

In honor of my chance encounter with Jack McBrayer the other night at the MOMI Salute, I'll finish what I started (a rarity for me) and complete this epic list. Forgive the writing style, I've been slightly flu-ish recently.

7. BELIEVE IN THE STARS (SEASON 3)

So many reasons to love this episode, but most of them involve Liz Lemon saying inappropriate things to a 13-year-old girl whom she believes is Oprah, while under the influence of drugs. It might have just been another Comanaprosil side effect, in addition to dizziness, sexual nightmares, and sleep crime.

Also, this episode introduced the idea of my work-self suffocating my life-me, which is how I feel 75% of the time.

FAVORITE LINES

Liz: I’m trying to adopt a baby. But my job is making it impossible because my work-self is suffocating my life-me. I’m Liz Lemon and I lost my virginity at 25. I saw the show about following fear and it inspired me to wear shorts to work. It didn’t go great. Do you know Tracy Jordan? I took a pill earlier. I didn’t get September issue of O Magazine. Do you have the number for subscriptions? Why would you!? I eat emotionally. And one time at summer camp, I kissed a girl on a dare but then she drowned.

Jack: It’s okay. It happens to the best of us. In-flight medication is how I met M. Night Shyamalan, until it turned out to be...
Jonathan: That was the best day in my life!

8. ANNA HOWARD SHAW DAY (SEASON 4)

This is another one of my favorites, but it features one of those classic television absences-of-logic that I find so annoying. Liz needs someone to drive her home from her deliberately planned Valentine's Day root canal, but everyone has romantic plans. She stoops to asking a male escort, who bails after a chlamydia outbreak. Woe is Liz. HAS SHE EVER HEARD OF A TAXI?

Sorry for shouting. It's still a great episode, because it features the return of all of her ex-boyfriends, Avery Jessup, a very thin Horatio Sanz, and the use of "bobsled" as a greeting. Also, I know she is onscreen for about 30 seconds, but I deeply love the tall dental hygienist who has the gap between her teeth. I often repeat her line in my head: "I say we order her some pizza and lock 'er in 'ere for da weekend."

FAVORITE LINES

Jack: Frankly, I could use a win.
Liz: A win? What’s with the euphemisms, Jack? Why don’t you just say you want some [makes hand gestures].
Jack: Is that sex?
Liz: It is the way I do it.

Frank: That cleaning lady finally agreed to go out with me. We’re going to pick up some pierogis and then eat them at her husband’s grave.

Liz: I scheduled a root canal for February 14^th, Jack. I will spend half the day in twilight sleep and then I will go home and watch the Original Lifetime Movie, “My Stepson Is My Cyber Husband.”

Lutz: Hey, has anybody heard about any cool new sex positions? My girlfriend’s visiting for Valentine’s and I want to keep things caliente.
Liz: Oh my God, Lutz. Are you still pretending Karen exists?
Lutz: She’s real! Would a fake woman have a personal website at jdlutz.com\karen\proof?

Liz: Wow, Avery Jessup. She’s hot. She was on Maxim’s “I’d Rape That 100.”

9. DEALBREAKERS TALK SHOW #0001 (SEASON 4)

This episode came out while I was still in China, and I remember sitting with Jessica and laughing hysterically. It's one of the straight-up funniest episodes of the series and, in addition to Liz's pre-show identity crisis, the HD Camera becomes an endlessly rich resource for jokes.

FAVORITE LINES

Liz: I’m a star! I’m on top! Someone bring me some HAM! I used to sing that when I was a kid.

Liz: Actually I got three haircuts. The first two made me look nuts. Hey, do I say the word “camera” weird? Camer-ah. Camer-ah. Camer-ah.

Pete: Okay, here we go! One more! This is the one. And action! Great. And smile. With your mouth! And raise the roof. Look boy, you can do it. Good!… Oh my God. Break it down, break it down. Oh, yeah, sassy. Sass it up. Wave to a friend. No, wave like a human being. Do you remember waving? And blow a kiss. No, with your hands! And uh, a little cleavage. Nope! Just have fun. Are you spinning a basketball?

10. BROOKLYN WITHOUT LIMITS (SEASON 5)

I've been having my misgivings about Season 5. They opened the show with a mediocre episode that also featured an oddly placed and unfunny rape joke about Pete's wife. The season continued on its bumpy way until Brooklyn Without Limits, which showcases Liz's faux liberal bleeding heart and makes fun of all the rest of the local-organic-Fair-Trade-outer-borough-hipsters. But most of all, it features overall shorts. Like any self-respecting 7th grader, I owned multiple pairs and I wore them until I realized how monumentally hideous they look on anybody with hips or boobs or both. Long story short, this episode was good enough to round out my Top 10, and I hope the season continues in this vein.

FAVORITE LINES

Liz: This place is trying way too hard. Why are their straitjackets everywhere?
Jenna: Because before this was a clothing store it was a mental hospital. It’s winky and fun.

Liz: They’re from Brooklyn Without Limits. It’s this very cool store with locations in Gaytown, White Harlem, and the Van Beardswick section of Brooklyn. And they don’t just look great. See the tag? “Hand Made in USA.” Because BWL is all about fair trade and local artisans and staying green.

Liz: These jeans totally make up for all the times I took a long hot shower because I was bored.

Liz: You and Tracy deserve each other. I don’t know who to be more disappointed in.
Jenna: Me silly. I’m more aware of what I’m doing!

Liz: I’m a freelancer, which is pretty much a modern day cowboy. And I live like a cowboy by buying quality locally made jeans. Also by eating beans out of a can, due to impatience.

Jack: Do you know who owns Brooklyn Without Limits?
Liz: Brooklyn Zach. He throws pool parties in dumpsters
Jack: Halliburton.

Jack: It’s not Hand Made in the USA. It’s pronounced Han Made in Usa. The Hand people are a Vietnamese slave tribe and Usa is their island prison. They made your jeans. You know how they get the stitching so small? Orphans.