Month: January 2019

More times that I care to count, I cursed in disbelief, out loud while reading the assigned reading to pg. 56 in Nothing to Envy.

“All those years of sleep deprivation, all those lectures and self criticisms-the very same tools used in brainwashing or interrogations-had wiped out any possibility of resistance.”

pg. 43

My heart goes out to the people in North Korea that are depicted in this book and to those whose stories go untold. The sheer magnitude of the burdens the families carry and do so without argument, had me shaking my head in anger. Mrs. Song was introduced to in chapter 3 as an inminban  (an informant) and revered for her devotion to the fearless leader, Kim Il-sung.  She was proud of what she learned and was happy to oblige in all that was expected of her. Not only was she to work 8 hours in factories that women were expected to keep going because 20% of the working age men were in the armed services, she then had to spend SEVERAL hours in “ideological training” in the factories auditorium. Reading that I instantly thought “BRAIN WASHING Venue”?? From there, her day was no where near done. She would then go home and prepare food and do her chores and do it all over again in the morning.

What really had me going was the fact that each household had to have portraits of Kim Il-sung & Kim Jong-Il in their homes with NO other portraits of even family hung on the same wall. I could not believe I was reading that a special Public service was in charge of random inspections to make sure the portraits were clean and kept tidy.

“…every song, film, newspaper article, and billboard was designed to deify Kim Il-sung.” “Who could resist?”

pg. 46

I guess when you are taught from infancy that he is to be celebrated, honored and loved as one of your own family and that you owe everything to him, who could resist??

• 

From the assigned reading (up to page 36/ chapter 3) I noticed a variety of different things. Especially the facts of how unfamiliar the environment and lifestyle is between North Korea and America.

America is literally the land of the free, being the country with most to all of the freedom. We have the rights of bearing arms, to even having the freedom of speech. North Korea on the other hand, is s completely different story.

North Korea’s environment in general is completely different! They have no electricity. They use fire/ to heat up or make food. At night, it is completely dark and you can’t see that much far from your face (obviously). Fact: they did once upon a time, but they have fell back to having no source of electric energy after supposably reneging promises with President Bush. All things of metal, and what had electrical energy has all turned to rust. This issue had caused the country to have very little food. But that isn’t the only upsetting factor.

Lifestyle wise, North Koreans are highly controlled. Contact from and to the outside world is permitted, visitors that get to step a foot on territory are carefully placed in selected monuments and spies also known as “minders” made sure no unauthorized conversations are made. Meaning, you are allowed to just talk story about whatever you want, whenever you want. Housing is very small, no matter the size of your family and mostly everyone are raised and live, sleeping on mats during the night. Everyone keeps tabs on everyone, meaning they keep an eye and report anything that is banned to do. Everyone is ordered to follow rules, and they are punished if they are to disobey. Most people are required to labor, if they are not to fulfill the requirements of high school: smart, athletic, good looking, being well liked by peers and teachers, and being talented. Not only are students are judged, but females are put on spot also. The North Korean standard of beauty for women are to have a pale face (the whiter, the better), rounded faces and a bow shaped mouth. If a female were not to fall under these features, they are discouraged that they will not find a husband.

From mandatory school ( Korean elementary) citizens of North Korea are taught that every other country is against them. They are forced to be grateful for their leader, and everything they have, although it is miserable coming from the outside world. Blaming the US for their fall, they preach claim that we are the incarnation of evil. Children are shown terrible photographs of their country after being bombed by the US, and read about how Americans and South Koreans killed innocent North Koreans. Textbooks tells stories and shows illustrating North Korean people getting stabbed, crushed, burned, shot or even poisoned by any and all enemies.

As you can see, the atmosphere between the US and North Korea is very different. That in the US, you are free who you want to be, and as for being North Korean, well.. You are made into who you will be.

I found it interesting that Mi-ran continued to dream of her first love Jung-sang and felt remorse about leaving abruptly and not saying good-bye. She expressed that he was her “best-friend” and that she loved him dearly however she would never talk with him about defecting incase he turned on her. She was surrounded with the idea that friends denounced friends, family denounced family and that spies were all around. Im sure that Mi-ra wanted to tell him in her heart but she had to think with her brain and abstain from letting him into the deepest parts of herself in order to survive. Sometimes it is curtail to follow your brain and not your heart so that you can attain your goals. One would think that it is easier for the person who chooses to leave a relationship but in all actuality its more painful. The person who is left is able to blame the one who leaves them and the individual who leaves has to take full responsibility for their actions. Even though Mi-ran did the right thing for her it still is a loss she must grieve.

• I think that what stood out to me the most in the first two chapters of Nothing to Envy was that from an outsiders perspective of North Korea we think that it sucks and that the people there must be miserable, but on the contrary, some North Koreans continue to proclaim Kim II-sung’s and Kim Jong-Il’s greatness. They proclaim their greatness while their economy is in ruins. Not everyone is lucky enough to have electricity and they have almost no communication.

Right away, I noticed that the views of the North Koreans are largely (if not completely ) driven by their respective government. The North Korean population is perverted through propaganda, such as movies as posters. Fear has led them like cattle to a slaughterhouse to suppress their own values and beliefs. The worst part of this whole dismal situation is that the North Koreans believe that there is nothing better out there than the lives they have done. No dreams equals no hope, and even for the few who do dare to dream, their expectations are likely crushed by their past and social status.

I think what was most noticeable was that they lived in fear from being killed and from speaking there mind. And that there only sense of freedom was during the night when they would walk around in darkness due to no electricity. Another thing that was noticeable was that if they were planning on escaping they would have to keep it a secret especially from our spouses like boyfriends.

Back in the 90s North Korea was sitting in total darkness while their “Pro-American Cousins”(Demick) in South Korea were living with electricity. This may have created a bitterness between the North Koreans and Americans. The benefit of not having electricity was that they could share their secret love affairs . For example, just like our Hawaiian caste systems it is similar to those of the North Koreans culture.

“the food on the table went uneaten as she described watching her five- and six year-old pupils die of starvation. as her student were dying, she was supposed to teach them that they were blessed to be North Korean.” Page 9 Nothing to envy

“I left North Korea, I was twenty-six years old and a school teacher, but i didn’t know how babies were conceived.” Page 10 Nothing to envy

Two lines in the first chapter that have already captured my attention.

It perplexes me that the somewhat basic knowledge of how children are conceived could not already be understood at the age of 26. Its Mind boggling to think that Mi-ran had no idea how the process of creating life was foreign, almost alien to her.

/In reading, Nothing To Envy. I thought to when I was growing up, and there was no internet, texting, just line telephone and my parents would put a time limit on use. Couples had conversations looked each other in the eyes. It is said the eyes are the mirror of the soul. Don’t get me wrong I respect the advances, we have made in technology. But we also lost the art of speech, and writing. You meet someone in todays social arena, and the first thing. “Are you on Instagram, Facebook, email, or text me.”

I wonder what, if we had to put down our cells, laptops, TV’s, and for two nights out of a week. Your choices would be to talk or write letters. Growing up in Louisiana I can relate to Mi-ran, and her wanting to escape the repressive regime. There are people here, just look around!

Based on the reading from chapters one and two from the book “Nothing To Envy” by Barbara Demick, I’ve noticed that this was a hardship time of era that depended highly on social classes of an individual, based on their family’s line of history and current lifestyle. In a time like this, your social class and family’s line of history completely depended on your own chance for survival. One of the main characters (Mi-Ran) was born into a poor class with her family due to the backstory of her father’s origins. Having her father born from enemy territory, they were forced to be in silent due to the serious consequences that could come about the family. The only way to show forgiveness for the family is if the male showed high recognition in his exceeds for greatness. Which is another reason why Jung-Sang came into play, because he was a prime example of how good grades and an acceptance to further his schooling in Pyongyang would give all forgiveness for his family’s past (like the verse stated below).

“The family’s hopes rested on Jun-sang. If only he could get himself to university of Pyongyang, perhaps he would be eventually be permitted to join the Workers Party and then the family might be forgiven their bourgeois Japanese past. “

(35 Demick, Barbara)

This left no time for puberty or love for Jung-sang and I assure for everyone else. In such a time were reputation is highly expected, there could really be no time for “love” because people were just trying to make it through each day.

They were so accustomed to laws of social classes and gender separation, it resulted in social disconnections and not being able to survive the next day. I believe that if you are not of middle class and came from a “disappointing” family line it would be impossible to survive. I feel like I would not even be able to survive in such a heartfelt era like this.