English 100 Spring 2019 Blogs

      As the oldest of three boys, I carry the unspoken responsibility of encouraging my younger brothers and teaching them the ropes. Whether I’m praying for them or assisting with homework, I care for them out of love. Though leading my brothers can be challenging to say the least, I press on, knowing that my efforts will benefit them further down the road. I don’t think Mi-ran could’ve said the same about her kindergarteners back in 1994, despite her contentment in being seen as more than just the daughter of a construction worker. Every day, she gave her best, teaching kids anthems about not longing the world and how many Americans each soldier killed if three shot an equal amount. However, not much time passed until Mi-ran realized that not a single lesson mattered; the children had other things to think about: food. As the sons and daughters of mostly miners, village kids lacked proper stability and nutrition. Many came only for the free, salty soup, which still failed to satisfy their starving stomachs. Eventually, students had no choice but to drop out, as they simply didn’t have the energy to perform to their best (let alone fulfill the firewood quota). By the same time the following year, the enrollment rate plunged from 50 to 15. How were students supposed to expand their minds without first feeding their tummies?

Her entire life, Dr. Kim modeled her every move around adhering to the rules, doing what she was told. She enrolled into the Young Pioneers program at age 7, joined the Socialist Youth League at 13, and studied at the Chongjin University Medical School at only 16 years of age, two years her peers’ junior. In everything Dr. Kim did or said, she hammered away to validate not only herself but her loyalty as well. However, when she came into a confrontation with her hospital on whether or not to prescribe a “convict” antibiotics, all she grew up believing began to shake at its core. It was a clash between politics and ethics. Despite the medical board’s disapproval, Dr. Kim spoke up and persisted on tending to her patient, visiting him two times a day. News of his suicide crushed her, as attribute his death as her fault. There was nothing she could do. As Americans, a world where people are chastised for speaking their minds is difficult to conceive. All along, Dr. Kim held this fire inside of her; realizing that concealing it only harmed herself and others is what caused her to reignite.

Born Into A life Of Death

The Children oF NORTH KOREA are born into a life that will never be there own, so instead of each day of there lives being full of life, innocence, and exploration of self…. it will be a life of dying of all that should be magical about being a child.

Children of NORTH KOREA are told what to do, when to do it, who to worship, who to trust, not to trust, and so on from early on. there innocence is robbed from them every day they walk past a poster of KIM Jung and idolize him as God and will never truly understand who they are and the devine potential. it is oppressive tyranny at a catastrophic level or even dare i say BIBLICAL proportion!

Imagine if all your hopes and dream for your child, the love of your life, were crushed before you could ever see them have a chance at anything of joy at all! robbed of the playfulness and bright eyed excitement of the mystery of life and watching it unfold….. heart breaking at lest, soul crushing at its worst…..

Let us pray for the future of North Korea, the children of tomorrow.

Reading this article, I can see why Demick was so drawn to this article. Not only does it pertain to real statistics but it also includes real stories of people. I think it really goes into detail about more peopleʻs life and how it was affecting them as they go on. I can see that it ties into her book and how it relates to the characters she mentions. I think she was drawn to this article because she didn’t really put stories about POW, it was more into Mi-Ran and the other’s life. I think when she related this article in the book, you can really see that she was caring for the country as a whole with all its stories. Through this article, I can see that its a high quality article because it has statistics on people, a lot of more people’s points. It seemed as if the info of the article wasn’t that hard to get and the information is purely detailed.

From just reading up to Chapter 3, there are many key things that I learned from just this small section of the book. One of the things that I noticed from this are Korean women tend to run more of the countries. Men are left on war only leaving some of them left to run the country, thus saying that the women tend to run more of the country. Women are left to run more of the factories left. I just found it ironic that despite the women getting bashed for the numerous things, I found it funny that they can run a country together while the men are away. Yet men still bash women for the simple things they do, like for instance riding a bike. Women weren’t allowed to ride bikes but there allowed to run factories? Interesting.

Living in Kāne‘ohe, I can be in an emergency to in a doctor’s office within a matter of minutes. Help’s no more than a quick drive or phone call away, and I can always expect expert care. I never fully appreciated how much of a blessing the hospitals in Hawai‘i are, until I read about the ghastly climate of those in North Korea. Their medical buildings are crammed full with patients, and their ambulances lack sufficient gasoline. The electricity that powers the hospitals flashes sporadically with priority given to the illumination of the leader’s statues. Over time, North Koreans have grown accustomed to these shoddy conditions and even increased levels of pain, as promises of universal healthcare fell flat. With the infrastructure and patients falling apart, the doctors soon do the same. Take, for example, Dr. Kim. On the surface, she presents herself as a highly successful woman, who prides herself in her work. Although she labors for 12 hours each day, aiding a minimum of 32 patients, Dr. Kim takes great honor in being doctor, despite her down-and-out beginnings. However, her personal life tells a more complete story. Her love life took a beating as her success intimidated most men. She eventually settled to marry a man she hardly knew, who later deserted her and took their child with him. Additionally, national ruin led to her paychecks (and food rations) vanishing, forcing Dr. Kim to move back in with her parents. Work simply became more and more of a distraction from her crumbling home life. Elite like Dr. Kim seem to work hard as if to make up for the government’s neglect, but in the end, their inability to get to the root of their and other’s problems only further cripples them.

While reading the recent chapter about the hardships that Ms. Song faces, was at times hard to picture. Here is this strong character, a pillar of the community, a die hard believer and even the community’s inminban.  

An inminban was basically the snitch of the neighborhood. Ears perked up at all times, waiting for someone to fall out of step. She was the direct link to the authorities and could rat on anyone. For a long while, she was devoted to this job. However, death can change your view. As the famine hit North Korea and young and old were dying, her own husband fell ill. She tried so hard to find ways to find nourishment from the land. Whether it was weeds and bark or making cornmeal out of husks of corn or even digging through animal excrement to find grain, she tried to help her husband not succumb to starvation. She banished her “true believer” ways and sold their apartment, TV and other possessions to be able to buy food on the black market. This was something she never would have thought to do, but because death was on her doorstep, she had no choice.

Her husband gave into death and Ms. Song was devastated. She wished she could have done more. Her son, came to take care of her, and he too wasn’t able to survive the world in which North Korea became. Ms. Song, lost the two men in her life all because of the regime not taking care of it’s people and her inability to provide the food they needed.

She no longer was the believer she once was, because death can change your views.

In North Korea, there wasn’t an easy way to climb the social ladder.  If you were apart of the hostile group, which was the lowest of the class system, you and your future generations would stay apart of that class.  Mi-Ran, an ambitious female, tried against her odds to better her life. She had felt hopeless that she wouldn’t be able to go to University because of her social status.  She almost gave up, but was told by her boyfriend to continue to have faith. She decided to try her hardest and if the only reason she didn’t get in was because of her social standing, she wouldn’t have herself to blame.   She made it into teachers university and was thinking this would improve her situation. “In order to fit in, the average citizen had to discipline himself not to think too much.” (pg 70) She was soon aware of how wrong she was.  Within 2 years, she was not being fed but one meal a day at school. Instead of going along with the way things were, she was brave enough to ask to live off of campus. The regime wasn’t providing rations to the schools like they used to, so the school obliged.  It was one less mouth for them to feed.

This article relates to the book “Nothing to Envy” because it shows how controlling the government is and how far they are willing to go to limit the amount of information the citizens can receive. It also talks about how the KCBS talks mostly about the Kim family and how great they are just like what we read in the book.

I think Demick was drawn to this article because it had a lot of information about peoples personal experiences. It wasn’t just one person who was interviewed but the author of “The Arts and the Media” also wrote about his experience as well. I also think he was drawn to it because he might not have been able to gain this information if it hadn’t for this other author. Being able to read about someones first hand experience about something he wasn’t aware of thats why I think he was drawn to it.

I do feel like this is a very high value article. I say this because it came from people who had to live through this. Luckily one of the people who was interviewed escaped from a prison camp and lived to tell how cruel and strict the government was. Not to mention the author who had a different experience and also was able to tell us about it. Not being there but able to hear it from people who lived it that to me gave this article value.