English 100 Spring 2019 Blogs

India is known remarkably for the complex rigidity of its caste system, which determines one’s rank by how well he fulfilled his duties in the previous life cycle. The only way to move up in status is to die and have your efforts hopefully prove enough to propel you to a higher rung of the social ladder. The comparisons made between North Korea’s songbun and India’s caste therefore speaks volumes as to how restricted life for North Koreans really is. Following the 1950-1953 Korean War, the people were heavily surveyed and thrown into a class based off their perceived commitment to the the north: either hostile, wavering, or core. One’s songbin rating sealed the fate of not only themself and their family but also the two generations to follow. For those placed into the core class, the opportunities are far greater than those set in  the lower two, who are treated like afterthoughts. With a single slip up possibly meaning the sentence to a lower class, I would constantly have to have my guard up so as not to say anything that would put me in jeopardy. In an oppressive world like North Korea, not one soul goes without being carefully watched or highly classified.

I wonder what thoughts ran through Tae-woo and his wife’s mind when their children finally uncovered the reason for their misfortune. They had kept the truth of their songbun under wraps only to protect their family, but the secrecy only caused greater devastation in the future. “We’ve already been stripped of our own hope. Why do the same to our children?” must have been part of the reason why they kept quiet for so many years. Staying silent kept Tae-woo safe, so the same must be true for his kids, right? As for Mi-hee and Sok-ji, this realization meant that all their past hard work or any efforts made in the future would equate to nothing. This class restriction predestined many years before their births disqualified the hope for a better life not only for them but for their children, too. Here in America, being accepted into the college of one’s dreams can be one of the most life-altering accomplishments in a person’s life, but, because of their beulsun, they’ll most likely never have their opportunity. In the end, no matter of how many hours they spend or labor they do, it will be all for naught.

Almost every Tuesday, when tickets are discounted, my family and I make the drive to Ko’olau Consolidated Theater to munch on some popcorn and enjoy the latest feature films. Whether it’s Mary Poppins Returns, or Bumblebee, or Aquaman, movies have the ability to ignite our imaginations and expand our possibilities. The movie theater is meant to be a safe place, where we can sit back, relax, and let our emotions go wild: crying, laughing, etc. On the contrary, North Korea exploits the magic of film to reinforce their beliefs further upon the people. By promoting themes like self-sacrifice, Capitalism is bad, slowly sinks in. Also the actors strong healthy, people wanted to be like the people on the screen

Almost every Tuesday, when tickets are discounted, my family and I make the drive to Ko’olau Consolidated Theater to munch on some popcorn and enjoy the latest feature films. Whether it’s Mary Poppins Returns, or Bumblebee, or Aquaman, movies have the ability to ignite our imaginations and expand our possibilities. The movie theater is meant to be a safe place, where we can sit back, relax, and let our emotions go wild: crying, laughing, etc. On the contrary, North Korea exploits the magic of film to reinforce their beliefs further upon the people. By promoting themes like self-sacrifice, Capitalism is bad, slowly sinks in. Also the actors strong healthy, people wanted to be like the people on the screen

North Korean doctors are expected to serve the people selflessly.

pg. 106

Doctors would donate their own blood and sometimes skin for skin grafts. They would hike around in the mountains to gather herbs to make pain killers and antibiotics. Doctors would grow cotton in order to make bandages. Doctors were to serve the people of North Korea…selflessly.

This chapter shows that the children seemed to be the most harmed by the regime. They were starving and unable to eat the weeds and bark that most of the people resorted to eat in order to survive. Their stomachs just couldn’t handle it.

Under the regime, people of North Korea were not allowed to choose their careers. They were chosen for them. A big example was the newest character Kim Ji-eun who was introduced in Chapter 7. She grew up wanting to be a teacher but her grades and demeanor landed her a job as a doctor, because she was told she had to be one. Even though that wasn’t her first choice, she did her job well. She worked around the clock and even when the pay and food rations stopped, she continued her work. She was doing what was asked of her. She worked through typhoid and starvation epidemics. Children were starving at rapid rates and there was nothing the hospitals could do. The hospitals were out of resources. Yet, Kim Ji-eun continued to work, because she cared.

Imagine that everything you know and believe to be true about the world you live in is a way of life that has been passed down to you from your family? So I’m going to spin this a little different for a moment……

First let me make it crystal clear that oppressive tyranny and social behavioral control over human beings is just Hella wrong on all levels and I in know way shape or form support what KOREAN LEADER Kim did to is people for so long.

That being said….

Born into this way of life, groomed, educated and completely supported to run your country with absolute control. The very people that gave Kim life and represented what he was born into the world to know as love, said to him everyday things like….we love you son, this is your country these are your people and this is how we do things here son.

Look out there in the western culture…. They are disgusting, there moral compass is broken, they are unimaginably ungrateful for the luxury of life that they have!

They mary out of wedlock! They are overweight pigs that just take take take consume consume consume and stab each other in the back for a $20 bag of crack cocaine!

Then the big lesson/ direction you get from your father and all your peers….. we must at all cost SAVE OUR PEOPLE FOR THIS WAY OF LIFE!

And perhaps Kim even hear on occasion from some of his closest council…. No what we do here and how we run this country isn’t perfect by any means….  But we refuse tolet what has happened to the rest of the world happen to our people, so we do what is best for them even ifit seems like we are evil tyrants….

Through out the years that Kim Il-sung was North Korea’s “Great Marshal” he created the illusion that he was God. In earlier chapters it spoke of how he had the ability to create “supernatural phenomena” such as his name calming the seas when sailors sung it allowed. It was publicized that a “mysterious fog” would descend when ever he went to the DMZ, and that he himself caused the “tree’s to bloom and snow to melt.” Kim Il-sung skillfully crafted himself into this god-like image, to the point that when he died his people we completely devastated. When the news hit that their God had died people felt as though they had lost their way. I noticed their relationship with their leader was not only that of a faithful follower but that of a child. Mrs. Song stated that she felt a “electric jolt” which she had only previously felt when she received word that her mother had died. It was apparent that in every instance when someone found out they went into shock. They were “numb”, “blank” and lost in the silence of the situation. These people could see the words being spoken but a part of them could not hear them because it was too painful. Every child has a love hate relationship with their parent and this can be seen in the different reactions that Kim-Il-sung’s people had to his death. Some creed profusely while other had to “spit in their hand” to make their face look as though they were morning their leader. Sadly the only correct way to grieve was to cry, there were no other emotions these people could display because Kim Il-sung was not only their father he was their god.

When reading chapter six of Nothing to Envy, I found myself hurdled back in time to a memory of where I was when America was attacked. The feelings of raw emotion overtook me as if it were that day again in 2001. The way the author, Barbara Demick asked her interview subjects where they were on that given day that Kim Il-Sung was pronounced dead and was able to see the people perk up and “suddenly describe with great animation and detail their movements on that day,” gives me an understanding of what the North Koreans felt during what they deemed a difficult time.

I am not by any means comparing the two events, but simply stating that certain life events can forever be engrained into our minds and we can be sent back to a time with absolute clarity when asked to recant a memory. For the North Koreans, they came across as conflicted at the news of his passing. Some seemed genuinely upset and there was a lot of people clearly worried about their future. How were they going to be taken care of? Who was going to lead them and provide for them? When September 11th happened, I myself wondered about my safety and what was going to happen to our country. After reading half of this novel, I find we are similar to the North Koreans, maybe not through our politics but simply by our human nature.

In the book “Nothing to Envy”, the story of two young teenagers falling in love in North Korea is told. In North Korea, love and romance is not something that is ever spoken of or openly discussed. It is totally rare that you would see a couple kissing or even holding hands in public in North Korea. Many North Korean defectors even say that when they were in South Korea, it was very shocking to see couples kiss in public. PDA is not allowed and is heavily looked down upon. These two teenagers who had a blossoming romantic connection would meet up at night, when everything is dark and all the lights are out just to take walks together and talk to each other. They took three years to even hold each others hands. It’s crazy to me that in North Korea, love or being in love is something to almost be ashamed of, something to be hidden.

January 23,2019 : After reading the article, “Hardly Known, Not Yet Forgotten, South Korean POW’s Tell Their Story,” it appears that during war in the 1950s the South was worse off than the North. The South gave back 76,000 POW’s while the North only gave back 8,000 POW’s. The North kept 72,000 POW from South Korea and denied their existence.

In the book, “Nothing to Envy,” it portrays that in today’s era the North seems like a horrible place. But, when you look back at history, Southern people have ran to the North. Stated in the article, “Former POW’s who managed to escape back to South Korea said they were simply not informed that a prisoner exchange was taking place, or even that the war was over,” (Radio Free Asia 1). This shows how they did not know what was going on with their people and country.

Barabara Demick went to North Korea interviewed many people there and came back with a story. As an author, she only got bits and pieces which makes me question her writing and the information she states. I would rather hear a story from actual North Koreans than an American. She also states, “..their country has betrayed them,” this is very astonishing because the North Koreans do not speak this way about their people nor their culture. I would also want to know how she met these individuals she interviewed. What lengths did she take and how did she come up with the interviews she took? What makes her interviews and stories so valuable? How many other journalists have similar stories as her? I believe she is taking World History and is mimicking and infusing it into this story. Could I be right? Looking forward to read more!