The Reasonable Activist

Img src http://www.hrnk.org/hiddengulag/toc.html

Oh Kil-nam is a South Korean economist who moved his family to Pyongyang, North Korea when officials promised him a good job and treatment for his wife’s hepatitis.  They recieved neither.  Instead, the couple spent several months studying the teachings of Kim Il Sung, the “Great Leader” and founding dictator of North Korea.  They were given jobs in a radio station, broadcasting political propaganda.

Oh was ordered to leave for Germany to recruit South Korean students to live in North Korea.  Neither his wife nor his two daughters were allowed to go with him.  Initially, he planned to return. Oh recalls that he and his wife argued bitterly about what he should do.

“She hit me in the face when I said I would come back with some South Koreans,” Oh said. “She said I could not have that on my conscience. She told me to leave North Korea and never come back. She told me to think of her and our daughters as being dead from a car accident.”

Upon reaching Germany, Oh defected and was granted political asylum.  His family disappeared within the North Korean gulag ‘camps’.  It is unknown whether they are alive or dead.

I would like to honor the brave Shin Sook-ja, who knowingly gave up the future and possibly the lives of herself and her family, so that her husband could escape.  Through her self-sacrifice, she also protected the lives of any students he may have brought back.  There is no greater act of nobility than to submit yourself to endless torture and degradation so that another can be free.  Let her story not be forgotten.  Let us always remember that these gulags exist in many countries around the world. 

We will not be free until all of humanity is freed, for our obligation binds us to aide our distressed brothers and sisters.

REFERENCE ARTICLE:
Washington Post Article: A family and a conscience, destroyed by North Korea’s cruelty
1994 Amnesty International Appeals Information on Shin Sook-ja (scroll down)
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)

I have the unenviable position of being neither for nor against this war.  Of course, I support the soldiers.  Then again, I also support humane treatment of all prisoners, even ones that don’t deserve it.  But whether or not you can justify the war at its inception, you can’t just send everyone home overnight, especially not when a war has been going on for as long as Afghanistan.  There’s probably a whole war-based economy by now that would collapse, for one (and no, I am not talking about the dealing of weapons).  Once you get past the inflammatory title, this is actually a well-rounded article that touches, if however briefly, on how complex these issues can be when viewed from different angles.

Obama’s Secret Prisons: Night Raids, Hidden Detention Centers, the “Black Jail” and the Dogs of War in Afghanistan

The nice thing about being a extrovert in DC is I often learn the truth behind the fantastic news spewed from the press.  The media has this way of looking at issues from only one side, and then pushing that side as the only reasonable and sane way of looking at something.  It sounds perfectly logical when it is said on the television, but when I hear an opposing viewpoint from some knowledgeable soul in the city, their way sounds just as correct.  It pays to remember that the louder someone screams, the more obvious and simple the press makes their viewpoint out to be, the more likely it is some information just as relevant and diametrically opposed to that opinion exists.

Still, I can’t find the spin in the Franken rape amendment.  What happened at Halliburton was atrocious, to be sure, but it may be something in the wording of the bill itself (as presented by Franken) that caused thirty Senators to oppose it.  Congressman and senators love to pass feel-good fluff bills, so the fact that so many opposed this amendment makes me smell a dead rhinosaurus in the room.  My natural inclination is to believe in the utter corruption of Congress (which I know to be an unjust assumption) and I generally want to villify big business, male dominated environments, and sexual offenders.  This emotional charge makes it hard for me to take a step back and look at the facts logically, to ask the mundane questions.  Remember that even a miraculously wonderful bill may be scratched if the wrong miniscule clause is thrown in, and it is a common political tactic to hide sneaky self-serving (or publicly damaging) tidbits into much needed amendments.  Politics is all about throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Where’s the damn spin?

For more information, visit: Huffington Post article

Seems that there is a new push to end terrorism by bringing jobs and hope to impoverished Muslim strongholds.   Outsourced call-centers teach employees English and provide America-based jobs, which also bolsters areas of economic distress while promoting friendly relations with the West.

Full Yahoo Article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090613/lf_afp/financeeconomyphilippinesunrestmuslimbusiness

WHY AREN’T WE DOING THIS WITH MEXICO?!  All the racists and rednecks constantly gripe about how the illegal immigrants are ‘taking all our jobs’ when really these are the jobs no one is willing to do, or do well, or do for the price American businesses and consumers demand.  Mexico and parts of Central America are so desperately impoverished, of course people would want to come to El Norte for a chance at a better job and life.  Our current economic crisis has done more to stem the tide of illegal immigration than any number of law enforcement officials or tactics.

We sit up here and fret and worry about the drug cartel violence spreading across our mutual border, yet all we want to do is bitch and put forth violent and useless options such as, “round up all the immigrants and send them a) back home, b) to jail, c)to their Maker (i.e. shoot them)”.  How about we help them fix their economic problems, and in doing so we ALSO SOLVE OUR OWN BORDER ISSUE.

Of course, this would involve some serious and open talks with the Mexican government, who would have to be willing to be helped.  We’d have to help them solve their endemic corruption problem to ensure goods/services coming from Mexico or Central America met our standards.  These are not small items, but it is a far better solution than the one found at the end of a gun.

One Last Time

The night before the burial of her husband’s body, Katherine Cathey refused to leave the casket, asking to sleep next to his body for the last time.  The Marines made a bed for her.

I would like to take a moment to remind everyone that we are still at war, and that we still have soldiers fighting overseas.  Whether you believe in their mission or not, the job they do is an honorable one.  So as we buckle down to deal with more pressing issues such as the economy or swine flu, don’t forget that somewhere the most pressing issue for one of our own is a bullet or an IED.  Blessings to everyone.

THIS IS A CROSS-POST FROM AN UNRELATED SITE, FOR THE FULL ARTICLE VISIT:
http://shock.military.com/Shock/images.do?displayContent=101062#