No matter how ambitious a traveler you are, there are some places on this planet you will probably never visit. Some are dangerous. Some are hostile to western visitors. Some have political regimes that are oppressive and unpredictable. Some just won’t let you in.
There is one place that has all of these characteristics. Without massive shifts in their current worldview, it is possible you may never have the chance to visit. That place is North Korea. There is probably no other country on this globe that is so tightly withdrawn from western culture. At the same time, especially with the emerging importance of China and the rest of Asia in our daily lives, it is still important that we have an understanding of what is going on there.
That makes every credible report from North Korea practically required reading. I just finished Escape from Camp 14, by Seattle writer Blaine Harden. As much as you might wish he had written an action thriller, in fact, he has recreated an authentic account of a unique human being.
As far as anyone in the North Korean expatriate community is aware, there is only one person who was born and raised within the prison camp system of North Korea who has ever escaped. Now in his mid-twenties, and living in the US, Shin Dong-hyuk, has lived a life we cannot really comprehend. His story, from his shocking youth, through his improbable adolescence, to his ultimate escape from the deepest circle of living hell in this world, is astonishing to read.
Somewhere in the US high school English curriculum, we all had to read stories, mostly fiction, that supposedly made us aware of the theme, “Man’s inhumanity to Man”. At the same time, during our history classes, we studied lots of examples, usually reported by the victors, of brutal conflicts and oppression throughout the ages. We have studied concentration camps and holocausts. There have been so many instances when human life has had so little value, it could be discarded cavalierly. However, from the relative comfort of American life, they have seemed academic, at best, and irrelevant, at worst. This is different. It is real and it is current. That makes it important.
There remain, even today, too many places where the value of human life is so small that suicide bombs, self-immolation, sexual repression, and brutal atrocities seem appealing or justifiable. The fear-based brainwashing of 25 million people ranks up there with the worst assaults on the human race. You need to read Escape from Camp 14 to begin to understand what is happening in this vortex of human existence. The good news is that Shin escaped. The question is: what can we do about the rest of the North Koreans?
We have much to accomplish as the new year begins. Use your travel to enrich your global view. Use www.cruisereader.com to enrich your travel experience.
Happy New Year!
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