Random

Sunday's are usually pretty slow around here with no flying being done so I spent most of the morning catching up on my reading, emails, and of course, wasting a bit of time on the net. I was reading an article about a North Korean immigrant was struggling to adjust to life outside of the prison camp that he was born and raised into and I pulled up a Google search on life in North Korea and spent the next few hours reading one heart-breaking story after another.

Sometimes it's easy to forget how good I have it in life while at this very same moment as I sit in front of my own computer, with an A/C unit running and a full belly, millions of poor souls a few thousand miles away are desperately eking out a pathetic existence with no concept of the outside world other than what their Glorious Leader wants them to hear. Reading about the country is both tragic and comical at the same time. Ideas and beliefs that even the most naive of Americans, except perhaps a few from the People's Republic of Boulder in Colorado or Berkeley, would dismiss as insane are perceived as absolute truth when put forth by the Government. Eye-opening for sure.

On a related note, I recently received as a birthday present from my mom "The Imperial Cruise" by James Bradley, the same author who wrote "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Flyboys". In his search for what lead up to the events of WWII on Iwo Jima that killed so many Americans and affected his father so greatly, he explores the influence of Teddy Roosevelt (never liked the guy anyway) and his cronies on politics and wars of the 20th century. Could it be possible that in a roundabout way, America shares a significant portion of the burden for the current state of the two Koreas, and with it, the misery of the North? He definitely makes a strong case for it, though that was hardly the point of the book.

As for today, everything that I do; church, reading, talking to friends and family, will be done with the almost subconscious awareness that the freedom by which I act is definitely not a given.

And so I turn back to my music and my new book; some Michelle Branch song and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War on my Kindle. It is most definitely good to be an American.

Below are some good links detailing North Korea's ideas on a few things:

Some interesting thoughts on Reunification


Becoming a "friend of Korea" for only 50 Euros. I considered this just to see what kind of stuff I'd get in the mail but I imagine I might lose my security clearance for something like that.

The best part is that I'd get discounts on hot items like North Korean movies & music.

For another 30 Euros, I was sorely tempted to buy the DVD "A traffic controller on crossroads".