domenica 31 agosto 2014

Seoul Asylum: The Brutal Existence of North Korean Defectors




All photos courtesy the author, who explored the world of North Korean defectors on this past week's episode of VICE on HBO



I flew to Seoul to mingle with North Korea’s “most beautiful defectors” on the set of a hit reality TV show. With its Looney Tunes sound effects and bright lights, the Korean sensation Now on My Way to Meet You, like everything else associated with the Hermit Kingdom, feels part cartoon, part horror show. The mod set shines more like a 70s quiz program than a talk show—plus they have feats of strength and physical challenges.



The defectors, all women, sat in three rows of white tulip chairs and were interviewed about dating, love, partying, and torture. The show is supposed to give North Koreans a platform to tell their stories to their neighbors in the South, in hopes of being seen as normal by them, but the execution can be taxing to watch. When some of the show’s stars actually got to talking, their tales were horrendous: starvation, solitary confinement, hard labor, and firing squads.



Midway through the day’s taping, the show’s host shouted, “Aicha beeah oh” and waved me onto the set. After some small talk, he demanded I choose the prettiest girl in the lot. I looked at the rows of women who’d just poured their hearts out and refused. The host continued to prod me to choose my favorite North Korean defector, until he finally sent me off stage for being a buzzkill.



The stories of those escaping North Korea are somewhat like those of Holocaust survivors in that they are a combination of serendipity and brutality. No one just boards a bus across the border, slips a customs agent a wad of cash, or hides in a trunk. Defectors starve, get beaten, are sold, raped, and impregnated. And that’s once they get to China.



The North Koreans who actually make it to the promised land find themselves in South Korean public housing, towers clustered by the half dozen, living within one-bedroom cookie-cutter apartments, surrounded by fellow defectors. The towers have large numerals painted on the sides of them, visible from the highways and busy roads that they line, as if they are just part of some spreadsheet in a government registry. Every defector’s apartment is a photocopy of the one next to it, so you can get a read on where someone is in their internal life according to the state of their domestic affairs.



The first defector I visited got catapulted into the international blogosphere after being coined the Man Who Wants to Go Back to North Korea. As we set up our cameras in the living room, Son Jung-hun smoked a cigarette in his windowless bedroom. The apartment was barren—the bank had repossessed the refrigerator and dishwasher after he undersigned a defaulted loan for another defector trying to broker an escape for her relative. While the floor was littered with cigarette butts and loose papers, the walls were lined with his teenage son’s academic awards, toys, and schoolbooks. Within those bookshelves was a rare Korean copy of the new age gospel of positive psycho-bullshittery, The Secret.



We sat on the floor as he lamented the discontents of capitalism, a familiar song. He also spoke of credit and interest rates with mystery and disdain. He explained that because of his accent and short stature (due to malnourishment), employers can tell he’s North Korean and won’t hire him. South Korean women ignore him because he is broke. He said he is only living in Seoul for his son, who just made honor roll. When we went downstairs from his humble flat, Jung-hun showed us his luxury sedan, which he continued to pay for despite living beyond his means.



His mantra remains, “I want to go back to North Korea.” His words are more like the poetic refrain of Melville’s Bartleby than the makings of real political activism. While double defecting is rare, when it happens, the North Korean regime has a field day with propaganda. Who knows what happens to them after the media circus dies? Jung-hun told me that’s of no concern to him, and explained that he is dying of liver cirrhosis. Jung-hun's martyrdom, then, is all about telling South Koreans how fucked-up they are.



Nearly 70 years since there was a unified Korea, the North and South have polarized. While parts of Seoul could be set pieces in a techno-utopia, the North remains medieval. They don’t have YouTube or Nike Airs—even the evolution of kimchi and barbequed meat has been frozen in time. We all live in bubbles, but the North Korean bubble is built on equal parts material and mental isolation. One of the defectors explained that a smuggler of South Korean and Western DVDs was publicly executed in front of her elementary school. Career ambition and business savvy are foreign concerns.



While some of our Seoul contacts believe that their country is uniquely judgmental and callous, it’s hard to say whether South Korea is more close-minded than any other society with an influx of immigrants. The difficulties of North Korean assimilation—new arrivals suffer from six times the employment rate of the regular population—can clearly be attributed to the cultural gap in terms of education, work ethic, and financial goals. The defector’s transitions could not be more extreme.





South Korea is not just a highly competitive culture; it’s also one of the hardest-working places on earth. And when you look at the statistics on alcohol consumption and sex trade per capita (both estimated within the top five in the world), South Koreans are also among the best at blowing off steam. The men of Seoul like to do shots, sing karaoke, and fuck hookers. Their Karaoke bars, noribans, don’t look that different from the places littering Midtown and the East Village in Manhattan, except, in Seoul, that’s where johns troll for hookers. It is within these establishments, tucked into the corners of the city, that female defectors often find their jobs.



I interviewed a prostitute named Yoon in her furniture-less flat, outside the city limits, who was paranoid about her pimp noticing our cameras or suspecting that she’d been turning tricks without consulting him. In the evening, after we left, she would descend upon these noribans and hourly hotels until first light.



I sat again on unforgiving hardwood, massaging the pins and needles out of my calves, while she smoked menthol after menthol. She explained how, after several failed attempts and multiple years of torture, she was finally stolen across the icy Tumen River, with skin peeling off the frozen soles of her feet, and then immediately sold to a Chinese farmer.



Farmers in southern China are among the loneliest bachelors on Earth. Yoon described how her husband and his father repeatedly raped her, even while she was pregnant with one of their children. She left her baby crying in his crib in a farmhouse when she hitched a ride with a Christian group to Vietnam (the second step in a circuitous route to seek asylum in Bangkok, followed by entry to Seoul). The Korean government hooked her up with the apartment and some job training. Soon she landed a job at a shoe factory.



“They tormented me,” day in and out, Yoon said. She heard hateful whispers and gossip from her co-workers, and soon the treatment from everyone around became unbearable. The terrible work conditions forced her to quit and led her back down the crimson alleyways of the noribans. When I asked her about whether she had marriage prospects or dreams of the future, she said, “Honestly, the moment we cross over the border, I think people like us have already given up on life and love. As I’m getting older, I think about being alone. How much longer could I do this? It’s really nothing more than just living. To be honest, there are no dreams left….Frankly, things are more confusing here in South Korea. People here don’t let you dream.”



North Korea is a manipulative cult. Pastor Won at the Durihana Church, who focuses his efforts on defectors, spoke about the ease with which North Koreans adapt to Christianity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost easily replace the Holy Trinity of Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-un, and Kim Il-sung. The of capitalism, or Christianity, for that matter, is a nursery rhyme compared to the brainwashing in North Korea. Now, two generations deep into a divided Korea, those 25,000 or so who’ve slipped out of the shadow of the Kim family have what is best described as a North Korean–flavored post-traumatic stress disorder. While the South Korean government has done a great deal to assimilate their Northern kin through public housing and job training, many defectors continue to live in torture camps of their own minds.



Once you start to understand these defectors—who seem too scared to even admit where they came from, let alone tell their stories—a sleazy talk show feels like an earnest attempt to culturally elevate North Koreans into a country that will soon see little benefit in unification. And when you realize that even when handed their freedom, the next generation of North Koreans may spend decades recovering from the trauma of the Kim regime, even The Secret starts to seem like a reasonable opiate.



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Seoul Asylum: The Brutal Existence of North Korean Defectors

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Nuclear Waste Leak Traced To --- Kitty Litter

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19 Of The Most Ridiculous First World Problems Of All Time

Life is just really hard sometimes. Thanks to this Quora thread .



“A friend bounced a check because it takes too many steps to take a photo of it and deposit it with their iPhone.


(Source: Quora)


AndreyPopov / thinkstockphotos.com|Currency|69962|Subject/f=CTPIHVX/s=DynamicRank



“Few weeks ago, a colleague of mine cried half the afternoon because she broke one of her nails and how terrible this was because she was going out that weekend.


When I tried to calm her down, she couldn't understand why I couldn't understand why she was upset. Did I not know how long she's spend growing them to perfection?”


(Source: Quora)


Miramiska / shutterstock.com



“When my friend cried because she had no idea which dress she should pick from 30+ dresses.”


(Source: Quora)


Yamini Chao / thinkstockphotos.com



“The office where I work doesn't have a water cooler or provide bottled water. I caught myself the other day whining about how I had to walk all the way across the street to buy water from a drugstore.”


(Source: Quora)


AVAVA / shutterstock.com



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Why do scientists say that genetic engineering of crops is just the “latest chapter” in 10,000 years of high-tech agriculture? Or that genetic engineering is just a more precise way to breed plants compared to conventional breeding? Plants swap genes even without the help of human beings when they reproduce sexually, and [...]


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In honor of the show’s 10-year anniversary, why not look at some things the show has taught us about moving.


At first, you're so happy and excited to be moving to a new place.


At first, you're so happy and excited to be moving to a new place.


NBC / Via solodejatellevar-juvenil.blogspot.com


But then you realize that moving is actually hell.


But then you realize that moving is actually hell.


NBC / Via gerekligereksizler.blogspot.com


First you realize that you've shoved everything into one closet and fear having to pack all the stuff that's in it.


First you realize that you've shoved everything into one closet and fear having to pack all the stuff that's in it.


NBC


You end up finding old pictures and videos that you regret taking.


You end up finding old pictures and videos that you regret taking.


NBC / Via giphy.com



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22 Harsh Realities Of Moving To A New Place As Told By "Friends"

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If you’re not a Stark, you’re already off to a good start.



HBO / BuzzFeed



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'Community' Creator Dan Harmon to Give Banff Master Class


Top creative execs behind “Banshee,” “Good Luck Charlie” and “America’s Next Top Model” will also take part in the festival’s showrunners program.

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California Utility Criminally Indicted In Pipeline Blast, But Not Any Individuals

36 Life Changing Poems Everyone Should Read

“Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it.”



Chris Ritter / BuzzFeed / Shutterstock


1. “MCMXIV” by Philip Larkin

“That poem by Larkin (and some others) taught me how direct and economical you can be with language, and about how modernity isn't so great.”

Ben Smith


2. “If” by Rudyard Kipling

“When I was growing up, my dad had a beautiful calligraphy copy of the poem on his bedroom wall, given to him by his father. Before we could read, he would read it to us, and once we began reading he encouraged us to practice by reading it aloud to him at night. The second stanza is the first part of anything I ever memorized. Dad not only had us read from it, but would ask us what we thought it meant. It's got such a beautiful message of how to deal with life and those around you, how to temper yourself but not lose your joy. When I was a kid, my dad would change the last line for me and my sister to 'and what's more, you'll be a woman my daughter' and that just meant the world to me because yes, you can do all these things that a century ago made you a 'man' but you can own them as a woman.”

Cates Holderness


3. “'Hope' is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

“It's just so pretty and simple and inspiring. I also hate it when people look down on poetry that rhymes, and I think this is a perfect example of something that sounds gorgeous while also meaning so much.”

Julia Pugachevsky


4. “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe

“This 'Poetry Alive!' group came to our middle school, and they did this awesome reading of 'Annabel Lee' by Edgar Allan Poe. We'd read it in class but I didn't really understand it fully until I heard it read out loud, and it was just so morbidly strange and sad. It was the first time I took genuine interest in a poem — I'd always thought they were dry and difficult to relate to before that. I used it to audition for my first play in high school.”

Keely Flaherty


5. “I Remember” by Anne Sexton

“Newly into my twenties, this poem was a perfect picture of how even simple, fleeting love could be really powerful and beautiful — and worth remembering.”

Rachel Zarrell


6. “Pale Fire” by Vladimir Nabokov

“I think it's incredible how he perfectly captures the enchantment of looking at a beautiful scene outside of your window. I've always thought it was so magical when you can suddenly see both your reflection and the view outside and the way that he put it — 'And then the gradual and dual blue / as night unites the viewer and the view' — is so beautiful and it takes this ordinary experience and transforms it into something extraordinary.”

Diana Bruk


7. “Out, Out” by Robert Frost

“A Frost poem changed my life. It is called 'Out, Out' and it is about a farm boy who accidentally cuts his hand off with a buzz saw and dies. It reminds us of the extraordinarily short duration of life and the related denial we must impose upon ourselves to avoid all-consuming despair.”

Joe Bernstein




Via Flickr: zachd1_618


8. “Lady Lazarus” by Sylvia Plath

“They made us read Plath in high school and I immediately became obsessed with her. This particular poem I read when I was going through a rough, dark, teenage time and it felt like someone got how I was feeling.”

Conz Preti


9. “The Tollund Man” by Seamus Heaney

“It concerns the unhappy and savage roots of man and how we are all ultimately violent and alone.”

Joe Bernstein


10. “A Pity. We Were Such a Good Invention” by Yehuda Amichai

“I love this poem by the Israeli writer Yehuda Amichai, which spoke to me immediately because I often dated people my parents disapproved of and I like to blame them for all of my problems.”

Deena Shanker


11. “Faint Music” by Robert Hass

“I think I read it when I was 18 and heartbroken because I was usually heartbroken when I was 18. Hass renders the environment of the Bay Area, where I'm from, so correctly. The idea of a Golden Gate Bridge attempted suicide that's interrupted by a meditation on how silly the word 'seafood' is and sleep I just love. I still often think of the line about the underpants, the 'russet in the crotch that made him sick with rage and grief.'”

Sandra Allen


12. “Changing Everything” by Jane Hirshfield

“After a breakup, I found this poem that I still have up on my wall. Every time I read it it reminds me that the decisions that change my life the most were not always the ones that looked the most significant to anyone else.”

Jessica Probus


13. “Tonight at Noon” by Adrian Henri

“I first read this poem when I was a child, before I understood what unrequited love feels like. Later I found out, and I realized that nothing quite captures the absurd trauma of it like this unpretentious poem.”

Jessica Misener




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36 Life Changing Poems Everyone Should Read

Quick Note: China Crashes Party for 1,530 People Involved in Mobile Phone Spam

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This Guy Is Painfully, Cringe-Inducingly Bad At "Wheel Of Fortune"

Yikes. Together we will move past this.



Instead, what followed was a performance of historically bad proportions.



youtube.com


Julian almost won this, but unfortunately he pronounced the name “Ay-chill-is.”


Julian almost won this, but unfortunately he pronounced the name "Ay-chill-is."


Via youtube.com



Via gemini-dragon-gifs.tumblr.com



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This Guy Is Painfully, Cringe-Inducingly Bad At "Wheel Of Fortune"

13 Reasons This Man Makes Better Use Of His Empty Coffee Cups Than You Do

The man in question being Paul Garbett , a Sydney-based designer. Head over to his Tumblr to keep up with his designs.



Via cuppaday.tumblr.com



Via cuppaday.tumblr.com



Via cuppaday.tumblr.com



Via cuppaday.tumblr.com



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13 Reasons This Man Makes Better Use Of His Empty Coffee Cups Than You Do

This Is How To Opt-Out Of Google Putting Your Face In Its Adverts

It’s really simple once you know about it.


Google's updated terms and conditions mean the company can use your name, face and personal details in adverts across the site. The good news is you can opt out fairly easily here. It's simple, look:


Google's updated terms and conditions mean the company can use your name, face and personal details in adverts across the site. The good news is you can opt out fairly easily here . It's simple, look:


The company announced an update to its terms and conditions last month and gave users the opportunity to opt-out in advance of the new update. Users can, however, opt out at any point they wish.


Google / Via plus.google.com


Google will ask if you're *sure* you want to disable it. Don't buckle under the pressure!


Google will ask if you're *sure* you want to disable it. Don't buckle under the pressure!


Google / Via plus.google.com


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This Is How To Opt-Out Of Google Putting Your Face In Its Adverts

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Norman The Scraggly Toothed Hedgehog Is All You Need Today

Legitimately the best hedgie in the world.


This is Norman, the scraggly toothed hedgie of reddit user, brettjessie.


This is Norman, the scraggly toothed hedgie of reddit user, brettjessie .


reddit.com


He loves his human, obviously…


He loves his human, obviously...


reddit.com


…and they take EXCELLENT selfies together.



instagram.com


He also loves ridin' in shoes…


He also loves ridin' in shoes...


reddit.com



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Norman The Scraggly Toothed Hedgehog Is All You Need Today

sabato 30 agosto 2014

The Best TV Moments You Shouldn’t Have Missed This Week

Once again, it was a very busy week on the Boob Tube. And this time around—even in a man’s, man’s, man’s world—it was women who ruled the screen.



    








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Yankees At Cardinals Is Most Expensive Ticket Of Baseball's First Half

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Hong Kong's Emperor Motion Pictures Beefs Up Production, Exhibition Units


Emperor hires Daniel Yu and Damon Chan as the company expands in mainland China.

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Samsung Preps "High-End" Tizen Smartphone for May Launch

Mid-range model will also launch; both phones will target developing markets


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Samsung Preps "High-End" Tizen Smartphone for May Launch

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Passionate customers who love doing business with you: that’s an aspiration that only matters to consumer-market companies, right? After all, clear-eyed buyers at manufacturing and industrial customers don’t put much stock in loyalty. They base their decisions on a cold assessment of product features and price. Think again. It turns out [...]


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Can Companies Find Love In B2B Markets?

Air Space

The Tablo is a set-top box without the set, a standalone over-the-air DVR you tuck away in whatever corner of the house gets the best OTA reception.







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Air Space