Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

singularityhub.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 216 posts

Re: Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

#21

Post by nagrom »

josefresco wrote: post #13
yequalsx wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see your point. Does the number of U.S. prisoners diminish the vileness of what goes on in North Korea? Are you saying/suggesting that the numbers of prisoners in the U.S. are so great that other countries are beyond criticism? That it's hypocritical for Americans or the American government to be shocked by the situation in North Korea? Can you clarify?

I'll answer for him, it's your last suggestion It's hypocritical for someone in the US to criticize other nations about their prison systems when we're leading the world in locking people up for crazy shit. That's not to say we can't have an opinion, just not a holier-than-thou attitude about it.

I don't think that, even in US prisons (which are rather inhumane compared to European standards, I think), prisoners are delighted when a companion dies because the extra food ration they get for burying the body allows them to keep starvation at bay.

When "Thou" is plain fucking evil, it's perfectly acceptable to be holier-than-thou.

Re: Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

#22

Post by Goronmon »

fijall wrote: post #3

2,292,133 were in prisons in the United States in 2009 [from wikipedia]. Even though I guess conditions are better, 200 000 doesn't sound like that many after all.

Are you arguing that prisons in the US are akin to what is described as concentration camps in the article, or that what is described in the article is comparable to what you find in US prisons?

Re: Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

#23

Post by ck2 »

callmeed wrote: post #8
ck2 wrote: post #4

If they still made the sears catalog I'd suggest the key to starting a peoples' revolt in North Korea would be to airdrop hundreds of thousands of catalogs across the country. Even without understanding the language, just looking at all the goods would make people start wondering why they are being made to suffer so.

How about SkyMall catalogs instead? They're already on the planes ;)

Skymall is just gadgets, no?

Sears catalog was full of every day practical stuff from clothing to household needs, tools, etc.

The US government should have bought millions of leftover catalogs as propaganda to drop on countries like this. No bombs needed.

Sadly it seems they stopped making it in 1993 (strangely well before internet shopping got started)

http://www.searsarchives.com/catalogs/index.htm

http://images.google.com/search?q=sears+catalog&tbm=isch

Re: Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

#24

Post by [deleted] »

bloggergirl wrote: post #5
fijall wrote: post #3

2,292,133 were in prisons in the United States in 2009 [from wikipedia]. Even though I guess conditions are better, 200 000 doesn't sound like that many after all.

Sorry, fijall, that the number of enslaved people (who are in many cases not guilty of crimes beyond disagreeing with a dictator) is not adequately horrific for you. Perhaps if they were 200,000 people you knew... or even one you knew.

[deleted]

Re: Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

#25

Post by schmittz »

Wickk wrote: post #15
abrown28 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes me sick that a large percentage of the people in American jails are there for crimes that hurt no one but themselves but to compare this to the people in North Korea is just asinine.

Agreed. A conversation about our prison system is irrelevant. We're not locking people up in mass and forcing them to live in death camps. Our prison system is far from perfect but it doesn't compare to what these people are going through.

While I agree that such a conversation is irrelevant to this post, I would say that in certain cases we are pretty close to locking people up en masse and forcing them to live in fairly abominable circumstances albeit not death camps.

Re: Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

#26

Post by ugh »

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #9

"I can admire China’s growth in infrastructure and technology, it’s pursuit to compete on a global scale, but what good is all that growth if it allows these crimes to go on next door?" I admire America's prominence in infrastructure and technology, it's continuing domination on a global scale, but what good is all that power when over 40,000 people and rising are murdered because of a drug war for which they are com…

The author of the article is no member of the US government and doesn't speak for it. To accuse him of hypocrisy on the basis of actions his government takes seems wholly misguided.

Re: Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

#27

Post by jhamburger »

sedachv wrote: post #16
abrown28 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes me sick that a large percentage of the people in American jails are there for crimes that hurt no one but themselves but to compare this to the people in North Korea is just asinine.

How is it asinine to compare what is happening in North Korea to what is happening to black men in the USA?

Which would you rather be? Is it a close decision?

Re: Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

#29

Post by yequalsx »

josefresco wrote: post #13
yequalsx wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see your point. Does the number of U.S. prisoners diminish the vileness of what goes on in North Korea? Are you saying/suggesting that the numbers of prisoners in the U.S. are so great that other countries are beyond criticism? That it's hypocritical for Americans or the American government to be shocked by the situation in North Korea? Can you clarify?

I'll answer for him, it's your last suggestion It's hypocritical for someone in the US to criticize other nations about their prison systems when we're leading the world in locking people up for crazy shit. That's not to say we can't have an opinion, just not a holier-than-thou attitude about it.

I believe North Korea is number 1 in terms of percentage of its population in (formal) prison. The U.S. is number 2.

The percentage of people in prison in the U.S. is grotesquely large. It's much larger than any other nation with comparable economic/religious/political freedoms. The U.S. judicial/prison system is quite bad in my opinion but the exact point that fijall was making was lost on me. Hence my request for a clarification.

I will add that the entire nation of North Korea should be viewed as a giant prison. This makes North Korea incomparable to other nations. It's unique in this respect.

Re: Satellite Images of North Korea Prison Camps Find 200,000 Living as Slaves

#30

Post by [deleted] »

josefresco wrote: post #13
yequalsx wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fail to see your point. Does the number of U.S. prisoners diminish the vileness of what goes on in North Korea? Are you saying/suggesting that the numbers of prisoners in the U.S. are so great that other countries are beyond criticism? That it's hypocritical for Americans or the American government to be shocked by the situation in North Korea? Can you clarify?

I'll answer for him, it's your last suggestion It's hypocritical for someone in the US to criticize other nations about their prison systems when we're leading the world in locking people up for crazy shit. That's not to say we can't have an opinion, just not a holier-than-thou attitude about it.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN