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Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

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Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#51

Post by calibraxis »

Taylorious wrote: post #31
avgarrison wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might like the book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea." There's quite a few jaw dropping stories from people who defected from NK. It's such a mysterious country, I am completely fascinated by it. edit: a word

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely check it out. Although, I have trouble reading those types of books (and articles) because they tend to be a bittersweet experience. On the one hand I feel like it is sort of like a sin to be willfully ignorant of the terrible things happening in places like NK, but it is also incredibly depressing learning about these things and being so powerless. For some reason the bru…

Perhaps you live in a country where you can become aware of the injustices, and have some power to help stop them?

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#52

Post by yoster »

This article is fantastic. I did not like the fact that the sushi chef was a scumbag who created families in different countries and abandoned them which the author called out. He even complicated doing it a third time at the end of the article due to his greediness. I hope he does go back to North Korea and runs out of luck.

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#53

Post by carlob »

Taylorious wrote: post #31
avgarrison wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might like the book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea." There's quite a few jaw dropping stories from people who defected from NK. It's such a mysterious country, I am completely fascinated by it. edit: a word

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely check it out. Although, I have trouble reading those types of books (and articles) because they tend to be a bittersweet experience. On the one hand I feel like it is sort of like a sin to be willfully ignorant of the terrible things happening in places like NK, but it is also incredibly depressing learning about these things and being so powerless. For some reason the bru…

Pop quiz time: Papua New Guinea is one of the four countries without mandatory paid maternity leave. What are the other three?

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#54

Post by marshray »

vinceguidry wrote: post #22
mitchi wrote: post #20

I'm still amazed at how he stayed there 20+ years and never learned Korean.

He probably realized early on that it wasn't in his best interests to, and so just turned that part of his brain off. Curiosity seems like a dangerous thing in North Korea.

People's sense of self-interest is a strange strange thing.

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#56

Post by yitchelle »

mitchi wrote: post #20

I'm still amazed at how he stayed there 20+ years and never learned Korean.

I was wondering about the same thing. Could it be a self protecting strategy? In the article, it mentioned that the Kims see him as an outsider, and by continuing speaking to them via a translator, it kept the sense of him being an outside for the 20+ years.

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#57

Post by DominikR »

uvdiv wrote: post #10

After eight years in captivity, she made a life-or-death escape from her guards after being sent to Vienna to promote Kim's latest film. Could someone explain how Austria permitted slaves to be held within its borders? Is this some sort of diplomatic privilege? This would be 1986 [1]. edit: Or a parallel (?) situation, Cuban athletes "escaping" from government minders inside the USA (2002 [2]). What power do foreign…

You must be seriously brain damaged to ask such a question. I am from Austria and I can assure you that there are no diplomatic privileges to hold slaves in my country.

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#58

Post by unwind »

carlob wrote: post #53
Taylorious wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely check it out. Although, I have trouble reading those types of books (and articles) because they tend to be a bittersweet experience. On the one hand I feel like it is sort of like a sin to be willfully ignorant of the terrible things happening in places like NK, but it is also incredibly depressing learning about these things and being so powerless. For some reason the bru…

Pop quiz time: Papua New Guinea is one of the four countries without mandatory paid maternity leave. What are the other three?

I was trolled enough to check Wikipedia and the other tree are Liberia, Swaziland, and the United States. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave.

Re: Kim Jong-il's Sushi Chef

#59

Post by foobarbazqux »

rosser wrote: post #30

As noted by many of the other comments, this is a fascinating article in so many different respects, but the most interesting take-away for me personally is a little detail that shows just how far the ripples cast from a seemingly small action can reach. If one day, decades ago, a teenaged boy's co-worker and friend hadn't wanted to live like "normal" folks instead of scroungers, and shared a sushi dinner with his fr…

It's a wonderful life, isn't it? Personally I find complex systems of cause and effect to be inherently fascinating. We basically don't understand how they work, at least not in a rigorous way. People are working on models, for example in systems biology, but it's early work.
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