I know..it’s Voice of America but it’s a damn fine story. Half a story anyway. Remember George Orwells 1984? Where huge governments accuse each other of exactly what all governments do….And meanwhile they go on their way. So anyway, here is the half of the news of this side…In the next day or two I’ll post a propaganda piece from the other side…As an aside, there are many more homeless in America than the average worker can begin to understand. If the world were to actually see the ‘invisible’ homeless in America in such clarity and huge numbers as they exist, the world would be aghast. I know a lot of homeless people. 4 out of 5 of them, at least, are invisible. Meaning they find a way to blend into a society that requires too much while giving too little and they look just like everyone else. It can be done. The U.S. should sort it’s own problems out and become an example to the world, instead we point at the indescretions of other governments and continue to ignore our own spiraling social welfare concerns. It almost looks like it is intentional. Let’s think about the size of North Korea and their potential to cause trouble. Think of the US under a totalitarian regime. Perhaps it’s time that the world address some of the problems with the US, in their own defense.
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North Korea Says Famine is Over, but Many Still Go Hungry
By Luis Ramirez
Pyongyang
02 November 2005
Ramirez report – Download 731k audio clip
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After years of famine, North Korea is predicting a bumper harvest for the first time in years, and says that is why it is ordering many foreign aid workers to leave next month. However, there are still signs that people, especially in the countryside, are not getting enough to eat.
A flight attendant on an aging Soviet-built Ilyushin 62 airplane owned by North Korea’s national airline makes an announcement. She says drinks are about to be served. This would be a routine announcement anywhere else, but on this flight, passengers get an added message.
“Aside from protecting us at the front and the rear, our great leader Kim Jong Il, the benevolent father of the people, showed us mercy by filtering the water. And, in order to help and care about the health of our people, he progressively practiced appropriate measures. Now, in North Korea, the land of pure hope, the people can gracefully drink clean water through the endless love of the great leader comrade Kim Jong Il.”
The announcement is a small example of how North Korea, with its Stalinist system,
Portrait of leader Kim Jong Il at the Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang
Portrait of leader Kim Jong Il at the Grand People’s Study House in Pyongyang
has taught its people to believe that all things come from the government.
Yet for a decade, North Korea has relied on foreign aid to feed its people.
The government of leader Kim Jong Il surprised the world in the 1990’s when it acknowledged a famine was occurring and appealed for international aid. Observers call it a big step for a country that prides itself on self-sufficiency.
The famine was caused in part by mismanagement and natural disasters, and in part by the country’s economic collapse following the end of subsidies from the former Soviet Union and its communist allies.
Now, the Kim government is ordering a number of foreign aid workers, including some with the World Food Program, out by year’s end. It says there is a bumper crop thanks in part to a mass mobilization of city dwellers who have been sent out on trucks or on foot to work the fields.
A bus carrying a small group of American journalists rumbles down a highway in southern North Korea, an area often described as the country’s breadbasket. Hundreds of people are working the fields, some of which are planted all the way to the edges of hillsides. Most labor by hand.
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