Injustice via Tyranny: Secret State of North Korea, PBS Frontline Special

Dear Fellow Mankind,

What is it that can drive a man to risk his life to expose injustice? Is it love, anger, hate? I think it’s all of these things and more. PBS recently released a documentary with undercover footage taken in the country of North Korea. North Korea is unarguably the most oppressive nation on earth. Barbwire blocks access to rivers and other areas while department stores are stocked with goods not available for sale. They are for display only. The state TV channel is the only channel in the country and consistently runs messages of praise to North Korea’s leader and messages warning of imminent attack by the United States. In short, North Korea is the nightmares of George Orwell come to life. North Korea is 1984. Rebelling against this system of emotional and physical control in the slightest way can get you sent to a political prison. In fact, it is estimated that one out of every 100 North Korean citizens is a political prisoner. Often their families are put in prison along with them. This is typically done to the minimum of three generations. These family members are charged with “guilty by association.” Amnesty International has analyzed the prison camps where these people are kept. One camp was measured by aerial satellite to be three times the size of Washington DC, they have only continued to grow since Kim Jong-un rose to power. His ruthless tyranny has led him to kill off half of his top generals including his own uncle for backing reform. Although most continue to suffer, some citizens successfully defect from the country. This usually occurs after receiving knowledge of the world outside North Korea. It is approximated that half of the defectors from the country had seen foreign television, listened to foreign radio, or seen foreign movies via smuggled DVD’s. It is through this media that the central core of power in the country has been slowly breaking down. People are beginning to reject the Korean government. Their rebellion is influenced both by the young leader who they feel is too inexperienced and the continued influx of knowledge from our globally integrated world. The once common assumption of a brainwashed population is not so common anymore. Though political rebellion still does not occur for the most part, citizens are challenging the laws that do not relate specifically to politics. While undercover footage shows a woman aggressively arguing with an official over the law that women cannot wear pants, subversive discussions take place among close friends and family, and it appears the seed for change is being planted. It is many individuals’ hopes, both inside and outside the country, that this oppressive regime will be overthrown and it is good to know that our hope is beginning to be supported by the citizen’s action. Knowledge truly is power and there is not a more fitting example of this than North Korea. One thing is for certain, their actions will not be in vein or at least we hope.

Photo of Kim Jong-un and his top generals taken after being announced as the new “supreme leader.” Kim Jong-un later killed approximately half of these generals including his own Uncle.

 

Documentary Link: 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/secret-state-of-north-korea/

Sources:

James, J. (Writer, Producer, Director). (2014) Secret State of North Korea [Documentary] United States of America: PBS

Senate Fails To Pass Paycheck Fairness Act: The Gender Wage Gap

Dear Fellow Mankind,

And I do mean mankind, not just men. This Wednesday the senate fell short by six votes to pass the paycheck fairness act. This is the third time this legislation has been blocked. This bill was introduced to address the significant wage gap between men and women. The bill would have eliminated employer retaliation against employees for sharing salary information with one another and would have required The Department Of Labor to gather wage data by gender and race from all employers. This approach would directly address the culture of silence in the workplace by protecting employee rights while collecting wage data in order to maintain and ensure that every employer addresses the wage gap. Statistical analysis of census data shows that for every dollar a man earns a woman earns 77 cents. This wage gap is and has been a major equity issue for some time, yet arrogance prevails. I like other feminists would like to see equality across genders in every aspect possible. Many misunderstand feminism as a radical notion bent on getting revenge on men. This could not be farther from the truth. In fact feminism is defined quite simply as the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. I, unlike many others, am proud to say I am a feminist and that I believe in equality between men and women whether it is voting rights or a wage gap. However, it is sad to say, many do not feel the same way. The entire Republican Party and one Independent representative voted no on this bill. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is quoted “At a time when the Obama economy is already hurting women so much, this legislation would double down on job loss, all while lining the pockets of trial lawyers, in other words, it’s just another Democratic idea that threatens to hurt the very people that it claims to help.” It seems that the Republican Party is more concerned with lawsuits against employers than equality. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid responded, “Are they so repulsed by equal pay for hardworking women that they’ll obstruct equal pay for equal work? I’m at a loss as to why anyone would decline to debate this important issue.” (Bassett, 2014) President Obama pointed to the economic results of paying women less. Citing the increasing amount of female-headed households and the large amount of women that compose our workforce (50%) the President noted that when women are paid less we all suffer.  The President acknowledged the economic relationship between women’s wages and the economy as a whole by saying “so when they make less money, it means less money for gas, less money for groceries, less money for child care, less money for college tuition, less money is going into retirement savings.” (Bassett, 2014) When comparisons of men and women with equal education, experience, and the same job title were examined, they’re still was a seven to nine percent wage gap. I think we fail all too often to recognize the importance of females in our society. They raise us and teach us how to become better people, to be respectful of one another, to care for the disadvantaged, but most importantly they raise us to respect and honor women, a lesson we have seemingly forgotten. Abraham Lincoln once said “All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” There is much truth to this. May Senate not forget it when we have to vote a fourth time to treat women equally.

Info graphic on Pay Gap. Data from bls.gov, archives.gov, eeoc.gov, iwpr.org, americanprogress.org, aauw.org, payscale.com, salary.com.

Sources:

Bassett, L. (2014, April 9).”Senate Republicans Block Paycheck Fairness Act For Third Time.” The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 9, 2014 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/paycheck-fairness-act_n_5118254.html

 

Lowery, W. (2014, April 9) “Senate falls six votes short of passing Paycheck Fairness Act.” The Washington Post. Retrieved April 9, 2014 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2014/04/09/senate-falls-six-votes-short-of-passing-paycheck-fairness-act/

Climate Change: An Injustice To All, IPCC says “No One Will Be Untouched”

Dear Fellow Mankind,

Climate change in and of itself is an injustice. Whether it is one we reinforce in our consumer-oriented culture is debatable. The fact is the dangers are real, both to us and everyone else. It seems we are more concerned with immediate results and improvements and through that we forget that problems also develop over time. The IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released a report this Monday warning the public of forthcoming “flooding, storm surges, droughts, and heat waves” due to globally rising temperatures. (Demetriou, 2014) The chairman of the IPCC warns, “that no one on the planet will be untouched by the damaging effects of global warming in coming decades.” The report warns of affects on all types of communities from the flooding of undeveloped areas like Bangladesh to urban communities that will face heat waves, droughts, water shortages, extreme rainfalls, and landslides. It is true that we have all (mostly the developed world) contributed to this disastrous outcome and in that sense we’ve committed an injustice upon our neighbors and ourselves. American lifestyles typically emit around four times the amount of carbon dioxide compared to that of the developing world. Buildings alone emit half of the world’s green house gases. As is often said in urban sustainability we must “act locally, and think globally.” This notion of incremental improvement is further substantiated by todays IPCC report. “Scientists behind the report stated that by taking immediate steps to reduce carbon emissions over the coming decades, there could be a reduction in potential consequences by the end of the century.” (Demetriou, 2014) This reduction is vital if we wish to leave a livable world for our future generations. Climate change affects weather patterns and these weather patterns affect the quality and livability of our lives. Weather patterns such as drought can result in civil wars and the creation of “climate refugees,” a term coined by Dr. Pachauri that refers to communities displaced by the effects of extreme weather patterns. The most damaging effects of climate change have been hitting the worlds poorest the hardest. These individuals, though they do not emit nearly the same amount of greenhouse gases, are and have been in danger the most. “While the problems from global warming will hit everyone in some way, the magnitude of the harm won’t be equal, coming down harder on people who can least afford it, the report says. It will increase the gaps between the rich and poor, healthy and sick, young and old, and men and women.” (“IPCC: Effects of climate change,” 2014) This is injustice and it is time we, as people of the world, demand higher regulation of our heaviest polluting industries and support sustainable practices in our communities.  This is not an injustice that one man or one group of scientists can address, we must all take part. Whether you plant an urban garden, invest in alternative energies, act as an environmental advocate in your community, or simply just recycle, your efforts to reduce our carbon footprint can help restore some justice to everyone. As Secretary of State John Kerry said in a press release this Monday “Denial of science is malpractice.” Unfortunately there’s no doctor or hospital to sue, there is just us.

As sea levels rise, islands disappear, and severe weather like droughts and storms increase, more and more people will be displaced. These Somali refugees were displaced by severe floods that killed at least 85 people. Other climate refugees include people from the South Pacific nation of Tuvalu who are facing the reality that their island may completely disappear. Some experts predict that the number of climate refugees could reach 1 billion by the 2050. (The Huffington Post, 2010)

 

Source(s):

The Huffington Post. (March 18, 2010). Climate Refugees. [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/15/seeing-the-effects-of-cli_n_423339.html?slidenumber=BElyYCr%2F5Ig%3D&slideshow

Demetriou, D. (March 31, 2014). IPCC report: ‘No one will be untouched by climate change.’ The Telegraph. Retreived March 31, 2014, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/10733764/IPCC-report-No-one-will-be-untouched-by-climate-change.html

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press. (March 31, 2014). IPCC: Effects of climate change ‘worse than we had predicted. Al Jazeera America. Retrieved March 31, 2014, from http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/30/ipcc-climate-changeglobalwarmingimpacts.html

Mission Statement

To report injustice. To let our passion, kindness, and humanity motivate the decisions we make and to let understanding and empathy guide our rationale. To not cast the first stone but rather step in it’s way. To respect the rights of all mankind, the righteous and the damned, the executive and the beggar, the different and the few. To write for the damned, when no one else wants to. To write, to be “written[,] in the book of love.” We write, to be “written[,] in the book of love.” (Omar Khayyam)

– CjK