They live on the other side of the world,
imprisoned in a nation whose leaders fear progress and prevent
modernity.
Isolated from all others, brainwashed to believe
that their country is the best on Earth, they live in horrific
conditions – with little electricity and running water; with
malnourishment producing a generation of stunted growth, bloated
stomachs, and flaky skin; and with life a daily struggle to survive.
They are the people of North Korea, and their
anguished tales of life during the famine and economic chaos of the
1990s and beyond come to us through
Nothing to Envy – a new book by
Los Angeles Times reporter
Barbara Demick who relays the stories of six North Koreans, all of whom
eventually escaped to freedom.
This is no easy book to read. The writing is hardly
poetic. Indeed, it’s stilted, even clunky, at times. Nevertheless, the
book is 294 pages of must reading, for it reminds us of what can happen
when authoritarian leaders choose to do whatever they must to maintain
power.
The book begins in dramatic fashion, its first page
decorated with a satellite photo of North and South Korea at night.
To the south, lights fully engulf Seoul and its
surrounding neighborhoods, and robust pockets of light brighten the
skies over other population centers. To the north, an eerie nothingness
blankets the country, with a tiny patch of light emanating from
Pyongyang while the rest of the land appears startlingly black from the
sky.
It is an ominous introduction for what awaits the
reader, the dark sky a fitting symbol for the life that lies below.
Imagine a nation of relentless government control,
where people live in varying levels of dilapidated housing based on
their job and status; where people can decorate their walls only with
portraits of their leader Kim Il-sung and, after his death, his
successor son, Kim Jong-Il, and government officials make surprise home
inspections to make sure the portraits are clean; where cars are few and
owning one largely illegal anyway; where the government sets and
enforces hairstyles and dress codes for men and women; where people can
neither travel to another city nor spend the night in someone else’s
home without permission.
Imagine a land where the government watches
everyone, and everyone watches everyone else – neighbors, friends, even
family members; where a remark or a reflection in one’s diary about the
leader can mean death for the perpetrator and send his or her family to
prison for life; where no one knows who’s an informant so no one
expresses unhappiness about anything; where long days of work are
followed by nights of mandatory ideological training to further
indoctrinate the masses on the wonders of North Korean communism; and
where the few people who are lucky enough to own TVs or radios have
access only to anti-Western tirades or other government-approved
content.
Imagine a land where the government media carries
tales of the leader’s powers to make trees bloom and snow melt; where
teachers instruct five-year-olds to worship these leaders and to thank
them for all the blessings they bestow on their people – until those
children and older ones stop coming to school, their bodies too weak
from malnutrition to walk before they eventually die of starvation.
Imagine a land where young people know almost
nothing of dating and sex, their only means of entertainment and
companionship a night-time walk in the darkness; where children
celebrate not their own birthdays but only those of their leader and his
son; and where teenagers must collect “night soil” from toilets for use
as fertilizer and walk it to a warehouse miles away.
Imagine a land where money is scarce and people
discouraged from shopping (for the government supposedly provides
whatever anyone could want); where doctors are forced to make their own
medicine if they hope to treat anyone; and where women do the family
laundry in feces-infected streams.
Imagine a land where the starving people grow up
shorter than earlier generations, their heads unduly large for their
under-developed bodies; where people eat rats and mice, frogs and
sparrows, dandelions and weeds, and even the undigested corn kernels
that they pick from the feces of farm animals; where women turn to
prostitution in exchange for food; and where homeless children wander
city streets in packs to steal food or scavenge the countryside for
whatever the land might offer.
Don’t imagine. Read this book.
Copyright © 2010 The North Star Writers Group All rights reserved
