Kim Jong Il, the "Dear Leader" of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, also known as North Korea has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to AP News, which quoted South Korean television. The "Dear Leader", whose fondness for imported scotch and women is well known, has been looking rather gaunt lately. Afflictions of the pancreas, which affect the metabolisation of sugar, make the consumption of scotch and rich foods a highly taxing proposition. Pancreatic cancer is known as particularly intractable. The "Dear Leader" has in recent photographs started to resemble more closely some of his long suffering subjects, over two and a half million have died in what is generally agreed to be a man made famine. Portraits of those who hang on by a thread in the aftermath of the Kim family's colossal mismanagement of the captive nation elicit far more emotion from me than the gaunt looking North Korean dictator.
What is of far greater concern to the world is the question of who might succeed Kim Jong Il, who has spawned a number of likely candidates to continue the dynasty. There is also the possibility of the military mixing into a succession struggle. Which outcome will best favour the people of North Korea? The current regime has done its best to make sure that only those it considers to be friends receive food donated by the international community. Indeed, foreign aid is often sold instead of distributed.
North Korea is divided into zones. Pyongyang and a few other places are showcase areas built to impress foreigners and lavish the best resources on the country's elite. Outside the showcase areas are different areas, some set aside for enemies of the state and their families. Beneath that are labour camps, which also include entire families. Any type of travel from one zone to another requires permits.
A few intrepid individuals have managed to smuggle film footage out of North Korea. Millions of North Koreans are also living as refugees in China, where they live in fear of deportation and exploitation by Chinese gangsters. Even this shadowy existence is preferred by many to the hellish life in North Korea.
This article was supposed to be about Kim Jong Il. Why am I writing about his country? I am doing so because I do not give a damn about Kim Jong Il or his worthless and disgusting family. As painful as pancreatic cancer might be, Kim Jong Il would need to die of it ten thousand times to even make a down payment on his place in hell.
Our concern about Kim Jong Il should be channelled into actions that help the suffering people of North Korea. I am including some links at the bottom of this article. I hope my readers will check them out and make a donation. And I hope that Kim Jong Il stays ill.
http://www.linkglobal.org/
http://gbgm-umc.org/UMCOR/emergency/nkorea.stm
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Village/5473/links/famine.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6JoK0-Yi3E
No comments:
Post a Comment