Bam’s reading Escape from Camp 14 and relating to me the story of Shin Dong-Hyuk, the only person ever known to have escaped the brutal North Korean labor camps. Born in the gulag, he wasn’t even aware of the outside world until he met a knew inmate who told him about it – in a scene I imagine like that old dude in Count of Monte Cristo who told the hero about hidden treasure.
Too bad, unlike Count of Monte Cristo, Dong-Hyuk
isn’t able to exact any revenge. In the camps, he was raised to snitch
and witness regular executions, including those of his mother and
brother. He endured torture with coals, a finger chopped off, starvation
and it’s all just so intensely hectic. I like this word, hectic.
South Africans use it in place of awful or excruciating. “Did you hear
Josh was murdered?” one might tell another and the response, “Hectic!”
which to me spins an atrocity into something almost surmountable – a
quality that people used to facing atrocities must always possess.
So
I haven’t read this book because it all just makes me angry. Angry that
this goes on, and angry that we so often think we know what evil looks
like, that it wears a hoodie, a swastika or hides in a swamp. When most
of the time, it lurks in your kindly-looking, chubby Asian great-aunt
Kim Jong-Il.
Curiously,
when this totalitarian tyranny began with Jong-Il’s father, Kim
Il-Sung, he fashioned a new religion. In the early 50’s, he borrowed
Christian metaphors for himself and then banned Christianity so there
was no competition. Their calendar starts on the day of his birth (they
are now in year "Juche 101"), as our calendar starts on the year of
Christ’s birth. Together with his son and successor, they are “father
and son” and children are indoctrinated from nursery school to worship
this divine duo (check out this curriculum!). Their new cult even rips off “original sin”.
And check out this Sunday School-ish propaganda:
I wonder how much of this people
actually believe? Just as you can never underestimate the stupidity of
the American voting public, you can never underestimate the ability for
otherwise intelligent people to be easily, readily, often joyfully
conned. Some man (because it’s always a man) says “I’m the prophet” “I
am God” “There were golden tablets, I swear!” and people bow down before
L Ron Hubbard, Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ. And Kim Jong-Il? It's not
far-fetched because it's all far-fetched!
Sure it's different in North Korea because
if you admit to unbelieving, you get tossed in a work camp and same goes
for the rest of your family. There are over 200,000 people living,
starving and dying in these camps, (have you google-earthed them?)
If only North Korea had oil we would have crashed that party long ago.
Speaking of evil regimes, maybe there is a hell? Can you imagine dying
and having your heart donated to one Dick Cheney!? Who else is
reconsidering organ donation?
Rachel Maddow’ has a book out – “Drift:
The Unmooring of American Military Power” which talks about how the
founding fathers cautioned against unnecessary war, that it would be the
downfall of the nation, and yet how the USA today has come to be at
peace with perpetual war. I suppose constant war is a reflex of fear, as
is religion, and both exploit fear to great effect.
So how do you liberate concentration camps
while combatting fear and war and self-appointed gods? If nothing else,
you can talk about it, write about it, make people aware about it.
Because while silence gives a free pass to free reign, exposure makes it
just a little bit harder for hectic things to thrive.
Since graduating from the University of Southern California, Jesse traveled the world before landing in the East Village of New York City. He has appeared in the Off-Broadway hit Birdy's Bachelorette Party and on film in Boy Culture. Jesse also stars in gay romantic comedy favorites Slutty Summer and A Four Letter Word (which he co-wrote with director Casper Andreas). In 2010 he produced, co-starred, and scripted the hit comedy Violet Tendencies. His latest, Half-Share, set on legendary Fire Island is due out mid-2011.
Jesse has penned features and pithy, promotional copy for various websites and print zines. He also wrote a popular column on urban gay life for OUT magazine. His first book, "You Can Run", was based on the two intrepid years he spent traveling through South America and was published by Haworth Press in 2007.
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