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| Facebook status of Friend H:
"...is extremely irritated at how useless the UN has been regarding North Korea."
Hi Friend H,
It was nice to see you last week and to reconnect briefly. Your status about North Korea came up on my mini-feed and I wanted to offer my .02...this isn't personal bc I just met up with you just last week, and I'm saying the following bc I think we are provided a limited and biased point of view from American media. Not that my point isn’t biased either, but there seems to be a lack of acknowledgement in public discourse of any other point of view.
History as I’ve been learning is: UN ordered an embargo on NK 60 years ago restricting trade with capitalist countries, an act that happened before the war, and an act that killed more Koreans than the war itself. Amazingly, NK did better economically than SK on its own until the 70's/80's trading with China and SU, until the eastern bloc collapsed. China wanting to improve relations with the US around 10 yrs ago agreed not to trade with NK.
The UN (which is heavily influenced by the US) pressure countries to eliminate trade, then when millions of NKs are starving because of it, they blast propaganda about the evilness of Kim Jong Il and what he is doing to his people. I'm not defending Kim Jong Il and obviously there is a severe humanitarian crisis that all of us would like to see end, especially for SK and KA's who have family in the North, this gets very personal. But we can’t ignore US and UN’s role in the creation of this problem. The satellite that was just launched is not unlike ones that US has in space or that other countries have. It is not a nuclear weapon as our papers have been saying (NK was taken off the terrorist list after yong byun reactor was closed down this year). I think the UN (er, US) has done enough damage. I’m curious and almost amused at what more they could possibly do to NK, and to further keep the division going, to keep our families and country apart.
I'd like to hear your view, but I'm offering this as a counterpoint because I remember how angry I was when I realized that there is more to the story, or frankly, how I felt deceived by American media. I clearly am not a historian or expert and am far from having the answers,know that I have a lot to learn, and am biased like anyone else, but you gotta wonder why a different point of view hasn't been properly introduced. It's just evil Kim Jong Il and pictures of people eating themselves which gets to the heart for all of us, but many of us don't know ourown history, so we have little alternative to believe that the story may be more than we thought.
Anyway, this isn't personal. I'm trying to learn as much as I can, and am open to hearing all pov's so I would like to know what you know only if you feel comfortable sharing. It's fine if you don't, and I apologize if this was too forward. See you Monday ~ hehe. The rest of PKA is not like this, promise!
Joyce | | |
| I really don't. I would like to know what is keeping you from making a decision. I understand there are social influences that keep people apathetic, confused, busy, arrogant, and/or misinformed, but if there are any real reasons, I would like to hear them. Truly. I'll be very open to hearing your side of the story. Thanks.
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| This is Your Nation on White Privilege
Sep 13, 2008
By Tim Wise
Tim Wise's ZSpace Page / ZSpace
http://www.timwise. org/
For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or who are
constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it, perhaps this
list will help.
White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin
and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a
personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents,
because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families
with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible,
pathological and arbiters of social decay.
White privilege is when you can call yourself a "fuckin' redneck," like
Bristol Palin's boyfriend does, and talk about how if anyone messes with
you, you'll "kick their fuckin' ass," and talk about how you like to "shoot
shit" for fun, and still be viewed as a responsible, all-American boy (and a
great son-in-law to be) rather than a thug.
White privilege is when you can attend four different colleges in six years
like Sarah Palin did (one of which you basically failed out of, then
returned to after making up some coursework at a community college), and no
one questions your intelligence or commitment to achievement, whereas a
person of color who did this would be viewed as unfit for college, and
probably someone who only got in in the first place because of affirmative
action.
White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller
than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the
same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes
you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all piss on
themselves with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state
Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means you're "untested."
White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God"
in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding
fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from
holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s
and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that
reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because, ya know, the
Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires
it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.
White privilege is being able to be a gun enthusiast and not make people
immediately scared of you. White privilege is being able to have a husband
who was a member of an extremist political party that wants your state to
secede from the Union, and whose motto was "Alaska first," and no one
questions your patriotism or that of your family, while if you're black and
your spouse merely fails to come to a 9/11 memorial so she can be home with
her kids on the first day of school, people immediately think she's being
disrespectful.
White privilege is being able to make fun of community organizers and the
work they do--like, among other things, fight for the right of women to
vote, or for civil rights, or the 8-hour workday, or an end to child
labor--and people think you're being pithy and tough, but if you merely
question the experience of a small town mayor and 18-month governor with no
foreign policy expertise beyond a class she took in college--you're somehow
being mean, or even sexist.
White privilege is being able to convince white women who don't even agree
with you on any substantive issue to vote for you and your running mate
anyway, because all of a sudden your presence on the ticket has inspired
confidence in these same white women, and made them give your party a
"second look."
White privilege is being a ble to fire people who didn't support your
political campaigns and not be accused of abusing your power or being a
typical politician who engages in favoritism, while being black and merely
knowing some folks from the old-line political machines in Chicago means you
must be corrupt.
White privilege is being able to attend churches over the years whose
pastors say that people who voted for John Kerry or merely criticize George
W. Bush are going to hell, and that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian
nation and the job of Christians is to bring Christian theological
principles into government, and who bring in speakers who say the conflict
in the Middle East is God's punishment on Jews for rejecting Jesus, and
everyone can still think you're just a good church-going Christian, but if
you're black and friends with a black pastor who has noted (as have Colin
Powell and the U.S. Department of Defense) that terrorist attacks are often
th e result of U.S. foreign policy and who talks about the history of racism
and its effect on black people, you're an extremist who probably hates
America.
White privilege is not knowing what the Bush Doctrine is when asked by a
reporter, and then people get angry at the reporter for asking you such a
"trick question," while being black and merely refusing to give one-word
answers to the queries of Bill O'Reilly means you're dodging the question,
or trying to seem overly intellectual and nuanced.
White privilege is being able to claim your experience as a POW has anything
at all to do with your fitness for president, while being black and
experiencing racism is, as Sarah Palin has referred to it a "light" burden.
And finally, white privilege is the only thing that could possibly allow
someone to become president when he has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent
of the time, even as unemployment is skyrocketing, people are losing their
homes, inflation is rising, and the U.S. is increasingly isolated from world
opinion, just because white voters aren't sure about that whole "change"
thing. Ya know, it's just too vague and ill-defined, unlike, say, four more
years of the same, which is very concrete and certain.
White privilege is, in short, the problem.
Tim Wise is the author of White Like Me (Soft Skull, 2005, revised 2008),
and of Speaking Treason Fluently, publishing this month, also by Soft Skull.
For review copies or interview requests, please reply to
publicity@softskull .com | | |
| I have forgotten the courage and power of forgiveness:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7433852.stm | | |
| - Baby boomers are the largest cohort with the MOST EDUCATION. You think each new generation just gets more educated, but that is a myth.
- They are retiring by the millions in the next ten years. In LA, we're talking 2.5 million people. Jobs that require higher degrees are mostly occupied by white older folk. Who will fill them?
- Currently, those 35 years and younger, over half are immigrants or immigrant children of color. If you do not invest in the education of immigrant children, they will drop out of school and not fill those higher-educated spots that earn more money.
- If they are not in those higher paid jobs, then they pay less on social security and other medical programs.
- The Boomers are retiring by the millions, and those of us who are still young will have to pay more to make up for it. After a decade or two, we will have to pay double to accommodate the increasing size of the retirees.
- If our immigrant peers are not given opportunities in higher-paying jobs, it is more strain on the rest to make up for it.
- Bottom Line: you need to invest in immigrant children's education. The more you empower us, the more money we'll make, the more money we can put into the economy, the better benefits old folks will have.
The more Latin@ and Korean children we can support, the bigger the pie will be. The pie is not fixed, it can grow. meaning more money, a bigger and stronger economy.
Legal status and racism are two things that get in the way.
A giant wall gets in the way.
Students who studied hard but receive no financial aid get in the way.
We need immigration reform. If not for human rights, then think about how you'll live when you retire. Who's going to support you? | | |
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