Here is a sad, scary story about a whole country of isolated people whose news and knowledge of the real world around them is strictly controlled -- and the effect upon their minds.
This story reminded me of what happened to me during my 35 years 'in' the WT. Does it remind you of the same mind-set ? It sure helped me understand the danger of extreme politics & religious dogma.
Inside the minds of North Koreans
By Samanthi Dissanayake
BBC News
The day after North Korea announced it had tested a nuclear weapon, state-controlled TV showed pictures of North Koreans celebrating, seemingly regardless of the world's condemnation.Every aspect of people's lives in the Stalinist state is rigidly controlled, and the celebrations were carefully orchestrated.
But can we know what people in North Korea are thinking about the nuclear crisis, and their country's mounting isolation?
"North Koreans would probably be quite proud of the test," according to a defector from North Korea, who wishes to be known as Ms O.
"There's only one television news and the announcer told them to be proud of the test and that it was a good thing, so they believe this," she said. (Only "one true religion" and the WT tells us to be proud, so we believe this)
A Westerner living in Pyongyang - who also wanted to remain anonymous - has witnessed this first-hand.
"They see the result as entirely positive: 'Now we have got it, now we feel safer.' They want to live their lives their way and they defend their right to do so," she said.
Siege mentality
North Koreans would probably be quite proud of the test
Ms O, North Korean defectorTat Yan Kong, a lecturer at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, said that for many North Koreans, developing a nuclear bomb and the government's claim to be holding the US at bay would be a great source of pride.
"Compare it to the Soviet Union or China in the 1960s. There is very limited information, a feeling of being threatened from the outside world," he said.
This sense of isolation has long been cultivated by the North Korean leadership.
After a long history of subjugation to China and then Japan, followed by the Korean War, the leadership portrays the outside world, and the US in particular, as constantly threatening the integrity and safety of the North Korean state.
"(People are taught) that America is a warmonger, that it invades sovereign countries, that it devastated the whole of the North, that it is occupying points of South Korea," Tat Yan Kong said.
The Pyongyang-based westerner has witnessed this sentiment.
"They think the US sees them in the unfairest way one can be seen, to put it mildly...it wants to topple their government," she says.
What people know
According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, North Koreans have the most censored media in the world. UN data shows that there are only 55 television sets for every 1,000 people in North Korea, all of which are pre-tuned to state channels.
Radios are more common, but have to be registered with the police and be tuned to approved stations.
The media monopoly broadcasts what the rest of the world regards as propaganda - North Koreans are regularly and routinely told they are the happiest and freest people in the world.
"North Korean people don't know about the outside world... all they think about is how to live," says Ms O. She adds that at school they are taught history entirely from North Korea's point of view.
"It's a very nationalistic view. It is either greatness and glory or unbearable suffering and unfair treatment," says Professor Leonid Petrov, a specialist in North Korean historiography based at the Political Sciences University in Paris. He argues there is much they will not know about the world outside their borders.
"They will know about Yuri Gagarin being the first man in open space. I'm not sure they know the Americans were the first people on the moon," he said.
'Totally isolated'
The international reaction to the nuclear tests will only confirm North Korean prejudice that the outside world is hostile.
Mr Petrov cites an example from France, where a delegation of North Korean diplomats was expected in Paris to learn more about democracy and market economy. After the nuclear test, the trip was cancelled.
"Whatever the Bush administration does is grist to the mill of Kim Jong-il. What many western powers do really supports the world view his family is trying to impose on the whole country," he said.
Despite the media clampdown, North Korean defectors say some outside news does beat the censors, and that it could one day lead to the end of the regime. (compare to: JWD & other "apostate sites)
Illegal radios smuggled in from China are used to receive foreign broadcasts, while people who cross into China to find work or food return with stories of China's relative wealth.
"When refugees cross the border, they notice that even dogs in China eat white rice...the people repatriated from China talk about what they see," says Kato Hiroshi, head of Japanese NGO, Life Funds for North Korean Refugees.
Ms O, who left North Korea three years ago, is worried about her family and the impact of sanctions. "There is no rice, and without rice, they will die," she said.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6054692.stm
Published: 2006/10/17 14:17:43 GMT
© BBC MMVI
Inside the minds of North Koreans The human mind is a terrible thing to waste...when we close ours...bad things happen. Rabbit