Have you ever had some conversation that became a pivotal point in your life? Well that just happened. I was sitting there thinking, "I almost missed out."
I really just wanted to go get some breakfast at Maxwell's for $2.50.
I listened in on a conversation with the only known human to have been born in and escaped from a Korean political prison camp. Everything I am about to say is what I understand of the situation.
Shin Dong-Hyuk spoke in Korean as his interpretor communicated his message to us thirty some people in the meeting room. The first thing he asked was "What do we like to do on the weekend?"
Shin Dong-Hyuk is about 30 years old. He began his life 7 years ago (roughly). Before that, he had no idea the outside world existed. He was born inside a North Korean Labour Camp, and had escaped after hearing about foods that would tantalize your taste buds from an outsider who was placed in the same camp. Little did he know, his escape would lead to something much bigger than a cheeseburger.
He had no education. His "education" was memorizing the rules of the labour camp. When tests came around, he was either starved and beaten for not being able to memorize the rules, or rewarded by getting some free time with his family. He had never heard the word 'religion' before. He had lived for one goal, and that was to be paired up for marriage. If you were deemed a hard-worker, you would be paired up with females to start a family together.
Shin Dong-Hyuk explained how he thought that a baby would just automatically appear after one was paired with a female. This is how he understood life. This was his life.
He offered us the question, "What is history?"
He said to us he did not know what education has taught us. He doesn't have an education, so what he says only comes from how he thinks.
History- is something that has happened and will not happen again. He provided the example of Edison. No one can ever discover electricity again, for it has already been discovered. That is history.
History is not something that can still happen or is going on in the present. That is not history, that is the present. We look back at the Holocaust, and yes, that was history in a sense that those who were killed cannot be killed again. But how the world did not realize what was happening is not a part of history. What happened during the Holocaust didn't become history, because it's still happening. Maybe not on the same people, and maybe not for the same reasons, but the world is, we are, letting something horrifying and inhumane take place.
Two hundred thousand people in North Korea don't know the outside world. At this moment, Shin Dong Hyuk's family is living the only life they ever knew- the only life they will ever know. How is it that we don't learn about this? How is it that something so absurd and unthinkable is actually taking place right now and I sit here writing essays on Pirandello.
Some one asked, "How long after your escape did you decide to speak up and become an activist?"
Shin Dong-Hyuk said he'll be brutally honest. He didn't want to do this, and he honesty has regrets of getting into it. But he does not have a choice. When he is asked to speak somewhere, he will speak. He cannot just enjoy this newly discovered world while his family is still in the camp. He doesn't know the solution. He doesn't know how this is happening, but he believes that some one out there has an answer, and the only way to find it is letting people know what is happening.
I had mentioned more likely than not, these streams of light will be patched over and we'll pretend nothing ever happened.
We live in a society where we grow up to get an education. We watch TV about things no one really cares about. We read magazines about famous people like what is happening with them really matters to humanity. All these things designed to take up our time- our lives.
I am a part of the system. I go to university to get a degree, so eventually I will get a job to make money that I can stash away for when I'm old.
If I just discovered the world, I would want to taste it. I would want to learn it, and breathe it, and see it, and discover it myself. I would want to discover limitations, not be told what they are.
How much do I want to be a part of this system. This human reality developed over countless years, this structure that seems so "right" to follow because that's just how it is. Do I have a choice? If I do, would I dare step away from what's become so familiar?
And here comes the wood and nails, making crosses over the little streams of light that almost made their way in. I should stop blogging. I should stop thinking so much- I have an exam very soon. I have a monthly duty report to write (due two days ago), two lab assignments, one pre-lab, and a critique assignment due this week. Off I go...
