Entries in Life

I am somewhat ashamed to admit it, but I’m a junkie for anything about one of the last great communist countries: North Korea.

The shame comes because this curiosity is at the expense of people suffering (still) because food is so scarce. I’m fascinated that the father and son have held on to power so tightly for so long and control so much of the information in and out of the country. While walls crumble, and others march backwards, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) still manages to keep its people at home and dependent upon their government for, well, everything.

Two recent books have provided a veritable bonanza of information for people curious about the country. The first, Nothing to Envy is the result of Barbara Demick‘s interviews and meetings with North Korean refugees. She turns their memories of life in the hermit kingdom and the accounts of their escape into a compelling narrative. It was the first time I’ve read anything from the point of view of someone who actually lived in the country and I’m glad I found it.

The second book, Pyongyang is a graphic novel written by a cartoonist who actually worked in the country. Before my kids checked this book out (I was ignorant of it till then), I wasn’t even aware that the country was trying to selling its people’s labor to foreign companies. The idea that they would do that seems to undermine the purity of their Juche ideal. Not that I really expect intellectual purity from them or anyone else.

Still, I just looked at the “Business in DPRK” page and their presentation seems straight out of 1984. Especially this part:

As opposed to other Asian countries, worker’s will not abandon their positions for higher salaries once they are trained.

Right. Because they are no higher salaries.

Last night, dvfmama and I got to talking.  In her macroeconomics class, she asked a question about slaves.  Does economics consider slaves “labor” or “land”?  (For those too lazy to click the links, economics defines land as a resource used to produce a good, while labor is the human efforts that are used to produce a good.)

Despite the eye-rolls from her classmates, she was specifically thinking of the brick-making slaves (including children) that were discovered in some Chinese factories recently.  Economic powerhouses, she pointed out to me, seem dependent on cheap labor to reach the powerhouse status.

Anyway, this conversation got me thinking about the Chinese workers that I met while I was in Uganda rafting the Nile.  They were helping to build out the cellular infrastructure, using money the Chinese government had loaned to Uganda.

At the time, I was confused by this.  China has a lot of its own people it could be helping: why this apparent philanthropy towards Africa?

Poking around last night I came across a story by Peter Hitchens about his experience in Congo: How China has created a new slave empire in Africa.

Congo, for the geographically-illiterate among us (including me, usually), is on the western border of Uganda.

China is poised to become the next economic powerhouse.  It looks like imperialism is an almost inevitable step on the path to becoming a major world power.  The UK did it, the US is doing it, and now China wants in on the game.