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Orangutan Remark: VP of Italian Senate Says Country's First Black Minister Reminds Him of Ape
A racist "orangutan remark" made by the Vice President of the Italian Senate, Roberto Calderoli, has sparked a huge backlash in Italy this week after he said the nation's first black minister reminded him of an ape.
Vice President Calderoli is one of the most prominent leaders of the Northern League Party, known for its strong anti immigration policies. However, Calderoli sparked political controversy and accusations of racism after he made comments recently about Cecile Kyenge, Italy's first black minister, to his supporters.
He stated: "I love animals… but when I see pictures of Kyenge I cannot but think of – even if I'm not saying she is one – the features of an orangutan."
Calderoli's insults did not stop there, however, and he went on to accuse Kyenge of wanting to set up "tribal traditions" in Italy.
Kyenge has faced verbal taunts and attacks since she took office, and the latest racist slurs from the Italian Senate vice president are just the latest in a stream of abuse she has been forced to endure.
Previously another member of Calderoli's party seemed to call for Kyenge to be raped, so that she could come to understand critics who were concerned about being raped by immigrants entering the country.
However, it is the latest "orangutan remarks" that have created the biggest stir in Italian politics due to its clearly racist undertones.
Many Italian leaders have stepped forward to condemn Calderoli's remarks, saying they have no place in present day Italian society.
Some have compared Calderoli's remarks to that of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who described United States President Barack Obama as "sun tanned."
Here is a related video:


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Every day, guests from all over the world who visit Dolphin Research Center are able to get up close and personal with the resident dolphins and sea lions. As it is illegal to interact with wild marine mammals, visiting them at facilities like DRC enables people to follow their curiosity and get to know these amazing animals on a more intimate level. Louie, a rescued dolphin who was found covered in oil on a beach in Louisiana when he was under a year in age, acts as an ambassador to his wild cousins every day.
While conversing with guests, we are able to tell each individual's story. Louie's history resonates with people globally, as the reason for him being a DRC family member stems from human error. In 2010, there was an accident in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil spilled out into the ocean and caused massive chaos in the oceans and many Gulf-side towns. DRC was not affected by the oil spill, but as an organization whose mission is to educate the world about marine mammals and the environment, it tugged at our hearts to know the possible detriments.
Despite the accident and only being given a 5% chance to live, Louie not only survived, he thrived. He puts a face to the oil spill disaster. He was a dolphin who needed a home and fell right into our mission of providing a forever place for marine mammals in need. Our Theater Presentation, "Survivor Stories", gives us a chance to focus on him, along with the two other rescued family members, Jax and Lina. Jax was the victim of a shark attack who was found alone at under a year in age and Lina was a repeat strander who had not learned to forage on her own. Louie, Jax and Lina were all deemed unreleasable by the government and in need of a home. Now, they have a forever family and home here at DRC.
As a not for profit, we couldn't provide homes to Louie and the rest of the animals without your support. The animals always take precedence above all else. We thank you, our supporters for enabling us to provide a home to both the marine mammals who needed a home and those who were born here.

subset: commoncrawl


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Congressmen Urge President Obama to Discuss Religious Freedom in Iraq
Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Chris Smith, R-N.J., were among the bipartisan signatories of the letter urging the president 'to raise the plight of Iraq's besieged ethno-religious communities.'
WASHINGTON (CNA)—Several dozen members of Congress sent letters to President Barack Obama urging him to raise the issue of religious freedom in Iraq during his Dec. 12 meeting with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
A White House spokesperson told CNA on Dec. 14 that the president has not yet received the letters and declined to comment on whether religious freedom was discussed in the meetings between Obama and al-Maliki.
Leonard Leo, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, warned that the Iraqi government "does not provide effective protection" against the violent attacks and intimidation directed towards religious minorities in the country.
Speaking on behalf of the commission, Leo voiced concerns over religious freedom in Iraq in a Dec. 7 letter to President Obama, arguing that if Iraq is to become "a secure and stable democracy," it must ensure that the human rights of all Iraqis are respected.
Since 2008, the commission has recommended that Iraq be designated as a "country of particular concern" under the International Religious Freedom Act over its "systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom."
Leo noted that Prime Minister al-Maliki has made public statements affirming the rights of religious minorities and criticizing violent acts against them.
Still, he insisted, "concrete action" is needed to turn "rhetoric into reality."
Leo's concerns were echoed in a Dec. 9 letter from 37 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to President Obama.
Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Chris Smith, R-N.J., were among the bipartisan signatories of the letter urging the president "to raise the plight of Iraq's besieged ethno-religious communities" in his meeting with the prime minister.
Continued violent attacks on religious minorities are too often "not adequately investigated, prosecuted or punished," the representatives said.
They cited a recent report by the U.S. State Department, which found that the Iraqi Christian population has decreased by at least 50% since 2003.
"This is a staggering depletion of a community that dates back thousands of years," they said.
The congressmen encouraged President to address issues relating to the prosecution of violent acts against religious minorities, increased representation of minorities in government and the protection of vulnerable sites, including places of worship. They also emphasized the need for ongoing discussion of a possible administrative region for religious minorities.
Protecting its religious minorities is "critical" to Iraq's alliance with the United States and constitutes "a key component" of future bilateral relations, the legislators said.
President Obama and Prime Minister al-Maliki held a joint press conference on Dec. 12 after their meeting.
The subject of religious freedom was not raised, although President Obama mentioned his hope that Iraq could become a nation in which "different religious sects and ethnicities can resolve their differences peacefully through the democratic process."


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MHS?Reserve Seats
Many great reserve seats are still available for the upcoming 2012 Magnolia football season at $15 each for all home games. If interested, call Claire Blatt at 304-455-3348 or 304-771-3347.
NM?Parks Fall Soccer
The New Martinsville Parks and Recreation Commission is offering a youth soccer league open to boys and girls ages five to 10. The season begins Sept. 16 and continues each Sunday through Oct. 21.
The time for the 5-7 year olds is 2-3 p.m. and the time for the 8-10 year olds is 2:30-3:30 p.m.
During the first half hour there will be practice and the second half hour there will be a game each week. Children must be five years old before Dec. 31, 2012, to participate.
Applications are available at the NM City Building. The cost is $20 per child or $30 per family until Friday, Sept. 7, before 4:30 p.m. After that date, the cost increases by $10 for individuals and families.
Volunteer coaches are needed. For more information, call 304-455-9130.
PCHS?Meet The Team
PCHS will hold its annual Meet The Team and Ice Cream Social Aug. 23 at Berger Field. The Ice Cream social starts at 6 p.m., while you can meet the teams at 7 p.m.
You can also buy PCHS season passes for $100 for adults and $50 for students. You can also get your passes at the PCHS main office during school hours.


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Jan Jansen is a believer for the Power of Stories to change persons Lives. He always use Social Media to connect with interesting peoples around the world, He added Photography and Poems as his arsenal for Sharing and Connecting in the digital World. He writes about his thought and in the forms of Poems or a story in Poems.easybranches.com and Social Media at EasyBranches.net With Thanks to our Team Leader from Easy Branches Team. View all posts → by Jan Jansen


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Worked for Argentina... till they actually invaded the falklands, North Korea knows it would be national suicide if they launched an attack, I don't think any of their provocations that happened back in the late 00's would fly now, pretty sure if one round crosses the DMZ, hell will come down on the north.
A 'China First' Strategy for North KoreaSep 4, 2017 BILL EMMOTTDonald Trump has chided China for failing to take responsibility for its dangerous neighbor. But America's president should be careful what he tweets for: If China launched a military invasion of North Korea, it could work – and China would gain greater strategic parity with the US in East Asia.LONDON – Most pundits agree that the least bad way to deal with North Korea's nuclear saber rattling is a continued combination of tight containment and aggressive diplomacy. Fewer, however, have recognized that the least bad military option – the one implied by US President Donald Trump's insistence that China take responsibility for its dangerous neighbor – is a Chinese invasion, or regime change forced through China's threat to launch one.This outcome, which would sharply shift East Asia's strategic balance in China's favor, is not as unlikely as most people think. In fact, its very plausibility is one reason why it needs to be taken seriously, including by Chinese military planners. In Trumpian terms, this is a "China First" option that could help "Make China Great Again."Any military intervention, Chinese or otherwise, would carry huge risks. But before dwelling on them, consider what a successful Chinese intervention would achieve. For starters, it would put North Korea right where the country's post-Korean War history suggests it belongs: under a Chinese nuclear umbrella, benefiting from a credible security guarantee.Mao Zedong used to say that his country and North Korea were "as close as lips and teeth" – a fitting description, given Chinese troops' role in averting an American victory in the Korean War. But while Japan and South Korea have remained close allies of the United States during the six decades since then, hosting US bases and sheltering under US nuclear protection, China and North Korea have drifted ever further apart.As a result, China has little control over its neighbor and purported ally, and probably scant knowledge of what is going on there. It could, it is true, tighten the existing siege on North Korea by cutting trade further and blocking energy supplies. But this might achieve little beyond pushing Kim Jong-un's cloistered regime to look for support from its other neighbor, Russia.If, as is commonly assumed, North Korea wants some sort of credible security guarantee in exchange for curtailing its nuclear program, the only country capable of providing it is China. No American promise would remain credible beyond the term of the president who gave it, if even that long. So if China were to combine threats of invasion with a promise of security and nuclear protection, in exchange for cooperation and possible regime change, its chances of winning over large parts of the Korean People's Army would be high. Whereas a nuclear exchange with the US would mean devastation, submission to China would promise survival, and presumably a degree of continued autonomy. For all except those closest to Kim, the choice would not be a difficult one.China's strategic gains from a successful military intervention would include not only control of what happens on the Korean Peninsula, where it presumably would be able to establish military bases, but also regional gratitude for having prevented a catastrophic war.No other action holds as much potential to make Chinese leadership within Asia seem both credible, and desirable, especially if the alternative is a reckless, poorly planned US-led war. What China needs, above all, is legitimacy, and intervention in North Korea would provide it. Successful use of hard power would bring China, to borrow the distinction coined by Harvard's Joseph S. Nye, huge reserves of soft power.But now to the 64 billion renminbi question: Could it work? We can't know the answer for sure, and any military intervention carries great risks. The Chinese armed forces are now well equipped, but lack comparable battlefield experience. Their inferior opponents have leaders who might be prepared to use nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, if they did not simply accept Chinese terms and surrender.What we can say with near certainty is that a Chinese land and sea invasion, rather than an American one, would stand a better chance of avoiding Kim's likely response: an artillery attack on the South Korean capital, Seoul, which lies just a few dozen miles south of the demilitarized zone. Why would North Korea slaughter its southern brothers and sisters in retaliation for a Chinese invasion that came with a promise of continued security, if not autonomy?Moreover, while the Kim regime's nuclear restraint could hardly be taken for granted, China would be a less likely target than the US for North Korean missiles. Were a Chinese military option to be contemplated seriously, some intelligence and missile-defense collaboration with the US might be worth exploring. Given the risks, it would be hard for the US to refuse.This scenario may well never happen. But it is so logical that the possibility of it should be taken seriously. It is, after all, China's best opportunity to achieve greater strategic parity with the US in the region, while removing a source of instability that threatens them both.
Trump's North Korea Threat-Theater Is WorkingBy Austin Bay • 10/10/17 6:30am The heated rhetorical exchanges between Washington and Pyongyang have once again fired public interest in Korean war scenarios and the Korean information war.Obvious truth tends to die in Beltway media darkness, but The Washington Post finally noticed the intent and utility of the Trump administration's orchestrated information warfare operation, something Observer readers know I began covering in March and emphasized in August and September while mainstream media dismissed Trump as incompetent.It's a fair bet that one recent "scenario" article was read with interest by North Korean intelligence analysts, senior military officers with access to global media, and Kim Jong "Rocket Man" Un.On October 7, the Voice of America published what I'll call a double-barreled article, meaning it combined a military-political intervention scenario and an indirect (or inadvertent) sampling of Trump's information operation.VOA's first barrel featured a speculative North Korea scenario written by a former Economist editor Bill Emmott and published by Project Syndicate in early September.VOA's second barrel highlighted a comment President Donald Trump made on October 5 following a visit to the White House by top U.S. military leaders. Trump said the visit was "the calm before the storm." When reporters asked the president to elaborate on "the storm," he simply said, "You'll find out.'"But back to Barrel One. Emmott posited a Chinese military intervention in North Korea to convince the North Korean military to remove the Kim regime. Emmott wrote:"Whereas a nuclear exchange with the U.S. would mean devastation, submission to China would promise survival, and presumably a degree of continued autonomy. For all except those closest to Kim, the choice would not be a difficult one.China's strategic gains from a successful military intervention would include not only control of what happens on the Korean Peninsula, where it presumably would be able to establish military bases, but also regional gratitude for having prevented a catastrophic war."But would Beijing's gamble work? Emmott acknowledged the risks. Though China has superior military forces "…their inferior opponents have leaders who might be prepared to use nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction, if they did not simply accept Chinese terms and surrender."Emmott added this upside: A Chinese invasion in lieu of an American-led attack "would stand a better chance of avoiding Kim's likely response: an artillery attack on the South Korean capital, Seoul, which lies just a few dozen miles south of the demilitarized zone."In June, StrategyPage.com published an analysis of China's relationships with North Korea and South Korea and argued that a united Korea "is something China is willing to go to war over to prevent, or at least make some serious moves in that direction." This scenario maintains the division of Korea.On October 7 (after VOA's article first appeared on the web), President Trump fired two tweets at North Korea.Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years, agreements made and massive amounts of money paid……— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017…hasn't worked, agreements violated before the ink was dry, makings fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry, but only one thing will work!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 7, 2017To put it colloquially, The Donald continues to mess with Rocket Man.Several months ago, Trump decided to give North Korea a relentless dose of its own threat-theater bombast. Trump seeds his threat-theatrics with customized belittling designed to rattle an imperious autocrat (e.g., Crooked Hillary, Little Rocket Man). Trump is conducting an information warfare operation, and one Kim Jong Un and his regime have not confronted, especially one executed by an American president. Trump didn't undermine Secretary of State Rex Tillerson when he tweeted that Tillerson was "wasting his time" negotiating with North Korea. That drama was "good cop, bad cop," with the goal of rattling Kim. Nor does Trump undermine Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. That noted, at times it must astonish (and perhaps please) Mattis that this is the first time in his professional life he's played the good cop.Moreover, Trump's information warfare operation isn't all verbal theater, good cop-bad cop kabuki and tweetkrieg. The U.S. and its allies back the verbal assaults and tweets with shows of powerful and credible military force.Trump's information operation appalls mainstream media, despite the Washington Post's belated and singular epiphany. Media geniuses continue to miss its point. The information warfare operation sends the message "hey dummy, it's different." It forces the Kim regime to recognize the geo-strategic situation has changed in ways that the regime did not expect and cannot control. Strategic patience is really over, Rocket Man. That's Trump's message and the Kim regime and North Korean military are its critical audiences, not the sideshow of mainstream media.Which brings us back to VOA's double-barreled article. VOA is U.S. government-funded and overseen by an independent agency.VOA is editorially independent but is tasked with presenting a "balanced" view of issues. As its Wikipedia page notes, VOA radio broadcasts influence foreign public opinion, and I assume that holds true for its website. I doubt anyone in the Trump administration told VOA to write the October 7 article. From an editorial point of view, its newsworthiness alone justifies publishing it. Nevertheless, when juxtaposed, the article's two barrels frame a choice for North Korea: Chinese intervention and survival versus Madman Trump's war of annihilation. I'll wager there are North Korean intelligence analysts and senior military officers who will read it that way and read it as a message. Kim Jong Un's information warfare advisers certainly will.Why, Kim might conclude it's time to purge intelligence analysts and kill a few more senior military officers. Would Beijing read that as a sign of instability? Stay tuned.
The info OPS campaign agains the DPRK. How well it is working is a mater of debate, but the Americans have certainly changed things up from decades of talk and appeasement:http://observer.com/2017/10/donald-trump-threats-corner-north-korea/
Washington PostAnna FifieldNovember 18, 20174:26 PM ESTLast UpdatedNovember 19, 20179:22 AM EST"In North Korea, life only gets better if the state helps you. But these days, the state doesn't help. We're on our own."– The bride, now 23, from Hyesan. Escaped from North Korea in May 2017.When Kim Jong Un became the leader of North Korea almost six years ago, many North Koreans thought that their lives were going to improve. He offered the hope of generational change in the world's longest-running communist dynasty. After all, he was so young. A millennial. Someone with experience of the outside world.But the "Great Successor," as he is called by the regime, has turned out to be every bit as brutal as his father and grandfather before him. Even as he has allowed greater economic freedom, he has tried to seal the country off more than ever, stepping up security along the border with China and stepping up the punishments for those who dare to try to cross it. And at home, freedom of speech, and of thought, is still a mirage.In six months of interviews in South Korea and Thailand, The Washington Post talked with more than 25 North Koreans from different walks of life who lived in Kim Jong Un's North Korea and managed to escape from it. In barbecue restaurants, cramped apartments and hotel rooms, these refugees provided the fullest account to date of daily life inside North Korea and how it has changed, and how it hasn't, since Kim took over from his father, Kim Jong Il, at the end of 2011. Many are from the northern parts of the country that border China – the part of North Korea where life is toughest, and where knowledge about the outside world just across the river is most widespread – and are from the relatively small segment of the population that is prepared to take the risks involved in trying to escape.Some parts of their stories cannot be independently verified because of the secretive nature of the regime, and their names have been withheld to protect their family members still in North Korea. They were introduced to The Post by groups that help North Korean escapees, including No Chain for North Korea, Woorion and Liberty in North Korea.But in talking about their personal experiences, including torture and the culture of surveillance, they recounted the hardships of daily life under Kim Jong Un's regime. They paint a picture of a once-communist state that has all but broken down, its state-directed economy at a standstill. Today, North Koreans are making their own way, earning money in an entrepreneurial and often illegal fashion. There are only a few problems in North Korea these days that money can't solve.As life inside North Korea is changing, so too are people's reasons for escaping.Increasingly, North Koreans are not fleeing their totalitarian state because they are hungry, as they did during the 15 or so years following the outbreak of a devastating famine in the mid-1990s. Now, they are leaving because they are disillusioned.Market activity is exploding, andwith that comes a flow of information, whether as chitchat from traders who cross into China or as soap operas loaded on USB sticks. And this leads many North Koreans to dream in a way they hadn't before.Some are leaving North Korea because they want their children to get a better education. Some are leaving because their dreams of success and riches in the North Korean system are being thwarted. And some are leaving because they want to be able to speak their minds.A NEW KIM AT THE HELMKorean Central News Agency – Dec. 19, 2011 – "Standing at the forefront of the Korean revolution is Kim Jong Un, great successor to the revolutionary cause of Juche [self-reliance ideology] and outstanding leader of our party, army and people."The meat delivery guy, now 23, from Undok. Escaped in 2014:"Kim Jong Un came to power the same year I graduated from high school, and I had very high hopes for him. I heard that he'd studied abroad in Switzerland. I thought he was going to be very different from his father."The young mother, now 29, from Hoeryong. Escaped in 2014:"I could see how young he was, and I hoped that maybe things were going to get better. We were given some rations through our neighborhood association – we even got meat and fish – at the time he took over."The preschooler, now 7, from Hoeryong. Escaped in 2014:"I remember how fat he was. He had a very fat face like a pig."– – –As the regime started preparing for Kim's succession, it put out a song that everyone in the country was made to learn, called "Footsteps." The idea was that Kim was following in the footsteps of his father and would lead the country into a glorious future.The money man, now 43, from Hyesan. Escaped in 2015:"We heard the song 'Footsteps' and we were told to memorize it so [we] knew that he was going to be the leader after Kim Jong Il. We were told how great he was, that he could ride a horse when he was 5 years old and shoot a gun when he was 3. Of course we didn't believe these things, but if you laughed or said anything, you'd be killed."The university student, now 37, from Sariwon. Escaped in 2013:"I was in my second year at the university when this person was introduced to us as our new leader. I thought it was a joke. Among my closest friends, we were calling him a piece of s—. Everyone thinks this, but you can only say it to your closest friends or to your parents if you know that they agree."The drug dealer, now 46, from Hoeryong. Escaped in 2014:"I created some kind of fantasy in my mind about Kim Jong Un. Because he was so young, I thought he was going to open North Korea's doors, but after he took power and I lived three years under him, life became harder."MONEY TALKSIn theory, North Korea is a bastion of socialism, a country where the state provides everything, including housing, health care, education and jobs. In reality, the state economy barely operates anymore. People work in factories and fields, but there is little for them to do, and they are paid almost nothing. A vibrant private economy has sprung up out of necessity, one where people find ways to make money on their own, whether through selling homemade tofu or dealing drugs, through smuggling small DVD players with screens called "notels" over the border or extracting bribes.The university student:"North Korea technically has a centrally planned economy, but now people's lives revolve around the market. No one expects the government to provide things anymore. Everyone has to find their own way to survive."The hairdresser, now 23, from Hyesan. Escaped in 2016:"I had to drop out of teachers college when I was 19 because my father became ill so I needed to work. I started doing people's hair at my house. All the women wanted perms. I charged 30 [Chinese] yuan for a regular perm or 50 yuan for a perm with better products. But it was still hard to make money. [Thirty yuan is about $4.50.]"The farmer, now 46, from Hoeryong. Escaped in 2014."We lived in the city center, but we rented some land in the foothills of the mountains and grew corn there. During planting and harvest season, we would wake up at 4 a.m. and walk three hours to reach the farmland. We'd take a little break for lunch or a snack, then work until 8 p.m. before walking home again. Doing the weeding was the hardest because we had to get rid of them by hand. And we'd buy beans from the market and make tofu that we'd sell from our house. Our profit was less than 5,000 won [60 cents at the black market rate] a day. But because the bean price fluctuates, sometimes we were left with nothing at all."– – –North Koreans first learned how to be entrepreneurs during the famine, when they had to make money to survive. While men had to continue to show up for work in dormant factories, women would turn corn into noodles and keep a little for themselves but sell the rest so they could buy more corn for the following day. Homeless children would steal manhole covers to sell as scrap metal. Markets began to appear and took hold. North Koreans used to joke you could buy everything there except cats' horns.These days, you can probably buy cats' horns, too.The bean trader, now 23, from Hyesan. Escaped in 2014:"I had an aunt in Pyongyang who sold beans in the market there. I would buy what she needed from various farmers and get it to her. I'd pay people to pack up the beans into sacks, pay porters to take them to the station, get them onto the train. You have to smooth the way with money. My uncle is in the military, so his position provided protection for my aunt's business. Of course, my aunt was the main earner in the house. It's the women who can really make money in North Korea."– – –Tens of thousands of North Koreans now work outside the country, in lumber yards and garment factories and on construction sites, in China, Russia and other countries, earning foreign currency. Generally, two-thirds of their pay goes to the regime, and they're allowed to keep the rest.The construction worker, now 40, from Pyongyang. Escaped in 2015:"I wanted to earn money for my family and buy a house, so I paid $100 to bribe my way into an overseas construction job. I was sent to St. Petersburg. We lived at the construction site and would work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., or sometimes until midnight in the summer, then we'd go back to our dormitory to eat. We worked seven days a week, but we could finish early on Sundays – 7 p.m. – and that was nice. My whole purpose for being there was to make lots of money and go home proud of my achievement. I still remember the first time I got paid. It was 1,000 rubles. When I finished work at 10 p.m., I went to the store and saw that a bottle of beer was 27 rubles. I thought, wow I'm rich."– – –As the economy and the rules that govern it change, there are more and more gray areas that can be exploited. That means that illegal trade and activity have blossomed, too.The drug dealer:"I did so many things that I wasn't supposed to do. I worked as a broker transferring money and connecting people in North Korea with people in South Korea through phone calls. I arranged reunions for them in China. I smuggled antiques out of North Korea and sold them in China. I sold ginseng and pheasants to China. And I dealt ice [methamphetamines]. Officially, I was a factory worker, but I bribed my way out of having to go to work. If you don't operate this way in North Korea, you have nothing."The doctor, now 42, from Hyesan. Escaped in 2014:"The salary for doctors was about 3,500 won a month. That was less than it cost to buy one kilogram of rice. So of course, being a doctor was not my main job. My main job was smuggling at night. I would send herbal medicine from North Korea into China, and with the money, I would import home appliances back into North Korea. Rice cookers, notels, LCD monitors, that kind of thing."– – –From the biggest cities to the smallest villages, there is now some kind of market building where people can sell their wares and keep their profits. Some are state-run, some are state-sanctioned, some are ad hoc. The markets have been retroactively legalized by the regime.Money is now needed for nearly everything – even for the parts of communist life that the Kim regime crows about providing, like housing and schooling. Bribery and corruption have become endemic, undermining the regime by loosening controls and creating incentives that may not always be in line with Kim's priorities.The farmer:"Technically, you don't have to pay to go to school, but the teachers tell you that you have to submit a certain amount of beans or rabbit skins that can be sold. If you don't submit, you get told off continuously, and that's why students stop going to school. The kids are hurt just because the parents can't afford it."The young mother:"I used to pay the teachers at my daughter's school so they would look after her better than others. I would give them 120,000 won at a time – that's enough to buy 25 kilograms of rice – twice a year. If you don't pay the teachers, they won't make any effort."The fisherman, now 45, from Ryongchon. Escaped in 2017:"I lived through all three Kims, but our life was not getting any better for any of us. We all have to pay for Kim Jong Un's projects, like Ryomyong Street [a residential development in Pyongyang]. We had to contribute 15,000 North Korean won per household [more than four months' salary] to the government for that street."The drug dealer:"My main business was selling ice. I think that 70 or 80 percent of the adults in Hoeryong city were using ice. My customers were just ordinary people. Police officers, security agents, party members, teachers, doctors. Ice made a really good gift for birthday parties or for high school graduation presents. It makes you feel good and helps you release stress, and it really helps relations between men and women. My 76-year-old mother was using it because she had low blood pressure, and it worked well. Lots of police officers and security agents would come to my house to smoke, and of course I didn't charge them – they were my protection. They would come by during their lunch break, stop by my house. The head of the secret police in my area was almost living at my house."– – –
The ability to make money, sometimes lots of money, through means both legal and illegal has led to visible inequality in a country that has long touted itself as an egalitarian socialist paradise. This could be a potential source of disruption. Bean traders and drug dealers and everyone in between have the prospect of making a decent living. Those working only in official jobs, whether they be on a state-owned ostrich farm or in a government ministry in Pyongyang, earn only a few dollars a month and get little in the way of rations to supplement their meager salaries.The rich kid, now 20, from Chongjin. Escaped in 2014:"Skating rinks opened in 2013, and rollerblading became a really big thing. Rich kids had their own rollerblades. We'd carry them slung over our shoulders as we walked to the rink – it was a status symbol, a sign that you have money. I bought my rollerblades at the market. They were pink, and it cost 200 Chinese yuan. That's the same price as 30 kilograms of rice. It's unthinkable for poor kids."The construction worker:"There were long periods where we didn't get paid. I once went for six months without getting any salary at all. We lived in a shipping container at the construction site. We were given rice and cabbage and one egg per person per day, and we had an electric coil in our container that we could cook on. We needed some protein because our work was so hard, so we started buying pigskin at the market because it was cheap. Washing was like a special occasion. But if you went to the bathhouse, you would miss out on work. Once I didn't bathe for two months. We didn't think anything of it. It was just the way we lived."The rich kid:"Cellphones are a big thing. To be able to afford a smartphone, you had to come from a rich family. Of course, there were some poor kids at my school, but I didn't hang out with them. I had an Arirang smartphone that cost $400. When boys came up to talk to me, I'd check out their phone. If they had one of those old-style phones with buttons, I wasn't interested."– – –The markets are the distribution point not just for goods, but also for information. Chatter, rumors, illicit foreign media.The farmer:"Women make their living in the market, and while they're sitting there at the stalls, they talk. So the market is a great place to learn about the outside world."The phone connector, now 49, from Hoeryong. Escaped in 2013:"I watched lots of [smuggled] movies and soap operas on USB sticks from the market. I would plug them into my TV. Vendors who are selling ordinary things like batteries or rice or whatever, they hide the USBs inside under the counter. When you go into the market you say to the vendors: Do you have anything delicious today? That's the code. USBs are also good because they are so easy to hide, and you can just break them if you get caught."The fisherman:"In the past, if you watched Chinese movies on USBs you were okay. You got put in a labor camp only if you were caught with South Korean or American movies. But now, under Kim Jong Un, you get sent to a labor camp if you're caught watching Chinese movies, too. The police and the security services and government officials live better these days. The more people they catch, the more money they earn."The teenage prisoner, now 22, from Hyesan. Escaped in 2013:"I loved the way that women were being cherished. North Korea is a very male-oriented society, men never bother about taking care of women. And I liked to look at their fancy cars and houses."The accordion player, now 25, from Hamhung. Escaped in 2015:"My mom worked in the market selling home appliances, so she had a way to get DVDs. I watched Chinese, Indian and Russian movies, and lots of South Korean soap operas. I thought that if I got to South Korea, I could do anything I wanted."– – –It is impossible to overstate the pervasiveness of the personality cult surrounding the Kims in North Korea. Founding President Kim Il Sung, his son Kim Jong Il and his grandson, the current leader, Kim Jong Un form a kind of holy trinity in North Korea. There is no criticizing them or questioning the system – at least not without risking your freedom and the freedom of your entire family. Your life itself could be at stake.The preschooler:"I learned songs about the general and about the Kim family and how great Kim Il Sung was."The elementary schoolgirl, now 7, from Ryongchon. Escaped in 2017:"We got gifts on Kim Jong Un's birthday: candy and cookies and gum and puffed rice. I was so grateful to him for giving me all these sweets. We would stand up in class and say, 'Thank you, General Kim Jong Un.' "The university student:"We had ideological education for 90 minutes every day. There was revolutionary history, lessons about Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un. Of course, they taught us about why we needed nuclear weapons, and they would tell us that we needed to make sacrifices in our daily lives so they could build these weapons and protect our country, keep the nation safe. I was so sick and tired of hearing about all this revolutionary history, I was so sick of calling everyone 'comrade.' I didn't care about any of that stuff."The young mother:"Everybody knew that Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un were both liars, that everything is their fault, but it's impossible to voice any opposition because we are under such tight surveillance. If someone is drunk and says Kim Jong Un is a son of a *****, you'll never see them again."The doctor:"It's like a religion. From birth, you learn about the Kim family, learn that they are gods, that you must be absolutely obedient to the Kim family. The elites are treated nicely, and because of that they make sure that the system stays stable. But for everyone else, it's a reign of terror. The Kim family uses terror to keep people scared, and that makes it impossible to stage any kind of social gathering, let alone an uprising."The construction worker:"We had education sessions when we would go back to the main building and into a big room where there were portraits of the leaders. Everyone had to bow and buy bunches of flowers to lay in front of the portraits. There would be a speech by the boss, who was a party member. We would hear about how Kim Jong Un had done this and this and that [he] was working so hard for the party and for the nation and for the people. I believed it up until the Kim Jong Un era, but this exaggeration was just too much. It just didn't make sense."The money man:"Every month there was special instruction about Kim Jong Un. It came down from Pyongyang to the neighborhood associations. We were told that Kim Jong Un wanted to know everything so that he could take proper care of everyone, help everyone. Nobody believed this because if Kim Jong Un knew we had no electricity and were eating corn rice [imitation rice made from ground corn], why wasn't he doing anything about it?"
The bean trader:"There was this story going around that Kim Il Sung had asked Kim Jong Un to get him an apple. Kim Jong Un asked for a shovel because he wanted to bring the whole tree. It was the kind of joke that the secret police would create. Instead of just doing top-down teaching, they would also create stories like this [about devotion to the regime] because they thought that their propaganda would circulate better as rumors and would seem more convincing."– – –North Korea operates as a vast surveillance state, with a menacing state security department called the Bowibu as its backbone. Its agents are everywhere and operate with impunity.The regime also operates a kind of neighborhood watch system. Every district in every town or city is broken up into neighborhood groups of 30 or 40 households, each with a leader who is responsible for coordinating grass-roots surveillance and encouraging people to snitch.The young mother:"People in each neighborhood association are always checking up on each other. If one family seems to be living better than everyone else, then all the neighbors try to find out how they are making their money. Everybody is sensitive because if someone seems to be living well, then people get jealous of that house. Nobody has to be asked to bring that wealthy family down and make sure that this wealthy family loses their money. When you see a family lose their house, that feels good. That's why it's important not to show off how wealthy you are."The farmer:"Of course I thought about the outside world, but if you say, "I want to go to China or South Korea," then it can be reported by an informant to the security services. You can think it, but you can't say it. You never know who is going to snitch on you. We often heard and saw how Chinese people had money because Chinese people used to come to North Korea to sell things, so we thought it would be nice to live there."The rich kid:"There were youth leaders who would patrol around, looking for things that we weren't supposed to be doing. If you were wearing jeans or skinny pants, or if you had a manicure or your hair was too long, you would get in trouble. They would sometimes check your phone to see if you had any South Korean songs. I got busted for this, but I got out of it by buying them a box of 20 bottles of beer.".– – –For those who ran afoul of the regime in ways that money could not solve, the punishment could be harsh.Those accused of economic crimes – which could involve any kind of private enterprise – are sent to prisons and often made to do hard labor, such as building roads by hand. But those accused of being traitors to the nation, a broad category that includes questioning the Kim family or its system, end up in political prison camps where they have to work in mines and receive almost no food. It is not unusual for three generations of a "traitor's" family to end up in these concentration camps under North Korea's guilt-by-association system.The teenage prisoner:"When I was 16, I was staying at my grandma's house and there was a banging on the door late at night. Two secret police officers took me to the police station and asked me: 'Where are your parents?' I told them I didn't know. It turned out that they had gone missing and I suspected that my mom's business associates, when they realized this, planted a whole lot of stuff on her, said that she was the mastermind behind this big smuggling operation. The police yelled at me: 'You're just like your mother. You probably have fantasies about China, too.' They slapped my face about five times."The phone connector:"The first time I went to prison, I had been caught helping people make phone calls to their relatives in South Korea. I was sentenced to four months' hard labor, building a road on the side of a mountain that they said we needed in case there was a war. The men did the digging and the women had to carry rocks and soil."– – –Escapees from North Korea's gruesome political prisons have recounted brutal treatment over the years, including medieval torture with shackles and fire and being forced to undergo abortions by the crudest methods. Human rights activists say that this appears to have lessened slightly under Kim. But severe beatings and certain kinds of torture – including being forced to remain in stress positions for crippling lengths of time – are commonplace throughout North Korea's detention systems, as are public executions.The teenage prisoner:"I was interrogated again by the secret police, and they wanted to know about my mother's business. They were slapping me around the face again. They always go for the face. I was beaten severely that time. They pushed me so hard against the wall that I had blood coming from my head. I still get a headache sometimes. While I was there they made me sit with my legs crossed and my arms resting on my knees and my head always down. If you move at all or if you try to stretch your legs out, they will yell at you and hit you. I had to stay like that for hours on end."The money man:"In 2015, a money transfer went bad – the woman I'd given the money to got caught and she ratted on me – and I was put in detention. I spent two months there. I wasn't treated like a human being – they beat me, they made me sit in stress positions where I couldn't lift my head. Two times they slapped my face and kicked me during interrogation, but I was not beaten up badly. Maybe because I was not a nobody, maybe they feared that I knew someone who could get back at them."– – –Starvation is often part of the punishment, even for children. The 16-year-old lost 13 pounds in prison, weighing only 88 pounds when she emerged.The teenage prisoner:"We got up at 6 a.m. every day and went to bed at 11 p.m., and in between we would be working the whole time, shoveling cement or lugging sacks, except for lunch. Lunch was usually steamed corn. I was too scared to eat. I cried a lot. I didn't want to live."The phone connector:"Even though we were working so hard in prison camp, all we got to eat was a tiny bit of corn rice and a small potato. By the time I got out, I was so malnourished I could hardly walk."– – –It is this web of prisons and concentration camps, coupled with the threat of execution, that stops people from speaking up. There is no organized dissent in North Korea, no political opposition.The drug dealer:"If you make problems, then your whole family gets punished. That's why people don't want to make any trouble. If I get punished for my wrongdoing, that's one thing. But it's my whole family that would be put at risk if I did something. North Koreans have seen that Kim Jong Un killed his own uncle, so we understand how merciless he can be. That's why you can't have an uprising in North Korea."The university student:"The secret to North Korea's survival is the reign of terror. Why do you think North Korea has public executions? Why do you think they block all communications? Why do you think North Koreans leave, knowing that they will never see their families again? It shows how bad things are. All our rights as people have been stripped away."The phone connector:"If you speak out against the system, you will immediately be arrested. And if you do something wrong, then three generations of your family will be punished. In 2009, I heard there was a going to be some kind of coup launched in Chongjin and that all of the people involved were executed. When you hear about cases like this, of course you're scared. So instead of trying to do something to change the system, it's better just to leave."In this June 16, 2017, photo, North Korean students use computer terminals at the Sci-Tech Complex in Pyongyang, North Korea. AP Photo/Wong Maye-E– – –Some people do leave, but not that many. It's incredibly risky and logistically difficult to get around the border guards and the barbed wire. Unknown thousands cross into China each year. Some remain in China, almost always young women who get sold to poor Chinese men in the countryside who can't get a wife any other way. Some get caught and sent back – to certain imprisonment.The repatriated wife, now 50, from Nampo. Escaped for the last time in 2016:"I had lived in China for 20 years, but someone must have reported me. I was sent back to North Korea, and I spent two and a half years in a prison camp. [After she had left once more for China], I knew I couldn't be repatriated again. I thought that it would be the end of my life."– – –But each year, a thousand or so North Koreans make it to South Korea. In the 20-odd years since the famine, only 30,000 North Koreans have made it to the southern side of the peninsula.During the late 1990s and the early 2000s, almost all the North Koreans who fled were escaping out of hunger or economic need. But the explosion of markets has improved life for many. Today, more people are leaving North Korea because they are disillusioned with the system, not because they can't feed their families.The accordion player:"I was ambitious. I wanted to be a party member and enjoy all the opportunities that come with that. My dream was to make lots of money and be a high-ranking government official. Family background means so much in North Korea, but I had family in China and I realized that this would stop me from being able to follow my dreams. I left because I didn't have the freedom to do what I wanted to do."The bean trader:"I wanted to progress in life, I wanted to go to university, but because my mother had defected to China, it looked like I wouldn't be able to go any further. It looked like I would be stuck in North Korea where I was. I could have moved, lived, no problem, but I felt like I didn't have any future in North Korea. That's why I decided to leave."In this July 27, 2013, file photo, North Korean soldiers carrying packs marked with the nuclear symbol turn and look towards leader Kim Jong Un during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, FileThe meat delivery guy:"We were told in school that we could be anybody. But after graduation, I realized that this wasn't true and that I was being punished for somebody else's wrongdoing. I realized I wouldn't be able to survive here. So for two years I looked for a way out. When I thought about escaping, it gave me a psychological boost."The doctor:"I hoped to work abroad as a doctor in the Middle East or Africa. But to work overseas you have to pass security screening to make sure you're ideologically sound and aren't going to defect. That's a problem that money can't solve and that's where I got blocked. I was very angry, very annoyed. I cursed our society. I am a very capable person, and I was a party member, but even I couldn't make it."The construction worker:"I worked for three and a half years, but I made only $2,000 during that time. We were allowed to work overseas for five years maximum, and I was hoping to save $10,000 and return home proud. I realized it wasn't going to happen, so I started looking for a chance to escape."The university student:"I was so disgusted with the system. I didn't have freedom to speak my mind, or to travel anywhere I wanted, or even to wear what I wanted. It was like living in a prison. We were monitored all the time by our neighborhood leader, by the normal police, by the secret police. If you ask me what was the worst thing about North Korea, I'd say: Being born there"The bride:After graduating from high school, she worked in the cornfields for two years but just sat at home after that. So when she heard that her friend had been sold to a Chinese man as a wife, she asked to be introduced to the broker so that she could be sold, too. At least she'd be able to earn money in China. She has just arrived in South Korea.The meat delivery guy:Because his mother was a "traitor" who had defected to South Korea, he was blocked from going to college or joining the military. Instead, he was put to work doing manual labor with criminals and low-lifes, for almost no salary. He made money by delivering meat from his father's butchery to local restaurants. He is now a university student in South Korea.The young mother, now 29, from Hoeryong. Escaped in 2014:She came from a good family background, but her father was violent. She married young, to a truck driver, and they lived comfortably in North Korea. But her aunts lived in the South, and they told her she should bring their sister, her mother, to them. So she defected with her husband and their two daughters, a 4-year-old and a 1-month-old. She is now an office worker in South Korea.The preschooler:She doesn't remember much of her life in North Korea, just her friends from preschool and a few songs that they used to sing. She is now in elementary school in South Korea.The money man:He had been a border guard but bribed his way out. He then started working as a money transfer broker, moving cash from families in China or South Korea to relatives in North Korea, all for a hefty fee. But one day a deal went bad when a customer in North Korea was caught with a large amount of Chinese currency and turned him in. He now works at a factory in South Korea.The university student:He came from an ordinary family but had big dreams. He kept thinking about escaping to China and becoming successful, doing a job that he found rewarding. One day his parents told him he should chase his dreams. So he did. He is now a reporter in South Korea.The drug dealer:After bribing his way out of his factory job during the famine, he got involved in all sorts of illegal activities, from smuggling antiques to selling ice, a methamphetamine, in both China and North Korea. He is now a construction worker in South Korea.The hairdresser:She had been at teachers college but had to quit when she was 19 to earn money for the family after her father became sick. She started doing hair at her house, but then got an opportunity to work at a restaurant in China and earn much more. So off she went, with a broker. But she discovered there was no restaurant. Instead, she was sold to a Chinese man for $12,000. She has just arrived in South Korea.The farmer:After her husband defected, she had to make ends meet. She made tofu from scratch, grew corn in a plot of land several hours' walk from her home and raised pigs in her yard. It was hard to make ends meet, but it became even harder when she hurt her back and struggled to work. She still has a bad back and cannot work in South Korea.The bean trader:He came from a privileged family and lived well, until his grandfather got in trouble with the regime and his mother defected. So he worked as a trader, sourcing beans and sending them to his aunt, who would sell them at the markets in Pyongyang. He is now a university student in South Korea.North Korean soldiers fired 40 shots at defector as he fled across border. He made it out aliveKim Jong Un's North Korea is – cautiously – going onlineInside North Korea's propaganda machine: They hate Japan and the U.S. — but love the QueenThe construction worker:He worked and bribed his way into a construction job in Russia, a potentially lucrative posting. But despite working long hours, he often went months without being paid. Watching South Korean television opened his eyes to the lies of North Korea. He now works in South Korea.The doctor:He worked at a hospital in Hyesan and was a member of the Workers' Party. He dreamed of being sent to the Middle East or Africa, where he could make much more money. But he was blocked from leaving. He now works as a doctor at a hospital in South Korea.The fisherman:He earned a good living, fishing for a state company and using his access to China to smuggle goods across the river. But his exposure to Chinese capitalism and South Korean radio broadcasts made him want to escape. He has just arrived in South Korea.In this May 5, 2015, file photo, a man uses his smartphone in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korean officials have unveiled a mobile-friendly online shopping site. Ever so cautiously, North Korea is going online. AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, FileThe rich kid:She was a high school student, the daughter of a successful businessman who was flourishing in the emerging private economy. She wanted for nothing. She is now a university student in South Korea.The phone connector:Using her Chinese cellphone, she worked arranging phone calls between North Koreans and relatives on the outside, either in China or South Korea. But she got caught and was forced to do hard labor in prison. She was caught a second time but paid a huge bribe to get off. She fled before she was caught again. She now works in South Korea.The teenage prisoner:She was a high school student and was staying with her grandmother in another city when the rest of her family suddenly escaped to China, apparently because one of her mother's business deals went bad. She was imprisoned, tortured and made to do hard labor. She is now a university student in South Korea.The accordion player:She volunteered for the military as a way to improve her prospects in North Korea. She hoped to become a member of the Workers' Party and be the mayor of her city one day. But she was thwarted from advancing because she had family in China. She is now a university student in South Korea.The elementary:She loves pink and a doll she was given after escaping North Korea. She'd never owned a doll before. She has just arrived in South Korea.The repatriated wife:She escaped to China during the famine and had been living with a Chinese man. They have two children. But in 2014, she was repatriated to North Korea and spent 2 1/2 years in a prison camp. When she was released, she escaped again but this time didn't stop in China. She has just arrived in South Korea.
No choice for ChinaBy Daniel Gallington - - Monday, November 20, 2017ANALYSIS/OPINION:If China doesn't decide to intervene and essentially "denuclearize" North Korea — and soon — the Pacific region will "nuclearize" itself, in reaction to China's inaction and the growing North Korean nuclear threat.In short, the People's Republic of China doesn't really have a choice in the matter; it must take down the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's various nuclear weapons and related programs. President Trump's decision Monday to re-list North Korea as a state sponsor of terror adds weight to the exigency.Affecting the timing of China's decision, however, will be the following very critical calculus: Which Asian countries may likely develop nuclear weapons and how long would it take?In reverse order, how long would it take?The answer to this might shock some: If one imagines the complete "nuclear fuel cycle" — to include nuclear weapons development — as 100 points on a scale, then 95 to 98 points could be associated with a "peaceful" nuclear program. Only the last few notches in the fuel cycle are needed for actual weapon development.So, virtually any Asian or Pacific country with nuclear reactors or a nuclear power program, could probably produce a nuclear weapon if it was properly motivated, in other words, if it felt sufficiently threatened by North Korean nuclear weapons.Which Asian-Pacific countries might consider such a step?First of all could be countries that, in fact, had nuclear weapons programs at one time or another. This would include South Korea and Taiwan, for sure, and perhaps some others.Recently, there has even been editorial comment in Australia that it should seriously consider a nuclear weapons program to address the emerging nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile threat from North Korea. Australians certainly have the nuclear material and technology for such a program, should they decide they need it.Second, most any Asian country that has a nuclear reactor or reactors might well consider adding on the "last steps" to the nuclear fuel cycle, and thereby producing the nuclear materials necessary for a weapons program. Japan, for example, could become a nuclear power very quickly.Next question: Tactically, should the Chinese delay their action to shut down North Korea's nuclear weapons program until they can "get something for it" in some kind of structured negotiations with the United States, similar to the past Six-Party talks?Probably not. This because the U.S. strategic build-up in Asia will likely continue regardless of diplomatic discussions, if any; and likewise, those countries with existing nuclear infrastructures will likely continue thinking about nuclear weapons programs. This because the past negotiations with and/or about the North Korean nuclear program have served only as diplomatic cover for Pyongyang to continue its covert weapons programs. Accordingly, diplomacy does not seem a vehicle for reliable resolution.Ironically perhaps, if and when China takes down the North Korean nuclear weapons program in a credible way, it could expect to see an immediate reduction in the current U.S. strategic response and build-up in Asia and the Pacific. Likewise, countries that were "on the edge" for beginning their own nuclear weapons programs could likely back down from them.However, China must act quickly, and must act unilaterally to halt the North Korean nuclear weapons program in order to reverse the massive U.S. strategic responses and build-up in Asia.Should the Chinese realize that, albeit indirectly, North Korea has become a threat to them? For sure, the reactions by the United States and other Asian countries to the North Korean nuclear weapons programs cannot be in the best interest of China, and they have to know this by now. Finally, do we really care how the Chinese solve the problem as long as they solve it? I really don't think so.• Daniel Gallington served through 11 rounds of bilateral negotiations in Geneva as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Nuclear and Space Talks with the former Soviet Union.
'Dilbert' Scoops 'em All On the Inside Story Of Trump Korea TalksBy IRA STOLL, Special to the Sun | March 12, 2018Give "Dilbert" cartoonist Scott Adams the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He deserves it for understanding and explaining all along what's been going on with President Trump and North Korea, in a way that the coastal establishment elites missed because of their blinding contempt for Trump.For those who haven't been following the political commentary of Mr. Adams, it's worth going back and reading.In an April 12, 2017, blog post headlined "The North Korea Reframe," Mr. Adams wrote about how Mr. Trump had reframed North Korea as a challenge to China."President Trump has said clearly and repeatedly that if China doesn't fix the problem in its own backyard, the USA will step in to do what China couldn't get done," Mr. Adams wrote. "See the power in that framing? China doesn't want a weak 'brand.'...His reframing on North Korea is pitch-perfect. We've never seen anything like this."Mr. Adams followed up with an April 17, 2017, post headlined "How To Structure a Deal With North Korea." He suggests giving North Korea "a story to save face." He went on, "In persuasion language, you need to give North Korea a 'fake because.' They probably already want peace, but they don't have a good public excuse for why they would cave to pressure and settle for it. Giving them something that has little value but can be exaggerated to seem like it has great value becomes the 'fake because.'"In a July 5, 2017, post, "Solving the North Korea Situation," Mr. Adams wrote about the possibility of shifting from a win-lose framework on such a deal to a win-win framework, including a "100-year deal" leading to reunification.In a July 31, 2017, post, headlined "People Keep Telling Me To Stop Blogging About North Korea," Mr. Adams wrote, "My critics have been extra vocal lately in saying I should stop writing about North Korea because I have no expertise in that area. So I decided to talk about North Korea some more."In a September 5, 2017, post, Mr. Adams wrote, "in Kim Jong Un I suspect we have a negotiating partner who understands all dimensions.... we are also closer than we have ever been to a permanent solution."And in a January 3, 2018, post Mr. Adams rebutted critics who called President Trump's tweet about having a bigger nuclear button than North Korea "crazy."Mr. Adams wrote, "what is missed in the hysterics over wording is that President Trump and Kim Jong Un are negotiating personally, albeit in public. And I think it is safe to say both players know they are being over-the-top with their trash-talk. The odds of a nuclear miscalculation based on anything said so far is effectively zero."He went on, "while it might look to many observers as two crazy leaders heading for a nuclear showdown, to me it looks like two colorful characters who probably have a weird kind of respect for each other."A January 17, 2018, Mr. Adams post headlined "How North Korea Can Become Switzerland of the East" noted, "Kim Jong Un went to school in Switzerland. He knows it as a country that gets just about everything right and does it without a traditional army."Mr. Adams hasn't posted about North Korea on his blog, at least so far as I can tell, since President Trump earlier this month accepted a North Korean offer of direct talks. But if Mr. Adams does write something, an accurate headline might be, "I told you so."The Trump-North Korea talks could end inconclusively, or even dangerously, so the story isn't over yet. On the basis of what's happened so far, though, it certainly looks like Mr. Adams was correct. Mr. Trump's tactics, rather than leading to war, have brought the North Koreans to the bargaining table.Compare Mr. Adams' take to elite opinion. As recently as February 1, in an editorial headlined, "Playing With Fire and Fury on North Korea," the New York Times editorial board said, "It's hard to come away from the State of the Union address without a heightened sense of foreboding about President Trump's intentions toward North Korea. The signs increasingly point to unilateral American military action...."Mr. Trump seemed to be building a case for war on emotional grounds... such words were in line with his history of bellicosity toward North Korea... Last year he threatened to answer North Korean provocations with fire and fury 'the likes of which this world has never seen before.'... Mr. Trump's preoccupation with military action and refusal to seriously pursue a diplomatic overture to North Korea are foolhardy."If anyone's "foolhardy" here, it's not Mr. Trump, but the Times editorial writers, who apparently hate Mr. Trump so much that they couldn't see the truth of what Scott Adams had been writing for nearly a year. Part of the point of journalism is to explain to readers what's really happening rather than stoking false, anxiety-provoking (if click-generating) fears or "foreboding." By that standard, on the evidence so far, Mr. Adams has done a far better job on the North Korea story than the Times has.Whatever power the Pulitzer committees have, individual readers have a power, too. That is to treat "elite" commentary with the skepticism it deserves, and to keep an eye out for outside-the-box thinkers such as Mr. Adams. If the fears about war with North Korea were unwarranted, maybe the fears about a Trump-tariff-provoked trade war are also phony, and there, too, presidential rhetoric and actions are being used in a fashion more calculated than reckless. At least it's worth keeping an open mind about the possibility.


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DUH DMP 2W93 12-3-19 8:30-11 Duke Health: Empathy, Belonging & Cultural Education
The newly re-designed and innovative staff diversity education curriculum will provide attendees with a new and timely awareness and understanding of diversity and inclusion (D&I), cultural competence, implicit bias, microaggressions, and the utility of the CultureVision™ tool to meet our core value implementing culturally competent and safe care. At the end of every section, attendees are given cultural toolkit action items to assist them with developing a personal diversity plan. The curriculum will further offer innovative adult learning techniques with a menu of visual case studies customized to speci c learning modules on people with disabilities, implicit bias, LGBTQIA+ populations, identity, cross cultural communication, and generational diversity. As with Duke's current RELATE training, attendees are reminded that communication is 7% verbal with the remaining as body language. With Cultural Competence as a Joint Commission Standard, emphasis will be placed on cross cultural communication with respect to differences in generational communication, culturally appropriate and inappropriate body language, and cultural resources, and understanding with utilization of the CultureVision™ tool and resources via the Of ce for Institutional Equity's (OIE) online Toolkit.
Learning Objectives
Understand diversity, cultural competence, and the various dimensions of diversity
Discuss how diversity is an everyday part of one's general workplace responsibilities
Identify how our beliefs, biases, and attitudes impact our delivery of exceptional patientcentered care
Describe the concepts of a personal diversity plan
Available Credit
- 2.25 ACPE - Pharmacist
- 2.25 ACPE - Pharmacy Technician
- 2.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™
- 2.25 Attendance


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photo by @marsellouzia via Instagram
What an easy and gorgeous trifle for your Mother's Day, Shavuot or summer brunch! (You can even whip up a pareve version for Shabbat dessert).
Just cube assorted colorful fruit and layer into a trifle bowl or a huge florist cube or cylinder.
Make sure all of the fruit is cubed perfectly and all are similar size for a prettier dessert display!
For the dairy whipped cream:
- One container of heavy cream
- One or 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- A drop of vanilla.
- Assorted colorful cubed fruit.
- Instant espresso, powdered cocoa or orange or lime zest.
- Leave the metal Kitchen Aid bowl and the metal whisk in freezer overnight.
- In the morning take one container of heavy cream and beat in one or 2 tbsp powdered sugar
- add a drop of vanilla.
- Beat until the cream holds it's shape when you lift the whisk attachment.
- Layer and serve immediately with fruit.
- You can add instant espresso, powdered cocoa or orange or lime zest to the cream as you are whipping it.


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Quote | Hazrat Syedna Ali Ul Murtaza (R.A) | 26 Oct 2018 | 92NewsHD
Posted on : October 26, 2018
Category : Aqwal
Quote | Hazrat Syedna Ali Ul Murtaza (R.A) | 26 Oct 2018 | 92NewsHD
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- Fonds
- 1943-2017
Fonds consists of records that document every aspect of Neptune Theatre as an organization, including various textual records and graphic and audio-visual material pertaining to productions, events, personnel, and the administration of the Theatre. Types of records include correspondence, meeting minutes, reports and newsletters, financial records, box office records, applications, licenses, contracts, scripts, posters, newspaper clippings, production notes, programs, press kits, videocassettes, audiocassettes, negatives, contact sheets, slides, photographs, and other materials.
Neptune Theatre


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Purple mini Stud Earrings
Regular price $9.95 Sale price
You will feel colourful wearing these handmade polymer clay stud earrings.
SIZE: These Earrings measure 9mm.
Constructed with hypoallergenic Stainless Steel earring stud posts with comfort clutch backs. This ensures they stay put on your lobes and are very comfortable to wear. These earrings are lightweight.
POSTAGE: Flat rate $5.00 for standard postage. Express postage $10.00. Please allow 1-2 days handling time. Postage time varies around Australia of 2-5 business days.
CARE: As these earrings are handmade, please be gentle and mindful not to bend or drop them. Also they are best kept dry, do not shower or swim with them.
Colours may vary slightly due to monitor differences.
These earrings are not suitable for young children.


text:
Rookie offensive tackle David Quessenberry is a guy worth talking about — even if it's not about his stolen truck.
But alas, the truck is a very weird tale.
Today after the Texans' final practice of mini-camp, Quessenberry expanded on his tweets from yesterday in which he said his truck was found in Kingsville, Texas.
"It was used for human smuggling," Quessenberry said. "That's what they're being charged with along with grand theft auto."
Police told him that. How did the police know that?
"It's pretty easy to tell when you can look at a truck and see things that are hollowed out and where people have been laying down," he said. "It's a no-brainer that they were using it for that."
The truck actually belongs to his uncle who lives in Dallas. Quessenberry was borrowing it in exchange for Texans gear, he said yesterday. The thief took the truck from the parking lot of the Spring Hill Suites. I'm still waiting on more details from the Kleberg County Sheriff's Office, but the Kingsville Police said yesterday they were not involved.
Quessenberry said right now the truck is in a police impound lot.
"It's crazy," he said. "It's a big city, just kind of the world we live in. I appreciate all the support that the Houston people have shown me and my teammates, too. It's been wonderful to see that."


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quote:Some guys brag that they only smoke weed. Powerful people often only smoke Cuban cigars. A lot of cigarette smokers are proud of their brand loyalty. Some smoke only herbal cigarettes. Others smoke only Indian beedies. Why's everyone so picky? I don't understand. Me? I'll smoke anything!I have a test to decide whether I'm willing to smoke something. It goes like this: Will this potential thing to be smoked put me in a pipe and smoke me? No? Then I'm smoking it! Because you have to smoke them before they smoke you! That's what I've learned! That's what I practice!As a kid, I smoked twigs. Why not? The authorities today are all up in arms about kids smoking trees, because they think wood is a "gateway smoke" that will lead children to smoking other, more serious things. Damn right it's a gateway! That's why it should be encouraged! It's a gateway to clarity! A gateway to self-reliance! A gateway to smokin'!Sure, I bought candy cigarettes as a kid. And you know what? I smoked those things! I bought gum cigarettes. And I smoked those! They didn't influence me to smoke regular cigarettes: Candy items are perfectly smokable on their own! Everything is!The smart people I know all love "the classics." "The Iliad is such a great story," they say. "Did you ever read Dickens?" No, but I smoked him!I used to feel like I wasn't familiar enough with the great works of civilization. So I got all the great books they would let me check out of the local library, tore them up, put the pieces into brown paper grocery bags, and rolled those bags into seven monster cigars. And I smoked them! They had a sweet and ambitious flavor! I smoked the history of the world in a week! That was great!"Did you see Blade Runner?" they ask me. Jesus, of course not! You don't appreciate something by watching it. You appreciate something by smoking it! I rent videotapes, crunch them up, put them in a big pipe, and smoke myself sensible! I've smoked more movies than most people have ever seen! That shocks people. "You shouldn't smoke videotapes," they say. "Plastic fumes are poisonous and will do weird things to you." Weird things? Not unless the satisfaction of having enjoyed a great smoke is a "weird thing."People ask me if I want to go to the beach. Hey, been there, smoked that. I love smoking sand and dried-up fish. Those are some of the best smokes I've ever had!I'm not so odd. I love it when my mother cooks up her special manicotti meal. Because I smoke it. And I like falling in love, because I like having a sweetheart who buys me flowers and jewelry. Because that's the kind of stuff I can smoke! I'm a smoker. I hate people who say they're smokers when they only smoke cigarettes. That's lying. They should say, "I'm a smoker in the weakest, most narrow definition of the word." Or, "I smoke only those things that are socially acceptable to smoke." That would make me much happier.I keep having this dream where I'm at an auction of Nazi memorabilia. Hitler's mustache is on the block, and I bid $18 million and get it, beating out all these museum people and fascists. Then I go home, put some Bach on low, and roll those little mustache hairs into a tight little E-Z Wider joint.Then, know what I do? I smoke the **** out of it.
quote:Smoke. Ha ha. Smoke smoke smoke.Um, anyway, never smoked, never intend to, think it stinks and it's a huge turn-off.
quote:Several bystanders inhaled a second-hand discussion.


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7 Muay Thai gym is already considered a temple of 'real' Muay Thai, Whit 280 square meters pool view gym. The gym be open for athletes of every level, as well as novice , beginners and amateurs, who can train with fighters of different countries.
To create a complete holiday made of training for some and relaxing on the beach or swimming pool for other, for those who come alone or with their partner/family, unlike traditional camps, the gym is inside a resort with very comfortable accommodation.
Even thought it's a modern facility, it remains a traditional Muay Thai camp, where training are led by professional Thai Masters and trainers !
7MuayThai Gym is open for athletes of every level ,novice,beginners, amateur and fighters. However the methods and training rhythms, are the one for pro fighters and champions, who train at the gym regularly. There are 2 training session a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Training cycles require at least a few weeks. Surely we won't be able to turn you into Muay Thai expert just in a few weeks, but everything is studied to transfer you the "real" Muay Thai essence combined with the best physical and mental comfort.


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|XP is just a number
Re: Programming is more like:by johndageek (Hermit)
|on Sep 05, 2008 at 13:02 UTC ( #709266=note: print w/replies, xml )
|Need Help??
I had to go with other because there was no all of the above.
Programming is much like engineering - as you design your project you need to be aware of the real world applications and limitations while striving for the theoretical best.
Programming is much like Carpentry/Masonry - You build according to plan except where the plan does not account for limitations imposed by the materials, site, tools or abilities.
Programming is much like Gardening - you have grown your system to maturity and enjoy it, but you also see the things you need to do better next year(next time).
Programming is much like Cooking - You follow the recipe but when opportunity is available substitutions can be made that will improve the end product (ok and some times you need to toss out that batch of soup)
Programming is much like Painting/Drawing - There are moments of divine inspiration that make everything PERFECT! And if it doesn't you can erase/overpaint (sigh)
Programming is much like sculpting - sometimes the base medium has a flaw or characteristic that makes it less than ideal for the given application, but we somehow almost always seem to make things work out.
Programming is like Knitting/Weaving/Sewing - each thread we add to our tapestry has an effect on each of the others. Adding a bad thread in the wrong place can cause failure in unforeseen places.
Programming is like rocket science - the more familiar you become with programming the less like rocket science it seems. But there is a point where sometimes while thinking about a program we do not realize how stupid we look sitting out in the rain (it WAS sunny when we started thinking).
Programming is like Brain surgery - We do everything in our power to keep mistakes out of what we do but sometimes - rarely (we hope) - somebody dies :(
So depending on the time, application, language, programmer, company, weather and all other things that affect us - programming can indeed be more like each of the above than any of the others.
In Section Past Polls


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Meet madness: the City Market rocks
For as long as memory serves, Saturday mornings have belonged to the farmer's market in the Water Street parking lot. It seems every Charlottesvillian makes it out to this ritual gathering at some point during the summer to mingle with lower and middle-class families, teeny boppers, hung-over 20somethings, aging hippies, super rich elderly, and on down to simple country folk. It's quite a salad bowl of Americana– and then there are all those vegetables to buy!
Besides garden bounty, the City Market (as it's officially known) has grown to include arts and crafts, coffee roasters, fashion, soap, and even donuts.
Though no meat products seem to be among the offerings, it certainly seemed like a meet market with plenty of opportunities for, "Hey I saw you last night at Zocalo/Blue Light/Rapture/Miller's."
Vendors range from folksy to churlish, and mostly the prices can't be beat. Plus it's a great place to catch up with people who you haven't seen in a while. It's not unheard of that sharing the agonizing decision of Romas v. Better Boys can lead to romance with a sympathetic stranger. Or you may find more in common in the "Is it a fruit or a vegetable?" debate.
20-year market veteran Rob Brown and assistant Scott Wilcox know how to party.
Baker's Palette's Tom Cervelloni sells donuts with his daughter Abby.
Robin Macklin's daughter, Jesse, gets to test out Mieka Brand's homemade soaps.
The market beckons.
Jenny Mead and Laurie McDade always have a blast at the market.
Charlotte Morford, hoping to make a girlfriend happy later today.
Patsy Walsh paints one of her beautiful City Market watercolors.
"Woody" takes pride his flowers.


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Kurt Nimmo
October 28, 2010
The more you look at Jack Conway, the worse it gets. Yesterday we reported on Conway's effort to obstruct justice in a criminal drug investigation of his brother. Today we report that Jack Conway accepts money from a company that pushes a dangerous drug, OxyContin.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
- {openx:49}
The NADDI, the National Association of Drug Diversion Investigators, dropped a $50,000 check on Kentucky and its Attorney General Jack Conway.
On October 25, Marianne Skolek, writing for the Salem-News, reported on Conway's connection to Purdue Pharma, a Stamford, Connecticut, pharmaceutical company that manufactures the highly addictive opioid analgesic, OxyContin. According to Skolek, the "state of Kentucky was suing Purdue Pharma for the devastation caused by OxyContin in deaths and addictions — and since Purdue Pharma was criminally convicted in Federal Court in 2007 of deceiving physicians and patients about the addictive and abusive qualities of OxyContin, I had a problem with law enforcement being associated with Purdue Pharma's poster child, NADDI."
NADDI's stated purpose is that it "facilitates cooperation between law enforcement, healthcare professionals, state regulatory agencies and pharmaceutical manufacturers in the prevention and investigation of prescription drug diversion," according to its website.
Conway told Marianne Skolek he will continue to take "this money and put it to good use to help in the fight against drugs and crime."
"Abuse of prescription drugs is a serious problem in the state of Kentucky," notes a website critical of Conway. "Jack Conway claims to be 'tough on drugs' but in reality, he broke an important campaign promise to create a drug task force upon entering office. Additionally, he took $50,000 from the very drug company that creates OxyContin. Does Jack Conway stand with the drug companies and their deep pockets, or with the people of Kentucky who must deal with the rampant problems with crime and abuse?"
Conway demonstrated his hypocrisy when he criticized opponent Rand Paul for opposing Kentucky's policy of taking federal money in the so-called war on drugs. Paul told a group of county officials gathered in Louisville this summer that he would "rather see drug abuse and dependency treated and paid for at the local level" than by the federal government.
In response, Conway released the following television ad:
Fresh food that lasts from eFoods Direct (Ad)
It looks like Jack Conway is soft of drugs, not Rand Paul. He takes money from a company convicted of deceiving physicians and patients about the addictive and abusive qualities of OxyContin.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!


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Cuadernos de historia de España
Print version ISSN 0325-1195On-line version ISSN 1850-2717
HINOJOSA MONTALVO, José. La hora de lamuerte entre los conversos valencianos. Cuad. hist. Esp. [online]. 2009, vol.83, pp.81-105. ISSN 0325-1195.
Starting off from the analysis of wills of Valencian converts of the XVth century, we try to get close to the religious attitude of this group towards death and see if there were differentiating signs with relation to the old Christians. It has to be said that in the religious aspects, in the customs in funeral rites related to the death of these converts, no noticeable difference was appreciated with that of old Christians. They were presided by simplicity and discretion, reduced to the familiar surroundings or the brotherhood of Saint Cristopher, which united the community and served as guide of the cemetery. Precisely, being buried in that burial place was the principal characteristic which distinguished the converse from the old Christians, who did it in the parochial cemetery.
Keywords : Converts; Valencia; Brotherhoods; Cemeteries; Wills; Religiousness.


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The world depends on mariners. Mariners depend on SCI. And we depend on you.
Photos of classrooms and simulator at SCI's Center for Maritime Education in Houston, TX, taken May 2012.
Photos by the Rev. David M. Rider, President & Executive Director
SCI's Center for Maritime Education provides career development opportunities for mariners through cutting-edge training.


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A good action movie is not simply throwing every single bullet, punch, slice, and explosion into a blender and dumping it onto a screen so it can punch you in the adrenaline gland. It has to be finessed. There has to be tension—the wind-up to the hit, the pull of the hammer. The Raid writer-director Gareth Evans knows how to deliver some of the most magnificent action scenes in years, but more importantly, he knows how to build to those scenes. Working off a bare-bones, serviceable plot and characters built more for their fists than their personalities, The Raid is an action feast that keeps finding new ways to dish out inventive kills and fights, and keeps its blood-thirsty audience cheering.
The plot of The Raid is a glowing tribute to the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" principle. A SWAT team made up of mostly rookies is tasked with raiding a high-rise apartment building and arresting its crime lord, Tama (Ray Sahetapy). It's not a particularly easy task, but matters become far more complicated and deadly (mostly deadly; lot of deaths) when Tama makes an announcement over the PA system saying that anyone who kills one of the 20 SWAT members gets free lifetime rent and a pat on the head. Since free rent in a shitty high-rise filled with other criminals is an ideal life, the tenants rain down hell on the SWAT team and the cops must fight for their lives to escape.
The murderous tenants are armed with guns, machetes, and twenty years of martial arts training, and the SWAT team is woefully outmatched. However, they do have one lethal weapon: Rama (Iko Uwais). He's the first character we meet and we see him destroying a punching bag. It is a fantastic bit of foreshadowing to the revelation that every guy he faces will be that punching bag. It doesn't even matter if the punching bag is armed with guns and machetes. When you face off against Rama, you are simply a bag of meat and a sack of broken bones.
But Evans wisely doesn't jump into the action. He lets us see what happens to that poor, defenseless punching bag at the beginning of the movie and then we wait. We wait for the team to lay out their plan. We wait for them to infiltrate the building and take down the first few floors of drug addicts and perhaps some perfectly nice people who are just looking for a cheap place to stay. But then they're spotted, the word goes out for them to die, and that's when Evans pulls the trigger on his bazooka.
The Raid makes you feel every single hit and there are a lot of hits. The sheer madness of the action has to be seen to be believed. Yes, we've seen martial arts fights before. Yes, we've seen firefights before. Yes, we've seen explosions before. But Evans makes us feel like we're seeing all of these things for the first time. The fight choreography is remarkable, the cinematography captures it beautifully, and the editing ties it all together with so much power that almost every hit is met with a sympathetic "Oof!", "Ow!", and "Holy shit!" from the audience.
Evans knows that his best weapon is the martial arts brilliance of his actors, but as with everything else in the movie, he bides his time. Like ammunition, Evans makes every shot count. Every moment where a punch isn't being thrown or a bullet being fired is either a cherished moment to breathe or another moment to hold your breath. It's in the drag of the machete, hiding in the walls so as not to be stabbed by a machete, the realization that there's going to be a fight with a guy who has a machete. Also a requirement for living in the building: bring your own machete. But whether the battle is with machetes, guns, or fists, Evans always proves himself a master of building tension and then absolutely delivering on the mind-blowing action. Even when action fatigue starts to set in, Evans uses it to his advantage and our weariness matches up with Rama.
Because for The Raid, action is what it's all about. The story and the characters are as lean as it comes. The objective is simple, the twists are predictable, and the performances are good but secondary to the fisticuffs. There's no rule that an action movie should sacrifice the non-punchy-shooty parts in order to be successful, and Evans doesn't brush off these scenes. Again, he knows when to take a breather and while there's absolutely nothing original in the story, it's paced perfectly and gets the job done.
The job: deliver one of the best action movies in years. Mission accomplished.
Rating: A-
For all of our coverage of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, click here. Also, here are links to all of my Sundance reviews so far:
- The Ambassador
- Beasts of the Southern Wild
- Celeste and Jesse Forever
- Corpo Celeste
- Hello I Must Be Going
- Monsieur Lazhar