Refugees from North Korea

Barb and I last night attended a lecture by a group working with Third Culture Kids, and specifically with North Korean refugee children. The featured speakers were two young women who (separately) crossed the river from North Korea into China then made their way arduously to Seoul. Their personal stories were touching, and their personalities were winning. I wish we had more time to talk with them about life in that mysteriously isolated place. They gave every evidence of being quite apolitical throughout, and neither had suffered from famine -- they simply wanted to escape from the incessant monitoring and fear of their government.

The several autobiographies and memoirs of refugees from North Korea are incredibly frightening, all the more so because of their proximity -- in both time and, here, geography. And we wonder, what can we do? We can support refugee organizations and political efforts to pressure the Chinese government to accept the refugees -- or at least not forcibly return them to North Korea. The women noted that North Korea policy is to imprison returnees for a period equal to their unofficial departure from the country. If the departure was in any way political -- i.e. against the glorious leader(s) Kim -- then the returnees are disappeared into concentration camps.

A recent op-ed piece in Korea Times noted the overwhelming difference in mindset between North Korea and western (and South Korean) approaches to negotiation -- to even say the word "trust" is to misunderstand that North Korea is totally focused on perpetuating the Kim regime, and every action is seen through that lens alone. As one of the lecturers at last night's meeting put it "in most of the world, a baby's first words are Mama or Dada; in North Korea, baby's first words are Long Live Generalissimo Kim"

Comments

Where we are working now

ISG Jubail School is the Anglo-American school for this area: Jubail is one of two planned industrial cities in Saudi Arabia, given a special royal commission for development and planning. Our district, the seven schools of International Schools Group, runs the school in the other industrial city -- Yanbu -- as well. Jubail is on the east coast, between Dhahran and Kuwait. Our nearby "big city" is the tri-city metropolis of Dhahran-Khobar-Dammam, where all the big shopping malls and quaint old markets are, along with the central 3 schools of our district, where Coleman attends high school. ISG Jubail has 410 students -- an average of 2 homerooms for each grade, K-10. Class size varies, up to 22. I have 12 in my required course "Computers & Information Management"; Barb has 12 students in her first-grade class. Most of the teaching staff come from the U.S., some from the Commonwealth. Several teachers are wives of engineers an...

Riding the Bus often

From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back. His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty. The air-conditioning usually works too well. I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 stu...

Reservoir of European Youth, Parliament

A few days ago I walked to the nearby Pasteleira Park, planning to visit the city museum at the Reservoir. Walking through the park I noticed a large group of young people gathered in a circle, engaged in team-building activities. My days in education attuned me to the spectacle and piqued my interest, so I sat on a nearby bench and watched as a succession of enthusiastic students ran to the center and started an activity, which all the others joined enthusiastically. What sort of group would this be? A typical high school class would include a portion of disinterested teens, and others only half-heartedly participating. This crowd was unanimous in their excitement. I also noted that the leaders were speaking in English, though the breeze muffled the words. I walked around, found a couple of older participants on the side, with official-looking lanyards, and asked: this was an activity of European Youth Parliament , simil...

Thomas journals

Search This Blog