Reddit reviews Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
We found 8 Reddit comments about Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
This is what real rape culture looks like
You should know the difference between their "regular" concentration camps and the ones for special political prisoners. pretty sure you got no foosball or big screen TV's in either.
They can't pretend we don't know all this
Or that it's all an American lie
Or that this shit hasn't been known for decades already and confirmed repeatedly, again, and again
They can even criticize Trump's approach to the DPRK if it makes them feel better but this extravagant kind of heated lie is just offensive to both the world and the individuals who survive the Kim family horror show.
If you want a book recommendation about life in North Korea, check out Nothing to Envy
If you want to read from the perspective of a prison camp escapee, try Escape from Camp 14
Both are quite fascinating.
I believe this is mostly a misconception. Despite how the government tries, North Koreans are more aware than you might think. There’s a fantastic book about life in NK that I highly recommend:
https://www.amazon.com/Nothing-Envy-Ordinary-Lives-North-ebook/dp/B002ZB26AO
Every time a discussion regarding tourism to North Korea starts, this point always comes up. After all, it is a valid and natural point of concern.
Yes, North Korea has concentration camps and an atrocious human rights record. Nobody (except the North Korean government) is going to deny that. Yes, any foreigners in North Korea will have significant restrictions on freedom of movement. No one who has gone there is going to tell you otherwise.
Having been educated and cultivated in the West, where oftentimes we can take matters like human rights and freedom of movement for granted, our instant reaction is to be disgusted by this - so disgusted that we'll cry out "North Korea is the most evil place in the world" and instantly clam up in anger. Sometimes that anger, and the lack of reliable information about North Korea, will lead us to sensationalize. We'll try to explain unexplainable evil as a massive prison camp or a farcical socialist movie set.
This is natural and has basis in reality, but, in my opinion, is unhelpful.
If we want to truly make some sense out of that unexplainable evil, which to an appreciable extent is a prerequisite for any sort of meaningful change, we need to take a more nuanced approach. Sometimes, that could involve taking a visit.
From my perspective, going on a tour to North Korea is not supposed to be like sunning in Mallorca or frolicking in Disneyworld. You don't go there to have "fun", you go there to learn. If your objective in traveling is to have "fun", then by god don't go to North Korea. But my objective in traveling places is not to have "fun"; it's to learn.
The next instinctual response is to cry out: "But you won't learn anything! They're just going to parade you around and show you propaganda!"
Again, I think this line of thinking trivializes the matter. In earlier stages of Western education systems, we oftentimes learn about bias and come to perceive it as an absolute negative. In secondary schools you might hear kids going "oh, this source is biased, so we can't use it!" This is incorrect. Bias is not an absolute negative; biased sources like propaganda simply need to be approached differently. Propaganda is rich with information, but not the factual, face-value information you might expect from some place like an encyclopedia. Instead, you glean the wealth of contextual information it offers. Let's say you're reading Chinese propaganda from the Cultural Revolution, and some of it praises this guy named Lin Biao, while some of it denounces him. From that you shouldn't conclude "some of this shit must be fake". Instead, you can extract hints of the regime's worldview, and use the propaganda to piece together the context that perhaps Lin Biao had a falling out with Mao.
Visiting North Korea is much like that. There's a richness of context from both what's seen and unseen, from what's heard and unheard. If you're equipped with the right advance knowledge and the right academic mindset, there is in fact a lot you can internalize about actual North Koreans and the country itself.
Yes, there remains the issue of lining the pockets of the regime and whatnot, and I'm fully aware of that fact. As with everything else relating to the DPRK, there's layers of nuance to this financial facet of the regime that would take rather long to explain, so I won't do it here.
If you do want to hear that explained/debated, and go beyond CNN articles and "Team America", I'd recommend starting off with the following books:
If after you finish reading all that stuff you get curious enough to go, then that's your choice. If you don't, no one's going to force you to go either. We're fortunate enough to live in societies that generally respect freedom of choice and movement; if we want to play the game of moral superiority, being able to visit North Korea is the ultimate manifestation of that freedom.
It's not propaganda. The vast majority of the population is brainwashed and have little access to external news. Only a carefully vetted elite few can travel to China or anywhere out of the country. Having a satellite phone will land you in a labor camp. Underground printing presses? You must be kidding. The North Korean government is a truly tyrannical, oppressive regime with ever present mechanisms of control and suppression inherited from the Soviets and fine-tuned over decades of practice.
If you want to read a fascinating book about NK told through the eyes of an English teacher take a look at Without You There Is No Us. Also really good Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea.
Booktopia's got a bunch of Aussie military history books here.
Regimental Books has military books in e-book format too.
I think if she likes military history and biographies she might, at a stretch, enjoy Nothing To Envy, which I thought was an amazing account of life in North Korea. Also a book called The Aquariums of Pyongyang.
Biographies, she might like Swimming to Antarctica, about an endurance swimmer who swam a mile in antarctic waters.
If she's at all interested in science fiction, Baen's Free E-book Library has a bunch of "starter" books for their series, which tend to be military-based sci-fi.
And Project Gutenberg has a ton of military history; they're the go-to free e-book supplier. Loads of good stuff. This is my favorite to recommend - A Lady's Captivity among Chinese Pirates in the Chinese Seas by Fanny Loviot. She's such a fun read! Combines pirates, history, and biography all in one.
Well, I have to tell you you are totally wrong. We do know a lot about the domestic life from defectors to the south, aid workers, Chinese business men that travel there frequently, and the occasional tourist. There are extensive accounts of what life is like there in the city and in the country. But nice try Mr. Know-it-all.
Unlike you I can substantiate my claims with sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10206210/As-Pyongyang-celebrates-British-aid-worker-reveals-poverty-of-rural-North-Korea.html
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0786428392/ref=cm_sw_su_dp
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002ZB26AO/ref=cm_sw_su_dp#nav-subnav
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/01/tales-north-korea-defector-story-160107131430263.html
http://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/blog/category/refugee-stories/
I don't remember where exactly I read that. Probably in either Nothing to Envy or The Impossible state.
I highly recommend both books (though I thought that Cha came off as a bit defensive at times) for general reading on the DPRK.