my crazy relatives...

...no, i'm not referring to my crazy relatives here in the states. i'm talking about the insane posse to the north of my motherland, the north koreans. it so happens that my paternal grandmother was from north korea and moved to the south to study. she was separated from the rest of her family after the korean war divided the peninsula. as far as i know, we have long lost relatives north of the DMZ, so that's why i'm calling them my crazy relatives.

i know that the world at large thinks the north koreans are totally off their rockers, and the fact is that this is a pretty accurate description. you see, this is probably the largest colony of cult members in the whole world. i'm talking 46,500 sq miles of 23 million cult members. after over half a century of isolation from the rest of the world, it's not surprising that the entire country has been brainwashed.

some people may be surprised to learn that this relatively small country has the 5th largest military in the world. i think it makes perfect sense, though, considering that the vast majority of food aid poured into north korea is used to feed its soldiers. since the civilians have to resort to eating tree bark and twigs, it's no wonder the military has no problem keeping the numbers up.

my dad visited north korea a few years before he died, and he brought back video footage of what he saw there. it was pretty bleak, and that was the stuff that he and his group were ALLOWED to see. although the country has opened up a tiny bit since then, it is still by and large a cult state. that's why diplomatic talks with them are so unsuccessful. you can't reason with a bunch of brainwashed paranoid megalomaniacs who have an accute inferiority complex. yes, i know that sounds contradictory, but such is the enigma that is the DPRK.

i recently had a dream in which i witnessed a nuclear explosion. i saw the mushroom cloud and i felt the sucking wind of oblivion. i remember wondering how the heck i was going to protect cadence and what would happen in the aftermath. i forced myself awake before i could find out.

i wish the north korean government would operate in a realm of reality that would be conducive to reasonable dialogue with the rest of the world. i wish kim jong il didn't feel like he has to act all tough and shit to live up to his father's image, when all he really wants to do is watch movies and eat popcorn all day. i wish the north korean people--i'm talking the ordinary people--could experience life free from hunger and oppression and fear and unclouded by the brainwashing effects of the psychological warfare perpetrated against them by their own government.

i wish wishful thinking weren't just wishful thinking...