Let Them Eat Roots!

[Ben]

The little fat man wants his people to eat roots as a North Korean famine looms.

Government aside, the North Korean people seem to be pretty tough hombres (unsurprising considering their hardships under whacko leaders). Sometimes it boggles my mind that they have not revolted. I guess information prohibitions and disinformation really work.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/30/north-korea-tells-hungry-citizens-to-prepare-for-new-famine.html?intcmp=hpbt1

[makattak]

The little fat man wants his people to eat roots as a North Korean famine looms.

Government aside, the North Korean people seem to be pretty tough hombres (unsurprising considering their hardships under whacko leaders). Sometimes it boggles my mind that they have not revolted. I guess information prohibitions and disinformation really work.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/30/north-korea-tells-hungry-citizens-to-prepare-for-new-famine.html?intcmp=hpbt1

Starving people don't have a lot of energy for war, too.

[Perd Hapley]

They wouldn't be the only group of people in history to be ruled by fear, enforced poverty, and propaganda. Inner-city Democrats, for example.

[TechMan]

They wouldn't be the only group of people in history to be ruled by fear, enforced poverty, and propaganda. Inner-city Democrats, for example.

You sir win 1 Internets for the day.

[makattak]

They wouldn't be the only group of people in history to be ruled by fear, enforced poverty, dis-education, and propaganda. Inner-city Democrats, for example.

You left out one more common factor.

I believe the North Korean people have been called illiterate, midget supremacists.

[Angel Eyes]

Starving people don't have a lot of energy for war, too.

I'm sure the N.K. military remains adequately fed (although not as much as Li'l Kim).

[roo_ster]

I'm sure the N.K. military remains adequately fed (although not as much as Li'l Kim).

Yep, she looks adequately fed:

[MechAg94]

I'm sure the N.K. military remains adequately fed (although not as much as Li'l Kim).

And they are afraid to rebel as they might end up being just common starving peasants.

[Scout26]

You left out one more common factor.

I believe the North Korean people have been called illiterate, midget supremacists.

I believe the correct term was illiterate, xenophobic midgets.  (IIRC, the average malnourished Nork is 4-6 inches shorter then his well-fed Southern counterpart.)

And yes, when all you have is one source of information, then you tend to believe everything that source tells you as you have no way to judge and weigh the merits against other sources.....


Also the story points to Kim ballooning up to 300 lbs.  As some once mentioned here, it sucks to be the "Fat Kid" in your class, imagine being the only Fat Kid in the nation...

 

I disremember what I was reading the other night, but it kept mentioning "Socialist Shortage Economies" as compared to "Capitalist Abundance Economies".   Which is right on point...

[wmenorr67]

I believe the correct term was illiterate, xenophobic midgets.  (IIRC, the average malnourished Nork is 4-6 inches shorter then his well-fed Southern counterpart.)

Why did you have to bring Jamis into this?

[makattak]

I believe the correct term was illiterate, xenophobic midgets.  (IIRC, the average malnourished Nork is 4-6 inches shorter then his well-fed Southern counterpart.)

That was it! Thank you.

[K Frame]

The little fat man wants his people to eat roots as a North Korean famine looms.

Government aside, the North Korean people seem to be pretty tough hombres (unsurprising considering their hardships under whacko leaders). Sometimes it boggles my mind that they have not revolted. I guess information prohibitions and disinformation really work.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/03/30/north-korea-tells-hungry-citizens-to-prepare-for-new-famine.html?intcmp=hpbt1

And you know that everyone in North Korea is going "Da Fuq? When did the old famine end?"

[Balog]

It's also worth remembering that one of the Norks major (only?) export is methamphetamine. I've read that something like half the country or more are meth addicts.

[wmenorr67]

And you know that everyone in North Korea is going "Da Fuq? When did the old famine end?"

Does the average person even realize it is a famine?

[K Frame]

Does the average person even realize it is a famine?

I'm sure that they've heard stories, passed down from the elders, of how good things used to be when they were occupied by the Japanese.

Kind of a weird thing to say, because the Japanese were royal bastards, but even under their heel the standard of living in Korea was FAR higher than it is in North Korea today.

At that time the North was the industrial center, relatively prosperous, while the south was largely agrarian.

Now the south is both an industrial and agrarian powerhouse, the standard of living is among the highest in the world, and the North.... well, they're somewhere between stone age and a rock tied on a stick stone age.

[Scout26]

Does the average person even realize it is a famine?

After 70 consecutive years of bad harvests...probably not.

[Balog]

After 70 consecutive years of bad harvests...probably not.

They've always been at war with Eastasia.


No, literally, for most of the population they've never been alive for anything but this.

[Viking]

Does the average person even realize it is a famine?

IIRC, it actually got better for a few years right after the Big One in the 90s. One reason was obviously that while food production remained the same, there were now several hundred thousand, perhaps a million less people to feed. But even beyond that, a small but growing black market really took off in the late 90s - early 00s - stuff got smuggled in from China, with border guards looking the other way in exchange for the usual stuff - cigarettes, booze & money. Suddenly, there were a (relative) abundance of food in the parts of the northern provinces.

Also, they aren't as ill-informed as one might be led to believe, if one listens to defectors. Everyone knows their country is in the shitter and have been for a long time, and they know that everyone else in the country knows...but the eternal problem is - "if I discuss this with someone, will they turn me in to the authorities?". That's why there's no revolution. There's also cellphones & smartphones smuggled across the border, which work in a decent part of the country using Chinese carriers.


I read the book "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary lives in North Korea" very recently, and found it quite interesting, if also tragic beyond belief.

I'm sure that they've heard stories, passed down from the elders, of how good things used to be when they were occupied by the Japanese.

Kind of a weird thing to say, because the Japanese were royal bastards, but even under their heel the standard of living in Korea was FAR higher than it is in North Korea today.

At that time the North was the industrial center, relatively prosperous, while the south was largely agrarian.

Now the south is both an industrial and agrarian powerhouse, the standard of living is among the highest in the world, and the North.... well, they're somewhere between stone age and a rock tied on a stick stone age.

Yep. They've probably had severe food shortages (or atleast protein insufficiency) since the 1970s, considering that they had to lower the minimum height requirements for the army back in the very early 1990s - it's now 5'3", and I seem to remember reading about them lowering it again after that.

[K Frame]

It's not been unremitting famine in North Korea since day one of Kim Jong whatever era in 1945.

North Korea largely left farmers alone for the first 30 or so years, and they produced ample supplies of food for the nation. They had quotas they were required to fulfill, but they weren't included in the mandatory public food distribution system.

In other words, once they fulfilled their quota, they could keep the remained to feed themselves, meaning there was strong incentive for them to work hard.

That started to change in the late 1980s when the old man became crazier, and really took off in the 1990s with the collapse of their primary sponsor, the Soviet Union. Chemical fertilizers, heavy equipment, etc., dwindled, and then the farmers were put on the public food distribution system, which meant two things -- it removed the incentive for them to work hard, and they started hiding parts of their harvests. In a system in which food production is falling already because of lack of fertilizers and pesticides, it's a perfect storm brewing, and it led directly to the famine of 1994 to 1998.

I followed that mess quite closely because I was sure that the North was going to invade the South in 1996 as a way of distracting the public and as a means of getting more stuff.

[KD5NRH]

I've read that something like half the country or more are meth addicts.

Well, if you don't have anything to chew anyway, teeth are just extra weight to haul around.