Orphan Master's Son Summary and Thoughts

    The book, The Orphan Master's Son, by Adam Johnson, is a very interesting novel that tells a tale about a man named Jun Do.  The novel ties in a lot of different elements into the book.  Not only is there focus on the government of North Korea, but the spotlight is also shined on the power of identity and gives the reader a bit of action through events like life at sea.  A large part of the book is that Jun Do's father is the owner of an orphanage, and that Jun Do lives at the orphanage for awhile.  Many people assume and accuse Jun Do of being an orphan, but this is not actually the case.  This is the first focus on identity that comes up in the book.  Throughout the rest of the book, there are many other events where identity comes back into play.  The main event is how Jun Do ends up killing a Commander named Commander Ga, and he takes his identity.  He lives as this character named Commander Ga for the rest of the book, and ends up dying in the end, still holding the identity of Commander Ga.  Jun Do even develops a very strange relationship with the lover of Commander Ga.  It is interesting how the book illustrates the power of the North Korean Government.  It portrays the government to have control over everything.  The government can set a certain reality for the people of North Korea, and that's how it will be from there on out.
    I felt as if the book was good, and that it was very well written.  There were parts of the book that I enjoyed like the thrills of Jun Do and his kidnapping group, and also Jun Do's life at sea.  The main issue for me with the book was that I felt it was hard to get into the book.  The first area of the book where I felt a little lost was the transition between Jun Do's kidnapping group, to his life at sea.  I was interested in the shenanigans that his group was getting into and I was ready to read more about those events, and then it felt like he was all of a sudden on a boat.  The unhealthy transitions between time and location made it hard for me to follow the book, and also hard to really get into it.  In the book, there were not only quick transitions between the location and time period, but also between characters.  Throughout a large period of the book, the main character Jun Do lived as himself, but then ended up killing another man named Commander Ga and in the end took his identity.  I felt that the idea of Jun Do taking Commander Ga's identity was a good one, but the switching of characters ultimately made it harder for me to enjoy the book.
    Overall, I felt as if it was a well written book with many good aspects to it.  I enjoyed many parts of the book, but mainly the chucks where there was action like life at sea or kidnapping.  I most definitely enjoyed the insights on North Korean Politics, and how much power their government holds in it's hands.  The awkward transitions between location, time, and characters wasn't a huge issue for me, but if you get easily lost while reading a book like myself, you might have a hard time with it.

Who Do You Help When Everyone Needs It?

    Throughout the course of learning about Korea, the underlying theme that kept appearing was that there are a lot of issues in North Korea at the moment.  Before I learned about Korea, if famine, dehydration and homelessness was ever brought up I would instantly think of Africa because that is what I associated with those things. After learning about events like the floods of Korea, the Ryongchong train crash, and Camp 14 in North Korea, I not only realized how many issues there are in North Korea alone, but also planet earth in a whole.  There are issues all over the world, in Europe, The Middle East, Asia, South America, Africa and even the United States of America.  There are so many issues in just The United States just alone.  Here are some facts about poverty and hunger in The United States http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-facts/hunger-and-poverty-statistics.aspx# 

   It is a well known fact that American's have the most power out of any other country in the world, so people expect us to be helping other countries.  When we do not help those other people in need, we use the excuse that, "We have enough problems of our own".  But this is not just the United States.  This is planet earth in a whole.  People rarely help others who are not their own kind.  There is so much hate in this world and it's a, "Dog eat dog world".  What do these phrases even mean?  That people who are different from you will never help you?  That you are supposed to hurt other people before they hurt you?  This historical lifestyle of not helping other people needs to be put to an end, but where do we even start?  It is not only The United States of America that has a large amount of power.  There are many countries in Europe, Asia and South America that are doing very well, and could easily lend a helping hand to those who are in need.  No one country will ever be able to fix even a percentile of the amount of struggles happening across this planet, so we all need to join together to make a change.  There are already groups like the NRA that do similar things to help, but there is not enough support behind these groups of people to actually make a difference.  

    Throughout the course of learning about Korea, I have learned so much about Korea in itself.  I have gained much knowledge about current events and past events, and have learned so much about the cultures of both North and South Korea.  Although the studying of this country helped me gain a lot of knowledge about the country itself, it has given me a deeper understanding of the world in a whole.  You cannot go through life without opening your eyes to other places aside from America, and, "The Boulder Bubble".  Studying about North and South Korea has given me something that I thought was impossible to gain through an LA/History project.  It has given me a deeper understanding of life in a whole, and that is something that we should all search for throughout the course of our lives on planet earth.

Korean's in Desperate Need of Food After Floods

    In August of 2012, mass amounts of rain poured down on the people of North Korea.  Not only did this rainfall sweep away their homes, but it also swept away all of their crops.  The floods left hundreds of thousands homeless, and killed up to 169 people.  "The United Nations declared the situation in North Korea an emergency Thursday after torrential rain soaked the country between July 18 and 29," said the CNN Wire Staff.  Not only did these floods take away thousands of people's homes, but also destroyed many wells and water pumping stations, leaving 50,000 families without clean water.  During the peak of the flooding, the highest number of deaths were recorded in Phyongan.  Throughout the flooding in North Korea, people of the United Nations tried their best to help the people get access to food and water, but had a hard time helping everyone.  When there are that many people in need, it is hard to support all the people with their struggles.  Even today in 2014, many families are still homeless and struggling to find access to water and food.
    It is very hard to place a reasonable opinion on the subject.  There are hundreds of thousands of people in North Korea alone with no homes, and that isn't even a percentile of the amount of homelessness and famine in the world.  It is important to help people, but who are you supposed to help when everyone in need.  Although the United States has a large amount of power, there are also other countries who have a large amount of power too.  In order to try to aid to all of the homelessness, dehydration, and famine around the world, we all need to join together and help those who are in need.  It is impossible for one country alone to take care of all of those who are hurting.  Although there is something like this already called the NRA, they didn't make that large of an impact on the floods in North Korea.  The NRA is something that could greatly benefit planet earth in the future, but it definitely needs more numbers and contribution in order to make a change.

How Real Are Video Games Becoming?

    It is amazing how two places that used to be the same country are so drastically different.  There are so many specific cultural components that make North Korea and South Korea very opposite, but the underlying difference between the two is that people want to live in South Korea.  In most cases, living in North Korea is a curse, and most of the people in South Korea feel bad for those in North Korea.  Although North Korea is typically known for being a worse overall place from South Korea, they both have their ups and downs.  The largest underlying issue in North Korea is the amount of people who are starving, especially those who are children.  Human beings in general deserve to have food, but especially if you are young.  The starvation of the people in North Korea is a well known event in the United States.  Something that people are not aware of are the issues that are occurring in South Korea with video games.  The amount of electronics that are used in the United States is most definitely an issue, but people in South Korea, especially teenagers, are taking it to a new level.  It has become a place for large groups of people to gather, and play hours and hours of online gaming.  Playing video games has become such a large part of their culture, that there are now professional video game players who get paid to play and are praised by the citizens of South Korea.  There are even video game tournaments that are broadcasted on television with commercials and everything!  In 2005, Seungseob Lee visited an Internet Cafe in the city of Taegu and played, "StarCraft" almost continuously for fifty hours. He went into cardiac arrest, and died at a local hospital.  Once this occurred, the video game addiction in South Korea became a large deal.  When people start dying because of how many video games they have been playing, I think it has reached a point where peoples time spent on games needs to be reduced.  If you want to read more about the death of Seungseob Lee, click on this link http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4137782.stm  I personally feel as if video games are fun if you are playing them with a couple friends, but if you are investing that much time into them, they are a serious issue.  If you would like to hear more about the game that killed Seungseob Lee, go to this link for some rediculous facts http://www.cracked.com/article_18763_5-insane-true-facts-about-starcraft-professional-sport.html

Horrors of Camp 14

In a documentary called camp 14, a man named Shin Dong-hyuk has escaped from the camp and lives to tell his story.  He was born in the camp, and had lived there until he was 23.  There are many horrible events that he had to witness that have shaped him into the anxious human being that he is today.  When he was ten years old, his mother and brother were planning to escape from the camp.  If anyone were to plan to escape or try to escape, you would be shot.  Even if you knew about someone planning on escaping and you didn't turn them in, you would be shot.  Because of this rule, Shin turned in his mother and brother to the camp leaders.  Within the next couple of days, Shin's mother and brother were taken out to a field and shot right before his eyes.  Although this was traumatizing for him, he did not feel bad because he did, "The right thing" by turning them in.  These were the rules of the camp and he felt like he did a good thing by following them.  Before his mother and brother were murdered, they did something to disobey the rules so Shin had to pay for it.  They took him into an underground torture center and used fire to torture him.  "They burned me as bad as I could be burnt without being killed" was said to describe the torture he endured.  After 23 brutal years of loneliness and a life of not knowing any other world but camp 14, Shin made an escape.  This chance came in January, 2005 when the sun was setting.  Shin and another man decided to make a run for it.  When the two of them reached the electric fence, the man in front of Shin threw himself in between two of the wires and was instantly fried.  His body allowed enough room for Shin to slither through and survive.  The death of Shin's friend allowed him to live.  He was a sacrifice.  After he escaped from the camp, he started heading North.  He described it as the most amazing thing ever.  People were laughing, talking, wearing what they wanted and saying what they wanted.  After heading North for a long enough period of time, he finally reached China where he was safe.  To me, this story was extremely moving.  The fact that he has built a new life for himself after going through camp 14 is enough on it's own.  If you want to check out the video on your own, go to this link!  I hope it is as inspirational to you as it was to me!!  http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/north-korean-prisoner-escaped-after-23-brutal-years/