2006: The Year of Vilhelm & North Korea

Happy New Year to All!

2006 promises to be good for all kinds of reasons and since it's the Year of the Dog as of late January, it'll be even better. At least for us hounds out there...

OK, since this is the first post of the year, I'll keep it short and sweet. And there is nobody sweeter than a certain Vilhelm. I just met him during the Xmas holiday up in Stockholm, and he sure is a lil' charmer. Without further ado, here's the little guy maxin' and relaxin' in his favorite chair:


born on December 1, 2005, 106 years to the day after his late great grandfather Thorwald (dig the Norse names). This is Vilhelm, resident of Södermalm, Stockholm, Sweden. My nephew AND godson!
Click on the photo to enlarge!

Dear Vilhelm,

I hope you don't mind if I also dedicate this year to the people of North Korea. There are so many reasons for doing this, and I am sure that I'll return to these. For now, I humbly wish to guide those in the Wooley Swamp to a great blog I came across, One Free Korea.

Living here in old West Berlin, so close to the Wall that imprisoned this half of the city and also symbolized the Cold War division of Germany and Europe, I often think of North Korea. Of the day Korea too will be one. Is this the year? You never know.

I have been to the South twice, and on the second occasion I went up to Panmunjoem in the Demilitarized Zone. It was the most frightening experience of my life, bar none. In a previous post, I alluded to my own brother (proud father of Vilhelm!) and my uncle's visits to the North. At some point I'll offers detail on these even scarier episodes.

The Crazed Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il. His days are numbered. (c) Nicolas Righetti, Polaris

In the same post, I also mentioned a documentary I had seen: Undercover in the Secret State. As part of my own efforts this year, I have just begun uploading this film via the Internet. You too can partake in the swarm of democracy, just click here.

OK, it's not that simple: you need to have some basic knowledge about file-sharing and the latest techie rage, Bit Torrent. But trust me, it's really easy and so worth it. All that's required is a program that helps you download the kind of file involved, ''torrents''. I recommend Azureus.

Later on, I'll put up some more documentaries. Once I resolve some issues that is, like the fact that I have a dynamic IP from my ISP. Shouldn't be too hard, but for now get cracking while the file is "HOT". Lots of people are uploading, I've shared it some 1,000 times soon. Not bad. And when I see folks in China, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait interested in this movie, I take heart. Freedom and liberty indeed.

OK, promised to keep it short, so I end with some opinions from average citizens like us.

Courtesy of the Onion (of course)

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Tuesday, January 3, 2006

U.S.-North Korea Relations

The U.S. is struggling to handle its relations with volatile, unpredictable North Korea. What do you think?

Matt Christian,
Computer Sales
"I'm not really the one to ask, as I have very little experience in diplomacy with hard-line communist nations."

Leslie Belanger,
Chef
"We should say we have a magic flying house, and then when they say, 'Yeah, we do too,' we'll say, 'Gotcha! There's no such thing!' and they'll look like morons to the international community."

Nelson Owens,

Realtor
"The only thing the North Koreans understand is force. Well, that and Korean."

jo


Subjects: family, north korea, north-korea, East Asia, Politics, Current Affairs, Democracy, liberty, Freedom, 1984, tyranny, dictatorship,