If I Was A North Korean

Starving children, North Korea

North Korea is back in the news after the death of its fat and evil dictator with the bizarre hair-do, Kim Jong-il, replaced by his equally out of shape and militaristic son. The world again tries to understand one of the most repressive places on earth. The simplest measure of whether the leadership of a country allows its citizenry to flourish is whether people are trying to get in or trying to get out. Few people try to smuggle themselves into North Korea, Syria, Gaza, Somalia, Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe, or other assorted hell holes, unless they're trying to help the oppressed and starving people in these places. The United States and North America, Western and Central Europe, Israel, and Australia, by contrast, attempt to keep immigrants out. People want to move and live in these prosperous and free places. I count my blessings. The fortunate circumstance of having American citizenship has given me an incredible number of advantages over most of the seven billion people of this world. For example, let's compare some mundane aspects my life to that of the average North Korean.

I eat three or more meals each day. I have to exercise and watch that I don't gain too many calories. The average North Korean ate tree bark during the last famine, and one third of the population is in danger of starving to death. The United States will withdraw food aid after North Korea's attempted rocket launch, so I am not guilty of hyperbole, unfortunately. (Note--Bloomberg states, "As many as 1 million people starved to death during the 1990s, according to estimates from Marcus Noland and Stephan Haggard of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington D.C.)

My life expectancy is greater than that of my parents. The life expectancy in North Korea has decreased during Kim Jong-il's iron-fisted rule.

As a citizen in a federal republic, I have some say over leadership. I'm sad when my party loses in an election. In North Korea you better look sad when one of the obese dictators dies after eating too much breakfast. (Hey, my theory is as good as any. See the link.) Any regime that photoshops pictures of State funerals is not to be trusted with telling the truth.

I enjoy freedom of speech--lots of blogging!
In North Korea there is no freedom and little speech--lots of flogging!

I can drive to Arizona and visit family and take a vacation. Refreshed, I return to the Bay Area.
In North Korea the state will pay for a one way trip to the local prison camp. Dead victims return to the earth in a box.

I turn off the computer when I go to bed.
In North Korea the state turns off the electricity way before bedtime. 

I enjoy California exports of almonds and nuts.
North Korean dictators enjoy exports of arms and nukes.

My kids get a free education.
North Korean kids get a free indoctrination.

America destroys her rockets on the ground--nuclear disarmament
North Korea's rockets blow up after launch--attempted nuclear proliferation.

And on it goes...See the United States' responses to the North Korean leadership succession crisis here and rocketry and nuclear proliferation here.

Gap Between Rich and Poor Widest in Berkeley

Communism still exists--not in Eastern Europe but in Berkeley, California. Thus I was intrigued when I read the New York Times article, Gap Between Rich and Poor in Area Is Widest in Berkeley.  Instead of planning protests about American foreign policy, maybe the aging Marxists should take a look in the mirror. Alas, I wasn't able to bask in schadenfreude for long. The NYT analysis has two major errors.

Mr. Berube’s research has shown that the area of central Berkeley bounded by University Avenue and Oxford Street [pictured partly in the background of the photo above--MS] has one of the highest concentrations of poverty in the Bay Area, on par with perennially distressed areas like West Oakland and the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco.

The University of California hosts about 30,000 students, most who live as close to campus as possible, that is, in central Berkeley. (The population of Berkeley is about 100,000.) Most college students live under circumstances of near-poverty, especially Cal's 10,000 graduate students. (As a Cal undergraduate, I survived off an income of less than $5,000 per year.) Mr. Berube is describing much of the student ghetto. I don't think these kids getting PhD's in engineering will be impoverished for long. All cities have chronic poor, those on the way up, and rich people. Berkeley has its poor, but the students shouldn't count as part of the city's Gini (inequality) score.
 Secondly, the reporter writes

Other observers said income inequality persisted in Berkeley because the city’s most progressive policies had been blocked by higher authorities. In 2009, for example, the California Supreme Court let stand a ruling voiding ordinances that require developers to set aside units for low-income residents when they build new apartment complexes.

Huh? Since developers weren't forced to build for low-income residents, fewer poor people were able to live in Berkeley, making incomes more equal, not less. Berkeley's "progressive policies" have nothing to do with income inequality.

But Councilman Kriss Worthington said officials were not giving up in efforts to reduce inequality.

I'm sure the Berkeley government will find ways of poorly combating a non-issue. After all, it is Berkeley.