Almighty God, Please Spare Us the Retch-Inducing Stockholm Syndrome Speeches (Updated, Bumped)
[Updated below]
Now that Laura Ling and Euna Lee are on their way home, I have a short list of things I do and do not want to hear from them, starting with any retch-inducing drivel about how well they were treated while they shouldn’t have been in captivity at all. Let’s make that the first thing on our list:
1. Please spare us the Stockholm Syndrome at LAX. Try to remember that you weren’t in North Korea to rob convenience stores, hide a dead hooker, or hand out boxer briefs infected with herpes. If things were so wonderful at that cushy non-gulag guesthouse where you were held — unlike conditions for those North Koreans who offend His Withering Majesty — then go back. This is not a misunderstood state that eventually made contact with its inner goodness by freeing you. It’s a place that starves, terrorizes, tortures, and murders millions of non-famous North Koreans, including potentially everyone whose face appears in the video the North Koreans say they seized from you.
2. The only things we want to hear at LAX are how you really got across the border and a few polite words of thanks for those who helped to free you. Were you abducted, did you get lost, were you lured, or are you just imbeciles who were trying to cover a story you knew absolutely nothing about? Then go home to your families and say nothing else for at least a week.
3. When you emerge, remember why you were there. You were there to tell the story of desperate people like this woman and tens of thousands more like her who will remain forgotten, unmourned, and unmentioned in all of the glowing, shallow, stupid press coverage that will soon follow. They won’t be objects of hope for the great, false diplomatic breakthrough that your release from unjust imprisonment represents to unintelligent people of every race, color, creed, and political persuasion. You can make those people minimally less unintelligent by taking a moment out of the first act of your book tour to remember the refugees and those who are dying in the real gulags.
4. As a corollary to number 3, it’s not all about you. Before you tell your own story, tell the story you went there to tell.
5. As a corollary to number 4, if you actually got people killed by carrying video of them into North Korea, repent what you have done. The ignorance and stupidity that killed them should weigh on you. Telling their stories is a small token of the burden of repentance that you owe them. I would much prefer, of course, that you truthfully clarify that you did no such thing.
6. No Larry King. Not tomorrow, not next week, not ever. Larry King is a tool and a blight upon our society, and your support for him poisons a world in which my children will have to live.
7. Please do not pretend that your experience has made you an authority on North Korea. This doesn’t mean you can’t become one, it just means you aren’t one because of this.
8. Please do not tell us what your release proves about diplomacy or policy, and do not humor anyone who is stupid enough to ask. You’re not policy analysts or diplomatic correspondents. You’re pawns.
9. Please don’t try to redeem the cowardice of Current TV. That is a lost cause.
10. If you did cross the border voluntarily, mortgage your homes now and start writing checks to repay the taxpayers for whatever your ransom cost us.
Update: Retch inducing:
Laura Ling’s sister says the two American journalists briefly touched North Korean soil before they were captured and detained for months in that communist country.
“She said that it was maybe 30 seconds and then everything got chaotic. It’s a very powerful story, and she does want to share it,” Lisa Ling told CNN Thursday. [….]
Laura Ling told her family she was treated humanely, but meals were meager and her phone calls were monitored, Lisa Ling said.“She had two guards in her room at all times, morning and night. And even though they couldn’t speak to her, somehow they developed a strange sort of kinship, Lisa Ling said. “She had some really lovely things to say about the people who were watching over her. [AP]
It’s all about me, and I was treated well! Tell it to the people who appeared on your confiscated video before the Chinese police poked wires through their wrists and dragged them back across the border to die in the gulag, or before a firing squad of onlookers.
Until now, I confess that I could not bring myself to believe that people could be this stupid, and wanted to extend Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee the benefit of any remaining doubts. It looks like I was wrong. This must be the most consequentially idiotic thing I’ve seen done in the five years I’ve been writing this blog — frankly, it borders on negligent homicide. Is it any wonder why there’s so much awful journalism being written about North Korea today?
Related: John Podhoretz isn’t thrilled with this pair, either:
[N]ow that they are out of jeopardy, Ling and Lee deserve to be held accountable, at least in the realm of public opinion, for the unthinkably bad judgment they displayed in their preposterous, vainglorious, and astoundingly naive venture. Possessing some fantasy about presenting an inside look at North Korea on an justifiably unwatched (because unwatchable) cable channel called Current TV, they thought they could sneak undetected into a Gulag state, film some footage with a DV camera, and then sneak back out to the hosannas of the Peabody Award committee. This is something they chose to do and were given license to attempt by their employers, and for which they paid a horrific, far too horrific, a price.
That must be the case as well for Al Gore and Joel Hyatt, the co-owners of Current TV, who have doubtless existed in a state of terrible “what have I done” anxiety about this since the arrests. But none of them can be simply excused for the way in which their foolishness has exacted a price from the government of the United States, which has been at a loss under administrations Democratic and Republican for more than two decades as to what to do about North Korea and its threat. The interpolation of this melodrama and its resolution have made this nation’s policy toward North Korea even more messy, though that hardly seemed possible, entirely due to a preventable error on the part of two amateurish journalists and their amateurish network.
Quite some heated discussion here.
I’ve not seen any footage of the reportage but really, there are bigger issues at hand than the emotions of the reporters. I do find it absurd if they got the Stockholm syndrome, they should really seek help in that case but let’s not let that get too much attention. Throwing around accusations and insults will not help anyone. The problems that existed before still exist, this kidnapping being the very proof of it and honestly that’s what the media should acknowledge. That’s the main point that should be noted, not the “touching” stories of the two captives.
Again, HUK, I read the Daily Nk every day and comment regularly – I had already read this and the point is this: why don’t you do the same thing? As far as I’m concerned you are making no point (or sense) whatsoever.
The problems that existed before still exist, this kidnapping being the very proof of it and honestly that’s what the media should acknowledge.
According to Lisa Ling, her sister acknowledged crossing over into North Korea, supposedly for “thirty seconds.” Even if the women had been inside less than a minute, the North Koreans acted reasonably and lawfully in detaining the women. Arresting people who enter illegally is not kidnapping, not when US Border Patrol does it, not when the North Korean military does it. It is the 12-year hard labor sentence that is unjust, not the detention.
Pretty funny. But, I’m going to have to disagree with you about hearing more of them in the media, which I think is a good thing. And, I think Al Gore, who is just not a very likeable guy, is looking like a genius (why can we not credit this man for once?). Haha, and about the Internet thing; why can’t we just laugh at how silly it sounds absent of any context without rushing to judgement? I mean if it was Al Gore’s intention to bring a lot of media spotlight on the North Korea human rights issue, then he surely got what he set out to do…
Anyways, I wrote a much more longer response at Breaking Down Borders: Korea:
[…]
[…]
I am still interested in hearing how the “trial” process was like. Yeah, call me nosey…
Come on folks, think about it… do you really believe they were going to serve the entire 12 years of that sentence? The length of the sentence was only meant to scare the Cowardly Lion. The Tin Man and the Scarecrow (and Spelunker!) knew those 2 Dorothies were going to be out in less than 6 months.
From the moment they were sentenced, savvy intelligence analysts like me knew those two journalists were not going to any gulags and not doing a dozen years. It was all just a judicial charade and formality to enable the negotiations of their release to begin. Hard labor? Are you kidding me? While other prisoners are moving large stones with their bare hands Laura Ling is picking small rocks out of her rice.
Please stop telling us how harsh Laura and Euna’s sentence was. Ask the South Korean Kaesong employee in Pyongyang if the books he’s been reading lately were sent from his family. Ask the South Korean fisherman in Pyongyang how many phone calls they’ve made to their spouses. Harsh my arse; those gals had it easy compared to the lives of other people in North Korea’s prison system.
One great thing about Laura and Euna is that they are Asian-American, so they have public appeal on both sides of the world.
Also, they are media savvy, attractive, and very likeable, which help them to be the perfect spokeswomen in raising public awareness about North Korea.
The best thing of all was that they caused the meeting between a former US president and Kim Jong Il, which was a historic first for both countries. Who knows how this will impact the attitude of North Koreans toward America.
At the very least, both Kim Jong Il and Hillary Clinton would be more careful about what they say to each other.
I also think Lisa Ling is a great person, despite what some commenters have said. I watched her documentary about being undercover in North Korea, and it took a lot of guts for a journalist to do that.
And as the Washington Post reports, when she drove off in an automobile’s passenger seat, she looked down. Very, VERY typical Korean behavior. American? Only on paper.
All true Americans love the glare of publicity, no exceptions
@The_Incredible_HUK
Care to write a post at Breaking Down Borders about your FOBiness argument? Especially about how she would have been indoctrinated about communism as of being of that age and for having been a product of the Korean education system at that time. I found it pretty interesting.
The best thing of all was that they caused the meeting between a former US president and Kim Jong Il, which was a historic first for both countries. Who knows how this will impact the attitude of North Koreans toward America.
Well, in official photos KJI did smile like he had a man-crush on Bill.
@Spelunker:
Nobody including myself expected the women to actually serve their sentence. Regardless, it wasn’t a kidnapping, a word that continues to be misused in the context of the issue.
HUK, please know that there was the strong possibility that Euna tried to warn the others of the potential danger of crossing into the DPRK – my heart breaks for her if indeed this is a fact that we will never know.
“I also think Lisa Ling is a great person, despite what some commenters have said. I watched her documentary about being undercover in North Korea, and it took a lot of guts for a journalist to do that. ”
It took a lot of stupidity. She misrepresented herself as being part of an eye surgeon’s team. Now, future humanitarian efforts will be more tightly supervised and scrutinized. And for what? That doc. didn’t expose anything not already known. Stunt journalism doesn’t do anyone any good.
I don’t know what to think about Laura Ling and Euna Lee, but I am sick of the sight and sound of Lisa.
And why did Liberate Laura gush all over the Chopra family of attention seekers?
http://liberatelaura.wordpress.com/
@Bart
I can understand your criticism of Lisa’s undercover documentary. However, your opinion about being sick of watching Lisa is clearly in the minority. Lisa has a lot of fans around the world, including me.
Also, the campaign to free Laura and Euna would not have had such a huge following without the involvement of Lisa Ling.
Well, the Mail on Sunday says the UK letter writing campaign was also helpful.
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/femail/article-1205224/In-peril-Pyongyang-Those-girls-greater-danger-sharing-plane-Bill-Clinton.html
Mi Hwa–I’m glad you like her. After she kept calling the pair “girls”, I tuned her out. I think she’s a lightweight. Lots of people like McDonalds, too. I don’t eat there. YMMV.
Both of those horse’s-asses that trespassed into North Korea should have been left to REALLY experience what it’s like to be a political prisoner of the regime…give them something to REALLY write about.
I give it 2 months before the multi-million dollar book deal goes through.
Irene,
I like DailyNK as well; however, that you read this website daily is irrelevant. You are just going off on tangents. You accused me of speaking on behalf of Euna Lee and Laura Ling when I never did any such thing nor claimed or implied to be doing so.
And please abstain from appeals to emotion – while I was certainly gladdened to see Ling and Lee reunited with their loved ones (Hana, Euna Lee’s daughter, did not deserve to be separated from her mother), Ling and Lee basically brought this entire ordeal on themselves and on their family (and on our country as well).
Mi Hwa, why do you think that the Asian backgrounds these women have grant them appeal on the “westen side?” What exactly makes them more appealing to the US public than a white reporter?
Furthermore, you stated: “meeting between a former US president and Kim Jong Il, which was a historic first for both countries. Who knows how this will impact the attitude of North Koreans toward America.” It’s the first time Kim Jong-Il met a former US president, but it’s not the first time the senior leader of North Korea met a former US president. In 1994, Jimmy Carter crossed the DMZ and was taken to Pyongyang to meet w/ Kim Il-Sung.
And you also said, “I watched her documentary about being undercover in North Korea, and it took a lot of guts for a journalist to do that.” Do you understand the implications of her actions? You do, I hope, realize that Lisa Ling went into the DPRK w/ that country’s authorization as she was ostensibly a member of a Nepalese medical assistance group. Throughout the entire documentary, Lisa Ling mentions that any comment critical of the DPRK authorities could consign the said party to prison and even death. But what about the DPRK citizens and the Korean Workers’ Party members assigned to accompany Ling and her Nepalese partners while in North Korea? Did she and National Geographic not know that any wrong facial expression, even, could be enough groups for the DPRK security forces to arrest any of the North Koreans in the film and to send them to a camp?
Furthermore, do you think Kim Jong-Il was happy when he learned he had been duped? How much more difficult will it be from now on for other foreign relief teams enter North Korea? And, if he or other senior-ranking DPRK officials conclude that the KWP minders assigned to chaperone Ling and her group contributed (even if unintentionally) to a production which made North Korea look bad, what do you think will happen to those KWP minders?
Answer: the very same fate that most probably befell any defectors (and their relatives who never left North Korea) whom Laura Ling and Euna Lee interviewed. Their videos were captured, and the DPRK authorities most probably and plausibly acted swiftly and mercilessly to find them and to ship them off to the camps.
First, I am enjoying this blog and thread immensely. Between Joshua’s acid pen and Spelunker’s intriguing first-hand knowledge of the border, one gets further under the surface of the Ling/Lee fiasco.
I am a Puget Sound-based professor of Chinese history who spends part of every year along the Sino-Korean frontier, which means I have an opinion on these matters as well. (Just returned from Dandong/Ji’an/Linjiang/Changbai/Yanji/Hunchun a few weeks ago.)
My two cents: http://adamcathcart.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/laura-ling-euna-lee-and-the-sino-north-korean-border/
Mi Hwa, I really don’t see why them being Asian grants them more appeal. As for BC meeting KJI, remember that in 1994 Jimmy Carter met Kim Il-Sung. That was seen as a huge deal then; we now know the North Koreans don’t always keep promises.
As for Lisa Ling: please be aware that in going into the DPRK w/ that crew of Nepalese doctors, she pretty much deceived the DPRK authorities. From now on, North Korea will be even more suspicious than it already is of visiting foreigners, and it’ll make it even harder for foreign relief workers to enter the country. Who loses? The North Koreans who need aid.
Furthermore, during her documentary, Lisa Ling repeatedly mentioned that saying anything critical of the regime could mean a death sentence for any North Korean who dared to do such a thing. She then has the nerve to ask a North Korean family in the presence of Korean Workers’ Party minders if Kim Jong-Il could ever make a mistake – what if they had even hesitated? Do you think those minders would not have acted once the cameras were off and the foreigners were not there? And what if the senior DPRK leadership concludes that the very KWP minders who dealt with the visiting Nepalese delegation somehow contributed to a foreign report which ultimately embarrassed North Korea? Do you think the KWP will hesitate to punish even its own members if the latter are deemed to have acted subversively or against the interests of the state? Where do you think they’ll end up?
They will NOT end up in the comfortable guest house where Euna Lee and Laura Ling stayed. For that, Lisa Ling is not to be admired; her actions were reprehensible.
@The_Incredible_HUK
“why do you think that the Asian backgrounds these women have grant them appeal on the “westen side?†What exactly makes them more appealing to the US public than a white reporter?”
Some western men are attracted to Asian women. Just look at how they are both married to white guys.
Just kidding. Actually, what I meant was that Laura and Euna have become international celebrities, and their Asian-American identity gives them connections to both sides of the world.
As for Lisa Ling, I now understand why some people resent her.
However, I still think that Lisa, Laura, and Euna can help ordinary North Koreans by raising public awareness about them.
MI Hwa: being stupid enough to illegally enter one of the world’s most repressive and murderous dictatorships, especially when you are a citizen of a country which that dictatorship is still technically at war with, and then being rescued by a former US president, hardly makes one a celebrity. Besides, there were no calls from governments of either China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan to Pyongyang to release Laura Ling despite her ancestral background. Where’s her appeal? As for Euna Lee, South Koreans who protested her arrest did so in part because they hate North Korea’s government, and if it’s arguable that they identified w/ her as a former ROK national, then this reinforces my argument that as a ROK-born person, Euna Lee should have known better… and this shows how foolish she was.
Public awareness? You must be kidding. The American press, much of which is known for its faulty reporting, correctly published that Lee and Ling did indeed enter the DPRK illegally. So what would the public be aware of now? That these two women were fools?
However, I still think that Lisa, Laura, and Euna can help ordinary North Koreans by raising public awareness about them.
North Korean human rights has already slipped under the US media radar. The attention is now on the two women and their experiences. At first, I was pleased by the silence of Euna Lee, but I now I realize that both Euna and Laura are probably saving their stories for the highest bidder while big sister Lisa keeps the story on the front page by parsing tidbits about rocks in the rice and the guards being lovely. I’m glad these women are back home with their families and I’m glad our government offered some assistance in freeing them, but I’m sickened by the prospect that they may profit from their own poor judgment that turned themselves into a bargaining chip for the North and possibly risked the lives of the refugees they were supposedly trying to help by communicating their plight.
Sonagi – Hear, hear.
To read what a former military officer and defector resettled in the South thinks, head over to Ask a Korean and read his translations of two relevant posts by Nambustory blogger Joo Seung-ha. I have a feeling his critical commentary won’t ever get quoted in the US media, intent on sanctifying two American women rescued from the clutches of an evil, foreign dictator.
Even if these women try to profit from their misadventures, there’s still hope. Octomom’s been out of the news since the public soured on her. Likewise, Americans won’t have much sympathy for the two leads in Brokedown Palace II: Rocks and Rice in a North Korean State Guesthouse when they realize what the women risked to get a few “I was at the border” souvenir photos.
… and a souvenir stone as well!
I infiltrated North Korean territory 3 times from China and never thought of picking up a rock. Come to think of it, there’s no place on Earth that I can think of where I would want to go pick up a souvenir rock. Maybe the moon though… that would be really cool!
From OP:
It seems they violated the Larry King rule.