Hope in Unlikely Places

In North Korea such things are absolutely forbidden, so naturally the people learn to enjoy crude humor instead; not because of the optimistic and humorous nature of the people I must point out, but because of the nature of North Korean politics.

In North Korea, it is not an exaggeration to say that there is at least one meeting every 24 hours. Every week contains studies, lectures, self-criticism and evaluation meetings in each work unit, and a further two or three meetings of People’s Units to boot.

A worker goes to work in the morning, whereupon s/he has to take part in a morning meeting. Then there is an evaluation meeting after work. At every meeting, they have to criticize others’. Almost every North Korean is sick and tired of every kind of meeting, indeed after defecting they often say that the best thing about South Korea is living without meetings.

You know, I see the capacity to appreciate a good dirty joke as an indicator of residual sanity and a reason for hope.