Status Quoted

Several years ago (in November 2001), I went to a public symposium hosted by Nodutol: a non-profit org. that among other things, wants to see Korea united again. The group’s speakers, who had all visited North Korea, decried the myth of an evil Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. They talked about the media’s inflated coverage of famine, uranium mining and the “Sunshine Policy.”

I came away from it thinking in part that these people had dipped into the Kool-Aid if they thought news of famine could be “inflated.” The reality to this day is that thousands of Koreans are starving to death every year for no other reason than that all the food is stuck in K J’il’s belly.

Hunger is nothing to shit on, people.

However, it wasn’t all cray cray, and I believe Nodutol is a uniquely worthy organization because they make one necessary point (albeit one that seems to fall on deaf ears sometimes). A point that can’t be reiterated enough: The West is not the center of the universe. In fact, however delusional I thought they were for saying the famine wasn’t a big deal, they lit a fuse in my mind forever when they talked about the condescension of the U.S. and to some extent the U.N.

There I was thinking it was all Love Supreme Benetton ads and “We are the World” harmonics when it came to the U.N., but Nodutol argued that the way the DPRK was asked to participate in peace talks was entirely patronizing. Like they were the principal’s office and Kim Jong-il was the 6th grade truant.

NOW BEFORE YOU GET ALL HUFFY ABOUT THE NUCLEAR CONFLICT…

I am not a Kim Jong-il Apologist. No no no no. I am simply saying that until this Nodutol symposium, I had truly believed in the consensus of peace-loving nations without so much as a thought as to how they spread this peace. Now of course, post-Dubya, we know much much better. Even the U.N. can be conned, with its paternalistic vision.

Anyway, in 2001, there was this collective finger-twirling-by-the-temple when it came to North Korea and of course, Iraq, but back in 2001, you were insane if you didn’t. I mean even in 2008, conservatives FLIPPED the f+++ out when Obama said he’d consider talking to terror-minded premiers of the Near and Far East.

Now, I don’t know if it’s condescending to say people like Ahmadinejad can’t talk to us alone (except Scott Pelley, for some reason. Ah, f+++ it, Pelley deserves to be left alone in a room with the crazies).

I  don’t know what numbers of people in rooms has to do with condescension really, but at the Nodutol symposium in 2001, the idea of multi-lateral talks and the “Sunshine Policy” were dismissed as patronizing and disrespectful. And in 2004, John Kerry had to concede to “Six Party Talks” with North Korea after Bush et al. eviscerated the idea of “Two Party Talks,” and “Party of Five” is the most overrated show of the 1990s, but the point is…

The idea of Condescension Politics struck a nerve with me back in 2001 at this symposium. Condescension  is a cheap trick. Condescension is making buffoons of your adversaries. Condescension is not taking someone with taepodong missiles seriously…(not sure how seriously I take it either, actually, but…) Condescension is political cartoons that make K J-il look like a truant sixth grader.

Or is it just a rhetorical device?

Euna Lee and Laura Ling have been sentence to 12 years in labor camp by a the North Korean court, for…well we’re still not entirely sure.