Over the last few years, I’ve made it a practice to start watching the news magazine “60 Minutes” in an effort to gain some understanding about what’s going on in the world around me.
Needless to say, the program often leaves me utterly frustrated over the unending greed and dominance which seems to drive politics and businesses alike in the United States.
But beyond the frustration, watching the news stories leaves one truly speechless – humbling your day to day complaints into welcoming additions. It’s the realization that for many human beings living around the globe, their lives are a far cry from the freedoms most Americans take for granted on a daily basis.
Sadly, if not for watching the news, I myself would be completely unaware of such goings on – and for many of us, maybe that’s done purposely.
On the December 2nd episode, 60 Minutes presented a story simply titled “Three Generations of Punishment”. From the “60 Minutes” transcripts:
Tonight we’re going to tell you about a place so brutal and horrific it’s hard to believe it exists. It is, by all accounts, a modern-day concentration camp, a secret prison hidden in the mountains, 50 miles from North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang. It’s called Camp 14, and according to human right rights groups, it’s part of the largest network of political prisons in the world today. Some 150,000 people are believed to be doing hard labor on the brink of starvation in these hidden gulags. But it’s not just those who have been accused of political crimes; it’s their entire families — grandparents, parents, and children. A practice called “three generations of punishment.”
As Anderson follows the story of Shin Dong-hyuk, who miraculously managed to escape this unspeakable life after 23 brutal years, you shake your head in disbelief that in a world so progressive such actions could still be taking place.
Shin Dong-hyuk says, “You wear what you’re given, you eat what you’re given, and you only do what you’re told to do. So there is nothing that the parents can do for you and there’s nothing that the children can do for their parents.”
I urge you all to watch the complete story online for you just might find everything you’ve been complaining about, really isn’t so bad.
