Is Kim Jong Il dead?

[izchief360]

I wonder if there is any meat to this story.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/09/08/2358528.htm

 

[Me]

It wouldn't be all that surprising to be honest. I'm sure there's more than one leader that has a stand in and more than one regime that has a vested interest in his people and the world at large believing he still exists. We will probably never know for sure.

 

[MisterCe]

Yeah I cannot say I'd be surprised either way.

 

[TomaszK]

If you were I would avoid that massage parlour like the plague.

As for Kim Jong Il.... Does anyone care? Until a basis of fact is presented all we can do is assume and stroke chins in a thoughtful and musing type of pose.

 

[Luv4Nevaeh]

Who knows....

I wouldn’t fancy being one of the impersonators when the powers that be decide that a "public" death is now convenient!

 

[electra_glide_069]

So, to recap, there's some trust involved.

Trust, rather than proof.

 

[westjm26]

Well, it's been said that North Korea treats Orwell's 1984 not as a warning, but as a blueprint.

Big Brother, as I recall, had long since died, and no one was quite sure who he'd been anyway. But the people needed a father figure, to represent all the power and over-view of the State.

I have read, anyway, that N. Korea is ruled by a cadre of generals and politicians, each with a vested interest in the system. So if he has died... meet the new boss, same as the old boss, I should think.

Christ, how long do people have to suffer crap like that? I'm a strong believer in the idea of a UN citizenship which applies to all people, guaranteeing all people on earth basic human rights, and making it a crime against humanity for any government or leader to deny or supress those rights.

Then like that massage parlour, it might have a happy ending!

 

[Kinnari23]

You get used to it. When you are born in that regime you are brought up along side it. It becomes natural to you. Same way if you were born in Russia but brought up in France. You accept unconditionally that you are french and your birth place is just a country you were only in for a short while.

The people that grew up in it are aware of outside but know that it is all lies due to the regime you grew up with being the only one you trust. So go figure on how I grew up in the UK where you had no speaking rights until 2000. There was no Human Rights for the UK until that time, but I grew up without having to challenge that ideal as I know the Government has my interests and safety at heart. Although they were more Orwellian in nature back then than they are now. Today they are more relaxed as CCTV takes over the spying and how we all look and feel that we should all be watching TV ETC.

30 years ago it was 3 channels. If you did not have a TV license you were fined. The Orwellian machine back then claimed they could detect your TV and fine you. It was proved a lie and yet the license for the BBC is still being paid for by the people as you could be spied upon by the BBC license division (which is a separate company away from the BBC itself). Even though they ask you for £120 per year, you can watch it free on the net with I player from the BBC? So for not paying and having internet you can watch it all for free and not pay. But they will still pressure you into watching.

North Korea may be overboard in their dictatorship, we have a softer version and one that works through unconditional obedience regardless of what we try and do.

 

[SEXYmEXYY]

You are worthress Arec Barrwin!