The dental office we clean gets Time Magazine, so every Monday and Wednesday I try to complete my tasks faster than Rachel so I can get a few articles in. A couple months ago the cover article was on Kim Jong Un, North Korea's new Supreme Leader.
North Korea doesn't have the internet (just a state-run intranet), they still have a Propaganda and Agitation Department, a full half the population is in the military, and ten percent of the country's 22 million starved to death in four years of famine in the late 90s (while I was worried about getting in enough Nintendo time between my four older siblings). The number of dead is unknown but varies from 800,000 to 3.5 million. More on North Korea.
Bill Powell's article talked about how Kim went to school in Switzerland, and how, since he was a distant third in line to ascend to power, he spent a lot of time playing basketball and rollerblading. Then his oldest brother got caught with a fake passport trying to go to Disneyland Tokyo and his father decided the second in line was too girly so ... enter Kim Jong Un. After seeing the picture below I wrote this song:
ben, it's a beautiful and unsettling and funny and poignant song.
ReplyDeleteenormously talented. Makes me mad
ReplyDeleteMy work is complete.
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