OT: Womens World Cup Greatest Excuse for Loss Ever!
Ok due to N. Korea being so secluded it cannot be said that is story isn't false but really come on! I give this 5 fakes out of 5 Players struck by lightning.... Well thats a new one (and yet surprisingly creative).
http://sports.yahoo.com/soccer/blog/dirty-tackle/post/North-Korea-blame…
Edit: At first glance this seemed creative, upon further review this is pretty mild in terms of North Korean sports new.
Is this like the time Kim Jong Il shot 38 under a par 72 course?
Or like last summer when he was coaching the North Korean team by an invisible phone he invented?
http://abcnews.go.com/International/world-cup-2010-north-korean-coach-talks-kim/story?id=10931655
He invented this awesome new food, and it sounds delicious. It's called "double bread with meat" and apparently it's getting popular over there.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/oddities/70622/north_korean_leader_claims_…
Truth according to North Korean Media: When Kim Jong Il was born, Winter instantly became spring, a bright star appeared in the center of the sky, and a perfect double rainbow emerged.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/783967.stm
Truth according to actual facts: Kim Jong Il is the world's #1 Hennessey Customer, purchasing over $750,000 worth per year.
I saw that Hennessey thing when I was looking for a reply to your post. The fact that he consumes 70% of an average subjects yearly income on a bottle of liquor is enough for me to want him dead and gone immediately (based on him "leading" their planned economy).
He's quite possibly the most evil man on this earth today. Outside of Pyongyang, the country has little electricity, and is completely dependent on substinence agriculture. Just watch any one of many documentaries on North Korean life. It's depressing to watch people go through life knowing nothing and not realizing how much they are being screwed over.
"the country has little electricity, and is completely dependent on substinence agriculture."
You do realize you just described 1/4 of the world population.
I do. My point is that this guy throws around $20M on Mercedes and $750k on Hennessey every year, not to mention his private armored train that gets helicoper deliveries of Lobster, which he eats with pure gold chopsticks, and yet his country still doesn't have these things. I understand that a large percentage of people live the same way, but they don't live under a repressive leader that manipulates the economy to that extreme.
Give me an example of one country where the ruling class/wealthy restrain themselves until everyone else has had enough to eat.
"It's depressing to watch people go through life knowing nothing and not realizing how much they are being screwed over."
Do you really think they don't know that they live in a country without freedom of the press and freedom of religion and freedom to vote? If you think about it those things really don't impact your everyday life as much as you think. When was the last time you published something critical of our government? Almost half of the people in the US who can vote don't. Plus only about 20% of Americans ever leave the country so it's not like we take advantage of that freedom either. The point is there are legitimate human rights issues in NK but there is no reason to exaggerate the conditions. It's lazy of you to do so and insulting to North Koreans, especially when you say "they go through life knowing nothing".
I imagine you've never seen, met, or talked to a North Korean but somehow you think you know enough to say things like that. You obviously don't know much about NK and it's offensive - not just to me.
You're right, I've never met a North Korean in my life. Access to them is pretty limited. My knowledge comes from my own personal research in the library, on the internet, and through various documentaries. I can't say that my knowledge is perfect, but from my own research, I see a group of people that have been brainwashed into a repressive cult of personality, and I don't believe that the large majority understand democracy, freedom, or the idea of an alternative government. Not through any fault of their own, but North Korean society is closed to outsiders, and only recently has started to open up due to more trade with China.
I in no way mean to offend North Koreans. But those are the conditions they live under. And yes, many Americans don't fully participate in our political system, and don't fully understand their interatctions with government. But they have the choice to do so if they are willing to put in the time and effort. North Koreans don't have that choice, and the majority don't understand it. And if you think that a free press doesn't affect our lives every day, you are wrong.
"I've never met a North Korean in my life."
"I see a group of people that have been brainwashed into a repressive cult of personality, and I don't believe that the large majority understand democracy, freedom, or the idea of an alternative government."
"I in no way mean to offend North Koreans."
You, me, and 99.99% of the board has never played Michigan football (and I would say 50% never played any sort of football), yet we come here and act like we know it all. It's perfectly fine to form an opinion about something based on what media is available. And in this particular case, that is all we can use since no one is really allowed to visit the country.
But from what I have seen and from what outside people have reported (who have been to NK), most posters are correct in their assessment of NK, yet you get on their case for it. Why? It is fucked up place for many reasons and to trivialize this by saying many Americans don't participate in our own civil liberties is wrong.
I guess I don't get why you got so worked-up over this.
Thank you, for expressing my thoughts precisely. Everything we know about them comes from our media or our goverment. We think we are so much better yet so many people die even in our country from lack of health care every year.
Not just our media, but just about every media outlet in the world (except for NK), echo the same concerns regarding NK. Then again, you can believe the NK media where KJII claims are beyond believeable (and are actually quite laughable).
"We think we are so much better yet so many people die even in our country from lack of health care every year."
No, we think we are so much better for so many more reasons. How many people die from lack of healthcare in NK? Or howabout lack of running water in NK? The list is endless.
All countries have problems, there is no denying that, but to leverage said problems to trivialize those in NK is flat out wrong. There is a concern not only to the lives in NK, but also those around the world (constant threats of nukes, missles, etc).
You're making a lot of jumps. I didn't say anything to trivialize the state of NK. I was simply stating that the every day life of a farmer in North Korean is not so completely unrelatable.
I'm not trivializing the problems in North Korea, I'm just standing up to the attitude that we are better because we have more wealth and consume more resources.
...I didn't read anyone's post that even came close to insinuating that we are better for the reasons you state. However, I can say for certain that we are a much better place to live than NK for reasons that have nothing to do with wealth or consumption.
One major proxy to determine the state of human life is the life expectancy. NK is at 69 years (ranked 149 in the world), US is much better.
Do you realize that life expectancy is directly related to wealth and resources?
...but ceratainly no direct relation or causation. We rank 50 in the world in life expectancy. I would say that we have more resources and wealth than 90% of those countries ahead of us in the rank. There are many factors at play that drive this, wealth and resources are a but a small portion of these factors.
Just for information purposes, the difference between the US (rank 50) and Andorra (rank 4) is about 4 years, then it shoots up pretty fast - there is a lot of crowding at the top.
Why is it so certain to you that there is no direct correlation between per capita GDP and Life expectancy . Take a look at the bottom poorest counties, and compare their life expectancy vs the top richest countries. http://www.indexmundi.com/g/correlation.aspx?v1=67&v2=30&y=2003 I think there is a very strong correlation.
are a little different when they derive their weath solely from the taxation of their subjects. Kim Jong Il is a feudal lord, and his Hennessey collections, lobster dinners and whatever bullshit ensues when he feels like giving the rest of the world the finger are directly responsible for the economic collapse of his nation and the poverty of those within it.
You made the point more eloquently than I did above. The reason KJI is so despicable for living the way he does is because his money is earned like a feudal lord. I have no problem with Larry Page going on a 1955 Dom Perignon and lobster diet on his yacht until he's actively extorting wealth from others.
I've not been to NK, but know several people who have been on medical and educational missions to NK. One has been several times to do medical missions and one actually received a visa to live in NK for a year.
It is a fact that they start life brainwashed, many go through life brainwashed, and many go through life knowing that something is wrong, but not being able to understand how. Many believe that as poor as their living conditions are, that those in other countries are actually far worse. They are taught that they have it good, and that Americans and South Koreans are destitute and depraved people. They live in fear of reprisal from the government. These are all facts.
Welcome to post-colonial Africa.
Yep, Pretty much. Like a juiced up version of it.
Do you realize there is a difference between living in undeveloped areas and living in a nation that represses every facet of people's lives from birth till death?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/27/3253979.htm
This is North Korea by sattelite at night
I'll let you guess what city that is with a glimmer of light.
What exactly does this prove? They use less resources than we do?
...the resources needed to maintain the bare necessities of life. You need electricity to clean water, to light schools, to enforce laws, to preform life saving surgeries, etc etc.
This picture could also indicate the true malicious nature of KJII. Apparently, the vast majority of resources are only to be used for him. The rest of his people are getting very little.
Are you serious? You think a picture of night time light shows where areas have access to electricity and clean water??
Here's a picture to show the true malicious nature of NYC. The vast majority of resources are only to be used in NYC. The rest of the people get very little.
I feel bad for the Mountain Time Zone. Almost no electricity there. And no clean water!
...that is not what I said, but the pictures are very telling - your picture doens't prove your point. For example, while NYC seems to be using the most electricity as indicated by visible light emission (this proxy is debatable, I admit), it is probably the most densely populated in the US (like Pyongyang is to NK). However, you need to consider the following:
1. Area around NYC (including Long Island, parts of Jersey, Conn, and update NY) is about the same as NK.
2. This NY metropolitan area has about 18M people, compared to about 24M for NK. Therefore, NK is more densely populated. Imagine increasing the population of NYC by 6M more people and reducing electricity usage to what you see in the NK picture. Yikes!
As for your assessment of the Mountain Time Zone, it roughly has a population of NK (about 1M more people), but those MTZ states use more electricity and is evenly dispresed around the major metropolitan areas as expected.
Therefore, you have to look at electricity use/person as an indication. Without doing anymore research, I'm willing to go out on a limb and say that NK has one of the lowest electricity use/person numbers in the world. So much so, that they cannot provide a lot of the basic needs that more electricity use has to offer.
Isn't it great that someone who drinks that much Hennessey could order "nukes for everyone" on a whim? I hope he doesn't have a "red button" in his office.
I was born under a triple rainbow. So fuck him.
NK is an odd place to say the least.
There will be 1.5 players defect from the team while in Germany.
I'd go under, those people actually believe this shit Kim Jong Il spews. When his father died Kim Il Song people thought "God had died"
Most definately under. As opposed to Cuba, where there is outside influence from western travelers and the Miami media, the DPRK is completely sealed off, and these people literally believe everything they are told. They believe North Korea is paradise, and everyone else wants to live there, including the imperialist agressors. Every single one of them will return to N. Korea at the end of the tournament.
This may have been hyperbole, but the assertion that "these people literally believe everything they are told" is absolutely ridiculous.
A little over the top, but North Korea has an incredible amount of control over what it's people know, and I doubt many people away from the Chinese border know much of anything about what is really going on both in North Korea and outside of it.
seriously, please stop.
...I don't what has chapped your ass so much about this topic. Please elaborate.
In the meantime, here are some snippets from the CIA world factbook,
"President KIM Il Sung, adopted a policy of ostensible diplomatic and economic "self-reliance" as a check against outside influence."
"autonomous religious activities now almost nonexistent; government-sponsored religious groups exist to provide illusion of religious freedom"
"Communist state one-man dictatorship"
"By December 2005, the government terminated most international humanitarian assistance operations in North Korea (calling instead for developmental assistance only) and restricted the activities of remaining international and non-governmental aid organizations."
"no independent media; radios and televisions are pre-tuned to government stations; 4 government-owned television stations"
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/kn.html
To say the KN government has a control over the what the people see and hear is not an outlandish statement.
I think I've been very clear. I'm just taking issue with the jump that was made between North Koreans living in a country with restrictions on personal freedoms such as press, religion, etc, and the implication that they are no longer free thinking individuals, or that because of propganda they have lost their ability to think critically of their system of government. The propoganda a person is willing to repeat in an interview to foreign media or foreign visitors about their country can be very different from what they know in their own mind.
I think it's important to not sensationalize things and be intelligent and specific with criticism - especially when the person doesn't have a background in the subject. I come here to read speculation on football, but one thing we dont do is insult the players or recruits and I have a hard time not saying something when I see things said like that about the mental faculty or intelligence of North Koreans.
I don't think it's appropriate here or anywhere.
Weren't there rumors of attempted defections from the men's team in South Africa? I remember because they hung in there pretty well in their first game against Brazil and then I think the defection rumors came after that game. Considering the way the rest of their games went I'm inclined to believe something was going on there.
I just saw this haha! I just wanted to know what their reaction would be upon losing to the US on a world stage - and how classic N. Korea. I'm really not surprised.
The men's coach apparently feared for his life after losing in the men's world cup so they were wise to start their planning of excuses early..
The men's team was shamed in public for 6+ hours and the coach was sent to work in a construction yard.... Bob Bradley be warned.
/s
http://newsbythesecond.com/north-korean-soccer-team-publicly-shamed-for…
Ha they just "poof" and then fall over!
<br>-Chet
A lot of people don't know that Johnny Sears was struck by lightning before the Appalachian State game.
OW MY SOUL DAMN YOU NOTHING ABOUT THAT IS FUNNY!