A CoMMunisT State of Mind - A prayer for North Korea :What exactly is Freedom again?:

When you have the freedom to t h i n k   f r e e l y...

you don’t often dream of                   o p p r e s s i o n. 

 You don’t imagine what it must be like to grow up in a country where you are deceived daily. 

Where you have no freedom - lacking the freedom to gain the knowledge to even realize that you have no freedom. No...I don't suppose you dream of air-raids and food rations. You might not dream of a home where you sleep on the floor, have one TV and one TV station, a radio in your kitchen playing State propaganda constantly that you can turn up and down but not off... no I don't think you often dream of North Korea...

 but last night I did. 

Last night I watched a movie on Netflix Instant called, “ A State of Mind” - a documentary film crew was granted unprecedented access to the country of North Korea- and their experience provided a small glimpse into the lives of a few families. A select group of Koreans who live in presumably the best conditions in existence inside of the totalitarian state. People in this region are lucky enough to receive food rations of 5 eggs and 1 chicken per person- per month... these are the elite- the lucky ones.

because the food crisis is a real one....

   And they feel lucky too- they know nothing else but submission, submission and worship of “The General” Kim Jung -Il and "The Leader" the late, Kim Il-Sung.  This film showed the lives of a few gymnasts as they prepared for what they call Mass Games. 

Mass Games is the largest coordinated human spectacle in the world. These people live and breathe for their country, they have deeply programmed/conditioned, yet authentic love their leader. They live to serve him for and respect him leading them to what they perceive as a victory in the Korean War... or as they call it, “Victorious Fatherland Liberation War” Victory or not the people of North Korea are conditioned to hate the American people. There are posters and flyers displayed everywhere that display hateful messages about the US. 

"Don't forget the US imperialist wolves!" 

The people are told their oppression is due to “the US imperialists.” 

 They and live in constant fear of an “A m e r i c a n   I n v a s i o n ” and often must wake up on bitterly cold nights and run from their homes into bomb shelters and bunkers to practice for “Air -raids” - all the while they blame their misery on the American people.

 Children hearing their parents saying things like, "Ugh we could still be in bed if wasn't for those Americans!" One of the young girls shown in the film stated this when asked about the United States, “The US is making life bad in our country, they are maneuvering to suppress the sound of happy laughter here. ...we have to endlessly hate the US. We will fight them to the end. “ This girl was no more than 12 years old. 

She's later shown in the film singing karaoke, these were the words to the popular song North Korea created to entertain their people,  

                   " Lets get closely bonded together.

 Our Party is the best.

Communism is the best!"

She sang it with soul- is if she were singing "I will survive." -

It's quite A State of Mind indeed...

(Back on the Farm....) 

I jokingly asked my brother, "How much do you think that sweater would be worth without the Nike logo on it?"
         It was a rather plan looking sweater,
          nothing to it but a zipper and thin material,
          I would have guessed about $7.
   He answered, "Ehh about $20. I think it was about $40 so that's half."
 I looked on in shock, "Twenty dollars! Some poor kid in Indonesia made that for 15 cents!"
 - then I thought... "Wow, that poor kid. Thank you GOD I wasn't born that kid!"
Then I say out-loud, "Thank God I was born in America."
He says, "Yah me too."
    "I wake up every morning and thank God I was born here and now and not in some other time or country when things were worse... "
                  He answers, "Yah me too."  

 "Do you really?"

"No. But I will now..."

...yah me too.

Dear Lord I pray for our human race, for our world, Lord I pray that you would free it. Help us Lord, help us as Americans to make good political decisions and return to having a good reputation of being the nation that helps others and not be seen as invaders of so many countries. Lord help others to see that we are people just like them and we are not individually in control. Lord just as we understand that fact, remind us of that when we are at war with others. Allow the heart of America to see the sad condition of North Korea- a people living and dying in oppression. Lord send them freedom. Heal our world Lord, heal the bleeding hearts and souls of man. Help us all to submit to Your will... Help us to love our neighbors- to love North Korea - help them to see the truth about us Lord. Help their starving nation. Help our broken country... Lord touch our WORLD- touch us all... we need You!

IN Jesus’ Might Name I pray.

Amen. 

Be blessed... and a blessing to someone else.

R.Calloway