Check It Out: Is silence a choice?
By Joan Janzen
joanjanzen@yahoo.com
I found this little nugget funny ... Q: How do you know China has free speech? A: No one says otherwise.
North Americans are finding they need to defend their right to exercise free speech on the internet. Even comedians are censored for their humour. American comedian, JP Sears says he has became very insecure with the reliability of You Tube. “I saw so many people getting censored and then it happened to me,” he said. He even got censored for making fun of conspiracy theories, because You Tube said the video violated community guidelines.
In response, the comedian made a video apologizing to You Tube for exercising free speech, as he sat with arms and legs bound up, unable to move.
Dave Rubin, host of “The Dave Rubin Report” on You Tube, said, “For the first few years of You Tube you were your own boss. But slowly, when you start talking about free speech and anything politically incorrect, you start getting pressured.”
Someone who has experienced an unbelievable amount of pressure and a lack of freedom, is Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector who lives in the States. She was able to escape to China at the age of thirteen, sold in the sex trade, and began her treacherous journey to South Korea, then America over the period of several years. When she arrived in Texas, she was shocked by many things that seem trivial to people who enjoy freedom.
“When I was walking on the street I was so shocked to see a puppy being pushed in a stroller,” she said. She had never even seen a baby stroller in North Korea. She thought people were crazy when she saw entire sections in grocery stores dedicated to pet supplies.
“Here dogs have more toys than I had ever imagined in my life as a child,” she said. “When people don’t have to worry about surviving, they are able to take care of vulnerable pets. You can only do that in a country where you enjoy prosperity, and I came to really appreciate how beautiful it was.”
She said it’s common to see children dying on the streets in North Korea, but no one feels sorry for them. “Not because North Koreans are inhumane; that’s what a harsh environment does to people,” she explained.
Secondly, Yeonmi was shocked to see houses with multiple rooms. In North Korea, six people live in one room where they eat and sleep on blankets on the floor. “I literally thought I was walking into a palace. It was like going around an amusement park for me,” she said about being in an American home.
The third most shocking sight for the North Korean girl was the bathroom shower. “In North Korea I took a bath a few times a year. In winter the river is frozen, and it’s the children’s job to bring water home in a pail. Everybody washes in the same bowl of water.”
The next most shocking sight for Yeonmi was an elevator. “I looked at high rises and wondered how people walk all the way to the top, and then I discovered in America the electricity rarely goes out,” she said.
North Koreans who live on the 70th floor have to walk all the way up from the ground floor every day. They do this while hauling water, laundry and coal up the stairs.
The North Korean defector was shocked to see everybody had the ability to have a passport. “All I ever wanted was a passport,” she said. “Only the leader in North Korea has the right to have a passport. It gives you the freedom to go wherever you want.”
With all of these new found freedoms, she was amazed at how much hatred her fellow university students had for their country. She said her fellow students didn’t seem aware of the definition of the word ‘oppression’. To her it seemed like a game to them to see who could be the most oppressed by almost anything that offended them.
“People who are actually oppressed don’t even know they are oppressed,” she said, referring to the people in her home land. “If you know you’re oppressed, you’re not really oppressed.” North Koreans haven’t even heard of the term ‘free speech’. They do not choose to be silent, but are pressured by the government to remain silent. Are North Americans choosing to remain silent?