Why Live Earth really is unimportant.

The international act of mutual onanism didn't interest me, in fact my girlfriend bought a car that day - because her access and mobility are more important than self righteous multi-millionaires (none of whom catch the tube) telling her what to do.

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I thought I'd draw your attention to something else. I mean, whether or not you take a flight, or keep the TV on standby is nothing compared to this. What this describes happens every single day, yesterday, today and tomorrow - and it is telling how few really give a damn...

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It's called Camp 22, it is about 500 or so square miles in size, or roughly the area of metropolitan greater Los Angeles. 50,000 people are held there. Men, women and children. Entire families, rounded up for the sin of not showing unwavering obedience to their government - this is North Korea.

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Former guard Ahn Myong-Chol has reported that between 1,500 and 2,000 died annually there of malnutrition - mostly children. He remembers:

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"One unforgettable image, there were two girls and they were trying to take out a piece of noodle from one polluted water pond where they put the garbage. And one guard kicked the kids into the small pond, and they drowned. The pond was very deep, and I felt really sad about that"

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“This is the detention center,” he said. “If someone goes inside this building, in three months he will be dead or disabled for life. In this corner they decided about the executions, who to execute and whether to make it public.

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"And I heard many times that eyeballs were taken out by beating. And I saw that by beating the person, the muscle was damaged and the bone was exposed, outside, and they put salt on the wounded part. At the beginning I was frightened when I witnessed it, but it was repeated again and again, so my feelings were paralyzed. "

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or how about this tale...

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"At that time the tunnel was passing near the pig pen of the camp, and about 500 political prisoners were participating and there was one female named Han Jin Duk, 26 years old. I was in charge of giving food to the pigs. And my supervisor, when he saw the woman, she was beautiful. And he raped her, and he was found by the watchman officer. And he was investigated. My superior, his rank was reduced and the woman was sent to the detention center And then I didn’t see her for one year.

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One day I was going to the place to load the coal, I met her. And I noticed she was exactly that woman, and I asked her, how you could survive. And she told me, that yes, I survived. But she showed me her body, and it was all burned by fire.

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After six months I met her at the corn storage in Kusan district and found her putting on a used tire on her knees because her legs were cut off. Because of a coal mine wagon ran over her knees. And all she could do now was separate the corn grains from the cob.

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The reason why she was forced to go to the prison is her father’s elder brother was purged at the Anbyon, Kanwhan Do province. She went when she was 5 years old. All of the family members were imprisoned. Her mother starved to death, and her brother also starved to death in the prison. I met her at age 26. So it means she was in the prison for 21 years. I think she no longer is in the world."

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You see, this is why I can't get too concerned about CO2 emissions. North Korea imprisons 5 year olds and enslaves them. New Zealand has diplomatic relations with this entity, even gives it aid. An academic has a website on North Korea, but doesn't mention human rights. I guess it is inconvenient to ask about a government imprisoning, enslaving, torturing and murdering children? Now that's an "Inconvenient Truth" isn't it? However, Al Gore doesn't rally for North Korean gulags to be closed.

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Shouldn't it be an international, unanimous campaign now to demand North Korea free all child political prisoners at the very least? Shouldn't Al Gore, Madonna, Bono prioritise this first? Shouldn't the so called peace movement, the so-called human rights activists and the so-called supporters of civil liberties be protesting outside North Korean embassies in Canberra, London, Paris, Stockholm and the like?

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and shouldn't the numerous New Zealand sycophants of this murderous nightmare of a tyranny be held to account?

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Have a look at Camp 22 on Google Earth, some high resolution images are here, and just think what matters.

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UPDATE: If you give a damn about men, women and children being imprisoned and enslaved because of an accusation of not being politically obedient then go here. Hat Tip to Julian for this video showing you starkly why this matters - it matters as much as apartheid mattered - it matters as much as the Holocaust matters. LINK (Liberty in North Korea) describes itself as:

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We are a non-profit, non-partisan, non-ethnic and non-religious group formed in pursuit of the following mission statement:
To educate the world about North Korea;
To advocate for human rights, political and religious freedom, and humanitarian aid for North Korea;
To protect the North Korean people where they can be reached;
To empower citizens of the world to take effective action and make a difference;
To bring together and support existing NGOs and other organizations working to achieve the same ends; and
To tell the world the truth.

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North Koreans are also unfree outside the country, LINK estimates that 12,000 are slave labourers in other countries, mainly Russia, Mongolia, but also Poland and even the Czech Republic.