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Sometimes, the Snow Comes Down in June

Tuesday, January 14th, 2003

And sometimes, Nicholas Kristoff makes sense. From today’s fine column on North Korea:

The North Korean regime reacted typically to the 1990′s famine, which killed some two million North Koreans, by putting propaganda into overdrive. A campaign urged the health benefits of dieting, and the national slogan became “Let’s Eat Just Two Meals a Day!” There was even a television documentary focusing on a man who ate too much rice รข?? and then supposedly exploded.

So how can we undermine North Korean propaganda and totalitarianism? By imposing sanctions and increasing its isolation? Or by engaging it and tying it to the global economy?

The answer should be obvious, for there is no greater subversive in a Communist country than an American factory manager. People will hear stories from his housemaid’s third cousin’s neighbor’s friend about how he has five pairs of blue jeans (!), a beer belly (!), blows his nose on tissues that he then throws away (!), and reads a Bible (!) and Playboy magazine (!!). Many a Communist will immediately begin dreaming of capitalism.

For the life of me, I can’t understand why any politician — left or right — can support economic sanctions/blockades. Can anyone give me one example from history when they’ve worked?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 14th, 2003 at 5:32 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

29 Responses to “Sometimes, the Snow Comes Down in June”

  1. #1 |  Joe Sims |  January 14th, 2003 at 6:19 pm

    It certainly took care of that Castro character down in Cuba…

  2. #2 |  roger lewis |  January 15th, 2003 at 9:56 am

    Of course, the fall of the Soviet Union did also help take care of Castro. Without Soviet subsidies, Castro was in more of a position to feel the crippling effects of the embargo. As long as the Soviet Union stood, Castro was OK.

    Maybe the parallel with N. Korea is that their primary benefactor (China?) must fall before they can be stopped by ecomomic sanctions.

  3. #3 |  Joe Sims |  January 15th, 2003 at 11:37 am

    … which proves my theory that irony doesn’t translate well on the internet…

  4. #4 |  roger lewis |  January 15th, 2003 at 11:49 am

    Your theory is indeed correct, but I would extend the scope to any written work, for that matter.

    Sorry about the misinterpretation. It makes sense when I read it now, but that only re-affirms the time-tested theory of hindsight…

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