My friend bought a PS3 and downloaded this program called Folding@home. You donate your processing power from your PC or PS3 to Stanford to help research protein folding. In the program you can see a rotating map of the world where there are yellow dots to represent where people in the world are helping out. You can see the US lit up all the time, especially around New York City and Los Angeles. Finding London on the map isn't hard since all the dots are concentrated there. What about countries that don't have dots? Are they the anti-humanist countries? Are they the people who don't care? No. They are the countries that have no ability to help. There is one country in Asia that you will never see a dot lit up in. Not China. Not Russia. Not even Vietnam. The country I am talking about has no power and no way to get it. North Korea.

Its hard thinking about North Korea. Korea has gone through so much in the past 100 years. Automatically, Americans are told to hate North Korea for all of its terrible atrocities. Of course North Korea has done terrible things. It instigated a war by crossing the parrallel, it has constantly denied people to discover foreign cultures with severe punishments, it starved its people during the beginning of the famine by systematically denying aid until the UN and China stepped in because of its Stalinist views, and abducted many Japanese citizens for no real reason. Some of this has to do with Kim jong-il. Some of it doesn't. Many defectors from the country attest to the horrors of North Korean rule. Just like I would like to see Bush follow in Tony Blair's footsteps, I would love to see this man disappear as well. It gets harder and harder to be objective everyday.

Watching US-North Korean diplomatic relations has been pathetic. Recently, we've been trying to get North Korea to completely disable a nuclear reactor called Yongbyon. This is a completely reasonable goal. I would love to see an end to nuclear warfare as the next life-loving human being. Of course, for them to disable it, we, the US, have to give them something in return. We are supposed to give them 950,000 tons of oil (Which won't help gas prices), take North Korea off the list of state sponsors of terrorism, and stop withholding US aid to North Korea after the recent floods in exchange for the complete shutdown of the reactor. We inspected the reactor and have declared that it is partially shut down. Its been said that activity is finished within the reactor, but can be reactivated. There is no nuclear activity at the reactor. So far, we've given North Korea 50,000 tons of oil for all the work so far. We have not done the other two things, nor does it seem like we ever will.

The negotiations are at a stand still. This is because the way both countries are going about the relations is faulty. For starters, we've only given North Korea 5.2% of the oil we promised them. Considering they have done more work than us, it would be smart to give them a little more oil. This would of course be cast off as appeasement by the current US government, so it will never happen. This would help the decision to completely shut down the reactor. Secondly, the main problem is taking North Korea off of the state sponsors for terrorism. North Korea says it will not shut down the reactor until this is finished. How stupid of the US to even pretend to negotiate this. It won't happen. North Korea is abducting Japanese citizens. How would taking them off of the list help Japan's view, our ally, of the US? It was a faulty move for promising to do it. If we are going to ever try to stabilize relations with North Korea, we need to take a more diplomatic and reasonable stance. North Korea is still at obvious fault for committing so many horrid human rights violations.

People seem to think that diplomatic relations are only about enacting justice. This is not true. We are supposed to have relations to make a more peaceful future for the world. Being vindictive on both sides, which both sides are stubbornly doing, is not going to help whatsoever. Because of the state of conditions we cannot expect huge improvements in relations between the US and North Korea within the next few years.

Recently, the New York Philharmonic went to Pyongyang to celebrate improvement in US-North Korean relations and to be the first admission of real western culture in North Korea. This has been a phenomenon to the world how far we have come in relations. One music group. It definetely has more effect than it seems, but it still is small. Small steps, I guess. Its amazing to think that this is the first time North Koreans got to hear a song from Antonin Dvorak's New World Symphony, my favorite symphony, for the first time (Publicly). CNN released a show called Notes From North Korea which held interviews from the musicians. There was one woman in particular whose father was abducted from South Korea. She passionately hated North Korea for what it had done to her father. She almost didn't go on the trip out of disgust. She went on the trip and in the end enjoyed playing. It is nice to know that even after the terrible events of her father being abducted she could have a good time playing in North Korea.

It is sad to hear what some of the North Koreans say about the US. They expect an imminent unavoidable war with the US. With Kim Jong-il's government running the propoganda like Bush did to get the US into the Iraq war, it is hard to imagine how we can calm the people of North Korea. Considering North Korea's nuclear stance, it is hard to imagine the US government taking war off the list of options, even with America's current anti-war ferver. It saddens me whenever I hear war veterans yell "God damn North Korea." or something of the like. Some of them have been to Korea, fighting in the Korean war. It is understandable to hear their hate, since they have seen some of the atrocities North Korea commmitted. Its still amazing to see people's faces when they hear that the man who did the Virginia Tech Massacre was not actually North Korean, but South Korean. People will say, "But South Koreans are so friendly." stupidly, because they do not understand how to separate one enemy fro another. On both sides, people will continue to be ignorant to one another.

Like every idealist, I wish we could open trade with North Korea like the next person, but we have to be realistic. Hopefully, we can fix our diplomatic relations with North Korea and watch as North Korea commits to doing its part. It will continue to be a long road. It will be a great day for peace when we can call North Koreans our friends.

I'm off to finally* graduate.

* I won't receive my diploma until I go into school and get it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5100544.stm

That is all.

Oh. What was the point of Blade Runner?


Me: COMEON. 300 was a great movie. If any movie is going to stand the test of time, it is 300 XP
Friend: yeah, for how ridiculous it is >_>
Me: Why is it ridiculous? Its a true story.
Friend: fortified with plenty of breasts and dismemberment
Me: Persians didn't wear 20th century clothing and that happens in war. People die.
Friend: the movie is an abomination XP
Me: With no evidence to prove your point XP
Friend:  it's superficial, what other evidence do i need?
Me: No it isn't Its a high budget action movie portraying historical events. What else do you expect of it? If you don't want to see breasts and death, go watch Hope Floats and die of boredom XP
Friend: i think i'd rather be bored than disgusted XP
Me: Well, you  have a limit and it is far lower than 300 went. So, don't watch violent action movies. Did the girl with the piercing beard disturb you?
Friend: actually that kind of turned me on