On Oct. 5, Yeon-mi Park, a human rights activist from South Korea, came to DePauw University to speak about her experiences defecting from North Korea. She began the night by talking about the horrors and hunger she faced while living in North Korea as a child. The society she described is one that I would expect to only exist in nightmares, yet people live through it everyday. When she discussed the education system my heart broke for all of the people living through this horrible regime.
North Korean students are not taught geography, math, or anything that would contradict the idea that the only thing to live for is the regime. North Koreans are not allowed to use the tense “I”; they can only refer to themselves and others as “we.” If the topic of the United States is brought up in conversation in North Korea, they only reference our people as American bastards, and believe we have no other name. Their math problems are centered around killing American Bastards. An example Park gave us is the math problem: “If there are five American bastards and you kill three American bastards, how many are left?”
These children are not receiving a real education nor are they allowed to have creativity and think for themselves. When playing outside in the snow, the children don’t make up games with frosty or another character from their culture, but instead make an American Bastard and hit him with a stick until they presume he would be dead. These are just a few of the horrors North Koreans experience everyday.
The idea that they call Americans "bastards" infuriates me, but not for the reason many may think. I am infuriated because these children are being deprived of an education. Education should be a fundamental human right, yet many people around the world do not have one. Children are being brainwashed then continue to live a life where they more often than not go to bed hungry, because their families are so poor there is not enough food. The families are poor and education can help solve this problem. Yet, education for North Koreans will never occur because it would teach them to think on their own, outside of the all-powerful regime.
Yeon-mi Park described the feeling of freedom and the fact that she never experienced freedom in North Korea. She talked about an American’s understanding of freedom and how we have the opportunity to experience it our whole lives. Yet, as she spoke I came to realize how much I take our freedom for granted in the United States. I have the ability to go to the school I want and receive a meaningful education. I can have my own opinion and speak out without the threat of being jailed. I can watch a movie that isn’t propaganda and not fear that I will be executed. Every single day we, as Americans, take all of these actions for granted.
It took someone who didn’t experience freedom until she was a teenager to explain to me what freedom truly is. In elementary school we are taught a definition then we write about it in high school and in college we use that freedom to protest beliefs we don’t agree with. I ask you to question whether or not you truly understand freedom because I am ashamed to admit that I didn’t have a complete grasp on freedom until my sophomore year of college. Yeon-mi Park thank you for helping me define freedom and giving me a goal for my future.
