I ride with a guy who just got out of the Marine Corp and he and I will chit-chat on breaks. He’s twenty years my junior, but we hit it off for some reason. He was looking for a way to stay fit and started picking my brain on the topic. Anyway, one of the things that he said he does not miss about the service is dealing with 20-somethings. So many of them struggle with basic responsibility that it gets tiresome. They learn eventually, but he says he just got tired of dealing with it.
Hearing someone in their early 30’s complain about young people always makes me smile. I’ve never been the sort of complain about the young. I hated hearing it when I was young so I don’t do it now that I’m a geezer. Yet, hearing it from people, who could be my kids, makes me laugh for some reason. That said, I can see where he is coming from on the topic. It’s hard dealing with young people today, which is why I avoid it.
This came to mind reading this with my Metamucil.
North Korea has sentenced an American student to 15 years’ hard labour for crimes against the state after he tearfully admitted that he tried to steal a propaganda banner from a hotel.
Otto Warmbier was arrested as he attempted to leave the country in January and later made a televised “confession” saying that he had taken the sign to bring back a “trophy”.
North Korean state news agency KCNA said the 21-year-old’s offence was “pursuant to the US government’s hostile policy” and that he was convicted under an article of the criminal code dealing with subversion.
The University of Virginia student who had visited the isolated state as a tourist, had said during his confession that he had tried to steal the banner for an acquaintance who wanted to hang it in her church.
In my youth, visiting East Germany was the thing to do for Americans looking for some adventure. You could also go to places like El Salvador or Nicaragua if you were truly brave. Brits, I’m told, would light out for China or the Balkans for some reason. I once knew a French guy who spent some years in North Africa bumming around and smoking hash. In all cases, you knew what you were getting into and you knew to avoid trouble.
North Korea is run by people that could very well be insane. It’s hard to know as it could be an act for the West, but sometimes things are as they appear. Going there at all is an unnecessary risk. There’s adventure and then there is wearing a meat suit into the lion’s den. The line between risk taking and idiocy is not that thin. It takes a mighty leap to go from one to the other and this young man managed it.
What makes it hard to have any sympathy for him is what got him pinched by the NORKs. He stole a poster so he could be a big shot back home. This is the kind of behavior people complain about when discussing young people of this generation. It’s this weird sense of entitlement. The kid wanted it to look cool to his coevals. That’s all that mattered. He could not imagine how this would be seen by the guys with guns.
It’s a shame the NORKs lack anything resembling self-awareness. What they should have done is offered the kid a deal. He could do 15 years in prison or take a beating. Have a guy like Oddjob standing there cracking his knuckles waiting for the go ahead. Put the thing on YouTube. If the kid took his beating like a man then he would be a hero back home. If not, then he goes home as a coward. But, the NORKs are not known for nuance.
andy rooney rule, daddy wacked off in a flower pot and raised a bloomin idiot
I remember some years back an American kid got caned for spitting on the sidewalk in Singapore or someplace. It actually made it to the evening news and I think even some elected officials even tried to intervene. Germans were looking at each other in total fascination…our position was simple, take the beating you deserve and get on with it. Once again, the Americans made a dog and pony show over nothing. Cultural differences are just amazing.
I remember that well. Most Americans thought we should adopt caning too. Our pols were more than a little perplexed by public reaction.
Yeah, I’m just going to smuggle a bunch of Hash out of Turkey, strapped to my body, on a plane……
Sheesh, we were just hiking right along along the boarder…and got “lost”….
How was I to know that it pissed off the locals to swill beer, in a bikini, in the Kasbah, with my girlfriends…
Yep, that stolen, smuggled, poster gave you an “aura” of danger amongst the chicks at (ie) the “Occupy” sit in.
(or Save the Whales/seals/grape pickers/Khmer Rouge/ fur/ virginity status/ prostitutes/ failing grade students/ canvas tote bags/ illegal alien sweat shops/ ….
Any questions why the designation “child” jumped from 18, to 21, to 25 (for higher education domicile insurance purposes)
And certain Democratic Socialists demand that “certain” 17YO folk be allowed to vote in primaries?
Guess the Norks aren’t all that into “Safe Places” and the whole Soros/red diaper baby funded SJW thing.
Well the idiot will have plenty of time to ponder Vladimir Lenin’s lesson of useful dupes.
Given what giant propagandists the Norks are known to be, why did he not simply ask if they would give him a poster to display in his dorm room, to show the West how thing “really are” in the kingdom of Fatty Whitewalls™ The Third?
It takes a special kind of stupid to get thrown in prison for trying to spread the regime’s propaganda.
“There’s adventure and then there is wearing a meat suit into the lion’s den.”
Laughing over that…good one!
Still, I do feel sympathy for the kid. The punishment is completely out of proportion to the crime, yet someone traveling with this young man should have made it clear that there are certain countries (btw, who in their right mind wants to visit North Korea???) where you absolutely have to be on your best behavior, no exceptions. I could be way off base, but it seems less likely that this was an entitlement thing and more likely that he didn’t have an understanding that there are countries where people can lose a hand over stealing, or lock you up and make you do hard labor for 15 years. Many young people today seem to want to believe that everyone in the world is more or less the same, just different races, religions, cultures, living in exotic locales.
Anybody entering North Korea is supplied with more warnings than a box of dynamite. Darwin rules this one.
Yeah, the State Dept. Alerts and Warnings for Nork covers in about a jillion words what happened to him. Better would have been a look at one of the DOD unclassified Foreign Clearance Guides, but he probably isn’t smart enough to know how to find one.
Sometimes the baby just has to touch the stove to learn what “hot” really is.
Did you read the story some time back about a little Taiwanese boy who tripped at a museum and damaged a 350-year-old painting valued at $1.5 million? Thank goodness that didn’t happen in a North Korean museum or Taiwan would probably be a radioactive hole in the ocean.
I’d like to send another couple million nitwits to NoKo for their continuing education.
“I ride with a guy who just got out of the Marine Corp and he and I will chit-chat on breaks.”
You ride what? Bicycles? Motorcycles? Horses? Brooms?
“looking for a way to stay fit” pretty much answer your question.
Though your query reminded me of this:
—————
Chesty Puller said before he died
There was five things that he wanted to ride
Tricycle, bicycle, auto-mobile
A four legged pony on a ferris wheel
—————-
Mind you I never served. USMC was a pretty poor option for a reasonably smart person getting out of high school in the late 70s. Nevertheless I appreciate the Joadies.
Unicycles.
When I was a young man roaming around Southeast Asia was a big thing. I even hooked up with an outfit that paid for my trip, fed and clothed me, and gave me a monthly stipend. It wasn’t much fun though.
Did you get a refund? 😛
So….SE Asia Tour (second place) then? Join the discussion
All the little idiot had to do was buy a poster. If that wasn’t allowed, take a picture of one and have a poster made. But no, Duncelot had to break a couple of laws and end up in a norko prison. At least he will come out smarter than he went in….
If he comes out at all….