North Korean Cannibals

[Lizardman]

Read about what happened in Europe during the black death of 1348 - 1350.

Parents killed their children, children killed their parents, people dug up the dead, in areas all over europe cats and dogs went extinct because they were killed and eaten.

During the black death of 1348 - 1350 there was a story of a man and his son going to town to buy some food. On the way to town they stopped off at a cousins house. The cousin was dying of the plague, she she begged the man and son to take her child.

They took the child alright, they killed the infant, butchered it, brought it home and told his wife him and his son got a small pig. The wife cooked the child and the family ate it.

Never underestimate what people are capable of.

~ EDIT ~

I took a picture of the book this story came from if anyone wants to read it.

That reminds me of a story I read in a Jared Diamond book. He mentions that in New Guinea cannibalism is common and the word for eating people meat, when translated to English, is "long pig". I guess we taste like pork :/

 

[Genx87]

I grow tired of straw men, but they don't go away. I didn't say it isn't communism, I said that communism isn't the root cause. Certainly China no longer has cannibals.

Mass starvations from poor resource management is common among all major communist nations. So yes, communism is a root cause.

The underlying tie is a dictatorship. I think communism is more likely to lead to a dictatorship, but of all the people I have seen on this form or met in real life who 'extol the virtues of communism', I haven't heard a single person talk about scrapping democracy.

What I do see is people who are identified by others as supporting communism when really all they are advocating is a little more socialism.

I'd be interest to hear if you think anyone on this forum 'extols the virtues of communism'.

On this forum? I dont think we have any that publicly want a communist state. Maybe steeplerot is about the closest we have here. But so what? This forum is small and inconsequential in the real world. There are plenty of people around the world who still carry the banner of this bankrupt ideology.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

That reminds me of a story I read in a Jared Diamond book. He mentions that in New Guinea cannibalism is common and the word for eating people meat, when translated to English, is "long pig". I guess we taste like pork :/

Yeah, humans taste very similar to pork.

Thats why we can get pig valves and stuff, their physiology is very similar to ours.

 

[Matt1970]

After seeing wages erode for 3 decades, after seeing banks bailed out at tax payers expense, after seeing walmart make welfare part of their benefits package for decades,,,,, yea, I have lost just about all faith in capitalism.

Capitalism is a pyramid scheme that only benefits the people (and companies) on at the top.




We are supposed to have a social safety net for people in need.

But that safety net is not dependent on the form of government we have.

Well, the article in the OP is the alternative. Which do you choose?

 

[actuarial]

Mass starvations from poor resource management is common among all major communist nations. So yes, communism is a root cause.

I don't think it's the case in China anymore, but I agree it is quite common.

On this forum? I dont think we have any that publicly want a communist state. Maybe steeplerot is about the closest we have here. But so what? This forum is small and inconsequential in the real world. There are plenty of people around the world who still carry the banner of this bankrupt ideology.

I took from your original comment that you were passively suggesting members of this forum are supporters of communism (which other posters do suggest). My bad.

 

[Hugo Drax]

NK has no nuclear missiles. And won't anytime soon.

I suspect the design they have used for the underground tests are the old Gun type fission design which would not work since it would be too bulky to be carried on an ICBM.

The last test they did which was underground was of a poor yield in the low kiloton range.

I doubt they are past the enriched uranium gun type fission bomb. And they sure as heck are behind in modern guidance technology as well.

 

[Hugo Drax]

The other option is capitalism with its rich get everything and the poor get nothing?

capitalism is not everything its cracked up to be.

The USA is not a pure capitalism economy.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

The USA is not a pure capitalism economy.

Nor is China a pure communistic economy.

 

[klinc]

Nor is China a pure communistic economy.

China's Construction
You have the right to shut the fuck up.

Communism is communism. Doesn't mean its right if the state runs the country like one big factory with cheap labour. Where in capitalism you spend your money in salaries in Communism you don't. For top officials its good but a civilian you will be born in poverty and you will die in poverty no matter how hard you work.

 

[OCGuy]

China's Construction
You have the right to shut the fuck up.

Communism is communism. Doesn't mean its right if the state runs the country like one big factory with cheap labour. Where in capitalism you spend your money in salaries in Communism you don't. For top officials its good but a civilian you will be born in poverty and you will die in poverty no matter how hard you work.

Keep up with the times. They have a rapidly expanding middle class, and are going to over-take our GDP by 2016.

Are you still screwed if you are a villiager or Foxconn worker? For now, yes. But wages are rising there, and they are worried about being able to continue to manufacture goods as cheaply as they can now.

China is rising rapidly.

 

[piasabird]

Nothing like bread lines. There is always the black market.

I suppose if you have enough bribery money you can do anything in a communist country.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Yeah but there arent any of those evil rich with their unfair wage gap. So you have to eat your own kids? At least the rich arent dining on cavier tonight.

Is it possible...could it be possible that many of the people who are concerned about the wage gap and the increasing amount of wealth concentrated in the rich don't advocate outright communism or socialism, but rather a mixed economy with a mixture of capitalist and socialist elements? Is it possible that a middle ground might exist between laissez-faire capitalism and communism?

 

[klinc]

Keep up with the times. They have a rapidly expanding middle class, and are going to over-take our GDP by 2016.

Are you still screwed if you are a villiager or Foxconn worker? For now, yes. But wages are rising there, and they are worried about being able to continue to manufacture goods as cheaply as they can now.

China is rising rapidly.

Where did you hear this? On TV from Chinese TV and Chinese working? Why would Chinese immigrants then ask syndicates who exploit them get out of China? They will travel miles on foot climb mountains hide in trains and go work in brothels just to get out of there
You call this rapidly changing?

A government-mandated 11-hour workday was routinely ignored, and factories frequently paid less than the minimum wage or withheld pay for minor infractions. Injuries on the factory floor resulted from safety violations and minimal employee training. Workers might sleep 10 or 15 to a room, with 50 people sharing one bathroom.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/30/opinion/chang-chinese-factory-workers/index.html

Blind activist Chen was also under house arrest. He had advocated an end to forced abortions and had to go to jail for four years as a result. After his release in 2010, his own home became a jail of sorts for him and his entire family. In April 2012, he managed to escape to the US embassy. Now he and his family live in New York. Both cases caused an uproar in the international community.

China expert at Amnesty International Dirk Pleiter is also worried about the situation in China. "Since Liu Xiaobo's conviction, we have not seen any improvements in the way people are treated who are critical of the government, or, like Liu Xiaobo, fight for the improvement of the country's rights situation. The legal situation allowing administrative detention has not changed at all."

Members of the "Underground" church, loyal to the Vatican rather than the state-sanctioned church, have noticed the change. They have been ordered to end their church services and their clerics are under surveillance. Even their colleagues of the church have been put under increased pressure. A high-ranking priest in the Shanghai diocese announced in July his resignation from the officially recognized "Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association" and has not been seen since then. It is assumed he is under house arrest.

Hu Jia said the difference between now and then was that the regime in the past tried to defend its actions. "But now, those in power are not really concerned with these mafia methods … the country is, after all, still in the hands of the Communist Party."

http://www.dw.de/human-rights-in-china-a-downward-spiral/a-16442172

China is still a authoritarian one-party state that imposes sharp curbs on freedom of expression, association, and religion; openly rejects judicial independence and press freedom; and arbitrarily restricts and suppresses human rights defenders and organizations, often through extra-judicial measures.

So its still a shit hole no matter how much that giant factory makes or rise in the world economy.