Bad Borders
North Korea is one of the most totalitarian countries on Earth. Its people suffer from political despotism, severe underdevelopment and starvation so it's not surprising that every year thousands of people try to defect the country. Now, escaping is difficult enough, but arriving to a secure place, as the documentary shows, is even more arduous.
To desert North Korea, you can't just jump over the fence into South Korea. That is, except if you're eager to cross fields of landmines, predators, and North Korean military with pretty loose rules of engagement. So most of the renegades head for China, but they're not quite welcoming. The Chinese authorities deny giving North Koreans exile status, partly because they see North Korea as a safeguard between them and the "capitalist" South Korea.
So if a North Korean is detained in China, they get deported back where they came from. Those who manage to slip through the net have to entrust themselves to an organization of human traffickers and dealers to lead them out of the country.
In this documentary, VICE also went to Kashmir to see just how dangerous the conflict between India and Pakistan is getting. Some say, it is the most risky border on the planet. India and Pakistan really don't like each other. Now, this hatred begun when Mahatma Gandhi eventually triumphed in gaining independence from Great Britain.
And in the following anarchy, while they were trying to build a new State, India's Muslims demanded to establish their own country. As a result, millions of Hindus and Sikhs escaped to India, and at the same time, millions of India's Muslims migrated to the just established Pakistan.
Now, while this partition was taking place, tens of millions of people were displaced. And, meanwhile, over a million people on both sides were brutally killed in one big religious rampage. India and Pakistan have been hostile ever since. The focus of this chronic conflict is Kashmir, a mostly Muslim area that is somewhat occupied by India.
Yet another video blocked in the Netherlands..Must be 50% of the videos now on this site.
India and Pakistan will hopefully invest in resolving attitudes of indifference and intollerance towards each other !! The victim of resentments is the one carrying them,bridge the gap firstly by finding similarities, then diolugue!! No nation on this planet ought to experience their citizens die in horrific agony due to nuclear war,most would die immediately others would suffer beyond anyone's imagination with skin hanging off their bodies.Please cease the insanity and the hate,both nations have a wonderful culture to share with the World.Please think first rather than before it's to late,give the World the gift of peace.
Kashmir bit was very interesting but the first part about North Korea seemed more like a clueless uncultured hipster tagging along with some escapees just for fun, without actually teaching us anything about the politics, history etc (unlike the Kashmir section which was quite cool, although the M.A.D hints at the end are a bit OTT I reckon)
Until ALL religions are stopped/banned there will never be peace..sadly this will never happen because we are all to stupid and dumb.
And Borders/Land ? And Tribes? And Greed? And Politics? Responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths. No sadly im afraid people will always find a reason to fight.
Your stopping/banning of religion will be another area of conflict and there still won't be peace. Freedom includes the right to believe what we want even if ridiculous. Take away that freedom and you have a recipe for violence. The last thing we need is some type of watchdog deciding if my beliefs are religious or not. What is needed is a planet wide culture of mutual respect for the beliefs of others.
What I meant was religion should have no part in decide in what the world does..if they want religion ok but do it out of the face of every one else.
That I can agree with and actually endorse. Most western countries follow those ideals in spite of the religious right in the United States.
We are definitely the craziest species on Earth. Ultimately, it's the population time bomb that will trigger nuclear bombs in south Asia. Peak humanity may soon be in the rear view mirror.
This is very true. At least the west has a more sustainable population level. In the future I can see a lot of conflicts over water, and I imagine more unrest about poor air quality.
Why cant we all just get along? Also I think its a bit silly to say the Chinese view North Korea as a buffer zone. (China itself is just as capitalist as the USA) *If anything a slighter smarter version of capitalist. As the Chinese are very careful to protect certain industries and have already invested heavily in parts of Africa and Iraq, to secure future energy resources. Also lets not forget North Korea also has a special economic zone with South Korea.
I had to turn it off when they brought up the graphic informing you that during the cold war Central America belonged to the USSR.
I had no idea tensions were so critical between Pakistan and India. Pakistan really got caught between a rock and a hard place with the Americans after 911 but I can't say I have any sympathy for an entity that is a 'Jihadi State' in all but name.
Sh*tty 'Vice' theatrics aside this was an informative watch.
Not to mention Pakistan was harboring osama bin whats his name -
and not to mention Sr Bush sold Pakistan Nuk's -
And not to mention we all worship segregated "gods" -
Can't say I disagree in the least, especially with the 'Gods' remark. There's no way these kinds of divisions would exist or survive so long without the Godhead.
do you mean osama bin'd bi bush jr. or osama bin'd bi bush sr.(the satire is in the 'phonetics'>smirk<)?
I don't think Bush Sr sold Nukes to Pakistan. As far as I know Munir Ahmad Khan and Abdul Qadeer Khan were the leaders of the Pakistani nuclear program and were responsible for the enrichment done on site in Pakistan.
No he sold them Nuk's (sounds nuts I know)
I would like supporting information if you mean the U.S.A sold nukes as in nuclear warheads to Pakistan.
If you meant NUK as in the baby products brand, don't bother, it would be surprising but of very little consequences... :)
*Hides Union Jack behind his back*
It was nuffink to do with us guv honest...
Wow, lots was packed into this 30 minute doc.
The first part, about the North Koreans trying to reach South Korea was terribly sad, but heart-warming at the same time, because we meet a wonderful Pastor who helps these people.
The second part, where the host takes us to Kashmir, was quite unsettling but exciting.
Thank you for posting this.
i do not like the slackish usage of the(mis-leading!) term 'anarchy' in the pre-face to this documentary (see:language as a weapon) but the documentary here addresses the final frontier of the cold war which most have believed ended with the demise of the 'UDSSR'....:"we were fooled but we're not foolish enough to accept the fool's new planned regime of foolishness!"
The cold war never ended bud, it just got put on the back burner for a while is all. I guess the collapse of one lone wall in Germany wasn't enough to halt that epic power struggle.
UDSSR ... What does the 'D' stand for? Google won't tell me.
exactly...it never ended (which i stated above) & sorry for UdSSR,it's the german term i used & it stands for:Union der Sozialistischen Sowjet Republiken .
Ah, thanks for the clarification.
Now I can give you the thumbs up:)
why thumbs up?do you not vote positive when there's a lack of grammar?
>the-smirky-one<
It's the thought that counts.
I can't give an up vote when I don't understand what the heck someone's writing about!
You wascally wabbit.
Although i don't disagree with the sentiment i think it's wortth noting that the people of eastern Europe and east Berlin might see things a tad differently.
True, but I wonder what the Ukrainians are thinking at the moment ;)
ah...Touché my friend.