Laura Ling and Lisa Ling
Pic from here.
Now that Laura and Lisa are home, it looks like everyone coming out of this is a winner. Bubba won because he’s back in the spotlight where he loves to be. Gore won because it’s coming out that he was working behind the scenes for their release. Lisa gets her sister back. Obama avoids an international dispute that could have easily spiraled out of control. Because Willie visited as a “private citizen” with no messages from the current president, we also know that Obama didn’t have to negotiate or concede anything. The North Koreans wanted Willie just for the photo-op.
Laura and Euna, of course, win their freedom. Plus, we know they’ll both get huge book deals with agents begging them for their stories. From working at a small, non-mainstream media group for jobs that probably didn’t pay much, their careers will be glamorous from this point forward. Kim Jong-Il wins because he got a major American celebrity politician to visit him for a photo-op. The American news media wins because they get a great story to tell.
The North Korean people may lose since their stories will less likely hit the independent news due to the lesson that Kim imparted with his threat of 12 years hard labor, but that’s not certain either–with more engagement with North Korea, it’s possible that their stories will also be heard.
So overall, it looks like things have worked out. Now what can we do to fix the economy?
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I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
Great that they’ve been released. Gotta admit this was one I’ve been watching and am glad to see it brought to the right conclusion.
Now, we need to examine what happened here. I know some folks will probably not like what I’m going to say, but hopefully the happy ending will give them enough emotional security to be brutally honest about the pig-simple facts.
Isn’t everyone getting sick and tired of Americans becoming habitual hostages, thinking that they can waltz into this or that repressive regime and that the US is then obligated to negotiate to get them out?
Like they think every country on earth is their hometown, where everybody knows them, thinks like them, and will treat them as if they’re “somebody?”
Like the government’s job is to expend money and resources and national prestige over some globetrotters who deliberately decided to go waltzing too close to a country that they KNEW was one of the most totalitarian despotic fiefs on the planet and then act like they were at their local city hall or something?
Look, I know some folks will hate this, but it needs to be said. You have a lot of neo-liberals out there who get off on doing stuff like this. To them it’s a great way to have a kind of “war story” to tell. Bragging rights that can’t be trumped. Oh the attention! For five minutes anyway.
You know, I can see those two screaming at some nitwit on Larry King Live and bringing up their “imprisonment” every chance they get:
“I know what tough times are like! I spent five months locked up in North Korea, so don’t tell me about nuclear proliferation, pal!”
I’m sure they’ll try to make it seem like their lives were in danger, but let’s get one damn thing clear –NO American is EVER going to be killed by Lil Kim and his gang.
That would destabilize things totally between him and the US and he doesn’t want that. Will he jail someone? Yes, but even then we all know it won’t last too long. When he gets some more food shipments or medical supplies he’ll decide to let the prisoner go. This case was no different. Whether there was a million vigils, or news story about them, or none at all was inconsequential. This would end with them being released either way.
And we all know it!
And what did they lose months of their lives for? To impress Al Gore’s little group.
And why? To expose the indescribable political oppression of North Korea?
Fine, but did they think that nobody knew this already? Or that North Korea wasn’t getting enough attention on the news? (Apparently these two journalists don’t watch the news!) Or that they were going to tell us something we didn’t already know?
What was the POINT? Absolutely nothing!
And if they get so hot and bothered over brutal regimes I think it funny how people like them NEVER go to the Chiapas or the Congo and cover places where mass murder is happening in the hundreds of thousands. Guess they know if they wandered to close to either of those borders there wouldn’t be any sensational press coverage wondering when they’ll be released.
They would wind up hacked with machetes or gasoline “necklaced.” No looking forward to bragging about their “experiences” on the lecture circuit in that case.
Look, I know for a lot of people this has been quite the cause celebre, but while we’re busy celebrating their release (and regardless of their carelessness their release is a good thing, and deserves mention) let’s also be realistic here.
Lil Kim didn’t kidnap them from New York city in the middle of the night. He didn’t send them any invitations to Pyonyang and then suddenly say, “HAHAHAH! Now that you’ve fallen into my trap I’m going to hold you for ransom!”
They went to him. China doesn’t allow North Korean forces across their border and the North Koreans wouldn’t be crazy enough to try it (the world’s largest standing army, nuclear armed and not happy with NK’s own nuclear program is a damned good deterrant!) so how did he get them?
We already know. They called themselves traipsing across that border fantasizing about how they’d get a segment on Anderson Cooper or whatnot and things didn’t go as planned.
And why is it always Americans who wind up in these jams? You never see reporters from Al Jazeera or Canadian journalists sniffing around the borders of Iran.
Let’s be glad they’re free, but let’s also not fool ourselves about the facts here.
These weren’t some doe-eyed ingenues who had no idea what was going to happen. They know Americans abroad get taken hostage frequently, (this is why the state Department issues “travel warnings”) and they know Kim Jong ll isn’t looking to make any American friends.
They acted like immature college kids who think getting arrested for protesting the G8 is cute. Let’s hope this is the last time anyone is this foolish.
But we all know it won’t be.
“americans” go hiking in Iraq / Iran, mistaken for spies, go figure. ooo look a flock of seagulls ???
I actually don’t disagree with you, Neutral. I’d say chances are decent that they did cross over. They’re lucky Willie was willing to go over. I’m glad they got back, but I also think that there are some lessons here IF they crossed over.
Hopefully lesson learned, although they’ll be so busy shopping with the royalties from their book deals that it won’t matter in the long run.
Okay, so Lisa is saying that they did cross over “briefly.”
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/07/journalists.nkorea/index.html
She’ll tell her story shortly. I smell a book deal.
LOL, well, now theyre going to get a book deal, go on the talk /news show circuit, who knows maybe their dumbass actions will be made into a hollywood movie….I can just imagine the plotline;
*yay* triumph of freedom and democracy in an axis of asian evil country!!
haha i wonder if they’ll change laura/euna into caucasian actors. Maybe Cameron Diaz and Julia Roberts?
sigh…what a fucked up world…
On a seperate note, has anyone seen the pictures of their release? the ones with Clinton standing top of the plane stairs in a jesus like pose(arms outstretched) smiling down, as the two women wade themselves up the stairs into the plane?
Also the picture when the two women are reunited with their husbands with tears streaming down their faces as they rush into the arms of their white (knight) husbands?
If anyone took a feminist or minority reading of the semiotics of those pictures, (or even a christian reading with its “western” implications) damn, its a treasure trove.
I cant help but think “propaganda” when saw those pictures. I mean, all those signifiers the photographers used arent just random coincidences….or are they?
I have to admit it bothered me when I noticed someone in the media used the term “white knight”, referring to Bill, coming to the rescue. It might have been Joan Walsh from Salon.com, I can’t remember.
And yes, I admit I am race sensitive. And I confess, it also bothered me a little to see the two ladies running to their white spouses. I’m not disparaging them at all. Perhaps I’m over reacting, but I’ll leave it at that and not say anymore.
the pictures i’m talking about can be seen here
http://www.chinasmack.com/stories/clinton-rescues-journalists-from-north-korea-chinese-reactions/
(ignore the comments, lol)
I would think the photographers meant to capture the emotion of people seeing their loved ones after being imprisoned after five months. The other photo is of the woman embracing her child from the same vantage point. I remember photos from when my father and his fellow sailors returned from six-month U.S. Naval deployments and they look exactly the same way. Sometimes you can read a little too deep into things.
As for Bill outstretching his arms like Jesus (couldn’t find that one), well, as a photographer, I would think that was more funny due to the irony that such an image could be symbolic. It would almost make Clinton look more like an ass. But that’s just me being cynical.
In order to see someone else’s underhandedness, you are required to “look too much into things.”
For example, my uncle is anti-semitic but he can’t say it outright. So, in order to voice his anti-antisemitism, he disguises it by constantly criticizing Israel’s actions no matter how right or wrong they may be.
This is why I dislike it when minorities taught the feel-good line of being “colorblind.” If you don’t see color, you are unable to see the very real racialization of North American society. Whites want you to remain colorblind because it would allow you to see the real advantages they hold.
What I propose is this: “Colorblind” should actually be replaced with “People should see race but everyone should be treated equally.”
Of course, whites don’t like this because it shows how minorities have a huge disadvantage in control.
It didnt take long for all the cynical predictions to become truth, lol
Daily Mail; By Sharon Churcher and Caroline Graham
Last updated at 1:02 AM on 09th August 2009
“of last night, the bidding war for the first interview with the two heroines had reportedly reached ‘the mid six figures’. Book publisher HarperCollins is said to have offered a cool $1million for a ‘warts and all’ account of their life during 140 days ‘behind enemy lines’.
A movie deal will surely follow. Laura’s Scottish husband Iain Clayton, a 35-year-old mathematician turned financial analyst, told The Mail on Sunday from the steps of their modest ranch-style home in the less than salubrious suburb of North Hollywood: ‘I’m afraid I can’t say anything. No one is allowed to talk. We are in the process of doing deals and I don’t want to mess anything up. Everything is being handled by our media adviser.”
link can be found here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1205224/In-peril-Pyongyang-Those-girls-greater-danger-sharing-plane-Bill-Clinton.html#
Neutral Observer- I agree with everything you said, except your first paragraph. I’m pretty sure you directed that comment to me and the few others who sympathized with the two journalists during their captivity. I’d like to know how you equate sympathy for fellow human beings caught in a bind with emotional insecurity, lack of honesty, and plain ol’ denial. Because that’s what you’re trying to say here, right?
Apologies to Jaehwan, because I know I’m purposely derailing this topic a bit here. But I do want to address the issue of empathy and compassion, and how they’re sorely lacking in our community these days. When these journalists were in captivity, nobody knew for sure what happened. There were not enough facts, except we all knew that the NK gov’t have a history of kidnapping and not exactly known for its hospitality.
When we hear of the plight of these Asian American women, me, and the people like me who care about the Asian American community, naturally extended our sympathy to these women and their families. We do not know the cause and the reasons behind their capture, but not knowing does not degrade our compassion anymore than they reinforce your cynicism. Now that they’re released, and the facts are coming in, is it possible for me to change my opinion? Absolutely. I am fully able to deal with the facts, but such hindsight does not invalidate whatever feelings and opinions I may have had at the time of their capture.
It seems to me that we’ve become so cynical in these modern times that we’re unable to treat each other, even those in our community, fairly. We’ve literally become a bunch of assholes, and we cover it up under a veneer of “cold logic”.
Leon, if it makes you feel any better, I wasn’t talking about you, and I can’t see what in my admittedly too-long message would lead anyone to think I was referring to anyone in specific. Trust me, if I was, I would have said so. I’d have been very tactful about how I did it, but I still would have made sure to name them.
I’m a lot of things, but bashful ain’t one of them.
I’ve never even seen –or rather haven’t noticed– your name before now. If we perhaps disagreed with each other on something in the past I must say I’ve LONG since forgotten about it. I talk to a lot of people on the internet and it’s all I can do to remember the folks in my numerous “friends” lists, to say nothing of any others. Truth be told I simply don’t make the effort.
What I was referring to was the passion this episode caused in people in general.
Anyway, they’ve been released, are home with their white husbands, and –as I “predicted!”– haggling over who gets the book deal and whether Lucy Liu or Li Gong will star in the made-for-television movie.
I’m not a big fan of former president Clinton, but he does understand human behavior and the lines of the body and how subconciously humans read into posture, a look, a glance, a gesture, etc. In that sense, I think he is brilliant. Bringing home these two journalist is two of his greatest accomplishments and I am greatful to him for that. Despite his many inequities, his graciousness goes a long way.
N.O.- That is fine. No slight intended, none taken. I’ll just chalk this up to misunderstanding.