I learned some truly horrible things today.
One of my colleagues invited our whole team to spend their lunch hour watching Seoul Train - a documentary about refugees from North Korea. I think everyone came to watch.
The film largely focuses on a man known as the Korean Schindler - a hero running an underground railroad smuggling people out of North Korea. The penalty for defecting is death.
The situation for millions of people in North Korea is desperate. Famine has killed an estimated 2 million - over 10% of the population. Food aid is redirected by the government. Many citizens are kept in forced labour camps. Men, women, children.
Many citizens try and escape to China. The Chinese government hunt them down and return them.
The film shows the fate of several refugee families, who escape, protest and are captured. Their fate is unknown, but likely prison or death.
How can humans treat other humans like this? How? And how can other humans, societies, stand by and watch?
At the end of the film, no-one really said a word. How we each reacted to it was unreal. It was shocking. Someone had had the forethought to place a box of tissues at the front of the room. They were needed.
I left the room reeling - realising how lucky I am.
More information about these terrible atrocities can be found at www.seoultrain.com
Have a look - and realise how lucky you are too.
One of my colleagues invited our whole team to spend their lunch hour watching Seoul Train - a documentary about refugees from North Korea. I think everyone came to watch.
The film largely focuses on a man known as the Korean Schindler - a hero running an underground railroad smuggling people out of North Korea. The penalty for defecting is death.
The situation for millions of people in North Korea is desperate. Famine has killed an estimated 2 million - over 10% of the population. Food aid is redirected by the government. Many citizens are kept in forced labour camps. Men, women, children.
Many citizens try and escape to China. The Chinese government hunt them down and return them.
The film shows the fate of several refugee families, who escape, protest and are captured. Their fate is unknown, but likely prison or death.
How can humans treat other humans like this? How? And how can other humans, societies, stand by and watch?
At the end of the film, no-one really said a word. How we each reacted to it was unreal. It was shocking. Someone had had the forethought to place a box of tissues at the front of the room. They were needed.
I left the room reeling - realising how lucky I am.
More information about these terrible atrocities can be found at www.seoultrain.com
Have a look - and realise how lucky you are too.
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