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I firmly do not believe this line people like to say. Maybe stereotypes are/were true for some person somewhere but it's not logical to paint over 300 million people with the same brush and to actually believe it (because it's one thing to joke or be not entirely serious). It just isn't. There are regional differences within the US, multiple little cultures/cultural differences, and socioeconomic differences that can all explain the way people behave and sort of hint at what you may expect from people, but never is it accurate to say or assume that an American will eat all your food or use all your water or that we are all "greedy." It's just ridiculous and IMHO there's really no excuse for those who think in such a way.
I think that poster's family members were far more rude than most Americans apparently are.
The family member was rude, however Americans do tend to eat much larger portions at meals and also take longer, more frequent showers compared to other nationalities, so that is where the stereotype is coming from.
Just as an aside, it doesn't work like in the movies, though. I wouldn't say a really unlucky shot never happens, but under normal circumstances, doing substantial internal damage, enough to be crippling or fatal, requires more air in bigger bubbles than can be readily injected with a regular needle and syringe. In reality it wouldn't be as sneaky to administer or as undetectable as a regular pinprick and a little bubble...I mean, just picture, the assassin shows up with a huge gauge needle and a tank of compressed air
Another glitch that makes this not foolproof for assassination is that our lungs are often able to dissipate air embolisms as the blood passes through them.
Gas embolisms are also one of the things that can happen when divers get the bends. Come to think of it, you could induce the same effect with a hyperbaric chamber, with a much higher fatality rate. But I'm sure that would show up in autopsy.
Odd that this kind of rude behavior from foreigners has to be tolerated by Americans, going so far as to lie about your nationality (which won't work if you need to present your passport!), yet if we Americans say anything bad about foreigners, we get ripped a new one... "you're a xenophobic racist hater blah blah blah" ... double standard
Has the political left/right animosity in the U.S. spread to the entire world? How sad.
I've traveled quite a bit to diverse locations, and lived and/or worked in several other countries. I can only think of one incident where someone's given me aggro for being American, and I shut that down with a joke before it even got off the ground.
I mean, would I walk around in a Trump hat shouting about manifest destiny, no. But I've never had to conceal that I was from the US.
During my trip to NK I was never in fear of any danger or even death. The most dangerous part was probably flying on their airline with 40 year old soviet airplanes. Or riding a bus over a very bumpy road and rather less experienced driver that was obviously struggling with the manual transmission. Travelling there is very safe from what I noticed, as long as you follow the rules. Also, if you do not follow the rules, it is absolutely uncommon to just arrest and sentence you, as your guides are usually responsible for you and try to make it a good trip for you. If you do something wrong, e.g. taking pictures of restricted things, trying to talk to local people, trying to touch and take something that is not allowed, they will first tell you to stop that. Any problem within the group may have consequences for the tour guides as well, so they will probably not disclose any minor little "incidents".
I don't know what really happened, was there any hidden agenda behind Otto? What is about the $200,000 he told church will pay his mother in case he will be arrested. There could have been some strange groups behind him, that were stating "communism should be ended in North Korea" and there was something more about. I am not sure if all those stories were just invented by North Korean interrrogators:
Quote:
The apology asserted, for example, that Mr. Warmbier had a profit motive in the theft because his family was suffering acute financial difficulties. It also asserted that he had concocted the plot months earlier while dining at the home of a friend whose mother was identified as a deaconess at the Friendship United Methodist Church of Wyoming, Ohio, a Cincinnati suburb.
Mr. Warmbier said the mother, whom he quoted as saying communism should be ended in North Korea, had offered him a $10,000 car if he succeeded and would pay his family $200,000 if he were caught and arrested.
Mr. Warmbier also said the Z Society, one of the University of Virginia’s oldest and most clandestine clubs, had encouraged him to steal the banner, promising him membership if he was successful.
Meshach Kanyion, the pastor of the Friendship United Methodist Church, issued a statement saying, “We pray for his quick and safe return to the United States,” and added that further comment “would neither be appropriate or helpful” while Mr. Warmbier is being held.
However, from my experience about NK, the thing went totally wrong for NK. They are usually extremely reasonable if you understand their logic, even if that may sound weird for many. There is no "blind hate" but everything is usually planned and has a certain reason.
They arrested Otto because they wanted to raise attention again. They found a reason to arrest an American and didn't want to give it away. All actions of NK were usually about raising attention. Isn't that awesome - one of the smallest and poorest countries in the world in the daily news. During the Obama administration there was not really any relationship between NK and USA, as other regions and conflicts had a higher priority.
What NK wants most is direct talks to the US government, face to face, president to "great leader", and that was something the US always rejected.
Now with Otto being captured, they at least had a reason for bilateral "talk", even though this wasn't exactly how they wanted it do end. I believe them, that something went wrong, they didn't want him to fall into a coma. Maybe really he good some food poisoning or any other diesease, or with their poor medical standards they failed to cure a minor sickness and he ended up in coma. They wanted to keep it secret, because they thought that he will anyways wake up again and they can just pretend nothing ever happened. But month after month they noticed that there is nothing they can do so finally they relased him now. I think they were also very ashamed that such a thing happened and didn't want to admit their mistakes in medical treatment/ food safety or whatever caused the problem.
However I am also a bit surprised about the tour company and how Otto was able to enter the restricted floor in the hotel. The fact that the wake-up call was missed and they were brought to the airport in a separate bus is also strange. We only had one bus and if one person is delayed, the tour operator or the North Korean guides (actually very friendly and smart people) would have called and tried to make everybody leave together. It is not like there are some guards standing in front of your room, and you can go out and go to the lobby or to the bar or wherever at all times, even though they told us not to leave the hotel alone and probably there were some people standing outside of the hotel.
I am not sure if he was in the same hotel as we have been (seems not) but from my experience as a guest you can only enter the floors that you are staying on. There are restricted elevators but you cannot enter with your room card, and there are "guards" (well probably, actually they are just elevator assistants, lol) in front of the elvators.
I wonder if we will ever find out the truth behind those stories, but it seems not that easy as "they just randomly captured an American and tortured him because they hate Americans".
Wow! I previously posted some links about people who traveled to North Korea and their experiences. I bet most of you didn't even read them. Especially those of you who continue to criticize this young man and his parents.
He choose to go, he read the warnings and he pulled a stupid stunt.
Quote:
Originally Posted by njkate
Very sad and regrettable what happened to him, but he is in this situation because he CHOSE to travel to North Korea and pulled a stupid stunt, he was in no way prepared for this trip or what could happen there.
Ignorance is not bliss in a place like North Korea
The travel company shares the blame.. At the least, in their web ads, they misrepresented the safety of NK for an American - false advertising. Or worse, they would not/could not pay a bribe to NK officials who facilitate their tours and were taught a lesson for it.
I'm really surprised they released him at all -- *especially* given that he was in a coma. This doesn't make them or their medical system look good. I really wonder what made them do this.
Good point. Far be it from any of us to try and see things from their perspective, but it seems to me they would have been better to just smother him and declare it a natural death or continue the news blackout.
And everyone knows that about North Korea. Why would one choose to go there? Secondly if you do go there why would you decide to chance it and do something stupid? If you agree to go there you already know the conditions and expectations.
I just wonder how much we paid to get him out of there. What did we negotiate?
.
America isn't supposed to negotiate with either terrorists or terroristic foreign regimes. It sets a very bad precedent and puts other Americans in danger.
The travel company shares the blame.. At the least, in their web ads, they misrepresented the safety of NK for an American - false advertising.
Travel agency is not to blame. They did not guarantee that nothing bad would happen on the tour. No travel agency can guarantee this. I suspect Otto's parents paid for the trip, since they stated Their son is had convinced them to let him go, since his friends had gone there. If so, they were enabling their son's bad choices. If Otto didn't have his own money to pay for the trip, he would have been better off working a job waiting tables, here in the US, while waiting to return to college. But I suppose that choice is too ordinary and "dull" for a lot of college students these days.
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