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Wednesdays WTF Moment

India Times August 18th 2004 - North Korean Leader Kim Jong il decides not to make the same mistake as Saddam – Democracy in North Korea?

I know, I know, "consider the source". I keep getting back to the Berlin Wall falling and at the time no one made the prediction that it would go down that way. Is it at all possible that Kim would just walk away one day?

But then theres this:
S.Korea set to ship fertiliser to North. Ok, now let me get this straight, they are short of what? I've been poor and Ive been hungry but I can honestly say that fertilizer is one thing I've never been short of. You have to be mighty bad off to be short of that. You can say your up to you rear end in it, you can say so and so if full of it, but I cant think of anyone who ever said " Boy, we could really use some more fertilizer".

Unless they are using the nitrates for the development of explosives, but that doesnt seem likely given that second hand Russian munitions are about as common as grains of sand on the world market these days why make your own brand of explosives when so much of it is available for next to nothing.

It would be the very coolest thing to be able to watch yet another tyrannical government go the way of the mastodon. Im not holding my breath, but I am wishing ever so strongly that Kim just goes away.

UPDATE I: This Just In..."Cult of personality" over the top ,says great leader.

This is like Hitler saying "Guys, maybe we aught to cool it on the whole swastika thing, we did a little focus group testing and its really hurting our image in the 18 -34 demographic".

Posted @ November 17, 2004 04:23 PM | Current Events

Comments

Varifrank -- The "ship fertilizer to North Korea" thing may be perfectly legitimate. If you are trying to increase food production in a land where chronic starvation reigns, and you do not want to add a lot of untreated human waste to the rice paddies and further spread diseases, then adding large amounts of chemical fertilizers may be the best way to go.

David N. St. John

Posted by: David N. St. John at November 18, 2004 12:21 AM

Ah, the fallout of Bush Re-election!

Posted by: Dave at November 18, 2004 09:25 AM

Echoing what David noted above, the DPRK cannot feed itself without using prodigious amounts of fertilizer. Too little arable land (lots of mountains though); climate not all that conducive to productive agricultural etc.
The DPRK has requested/demanded fertilizer ever since the famines began in the mid-1990s.

Posted by: Kirk at November 19, 2004 03:46 PM

my rudimentary experience as a laborer on farms and ranches showed me that ordering fertilizer is just the beginning. If you are ordering fertilizer, you are also tilling and preparing the soil. In reality,you are preparing for crops well in advance.

So, you need not just fertilizer, but tractors, roads, mills, and storage facilities, people to drive tractors, roads to move crops, and so on.

I dont see any equivalent moves to increase fuel oil sales, and I dont see any other signs that show me that they are growing crops. Its like gowing to the fabric store and coming home with a roll of fabric and announcing your going to reupholster all of your furniture. The fabric is the easy part, all the other things matter much much more.

I dont see the other things, so I it makes me wonder what it is I am seeing.

Posted by: Frank Martin at November 19, 2004 04:00 PM