Our next question comes from Tim:
What do you think about North Korea? They seem to me like the little ant telling the anteater that if he sticks his head in the nest one more time, ITS
TOTAL WAR! I say sanction them and just let them starve. Granted the country and people in it aren’t that big and probably would take a long time to starve, but we have time.
Someone on a discusson board said this:

“North Korea is really starting to remind me of that stupid annoying kid on the playground who would think it was infinitely funny to ALMOST punch you in the face, and when you ducked it, laugh and gloat for hours about how he “made you flinch.”

At times I then to agree. North Korea is like that 2 year old that just wants attention. What do they want? Face-to-face talks with the US and ultimately a non-agression pact. What they just might get is more sanctions. Aggressive behavior is not the way to go about this. Instituting reforms would get better results.
If we do give them food, it is given to the soldiers, not to the starving peasants. So I don’t think we should give them any humanitarian aid.
If North Korea does a 1st strike…launching a missile against one of our bases or territories, no doubt the US Military will blow them off the face of the earth. Seoul might get in the firefight, however it would have been NK’s decision to “pick a fight” with us.
In any case I think North Korea’s time is limited….either through regime change from within or from outside forces.

The first “Ask Jeff” question comes from Jason:
“In all of the places you have visited. Which place gave you the most culture shock? Also I recently started keeping a journal at the beginning of this new year, what inspires you to keep up your weblog?”
The place with the most culture shock would have to be China. But in some ways China was much more similar to the USA than what I would have thought. Let’s see…. I saw much more differences in culture during a train ride from Shanghai to Xi’an. From the train, looking out the windows… seeing people out in the fields…working…picking rice. This was something out of the pages of National Geographic magazine. These people probably never would meet a westerner or even have an idea about the outside world (maybe they know much more than I think).
During that train ride I saw a baby stand up and pee right into a bed. The baby wasn’t wearing any diapers (Diapars are not the usual in Chinese culture). While the baby was urinating, the parents didn’t do a thing to stop it. Just let it go.
At the university where my friend taught, I saw the sleeping quarters of the cafeteria workers. Dirt floors. Nothing.
Also the dormatories of the university was pretty sparse compared to American universities. My friend and I make a quick walk-thru one tday. There were 6 to a room. No laundry machines. I saw someone washing laundry in a bowl. I didn’t know how anyone could study in such an environment.
Those are the culture shocks that stand out in my mind. But much of the time I was pleasantly surprised how similar China is to the US. I think that feeling is universal. Everyone has the same needs and desires to succeed; to have a good job; to raise a good family. The more you look at it many of these same countries who are supposedly hostile to the US, their people just want the same thing we want.
As far as keeping up this weblog, I am not sure why I do it. Maybe I have too much time on my hands. If you look at the very early entries to this weblog, you’ll see that I didn’t make an entry everyday. It took a while to really get used to this weblog thing.
I guess I keep it up because I see it as an outlet for myself. A time to complain, share thoughts and other things to friends or whoever reads this. A more appropriate question is “Why do you read this?”

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