Sunday, December 03, 2006

Coffee Talk:

This week the United States took steps to solve their problems with the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-il. The new sanction, placed by the US, is the first of its kind, and is more of a personal attack on the "Dear Leader". The US is banning the export of all "luxury" items to North Korea. According to the Seattle Times, these items include ipods, cognac, personal watercraft, Harley Davidson products, artwork, cigarettes, Rolex, music, and sports equipment.

Kim Jong-il's Lifestyle:
Rich Taste in a Poor Country
Mad, Bad and Very Cunning

He clearly loves luxury, celebrity, and the American lifestyle in general. However, he is a direct threat to our way of life, and something needs to be done. Today's questions are: Was this "luxury" sanction the right action to take? How will this effect the companies invovled? How can the government have the power to stop Apple or Philip Morris from selling it's product overseas? Will this stop Jong-Il from doing what has set out to do? Talk amongst yourselves.

1 comment:

Rich Uncle Moneybags said...

Kim Jong Il is one of the most talked about people lately and the amount of info on him is not good. I've seen news reports and read newspapers. I honestly don't know what to believe.

I don't think that put a limit on "luxury" items will do anything though. Just because you limit the open market, doesn't mean that there's not a black market for items. Anyone can get anything they want for the right price.

In my opinion, the US has only hurt those people within North Korea who actually like the American culture. The only way the US is going to take down Kim Jong Il is by a revolution within their own country. In my opinion, this ban has just helped Kim Jong Il to stay in power. If they imported Americanized items for free or at an extremely reduced cost and got the people onto America's side, they would change their opinion of the US and not hate us with a passion. From there, we could gain support from North Koreans. Hopefully they would catch on to our ideals of life, libery and the pursuit of happiness. Propaganda, that's the wars of the future. If you don't know, now you know.