Name: 【TEDx】Awakening North Korea's valley of the clueless | Hyeonseo Lee | TEDxBerlin
Uploaded: 2017-05-23T07:09:34.000Z
Duration: 10 min 12 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

as I walked through a gap in the Berlin Wall.

This ugly structure was a massive barrier to freedom

and a painful symbol of Germany's long division.

millions of East Germans were plunged into the darkness

as their leaders tried to keep them from outside information.

the German people had two powerful weapons

that could penetrate even the toughest barriers:

to overcome propaganda and break the information blockade in the East,

West Germany used the power of TV and radio technology

to broadcast information to their East German brothers and sisters,

to help open their minds and change the country from within.

So, at that time, almost everybody in the East could receive these signals

These places have become known as "The Valley of the Clueless."

Tragically, North Korea is still basically one big Valley of the Clueless,

as the Kim family of dictators have kept the country brainwashed

And the unlucky people living outside the border regions, or the capital,

have little choice but to watch only the government propaganda TV channel

so they are essentially cut off from the outside world.

Growing up in this environment, I was so brainwashed

I even believed the leader was a God who didn't even go to the bathroom,

when I witnessed poverty, starvation, and death

I can never forget the shock and heartbreak I felt

when I witnessed a dying mother holding her starving child on the street,

and my friend's humiliation that she couldn't even offer me lunch

because her whole family had nothing to eat.

Yet, I was one of the lucky ones in North Korea

since I never suffered hunger, and more importantly,

I didn't grow up in the Valley of the Clueless.

since my home was just across the border with China,

and we could pick up several Chinese TV channels.

with extra thick blankets to prevent light, late at night,

and I watched secretly in my little world.

The Chinese TV completely transformed my life.

It not only told me my government propaganda,

that North Korea is the best on the planet,

Thanks to the power of technology to spread information,

Numerous other defectors also have told that they defected in search of freedom,

rather than hunger or economic opportunities.

But because many North Koreans watched the foreign media,

since even a meaningless drama can raise thoughts about the propaganda.

For example, North Koreans are so brainwashed to believe

that South Korea is a terribly poor country.

So when North Koreans see the South Korean dramas

that South Korean movie makers have to gather

all the cars in the country at once to film a busy street scene.

So when North Korean defectors arrived in South Korea

when they [saw] the crowded streets full with cars.

Defectors like my mom, who lived in the darkness

of a dictatorship country for almost 60 years,

now reveal how North Koreans are shockingly deprived

of the everyday technology that we take for granted.

When my mom first arrived in South Korea,

she was even afraid to step on the escalator.

she thought there was a man sitting inside.

And she said, "Oh, that little, poor man working there all day!"

Maybe it could be hard to understand for an outsider,

but living in North Korea is like living in a completely different universe.

the North Korean regime has been forced to play an endless cat and mouse game

with the people to prevent outside information.

I first witnessed this growing up in the 1990s,

as people began to use VCRs to watch foreign contents.

This threatened the regime's official propaganda,

They would suddenly cut the power in certain areas,

which video tapes were stuck in the video players.

So people who had illegal foreign contents were arrested

But the external information continued to spread

as defectors and other people have sent USBs and dropped DVDs

The fetter over technology, over information, continues

Subtitles ListPlay Video

【TEDx】Awakening North Korea's valley of the clueless | Hyeonseo Lee | TEDxBerlin

tough

overwhelmed

completely

force