Rasputin

Rasputin was born of good peasant stock, though his parents were not gentlemen they were proud of their successful horse ranch. Rasputin, however, did not take pride in his parents' occupation. He rather took pride in immoral activities. Getting drunk, having inappropriate relations with women, and petty theft were his pastimes. The fellow peasants thought he was a good-for-nothing young man, who would have very little effect on the world.  They were gravely mistaken.

As the villagers grew tired of their daughters becoming corrupt and their village vandalized, they decided to banish Rasputin. For penance he chose to spend his banishment at a monastery. Here he came up with the ideology, to validate his sin, that in order to be close to God one had to perform sin. Deciding that this message was something the world should know, Rasputin started traveling around Europe. During his travels he gained insight into how people thought, acted, and worked. This aided him considerably when he went to St. Petersburg Russia.

News had traveled to St. Petersburg about Rasputin, even before he had arrived. The high society ladies were intensely curious about a man who claimed to be holy, but glorified sinning. The ladies of the upper-class invited Rasputin to their social events to discover who this strange monk really was.

After about a month of Rasputin wining and dinning with the noble people, the tsar and tsarina began to become curious in what this holy man could do. They invited him to the palace and the result of this growing friendship was disastrous, for their family, and the country.

Young Alexander had a blood clotting disease that only a select few people knew about. While Rasputin was visiting, the young boy had an attack and was seriously ill. The strange monk visited the boy's bedside and somehow stopped the bleeding. This made the Tsar's family indebted to Rasputin. Rasputin's bond with the family grew as on multiple occasions he appeared to save the boy's life.

However, with this new association to the royal family it did not curve Rasputin's immoral lifestyle outside of the palace. He went to bars and bragged about the relationships with the tsar's family. He even went as far as insinuate that he and the tsarina were having an affair. The Russian people began to wonder if there was truth in what Rasputin was saying. As a letter was circulated written by the tsarina that declared her affection for Rasputin, the rumors began to be wildly accepted as fact. Although it is doubtful that such a relationship actually occurred, we will never know for sure.

The Russian people began to think of Rasputin not as a man of God, but a devil. They thought that he had growing power over the tsar's decisions - which he did. The tsar's reputation was being tainted and the people were quickly loosing faith in them.

As Rasputin began to become even more vial in public, the people grew hateful and spiteful. Some of the noblemen - one related to the tsar - realized that Rasputin’s reputation was discrediting the royal family. They feared that if Rasputin was allowed to live soon there would be an over throw of the government. The noblemen plotted and succeeded in murdering the mad monk, thinking this would be the remedy to the problem.

However, the damage was already done. A coup was in process - partly due to the tsar's politics and partially because of the new distaste for the royal family. The tsar was forced to resign his position and the family was sent to Siberia.

Soon thereafter, the family was sent down into the basement of their small Siberian house and lined up against the wall. Guns were aimed at them and they were all shot repeatedly.

Rasputin brought shame, distaste, and haltered into the royal family's lives. He turned the people against them through his reputation and his prideful bragging. Although in effort to save the family's regime, Rasputin was murdered, the hatred was already in place. The family who was beloved by the Russian people were turned into the hated enemy. Rasputin's entry into the royal family's lives - who sought his help for life - ended in their death.

Kim Il Sung

Kim Il Sung has been viewed as an insane dictator, who had very little hope of becoming a Christian - or even moral! There was a time in Kim's life where things were different. However, it is true that Kim Il Sung was very power hungry, fearful and selfish.

While North Korea was starving Kim Il Sung would have expensive food flown in from all over the world. Everything he ate was to aid in his longevity. Kim Il Sung and his officers were so frightened of his death that everything Kim did was recorded for posterity sake. Kim also had an huge amount of doctors, also flown in from around the world. Every body part was assigned to a set of doctors, the East Germans received the task of working on his neck and head. Kim Il Sung even had a special toilet that traveled with him. The device would automatically examine his excrete to make sure that he was healthy and digesting well!

Kim Il Sung, also, had a terrible fear of being forgotten. To prevent being forgotten he had someone follow him around writing down his every observation, his every word! This was considered "holy writ" and was respected by every North Korean as one would respect the Bible. Kim also had over three hundred thousands monuments erected in his honor. This figure does not count all the benches that he sat on in public. Those, instead, got a glass box covering them with a small plaque and are not considered monuments.

If a North Korean were to disrespect Kim Il Sung in anyway, by being disrespectful to a monument, sitting on a picture of Kim Il Sung, speaking against him, or any other form, intentionally or not, they would be severely punished. They would be sent to a horrible prison. People who escaped North Korea report that the prisons are filthy, the prisoners are practically starved, and they are used as slave labor. Most of the prisoners are political.

That is just one horrific way that Kim Il Sung abuses his power. Most of the extremely strange laws have to do with Kim's pride. Another example of this, is that Kim Il Sung never had conversations with anyone. When he spoke to someone, whether it was a guest or a solider, they had to stand at attention and await orders. What a lonely life that must have been! However, it is what Kim Il Sung chose, he choose power over friendship. And that is what he lived with.

Kim Il Sung was able to get away with such abuse because he didn't just run a communist country, he ran a cult. All of his decisions - or excuses for his decisions - were based on the word Jushe. Which is an ancient philosophy that there is one leader, the god head, who is like the brain. Then there is the nervous system, the officers,  that is a liaison between the god head and the people. And then there are the people who simply carry out the tasks assigned to them.

People who have escaped North Korea have reported that those who didn't hate North Korea, loved it. Some Koreans are unable to keep the bombardment of brainwashing out and critical thinking in, they begin to love their abuser and would do anything for him. Others, are able to get enough outside information to know that something isn't right, and risk their lives to flee or protest the dictatorship.

People never start out with the intent to become a power-hungry fearful man. There are life situations that push them toward that. Yes, it is still their choice, but there is always a back story. And there certainly is in regards to Kim Il Sung! Kim was born to Christian parents, his grandfather was a pastor, his father went to missionary school and was an elder, and his mother was a devote Christian and strived to be a good mother. Kim would have learned about Jesus Christ as savior from a very early age. It is unknown if Kim Il Sung accepted Jesus Christ when he was a child, due to revisionist history it is sometimes hard to tell what is true and what is fabrication.

However, we do know that when Kim Il Sung was a teenager he began getting into some trouble. In school he would challenge the teachers and pick fights with the students. He was a classic problem child and couldn't wait to get out of school and his parents lives. What changed is, again, unclear. But, something did, it is unlikely that someone would rebel for no reason.

As a young adult Kim Il Sung joined the gorilla warfare in China on the soviet side. He stayed in the soviet camp for a few decades. The soldiers knew him well, and had been able to thoroughly turn him over to communism. When it was time for Russia to pick a leader for Korea they chose Kim, because he was Korean and the people would be less likely to rebel if one of their own was in power, and because he was very communist. That was when the power and fear began to grow, and matured it to who we knew, the Dictator Kim Il Sung. 

When one looks at Kim Il Sung's actions and life it is hard to tell that there would be any hope of him becoming a Christian. Yes, God is big enough to do anything, but it seems unlikely that Kim would ever be open enough to seeing God. However, if one were to dig a little deeper the amazing revelation is that Kim already had the seeds planted, and was perhaps, already struggling with the knowledge of God. Everyone has a back-story, the most hopeless person could be the one closest to becoming aware of God. Unfortunately, it is too late to pray for Kim Il Sung for he passed away just a few years ago. Let this be a lesson to us all; not only is God powerful enough to help anyone, but someone may be closer to being helped than you think.

My Experience Cooking Korean

Although I haven't had an occasion to eat any South Korean dishes, I have always enjoyed smelling the foreign aromas of Asian food. I was curious to see what kinds of flavors would accompany the everyday ingredients that comprise a Korean dish. I decided to try my hand at South Korean meals, making roast chicken and stir fried noodles.

The chicken was extremely easy to make. All that I had to do was place chicken breasts into a casserole dish; blend; soy sauce, olive oil,  ginger and garlic; and pour it over the chicken. Then I baked the chicken for forty-five minutes on one side and fifteen on the other.

Despite the ease of the recipe, the taste wasn't as alluring. The chicken came out slightly dry and extremely salty.  The flavor was adequate, once the overpowering saltiness died away. However, by the time you finished chewing you weren't thinking about the flavor as much as the desire water.


The stir fried noodles, on the other hand, were delicious. Not only did they taste wonderful, but it was a relaxing and enjoyable process. It was a manner of sautéing vegetables one at a time, mixing them in with four packets of Raman noodles and sauce left over from the chicken. The carrots were fairly easy to sauté, but it was a little difficult to find that "sweet spot" between too hard and too mushy. However, since they were watched carefully it wasn't impossible to reach. Also in the noodles were mushrooms, onions, green onions, and garlic. Perhaps the strangest part of this recipe was that in between sautéing each vegetable, I had to pull them out and place them with the pre-cooked noodles. This ended up making sense in the end; I was glad I didn't ignore the recipe.

It gave the noodles and vegetables a different flavor with each bite. If all of the vegetables were cooked at the same time some flavors would overpower others: onions erasing carrots, garlic overwhelming mushrooms, etc. However, with this method each bite had a slightly different flavor, depending on which vegetable was eaten.

In short, the noodles were a huge success. Since the recipe was fairly easy to follow and very relaxing to make, it is a recipe well worth the effort required. The chicken, on the other hand, was not as satisfying and left an overpowering salty taste.

I thoroughly enjoyed trying to create South Korean cuisine. Although I didn't get the desired result for one, I got a shockingly delicious result for the other. This inspires me to experiment with more South Korean dishes.

A New K-Pop Era

South Korea's most well known music genre is K-pop. This music is a huge hit not only in South Korea, but around the world. K-pop's sound waves wind through Asia, Europe and recently throughout North America. Gangnam Style is, perhaps, the most well known K-pop song at the moment. The music video, with Psy as the singer, recently went viral. Now people all over the world are doing the Gangnam Style dance, singing the song, and mentioning it in everyday conversations. Even elders, people of a generation that would normally not become interested in a viral video, are able to recognize the tune. How could they not when everyone is talking about it? Psy has been able to follow the strict formula of K-pop, while making it his own, so much so, that he is now a huge sensation.

This formula is the same that allows girl bands in Korea to be more popular in Japan, than in their home country. One of the most key pieces to the recipe is the education of the musicians. In many countries anyone can become a famous singer by making it onto one of the many competition shows. However, in South Korea the aspiring singer must first take professional singing, and dancing, lessons before they can even make it onto the radar. This helps to insure that the musician actually has some form of talent.

As I mentioned before, dancing lessons are essential. The language barrier, perhaps, creates the most need for a superb dance. If there can be a simple - yet catchy - dance that people can imitate, who needs to know what the songs about? This is one of the reasons why Gangnam Style became the most viewed video on Youtube. With the simple lasso swing above the head and the strange appearance of riding a horse, the dance became a joke. And it was meant to be! It was meant to be something so unique and bazaar that people would want to watch the video over and over again. Moreover, they then would show their friends, and by the end of the day they would know the dance and the song by heart, or at least parts of it, the English parts.

Most K-pop songs will have a word or phrase in English that is repeated often. The reason for this is because English is the most spoken language in the world. By having a tiny bit of the song in a form that most people could sing to widens the audience immensely. One popular Korean song is titled "Twinkle." Everything in the song is in Korean, except the frequent use of the word "Twinkle." This may seem awkward at first, however with the blending of the music and the lyrics it seems quite natural when you are listening to it. Sometimes, when listening to k-pop you have to rewind the song because it seems as if something is in English, but you aren't really sure. Gangnam Style also used this wonderful tool of English. Throughout the song the phrase "Hey, sexy lady" is sung. Psy, also, used a different approach by blending the title with Korean and English. Gangnam is Korean (although simple enough for English speaking people to catch onto) and Style is English. This allows many people of various backgrounds to sing to two frequent phrases in the song.

One of the most important factors of k-pop being so wide spread is the music videos. They use extremely bazaar graphics. The colors are either extremely bright, or they just seem off, maybe dull with splashes of red, or everything so mute that the slightest color variation seems bright. Also, the uniqueness that makes up these videos is the strange objects and settings that appear. Even when one knows what the song means, the objects sometimes don't seem to fit. It's often like someone were to step into an abstract painting and get lost. While Psy did use some of these techniques, the bright colors and the strange settings it wasn't too over the top to disturb people. It was just enough for someone to yell to his friend "Hey, look at this crazy video!!" But, not enough for people to be ashamed they were watching something so extremely strange.

Psy's Gangnam Style is an amazing example of the use of the K-pop formula. However, the reason why Psy made k-pop so much more widely listened to, isn't because he followed all the rules exactly. He learned the rules and then bent them into his own style. Perhaps, this is the dawn of a new k-pop era: the development from musicians being creative, as long as they followed the rules. To musicians being creative in any way that they wish, while still remembering how to make their music have the most impact.