[benVFR]

You guys have to see the recent National Geographic Explorer show on North Korea. (I recorded it last weekend, hard to believe it won't be re-broadcast.)

Basically they were able to bring cameras into North Korea under the guise of medical research as they were on a trip to do cataract surgery.

The sad story is North Koreans develop cataracts at 10x the worldwide rate due to something in the way they are malnourished. Even little kids are going blind there, whereas practically no one goes blind from them in the West or even in China. (Basically they get a spot like grandpa does here.. but they get them really young, and since there are no doctors capable of doing the surgery the spot just grows till they're totally blind.) And they had little kids 5-6 years old that were already totally blind in both eyes.

As part of the project they had nice surgical gear & machinery for eye surgery brought in to a hospital in Pyongyang.. but no NK doctors are capable of using it. And the hospitals aren't sanitary and don't even have reliable power to run the medical equipment. So the team brought their own Honda generators into the North Korean hospital...

In 10 days they operated on 1000 North Koreans with a 100% success rate.. pretty amazing.

The shocking thing? As soon as they had their bandages removed they completely ignored the doctors and ran to the Poster of Kim Jong Il on the wall and started screaming and crying "Thank you great leader, Thank you for restoring my sight! Praise you! Praise you!."

These people are totally fucking GONE. Apparently the whole country is like a cult.. David Koresh style. (There are all kinds of other examples in the documentary - no photos of anything but Kim Jong Il in the country, etc.. )

Craziest moment.. old codger gets his bandages removed, has sight in both eyes thanks to American technology, doctors, and aid.. "Praise the great General for restoring my sight! Praise Him, Praise Him...! Oh Great General with the eyesight you have bestowed upon me I promise I will get a gun and kill all Americans!" And the whole room of patients stand up and start crying and yelling praise together like a Church!

We here about this regularly but you very rarely see just how crazy it is.. this show is mind blowing.