By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
August 16, 2017
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/north-korea-their-health-system-sucks-do-they-have-schools-and-hospitals-in-america-weve-got-medicare/5604293
August 16, 2017
Link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/north-korea-their-health-system-sucks-do-they-have-schools-and-hospitals-in-america-weve-got-medicare/5604293
The
North Korean government, according to the Western media is said to be
oppressing and impoverishing its population.
Here
in the USA we have medicare, all our kids are educated, we are all literate,
and “we want to live in America”.
And
in the DPRK, the health system sucks, they don’t have schools and hospital
beds, they are all a bunch of illiterates,
You
would not want to live there!
Beneath
the mountain of media disinformation, there is more than meets the eye. Despite
sanctions and military threats, not to mention the failed intent of
“respectable” human rights organizations (including Amnesty International) to
distort the facts, North Korea’s “health system is the envy of
the developing world” according to the Director General of the World Health Organization:
“WHO
director-general Margaret Chan said the country had “no lack of doctors and nurses””.
Screen
shot of April 2010 BBC
report
Health. DPRK vs. USA
While praising North Korea, the WHO admonishes the USA for “not
having a universal health coverage”:
Screenshot CNBC Report,
February 2017 quoting a study by the WHO and Imperial College London
Lets look at the
figures. The Library of Congress Federal Research Division quoting
official sources concurs:
North
Korea has a national medical service and health insurance system. As of 2000, some 99 percent of the population had access to sanitation, and 100
percent had access to water, but water was not always potable. Medical treatment is free. In the past, there
reportedly has been one doctor for every 700
inhabitants and one hospital bed for every 350 inhabitants
“In
2006 life expectancy was estimated at 74.5 years for women and 68.9 for men, or
nearly 71.6 years total.”
Higher than in most
developing countries. Lower than in the United States.
Can we trust official
US-UN sources?
In America we have
medicare.
Education:
DPRK vs. USA
What about their run down
schools, serving an illiterate North Korean population?
According to UNESCO,
Public Education in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is
universal and fully funded by the State. According to US official government
sources (Library of Congress Federal Research Division):
“Education
in North Korea is free, compulsory, and universal for 11 years, from ages four
to 15, in state-run schools. The national literacy rate for
citizens 15 years of age and older is 99 percent. (Library of Congress,
Federal Research Division, p. 7)
In
contrast in the USA, according to the US Department of
Education Surveys, the Adult Illiteracy rate
(16 and older) is of the order of 13.6% and 14.5% depending on
the criterion (2003 data).
There
is a 99% percent adult literacy rate in North Korea compared to about 86% in
the USA.
That sounds crazy! Who is
fiddling with the data? These are all official UN-US statistics.
“The
national direct estimates of the percentages of adults lacking BPLS (Basic Prose Literacy Skills) are 14.5 percent
for the 2003 NAAL and 14.7 percent for the 1992 NALS. In comparison, the
national direct estimates of the percentages Below Basic in
prose literacy are 13.6 percent for the NAAL and 13.8 percent for the NALS. (National Center for
Education Statistics)
Educational
achievement measured in terms of adult literacy in the DPRK is higher than in
the United States of America?
And how did they reach
this performance with an economic sanctions regime extending over a period of
more than 20 years?
History:
Up to thirty percent of the population of North Korea was killed during the
Korean War (1950-53)
Just a couple of
additional statistics concerning “life expectancy” in the DPRK resulting from
US led wars (1950-53), not to mention Trump’s “fire and fury”.
“After
destroying North Korea’s 78 cities and thousands of her villages, and killing
countless numbers of her civilians, [General] LeMay remarked,“Over a period
of three years or so we killed off – what – twenty percent of the population.”
(See War Veteran Brian Willson. Korea and the Axis of Evil,
Global Research, April, 2002)
According
to Dean Rusk, who later became secretary of state, the US bombed “everything that moved in North Korea, every brick standing on top
of another.”
It
is now believed that the population north of the imposed 38th Parallel lost
nearly a third its population of 8 – 9 million people during the 37-month long
“hot” war, 1950 – 1953, perhaps an unprecedented percentage of mortality
suffered by one nation due to the belligerence of another.” (See
Brian Willson. Korea and the Axis of
Evil, Global Research, April, 2002)
Even Newsweek tacitly
acknowledges that the US committed extensive war crimes against the Korean
people:
Screenshot
Newsweek 4 May 2017
While Newsweek in this article is telling the
truth, more generally the US media has failed to inform Americans regarding the
extensive war crimes committed against the Korean people by successive US
administrations.
Collective
Memory of the People of North Korea
It is not in America’s collective memory as pointed out by
Newsweek, but it is certainly in the collective memory of the people of the
DPRK.
There is not a single family in
North Korea which has not lost a loved one during 37
months of extensive US carpet bombing (1950-53). Put yourself in their shoes.
Pyongyang
capital of North Korea, in 1953, almost entirely destroyed by U.S. bombing
during the Korean War.
Pyongyang
today, rebuilt.
Pyongyang today rebuilt: Dispels the myth of a backward urban
society. Trump wants to reduce Pyongyang to rubble.
Do the Pyongyang towers (see image above) compete with
Manhattan’s Trump Tower? Ask Donald Trump.
WE NEED AN ORGANIZED AND
UNIFIED PROTEST MOVEMENT ACROSS THE LAND, NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY
SAY NO TO TRUMP’S “PREVENTIVE”
NUCLEAR WAR AGAINST NORTH KOREA.
SAY NO TO WORLD WAR III.
CALL FOR THE US TO SIGN A PEACE
AGREEMENT WITH NORTH KOREA.