Would you rather live in North Korea or Somalia?

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I mean, if you had to stay...no answers like, 'Neither, I'd get to Mogadishu/Pyongyang airport ASAP'.

I think I would be more likely to survive in North Korea.

This is also a personal taste thing, but I think I'd prefer a totalitarian state to a form of anarchy where religious nutjobs and mercernaries have power. I'd also prefer the climate of North Korea.

This is one of those 'death by fire or drowning' type questions.

Somalia, because even though its a hole in the ground its one where I'd have *some* semblance of control and, if I had to f' people up so be it. Guns are plenetifully available over there as well. North Korea - if I don't like what's going on I don't just have asorted nut jobs who I can wack to solve the problem, I have a whole organized army up my arse. In once place I could die on my own terms (albeit probably long after arrival), the later I could either live on their terms (horribly), be tortured on their terms, or - *my* only option - commit suicide on my terms.

That and if the US was paying me for intel it would be way easier to get in an anarchy than a totalitarian regime, probably much more lucrative lead by lead also.

Last edited by techstepgenr8tion on 06 Dec 2011, 4:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Somalia. A man of my skill could do well there.

That and, I'd take doro wat over fried squirrel with grass any day of the week.

I think partly my preference of N. Korea comes from being female. In Somalia, I'd have to marry some Muslim guy for protection. As attractive as Somalis can be, I wouldn't be happy adhering to local customs (especially regarding my genitalia).

Put bluntly, I get to keep my clitoris in N. Korea. I wouldn't know how to fire a friggin' gun, anyway.

Outside of southern Somalia and Mogadishu, the areas where al-Shabab currently operates, Somalia isn't really any worse off than it's neighbors and in a lot of ways better off. I'd certainly rather live in Somalia than Eritrea for example. Somaliland in the north of the country is a thriving democracy despite no international recognition or foreign aid.

I figured the difference would be tilted that way, first from physical safety but yeah - female circumcision would be a bummer. I think they both have that reflexively - Somalia would be more dehumanizing to women, North Korea would be more dehumanizing to men.

In North Korea, if you're lucky enough to avoid their forced labor gulags/death camps, you'll probably meet your demise by famine. Instead of Sharia law, you suffer under Juche law where Kim Ill-Sung and his wretched son Kim Jong-il are god-kings.

P.J. O'rourke once characterized Somalia as all guns and no butter, but that still sounds preferable to North Korea, where they have neither outside the military. They do seem to keep Kim in cognac and Bond films quite well however.

I've got a feeling that the people living in N. Korea know very well that the Kims are not gods, but they can't say so. I've got a feeling that Somalis really think women are chattel and they have every freedom to say so. I could be wrong, though.

The Somalis I've met in Britain don't seem that bad. It's hard to imagine them coming from a culture where they could do that to a woman - yet they overwhelmingly do (98% fgm).

Somalia. Well to be precise, the part of it that is an unrecognized nation called Somaliland, which is considerably more stable

Somalia. I spent enough time there during Operation Restore Hope that I'm somewhat familiar with the layout of Mogadishu, and the local dialects and customs.

Then I'd steal a boat and sail to the the Seychelles!

Somalia is warmer, and I understand the climate is also drier. Furthermore, it might be a good place to restore the Peculiar Institution. I've always wanted a staff of servants and a small harem of hot, young boy toys. There is so little government there, I'd like to see anyone do anything about it.

People are not starving in Somalia to the same extent they are starving in North Korea

ruveyn

Somalia. I'd rather have complete freedom than complete security.

I find that most people who say this are not very well-equipped for it, and this is mostly because the majority of people who actually know what surviving on your own without plumbing or electricity is all about wouldn't be keen on actually doing it for a living. If you don't know how much it sucks, you probably wouldn't know what you were doing, which would probably make it lethal.

Also, you probably don't have a clue how involved it is to winnow and grind your own grain. You probably don't know about basic crop rotation, much less how to do it right. Do you know how to make compost? I do, but that's because I'm too tight to buy fertilizer. As far as constructing your own tools, would you know how to construct a cam out of naturally available materials? Would you know how to perform the calculations you would need to build it so it would work right?

As far as obtaining water, would you even know how to check the water table? Do you know any method, period, of determining the purity of water? Do you know how to build a shelter that would actually last through one season? Through a monsoon, which Somalia has at unpredictable times?

Do you know how to go about avoiding aminostarvation when animal products are not available? Would you know how to prevent scurvy if you didn't have access to usual plant sources of vitamin C?

Have you ever heard of the bloody flux, also known as dysentery? If you are like most of the yuppie libertarians I've known, you'd come down with it your first month living on your own in Somalia. It is arguably one of the least pleasant possible ways to die.

Oh, but it's not that you'd be better off in North Korea. They arguably have less of a working government, besides their military, than Somalia does. Starvation is a horrible problem there, and it's generally a miserable, disease-infested dump. The reason I wouldn't want to live in a place that has long winters is that a wood-burning fire loses its charm pretty damn quick if it's what you use to heat your house, and you're dumping wood into it constantly, even if it's good hardwood. My boyfriend and I tried doing it for a while to cut down on utilities. Not for me, thanks.