Friday 23rd March

You know, I have this feeling that sooner or later I'm going to put the wrong date on this blog!!!

Anyhow - well, todays big news is I've bought a new pair of ring nose pliers! To most of you out there, I expect this will mean nothing, but to those of us who are beaders - you know the angst that this causes. They are the single most important tool in the beading box, ring nose and cutters. I'm less thrilled with the new cutters that I've bought, but I expect it's because I haven't got the hang of them properly yet. But the new ring nose seem to fit my hand very nicely, and provide a nice large round in the wire.

So what else have I been up to? Well, last night I watched a programe on BBC4, Abduction. It was an extraordinary documentary, about these young people who were literally kidnapped off the streets of their home towns and taken to North Korea, where it appears they were made to instruct spies on how to appear native born Japenese. Most of those taken were in their late teens, but one girl was only 13 when she was taken. Whilst some of these people have been returned to Japan, the Koreans have stated that fairly large numbers of them have died, in particular Megumi (I think that's how it's spelt) the 13 year old. However, the Koreans don't appear to be able to provide any proper information about this, and an urn puporting to contain her ashes, was proved not to do so according to DNA tests.
Over the years since this girl was taken, her parents have fought constantly to get her back, involved with the pressure group on the Japenese government to put pressure on the Koreans to repatriate their abductees. One appreciates it's obviously a very complex political situation, but dear God, the Japenese Government took it's time about getting involved in this issue! How could they have tolerated the abduction of its citizens off the streets of their home towns by a foreign power!
It was a totally awesome documentary, really showing the power of the medium of tv. And your heart goes out to those parents - one poor man, whose son was taken, became the carer of his wife who had clearly been destroyed by the loss of her child. Luckily his son survived, although his wife had died before his return, which was tragic. But the pictures of their reunion were incredibly touching, and if this programme had one fault, it was that it would have been interesting to know how he was re-adjusting to life back home, what he thought of his experiences. Clearly they had experienced some form of brainwashing, and at a press conference in Korea before their return, they were all apologising for being the centre of this 'scandal'. How awful to think these people were forced to apologise for being stolen from their homes.
As for Megumi, it appears she has a daughter in Korea. She is the spit image of her grandmother, which is a fascinating thing in it's own right - she's never met her grandmother, but not only does she facially resemble her, she appears to share her grandmother's mannerisms of speaking. It would be nice to think that her grandparents would get to meet and form a relationship with her, but in the current political situation it's unlikely. It just goes to show how politics wrecks human lives, politics with a capital p. These diverging political systems crush the people who live under them, in the same way that they start wars and propagate systems it's hard not to think of as evil.

Anyhow, if you're in Britain, or you can get the BBC on cable, you should watch this programme. I'm sure they'll repeat it, they seem to repeat everything on BBC4! It's terribly moving, and fascinating - I can't think of a better reason to watch a tv programme!