The Kim Is Dead. Long Live the Kim.

Unless you've been living under a rock, or if you don't know what iTunes is, you have already heard that Kim Jong Il is dead. According to North Korean state news, he died of "overwork"...riiiight...You know and I know that b**** had cancer and/or a stroke.

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about how messed up the North Korean government has been to its citizens during Kim Jong Il's reign. We all know how he's let millions die of starvation, and those unfortunate enough not to die was brainwashed into thinking that every flaw of his own regime is the fault of outside governments. You know you've got juice when you can have a rolling blackout in your own country, and you have the public so well trained, that they automatically blame the "bloody Americans". What concerns me is the flurry of subsequent "happy" status updates that popped out when the news broke. The same thing happened when Osama bin Laden died. I'll admit that I was caught up in the deluge back then, and I'm not so proud of it. bin Laden was responsible for some quite horrid stuff, but rejoicing in his death awakened a dark part of every one's self conscience to seek blood for blood, which would always lead to more blood-letting.

Yes, Kim Jong Il is dead, but with the risk of looking like a pessimist, I highly doubt that the plight of the North Korean people will change much. His son will probably be in charge. The government is now a well oiled machine in which they can easily set in a cog to pose as the face of the regime, but true regime change will probably not happen. I hope I'm wrong. I hope that Kim Jong Un will make some major changes in the way the government runs and how it treats its people. Until then, perhaps we should reserve our applause for when something really changes in the Korean peninsula. How/when is that going to happen? I don't know, but I know it didn't happen when the "dear leader" passed.