Communist and Authoritarian Countries

I was just reading a news story online whose topic was North Korea, and the official name of the country, Democratic Republic of North Korea, was used. It struck me how ironic that name is for a country whose leader is not elected but is appointed by the dictator. It's very rare for communist countries to have a familial hierarchy for the leadership of the country. Normally the leader is chosen by the central political machine, such as the politburo of the former Soviet Union.

But, like other countries whose name includes language that suggests the nation is a democracy and a land of freedoms, North Korea represses it's people and refuses to grant them even the most basic of human rights: free speech. Here in the United States we take that right for granted, and often abuse it, but the freedom to voice your opinion is the most fundamental freedom a human being has, or should have. Being told by the government what you can speak is an attempt by that government to control what you think and believe.

No other nation on Earth controls the things spoken by its peoples as harshly as North Korea and China, which also has a name that can only be characterized as farcical: The People's Republic of China. There is nothing about the government of China that gives the people any input or voice. A rose by any other name is still a rose, and these nations, despite their attempts to use their official names to perpetuate an image of freedom and respectability are nothing more than repressive, authoritarian regimes who crush their people under a weight of oppression almost to the point of slavery.

My prayers go out to each and every person who has to live under these despotic regimes. May God give them strength to fight against their oppressors and gain the freedoms their nation's official names represent.