In Chapter four of Nothing to Envy, Ms. Song starts to realize something is amiss when the electricity starts to fade in and out. At first it was every now and then, and it progressed to where days would go by with no power. She had to alter her already daunting daily routine to now include fetching water because her running water was off during the blackouts. She became smart and would fill numerous buckets at a time, to make due during the outages. What else comes from not having any power? The train that Ms. Song would take to work was intermittent as well. She ended up just walking to work, an hour away, for fear of missing any work and not earning her food ration vouchers.
North Koreans were not paid wages that could sustain a person with enough food, shelter and possessions. What they were paid was more like an allowance. Everything they needed was provided by their government.
North Koreans were not supposed to shop because everything they needed was supplied by the government in the name of Kim il-sungs benevolence.
pg. 62
When the power started to fade, so did work at the factories for Ms. Song. They were eventually dismissed and told that they would need to find other means to feed their family. Some women took to the black market, selling things that were allowed to be sold. Ms. Song didn’t agree with the black market. She felt it was “not the place for a proper communist.”
I find it intriguing that Ms. Song can remain so proud and wouldn’t stoop so low as to sell things, considering it might help her to provide food and other necessities for herself and her family. I feel that if times were in such dier straits, I would do whatever necessary to provide food to my family. But then again, she believes in communist ways and to her the government shall provide!
