Upstate NY Store Only Sells Items Made in the USA

This is one of those ideas that could really take off... or could just remain a novelty. But either way, I like it.

The NY Post has an intriguing story of an Mark Andol, an upstate NY entrepreneur whose store only sells items 100% made in the USA. Not surprisingly, business has been good, to the point that he's thinking of establishing branches of his store in other states. I applaud this guy for his creativity -- I'm surprised I've never heard of anyone doing this before  -- but also for his patriotism. Too many of our jobs are going overseas. I'm tired of calling US companies (America Online... Citibank...Sallie Mae to name a few) and find myself speaking to a customer service rep in India. "And as much as I love a bargain, it does bother me sometimes to consider that very most of the time nothing I'm wearing is made in the USA. There are times I do think I'd be willing to pay a bit more for something that's made by American workers.

That's why I think Mark Andol's idea is brilliant. His once-little store is now a fast growing success. He started last year with 50 different products in his store and now carries 3,000 products. I'd love to see him open a branch here in Atlanta, GA. I'd he happy to support him and support American jobs and American families with my consumer dollars. Now if only this could become a movement, that would be a good thing. I'd love to see other merchants do the same thing. I'm sure this idea would gain traction, and many Americans nationwide would love to by from "Made-In-America-Only" type stores. Will this idea take off? Hard to say, but one can always dream.

PS... Happy Fourth of July to all!!
===
Article from the New York Post:
Got it made - in America
'USA only' store does a booming biz

By CYNTHIA R. FAGEN

Last Updated: 7:13 AM, July 4, 2011


A hardworking upstate welder got so fed up with losing work to overseas competition and being forced to lay off his own relatives that he decided to forge a new business -- a sprawling, Walmart-style store that peddles products entirely made in America.

Store owner Mark Andol says his proudly named Made in America business is defying hard economic times and thriving in Elma, near Buffalo. It's become a must-see for the tour-bus hordes heading to and from Niagara Falls.

"I always supported America. So I wanted to try something a little crazy," said Andol, 47, a married father of four. "People told me it would never work. No one wanted to buy American anymore."

But at the grand opening of his store last year, 800 people stormed through the doors.

"Everyone was shaking my hand and crying," Andol said. "People lost trust in the system. This gives them hope."

 Full article here:
 http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/got_it_made_in_america_zUP3YTllFreaBYJCg11GgN

R& B singer to retire, and enter the ministry.

I found this piece of news interesting. Singer Montell Jordan is set to retire from R & B entertainment, and become a full time worship pastor in Norcross, Georgia.
Of course, we've seen so many secular entertainers over the years (Mase, Pebbles, MC Hammer, Rev Run, etc.) declare that they've entered the ministry, and the results/fruit have been decidedly mixed, to say the least. But I certainly don't want to prejudge anyone, so I wish Mr. Jordan the best as he takes this pivotal step in his life. May the Lord be with him.

11/29/2010 12:41:45 AM
ATLANTA -- While people were stuffing themselves with turkey and dressing over Thanksgiving, Montell Jordan was coming to peace with a major career change.

For more than a decade he's been known as the backwards-hat wearing hip hop artist behind the Grammy-nominated, mega-hit "This is How We Do It".

All that will change after his final concert New Year's Eve. After that, Jordan says he will only step foot on one stage, the dais of World Victory Church in Norcross...

Full article here.
Similar article here.

Rush Limbaugh:Bad for the NFL

 

After the recent announcement that radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh is part of a group attempting to buy the St Louis Rams football team, Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, who wrote a solid column on why Limbaugh would be a nightmare as an NFL owner, follows up with another well written piece on some of Limbaugh's other comments regarding the National Basketball Association (NBA).

An excerpt from Schultz's article:

I was pointed to a website called MediaMatters.org, which I had never seen before. It includes an audio clip from just TODAY! In short, Limbaugh rails about the possibility of a one-cent sales tax to fight gang violence, but in the process refers to basketball as “the favorite sport of gangs.”

“My question — OK, a one-cent sales tax to fight gang violence. What do you spend the money on to fight gang violence? After-school program — don’t we already have after-school programs? Don’t we already have — what do you call it, extracurricular events? Midnight basketball — I mean, we’ve done it all. We’ve taken the favorite sport of gangs, and we put it at midnight to get them on the basketball court.”

The website did a little research and also noted this Limbaugh quote on the NBA from 2004:

“Call it the TBA, the Thug Basketball Association. … They’re going in to watch the Crips and the Bloods.”

However, as one commenter on the article posted:

"according to wikipedia, there are 800,000 gang members in the US. they come from all sorts of different races/ethnic groups. yet you are all sure they’re favorite sport is basketball, because for you they represent a very specific group."

Well said. Rush Limbaugh comes across to me as just another typical race-baiting talk radio hosts, and it's not surprising that so many racist conservatives love him.

And this is coming from a conservative who is tired of this man's disgusting divisive rhetoric, and thinly-veiled race-baiting language. You see a lot more fights and thuggery in a hockey game or baseball game than you'll see in the NBA. I've never heard him (or his ilk) refer to [predominantly white] hockey players as "'thugs", even though the sport tacitly condones the on-ice brawls that constantly break out during games. Not to mention the benches clearing brawls that seem to happen at least once a week in Major League Baseball. But to Limbaugh, the NBA is a "Thug League" for obvious reasons --- because it's a predominantly African-American league. The man just makes me sick.

The Eight Year Anniversary 9/11/01 - 9/11/09

Never Forget. Ever.

Popular NIV to be replaced by New Version

Kiss your NIV goodbye. The New International Version of the bible as we now know it will not be published any more after it's replaced by a new revised version coming out in 2011. Of couirse, not everybody's happy about it -- me included.
-----------
From Courier-Journal.com (Louisville, KY):

NIV Bible update may spark battle

Version would use more modern English

The Bible translation that has served as the, well, bible of the evangelical movement is getting an update.

Depending on how it's done, it could ignite the parent of all translation battles. Or it could reconcile a conflict that has pitted sibling against sibling.

More than 300 million copies of the New International Version of the Bible have been sold since it came out in 1978. It has become the translation of choice for many conservative evangelicals. And it has been packaged in countless ways — from standard study Bibles with commentary to a couples Bible with relationship lessons to camouflage-covered military versions.

But a quarter-century after its last revision, its copyright holder says it's time to bring it up to date with current uses of the English language. One noncontroversial example would be replacing “alien” with “foreigner,” but a conflict may loom over the use of gender in pronouns and other grammatical forms.

Controversy has surrounded two efforts to update the NIV — a New International Version Inclusive published in Britain in the 1990s and another that resulted in the Today's New International Version earlier this decade.

In both cases, translators used more “inclusive” language involving gender. (You need a scorecard to keep track of the versions.)

But some criticized those versions as more politically than linguistically correct. The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution in 2002 contending that the TNIV version “had gone beyond acceptable translation standards” in some cases where “father” was changed to “parent,” “man” to “mortals” and “sons of God” to “children of God.” Defenders said that as most English speakers no longer use male terms when referring to people regardless of sex, the Bibles they use should follow suit.

Full article here.

Related article (from USA Today): Update of popular "NIV" Bible due in 2011.

Texas DNA exonerees find prosperity after prison

With so much bad news out there, its good to read a heartwarming story every once in a while. One such story is that of exonerated Texas prisoners being compensated by the state for being wrongly convicted and imprisoned. Of course, money can never make up for the time lost; life is short enough as it is. But it's good to see the State of Texas doing the right thing to help these men get back on their feet and get their lives back together.

-------------------

DALLAS – Thomas McGowan's journey from prison to prosperity is about to culminate in $1.8 million, and he knows just how to spend it: on a house with three bedrooms, stainless steel kitchen appliances and a washer and dryer.

"I'll let my girlfriend pick out the rest," said McGowan, who was exonerated last year based on DNA evidence after spending nearly 23 years in prison for rape and robbery.

He and other exonerees in Texas, which leads the nation in freeing the wrongly convicted, soon will become instant millionaires under a new state law that took effect this week.

Exonerees will get $80,000 for each year they spent behind bars. The compensation also includes lifetime annuity payments that for most of the wrongly convicted are worth between $40,000 and $50,000 a year — making it by far the nation's most generous package.

"I'm nervous and excited," said McGowan, 50. "It's something I never had, this amount of money. I didn't have any money — period."

Full story here.

Is it time for Universal Healthcare in America?

While the debate has raged on for years, I've been on the fence on that issue for a while now, but the more I think about it, the more I start to think that it's simply an idea whose time has come.

The British newspaper The Independent makes a compelling case in this article:

----------------------------------

Obama's healthcare plan

The brutal truth about America’s healthcare

An extraordinary report from Guy Adams in Los Angeles at the music arena that has been turned into a makeshift medical centre

Saturday, 15 August 2009

They came in their thousands, queuing through the night to secure one of the coveted wristbands offering entry into a strange parallel universe where medical care is a free and basic right and not an expensive luxury. Some of

Publish Post

these Americans had walked miles simply to have their blood pressure checked, some had slept in their cars in the hope of getting an eye-test or a mammogram, others had brought their children for immunisations that could end up saving their life.

In the week that Britain's National Health Service was held aloft by Republicans as an "evil and Orwellian" example of everything that is wrong with free healthcare, these extraordinary scenes in Inglewood, California yesterday provided a sobering reminder of exactly why President Barack Obama is trying to reform the US system.

The LA Forum, the arena that once hosted sell-out Madonna concerts, has been transformed – for eight days only – into a vast field hospital. In America, the offer of free healthcare is so rare, that news of the magical medical kingdom spread rapidly and long lines of prospective patients snaked around the venue for the chance of getting everyday treatments that many British people take for granted.

In the first two days, more than 1,500 men, women and children received free treatments worth $503,000 (£304,000). Thirty dentists pulled 471 teeth; 320 people were given standard issue spectacles; 80 had mammograms; dozens more had acupuncture, or saw kidney specialists. By the time the makeshift medical centre leaves town on Tuesday, staff expect to have dispensed $2m worth of treatments to 10,000 patients.

The gritty district of Inglewood lies just a few miles from the palm-lined streets of Beverly Hills and the bright lights of Hollywood, but is a world away. And the residents who had flocked for the free medical care, courtesy of mobile charity Remote Area Medical, bore testament to the human cost of the healthcare mess that President Obama is attempting to fix.

Christine Smith arrived at 3am in the hope of seeing a dentist for the first time since she turned 18. That was almost eight years ago. Her need is obvious and pressing: 17 of her teeth are rotten; some have large visible holes in them. She is living in constant pain and has been unable to eat solid food for several years.

"I had a gastric bypass in 2002, but it went wrong, and stomach acid began rotting my teeth. I've had several jobs since, but none with medical insurance, so I've not been able to see a dentist to get it fixed," she told The Independent. "I've not been able to chew food for as long as I can remember. I've been living on soup, and noodles, and blending meals in a food mixer. I'm in constant pain. Normally, it would cost $5,000 to fix it. So if I have to wait a week to get treated for free, I'll do it. This will change my life."

Along the hall, Liz Cruise was one of scores of people waiting for a free eye exam. She works for a major supermarket chain but can't afford the $200 a month that would be deducted from her salary for insurance. "It's a simple choice: pay my rent, or pay my healthcare. What am I supposed to do?" she asked. "I'm one of the working poor: people who do work but can't afford healthcare and are ineligible for any free healthcare or assistance. I can't remember the last time I saw a doctor."

Full article here.

Whitney Houston: I Look To You

Whitney Houston's newest song is about to be released, and her new album is dropping on August 31. Although not explicitly marketed as a gospel song, the song clearly has a gospel flavor to it, and it's fairly clear she's singing to God in her upcoming single: "I Look To You". Whitney Houston has been through a lot over the years, with much of it playing out under the spotlight of public scrutiny. Perhaps this song represents the beginning of a new direction in her life; one can only hope so. 

"Evangelist" Tony Alamo Convicted. Good riddance.

Article: Sex abuse testimony ends Alamo's long crime career

By DEBORAH HASTINGS (AP) – July 26, 2009

Of all the horrid accusations against evangelist Tony Alamo — and the list is long — it was the testimony of formerly loyal subjects, recounting "marriages" between their cult leader and girls as young as 8, that may end his 40-year rule and send him to prison for life.

Born Bernie Lazar Hoffman, the 74-year-old faces up to 175 years behind bars following his conviction Friday on 10 counts of transporting young girls across state lines for sexual purposes. Some jurors wept while women described being molested by and forced into sex with their decades-older pastor.

Among many who've watched Alamo's handiwork since the 1970s — which produced allegations including kidnapping, brainwashing, child abuse, tax evasion and threatening a federal judge — there was never any doubt the street-hustler-turned-pastor should be locked away for good. Their question is, what took so long?

Full aricle here.

McCain Lawyers Investigated Obama Citizenship

Can we now finally, finally see the end of these obsessive, stupid, nutty, quixotic "Obama was born overseas/Obama is not a US citizen" campaigns that some obsessive right wingers have been waging for over a year now? Can we get some sanity on this ?

For those who're still obsessing on this issue: the man is president. He is a legal US citizen. Please...get over it and move on with your life.

------------------------------

Article from Politicalwire.com:

July 24, 2009

McCain Lawyers Investigated Obama Citizenship

As we asked earlier this week, if questions over President Obama's citizenship were valid, wouldn't they have come out during the presidential campaign?

David Weigel talked with Trevor Potter and other lawyers for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign who said that they did look into the Obama citizenship rumors and found them without merit.

Said Potter: "To the extent that we could, we looked into the substantive side of these allegations. We never saw any evidence that then-Senator Obama had been born outside of the United States. We saw rumors, but nothing that could be sourced to evidence. There were no statements and no documents that suggested he was born somewhere else. On the other side, there was proof that he was born in Hawaii. There was a certificate issued by the state's Department of Health, and the responsible official in the state saying that he had personally seen the original certificate. There was a birth announcement in the Honolulu Advertiser, which would be very difficult to invent or plant 47 years in advance."

Internet's power makes singing Scot a global star

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009
Uploaded by moovieblog

Not only is this a great vocal performance, but it also provides a teachable moment for us all. The lesson is an old one: "Never judge a book by it's cover". 

Here, 47 Year old Susan Boyle wows the judges with her performance in the auditions for Britains Got Talent, singing I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables.

(The video, as of the time of this posting, now has garnered almost 15 million views. )

---------

April 16, 2009 

Internet's power makes singing Scot a global star 
By BEN McCONVILLE 
Associated Press Writer

BLACKBURN, Scotland — In a week, Susan Boyle has gone from karaoke and her local church choir to global fame and an invitation to the Oprah Winfrey show.

The frumpy 47-year-old, who says she's never been kissed, has gained celebrity fans and millions of admirers — including a fair number of men — since she wowed judges on the TV show "Britain's Got Talent."(enlarge photo) 
Susan Boyle, who's performance on the television show 'Britain's Got Talent' wowed the judges, gives the thumbs up at her home in Blackburn, Scotland, Thursday April 16, 2009. The frumpy 47-year-old, who says she's never been kissed, has gained celebrity fans and millions of admirers - including a fair number of men - since appearing on the show. Her fame has been fueled by new technology, with a clip of her performance viewed more than 12 million times on YouTube.(AP Photo/Andrew Milligan-pa) 


Her fame has been fueled by new technology, with a clip of her performance viewed more than 12 million times on YouTube.

"Susan can't help herself, she just sings whenever she can sing," said Jackie Russell, the manager of the Happy Valley Hotel in Blackburn, Scotland, where Boyle occasionally sings karaoke. "We weren't surprised by her talent, but we were surprised by the reaction around the world."

Until recently, few outside the village of Blackburn had heard of Boyle, who lives in a modest row house that she shared for years with her widowed mother, who died two years ago. In the past few days, she has appeared on TV around the world. Demi Moore is an avowed fan.

"It has been surreal for me," Boyle told The Associated Press on Thursday in Blackburn, 20 miles (30 kilometers) west of Edinburgh. "I'm going to be on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' CBS and other American networks

Bishop Weeks plots spiritual comeback

Disgraced minister Thomas Wesley Weeks is making a comeback. Personlly, I wish him the best. Hopefully he's got his act together this time. 

-------------

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

By D. AILEEN DODD
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, April 10, 2009

A repentant reverend will belt out the Easter sermon Sunday, preaching salvation, while reflecting on the resurrection of Jesus — and his own.

Bishop Thomas W. Weeks III, the charismatic Pentecostal pastor whose whirlwind romance to national evangelist Juanita Bynum ended in violence and divorce, is on the road to redemption and restoration.
The judgmental whisperers that once populated prayer circles at the grand Global Destiny Worldwide in Duluth have long gone. Weeks now has a loyal following and a new modest church.

Weeks’ tribulations — his felony prosecution for assaulting Bynum, his eviction from his multi-million dollar church headquarters and his messy divorce — are accepted by his members as chapters in his survival story.

“None of us are perfect,” said Pamela Taylor, a member since 2006 who used to commute from Douglasville to attend services. “I have grown since I have been a part of this church. I trust the bishop. “

Weeks’ likens his plight to the Biblical figure Job, a prosperous man who was stripped of his wealth, property and good name when his faith was tested by God.

“Many thought Job went astray,” said Weeks. “They only recognized that he didn’t after God blessed him double for his trouble. I am being blessed that way… “

On Easter, Weeks is expecting a full house at 2710 Peachtree Industrial Blvd., a sanctuary converted from an old muffler repair shop. It’s 8,000 square feet, about 10 percent the size of his former church campus, but there is a marquee outside with Weeks’ name in big black letters. He calls the place “The Prophet’s House.”

Full article: here

Working Like a Dog...

Sorry folks. It's been about a month since I've posted.
I've had a lot going on, and still do.

I'll probably be posting a lot less this year than last, in large part because some other stuff I'm working on , including a new website to be launched in 2010 to the glory of God.

But feel free to stop by every now and then to see what's new. Or feel free to click the "subscribe" button in the right hand column, to receive updates on all new posts to this blog.

Thanks to all for your support.
Be blessed.

Where does your state rank in religious belief?

From WorldnetDaily
02-15-2009

A recent [Gallup] poll of more than 350,000 Americans on the importance of religion revealed that the nation is separated into enclaves of widely divergent viewpoints on faith, with some states and regions clearly religious and others significantly secular. Gallup conducted a telephone poll of 355,334 U.S. adults, asking the question, "Is religion an important part of your daily life?"

As one might suspect, states from the "Bible Belt" scored the highest, with 85 percent of Mississippians and 79 percent of Tennesseeans, for example, answering yes.

The poll also revealed, however, that in addition to the Bible Belt, the U.S. also has a pair of "secular strips."

Across the country's entirety, 65 percent of the respondents affirmed that religion is an important part of their lives.

full article:http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=8902

Pro Basketball player visits Darfur

Really good video here from ESPN.com regarding NBA player Tracy McGrady's visit to witness first hand the effects of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

This Darfur situation is one of the worst genocides the world has ever known, yet it's gotten relatively little attention. I wish all our US Senators and congressmen would go and see it for themselves. Maybe then this would be a more high priority item for the US goverment to pay attention to. As much political energy as we've invested into the Israel-Palestinian situation, this situation in Darfur deserves as much or more attention.

One only wonders how much longer this thing will drag on.

What's Your Real Age?

What's your real age?

Thought I'd post this for anyone why might find it interesting and/or helpful.
Pretty eye-opening stuff here.

http://www.sonnyradio.com/realage3.swf

King Solomon said it well:

1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth,
Before the difficult days come,
And the years draw near when you say,

“ I have no pleasure in them”

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.

14 For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.

(Ecclesiastes 12:1, 13-14)

U.S. deporting Christian pastors

Our government allow millions of illegal aliens to come into this country illegally,but they want to deport a law-abiding pastor?? Such madness!

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=67861

U.S. deporting Christian pastors
Immigration rejects requests to stay when church leaders' visas expire

Posted: June 23, 2008


U.S. immigration authorities have stepped up deportations, but rather than pursue illegal aliens, they have chosen to evict America's church ministers from the country instead.

Honesty could cost Christian pastor Keith Thomas his citizenship because he cooperated with immigration officials, disclosing two minor marijuana convictions he incurred when he was a young man in England 33 years ago.

Thomas, 53, is working without pay, fearing deportation from the U.S. and separation from his family. He was denied a green card based on convictions that were expunged in 1982. Thomas told WND he has documentation to prove his clean record since the 1975 conviction and that he has always been truthful with officials, but he doesn't understand why people who enter the country illegally are allowed to stay when he is facing the citizenship battle of his life.

"They've let 12 million illegals into the country, yet somebody has been doing some good, paying taxes, came in legally and has been married to an American for 27 years and has two American kids, and they're going to kick him out?" Thomas asked. "I told the truth. Nobody called me out on my past. If I had not even owned up to my record, the government would not have been able to find any of it."

Full article here

I'll Say This Only One Time...

This is a Christian-oriented blog, dealing with religious and secular topics from Christian point of view. Anyone is welcome to post a comment; however, no profanity is allowed in any comments. If you post a comment and it does not get published to the site, it may be because of vulgar language in your posts.

Enough said. Thanks for your co-operation, and thanks to all for stopping by.

When Will The Barbarism End?

An article I found recently on NPR.com deals with the continuing prevalence of female genital mutilation, or female "circumcision" as others call it. I've known about the practice for a while, but it shocked me to see that the female circumcision rate is over 90% in some African countries.

We who live in the developed Western world are so blessed. Sure we've got our own share of issues, but I'd rather live here than anywhere else.

Thank God for the work that several organizations like Amnesty International are doing to draw attention to this barbaric practice.

From the article:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11767534

'An Evil, Vicious Practice'

All Things Considered, July 6, 2007 ·

Egypt is strengthening its ban on female circumcision in the wake of the death last month of a 12-year-old girl undergoing the procedure.

Female circumcision has been illegal in Egypt for years, but the death of Bedour Shaker in the Minya district of Upper Egypt has brought to light how widespread the practice remains.

Many say it will take years to reverse local customs that support the practice, also common in other parts of Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Bedour died, reportedly of an overdose of anesthesia, in a clinic where a doctor was performing what for many Egyptian women is still a rite of passage in the 21st century — the removal of parts of the genitalia, usually including the clitoris.

Her death and the unusually heavy publicity it generated have re-energized opponents of the practice.

"I hate to say that, but it helped us immensely. It's an awful custom. It's an evil, vicious practice, really," says Moushira Khattab, Secretary-General of Egypt's National Council for Childhood and Motherhood.

Khattab says that as depressing as they might seem, the latest figures on female circumcision in Egypt actually represent a noticeable improvement.

"Seventy percent are victims of this practice," Khattab says. "But the good thing is that this percentage reflects a decline in the prevalence. [The percentage] used to be in the 90s."

As recently as 2003, a UNICEF survey found that well over 90 percent of Egyptian women who were or had been married had undergone circumcision.

The reason for some optimism, advocates of eradicating the practice say, lies in changing attitudes among young girls. The latest figures for girls ages 10 to 18 show circumcision rates down to 63 percent in rural areas, and down to 43 percent among urban girls. Among girls who attend urban private schools, the figure drops to 9 percent.

Eradicating the Practice

The battle against female circumcision is more complex than it may seem at first glance. It's not, as many assume, necessarily linked to conservative Islam. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, the practice is virtually unheard of. Egyptian scholars say female mummies showing evidence of clitoral excision date back to the 16th century B.C., long before either Christianity or Islam arrived on the scene...

Full article here

North Korean Reveals Childhood Torture

Clearly the media doesn't pay much attention to the demonic evil that is Kim Jong Il, who presides over hellish conditions in North Korea. This article gives just a glimpse into what's been going on there for years.


The Washington Times | Tuesday, October 30, 2007

http://washingtontimes.com/article/20071030/FOREIGN/110300055/1001

He says he was tortured as a teenager. He watched as his mother and brother were executed, and until he was 20 years old, North Korean Shin Dong-hyuk had heard of neither Kim Il-sung nor Kim Jong-il.

In a testimony to stunned journalists yesterday, Mr. Shin, the first North Korean defector to the South who was born in the North's notorious gulag, revealed a nightmarish world in which inmates and their children suffer lifetime incarceration, are kept ignorant of outside society and undergo forms of torture that are medieval in their barbarism.

"In my heart, I thought: 'Parents committed crimes, but why were innocent children punished?' " he said at a press conference introducing his autobiography "Escape to the Outside World."

"I want to tell the world of this."

Slight, and with a humble manner, he shook as he showed cameramen his extensive scars. His story has shocked even analysts who monitor Pyongyang's human rights abuses.

North Korea claims it is a "worker's paradise," and that it has no political prisoners.

But outside authorities have evidence it operates a vast gulag system thought to hold more than 200,000 political prisoners and their families.

"We didn't believe it," said Kim Sang-hun, head of Seoul's Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, of Mr. Shin's story.

"It took many months before we were convinced he was what he said he was," said Mr. Kim, who debriefed and now cares for Mr. Shin.

Mr. Shin's mother was imprisoned in "Total Control Camp No. 14" in central North Korea, for political crimes. As reward for good work, she was allowed to marry. The couple's "honeymoon" was five nights together before being separated again. Mr. Shin was born in 1982.

There was no maternal affection: The camp's 40,000 to 60,000 inmates were indoctrinated to spy on each other, including family members. His earliest memory is of following his mother to the camp farm to work; he has no recollection of being embraced.

Life consisted of work and criticism sessions. Remarkably, Kim Il-sung, the deceased founder of North Korea, and his son and present ruler, Kim Jong-il — deified elsewhere in North Korea — were unknown to those born in the camps and never mentioned by inmates imprisoned there.

When Mr. Shin was 13, his mother and brother attempted an escape, unsuccessfully. That day, a civilian car met Mr. Shin outside the camp school. He was driven to a secret, underground location.

There, guards demanded details of the plot. Mr. Shin was ignorant of it. He was suspended over a fire. When he screamed, a hook was hacked into his groin. Unconscious, he was slung into a cell with a skeletal old man.

The man cared for the child's festering injuries and gave him his own meager rations. It was the first time Mr. Shin had ever received affection from another human. "I will never forget him," Mr. Shin wrote. "I came to love him more than my parents."

After seven months, Mr. Shin was released to witness his mother's hanging and his brother's execution by shooting. Mr. Shin noticed his father in tears, but he had only one emotion: "I was furious with them; as a result of their crimes, I was subject to torture."

Life continued. His niece was raped and killed by guards. He dropped a sewing machine; guards chopped off a fingertip with a knife. Constantly hungry, he once found three corn kernels in a pile of cow manure, his "lucky day." Unaware of any world beyond the wire, his dreams were to excel at work, gain permission to marry or become a team leader.

Then in 2004, he befriended a new prisoner who had escaped to China, where he was apprehended, returned to North Korea and sent to the prison camp.

Secretly, the inmate told Mr. Shin of the outside world. That knowledge consumed him. For the first time, work became intolerable.

On Jan 2, 2005, while collecting firewood in the mountains, Mr. Shin escaped, lacerating his legs on electrified barbed wire.

He reached China and found asylum at South Korea's Shanghai consulate. There, traumatized by nightmares, he began writing about his life.

Now that his story is told, his life path is uncertain. "I have many choices, but have made no decisions," he said yesterday.

Asked what message he would like to send Kim Jong-il, Mr. Shin thought for a moment then said quietly, "I'd ask him to take one hour to think about the situation in the camps."

see also: Defectors Tell of Cannibalism, Torture, Lost Families