Play to Live

Play to Live is a book for those who still haven't buy the importance of play for children and adults alike. If you know someone who still believes that play is a childish waste of time, give Brian VanDongen's book. 

"Play is not just important to education; play is education.  Play is not just important to a healthy lifestyle; play is a healthy lifestyle. Play is not just important to life skills; play is a life skill."

Without going into the depth of research on play this is a convincing invitation. Invitations to allow more play time to children and also to permit ourselves, as adults, to play.

"You have my permission: Be playful."

Children and Play in the Holocaust

Children and Play in the Holocaust is a emotionally hard to read essay by George Eisen. With a long list of references Eisen presents the experience of children in ghettos, detention centers and concentration camps during the Nazi occupation. These stories challenge the classical theory of play but also reinforce how play is so encoded in our genes that is almost unavoidable. 

"Play burst forth spontaneously and uncontrollably without regard of the external situation."

The sociological, psychological, physiological and even political aspects of life during the Holocaust are visited under the lens of children, and adult, play.

"Their play, just like all human experiences, was reflective of and governed by societal, psychological, and economic conditions of the society in which they took place."

For the people in the play field the book can be used as a catalog of play experiences to be classified under the 16 play types by Bob Hughes; to identify the play cycle and the role of adults in free play.

A River in Darkness

A River in Darkness is a surreal story of a man struggle to survive in North Korea. Half Japanese and half Korean, Masaji Ishikawa migrated to North Korea after his father got enticed by the lies of Kim Il-sung. For 36 years he struggle to survive to care for his family and see them die of starvation and abuse. He finally made it back to Japan just to find indifference and hostility. 

Among the lessons in the book is the eyewitness testimony of the failure of central planning (core of Socialism and Communism)

But that’s the thing. People in North Korea spend so much time in study meetings and calculating the number of hours they’ve worked that there’s no time to do the actual work. The result? Raw materials don’t arrive in factories, the electricity doesn’t work, and farms are overrun with weeds. But as long as people can get their food rations, they don’t care.

The black market was also thriving. It seemed the more messed up a country became, the more the black market prospered.

A River in Darkness is strikingly crude in the recollections of Ishikawa memories but also in the blind eye of other governments that wanted to avoid conflicts with North Korea, specially China and Japan itself. 

I often think about what would have become of me if I’d stayed in North Korea. I would probably have starved too. But at least I’d have died in someone’s arms with my family gathered around me. We’d have said our goodbyes. What chance of that now?

Ishikawa disappeared, don't know if publishing the book helped him in anyway. Don't even know if Masaji Ishikawa is his real name or a pen name. We just can hope he found peace.