What do you think of it? Is Rodman looking for anything to get his name in the headlines again? Is he crazy? (rhetorical question about someone who wanted to change his name to Orgasm)
I've seen (and posted) secretly recorded accountings of conditions in N. Korea. It looks bleak. The citizens have no real freedom and must tow the line. Kim's execution of his uncle shows his brutality. That, in addition to what we already know of his regime.
Dennis Rodman’s buffoonery in North Korea edges into treason: KellyIn the great play of life, Rodman has sided with the villains. Though no court will charge him, he is a criminal against basic decency.
A photo has emerged of Dennis Rodman during one of his early visits to North Korea, touching glasses with the Thanatotic dictatorship’s number-two man, Jang Song Thaek.
Jang recently fell afoul of his nephew, Kim Jong Un, apparently over the control of seafood exports. Aside from nuclear technology and coal, clams and crabs are North Korea’s only viable global business.
Kim had Jang executed as a “counterrevolutionary factionalist.” One (almost certainly exaggerated) story has it that Jang was fed to starving dogs. Two of Jang’s lieutenants were killed using anti-aircraft guns – one of Kim’s popular options. There is a malign karma in all this. Jang used to kill his enemies by blowing them up with mortar rounds.
There is now a rumour that Jang’s wife, the sister of former dictator Kim Jong Il, has committed suicide. Maybe she shot herself with an anti-aircraft gun.
Human Rights Watch estimates the number of North Koreans sentenced to forced-labour camps for political crimes at 200,000. When you are arrested – ‘arrested’ being synonymous with ‘convicted’ – you don’t go alone. Prisoners are often accompanied by their spouses, parents, children and grandchildren. Entire families are slowly wiped out through starvation and overwork in brutal conditions. The lucky ones are simply beaten to death.
On Wednesday, Rodman and several former NBA players, including ex-Raptor Doug Christie, will take part in an exhibition game against the North Korean senior team in Pyongyang. The game is being held in honour of Kim’s 30th (or 29th, or 31st – no one really knows) birthday.
“I want these guys here to show the world, and speak about North Korea in a great light,” Rodman said beforehand. “I hope people will have a different view about North Korea.”
The best advice I can offer is that if any one of them finds himself in the position to take the winning shot late in the game, I’d pass instead.
You want to believe in the comity of sport and reaching across borders to affect change, but this is well beyond that. This is shilling for current history’s most ambitious serial killer. These are grown children meddling in the murderous affairs of adults.
The insufficient excuse from all of these men is that they aren’t politicians, they’re just, you know, basketball players.
Before the game is played, former Knick Charles D. Smith was already regretting his decision to come along on Rodman’s Basketball Death Cruise.
“Apparently our message is not being conveyed properly due to the circumstances that are much bigger than us, and I think that has to do with politics and government,” Smith said Tuesday.
This is just occurring to him now? It doesn’t require much political savvy to understand that you don’t stand arm-in-arm with monsters. If they’re getting paid to do this (that’s all extremely murky), they’ll need a sand-blaster to get the blood off that money.
A year ago, Rodman’s buffoonery in North Korea was a sort of graduation skit at clown college.
It has edged into immorality and treason. That’s a fraught word. In this case, it’s not so much the act of betraying one’s country, as it is a betrayal of all people.
Rodman doesn’t actual work in North Korea’s human abattoir, but he’s happy enough to enjoy the end result as a tourist. I think that makes him worse.
Whatever his friends may say about his “good heart” – the auto-excuse for bad people – Rodman has become this generation’s preposterously inarticulate Ezra Pound. He is a hollow vessel looking to be filled up by proximity to cruel, powerful men. On a grander scale, Rodman is one of those sad people who end up marrying an imprisoned killer. On some fundamental level, he is incomplete.
He was on CNN Tuesday morning trying to defend himself, or something like that. He seemed rather worse for wear. The silent players seated around him all had the looks of men who realize they’ve just made the worst mistake of their lives.
When host Chris Cuomo challenged him about Kenneth Bae, an American being held in North Korea on espionage charges, Rodman crumbled into incoherence.
“The one thing about politics, if you understand, Kenneth Bae did one thing. If you understand what Kenneth Bae did. Do you understand what Kenneth Bae did?”
“You tell me. What did he do?” Cuomo replies.
Rodman begins screaming.
“No, no, you tell me. You tell me. Why is he being held captive in this country? Why?”
It’s hard to argue with someone who doesn’t have full command of the language.
There is no getting around what Rodman has become. In the great play of life, he has sided with the villains. Though no court will charge him, he is a criminal against basic decency.
“We’re not skilled in those areas,” Smith said, speaking of the ill-considered diplomatic freakshow he freely decided to join. “Dennis is definitely not skilled in those particular areas.”
I’d argue that he is. It’s just that neither Smith nor anyone else wants to put into the words the unavoidable conclusion of what that makes him.
http://www.thestar.com/sports/basketbal ... kelly.html
Login
FAQ
Search
roseanne
