A corrupt society

            Once upon a time in Greece, a philosopher named, Diogenes, became famous for walking the streets with a lighted lamp in the daytime looking for “an honest man.” He believed that the ancient Greek society of his time (about 412-323 BC) was full of corrupt and dishonest people that it was almost impossible to find an honest person.

Today, some 2,300 years later, South Korea’s new President, Park Geun-hye, could use the help of Diogenes, as she has been struggling to find honest men and women to fill the high posts of her administration.

More than a month after she became the nation’s chief executive, President Park saw six of her nominees for her cabinet posts resign, some even before facing the Congressional scrutiny, because of their past records that were tainted by financial irregularities, unscrupulous, if not illegal, accumulations of personal wealth, or other unethical conducts.

Meanwhile, opposition political parties and the news media were busy criticizing the President, day in and day out, for her “inability” to find well qualified officials for government positions. But they forget that the country is full of corrupt and sleazy people so that President Park, like Diogenes, is having a hard time finding “smart and able” persons who are also “clean and honest.”

Rodman, once again

            A day or two after I posted the piece here on Dennis Rodman and his North Korean visit, it was reported that the American visitor told his hosts that he wanted to meet “Psy,” the South Korean rock star, who has become a worldwide sensation with his “Gangnam Style” video.

But wanting to meet Psy in Pyongyang? Despite his friendship with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, Rodman apparently didn’t know the first thing about two Koreas. He was not aware obviously that Psy simply couldn’t be in North Korea to accommodate his wishes. Asking to meet Psy in North Korea is like wanting to eat a McDonald’s hamburger at a Chinese restaurant.

            Rodman has probably heard about the Korean War, recalling vaguely perhaps the facts that the North Koreans invaded the South in 1950 and that the United States and other allied forces fought, under the United Nations flag, with the South Korean Army to repel the Communist invaders.

Sure, the Korean War ended in truce in 1953. What Rodman probably didn’t know is that two Koreas are still technical at war as they have not signed a peace treaty. And under the hostile circumstances, no South Koreans are allowed to visit Pyongyang unless the North Korean dictator invites them as he did for Rodman and his friends.

The various remarks Rodman made in Pyongyang and in the United States after his return betrayed his ignorance of the situations in Koreas. But I am not surprised because I have run into many Americans who, like Rodman, were unable to distinguish between the two Koreas and say which side is America’s ally and which one is developing long-range missiles and nuclear bombs to fight the United States.

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Judging people by the friends they keep

     I have nothing against Dennis Rodman. As National Basketball Association (NBA) players go, he was an above-average player, for sure, but it was his antics that attracted the attention of basketball fans more than anything. If the fans were to pick one great player purely on his athletic ability or even his charisma, there are a plenty of them, other than Rodman, to choose from.

     Strangely, though, Rodman's playing as well as his antics must have enthralled, of all people, Kim Jong Un when the current North Korean dictator was studying as a teenager in Switzerland. Year later, remembering him, Kim apparently invited Rodman to Pyongyang. And Kim has entertained the visitor with a sumptuous banquet after watching a game together between a North Korean team and the Harlem Globetrotters who accompanied Rodman.

     Press report said that Kim and Rodman have even vowed to keep their friendship in the rest of their lives. Hearing the news, I recalled a saying: "You can judge a person by the friends he or she keeps." But a dictator and a clown on the basketball court? They sure make an odd couple, I thought.

     It was also reported that Kim has expressed the hope that Rodman's visit would help thaw the frigid relations between North Korea and the United States. It is a good news, of course, provided the remark was not just a diplomatic nicety the 29-year-old leader of the Coimmunist nation was exercising.

     When I heard the news, I almost exclaimed: "A good show, Dennis!" After all, President Nixon established ties with China following his visit to Beijing with a U.S. table tennis team. The visit was later dubbed "ping-pong diplomacy." If Rodman's visit brings about a similar result, maybe we should give him some credit and call his visit the "slam-dunk diplomacy" or something.

     Being an eternal pessimist, however, I don't believe that there would be a thaw in the relations between Washington and Beijing as long as North Korea keeps developing nuclear bombs and refusing to denuclearize the Korean peninsula. His friendship with Rodman notwithstanding, Kim Jong Un cannot afford to give up his nuclear ambition. For, he knows it means the end of his regime and the Kim dynasty.
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