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The Terrible Twos

      photo:Wong Maye-E/Associated Press

Take a look at the picture of Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader on page 3 of Thursday’s Times (“North Korea Appears to Restart Plutonium Reactor,” NYT 9/11/13). He looks like a big baby. He lives in fantasyland both literally and metaphorically to the extent that he’s a great lover of Disney characters and he’s plainly acting like a child going through the terrible two’s. Significantly, in December,  it will be two years that Kim Jong-un took over from his father Kim Jong-il. So developmentally his behavior is totally normal. Thus we have a two year old having temper tantrums in which he starts smoke flying from his plutonium reactor according to the Times article. It’s actually not surprising that Dennis Rodman and Kim Jong-un have become friends. Rather than being a PR ploy, (Vice Media promoted Rodman’s original trip to Pyongyang) housing the hopes of furtive diplomatic overtures, what is really significant about the alliance between Rodman and Kim Jong-un is the fact that both have a tendency to behave like children; they can be adorable at one moment and utterly horrifying the next. However, where there’s smoke, there’s fire and the only problem with Mr. Jong-un’s current gambit is that it’s bound to fail. “Analysts said the re-emergence of steam at the plant—whether real or a contrivance—could well be designed by the North to try to force the United States and its allies into the talks in the hopes of winning economic aid by creating the fear that North Korea is preparing to add to its weapons stockpile,” the Times remarked.  “But the move could have the opposite effect. President Obama has been deeply reluctant to take steps that would reward North Korea for halting activities it had already agreed to stop.”

The War of the Worlds Part II

What if the Martians land? Will this be one way to achieve world peace on a micro and macrocosmic level? Will the Assad regime and the rebels unite against a common enemy? Will Dennis Rodman no longer be needed as the good will ambassador to Pyongyang (as detailed by the Times, (“Rodman Gives Details on Trip to North Korea,” NYT, 9/9/13)? Will the Argentinians finally place the Falklands on the back burner and join forces with the British? Will the Iranians and the Israelis fall into each others arms and was the recent twitter from President Hassan Rouhani a hopeful sign of the future cooperation that might occur if our world were ever attacked by aliens, or was it just a ruse? Will all the warring couples who are about to get divorced live and let live (certainly you’ve seen those heartening situations when the arguing couple takes time out of their struggle to take aim at the unscrupulous merchant) and will the Hatfields and McCoys in all their present forms suddenly heal their grievances? Will all divisions between men and women, between couch potatoes and those who like to live on the wild side, between blonds and brunettes and especially between black and white suddenly fall apart when faced with the prospect of a Martian Invasion? If Orson Welles famed broadcast of The War of the Worlds is a litmus test, then the answer is a resounding “no!” The approach of the Martians will only cause on thing: panic! If history teaches us anything, it’s that faced with stressful situations, mankind, both individually and collectively, seldom “take arms against a sea of troubles/ And by opposing end them.” No that would be to simple. So great is the death impulse that self-destruction and the destruction of others appear to be the road more often travelled when calamity strikes.

Kim Jong Rodman

                                                                     Photo: Reuters/KCNA

The Times quoted Dennis Rodman as saying “Guess what, I love him. This guy’s really awesome,” about Kim Jong-un upon his departure from Pyongyang (“Way to Reach Kim Jong-un? Follow the Ball,” NYT, 3/1/13). Vice Magazine had sponsored the attempt at what it called “basketball diplomacy,” and as the Times remarked, it was “an allusion to the ping-pong diplomacy that helped open United States relations with China decades ago.” But what was in it for Rodman, who is pierced and tattooed and has been known to cross-dress? North Korea is a pretty repressive place, but perhaps he felt he’d met his counterpart in Kim Jong-un, who is as much a bad boy as a politico, as Rodman  is as a sports celebrity. Could Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan be next on deck? Surely they could be promoted to the North Korean leader as equally out of the box thinkers who might also see something in Kim Jong-un that the international diplomatic community has missed. Who knows Kim Jong-un might turn out to be one of the only people on earth who liked Lohan’s portrayal of Elizabeth Taylor in the recent made-for-TV movie, Liz & Dick? But getting back to Rodman, you can’t help wondering what’s in the back of his mind? Lots of celebrities have done wild things. Tom Cruise and John Travolta embraced Scientology. Perhaps Kim Jong-un will be his master, his L. Ron Hubbard. Years of media blitzing can do strange things to a person’s mind. Maybe Kim Jong-un has become a role model to the aging basketball star. Maybe Rodman is planning on modeling the next chapter of his life on the as yet short-lived career of his “awesome” new friend. Kim Jong Rodman could make headlines as the next head of the DPRKBA, Democratic People Republic of Korea Basketball Association.