As Christmas nears, oddities all around

One always hopes that a spirit of compassion and tolerance rises a bit, as a major event in Christianity nears around the world. And while there are numerous instances of that occurring that don't make the news, the opposite seems to ring true for what does end up "in print."

So, two oddities of the season

In South Africa, as Nelson Mandela is laid to rest in his ancestral homeland, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu is not invited. Between the two men, South Africa's transition to representative democracy was made without a spasm of violence as so many feared. These two leaders had a long history; an AFP article quoted Tutu, ""Much as I would have loved to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured, it would have been disrespectful to Tata to gatecrash what was billed as a private family funeral," Tutu said in a statement. "Had I or my office been informed that I would be welcome, there is no way on earth that I would have missed it."

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South Africa's Desmond Tutu delivers a speech during the memorial service for Nelson Mandela at Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg on December 10, 2013 (AFP, Pedro Ugarte)

The article continues, "Earlier, the Nobel laureate's daughter, Mpho Tutu, who heads his foundation, told AFP that he would not attend because he "is not an accredited clergyperson for the event".

Tutu's account of the events was at odds with that given by the government of President Jacob Zuma, which the clergyman has publicly criticised. Amid public outcry, the presidency insisted that Tutu was on the list of invited dignitaries to the burial. "I have been checking and he is definitely on the list," presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj told AFP, saying he was "taken aback" by the news that the man known fondly as the "Arch" was not invited. "The Arch is not an ordinary church person, he is a special person in our country and he is definitely on the list," said Maharaj, promising to sort out any misunderstanding that may have arisen."

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Mandela's wish was to be buried in his home in Qunu, in the Eastern Cape region of the country. It is a dry, sparse land, neglected economically, but hauntingly beautiful ... AFP/Getty Photo from a UK Daily Mail article

The retired archbishop has been critical of President Jacob Zuma's "graft-tainted" administration. And so the world will now watch how the SA government conducts itself and the country's future now that a great moral anchor has passed. The Mandela family itself is embroiled in a feud over burial plots, and one of Mandela's grandsons, Mandla Mandela, plans to create a Mandela shrine, hotel and football stadium in nearby Mvezo.

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Mandela's small home village of Qunu lies near the ocean, halfway between Port Elizabeth and Durban, near the little mountain symbols (Drakensberg) on this map from blog.afrikascout.de

North Korea summarily dispatches one of its own

Not much positive in this story. Just the latest savage purge by a communist leader, this time in the last remaining wreck of a country with that form of government. The boyish-looking, 30-yr-old third generation dynasty leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, turned on his uncle and had him executed for vague accusations of treason. The official Korean News Agency referring to who was just 10 days ago, the number two man, explained that Jang Song Taek was 'despicable human scum.'

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North Korean strongman Kim Jong Un. Apparently thinking himself worthy of his position, he has collected a number of titles, "Marshal of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea"; "First chairman of the National Defense Commission"; "First secretary of the Workers’ Party"; "Chairman of the party’s Central Military Commission"; "Member of the Presidium of the party’s Political Bureau"; "Supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army," Photo from www.frontpagemag.com

As an NBC news article describes the unfortunate deceased, "Kim's uncle by marriage, Jang Song Taek ..." was executed for treason, and also accused of "corruption, womanizing, gambling and taking drugs."

A tough crowd - Uncle included - who live in a world of paranoia and self-comfort while the hoi polloi eke out a subsistence living. Speculation has it that Kim is consolidating, that the execution was highly publicized to entrench his grip on power while sending a message to long-time regent types. Unfortunately it may also be signalling, perhaps, a tighter, more ruthless descent into despotism.

Here, the departed Uncle Taek (left) is hosting then Chinese President Hu Jintao in 2012. Photo from Ma Zhancheng / Xinhua via AP, file

China, North Korea's closest ally, has shrugged off the matter as a domestic affair... But then, former NBA star/narcissistic-whack job Dennis Rodman is also heading to North Korea next week to train its national basketball team, undeterred or concerned over the bigger picture.

As mentioned, oddities all around.

Dennis Rodman, alias "The Worm" and "Dennis the Menace" (Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP)

North Korea - sixty years of self-imposed isolation and bombast

July 27 is the 60th anniversary of an armistice between belligerents on the Korean Peninsula. The agreement ended formal hostilities between the UN forces (21 countries in all, but primarily US troops), and those supporting North Korea - primarily China with the Soviet Union in sympathy. The armistice was supposed to lead to a peace agreement of some sort, but it never materialized. The line of disengagement - roughly following the 38th parallel - is called a demilitarized zone, but is in fact one of, if not the foremost, fortified border in the world.

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Still one of the more remarkable photos showing lightless, isolated North Korea, surrounded by prosperous Japan, South Korea, and relatively prosperous China. (NASA photo - found at www.theatlanticcities.com)

As an article in the LA Times described it, "On one side of the world’s most heavily fortified border, North Koreans are celebrating Saturday’s 60th anniversary of the armistice that halted the Korean War with Victory Day fireworks and a military parade. In South Korea, Armistice Day is a time for somber reflection – on the 1.2 million killed on both sides of the 38th Parallel, on the division that cleaves families these six decades later and on the long-elusive quest for a peace treaty to formally end the conflict."

As an ABC news article summarized, "Communist North Korea invaded South Korea with 135,000 troops on June 25, 1950, and three years later with more than 2.5 million dead, including more than more than 36,000 Americans who died in combat, the war ended." Today, more than 28,000 US troops remain in South Korea as a significant deterrent force against a resumption of hostilities.

The Korean war - if one read the previous two paragraphs, one article refers to 1.2 million killed and the other 2.5 million. The former number is apparently the South Korean number, while the larger number is more broadly all participants - willing and unwilling. Photo from www.archives.gov

The ideological freeze between "the proletariat" and "the forces of imperialism" has endured in North Korea through the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the continued movement in China towards a controlled, yet free-market economy. North Korean governance has evolved as well, however, not improving just turning into a family-dynasty, typical of old-time monarchies, and modern-day strongmen and dictatorships.

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North Korea - everyone has a pre-approved slot and behavior. At this celebration of the 60th year "victory" over imperialist forces, the North Korean elite go through the motions. (Ed Jones / AFP/Getty Images / July 26, 2013)

Today

South Korea is a vibrant, prosperous nation of nearly 50 million, while North Korea holds a population of just over 24 million, and according to UN analysis, half of whom live in "extreme poverty."

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Seoul, South Korea (Photo by ASDFGH) at the website http://opentravel.com

Military parades, perpetual vigilance against outside forces, privileges for a royal few and their military elite is the mainstay of North Korea 60 years later - what a legacy (and testimony against entrenched and brutal control).

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (third generation) greets another orchestrated and narcissistic review of the masses. Photo from www.thedailysheeple.com

Two misunderstandings

The last post was about two apologies. This week, let's consider two misunderstandings or perhaps miscalculations.

North Korea against the world ... again!

This situation would be somewhat humorous if not for the fact that a miscalculation or an inadvertent incident could trigger a deadly conflict. Nor is the leadership's stance at all funny when its policies of paranoia over the past several decades have reduced its population to one of the poorest and most isolated in the world.

North Korea has had a new leader now for 15 months. Kim Jong-un, the youngest of three sons of the previous leader - Kim Jong-il - is in his late 20s. For several months in his new role as leader/one-to-be-worshipped, he appeared to be trying to soften his image and engage with the world - something the world was ready to embrace. Kim Jong-Un even displayed his wife in public settings, who is possibly expecting no less.

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Kim Jong-un, and his wife Ri So-ju (not sure what happens to last names in North Korean marriages). Westerners do not relate well to the synchophantic displays routinely bestowed by the North Koreans on their leader.

Even as Kim Jong-un made his transition and debut, North Korea's attitude towards its enemies (ie. nearly everyone) was hardening. The hostile stance was about sanctions and talks organized by its neighbors regarding the country's continued efforts to test nuclear delivery systems (missiles) and conducting underground nuclear tests. In March, 2010, the level of tension was ratcheted significantly when North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship killing 46 sailors.

But in early 2013, things escalated further. As the BBC notes, "Over the last month, Pyongyang promised to shred the 1953 armistice agreement and shut off the hotline at the border region. It then announced it had increased the combat-readiness level of its artillery forces, with targeting that it claimed would put US bases in Guam and Hawaii in the crosshairs. ... Kim Jong-un has made multiple visits to military units amid the tensions on the peninsula. Most audacious was Pyongyang's announcement that it reserves the right of pre-emptive nuclear war against Washington or Seoul. "

North Korea has been harsh and bellicose with its war rhetoric, threatening the US mainland, but in fact, most analysts place Alaska in any theoretical danger.

The US, South Korea's principle ally, is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Appeasing North Korea's demands conflict with its commitment to conduct military exercises with South Korea's forces. A new South Korean President, has called for continued dialog with its estranged neighbor but has also said there will be no more "non-responses' to North Korean provocations such as the torpedoing. The US has shown support for South Korea with well publicized overflights of B52s and stealth bombers in South Korean airspace (though this action would have been politically motivated cause for "concern" if the previous US administration had done so ...)

South Korea's first woman president, Park Geun-hye. Only assuming power in late February, 2013, she finds herself already in a hyper-tense situation.

Where do we go - what are the calculations or assumptions being made by North Korean leadership that may become miscalculations. Russia and even China - North Korea's clear and closest ally - are uneasy with the language flowing from Kim Jong-un and his military. China especially has much to lose, due to its long border with North Korea - if chaos descends. Still most analysts continue to conclude that real military action is unlikely; North Korea must simply be positioning itself to extract as favorable conditions as possible in future talks, its military units are not being positioned along the border for imminent action. Teatree hopes that is all true, and is not a misunderstanding on the West's part.

Germany and Cyprus

Far from North Korea, Cyprus has been in the news the past week as its revenues have run far short of its spending, and its banks's obligations extending far beyond their assets. In order to receive further financial aid from European Union members and world banks, Cyprus legislators had come up with a plan to take 10% of funds from all citizens holding money in Cypriot banks as part of a way to gather funds for debt repayment and restructuring. That did not go over well with the citizenry!

Cyprus, a small island in the eastern Mediterranean. The population of the whole island is only a little over 1 million people, but apparently loosely governed with little wise leadership.

To complicate matters, a Greek/Turkish conflict back in the 1970s has left the island divided into two camps. Hmmm, a parallel after all to the two Korea's?

How does Germany come into this story?

The banks of Cyprus have few controls, and after loaning out more than prudent in the past many years and being hit with the financial crisis of 2008 like many other countries, they (and the government) needed additional funds to cover lost investments and to pay liabilities. Like Greece, Iceland, Spain, and Ireland, they had overreached and needed a bailout. But instead of searching for legitimate monetary arrangements with the European Union, the banks tapped into an influx of funds from Russian tycoons (some say the mafia as well) to shore up their deposits. But the piper must be paid eventually, and now the EU's financial institutions are being asked to step in and stabilize the bankers indulgences, who have not been able to corral the Russian money in the country.

Germany remains reluctant to once again send its own resources to rescue yet another Southern European country (Spain, Italy, Greece) that has not stayed within its means. From a BBC article "Germany's intent in all this is, at a textual level, clear: they want to avoid creating a moral hazard, rewarding a country that has sold itself as a rule-free playground for Russians who want to keep their money offshore." Before sending funds, Germany is asking for better banking controls and reforms.

Local Cypriot politicians and maybe just the average Cypriot, aren't happy with living with the consequences and are making Germany out to be the scapegoat. And Germans are offended. Hence a hurtful misunderstanding - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21974496">Cyprus bailout: Feeling unloved in Germany

Some of the more inflammatory language actually came from Spain, whose citizens also are unhappy that Germany is demanding some fiscal responsibility. One Spanish newspaper compared German leader Angela Merkel to Hitler - not the sort of thing that Germans are at all ready to countenance.

In Germany, any reference to Hitler is looked at seriously and unfavorably, The type of linkage expressed by this Spanish protestor in Madrid, is especially hard to take, considering Germany's past bailouts of several EU countries.

As the article notes, "One young woman from Bavaria said: "When you see Greek people make that Hitler greeting, it's not good. It isn't allowed in Germany and it shouldn't be allowed in other countries. We are shocked. They are getting a lot of money from Germany so why don't they like us?"

A middle-aged man said: "It's not okay when people say Adolf Hitler and Angela Merkel are the same. We live in 2013 and not in 1945." An older man said he did not understand why Germany was blamed for trying to help: "It hurts, because we think we are giving money and we try to help. This is something we don't understand." That sense of hurt is universal. Jan Schaefer, the economics editor of Bild, the most popular newspaper in Germany, told the BBC that pictures comparing Germany to the Nazi state were obnoxious."

So, misunderstandings galore this week.