Dennis Rodman is in North Korea on a "basketball diplomacy" trip with the Harlem Globetrotters and Vice Media Group. Understandably this won't please every North Korea relations expert right now, but I've always been a proponent of using all styles of engagement in order to progress communications with non-allies--even when the star is described as looking like "a monster!"
However…the main worrisome part about events like this is how the spectacle of the visitors--Rodman, Globetrotters, Vice--often overshadow their actual objective of cultural exchange. And let's not forget the sad truth about the lucky North Korean kids that get to shoot hoops with these stars--they'll come exclusively from the privileged families of Pyongyang that aren't fighting to survive through perennial food shortages and crumbling infrastructure. Rest assured that the footage of this trip won't include the reality of the impoverished majority.
The benefits of the camp have been far reaching. The youngsters from the isolated village of Isithumba have discovered that, through this sport, they can be part of something bigger. "They realise they can be part of the international sub-culture of skateboarding and feel connected to a bigger family than that of their usual day-to-day experience," explains [Indigo founder Dallas Oberholzer]. It has opened doors to the local youths who network with the skateboarders visiting the camp. "There is a connection that transcends the barriers of language and allows everyone to share in their skills and their passion," he claims.
She's riding manmade waves in the middle of the desert at Wadi Adventure, located in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. In a town where rain is rare, this high-tech water park offers not only surfing but also whitewater rafting, kayaking, zip lining, rock climbing, and of course swimming.
But it's the surfing aspect that demands a more serious implication here--the International Surfing Association sees this wave technology as a crucial selling point to having the sport enter the next Olympics. Controlled waves offer a fair playing field for competitors, who are used to dealing with swells based upon Mother Nature's randomness.
Surfing was a part of the X Games a few years back but was pulled for a variety of reasons. As one of the most global and elite sports in the world, I hope the International Olympic Committee will be able to handle the sport properly.
Women athletes from different parts of the globe are garnering plenty of media attention during this year's Olympics. Some are calling 2012 the "year of the woman," partially because for the first time in history, both the US and Russian teams are majority-female. In addition, Saudi Arabia has sent its very first female pair of competitors to London (one who will compete in judo without a hajib!), while Malaysia actually has a female shooter who will compete while nine months pregnant!
A rather unfortunate development ticked off the North Korean women's soccer team--right before their match against Colombia, event organizers mistakenly displayed the North Korean players' introductions alongside the South Korean flag! The ladies from Pyongyang ended up beating Colombia 2-0--perhaps fueled by the embarrassing indiscretion.
While we're on the subject of embarrassing, this week Greece had to kick off triple jumper Voula Papachristou from the country's Olympic squad due to her racist African jokes published on Twitter. She has since apologized, but only after getting more defensive on the social network first. Hopefully she'll realize that her personal entertaining skills do not have much of a place in her role as representing Greece on the world stage!
Lastly, for now anyway, the US beach volleyball team will continue to wear their bikinis during games despite new rules that finally allow women to wear frumpy tees and shorts while playing. To them, like many Southern Californians, swimwear is simply more comfortable and not a big deal.
It's been a rough week in the States, and a rough economic few years for everyone internationally as well. Compounded with the presidential election coming up in a few months, US citizens have been busy reevaluating our social, political, medical, and educational systems. The Olympics will be a brief respite from all of this--plus a fun way to reconnect with our neighbors around the globe and see how they present their own athletes and cultures. And with the increasing inclusion of more women Olympians (um, finally?!), the worldwide celebration seems to be evolving into the relevant affair that it should be.
Amid all the NBA drama this season, it's good to see that former Houston Rockets baller Yao Ming has been pretty busy since retiring a few months ago.
Ming is now back in his hometown of Shanghai, and very busy -- he's enrolled at Shanghai Jiaotong University, pursuing a timely business plan for Yao Family Wines (his winery based in California), and continuing his charity foundation work, on top of owning the Shanghai Sharks (the basketball team that launched his career).
Once a beverage usually served in a glass of ice in China, serious wine-drinking has certainly captivated much of the Chinese bourgeois and elite in recent years (the vast favorite being French wines). Ming, as one of China's most famous and revered athletes ever, is probably the perfect presenter of Napa Valley style wines for the Chinese market.
Considering he is often credited with introducing the NBA to China -- basketball is now incredibly popular there --Ming's agency between vino and his homeland really seems like a no-brainer! Expect a lot more business ventures coming out of the Yao Ming machine in the future...
(Now that Ming has retired, I wonder how the tallest current NBA player is?)
I was in the middle of a photoshoot at one of the most beautiful resorts in Los Cabos (I love you, Capella Pedregal!) when I heard this urgent, half-laughing request for me to watch an online video before stepping into our amazing plunge pool. Slightly skeptical it was worth delaying the sprawling views of the private beach below, I impatiently scurried over to the iPad extended to me.
I watched this two-minute video and instantly blurted out, "Talk about cultural diplomacy gone wild!" The now-infamous basketball game brawl between China's military-owned Bayi Rockets and Washington DC's own Georgetown U started out as another sports diplomacy exchange, where two countries meet and display their athletic skills and sportsmanship (or lack thereof, apparently) with fellow sports practioners and fans.
Coinciding with Vice President Joe Biden's visit to China, the State Department probably thought this would enhance the formal political gesture, not completely overshadow it. But let's face it -- no political figure, no matter how high-ranking, stands a chance at competing with punches, kicks, bottle- and chair-throwing at a sports match. This basketball brawl was the face of last week's US-China visit and exchange -- Biden's visit, a little less so.
While the majority of this fiasco's blame can probably be placed upon the Chinese team's own initial aggression (according to most witnesses, including Bayi Rockets fans themselves), the fight only makes the realm of sports diplomacy even more interesting today. Ping pong diplomacy, which was pretty amazing for its time decades ago, simply doesn't represent the current global exchange of sports.
Does this brawl represent China's rise, and its inherent nonchalance (or disrespect) towards its Western frenemy? Not really, considering that fights within the Bayi Rockets schedule are not that rare no matter who they are playing against. Besides, is there really any sport that has escaped a physical altercation here and there? Even less strenuous sports like baseball have their fair share of fights, albeit sometimes awkward and silly looking (I'm thinking of that long run that has to happen before the pitcher and batter can actually swing blows).
Fights are competitive and we should expect the unexpected when it comes to fights within sporting events, which are formal competitions already. The two teams said their goodbyes after their heated exchange, but hopefully both the US and China now have a poignant reminder that what is anticipated on paper does not necessarily pan out on the streets (or in this case, the courts).
A bigger worry for the State Department is the ongoing protest by 400 foreign student workers in a cultural exchange program with a vendor for the Hershey Company in Pennsylvania. In the US on J-1 visas, the allegations these students have made do not put a pretty spotlight on the exchange program nor the all-American Hershey company. They complain of doing crazy box lifting all day, having to pay higher than average corporate housing fees (for crowded and unsanitary living conditions), and then having to survive in the US on sometimes a meager $40 per week!
We'll see how this situation ends up, but it's a horrible look for the program itself so far. This is more like cultural diplomacy gone bad, because I doubt that the aim of this exchange was to show students from China, Africa and Eastern Europe just how bad the economic situation in America truly is for its own citizens.
But that basketball fight, wow...it was brought up several times in Mexico after the video was released. People just love stuff like that, don't they? Nothing better than having technology to keep up with these things, even when you're on vacation!
South Korea continues to grow on the international stage with the latest announcement of the 2018 Winter Olympics to be held in Pyeongchang, a northeast city on the Korean peninsula which beat Munich (Germany) and Annecy (France) for the coveted hosting role.
The Olympics is all about not only sports but also the opportunity for nations to represent themselves on an extremely broad platform. Since this is the first time a Korean city will host the Winter Games, expect to see an enthusiastic approach to South Korea's continued embrace of cultural diplomacy (mainly in the areas of sports, entertainment, tourism and food) and soft power while they have millions of eyeballs upon them.
Pyeongchang's slogan is "New Horizons" and "will spread the Olympics to a lucrative new market in Asia and become a hub for winter sports in the region."
The International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s votes, which ended in the very first round this time, looked like this:
Turkish Airlines has signed Los Angeles Lakers darling Kobe Bryant as its “global brand ambassador” for the next two years. This business deal has angered the Armenian community (see Armenian genocide), with upset fans calling up the offices of the Armenian Youth Federation and demanding the group respond.
One incensed fan remarked that Kobe "should know better than to put his money before his morality."
Their anger is understandable (and yes I enjoy the Lakers, but I don't expect anything out of these ball players except for what I see on the courts) but I'd like to know...has Kobe ever actually claimed to be moral?
