Tuesday, June 12, 2018

The Handshake – World has turned on its head, and we are the better for it!



It’s true. Build a nuclear warhead threaten your neighbor by flying your ICBMs without a nuclear warhead and then POTUS will invite you for talks. Cool hah?

That’s what North Korea did, and it paid off. The world is watching, and the Country with the highest proportion of political prisoners as a percentage of the population, facing toture and starvation in Gulags, wins the day.

Rajapakse clearly misunderstood the word bullying here, and what it takes to win in the world of diplomacy.

Trump on the other hand promised his backers, that he will turn US foreign policy on its head as it did not work all this time and by doing it is own way is making some HEADWIND. So what did he do?

He saw North Korea testing Nuclear Missiles and they even taunted him by saying it was days before they could get their ICBMs to go the distance to Hawaii and obliterate that island. He then got Russia and China and tightened sanctions, and threatened to use Nuclear Weapons against Korea, (if you obliterate the North, you also obliterate the South) He brought the sixth fleet to the waters off Korea and showed he meant business.

South Korea’s new leader who was more moderate, having his parents who fled the North as part of his legacy, managed dialogue, got Kim to come made a historic meeting at the DMZ. (don’t forget the two Korea’s are still, as in even today, technically at war) Then there was another meeting again in Seoul much to the surprise of the world. Kim in the meantime went to Beijing twice to meet his supporter, President Xi, who provided the planes this time to bring his entourage and his two Mercedez Limousines to Singapore.

The South Korean leader brokered the meeting in Singapore. Trump whose art of the deal, saw the greatest photo opportunity of his Presidency come and jumped at it. So did Kim. Sanctions were eased immediately, the entrances to the Nuclear Tests sites were bombed, he agreed to halt tests and they met this morning at 8.30am or there abouts at Sentosa Island in Singapore, talks still taking place with their teams.

Despite condemnation from Human Rights Organizations all over the world who have lost credibility by trying to stop this meeting which will not even touch on the HR record at this meeting, it is being hailed everywhere as a Diplomatic Triumph for Trump and Kim, who will win the Nobel hands down.
Now for the nitty gritty:

Did you see Denis Rodman on CN? He was the front man for years, who went to Korea and got shat on by the US media, and he was crying on TV saying he had death threats on his return, because he went to the Pariah State. Now he sporting the Make America Great Again cap that the Donald used in his campaign actually has the last laugh. Even Trump’s secrtary had personally called him to thank him for his part in this historic meeting and he was reveling in the fame of the moment, knowing his long term investment in North Korea, which he said had always been let down by people making promises and breaking them, get on the world stage.

Personally I have not analysed my feelings about the HR issue, about the totalitarian regime for 75+ years of grand father, father and son in charge, ruthlessly suppressing opposition, and controlling the remaining people with fear. One has to admire how 25million people in a state that is dead broker and poverty all encompassing and people fed a diet of only the leader as God, who effectively owns the Country, more ruthless than Nero, and more grabbing of the Nation’s wealth than Ghadaffi is now hailed as a hero even in South Korea that prior to meeting with their president had 10% approval rating, 35% approval rating after the meeting with their leader at the DMZ and today 75% approval rating in South Korea of all places. That is absolutely astounding, for a man who threated to annihilate the whole of South Korea with just one missile.

Diplomacy is weired, but diplomacy that can change the stakes from fear to satisfaction without one shot of a bullet, is to me the epitome of success. In Sri Lanka we miserably FAILED. Mahinda Rajapakse who all think is a hero, miserably failed to stop the killing until he had killed all the LTTE who were left. Don’t forget he massacred thousands of his own Countrymen, using his own army. No matter that his countrymen revolted. A smart leader could have turned things around with no killing, dismantling the mad ruthless terrorist, if he was able to get his killing machine, Karuna on his side, why could he not isolate Prabarkaran, where he had NO option but to swallow his own cyanide on his neck, which the bloody coward could not do even at the end.

We learn from history, so we don’t make the same mistakes, and that is why we use history to help the present. In Sri Lanka we have fake history taught in schools and our teachers don’t even realize how fake it is when they teach it. At least we can se the world operating in our faces on TV today, a luxury our ancestors did not have. However as dumb as most Sri Lankans are few would have even seized the moment of history happening 3 flying hours away from our little island, and Singapore an even littler island getting press coverage worth US$10B in one day, when we cannot get US$1B in FDI in ONE YEAR!

Despite my reservations about Donald Trump and his art of the Deal by which his Presidency seems to be defined, you have to give him credit for at least promising to do his foreign policy in a different to style to established foreign policy, and KEEPING TO HIS PROMISE.

PS Did you not notice that there were NO US SENATORS OR CONGRESSMEN from either side of the Isle in his entourage? Well he did it on his own. 

For a great Country like the USA not even to consult or have their legislators anywhere on the scene, is tantamount to the POTUS being a dictator for a term of 4 years only. It works, knowing you could be elected one more time and that's it.

That is what MR failed to understand and failed to profit from, when being greedy to change the constitution to have a longer stint at the robbing top. Can anyone point a finger at Trump for robbing the coffers? NO. On MR the answer is a big YES. The fact you cannot get his stash from Dubai bank accounts, is not the fault of the present government. 

Dubai is the place where all the rogues of the world stash their cash. Switzerland has now pledged not to allow stolen money to be dumped into their banking system. However Dubai is now the depository for money laundering in the world, and make no bones about it, the Rajapakse US$ billions are safe there, ready to fight many more elections in Sri Lanka if need be. So the answer to the critics saying where is the money? IS SIMPLE it is there and can only be used by the owners and their proxies, both of whom are operating in Dubai - don't we know it.

4 comments:

  1. A great compare and contrast essay on how to manage conflict and win.

    A lesson for Sri Lanka, on its historic failure to even manage a small insurrection still

    ReplyDelete
  2. Human Rights is relative. The US had millions in jail for minor offences, being caught for the first time with 5g of drugs for example. Tell me please who is the bigger violator?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sri Lanka must as an act of humanity release all political prisoners against whom there are no charges that can be brought for lack of evidence. For example all remand prisoners who have been remand for more than one year. Just do it and see what it can do to life and compassion. I thought it was a Buddhist Country not one run by thugs

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am sure his teachers at the Swiss Boarding school would have been consulted about his personality and peccadillos, but more importantly the languages that he spoke at the school to determine how much English he really knows as I am sure he knows more than anyone lets out.

    It will come out one day, when Trump and Kim meet next with NO interpreters present, when I would love to be a fly on the wall listening to the English that Kim actually knows.

    He has even fooled the world on his knowledge of English, though the US CIA know exactly how fluent he is.

    ReplyDelete