What did Kenneth Bae do to be imprisoned?

1/8 - Kim Jong Un's birthday - Rodman blows up on CNN, defends basketball game in North Korea

See video here:
http://www.newsmax.com/newswidget/dennis-rodman-cnn-north-korea/2014/01/07/id/545638

Rodman, in this interview, is not a coherent speaker, sounds like he's on one, but Charles Smith is delightfully articulate. Too bad the CNN host kept interrupting him.

Interesting part to me:
The host kept bringing the topic back to Kenneth Bae. Rodman, sounding offended, replied:  "Kenneth Bae did one thing ... If you understand what Kenneth Bae did. Do you understand what he did in this country? No, no, no, you tell me, you tell me. Why is he held captive here in this country, why? ... I would love to speak on this." But he didn't speak on it. And no, no one really knows why Bae is held captive, that's why people are mad that Kenneth Bae an American imprisoned in a PRK labor camp. So what did Kenneth Bae do?? That's what I wanna know.

In a quick search, I found that Bae, an American, gave tours of North Korea, from a business he ran, based in China. From CNN: "[In 2006] [Bae] established "Nations Tour," a China-based tour company that specialized in tours of North Korea."[1]

So I guess Bae would drive into North Korea and give tours???


"He created a tourism company called "Nations Tour" for North Korean special economic zone visits that were secretly Christian missionary trips"[2]. Gotta mention, it's illegal and punishable by death to practice Christianity or to own a bible in North Korea[3]. And if he gave tours of outskirt areas? What do you think his tours would have been like? Not a good depiction. And that's why the Kim Jongs would be mad. Plus they, Bae and his tour groups, were trespassing. He invaded North Korea with his tours. That's why he was imprisoned. Now we know, right?



From Wiki, North Korea claims these are the reasons Kenneth Bae was prosecuted:

• Working with evangelical organization Youth With A Mission (YWAM), Bae is accused of preaching against the North Korean government in American and South Korean churches.^[33]
• Planning an anti-North Korean religious coup d'état called "the Operation Jericho", a reference to the biblical city whose walls were toppled by the sound of the Israelites'trumpets. Which began in the US, South Korea and China long before Bae traveled to North Korea.^[33]
• Admitting to setting up bases in China for the purpose of toppling the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
• Encouraging North Korean citizens to bring down the government.
• Conducting a "malignant" smear campaign.[2]

What's messed up in NK is the executions.[3]

But screw it, they're there to play basketball! I'd like to see the game, America vs N. Korea!


Sources:
[1]http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/07/us/who-is-kenneth-bae/
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Bae
[3]http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/11/11/north-korea-executions_n_4254893.html

Black Youths Beat Hispanic Man shouting "This is for Trayvon"

Headline: Witness claims youths yelled 'this is for Trayvon' in beating

Police still investigating claim in beating of Hispanic man

Source: Baltimore Sun - July 15, 2013

There's a lot of negative fallout from the Zimmerman verdict.
Trayvoning is one such example.

But this Baltimore story is another terrible example... This is real bad news after the Trayvon Martin/George Zimmerman verdict.

WHY?

Because now colored people are angry at other colored people! They're tearing us apart! To quote George Costanza: "A house divided cannot stand!"


We got the Divided States of America here...

Simply, if people are mad about a court case, they should not continue the violence.

Stop the Violence! See: Davey D

See also: The Stop the Violence Movement (lyrics)

SOMEBODY KNOWS that the best way to PREVENT PEOPLE FROM RISING UP against a broken system is to keep them divided against each other. The sensationalization of the Zimmerman case is divisive in multiple ways, I will enumerate just a few:

1. Friends against Friends - Disagreement on the Verdict - Everyone's gonna have a different opinion on whether the verdict was right or wrong. This has caused more than a few arguments on social media networks. This "touchy topic" has even turned some friends against each other. No. Bad. Stop it.

2. Color against a Different Color - As evidenced in Baltimore, the Zimmerman verdict has turned minority groups against each other. Black vs. Brown, White vs. Black, Color vs Non-color... ain't no good. Can't we just get along and dance?

3. Community against itself - What does it mean to be colored and stigmatized in America? What does that do to one's self-worth? We got people criticizing their own people and reinforcing their own negative stereotypes.

For people who want justice and real change, we have to UNIFY against a common enemy, which is a broken system with corrupted parts—corrupted cops, along with incompetent political and business leaders. Instead of thinking in terms of "I" or "you," think in terms of "we" and "us."

Not all of them are corrupted, in fact, probably just a minority are. That's why it's no time for generalization, it's time for specificity.

Together we rise.
Divided we'll die.


Let's end the racism and start the embrace-ism. Let's give free hugs, literally or figuratively, and embrace our true relationship to each other, as Earth Citizens, of the Human Family, on Planet Rock aka Earth!

Rock, rock... Planet Rock.

A lot of us have experienced racism. It's real as shit.
Middle school, high school, even now it still exists.

This court case, and the subsequent fallout over its verdict, makes me question the justice system, the education system, the media/news media landscape, AND democracy as a whole.... more on that in a later post...

or maybe I'll make a song about it on my mixtape.

China's Underground Cities!

This was brought to my attention on MLK Day.

(but serves no direct relevance to MLK day at all)

(just a random cool thing I learned about)

People living underground!

Seems like they've done it before.

Is it going to happen again?

Is it ALREADY happening??

This is Beijing's Underground City:

So it's been done!

That "Underground City" serves as a historical precedent to China's current/future plans for more subterraneous habitation (living underground). It seems like young people are more open to the idea, as shown in this recent Chinese news story:

^current world news!!!

Skating rinks and movie theaters underground...? underground schools/libraries?? I kinda see why younger people are more open to it... Cuz you can still be on the computer/play games LOL.

Probably wouldn't have rainy days. Just no sunny days either. And as the well-dressed Chinese lady said, no moon. :(

I'm more open to the idea of living on water. Or living on the moon.

I can also imagine living in a university in space, where people would be educated, and have families that get educated on the way to a distant location that would take lifetimes to reach.

Back to underground cities though...

This one in Turkey had an 8km tunnel that led to another underground city. 

It had a river, and air vents.

If you're anything like me, you might be thinking "What the f* dude?"

Yeah. But in the meantime, there's plenty of space to be used above ground. The most important space is the space around you, and the spaces that you put yourself in. Become more capable by learning to manipulate the space around you, with the skills/knowledge that you pick up. 

If you can figure that out, many amazing things happen.