NorthKorea

For my last post on Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea for a while, I'll post some far-reaching ideas, link to articles about it, and give thanks and credit. Einstein said "you cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." And George Santayana said "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Well, if you want peace, I suggest you begin with fun and games, or at least make them a major part of your plans. And if you think fun and games is nothing more than fun and games, learn your ping pong history, because it makes a difference. And play Ultimate! Credit I owe my gratitude for perhaps the greatest tournament of my ultimate career to Andray Abrahamian, who did the bulk…

Okay, you're asking, I get the value of sport in opening communications anywhere and thawing relations with people across adversarial borders. What about the games themselves? Did you have fun? Did they? You'll have to wait for when my posts on pictures from North Korea reach the Ultimate games, but don't worry, I'll post interesting stuff in between. For now I'll say this. You can read books, search online, watch documentaries, even visit North Korea on a regular tour, but none of these will give you the experience of interacting one on one with a North Korean. Not that a couple hours in a large group in Pyongyang gave us a deep understanding of the richness and complexities of North Koreans, but playing games with…

Yesterday I hinted at why playing sports yourself differs from watching sports, especially the big ones. Why not promote interactions through the big sports, like basketball, soccer, Olympics, and so on? First, I don't discourage them, but I would point out their size, scale, and corporate and government backing make everyday human interaction more difficult. All the profit available makes them easy pickings for rent-seeking government bureaucrats and corporations. As it stood for our little Ultimate tournament, the government charged us an amount for using the fields that would have been hefty in the U.S. Watching sports doesn't promote interaction like playing them. Ultimate, while played around the world, remains a relatively small sport with a very tight community. Since the media don't cover it…

The one-on-one interactions between regular players I described yesterday not representing their countries led to a series of ping pong players from each nation touring the others'. With the Vietnam War raging, the press around the world covered the interactions. According to Smithsonian Magazine Soon after the U.S. team's trip, Nixon, not wanting to lose momentum, secretly sent Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to Peking to arrange a Presidential visit to China. Nixon's journey seven months later, in February 1972, would become one of the most important events in U.S. postwar history. "Never before in history has a sport been used so effectively as a tool of international diplomacy," said Chinese Premier Chou En-lai. For Nixon, it was "the week that changed the world." For…

Yesterday I suggested Nixon couldn't have opened China since ping pong opened it a year before. If you're like me, you've never heard of "ping pong diplomacy." Or maybe you've heard the words together, but don't know what they mean. I understand people who were adults at the time will all know the phrase, if perhaps from hazy memories. From Wikipedia's page on ping pong diplomacy: Ping pong diplomacy refers to the exchange of ping pong players between the United States and People's Republic of China (PRC) in the 1970s. The event marked a thaw in U.S.—China relations that paved the way to a visit to Beijing by President Richard Nixon. Ping pong, even as huge as I hear it is in China, would hardly…

I left off yesterday's introduction to Ultimate Frisbee in North Korea, which recounted China's change from a failing planned economy to an increasingly market-based economy, with the question "Did Nixon open China?". It looks that way. Yesterday's post described the huge changes to China's government and economy occurring immediately after his visit. Searching "Nixon opened China" gets you innumerable hits on the internet. According to the Wikipedia page on Nixon's 1972 visit to China U.S. President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China was an important step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, who at that time considered the U.S. one of…