Recently, Dennis Rodman, a former NBA player for the Detroit Pistons, Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs, made a visit to North Korea in February and attempted to reach out to North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, an avid basketball fan, to discuss country relations.
Rodman was invited into North Korea as a part of various basketball exhibitions, and many people believe that Rodman was the first American that Kim met.
Since Rodman is not a trained diplomat, Rodman clearly should not think of himself as a diplomat and definitely should not be allowed to meet with Kim, especially considering the already-strained tensions between North Korea and the United States. Rodman has falsely come to see himself as a diplomat and considers Kim a “best friend forever.”
A display of Rodman’s twisted logic is that he believes that Kim only wants to be friends with the rest of the world.
“[Kim] just wants to be loved. He just wants to sit down and talk. That's all,” said Rodman to the press in April.
Rodman’s inherent stupidity is clearly shown through his belief that the deranged North Korean leader only wishes for love, when clearly he has nuclear ambitions and poses a threat to the world.
Rodman has recently posted tweets asking the North Korean Supreme Leader to release American citizen Kenneth Bae. According to North Korea, Bae tried to overthrow the current Korean regime by giving anti-North Korean lectures and by distributing food and “inflammatory literature” to orphans. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Rodman has become increasingly frustrated with president Barack Obama’s reluctance to talk to Kim. Rodman has also received flak for stating, “Barack Obama can’t do s—!”
These crude statements show that Rodman clearly isn’t fit to go on any diplomatic missions. Rodman’s incompetence can be seen through a Twitter fiasco with South Korean music artist PSY.
He ignorantly tweeted while in North Korea, “Maybe I'll run into the Gangnam Style dude while I'm here,” to which PSY responded, “I'm from #SOUTH man!!! kk.”
Anyone with a single grain of common sense would know that PSY is from South Korea; Rodman doesn’t have any. If Rodman can’t even tell the difference between North and South Korea, he is unfit to be a so-called “diplomat” to North Korea.
During his NBA career over a decade ago, Rodman committed numerous questionable actions. For example, he headbutted a referee while he was a member of the Chicago Bulls. Due to this history of poor judgment, he should not be meddling in foreign affairs.
Rodman has alarmingly expanded his diplomatic goals. “I want to go anywhere in the world I’m needed,” said Rodman.
For instance, Rodman visited Rome in an attempt to help Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana become the first black pope.
“[Turkson] was cool as hell. He pretty much was like a pimp. Sitting up there … speaking like 20,000 different languages … He was great for the world,” said Rodman.
Although he failed, this incident shows how Rodman has arrogantly come to see himself as a diplomat of the world: an alarming trend in the increasing turbulence in the international diplomatic sphere.
Admittedly, Rodman means no harm and just has good intentions. He may still be able to help ease relations with North Korea.