Mike's Fucking Blog

Tag: Conflict Resolution

• Why I made a rap video in North Korea

  Posted at 5:21 pm by mikesfuckingusername, on November 22, 2020

  

  I wanted to erode idealogical indoctrination among average North Koreans by inundating them with foreign ideas

  In spring, 2013, I embarked on a series of journeys between North and South Korea in attempt to facilitate an inter-Korean orchestra project where 50 persons ensembles from ROK and DPRK would gather in one of the newly constructed peace parks to perform together.

  The purpose of the joint orchestra was conflict de-escalation. At the time, tensions were measurably higher than at any point in the past 20 years, so my plan was to reduce the bellicosity by getting the Koreas to focus on music and all its rhythms and harmonies.

  Unfortunately, the North Koreans had no intention of letting an American facilitate such a project, much less doing anything that could reconcile issues with their southern neighbor, so they strung me along for months until I finally accepted that I’d wasted a ton of time and money on the project.

  At the time, I was a graduate student studying citizen diplomacy and non-state actor conflict resolution at American University’s elite School of International Service and I depended on the project’s success for my practicum and thesis. I had to come up with something.

  Voicing my frustrations to my friend Ramsey Aburdene, founder and CEO of Forest-Hills Tenley Town Music Group (FHTMG), he suggested we make a rap video on my final trip. We found two street rappers, Peso and Pac-Man, at a basketball court in South East Washington, DC, and proposed the project to the aspiring rappers.

  On Thanksgiving break, 2013, we embarked on the final leg of my journey, and my hope was that the Escape to North Korea project would inspire foreigners from around the world to visit North Korea and try any type of outside-the-box project one could imagine: hackie sack tours, parkour tours, sports tours, arts tours, music tours, beer tasting tours, fishing tours, etc.

  The point was to inundate North Korea with such a plethora of foreign concepts that it would eventually erode indoctrination in the minds of average people who witnessed what was taking place, and cause them to question everything they’d ever been taught. Call it a revenge project, if you will.

  With financial sponsorship of a hedge fund manager, we set out on the journey. Peso and Pac-Man had never been out of the state, much less out of the country, much less to an enemy country, so things were challenging. For example, they had spent their entire lives living off fast food and junk food, so the healthy food in North Korea made them so sick they couldn’t eat.

  On their third day of starving, the North Koreans — we assumed not trying to be racist or stereotypical — brought out huge plates of fried chicken and watermelon for Peso and Pac-Man, which they ate every bite of and got the energy to continue the project.

  The North Koreans were not happy with the filming and picture taking. They became extremely upset when we “disrespected the regime” by rapping about “mass killings” on their most sacred ground, The Palace of the Sun. They confiscated some of our equipment and all memory cards — except the ones we smuggled out.

  At the end of the trip, right before our flight was scheduled to depart, I was detained and taken to the third floor of the Yanggakdo Hotel — where I was interrogated for thirty minutes by a State Security Department official who looked like he had meth mouth when he was talking. They accused me of disrespecting the regime. It was terrifying but I was eventually kicked out of the country and banned for life. Thankfully, I didn’t suffer a worse fate.

  Because I was so upset by the detention, I avoided the media when we landed and made a B-line straight to luggage pick up. It was a very disturbing incident but I wish I would’ve stayed and spoke to the media because, even though it would’ve totally undermined my masters thesis, I would’ve announced my support for a tourism ban.

  | 0 Comments Tagged Citizen Diplomacy, Conflict Resolution, FHTMG, Lindenbaum Orchestra, Mike Bassett North Korea, music diplomacy, Non-State Actors, North Korea, North Korea tourism, Peso and Pacman, Rap video project

• My War For Peace In Korea

  Posted at 4:24 pm by mikesfuckingusername, on April 4, 2020

  

  My father was an abusive alcoholic who abandoned me as a child, but luckily I had an amazing grandfather who replaced him. My grandpa is the sweetest, kindest man I’ve ever known and he had an enormous impact on my life.

  I remember him teaching me how to play baseball and then showing me pictures of him playing baseball with an orphaned Korean boy from the Iron Triangle in 1952. I imagined myself like that boy, and having a little better childhood thanks to my grandpa.

  

  Following in his footsteps I joined the Army, and after a tour in Germany I finally found myself stationed on the DMZ near Panmunjeom in Area 1.

  One night we were alerted around 0300hrs because a defector had made it across. Our squadron commander ordered us all into the gym to listen to her story. She’d been a supply clerk and was accused of stealing a pack of pencils. In the gulag she was raped and then tortured for being raped. I was so mad I wanted to reignite the war by launching tank rounds into the DPRK. Luckily, I was talked down and went into recon a few years later.

  After the Army I chose scholarly and activist approaches. I found myself a peace activist with the delusion that I could end the Korean War if people would just listen to me. I was blogging and writing for think tanks, and even served as an intel analyst who briefed everyone from military leaders to government officials and ambassadors.

  I had effectively done everything humanly possible to become a Korean War expert: I learned the language, lived in Korea for a decade, studied North Korea in college, in grad school, and even in North Korea during three months of visits. At the end of it, I knew every actor in the field and what their positions were. I began to realize that every position anyone notable ever took always resulted in a perpetuation of the North Korean regime, and therefore the war. It drove me crazy.

  The harder I fought to end the war, the more resistance I got. Especially from human rights actors and NGO’s — oddly enough. At one point I wrongfully believed that North Korea was the only country who truly wanted to end the war. But then the regime detained and interrogated me during a visit. I was kicked out and banned, which taught me a valuable lesson that I’d never forget: Engagers are the biggest threat to the regime.

  My (borrowed) theory was that radical guerrilla engagement could force the Hermit Kingdom to collapse and South Korea could absorb it. So, I launched several public diplomacy projects; ranging from orchestra’s to rap video’s, and environmental projects to parades. Later, I even worked as a DOD intelligence analyst where I briefed senior leaders at the two star, four star and COCOM levels.

  Several more terrible experiences later, I’d finally come to the bitter conclusion that it is in nobody’s interest to end the Korean War. America, South Korea, Japan, North Korea, China and Russia — the main stakeholders — all have their own incentives to keep the war perpetually going: The Korean Peninsula basically serves as a frontline between communism and freedom. To end it would be to snap that Achilles Heel and all hell would break loose.

  To provide an example of what I’m talking about, yesterday I read an article — which perhaps triggered me to write this piece — where an analyst, Dr. Christopher Richardson, claimed that North Korea is struggling against South Korean influence. Despite the opposite being true — apparent by all of President Moon’s seemingly pro-DPRK policies — Richardson made anecdotal arguments about how Southern ideology has influenced the North. True or not, what is the point of giving the DPRK reasons for crackdowns and telling them exactly what to look for?

  My problem with this article is that when the regime reads it, it causes them to crackdown on their people more. In the human rights sense, crackdowns are devastating to the population. In the sense of preserving the Status Quo, that’s exactly what crackdowns achieve. I digress because I’ve finally realized that the Status Quo, no matter how ugly it is, is for the good of the order. No amount of current human suffering or pain caused by today’s division, is, according to the experts, more important than preserving the Status Quo. After all, breaking that Achilles Heel would make today’s problems seem like a walk in the park.

  I have many regrets in my life but the Korean War is my Rosebud. I have done my best since leaving the field, in disgraced failure, to make amends with everyone I hurt by accusing them of perpetuating the Korean War. I can only hope that they have also forgiven me too. Sometimes some people just have to learn the hard way. None of us are perfect, certainly not me.

  It greatly pains me to know that North Korean people are still suffering under the regime, that divided families are still separated, and that Korean War veterans will probably be long gone before the war they fought 70 years ago ends. I have no remedies for these conundrums. Telling these groups of people that their suffering is for the greater good will not likely leave them content. And perhaps that’s why nobody admits the sad truth.

  | 0 Comments Tagged Conflict Resolution, Diplomacy, Human Rights, Korean War, Mike Bassett, Peace

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