Sports: the real barometer

Somebody explain this to me: North and South Korea have forged a pact to compete as one team in the 2006 Asian Games and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. I mean, the Demilitarized Zone separating the two countries might constitute one of the tensest regions in the world, where the threat of war-possibly nuclear war-casts a perpetual shadow. Maybe Kim Jong Il and his totalitarian dictatorship continue to starve their own people while adhering to the faltering and ideologically driven tenets of a Marxism/Leninism run awry. But hey, let’s think about what really matters here: medal counts.

In all seriousness, I’m excited about this small, but notable development in the relations between North and South. Not only would a thaw in those tensions serve the international community as a whole, but the more attention drawn to the situation in North Korea the better. It gets us one step closer to feeding starving mouths and reuniting families that haven’t seen each other in half a century. I think this political decision, channeled through the guise of athletics, will do less to legitimize the impotent, but dangerous, rule in the North and more to draw that stagnating region back into the international community. I don’t think we need to worry about justice coming to those who begged its swift hand; that will happen when the people in the North are empowered by their own revelations. Therefore, although it struck me as incomprehensible and conciliatory at first, I now see this as a calculated (correctly calculated, in my opinion) move to achieve the ultimate goal of democratic unity.

Also, China better rethink their Table Tennis odds when they’re playing at home in 2008.