Singing Happy Birthday to Kim Jong Un

Wednesday was North Korea’s Kim Jong Un’s birthday. And a former American basketball star Dennis Rodman (left) went to Pyongyang to visit his BFF and helped celebrate his birthday! For those who are not acquainted with BFF, it means Best Friend Forever – and he not only played basketball but better still, he sang "Happy Birthday" to his ‘beloved friend’!

One thing’s for sure. He cannot sing if his life depends on it. Still, the intention was good. And when he sang, he reminds me of me! I too cannot sing if my life depends on it. 

Anyway, he and other retired NBA players played an exhibition game against the North Koreans and of course, you know who won! Yup, the Americans let the North Koreans beat them. 

Rodman, 52, had visited North Korea three times previously in 2013. He had struck up a friendship with Kim last February, when he first traveled to North Korea with a team of Harlem Globetrotters for an exhibition game that was watched by Kim, a basketball fan. 

Since then, he has described his series of trips to North Korea as a "basketball diplomacy" project. US government officials have said that they have nothing to do with Rodman’s initiatives and that attention should be focused on the brutality of Kim's regime. 

The Philippine embassy in Bangkok has issued a travel advisory to Filipinos travelling to Thailand to shun red or yellow so as to avoid being caught up in the political unrest there. I wonder if the Malaysian embassy there is also issuing similar advice. 

I don’t think so because I came to know about the Philippine bulletin in a Malaysian newspaper (i.e. New Straits Times, January 11, 2013, p 24). I have to assume that the Malaysian embassy is keeping quiet on the matter – otherwise, I would have read about it. 

But anyway, the concern about the colors red and yellow reminds me of the colors yellow and black that could invite arrest in Malaysia at one point in time in 2012-13. 

Colors identify our political affiliation.