The Hermit Kingdom

[Plawless]

Here are a few shots of my trip last week for any who are interested. it was quite the (curated) experience!

Peter

[Plawless]

a few more

[Plawless]

last 3

[Rolf]

Cool pics, Peter! So much (carefully arrayed) colour.

Thanks for sharing.

[justineajohnson]

What a unique experience! Thank you for sharing!

[JTyre]

Hard to imagine that the expressions on those kids faces were not their own, and that you're not making a positive difference, Peter. We're all very proud to have you in our midst. (And, I'm not overly concerned with the antennae sticking out of your kit this morning; what could Alan say that would be that damaging to our national security? ).

[Alan]

Was that antenna or was he just glad to see us?


And for John's sake...

[John D]

Hi Peter...

You previously referred to this as being primarily an exercise in "sports diplomacy", but can you provide any details of what the trip actually entailed?

J.

[mfarnham]

It's been nice knowing you John.

Martin

[AJ Neale]

I suggest that the only requirement for office of president for Tripleshot is an exquisite sense of humour. I didn't think anyone could fill John's shoes in that department. Please stop making me laugh so much.

Andrew

[Greg F]

Hi Peter...

You previously referred to this as being primarily an exercise in "sports diplomacy", but can you provide any details of what the trip actually entailed?

J.

If your insinuating that Peter may have been acting in some surveillance capacity, well... sometimes the least obvious choice makes the best spy.

[SteelBuns]

But not without risk if things had gone sideways.

[Robgrant]

Peter Lawless; a giant among men.

[Plawless]

So in response to John (and not for a second forgetting Andrew’s suggestion of humour as the ONLY requirement to be the TS president) I guess “sport diplomacy” is me trying to suggest that perhaps there are tools (ie sport) that we can use in the world to, despite the numerous challenges, try to influence behaviour for the better.

So in this case it was a trip to NK to see if the “thawing” that took place around the Olympics could be continued and expanded in some ways. I’d be lying to say its not possible that nothing will change as a result of this trip but i think the proof will be in the next set of actions. And i think the folks i met with would lose serious face if they couldn’t follow through and they were some pretty powerful folks.

The 2 big public outcomes / markers of success will be if the women’s hockey team comes to Canada this fall and if the NK’s send anyone to the Special Olympics World Games in 2019 (they have never participated before as they have denied disability). However i think there has already been a change in that they went from saying “we have no intellectual disabilities here” to allowing us (there were 5 - 2 NGO, 2 Special O and me) to work with their staff and some kids for the week. More significantly is that we did a fully integrated “sports day” on Friday that was televised nationally and that is HUGE - nothing gets on tv that isn’t fully endorsed by the state so having kids with intellectual disabilities on tv and more importantly integrated with “regular” kids is an enormous validation of their presence and participation in life.

So it certainly could all fall apart but at this point i think its a win and it could go on to be a really really big one. But time will tell.

So that’s what sport diplomacy means to me in this scenario. (And Andrew .......)