A former colleague of Aijalon Mahli Gomes says the English teacher-turned-honored guest of the DPRK was really big into that Jesus thing:
Gomes came to South Korea about two years ago to teach English. Fellow American Jered Lyons says he taught in the same town as Gomes from October 2008 to July of 2009. He describes Gomes as deeply religious. “Aijalon was always, he was the type of guy that kind of wanted to share the Gospel, if you will, share his faith,” he said. “He would always invite me to church with him, and always wanted to have Bible studies and stuff like that. So, I think he had a deep passion for bringing people to Christianity.”
Lyons says Gomes did not always relate easily to other people. “Overall, he was a nice guy. He meant well. He was a little socially awkward. I mean, yeah, I would say he didn’t do groups well,” he said.
As I said before with Robert Park, as far as acts of religious devotion go, sneaking into North Korea is probably a lot better than blowing up a passenger plane. It’s also a lot less likely to, ahem, drastically lower your carbon footprint than sneaking into Afghanistan. Still, I really hope this doesn’t turn into a fad…
UPDATE: Hey, maybe this is why Gomes went up there!
“A few women entered the room where Robert was held in North Korea. They touched, groped him… and a very humiliating, indescribable thing happened,” Mr Jo said. “North Korea knows human weakness so well.”
You know, Bob, a lot of men actually pay for that sort of humiliation. Human weakness, indeed.
Yes, I know, I know… one should make light of such things. Still, all I could think of was this:
UPDATE 2: Gomes also reportedly attended anti-North Korea rallies in South Korea.
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If some fool wants to take outrageous risk and go proselytise in places like North Korea and Afghanistan, be my guest. But let me be clear, aside from a short mention in the Darwin Awards, these imbeciles do not deserve any column space. THEY ARE NOT NEWSWORTHY.
An ex-girlfriend of mine once described it as a “miracle”. Religious experience indeed.
Also, if N. Korea really wants to keep people out, they’d better put a stop to the hand-job torture. That’s going to result in a long line outside their door.
Well… I would have to know what these women that tried to groped Mr. Park looked like. If they looked like a Korean version of Roseanne Barr or this beast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvNtBuRKmjg
Then that would indeed be “a very humiliating, indescribable thing…”
Yeah. There was much comment on this blog about “bravery” in the wake of Robert Kim’s entrance to North Korea. But I’ll say the same thing now: it ain’t ballsy, it’s stupid. Further, the religious justification for it is sketchy as best. Jesus never went to Rome, he was content to preach in and around Jerusalem. Further, he said “Do not put the Lord your God to the test,” in Luke 4:12, quoting Deuteronomy 6:16. Anyone crossing into the North Korea to spread the Good Word and expecting anything other than torture and butt-rape is not petitioning the Lord, they are demanding miracles from Him.
Poor guy. I think if he isn’t newsworthy then neither are people who accidentally stumble into Iran while hiking in some neighboring country and get arrested. Of course it is newsworthy because of the nature of the regime.
I hope he doesn’t go the way of Hunziker. It is something that has concerned me.
I hope he gets it together.
It could have been worse. Instead of women molesting him, it could have been men molesting him. It’s too horrible even to think about it.
Religion aside, more non-believers in South Korea should be out on the street and bringing the NK human rights cases forward. What does the amnesty international in Korea do? How come I don’t see them holding candlelit vigils on the street? I think a little bit of push from your everday South Korean would go a long way into rattling the foundation there to topple altogether but it’s almost as if the South Koreans don’t want that to happen. By staying quiet, it’s as if South Koreans (with their own history of regime and torture) think it’s ok, that a little bit of torture for dissidents there is bona fide to keep things stable on both sides.
Yuna: from Seoulites under 40 I get two memes:
1) I don’t have any direct relatives there, so these people are not my brothers/sisters.
2) I don’t want anything to affect my lifestyle. Unification would be so costly that my standard of living would be affected.
Conceptual assent to unification is often there, but always NIML (not in my lifetime).
Who would have thought that NK could potentially lose a crazy contest? And yet, here is the latest from Robert Park and Norbert (all caps in the original, sorry):
GLOBAL PRESS RELEASE – PLEASE RELEASE MR. AIJALON GOMES
ROBERT PARK BEGS THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT TO INTERVENE ON MR. AIJALON GOMES’S BEHALF AND BRING HIM SAFELY OUT OF THE DPRK AND BACK TO AMERICA.
MR. GOMES IS ONE OF THE MOST KIND, GENTLE, BEAUTIFUL, AND GOOD PERSONS ROBERT PARK HAS EVER MET, AND MR. GOMES LOVES EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE WORLD.
ROBERT PARK BEGS THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO ARISE AND HUNGRY STRIKE AND APPEAL FOR MR. AIJALON GOMES TO BE RELEASED FROM DPRK IMMEDIATELY.
ROBERT PARK FOUND OUT TODAY THAT THE PERSON WHO ENTERED DPRK ON JANUARY 25TH IS ONE OF HIS CLOSEST FRIENDS, MR. AIJALON GOMES AND REQUESTS FOR ALL PEOPLE WORLDWIDE TO HUNGER STRIKE ON HIS BEHALF.
ROBERT PARK WILL BE ON HUNGER STRIKE AT THE NEAREST PLACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE IN WASHINGTON DC, BEGINNING SUNRISE ON MARCH 25TH, FOR THE RELEASE OF HIS FRIEND AND BROTHER IN CHRIST AIJALON GOMES. HE BEGS PRESIDENT OBAMA AND SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON TO INTERVENE ON MR. AIJALON GOMES’S BEHALF.
ROBERT PARK DESPERATELY REQUESTS HELP OF THOSE IN THE WASHINGTON DC AREA – PLEASE MAKE LARGE SIGNS WITH MR. AIJALON GOMES PICTURE AND WHICH DEMAND HIS IMMEDIATE RELEASE.
ROBERT PARK BEGS ALL PEOPLE WORLDWIDE TO PRAY AND FAST URGENTLY FOR MR. AIJALON GOMES WELFARE AND SAFE, IMMEDIATE RELEASE.
makes me wonder how the PTSD symptoms are manifesting.
Pyongyang is the “Jerusalem of the East.”
Pyongyang is the “Jerusalem of the East”?
As a matter of political correctness, I suggest that we henceforth refer to Pyongyand as the “Al-Quds of the East.”
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
Oh . . . and let’s call “Pyongyang” by its new title of “Pyongyand.”
Just kidding. My poor proofreading skills.
Jeffery Hodges
* * *
(To repeat my prediction) Christianity will spread very fast across a free(er) north Korea.
That said I’m not sure how much good this guy has done or if he might not be counter-productive. Hard to say.
More important perhaps, the DPRK has given status points to DailyNK and other NK-related media NGOs by threatening to “punish” them:
http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01700&num=6161
Let this be a call to action. Now is the time.
Discontent is spreading in the North, and they are having a depression there.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-korea-famine25-2010mar25,0,3828796,full.story
As I’ve mentioned, it had to happen. My predictions have been almost uncannily accurate; if only financial markets were so predictable! As for the depression in North Korea, they’ve had the worst of both monetary worlds: decrease in the money supply coupled with rapid inflation of the NK won due to its loss of social status. This is why I called the Nov 30 currency reforms North Korea’s Lehman Brothers.
A window of time is opening where individuals can make a difference. Barging into North Korea doesn’t seem the right approach to me, but there are other ways. For the times they are a-changing.
He loves Jesus, and America too.
Now he’s freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Free falllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllin’
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