Stooge

Elevating immature men to the pinnacle of power is always a dangerous thing. We knew that from Nero.

Kim Jong-un is young. That should not be a problem. Silicon Valley is filled with men his age who are pushing the boundaries of what is technologically possible.

The problem is Kim Jong-un is immature — probably at any age. He was raised a princeling, removed from reality. He received the mantle of leadership by dynastic dictate, not by personal merit.

A bizarre character in a bizarre political system, Kim behaved strangely of late. First, he fawned over Dennis Rodman. The next day, he threatens to settle all scores by sending missiles across the Pacific.

Few people can make sense of the bluster coming out of Pyongyang lately. Most people find the content of North Korean propaganda downright comical: photo-shopped images of Kim with what appears to be a fleet of warships in the background, video of goose-stepping infantry, police dogs trained to attack the likeness of the South Korean defense minister.

Only one group translated annoyance into action. The global hacktivist group Anonymous last week broke into North Korean websites and uploaded content derogatory of tyrant of Pyongyang.

Those whose job it is to fret about security issues have the dreary duty of figuring out the reasons for the unreasonable behavior we have so far seen. The debate recently boiled down to who is a stooge of whom in Pyongyang.

One side says that Kim is a stooge of the North Korean military establishment, the only functional institution in that country. The old generals, in order to perpetuate the primacy of the military, which has first crack on everything from funding to food to fuel in a resource-starved country, propelled the young Kim into an orgiastic warmongering.

In the end, after Kim exhausted all his bluster and reality kicks back in, the leader loses face and becomes even more dependent on the military to prop up his rule.

The other side says it is Kim manipulating the military establishment, pandering to their warmongering until the stupidity of it all is so blatantly exposed. When this happens, militarism may need to step back. The generals may accept a more proportional role in society and allow more evenly balanced distribution of resources to happen.

My problem with this side of the argument is that it presupposes a certain volume of political brilliance on the part of the young Kim. There has been no evidence of that so far.

At any rate, there seems to be no reason to take all the bluster emanating from Pyongyang too seriously. We all know the North Koreans cannot aim their missiles properly. They are years from having the capability to mount a nuclear warhead. In two days after a full-scale conventional war commences, their army runs out of fuel, not to mention food.

Nevertheless, history teaches us well about the limitless capacity of morons to pull just about anything even if it results in self-destruction. It is, therefore, the possibility of a humanitarian calamity that worries the region more than North Korea’s tin-can army.

Off-shore

The British Virgin Islands (BVI) is a familiar place for businessmen. The territory’s economy relies almost exclusively on, well, facilitating the “ease of doing business.” This is composed of two main activities: off-shore banking services and easy registration of companies.

With capitalization of only a dollar, for instance, one could register a shell company at the BVI. The shell companies come in handy for mainline conglomerates when they need to do certain international transactions or acquisitions. BVI-registered companies need to be supported by large off-shore banking systems to make them effective corporate vehicles.

True, any business-friendly location like the BVI could be used to launder money or simply provide a tax haven for large business operations. In the main, however, the BVI provides an off-shore business platform that obviously works for many of the world’s businesses. That is why so many avail of the conveniences offered by this location.

A recent investigative report says that over 500 Filipinos either have BVI-registered companies or maintain bank accounts in the territory. Considering the conveniences offered by the territory, that is not a surprising number. For many businessmen, having a BVI account is pretty much like having a spare tire in the trunk or a pair of pliers in the glove compartment.

Having a BVI account is not illegal per se. The investigative report, however, highlights those account-holders who also happen to be political personalities. There is insinuation here that may, or may not, be warranted, depending on the nature of the business or the nature of the account.

Among those mentioned are established businessmen outside of their incidental political preoccupations such as Senator Manuel Villar and senatorial candidate JV Ejercito-Estrada.

Villar explains his is a $1 shell company maintained by one of the corporations he controls. JV, for his part, says he runs about 30 businesses — some of which need an offshore account for the transactions they do.

JV’s BVI account, it appears, was opened in 1999 — before he entered politics. He then served as mayor of San Juan for three terms, during which time the city’s revenue quadrupled, before serving a term as congressman. His public service is untainted by any hint of scandal.

Of course, in 1999 JV’s father was president. Magnifying that incidental element, JV thinks, is a political hatchet job driven by insinuation and nothing more — considering the senatorial candidate is placing well in the surveys.