Skip to main content

2015 6/28-7/04 World Bali Conference

I am back from almost a week in Indonesia at the World Bali Conference. So many wonderful memories and moments.

* Three speakers about NK presented. At many conferences, I am the leading speaker on NK issues. But at this event, I was the third most important speaker about NK--that's because both Yeonmi Park and Shin Dong-hyuk spoke. :-)

* I kicked off the talent show by swing dancing with Kenli Schoolland, then rapping to a song from the 1990s. It has been on while since I have rapped in front of an audience without the lyrics on the screen, so I did have to practice a few times in advance. I had meant to thank Shruti Sharma, she is the one who has been stalking me about rapping at one of these conferences. :-)

* Special thanks to Li Schoolland and Ken Schoolland for inviting me to participate again in one of their conferences. It started back in 2012, when they visited South Korea, I had the privilege of hosting them in Seoul. Then in July 2012, I joined their conference in Shanghai (I discussed Michael Sandel's book "Justice"). I also joined in 2014 in Shanghai, discussing my activism with North Korean refugees. 2015 was my first opportunity to address the International Society for Individual Liberty.

* I am not a traveler, but I have done a lot of traveling this year for events--Kathmandu, USA twice (Florida, North Carolina, D.C., Massachusetts), Bali. My next trip scheduled trip is not until November, when I will be speaking at Harvard University again.




















































2020 comment: Was Zoom even around back then? It is dominating now, but as soon as humans can be humans again, meeting at conferences, I bet they will. We might practice social distancing for a while, but people will start meeting again as soon as it is possible. I sometimes hear people ask this new online world has proven that many meetings are not necessary. Sure, even before I wonder about many pointless meetings. But many meetings and conferences aren't just about the content, but the experience. We could have the Bali World Conference today via our computers, but it could not have been as special as the actual event was back in 2015.

www.lovetnkr.org/donate

Popular posts from this blog

Get rid of that watermelon!

Part 1: When I was a youngster I used to collect Confederate money, posters and photographs with caricatures of blacks, and "No blacks allowed signs." I loved the money because it was a reminder of how far the sorry Confederacy had fallen. I had one poster of a dark-skinned black boy munching on a watermelon. I would look at that small poster and wonder, "What in the world is wrong with anyone wanting to eat watermelon?" Yes, white people, I'm talking to you. Your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors who thought making fun of blacks for eating watermelon were crazy ! Even people who say that nothing has changed in race relations must acknowledge that the many stereotypes of blacks are no longer prevalent. But then, there are also some ready to remind us of days-gone-by by debunking stuff that doesn't need to be debunked today. According to the Washington Post: The sound you just heard was yet another racial stereotype going kersplat ! Some ...

Open door to N. Koreans (Korea Times, January 16, 2013) by Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Open door to N. Koreans By Casey Lartigue, Jr. Last Dec. 12, I fired off an opinion piece of about 1,500 words to the Washington Post. It easily could have been 1,600 words, but I deleted all of the curse words. The day before, I had learned that the United States government had rejected visa applications by three of the students at the Mulmangcho School for North Korean refugee adolescents. Mulmangcho (meaning, ``forget-me-not”) is a small alternative school located in Yeoju, more than an hour south of Seoul. It opened last September with 11 former North Korean children who are orphans or are disadvantaged in some other way. It was founded by former national assembly member Park Sun-young and a distinguished board of directors. Why were the youngsters rejected? The explanation I got: 1) The U.S. government is concerned that they might not return to South Korea and 2) there was a question about their refugee status because they didn’t have pr...

Forgery or conspiracy? Memorandum 46

Here's an article I co-wrote that will appear in the Sunday Outlook section of the Washington Post . We'll be updating this page over the coming days. So check back for updates. Memorandum 46 timeline , as compiled by us. Audio from our last show on XM 169 before we got fired. That audio is divided into segments, this one is one large MP3 . Who says Memorandum46 is true? Former rep. Cynthia McKinney presents Memo 46 to the United Nations and defends it in a speech . Joe Madison presents Memo 46 at the annual Congressional Black Caucus gathering. Former D.C. delegate Walter Fauntroy, on the Joe Madison show on XM 169 (audio available, upon request) and on Michael Fauntroy's site Boyd Graves (see Exhibit 10 of his lawsuit against the government) The Final Call, with Brzezinski's name misspelled . Len Horowitz Blackelectorate.com Millions for Reparations Various discussion forums or discussants, such as: Greekchat , Jahness , Who says Memorandum 46 is a forgery? Brzezi...

Yogi Anjuseyo

People often ask me, now that I am back in Korea, how things are different. My main responses: 1) I'm different. 2) Koreans seem more open-minded 3) The expats seem more educated, but have many of the same complaints and are using the same analysis I was hearing then. Robert Neff writes in the newest edition of the Korea Times about the recent fight on the bus. He mentions: "Scribblings of the Metropolitician brought up an interesting observation ― one that bothers him a great deal ― the empty seat. According to him, regardless of how crowded the bus is and the number of people standing, the seat next to him is always empty. It is insulting to him that no one wants to sit next to him. "But not all expatriates in Korea have that problem ― some find themselves with unwanted seatmates." Seoul subway line 5, Sept 8, 2011. --Casey Lartigue, Jr.. That is one of the low-rent issues I remember from the 1990s. I have learned that Scribblings of th...

Column on The Root

I've got a column on The Root. It addresses Bruce Bartlett's suggestion that Republicans should support reparations for slavery. CJL The GOP's Next (Black) Idea? Trading slavery reparations for affirmative action. By: Casey Lartigue | Posted: March 5, 2008 at 11:41 AM Concerned that Republicans haven't tried hard enough to reach out to black voters, Bruce Bartlett, a former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and treasury official under President George H. W. Bush, suggests a shocker: Republicans should come out in favor of reparations for slavery. Republicans for reparations? Bartlett makes the suggestion in Wrong on Race , an expose on the "hidden" racist history of the Democratic Party. Bartlett skewers former Democratic presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Woo...