2015-11-12 Case Study of TNKR by Columbia Teachers College

--New York, New York--

If TNKR can make it here, it can make it anywhere...

* Wanna know how good TNKR is? Even great people at Columbia University believe it is great. Teach North Korean Refugees is now being analyzed by graduate students at The Teachers College, Columbia University as part of a case study. TNKR wasn't even an official organization until May 2015, but we have already had many great things happen. With both the professor and students in the class analyzing us--yes, asking some pointed questions, too--then TNKR should be even stronger in 2016 in helping refugees find their way and tell their stories.

* Have you ever told someone that you were honored by something they were doing, and they try to convince you that they are even more honored to collaborate with you! That's what happened tonight with the professor at Columbia University who opened her classroom to me. She and the students were asking me plenty of pointed questions about TNKR. Based on their responses, I was giving them some unorthodox answers!

* I take it as a good sign that both the Teachers College at Columbia University and that professors and students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education also want to know about TNKR.

* Anyone who reads my column knows that I am easily bored by talkers who don't get to action items. Often I get questions that are pointless or irrelevant, based on the questioner's pre-conceptions that have nothing to do with TNKR (or what I might have just said in a speech). But the Teachers College students were asking questions that were connected to actual suggestions, rather than just curiosity or accusations.

* * *

Update, Day 2: We met again! They had a LONG list of questions to ask me.^^

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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 ...

Park Jin welcoming remarks to FSI (and Casey Lartigue)

National Assembly member Park Jin makes the welcoming remarks at FSI's conference featuring North Korean diplomats. Park Jin | Greeting message to FSI and Casey Lartigue mention - YouTube

Common Sense on North Korea (Korea Times, April 2, 2012)

By Casey Lartigue, Jr. As interesting as Kookmin University professor Andrei Lankov’s writings are, there is nothing quite like attending one of his lectures. He can barely restrain himself behind the podium, often pointing and waving his arms. I also enjoy his unscripted speeches, but his answers in Q&A sessions are like the difference between watching Michael Jordan shoot baskets in warm-ups and an actual game. I have finally discovered the secret behind Lankov’s consistently solid analysis about North Korea: Use common sense. At an Asan Institute conference last summer, he argued that North Korea watchers should try to understand North Korea from its perspective. Don’t most people know that you must understand the mindset of others you are dealing with? Yet, common sense in theory gets ignored politically. From the North Korean perspective, nuclear weapons are the best thing they’ve got going. They will NOT give them up easily, even if President Obama ...

2015-10-16 speech: Legacies of the Korean War at GMU (Korea)

Yesterday I was one of the speakers at a special event at George Mason University's campus in Seongdo (Korea). Charles Cousino, an 84-year-old Korean war veteran, discussed his connection to Korea. I discussed Teach North Korean Refugees. And North Korean refugee Sehyek Oh talked about what freedom means to him. It was the speech he used to win TNKR's second English speech contest. Special thanks to Roland Wilson and Michael Dunne for making it happen! support TNKR: www.lovetnkr.org/donate

Random photos from today

I went walking around today. Whereas some people like to go walking in the mountains, I enjoy walking around in the city. Well, not D.C. or other cities with many homeless, crazy and/or armed people walking around... * * * Here's where I had lunch today. About $1.90 for a hamburger hamberger. * * * Ha-ha! Bet you never would have guessed that Batman is a drinking place in Korea! * * * Man Clinic? The Koreans walking by seemed to be very curious about why I was taking a photo of a "Man Clinic." They may know something I don't know...Actually, I wasn't curious enough to go in and find out what it was... * * * Right down the street from the Man Clinic...there's a Love Shop! I love the euphemism. "Love Shop" sounds much better than Sex Shop. I'm guessing that if you don't go to the "Love Shop" to buy condoms that you may need to visit the Man Clinic a short time later? * * * Nobo...

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