2016-10-08 Jazz and Fireworks

Dear David and Renee Cummins,

Wow! Thanks so much, your party and fundraiser were absolutely incredible. You have helped (TNKR) Teach North Korean Refugees more than you probably realize.

We have had a lot of challenges with starting and now expanding this little NGO without corporate or government backing. We truly rely on volunteers and supporters to help us build a community around NK refugees so they can study in a safe-zone, find their way, tell their stories. We don't charge the refugees anything, we don't want financial need to be a barrier for them to join. And we adapt the program by trying to understand their needs, based on the 1,900 reports we have received from tutors and coaches, from observing classes, and by being directors and co-founders who are engaged.

We occasionally reflect on the wisdom of this approach, especially when we had something like 37,000 won in the bank. Eunkoo and I put our own money into TNKR, with the dream and hope that we could eventually build it into something special. We are now being more open about our financial challenge, since then we have had more people support us, including refugees, who have offered donations. The media coverage and praise that we receive has apparently fooled some people into thinking that we are rich. Behind-the-scenes, things are rarely as smooth as they may appear to outsiders, as the old saying goes, a duck smoothly gliding across water is furiously paddling its little feet. Even from this first experience dealing with such an event, I have learned some lessons about how to manage things.

Many people praise TNKR, but no one has done what you have done: Opened your home, network and wallet to us. Your party gives us a financial cushion, allowing us to exhale, to focus on making this a high-quality organization.

The last few days have been busier than usual for me. Thanks to the support we receive, I can spend time trying to build up TNKR, get a better understanding of how we can help refugees, and try to raise awareness of what we are doing so we can attract others. We are, to quote Eunkoo Lee, "the hands and feet" for people who want to help refugees, and we thank you for helping us focus on that task.

Regards,

Casey Lartigue Jr.
International Director
Teach North Korean Refugees
www.lovetnkr.org/donate

The Casey Lartigue Show

Guests scheduled for May NOTE: Check here for updates on Memorandum 46! Future Shows Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution This is my first attempt at putting together my own promo , it was rejected because of the sound quality May 19 edition of the Casey Lartigue Show We had a great show yesterday, probably the best so far. The topic: Malcolm X. The occasion? Anniversary of his 82nd birthday. Eliot Morgan and I had a great time talking with the callers. Deneen Borelli called in on our special guest line. You can download the file here. We posed the question: What did Malcolm X do? We contrasted the viewpoint and legacies of Malcolm X and Thurgood Marshall. The one mistake I made was not to focus on the question that Marshall asked: What was the one concrete thing that Malcolm X did. In segment 3, callers begin to get personal with us. May 12 edition of the Casey Lartigue Show Featured guest: Don Boudreaux of George Mason University Promo for the May 12 show May 5 edition of the C...

Does a flower turn to the sun?

I tend not to address points raised by people commenting on posts. In the back-and-forth of such discussions, people sometimes say things they don't mean or take extreme positions. In other cases they are just trying to be provocative, especially when they can remain anonymous. But a discussion on Greg Mankiw's blog caught my attention. That's because a couple of the folks suggested that parents don't really have the knowledge to make decisions about the quality of schools. Between 2002-2004 I was actively involved in the fight to get school vouchers for families in DC. I often heard the argument that parents don't know how to choose between good and bad schools and that, anyway, parents had enough choices with the school system's "out-of-boundary" options and charters (that had also been opposed). Without getting too deep into the out-of-boundary program, I'll point out that Woodrow Wilson HS, considered one of the best schools in the city, recei...

Korea Fighting!

Years ago I read an article about a man who kept a detailed diary about his life. I think it was 70 years of diaries. Nothing was too insignificant for him to mention. I remember reading it and wondering, "Yeah, but will anyone ever read those boxes of diaries about him going to the bathroom?" I guess he often wrote about himself writing... These days I'm having the opposite problem... I'm living it up so much that I don't have time to write... Can you really enjoy life and record it all? If I had time I would blog about... * going swing dancing * getting treated at the Kkunnori restaurant in Jamsil by two friends who insist I'm the luckiest man alive because I know them. * then getting treated to an hour or two at the Luxury noraebang near Kkunnori . * the "call" button in Korean restaurants * Koreans ordering too much food whenever they eat together * Meeting with Gong Byeong Ho (공병호) for the first time in 10 years. * how damn energetic Seoul i...

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 ...

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

The Casey Lartigue Show!

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