Happy birthday Freedom Rapper 김 정호!
Eunkoo Lee and I are the co-founders of TNKR (now FSI)--but Prof. Kim is the godfather of TNKR! Eunkoo and I had started TNKR, no office, no phone, no infrastructure, no budget, no nuthin!
We weren't sure about the future of our little project. When I joined Freedom Factory in late 2013 as the Director for International Relations, Prof. Kim welcomed TNKR as a project.
My desk at Freedom Factory became TNKR's office.
Even though Freedom Factory itself was fledgling, Prof. Kim welcomed TNKR, allowing us to incubate and marinate our project. We grew from English Matching to TNKR to Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (to now Freedom Speakers International), with him cheering us every step along the way. When people say Koreans don't care about North Korean refugees, I think about Prof. Kim, who helped TNKR survive at a time that our future was uncertain. He has remained a friend and ally.
These days he is busy with a very successful YouTube channel, not very active on Facebook either, but we stay in touch. Most recently, he was one of the judges at our English speech contest. Happy Birthday to 김 정호, the godfather of TNKR!
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Prof. Kim had been after me for a few years to have a YouTube channel or podcast. I kept finding excuses, I really wasn't interested. Then after I asked Yeonmi Park to work with me, I told Prof. Kim that I could try doing a YouTube channel, but I wanted a co-host and wanted to hire her part-time. He agreed with the idea even more than I did! A month later, we were on YouTube.
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I had mentioned that I never do the peace sign in photos, but in this case, I did. It is a reminder that a picture may say a thousand words, but they may not always accurately represent the situation. Prof. Kim and I are with Prof. Park Sun-young, the lady who inspired me to get more deeply involved with NK refugee activities.
I had been hired by professor Kim at the Center for Free Enterprise in 2011 after being a Visiting Fellow the year before. I was then in the busy of other projects, such as with bringing the soccer team from Harvard University to South Korea. Prof. Kim was delighted to see I was active with outside projects.
I think later the same day that I joined an event with Korean politicians and comedians.
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I don't remember what this particular party was about, but I got to meet singer Kim Nahee then (she had sung the vocals on our rap video).
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When I was hired at CFE, I was extremely active. So active, Prof. Kim thought it was great when I said that I needed a research assistant.
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I was free at the Center for Free Enterprise to engage in various projects. One of them: the development of markets in North Korea. I held a forum in late 2011, then began reading more about North Korea, then got involved forever six months later.
