2021-04-29 James at the University of Utah

Thanks to the University of Utah (Asia Campus) for hosting Freedom Speakers International (FSI) at a forum yesterday.

Our featured speaker was JeongCheol (James).

James first joined us back in 2015 as a student when we were TNKR, worked in our office as a staffer back in 2018, and is now a Keynote Speaker with FSI. It was so touching when he commented about how wonderful the organization has been to him over the years.

How did this event happen? One thing leads to another! It all started with an event that I held on Black Lives Matter at the FSI office during the summer of 2020. A professor in the audience that day invited me to speak on the University of Utah campus a few months ago.

Then another professor in the audience that day then invited me to return to speak with a North Korean refugee. James gave a thoughtful and humorous talk about North Korea, his escape, and adjustment. He is not seeking to become a public speaker, he now has a full-time job as a producer at a media company. He said that he does enjoy these opportunities to reflect on North Korea.

Here's his YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoKiFcRgfhscM5KsmMRNEfA

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

2019-12-19 Interview with Japanese reporter

"The interview is the honeymoon, publication is the divorce." --Shinae Chun I had a GREAT and FUN interview today with a reporter from Japan. Let's hope publication will also be great! www.lovetnkr.og

Still writing (Korea Times, 2023-12-19)

Still writing by Casey Lartigue Jr. The Korea Times December 19, 2023 https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/opinion/2023/12/626_365284.html

Back in America, 4 days and counting

I got back a few days ago, I'm still unpacking... Some of the highlights so far: * Friday morning I was in the audience for a CNN/The Root discussion about being Young and Black in America . As a veteran of so many of these Washington talking events I am less than enthusiastic about them these days. Still, I bumped into a few friends, some of whom are neither young nor black. The discussion seemed so 1980s, with the panelists trying to figure out how to politically empower young black people. I guess it was appropriate then that the head of the NAACP was there. His most irrelevant concern was about hate talk radio...or I guess Rush Limbaugh being on the air all these years explains the high level of black-on-black crime. 20 years later, how is the Stop the Violence movement working out? The highlight of this particular panel was running into old friend David Plotz, who is now editor of Salon Magazine. I don't think I've seen him since college but he recognized me. I forgot...

Michael Vick ain't got nuthin on me!!!

After football player Michael Vick admitted that he had been running a dog-fighting business I wrote that he was an idiot. If he was going to engage in such activity he should have gone to Indonesia or somewhere else. He certainly had the money to do so at that time. If he knew then what he knows now then he would have spent $10 million to run his dogfighting ring in Manila. Today I did something that probably not even Michael Vick ever did: I ate dog meat. I never expected that I would do so. It is a bit scandalous because Koreans don't just kill the dogs and eat them. Rather, they will beat them to death while they are still alive. That allegedly is to get the adrenaline flowing which allegedly makes the meat more tender which allegedly improves a man's stamina. I had told a friend that I wanted to give it a try. But as we sat down to eat I said: "I want to try this but don't give me any details until after we are finished eating." It just looked like regular me...

The Casey Lartigue Show!

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