Geum Na-Ra, The Show-Stopper!

Kim Na-hee (stage name Keum Na-ra) is a singer, actress, dancer, and musician who is singing the OST for a Disney movie. Earlier this year, she released an album. I first "met" her in 2011, when she did background vocals for a rap video I was in. She provided the vocals, so I hadn't met her at that time.

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A year or so later, I was at an event, when a cute young lady introduced herself to me. Of course, I thought I was world-famous, because she was talking in Korean about the rap song I had been in. Then, I realized: Oh!!! She wasn't just a casual fan. She was telling me that she was one of the ladies in the rap video. Wait, no! After a bit more trying to understand each other, it turned out that she was the lady singing the background vocals!

If you watch the rap, you can see me at the 1 minute and 2:30 minute marks. The Keynes-Hayek rap battle was big back then, almost going viral, so I had recommended to the CEO of the Center for Free Enterprise that he should do a rap video.

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Over the years, I have bumped into her at other events.

One night I was at a Harvard alumni event... I kept thinking, that lead singer playing various instruments looks really familiar... then I realized, "Hey! That's her! My backup singer from the rap video!"

Yes, it was her!

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Another day, I was watching a musical, I was invited to it at the last minute. It was a one-woman musical about a North Korean woman. So I'm in the audience, watching, then I realized...

"Hey! I know actress!"

I was telling the people I was with that I knew her. Did they believe me? They did after we took a photo after the show!

Yes, Yeonmi Park is on my left!

Yes, that is the producer of the play "Yodok Story."

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In 2016, FSI (then TNKR) had a Christmas party. We had some entertainers that night, but it was clear that Kim Nahee was the show-stopper! She took over the stage with an unforgettable performance.

Here she is warming up, testing the microphones.

Yes, that is with Cherie Yang

With professor rapper Kim Chung-Ho and Nahee.

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Now she is doing an OST for Disney!

Please subscribe to her new channel, watch all of the videos, leave likes and comments! After the pandemic is over, I hope she recognizes the love and support she has received from FSI and will perform at another concert.

www.lovetnkr.org/donate

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 ...

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 ...

Rich talking back

The rich are talked about very often in negative terms, but how often do the rich respond in kind? Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who inherited most of her money but apparently has also done very well with it, recently railed against class warfare and had some advice for the non-rich : "There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," she writes. "If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working." She complained about politicians raising taxes, regulations that slow investment, and other anti-business policies that harm the poor. "If you want to help the poor and our next generation, make investment, reinvenstment and businesses welcome."

Last weekend: Suicide, Kim Young Ha, NK

Credit: Joanne Cho Event 1: Friday night I went to a talk given by Fulbright junior researcher Joanne Cho. She did a great job putting together statistics about some of the most commonly cited reasons that so many Koreans commit suicide. Probably the most provocative tidbit: Cho watched 86 dramas from the spring of 2012 to now, she says that 63 had "scenes depicting or discussing suicide" in a favorable light (as a way to solve problems, that troubled people can be forgiven for their sins and are even seen as sympathetic). Another interesting tidbit: While it is often cited that Korea is number one in the world in suicide (among countries reporting reliable statistics), what I had not realized or had forgotten is that Korean men are number 8 in the world compared to men in other countries with reliable statistics, Korean women are #1 in the world when compared to women in other countries. My questions for the speaker: 1) What was a finding in your research th...

Why I won't go to North Korea (Korea Times, December 27, 2012)

By Casey Lartigue, Jr. “Have you ever been to North Korea?” This is the question I am almost always asked here in South Korea when people learn that I have become an activist for North Korean escapees. My response is curt: “No.” “Do you plan on going?” they ask next. My answer remains the same: “No.” When they start to ask a follow-up question, I cut them off: "No." People are often just trying to make conversation, I know, but I am blunt for a reason: I am not interested in going to North Korea as long as North Koreans are held captive. I could go one day, but for now, I can do without a government-guided tour by " men-stealers and women-whippers ," to borrow a phrase from American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. I don’t mean to criticize people who have gone to North Korea for political, educational, business, religious reasons or just plain curiosity. However, some people push me on the issue, ― and I push back. A good friend wh...

The Casey Lartigue Show!

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