Happy Birthday, Sharon Jang!!! (2016-01-02)

Today is the birthday of a really special lady: Sharon Jang! She is absolutely adorable, one of the loveliest people I have ever met.

Sharon is one of the Ambassadors in (TNKR) Teach North Korean Refugees. I will never forget her birthday for one main reason: Last year on her birthday she contacted me, she wanted to join TNKR. Her English was at a very low level, she asked me something like, "Do you teach english me?"

It surprised me at the time, she was the first North Korean refugee to contact me directly.

She joined both Tracks 1 and 2 of TNKR, studying English but also started collaborating with coaches to engage in public speaking. Although many people are afraid to engage in public speaking in their native languages, she was willing to try even though her English was at a low level.

It turned out that she was great! Her first speech silenced everyone in the room and even caused one of the other refugee speakers at the event to start crying.

She was profiled by the Daily Mail UK last year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3089313/North-Korean-refugee-forced-work-coal-reveals-journey.html

Every meeting with her something memorable happens. Before introducing herself at her first TNKR session, she messaged me in advance to ask me to check her self-introduction. TNKR Co-director Eunkoo Lee and I helped her, but then when she was introducing herself, she held onto her cheat sheet behind her back while introducing herself in Korean. Noticing this, I reminded her about her self-introduction in English. I gently encouraged her to try. She did, and I could see she was so proud of herself!

Even though she knew there would be higher-level speakers at our second speech contest, she joined anyway. She didn't win, but her speech so impressed our hosts that they invited her back again for a special event with their staffers.

She has given speeches at events moving the hearts of those who hear her story. I have now known her for a year, I have only seen her smiling, thanking everyone for caring about her and about North Koreans, and always doing her best to improve herself. I don't know her schedule now, but last year she was working daily from 9 to 6, and then studying at an institute from 7 to 11 pm (something like that).

Happy Birthday, Sharon Jang! I'm honored and delighted to have known you for a year!

Sharon's fundraiser for Freedom Speakers International

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 ...

Forgery or conspiracy? Memorandum 46

Here's an article I co-wrote that will appear in the Sunday Outlook section of the Washington Post . We'll be updating this page over the coming days. So check back for updates. Memorandum 46 timeline , as compiled by us. Audio from our last show on XM 169 before we got fired. That audio is divided into segments, this one is one large MP3 . Who says Memorandum46 is true? Former rep. Cynthia McKinney presents Memo 46 to the United Nations and defends it in a speech . Joe Madison presents Memo 46 at the annual Congressional Black Caucus gathering. Former D.C. delegate Walter Fauntroy, on the Joe Madison show on XM 169 (audio available, upon request) and on Michael Fauntroy's site Boyd Graves (see Exhibit 10 of his lawsuit against the government) The Final Call, with Brzezinski's name misspelled . Len Horowitz Blackelectorate.com Millions for Reparations Various discussion forums or discussants, such as: Greekchat , Jahness , Who says Memorandum 46 is a forgery? Brzezi...

Yogi Anjuseyo

People often ask me, now that I am back in Korea, how things are different. My main responses: 1) I'm different. 2) Koreans seem more open-minded 3) The expats seem more educated, but have many of the same complaints and are using the same analysis I was hearing then. Robert Neff writes in the newest edition of the Korea Times about the recent fight on the bus. He mentions: "Scribblings of the Metropolitician brought up an interesting observation ― one that bothers him a great deal ― the empty seat. According to him, regardless of how crowded the bus is and the number of people standing, the seat next to him is always empty. It is insulting to him that no one wants to sit next to him. "But not all expatriates in Korea have that problem ― some find themselves with unwanted seatmates." Seoul subway line 5, Sept 8, 2011. --Casey Lartigue, Jr.. That is one of the low-rent issues I remember from the 1990s. I have learned that Scribblings of th...

From nothing to something super special (2023-02-10)

FSI has moved into a better institutional neighborhood where we are the poorest in the area. In August 2022, I was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and in January 2023 FSI achieved incorporation status in South Korea. This has meant that FSI must upgrade operations and structure and I am the one, as chairman and co-president, who will be blamed if it doesn’t happen. I really should not be the chairman, for a variety of reasons, but anyway I am. Eunkoo and I are not the typical executives of a growing organization. In addition to being mainly responsible for building and fundraising for the organization, we are the hands-on leaders who are constantly in contact with North Korean refugee speakers. We look forward to the day we can afford staff to handle many tasks. Until then we can expect to continue having more days like yesterday, even on Eunkoo’s birthday. 2023-02-10 Meeting #1: planning We started Eunkoo’s birthday with a planning...

Open door to N. Koreans (Korea Times, January 16, 2013) by Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Open door to N. Koreans By Casey Lartigue, Jr. Last Dec. 12, I fired off an opinion piece of about 1,500 words to the Washington Post. It easily could have been 1,600 words, but I deleted all of the curse words. The day before, I had learned that the United States government had rejected visa applications by three of the students at the Mulmangcho School for North Korean refugee adolescents. Mulmangcho (meaning, ``forget-me-not”) is a small alternative school located in Yeoju, more than an hour south of Seoul. It opened last September with 11 former North Korean children who are orphans or are disadvantaged in some other way. It was founded by former national assembly member Park Sun-young and a distinguished board of directors. Why were the youngsters rejected? The explanation I got: 1) The U.S. government is concerned that they might not return to South Korea and 2) there was a question about their refugee status because they didn’t have pr...

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