Speeches, Interviews, Books, Meetings, and even Cooking (2022-02-22)

Item 1: Cooking Class

Yesterday was a super busy day. North Korean refugee author Songmi Han came to visit, and she brought us some North Korean food with her. Some of the food was so beautiful that it looked like decoration, not food!

I suggested that she should have a cooking class, and she accepted the idea and our team members seem to be excited about making it happen! Stay tuned, I will be posting an invitation via Eventbrite after she finalizes the details.

I might be her assistant, with the main task of not messing up things.

Or I could do my own cooking class? 1) open the microwave door 2) put food inside 3) Stare at it for a few minutes 4) open the microwave door 5) eat.

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Item 2: International Speech coming soon.

FSI Keynote Speaker Minhee Na stopped by the office to talk about a big speech she will be having next month. We should be making an announcement soon.

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Item 3: FSI presentation to University Cork College (Ireland)

Songmi, Bonghee Han, Eunkoo Lee and I were featured speakers at a Conversation with North Korean defectors held by students and staff at University Cork College in Ireland.

It was a great opportunity for Songmi and Bonghee. They gave their first speeches this past weekend, so this gave them another chance to give a speech before an audience (I think there were 30 attendees).

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Item 4: Speech to a South Korean University

I got invited to give a speech to more than 300 South Korean college students on March 30th. I will be inviting our two newest authors to join me.

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Item 5: Giving Tuesday Korea

Eunkoo and I gave speeches about Giving Tuesday Korea.

https://www.fulbright.or.kr/kuva-bbl-feb-23/

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Item 6: Newspaper Interview

I started at 9 am yesterday with an interview by a newspaper reporter who joined our conference over the weekend.

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Item 7: Bad news with Amazon

Books. Yes, books. Our Amazon account is temporarily on hold as Amazon verifies that we are a real business, but the books are still available.

I strongly recommend that you buy the e-books, we are waiting to receive the paperback version of My Father's North Korea Story to do a final check. The paperback of Greenlight to Freedom is coming soon.

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Items 8 through 94

It is really a busy time for us, many things are going on now. This blog post is my temporary escape from the to-do list and many items I need to handle.

As always, we appreciate support for our activities.

#FreedomSpeakersInternational #BongheeHan #MyFathersNorthKoreaStory #Greenlight2freedom #SongmiHan #CaseyLartigue #NorthKoreanfood

"Yoegi Anjuseyo!"

* I have a short reflection in today's Korea Times about an encounter with an unfriendly looking Korean man on the subway. It was a reminder not to be too quick in judging people in Korea. 09-13-2011 16:47 'Yeogi Anjeuseyo!' By Casey Lartigue Jr. The recent incident in which an American English teacher bullied an elderly Korean man and other passengers on the bus reminded me of a more pleasing incident from years ago. I was on the subway, taking the train outside of Seoul for a work assignment. I have the habit of standing on the subway to strategically position myself near the doors in case my stop magically appears. On that particular day, there was a Korean man STARING at me. Not just looking at me, but intensely staring at me. He had an incredible frown on his face. Not just for one stop, but for several stops the guy just kept staring at me. If I had known more Korean then I would have been able to curse him ...

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."

2020-07-24 Pandemic Tutoring

The question comes in various forms, as a request, a recommendation, a plea, an insinuation, an accusation, and sometimes (or most of the time) it is a demand and complaint at the same time. In my in-box yesterday: "And I wanted to know if TNKR also transitioned to online services as any other educational institutions globally under the pandemic." This was from a previous volunteer who is now in the USA, so I took more time to answer him, and will expand it now so I can share it with others asking. As context, TNKR started in 2013 as an informal volunteer group connecting North Korean refugees with volunteer tutors. In 2016, we became an official organization despite lacking funding. Mainly because we have limited resources we keep focused on our main mission, but try to expand based on the needs of North Korean refugee learners. We have developed a learner-centered organization that has a great reputation among North Korean refugees. That means we are not a social club or re...

Michael Breen discussion at 10 Magazine

Yesterday I attended a discussion with writer Michael Breen, hosted by Barry Welsh. Very often, when I attend a speech or discussion about a topic I know a lot about, I often think about ways the speaker/facilitator/discussant could have done better. But I didn't feel that way about Breen, it was one of those times that I really felt like I had a lot to learn and should listen more than talk. He's been in Korea for three decades, working as a reporter, commentator, communications specialist. He reminds me of Andrei Lankov in that his analysis seems to be based on observation of how things work rather than trying to get the world to fit his biases. I don't know him, so his friends may say he is a raging ideologue, but that's not the impression I had yesterday and based on his writings. Michael Breen (L) and Casey Lartigue I first read his book The Koreans about a decade ago. It was a delightful read, that was both warm to Koreans but also critical at times. Yes...

Humanitarian with a guillotine (Korea Times, February 1, 2013) by Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan said the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, `` I’m from the government, and I’m here to help .” For many well-intentioned activists, politicians, and intellectuals, that should be updated as: ``We are here to help you. You’re under arrest.” For example, ``sex workers” around the world oppose anti-prostitution laws. Prostitutes may not know the theoretical arguments but they do know in reality that prohibiting prostitution means they lack protection in dealing with abusive pimps and madams, violent patrons and crooked cops. Locally, a Korean woman busted for prostitution recently appealed to the courts pleading , ``I cannot survive without this job. I don’t want to be treated as a criminal for making a living the only way I can.” How should someone who genuinely wants to help her respond? If you say ``arrest her” then you are qualified to be a “harmful humanitarian.” In your desire to help, you have elimin...

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