FSI staff and volunteers

We still have four full-time staff members, downsized from 6 shortly before and shortly after the pandemic. However, we have been joined by three volunteers working in the office. The schedules are staggered so different volunteers come in on different days. Most of them were complaining about the photo, but I got everyone to briefly pose for a photo. Next time, I will herd hungry cats instead.

Sharon first joined Freedom Speakers International in March 2015 as a student and speaker. She contacted me on her birthday. So that means I was a wonderful birthday gift for her.

I believe she joined us as a part-time staffer in 2018. She is now working full-time as an accountant with FSI. She has joined every program in FSI history--studying history, public speaking, career development, and she is now our North Korean Refugee Keynote Speaker Network.

I had a special reason to buy her flowers, and it isn't only because she bought me lunch last week when I insisted that she not do so. It also isn't because she calls me "Sir." But those things also help.

Here's her fundraiser for FSI.

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Last week, Hope joined us as a volunteer staffer in the office. She is always ready to help out. Her first couple of days I was throwing all kinds of editing assignments at her, and she was throwing them right back to me without complaint. Her first day at the office, within five minutes, she was joining a (rare) staff meeting that I had called.

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Brooke originally joined FSI as an English language tutor back when we were TNKR. This time around, she returned to South Korea joining us as an intern. She will continue volunteering with us even after her term officially expires.

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We have one more office volunteer, a translator, who so far has somehow evaded taking a photo with me. She is one of my former students at the Seoul University of Foreign Studies, I will be sure to catch her the next time she is in the office.

Plus, Songmi Han wasn't in that day.

Human Resources Manager Daniel Cashmar has a day job.

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Thanks to donors and fundraisers, FSI:

* Has paid staff.

* An office to have volunteers and staff.

* Enough money for a deposit and to pay the rent every month.

Some donors want their money to only go into programming, which is a nice thought, but that would be like a construction company saying they only wanted to pay for shovels, but not the workers to move the shovels.

www.fsi21.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 ...

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...

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 ...

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