Speech to South Korean college students

* I was the featured speaker to a South Korean university class with 235 students in attendance. Songmi Han, my Greenlight to Freedom co-author, was my sidekick tonight. Last week, it was the reverse, she was the featured speaker and I was the sidekick at the parallel UN side event.

Today I had 80 minutes to speak. This speech was delivered as prepared. I didn't "practice" the speech. I was so busy handling FSI things and preparing the speech. Then after preparing, whoa! Showtime!

Given 80 minutes instead of the usual 10 to 15, I developed a new version of my speech about my career and FSI. I can divide the parts of this speech into shorter speeches.

I usually like to be interactive with audiences, but because it was not an audience of native English speakers, I decided to speak at them most of the time rather than putting them on the spot with questions. 

Songmi was great in her time. She first began public speaking on February 19th, I think this was her fifth speech (with four different texts).

www.fsi21.org/?donate

Greenlight to Freedom at Amazon (paperback is coming in April 2022).

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

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...

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

2020-09-24 Still a Little Big Hero?

A former cable TV staff member dropped by TNKR's office today. This is TNKR's second office. When we first moved into our first office in 2016, he donated some items, mainly a microwave office that we still have. His gift today: A testimonial about how difficult I was for the TvN staff to deal with. Apparently everyone (other than Casey Lartigue) featured by TvN has opened up their lives and homes for the cameras. I said "no thank you." Not only that, but I didn't want them to feature me. As I said: "It would be better to highlight the organization instead of me." That was in 2016, when TNKR's future was uncertain, and needed a boost more than my ego does. They tried to convince me, but I said no. I would prefer to stick my head in a lion's mouth. I mention this because I have heard grumbling in recent years about how much I get featured in media, with some people complaining that I don't give Eunkoo or others a "chance." People w...

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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