Greenlight to Freedom at the Hendersonville library (2022-09-28)

We visited the Hendersonville Public Library to see Greenlight to Freedom on the bookshelf!

How did it happen? FSI Fundraising Fellow Eben Appleton asked what she could do for our trip near her area. I reminded her that high school students in the FSI-GHSU had donated Greenlight to Freedom to libraries across the USA. Perhaps she could donate a book to a library in the area?

Off she went! She talked with a few librarians and got the book on the shelf of at least one library.

Then as part of our trip, we visited the Hendersonville Library.

When I first told Songmi about her book being at the library she was not that impressed. She was touched when she saw it on the bookshelf, however. There are many books in the world that have been published, but hers was one of them on the library shelf.

Songmi looked up her name in the library catalog and saw her name there as an author!

How unlikely was this? When she was in North Korea, she only studied at elementary school for a year and she says she went a decade without even seeing a book. And now, she is an author with a book in libraries across the USA!

Yes, I am the extremely proud co-author! People ask me why I wanted to write her book. There are many reasons, and one important one. Her story would not have been told without a co-author willing to write the book. She had no confidence in telling her story, she said she had no idea how to write a book, and she didn't even know how to get started.

And now, her story is in the Hendersonville Library!!!

Additionally, she said that I am the only person in the world that she trusted to tell her story!

Her story has a range of emotions and feelings, from humor, to anger, to sadness. Many readers have talked about the various feelings they felt as they read. And as you can see on my face.

I laughed...

I got angry...

Yeah, and disgusted about the North Korean system condemning people to terrible lives.

Thank you Mr. Ken Stuart! He has also been one of the top fans for Greenlight to Freedom. He bought at least 20 copies of the book. He flew in from California to meet Songmi directly.

He drove us to the library and other places during the day.

Not pictured? Eben Appleton! After all of her behind-the-scenes work, she got sick earlier that morning!

Greenlight to Freedom is on Patreon, Amazon, Kyobo.

Random photos from today

I went walking around today. Whereas some people like to go walking in the mountains, I enjoy walking around in the city. Well, not D.C. or other cities with many homeless, crazy and/or armed people walking around... * * * Here's where I had lunch today. About $1.90 for a hamburger hamberger. * * * Ha-ha! Bet you never would have guessed that Batman is a drinking place in Korea! * * * Man Clinic? The Koreans walking by seemed to be very curious about why I was taking a photo of a "Man Clinic." They may know something I don't know...Actually, I wasn't curious enough to go in and find out what it was... * * * Right down the street from the Man Clinic...there's a Love Shop! I love the euphemism. "Love Shop" sounds much better than Sex Shop. I'm guessing that if you don't go to the "Love Shop" to buy condoms that you may need to visit the Man Clinic a short time later? * * * Nobo

Teach North Korean Refugees Project

On November 1, we will be holding the 20th "Teach North Korean Refugees Project" session. The project launched in March 2013 when Casey Lartigue Jr. and Lee Eunkoo matched 5 North Korean refugees who were teachers in North Korea with 5 English speaking volunteers. The refugees wanted to improve their English in order to improve their chances to become teachers in South Korea. We met at a Toz in Gangnam, matching them. We have directly matched at least 117 NK refugees and 8 South Koreans who assist NK refugees with 164 English speaking volunteers. We have since hosted numerous sessions with a number of themes matching NK refugees with volunteer English speakers: * Staff at NGOs helping NK refugees (to help refugees working at NGOs and also helping NGOs build up their capacity) * special summer or winter study sessions (for students who have more free time during the break, look for another session in late December and early to mid January 2015) * Bring or recommend a

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

2014-02-14 Yeon-Mi Park`s debut

Yeonmi Park, February 14, 2014, making her debut! Yesterday I was one of the speakers at a special session on North Korean refugees at the Canadian Maple International School. Wow, it was a wonderful time! * Yeon-Mi Park delivered her first major speech in English. She was wonderful! She told her story (35 minute speech without notes), discussed different aspects of North Korea, and then handled questions from students for more than an hour. She did seem to be nervous at the beginning-she took a deep breath just as she started, looked at me, then told her story from her heart. * Returning from the speech, I told Yeonmi that she had star potential. She told me that she didn't believe it, but I told her that the way she handled Q&A and told her story, I would be lucky to have her still returning my phone calls within a year. * The students had many questions. They have been learning about North Korea. They are now reading "Escape from Camp 14" featuring Shin Dong-h

CFE forum on Korea-EU FTA (Korea Herald)

Public forum on FTA on Thursday 2011-07-05 19:21 A conference on economic opportunities and challenges arising from the Korea-EU FTA which came into effect on July 1 will take place in Seoul on Thursday. The conference, taking place at the Koreana Hotel from 2 p.m., will also examine the current economic crisis in Europe and economic development in Korea. The event is being jointly hosted by the Center for Free Enterprise, a Seoul-based free market think-tank, and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty, a German foundation for the promotion of individual freedom which has offices around the world including in Seoul. “We picked the date hoping National Assembly members wouldn’t find a way to delay the agreement going into effect. So this is really timely because we are holding this less than a week after the agreement went into effect,” said Casey Lartigue Jr., manager of international relations at the CFE. Speakers at the conference titled “Economic Freedom

The Casey Lartigue Show!

Search This Blog