2022-12-04 Harvard Club of Korea annual alumni dinner

On December 1, 2019, I joined the Harvard Club of Korea's annual alumni dinner. Of course, no one in the room knew that the event would be canceled for the next two years because of COVID.

Last night we enjoyed gathering again, with about 90 Harvard alumni and their guests meeting, talking, and networking.

My special guest in 2019 was North Korean refugee Songmi Han. When she joined then she had not heard of Harvard University. I didn't realize just how special that night was for Songmi until we worked together on what became Greenlight to Freedom. This time, she knew what it was and was looking forward to it.

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Mr. Dr. Prof and now Foreign Minister Jin Park was there as a special guest. He is a former president of the Harvard Club and is a special VIP every year. He gave a short speech and also the toast for the event. He gave the most incredible testimonial about me last year. He also remembered Songmi from meeting her earlier this year when she gave him a signed copy of her book.

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I was delighted that former Miss Korea Geum Na-Na remembered me. It has been a few years since I last saw her. I brought Songmi over to her so they could also meet!

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Superman Kent Kim! He has published 17 books in addition to being engaged in a number of global activities. If I ever become truly international it will be because Kent finds a way to fit me into one of his projects.

We met several years ago and he invited me on his TV podcast six years ago.

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The ambassador to Israel was also a special guest last night. He, Songmi, and I were speakers at a Hana Foundation conference in late October.

Two weeks ago, Eunkoo and I bumped into the Ambassador at the KAA Friendship Night. I didn't know who he was six weeks ago, and I have now seen him at three different incredible events.

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There were so many incredible people there last night, I wish there had been more time to talk with more people. Of course, the annual dinner is the key event of the year, but it was great in past years when we also had happy hours.

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A North Korean musician and his South Korean colleague performed for the audience. It was great meeting them. The North Korean musician was recommended to us a while ago and last night we got to meet in person.

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The fun time was the quiz about Harvard's history. Not only did I win for myself, but I also helped Songmi win and was also whispering some of the answers. Finally, the MC detected that something was going on at our table because half of us won prizes! She finally started avoiding our table!

But it didn't matter in my case, because after helping Songmi win, she claimed one of my prizes and I surrendered the other one this morning to FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee.

I am in charge of FSI but I clearly am not in control.

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I showed up early so I ended up helping the outgoing president of the Harvard Club with setting up.

Claire recently graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She gave me a great compliment when she said that my posts on the Harvard Alumni Facebook page helped her relax because they gave her an idea of what to expect.

I then felt quite welcome with joining the youngsters from the Harvard Graduate School of Education when they took their group photo.

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Mr. Chung is smiling as he grumbles about taking a photo with me at every Harvard alumni dinner.

So much was going on... did I mention that the CFO of Naver participated in a fireside chat?

It started as a photo of me, Songmi and Jamie... then quickly grew!

Another photo that started with just a few of us, then others jumping in!

I caught them being natural!

She really wanted a photo with Songmi!

They allowed me to join the next photo.

There were other name tags but of course I should protect the privacy of others.

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

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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!

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