2013-10-08 A woman is a flower

* What happens when people RSVP for a Facebook event--and they actually show up?!? You need to get more seats!

* This event was speech prep for one of the speakers. I had been invited to go to New Delhi, India, to give a speech. I had mentioned that I was doing some work with North Korean refugees, the hosts then asked if a North Korean refugee could join me. After selecting a speaker, I then organized this event to give her a chance to get prepared for India.

www.lovetnkr.org/donate

* The speakers last night...Wow! They both escaped from North Korea. So it was a poignant reminder of how precious freedom is. It is humbling, realizing that they had to risk their lives to escape to freedom that so many of us take for granted. For most of us, we just buy a ticket (airplane, train, bus) and process government paperwork to move to a new country. But North Korean refugees must evade kidnappers, border guards, police, traffickers and others who prey on them, taking advantage of governments that label them as "illegal immigrants." It also reminded me of why I spend so much time organizing and volunteering for North Korean refugees--to do a small part to help people who started with so little, with the odds against them, to escape to freedom.

* As a reminder to everyone who attended--please be careful about posting photos of one of our speakers. She has some family reasons for not being identified as someone who escaped from North Korea. So please do respect that. And I hate it! Because there are some great photos of her from last night.

* Thanks to the organization TCK (Third Culture Kids) for hosting the event last night. They usually have about 15 people at their events--so last night blew them away. They rarely charge money for events, but they made an exception for last night.

* I mentioned the Mulmangcho School. Part of the proceeds for last night will be donated to the school to help the North Korean refugees there.

I give 100,000 won (about $90) to the school every month and encourage others to at least make a minimum donation. Even just a one-time 10,000 won ($9) donation can help cover the transportation cost of a volunteer.

* One of our speakers last night mentioned that she thought it was not appropriate to label refugees as "defectors." I agree with that more than she knows!!! For six months, I made this point at almost every North Korea related event. She has inspired me to renew that campaign. So expect to be corrected if you use the term "defector" within earshot of me.

* * *

For anyone interested, I am holding two sessions matching volunteer English teachers with North Korean refugees who want to improve their English. Not every match works out (either teachers or students get busy, students get discouraged, teachers get over the curiosity, etc.), but we are doing our best to provide opportunities for both sides.

Teaching ladies from TV show https://www.facebook.com/events/175000052688496/

Teaching North Korean teachers https://www.facebook.com/events/1404224479808104/

* It is common for people to click "going" or "maybe" on Facebook as if they are clicking "like." But last night, at five minutes before the meeting was to start, the room was almost full. And this was with limited publicizing of the event. TCK was scrambling trying to find more chairs, or the best way to get ready for the usual rush of people who would be late.

www.lovetnkr.org/donate

The Casey Lartigue Show

Guests scheduled for May NOTE: Check here for updates on Memorandum 46! Future Shows Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution This is my first attempt at putting together my own promo , it was rejected because of the sound quality May 19 edition of the Casey Lartigue Show We had a great show yesterday, probably the best so far. The topic: Malcolm X. The occasion? Anniversary of his 82nd birthday. Eliot Morgan and I had a great time talking with the callers. Deneen Borelli called in on our special guest line. You can download the file here. We posed the question: What did Malcolm X do? We contrasted the viewpoint and legacies of Malcolm X and Thurgood Marshall. The one mistake I made was not to focus on the question that Marshall asked: What was the one concrete thing that Malcolm X did. In segment 3, callers begin to get personal with us. May 12 edition of the Casey Lartigue Show Featured guest: Don Boudreaux of George Mason University Promo for the May 12 show May 5 edition of the C...

Does a flower turn to the sun?

I tend not to address points raised by people commenting on posts. In the back-and-forth of such discussions, people sometimes say things they don't mean or take extreme positions. In other cases they are just trying to be provocative, especially when they can remain anonymous. But a discussion on Greg Mankiw's blog caught my attention. That's because a couple of the folks suggested that parents don't really have the knowledge to make decisions about the quality of schools. Between 2002-2004 I was actively involved in the fight to get school vouchers for families in DC. I often heard the argument that parents don't know how to choose between good and bad schools and that, anyway, parents had enough choices with the school system's "out-of-boundary" options and charters (that had also been opposed). Without getting too deep into the out-of-boundary program, I'll point out that Woodrow Wilson HS, considered one of the best schools in the city, recei...

Korea Fighting!

Years ago I read an article about a man who kept a detailed diary about his life. I think it was 70 years of diaries. Nothing was too insignificant for him to mention. I remember reading it and wondering, "Yeah, but will anyone ever read those boxes of diaries about him going to the bathroom?" I guess he often wrote about himself writing... These days I'm having the opposite problem... I'm living it up so much that I don't have time to write... Can you really enjoy life and record it all? If I had time I would blog about... * going swing dancing * getting treated at the Kkunnori restaurant in Jamsil by two friends who insist I'm the luckiest man alive because I know them. * then getting treated to an hour or two at the Luxury noraebang near Kkunnori . * the "call" button in Korean restaurants * Koreans ordering too much food whenever they eat together * Meeting with Gong Byeong Ho (공병호) for the first time in 10 years. * how damn energetic Seoul i...

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 ...

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

The Casey Lartigue Show!

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