2014-04-21 Mulmangcho book party, award

Yesterday was incredibly hectic...work...serious meeting about canceling the rally and then having some distinguished people looking at me to make the final decision...BBC radio interview....booking a studio, unseen, and dealing with communication issue... one bad experience I won't talk about because it is ongoing...and almost everything coming together at the same time, for an incredibly hectic two hours with so many Kakao, texts, emails and phone calls that it seemed my phone might explode as I was holding it...

but there was something that was pure joy yesterday--receiving a very nice "Certificate of Appreciation" from Mulmangcho...

I was pleasantly surprised... it was such a wonderful moment that I didn't crack any jokes when I was at the microphone... and that's from a guy who would crack jokes at his own funeral...

* * *

I still remember that meeting back in October 2012 when Prof. Park asked me if I could teach English to the students at the new school.... I looked her right in the eye, and said, "No." She was stunned, asked if I wanted to think about it, pleading with me to do it. "No," I said, "but I might be able to find some teachers who can teach," but I wasn't really confident. After my first visit, I committed to help for a year.

That was 18 months ago.

Prof. Park openly calls me an angel, constantly thanks me for being a magnet to attract teachers and volunteers to the school, and for using my brain to help the school in so many ways.

Yes, I was in perpetual motion yesterday--when I tried to take a photo with Prof. Park, she was moving at twice the speed I was, as usual, with even more people calling her name...

* * *

For the BBC radio interview, when Yeon Mi Park and I finally sat down, around 8:40 p.m. or so to do the interview, we both had to stop, breathe deeply, there had been so much going on, it was almost a let-down at that point to do the interview, but we did, although that is a completely and unusual story...

2020-04-26 "May I choose more teachers?" TNKR Matching session #102

2020-04-26, TNKR Matching session #102 The Teach North Korean Refugees Global Education Center (TNKR) humbly began in March 2013 with 5 tutors and 5 NK refugees being matched together. We held that first session at a TOZ business center in Gangnam. Seven years later, TNKR has now matched 455 North Korean refugees with 1,027 tutors, coaches, and mentors. Today we held our 102nd Language Matching session at our slightly expanded office near the Sangsu Subway Station. Instead of just being something that Casey and Eunkoo did short-term, TNKR is now an official organization in both South Korea and the USA, we have been featured in media and by other organizations (just yesterday, we were featured by KOTESOL), and we have fans and donors from around the world.

2020-11-26 My basketball story

This photo was uploaded today by my aunt Annette. This was back in the day, when 1) I had a head full of hair and 2) played basketball a lot. That first year of playing organized basketball, I focused on playing defense. It seemed that everyone wanted to shoot the ball, so I passed the ball and played defense. I probably led the league in steals, rebounds and blocked shots. I enjoyed taking on the best player from the other team, I felt like I would get better, quickly. The second year, I was a different player. I will never forget the first game that second year--we lost 29 to 26, I scored 18 points. I probably led the universe in scoring that second year, although we didn't win much. One thing I learned from that experience is that one great player 9 (at least in his own mind) can't beat a team. An eye injury ended my pro career before it began, to this day I still have floaters in my eyes because of the injury. I started wearing glasses, but the problem never went away. On t...

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

Mentoring while Black (Korea Times 2/16/2023)

Mentoring while Black by Casey Lartigue Jr. February 16, 2023 www.patreon.com/caseylartigue

Chang Ha-Joon's foolish consistency (Korea Times, January 1, 2013)

By Casey Lartigue, Jr. Is the sky blue? Is the ocean water? If you suspect those are trick questions, you are right. The sky isn’t always blue ― it is reddish at sunset, dark at midnight, gray on an overcast day. The ocean isn’t water ― there’s also fish, plant life, submarines, dissolved minerals, surfboards, sunken ships, even people swimming in it sometimes. As Hoover Institution scholar Thomas Sowell wrote in his 1996 book ``The Vision of the Anointed,” people who use “all-or-nothing” reasoning can deny a statement because it is not 100 percent true in every circumstance. Such word games might be fun for college students or debaters, but there are some distinguished people who are respected for making such childish arguments about serious issues. In his book ``23 Things They Don’t Tell you About Capitalism,” Cambridge University economist Chang Ha-Joon argues that 1) “[T]here is really no such thing as a free market” and 2) “The free market doesn’t exis...

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