2016-02-02 Eunhee Park's debut

We had a GREAT time introducing TNKR (now FSI) to the American Women's Club, Korea. The event was scheduled to wrap by noon--instead, we got so many questions that it was almost one o'clock before I had to end the event because of another appointment!

Rhonda Rayner Kupka and her team were absolutely great. There are so many great organizations helping so many people, so it was truly an honor that they opened their doors to us. They made the TNKR team feel absolutely welcome. I gave the keynote for the event, but the main part of the program was the three refugee speakers who followed me. They each gave great speeches in different ways. TNKR co-director Lee Eunkoo Lee was able to join, and TNKR tutor Amber Miller also discussed her experience in the program.

Ken Eom is now a veteran speaker. He joined TNKR last March, but he has now given a number of speeches and is really comfortable. He is both poignant and humorous. We had one speaker who was giving her first speech in English and another who was giving her second speech.

We hope we will be able to collaborate with AWC after this. I have given many public speeches, in many cases, it is just a one-time event with no follow up. Several of the ladies in the audience said they hope to collaborate with us in the future, to help us build TNKR.so we can help refugees even more.

2021 Update: One of the speakers not showing her face at that time was Eunhee Park. She had joined us in April 2015. She decided that she would like to give a speech. A few days before, we had a practice session with her.

She has since gone from A-B-C to T-E-D and spoken many times about us changing her life.

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Moments and Movements

The Korea Times

March 24,2014

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/10/626_153960.html

www.patreon.com/fsi21

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 ...

Rich talking back

The rich are talked about very often in negative terms, but how often do the rich respond in kind? Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart, who inherited most of her money but apparently has also done very well with it, recently railed against class warfare and had some advice for the non-rich : "There is no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," she writes. "If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain. Do something to make more money yourself - spend less time drinking, or smoking and socializing and more time working." She complained about politicians raising taxes, regulations that slow investment, and other anti-business policies that harm the poor. "If you want to help the poor and our next generation, make investment, reinvenstment and businesses welcome."

Random photos from today

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Last weekend: Suicide, Kim Young Ha, NK

Credit: Joanne Cho Event 1: Friday night I went to a talk given by Fulbright junior researcher Joanne Cho. She did a great job putting together statistics about some of the most commonly cited reasons that so many Koreans commit suicide. Probably the most provocative tidbit: Cho watched 86 dramas from the spring of 2012 to now, she says that 63 had "scenes depicting or discussing suicide" in a favorable light (as a way to solve problems, that troubled people can be forgiven for their sins and are even seen as sympathetic). Another interesting tidbit: While it is often cited that Korea is number one in the world in suicide (among countries reporting reliable statistics), what I had not realized or had forgotten is that Korean men are number 8 in the world compared to men in other countries with reliable statistics, Korean women are #1 in the world when compared to women in other countries. My questions for the speaker: 1) What was a finding in your research th...

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