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.

* * *

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

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...

Eliot & Casey are bad guys=Memorandum 46 is True!!!

Rev. Walter Fauntroy has responded to a column that Eliot Morgan and I published in the August 5 edition of the Washington Post. Unfortunately, some people are more focused on me and Eliot than they are on determining whether or not Memorandum 46 is a fraud. I'll concede that we are mean guys with bad personalities...does that mean that Memorandum 46 about black Americans is real? Anyway, a couple of observations and comments about Rev. Fauntroy's response : 1) WHERE'S THE FOIA REQUEST? On June 12 or 13, talk-show host Joe Madison invited Rev. Fauntroy on his show for a discussion about Memorandum 46. At that time, Rev. Fauntroy said that they (apparently the Congressional Black Caucus and colleagues) asked for--and were granted--a Freedom of Information request for Memorandum 46. You would think that, in a commentary of more than 2,200 words, that Rev. Fauntroy would have mentioned the FOIA request that must have been stamped with FOIA on it to prove that Memorand...

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

[Video] "Author Spotlight" by Harvard

On February 2nd from 2-3 a.m. (Korea time), I was the featured speaker at an "Author Spotlight" by the Harvard Division of Continuing Education (DCE) and the Harvard Extension Alumni Association (HEAA) . Watch, like, share, and comment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmRgP3q7rQg&list=PLn7xtnmarHFq6kVvq3PxOgC8nwjn8ioBO * * * I will be in the USA for two weeks in March, I will kick off the trip with a speech on the campus of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HSGE) for its annual Alumni of Color Conference (AOCC). It will be a bit of a homecoming reunion, I was one of the speakers at the first HGSE AOCC in 2003. Stay tuned, this will be preparation for a larger event later this year. Thanks to everyone who has helped make FSI's work possible. ( Stripe ) ( PayPal ).

Open door to N. Koreans (Korea Times, January 16, 2013) by Casey Lartigue, Jr.

Open door to N. Koreans By Casey Lartigue, Jr. Last Dec. 12, I fired off an opinion piece of about 1,500 words to the Washington Post. It easily could have been 1,600 words, but I deleted all of the curse words. The day before, I had learned that the United States government had rejected visa applications by three of the students at the Mulmangcho School for North Korean refugee adolescents. Mulmangcho (meaning, ``forget-me-not”) is a small alternative school located in Yeoju, more than an hour south of Seoul. It opened last September with 11 former North Korean children who are orphans or are disadvantaged in some other way. It was founded by former national assembly member Park Sun-young and a distinguished board of directors. Why were the youngsters rejected? The explanation I got: 1) The U.S. government is concerned that they might not return to South Korea and 2) there was a question about their refugee status because they didn’t have pr...

The Casey Lartigue Show!

Search This Blog