Skip to main content

Happy birthday, Van Hur!

Happy Birthday Van Hur!
https://www.facebook.com/donate/615500319003859/

We first met in mid-2014. I was at a café, waiting for Yeonmi Park. Yeonmi and I were working together on several projects, including three speeches she was going to deliver in 11 days throughout Europe. As I waited, Van said hello to me and invited me to join a small group discussion he was hosting.
I joined with them, talking about various issues. They invited me to join their discussion regularly, but I explained that I was working on several projects with a North Korean refugee who would become internationally known, so I expected that I would be able to join them sometime in the next year. A month later, Yeonmi gained international attention with a speech at One Young World. When Yeonmi arrived that day, I said goodbye to Van's group, but we stayed in touch. They later learned that the young lady I had been meeting with is the same one that people around the world were talking about. In January 2015, Van joined TNKR as a tutor and has remained a fan and friend since then, watching us grow from a fly-by-night group using the offices of other organizations to now being an official organization with our own humble office.






I still attend discussions he organizes, including hosting two sessions at the TNKR office last year. He also welcomes me talking about TNKR and my activities, and as a result, we have had a few members of his discussions group join TNKR.









This year for his birthday, Van set up a fundraiser for TNKR. Whereas most people on Facebook don't take advantage of the great opportunity to set up a fundraiser for an organization, or they wait until a day or two before, Van posted his ONE MONTH IN ADVANCE. His birthday is April 29th.

Here is the link to his fundraiser.
https://www.facebook.com/donate/615500319003859/

If you have trouble donating, then we have a range of other donation options including PayPal: www.lovetnkr.org/donate

Popular posts from this blog

Get rid of that watermelon!

Part 1: When I was a youngster I used to collect Confederate money, posters and photographs with caricatures of blacks, and "No blacks allowed signs." I loved the money because it was a reminder of how far the sorry Confederacy had fallen. I had one poster of a dark-skinned black boy munching on a watermelon. I would look at that small poster and wonder, "What in the world is wrong with anyone wanting to eat watermelon?" Yes, white people, I'm talking to you. Your parents, grandparents, and other ancestors who thought making fun of blacks for eating watermelon were crazy ! Even people who say that nothing has changed in race relations must acknowledge that the many stereotypes of blacks are no longer prevalent. But then, there are also some ready to remind us of days-gone-by by debunking stuff that doesn't need to be debunked today. According to the Washington Post: The sound you just heard was yet another racial stereotype going kersplat ! Some ...
Read more

From nothing to something super special (2023-02-10)

FSI has moved into a better institutional neighborhood where we are the poorest in the area. In August 2022, I was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Freedom Speakers International (FSI) and in January 2023 FSI achieved incorporation status in South Korea. This has meant that FSI must upgrade operations and structure and I am the one, as chairman and co-president, who will be blamed if it doesn’t happen. I really should not be the chairman, for a variety of reasons, but anyway I am. Eunkoo and I are not the typical executives of a growing organization. In addition to being mainly responsible for building and fundraising for the organization, we are the hands-on leaders who are constantly in contact with North Korean refugee speakers. We look forward to the day we can afford staff to handle many tasks. Until then we can expect to continue having more days like yesterday, even on Eunkoo’s birthday. 2023-02-10 Meeting #1: planning We started Eunkoo’s birthday with a planning...
Read more

Korea Times bloggers' night (2018-12-12)

  There are some well-known media outlets in this world that occasionally stumble upon Freedom Speakers International (FSI). But they usually pick themselves up and carry on as if nothing had happened. They sometimes quote or mention us after we help with a story but more likely they don't (especially NPR and the New York Times). The most important media outlet in the world for Freedom Speakers International: The Korea Times. They occasionally write stories about our work. I have a monthly column and a regular blog there. Here's my blog at the Korea Times, "Voices from the North." http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/sublist_728.html And my monthly column. http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/sublist_626.html   Instead of the Korea Times stumbling across us from time to time, I get regular reminders from editors reminding me to send in my column and blog. I know that many of the people following FSI are clicking around the internet and following many organizati...
Read more

Column on The Root

I've got a column on The Root. It addresses Bruce Bartlett's suggestion that Republicans should support reparations for slavery. CJL The GOP's Next (Black) Idea? Trading slavery reparations for affirmative action. By: Casey Lartigue | Posted: March 5, 2008 at 11:41 AM Concerned that Republicans haven't tried hard enough to reach out to black voters, Bruce Bartlett, a former advisor to President Ronald Reagan and treasury official under President George H. W. Bush, suggests a shocker: Republicans should come out in favor of reparations for slavery. Republicans for reparations? Bartlett makes the suggestion in Wrong on Race , an expose on the "hidden" racist history of the Democratic Party. Bartlett skewers former Democratic presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Woo...
Read more

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...
Read more