A day at the FSI office (2022-12-13)

FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee is in charge of FSI's schedule. That means we have many meetings when I don’t schedule to be out of the office.

* 7 am, Zoom call about a non-FSI project. I am a co-founder of tFSI but I am engaged in some activities outside of FSI.

* 10 am, Zoom call about a possible FSI event in June with Ivy League students.

* 10:30 am, Meeting at the FSI office with visitors from the USA. They bought 10 copies of Greenlight to Freedom directly from FSI. We had a great conversation about the meeting last week. They have a better understanding of FSI and asked if we were a 501(c)3 based in the USA.

* 11:00 a.m., I sent an update to volunteers joining this Sunday's orientation sessions.

* 11:15 am, Meeting with a North Korean refugee who is joining FSI as a speaker. She showed the draft of her speech. Her husband had said the speech didn't make sense, which I confirmed in a more gentle way. I took her speech apart and showed her three different approaches to the same speech. I avoid taking over speeches, I see my role as getting them prepared to engage in self-learning and also partnering with mentors rather than looking to them as Gods.

* 12:00 noon, lunch.

* 1 pm, I followed up with a Seoul City official about being named a Seoul Honorary Citizen.

* 1:30 pm, Eunkoo Lee hounded me to handle another institutional matter in the USA. When it involves money Eunkoo never forgets.

* 2:00 pm, Meeting with a North Korean refugee who has joined FSI as a speaker. She was blown away by this first mentoring session, she said it taught her how to look at her speech in a new way.

* 3:00 pm, An Inspector from the Seoul City Government visited the office to inspect FSI. Accepting government money also means getting inspected by government authorities. Support FSI so we can remain an independent organization.

* 5:00 pm, Meeting with a North Korean refugee who is joining us after 8 years of knowing us. I met him in 2014 when he was still a high school student. At last, he is joining us!

* 5:50 pm, Eunkoo followed up about payments and collections. If you owe FSI money, just send it. Eunkoo will find you eventually. And she sends out FSI's payments on time and often ahead of time.

* 6:00 pm, I viewed and approved the sketch video from Mr. Hwang's trip to Imjingak.

* 6:15 pm, Meeting with a South Korean who is a best-selling author and made it clear he is a big fan of FSI.

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 ...

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."

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 ...

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...

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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