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Both sides of Ferguson

Shortly before 11 p.m., on or about May 18, 1989, a white police officer stopped my younger brother Michael and I just minutes from our home. He flashed his lights, got out of his police car and asked where we had come from. I pointed to the trolley stopped at the light.

2014-12-02 17:00

Rejecting a dream job - and loving it

Dearest Casey, During your current trip to the USA to give a series of speeches in New York, D.C., Tennessee and California, you were delightfully blindsided by a job offer that would pay you more than three times as much as you are now making in South Korea. A few years ago, after a health scare, you began reflecting on your life and decided that you would only do the things that you wanted to do. People who try to pressure you to do things you don’t want to do have a 100% chance of failing. As you tell such people: ``I don’t have to eat everything put on my plate.”

2014-11-18 17:08

A meaningful experience

Congratulations! Your colleague Yeonmi Park has been named in the BBC’s Top 100 Women in the World 2014. This has meant she has given speeches around the world and been featured in major media such as the New York Times and Huffington Post. This all occurred in the last two weeks of October. Who would have believed she would become so well known internationally?

2014-11-04 17:13

An ambiguous man

I should expect it, but I occasionally get blind-sided in political discussions: A critic will bring up my race. I'm not saying that race is always irrelevant, but I reject it as a legitimate point in discussions about economic policy or North Korea. In most cases, the people who bring up my race in non-racial discussions are progressives (and usually white, although some blacks join in).

2014-10-21 17:07

What a coincidence!

Back when I was a young man working as an English teacher in Taipei, Taiwan, I skipped a friend’s birthday party because of work. The party was canceled, but rescheduled two nights later. I hit it off with an absolutely lovely lady there.

2014-10-07 17:05

In defense of NGOs

There's an old joke about two Jewish friends, one of whom subscribes to a Nazi newspaper. "How can you read that trash?" one friend asks the other.

2014-09-23 17:08

Fund NK refugees before it's too late

By Casey Lartigue, Jr.In April 2013, University of Texas Professor Jeremi Suri upset a number of expats in South Korea and experts around the world with his New York Times column, "Bomb North Korea, Before It's Too Late.”Some local pundits I know could barely mention the column without cursing Suri, denouncing him as an oddball pontificating from afar, suffering no consequences for his reckless proposal. I wondered: Have these people heard North Korean refugees discuss North Korea?A reporter who recently interviewed me along with Park Yeon-mi, a North Korean refugee and my TV podcast c...

2014-08-26 17:23

You can't save the world

By Casey Lartigue, Jr.Last year after I gave a speech at a high school in Seoul, one of the students earnestly asked me during the question-and-answer session: “How can we save the world?” My response, in short: The world doesn’t want to be saved. You’re likely to get shot in the process. Instead, why not focus on doing something practical to help even one person in your neighborhood, community or school?I wish I had also quoted Henry David Thoreau: “If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should ...

2014-08-12 17:09

Have I been targeted by North Korea?

Friends and colleagues who know about my activities with North Korean refugees often ask me: Aren’t you afraid that the North Korean regime will target you? My response? "Are you crazy? You really need to stop watching those spy thrillers and TV dramas." The idea that North Korea would send an agent to knock me off is laughable.

2014-07-29 17:21

Let's not shake hands

While there are many things that I love about Korea, there are two things that drive me crazy. One is that, in my observation, most Korean men don't wash their hands after using the bathroom. I know some people get defensive about non-Koreans commenting in a negative way about Korean culture and life, that they want to attack the messenger and the messenger's native country. So I will start by clearly stating that many men in America don't wash their hands either.

2014-07-01 17:08

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