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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

Korea's 'justice trap'

Harvard University Professor Michael Sandel was so popular during his trip to Korea in 2012 that I'm surprised he didn't apply for Korean citizenship before he departed. He threw out the first pitch at a baseball game, pow-wowed with Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and spoke to an overflow crowd of 15,000 at Yonsei University's open-air theater. Oh, and he had already reportedly sold more than 1 million copies of his book "Justice: What's the Right Thing to do?" in Korea in the lead-up to the trip.

2014-06-17 17:04

'Think about it'

I recently received an email inviting me to contribute to a special issue of the Journal of School Choice in honor of one of my former mentors. I had read his writing for years before I met him for the first time. I was speaking at an event in Washington, D.C. in 2002 when an elderly man approached me. It was Myron Lieberman. He was already in his 80s. He made it clear that I was making logical points but he also strongly criticized me.

2014-06-02 16:56

Eyes still on the prize

I took a trip down memory lane when I gave a speech on May 17 in Seoul to mark the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education ruling overturning America's segregationist policy. A decade ago, I co-edited the book “Educational Freedom in Urban America: Five decades after Brown v. Board of Education.” It was a wonderful time back in 2004 - I had been a major player in helping to increase educational freedom for low-income children in Washington, D.C. Former Secretary of Education Rod Paige praised me during the keynote address at a conference I organized about Bro...

2014-05-19 16:47

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