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20. Casey Latigue

Last year at this time, I was in the process of gathering more than 900 pages of notes. My grand plan? Release a book in 2022 marking my 10th anniversary of working with North Korean refugees. As former champion boxer Mike Tyson has said, however: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

2022-01-20 17:08

During 2018, a 70-year-old grandmother who was spending 14 hours a day tweeting as many thousands of tweets and retweets in support of a U.S. presidential candidate was repeatedly flagged as a bot by Twitter.

2021-12-23 16:31

Meeting North Koreans outside the country in freedom

With North Korea's border closed due to COVID-19 concerns, could the world be missing an opportunity to engage and even rescue North Koreans who have been dispatched by North Korea to work or study abroad but can't return now?

2021-11-25 17:00

Exaggerating NK refugee activism

I remember laughing out loud a few years ago when a freelance reporter called to interview me about a “cottage industry” of North Korean refugee activists. They may look organized to professional talkers, but anyone working with North Korean refugee organizations knows almost all of them are poorly funded one-man operations.

2021-10-28 16:53

Lartigue's Law: embrace critics

I can thank critics for some of my greatest personal and professional breakthroughs. I will never forget the newspaper columnist who accused me in a multi-part editorial of writing commentaries to become an “African-American hired gun” for think tanks.

2021-09-30 17:10

My 29th birthday of gift giving

The United Nations and I both celebrate Sept. 5 as a day of giving, but for different reasons. Declared as the International Day of Charity by the United Nations General Assembly in 2012, the main goal was to raise awareness and provide a common platform for charity related activities internationally.

2021-09-02 17:10

Why don't more North Korean refugees speak out?

Over the years I have worked with numerous North Korean refugees who have become authors, public speakers, and YouTubers. Despite what appear to be golden opportunities to tell their stories, an alleged “cottage industry,” many more North Korean refugees turn down opportunities to publish books or to engage in public speaking.

2021-08-05 17:00

Comrade, do you have a dissenting opinion?

North Korean refugee Yeonmi Park did it again, this time she went viral because of her comments about political correctness at Columbia University. While some people analyzed her words honestly, some of her loudest critics inadvertently made her case for her with their vitriolic responses.

2021-07-08 17:01

Ethical 'Negroid' hedonist

According to my birth certificate issued by the state of Texas, my parents were both identified as being “Negroid.” Despite that genetic background, many of the most useless conversations in my life have been about race.

2021-06-10 17:13

Flipping the script in discussions

My friends often marvel at my ability to not only think outside of the box, but to flip the box upside down, look at things from both inside and outside of the box, and to even stand on the box. I enjoy flipping the script on myself and others by actively attacking cliches and conventional wisdom

2021-05-13 17:33

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