By the way, having mentioned McLibel and the difference between “food” and food and between “meat” and meat, and as long as I’m on the topic of reasonable talk about eating, I can’t help mention more about the case. Quoting from a web page devoted to the case, The McLibel Trial is the infamous British court case between McDonald’s and a former postman & a gardener from London (Helen Steel[…] Keep reading →

People often ask what the government let us do or not. Koryo prepares you for what to expect so we knew all these things before leaving Beijing. Here is a small selection of the rules. No pictures without permission North Koreans seem to resent having their pictures taken when they aren’t performing. I once forgot this rule and took a picture of some people on the street. They got annoyed.[…] Keep reading →

North Korea’s uniquely extreme isolation and disparity of power and wealth means you have to think of it differently than most other countries. Today I’ll present a toy idea not for serious consideration as is, but to provoke thought and promote new, potentially effective ideas or improve other plans. I call it a toy idea so no one accidentally takes it seriously on its own, but plays with it to[…] Keep reading →

Today’s pictures were from the Grand People’s Study House, a giant library overlooking the Taedong River, with the Juche Tower on the other side. Sorry for how long some captions are. I formatted them to be more readable but WordPress seems to ignore the formatting. I hope you can read them okay anyway. Nearly all big public buildings we visited had big statues of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jung Il,[…] Keep reading →

The third exercise comes in two parts also. First you think of emotions you’d prefer to the ones listed in the previous exercise. Second you think of environments, beliefs, and behaviors to create those emotions. You think of the emotions first because they are the roots of your values and what creates meaning and purpose. By listing what you can’t or won’t do in the previous exercise, you assure yourself[…] Keep reading →

To close out this fifteen-part series on strategy, what can one person as an individual do? First, I recommend considering you may be offering people unsolicited advice based on judgments they don’t agree with if you, say, waltz into the country and tell people there you are going to help them make their lives better. Now matter how sure you are that you will help them, if they didn’t invite[…] Keep reading →

Yesterday’s exercise was to list a couple areas in your life you want to improve. Today’s exercise is to view the areas from the perspective of the Model. Exercise 2 Part 1 Write on a piece of paper in four different lines, the words “Old environment:,” “Old beliefs:,” “Old emotions:,” and “Old behaviors:,” like so: Old environments: Old beliefs: Old emotions: Old behaviors: Then for each area on your life[…] Keep reading →

If sunshine is the best disinfectant, then giving the North Korean people the same access that the rest of the world has to information about their country, its history, and the world would probably be the best strategy for change. Their compliance with their government effectively supports it more than anything else. That compliance makes sense, despite it appearing from our perspective against their long-term interests. Not complying can cost[…] Keep reading →

Here are the slides for my North Korea talk at Fred. I expect to show a lot of images, mainly from Joseph’s amazing pictures on Flickr. I like my pictures, but his are phenomenal. Here is a pdf of the slides. Sorry the transitions don’t make it in, but the slides are pretty light. I’ll put up the video when they post it.