Archive - 2009

Trying to keep the changing slogans of the Peace Corps campaign straight–as well as all those  Peace Corps numbers–is a job, so I decided to do a quick ‘cheat sheet’ of numbers and facts and timing so, at least, I would know what is going on and who is doing what to whom! First off, President Barack Obama’s 2010 budget backs off of his promise to double the Peace Corps to 16,000 volunteers by 2011. His budget today calls for 9,000 Americans enrolled in the Peace Corps by the end of FY 2012, and 11,000 by the end of FY 2016. At that pace, Obama is out of office, his two girls are off to college, and a Republican is back in the White House, before the size of the Peace Corps is doubled. Also, let us not forget, his White House budget documents flatly contradicts his promise of 16,000 volunteers . . .

A few days ago we mentioned that Frank Fountain could be a possible candidate for the Director of the Peace Corps. While I don’t know him, Fountain, then as the president of the Chrysler Foundation, supported the non-profit foundation, The Peace Corps Fund, that Barbara Ferris and I started a half dozen years ago to support Third Goal projects. Today, the  Chicago Defender, a well-respected African-American midwest newspaper, had an article about Fountain being the next director. Here’s the Chicago Defender article about the former India PCV. If selected, Frank would be the second India PCV to have the position. (And everyone thinks it is the Ethiopian RPCVs who control the Peace Corps. Not true!) • Fountain’s candidacy for Peace Corps chief wins national approval by Bankole Thompson At a time when America’s image is facing immense challenge, forcing President Barack Obama to embark on a tour of goodwill and renewing ties with various . . .

 Writing on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, on Nexsmax.com Dave Eberhart had this to say, and check out the comments that go with the article   Before Laurence Leamer was the celebrated author of such seminal best-sellers as “King of the Night” and “The Kennedy Women,” he was a young Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal. As he poignantly recalled in a recent speech, “I was posted in a tiny village in the eastern hills, two days from a road. And there I began to think of something other than myself. I learned to help people and reach out to the world with a helping hand, and I became a man I had never been… “I have lived on the residue of that spirit for my entire life.” But like about 195,000 Peace Corps volunteers who have served as American missionaries for peace and democracy since President John F. Kennedy launched the program in 1961, Leamer . . .

It is tough getting a job even in the best of times. To help RPCVs and PCVs, Peace Corps Worldwide has developed an on-line ‘talent bank’ available to organizations interested in hiring people with  your experience. RPCVs and PCVs planning what to do next are registering already to be part of this  job bank of talented Peace Corps veterans. Here’s how this free on-line talent bank for RPCVs works: RPCVs can set up a profile at http://pcworldwide.cambridgedata.com/apply There’s never any cost to the RPCV and we restrict access to legitimate employers. RPCVs interested in being contacted by potential employers, for work in the US or overseas, should register – it takes about 10 minutes. Once we have a critical mass of registrants we will promote this Talent Bank to organizations working internationally, as well as organizations working in the US which serve immigrant communities or otherwise might need some of the particular linguistic, . . .

Larry Leamer (Nepal 1964–66), author of Madness Under the Royal Palms: Love and Death Behind the Gates of Palm Beach among other books has the following essay posted today in the Huffingtpost.com. • Join Us, Mr. President!! I was the next-to-the-last speaker Saturday at a rally in Washington to build a bold new Peace Corps. Rajeev Goyal, the Morepeacecorps.org national organizer, and I had decided to do this rally only nine days before. It would have been a formidable new task even if we have done nothing else. But we were already working ceaselessly to get the House of Representatives to appropriate the $450 million that would allow the Peace Corps to grow and to reform. We were close to success in the House thanks to a relentless group of representatives and legislative aides. Our problem was not only what would happen in the Senate but President Obama. For some . . .

When I joined the Peace Corps, I was an alienated, troubled young man   I was almost thrown out during training and I arrived in Nepal in 1964 looking for adventure, not looking to help humanity.  I was posted in a tiny village in the eastern hills two days from a road.  And there I began to think of something other than myself.  I learned to help people and reach out to the world with a helping hand, and I became a man I had never been.  In Nepal the mountains are high but the human spirit is higher, and I took in that spirit and I returned to the United States a new man. I have lived on the residue of that spirit for my entire life.  But a few years ago it ran out, and I have felt spiritually bereft.  I have felt terrible empty. For the few months . . .

A friend sent me the following early this Sunday morning…See, I’m not the only one awake and on the computer!  [John: Senator McCollum released this Friday afternoon. Every little bit helps. It could be either to deflect criticism/disappointment–hey, I tried to help; to claim some of the credit– hey, I was there for the PC ; or, most likely because she is doing her bit to help grow the PC. Whatever, calls to both offices would help. So would a personal note to her DC fax 202.225.1968. Her DC Office # is 202.225.6631. Her local # is: 651.224.9191] From McCollum’s Office, June 12, 2009  Washington, DC – Congresswoman Betty McCollum (MN-04) sent a letter to the Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State Foreign Operations yesterday requesting the inclusion of $450 million for the Peace Corps in the upcoming mark up of the FY10 spending bill. “As our nation works to restore our standing in the world, . . .

A piece this Sunday morning in the Washington Post by Staff Writer Yamiche Alcindor says it all: “Dozens Gather.” Okay, to rephrase Edgar Allan Poe, “During the whole of a dull, dark, and rainy afternoon in the early summer of the year a few hundred (not dozens!) gathered in Washington, D.C., to campaign for a “bold” (new phrase) New Peace Corps.” Here’s the early morning report this Sunday, June 14, 2009, from Yamiche Alcindor. Dozens of Peace Corps volunteers rallied downtown yesterday, urging Congress and the Obama administration to expand the program. “We want to help the president adhere to his vision,” said Harris Wofford, a former Democratic senator from Pennsylvania who helped launch the Peace Corps in 1961. Organizers said they hoped to prod President Obama to make good on his promise to double the number of Peace Corps volunteers and allot $450 million to the volunteer program, up from about $373 million the administration . . .

Speaking today at the rally will be: Tim Shriver –  son of  Sargent Shriver.  Former Senator, Harris Wofford Anthony Johnson, the Jamaican Ambassador Writer Laurence Leamer (Nepal 1964-66) Head of MorePeaceCorps, Rajeev Goyal (Nepal 2004-06) The event will feature music from an 22-woman Brazilian drumming group Batala, Peruvian flutist Juan Cayrampoma and the  rock-n-roll band Cairo Fred. After the event, starting at 5 pm, everyone will gather at the Aria Trattoria Restaurant at 13th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

[Thanks to great Peace Corps Veteran Geri Critchley, and thanks to Peter Yarrow, we have Peter’s recent letter to Rep. Nita Lowey in support of MorePeace Corps.] Dearest Rep. Nita Lowey, This is a personal message to you from your buddy, your long time  supporter and your friend, Puff’s “real” daddy. In the vote coming up  next week on Peace Corps funding, we have a SERIOUSLY IMPORTANT  opportunity to send a message to our nation, and nations beyond, that could greatly help  to rejuvenate the spirit of humanity, morality and generosity in America, so  absent from our policies, our funding and our actions, during the Bush years. We cannot lose this special opportunity,  and I’m relying on you, as one of my favorite and most respected members of  the House, to “hang in there” for doing the right thing, as you have in the  past. Though I fully expect that you’ll . . .

This Friday morning, this morning before the big RPCV rally in Washington, D.C. at 2 p.m. in Freedom Plaza (14th and Pennsylvania Avenue NW) to support “Obama’s Peace Corps Vision” the question– which we have never answered–remains: What Has The Peace Corps Done For America? In 2011, the Peace Corps will be fifty years old. This agency is generally seen as the shining achievement of Kennedy’s brief presidency. But what is the legacy of those Volunteers? What lessons can America, and the rest of the world, learn from Volunteers who have served overseas over the past five decades? In the first days of creating the Peace Corps, John F. Kennedy remarked to Harris Wofford that he saw the real benefit of the agency to be in how these former Volunteers would vote on foreign affair issues once they returned home. Kennedy envisioned hundreds of thousands of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers contributing to American society, not only in how they . . .