January 26, 2011 – Peace Corps Worldwide

What did they know? And when did they know it?

Jan 26 2011

This is the follow-up to my blog post “The Peace Corps & ABC 20/20” published on January 19th. It is my second — and last — blog on what happened in Africa to Kate Puzey. • What Appears to Have Happened in Benin in 2009 SHORTLY BEFORE BENIN PCV KATE PUZEY was scheduled to complete her service and leave the country in 2009, she emailed staff members at the Peace Corps/Benin office to inform them that a teacher at her school — a person who was also a part-time local-hire employee of the Peace Corps doing in-country training — was molesting young female students at her school. This individual was identified recently by ABC’s 20/20 in a segment “Scandal Inside the Peace Corps: Investigation into whether the Peace Corps puts women into dangerous situations” as Constant Bio, a citizen of Benin. Kate urged the PC staff to not rehire Constant Bio to train . . .

Peace Corps Panel at the National Archives 3.17.2011

Jan 26 2011

I love visiting the National Archives. For this RPCV, pouring through the dusty records is like doing genealogy. Although, when I read the reports of Colombia and its programs, I want to respond to them. But it is almost fifty years too late! True to form, I will be in DC this March, arriving on the 18th, one day too late to attend this great panel. For those of you lucky enough to be in the DC area for St. Patrick’s Day, here is the information from Susan Clifton of the National Archives. Peace Corps 50th Anniversary Thursday, March 17, at 7 p.m. William G. McGowan Theater The Early Years of the Peace Corps On March 1, 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed the Executive Order that created the Peace Corps. Since then, more than 200,000 Americans have served as Peace Corps volunteers in 139 countries around the world. In . . .

Review of Robert Balmanno's Runes of Iona

Jan 26 2011

Runes of Iona by Robert Balmanno (Benin 1973-75) Regent Press $15.95 349 pages August 2010 Reviewed by Paul Shovlin (Moldova 1996-98) THE SECOND BOOK in the Blessings of Gaia series by Robert Balmanno, Runes of Iona, is in print, and, like the first, it’s far-ranging and ambitious. The series began with September Snow which followed the protagonist Tom Novak, an author, philosopher, freedom fighter, as he worked with September Snow to disable the climate controlling wind machines of the Gaia-domes. In Runes of Iona, the machines are down and nature is slowly returning to something like normal, but little has changed in terms of the power of the Gaia-domes and their domination of the world. The second book follows Iona Snow and Kull, a freed slave, as they build a guerrilla army for the expressed purposes of dismantling the current power structure and toppling the dictatorship of the Gaia-dome government. . . .

Archive - January 26, 2011