Archive - December 2012

By Robert Nolan (Zimbabwe ) How the Peace Corps Benefits Diplomatic Security Robert Nolan is an editor at the Foreign Policy Association and producer of the Great Decisions in Foreign Policy television series on PBS. You can follow him on Twitter @robert_nolan. As a young Peace Corps volunteer in Zimbabwe during the late 1990s, my colleagues and I used to joke that we had a much deeper understanding of politics in the southern African country than the American ambassador posted in Harare. Living in rural communities among average Zimbabweans, we were often privy to late night political discussions around a shared “scud” of Chibuku, (a local beer named after the missiles used in the 1991 Gulf War), during lunch breaks at the secondary schools where many of us taught or while traveling between the countryside and the capital on unreliable buses. Trusting Zimbabweans might chat with us about an uptick . . .

Doug Kiker was from Griffin, Georgia and had early success as a short story writer while still a student at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, majoring in English. There’s a story about how he wanted to get published and he picked up Martha Foley’s short stories collection, went to the rear of the book and found the list of short-story publishers, closed his eyes and punched in the dark. He hit the Yale Review, to which he promptly submitted a short story. And they accepted his story. While still in college he worked as a reporter, covering the Senate race between Strom Thurmond and Olin Johnston. After college he joined the navy and was commissioned an Ensign, serving in Korean War. Discharged, he returned to Atlanta and worked at the Atlanta Journal and covered the first sit-ins at lunch counters in North Carolina. Out of that experience came his . . .

Mark D. Gearan, President of Hobart and William Smith Colleges in upstate New York and the former Director of the Peace Corps (1995-99), was one of more than 160 presidents to sign an open letter to U.S. policy makers in the wake of last week’s shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown calling for stricter gun laws. The college presidents signed an open letter to U.S. policy makers that was drafted by the leaders of two Georgia schools, Lawrence M. Schall, president of Oglethorpe University, and Elizabeth Kiss, president of Agnes Scott College. The letter calls for: Ensuring the safety of college communities by opposing legislation allowing guns on campuses and in classrooms Ending the gun show loophole, which allows for the purchase of guns from unlicensed sellers without a criminal background check Reinstating the ban on military-style semi-automatic assault weapons along with high-capacity ammunition magazines Requiring consumer safety . . .

One of the first hands to be raised asking to be appointed “The Next Peace Corps Director” is that of Carolyn Long (Gabon 1963-65) who, years ago when I first knew her, worked for TransCentury, a non-profit company started in the mid-sixties by Warren Wiggins, one of the original Mad Men of the agency, and Dick Irish (Philippines 1962–64). Carolyn has had a long career in international work. For many years she was the manager of  InterAction, and today she is listed as Director, Global Partnership on their site, and travels around the world evaluating and advising on NGOs. InterAction is the largest alliance of U.S.-based international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), with more than 190 members working in every developing country.  Members are faith-based and secular, large and small, with a focus on the world’s most poor and vulnerable populations. Carolyn has not been active with the RPCVs in D.C. or involved with the NPCA or the Peace Corps. She . . .

The  independent review of the September 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was released today and cited “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” at the State Department. The  attacks killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador and Morocco RPCV, Chris Stevens. The report says something like the security plan was “inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.” In the next few days, everyone will be jumping all over Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, so I thought I might reach back in time a few years and quote from a short speech that the then First Lady gave on September 1998 dedication of the Peace Corps Building and Shriver Hall. A few of you were there, and, of course, many of you weren’t. At the ceremony, the First Lady was introduced by the Peace Corps Director, Mark Gearan, who said, among other things, . . .

My condition left me jobless, homeless, physically disabled, and in pain. I’m sure there are many more of you out there. Luckily I didn’t have kids or other family responsibilities, so I’ve had TIME to waste on the system, but what about the others? I would love to be asked to give my personal case history… that I lived on $100 a month, got sick and repeatedly asked for my PCMO’s (Peace Corps Medical Officers) help to do more tests and was told there was nothing more to do, when there was and now I get to live with a (…) disease for the rest of my life. So, the OIG (Office of Inspector General during GAO of RPCVs) wants to know if it is spending the PC is spending its money appropriately? The answer is an obvious NO! I don’t get responses from the DOL anymore. My case has . . .

[Nancy Tongue (Chile 1980-82) emailed the following statement to FairWarning about the article on the US Department of Labor and medical assistance to RPCV. Nancy started Health Justice for Peace Corps Volunteer. You can read about it at: http://www.healthjusticeforpeacecorpsvolunteers.org/ This is their mission statement: Mission Statement To ensure that Peace Corps Volunteers who become sick and injured due to their overseas service obtain the support and benefits to which they are legally entitled.  Strategy To obtain as many stories as we can from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers to better understand the nature of their struggles so that we can bring their needs to public light. To constructively use these stories to approach media sources and to pressure the government to make necessary positive changes. Core Values To lobby for and support other Peace Corps volunteers with integrity, commitment and compassion. This is Nancy’s statement to Fair Warning on their article:   Health Justice for . . .