2012 – Page 10 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Diplomats, armed with handshakes and briefcases, face uncertainty abroad

Sep 12 2012

Diplomats, armed with handshakes and briefcases, face uncertainty abroad 5:50 PM, Sep 12, 2012 | Written by Robert Marchant JOURNAL NEWS (Westchester, NY) In this photo taken Monday, April 11, 2011, then U.S. envoy Chris Stevens takes a coffee before attending meetings at the Tibesty Hotel where an African Union delegation was meeting with opposition leaders in Benghazi, Libya. Libyan officials say the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans have been killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) / AP They carry briefcases, not weapons, and seek to make peace, not war. But dangers from terrorism and other hazards can make the job that diplomats, United Nations personnel, Peace Corps volunteers and other foreign affairs professionals a dangerous one. Ambassador Chris Stevens, a former Peace Corps . . .

The Last Word on Ayn Rand–From the Peace Corps Itself

Sep 12 2012

Back in 1964-65, in those golden years of the agency when PCVs were all given book lockers, Jack Prebis (Ethiopia 1962-64) was responsible for complying several editions of the books selected for the lockers. Jack worked at HQ from the fall of 1964 to the late summer of 1965 so he would have been in charge of, I think, the third and fourth versions. After reading the blogs about Rand and Ryan on the site today, Jack emailed me with this small piece of early Peace Corps trivia. Atlas Shrugged was included in the first booklocker given to PCVs but then the Peace Corps banned it from future collections after a Volunteer read the novel and invoking Rand message decided to ET. “I was specifically told not to include Rand in any future lockers,” Jack writes. “And I got the message.” The Peace Corps had the last word. p.s. I wonder…. Do you think that young PCV who ETed was Paul Ryan? Nah!

More on Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan

Sep 12 2012

[Below is an article published on informationclearinghouse.info that an RPCV was kind enough to forward to me. It is written by Uri Avnery leader of Israeli peace movement-Gush Shalom. The article is interesting and informative about Ayn Rand and her early years!] The Fountainhead: Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan by Uri Avnery I was not interested in Paul Ryan, the man about to be nominated by the Republican party for the office of vice-president, until the name Ayn Rand popped up. Ayn Rand, it was said, was one of the main inspirations for his particular philosophy. Since Ryan is being represented not as an ordinary, run-of-the-mill politician, like Mitt Romney, but as a profound political and economic thinker, the inspiration deserves some scrutiny. Like most people in this country, Ayn Rand first entered my life as the author of The Fountainhead, a novel that came out four years before the birth . . .

Ambassador Stevens (Morocco 1983-85) Killed in Libya

Sep 12 2012

J. Christopher Stevens (Morocco 1983-85) our Ambassador to Libya, was killed yesterday during an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Stevens, who had been in Libya only since May, died as he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate in Eastern Libya to try to evacuate staff. Stevens, a career diplomat, was 52 years old. Secretary of State Clinton said this morning, “I had the privilege of swearing in Chris for his post in Libya only a few months ago. He spoke eloquently about his passion for service, for diplomacy and for the Libyan people. This assignment was only the latest in his more than two decades of dedication to advancing closer ties with the people of the Middle East and North Africa which began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. As the conflict in Libya unfolded, Chris was one of the first Americans . . .

Would Ayn Rand Be De-Selected?

Sep 12 2012

I remember when Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957. In the college dorm of my Jesuit University (St. Louis University) the book was passed about by all the business majors who decided the novel was better than the bible (not that Catholics ever read the Bible!). I attempted to read the book but couldn’t make it beyond the first page. Talk about ‘gag me with a spoon.’ I recently read about the novel (again) in a short and entertaining piece written by Henry Meininger, the publisher and editor (of all things!) The Berkshire Home&Style. This is a free give-away publication in western Massachusetts, a magazine “of home and good living”…I kid you not! Writing about Atlas Shrugged in his magazine shows you where Henry is coming from. With all the talk by Paul Ryan, who made the novel required reading for his Congressional staff, I picked up the 1,168 page novel over the weekend and . . .

Talking with Rajeev Goyal (Nepal 2002-03) About his book The Springs of Namje

Sep 11 2012

Talking with Rajeev Goyal (Nepal 2002-03) by John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) When you arrived in Nepal, Rajeev, the Nepalese royal family had just been massacred, Maoists threatened national security, and, as you discovered, a caste system dominated the culture. How did these realities affect your Peace Corps tour? The Maoist war affected every element of life, including education. Bridges, roads, and electricity grids were being blown up all across the country pretty much from the moment we stepped off the plane. So on a physical level, you never quite felt secure. But there was also an ideological “war” taking shape about how the country should move forward, the role and limits of tradition and religion in social and political life. Teachers and students were not shielded from this debate, obviously. The royal massacre had created a political vacuum, which the Maoists were capitalizing on. Ordinary Nepalis felt squeezed between an . . .

Book Launch of Rajeev Goyal's (Nepal 2001-03) The Springs of Namje Book Launch

Sep 11 2012

Rajeev Goyal’s new memoir The Springs of Namje, published by Beacon Press, will be launched at The Rubin Museum of Art in New York. The museum opened in 2004 and is recognized as the premier museum of Himalayan art in the Western world. The Launch Friday September 14, 2012 @ 7:00 PM The Rubin Museum of Art 150 West 17 Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues) Price: $12.00 Member Price: $10.80 About the Book The Springs of Namje A Ten-Year Journey from the Villages of Nepal to the Halls of Congress “The Springs of Namje tells many stories, including, very movingly, how to try to effect real change in Washington, D.C. It’s about idealism and savvy, and it shows how they can mix powerfully.” — Bill McKibben, author of Earth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet In 2001, Peace Corps volunteer Rajeev Goyal was sent to Namje, a . . .

Review of Lucinda Wingard (Nigeria 1966-68) YA Novel The Turn-around Bird

Sep 10 2012

The Turn-around Bird (A Young Adult Book) by Lucinda Wingard (Nigeria 1966–68) Plicata Press $16.00 294 pages 2012 Review by Leita Kaldi Davis (Senegal 1993–96) Aimée and Zoe, African American twin teenagers, accompany their father to Timbuktu, where he pursues historical research on the ancient Mali Empire. At first, the girls find traveling in the endless desert arduous, and the city of Timbuktu boring, with its sand-colored buildings and weird spires and spikes. But through the magie of a genie, Ifrit, they are catapulted back into 14th century Timbuktu, then a mecca of civilization. The girls embark upon adventures replete with tall, dark, handsome princes, caravans, Tuareg warriors, harems, a Griot, a sorcerer and a Sufi mystic. In the magnificent Mansa Kankan Musa’s Golden Empire, the girls learn many things about ancient Africa. Aimée, who tends to be bookish and fascinated by words, is told that she inherits the gift . . .

PCVs Return to Nepal

Sep 10 2012

Yesterday, September 9, 2012, 20 PCVs arrived in Katmandu, the first Volunteers to Nepal in eight years. The PCVs, after Training, will work in food security, sanitation and in health projects. The Peace Corps withdrew Volunteers in 2004 citing security concerns as Maoist rebels fought government troops.The Maoists joined the peace process in ’06, giving up their armed revolt. The Maoists’ deputy leader Baburam Bhattarai now leads a coalition government. The US removed the Maoists from its list of terrorist groups last week.

Mark Brazaitis wins Gival Press Novel Award

Sep 09 2012

Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991–93) has won the 8th Annual Gival Press Novel Award for his novel Julia & Rod. Mark will receive $3,000 and his novel will be published in 2013 by Gival Press. Mark is the author of four books of fiction, including The Incurables: Stories, winner of the 2012 Richard Sullivan Prize, from the University of Notre Dame Press. Of his book, Thaddeus Rutkowski, final judge of the contest, and author of Haywire, Tetched and Roughhouse wrote: This expressive, touching and at times wrenching novel tells the stories of two young people living in Guatemala during that country’s civil war. Teenagers Julia García and Rodrigo Rax meet at a school pageant and find that they are drawn to each other. Julia, the daughter of an engineer, lives in one of the few two-story houses in town. Rodrigo, who comes from less privilege, is a soccer star. But what begins . . .

New Books by Peace Corps Writers — August 2012

Sep 09 2012

The Measure of a Dream: A Peace Corps Story by Lora Parisien Begin (Tunisia 1988-90) Peace Corps Writers $16.96 356 pages July 2012 • Seven Sonnets by Julie B. Dargis (Morocco 1984–87) Createspace $5.99 16 pages 2012 • God and Conflict: A Search for Peace in a Time of Crisis: A True Story by Philip M. Hellmich (Sierra Leone 1985–89) GodandConflict.com Spirit of Peace Press $15.00 (paperback); $7.99 (Kindle) 262 pages 2012 • Every Town Needs A Castle: Especially When Built of Recycled Junk and Spunk by Dwayne Hunn (India 1965–67) Xlibris $19.99 (paperback), $3.08 (Kindle) 319 pages 2010 • I Was a Peace Corps Volunteer: Lost and Found in Micronesia by Heather Kaschmitter (Micronesia 2002–04) CreateSpace $12.00 286 pages June 2012 • The Soft Exile by Eric Kiefer (Mongolia 2006–07) Gentleman Tree Publishing $11.99 (paperback), $5.99 (Kindle) 209 pages August 2012 • The South American Expeditions, 1540–1545 by Alvar . . .

Winner of the 2011 Children's Book Award — Tom Weck (Ethiopia 1965-67)

Sep 08 2012

Tom Weck (Ethiopia 1965–67) is the founder of Lima Bear Press. With his son Peter, and illustrator Len DiSalvo, they have created a series of children’s books for 4–8 year-olds called The Lima Bear Stories, three of which, The Megasaurus, How Back-Back Got His Name, and The Cave Monster were published in 2011 and we are recognizing with this award. These books grew out of bedtime stories about a clan of bears the size of lima beans that Tom told his four children. Four of the planned 10-book series have been published. 2 more are due in 2013. Each book has an important message (e.g. tolerance, forgiveness). After graduating from Harvard Business School, Tom went with Louis Berger & Associates, a consulting firm, and ran the business as president for the last 12 years. “It was my son Peter who prompted me to start Lima Bear Press, LLC.,” Tom says today. “He felt my stories . . .

Winner of the 2011 Publisher's Special Award — Stanley Meisler (PC/HQ 1963-67)

Sep 07 2012

In 2011 Stan Meisler published When The World Calls: The Inside Story of the Peace Corps and Its First Fifty Years. It is a comprehensive history of the agency written by someone who knew the Peace Corps almost from its first days. Stan Meisler was a reporter for AP in 1963 when he joined the Evaluation staff at the Peace Corps. “I was not there in those very first days, the madcap, exciting, glorious beginning. I started my work at Peace Corps headquarters just after the election of Lyndon B. Johnson to a full term as president, a year after the assassination of President Kennedy.” He had misgivings about working for the government, as any reporter might, but the Peace Corps was different. “It was,” Meisler writes, “an oasis of idealism and goodness in the vast Washington bureaucracy. Everyone, even Washington correspondents, loved the Peace Corps.” In his career at the agency he would make a half dozen . . .

Use Your Cross Cultural Experience–And Do Some Good!

Sep 07 2012

Laurette Bennhold-Samaan (PC/HQ Cross-Cultural Specialist 1994-01) now works for an international consulting company called Aperian Global. She is asking for the help of RPCVs in developing content for a half dozen African countries with an unique ‘web tool’ that provides extensive knowledge on how to conduct business effectively in countries around the world. What this ‘web tool’ does is to help people understand and work better in new cultures, and work effectively with people of different backgrounds. Today, GlobeSmart has detailed information on 66 countries. It is being used by more than 400,000 people working for 100 international organizations. (If you’d like to see a demonstration of GlobeSmart, check out https://www.aperianglobal.com/login/). Now Aperian Global is looking to increase their countries in Africa. They develop profiles by interviewing host country nationals, and people-like you!–who have worked in these countries. Laurette, who I worked with at the agency, has asked me to let . . .

Winner of 2011 Peace Corps Collection Award–Jane Albritton (India 1967-69)

Sep 06 2012

The winner of the Peace Corps Collection Award is Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) senior editor of four books of essays by RPCVs published by Travelers’ Tales/Solas House. The books are: One Hand Does Not Catch a Buffalo — Volume One, Africa, Edited by Aaron Barlow (Togo 1988-90) Gather The Fruit One By One — Volume Two, Americas–Edited by Pat Alter (Paraguay 1970-72) and Bernie Alter (India 1967-69) A Small Key Opens Big Doors — Volume Three, The Heart of Eurasia–Edited by Jay Chen (Kazakhstan 2005-08) Even The Smallest Crab Has Teeth — Volume Four, Asia & The Pacific, Edited by Jane Albritton (India 1967-69) Jane Albritton undertook a herculean task: to gather enough Peace Corps personal experience essays to fill a multi-volume anthology. After four years of intense work, she completed the task in 2011 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Peace Corps’ inception. The four volumes include more . . .

Archive - 2012