Archive - September 2016

  Hillary Clinton campaign rally in Fort Pierce, Florida Hillary Clinton announced her plan to create a National Service Reserve during a campaign rally in Fort Pierce, Florida. Mrs. Clinton also outlined plans to increase participation in AmeriCorps and Peace Corps. https://www.c-span.org/video/?416151-1/hillary-clinton-campaigns-fort-pierce-florida Peace Corps! @HIllaryClinton speaks to the value of Peace Corps! https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4622887/peace-corps

Clinton to offer national service initiative during Florida swing By John Wagner September 30 at 5:00 AM FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Hillary Clinton will announce plans Friday for a new program geared toward helping people under age 30 participate in national service, according to an aide. The Democratic presidential nominee is scheduled to detail her initiative during a speech here in this presidential battleground state. It comes during a stretch when Clinton has stepped up efforts to appeal to millennials, a demographic that she lost heavily to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont in the Democratic primaries. Though Clinton is performing better than Republican nominee Donald Trump among young voters, polls have showed an unusually large number considering casting a ballot for a third-party candidate this year. The Clinton aide provided few details about what she will propose during her speech but said the initiative will reflect Clinton’s belief that “people . . .

Peace Corps volunteers flee ‘ISIS’ vagrant By Vanessa Braithwaite,  Guyana Chronicle September 26, 2016 Thanks for the “heads up” from Alana DeJoseph (Mali 1992–94)       THE mining town of Linden is now short of four US Peace Corps volunteers in the health and education sectors after they received death threats from a vagrant known as “Killer”. According to reports, the man is known in the community as being mentally unstable. He would oftentimes make public threats, claiming to be a member of the terrorist organization Islamic State and would kill any American national if given the chance.      The man would normally stand at the corner of Republic Avenue and Green Heart Street Mackenzie and verbally abuse passersby, using expletives and other threatening language.      At one time he used to physically assault persons who on many occasion had to be defended by others nearby. While the Linden . . .

On Wednesday, September 21, 2016, Marian Haley Beil and I spoke to RPCVs attending the opening Workshops of the National Peace Corps Association Conference in Washington, D.C. Publisher Marian Beil’s Workshop was on the mechanics of self-publishing a book and I spoke about writing a Peace Corps memoir, novel, or collection of stories. Here are my comments to approximately 100 RPCVs who attend our sessions. I focused first on the history of Peace Corps books and their importance to American literature and then I had suggestions on how one might write their book. John Coyne, Editor Writers From The Peace Corps  One of the most important books of the late 1950 was The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick. The book’s hero was a skilled technician committed to helping in developing countries at a grassroots level by building water pumps, digging roads, building bridges. He was called the . . .

Maria Thomas Fiction Award This Award is named after the novelist Maria Thomas [Roberta Worrick (Ethiopia 1971–73)] who was the author of a well-reviewed novel and two collections of short stories all set in Africa. She lost her life in August, 1989, while working in Ethiopia for a relief agency. She went down in the plane crash that killed Congressman Mickey Leland of Texas. Winner for 2016 for the novel Landfall  is Ellen Urbani (Guatemala 1991-92) Also this: Notes from The Oregonian/OregonLive’s books desk. “Landfall” wins prize: West Linn author Ellen Urbani’s 2015 novel “Landfall,” about the intertwined stories of two teenage girls in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, has won the Peace Corps’ 2016 Maria Thomas Fiction Award, given to Peace Corps alumni  (Urbani served with the Peace Corps in Guatemala from 1991 to 1992). “Landfall,” which The Oregonian/OregonLive’s reviewer called “a book to be savored,” was published by . . .

By U.S. News Staff Sept. 23, 2016, at 5:13 p.m. Rep. Joe Kennedy, D-Mass (Dominican Republic 2004-06), is among the most well-known Peace Corps volunteers. He served in the Dominican Republic from 2004-2006, and is an outspoken proponent of the organization founded in 1961 by his great-uncle, John F. Kennedy, and first led by another great-uncle, Sargent Shriver. Along with other current and returned Peace Corps volunteers, he told U.S. News via email about his Peace Corps experiences.   What’s your best memory of serving in the Peace Corps? Would you encourage others to do it now? During my service in the DR, I was riding a bus on my own one day when an older gentleman tapped me on the shoulder. “Corpo de Paz?” he asked. I nodded. Then he leaned forward and thanked me. “For what?” I asked. He explained that years ago, a young man came to his town as a Peace Corps volunteer and . . .

By Barbara Marshall – Palm Beach Post Staff Writer  Sunday September 18 Stop us if this sounds familiar: Vincent Victor, a pugnacious businessman, playboy and bombastic developer of discount shopping malls called “Victor’s Golden Castle” creates a Miss Universe-like pageant called The Great American Breast Contest which leads to a starring role in a reality TV show called The Vigilantes, which he parlays into a run at the presidency. If that reminds you of Donald Trump, it’s meant to, says author and historian Laurence Leamer, author of “The President’s Butler,” a new satiric novel. Related by Victor’s butler, Billy Baxter, the story portrays Victor as a proudly anti-intellectual attention junkie who spews conspiracy theories and Twitter put-downs. After pummeling his mainstream political opponents to grab the GOP nomination for president, he faces a Democratic opponent he belittles as Blundering Belinda Ball. Any doubts about the object of Leamer’s lampooning are . . .

(Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Barry Hillenbrand (Ethiopia 1963-65) In the Philippines, Jim Turner’s heartbroken ‘hobbits’ mourn the loss of their patron by William Branigin (c) 2016, The Washington Post. All over Manila, the “little people” are in mourning. Jim Turner (Philippines 1961-63), a former Peace Corps volunteer from Iowa who established the renowned Hobbit House, died on Steptember 8, 2016, at 77 of heart and lung ailments, leaving generations of Philippine dwarfs bereft. The Hobbit House was founded in 1973 as a theme bar and restaurant – a tribute of sorts to Turner’s favorite author, J.R.R. Tolkien – and it soon became a haven for the dwarfs he rescued from the capital’s streets and from carnivals and variety shows that demeaned them. He employed dwarfs as waiters, bartenders, cashiers, entertainers, even bouncers. Eventually, they became managers and owners. Over the years, children and grandchildren of the original staff . . .

  On Wednesday, September 21st from 3:15–4:15 pm and then repeated from 4:30 pm–5:30 pm, RPCV authors whose books were influenced by their Peace Corps experience and have been published by the Peace Corps Writers imprint, will participate in panels talking about writing and producing their books. The panels will be moderated by Marian Haley Beil. The panelists are: Emily Creigh (Paraguay 1975–77), who co-authored with and Dr. Martin Amada, Journey to the Heart of the Condor: Love, Loss and Survival in a South American Dictatorship. (Emily will participate only in the second panel.) Kay Gillies Dixon (Colombia 1962—64), author of the the memoir Wanderlust Satisfied Marty Ganzglass (Somalia 1966–68), author of The Orange Tree, a novel set in Somalia, and Somalia – a collection of short fiction. (Marty will participate only in the first panel.) Jay Hersch (Colombia 1964–66), whose Peace Corps memoir is Time Passages Catherine Onyemelukwe (Nigeria 1962–64), whose memoir is Nigeria Revisited: My Life and Loves Abroad. The panels will be presented at: Floyd Heck . . .

Marvin Center Room 407: Wednesday!, September 21, 2016 3:15 – 4:15 pm: Stories of Peace: Panel Discussion with Marian Haley Beil and Published Peace Corps Authors 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm: Stories of Peace: Panel Discussion with Marian Haley Beil and Published Peace Corps Authors   Marvin Center Room 403 3:15 – 4:15 pm: Writing Your Peace Corps Story Workshop with John Coyne 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm: Writing Your Peace Corps Story Workshop with John Coyne Venue Address: Marvin Center – Fourth Floor George Washington University 800 21st St NW Washington, DC 20052 (Later that evening we’ll be meeting again for a chat and a drink at Tonic (2036 G Street NW)