2016 – Page 25 – Peace Corps Worldwide

Tino Calabia (Peru1963-65) Comments on "13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi"

Jan 21 2016

Most RPCVs, new Volunteers, and staff know of RPCV Christopher Stevens’ model service as a PCV and then a U.S. Ambassador until he was slain in Libya in 2012. Many may be curious to see how Hollywood would portray him. Now we know. In “13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” Stevens is, in Hollywood-speak, “a bit player.” Nonetheless, “This is a true story” declares a typed preface rolling at the film’s start. The name of Libya’s second biggest city has become an epithet of scorn meant by many to besmirch Hillary Clinton’s record as President’s Obama’s first Secretary of State. The killing of Stevens and three colleagues had fanned the partisan flames of the 2012 Presidential campaign, and surely those flames will flare up again before this year’s Presidential election is over. But little in this movie can be easily argued to derail Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The reason? “13 Hours . . . .

A mayor, a liberal lion, and a moment of tears

Jan 20 2016

Mayor Kenney (right) speaks with former U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford during the opening ceremony for the 21st annual Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service at Girard College on Jan. 18, 2016. by Maria Panaritis If you thought public office would make Philadelphia’s new boss less Jimmy and more Mayor, think again. Kenney, the former longtime City Councilman whose sleeve and heart are famously one and the same, had a moment that nearly brought him to tears the other day in front of a large crowd of onlookers. It happened at Girard College as Kenney stood on stage with a smorgasboard of other political VIPs for the 21st annual Martin Luther King Day of Service. Dignitary after dignitary approached the podium to reflect on the legacy of the slain civil rights leader. As they did, Kenney seemed thrilled to be standing next to one of his heroes, former U.S. Sen. . . .

The New Yorker Features George Packer (Togo 1982-83) Pieces From the Magazine

Jan 19 2016

A selection of stories from The New Yorker’s archive George Packer’s World In late 2008, George Packer drove around Florida, one of the places where the financial crisis began. He wanted to understand how the state had become the foreclosure capital of America, and what the “diagram of moral responsibility” looked like. It was shaped, he wrote in “The Ponzi State,” like an inverted pyramid, “with the lion’s share belonging to the banks, mortgage lenders, regulators, and politicians at the top.” The race to build more and more subdivisions-even when the people buying them clearly couldn’t afford them-was essentially a confidence game, with “everyone involved both being taken and taking someone else.” A George Packer piece, whether it is about the housing crisis or Silicon Valley, always provides readers with the rhetorical equivalent of a panoramic shot.These big-picture moments, however, are paired with intimate portraits of individual lives. In “The . . .

Harris Wofford Interview With Bill Moyers at New York Main Library

Jan 19 2016

Over 180 friends and colleagues of Harris Wofford packed the Celeste Bartos Forum of the New York Public Library last week for a conversation with Harris and Bill Moyers, and a special preview of the documentary being made about Harris’s life. Generous donations are helping with the goal of completing the film in time for Harris’s 90th birthday this April, but more support is still needed. You can contribute online here:supportwofforddoc.splashthat.com.

I Was Raped in Burkina Faso

Jan 18 2016

Jezebel is a feminist blog. This piece by RPCV Yaara Zaslow was published on the site a few days ago. It is a profound and powerful account of what happened to her in Burkina Faso. It is also a sad story of what can happen to women in the Peace Corps. I’d served in Burkina Faso in West Africa with the United States Peace Corps. I was raped, and because I did everything “right” afterwards-I talked to the Peace Corps, talked to the Embassy, completed a rape kit-I didn’t understand the nausea that came over me whenever I did anything aside from hide in my bed. Soon after, I was evacuated from the country with a canvas backpack and a change of clothes. I stayed home, in Seattle, for three months, while the Peace Corps did a full investigation. In this investigation, the Peace Corps noted the three broken locks . . .

Peggy Anderson, 77, author of bestseller NURSE, died Sunday, January 17, 2016

Jan 18 2016

Peggy Anderson (Togo 1962-64) who wrote a national best-seller about the life of a big-city hospital nurse, died Sunday, January 17, 2017. Ms. Anderson, a former Inquirer writer and copy editor, was in Penn Medicine’s hospice unit in Center City. She had been diagnosed with lung cancer nearly seven years ago. It went into remission, but returned last year and spread, said Mary Walton, a longtime friend. In 1978, Ms. Anderson achieved great success with her book Nurse: The True Story of Mary Benjamin, R.N. Ms. Anderson, whose mother was a nurse, spent two months trying to find someone who would best serve as the focus of her book. That person turned out to be Mary Fish, who was a head nurse at Pennsylvania Hospital. Fish agreed, but was skeptical that readers would care. “This book isn’t going to go anywhere,” she recalled thinking at the time. “Nobody is going to . . .

Upcoming Events for the Gearan Arts Center on HWS Campus

Jan 16 2016

On Saturday, January 23, guests will gather at the Gearan Center for a ribbon-cutting ceremony as well as dozens of dedications celebrating donors at their namesake spaces within the building. An open house for members of the greater Geneva community will be held a week later on Saturday, January. 30. EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED.

Dave Roberts (Liberia) Hiking Through Retirement

Jan 16 2016

The NYTIMES headline in the Business Section of Saturday, January 16, 2016, got my attention. “Goodbye, Golf Clubs. Hello, Hiking Boots and Kayak.” What? That would upset a hacker like me. And the first two paragraph read: They call him “Elusive,” at least on the hiking trails. And that’s pretty much where Dave Roberts spends his time these days, crisscrossing the country by foot, bike, even by kayak.” Mr. Roberts, a retired teacher and software engineer, is on a mission to navigate the United States powered only by his two legs and two arms. Hotels and lodges are out of the question; he camps out aat night and lugs 25 pounds of equipment –including his tent, sleeping bag and food–on his back. The article is focused on what people are doing in retirement, and Roberts is the first one profiled. He had first been a PCV in Liberia in the . . .

Bryn Mooser (Gambia 2001-03) Body Team 12 Nominated for Oscar Documentary

Jan 15 2016

Bryn Mooser is the Co-founder of RYOT, a media company based in Los Angeles. Mooser was Country Director for Artists for Peace and Justice (APJ) and helped build Haiti’s largest Cholera center as well as APJ’s secondary school in Port-au-Prince, which now educates 2,400 Haitian youth per year. Before working in Haiti, Bryn served in the Peace Corps in West Africa. Bryn is also an award-winning documentary film maker. His first three documentary shorts, Sun City Picture House, Baseball In The Time Of Cholera and The Rider And The Storm, premiered at TriBeCa Film Festival three years in a row. He was named one of Esquire Magazine’s “Americans of the Year” for his work in Haiti and a “Hollywood Maverick” by Details Magazine for “raising guerrilla-style docs to the level of art.” Body Team 12 In Monrovia, Liberia, Garmai Sumo is the only female member of Body Team 12, one . . .

Leaving El Salvador the First Time

Jan 15 2016

Leaving El Salvador 1980 – Peace Corps left El Salvador in the Spring of 1981 for the first time. The documents describing what was happening in El Salvador and Peace Corps were made available by the Digital National Security Archives at George Washington University. Posted by Joanne Roll on Friday, March 9th 2012 https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/leaving-el-salvador-1980-final/ The following document summarizes how events dictated the final decision: “Summary of Events Leading to the Withdrawal of Peace Corps Volunteers from El Salvador” (DNSA/GWU:Collection: El Salvador, The Making of U.S. Policy 1977-1984, Item Number: ES00332) “In early January, PC Deputy Director William Sykes and LAC Regional Director Paul Bell traveled to El Salvador to assess the situation. After much dialogue with PCVs, PC staff, American Embassy and GOES officials, the recommendation was given to Peace Corps Director Richard Celeste not to withdraw the PCVS. (My note: there is an attachment referenced describing the . . .

More on El Salvador and The Peace Corps

Jan 15 2016

Peace Corps suspends El Salvador program as violence surges Thanks to a ‘Heads Up’ from Barry Hillenbrand (Ethiopia 1963-65) By Jerry Markon January 14 at 5:14 PM Washington Post The Peace Corps has suspended its half-century-old program in El Salvador, highlighting the violence that has wracked the Central American nation and helped propel a wave of migration to the United States. In a statement, the agency begun by President John F. Kennedy said it is pulling out its 55 volunteers, who work on youth development and community economic development projects, “due to the ongoing security environment.” El Salvador has suffered a rash of gang and drug-related violence, though Peace Corps officials said no specific security incidents or threats triggered the suspension. The gang wars helped fuel a renewed surge in recent months of undocumented families with children flocking across America’s southwest border, the vast majority from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. That, in . . .

JFK Library Has Four RPCV Oral Histories Online: Listen

Jan 14 2016

One of the many hidden treasures of Peace Corps history is the RPCV Oral History Collection at the JFK Library, begun more than fifteen years ago by RPCV Robert Klein,(Ghana I). Bob interviewed members of Ghana I for his book, Being First: An Informal History of the Early Peace Corps Robert Klein (Ghana 1961-63) Wheatmark, 2010 and realized how valuable those taped interviews were. He decided to expand to interview as many RPCVs as possible, at his own expense. For years, he crisscrossed the country, interviewing RPCVs and teaching them how to interview others. The JFK Library agreed to archive the tapes. There are now APPROXIMATELY 400 individual RECORDED interviews, one to three hours long. Years of service represented go from 1961 through 2015. All RPCVs may participate. Sadly, Bob died in 2012. His partner, RPCV Phyllis Noble, (Nigeria 65-67) has continued his work.. In an email, Phyllis wrote: “I’m delighted to talk to people about . . .

Bill Moyers and Harris Wofford: A Conversation at the New York Public Library

Jan 14 2016

On Wednesday night, January 13, 2016 at the New York Public Library there was a wonderful discussion between Bill Moyers, one of the founders of the Peace Corps and later deputy director of the Peace Corps, and Harris Wofford, former ‘everything’ in the government, including being the first Peace Corps Director to Ethiopia to then U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania. Two hundred plus attended the library event to support a new documentary film being made by Jacob Finkel (jsfinkel@civicdocumentaries.org). Driving in from Kuntzville, Pennsylvania to attend were Ethiopia I (1962-64) Adrienne and Elton Katter. Among the Ethiopian RPCVs who attended the event were these Volunteers: (l-r) Margaret O’Brien Donohoe (1962-64); John Coyne (1962-64); Suzanne Wofford, Harris’ daughter, Dean of the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University. (Suzanne was ten when she went with her family to Addis Ababa); David Forster (1966-68); and Bill Donohoe (1962-64). Concetta Bencivenga (Thailand . . .

Sarge Calls JFK About CIA Trying to Place Agents in the Peace Corps

Jan 13 2016

In July 1962, in an effort to preserve an accurate record of Presidential decision-making in a highly charged atmosphere of conflicting viewpoints, strategies and tactics, John F. Kennedy installed hidden recording systems in the Oval Office and in the Cabinet Room. The result is a priceless historical archive comprising some 265 hours of taped material. JFK was elected president when Civil Rights tensions were near the boiling point, and Americans feared a nuclear war. Confronted with complex dilemmas necessitating swift and unprecedented action, President Kennedy engaged in intense discussion and debate with his cabinet members and other advisors. Now, in conjunction with the fiftieth anniversary of the Kennedy presidency, the John F. Kennedy Library and historian Ted Widmer have carefully selected the most compelling and important of these remarkable recordings for release, fully restored and re-mastered onto two 75-minute CDs for the first time. Listening In represents a uniquely unscripted, . . .

El Salvador Deemed Too Dangerous For Peace Corps, But Not For Deportees

Jan 12 2016

Thanks to a “heads up” from Tom Hebert (Nigeria 1962-64) this story from The Huffington Post El Salvador Deemed Too Dangerous For Peace Corps, But Not For Deportees The Central American country is on track to become the homicide capital of the world. Elise Foley Immigration & Politics Reporter The Huffington Post Emergency workers gather bodies after at least five people were killed, allegedly by gang members, in Ciudad Delgado on the outskirts of San Salvador, El Salvador. The Obama administration considers El Salvador too dangerous for Peace Corps volunteers, but will continue to send mothers and children with orders for deportation to the country. The Peace Corps announced Monday that it is temporarily suspending its El Salvador program “due to the ongoing security environment.” “Volunteers’ health, safety and security are the Peace Corps’ top priorities,” the agency said in a statement. “More than 2,300 Peace Corps volunteers have worked on . . .

Archive - 2016