Archive - 2018

This is an edited version of a long review appearing this Sunday, February 4, 2018 in The New York Times Book Section. JCoyne China From the Ground Up By HANNAH BEECH  Southeast Asia bureau chief of The Times. – THE ROAD TO SLEEPING DRAGON Leaming China From the Ground Up By Michael Meyer (China 1995-97) 296 pp. Bloomsbury. $28. Michael Meyer, a Minnesotan who went to China as one of the Peace Corps’ first volunteers there; and Xiaolu Guo, a writer and filmmaker who grew up in a salt-spattered Chinese fishing village, explore the meaning of home in a nation perpetually in transition. The China they describe in their memoirs no longer exists, covered by layers of concrete, glass and fiber-optic cables that have tethered even the most isolated farmer to the modern age. Still, it is the journey through heady, whiplash times that helps us understand where the nation . . .

Snopes.com  formally known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is one of the first online fact-checking websites. It is a widely known resource for validating and debunking urban legends and similar stories in American popular culture. Dan Evon from Snopes received this email from Peter Ter at the Peace Corps Office when Snopes tried to find out if Kevin McQuillan was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal.  Note: Jcoyne Dear Dan: My name is Peter Ter. I am the Certifying Officer at U.S. Peace Corps. I am writing to you this message regarding your message that you posted online. I did talk to a lady (your colleague) last week who said that she wanted to verify a former PCV. It usually takes only less than 3 minutes to verify a person’s Peace Corps service with or without a Social Security Number (SSN) Thus,  I do have more than a remedy or knowledge to . . .

I emailed Karin McQuillan several days ago asking if she wanted to reply to the comments made on our site about her blog item that appeared on American Thinker blog as well as elsewhere.  I wanted to find out if she had ETed or had been medically separated from the Peace Corps or been terminated from service by the agency. She  wrote back this note to me after Marian Beil, the publisher of our site, removed information, at Karin’s request, that listed her home address as it appeared, as public record, in two NPCA Directories. Note: Jcoyne Karin’s email to me. Thanks, John.  There are so many really nasty people on the web, I am quite concerned about having references to my personal information. (Karin is right about ‘nasty people’ just look at the tweets from the White House.) As for your questions about my experience in the Peace Corps. I . . .

  RPCV Rep. Joe Kennedy Picked To Give Democratic Response To Trump’s State Of The Union • Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (D-Mass.) has been picked to respond to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address next week. The 37-year-old three-term congressman will appear on national TV following Trump’s speech on Jan. 30 to present the Democratic Party’s response, according to The Boston Globe. Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Tom Hebert (Nigeria 1962-64) Take a moment to watch this brief video of Joe Kennedy (Dominican Republic 2004-06) speaking about RPCVs and the Peace Corps.

  Yesterday I received this email from Dan Evon of the social media site Snopes Hey John, This is Dan Evon from the fact-checking web site Snopes. I’m trying to verify that Karin McQuillan was a member of the Peace Corps and I saw that you posted about her on Peace Corps World Wide. I tried reaching out to the Peace Corps but they wouldn’t verify if McQuillan was ever a member. Thank you very much for your time, Dan Snopes has published this account:  Did a Former Peace Corps Volunteer Defend Trump’s Sh*thole Comments? An opinion piece arguing that “Trump is Right” about African countries was written by Karin McQuillan. A chain email circulated in January 2018, spreading an opinion piece which argued that President Trump was right when he reportedly categorized African countries as “shitholes” during a meeting on immigration. Although the versions of this email that we encountered . . .

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Mark Wentling ((Honduras 1967–69, Togo 1970–73; PC Staff/Togo, Gabon, Niger 1973–77) Watch Namibia’s tourism industry cash in on Trump’s diplomatic blunders

  Thanks to the ‘heads up’ from Bob Arias (Colombia 1964-66) I emailed Karen for her comments but have not heard back from her. • Peace Corps Volunteer Does 180 After Living in Africa: ‘Trump Was Right’ CONSERVATIVE TRIBUNE BY CHRIS GOLDEN JANUARY 19, 2018 AT 3:25AM   We’re just a little over halfway through the month of January, but I think we’ve pretty much established what the “covfefe” of 2018 is going to be: “s***hole countries.” It’s not even clear whether or not the president actually said those words, mind you, but it’s sparked a debate about the diversity lottery and other forms of visas for individuals from nations that wouldn’t ordinarily qualify for migration to the United States. Oh, and it’s also given the left an opportunity to vehemently declare the president a flaming racist, but they’ve also utilized taco salads for that selfsame purpose. (Seriously.) There have been plenty of . . .

Update:  As of today, January 18, 2018, Peace Corps has published its Operations Plan in the Absence of Appropriatons.  It would appear that the policy to maintain Volunteers in the field, at least in the short term, is still policy as is printed below.  Read the plan here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/files.peacecorps.gov/documents/open-government/Peace_Corps_Operations_Plan_in_the_Absence_of_Appropriations.pdf If by midnight, January 19, 2019, Congress fails to pass a budget or a Continuing Resolution to continue funding for the federal government,  then there will be a  Government Shutdown.  Peace Corps issued a plan to show how it would continue operations if there were to be a government shutdown in December of 2017.  In December, Congress avoided a government shutdown by passing a Continuing Resolution which is set to expire on January 19, 2019, at midnight. Here is the  important policy statement from the plan published November 2017. 5. POLICY A. Any lapse in funding is expected to be temporary and . . .