Archive - June 26, 2020

  Please read the following announcement from the NPCA website about this program.  At the end of the announcement there is a link to register. • Now is the time for some tough questions. How do we confront systemic racism as it shapes the work we do — here and around the world? And how do we ensure that our community lives out principles of equity and justice?As part of our commitment to convening‌ ‌conversations‌ ‌around‌ ‌service and‌ ‌opportunity, National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) is joining the Building Bridges Coalition and the International Volunteer Programs Association to host a dialogue about racial equity in international service. Speakers will share their experiences as Black volunteers and staff on service programs, and as organizational leaders with longstanding commitments to institutional and systemic change. Join us for this important dialogue. In the weeks ahead, NPCA is hosting a series of conversations around racial equity. Those will help shape the . . .

  HOUSE OF THE ANCIENTS & OTHER STORIES by Clifford Garstang (Korea 1976-77) Press 53 Publisher 172 pages May 2020 $17.95 (paperback)   Reviewed by Bill Preston (Thailand 1977-80) “Bad men,” wrote novelist and short story writer Jean McGarry, “make for more interesting stories.” I imagine that Clifford Garstang would be inclined to agree. You could certainly make that case for many of the male characters in his new collection, House of the Ancients & Other Stories. Such a sentiment crossed my mind more than once as I read through this strange and often disturbing collection. But hold on. What, exactly, do we mean by bad? And just who, really, is qualified to pass such judgment? Those who live in glass houses, as the saying goes, should not be quick to throw stones. Are we not, as human beings, all flawed? The twenty-three stories in House of the Ancients reflect, . . .