Archive - December 2020

  In the current issue of The New Yorker (December 7, 2020) is a short story by Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65) entitled “Dietrologia”. (DYET-troh-loh-GEE-ah). Dietrologic is a fairly recent entry in Italian vocabulary, only a few decades old. It means “behindology.” The word, which is often used with skepticism and even derision, describes the mental habits of the practicioner of this non-science, the dietrologo who regularly sees something behind events as they are presented. We call this “paranoia.” (p 58)   Paul also has a novel coming out in April entitled Under the Wave at Waimea The plot: Now in his sixties, big-wave surfer Joe Sharkey has passed his prime and is losing his “stoke.” The younger surfers around the breaks on the north shore of Oahu still call him the Shark, but his sponsors are looking elsewhere. When Joe accidentally hits and kills a man near Waimea while driving home . . .

The story behind one group’s grassroots effort to do just that   by Shanna Loga (Morocco 2006-08) An Injustice!  Sep 2020 • For many Americans, the Peace Corps is a treasured institution. It represents the idealism, generosity, and curiosity of our nation and symbolizes our spirit of humanitarianism. We imagine bright-eyed volunteers selflessly digging wells in Cameroon or teaching English in Ecuador. With its founding by JFK and its current mission of “promoting world peace and friendship,” the Peace Corps holds a special reverence in the national consciousness. Objectively, the Peace Corps is an independent US government agency and volunteer program. Peace Corps volunteers receive three months of in-country, international training before serving two-year terms abroad in sectors including agriculture, community economic development, education, environment, health, and youth development. The population of volunteers skews young, white, and female: the average age is 26, 65% are female, and 66% are white. Volunteers work alongside . . .

  A Critical Review of Wendy Melillo’s, Democracy’s Adventure Hero on a New Frontier: Bridging Language in the Ad Council’s Peace Corps Campaign, 1961-1970 published by Taylor & Francis Online by William Josephson Retired Partner, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP Founding Counsel, Peace Corps, 1961-66 Ms. Wendy Melillo’s, Democracy’s Adventure Hero to a New Frontier: Bridging Language in the Ad Council’s Peace Corps Campaign, 1961-1970, begins with the assertion that the Peace Corps “would be the only new proposal to emerge from a tight race in which the Massachusetts Senator [John F. Kennedy] won the popular vote by a slim margin.”  Yet, subsequently, she acknowledges his commitment to rethink Mutual Security military and foreign aid programs of the 1950s.  She never mentions Kennedy’s commitment to close the “missile gap.”  Although she mentions Sputnik, she does not mention his commitment to catch up to the Soviet Union in the . . .