Miscellany

As it says!

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Review | THE 2022 WORLD CUP IN QATAR by Steve Kaffen (Russia)
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Biden’s new Peace Corps . . . The Climate Corps
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Justice Jackson working on a memoir, titled “Lovely One”
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Review | BIKE RIDING IN KABUL — not written by an RPCV
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A LEGACY OF AMERICA’S GLOBAL VOLUNTEERISM
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EVERY DAY SINCE DESENZANO by Patrick Logan (Thailand)
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The Day Bob Dylan Became BOB DYLAN
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The Coins and Currency of Modern North Macedonia
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Asylum Seeker Finds Emmett Coyne
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Malcolm X Meets PCVs in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
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“We Are Living in a Failed State” by George Packer (Togo)
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RPCV Stacy Jupiter (Gabon) receives a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award
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“Breaking U.S. immigration laws saved lives in 1975. It gets you arrested today.”
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Martin Puryear will represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale (Sierra Leone)
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PERCEPTION AND DECEPTION — Joe Lurie (Kenya)

Review | THE 2022 WORLD CUP IN QATAR by Steve Kaffen (Russia)

  The 2022 World Cup in Qatar by Steve Kaffen (Russia 1994-96) April 2023 $5.99 (Kindle) Reviewed by Sue Aiken (Ethiopia 1962-64) • This digital book regales us with all the beauty and memorable moments of the seventh World Cup the author attended in Qatar!  Striking photography and vivid descriptions tell the reader about the great soccer being played, upsets, a remarkable final, controversies , as well as the effort of a small Middle Eastern country.  Qatar is in the middle of a sprawling sand desert hosting perhaps the world’s most important sporting event! Having been a Saturday morning soccer mom for about 10 years of my life, but growing up completely unaware of the existence of soccer, this is truly an eye opening book told only  as someone with extensive knowledge, excitement and experience could tell.  Kaffen takes the reader along on his travel experiences ,teaching as he goes.  . . .

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Biden’s new Peace Corps . . . The Climate Corps

In the news —  By Maxine Joselow,  The Washington Post September 20, 2023 at 8:10 a.m. EDT     President Biden on Wednesday announced an initiative to train more than 20,000 young people in skills crucial to combating climate change, such as installinfg solar panels, restoring coastal wetlands and retrofitting homes to be more energy-efficent. 10 steps you can take to lower your carbon footprint The American Climate Corps comes as Biden seeks to win over young voters, a critical constituency, before next year’s presidential election. Polls show that climate change is a top concern for young people, who are more likely than older generations to face raging wildfires, stronger storms and rising seas in their lifetimes. The initiative resembles a proposal that was included in an early version of Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. The Civilian Climate Corps was ultimately dropped from the final version of the legislation during private negotiations last summer between Senate . . .

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Justice Jackson working on a memoir, titled “Lovely One”

  By Hillel Igalie, Assoicated Press January 5, 2023 • NEW YORK (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is working on a memoir. Jackson, the first Black woman appointed to the court, is calling the book “Lovely One.” “Mine has been an unlikely journey,” Jackson said in a statement released Thursday by Random House. “But the path was paved by courageous women and men in whose footsteps I placed my own, road warriors like my own parents, and also luminaries in the law, whose brilliance and fortitude lit my way. This memoir marries the public record of my life with what is less known. It will be a transparent accounting of what it takes to rise through the ranks of the legal profession, especially as a woman of color with an unusual name and as a mother and a wife striving to reconcile the demands of a high-profile . . .

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Review | BIKE RIDING IN KABUL — not written by an RPCV

  Bike Riding in Kabul is the story of Jamie Bowman, a woman who works as foreign aid in several post-war countries. The author’s story is a unique take on the travel memoir genre. We don’t just read countless stories of an individual eating world-class dishes and laying on the beach; we watch someone help entire countries find their own peace. Through it all, we learn about the invaluable pieces of wisdom she learned along the way. From learning how to truly help people and understanding how many of these countries found themselves in their situations, there is so much wisdom to devour. • A review published by Literary Titan  January 4,2023   Bike Riding in Kabul: The Global Adventures of a Foreign Aid Practitioner by Jamie Bowman is a MUST READ for anyone working in the international development community or seeking a career there. Her book reads like a modern-day version of . . .

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A LEGACY OF AMERICA’S GLOBAL VOLUNTEERISM

International Voluntary Services (1953–2002) by Gary Alex A Legacy Of America’s Global Volunteerism explores the history of international volunteerism through the story of International Voluntary Services, Inc. (IVS), an American 501(c)3 private voluntary organization founded in 1953 to provide volunteers for international relief and development programs. Paul Rodell (Peace Corps/Philippines 1968–71)) and 12 former IVS volunteers and academics, experienced in international volunteerism, tell the history of IVS as an organization, share insights on international service, and analyze lessons for future volunteer programs. Formed in a time of global uncertainty and change, this public/private initiative provided volunteers for 1,419 assignments in 39 countries over its 50-year existence. The foreword by Ambassador Wendy J. Chamberlin, a former IVS volunteer in Laos, reflects the appreciation most alumni have had for their opportunity to serve. Voices of individual volunteers give field-level insights on volunteer program programs and issues. The book is relevant for those . . .

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EVERY DAY SINCE DESENZANO by Patrick Logan (Thailand)

  A TALE OF GRATITUDE    In the film, It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey longs to hear the sounds of “anchor chains, plane motors, and train whistles.” These were the sounds Patrick Logan (Thailand 1984-86) also longed to hear. To his father, however, they meant separation from the things he held dear. He’d fought in Italy during WWII and had survived through luck and by writing letters almost daily to the woman he’d married just before shipping out. In contrast, his youngest son eagerly sought overseas adventure, initially as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. Once in Asia, he stayed. Following his father’s death, Patrick inherited those wartime letters, and in them he learned much about the man from whom he’d grown distant, emotionally at first and then geographically. He decided to trace the route his father had taken through Italy, guided by passages from those letters, and by books on . . .

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The Day Bob Dylan Became BOB DYLAN

  by Rowland Scherman (PC Staff 1961-64)   In June, 1963, I was working in Washington DC shooting PR pictures for the Peace Corps. That may sound mundane, but I had been doing it since the inception of the new agency, and had literally traveled the world photographing the volunteers at work in their newly adopted countries. In his inaugural speech, President Kennedy asked us what we could do for the country. And I, like thousands of others, responded. I was what one might call an “advanced amateur.” I knew what an f-stop was, and the other basics, but not a hell of a lot more. By answering JFK’s call, my chosen career was importantly enabled. I had been to a Peter, Paul and Mary concert in the area and later heard that they were to be the headliners at the Newport Folk Festival, along with Pete Seeger, Theo Bikel, and Joan Baez. That sounded as if it might . . .

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The Coins and Currency of Modern North Macedonia

Tyler Rossi (The Republic of North Macedonia 2017-20)  is currently a graduate student at Brandeis University’s Heller School of Social Policy and Management and studies Sustainable International Development and Conflict Resolution. Before graduating from American University in Washington D.C., he worked for Save the Children creating and running international development projects. Recently, Tyler returned to the US from living abroad in the Republic of North Macedonia, where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer for three years. Tyler is an avid numismatist and for over a decade has cultivated a deep interest in pre-modern and ancient coinage from around the world. He is a member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA). • By Tyler Rossi CoinWeek, December 13, 2021 Modern-day North Macedonia is a country of breathtaking natural beauty and ancient history that gained its independence in 1991 from the disintegrating Yugoslavia. A majority Slavic nation, North Macedonia has a rich monetary tradition stretching back through the socialist and royal iterations of Yugoslavia, medieval Bulgarian and Turkish empires, the Byzantines, . . .

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Asylum Seeker Finds Emmett Coyne

  Recently my cousin (who never was a PCV) wrote his story of working with Asylum Seekers to sponsor a Palestinian emigrant. His story is insightful and touching and might suggest to some of us RPCVs how we might become sponsors ourselves. JC  • MONTHS AGO I came across a program, Asylum Seekers, which seeks to place such persons with sponsors. I began the interview process to become a sponsor. The sponsor incurs financial assistance, especially for the first six months, as asylum seekers are not allowed to work for pay. Finally, I began to receive notices about potential persons who ran the gamut from Russians to Africans to South Americans, etc. Subsequently, I narrowed down my interest to some French-speaking men from West African countries. Several never materialized for various reasons. Suddenly, on Wed. night, April 21, I received a call, inquiring if I would be willing to sponsor . . .

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Malcolm X Meets PCVs in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)

  NOTE: Letter in the New York TIMES today — PCVs meet up with Malcolm X in Addis. I have no idea what PCV wrote this letter. Do you?   Letter in the New York Times October 3, 2020 Mon Ray KS Sept. 25 I am looking forward to the new book on Malcolm X. Not long before he was killed I saw him dining alone at a hotel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where I was in the Peace Corps. I introduced myself and we had a nice chat. He was surprised that I knew who he was and had read his writings in college. Occasionally he scanned the room; his notes from that period indicate he feared assassination and was paranoid about surveillance by the FBI and others. He accepted my invitation to have dinner with a group of Peace Corps Volunteers the next evening. He drank water but . . .

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“We Are Living in a Failed State” by George Packer (Togo)

    We Are Living in a Failed State The coronavirus didn’t break America. It revealed what was already broken. SPECIAL PREVIEW: JUNE 2020 ISSUE Atlantic Monthly George Packer (Togo 1982-83) Staff writer for The Atlantic This article appears in the Special Preview: June 2020 issue. • The crisis demanded a response that was swift, rational, and collective. The United States reacted instead like Pakistan or Belarus — like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering. The administration squandered two irretrievable months to prepare. From the president came willful blindness, scapegoating, boasts, and lies. From his mouthpieces, conspiracy theories and miracle cures. A few senators and corporate executives acted quickly — not to prevent the coming disaster, but to profit from it. When a government doctor tried to warn the public of the danger, the White House took the mic . . .

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RPCV Stacy Jupiter (Gabon) receives a MacArthur Foundation Genius Award

    The National Peace Corps Association announces this important award.   ” Stacy Jupiter (Gabon 1997–99) is one of 26 MacArthur Foundation Fellows for 2019, citing her efforts to save lives and coral reefs as well as build on traditional practices to figure out when, where, and how long to close off fishing areas to best manage natural resources. The honor comes with a grant totaling $625,000. Stacy directs the Wildlife Conservation Society‘s Melanesia Program Fulbright scholarship.”   Here is the information from the MacArthur Foundation. “Stacy Jupiter is a marine scientist integrating local cultural practices with field research to develop conservation solutions that protect both the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems and the well-being of communities dependent on them. Working in concert with local communities, Jupiter is establishing and applying new approaches to natural resource management based on traditional ecological knowledge and practices that take into account the livelihoods and . . .

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“Breaking U.S. immigration laws saved lives in 1975. It gets you arrested today.”

    Breaking U.S. immigration laws saved lives in 1975. It gets you arrested today by THURSTON CLARKE (Tunisia 1960) JUL 15, 2019 | 3:05 AM Op-Ed Los Angeles Times    As the Vietnam War caromed to an end, Sister Marie Therese LeBlanc, a middle-aged American nun serving at Friends of the Children of Vietnam orphanage in Saigon, signed one affidavit after another attesting to sons and daughters she never had. It was April 23, 1975, one week before the city fell to the communists. The 36 people LeBlanc claimed as her children were the adult employees of her orphanage and their families. Nevertheless, State Department officials at the evacuation processing center at Tan Son Nhut air base affixed their consular seals to her affidavits, and American airmen added the names she provided to the flight manifests of the Air Force transports flying out of Saigon. They collaborated with her because they . . .

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Martin Puryear will represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale (Sierra Leone)

Thanks for the ‘heads up’ from Gerry Schwinn (Nigeria 1963-65)   On the eve of the Venice Biennale, the artist’s shaping hand frames a view of his troubled, and troubling, homeland.   Martin Puryear, Citizen Sculptor By Holland Cotter May 3, 2019 New York Times “This moment has caught me being as much a citizen as an artist,” said the sculptor Martin Puryear (Sierra Leone 1964-66) on an afternoon in his studio in New York’s Hudson River Valley early in April. In two days he would leave for Venice to begin installing a solo exhibition at the 58th Venice Biennale in which he will officially represent the United States. Rising to that responsibility can’t be easy in an American “moment” tense with divisive politics, resurgent racism, and gun violence. Yet anyone who has followed this artist’s 50-year career, knows he is more than up to the task. Now 77, he is . . .

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PERCEPTION AND DECEPTION — Joe Lurie (Kenya)

    Joe Lurie (Kenya 1967-68) is the Executive Director Emeritus of UC Berkeley’s International House, and author of Perception and Deception: A Mind-Opening Journey Across Cultures (Nipporica Associates, 2018). C-Span just aired a book  talk in which Joe references discoveries he made while he was a PCV in Kenya that opened his eyes in profound ways, and were the seeds of his book, now in its second expanded edition.  In case the program is of interest, it’s likely to be aired again , but in case you miss it, here it is. A former director of semester and summer programs abroad for the School for International Training in France, Kenya, and Ghana, Joe lived in Europe for four years, and lectures widely for Cal Discoveries in Africa, Asia and Europe. He is fluent in French as well as Swahili. The Joe Lurie Returning Peace Corps Volunteer Gateway Fellow for entering Ph.D . . .

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