Miscellany

THE NEW YORK TIMES FEB. 5, 2014 www.nytimes.com Serving in the Peace Corps can be both challenging and rewarding. Former Peace Corps volunteers often have good stories to tell – about their experiences in the field, what they learned and how those experiences shaped their lives after their service ended. Times journalists are writing about recent Peace Corps volunteers. If you have served in the Peace Corps in the past 10 years, please tell us about your experience by answering the questions below. Your comments and contact information will not be published, but a reporter or editor from The Times may follow up with you directly to learn more about your story. If you cannot see the form below, it is also available at this website. www.nytimes.com

In the current issue of The New York Review of Books (February 20, 2014) Frank Rich takes a look at and sums up the numerous books (140 +) and TV programs about JFK on the fiftieth-anniversary commemoration of his assassination. (By the way, Rich says, there have been approximately 40,000 books written on Kennedy.) In his long essays (this is the NYreview of Books, after all) Rich writes about another new  book that tries to cast JFK as a ‘conservative’ is JFK, Conservative by Ira Stoll. Rich does battle with the book, but at once point he sums us Kennedy’s liberal bent and that brings the Peace Corps into focus. Here is the paragraph from Rich’s essay: “What most endures about Kennedy is his inspirational sanctification of public service–as conveyed by his rhetoric, by specific programs (the Peace Corps), and by the example of much of his family’s subsequent careers . . .

Peace Corps Press Release The Peace Corps Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet to Visit the University of Florida WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 5, 2014 – Peace Corps Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet will visit the University of Florida on Monday, Feb. 10 to talk with students and faculty about how Peace Corps service can give them a competitive edge in today’s global job market. She will be joined by the University’s Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Joseph Glover, and Former Dean of the University’s International Center and Professor Emeritus of Agronomy David Sammons. Peace Corps volunteers travel to the farthest corners of the world where they work toward sustainable change while gaining hands-on experience and developing the skills employers are looking for now more than ever. College graduates who have served with the Peace Corps return home with a global perspective as well as cross-cultural, leadership, community development and language skills. They give . . .

Published in San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 31, 2014 Salvatore Peter Tedesco (PC Staff Ghana, Somalia, Kenya 1962-65) (1928-2014) Sal’s parents, Anthony Tedesco and Marcella Cantalupo, were from Naples Italy. Sal was born in the North Beach area of San Francisco and his parents divorced shortly after. His stories of life and people he knew as a kid were vivid. Victoria Bakery, the old movie theater, St. Peter and Paul’s. . .  His grandmother sang and declaimed poetry during the thirties at Fugazi Hall. She took him regularly to the Cosmopolitan Opera downtown where he once appeared as one of the “ragazzi” in La Bohême. Sal remembered doing calisthenics at Fugazi Hall wearing the white uniform shorts and shirt of Mussolini’s Balilla Youth. In the forties Sal moved to El Cerrito and attended the newly built high school. The Principal and staff took him under their wing and opened up a new . . .

[In the late ’80s, I got a call from the writer Karen Schwarz. She had just signed a contract with William Morrow to write a book about the Peace Corps and her editor told her, “Start with John Coyne.” Her editor was an old friend of mine and he had already heard ‘one too many of my stories about the Peace Corps so he was happy to send Karen my way. Karen had never been in the Peace Corps. She interviewed me several times and I gave her a few names and contacts of people she should call, and off she went to write WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR COUNTRY: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE PEACE CORPS published by Morrow in 1991. It is the first and only oral history of the agency. After her book’s publication, Karen told me she had come on some interesting information about RPCV . . .

Before coffee early Tuesday morning on the Indian Reservation in Oregon where I live, I checked my email and from Boston, I heard from Murray Frank, my Peace Corps boss in Nigeria: Murray wrote: “Tom, Pete Seeger died yesterday. I thought of you when I read about it. Thanks to you, we got to know him a little.” Yes, Seeger and Hebert in Nigeria. Back in 1964 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ibadan, Nigeria, because of my role as the business and tour manager of the University of Ibadan’s new School of Drama, I was asked by the American government to handle a non-sponsored tour Seeger was making to Nigeria. The U. S. Embassy knew that beyond working with Nigerian media, I was well-versed in its traditional and popular music and dance scene. So, for about a week in January, 1964, in a tiny rusty old Austin A40 Dorset 2-door, I banged around . . .

  Peter Loan retired this month after 17 years with the agency over a 38 year span.  In those years, he spent 9 with the Africa Region, including 3 years in Zaire (DRC), and work in the Office of Program and Budget, International Operations, the Office of the Director, (Policy, Planning and Analysis) the Office of Training and Program Support, and Management. His most recent job was managing the Office of Overseas Staff Recruitment and Selection. When he wasn’t working for the agency, he was Director of International Grant Programs for Sister Cities International, taught international students at National Louis University, College of Management, and he was on the faculty of the Graduate School, USDA, where he led the International Development Seminar and also taught Swahili. With his wife, Ceola, he co-founded Brown and Loan Associates, a management and cross-cultural training firm. He has also published several books on human . . .

Did you get this postcard from the agency? The one that reads: DID YOU KNOW THE PEACE CORPS ONLY HAS EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR 1 IN 4 RPCVS? (Knowing the Peace Corps, I’m surprised it is that many addresses.) So, what the Peace Corps wants is for all of us to contact the agency and give them our email address. I think it’s a good idea. The Peace Corps also (if you say yes) will share your email with the NPCA, which I also think is a good idea. My guess is that the NPCA has only 1 in 10 addresses. So, if you haven’t (yet) received the post card, go on-line to: peacecorps.gov/rpcv/info And if you do it right away, the Peace Corps will put your name into a drawing for special prizes! Wow! What would that be? Your photograph with Acting Director Carrie Hessler-Radelet? Or Two (More) Free Weeks . . .

Okay, given that Reed Hastings was a PCV  in Swaziland from 1983-85, and was lucky enough to get static BBC radio on his short-wave, we can understanding why he might thing Binge-Viewing Television is the answer to our society. But didn’t all of us suffer some life-long weirdness from static radio while overseas? And we are still (almost) normal. I’ll admit that I’m a big fan (and secret binge-watcher) of “House of Cards” but that’s only because I’m a part-time curmudgeon and a full-time critic of our own “House of Brain-Dead Congress.” Nevertheless, I see what Reed and his buddies deep down in Silicon Valley are doing: ruining the world for the rest of us. How? I see it coming. First we get Binge-TV (thanks, Reed) and next we get retail marijuana, now Colorado, next every state of the Union. Everyone will be stoned or dumb-down by t.v. watching. Couch . . .

The Peace Corps: Well worth a cup of coffee per year by Otto Koester (Ethiopia 1968-69 & Ghana 1970) With the first 50 years of the Peace Corps behind us, it’s time for us to take stock of its original purpose and consider what still needs to be done. When President Kennedy proposed the Peace Corps in 1961, he envisioned 100,000 volunteers each year, but the maximum has been 15,000. In 2006, former President George W. Bush called for a doubling of the Peace Corps’ size, but to no avail. The current number of volunteers is just over 7,000. Montana has done its share to support Peace Corps’ effort. Relative to population, we rank seventh nationally for the number of Montanans sent overseas. Among mid-sized universities, the University of Montana is 12th, and Montana State University 16th. In 2012, Missoula as a community was second nationwide for cities its size, . . .

Marian Haley Beil (Ethiopia 1962-64) & John Coyne (Ethiopia 1962-64) & all the wonderful Bloggers and Contributors to our site wish everyone a great New Year! “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.” T. S. Eliot

As 2013 comes to a close, we at Peace Corps Response (PCR) would like to take this opportunity to say thank you. We appreciate your commitment to international service and your continued support of PCR. Whether you are a returned Volunteer or are contemplating service in 2014, we value your being a part of the ongoing international development dialogue. Over the past year, thousands of people in our host countries have benefited from the 248 PCR Volunteers who have served in high-impact assignments in over 50 countries. In addition, those returned PCR Volunteers brought their service back to America and shared their experience, and host country cultures with their communities and professional networks. This spirit of world peace, friendship and service is contagious and we look forward to spreading that message with you in the New Year. With warm regards, The Peace Corps Response team

Jack Hood Vaughn, the second director of the Peace Corps (March 1, 1966 to April 30, 1969), and the first Republican Director, was laid to his final rest at the National Cemetery at Arlington.  It was his desire to be buried at Arlington. I happened on Thursday December 19, 2013. Jack Vaughn died on October 29, 2012, at the age of 92. Like President Kennedy, Sargent Shriver, Warren Wiggins, and many of the visionaries who conceived of the Peace Corps, Jack was a combat veteran of WW II, serving in the Marine Corps. He had received citations for valor, was wounded three times, and understood why:  “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.” With the escalating war in Vietnam during his directorship, he had interceded again and again to keep PCVs free of that dismal, needless war. When the issue of war and foreign policy came up, Jack always maintained that,  “If for . . .

Concerns about Environment and Government Effectiveness Fuel RPCV Paul Clements’ (Gambia 1985-87) Congressional Campaign Last month, RPCV Paul Clements formally announced his run as a Democratic candidate for Congress in Michigan’s 6th District. Since then it’s been a whirlwind of activity for Clements, his family (including wife Aedin, who worked in the Gambia with Ireland’s aid agency, APSO), and the team of dedicated campaign staffers and volunteers he’s assembled. Campaigning takes enormous time and energy. Clements attends several fundraisers and meet-the-candidate events each week. And he recently spent two days in Washington, D.C., meeting with representatives from union, environmental, civil rights, and other national groups, seeking their support. Like most PCV’s Clements brings a global perspective to his work. He sees climate change as a threat not just to Southwest Michigan, but the world. “Climate change threatens nature as we know it … and it threatens to wreak havoc internationally, . . .

New Options for Health Insurance Coverage After Peace Corps Service [The Peace Corps posted on December 13, 2013 this news.] The Peace Corps is committed to the health of all Volunteers. Like millions of Americans, returned Peace Corps Volunteers will now have new options for high-quality, affordable health care after their service through the Affordable Care Act. Since the mid-1990s, Peace Corps has made health insurance available to returned Peace Corps Volunteers and paid the first month’s premium under a program currently called AfterCorps. AfterCorps provides limited benefit coverage intended to help provide a transition period after service. This won’t change: The Peace Corps will continue to pay for the first month of limited health insurance after Peace Corps service for returning Volunteers, at no cost to them. Following the first month of Peace Corps-paid insurance, Volunteers who leave service on or after January 1, 2014, will have the option to . . .