Miscellany

In those early days of the Peace Corps the greatest sin was leaving before one finished his or her tour. More than one person I know back in Ethiopia in the early Sixties would declare, “I don’t care what happens to me, I’m not ETing!” Now it seems to many PCVs ETing isn’t even a venial sin. The numbers of PCVs who pack it in before finishing their tour keeps climbing and no one at HQs is blinking an eye. It wasn’t always that way. In the first 22 months of the agency, 294 Volunteers did not complete their tours. Of these, 65 returned for compassionate reasons, usually family illness or death, another 37 had to resign for medical reasons. And sadly, six PCVs lost their lives–four in plane crashes, one in a jeep accident, and one as a result of illness. The total number to ET during those first 22 months for other . . .

This weekend, approximately 130 RPCVs from Ethiopia, going back to the early 1962 and the first group of PCVs, traveled back to Addis Ababa. Arriving at the International Airport, they were met by the Minister of Education and other officials of the Ethiopia government, were hosted by the American Ambassador at the Embassy and  yesterday, Monday morning, September 24, they were bussed to Jubilee Palace, Emperor Haile Selassie’s former residence, and greeted for a sit down meeting with the new President of Ethiopia, Ato Girma Wolde Giorgis. “He was not only very obviously happy to welcome us,” one RPCV wrote afterwards, “he also answered our questions at length and with aplomb.” This sort of ‘reception’ for former Volunteers returning to their host countries is not unusual. We are remembered fondly in many places in the world. But what is surprising, and gratifying, is seeing how many RPCVs continue their service to . . .

Coming home from Europe early on Friday morning, September 21, 2012, Carrie Hessler-Radelet went directly to the Peace Corps Office in lower Manhattan for an 8 a.m. meeting with the recruitment staff. Next, she had lunch and a series of afternoon meetings with New York RPCVs, then plunged into a number of weekend events with world dignitaries in the U.S. for the United Nations General Assembly. Next, Carrie grabbed a train to D.C. for her first day on the job as Acting Peace Corps Director. It is the start of a new era at PC/HQ. Hessler-Radelet brings a great personality, great skills, and significant international experience to her new role. She also comes from four generations of PCVs. And she is married to an RPCV. In fact, the day after Carrie and Steve Radelet were married, they flew to Peace Corps Training for Western Samoa. The Peace Corps has been . . .

Aaron Williams (Dominican Republic 1967-70)  left the agency today. It was his last day on the job. He resigned, as he said,  for personal and family reasons. He was the RPCV Director since August of 2009 who traveled a tremendous amount to Peace Corps countries to visit PCVs in the field and his family handled his many trips overseas without complaint.  Aaron came into the agency at a difficult time, and has  (in my opinion) dealt with a number of  White House political appointees who were not RPCVs and did not get what it meant to be a PCV. He overcame their shortcomings and enhanced the Peace Corps. Now he deserves to focus his long and outstanding international career in a new direction. Wherever Aaron went as Director to RPCV reunions  the reports were always positive. RPCVs across the country emailed me to say, “he’s a good guy.” As we know from RPCVS that is high praise.  . . .

[This is from http://www.eurasianet.org Written ‘Guljemal,’ a pseudonym for the writer, a Turkmen citizen. Editor note.] Turkmenistan: Reflections on the Demise of the Peace Corps September 19, 2012 – 4:12pm, by Guljemal As a young Turkmen woman who was deeply influenced by interaction with Peace Corps volunteers in the 1990s, I was filled with a wide spectrum of emotions upon hearing about the Peace Corps’ departure from Turkmenistan. Everyone who followed developments in the country suspected that the Peace Corps’ days there were numbered. To some, it was strange that the government of Turkmenistan dragged it out for so long. Even so, the late August announcement was sobering. Reflecting on the Peace Corps’ legacy in Turkmenistan, some questions popped into my head: How effective was it in promoting democratization? How great a loss is its departure for the Turkmen people? How much did and could it achieve in the country . . .

Diplomats, armed with handshakes and briefcases, face uncertainty abroad 5:50 PM, Sep 12, 2012   |   Written by Robert Marchant  JOURNAL NEWS (Westchester, NY)       In this photo taken Monday, April 11, 2011, then U.S. envoy Chris Stevens takes a coffee before attending meetings at the Tibesty Hotel where an African Union delegation was meeting with opposition leaders in Benghazi, Libya. Libyan officials say the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans have been killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi by protesters angry over a film that ridiculed Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) / AP They carry briefcases, not weapons, and seek to make peace, not war. But dangers from terrorism and other hazards can make the job that diplomats, United Nations personnel, Peace Corps volunteers and other foreign affairs professionals a dangerous one. Ambassador Chris Stevens, a former Peace Corps . . .

Back in 1964-65, in those golden years of the agency when PCVs were all given book lockers, Jack Prebis (Ethiopia 1962-64) was responsible for complying several editions of  the books selected for the lockers. Jack worked at HQ from the fall of 1964 to the late summer of 1965 so he would have been in charge of, I think, the third and fourth versions. After reading the blogs about Rand and Ryan on the site today, Jack emailed me with this small piece of early Peace Corps trivia. Atlas Shrugged was included in the first booklocker given to PCVs but then the Peace Corps banned it from future collections after a Volunteer read the novel and invoking Rand message decided to ET.   “I was specifically told not to include Rand in any future lockers,” Jack writes. “And I got the message.” The Peace Corps had the last word. p.s. I wonder…. Do you think that young PCV who ETed was Paul Ryan?  Nah!

[Below is an article published on informationclearinghouse.info that an RPCV was kind enough to forward to me. It is written by Uri Avnery leader of Israeli peace movement-Gush Shalom. The article is interesting and informative about Ayn Rand and her early years!] The Fountainhead: Ayn Rand and Paul Ryan by Uri Avnery I was not interested in Paul Ryan, the man about to be nominated by the Republican party for the office of vice-president, until the name Ayn Rand popped up. Ayn Rand, it was said, was one of the main inspirations for his particular philosophy. Since Ryan is being represented not as an ordinary, run-of-the-mill politician, like Mitt Romney, but as a profound political and economic thinker, the inspiration deserves some scrutiny. Like most people in this country, Ayn Rand first entered my life as the author of The Fountainhead, a novel that came out four years before the birth . . .

J. Christopher Stevens (Morocco 1983-85) our Ambassador to Libya, was killed yesterday during an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Stevens, who had been in  Libya only since May, died as he and a group of embassy employees went to the consulate in Eastern Libya to try to evacuate staff. Stevens, a career diplomat, was 52 years old. Secretary of State Clinton said this morning, “I had the privilege of swearing in Chris for his post in Libya only a few months ago. He spoke eloquently about his passion for service, for diplomacy and for the Libyan people. This assignment was only the latest in his more than two decades of dedication to advancing closer ties with the people of the Middle East and North Africa which began as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco. As the conflict in Libya unfolded, Chris was one of the first Americans . . .

I remember when Atlas Shrugged was published in 1957. In the  college dorm of my Jesuit University (St. Louis University) the book was passed about by all the business majors who decided the novel was better than the bible (not that Catholics ever read the Bible!). I attempted to read the book but couldn’t make it beyond the first page. Talk about ‘gag me with a spoon.’ I recently read about the novel (again) in a short and entertaining piece written by Henry Meininger,  the publisher and editor (of all things!) The Berkshire Home&Style.  This is a free give-away publication in western Massachusetts, a  magazine “of home and good living”…I kid you not! Writing about Atlas Shrugged in his magazine shows you where Henry is coming from. With all the talk by Paul Ryan, who made the novel required reading for his Congressional staff, I picked up the 1,168 page novel over the weekend and . . .

Yesterday, September 9, 2012, 20 PCVs arrived in Katmandu, the first Volunteers to Nepal in eight years. The PCVs, after Training, will work in food security, sanitation and in health projects. The Peace Corps  withdrew Volunteers  in 2004 citing security concerns as Maoist rebels fought government troops.The Maoists joined the peace process in ’06, giving up their armed revolt. The Maoists’ deputy leader Baburam Bhattarai now leads a coalition government. The US removed the Maoists from its list of terrorist groups last week.

Laurette Bennhold-Samaan (PC/HQ Cross-Cultural Specialist 1994-01) now works for an international consulting company called Aperian Global. She is asking for the help of RPCVs in developing content for a half dozen African countries with an unique  ‘web tool’ that provides extensive knowledge on how to conduct business effectively in countries around the world. What this ‘web tool’ does is to help people understand and work better in new cultures, and work effectively with people of different backgrounds. Today, GlobeSmart has detailed information on 66 countries. It is being used by more than 400,000 people working for 100 international organizations. (If you’d like to see a demonstration of GlobeSmart, check out https://www.aperianglobal.com/login/). Now Aperian Global is looking to increase their countries in Africa. They develop profiles by  interviewing host country nationals, and people-like you!–who have worked in these countries. Laurette, who I worked with at the agency, has asked me to let . . .

Tony D’Souza (Ivory Coast 2000-02; Madagascar 2002-03) spent the  summer writing about the $400 million “Mini-Madoff,” and the wife left behind. The 6,000 word piece is the feature of the September Sarasota Magazine. Eyes Wide Shut Peg Nadel-and others who benefited from her husband Art Nadel’s Ponzi scheme-say they never knew what he was doing. But did they just refuse to see the truth? Award-winning journalist Tony D’Souza finds the answer may lie in a mysterious black box at the heart of the crime. On a quiet afternoon in June, Peg Nadel, 76, paces the kitchen of her east Sarasota home, suffering through a debt collection call. “My friend,” she sighs into the phone, “my status has been in the trash. I can’t make any monthly payments. I struggle just to live. Hopefully in a month things will change.” In a month, a judge will decide whether Nadel-who has filed . . .

We are all aware of the recent tragedies that have resulted in missteps and misadventures for the Peace Corps agency and PCVs. Those missteps got me thinking of what were the first incidents that attracted press attention and had naysayers declaring, “See, I told you so!” I found three such incidents within the first year, 1961. The first involved a Peace Corps Trainee, Charles Kamen, who allegedly applauded the House Un-American Activities film “Operation Abolition” in the wrong place while attending a Rotary Club meeting in Miami, Florida. Extraordinary pressures were brought to bear on the agency to summarily drop Kamen from Training. Shriver, however, decided to keep him in Training and permit him to be evaluated on the basis of all the facts in the same manner as other Trainees. What Shriver was trying to show was that the Peace Corps would not react to pressures or pressure groups in the determination of who should . . .

By Tim Rogers, GlobalPost (Credit: GlobalPost/Tim Rogers) This article originally appeared on GlobalPost. GRANADA, Nicaragua – A US family that has spent the past 23 months on an odyssey through the treacherous terrain of Nicaragua’s legal system hopes the adventure will end soon, with Jason Puracal’s safe return home to Tacoma, Washington. Puracal, 35, a former US Peace Corps volunteer and beachfront realtor in Nicaragua, could be acquitted by an appeals court by the end of this week. That would conclude nearly two years in jail on what his family, friends and international supporters claim are false charges of drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime. But if appellate judges uphold the original ruling, the cocktail of crime convictions will keep the American behind bars in Nicaragua for 22 years. Puracal, who has a Nicaraguan wife and a 5-year-old son, was arrested inside his home in the beach town of . . .