Peace Corps "traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. From that inspiration grew an agency of the federal government devoted to world peace and friendship.
"Since that time, more than 187,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have been invited by 139 host countries to work on issues ranging from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation.
"Today's Peace Corps is more vital than ever, working in emerging and essential areas such as information technology and business development, and committing more than 1,000 new Volunteers as a part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Peace Corps Volunteers continue to help countless individuals who want to build a better life for themselves, their children, and their communities." [1]
Kevin Lowther writing in 2005 notes that: "The Peace Corps, lest we forget, was spawned by the US cold war desire to compete with the Soviet bloc for influence in the third world. The Peace Corps quickly transcended its more ideological origins, but at its core it was a battle for hearts and minds. The more than 175,000 volunteers who've served since 1961 have made millions of friends for America - friends we dearly need in an increasingly dangerous, conflicted world." [2]
Writing in 1974, the North American Congress on Latin America notes that:
"The Peace Corps is a perfect structure for the CIA. It provides a point of contact with the working class which is so necessary for information gathering. And, because of the Peace Corps structure, the CIA does not have to control it in order to use it successfully. The Peace Corps entered Latin America as the "person-to-person" of the Alliance for Progress. Working out of the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, the first head of the Peace Corps in Chile was Nathaniel Davis, promoted to Ambassador by the time of the September 1973 coup. Under the skillful guidance of Davis, many of the youthful volunteers headed straight for the poblaciones which housed the poorest sectors of the Chilean working class and unemployed. Fresh out of Swarthmore, Bennington and Berkeley, the volunteers invaded the poblaciones, lived with the people and came to know them -- politically and socially. They worked with them, observed their customs, their way of life, their traditions. And then they drew up work reports describing their experiences.
"It was not necessary to have many agents in the Peace Corps -- just in the right places and with access to all the information which was generated. Unknowingly, thousands of U.S. youths, most thinking that they were helping the Chileans, were instead gathering data for the now undercover Project Camelot.
"Those agents in the Peace Corps who were conscious of their role had several tasks. As they mingled with the people, they were identifying future leftist leaders as well as those right-wingers who in the future would work for U.S. interests. They were assessing consciousness, evaluating reactions to reforms. And they were selecting and training future agents. It was at this point that Michael Townley, Peace Corpsman in the sixties, was recruited to enter the Agency. Townley returned to Chile in 1970 as one of the agency's closest contacts with Patria y Libertad.
"Finally, the Peace Corps was used as a front to get paramilitary equipment into the country. Ellis Carrasco, who succeeded Davis as head of the Peace Corps, was himself accused of gun-running. Later, the U.S. Army donated and installed radio receivers in all Peace Corps regional offices to facilitate communications. These same receivers were used during the coup to facilitate coordination of the Junta's bloody activities." [5]
In 1996, CNN reported that:
"Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Georgia, who was director of the Peace Corps during the Bush administration, urged the committee to ban intelligence recruitment of Peace Corps volunteers.
""It would be, in my judgment, exceedingly dangerous for our volunteers to be included in a context in which they may be representatives of the CIA," Coverdell said.
"Several senior senators think the CIA should have the right to recruit outsiders when there's an extraordinary threat." [6]
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Peace_Corps
MORE AMERICAN SPOOKS IN INDONESIA?
Aaron S Williams, boss of the Peace Corps.
"The CIA ... has its agents under the coverage of ... US AID, the Peace Corps, Caritas and CARE..." (The empire and the CIA against Latin America (First part) [Voltaire])
Reportedly, the Peace Corps is a front for the CIA. (ABC News)
On 16 November 2009, we learn that Indonesia has decided to reactivate the Peace Corps program. (US welcomes Indonesia's decision to reactivate Peace Corps program)
The Peace Corps operated in Indonesia in 1963-65.
That was the time when the CIA was organising the toppling of Indonesia's President Sukarno, so that the Indonesian military could take over.In 1965, the US and UK toppled the first president of Indonesia because he was not prepared to be an American puppet.
"In four months, five times as manypeople died in Indonesia as in Vietnam in twelve years."- Bertrand Russell, 1966. (CIA Compiled Indonesian Death Lists in 1965 / genocide in paradise )
In 1998, the US reportedly toppled the second president of Indonesia because he was not giving enough contracts to Americans and he was becoming too independent minded. In 2009, the US may be sending Indonesia's President Yudhoyono a message, in the form of hotel bombs?
America's Heritage Foundation wants the Pentagon to have yet more influence in Indonesia.
According to the Heritage Foundation, "the US should continue with its counterterrorism assistance, continue to build closer military-to-military relations, help with education reform and economic development and move expeditiously to sign the comprehensive partnership agreement with Indonesia proposed earlier this year." (Resilient Indonesia)
According to the Heritage Foundation, Indonesia is of major importance to the US.
"It is the most important country in Southeast Asia by size, strategic location, and democratic values."The good sense behind forging a closer US-Indonesia relationship is the same today as it was yesterday.
"If anything, the terrorist attacks should only strengthen American and Indonesian resolve to fully realize the enormous potential in their relationship." According to Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II by William Blum (Indonesia 1957-1958)
"In the early months of 1958, rebellion began to break out in one part of the Indonesian island chain, then another.
"CIA pilots took to the air to carry out bombing and strafing missions in support of the rebels.
"In Washington, Col. Alex Kawilarung, the Indonesian military attache, was persuaded by the Agency to "defect".
"He soon showed up in Indonesia to take charge of the rebel forces...
"Sukarno later claimed that on a Sunday morning in April, a plane bombed a ship in the harbor of the island of Ambon - all those aboard losing their lives - as well as hitting a church, which demolished the building and killed everyone inside.
"He stated that 700 casualties had resulted from this single run.
"On 15 May, a CIA plane bombed the Ambon marketplace, killing a large number of civilians on their way to church on Ascension Thursday...
"Three days later, during another bombing run over Ambon, a CIA pilot, Allen Lawrence Pope, was shot down and captured.
"Thirty years old, from Perrine, Florida, Pope had flown ... in Korea for the Air Force...
"He was to spend four years as a prisoner in Indonesia before Sukarno acceded to a request from Robert Kennedy for his release.
"Pope was captured carrying a set of incriminating documents, including those which established him as a pilot for the US Air Force and the CIA airline CAT...
"On 27 May the pilot and his documents were presented to the world at a news conference, thus contradicting several recent statements by high American officials.Reportedly, The USA has used militant Moslems in Russia, China, India & Indonesia.
Reportedly, the CIA likes to make life difficult for countries that are potential rivals, such as Russia, China, Iran, Turkey and Indonesia.
Reportedly the CIA likes to promote militant Islam.
Russia has between 19 million and 22 million Muslims. China has some 20 million Muslims. These Muslims can be stirred up.In The Age, (We must not get back in bed with Kopassus - theage.com.au), Dr Damien Kingsbury, head of philosophical, political and international studies at Deakin University, wrote about Moslem militants in Indonesia and their links to the military.
1. Komando Jihad, which became Jemaah Islamiah - was set up by (American trained) Indonesian generals.
Dr Kingsbury wrote: "Kopassus (Indonesian special forces)... has engaged in... hostage rescue missions. The first was in 1981, when a Garuda aircraft was hijacked.... Kopassus... set up the Islamic organisation Komando Jihad that hijacked the plane in 1981 and which has since emerged as Jemaah Islamiah."
2. Laskar Jihad - was set up by (American trained) generals.
Jakarta human-rights activist Bonar Naipospos told Asia Times Online:
"General Suparman is one of the generals who was behind the extremist Jihad groups. He set up militias composed of gangsters and religious fanatics to counter student demonstrations in 1998. One of these militias, Pram Swarkasa, became the embryo of Laskar Jihad." (Asia Times We must not get back in bed with Kopassus - theage.com.au)We should also note that:
3. Bali bomb 'mastermind' Al Faruq - 'worked for the CIA.'
Former Indonesian State Intelligence Coordinating Board (BAKIN) chief A.C. Manulang was quoted by Tempo magazine as suggesting that Al-Farouq was a CIA-recruited agent.
According to a news story in the Sydney Morning Herald, November 2, 2002:
"Some time around the 30 October 2002, senior officers in the Indonesian military HQ gave a piece of information to a military attache from a Western embassy in Indonesia -the source of explosive used in the October 12 bombing in Bali was the head of the counter-terrorism unit with the army's special forces."
The father-in-law of the officer concerned is Hendropriyono, Indonesia's spy chief.
Kuwaiti citizen Omar Al Faruq was arrested in Bogor on June 5, 2002 and handed over to US authorities. Al Faruq was able to escape from custody.
The airline manifest of Garuda airlines shows that at least two generals from Jakarta visited Bali three days before the bombings and that they returned to Jakarta one day before the Sari Club was blown up. This was confirmed by armed forces chief General Sutarto, who claimed that General Djaja Suparman was on vacation, while General Ryamizard Riyacudu, chief of staff, was said to have gone to Bali for health reasons. (Jakarta Post)
4. Islamic guerrillas in the 1960s - were supported by Britain's MI6
The following is from The Independent (UK):
"Cabinet papers show that British spies, including MI6, supported Islamic guerrillas in order to destabilise Sukarno." (Revealed: Healey admits role in British dirty tricks campaign to overthrow Indonesia's President Sukarno, By Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, The Independent - 16 April 2000) The Secret State: MI5 (The Secret State: MI5 (Home Office/MoD), The Security Service and ...)
The following is taken from The British, Muslim Terrorism and September 11
"Prior to World War II British Intelligence cultivated ties with the (Muslim) Brotherhood through agent Freya Stark, the British adventurer and writer (A Brutal Friendship - The West and the Arab Elite, Said K. Aburish, 1997) ... The Muslim Brotherhood spread throughout the Muslim world and has evolved into something like a Muslim equivalent of the West's Masonic brotherhood. It became one of the first Islamic Fundamentalist terror organizations...
"According to CIA agent Miles Copeland, the Americans began looking for a Muslim Billy Graham around 1955... When finding or creating a Muslim Billy Graham proved elusive, the CIA began to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim mass organization founded in Egypt but with followers throughout the Arab Middle East... This signalled the beginning of an alliance between the traditional regimes and mass Islamic movements against Nasser and other secular forces." (A Brutal Friendship - The West and the Arab Elite)
The CIA was following the example of British Intelligence and sought to use Islam to further its goals. They wanted to find a charismatic religious leader that they could promote and control and they began to cooperate with groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. With the rise of Nasser the Brotherhood was also courted more seriously by the pro-Western Arab regimes of Saudi Arabia and Jordan. They needed all the popular support that they could muster against the rise of Nasser-inspired Arab nationalism to keep their regimes intact.
The Muslim Brotherhood was an obvious ally against Nasser, because he had abolished it from Egypt after it was involved in a failed assassination attempt on his life in 1954. The Brotherhood rejected Nasser's policy that, for the most part, kept religion out of politics. Officially the Brotherhood was an outlawed organization, but it remained influential and active within Egypt working against the secular regime, often hand-in-hand with British Intelligence. In June of 1955 MI6 was already approaching the Brotherhood in Syria to agitate against the new government that showed strong left-wing tendencies and a desire to merge with Egypt. The Brotherhood became an even more important asset after Nasser announced the Egyptian takeover of the Suez...
In Syria, in 1982, there was a major conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian government at the city of Hamma that resulted in 20,000 casualties. In the aftermath Syria's President Asad revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood forces were armed with US-made equipment...
Israel, forever inclined to back divisive movements, surfaced as another supporter of Islam and began to fund the Muslim Brotherhood and the Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas.
The most noteworthy success of the Islamic movement during this time was of course the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the installation of the Ayatollah Khomeini as the Islamic dictator. British Intelligence had used their contacts with Iran's mullahs and ayatollahs to help overthrow Mossadegh and install the Shah back in 1953, and these contacts were maintained and used again to overthrow the Shah when his regime fell out of favor."
http://indo-nesia.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-american-spooks-in-indonesia.html
On 6/14/10, Javed Ahmad <javedahmad@yahoo.com> wrote:
They will probably prepare the ground work for Joy to be the next PM in Bangladesh who is an American citizen by marriage. Tarik is out of the game with a broken backbone.
Does Bangladesh constitution permit a dual citizen to hold PM office? Well, what does it matter, Obama is not a born US citizen loyal to Israel who is the President of USA despite their constitutional barring.
--- On Mon, 6/14/10, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Move under way to re-launch US Peace Corps
To:
Date: Monday, June 14, 2010, 2:06 AM
While the Peace Corps writers from Africa have produced many memoirs from their experiences overseas, RPCV writers from Latin America are sadly far behind.
Nevertheless, some great memoirs were written by Latin American Vols. While I have to eliminate Green Fires: Assault on Eden, A Novel of the Ecuadorian Rain-Forest, written by Marnie Mueller (Ecuador 1963-65), I would have to say there is a lot of memories of her tour are in this novel. Another very fine book, and a memoir, and one of the very first books on the Peace Corps by PCVs, was The Barrios of Manta: A Personal Account of the Peace Corps in Ecuador published in 1965 and written by Rhoda & Earle Brooke (Ecuador 1962-64). Early PCV, Paul Cowen (Ecuador 1966-67), did write his memoir The Making Of An Un-American: A Dialogue with Experience. It was published in 1970. There is some claim to being a Peace Corps Memoir in Craig Carozzi (Colombia 1978-80) Wedding of the Waters, published in '88. It is his story of traveling overland from Bogota to Manaus during his Peace Corps years.
Tom Scanlon (Chile 1961-63) wrote Waiting for the Snow: The Peace Corps Papers of a Charter Volunteer that he self-published in 1997. There is a famous story about Scanlon (and I'll tell it again) that President Kennedy told summer interns in June of 1962 when he welcomed these college kids to Washington, D.C..
Kennedy told the Interns, "Recently I heard a story of a young Peace Corpsman named Tom Scanlon, who is working in Chile. He works in a village about forty miles from an Indian village which prides itself on being Communist. The village is up a long, winding road which Scanlon had taken on many occasions to see the chief. Each time the chief avoided seeing him. Finally he saw him and said, "You are not going to talk us out of being Communists." Scanlon said, "I am not trying to do that, only to talk to you about how I can help." The chief looked at him and replied, "In a fe weeks the snow will come. Then you will have to park your jeep twenty miles from her and come through five feet of snow on foot. the Communists are willing to do that. Are you?" When a friend [Father Theodore Hesburgh] saw Scanlon recently and asked him what he was doing, he said, "I am waiting for snow."
More recently we have Barbara Joe (Honduras 2000-03) book Triumph & Hope: Golden Years With the Peace Corps in Honduras that won our first Peace Corps Writers Memoir Award. Also published recently is another self-published account of life in the Peace Corps by Paul Arfin (Colombia 1963-65) Portrait of a Peace Corps Gringo. This story of Paul's life covers many years before and after his two brief years in Colombia, so the title is a bit misleading.
Finally, we return, as we always do when talking of Peace Corps writers in Latin America, to Moritz Thomsen (Ecuador 1965-67) and his Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle, that was published in 1969 and is still available from the University of Washington Press. This was the first of three books that Thomsen wrote that focused on Latin America. The Farm on the River of Emeralds published by Random House came out in 1978, and The Saddest Pleasure: A Journey on Two Rivers was published in '91.
Thomsen went into the Peace Corps at the age of 44. He had been working as a farmer in California at the time. He came from a wealthy Seattle, Washington family. His father was a multi-millionaire, a man who Thomsen did not like. During WW II, Thomsen was a bombardier on a B-17 Flying Fortress. He writes about his relationship with his father, and World War II, in My Two Wars published posthumously in 1998 by Steerforth Press. (There is still, I'm told, another book waiting to be published entitled, Bad News From the Black Coast.)
Tom Miller, a writer himself, who got to know Thomsen through his own writings, said Moritz "was one of the great American expatriate writers of the twentieth century." Indeed he was, and he left us, and the world, the best memoir of Peace Corps life in Latin America, Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle.
Thomsen died in Ecuador in 1991 of cholera, but his books live on for every new generaton of Peace Corps Volunteers to Latin America.
http://peacecorpsworldwide.org/pc-writers/2009/10/18/and-the-winner-of-the-best-memoir-from-latin-america-is/16 Comments So Far»
Joey on 19/10/2009 in 11:33I would like to add two more books to the list of Latin American Peace Corps memoirs and a novel, which I hope is not autobiographical. These are good books, none would compete with "Living Poor," but all deserve to be noted.
"Mud Stoves and Strawberry Jam" by Sally Morrissey, (Cortez, Colo: Roy Paul Press c. 1994) is the memoir of a retired nurse and journalist who served two years in Guatemala.
"Safe House: Compelling Memoris of the Only CIA Spy to seek asylum in Russia," by Edward Lee Howard. Howard was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Colombia in the mid-sixties. He writes of this time and in so doing shed s some light on the mythology which has Peace Corps responsible for bringing cocaine cultivation and markieting to Colombia.
That myth was the focus of a very popular Colombia movie, "El Rey." In his book, Howard describes living in a house overlooking Cali. One of his roommates is a PCV who is heavily into drug use. The other roommate is a Colombia lawyer. The lawyer specialized in helping small scale cocaine producers when they ran afoul of the law.
Evidently, there was a steady stream of these Colombians to the house, which may have helped give rise to the myth. Howard joined the CIA after the legal interval between Peace Corps service and CIA
employment.The final book I would like to add to the list is "Ultimate Excursions," by Alan Gottlieb (RPCV Ecuador). This is a first novel which deals with Peace Corps, drugs, post tramatic stress and conspiracy plots.
dsearles on 19/10/2009 in 13:15I didn't know there was an escape clause which permitted RPCVs or staff to join the CIA after a period of time (5 years?). That sounds like a bad idea to me! I sure hope it doesn't work the other way round (i.e., ex-CIA folks into Peace Corps).
Joey on 19/10/2009 in 14:32The website of record is peacecorpsonline.org. If you google CIA or
Edward Lee Howard on that site, you should get at least one book review outlining his life. i read the book many years ago and he does describe his Peace Corps service and then his subsequent employment with the CIA. I have never seen it disputed.I believe that there are many RPCVs working for the CIA. I don't believe it goes the other way around.
Please post if you find out anything which would make this not possible.
John Coyne on 19/10/2009 in 15:37Having run the New York Regional Office for 5 years in the mid-90s, I know that an applicant for Volunteer service or employment who was EVER working for the CIA is ineligible to be a PCV or an employee.
Johndsearles on 19/10/2009 in 15:42WOW!! Can this (RPCVs working at CIA) be true? If so I'll have to get down off my high horse when challenged about Peace Corps and intelligence activities and revert to weaseling my way out by saying the answer is a bit complicated. The Peace Corps as training ground for CIA! Horrors!
Joey on 19/10/2009 in 17:29Your statement, John, that CIA employment is an absolute barrier to working for the Peace Corps or serving as a Volunteer is what I had always understood. Thank you for restating it.
I believe that the issue here is: Can a RPCV obtain employment with the CIA if a certain number of years separates the Peace Corps service and the CIA employment? Does anyone have a legal source? It is not my intent to contribute to confusion on this issue.
Edward Lee Howard certainly talks about his Peace Corps service in his book, the book review cited mentions it again. I took it at face value.
Edward Lee Howard is deceased, I believe.John Coyne on 20/10/2009 in 08:22Joey–to clear up any misunderstanding about the agency and the CIA. The official position is that five years AFTER working for Peace Corps or being a PCV, someone may apply to CIA for a position.
JohnJoey on 20/10/2009 in 08:37Thank you so much. I really appreciate that clarification.
dsearles on 20/10/2009 in 10:41Does any one have an idea of how common it is for RPCVs to join the CIA? I looked at the CIA recruitment page and it sets a high priority on things like a college degree, overseas travel, language capability, knowledge of other cultures, flexibility, etc. Guess who the computer would select for a second look?
Joey on 20/10/2009 in 11:46I would like to make a personal request, David. I am uneasy with a lot of discussion about CIA; because, it can be so easily be misunderstood. Could we drop this discussion, please.
I did have something else I wanted to discuss with you. Your observation of the woman in Afghanistan who gave her child a pacifier. I would love to know what you think was happening in that scenario. I went back in time to what I think my reaction would have been, in 1965. I think my first thought would have been: "Where in the world did she get that?" Then, I would have thought something along the lines that here was a woman who was open to change, who may even have been a candidate for a "change agent" in her community; and by not immediately offering the breast to her child, which would have been very traditional, she was perhaps training the chlld in "delayed gradification" which is an essential cultural trait to cultivate in order to begin to build a middle clase. (All of this, of course, with apologies for my spelling.)
dsearles on 20/10/2009 in 13:30My thought at the moment (1974) was that the world is a hell of a lot smaller than I would have imagined. I wondered how in the world she got it. From one of the W.T.s making the rounds in those days; from the local medical clinic; from a Peace Corps volunteer; where? I also thought that life's outward trappings (e.g., living in a cave) masked a great deal of 'sameness' in the human condition. The net result was that she lost - for me - some of her 'foreigness.' I have used the story countless times to underline my belief that we human beings have some commonalities we can build on.
You may be right in imagining her as a real or potential 'change agent.' The fact that she looked us in the eye indicates that she was not overly bound by the local traditions that kept women out of sight. The fact that she was bare-faced (as opposed to veiled) suggests the same. We will never know, but I'd like to join you in thinking of her as the one that brought schools, co-ops, small business enterprises, electricity, etc. to this far-away outpost.
Damn reality! I was just reminded that she lives (or lived) in a country that has had hardly a moment's peace in the 35 years since we saw each other. She and the baby may well not have survived, just as the huge Buddah statues that were once in her back yard haven't survived.
Joey on 21/10/2009 in 07:51Thank you, David. Your observation shows an empathy that I didn't have back in 1965.
That woman is iconic because the mother/child relationship is so basic and how change, so much of it promoted by Peace Corps, impacted that relationship is critical to understanding the moral responsibility of intervention as well as the history of Peace Corps, (IMHO, as the kids would say)!My reaction, today, to that woman is totally different than what I remember it would have been in 1965. "We" (being modern medicine) have learned so much more about the importance of that relationship. Today, when I read your description, my first thought was: The child is hungry and the mother has no food for him/her. That makes my 1965 sophomoric comment about "delayed gratification" so much more cruel. (I didn't use those comments with the women with whom I worked, but my site reports were full of such nonsense).
Today, my other thoughts were: The suckling reflex is critical to the production of breast milk and may even have a contraceptive effect allowing mothers to space their children. (Dr. Nancie Gonzalez first documented this in her study of Highland Indians in Guatemala, reported in the American Anthropologist in 1966). Had the mother been encouraged to stop nursing and use infant formula and was she now unable to get the formula and now had no breast milk because the use of formula had interrupted the production of milk? Had she become pregnant because she lost the contraceptive effect afforded by nursing and was she in the process of weaning the child. Weaning is one of the most dangerous times for young children in a subsistence culture because the mother may not have food to offer. Was the mother educated about all of this when she decided to use the pacifier? Of course, it may have been that the mother and child were both healthy, and had adequate food and the woman also had access to modern birth control. I still think that she would be identified as a "change agent." But, I fear that she was an example of intervention that proved dangerous to both mother and child. My Peace Corps cohorts and were an essential part of that intervention.
I was assigned to Public Health clinic and supervised by a Colombian doctor. We followed what was thought to be best practices of the day. We discouraged breast feeding, encouraged early introduction of solid food, and introduced the use of powdered CARE milk (to a lactose intolerant population) and a food supplement called Incaperina.
Later, it became apparent that the use of formula was toxic in the developing countries. Now, Peace Corps promotes breastfeeding without supplementation for six months. This practice was precisely the traditional practice in my site, before we intervened.I believe it is critically important and morally imperative that Peace Corps document what we are doing, provide a systematic, objective, and technically competent, ongoing review of projects to identify as soon as possible, the unforeseen consequences.
I agree with you about the importance of the incountry administrative staff. I think this kind of review should be the responsibility of that staff. Only the incountry staff can provide continuity for projects. Volunteers' short-term tenure makes it impossible for them to do this kind of essential follow up. Nor is there currently anyplace were RPCVs can bring information or insight gained after service. I would welcome your thoughts. I know I am using your comments to piggyback with my own. I hope that you feel that is appropriate because I really I appreciate the opportunity.
Joey on 21/10/2009 in 07:54Correction: The sentence should read: My Peace Corps cohorts and I were an essential part of that intervention.
Reilly Ridgell on 31/10/2009 in 16:53John: OK, you've done Africa and Latin America. How about Europe, Asia, and the Pacific? What are the best PC memoir books for those regions?
As the author of Portrait of a Peace Corps Gringo, I want to provide a little clarity to the impression given that my book misleads folks with the title.
Some seem to feel that, since (just) 91 of 365 pages discuss my work in Colombia during to early 1960s, that the book isn't worth reading.
I believe that the title is accurate and honest since the book focuses on the impact PC had on the rest of my life..
JFK urged us to dedicate our lives to public service. A story about someone who lived such a life may be inspiring to some and reflective to others.
The book has been very favorably reviewed by BookReview.com. Among the reviewer's comments: "…the tile perfectly illustrates the duality of (the book's) purpose. Yes, the book is about being in the Peace Corps, and learning from the experience, but it is also a 'portrait.' It is as much about Arfin as it is his experiences in Colombia, and although the most interesting third of book are in those details of life in South America, there is an uplifting fervor that comes from witnessing the veins of that heart spread throughout the rest of Arfin's life."
On 6/13/10, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:Is the Peace Corps the new CIA?http://workingworldcareers.com/2008/10/23/is-the-peace-corps-the-new-cia/A troubling yet still hopeful article in today's Washington Post detailing the Peace Corps' recent evacuation of all volunteers from Bolivia. Troubling because the Peace Corps, the one engine of American government that has long been viewed as a representation of all that is best about the United States and its people, is increasingly seen as an intelligence gathering arm of the U.S. government:
"The less presence of the United States in Bolivia, the better," Juan Ramón Quintana, Bolivia's minister of the presidency, said in an interview. "We believe the security policies of the United States have damaged the constitutional rights of the students of the Peace Corps, by tasking some of them to do intelligence work."
Yet still hopeful because more than 15 of the 113 evacuated volunteers decided to return to their posts in Bolivia of their own volition to finish the worked they'd started. And of those who were unable or decided not to return, it is clear that the majority of them do not agree with this worrying slide of the Peace Corps into government propaganda and intelligence gathering machine. From one of those volunteers forced to leave:
"Peace Corps, unfortunately, has become another weapon in the US diplomatic arsenal," volunteer Sarah Nourse of Mechanicsville, Md., wrote in a widely circulated e-mail. The Peace Corps withdrawal "is one more chance for the US to maintain its tough image and hit back, harder.
"More than ever, Bolivia needs living examples of real Americans," Nourse went on. "They need someone to help, not for financial gains but because the task exists and because it's the right thing to do."
I think it's on all of us working in and supportive of the fields of international education, exchange, and development to ensure that the Peace Corps and all similar exchange and development programs remain the powerful forces for mutual understanding that they have always been.
On 6/13/10, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:------- Forwarded message -------
From: Javed Ahmad
--- On Sun, 6/13/10, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com>
Subject: Move under way to re-launch US Peace Corps
To:
Date: Sunday, June 13, 2010, 5:52 AM
Move under way to re-launch US Peace Corps
The US is likely to re-launch its Peace Corps programme in Bangladesh soon.
The government of Bangladesh has responded positively to a proposal made to this effect recently by the US embassy in Dhaka, it is reliably learnt.
The US Peace Crops programme was suspended in Bangladesh in 2006 fearing retaliation by the religious extremists. The programme, starting in Bangladesh in 1998, was also once suspended for some time in late 2001. The objective of the programme would be to increase partnership between Dhaka and Washington and also people-to-people contact, government officials said.
Top policymakers in the government have, in the meanwhile, have responded positively to the US embassy proposal to re-introduce the Peace Corp programme.
Senior US Embassy officials have held a number of discussions with high officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Finance (MoF) on the signing of a fresh agreement in this regard, sources confirmed.
The Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the MoF is going to organise an inter-ministerial meeting soon to finalise the major clauses to be put in the proposed agreement, an official in the ERD said.
The proposed agreement on the Peace Corp programme in Bangladesh will require vetting by the law ministry and, finally, by the cabinet, sources concerned said.
Under the proposed agreement, the US Peace Corp volunteers will extend cooperation in the areas of education, rural development, housing, health, agriculture and environment, sources said."The Peace Corp will extend social services to the people of Bangladesh to help promote the friendly relationship between the two countries," a foreign ministry official told the FE.
The official expressed the hope that the programme would help enhance the people-to-people contact between the USA and BangladeshThe US government suspended the Peace Crops operations in Bangladesh in March 2006 and ordered its volunteers to leave the country. The move came following the capture of Bangladesh Bhai, the leader of a religious extremist group. The US embassy here feared that the US nationals could be the targets of the extremists. "The activities of US Peace Corp has to be in line with our national interests, with its focus on people-to-people contact," a foreign ministry official told the FE Wednesday.
Normally, the Peace Corp members offer services in areas such as education, business, information technology, agriculture, and environment. The Peace Corps also put in their efforts to enhance mutual international understanding.
Since 1961, nearly 200,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps, serving in 139 countries.
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