Peace Corps News

Peace Corps Suspends Program in Bolivia

Peace Corps/Bolivia Program Suspended
[Sept 15] Peace Corps operations in Bolivia have been temporarily suspended to ensure the safety of the Peace Corps Volunteers serving there. With growing instability in Bolivia, all Volunteers were consolidated on Sunday, September 14, and have now been moved to Peru where they will be transitioning out of service or to another post.  “Our first priority is the safety and security of our Volunteers,” said Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter. “Thousands of Peace Corps Volunteers have served in Bolivia since 1962, building deep friendships with the people there. We hope the situation will improve soon so future Volunteers can continue the Peace Corps’ fine tradition of valuable service to the Bolivian people.”  The Volunteers serving in Bolivia will be granted close of service in good standing, or offered an opportunity to transfer to another Peace Corps country. Read more.

Peace Corps temporarily suspends operations in Bolivia because of "growing instability"
[Sept 15] Since the turmoil began some three weeks ago, Bolivian President Evo Morales has thrown out the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia, accusing the American government of inciting the violence. The expelled ambassador, Philip Goldberg, called the charges "false and baseless" and said Bolivia was making a "grave mistake." Members of the 4-month-old Union of South American Countries lent support to Morales on Monday night, voting to create a commission to support the Bolivian government, according to President Michelle Bachelet of Chile. Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, is battling an autonomy movement in the natural gas-rich eastern departments of Santa Cruz, Pando, Beni and Tarija. The movement was sparked by Morales' pledge to redistribute wealth from the east to the country's poorer highlands. The unrest killed more than 30 people last week in Pando, and Morales declared martial law there Friday. Read more.

South American leaders support Morales in Bolivia unrest
[Sept 16] South American presidents holding a crisis summit here over unrest in Bolivia issued a strong statement giving Bolivian President Evo Morales their support.  The statement late Monday agreed by Morales and the presidents of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela also rejected any break-up of Bolivia's territory.  The nine presidents in the Chilean capital Santiago expressed "their full and firm support for the constitutional government of President Evo Morales, whose mandate was ratified by a big majority."  Argentine President Cristina Kirchner said after the six hours of talks that "the agreement was unanimous."  She had called the summit under the auspices of the newly formed Union of South American Nations, which is currently presided over by Chile. The summit statement said the presidents "warn that our respective government energetically reject and will not recognize any situation that attempts a civil coup and the rupture of institutional order and which could compromise the territorial integrity of the Republic of Bolivia."  Read more.

US Ambassador Philip Goldberg ordered out of Bolivia for alleged support of opposition groups
[Sept 14] Philip Goldberg was on Wednesday told to leave the country by Bolivian President Evo Morales, who is struggling with a revolt in five rebel states.  The Fides news agency said Goldberg would host a final private dinner for friends late Saturday and would make a statement before flying out.  On Saturday, Morales justified the expulsion order against the envoy by saying it was the indigenous peoples' rejection of "the American empire."  The order declaring Goldberg persona non grata "subscribes to the struggle of indigenous people not only in Bolivia but in all of Latin America, who have for 500 years fought empires of the time," Morales, an Aymara Indian, told reporters in La Paz.  The expulsion prompted shows of solidarity by Morales's chief ally, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who told the US ambassador to his country to go, and Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, who refused to accept the credentials of a new US ambassador. Read more.

This is not the first controversy surrounding Philip S. Goldberg's tenure as US Ambassador to Bolivia.

 Peace Corps Volunteer Life with Evo writes: Refugee Status
[Sept 16] "Counterparts called Peace Corps and told them their volunteers were not safe. We watch as friends in our communities respond to the calls to take up arms and we don’t know what we should do. Is it that serious? It must be this time. I usually tell people Peace Corps is consolidating, and they respond with a wave of the hand and a “No pasa nada…” Nothing will happen. This time they respond with tears. Tears for their people, tears for their country, as they process feelings of total bewilderment and despair. After all, where will they go? They have no consolidation point, no evacuation plans.  After my arrival Friday night in Cochabamba, I sleep and wait. The longest hours of life. Waiting, without any idea with what might happen, without explanations. Saturday we move hotels. Sunday we get the message that we are indeed evacuating to a neighboring country. We are not told where. Then we move again. It’s for our safety, they say. Anti-American sentiment is high and no one can know where we are going or that we have even consolidated. We’ve only told our communities that we have to meet up for a minute and that we should be back. Yeah right.  Monday we are scheduled to get out of the country. It is an interminable wait. Half of the volunteers have already been evacuated to Peru. My group is still in Bolivia. No one is allowed to say anything to friends or family for fear that the military cargo plane that had to jump hoops to get clearance for a bunch of Americans to get into Peru will run into problems and that we will have no way out. American airlines has cancelled flights in and out of Bolivia til the end of the month. Private chartered planes have waiting lists of 20+ organizations and hundreds of Americans are waiting for a chance to get out." Read more.

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Photos: 

Top: Bolivian Army soldiers patrol Cobija, Pando department, northern Bolivia. Street violence which erupted in Bolivia last week, killing at least 18 people, was the result of a "coup" by rebel governors, President Evo Morales said Monday as he arrived in Chile for an emergency summit on the crisis. Photo: AFP/Alexandre Lima

Middle:  President Michelle Bachelet of Chile reads the final statement of the emergency summit.

Bottom:  A view from the Peace Corps office in Cochabomba.

Condoleezza Rice Visits Peace Corps Headquarters

Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Peace Corps Headquarters. Secretary Rice’s remarks to 65 Country Directors and headquarters staff officially kicked-off the Peace Corps 2008 Worldwide Country Director Conference. Secretary Rice is the first sitting Secretary of State to visit Peace Corps Headquarters.

Secretary Rice said, “Each of you is to be commended for your dedication to helping the world’s neediest people, often times in some of the world’s most impoverished communities. Through your work, you’re strengthening communities, you’re improving lives and you’re building bridges between nations.” She added, “Throughout its history, the Peace Corps has met the challenges of an ever-challenging world by adapting and responding to the issues of the day, but never losing sight of the values that have sustained the Peace Corps throughout its history.” Read more.

"Today, Peace Corps volunteers are opening up a whole new world for the people that they serve by teaching computer skills and providing access to the internet, so keeping abreast with the challenges of today.  The invaluable trust Peace Corps volunteers are gaining among the people that they serve gives them the credibility to talk about diseases like HIV/AIDS prevention in their communities when, frankly, others cannot.  That is why the Peace Corps is emerging as an important part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief, particularly in Africa and the Caribbean. 

In fact, as the Director said, while visiting Accra, Ghana in February with President Bush, I was fortunate enough to have lunch with a group of your Peace Corps colleagues.  And earlier this month, I accompanied President and Mrs. Bush to Ukraine where we had the opportunity to see an HIV/AIDS education play put on by Peace Corps volunteer Margaret McKenna and 15 of her students.  Margaret and her students not only perform in their own community, but they travel to educate other schools throughout Ukraine about the danger of AIDS.   

Throughout its history, the Peace Corps has met the challenges of an ever-challenging world by adapting and responding to the issues of the day, but never losing sight of the values that have sustained the Peace Corps throughout its history. Currently more than 8,000 Peace Corps Volunteers continue to meet these new challenges across the globe, particularly in places where the Peace Corps has been absent for some time. 

Just this past February, of course, President Bush announced the return of the Peace Corps to Rwanda, after a 15-year absence.  And this summer, the Peace Corps will return to Liberia with a Peace Corps response program working in education.  In 2007 the Peace Corps returned to Ethiopia after an absence of eight years.  And volunteers began their service for the first time in Cambodia in 2007 to train teachers and teach English in seven provinces. " Read Rice's entire speech at Peace Corps Headquarters.

What is Wrong at the US Embassy in Bolivia?

What is Wrong at the US Embassy in Bolivia?
On July 29, 2007, just before the new volunteers were sworn in, they say embassy security officer Vincent Cooper visited the 30-person group to give a talk on safety and made his request about the Cubans and Venezuelans. "He said it had to do with the fight against terrorism," said one, of the briefing from the embassy official. Others remember being told, "It's for your own safety." Peace Corps Deputy Director Doreen Salazar remembers the incident vividly because she says it was the first time she had heard an embassy official make such a request to a Peace Corps group. Salazar says she and her fellow staff found the comment so out of line that they interrupted the briefing to clarify that volunteers did not have to follow the embassy's instructions, and she later complained directly to the embassy about the incident. "Peace Corps is an a-political institution," Salazar says. "We made it clear to the embassy that this was an inappropriate request, and they agreed." Indeed, the State Department admits having acknowledged the infraction and assuring Salazar that it would not happen again. There is no indication that any of the volunteers made reports to the U.S. Embassy. The press director at the Peace Corps told ABC News in no uncertain terms that the corps is not involved in any intelligence gathering. Read more.

Peace Corps policy against intelligence connections is based on the general authority of the Director of the Peace Corps
Any connection between the Peace Corps and the intelligence community would seriously compromise the ability of the Peace Corps to develop and maintain the trust and confidence of the people in the host countries we serve. Consistent with the policy of every administration since 1961, Director Ron Tschetter, himself a former Volunteer in India (1966-1968), has been very clear in re-affirming this long standing policy and, once again, stressing that Peace Corps Volunteers work on community service and nothing else. Peace Corps policy against intelligence connections is based on the general authority of the Director of the Peace Corps, provided by section 5 (a) of the Peace Corps Act, to establish the terms and conditions of service of Volunteers, by the Foreign Service Act of 1980, and on long-standing agency policy prohibiting any connection between Peace Corps and intelligence activity first enunciated by Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver in 1961.  Read more.

Bolivian President Evo Morales declares US embassy security officer Vincent Cooper as a “persona non grata”
Evo Morales explained that Cooper violated Bolivia’s legal norms by asking US students and Peace Corps workers to spy on Cuban and Venezuelan collaborators in Bolivia. Both the US Embassy and the State Department officially admitted to the espionage campaign for which Ambassador Philip Goldberg should be held responsible. The US Embassy will also need to explain its financial support for the Police Policy Studies Council, a parallel intelligence service dedicated to inciting destabilization campaigns. (ACN). Read more.

U.S. Diplomat Vincent Cooper Recalled After 'Spying' Allegations in Bolivia
The president of Bolivia voiced strong concerns and a U.S. diplomat has been recalled to Washington in the wake of an ABC News report that the diplomat asked a Fulbright scholar and Peace Corps volunteers to "spy" on Cubans and Venezuelans in Bolivia. Bolivian President Evo Morales today called on the armed forces to safeguard Bolivia's sovereignty against "espionage attempts" by the U.S. government. On Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez referred specifically to the allegations made by Fulbright scholar Alexander van Schaick. "The United States had to admit to espionage," the fiery Socialist leader stated in Caracas.  Read more.

Colin Powell talks about the greatest threat facing us now

Colin Powell talks about the greatest threat facing us now
What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?

I would approach this differently, in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out there—ones that we can take advantage of? It should not be just about creating alliances to deal with a guy in a cave in Pakistan. It should be about how do we create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies? This is perhaps the most effective way to go after terrorists.

This doesn’t mean there isn’t a terrorist threat. There is a threat. And we should send in military forces when we have a target to deal with. We should also secure our airports, if that makes us safer. But let’s welcome every foreign student we can get our hands on. Let’s make sure that foreigners come to the Mayo Clinic here, and not the Mayo facility in Dubai or somewhere else. Let’s make sure people come to Disney World and not throw them up against the wall in Orlando simply because they have a Muslim name. Let’s also remember that this country was created by immigrants and thrives as a result of immigration, and we need a sound immigration policy.

Let’s show the world a face of openness and what a democratic system can do. That’s why I want to see Guantánamo closed. It’s so harmful to what we stand for. We literally bang ourselves in the head by having that place. What are we doing this to ourselves for? Because we’re worried about the 380 guys there? Bring them here! Give them lawyers and habeas corpus. We can deal with them. We are paying a price when the rest of the world sees an America that seems to be afraid and is not the America they remember.

You can drive up the road from here and come to a spot where there is a megachurch over here, a little Episcopal church over there, a Catholic church around the corner that’s almost cathedral-size, and between them is a huge Hindu temple. There are no police needed to guard any of this. There are not many places in the world where you would see that. Yes, there are a few dangerous nuts in Brooklyn and New Jersey who want to blow up Kennedy Airport and Fort Dix. These are dangerous criminals, and we must deal with them. But come on, this is not a threat to our survival! The only thing that can really destroy us is us. We shouldn’t do it to ourselves, and we shouldn’t use fear for political purposes—scaring people to death so they will vote for you, or scaring people to death so that we create a terror-industrial complex.  Read more.

RPCV Diplomats in the News

Christopher R. Hill says North Korea has agreed to disable its main nuclear fuel production plant by the end of the year
The New York Times reports that Hill met in Geneva for two days of one-on-one negotiations with Kim Kye-gwan, who heads the North Korean negotiating team, and that North Korea had agreed to disable its main nuclear fuel production plant by the end of 2007 and to account for all of its nuclear programs to international monitors. North Korea had also agreed to turn off its main nuclear reactor this summer. "One thing that we agreed on is that the D.P.R.K. will provide a full declaration of all of their nuclear programs and will disable their nuclear programs by the end of this year, 2007," Hill told reporters.

If the North Koreans meet the schedule and disable their equipment, it would be a major victory for the Bush administration, at a time when it is eager to claim progress on some diplomatic front to offset its problems in Iraq. Whether to offer the North rewards, including oil and, eventually, removal from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and diplomatic recognition, has been the subject of a six-year struggle within the Bush administration.

The hawks are still unhappy, and have suggested that Mr. Hill is giving away too much. “There is still simply no evidence that Pyongyang has made a decision to abandon its long-held strategic objective to have a credible nuclear-weapons capability,” John R. Bolton, the former American ambassador to the United Nations and, in President Bush’s first term, the top State Department official on counterproliferation, wrote in The Asian Wall Street Journal this weekend. Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon. Read more.

Robert Blackwill handling contract to help pave Ayad Allawi's attempt to oust the current Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
No sooner did Allawi hire Barbour Griffith two weeks ago than congressional staffers said they began to be bombarded with e-mails from Allawi (from an Internet domain registered by the lobbying firm) featuring news stories that depict the Maliki government as hopelessly deadlocked and riddled by sectarian militias. “All the e-mails make the Iraqi government look bad,” said one congressional staffer who asked not to be publicly identified talking about the Iraq issues. Adding further intrigue to the lobbying campaign was the disclosure that the Barbour Griffith principal overseeing the firm’s Allawi account was former ambassador Robert D. Blackwill—the former Bush White House deputy national-security adviser in charge of Iraq policy, who later served as U.S. special envoy to that country. Documents filed by Barbour Griffith with Justice show that Blackwill personally signed the firm’s contract with Allawi on Aug. 20, stating that he will “lead the team” that will assist “Dr. Allawi and his moderate Iraqi colleagues as they undertake this work.”

In light of Blackwill’s close ties to Bush White House policymakers, his role has lead to speculation that the retention of Barbour Griffith was a move at least implicitly endorsed, if not encouraged, by some elements of the administration that are fed up with Maliki. While the White House has been critical of Maliki, they maintain official support for his government and have had no comment on Allawi’s campaign.

Robert Blackwill served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi,  Ambasssador to India, and as a Deputy National Security Advisor to Condoleezza Rice. Read more.

Read more about  Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Read more about Robert Blackwill, former Deputy National Security Advisor to Condoleezza Rice.

White House aides held political briefings at Peace Corps headquarters

White House aides held political briefings at Peace Corps headquarters
White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration's top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a "general political briefing" at Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections.

The briefings, mostly run by Rove's deputies at the White House political affairs office, began in early 2001 and included detailed analyses for senior officials of the political landscape surrounding critical congressional and gubernatorial races, according to documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Spokesmen for the State Department, the Peace Corps and USAID said that only political appointees were invited to the briefings and that attendance was not compulsory. They also said that no specific actions were subsequently taken to boost political campaigns.

"We believe that these briefings were entirely appropriate," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "They conformed with all the applicable regulations."

The ambassadors included in the Rove briefing were Eduardo Aguirre Jr. of Spain, James P. Cain of Denmark, Alfred Hoffman Jr. of Portugal, Ronald Spogli of Italy, Craig Stapleton of France and Robert Tuttle of Britain. Gregory Slayton, the consul general to Bermuda, also attended.

In total, the seven diplomats donated more than $1.6 million to Republican causes from 2000 through 2006, according to a Center for Responsive Politics report on large Bush donors who were named ambassadors. The State Department, in a letter to Biden, said that Cain -- one of Bush's top fundraisers in North Carolina -- requested the meeting with Rove and did not notify department officials in advance.

The briefings struck some former ambassadors as highly unusual.

"That just didn't happen. Frankly, I am shocked to hear it," said former senator James Sasser (D-Tenn.), who served as President Bill Clinton's ambassador to China in the late 1990s. "I'm one who strongly believes that politics ought to end at the water's edge."

The Peace Corps briefing occurred in 2003 with about 15 political appointees, said Amanda Beck, a spokeswoman for the agency. The central mission of the Peace Corps is sending volunteers into Third World nations to help with development.

Beck, who said she attended the March 2003 "recap" of the 2002 elections, said the appointees who attended the briefing "did it on our free time during the day." She added: "It was a courtesy to political appointees," offered by the White House, and "there was no suggestion of getting involved in anything" campaign related.  Read more.

Robert Blackwill says: No process and no elegant set of mechanisms will make up for stupidity

Robert Blackwill says: No process and no elegant set of mechanisms will make up for stupidity
Kitaoka: There appeared to be differences in the opinions of chief U.S. nuclear envoy [Christopher] Hill and the U.S. Treasury Department during negotiations over North Korea's nuclear development.

Blackwill: The instructions that Chris Hill gets come from the direction of the president through the NSC process. He always has a member of the NSC staff who travels with him. Most negotiators from the State Department value that because they can be sure they have the support of the White House while they are conducting negotiations.

We've been talking about processes, [so] let me put it like this: No process and no elegant set of mechanisms will make up for stupidity.

Kitaoka: Could you be a little more specific?

Blackwill: I would say that quality has this first principle: Analysis before prescription. Analysis separate from ideology, the second principle.

It seems to me that quality decisions often come out of quality analysis. When the United States makes serious mistakes, often it's because of poor analysis, and sometimes it's because of ideology overwhelming analysis. So one of the jobs of the NSC adviser is to continually try to raise the level of quality of the analysis that is inside the system.  Read more.

Robert Blackwill served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi, Ambasssador to India, and as a Deputy National Security Advisor to Condoleezza Rice. Read more about Robert Blackwill.

Read more about Peace Corps Malawi.

Read more about Peace Corps Diplomacy.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry objects to Mark Green as Ambassador to Tanzania

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry objects to Mark Green as Ambassador to Tanzania
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., placed a "hold" on the nomination, because Green, a Wisconsin Republican who ran against Jim Doyle for Governor in the 2006 election, is a political appointee and not a career foreign service officer, a Kerry aide said. According to the State Department, about 65 percent of U.S. ambassadors are career foreign service officers, with the remaining 35 percent political appointees.

Green, if approved, would replace the current ambassador to Tanzania, Michael Retzer, also a political appointee. Retzer was sworn in August 2005.

The Kerry hold is the second hurdle for Green. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., placed a hold on Green's nomination to underscore his dissatisfaction with Retzer's decision to revoke the authority of the top Peace Corps official in Tanzania to remain in the East African nation. Dodd released the hold after the State Department apologized to the Peace Corps official and promised Dodd that the Peace Corps could pursue its mission in Tanzania without interference. Read more.

Caption: Ambassador designate Mark Green

Tunisia RPCV Al Kamen takes an irreverent look at current events and Washington's powerful

Journalist Al Kamen writes the popular column "In the Loop" that appears twice weekly in the Washington Post. Kamen, who served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia in the 1960's, takes an irreverent look at current events in his column focusing on the the foibles of Washington's powerful. He has an eye for the revealing detail about public figures that can recast how you think of them. See if you can read between the lines and see the Peace Corps influence in his writing especially the humor in his gift for understatement. A selection of his recent writing includes:

To the uninitiated, it might seem that administration spokesmen like to hide even the most ordinary bits of information
To the uninitiated, it might seem that Bush administration spokesmen like to hide even the most ordinary bits of information, resorting to an oft-comical double talk. Take for example new spokesman Sean McCormack 's response to a question at yesterday's State Department briefing.

"Who initiated today's meeting between Condoleezza Rice and the Turkish foreign minister?" a reporter asked.

"Well, meetings are typically set up -- it requires the agreement of both parties. So it is a mutually agreed-upon time and date," McCormack said. This is a practical step taken to avoid having one party show up in, say, Cleveland at 4 p.m. on one day while the other is waiting at 3 p.m. in Denver on a different day.

"So it was by Ankara or was it requested by the U.S. government?" the reporter tried again, not knowing we were now into goofy-speak.

"I would say that, whenever we have the secretary meet with somebody," McCormack explained patiently, "that it is through mutual agreement that we hold the meeting."

Again, absolutely correct. Foreign ministers are only infrequently brought in shackles to the seventh floor at the State Department. What obviously happened in this case is Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and Secretary of State Rice picked up the phone at exactly the same time and called each other to meet. Happens all the time. McCormack, who wore snappy French cuffs to his briefing on Friday, is off to an excellent start.

Clinton fired Prosecutors too
Meanwhile, amid the controversy over the administration's firing of the eight federal prosecutors, little attention has been paid to the fact that President Bill Clinton, after first sacking all 93 U.S. attorneys appointed by Ronald Reagan or George H.W. Bush, also fired or "resigned" three or four of his federal prosecutors.

One was Larry Colleton, who resigned shortly after he was videotaped grabbing Jacksonville, Fla., television reporter Richard Rose by the throat. Unclear why that was such a big deal.

Another Florida federal prosecutor, Kendall Coffey, resigned "amid accusations that he bit a topless dancer on the arm during a visit to an adult club after losing a big drug case." (There was a strict Clinton policy against biting.)

A third Clinton firing, noted by a Congressional Research Service report, was of San Francisco prosecutor Michael Yamaguchi, who seemed to have crossed swords with local judges and Justice Department officials. Clinton replaced him with Bush I Justice Department chief of the criminal division, a fellow named Robert Mueller, whom Bush II appointed FBI director.

Talkin' the Talk in Texas
President Bush said Wednesday that he will ask Congress for $114 million to teach Americans little-taught languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi and Farsi. The initiative is vital, he said, because "we need intelligence officers who, when somebody says something in Arabic or Farsi or Urdu, knows what they're talking about." Diplomats also need to speak the local language.

The new funding, he told the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education, is needed to "defeat this notion" that the United States is "bullying" people. People who speak the same language feel more at ease with one another, he said, noting how much easier it is to conduct foreign policy with foreign leaders who've studied here and speak English.

"In order to convince people we care about them, we've got to understand their culture and show them we care about their culture," Bush said. "When somebody comes to me and speaks Texan, I know they appreciate the Texas culture. "I mean, somebody takes time to figure out how to speak Arabic, it means they're interested in somebody else's culture," he explained.

You know, people study for years to speak fluent Texan. 

Casablanca is favorite of Condoleezza Rice
Reporters know that once the deadly dull policy-wonk questions are asked and evaded by administration officials, some off-the-wall inquiries can be most revealing. This is especially the case when the subject is as sharp as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. So last weekend in Beijing, after the obligatory chat about serious matters -- North Korean nukes and the deadly terrorist attacks in London -- Fox News Channel's James Rosen asked: "What movies have you watched the most . . .?"

"There are probably a couple," Rice said. "'Casablanca' I watch whenever it comes on. . . . 'Here's looking at you, kid' -- who doesn't love that line? I love Humphrey Bogart . I love everything about that movie. It's in many ways my favorite movie."

Who isn't thrilled at that scene where the French all stand in Rick's bar and sing "La Marseillaise" to defy the Germans who are to steal France's personal colony, Morocco? (Unclear how Moroccans react to this.) "But I'll give you a real scoop," Rice said, warming to the inquiry. "I've also watched 'The Way We Were,' the Barbra Streisand - Robert Redford flick, and  'Trading Places,' the Eddie Murphy - Dan Aykroyd comedy, many, many times."

"I generally don't watch movies of redeeming value," she said. "I tend to take them as entertainment."

Read more about Al Kamen.

Read more about Peace Corps Tunisia.

Spotlight on Peace Corps Niger

Michael R. Bell writes: Most farmers are subsistence farmers trying to produce enough food to feed their families
I have been in Niger for almost two weeks, experienced four very interesting bus rides, toured a small part of the Sahara desert and tried many new foods. One of the most impressive things I have seen over my time here is the complete dedication of these mostly young Peace Corps volunteers. Niger is the poorest country in the world today. When my daughter came here two years ago, it was the second-poorest country. The conditions under which these volunteers work and live is difficult at best. You should be very proud of the work these young adults do as Peace Corps volunteers serving around the world representing the U.S.

Most farmers are subsistence farmers trying to produce enough food to feed their families, share with others and possibly use as barter to obtain other needed items for survival. In the bush, which is where most Nigeriens live, daily routines are the same except during planting and harvest times. Families will raise livestock and poultry, vegetables, fruit if possible and all grow millett as their food staple. Feed for livestock is not grown. Land capable of growing a crop is used only to produce commodities to be used directly by humans. So how do they feed their livestock? Each morning a worker (probably one of their children) is assigned the task of taking the animals out further into the bush to forage. Animals that can find feed survive, those that can't don't. Since Niger is mostly desert, finding forage can be difficult. The Fulani are nomadic herders of animals such as cattle, goats, donkeys and camels, and are allowed to use certain areas of the country. After a day of grazing, the worker will lead the livestock back to the village for the night.

Nigeriens as a whole are a hardworking, intelligent, caring and happy people. They are generous with what they have no matter the circumstance. Those whom I have encountered during my stay here have all been quick to smile and find pleasure in everything, no matter the conditions. It has not taken long to get used to seeing camels grazing, being ridden or lead down a main street in a large city with typical automobile congestion as I saw just a few minutes ago. Read more.

PCV Joshua writes: Eco-Farming in Niger
Last week we visited a terrific place named ICRISAT. ICRISAT is the leading West African seed bank and scientific location for testing new farming practices and developing improved crop varieties of millet, groundnuts, beans, cowpeas, and many other vegetables resistant to both pest and drought. There is a lot of information disseminated from this place but what caught my attention most for the purpose of this blog imput was their efforts towards developing eco-farming.

Eco-Farming is a term used to describe using a plot of land to its maximum potential incorporating both intercropping and agro-forestry in concert to reduce or eliminate the use of fertilizers and additional irrigation. A critical aspect of eco-farming is to reduce land erosion by making a snake like terraces or demi-loons (terrace like half moons) along the contour of the land. Within these terraces trees useful for nitrogen fixing, mulch, fruit, and other useful improvements are placed in these half moon circles.

The social impacts of this type of agriculture is that it provides the farmer with labor for nearly 10 months out of the year instead of the typical 5-6 months usually attributed to a typical growing season. The impacts of this aspect are incredible because when the farmer has income generation throughout the year there is no need for the farmer to "€œexode€". Which means work as a migrant laborer in neighboring countries depriving their families and nation of its most critical workforce and most productive of individuals. Read more.

Niger RPCV Angela "Khadija" Williams is helping gain asylum for Ansam, a translator for coalition forces in Iraq
Angela "Khadija" Williams, 53, is a veteran U.S. foreign-service officer who embraced Islam nearly three decades ago and now serves as a U.S. cultural affairs liaison at Camp Fallujah. A State Department colleague familiar with Williams' devotion to the translator's case affectionately described her as "a pit bull in hijab."

Angela Williams went to the University of Denver - the same institution from which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice received her undergraduate degree - before dropping out of graduate school in 1978 to join the Peace Corps. "The bug just got to me," Williams said. "I was so anxious to go out in the world and do something."

After volunteering in the West African nation of Niger, Williams joined the World Council of Churches relief agency in Senegal. A Muslim housemaid there helped Williams convert to Islam in 1981, the culmination of a longtime spiritual quest. Switching faiths proved just as controversial for Williams as for Ansam's family. She lost her job with the Christian relief group and faced a strained relationship with her parents, who were devout followers of the Church of God and Christ. "My father hung up the phone," Williams said. "I called back again and my mother answered this time. She said, `I still love you,' then she hung up too."

Williams remained in Senegal, where she studied Islam and married a local Muslim activist. He died of a heart attack when she was five months pregnant; she miscarried three months later. That experience, Williams said, helps her empathize with the grief of the Iraqi women she reaches out to in Anbar. "I was a 24-year-old widow, so I understand how it is out here to be a young widow," Williams said. "I would walk the streets in Washington, D.C., and ask myself, `Why am I alive?'" Struggling to recover from the tragedy, Williams dabbled in agricultural studies, then worked briefly at the World Bank. She found her calling in 1989 when she joined the U.S. Foreign Service, which offered her the opportunity to create cultural affairs programs in far-flung posts across the globe.

Ansam and Williams first crossed paths when they worked on an empowerment program for Iraqi women in Anbar. They clicked instantly, marveling at the parallels in their lives: grief for their parents, tests of their faith, life as civilian women among battle-hardened Marines and a determination to improve the lives of ordinary Iraqis. Ansam and Williams spent the past week in Baghdad, where Williams lobbied U.S. refugee officials, compiled Ansam's recommendation letters, surfed the Internet for federal resettlement options and sent flurries of e-mails to military and civilian friends with influence in Washington.

When Iraqi officials stalled on Ansam's passport, Williams picked up the phone and warned them in Arabic to issue the document or face her wrath. "I believe God has his angels and Angela is one of them. If I get out of this, I owe her my life," Ansam said. "The others tried; I know they did. They wrote nice letters, but it always ended with a problem with the law."

The friends cut a striking pair as they strolled together through the ornate marble halls of the Republican Palace one recent day. Ansam was in full camouflage and toted a Burger King sack. Williams was in her trademark black and yelled, "Assalamu alaikum!" - the Islamic greeting of "Peace be upon you" - to Iraqi colleagues. They walked to lunch, oblivious to the double takes of the soldiers and security contractors who roam the palace. Williams put her arm protectively around Ansam, looked her square in the eye and said: "No one's forgetting you." Read more.

Caption: Ansam, an Iraqi translator for coalition forces whose last name is withheld because of death threats against her, at Camp Fallujah. Ansam hasn't been able to gain asylum in the United States, despite letters of recommendation from a Marine brigadier general, several colonels and a number of other officers who praised her service as a translator and guide. Photo: Hannah Allam/MCT

Niger RPCV Charles Dufresne is a Partner at InterWorks, a Madison firm that helps agencies around the world respond to disasters and provide humanitarian aid
"I started off as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa and did that for two years. I was involved in community development programs and . . . I got involved in setting up groups and technical experts to transfer those skills. Then I worked with a language and literacy training organization in Minnesota, the Minnesota Literacy Council, their English as a second language program, with refugees and immigrants settling in the Twin Cities. Quickly I got involved in setting up training and recruiting tutors so I found myself again involved in that. I got increasingly intrigued in how people learn."

I work with people who are trying to do humanitarian work and they're working in extremely complex situations, places like Sudan and Afghanistan . . . to say nothing of New Orleans. They're often put into positions and jobs where they have the desire to do something but not the refined skills and knowledge to do it. So again you come back to training and learning to equip these people to be more effective. "There's no such thing as perfection. There's only the process of perfecting." Read more.

Praise for Niger RPCV Susan Rich's "Cures Include Travel"
"Susan Rich writes gorgeous lyrical poetry which so courageously tells us the truth about the world, tells us the world is much larger than we Americans usually like to admit. Her beautiful ear, her fierce attention to detail, her deeply human empathy inspire me and make me glad. I am glad, no €”thrilled that there exists such a unique and memorable voice writing today about the joys and grievances of our planet, writing with such charge in ideas and language. In this age of irony as an end in itself and of art for art's sake, it is a rare luck to encounter a poet such as Susan Rich for whom living in this world and writing about it is one and the same flash of poetry's transforming revelation."

A generation of war-lords have made Somalia an archetype of natural disintegration and the power of tyrants. Even now, with the death of Mohammed Farah Aideed, there is no end in sight. But there is another dimension to Somalian politics: the radical role of women. Two years before the entire country collapsed into civil war, in Kismayo, Somalia's southern coastal city, something happened that momentarily interrupted the slow march of strife over the body politic. A few dozen women, defying the conviction that enjoins female sartorial modesty, bared their breasts in public in front of a crowd of men. Fists raised, voices harsh, they shouted "Rise, Rise!", challenging the men to action, reproaching them for their failure to confront the excesses of the dictatorship. By challenging the men in this manner, the women implied that they would not from then on defer to them as husbands, fathers, or figures of authority. (From The Times Literary Supplement (London), (November 15, 1996), pp. 44) Read Susan Rich's Poem "the Women of Kismayo" about this event:

The Women of Kismayo

The breasts of Kismayo assembled
along the mid-day market street.

No airbrushed mangoes, no
black lace, no underwire chemise.

No half-cupped pleasures,
no come-hither nods, no Italian

centerfolds. Simply the women
of the town telling their men

to take action, to do something
equally bold. And the husbands

on their way home, expecting
sweet yams and meat,

moaned and covered their eyes,
screamed like spoiled children

dredged abruptly from sleep—
incredulous that their women

could unbutton such beauty
for other clans, who

(in between splayed
hands) watched quite willingly.

Give us your guns, here is our
cutlery, we are the men!

the women sang to them
an articulation without shame.

And now in the late night hour
when men want nothing but rest,

they fold their broken bodies, still
watched by their wives cool breasts

round, full, commanding as colonels—
two taut nipples targeting each man.

— Susan Rich, from her collection of Poetry "Cures include Travel" Follow this link to order the book.

Read more about Peace Corps Niger.

Christopher Hill announces Draft Accord reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks

Christopher Hill announces Draft Accord reached in North Korea Nuclear Talks
The American envoy, Christopher R. Hill, said diplomatic teams from the United States, North Korea and the other four participating countries — China, Japan, South Korea and Russia — pushed negotiations past a self-imposed Monday deadline into early Tuesday before finally agreeing on a final text. The six chief envoys are scheduled to reconvene at 10:30 a.m. in Beijing (9:30 p.m. Eastern time on Monday) to learn if each nation has approved the deal. The agreement is expected to include some significant concessions by the North Koreans, although they did not agree to give up their existing nuclear weapons.

Mr. Hill declined to offer any specifics about the new accord until approval was assured. But he suggested that the pending agreement was essentially the same as the draft proposal that has been under discussion for the past five days — except for revisions in a single paragraph. That paragraph presumably has focused on the question of energy assistance for North Korea. The North Koreans’ demand for huge, upfront shipments of fuel oil and electricity had threatened to scuttle the talks. “Everybody had to make some changes to try to narrow the differences,” Mr. Hill told reporters as he returned to his hotel at 2:41 a.m. local time on Tuesday. He added: “One would hope that we can all agree on this.”   Read more.

Caption: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill  in Beijing, China. Photo: Elizabeth Dalziel/Associated Press

Christopher Hill is a Celebrity In China
Little known in his home country, the boyish-looking U.S. assistant secretary of state has become a celebrity in China's capital and not just for his role as Washington's chief envoy in talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. His easygoing manner has also won over the media, in comparison to the stonewall public relations efforts put forward by some of the other countries in the talks. And with the negotiations taking place for hours on end behind closed doors, the idle time fuels speculation and jokes about Hill. Hill, who is on the evening television news every day he is in Beijing, has been mobbed at the Beijing airport with Chinese travelers rushing over to have their picture taken with him, said one of Hill's security officials, who asked not to be named.

The interest in Hill may also stem from the fact that he speaks every morning and evening to the media, while his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye Gwan, gives only the occasional chaotic news conference. Hill, a Boston Red Sox fan, also won over the Japanese media by turning up for meetings in Tokyo wearing a Seibu Lions baseball cap — the Red Sox had just signed pitching star Daisuke Matsuzaka from the Lions. Read more.

Hill learned first lessons in Diplomacy as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, who reached a tentative agreement with North Korea on ending its nuclear programs, was a fresh-faced 21-year-old Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon when he learned his first lesson in diplomacy.

Hill's job in 1973 was to ride around on a Suzuki dirt bike and audit the books of credit unions in 28 villages and plantations. He discovered one board of directors had taken 60 percent of the money, so he gave an impassioned speech denouncing the malfeasance to hundreds of villagers sitting on a mountainside. His presentation was met with applause and gratitude -- and then the assembled group immediately reelected everyone he had just condemned.

"I realized I didn't know beans about what was going on in this tea plantation," Hill recalled over breakfast recently. It turned out the board reflected a careful amalgam of tribal interests, and it didn't matter whether it ran a good credit union or not.

The lesson, according to Hill: "When something's happened, it's happened for a reason and you do your best to understand that reason. But don't necessarily think you can change it." Read more.

Read more about Christopher Hill.

Tony Hall writes: What North Korea really wants

Tony Hall writes: What North Korea really wants
In three decades as a US congressman, ambassador, and now as a humanitarian activist, I have traveled to more than 100 countries, many of them places of hunger, poverty, warfare, or oppression. I have met some of the world's worst despots and witnessed the horror they can create. I also have, as in Libya, witnessed good deeds done by those who are best known for wickedness. I have learned from these experiences that we should persist in our efforts to help the poor and liberate the oppressed. We also should be ready to engage our enemies, give them opportunities to do good – and maybe some day convert them into friends.

The pressure of UN sanctions finally helped lead Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, an international pariah, to seek a new relationship with the civilized world. One fruit of subsequent engagement with him was obtaining a better route for shipping relief supplies to Darfur's starving refugees.

The United States is missing the opportunity to directly engage North Korea in a similar process. As a result, the world is less safe. The North's inflammatory rhetoric and nuclear weapons-rattling don't exactly promote engagement. But I am convinced that, beneath the hostile noise, its leaders want to develop a better relationship with the West, and especially with the US.

I've concluded this because I was able to make six visits to the "Hermit Kingdom" while I was a member of Congress, traveling throughout that troubled country with surprising freedom. On my last visit, in late 2000, I met high-ranking North Korean officials – but not supreme "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il – who begged me to help them come to terms with the US. Some progress had been made in a 1994 agreement that froze North Korea's nuclear-weapons program. In the waning days of the Clinton administration, the North Koreans wanted to build on that. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had traveled to Pyongyang in October 2000, met with Mr. Kim, and told President Clinton he could get an agreement by going to North Korea himself.

I did urge Mr. Clinton to go, but he was focused exclusively on a final, unsuccessful, attempt to broker a Middle East peace. The Bush administration adopted a harder line toward North Korea. But we now know that Kim Jong Il continued to seek the US president's attention, sending a written personal message to President Bush through two well-regarded US foreign-policy experts who visited Pyongyang in 2002. In it, Kim said engagement could lead to a resolution of the nuclear-weapons conflict.

Despite their bravado, North Korea's rulers understand their country's dire straits. They want more help from the West, particularly from the US. Above all, they want the respect and security that they believe would spring from a lasting bilateral relationship with the US, not from the current six-party talks. They're crying for attention, and the only way they know to command it is to fire their missiles and rattle their nuclear bombs.

If the US granted that attention through direct, serious, comprehensive talks with Pyongyang without preconditions, it would have the potential of putting North Korea's nuclear-weapons program back in the freezer. And it might begin to pull the Hermit Kingdom into the community of civilized nations. Read more.

Former Congressman Tony Hall of Ohio, was ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand in the 1960's.

Hill to lead negotations with North Korea after 13-month hiatus

Hill to lead negotations with North Korea after 13-month hiatus
U.S. officials played down the chances of a breakthrough on North Korean disarmament talks, which will start this weekend in Beijing after a 13-month hiatus, but said they will press for tangible signs of progress. In a briefing for reporters on December 13, the chief U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, declined to discuss specific U.S. objectives for the talks, saying that listing them would invite reporters to measure the outcome against the original goals, resulting in possible headlines like "U.S. Fails Once Again." Hill added that when he presented his suggestions at meetings with North Korean officials in November, "there were indications that the North Koreans would be prepared to deal in specifics at the coming round." Christopher R. Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon.