Peace Corps: Spreading Peace or 'Study-Abroad' program?

Great Debates
1

I always felt like Peace Corps was sort of like a study abroad/trendy thing to do when I was in high school and college. So in light of this article about PC and assault, my ‘skeptic’ meter shot through the roof this morning.

If I were a parent and my daughter wanted to join the Peace Corps, I may sleep a little better thinking she was ‘safer’ than if she were with some abc NGO in xyz country.

errr–mebbe naaaah.

:mad:

I know the Peace Corps can help prepare you for careers and programs and it looks great on a grad school resume, but…is it worth it anymore? Could we be spending that on something else in regards to education? (yes, I understand it’s part of the foreign operations budget, but let’s get real about the benefits here. it (mostly) helps you prepare for public service or public policy type careers. and whatever ‘good’ we do overseas is probably killed by our poor PR.)

It looks like 2012 funding may be around $440 million. That isn’t a lot, but it still counts.

Americorps is great if your major/time to train/time to volunteer allows for it and I really wish I could’ve participated and gotten $5000 of my tuition bill knocked off, but at least that program seems to be somewhat effective.

2

Returned Peace Corps volunteer here (keep in mind I am speaking for myself personally, and my views do not reflect Peace Corps or the US Government.)

Frankly, I find this line of thinking offensive and degrading.

You are absolutely right that being a Peace Corps volunteer (PCV) is not exceptionally safe. We live in extremely poor places, and we are obviously much richer than most people in our communities. Our unfamiliarity with the culture also makes us easy targets. Living in a remote, impoverished place brings with it some natural risks. Now, I think you can easily find that level of risk in the US- you’d probably face something similar if you taught in an inner city, for example. But the risk is there and it is very real.

But we are, every single one of us, over 18 (and 99% are college grads) and are able to weigh risks. PCVs are doing a job. They are not at summer camp. They are not children. They are adults who have freely chosen to do a job that entails some risk.

Potential PCVs are able to read the ample publicly available information and make decisions based on it. Peace Corps publishes results from entirely anonymous crime surveys that break down all incidents by country. This is all anonymous and self-reported, so there isn’t a lot of room for covering that up. The information is there. If you move halfway across the world without knowing what you are getting in to, that’s your problem.

Logistically, it is not Peace Corps job to provide us with perfect security. We live in distant places. I lived a solid three days of travel from the Peace Corps headquarters. They cannot be my protective daddy. What Peace Corps does do is provide fairly good safety training that is based on decades of experience. We also get excellent language and cultural training, so that we can become a part of our community- developing friends, connections, and allies in our communities is our number one safety resource.

We are also briefed on emergency evacuation plans, in the event of a natural disaster or emergency. These plans tend to work pretty well. In China after the Sichuan earthquake, they found all of their PCVs in affected areas within a couple hours. In Cameroon, we had to evoke emergency measures a couple of times and it went smoothly.

Our communities are expected to provide us housing that meets safety requirements (which are decided by country.) In Cameroon we were required to be near other houses, have bars on our windows, have a secure ceiling, and have at least one room with a steel door. We are also given safety rules and guidelines- in Cameroon we were not allowed to be on the roads at night, our travel outside our communities was limited and closely monitored, We were strongly advised to avoid certain cities and banned from certain areas. We also got regular security updates from the security advisor keeping us abreast of local and national events as best she could inform us.

What more do they expect them to do? Volunteer safety is ultimately in volunteer hands, and PCVs are adults who can make these decisions. I know the 20/20 special goes on and on about a girl who said over the course of months that she felt unsafe in her community and eventually was raped. If she felt unsafe for so long, she should have left. It’s you who is going to get raped, not Peace Corps. You need to protect yourself, not expect others to take care of you.

When my house got robbed, I did what adults do- I fixed the problem. I went to the market and bought a new lock, and had a blacksmith weld some new bars on my windows (Peace Corps will compensate security expenses.) Then I went to the mayor and told him that if he was going to run the kind of town where people rob their teachers, he needed to find someone to guard my house when I was at school. He hired a nice kid from the villages to watch my place while I was out. Problem solved- no need to wonder why Peace Corps didn’t save me from robbers.

The simple truth is that most of the volunteers who run into trouble are in alcohol-related incidents, which is something we are warned about over and over and over again. I believe it was even an official rule that we were not supposed to get drunk, but how can you enforce that? All you can do is strongly suggest it. If you integrate into the community, avoid getting sloshed with strangers, and be careful about where you go at night you have just done a ton to protect your safety.

I suspect most of this “scandal” is simple paternalism towards women (which is also why I think Peace Corps skews towards women.) Your 25 year old son wants to see the world? Here’s a plane ticket, try not to get anyone knocked up. Your 25 year old daughter wants to do the same? Oh no, honey, it’s ssooooo dangerous.

3

Wow. These women were upset at the lack of help they received. Sorry they didn’t take care of it like grownups do?

:confused:

4

I don’t see anything in that article that implies that sexual assault is more common in the Peace Corps than it is in the US.

That said, it seems that the Corps could do a better job of responding to these cases, and I would likely support the legislation proposed by Rep. Tsongas.

When these cases are used as a reason to de-fund the Corps, that’s when I get off the train.

5

Peace Corps is their boss. It is not their daddy. It is not their masked avengers. It is the organization that employs them. And it employs them in somewhat dangerous places where support is limited by logistics. Bad stuff will happen. It comes with the territory.

I’m not speaking out of my ass. I got robbed. I got mugged. Some assholes broke three of my vertebrae in a violent attack. Then a different asshole saw me laying paralyzed in the street and tried to rape me (I talked him out of it, in part because of my awesome Peace Corps language training- thanks guys!)

This happened, in part, because I took some very stupid chances with my safety and was in a completely stupid part of town for me to be in at a completely stupid time for me to be out in the morning. I was warned, over and over again, not to do stupid stuff like that. I am very surprised I did not get kicked out, which is what normally happens to volunteers who show themselves unwilling or unable to take responsibility for their safety. I probably deserved to get kicked out. It’s not a college campus out there- it’s a rough world.

Peace Corps did the best they could to respond, especially given that they were operating three days away from me. I got to the doctors, who provided me the best care available in the area (which wasn’t great.) I got to the local police, who essentially laughed in my face. That’s how the police there work. What do I expect? Them to send in the FBI? Rearrange the entire “justice” system of a foreign country? Yell at them and tell them to be nicer to me? It’s a foreign country. It’s their system. I got the same treatment any local would have gotten, where do I get off expecting more?

I also get free follow-up care for life if it is needed (luckily, there were no lasting injuries in my case.) If I had asked for (and I probably did need it) I could have gotten free psychological care for as long as I needed it. If I had more time in my service, they would have probably sent me to DC, in a hotel and on a stipend, for a month to spend time with councillors and make sure I was stable before giving me the option to return to the field. Would your job give you that?

Most injured or assaulted PCVs do choose to return to the field. Most have positive experiences, despite the very real difficulties. I know people who faced attacks far worse than my own. Some have very legitimate criticisms of how their case was handled. In most cases this is because they are in fairly misogynist countries, where rape trials are impossible to win and made as traumatic as possible for the victim. What can Peace Corps realistically do about that? They can’t magically make a foreign country a safe and fair place for Americans.

The recent press has been forcing some very real soul-searching in the agency, and they are reworking how they handle things. And it was probably time for that to be done.

But this idea of “oooooohhhhh we can’t send our poor helpless daughters to get raped by foreigners” is insulting to women and insulting to the brave volunteers who work hard at their jobs despite the risks. It’s a difficult and occasionally dangerous job. It’s also a potentially very rewarding one. Nobody is forcing anyone to do it and you are free to leave at any time. The information regarding crime in Peace Corps is publicly available.

6

That - what you bolded - is what the problem is. I don’t know if your likelihood of getting sexually assaulted is higher. I do know that rates of sexual assault is higher in some places compared to others.

So do you think it’s ok for Democrats (hypothetically) back off the bill since it may be used against the Peace Corps? :dubious:

I question the Peace Corps’ efficiency and purpose in the year 2011 with or without this article. This morning it just made me go, Gggggggggggggggggaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.

(I think that was the exact sound)

7

It’s also a government-funded organization that supposedly serves a foreign policy purpose.

That’s awesome for you. It has nothing to do with the rape of women. Don’t make it like it’s their fault. Kay? Thanks.

I didn’t say that. But I would think, that as a g/o, the PC would respond better to such things. At any rate, I find the PC as it stands to be useless in today’s foreign policy.

Either rework the program or junk it.

8

On what basis do you think it is “useless”, and what does this have to do with the current sensationalism that you tried to link it to?

As a soft diplomacy program, it doesn’t get any better (or cheaper.) Peace Corps volunteers affect millions of people in over 100 countries and replaces their images of the US as a hostile world aggressors with images of smiling, mostly young, mostly female people who are mostly making friends and teaching people stuff they want to learn. It builds an incredible amount of good will, not just among ordinary people, but among future leaders in places the US normally wouldn’t bother with, but may one day need good relations with. For example, think about how nice it is to have good relations with Niger now that both uranium and Al Queda are factors.

On our side, PC trains the next generation of state department officers, aid workers, and (indirectly- there is no direct relation and there are strict rules limiting contact) intelligence. PCVs are typically ambitious young people who are headed to leadership positions- they are not a bunch of hippies, they are largely headed towards MBAs, JDs or professional MA/MS degrees. It is good for our government to have so many people with a diversity of on-the-ground know-how to work with. When we have a crisis in any given little country, we have a base of people who speak these crazy little languages, understand the cultural nuance and have some idea of what’s happening on the street. It’s a great program for identifying and cultivating talent, and brings a lot into our country that direct improves all of our safety sand security.

As a grassroots development program, it may have more mixed reviews. But when it works, it works.

These are just the most obvious ways PC benefits the American people, but there are many more. PC makes our country smarter, more diverse, more respected and by extension safer.

9

Wow. Women are talking about sexual assault and it’s sensationalist? What misogynist rat hole did you crawl out of? Jesus!

PC was created as a way to spread the US image and (weirdly) combat Communism. Our foreign policy now is focused on terrorism. How does PC help fight that ideology?

10

Hang on… what do you mean, “if?” I thought you were a parent?

11

Speaking as someone who really, really doesn’t like the US state in general, I really quite like the Peace corps. If more US foreign policy intervention was like the Corps or USAID and less like the USMC or SOA, I’d be a lot more favourable to the US. And while I am not currently in a position to say much, I am politically active in my country and who knows where I’ll be in 10 years time? So no, not useless.

12

Just like with Communism, the idea was to give people a real idea of Americans in contrast to how they were portrayed in propaganda or the media. Same idea with terrorism. Practically speaking, a significant number of Peace Corps Volunteers teach English, which if nothing else opens up a whole new world of global possibilities to the kids learning it.

Look, Peace Corps is not perfect but they sure get your ass out of the country fast if you need an abortion and they are much more competent then many other organizations (Fulbright XXXXX Country, I’m talking about you). An earlier poster made a great point about the reality of being in a justice/legal system in another part of the world.

13

The tone of an article could be sensationalist whil still discussing a serious issue. I mean, c’mon, “treatment…worse than the rape” is just heated language. I’ve been raped, no amount of indifference or victim-blaming is actually going to be worse, even if such statements are good at getting attention. I bet if you ask Ms Koenen she’d rather be being interviewed by a PC councillor than being raped in Niger, actually.

14

Do you care to answer my question about the relevance of Peace Corp’s internal response to volunteers being raped connects in any way to their ability to provide value to the US and to the world?

Unless you are trying to argue that the lack of adequate post-sexual-assault counseling is a pivotal factor in your assessment of the agency as “useless,” then there was really not much reason for you to bring it up beyond the opportunity it gives you to capitalize on the scandal of the minute. Again, can you provide some reasons why you believe the agency is “useless” and what that has to do with the story you linked to prominently in your OP?

Oh gee, I don’t know. I can’t imagine my spending two years as a respected public figure and personal friend of many in a Muslim village- the sort of place where people buy Osama Bin Laden watches- made any positive impact at all.

I’m sure when my friends were robbed with assault rifles in their homes by “Nigerian Taliban,” their village was not at all impressed with their decision to finish their service in their (Muslim) village. They had too many friends in the village, and the classrooms they had worked tirelessly to bring to the community were just being built. They said it wasn’t their community’s fault that some assholes tried to rob them. But I’m sure that left no lasting impression at all, and didn’t earn anyone some brownie points for America and hisses and boos for the “Nigerian Taliban.”

I fought terrorism every day. Have you ever done that?

The connection to Communism isn’t “weird” at all. Peace Corps volunteers are healthy, young (or retired and thus wise), educated, idealistic advertisements for the American way of life. The Soviets might have built them some dams, but we sent them blondes in Levis. That’s how you win a cold war.

15

You do know that sven is, in fact, a woman, right? And her quoted text was talking about someone wanting to rape her. Does she not get to have an opinion unless he succeeded or something?

16

hypothetical “I have a daughter joining the Peace Corps” scenario. bad wordage!
I’m not saying that PC doesn’t do a service - I’m asking if it really does the service we are requesting. And why is it that countries who really could use our service don’t have programs? Brazil comes to mind.

Like I said: Either rework the program or scrap it. This half assed thing we’re doing now would only prohibit real cost effective programs in the future.

17

Isn’t she talking about women in the Peace Corps who were raped? :confused: And how is her attitude about ‘bad decisions’ in any way helpful?

18

The bill in question is sponsored by a Democrat. It certainly doesn’t seem like the party as a whole has a position on it either way. Clearly in today’s budget climate, when things like Planned Parenthood are under budgetary attack, it is useful to be aware of what may be targeted to keep those oil subsidies in place.

I understand your questioning, but so far the only evidence you provided of its efficiency and purpose was this article, which you concede doesn’t provide any evidence that women are more at risk in the corps than elsewhere.

19

I was 1.) reflecting the speculative opinion that the Times wrote and 2.) Speculating on a hypothetical (and probable) reaction to the bill in response to the poster’s statement. I was not implying that the party had a position, just that some members may not support in what is a traditional Dem stance on something.

If the party DID have a position like that, I’d change my registration and get back into active politics.

I didn’t aim to provide evidence to my claim when I cited the article. The article just pushed old PC criticism to the front again because I was reminded of it.

I had speculation of its effectiveness regardless - and then later said that, if the policy goals of PC are to do serve as a foreign policy initiative, then PC needs to be reformed.

If an organization is set out to promote positive US image and prevent the spread of terrorism (as would be in 2011), then it’s almost impossible for me to prove it ineffective. I can only to look at their incredulous goals and state (quite obviously), that I don’t see the goals being met as the program is laid out now. So if someone can tel me that PC is effective in meeting its goals, I’d be happy to listen.

20

This is a really weird requirement. The US has so many foreign policy interests other than terrorism, why would only that one matter?