January 3 - RPCVs of Uzbekistan listserv: Save PC Uzbekistan!

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Headlines: Peace Corps Headlines - 2002: 01 January 2002 Peace Corps Headlines: January 3 - RPCVs of Uzbekistan listserv: Save PC Uzbekistan!

By Admin1 (admin) on Thursday, January 03, 2002 - 9:19 am: Edit Post

Save PC Uzbekistan!





Read and comment on this email from an Uzbek 11 volunteer who returned to Uzbekistan to work after the evacuation. The email has has been circulating on rpcv listservs and can be read at:

Save PC Uzbekistan!*

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.



Save PC Uzbekistan!

it's pretty sad news about peace corps. i was in the office in tashkent yesterday and the mood was grim. turns out that since there is no peace corps director, there is no one to make hard decisions so the office will close. also since there is no director, there is a hiring freeze.

one suggestion if you are at all interested. one reason they are closing is because they are afraid recruitment will be bad due to the proximity to afghanistan and due to the horrible and biased news coverage that makes it appear war is going on here. apparently, peace corps washington did not even take into account that many volunteers who were already HERE may wish to return and are not afraid or worried. SO, if that is the case and there are a certain amount of volunteers who want to come back here, start a letter writing campaign to the DC office, start a phoning campaign, sell it to them that you want to come back. then maybe they'll reconsider opening the program earlier for volunteers who were already here. it's a suggestion and the only one I can think of to help these wonderful people keep their jobs.

if anyone is on the mass list for all volunteers and could send this around, thanks!

let me know if you think it's feasible.



Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

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By Admin1 (admin) on Saturday, January 12, 2002 - 10:09 pm: Edit Post

In aftermath of 911, Peace Corps hopes to reopen its programs in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan





Read and comment on this excerpt from the Riverside Press Enterprise published in Riverside California in which Peace Corps spokeswoman Ellen Field said the Peace Corps hopes to reopen its programs in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and that volunteers also might be assigned to Afghanistan if invited by the new government. Read the story at:

In aftermath of 911, Peace Corps hopes to reopen its programs in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan*

* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.



In aftermath of 911, Peace Corps hopes to reopen its programs in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

Jan 10, 2002 - Press-Enterprise Riverside CA Author(s): Sharyn Obsatz

Ed Cho, 23, of Diamond Bar was among 311 volunteers evacuated back to the United States from Central Asia in September as a safety precaution.

Cho had taught English in the small, drought-plagued agricultural town of Yoleten, just three hours from Afghanistan. Volunteers were barred from visiting Afghanistan, where the Peace Corps ended its programs when the Soviets invaded in 1979.

Cho, a Christian, became close friends with a Muslim co-worker from Turkmenistan, a 25-year-old history teacher named Arslan Akmurador. The area is mostly Muslim, although decades of Soviet communist rule discouraged Islamic practice.

"They were raised believing there was no God," he said. "They would eat pork, drink vodka" -- both Islamic taboos.

Cho said he watched the Sept. 11 attacks on Russian-language television.

"We had no idea it was a terrorist bombing. We just thought it was a fire," he said.

Cho and fellow volunteers were pulled from their sites and evacuated 10 days later. Turkmenistan has a longstanding animosity toward Afghanistan, he said, but "we would have been an easy target if (someone) wanted to get vengeance."

"I really didn't get to say a proper goodbye to anybody but my counterpart," Cho said. "He actually apologized. He said, 'This was really stupid. I don't know why these crazy people did this.' He was very sad, I could tell."

Peace Corps spokeswoman Ellen Field said the organization hopes to reopen its programs in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. She said volunteers also might be assigned to Afghanistan if invited by the new government.

In the long run, Cho said, organizations like the Peace Corps will be more effective than the military in lowering anti-U.S. feelings in Islamic countries.

"There's so many misconceptions about Americans all over the world," said Cho, whose family immigrated to the United States from South Korea when he was 7. "Americans are people too. We're not some tyrant overseas superpower trying to exploit them at every turn. . . . I think America has done a lot to help the world."



Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.

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By Karl Tarbox (adsl-230-140-230.gnv.bellsouth.net - 74.230.140.230) on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 - 12:26 pm: Edit Post

Unfortunately, as wondeful as the individual efforts on Peace Corps Volunteer have been in the Former Soviet Union, the idea that the United States is acting in an imperialistic fashion is not completely unjustified.


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