September 8, 2002 - Go Memphis: Malaysia RPCV Michael P. Sabas says Afghans should get more than baseball

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Speaking Out: January 23, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Speaking Out (1 of 5) : Peace Corps: Speaking Out: September 8, 2002 - Go Memphis: Malaysia RPCV Michael P. Sabas says Afghans should get more than baseball

By Admin1 (admin) on Sunday, October 20, 2002 - 4:56 pm: Edit Post

Malaysia RPCV Michael P. Sabas says Afghans should get more than baseball





Recently, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference on Afghanistan. A key point he stressed related to what he called positive changes that have occurred for Afghan children since the United States intervened there. Rumsfeld said these children now can go to school, and at the end of the school day they play baseball.

Read and comment on this op-ed piece from Go Memphis by RPCV Michael P. Sabas who served in Malaysia in the 1960's and says Afghans should get more than baseball.

By that he means that the young people he served with in the Peace Corps were well meaning, as he had been while in Malaysia, and saw themselves as being very different from the typical American. After all, we were going into the "developing world" to help "lesser developed" peoples of foreign countries to advance somehow. What most of us didn't realize was that we really were teaching purely American values to folks who may or may not have wanted to adopt those values.

Most Peace Corps volunteers, however, returned to the United States much more changed than the people they served. We learned there were a lot of different values and customs out there, and some of them might even be superior to our ''American values." And we learned what our values really meant, not only to others but, more important, to ourselves.

Read the op-ed piece at:


Afghans should get more than baseball*

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



Afghans should get more than baseball

September 8, 2002

Recently, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference on Afghanistan. A key point he stressed related to what he called positive changes that have occurred for Afghan children since the United States intervened there. Rumsfeld said these children now can go to school, and at the end of the school day they play baseball.

Guest columnist Michael P. Saba of Cordova is a consultant in international business development and has served as a special adviser to the International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research, a nonprofit organization that assists cancer care and treatment in lower-income countries.

There's nothing wrong with playing baseball. I played it when I was a kid, and I follow the major league scores and standings with a passion. But is Rumsfeld really serious? Is that why we liberated Afghanistan, so Afghan kids can play baseball?

Most Americans would have responded favorably to Rumsfeld's comment about baseball. Not so much because it is baseball but because it is as American as the proverbial Mom and apple pie.

America is a nation of immigrants. And as immigrants we brought many customs from many different countries and cultures. During our social evolution, we started to develop some unique American institutions. Baseball is one of them.

Americans are well meaning. We live in a land of many opportunities. We want to pass our ideas and lifestyle on to the rest of the world. Most of us think that once the rest of the world learns about our lifestyle and our institutions, it will quickly rush to adopt our ways.

IN THE MID-1960s, after I completed a two-year stint in the American Peace Corps in Malaysia, I returned to the United States and became a Peace Corps trainer. I trained American volunteers to go to Kenya, Mala wi, Somalia, Swaziland and Malay sia. These mostly young people were well meaning, as I had been while in Malaysia, and saw themselves as being very different from the typical American. After all, we were going into the "developing world" to help "lesser developed" peoples of foreign countries to advance somehow. What most of us didn't realize was that we really were teaching purely American values to folks who may or may not have wanted to adopt those values.

Most Peace Corps volunteers, however, returned to the United States much more changed than the people they served. We learned there were a lot of different values and customs out there, and some of them might even be superior to our ''American values." And we learned what our values really meant, not only to others but, more important, to ourselves.

America has a lot to share with the rest of the world. I take great pride in many achievements of our society. Among them is the Peace Corps. There are now almost 170,000 returned Peace Corps volunteers back in the United States.

Since the inception of the Peace Corps more than 40 years ago under John F. Kennedy, these tens of thousands of American men and women have served their country in scores of nations. The ranks of returned Peace Corps volunteers include a U.S. senator, eight members of Congress, the governor of Ohio and numerous CEOs of major U.S. corporations.

And almost all of these returned volunteers brought more back to the United States than they gave. They brought back a new understanding of not only what America can give, but also of what America can receive from the rest of the world.

I REMEMBER being asked by my students in Malaysia about this strange game of baseball. Was it like cricket or soccer? Was it as interesting as uniquely Malaysian sports such as top-spinning or sepak raga, a game played by kicking a small, soft ball over a net?

I obtained a baseball through an American friend and brought it to my school one day. I used a piece of lumber as a bat. After I spent a couple of hours trying to teach the kids the fundamentals of baseball, I gave up. They kept trying to stop the ball with their feet instead of their hands.

I decided to take up soccer, one of their national pastimes, and in the process I learned more about Malaysians than I could have ever learned had I continued teaching baseball to them. They played sports much more as a form of cooperation than as a competition to win.

Donald Rumsfeld and I certainly might enjoy going to a baseball game and cheering for the Chicago White Sox or Chicago Cubs. But I hope we can find something more valuable to leave behind in Afghanistan than the legacy of American baseball.



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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Speaking Out; COS - Malaysia; COS - Afghanistan

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