"The Truth" and Shame By El Salvador RPCV gvibe
"The Truth" and Shame By gvibe
Kristy,
These articles are not telling the truth, they are telling part-truths. Thousands of volunteers have had negative experiences, a smaller number than that have had those problems exacerbated by poor PC admin. Over one hundred thousand PCV experiences have been positive. It is so important that the many people who have been abused by the system step out and tell their story, but Carollo's articles are a portrayal of that proportionately small group as the majority.
This series is a slanted opposite extreme, a piece with an agenda at slashing down the Peace Corps with the same "Fair and Balanced" tactics Fox News prides itselves on. There's nothing fair and balanced about this. Tossing out 250 deaths to a public without relaying that 170,000 volunteers have served is irresponsible. Statistics without context is sensationalism. Portraying international citizens as dangerous machete-wielding psychopaths is xenophobic.
Finally, the propaganda in this last piece about RPCVs being some kind of cult who are effectively trying to stomp out anyone who has a grievance is simply untrue. I want to hear these stories, I want answers, reform, I want to see the Peace Corps take a keener responsibility in it's selection of in-country staff. Required pairing up volunteers is ludicrous for many reasons, but the dialogue about it is valuable. These articles do not accomplish that, they try to incite a public outcry in an effort to dismantle the agency.
Your statement, "the articles are not 'his stories', he is not 'hurting the victims', and he is not threatening our dignity by giving details of specific crimes and PCV's lives." Your wrong about this. In his investigation into Carlos Amador his hostile reporting tactics caused us to have to live through Carlos' tragedy again. Carollo slanders Carlos, his family, and all who respect his memory by smearing his name. His aim was not to get the whole story, but his story, how these different tragedies fit into the picture that would cause the most negative sensation, and then he wrote that this was the real story. That's wrong and irresponsible. Why didn't they include the Amadores messages in the response piece written today?
Your axe to grind should be featured, but not overshadow the decades of valuable projects, insight, and profound positive impact that Peace Corps has had around the world.
This statement by the DDN takes the cake:
"'Many volunteers exhibit a kind of selectively healthy mind where they just want to think about the positives,' Hogan said. 'To use an old-fashioned (psychological) phrase, it's a sort of mild hysteria.'"
So the optimism of most volunteers is hysteria?! Perhaps they could come out with a pill to take care of optimism, a prozac for crazy idealists that think they can actually make the world a better place. Optimism is such a rare thing in society these days, maybe it is a psychological disorder.
The only purpose that statement serves is to incite. Well, I'm done with the Dayton Daily News. I refuse to read any more of it's trash, and will boycott all Cox newspapers from now on.
Good luck, Kristy, on your and Russell's mission to slam the Peace Corps at all costs. I hope at some point, you find peace.
El Salvador RPCV
