REGARDING AVI M. SPIEGEL'S IDEAS (AS DESCRIBED IN A RECENT NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE) ON THE POTENTIAL FOR MERGENCE OF PEACE CORPS PRESENCE IN AREAS OF U.S. MILITARY ACTIVITY.

8/31/03

My past articles, posts, and radio show shorts on the general topic of threats to Peace Corps Independence have been mildly to moderately critical of our current Administration's policies on the subject, have at times elicited the written wrath of Peace Corps Washington, and have been typically technically focused and sometimes quite long. This post will be mercifully short, sweet, and to the point.

Avi M. Spiegel's article in the New York Times was just plain wrong. It was, quite frankly, exemplary of the ignorance which is more and more pervasive in U.S. culture; not so exemplary of ignorance in general -- but rather, most specifically representative of popular U.S. culture's ignorance of the growth of the worship of commodity. From the decline of journalism via embeddedment, to the failed attempts by our government to create an army of citizen informants through a program known as TIPs, to the recent attempt by Avi Speigel through journalism and the media to promulgate an idea of the mergence of Peace Corps with military efforts, a deference to a form of imperialism driven by an obsession with commodity lies at the root of the journalistic psychology of an increasing number of workers within mass media organizations.

These workers and representatives of mass media have come full circle in terms of the application of their commodity worship; first by being (like all of us) consumers and thus natural participants in a world for which economic stability rests in the protection of resource extraction, second, by wilfully promoting an agenda of a temporary political entity which obdurately pursues a goal of singular mode of resource extraction on the global level, and thirdly and finally by propagating and promulgating a dogma that would have the rest of worldwide society adapt to this goal through increasing conformity to militarism.

If, as Avi Spiegel states, "the sole face of America is too often the face of a soldier," then let us have less of the soldier, and let us never delude ourselves into believing that the goals of the peacemaker can be the same as, or even compatible with, the goals of an imperial dreadnought.

by: Mr. Colin G. Gallagher, RPCV (El Salvador)
Board Representative (MB / SC Contingent)
NorCal Peace Corps Association

cc: Avi M. Spiegel

By gregory (205-252-188-60.aed.org - 205.252.188.60) on Tuesday, March 02, 2004 - 3:49 pm: Edit Post

Dear Sir/Madam,
I have an extremely important favor to ask you. I am currently working for one of the biggest NGO non-profit Social DEvelopment organization in thh world, and am developping a huge and very unique project regarding Arab Youth and the relationship US-Middle East.
It happens that this projects entirely matches and corresponds with one of the articles that you published 2 years ago:
November 24, 2002 - USA Today: Morocco RPCV Avi Spiegel says "U.S. should talk with Arab youth, not at them"
I really need to get in touch with his author as soon as possible, and was wondering if you could help me with that.
Thank you so much again for your consideration.
Sincerely,