June 27, 2005: Headlines: COS - Uzbekistan: Personal Web Site: malwae says: It's been about 3 years for me dealing with PC, starting from application, through service in Uzbekistan, and now home. During that time I have seen a really unsavory Conservatizing of PC. And I mean conservative in the moral majority right wing family values religous right sense, not the fiscal responsibility sense. The **** that went down in Uzbekistan was a truly spectacular demonstration of how an ideology shift in the White House eventually trickles down to organizations like PC.
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June 27, 2005: Headlines: COS - Uzbekistan: Personal Web Site: malwae says: It's been about 3 years for me dealing with PC, starting from application, through service in Uzbekistan, and now home. During that time I have seen a really unsavory Conservatizing of PC. And I mean conservative in the moral majority right wing family values religous right sense, not the fiscal responsibility sense. The **** that went down in Uzbekistan was a truly spectacular demonstration of how an ideology shift in the White House eventually trickles down to organizations like PC.
malwae says: It's been about 3 years for me dealing with PC, starting from application, through service in Uzbekistan, and now home. During that time I have seen a really unsavory Conservatizing of PC. And I mean conservative in the moral majority right wing family values religous right sense, not the fiscal responsibility sense. The **** that went down in Uzbekistan was a truly spectacular demonstration of how an ideology shift in the White House eventually trickles down to organizations like PC.
Peace Corps announced in May 2005 that it is suspending the Uzbekistan program after the visas of 52 Peace Corps volunteers who arrived in January were not renewed. The suspension comes after a State Department warning that terrorist groups may be planning attacks in Uzbekistan and after the killings in Andizhan earlier in May.
malwae says: It's been about 3 years for me dealing with PC, starting from application, through service in Uzbekistan, and now home. During that time I have seen a really unsavory Conservatizing of PC. And I mean conservative in the moral majority right wing family values religous right sense, not the fiscal responsibility sense. The **** that went down in Uzbekistan was a truly spectacular demonstration of how an ideology shift in the White House eventually trickles down to organizations like PC.
malwae
2005-06-27 20:20 (link)
Well I was wondering when this was going to come up. It's been about 3 years for me dealing with PC, starting from application, through service in Uzbekistan, and now home. During that time I have seen a really unsavory Conservatizing of PC. And I mean conservative in the moral majority right wing family values religous right sense, not the fiscal responsibility sense. The **** that went down in Uzbekistan was a truly spectacular demonstration of how an ideology shift in the White House eventually trickles down to organizations like PC.
Its an unavoidable reality of the nature of Peace Corps, which sends poorly compensated volunteers with foggy job descriptions and minimal training into every corner of the world which is lagging behind and isn't actively involved in a war, that very few policies at the DC level are going to make sense in all circumstances. There simply isn't the manpower, budget, resources, or organizational skill to research every post and decide what is appropriate and what isn't. Just in Uzbekistan, we have two differing viewpoints. c_double served in the middle part of the country, I served in the west. My husband, who was greatly respected and admired in the community, had both a tattoo and piercings. I have a facial peircing, and the only comments I got were envious enquiries about how I got it and requests for me to perform piercings. It was cool because they had seen it on MTV, and Karakalpaks traditionally did facial piercings before the Soviets came in and wholloped them with a dose of Marxist uniformity. Being pierced and tattooed in Karakalpakstan was a big big positive, whereas in c_double's area it would have been a negative. All in the same country.
I completely understand and agree with the emphasis on fitting in. But since the standards of fitting in vary so widely among regions and ethnic groups, these mandates from on high are useless and smack of somebody trying to look busy and prove to Congress that they are enforcing Decency. The tattoo/piercing thing is only marginally applicable when it come down to it. A volunteer's behaviour is far, far more important. From what I've seen, clothing choice and demeanor is much more important than a permanent characteristic like a tattoo. I spent a lot of time in service apologizing profusely for one of the other volunteers who careened through her service with no sense of professionalism in her dress or behaviour with men. In Karakalpakstan, if you insist on wearing tennis shoes to teach your class full of students in full business suits and dress shoes, you will cause far more problems than if you happened to have your lip pierced. And no matter how conservative your haircut, if you get drunk and belligerant people will think far worse of you than if you had the mark of the beast tattooed across you forehead.
And so for recruiting, yes, that does suck. And it will continue to suck (and probably get worse) until there is another ideology shift in the White House, and then it will take some years for PC to relax its rules. I don't envy your job. I doubt this is the end of it.
When this story was posted in June 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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