2011.01.26: January 26, 2011: Rajeev Goyal writes: It's Time for the Peace Corps Administration to Wake Up and Reform
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2011.01.26: January 26, 2011: Rajeev Goyal writes: It's Time for the Peace Corps Administration to Wake Up and Reform
Rajeev Goyal writes: It's Time for the Peace Corps Administration to Wake Up and Reform
The new Peace Corps leadership, has had two years to bring reform but has not delivered. Many people have researched and documented what needs to be done but Peace Corps has not listened. Even in terms of growth, Peace Corps has announced it will stall out at just 9,500 volunteers. Rather than challenge the Obama Administration when it issued a directive to freeze the number of volunteers, they followed suit and did what they were told. Sarge never would have done that, especially if he had a third of the United States Congress endorsing a $100 million increase in 2012. He would have called everyone he knew in power to challenge that directive. While it's true he had the advantage of being President Kennedy's brother-in-law, we all have advantages in life but the question is whether we learn to use them. From this point on, I will challenge the Peace Corps admin itself to deliver substantial and major reforms within the next 6 months. We will lobby the Peace Corps Director as hard as we push the Congress. I call on all people working within the agency to write me (rajeev@pushforpeacecorps.org) to tell me what problems you see and how they can be fixed. I will post your comments anonymously here and on PeaceCorpsWorldwide.org. If Peace Corps does not reform soon, we will call you out. Sarge would have wanted it that way.
Rajeev Goyal writes: It's Time for the Peace Corps Administration to Wake Up and Reform
It's Time for the Peace Corps Administration to Wake Up and Reform
by Rajeev Goyal, National Coordinator, PushforPeaceCorps.org Campaign
Posted: January 25, 2011 04:34 PM
Last week, Sargent Shriver, President Kennedy's brother-in-law, passed away, at the age of 95. President Clinton said at the funeral that Sarge was the living embodiment of Kennedy's quintessential challenge, "Ask not what your country can do for you." President Obama described the founding father of the Peace Corps as "the brightest light of the greatest generation." As awe-inspiring as the man being eulogized were his five children, Bobby, Tim, Mark, Tony and Maria, who have helped millions through the Special Olympics, Save the Children, and the One Campaign. As I watched the funeral on my laptop in Kathmandu, I thought to myself, this is no ordinary family.
Without Shriver's genius and boundless energy, Kennedy's 1960 campaign promise to create the Peace Corps, would have been a hollow dream. Shriver was its master builder. He crafted the Peace Corps at lightening speed by drafting the sharpest, grittiest minds in America onto his staff. If there were problems hurting the volunteers, he wanted to know. If something needed to be done, he got on a plane and did it. He was the best kind of leader, one that viewed rules as dispensable if they obstructed the ideals they were meant to realize. In just 5 years, he had 15,000 volunteers on the ground in nearly 50 nations, and Peace Corps was the darling of the American media. It was at once America's culture and counter-culture. It was a political statement against war but existed outside the breaking dichotomy of party politics. It was the rare label that even those against the establishment embraced.
Though I never met Sarge, I know he would have wanted us to use his passing away as a chance to propel the Peace Corps to greatness again. Before he developed Alzheimer's disease which he fought with incredible grace, he spoke at Yale University in 2002 as a vociferous critic of the Peace Corps, saying it had not gone far enough and had become mired in bureaucracy and protocols.
As an example of the lackluster administration of Peace Corps, even today, it takes nearly a year to get in. Peace Corps loses thousands of qualified candidates by making them wait a near-eternity for an acceptance. It's time for us to challenge the agency itself, as Sarge did, even as we advocate for greater funding.
The new Peace Corps leadership, has had two years to bring reform but has not delivered. Many people have researched and documented what needs to be done but Peace Corps has not listened. Even in terms of growth, Peace Corps has announced it will stall out at just 9,500 volunteers. Rather than challenge the Obama Administration when it issued a directive to freeze the number of volunteers, they followed suit and did what they were told. Sarge never would have done that, especially if he had a third of the United States Congress endorsing a $100 million increase in 2012. He would have called everyone he knew in power to challenge that directive. While it's true he had the advantage of being President Kennedy's brother-in-law, we all have advantages in life but the question is whether we learn to use them.
One of the things that has frustrated me in this campaign is the lack of tolerance for subtlety and nuance within Congress and the media. I feel we can advocate for both robust growth and robust reform of the administration, and now is the time to shift in that direction. If anything, the problems should highlight the need for better funding, rather than obviate that need.
I along with thousands of others have been a champion of expanding the Peace Corps budget and remain so. Considering how much federal money is squandered, it's pitiful that we spend just $400 million a year on the Peace Corps, which is basically equal to the budget of the army marching band. As one Republican Senator said to me, we should sell an F-22 military plane and give that money to Peace Corps volunteers. It's condemnable that President Obama promised to double the budget to $750 million by the 50th anniversary in 2011 and did nothing. However, from this point on, I will also challenge the Peace Corps admin itself to deliver substantial and major reforms within the next 6 months. We will lobby the Peace Corps Director as hard as we push the Congress. I call on all people working within the agency to write me (rajeev@pushforpeacecorps.org) to tell me what problems you see and how they can be fixed. I will post your comments anonymously here and on PeaceCorpsWorldwide.org. If Peace Corps does not reform soon, we will call you out.
Sarge would have wanted it that way.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: January, 2011; Nepal RPCV Rajeev Goyal; Figures; Peace Corps Nepal; Directory of Nepal RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Nepal RPCVs; Expansion
When this story was posted in January 2011, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| How Volunteers Remember Sarge As the Peace Corps' Founding Director Sargent Shriver laid the foundations for the most lasting accomplishment of the Kennedy presidency. Shriver spoke to returned volunteers at the Peace Vigil at Lincoln Memorial in September, 2001 for the Peace Corps 40th. "The challenge I believe is simple - simple to express but difficult to fulfill. That challenge is expressed in these words: PCV's - stay as you are. Be servants of peace. Work at home as you have worked abroad. Humbly, persistently, intelligently. Weep with those who are sorrowful, Care for those who are sick. Serve your wives, serve your husbands, serve your families, serve your neighbors, serve your cities, serve the poor, join others who also serve," said Shriver. "Serve, Serve, Serve. That's the answer, that's the objective, that's the challenge." |
| Support Independent Funding for the Third Goal The Peace Corps has always neglected the third goal, allocating less than 1% of their resources to "bringing the world back home." Senator Dodd addressed this issue in the "Peace Corps for the 21st Century" bill passed by the US Senate and Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter proposed a "Peace Corps Foundation" at no cost to the US government. Both are good approaches but the recent "Comprehensive Assessment Report" didn't address the issue of independent funding for the third goal at all. |
| Memo to Incoming Director Williams PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams |
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Story Source: Huffington Post
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Nepal; Expansion; More Peace Corps
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