Houston, We Have a Problem & (How Peace Corps Volunteers' make for the best American Propoganda)

Looking Back to Georgia


I don't know how many people heard that on Friday last week a car bomb went off in South Ossetia, killing three civilians and eight Russian soldiers, including a senior officer.

The U.S. is understandably concerned about other things right now.

Here's why I think it's important: any flair up that occurs in any corner of the world (and Pakistan and Afghanistan are powderkegs at the moment as well - Pakistani troops firing on American planes? Holy Crap!) could radically change the outcome of the election.

After I wrote my original post on the Georgia/Russia conflict, I had some interesting discussions with a few of you. Some folks thought that I was misinformed, getting spun information - that Russia was the provocateur, Georgia this haven of democracy.

Colin Powell agrees with me: Georgia started it. And Human Rights Watch agrees with me as well: Georgia's democratic freedoms have been slipping away with the Saakashvili administration.

With this most recent attack, Georgia is accusing Russia of engineering the whole thing so that they would have an excuse not to withdraw. Russia blames the Georgian secret police.

I'm not going to speculate on who's to blame; I don't think you could call either administration all that trustworthy.

But it's not exactly a good "sitch," as the kids say, for people in countries with disputed territories supported by Russia.

Like Moldova.


And I'll tell you something that makes this a whole lot worse...

All CIS countries (former soviet states, still strongly linked to Russia) are pumped full of Russian TV, and Russian "news."

Recently, there was a show on here that was showing pictures of President Bush, juxtaposed with Hitler. This was a propaganda piece being passed off as news, saying WE provoked the Ossetian conflict, saying that WE caused the death of all the Ossetians, saying that WE got Saakashvili elected, and that as a country our leaders were just as bad as a man who started WWII and introduced the world to mechanized mass murder.

Pretty crazy.



The Peace Corps and the Propoganda Machine


So the second goal of Peace Corps is to "Help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served."

We're supposed to be mini-Ambassadors - in a way more true ambassadors, of America than any foreign service worker, because we don't live in a gated community on embassy row. The whole structure of PC is based upon living in the communities we're placed with, on becoming part of the community, on gaining trust and acceptance. Learning the native language, eating the local food....

PCVolunteer's - those that actually stick to their committment and stay the full 27 months are strongly respected for the work they do - even if they don't end up getting much done. Because people here are used to broken promises, and shocked that someone would stick around... with them... for two years.

Because I work for an umbrella organization, I've visited villages who have had volunteers in the past, and those that have had good experiences cannot talk enough about "their" American, and everything "their" American did and oh, do I know "their" American?

But those that didn't have a good experience give off a vastly different vibe. It's "that" American didn't learn the language. "That" American left after a month. "That" American never came out of his room.

I think a PCV who leaves a small village for no good reason probably does more to hurt the reputation of America than the propoganda machine of Russia does.

Dramatic? Yes. But people know that Russia exagerates and has an agenda. These face to face contacts with the "Corpul Pacii Voluntarii Americii" leaves a much greater impression on the general populace.

President Bush said (before he, you know, cut the funding of the program :P )

"Peace Corps volunteers don't carry our culture; they carry universal values and principles that are so incredibly important for all mankind."

Next time anybody dares to call me a hippy, I'm so gonna say that George W Bush called me an exporter of universal values necessary for the good of mankind...

But 150 people combatting the Russian spin and propoganda that reaches into probably 95% of Moldovan homes? That's a challenge. In total around the world, there's only about 8,000 PCVs.

Not exactly a large number to be, you know, carrying these universal American values and principles around the world.

I'm not saying. I'm just saying.