State Magazine | Issue 523

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE MAGAZINE TranquilTrParaguay’sanquil CharmCharm MAY2008 MAY2008 STATE MAGAZINE | ISSUE 523 12 20 28 Present at Perfectly Post of the Creation Clear the Month The wit and wisdom of Department historians Asunción, Paraguay, Dean Acheson. dig into the Nixon tapes. South America’s Mother of Cities. 20 14 09 Strengthening Ties in Indonesia 36 FEATURES COLUMNS 10 Wings for 26 Up, Up and WAE 3 Letters The Doves Department retirees return for short- Embassy’s DOJ advisers aid special- term assignments. 4 In the News needs students. 40 State of the Arts 34 ART in Algiers 41 Appointments 14 Working Together Confluence: American and Algerian Embassy uses coordination for art converge in Algiers. 41 Retirements cyclone relief. 42 Obituaries 36 Liberated Learning 44 The Last Word 18 Heat of Battle French institution gives U.S. diplomats Embassy remains open during coup. new skills. ON THE COVER Morning sunlight glints on the 24 A Brand-New Era 38 Beating the Heat Paraguay River as it snakes though Family Liaison Office celebrates When temperatures rise, find ways to the countryside near Asunción. 30 years. cool down. Photograph by National Geographic. D.G. HARRY K. THOMAS Office of Employee Relations— Here to Serve You is also where employees with disabilities can request reasonable accommodation to continue to perform the essential functions of their jobs. Judy Ikels’ team in the Employee Programs division makes and interprets policy on family-friendly leave, family and medical leave, flexible work schedules, alternative work schedules, part- time employment and job-sharing options, telework and the voluntary leave transfer program. In addition, EP manages the Student Loan Repayment Program, which provides grants to help eligible employees retire outstanding education loans. Helping to ensure the integrity of the Department’s workforce is the Conduct, Suitability and Discipline division led by Victoria Williams, which is tasked with maintaining service discipline and standards. Let’s take a walk down your career path. You may have joined the Department while just starting your family. At that time, you may seek assistance with child care, adoption services or leave for these purposes. Later in your career, you may find yourself part of the “sandwich” generation, raising your children while providing care for an elder or while seeking your own medical treatment. ER Even before the use of the term “family- will be the place to seek guidance on eligibility under the Family friendly” came into vogue, the Department and Medical Leave Act, which entitles employees to up to 12 of State had been creating and extending weeks of unpaid leave for these purposes. Workplace injuries are services to employees and their families that unpredictable, so ER trains bureau coordinators to be responsible provide the extra support they need to carry and manages liaison with the Department of Labor as necessary. out their professional and personal respon- You may need confidential counseling and referral on how best sibilities. Under the exceptional leadership to manage stress in your personal or professional life. ER may of Jim Forbes, the Office of Employee Rela- refer you to the IQ: “Information Quest” program, a resource and tions develops, implements and promotes referral service, which can link employees to community resources quality of life policies and programs; main- for child and elder care, and provide information related to legal tains human resources regulations; matters, health care and education, for example. ER is also the administers the discipline process; and, repository of expertise on choosing health and life insurance, and through State Magazine, informs employees the newer programs, such as the Long Term Care Insurance about the work and lives of the Program and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts. Department’s greatest asset: its people. If you have been with the Department for a while, you have Headed by Patricia Pittarelli, the Work/ most likely had occasion to call the Office of Employee Relations Life Programs division includes on-site and with questions regarding leave policy or health and life insurance near-site child care centers and resource and benefits. Every Department employee will interact with HR/ER at referral services for child care; the eldercare some time during his or her career at State. Emergency Visitation Travel program, HR/ER is the corporate center established to advise employees which helps employees care for elderly and managers throughout the Department on how to effectively family members by authorizing and funding integrate workplace flexibilities in their own careers, balance their travel to assist parents who are no longer professional and personal lives and foster a workplace that attracts able to live on their own; and a child care and retains committed employees. I encourage you to take advan- subsidy for eligible employees facing the tage of what it has to offer. high cost of child care at the point in their We want to hear your ideas and get your feedback. I welcome careers when their salaries are lowest. WLP your suggestions via unclassified e-mail at “DG Direct.” ■ 2 | STATE MAGAZINE | MAY 2008 Letters Telework Endorsed I just wanted to thank Judy Ikels and your magazine for the timely and needed article on telework (State Magazine, February 2008). Perhaps if more of the “powers that be” read it, they’d realize what a boon telecommuting would be to employees who have little or no public transportation where they live or to their job (especially in Charleston, S.C.) and have to deal with rising gas prices. Charles Ward Commercial Claims Charleston Global Financial Center Exciting Journey from the field and from well down the above all she gave us a conviction that we I am a former creator, author and consular food chain: Throughout her are serving the higher purposes of our editor of the Bureau of Resource Manage- tenure as assistant secretary of consular wide-ranging mission. She helped make ment’s Executive Perspective newsletter. I affairs, Maura was larger than life, strong, the Consular Bureau greater than the sum just want to commend you and thank you warm, generous, rich in wit and wise. In of its many hard-working parts. We now for an exciting journey in the February five short years, she became the dominant serve hundreds of thousands of American 2008 issue of State Magazine. The force in reshaping the bureau into the citizens overseas, millions of visa articles—beginning with the cover story, most dynamic and professional consular applicants and our broad American “Brazil’s Northeast Star–Recife,” all the service in the world. She helped us define “transforming” goals more effectively and way to the end—were enjoyable. It was as and understand our new challenges, and with a greater sense of collective determi- if I were reading a fascinating magazine meet them, despite the greatest series of nation because of her leadership. from a newsstand. Well done! changes in technology, policy and proce- Her retirement is the end of an era, and dure in consular history. She promoted a whatever the future holds, her loss Wanda Washington vibrant esprit de corps and made each of to us is greater than her modesty— Program Analyst us especially proud to be consular officers, another of her strengths—will ever allow Bureau of Resource Management with a pride grounded in our knowledge her to realize. that we are now collectively more profes- Laurels for Harty sional and more effective in our work Mark O’Connor Faced with Maura Harty’s early retire- than ever before. She gave us resources, Deputy Consular Section Chief ment, I want to share a point of view training and close personal attention, and Buenos Aires Let Us Hear from You Via E-mail: [email protected] /// Phone: (202) 663-1700 /// Fax: (202) 663-1769 Mailing Address: 2401 E Street, NW, HR/ER/SMG, SA-1, Room H-236, Washington, DC 20522-0108 Letters should not exceed 250 words and should include the writer’s name, address and daytime phone number. All letters become the property of State Magazine. Letters will be edited for length, accuracy and clarity. Only signed letters will be considered. MAY 2008 | STATE MAGAZINE | 3 NEWS From left, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Avon Chief Executive Andrea Jung listen to a question during the seminar. Meeting of the Minds Seminar Targets Violence Against Women Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a policy priority” for all nations, she said. since the 2003 end of Liberia’s civil war. retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said women are more likely Convictions fall short, however, because O’Connor and Avon Products Chief Exec- to be abused if they are less educated and many victims have no access to a lawyer, utive Officer Andrea Jung addressed a less wealthy. She also called for improved or even a way to get to a courthouse—and March seminar at Main State on ending law enforcement, particularly by adding they have little trust in the system anyway, violence against women. female police officers and judges. she said. “Women too often suffer the most,” “If the face of justice is a man, women She also called for increased funding of Secretary Rice told the audience of nearly are less likely to seek help,” she said. law enforcement, but noted her nation has 100 senior judges and legal practitioners Avon partnered with the Department a long way to go: In one Liberian county gathered in the Loy Henderson on the roundtable meeting. The week there are more than 100,000 people of Auditorium. She noted that one-third of before the seminar, Avon gave $1 million voting age and only 30 police officers.

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