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July-An gust 1998 I Vol. 75, No. 7-8

COVER COLUMNS

Focus ON SUMMER FICTION PRESIDENT’S VIEWS / 5 18 / THE PROPER WAY How the OIG Can Regain Our Trust Even Infidels Should Know Better By Dan Geisler Than to Behave Rudely on a Visit. SPEAKING OUT / 15 By Joseph Salvo A Response to the Inspector General 24 / FRENCH FRIES AND GRAVY By Daniel M. Hirsch Accounting for Taste: Paris Was POSTCARD FROM ABROAD / 68 Seducing Him With Succulent Frites. Pregnancy and Birth the Kazakstani Way By Johnnie Prather By Susan Welsby 28 / THE EXPAT’S FILES For One Member of an American Family F ocv s In Harare, Its a Dogs Life. By Robert /. Caiola 34 / THE DIPLOMAT CLUB A Birthday Card Once Again Stirs Wistful Memories of a Tour of Duty in Hong Kong. By Ruth Kling

Page 18

DEPARTMENTS

LETTERS/7 CLIPPINGS / 12 BOOKS / 51 F E AT U RE Six Memoirs and a Novel: Which Genre Best 42 / SEOUL SURVIVOR Reflects Life in the Foreign Service? With North Korean Troops Closing In, (A Book Review Essay) It Was Our Job to Burn the Embassy Cables, By James Thomas Snyder Smash the Equipment, and Get Out Fast. IN MEMORY / 55 By Robert J. Rudolph INDEX TO ADVERTISERS / 67

Cover and inside illustrations by Jody May

THE MAGAZINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS PROFESSIONALS

Foreign Service Journal (ISSN 0015-7279), 2101 E Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990 is published monthly by the American Foreign Service Association, a private, non-profit organization. Material appearing Editor Editorial Board herein represents the opinions of the writers and does not necessarily represent the views of the Journal, the BOB GULDIN EDWARD MARKS, Chairman Editorial Board or AFSA. Writer queries are invited. Journal subscription: AFSA Members - $9.50 included in Managing Editor ELIZABETH SPIRO CI ARK annual dues; others - $40. For foreign surface mail, add $18 per year; foreign airmail, $36 per year. Periodical KATHLEEN CURRIE MITCHELL A. COHN postage paid at Manchester, N.H., and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Foreign Assistant Editor THEODORE CRAIG EVA-LOTTA JANSSON Service Journal, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. Indexed by Public Affairs Information AURELIUS FERNANDEZ Service (PAIS). The Journal is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photos or illustrations. Advertising Advertising 8 Circulation DAVID I. HITCHCOCK Manager inquiries are invited. The appearance of advertisements herein does not imply the endorsement of the services ED MII.TENBERCER KATHERINE INEZ LEE MARY LEWELLEN or goods offered. FAX: (202) .338-8244 or (202) .338-6820. E-MAIL: [email protected]. WEB: www.afsa.org. TELE¬ AFSA NEWS Editor PHONE: (202) 338-4045. © American Foreign Service Association, 1998. Printed in the U.S.A. Send address WESLEY ANN GODARD ROBERTA MAHONEY Editorial Intern M.ARK MATTHEWS changes to AFSA Membership, 2101 E Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037-2990. A Standard A enclosure MARK SAWCHUK CAROLINE MEIRS is being mailed under permit 1926 at Manchester, N.H. 03103.

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www.medjetassistance.com PRESIDENT’S VIEWS The Inspector General, the Senator and AFSA

BY DAN GEISLER

If you have read the last several investigation. An open case holds up a issues of the Foreign Service career. Commissioned officers can not Journal, you already know about AFSA has made be promoted while a case is pending. the complaints we’ve heard about the We have reports of cases diat drag on Inspector Generals Office of recommendations for years. Yes, years. Many allegations Investigations (OIG/INV), which come anonymously via die IG Hotline. investigates individual employees on how the IG can Some charges are credible; some are accused of waste, fraud and abuse. not. Some are credible but are too Note that this is not fire office diat peri¬ minor to spend money investigating. improve — but only 7 odically inspects embassies and OIG/INV decides when an allegation bureaus, and against which we have no warrants opening a case. There is a con¬ in cweas where we 7 complaints. The complaints we receive cern diat OIG/INV' staff indulge in too about OIG/INV come not only from can monitor many trivial cases — and that diey are the targets of investigation, but also too quick to assume that the accused are from witnesses, translators, and implementation. guilty until proven innocent. We can’t coworkers of targeted employees. monitor tiiose assumptions. True, there are two sides to every The second area: leaks. We have case, and it is not our intention to adju¬ reports that OIG/INV staff selectively dicate allegations ourselves. But what¬ leak information to punish people 7 ever you believe about individual when OIG/INV has failed to get its cases, one fact can’t be denied: There’s State inspector general implements deshed result in a case. This allows been a breakdown in trust that dam¬ them. This is important, given the investigators to act as prosecutor, judge ages both the Foreign Service and the breakdown in trust. We will know, for and jury to block a promotion or inspector general. We believe a strong example, if the OIG starts to allow Senate confirmation. It’s wrong, but it’s interviews to be tape recorded. We will impossible to monitor. bility of the Foreign Service, and a fair know if die OIG clarifies its confusing In fairness to die OIG/INV7 staff, we investigations process is vital to the warning form. We wifi find out if the should admit that it’s equally impossi¬ credibility of tire inspector general. OIG sets up an internal affairs unit, or ble for diem to prove diey are innocent In the AFSA News section of this reports to die secretary of State on of leaking. AFSA, of course, believes issue, you will find our recommenda¬ cases that drag on too long. that the assumption of innocence tions for strengthening the discipline There are two odier areas, however, applies to all. Again, that’s why regain¬ process. Half of them deal with where we have not made recommen¬ ing trust is so important. Otherwise, OIG/INV. We developed them after dations because we could not monitor the State inspector general’s staff will extensive consultations with the other implementation. That doesn’t mean operate under constant suspicion. federal inspectors general, federal law we don’t care about them. But we rec¬ What’s the first step the inspector enforcement officials (including ognize that the inspector general needs general should take to regain our OIG/INV staff), and private attorneys. to exercise professional judgment. We trust? She should state publicly that We can monitor whether or not the do not expect an outsider to second- she will implement our proposals guess this judgment in each and every immediately. If she does, we will Dan Geisler is president of the investigation. monitor and report on progress, and American Foreign Service Association. The first area: when to open an help her regain your trust. ■

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ATTN: Simuneks ATTN: Simuneks Long & Foster Long & Foster 5101 Wisconsin Avenue, NW 4600 Lee Highway Washington, DC 20016 Arlington, VA 22207 Direct Line: (202) 296-4304 Direct Line: (703) 284-9365 Fax: (202) 659-0998 Fax: (202) 659-0998 [email protected] Hamilton on OIG Reform notice need not be provided, point in an investigation. It would I was pleased to note that because it is not strictly required by not interfere with the covert gather¬ Inspector General Jacquelyn U.S. criminal law. ing of evidence that might take place Williams-Bridgers (“The OIG First, the provision is written to over weeks or months of an investi¬ Responds,” May FSJ) recognizes the give OIG enough flexibility to pro¬ gation, and would only minimally need to improve the current balance tect the relatively small number of intrude upon the latest stages of an between employee rights to due investigations that require under¬ investigation. process and the ability of the OIG to cover work. Where undercover work Second, while prior notice may conduct effective criminal investiga¬ not be required by U.S. law, I tions. The OIG and I agree that our believe it would improve public con¬ ultimate goal in reforming the OIG fidence in the fairness of OIG inves¬ is to ensure fair and credible investi¬ tigations. It is clear from the com¬ gations. I believe that the confer¬ plaints received by many members ence language on H.R. 1757 — of Congress — myself included — which was crafted with Williams- that too many OIG investigations are Bridgers’ advice, participation, and not perceived to be fair, and their concurrence — will help us strike results are not taken as credible. this balance. The lack of transparency dimin¬ The conference provision had ishes OIG’s authority on individual three key elements. The one that so cases, and it erodes the OIG as an troubles the IG requires OIG inves¬ institution. Discredited investigators tigators to provide prior notice to a 3 will be doubted, and their eonclu- subject of a criminal investigation E sions will undermine — not protect that federal law enforcement offi¬ | — the integrity of the agencies they cials will be present during a formal | serve. If its investigations are seen as interview. § careful and objective, the OIG can I want to address Williams- improve witness cooperation, Bridgers’ two main objections to is necessary, or where intelligence increase the impact of its conclu¬ this requirement: one, that prior matters are concerned, H.R. 1757 sions, and ensure that it is a lever for notice will undermine undercover allows the OIG to waive the notifica¬ agency reform. investigations; and two, that prior tion requirement. It also exempts In an effort to increase the trans¬ those instances where the OIG has parency of its internal investigations, The Foreign Service Journal welcomes reasonable ground to believe that the FBI last year expanded the due your signed letters to the editor. Please notice would encourage witness process rights of its employees mail letters to the Journal, 2101 E St., tampering, the destruction of evi¬ beyond the requirements of the law. NW, Washington, D.C., 20037; fax to dence, or the endangering oflife. Under the new procedures, an FBI (202) 338-8244 or send via e-mail to By the time OIG and a federal employee subject to an administra¬ [email protected]. Letters, which are agency conduct a formal interview, tive inquiry can bring counsel to an subject to editing, should include full an investigation has proceeded well interview. Previously, this right was name, title and post, address and day¬ beyond the undercover stage. H.R. only available in criminal investiga¬ time telephone number. 1757 requires notice just prior to this tions. The FBI was not obligated to

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 7 LETTERS

take this step — just as the OIG may and so on with little if any success. As effort to bring some good to the not be legally obligated to provide long as there is someone available to world. My education and experience notice prior to a non-custodial crimi¬ answer a phone, file or otherwise have made me that type of person. I nal interview. But, the result is to push papers, he or she will continue am not alone. I would therefore like improve the integrity, effectiveness to be asked to do exactly that. to challenge management to make and credibility of the FBI’s investiga¬ However, many junior officers better use of the valuable human tions. would welcome the opportunity to resources which it already has instead I believe that this prior-notice pro¬ give up some duties, i.e. acting as of always looking for ways to recruit vision is very important to striking the control officers, doing biographic and from the outside. right balance between due process other routine reporting, delivering Barbara Jacquin and investigative responsibilities, and routine demarches, compiling eco¬ DCM Secretary and I will continue to work to see it enact¬ nomic reports, working in visa sec¬ Consular Officer ed. tions, writing cables and briefing U.S. Embassy Ouagadougou In the meantime, I commend the papers, and researching reports, to steps the OIG is taking to comply secretaries who would thus gain with the other two prongs of the H.R. extremely valuable experience. Thin Reinventing AID Unrealistically 1757 provision. Williams-Bridgers human resources would diereby be While appreciating the general notes that the OIG has provided used to much greater benefit. focus on USAID found in the May updated pamphlets that describe Language training, area studies, Journal, I found the lead article, employees’ rights in an investigation, joint orientation for all Foreign “Let’s Really Reinvent USAID,” very and that the OIG is currently revising Service personnel and crosstraining disappointing. Professor Sullivan got its internal press guidance. I welcome in general services or consular or the easy part right — describing both of these steps as important administrative duties would result in USAID’s history of multiple and ever- progress toward our shared goal of better distribution of human changing mandates — but on the ensuring that the rights of employees resources, greater job satisfaction for much more difficult and important are protected. secretaries, more “success stories” in question of what to do to “reinvent” Rep. Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.) upward mobility efforts, and more the agency, several of his recommen¬ House of Representatives productivity for all Foreign Service dations are seriously misguided. He Washington, D.C. officers. cites, for example, the organizational I believe secretaries have proven structure and successes of the Inter- Those Secretarial Blues their dedication, bravery, qualifica¬ American Foundation as a model for I applaud Linda Eichblatt for tions and willingness to take on new USAID. I agree that the IAF has had speaking out in the April issue of the responsibilities. Give us a chance. We a successful history, but consider it a Foreign Service Journal for a remedy have the experience, the education, type of development boutique whose to the “secretarial problem.” but also our own financial responsi¬ structure and autonomy, while appro¬ Recruitment of secretaries is bilities, that easily justify receiving priate to its narrow grassroots man¬ already difficult because the word is equal pay for work of equal value. date, is not a realistic model for the out that there is no future for them Many more secretaries than com¬ entire bilateral foreign assistance pro¬ with the Foreign Service and there is monly known are already performing gram of a country' like the United little hope for improvement. But per¬ duties which when done by a junior States. It’s very difficult to imagine haps that is the way it should be. Let’s officer bring higher salaries and lead Congress granting a similar degree of just write off the vocation of secretary to automatic promotions. I for one autonomy to USAID, nor should it. and even office management special¬ spend at least half my working week As admittedly frustrating as it can be ist since most of these are luxuries in on the visa line, for no extra pay, after at times, I and my colleagues work for todays “lean and mean” and techno¬ taking the required training for a con¬ the U.S. taxpayer, and are account¬ logically sophisticated embassies. We sular commission. able to them through our representa¬ have tried to get recognition, promo¬ I personally am totally happy to be tives on Capitol Hill. tion, development, upward mobility, a member of the Foreign Service. I Professor Sullivan’s other major training, equal pay for equal work, am proud to be associated with an recommendation, that USAID should

8 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AU GU S T 1998 LETTERS

transfer “political” programs to State not understand the political dynam¬ have graduated from foreign aid, and concentrate solely on humani¬ ics overseas where direct U.S. that U.S. assistance has not played a tarian and development assistance, is Embassy involvement with nearly major contributing role. From my extraordinarily naive. The category any development activity, save point of view foreign assistance is of program he terms “Security humanitarian programs, would raise always in a supporting role, with the Assistance” is, I assume, actually that concerns by the aid recipient of real responsibility for development known by the term “Economic being co-opted if not manipulated by lying with the leadership (and peo¬ Support Fund” (ESF). It’s not clear the U.S. government. Indeed, even ple) of the country itself. No amount if Sullivan realizes that post-appro¬ USAID often needs to distance itself of aid will have a sustainable impact priations decisions on ESF country from the democracy activities it in the Burmas and Zaires of the allocations and funding levels are funds, often through relying on U.S. world. On the other hand, recent currently made by State, albeit with PVOs, universities, and host country multi-country research by the World significant input from USAID. To NGOs. For example, the State Bank indicates that foreign assis¬ suggest that this apolitical aid should University of New York (SUNY) has tance does have a measurable impact instead be managed completely by been successfully strengthening the over the medium-to-long-term il State officials “who would not have recipient governments are good to find development justifications for development partners, i.e., are eco¬ grants (not loans) which are clearly nomically reform-minded and gen¬ designed for political purposes only,” erally democratic. I believe this evi¬ shows a profound misunderstanding dence holds true of USAID’s work of how and why these resources are over the past 25 years as well. programmed. From my admittedly limited in- The reality is that ESF resources, the-trenches perspective, what while perhaps rightly viewed as an USAID needs is not more indepen¬ incentive for good political behavior dence, nor consolidation into State, in the Middle East, are in many but to be simply allowed a few years other countries basically just another to consolidate and hone the current source of developmental assistance organizational re-engineering, which funding. In Mozambique, for exam¬ is generally on the right track. More ple, USAID is using an ESF pro¬ @ than anything, what USAID requires gram to support the streamlining of 2 is greater support from the American civil procedures, with the objective | people. of making a largely dysfunctional | Thomas E. Johnson, Jr. court system available to the average USAID/Mozambique citizen. This, and many other similar National Assembly in Mozambique Deinocracij Team Leader ESF programs I could cite, certainly through a multi-year, USAID-fund¬ are not examples of “political aid” ed program. I would argue that were under any definition of the term. such a program to be managed by Pro-Life and Pro-U.N. The related recommendation State it woidd have never been Miles Pomper’s “Strange made by Sullivan that “State should approved by the Mozambique Bedfellows” (April 1998) reports that do democracy and civil society and Assembly, even with SUNY’s involve¬ congressional Republicans run the related projects” is even more off¬ ment as the implementing agent. risk of alienating their domestic con¬ track. Sullivan states that USAID Finally, I’d like to comment on stituencies if they “budge” on linking officials would undoubtedly oppose Sullivan’s assertion that (U.S.) aid anti-abortion provisions to United such a move, which is true, and for has failed to have a measurable Nations and IMF funding. good reason, but he fails to note that impact on developing countries and Pomper fails to note that the host country governments and civil even when countries like South administration is influenced by simi¬ society groups would be aghast at Korea and Brazil (and Costa Rica, lar domestic considerations. The such a proposal. Sullivan clearly does and Tunisia, and Thailand, and ...) abortion industry is an important

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 9 WBr *' Harriott Vi Residence lm~ L I Room to Relax Room to Work Democratic Party political supporter Shapiro accuses USIA of setting Room to Breathe and campaign donor. Affiliates of “droroughly unrealistic goals.” Is that abortion industry giant and adminis¬ surprising? The U.S. government has tration ally Planned Parenthood are always set lofty goals — putting a man the primary beneficiaries of U.S. gov¬ on the moon, eliminating poverty, cur¬ ernment subsidies that facilitate the ing cancer. advocacy of abortion abroad. (The Shapiro also asserts that USIA fails to administration claim that government attempt to assess the effectiveness of its funds are not used to directly promote programs. We attempt all the time. abortion is disingenuous. Monies are However, we do not measure effective¬ fungible.) ly the impact of most of our program¬ Only a domestic political agenda ming. Until recently, no one thought of could explain the administrations doing so. That does not excuse the fail¬ adamant refusal to compromise and ure to do so, but no organization is its unbending determination to sacri¬ going to produce reports in which man¬ fice genuine national security con¬ agement (in this case, Congress) has no cerns on the altar of abortion. interest. Now that Congress has clearly Pentagon City Secretary Albright, traditionally demonstrated its interest (the renowned for her light touch in rela¬ Government Performance and Results We offer suites so tions with the Hill, rails about “black¬ Act —GPRA — of 1993) things have relaxing, so invit¬ mail” and dismisses a legitimate con¬ changed. USIA, along with all govern¬ gressional proposal as a “legislative ment agencies, has to learn how to com¬ ing, they are more home hostage.” Such language can only be ply with the letter and spirit of GPRA. than hotel. We specialize aimed at a domestic cheering section. Finally, Shapiro declaims that USIAs in relocations and trav¬ Promotion of the killing of unborn evaluation and promotion system is elers coming to the innocents in the Third World serves completely subjective. But what per¬ Washington, DC area no conceivable U.S. national security sonnel evaluation system is not? Unless objective. With appropriate American you reduce success to a single factor for five nights or more. attention and oversight, a strong (malting huge amounts of money for the Complimentary: United Nations and a healthy IMF firm, producing more cars, arresting O Continental deluxe breakfast can serve U.S. interests. more drug dealers), a completely objec¬ O Dinner Monday - Wednesday Congressional abortion foes have tive evaluation of a persons perfor¬ O Grocery shopping service moved from their original positions mance is beyond human capability. Fitness facility, indoor pool and shown willingness to compro¬ There remains the fundamental O National airport shuttle mise. The administration should find question: does the public diplomacy the courage to risk the ire of the abor¬ that USIA practices matter? The tion industry and do the same. answer is clearly yes. In 1988, USIS John Treacij Thessaloniki sent the Vice Mayor for FSO, USIA Washington, D.C. Cultural Affairs (a seemingly minor post, but given the political party struc¬ ture of the country, an important one) USIA: Motion Denied on an International Visitor program, Howard Shapiro, responding to the ostensibly to learn about the organiza¬ rebuttals (Febmary Journal) to his ini¬ tion of cultural festivals. Upon his Saudi Schaefer, FS Spouse tial article in the December Journal return he told me, “I left thinking the 550 Army Navy Drive moved that, absent any counter-argu¬ U.S. a racist and stratified society, and Arlington, VA 22202 Tel (703) 413-6630 ments to his basic premises, they be returned realizing that only the U.S. Fax (703) 413-6590 accepted by acclamation. Motion could have dealt with those problems as www.residenceinn.com denied. well as it has.”

10 FOREIGN SERVICE J O URN AL/J U LY-AU GU ST 1998 LETTERS

In La Paz, where I have served since they might not otherwise be heard. The early 1996, press commentary on results can be measured — yes, counter-narcotics issues has undergone Howard, measured — through press an impressive change, from 50 percent placement and the tone of subsequent negative commentary and 44 percent editorials. Put simply, setting unrealistic positive in the last quarter of 1994 to goals is a management flaw, not a reason over S5 percent positive commentaries to abolish entire agencies. A senior thus far in the second quarter of 1998. USIA FSO should know the difference. Although USIS cannot, and should not, What do we accomplish? In Croatia, take sole credit for this change, the con¬ our goals from 1992 to 1995 were to certed efforts of several generations of advocate U.S. policy on ending the war FSOs, working closely with a capable in former Yugoslavia, to help transform and talented FSN staff, devised and car¬ university faculties necessary for a ried out programs designed to have just democratic, free-market society, to this effect, and then measured it. strengthen private media and to help Work like that, conducted by USIA NGOs play a role in civic society. Did 66 every day and fully coordinated with we single-handedly change Croatia in Service is my U.S. foreign policy goals, does matter. three years? Of course not. But the Stephen B. Morisseau short-term results were clear enough. Business” Press officer, USIS Ask the professors and students at law U.S. Embassy La Paz and economics faculties who now use Licensed real estate our textbooks and study under lecturers broker in Virginia and who benefited from USIA exchange USIA’s real accomplishments programs. Ask the 100,000 people who Maryland; certified by Please allow one dissenting voice tinned out in die streets to protest the National Trust for before Howard Shapiro strides to the government’s attempt to close down a Historic Preservation; podium and proclaims the death of private radio station. I don’t stay up USIA by popular acclaim. Shapiros nights wondering if we made a differ¬ and certified buyer "basic premises” don't ring true with my ence diere. I’m sure many other USIS agent. 15 years abroad experience. officers could fill this journal with simi¬ as career FS and Ludicrously unrealistic goals? Every lar examples. time I walk through the USIA doors I Dale Baker World Bank spouse see a plaque which says “Telling Public Affairs Officer provide experience for America's Story To The World.' USIS—Mauritius ■ international and Personally, I find that goal more realistic domestic relocations. than our long-running “war on drugs” and the even longer "war on poverty.” Essay an Essay? Has the State Department achieved The Journal is interested in a new MARGHI BARONE FAUSS, world peace and universal support for genre: the book review essay. Made ASSOCIATE BROKER, U.S. foreign policy yet? On the other famous by The New York Review of (703) 790-9090, EXT. 243 hand, how many political and business Books, this form includes reviews of (800) 548-9080, EXT. 243 leaders around the world have a better several current books about the understanding of the U.S. thanks to FAX: (703) 370-1410 same topic within one thoughtful USIA? E-MAIL: [email protected] It's certainly unrealistic to claim that essay. To try your hand, contact a USIS post will gamer complete sup¬ Managing Editor Kathleen Currie at port for U.S. policies from ever)’ editor (202) 338-4045, ext. 524 or by e- in the host country. A realistic goal is to mail at [email protected] make our views known in circles where

JULY-AUGUST 1 998/FORE l G N SERVICE JOURNAL 11 CLIPPINGS

THE CHEERY SIDE Formally launched at a press confer¬ ence after the December 1997 land¬ OF THE INDIAN BOMB mine-ban conference in Ottawa, While the conventional wisdom in Canada, the UNA-USA’s Adopt-a- Washington has condemned India’s Minefield program allows cities, schools, explosion of five nuclear devices in May, church groups, corporations, civic clubs, Martin Sieff writing in the June 22 athletic leagues and even individuals to National Review argues that a nuclear adopt pre-selected minefields around India actually benefits U.S. interests. the world. These sponsors wall then raise “ ■ Pretty much Sieff says it’s time for a strategic U.S. the funds necessary to clear the area of the entire mem¬ opening to India, similar to the opening mines, while the United Nations Office bership oj the to China in the early 1970s. At that time, for Project Services (UNOPS) and the gifted U.S. leaders realized that China United Nations Development Program United Nations could be used to offset the Soviet threat. oversee the demining process abroad “Now,” writes Sieff, “it is China to and return the land to productive use. hates us, which we need a counterweight. India The Adopt program was inaugurated because we could play that role. ... All we lack is a by three California wineries — Beringer haven't been Nixon or Kissinger to see it.” Sieff, a Wine Estates, Wente Vineyards, and reporter for The Washington Times, says Robert Mondavi Winery — each of paying our that Americas “theological obsession which donated funds for the “Mines to with nonproliferation and arms control” Vines” campaign, a separate element of dues, which the makes it hard even for conservatives to the Adopt program. Each vintner will member nations see this new opportunity. take on a mine-infested tract of land and desperatelyr The containment of rising Chinese transform it into vineyards. power is the great challenge for U.S. According to the State Department, need so they statecraft in the coming decades, he there are about 26,000 casualties from argues. The establishment of a “U.S.- landmines every year. And with over 100 can continue India axis” could keep East Asia from million untriggered landmines in more carrying out the coming under Chinese influence. than 64 countries, this number is likely Another bonus, says Sieff: India to grow unless demining efforts are vital U.N. mis¬ could be a nearby base for defense of stepped up. One of the strengths of the sion oj parking U.S. interests in the Persian Gulf. UNA-USA’s program is that it is “specif¬ illegally all over ically designed ... to move beyond the political and policy debates typically New York. ” HIGHWAYS ARE PASSE, associated with banning the use of land¬ mines,” reported Oren Sehlein in the ADOPT A MINEFIELD spring 1998 Interdependent.

— Con u xis r Taking its cue from the successful The UNA-USAs program is an exam¬ nationwide “adopt-a-highway” and sister ple of the renewed interest in the dan¬ DAW BARRY IN city programs, the United Nations gers of mines around the world. On THE MIAMI HERALD, Association of the USA recently December 3, 1997, delegates from over announced a new “Adopt-a-Minefield” 100 countries met in Ottawa, for the APRIL 19, 1998 program in its Interdependent maga¬ signing of a landmine-ban treaty. zine. Although the United States attended

12 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AUGU ST 2998 CLIPPINGS

the Ottawa conference, it did not sign language rights for Slovakia’s ethnic the treaty. The U.S. had previously Hungarians. announced its Demining 2010 Initiative, Roskin states that offering Hungary’s a campaign that aims to raise $1 billion neighboring states concurrent NATO annually to eliminate all landmines membership is not a likely solution to threatening civilians by the year 2010. In the problem. To tire west, Austria has May, when the State Department held displayed no interest in reversing its 40- an international conference concerning year policy of neutrality guaranteed by YEARS AGO its Year 2010 initiative, it showcased the the 1955 Austrian State Treaty, while UNA-USA’s program as an example of Slovenia’s mountainous geography and “Suddenly the radio successful public-private partnerships. lack of infrastructure prevent its qualifi¬ blared forth, completely cation as an alternative. Slovakia is also without warning, The an unlikely choice for NATO expansion; King has abdicated,’— HUNGARY FOR NATO? not only are there tensions with and added nothing to that Hungary, but it lacks the internal bare announcement. At IT’S HARD TO DIGEST democracy necessary for membership. first I couldn’t believe it. The entry of Hungary, Poland, and Roskin concludes, “Of all NATO mem¬ Of course it had been the Czech Republic into NATO may be bers, Hungary would have by far the common talk for months a done deal, but that doesn’t mean it biggest ethnic and border problems with that the Communists makes sense militarily. So says Michael neighboring countries, and it would be were making life just as G. Roskin, professor of political science precisely the hardest country for NATO difficult as possible for at Lycoming College, in an essay pub¬ to defend.” King Michael, frustrating lished in the summer edition of him at every' turn, but Parameters, the U.S. Army War College also everyone knew how Quarterly. Roskin argues that the issues THE REAL TRADE GAP deep was his devotion to involving the admission of the three his country, how strong Central European republics go far Is IN ENFORCEMENT his love for his oppressed beyond the question of hurting Russia’s There’s a lot more to U.S. trade poli¬ people,” wrote Margaret ego in the expansion process. He offers cy than negotiating agreements, says Hudson in the August, the case of Hungary as an example of Jerry Hagstrom in the June issue of 1948 issue of the Journal the often-overlooked strategic problems Government Executive magazine. Just as concerning the forced of NATO expansion. important as whether the president gets abdication of King Hungary doesn’t border on any other the authority to sign “fast-track” agree¬ Michael of Romania on NATO country, and unlike Greece and ments is how well the U.S. government December 30, 1947. Turkey, two other non-contiguous enforces the agreements it signs. “Soldiers cordoned the NATO members, it lacks access to the Hagstrom makes the case that U.S. civilians and endeavored sea, leaving it virtually isolated in a agencies are missing the boat, especially to form them into a ring potential crisis. Does this geopolitical when it comes to policing non-tariff bar¬ till finally there was a isolation matter? Yes, says Roskin, given riers to trade such as safety regulations crowd sufficient to war¬ Hungary’s continuing tensions with its and subsidies, which are harder to check rant the term ‘sponta¬ neighbors Romania, Slovakia, and on than simple tariffs. neous demonstration,’ as Serbia over those nations’ ethnic While the value of U.S. trade has it was reported in the Magyar minorities. Hungary has been surged from 13 percent of gross domestic newspapers.” feuding with Slovakia, for example, over product in 1970 to 32 percent in 1997, key

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 13 CLIPPINGS

trade agencies have sustained cutbacks SACHS BULLISH ON in recent years. For example, Hagstrom reports, the Commerce “The true SOUTHERN AFRICA Departments Market Access and In the wake of President Clinton’s Compliance Unit has gone from 230 statesman does visit to Africa, business is taking a fresh people in 1993 to 150 today. The num¬ not despise any' look at the often ignored continent. ber of analysts working on Japan has And Harvard economist Jeffrey D. dwindled from 21 to 8. unsdom, howsoever Sachs, known from Bolivia to Poland Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., lowly may be as the guru of free markets and priva¬ argues that the executive branch also tization, says a second look is justified, lacks determination. The senator told its origin. ” especially in Southern Africa. Hagstrom, “We don’t have much of a Sachs is director of Harvard’s stomach to go to the mat and enforce Institute for International Develop¬ these agreements.” — MARK TWAIN, 1889 ment, and is co-chair of die advisory The American Chamber of board for the annual Africa Commerce in Japan also faulted U.S. Competitiveness Report. agencies for weak implementation. Interviewed in Earth Times for The business group wrote in a 1997 Albright, “This year, we have been June 1-15, Sachs cited Namibia as a publication, “It has often been more given an unacceptably low alloca¬ reason for optimism, praising the important for the two governments to tion.” government’s management of the reach agreements than to undertake President Clinton had asked for country’s resources and its ability to the difficult task of monitoring the $19.6 billion for fiscal 1999 (that draw in foreign investment. agreements to ensure that dieir imple¬ excludes U.N. arrears and multilater¬ Namibia “understood from the mentation produces results.” al development banks). International beginning ... that as a coastal econ¬ Not surprisingly, trade officials have affairs spending in fiscal 1998 is $19.1 omy, as a natural resource trader, it a different view. U.S. Trade billion, up from $18.2 billion in 1997. should be an open economy ... part Representative Charlene Barshevsky The Republican-led Congress is of the world market.” calls her agency “lean and mean,” moving in a different direction, how¬ Sachs acknowledged that it will though she has requested additional ever. The Senate budget resolution take time before the perception of enforcement officers for 1999. allocated in June $18.9 billion for for¬ Africa as a dangerous and backward And Geoffrey W. Wiggins, director eign affairs, while the House Budget continent disappears altogether, of the Foreign Agricultural Service’s Committee approved $18.5 billion. particularly because of “the con¬ Multilateral Trade Negotiations Among the factors cited by GOP stant turmoil in so much of Africa Division, told Government Executive leaders: the death of the tobacco hill, until recent years.” Other problems that USD A quickly investigates com¬ which was expected to bring in bil¬ are the prevalence of malaria in the plaints brought by U.S. firms. lions in new revenues; a $217 billion region and Southern Africa’s lack of highway spending agreement; and telecommunications infrastructure. the desire to cut taxes. But if South Africa, Namibia, 150 ACCOUNT FUNDS If the budget cut goes through, it and Botswana lead the way by suc¬ is expected to take an especially large cessfully modernizing their Go UP IN SMOKE toll in foreign aid, though final fig¬ economies, other governments in ures will not be known until the for¬ the region will quickly begin to play If you thought the worst was over eign operations appropriation bill is catch-up, Sachs said. in terms of budget cuts for foreign passed, probably in the late summer “If [countries] can follow the affairs, think again. or fall. right policies, they can attract capi¬ The June 17 Washington Post In the meanwhile, AFSA, working tal,” Sachs said, “they can attract reported that a tentative agreement with the Coalition for American technology, they can attract the between the administration and Leadership Abroad, continues to improved management . . . that Congress on funding had unraveled. lobby strongly for increased funds for allow them to gain a foothold in the Said Secretary of State Madeleine the 150 Account. world economy.” ■

14 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AU] U LY- AU GU ST 1998 SPEAKING OUT How to Fix the Office of the Inspector General

BY DANIEL HIRSCH

As a member of the IG Reform “a delay of (some 14 months) in mak¬ Working Group, an ad hoc- ing an allegation of unprofessional committee of FSOs dedicat¬ We need to overcome conduct unfairly removes from the ed to promoting constructive change investigators the ability to respond ... by the State Department Office of the huge cultured gap when the passage of time has the Inspector General, I read allowed important context to be irre¬ Inspector General Jacquelyn separating OIG from trievably lost,” one must wonder Williams-Bridgers May FSJ article what purpose is served by such with a mixture of disappointment, the foreign affairs extended activities, except to blur irony and affirmation. the memories of those who could Disappointment at OIGs allega¬ agencies. support the subject of the investiga¬ tion that the authors of the March tion in a later rebuttal, or to pressure FSJ articles were not worthy of cred¬ the subject to accept unjust charges ibility, simply because some of them to avoid high legal fees and an indef¬ had been unjustly accused by OIG inite “hold” on his or her career. itself. Given the lack of oversight or or “harmed by the publication of controls to prevent abuses of power false, malicious and misleading infor¬ OIG’s article also alleges and by OIG investigators, this is a partic¬ mation,” as the inspector general decries the making of accusa¬ ularly reprehensible position. Four alleges, I cannot understand how tions without evidence. In a case I of those authors are FSOs currently competent outside review of OIG know well, OIGs report was based serving in positions of trust and activities could hurt OIGs mission. exclusively on hearsay concerning responsibility, another is a respected And affirmation, because OIGs events which, by law, must be docu¬ member of Congress and another an article confirms both the points of mented in specific records which experienced congressional staffer. All the March FSJ articles and the need demonstrably existed at the time of are supporters of a strong OIG, but to overcome the tremendous cultur¬ the investigation. Not only did OIG were forced to question its investiga¬ al gap separating OIG from the orga¬ fail to provide those records to sup¬ tive integrity by clearly documented nizations it was created to under¬ port their charges, but also, when events. It is disappointing that, faced stand: the State Department, USIA records were presented contradict¬ with so many closely-matched allega¬ and the Arms Control and ing OIG’s charges, OIG ignored tions, from a variety of sources, OIG Disarmament Agency. them. Ample evidence later devel¬ reacted with blanket denials and For example, while OIG denies oped that that report further dis¬ unfounded insinuations. carrying out 12-year vendettas, they torted information through incor¬ Irony, at OIGs evident distress at admit that “the investigative process rect and incomplete portrayal of the mere possibility of finding itself can take too long.” It is easy to sub¬ testimony, lack of context, and other in the position in which it routinely stantiate, with documents originated techniques. places FSOs. While I do not wish to by OIG, investigations that have con¬ The OIG article assures employ¬ see OIG agents “insulted,” “abused” tinued for many years. Studies by ees that OIG/INV agents are well OIG itself show an average of about trained to carry out their investiga¬ Daniel Hirsch is currently serving as four years, and I am quite familiar tive responsibilities, then describes an administrative officer at the U.S. with a case that has remained open not the skills that would enable them Embassy office in Abuja, Nigeria. for eight. Given OIGs assertion that to determine whether FSOs had

JULY-AUCUST 1998/FORE1CN SERVICE JOURNAL 15 SPEAKING OUT

erred in their professional conduct, for “musing” about an OIG process employees of the U.S. government. but rather their training in law about which he allegedly “knows As a result, they incorrectly enforcement, law and criminal jus¬ very little,” and alleges the unfair¬ ascribed a criminal aspect to acts tice. No one has questioned OIG’s ness of taking the word of outsiders which are routinely, and legally, ability to catch murderers and over that of career professionals, carried out at American embassies thieves, and no one objects when OIG/INV agents who have never all over the world on an almost OIG removes such persons from our been trained to do our jobs, never daily basis. midst. However, OIG must always served at an overseas post and be aware that subjects of investiga¬ apparently know very little about One would imagine that OIG tions have rights, and not every such Foreign Affairs Manual regulations, could prevent such problems person is guilty. OIG/INV’s budget routinely make charges which any by employing the knowledge of the depends on finding as many inspectors who already staff other instances of FSO malfeasance as sections of OIG. Several inspectors possible. INV promotions are based have confirmed to me that this on the number of high-profile cases does not happen. Moreover, OIGs developed, and contrary to OIG’s Office of Counsel has, on at least undocumented denials, INV agents one well documented occasion, use their skills to gather derogatory prohibited OIG inspectors from information, not to objectively assess weighing in to prevent such an what actually transpired. embarrassing miscarriage of jus¬ It’s worth noting that, while the tice. That instance also violated the IG claims that none of the points right of the employee, described in raised by the March FSJ have FAM, to obtain voluntary testimo¬ merit, OIG’s own investigation into ny on his or her own behalf. a controversial investigation in 1991 admitted that the deportment “Rights” under the OIG of OIG investigators left “consider¬ OIG asserts that the employees able room for improvement,” that ; who drafted the FSJ articles were all they used coercive tactics during : accorded the “rights dictated by die interviews, that they were need¬ Constitution, bv federal case law and lessly confrontational, and that they Foreign Service officer would know by Justice Department policy.” These failed to project an image of objec¬ to be unfounded. are rights accorded defendants in a tivity. The OIG report blamed inex¬ For example, in a case I know judicial setting. However, for cases perience, inadequate training and well, OIG/INV insisted that any handled by a non-judicial administra¬ the personalities of the agents non-official use of a U.S. govern¬ tive process, as most of these cases involved. ment vehicle, including home-to- were, many of those rights don’t apply. office transportation, is illegal. In Odier mles, including FAM regula¬ Investigator Ignorance doing so they refused to acknowl¬ tions, do. Although several sections of Despite ample training as police¬ edge 6 FAM regulations clearly die FAM are devoted to OIG activities, men, OIG/INV agents (unlike those allowing posts to use government OIG has repeatedly stated in waiting in other sections of OIG) are com¬ vehicles for non-official purposes diat it is not subject to FAM regula¬ pletely unfamiliar with the realities when local public transportation is tions. In at least one case described in of Foreign Service work. And the unsafe or unavailable, or whenever die March FSJ, OIG used this legally vast majority of OIG cases involve such use might benefit the govern¬ untenable justification to avoid accord¬ allegations of professional misfea¬ ment. In the same case, OIG/INV ing the employee his rights under 3 sance by FSOs, so that knowledge of agents incorrectly applied laws to FAM 4300 sections 763.1, 763.2,766,3 Foreign Service practices is neces¬ employees of an independent com¬ and 766.57. If OIG acknowledges sary to pursue these investigations pany contracted by the embassy, employee rights that don’t apply, and intelligently. that should, by law and legal prece¬ ignores rights that do, what rights has it While OIG criticizes one author dent, only apply to direct-hire really accorded die employee?

16 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AUGU ST 1998 SPEAKING OUT

OIG asserts a willingness to In conclusion, it is clear that OIG, agencies to seek justice if you believe widen and deepen its dialogue with which provides oversight of State you were subject to OIG abuse. Such a AFSA, its intent to circulate more and other agencies’ employees, must situation is unhealthy. information explaining OIG’s mis¬ itself be subject to oversight. The IG sion, and a desire to meet with FSOs recently created an Allegations Review We in the OIG Reform to explain OIG’s position. Given Committee consisting of deputy assis¬ Working Group feel strongly OIG’s refusal to recognize its prob¬ tant inspectors general within her that the taxpayers’ right to honest, lems, that is only a very small step in office to review allegations of miscon¬ fair and efficient government the right direction. A more construc¬ duct against OIG agents. While this applies fully to the State OIG. We tive step would be to acknowledge development is a step in the right are prepared to work with State that OIG/INV has fundamental direction, and shows that the IG at Department leadership and the IG problems and to listen to and learn least recognizes the problem, only an to work out a reasonable program from, rather than lecture, as many independent body will have the need¬ that will serve' all of us. We hope members of the Foreign Service as ed credibility. At present, no mecha¬ that they are willing to meet us on possible. The following questions nism exists within State and related the road to reform. ■ might be addressed during such a discussion: HOW TO CHECK YOUR OIG FILE 1. Absent an independent internal Is the IG keeping a file on you? Has the IG gone into your Official affairs unit to investigate charges of Personnel File in the State Department? There is only one way to find malfeasance by OIG employees, what out: You must file a Freedom of Information and Privacy Act request. procedures are followed by OIG to State Department employees, both Civil Service and Foreign Service, investigate such charges? have the right under the Privacy Act [5 U.S.C. Sec. 552(a)] to file a request for any file on them maintained by OIG. While OIG may and 2. OIG reports are often based sole¬ will liberally use the various exclusion provisions to deny release of mate¬ ly on interview records drafted by the rial, employees at a minimum will know that OIG has a current or past investigating agents. What procedures interest in them. ensure that OIG/INV reports accu¬ Unlike your OPF to which you have official access, you do not have rately and completely portray all infor¬ official access to your OIG file. This is particularly important for pro¬ mation gathered during tire investiga¬ motions and confirmations, given that anyone may make an allegation tion? and that allegation will be documented and a file may be opened. If you are an FSO up for promotion and a case is opened against you, regard¬ 3. Given the separation of functions less of its outcome OIG/INV will share the contents of your file with staff within OIG, what procedures ensure and members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. You may not that cases concerning professional con¬ have seen your file, but a lot of others will. In our view, OIG/INV uses duct are reviewed by an officer with these files to circumvent the outcome of State’s disciplinary system and professional experience in the activities essentially to reverse the judgments of promotion panels. being questioned? Making an FOIA Request 4. If OIG is exempt from FAM reg¬ According to State Department instructions, you may FAX (202-647- ulations, what are employees’ specific 5094) or mail (but not e-mail) your request. You are asked to describe rights to confront and rebut the alleged the records you are seeking as clearly and precisely as you can (all evidence against them? records held on you by OIG). Send your request to: Margaret P. Grafeld, Information and Privacy Coordinator, Office of Information Resources 5. What are the actual number of Management Programs and Services, IM/IPS, Room 1512, Department cases investigated by INV each year? of State, 2201 C Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20520-1512. Additional What number are recommended for information is available on the web at http://foia.state.gov/faqs.htm. disciplinary action? How many cases — The OIG Reform Working Group are successfully grieved or appealed, and on what basis?

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 17 Focus

THE PROPER WAY

BY JOSEPH SALVO

he four wild pigs had returned weaned and might not survive, but while they lived in the late afternoon to trample they would return to the dead sow and flatten his T M amadou’s onion fields again onions. The unclean animal would have to rot where and he only had two shots left. it fell unless Mamadou could convince an infidel to He had just made a new batch take it. of powder but only two ball Since the troubles began to the north, there were bearings clacked together in more visitors. Doctors with medicines and men with his shot bag. To get more he guns usually went north. Southbound traffic consist¬ would have to salvage a vehicle or walk five days ed of refugees on camels or ancient Berliets swaying south to the Saharan trading town of Djenne. with high, unstable loads. Perhaps someone would Oumar, his oldest son, was there for six weeks. take the pig. During Oumar’s absence Mamadou loaded his flintlock M amadou was the village and rested the barrel on the low, guardian in addition to perform¬ stone wall surrounding the onion ing his usual duties as the village field. The barrel was made from a healer. Mamadou earned extra Land Rover steeling column, good money working as a healer and quality steel. Mamadou had used selling his handmade gris-gris. All modern weapons, but modern of the young men were away weapons brought trouble. The gen¬ working in the capital or in darmes would come. He would France. Mamadou himself had have to buy ammunition. It was bet¬ worked in France. For 15 years ter to make your own weapons. he had learned their language The report echoed off the rock- and repaired cars outside Lyon. face that overhung his houses and In France he had accepted granaries. The three young pigs Islam. For Mamadou there was scattered and a long squeal came no conflict between the Prophet’s from tire sow as its front legs col- religion and the much older prac¬ lapsed into a supplicant’s posture, a tices of the healers. Islam pre¬ posture used by caravan leaders for sented new ideas and that knowledge, like a tasty a thousand years to beg water from tire Dogon. thorn tree grub, was not to be wasted. Travelers were still visiting Mamadous village, even Since the beginning of the planting season, the though the last of the great caravans had stopped here in sow and her young had dug up his irrigation canals die time of his grandfather. The Dogon had what travel¬ and eaten his onions. If he shot the sow, she would ers wanted and all travelers, benign or dangerous, want¬ fall in his field. The three young ones were recently ed something in die middle of the Sahara.

18 FOREIGN SERVICE ] OURN AL/J V LY-AUGU ST 1998 Focus

Travelers were still Oumi, his youngest wife, shyly He sat down on a rock and looked around the comer of dieir visiting Mamadou’s vil¬ smoked his pipe as his wives tend¬ house, making sure he was safe. She ed a fire. He told stories to the chil¬ was dressed in a skirt of mud cloth lage, even though the last dren as the ground cooled. and nursed their youngest daughter. Shadows cast on the rockface Oumi answered liis wave with a of the great caravans had seemed to be etched on the surface smile and returned inside. of the stone, the slow accretion of a His three wives said he was stopped here in the time thousand years of stories told by handsome. Almost two meters the same fire. tall, his bare feet were wide and of his grandfather. He did not enter his house until calloused. His strong, clever long after the light of the rising full hands were the color of dark moon made his fields green again. brown rock. His were hands that could set a broken The young pigs did not return. limb, make a child’s toy or write a letter to France. The next day the smell came when the sun was The houses appeared to be part of the cliff. The overhead. The odor of incompletely burned diesel muted red and brown mud-block walls mimicked fuel reached him before the sound of the engine. He the texture and shadings of the rock. Dwellings and sent the children inside to tell their mothers. The granaries emerged along the base of the cliff, thin sound arrived as the vehicle struggled to crest the trapezoids with small openings for light set high on hump of loose black shale on the western boundary the walls. of the Dogon colony. Mamadou guessed it was one With a final grunt, the sow disappeared beneath of the Japanese four-wheel drives coming up from the tall, straight onions. The unbroken green of the south. Perhaps they would want the pig or a gra¬ Mamadou s onion field was restored. The green was nary door. soothing and vibrant at the same time, like steaming Tuareg mint tea after a long journey. The onions Dogons were famous for their granary doors. were the only splash of color in a landscape dulled Mamadou had visited the big museums in by the reddish dust that covered Mamadou, the Paris. They had many of the ancient meter- rocks, everything. square Dogon doors. Each door was solid ebony In an hour the vultures would rise with the heat carved with the talismans of the four clans and the of the day and they would soon find the pig. He had images of protective spirits. Such doors were rare more important things to do than smell the unclean now. The ebony forests were gone and most Dogons dead and chase carrion eaters. used replicas that they sold to tourists. He stood up and moved to the shade of the cliff. He stood up. His flintlock was an arm’s length His knee, injured while salvaging in the desert, away and propped against the cliff. A Toyota Land made sounds like pebbles in a sack. Guardian of the Cruiser coated in reddish dust, rolled into view and village was a younger man’s job. stopped ten meters away, near the low stone wall. Mamadou cleaned his flintlock. Then he poured in Petrol and water cans were strapped to its roof. The powder from a Zebu horn, carefully tamped the powder engine ran and no one got out. The darkly tinted with a Peugeot dipstick and reloaded his last ball bear¬ windows were closed. ing. The fields on this side of the escarpment were his. The forty or so villagers on the other side may or Joseph Salvo is an FSO with USAID who has sei~ved may not have heard the vehicle, but they would not in Japan, Senegal, Thailand and Pern. He has studied venture here unless he sent for them. His own fam¬ at writing seminars at the University of Iowa, ily would have already gone down to the safety of the Bennington College and Sewanee University. cavern.

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 19 Focus

Voices came from inside the car. The exhaust was thorn tree close to the onion field. oily and curled straight up in the dead noon air. “I would be happy to sell it to you, but it is old and The car needed new rings. does not shoot straight.” Mamadou waited as polite custom required. He Farouk translated this into French. The man with watched five vultures patrolling the air space above the sunglasses nodded, took another drink and said, the dead sow. The drivers door opened and a dark, “Farouk, go with this guy and fill our jerry cans.” thin man got out. He wore a turban and a gun in a hol¬ Farouk got two cans off of the Land Cruiser and ster. asked Mamadou to lead him to the water. Mamadou “Salaam malekum.” Peace be with you, the man did not look at his flintlock, which was still resting said in the proper way. against the rockface. “And with you also,” replied Mamadou, also in “Christ, how does anyone live in this cursed Arabic. place? ’ Mamadou heard the bald man say to no one in “I am Farouk. Please sell us some water.” particular. “I am Mamadou. It would please me to offer you water as a gift.” Farouk followed Mamadou past a granary to the The man nodded and got back into the car. entrance of Mamadou’s house and waited Mamadou noticed the springs of the vehicle were respectfully outside. Mamadou entered the compressed. There were at least two persons and cool dark. The floor was covered in Zebu skins which heavy cargo inside. The heat came off the ground in also hid one of the entrances to the cavern where the waves now; the temperature was on its way to 120 well was located. The only sources of light were the degrees. doonvay and a small star-shaped opening high on the Both rear doors opened at the same time. On the opposite wall. The ceiling was at least five meters side closest to Mamadou a tall man with a shaved skull high. Farouk handed the jerry cans to Mamadou and sunglasses got out. A black machine pistol hung inside the house. Mamadou began to fill them using a from a strap over his shoulder and he was drinking gourd floating in the large water jar placed against the from a large brown bottle of “33” beer. The man far wall. When the cans were filled, Mamadou hand¬ approached Mamadou and stopped a few paces away. ed one to Farouk and followed him back to the Land They stood that way for several minutes. Cruiser. “Salaam malekum,” said Mamadou after the man They were in front of the granary when the report did not offer the greeting. of the flintlock caused Farouk to drop his can. As the “Bonjour, parlez-vous francais?” onion field came into view Mamadou could see two “Salaam malekum,” said Mamadou again. men standing on his onions near the body of the pig “That’s a very nice flintlock,” the man said, again he had killed yesterday. The one in sunglasses was speaking in French. “Not as nice as my HK, but nice holding the flintlock. Smoke still flowed from its bar¬ enough. Farouk get over here.” The drivers door rel. opened and the northerner came over. The short man was dressed in fatigues. He had a “Ask him how much he wants for the flintlock.” steady gait as he walked out of the field toward The driver turned to Mamadou and said in Arabic, Mamadou, crushing more onions. Like the bald man, “I apologize for the manners of my friends. He asks he carried a small weapon, maybe an Uzi, on a sling what price you require for your weapon. It is old, but under his right arm. He greeted Mamadou. well offer you a fair price.” “Salaam malekum.” Mamadou watched the third man, who was stand¬ “Malekum Salaam,” said Mamadou. ing on the other side of the hood. He was shorter than “My name is Froon,” said the short man. the other two, more cautious, possibly the leader. “I am called Mamadou.” They would overheat their engine if they let it idle Froon was older than the other two and walked like much longer. One of the vultures boldly settled into a a soldier. He looked at Mamadou and continued.

20 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AUGU ST 1998 Focus

Vuarnet placed the “There were some pigs in your onion the letters HK. Vuarnet opened the field. My associate, ah, Mr. Vuarnet, flintlock in the vehicle. driver’s side door and got into the shot one. We will take it with us.” car. Froon came up to Mamadou. Vuarnet was speaking loudly in Then he unslung his “Where is everybody, your peo¬ French and holding another brown ple?” bottle. weapon and shot “In the millet fields on the other “I was sure I missed them until I side of the cliffs.” went over there and saw one down. Farouk twice in the “Show us your house.” It’s a monster. What a shot. I got the Froon, his right arm resting on biggest one. There must have been a back of the head. his Uzi, stopped at the first granary half dozen of the beasts.” and looked at the door. He contin¬ Vuarnet spoke to the short man. ued to Mamadou s house and, unin¬ “The lying kafir bastard said the gun was broken. It’s vited, walked in. Mamadou followed. an antique, must be a hundred years old. They proba¬ “I’ve always wanted a Dogon door.” bly have some other good stuff, too. We should have Froon walked over to the water jar and used the some fun, Jan. Like that time in Shaba.” gourd to sluice water over his head and neck. The “Quiet,” said Froon, reverting to French. Froon water dripped off his head into the jar and onto the told Farouk to help Mamadou cany the pig to the hide-covered floor. vehicle. “II fait chaud, comme la chatte d’une putaine, eh?” Farouk started to complain. “But that beast is Too hot, said the short man in French, looking for an unclean...” answer. Mamadou didn’t reply. Froon walked around “Do it now,” Froon said, watching Mamadou. the room, bent down, ran his hand over a hide on the Farouk turned to Vuarnet. “You should have asked floor, then went outside. Froon opened a small pouch permission. It is the man’s only weapon.” on his hip and held out some Swiss money. Vuarnet placed the flintlock in the vehicle. Then he “I don’t have any of your local currency,” he said in unslung his weapon and shot Farouk twice in the back Arabic. “I want to buy the door on your granary.” of his head. Farouk flew forward onto the dust and “The door is very old and fragile. If you take it I rolled over on his back. From the exit hole where his will have nothing to protect our food from the animals right eye had been a faint wisp of vapor rose straight that want to share it.” up in the still air. “You’re right,” said Froon. He took three more Froon walked over and stood very close to Vuarnet. notes from his pouch and handed them to Mamdou. Vuarnet took a step back. Froon spoke in soft French “That’s for your flintlock, the door and the water.” to the taller man. Froon directed Vuarnet to help Mamadou waited for three breaths, then carefully Mamadou put the pig into the Land Cruiser. He took the money from the man. Froon held out his turned to Mamadou and said in Arabic: “We will pay hand to seal the deal. Again, Mamadou waited, longer you for the water and for the flintlock. Please help this time, but then he shook the man’s hand. Vuarnet put the pig in the back of our vehicle.” Mamadou looked at the short man. “I will wrap Vuarnet led the way into the field, cursing under the door for you so that it does not get damaged,” he his breath. Mamadou followed in his footsteps. said. “Would you like me to wrap the weapon also?” Vuarnet grasped the sow’s rear legs with both hands. “No,” said the short man. “Just wrap the door, but Mamadou led on the way back to the car, retracing do it quickly. We’re already running late and it will be their steps and holding both the sow’s front legs in his dark soon.” left hand. At the car Mamadou noticed that the sow “Are you going overland or on the road?” asked already had three small maggots around the bullet Mamadou. wound. They swung it into the back of the Toyota on “What road?” top of some long narrow wooden crates stenciled with “The one the French built when I was a young

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 21 Focus

man. The one that goes north to the place where they Mamadou sat dowir on his rock and took out his exploded the big bombs.” pipe. Allah would forgive him for touching the “I thought that one didn’t start for another 100 unclean. Farouk had shown the proper respect. kilometers.” Mamadou would return the honor and bury him with “No. If you go due east it begins less than a kilo¬ the Dogon dead. meter away.” “I’ll think about it. Bring the door out to the car as His wives would soon bring him water to bathe soon as you finish.” and an evening nreal. Then he would relate the Froon left while Mamadou took the door off its days events and tell his regular stories. hinges and laid it gently on the hide floor. He got out He would replace the door with another like it from some flattened tin cans that he bought from a man a Lebanese who made such things in Djenne. A new who sold such things in Djenne and, using the tin cans flintlock would require many hours, but Mamadou as a protective layer, wrapped the door. enjoyed the work. He shifted into a more relaxed pos¬ By tire time he brought tire door out of tire house it was ture. dark. Froon was shouting at Vuamet, who was behind tire The government in the capital still had not replaced wheel of dre Laird Cruiser and appeared to be falling die bridge a few kilometers up the paved road. Perhaps asleep. Mamadou loaded tire door in tire Toyota and the the Toyota would avoid the precipice, though it was men left without thanking him. The driver used too much almost impossible to see it in time, even during the day. clutch and ground the gears as the Toyota headed east, A vehicle in a hurry would go over the edge and hang up gathering speed over the cracked rock. on the pile of other wrecks at the bottom of the ravine.

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22 FOREIGN SERVICE J OU RN A L/J U LY- A V GU S T 1998 Focus

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JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 23 Focus

FRENCH FRIES AND GRAVY

BY JOHNNIE PRATHER

he smell of French fries was pretended not to understand and pushed on. making Doug sick. These Embarrassed by this boorish behavior, Doug turned T golden beauties had brought around a few steps later to look for the girl and saw him to Paris. At least they had that she was talking to an energetic looking boy about played a part in bringing him. her age. The teenagers had already started to giggle After days of trying to find the like best friends sharing a secret. perfect ones, crisp, crunchy, Cut off from the pleasures of youth, used, boorish. and hot enough to erase all These feelings were getting to be like old friends. He other potatoes from his memory, he was ready to call had made their acquaintance when his pretty wife of it quits. The smell of tubers tossed about in bubbling less than a year announced she couldn’t live without oil stuck in his nose. the love of a bull rider who followed the rodeo. Living Everything about Paris was in a small Oklahoma town as the beginning to stick somewhere in r wife of a high-school English his twenty-eight-year-old body. teacher, even one who coached Last nights beer, he told himself. football on the side, just wasn’t It had taken a lot to wash down what she had in mind. She wrote that plate of greasy fries. Les this news on a card mailed three frites, they said. The menu had days after Christmas from some¬ said the best frites in Paris. Empty place in Colorado where she was promises. siding with an old friend, she said. Doug felt sluggish and used up The front of the card wished as he crossed from the narrow “Season’s Greetings” in four lan¬ street of the Left Bank onto the guages. lie de la Cite to walk in the shad¬ His grandpa died a month later ow of Notre Dame. The sight of of a disease that wasted his liver in buttresses soaring up and into a a hurry. But when the old man delicate arch to support massive saw how Doug drooped over his stone walls failed to lift Iris mood. ' failed marriage, he found time to The crowd of German and add a footnote to his will earmark¬ Japanese tourists in front of the cathedral soured him. ing three thousand dollars for a trip to Paris. “Its gravy He stopped feeling used up. He just felt used. money,” he wrote. “If Paris doesn’t perk you up, you’d Just as he broke through the crowd of sweating better see a psychiatrist.” tourists, a Japanese girl, a teenager he thought, Doug knew something of what Paris meant to his approached him with a little dipping motion that was grandpa. The old man’s army unit had been part of the almost a bow and asked him to take her picture. He liberation in 1944 and the magic of that time had

24 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RNA L/J U LY- AUG U ST 1998 Focus

Talking to a French swelled in Dougs imagination ever woman in English “hi,’’even when she was standing since he was a child. He had no idea alone in a public place. His French his grandpa knew what a psychiatrist wasn’t as easy as just was college vintage and rusty even was, though. As long as Doug had though a lot had been dusted off in known him, the old man had raised walking up and three days. Bonjour came out “bone cattle and said little. jure.” He could hear the flat vowels saying “hi.” of the plains but he couldn’t change uty-bound to get the most them. He felt self conscious every out of this trip, he slugged time he spoke. on to Ste. Chappelle where, the guidebook He tried eye contact. She fidgeted with a strand of announced, he would see the oldest stained glass hair and twitched enough to suggest restlessness. But windows in Paris, a towering kaleidoscope that laid her gaze never strayed from the sparkling bits of glass out biblical adventures in vividly colored shards. Each telling the story of Adam and Eve. Doug thought he ray of sun coming into the chapel turned into a giddy might ask for an explanation. The idea appealed. A jewel when it passed through these ancient bits, or so woman having such a succulent bottom might provide the guidebook said. real insight into the fall of Adam. The request began Once inside the chapel, Dougs heart lifted as his to form into words. French phrases sprang up. Flis eyes took in a sight of extraordinary beauty: a woman’s confidence grew. ass molded into a pair of Levis. Levis exactly like the Doug approached the marvel drawing so near he ones he had worn every day of his life. Exactly like the could feel the warmth of her body. Just then, a prissy ones he had seen on his grandpas skinny ass and on looking man wearing painfully tight jeans appeared his dad’s bulbous one. He had seen jeans like these on from nowhere, put his arm around the delicate, for¬ friends of all sizes and ages, on healthy young men bidden waist, and said something like “belle, n’est-ce and on nubile young women. But never had he seen pas?” them like this, made into a work of art by a fine Doug dragged himself out of the jewel box into the behind. Looked at from the side, the ass defied grav¬ open air. He could hardly breathe. ity as it rose from the small of its young owner’s back At the river, he leaned over the retaining wall gasp¬ and swelled into a fulsome orb. From the back, two ing. He stayed there for a long time, letting his eyes perfect mounds spread invitingly. follow the slow movement of the current carrying the Months of seeing a predator every time he looked broad, brown ribbon to the Atlantic. at an attractive woman evaporated. Everything about Looking at distant horizons relaxed him. At home this one enthralled him, her straight auburn hair cut on the plains, he could watch the weather coming. in a boyish style, her funny shoes with very high heels, Could see how the sun cast cloud shadows on the dry her freshly tanned arms, her tiny breasts, her memo¬ prairie grass. Could see cars stirring up red dirt 10 rable behind. miles away. Everything in his body wanted to speak to the Europe’s abrupt horizons made him feel penned young woman, to make some connection with the in. Fie had stood on narrow streets and looked up to possessor of such gifts. But what would he say? “Hi, find stone gargoyles three centuries old leering back. my name’s Doug Jackson. I come from Oklahoma. He had invited a bad crick by dropping his head back Can I buy you a cup of coffee?” till the chin stuck straight up so he could gaze through She might speak some English. A lot of young Notre Dame’s darkness at the glowing rose window. French people did. But talking to a French woman in And he had put his nose almost on the glass that pro¬ English wasn’t as easy as just walking up and saying tects the Mona Lisa hoping to feel the voltage of her smile. Here at the river, he could let his eyes stretch Johnnie Prather is a Washington, D.C. writer. out through open space and his mind follow.

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 25 Focus

He gathered enough energy to make his way to a straight, bent over and touched the sidewalk. “Voila,” sidewalk cafe and order a beer. After all, he thought, she said. “Je suis en forme.” She took a bow and waited Grandpa entered this city only a couple of tanks behind for approval. Greatly relieved that the ordeal had Leclerc. The least I can do is enjoy it. ended with her fully dressed, Doug applauded. The feeling of being unlucky in love and unlucky in The waiter hurried toward the two shooing, as he lust would not go away. And he thought about his scooted. The limber bag lady offered him the French grandpa who refused to eat French fries after the war. gesture of revulsion, arranged her fading red hair, took “Once you ate ’em in Paris,” the old man said, shook his up her cane and shopping bag, and went on her way head, and smiled. He always smiled when he said Paris. chattering. Doug suspected something other than French fries A broad smile came to Doug’s face as he watched accounted for the big grin. He never asked for details, her. Her refusal to surrender Paris to tourists, foreign¬ but he did imagine. He had read Hemingway. ers and abrasive waiters half her age gave his spirits a He sipped his beer and began thinking about what lift. If she can keep going, I can keep going, he thought. to write on postcards to friends and family, what words would make his trip sound enviable. His thoughts kept So he finished the last postcard, the one where he sliding away to the easy pleasures Paris offered his wrote to a coaching buddy about the gorgeous grandpas generation. He was jealous of the old man’s woman hanging around his table and the amaz¬ good time. And he missed him. ing, perfect French fries to be had if you knew just None of these difficult feelings showed up in the where to find them. cards. He told his mom about the Mona Lisa and his He would go home a liar, a spinner of tales. He dad about the leering gargoyles. He told his colleagues resigned himself to that with little trouble. He liked they were missing the finest meals ever put before a telling stories, choosing the right detail, creating an hungry man. He told his drinking buddies about the illusion. French women in blue jeans. So he set out on a long walk in search of fodder to He stopped writing when an ancient woman fuel the stories he would tell sometime in the future. approached his table demanding his attention. She was After an hour or so, he was nearing Place Pigalle, one as thin as a stick. Her fallen face was made up like a of his grandpa’s favorite haunts. He was stopped by a Toulouse-Lautrec painting, garish hues, ill-matched sandwich sign blocking part of the sidewalk. The sign sides, color outside the lines. The painted wonder showed an artist’s version of a gigantic bowl of French spoke. fries, each one as big as Doug’s arm. They looked crisp. Doug’s French offered little help with the flood of The tan edges against yellow centers told him that. And sounds coming at him. He vaguely recognized one they were hot. Trails of white rose up in a cartoon phrase as “Tu veux voir?” which he took to mean “Do image of steam. In hand printed letters, the sign you want to see?” Uncomfortable at what she might bragged of “les meilleures frites de Paris.” The place show him, Doug tried to find a discouraging word but looked to be no more than eight feet wide. Could the failed. best fries in Paris be found in this dive? Doug answered The woman handed him an over-stuffed paper bag his own question. Besides, his feet hurt. and propped her cane against the table. She took off He sat on a tall stool at the narrow counter. Despite her coat and draped it on a chair. having rosy cheeks that suggested he was a cheerful He began to squirm. Thoughts of her black skirt soul, the counterman did not smile. He just looked at sprawled on the sidewalk made him cringe and he Doug and waited. “Frites,” Doug said. “Frites,” the wanted in the worst way for her to end this public strip counterman replied. “And a beer,” Doug added con¬ tease. The hot-looking sweater would follow the skirt. sciously trying to make “bee-air” sound French. The He hoped she would stop at the underwear. He prayed man pulled the beer, wiped his hands on the long white she wore underwear. apron ballooning over his stomach and disappeared She raised her arms over her head until they were into what Doug took to be the kitchen. The sizzle of

26 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O U RN AL/J U LY- AU G U S T 1998 Focus

slightly damp potatoes sliding into The woman snaked Her eyes looked directly into boiling oil announced the wait would¬ Doug’s no more than a foot away. n’t be long. And it wasn’t. toivard him. Dou^s “Esssss-suuuuu-quuuuu,” she Sweaty now from standing over hissed. hot oil, the counterman reappeared eyes glued to the “Est-ce que,” he repeated. He holding a blue bowl heaped with understood. It was a question. fresh golden fries. The steam rose in widening opening in “Tu veux.” He was following. “You curls just as die poster promised. The want.” Some communication was potatoes smelled divine. Doug her coat and what going to happen. approached the offering with rever¬ “Manger.” “Eat.” Of course. He ence. it revealed. was eating. The French fries. The The first bite was crisp, hot, fresh perfect potatoes. She pointed to and full of flavor. them. So was the second. He reached for the third. “CJa,” she said. He became aware of a woman’s high pitched voice He offered the bowl. speaking to him, asking for somediing, he thought. She brushed her hand against the pink vinyl pulling He couldn’t make out what she said. So he turned to it back. Doug could see the point where the corset take a look, hoping her age, her attitude, her stance came to an end, the short ruffles of black tulle floating would help him make out what she was saying. over each hip, the panties, the hair that curled against Her voice had not prepared him for what stood in her white groin. She placed her hand on her hip and the doorway. She was a woman of 30 transformed into said, “Ou 5a?” a palette of red. Curls the color of freshly shined cop¬ He got very red and sat very still, stunned. per sat on her head in a heap. The light from the street “Va-t-en, Cerise,” yelled the counterman trotting lamp behind her played on the curls and they shone out of the kitchen and waxing his arms. She refused to like a halo. budge. He squeezed around the counter, took her by She looked straight into Doug’s eyes, gave him half the elbow and steered her toward the door. a smile, and waited for him to speak. She pulled herself away, turned to look at Doug, and He just stared. flipped her coat open one last time. She stepped ele¬ Unusually tall for a French woman, she wore a slick gantly into the summer evening, a woman accustomed fuchsia rain coat that ended high on the thigh. The to being admired. coat hung slightly open and he could see the sus¬ The silence in the cafe was sudden and total. Doug penders of a garter belt making streaks against her whispered what she had said to him. “Est-ce que tu flesh. Tiny pink roses graced the fasteners where they veux manger ga or ga?” The question burned in his stretched her net stockings into tight peaks. brain. He could repeat it forever. “Good Lord,” Doug whispered. “Weil. I’ll be damned,” Doug said, laying a twenty franc The woman snaked toward him, glowing. Doug’s note on the counter. “Gravy. French fries and graxy.” ■ eyes glued to the widening opening in her coat and what it revealed. A black lace corset shoved tiny breasts Essay an Essay? into creamy puffs threatening to spill out of their shells. The Journal is interested in a new genre: the book Between them she had pinned a pink rose, one slightly review essay. Made famous by The New York Review larger than those that held her stockings. of Books, this form includes reviews of several cur¬ She wore a pound of makeup, each ounce applied rent books about the same topic within one with an artist’s care. Kohl lined her eyes so elaborately thoughtful essay. To try your hand, contact Managing they begged comparison with Nefertiti. Her eyelashes Editor Kathleen Currie at (202) 338-4045, ext. 524 were thick and long. She had penciled a beauty mark or by e-mail at [email protected] next to her glistening vermilion lips.

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 27 Focus

THE EXPAT’S FILES

BY ROBERT J. CAIOLA

famous Southern senator once waited, watched the barber, a gigantic Angolan, clip said that American expats live several other men’s hair. A in pretentious luxury. This is “I don’t want a crew cut,” said Bob when his turn the case some of the time, but came. not most of the time. I ought to “I don’t want a crew cut,” he repeated. “Please use know. I am an expat dog. I go the scissors, not clippers, on my hair.” by the name of Shack. I’ve seen “Right. No problem,” said the barber. it all. I watched as Bob clutched the chair’s arm. The Like most expats I have wanderlust, although I can barber never moved from Bob’s left side as he tell you that flying — particularly if it is in fourth reached over his head to snip, snip, snip. Twenty min¬ class, which means in the airplane’s hold — is no cage utes later, the barber was pleased with the first crew of giggles or even a barrel of cut he had ever performed using laughs. When I complained to Bob, my expat master, about my accommodations on our trip from ob tried to laugh, but I Swaziland to Zimbabwe, he knew he was in a state of claimed his experiences flying B shock because when we tourist class hadn’t been much left the shop we turned for home better. He said he had been in the wrong direction. Luckily, I forced to sit in small seats, eat bad was there to steer him in the right food, contend with schedules that one. changed and flights that were can¬ So, Mr. Senator, while it may celled without notice. He can take Bob a few disastrous haircuts really rant and x'ave about this to find the right barber, it some¬ topic. Still, he is slowly developing times takes him a full two-year a sense of humor about life assignment to find the right doc¬ abroad and its many pitfalls. tor; any dentist; a brilliant, yet In February I walked with Bob tolerant, bridge partner and, to Harare so he could get a hair¬ most important, a kind and cut. We had found a barber in January, but when we knowledgeable vet to take care of me. returned the barber shop had closed. Another problem faced by expats is that they “Too bad,” Bob said. “Nice chap, and a good bar¬ invariably refer to the country they are in by the ber.’’All expats talk a little like the Brits. wrong name. When Bob wants to talk about We then found a barber shop which seemed more Zimbabwe, he usually refers to it as Swaziland. When upscale than the first one. We went in and, while we he recalls incidents that occurred in Swaziland, he

28 FOREIGN SERVICE J OU RN AL/J V LY- AU G U ST 1998 Focus

Apparently, my says Botswana or South Africa. guess the rest. The Ridgeback Sometimes I wonder if he knows paternal grandma Kennel Group here in Zimbabwe where his real roots are. did not invite me to become a took a liking to a member. In fact, they refused to Even my name gets confusing. talk to Bob about it. I’m not too dis¬ I’m called a Rhodesian St.Bernard, and appointed, since I wouldn’t want to ridgeback. Simple, you be associated with snobs. would think. But it’s confusing. you can guess Just like some of the expats I’ve First, Rhodesia no longer exists. met, I’m a mess when it comes to Wouldn’t you think that someone the rest. identity. I mean, I’ve met would have changed my pedigree to Americans who have never lived in Zimbabwean ridgeback? No such America! I was born in Africa and I luck. To boot, Rhodesia is a name not held in good live with Americans, but ridgebacks were first bred in graces by many Zimbabweans, what with its history Europe. Identity can be a problem for expats, partic¬ of colonial exploitation and the war of independence. ularly ridgeless ridgebacks denied membership in When someone asks my pedigree, I fear that the the chib of their ancestors. Bob thinks I’m very answer vail mean a dirty look and a kick. Rhodesian, happy with my life, but I have lonely days when I feel indeed! like an exile. I wasn’t even born in Zimbabwe, formerly Ridgebacks were bred to hunt lions. We are fear¬ Rhodesia. I was born in Swaziland. I’ve never applied less, or at least we don’t fear lions. (To be quite can¬ for a change of citizenship, so as far as I know, I am did, I get somewhat antsy around the behemoth a citizen of Swaziland. Shouldn’t I be called a Swazi called the cow). The newspapers carry stories about ridgeback? Most expats take the citizenship of their ridgebacks chasing stray lions out of villages. There homeland with them no matter where they live, so it are no lions in my yard, but if one came in, I’d root it never occurred to me that I might not be a Swazi out quickly. I spend most of the day sleeping or eat¬ ridgeback. ing, but when I am not resting I practice and train for What’s even worse, I don’t have the distinctive that time. In fairness, ridgebacks are rarely put to the ridge that gives ridgebacks their name. Most dogs of test for which we were bred. For that I am most sad¬ my breed have ridges of hair which grow along their dened. spines in the opposite direction from the rest of their coats. I was one of only two pups without ridges in You see, the face of Africa is changing. Lions my litter. Shamefully, I was the last of the group to be don’t roam the bush as they did only a half- selected by an owner. (Bob assures me that he would century ago. Perhaps we ridgebacks did our have selected me even if he had had a choice, jobs so well that we frightened away those lions we because I was so ornery. Still, I have to wonder did not hunt down. We may have had some help from because of the way he carries on about the beauty of people, too, though. People called colonists wanted ridges.) to tame the land and build huge farming empires, so Besides, I’m not even a full-blooded, one-hun¬ they bought up the best land and brought in plows. dred-percent ridgeback. Apparently, my paternal They bought tractors to pull the plows and suddenly grandma took a liking to a St. Bernard, and you can there were monolithic tobacco and sugar cane farms dedicated to profit. Lions were forced off the land. Robert J. Caiohi is a math and science teacher at the According to ridgeback folklore, we ridgebacks can Harare International School in Harare, Zimbabwe, claim the lion’s share of this achievement, but I’m where he lives with his wife, Sally Collier, country suspicious of folklore that is too simple and straight¬ director for the Peace Corps. forward.

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 29 Focus

Just like some of the People who used to live in the please him by taking him to the bush and compete with Hons for wild expats I’ve met, finest restaurant in the city for game were put to work by the large Sunday brunch. With the first pleas¬ farmers. They lived in small camps I’m a mess when it ant words from his mouth, the visitor and enjoyed the benefits of doctors said, “You know, Bob, all your tours who were brought in to work in clin¬ comes to identity. of this country should begin here ics and dispense medicine. They because this place embodies this enjoyed the good life. More of their country’s food and decor at its best.” children lived. They seemed more secure. One day Bob did not think this was an appropriate thank you. they realized that there were no lions anywhere where The evening before the visitors departure, we all they lived, but there seemed to be people everywhere. sat in the living room after dinner. Bob leaves the front Meanwhile, the large farmers became so rich and door open most of the year, which is great for cross¬ accumulated so much stuff that they worried about ventilation, but something of a problem because being robbed. insects, particularly moths, can get in. Now I may be a Since there were no more lions to chase, ridgebacks fearless lion-hunting ridgeback, but in the absence of became watch dogs. lions, I am not afraid to admit that I chase birds (never caught one) and moths (with which I have had moder¬ Bob laughs because I always wag my tail when I ate success). On this night a particularly crafty moth watch at the gate. (I wouldn’t wag my tail if a aviator entered the premises. I went into action, but lion came by. I’d be a fierce lion-hunting dog could not zero in on its maneuvers. I somehow ended once again. I'd return to my intended vocation. I’d up half off the couch as the moth continued its aerial stop trying to adjust to this new world, one in which acrobatics. the former African community has been broken by Our guest screamed with laughter. high walls and locked gates and a terrible, high- “You know, Bob,” he said, “your friend’s dog, pitched noise that goes off when someone opens the Humphrey, has an IQ much higher than Shacks.” wrong window or door.) Well, would you believe that! Humphrey is a pure¬ Expat families face other pitfalls, like the large bred golden retriever, the epitome of predictable number of visitors who want to visit moderately stable, dullness. I was outraged. Bob wanted to growl, but spectacularly beautiful countries like Zimbabwe. A few laughed instead. It seemed a fitting conclusion to months after they arrive in Zimbabwe, expats have another miserable evening, but it has given us a few usually learned about “must” places to visit: game laughs when I do something stupid, which is not too parks, Victoria Falls, lodges in the bush and in the often. mountains, houseboats on Lake Kariba and other truly So, Mr. Senator, why don’t you try to entertain wild places. Expats learns all this quickly because they guests in a foreign place, then have them rail against are anxious to prepare for a deluge of visitors. Some of you for your low IQ? the visitors, bless them, even call the trip the best of When our family travels in a government-owned their lives. car, we aren’t allowed to pick up hitchhikers. So when However, Bob entertained one visitor who found Bob drives our own car, he tries to say “thank you” to the entire stay most unpleasant. He didn’t care for Zimbaweans for their hospitality by giving them a lift. Bob’s selection of activities or places to visit. He When I ride in the back of our Jeep 4x4, which is growled most inappreciatively when Bob played often because we go hiking regularly, Bob says it’s like Vivaldi during dinner. He made a number of terrible a candid camera scene. One person jumps in the statements, two of which have become our own family front. Two jump in the back. He says hello. I lick the folklore, causing great merriment. two in the back. They jump out of the car, followed by The visitor made the first statement when, on the the one in the front. You would think I’m vicious or last day of his visit, Bob made a Herculean effort to something!

30 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY- AV C U ST 19 98 Focus

Most of the best friends with whom we can relax whom I was prepared to do battle, until I realized that are also expats. I’m from a litter of 11 pups and all of the poor thing wouldn’t have had a chance against the my litter mates were distributed among expats. When fiercest of lion-hunting dogs. we visit them on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, I Expats excel at the long-neglected art of using am invited so that I can frolic with my brothers and acronyms. Consider the term “PC.” It might mean sisters. politically correct or Peace Corps. “AID” might mean Agency for International Development or auto¬ When I become exhausted, I take tours of immune disease. Expats never get their acronyms the houses we are visiting with a particu¬ mixed up. If they did, a world of information might larly keen eye for their African decora¬ crumble, collapse, disintegrate. A few years ago, tions. One family owned masks, mostly frightening acronyms were mysterious and impenetrable to Bob. ones. I didn’t linger long in that house. Another was Now he can now toss them off without a stumble: into tapestries. No wall in any room showed for all the “The RPCVs returned to PC/W after their COS con¬ weaving hanging around. Many things clashed, but ference to discuss the value of their ISTs and the bril¬ some were quite colorful and beautiful. One family liance of the CD and her APCDs in managing the was into stone sculptures. Scores of heads in different writing of the IPBS, the PSR, and the QTRS.” (You poses and carved from different types of stone were may write to the author for a translation.) lying around the house. Some were lovely and gra¬ I’m beginning my fourth year of life and my fourth cious. Others were as frightening as the masks. One year of living with this family. They joke that when we country’s ambassador had a crocodile sculpture with go back home to America only two seats will be paid

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JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 33 Focus

THE DIPLOMAT CLUB

BY RUTH KIJNG

he birthday cards started arriving invitation to a reunion of the original Diplomat Club unexpectedly six years before. members. Win hasn’t been back to the Diplomat in The cards always say, Happy over 20 years. Birthday from the staff and man¬ Win rarely receives invitations to anything these agement of the Diplomat Hotel, days. His two ex-wives live in other cities and his Kowloon, Hong Kong. Alpheus three children are very busy with their own lives. Loo, Manager. Most of Win’s friends are also quite busy or have They arrive addressed to retired to warmer climates. He had always intended Walter Innes Napier, Associate Director, the Marlin to purchase a condo or cottage on the eastern shore Institute. The name is not quite right. People who of Maryland or the Outer Banks of North Carolina, know him call him Win for short. He has never been but somehow that had never transpired. Today the the associate director. He was an associate fellow cost would be too high. But back when he was in the once a few years ago and still Foreign Service he could have maintains an office of sorts at the managed it if he had only been Institute, although the project he able to save something. worked on was over long ago. The Diplomat Club was The birthday cards always have founded in the early sixties by a photograph on the cover. The young expatriates living in Hong photo is usually an exterior view Kong who decided that they of the hotel or a picture of the needed a club — a place to play manager and his employees. The tennis and a pool to swim in photos indicate that the landscap¬ where they wouldn’t be bothered ing hasn’t changed much since by the locals. They wanted enter¬ Win was there. Small palm trees tainment rooms for special occa¬ still line the drive and large pots sions and a bar where they would of hibiscus still decorate the be served strong drink with cour¬ veranda. The Diplomat and its tesy. They chose the Diplomat for surroundings, however, have its colonial charm. The hotel changed since the sixties. The ' owners needed an infusion of hotel added a new wing in the money to refurbish the hotel. ’70s. The new brick edifice looms behind the original Win always places the cards in his correspondence colonial style building. Neighboring skyscrapers now pile on his desk. Eventually they become buried with block out the sun. other unanswered letters, contest entries, offers of The latest card has a photograph of the hotel staff important journals essential to his research and an standing around the bar in the newly renovated occasional note from a colleague. Win’s desk is now at Ambassador Lounge. It includes an imitation, an the end of a hallway next to the service door of an

34 FOREIGN SERVICE J O V RN A L/J U LY-AU G U ST 1998 PAYING OUR DUES:

Governing Board TIME TO RESTRUCTURE President: Daniel F. Geisler State Vice President: vacant By Dan Geisler than $400, and earns less than half what I USAID Vice President: Frank Miller USIA Vice President: J. Riley Sever AFSA President do. Our Civil Service colleagues in AFGE CS Vice President: Charles Kestenbaum who earn $35,000 pay $225 in dues. At FAS Vice President: Maggie Dowling Retiree Vice President: Edward Dillery During my second month on the job, I got that salary level, an AFSA member pays $93. Secretary: Aurelius Fernandez a letter from an active duty Foreign But the spread in annual dues — from $93 Treasurer: Thomas Boyatt State Representatives: Natalie Brown, Service colleague resigning his mem¬ to $21 3.50 — doesn't match the spread in Marilyn Bruno, Michael Corbett, Christopher bership in AFSA. He said the dues weren't salaries from FS-09 to SFS. To make dues fair¬ Sandrolini, Greg Stanton USAID Representative: vacant fair. Serving in the lower mid-grades, he paid er, we propose making AFSA cheaper for USIA Representative: Susan Crais Hovanec almost the same dues as someone earning those who earn the least, while raising dues Retiree Representatives: Garber Davidson, Willard DePree, William Harrop, Clyde Taylor four times as much. somewhat for those who earn the most. (See FAS Representative: Peg Thursland We took a hard look at our finances and table on page 3.) CS Representative: Geoff Walser Staff our dues structure, and reached two conclu¬ How much money is involved? We propose Executive Director: Susan Reardon sions. First, our structure isn't fair. Second, cutting FS 9 - 7 dues by 30%, and FS 6 - 4 Business Department Controller: David McEvoy we need to stabilize our finances by generat¬ dues by 10%. For the mid-grades, we want an Accounting Assistant: Jenifer O'Neal ing a little more income. Not a lot more. extra 30 cents per week (15% increase) for Labor Management General Counsel: Sharon Papp AFSA is still the best buy around. When I seniors, another dollar and a quarter per week Staff Attorney: Colleen Fallon told a Montgomery County sixth grade (30% increase). Coordinators: Richard C. Scissors, Jack Bryant teacher that I pay $ 1 87 a year in union We would also like to make retiree dues fair¬ USIA Labor Relations Specialist: Carol Lutz dues, she didn't believe me. She pays more er. For our retired members, the dues structure Labor Management Attorneys: Suzanne Brennan, Tanisha Cole Continued on page 2 Grievance Attorney: Henry Sizer Law Clerk: Peter Hutchinson Office Managers: Geri Verble, Rita Cohen Member Services Director: Janet Hedrick Acting Director: Yolanda Odunsi • AFSA Dateline • Representative: vacant Administrative Assistant: Thomasina Johnson Mr. Moran, who was U.S. Ambassador • Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Retiree Liaison: Ward Thompson to the Republic of the Seychelles from Professional Programs has accepted AFSA's request to serve Professional Issues Coordinator: Richard S. 1 987 to 1991, served 39 years in the as honorary chairperson for next year's Thompson Foreign Service. He died at his home in Congressional Affairs Director: Ken Nakamura 75th Anniversary of the Foreign Service. Springfield, Va. on February 16. Communications Coordinator: Kristina Kreamer The Rogers Act, signed in 1924, estab¬ Scholarship Administrator: Lori Dec Donations in his name, payable to the Corporate Relations: Mark Lore lished the modern merit-based Foreign AFSA Scholarship Fund, may be mailed Service. Since AFSA was founded the Internet Addresses: to AFSA Scholarship Coordinator Lori [email protected] (Association) same year, we will be celebrating our Dec. [email protected] (President) anniversary as well. Under the direction [email protected] (FSJ) of Ambassador Brandon Grove, AFSA • Michael Corbett, a security engineer¬ AFSA Headquarters: (202) 338-4045 is organizing a year-long series of FAX: (202| 33845820 ing officer with State, has joined the events in the U.S. and at our overseas State Department Office:(202) 647-8160 AFSA governing board to replace Steve FAX: (202) 647-0265 missions. USAID Office: (202) 712-1941 Romero. Corbett's extensive experience FAX: (202) 216-3710 in labor management relations will serve USIA Office: (202)401-6405 • AFSA is collecting donations for the FAX: (202)401-6410 him well on the board. AFSA News Editor: Wesley Ann Godard James B. Moran Memorial Scholarship. Continued on page 9

AFSA NEWS • JULY - AUGUST 1998 I Paying Our Dues — F A S = Continued from page 1

hasn't changed for over a decade and no longer reflects the variation in retiree annuities. We would not raise dues at the • BY MAGGIE DOWLING • lowest annuity level ($25,000 and under), but we propose a slight increase Negotiation Goal: MORE ! at the mid-level and the largest increase for retirees with annuities over $75,000 AFSA FAS contract negotiations AFSA members have been the leading (roughly the active duty FS-02 salary began June 22 and should con¬ contributors to this important effort: Peg level). Retirees would continue to pay less tinue through most of the sum¬ Thursland, David Salmon, Dave Young, than active duty members in the same mer. On management's request, the Evans Browne, Bob Macke, Melinda salary/annuity range, because retirees do entire contract was re-opened to Sallyards, Geoff Wiggin, Alan Hrapsky, not benefit from much of AFSA's labor- include all agency policies affecting Gregg Young, Merritt Chesiey, Christine management work. Since we do not have Foreign Service officers. Consequently, Sloop, David Kiefner, Hoa Huynh, Rick information on annuity levels for current at the conclusion of the Helm, Roger Wentzel, Eric retiree members, the new dues structure negotiations, we will have Trachtenberg, Sharynn would be voluntary and implemented on one comprehensive docu¬ "As a result of Nenon, Jonathan Gressel. the honor system. ment addressing nearly all this process, our Peg Thursland and I are The dues restructuring would yield an relevant policies — awards, the lead negotiators for extra $ 1 60,000 per year of revenue. We assignments, waivers, train¬ members are AFSA; Ted Horoschak, for need about $200,000, and plan to fill ing, language incentives, extremely well management. His team the gap by signing up new members. selection boards, perfor¬ includes Richard Affleck, Here's why we need the money: mance evaluation, medical informed Mark Holt (both ICD), Staff Salaries - We pay some of our clearance and others. on...Foreign Denis Fetters, Tom Westcot, lawyers and staff with masters degrees Last January, about 20 Brenda Freeman, Cathy around $30,000 a year, about what a AFSA FAS members began Service issues." McKinnell, Connie receptionist makes in a Washington corpo¬ meeting weekly to prepare Delaplane and Dee Linse. rate office. We've been lucky in attracting for the talks. Now we often FAS labor management talented, dedicated people. But turnover has meet twice daily reviewing specialist, John Riconda been a problem, especially on the legal side management's proposals and prepar¬ laid the groundwork for us, and Debra where members get personal help in griev¬ ing our counter-proposals. AFSA's Donnelly took over after his departure. ances and disciplinary investigations from proposals and counter-proposals are Most importantly, our administrator, AFSA. Because AFSA staff don't get step based on comments received from our Lon Hatamiya, supports us and assures increases and a cost of living adjustment members, from legal opinions of AFSA us that resources will be made avail¬ every year, their salaries have fallen below attorneys and from the committee able for this effort. With hard work market level. We need to bring them up. members' experience and research and commitment by both the manage¬ Technology - Let's not make the State into the issues. We have also carefully ment and AFSA negotiating teams, we Department mistake by falling off the tech¬ studied other foreign affairs agencies' can hope for an agreement that will nology curve. Internet mail and the Web are policies and incorporated their best provide a fair, equitable and profes¬ pushing out cables as our means for commu¬ aspects. Our focus is always on what sional work environment in which to nicating with members. Our listserver, we perceive to be the greater interest achieve the agency's goals. AFSANET, gets 100-200 new subscribers of our membership and how we can What do we want for AFSA mem¬ every month. To keep pace, we need to ensure the maximum contribution by bers? Well, to paraphrase a great union modernize our server, our PCs and our print¬ AFSA members to the mission of the leader from the past, we want morel ers, and to upgrade our software. The short¬ agency. More fairness, less injustice. More term costs will run about $38,000. Committee members are often spotted respect, less dismissal of genuine con¬ Afterwards, we will bring in a staff per¬ carrying a huge notebook with the cerns. More transparency, less smoke son to maintain our Web page, AFSANET, Foreign Service Act and FAM. (The and mirrors. More uniformity in imple¬ Diplomats on Line program, and other com¬ Foreign Service Act takes precedence menting policy, less favoritism. More of puter-based activities. over any contract agreement and the the new participatory management style Reserve Funds - We own our building at contract takes precedence over the of Lon Hatamiya, less of the agency's 21 st and E Street free and clear, but we FAM.) As a result of this process, our traditional top down way of doing busi¬ have maintenance costs. Right now we members are extremely well informed on ness. Things are changing. Hopefully, have to replace the second floor roof, and a wide spectrum of Foreign Service this contract will secure the progress upgrade our wiring, security system and fire issues. On top of this, we all do our regu¬ made and ensure continuing advances alarms. Near-term cost is $45,000. With lar jobs — the jobs for which our perfor¬ in both the personal and career aspira¬ new revenue we can cover these projects mance evaluations are now being writ¬ tions of every employee. Thanks for the from reserve funds, rather than borrowing ten. In the past few months, the following comments. Keep them coming. from the bank as we did last time.

2 AFSA NEWS • JULY - AUGUST 1998 Dues Referendum Notice

In accordance with the AFSA bylaws, the Elections Committee gives notice that it has received from the AFSA Governing Board a proposal for restructuring AFSA dues. As provided in Articles IV, VI (1 )(a), and VIII of the bylaws, the Committee will submit this proposal, accompanied by statements, if any, from the proponents and opponents of the proposal, to the AFSA regular membership in a secret ballot referendum. A majority of valid votes received will determine the result.

The proposed changes in AFSA dues are set forth in the table below.

Ballots will be mailed October 1, 1998 with voting instructions and statements for and against the proposal that are submitted in accordance with the instructions below.

Statements for or against must be received by September 1 5. They should be addressed to Elections Committee, AFSA, 2101 E Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20037, fax 202-338-6820, e-mail [email protected], or sent by AFSA channel cable. Statements must be no longer than 500 words and signed by at least ten regular mem¬ bers, and no two statements may be signed by the same member. The Committee reserves the right to shorten statements from the end if necessary to meet space I WANT YOU limitations. To Visit www.afsa.org Ballots must be returned by November 1 5. They will be counted and the results and Read! announced promptly. Go to AFSA’s homepage at www.afsa.org on the internet, Active and we will direct you to M'.fcH.l'.MWllH.where you Category Current Proposed Percent Change Per have access to millions of Dues Dues Change Pay Period great books and music. The Foreign Service Journal FS 7,8,9 $ 93 $ 65 -30% -1.10 receives a referral fee on every book or music item FS 6,5,4 $137 $123 -10% -.60 purchased, so the more you buy, the better we can serve + 15% + 1.10 FS 1,2,3 $187.50 $215 you as our reader. SFS $213.50 $278 +30% +2.50 The Foreign Service Associates $57 $ 75 +30% Journal gives you access to 2,500,000 books and Retiree music. Simply visit our web site! Category Current Proposed Proposed Dues Category Dues

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AFSA NEWS • JULY - AUGUST 1998 3 Sandra Hood Counsels Others To Improve Their Lives...

.. .before that, she was a More FS Positions Lost Peace Corps Volunteer. June was not a good month for FSOs MC level position in Vietnam as the at USIA. We were left standing at Special Advisor for Exchanges to the the altar three times as Civil Service Ambassador. Schiffer, the former head of colleagues and political appointees the Office of Private Exchanges and cur¬ eloped with plum senior assignments. rently assigned to OPIC, has no East Asia The first breach of promise was the area experience and does not speak indication that Director Joseph Duffey Vietnamese. The draft job description is intended to convert the Deputy vague and seems to usurp some of the tra¬ Associate Director of the Bureau of ditional authority of the PAO. In addition, Educational and Cultural Schiffer's appointment will Affairs from an FS to a GS cost approximately slot by naming Judy Siegel "...Civil Service $500,000 a year at a time of the Senior Executive when USIA, alone among Service to the position. colleagues and the foreign affairs agencies, is There are too few FS political facing a budget cut in FY99. jobs in the E Bureau now To fund this position, posts Occupation: seior and the lack of significant appointees may be closed or yet more Substance Abuse s.u Foreign Service perspective eloped with plum FSO positions abolished. on educational and senior When I told Director exchange issues will under¬ Duffey that his recent deci¬ HSs- mine the relevance of that assignments." sions reinforced the impres¬ office to the field. Already, sion among USIA FSOs that input from officers in the they are held in disdain by field comes at the last stages of policy agency management, he reassured me debate rather than in the formulation that this was not the case. He respond¬ stage. No E Bureau Foreign Service ed positively to our concerns about the deputy will only exacerbate this prob¬ War College position and is moving to While in the Peace Corps, Sandra lem. establish a second position for the "Sam" Hood helped villagers The second breach of faith was Foreign Service. in Thailand improve their lives the announcement of career civil ser¬ He was not receptive to our con¬ through agriculture and better health practices. Today, thanks to vant, Bruce Gregory, to the USIA cerns about the position in the E her Peace Corps service, Sam is also Foreign Service position on the facul¬ Bureau. However, he will consider making a difference at home. She is ty of the National War College. our arguments in favor of an FSO or a successful substance abuse AFSA has the highest respect for for the creation of two deputies in the counselor working with "at-risk" Gregory, the Staff Director of the E Bureau, one FS and one GS. If, as groups in Alaska. U.S. Advisory Commission on Public is expected, Siegel is made Deputy, Diplomacy, but we were surprised we can only hope that she and the Peace Corps Volunteers are that Director Duffey ignored the Director will seek Foreign Service changing America and changing Senior Officers Assignment input in the E Bureau. the world. Committee's recommendation of an Regarding our objections to the sched¬ For more information, call FSO. According to the agency's ule C appointment of Robert Schiffer to 800-424-8580 announcement the position is "offi¬ Vietnam, the Director was adamant. He and press 1 at the prompt. cially designated as Advisor on explained that "strong interests" support Web Address: www.peacecorps.gov Media Affairs,...this position calls for Schiffer's appointment. an officer with experience in press If June is an indication of the career PEACE CORPS work and special expertise in politics prospects of USIA's Foreign Service, we The toughest job you'll ever love. and diplomacy." may need to contract the services of a The Peace Corps prohibits discrimination based on race, color, The third betrayal was the proposal to real matchmaker to ensure that we don't national origin, religion, age (over 40), sex, disability, political affiliation, and sexual orientation. All Peace Corps services and assign Robert L. Schiffer as a schedule C continue to lose out to our GS and programs are administered on this nondiscriminatory basis. Anyone who feels he or she has been discriminated against may political appointee to a specially created schedule C colleagues. write to the American Diversity Program Manager, Peace Corps, Washington, DC 20526. 764

4 AFSA NEWS • JULY - AUGUST 1998 Inside USAID THE FOREIGN SERVICE COMMUNITY

AFSA Members in Action • FRANK MILLER •

• Richard Gardner, ambasador to Spain A Foundation for AID? from 1993 to 1997, has been given the Thomas Jefferson Award by American In the Journal's May issue Denis J. growth to create jobs or enough income Citizens Abroad. The organization estab¬ Sullivan suggested reinventing USAID. to pay for social services. lished the award in 1993 in honor of the He describes USAID as an agency USAID has played a crucial role in 250th anniversary of the birth of with a split personality that "exists more to developing democracy and civic society Jefferson. Gardner, who was cited for out¬ promote U.S. interests abroad than to in El Salvador. During the transition from standing service to American citizens liv¬ promote development in poor nations." war to peace USAID has reactivated ing overseas, is the first U.S. ambassador Sullivan's cure is to divide the agency small businesses, cooperatives and farms to receive the award. in two. State would handle all political through training, technical assistance and aid including democracy and civil society credit to over 100,000 ex-combatants • Diana Deverell, a former FSO, has pub¬ projects and USAID would become an and civilians; and increased infrastructure lished a novel with a Foreign Service independent foundation concentrating on such as potable water, roads, electricity, heroine. According to her old boss, development and humanitarian assis¬ health and education services. Our pro¬ Deane R. Hinton, 12 Drummers tance. grams have helped build democratic insti¬ Drumming is a "dynamite action thriller." U.S. foreign policy goals and sustain¬ tutions, increase civic participation and able development are not mutually exclu¬ strengthen municipal governments. Four • Nelda Lateef, daughter of retired FSO sive. Self-sustaining development in poor out of five ex-combatants now consider Victor Lateef, has published Women of countries is a high priority of U.S. foreign themselves reintegrated into Salvadoran Lebanon: Interviews with Champions for policy. Open, growing economies society. Peace (McFarland and Company, Inc. improve the quality of life for citizens, This kind of country-wide impact in 1997). and create more exports and jobs for the sectors like economic development, envi¬ U.S. Sustainable economic development ronment, population and democracy is • FSO Rust Deming was cited by Ruth also addresses widespread poverty, beyond the scope of a foundation. While Bornstein, president of Rollins College, for instability and collapse of existing social foundations often do good work, they do helping resolve a conflict over the return of structures which could lead to costly it on a very small scale. A foundation a Japanese statue brought to this country as deployment of U.S. military to restore could not maintain USAID's global lead¬ a war trophy and donated to the college in order. ership in development or provide cooper¬ 1946. According to Bornstein's account in Through USAID, the secretary of State ation and leverage with other donors like The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 8, and president can directly influence the the EU, World Bank and bilaterals. A 1998, "It was Rollins graduate Rust policy and program direction of develop¬ foundation cannot transform the sustain¬ Deming, then deputy chief of mission in the ing countries. USAID's rapid response to able development of a country and its U.S. embassy in Tokyo, who helped per¬ conditions in Bosnia, South Africa, West people. suade us that returning the statue would Bank/Gaza and Cambodia demon¬ The conversion of USAID to a founda¬ serve as a symbolic gesture of friendship to strates the value of a development pro¬ tion would be used by Congress to justify an important American ally and trading gram supporting our foreign policy deeper cuts in U.S. foreign assistance. partner." objectives. These programs have fos¬ Sullivan calls for closing most USAID tered democratic change and economic overseas missions. Over time the U.S. for¬ Do you have news about an AFSA member or of an recovery. Aid to Bosnia went hand in eign assistance program would become event of interest to the FS community? glove with our military commitment. The increasingly isolated from U.S. foreign Fax it to (202) 338-8244. military does not project power singly; policy interests and vulnerable to further aid projects power as well and a country budget cuts. AFSA's New Security System unable to apply it prudently is weaker. USAID's advantage is that it AFSA is installing a new security system at Our program in Eastern Europe is aid¬ administers development assistance headquarters using access cards similar to ing an historic transformation toward through technically staffed in-country the government badge system. Visitors to democracy and free markets. A major missions. Ironically, other donors, the building will use a door intercom to part of USAID assistance to this region is including the World Bank, are now gain admittance into the AFSA office. The devoted to strengthening the conditions looking into ways to emulate USAID's Association will be trying out different needed for open markets and trade. U.S. field missions just when Sullivan options over the summer to see what works exports to the region have tripled in the would have us abandon our greatest best for daytime and after-hours security. last decade and will continue to grow. strength. Giving up USAID as an Our goal is to have a safe, secure environ¬ Without these programs the economies of important foreign policy tool is not in ment that is accessible to members. Eastern Europe cannot promote enough our national interest.

AFSA NEWS • JULY - AUGUST 1998 5 1998 AFSA/AAFSW Academic ft

he American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and Jones, received $1,000. Ms. Jones won for her paintings the Association of American Foreign Service Women and sketches in the visual arts category. She competed (AAFSW) are pleased to announce the winners of the against 1 3 other students for the Art Merit Award. Those AFSA/AAFSW Academic Merit and Art Merit Scholarships winning Honorable Mention were awarded $200 as was for 1998. The competition is open to Foreign Service high Lucy Seche for writing the best essay and May Hara for school seniors at home and abroad. her community service activities. Over 80 students competed in this year's program. A total of $23,200 was awarded this year with the Applicants for the Academic Merit Awards were judged on Association of American Foreign Service Women provid¬ grade point average, Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) ing nearly half of the funding through the proceeds from scores, essay, letters of recommendation and extracurricu¬ its annual BOOKFAIR held each fall. AFSA's Committee lar activities. In addition to being judged on the above cri¬ on Education along with volunteers from the foreign teria, students competing for the Art Merit Award submitted affairs community spent approximately 8-10 hours scor¬ an entry in one of the following categories: visual arts, ing the students. For information for applying for an musical arts, drama, dance or creative writing. Academic AFSA/AAFSW scholarship contact Lori Dec at (tel.) 202 Merit Winners and the Art Merit winner, Katharine "KB11 944-5504 or (e-mail) [email protected]. Continued on page 10

REBECCA BENEFIEL - daughter of SARAH BRACKEN - daughter of Judy MARY ANNE CHRISTENSEN - daughter of ALLEGRA ClRA - daughter of Christine Elizabeth and Michael (CS) Benefiel; (USAID) and Joseph (STATE) Margie and Casey (STATE) and Carl (USAID) Cira; Coral American Embassy School, New Dehli, Bracken; International School Christensen; American International Gables High School, Coral Gables, India; Class Valedictorian; National Manila, Manila, Philippines; 1998 School, Vienna, Austria; AP Scholar FI.; active in drama; member of Merit Scholar; attending Yale MVP Varsity Rugby; will study biolo¬ with Honors; will study genetics and Spanish National Honor Society; University majoring in humanities. gy at the University of Virginia. music at Stanford University. attending University of Miami.

T-

NATHANIEL GOGGIN - son of Ruth ARIANA GUSS - daughter of Lucille and RANA HAMDY - daughter of Drs. Mona MAY HARA - daughter of Aguri and and James (USAID) Goggin; Cairo Brian (USIA) Guss; Thomas Jefferson and Farouk (FAS) Hamdy; Colegio Hugh (USIA) Hara; National American College, Cairo, Egypt; High School for Science and Maya, Guatemala City, Guatemala; Cathedral School, Washington, D.C.; National Honor Society; Eagle Technology, Alexandria, Va.; Co-cap¬ AP Scholar with Honors; outstanding AFSA/AAFSW Community Service Scout ; attending University of tain of 1998 JETS TEAMS Competition Achievement in math and science; winner; National Merit Commended Chicago. 1st Regionally; attending Virginia Tech. attending Johns Hopkins University. Scholar; attending Cornell University.

6 AFSA NEWS • JULY - AUGUST 1998 rit and Art Merit Award Winners

DAVID HUTCHINSON - son of Elena and KATHARINE JONES - daughter of Debbie KRISTIN LON - daughter of Donor (Ret- ELIZABETH NACH - daughter of Thuy

Anthony (USIA) Hutchinson; Bethesda- and Philip (USAID) Jones; Yorktown USAID) and Linda (USAID) Lion; and James (Ret-STATE) Nach; Thomas

Chevy Chase High School, Bethesda, High School, Arlington, Va.; National Langley High School, McLean, Va.; Jefferson High School for Science and

Md.; National Peace Essay Contest Honor Society president; varsity swimming team letter; attending Technology, Alexandria, Va.; National

Maryland state winner; attending AFSA/AAFSW Art Merit Award win¬ the College of William and Mary and French Honor Societies; attending

University of Chicago. ner; attending Columbia University. majoring in biology. Duke University.

DANIEL NORLAND - son of Mary MEGHAN O'DONNELL - daughter of STEPHANIE PRASTER - daughter of Rebecca SHANDON QUINN - son of LeSon and

Hartnett and Richard (STATE) Sharon and John (Ret-USAID) and Thomas (STATE) Praster; Leysin Amb. Kenneth (STATE) Quinn; Thomas

Norland; St. Andrew's College, O'Donnell; Oakcrest School, American School, Leysin, Switzerland; Jefferson High School for Science and

Dublin, Ireland; National Merit Washington, D.C.; Senior Class vice Ccxapfain of soccer team; member of Technology; Alexandria, Va.; captain

Commended Scholar; attending Yale pres.; National Honor Society; attend¬ the Student Council; attending of swim team; attending Princeton

University majoring in politics. ing the College of William and Mary. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. University majoring in chemistry.

MEGHAN RHOAD - daughter of Lorraine ALEXANDRA RITCHIE - daughter of EDMUND SCHWARTZ - son of Phyllis LUCY SECHE - daughter of Susan Canning

and David (USAID) Rhoad; American Naomi (STATE) and John (STATE) and Karl (USAID) Schwartz; W.T. and Stephen (USIA) Seche; George

International School, Tel Aviv, Israel; Ritchie; Greengates School, Mexico Woodson High School, Fairfax, Va. Mason High School, Falls Church, Va.;

National Honor Society president; City, Mexico; National Honor Society; AP Scholar with Honors; National AFSA/AAFSW Best Essay winner;

National Merit Commended Scholar- majoring in broadcast journalism at the Honor Society; attending University National Merit Commended Scholar;

attending Harvard University. University of Texas at Austin. of Virginia majoring in biology. attending University of Virginia.

A F S A NEWS • JULY - AUGUST 1998 7 PROTECTING EMPLOYEE RIGHTS IN A STREAMLINED DISCIPLINE PROCESS BY SHARON PAPP, GENERAL COUNSEL

AFSA has undertaken a number of would have a chance to contact AFSA allegations against them have been measures designed to speed up or private counsel to arrange represen¬ found groundless. the Foreign Service disciplinary tation during the interview. Preparation Once the OIG completes an investi¬ processes and improve employee pro¬ for OIG interviews is extremely impor¬ gation against an employee, the OIG cedural protections. Our actions were tant because employees' honest mis¬ investigation file is forwarded to the prompted by complaints from members takes about the facts have led to disci¬ State Department's Office of Employee and management officials regarding plinary action against themselves and Relations (PER/ER) for possible discipli¬ the investigatory tactics of the State others. nary action. The employee may rebut Department's Office of the Inspector Employees also report that the OIG the disciplinary proposal. If the propos¬ General (OIG). We are also con¬ has refused their requests to have their al is upheld by the PER/ER DAS, the cerned about a January 1 998 OIG interviews tape recorded. Under cur¬ employee may file a grievance with the report to House International Relations rent practice OIG special agents take State Department grievance staff (PER/G) Committee Chairman Benjamin Gilman notes of their interviews; the notes are and, if necessary, with the Foreign that recommends major changes to the written up as an information record Service Grievance Board (FSGB). disciplinary and grievance systems - form (IRF) but the IRF is not given to the Employees against whom discipli¬ changes which would greatly diminish interviewee. Thus, the interviewee has nary action has been proposed have Foreign Service employees' procedural no opportunity to verify the accuracy of told AFSA that the Office of Employee protections. (See FSJ, March 1998 and the IRF. A year or two may pass before Relations lacks the expertise to decide May 1998.) the interviewee finally sees the OIG's whether disciplinary action is warrant¬ AFSA's overriding goals are to record of the interview. AFSA is aware ed, and merely rubber stamps the ensure that warranted discipline is swift of numerous complaints from witnesses OIG's findings of misconduct. Several and certain and that employees are and subjects of OIG investigations that employees have also complained that afforded the fullest measure of due the OIG's IRF is inaccurate and/or the penalties proposed by PER/ER are process throughout the disciplinary and incomplete. We have proposed that the unduly harsh and inconsistent with grievance procedures, as required by OIG honor employees' requests to penalties that have been imposed the Foreign Service Act. We have have the interview tape recorded. against others for similar or more egre¬ made a number of recommendations to Complaints against the OIG regarding gious misconduct. These employees the OIG and the director general the accuracy of the IRF or the conduct have been forced to file grievances which are designed to meet our goals of special agents could easily be with PER/G (which has several attor¬ without hampering the OIG's ability to proved or disproved by listening to the neys on its staff well-versed in these ferret out employee misconduct. (For a tape recording of the interview. issues) to have the disciplinary action complete list of recommendations, go Eighteen Months Is Too Long overturned or the penalty mitigated. to AFSA's gopher site at www.afsa.org) Another concern is that the OIG AFSA has proposed that the Office Advance Notice for Interviews investigative process is too long -1 8 of Employee Relations be restructured Employees have complained that months, on average, and sometimes to combine the PER/ER and PER/G OIG special agents sandbagged them much longer. An open OIG investiga¬ functions into one or to incorporate by showing up at post without tion holds up tenure decisions, promo¬ into the PER/ER process PER/G's announcing the purpose of their visit in tions and certain senior assignments. legal expertise in disciplinary cases. advance and questioned employees AFSA has proposed that the OIG be Under AFSA's proposal, employees about events that occurred several required to complete administrative who are dissatisfied with the years earlier. While such tactics are investigations within 12 months or the Department's decision would file a appropriate in some circumstances (for inspector general should have to report grievance directly with the Foreign example, during an undercover investi¬ the reason for delay to the secretary of Service Grievance Board (skipping gation or when the OIG has reason to State. the PER/G level grievance). AFSA believe a suspect might flee or destroy Furthermore, AFSA has recom¬ believes its recommendation will evidence), AFSA recommends that mended that the OIG immediately enhance employee procedural protec¬ where these special circumstances do notify employees when the case tions because PER/G's expertise will not exist, witnesses and the subjects of against them has been closed. be utilized earlier in the process. In OIG investigations should be given 48 Employees who are aware that they addition, the process will be faster for hours advance notice of the purpose of are under investigation tell us they those cases that go to the FSGB since the OIG's visit. Employees would be have been left twisting in the wind, grievants will skip the PER/G level of able to review relevant documents to not knowing whether the OIG has appeal. AFSA has also recommend¬ refresh their recollection, and they completed its investigation or if the ed that PER/ER improve its sentencing

8 AFSA NEWS • JULY - AUGUST 1998 have grave financial consequences for THE EAGLEBURGER HAS LANDED employees and AFSA. In addition, employees would be denied the opportu¬ nity to have their cases decided by the FSGB, a board which is composed of members with experience in the Foreign Service personnel system. AFSA has opposed this recommendation because it will not enhance efficiency and will dimin¬ ish the rights of Foreign Service employ¬ ees. AFSA recently met with staff mem¬ bers of one of the subcommittees of the Ffouse Committee on Government Reform and Oversight to discuss its rec¬ ommendations relating to the OIG investigative process. (The subcommit¬ tee is holding hearings on the Offices of the Inspector General government¬ wide). We have also had several infor¬ mal meetings with the director general and the Office of the Inspector General to discuss our recommenda¬ tions. Formal meetings will take place in the near future. §- All employees should know their ■a rights when speaking with the OIG. a. The State Department OIG has recent¬ ly updated its pamphlet, "The Office of AFSA President Dan Geisler (L) and former Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger trade quips the Inspector General Investigative at the AFSA awards ceremony held in the Benjamin Franklin Diplomatic Reception Room on June Process." AFSA also has guidance 23. Eagleburger was given the Lifetime Contributions to American Diplomacy Award. Three FSOs, available which spells out one's rights an FS secretary, a Community Liaison Officer, and an FS family member were also honored. during an investigation, and AFSA's guidelines and data base of penal¬ should only be inserted' in files once attorneys are available to represent ties to ensure that similar offenses the FSGB has ruled in favor of disci¬ members with OIG investigations, disci¬ receive similar penalties. plinary action. plinary actions, and grievances. | Reduced Employee Protection The report also recommended the The OIG's January 1998 report elimination of an employee's right to to HIRC Chairman Gilman recom¬ have an oral hearing before the mended a number of changes to the FSGB in a discipline case (a right Dateline grievance system which would dimin¬ which is enjoyed by Cvil Service Continued from page 1 ish employees' procedural protec¬ employees.) AFSA opposes this rec¬ tions in the area of disciplinary ommendation because we believe • AFSA is cosponsoring with the Thursday cases, without speeding up the that an employee should have the Luncheon Group (TLG) a minority intern process. For example, the OIG rec¬ right to confront his or her accusers this summer to work in Deputy Secretary ommended the elimination of pre¬ and the right to an oral defense. of State Strobe Talbott's office. Calvin scriptive relief in most disciplinary Another OIG recommendation is Christopher begins his assignment in July cases. Under current law, an that employees who wish to grieve a and specifically works with the Deputy employee who is subject to discipli¬ suspension of less than 14 days no Secretary's speechwriter. nary action may keep a letter of dis¬ longer be permitted to take their cipline from being inserted into his case to the Foreign Service • The 1996 AFSA/TLG intern, Stacy or her official performance file until Grievance Board. These employees Williams, has gone on to acquire a pres¬ after a final decision by the Foreign would have to file a grievance with tigious two-year Presidential Service Grievance Board regarding an arbitrator, and if AFSA declined Management Internship (PMI) which the appropriateness of the discipline. to take the case on their behalf, they began in the fall of 1997. The PMI pro¬ AFSA believes prescriptive relief is would have to pay the arbitrator's gram was begun during the Carter extremely important as disciplinary bill (which can run up to $750 per administration to have the nation's "best letters stay in an employee's file for day). If AFSA agreed to take the and brighest" consider government ser¬ one or two years, making promotion case but lost, AFSA would have to vice careers. Williams' internship is with or tenure extremely unlikely while foot the arbitrator's bill. The OIG's the Office of the Inspector General of the the letter is in the file. Thus, letters recommendation could therefore Department of State.

AFSA NEWS • JULY - AUGUST 1998 9 Continued from page 6 South Lakes High School, Reston, Va.; Click On Academic Merit Honorable attending Westmont College. Mention Winners: AFSANET Elina Urli - daughter of Pirkko Nicole Cohen - daughter of Monique (STATE) and Michael Hinton; Are you the last person in your and Lewis (STATE) Cohen; Woodrow American International School of Wilson Senior High School, Washington, Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South office to hear about legislative D.C.; attending Wesleyan University. Africa; attending University of Virginia. news and Foreign Service

Amanda Lewis - daughter of Marjorie Amanda Vockerodt - daughter of changes that affect your (USAID) and John (Ret-USAID) Lewis; The Alison Raphael and Victor (STATE) career? Madeira School, McLean, Va.; attending Vockerodt; Montgomery Blair High Rice University. School, Silver Spring, Md.; attending Wesleyan University. Sign up for our free e-mail Amira Pierce - daughter of Daad and William (STATE) Pierce; Surabaya Eric Wiener - son of Sharon listserve — AFSANET! International School, Surabaya, (STATE) and Howard (STATE) Wiener; Indonesia; attending New York Georgetown Day School, Washington, You can subscribe from our University. D.C.; attending Bowdoin College. homepage www.afsa.org or Denise Sharma - daughter of Anita Art Merit Honorable send an e-mail to [email protected] and Dennis (USAID) Sharma; Thomas Mention Winner: Jefferson High School for Science and with the message "Subscribe." Technology, Alexandria, Va.; attending Ayesha Khan - daughter of Duke University. Karen Longeteig (former STATE) and Hasan-Uddin Khan; Lexington High Don't be left out of the loop, get Katherine Stocking - daughter of School, Lexington, Mass.; attending on AFSANET! Anne and Thomas (STATE) Stocking; Barnard College.

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J and MD, certified by National Trust for Historic DISCRIMINATION Expertise and personal attention to detail are Preservation, and certified Buyer agent. 15 ATTORNEY PRACTICING IN areas of the hallmarks of our established firm. Call years abroad as career FS and as World Bank Foreign Service Grievances at State and Gerry Romberg for exceptional service. 6842 ! spouse provide experience for international or Commerce Depts. and AID, or USIA; and Elm Street, Suite 303, McLean, VA 22101 domestic relocations. Marghi (Barone) Fauss, Employment Discrimination actions under (703) 691-2006, Fax (703) 448-9652, E-mail: Associate Broker, McEneamey & Associates Title VII and the Rehabilitation Act, will write [email protected] (800) 548-9080 ext. 243, Fax (703) 370-1410, and file your claims, appeals and complaints, E-mail: [email protected] represent you at hearings, and counsel you in DIPLOMAT PROPERTIES, INC. Were AGS REALTY - PROPERTY Management. challenging adverse employment decisions. proud to provide excellence in property man¬ Saying the right thing is easy, but doing the Offices in VA (Fairfax Drive) and DC (Indiana agement during your assignment abroad. right thing is what we are all about: • Manage¬ Ave.). Cali George N. Elfter at (703) 528- Serving No. Va. only. (Owned and operated ment, leasing, and sales • Serving Virginia, 5880 or (202) 637-1325. by a former Foreign Service family). We offer the following: highly experienced manage¬ Maryland and DC • 31 years experience • We TAX PREPARATION ment, quality tenants, superior maintenance, save you money & keep tenants happy* With strong communication, effective advertising at us you'll never look elsewhere • Efficient Ser¬ CPA, SPECIALIST in offshore U S. no extra cost, 24 hour emergency sen/ice. Get vice with personal attention • References? Talk taxpayer issues. 40+ years experience. Tax to know us, a company that cares. For man¬ with any of our clients. You'll be sure you have and estate planning and TAX RETURN agement services information, contact: Robin made the right choice when you work with us. PREPARATION, all federal and all states. Ini¬ Gomez, Tel. (703) 522-5900, Fax (703) 525- Call Caroline Hilliard. Tel: (202) (202) 333- tial contact - no charge or obligation. 4713. E-mail: [email protected] 3900 N. 1540 Fax: (202) 333-1652 E-mail: Absolutely confidential. Special care for delin¬ Fairfax Drive, Suite 204, Arlington, VA 22203. [email protected] AGS REALTY, 2121 quent filers, social security acct. problems, Wisconsin Ave. NW #320, Wash., D.C. 20007. IRS and state controversies. JOHN D. REALTY GROUP, INC. NEBEKER, CPA 179 No. Nightfall Ave., Tuc- TEMPORARY HOUSING son, AZ 85748 Tel, or Fax (520) 721-7718, E- SPECIALIZING IN D.C. Property Management & Sales A MAIN STATE TOUR IN 1998? The soon¬ ESTATE PLANNING ATTORNEY Credit Checks • Repair Forecasting er we begin planning your home purchase, the WILLS, TRUSTS AND Powers of Attor¬ Quarterly Inspection • Monthly Statements easier the transition will be for you and your ney, building blocks for transfer and preserva¬ References Available family. There are a variety of housing options in tion of wealth prepared by former Trust officer, AMY FISHER: (202) 544-8762 N. Virginia offering easy access to public trans¬ frequent guest speaker on estate planning DON TORRILLO: (202) 547-4602 portation, safe and secure neighborhoods and topics. For consultation and information call Fax:(202) 543-7630 a good rental market for your home when you Matthew W. Lucas, Esquire, 8027 Leesburg E-mail: [email protected] go overseas. Pike, Suite 207, Vienna, VA 22182. Tel. (703) Having provided exclusive representation 821-5522. E-mail: lucas@ids_2idsonline.com FOCUSED ON QUALITY as a buyer agent for FS personnel over the Ask about our Foreign Service Discount. WJD Management is competitively past ten years, we can focus quickly and effi¬ priced, of course. However, if you are consid¬ ciently on your special housing requirements. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT ering hiring a property management firm, don’t Discover How Much You Can Buy...And How PEAKE MANAGEMENT, INC- Exclusively forget the old saying “You get what you pay To Get It Now. Contact Marilyn Cantrell, CRS, property management and leasing since for.” Property management is essentially an GRI, Assoc. Broker at McEneamey Assoc., 1982. FS family owned and operated. information management business. There is 1320 Old Chain Bridge Rd., McLean, VA Accepting a limited number of new clients definitely a proper and an improper way to 22101, Tel (703) 790-9090. Fax (703) 734- with Northern Virgina properties renting at manage this information. Without the right 9460, E-mail: [email protected] $1,400 and above. staff, the right software, and in particular the Effective marketing, exceptional tenant right attitude, the management of your home H.A. GILL & SON screening, thorough inspections, experienced, can easily become problematic for everyone OFFERS THE PROVEN, expert property detail oriented and easy to work with. Call for involved. All of us at WJD have worked for management services that have satisfied hun¬ our unique “Landlord Reference Manual” other property management firms in the past, dreds of FSOs for over 108 years. As a small¬ describing the rental and property manage¬ and we have learned what to do and more er company, we can provide you with the indi¬ ment process step-by-step. We specialize in importantly what not to do from our experi¬ vidual attention and diligent care of your prop¬ taking good care of your home. ences at these companies. We invite you to erty that you deserve when you are overseas- Call Lindsey Peake: Tel. (703) 448-0212, explore our web site at www.wjdpm.com for and at the most competitive rates. We are com¬ Fax (703) 448-9652, E-mail: more information, or call us at (703) 684-0800. pletely computerized with easy-to-read month¬ [email protected] 6842 Elm Street, ly & annual statements. Specializing in the McLean, VA 22101. REAL ESTATE management and sale of fine single family ELEGANT APARTMENTS AT RIVER properties and condominiums in the District, & WASHINGTON MANAGEMENT SER- PLACE. Arlington, VA; Efficiencies one, two- Montgomery County. Please call John Gill, Jr. VICES: Residential property management is bedrooms, two blocks from metro, FSI. Bike or at (202) 338-5000, Fax at (202) 338-2545, or our only business. Call or write: 2015 Q St. Metro to Pentagon. Superior furnishings, E-mail at: [email protected] NW, Wash. D.C. 20009. (202) 462-7212, E- immediate phone and CATV, microwave, mail: [email protected] linens and many amenities. Site has spa, NEW AFSA WEBPAGE CLASSIFIED ADS $1/word, $10/header rates within your per diem. Call (301) 279- THE CLASSIFIEDS: or box. Call Adv. Mgr. Tel. (202) 944-5507 0392 Fax Sojourner Housing at (301) 762- | Fax (202)338-8244, E-mail: [email protected] 7692 for brochure or reservations, E-mail: ' www.afsa.org sojourn @ pop.erols.com

AFSA NEWS • JULY-AUGUST I998 II TEMPORARY HOUSING FOR RENT NEAR BALLSTON METRO. Furnished apartment, 2 BR, 2 BA - includes linens, WASHINGTON DC or NFATC TOUR? VERMONT VILLAGE/COUNTRY house kitchen utensils, no-smoking/pets, deck with EXECUTIVE HOUSING CONSULTANTS, summer rental, Thetford Hill, 8 miles to Ig trees, off street parking. $1,200 Tel. (703) offers Metropolitan Washington D.C.’s finest Hanover, NH. $500/week 1,800/month. 4 536-1960, E-mail: [email protected] brms. 3 bths., 10 acre meadow adjoins state portfolio of short-term, fully-furnished and GOLF/BEACH PARADISE! Why not own equipped apartments, townhomes and single forest. Avail. June 15 - Sept 1. Peter Blodgett (802) 785-4361 (O) or (785) 2636 (H). property at the Currituck Club, a world class family residences in Maryland, D.C. and Vir¬ golf/beach resort in Corolla, NC in the Outer ginia. FULLY FURNISHED, BEAUTIFUL 2 BR, Banks. Corolla just voted one of five top U.S. In Virginia: “River Place’s Finest” is steps 2 bathroom, house in quiet Cleveland Park retirement spots by the WSJ. For more infor¬ to Rosslyn Metro and Georgetown and 15 neighborhood one block from Conn. Ave. NW. mation, call or write: Barry Heyman, former minutes on Metro bus or State Department 2 blocks from Van Ness Metro and shopping. FSO, Blue Heron Realty, Cambra & Assoc. shuttle to NFATC. For more info, please call All modern utilities and conveniences for short (703) 644-8591. E-mail: [email protected] us at (301) 951- 4111 or visit our website: term rentals at $125/night, rates negotiable for www.executivehousing.com long term lease. Call or Fax (202) 237-8058. LOOKING FOR YOUR LAST JOB? NORTHWEST ISLAND PROPERTY: "HOLIDAY, HOME LEAVE or WEEK¬ STOP TRADING HOURS for dollars! Use Spectacular views, mild climate, safe commu¬ END" 5 BR Luxury house, with waterviews in your consulting expertise to leverage time and nity, boating, fishing, hiking, between Seattle historic Oxford, MD (1 1/2 hours from D.C.) build a retirement income to grow for genera¬ & Vancouver, B.C. Contact former FSO Jan Tel. (202) 238-0901 or (202) 619-6593, Fax tions. Young international public R&D compa¬ Zehner, Coidwell Banker Orcas Island, (800) (202) 619-5958, E-mail: [email protected] ny with cutting-edge nutritional technology 552-7072; Fax (360) 376-5095, P.O. Box 127, offers a proven system for optimal health and Eastsound, WA 98245, E-mail: LONG - TERM LEASE financial independence. Share this gift with janz @ rockisland .com FSO COUPLE OFFERS 3 bedroom, 3 those you love and together live your dreams. bath, dining rm, eat-in kitchen, walk-in closet Foreign Service spouse Cynthia Olson, (703) SHORT - TERM RENTALS home on Capitol Hill for 2 yr. lease from 768-6179; E-mail: [email protected] Aug/Sep. Newly renovated with dry basement FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATES can storage, washer/dryer, deck, alarm system. 1 provide fully furnished apartments at River blk to Lincoln Park, walk to the Mall. ORIGINAL DAVID ROBERTS Litho¬ Place just 5 minutes from the new NFATC $1,200/month + util. (202) 543-7439 facility and one block from SA-15. We have graphs The Holy Land and Egypt (ca. 1846) (evenings) E-mail: [email protected] Antique engravings of Catherwood, Red- efficiencies, 1 bedrooms, and some 2 bed¬ oute, Bartlett, Audubon, Gould. Bible/Koran rooms, usually within your per diem. Apts, are Walk to Vienna Metro - Charming leaves, etc. MC/VISA fully furnished kitchens, cable TV, telephone, Rambler on Wooded Cul-de-Sac PETRA FINE ART, P.O. Box 16321 Balti¬ linens, and all utilities included. Write Foreign Service Associates, P.O. Box 12855, Arling¬ RENOVATED 40-YEAR-old rambler in more, MD 21210 Tel. (410) 235-1696 website: ton, VA 22209 or call (800) 993-6997, Fax Vienna Woods, 5 BR, 3 full baths includes in¬ http://www.attach.net/infocentral/petra (703) 527-0279, E-mail: [email protected] law suite in basement, finished rec. room with wet bar, gas heat, old growth trees, friendly BOOKS neighborhood, great schools, approx. .8 mi. to FLORIDA ANY U.S. BOOK in print. Send check Metro. $1450/month. Avail. July 1998 for up to when books arrive. Salmagundi Books 66 LONGBOAT KEY / SARASOTA. Luxury 3 yrs. Call property manager Lucinda Hov- Main St, Cold Spring, NY 10516. E-mail: homes/villas/condos/ and NO state income eskeland, Tel. (703) 354-5933 Fax (703) 941- [email protected] taxes. I can help with exploratory trip. 0615, E-mail: [email protected] SHARON OPER, Sarasota Realty Group BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS. We have Tel/Fax (941) 387-7199; E-mail: Seen the World? thousands in stock, do special orders daily, [email protected] or toll freel (888) 926-7101. Now Come Home search for out-of-print books, large selection of CD's and cassettes; Jazz a specialty. Visa FORMER FSW, SARAH BOOHER, offers HERE’S THE PLACE for you. A magnifi¬ or Mastercard. THE VERMONT BOOK SHOP furnished 2 BR - 2 BA manufactured home with cent woodland dwelling filled with space and 38 Main Street, Middlebury, VT 05753. garage in a gated, adult country club in North light in the North Carolina Mountains. Five Fort Myers, Florida for $35,000. Contact: minutes to the cosmopolitan town of Black 110-220-VOLT Anline Minerva, Star Real Estate, 1 (800) 914- Mountain. Twenty minutes to Asheville, 2445, or write 15510 Burnt Store Road, Punta WNC’s lively small city. Area is famed as a EXPORT PRODUCTS Gorda, FL 33955. mecca for tourists, immensely popular for Transformers, Voltage Regulators, FLORIDA SPACE COAST Watch NASA retirement and young families. House is easy TV/VCR, Electronics, Appliances, Office shuttle launches from your house! 1 1/2 miles to maintain (central vacuum) and energy effi¬ Products, Supplies. Embassy: Tel. (703) 845- to the Indian River. Enjoy miles of undevel¬ cient. Hardwood floors throughout. Wonderful 0800 Fax (703) 820-9385 E-mail: oped beach. Titusville, 1 hour to Disney and for family and entertaining. Huge windows, [email protected] Visit our show¬ Orlando. 3BR, 2 bath, central air throughout, four beautiful bedrooms, 31/2 baths, office, room (Please see our display ad). new tile in living areas, Fla. Room w/ac, 2-car studio, or extra bedroom, tiled sunroom, two fireplaces, incredible living room, gourmet garage, beautifully landscaped corner lot, 110-220 VOLT STORE many tropical fruit trees. New storm shutters, kitchen, family room with dining, formal dining new roof (Dec. ’96). $85,000 a terrific value. room, two large decks. Lower ground floor can MULTI-SYSTEM ELECTRONICS For sale by owner (407) 269-7801. E-mail: be completed as apartment, home office or [email protected] business. $468,000. Gay Currie Fox Real PA-SECAM-NTSC TVs, VCRs, AUDIO, Estate (704) 669-8027 P.O. Box 308, Black CAMCORDER, ADAPTOR, TRANSFORM¬ Mountain, NC 28711 FLORIDA ERS, KITCHEN APPLIANCES ENJOY SUN, GRACIOUS living, and no FOR SALE EXPORTS ELECTRONICS, INC. State Income Tax. Former FSO Paul Byrnes 1719 Connecticut Ave. N.W. Washington, specializes in sales in Sarasota, the jewel of CONDO FOR SALE: Good Investment! D.C. 20009, near Dupont Circle. Between R & Florida’s Gulf coast, but can assist with prop¬ Falls Church garden condo, 2 BR 2 BA FP, S STREETS. Tel. (202) 232-2244 Fax (202) erty anywhere in the State. Call toll free: 1 Deck w/ lake view. Excellent access to 265-2435, lnternet:http://www.erols.com/aval (800) 766-1610. Use E-mail: byrnes@family- schools, Metro, shopping, $112,900. Tel/Fax E-mail: [email protected] (334) 887-2375. net.org or write him at Prudential FI Realty, Price quotations for PVOs, NGOs, USG, FS. 100 N. Tamiami Tr., Sarasota, Florida 34236. RETIREMENT COMMUNITY CONDO for Discounts for Diplomats . sale. One Bedroom, livingroom/dining area, sun room, off golf course. Transportation, club BUY MUSIC FROM: www.afsa.org Click activities, congenial atmosphere. Phyllis Gain, on Amazon.com AFSA earns a referral fee for c/o Century 21, Sunrise, Florida, Tel (954) all CDs and tapes purchased. 749-8100, Fax (954) 749-8905.

I2 AFSA NEWS • JULY-AUGUST I998 Focus

The secretaries at the electrical closet. To get to his desk Win remembers the feel of cool gin has to maneuver his lanky frame past a consulate started a and tonics after a hard game of large copy machine and stacked cartons tennis in the heat of the after¬ of paper. He sits every day from nine vicious rumor that noon, the incredible damp heat until three listening to the swoosh, of Hong Kong. swoosh sounds of paper traveling the youngsters from the Sometimes in the hot, humid through the copy machine. The ozone summers of Washington, D.C., smell of copier ink permeates that end Christian Youth Service Win is reminded of Hong Kong, of the hallway. in particular the smell of hot At noon Win goes to the small pub¬ project came from pavement, cape jasmine and the lic toilet on his floor. He washes his dank smell of poor drainage. The hands and face, then combs his thin¬ brothels. dining room of the Marlin ning gray hair, smoothing the hair with Institute with its paneled walls, a hand after each stroke of the comb. high ceilings, hushed tones and He stands in front of the small metal-edged mirror civilized clink of glasses and silverware also reminds out of habit, but doesn’t look in the mirror when he Win of the Diplomats club room. The consul gener¬ combs his hair; instead, he looks down at the sink and al pulled Win aside there once during a cocktail party contemplates what he would write to the club’s man¬ Win had arranged. ager. Dear Sir, For the past six tjears I have appar¬ “Good job, Napier," the CG said as he gripped ently been on a computerized birthday card list of Win’s shoulder. “Belonging to a club like this is a former patrons of the Diplomat Hotel. I would appre¬ smart move. By the way, I read that report you wrote ciate it if you would be so kind as to remove my name at State last year and I thought it was excellent, real¬ from your mailing list as I am no longer a member of ly top-drawer.” the Diplomat Club. The praise still rings in Win’s ears as he sits at his He wonders if he should mention the upcoming desk in the far end of a hallway of the Marlin takeover of Hong Kong by the Communists but Institute. Win again feels that hot rush of pride and thinks that perhaps that is a subject best left alone. embarrassment that he felt that day 30 years before. Win then eats lunch in the Institute’s member’s He could see the plaque behind the bar that lists him dining room. He rarely varies from his habit of eating and other officers of the Diplomat Club. The plaque whatever the chef offers as the daily lunch special. honors them for their charitable work with the Sometimes he wishes that they still served liquor in Christian Youth Service Project. The plaque lists the dining room. their names along with their occupations. Win’s name The birthday card from the Diplomat is the only is followed by Consulate of the United States of card that he has received for the last few years. None America, Hong Kong. He wonders if the plaque is of his children nor either of his ex-wives sends him still there. cards. His sister died ten years before of liver trou¬ Some secretaries at the consulate started a vicious ble. Win originally joined the fledgling club associat¬ rumor that the youngsters from the Christian Youth ed with the hotel so that he could play tennis and Service Project came from brothels and some of entertain in the club room. He lived at the Diplomat them were prostitutes themselves. Win was con¬ for a few months during the separation from his first cerned about this attitude. He himself had placed a wife, Blanche. The card brings back pleasant memo¬ girl in the clerical pool at the consulate. He spoke to ries of the hotel: its polished wooden bar, cool, dim the head of the personnel office, Bob Wilson. interiors and efficient, friendly waiters. He also “Don’t worry, Win,” Bob said, “those bats in the office are just jealous. The new girl is a reminder to Ruth Kling is a writer and a China specialist at Johns them that they couldn’t get one of their own kids a Hopkins University. job here. Don’t worry.”

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 35 Focus

Blanche thought The new girl, Annie, was young izes, maybe that was someone else and inexperienced. The old battle that the other officers who went to Macau with him. The axes in the secretarial pool scared letter never made it into an envelope her. Win could tell. He began to were snobs and their and it still sits there under another defend Annie. He felt somehow letter and a proposal in Win’s “to do” responsible for her. After all, it was wives were two-faced. file. The response cards end up as Win who was a member of the Club book marks and note cards. One and the one who helped with the serves as a coaster for his coffee cup program for disadvantaged youth. He had Annie on his desk at home. moved to his floor so she could escape the gossip of It was Bob Wilson who went with Win to Macau, the other clerical help. Win remembers as he sits at his desk at the Marlin No one was sure exactly how old Annie was. The Institute. Bob liked to smoke Cuban cigars and drink priest at the orphanage guessed that she was about six¬ Scotch. He got the cigars from Dickie Watson. It was teen when she arrived in Hong Kong, so that meant during the boat ride to Macau, Win remembered, that that she was about eighteen when she left the orphan¬ he confided in Bob. He told Bob about the two of age to start working at the Consulate. Her silky black them. hair was cut in the orphanage’s regulation chin length, “Don’t listen to those old biddies in the office,” Bob bangs-across-the-forehead style. She had smooth gold¬ said. “They’re just jealous. They wanted to find you a en skin. nice little wife’ themselves. Don’t worry. Eveiybody Annie typed well enough and answered the phone does it.” in a pleasant, singsong voice. An efficient secretary was Bob’s “little wife” lived in an apartment in Wanchai, important. It didn’t hurt if she were pretty as well. Win an unsavory area near the water. She constantly knew how these things could reflect well on a man. nagged Bob to move her to Kowloon. Eventually she Annie’s greatest quality was that she listened to moved to Kowloon on her own after Bob left Hong Win. She giggled when he spoke to her and covered Kong for Saigon. her delicate teeth with her hand. She wore lovely “It’s different with Annie, Bob.” Win sighed. “You Chinese style dresses that somehow reminded Win don’t understand. I really love her.” of butterflies. Annie never questioned him, at first. “Of course you do, Win,” Bob said as he clenched a She would listen to him talk about the office, his boss cigar in his teeth. and his wife, then smile her sweet smile. She never Win puts the sixth and most recent birthday card in disagreed with Win. Once, after a hard day in the his briefcase. He places his hat on his head and walks office, she touched his hot forehead with her cool past the young man at the copy machine. This young hand. man always wears a cologne that reminds Win of a cer¬ Win always removes the response cards that come tain brand of insect repellent. He walks down the with the invitations. He places a little check by the street staring straight ahead, pursing his lips, thinking word regret. He plans to send them back with a hand¬ of what he will write to Mr. Loo, the current manager written note on the Institute’s letterhead. A handwrit¬ of the Diplomat. ten note would be a nice touch. He no longer has a Dear Sir, Thank you for your considerate cards. I secretary at work, and his manual typewriter at home am sorry to say that I will not he able to attend this has letters that stick. year’s founders reunion of the Diplomat Club. I look Once he wrote a letter to Dickie Watson, an old forward to next year when I hope to be able to visit friend from his club days, explaining why he couldn’t your lovely city. attend the reunion and what was going on in Blanche thought that the other officers were snobs Washington. Win relates some old story that Dickie and their wives were two-faced, gossiping about each probably has forgotten — a crazy trip they took to other and making fun of their Chinese servants. Macau once to gamble. On second thought, Win real¬ Blanche didn’t play ball. She wouldn’t go along like

36 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN A L/J U LY-A U G U S T 1998 Focus

the other wives. She had a temper. She let herself go What made you take her on? Surely one of the more after the twins were horn. Even with an amah and a experienced secretaries would make more sense. I cook she couldn’t cope. mean charity is all well and good, but don’t you want a “Win, the cook left the head on the roast chicken competent secretary?” again.” “I didn’t know you took such an interest in our “Win, the laundiy starched everything again.” work,” Win replied. “And she’s competent, a little “Win, where are you going? You’re always going to young, but good at her job. She doesn’t gossip like that club of yours.” some of the old bats around here do. I can’t stand He found it interesting that after so many years he that,” he said, looking straight at Meg in her lime could barely remember what Blanche’s face looked green cocktail dress and heavily made up face. like then, but he could still hear her grating voice. Miss Lee was the head secretary in the clerical pool Blanche was right about one thing. They were all and had worked there for almost 20 years. She was snobs at the consulate and their wives were worse. probably in her fifties and always wore a cheongsam, a “I hear you have a new secretary,” Bob’s American Chinese style dress with a Mandarin collar and buttons wife, Meg, said to Win at a cocktail party at their straight up the front. Her cheongsams never had home. “She’s one of those orphans isn’t she ?” provocative slits up the sides or fancy embroidery. She “Yes, she is,” Win replied, sipping his drink and try¬ spoke with a slight trace of an English accent. She inti¬ ing to think up a subtle way to change the subject. mated to Win that Annie was up to no good. “She has “Miss Lee told me all about her the other day when been seen with a tall American,” Miss Lee said to Win I dropped something off for Bob. I’m just curious. one day, looking up at him towering over her small,

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JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 37 Focus

Annie s greatest barrel-shaped frame. When you have finished your lunch One day the priest from the quality was that she would you be so kind as to meet me orphanage came to talk to Win at the there?” George asked in a fake office. Father Graham was a 60-year- listened to him. servile manner. old American who had lived in Hong “Of course, Mr. George,” Win Kong for many years. He had been said as he glanced up from his news¬ interned by the Japanese during the war and now paper. “I’ve been meaning to speak with you anyway.” walked with a cane. He sighed a lot and had the soft He knew that George was trying to get the better of eyes of a secret drinker. him. Win wasn’t fooled. Win knew how to talk to peo¬ “Mr. Napier, I won’t waste your time. Annie came ple like that. You make it clear that you are doing them to speak to me the other day. She told me everything. a favor by giving them a minute of your valuable time. Now I’m not saying that we at the orphanage don’t An old buddy of Win’s at State had once told him about deserve some of the blame here, but our purpose is to this tactic: “Always make out as if you are the one who help these girls and boys out of desperate situations. had the idea first.” He didn’t make it to the manager’s They’re refugees, most of them, and they don’t always office that day. He knew what the problem was. That have the good sense to say ‘no’ to someone they ought rule about guests was really not fair. Win was a mem¬ to say ‘no’ to,” Father Graham said, sighing and ber of the Diplomat Club, a founding member, and attempting a knowing wink that made him look as if he entitled to special consideration, even allowing a guest were fighting back tears. to stay with him in his rooms. Win couldn’t look him in the eye. He picked at the Life with Blanche was unbearable. She had taken to corner of one of the olive drab files piled on his desk, calling Bob’s wife, Meg, and once or twice had even exposing the pulpy lighter green of the paper inside. called Bob at the office to complain about his “girl¬ Father Graham sighed again, waiting for Win to say friend.” something. “You’ve got to be more discreet, Napier,” Bob said. “Mr. Napier, we trusted you. You have broken that “Just tell Blanche you won’t see her again. A little trust. What are you going to do about it?” white lie is a good thing now and then.” There was a water shortage the year Win lived at “I can’t lie to Blanche. Anyway, I’ve already told the Diplomat. Hong Kong’s fresh water came from her the truth. She wants a divorce. And I think I Communist-controlled territory in the hills, north of should marry Annie,” Win said. the New Territories. Regular citizens of Hong Kong “For chrissake man, what are you thinking?” Bob and Kowloon had to line up for water. There were said, a look of exasperation in his eyes. “A divorce is fights and small riots. one thing you can weather in a career, but don’t marry The wealthy and foreigners could manage, but the girl. You can fuck her all you want, but if you marry Annie lived in a slum somewhere near the waterfront. her, by God, you can kiss your career goodbye.” She needed to bathe and drink clean water. How could The CG took Win aside after a meeting one day, Win refuse her that? The most basic of human needs, one of those unbearably hot and oppressive days. “I’m water, was denied her. Of course she should stay with only going to say this once, Napier,” he said. “Get rid him at the Diplomat. What else could he do? of the girl.” “Mr. Napier, may I have a word with you?” Mr. The place they moved to was an old three-story George, the English manager of the hotel, said as he building with a drab, mold-stained exterior. Their cornered Win in the club room during lunch one after¬ ground floor apartment looked onto the back of the noon. shed occupied by an old man from Fukien who was the “Of course, Mr. George, what can I do for you?” He handyman. replied. Annie started visiting a Buddhist shrine in their “It’s something of a delicate nature, Mr. Napier. I neighborhood. She burned incense in their rooms was hoping we could discuss the matter in my office. when Win wasn’t home and she had been nagging him

38 FOREIGN SERVICE J O V RN AL/J U LY-AU GU ST 1998 Focus

lately about drinking too much. He noticed that from the consulate. Although the Diplomat was around the apartment she wore an old sleeveless night across the harbor from work and home, Win looked dress that was stained yellow with age and faded red forward to the hour-long trip from Hong Kong. He and gold slippers that hung off of her feet and made a enjoyed sitting in first class on the upper deck of the slithering sound as she shuffled across the threadbare ferry. The hills of Hong Kong were green and carpet. deceptively fresh-looking from far away. Tourists Sometimes Win could not bear the cloying smell of stood on the wooden decks taking photos of junks in incense mixed with the damp smell of mildew. The bar the harbor. Well-dressed expat commuters sat read¬ at the Diplomat was the only place he could escape the ing newspapers. No one ever asked anything of him damp heat and incense that permeated their apart¬ as he sat on the wooden benches of the ferry. Few ment. of the other passengers even looked at Win as he The Diplomat’s bar was always cool because of its sat on the top deck of the ferry feeling the breeze new air conditioner and ceiling fans. It had a pleasant in his face. smell of cigarette smoke and leather chairs with no hint of the damp that permeated the rest of Hong One day Win came home to find Annie greeting Kong. The Diplomat was quiet. A man could think him at the door with a tumbler full of whiskey. there. It was on the other side of the harbor, a world Annie had brought home a refugee woman. away from Hong Kong and the consulate. She looked old and bent at first glance, but gradually The walk to the apartment house just above Win began to see that she had a youngish face. She Wanchai seemed longer each time Win came home scolded Annie in the Fukienese dialect and literally You'll Find 100V\fays To Spend 30 Days At Georgetown Suites. Coming to Washington for an extended stay? Our oversized, luxurious suites put you close to the business district and historic sights, world-class dining and eclectic shops that make Georgetown so exceptional.

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pushed her around the apartment, occasionally rub¬ Did you local Fukienese all get together and concoct bing her work-worn hands on Annies rounding belly. this? Huh? Is that it?” he said, letting go of her shoul¬ The old woman was dressed in baggy black clothes, ders and grasping the glass of whiskey and drinking wore one jade bracelet on her wrist and had brought half of it in one gulp. The next day as Win left for work with her a small parcel of belongings wrapped in a the old lady handed him a cup of tea and smiled at quilt. She had only a few teeth. Annie couldn’t quite him. explain to Win who this woman was and what she was As he walked through the crowded streets of Hong doing in their apartment. Kong, Win realized who the woman was. “Orphan my “Who is she?” Win demanded, as they stood in the ass,” he mumbled to himself. kitchen while the old woman sat on their new green <0 «

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JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 41 SEOUL SURVIVOR

WITH NORTH KOREAN TROOPS CLOSING IN, OUR JOB WAS TO BURN THE EMBASSY CABLES, SMASH THE RADIOS, AND GET OUT FAST

BY ROBERT RUDOLPH, SR.

The whole world remembers the televised image of Saigon falling in 1975 — helicopters taking off from the U.S. embassy roof, desperate crowds surging at the gate. But precious few remem¬ ber the untelevised fall of Seoul, South Korea, 25 years earlier. In June 1950 Communist forces swept down from the North and we hightailed it out of there, burning embassy cables and smashing equipment with the enemy closing in. I was in that embassy. 1 sent out the last radio message before the power failed. This is hoiv it went down,

dividing line between North and South Korea. Dav One STATE had told Red we’d probably have heavy June 25, 1950, 8:30 a.m. J message traffic all day. Red asked me who should be called in to work with him. I was finishing breakfast in the dining room of Sundays in Seoul were usually boring, and the U.S. embassy in Seoul. handling heavy message traffic during a flap My job was supervisor of the Operations Unit might be interesting. I decided to work with Red in the Radioteletype Section in the American that day. That was the start of the most exciting Embassy. I was a 22-year-old supervising four 60 hours of my life. radio operators and four teletype operators. We When we walked into the CommCenter, Sgt. communicated with the world via a duplex Brown was leaning on the counter. Brown was radioteletype operation with the Army’s Tokyo the military attaches cryptographer. He was relay station. When atmospheric conditions writing on an enciphered message he’d prepared interfered with radioteletype signals, we for transmission. exchanged messages with Tokyo using He was upgrading the message precedence to International Morse Code. OPERATIONAL IMMEDIATE. This action While drinking my coffee, I saw Red Mintz violated military communications procedures. walking toward my table. He was the only He knew it. I knew it. I didn’t know why he’d employee scheduled to work that day in the made that decision but I trusted his judgment. Embassy CommCenter. I wondered why he was¬ Brown said STATE was using EMERGENCY n’t at work downstairs. precedence on its message to SCAP (that was Red said STATE (our name for the embassy Supreme Commander Allied Powers Gen. cryptography section) had told him there was a Douglas MacArthur). He believed his message flap up on the 38th parallel. The 38th was the would need to be OPERATIONAL IMMEDI-

42 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN A L/J U LY-A U G U S T 1998 ATE to get fast handling. We received a plain language EMERGENCY “What’s going on, Brownie?” message from Under Secretary of State James “Don’t you know?” he asked. Webb about 10:30 a.m. Addressed to “No.” Ambassador John Muccio, it said in part: “Then I can’t tell you.” UNITED PRESS REPORTS 40,000 Having been told that STATE had said a flap NORTH KOREAN TROOPS PLUS TANKS was occurring up north, I believed it. It matched CROSSED THE 38TH PARALLEL AT THE the experience Red and I had had over the past ONGJIN PENINSULA AT 4 A.M. TODAY. two years. We thought in terms of minor military CAN YOU CONFIRM OR DENY? actions. I was annoyed that our message to WASHDC Small military firefights between North and had arrived after the United South Korea weren’t unusual on the 38th paral¬ Press message. Our message lel. Fighting had also occurred inside South took a lethargic 110 minutes to Korea. Red and I had operated an Army radio arrive at UEPSD. I believed it War had broken station handling messages to Republic of Korea had been inept message han¬ forces fighting a rebellious ROK regiment in dling at relay stations, plus mes¬ oat on the 38th 1948. sage encipherment in Seoul and parallel. I was While Red prepared the military attache’s deciphering in WASHDC that message, STATE called. They were sending had slowed our message deliv¬ stunned. down an EMERGENCY message to SECSTATE ery. WASHDC. I quickly sent an EMERGENCY I notified STATE that an SUPERVISORS WIRE to Tokyo stating EMERGENCY message had “CLEAR CHANNEL TO UEPSD WASHDC” arrived from WASHDC. Sam Berry, STATE’S (UEPSD was the teletype address for messages chief cryptographer, came to the Commcenter to State). and read the message quickly. Each relay station was supposed to take “Is that what’s going on, Sam?” I asked. actions to speed our message to the State “Yes,” he said. “It’s war.” Department. I believed special handling actions His words stunned me. I knew of course that and sparse Sunday traffic would get our message the U.S. had a small military assistance group in to UEPSD WASHDC in about 60 minutes. In South Korea, but no combat units. We had no 1950, that was lightning speed for a message commitment to defend the South. going such a great distance. ± 4- ± We transmitted STATE’S EMERGENCY By Sunday afternoon, our incoming and outgo¬ message without delay. We sent it about 9:30 ing message traffic flow was very' heavy. We added a.m., June 25 Korean time. We were 14 hours more teletype operators to the day shift. ahead of WASHDC, making it 7:30 p.m. An air raid occurred late in the afternoon. Saturday, June 24, East Coast time. Three beautiful propeller-driven Russian-made fighters came swooping low over the city. The sun Robert Rudolph was serving in the U.S. Army reflected off their wings as they banked to and fro Signal Coqis in South Korea in 1949 when he was dropping propaganda leaflets along the way. recruited to the Communications Branch of the A few 50 caliber machine guns on surround¬ U. S. mission to Korea. After the Korean War, he ing hills fired at the North Korean fighters. went to college on the Gl Bill and became a full¬ Many of us, both men and women, left the 8th time training officer for the National Guard. He floor dining room and rushed to the roof to retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1982. watch the show. We cheered each time South

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 43 Korean machine guns fired at the 4-4-4- phone in California. planes. Then a retired colonel Smitty, our telephone lineman, The chief telephone operator of appeared at the rooftop firedoor was having coffee in the snack bar KBC, Mrs. Lee, handled the call. and said loudly: late that night. He said he was ready Mrs. Lee was a kindly Korean- “You damned fools! What goes to quit repairing our telephone American woman from Hawaii. She up must come down! Get off this lines. Each bombing near Kimpo had a grandmotherly attitude roof!” Airport and the Seoul railroad sta¬ toward those of us working in the We complied with the old tion had knocked our telephone CommCenter. colonel’s instructions reluctantly. wires off the telephone poles. I enthusiastically described the By this time, the constant rum¬ Smitty complained that he’d re¬ spectacular sights and sounds to my ble of artillery in the north could be string the wires on the poles and parents. I doubt that my vivid heard when we were outdoors. bombs exploding in the next air raid descriptions reassured them.

would knock them down again. 4-4-4- The evacuation of 2,500 A bomb had exploded in the Americans from South Korea street a block away from the The rumble of artillery from the began on Sunday evening. WVTP, embassy. north had grown louder as the the radio station of the American day progressed. I decided to mission in Korea, began sending destroy more message files. We out evacuation instructions for Dav Two burned three weeks of messages. American mothers and their small Monday^June^6 Bishop Patrick Byrne, the dele¬ children. gate from the Vatican to the WVTP told the mothers with I remained on duty during most Republic of Korea, came by our small children where to assemble of the night. We were now working CommCenter that day. We always and the amount of luggage they 24 hours a day. Our peacetime enjoyed his visits. He liked people, could bring with them. They were incoming and outgoing message had a good sense of humor and transported from the assembly traffic had been 150,000 words a enjoyed being alive. points to Inchon and were then week. We were now handling Celebrities and politicians may placed aboard a fertilizer ship that 150,000 words in 24 hours and were hire flacks to proclaim their so- was in port. doing so with ease. called charisma. Bishop Byrne

4-4-4- 4-4-4- needed no phony buildup from The huge switchboard in the While at breakfast in the flacks. When he entered a room, American embassy communicated embassy dining room, I heard air¬ you were interested in seeing him with all U.S. and some South craft dogfighting overhead. That and hearing what he had to say. By Korean agencies in the greater was my first notice that the U.S. Air the time he departed a room, it had Seoul area. As a security precau¬ Force was flying cover over us. become a brighter and happier tion, on Sunday evening, female Station WWTP began broadcast¬ place. Korean telephone operators were ing evacuation instructions for Bishop Byrne believed his expe¬ replaced on the embassy switch¬ dependent women and non-essen¬ rience in this war would be the board by American women—-just in tial female employees. Evacuees same as what he’d encountered in case one of the Koreans might be a were told each person could take World War II. In that war, the spy or saboteur. The Americans had only one suitcase. Japanese had kept him in solitary volunteered to operate the switch¬ Later in the day we heard that confinement for three and a half board. the Air Force had shot down seven years. Sunday night, I decided to North Korean aircraft. The U.S. reduce our message reference files. lost no aircraft in the dogfights. His only visitors had been The message files filled a very large That afternoon, I called home on members of the Japanese wheeled cart. We moved the cart to the Korean Bureau of thought police trying to find out the embassy parking lot and used a Communications radiotelephone how he learned news about the thermite bomb to set it on fire. The system from a CommCenter phone. war. They never discovered his white flames shot up 20 feet above My call went via the RCA network shortwave radio. the cart. in San Francisco to my parents’ Bishop Byrne said he was going

44 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AU GU ST 1998 to stay with his flock in Korea. moved their equipment to the (John Toland’s book, In Mortal Day Three embassy’s front parking lot using Combat: Korea 1950-1953, j Tuesday^ June 27 their own armed security. I hadn’t describes what may have been known my friends could be so Patrick Byrne’s last day, November Military Advisory Group to the steely-eyed. They stacked the cryp¬ 2, 1950. Republic of Korea Headquarters to equipment on top of thermite He and a Methodist minister sent a radio operator with a short¬ bombs and then set off the bombs. were helping each other try to keep wave radio to our CommCenter I decided to destroy all files up on a 20-mile march in North shortly after midnight. The radio except the current ones. KMAG let Korea. He probably died shortly linked KMAG Headquarters with me toss our files onto their fire. after that.) the American embassy. The thermite bomb flames sent By Monday evening, WVTP was We in the Communications light reflecting off the clouds above issuing evacuation instructions to Branch assumed the American the embassy. The Seoul Fire families with dependents. The embassy would stay operational Department reportedly thought women who’d been operating the after the Communists captured there was a fire. embassy switchboard were also Seoul. My boss Ira Dale and I vol¬ I notified all teletype stations in being evacuated. Only men would unteered to stay behind to provide the Pacific area that we had only remain in Seoul after this evacua¬ radioteletype communications with today’s message files on hand. tion phase. Tokyo. I had volunteered out of a We were now hand-delivering sense of duty. I wasn’t eager to be Ira Dale heard Ambassador high precedence incoming confined to the embassy grounds in Muccio would go to KMAG messages to STATE. I delivered a Communist city. Headquarters and move with the them many times because speed I was relieved when Ambassador KMAG commander. Cryptographer was important and I enjoyed walk¬ Muccio turned down our offer. Sam Berry would accompany ing about. The KMAG cryptographers Muccio.

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JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 45 Our Radioteletype Section had a next room. Sledgehammers were mobile radio. A truck would carry I’d be sending the last hitting the switchboards far down its transmitter, receiver, housing the hallway. Dick Mixer, one of our unit and generator. This radio could radio message from CommCenter team, had started provide communication to veiy dis¬ destroying the teletypes as soon as tant places such as Tokyo. Our sec¬ Seoul. / knew my words the power shut off. He went at his tion had five experienced radio task enthusiastically. operators. would go down in history I picked up my axe and smashed Ira Dale notified Ambassador away. It turned out to be fun. I hit Muccio of our mobile communica¬ if I could think of some¬ the Underwood typewriter keys and tions capability. Muccio replied that not much happened. I struck a blow the Army would provide his com¬ thing memorable, bat all at the end of the typewriter car¬ munications. (The ambassador I came up until was riage. This produced a zinging should have taken our offer: KMAG sound followed by the end-of-line communications with Tokyo were “CU IN TOKYO. ” bell ringing as the carriage sailed soon overwhelmed by heavy mes¬ into the air and onto the floor. sage volume.) I had to hit the telephone sever¬

4-4-4- al times to get good results. Sometime before 6 a.m., we were thoughts to Tokyo. I believed it had I smashed the teletype in front told our Communications been the radio operator at Wake of me. The destruction actions Branch would “kill the board” (the Island who had said “Send us more specified in the teletype manual switchboard) at 9 a.m. We would Japs” as that island was falling. I were easy to understand. then have 30 minutes to destroy our knew the radio operator at I moved over to smash the RCA equipment and board a bus in the Corregidor had sent a note to his transmitter the KMAG radio opera¬ motor pool. We were given single- mother as the island fell. tor had used. Destroying such a bladed axes or sledgehammers to beautiful piece of equipment both¬ use in destroying our equipment. No memorable words came to ered me. I sliced off the knobs on Buses would depart at 9:30 mind. I thought of asking the front panel and smashed the sharp. Anyone not aboard would be “Will anyone loan me some track dials. As I did this, the can of toddy left behind. We’d be allowed to take shoes?” that had been sitting on the table only one suitcase each. As 9 a.m. neared, I talked (on the fell over and spread its liquid under The KMAG radio operator teletype) with an operator in Tokyo. the transmitter. departed. He would operate the Nothing dramatic came to mind so radio maintaining communications I just wrote “C U IN TOKYO.” I d A Korean I’d never seen before between KMAG and SGAP. He left missed my chance to have my words had wandered in and was the RCA transmitter and a half go down in history. watching our actions. Obviously, he filled can of toddy on a Sam Berry walked in just then was going to loot things after we CommCenter table. with a 40- or 50-word enciphered left. I opened up the top of the EMERGENCY message to SEC- transmitter and began smashing the Non-memorable last words STATE WASHDC. That message radio tubes. The pretty glow of the I thought about sending the last tape was only about half sent when radio tubes meant the transmitter message from Seoul. A large screen power died. It was time to start was still getting electricity but I would be installed high above the destroying communications equip¬ failed to grasp that fact. machinery in the Tokyo relay sta¬ ment. I had difficulty hitting all the tion and would display the words I dropped the message and tape tubes inside the transmitter case. from Seoul. Important people into the wastebasket containing the The Korean looter-to-be tried to would observe those last words, and day’s message traffic. I felt bad help me. He picked up the trans¬ I was the one who’d be sending about not getting that last message mitter with the obvious intention of them. out before the power died. tilting it toward me so that I could My words would go down in his¬ I could hear the sounds of the more easily smash the tubes inside tory if I could send memorable last transmitters being smashed in the the case.

46 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY-AU GU ST 1998 After picking up the transmitter, graphic machines. I asked if I could the Korean stopped smiling and just toss my wastebasket on the fire. He stood there quivering slightly. It We had 30 minutes said okay. was clear that the slopped toddy liq¬ Brownie and I watched the cryp¬ uid on the bottom of the transmit¬ to destroy our equipment. to machines and my messages burn¬ ter had permitted the electricity to ing. He noticed an American mis¬ We were given single- find a new circuit through the sionary taking pictures of the burn¬ Korean’s body. bladed a.res and ing crypto machines with a movie I looked around for the power camera. Brown pulled a pistol from plug in the wall outlet. My intention sledgehammers. his holster and told the missionary was to pull the plug, but I couldn’t to stop taking pictures. The mis¬ find the outlet. The cord from the sionary smiled triumphantly as he transmitter went over to the wall stopped taking pictures and turned and behind some file cabinets. I Korean stopped quivering, put away. raced over to the file cabinets and, down the transmitter and walked At 9:25 a.m., the Communications axe in hand, began looking between out of the room. He didn’t smile at Branch and embassy security people them for the plug. All that time, out me as he left. boarded the buses; we were the last ol the corner of my eye, I could see When we finished our destruc¬ to leave. Koreans stood silently in the the Korean standing there with the tion, I carried the wastebasket con¬ street and on the sidewalk watching transmitter in hand, quivering. taining the day’s messages out to our every move. I finally spotted the power cord the front parking lot. I planned to I was embarrassed by the stares on the floor between two file cabi¬ set the wastebasket on fire with of the Koreans as our convoy of nets. I chopped at the power cord matches. I found Sgt. Brown deto¬ buses and cars drove through Seoul. with my axe. One swipe of the axe nating thermite bombs stacked They were threatened by an invad¬ cut the power cord in two. The below and on top of his crypto¬ ing army and we were running away.

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JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 47 It seemed that our evacuation of The only things between us and Americans was complete, but we the advancing North Korean Army later learned that the kindly Mrs. The only things between were a river and a few South Lee had been left behind in Seoul. Korean national policemen. Why hadn’t she listened to WVTP ns and the North Korean Sometime in the afternoon a twin-engine bomber flew toward us or called the embassy? Why hadn’t Army were a river and a one of us called her? I still think of from the south. I was surprised to her last reported words. She had few national policemen. see it had the silhouette of a called RCA San Francisco and said, Douglas A-26. “The bastards have left me!” She Some nearby South Korean was right. national policemen turned and

4-4-4- began moving toward cover from a When we arrived at Kimpo cover for a while, so watch out!” possible air raid. I shouted Airport about 10 o’clock, we found Sometime later a new pair of fight¬ “Meegook, Meegook!” (American, Air Force fighters flying protective er aircraft would arrive to fly cover American). The nearest policeman cover over us. Sometimes the fight¬ over us. looked surprised. I was too. When ers were P-51 Mustangs, sometimes We formed in groups on the tar¬ the aircraft neared us, we saw its P-82 Twin Mustangs and occasion¬ mac with our luggage and were white U.S. stars. ally jet-engine F-80 Shooting Stars. issued C rations to eat. This was our first indication that Each time the fighters flying From time to time, a C-54 Air President Truman had committed cover needed to return to Japan for Force transport would land and taxi military forces to help the South fuel, they’d fly flat and low past us up to the terminal area. A group of Koreans. Until then we had and wag their wings as they climbed American evacuees would then assumed the U.S. wouldn’t defend away. It was their way of saying, board the aircraft and it would take South Korea. I felt better. I could “You’re going to be without air off for Japan. now look South Koreans in the eye.

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48 FOREIGN SERVICE J OU RN AL/J U LY- AU GU ST 1998 Awaiting evacuation at Kimpo Airport, June 27, 1950, while U.S. fighters fly cover. The author is far right.

4-4-4- Kimpo Airport again. Last plane out By mid-afternoon, the evacuation FEAF Headquarters diversion of The embassy security people had halted. The fighter aircraft con¬ C-54s to Suwon was amateurish: It asked those of us who were healthy tinued to fly cover over us but Air showed communications had broken and young to volunteer to be on the Force transports had stopped arriv¬ down. Air Force fighters from last plane out. They said we might ing. We had three planeloads of Itazuke Air Base were flying cover have to travel by vehicle or on foot to evacuees still awaiting flights to over us. FEAF Headquarters should Suwon Airport. J apan. have known this. All the Communications Branchs Some of us doubted whether young men volunteered to be on the There was much discussion about FEAF would send more transports to “last plane.” We thought we might the halted airlift. We decided to Kimpo. Ira Dale had a carryall con¬ have an adventure that we could tell try ringing an old Japanese telephone taining food, water and a full tank of our grandchildren about. line that ran from Kimpo Airport to gas in the embassy motor pool. Ira, Late that afternoon, the C-54 Fukuoka, Japan. Red and I decided to go get his car¬ transports began arriving once again A telephone technician answered ryall and drive the 250 miles to Pusan at Kimpo. Small amounts of ammuni¬ the phone in Japan. He transferred far to the south. tion were unloaded from each air¬ the call through many telephone craft. exchanges to Far East Air Force As we walked toward the parking A KMAG lieutenant colonel and (FEAF) Headquarters. FEAF said lot, we encountered Sgt. Brown. some soldiers had arrived to pick up they’d heard that Kimpo Airport had When he heard our plan, he recom¬ the ammunition from the cargo air¬ fallen to the North Koreans. The C- mended we not go. He said he’d craft. The officer said things were 54 transports had been diverted to received reports early that day about getting better at the front. Suwon Airport about 25 miles to the fighting with guerrilla forces south of FEAF Headquarters instructed us south of us. Yongdungpo. That was on the route to wave white towels or shirts when FEAF Headquarters agreed to we’d be travelling to Pusan. We took the last transport arrived. This was to start sending the C-54 transports to Browns advice. assure the aircraft commander that

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 49 the airport was still in friendly hands. We agreed to do so. As the last C-54 aircraft arrived New from Harvard over Kimpo, we all waved white towels or T-shirts. I think we all felt rather foolish about doing All You Need Is Love Ozone Diplomacy so. The Peace Corps and the New Directions in Safeguarding the Planet The plane landed and taxied Spirit of the 1960s Enlarged Edition EUZABETH COBBS HOFFMAN RICHARD ELLIOT BENEDICK toward the air terminal while two Traversing four decades and three continents, this “A landmark book that should command the attention P-5f Mustangs continued flying story of the Peace Corps and the people and politics of every serious student of American diplomacy, inter¬ cover over us. I was enjoying the behind it is a fascinating look at American idealism at national environmental issues, or the art of negotiation." drama of the last plane’s arrival. work amid the hard political realities of the second half —FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL of the twentieth century. With vivid stories from "This superb book.. .makes clear that governments will The C-54 swung into position in returned volunteers of exotic places and daunting cir¬ often have to act while there is still much scientific front of the air terminal. The cargo cumstances, this is an engrossing account of the suc¬ uncertainty.. .an authoritative, well-written work." cesses and failures of this unique governmental doors opened to reveal two crew¬ —FOREIGN AFFAIRS organization, and of the geopolitics and personal con¬ men holding submachine guns $ 18.95 paper • $39.95 cloth victions that underpin it with ammo clips in place. They $27.95 cloth looked out at us grimly. Here was a The Dependency scene we could tell our grandchil¬ Beneath the United States Movement dren about! A History of U.S. Policy Scholarship and Politics in Then the crewmen put the lad¬ toward Latin America Development Studies LARS SCHOULTZ der in place and four civilians ROBERT A. PACKENHAM In this sweeping history of United States policy toward "A fascinating, relentless and extensively documented appeared in the planes doorway. Latin America, Lars Schoultz shows that the United look at the politicization of the American academic They were American reporters. States has always perceived Latin America as a funda¬ community and what [the author] sees as its Marxist Three of the reporters were mentally inferior neighbor, unable to manage its affairs roots... It exposes many of the follies and hypocrisies and stubbornly underdeveloped. Drawing on extraor¬ men. The fourth was a pretty within the Latin Americanist precinct” dinarily rich archival sources, Schoultz, one of the coun¬ —Kenneth Maxwell, FOREIGN AFFAIRS young woman who looked quite try's foremost Latin America scholars, shows how "Offers a devastating analysis of dependency theory that these core beliefs have not changed for two centuries. fetching in a white blouse and dark- is based on a solid bed of facts, quotations, and citations; skirt. She was Marguerite Higgins, "A splendid and important book—exhaustively and it proceeds to its task of demolition with relentless a reporter for The New York researched, cogently and eloquently written, at once logic.. .[It is] a model of how to analyze texts carefully." passionate and thoughtful." —Paul H. Lewis, JOURNAL OF INTERAMERICAN Herald Tribune. All the reporters —John Coatsworth, Harvard University STUDIES AND WORLD AFFAIRS got off the plane, and we learned $19.95 paper • $39.95 cloth $21.00 paper they were staying on to cover the big story. Zouping in Transition Coffee and Power The Process of Reform in Revolution and the Rise of Rural North China felt a big sense of anti-climax. Democracy in Central America I EDITED BY lEFFERYM.PAiGE We weren’t the last Americans ANDREW G. WALPER “A sweeping historical analysis of the encouraging yet out of Seoul after all! When the Zouping offers important general lessons for the study still fragile emergence of democracy in Central shoes of Marguerite Higgins and of China's rural transformation. The contributors to this America...Through exhaustive historical research and the male reporters touched the tar¬ volume, all participants in a unique field research pro¬ enterprising interviews, [the author] penetrates the ject undertaken from 1988 to 1992, address questions worlds of the most powerful families of El Salvador, mac, all the drama of departing on about the role of local governments as economic Nicaragua and Costa Rica...Paige has illuminated a the last plane had dissolved. The actors and about market reform and inequality. path for comprehending countries whose histories have often been cancatured by polemicists and stories we’d be telling our future “A very important addition to the literature on reform ignored by policy makers." in post-Mao China, on rural development and marketi- grandchildren about this day had —Thomas Carothers, zation in the Third World, and on transitions to the just dropped a couple of notches NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW market in socialist and post-socialist systems." $18.95 paper on the grand scale of historical sig¬ —Kathleen Hartford, University of Massachusetts, nificance. We climbed aboard the Harvard Contemporary China Series, 11 Harvard aircraft quietly and soon left $ 19.95 paper • $45.00 cloth University Kimpo Airport behind. ■ Press 800 448 2242 www.hup.haivard.edu

50 FOREIGN SERVICE ] O V RN AL/J U LY- AU GU ST 1998 SIX MEMOIRS AND A NOVEL Which genre best reflects life in the Foreign Service?

BY JAMES THOMAS SNYDER

an FSO who has resigned himself to N’Kuha abandons die territory he once The Consul’s Wife participating in pointless diplomacy. A held in tiirall, a man broken by the W.T. Tyler, Henri/ Holt, 1998, bumt-out case, Mathews is tire arche¬ magic of people who know how to put hardcover, 216 pages, $24 typal “man with a bad corridor reputa¬ men on die moon. It is a genuine, com¬ tion” going nowhere in the Foreign pelling contrast of starkly different peo¬ Memoirs, Volume 1 Services up-or-out career path. ples. It is also the only event in die book George F. Kerman, Random House, The Consuls Wife takes place in the tiiat explores die difficulty of conduct¬ 1983, softcover, 583 pages, $20 Zaire of the early 70s and is poprrlated ing diplomacy across die divide of dif¬ by predictable characters. Nearly every ferent cultures. Memoirs, Volume 2 American or European in the bush is George F. Kerman, Random House, either a wraith-like missionary, an on- The rest of die novel is concerned 1988, softcover, 368 pages, $15.95 the-make expatriate or a clone of the with directionless diplomacy and a Englishman Kurtz irr his final throes at furtive romance. The romance is Sketches From a Life the end of Joseph Conrads short story between Hugh Mathews and the George F. Kerman, Random House, about European exploration of Africa, eponymous consuls wife: ageless, 1990, softcover, 365 pages, $12.95 “Heart of Darkness.” Mathews spends graceful Margaret Ogden, known as much of the novel traveling in die bush Blakey. Married to Consul Jeffery Yellow Ribbon witii a proto-hippie-tumed-diplomat Ogden, who spends most of Iris time L. Bruce Laingen, Brassey’s Inc., named Ken McAuliffe, who seems to obsessing over his tennis game, Bkikey 1992, hardcover, 305 pages, $23 be die only FSO in die embassy who is fascinated by the animist spiritual has been to die vast interior of the coun- beliefs of African tribes. She collects Origins of a Catastrophe try. The other Americans, who isolate fetishes and tribal masks, a pursuit into Warren Zii nr nermann, Times Books, themselves on compounds in the capi¬ which she pulls Mathews. Mathews 1996, hardcover, 305 pages, $25 tal, are usually pictured eidier in repose justifies their affair with tliis argument: or recreation. Unfortunately, these “I’d freed her from nine years of die Our Man in Belize: A Memoir descriptions of diplomatic bureaucracy Jeffrey-Margaret diplomatic duet, a Richard Timothy Conroy, St. Martins replace insight into die characters. barren marriage to a sexually illiterate Press, 1997, hardcover, One of the most compelling sections husband who romped out Iris passion 305 pages, $27.50 of die book occurs in die first few chap¬ knocking tennis balls into die net or ters, witii one of the United States’ nimbly dancing Iris way tiirough a W.T. Tyler — former FSO S.J. moon landings as a backdrop. The cocktail-party set, and now she’d redis¬ Hamrick writing under a pen American ambassador tries to set up a covered herself and her freedom.” name — is a novelist who takes foreign meeting with a village chief deep in die Tliis perception rings like a tinny cliche policy and its practitioners seriously. He interior. A tribal shaman, called a Berra of 1970s women’s liberation: Cooped has written about spies, diplomats and N’Kuha, interprets die meeting as a up, sexually unfulfilled housewife finds bureaucrats in six novels, earning him¬ challenge to his power and decides to gratification in the arms of a real man. self favorable comparison to novelist use his magic to interfere witii die pro¬ Blakey eventually runs from Africa Graham Greene. In his latest novel, ceedings. He summons up a ferocious and her marriage, while Matiiews con¬ The Consul’s Wife, Tyler tells the story squall to make good on his threat. tinues widi his dreary postings. They are of Hugh Mathews, a graduate school Unfortunately for him, the storm arrives reunited after some 10 years when dropout, a self-described vagabond and too late to foil the meeting and die Berra Mathews takes a desk job in

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 51 B O O K s

Washington, D.C. The courtship takes been mellowed into wit by 30 years nary collection of diary entries span¬ up where it should have begun, and the distance, is reminiscent of Lawrence ning more than 60 years. Setting die book ends in quiet comfort between Durrell’s black humor in die diplo¬ standard for FSOs with writing aspira¬ two broken people, a relationship that matic classic, Esprit de Coips, a mem¬ tions, Kennan seamlessly weaves poli¬ rings true. oir of life in the British Foreign ser¬ cy discussions and historical observa¬ vice in Yugoslavia after World War II. tions into his personal revelations. Czech novelist Milan Kundera Still, most Foreign Service memoirs Writing in a style that rivals the best argued in The Art of the Novel, his are written by stoic, devoted profes¬ novelists, he ranges from gallows 1993 collection of essays, that “the sole sionals. Yellow Ribbon, a collection of humor to despair. raison d’etre of a novel is to discover the secret journal and letters of Bruce Take, for example, a footnote in what only the novel can discover.” Laingen, charge d’affaires at the which Kennan describes the strange Presumably a novel gives answers to American embassy in Teheran when it sensation of living in die closely moni¬ the human condition in a way that was seized by Islamic militants in 1979, tored Spaso House, the U.S. ambas¬ other genres can not. Because they rely is one such example. Laingen joined sador’s residence in Moscow, in die on fact, diplomatic memoirs do not the Foreign Service in 1949 and sewed early 1950s. He tells of reading Voice easily lend themselves to introspection, as a junior officer in Iran in 1953. of America propaganda aloud to cutting details or titillation. As a result, More tiian a quarter century later, he unseen KGB eavesdroppers in an a novel of Foreign Service life might was hastily appointed charge d’affaires effort to keep up his Russian. On die be expected to follow Kundera’s rule at die embassy in Tehran while the next page, he summarizes the climate and explore its subject in a way not State Department tried to find an of Russia at die time by describing die possible in a Foreign Service memoir. ambassadorial appointment suitable to terror his KGB tail imposed on Ironically, while there is much poten¬ the Shall. Five months later the Russian children who tried to play widi tial in Tylers fiction, it is less com¬ embassy was seized and he was held his two-year-old son dirough die resi¬ pelling than the best memoirs written for 444 days. During that time he kept dence’s iron fence. by career Foreign Service officers. a secret diary and smuggled out letters Most career diplomats who write to his wife and three sons. Laiiigen’s In odier passages, he describes meet¬ memoirs worth reading have by fate or forced confinement provided him an ing a prostitute in blacked-out ambition been present at die creation opportunity to look at the inner work¬ World War II Berlin, and the time a of something worth wilting about. ings of Iranian politics and to create a congressional delegation arrived drunk Warren Zimmermann, for example, valuable historical resource. Even for a meeting with Soviet dictator Josef capped a 33-year Foreign Service more compelling are his thoughts in Stalin after being feted in die Russian career by presiding over the dissolu¬ loving messages sent to his family. manner — with alcohol — at “tea.” tion of Yugoslavia as the last U.S. Dmj 199, May 20, 1980 — I woke Kennan reveals himself while at die ambassador to that country. He con¬ early and couldn’t sleep. ... today the same time describing acute political tributed to die examination of the foreign minister here can go to reality. For example, this is how he tragedy tiiere witii his compelling 1996 Islamabad and tell the assembled for¬ describes Prague in 1938 after die book about his tenure in Belgrade, eign ministers there that Iran is acting Munich conference among Great Origins of a Catastrophe. with “great restraint” in the face of the Britain, France, Germany and Italy Richard Timothy Conroy, a former “provocations” that the United States allowed Hitler to take over the FSO and waiter of murder mysteries, constantly forces on the noble people of German-speaking Sudetenland area of is one of die few to write well about Iran. Who is guilty of provocationsP Czechoslovakia. his time in the Foreign Service in a Who has violated international law? I have written so many formed place where nothing much of histori¬ Who is holding 53 men and women things about this part of the world that cal significance happened. His 1997 hostage for purposes of political black¬ I think I have paid my due to literary comedic memoir, Our Man in Belize, mail? discipline and decorum and am enti¬ recounts his service as a vice consul But perhaps the best known tled to indulge just once in the “stream from 1961 to 1963, when Belize was Foreign Service memoirist is George of consciousness” stuff. I even wonder known as British Honduras. The most Kennan. Kennan published his whether it isn’t possibly the only prop¬ significant event during his tenure Memoirs in 1967 and 1972, tiien sup¬ er approach to this dreamy, poignant was a visit from Hurricane Hattie in plemented it with publication in 1989 place, which has a thousand tales to tell 1961. Conroys despair, which has of Sketches from a Life, an extraordi¬ and proves nothing at all, unless it be

52 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY- AUG V ST 1998 the incorrigible vanity and tragedy and ble near the roadside huts where the die Congo) diat is bland in comparison futility of all human endeavor. In all villagers stirred, busy at the wood and to the reality. Madiews, Tylers protago¬ the history of Bohemia there have charcoal fires and cooking pots, nist, would be a deeper, richer man, if, never been any clear issues, any com¬ absorbed in those small tasks that in like his real-life counterparts, he plete victories, or any complete defeats. the capital were hidden behind the plumbed more of die internal dilemmas Despite the difficulties of writing in ugly clay-and-concrete-block walls of diat a Foreign Service life presents. the rigid genre of memoir, Kennan and the native communes but on an open In the novel Mathews recounts a other FS memoirists have succeeded savannah under a limitless sky gave a truism of diplomatic life which his in producing complete accounts of renewed dignity and grace to these friend McAuliffe has told him: “‘It’s a their experiences through the use of small daily acts of existence. kind of controlled schizophrenia, die complex characters and precise detail. diplomats life,’ he (McAuliffe) said. Unfortunately, Tyler neglects Iris char¬ The best Foreign Service memoirs Tou wonder which side of the brain acters’ development and settles for are successful where Tylers novel you really want to live in, the public stereotypes, such as his portrayal of fails because they follow another Milan one or die private one.’ ” African bureaucrats modeled on Kundera precept. Kundera roots his Good Foreign Service fiction, Zairian dictator Mobutu Sese Seko’s stoiy and characters in a specific time like a good Foreign Service mem¬ dandies. and place, such as Russian-occupied oir, should be written using both Tyler succeeds, however, in produc¬ Prague or modem Paris. Novelist sides of the brain. ing lovely passages which show his sen¬ Graham Greene, known for his depic¬ sitivity' to the Af rican land: tion of expatriate life, also placed his James Thomas Snyder is a The thickening light darkened the characters in real-life situations, with Congressional aide living in shadoios along the laterite road, along die result that readers identify with his Washington, D.C. He has written for the streams and the glades of acacia characters. The Consul’s Wife is set in a The New York Times and The Los and palm. It magnified the figures visi¬ Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Angeles Times. ■

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Willis C. Armstrong, 86, a retired A native of New York, Mr. Arnold panied him to additional assign¬ FSO, died of cancer May 31 at his attended the University of Chicago. ments in Kabul, Copenhagen, Seoul, home in Arlington, Va. Upon his graduation in 1953, he Bangkok, Manila, and Mexico City. Mr. Armstrong was bom in New worked for CARE in Yugoslavia. She was active in charitable and Jersey and graduated from After joining the Foreign Service social organizations and was twice Swarthmore College. He received a he served with USIA in Warsaw, cited for her contribution to the masters degree from Columbia Vienna, Bonn, London, Santiago, advancement of U.S. interests University Teachers College. Zagreb, and Belgrade. He also abroad. In Copenhagen she worked He began his State Department worked on the U.S. Mission to the at the European Headquarters of career as a translator, interpreter and United Nations in New York. During the World Health Organization. Russian language tutor with the U.S. his Washington tours, he served as Survivors include her husband; embassy in Moscow. During World War director for both Western and her daughter, Allison; and seven II he served as a liaison officer with the Eastern Europe. siblings. Lend-Lease Program and as a transport Following his retirement from coordinator with tire War Shipping the diplomatic corps in 1993, Mr. Administration in Washington. He Arnold served as official spokesman returned to State as an East-West trad¬ and director of information for the Veronica Ellen Beauchamp, ing specialist after the war and in 1958 U.N. in the former Yugoslavia and 88, widow of a retired FSO, died of joined the Foreign Service. He was with the U.N. Mission in eastern a stroke at Mount Vernon Hospital posted to Ottawa and London as well as Slavonia from 1995 to January 1998, in Alexandria, Va., on February 9. the Department of State. After his when he retired to London. Born in Dover, N.J., she met her retirement in 1967, he joined the facul¬ Survivors include a brother, husband, William Ellsworth ty of Columbia University where he Alvin of Manhattan; a daughter, Beauchamp, a U.S. Army officer, became acting dean of the School of Alice Arnold Melnick of Boulder, during World War II. International Affairs. In 1970 he served Colo.; three sons, David of When her husband joined the two years as president of the U.S. Washington, D.C., Jeremy of Los State Department in 1947, she Council of die International Chamber Angeles, and Jonathan of Chicago; accompanied him to posts in France, of Commerce. He returned to govern¬ and two grandsons, Jackson and Yugoslavia, Algeria and Taiwan. ment service from 1972 to 1974 as assis¬ Joshua Melnick. When her husband retired in 1972, tant secretary of State for economic Mrs. Beauchamp settled with him in affairs, and from 1981 to 1984 as a Alexandria, Va., where they both member of die Central Intelligence remained active in civic organiza¬ Agency’s senior review panel. Nona A. Beardsley, 61, wife of tions. Her husband died in 1988. Survivors include his wife, Louise FSO Bruce A. Beardsley, died of Survivors include a sister, Anna Schaffiier Armstrong of Arlington; and cancer on May 21 in Los Angeles, Klimek of Woodford, Va.; a brother, a son, Ian C. Armstrong of Washington. Calif., where her husband selves as Michael Klimek of Pearl River, N.Y.; diplomat in residence at the two daughters, Danielle M. University of Calif, at Berkeley. Beauchamp and Mary Anne A native of the Philippines, Mrs. Beauchamp, both of Alexandria; a Philip W. Arnold, 64, a retired FSO Beardsley immigrated to the United stepson, William E. Beauchamp of and UN peacekeeper, died April 15 at States in 1970 and married her hus¬ Dallas; two grandchildren; and two his home in London after a heart attack. band inl973 in Beirut. She accom¬ great-grandchildren.

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 55 IN MEMORY

Katharina Brandt, 80, longtime He was assigned with AID to A native of Midvale, Utah, Mrs. secretary of tire American Liaison Algeria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Cottarn accompanied her late husband Office with tire Berlin city govern¬ Iran. He served as director of USAID to his posts in Paris, Rome, The Hague, ment, died of cancer April 5 in Berlin. missions in Zaire, Morocco and Egypt Rio de Janeiro, and Kuwait before retir¬ She joined the liaison office in 1947 and as deputy assistant administrator ing with him in Washington, D.C. Mrs. and for four decades was a key assistant for Africa. During Iris 30-year career Cottam had resided at St. Marys Home to the U.S. Berlin mission in its rela¬ Mr. Brown received the Rockefeller for three years. tions with tire local German authorities Public Service Award, 1977; AID Survivors include her daughter during the blockade, the Wall crises Distinguished Career Award, 1983; Meredith Stangel of St. Nazianz, Wis.; and tire quadripartite government of and the Order of the Republic of two grandchildren; and two great¬ the city. Egypt, 1982. After retiring from the grandchildren. She is survived by her son, Foreign Service, Mr. Brown was vice Wolfgang Brandt of America House in president of the International Fund for Berlin. Agricultural Development in Rome from 1983 to 1996. Ralph Daly, 63, a retired Foreign Survivors include his wife, Service employee, died May 14 at Micheline; three sons, Alain, Dean and Jefferson Memorial Hospital after a Donald S. Brown, 70, a retired Christopher; and his brother, L. Dean heart attack. FSO, died of cancer in May in Brown. Bom in New York City in 1934, Montpelier, France. Mr. Daly served from 1954 to 1957 in Mr. Brown was bom in Queens, the Marine Corps as a naval artillery N.Y., and received a B.A. from Antioch forward observer. Following his mili¬ College. He attended Johns Hopkins Katlieiine Stokes Cottain, 83, tary sendee, he graduated in 1961 University School of Advanced Studies widow of a Foreign Service employee, from the City University of New York and was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at died at St. Marys Home in Manitowoc, and obtained an MBA from Iona Princeton University. Wis., on Marcli 26. College in 1972. Mr. Daly was International Phone Calls & Don't Have To Cost A Fortune Anymore!

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employed by the U.S. Naval He joined the government as a sur¬ Phyllis Clough Eiselt, wife of a Intelligence Service in Guantanamo veyor of soils with the Department of retired diplomatic courier, died of ram- Bay, Panama and Japan. Agriculture and in 1938 was assigned plications related to Parkinsons disease In 1976 he joined the Inspector as a researcher to Washington. He April 29 at her home in Port Ludlow, General’s office in the Agency for served with AID in several Central Wish. International Development which led American countries and in Peru. She was bom in 1926 in Seattle and to assignments to Pakistan, Panama, From 1961 to 1964 he was chief of the graduated from die University of and the Philippines. He returned to agricultural mission in South Washington as a nurse in 1947. She the Inspector General’s office in Vietnam. From 1964 to 1966 he practiced nursing in Nanking, China, Washington, D.C. in 1990, from returned to the Department of until 1950. She married Raymond which he retired in 1994. Agriculture as administrator of the Walter Eiselt in 1951 and accompanied Survivors include his wife, Anne; a International Agricultural Develop¬ him on assignments to die Panama son, Andrew' of Washington, D.C.; ment Sendee. In 1966 he joined the Can;d Zone, Reykjavik, Tokyo, Kobe, and a daughter, Jean, of Purcellville, faculty of Cornell University in Ithaca, Frankfurt, Bonn and Vienna. In 1965 W.Va. N.Y. He wrote or co-authored over 60 die Eiselts moved to Fairfax, Va. where scientific publications. they lived for 30 years. During the His first wife, Sarah Max Drosdoff, 1970s Mrs. Eiselt worked as a nurse at died in 1978. Mr. Drosdoffs survivors Fairfax hospital. In 1995 she and her Matthew Drostloff, 89, a retired include his wife, Mildred Binder husband moved to Port Ludlow. AID official, died of heart ailments Drosdoff of Ithaca; his children from Survivors include her husband April 24 in Ithaca, N.Y. his first marriage, Ruth Tucker of Raymond Walter Eiselt; four children, Mr. Drostloff'was bom in Chicago Cincinnati and Daniel Drosdoff of Erich of Washington, D.C., Mark, and graduated from the University of Fairfax, Va.; 2 stepchildren, Jonathan Nancy and Julie, all of Seattle; four Illinois. He received a masters degree Prigot of Boston and Andrea grandchildren; her brothers, Ray and a doctorate in soils chemistry from Hovaness of New York; a sister; and Clough of Bend, Ore., and Ralph the University of Wisconsin. six grandchildren. Clough of Arlington, Va., and her sister,

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JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 57 IN MEM O R Y

Harriet Waldron of Marrowstone Born in Belgrade, Mrs. Fraleigh Wellington, Stockholm, Seoul and Island, Wash. received a law degree from the Hong Kong. From 1965 to 1969 he University of Belgrade and met her served as ambassador to Indonesia. husband, William Norman Fraleigh, in Returning to Washington, he was Athens during the mid-1940’s. assistant secretaiy of State for East Bernard A. Femminella, 71, a Thereafter, she accompanied him on Asian and Pacific Affairs during tire retired FSO, died of emphysema June his assignments to Rome, Spain, and Nixon administration and was a 5 at his home in Washington, D.C. New Zealand. member of the delegation that Mr. Femminella was originally from Survivors include two daughters, accompanied the president on his Brooklyn, N.Y. He graduated from St. Georgia Fraleigh Costa and Billie momentous trip to China in 1972. He Francis College there and later served Fraleigh, both of Rome; and two was ambassador to Australia from two years in the army. grandchildren. 1973 to 1975 and later headed the He began his Foreign Service U.S. delegation to the United Nations career in 1952. His assignments Population Commission until his abroad included postings to Mexico retirement in 1979. He held the rank City, Pusan, Santiago, Colon, Cuba and Marshall Green, 82, a retired of career minister and received tire Montevideo. FSO, died of a heart attack in Chevy State Departments Distinguished Survivors include his wife, Virginia Chase, Md. on June 6. Service Award. After retirement Mr. Femminella of Washington, D.C.; a Mr. Green was bom in Holyoke, Green was director of Population brother; and a sister. Mass., and graduated from Yale Action International, chairman of the University. He worked for Ambassador Japan-America Society and a visiting Joseph Clark Grew as a private secre¬ professor at George Washington tary in Tokyo in 1939, and joined the University. Danica Fraleigh, 91, widow of a Navy after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Survivors include his two sons, retired FSO, died of pneumonia May His Foreign Service career began Mark Green and Edward Green, both 14 at a hospital in Rome. in 1945. His postings abroad included of Washington, D.C.; and a grandson.

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Michael P. Guido, 75, a retired Daniel J. Hafrey, 78, a retired European office of the United FSO, died June 8 at the Hospice of FSO, died on April 7 of cancer. Nations in Geneva. After his retire¬ Northern Virginia after a brief illness. Bom in Dnepropetrovsk in tire ment from the State Department in Mr. Guido, a native of Kingston, former Soviet Union (now Ukraine), 1980, he worked as a free-lance N.Y., graduated from Oswego State Mr. Hafrey grew up in Turkey and writer on international affairs for Teachers College and received his Latvia before arriving in the United publications abroad. masters degree from Syracuse States in 1940. During World War II Survivors include his wife, University. After serving in the Army he spent nearly four years in the U.S. Monique Louise Tourneur Hafrey of from 1942 to 1945 in the European Army in the Pacific and European Bethesda; a son, Leigh G. Hafrey of theater, Mr. Guido worked as an theaters, mostly in intelligence work. Cambridge, Mass.; two daughters, audiovisual director with the Little After the war he attended the Anne C. Hafrey of Cambridge and Falls, N.Y. public school system. University of Minnesota and did Iris Joye L. Hafrey of Alameda, Calif.; Mr. Guido joined the State graduate work at the London School and two grandsons. Department in 1952 as a USAID of Economics. During the 1950s he FSO. He was posted to Beirut, was a part-time instructor at the Khartoum, and BI an tyre. From 1965 University of Minnesota School of until his retirement in 1985 he served Journalism and worked for 15 years Olive E Hanscom, 87, a former in Washington, D.C. as chief of orien¬ as a reporter and editor for the FS secretary, died May 26 of arte¬ tation in training and development Minneapolis Morning Tribune. riosclerosis at George Washington with AID, making his home in Falls His joined die Foreign Service in University Hospital in Washington, Church, Va. 1961, serving in Leopoldville D.C. Survivors include his wife, Ann; (Kinshasa), Brazzaville, Bangui, A native of Maine, Ms. Hanscom his daughters, Susan of Falls Church Vienna, and Bucharest. He also served as a Foreign Service secretary and Lisa of New York; four sister's, served as chief of policy guidance for for 30 years in Phnom Penh, Taiwan, Mary, Inna, Margaret and Anna; and USIA and as counselor for public Hong Kong, Siena Leone, Tel Aviv, a brother, Vincent of Kingston, N.Y. affairs at the U.S. Mission to the and Tokyo. After her retirement from

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the State Department in October 1971, she worked briefly for the (P World Bank. Survivors include her cousin Paul COLUMBIA PLAZA E. Sterling of North Branford, Conn. APARTMENTS Capital Living With Comfort and Convenience Henry J. Kellermann, 88, a Eeautijul, SpacmiA- E^jfioiencie^., 1 and 2 Eedkummi. retired FSO, died of renal failure and SHORT TERM FURNISHED APARTMENTS AVAILABLE a heart ailment May 12 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md. Utilities Included 24 Hour Front Desk Mr. Kellennan was bom in Berlin Complimentary Voice Mail Garage Parking Available and went to the universities of Courtyard Style Plaza Shopping on Site Freiburg and Heidelberg. He Polished Hardwood Floors Cardkey Entry/Access received his doctorate in law from die Private Balconies River Views University of Berlin. Alter working as Huge Walk-In Closets Minutes to Fine Dining a journalist and leading a Jewish youdi Walk to the Kennedy Center and Georgetown group, he came to die United States in Minutes to Foggy Bottom Metro 1937 on a fellowship to Johns Hopkins University. He worked in New York (202) 293-2000 widi the National Refugee Service and 2400 Virginia Ave., N.W. die Welfare Council of New York. He Washington, D.C., 20037 also earned a masters degree from the Matuujed luf. Politui&i., £ JlucUi Go-. School of Social Work at Columbia University. During World War II, Mr. Kellennan worked in Washington with the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service and later die MARTENS VOLVO Office of Strategic Services. He Dedicated to Diplomacy worked on die Nuremberg war crimes trials and then joined the State Worldwide Delivery to Diplomats Department. He served in intelli¬ and Members of International Organizations gence and cultural posts in Washington and in Europe. Mr. Kellennan was permanent repre¬ sentative to UNESCO in Paris from 1956 to 1961 and charge d’affaires in Switzerland from 1961 to 1966. He retired in 1970 after serving as States first international environ¬ mental officer. Survivors include his wife, Mignon Pauli Kellermann of Chevy Chase, Md.; two sons, David, of Switzerland, and Tom of Pem; a daughter, Susan Kellennann of New York and Los Angeles; and six grandchildren. Contact: Dana Martens, Diplomatic Sales Director

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60 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN AL/J U LY- A U G U S T 1998 IN MEMORY

Mr. Palmer was bom in Groton, Conn. He graduated from Yale AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION

UniversityJ and later attended the University of Dijon in France. He joined the Foreign Service in TERM LIFE 1928 and served in El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Honduras, Panama and Turkey. After retirement in 1954 he earned LONG TERM CARE Iris Ph.D. in Middle Eastern studies from Princeton University and taught at the University of Utah, Southern Insurance for today- University at Memphis and Nathaniel Hawthorne College in Antrim, N.H. During his teaching career he returned and tomorrow to Turkey as a Fulbright scholar. Survivors include his wife, Rebecca FOR MORE INFORMATION: AMERICAN of Sonoma, Calif.; two sons, Douglas of AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE Redwood City, Calif., and John of Los FOREIGN PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION Gatos, Calif.; five grandchildren, and his 1716 N STREET, NW SERVICE WASHINGTON, DC 20036-2902 sister, Helen Porter of Darien, Conn. PROTECTIVE (202) 833-4910 - FAX: (202) 833-4918 E MAIL: afspa @ afspa.org ASSOCIATION WEB SITE: www.afspa.org

Anne Marie Meisenzahl, 69, a retired Foreign Service secretary, died of cancer March 10. Horn in Rochester, N.Y., Ms. Meisenzahl attended Nazareth College Help for Seniors before joining the Foreign Service. Her last tour abroad was in Nicosia, Cyprus, May Be Just where she served as the U.S. ambas¬ sadors secretary. Survivors include her sisters, a Phone Call Away- Loraine M. Morrison of Atlanta and The Senior Living Foundation Resource Center Jean M. Byrne of Port Lucie, Fla.; and may be able to help you or someone you know find her brothers Thomas W. Meisenzahl of information and resources for: Clearwater, Fla., and Peter A. Meisenzahl of Rochester, N.Y. ■ Home Health Care SlF ■ Adult Oay Care and Respite Care ■ Transportation to Medical Appointments Olwyn Mary Merrill, 87, wife of a A time of service, ■ Medicare/Medicaid Eligibility retired FSO, died February 17 in a time of need. ■ Friendly Visitor Calls Longbraneh, Wash., of pulmonary fibrosis. For more information, please call the Ms. Merrill, a native of Nampa, SENIOR LIVING FOUNDATION OF THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE Idaho, graduated from the College of 1716 N ST., NW - WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036-2902 Idaho in 1932. She was commissioned (202) 887-8170 as a U.S. naval officer in 1942 and E MAIL: afspa @ afspa.org - WEB SITE: www.afspa.org trained as a meteorological officer at the ❖Financial Assistance may be available. University of Cliicago. She served in SPONSORED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION this capacity at Moffat Naval Air Station in California and in Tillamook, Ore.,

JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 61 IN MEM O RY

before marrying Vernon L. Merrill, in Weissman of Bethesda and Barr West facility in Rockville, Md. He also 1946. Weissman of Takonra Park, Md.; and served as an intern at die National Beginning in 1952, Ms. Merrill five grandchildren. Institute of Mental Health and a vol¬ accompanied her husband to his posts unteer research assistant at the at embassies in Tel Aviv, Teheran, Uniformed Services University. Lie Beirut, Bonn, and Monrovia. After her was a doctoral student in clinical psy¬ husbands retirement from tire Foreign Virgil Patrick Randolph III, 68, a chology at Rutgers University at the Service, she settied with him in Liberia retired FSO, died September 11,1997 time of his death. - to help operate the largest iron ore in a car accident in Brazil Survivors include his fiancee, Gina mine in Africa, where they remained Mr. Randolph was bom in L. Abbott of New Haven, Conn, and for 10 years. They returned to die Cambridge, Mass., in 1929 and attend¬ his parents, William R. Smyser (FSO) United States in 1978, settling in ed tire University of Virginia, where he and Sally Smyser of Washington, D.C. Longbranch, Wash. received bachelor’s and master’s and New Castie, N.H. Survivors include her husband, degrees from the Woodrow Wilson Vernon Lewis Merrill of Longbranch; School of Foreign Affairs. Upon his and her sister, Catherine Randleman graduation, Mr. Randolph became an of Snoqualmie, Wash. officer in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard Catherine S. Stokes, 82, wife of a the aircraft carrier Corregidor. Foreign Service employee, died of Mr. Randolph joined the State congestive heart failure March 23 at Department in 1955. His overseas die Potomac Valley Nursing Center in Joseph Mintzes, 82, a retired posts included Haiti, Brazil, Pem, Rockville, Md. FSO, died of a cerebral hemorr hage Venezuela, Ireland, Barbados, and Mrs. Stokes was bom in Salem, Neb. April 21 in Washington, D.C. Colombia. A recipient of the and grew up in Horton, Kan. She was a Mr. Mintzes graduated from Department’s Superior Honor Award, secretary in Washington, D.C. for Sen. Temple University in his hometown of he retired in 1985. Arthur Capper (R-Kan.) in the ’30s. Philadelphia and continued his studies Following retirement, Mr. She accompanied her husband, Charles at American University where he Randolph divided his time between S. Stokes, to assignments in Greece, received a masters degree in econom¬ Richmond and Santos, Brazil. At the Libya and Ediiopia. After her hus¬ ics. In World War II he was a transla¬ time of his death, he was at work on a band’s deadi in 1959, she returned to tor for the Army Signal Coips in personal memoir of his diplomatic Washington, D.C. and was a secretary China. He worked in Washington in experiences. in the D.C. deputy mayor commission¬ die Bureau of Labor Statistics before Survivors include his wife, Isabel er’s office until she retired in 1970. joining the Foreign Service in 1957. Maud Shelia Kealman Randolph; two Survivors include a sister, Bertha His posts included an assignment to sons, Virgil Patrick Randolph IV of Bums of Dallas, and diree brothers, the Marshall Plan office in Paris and a Washington, D.C. and Richard Llenry Donald Scott of Henderson, Nev., tour as head of AID in Zaire. After Iris Randolph of Santa Barbara, Ca.; and Warren Scott of Petaluma, Calif, and retirement from the Foreign Service in three daughters, Betsy Allen of Raymond Scott of Centreville, Va. 1971, he became a consulting econo¬ Greenwich, Conn., Caroline Randolph mist for tire Aspen Institute and the of Dublin, Ireland, and Susannah Office of Technology Assessment. He Randolph of Warrenton, Va. was also a senior research fellow at Erwin A. van Swol, 90, a former George Washington Univer sity’s office public information officer with USIA, of science, technolog)' and public poli¬ died April 19 at his home in Long cy, and taught economics, history and Cameron Homer Sinyser, 28, Eddy, N.Y., after a heart attack. He had utopian theory at the Institute for son of an FSO, died of cancer April 28 cancer. Learning in Retirement. at Georgetown University Hospital. Mr. Swol worked for several New Mr. Mintzes’ first wife, Doris Levy Mr. Smyser was bom in York newspapers, including the Daily Mintzes, died in 1982. Survivors Washington, D.C. He accompanied Mirror. He was a columnist and city include his wife, Hilda Weissman his parents to overseas assignments editor of die legendary PM. From 1946 Mintzes of Washington; two daughters including Bonn and Geneva. He grad¬ to 1955, he was managing editor of the from his first marriage, Judith Mintzes uated from Sidwell Friends and Journal of Living magazine. Mr. van of Vashon Island, Wash., and Barbara Connecticut College. From 1991 to Swol commuted from his New York Mintzes of Vancouver; three stepchil¬ 1993 he worked as a residential coun¬ home for 22 years to his job with dren, Anne Clary of Chicago, Matt selor at Threshold Services’ Halpine USIA in Washington. ■

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JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 65 REAL ESTATE

As foreign service spouses we have Coming Home or Going Overseas? relocated many times throughout our lives. Combining this with our 30+ JoAnn Piekney years of real estate experience Broker-Owner enables us to successfully serve your

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JULY-AUGUST 1998/FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL 67 POSTCARD FROM ARROAD Kazakstan Baby Blues

BY SUSAN WELSBY

A few months into a two-year mony called korimdik, which is the assignment to Kazakstan, one of closest thing in Kazakstan to a baby the newly independent former Soviet Korimdik is the shower. The infant is given a ritual republics, I became the first bath, dressed in fine attire and shown American dependent at the embassy closest thine: in off to guests bearing gifts of money. to become pregnant. I had just been CJ Only then does the baby come alive hired by Wellstart, a non-profit group Kazakstan to to the family with a USAID contract, to share my Anotiier Kazak tradition is the knowledge of the most up-to-date a baby' shower. use of a decorated wooden cradle methods of breast feeding with called a besik. The besik is made from Kazakstani health care workers, but I a flat bed mounted on rockers and had not expected to become a walk¬ covered by two arched planks paint¬ ing example of what I was preaching. ed with brightly colored flowers or Still, my pregnancy gave me unex¬ other nomadic symbols. Kazak babies pected entree into the lives of them, our neighbor, sturdy, grey¬ spend their first year of life tightly Kazakstani women, who were eager haired Baba Shura, prepared daily swaddled and strapped into tire besik to share their customs with me. My “pregnancy” teas for me from herbs with padded velvet straps. They are first shock was that Kazakstan’s most grown in her private garden. breast fed while immobilized and popular child-care expert is die late Although most women now have even pee through a hole in tire cra¬ American pediatrician Benjamin their children in maternity hospitals, dle’s bed. Spock, whose works have been wide¬ for centuries ethnic Kazak women Although they do not use besiks, ly translated into Russian. Dr. Spock’s gave birth in yurts — the circular tent Russians also swaddle their infants so was the last familiar advice I was to homes of the nomadic culture — tightly that they cannot move. These receive in die ninth largest country in attended exclusively by other women restricted babies appear noticeably the world, though. whose job it was to prepare cereals to calmer than those in tire West, but By tradition, women are in charge help the mother keep up her strength they also have poorer muscle devel¬ of maternity in Kazakstan. First to during labor. In a country where a opment. For that reason alone, when give me unsolicited advice were the majority of obstetricians are women, I returned to Kazakstan after having babushkas, older women who often most Kazaks still consider the mater¬ given birth in London to our daugh¬ override Soviet-style doctors trained nity ward no place for a man. ter, Shona Rose, I never seriously in “strict Moscow protocol.” One of Both Kazaks and Russians, the two considered swaddling her or putting largest ethnic groups in the country her in a besik, although I was tempt¬ Susan Welsby, M.D., the spouse of of 17 million, are cautious about wel¬ ed at times. FSO Craig Kai~p, was a consultant to coming newborns into their families. Instead, the red and yellow flower- Wellstart, a USAID contractor work¬ With an infant mortality rate nearly bedecked besik I bought in an out¬ ing to introduce up-to-date breast drree times that of the United States door market now sits in our feeding methods in Kazakstan from — 27.2 deaths for every' 1,000 chil¬ Washington, D.C. living room, an 1992 to 1994. Shona Rose Welsby- dren under the age of one year — this object of curiosity for guests and a Karp was born in London in makes sense. Kazaks even wait until a reminder of our daughter’s earliest 1992.The stamp is courtesy of the child is 40 days old to introduce the months in a country half-way around AAFSW Bookfair “Stamp Comer. ” baby to family and friends at a cere¬ the world. ■

68 FOREIGN SERVICE J O U RN A L/J U LY-AU GU ST 1998 Ram paging monsters; War, expropriation, nuclear reaction;

Wear, tear, mechanical breakdown;

In some cases, breakage of fragile articles.

en you’re covered by the AFSA ersonal Insurance Plan, these may e the only perils aboutwhichv , . you\ \

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most everything else —marring, enting, chipping, unexplained isappearance, theft, breakage ofv on-fragile articles, conta/fttp&tion, ood, earthquake, mildew — you et the picture. Coverage is available

herever you go outside the U.S., nd always at the same low rates here is no surcharge for hazardous osts. (In fact, for the Personal roperty Floater, it’s the same low ate that has been in effect since

974: 75<£ per $100 of coverage.)

ome to think of it, rampaging For more information and an application, return this form via »m AFSA desk directly for immediate answers to your questions.

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The Alt-New 1998 Dodge Durango

As a member of the Diplomatic Corps, you are eligible for special privileges when you order a vehicle through Chrysler's Diplomatic Purchase Program. They include preferred savings; fast, personalized ordering assistance; and uncompromising service with Chrysler's worry-free worldwide warranty. Perquisites appropriate to your office. Choose from the full line of 1998 Chrysler Corporation products: Chrysler, Plymouth, and Dodge cars and minivans, and Jeep, and Dodge trucks. Phone for personalized service. Your Personal Advisor will order the model, color, and equipment you want and quote the official Diplomatic price, including all applicable rebates. Your Personal Advisor can also arrange delivery anywhere in the U.S. or to most overseas locations. We simply set you free of tedious details. If you prefer, just fill out and mail or telefax the card on Page 11. You will quickly receive a catalogue for the vehicle(s) of your choice. The Diplomatic Purchase Program. It is the easy, money-saving way to start enjoying Chrysler's many advantages. ® CHRYSLER niDI ni\/lATIP C A I EC IN THE U.S.. PHONE YOUR PERSONAL ADVISOR AT 1-800-877-7083 OR (516) 496-1806. U I I LvJ I VIM I I v>/ OMLLO TELEFAX: (516) 677-3701 E-MAIL TO: [email protected] Jeep is a registered trademark of ChrysleChrysler Corporation.