PETA in Togo

Jim & friends,

I am so glad you brought up PETA because it remnds me of a story here that I otherwise might not have remembered to tell. In the village/town in which I used to live, Notse, I worked with a nice and sensitive man named Sylvan for an AIDS-awareness and cultural preservation youth group as well as his orphan-support NGO.

Sylvan had a regular job at the prefect's (local mayor, sort of) office and also had a peanut field which he cultivated himself and got single mothers to help harvest and they could keep half of what they harvested. He is a good and thoughtful man, anxious to help those less fortunate than he. He is also much more broad-minded than most Togolese I have had the pleasure to meet.

One day I invited Sylvan over for lunch -- a stew with rice, ginger, cabbage, carrots, and. . . chicken. Sylvan informed me that he was a vegetarian. I started laughing. First of all, I was blown away that he would even know that people in world WERE vegetarians, and secondly (and most importantly), this in a country where most people don't ever even SEE meat, and not for religious or moral reasons, but because they simply can not afford it. The diet consists of completely empty carbs in the form of a manioc-type tuber and cooked down okra and lots and lots of spicy peppers.

I asked Sylvan why in the world he would even dream of becoming a vegetarian. Well, somehow, somewhere he had watched a PETA DVD explaining the horrific process of animal farming and butchering -- in the western world. Here (and probably in a majority of the rest of the world), ALL chickens, goats, sheep, and cows are "free-range". Even in the capitol. Goats and chickens and sheep wander the streets. Somehow they know to which compund to return at night and all people know which animal belongs to whom. When it comes time for an animal to be killed, it is done with ceremony and a blood offering is given to the ancestors in the ground. I have killed chickens and pintades myself -- it is the only way to get fresh meat.

Even the smallest child knows the animal that dinner came from (not that a child would ever get meat anyway, or women either, for that matter) and that child probably also gutted, plucked, etc. happily fighting over the feet or some other delicacy.

I explained to Sylvan that in the West people buy their meat in plastic packages in the grocery store. No one has any contact or hand in the raising of that animal, and certainly not in the killing of it. It is not respected as a life-form, it is simply a commodity you pick up at the store when you stop in to grab your Lucky Charms.

Sylvan was not a wealthy or frivolous man. Honestly, though a full-grown man and strong, he needed the protein. Yeah, he ate his peanuts, but people here that aren't eating meat aren't exactly up to date on getting the right proportion of legumes and rice or whatever to make up the missing protein. I convinced him to drop the silly vegetarianism idea and if he was really concerned about his soul regarding animal treatment he should get people to stop throwing stones at dogs and start a rabies vaccination and spay and neuter campaign.

In summation, animal welfare concern with regard to killing for consumption and sacrifice is just plain silly here. When an animal is sacrificed, it is quickly killed with an expert slash across the throat and it's departing spirit is asked to send a message to the ancestors. It is thanked for it's assistance and for the sustenance it will soon provide. A sacrificed animal is eaten, whether by the preist conducting the sacrifice or by the person requesting the sacrifice.

I know in the United States and other little pockets of the western world where there are still vestiges of voodoo, organizations like PETA cry foul about animal cruelty, but in all honesty, to sacrifice an animal and then eat it is much less cruel than buying a chicken breast in the store.

All that being said, I am a carnivore. I eat foie gras and veal and lamb and sweetbreads and every other politically incorrect meat that has the poor judgement to wander my way.

I hope this message didn't come off as being aggressive, but I thought the Sylvan/PETA story was germane. I thought it truly was one of the most hilarious things I had ever heard here. And as for how that video even GOT here. . .

This was taken 4th of July 2007, a month after arriving in country. We made fried chicken for our celebration.

Killing the chicken for the 4th of July

"Free-range" sheep in NotseGratuitous picture of doing the hokey-pokey with kids in Badou

To Voodoo or not to Voodoo. . .

So I have been considering going to a feticheur and paying for a voodoo ceremony and a chicken to sacrifice, etc. etc. to give me a better chance to pass the Orals and beyond. I figure you only live in Togo once (OK, maybe not. I feel like I have been reincarnated here like 8 times already) and it will make a good story later on in life. I love learning about voodoo, so I figure I ought to put my money where my mouth is, you know?
The only concern is: once you do a ceremony and make a sacrifice, are you further beholden to the voodoo gods and therefore vulnerable in the future or can you go on your merry way?
Thoughts?

The Ocean Bards

I got an update from Dr. Hahn, my former English professor at Towson. I helped him on a book (click the link to go to the publisher's page) when I went back to school and it is published! I'm in the acknowledgments and if anyone ever has any questions on British Naval poetry in the Napoleonic era then I am your girl:)

New York Times Article

Will post later about the rest of South Africa and life in general, but found a new article on the Foreign Service. I hope this bodes well for my Orals in March. . .

December 21, 2008
Hiring Window Is Open at the Foreign Service
By EILENE ZIMMERMAN
A RARE bright spot has appeared in a job landscape dominated by layoffs: the Foreign Service.
For the last several years, hiring in the United States Foreign Service was minimal because of a lack of Congressional funding. In addition, war has created an urgent need for diplomatic personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as officers have moved to these countries their previous jobs have remained unfilled.
So, in the last several months — with a new president on the horizon and new funding from Congress — both the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development, or Usaid, are ramping back up.
A supplemental war funding bill, which became law in June, has provided money for Foreign Service hiring. And President-elect Barack Obama “has talked explicitly about the need to increase the Foreign Service and we hope he will make that a priority,” said John Naland, president of the American Foreign Service Association, the professional association and labor union representing career diplomats.
The State Department has asked for funding for 1,500 new positions for the current fiscal year. Of these, roughly 800 are Foreign Service and 700 civil service, said Luis Arreaga, director of recruitment, examination and employment at the department. Many of those positions are being filled because of attrition but about 160 are new. "We consider that a down payment,” said Mr. Arreaga.
Felix Salazar, hired as a junior officer by the State Department in September, said that during the interview process he felt “a sense of urgency, that they were actively hiring and really valued my experience.” Mr. Salazar, who spent three years in the Peace Corps, leaves in February for his first posting, in South Africa.
Not everyone is cut out for Foreign Service work, which can be stressful and highly demanding. About two-thirds of a diplomat’s career is spent overseas; officers usually move every two to four years and can be exposed to dangers like disease and war. The State Department offers a suitability quiz for prospective applicants on its Web site.
Yet career diplomats like Ronald E. Neumann, a former ambassador to Afghanistan who now heads the American Academy of Diplomacy, called it the best job in the world. “I enjoy what I’m doing now but it’s nothing like working on foreign policy,” he said. “In my 37 years of service I may have gone home tired or frustrated with how a decision came out, but I never went home and asked myself if what I was working on was worthwhile.”
Applying for a job with the State Department involves written and oral examinations. Those who pass the oral exam become conditional officers and receive a ranking score based on oral-exam performance and language skills. The higher the rank, the sooner they will be assigned.
Of the 12,000 to 15,000 people who register annually for the written exam, about 450 officers are hired, said Frank J. Coulter, management officer with the Foreign Service and a member of the State Department’s board of examiners.
The first time he took the written exam, Mr. Salazar failed, after running out of time during the essay portion. He was so determined to pass that he spent the next year writing an essay in 30 minutes every day. “When I took it the second time and got my results, it actually sent chills down my spine,” he said.
New Foreign Service officers at the State Department choose one of five career tracks: consular affairs, economic affairs, management affairs, political affairs or public diplomacy. No matter the track, all entry-level officers spend their first several years working in a consulate, interviewing applicants for United States visas and working with American citizens who need their help.
The State Department also hires Foreign Service specialists, who provide technical, security and administrative support overseas or in Washington. Specialists must pass an oral assessment but not a written exam, and start in a specialty like medicine, information technology or law enforcement, Mr. Coulter said. All newly hired officers and specialists are trained at the Foreign Service Institute in Washington.
Each of the first two postings overseas last two years; after that, it is generally a three-year posting in each country. One-year hardship postings — in a region too dangerous to allow an officer’s spouse and children to accompany him or her — are required at least twice in the course of a career. After two assignments, Foreign Service personnel can bid on postings — requesting particular countries or Washington — but everyone is expected to serve in a variety of assignments, Mr. Arreaga said.
Usaid’s entry-level Foreign Service officers must have a master’s degree in an appropriate technical area, like economics, agriculture, public health or education. The average Usaid entry-level officer has four years of relevant experience; many come from the Peace Corps, but others have worked for nongovernmental organizations, in private industry or the military.
Thousands apply to Usaid each year and about 1 in 20 will be called for an interview, said Susan Riley, Usaid’s chief of Foreign Service personnel.
Foreign Service officers with Usaid work on a range of projects, like assisting farmers in developing countries or working in programs to reduce the prevalence of diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
Last year, the agency kicked off its Development Leadership Initiative, a recruitment effort to hire more than 1,000 Foreign Service officers in the next two years. “This is the most that we’ve planned to hire above attrition in 15 years,” Ms. Riley said.
THE base salary for entry-level Foreign Service officers ranges from about $40,000 to $72,000 annually, but compensation can increase depending on the danger level of the posting and on a region’s cost of living.
For Foreign Service specialists, the salary range is anywhere from about $26,500 to more than $100,000; for civil service employees at Usaid, the salary ranges from $16,500 to over $100,000. Overseas benefits include housing and private school for dependent children.
Many of those choosing Foreign Service work do so out of a dedication to public service and see it as not just a career, but also a way of life.
Salman Khalil, hired in May, took a 50 percent cut in take-home pay to join the Foreign Service after a decade in the I.T. industry. Any day now he will leave for his first assignment, in India. “In my I.T. profession I was helping big companies make more money and it wasn’t satisfying for me,” he said. “What I wanted to do was serve in a capacity where I could directly help people.”
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: December 28, 2008 An article last Sunday about renewed hiring in the Foreign Service referred incompletely to one of five career tracks that new Foreign Service officers at the State Department can choose. It is public diplomacy — which involves working with the media and foreign audiences to promote understanding — not diplomacy.

More SA

After 5 days in Jo'burg, we are getting ready to head to Cape Town. Jo'burg is an interesting place -- the entire downtown is, for intents and purposes, completely depopulated. All major businesses, hotels, and homes have been abandoned. As in the Ritz just shuttered and chained their doors and simply left. It is quite weird. We kept asking people where was a cool neighborhood to walk around and hang out and they just kept looking at us like we were speaking a foriegn language. The population lives in high security suburbs, completely segregated. There is really no where to walk around and you don't see many people on the street. We stayed about a block away from a cool block that was walkable with great bars and restaurants. We later learned that was practically the only place in the suburbs like it. . . We were watching TV one evening and stumbled upon a show about the block we were staying on -- in Afrikaans. Kind of like Melrose Place in Jo'burg.
Yesterday we went on an amazing safari and saw a huge selection of birds and mammals. Cheetah, giraffe, lions, hippos, sacred ibis, bee-eaters, swallows, marabou stork, african fish eagle, snake eating eagle, zebras, warthog family, blue wildebeest, impalas, waterbuck, kudu, etc. It was lovely.
Getting on the train today for a peaceful 2 day journey across the country to end at the sea-side.
New Year's will be on the beach in Ghana with hopes that we will be able to cross the border back into Togo. Ghana is having a run-off presidential election on the 28th and likes to close the borders. Oopsie!
Happy holidays and much love to all. We are happy to be here, but sad to be away from our families.

South Africa!

Safely in SA after what might possibly have been the most painful flight of my life. Do NOT crank up the air conditioning on a plane full of tired people who have been living on the equator for two years. Got to Joburg - we are staying in a cute B&B in an adorable neighborhood called Melville. Kind of like Fells Point, actually. Going to the MALL today! Apartheid museum is closed. . . A weird casino tonight (modeled after a Tuscan village -- should be interesting). We are going to do a safari on my birthday then board a fancy old-fashioned train on Christmas to go to Cape Town. The train traverses most of the country so apparently we can see ostriches and springbok, etc. from the window while eating ostrich steak and drinking good South African wine. I am soooo excited. The climate is lovely, cool in the mornings, hot in the afternoon, cool again in the evenings - NO humidity!
Hopefully I can get a hold of Kevin's camera and post some pictures soon.
Until then, cheers, happy holidays & I love and miss you!

IHT article

U.S. Foreign Service revamps its test for job applicants
By Tamar Lewin
Sunday, December 17, 2006
NEW YORK: The path to the U.S. Foreign Service has always been straight and narrow: The first step is the written test, perhaps the nation's leading smarty-pants exam. Since 1932, hundreds of thousands of applicants have grappled with a half-day of questions on geography, English usage, history, math, economics, culture and more.
"It's like being on a golf course," said Justin Norton, a 26-year-old who flunked the test this year and last, but wants to take it again.
"You've got all the sand traps, the water hazards. I remember I didn't understand the question about economies of scale. I remember something about Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance.
"And sometimes even when I knew it, like a question about George Kennan and containment policy, I got it wrong anyway."
It is not an easy exam to study for. The State Department suggests reading a good daily newspaper for a year. There are prep books, and at places with lots of applicants, like the Fletcher School at Tufts University, maybe even a study group. But mostly, people prepare on their own, looking through a world atlas, the Constitution or the word problems they did on the SAT.
Still, the exam gets rid of most applicants. More than three-quarters of the 17,000 to 20,000 who take the exam each year flunk.
The test is more about breadth than depth. So for a question about Etruscan vases, the applicant might need to know that the Etruscans preceded the Romans in Italy, but nothing more.
Those who pass the exam go on to an oral interview, where they are hammered with questions and situations by several Foreign Service officers, and the best performer gets the job.
But now, the State Department wants to try a new approach, a bit less quantifiable. At the suggestion of McKinsey & Co., the management consultants, it plans to revamp the process to evaluate what it calls "the Total Candidate," The Washington Post disclosed last week. The written exam will stay largely the same, although streamlined and given by computer, instead of bubble sheet and bluebook. Online, the exam will be given more often, to speed the recruitment process, one of the State Department's main goals.
As applicants register for the exam, they will submit an online "structured r�sum�" describing their work experience, foreign residence, leadership experience and language abilities, among other things. Then, on the basis of the test results and r�sum�, a screening committee will decide who goes on to the oral assessment.
Some Foreign Service officers, past and present, have applauded the new approach.
"Testing people on their general knowledge, their ability to parse questions, is a poor standard for bringing people into the Foreign Service," said Mark Van Fleet, who was posted in Thailand for five years.
"You get people who are well educated, and understand the relationship of inflation and interest rates. But the test doesn't measure more important things, like good judgment," Van Fleet said.
But the change raises concerns. Some worry that adding more nonquantitative factors could open the door to political considerations, or applicants with family connections. (Note to State Department: To understand the possible complications, talk to the admissions officers at Harvard or Princeton.)
Anthony Holmes, president of the American Foreign Service Association, said he was not worried, because the factors to be considered are things like foreign experience and language ability.
"Whether you gave to a political party is not in the paradigm," Holmes said.
Others, though, are troubled by the proposed revamping, given that the Foreign Service is already so prestigious and so competitive.
"Since it's working really quite well, why make such a major change?" said Robert Gelbard, a former ambassador to Indonesia. "I have great confidence in Condoleezza Rice, but what about the law of unintended consequences? Who knows whether, some years down the road, political factors could creep in?"
And will the Foreign Service be dumbed down, given that adding factors will mean that some candidates could qualify with lower scores?
Not to worry, said Marianne Myles, director of the State Department's office of recruitment, examination and employment. There will still be a failing score, and the passing score won't drop all that much.
"The population that applies is so large - and so many of them are so qualified and smart and capable and have so many skills and abilities - that we can't take them all," she said. "Rather than sorting by one criterion, we're going to use more factors. But the very small percentage we take will still be the smartest, most qualified people representing America."
Notes:

Copyright © 2008 The International Herald Tribune www.iht.com