In the Internet age, the world feels far smaller than it used to. But many Americans still know little about the rest of the world and may be more detached from it than ever. Such a lack of awareness is, in certain respects, understandable. Once the Cold War ended, some 25 years ago, Congress, perhaps out of a false sense of security, cut the foreign affairs budget, which led to the closing of some U.S. overseas posts. The news media, especially the commercial television networks, took their cue and began to reduce overseas coverage—responding, they said, to the decline of public interest in such matters, which conveniently coincided with their own economic woes. Although the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq stimulated renewed attention to international events, that phenomenon proved short-lived. Consequently, as new global challenges have arisen in recent years, American discourse on world affairs has lacked historical context or deeper understanding. It has become difficult to stir […]
Sunday, April 10th, 2016
The Study-Abroad Solution: How to Open the American Mind
Author: Sanford J. Ungar
Source: Foreign Affairs
Publication Date: March/April 2016 Issue
Link: The Study-Abroad Solution: How to Open the American Mind
Source: Foreign Affairs
Publication Date: March/April 2016 Issue
Link: The Study-Abroad Solution: How to Open the American Mind
Stephan: I was living in Georgetown, working for National Geographic, and hearing at cocktail parties from White House staffers my age about this extraordinary thing that was about to happen. It was going to be called The Peace Corps. On the 1st of March 1961 President Kennedy signed the act creating The Peace Corps and the next day he went on national television to tell the world about it. Today it is hard to realize the incredible energy around this event, and the idea it represented. We were making progress in America. The world was getting better. And for the 220,000 Americans who have volunteered for the Peace Corp since then, and served in 140 countries, it was a life changing experience. Any veteran will tell you this.
The Peace Corps is now, and has been from its inception a living example of the 8 Laws, and it has done more to advance respect and affection for America than any drone strike.
Today although it continues its work we hardly hear of the Peace Corps. Media doesn't cover it; and American geo-politicians in office, think tank, and university blinded by the greed of the great War Industry, have failed to learn its lesson: encouraging exchanges such as college in a country other than your own, increases social wellness, and that means peace, at every level.
Wellness strategies are cheaper, more efficient, more life-affirming, more effective, and more enduring. And we know how to do them, wellness extending up from the individual, to the family, to the community, to the region, to the nation, to the planet is attainable. It is not a myth, and here is an excellent essay on one example of what I mean.
Just as written in the article about intel infiltration in skin care production, I remember having read (quite some time ago) that the same is the case with the Peace Corps.
Do you know anything about that, Stephan?