It is necessary for the United States to support the Peace Corp financially. The Peace Corp supports many different countries that have been poverty-stricken. According to the Peace Corp, “In 1961, the first Peace Corp volunteers accepted assignments to serve in six countries. Since then, nearly 210,000+ men and women have served in 139 countries” (Coverdell). Most people know that the Peace Corp does many good things and makes an impact on many different people in different countries. Most people don’t realize all of the good things that the Peace Corp does for the volunteers. Volunteers get many benefits, travel to and from the countries they will be serving, spending money while they are serving and many get their students loans forgiven. …show more content…
The Peace Corp was founded on October 14, 1960 by the then Senator John F. Kennedy. As Kennedy spoke in front of a crowd of 10,000 Michigan University students he asked the students, “How many of you, who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your day in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world?” (John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum). The crowd then signed a petition with 1,000 students who were willing to volunteer and serve abroad. The Senator Kennedy’s speech inspiring these students soon turned into the Peace Corp. Just two weeks later during Kennedys speech in San Francisco on November 2, 1960, he proposed “a peace corp of talented men and women.” The Peace Corp was an outcome of the Cold War.
According to Seymour M. Hersh in his book The Dark Side of Camelot, “In early 1964 Frank Mankiewicz, then working for the Peace Corp, was ordered by his superiors to discuss the pending War on Poverty with the attorney general, who had championed the legislation. “I must say,” Mankiewicz told me in a 1994 interview, “I have never been as appalled at the sight of a human being since seeing a concentration camp as a nineteen-year-old infantryman. He was so wasted, like he disappeared into his shirt” (Hersh, 455). President Kennedy told the Soviet Union that there were “hundreds of men and women, scientists, physicists, teachers, engineers, doctors and nurses… prepared to spend their lives abroad in the service of world communism.” According to Christopher Mathews in his book, Kennedy and Nixon, “To improve the third world in its daily life, he created the Peace Corp” (Mathews, 194). Before president Kennedy was voted into office, the United States did not have a program like the Peace Corp. Just a few days after President Kennedy took office, he asked his brother in law, R. Sargent Shriver, to lead a Peace Corp force. He led the group and that then quickly molded the organization of the Peace Corp. After about a month of debate among members, Shriver outlined a seven-step program for entering the Peace …show more content…
Corp. The Peace Corp was established on March 1, 1961.
Shriver was asked by President Kennedy to lead the organization and he reluctantly agreed to do so. On Shriver’s first trip abroad as a director, he received invitations from leaders in India, Ghana, and Burma to send Peace Corp volunteers into their country. The first countries to participate with the organization were Tanganyika and Ghana. The Peace Corp was approved as a permanent federal agency within the state department by congress. Kennedy signed the legislation on September 22, 1961 and the Peace Corp was made an independent
agency. To be able to participate with the Peace Corp, a country must meet three requirements: the country must invite the Peace Corp, the Peace Corp has to decide which countries it can be active in and prioritizes each countries needs, and lastly the Peace Corp volunteers must be kept safe in that country. The Peace Corp is always adapting to different times but has always kept three goals and rules: To help the people of interested countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained workers, help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served, and to help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans. Because of Kennedy, the Peace Corp has helped many different peoples and has made a global impact. There are currently more than 215,000 volunteers in the Peace Corp (Coverdell). One of the many things Peace Corp volunteers help with is food. They teach people in developing countries different practices with growing food and food security. Peace Corp members have and continue to make drastic changes to how local people in these countries grow and process food. Peace Corp also helps with HIV/AIDS risk reduction in developing countries. The Peace Corp partners with PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief). The PEPFAR provides assistance to countries that are largely affected by HIV/AIDS. Currently Peace Corp trains volunteers to serve in Africa, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. The volunteers educate the locals to prevent and care for this disease. The Peace Corps’ organization “Stomp Out Malaria in Africa” trains and sends out more than 3,000 Peace Corp volunteers all across Africa to help with Malaria treatment and prevention. Peace Corp specially trained volunteers and “Malaria No More” work together to make a lasting impact on the worlds fight against Malaria. Peace Corp volunteers regularly empower women, men and children to look past traditional gender roles and promote self-confidence. The volunteers promote equality for genders. Volunteers often times organize camps for the locals. One of the camps is called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). Although GLOW is the main camp, there are other camps that are set up that are similar to GLOW. Since 1995 volunteers in 60 countries have set up and worked at GLOW camps to help young women everywhere and empower them to grow to be strong and independent. Although there are many different things that volunteers of the Peace Corp can do, most of the volunteers fall under one of the six categories. These categories are, agriculture, youth in development, environment, community economic development, health, and education. Five percent of volunteers work in agriculture, seven percent in youth in development, twelve percent in environment, eleven percent in community economic development, twenty-two percent in health and forty percent in education. Peace Corp volunteers have a lot to say about how the Peace Corp operates and the good they do (Roston). Jonathan Halpern, Peace Corp volunteer, served in Kazakhstan from August 2010-December 2011. Halpern was living in a village in Kazakhstan full time and was teaching English. Halpern says, “…Peace Corp took care of us. Their medical and safety services were top notch. Peace Corp really got us in there. We were in a place of true need. I can say that Peace Corps provided volunteers with a true opportunity, and I took it.” Wendy Lee served in Cameroon June 2008-July 2010. Lee says, “I can’t speak with one hundred percent certainty that any project that I undertook changed lives. But I am one hundred percent certain that my Peace Corp service shaped me into a better global citizen.” While in Cameroon, Lee lived on an income very similar to the locals. This forced her to also live like the locals; she was forced to take crowded buses instead of hiring a driver, to eat local food instead of westernized restaurants, and to experience life without electricity or running water. Lee said, “Decisions made by business executives, policy makers, project managers, etc. worldwide could all benefit from this greater level of cultural sensitivity. After all, understanding local needs and building trust are key steps in creating solutions to meet them. This approach to culture is the most valuable asset that the Peace Corp can provide, both as a means of forging global citizens and informing global decision making, and I believe the agency should emphasize it more when promoting its role in American life.” Johanna Boyle, a Peace Corp volunteer, says in her interview, “we were told to not have any expectations. I took that to mean “Don't be disappointed when you're living in the mountains by yourself and freezing.” Instead, I'm living in a city that's bigger than Marquette. I have a site mate (another American volunteer). I have WIFI Internet in my apartment. The kids I work with all have cell phones and Facebook accounts. But none of those things mean that my work here isn't worthwhile (Boyle).” It is very obvious that the volunteers help those in poverty but what some people do not know is volunteers themselves get help also (Coverdell). Certain student loans may be eligible to be forgiven for the volunteers. Volunteers also get an allowance of more than $8,000 when their service is done, to help with readjustment. The volunteers get language training to help with the country they are going into. They get travel to and from the country they are serving. They also receive a monthly living and housing allowance including medical and dental care. The volunteers also get forty-eight paid vacation days to visit family members. The benefits mentioned are only a few of many benefits that the volunteers receive. Although it is very clear that the Peace Corp has done and continues to do many good things for poverty stricken countries and for volunteers, still some disagree with the Peace Corp. One of the biggest reasons some people believe that the Peace Corp should not be supported is because of the cost. Although the Peace Corps’ funding is from US citizens taxes, the amount taken from the taxes is very small and most times goes unnoticed (Blumhorst). “It is absolutely correct that we should be concerned about the deficit. It is also correct that the impact Peace Corps funding has on our national debt is almost not worth considering because it is so miniscule (Blumhorst).” The importance of the Peace Corp is very obvious. The Peace Corp does good things in both developing countries that are in poverty, but also those living in America who volunteer their time and resources to serve in the Peace Corp. The financial aspect of the Peace Corp has little to no affect on the average American income but can have an outstanding impact on those living in developing, poverty stricken countries. The Peace Corp was put into place by president Kennedy and has and continues to benefit many people and has yet to show a reason for the Peace Corp to no longer exist. The benefits that the Peace Corp has on millions of people is a clear sign that the US should continue to support the Peace Corp for many years to come.
With the Cold War in full swing when he stepped into office, President Kennedy had no choice but to turn to Cold War ideology when determining the country’s foreign policy. For example, the Peace Corps, which “…sent young Americans abroad to aid in the economic and educational progress of developing countries” (Foner 969) was spawned out of the desperation to improve the global image of America. When President Kennedy took office in 1961, the United States’ image was still subpar to that of other nations. The Cold War ideology obsessed over making the United States the image of freedom and conveyer of lifestyle ideals, and Kennedy’s Peace Corps aimed to show the rest of the world that Americans cared deeply about the success of other countries. Through the Kennedy Administration, the United States also showed that they cared for other countries, in an effort to improve their global image and spread their ideals of freedom, through the Alliance for Progress. Much like the Marshall Plan, the Alliance for Progress provided sums of money to economically support Latin American countries. Kennedy claimed that the program would promote “…‘political’ and ‘material freedom’” (Foner 970), with the hopes of diminishing the appeal communism could have on the countries. In addition to aiming to improve the United States’ image, some of Kennedy’s foreign policy had roots in the Cold War ideology of containment. As tensions with Cuba began to rise after Fidel Castro took over the government, Kennedy sought for ways to eliminate Castro’s control in order to contain his revolution’s influence. Most notorious, the Bay of Pigs disaster was a U.S.-planned...
Construction of The Peace Bridge in Buffalo New York What can construction do for an area? The construction of an office building may bring in a firm, corporation, or company. The construction of a sporting arena may keep a team where it currently is, or bring a new team to that area. For example, the construction of the HSBC Arena kept the Sabres in Buffalo. The construction of a casino may bring in tourists, or people who live in the outlying suburbs.
In the end, Kennedy urges American citizens to help out in any way they can. Even though Kennedy does use pathos and ethos more than logos, it is the combination of all three that make his argument that Americans should fight for freedom, help the poverty-stricken, and create peace with communist countries effective. Kennedy feels that the way to help free societies stay free is to help out the poor. When Kennedy is talking about helping out the poor, he states that we should do it “not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes but because it is right” (Kennedy 1).
helping thousands of people who are incapable of this power. Canada has been a leader
"The Peace Corps Honors President John F. Kennedy's Legacy on the 50th Anniversary of His Death." Peace Corps. US Government, 22 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2013. .
When Lest B. Pearson created peacekeeping in 1956, it was a way to ease the tensions between the Middle east in response to the Suez Canal crisis. Canada got quickly involved in this mission and became one of the first peacekeepers. This paper will analyze the concept of peacekeeping, review the history of peacekeeping in Canada, determine whether or not Canada can still be considered a peacekeeping country. This paper will be divided into four sections in an attempt to determine whether or not the country can still be considered a peacekeeper.
There have been some religions (ones such as Islam and Christianity) that could have once defended war in a time where defense of their own was all that mattered; however, there are other religions (ones such as Taoism and Buddhism) that have chastised and disapproved the very idea of war at all accounts possible. This is because each different view on war by any religion matters on the type of beliefs and rules it follow, and it these various religious views on war I have come across through the documents given that I will discuss throughout this essay:
Volunteering for a poverty program, policy group, or community service organization is an experience that will educate oneself and endure an involvement with those who may be in need of assistance for a period of time. When deciding where I wanted to do my volunteer experience for the class I wanted to make sure that I found experience that I would learn from. There were a variety of places that I could choose from that were in the area. For my experience I chose to volunteer at a salvation army in my hometown Springfield, Oh. This is an organizational group that provides services to those who are poor in a variety of ways. The Salvation Army is an organization that has several different branches in various locations. This branch helps in a variety of ways by having summer camps for children, social service programs that offer assistance with topics such as bills, food, clothing, furniture and a variety of other resources. They also provide several different opportunities around Christmas to help with the different assistant groups that they have available.
The United States of America has a long history of trying to provide support and benefits for the men (and recently women) who have fought for the country dating back to the Colonial War time in 1636. The Pilgrims passed a law saying the colony would care for the disabled soldiers who fought against Native Americans (U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, 2015b). During this time, it was customary for veterans to receive pensions for their service during war-time. This effort was made to prevent desertions and to encourage more men to enlist. Another effort the U.S. government made was to offer public land free to men who fought in the war due to only 3,000 men drawing on the pensions offered during the Revolutionary
People’s lives are changed every day by their actions and experiences. This past summer, I participated in a community service project, an experience that opened my eyes in many ways. I was a volunteer at the County Memorial Hospital. In my time as a volunteer at the hospital, I was able to meet patients and staff members from all over the world and learn about their life experiences. Listening to all of their stories has made me truly appreciate everything which I have.
When the Declaration of Independence was signed July 4th, 1776, the United States of America was born. From then on, things have never been the same. For example, the country was no longer under the control of Great Britain; we became our own democracy away from monarchy rule of Great Britain. One policy of America that has changed dramatically over the past 200 years, and will continue to change in the coming years, is foreign policy. The idea of foreign policy has gone from the Roosevelt Corollary to the Truman Doctrine, to the Domino Theory, just in the 20th century.
To understand the power struggle relating to foreign policymaking, it is crucial to understand what foreign policy entails. The Foreign Policy Agenda of the U.S. Department of State declares the goals of foreign policy as "to build and sustain a more democratic, secure, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community." While this definition is quite vague, the actual tools of foreign policy include Diplomacy, foreign aid, and military force.
Conflict theory are perspective in sociology psychology that accentuate the social, political, or material inequality of a social group, that analysis the broad socio-political system, or that weaken from structural functionalism and ideological conservatism. With conflict theory, you will see tensions, status, and power are unevenly distributed between groups in society, which these conflicts become the purpose of social change. Conflict theory usually arise due to competition and limited resource that is feed by domination and power, rather than consensus and conformity. This is seen a lot on macro level. As a social worker, you will see and use conflict theory throughout your professional.
A war crime is an unjust act of violence in which a military personnel violates the laws and acceptable behaviors of a war. Despite all the violence in a war, a soldier shooting another is not considered a war crime because it is not a violation to the laws and practices of a war, and it is considered just. A war crime is defined as a “violations [violation] of the laws and customs of war” (“War Crimes”), and are attacks “against civilian populations, prisoners of war, or in some cases enemy soldiers in the field” (Friedman). War crimes are typically committed with weapons or by uncommon, cruel, devastating military methods and are “…Committed primarily by military personnel” (Friedman). There are many different types of war crimes one can commit, including “murder, ill treatment…murder or ill treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages or devastation not justified by military necessity” (Friedman). Originally constructed as international law by the London Charter on August 8th, 1945 and further developed by the Hague Conventions of 1899, 1907 and the Nuremberg trials, war crimes are aggressive, unacceptable and unjust actions performed by military workforce that occur during a war.
Fifty-one countries established the United Nations also known as the UN on October 24, 1945 with the intentions of preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security. Over the years the UN has grown in numbers to include 185 countries, thus making the organization and its family of agencies the largest in an effort to promote world stability. Since 1954 the UN and its organizations have received the Nobel Peace Prize on 5 separate occasions. The first in 1954 awarded to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva, for its assistance to refugees, and finally in 1988 to the United Nations Peace-keeping Forces, for its peace-keeping operations. As you can see, the United Nations efforts have not gone without notice.