Peace Corps on TV

In the last day I have uncovered 3 different instances of Peace Corps issues being aired on TV. Unfortunately I can't watch them, but you guys should check them out.

The first two are ABC 20/20 investigations into two different peace corps issues.

Here is a clip of an investigation into the murder of PCV Kate Puzey, which happened in Benin a few years ago. Apparently part of the investigation is into the Peace Corps itself, where apparently the agency did not take enough preemptive measures in dealing with Kate's situation.

Here is another investigation into the mishandlings of Peace Corps when dealing with issues of rape and sexual assault. This has been a hot spot issue in Peace Corps South Africa due to a number of incidents in recent years. I have heard first hand from volunteers in this position of how bad Peace Corps handles issues of rape and assault, and the "blaming the victim" stance is usually taken. Even during our 2 months of training, when the question of rape would be brought up, often the only respone from Peace Corps staff was preaching about what we should and should not do in order to keep ourselves out of situation where this could happen. While this is to a certain extent true, of course there are many situations where this occurs and it was entirely out of the hands of the PCV. Just an unfortunate case of wrong time/wrong place. What anger me is that we were not given any sort of self-defence class (it's against some policy), which I think could be one of the most helpful things Peace Corps could equip us with to be able to get out of these situations. I think there absolutely needs to be a change in policy regarding how staff deal with these issues, especially in a country where the extraordinarily high rape statistics can not be ignored....

Lastly, Peace Corps now has a commercial! This was the only one I was able to watch. I think it's kinda cute, and really who DOESN'T like recieving a public thank-you from Susan Sarandon. This guy does seem like a typical narcissistic PCV who really really wants to tell everyone who will listen about all of the amazing things he did in Africa. A cute (if not cheesy?) commercial though. Woohoo Peace Corps... happy 50th!