The Foreign Service Journal, April 2006

that while, in principle, animal wel- fare’s mission must be to stop animal cruelty anywhere, it can also be the best way to protect human liveli- hoods, like those of many refugees and internally displaced persons. We also concurred that the animal wel- fare effort is disjointed and should be organized like the humanitarian relief community, and have better ties to the U.N. Then, on the heels of the Asian tsunami crisis in December 2004, came the World Conference on Disaster Reduction. The U.N. told member nations to spend money on risk reduction measures, such as adopting early-warning systems, strengthening structures and reduc- ing populations in disaster-prone locations, because risk reduction saves far more than rapid response. The same benefit works for animals on farms, in cities or pastoral set- tings. It’s an argument many of us have made for decades. Now WCDR, the tsunami and Hurricane Katrina are seen as giant highway signs saying: do more risk reduction and do it better — protect people and animals. I decided then to go into animal welfare, which really involved just a focus shift. It is a field that is useful, similar to my diplomat- ic work and challenging. Today I work as director of United Nations affairs for WSPA (lroeder @ wspausa.org) . We manage anti-cru- elty projects, work on disasters, pro- tect species and foster a Universal U.N. Declaration on Animal Welfare. Our work also protects human liveli- hoods, reducing poverty and hunger. Now I travel the globe, talking to the disaster and development communi- ties. In other words, even though retired, I am a contented, contribut- ing member of society. Larry W. Roeder Jr. South Riding, Va. utu ECA: AN EXCELLENT WAE OPPORTUNITY I read with interest Roger Dan- kert’s article (“FS Retirees Find a ‘WAE’ Back to the Department,” FSJ , January 2006), but noticed that in his description of “Where WAEs Work” he did not mention the very success- ful work that WAEs have carried out within the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. From June 2001 until September 2004 I worked as a WAE program officer in ECA’s Office of Internation- al Visitors, Europe/Eurasia Branch. It afforded me excellent and steady employment. With my Civil Service colleagues, I helped to prepare pro- grams for the international visitors nominated by our embassies in Europe and in the Central Asian republics. We designed programs to meet embassy goals for individual, small-group and regional groups of A P R I L 2 0 0 6 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 69