The Foreign Service Journal, April 2012

A P R I L 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 and Mali, among many other Foreign Service assignments. Once confirmed, Amb. White will need to draw on every bit of that ca- reer experience to succeed in her new posting. Recovery from the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake that registered 7.0 on the Richter scale, killed more than 300,000 people and destroyed the lives of thousands of others continues to be painfully slow. At least half a mil- lion Haitians are still living in tempo- rary settlements, according to the International Organization for Migra- tion ( http://reliefweb.int/ ). As if the death toll and damage to infrastructure were not enough, Haiti is also struggling to rebuild political, economic and social institutions hol- lowed out by many decades of social injustice and political turmoil. Accord- ing to a United Nations Development Program study ( www.undp.gov ), thr ee quarters of the population “lives on less than $2 per day, and 56 percent — four and a half million people — live on less than $1 per day.” Michel Martelly, a former musician with the stage name “Sweet Micky,” has been president of Haiti since May 2011. He won office on a platform of jump-starting the country’s recovery and fighting corruption. Despite initial doubts about his abilities, his administration has made real progress. The Inter-American Di- alogue ( www.thedialogue.org ) re - ports that more than half of the 10 million cubic feet of debris from the disaster has been removed, and notes that plans to set up an industrial park in the northeastern part of the island could bring 20,000 jobs. Martelly has had much less success C Y B E R N O T E S WWW.AFSA.ORG When contacting an advertiser, kindly mention the Foreign Service Journal. AFSA Insurance Plans hirshorn.com/afsa AFSA Scholarship http://www.afsa.org/ Scholarships/PlannedGiving.aspx AKA Hotel residences stay-aka.com Arlington Court Suites Arlingtoncourthotel.com Clements Worldwide clements.com Diplomatic automobile DiploSales.com McGrath Real Estate Services McGrathRealEstate.com ProMax promaxrealtors.com SDFCU sdfcu.org Tetratech Tetratech.com Vinson Hall VinsonHall.org WJD wjdpm.com SITE OF THE MONTH: http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/ Although North Korean negotiators reportedly have agreed to suspend uranium enrichment and nuclear tests, global anxiety continues to mount over the possi- bility that Tehran will soon develop its own nuclear capability — or that Israel will launch a pre-emptive strike to head off that possibility. Either scenario could trig- ger widespread conflict and instability. Against that backdrop, it is timely that Alex Wellerstein, a science historian at the American Institute of Physics ( www.aip.org ), rec ently added a new feature to his Nuclear Secrecy blog (http://nuclearsecrecy.com). Ominously called Nukemap , the site prompts viewers to select a location and a bomb size, then illustrates the approximate blast radius and radiation reach when such a weapon is deployed. The program emerged from exercises Wellerstein de- veloped while teaching physics at Harvard University and the Massachusetts In- stitute of Technology. During the site’s first month alone, more than 200,000 unique visitors set off an average of five detonations each. The majority of these “blasts” have taken place in the United States and Western Europe, but a map depicting visitors’ se- lections makes clear that interest in the subject is truly worldwide. Written from a nonpartisan perspective, Nuclear Secrecy analyzes current events related to nuclear weapons, civil defense and related subjects. It also of- fers a trove of historical documents and resources for teachers, students and re- searchers. — Steven Alan Honley, Editor