The Foreign Service Journal, June 2003

4 AFSA NEWS • JUNE 2003 I speak to all State Department new hires at the luncheons AFSA hosts for them. AFSA President John Naland and I urge them to join AFSA and provide examples of how we help individual members of the Foreign Service as well as the Foreign Service as a whole. I always preface my remarks by explaining that I have been in the Foreign Service for 38 years and have never once doubted that my job was worthwhile and my work a posi- tive contribution tomy country. In short, the ForeignService has providedmewith a great deal of job satisfactionover the years. But I also tell them that comparedwithwhen I started out, Foreign Service life overseas has changed: The world is far more dangerous than it was when I took the oath. The statistics on assignment terms and evacuations bear this conclusion out. We have posts where the assignments are for only one year (Beirut, Kabul, Peshawar, et al.), where no familymembers are allowed (Kabul, Khartoum, Monrovia, et al.) and where only adult family members are allowed (Yemen, Abidjan, et al.). It is clear that many Foreign Service children won’t be seeing a parent at the breakfast table for a year or longer. Shortly after dependents departedAbidjan, I receivedane-mail from a mother with two toddlers who reported that when she talked to her daughters about “Daddy,” they smiled and ran to point at the computer. “Daddy” was an e-mail abstraction to them. Dependents and non-emergency personnel have been authorized to leave China, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore because of SARS. This move was dic- tatedby uncertainty over how the disease is spread and the lackof propermedical care. As of this writing, there is no medevac service that will transport a SARS patient out of China, so our people at those posts have to simply hope not to be infected. Civil unrest promptedordereddeparture of non-emergency personnel anddepen- dents fromCaracas and Abidjan in late 2002, while the threat of terrorist attacks sent non-emergency personnel and all dependents home from Indonesia. Before some posts went on departure status, they first moved to danger pay sta- tus. Tel Aviv and Jerusalem received an extra R&R trip, because suicide bombings prevented families from coming to visit them. Then the threat of Scud attacks from Iraq provoked the departure of all dependents andnon-emergency staff. This pattern was repeated elsewhere. These evacuations have a very unsettling effect on staff and families, especially children who prefer their lives to be routine and predictable. Who knows what threats lurk out there in the future? After all, until March 15, no one had ever heard of SARS. Yet in only one month, it has killed hundreds and sickened thousands, disrupted trade and tourism, thrown hundreds of thousands out of work, seriously damaged economies and separated Foreign Service families. For all those Foreign Service relatives who think Foreign Service life is glamorous, for those critics who assume we all live in London, Paris or Rome, the truth is that FS life is difficult and dangerous. Our families pay a greater price today than mine did 38 years ago for our job satisfaction. ▫ For all those who think Foreign Service life is glamorous, for those critics who assume we all live in London, Paris or Rome, the truth is that FS life is difficult and dangerous. V.P. VOICE: STATE ■ BY LOUISE CRANE The Cost of Job Satisfaction THE GINGRICH BROADSIDE AFSA Stands Up for the Foreign Service BY SHAWN DORMAN A FSAcouldnot remain silent as for- merHouse SpeakerNewtGingrich attacked the StateDepartment and the Foreign Service. In anApril 22 speech to the American Enterprise Institute, Gingrich said, among other things: “One world view is process, politeness and accommodation. The other world view is a world view of facts, values and out- comes. The StateDepartment as an insti- tution and the Foreign Service as a cul- ture clearly represent the former.” He called for a reorganization of the State Department and for abolition of theU.S. Agency for International Development. AFSA issued press releases to all majormedia nationwide containing a let- ter fromAFSAPresident JohnNaland to Gingrich, as well as a letter from the AmericanAcademy of Diplomacy. AFSA delivered copies of both letters to the State Department press corps and to SpokesmanRichard Boucher, who quot- ed Amb. TomBoyatt’s comments in the AAD letter at a noon briefing. In his letter, Naland stated: “You (Mr. Gingrich) have essentially accused (Foreign Service) employees of treason; of betraying the trust their government has placed in them; of betraying the oath they took. In your speech to the AmericanEnterprise Institute onApril 22, 2003, you enumerated supposed instances of these employees’ betrayal, saying they threaten to undermine the president’s AFSA’s response to the Gingrich speech was quoted in the press, including the Chicago Tribune , the Los Angeles Times, Reuters and AFP.