The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2014

12 JULY-AUGUST 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL O n May 16, 2004, in a ceremony at the Liberty Bell, ONE was born. The nongovernmental organization has brought together American, European and African activists, students and faith leaders, musicians, sports stars and politicians from left, right and center. Now four million strong, ONE members continue to believe that one person, coming together with many others, can change the world. To celebrate its tenth anniversary, the ONE campaign has created 10 Years Together, an interactive timeline that combines images, video and text documenting the organization’s first decade of activism. The production, available on ONE’ s homepage, moves from Nelson Man- dela’s landmark 2005 “Make Poverty History” speech in London’s Trafalgar Square to the 2014 music video, “Cocoa na Chocolate,” which features 19 of Africa’s top recording artists urging their leaders to invest in agriculture. The timeline features an exclusive animated film by award-winning artists Oliver Jeffers and Mac Premo, highlighting the fact that the number of people who live in extreme poverty worldwide has been cut in half over the past two decades. If current trends continue, the world could see the end of extreme poverty by 2030. (Last year, singer and activist Bono outlined the road to that objective in a TED talk, highlights of which are on the “10 Years Together” site.) Michael Elliott, president and chief executive officer of ONE, says: “In our first decade, ONE has brought together millions of activists around the world committed to the belief that where you live shouldn’t determine whether you live. We are proud that our advocacy has played a part in the collective progress that has been made over the years— from cutting malaria deaths in half in 13 countries in Africa to increasing the number of people globally on lifesaving HIV/AIDS medications from 300,000 in 2002 to nearly 10 million today. Working with partners from all over the world, we have proved that together we are so much stronger than the sum of our parts.” —Steven Alan Honley, Contributing Editor SITE OF THE MONTH: www.one.org macy Alumni Association is a volunteer, nonprofit membership organization that is open to all current and former State Department and U.S. Information Agency employees, as well as broadcasting and other public diplomacy professionals from the public, academic and private sectors. PDAA’s mission is to foster under- standing, recognition of and support for public diplomacy through educational and social activities. For more information about the awards ceremony and PDAA‘s activities, please visit www.publicdiplomacy.org . You’ll also find a complete list of PDAA Alumni Association award winners since 1993 there. — Steven Alan Honley, Contributing Editor Public Health Workers Will No Longer Be Used for CIA Operations A fter 18 months and in the midst of a global polio health emergency, the White House has responded to a letter from the deans of 13 schools of public health urging the U.S. government to st op using public health workers for covert operations or intelligence gathering. The January 2013 letter stemmed from the revelation that in its hunt for Osama bin Laden, the CIA had recruited a Paki- stani physician to conduct a fake hepatitis B vaccination campaign in Abbottabad using local public health workers without their knowledge. The mission, which was apparently not successful, was designed to collect DNA samples from family mem- bers living in the compound where bin Laden was suspected to be living. When word of the covert effort spread in Pakistan in 2012, legitimate public health workers providing polio vaccines were run out of town. At least nine were killed in December 2012, and more since then. Save the Children was compelled by the government of Pakistan to withdraw all foreign national staff in September 2012. Mistrust of public health workers was not new in the region; the Taliban in Pakistan had opposed vaccine cam- paigns before. But the revelation that health workers were in fact compromised sparked a backlash against immunization workers. Public health workers throughout the region were threatened, as were the legitimate vaccination programs they