The Foreign Service Journal, October 2011

8 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 powering breastfeeding mothers (“Work-Milk Balance: The State of Pumping”). Inspired by her account, I would like to share my own thoughts and experiences on returning to work after having a baby, pumping chal- lenges, work flexibility and the social perception of a breastfeeding mother in the expatriate/Foreign Service world. In a best-case work scenario, moth- ers will have a supportive manager who offers break times, private accommo- dation and a place to store expressed milk at work. A non-supportive man- ager canmean inconvenience and awk- wardness for nursing mothers. For most of the past six years, I’ve been a nursing, bottle-feeding mom. With my first child, still living in Wash- ington, I knew very little about alterna- tive feeding techniques and did not work in a supportive environment for a nursing mom. I was forced to switch entirely to baby formula by the time the baby was three months old. But, as the saying goes, we learn from our mis- takes. By the time baby number two came along, while we were posted to Mozambique, I had done my research. Armed with a modern electric breast pump, replacement parts, batteries, storage bags, and a backup shipment of pediatricians’ most-recommended baby formula (just in case), I found that breastfeeding was a breeze, and it kept both mom and baby as happy as they could be. A supportive boss at my USAID contractor employer allowed me to use one of her offices, as well as the office’s kitchenette fridge for storage. Flexi- bility allowed me to attend meetings with U.S. government partners and travel to provinces, always carrying my pumping gear, bottles and cooler. Probably the most difficult part was the skeptical looks I got from my local co-workers, who were not used to the practice of expressing milk at work. But this experience brought me much closer to a work-life balance. With the arrival of baby number three, this time while posted to Brazil, I feel like a seasoned veteran. Pump- ing milk has enabled me to get back to work as a part-timer. I spend more time with my baby, but can also con- tinue my career. Once more, we seem to be achieving the balance between work and family life. Raquel L. Miranda FSO spouse Consulate Recife A One-Sided View of Venezuela I appreciated the nuanced and bal- anced Latin America overview by Cyn- thia Arnson, and the articles onMexico and Brazil by TedWilkinson and Peter Hakim, respectively, in the June issue of the Journal . But I was disappointed by Robert Bottome’s piece on Venezuela, which I feel is not up to the standard of “TheMagazine for Foreign Affairs Professionals.” Bottome’s article struck me as es- sentially an anti-Chavez polemic. Yes, Chavez’s rhetoric, “enthusiasm for at- tention” and failure to make a dent in the country’s extraordinarily high mur- der rate, along with some of his for- eign and domestic policies, all provide ample basis for criticism. But Venezuela continues to sustain an aggressive opposition media and a sizable foreign press corps. Poverty has declined significantly, the public health system has been expanded, and literacy has edged up from its already very high level. Though Bottome leaves out a lot, including the fact that Chavez’s popu- larity remains high, his recommenda- tions for U.S. policy toward Venezuela are quite reasonable. They stand in good contrast to the rest of the piece. Benjamin Tua FSO, retired McLean, Va. Cross-Cultural Communicators In his June Speaking Out column (“Is the Foreign Service Still a Profes- sion?”), George Lambrakis reports that he and former Assistant Secretary Hank Cohen argued in the Journal back in 1980 that the up-or-out pro- motion system was a mistake, and Lambrakis contends it still is. Speaking as a former Senior FSO who felt sure he was fated for selection-out after 13 years in grade, I agree. The authors of the 1980 article gave as their main reason the tendency of Foreign Service promotion boards to “confuse military priorities such as the management of large groups of men and huge resources with the traditional priorities of diplomacy.” It is understandable that in today’s post-9/11 security environment, many of our embassies (and even some large consulates general) in the Middle East, South Asia and elsewhere have become virtual “Fortress Americas,” some with battalion-size staffs. The officers re- sponsible for managing these operations well in this climate fully deserve to re- ceive strong consideration for promo- tion. But for other officers doing the tra- ditional substantive reporting and pub- lic diplomacy work, who supervise at most one or two employees, and for whom being proficient in the language of their country of assignment is indis- pensable to their effectiveness, the competition with their colleagues on the L E T T E R S