The Foreign Service Journal, October 2012

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2012 9 LETTERS A Small but Powerful Change I found your June article, “Local Employees Seek a Dialogue with Washing- ton,” interesting. Though I retired from the Foreign Service in 2007, I remem- ber that use of the term “Locally Engaged Staff” to describe those who had been “Foreign Service Nationals” was already an irritant. It is instructive to hear that it is still bothering many people. What advantage or improvement was achieved by changing to “LES”? “Foreign Service National” describes such employ- ees just as well as LES does. And “FSN” sounds much better than “LES.” Since the newer term is still (after what, nearly 20 years?) not appreciated by the people it describes, why not return to FSN? What would it cost? At a minimum, it would show that the State Department doesn’t have a tin ear in regard to such matters. Perhaps this issue is another example of a phenomenon described to me back in the 1990s by a Washington, D.C.-based electronics technician. We were discuss- ing a major realignment of offices and bureaus that was taking place in the State Department, and scratching our heads over the resulting confusion in the field. The tech commented, “Well, that is typical of Washington: a systemic problem is recognized, but instead of the problem being corrected, it is found to be easier to change the names of everything ... who reports to whom; what this, that or the other office is named; what supersedes this, that or the other directive. Then, though the initial problem hasn’t been corrected, by the time all the dust settles, it can be thought that improvements have been arrived at ... at least for a time.” What may sound like a very small change is anything but that. Words are powerful, especially those used to classify people. Steve Flora FSO, retired Canberra, Australia Celebrating Joel Poinsett Many thanks to Luciano Mangiafico for his FS Heritage columns on “U.S. Diplo- mats and the Smithsonian” in your Febru- ary issue and “Joel R. Poinsett: First U.S. Envoy in Latin America” in July-August. The two topics can be even more closely linked, as they were on Feb. 24 when the Chilean Embassy hosted a reception at the Smithsonian to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Poinsett’s 1812 meeting with Chilean leader Jose Miguel Carrera. The embassy, State Department and Smithsonian worked together on the celebration, which was held at the American Art Museum near a marble bust of Poinsett on exhibit there. In her remarks, Smithsonian Under Secretary for Science Eva Pell noted Poin- sett’s connections to the institution and his advocacy for a national museum that would showcase relics of the country and its leaders, celebrate American technology and document the national resources of North America. While serving as Secretary of War, Poinsett oversaw the United States Explor- ing Expedition that circumnavigated the globe between 1838 and 1842. He insisted that the expedition include a staff of natu- ralists to study and collect samples from the natural resources of distant lands. When the crates of specimens arrived, they were housed in the Patent Office Building, now home to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. These and other curiosi- ties were managed by a group called the National Institute for the Promotion of Science, formed in 1840 by Poinsett and others to secure control of the James Smithson bequest and create a national museum in Washington. Joel Poinsett’s advocacy for the collec- tions helped ensure that the concept of a national museumwould be included in the Smithsonian’s enabling act. Beatrice Camp Senior Adviser for International Affairs Office of the Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture Smithsonian Institution A Different View Regarding the July-August FS Heritage profile about Joel Poinsett, it should be noted that most diplomatic historians see him as the first in a succession of largely incompetent American envoys who made no secret of their contempt for Mexicans and egregiously crossed the line between diplomacy and interference in Mexico’s internal affairs. Poinsett’s “lasting legacy” for Mexicans today is not that he gave his name to a pretty native flower, but that he was in the vanguard of American imperi- alism in Mexico. Charles Ahlgren FSO, retired Cranston, R.I. Good Paperwork Does Not Make a Leader I’m a retired USAID FSO who provides short-term technical and managerial assistance to USAID overseas missions. In that capacity, I frequently meet new-hire technical professionals who have been recruited and trained through the agency’s Development Leadership Initiative pro- gram. While I thoroughly enjoy the oppor-