THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2026 11 police detention in Kinshasa in 2022. I owe them a great deal. I was detained for six days on flimsy espionage charges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It seems that some reporting I had done got under the skin of the Congolese mining elite and their friends in the intelligence services. I was not mistreated exactly but given minimal food by my captors, who moved me from Lubumbashi to Kinshasa and denied that they were holding me. I was held incommunicado, but managed to pass two notes to travelers on the plane upon which I was transferred. They dropped the notes with the U.S. embassy in Kinshasa, and officials there sprang to action. The U.S. Embassy Kinshasa staff were amazing and brought me food and reassurance from home. I remember almost bursting into tears when I was ushered into the plushly carpeted office of the head of the intelligence services, and there, sitting on a gilded sofa, was a professional but enormously reassuring young FS officer from Montana. She was unflappable in the face of the (rather gremlin-like) intelligence chief. And she and other U.S. embassy staff members helped guide me through the process of my release. If you’re reading this, Claire and Carol, thank you infinitely. I have enjoyed your publication when I have come across it in embassies, at the State Department, and in other places, and am now a new subscriber. Nicolas Niarchos New York, New York Politics of Scarcity I loved AFSA State VP Rohit Nepal’s September-October FSJ column, “We’re All in This Together.” It’s so important and timely. The Foreign Service has always been plagued by unnecessary, outdated hierarchies and divisions. It would serve all our missions and us to, as he says, “refuse to accept this false politics of scarcity” and not allow ourselves to be pitted against one another. Anonymous active-duty State FSO Washington, D.C. Abolishing USAID Affects U.S. Businesses While America focused on USAID not being able to feed starving babies or provide health care, those of us in the business world saw terminated welfare payments for U.S. farmers’ crops and for U.S. industries that produced goods like Caterpillar tractors or provided consultant, educational, and institution- building services. Under USAID, traditional aid dollars all stayed home while goods and services flowed out worldwide. In 2025 Elon Musk’s DOGE blew into D.C. like the 1982 Grace Commission on steroids, canceling or completely abolishing critical government functions. Few of Musk’s minions understand our government’s role as the hidden economic backbone: like subsidized corn for ethanol; milk and meat stabilization for price control; or tariffs/import restrictions to protect our native production of peanuts, sugar, cotton, or other crops, cars, and motorcycles. Much of America’s flourishing economy has depended on hidden government welfare and protections in most sectors. USAID played an important role in funding U.S. agriculture and health research and development. Anonymous retired USAID FSO n PUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 A WORLD WITHOUT USAID
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