The Foreign Service Journal, November 2014

40 NOVEMBER 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Ron Capps served in the U.S. military for 25 years, enlisting in the National Guard in 1983 and serving on active duty for nine years before returning to the Army Reserve. As a reservist, he was recalled a number of times to active service, including work with special operations forces in Central Africa, a combat tour in Afghanistan in (2002-2003), and work as an international peace- keeper in Darfur. Capps served as an FSO from 1994 to 2008. Memoirs of a Foreign Service Arabist Richard B. Parker, Vellum, 2013, $26, paperback, 290 pages. In this book, published posthumously as part of the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training’s Diplomats and Diplomacy series, readers follow Ambas- sador Richard Parker’s extraordinary 31-year Foreign Service career. Parker joined the Foreign Service in 1949, following military service in World War II, and shortly began concentrating on the Middle East. He went on to become renowned for his expertise on the region and its culture and for his fluency in Arabic. Throughout the memoir, Parker comments with the dry, acer- bic wit for which he was known on thorny Middle East issues of the time, and offers a first-person viewpoint and analysis of his- toric events that occurred during his time in the Foreign Service. FSO Richard Parker (1923–2011) served in Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt, in addition to assignments in Washington, D.C. His career culminated with assignments as U.S. ambassa- dor to Algeria (1975-1977), Lebanon (1977-1978) and Morocco (1978-1979). Following retirement in 1980, he continued to share his deep expertise in Arab culture—as a diplomat in residence at the University of Virginia, as editor of the Middle East Journal and as the author of seven books on the region, including North Africa: Regional Tensions and Strategic Concerns (1987), The Poli- tics of Miscalculation in the Middle East (1993), The Six-Day War: A Retrospective (1996), The October War (2001) and Uncle Sam in Barbary: A Diplomatic History (2004). Ballet in the Cane Fields: Vignettes from a Dominican Wanderlogue Judith Ravin, Inkwater Press, 2014, $13.95/paperback, $2.99/Kindle, $2.99/ePub, 254 pages. Part travel diary, part cultural commentary, Judith Ravin’s bilingual memoir covers her three years as an information officer at Embassy Santo Domingo. Translated into Spanish by Ana E. Martínez, Ballet in the Cane Fields reflects the colorful society of the Dominican people, their daily struggles and enduring traditions. Its short chapters recall everyday occurrences, such as coping with the seemingly endless rainy season, and more somber moments, such as witnessing a community come together after the death of a local teenager. The varied people of the country are woven throughout the vignettes: impoverished street vendors, chival- rous young men, energetic hip-hop dancers and improvisational taxi drivers all make appearances. Ravin’s reflections on what has been called the “loudest place on earth” give readers an in-depth glimpse into the Dominican Republic with descriptive and refreshing language and imagery. Spanish author Eleonora M. Smolensky comments that each of Ravin’s stories gives “an added pleasure to daily life.” Judith Ravin joined the Foreign Service in 2003 and has served in Mexico, Cameroon, Sudan, the Dominican Republic and Pakistan. She also spent many years living and working abroad as an editor, translator and journalist in various coun- tries. She is editor of the travel guide series La Guía Pirelli Argen- tina (Turisticas, 1995) and La Guía Pirelli Uruguay (Turisticas, 1996) and co-author of Traditional Tutsi (Khartoum, 2010). Accidental Patriot: A Diplomat’s Journey in Africa Rediscovering America Kirsten Bauman, CreateSpace, 2014, $9.95/paperback, $4.99/Kindle, 282 pages. Accidental Patriot tells the story of a col- lision of two worlds: American suburbia meets Africa. While on assignment at Embassy Addis Ababa, Kirsten Bauman inadvertently redis- covers the United States—the home country she long took for granted. In this memoir, she describes life in Africa as told through the true stories of the Ethiopians she has met, and discusses how these experiences renewed her admiration for America as a place of dreams for people the world over. During her three years in Ethiopia, Bauman witnesses human suffering from extreme poverty to ideologically fueled violence. She works to reconcile the privileged existence she enjoys as a U.S. diplomat with the struggling world outside her Ethiopian home’s protective compound.