The Foreign Service Journal, December 2019

16 DECEMBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL N eed to fix the screen on your phone? Replace a battery for your laptop? Refill your car’s engine oil? Or even mend your jeans? Check out iFixit, a wiki-based website that teaches people how to make all kinds of electronics and household goods work again. The main goal of the site is to educate consumers about what’s inside their electronics and motivate them to fix things when they break. iFixit has an environmental angle, as well. Repairing electronics can significantly cut down on electronic waste. The website notes that 1.5 billion cell phones—made with toxic chemicals—were manufactured in 2018, and on average Americans keep cell phones for 34 months. Only 20 percent of the world’s electronic waste is recycled, leading to toxic Site of the Month: www.ifixit.com metals leaching into the environment. iFixit tries to tackle this problem by providing high-quality repair manuals and videos. You’ll find repair guides for 26 varieties of iPhones and hundreds of kinds of Android phones. Anyone can create a repair manual or edit and improve existing manu- als in this virtual community that “empowers individuals to share their technical knowledge with the rest of the world.” As of this writing, the site boasts nearly 56,000 free manuals for more than 20,000 devices. “Repair saves you money,” accord- ing to iFixit. “It saves the environment. And it connects us to our things. Ditch the throwaway economy!” Investigations. “While it’s true that some political appointees have a wealth of professional experience that contributes to our nation, many individuals have little to no prior diplomatic experience.” Rep. Bera adds: “During a time of increasing complex global challenges and national security threats facing the United States, we must have our most qualified and experienced public servants repre- senting the U.S. around the world.” Forty-five percent of President Trump’s ambassadors are political appointees, compared to 30 percent under President Barack Obama, 32 percent under President George W. Bush and 28 percent under President Bill Clin- ton, Rep. Bera said. Moley Resigns After OIG Claims Employee Mistreatment A mbassador Kevin Moley, who was serving as assistant secretary of State for international organization affairs, announced in an email to his staff Oct. 18 that he would retire by the end of November. Amb. Moley was the subject of an investigation by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General of allegations that he mistreated career employees. In a report released in August, the OIG documented their findings: Amb. Moley and his former senior adviser, Mari Stull, who left the department in January, “frequently berated employ- ees, raised their voices, and generally engaged in unprofessional behavior toward staff.” The pair also reportedly retaliated against holdover employees from the Obama administration. Building More Resilient Embassies L andon Van Dyke, a senior adviser at the State Department on energy, environment and sustainability, sees the Internet of Things (IoT) as an opportu- nity to create more secure diplomatic facilities, according to a Sept. 9 Federal News Network report. The “Internet of Things” refers to computing devices embedded in every- day items—such as security systems, thermostats and cars—that are con- nected to the internet. IoT devices give U.S. embassies in 190 countries a means to take snapshots of their air quality and other important data points, Van Dyke said. State also uses IoT sensors to track seismic and floodplain data to protect embassies from natural disasters. “When we build an embassy, hopefully it will be around for 50 to 100 years,” Van Dyke noted, adding that the department uses satellite information to learn more about the integrity of its buildings. The department also uses sensors to monitor its global fleet of more than 14,000 vehicles. The sensors provide management with data about safe driving practices and wear and tear on vehicles. But Van Dyke acknowledged that it’s important to make sure that data from IoT devices doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. “When you buy a new car these days … that information gets uploaded to the dealer. Now for the U.S. embassy, we probably don’t want that informa- tion just uploaded to a local dealer,” Van Dyke said. n This edition of Talking Points was compiled by Cameron Woodworth and Shawn Dorman.