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Peace Corps Volunteers Speak Out on Rape
The New York Times ^ | May 10, 2011 | SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Posted on 05/12/2011 4:00:33 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner

Jess Smochek arrived in Bangladesh in 2004 as a 23-year-old Peace Corps volunteer with dreams of teaching English and “helping the world.” She left six weeks later a rape victim after being brutalized in an alley by a knife-wielding gang.

When she returned to the United States, the reception she received from Peace Corps officials was as devastating, she said, as the rape itself. In Bangladesh, she had been given scant medical care; in Washington, a counselor implied that she was to blame for the attack. For years she kept quiet, feeling “ashamed and embarrassed and guilty.”

(snip)

But from 2000 to 2009, on average, 22 Peace Corps women each year reported being the victims of rape or attempted rape, the agency says. During that time, more than 1,000 Peace Corps volunteers reported sexual assaults, including 221 rapes or attempted rapes. Because sexual crimes often go unreported, experts say the incidence is likely to be higher, though they and the Peace Corps add that it is difficult to assess whether the volunteers face any greater risk overseas than women in the United States do.

(snip)

He insisted that it was safe for women to serve in the Peace Corps. “We do not place Peace Corps volunteers in unsafe environments,” he said.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government
KEYWORDS: leftuniverse; liberals; peacecorps; rape
Needless today, liberal Peace Corps volunteers tend to get a lot more than they bargained for when they buy into culutural equivalence and set out to "help the world."

Brings to mind these cases:

Parents of Slain Volunteer Say Peace Corps Error Led to Murder

Stalking Her Killer

1 posted on 05/12/2011 4:00:37 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

That made me angry to watch that video. This is an idealistic young person, sent out by liberals into the world embracing a moral equivalence.

When you go to some of those places, it isn’t the USA. You don’t have the rights or even a reasonable expectation to get rights or protections.

And the clash of cultures in that mix can be deadly. You go there and try to instill the concepts of feminism or some other western idea that is not only alien but viewed as hostile, it isn’t surprising that these kinds of things happen.

It just made me angry. Liberalism is a mental disorder. What a waste. She did what she wanted to do, but when someone comes for you in the middle of the night in a third world backwater because they think you are destroying their cultural fabric, there won’t be a 911 you can call for help.


2 posted on 05/12/2011 4:14:19 AM PDT by rlmorel (Capitalism is the Goose that lays The Golden Egg.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

The second link is a completely different situation...that could have happened anywhere, in any town in any country. Though it does illustrate what can happen when things like this happen in different countries...there is not guarantee of continuity or a seamless process. This one had a rather large chasm, and this murderer conveniently jumped right into it.

The Peace Corps is, and always has been, a completely and totally leftist organization. Not only by its nature and definition, but in reality.


3 posted on 05/12/2011 4:27:23 AM PDT by rlmorel (Capitalism is the Goose that lays The Golden Egg.)
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To: rlmorel

“It just made me angry. Liberalism is a mental disorder. What a waste. She did what she wanted to do, but when someone comes for you in the middle of the night in a third world backwater because they think you are destroying their cultural fabric, there won’t be a 911 you can call for help.”

They are destroying their culture and trying to replace it with our unique brand of Liberalism/feminism so I’m not surprised that third worlders see that and react as if being attacked, which they are. Yet another government program that should be scraped.


4 posted on 05/12/2011 4:54:02 AM PDT by trapped_in_LA
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

Here’s the video of her describing her rape: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/video/peace-corps-volunteer-describes-brutal-rape-12600417


5 posted on 05/12/2011 5:01:45 AM PDT by vladimir998 (When anti-Catholics can't debate they just make stuff up.)
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To: rlmorel
Bingo. On top of all of your excellent points, let me add a couple...

Most younger American women dress and act in ways that are going to be interpreted as whores behavior in many, many cultures - and I'm not talking Islamic. F’rinstance, wearing shorts or pants in many rural areas in third world countries is tantamount to declaring yourself our side the bounds of normal feminine rules - ergo, you're game (or at the least you're an idiot). American idealists head out assuming everyone will understand their good intents and love for the world and all will be well. And if not, then they simply need to be brought into the 21st century. Americans (many, not all) tend to see the world as some kind of park to be visited on vacation and the inhabitants simply people to be won over by our good intentions. Wrong-o.

Further, the grotesque ignorance about real world cultural dangers is compounded by the brash intrusions many such zealots bring into their sphere of operation. If a young woman (who generally cannot comprehend that she is quite a bit less important than her male friends) decides something needs to be done about an issue or problem, she just go ahead like she would in tolerant and gracious America. That is, she'll go wherever she thinks she can gain the power or leverage to get the job done and if any resistance is encountered, she'll add discrimination to her list of complaints. Wrong again. Now she's gone beyond being an ignorant slut in many cultures and become a disruptor among the people of a stable society (remember Star Trek’s ‘Prime Directive?’). In her liberally programmed mind, she's trying to do the ‘right thing’ but, in truth, she's agitating against cultural foundations and attacking the values and leadership in small societies where everything is personal.

Babes in the woods or another spore drifting around the world set adrift by academic pod people.

6 posted on 05/12/2011 5:20:14 AM PDT by WorkingClassFilth
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To: WorkingClassFilth

Just put the Peace Corps on the chopping block along with Americacorps. Together it’s about 1 billion a year in savings.


7 posted on 05/12/2011 5:46:00 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Agree. The “Peace” Corps has the same effect as pissing in the ocean.


8 posted on 05/12/2011 5:57:15 AM PDT by GunsareOK
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To: WorkingClassFilth

Exactly. It is tragic. Here is a young woman who swallowed the liberalism behind it hook, line and sinker. They say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

Many institutions (both educational and otherwise) fill a lot of impressionable young people with it, and send them out in the world armed with it.

I would not want to fault this woman for wanting to “make a difference”, but I feel pretty certain this happened one of two ways: Either she DIDN’T understand the dynamics of the situation and fell victim, or she DID understand them and chose to ignore them. Either way, she paid with her life.

Sad.


9 posted on 05/12/2011 10:18:41 AM PDT by rlmorel (Capitalism is the Goose that lays The Golden Egg.)
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To: WorkingClassFilth

Good post, by the way.


10 posted on 05/12/2011 10:20:54 AM PDT by rlmorel (Capitalism is the Goose that lays The Golden Egg.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

50 years of rapes and finally they come to light.
I guess the liberals kept it quiet because it’s one of their pet projects.


11 posted on 05/12/2011 1:00:07 PM PDT by La Enchiladita (Remember, Reflect, Renew: 2011, 10 years since 9/11. Never Forget.)
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