The Grand Map returns for the 50th Celebration! When it was made at the 1990 National Peace Corps Convention held at the Eugene Hilton, it was advertised as the World's largest hand drawn and hand painted map of the world. It left Eugene for many years and returned about 10 years ago. It stayed with Beryl Brinkman until she died and has been in one of my barns since then. The 30 x 15 canvas map will be put up on the side of the old Center Court building in downtown Eugene, across from the Broadway Plaza, Tuesday morning.

Thanks should go to Hyland Construction, the general contractor for the downtown project, and to Pete Eggspuelher, the owner of the building. I will take the map to them tomorrow morning and they will install it using ropes to secure it to the side of the building. I have been working with them for several weeks and I think this can be a fun experience. The newspapers and photographers know about the event and I'm hoping for a Photo Op. The Grand Map is coming back to the place it began in 1990.

Meisler was not a PCV but was on the PC staff until he joined the Los Angeles Times as a journalist. He has written other books as well as articles for the Smithsonian magazine. You too can learn all this by googling him.

West Cascade Peace Corps Association (WCPCA) members presented to an audience at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at the Baker Center in Eugene on Friday, February 11. Some seventy members of OLLI and guests heard from Returned Peace Corps Volunteers, celebrating the Peace Corps' Fiftieth Anniversary.

WILL YOU STILL LOVE ME AT 64? featured Moderator Howard Schuman, Thailand, '68-'70; Tom English, Nepal, '67-'70; Nancy Meyer, Mexico, '07-'09; Laura Massengale, Senegal, '07-'09; and Justin Overdevest, Dominican Republic, '02-'04, plus Peru, '04-'06. Each person provided a brief background to their work as a Peace Corps Volunteer. These personal experiences fascinated a rapt audience, many of whom were also world travelers. Audience members returned after a break to carry on an hour long question and answer period and sent the presenters on their way with appreciative applause.

Published: Monday, Feb 28, 2011 05:00AM

The Peace Corps, one of America's most successful foreign aid programs and one with deep Oregon roots, is celebrating its 50th anniversary at a time when Congress is considering a major cut in the agency's budget.

Zaire is a different place. Doing things differently is half the fun while discovering a new place. Sometimes it takes a bit of courage to do so. I did things there that you wouldn't catch me doing here.

Here, I would never hang out with the whores in bars. I would never buy a bra from men in an open-air market or even let them help me try it on over my clothes. I would never buy meat that sat out all day in the hot sun while being attacked by flies.

I would never hitch-hike on top of a commerce truck loaded half-way to the sky with charcoal, goats, fat ladies holding screaming babies ... I would never flag down a merchandise train and get a ride. I would never go deep into the forest alone with a strange man "to look at some fish ponds."

I would never work sixty to seventy hours a week and earn fifty dollars a month. 1 would never throw the remaining coffee grounds on my living room floor, or brush my teeth in the bedroom and spit the paste out the window, or take a bucket bath in the kitchen and cook my food at the same time while being totally naked.

I would never fall from a bridge in my pickup truck and live to tell about it. 1 would never drive my motorcycle under the loading docks at the port with cranes and large cartons passing overhead. I would never sell my medicine to strangers in order to get money, I would never trade old Newsweek magazines to kids in exchange for fruit. I would never send an eight-year-old boy to the corner liquor store to buy beer. I would never drive with a beer in my hand. 1 would never discuss the price of a bribe with a police officer.

I would never eat rat or actively search out termites for sale. I would never go to the bank and find that there is no money. I would never wear stripes and plaid together. I would never teach little kids to say, "We are little monsters."

I would never wait six hours for lunch to be served. I would never discuss with a store clerk whether or not I "danced" in bed while having sex. I would never buy just one cigarette, or a spoonful of tomato paste, or a clove of garlic, or ten match sticks, or half a cup of sugar, or half a banana, or half a piece of bread or water in a plastic bag at the market.

I would never buy a pair of sandals made from old tires. I would never go to the back of a restaurant and cook my own coffee. I would never tell people that I am a mermaid and have them believe me. I would never knowingly eat dog meat or rare and endangered species. I would never politely smile when people tell me how fat I've gotten. I would never drive a pick-up truck loaded with two hundred gallons of gasoline through a brush fire.

On second thought, if given the chance, I'd do all of these things again and many more.

Given the situation in the Middle East, I thought it important to offer WCPCA members a brief review of events along with my assessment of what's at stake. I gleaned my information from the Western press, informed blogs, and selected Arabic language sites, which I look at every day. If anyone is interested in following developments outside the standard frame of the Western media, please contact me, and I'll forward the web addresses of good English language sites to you.

After a brief, general discussion, this piece will focus on the most strategically significant countries, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, and Egypt. At the end I'll treat other countries in few sentences. As you will see from my summaries, the world oil supply is the elephant in the middle of the room. As a result, I expect the US will do whatever it can to minimize the impact of the "Arab Spring," maintaining the status quo and prioritizing security over democracy. However, US policymakers seem to be somewhat at a loss on how to deal with this situation, unprecedented for it breadth and extensive grassroots support. Arabs, having gotten a whiff of freedom, are likely to push hard for governments that are more accountable to their needs and aspirations. Hopefully this situation will evolve to the point where representative, legitimate Arab governments gain ascendancy and get welcomed as full partners into the international community as well as into the global economy.

The Middle East and the Arab world have tremendous strategic significance for the industrialized world, which perceives of the region primarily as a supplier of oil and other energy products. The Middle East also matters to the United States as a result of its interest in the security of Israel. Finally, the region's adherence to Islam, while a source of concern and consternation, is most often used to demonize the people of the region, justifying huge military budgets and interventions, massive aid to Israel, and enormous sales of military goods and services to oil producing regimes.

Common problems affecting the Arab world include a) a population explosion with lots of youth needing jobs, b) rising food prices, c) stagnant, corrupt dictatorships that put a premium on their own well being and security at the expense of the dignity of their own people. The repressive nature of these regimes increased noticeably with Bush's war on terror. In addition, American allies have been encouraged to be "moderate," which translated into toleration and cooperation with Israel despite people's widespread disgust at its treatment of Palestinians. As a result, American allied regimes tend to have less legitimacy with their people than that enjoyed by countries that are less friendly with the United States and Israel.

Saudi Arabia
The stakes: Saudi Arabia is traditional the world's top oil producer, though production seems to have peaked. More important, Saudi Arabia has traditionally maintained excess production capacity, which it uses to stabilize world oil prices, increasing production when demand surges and withholding it when demand drops. It has recently promised to increase production to compensate for production lost to unrest in other countries. T. Boone Pickens, a widely quoted oil magnate, doubts that they can pull it off.

Though Saudi Arabia has not figured prominently in any protests, it is America's closest ally and one of the most repressive regimes in the region. As a result, it is hard to get an accurate gauge of popular sentiment. Perhaps after reading some tea leaves, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah decided to offer $36 billion to his people ($1800 per Saudi), mostly in the way of government programs to be accelerated. An early test of the King's ability to buy peace will take place on March 11, when a national "day of anger" is scheduled.