Presidential Proclamation--50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps
50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PEACE CORPS
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed an Executive Order establishing the Peace Corps, forever changing the way America sees the world and the world sees us. Today, one of President Kennedy's most enduring legacies can be found in the over 200,000 current and returned Peace Corps Volunteers who have collectively given over a half century of service to the cause of peace. On its 50th anniversary, the United States Peace Corps remains an enduring symbol of our Nation's commitment to encouraging progress, creating opportunity, and fostering mutual respect and understanding throughout the world.
Over the past five decades, Peace Corps Volunteers have served in nearly 140 countries, bringing a wealth of practical assistance to those working to build better lives for themselves and their communities. From the first group of volunteers to arrive in Ghana and Tanzania in August 1961, they have been emissaries of hope and goodwill to the far corners of our world, strengthening the ties of friendship between the people of the United States and those of other countries. Living and working alongside those they serve, volunteers help address changing and complex global needs in education, health and HIV/AIDS, business and information technology, agriculture, environmental protection, and youth development. With each village that now has access to clean water, each young woman who has received an education, and each family empowered to prevent disease because of the service of a Peace Corps Volunteer, President Kennedy's noble vision lives on.
In our increasingly interconnected world, the mission of the Peace Corps is more relevant today than ever. Returned volunteers, enriched by their experiences overseas, bring a deeper understanding of other cultures and traditions back to their home communities in the United States. The lasting accomplishments of the Peace Corps continue to strengthen partnerships with leaders and countries around the world. This year, we also mourn the loss and pay tribute to the extraordinary life of Sargent Shriver, the founding director of the Peace Corps. The impact of his decades of public service will echo forever in countless places across the globe that have been touched by the Peace Corps.
On this anniversary, we honor the men and women from across the country who have carried forward our Nation's finest tradition of service, and we rededicate ourselves to fulfilling the dream and continuing the work of all those who aspire and yearn for peace.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 1, 2011, as the 50th Anniversary of the Peace Corps. I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that honor the Peace Corps and its volunteers, past and present, for their many contributions to the cause of global peace and friendship.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.
BARACK OBAMA
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Institutionalizing of First Lady a hot topic
I find this to be most inappropriate! In a country that needs better schools, health care and basic living ammenities - this makes me very sad..
Institutionalizing of First Lady a hot topic
PARAMARIBO, Suriname–A decision last week by President Desi Bouterse to introduce a decree through which his wife Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring receives compensation for her tasks as First Lady, has kicked up quite some dust in Paramaribo.
Even an explanation by the President’s chief of Staff, Jurist Armand van der San, that the compensation was legal and just, didn’t suffice, especially when former President Ronald Venetiaan –revered as integer- resolutely said that his wife would not accept the retroactive payment of moneys that she is now owed by Government under the new decree. “Let’s be clear on that: she will not take the money,” Venetiaan told De West daily newspaper on Saturday.
Under the new resolution, Mrs. Bouterse will receive 8,742 Surinamese dollars SRD (almost US$ 4,000) per month, which is considered controversial and reeking of favouritism, as Bouterse’s wife is the first First Lady to receive such. Van der San explained though that the new decree actually brings structure into a situation that had never been formally arranged. “Former First Lady Mrs. Liesbeth Venetiaan-Vanenburg, a Civil Servant, resorted under the Cabinet of the President, but formally and budget wise her tasks were never set,” Van der San wrote in a press release issued Saturday. Apparantly, Mrs. Venetiaan continued to collect her Civil Servant salary, while working “free of charge” for the Cabinet of the President
“This financial, legal and administrative mistake had went on for ten years. That our decision to now right this chaotic wrong is kicking up so much dust in the community -and in particular the National Assembly- is regrettable,” Van der San said. “A lot of thought has gone into the decree; it is politically justifiable and definitely not unethical. It would have been unethical to only arrange this for the current First Lady,” he said.
He explained that during discussions about the budget of the Cabinet, it proved necessary to shed light on the First Lady’s expenses and institutionalize the position of “First Lady”. Under the new decree the First Lady is formally more than a ribbon cuttopr. She is officially tasked with executing social projects. ”It seems as if you cannot do right,” Van der San commented.
The Opposition Factions in Parliament roared last week when the decree became public. Mrs. Venetiaan-Vanenburg then stated in the press that she would not collect the retroactive payment of close to 100,000 Euros that she is now due for First Lady services during her husband’s ten year tenure.
While GFC News subsequently quoted “political analysts” who said she would have made a better political point if she had donated the payment to needy social institutions, her husband –Former President Venetiaan- publicly backed his wife. “Mi frow no e go teki a moni. A frow no wani a moni,” he said in Surinamese (the woman will not take the money; the woman does not want the money.”
Institutionalizing of First Lady a hot topic
PARAMARIBO, Suriname–A decision last week by President Desi Bouterse to introduce a decree through which his wife Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring receives compensation for her tasks as First Lady, has kicked up quite some dust in Paramaribo.
Even an explanation by the President’s chief of Staff, Jurist Armand van der San, that the compensation was legal and just, didn’t suffice, especially when former President Ronald Venetiaan –revered as integer- resolutely said that his wife would not accept the retroactive payment of moneys that she is now owed by Government under the new decree. “Let’s be clear on that: she will not take the money,” Venetiaan told De West daily newspaper on Saturday.
Under the new resolution, Mrs. Bouterse will receive 8,742 Surinamese dollars SRD (almost US$ 4,000) per month, which is considered controversial and reeking of favouritism, as Bouterse’s wife is the first First Lady to receive such. Van der San explained though that the new decree actually brings structure into a situation that had never been formally arranged. “Former First Lady Mrs. Liesbeth Venetiaan-Vanenburg, a Civil Servant, resorted under the Cabinet of the President, but formally and budget wise her tasks were never set,” Van der San wrote in a press release issued Saturday. Apparantly, Mrs. Venetiaan continued to collect her Civil Servant salary, while working “free of charge” for the Cabinet of the President
“This financial, legal and administrative mistake had went on for ten years. That our decision to now right this chaotic wrong is kicking up so much dust in the community -and in particular the National Assembly- is regrettable,” Van der San said. “A lot of thought has gone into the decree; it is politically justifiable and definitely not unethical. It would have been unethical to only arrange this for the current First Lady,” he said.
He explained that during discussions about the budget of the Cabinet, it proved necessary to shed light on the First Lady’s expenses and institutionalize the position of “First Lady”. Under the new decree the First Lady is formally more than a ribbon cuttopr. She is officially tasked with executing social projects. ”It seems as if you cannot do right,” Van der San commented.
The Opposition Factions in Parliament roared last week when the decree became public. Mrs. Venetiaan-Vanenburg then stated in the press that she would not collect the retroactive payment of close to 100,000 Euros that she is now due for First Lady services during her husband’s ten year tenure.
While GFC News subsequently quoted “political analysts” who said she would have made a better political point if she had donated the payment to needy social institutions, her husband –Former President Venetiaan- publicly backed his wife. “Mi frow no e go teki a moni. A frow no wani a moni,” he said in Surinamese (the woman will not take the money; the woman does not want the money.”
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