World Hum’s Most Read: May 10-16

What We Loved This Week: ‘The Zen of Bobby V,’ ‘When the Levees Broke’ and Arriving With Our Baggage

How Bad is the Violence in Mexico?

Tony Horwitz Blogs From the Road

Tony Horwitz: Rediscovering the New World

Ben Keene talks to the author of the new book “A Voyage Long and Strange” about travel, American myths and the importance of visiting places where “history happened”

In Patagonia, In Patagonia

Tim Patterson packs his fleece and long underwear, and enters the Twilight Zone where corporate branding meets the multilayered reality of place. 

Should I Quit Law School so I can Travel the World?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

‘The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever’?

Lonely Planet author Robert Reid reviews Thomas Kohnstamm’s “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?” and weighs in on the controversy surrounding it

Have a Hockey Night in Canada

From Montreal to Sault Ste. Marie, the sport is the country’s greatest passion. Eva Holland explains where to go to indulge—and who you need to know.

Promised Land Closed

And other odd and unlikely signs from around the world. Aficionado Doug Lansky, editor of the book “Signspotting,” recounts his 10 favorites.

10 Sizzling Hot Travel Tips From Sir Francis Bacon

Rolf Potts repackages the 17th century philosopher’s ‘Of Travel’ essay in the manner of a 21st century magazine feature

The Trouble With the Peace Corps

Hi Jim;

Abroad I’ve noticed that Peace Corp Worker is slang for “spy.”

Which is amusing enough.

But I met a disgruntled former Peace Corp Worker who said she spent 2 years in Africa trying to teach local villagers how to grow rice--when they already had been doing a crackup job at it for, oh I don’t know, centuries at least.

I secretly suspected she would have rather been laying on the beach in the Hamptons, slathered with baby oil.

As a former Peace Corps Volunteer (we don’t use “Worker") myself, I’m a bit sensitive to the notion that we’re somehow similar to spies—whoever says that either is unfamiliar with the Peace Corps and how it functions or they don’t care. (Or they’re in one of those few countries where, early on, the intelligence community did manage to infiltrate the local Peace Corps contingencies before they got the boot.) The Peace Corps goes to a great extent to remove itself from all government/diplomatic influence, especially with regard to intelligence. In my group, one person was packed off back to the U.S. for shooting his mouth off in public about how we were just a CIA front. Time in-country for him: four weeks. Public policy types who advocate that the Peace Corps be used for intelligence gathering usually get slapped down pretty quickly.
Which doesn’t dismiss Strauss’ concerns. He’s right on a number of issues, including (especially) the schizoid mission of the Peace Corps; we were told as much that we’re not there to show the locals how to live, and yet we’re expected by the various “metrics” (i.e. surveys) they use in evaluating us to do just that… Peace Corps service is truly life-changing, often good for the volunteers, sometimes for the host country as well, but its impact is mostly measurable only on the local level. To expect it to do more would require it become a more conventional development agency, which I don’t think anyone truly wants, as it would remove what is truly a unique from a special program.

Very interesting. Most of the Peace Corps volunteers I’ve met joined hoping to change the world and found themselves quickly disillusioned. But what I wonder is whether the Peace Corps could still be a worthwhile experience for all involved if volunteers went in with lesser expectations...?