Hope On Sunday Morning
CD playing: Rick Margitza’s Hope. He plays tenor and soprano sax. I found mention of the 1991 Blue Note disc in a later reviews, but the only place I found the album separately listed also says that it is not currently available. Blue Note doesn’t even list him or the album on their website. Their loss.
Eyes reading: The Sunday New York Times. Print newspapers simply cannot keep up with the immediate reporting capabilities of TV and the internet. Some still try, generally looking foolish in the effort. Very similar to when I try to play tennis. Viewers either laugh (at, not with) me or just wince and look away. But somehow the New York Times is still an amazing paper. What it lacks in immediacy it makes up for in quality writing, good story selection, and comprehensive analysis. I refuse to pay $2 for the local paper, but will eagerly shell out $4.75 an issue for a newspaper based 3000 miles away with absolutely no local coverage. Some of the articles that made today’s issue a good read: America’s For-Profit Secret Army; The French Spar Over Sex: There’s a Limit, No?; and Men Behaving Badly.
Just a personal note . . .
While I agree that the New York Times SOMETIMES has quality writing (their foreign news for example), I had a personal experience with your highlighted story, “America’s For-Profit Secret Army” by Leslie Wayne. Setting aside the fact that it is a “hatchet” piece from beginning to end that does little beyond rehashing issues covered much more thoroughly in the past (including by the NYTimes), this particular piece astonished me with its innuendo and inaccuracy.
Aside from getting the nature of my association wrong (I founded it to improve peace operations through privatization, it was NOT founded by the industry), my quote is utterly bungled. You can see my quote in the article – and in all fairness I’m sure I used all those words in the course of several interviews, just not in that order, context or proximity to each other . . .
I was promised that a partial correction would appear next Sunday, the 20th. Unfortunately there are numerous other factual errors about other companies as well. Essentially it was a shoddy job that reflects poorly on the New York Times, its reporters and editors.
I will continue to read the paper for the excellent international coverage, but I fear the standards are slipping fast . . .
Regards,
doug brooks
Doug Brooks
President
International Peace Operations Association (IPOA)
Cell: (202) 297-9717 – Washington, DC
Work email: DBrooks@IPOAonline.org
Personal email: Hoosier84@aol.com
IPOA website: http://www.IPOAonline.org
Personal home page: http://www.geocities.com/hoosier84/dougtitle.html
I’m sorry you feel that way. Even though I haven’t worked for State since 1996, I thought that overall it was a pretty good article. Even then I was seeing problems with contractors essentially operating in grey areas with little oversight and accountability. I just reread it in light of your comment. The section on page 11 of the print version discussing how criminally liable DynCorp employees escaped both military and local justice and were just fired and sent back to the U.S. rang particularly true. Although I never investigated allegations of contractors holding “sex-slaves,” the corporate response to alleged criminal acts is the same one I saw many times. To some people the phrase ‘beltway bandits’ in reference to the people who live off USG contracts has always been a little too true, especially overseas.
If a contractor screws up and does something illegal, then yeah, I have no problems with them being charged.
A larger question – should companies be responsible for the personal lives of their employees? To a certain extent they have to be, or the company gets damaged by the scandal. In the case of DynCorp, however, this all happened several years ago, and they have since largely sorted their operation out. European officials I’ve talked to emphasize the American police are not the problem anymore – it is the other UN police which are running brothels, buying and trading sex slaves, dealing with the mafia etc. At least the DynCorp guys were sent home, however pathetic that punishment was, it was harsher than most are getting over there.
In fact, these private companies are doing services much cheaper, faster, and better than the military could do them by assigning infantrymen. The companies are more flexible and creative than the military – if the aren’t they lose their contract to a better company. It happens a lot.
But getting back to the NYTimes article – my main beef with it is that it was inaccurate, biased and sloppy. It was NOT up to the Times usual level of excellence. I’d be happy to post better articles on the topic from other sources if anyone’s interested.
Regards,
doug
Doug Brooks
President
International Peace Operations Association (IPOA)
Work email: DBrooks@IPOAonline.org
Personal email: Hoosier84@aol.com
IPOA website: http://www.IPOAonline.org
Personal home page: http://www.geocities.com/hoosier84/dougtitle.html