The "our snack room is filthy" whistle blower.The American Foreign Service Association The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA), established in 1924, is the professional association of the United States Foreign Service. With over 12,000 members, AFSA represents 23,000 active and retired Foreign Service employees of the Department of State and Agency for presents four annual awards for "constructive dissent." This year there were only eight nominations for the awards, even though there are 10,000 foreign service officers. Last year, there weren't many more--17, to be exact--and the year before there were only seven. "The problem is not that there aren't people who deserve an award, but that people don't want to be nominated," explains AFSA AFSA American Foreign Service Association AFSA American Financial Services Association AFSA American Fire Sprinkler Association AFSA Air Force Sergeants Association AFSA American Federation of School Administrators AFSA Armed Forces Security Agency president J. Anthony Holmes to Nicholas Kralev of The Washington Times. "They worry about negative repercussions repercussions npl → répercussions fpl repercussions npl → Auswirkungen pl . There is a feeling that questioning policy is extremely risky." This is definitely part of the problem. Discouraging dissent has been characteristic of the Bush administration. Indeed, on the same day that Kralev's article appeared, Michael Gordon Michael Gordon may refer to:
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times, dealing with the harm done by the suppression of dissent Suppression of dissent occurs when an individual or group which is more powerful than another tries to directly or indirectly censor, persecute or otherwise oppress the other party, rather than engage with and constructively respond to or accommodate the other party's arguments or at Donald Rumsfeld's Pentagon. Although part of the problem is the Bush administration, another part is buried deep in bureaucratic culture. The foreign service is a risk-averse culture, Barbara Bergen, coordinator of the awards, tells Kralev, who reports that "[n]one of the nominations this year is related to a controversial foreign policy issue, such as Iraq, Iran, North Korea, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
"Two of those nominated voiced disagreement with visa procedures, one with a personnel issue involving a local employee of an embassy overseas, and one with a policy denying basic benefits to same-sex partners." I must say that in my experience, nothing stirs the passions of the foreign and civil services more than issues involving pay and benefits. Still, a lot of these people are very smart and do have dissenting opinions that they now share sotto voce only among friends. They should be encouraged to speak out. And they are not encouraged by the Bush gang. "This administration does not tolerate dissent," one foreign service officer tells Kralev. Condoleezza Rice "runs a tight ship, and you'd better stay on board." |
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