THE PEACOCK REPORT (TPR)

USA: A Beacon of Light (continued)

While the printed pages of an anticorruption bill that the U.S. Senate passed last night are still warm, the Bush Administration is a step ahead of these reform-minded legislators and is already tackling the problem. The bill, which would, among other provisions, halt the ability of lobbyists to shower lawmakers with gifts and travel perks, garnered Senate approval by a 96-2 vote, with only Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sam Coburn (R-OK) opposing the measure. Revealing its true desire to move beyond the litany of corruption scandals in recent years, the White House, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), currently is focusing U.S. taxpayer funds to focus on the "ground zero" of corruption.

That bastion of political hi-jinx, folks, is precisely where you suspected it might be: in the nation of Armenia. Yes, Armenia. Not America -- the beacon of light which shines unto the world for all to follow -- but Armenia.

According to planning documents recently that The Peacock Report recently located, USAID intends to spend about $10 million on a program administered by independent contractors to help molds the minds of Armenian youth so that they don't grow up to be "kleptocrats" who enter government affairs solely for their self-enrichment. Leading by example, the U.S. government is going to lead the Armenians away from their political culture of what the agency calls "kleptocracy."

According to the official Statement of Work, the purpose of the "Mobilizing Action Against Corruption (MAAC)" initiative, as it is known, is to reduce corruption by:

1) providing Armenians with opportunities that would enable them to help combat corrupt practices that they encounter, 2) changing social attitudes and behavior among youth and adults to help them become attuned to the consequences of corruption and more likely to oppose or confront corruption, and 3) enabling systems-level changes to prevent or reduce corruption. This activity will contribute to the overall U.S. Government assistance efforts to reduce corruption in Armenia, including President Bush’s national strategy to internationalize efforts against kleptocracy.

As TPR has previously reported, President Bush's global "war on corruption" will cost U.S. taxpayers $750,000,000 in the next few years. Projects similar to the one that USAID has launched in Armenia are already underway in the national-security spheres of Moldova and Tanzania.

Seriously.

Feds Plan to Step Up Education Funding in South Central

The U.S. government is devising a plan to infuse much-needed additional funding into education and training programs for disadvantaged youth, a program that purportedly is designed to address the root causes behind the exclusion of some youth from these programs.

One catch: you won't see these funds going toward the kids of South Central Los Angeles or any other U.S. city or rural region. Rather, it's a project for Nepal, in South Central Asia.

According to a planning document that TPR located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database:

This multifaceted program will combine literacy and life skills education; technical and vocational training linked to employment; training to increase agricultural productivity and raise rural incomes; and targeted scholarships for disadvantaged youth (e.g., internally displaced persons, low caste groups, ethnic minorities and girls) to increase access to primary, secondary and higher level (10+2 and college certificate level) education.

A "cross-cutting theme" throughout this education and training endeavor is "conflict resolution, peace building, and the promotion of human rights" among disadvantaged and conflict-related displaced youth, the document says. Pending future congressional approval, the U.S. Agency for International Development will expand the this five-year, $12-16 million initiative to also include "former Maoist combatants," it says.

The "Education for Income Generation and Conflict Mitigation in Nepal" program, as it is known, will be carried out with the assistance of a still-to-be-selected private contractor.

ANALYSIS: As former U.S. Education Secretary Richard W. Riley once wrote, "too many young people are giving up on America and dropping out, living lives of anger, poverty and spiritual numbness. And too many Americans are separated from each other by the pernicious belief that children who are poor and disadvantaged do not have what it takes to reach high levels of achievement."

Consequently, Riley added that the U.S. "must target resources to where needs are greatest and in amounts sufficient to make a difference. Federal support is currently spread too thinly across too many schools. ESEA [Elementary & Secondary Education Act] programs must target communities and schools that have the least capacity, and the greatest need, to create conditions for high-performance teaching and learning."

While it is true that the federal government funds U.S. education programs to the tune of billions of dollars annually, the continued existence of crumbling elementary and high schools nationwide combined with the exhorbitant and prohibitive cost of earning a college degree raises questions as to why Washington, D.C., policymakers are steering critical education-centric funds outside of, rather than throughout, the United States.

We Are a Beacon of Light, Part III

The worldwide extension of the U.S. government's leadership in combatting corruption and waste is continuing unabated, evidenced by the latest plan by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to deploy yet another Senior Anticorruption Advisor -- this time, our nation gets to shine as a Pure Beacon of Light Unto the World in the nation of Moldova.

Yes, Moldova. Don't ask me, pick up a map, alright?

Luckily, the candidate for this position won't be diving blindly into the deep, dark waters of Moldova, as the Moldovians (Or is it Moldovites? Moldandmildewites? I sure don't know) already have launched their own anticorruption initiative, centering upon, according to recently obtained USAID document:

1) Reforming the judiciary;

2) Strengthening the monitoring capacity of civil society and mass media;

3) Preventing and curbing corruption in the health sector;

4) Curbing corruption in tax, customs, and police bodies;

5) Reforming the Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption.

Just for the record, The Peacock Report would like to point out that the government of Moldova wants to pursue the above-mentioned reforms in its own country, rather than elsewhere, such as in Washington, D.C., or on Wall Street.

Perhaps the government of the United States can learn something from this inwardly reflective approach. But, in the meantime, USAID intends to unveil a concurrent version of this endeavor in and for Moldova, since the Moldovians obviously can't be trusted to do this on their own.

As previously reported here at TPR, USAID has increased its planned investment into international anticorruption projects (but no, not in the U.S.) to $750,000,000. Similarly, as documented by our sister site Exhortations ot the Oblivious, USAID is commencing this noble venture by helping the government of Tanzania to fight corruption.

We'll show those Tanzanian devils and Moldovians how to get it right. Right?