Curious?

I just filed my Privacy Act request with the National Security Agency. The NSA makes filing such requests very convenient - you can do so online, fax or mail.

Of course, filling out the form probably means that I'm connecting new dots for NSA analysts regarding my many old emails, addresses and phone numbers.

After researching a novel like Fear of Beauty - set in Afghanistan, told from conflicting points of view of a rural and illiterate Afghan woman and an Army Ranger, with a plot focusing on religious extremism, weapons and war, conflict among members of a provincial reconstructions team, surveillance and more - I'd be surprised to have not hit some nerve. The same goes with writing and researching material for YaleGlobal Online,  a job that entails reading reports of all types from around the globe, including the offerings of WikiLeaks, and posting a full range of opinions on numerous topics, with equal measure of praise and criticism for US and other country's methods in their global dealings.

And then there is today's Facebook posting that suggests the leadership of NSA should be held responsible for devising a system that extends access to so much personal data to hundreds of thousands of contract employees, at excessive wages, including a young man who dropped out of high school. The NSA's leaders have lost control of this system as was predicted back in 2006 when details first emerged. All responsible should be fired.

With luck, I'd also expect the analysts to quickly spot my long background in mystery writing and shelve specific concerns about me as a security risk.

One can only hope.

June 13: The Des Moines Register reiterates my reaction of two days ago that more than one person is responsible for this leak.  "It seems the leak is the result of the government’s slipshod management of classified national secrets.... the true scandal is inside the NSA and the CIA: Based on Snowden’s telling, the United States government entrusted a high school dropout who began his career at the National Security Agency as a security guard with some of the most sensitive national security secrets with potentially explosive international repercussions."

Dangerous

Fiction promotes new ways of thinking, suggests Neil Gaiman, journalist and prolific writer. "Fiction is dangerous because it lets you into other people's heads," he said, speaking at BookExpo 2013. "It shows you that the world doesn't have to be like the one you live in."

We can imagine new ways of doing business, relationships and choices - and our imagination is the first step to making new ways a reality. And it's now wonder that those who support the status quo demand authenticity in their fiction.

Illustration, courtesy of Peter Kemp, Nuvolo set and Wikimedia Commons.  

Order

Sometimes nature prefers order, too.

Provincial Reconstruction Teams are wrapping up their work in the provinces of Afghanistan and saying farewells. US Army Spc Brian Smith-Dutton writes a beautiful article for Clarksville Online about the agriculture PRT in Khowst.

“Our emphases has been row planting, basic crop rotation, soil management for pest control, animal care, crop selection, green house management and low tunnel green house development,” said US Army Major Gregory Motz.

The team convinced some Afghan farmers that planting corn in rows would produce a larger crop. And one young Afghan farmer had a wager with his father over rows - and by the end of the season could show that rows produced more corn with half the seed. 

In the article, Motz described the work as the best job he's had in the Army. "To be able to see the progress the Afghans have made in a year and know that it isn’t because we did it for them, but with them."

Fear of Beauty tells the story of a fictional Provincial Reconstruction Team, struggling to provide similar agriculture advice in a remote part of northern Helmand Province - and of course, one of the characters is keen on wheat.  And as Motz suggests, the most successful team members are those who focus on "working with" rather than "did it for them."

Photo of corn field in Afghanistan, no rows, courtesy of 1stLt Kurt Stahl, US Marines and Wikimedia Commons; corn field row in Indiana, courtesy of Huw Williams (Huwmanbeing) and Wikimedia Commons.

GMO

Distributing genetically modified wheat seed to Afghan villages divides US aid workers in Fear of Beauty. One character wants to push large-scale projects while others support moving slowly with small, manageable, sustainable projects to build trust.

Of course, full understanding about biotech crops - the science, the economics and the law - is not high in the United States let alone developing countries like Afghanistan.

"U.S. lawmakers are pushing measures to require labeling of products made from genetically modified crops, citing health and environmental concerns, a proposal opposed by farm groups and sellers such as the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a Washington-based trade group," reports Jack Kaskey for Bloomberg.com.  

Why oppose disclosure labeling unless there is something to hide? Consumers do have a right to know what they are ingesting.

More attention is directed to GMO crops after a stray wheat plant, left over from Monsanto research nearly a decade a go, was found in an Oregon field. Japan and South Korea suspended orders of US wheat until the shipments can be inspected. Property owners should inquire about possible consequences to pesticide-resistant crops - and neighboring property owners should not have to endure unwanted intrusions of pollen from GMO plants.

The reports give a whole new meaning to patrolling wheat fields.

Photo of US and Afghan soldiers patrolling a wheat field, searching for IEDs in Ghazni Province, courtesy of Sgt. Michael J. MacLeod, US Army and Wikimedia Commons.

Peace by piece

Every individual has a role in ensuring peaceful communities - with no toleration for bullying. Before offering any critical comment, we could pause and strive for a tone that achieves support and compliance rather than resistance.

There is so much to be learned at school, it can be overwhelming for teachers and students alike. But how to treat fellow human beings should not be neglected. Most families teach these lessons at home, but we cannot count on that.  A culture of bullying can quickly develop and take hold of communities, as described in Fear of Beauty: "More often than not, we stood back and watched as fellow villagers were bullied, hoping to avoid such encounters. Ashamed, I didn't blame Mari and Leila for resenting the rest of us."

A Piece Full World offers eloquent reflection on the complexities of bullying and offers reminders that we can all do better, one individual at a time, one school at a time, one community at a time.

Drawing of the schoolhouse, courtesy of a Piece Full World.

Extremism

A few blame many for a senseless crime, and perhaps that's one definition of extremism. Yasmin Albhai Brown writes for the Independent about receiving hate mail regarding the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby on a London street:

"What’s it got to do with me or the millions of other blameless British Muslims? We hate Islamicist brutes more than any outsiders ever could. They ruin our futures and hopes. And at moments of high tension, the most  liberal and democratic of us fantasise about transporting them all to a remote, cold island, their own dismal caliphate  where they could preach to each other  and die....

"Around the world one finds disaffected Muslims who are consumed with bloodlust,  who have lost the capacity for dialogue and  compromise, who seem to have given  up on the best of human virtues – compassion, tolerance, freedom, diversity –  and who are disconnected from enlightened, earlier Muslim civilizations. Grievances have mutated into generalised brutishness."  

The only way to defeat such extremism is for the tolerant, fragmented as we may be, to link with others who may not think exactly alike, but who do promote tolerance.  And of course, that's what happens in Fear of Beauty, when strangers find they have more in common, in an alliance against extremism, than they may with family and friends.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and AgnosticPreachersKid.

Unreported crime

Reporting criminal acts combined with enforcement keeps crime at bay.

"Following a seven-year investigation, the Department of Education has fined Yale $165,000 for failing to report four incidents of forcible sex offenses in 2001 and 2002, according to an April 19 letter to the Yale administration," reports Cynthia Hua for the Yale Daily News.

The Clery Act is not new and has been in force in the United States since 1990.

Failure to report campus crimes - and how a ruthless staff member takes advantage of that - was the topic of my first book, Alaska Gray, published in 1994. Jane McBride arrived in Sitka, expecting to begin working as finance director. But she arrives and the job vanishes. She stays and asks questions and that results in the murder of a student on campus - a young native artist.

Hiding or downgrading reports of criminal activity do not protect an institution. The criminal acts will continue unimpeded, whether it's in Alaska, Afghanistan, or institutions of higher education like Penn State and Yale University.

Transparency is essential. If institutions cannot endure transparency, they do not deserve to last.