The Peace Corps in Russia
In the article "Volunteers to Break New Ground," May 13, the author discusses in depth the type of assistance future Peace Corps volunteers will offer Russia and the struggling ex-Soviet states - all aimed at helping the locals to understand our capitalist system.
As a volunteer in Nepal from 1987 to 1989, I learned that the Peace Corps in fact has three stated goals: 1) to offer skilled labor, 2) to share our American culture with the peoples of other countries, and 3) upon our return to the States, to share our experiences of living in a foreign culture with our fellow citizens.
American arrogance in assuming that we have all the right answers can be a dangerous and ultimately alienating perspective. Peace Corps volunteers are diplomats as well as teachers, engineers, and bankers - and we can learn a great deal from the people and cultures we travel so far to help. Scott Durbee, Vashon, Wash. The needs of the Serbian people
Regarding the editorial "Bosnia's Nightmare," April 22: The fact of the matter is that Yugoslavia has been gerrymandered and cut to pieces, to the detriment of the Serbian people, by a gang led by the Germans to suit their interests. The Western nations, including the United States, have tiptoed around unilateral German ultimatums.
For the Serbs, this is nothing but the "Old German Order," in the Balkans and in Eastern Europe. Thus, two new future German puppet states have been "recognized" by Luxembourg and Denmark, but nobody thought of asking the 2.5 million Serbs who have lived on these territories for 1,400 years what state they would like to live in.
It does not bode well for the future of the world and the "New World Order" if the guiding light of that order is flagrant self-interest of regional powers to the detriment of the smaller states. Justice must have her place. The display of the "New World Order" in Europe, on the ashes of what used to be Yugoslavia, is clearly unjust.
Through the right of self-determination, two peoples, Croats and Muslims, have been encouraged and helped to form the independent states of Croatia and Bosnia, while the Serbs inhabiting the same territories have not only been denied that right but have been bullied, threatened, terrorized, and killed for requesting it. The Serbs, therefore, have nothing to be ashamed of. They are defending their homes, their land, and their country. They prefer to recognize their own country, and not other peoples' newl y announced countries, with or without German approval. William Perazich, Cupertino, Calif.
