Operation Survivor - Survivor Corps and TroopTube

I got an email from Dani Sevilla of Survivor Corps, which is "a global network of people helping each other to overcome the effects of war and conflict and give back to their communities."

They want me to help spread the word about their program for U.S. veterans and service members, Operation Survivor. That's a no-brainer, of course.

Here is the info on their Operation Survivor program:

Social Media News Release

Survivor Corps Supports Returning
Troops and Their Families!

You Can Help!

Operation Survivor

Ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are creating a generation of veterans in the United States from all branches of the armed services and all 50 states who are struggling to overcome physical and psychosocial injuries. Most combat veterans convalescing in military hospitals across the country will survive physically, but getting on with their lives after returning home to their families and communities is proving a significant challenge for hundreds of thousands. Among the 1.6 million who have served since 2001, suicide is on the rise, as is unemployment and incidents of substance abuse and domestic violence. The successful reintegration of returning service members is an issue that will have a long-lasting impact on American society, and may become the single defining struggle facing this new generation of veterans. Survivor Corps and its partners are determined to avoid the mistakes made when veterans returned from Vietnam, which resulted in tens of thousands of post-war suicides and over 200,000 men and women living on the streets. To head off this tragic outcome, Survivor Corps will build peer support programs at the community level that will bring service members and veterans together for mutual support and encourage both individual responsibility and collective action to help others in need.

Survivor Corps is offering an alternative “treatment” that can be made readily available in all communities, regardless of proximity to traditional military or government centers of support. Our approach is nimble enough to address the needs of individual survivors, while still broad enough to build a coalition of survivors and service providers working to effect long-term positive change. This new program will help the recovery and reintegration of hundreds of thousands of returning U.S. service members at a critical time for them and their country.

Also, here is a link to Troop Tube. I saw a report on it last night on CNN. Basically, it's the US military's response to YouTube. So many families are separated and this is a great way to keep in touch. They have it broken down by the different divisions of the armed forces and they even have a section for troop supporters for people who want to just send messages to let all the troops know how much we appreciate what they're doing.


So I highly recommend clicking on both links.

Thanks.

More -
InternetNews.com - Realtime IT News: Social Media for the Military

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Platon's Photos from the New Yorker

Sergeant Matthis Chiroux, honorably discharged in 2007 after five years of service, refused to be redeployed in Iraq

Like I posted earlier, I'm into podcasts now.

I branched out and downloaded some from the New Yorker. On Tuesday I was listening to one with the photographer, Platon. In it he talks about taking photos of those in the service either before or after their deployment to Iraq.

Kesha Brown, photographed at the United States Military Academy at West Point during graduation week

Listening to his description of the photos is great and a couple of those descriptions had me near tears. Granted, I was listening to this while in transit on the Seoul subway system, so I was in that awkward situation where you know you're tearing up but you're holding back as to not make the people around you uncomfortable. I managed, but barely.

Here is the link to the podcast: Platon on photographing members of the military (you need iTunes to view this link).

And here is the link to the rest of Platon's photos in this series: Service

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Are You SERIOUS?!!!

Thanks to my trusty LG-LB2800 DMB cell phone, I'm actually plugging into more Korean broadcasts. At home, I'm strictly a CNN International gal because cable companies are only allowed to carry one English news company (don't ask me why.) The rest of my news is gathered from the Internet. However, with my phone and my commute which consists of a 30 to 45 minute bus ride out of Seoul to Kyonggi-do, I've got time to tune in. Now I find myself firing up my phone and tuning into Korean TV or radio instead or reading or listening to music on my PDA. In fact, I got first hand confirmation that the new Korean pop group the Wonder Girls really do suck because I saw a performance, if you want to call it that.

Anyway, on Friday I was on the school bus heading back to Seoul. I was listening to Arirang radio and heard a story about officers in the Korean military who'd faked Philipino degrees to gain promotions.

What the hell?

Anyway, the reporter said that the military claimed there was no way to check this information. This is the same lame excuse used in the other degree scandals. What the hell do you mean there is no way to check?!!!

You find the school's phone number, pick up the phone, you call the school, you ask for the registrar department and you find out the process for verifying whether someone did or didn't graduate from the damn school. If you don't want to speak to someone, in this day and age you can find that information on the school's website. Again, as I've written before, no legitimate school wants people running around claiming they're graduates when they're not. It's up to employeers to verify this information, period.

Granted, it's best if people don't lie, but Korea is very much a one chance only society in some ways. If you fail the entrance exam or have a bad day when you take whatever test it is you have to take to get a job or even an interview, you're screwed. As a result of this, one strike situation, the temptation to lie is a very serious one. That's going to take Korean society changing and allowing people to move in or move up in different ways. However, that's not something I'm willing to theorize about at this point. That's up to Koreans to recognize and change.

Just don't give me this b.s. that you can't verify credentials. It's done all the time, except in Korea, it seems.

Sources:
AFP: SKorea's fake degree scandal spreads to military
Wake T-Rex: Lovely Just Lovely, Korean Military Officers Fake Filipino University Degrees

JoongAng Ilbo: Fake degree scandals hit the military

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