A United Nations Family Odyssey

Roy D. Morey

Description

Live vicariously with the author and his wife and join in their adventures in Thailand, Samoa, China and Vietnam serving with the United Nations Development Programme.
Seventeen of the twenty-two years the author served with the United Nations Development Programme were spent with his wife, Delores, on assignments in Thailand, Samoa, China and Vietnam. The main focus of the book is a collection of vignettes describing experiences of living in these four countries.
Some stories are humorous and are to be read just for fun (e.g., living conditions on a small isolated island). Other stories are serious and somber (e.g., retracing major battle sites of the Vietnam War). Some are pure adventure (e.g., the midnight visit to the leatherback turtle beach). Fascinating travel adventures in Malaysia and Burma (Myanmar) are also included.
The first two chapters describe the author’s introduction to values, politics and social justice issues. In addition, the author describes his experiences as a congressional staffer and college professor.

Sujets

• Organización de las Naciones Unidas
• Biography
• Asia-Pacific
• Vietnam
• United Nations
• Viêt Nam
• Autobiography
• China
• Gerald Ford
• Organisation des Nations unies

Informations

• Publié par: iUniverse
• Date de parution: 05 février 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781663249784
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

A UNITED NATIONS FAMILY ODYSSEY
Living and Working in Thailand, South Pacific, China and Vietnam
Roy D. Morey


A UNITED NATIONS FAMILY ODYSSEY LIVING AND WORKING IN THAILAND, SOUTH PACIFIC, CHINA AND VIETNAM
 
Copyright © 2023 Roy D. Morey.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
 
 
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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Cover photo by Shutterstock/UNDP.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4970-8 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6632-4978-4 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022912750
 
 
 
iUniverse rev. date: 02/02/2023
CONTENTS
Preface
1. Introduction to Values, Politics and Social Justice
2. Congressional Politics and the Eclipse of the Republican Party
3. Granville to Washington to New York
4. Travel and Exploration in Thailand and Burma
5. Samoa and its Neighbors: The Enchantment of Polynesia
6. Living and Learning in China
7. Living in Vietnam on the Cusp of Change
Epilogue

To our wonderful grandchildren,
Ali, Adam, Sara, Mia, Nathaniel, Andrew, Catherine, Anna
PREFACE
I n the interest of clarity in reading the first three chapters, it should be noted that I consider myself an accidental professional. Without training or advanced planning, I pursued a career in three different professions. When I was a college sophomore, I decided I would become a lawyer. Two years later, I changed my mind and I enrolled in a graduate program in Government rather than law school. Years later, I was a tenured Associate Professor and accepted an unsolicited appointment on the Nixon White House staff in 1971—never to return to the academic world. In 1978, I joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and retired after twenty-two years of service. It is the UN career that affords me the opportunity to write this book.
My years at the White House, State Department and UNDP are covered in a book I wrote in 2014, The United Nations at Work in Asia: An Envoy’s Account of Development in China, Vietnam, Thailand and the South Pacific . Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2004. The 2014 book is a more scholarly description and analysis of the development work in which I was engaged and the national public leaders with whom I worked. While this book covers the same twenty-two-year time period, its focus and purpose are quite different from the first book. As the title of this book suggests, the focus of this one is on the experiences my spouse, Delores, daughter Carolyn and I had living abroad in Thailand, South Pacific. China and Vietnam. The main body of the book is a collection of vignettes of those experiences. Some stories have a serious focus and others are humorous and are intended to be read just for fun. There is a genre of literature referred to as books on living abroad. This book is in that category.
My personal editor for the book is a dear friend and former UNDP colleague, Robert England. He read and commented on the entire manuscript. Early on in the process, Robert informed me that while he greatly enjoyed the stories, they do not provide the reader with any idea of who I am as a person—where I received my values and how I became interested in politics. As a result of his suggestions, I added the first two chapters.
No doubt, everyone has a story describing how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted their lives, especially during 2020 and 2021 when it was ravaging every country on earth. In my case, Delores and I found a way to maintain our hope and sanity during the dreadful days of quarantine and lockdown. Most of this book was written during this period and we both looked forward to a positive activity each day. I did the writing and she did the typing.
My most imposing debt is to my wife and high school sweetheart, Delores. The book would never have come to fruition without her involvement as advisor and typist. My two daughters Diana Ditmanson and Carolyn Edds and son-in-law, Teall Edds provided support and encouragement. My parents, Lucretia and Douglas, were my first and most important teachers and provided wisdom, inspiration, advice and guidance.
A special thanks is extended to my nephew, Mark Aitken, for his technical advice in preparing the manuscript. I also wish to thank Bruce Marcotte for his technical support. I am grateful to Kay Judge who proofread the entire manuscript. I much appreciate the efforts of Susan Pearce for improving the quality of the photographs used in this book.
Over the years, the vignettes contained in the book have been told (perhaps more than once) to numerous friends and family members including Tim and Sandy Brancheau, Chuck and Linda Pilon, Richard and Donna Webb, Joe and Darlean Worischeck, Chuck and Vera Jones, Bill and Cathy Westwood, Marilyn Dresser, MaryAnne Fay, Pat Roberts and Bill Foster, Herb and Dorie Behrstock, Michael Gonzales, and Audrey Morey Gonzales, Brad Rich and Dick Bodorff. UNDP colleagues who made such a difference for me include William Draper III, James Gustave Speth, Jordan Ryan, Romy Garcia, Alan Doss, Kerstin Leitner, Jens Wandel, Yannick Glemarec, Jan Mattson, Ameerah Haq, Elena Martinez, Tom Cox, Sarah Burns, Liuga Faumui, Nguyen Xuan Thuan and many others too numerous to mention.
 
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Values, Politics and Social Justice
Child Development 101
T he French use the term formation rather than child development. I find it a more descriptive term because it brings to mind the shaping and forming of a child’s character. There were three major sources of influence that affected my formation. The first were the fundamental values I inherited from my parents. The second were the lessons I learned from listening to my parents’ life experiences that had occurred before my birth. The third formational influence was the external environment in which I was raised.
Fundamental Values
Parents will be the most important teachers a child will ever have; that is because children inherit the most fundamental values from their parents. If parents do not have a sound set of values, their children will suffer for the rest of their lives.
The values parents teach do not require a religious base. However, in my case that happened to be true. My mother, Lucretia, was my primary teacher. As I grew older, my father played an important role as well. Mom was a devout Roman Catholic from a large immigrant French family. Therefore, her values were based on her interpretation of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Fortunately, she did not clutter my mind with a lot of questions and quotations from the Bible. Rather, she “cut to the chase” and condensed Christ’s teachings into a handful of basic principles to live by.
She started with compassion and empathy. She always told me I was a lucky boy. I had two loving parents and siblings (two sisters Audrey and Donna). I had a comfortable and safe place to live.
I had plenty to eat; I had an opportunity to go to school and would develop nice friends inside and outside the extended family. I was reminded that many children (including those in my hometown of Reno, Nevada) did not have some or any of those blessings and I should never ignore the suffering and misfortune of others. She added that I was not too young to start thinking about those in need. By the time I was five years old, my household chore was to dispose of the garbage each day. I was paid twenty-five cents a week for doing so. In the midst of the Depression, a quarter was a generous sum for a five-year old. But the idea was that I would save most of it to help pay for something I wanted such as a pair of ice skates. After World War II began, Mom spoke frequently about the starving children in China. I decided I would give five cents of my weekly allowance to the starving children. My mother combined my contribution with hers and sent it to the Maryknoll Fathers, many of whom were serving in China.
She also taught me empathy. She told me the only way to be happy and successful in life was to be friendly and harmonious with others. To achieve this goal, she emphasized the need to learn what other people had on their minds and try to understand and share their thoughts and feelings. My father later built on this idea when we started talking about what life would be like when I was older and the day in the future when I would get a job and start making a living. He said that getting a good job and keeping it not only would require the application of my intelligence, skills and knowledge, but I would also need to work in a friendly way with others. On more than one occasion he said, “Roy, it’s nice to be smart, but if you don’t learn to get along with others, you will not go very far.”
The other Christian principle my mother emphasized was equality. She told me that there is a popular song that tells us we are all God’s children and added it is really the truth. She told me that as a person, I