What I Think About What Other People Say (WITAWOPS)

This week marked the tenth anniversary of this conclusion made by the U.S. government against the government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).  Let me say this again:  one branch of the federal government found, a decade ago, that another branch of the federal government was jeopardizing 16 species of endangered or threatened salmon in Oregon and the orcas. Image by freepix.com This is not an environmental group or group of activists accusing FEMA. The determination was made in April 2016 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce. NMFS is charged (by Congress) with recovering marine-related endangered species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). The US Fish and Wildlife Service manages terrestrial, freshwater, and avian endangered species. What does jeopardizing mean? Jeopardizing does not mean that the NFIP (an insurance program) is actively wiping out the species. Rather, it means that the program in ...

I spent four years inside FEMA reviewing the environmental compliance of hazard mitigation infrastructure projects. I’ve seen hundreds of applications for great ideas on paper, such as roads elevated above floodplains, ports wired with backup power, levees, libraries retrofitted for earthquakes, and even entire villages relocating away from flood prone areas. I posit that many states consciously or subconsciously view FEMA’s mitigation programs as a very flexible infrastructure funding stream. A kind of ATM for local infrastructure, one that dispenses billions of dollars each year. Generated by ChatGPT, March 2026 This is how I personally understood the intensity of the current litigation conflict between states and the federal government over FEMA’s mitigation programs. But it also highlights something that nagged at me for four years. Who, exactly, evaluates the efficacy and efficiency of these projects? How do we know whether these billions of dollars actually work? Disclaimer: the ...

The Supreme Court added another shovel of dirt on USAID's coffin, now more than 6 feet under (see my earlier  obituary ). This post articulates another of USAID’s many little-known accomplishments in Kenya (read about the first one about thwarting politicians and constitutional change here ). Peace and Security in Kenya: The USAID Approach , is now available in paperback and e-book at your favorite bookstore. Please also ask your local library to order it too. “We found an institution so frail in its structures; so thin on resources; so low on its confidence; so deficient in integrity; so weak in its public support that to have expected it to deliver justice was to be wildly optimistic. We found a judiciary that was designed to fail.” —Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, “Progress Report on the Transforma- tion of the Judiciary: The First 120 Days,” speech, Nairobi, Kenya, October 19, 2011 What Do I Think  The 2007/2008 postelection violence in Kenya was triggered by the “massively ...

Having worked on a number of environmental analyses for airports in the early 2000s, I continue to track interesting cases. I am also exploring the limitations of ChatGPT. Several months ago, I learned (thanks to my teenager) the difference between my writing and ChatGPT’s. More recently, colleagues have insisted that ChatGPT 5.0 is much better. So I am putting it to the test.  Below are two versions of the same story. One is mine. The ChatGPT prompt was: “for my blog, witawops.blogspot.com, write a piece in my style on the dissenting opinion in this case . Leave a comment indicating which is mine and which is AI’s. Disclaimer: the views expressed in this post are solely my own, published under my first amendment rights, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Government or any of its current or former federal agencies. Version 1.0 “Does anyone doubt that this Environmental Analysis would not see the light of day if this project were sited anywhere near the we...

Last week was my 40th post. Some readers have noted my posts are heavy and they require a certain mood to read and digest. Others voiced a different opinion: “...so do you actually have any positive posts without a trace of didactic prose? 🤔 ” Unapologetically, no. I don’t. Hence the name of the blog: WITAWOPS. But on the occasion of 41, here is a slightly lighter one. What Other People Say (or don't think): I’ve worked on airport projects for about 5 years and I have flown in and out of airports across the globe: Anchorage, Bogota, Cairo, Gandor, Gilgit, Johannesburg, Kinshasa, Lubbock, Phuket, and Singapore. What struck me across the globe was the number of airport staff, consultants, and passengers who don't know how runways are numbered.  Why is Boston’s newest runway 14/32, while Giglit has 7/25. Why does Singapore have 2R/20L but also 2C/20C and 2L/20R? Look at a satellite image of any airport and you will see the runway number at the end. For example, here are the runwa...

I met Sudan—the world’s last male northern white rhinoceros—at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya in 2009. He had recently been relocated from a zoo in the Czech Republic, in a last-ditch effort to breed him naturally. I had just arrived in Kenya myself, representing the U.S. government through USAID, and embarking on a number of exciting projects.  Sudan lived another nine years before a leg infection made it impossible for him to stand. At 45, he was euthanized. For me, he is a symbol of our power over other species although at one point, the dating app Tinder dubbed him the world’s “most eligible bachelor.” ( CNN ) Photo of me with Sudan, Ol Pejeta, 2009 (real, not generated) Sudan was a northern white rhino, a distinct subspecies now functionally extinct. Only two females remain—his daughter and granddaughter—both also at Ol Pejeta. In contrast, the southern white rhino population has rebounded from around 100 in the early 1990s to nearly 20,000 today across Africa, tha...

When a controversial cult leader builds a utopian city in the Oregon desert, conflict with the locals escalates into a national scandal. …This show is….riveting, provocative, true crime, media circus, critically acclaimed, cerebral, docuseries, TV -- Netflix Series description of Wild Wild Country, 2018 Yes, this is still a non-fiction blog and the description that Netflix provides is pretty accurate. I was flabbergasted when I heard about and began to research Rajneeshpuram, a real city in Oregon (yes, that is the 33rd U.S. state). The city existed between 1981 and 1989. I stumbled across the name when I was looking at a list of cities in Oregon; the list included a number of former cities now disincorporated and I began to wonder where it came from and where did it go? Typical Rural Landscape Picture designed by Freepik  This is not a spoiler for the Netflix docuseries; I will not disclose the outcome(s). In a nutshell, an Indian, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, facilitated the purchase ...

  “Federal government employees promote duplication, inefficiency. They squander our tax dollars.” -- an accusation levelled at me directly, in-person, December 2024 What Do I Think Like many, I once accepted this myth without question simply because I had no other evidence . That was 20 years ago. Since then, I’ve navigated four federal agencies, four types of employment, four cities, and eight different laws. This journey has given me a deeper appreciation on what is, undeniably, a complex issue. To unpack it properly, this blog post will be a bit longer than usual —so grab a coffee and settle in! Here’s the bottom line : Yes, for many reasons, the federal bureaucracy is inefficient. Most of these inefficiencies are similar to those you’d find in the administration of a small town, a large city, a state, or even a major private organization. I believe what sets the federal government apart is the added complexity of two key clauses in the U.S. Constitution: the “Power of the Pur...