The Power of One: Catching up with a former council maverick in Africa

Posted inNews

The Power of One: Catching up with a former council maverick in Africa

Intern

John Hummel had the life: A house in Bend. His own law firm. A seat on the city council. Lots of friends. But he wanted a change.

And change he got.

As a Project Manager for The Carter Center's Rule of Law Program in Liberia, Hummel is now working to develop a functioning justice system in a war-torn, economically-devastated West African country. He lives in Liberia's capitol, Monrovia. His house, which he shares with lizards and the occasional cockroach, is surrounded by a razor-wall fence. The area is so dangerous he doesn't walk outside at night. He rarely has power and never has hot water.

And he's got another problem: What to do with the chicken?

"I was invited by the Traditional Women of Liberia to come to their weekly meeting so they could officially welcome me to the country. They greeted me wearing their brightly colored traditional clothes, and sang, danced, and played music. They then presented me with a live chicken. I was honored. However, the chicken now lives in my yard," he wrote in a series of email correspondence. "I have no idea what to do with it."

Posted inOpinion

Anti-Union Astroturfing

Intern

Grass roots right wing style. In the PR game they call it "Astroturfing." It means creating a movement or organization that looks like it's "grassroots" but really isn't.

One of the more noxious sprouts of Astroturf we've encountered this campaign season is an outfit called the Employee Freedom Action Committee. The Washington, DC-based group is registered as a non-profit, which means it doesn't have to disclose where its money comes from. But it operates out of the offices of lobbyist Richard Berman, a notorious Astroturfer who has operated front groups supporting the restaurant, liquor and tobacco industries and opposing (among other things) consumer protection, animal rights, increases in the minimum wage - and, almost needless to say, labor unions.

In a 2007 "60 Minutes" segment, correspondent Morley Safer described how Berman "has come up with a clever system of non-profit 'educational' entities. Companies can make charitable donations to these groups, which … are neutral sounding but 'educating' with a particular point of view, all perfectly legal."

Right now, EFAC is flooding the Oregon airwaves with an ad attacking Democratic US Senate candidate Jeff Merkley. "Some union bosses and their politician friends want to effectively do away with privacy when it comes to voting on joining a union," the narrator says. The screen shows a picture of Merkley looking sinister, then a scene of a big, scary-looking guy - a "union boss," presumably - looming over a poor little old lady.

Posted inOpinion

Thanks for Cheating: Working around Bend Broadband, travels to Cuba, more

Intern

Opening ceremonies from beijing.The Olympics will wrap up this weekend in Beijing and the world can stop caring about things like trampoline, badminton, and air pistol shooting for another four years. Speaking of the Olympics, was anyone as indignant as Upfront over the blatant cheating by the Chinese gymnastics team who essentially rolled out a bunch of prepubescent girls for its team competition, where IOC rules require that all competitors be at least 16 years of age or turn 16 during the calendar year of the Games? While the Chinese insisted that the flat-chested babes it put forward were indeed 16 years old, the New York Times found evidence that several of China's gymnasts were as young as 13 and 14, a huge advantage in a sport where physics wreak havoc on larger and heavier bodies.

The proof appears to be in the pudding. The average height of the Chinese team members is 4 feet 9 inches and they weigh in at an average of 77 pounds - less than some dogs in this town. By contrast, the US team averages over five feet and weighs about 30 pounds more than the Chinese.

The contrasts were no more apparent than when the two teams stood next to each other, the muscular, curved bodies of the Americans contrasting sharply with the underdeveloped bodies of their sticklike counterparts.

Posted inOpinion

No Free Pass on Bike Death

Intern

Letter of the Week

 This week's featured letter comes from Daniel Brewster, who happens to deliver the Source's downtown route by bike and knows a thing or two about the interactions between drivers and bikers. For more on the tragic death of Keith Moon, see this week's Boot, Page 8.

Posted inOpinion

Let Love Rule the Road

Intern

Just when my faith in the local population falters, along comes inspirational words like those from "The Mailbox" contributor Heather McKenzie (8/14).

After watching this morning's continued news coverage of the recently-killed bicyclist, I tended toward the negative "How many SUV drivers have been killed by bicyclists?" or "If only he'd been wearing his helmet.

Posted inOpinion

It Ain’t Easy Being Green

Intern

It's great to be poor in the green movement! Now when I ride my bike, it doesn't have to be because my car broke down
three months ago and I have no way to fix it, it can be because I am reducing my carbon footprint. Now, when I eat two small organic meals a day to save money, it's because I am only taking just my fair share from the world food bank.

Posted inOpinion

No Glue Traps

Intern

I would like to publicly thank Ace Hardware for agreeing to withdraw "Stick-Em" glue traps from their shelves.
Ace Hardware readily acknowledged the inhumanity of these traps - the animals caught in the glue suffer for days before they finally die of starvation, dehydration, self-mutilation, and shock while patches of skin, fur, or feathers are torn from their bodies as they struggle to escape.

Posted inOpinion

Stop the Cheap Shots

Intern

In the "Best of Central Oregon" issue, I noticed a little blurb in the eponymous section reading, "Best Way to Tell Someone's a Ski Instructor: Because He Keeps Telling You He's a Ski Instructor." The author, (BL), goes on to make comparisons to rafting guides and "those bizarro dudes who smack each other in Drake Park.

Posted inNews

Sweating it Out at R3: And why Vengeance Creek rules the local metal scene

Mike Bookey

 
Sound Check drove the dreaded 32 miles down to LaPine Friday night for
the R3 Festival and learned three very important things; Vengeance
Creek are Central Oregon's metal royalty, clever beat-boxing can steal
the show and you can three-person sandwich grind to metal.

As the
sun set on a triple-digit August night, band after band played to a
half-interested crowd switching between the two trailer truck stages.
The crowd grew as the sun descended and the local rap group Povciti
took the stage giving the crowd its promised dose of local rap and
properly woke them up. Sound Check learned from this set that you can
apparently find Povciti's Epic and H@ze in the Old Mill District and
that they're established local celebrities. Well, if they weren't local
celebrities before then they are now. The duo laid their underground
hip-hop routine on thick and brought the crowd to its feet with their
finale - a freestyle rap accompanied by master beat boxer Dain
Strothoff. The kid can beat-box like nobody's business to every kind of
beat imaginable and stole the show from right under the duo. Whoever
this kid is, Sound Check contemplated that he could give Person People
(keyword "could") a run for their money if accompanied by the right
freestyle artist. Maybe it was the possible heat stoke, but our thirty
bucks entrance fee was justified right then and there.

Sign up for newsletters

Get the best of The Source - Bend, Oregon directly in your email inbox.

Sending to:

Gift this article