In Their Own Words with Nico Colombant

A Homecomer's Story

2010-10-18T14:22:00.006-04:00

Press play to watch a preview of an upcoming web video series about an ex-con trying to help others like himself.

"It's very difficult. You've been taken out of society and put into another society that was man-made, to basically break you. That is my definition of being in jail. I don't think jails have been made to rehabilitate people." -- Eddie B. Ellis, Jr.

A Progressive Push

2010-10-05T17:24:00.005-04:00

Click on video to hear from protesters at the recent One Nation rally.

"We want to bring the war dollars home, and increase the peace." Baba Ras D, with the Washington Math Science Technology charter school.

"The electoral races that are going on have been clouded by this whole big media frenzy around Tea Party candidates." Jane English, with the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ.

"Anyone who is concerned about the way the country is going, don't just vote, get out and protest like we are doing." Kimberly Greene with Moratorium Now Coalition.

Nollywood Comes to America

2010-09-27T14:56:00.004-04:00

Check out this behind the scenes video of a day in the shoot of "Yori Yori Babes", a Nollywood Nigerian movie being filmed in the United States.

"African film is the second largest (film) industry in the world. Can you imagine that?" -- Bella Nickole, actress in Yori Yori Babes.

"We have Nollywood USA now, which is when they come over here and they tell our stories, because our lifestyle here is different than the lifestyle of the typical Nigerian living in Nigeria"-- Estella Ogbonna, on set fashion designer.

"Somehow we try to chain it, to show people who are in this diaspora, and people who are on a journey from this place to another country. That is the whole thing." -- Sam Onwuka, one of the producers.

An Archival Neighborhood Artist

2010-09-13T17:38:00.007-04:00

Watch this video to find out more about an artist who paints inner city landmarks in the U street corridor of the U.S. capital.

"I am Isabelle Spicer. I come from France and I started to paint very late, only five years ago, when I was in Moscow. It was like seeing the light for the first time."

"I live in downtown Washington, D.C., it's a neighborhood which is at the border between three communities, the African-American community, the white community and the Latino community."

"I see the city and this neighborhood with fresh eyes but on the other hand I'm very well integrated here."

The Tea Party and the legacy of MLK

2010-08-31T20:08:00.016-04:00

"It's to represent the founding fathers of America, their ideas, mainly focusing right now on faith, hope and charity" -- Holly Bennett

Bennett, who comes from Clearwater, Florida, explains the design on the T-shirt she wore to the recent Washington, D.C., "Restoring Honor" rally organized by Tea Party favorite, conservative talk show host Glenn Beck. It was held at the same location, and on the anniversary, of the 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr..

The timing of the rally angered tea party opponents, who believe the movement, which was started to oppose the policies of the first African American President Barack Obama, is racist.

"If a wolf puts on sheep's clothing, that doesn't mean it is no longer a wolf. It is still the wolf in sheep's clothing. So if you disguise racism today through another way, like Beck, it's the same form of racism. So we want to be able to fight those views so we can live the dream and what Dr. King put forward to us as a nation, as a people." -- Tehuti Imhotep

Imhotep, an artist, attended a rival rally called "Reclaim the Dream".

An American Griot

2010-08-26T17:28:00.002-04:00

"A griot is a combination of oral historian, teacher, storyteller, wise man. I'm working on the wisdom part." -- BABA-C, an acronym which stands for "Building Active Better Aware Communities."

Muslim Converts in America

2010-08-23T18:37:00.002-04:00

"I have been asked so many questions randomly on the street. I have been insulted, but I'll correct their insult. I've been asked questions, and I'll be more than happy to answer." -- Hazel Gomez, a convert to Islam living in Chicago.

Hazel Gomez grew up in the gang-scarred neighborhoods of Chicago, in a Catholic family of Puerto Rican and Mexican-American immigrants.

Her interest in Islam began in high school, when she says she noticed that Muslim girls were being treated with respect by other students. She remembers that her family believed her fascination with the faith was a “phase” that she would grow out of when she went off to college.

Instead, her interest intensified. Hazel Gomez has been a Muslim for seven years now. She works for an Islamic community service group on the west side of Chicago called Iman, which helps former prisoners reintegrate into society.

American media often focus on Muslim converts who turn to violence, such as Colleen La Rose, also known as Jihad Jane. She was recently accused of leaving the United States to kill a cartoonist in Europe who had made fun of the Prophet Muhammad. The Pennsylvania native pleaded innocent to that charge in court in March and her trial is pending.

There have been many stories about other Americans who have turned to Islam and violence, hoping to join international terrorist groups.

But less often told are the stories about Americans who convert to Islam to make their lives better and to help others. Hazel Gomez says she has reassured her parents that her conversion does not mean she is turning her back on the family’s Hispanic heritage and the values they taught her. The Chicago native proudly calls her herself an American Latina Muslim.

Hazel Gomez has a simple suggestion for Americans who still have doubts about Islam: keep an open mind, and try to meet someone of good character who practices the faith, and make a personal connection.

Rap Genesis

2010-08-06T18:22:00.001-04:00

Rapping may seem easy to some, just talking with music in the background.

But being a good rapper, and making it as a rapper, are extremely difficult propositions.

Many American teenagers have this dream, but most abandon the idea quickly, or don't try very hard.

Sab'rey Smith and his roommate Roger "Deuce" Brown, childhood friends from Chicago, have decided to team up to succeed in the rap world, and they aren't about to back down.

Their small apartment on the outskirts of Washington serves as the headquarters for their musical mission. Some of their equipment doesn't always work. They've taken jobs which don't pay very much, but which allow flexibility to devote time to their long-term dreams.

Posters and post-its with inspirational messages keep them going. Without much money or powerful connections, their hustle and commitment to making socially-relevant and energetic hip-hop music is what drives them.

This video goes into their trenches as they start working on a new album called Liquid Assets, representing, as Brown explains, money people keep under their mattresses for urgent and also life-saving and changing expenses.

A Miss for the Nigerian Diaspora

2010-07-06T14:35:00.002-04:00

"It doesn't only involve beauty like all the other pageants that I see. It involves brains, too. So I said, ‘OK, this will be a real challenge. It won't just be Claret showing her pretty face.’" Claret Onukogu, Miss Nigeria in America.

Even diasporas have their beauty pageants.

The reigning Miss Nigeria in America, Claret Onukogu, wants to use her prestigious title, the strength of her American education and what she calls her Nigerian compassion to make a difference in her home country.

Onukogu especially wants to help at risk-women and children overcome the daunting obstacles of poverty and government neglect.

In this video, she seeks inspiration from a visit to an orphanage in the state of Maryland, and professional guidance from the Nigerian embassy in Washington, D.C..

Her guide along the way is a retired professor, Dr. Ignatius Ukpabi, who is widely regarded as the unofficial “mayor” of the Nigerian diaspora in Washington.

This is a story about the fortitude of a young woman trying to bridge two worlds.

An American Soccer Fan

2010-06-08T13:02:00.001-04:00

"I think Americans like sports where they fabricate (generate) a lot of scoring. Soccer, you have to approach it more as the chess game that is continuously going and inevitably you hope will lead to a goal."-- Kenneth Tebo, American soccer fan.

Kenneth Tebo is frustrated that soccer has not become as big a sport in the United States as it is in most other parts of the world.

That hasn’t held him back from expressing his own passion for the game, as an enthusiastic soccer memorabilia collector, sports critic and spectator.

Among his collections are dozens of bobble heads, scarves, soccer balls, and magazines.

Like many soccer fans in the United States, Tebo played the game as a child. But unlike most Americans, he grew into a devoted fan of the sport he now calls, as others do, "the beautiful game."

Soccer is the main sport almost everywhere in the world, but in the United States, it ranks far behind traditional American sports such as basketball, football and baseball.

Tebo has plenty of opinions as to why this is this case. He cites, for instance, Americans’ notorious appetite for high fructose corn syrup in its food, and its impatience with soccer’s frequent 0-0 scores.

Another reason he says soccer has not yet reached so-called prime time in the United States is that there aren't any breaks in play for advertisers to run their commercials on television. And Tebo also laments what he calls Euro-snobs who he says prefer to follow European teams over the ones in the United States.

This video shows Tebo attending a game of the Real Maryland team, and then, adding to his impressive collection of memorabilia.

A Beatmaker from Gabon

2010-06-01T14:26:00.003-04:00

“My dream is that one day African artists would be able to live from their music -- just like American people are doing right now -- and kind of create a new paradigm. I would like people to say there is an African dream too.” – Micky Badinga, beatmaker and MBA student in the southeastern state of Virginia.

Beatmaker Micky Badinga produces hip-hop music with samples, beats, singing, rapping, keyboards, and a computer.

Badinga started making music to fit his dance style as a teenager. His strongest musical influences have been his Gabonese heritage and the time he spent as a youth in France, where multi-cultural music reigns on airwaves. Now, while studying for his Master’s degree in Business Administration – an MBA -- he dreams of becoming an African Puff Daddy or Dr. Dre, two African-American rappers who went on to very lucrative and successful careers as music producers.

He believes his artistic talents, background and academic studies will help him succeed at the business of music in Africa.

Badinga says musicians trying to make a living from their music in Africa suffer badly from copyright violations. And only a small percentage can earn real money as musicians because there are so few avenues available to help them turn their talents into income -- mainly concert tours, and recording contracts they sign outside the continent.

After he graduates, Badinga hopes to go back to Africa to open his own recording studio. Eventually, he’d like to start his own recording company label to help African artists earn a better living from their music.

Until then, Badinga says, he’ll be working on his dream in the United States, making sure he succeeds in getting his MBA degree first, and learning what he can of the ins and outs of the fast-changing recording industry.

The Conscientious Objector

2010-05-24T15:26:00.004-04:00

"Fear used to grip my mind. And I was so afraid that I joined the army to kill those I feared, so that they couldn't come to America to kill me. My actions have hurt many people and I finally realize that if anything makes sense in this world, it is love, not just for people I like, but love for all." -- Josh Stieber, former Army specialist, Iraq war veteran-turned-conscientious objector.

Before he discovered he could become a conscientious objector, Josh Stieber says he wanted to return his military pay.

A conscientious objector is an individual who refuses to serve in the armed forces, or to engage in combat, on the grounds that killing people violates his or her moral principles.

During his 14-month mission in Iraq, Stieber says he quickly felt he was in the wrong place. He joined the Army after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. He had personally witnessed the terrible destruction and death caused that day when hijackers crashed a commercial jetliner into the Pentagon.

When he arrived in Iraq, he expected he would be greeted as a liberator. Instead, he felt like an invader. Stieber started refusing missions, and rather than kicking in doors looking for insurgents, he would slip away from his unit and go to a local market to buy groceries.

His unit was involved in a filmed 2007 Apache helicopter attack – which came to worldwide attention after being leaked on the Internet. The helicopter pilot and other U.S. military personnel directing the air attack can be heard in radio communications as they strafed a group of men and later a van full of people.

Stieber and another member of the unit wrote a letter taking responsibility for those who were killed and seeking reconciliation with their families and friends and those who were injured but survived.

In many news media interviews and on his blog, he has explainsed that he believes American soldiers were victims of a system, and that if the video is shocking, viewers should understand that day was not exceptional in terms of the war that is going on in Iraq.

Since returning to the United States, Stieber has embarked on a walking, biking and speaking tour, and developed a partnership between school children in America and Afghanistan.

He called the tour and his blog, the "Contagious Love Experiment" – a very different path from his previous one.

An American Soldier Student

2010-05-10T13:22:00.002-04:00

"They have not had much dealings with military or with prior military, and then after the initial reaction, they do not internally understand what that means, or what giving your life to the military for a few years actually means or what that does to someone." -- Adam L'Episcopo, Iraq war veteran and university student.

Adam L'Episcopo has been going back and forth between being a student and a soldier. He says when the topic of Iraq comes up in his university classroom, he prefers to stay silent because he doesn't want to drown the other students in his words and experiences.

Every war veteran has a unique story, and not all of them end in a crippling combat injury, suicidal depression or post-traumatic stress syndrome. But L'Episcopo's story, at least the part we’ve learned about, has had many twists and turns.

After graduating from high school in the midwestern state of Colorado, he says, he wanted to find out more about what was really happening in Iraq. So he enlisted in the Army.

After spending several months in Mosul, in northern Iraq, he was sent to Baghdad in December 2006 where violence was escalating.

While in the service, he says, he decided to further his education, to better understand the tumultuous world around him.

During downtime on military missions, he filled out applications to universities back in the United States, even writing one application letter from inside an armored vehicle. To his surprise, he was accepted to his top choice: the School of International Service at American University.

As a student, he has struggled with expenses. Veteran benefits were much lower than he expected. He also missed the solidarity he felt with other soldiers.

It has been anything but a smooth ride. At one point, the Army said he would have to go back to Iraq. His mother was devastated by the prospect. So he quickly completed another information packet, including letters from lawmakers, and again, to his surprise, the orders were revoked, allowing him to finish his degree.

He says the American news media have told his story several times. But they have often distorted his views and taken them out of context, depicting him as a veteran who was turning his back on the Army.

His story is not the kind of simple narrative you can fit into a short soundbite. L'Episcopo finds the U.S. education system too expensive and elitist. He says without his army experience, he would have never been admitted to the excellent program he has enjoyed.

He recently decided to join a reserve unit of the U.S. Army, to give himself more options for his future, including better financial ones.

Training may delay his graduation, but L'Episcopo says that’s his predicament: to be living two realities as both a student and a soldier.

Rangers vs. Poachers in America's Parks

2010-04-27T09:44:00.001-04:00

"One thing to point out that is quite common with poaching here in the Shenandoah National Park and a lot of the national parks is the nexus of drugs and poaching." Park Ranger Cody Murphy.

Many Americans and foreign tourists don't realize this, but national parks in the United States are havens for criminals.

Animals, and in some instances, even park rangers, get killed. Rare natural resources are pilfered. Murphy explains, often times, the poachers are high on drugs, and exchange what they are taking illegally in exchange for more drugs.

Items often poached include different bear parts, such as their bladders, paws and claws. These are often sold to Asian crime syndicates.

Something as innocuous as the root of ginseng plants is also poached, and sold as much as $900 for a dried pound, (about 0.45 kilograms).

"For me, my father was a park ranger," says Murphy, "so there is some tradition there, and I actually got into park rangering for the resource protection side of it. I think it is an honor and a valuable need to protect and preserve the natural resources. The national parks in this country are special places and I take great pride in playing a role in the protection of those natural resources for future folks to enjoy."

Art to Die For

2010-04-12T15:33:00.003-04:00

"You can go to a dictator with an opposition group and he has got all the power of the state to fight against you. He will take the military against you. The police will come out to beat you up, but what can a dictator do when everybody's laughing at him?" -- Robert Russell, executive director of Cartoonists Rights Network International

In his previous career, Robert Russell traveled the globe as a U.S. State Department official. He learned that often the most effective voices speaking out against the world’s repressive regimes were political cartoonists.

From his home in Virginia, Russell now heads the Cartoonists Rights Network International. He models his organization after other more well-known groups, like Reporters without Borders or The Committee to Protect Journalists.

Russell believes that in too many cases, cartoonists don't get the respect they deserve from journalists or artistic communities. He says they need protection when their cartoons deal with politically or culturally sensitive topics and rile very misguided people.

Sadly, some of the cartoonists he tried to protect over the years were killed because of their work. Others have been arrested, imprisoned and tortured by governments unwilling to tolerate criticism or satire.

Russell hosts regular conferences about cartoons at campuses around the United States. During a recent event at American University near Washington, D.C., cartoonist Joel Pett observed that the worst that usually happens to an American cartoonist who publishes a controversial cartoon is an angry phone call. Politicians targeted by American cartoonists are more likely to ask for a copy of the original art.

A very different situation faced Iranian cartoonist Nik Kowsar, who had to flee Iran after he refused to quit cartooning. Kowsar told the American University crowd his work had previously landed him in an Iranian prison, where he says he actually had a good time losing six pounds in six days.

Whatever the odds against them, cartoonists continue to make people laugh, and with their simple but powerful drawings, continue to give millions of people a fresh perspective on the injustices, irregularities and abuses in their society.

The End of the U.S. Postal Service?

2010-04-06T08:49:00.003-04:00

"I really, really think if we cut out the Saturday delivery, it would be a terrible, terrible mistake, a terrible cost to the country." -- Delvin Johnson, United States Postal Service Letter Carrier.

Delvin Johnson has been a letter carrier for 30 years.

The 52-year old Albany, Georgia, native says he is not happy with current plans by the U.S. Postal Service to end its Saturday mail deliveries, and to close some of its more than 37,000 post offices nationwide. Some U.S. lawmakers are also unhappy with these plans. They say such cuts could be the beginning of the end for the financially troubled mail delivery system.

But Postal Service administrators insist that with the volume of physical mail falling quickly as more and more communication is done on the Internet, the organization needs to make these changes to survive. Even though the Postal Service receives no tax dollars, Congress has authority over how it operates, so the decision on the cuts is now in the hands of lawmakers.

In this video, veteran mail carrier Delvin Johnson offers a simple but long-overlooked solution to help the Postal Service, which over the past decade has shed more than 200,000 jobs.

The Migratory Artist

2010-03-24T11:41:00.002-04:00

"To be free is not easy. To be free is hard. And always, you feel pain in your heart, but always there is happiness too." -- Salvadoran artist Danilo Rivera

Danilo Rivera gives the same instruction to all the students at his dance class in Washington, D.C: “Be free!”

He tells them that without a sense of liberation, their movements will never amount to art.

As a child in El Salvador, Rivera survived a civil war. Today, he is a professional dancer and painter.

In his dance, he uses fluid movements of his large, strong hands to express himself. He likes to paint angels with wings and muscular bodies.

Before leaving El Salvador, he accomplished one of his dreams: to paint the bodies of dancers, and then have them perform his dance on the streets. He said he cried when he saw his art so completely in motion.

Rivera says he hopes to move to Europe one day, to continue pushing at artistic and personal boundaries.

Should We All Trade Online?

2010-03-09T16:01:00.002-05:00

"A good trader is really just a couple of things: those who are willing to work hard at this business - the entrepreneurship of trading - and those who are willing to be disciplined and manage risks." -- online trading instructor Kyle Hibbard.

In the class Kyle Hibbard teaches at the Vienna, Virginia, Online Trading Academy, the students range from stay-at-home moms and recent college graduates still looking for employment to successful entrepreneurs.

They’ve all come to master a skill they believe might open doors to both a new professional challenge and a potentially lucrative new source of income. Online trading involves using an Internet-connected computer to put your own money and investment savvy to work trading in stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, and other financial instruments. These days, investors can trade these instruments at all hours, from anywhere in the world, thanks to the Internet.

Many critics say online trading is an especially risky form of gambling, particularly when novice investors get involved, with the potential for sudden financial gain as well as devastating losses only a mouse-click away.

But teachers like Hibbard say their careful methods of using software and their experience looking at market indicators can help student traders to avoid some of these dangers, and reap consistent income.

Online Trading Academy president Chris Koomey says the Wall Street investment community likes to promote the idea that the average investor needs the services of brokerage firms, mutual-fund managers, financial consultants or other middlemen, in order to earn money on the stock market. But Koomey says that's wrong. He believes the business of managing money for others is a business like any other, and middlemen are in it for their own interests, and not for those of investors.

Unlike other businesses, though, online trading is open to virtually everyone, Koomey says. And markets do not always need to go up for an online investor to make money. Shorting stocks, which involves selling in anticipation of a price decline, is one example of how this can happen.

Koomey says when the market crashed in 2009, he was able to earn lots of money, and avoided losing most of his retirement savings the way many other Americans did. He believes earning a living by trading online is also a way to reclaim more time for leisure, which he says has become the rarest of commodities for many who live increasingly hectic, schedule-driven lives.

Black History For All

2010-02-24T11:00:00.003-05:00

"Young people, they don't feel that interested (in civil rights and black history), I don't think. They need to be pushed, they need to be encouraged. They have these ideas that are instilled in them, whatever their ideas. But when they come here, they develop their own understanding, they develop their own ideas. They see the why, the how come, and they begin to ask questions." -- Museum volunteer Georgina Toro-Lugo.

The more people know about each other's histories and the histories of their ancestors, says Georgina Toro-Lugo, the better they can understand each other and build a better future.

That is exactly the idea behind the Black History Museum in Alexandria, Virginia, where Toro-Lugo works as a volunteer. It’s the guiding principle as well for many other black history museums across the United States.

Toro-Lugo says centuries of slavery and decades of discrimination and segregation are legacies that shouldn’t be forgotten but studied, and the lessons used to empower future generations to protect and defend hard-won civil rights.

Through their collections of photographs, video, artwork, text, and historic memorabilia, museums help bring the past alive. Alexandria’s Black History museum takes a very local approach to that past, giving historical background to every street corner, building, business and family, and to the extraordinary struggles its residents once encountered in their daily lives.

Museum curator Audrey Davis says that besides such important national figures of black civil rights history as Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, the Alexandria exhibition space honors the legacy of local heroes who also helped alter the course of history.

In fact, the Black History museum owes its own existence to a peaceful protest against segregation – possibly one of 20th century America’s first civil rights demonstrations -- at a nearby whites-only Alexandria library in 1939. The city began construction of a museum for black people the following year, and it is that building that now houses the Black History Museum. Its current exhibit of baskets, dating back to those artfully woven by former slaves, suggests the ingenuity, creativity and resilience that African Americans have mustered in the face of oppression.

Black History Month, Africana Studies

2010-02-08T18:00:00.005-05:00

"Africana Studies has emerged as a separate entity that tries to look at the world through the lenses of people of African descent." James B. Stewart, author of "Flight: In Search of Vision."

James B. Stewart -- the current president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, which founded Black History Month -- is also a leading advocate for what he calls Africana Studies –- culturally informed explorations of the African-American experience.

His writings on the subject have promoted innovative concepts such as "the myth of the flying Africans," "the kingdom of culture" and "the deficit model."

In this video, we meet the man and see some of the context of his ideas.

Politically-charged art at Stewart’s home outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, serves as a backdrop to his notions of African-American empowerment after years of discrimination.

Stewart believes African-American culture and history have often been viewed as inferior or marginal in American history books.

A tour of Pittsburgh reveals the ongoing challenges of the African-American experience. Urban development is displacing black populations. The black inner city neighborhoods that used to be cultural meccas continue to shrink.

Stewart insists he is resolute in his fight for race equality, both in academia and on the streets.

Even though the United States now has a black president, Stewart says, this does not mean the nation’s race issues have all been resolved.

A Man Speaks After Death Row

2010-01-16T14:39:00.002-05:00

“We were taught at a young age that life is sacred. I am not against capital punishment, I’m not for capital punishment. I’m against killing.” --Shabaka Sundiata Waqlimi, an innocent man who was on Florida’s death row for 14 years.

Shabaka Sundiata Waqlimi was born and incarcerated under the name Joseph Green Brown. He now wants to be called Shabaka.

He was convicted and sentenced to death for the rape, murder and robbery of a white woman in Florida in 1973, even though he had nothing to do with the crime. Shabaka says local authorities needed to arrest someone for the murder and since he was a young black male who owned a gun, he was a perfect choice.

The case turned on a man who resented Shabaka for turning him in for a robbery. This man later admitted his lie.

Shabaka went to trial with a young court-appointed attorney who lacked experience handling such cases. Twelve jurors, all of them white, deliberated less than five hours after a week-long trial before issuing a guilty verdict. Several days later, Shabaka was given the death sentence.

Today, he is a free man. In this video, Shabaka shares the ordeal of being a death row survivor.

In jail, guards came to measure him for his burial suit. But he never quit fighting his guilty verdict and eventually the charges against him were dropped, when a court of appeals ruled the prosecution had purposefully allowed false testimony at trial.

When he was released, Shabaka was not given a cent of compensation or even an apology by the state authorities. On the outside, he was unable to open doors for himself at first, and did not want to use seatbelts, since they reminded him of the electric chair. Even though he had never committed a crime, he found it difficult to land a job, so he started helping others at community centers.

Since 1973, the Death Penalty Information Center says 138 other death row inmates have been exonerated. There are 138 other stories like Shabaka's.

The American Anti-War Crowd

2009-12-28T18:12:00.004-05:00

"We should not want to propagate the negative energy of war. We should be sending more energy of peace and of love to heal our planet and to heal our people." -- Darlene Dancy, community activist and anti-war protester.

Several hundred protesters recently gathered outside the White House to galvanize the nearly dormant U.S. anti-war movement.

Protester Darlene Dancy also sold $10 tee-shirts printed with slogans which read "Peace," "Bring U.S. troops home," and "We need a peaceful solution for a difficult situation in Afghanistan."

She said money from the tee-shirts would be used to support the peace effort, as well as groups helping the needy in America.

"We must rally, protest, and march to exercise our civic capacity to bring about real change," said the keynote speaker, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich.

A former U.S. presidential candidate and constant critic of U.S. military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, Kucinich asked the crowd: Where is America's security when millions in the United States face joblessness, foreclosures, and out- of- reach health care?

Many of the protesters said they had voted for President Barack Obama in 2008, but now oppose his decision to send more troops to fight in Afghanistan.

Several protesters also disagreed with his recent Nobel Peace Prize, and they didn’t like his Oslo acceptance speech, during which he said war is sometimes needed to defeat evil and establish lasting peace.

The protesters seemed energized and promised more demonstrations in the months to come, even though their numbers at this rally were quite small.

A Homeless "Cat in the Hat"

2009-12-21T11:58:00.004-05:00

"I found out within the last couple of years who my best friend is. And my best friend is the mirror. Because every time I look in the mirror, I see myself. I see a person who has been through a lot. I see a person who put so much trust in other people and I was doing it wrong all the time. I was supposed to put trust in myself." Phil Black, vendor of the homeless newspaper, Street Sense, in Washington, D.C.

When Phil Black sees himself in the mirror, he also sees his tall, red-and-white-striped hat.

The hat is like the one worn by the mischievous title character in "The Cat in the Hat" children's book, written by the popular author Dr. Seuss.

Black’s eye-catching hat helps draw attention to the special newspaper he is selling. Street Sense is a 16-page bi-weekly paper about homeless people that’s written largely by the homeless themselves. Like its companion website, the paper provides a forum for D.C.’s homeless community and raises public awareness. And it empowers homeless vendors like Black, who get 65 cents for every one-dollar-copy of the paper they sell.

Black became homeless after ulcers from work forced him to quit his job and medical bills left his finances in ruins. His wife and two daughters also left him.

But he has now reinvented himself as a newspaper salesman and neighborhood guru. He hawks Street Sense in an upscale Washington neighborhood, engaging passers-by near a busy metro stop and just outside a pharmacy, inviting them to learn what the city’s homeless have to say.

Maternal Health Care With a Human Touch

2009-12-07T12:02:00.003-05:00

"There's a misconception that all midwives have their babies in the field and sing 'Kumbaya.' That's not true. There are a lot of midwives that don't deliver. That's not the point. It's to take care of women. But we don't get respected as much here as midwives do in other countries." -- Ebony Roebuck, American midwife.

An issue that has come up repeatedly in the current health care reform debate in the United States is whether Americans use more expensive health services than they really need.

Consider, for example, the cost of having a baby.

Statistics show that delivering a baby without complications at a U.S. hospital costs about $7,000. In a birthing center with midwives but without doctors, drugs or expensive technology, the cost is less than $2,000.

In many developing countries, midwives often are the only people available to assist women during birth. But in the United States, the practice, called midwifery, is poorly understood and many people fear use of a midwife can make childbirth riskier than it needs to be.

Midwives are not just about taking care of pregnant women and delivering babies. Their role is to accompany women throughout their lives, and help them be healthier from head to toe. Midwives encourage proper nutrition, regular exercise and good lifestyle habits, rather than a reliance on drugs or technology.

Critics argue there isn't enough professional oversight for midwives, and that expectant women shouldn't be deprived of the benefits of new medical technology. They also say that in emergency situations, both the mother’s and the baby’s lives could be in danger with only a midwife at the bedside.

Midwifery advocates insist that safety is always their first concern, and that complicated or emergency pregnancies are referred to regular doctors. But in the vast majority of normal cases, they say midwives offer an inexpensive, holistic and time-tested alternative for women who can't afford a doctor's care or women who just seek a simpler, more intimate birthing experience. Should more Americans adopt this less-expensive, more human-oriented care that doesn't rely on doctors, drugs and costly technology?

The D.C. Birthing Center thinks so. In this slideshow, we get to know patients, midwives and the director at the Washington-based center, as they explain their reasons for pursuing midwifery.

Giving Back, Liberians in America (Part 5)

2009-12-02T08:56:00.005-05:00

"One thing that has really resonated with Liberians is that they have not forgotten their homeland. So, you have various organizations, which are seeking ways to rebuild the country. We are aware that government cannot do it all." -- Danlette Norris, Liberian professor.

This fifth and final installment in my series about the Liberian diaspora shows how members of this unique expatriate community raise money to fund education and health projects back in the war-devastated country they fled.

Even one dollar can make a difference in heavily-damaged areas like Maryland County, Liberia, which is on the southeastern border with Ivory Coast. That’s where Norris and some of the other members of the Rhode Island Liberian community come from. As an evening fundraiser stretched into the early-morning hours, hundreds of dollars filled tin-foil receptacles.

Part 1 of this series was about why so many Liberians are in the small state of Rhode Island.

Part 2 was about Liberian immigrants helping each other out, especially young and old.

Part 3 was about setting up shop and the challenges of getting papers in order.

Part 4 was about the most important issue of raising the children of the diaspora.

Thanks for watching!

Blessed are the Peacemakers

2009-11-30T14:10:00.005-05:00

"You don't fight fire with fire. You fight fire with water. So I'm carrying the water and trying to spray it around a little bit. Am I getting anywhere? I don't think about that." Colman McCarthy, journalist and founder of the Center for Teaching Peace.

In this quote, fire means war, and water refers to peace.

McCarthy is also referring to his efforts as a peace teacher, trying to push back the education in violence he says people are receiving. He says they watch countless murders in movies and on TV, and history classes in school talk mostly about wars and generals and those who pursue military force, rather than those who try to make peace.

For the past three decades, he has been riding his bicycle to high schools, universities and adult learning centers in the Washington, D.C., area, to teach about topics like conflict resolution, successes of non-violence, ending the death penalty, and making peace with animals.

When asked why he is often portrayed as an extremist by others, McCarthy quotes a line by one of his favorite authors, 1948 Nobel Literature Prize laureate T.S. Eliot. "In a world of fugitives, those who run in the opposite way are seen as madmen."

He also quotes Jeannette Rankin, the first woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, who voted against the entry of the United States into both World War I and World War II. "You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake," she said.

The video ends with the story of the only lawmaker who voted against the current U.S. war in Afghanistan.

An American Indian Gives Thanks

2009-11-26T10:14:00.006-05:00

"Heritage tells you who you are, from the cradle to the grave. It tells you who you were before you came to the earth. It tells you where you're going when you leave here. It's a never-ending circle of life and you feel able to deal with a lot of the things that this world puts on you." Tim Moore, American Indian from the Seminole Tribe.

Thanksgiving is a holiday observed in the United States on the fourth Thursday of every November. It’s an occasion when Americans give thanks for their blessings of food, family, or whatever matters the most, whatever the circumstances.

The tradition, as the story that is taught in American schools goes, has its roots in the experience of a small group of European colonizers.

These colonizers survived their first difficult winter in a "New England" settlement (parts of the U.S. northeast still use this name) -- short of food and supplies -- largely because of the generous assistance of the local Wampanoag Indian tribe. Their first Thanksgiving dinner was a simple feast of wild fowl and greens and tubers, and offerings of thanks to God and to their Indian friends.

Fifty years later, the Wampanoags and the Plimoth Colony settlers would be at war with each other over land rights and other issues. Many American Indians today believe they lost a great deal when European colonizers arrived in the so-called “New World” – where many Indian tribes had already lived for tens of thousands of years. As those settlers began exploring, trading, cultivating and eventually building towns and cities across North America, the indigenous people were forced to abandon their ancestral lands.

But many of the direct descendants of those American Indian tribes – those that survived war, eviction and disease – still honor their lineage by keeping tribal customs and philosophies intact.

Tim Moore, who earns his paycheck as a government worker during the week, joins other American Indians each weekend to proudly showcase traditional dancing and crafts.

A Vietnam War veteran, Moore says he is grateful that in his Native American community, former soldiers are never forgotten or frowned upon, even if there is disagreement over whether the war in which they fought was just or unjust.

In this slideshow, Moore shares some of the wisdom he has gained in the course of a unique life lived in two parallel cultures.

Pretend Soldiers

2009-11-11T07:37:00.003-05:00

"We have a strong appreciation for history. Everybody, including myself, is very passionate about American history. The civil war, I think, has a special interest for a lot of Americans because, the brother against brother, Americans killing Americans, is a concept that's intriguing." -- Participant at the reenactment of the Battle of Cedar Creek in Middletown, Virginia.

November 11th is Veterans Day in the United States, and the date is observed as Armistice Day and Remembrance Day in many other parts of the world.

Originally, it commemorated the end of fighting in World War One. Hostilities between the Allied nations and Germany officially ceased at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. But today the observance honors all those who have served as soldiers in all wars. In the United States, that includes participants in the American Civil War.

An estimated three million Americans took up arms during the war between northern and southern states that raged from 1861 to 1865. The conflict ended with the Union victory over southern secessionists, the end of slavery, and the strengthening of the national government.

The Civil War is long over, but some of the issues that prompted the southern states to leave the Union remain unresolved. Many Americans still disagree over how much power the federal government should have, and how it should be distributed between Washington and the states.

The passion endures for this defining period in American history, and on many weekends, re-enactors can be found retracing battlefield maneuvers on the anniversary days of major encounters, dressed in civil-war-era clothes, riding horses, sleeping in tents, and firing vintage rifles and cannon (without the cannonballs) at each other. In this video, we meet some of the participants in a reenactment of the 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek, in which the Confederate Army surprised the Federal Army with a dawn attack, but then lost ground when Union troops retaliated.

What’s different on this day, of course, is that all the men, women and children who’ve come to replay this moment in American history know that they’ll be heading back to their homes, schools, jobs and other occupations after the last shots are fired.

Liberians in America, Part 4, The New Generation

2009-11-02T12:56:00.002-05:00

"The community provides a sense of cultural identity to be able to instill certain cultural values; for example, hard work, dedication, respect for your father, your mother, the elderly, these are values that really help to make an individual a good person." -- Edmund Zar-Zar Bargblor, Liberian teacher.

This fourth installment in my five-part series about the Liberian diaspora explores the challenges Liberians face raising their children in America.

Rather than having just one meal per day -- a common diet for many a Liberian child – the children of Liberians in America often just want to eat junk food. Rather than praying to go to school, or having barely enough money to afford a pencil, the children of immigrant Liberians often complain about their schoolwork.

Rather than showing the traditional respect for their parents, many young Liberians in America talk back to them.

They also have many more opportunities to succeed in their schooling, and most are free of worries about basic survival. They live between two cultures, and they are forcing their parents to adapt as well.

Out of the Closets, Into the Streets

2009-10-13T13:56:00.006-04:00

"People should really honor liberty, and that we all have our personal preferences and choices to make, and that is only our business." -- Protester at the October 11th Gay March in Washington, D.C.

October 11th was also National Coming Out Day.

"Coming out" means telling your family, friends, and co-workers that you are something other than heterosexual, be it homosexual, bisexual or transgender. The public admission can have a powerful impact, especially if you are -- or hope to become -- a member of America’s armed forces. Homosexuals are barred by law from serving in the U.S. military.

One of the chants at this rally was "Out of the Closets, Into the Streets!"

Protesters demanded that gay couples be granted equal marriage rights across the United States – permitting, among other things, access to their partners’ health-care benefits. They called for equal immigration laws, so that gay partners can acquire U.S. citizenship.

They also asked for better protection against discrimination and the right to be openly gay within the U.S. military.

Protesters paraded with vibrant rainbow-colored banners and outfits. Throughout the march they shouted a variety of slogans, including "Back of the bus, hell no! Discrimination has got to go!" and carried signs like "Everyone Has a Gay Uncle." Some marchers showed off dance moves called "voguing."

Their march also attracted anti-gay protesters who believe marriage is a sacred institution between a man and a woman and that homosexual activity is sinful.

Here is a story by VOA’s Kent Klein reporting that President Obama, in a speech to a gay rights group the day before the march, promised that he would work to change laws so that gays can serve openly within the U.S. military.

Below, more sights and sounds in slideshow format from the protest.

Liberians in America, Setting Up Shop

2009-10-06T15:16:00.006-04:00

"Here, life is how you make it. Everywhere is hard, but here, it is ok for many of us. Because many of us came here unexpectedly, and we are doing good here." -- Martha Gargar-Charley, Liberian owner of an African food store.

This third installment of my five-part series on the Liberian diaspora takes a look at businesses that cater to and hire Liberians. Gargar-Charley and another woman profiled in this video are thriving -- they’re earning money and creating jobs.

But many Liberians in the United States live in fear that they will be forced to drop everything and go back to their war-ravaged homeland.

Thousands of those who fled Liberia and came to America live under the U.S. Temporary Protected Status program, which allows them to work and own property. However, their status is temporary, and could suddenly be revoked.

The U.S. government says Liberia is now stable, so Liberians should be able to go back. But with jobs and sometimes businesses and homes, as well as children with U.S. citizenship, many feel they should be allowed to remain in the United States.

Part One of this series looked into why so many Liberians live in Rhode Island, while part two was about how Liberian immigrants help young and old.

The Immigrant Experience: Liberians in America, Part II

2009-09-28T10:01:00.005-04:00

"We do help each other. Like me, I open up my home to people who do not have food. I shelter people. That is what I have been doing since I came here. I not only preach the word. And it's very important. It's good for the soul. You feel better when you do that." -- Beatrice Mansfield, Liberian Pastor.

This second installment of my series looks at how Liberians in Rhode Island assist the elderly within their community and help new arrivals adapt and survive.

Despite ethnic divisions in their own country, Liberians in the United States come together through their churches, civic associations and other organizations to make sure those in need get help.

Elderly Liberians who might have enjoyed frequent contact with their neighbors back in Monrovia’s open-aired courtyards now find themselves isolated in the closed-off, high-rise apartment buildings that house many of the newly-arrived in America.

Many Liberian youth who finally make it to the United States don't always know what they have gotten themselves into.

Sometimes, Liberian immigrants don't have any relatives here, but they find they can count on other Liberians to help them get going on their American experience.

The Immigrant Experience: Liberians in America, Part I

2009-09-20T10:45:00.003-04:00

"Rhode Island is a small state. Rhode Island reminds us of Liberia. Liberia is just a little larger than Rhode Island." Elaine Traub, Liberian nurse.

"I can drive from here, two blocks, and meet another Liberian, and go downtown, and wherever I go, I will meet Liberians." Eleanor Gaye, Liberian restaurant owner.

While I was Voice of America's West Africa correspondent, from 2003 to 2008, my favorite country to visit was Liberia, partly because of the way people spoke English there with such energy and flavor, frankness and poetry.

I was always interested in finding out more about the Liberian diaspora as well. By most accounts, nearly a third of the country's three million people fled the war, corruption and neglect that ravaged Africa's oldest republic over the past 20 years.

Many of them have never returned.

In the United States, the largest concentration of Liberians is in Rhode Island, the smallest American state.

The first installment of this five part series asks members of the Liberian diaspora why so many of them decided to make Rhode Island their home away from home.

Painting For Health Care

2009-08-31T00:21:00.002-04:00

"We need a societal shift in thinking and feeling. We need people to care about others. We have to turn people around. And I'm hopeful that my story will do it, because look at me. I don't have a job right now, other than I teach part-time art, but I'm out there. I'm working on it." Regina Holliday, health care reform activist and widow.

Regina Holliday, a 37-year-old widow, part-time art teacher and mother of two, has become a media darling in recent weeks, written about, photographed and filmed by countless journalists. The reason is her story, energy and a colorful mural she is working on in Washington, D.C., at the back of a gas station, across from a pharmacy, not too far from an independent bookstore. In paint on the six-meter high wall, she is recounting her husband's death within the U.S. medical system. He died June 17, 2009, the same day the U.S. Senate started debating health care reform.

Her husband was sent home to die of kidney cancer after doctors refused to try more tests or chemotherapy. For years, he didn't have health insurance, so he didn't take the tests that might have given him an early detection of what was causing his bloody urine and night sweats.

Holliday’s mural has a doctor standing in waste, which symbolizes inefficiency in helping sick people. Another doctor seems annoyed, moving away from his patient, talking aggressively on his cell phone. A nurse types into a computer, but the screen is dark, representing a "loop of information" going nowhere. Data is not transfered from one health center to another. In this artistic rendition, health care is not something that is for patients, it seems to be a money-making, cold monster -- a place where information is not used to help the sick get better, but rather it is compartmentalized to keep costs at high levels and avoid any lawsuits.

Holliday has painted quotes to inspire and engage from Thomas Jefferson to Harry Potter, saying in ways old and new there is a difference between what is right and what is easy.

A girl dressed in the American stars and stripes flag has her legs covered with welts, and a switch to whip her lying at her feet. Holliday says she represents an abuse victim, who thinks she doesn't want change, because she has been conditioned to be afraid.

Holliday was abused for 17 years growing up in her home. Her husband was a victim of poor health, and a society that leaves some of its sick behind. But now she says she is fighting back, with her ladder, paints and brushes.

She believes a government-run health insurance plan can help people like her who don't have a full-time job and benefits. She believes in the long-run it could become better for patients and more efficient than what is currently in place. Her views, of course, are hotly contested by some engaged in the current debate, in which there are many ideas, and many fears of rising costs, less incentive for market-driven innovation and more bureaucracy.

This television report by Carol Pearson shows how one company, grocery giant Safeway, allows employees who work on being healthier to pay less for their private insurance plan.

A Summer of Protests and Rage

2009-08-25T09:56:00.003-04:00

"People feel that there are certain things that are going to take place which are not at all factual, so based on false information, this anger has been stirred up unnecessarily and it's a shame because we're not really talking about the issues, and people are just venting," Health Care Reform Protester, in Washington, D.C., August 20, 2009.

Television news, the Internet, town hall meetings and street protests in the United States are currently being dominated by the issue of health care.

People on all sides of the issue are fired up. Public option, or no public option, that seems to be the question. But who can explain what the public option really entails? Basically, it opens the possibility of getting government health insurance, but the unknowns of this proposition riles up opponents.

Loaded guns have been taken to health care-related events, including some where President Barack Obama spoke, as well as plastic guns, loaded with flowers. The words Nazis, socialism, and fascism have been bandied about, as well as "Waterloo", in a reference to the 1815 battle in Belgium which ended the reign of European emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.

Will this health care battle be Mr. Obama's own "Waterloo"? Tensions seem to be much higher than when the previous Democratic Party president, Bill Clinton, tried unsuccessfully to reform America's health care system. How far can this go? Will a real bullet ever be fired at one of these events? Wouldn't that cause a frenzy?

The president himself is safely on vacation now, but pundits continue to weigh in and lawmakers continue to hold town hall debates. The rhetoric is heated, placards are getting torn, and cameras by citizen journalist of all political stripes, pick up the action. Congress will reconvene in early September, with lots of attention now focused on what will happen then.

This report by Kent Klein has the president complaining that the media is giving too much attention to disturbances at protests.

Still, there is a clear divide, between those who want more government involvement in terms of health care, and those who view such a development as outrageous or at least, unnecessary. It seems an important part of America's future hangs in the balance.

Growing Pains of Health Care

2009-08-18T14:20:00.004-04:00

"What people don't understand or don't realize … until it's unfortunately way too late, is that you buy into a system that feeds you the notion that it's there for you. You pay so that you are cared for, but in reality, when push comes to shove, and you really need the system, the system is not there for you." -- Sandra Lemaire, a VOA employee, who is trying to get her mother on Medicaid, which extends health benefits to the ailing poor.

"The large majority of the population, who are middle class people, who have worked all of their lives, squirrel money away, and pay insurance all their lives, they don't qualify for anything. Insurance does not pay for long term care." -- Pascale Lemaire, Sandra's sister.

While the debate over health care reform rages on in the United States, many people and families are struggling to pay for their medical needs. Some attention has been given to the nearly 50 million uninsured in America, but those who have been insured all their lives also struggle.

This is the story of the Lemaire family, which has been hit hard by the misfortunes of bad health and rising medical bills. Sandra spends hours every day helping her ailing parents after working full shifts for the English webdesk of the Voice of America. Her father, who also used to work at VOA, suffered an aneurysm last year.

Shortly after he returned from the hospital, his wife suffered from the same severe predicament, a dangerous blood-filled dilation of a blood vessel, and eight months later, she remains in a nursing facility, attached to tubes, unable to speak, and barely able to twitch. Sandra visits her every day, and has hired a lawyer to try to find a way to cut down on monthly medical bills which are in the tens of thousands of dollars, and are quickly decimating the family's savings.

Pascale, her sister, a freelance hairstylist, stays at home with her dad, who also needs full-time assistance to get by. Pascale has had to cut down on her working hours, and can no longer afford health care for herself. She says she feels she is about to have a nervous breakdown.

This is just one family's story and some of their opinions about the state of health care and the need for reform. There are other opinions out there, with many Americans expressing fears the government will spend too much money to reform the system, and tax too heavily to create wider insurance, as Jim Malone's radio report indicates. Opponents of a so-called public option plan, where the government would provide insurance, say that is like socialism. In the U.S. political context, that is almost as bad as terrorism. Those who support a government-run alternative to private insurance say they will be very disappointed if such a plan is not pushed through Congress, as now seems possible.

Town hall meetings were held across the United States in August to discuss the future of health care, erupting at times with yelling and people tearing up each other's placards. Opponents have started showing up at events where President Barack Obama is speaking with guns and rifles in states where this is allowed, making some in the crowd very uncomfortable.

President Obama once said opponents are trying to turn this debate into his "Waterloo," in reference to the town in Belgium where a 19th century battle ended the rule of European emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. But as Kent Klein reports the president is battling with all his might to make discussions civil and avoid his own demise.

Boys and Girls of Summer

2009-08-07T21:14:00.002-04:00

"Human beings want to hear three things: their first name, something encouraging, and a quiet gentle constructive criticism. How can I improve? I whisper that, but I shout encouragement." -- John McCarthy, director of the Home Run Baseball Camp, in Washington, D.C.

If you know someone who can teach sports to children more enthusiastically than John McCarthy, also known as "Coach Mac", I'd like to meet that person.

I used to teach soccer – that’s football to most people in the world -- to kids in the Washington, D.C., area. But I never approached McCarthy's talent for getting kids "pumped" and "stoked" for hitting the field, while at the same time teaching them good manners.

"How is your motivation level?" he asks District of Columbia mayor Adrian Fenty, who makes a cameo appearance -- and also a pretty good catch -- at this sports camp in the northwest corner of America’s capital city. "It's at an all-time high, coach!" the mayor responds.

McCarthy takes every opportunity to tell campers it's important to read lots of books and eat plenty of fruits and vegetables.

Summer in the U.S. is a season for all sorts of youth camps, and what better activity to showcase than baseball? Often called the national pastime, baseball is a game with boundless lore and a colorful tradition.

Baseball might seem an easy sport to those who have never tried it, since it doesn't require too much endurance. But as McCarthy shows his young campers, baseball is actually a very technical game and demands bursts of speed, concentration and precision from its players.

Three of the baseball campers star in this video as well; Che, who owes his name to the famous Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara; Joshua, who shows off his signature diving catch; and Max, whose traditional summer 'do (or haircut) is a mohawk. Baseball, with all its down-time in between pitches and innings, is famously known for its colorful characters and great stories.

McCarthy was once, briefly, a professional pitcher. I asked him if it wasn't better in the end that he didn't make it as a superstar athlete, since that freed him to become a teacher. He said most players prefer to play, and he does miss playing at the professional level. But he said he's proven to himself he's a better coach, so he has no regrets.

Kids at the Home Run camp certainly seem to benefit from his change of career, as McCarthy passes on his passion for the complex sport, and shares tips on how to “step up to the plate” in the game of life.

For more on how the language of baseball permeates American English, check out this link by VOA Special English.

Whistleblowers Unite For Justice

2009-08-04T11:17:00.003-04:00

"When I see improprieties that are not keeping up with the expectations under the public trust, then I am not going to be quiet about it, regardless of the circumstances, then I'm not going to be asleep at the switch." Bunnatine Greenhouse, Federal Whistleblower.

A whistleblower is a person who publicly alleges misconduct by a group of people or an organization, usually one they belong to.

Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally, or they may go public and report the misconduct to police, lawmakers, lawyers, the news media or advocacy groups. They usually find much more support from outside the organization than within.

Bunnatine Greenhouse, the former chief contracting officer of the United States Army Corps of Engineers, was demoted in August 2005, after repeatedly expressing her reservations about -- and trying to block –military contracts being awarded in the run-up to the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Just prior to her demotion, she testified before Congress.

She called the no-bid $7 billion dollar contract awarded to Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of the Halliburton company, to restore Iraqi oil, "the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career."

Dick Cheney, who was U.S. Vice President from 2001 to early 2009, was chairman and chief executive of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. Greenhouse says she was up against "an old boys’ network" which took advantage of the pre-war situation to violate normal rules of competition.

She also complained that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office took control of every aspect of the disputed contract.

Greenhouse's attorney, Michael Kohn, says she was demoted because she followed rules which didn't suit the needs of those in power.

Those implicated have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, and said they were following the complex rules that govern contracts involving classified information.

Greenhouse was downgraded to a less senior position just as Hurricane Katrina hit the southern United States, leaving the Army Corps with a new person to handle billions of dollars for relief and reconstruction. To this day, she is fighting to get her old job back.

Attorney Michael Kohn is helping her do this. He is the president of the Washington D.C. based National Whistleblowers Center. He is also lobbying Congress to pass new legislation to protect federal whistleblowers, so that what happened to Greenhouse does not happen again.

Under the current system, he says, he has never been able to successfully defend a whistleblower’s rights. He hopes a new law would ensure jury trials, which he says are less prone to corruption, and less vulnerable to being manipulated by the people the whistleblowers are trying to expose.

This report by Dan Robinson about other federal whistleblowers was written in 2006, when employees in several government agencies tried to sound the alarm about what they saw as abuse of power. They were also demoted.

Journalists in Danger -- A Vigil for Two U.S. Journalists Arrested in North Korea

2009-07-24T19:47:00.009-04:00

"I think political boundaries don't really understand the cultural synthesis that's going on. And I could see that maybe a young woman from Korea or Iran more probably would come to America and be arrested as a spy if she got herself in the wrong situation." -- Sharon Kornely, speaker at the vigil.

Journalists covering areas in conflict who enter territory controlled by combative government forces, rebels or criminals face extraordinary risks, especially if they lack proper accreditation. They can be arrested by government soldiers. They may be kidnapped or killed by armed insurgents.

One reason reporters become targets for attack is that they are often perceived to be focusing on the negative, trying to uncover stories of human rights abuses and other criminal activities. Two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were arrested in March by North Korean authorities and charged with espionage after they were alleged to have entered the country illegally. They were gathering material for a television report about allegations of human trafficking. In June, after a secret trial, a North Korean court sentenced them to 12 years in a labor camp.

This report highlights a recent vigil in Washington, D.C., by people seeking the two journalists’ release. Friends and supporters are also sending postcards and other messages urging political leaders around the world to press North Korea to pardon the women and let them return home.

Another U.S. journalist, freelancer Roxana Saberi, was detained in January in Iran, and sentenced to 8 years in jail for cooperating with an enemy government before being suddenly released after four months in jail. In her case, constant political and public pressure probably helped to secure her freedom.

In another recent case, the New York Times newspaper revealed that it had kept quiet about the fate of Times reporter David Rohde, who was kidnapped earlier this year by the Taliban. The newspaper also repeatedly asked other news media not to report on the kidnapping, and they complied. New York Times executives explained their actions by saying they were afraid that if too much publicity surrounded the case, and ransom was not paid, their reporter would be beheaded. Rohde apparently escaped from his Taliban captors in June after more than seven months in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says that in 2008, 42 journalists were murdered because of their work, 11 of them in Iraq.

This radio report by Fid Thompson highlights a Cameroonian journalist who won the 2009 Courage in Journalism Award. Ange Taile continues to report about human rights abuses and corruption despite receiving death threats, and having once been "abducted by hooded men, beaten severely and left for dead in a ravine."

Risking Green on Green -- A U.S Investor Puts His Money on a Norwegian Electric Car

2009-07-03T17:00:00.006-04:00

"There's no reason why you can't help finance these products and these companies as well as do well financially and if that's the case, what's there not to love?" -- Mark Huang, investor in the Th!nk City electric car, and co-founder of Novus Energy Partners.

While green investors are doing well in wind and solar renewable-energy projects, selling an electric car to a mass market is a different endeavor entirely.

Even with incentives, the sticker price for the Th!nk car exceeds $30,000. But that is still far less than the Model S electric car built by California-based Tesla Motors, which starts at $49,900.

Of course, the owner of a Th!nk car won't have to worry about rising gasoline prices.

These new electric cars, unlike many of their failed predecessors, actually do go fast, and perform well in city traffic. The Th!nk car offers impressive handling, safety and comfort, though it lacks air conditioning.

This report is about Th!nk City auto investor Mark Huang and the debut of the Norwegian-made car on the Washington, D.C., lobby-cocktail circuit. One union representative expressed concern that the car is not being built in the United States. An environmentalist liked the car, but doubted her husband would want to buy it, since it doesn't sound like a race car.

Maintenance was not discussed with the test drivers, but Huang told me much like a cell phone or a computer, this car, which is 100% electric, will need upgrades and rebooting, rather than oil changes.

This report by Kurt Achin shows how South Korea seems to be moving faster than the United States toward an electric car future.

Ordeals in Seeking Asylum

2009-06-15T17:09:00.008-04:00

"You can't stop the human spirit and you certainly can't stop someone when they are in fear for their life. If there is a border and it's an artificial border, they are going to find a way." -- Deirdre Gilblin, Asylum Attorney

What is asylum? "In layman's terms, it's basically when people flee to the United States for human rights violations and they seek sanctuary here and they ask for that sanctuary from our immigration system. If they are granted asylum, they are allowed to stay in the U.S. indefinitely and eventually get their green card and apply for U.S. citizenship," explains another attorney, Lisa Laurel Weinberg, at the Community Legal Services and Counseling Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Attorneys there say that in recent years, asylum seekers have been required to provide more proof of the risks they face back home in order to win their case.

According to the U.S. government, asylum is a form of protection granted to individuals who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

Recently, there has been a rise of asylym cases for gay and lesbian individuals, as well as for victims of domestic abuse, or genital mutilation.

This vlog also tells the story of John, a gay man from Jamaica, who says he couldn't sleep anymore and couldn't walk to work, for fear of being attacked because of hatred for his sexual orientation.

This report for VOA by Lisa Schlein details how more and more people are seeking asylum in industrialized countries.

Diversity Job Fair Combats Minority Unemployment

2009-05-28T15:26:00.004-04:00

"You need to inform as many people as you can, try to talk to family members, friends, ex co-workers, ex bosses, try to place yourself out there. You need to join networking groups, local associations. You need to try to update your resume and come prepared for an interview. You need to do research on companies, and, most importantly, you need to make a very good first impression." -- Ricardo Villalba, Job Fair Organizer.

The latest U.S. unemployment figures show that 8.9 percent of the American workforce is out of a job.

The American economy has shed nearly six million jobs since January 2008. That’s the biggest employment loss of any U.S. economic slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Minorities have been hardest hit. The latest figures show unemployment among African-Americans at 15 percent, and Hispanic unemployment at 11.3 percent.

This vlog is about a diversity job fair aimed at combating these trends. The information booths run by U.S. government employers, in particular the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the State Department, attracted large crowds.

This television report by Mil Arcega shows how recently laid-off workers are also turning their attention to “green” jobs.

A Playwright's Experiment with Race

2009-05-26T13:21:00.005-04:00

"In the black family, there is a different tempo to the conversation. In the white family, there is a different distance and fragility to touching and contact." -- Playwright Tom Minter

The press release for the play, "Past is Present, Imperfect," offers another quote by Minter: "I wonder. Now that we have a black president, can we tick the box of race and leave it behind as an issue? If not, how do we continue the opportunity of conversation?"

In an effort to answer these questions, Minter wrote a play about a multi-racial family. But to push the experiment farther, he decided to have two separate casts with different racial mixes perform the same play before the same audience, and to compare the performances and the reactions to them.

I asked the directors of the two casts if the era of post-racial theater was upon us. One of them said she didn't think so, while the other didn't like the question, and said race never had anything to do with theater. After the audience watched, there were nervous giggles, as well as carefully chosen words to describe the differences they perceived.

Judge for yourselves.

One of my earlier reports this year looked into how a diverse neighborhood in Washington D.C., still marred by race riots of the past, embraced the swearing-in of a multi-racial president.

The Israeli-Palestinian Divide in the USA

2009-05-19T12:49:00.005-04:00

"We are demanding that the United States stop arming and aiding Israel. We are in fact calling for a cut-off of all aid to Israel." -- Brian Becker, National Coordinator of the Answer Coalition.

"There have been too many meetings with politicians in backrooms and not enough conversations in people's living rooms and at their kitchen tables. That is what it's really going to take." -- Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, President Israel Project

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most divisive issues in the world today.

In the United States, activists line up on both sides of this complex impasse, which has sparked decades of violence.

This report looks into some of these activists’ arguments and counter-arguments, their strategies and their views on U.S. government policy.

A related audio-video report by Cindy Saine and Leta Hong Fincher shows how President Barack Obama is pressing Israel's new Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a two-state solution.

Another audio-video report by Mohamed Elshinnawi describes how experts differ on whether President Obama can succeed in bringing peace to the Middle East.

A New Surge of Volunteerism

2009-05-06T20:18:00.004-04:00

"It's great that we now…have this huge national service movement. We hope that it continues to increase. It's definitely a great opportunity for young people." -- City Year volunteer, Josh Murphy.

More and more young people in the United States are taking time away from their studies and from work to serve as volunteers in schools, soup kitchens, parks and other places.

Unlike the Peace Corps’ call to service in developing countries around the world, this call brings volunteers to places around the United States, where disparities between rich and poor are growing.

This report follows two volunteers at the City Year Washington program, which is designed to help teachers at struggling elementary schools in the nation’s capital.

City Year’s motto is "Give a year. Change the world." One smile at a time, it seems, both for the volunteers and for the schoolkids they’re helping out.

This radio report by Brian Wagner shows how college students recently chose volunteer work over beach vacations.

Helping Victims of the "American Dream" of Homeownership

2009-04-16T19:29:00.006-04:00

"A lot of my clients are disabled women and elderly women… Brokers didn't care that they couldn't pay the (mortgage) loan because the house, they thought at the time, would always be more valuable than the loan." -- A Florida attorney.

The current economic crisis in the United States is not just about companies going bankrupt, but also about individuals facing severe financial hardships.

In this vlog we meet lawyers in the southeastern state of Florida who are helping some of these people for free. They don’t want to add legal fees to their clients’ financial burdens. The lawyers say they want to be a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem.

When Florida’s housing bubble finally burst and its inflated real estate prices tumbled, state residents were especially hard-hit. Even as they struggled with impossibly hefty mortgage payments and mounting credit card debt, many homeowners lost their jobs and, often, their health insurance, too. Across Florida, home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies have soared. It’s a financial crisis with a human face.

This recent television report by Sean Maroney shows how some poor families have been forced to move into low-cost motels.

People need jobs more than ever right now, but as Julia Ritchey indicates in her radio report, U.S. jobless rates are climbing.

Another television report by Jeff Swicord shows how laid off workers in the northeastern state of Pennsylvania are trying to learn new skills to get new jobs.

Florida Is Still For Sale

2009-04-10T14:24:00.003-04:00

"We're working with a whole different profile of buyer right now. People are looking for bargains. They are looking for short sales, or bank owned properties, or foreclosures." -- Florida Real Estate Agent

(Flagler Beach) -- Florida, at the southeastern tip of the United States, is known as the "Sunshine State."

People often associate it with golfing, fishing, long, sandy beaches, easy retirement and beautiful sunsets.

But lately it's also been associated with terms like short sales, foreclosures and flipping.

Along with parts of California, Florida is where America's housing market collapsed most dramatically. The real estate bubble had burst.

But the market is struggling back. This vlog shows how Floridian real estate agents and business owners are still hard at work trying to make money and offering bargains. It also tries to explain some of what went wrong.

This radio report by Kent Klein has a quote by President Obama saying "the days when we are going to be able to grow the [U.S.] economy just on an overheated housing market or people maxing out on their credit cards, those days are over."

Oklahoma Goes for Wind

2009-03-31T09:23:00.009-04:00

"It is part of something where you are sort of on a leading edge. We enjoy and work every day with the idea of leaving this place better than we found it." -- University of Oklahoma official

(Norman, Oklahoma)-- Wind power is a hot topic in Washington, D.C. these days, as the Obama administration wants to make sure the United States becomes more energy independent.

In the American plains state of Oklahoma -- known for its tornadoes and repetitive oil booms -- residents, businesses and universities are also getting behind wind energy.

This vlog shows a few of the protagonists at work as they help Oklahoma increase its use of wind energy and expand the number of wind farms in the state.

A recent radio / television report by Greg Flakus showcases a wind power museum in nearby Texas.

A Clinic on Wheels Helps Immigrants

2009-03-30T10:40:00.008-04:00

"[The people we help] do not have access to health care. [This job] is very important for me, because we are saving lives." -- Mama Bus worker.

U.S. government data indicates at least 40 million Americans are without health insurance.

Within this vulnerable group of people, a disproportionate number are immigrants who typically receive fewer health benefits than native-born citizens.

This vlog is about the Mama and Baby Bus, run by the Mary's Center, a charitable group which helps individuals and families with limited or no access to health-related services in the Washington, D.C. region.

The bus makes regular stops to provide women with free pregnancy tests and information on where to get free health care. It also gives free health screenings to anyone who drops by, as well as referrals, vaccinations, and dental exams, and guidance on insurance enrollment.

Sometimes even affluent people drive by and park their fancy cars to get a free dental checkup inside the bus.

I caught up with a morning bus crew as they made a stop on the corner of Columbia Road and 14th street, in one of D.C.'s largely Latino neighborhoods in an area in the northwest part of the U.S. capital.

One of those interviewed, outreach worker Chelsea Nycum, followed up with an e-mail, trying to explain in better detail her motivation to do the work she does.

Her words also shed light on a part of the story that my camera was not allowed to capture.

Here is what she wrote: "When someone comes to the bus for an HIV or pregnancy test, the results that will come to light in our 20 minutes spent together have the potential to be life changing. In those few minutes, people usually aren't nonchalant and they don't pretend to have it all together. I am able to be a part of someone's life during something that is honest, vulnerable, and real. Now, I don't pretend to think that after a few minutes with someone that I know their circumstances or understand fully (or even partially) what makes them who they are, but I think that people appreciate being asked about the things that matter to them and they appreciate being heard. Too often, especially in the populations we serve at Mary's Center, people are coping with a lot of pain and tough circumstances and nobody ever reaches out to them to listen to their stories or to let them know that they matter."

Recent Voice of America reports on health care in America, include this radio spot by Gabe Joselow on the White House budget director’s claim that investing in health care is key to creating economic growth.

This radio/television report by Paula Wolfson is about President Barack Obama starting efforts to overhaul the U.S. health care system.

Extraordinary Perspectives of the Inauguration

2009-02-19T20:44:00.049-05:00

"I am 67 years of age, and I never, never, thought I would live to see this day when a black man became president of these United States." -- Inauguration Attendee

The intent of this vlog (video log) is to mix and match words, audio, pictures and video to tell important, relevant stories about the American experience, in an unscripted style.

For my first posting, I go back to Barack Obama's Inauguration Day on January 20th, 2009, when I braved Washington, D.C.’s bitter cold alongside a million or so people with no access to heated VIP boxes. I rode the crammed public transit system early in the morning, walked through police roadblocks and watched the historic ceremony on big screens set up on the National Mall -- all the while recording some of the stories that people wanted to share. 

Other VOA stories that day included Derek Kilner filing a radio spot from Kenya on how residents there celebrated the beginning of the presidency of the first African-American president, whom they also consider a native son, while Jim Malone reported on how the Inaugural celebrations quickly gave way to presidential realities.