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University Daily Kansan, September 1. 1983
Page 8
Student interns in Liberia
By PETE WICKLUND Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
Mark Sellers spent his summer doing what a lot of people dream of — living and working on a tropical beach in an exotic country.
But the Roseville, Minn., senior's purpose in traveling to the western coast of Africa was not for pleasure-seeking. Sellers went to Liberia to spread the Word of God to people of that impoverished nation — including those who practice black magic and eat monkey meat.
Sellers, 24, a broadcast journalism major and a devout Christian, worked on a summer internship at ELWA, a Christian missionary radio station in Monrovia, Liberia. The station broadcasts in more than 15 languages to countries in northern and central Africa.
ELWA is part of a large Christian missionary compound in Monrovia run by Sudan Interior Missions. The mission also participates in such activities as educating tribal communities and improving living conditions in the underdeveloped nation of one million people.
"The spiritual needs of the people are number one. We do want the people to be happy in eternity." Sellers said. "They need help in their present lives."
"The open air markets are飞跃
income, the defecate into their
killing water source."
Malnutrition in Liberia claims close to 50 percent of the newborn population, and sanitary conditions are appalling, Sellers said.
Along with exposing people to Christianity, Sellers and his missionary colleagues worked to raise the standard of living there.
"There have been a lot of outside factors that have kept Liberia from developing," Sellers said, citing poor agricultural practices as a key example. "It's something we won't see changed for several generations."
After transferring to the University of Kansas from the University of Wisconsin at Superior, where he was majoring in data processing and accounting, Sellers made several lifestyle changes.
Sellers changes life
Missionary radio. Sellers said, is one of the main tools the missionaries use to educate and preach to the African people.
He changed his major to journalism and he recommitted himself to God, he
In Africa, Sellers worked in many capacities at ELWA, including designing a plan for a localized drama series for Moslem audiences.
Christian Fellowship, which helped him learn of the African internship.
At KU Sellers been involved with several on campus Christian groups, such as the Covenant Church.
When not working, Sellers interacted with the people of Monrovia and pushed to overcome what he called cultural bananas — the differences in customs.
The passive nature of Liberians was a cause of culture shock for Sellers.
"Sometimes I tend to be emotionally explosive," Sellers said. "The Liberians would look up like startled when I'd burst out laughing or if it, for some reason, curse after breaking my enthusiasm." I had to learn to control my enthusiasm.
One popular dish is called "chop," which Sellers said was a heavy stew with any of several kinds of meat in it. The dish, which was originally hunted in the Liberian bush
Learning to appreciate Liberian food was another matter for Sellers to conquer. The Liberian diet consists of meat, all of which is heavily spiced.
Sellers said he found a similarity between Liberians and Americans. But, he said, it was a similarity that is inherent in all mankind.
"You can't change the evil nature of man," Sellers said. "You see the evil nature of man."
For Mark Sellers, Roseville, Minn., senior, his internship in Liberia was more than a learning experience.
GSA head moving to fire 'whistleblower'
By United Press International
WASHINGTON — The chief of the General Services Administration, who carried out a 1960 Ronald Reagan campaign pledge on taking office by promoting three outspoken agency employees, is moving to fire one who became a vocal critic, it was disclosed yesterday.
In a notice of dismissal delivered last Friday, GSA Administrator Gerald Carmen charged Bertrand Berube with "misconduct" and "a pattern of increasingly disruptive behavior over an extended period of time, which deliberate and which has amounted to abuse of position and authority."
$62,000 a-year post in the Senior Executive Service.
The action came following an unsatisfactory job performance rating given Berube in July by a top Carmen aide seeking to demote him from his
He ordered Berube to work from home while preparing a response. Berube cleaned out his desk at GSA yesterday.
Berube said when he filed a Freedom of Information request for evidence to back the poor rating, he was denied permission. He paid $1,161 in document charges.
Berube, a 20-year agency veteran who gained a reputation as a "whistleblower" against waste and mismanagement, has become a crusader for reforms in the government's landlord insurance program. He maintains to avoid what he says have become life-threatening conditions for some federal workers.
Since then, Berube has been the only one of the trio to regularly score GSA's
Berube was one of three agency employees Carmen promoted to top jobs and awarded $7,500 bonuses in a splash of publicity shortly after assuming the agency's top job in 1981. At the time, Carmen stressed he was carrying out Reagan's pledge to "put all thistleblinders back in power at GSA."
failures and Carmen's performance as agency administrator, often publicly
Louis Clark, a lawyer for the non-profit Government Accountability Project which is representing Berube in fighting his ouster, said yesterday that Beruba was "set up" for firing in recent months.
"We are not permitted by law to comment on any personnel matters or pending personnel matters," a GSA spokesman said.
"I think . . . despite the possibility of bad press for having gone after a whistleblower of Bert Berube's stature, they've decided it's still better to do that than to have an internal critic of their performance." he said.
Clark said it would cost Berube thousands of dollars to defend himself and "it could very well be that Beruba will not have that money."
GSA won't comment
Last January, Carmén 'detailed' Berube away from his job as chief of staff at the French embassy in Washington.
Carmen, in his letter to Berube, charged that Berube's public statement in a television interview about building deterioration "is not true, and was an effort to generate an environment of sensationalism demonizing to the government."
Capital Region, just hours after Berube topped office officials of a pattern of serious deterioration and inadequate conditions in the federal buildings GSA oversees.
In new assignments since then, beatee was ordered to find solutions to the problem.
He also charged Berube threatened him last Jan. 23 by saying he would fight in the news media if he were removed from his post as regional chief, but that he would be silent if he were left in his job. Carmen termed the threat an "attempt at coercion" that "evidences a malicious attitude toward management in the agency by threatening to create an environment of sensationalism demeaning to the government."
Green Beret confesses to attempted extortion
By United Press International
BOSTON — A Green Beret accused of threatening to kill the president of Digital Equipment Corp in an extortion attempt pleaded guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court.
Sgt. Marc E. McDonnell, 27, a trained demolition expert based at Ft. Devens in Ayer, is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 26. The maximum penalty for sending an extortion letter through the mail is 20 years
McDonnell said in a written confession to Army investigators that he wanted money so his wife could stop working.
He admitted writing two letters to Digital president Kenneth Olsen demanaging $1.25 million an an additional $1.2 million to setting off two bombs last
June. One of the explosions was a mile from Olsen's house.
After his arrest in Germany June 23, McDonnell led FBI agents to a cache of explosives he had buried in a wooded area at Fort Devens.
MdConnell, a 10-year Army vet, said in his confession that he thought he should be able to provide more for his family with his military
"I tried to think of a way that would harm no one, inconvenience few and make available enough money without my wife working" he said.
He said he picked Olsen as his target after seeing names of the country's 400 richest people listed in Forbes magazine.
Angered bingo player charges Nebraska laws discriminatory
"I narrowed the possible candidates down to seven. From those, only Olsen lives a near-normal lifestyle in a rural setting.
By United Press International
OMAHA, Neb. — A woman conti-
ned to a wheelchair has filed suit charging
Nebraska's laws discriminate against
people with disabilities to play bingo as
much as she would like.
Attorney Larry Taylor, who has represented bingo operators in the past, filed the suit Tuesday on behalf of the organization as a lawyer-bound bingo enthousiasm.
She is sung because of bingo laws
that were passed in 1970, which
lawlessly ruled bingo players played
Some operators then began using an electronic bingo game, saying it was the winner.
a maximum of two nights a week at any location.
But the Legislature this year changed the law to add electronic bingo to the twice-weekly provision. That change took effect Friday.
The lawsuits said Bowley's primary leisure activity is playing bingo, and only one bingo hall in her area is accessible to wheelchairs.
That limits her to playing bingo twice a week, while non-handicapped people might be able to play every day by visiting various halls, the suit contends.
Jerry Colley Rhonda Mickley Stella Blevins
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AMATEUR ATHLETICS: AN EXAMPLE OF FESTERING FREE ENTERPRISE
In a letter to the July 13th University Daily Kansan, someone chides me for being unable to accept both my failure in the free enterprise system and the existence of the farcical amateur athletics apparatus.
This party, who devotes the rest of her letter to discussing athletics, wonders if I "wish to deny a college education to athletes because they are athletes?" As a college (and university) should strive to accept only those applicants who are qualified and committed, I am one of those who feel that no one should be admitted and granted special privileges (athletic scholarship, living quarters, meals, and tutors), as is now the case, because that individual is an athlete.
This person then asks me to "consider that a high school athlete works in the same respect as a high school scholar, each seeking financial awards for college where they can fully develop their potential and realize their responsibility in this world."
The respondent evidently doesn't know that the historical purpose of a college or university is to provide qualified students with additional education. When an educational institution uses its resources to reward both academically qualified and unqualified students for their athletic prowess, it ignores its heritage and recognized duty.
It is patently fraudulent to classify as "smatee" a cycle which features financially compensated recruiters (scouts in the world of professional athletics) persuading high school students to sign letters of intent (contracts in the world of professional athletics) and so receive athletic scholarships (salaries in the world of professional athletics) in exchange for their participating in college athletics.
According to the dictionary, an amateur "competes in sports or athletics for pleasure rather than for financial gain."
By consciously creating, over the years, a labyrinth which ignored the real amateur athlete, a few well-fed wafflers have turned a seemingly platyque pipe dream into a gargantuan machine whose power and success is an example of festering free enterprise.
William Dann
William Dann
2702 W. 24th St. Terr.
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