John Burnett

Controversy Brews Over Church's Hallucinogenic Tea Ritual

John Burnett — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:59:00 +0000

A small church in Santa Fe, N.M., has grown up around a unique sacrament. Twice a month, the congregation meets in a ritualized setting to drink Brazilian huasca tea, which has psychoactive properties said to produce a trance-like state.

The Supreme Court confirmed the UDV church's right to exist in 2006. The church doesn't seek new members and prefers to keep a low profile.

Two Decades Later, Some Branch Davidians Still Believe

John Burnett — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 09:21:00 +0000

Twenty years ago, federal agents clashed with David Koresh's Branch Davidian community near Waco, Texas. The standoff ended with a raid and fire that killed some 80 people. It's remembered as one of the darkest chapters in American law enforcement history.

Two decades later, some of the Branch Davidians who survived the raid are still believers, while a new church group has moved onto the land.

The Raid

Most people born in an earlier generation know the outlines of the story. David Koresh was the self-appointed prophet of a small religious community.

Search And Rescue Ongoing After Texas Plant Explosion

John Burnett — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 16:22:00 +0000

Transcript

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. Good morning. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep.

We're learning more about last night's fire in the Texas town of West. The fire started in a fertilizer plant, and a father in a vehicle nearby was taking video of the flames when the plant exploded.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You OK?

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah. I can't hear.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Cover your ears.

UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I can't hear. Get out of here.

Thousands Trek To New Mexico Chapel On Good Friday

John Burnett — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 21:42:00 +0000

Driving in northern New Mexico requires special caution on Good Friday. Tens of thousands of people — some walking all night — are converging on the village of Chimayo to pray inside a 200-year-old chapel before a carved wooden image of Jesus.

As it does every year, the highway department has put out portable toilets, orange barriers, and signs warning motorists of "Santuario walkers."

The man in the fluorescent orange shirt and striped sneakers, walking determinedly along the shoulder, is Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, a Democrat who represents this area. He started in Santa Fe.

As Islam Grows, U.S. Imams In Short Supply

John Burnett — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 20:29:00 +0000

Islam in America is growing exponentially. From 2000 to 2010, the number of mosques in the United States jumped 74 percent.

Today, there are more than 2,100 American mosques but they have a challenge: There aren't enough imams, or spiritual leaders, to go around.

The Mid-Cities Mosque in Colleyville, Texas, has two modest minarets that distinguish it as a sacred building here in this sedate suburb between Fort Worth and Dallas.

Juarez Priest Finds 'Hand Of God In The Midst Of Mayhem'

John Burnett — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 19:46:00 +0000

Father Kevin Mullins steers his old Chevy pickup up a steep road to a hilltop dominated by a large statue of the virgin. She has a commanding view of this troubled corner of Christendom.

Here, the states of Texas, New Mexico and and Chihuahua, Mexico, intersect amid barren hills freckled with ocotillo plants and greasewood.

Getting out of the truck, the graying Catholic priest with the kind, ruddy face squints north. "From up here you can see across the I-10 there into El Paso. Also, you see the border fence down there.

In Faith, Finding Answers To 'The Mystery Of Evil'

John Burnett — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 22:51:00 +0000

When a human tragedy occurs on the scale of the Newtown shootings, clergy are invariably asked an ancient question: If God is all-knowing, all-powerful and benevolent, why does he allow such misfortunes?

There's even a word for reconciling this paradox: theodicy, or attempting to justify God's goodness despite the existence of evil and suffering.

A World Both Beautiful And Shattered

Steven Folberg, senior rabbi at Congregation Beth Israel in Austin, Texas, has been asked this question before.

From A Life Of Crime To Designing Jewelry, All In A Nairobi Slum

John Burnett — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:16:00 +0000

After covering East Africa for five months, a profound problem I encountered in every country was what will happen to the continent's exploding cities.

The U.N. predicts that by 2040, six in 10 Africans will live in cities — an estimated 1 billion people.

A Battle For The Stolen Childhoods Of Kenyan Girls

John Burnett — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 20:21:00 +0000

Life can be especially cruel for girls growing up on Kenya's Swahili Coast. Some families sell their daughters to earn the bride price, while others encourage them to become child prostitutes for tourists. The girls drop out of school and have babies, and their childhoods are stolen.

Tanzania's Albinos Face Constant Threat Of Attack

John Burnett — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 15:48:00 +0000

Life is hard for albinos throughout Africa, but especially in the East African nation of Tanzania. At best, they face raw prejudice; at worst, they are hunted for their flesh, the results of superstitious beliefs.

Albino killings have been reported in a dozen African countries from South Africa to Kenya, but they are worse in Tanzania than anywhere else.

More than 100 albinos have been violently attacked in Tanzania from 2006 to June of this year — 71 died and 31 escaped, though most were maimed.

At His Own Risk, Somali Chef Creates Gourmet Haven In War-Weary Mogadishu

John Burnett — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:50:00 +0000

Ahmed Jama was running a successful Somali cafe in southwest London when he decided it was time to go home. Against the urgent advice of friends, he returned to Mogadishu three years ago and started cooking.

Jama epitomizes the spirit of rebirth in the city that has been brutalized by 21 years of civil war.

Aid Workers Struggle To Provide Services In Congo

John Burnett — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 11:02:00 +0000

The rebel movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo has set off another humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of displaced villagers who fled the fighting are on the march with their belongings, and someone has to take care of them.

Into this sea of need wades Tariq Riebl, a tall 34-year-old German with a shaved head.

Rebel Advances In Congo Send Civilians Fleeing

John Burnett — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 22:19:00 +0000

It's a scene that's become wearily repetitive in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo: An uprising drives out poorly trained government troops, creating havoc and sending large numbers of refugees fleeing for their lives.

This time the rebel group is M23, or March 23. Their revolt began this spring, and earlier this week they took Goma, an important town on the country's eastern border, just across Lake Kivu from Rwanda.

Elated Kenyans Revel In Obama Win

John Burnett — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 21:32:00 +0000

As the news spread that the son of the late Barack Obama Sr. — a Kenyan government economist — had held on to the most powerful presidency in the world, the elation across this East African nation was contagious.

One Nairobi radio DJ could scarcely contain himself on Wednesday. "How are your feelings this morning, this Obama Day morning?

Radio Tanzania: A Disappearing History On Tape

John Burnett — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 06:03:00 +0000

At the archives of Radio Tanzania, more than 15,000 reel-to-reel tapes are stacked in floor-to-ceiling shelves. Each band, musician and recording date is painstakingly notated.

In A Tanzanian Village, Elephant Poachers Thrive

John Burnett — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 20:39:00 +0000

An insatiable demand for ivory in Asia is fueling a massive slaughter of elephants across Africa. As NPR's John Burnett reports, one of the worst poaching hot spots is Tanzania. In this story, he visits an ivory poacher's town that sits next to a major game reserve.

Poachers Decimate Tanzania's Elephant Herds

John Burnett — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 08:38:00 +0000
"The word 'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were praying to it." — Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness
Conrad wrote more than a century ago, when there were no laws against shooting elephants. If anything, today's restrictions on the ivory trade have only increased its value.
The slaughter of elephants and the seizure of illegal ivory have soared to their highest levels in decades.

As Somalia's War Ebbs, Mogadishu Dares To Rebuild

John Burnett — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:40:00 +0000
There is a remarkable change going on in Mogadishu, Somalia — often dubbed the world's most dangerous city. For starters, it may not deserve that title anymore.
Last year, African Union forces drove the Islamist militant group al-Shabab out of Mogadishu.

Forest People Return To Their Land ... As Tour Guides

John Burnett — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 07:25:00 +0000
Like other hunter-gatherers of Central Africa who've been cast out of their jungle homes, when the Batwa forest people of southwest Uganda lost their forest, they lost their identity.
The Batwa were evicted from their rain forest kingdom in 1991, when two neighboring national parks, Mgahinga and Bwindi, were created to protect shrinking habitat for the endangered mountain gorilla.
Mgahinga National Park's 13 square miles are dense with towering bamboo, braided vines, wild fruit, forest elephants and cape buffalo.

Uganda's Leader: 26 Years In Power, No Plans To Quit

John Burnett — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 20:41:00 +0000
Rebel leader Joesphy Kony, head of the infamous Lord's Resistance Army, has achieved greater notoriety than any other Ugandan in the world today.
Idi Amin, who ruled the country through most of the 1970s, still stands as a symbol of African dictators who abused power and inflicted gross human rights abuses.
Yet as Uganda celebrated 50 years of independence on Tuesday, the man who has most shaped the country is far less known, at least in the West.
Yoweri Museveni has ruled the East African nation for 26 years, more than half of its post-colonial history.

Gorillas And Guerrillas Share The Troubled Congo

John Burnett — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:29:00 +0000
When crossing from Uganda into Congo at the shabby border town of Bunagana, I encountered a broadly smiling man in a black leather jacket named Hamid Kashaisha.
He asked if I wanted to see the gorillas. I replied that it's guerrillas — with guns, that is — that I wanted to see: the M23 rebels who, for the past two months, had occupied a piece of real estate in eastern Congo larger than Delaware.
That was no deterrence to the pitchman.
"Right now we are charging $350, visa inclusive, and transportation both ways, $150," he said.

Yet Again, Congo Faces The Specter Of Civil War

John Burnett — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 09:39:00 +0000
For years, armed militias have been stalking the lush forests in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, committing all sorts of atrocities against villagers. And now one of the most war-ravaged countries in the world has another looming problem: an emerging rebel group.
"A notorious group of human rights violators" is how the U.N.

Sauti Sol: Native Sons Sing Straight To Kenya's Youth

John Burnett — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 06:03:00 +0000
The members of Sauti Sol rehearse in a cramped recording studio above a chapati restaurant off a noisy highway in Nairobi. Bien-Aime Baraza, Delvin Mudigi and Willis Chimano — the founding members, all 25 — have been friends since they sang together as part of a gospel ensemble in high school. When they graduated in 2005, they didn't want to stop singing, so they formed Sauti Sol. Sauti is Swahili for voice, while sol is Spanish for sun. "Voices of light."
They wrote songs and rehearsed for three years before releasing their first album, Mwanzo, in 2008 — it sold well.

Ugandan Gold Medalist Returns To Fame And Fortune

John Burnett — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 10:24:00 +0000
On the last day of the London Olympics, a Ugandan runner seemingly came from nowhere during the marathon to pass the favored Kenyan and Ethiopian athletes and win gold.
Stephen Kiprotich is the first gold medalist from Uganda since John Akii-Bua won the 400-meter hurdles at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

In South Sudan, Cows Are Cash And Source Of Friction

John Burnett — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 07:27:00 +0000
For the rural people of South Sudan, cattle are at the center of their culture. They use them as currency, treat them as objects of beauty, and fight tribal battles over them.
In recent years, traditional cattle raids have turned deadly. Tribesmen aren't just stealing cattle; they are slaughtering rivals, burning villages and abducting women and children.
South Sudan, a country that gained independence just a year ago, faces daunting challenges as it attempts to build a stable nation.

On The Road To Olympic Gold, Kenyan Marathoners Fuel Up On Carbs

John Burnett — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 12:33:00 +0000
For a couple of days last month, I ate the same foods as some of the fastest people on the planet — the Kenyans.
I stayed at the same hotel and ate in the same dining room as the Kenya Olympic Marathon team while working on a radio story about how this impoverished nation produces some of the best endurance runners in the world.
The marathoners were training in the celebrated runners' center of Iten in the weeks before their trip to London for the big race