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Sahara Desert comprises about half the country. They are not blessed with an abundance of natural resources. But, Malian passion for democracy is not to be denied by natural impediments. ali’s road to democracy started in 1960 when they were granted independence from France. It picked up steam in 1991 when they elected a president in their first free and open election. Subsequent elections have been successful at every level of government.

The democracy road now goes through Oklahoma as our team of journalists’ major goal is to identify and train Malian journalists and emphasize the importance of accurate reporting.

Agricultural journalists were selected because Mali’s main industry

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is agriculture. Cotton is their number one export.

In Bancoumana the farmers were proud of their radio station, FM 130.8. Housed in a small, cinder-block building just off the main dirt road, the station was built with funds from an American Christian organization. Like farmers everywhere, Malians expressed their worries about the weather, crop prices and high fertilizer costs.

I’m not sure they understood what Farm Bureau is, but they heard the word “farm” and immediately zeroed in.

They specifically asked about cotton program payments for the American farmer. Try explaining the very complex agriculture program and the World Trade Organization to a group of remote African villagers who don’t speak English, and you quickly understand the difficult task staring me in the face.

Left: A farmer irrigates a field of onions in southwestern Mali, West Africa. During the dry season, November to June, irrigation is the only source of water for crops.

Above: West African farmers such as this gentleman in the village of Bancoumana, believe U.S. farm program payments make it difficult for African farmers to compete on the world cotton market.

Above Top: A young man peddles locally-grown apples on a street corner in Bamako, the capitol of Mali.

Although the Sahara Desert comprises over half of Mali, apples, mangos, oranges, coconuts and other fruits and vegetables are grown in the fertile Niger River valley in southern Mali.

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Large trucks are a common site as they roar through small rural villages in Mali, West Africa. Trucks have surpassed camels and donkey carts as the main freight and passenger carriers.

Below: Modern tractors are a rare sight in Mali. This one is probably ”communally-owned” by a village of farmers. Tractors often serve double duty such as transporting passengers as well as tilling fields.

Bottom: This small caravan of camels rests in a market near a railroad line as it passes thru the capitol city of Bamako. Once a common sight transporting people and freight across the Sahara Desert in northern Mali, today trucks have replaced many of the ancient beasts of burden.

Right: With one foot in the 17th Century and one foot in the 21st Century, many rural Malians rely on donkey carts for transportation while toting a cellular telephone. Notice the ridge of dirt piled across the road.

This serves as an effective “speed bump” to slow down faster moving vehicles.

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he light Mali soils, touched with a hint of red clay, can only produce about one-fourth the yield of a non-irrigated Oklahoma cotton field, or about 100 pounds per acre. Their crops are planted and harvested by hand. The African farmers believe they are at a severe disadvantage in competing with Oklahoma farmers on the world cotton market and made it clear the U.S. government should not be providing assistance to American farmers.

This is comparing apples with oranges! In Mali, the farmers typically do not own individual fields, but rather a group of 10 or 12 families take care of sectioned-off fields and share the income from that land. Their labor costs $2 per day. They sell their cotton to the only market available, a French-owned company that exports most of it to China.

But, don’t get the idea these farmers are detached from world

affairs. Practically everyone has a cell phone and a radio. It was not unusual to see a car battery parked inside a thatched-roof hut with half a dozen cell phones dangling from converted chargers.

“They have one foot in the 17th Century, and one foot in the 21st Century,” said Dennis Bilodeau, Communications Director for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) office in Mali. Bilodeau has lived in Mali for more than 20 years, much of that time invested in improving their communications infrastructure. He said the Malians have one distinct advantage over the western world.

“They skipped decades of fooling with land line phone communications and went directly to cellular phones,” Bilodeau said.

Dozens of nongovernmental organizations (NGO’s) are working in Mali to improve living conditions. One example is Canadian-based

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Dressed in native attire, a Malian women carries bundles of cloth to market in Bamako. The cloth most likely started in a Mali cotton field, exported to China where it was spun into cloth and made it's way back to Mali as a bolt of white cotton. Malian families typically take the white cloth and dip it in brightly-colored dyes for dresses, tunics, shirts and other clothing items.

PROJECT UPDATE he second phase of the “Nurturing the Fourth Estate – Mali” project brings 16 Malian journalists to Oklahoma where they will study our methods for delivering information to rural areas. Oklahoma Farm Bureau is hosting two Malians during the month of July. There will be a strong dose of cultural and business exchange where the Malian journalists will be exposed to life in rural Oklahoma.

The Oklahomans will return to Mali in December to follow up on the training and further evaluate the project.

In addition to Knipp, other team members include Dwayne Cartmell, project leader and OSU assistant professor of Agricultural Communications; Shelly Sitton, assistant project leader and OSU associate professor of Agricultural Communications; Craig Edwards, OSU associate professor of Agricultural Education; Lora Young, OSU graduate student; Jeremiah Allen, OSU graduate student; Terry Clark, head of the Journalism department at the University of Central Oklahoma; Jim Hynes, Sam Houston State University business educator; Rob McClendon, executive producer, Oklahoma Horizon TV show; and Rachel Hubbard, KOSU-FM, Stillwater, news director.

Oklahoma journalists pose with children in the village of Bancouman, Maili,West Africa. The author (Sam Knipp) is back row, second from left.

Lyceum Group, a humanitarian collective aimed at improving life for those in impoverished African communities. The Group is directed by 67-year-old Dr. Ken Keirstead. The son of Canadian missionaries, Keirstead has invested most of his life in caring for Africans in West Africa.

“The top two killers in Mali are malaria and gastrointestinal diseases,” Keirstead said. “We’re working on increasing the availability of safe, potable water and controlling malaria-carrying mosquitos.” eirstead said the World Health Organization recently approved the limited re-introduction of the once-banned insecticide DDT to control mosquitos.

“I would rather, as a healer, see people ingest a little DDT than die of cerebral malaria,” Keirstead said. “I’ve seen too many cases 14 • Oklahoma Country • Summer 2007

where children are brought in with advanced stages (of malaria) and there is nothing we can do for them.”

Despite the high illiteracy rate, newspapers are a popular source of information, especially in the larger cities. Our team visited a variety of daily and weekly publications that would hardly be confused with the Daily Oklahoman or Tulsa World. Large sections of newsprint were interspersed with the occasional black and white photo.

However, they all share a common trait. The freedom to say something without fear of reprisal. And that, combined with Dr. Keirstead’s prescription for survival, spells long-term success for Mali.

“There is a word in Africa called Ubuntu, which means the wholeness of a family, either blood relationships or acquired. We must rely on a higher power because we’re all in this together.”

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No topic is safe when western Oklahoma rancher Monte Tucker puts pen to paper for his weekly column “What’s Under My Hat.”

By Traci Morgan

18 • Oklahoma Country • Summer 2007

I can’t stand it anymore; I have to write about the dreaded topic of global warming. nything can set him off…the evening news, a frustrating day on the farm, or even… correction, most likely…politics. When Monte Tucker zeroes in on his target, watch out! This young producer’s humorous pen is mightier than his hot shot.

Tucker, who ranches near Sweetwater, just got fed up one day after opening the paper and finding a slim picking of agricultural information.

“The articles our local papers were running pertaining to agriculture were pretty thin, pretty cookie cutter-type articles that were informative, but just weren’t deep enough to really let people know what was happening at the state capitol, on the national side of things and in the ag markets,” he said.

So, the 32-yearold rancher decided to write his own weekly column.

Topics pop up everywhere that grab his attention, and he considers writing about them a form of therapy.

“I hate watching the evening news. I absolutely hate how everything is so dramatic,” he exclaimed with a theatrical wave of the hand. “The only reason I watch the news anymore is just to find subjects to write on.”

He laughed about Left: Sweetwater rancher and newspaper columnist Monte Tucker sits in his home office where it all comes together. He pens his weekly column, “What’s Under My Hat,” here after being inspired by the news, daily events on the farm, or his favorite topic: politicians.

“I can’t help but drag the politicians in,” he said through laughter. “They’re such an easy target.”

Right: Monte Tucker sorts cattle in pens he designed on his ranch near Sweetwater. A humorous spin of incidents on the farm often makes it into Tucker’s latest column.

that and continued to giggle while listing his “victims.”

“I bashed Diane Sawyer pretty good one time. There was George ‘nodecision’ Bush in one column. Then there was ‘Billary’ Clinton. I bashed Drew Edmondson quite a bit, too,” he said.

As you can see, no side of the political aisle is safe from Tucker’s humorous verbal lashings.

If you’ve met Monte Tucker, then you know the state YF&R Committee member has a great sense of humor. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, one meeting will convince you this guy likes to have a good time no matter what the situation.

“I like to put a twist on it that makes it where you can sit back and laugh at it, instead of getting mad at what happened that day,” he said.

“Life’s too short to get too worked up” could be this cowboy’s motto.

The 2006 YF&R Achievement Award winner likes to focus on the lighter side of things.

“I try to come from the side of rural, country and ag. And just remind people that it’s not as serious as they think it is,” he said.

“I always remind myself when I’m watching the news that its sole purpose is to sell used cars and furniture. I mean, the news wouldn’t be on the air without its advertiser, and that’s who advertises,” he continued. “And politicians’ sole purpose is to get re-elected. Well, I’m not going to say that about all politicians. There are some statesmen and some leaders out there. The sad thing is we never hear about them.”

Tucker was inspired to pen his own column after reading “Just a Scoopful” by Jerry Nine, who owns a sale barn in Woodward. Nine’s column is published in the High Plains Journal.

“He (Nine) tells the truth so plainly, while brief and to the point,” Tucker said. “But, my deal’s evolved to a little more in-depth political stuff. Jerry kind of keeps his broad where I kind of narrow it down and try to hammer on specific stuff.”

Whatever the topic, he does have a way with words. Lots of folks in western Oklahoma tell Tucker he says what other people are thinking.

“The feedback I’m getting is, ‘You hit it on the head! That’s what I’ve been thinking that I’ve been telling people, and you just come right out and put it in print’,” he said through his laughter. “So, it’s been pretty fun. So far, I’ve had one negative letter to the editor, but he’s another topic for another day, anyway.”

Tucker did raise a few eyebrows after writing a column on farm policy, calling the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) a “senior citizen’s retirement program.”

“I took a little heat over that one, but it didn’t bother me. That just means they’re reading it and they care. You can hit emotions that way, and I guess that’s what keeps them reading,” he said.

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owdy friends and neighbors. Well, I can’t stand it anymore; I have to write about the dreaded topic of global warming. I guess it is the fact that here in Western Oklahoma we had one of the coldest Januarys on record that has me totally concerned about global warming.

Especially when I’m trying to break ice on a stock tank with temperatures in the single digits and a wind chill well into the negatives. Have you seen or read of the latest report to come out of Washington, D.C. on global warming? By the way, the report was released at a time when the D.C. area set two new record lows. Then, in the past few weeks, a summit on climate change had to be canceled due to the record snowstorms in the Northeast.

Having grown up with a science teacher for a mother, I slowly picked up on a few fundamentals of science. One of the small parts of a scientific statement of truth is that scientists do not use the words “most likely, probably, and seems to,” when they are 100% sure of something.

Words such as “most likely” mean the scientist doesn’t know and is guessing. Then the hypothesis writer ceases to be a scientist, he becomes just other person with an opinion. We all know what opinions are like! The official report released to congress and the administration, which cost Mr. Joe Taxpayer

H

millions of dollars, stated: 1. The average surface temperature has risen. (I can’t find two reports that are exactly the same on the amount. It seems to be about 2°C over the last 250 years), 2. CO2 levels are rising. (It seems they have risen about 280 ppm, that is parts per million), and 3. Methane levels are rising. (Again, about 1700 ppb, that’s parts per billion). This is documented scientific evidence and no climatologists will argue the above statements; however one might have a problem with the methods used to collect the data. Climatologists argue big time over whether or not the amounts are accurate and if they are significant. The part that no science orientated person can swallow is the reported cause of the increases in temperature, CO2, and methane. They “most likely” think it is due human activity, it “seems” to come from fossil fuel, and they “very likely” think agriculture is to blame. I can’t believe I read that in the report. Oh yeah, the so-called scientist that authored the report didn’t take into account the volcanic discharge and natural methane release from ocean floors because they don’t have the equipment to measure the amounts. Are these the same scientists who about thirty years ago said the polar ice was expanding and we were all going to freeze, and the cause was “most likely” human activity?

Let’s come back to common sense. The only constant in the whole debate is the need for more money to further research this situation. And the fact that we are paying through the nose for emission standards based on “most likely” science. And then we have the poster child for global warming, Mr. Al “do as I say not as I do” Gore. I guess the rights to Uncle Bill’s cigar affairs were not available after hanging chads put Gore

He does enjoy including family in his writings. Tucker’s dad is a regular in the column. He also quotes his deceased grandfather, who had some “little sayings,” and he has an uncle or two he lists every now and then.

“Oh, it just tickles ’em to death,” he said.

But, the most important family member would probably be his wife, Danielle, chief editor of “What’s Under My Hat.”

have to give credit to my wife. She’s a pretty good editor. She kind of hacks and coughs it away whenever I’m not around and sends it on to the papers and makes it sound a little better,” he admitted.

Currently, his column is published weekly in the Sayre Record, the Elk Citian and the Cheyenne Star. A Texas newspaper in Wheeler County also has expressed an interest in picking up the column.

Tucker is content putting his thoughts on paper every week, but gets exited about the possibility of enough readers to support his farming habit.

“If I could subsidize farming with an article, instead of what was coming from Washington, it’d sure help,” he Monte and Danielle said, as always, with laughter.

Tucker, along with their A “What’s Under My Hat” email list is two-year-old son, Mason, ranch near Sweetwater in growing each week as more people get hooked western Oklahoma. The on Tucker’s column. Those who would like to couple serves as secretary be added to the email list can contact the of Oklahoma Farm columnist at tuckercattleco@hughes.net. Or, if Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee you would like your local paper to run the and was selected as column, send him your newspaper’s OFB’s 2006 YF&R information.

Achievement Award winners.

20 • Oklahoma Country • Summer 2007

in the unemployment line. So, he decided to give slide shows on global warming and write the book, An Inconvenient Truth. Just a few weeks ago, after a quick flight in a private jet, he pulled up to the Grammy Awards show in a gas guzzling stretch hummer to tell Hollywood we have ten years to live. And, oh how they embraced the real humanitarian. Then, Al and most all of the rich and famous disembarked from the late parties by private plane, tour buses, and oversized SUV limos. This ex-vice president is preaching to me to change my ways, sacrifice for the planet’s sake and reduce my way of living. All right Al, I’m right behind you. Al and Tipper are sacrificing so much, with three houses, one 10,000 square-foot, 20 room, 8 bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Virginia, plus a third house in Carthage, TN. According to a report in USA today, none of the above have solar panels, wind generators, or even geo-thermal heat and air. Also, the little house in Carthage sets on a zinc mine, from which Al receives royalties, that was closed for polluting a water body. Then there are large dividends from Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum. Gore hasn’t dumped stock in this company, which is mired in controversy over drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.

No thanks to your preaching Al; the “most likely cause of global warming” agriculture community will keep providing food for you and your staff while converting CO2 into oxygen for the atmosphere and putting carbon from your private jet back into the soil through our plants.

Isn’t it funny? Without global warming, the Corn Belt, which converts billions of tons of carbon back into the soil, would still be under a glacier.

I’m Monte Tucker and that’s what under my “Carbon Neutral” hat.

SPORTS TECH NEWS

N e w g o l f c l u b ’s s e c r e t m e t a l may hit too far on some par-4’s.

Coating on surface derived from armor-piercing metal used by military.

Largest head size allowed.

YALESVILLE, CT -- A small company in Connecticut has taken the largest head allowed under the Rules of Golf, and souped it up with a coating derived from a oncesecret metal developed by the Department of Defense to pierce enemy armor.

The coating hits with a force twice as hard as steel, 70% harder than titanium.

With that much punch a good golfer could turn Coating on face of new golf club is 70% harder than titanium. Added power,

by Charlie Allen some par-4’s into size of head, challenge distance restrictions. par-3’s.

That’s not what officials had in mind when they set a 460 cc size it. If their scores don’t drop big time, Too powerful for some par-4’s limit on clubs. Golf officials were trying they can send it back and we’ll refund its to restrict distance, and they still are.

A former PGA pro who played it in price promptly.”

There is talk of new rules requiring man- California said he had to club-down to Big drivers hit big shots. That’s why ufacturers to tone down their balls. a 3-wood on several par-4’s. A 21-time there’s a 460 cc limit. A 460 cc driver Good luck. Manufacturers will Connecticut long-ball champ said of with a 70% kicker hits really big shots. always push the envelope, and the the 500 drivers he’s used over twenty T he company l et s you p l a y t h e maker of this club is no exception. years, this one hit farther with less Controller® 460 for 30 days risk-free.

Look what it’s done. First, it chooses a effort than any of them. One golfer I t i s not i n st or es. O r der d i r e c t a t club head that goes right to size limit, begged the company to let him take it 1- 800- 285- 3900 ( A sk f o r i t e m # then it slips in under the radar with a with him for a week in Palm Springs. A cdtim), or go to www.ngcgolf.com, or coating that comes from the tips of tor- low-handicapper curved several shots send your name, address and a check pedoes and armor-piercing shells. around imaginary dog legs 220 yards (or cc number and exp. date) to NGC Nothing wrong here, unless the club out. The club’s huge sweet spot gave G ol f ( D ep t . F D - 126), 6 0 Ch u r c h provokes a new rule. And it might. him more room to work the ball from Street, Yalesville CT 06492.

Here’s how it performed when a pro toe to heel.

The graphite shaft model costs and other golfers tested it.

I asked a Director of the company that $119.00; the top-of-the-line TurboTip® developed the club, called the graphite shaft costs $139.00. The 20-40 yards farther Controller® 460, for comments. He lit TurboTip® shaft has a big butt grip for One golfer hit seven out of eight shots up. firmer swing control and extra weight in 20 yards farther with the new club. “I its tip for more club head speed.

70% harder than titanium wish I hadn’t just spent $400.00 on The matching 3 and 5-woods are mine,” he said.

“This is the driver of all time! Tell me each $20.00 less. If you buy all three A ten-handicapper, who also plays a how anything can beat this: A driver with clubs, the company will include – free $400.00 driver, hit the new club 40 a maxed out head and sweet spot, a coat- – a $119.00 Controller® driving iron yards farther. He said, “I’m not doing ing derived from a metal used by the mil- w i t h a gr aphi t e shaf t . I t m u s t b e anything. It seems to swing itself.” itary to pierce enemy armor -- steel and returned, if you return any of your purAnother golfer who had just bought a titanium are too weak to do that -- a club- chase for a refund.

460 cc driver (they can cost $400.00 to face twice as hard as steel, 70% harder Specify shaft model, right or left$500.00) wanted to get his money back. A than titanium, a 45 1/2 inch, 69-gram handed, regular or stiff flex. S/h is only husky golfer who swings at about 120 high-fiber, graphite shaft that cracks $14.95 for one or four clubs. CT add 6% MPH actually cracked a ball with it. through the air like a bull whip. What’s sales tax.

Another golfer hit five of his seven drives left! Look at those shots! That guy over Oh, yes. If you swing at 120 MPH, from even to ten yards past shots he hit there will shoot scratch golf. bring some extra balls. with his own driver, a $449.00 club.

“We’re giving golfers 30 days to play FD-3A © NGC Worldwide, Inc. 2007 Dept. FD-126 Oklahoma Country • Summer 2007 • 21