Life under curfew for American teens: ‘it’s insane, no other country does this’

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Tik Root | The Guardian | Photo: Eliana Aponte/Reuters

Around 11pm, on a temperate Friday last August, Officer Troy Owens was patrolling south-eastern San Diego. Peering through his driver’s side window into the darkness, he scanned the streets until his eyes stopped on the corner of 47th and Market. “Somebody trying to hide from me?” he wondered aloud. “Yup,” he answered, swinging the SUV around, and turning on the flashing lights.

Owens, who has worked for the San Diego police department for nearly 20 years, pulled toward the curb and got out of his car. As he approached, three teenagers slowly slunk out from behind an electrical box: a boy, David, 15, whose identity, along with those of other minors, is being protected, and two girls. Heads hanging, shoulders slouched, they knew they were caught. All three were soon searched, handcuffed, and put in the back of cars for the ride to the command post – a local Boys & Girls Club.

Were the teenagers picked up for using drugs? No. Drinking? No. Had they fled a store without paying for their goods? Hardly. Their crime: being out past curfew.

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The Elephant Chief

Tik Root | Harper's Magazine | Photos: Juan Herrero

As we approached the shore of Lake Ihema, Eugene Mutangana slowed the Land Cruiser to a stop. Our boat would be arriving soon, he said. Mutangana, the head of law enforcement at Rwanda’s Akagera National Park, had agreed to help me search for Mutware, an infamous ten-foot-tall African elephant who had lived in the area for decades. These days he spends much of his time camouflaged in the brush surrounding the lake. “I wish it would shine,” said Mutangana, looking up in vain for the sun amidst a thick wall of clouds. “When it shines, it leaves bush and comes to water.”

CONTINUE READING AT HARPER'S...

Your Genocide Guide

Producer: Tik Root | National Geographic | Film by: Juan Herrero 

As the head guide at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Rwanda, Serge Rwigamba leads heads of state and VIPs such as Angelina Jolie through his country’s deeply painful past. The task is also very personal: He lost his father and countless other family members in the 1994 genocide. The role, he says, is therapeutic, a way of understanding his trauma. Like any job though, it comes with its quirks, characters, and challenges.

God's People Don't Deserve This

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Tik Root | Newsweek | Photos: Juan Herrero

John Muir was a fervent believer. Not just in science or conservation or the National Park Service, which he championed. The founder of the Sierra Club and father of American environmentalism also believed in God. “The forests of America, however slighted by man, must have been a great delight to God,” Muir wrote in his 1897 essay “The American Forests.” “[For centuries] God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand straining, leveling tempests and floods; but he cannot save them from fools.”  

This sort of religious language was “very much present in early conservation movements,” says Evan Berry, an associate professor at American University and author of Devoted to Nature: The Religious Roots of American Environmentalism. George Bird Grinnell, founder of the Audubon Society, also invoked faith, and many of the environmentalist leaders in the late 19th and early 20th century were Congregationalists, a traditional Protestant sect, says Berry.

But then God abandoned the forest.

CONTINUE READING AT NEWSWEEK (ONLINE AND IN PRINT)...

Seeking An Edge

Tik Root | The Washington Post | Photos: Amanda Swinhart

BOSTON –  Kelly Cooke has played professional hockey for three years, though this season there’s one big difference:  she’s drawing her first paycheck from the sport. Just because the players in the upstart National Women’s Hockey League are now being paid, however, that doesn’t mean they’re getting rich.

For Cooke, hockey is still a part-time job. Twice a week practices are often bookended by 10-hour days as a paralegal at a local law office. That’s not to mention the refereeing gigs on the side. “It’s definitely a busy life,” she said.

With salaries, though, the NWHL is certainly taking women’s hockey in a new direction. And while the pay is modest — ranging from a $10,000 minimum to $25,000 — it has helped the league contend with the Canadian Women’s Hockey League for world-class talent.

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Nascar Says Goodbye to Jeff Gordon—and the Golden Era He Created

Text: Tik Root | The New Yorker | Video: Juan Herrero, Tik Root

With two laps to go at Martinsville, drivers were racing not only each other but a sinking Virginia sun. If the light left, the race would end early. Screaming through the corners of the half-mile-long track, brake temperatures climbed well past the thousand-degree mark, and the rotors began to glow. Jeff Gordon led the way, and the crowd was on its feet. The early-November race was Gordon’s last at Martinsville Speedway, and another milestone in his twenty-third and final season on the Nascar circuit. While farewell tributes had been abundant throughout the year, wins had not: in thirty-two starts, he’d yet to be victorious. Each time he came up short, his shot at an elusive fifth championship grew more distant and his send-off more bittersweet.

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Luke Somers's mother on kidnapping: I blame the US more than I do al-Qaida

Tik Root | The Guardian | Photo: Hani Mohammed/AP

In late September 2013, Paula Somers learned that her son Luke had been kidnapped in Yemen. The next day, four FBI agents showed up at her doorstep in Washington state.

The group – including a hostage negotiator and a victim specialist – came with a slew of questions for Somers and her son, Jordan. Eager to help, they detailed their last communications with Luke, and other information they thought might be useful. At the end of the meeting, the agents left printouts with suggestions on what to do if the kidnapper made contact, along with a cassette player to record a potential call.

The proposed scripts were formulaic at best. The cassette player was broken. It was an ominous start to a more than yearlong engagement with the US government that only went downhill, and ended in Luke’s death.

CONTINUE READING AT THE GUARDIAN...

In Rwanda, Building a “University in a Box”

Wyatt Orme & Tik Root | Medium | Photo: Juan Herrero

Under a bright, midday sun, a large group of prospective college students waits in the parking lot outside Kepler University, in the Rwandan capital of Kigali. The results of the morning’s admissions tests will soon be taped to a large window next to the school’s entrance. For many of those waiting, acceptance to Kepler could mean an end to their poverty. One young man, who cleans dishes at a hotel to support his family, says earning a spot here would be the “first happiness in [his] life.”

The student hopefuls stand and sit in small groups and speak to one another softly; their conversations are mostly drowned out by noise from nearby construction sites. Everyone appears calm, even though just a third of those who took this morning’s exam will advance to the interview stage after lunch. When the results are posted, our man learns that he’s not one of them.

Kepler has been testing groups of applicants like this around the country for the past month. This year, they received around 6,700 applications for 150 spots, which puts their acceptance rate at roughly two percent. Last year, Harvard’s undergraduate acceptance rate was triple that, at six percent.

CONTINUE READING AT MEDIUM.COM... 

This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting 

Rwanda remembers 1994 genocide that killed 800,000

Tik Root | USA Today | Photo: Stephanie Aglietti, AFP/Getty Images

KIGALI, Rwanda — Rwanda marked the anniversary of the genocide of 1994 on Tuesday by emphasizing commemorations around the country instead of a mass gathering in the capital.

"We are not (limited) by the routine," said Julienne Uwacu, the minister of Sport and Culture, which helps organize the commemoration. "We decided to shift from the stadium and to go down at the grass-roots level."

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This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting 

Is maple syrup the new athletic superfuel?

Tik Root | The Guardian | Photo: Amanda Swinhart

Winter is finally lifting across the US north-east. For Vermont, that means an end to a bitterly deep freeze – and the annual start to maple sugaring season.

At Slopeside Syrup, in Richmond, the trees are tapped and the anticipation is palpable. The company began making syrup a few years ago, but this will be its first full season with a new product: UnTapped.

Sold in energy-gel packets with a quick-open top, UnTapped is labeled an “athletic fuel”. According to its nutrition panel though, it contains only one ingredient: “100% Pure Vermont Maple Syrup (That’s it.)”.

Athletics is the latest, and perhaps boldest, frontier for a notoriously sticky substance that has – from hard candy to chicken-wing glaze – slowly attempted to break out of its breakfast table niche.

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A Vermont-Made Energy Gel With One Ingredient: Maple Syrup

Tik Root | Vermont Public Radio | Photo: Amanda Swinhart

Compressors running. Hammers flying. Maple sugaring season is ramping up on the Cochran’s land in Richmond. The family started producing syrup in 2010, and it’s quickly becoming tradition. But now, with a twist.

It’s an energy gel called UnTapped. Like other energy gels, it comes in palm-sized packets with an easy rip-top. Unlike other sports supplements, though, it has only one ingredient: pure maple syrup.

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Mariachi Man: Prince Hubertus and the Mexican ski team he helped create

Tik Root | Sports Illustrated | Photo: Alexander Klein /AFP/Getty Images

Perched on the slopes of Vail Resort’s Golden Peak, Prince Hubertus von Hohenlohe felt nauseous. Bent over, leaning on his poles, the Colorado altitude and early February sun were taking their toll on the 55-year-old godfather of Mexican ski racing. His style, though, remained fully intact.

Decked out in a white and red mariachi-themed speed suit—complete with printed on bow tie—von Hohenlohe was technically there to compete at the 2015 Alpine World Ski Championships. Having come to the biannual mini-Olympics of ski racing fifteen times before and never having finished within five seconds of the winner, von Hohenlohe had no illusion of taking home a medal. He is, however, a perennial contender for the unofficial spirit award.

CONTINUE READING AT SI.COM... 

Can the U.S. Ski Team finish on top?

Tik Root, Associate Producer | PBS Newshour

The U.S. Ski Team is hoping for big medal wins and greater recognition at the Alpine World Ski Championships this week. A more rigorous training schedule and equipment improvements have made these American skiers more competitive. The NewsHour’s Mary Jo Brooks reports from Vail. 

Also see archive of my work as a Newshour Desk Assistant. 

Q&A: Environmental Firebrand Bill McKibben: People, Not Exxon, Own the Sky

Tik Root | National Geographic

Last week in New York, climate change took center stage. More than a hundred heads of state gathered to discuss the issue at a United Nations summit—and demonstrators filled the streets of Manhattan in what has been dubbed "the largest climate march in history."

The next step for climate negotiators is a meeting in Lima, Peru, later this year, followed by another in Paris in December 2015. There, it is hoped, diplomats will at last conclude the international agreement that has eluded them for so long.

But what's next for the popular movement?

To find out, National Geographic talked with journalist turned environmental activist Bill McKibben. Author of countless magazine articles (including ones here,here, and here for National Geographic) and numerous books (including Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist, released this past summer), McKibben is also the founder of350.org, a grassroots climate group that helped organize last week's march.

READ FULL INTERVERVIEW AT NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM...

Polio vaccine effort in Syria reaches 1.4 million children as volunteers brave violence

Tik Root | The Washington Post | Photo: Hosam Katan/Reuters

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — Despite grave danger, a campaign to combat the spread of polio in rebel-held Syria has been surprisingly successful, with volunteers inoculating about 1.4 million children since the beginning of the year.

The reemergence of polio in Syria in October alarmed health organizations, which feared that factors such as tainted water, dysfunctional sanitation systems and a mobile population could contribute to a broader, region-wide epidemic.

In response, a coalition of nonprofit organizations quickly recruited and deployed thousands of volunteers in the country’s embattled north, where they won the cooperation of rebel fighters and braved shelling and airstrikes to administer the vaccine to children under age 5. Four volunteers have been killed in the process, but there has not been a confirmed case of polio in Syria in nearly five months.

CONTINUE READING AT WASHINGTON POST...  

Why Spain's unemployed millennials are rushing to join the navy

Tik Root | GlobalPost | Video: Juan Herrero, Tik Root

FERROL, Spain — By the time Borja Bernardez got home it was nearly three in the afternoon, and he was hungry. But there was no time for lunch. He had applied to join the Spanish navy and exam results were about to be posted online. Borja made a beeline for his computer.

Borja, now 27, dropped out of high school during his last year to pursue welding. After learning the trade, he quickly found work at Navantia, one of the largest shipbuilding companies in world and a major employer in his hometown of Ferrol, a port city on the northwest cost of Spain. It paid well. As an apprentice he was making up to 2,000 euros a month. 

“I was building ships for the navy and was earning more than the people in the navy,” he said. “It was great.”

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Generation TBD: What it means to be a 'NiNi' in Spain (VIDEO)

Tik Root (video by Juan Herrero) | GlobalPost

FERROL, Spain — Alberto Vazquez is a member of Spain’s so-called “lost” generation. Sitting at his house in the northwest Spanish city of Ferrol, the 24-year-old meanderingly talks about starting an eco-tourism business, becoming a DJ in Madrid, or maybe even joining the police force.

After a while he concludes, “I don’t know where my life is going.”

In a country where the youth unemployment rate hovers around a staggering 50 percent, the word ‘lost’ can refer to young people no longer contributing to the Spanish economy, those who have left Spain to work in other countries, or, as in Alberto´s case, those who are directionless.

CONTINUE READING AT GLOBALPOST... 

VICE on HBO: The Enemy of My Enemy

Tik Root, Local Producer | Vice on HBO

Yemen, the fractured state in the Arabian peninsula, is at the top of the worry list for President Obama's national security team, and the rise of Al Qaeda there is only half the reason why. The Yemeni government, an American ally, has lost so much control over the years that many U.S. officials consider Yemen a failed state, declaring it the "next Afghanistan." The real trouble is a current threat posed by the little-known Houthi rebel movement in the north of the country - a grassroots army, allegedly funded by Iran, that has never granted access to any other Western film crew before.  Ben Anderson went deep into Houthi-controlled territory to learn about the group that's fighting, and beating, Al Qaeda in the east, Saudi Arabia in the north, and Yemen's central government in the south.

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Millennials learn to answer the dreaded question: 'So... what do you do?'

Tik Root | GlobalPost

MIDDLEBURY, Vermont — Everyone gets the question eventually. The asker may employ a slightly different tone, inflection or wording but will inevitably get to the point: “So... what do you do?”

For America’s young people – almost 6 million of whom are neither studying nor employed – the answer is often far from simple.

“It's a question that is expecting a really pithy answer of 'occupation — insert here,’” said Ava Kerr, a 2012 graduate of Middlebury College who is now living in New Orleans and has found enough part-time work — at both an afterschool program and a children’s museum — to barely make ends meet. “It's like Mad Libs. But the real explanation is much longer.”

Across the world, 12.6 percent of young people between the ages of 15 and 24 areunemployed; nearly triple the rate for those over 24. This is forcing youth everywhere to wrestle with the day-to-day challenges of being out of work. One of these difficulties, though less apparent than paying bills or getting food on the table, is handling the common questions about what they do and, implicitly, where they fit in society.

CONTINUE READING AT GLOBALPOST...