NICHOLAS Evans Berg, 26, the American civilian beheaded in Iraq last week, once lived in Uganda.
The then 19-year-old undergraduate at Cornell University of Engineering, USA, spent his spring 1998 semester (March-June) in Uganda as part of the School for International Training's (SIT) Study Abroad programme.
He lived with a local family, shared their meals, and even learnt Luganda. During his four months stay in the country, Nick worked with a local community, teaching people how to make building bricks out of mud and cement, using a machine he designed. He also taught them how to sink wells, and build bridges with local materials.
At the end of his stay, Nick donated the machine (press) to the local people he had been working with, along with most of his personal belongings.
Nick's body was discovered last week near a highway overpass in Baghdad. A video posted last Tuesday on a website linked to al-Qaeda showed Nick being beheaded. His killers claimed the execution was in retaliation for the abuse of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison by US soldiers.
According to Prof. Robin Swett, who accompanied Nick and five other students to Uganda, Nick was "a loner in a lot of ways."
"I wasn't really surprised to learn that he had taken the initiative to Iraq on his own." The don was quoted in the Brattleboro Reformer, an American newspaper.
While in Uganda, Nick wrote a thesis paper which discussed an innovative press for brick construction. "Berg got a high grade on the paper," Swett said. While in Uganda, Berg raised funds to purchase a press for the local community where he worked and lived, said Rebecca Hovey, the dean of SIT's Study Abroad programme. Berg did "very well" and got a high grade on the paper, said Swett.
Once back home in the US, an excited Nick told his father Michael Berg, 59, a retired teacher, his Ugandan invention.
"And then you put it in a press, and it made a block. And the advantage of it was it could be made on site," Micheal, recalls his youngest son trying to describe to him, how the brick machine worked.
Besides Uganda, Nick also visited Kenya and Ghana, where he was again involved in development work. He helped put mobile phone masts in Kenya last year.
Here's my point. He gets back from Africa, where he's visited all these places. He has his degree in Engineering now. HE GOES TO OKLAHOMA UNIVERSITY where he does what? From what I gather, not a hell of alot. Maybe some stagehand work. He doesn't even have a place to live. Isn't that weird? Maybe I'm missing something, has anyone established or given a reason as to why he chose to go to Oklahoma? He seems to have a specific reason to do everything else. I don't know. Maybe I'm too caught up in this, but the whole thing doesn't connect.
I am under the impression, that Nick has no degree.
Okay....I am with you now........and I am comfortable with that; it doesn't sound too whacked out.
I can go with it!
He never got a degree, Hildy. He
transferred from Cornell to U. of
Oklahoma after his freshman yr.
But had a pattern of wanderlust,
his friends say. At OU, seems he
hung with some relatives, & some
of them by marriage were Iraqi.
I THINK this is correct. Please,
anyone, correct if mistaken.
BTW, he was quite good at his
chosen field, but no degree.
IIRC, This is a left-wing organization. If not mistaken, in Portland OR