African Divorcees Conquer Social Taboo

By Phuong Tran Dakar 15 March 2007

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In some parts of Africa, divorce is still considered a scandal. But, as more couples move to Africa's rapidly growing cities, divorce has become less of a cultural shock. Although female divorcees in rural communities may still suffer blame for a failed marriage, women are fighting back in cities and telling their side of the story. Reporter Phuong Tran has more from Dakar, in this fourth report in a five-part series on the changing African family.

Khadija Sall, 34-year-old businesswoman and divorcee

Senegalese Khadija Sall, 34, leans into the mirror and applies blue eye makeup before clients arrive in the one-room salon she has owned for nine years.

She works long hours here, something she says her ex-husband was never able to accept.

"If you have a wife who wants to work to help you and your children, you need to support her," she said. "If you do not have money, then give her encouragement. My husband did absolutely nothing to help me, nothing. Why would I put up with a man like that? I love my job and he did not understand that."

After 16 years of marriage, four children and a fast-growing business, Sall left her husband.

"I was sick of him, sick of our constant fighting," she explained. "Every day, our children had to watch us fight. I left him because I did not want my children to go through that."

Khadija Sall working in her beauty salon

She says she has to work longer hours now to support her children. However, she says she is happier, and free to do the job she loves.

"Women want to be independent," she said. "Every woman works, if she can. If you do not have a job, you need to depend on a man for money. And, we both know that men are cheap and do not want to give us money. Work is good. I love my job. I respect my job, because I respect myself. Do you understand?"

Sociologist Djiby Diakhate says communities have dramatically changed how they view divorce - especially in urban areas.

"Marriage has always been a sacred contract between two families," he noted. "Now, with western concepts of individualism and personal liberty, it is more of a contract between two people. There is less family pressure to stay married, so divorced women are not looked down on, as before. Divorce is not only more common now, but also more accepted."

In the most recent Demographic Health Survey of Senegal's families, close to 300,000 women were divorced or separated in 2005.

A Senegalese woman who wants to divorce her husband needs to go to court, if her husband does not agree, whereas Islamic law in Senegal allows a man to divorce, regardless of what his wife says.

One of the 10 reasons women can file for divorce in court is if her husband is not able to support the family, financially.

Khadiya Sall's true love, her beauty salon

Sall prepares to close her beauty salon for the day.

When asked if she wants to marry again, she looks over her shop and its small piles of hair weaves, her receipt book of the day's earnings and tubs of leftover soapy water before she answers.

"Of course," she replies. She says when she meets a man who wants to encourage and help her with her work, she will marry him.

VOASE0313_The Making of a Nation

13 March 2007

History Series: Election of 1960 Brings a Close Race Between Kennedy, Nixon
After the first televised presidential debate, many people who had not considered voting for John Kennedy began to change their minds. To them, he looked like a president.

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VOICE ONE:

This is Richard Rael.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Doug Johnson with THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Dwight Eisenhower

Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in nineteen fifty-two. By nineteen sixty, he had served two terms. The twenty-second amendment to the Constitution said he could not be re-elected. Eisenhower was hugely popular when he first came to office. And his first term was considered successful.

He created a new government agency for education and health care. He led a congressional effort to improve the tax system. And, under his leadership, a peace treaty ending the Korean War was signed.

Eisenhower also met with Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev. This began a tradition of meetings between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union. Experts believe these meetings probably helped prevent a nuclear war between the two countries.

VOICE TWO:

At the end of Eisenhower's first term, he was still very popular. He had suffered a heart attack. But he felt strong enough to campaign again. His Democratic Party opponent was Adlai Stevenson. They had been the candidates in the presidential election four years earlier. This time, Eisenhower won almost ten million votes more than Stevenson. That was an even bigger victory than in nineteen fifty-two.

VOICE ONE:

Eisenhower's second term, however, presented problems. The Soviet Union launched the space age by putting the world's first satellite into earth orbit. Fidel Castro established a communist government in Cuba. Many white Americans were fighting the Supreme Court's decision to end racial separation in schools. And the American economy suffered a recession. Eisenhower's popularity dropped during his second term. This would make it more difficult for the Republican Party's next candidate for president.

VOICE TWO:

The delegates who attended the Republican nominating convention in the summer of nineteen sixty feared that the party would lose the election in November. They had to find the strongest candidate possible. Many believed that Richard Nixon was the strongest.

Vice President Richard Nixon with Republican senators on January 1, 1960

Nixon had been a senator and a member of the House of Representatives. He had been Eisenhower's vice president for eight years. When Eisenhower suffered several serious illnesses, Nixon had a chance to show his abilities to lead the nation. He showed great strength while facing an angry crowd during a trip to South America. He also gained support when he defended the United States in an unofficial debate with Khrushchev during a trip to the Soviet Union.

VOICE ONE:

Nixon's closest opponent for the Republican nomination was Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller was governor of New York. He came from one of the richest families in America. At the convention, Richard Nixon easily won the support of the Republican Party. The delegates elected him on the first vote. He accepted the nomination. And he called for new efforts for peace and freedom around the world.

VOICE TWO:

The race for the Democratic nomination was much more difficult. He Democratic Party thought it would have no problem winning the presidential election. Many candidates entered the competition for the nomination. One was Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota. Another was Senator John Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Humphrey had been elected to the Senate three times. He was a strong activist for civil rights, peace, and social improvements. Kennedy was a Navy hero in World War Two. He was handsome and only forty-three years old. He also was a member of the Roman Catholic Church. And no catholic had ever been elected president of the United States.

VOICE ONE:

Kennedy and Humphrey began to enter local primary elections in different states. The purpose of the primaries is to test voter support for candidates. Kennedy won an important primary in the state of Wisconsin. However, the Protestant Christian areas of the state did not support him. The question then became: Could he win in West Virginia? Most of the voters in that state were Protestants.

VOICE TWO:

On the last night of the primary campaign in West Virginia, Kennedy spoke about his religion. He said the president of the United States promises to defend the Constitution. And that, he said, includes the separation of the government from any religion or church.

Kennedy won a large victory in West Virginia. He then went on to win many votes in other primary elections. He received the nomination on the first vote of the Democratic Party convention.

In his acceptance speech, he said he would ask Americans to help their country. He said he would ask them to sacrifice for their country.

VOICE ONE:

After the party conventions, the two candidates -- Kennedy and Nixon -- began to campaign around the nation. Nixon charged that Kennedy was too young to be president. He said Kennedy did not know enough about governing. Kennedy attacked the Republican record of the past eight years. He said president Eisenhower and Vice President Nixon had not done enough to bring progress to the nation.

Protestant groups expressed concerns about Kennedy's religion. They wondered if he would be influenced by the Pope. They asked if the leader of the Roman Catholic Church would try to make policy for the United States. Kennedy answered by repeating his strong support for the constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state.

VOICE TWO:

The first televised presidential debate took place September 26, 1960

Public opinion studies showed the election campaign to be very, very close. Then, the candidates agreed to hold four debates. The debates would be broadcast on television.

In the first debate, they showed they did not differ too widely on major issues. Kennedy, however, appeared calm and sure. Nixon, who did not feel well, appeared thin and tired. Many people who had not considered voting for Kennedy now began to change their minds. To them, he looked like a president.

VOICE ONE:

In the fourth debate, they expressed widely different opinions about whether the United States was making progress. Kennedy believed there had been little progress under Eisenhower and Nixon. He said:

KENNEDY: "Franklin Roosevelt said in nineteen thirty-six that that generation of Americans had a rendezvous with destiny. I believe in nineteen sixty and sixty-one and two and three, we have a rendezvous with destiny. And I believe it incumbent upon us to be defenders of the United States and the defenders of freedom. And to do that, we must give this country leadership. And we must get America moving again."

VOICE TWO:

Nixon disagreed sharply. He believed the United States had not been standing still. Yet he believed it could not rest, either. He said:

NIXON: "It is essential with the conflict that we have around the world that we not just hold our own, that we not keep just freedom for ourselves. It is essential that we extend freedom, extend it to all the world. And this means more than what we've been doing. It means keeping America even stronger militarily than she is. It means seeing that our economy moves forward even faster than it has. It means making more progress in civil rights than we have, so that we can be a splendid example for all the world to see."

VOICE ONE:

Another issue of the nineteen sixty presidential debates was the Chinese attack on the islands of Quemoy and Matsu in the Formosa [Taiwan] Strait. Another was how to deal with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Most people seemed to feel that Kennedy won the first debate. Experts thought Nixon probably won the second one. And both men did about the same in the last two.

VOICE TWO:

After the debates, the presidential candidates campaigned around the country again. Nixon proposed a trip to Eastern Europe and a meeting with Khrushchev, if he were elected. Kennedy proposed what he called a Peace Corps. The Peace Corps would be a program to send Americans to developing countries to provide technical aid and other help.

VOICE ONE:

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy giving his inaugural speech

On Election Day in November, the voters chose John Kennedy. His victory, however, was a close one. Almost sixty-nine million people voted. He won by fewer than one hundred twenty thousand votes. The United States now had its thirty-fifth president. He was the youngest and the first Roman Catholic. The beginning of John Kennedy's administration will be our story next week.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program of THE MAKING OF A NATION was written by Jeri Watson and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Doug Johnson.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for another VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

Rice Prepares for New Middle East Trip

By David Gollust Washington 15 March 2007

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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she will begin another trip to the Middle East late next week aimed at spurring Israeli-Palestinian dialogue. Rice held talks late Wednesday with visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.

Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (l) and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Rice is not likely on her next trip to convene a three-way meeting with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. But she is expected to meet top officials on both sides, and with moderate Arab leaders, in the region to try to further clear the way for a resumption of the regional peace process.

Rice, who had just returned from accompanying President Bush on his Latin American trip, announced her Mideast travel plans at a press appearance with Israeli Foreign Minister Livni, who was concluding a private Washington visit.

Rice's meeting with her Israeli counterpart was preceded by press accounts of new interest by the U.S. and Israel in the 2002 Saudi Middle East peace plan, which basically offered Israel normal relations with the Arab world in return for a full withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967.

But under questioning, both appeared to downplay the notion that the Saudi plan might replace the peace road map of the international Middle East Quartet - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- as the guide for regional peace efforts.

Rice said the plan by the then-Crown Prince Abdullah - now the Saudi king - was a commendable initiative but not basis for negotiations:

"The Arab initiative is not a negotiating document. It is a document that sets forward a position. And as I said I think very favorably about the idea the Arab League - starting as the Crown Prince initiative - would as a whole set forward a position on which perhaps reconciliation could take place between Israel and the Arab states. But obviously it is not a negotiating position, and I'm sure that Israel would have its own views of how that reconciliation could take place," she said.

Foreign Minister Livni, for her part, said the Saudi initiative as initially published was very positive, given that it was predicated on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But she said as later adopted by the Arab league in Beirut, it contained language on refugees that would threaten Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

She said prospects for peace with the Palestinians would be enhanced if Arab states did not wait until the end of the peace process to normalize ties with Israel:

"I would like to see Arab leaders, pragmatic, normalize their relations with Israel without waiting for the peace between Israel and the Palestinians to be completed. Maybe if they will take these kinds of steps, that can help the moderates in the Palestinian Authority to take other steps in order to achieve peace. So this is something that we're waiting for," she said.

Aides to Rice gave no details of Rice's travel plans but Egyptian officials have already said they expect a visit from the Secretary on the upcoming trip.

Rice hosted a joint meeting in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas February 19th, which was billed as the first discussion in more than six years of final-status issues in the peace process.

The Israeli Prime Minister and Mr. Abbas followed up that meeting with bilateral talks last Saturday.

But efforts to re-start a formal peace process have been thwarted by the Palestinian power-sharing deal between Mr. Abbas' mainstream Fatah party and the radical Islamist Hamas movement, which the United States considers a terrorist organization.

Zimbabwe's Tsvangirai Scanned for Skull Fracture

By Delia Robertson Johannesburg 14 March 2007

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Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says police brutally beat him and other opposition leaders following their arrest on Sunday. Mr. Tsvangirai was interviewed by a radio reporter who was at the hospital where the opposition leader is awaiting the results of a scan to determine if he has a fractured skull and damage to the brain. Delia Robertson reports from Johannesburg.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is seen in bed at a local hospital in Harare, 14 Mar 2007

Morgan Tsvangirai says that police started to beat him and his colleagues as soon as they arrived in police cells on Sunday.

"It was almost as if they were waiting for me," he said. "I was then sent inside where my colleagues were lined up inside the police cell. And before I could even settle down I was subjected to a lot of beatings. In fact, it was random beatings, but I think the intention was to inflict as much harm as they could."

Mr. Tsvangirai was among a group of around 50 people arrested when they attempted to attend a prayer meeting in Harare on Sunday. Several still had visible wounds when they appeared in court Tuesday, from Tsvangerai's stitched head to at least two with broken limbs and a woman who had to be carried on a stretcher.

Doctors say they are concerned that Tsvangirai's skull is fractured and that he has bleeding on the brain.

Leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition party, Morgan Tsvangirai is watched by a policeman outside the court in Harare, 13 Mar 2007

None of those arrested have as yet been charged. In two chaotic court appearances on Tuesday prosecutors were unable to produce a charge sheet. The accused were ordered back to court Wednesday morning, but waited in vain for the arrival of prosecutors and police. They returned to their homes or their hospital beds.

Following the incident on Sunday, other African countries appear for the first time, to be publicly distancing themselves from President Robert Mugabe and his government. The Zambian president has expressed concern and the South African government has urged the Zimbabwe government to abide by the rule of law.

Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad told South Africa's national radio, the government stands by to help its neighbor resolve the crisis.

"Our views are clearly known to all in Zimbabwe that we are extremely concerned about what has happened and we want to assist to help bring about some movement forward in the Zimbabwe situation," he said.

One of the lawyers representing the opposition leaders told VOA that Zimbabwe's attorney general's office is reluctant to bring charges against Mr. Tsvangirai and others, because the office questions the legal validity of charging them.

关于空间的求助！！！！！！！！！！！！

我要疯了。。。G宝盒出了些问题。
文件上传后，却没了影。。。G宝盒的客户端软件也连接不上。。。
在疯狂寻找空间中。。。发现Mofile真TMD贵还黑。。。我继续找。。。
有朋友懂这个的麻烦给我解释下面几个问题：
1.为什么上传的文件到G宝盒里就不见了（IE、FF浏览器我都试了）
2.大家对G宝盒评价如何
3.有什么国内外速度不错运营稳定的空间，收费不要太离谱就好
谢谢！

正在测试Google Page Creator。。。今天的东西都放在那里，不知道速度和稳定性如何，就是容量很小，只有100MB。。。

最新补充：
G宝盒现已恢复正常。我给管理写了封信，答复很快，说是电信网路调整。现在已经没什么大问题了。

VOASE0314_Education Report

14 March 2007

A Military Education, Though Not Necessarily for a Military Life
Part 28 of our Foreign Student Series looks at two military colleges in the American South.

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Our Foreign Student Series continues this week with two examples of military colleges in the United States.

One is the Virginia Military Institute. V.M.I. is a public, four-year military college in Lexington, Virginia. It accepts women as well as men. Its one thousand three hundred students are called cadets.

Older cadets teach new arrivals about the honor system at V.M.I. Cadets risk expulsion if they lie, cheat or steal -- or accept lying, cheating or stealing by any other cadet. V.M.I. officials say an important part of a college education is learning self-control.

Lieutenant Colonel Stewart MacInnis is associate director of communications and marketing at the Virginia Military Institute. He says V.M.I. this year has twenty-three cadets from countries including Britain, Egypt, Poland, Russia and Thailand. Most of them are studying engineering.

Cadet parade at Virginia Military Institute

The cost for one year at V.M.I. for someone from outside Virginia is about thirty thousand dollars. Graduates are not required to go into the military, but Colonel MacInnis says about fifty percent do. And twenty percent make it a career.

Another public military college in the South is The Citadel, in Charleston, South Carolina. It also accepts both men and women for its four-year program.

The Citadel says it offers a traditional military education to its more than two thousand students. Thirty-eight percent of its graduates choose to enter the military.

This year, The Citadel has forty-nine students from twenty-four countries outside the United States. They are mainly studying business and engineering. The Citadel costs about twenty-seven thousand dollars for the first year. After that, it drops to about twenty-four thousand.

You can find links to the V.M.I. and Citadel Web sites at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts and audio files of our Foreign Student Series. Next week, learn about the United States Military Academy at West Point.

We began our series on studying in the United States in September. So far we have dealt with the application process, college admissions tests, English language testing, financial aid and other subjects. In the weeks to come we will talk more about individual schools and programs. If you have a suggestion for our series, write to special@voanews.com. And please include your name and country.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach. I'm Steve Ember.