好了，03月的下载贴整好了，地址还是老地方
http://lib.verycd.com/2007/02/07/0000138789.html
前些日子我这破地方又给风沙了，感觉有被人重视，我究竟该是抱有一种什么心情呢，已经说不清了。。。
月底的时候blogger也好像又给风沙了，不过现在好像好了，这事情不是一次两次了，哎，早习惯了。
汉语真的非常艺术，你看“风沙”一词多很有趣，大风这么一刮，沙尘暴这么一吹，大家都窝在家里，没法打照面了
天有不测风云。所以，乘天好时，大家要为天不好时多做点工作，关于网络问题多问问Google老师就可以了
PS：
VOA News的记者遍布世界各地，各地的新闻基本都是当地记者播报的，所以基本上都有浓郁的地方特色，当然都说的是英文。
今天的VOA News有一条来自印度，有一条来自澳大利亚，发音是相当标准的（地方性而言）。。。
贴这些不是想让大家学他们的口音（不是说他们英语po，其实就英语水平要比我好得多），只是让你对世界多份了解。
口音方面，大家还是要学英语普通话，这里是VOA专区，自然美音是标准。
昨天，有一非洲记者的播报，那口音实在是。。。我就不忍贴了
PoEnglish问下各位，如果口音实在太地域化，你说我是贴还是不贴？
PS again：
听过往期材料的朋友，应该对潘基文的口音记忆犹新吧，有点怀念安南了。。。
4.02.2007
今年VOA月合辑第三弹发布！
3月合辑制作完毕，包括2007年3月的全部内容，Words and Their Stories的内容也收录其中。
源的地址（需安装 eMule，复制到地址栏）是：
ed2k://|file|VOASE0703.iso|305463296|FD96738DB48C8ABB4DA8D25E2C2ED7DC|h=U6EVU2ZNNCYYSKASCSRWNNYPZXDDP7TQ|/
大家开始下吧，分流工作开始，还等着VeryCD上加精哪！
Sons of Former Sports Stars Shine in Final Four
| Atlanta, Georgia 02 April 2007 |
DownloadTwo sons of past sports stars have made headlines for themselves in U.S. men's college basketball this season. Now they are set to face one another in the Division One national championship game Monday night in Atlanta, Georgia. VOA Sports Editor Parke Brewer is there and has the story.
Defending champion Florida and Ohio State University will meet for this season's title after victories here in the Final Four Saturday night.
Key players in each starting line-up have fathers who made names for themselves internationally in different sports.
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| Joakim Noah |
Mike Conley Jr. is a freshman guard while Joakim Noah is a 2.10-meter junior and plays forward and center. Noah was part of Florida's national championship team last season and many thought he would opt for a lucrative professional contract instead of returning to college. But he and two other star teammates decided to return to school to try to repeat.
Noah says that has put a lot of pressure on them.
"People would always talk to us about expectations and that was probably the word I heard the most after we won the national championship, and we decided to come back," said Joakim Noah. "I mean it's one thing to talk about expectations, but I think we really experienced it. And I feel like this year, that's why it's almost more satisfying because I feel like we had to go through so much more just being under the microscope."
Noah, an American citizen who grew up in New York, said he learned how to deal with it from his French father Yannick, who experienced the same things after winning the 1983 French Open tennis championship. He said his father also taught him his work ethic.
"I feel like my father worked really, really hard at what he did," he said. "I was able to live and see that growing up as a kid, so it kind of came normal to me to just work hard and be one of the hardest workers."
Joakim said he was a terrible tennis player so he opted for basketball.
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| Mike Conley Jr. |
He says his Olympic champion father had no objections.
"My dad never put much pressure on me to run track and he always was very open and let me do what I wanted to do," said Mike Conley Jr. "And I felt like I've never ever really had a lot of pressure to play any other sport. And, you know, I thank him for that because it could have been different. And I'm just blessed and fortunate to be in the situation that I'm in now."
Mike Conley Jr. will try to help Ohio State win the prestigious national college basketball championship for the first time since 1962, while Joakim Noah aims to help Florida become only the second school in the last 33 years to repeat as champion.
Indian Court Blocks Government Quota Plan
| New Delhi 01 April 2007 |
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An Indian court has put on hold a controversial government plan to raise the number of college seats set aside for lower caste Hindus. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, the government had introduced the measure to fulfill its pledge to assist disadvantaged groups. 
Supporter of Bahujan Samaj Party, which outlawed discrimination based on caste, holds a statue of Bhim Rao Ambedkar, founder of BSP, Allahabad, India, 23 Mar 2007
A two-judge bench of the Supreme Court has asked the government to provide more accurate data on the educational and economic status of India's lower castes, for which the government wants to set aside nearly half the seats in federally funded educational institutions. The court says the government has used 70-year-old data to justify its plan.
The plan was to take effect this year. It would have doubled the percentage of seats, from about 25 percent to 50 percent, that Indian public colleges have reserved for lower caste Hindus under an existing affirmative action program.
Hinduism divides people into many castes, and those in the lower ranked castes face discrimination. The government says it wants to increase the quotas to give social and economic opportunity to those in what are known as the "backward classes."
But the plan triggered widespread controversy, and angry street protests by students who say entrance to universities should be based on merit alone.
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| Doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences celebrate Supreme Court's decision in New Delhi, 29 March 2007 |
Independent political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan notes that the court has not yet ruled against the quotas, or "reservations," as they are known.
"There is no doubt that the tone of the judgment was critical of reservations as a practice and an idea, but they stopped short of ruling it as unconstitutional," he said. "The court has leaned against the way in which reservation policy is being implemented: in particular, they have objected to the way in which the groups who are classified as eligible for this benefit are being chosen."
Government ministers who spearheaded the plan say they will press ahead with the affirmative action program, and are confident that the court will finally allow its implementation.
Opponents of the plan say it will lower standards in the top professional colleges, which have produced some of the country's most skilled doctors, engineers and managers.
Supporters say quotas are essential to give the lower castes a better chance at quality education, and ensure that more of the population is included in the country's surging economic development.
Sydney Turns Off Lights for 'Earth Hour'
| Sydney 01 April 2007 |
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Parts of Australia's biggest city, Sydney, plunged into near darkness for an hour to raise awareness of global warming. The local government, environmental groups and businesses united in support of "Earth Hour" - when the city turned off the lights to save power and cut emissions that contribute to global warming. From Sydney, Phil Mercer tells us more. 
Difference of switching many of the city's lights is shown in this combo taken one week apart in Sydney, on 24 Mar 2007, above, and 31 Mar 2007, below
Sydney was not completely blacked out Saturday evening, but organizers of "Earth Hour" say they are delighted with the response.
Lights on the city's iconic Harbor Bridge were switched off for the hour along with most of those on the famous Sydney Opera House. Tens of thousands of suburban homes joined in. So did hundreds of businesses. Many tower blocks have spent the evening in almost total darkness.
The event has had high-profile support to raise awareness about how to combat global warming. Australian actress Cate Blanchett says Earth Hour shows small changes can make a big difference in climate change.
"It's massive [climate change]. It's very difficult to grasp in all its magnitude and complexities," she said. "So I think that the potency of tonight is that it's about a very simple beginning, you know, turning off a switch."
Every day millions of lights and computers are left on in deserted offices, apartments and houses.
Environmental activists say that simply switching them off could cut Sydney's greenhouse gas emissions by five percent over the next year.
Per capita, Australia is one of the world's largest producers of carbon dioxide and other gases that many scientists believe are helping to warm the Earth's atmosphere, causing climate upset.
This Australian, observing Earth Hour in Sydney, says he hopes the event will spur the national government into greater action.
"We're one of the worst, if not the worst, for carbon emissions and it's good to see this effort tonight," he said. "So hopefully the government will see it and make some changes."
Prime Minister John Howard has refused to sign the international Kyoto Protocol to halt global warming, saying it does not address key issues between developed and developing nations and hurts Australia's coal-driven economy. But he argues Australia is meeting its international emissions obligations in other ways.
A long-standing drought and serious water shortages in Australia have focused much attention on climate change in this election year. Some experts warn higher temperatures could leave this nation of 20 million people at the mercy of more severe droughts and devastating tropical cyclones.
VOASE0401_This Is America
01 April 2007| Sports Programs Where a Disability Is No Barrier to Having Fun | |
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DownloadVOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Steve Ember. This week on our program, we have the last of our four-part series on living with a disability in America. Last month we talked about assistive technology. Before that, it was education and employment. Today, in Part Four, our subject is sports and recreation for people with disabilities.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
In August of two thousand eight, athletes from the United States and around the world will compete in the Beijing Olympics. But did you know that in September of next year, disabled athletes will compete in the Paralympic Games in Beijing?
The Olympics and the Paralympics are separate movements. But they have always been held in the same year. And since nineteen eighty-eight, they have also been held in the same city. The International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee signed an agreement in two thousand one to secure this connection.
The next winter games will take place in Vancouver, Canada, in two thousand ten.
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| Paralympics skiing training |
The Paralympic Games grew out of a sports competition held in nineteen forty-eight in England. A doctor named Ludwig Guttmann organized it for men who suffered spinal cord injuries in World War Two. Four years later, it became an international event as competitors from the Netherlands took part.
Then, in nineteen sixty, the first Paralympics were held in Rome. Four hundred athletes from twenty-three countries competed. By two thousand four, the Paralympic Games in Athens had almost four thousand athletes from one hundred thirty-six countries.
Athletes may have physical or mental limitations; they may be blind or in wheelchairs. Yet sometimes they perform better than athletes without disabilities.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen sixty-eight, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the sister of former President John F. Kennedy, started the Special Olympics. These games are just for children and adults with mental limitations. The Special Olympics Web site says programs currently serve more than two million people in one hundred sixty countries.
This past November, in Mumbai, India, teams competed in the First Special Olympics International Cricket Cup. In addition to India, there were men's teams from Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the West Indies. There were also women's cricket teams from India and Pakistan.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
There are many organizations in the United States that help people with disabilities play sports.
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| A game of wheelchair-basketball in Florida |
Special wheelchairs for athletes are lightweight and designed for quick moves. For people who want to go really fast in their chairs, there is a Power Wheelchair Racing Association.
VOICE ONE:
In the state of Utah there is a place called the National Ability Center. It teaches all kinds of sports to people with all kinds of physical and mental disabilities. It even gives friends and family members a chance to try a sport as if they were disabled.
A reporter from the Washington Post wanted to know what it would be like for a blind person to use a climbing wall. So, protected by a safety line, the newspaper reporter closed his eyes and started to feel for places to put his hands and feet. Trainers on the ground urged him on: "Take your time. You can do it." Finally he reached the top.
VOICE TWO:
At the National Ability Center people can learn to ride horses and mountain bikes. They can try winter mountain sports, and learn scuba diving and other water activities.
The center also prepares athletes for the Paralympics.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
These days, the first place many people go when they want to travel is the Internet. On the Web they can get information about hotels, transportation and services like tour companies. The Internet can also help travelers find special services for the disabled. For example, there are groups that help young people with disabilities travel to different countries.
Susan Sygall leads an organization called Mobility International USA. She has traveled to more than twenty-five countries to talk about the rights of people with disabilities. She herself uses a wheelchair. People with disabilities are all members of a global family, she says. She says working together across borders is the most powerful way of making changes.
VOICE TWO:
Another American organization is called Wilderness Inquiry. This group leads camping trips to places in Kenya, Norway, Australia and the American state of Alaska. The man who started Wilderness Inquiry, Greg Lais [pronounced lays] likes people with and without disabilities to travel together.
One family came on a trip with two sons. One boy was in a wheelchair because of cerebral palsy. Greg Lais says the other children on the camping trip accepted the boy and included him in games. "People are accepted for who they are," he says.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Another outdoor sport that may be available to people with disabilities is hunting. Several national wildlife refuges in the United States organize special hunts. One of them is a refuge in South Carolina where Bobby Harrell goes deer hunting every year with other people with disabilities.
Bobby Harrell became disabled in nineteen ninety-three. He enjoys, in his words, "seeing people get back into doing things that they used to do but didn't think they could."
In some places there are trails that can be used by hunters in wheelchairs. Some disabled hunters use specially designed guns that are fired by blowing air through a tube.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Today there are more and more choices of entertainment for people with disabilities.
Theaters may offer wireless earphones to make the sound louder for people with limited hearing. Some provide a visual interpreter to describe a performance or a play for a person who is blind or has limited sight.
And some movie theaters offer a new device called MoPix, for Motion Picture Access. For a person unable to hear the movie, it shows the words the actors are saying. For a person unable to see the movie, it provides a spoken description of what is happening.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
For disabled people interested in yoga, there are special stretching exercises. Matthew Sanford knows about these. He has been in a wheelchair ever since a car accident when he lost the ability to move his legs. He was thirteen years old at the time. That was almost thirty years ago.
Matthew Sanford says he has had two lives: one before he was thirteen and the other after. He had to learn to live with a new reality. For many years, he was told to build up the strength in his arms and forget about his legs.
But he says yoga enabled him to reconnect with the thirteen-year-old boy who loved his body. He says the exercises and special breathing of yoga let him connect his body and mind again.
Now Matthew Sanford teaches yoga at his studio in the state of Minnesota. He also travels to talk to people about living with a disability. He says feeling connected to our body is a powerful part of living -- whether we have a disability or not.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
The earlier reports in our series on living with a disability in America can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. Our four-part series was written by Karen Leggett and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Faith Lapidus. Be sure to join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.
VOASE0401_Development Report
01 April 2007| 'Phones for Health' Campaign Targets AIDS in Africa | |
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| Bangladeshi woman answers her mobile phone |
Recently we talked about Voxiva, a provider of information technology systems for health workers in poor countries. This Washington-based company has been working for three years with the government of Rwanda. Voxiva created a system that uses mobile phones and other devices for health workers to report and share information on HIV/AIDS.
That same technology will now be used in a wider effort to fight the deadly virus in other African countries. A campaign launched by a partnership of public and private organizations aims to use cell phones to improve HIV/AIDS care.
The ten-million-dollar campaign is called "Phones for Health." Health workers will use mobile phones loaded with special software to enter information into a central computer system. The workers will also be able to use the Motorola handsets to receive treatment guidelines, order medicines and get training materials.
Phones for Health was announced in February at the GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. GSM is the global system for mobile communications, a cellular technology used for voice and data services.
In addition to Voxiva, other partners include the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, started by President Bush, and the GSM Association. This is a trade group that represents more than seven hundred mobile phone operators in two hundred eighteen countries.
MTN, the leading operator in Africa, is another partner in the effort, as are Motorola and the Accenture company.
The chairman of Voxiva, Paul Meyer, says the program will start in Rwanda and Nigeria. It will then spread to eight other countries over the next several years. The campaign is currently working to identify which African countries will be included, he says.
The campaign will work closely with health ministries, international health groups and others. In the future, the Phones for Health program could be expanded further in Africa and to parts of Asia.
Paul Meyer says the technology offers a way for countries to bring together separate information systems for diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS. As a result, he says, limited health resources could be used more effectively.
And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. Transcripts and audio archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Faith Lapidus.
4.01.2007
Rock Star Sheryl Crow Adds Voice to Fight Against Breast Cancer
| Washington 01 April 2007 |
DownloadThe wife of presidential candidate John Edwards renewed her fight against breast cancer this week. Elizabeth Edwards is one of three million women in the United States living with the disease. Of the 275,000 new cases diagnosed each year, 40,000 die. As VOA's Rosanne Skirble reports, breast cancer survivor and rock star Sheryl Crow was on Capitol Hill [Wednesday] to add her support for new breast cancer legislation.
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| Singer and breast cancer survivor and activist Sheryl Crow |
What Crow had to say this time was directed to members of the U.S. Congress. Diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago, she was on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to pass the 2007 Breast Cancer Environmental Research Act now before the Congress. "I'm really encouraged about this bill. I feel like the eyes of America are on us at this moment. We are moving forward. We are getting closer. We are not leaving any stone unturned. We have to look at the environment. We can not ignore it anymore," she says.
The bill calls for $40 million a year over five years to study the role the environment plays in breast cancer risk. Crow says this would be money well-spent. "We are not asking for money that is going to be taken away from the [national medical research] labs. We are not asking for less research monies to go to scientists. What we are asking for is more money. Now is not the time to be cutting money in cancer research," she says.
That message was not lost on the half dozen members of congress who shared the podium with Crow, including Senate majority leader and the bill's co-sponsor, Harry Reid. "I strongly believe that the environment is an area that we need to look [at] to find out why so many women are being diagnosed with breast cancer," he said.
Reid said he is outraged that an American woman has a one-in-eight chance of developing breast cancer in her lifetime. He assured Crow and advocates with the National Breast Cancer Coalition Fund that he would push the bill forward. "We are going to bring the bill to the floor and if it takes cloture vote after cloture vote, we are going to have the Senate dispose of this issue," he said.
That promise was echoed by House member and bill co-sponsor Lois Capps, a leader in the Congressional Women's Caucus. "This bill must pass," she said. "I know that we are going to take this issue and make a difference in the cancer community all through the country and that is going to affect every one of our lives. So, thank you all for your support in this. I am very pleased to be a part of this team."
The law would establish breast cancer and environmental research centers to investigate causes of the disease. The bill has been introduced numerous times over eight years, but has always failed to pass. The bi-partisan members at the news conference assured Crow and advocates that this time would be different.
Crow said she is taking them at their word. "I'm very encouraged that it is going to happen this year," she said. "Also yesterday in [my] meeting with the women's [congressional] caucus I think the goal really was to get the bill marked up and passed by mother's day!"
Figure Skating Gets Comedy Treatment in New Will Ferrell Movie
| Hollywood 01 April 2007 |
DownloadThe pageantry, the athleticism and the grace of competitive figure skating all get a royal roasting in the new comedy film co-starring Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. Alan Silverman has a look at "Blades of Glory."
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| Jon Heder, (left) and Will Ferrell skate away with the laughs in "Blades of Glory" |
The rivalry only gets more intense when the final result at the biggest international skating competition is a tie.
Right. But as the crowd cheers, the bickering on the winner's platform escalates.
Embarrassed by the brawl, national figure skating officials take harsh action.
However, it turns out there's a loophole. They can no longer compete as individuals; but nothing in the bylaws says they can't skate as a couple.
John Heder, who plays delicate Jimmy McElroy, says they had to be fully-committed to make the comedy-on-ice work. "You didn't have time to be silly because you're really focused on n-o-t falling when you're on the ice," he says. For those parts you're (thinking) 'I've got to look good.'
Co-star Will Ferrell, as macho Chazz Michaels, adds that they did a lot of their own skating. Well, some of their own skating:
[FERRELL]: "The first time that Chazz and Jimmy skate together - the 'Fire and Ice' thing - the whole beginning part is all us actually doing it. The coming together, the twirling around and then skating off. All the spots that they could use us they definitely did."
[HEDER]: "Going on and off the ice, all the really simple stuff, that was us ...also coming to a stop and hitting our marks."
Amy Poehler and Will Arnett play the reigning pairs skating champions: a brother-and-sister act that clearly looks like another sort of relationship.
The film pokes much fun at the high fashion and cutthroat competition that exists in real figure skating; but do real skaters see the humor in their sport? Yes they do, insists Olympic Gold medalist Scott Hamilton, who plays a very sincere TV commentator in the film. "I built a career on laughing at myself first, so if this is a send-up of the skating industry, it's great if they can look at it and say 'okay, we have a sense of humor and this is going to be a fun ride.' It may not be a ride that we've chosen to take, but it's funny," he says.
In fact, veteran skaters and current champions have cameos in the film, including Dorothy Hammill, Peggy Fleming, Nancy Kerrigan, Brian Boitano and Sasha Cohen. Will Ferrell says they are not there to be mocked. "I think they all know that there's a campy element to figure skating. They know that it's all about the pageantry and the outfits and I think, too, at the end of the day, anyone associated with a sport that a film is about is just happy that you're paying attention to them, regardless of what it's saying," he says.
"Blades of Glory" also features Jenna Fischer as Jon Heder's love interest (Will Ferrell's character just can't be limited to one woman); and Craig T. Nelson is the guys' dedicated coach. The comedy is co-directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck.
Bush Says Iran Must Release British Hostages
| Washington 01 April 2007 |
DownloadU.S. President George Bush says Iran must unconditionally release 15 British naval personnel seized this past week. VOA White House Correspondent reports, Mr. Bush discussed the matter Saturday with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who vowed to continue his country's commercial ties with Iran.
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| President Bush, right, and Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva attend a joint news conference at Camp David, MD |
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Saturday again said the Britons illegally entered Iranian waters and criticized Prime Minister Tony Blair's government for refusing to apologize or express regret for the situation.
Britain says its naval personnel were in Iraqi waters when they were overwhelmed by a larger force from Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Tehran says they illegally entered Iranian waters when they were picked up in the disputed Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iran and Iraq.
The standoff further raises international tensions with Iran over its enrichment of uranium. That is one of the reasons the United States is asking Brazil's national petroleum firm, Petrobras, to stop working in Iran.
Following talks with President Bush at Camp David, President Lula,speaking through a translator, said Brazil has no political differences with Iran and will not suspend commercial ties that are not in violation of a U.N. embargo. "Petrobras will continue to invest in oil prospection in Iran. Iran has been an important trade partner for Brazil. They buy from us more than one billion dollars and they don't almost sell anything to us. So I am an advocate that fair trade is the trade that you buy and sell," he said.
President Bush says he hopes nations would be very careful in dealing with Iran because, he says, the country is trying to develop a nuclear weapon that would be a major threat to world peace. Mr. Bush had little choice but to accept President Lula's decision to maintain commercial ties with Iran. "Every nation makes the decisions that they think is best for their interests. Brazil is a sovereign nation. He just articulated a sovereign decision," he said.
The United Nations Security Council has expressed "grave concern" about the detention of the British sailors, and has called for an early resolution to the standoff.
VOASE0331_People In America
31 March 2007| Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886: The 'Belle of Amherst' Became one of America's Greatest Poets | |
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DownloadANNOUNCER:
People in America – a program in Special English about famous Americans of the past. Now, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell the story of nineteenth century poet Emily Dickinson.
(MUSIC)
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| Emily Dickinson |
VOICE ONE:
Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me –
The carriage held but just ourselves
And immortality.
VOICE TWO:
The words are by American poet Emily Dickinson, who died in eighteen eighty-six. During her life, she published only about ten poems. Four years after her death, a few more poems were published. But her complete work did not appear until nineteen fifty-five.
VOICE ONE:
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you -- Nobody – Too?
VOICE TWO:
Emily Dickinson has become part of our language without really being part of our history. Some see her as the last poet of an early American tradition. Others see her as the first modern American poet. Each reader seems to find a different Emily Dickinson. She remains as mysterious as she was when she was alive.
VOICE ONE:
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant --
VOICE TWO:
The truth about Emily Dickinson has been difficult to discover. Few people of her time knew who she was or what she was doing. The main facts about her life are these.
She was born December tenth, eighteen thirty, in the small Massachusetts town of Amherst. She lived and died in the same house where she was born. Emily received a good education. She studied philosophy, the Latin language, and the science of plants and rocks.
Emily's parents were important people in Amherst. Many famous visitors came to their house, and Emily met them. Her father was a well-known lawyer who was elected to Congress for one term.
Mister Dickinson believed that women should be educated. But he also believed that women should not use their education to work outside the home. He felt their one and only task was to care for their husband and children. Emily once said: “He buys me many books, but begs me not to read them, because he fears they upset the mind. "
Emily wrote more than one thousand seven hundred poems. There are three books of her letters. And there are many books about her life.
Some of her best work was written in the four years between eighteen fifty-eight and eighteen sixty-two.
VOICE ONE:
I live with Him -- I see his face --
I go no more away
For Visitor -- or Sundown--
Death's single privacy
Dreams -- are well -- but Waking's better,
If One wake at Morn --
If One wake at Midnight – better --
Dreaming -- of the Dawn --
This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to me--
The simple News that Nature told--
With tender Majesty
VOICE TWO:
In those years, Emily seems to have found her "voice" as a poet. She settled into forms she used for the rest of her life. The forms are similar to those of religious music used during her lifetime. But her choice of words was unusual. She wrote that her dictionary was her best friend.
Other influences were the English poet, William Shakespeare; the Christian holy book, the Bible; and the forces of nature.
VOICE ONE:
I dreaded that first robin so,
But he is mastered now,
And I'm accustomed to him grown--
He hurts a little though
I dared not meet the daffodils,
For fear their yellow gown
Would pierce me with a fashion
So foreign to my own.
I could not bear the bees should come,
I wished they'd stay away
In those dim countries where they go:
What word had they for me?
VOICE TWO:
Throughout her life, Emily asked men for advice. And then she did not follow what they told her. As a child, there was her father. Later there was her father's law partner, and a churchman she met in the city
of Philadelphia. Another man who helped her was the writer Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
Higginson had written a magazine story giving advice to young, unpublished writers. Emily wrote to him when she was in her early thirties. She included a few poems.
Higginson wrote back and later visited Emily in Amherst. In the next few years, Emily sent him many more poems. But he did not have them published, and admitted that he did not understand Emily's poetry.
VOICE ONE:
'Tis not that dying hurts us so --
'Tis living hurts us more;
But dying is a different way,
A kind behind the door --
VOICE TWO:
Some historians wish that Emily's poems had reached the best American writers of her day: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau or Walt Whitman. These men could have overlooked her strange way of living to see only her ability.
Historians also say it is possible that Emily chose to write to someone like Higginson so she would not be understood.
VOICE ONE:
To hear an oriole sing
May be a common thing
Or only a divine
It is not the bird
Who sings the same unheard,
As unto crowd.
VOICE TWO:
So little is known about Emily's life that many writers have created a life for her. They talk about the things that interest them as if they interested Emily, too. But one writer says part of the joy in studying Emily is what we cannot know. Emily herself said: "I never try to lift the words which I cannot hold. "
VOICE ONE:
I cannot live with you,
It would be life,
And life is over there
Behind the shelf
So we must keep apart,
You there, I here,
With just the door ajar
That oceans are,
And prayer,
And that pale sustenance,
Despair!
VOICE TWO:
Emily Dickinson sewed the pages of her poems together with thread and put them away. She also seems to have sewed her life together and put it away, too. Step by step, she withdrew from the world. As she grew older, she saw fewer visitors, and rarely left her house.
The time of Emily's withdrawal was also the time of the American Civil War. The events that changed America's history, however, did not touch her. She died in eighteen eighty-six, at the age of fifty-five, completely unknown to the world.
No one wrote about Emily Dickinson's poems while she was alive. Yet, more than one hundred years since her death, she has come to be seen as one of America's greatest poets.
VOICE ONE:
The brain is wider than the sky,
For, put them side by side,
The one the other will contain
With ease -- and you beside.
VOICE TWO:
After Emily died, her sister Lavinia found Emily's poems locked away. Lavinia wrote to Thomas Wentworth Higginson and demanded that the poems be published. Higginson agreed. And a few of Emily's poems about nature were published. Slowly, more and more of her poems were published. Readers soon learned that she was much more than a nature poet.
In her life, Emily was an opponent of organized religion. Yet she often wrote about religion. She rarely left home. Yet she often wrote about faraway places. She lived quietly. Yet she wrote that life passes quickly and should be lived to the fullest.
Will we ever know more about the life of Emily Dickinson? As she told a friend once: "In a life that stopped guessing, you and I should not feel at home. "
We have the poems. And for most readers, they are enough.
VOICE ONE:
Surgeons must be very careful
When they take the knife!
Underneath their fine incisions
Stirs the Culprit – Life
(MUSIC)
ANNOUNCER:
You have been listening to the Special English program People in America. This program was written by Richard Thorman. Your narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe. Listen again next week at this same time on VOA for another story of People in America.
This is Shirley Griffith.
(MUSIC)
3.31.2007
Bush Apologizes for Poor Conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center
| White House 30 March 2007 |
DownloadPresident Bush has apologized for the poor living conditions for some wounded servicemen and women at a military hospital outside the capital. VOA White House Correspondent Scott Stearns has the story.
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| President Bush, right, shakes hands with the 1st Lt. Scott Quilty during a visit to Walter Reed Army Center in Washington, 30 Mar 2007 |
It was the president's first visit to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center since a newspaper last month reported recuperating soldiers living in a run-down building infested with mice, mold, and cockroaches.
Building 18 has since been closed and patients there moved elsewhere. But the ensuing scandal has claimed the general in charge of the hospital and the Secretary of the Army.
Speaking to medical staff at Walter Reed Friday, President Bush said he is deeply troubled by the incidents and has named a bipartisan commission to investigate what he calls administrative and bureaucratic failures.
"The system failed you and it failed our troops and we are going to fix it," he said. "I met some of the soldiers who had been housed in Building 18. I was disturbed by their accounts of what went wrong. It is not right to have someone volunteer to wear our uniform and not get the best possible care. I apologize for what they went through, and we are going to fix the problem."
It was the president's 12th trip to Walter Reed, visits that are almost always private with the White House occasionally releasing an official photograph.
Friday, Mr. Bush met with more than a dozen physical therapy patients under the glare of television lights, shaking hands and posing for photos with the two-month-old daughter of a man run over by a bulldozer under sniper fire.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says suggestions that this was a publicity trip for the president are "an unfortunate characterization." She says it took time to clear enough room on the president's schedule to visit Walter Reed six weeks after the problems were first reported.
Opposition Democrats in Congress want the Veteran's Administration to report back to them within 60 days about whether the agency has resolved complaints over living conditions and bureaucratic delays in providing follow-up care.
Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray blames President Bush for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who she says have been lost in the system.
"We are now starting the fifth year of this war. And to date, this president has not planned and supported funding to make sure that those men and women, whether it is traumatic brain injury, whether they've lost a limb, whether it's post-traumatic-stress syndrome, or whether it's just coming home and being able to find another job, have been paid attention to," she said.
The president has told his bipartisan commission on veterans' health care to report back to him by the end of July. A Defense Department review is expected to release its findings in the next two weeks.
US Seeks Clarification of Reported Sudanese Concession on Darfur
| State Department 30 March 2007 |
DownloadThe State Department says it is seeking clarification of reports Sudan has softened its opposition to new international peacekeepers for Darfur. The reported change of position by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir came as the Bush administration prepared new sanctions against the Khartoum government. VOA's David Gollust reports from the State Department.
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| UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (file photo) |
Sudan has long resisted deployment of a proposed "hybrid" force of United Nations and African Union troops in Darfur to replace a hard-pressed AU observer mission there.
But Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said at a summit news conference Thursday that Sudan had given the go-ahead for U.N. logistical support for African peacekeepers.
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| Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (file photo) |
In a talk with reporters here, State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said reports from Riyadh are unclear about whether Sudan is ready to accept the hybrid force without conditions.
He also said the Bush administration wants to hear directly from the U.N. chief before deciding how to proceed.
"It is fair to say that we want to understand from the Secretary-General what he heard," he said. "Is there a change in view from the Sudanese? Is there something in their comments with which the international system can work? Now, I have to caution you that to this point the Sudanese have not given any indication, or any real public indication that they're dropping any preconditions, or that they're are ready to follow-up on the Addis Ababa agreement."
The Sudanese agreed in principle at an international conference in Addis Ababa last November to accept the hybrid force, mandated earlier by the U.N. Security Council.
But Khartoum has since blocked the admission of U.N. logistics teams, frustrating the United States and other supporters of expanded peacekeeping in Darfur.
The reported Sudanese concession came amid reports the Bush administration is only a few days away from announcing a package of new financial sanctions against the Khartoum government.
Spokesman McCormack said whether the sanctions go forward depends on an administration assessment of what he termed "the whole landscape," including the latest Sudanese comments, and whether they actually reflect a change in policy.
McCormack said in diplomatic contacts, the United States assured Sudanese officials the hybrid force would focus its activities in Darfur, and not function as what he termed a "posse," trying to round up alleged war criminals in Khartoum.
A month ago, the International Criminal Court at The Hague designated two men, a Sudanese deputy cabinet minister and a leader of the government-backed Janjaweed militia, as suspects in crimes against humanity in Darfur.
The announcement came after a 20-month investigation by the court. The Darfur conflict, which erupted in 2003 is believed to have led to the deaths of over 200,000 people and driven more than 2 million others from their homes.
Much of the violence has been attributed to the Arab militiamen, who the Khartoum authorities enlisted to put down an uprising by local Darfur rebels.
Second British Sailor Shown on Iranian TV as Impasse Continues
| London 30 March 2007 |
DownloadA second member of the British crew captured last week in the Gulf has been shown on Iranian television making an apology for illegally entering Iranian waters. The British government has denounced the video as propaganda.
Crewman Nathan Thomas Summers, one the 15 British Naval personnel being held by Iran, apologized for the latest incident as well as one that occurred three years earlier.
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| Iranian state-run Al-Alam television image showing British sailor Nathan Thomas Summers, 30 Mar. 2007 |
Summers was shown sitting with the female detainee and another serviceman. The TV channel previously showed a similar taped confession from the woman.
Britain maintains its naval personnel were in Iraqi waters when their vessel was seized by Iran.
Reacting to the video clip, British leader Tony Blair says parading and manipulating captured personnel disgusts people and, he says, it does not fool anyone.
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| British Prime Minister Tony Blair comments on standoff with Iran, 30 Mar. 2007 |
"What the Iranians have to realize is that if they continue in this way they will face increasing isolation," said Mr. Blair, " the United Nations yesterday, the European Union today, we will be talking to other key allies over the weekend and we have just got to pursue this with the necessary firmness and determination, but also patience, because there is only one possible conclusion to this and that is that our personnel are released safe and sound."
The area near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway where the British patrol was picked up has for decades been claimed by both Iran and Iraq and its ownership has been hotly disputed.
Mr. Blair says that, based on satellite data from global positioning system technology, the naval and marine party was in Iraqi waters, not Iranian.
"The sooner the Iranian regime realize that they are not gaining anything from this, they cannot gain anything from this, it is perfectly obvious that these people were in Iraqi waters under a United Nations mandate, there is absolutely no question about the unlawful nature of their capture and therefore they have got to be released," he added.
Meanwhile, for the first time in the weeklong standoff, the Iranian foreign ministry has sent a letter to the British embassy in Tehran.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett says London is carefully studying the wording of the document, and Britain will respond formally, but she says she is not very optimistic it represents a key potential breakthrough.
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| Margaret Beckett talks to reporters, 30 Mar. 2007 |
An Iranian news agency reports the message contains a call for Britain to avoid violating Iranian territorial waters in the future.
While the dispute continues, the price of oil keeps climbing on the worldwide markets to above the $68 mark.
VOASE0330_In the News
30 March 2007| Arab Leaders Urge Israel to Accept 2002 Plan for Peace and a Palestinian State | |
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DownloadThis is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
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| Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah speaks at the opening of the Arab summit in Riyadh |
That plan offers Israel normal relations with the Arab world if it withdraws from land captured during the nineteen sixty-seven Arab-Israeli war. The plan also calls for Israel to reach a settlement with the Palestinians on the creation of a Palestinian state next to Israel.
Israel rejected the peace plan in two thousand two. But more recently, Israeli officials have said the plan could be a starting point for negotiations. As the Arab League meetings closed, Israel's Foreign Ministry said it would be willing to hold talks with some Arab nations. However, Israel objects to a demand that Palestinian refugees have a right to return to their homes in what is now Israel.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinian people were truly extending the hand of peace toward Israel. The Palestinians have a new unity government. Israel says it will not deal with that government unless it agrees to reject violence, recognize Israel and respect existing peace agreements.
But earlier in the week, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to begin meeting every two weeks. That agreement came as American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice completed a three-day trip to the Middle East. She said the talks should lead to discussions on a political settlement. But top Israeli officials say that for now, any talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders will involve humanitarian issues.
The two-day summit in Riyadh opened with a speech by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. He said Arab League states are more divided now than they have ever been. He also described Iraq as being under an illegal foreign occupation.
That comment caught the State Department in Washington by surprise. A spokesman said the United States was operating in Iraq under United Nations resolutions and with the invitation of the Iraqi government. The United States looks to Saudi Arabia as an important ally in the Middle East. American officials said they would seek to better understand what exactly King Abdullah meant by his statement.
State Department officials, however, welcomed the Arab League's decision to renew its two thousand two Middle East peace plan.
On Thursday, in their final declaration, the Arab leaders warned of the dangers of a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. But they also said that all countries have the right to peaceful nuclear energy programs.
Gulf Arab nations generally share American and European concerns about the Iranian nuclear program. Iran is led by Shiite Muslims; the Gulf Arab nations bordering Iran are mostly led by Sunnis.
And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. Transcripts and audio archives of our reports can be found at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
3.30.2007
US Senate Approves Iraq Spending Bill With Troop Withdrawal Timeline
| White House 29 March 2007 |
DownloadThe U.S. Congress and the White House have moved a step closer to a major confrontation on Iraq. The Senate has passed a war funding bill that includes wording on a troop withdrawal. VOA's Paula Wolfson reports President Bush says he will veto the legislation.
The final Senate vote (51-47) was largely along party lines, with majority Democrats declaring victory.
Only two Senate Republicans - Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon - voted for the bill, which sets a goal of moving U.S. troops out of Iraq in about a year.
The legislation must now be reconciled with a version passed earlier by the House of Representatives, which mandates a pullout by the end of August of 2008.
President Bush has said any bill that contains a timetable for withdrawal is not only unacceptable, but a formula for disaster.
Shortly before the Senate vote, he met at the White House with all the Republican members of the House of Representatives - the first such meeting of the Bush presidency. They consulted behind closed doors, and then appeared as a group before cameras - the House members closing ranks around the president.
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| George W. Bush |
But Democrats remain unmoved, and are vowing to press forward despite the threat of a presidential veto. Patty Murray of Washington State led the drive to pass the bill in the Senate.
"We are taking a major step forward in saying that we are no longer going to idly stand by without any debates, without any discussion, without any consequences and move continuously to increase the war in Iraq," she said. "We have said it is time for us as a nation to tell the Iraqi people they need to stand up for themselves."
Senate Republicans fought the bill to the last, warning that valuable time is being wasted, as the Pentagon waits for the money needed to fund operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. They said Democrats do not have the two-thirds majority needed to override a presidential veto, and are pushing the bill to make political points.
Republican Richard Shelby of Alabama said by passing the bill, the Democrats have named a "date for defeat."
"We have taken a step backwards. We have put an arbitrary deadline on our military. It is the wrong message at the wrong time," he said. "Surely this will embolden the enemy. It will not help our troops in any way. It is a big mistake."
Moments after the Senate vote, a panel was named to begin negotiations with the House to reconcile their two different versions of the bill.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she expects the compromise that will go to the president will include language on a troop pullout, despite his promised veto.
Ex-Aide Disputes US Attorney General's Statements About Firings
| Washington 29 March 2007 |
DownloadA former U.S. Justice Department aide says Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was involved in the firing of federal prosecutors, contradicting statements made by the nation's top law enforcement official. His testimony to a Senate panel comes amid bipartisan calls for Gonzales' resignation for his handling of the matter. VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.
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| Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' former Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, 29 Mar 2007 |
Sampson said Gonzales attended a meeting about the matter on November 27 of last year, just days before the attorneys were ousted.
The former aide, who resigned earlier this month, said he had shared information with Justice Department officials about the dismissals last year, despite arguments to the contrary by the attorney general. He said Gonzales signed off on the decision to remove the attorneys. "The attorney general approved the list," he said.
The Democratic-led Judiciary Committee is probing whether the Bush administration misled Congress about the reasons for the dismissals and whether they were politically motivated and aimed at intimidating other attorneys.
Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, is chairman of the panel. "I want the American people to have confidence in federal law enforcement and I want our federal law enforcement officers to have the independence they need to be effective and to consistently merit the trust of the American people," he said.
The top Republican on the committee, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, offered his own harsh assessment of the handling of the attorney firings. "It is generally acknowledged that the Department of Justice is in a state of disrepair, perhaps even dysfunctional, because of what has happened," he said.
Sampson defended the decision to replace the attorneys, saying it was based on legitimate reasons relating to their performance, although he acknowledged such reasons could also be perceived as political.
Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said he saw nothing wrong with the dismissals. "What I have heard, there is no evidence that any of this replacement of U.S. attorneys was designed to or actually did impede a criminal investigation or prosecution," he said.
Attorney General Gonzales is scheduled to appear before the committee next month.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino reiterated that President Bush has confidence in his attorney general.
VOASE0329_Economics Report
29 March 2007| Credit Cards Are Easy to Get, But Harder to Pay Off | |
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DownloadThis is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
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Cardholders may not think about it, but they borrow money from a bank or other lender each time they charge something. They avoid interest charges if they pay their bill in full each month. But if they only make the minimum payment, the lowest required, it may take years to pay off a debt. Interest is continually charged on the unpaid balance.
A credit card may have a number of costs. First, there is the interest charge on purchases, known as the annual percentage rate, or A.P.R. In the United States right now, the average is between thirteen and fourteen to keep them.
Cardholders may have to pay cash advance fees if they withdraw money from a credit card. There are also fees if they go over their credit limit, or if a payment is late. Lenders may also raise interest rates as punishment.
In the United States, credit card fees have become a political issue. Congress has threatened to take action against what critics call abusive behavior by lenders.
Yet getting a credit card has become a lot easier for most people. Maybe too easy: People receive offers in the mail of pre-approved cards that they never asked for. Many cards offer low rates at first, especially if people agree to move their balance from another card.
About half of all Americans have at least two credit cards. And the credit rating agency Experian says fourteen percent of the population has more than ten.
Jeanne Hogarth at the Federal Reserve, the central bank, says the average family has four credit cards. But families that carry a balance, meaning they do not pay off their statements each month, have an average of five.
In nineteen eighty-eight Americans had three hundred thirty billion dollars in credit card debt. Last year it was eight hundred forty billion.
In the latest government study, the average credit card debt for all households was more than three thousand dollars. But for those that carried a balance, the average was five thousand three hundred.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. Transcripts and audio archives of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.
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