VOASE1104_This Is America

04 November 2007

For Veterans, Pride in Service, and Health Systems Pushed to Limits
As the nation observes Veterans Day, a look at issues facing wounded troops returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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VOICE ONE:

Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

Mary Robles (age 5) stands with her father, Master Sgt. Daniel Robles, during a Purple Heart ceremony in San Antonio

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein. November eleventh is Veterans Day in the United States. The holiday honors those who served in the military. That describes almost twenty-five million people alive today. This week on our program, we talk about veterans and some current issues they face.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

A visitor to the National World War Two Memorial in Washington stands looking at the water rising from the fountains in the middle.

The memorial has an Atlantic side and a Pacific side. The visitor, a man with white hair, walks over to the Atlantic side -- the war in Europe. He looks at the stone block honoring veterans from Massachusetts, his home state.

Fighting in the war was terrible, he says. But being a veteran changed his life.

He explains that he attended college and became an engineer because of legislation passed in nineteen forty-four. The law was known as the "GI Bill of Rights." GI is slang for a soldier.

It provided veterans with money for education. It guaranteed loans for homes and businesses. It helped support veterans who had trouble finding jobs. Today, there is a modern version called the Montgomery GI Bill.

The last military draft ended in nineteen seventy-three. Since then the armed services have been all-volunteer.

VOICE TWO:

Many young veterans today served in Iraq or Afghanistan, or in some cases both.

Military and veterans health systems have faced struggles and criticisms of their ability to meet current needs. Close to thirty thousand American troops have been wounded in Iraq since the war began in two thousand three. Many were severely injured, including lost arms and legs and brain injuries as a result of bomb explosions.

President Bush says the system for managing care is old and needs to be changed.

His proposals are based on suggestions from the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors. Some measures can be taken without legislation; others have to be approved by Congress. The president appointed the commission in March after news reports brought the issue to national attention.

VOICE ONE:

President Bush with member of the National Guard at Walter Reed Army Medical Center Photo: The White House

In February, the Washington Post reported on problems for soldiers recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. These included poor living conditions and long delays in decisions about the future of their care and their military service.

The newspaper series raised wider questions and quickly brought promises of improvements.

For example, the Army is developing new teams in an effort to improve case management for wounded soldiers. But the Government Accountability Office recently reported that the Army is having trouble filling positions on these teams. At the same time, long-standing problems remain to be solved.

Last month, Mister Bush proposed legislation to speed up the process for wounded service members. Now, they go through medical tests and complete paperwork for the Department of Defense. They have to repeat the same process for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the V.A.

The legislation calls for the Defense Department to decide if a wounded veteran could return to active duty. Those too badly injured would be moved to the care of the V.A. The V.A. would rule on the extent of their injuries.

VOICE TWO:

Family members caring for veterans would receive six months of unpaid leave from work so they would not lose their jobs.

Also, all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans could get care for post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. They would not have to prove it was connected to their service.

And other measures are being proposed.

The Veterans' Disability Benefits Commission, in its final report last month, called for an immediate increase in disability payments. The group was established in the two thousand four defense budget.

The commission said Congress should increase payments by up to twenty-five percent. This is being called for as a step toward future measures based not just on work-related losses but losses in quality of life.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Almost one and one-half million men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over a four-year period doctors reported about sixty thousand people with PTSD or serious brain injuries.

Several drugs and mental health treatments are used for post-traumatic stress disorder. But a report released last month said most of the treatments are unproven.

The report came from a committee of the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academies in Washington. The experts found problems with many studies of PTSD treatments.

They decided that there is not enough evidence to make judgments about any medications. In the words of chairman Alfred Berg from the University of Washington in Seattle: "These therapies may or may not be effective -- we just don't know."

VOICE TWO:

The committee said the same thing about most of the psychotherapies. However, the experts found enough evidence to say that exposure therapies are effective in treating people with PTSD. These forms of therapy expose people to a threat in a safe environment to help them deal with their fears.

Still, the experts said they were not suggesting to discontinue any treatment or only use exposure therapies. Doctor Berg said there is an urgent need for high-quality studies of the best possible care.

The committee found that there is not even a generally accepted definition for recovery from the disorder.

VOICE ONE:

PTSD is the most common service-related mental disorder found in troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Almost thirteen percent of those who fought in Iraq, and about six percent in Afghanistan, are believed to have experienced it.

The Institute of Medicine noted that large numbers of Vietnam veterans and veterans of earlier conflicts have also reported PTSD. And most people who suffer from it also have other conditions such as alcoholism, depression, drug use or anxiety disorders.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The V.A. says about one-third of homeless adults in the United States have served in the armed forces, mostly during the Vietnam War.

The department says an estimated one hundred ninety-five thousand veterans are homeless on any given night. And, it says, perhaps twice as many are homeless at some point during any given year.

The V.A. has special treatment programs and services that were established twenty years ago to serve homeless veterans.

VOICE ONE:

Last year there was a documentary film about homeless veterans called "When I Came Home." It tells the story of an Iraq war veteran with PTSD named Herold Noel. In one scene, he talks about living in his automobile in New York.

(SOUND)

HEROLD NOEL: "You want to see my home? You want to see my home? My home is right there. That's my home. You understand? There's my home."

VOICE ONE:

The press materials for the film included a newspaper story about Herold Noel in the New York Post in January of two thousand five. The story said he was seeing a psychiatrist at a V.A. hospital and had been given three different drugs for his PTSD. But he needed housing for his family. He went to an emergency assistance office in the city. The story said he was told there was no more government-assisted housing available.

VOICE TWO:

The documentary shows how his life changes after meets Paul Rieckhoff. Mister Rieckhoff is the founder of an organization called Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. The movie follows Herold Noel as he becomes active and receives media attention. It shows him going to Washington to ask Congress for more help for other veterans.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Three years ago, Illinois Army National Guard pilot Tammy Duckworth was flying in a Black Hawk helicopter near Baghdad. A rocket struck the aircraft. She lost both legs and suffered severe injuries to her right arm.

She says veterans of the Korean and Vietnam wars helped her through her painful recovery with support and advice.

Last year she was a Democratic candidate for Congress. It was her first campaign for public office. She lost the election. But she now serves as director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs.

VOICE TWO:

Another veteran, Joyce Robinson, keeps a book of memories. One of them is a photograph of a young woman in the military. That was her, more than sixty years ago. She served in the Army occupation forces in Japan after World War Two. Joyce Robinson says she is happy she served, and glad to be a veteran.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by Caty Weaver. I’m Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Barbara Klein. Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.

VOASE1104_Development Report

04 November 2007

Keeping Count of Who Enters the World or Leaves
A campaign is launched to make sure all of the world’s births and deaths are recorded.

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This is the VOA Special English Development Report.

Governments may be accused of keeping too many records on their people. But no one seems to argue with recording births, deaths and marriages. This is called civil registration.

Birth and death records help governments count populations and know how long people live and what they die from. This information is important for planning schools, hospitals and other services.

A birth certificate is also important for another reason. That piece of paper is legal proof that an individual exists.

Yet the World Health Organization believes that almost forty percent of all births go unrecorded. It estimates that one hundred twenty-eight million babies are born each year. So one way to look at this is to say that every year close to fifty million people are denied legal identities.

And in the least developed countries the rate could be as high as seventy percent.

The situation is no better for death records. Every year fifty-seven million people die. But perhaps only one-third of these deaths are counted.

The W.H.O., the United Nations health agency, has one hundred ninety-three member states. Yet it receives dependable cause-of-death information from just thirty-one countries.

Researchers say most developing countries have limited civil registration systems or none at all. Now, a partnership supported by the W.H.O., called the Health Metrics Network, will try to improve the situation.

Last week it launched a campaign to register all of the world’s births and deaths. The effort was announced at a conference in Beijing, the Global Forum for Health Research.

The director general of the W.H.O., Margaret Chan, said no single U.N. agency is responsible for making sure births and deaths are recorded. Yet without these numbers, she says, who knows if one hundred twenty billion dollars in official development aid each year is being spent wisely?

The campaign began with four papers published in The Lancet medical journal describing the situation. Also, the Health Metrics Network is launching intensive efforts to help six countries. The group has already started to work with Cambodia, Sierra Leone and Syria. By the end of this year, three more countries will be identified for help to make sure everyone gets counted.

And that's the VOA Special English Development Report, written by Jill Moss. To learn more about civil registration, go to voaspecialenglish.com.

VOASE1103_People In America

03 November 2007

Maria Callas, 1923-1977: A Beautiful Voice and Intense Personality
She influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century.

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ANNOUNCER:

Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about one of the most famous opera singers of the twentieth century, Maria Callas.

(MUSIC: March From "Norma")

VOICE ONE:

Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the opera sing, instead of speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the most complex of all art forms. It combines acting, singing, music, costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often there are many colorful crowd scenes.

Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to express emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So most opera composers base their works on very tragic stories of love and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or insanity. Opera has been very popular in Europe since it spread through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become popular in the United States.

VOICE TWO:

Maria Callas

Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world. During the nineteen fifties, she became famous internationally for her beautiful voice and intense personality. The recordings of her singing the well-known operas remain very popular today.

Maria Callas was born in New York City in nineteen twenty-three. Her real name was Maria Kalogeropoulous. Her parents were Greek. When she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria studied singing at the national conservatory in Athens. The well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo chose Maria as her student.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was paid to sing in a major opera for the first time. She sang the leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three years.

In nineteen forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy. This was the real beginning of her profession as an opera singer. She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In nineteen forty-nine, she married an Italian industrialist, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser and manager.

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at the famous La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. She sang in the famous opera "Eida" by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. She sang the part of Aida, an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt.

(MUSIC: "Ritorna Vincitor" from "Aida"))

VOICE ONE:

During the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, Maria Callas sang in about forty major operas in the most famous opera houses in the world.

In nineteen fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the lead in the opera "Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was a great success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of Gaul, became one of her most famous parts.

(MUSIC: "Casta Diva" from "Norma"))

VOICE TWO:

During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice. Critics said some of her performances were not her best. Sometimes she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of major opera companies often were tense. Many harmful stories were written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked with thought she was difficult. However, many people who worked most closely with her denied this.

When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings. She made more recordings than any other singer of her time.

VOICE ONE:

In nineteen fifty-nine, her marriage to Mister Meneghini ended. Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang less. In nineteen sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an Italian singer. It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she appeared in an opera.

(MUSIC: "Vissi D'arte" from "Tosca"))

VOICE TWO:

Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in nineteen sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her. He had decided to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the murdered American president, John Kennedy.

Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers. In the early nineteen seventies, she taught twelve classes at the Juilliard School in New York. Parts of these classes were released as records. Terrence McNally wrote a play about Maria Callas and her opera students called "Master Class."

VOICE ONE:

Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and East Asia in nineteen seventy-three and seventy-four. She performed with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano. Critics said she was not able to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if Callas's troubles were caused by a physical problem or because she had not spent enough time training her voice.

Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in nineteen seventy-seven. She was fifty-three.

VOICE TWO:

Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. They say she had the deepest understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice and intense feeling increased the effect of an opera. One expert said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of music. Others sing notes. She sings meaning. "

People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the experience. Her voice lives on in the many recordings she made. Some experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was performing around the world.

(MUSIC: March From "Norma")

VOICE ONE:

This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust and produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Shirley Griffith.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another People in America program on the Voice of America.

庆祝PoEnglish网站PageRank值达到4/10！VOASE10月合辑奉上！

10月合辑制作完毕，包括2007年10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|VOASE0710.iso|410484736|6CC37BFAAED4D17C8B8765FC1EFDB60D|h=IHRRA6IDWZG5M56SRHQYN7XGNHN3EZZC|/

可能下载贴很快就会给VeryCD贴出来，还在老地方
http://lib.verycd.com/2007/02/07/0000138789.html

刚刚整理网页，发现页面上的Google工具栏PageRank的小绿槽长了点，仔细一看，哈哈，达到4分了，真棒阿！
对于一个个人网页来说，4分是不错的了，更何况在blogger被全面“风沙”的境遇下，网站的流量重要性得到肯定，更让我高兴！
但回顾上月blog的更新情况，只能用糟糕来形容。
为数不多的几次更新，一次更新十几篇，这样补交作业式的更新，我自己也很惭愧。
我上个月确实是忙了点，还生了次病（急性肠胃炎。。。提醒大家注意饮食卫生），但认真检讨下，忙不是造成未能抽出时间及时更新的原因，惰性才是根本原因。
在网站的重要性得到肯定这个积极的鼓励下，我还是要要求自己坚持天天更新天天学习。
英语学习是个长期的积累过程，同样，认真长久地坚持一件事情，也是对个人行事品性最好的锻炼。
坚持！加油！

另外问网友们一个问题，最近我的poenglish@gmail.com邮箱出了错，Gmail Notifier不能成功登陆，读取邮件经常要重新连接，可我的其它Gmail邮箱都正常，究竟导致错误的是什么原因我不明白，有了解的朋友请告知我。谢谢了。

还有就是，我要向那些给我写信的而我未能及时回复的朋友们道歉，因为本人的“懒惰+拖拉+迟钝+愚笨”，常常回信很晚，偶尔一不小心还忘了回复，所以请大家看在我生了那么多毛病的可怜样上，就饶过我吧，我会再仔细复核邮件的，记得还是要给我写信哦 :-)

VOASE1102_In the News

02 November 2007

Fernandez Makes History in Argentina, but Soon Comes the Real Work
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, senator and first lady, is the first woman to be elected president. The country faces energy shortages and high inflation.

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This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Cristina Fernandez

Senator and first lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner this week became the first woman to be elected president of Argentina. The fifty-four-year-old lawyer and politician received about twice as many votes as her closest opponent, Elisa Carrio.

Cristina Fernandez will take office in December when her husband, President Nestor Kirchner, steps down after one term. She will face difficult issues including Argentina's high inflation rates and energy shortages.

Her support comes mainly from Argentina’s lower classes. Political observers say she could lose that support if she is unable to slow inflation and deal with the energy problems.

Elisa Carrio, a former legislator known for her campaign against corruption, had the strong support of wealthier voters. She won the big cities of Buenos Aires, Cordoba and Rosario.

Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, after Brazil. The economy has grown at more than eight percent a year during Nestor Kirchner's presidency. But the country has a large international debt. And one-fourth of its thirty-seven million people still live in poverty.

President-elect Fernandez has promised to continue her husband’s policies. Many people believe his success in improving the economy helped her rise to the presidency. Argentina suffered a financial crisis in two thousand one and two thousand two.

She says she will work to improve employment, health care, education -- and Argentina’s foreign relations. Her husband has traveled little outside the country during his four years as president. But she has spent recent months meeting with foreign leaders.

Citizens eighteen to seventy living in Argentina are required to vote. Those living outside the country are not required. But Argentine Embassy spokeswoman Danielle de la Fuente in Washington said many came to the consulate to vote in Sunday's election.

Argentina also has a law to support the involvement of women in politics. It requires one-third of legislative candidates to be women.

Cristina Fernandez will join Michelle Bachelet of Chile as the only female presidents in Latin America. But while Argentina will have its first elected female president, she will not be the first woman to lead the country. Vice President Isabel Peron became president after her husband, General Juan Peron, died in nineteen seventy-four.

President Nestor Kirchner

President Kirchner and his wife lead the Peronist party, a movement that grew out of the rule of General Peron. Some people think they will try to exchange the presidency between them for the next twelve years. Argentine law permits a former president to run again after a four-year wait.

Many people compare Cristina Fernandez to American presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Both women are senators and lawyers whose husbands were governors and then presidents.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. To learn more about Argentina and its politics, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1101_Economics Report

01 November 2007

Finance: Merrill Lynch CEO O'Neal Is Out After Huge Loss
Stan O'Neal retires under pressure following the company's $2 billion loss after taking an $8 billion charge on mortgage-related investments.

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This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Stan O'Neal

This week, directors of investment bank Merrill Lynch forced out its chief executive officer, Stan O'Neal. He retired less than a week after Merrill reported its first quarterly loss in six years, and the biggest in its ninety-three-year history.

Merrill is the world's largest brokerage company. It lost over two billion dollars in the period from July through September. That was because of more than eight billion dollars in write-downs. A write-down represents a reduction in the value of investments or other assets.

The results were mostly related to subprime mortgages -- housing loans to people with risky credit histories. Merrill has had the largest losses so far of any American bank with investments tied to subprime loans. Many of these investments are complex securities called collateralized debt obligations.

Merrill had almost eight billion dollars in write-downs on C.D.O.s and subprime mortgages. That was even more than the four and one-half billion dollars expected. Its other divisions, however, remained profitable.

Stan O'Neal worked for Merrill Lynch for twenty-one years. He held the top job since two thousand two. Board members were angry at the losses and at reports that he proposed a merger deal with Wachovia Bank without their approval. He chose most of the members of that board.

Critics say he failed to listen to warnings about the risk of subprime debt. Yet his decisions to make riskier investments than chief executives before him helped produce record profits for the company. He also pushed to reduce costs, including thousands of job cuts -- a culture change for a company that was known as "Mother Merrill."

He leaves with about one hundred sixty million dollars worth of stock and retirement pay.

Stan O'Neal was the first African-American to lead a major Wall Street investment bank. He rose out of poverty. As a boy he picked cotton on a family farm in Alabama. Later he was a factory worker at General Motors.

Some market watchers think Merrill Lynch may have to write down an additional four billion dollars in the fourth quarter of the year. But the company was not alone in reporting big third-quarter losses.

In Europe the investment bank UBS said it lost about seven hundred million dollars. It wrote down more than three billion dollars of investments linked to subprime loans. And UBS warned that it could end the year with more losses.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm Mario Ritter.

VOASE1101_American Mosaic

01 November 2007

Rufus Wainwright Aims High With New Album, 'Release the Stars'
Also: A listener in Burma asks about the election process in the United States. And we explore the newest extension of the Denver Art Museum.

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HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:

We listen to some music from Rufus Wainwright …

Answer a question about American elections …

And report about the Denver Art Museum.

Denver Art Museum

HOST:

Newest extension of the Denver Art Museum

Today we explore the collections of the Denver Art Museum in Colorado. The two main buildings of the museum contain art from many periods and places. The newest extension of the museum opened last year. The tall, silver-colored building was designed by the internationally famous American architect Daniel Libeskind. Faith Lapidus tells us about this interesting museum.

FAITH LAPIDUS:

When you first walk toward the Denver Art Museum, you might not realize the building you are looking at is a museum. The tall North Building looks like a defensive structure built long ago. It was actually built in nineteen seventy-one by the architect Gio Ponti. He once said that “art is a treasure and these thin but jealous walls defend it.” The surface of the building is covered in over one million glass tiles that shine in the bright Colorado sun.

Next to this building is Daniel Libeskind’s bold creation. Its sharp angles and tall extensions are covered in silver-colored titanium metal. Mister Libeskind says the building was influenced by the light and environment of the nearby Rocky Mountains.

The inside of the Denver Art Museum is as interesting as its outside. There are rich collections of modern and ancient art as well as art from Asia, Africa, America and Europe. The American Indian collection includes a finely-made face covering by the Kwakwaka’wakw tribe artist George Walkus. This bold mask has four bird faces painted in red, white and black. It was worn as part of a special dance ceremony.

In its main entry, the new building has an unusual piece of art by the Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima. It is made up of eighty mirrored glass circles placed on the walls in different areas. Each circle has a lighted number in its center. The numbers count up and down at different speeds between the numbers one through nine.

The Denver Art Museum recently had an exhibition of works by the abstract expressionist painter Clyfford Still. When he died in nineteen eighty, he gave his collection of work to a city that would build a museum to protect and present his art. The Clyfford Still museum will be built next door to the Denver Art Museum. But we will have to wait until two thousand ten to explore its collections.

American Elections

HOST:

Our listener question this week comes from Burma. Ko Maw Gyi wants to know about the United States election process and who will win the two thousand eight presidential election.

National elections are held in the United States every two years. Each time, voters elect all members of the House of Representatives for a two-year term, and one-third of Senate members for a six-year term. Many states also choose governors and state legislatures in national elections. Citizens may also vote on different questions of state or local interest.

Two thousand eight is a presidential election year, as well. The Constitution requires the president and vice president be elected every four years. By law, voting is to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Although many Americans may have an opinion about who will win the presidential election next year, it is too early to make any predictions. Presidential candidates have more than one year left to campaign.

A voter gives her 9-year-old daughter a lesson in voting during the Maryland primary elections in 2006

The two major parties in the United States are the Democrats and the Republicans. Every four years, the parties hold national conventions to officially choose their nominees for president and vice president. Many states hold special primary elections to choose delegates to the national conventions. Each presidential candidate lists on state primary ballots a group of delegates who have promised to support the candidate at their party’s convention. Citizens show their choice for the presidential nomination by voting for the group of delegates committed to that candidate.

Off-year elections in American politics are considered general elections held during odd-numbered years. The next off-year election is November sixth. Voters will select mayors, city council members, school board officials and many other local offices. A few states will also hold elections for governor and state legislators on Tuesday.

Rufus Wainwright

HOST:

Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright is a musician who comes from a family of folk singers. His fifth album, “Release the Stars,” is musically rich and complex. With his emotional voice, Wainwright sings about deeply personal stories. Some songs are playful, while others are more serious. Barbara Klein has more.

BARBARA KLEIN:

Rufus Wainwright recorded “Release the Stars” last summer in Germany. He wanted to create a musically straightforward and simple record. Instead, he ended up writing rich and complex musical arrangements that include fourteen string and horn instruments. The album combines the sounds of popular music with those of opera, classical and cabaret music. Here is the song “Rules and Regulations.”

(MUSIC)

Rufus Wainwright made this album for his mother, the musician Kate McGarrigle. While he was recording the songs, she had to have a serious medical operation. He said her sickness gave him a sense of urgency about the record he wanted to create.

Last year, Rufus Wainwright gave a bold performance at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York City. He recreated the songs from a historic concert given by the American singer Judy Garland in nineteen sixty-one. His performance received great critical praise. But one of his close friends did not attend. Wainwright wrote this song about his friends. “Release the Stars” tells about the old days of movie production studios in Hollywood, California. But Wainwright says the larger message is about letting everything go and being the best person you can be.

(MUSIC)

Rufus Wainwright has also written many songs for movies such as “Shrek”, “Moulin Rouge” and “Brokeback Mountain.” The Metropolitan Opera in New York City has even asked him to write an opera. We leave you now with his song “Slideshow.”

(MUSIC)

HOST:

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

It was written by Dana Demange and Jill Moss. Caty Weaver was our producer. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA’s radio magazine in Special English.

VOASE1031_Education Report

31 October 2007

From the Airwaves to Webcasting, the Many Sounds of College Radio
Students gain experience at stations that each have their own personality.

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This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

The band Coheed and Cambria performing at the WBRU studio

No two college radio stations sound alike.

(SOUND)

Some stations have a low-budget sound and students do all the work. Others, like WBRU at Brown University in Rhode Island, have a professional operation heard throughout their communities.

College stations play all kinds of music, from jazz to hard rock. Many also have news, including national or international programming.

More than three hundred college radio and television stations belong to a group called Collegiate Broadcasters Incorporated. CBI helps organize a National College Media Conference which this year took place in Washington. Hundreds of students, professors and media professionals were at the four-day event last week.

Warren Kozirenski at the State University of New York-Brockport is chairman of CBI. He points to WBRU as an example of a commercial station, meaning it earns money by selling time to advertisers.

The station is licensed by the Federal Communications Commission which polices the public airwaves. For example, the station could be fined if it broadcasts offensive language.

Many colleges and universities operate stations that are also licensed by the F.C.C but do not sell advertising. They raise money other ways, including donations from listeners. Stations like these including KTRU at Rice University in Houston are known as public broadcasters.

(SOUND)

College radio stations may receive money from the student government or their school administration. Warren Kozirenski says a majority have small budgets of less than fifty thousand dollars a year.

Some stations do not broadcast over the public airwaves so they do not have to follow F.C.C. rules. They stream their programming over the Internet or are heard through cable systems. Or they use low-power transmitters heard only on school grounds. Still, many of their adult advisers want the young broadcasters to act professional.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jill Moss. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1031_The Making of a Nation

31 October 2007

American History Series: A Clash of Cultures in the New World
Differences over land ownership and religion led to mistrust between European settlers and Indian tribes. The arrival of diseases from Europe further damaged relations.

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VOICE ONE:

This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Ray Freeman with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Our story today is a sad one. It is the story of a clash of peoples, religions, ideas, and cultures. It is a story of strongly held ideas and a lack of compromise.

It is the story of the relations between Europeans and the natives who had lived for thousands of years in the area we now call North America.

VOICE TWO:

Teton Sioux horse races in South Dakota. Artwork by Karl Bodmer from the 1830s.

Many different Native American groups lived on the East Coast of what would become United States. They spoke many different languages. Some were farmers, some were hunters. Some fought many wars, others were peaceful.

These groups are called tribes. Their names are known to most Americans...the Senecas, the Mohawks, the Seminole, the Cherokee to name only a few.

VOICE ONE:

These tribes had developed their own cultures many years before the first European settlers arrived. Each had a kind of religion, a strong spiritual belief. Many tribes shared a similar one.

The Indians on the East Coast shared a highly developed system of trade. Researchers say different tribes of Native Americans traded goods all across the country.

VOICE TWO:

The first recorded meetings between Europeans and the natives of the East Coast took place in the fifteen hundreds. Fishermen from France and the Basque area of Spain crossed the Atlantic Ocean. They searched for whales along the east coast of North America. They made temporary camps along the coast. They often traded with the local Indians.

The Europeans often paid Indians to work for them. Both groups found this to be a successful relationship. Several times different groups of fishermen tried to establish a permanent settlement on the coast, but the severe winters made it impossible. These fishing camps were only temporary.

VOICE ONE:

The first permanent settlers in New England began arriving in sixteen twenty. They wanted to live in peace with the Indians. They needed to trade with them for food. The settlers also knew that a battle would result in their own, quick defeat because they were so few in number.

Yet, problems began almost immediately. Perhaps the most serious was the different way the American Indians and the Europeans thought about land. This difference created problems that would not be solved during the next several hundred years.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Land was extremely important to the European settlers. In England, and most other countries, land meant wealth. Owning large amounts of land meant a person had great wealth and political power.

Many of the settlers in this new country could never have owned land in Europe. They were too poor. And they belonged to minority religious groups. When they arrived in the new country, they discovered no one seemed to own the huge amounts of land.

Companies in England needed to find people willing to settle in the new country. So they offered land to anyone who would take the chance of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. For many, it was a dream come true. It was a way to improve their lives. The land gave them a chance to become wealthy and powerful.

VOICE ONE:

Calender of 37 months, 1889-92, kept on an animal skin by a Kiowa Indian

American Indians believed no person could own land. They believed, however, that anyone could use it. Anyone who wanted to live on and grow crops on a piece of land was able to do so.

The American Indians lived within nature. They lived very well without working very hard. They were able to do this because they understood the land and their environment. They did not try to change the land. They might farm in an area for a few years. Then they would move on. They permitted the land on which they had farmed to become wild again.

They might hunt on one area of land for some time, but again they would move on. They hunted only what they could eat, so the numbers of animals continued to increase. The Indians understood nature and made it work for them.

VOICE TWO:

The first Europeans to settle in New England in the northeastern part of America were few in number. They wanted land. The Indians did not fear them. There was enough land for everyone to use and plant crops. It was easy to live together. The Indians helped the settlers by teaching them how to plant crops and survive on the land.

But the Indians did not understand that the settlers were going to keep the land. This idea was foreign to the Indians. It was like to trying to own the air, or the clouds.

As the years passed, more and more settlers arrived, and took more and more land. They cut down trees. They built fences to keep people and animals out. They demanded that the Indians stay off their land.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Religion was another problem between the settlers and the Indians. The settlers in New England were very serious about their Christian religion. They thought it was the one true faith and all people should believe in it. They soon learned that the Indians were not interested in learning about it or changing their beliefs.

Many settlers came to believe that Native Americans could not be trusted because they were not Christians. The settler groups began to fear the Indians. They thought of the Indians as a people who were evil because they had no religion. The settlers told the Indians they must change and become Christians. The Indians did not understand why they should change anything.

VOICE TWO:

The European settlers failed to understand that the Native American Indians were extremely religious people with a strong belief in unseen powers. The Indians lived very close to nature. They believed that all things in the universe depend on each other. All native tribes had ceremonies that honored a creator of nature. American Indians recognized the work of the creator of the world in their everyday life.

VOICE ONE:

Other events also led to serious problems between the Native Americans and the settlers. One serious problem was disease. The settlers brought sickness with them from Europe. For example, the disease smallpox was well known in Europe. Some people carried the bacteria that caused smallpox, although they did not suffer the sickness itself.

Smallpox was unknown to Native Americans. Their bodies' defense systems could not fight against smallpox. It killed whole tribes. And, smallpox was only one such disease. There were many others.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The first meetings between settlers and Native Americans were the same in almost every European settlement on the East Coast of America. The two groups met as friends. They would begin by trading for food and other goods.

In time, however, something would happen to cause a crisis. Perhaps a settler would demand that an Indian stay off the settler's land. Perhaps a settler, or Indian, was killed. Fear would replace friendship. One side or the other would answer what they believed was an attack. A good example of this is the violent clash called King Philip's War.

VOICE ONE:

Matacom was a leader of the Wampanoag tribe that lived in the
northern-most colonies. He was known to the English as King Philip. Without the help of his tribe, the first European settlers in that area might not have survived their first winter. The Wampanoag Indians provided them with food. They taught the settlers how to plant corn and other food crops. The two groups were very friendly for several years.

As the years passed, however, fear and a lack of understanding increased. Matacom's brother died of a European disease. Matacom blamed the settlers. He also saw how the increasing numbers of settlers were changing the land. He believed they were destroying it.

VOICE TWO:

One small crisis after another led to the killing of a Christian Indian who lived with the settlers. The settlers answered this by killing three Indians. A war quickly followed. It began in sixteen seventy-five and continued for almost two years. It was an extremely cruel war. Men, women and children on both sides were killed. Researchers believe more than six hundred settlers were killed. They also say as many as three thousand Native Americans died in the violence.

VOICE ONE:

History experts say the tribe of Indians called the Narraganset were the true victims of King Philip's War. The Narraganset were not involved in the war. They did not support one group or the other. However, the settlers killed almost all the Narraganset Indians because they had learned to fear all Indians.

This fear, lack of understanding and the failure to compromise were not unusual. They strongly influenced the European settlers relations with Native Americans in all areas of the new country.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This MAKING OF A NATION program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Ray Freeman.

VOICE ONE:

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

VOASE1030_Health Report

30 October 2007

US Doctor Group Urges Autism Testing for All Babies

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This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says all children should be tested for autism by the age of two.

Ryan Taylor was diagnosed with autism in 2004; he is shown with his father, Craig, at their home in Connecticut

Autism is a general term for a group of brain disorders that limit the development of social and communication skills. Medical professionals call them autism spectrum disorders.

Experts say autism is permanent and cannot be cured. But there are ways to treat it that they say can reduce the severity. The academy says the earlier treatment begins, the better the results.

The medical group released two reports Monday with detailed information to help doctors identify autism. Chris Johnson at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio was one of the authors. She says doctors should look for signs of autism when they examine babies at eighteen months and twenty-four months.

Doctors traditionally consider the possibility of autism only if a child shows delayed speech or unusually repetitive behaviors. These may be clear signs of it, but they usually do not appear until a child is two or three years old.

Doctor Johnson says the medical profession has learned a lot about earlier signs of autism. She says the identification process can begin in the waiting room at a doctor’s office.

Parents could answer a list of written questions about their baby. Then the doctor could perform tests as simple as observing the baby's ability to follow a moving object with its eyes. Experts say failing to watch a moving object may be a sign of autism.

Doctors and parents can also look for behaviors that are normal in babies under one year of age. For example, does the baby appear to respond to a parent’s voice? Does the baby make eye contact? Does the baby wave or point at things?

Young children usually have a favorite soft object like a stuffed animal or a blanket. But children with autism may like hard objects instead, and want to hold them at all times. They may not turn when a parent says their name or when the parent points at something and says "Look at that."

Doctor Johnson says the goal of the new advice is early intervention instead of the traditional "wait and see" method to identify autism.

The second report from the American Academy of Pediatrics deals with management of autism cases. We will discuss that next week.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver. Our reports are online at voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Steve Ember.

VOASE1030_Explorations

30 October 2007

How to Build a House With Bales of Straw
Second part of a series of programs on keeping traditional ways alive.

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VOICE ONE:

I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. We continue our series of reports about efforts to keep alive traditional ways of doing things. Today we tell about building homes out of a simple natural material -- straw.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

It was a cold winter in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the early nineteen eighties. Athena Swentzell was a student in college there. She owned some property. She wanted her own place to live in but she did not have much money to build a house. The usual building materials of wood, concrete and brick were too costly. So she decided to try to build a house using big rectangular bales of straw, the waste material that remains after wheat and other grains are harvested. She covered the outside of the small house with a cement plaster to keep the straw dry.

Miz Swentzell had never seen or heard of a house built of straw. She thought she had invented the idea and was surprised how livable it was. Later she learned that straw bale houses have been built since the late eighteen hundreds after a machine was invented to form the dry straw into bales. And she learned there are straw bale houses in many countries throughout the world.

VOICE TWO:

A straw bale house at the Canelo Project in Arizona

In nineteen eighty-nine, Bill Steen was taking photographs for a small book about straw bale houses. He met Athena Swentzell after he took a picture of the house she had built.

Athena Swentzell and Bill Steen married and she moved to his home in Canelo, Arizona. They decided to hold a workshop. They wanted to teach other people how to make buildings out of straw bales, clay, sand and water -- materials that are available almost everywhere.

VOICE ONE:

The workshop was a success. Through the years more people became interested in learning how to build a house by hand with natural materials. The Steens's first book, "The Straw Bale House," was published in nineteen ninety-four. Miz Steen says interest really increased after that.

The book demonstrated how to use natural materials throughout a house. It showed how people who are not experts can build straw bale houses. It explained how the thickness of the straw walls kept the house warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And it showed how beautiful these hand-built houses made of natural materials can be.

VOICE TWO:

In recent years, the interest in straw bale building has spread across the United States and in other countries. Workshops and demonstrations of straw bale building are popular. Many books on the subject have been published, including several more by Athena and Bill Steen.

Straw bales are used in large houses and very small ones, in office buildings and in schools. The structures may have metal or wood supports for the roof with straw bales used to fill the walls. Or the straw bales alone may support the roof. Windows and doorways may be round or unusual shapes. Walls may be gently curved.

A plaster made of clay, lime or cement is used to cover the outside of the straw bale

An imaginative doorway in a straw bale structure

walls. The inside walls are covered with clay and then painted with naturally colored paints made of clay, wheat paste and water. The designs are very creative. The resulting structures look very different from modern buildings with their straight walls of wood, cement or brick. Some small straw bale buildings look like works of art.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

In the nineteen nineties, Bill and Athena Steen started the Canelo Project. It is a small non-profit organization that aims to connect people, culture and nature. It explores natural building methods that are simple, low cost and pleasing to look at.

A small building at the Canelo Project done with mostly local materials

Through the Canelo Project, the Steens work with people to create simple, livable shelters using local and natural materials. They are concerned with balancing the wisdom and skills of the past with modern improvements. Bill Steen says they try to match the materials to the skills of people doing the building. Athena Steen says their goal is to keep the materials and tools simple so people can work with family and friends to build their own homes. This way, she says, they feel a connection to their home that is lost when someone else is the builder.

VOICE TWO:

The Steens hold workshops at their home in Canelo, Arizona, in the spring and autumn. They live in the large old house made of adobe that was on the property. The dried clay and straw adobe mixture is the same building material used by people living in dry areas all over the world.

Now, there are about twelve smaller structures used for storing things or for visitors. Some were built to demonstrate new ideas. The small buildings look like the big adobe house but all have straw bales inside the earth covered walls.

VOICE ONE:

People who attend the workshops are from many places including Australia, South Korea, Japan, South America, as well as the United States and Canada. They learn the methods of building with straw bales by helping build a small structure.

One of the workshops is called Straw Bale Comprehensive. It is for people who are seriously considering building a home out of straw bales and want to do much of the work themselves. This week-long class lets people take part in a group project to design and build a small structure.

People learn the methods of building with straw bales. They learn that the straw must be kept completely dry or it will not last. They learn how to put in electricity and plumbing. And they learn how to build roofs that will keep rain from the walls.

VOICE TWO:

Another week-long workshop is called Artistry in Clay and Lime. The Steens show how natural materials can be used to cover walls and floors, build furniture and create paints.

During the workshop, the Steens teach traditional plastering methods used to cover walls in Japan, Mexico, Germany and the American Southwest. And they demonstrate methods and plaster materials they have developed. People learn how to make clay or earth plasters especially for inside walls and lime plasters that are less affected by the weather.

VOICE ONE:

People using straw bales for their main building material often want to use other natural materials inside the building. So the workshop includes information about natural paints that are easy to make and cost very little. These paints of clay or other earth materials provide beautiful colors – warm rich red, brown and gray. Clay paints can be used over almost any wall surface including wood and cement. The workshop also includes ways to make furniture out of clay, straw and local plant materials.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen ninety-five, the Steens began working in Sonora, Mexico. The organization, Save the Children, invited them to help people living in a poor farming community near the city of Obregon build low cost houses.

Athena Steen says the people in the community were not happy at first with the idea of building new houses with straw and clay. They wanted to use modern materials like cement and brick.

Then the Save the Children organization decided it wanted a new office building in Sonora. The Steens and a team of local women and men were trained by two skilled Mexican builders, Emiliano and Teodoro Lopez. They produced an office building of more than four hundred fifty square meters.

VOICE ONE:

They started with a floor plan so the space would meet the organization’s needs. Yet the building itself was designed as it was built. Bill Steen says they all learned and invented together as the building grew, room by room. They worked as friends and equals.

The office building has outside walls made of straw bales to keep the desert heat out. The inside walls are made of straw and clay blocks. The walls are covered in earth plaster with clay from the area in colors of soft yellow, dark red and rich brown.

VOICE TWO:

Straw bale structure being built on a ranch in Sonora, Mexico

The result is a useful and beautiful office building. The women in the poor Mexican village decided they wanted to build their own small houses of the same materials. They worked with the Steens and others who had taken part in their workshops. It was a cooperative community effort, which is the way houses have been built for centuries. They built twelve one-room houses for about five hundred dollars each.

One owner of a new straw bale house said that she always thought she would have to have a lot of money to have something beautiful. "Now I know that is not true," she said. "You just have to be willing to work for it."

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano and produced by Mario Ritter. I’m Barbara Klein.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Steve Ember. Listen again next month to EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English for another program about efforts to keep traditional ways alive.

VOASE1029_Agriculture Report

29 October 2007

Growing a Big Pumpkin. A Really Big Pumpkin
Joe Jutras of Rhode Island grew this year's world record-setter, at seven hundred sixty kilograms.

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This is the VOA Special English Agriculture Report.

Joe Jutras lives in a small state, Rhode Island, but he thinks big. This year he grew a pumpkin weighing seven hundred sixty kilograms.

Joe Jutras and his winner

His pumpkin broke the world record set in two thousand six. Another Rhode Islander, Ron Wallace, grew last year's champion. That one weighed six hundred eighty-one kilograms.

Huge pumpkins like these can sell for ten thousand dollars. Some people are willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a single seed.

Sue Jutras explained to us how her husband grew his record pumpkin and a few smaller but still really big ones.

He started the seeds indoors in April. When the third leaf appeared, he planted them outdoors under a temporary shelter. He removed the shelter once the root system began to push against it.

He buried the vines so the root system could continue to grow. He fed the plant a mixture containing fish and seaweed. He worked with his record-breaker twenty to thirty hours each week during the main growing season in July and August.

He needed a forklift truck to carry it to the official weighing. The competition took place a few weeks ago at a fair in Topsfield, Rhode Island.

By the way, Joe Jutras is not a farmer. He operates a woodworking business -- that is, when he is not taking care of his pumpkins.

When Americans, especially children, think of pumpkins, they usually think of Halloween on October thirty-first. Pumpkins are a traditional part of the celebration. People like to cut funny or scary faces into pumpkins and put a candle inside.

Fresh pumpkins might end up as jack-o-lanterns at Halloween. But canned pumpkin meat is popular in pies, breads and other baked goods, and pumpkin seeds are eaten as snacks.

Five states produced more than one hundred million dollars worth of pumpkin last year. The top producers by value were Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois and California.

And that’s the VOA Special English Agriculture Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. Transcripts and MP3 files of our reports are at voaspecialenglish.com. We leave you with a song by John McCutcheon called "Pumpkin Man."