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VOA Text for May 28 Class

Economic Stimulus Package

After a week of intense negotiations congressional leaders announced a deal with the White House that would give an estimated 116 million low and middle income Americans rebate checks worth as much as 600 dollars each. House minority leader John Baynard says the package includes tax breaks for businesses, “This agreement is a big win for the American people. It’ll stimulate our economy in the most direct and effective way possible by putting money in the hand of middle income American families and by giving businesses incentives to create and build new jobs in our country.” The rebates would be limited to individuals with a maximum income of 75,000 dollars and working couples who earn up 150,000 dollars. Those with children would receive an additional 300 dollars per child. Democrats wanted improvising to increase food stamp and increase unemployment benefits but house speaker Nancy Pelosi says the provisions were dropped in exchange for 300 dollar rebates for low income Americans who pay little or no taxes. “I can’t say that I am totally pleased with the package, but I do know that it will help stimulate the economy and if it does not there will be more to come.” The package includes about 50 billion dollars in tax cuts that would allow businesses to write off as much as fifty percent for purchases of equipment. President Bush praised congressional leaders and encouraged lawmakers to approve the bill quickly. “Because this country needs this boost to the economy now." I urge the house and the senate to enact this economic growth agreement into law as soon as possible. We have an opportunity to come together and take the swift, decisive action our economy urgently needs.” U. S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulsen brokered the bi-partisan deal, “The house has set a standard and it’s a, it’s a very important standard and the American people, we owe the American people speed and we owe them a package that’s gonna work.” Paulsen says the first rebate checks could go out as soon as sixty days after both houses of congress pass the stimulus plan. “Milloc Sagen, VOA News.”

China Drops Aid to Quake Victims, Death Toll Rises to Nearly 15,000

In a hard-hit town of Dujiangyan, Chinese relief workers pulled two children out alive on Wednesday. They’ve been trapped beneath rubbles for two days. And the rescuers pulled a woman eight-month pregnant to safety from under a collapsed department building.
But in many areas near the epicenter of earthquake, survivors are still buried below the debris. In Beichung county, rescuers tried to reach a girl trapped under a collapsed school. One of her legs is jammed between the walls.
Elsewhere in the county, people gather to identify bodies of their relatives. China official Xinhua news agency said Wednesday that the people liberation army has sent about 80,000 Chinese soldiers to help with the disaster relief. The troops faced a difficult journey through mountain roads blocked by rocks and mud slides.
Farmers in remote Hojong village said Wednesday that they were desperate for aid. The government has not come here yet, nobody is asking about us. No one cares about our food and water. Other villagers picked through ruins to find corn kernels to eat. Li sheng fang has been living in the wreckage of her former home. Now we can’t find food, we can’t eat rice.
In Chengdu, the capital of Sichung province, aftershocks force thousands of residents to camp out in the streets. That includes these patients at the maternity hospital. We are taking care the new-born babies. All the parents are absent. So we have to look after them and record their signs of life.
A deputy head of China Red Cross in Beijing, Wang Ping appealed for cash donations. We want people to give money instead of clothing and medicine because transportation is difficult now in Sichuan.
Chinese official said that death toll will keep rising as rescue crews dig through more of the rubble, trying to reach more than 20,000 people still believed to be buried.
The Chinese military is air-dropping food and medicine to earthquake survivors in remote mountain villages of Sichuan province, but time is running out for thousands buried under the rubble and mud of collapsed buildings, homes and schools.
China raised the official death toll again Wednesday to nearly 15,000. Authorities expect that number to go up as rescue crews arrive at the hardest-hit areas and begin digging through the rubble.
Officials estimate that an additional 40,000 people are either buried or missing.
As help arrived in some of the hardest-to-reach areas today, some victims were being pulled out alive.
The official Xinhua news agency says seven military helicopters have delivered supplies to Wenchuan county, the epicenter of the 7.9 magnitude quake, and several surrounding counties.
A local government official told Xinhua that only 2,300 of 10,000 residents in the southwestern town of Yingxiu survived the earthquake. The official says rescuers found the situation in Yingxiu worse than expected, with traffic cut off and children buried in debris.
The Sichuan provincial government says a hydropower plant located between the hard-hit areas of Dujiangyan City and Wenchuan County has been shut down. Local officials tell state-media that there are severe cracks in the dam, Zipingpu Hydropower Station, and that the plant and its buildings have collapsed and sunk.
Wenchuan county also is home to the Wolong Nature Reserve, China's largest breeding center for giant pandas.
A spokesperson for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, Wang Yi, told reporters they finally made contact with reserve officials, who assured him that two pandas Beijing wants to send to Taiwan are safe. More than 50,000 troops have been sent to assist with relief work in quake-affected areas, but China has said conditions are not right for international teams to come in and help.

VOA Scripts - May 21, 2008

US Choreographer Blends Egyptian and Western Dance

Twenty three years ago, Diana Calenti went to Egypt to teach dance at the American University of Cairo. She says she was attracted to Egyptian folkloric dance, which tells a story through movement and music. And she combined the traditional approach with Western ballet and modern dance.The Egyptian Ministry of Culture asked her to develop and modernize the performance of a famous folkloric dancing troupe. She explains, "I was a trained dancer when I went there, so my body was trained and skilled, so I just simply applied what my body was and absorbed the movements from Egypt."Over several years of mixing various types of American and Egyptian dancing, Diana Calenti became a celebrity in Egypt. She was granted Egyptian citizenship and was appointed as director and choreographer of the Modern Folkloric Egyptian Dance Company.Her love for the land of the Pharaohs, she says, began with Egyptian music when she was a child. "My first exposure really came in New York when I was growing up. I grew up in a very ethnic neighborhood, as a lot of New Yorkers have, so I heard a lot of kinds of music and I was fascinated with the sounds of the music from there."With the help of her Egyptian-Canadian husband, Calenti co-produced a fictional movie called "Search for Diana." The movie tells a story of a young American woman who feels somehow she is drawn to Egypt by an archeologist who was uncovering Pharaohs tombs.Now, Diana Calenti is in the eastern U.S. state of Maryland, where she has formed a troupe to teach young American dancers how to perform Egyptian folkloric dancing. "You talk to them about the music and the culture it comes from, because the music comes out from the society and the culture and they are very smart girls. Once they begin to understand, it is easy for them to get into the idea of the movement."Alexia Whaley, a 16-year-old member of the newly-formed Calenti Dancing Troupe says her experience with the Egyptian dancing introduced her to a unique expression of human feelings. "I came to find out that the Egyptian dancing is more spiritual, it comes from your soul, you really have to put your mind into everything that you do."The Egyptian Embassy in Washington hosted the first performance of the troupe, and American spectators say they liked the cultural connection. After watching the show, one American professional dancer, who called herself Stephanie, says she is more convinced now that dancing is a real cultural bridge. "Art, music and dance is a way of helping different cultures communicate themselves and to foster tolerance and understanding worldwide."Diana Calenti agrees and says she deeply believes in her mission of connecting cultures through common expression of human feelings.

Glossary
Choreographer 舞蹈指導 Pharaoh 法老 troupe團 Embassy 大使館

sand art

US prison finds a new way to deter would-be escapees: a bear

The way the warden sees it, the 180-kilogram black bear living in the middle of the sprawling Louisiana State Penitentiary is an extra layer of security.
“I love that bear being right where it is,” Warden Burl Cain said. “I tell you what, none of our inmates are going to try to get out after dark and wander around when they might run into a big old bear. It’s like having another guard at no cost to the taxpayer.”The bear was first seen by an inmate crossing a road in the prison earlier this month. It was taking a stroll near the center of the maximum security prison. Most of the 73-square-kilometer prison is run as a farm, but about 14km2 is piney woods.Prison workers measured the bear’s footprints, which were 15cm in diameter.“The wildlife people told us they think it’s a big female they’ve been tracking for a while,” Cain said.Maria Davidson, manager of the Large Carnivore Program for the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries, marvels that a bear was spotted in an area of high activity such as the center of the prison.“Bears are actually very shy, their tendency is to run and hide,” Davidson said.As for acting as an unpaid prison guard, Davidson doubts that the bear would provide much of a deterrent to a fleeing prisoner.“We’ve never had a predatory attack by a black bear in Louisiana, to our knowledge, on pets or livestock,” she said. “As for a bear coming out and rushing an inmate, I don’t see that happening.”The prison is isolated and has plenty of other kinds of dangerous wildlife, including alligators, rattlesnakes and wild pigs, said Gary Young, head of the executive management office at the prison. The last recorded escape was nearly three years ago, and the inmate was quickly recaptured before leaving the grounds.(AP)