VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS 2013-06-11 Street Children in Ethiopia Need Shelter – Not Getting It

 

AS IT IS 2013-06-11 Street Children in Ethiopia Need Shelter – Not Getting It

From VOA Learning English, welcome to AS IT IS!

Hello, I’m Steve Ember.

Today on our program, we learn that life is not so sweet for sugar farmers in Nigeria, and of the need for shelter for street children in Ethiopia.

And, we celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the German composer Richard Strauss. He was born on this date in 1864, and while he could not have known it at the time, he wrote a very notable piece of film music.

MUSIC: “Also sprach Zarathustra”

Zero-gravity meals, anyone?

First off, Christopher Cruise tells us about street children in Ethiopia.  They believe that their most basic need – for a roof over their heads – is not being met. 

Shelter is among the many things that street children in Ethiopia wish for. But a study shows that local nongovernmental organizations and community groups rarely offer what the street children want. Azeb Adefrsew is a researcher with Save the Children, the international aid group that did the study. The researcher says the limited services provided by local NGOs do not match what the children see as their greatest needs.

“The children said that their major problem was shelter. But the street children organizations were providing, of course, mainly food and other items -- clothing and so on.”

Save the Children talked with children living on the streets in five major cities, three regional towns and eight rural villages across Ethiopia. The children discussed many subjects, including their needs, health and risks they face. There are about 30,000 street children in Ethiopia. About 17,000 of them live in the capital, Addis Ababa. More than half of the children do not have access to shelter or enough food.

They survive mostly on what they receive from shining shoes, selling small items to passersby¹ and appealing to strangers for help.                          

The street children face health threats. Research shows that about 30 percent are seriously sick, but most do not have any kind of treatment available. About 40 percent of the children may have been forced to have sex. The children believe that having shelter will reduce these kinds of risks.

GOAL Ethiopia is a group that helps street children receive services.  These include psychological support, non-formal education and guidance about how to move back into their communities. Kedir Ahmed of GOAL Ethiopia says providing a shelter is not the best way to help street kids.

“No organization can afford to provide all these services for the children.  What we try to do is to do that rehabilitation² support while street children are still on the street."         

GOAL used to provide shelter for street children. But the organization found that this discouraged the children from re-entering their own communities. In most cases, they had left home because of poverty. They found that shelters were often better places to live than their family homes.

I’m Christopher Cruise.

You are listening to “As It Is” from VOA Learning English. I’m Steve Ember.

Life Not So Sweet for Nigerian Sugar Farmers

Farmers in northern Nigeria say their land could be some of the most productive for sugar in West Africa. But they say that productivity is wasted without big local buyers. Karen Leggett has our story.

The Nigerian government has a new plan designed to help the local industry. For now, farmers sell sugar cane³ as snacks on the street while the country imports 97 percent of the sugar it uses.

Mallam Usman Abdu Gubuci has five hectares of land. He describes himself as one of the sugar farming "giants" in his area. He says his part of northern Nigeria could be a major supplier of sugar to West Africa. But he says farmers no longer even bother to grow sugar that can be refined.

“There is special sugar cane for that sugar, which we were introduced with. But when we planted it, no buyer. In other words, no industry to buy.”

Instead, he says, all of his product goes to local markets, and people drink sugar water from the sugar cane stalks. And while these stalks do sell, he says, it is not a business that can grow.

Last fall, the Nigerian government introduced a plan to decrease sugar imports and boost Nigerian production.  The plan includes increasing taxes on imported sugar and giving tax breaks to anyone who wants to invest in local sugar refinement⁴. It also calls for no import duties on machinery⁵ used for processing sugar. 

Hajiya Bilkisu Mohammed heads the Association of Women Farmers in northern Nigeria. She says part of the reason local farmers cannot sell sugar for refining is that factories in this part of Nigeria face continual electrical shortages. The factories depend on costly⁶ power generators⁷.

Saidu Usman Gwambe is a sugar cane farmer. He says his land could be very profitable, but he is not sure how much longer he can wait for a government rescue.  I’m Karen Leggett.

Birthday Anniversary of a Great Composer

MUSIC: “Don Juan” by Richard Strauss

It’s “As It Is” from VOA Learning English, Steve Ember here with a few words about – and some famous notes from - a great man of music.

German composer Richard Strauss was born on June eleventh, 1864. He wrote many vibrant⁸ and romantic orchestral compositions, like “Don Juan,” many famous operas, including probably his masterpiece “Der Rosenkavalier.”

MUSIC: “Also Sprach Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss.

But it’s probably accurate to say that even those who don’t follow opera or classical music do at least know Richard Strauss’ music from this famous opening to a symphonic poem he composed in 1896.

It was called “Also Sprach Zarathustra” (“Thus Spake Zarathustra”), and it was based on writings by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

When he wrote the powerful opening fanfare⁹ for large orchestra and organ, Strauss could not have known he was writing a theme for a major motion picture. In 1968, 72 years after the music was written, Director Stanley Kubrick selected those opening notes to launch his epic¹⁰ forward-looking film “2001, a Space Odyssey¹¹.” 

MUSIC: Waltzes from “Der Rosenkavalier”

And speaking of waltzes, we’ll leave you with the waltz sequence from Richard Strauss’ opera “Der Rosenkavalier.” By the way, Strauss did write some intentional¹² film music, for a 1925 film version of “Rosenkavalier.”

1 passersby   

n. 过路人(行人,经过者)

参考例句：

• He had terrorized Oxford Street,where passersby had seen only his footprints. 他曾使牛津街笼罩了一片恐怖气氛，因为那儿的行人只能看到他的脚印，看不到他的人。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学
• A person is marceling on a street, watching passersby passing. 街边烫发者打量着匆匆行人。

2 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

3 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

4 refinement   

n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼

参考例句：

• Sally is a woman of great refinement and beauty. 莎莉是个温文尔雅又很漂亮的女士。
• Good manners and correct speech are marks of refinement.彬彬有礼和谈吐得体是文雅的标志。

5 machinery   

n.(总称)机械，机器；机构

参考例句：

• Has the machinery been put up ready for the broadcast?广播器材安装完毕了吗？
• Machinery ought to be well maintained all the time.机器应该随时注意维护。

6 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

7 generators   

n.发电机，发生器( generator的名词复数 )；电力公司

参考例句：

• The factory's emergency generators were used during the power cut. 工厂应急发电机在停电期间用上了。
• Power can be fed from wind generators into the electricity grid system. 电力可以从风力发电机流入输电网。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 vibrant   

adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的

参考例句：

• He always uses vibrant colours in his paintings. 他在画中总是使用鲜明的色彩。
• She gave a vibrant performance in the leading role in the school play.她在学校表演中生气盎然地扮演了主角。

9 fanfare   

n.喇叭；号角之声；v.热闹地宣布

参考例句：

• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide.这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。
• A fanfare of trumpets heralded the arrival of the King.嘹亮的小号声宣告了国王驾到。

10 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

11 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

12 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。