Reparations for black folks in the USA?

{{{A photo of a black child picking cotton - after the Civil War black people who had been slaves were not given many opportunities for success.}}} 

After the US Civil War, black people could no longer be used as slaves. However, they had few opportunities. Many of them continued working on the farms where they had worked as slaves. They were now paid, but they were paid very little.

Some historians believe that African Americans in the USA still suffer from unequal economic, social and educational situations because they were not helped after the Civil War.

Therefore, many African Americans, these days, are asking for 'reparations'. Reparations payments are usually paid by losing countries to winning countries after wars are over. In this case, however, African Americans believe that an injustice was done to their ancestors and that they should now receive money from the US government for all the years their ancestors worked as slaves. Many Americans feel this money would finally help African Americans to get on the road to true freedom and equality in the USA.

Here is an article about a UN group and about how horrible conditions are for black folks in the USA. The Christian Science Monitor magazine might force you to take a brief survey to read the whole article. Sorry about that. I took the survey quickly - it was two questions.

The Article:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0131/UN-group-recommends-reparatory-justice-for-African-Americans

Vocabulary from the article:

reparatory justice - justice meant to fix or repair a wrong situation

disparities - differences that constitute inequality

preliminary - the first draft

the legacy of slavery - the history which continues to affect black people

subordination - forcing people to become inferior in status

reconciliation - making up, fixing problems so that nobody feels resentment or hurt any more

due diligence - conscientiousness, a sense of doing the right thing

disproportionate imprisonment - black people are thrown in jail at much higher rates than white folks

a massacre - when many innocent people are killed at one time

persistent - in this case: continuing

structural discrimination - discrimination is applied racism and if it is structural, it is built into the system

de facto barriers - 'in fact' barriers...they are not supposed to be there, but they are, in fact, there

wealth - amount of money and property

commemoration - remembering

profound - in this case: serious

manifestations - how something shows or reveals itself

xenophobia - hating people who are different or who come from different countries

reignited - started again...to ignite a fire is to start a fire

internment camps - places people are held temporarily until a time comes when it is felt safe to release them. Japanese Americans were forced to live in such camps during World War 2 because the US government did not trust them.

sins - wrongs done, usually to God, but a sin can be a wrong committed against another person.

maturation - growth, development

Violence in Africa: 2014

(Image taken by Miguel Medina)

 
Here is a brief article about violence in Africa.  Basically, for a long time, African tribes and nations were forced to serve European countries (especially England) as colonies.  Africa provided workers and natural resources to the European countries and derived (got) little benefit.  Many countries in Africa have never fully recovered from this situation and they still struggle to 'modernize.'  In the mean time, there are now religious wars throughout the continent.


An article about contemporary Africa:

http://news.msn.com/world/africa-sees-violent-deadly-start-to-2014-1

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

a neighborhood - many foreign students have a hard time distinguishing between a neighbor and a neighborhood.  A neighbor is someone who lives near you while a neighborhood is an area in a city where people live.

raging - if a person is 'raging' against something, he is very angry and aggressive.  Rage is uncontrollable anger that often leads to violence.

conflicts - in this case: wars

a death toll - the number of people who have died

gruesome - ugly and shocking

combatants - soldiers or people fighting for a cause (a cause is a goal, usually a political or religious goal)

to behead - to cut a person's head off

weighs sanctions - considers punishments

a cause for concern - a reason to worry

a think tank - this is a group of people - usually highly educated - who have meetings to think about world problems and how to solve them

the auspices of someone or some group - if you are working under the auspices of something, that something is supporting you, basically you work for that organization or you represent that organization

to be burdened with - means to have suffered from, in this case.  A burden is something heavy that you carry.

a lack of political will - so many countries just don't care about peace and are not willing to work for it.  "will" often means "desire"

a mandate - in this case a mandate emans a sense that something has to be done for moral (right) reasons

radiate - spread, move

ethnic groups - I am German-American: that is my ethnic group.  If someone is from a tribal group or a group from a particular region or area, that is the person's ethnic group.

targeted each other - decided to attack each other for specific reasons

to dispatch - to send

breakaway units - smaller groups that left the army to form their own military groups

external intervention - other countries getting involved in the conflicts

to exacerbate something - to make something worse

tensions - in this case tensions between countries means that they do not trust each other and are close to fighting or fighting even harder

violence pits Muslims against Christians - if you are 'pitted' against someone, you are fighting or competing against that person.

atrocities - terrible things that happen during a war, usually involving the killing of innocent people

inter-communal - I am not quite sure what the writer means.  Violence within a community, I think.

unprecedented - never seen before

uprooted - forced to leave their homes

to temper the violence - keep it down, decrease it

to resign - to quit his job

a power vacuum - a vacuum is an area without air, an empty area.  So a power vacuum is a situation where nobody is in power.

a coup - when the military takes over the government

a dictator - a leader who controls everything about a country

to solidify his power - to make his power very strong

a mercenary - a soldier who fights for money

integrated conflict systems - because so many countries are involved in each conflict, you just can't look at 2 countries...you have to look at the larger picture and all the countries that are 'integrated' or involved in this situation

comprehensive - it covers everything

drivers of conflict - the causes of conflicts throughout Africa

detonated - exploded

reversed course - changed what they were doing and did the opposite

a dearth of - a lack of, not enough of

when crises erupt - when a terrible situation happens

one is left to rob Peter to pay Paul - this means that there are not enough resources to use everywhere, so when something happens, resources are taken from one place (robbing Peter) to be used elsewhere (to pay Paul).  There should be enough resources for every situation.

to beef-up - to strengthen, to make stronger

Life inside a refugee camp for Syrians

Here's a short article about the world's second largest refugee camp. Dadaab - a refugee camp for Somalian refugees - seems to be the largest in the world (based on what I was able to learn independently of the article).

Obviously the war in Syria has to end, yet it seems evident that if Obama supplies weapons to the 'rebels,' the war will continue. Indeed, if the rebels win, there will be another extremist Islamic government in that region.

The article:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/life-syrian-refugee-look-inside-world-second-largest-110910811.html?vp=1

Vocabulary to help you understand the article:

a refugee - someone who has to flee (escape) his/her home country in order to avoid being harmed in a war.

fled - past tense of flee.  flee, fled, fled

bordering - next to

to ensure - to make sure of

an exclusive interview - an interview only given to this source

a tragedy - in this case, suffering and pain due to the war

brutal - merciless, cruel, harsh, inhumane

a special envoy - a special messenger or spokesperson, like a special ambassador, or a famous person who can bring attention to a problem for the UN

to highlight the crisis - to draw greater attention to it

traumatized - if you are traumatized by something, you have seen or experienced something terrible and have been psychologically harmed

wounded - harmed

impacted by - affected by

a spill over into - the war might move into neighboring countries

a detonator - this is a device on a bomb that causes the bomb to explode.  If Syria is a detonator, it means it can cause wars to happen in other countries.

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Discussion/writing:

Do you think that having Angelina Jolie publicize or highlight the suffering in this camp is going to change anything? 

Even if this might not change anything, do you think the U.N. still needs to highlight the suffering of the Syrian people?  Why/why not?

Do you feel that Russia and the USA are to blame for this crisis?  If so, how?

What do you think the U.N. should do about this situation?

Should the USA supply guns to the Syrian rebels (those who are fighting against the dictatorship of Assad)?

Is there anything else the Obama administration can do to end this war (after all, President Obama is a Nobel Peace Prize 'winner.')?

The UN Says to "Rich" Nations: Please Cut Your Consumption of Meat by Half

Often when I go to my neighborhood supermarket, I see people filling their shopping carts with beef, steak, pork, chicken...but primarily with beef and steak.  I've often asked myself, "OMG, how much meat do people need to eat?"

Well, the UN is suggesting that people in Europe and the USA cut their eating (consumption) of meat by 1/2. The UN also suggests that people in poorer countries increase their consumption of meat.

Here are some vocabulary words that will help you read the following article about this topic:

to cut - in this case, cut means reduce

to halve - to divide something into two equal parts

consumption - consuming something means either eating something or buying something.  If you buy something you are a consumer.  But you can also consume a nice meal.

a scandal - a story that brings embarrassment to someone or some organization.

cheap - inexpensive, not costing much money

to urge someone to do something - to strongly recommend something, to push someone toward doing something

to expose - to reveal, to show

to stop short of something - to end doing something before something happens; to stop before saying or doing something completely

lust for meat  - to lust for something is to desperately desire something.  Lust is, basically, sexual desire.

to fuel something - to keep something going.

undocumented - not officially recorded; if meat is undocumented it means it hasn't been inspected or tested for safety

mislabeled - not categorized correctly

to coin a term - to create a term

a quest for something - a quest is a journey to discover or do something

massive - huge

intensively - strongly, with extreme effort

to divert - to change the direction of something

fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides -  fertilizer is any type of substance added to soil (dirt) to make it richer; a pesticide kills bugs; an herbicide kills weeds and other plants.  Anything with "cide" means killing.  Homicide - murder, suicide - killing yourself, genocide - killing a whole group of people.

run-off - when a chemical is removed by water from an area and flows to another area

toxic algal blooms - toxic is poison, algal is algae, a type of plant, to bloom is to develop

amphibians - frogs are amphibians; amphibians live in the water or on land.

an eco-system - a system of inter-related organisms.  A rain-forest eco-system contains trees, snakes, insects, plants, birds etc.

a portion - a part of something; a small portion of food means a little bit of food

a tougher nut to crack - a more difficult problem to solve.  Basically they are saying that Americans are not going to give up eating the huge amounts of meat that they are used to.

to lack, to be lacking - not to have

manure - poop.  Crap.  The solid waste material you flush down the toilet.  Cow poop is often used as fertilizer.

a crop yield - the amount of corn, or grain or anything that a crop provides.  A crop is what can be eaten and which grows in an area of land.

exacerbate - to make worse

degradation - to get worse

sparingly - not used as much as it could be used

emission - an emission is when something comes from something else; a chimney emits smoke

sewage - when you flush your toilet, human waste material goes into your city's sewer system; sewage is human waste material or waste material in general.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/18/halve-meat-consumption-scientists

1)  How can Americans be convinced that they should consume less meat?

2)  What do you think should be done to the companies that knowingly used horsemeat in their beef products?

3)  Have you ever considered becoming a vegetarian?

4)  Do you feel that you have been eating too much meat?  Are you willing to cut back on your consumption?

5)  The UN seems to be suggesting that eating chicken is better for the environment than eating beef.  What do you think about this?  Do you think it's OK to eat just a little meat, or should we try to avoid meat altogether?

6)  Do you think there are good ethical reasons to become a vegetarian?

7)  Why are people in the west over-eating meat?  Is it the fault of the consumer or of the meat producing companies or both?

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Yes, I'm the guy who wrote the very funny ESL book: New York City Sucks, But You'll Wanna Live Here Anyway
http://www.amazon.com/Sucks-Youll-Wanna-Anyway-ebook/dp/B004TSPAQS

If this page is useful to you, please buy the book (it's quite inexpensive and useful!!!!). If you don't have an e-reader, drop me a line at djg51qu@gmail.com and I'll send you a free copy via Word file. Let me know whether you have Word 2010 or an earlier version.
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Yes, I'm also the guy who created the scandal in Asia two years ago :P

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100511000742

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100512000682

http://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/05/11/wondergirls-were-mistreated-by-jyp-entertainment/