Dear Friends:
Hello! Welcome to the fourth Weekly Bilingual News of March 2011. The last few days were very intense in the news. You can learn about what was happening in the perspective of our comments posted in blogs of important online publications. The Vocabulary included will help you in the bilingual debate.
NATO VERSUS DICTATORS – Wall Street Journal story: "Fresh Airstrikes Aid Rebels" March 27, 2011). This article comments on the advance of the enemies of the Libyan dictator after the NATO took the command of the allies and deepened the bombing of the air defenses of Col. Gadhafi's regime.
WSJ Journal Comment: "Who is moving the Libyan revolution, the rebels or the NATO's rockets? But NATO cannot remove all the dictators of the world"
GREEN GERMANY – Wall Street Journal story: "Greens' Gains Are Setback for Germany's Merkel" (March 27, 2011). This article talks about the results of the German regional elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate (or Rhineland Pfalz) under the influence of the nuclear panic that the Japanese accident generated across the world.
WSJ Journal Comment: "Germany - March 2011: No black! No red! Green! The accident of the Japanese nuclear accelerated the decline of the two German traditional parties: CDU (black) and SPD (red), but also the advance of the Green Party in two regional elections destroyed the electorate of the fragile FDP, hitting its coalition with the Angela Merkel's government. What will happen in the federal elections of the current year? Could the "green politicians" take over power? In this potential situation, what will be the future of German nuclear plants? Independently of all, both traditional parties – Christians and Socialists – have to refresh their ideas, remove "dinosaurs", and move with the speed of the new economic cycle…"
GOOGLE-GARAGE – Wall Street Journal story: "At Google, Page Seeks to Cut Red Tape" (March 25, 2011). This article analyzes the change of CEO in Google after long years of growth under the Eric Schmidt's helm. Larry Page, co-founder of Google, is retaking the command of the company with the idea to move it like a start-up. During the Schmidt's cycle, Google grew from 200 to 24,000 employees.
WSJ Journal Comment: " Mr. Page: Please we don't want to reinvent the wheel! Now Google is not a garage-company, it is a big corporation. And the merit increase was from Eric Schmidt."
SYRIAN SHAKE – Wall Street Journal story: "Troops Open Fire on Syrian Protesters" (March 25, 2011). This article shows how the Syrian regime is shaking after protesters against the government of President Bashar al-Assad were in the streets.
WSJ Journal Comment: "Big mistake! When the troops open fire on protesters they show that a regime is losing its control. Historically, this is the beginning of the falls of the governments pressured by public turmoil."
CHAOTIC YEMEN – Wall Street Journal story: "Yemeni President Nears Deal to Resign" (March 24, 2011). This article talks about the dangerous situation of one of the countries that is strategic in the fight against the terrorism.
WSJ Journal Comment: "After long weeks of turmoil, the Yemen protesters threw down another leader of the Arab world. Will the departure of Ali Abdullah Saleh open the doors to a democratic government like the western countries or similar to the Islamic republics?"
JORDANIAN KING – Wall Street Journal story: "Police in Jordan Intervene in Protest Clashes" (March 24, 2011). This article says the Jordanian king Abdullah II is taking different initiatives to stop the protests against their political system.
WSJ Journal Comment: "In Jordan, what is the real target, the head of the king or the heads of the members of government?"
WSJ Journal Comment: "According to the information distributed by the press about the first trip of President Obama to Latin America, we don't see important achievements. It was only a symbolic visit to a part of the continent without a politically logical itinerary: Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, three countries with very different realities."
RUSSIA IN THE BACKGROUND – Wall Street Journal story: "Russia Lifts Its Energy Profile Amid Crisis" (March 22, 2011). The reports reveals Russian deals offering oil to Japan and trying to open and generate new businesses due to the current energy crisis.
WSJ Journal Comment: "While the allies fighting against Gadhafi will expend their resources in the battle, Russia will increase its revenues, acting in the background."
The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the positive territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 362.07 points or 3.05% to 12220.59. Nasdaq Composite climbed 99.39 points or 3.76% in the same period, to close at 2743.06. Both indexes ended with bigger percentages of growth after two week of negative results.
In summary, during the last few days, the chaos across the Arab world gained again the headlines of newspapers and TV. Meanwhile, the Japanese tragedy continued at the side of the news showing how difficult is to control the radiations from their nuclear plant damaged.
During the week, AT&T announced its intention to buy the T-Mobile US; the software leader Oracle posted excellent quarterly revenues; and RIM - BlackBerry father- showed new problems in its competition against Apple.
On Friday March 25, under NATO protection, the Libyan rebels began their recovery of the cities that the Gadhafi's troops captured during the previous weeks.
On Sunday March 27, in German regional elections, the Green Party shook the government coalition led by the Chancellor Angela Merkel, and showed the first effects of the panic the Japanese nuclear accident across the world. German Green politicians are against the nuclear energy power plants.
Last-minute: The Green Party was second in parliamentary elections of Baden-Württemberg, third in Rhineland Pfalz, and second in the communal elections of Hessen. In the three states, they won positions from other parties.
Baden-Württemberg:
- CDU: 39,0% (-5.2%)
- SPD: 23.1% (-2.1%)
- Green: 24.2% (+12.5%)
- FDP: 5.3%(-5.4%)
Rhineland Pfalz:
- SPD: 35.7% (-9.9%)
- CDU: 35.2% (+2.4%)
- Green: 15.4% (+10.8%)
- FDP: 4.2% (-3.8%)
(Sources: Süddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Germany, 2011/03/29, Pag 6-7)
Best regards,
Domingo
Domingo A. Trassens
Spanish-English Club
Electronic mail: domingo.trassens@gmail.com
URL: http://spaengclub.blogspot.com/
Questions - Preguntas:
1) From your point of view, what was the worst news for the week?
1) Desde vuestro punto de vista, ¿cuál fue la peor noticia de la semana?
2) And what was the best news from the week?
2) ¿Y cuál fue la mejor noticia de la semana?
Vocabulary - Vocabulario:
- ally, allies = aliado, aliados
- airstrikes, air strikes = bombardeo aéreo
- background = fondo (other meaning: "antecedentes")
- battle = batalla
- Brazil, Brazilean= Brasil, brasileño, brasileña
- chaotic = caótico
- Chile, Chilean = Chile, chileno, chilena
- Christians = cristianos (In Germany, CDU)
- coalition = coalición
- command = mando
- deepen = profundizar
- dinosaurs = dinosaurios (In this case: politicians with outdated ideas. In Spanish: "anacrónicos")
- electorate = electorado
- helm = timón
- El Salvador, Salvadorian (or Salvadorean) = El Salvador, salvadoreño, salvadoreña
- fragile = frágil
- garage = garaje
- garage-company = compañía pequeña iniciada en un garaje o pequeño local
- Germany, German = Alemania, alemán, alemana
- Green Party = partido ecologista (In German language: Die Grünen)
- Jordan, Jordanian = Jordania, jordano, jordana
- last-minute = de última hora
- Libya, Libyan = Libia, libio, libia
- outdated = anticuado, fuera de moda
- remove = remover, destituir
- Russia, Russian = Rusia, ruso, rusa
- self-control = autocontrol
- setback = contratiempo, revés
- Socialist = socialista (In Germany, SPD)
- spread = esparcir, diseminar
- start-up = empresa joven
- Syria, Syrian = Siria, sirio, siria
- take, took = tomar, tomó
-Yemen, Yemeni = Yemen, yemenita(or "yemení") (The name "Yemen" is not included in the online dictionary of the Real Academia Española)
SPECIAL VOCABULARY
CDU: Christian Democratic Union (of Germany)
FDP: Free Democratic Party (of Germany)
garage-company: a company created in a garage (or small place) with short resources but innovative ideas like Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and others.
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Playbook: new digital tablet from RIM that will launch to the market on April 19.
RIM: Research In Motion. This a technology company from Canada, father of BlackBerry and Playbook. Since Apple introduced the last versions of iPhone, its revenues declined.
SPD: Social Democratic Party (of Germany)
MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER
Thanks to Bob, Harold, Mary, Stephanie, Steven, and Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.
Zeit für mehr Grün (Time for more green)
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