Weekly Bilingual News

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the first Weekly Bilingual News of May 2011 with our comments posted in important online publications about how the world was running during the last few days.

After a week with controversial and hard news about different subjects, in the nigh of Sunday, the death of the mastermind of the al Qaeda organization topped all the headlines of the seven last days.

Next, you can read our comment posted in the blog of the Wall Street Journal story titled: "Osama Bin Laden Is Dead" and written by Laura Meckler and Adam Entous (May 2, 2011).
Our Comment: "The most important symbol of the world terrorism fell. On May 1st 2011 at 11.35 PM EDT, President Obama interrupted the peaceful hours of a Sunday night to inform that the United States in a special command operation has killed Osama bin Laden. Without any doubt, it is a great news, and the results of huge efforts and the blood of thousands and thousands soldiers and innocent civilians dead or wounded across the world during approximately 10 years. But till now, it is early to measure the effects of the killing of the leader of al Qaeda. We have to hope the extremists of the Muslim countries cannot use the figure of Osama bin Laden as a martyr of the Arab world. After the capture of the dead body of the al Qaeda's leader, the US government has to articulate a strong campaign to disassemble the ideological infrastructure created by the extremist organization who declared a holy war against the western civilization and the Christian countries. The work is not done yet."

DEMOLITION OF LIBYAN REGIME: Wall Street Journal story: "Gadhafi Survives NATO Missile Strike That Killed Son" (2011/05/01) The article explains Moammar Gadhafi survived a missile attack by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren on Saturday.
Our Comment: "The psychological demolition of Gadhafi's regime began. For a dictator with the invulnerability of Col. Gadhafi, the death of his son will become a mortal knock. No cruel man can survive for a long time when in the boxing ring, his blood reduces his sight and distances."

HARD TORNADO SEASON: Wall Street Journal story: "South Settles Into Slow Rhythm of Recovery" (2011/05/01). The article comments the slow recovery from the first strong tornado that hit different cities of Alabama and other states of the south.
Our Comment: "Tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes show us how small we are against natural disasters. Despite the advances of technology and the techniques to prevent natural catastrophes, the human beings are quasi-impotent against the fury of Nature."

TANKS IN SYRIAN STREETS: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the critical political situation in Syria: Will anti-government protests in Syria succeed in overturning President Assad's regime? (2011/04/30)
Our Comment: Again Syria is re-entering the big political scene with military actions, but in these circumstances some of the protagonists are different from before. Now Syria is not fighting against Israel or helping to a political faction in Lebanon. The recent news shows how the regime is trying to deal with the protests of its own people. We don't have enough experience to know about the ability of Bashar al-Assad to survive anti-government protests successfully. But from our perspective, the Syrian leader made a huge mistake sending tanks and armored vehicles to kill Syrian citizens. Maybe, the regime will stop the current protests, but in the end, Bashar al-Assad will fall in the grave of his martyrs. The History teaches us that the political leaders who use guns against the sons of their own nations, they drown in the blood of the heroes of the protests.

BRITISH ROYAL WEDDING: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the marriage between Prince William and Kate Middleton: What do you think of the royal wedding dress worn by Kate Middleton? (2011/04/29)
Our Comment: "We are not an expert in royal weddings. For this reason, maybe our opinion is not valuable. Personally, we liked the dress of Kate Middleton. The ceremony and the couple reminded us the reading of the fairy tales of our childhood."

SONY IN THE TARGET: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the hacker attack suffered by the Playstation Network: Have you been affected by Sony's Playstation Network hacker attack? According to the own Sony Corp's press office, a hacker has obtained customer information, including credit-card numbers from 77 million members of its online PlayStation Network. (2011/04/29)
Our Comment: "We had not been affected by the hacker attack, but we always thought the online PlayStation Network could be a risky environment because the "devils" always look for crowds when they are enjoying any amusement."

OFFSHORE DRILLING: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about different initiatives to increase the own oil production in the country: What steps should Congress take to lower gas prices? (2011/04/29)
Our Comment: "From my point of view, the Congress has to take all the necessary steps to help in the expansion of the offshore drilling."

FIRST FED PRESS CONFERENCE: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the first press conference of the Federal Reserve chairman: How would you grade Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's first press conference? (2011/04/28)
Our Comment: Ben Bernanke is economist, professor at Princeton University, and Chairman of the Federal Reserve of two different White House administrations (Republican and Democrat). Of course, for his current role, he is involved in the politics of the country in connection with economic issues but his career is not political. If you read the biography of Mr. Bernanke, you don't find a relevant political background in his career. The economists have their own political orientations but they are not politicians withintheir profession. (By the way, Ben Bernanke according to his public biography is Republican.) We have to remark that the economy like education, security and defense are very important matters of the nation but subordinated to politics.The function of the Fed Chairman is mainly technical. For this reason, we have to judge Mr. Bernanke for the way that he manages his technical obligations, and not for his political profile."

PRESIDENT'S BIRTH CERTIFICATE: Journal Community of WSJ posted the following question about the birth certificate of President Barack Obama: Does the release of President Obama's birth certificate settle questions about his citizenship? The document released said Mr. Obama was born at 7:24 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu. (2011/04/27)
Our Comment: "Probably we think very different to the majority of the political observers, but today it is not a main issue in the discussion about whether President Obama is really American by birth or not. He is right now the President. Maybe before he arrived at the White House, all the voters had to ask for his birth certificate. Personally we think it is a good idea that every new presidential candidate shows his/her birth certificate before he/she has the chance to arrive to the White House. About the President Obama we have other subjects to discuss before the 2012's voting. Now to talk about the President Obama's birth certificate is only a distraction more with respect to more important issues about his leadership of the country."

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the positive territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 304.55 points or 2.44% to 12810.54. Nasdaq Composite gained 26.23 points or 1.96% in the same period, to end at 2873.54. Both indexes closed April 2011 with higher values than the previous month of March.

In summary, after the celebration of Easter, in the United States and in the world, the journalists had a lot of work. More of the news came from the Arab countries including Morocco, Libya, Yemen, and Syria.

In the technology industry, key protagonists continued reporting the results of the first three months of 2011 with diverse figures. Research In Motion showed the sales of its smart-phones BlackBerry were weaker than before during the last quarter. In other news, Sony had to recognized private information of its Playstation Network was stolen.

The political campaigns for the US 2012 presidential elections produced the first important debate about the identity of President Obama. Mr. Donald Trump - one of the potential Republican presidential candidates - put a question mark about if the President was born in United States, Kenya, or other country. After that, the White House released a copy of the birth certificate of Mr. Barack Obama issued in Hawaii.

On Friday, President Obama visited some areas of Alabama that suffered a lot of damages and deaths due to the first important tornado storm of the 2011 season. Nobody knows till now how many persons died because there is debris everywhere in the area affected.

On Saturday, the press agencies confirmed that Libyan leader Col. Gadhafi survived the NATO missile attack that killed one of his sons and other members of his family. Meanwhile, Tripoli, the capital of Libya, continues under the total control of the groups of followers of the regime.

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:
 
- Arab = árabe
- attrition = agotamiento, guerra de agotamiento
- birth certificate = partida de nacimiento, certificado de nacimiento
- blood = sangre
- boxing ring = cuadrilátero
- citizenship = ciudadanía
- demolition = demolición, derribo
- devils = demonios, diablos
- disassemble = desmontar
- dress = vestido, ropa
- drilling = perforación
- drown = ahogar
- fairy tale = cuento de hadas
- fury = furia
- grade = clasificar
- grave = tumba
- hurricane, hurricanes = huracán, huracanes
- holy = santo, santa, sagrado
- Lebanon, Lebanese = Líbano, libanés, libanesa
- manhunt = persecución
- martyr, martyrs= mártir, mártires
- mastermind = mente, figura principal, inteligencia
- missile = mísil, proyectil
- Morocco, Moroccan = Marruecos, marroquí (m/f)
- offshore = costero, costera
- psychological = psicológico, psicológica
- raid = incursión, asalto
- recovery = rescate
- rhythm = ritmo
- royal = real
- settle = resolver
- son = hijo
- steal, stole, stolen = robar, robó, robado
- survive = sobrevivir
- Syria, Syrian = Siria, sirio, siria
- theft = robo
- tornado, tornadoes = tornado, tornados
- wedding = boda, casamiento
- worn = usado
 
MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER
 
Thanks to Bob, Erika, Frank, John, Mary, Paul and Suzanne for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.
 

According to press sources, United States killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad during a comando operation. Abbottabad is city of Pakistan located at 31 miles (50 kilometers) northeast from Islamabad, capital of this country of South Asia.