Weekly Bilingual News

Dear Friends:

Hello! Welcome to the second 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.

On Friday, May 6, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the non-farm payroll employment rose by 244,000 in April. The private sector added 268,000 jobs and the government cut 24,000 positions.

For the other side, the same government organization informed the unemployment rate edged up to 9.0 percent from 8.8 percent on March. Among the major worker groups these were the rates:
- Adult men: 8.8 percent
- Adult women: 7.9 percent
- Teenagers: 24.9 percent
- Whites: 8.0 percent
- Blacks: 16.1 percent
- Hispanics: 11.8 percent
- Asians: 6.4 percent
Like previous months, when the press received the numbers from the US Labor Department, some journalists looked at the statistics with optimism, but others said with these figures, President Obama will have serious problems on the 2012 president elections.

These were our comments posted in the blog of story titled "Job Engine Shifts to Higher Gear" published on Wall Street Journal: "When I analyze the monthly U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, I don't think about the "seat" of the President or about his future at the next presidential election, I feel the pain of the more than 13.7 million of persons who don't have job. Nobody who never lost his/her job can imagine the feelings of the people who had to count their last pennies to survive. For the other side, the government institutions only see the statistics and they don't have the sensitivity to understand the real distance between an unemployment rate of 8.8 and 9.0." (2011/05/08)

OTHER COMMENTS:

NEW WAR TOOLS: Wall Street Journal story: "The SEAL Sensibility". This article revealed important details about the special US commando troops that kill Osama bin Laden and the way they act.
Our Comment: "We cannot defeat terrorists with tanks and classic conventional weapons. The commando operations are the only tools to fight against these bad guys. As victim of the terrorism, I learned that brutality is part of the game from both sides. If you don't kill your enemy, he will kill you." (2011/05/07)

COMPANY'S APOLOGIES: Wall Street Journal story: "Sony CEO Apologizes for Data Breach". This article explains Sony accepted responsibilities for the data breach of its Playstation's Network.
Our Comment: "It is not the first time during the last ten years that a Japanese company commits important mistakes and after that, its CEO apologizes in public. By the way, we have to remember the case of the Sony's batteries that converted different notebooks into "toasters". With expressions as: "We feel very sorry…" they will not repair the damages they provoke." (2011/05/06)

Due to the recent fall of the sales of BlackBerry phones, the Journal Community of WSJ asked to all the members about the smart-phone platforms the users are adopting now.
Our Comment: "From our point of view, in the smart-phone platform, Android is taking a similar role to Windows in the PC platform. For this reason, Research In Motion has to move its BlackBerry to Android or build a strong bridge between its operating system and the Google's operating system before all its efforts go in the trash and its devices to the museum. When we visit technology museums, we find a lot of devices that were magnificent jewels twenty years ago, but today nobody remembers them. It is not possible to stop the evolution of technology..." (2011/05/07)

The main indexes of Wall Street closed the week in the negative territory. Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 171.80 points or 1.34% to 12638.74. Nasdaq Composite fell 45.98 points or 1.60% in the same period, to end at 2827.56. 

In summary, the subject of the week was the US SEAL operation to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. On Friday, the job report for April didn't change the main discussions. Only a small group of observers paid attention about the decline of oil prices under the mark of US$ 100 per barrel.

In the technology industry, the case of Sony and the private information of its Playstation Network was stolen generated a lot of comments and evaluations. According to some sources, the Japanese company was involved in more that one robbery of data from members of the Playstation community.

The political campaigns for the US 2012 presidential elections continued active despite other subjects were in the top of the news. On Thursday evening, in Greenville, S.C, the Republican candidates had their first public debate. During the event, the Former Minnesota Governor, Tim Pawlenty said that President Obama made a good job finding and killing Osama bin Laden.

In the international arena, again Egypt was in the list of the countries with new incidents and deaths for aggressive reactions of Muslims against Christians. Additionally, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen were also in the headlines of the papers.

Meanwhile, the news about Libya and the Col. Gadhafi passed to a second level. Journalists that came from Tripoli during the last few days confirmed the capital is under the threat of gangs that work for the regime. A lot of Libyans flew to other areas and out of the country during the last few months. Nobody has the right to act with freedom and the members of the press know the jails are opened for those who defy the rules of the terror game that thrives in the country. The followers of Gadhafi spy on everybody and every movement of the foreigners and non-sympathizers of the dictator.

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:

- breach = brecha, abrir brecha en
- commnado = comando
- Egypt, Egyptian = Egipto, egipcio, egipcia
- followers = seguidores, partidarios
- gangs = pandillas, bandas - incident, incidents = incidente, incidentes
- Muslim, Muslims = musulmán, musulmana, musulmanes
- nobody= nadie
- operating system = sistema operativo
- Pakistan, Pakistani = Paquistán, paquistaní
- platform = plataforma
- smart-phone, smartphone = teléfono inteligente
- spy = espiar, espian a
- sympathizer, sympathizers = simpatizante, simpatizantes
- threat = amenaza
- toaster = tostadora

MEMBERS AND LIBRARY CORNER

Thanks to Anne, Bob, Erika, Joseph, Lucy, Mary, and Stephanie for your messages about the previous Weekly Bilingual News.
 

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