Marriage: Instead of 'I Do,' More Americans Say 'Let's

Wait'
  22 May 2011

Photo: AP

Women shop for wedding dresses during the "Running of the Brides" at Filene's Basement in
New York. The yearly event offers hundreds of bridal gowns at reduced prices.

<

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith
Lapidus.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty. This week on our program, we talk about couples and
relationships.

(MUSIC: Pachelbel's Canon)

FAITH LAPIDUS: What do traditional American weddings look like? Well, in some ways, they
look like smaller versions of last month's wedding of Kate Middleton and Prince William in
London.

The bride traditionally wears a long white dress and the groom might wear a uniform if he is in
the military. Otherwise he usually wears a tuxedo or suit. A member of the clergy usually leads
the ceremony, and the bride and groom exchange rings and vows.
But getting married is not the only way some American couples choose to declare their love.

(MUSIC: "White Wedding"/Billy Idol)

ELLEN: "Maybe we will get married someday. Maybe we'll get matching tattoos someday. But
at this point it's just a party."

BOB DOUGHTY: Ellen and her boyfriend, Doug, have been a couple for more than eleven
years. They own a house together in northern California. This spring, Ellen and Doug decided to
celebrate their relationship. They invited one hundred and thirty friends to a party. Ellen wore a
big pink gown. Doug came dressed as a red, ripe strawberry.

Everyone ate a nice dinner outdoors, then went inside to dance. Ellen and Doug did not read
vows or exchange rings -- there was no ceremony, no kiss, no wedding.

ELLEN: "We feel like we are together. This didn't really need to be confirmed at this point in our
relationship. But we did want to have a party and celebrate it. But it was definitely confusing for
other folks, I think, just because they hold specific expectations culturally and socially about
marriage."

Some of the guests were not sure what to think of Ellen and Doug's celebration -- or even how to
describe it. Some found it easier to tell other people that they were going to a wedding. That way
they did not have to take the time to explain.

So what did Ellen's family think of this untraditional celebration? This is her aunt.

ELLEN'S AUNT: "I actually don't know what to say about it. I was quite surprised first of all
and was trying to find out from Ellen for the longest time what this was about."

This is Ellen's godfather.

ELLEN'S GODFATHER: "As long as two people care about each other, love each other,
whether they want to get married or not, as long as they don't hurt anyone else, and they love
each other, it's not up to us to judge them, really."

And this is Ellen's father. What did he think of the whole situation?

ELLEN'S FATHER: "I want a grandchild. I'll be seventy in July, and I just -- whether they get
married or not, I want a grandchild."

(MUSIC: "My Sharona"/The Knack)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Last year's national census counted more than six million unmarried couples
in the United States who were living together. That was a thirteen percent increase from the last
census in two thousand.
 Experts say more Americans are choosing to wait to get
married, or not to get married at all

Americans have been waiting longer to get married. The Census Bureau estimates that in
eighteen ninety, half of all women who got married for the first time were twenty-two or
younger. For men the median age -- meaning half were younger and half were older -- was
twenty-six. By last year, however, the median age for women was twenty-six, and for men it was
twenty-eight.

A new Census Bureau report shows that twenty-five years ago, one in four women age twenty-
five to twenty-nine had never been married. In two thousand nine that number was close to half.

BOB DOUGHTY: There are different reasons why people wait to get married. They may want to
first complete their education or establish a career or gain financial security. Or they may have
just not found the right person.

But experts say more and more Americans have simply chosen not to get married or at least not
to take that step too quickly.

The Alternatives to Marriage Project is a nonprofit organization based in Brooklyn, New York. It
works for equality and fairness for unmarried people, including people who are single or live
together before marriage.

Nicky Grist is the director of the Alternatives to Marriage Project. She says young couples might
live together to save money or because they are trying to decide whether to get married.

And some couples -- like Ellen and Doug -- just might not think marriage is right for them.

(MUSIC: "Got Your Back"/Matt the Electrician)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Another organization, the National Marriage Project at the University of
Virginia, works to support marriage. The director is Bradford Wilcox, a sociology professor. He
points out that couples who have good incomes and college degrees tend to be married,
especially if they have children.
But Mr. Wilcox says many young adults decide not to get married because they have seen their
parents or their friends get divorced. As a result, they may not have much hope that a marriage
will last.

(MUSIC: "Use Somebody"/Kings of Leon)

BOB DOUGHTY: Nicky Grist at the Alternatives to Marriage Project says whether two people
are married is not important. What is important, she says, is that they take care of each other and
depend on each other.

NICKY GRIST: "What we're seeing are increasing numbers of very stable, long-term non-
married relationships, and that includes both romantic relationships and also other kinds of
relationships where people are simply committed to caring for one another, whether as friends or
as extended family. And what we see is that caring goes beyond the one kind of relationship
called marriage. And it's really caring that society should support."

But most employers, for example, offer health insurance to a worker's partner only if the couple
is married. Unmarried couples may also pay more taxes. And if one person dies, the other person
may have a difficult time claiming the couple's money or property.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Brad Wilcox at the National Marriage Project says marriage creates a more
stable life than living together. As a result, he says, having married parents is better for children.

BRAD WILCOX: "You can't treat cohabitation like marriage because they're fundamentally
different realities. Cohabitation offers people a lot more flexibility and freedom, but that's the
downside of it too, looking at it from a more relational -- and particularly from a child's --
perspective."

BOB DOUGHTY: In recent years several American states and the District of Columbia have
made same-sex marriage legal. But in nineteen ninety-six Congress passed the Defense of
Marriage Act, or DOMA. For federal purposes it defines marriage as the legal union between a
man and a woman. President Bill Clinton signed it into law.

In February of this year, however, President Obama told the Justice Department to stop
defending the law in court. He says it violates the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment says
states may not deny anyone the equal protection of the laws. In other words, states cannot give a
right to some people but not to others.

President Obama says DOMA discriminates. But the law remains in place. The courts are still
debating how to handle this law and the issue of same-sex marriage.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Not all of the issues that face unmarried couples or same-sex couples involve
debates over laws, morality or social policy. One question that many couples find difficult to
answer is simply what to call each other.
BOB DOUGHTY: n the United States, the tradition has been that a wife takes her husband's last
name in place of her own. But many women now add their husband's name or keep their own
name. Some couples come up with a new combination for themselves or their children.

Meg Keene started the blog A Practical Wedding. Ms. Keene says one of the hottest topics on
her blog is whether women should take their husband's last name. Ms. Keene has been married
for more than three years but has still not decided what to do about her own name.

MEG KEENE: "I had my name for almost thirty years by the time I got married. I'm going to be
a published author under my name. I'm very tied to it. It's an ongoing negotiation."

(MUSIC: "That's Not My Name"/The Ting Tings)

Is NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope a Time Machine?

  20 May 2011

Photo: NASA

An artist's picture of what the James Webb Space Telescope will look like in orbit

<

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

If you could build a time machine, what would it look like? Maybe, it should look like a
telescope. American scientists are building a space telescope, they hope, will look back over
unimaginable distances and time to show the universe close to its beginning.
But this distant past will mainly be seen in infrared light. Visible light is just one form of
radiation. Today, telescopes take pictures using forms of light hidden from the human eye.

The American space agency, NASA, is now building the largest space telescope ever. The James
Webb Space Telescope, named after NASA’s second director, will have a mirror seven times the
size of the Hubble Space Telescope.

But it will mainly study the universe in infrared light. We usually experience infrared light as
heat. But, if you have ever used a TV remote control, you know there are many uses for it.

The James Webb Space Telescope is a complex engineering project. It will be huge -- about the
size of a passenger jet. And it will have to be super-cooled. Because the telescope studies
infrared heat, its mirror must be kept very close to absolute zero. That is minus two hundred
seventy-three degrees Celsius.

NASA is building the Webb telescope at the Goddard Space Center, outside Washington, DC.
The agency hopes to launch it in twenty-fourteen.

NASA

The "clean room" where scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Center near Washington

Jonathan Gardner is a project scientist for the telescope. We asked him how the device can look
back in time.

JONATHAN GARDNER: “We can see back in time because light takes time to get from there to
here. So, as we look further and further away, it takes longer and longer for the light to get from
where it’s emitted to here and we can actually see backwards in time.

And if you look far enough, you start to approach the event scientists believe gave birth to
everything.
JONATHAN GARDNER: “We’re looking at the universe when it was much younger and we’re
looking back most of the way to the Big Bang.”

The telescope has three highly sensitive infrared cameras. But perhaps its most interesting part is
the 6.5-meter-wide mirror. Made of lightweight beryllium, the mirror is covered in gold, and
divided into eighteen linked parts.

This powerful scientific instrument will be available to scientists all over the world.

JONATHAN GARDNER: “Any astronomer, at any university, in any country can write a
proposal for what they want to do with the telescope.”

Jonathan Gardner says the Jim Webb Space Telescope will help scientists learn how the first
galaxies formed and what they looked like. It may even show things scientists never predicted.

American History: Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor Pulls

US Into War
 19 May 2011

Photo: AP

The USS California after being struck by a torpedo and a bomb during the Japanese attack on
Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941

<
STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA
Special English. I’m Steve Ember.

(MUSIC)

History is usually a process of slow change. However, certain events also can change the course
of history. Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo was such an event. So was the first airplane flight by
the Wright brothers. Or the meeting between the Spanish explorer Cortez and the Aztec king
Montezuma.

All these events were moments that changed history. And so it was, too, with the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor on December seventh, nineteen forty-one.

(SOUND)

NEWS BULLETIN: "We interrupt this program to bring you a special news bulletin. The
Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, by air, President Roosevelt has just announced.
The attack also was made on all naval and military facilities on the principal island of Oahu.

"We take you now to Washington. The details are not available. They will be in a few minutes.
The White house is now giving out a statement. The attack was apparently made on all naval and
military activities on the principal island of Oahu.

"The president’s brief statement was read to reporters by Stephen Early, the president’s
secretary. A Japanese attack upon Pearl Harbor naturally would mean war. Such an attack would
naturally bring a counterattack. And hostilities of this kind would naturally mean that the
president would ask Congress for a declaration of war."

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER:The surprise attack on America's large naval base in Hawaii was a great
military success for Japan. However, the attack on Pearl Harbor had more than a military
meaning.

The attack would force Americans to enter World War Two. More importantly, it would also
make them better recognize their position as one of the most powerful nations in the world.

In future weeks, we will discuss the military and political events of World War Two. But today,
we look back at the years before the United States entered that war.

The period between the end of World War One and the attack on Pearl Harbor lasted only
twenty-three years, from nineteen eighteen to nineteen forty-one. But those years were filled
with important changes in American politics, culture and traditions.

We start our review of these years with politics.

(MUSIC)

In nineteen twenty, Americans elected Republican Warren Harding to the presidency. The voters
were tired of the progressive policies of Democratic president Woodrow Wilson. They were
especially tired of Wilson's desire for the United States to play an active role in the new League
of Nations.

Harding was a conservative Republican. And so were the two presidents who followed him,
Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

All three of these presidents generally followed conservative economic policies. And they did
not take an active part in world affairs.

Americans turned away from Republican rule in the election of nineteen thirty-two. They elected
the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And they continued to re-
elect him. In this way, the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen twenties changed to
the more progressive policies of Roosevelt in the nineteen thirties.

This change happened mainly because of economic troubles.

(MUSIC)

The nineteen twenties were a time of growth and business strength.

President Calvin Coolidge said during his term that the "chief business of the American people is
business." This generally was the same belief of the other Republican presidents during the
period, Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover.

There was a good reason for this. The economy expanded greatly during the nineteen twenties.
Many Americans made a great deal of money on the stock market. And wages for workers
increased as well.

(MUSIC)

However, economic growth ended suddenly with the stock market crash of October nineteen
twenty-nine.

In that month, the stocks for many leading companies fell sharply. And they continued to fall in
the months that followed. Many Americans lost great amounts of money. And the public at large
lost faith in the economy. Soon, the economy was in ruins, and businesses were closing their
doors.

President Hoover tried to solve the crisis. But he was not willing to take the strong actions that
were needed to end it. As time passed, many Americans began to blame Hoover for the terrible
economic depression.
Democrat Franklin Roosevelt was elected mainly because he promised to try new solutions to
end the Great Depression.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: "This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and
will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear
itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert
retreat into advance."

STEVE EMBER:Soon after he was elected, Roosevelt launched a number of imaginative

economic policies to solve the crisis.

FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT: "Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no
unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by
direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a
war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to
stimulate and reorganize the use of our great natural resources.

"Hand in hand with that, we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our
industrial centers. And by engaging, on a national scale, in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a
better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. Yes, the task can be helped by definite
efforts to raise the values of agricultural products, and with this, the power to purchase the output
of our cities.

"It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure
of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the federal, the state, and
the local governments act forthwith on the demands that their costs be drastically reduced."

STEVE EMBER: Roosevelt's policies helped to reduce the amount of human suffering. But the
Great Depression finally ended only with America's entry into World War Two.

Roosevelt's victory in nineteen thirty-two also helped change the balance of power in American
politics. Roosevelt brought new kinds of Americans to positions of power: Labor union leaders.
Roman Catholics. Jews. Blacks. Americans from families that had come from places such as
Italy, Ireland and Russia.

These Americans repaid Roosevelt by giving the Democratic Party their votes.

The nineteen twenties and thirties also brought basic changes in how Americans dealt with many
of their social and economic problems.

The nineteen twenties generally were a period of economic growth with little government
intervention in the day-to-day lives of the people. But the terrible conditions of the Great
Depression during the nineteen thirties forced Roosevelt and the federal government to
experiment with new policies.
The government began to take an active role in offering relief to the poor. It started programs to
give food and money to poor people. And it created jobs for workers.

The government grew in other ways. It created major programs for farmers. It set regulations for
the stock market. It built dams, roads and airports.

American government looked much different at the end of this period between the world wars
than it did at the beginning. Government had become larger and more important. It dealt with
many more issues in people's lives than it ever had before.

(MUSIC)

Social protest increased during the nineteen twenties and thirties. Some black Americans began
to speak out more actively about unfair laws and customs. Blacks in great numbers moved from
the southern part of the country to northern and central cities.

The nineteen twenties and thirties also were a time of change for women. Women began to wear
less conservative kinds of clothes. Washing machines and other inventions allowed them to
spend less time doing housework. Women could smoke or drink in public, at least in large cities.
And many women held jobs.

Of course, the women's movement was not new. Long years of work by such women's leaders as
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony had helped women win the constitutional right to
vote in nineteen twenty.

(MUSIC)

The nineteen twenties and thirties also were important periods in the arts.

George Gershwin wrote his “Rhapsody in Blue” originally for piano and jazz band. It later went
on to become a symphony concert favorite.

loc.gov
George Gershwin

Writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Eugene O'Neill and others made this
what many called the "Golden Age" of American writing. Frank Lloyd Wright and other
architects designed great buildings. Film actors like Clark Gable, and radio entertainers like Jack
Benny did more than make Americans laugh or cry. They also helped unite the country. Millions
of Americans could watch or listen to the same show at the same time.

Politics. The economy. Social traditions. Art. All these changed for Americans during the
nineteen twenties and thirties. And many of these changes also had effects in countries beyond
America's borders.

However, the change that had the most meaning for the rest of the world was the change
produced by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

America's modern history as a great superpower begins with its reaction to that attack. It was a
sudden event in the flow of history. It was a day on which a young land suddenly became fully
grown.

US Schools Under Pressure to Deal With Sexual Violence

 19 May 2011

Photo: AP

Vice President Joe Biden and Education Secretary Arne Duncan, in background, last month at
the University of New Hampshire

<
This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

Federal officials in the United States are telling schools that they need to do a better job of
preventing sexual violence and helping victims.

The Obama administration has released the first guidance on how schools should deal with the
problem under a nineteen seventy-two law. That law is known as Title Nine. It bars
discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program or activity receiving federal financial
assistance.

The Department of Education says sexual violence is a form of sexual harassment of students
which violates Title Nine.

Last month, Vice President Joe Biden joined Education Secretary Arne Duncan at the University
of New Hampshire to announce the new efforts. Secretary Duncan says the problem has not
received enough attention.

ARNE DUNCAN: "Sexual violence is one of those issues we all wish didn’t exist. And too
often, our society has chosen to ignore it, rather than confronting it openly and honestly. And
that denial must end. Every school would like to believe it's immune from sexual violence, but
the facts suggest otherwise."

A study found that one in five women is sexually assaulted while in college. About six percent of
male college students say they have also been victims.

Mr. Duncan said that by some estimates, more than one in ten high school girls are physically
forced to have sex in or out of school. He said the numbers are probably low because many sex
crimes are never reported.

In one recent school year, public schools reported eight hundred rapes or attempted rapes and
almost four thousand other cases of sexual violence.

The Education Department has written a nineteen-page letter to all school systems, colleges and
universities that accept federal money. It explains requirements for them under Title Nine in
dealing with sexual violence. These include making sure victims know their rights and are kept
informed about the progress of the investigation. Schools must also protect victims from suspects
who may still be in school with them.

Secretary Duncan says police and prosecutors have their job to do, but schools also share
responsibility under federal civil rights laws. Investigations of sexual violence often take too
long, he says, and the victims are not taken seriously. Victims are more likely to do poorly in
school, get depressed and abuse drugs and alcohol.

Who Should Be the Next Chief of the IMF?

Catherine Weaver 19 May 2011

Photo: AP

Dominique Strauss-Kahn with his lawyer Benjamin Brafman in a court in New York City
Monday. ,

<

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

The International Monetary Fund will need to find a new leader. Dominique Strauss-Kahn has
resigned as managing director. Mr. Strauss-Kahn is charged with a sexual attack on a cleaning
woman at a New York hotel last Saturday. He said in a resignation letter released Thursday by
the IMF that he denies the charges "with the greatest possible firmness."

His fall has especially shocked Europe. The IMF is currently playing a major part in rescue loans
to Greece, Ireland and Portugal. European nations have increasingly depended on the fund to
help them in their recent struggles with debt.

The IMF and the World Bank grew out of an international conference held in the United States
in nineteen forty-four. They were created as ways to support economic cooperation and
development.

Both are both based in Washington. The World Bank has traditionally been led by an American
and the IMF by a European.
But fast-growing economies in the developing world say it is time for a change. Officials from
Brazil, China and India say Mr. Strauss-Kahn's replacement should come from outside Europe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, leader of Europe's biggest economy, disagrees.

ANGELA MERKEL: "In the present situation, when we have significant problems with the euro
and the IMF is very much involved there, there should be a European candidate with support
from the international community."

The main job of the IMF is to help make sure payments flow smoothly between nations.
Sometimes this means providing loans so governments can meet debt payments.

The money it lends comes mostly from "quotas" -- financial promises made by its members. One
hundred eighty-seven nations belong to the IMF. The lender currently has about two hundred
fifty billion dollars in approved loans. Most of these loans have not yet been used, or drawn
down.

What effect the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn will have is unclear. He was praised as a
skillful negotiator in dealing with Europe and the global financial crisis.

STEPHANIE RICKARD: "But the actual negotiations of the loan conditions on the ground is
done by technocratic economists, staff members at the IMF, and they’re going to continue to do
their job."

Stephanie Rickard is an expert on the IMF and World Bank at the London School of Economics.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn became managing director in two thousand seven. The Frenchman
widely known as DSK is a member of France's Socialist party. Before his arrest, he was
considered a leading candidate for France's presidential election next year.

Bicycling Brothers Search America for Community Spirit

  19 May 2011
Photo: Mike Belleme

Photo provided by Noah and Tim Hussin

<

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. On our program this week, we play new music from Moby…

And we answer questions about getting a green card.

But, first, we take a road trip with two bicycling brothers who are searching for community spirit
in America.

(MUSIC)

America Recycled

DOUG JOHNSON: Two American brothers are riding bicycles across the country in search of
community. The brothers are documenting their experience through a blog, photographs and
videos. And they say what they are finding is a desire for a return to community roots. Faith
Lapidus has our story.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Noah and Tim Hussin have been on the road for more than six months. The
brothers left the city of Asheville, North Carolina in early November. They have traveled more
than sixteen hundred kilometers since then.

Noah lived overseas for three years. When he returned, he wanted to explore the United States.

Noah’s brother, Tim, is a photographer and filmmaker. He also loves riding bicycles. He saw a
chance to combine those interests and create something with his brother.

Since November, the Hussins have met Americans living in eco-villages, where people share
values and responsibility in caring for the environment. The brothers have also met people
working a city farm and those operating sustainable businesses.

Tim Hussin makes clear that he and his brother are really sharing in the lives of the people they
meet.

TIM HUSSIN: “You know, it’s not like we are staying nearby in a hotel or something, and just
visiting every day or every other day. We are actually sleeping in their houses and eating
breakfast with them. So, we have very much become a part of whatever we are documenting.”

Noah says their trip began at a bicycle cooperative in Asheville. Co-op members make bicycles
from used parts.

NOAH HUSSIN: “We discovered this bicycle co-op. You can come in there and just sort
through a whole garage of old parts and they’ll teach you how to basically build a bicycle from
the scraps.”

The Hussin brothers made a video at the bicycle co-op. They wanted to show how some
Americans are turning away from years of globalization. Noah Hussin says this happening all
across the United States.

NOAH HUSSIN: “Small communities are falling apart, whether it’s towns that are losing their
industry or whether it’s just people choosing the life in suburbs where there isn’t the cultural
infrastructure to bring people together. We sense that a lot of people are kind of starting to
lament that loss of community in this country.”

The first stop for the brothers was at an urban homestead. This is a place where the people who
live there produce everything they need themselves. The Hussins made a short film about the
place. The homesteaders talk about how their way of life gives them a chance to follow their
creative interests, like music, sewing, cooking or building.

(NAT SOUND)

“Small community living has been lost in America. Families are much more isolated. Individuals
are much more isolated. And I do think a lot is lost.”
“People living sad lonely existences. Why do we have to do that to ourselves? We don’t.”

Tim Hussin says this North Carolina community is not alone.

TIM HUSSIN: “We have found there are a lot of people creating spaces for people to live the
lives they want to lead and not the lives they’ve been taught they should lead.”

The Hussin brothers are attempting to live sustainably during their travels. Noah Hussin says the
people at the urban homestead taught them how to find food instead of buying it. Tim said there
is plenty of free food out there if you know where to look.

TIM HUSSIN: “It blows my mind how much food grocery stores throw away.”

Tim Hussin says he and his brother are discovering ways of living that are very different from
how they were raised in Florida.

TIM HUSSIN: “There are a lot of interesting communities that I had no idea existed. And a lot
of people that are really passionate about changing the way that we live. It’s really exciting and
inspiring to see all these communities working individually but also together as part of a larger
movement.”

You can cyber travel with Tim and Noah Hussin at their web site America Recycled. A link can
be found on our website, voaspecialenglish.com.

(MUSIC)

Getting a Green Card

DOUG JOHNSON: Our question this week comes from two listeners. One in Mongolia and
another in Nigeria want to know how to get a “green card” from the United States government.

A green card is an official document identifying a person as a permanent resident of the United
States. It does not give citizenship to the card holder but permits him or her to live and work
legally in the country.

There are many ways to get a green card and the process can take several years. One common
way is through family members who have American citizenship. The United States gives special
consideration to husbands, wives, children and parents of American citizens.
 Example of a green card

Green card holders can also nominate their husbands, wives and children for green cards.

A foreign citizen who has been offered a job in the United States can request a green card. The
employer would serve as sponsor in that case.

There are also green card qualifiers for some non-citizens who invest in America, for refugees
and asylum seekers.

Still all these paths leave out many people who want a green card. So, each year the United
States carries out a lottery that provides about fifty thousand green cards to lucky winners. The
official name of the lottery is the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program. It is meant to welcome
more people from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

The Department of State holds the lottery through its Kentucky Consular Center. Those
interested can enter by completing a form and sending it in.

There are about twenty countries whose citizens are not permitted to take part in the green card
lottery program. These include Canada, India, Pakistan and mainland China. Several Latin
American countries are also barred. The lottery is open to all of Africa and Europe except for
Poland and Britain.

There are also education and employment requirements.

About fifteen million people entered the lottery last year. But, the system proved itself to be far
from perfect. At the beginning of May, American officials informed twenty-two thousand people
that they had won the chance for a visa. Last Friday, however, the State Department said it was
cancelling the results because of a computer problem.

The State Department now says the computer programming problem has been corrected.  David
Donahue supervises the Immigrant Diversity Program. He expressed regret for the incident. He
said the results from a new drawing will be announced July fifteenth.
There are dishonest businesses that claim to be connected to the green card lottery. These
operations, often found on the Internet, try to get money from people seeking a visa. The State
Department website says no money is necessary to take part in the lottery program. It says if a
cost is given, then the business requesting money is not connected to the Immigrant Diversity
Program and should be avoided.

(MUSIC)

Moby

DOUG JOHNSON:

The electronic musician Moby has a new album. He wrote the songs while he was traveling and
performing around the world. Moby has also published a book of photography to go along with
the music on the album. He says both the pictures and the music are based on the many late
nights he spent alone on tour in foreign cities. Moby's new album is called "Destroyed," and
Mario Ritter tells us more about it.

(MUSIC)

MARIO RITTER: That was a song called “The Low Hum,” sung by Emily Zuzik. The sound is
like most of the songs on “Destroyed” -- dreamy, sad and far-away.

Moby says this album was created on sleepless nights when he felt like the only person still
awake in the cities where he stayed. He says feeling so alone was strange, but also comforting.
Here is a song called “After.”

(MUSIC)

Moby's book of photos is also called “Destroyed.” The images show what life is like for a
performer living on the road.

We leave you with Moby singing a song from his latest album. The song is called “The Day.”
Obama, in Mideast Speech, Supports Palestinian Demand
  20 May 2011

Photo: AP

President Obama giving his speech on Middle East policy at the State Department in
Washington, Thursday.

<

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

President Obama discussed the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa in a speech
Thursday in Washington.

BARACK OBAMA: "We support political and economic reform in the Middle East and North
Africa that can meet the legitimate aspirations of ordinary people throughout the region. Our
support for these principles is not a secondary interest. Today I want to make it clear that it is a
top priority that must be translated into concrete actions and supported by all of the diplomatic,
economic and strategic tools at our disposal."

The president announced new aid to help democracy efforts in Egypt and Tunisia. The leaders of
both countries were overthrown earlier this year.

And Mister Obama strongly condemned Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad.

BARACK OBAMA: "President Assad now has a choice: he can lead that transition, or get out of
the way. The Syrian government must stop shooting demonstrators and allow peaceful protests.
It must release political prisoners and stop unjust arrests. It must allow human rights monitors to
have access to cities like Dara'a, and start a serious dialogue to advance a democratic transition."

Mr. Obama linked the protests in the Arab world to unmet economic needs.

BARACK OBAMA: "After all, politics alone has not put protesters into the streets. The tipping
point for so many people is the more constant concern of putting food on the table and providing
for a family.  Too many in the region wake up with few expectations other than making it
through the day, and perhaps the hope that their luck will change."

The president also said he disagrees with people who argue that moving forward on a Middle
East peace plan is not possible now because of all the change taking place. In his words, "the
drive for a lasting peace that ends the conflict and resolves all claims is more urgent than ever."

Mr. Obama gave his support to a major Palestinian demand. He said the borders of Israel and a
future Palestine should be based on lines that existed before the nineteen sixty-seven Middle East
war. Israel captured areas including the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip during the
Six-Day War with Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

Mr. Obama said there should be conditions that would involve land exchanges between Israel
and the Palestinians.

BARACK OBAMA: "The United States believes that negotiations should result in two states,
with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders
with Palestine. We believe the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the nineteen
sixty-seven lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognized borders are
established for both states."

On Friday, President Obama met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White
House. Mr. Netanyahu said he values Mr. Obama's efforts and that Israel is willing to make
"generous compromises for peace." But he said Israel cannot go back to the nineteen sixty-seven
lines.

Those lines, he said, are "indefensible." He says an Israeli withdrawal from some of the areas
gained during the Six-Day War would leave major Jewish settlements in the West Bank outside
of Israel.

Hanna Siniora is a member of the Palestine National Council from East Jerusalem. He praised
Mr. Obama for talking in detail about borders, saying it was an important point for the
Palestinians.

HANNA SINIORA: "We heard all American administrations talk about unshakeable security for
Israel. We are not against security for Israel, but we are asking at the same time for security for
the Palestinians, and this can only happen if the border between the two states is defined."
Fourteen Scientists and Activists Who are Changing the
World
  24 May 2011

Photo: National Geographic Society

Planetary Scientist and Astrobiologist, Kevin Hand

<

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special
English. Every year, the National Geographic Society honors scientists, wildlife experts and
others for their work. Each honoree receives a ten thousand dollar award to help them with their
research and future projects. This week we learn about the latest National Geographic Emerging
Explorers.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: One of the honorees is searching for life in faraway places.

KEVIN HAND: “The big picture for me and many of my colleagues is the search for life beyond
Earth. So if we’ve learned anything about life here on Earth, it’s that in general where you find
the liquid water, you find life.”
STEVE EMBER: That is Kevin Hand, a planetary scientist and astrobiologist who works at the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. This lab works with the American space agency on
projects including looking for life in outer space. Kevin Hand is assiting with plans to send an
orbital device to Europa, a moon of the planet Jupiter. Space agency officials hope to launch the
device in about twenty-twenty.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Europa is covered in ice. Under the ice are deep oceans, which could be
home to living organisms.  However, this moon is not easy to explore. Depending on its orbit,
Europa can be over nine hundred million kilometers from Earth. Its environment is freezing, with
intense radiation and no atmosphere.

NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Jupiter's moon Europa has a surface made up of blocks, which are thought to have broken apart
into new positions, as shown in the image on the left.

KEVIN HAND: “And when it comes to actually searching for this life, that’s a great challenge.
We send these robots off as our little planetary emissaries to go and do the science. These robots
basically have to take the scientific laboratory with them so they can do the experiments and
chemical analysis on the planets.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Kevin Hand and coworker Robert Carlson have recreated an environment
like Europa in a laboratory to study its conditions. Mister Hand also has visited extreme places
on Earth to see how organisms survive in cold climates. This could help experts know what to
look for when looking for possible life forms on Europa.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: The work of several Emerging Explorers aims to improve the lives of people
in different ways. Juan Martinez grew up in poverty in the city of Los Angeles. In high school,
he won a trip to learn about nature in the Teton Science Schools program in Wyoming. He says
experiencing the wilderness and mountains changed his life.

Today, Mister Martinez campaigns to get young people, especially at-risk youth, interested in
nature and the outdoors. He works with groups like the Sierra Club to get young people
interested in the environment. And, he heads the Natural Leaders Network of the Children and
Nature Network. The group creates links between environmental organizations, businesses,
government and individuals to connect children with nature.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Jennifer Burney is an environmental scientist. She has studied links
between climate change, food production and food security. She is especially interested in how
people can use new technologies to create a better, more sustainable food system.

One of her projects is in northern Benin. She has worked with the Solar Electric Light Fund to
build a water supply system for farming. Energy from the sun provides power for the project.

Zacharie SERO TAMOU B

Environmental Scientist and 2011 National Geographic Emerging Explorer Jennifer Burney

JENNIFER BURNEY: “This system enables farmers to cultivate vegetables year around and to
cultivate new types of crops and to generally increase the area that they cultivate so they have
much more food for their home consumption but are also able to sell a large majority of it and
earn income that way.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Jennifer Burney also works with a group in India. They are studying the
effects of replacing traditional cook stoves with safer, more environmentally-friendly cooking
technologies. Traditional cook stoves produce a harmful black smoke.

JENNIFER BURNEY: “We know that it is a component of particulate matter which makes
people sick, but it’s also a very potent climate warming agent.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Miz Burney says replacing old stoves with safer ones could have a huge
effect on improving human health and slowing climate change.

STEVE EMBER: Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah is a cultural educator who grew up in Jerusalem.
After his brother was jailed and killed, Mister Abu Sarah was filled with hatred and publicly
acted out his anger. He refused to learn Hebrew, which he considered the language of his enemy.
But he knew he would have to learn the language to go to college and get a good job in
Jerusalem. In Hebrew class, he met Jewish men and women who were not soldiers with guns. He
learned they were human beings, just like he is.

Aziz Abu Sarah has spent his career working to break down emotional barriers between Arabs
and Jews. In the United States, he helps lead the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and
Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. He also created a travel company that helps
bring people to the Middle East for multicultural visits.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Two Emerging Explorers are working to turn waste into a valuable
resource. Ecologist Sasha Kramer is helping to fight poverty in Haiti. She also is working to
solve one of the country’s environmental problems. Living in Haiti, Sasha Kramer learned that
only sixteen percent of Haitians had access to toilets. Many people throw out bodily waste in the
ocean, rivers, and empty areas. She helped create a non-profit organization that helps turn waste
into fertilizer. This fertilizer helps improve the quality of Haiti’s soil. And it helps poor farmers
increase their harvests.

STEVE EMBER: Ashley Murray is a wastewater engineer living in Ghana. She is working to
persuade governments that turning wastewater into clean water can be profitable. She says the
profits made from reusing waste could change waste treatment systems and health around the
world.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Several of the Emerging Explorers are working to protect and explore
undeveloped areas.

Ecologist Paula Kahumbu heads an organization called WildlifeDirect, which has offices in
Kenya and the United States. The organization’s website describes over one hundred
conservation projects. The goal of WildlifeDirect is to connect scientists working to protect the
environment with people who want to help. The group also helps spread information quickly to
raise support during environmental crises.

STEVE EMBER: Tuy Sereivathana is working to save endangered elephants in Cambodia. Up

until now, many Cambodians have hunted elephants to protect their land and crops. Tuy
Sereivathana works with Cambodians to educate rural populations on how to be successful
farmers without harming the animals and the areas where they live. The National Geographic
Society says his program has been very successful. But he says there is still much work to be
done in getting government and developers to support growth that does not harm the
environment.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Adrian Seymour is an ecologist and filmmaker. He studies the

Indonesian population of a small meat-eating creature called the Malay civet. He says studying
creatures at the top of the food chain can help explain what is happening in the whole
ecosystem.  He also makes movies about human issues linked to environmental efforts.
STEVE EMBER: Four Emerging Explorers study creatures. Çağan Şekercioğlu is a biology
professor at the University of Utah. The Turkish native has studied the effects of environmental
pressures on decreasing bird populations. He helps to show people how important birds are for
health, farming, and the environment.

Jorn Hurum studies the ancient fossil remains of animals in northern Norway. He and his team
have found important fossils of sea reptiles, including several huge creatures that once stood over
fifteen meters tall. In Germany, he helped unearth a forty seven million year old fossil of a
primate. Jorn Hurum feels strongly about making his scientific publications available free of cost
so that this knowledge can be seen by everyone.

Dino Martins is a scientist who studies insects. He studies environments in which bees and other
pollinating insects are threatened. He helps educate farmers and others in east Africa about the
importance of these insects in food production and how they can be protected.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Kakani Katija is a bioengineer who studies the power sources responsible
for the ocean’s movements. Winds and tides drive the oceans, but so do the movements of
swimming animals. Her research shows that the movement of sea creatures has a big effect on
climate systems by continuously mixing the seawater. Mixing the water moves oxygen and
nutrients from one layer of water to another.

We close this program with Hayat Sindi, a Saudi-born health technology expert. She is helping
to spread the use of a low-cost, paper device that can help people in poor, rural areas to find
disease. The device is the size of a postage stamp. It is being used to help people learn if they
have health problems like liver damage. The device quickly provides important information to
people in areas without medical workers or a laboratory. The National Geographic Society says
the device she and her team developed holds promise to be an invention that will save millions of
lives.

People With Chronic Hepatitis B Often Do Not Know It

Avi Arditti 25 May 2011
Photo: VOA

A testing campaign for hepatitis B

<

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Today we answer a question. Vu Quang Hien from Vietnam wants to know more about hepatitis
B. Hepatitis is the name for a group of viral infections that attack the liver. These are called A, B,
C and so on.

An estimated two billion people are infected with hepatitis B. The rates are highest in China and
other parts of Asia. The World Health Organization says most of these infections happen during
childhood.

Hepatitis B is spread through contact with infected blood or other body fluids. Mothers can infect
babies at birth. Unsafe injections and sexual contact can also spread the virus. Experts say it can
survive outside the body for at least a week.

There are two forms of hepatitis B -- acute and chronic. Acute cases last for several weeks,
although recovery can take months. Chronic cases can lead to death from cirrhosis or scarring of
the liver and liver cancer.

Yet people with long-term liver infections can live for years and not even know they are
infected. The ones most likely to develop chronic hepatitis B are young children.

In the United States, experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urge medical
providers to test Asian-American patients.
DR. JOHN WARD: "The bottom line -- since most people of Asian heritage came to the US
from endemic countries or were born to parents from these countries, they should be screened for
chronic hepatitis B."

For acute hepatitis B, patients may receive care to replace lost fluids, but there are no treatments.
Doctors can treat chronic cases with interferon and antiviral drugs. But these medicines cost too
much for most of the world's poor.

A vaccine to prevent hepatitis B has been available for thirty years. The researcher who
discovered this vaccine -- and hepatitis B itself -- was an American named Baruch Blumberg. Dr.
Blumberg also showed that the virus could cause liver cancer.

NASA

Dr. Baruch Blumberg

He and another researcher at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Irving Millman,
invented the vaccine in nineteen sixty-nine. But Dr. Blumberg said it took some time to find a
drug company willing to produce it.

He first became interested in studying infectious disease when he volunteered in Surinam during
his medical training.

His discoveries with hepatitis B saved many lives and earned him a Nobel Prize in medicine. But
he also had other interests -- including the search for life in outer space.

In the late nineties, he helped launch the Astrobiology Institute at NASA. He was at a space
agency conference in California in April when he died, apparently of a heart attack. Baruch
Blumberg was eighty-five years old.

Scientist Working to Save Bees Is Winner of Environmental

Prize
  23 May 2011

<

BOB DOUGHTY: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Bob
Doughty.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith. This week, we tell about the latest winner of
the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. We tell about some effects of the earthquake
and tsunami in northeastern Japan. And we tell about an albatross thought to be America’s oldest
free-flying bird.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Bees are important for agriculture. Farmers need bees to pollinate plant crops.
The insects also provide a natural sweetener, honey. But many bees have mysteriously
disappeared in recent years. This year, an American researcher was the winner of the Tyler Prize
for Environmental Achievement. May Berenbaum of the University of Illinois is searching for
solutions to the bee crisis.

For thousands of years, people have had a love–hate relationship with bees because they sting.
Many people have experienced bee stings themselves or know of others who were hurt.

MAY BERENBAUM: “But on the other hand, people all over the world have developed a
dependency on the honeybee because it is really the world’s premier managed pollinator. And
here in the US, for example, over ninety crops depend on honeybees for pollination services.”
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: May Berenbaum says farmers depend on bees to pollinate nuts, melons
and other crops. Bees are directly responsible for pollinating nineteen billion dollars worth of
crops each year in the United States alone.

However, many bees have disappeared in what scientists call colony collapse. The worker bees
suddenly disappear, and the colony dies. This has been a problem in North America, especially
in the past five years.

Scientists do not fully understand the problem. May Berenbaum says there are many likely
reasons for the collapse. One is the long-distance transport of bees for pollination and the spread
of bee diseases from one area to another. She says the effect of disease is made worse by the
buildup of insect-killing pesticides in bee colonies.

May Berenbaum and other scientists are studying the problem. She suggests one way that people
can help.

MAY BERENBAUM: “You can buy local honey. Local honey is available at stores only
because there is a local beekeeper who went to the trouble of harvesting it, so the more
beekeepers there are, the more honey there is. We [have], over the last twenty-five years, seen an
alarming decline in the number of beekeepers. The interest is resurging, which is the best news
for American bees, actually, more beekeepers!”

BOB DOUGHTY: May Berenbaum says people also can help the honeybee by planting more
flowers and showing less hostility toward weeds. Some unwanted plants provide food for
pollinators like bees.

Recently, Ms. Berenbaum was in Los Angeles to accept the Tyler Prize for Environmental
Achievement. Earlier prize winners include the biologist Edward O. Wilson, the primatologist
Jane Goodall and conservation biologist Paul Ehrlich.

May Berenbaum says these and other winners are among her scientific heroes. She received two
hundred thousand dollars with the award. She says the money will help expand a project of hers
involving citizen-scientists.

MAY BERENBAUM: “We have one project called bee-spotters, which is now restricted to
Illinois, where we ask people to go out with a digital camera, even a cell phone, and photograph
either bumblebees or honeybees.”

BOB DOUGHTY: She says that project is already leading to information.

MAY BERENBAUM:“A citizen scientist outside Peoria actually sent in a photograph of a

species of bumblebee, the rusty patched bumblebee, bombus affinis, that was thought to have
gone extinct in that area, and was recovered by a private citizen with a digital camera.”

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: May Berenbaum collected directions for preparing meals involving
honey in a book. It is called, “Honey, I’m Homemade: Sweet Treats from the Beehive, Across
the Centuries and Around the World.” And she says the honeybee, in addition to its important
work as a pollinator, makes our lives a little sweeter.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: The earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan in March continue to
have far-reaching effects.

Radiation has been leaking from the Fukushima power station since March eleventh. The
earthquake and tsunami damaged cooling systems at all six nuclear reactors there. High levels of
radiation have been found in the soil, sea water, fish and agricultural products for kilometers
around the power plant. Tens of thousands of people have left the area.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: American researchers are predicting that floating wreckage from the
disaster could reach the Hawaiian Islands within two years. Jan Hafner is a scientific computer
programmer with the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii. He says
that an island of wreckage has already moved a few hundred kilometers away from Japan.

The wreckage includes cars, trees and homes that were washed away from Japan. Strong ocean
currents are now carrying this trash across the Pacific Ocean toward the western United States.

Jan Hafner says that by the time the trash arrives, it will turn into what he is calling “the North
Pacific garbage patch.” He expects more wreckage to continue floating toward Hawaii for about
five more years.

BOB DOUGHTY: The predictions are based on a diagnostic model. Scientists developed the
model by using realistic information about objects floating over the ocean surface.

The projections are not good news for Hawaiian coastal communities. The usual trash that
washes up on the islands represents an environmental danger. But large pieces of wreckage also
represent a possible threat for ships sailing across the Pacific Ocean. The United States Navy’s
Seventh Fleet has said the largest trash field is more than one hundred kilometers long.

(MUSIC)
AP

Wisdom the Laysan albatross in February

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: America’s oldest free-flying bird is said to be doing well a few weeks
after a tsunami wave hit the island where she lives. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service
discovered in March that a Laysan albatross named Wisdom had survived.

An agency employee observed the bird and her chick about a week after a one and one-half
meter high wave washed over Wisdom’s home. The bird lives on Sand Island in the Pacific
Ocean. Sand Island belongs to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.

The wave hit the island after the earthquake struck Japan on March eleventh.

Wisdom is at least sixty-five years old. The chick is thought to be her thirty-fifth baby. Their
survival was unusual. The tsunami killed an estimated two thousand adult albatrosses and about
one hundred ten thousand chicks from Wisdom’s nesting area.

BOB DOUGHTY: About one million Laysan albatross live in the wildlife refuge. But the
tsunami decreased the baby-bird population by twenty percent.

Wisdom is the oldest wild albatross known to a research program supervised by American and
Canadian scientists. The program has operated for ninety years. Wisdom first had a metal
identification band placed on her in nineteen fifty six. At the time, she was at least five years old.
Biologists estimate that she has traveled almost five million flying kilometers since then.

An albatross is one of twenty-one kinds of large sea birds that reproduce in Hawaii. They get
their food from off North America’s West Coast, including the Gulf of Alaska.

(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Finally, an American study has attempted to confirm the idea that cats
are deadly enemies of birds. The study found that, if you hold that belief, you are correct. At
least that is true near Washington, DC. The Journal of Ornithology reported the findings.

The report says the common housecat is the number-one killer of fledgling gray catbirds near
America’s capital. It says predators were responsible for almost eighty percent of the deaths of
the baby birds in the study. Predators seize and kill others. Cats killed almost all of the fledglings
that died.

Scientists from the Smithsonian Institution and Towson University in Maryland led the study. It
took place in three capital-area communities. Death rates were especially high where many cats
live.

BOB DOUGHTY: The researchers placed electronic equipment on the birds so they could
follow them. They learned that in some places, the killing of baby birds is decreasing the gray
catbird population.

Killings by animals are the second largest cause of bird death in the United States. The American
Bird Conservancy reports that cats kill hundreds of millions of birds nationwide each year. The
group says half the cats responsible for bird death have human owners. The other half are said to
be feral, or homeless, cats.

But the top cause of bird deaths is crashes into windows, buildings and other structures. The Fish
and Wildlife Service says wind turbines kill four hundred forty thousand birds yearly. That
number, however, is expected to rise above one million by twenty-thirty, as more wind farms are
built.