Family Album part 34

Source: Family Album USA

Michael O'Leary: The low-cost man

Source: Speak Up

Standard: British Accent

Language level: Basic

Michael O’Leary

Michael O’Leary started a revolution in Europe’s travel business. He is the eccentric Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ryanair, the incredibly successful low-cost airline. There are people who hate him; others call him a genius. He doesn’t really care, as long as Ryanair continues its meteoric rise. Ryanair was founded by Tony Ryan in 1985. That year his airline had 51 employees, two planes and carried 5.000 passengers between Ireland and Britain. Michael O’Leary joined the company in 1988 and became CEO in 1994. He completely transformed it: today Ryanair has 2.600 employees, and uses over 100 planes on 233 routes throughout Europe.

THE MAGIC FORMULA

What is the secret of Ryanair’s success? O’Leary cut costs dramatically: he stripped planes to the minimum, removing even the pocket behind seats; he makes employees pay for their own training and uniforms; he has reduced the time between flights to 25 minutes. Why does Ryanair sell some seats for as little as one cent? Because this guarantees full planes for all flights, and increase the sale of refreshments. O’Leary’s policies are successful: profits for 2006 were over 350 millions. O’Leary has a reputation as a difficult man. He meets Europe’s top bankers wearing jeans and a shirt; he called the European Commissioners “morons,” British Airways “expensive bastards” and said that travel agents should be “taken out and shot.” In order to use taxi lanes in Dublin, he bought a taxi licence for his car and installed a meter.

RICH KID

Is O’Leary the poor man’s champion? No, he’s a businessman. He comes from an affluent farmer’s family, attended Ireland’s top private school, Clongowes Wood, and studied business at Dublin’s prestigious Trinity College .Today he is a multi-millionaire and lives on a cattle ranch, where he also breeds race horses.

Ironically, he doesn’t like planes, and never wanted to be a pilot he does however, dream of millions of people flying in his planes. He wants to offer all passengers free tickets. He says revenue will come from selling services and advertising. This year Ryanair will offer mobile phone services, and has plans to offer in flight gambling.

O’Leary and the Environment (no audio)

International Airlines, such as British Airways and Virgin Airways, recently formed a “sustainable aviation group” which plans to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, experiment with alternative energy sources and reduce noise pollution.

O’Leary says airlines will reduce their emissions when they go bankrupt. He also points out that cars cause 27 per cent of emissions, whereas airlines cause only 2 per cent. His advice to environmentalists was short and simple: “Sell your cars and walk.” Finally, he suggests other airlines follow Ryanair’s example, by replacing their fleets with modern planes with reduces emissions by 50 per cent, burn 45 per cent less fuel, and reduce noise pollution by 45 per cent.

Ryanair and Complaints

A British documentary criticized Ryanair’s training courses, security protocols and treatment of employees and customers. It suggested that Ryanair is protected by the Irish government and the Irish Aviation Authorities. Ryanair answers that its fleet of planes is the newest in Europe, and its services comply with oil safety regulations, while Ireland’s former Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy says that Ryanair has been one of the top factors in the country’s incredible economic transformation.

Irregular Verbs, English online

Source: Online English Course

American History: Blacks Set Out in Search of a Better Life in 1920s Society

Source: www.voanews.com the best way to improve American English.

Photo: loc.gov

Louis Armstrong

BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

The early years of the twentieth century were a time of movement for many black Americans. Traditionally, most blacks lived in the Southeastern states. But in the nineteen twenties, many blacks moved to cities in the North.

Black Americans moved because living conditions were so poor in the rural areas of the Southeast. But many of them discovered that life was also hard in the colder Northern cities. Jobs often were hard to find. Housing was poor. And whites sometimes acted violently against them.

This week in our series, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell about the life of black Americans in the nineteen twenties and how they helped form traditions.

(MUSIC)

KAY GALLANT: The years just before and after nineteen twenty were difficult for blacks. It was a time of racial hatred. Many whites joined the Ku Klux Klan organization. The Klan often terrorized blacks. Klan members sometimes burned fiery crosses in front of the houses of black families. And they sometimes beat and murdered blacks.

The Ku Klux Klan also acted against Roman Catholics, Jews, and foreigners. But it hated blacks most of all.

loc.gov

Ku Klux Klan members, around 1922

HARRY MONROE: The United States also suffered a series of race riots in a number of cities during this period. White and black Americans fought each other in Omaha, Philadelphia, and other cities.

The worst riot was in Chicago. A swimming incident started the violence. A black boy sailing a small boat entered a part of the beach used by white swimmers. Some white persons threw stones at the boy. He fell into the water and drowned.

Black citizens heard about the incident and became extremely angry. Soon, black and white mobs were fighting each other in the streets.

The violence lasted for two weeks. Thirty-eight persons died. More than five-hundred were wounded. The homes of hundreds of families were burned.

The violence in Chicago and other cities did not stop black Americans from moving north or west. They felt that life had to be better than in the South.

KAY GALLANT: Black Americans left the South because life was hard, economic chances few, and white hatred common. But many blacks arrived in other parts of the country only to learn that life was no easier. Some blacks wrote later that they had only traded the open racism of the rural Southeast for the more secret racism of Northern cities.

Blacks responded to these conditions in different ways. Some blacks followed the ideas of Booker T. Washington, the popular black leader of the early nineteen hundreds.

Washington believed that blacks had to educate and prepare themselves to survive in American society. He helped form a number of training schools where blacks could learn skills for better jobs. And he urged blacks to establish businesses and improve themselves without causing trouble with whites.

Other blacks liked the stronger ideas of William Du Bois.

Du Bois felt that blacks had to take firm actions to protest murders and other illegal actions. He published a magazine and spoke actively for new laws and policies to protect black rights. Du Bois also helped form a group that later became the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The NAACP became one of the nation's leading black rights organizations in the twentieth century.

loc.gov

Booker T. Washington

HARRY MONROE: Probably the most important leader for black Americans in the nineteen twenties did not come from the United States. He was Marcus Garvey from the Caribbean island of Jamaica. Garvey moved to New York City in nineteen sixteen. He quickly began organizing groups in black areas.

His message was simple. He said blacks should not trust whites. Instead, they should be proud of being black and should help each other. Garvey urged blacks to leave the United States, move to Africa, and start their own nation.

Marcus Garvey organized several plans to help blacks become economically independent of whites. His biggest effort was a shipping company to trade goods among black people all over the world.

Many American blacks gave small amounts of money each week to help Garvey start the shipping company. However, the idea failed. Government officials arrested Garvey for collecting the money unlawfully. They sent him to prison in nineteen twenty-five. And two years later, President Coolidge ordered Garvey out of the country.

Marcus Garvey's group was the first major black organization in the United States to gain active support from a large number of people. The organization failed. But it did show the anger and lack of hope that many blacks felt about their place in American society.

(MUSIC)

KAY GALLANT: Blacks also showed their feelings through writing, art and music. The nineteen twenties were one of the most imaginative periods in the history of American black art.

Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen were three of the leading black poets during this time. McKay was best known for his poems of social protest. Hughes produced poems about black life that experts now say are among the greatest American poems ever written.

Black writers also produced longer works. Among the leading black novelists were Jessie Faucet, Jean Toomer, and Rudolph Fisher.

(MUSIC)

HARRY MONROE: The nineteen twenties also were an exciting time for black music. Black musicians playing the piano developed the ragtime style of music. Singers and musicians produced a sad, emotional style of playing that became known as the blues. And most important, music lovers began to play and enjoy a new style that was becoming known as jazz.

Jazz advanced greatly as a true American kind of music in the nineteen twenties. Musicians Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Eubie Blake played in gathering places and small theaters. White musicians and music experts from universities came to listen. Soon the music became popular among Americans of all kinds and around the world.

KAY GALLANT: Blacks began to recognize in the nineteen twenties their own deep roots in the United States. They began to see just how much black men and women already had done to help form American history and traditions.

The person who did the most to help blacks understand this was black historian Carter G. Woodson. Woodson received his training at two leading universities: Harvard in Massachusetts and the Sorbonne in France. He launched a new publication, the Journal of Negro History, in which he and other experts wrote about black life and history. Historians today call Woodson the father of the scientific study of black history.

HARRY MONROE: The nineteen twenties also were a period in which a number of blacks experimented with new political ideas and parties. The difficult social conditions of the period led many blacks to search for new political solutions.

Two leftist parties -- the Socialists and the Communists -- urged blacks to leave the traditional political system and work for more extreme change. Two leading black Socialists, Chandler Owen and A. Philip Randolph, urged blacks to support Socialist candidates. However, they gained little popular support from blacks.

Communists also tried to organize black workers. But generally, black voters showed little interest in communist ideas.

The most important change in black political thinking during the nineteen twenties came within the traditional two-party system itself. Blacks usually had voted for Republicans since the days of Abraham Lincoln. But the conservative Republican policies of the nineteen twenties caused many blacks to become Democrats.

By nineteen thirty-two, blacks would vote by a large majority for the Democratic presidential candidate, Franklin Roosevelt. And blacks continue to be a major force in the Democratic Party.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: Our program was written by David Jarmul. The narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe.

You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and images at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.

___

This is program #17
2 

Beyoncé, Dreamgirl

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Advanced

Standard: American accent 

Dreamgirl Beyoncé

The film career of Destiny’s Child Star Beyoncé Knowles has taken a new turn with the release of Dreamgirls. Directed by Bill Condon, who wrote the screenplay to Chicago and directed Kinsey, it has a star-studded cast that includes Eddie Murphy, Jamie Foxx and Danny Glover. The movie, which is based on a hit Broadway musical of the same name, is said to have been inspired by the story of Diana Ross and the Supremes. Beyoncé Knowles even plays a character called “Deena Jones,” but the Dreamgirls star was keen to put the record straight.

Beyoncé Knowles

(Standard American/African-American accent):

This movie, and the character I play, Deena, is really different form Diana Ross, it’s not her story at all, actually, I think. I know that she was my inspiration, as far as the looks, the wigs, the make-up, the clothes, some of her posture on stage, but it kind of stops right there. Deena is…is her own character, and is her own life, but it was important that I knew that Diana was not upset! And I saw her, when I did…well, I was just at a Clive Davis (a legendary music industry executive –ed) party and she was there and she came to me, she was so sweet, very kind. And I so appreciated it because I admire her so much.

AN EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE

Beyoncé admits that playing the part of Deena was an emotionally draining experience:

Beyoncé Knowles:

I wasn’t myself for six months, I wasn’t, and even when I went in the studio, I still wasn’t myself, on my album, which is why I wanted to go in the studio, so I could find myself again, ‘cause I was going to basketball games with three pairs of lashes and I’m like “Who am I? Where…where am I?” ‘Cause I just see Deena, I’m like sitting like this the whole time with my shoulders shrugged and I’m like “That’s not me, that’s not how I perform.” So, it was really fascinating because I think it’s taken a couple of months, even after the movie, to get back into my own body!

THE PRICE OF FAME

One of the themes of Dreamgirls is the price of fame. Beyoncé believes, however, that her own career has been different. She was raised in an affluent suburb of Houston Texas, and is managed by her father, whereas Deena, like Diana Ross, grew up in one of the rougher sections of Detroit, Michigan, also known as “Motown”:

Beyoncé Knowles:

Well, Deena, her need, her personal need, is different because she came out of the Detroit projects, without a father. I went to private school, in middle, upper-class neighborhood and my father and my mother, I had both of them, I was very close to my family. So her mother couldn’t really tell her the truth because obviously she was paying for everything, and my family, my parents were successful, so they can tell me the truth, and we just have different lives and I don’t think I need it for the same reason she did. She went through a lot of things that I haven’t had to go through, but I made the choice to keep those people around me. Most celebrities don’t have honest people around them, and that is your choice, and I’ve been protected from a lot of things that you have to go through, a lot of the prices of fame. And it is difficult and you’re exposed to a lot of things that you shouldn’t be exposed to, and have access to any and everything, people will tell you that everything you do is wonderful, so it can be really hard to know what’s real and what’s not, but I think it’s important to know who you are and to keep the people around you that make who you are.

A Star is Born…

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles was born in Houston, Texas on September 4^th, 1981. Her father, Mathew Knowles, is her manager, while her mother, Tina Beyince, is of Louisiana Creole descent. Beyoncé’s youngster sister, Solange, is also a professional singer. Beyonce’s career took off with group Destiny’s Child, who were allegedly discovered by Whitney Houston. Destiny’s Child has sold a combined total (albums and singles) of over 60 million records, and are said to be the biggest-selling girl group of all time. In addition to her singing and acting career, Beyoncé is a fashion designer. Her boyfriend is the rapper Jay-Z.

Landscapes and Educational projects

Project travel around the past provides high school students to visit the ancestors of the Indigenous people, me,  (Carlos tour guide) and Teacher Zé Adenilson we set off towards the Casa Santa biking around 11 kilometres away the downtown, check out the next pictures.

Here Teacher Adenilson was explaining about the aspect of the climate, rock forming million years ago. After that I explained about the origin of the human being, talking about the rock art paintings and the Indigenous Peoples group over 9 thousand year B.P. (Before Present).

                                          Red rock art paintings, Casa Santa

One of the most relevant shelter with Rock Art Paintings located 11 kilometres away the down town, the project basically aiming at to be aware about the Heritage and the importance for local people preserving in particular the memory of those Indigenous and also forming local guides in the future. Actually up to now over 80 archaeological sites have been discovered, attracting tourists from different parts of Brazil and worldwide, and of course Students come from neighbour towns and come from the other Brazilian states. Most pictures you have seen belongs to Carnauba dos Dantas. 

LEARNING CHOCOLATE, ACCESS

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