Capitalism a love Store: Michael Moore

Source: Speak Up 

Language Level: Proficiency

Standard: American accent

Speakers: Jason Bermingham and Chuck Rollando

MICHAEL MOORE

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORE

Michael Moore Capitalism and Me

MICHAEL MOORE

CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORE

Michael Moore Capitalism & Me

For the last 20 years, Michael Moore’s documentaries have exposed –in a tragicomic way – the disturbing side of the American dream. His First film, Roger & Me, was released in 1989 and it showed the disastrous effects on his home town, Flint, Michigan, when the General Motors factory closed. He has since examined the fully of American’s love of guns, in Bowling for Columbine (2002), of the so-called war on terror, in Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), and the lack of health insurance in Sicko (2007). His latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, which hit theaters in 2009 and is now out on DVD, focuses on Wall Street. when Moore met with the Press, he was asked who loves who in the movie:

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY

Michael Moore

(Standard American accent)

Capitalists love their money and they not only love their money, they love our money! The upper 1 percent, who have more financial wealth than the bottom 95 per cent! I mean, seriously, when anthropologists dig us up, what do you think they’re going to call that? Seriously, what do you think they’re going to cal us? There’s a name for it. We wouldn’t like the name, we would never use the name right now, but they’ll have a name for us, and I have a good idea what it is, when they see that the 95 per cent were essentially beholden to the 1 per cent. So, the rich love their money and they love our money and they want our money and they could never get enough. It’s the dirtiest word in capitalism, is “enough.” There’s no such thing as enough. They want more and more. It’s like a beast and you have to stop the beast and that’s why ate end, I said you can’t regulate the beast. You really have to put a stake in its heart…as long as we have an economic system that is not democratic and that’s what I’m calling for, a democratic economic system, that…where you and I have a say in how this economy is run. That’s all I’m asking for, that we just apply the democracy that we love to our economy.

GOLDMAN SAHS

One of the features of the financial collapse of 2008 was that Lehman Brother, a rival to the powerful investment bank, Goldman Sachs, was essentially eliminated. Other banks were rescued with vast sums of money and they later paid back their loans. Did this mean that capitalism was now “back on track?”

Michael Moore:

Some of these banks have so-called “repaid” – they…they took this money from us and then had it for seven, nine months, or whatever. I mean, if you give me $20 billion, like Goldman Sachs, I’m not an investor, but I’ll bet you I could do something with $ 20 billion and nine months later, you know, but the unemployment rate went up again this month, the foreclosure rate continues to be extremely high. These are the real things that affect real people, not that…the fact that the stock market now is back over 9000 and Goldman Sachs is posting records profits and, as you said, they brilliantly helped to eliminate the competitions, so that they have now essentially a Soviet-style investment firm. It’s always…it’s got me about how, in terms of how those who call themselves capitalists actually admire the Soviet system of no competition, no choice, and eliminate everything in your path.

PROPAGANDA

For much of his career Moore has been a hate figure for the American right, and several health insurance firms accused him of inaccuracy in Sicko. Yet Obama’s healthcare reform proposals also seem to have angered many Americans. There have been protests at town hall meetings all over the country. Moore was asked what he thought of this:

Michael Moore:

As far as the crazy, angry people at this town hall meetings, while it’s true that was well-organized and well-financed by the industry, and you should have no misconceptions about that, and if you don’t believe that they do those sorts of things, you just need to get a transcript of the Bill Moyers show, from  July (2009), where the Vice President of CIGNA health insurance went public and told the story on how the health insurance industry put up money and got together to have a campaign to smear me and Sicko, and how to tell lies about Sicko, and his name was Wendell Potter, and you should look it up on the internet and it’s a stunning sort of admission of how they identify journalists, to sort of feed things to the journalists they believe will just kind of start repeating the same old, same old line, that if you repeat it enough, it just becomes truth, I’ve experienced that ever since, I mean, Roger & Me, when General Motors had a little packet that they would send to journalists, trying to discredits me and the film, but to really hear one of their own explain how they do this, it’s an amazing thing to see. And so when I saw those…the mobs at the town hall meetings, I…I thought, well I’m not surprised by this. They’re very good at this: that’s why they usually win!

Speaking without fear...Tip number 1

Actually one of the most difficult for beginners is "Speaking without fear," I'm not talking about speaking without mistakes, they are very common, and of course do not imitate a native-speaker, just choose an accent, it's up to you. Check out the tip bellow and keep in touch with the language, never give up, invite some friends and getting started to practise English. Take classes? Invite your class mate and getting started a group, I mean, you are a self-taught or attend private class, practise as much as possible and go ahead, check out the tip number 1 posted originally by English Vip http://www.ingvip.com 

1. Speak without Fear the biggest problem most people face in learning a new language is their own fear.  They worry that they won’t say things correctly or that they will look stupid so they don’t talk at all.  Don’t do this.  The fastest way to learn anything is to do it – again and again , until you get it right.  Like anything, learning English requires practice.  Don’t let a little fear stop you from getting what you want. 

Brazilians eating more sugar and less fruit

Source: www.maganews.com.br

Dietary habits

Brazilians eating more sugar and less fruit

An IBGE survey has shown that Brazilians are eating too much sugar and not enough fruit and vegetables 

    Eating rice and beans [1] for lunch was always been a very common habit for millions and millions of Brazilians. However, in recent years Brazilians have been eating less of this traditional dish[2]. Between 2003 and 2009 Brazilians ate 40% less rice and 26% fewer beans. In addition, domestic consumption of soft drinks [3]  rose [4]  by 40% and beer consumption rose by 23%. These are the findings[5] of a study carried out by the IBGE between 2008 and 2009. The result of the study was only released in late December 2010.   The IBGE survey revealed some disturbing [6]  facts about the eating habits of Brazilians. One is that Brazilians are consuming more and more processed food [7]  and less fruit and vegetables than they should. The daily consumption of fruit and vegetables, foods considered to be very healthy, makes up less than 3% of the Brazilian diet. The ideal amount [8]  would be between 9% and 12%, according to nutritionists.

Excess sugar

But the most worrying fact is that Brazilians are consuming more sugar [9]  than they should. Sugaraccounts for almost 17% of the calories ingested [10] every day by Brazilians. This includes the sugar added to coffee and fruit juices [11], as well as the sugar found in soft drinks, candy [12],cookies  [13] and various processed foods. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that sugar should not account for more than 10% of our daily calorie intake [14]. Several studies have shown that excess sugar can contribute to obesity and diseases such as diabetes and cancer, among others.

Matéria publicada na edição de número 59 da revista Maganews.

Áudio: David Hatton

Fotos - Ag. Vanderlei Alvarenga / André Dias (menina) e Agência Brasil (alimentos)

Vocabulary

1 rice and beans – arroz e feijão

2 dish – prato

3 soft drink – refrigerante

4 to rise – crescer

5 findings – descobertas / revelações

6 disturbing – preocupante

7 processed food – aqui = comida industrializada

8 amount – quantidade

9 sugar – açúcar

10 ingested – ingerida / consumida

11 juice –suco

12 candy – bala

13 cookie – biscoito

14 intake – aqui = consumo

Pro-jovem, part 30, Inglês vip

Source: www.ingvip.com
Julia: Mariana, you know what I'm thinking?
Mariana: No, what?
Julia: Where did the cinema come from?(1)
Mariana: Oh, look. The cinema was invented(2) in 1895 by two brothers: Louis and Auguste Lumiere. They were from France. At that time(3), the cinema was only another form(4) of registering, like(5) photography. After them, came George Melieu, another French man(6). He was the father of the cinema, because he was the first one(7) tolook at(8) the film as a new form of art
Julia: So, the cinema was invented in France. I thought the United States were the ones who(9) invented it.
Mariana: No, the first american movie was made in 1915 
Julia: Mariana, were you the teacher's pet(10) in your school?
Mariana: No, I was not. Why did you say that? 
Julia: Because everything I ask you know the answer(11). What about Brazilian cinema? When did it start?
Mariana: I guess(12) it started in 1910. In the 60's we had our golden time(13). And in the 90's, Brazilian cinemawas born again(14)
Julia: So, what are you? A movie specialist?
Mariana: No, not even close(15). Just a big fan. Movies can be a source(16) of information. There are a lot of(17)Brazilian movies that tell important facts about our culture, our history. We can see some of them whenever(18) you want 
Julia: OK. We can do a movie session in my house this weekend
Mariana: Or in Luca's house. He has a DVD now! 
Julia: That's right(19). I forgot(20). What a coincidence!(21) The boys are here to watch(22) a movie too.
Mariana: Oh, that's a big coincidence
Lucas: Hello girls
Pedro: Hello Mariana
Mariana: Hello Pedro.
Julia: We're going to watch a Brazilian movie. Would you like to go with us?
Lucas: Yes. I love movies made(23) in Brazil. Let's buy our tickets
Julia: No. I can go with you, Lucas.
Pedro: So, what a coincidence!

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                                        Vocabulary
 1. Where did the cinema come from?  = De onde veio o cinema?
 2. Was invented = Foi inventado
 3. At that time = Naquela época
 4. Another form = Uma outra forma
 5. Like = como
 6. French man = Francês
 7. The first one = o primeiro
 8.  Look at = olhar para
 9. Were the ones who = foram aqueles que
 10. The teacher's pet = "a queridinha do professor" 
 11. Answer = resposta
 12. Guess = acho
 13. Golden time = época dourada
 14. Was born again = Nasceu novamente
 15. Not even close  = "Nem de perto"
 16. Source = fonte
 17. There are a lot of = existem muitos
 18. Whenever = sempre que
 19. That's right = Isso mesmo
 20. Forgot = esqueci
 21. What a coincidence! = Que coincidencia!
  22. Watch = assistir
  23. Made = feito

IPHAN and Walkways constructions

Today I decided to continue talking about archaeological sites, and how to preserve them. Actually is a difficult duty, not for experts. In particular IPHAN (National, Historical and Artistic Heritage) it's a Brazilian institution which support, basically the preservation of the World Culture Heritage. 

This week I received Onésimo Santos and Valdecir dos Santos. Onésimo is a great and renowned archaeologist  and he takes care of the project in order to infrastructure the WALKWAYS connecting both sites Xique-Xique O and II, both located in Carnaúba dos Dantas, Rio Grande do Norte State. As you now, I'm a Brazilian educator (not graduated, just a volunteer), a Tour Guide and a Tour Coordinator. That's why I had not enough time to update my blog. So far, both archaeological's are closed for visitors, but it'll open next March. 

About the infrastructures they are really necessary because it is going to attract tourists from Brazil and foreigners. Check out the pictures bellow. 

 

Passarelas dos Sítios Arqueológicos

This is Carlos (me, tour guide) and Valdecir archeologist 

Pro-jovem, part 29, Inglês vip

 

Source: www.ingvip.com for more information you can find out 38 videos and more useful English tips visit the home page and this link 

http://www.ingvip.com/curso-de-conversacao.htm

Julia: So, how did it go(1)?
Mariana: How did what go(2)?
Julia: The date, how did it go?
Mariana: Oh, fine.
Julia: And what did you wear(3)?
Mariana: Those high heels. And they were very uncomfortable(4)
Julia: Where did you go?
Mariana: We went to see his friend's painting
Julia: What happened(5)?
Mariana: Oh, take it easy!(6) You are asking(7) too many questions(8)!
Julia: I just want to know how your date went
Mariana: Oh, it went very well, thank you. There, I said it
Julia: Did anything happen(9)?
Mariana: You don't give up(10) Julia! OK, I'll tell you everything
 

---

Julia: What is this movie(11) we are going to see?
Mariana: It is a Brazilian movie. I love Brazilian cinema.
Julia: Me too!
Mariana: OK, let's buy the tickets(12)
Julia: Go ahead(13). I have to call my mother first. Hello, hi Lucas. It's Julia here. I'm at the movies with Mariana.Why don't you call(14) Pedro and come to meet us(15) here? OK, bye!
Mariana: We have half an hour(16) before the movie starts. Do you want to do something?
Julia: No, let's just hang out(17)  over there(18)
Mariana: OK

---

                                      Vocabulary
 1. How did it go?  = Como foi?
 2. How did what go? = Como foi o que?
 3. What did you wear? = O que você vestiu?
 4. Uncomfortable = desconfortável
 5. What happened? = O que aconteceu?
 6. Take it easy! = Vai com calma!
 7. Asking = perguntando
 8.  Too many questions = perguntas demais
 9. Did anything happen? = Alguma coisa aconteceu?
 10. Give up = desistir
 11. Movie = filme
 12. Tickets = ingressos
 13. Go ahead  = Vá em frente
 14. Why don't you call...  = Por que você nao liga...
 15. Come to meet us  = vem nos encontrar
 16. Half an hour = meia hora
 17. Hang out = "dar um tempo"
 18. Over there = por aí

American History: Fear Takes Hold During the Great Depression

Source: www.voanews.com 

Photo: loc.gov

The son of a Depression-era refugee from Oklahoma who moved to California

BARBARA KLEIN: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English. I’m Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember.

The stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine marked the beginning of the worst economic crisis in American history. Millions of people lost their jobs. Thousands lost their homes.

During the next several years, a large part of the richest nation on earth learned what it meant to be poor.

Workers lost their jobs as factories closed. Business owners lost their stores and sometimes their homes. Farmers lost their land as they struggled with falling prices and natural disasters.

And Americans were not the only ones who suffered. This week in our series, we talk about the economic crisis that became the Great Depression.

(MUSIC “Creole Love Call”/Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra)

BARBARA KLEIN: One of America's greatest writers, John Steinbeck, described the depression this way:

"It was a terrible, troubled time. I can't think of any ten years in history when so much happened in so many directions. Violent change took place. Our country was shaped, our lives changed, our government rebuilt."

Steinbeck, winner of the nineteen sixty-two Nobel Prize in literature, said: "When the market fell, the factories, mines, and steelworks closed and then no one could buy anything, not even food."

STEVE EMBER: An unemployed auto worker in Detroit, Michigan, described the situation this way:

"Before daylight, we were on the way to the Chevrolet factory to look for work. The police were already there, waving us away from the office. They were saying, 'Nothing doing! No jobs! No jobs!' So now we were walking slowly through the falling snow to the employment office for the Dodge auto company. A big, well-fed man in a heavy overcoat stood at the door. 'No! No!' he said. There was no work."

One Texas farmer lost his farm and moved his family to California to look for work. "We can't send the children to school," he said, "because they have no clothes."

(MUSIC “Gloomy Sunday”/Billie Holiday)

BARBARA KLEIN: The economic crisis began with the stock market crash in October nineteen twenty-nine. For the first year, the economy fell very slowly. But it dropped sharply in nineteen thirty-one and nineteen thirty-two. And by the end of nineteen thirty-two, the economy collapsed almost completely.

During the three years following the stock market crash, the value of goods and services produced in America fell by almost half. The wealth of the average American dropped to a level lower than it had been twenty-five years earlier.

All the gains of the nineteen twenties were washed away.

Unemployment rose sharply. The number of workers looking for a job jumped from three percent to more than twenty-five percent in just four years. One of every three or four workers was looking for a job in nineteen thirty-two.

STEVE EMBER: Those employment numbers did not include farmers. The men and women who grew the nation's food suffered terribly during the Great Depression.

This was especially true in two states, Oklahoma and Texas. Farmers there were losing money because of falling prices for their crops. Then natural disaster struck. Year after year, little or no rain fell. The ground dried up. And then the wind blew away the earth in huge clouds of dust.

"All that dust made some of the farmers leave," one Oklahoma farmer remembered later. "But my family stayed. We fought to live. Despite all the dust and the wind, we were planting seeds. But we got no crops. We had five crop failures in five years."

(MUSIC “Mean Low Blues”/Blues Birdhead)

BARBARA KLEIN: Falling production. Rising unemployment. Men begging in the streets. But there was more to the Great Depression. At that time, the federal government did not guarantee the money that people put in banks. When people could not repay loans, banks began to close.

In nineteen twenty-nine, six hundred fifty-nine banks with total holdings of two-hundred-million dollars went out of business. The next year, two times that number failed. And the year after that, almost twice that number of banks went out of business. Millions of persons lost all their savings. They had no money left.

STEVE EMBER: The depression caused serious public health problems. Hospitals across the country were filled with sick people whose main illness was a lack of food. The health department in New York City found that one of every five of the city's children did not get enough food.

Ninety-nine percent of the children attending a school in a coal-mining area of the country reportedly were underweight. In some places, people died of hunger.

(MUSIC “Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)”/Blind Willie Johnson)

STEVE EMBER: The quality of housing also fell. Families were forced to crowd into small houses or apartments to share costs. Many people had no homes at all. They slept on public streets, buses or trains.

One official in Chicago reported in nineteen thirty-one that several hundred women without homes were sleeping in city parks.

In a number of cities, people without homes built their houses from whatever materials they could find. They used empty boxes or pieces of metal to build shelters in open areas.

BARBARA KLEIN: People called these areas of little temporary houses "Hoovervilles." They blamed President Hoover for their situation. So, too, did the men forced to sleep in public parks at night. They covered themselves with pieces of paper. And they called the paper "Hoover blankets." People without money in their pants called their empty pockets "Hoover flags."

People blamed President Hoover because they thought he was not doing enough to help them. Hoover did take several actions to try to improve the economy. But he resisted proposals for the federal government to provide aid in a major way. And he refused to let the government spend more money than it earned.

Hoover told the nation: "Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive decision."

Many conservative Americans agreed with him. But not the millions of Americans who were hungry and tired of looking for a job. They accused Hoover of not caring about common citizens.

One congressman from Alabama said: "In the White House, we have a man more interested in the money of the rich than in the stomachs of the poor."

(MUSIC “I Surrender, Dear”/Red Norvo and His Swing Septet)

STEVE EMBER: On and on the Great Depression continued. Of course, some Americans were lucky. They kept their jobs. And they had enough money to enjoy the lower prices of most goods. Many people shared their earnings with friends in need.

Years later, John Steinbeck wrote: "It seems odd now to say that we rarely had a job. There just weren't any jobs." But, he continued, "Given the sea and the gardens, we did pretty well with a minimum of theft. We didn't have to steal much." Farmers could not sell their crops, he explained, so they gave away all the fruit and vegetables that people could carry home.

BARBARA KLEIN: Other Americans reacted to the crisis by leading protests against the economic policies of the Hoover administration. In nineteen thirty-two, a large group of former soldiers gathered in Washington to demand help.

More than eight thousand of them built the nation's largest Hooverville near the White House. Federal troops finally removed them by force and burned their shelters.

(MUSIC “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime”/Rudy Vallee)

Next week, we will look at how the Great Depression of the nineteen thirties affected other countries.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: This program was written by David Jarmul. I’m Steve Ember.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. You can find our series online with pictures, transcripts, MP3s, and podcasts at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.

___

This is program #17

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