Rio 2016: Where Refugees Are Finally Being Recognized

To understand what the new Refugee Olympic Team has achieved at the Rio Games, it’s helpful to look beyond the Syrian swimmer Yusra Mardini winning her 100-meter butterfly heat, or her teammate Rami Anis setting a personal best in the 100-meter freestyle, and consider Olympic history: For 120 years, with some exceptions, the Games have been organized by country. Athletes parade into the Opening Ceremony behind a national flag, compete for the greater glory of a national team, and receive medals to the tune of a national anthem.
Refugees, by their very presence, challenge the nationalistic ethos of the Games. They have been stripped of their nation, their flag, and their anthem. They have existed in one form or another throughout the 120-year history of the Olympics. But until this year, they’ve fallen through the cracks of the world recognized by the organizers of the Games.
Now those cracks are too wide to ignore. The Rio Olympics are occurring amid the worst refugee crisis since World War II, when the concept of a “refugee” was first enshrined in international law. In creating a Refugee Olympic Team that would be “treated ... like all the other [national] teams,” in having those athletes march into the Opening Ceremony right ahead of host country Brazil, in endowing that team with the Olympic flag and anthem, the International Olympic Committee has powerfully recognized the liminal existence of refugees in a world that is more than just a collection of nations.
In a competition that typically celebrates national successes, the Refugee Olympic Team highlights national failures—the collapse of countries like Syria and South Sudan, and the lack of progress so far by many countries, especially wealthy ones, to help resettle millions of refugees. The Olympic message of international cooperation has also been muddied; the Refugee Olympic Team is, in a way, a testament to international paralysis.
As Roger Cohen wrote this week in The New York Times, there’s a disturbing contrast between the world’s enthusiasm for Team Refugees and its apathy and antipathy for refugees as a whole: “They die at sea. They die sealed in the back of a truck. They die anonymous deaths. Fences are erected, walls mooted. … They represent danger and threaten disruption.” Everybody wants to applaud refugee Olympians in Rio de Janeiro, Cohen observes, yet nobody wants to welcome refugees into their own country.
Indeed, Olympic officials are carving out a place for refugees at a time when political leaders from the United States to Hungary are refusing to admit refugees because of the alleged threats they pose. The situation recalls the English poet W.H. Auden’s description of the predicament of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in the late 1930s:


https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/08/refugee-olympic-team-rio/494969/


presence 出席
ethos  民族精神
mooted 未決定的


who:refugees
where:Brazil
when:2015

I Got Gay Married. I Got Gay Divorced. I Regret Both.

LOS ANGELES — In 2008, gay marriage was so new, my wife and I had a hard time finding a lawyer to help us legally join our lives together.

In 2013, gay divorce was so new, I had a hard time finding a lawyer to take our marriage apart.

We fell in love in the ’90s, when getting legally married wasn’t something two women could do. We danced in the streets on May 15, 2008, when the California Supreme Court ruled that “an individual’s sexual orientation — like a person’s race or gender — does not constitute a legitimate basis upon which to deny or withhold legal rights.”

And we decided to tie the knot ourselves the day before Election Day that year, when it suddenly seemed that California Proposition 8 was going to pass, banning same-sex marriage again.

Beneath an arbor of grimy plastic ivy at the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder’s Office, we wept grateful tears as we swore to “love, honor, and keep each other, in sickness and in health, as long as we both shall live.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/opinion/sunday/i-got-gay-married-i-got-gay-divorced-i-regret-both.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FSame-Sex%20Marriage%2C%20Civil%20Unions%2C%20and%20Domestic%20Partnerships


who:2 women
what:gay marriage
where:Los Angeles
when:2008




orientation :定位


constitute:構成


legitimate:合法的

Champions of Human Rights Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (b. 1945)

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been a major voice for human rights and freedom in Burma (Myanmar), a country dominated by a military government since 1962. Born in Rangoon and later educated at Oxford University, she became politically active in 1988 when the Burmese junta violently suppressed a mass uprising, killing thousands of civilians. Suu Kyi wrote an open letter to the government asking for the formation of an independent committee to hold democratic elections. Defying a government ban on political gatherings of more than four persons, Suu Kyi spoke to large audiences throughout Burma as secretary-general of the newly formed National League for Democracy (NLD). In 1989 she was placed under house arrest. Despite her detention, the NLD won the election with 82 percent of the parliamentary seats, but the military dictatorship refused to recognize the results. Suu Kyi has remained in prison almost continuously since that time, rejecting the government’s offer of freedom as it would require her to leave Burma. In 2003, she was moved from prison and again placed under house arrest, which has been repeatedly and illegally extended by the junta. She remains a living expression of her people’s determination to gain political and economic freedoms. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, Suu Kyi has called on citizens around the world to “use your liberty to promote ours.”


http://www.humanrights.com/voices-for-human-rights/daw-aung.html


who:Aung San Suu Kyi
what:wrote a letter to the government
why:government killed thousands of civilians
when:1988
how:asked for holding democratic elections


suppress 鎮壓
uprising 起義
formation 形成
parliamentary 國會的

What happens if we leave?

Voting to leave the EU would create years of uncertainty and potential economic disruption. This would reduce investment and cost jobs.

The Government judges that it could result in ten years or more of uncertainty as the UK unpicks our relationship with the EU, and renegotiates new arrangements with the EU and over 50 other countries around the world.
HM Treasury analysis shows Britain’s economy could be tipped into a year-long recession. At least 500,000 jobs could be lost and GDP could be around 3.6% lower following a vote to leave the EU than it would be if we remained in the EU.
Average real wages could be nearly 3% lower than if we remained in the EU, which would amount to a reduction of £800 a year for someone working full time on the average wage.
Treasury analysis also shows that if the UK leaves the EU, after 15 years this could mean:

• a cost per year equivalent to £4,300 per household in the UK
• a hit to tax receipts of £36 billion a year
• this is the equivalent of an extra 8p on the basic rate of income tax

Some argue that we could strike a good deal quickly with the EU because they want to keep access to our market. But the Government’s judgement is that it would be much harder than that – less than 8% of EU exports come to the UK while 44% of UK exports go to the EU.
No other country has managed to secure significant access to the Single Market, without having to:

• follow EU rules over which they have no real say
• pay into the EU
• accept EU citizens living and working in their country

A more limited trade deal with the EU would give the UK less access to the Single Market than we have now – including for services, which make up almost 80% of the UK economy. For example, Canada’s deal with the EU will provide limited access for services like air travel, broadcasting and banking. The deal has been seven years in the making, and is still not in force.
If the UK voted to leave the EU, we would lose access to trade agreements with more than 50 countries outside the EU. The UK would seek to renegotiate these deals, but this would take years and there is no guarantee that the UK would manage to negotiate terms as good as those we enjoy today.
The UK would miss out on the benefits of the trade deals currently being negotiated by the EU, including with the US and Japan. When these are successfully concluded our exports to the EU, plus other countries covered by EU trade deals, would account for 82% of total UK exports.


http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20160815143715/https://www.eureferendum.gov.uk/what-happens-if-we-leave/




who:The UK
where:Europe
why:economy
how:voting


unpick 拆開

SUPPORT HUMANITY’S HEROES

Every day in Syria, volunteer rescue workers from the White Helmets rush to the scenes of bombings to pull people out from under the rubble and carry them to safety. Their courageous and selfless work has given hope to millions of civilians.

The White Helmets are an unlikely group of heroes. These former tailors, bakers, teachers and other ordinary Syrians banded together in 2013 to save the lives others were working so hard to take. They have now saved more than 78,529 lives. But for the work they do, White Helmet volunteers and their civil defence centres are often targeted. Russian and Syrian regime planes bomb civilians, and then they circle back bomb the rescue workers and medical workers who come to help.
Together let’s help replace the rescue equipment and ambulances that they’ve lost in the bombings. Let’s buy them diggers so they can pull heavy concrete slabs off of survivors buried in the rubble. Let’s provide medical care for wounded White Helmets and look after the families of the 154 volunteers killed in the line of duty.
Please help us raise enough money from around the world so that every White Helmet knows their work is powered by great love and support from people around the world.
Please give what you can - these brave volunteers are giving everything.


https://peoplesmillion.whitehelmets.org/donate/peoples-million


who:White Helmets
where:Syria
when:2013
what:help White Helmets
How:raise money


centre中心
tailor 縫工
digger挖掘者
slab後板

SpaceX Rocket In Great Shape After Historic Landing, Elon Musk Says

The rocket that SpaceX landed in a historic first last month is in great shape and ready to be fired again, company CEO Elon Musk says.
On Dec. 21, SpaceX successfully brought the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket back to Earth for a soft landing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida — the first time this had ever been done during an orbital launch. The achievement is a big step forward in SpaceX's quest to develop fully, rapidly reusable rockets, which Musk has said could slash the cost of spaceflight by a factor of 100.

Now there is more good news for SpaceX: The Falcon 9 stage appears to have survived its liftoff and landing with no ill effects, Musk said.
Falcon 9 back in the hangar at Cape Canaveral. No damage found, ready to fire again," Musk wrote in an Instagram post on Dec. 31, which accompanied a photo of the booster.

SpaceX plans to perform a "static fire" of the landed rocket stage on the ground at Cape Canaveral at some point, to confirm that all of the stage's systems are working well and that the booster could achieve full thrust during a re-flight mission, Musk said during a teleconference with reporters on Dec. 21 shortly after the landing. On Dec. 23, NASA released a video showing new views of the Falcon 9 landing.
This particular Falcon 9 stage will not take to the skies again, however; SpaceX aims to preserve it as a sort of museum piece, Musk added. But the company does intend to land and then re-fly a booster in the near future, he said.
"We have quite a big flight manifest, and we should be doing well over a dozen flights next year," Musk said during the Dec. 21 teleconference. "So I think, probably sometime next year, we will aim to re-fly one of the rocket boosters."
The rocket landing occurred during a launch whose main purpose was lofting to orbit 11 satellites for SpaceX customer Orbcomm. That part of the mission also went well, with all spacecraft achieving their intended orbits, SpaceX representatives said.
The Dec. 21 liftoff was the return-to-flight mission for SpaceX and the two-stage Falcon 9, which had failed during a June 28 launch of the company's robotic Dragon cargo capsule toward the International Space Station for NASA.
SpaceX holds a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly at least 12 such uncrewed re-supply missions. The next one is scheduled to liftoff sometime this month.
The June 28 failure was traced to a faulty steel strut in the Falcon 9's upper stage. In the aftermath of the accident, Musk vowed that the company would test every one of the hundreds of such struts that go into each Falcon 9.
SpaceX isn't the only entity working to develop reusable rockets. In November, Blue Origin, a spaceflight company led by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, successfully landed its New Shepard booster during a test flight that reached suborbital space.


http://www.space.com/31511-spacex-rocket-landing-great-shape-photos.html


 Structure of the Lead：
what:make the rocket refly
who:Elon Musk
when:Dec9


steel:鋼鐵
slash:割傷
strut:支柱
orbit:軌道
liftoff起飛

Paris climate deal at risk unless countries step up plans, says watchdog

The Paris agreement on climate change risks failure unless countries come forward with more ambitious and detailed plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the world’s energy watchdog has warned.
The agreement, reached almost a year ago, is only a “framework”, said the International Energy Agency on Wednesday, and requires sweeping policy changes among governments around the world to put its aims into force.
“Government policies will determine where we go from here,” said Fatih Birol, the executive director of the agency. Current national pledges on greenhouse gas emissions, though “an achievement”, are inadequate and most governments have yet to indicate what further reductions they could make.
Governments are meeting this week in Marrakech to flesh out some of the legal and technical details of the Paris accord. But their talks have been overshadowed by the election of Donald Trump as US president because he has vowed repeatedly to cancel the agreement, or at least the US’s participation in it. This risks returning the world to the stalemate that characterised the decade of climate talks from the 1997 Kyoto protocol to the 2008 accession of Barack Obama, during which the US barely took part in the negotiations or, in some cases, actively obstructed them.
Birol urged caution: “Governments come and go around the world. This is a perfectly normal thing, and energy policies change with changes in administration. We may well see a change in US policy and, given the size of the US economy, these changes may have global implications. If there are such changes, we will include them in our analysis. But for now, it would be premature to speculate on what these policies might be.”
Under the Paris agreement, which came into force this month, nations have pledged to hold global warming to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, with an “aspiration” not to exceed 1.5C. However, the accompanying national pledges made by each government on curbs to their emissions are not legally binding.
Although those national pledges are likely to be met, according to the IEA’s World Energy Outlook, widely regarded as the gold standard on energy research, this will only slow down the projected rise in carbon emissions from energy from an annual average of about 650m tonnes a year since 2000 to about 150m tonnes in 2040. While a significant change, that would still leave the world exceeding the 2C goal by about 0.7C by the end of the century.
Policies to bring the world on to a 2C trajectory must be implemented as a matter of urgency if the Paris pledge is to be fulfilled, the IEA said, as emissions must peak in the next few years to avoid adding too much to the stock of carbon in the atmosphere.
Once carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere, it tends to stay there for at least a century, unless absorbed by the planet’s “carbon sinks”, such as forests and oceans. However, our emissions have long outstripped the ability of the world’s carbon sinks to absorb them. It is the carbon in the atmosphere that determines what happens to climate change, and as yet there is no viable technology – and no realistic prospect of it – to suck carbon from the air.
These physical realities make early action on reducing emissions vital, because actions taken later will be less effective.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/16/paris-climate-deal-at-risk-unless-countries-step-up-plans-says-watchdog


 Structure of the Lead：
who:countries
where:Paris
what:The Paris agreement on climate change


emission 發行
framework 架構
bind 綑綁
outstrip 超過
premature 過早的