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1【Ethiopian Diaspora Media Compete Over Message】埃塞俄比亚移民媒体竞相报道
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TEXT:At a recent anti-Ethiopian government rally in the city of Thurmont, Maryland, many of the journalists and citizen journalists recording material were from the Ethiopian diaspora.
Photos and videos of the protest were quickly posted on Ethiopian diaspora websites.
Another part of Maryland, Silver Spring, has, for years, been the base for Discovery Communications, which bills itself as the world’s top non-fiction media company.
More recently, this Washington suburb has become the hub of competing Ethiopian diaspora media.
Ethiopian-born, American-raised Nunu Wako is preparing to tape an interview for her lifestyle show called "The Nunu Wako Show". It airs on the EBS television network.
Many of her shows focus on success stories in the diaspora.
“Our focus is Ethiopians and Africans," Wako explains. "We want to tell the story, the journey that we take when we are not in Ethiopia and how we do everything that might not be doable, but make the impossible possible."
She adds that her program, like others on EBS, stays away from politics which deeply divide her community. Some members are strong supporters of two-decade ruler Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, while others call him a dictator who suppresses freedoms. Very few Ethiopian immigrants have an impartial view.
From a nearby studio in Silver Spring, Abebe Belew hosts his weekly Addis Dimts radio show. He says he has no choice but to discuss politics.
“I speak about all the issues, but most of the time, the serious problem is Ethiopian politics," Belew notes. "If you have been to Ethiopia, you can see we have a very young generation, the majority of them, and the atmosphere, the global atmosphere for change is very suitable. But because of the Meles dictator government, the Ethiopians cannot do anything.”
Belew said that he would be thrown in jail if he did his radio show in Ethiopia. His show costs $75,000 per year with much of the money coming from online donations.
“It is clear for Ethiopians. All you have to do is speak the truth and tell it as it is. So that is how my style is,” Belew adds.
Opponents of the Ethiopian government interviewed at the Thurmont protest said they loved the Addis Dimts show, while they said shows like those broadcast on EBS appeal to supporters of Prime Minister Meles.
But they said it is nice to be able to choose from more and more African media, including those being made in the diaspora, where freedom of speech and media go much further than they do at home.
2【Obama Presses Congress on Student Loan Interest】奥巴马就学生借贷利息问题向国会施压
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TEXT:This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Student loans and the interest millions of Americans pay on them have been getting a lot of attention recently. Student loan payments and interest are a financial reality for men and women in many different kinds of jobs across the United States.
The Department of Education says interest rates for Direct Subsidized Student Loans will double to just under seven percent on July first. Five years ago, Congress passed a measure that lowered interest rates for the government loans. But the law is set to expire.
The president has called for the lower, 3.4 percent interest rate in his new budget. But if Congress does not act, new student borrowers will pay more. Other borrowing-related costs will also go up. The Obama administration says this will cost each student borrower an additional one thousand dollars on average.
Higher education in the United States is costly. The Department of Education says the average yearly cost of attending a public college was about twelve thousand eight hundred dollars in twenty ten. The total for private schools was over thirty-two thousand.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York collects financial information. It says Americans owed eight hundred forty-five billion dollars in student loans last year. Some reports say the amount is now near one trillion dollars.
The administration says 7.4 million students will be affected without a new law. This week, President Obama traveled to several college campuses. At the University of North Carolina, he talked about his own experience.
BARACK OBAMA: “We didn’t come from wealthy families. So when we graduated from college and law school, we had a mountain of debt. When we married, we got poor together.”
Supporters of low student loan interest rates have promised a campaign to get new legislation. An extension is estimated to cost the government six billion dollars. Mitt Romney, the Republican Party’s likely presidential candidate, supports an extension. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives say they like the popular program. They just differ on how to pay for it. Republicans want the money to come from the new health care reform law.
The Democratic Party has proposed increasing taxes on some businesses, including oil and gas companies. Last Tuesday, President Obama put his argument to music on a late-night television program.
BARACK OBAMA: "Now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people.”
JIMMY FALLON: “Oh yeah.”
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. I'm June Simms.
