Week.3-same sex marriage, legal, the US

Love just won 不同又相同的愛

Sat, Jul 04, 2015 - Page 11

Nine US Supreme Court Justices have ruled that the gay marriage ban is unconstitutional and have legalized same-sex marriage across the fifty states of the US. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yu Mei-nu remarked, “I hope that our grand justices can also base their decisions on the Constitution, not just public opinion polls, and reach a milestone for gender equality in Taiwan in the near future.”

Gay actor Ian McKellen, who played Magneto in the X-men films, rejoiced at the news and without hesitation accepted fellow actor Derek Jacobi’s marriage proposal. McKellen has frequently spoken out for the gay community, but, in fact, did not come out of the closet until he was forty-nine, which he regretted bitterly. He believes that if he had come out much earlier, he would have turned into a completely different person.

Exiled Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan published his opinion on Facebook, saying that it is through prolonged and arduous effort that this step has finally been achieved; the legalization of same-sex marriage in the US shows the world that the US’s insistence on basic values and its capacity to tolerate diversity have not abated. Wang said, such a capacity is the foundation on which the US, or any nation in the world, depends to establish itself as a nation. The US not only realizes gay rights, but also reached a social consensus that says “all men are created equal.” This is a principle so holy that no obsolete customs, religions or political doctrines should be allowed to violate. Lastly, Wang gaily called out to the Bread of Life Christian Church and the Alliance of Religious Groups for the Love of Families Taiwan, “Welcome to the civilized world.”

Lawyer Lu Chiu-yuan said the US is the biggest Christian country in the world, hence the US Supreme Court’s ruling is worth celebrating, but it would be foolish to think that this will help Taiwan take a big step forward in gender equality. “The reason is, we have elected a group of irresponsible legislators,” said Lu. “In the future four to eight years, Taiwan’s gender equality movement will be in the hands of the legislators and grand justices. However, none of the four new grand justices recently ‘elected’ by the legislature are liberals; all of them are conservatives.“

Lu urged those who care about gender equality movements not to just rainbow-ify their Facebook profile pictures, but to remember to elect those who can really represent them in next year’s elections; those elected politicians will then select the best grand justices, who will counteract majority public opinion, which is prone to errors, for the sake of disadvantaged minority groups.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/print/2015/07/04/2003622190

Stucture of the Lead:

Who:Nine US Supreme Court Justices
When:June, 2015
What:Legalized same-sex marriage
Why:The gay marriage ban was unconstitutional
Where:the US
How:Gays around the world were very glad about the result.

Keywords:

1.unconstitutional  違憲

2.polls  民意調查

3.rejoiced  歡欣鼓舞

4.prolonged  經久

5.arduous  艱鉅

6.diversity  多樣

7.abated  減輕

8.consensus  共識

9.obsolete 陳舊的

10.conservatives  保守派

11.counteract  抵制

12.prone  易於

13.sake  為了

Week2 throat cut, elementary school girl

Man allegedly cuts young girl’s throat

Sat, May 30, 2015 | By Jake Chung  /  Staff writer

    WITH A SMILE:The eight-year-old was undergoing emergency medical treatment as of press time. Reports said the suspect was angry at being jobless, or had been scolded for not visiting his cancer-stricken father

    A 29-year-old man surnamed Kung (龔) was arrested yesterday after an attack at an elementary school in Taipei in which an eight-year-old girl’s throat was cut.

    As of press time, the girl was undergoing emergency medical treatment at Taipei Veterans General Hospital.(台北榮民總醫院)

    Police said preliminary investigations suggest Kung entered the grounds of Wenhua Elementary School (文化國小) in Taipei’s Beitou District (北投) at about 4pm yesterday, before walking up four flights of stairs to the girls’ restroom, pulling out a knife when he saw the girl about to enter the restroom and allegedly slashing her twice across the throat.

    The girl was found lying in a pool of blood and was rushed to hospital, while Kung remained at the scene and was detained by police.

    An angry crowd gathered outside the police station last night and attempted to beat Kung as he stepped out of the police car. The police managed to hold back the crowd and took him into the station.

    There was conflicting information about Kung’s supposed motive, with some sources saying that he was enraged after being unable to find work for four months, while others said that Kung was upset after being scolded by his mother and brother for not visiting his cancer-stricken father in hospital on Thursday.

    Responding to questions from city councilors about the attack during a question-and-answer session at a city council meeting, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that the city would assemble a special task force to review schoolground safety and security and establish a system within a year to screen and monitor dangerous people.

    He added that the city presently had no system that would have been capable of keeping tabs on the suspect.

    Department of Education Commissioner(教育部) Tang Chih-min (湯志民) said that because schools are “open” as a matter of policy, it is difficult to keep tabs on everyone entering school grounds.

    However, he said that more could be done to improve schoolground security, including addressing security camera “blind spots.”

    Ko canceled a planned evening fund-raising appearance because of the incident, instead chairing a late-night city government meeting about the matter.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2015/05/30/2003619485

Stucture of the Lead:

What:A cruel random killing

Who:An eight-year-old girl

When:May 30, 2015

Why:The suspect was angry at being jobless, or had been scolded for not visiting his cancer-stricken father

Where:Wenhua Elementary School

How:Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said that the city would assemble a special task force to review schoolground safety and security and establish a system within a year to screen and monitor dangerous people.

Keywords:

1.jobless  失業

2.preliminary   初步的

3.allegedly  據稱

4.slashing  削減

5.enraged  生氣

6.cancer-stricken  被癌症侵害的

7.councilors  議員

8.assemble  組合

9.presently  現在

10.tabs  標籤

Week 1-Mediterranean Sea, migrant shipwreck

400 migrants die in shipwreck off Libya, survivors say

Tue Apr 14, 2015 2:03pm EDT | BY STEVE SCHERER AND GAVIN JONES

    About 400 migrants died in an attempt to reach Italy from Libya when their boat capsized, survivors said on Tuesday, the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean where the death toll from shipwrecks has surged this year.

    The boat, carrying about 550 migrants in total, flipped about 24 hours after leaving the Libyan coast, according to some of the 150 survivors who were rescued and brought to a southern Italian port on Tuesday morning, Save the Children reported.

    Before this incident there had already been more than 500 deaths of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from Africa this year, up sharply from 47 in the same period of 2014, said the Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM,國際移民組織)

    The survivors of the latest shipwreck were mostly sub-Saharan Africans, but no further details were available, a Save the Children spokesman told Reuters. It was not clear exactly when the boat had capsized.

    The number of boats carrying migrants aiming to reach the EU from Africa has picked up in recent weeks as fine spring weather makes the passage safer. In February, more than 300 drowned when attempting the crossing in cold weather and rough seas.

    Save the Children, the IOM and other humanitarian organizations have called for the European Union to bolster its sea rescue operations before the migrant flows soar as they usually do in the summer months.

    On Monday, 2,851 migrants were saved in rescue operations in the Mediterranean, the Italian coastguard said, adding to at least nine who died and 5,629 who were saved over the weekend.

    Italy, which handled the largest number of migrant arrivals in the EU, has become increasingly alarmed about the breakdown of law and order in Libya, which has greatly exacerbated the task of tackling the migrant flows. Libya is home to two rival governments, loosely aligned militia forces and a growing militant Islamist movement.

    Separately, the EU border control agency Frontex said on Tuesday that migrant traffickers had fired shots to prevent their wooden boat being confiscated after rescuers saved the 250 people it was carrying off the coast of Libya.

    After the migrants had been transferred, a speedboat approached and its crew fired several shots into the air before the assailants sped away with the empty migrant boat, Frontex said.

    Frontex said the episode marked the second time this year that armed smugglers had taken back a vessel used to transport migrants following a rescue in the central Mediterranean.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/14/us-italy-migrant-shipwreck-idUSKBN0N51Y120150414

Stucture of the Lead:
Who:Migrants
When:Apr 14, 2015
What:A tragedy
Why:Migrants died in shipwreck when they attempt to get to Italy from Libya
Where:Mediterranean
How:



Keywords:
1.capsized  翻船
2.death toll  死亡人數
3.surged  飆升
4.bolster  加強
5.flows soar  流量飆升
6.exacerbated  加劇
7.tackling  搶斷
8.rival  競爭的
9.militant  激進的
10.traffickers  毒販
11.confiscated  沒收
12.assailants  襲擊者
13.smugglers  走私者