【247-249】Spain Becomes Top EU Migrant Destination

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*【247】AS IT IS

Spain Becomes Top EU Migrant Destination

July 22, 2018

Migrants intercepted aboard a dinghy off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea, leave a rescue boat upon arrival at the port of Malaga, southern Spain, July 7, 2018.

Spain has become the number-one destination for migrants who cross the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe.

Before, the country most of the migrants tried to reach was Italy.

The latest numbers come from for the European Union's border agency Frontex. They show the number of migrants reaching Spain increased 166 percent from a year ago, to nearly 6,400 in June.

Migrants from Morocco, Guinea and Mali made up the highest number of arrivals in Spain this year.

The number of migrants who used the central Mediterranean path to Italy and Malta this June fell to about 3,000. That is a drop of 87 percent compared to June 2017.

The Italian government recently banned non-governmental organization (NGO) boats from disembarking migrants in Italian ports. The ban is expected to last through the summer.

Demonstrators have protested the decision. They accuse their government of being responsible for the deaths of migrants at sea.

The United Nations says one in seven migrants making the crossing has drowned since Italy banned NGO boats.

Earlier this week, the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms discovered a destroyed migrant boat off the coast of Libya. Rescuers found the bodies of a woman and child. Another woman was found alive.

The group and other NGOs accuse the Libyan coast guard and a ship that was nearby of leaving the migrants to die.

Oscar Camps, who founded Proactiva Open Arms, said the deaths were a direct result of "not allowing NGOs, which rescue lives in the Mediterranean, to work here.”

Earlier this week, five European nations — France, Spain, Germany, Malta and Portugal — agreed to share 450 migrants who had been rescued by Italian government boats. Italy refused to take all of them in. Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini wrote on Twitter: "Firmness and coherence pay off."

He later told reporters that his goal was “to save everyone. To aid everyone. To heal everyone. To feed everyone. But to avoid that everyone comes to Italy.”

In total, the number of so-called irregular migrant crossings into the European Union in the first half of 2018 was more than 60,000. That is almost a 50-percent drop from a year ago.

I'm Susan Shand.

VOA’s Henry Ridgewell reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

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Words in This Story

destination - n. a place to which a person is going or something is being sent

disembark - v. to remove (something or someone) from a ship or airplane

allow - v. to permit

coherence – n. the ability to talk or express yourself in a clear way that can be easily understood

irregular - adj. not following the usual rules about what should be done

*【248】AS IT IS

World’s Oldest Bread Found at Prehistoric Site in Jordan

July 22, 2018

A stone structure at an archeological site containing a fireplace, seen in the middle, where charred remains of 14,500-year-old bread was found in the Black Desert, in northeastern Jordan in this photo provided July 16, 2018. (Alexis Pantos/Handout via REUTERS)

The burned remains of bread made about 14,500 years ago in northeastern Jordan have given scientists a surprise: humans started making bread long before they developed agriculture.

The bread was found in a stone fireplace at an ancient site in Jordan’s Black Desert.

It is the oldest bread ever found.

Researchers said this week that the discovery shows that hunter-gatherers in the Eastern Mediterranean learned to make bread more than 4,000 years before farming began. That is much earlier than scientists had thought.

The bread was made from wild cereals like barley and oats, as well as tubers. It was made by a group of people called the Natufians. At the time, they had started to change from a nomadic way of life to one in which they stayed in one place.

Amaia Arranz-Otaegui was a lead writer and researcher of the study. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. She called the bread discovery “exceptional.”

Arranz-Otaegui said scientists must now consider whether “there was a relationship between bread production” and the beginning of agriculture. She added that the desire for bread may have led nomadic people to start growing food and staying in one area.

She also said the researchers have begun the process of trying to reproduce the prehistoric bread.

The bread might not have been very tasty, Arranz-Otaegui said. She described the taste of the tubers used for the flour as “quite gritty and salty. But it is a bit sweet as well.”

The next-oldest bread ever discovered was found in Turkey. It was over 9,000 years old.

I’m Susan Shand.

This story was reported by Reuters. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

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Words in This Story

cereal – n. a plant that produces grain that can be eaten

tuber – n. a short, thick, round stem that is a part of certain plants (such as the potato), that grows underground, and that can produce a new plant

flour – n. powder made from a grain (especially wheat) that is used in cooking for making bread, cakes, etc.

nomadic – adj. a member of a group of people who move from place to place instead of living in one place all the time

archeological - adj. a science that deals with past human life and activities by studying the bones, tools, etc., of ancient people

gritty - adj. containing very small pieces of sand or stone

*【249】AS IT IS

The Complex Issue of Metis Identity

July 22, 2018

Métis dancers performing at the Ryan Keplin Summer Fest in Belcourt, N.D., July 15, 2015.

A debate over identity is playing out over a people most Americans have never even heard about.

The group are called Métis, a French word for “mixed.” They are the descendants of French animal trappers and native women during the 1600s in today’s Western Canada.

In time, the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of these couples married each other. Métis developed their own language, their own music, their own style of clothes, and their own kind of food. In other words, they developed their own culture.

Métis became known for the red sash they wore, jig dancing, as well as the Red River cart, used as transportation throughout the 19th century.

By the early 1800s, the Métis had created a new political identity, too. It was centered in a colony in the present-day Canadian province of Manitoba. But some established settlements in the United States, too.

After the U.S. and Canada settled their borders, many American Métis were grouped with other native people and ended up on Indian reservations. Over time, some families have kept their Métis identity and culture. Others have lost it completely.

Jt Shining One Side, also known as Joyce T. Belgarde, didn’t learn about her Métis heritage until she went to college. “Michif (the Métis language) was spoken in the home, but my parents were products of Indian boarding school, where they were beaten for speaking other languages, so they didn’t want to teach us about that way of life,” she said.

In Canada, the government officially recognized Métis in 1982 as one of three aboriginal groups. They received the same hunting, fishing and land use rights as the First Nation and the Inuit.

But these days, a record number of people are claiming Métis identity, both in Canada and the U.S. Many of these claims, said anthropologist Kade Ferris, are not true. He said some use the word “Métis” to mean they are mixed race Native and non-Native. But, he said, the term really describes being part of a particular culture or nation.

Others are only looking to use the tax breaks and land use rights given to the “real” Métis, say members of the Métis National Council.

A Métis man and his two wives, artist unknown, circa 1825-1826

In 2017, the Canadian government signed a nation-to-nation agreement with the Métis Nation and has promised $516 million over 10 years to support housing, health and educational needs.

In the U.S., Métis are working to relearn their language, Michif, and continue to celebrate their history and culture in festivals and other events. But they are not trying to gain independent recognition.

Rosalyn LaPier is a Métis writer and member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana. She said separating Métis from Chippewa or Cree would be impossible because their cultures are so combined.

“But we know who we are,” she added.

I’m Susan Shand.

Cecily Hilleary reported this story for VOA. Susan Shand adapted for Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor.

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