【1051-1053】 企鹅在主要繁殖场失踪& 越南政府医院寻求私人融资&在罗辛亚营地，政治活动对一些人来说是危险的
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AS IT IS
Penguins Missing from Major Breeding Ground
April 28, 2019
In this Jan. 27, 2015 photo, penguins walk on the shore of Bahia Almirantazgo in Antarctica. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
For the past three years, very few emperor penguins have produced baby penguins at the place they usually breed. A new study found that the same is true this year at Antarctica’s second biggest breeding grounds.
Scientists use satellite images to look at penguin groups in Antarctica. Most years, there are 15,000 to 24,000 pairs of emperor penguins that come to a breeding site on the ice at Halley Bay. Until recently, researchers have considered this area to be safe from experiencing warming temperatures – and melting ice – during this century. Emperor penguins breed only on sea ice. So, once ice melts in a place, they can no longer breed there.
According to a study released this week in Antarctic Science, almost no emperor penguins have been seen at Halley Bay since 2016.
The number of breeding pairs, male and female penguins, that raise their chickstogether, has gone up quickly at a nearby breeding ground called Dawson-Lambton. Yet, the study’s writer said that number is not the same as the number of penguins usually seen at Halley Bay.
Phil Trathan is head of conservation biology at the British Antarctic Survey. “We’ve never seen a breeding failure on a scale like this in 60 years,” he said. “It’s unusual to have a complete breeding failure in such a big colony.”
Normally about 8 percent of the world’s emperor penguin population breeds at Halley Bay, Trathan said.
Emperor penguins are black and white, with yellow ears and breasts. They are the largest penguin species. They can weigh up to 40 kilograms and live for about 20 years. Pairs breed in the coldest winter conditions. The male is responsible for incubating the egg for about two months.
Scientists say the sharp drop in numbers is because of climate and weather conditions. Storms, wind and warmer weather break apart the “fast ice” — sea ice that is connected to land. That is where emperor penguins stay to breed. They incubate their egg and care for their chick — one each pair — on ice. After breeding and then feeding the chicks for a few months until they can swim, the penguins move to open sea.
The study found that in 2016 and 2017, there was no breeding activity in Halley Bay. Last year, there were very few pairs.
The nearby Dawson-Lambton breeding area saw fewer than 2,000 pairs in 2015. That number increased to around 11,000 pairs in 2017 and over 14,000 pairs in 2018, the study said.
That means the penguins have not completely disappeared, but it doesn’t account for the total number lost at Halley Bay, Trathan said.
The move of part of the colony to Dawson-Lambton is not the central problem. The real problem is that scientists thought of Halley Bay as a climate change refuge, a place “where in the future you expect to always have emperors,” Trathan said.
Trathan said a super strong El Niño -- a natural cycle of warming in the central Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide -- melted more sea ice than usual. Wind and waves hit the ice shelf, or fast ice. That made the breeding home a less secure place to raise chicks.
The breeding colony failure, Trathan said, “is a warning of things that might become important in the future.”
Stephanie Jenouvrier is a penguin expert at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved in the study. She said the study results make sense. A great environmental change can sometimes lead to a breeding failure like this, she said. A 2014 study by Jenouvrier predicted that, because of climate change, the worldwide population of emperor penguins would fall by at least 19 percent by the year 2100.
-=v1-
I’m Jill Robbins.
Seth Borenstein reported on this story for the Associated Press. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
________________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
breed - v. to produce young animals, birds and so on, or to produce offspring by sexual reproduction
breeding ground – n. a place where animals go to breed
chick - n. a baby bird
scale - n. the size or level of something especially in comparison to something else
incubate - v. to sit on eggs so that they will be kept warm and will hatch (break open and produce young)
refuge - n. a place that provides shelter or protection
What do you think has happened to the emperor penguins? Write to us in the Comments Section.
AS IT IS
Vietnam’s Government Hospitals Explore Private Financing
April 28, 2019
Vietnam is officially a socialist republic, but the country is starting to make parts of its health care system private.
The move raises questions about whether the government can guarantee care for all as a basic right, and about how much it will spend on health care.
The Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine is a medical school in Ho Chi Minh City. It receives money from the government. This month the university said it is looking for a private investor to help it expand. The school wants to build a new training and health care center on its grounds. It said the idea is for the university to take responsibility for the center’s operations and the training, while a private company would handle the actual building project.
Private money may be needed
Doctor Ngo Minh Xuan is the Rector of the Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine. He said that “Ho Chi Minh City’s health care needs are critical due to rapid urbanization and a growing population.” But he noted that hospitals cannot meet those growing health care needs effectively by depending only on public money.
The efforts to partially privatize health services are part of a larger movement in the country of 100 million people. More and more international hospitals are opening up or expanding.
For example, the Hanh Phuc International Hospital, which opened in 2011 near Ho Chi Minh City, calls itself the “Singapore Standard Hospital” and treats women and children.
The Viet Duc University Hospital is also known as the Vietnam Germany Hospital. It has exchange and training programs with medical centers in France, Germany and Australia.
Vietnam’s government increasingly permits financing from private companies or groups, such as through a trade deal with the European Union that permits higher foreign investment.
Health care for all
Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the government has provided health care for every Vietnamese citizen. Most people have insurance policies that the government helps to pay for. But individuals use their own money to pay some of the costs.
Doctors treat their job as a public service. They often travel from their home base to hospitals in rural areas and other communities in need of medical services.
The government also works to improve health care in the countryside through community health centers. These local centers admit patients more easily than the big city hospitals.
Vietnam offers better health care services than neighboring countries as measured by international researchers. Between 2009 and 2018, the average life expectancy rate rose from 74.8 years to 75.9 years. The country’s measures of good health care services and supply of food also rose.
Weaknesses in the system
Still there are weaknesses in the health care system. Some people say these problems could be solved with more private investment. A sick person often has to pay a bribeto a doctor to request better care. Other patients have to share hospital beds or wait outside medical buildings.
The Vietnamese government has gotten close to its public debt ceiling of 65 percent of gross domestic product – that is, the total value of goods and services produced during a year.
There has been a drop in the rate of doctors per 1,000 people and in the relative number of hospital beds available over the past 10 years. That is especially hard for Ho Chi Minh City, the southern business center and home for 13 million people. The city’s population represents about one-fourth of Vietnam’s overall demand for health care. The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry reports that Ho Chi Minh City has more than 100 hospitals.
Another change coming to Vietnam is economic. The country is expected to move from a lower middle-income nation to an upper middle-income nation in the next 10 years.
Asia Pacific chief economist Rajiv Biswas and economist Bernard Aw recently prepared a report for investment research firm IHS Markit. They found that the change “will make Vietnam a fast-growing market for a wide range of goods and services.”
Since health care will be counted as one of those services, it is likely that Vietnam’s debate about private funding of health care will continue.
I’m Jill Robbins.
Ha Nguyen reported on this story for VOA News. Jill Robbins adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
_________________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
socialist – adj. describes a government which supports that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or controlled by the community as a whole
rector – n. a leader; someone who directs something, such as a religious group
urbanization – n. the process by which towns and cities are formed and become larger as more and more people begin living and working in central areas
privatize – v. to remove (something) from government control and place it in private control or ownership
insurance – n. a method of guaranteeing safety or protection
bribe – n. something valuable that is given in order to get someone to do something
income – n. earnings; monetary gain
What do you think of private hospitals in comparison to public hospitals? We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section.
AS IT IS
In Rohingya Camps, Political Activities Risky For Some
April 28, 2019
It was after Mohib Ullah scored his first political victories that the death threats began for real. On a recent morning, the Rohingya refugee spoke with Reuters in the Bangladesh camp where he lives. He read the latest warning, sent over the WhatsApp messaging app.
“Mohib Ullah is a virus of the community,” he read. “Kill him wherever he is found.”
The 44-year-old leads the largest of several community groups that have formed since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims sought refuge in Bangladesh. They fled to escape a campaign of severe attacks by Myanmar’s military beginning in August 2017.
Myanmar’s government has ordered increasingly severe restrictions against the minority ethnic group for many years, including denying them citizenship.
A new civil society is growing among the Rohingya in the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar area. Some refugee campaigners are seeking justice for reported violence in Myanmar. A small group of women are working for increased rights for females. Others are simply working to improve life in the settlement that is now home to more than 900,000 people.
But several refugees told Reuters reporters that, along with the political awakening, violence has increased at the camps. They say militants and religious conservatives are competing for power. The refugees describe increasing fear in the camps, where armed men have raided shelters at night, kidnapped critics and warned women against violating conservative Islamic traditions.
The Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, or ARSA, is active in the camps, refugees say. So are several other armed groups. ARSA is also known as Harakah al-Yaqin -- the movement of faith.
“In the daytime, the al-Yaqin guys become normal people,” said one young woman, who, like other refugees, requested not to be identified for her safety. “But at night," she said, "it’s like they have a kind of magical power.”
Talks and threats
Reuters spoke with UN employees, diplomats, Bangladeshi officials and researchers about the forces competing for influence in the world’s largest refugee settlement.
Some are hopeful that the stateless Rohingya are beginning to find political expression.
However, there are also fears. Officials worry that a turn to violence could make solving the refugee crisis through talks impossible.
“Refugee camps in many parts of the world are becoming recruitment grounds for terrorists,” said Mozammel Haque, the head of Bangladesh’s cabinet committee on law and order. He said if this happens, it would affect Bangladesh and nearby countries.
Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay did not answer calls seeking comment. Zaw Htay said during a press conference in January that Myanmar had protested to Bangladesh over what he said were ARSA bases inside Bangladesh.
The front line in the struggle for the Rohingyas’ future are the bamboo structures where refugees take shelter from the heat and dust. In the office of his group, the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), Mohib Ullah holds an open meeting each morning.
ARSPH has documented reported atrocities the Rohingya suffered in Myanmar. Mohib Ullah went from home to home to try to get a count of the killings, rapes and fires. He shared the information he gathered with international investigators.
ARSPH says its main goal is to get Rohingya involved in international talks on their future.
But not everyone agrees with the group's methods. Some refugees argue for a stronger position in talks about how the refugees might return to Myanmar.
“We are flexible, we want to negotiate,” said a senior leader of ARSPH, who asked not be identified. “But we fear we may be harmed because of this.”
ARSA is among ARSPH’s opponents, that leader said.
Night terrors
Bangladeshi security forces guard the outside of the camps to stop refugees from leaving. But violent men run the crowded camps inside, especially at night, refugees told Reuters.
In some parts of the camps, those men claim ties to ARSA, said more than six refugees. United Nations officials and other workers watching the group’s activities say it is unclear how many of those men are under orders from the group’s leadership. But some of them reportedly have asked wealthier refugees and shopkeepers to pay taxes. They say the money will be used to fight back in Myanmar, refugees said.
One refugee who volunteers as an aid worker in the camps told Reuters he witnessed a kidnapping in January by men he believed belong to ARSA. Men with wooden sticks moved quickly into one area of the camp and took away a man who had refused to attend one of ARSA's meetings, he said.
“They just carried him off like a goat to the slaughter.”
Reuters was unable to confirm the reported incident or find out what happened to the man.
Reuters was unable to reach ARSA for comment.
Police have recorded a rise in violence in the camps in recent months, said Iqbal Hossain, a police official in Cox’s Bazar.
“So far we have not found any link to any militant groups,” said Hossain. He added that there were only 992 officers deployed to the camps.
Reuters also asked the UN refugee agency about reports of ARSA involvement in the violence. The agency noted police reports that found most violence and threats in the camps were carried out by what they called “criminal elements or related to personal vendettas.”
“You didn’t listen”
Myanmar government media said ARSA launched three attacks across the border in Myanmar early this year. In February, ARSA promised to continue its armed campaign.
ARSA propaganda shows the group as ethnic freedom fighters and does not suggest a position on religious tradition. But some refugees -- and a report by an international non-governmental organization -- say ARSA members and Islamic leaders push for extremely conservative religious behavior.
Four women told Reuters they had received threats for going out to work for aid groups in the camps. Many women with jobs in the camps are experiencing paid employment for the first time in their lives.
Mohammed Kamruzzaman is an education specialist with the aid group BRAC. He told Reuters that 150 of its female teachers had stopped coming to work in January after receiving or hearing about “violent threats”.
I'm Caty Weaver.
And I'm Ashley Thompson.
Reuters News Agency reported this story. Caty Weaver adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
________________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
magical - adj. related to having a special power, influence, or skill
flexible - adj. able to change or to do different things
slaughter - n. the act of killing animals for their meat
vendetta - n. a very long and violent fight between two families or groups
recruitment - n. the act of finding suitable people and getting them to join a company, an organization, the armed forces, etc.
front line - n. the most important and active position in a job or field of activity
bamboo - n. a tall plant with hard hollow stems that are used for building and to make furniture, tools, etc.
atrocity - n. a very cruel or terrible act or action
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