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3.11.05 |
| Kesi ya ngono yazua gumzo Ufaransa |
| By Keith W. Tyras Romanello 2004: 10.22 10.29 11.5 11.12 11.19 11.26 12.3 12.10 12.17 12.24 12.31 |
| 2005: 1.7 1.14 1.21 1.28 2.4 2.11 2.18 2.25 3.4 3.18 3.25 4.1 4.8 4.15 4.22 4.29 5.6 5.13 5.20 5.27 6.3 6.10 6.17 6.24 7.1 7.8 7.15 7.22 7.29 8.5 8.12 8.19 8.26 9.2 |
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Zaidi ya watu 60 wamefikishwa mahakamani nchini
Ufaransa, kwa tuhuma za makosa ya kuwanajisi watoto, baadhi ya watoto hao wakiwa na umri wa miezi
sita. Miongoni mwa wanaoshutumiwa ni kikundi cha wanaume 39 na wanawake 27, ambao wanasemekana ni sehemu ya genge la watu wanaowatumia watoto kwa maswala ya
kingonp, katika maeneo yanayokaliwa na watu masikini, magharibi mwa mji wa Angers. Majaji wanasema zaidi ya watoto 10 walibakwa ama na wazazi wao, au kuuzwa kwa watu wengine, ili kujipatia chakula au sigara, ama pesa kidogo. Imagine if what you just tried reading and understanding was critical information about a subject that directly pertained to you, your family and how you raise your children. Imagine if everyone who spoke Swahili was able to receive this information in their own language - but the subject matter pertained EQUALLY to people who spoke the language I am writing in, English, and you were never able to get this important information. I have no idea what the above words in Swahili say. I copied a portion of the article "Kesi ya ngono yazua gumzo Ufaransa" from BBC in Swahili. I actually have no desire to learn Swahili. I have been attempting to speak, read and write in Spanish for more than 30 years now. The fact that I still have to write all my weekly commentaries in English is a fairly good indication of just how pathetic I am. I could definitely write all my commentaries in MY VERSION of Spanish, and you would probably understand much of it -- but it would probably take you 4 or 5 times as long to understand exactly what it is I am attempting to communicate. It's more or less the same thing when you use an online translator translating an article from English to Spanish or vice versa. You'll eventually understand most of what you read, but it will take you some time. This is assuming that you would be able to initially understand English or Spanish well enough to read the headline of the article you think you want to translate. Imagine seeing an article entitled "English-Speaking Hispanic Teens More Likely To Be Sexually Active Than Spanish-Speaking Counterparts In U.S., Survey Shows" and it was available ONLY IN ENGLISH. It's an article that is PRIMARILY about Hispanics -- it's about the Spanish language as much as it is about the English language AND it's about a subject that EVERY RESPONSIBLE PARENT would consider critical, TEENS AND SEX. Here's an article I read Tuesday on HoustonChronical.com. It's entitled "Hispanic Teen Sex Study Puzzling: Increased Use Of New Language Seems To Lead To A Much Higher Level Of Activity" and was written by Eric Berger . . . «As Hispanic teens shed the language of their native countries and immerse themselves in American culture, they become dramatically more sexually active, a new study shows. A review of 7,300 Arizona teenagers' behavior, which should translate well to other states that border Mexico, including Texas, found that 31 percent of Hispanic teens who speak primarily English have had sex, more than twice the percentage of those who speak primarily Spanish, 14 percent. The key question - why? - remains unanswered. "I wish I knew," said the study's lead author, Dr. Mary Adam, a pediatrics researcher at the University of Arizona's College of Medicine. "This is certainly something we are continuing to explore." The study, published in this month's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, adds evidence to the so-called healthy immigrant paradox, that Hispanics coming to the United States are healthier than second- and third-generation U.S. residents from the same countries. Various research has found that less-Americanized Hispanic children have healthier diets, better immunization rates, fewer suicide attempts, and decreased use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs than more Americanized adolescents. "The study certainly speaks to some of the risks we face in everyday life here," said Katharine Donato, a sociologist at Rice University who studies ethnic health disparities. "But I wouldn't quite say it's an indictment of our culture." Some researchers have attributed the importance of family in Hispanic culture, and the high regard for parental roles, as playing a part in protecting health, as well as the social support from a large family. But there is not a broad consensus yet in the medical and sociological communities studying these questions. A better understanding of the beneficial aspects of Hispanic culture, and the healthy components of U.S. culture could generate new approaches to address a host of public health issues, from obesity to smoking, said Dr. Glenn Flores, a pediatrician at the Medical College of Wisconsin, in an editorial that accompanied the research article. "The discovery of a single unifying intervention that could reduce or prevent some or all of these conditions would be hailed as one of the greatest accomplishments of modern medicine," he wrote. Dr. Peggy Smith, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine and director of Ben Taub Hospital's Teen Health Clinic, said the trends in the study follow what she has observed. Smith says as Hispanic girls become more immersed in U.S. culture, if they are unmarried when they become pregnant, they tend to be far less inclined to marry before or soon after the child is born. That means the children are being raised in single-parent homes, which has financial ramifications, and studies have clearly shown that opportunities and outcomes for such children are far lower than compared to two-parent families, Smith said. Smith believes she knows at least partly why Hispanic adolescents become more sexually active after living in the United States. Hispanic children who come to this country become immersed in a culture that is more permissive about sex, Smith said - chaperones are not uncommon on dates in Mexico. Beyond that, because of an increasing focus on abstinence, there is less information available about birth control than in most other industrialized countries. "As a culture, we have problems with openly discussing the whens and ifs of sex with our children," Smith said. "This is one of the outcomes of that."» Now, if the study by the University of Arizona's College of Medicine is accurate, and I have no reason to believe it is not, it's something that EVERYONE needs to be made aware of. For the past 4 days, including this morning, I have been searching for the Spanish-language version of this article without success. I even used the search engine of the Houston Chronicle, hoping at least they would have had a Spanish-language version on the section of their website where they present news articles in Spanish -- but could not find it. Many times, an article presented in English will eventually, down the road, when someone eventually gets around to it, will then pop-up in Spanish, somewhere. Hopefully this is one of those cases. In my opinion, every English-language newspaper in the United States should have presented this article since both Hispanics and non-Hispanics live in every state. It's also my opinion that this article should have been made available in Puerto Rico as well. Although most people in Puerto Rico speak English a lot better than I speak Spanish -- Spanish IS the PRIMARY language for just about everyone, YET teen pregnancy is a REAL PROBLEM. I wish I could figure that one out. Maybe someone will someday soon. It would also be nice, if someday soon, EVERY important, critical article published in the United States in English -- is also available in Spanish at the same time -- without having to take days searching for it. There's a great chance that CNNenEspañol.com would still be around if it had actually been CNN.com in Spanish. It never was. It only had some of the same news CNN.com had -- and that news was available a day or two or a week or two later or NEVER. Gee, I wonder why it failed? With 40+ million Spanish-speaking people living in the U.S. alone, and many times that number throughout the world, CNNenEspañol.com must have REALLY sucked! No wonder last year a study was released and stated that Hispanic Americans preferred getting their online news in English rather than Spanish. If you look at some of the news websites in English that have a Spanish-language version, many times, the translated articles fall short. They may not be complete or have the same links included or the same photo galleries, etc., etc., etc. I suppose when someone does a half-ass job, they'll only get half the audience. I keep reading articles in English about how Hispanics in the United States are at a much higher risk of suffering a serious job-related injury -- and I always think to myself how this problem could be remedied -rather quickly- if these same articles were ALSO presented in Spanish. They are rarely available in Spanish. Wouldn't it be something if Hispanics are NOT receiving the same information that non-Hispanics are, relating to safety? And finally, if you were expecting a different commentary this week, I would just like to thank you for reading last Sunday's e-mailed newsletter and for ALWAYS BEING THERE.
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