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May 16, 2001
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Venezuela’s Chavez May Declare State of Emergency
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP)
— Reversing an earlier state­
ment, President Hugo Chavez
said he is "seriously” consider­
ing declaring a state o f em er­
gency to address V enezuela’s
social and econom ic problem s.
The move would allow Chavez
to rule by decree. It also would
allow Chavez to suspend most
constitutional rights, but De­
fense M inister Jose V icente
Rangel said earlier this week
that Chavez would not do that.
“The social situation in the
country is very serious,” Chavez
said in a late-night televised
address. “ I am seriously think­
ing about it. If som eone asked
me about the probability o f de­
claring a state o f em ergency, I
would say the probability is get­
ting higher.”
There was no im m ediate ex­
planation for C havez’s appar­
ent change o f position and offi­
cials were unavailable for com ­
ment on his late-night televised
rem arks.
Chavez said he would ponder
the m ove during his 21 -day tour
to R u s s ia , Ira n , C h in a ,
Bangladesh, M alaysia and In­
donesia. He e a rlie r tried to
downplay R angel’s claim that
he was considering a state o f
em ergency to combat corrup­
tion and rising crim e, saying it
was not on the table “ for now .”
Chavez also broke a two year-
alliance with a political party
that said it would not support a
state o f emergency. His break
with M ovement Toward Social­
ism, or MAS, cost his Patriotic
Pole coalition its tw o-thirds
m ajority in Congress.
MAS leader C arlos Tablante
said Chavez does not need to
declare a state o f em ergency
because he has enough pow er
to d e a l w ith V e n e z u e la ’s
problem s.
M A S’s support was key last
year to g ranting C havez y e a r­
long a u th o rity to d e c re e a
w ide-range o f law s on social,
econom ic and political issues.
The 30-year-old party has
belonged to the P atriotic Pole
s in c e it d e c id e d to b a c k
C h a v e z ’s 1998 p re sid e n tia l
candidacy.
C h a v e z , a fo rm e r p a r a ­
tro o p e r who rose to fam e by
leading a failed coup in 1992,
has rew ritten the co n stitu tio n
and stacked congress, the su ­
prem e court and state g o v e rn ­
m ents w ith allies th rough a
series o f d em ocratic elections
and referendum s.
H e says his p o litical re ­
form s o u sted a co rrupt and
elitist political class and paved
the w ay for a “ social rev o lu ­
tio n ” to lift m illio n s o f V en ­
ezuelans out o f poverty and
prom ote p atriotism .
C h a v e z ’s expulsion o f MAS
follow s a public adm onishm ent
to his ow n party for its snail-
p aced leg islatin g . He recently
su g g ested he w ould seek new
a llie s to form a fresh p o litical
m ovem ent to rein v ig o rate his
b o n d w ith th e V e n e z u e la n
p e o p le .
P o p u la r
w ith
V e n e z u e la ’s p o o r m ajo rity ,
C havez still enjoys an approval
ratin g o f m ore than 60% but
re c e n t p o lls show V e n e z u ­
elans are un satisfied w ith his
g o v e rn m e n t’s e ffo rts to r e ­
duce unem ploym ent, w hich is
14%, and com bat rising crim e.
Saying ‘Hello’ In a Foreign Language Brings Higher Standards
S tory C ontini es F rom F ront P age
executive producer, has been work­
ing in foreign language education for
25 years. She says TV has proven
effective in teaching language to kids.
“W e’re finding them right on tar­
get. They're really coming back at us
retaining the language,” she said. “It
really is impressive.”
With the help o f federal grant
money, community donations and
school district support, Moshi Moshi,
the Japanese program, is its fifth year
o f production. Hola Hola, the Span­
ish program, began three years ago.
This style o f teaching is not like
die futuristic notion that some people
have o f machines one-day replacing
teachers.
“You can never replace the class­
room teacher,” Bastiani said.
The programs work in partnership
between teachers on the screen and
ing o f a person’s nose with the Span­
ish word “nariz” written in for the
English word “nose”.
W ith M oshi M oshi, volunteer
college students, usually Japanese
natives, help teachers reinforce the
TV lessons. This is helpful because
the teachers tend to be a little more
“nervous” teaching Japanese than
Spanish. Being on TV does not
m ake the jo b o f the cast o f "H ola
H ola" and M oshi M oshi easy.
“T hey do everything from the
curriculum , to the costum es, to
vacuuming the floor.” Bastiani said.
The cast does their ow n m ake­
up, set design, they w rite their own
songs and m ake their own sound
effects.
The entire cast has experience in
teaching, and m any o f them have
som e experience in television and
acting.
“ It takes a lot,” B astiani said.
“ I t’s very different to teach to a
cam era than it is to teach to a class­
room full o f students.”
teachers in the classroom.
Each school has a foreign lan­
guage instructor that helps the other
teachers reinforce what the students
are learning. The classroom teachers
also attend monthly training sessions
about how to bring foreign language
into the classroom.
This summer, 60 teachers will go to
Puebla, Mexico for four weeks for
intensive Spanish training.
Even teachers who do not speak
the language are not a detriment to
the kids, according to facilitator-
trainer Marian Flood.
“Some o f the best teachers I’ve
seen are those who are learning along
with their kids. The kids know they ’re
making mistakes, but they respect
them for trying,” Flood said.
She said the teachers tend to mix
language with the other lessons the
kids are learning. During a math les­
son, for example, they will say the
numbers in Spanish or in Japanese.
The kids also send in artwork to
the shows. One example was a draw­
A side from teaching three live
lessons M onday through T hurs­
day, the cast visits different schools
in assem blies on Fridays.
“T hey are so cute,” cast m em ber
N urys H errera said about the kids.
The three women from the "Hola
H ola" cast giggle and coo over the
artw ork the kids send them.
“ Basically, all o f the people who
w ork on this project have to love
w hat they are doing. They can make
m ore m oney in another job, but this
is a commitment to the community.”
M arisol Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez says success com es
from being a “team .”
“ It’s like a basketball game. You
have to think fast,” she said. “You
ju st go, play and you have to w in.”
All o f the programs are completely
in either Spanish or Japanese.
The philosophy is that immersion
is the best way to teach a language.
“Otherwise you’re just teaching
translation. We want to teach them
how to communicate,” Flood said.
(P hoto by M ark W ashington /T he P ortland O bserver )
Toyo Fujimoto (left) and Reiko Yoshida are instructors in the TV program "Moshi-Moshi, ” the Japanese language
program being broadcast along with the Spanish language program "Hola Hola ” in Portland Public Schools.
Fox Hopes to Lure Mexican Businesses
Off Streets Into Formal Economy
cent o f all sales, and takes
e x ic o
c it y
hom e about $500 a m onth —
(A P ) — W h en
about $ 100 m ore than he could
tim e s g e t h a rd ,
m ake
at a bank.
M exicans take to the
streets
A nd he has plen ty o f com ­
— not to p ro te st, but to peddle
pany.
shoes, taco s o r lu xury goods
But lately, business h a sn ’t
from stre e tsid e stands.
been good. Stepped up police
P r e s i d e n t V ic e n te F o x
raids, com petition from retail
hopes to lure M exicans o ff
o u tle ts like W a l-M art, and
the streets and in to jo b s in the
F o x ’s push to end governm ent
form al eco n o m y — but that
corruption have thinned the
m eans tax es and governm ent
ranks o f vendors in the n eig h ­
regulations.
borhood.
The real c h a llen g e in tam ­
Fox is also trying to halt the
ing an info rm al eco n o m y is
s a le o f sto le n and p ira te d
im proving the low w ages and
goods in an effort to m ake the
in e ffic ie n t g o v e rn m e n t th at
M exican m arket m ore a ttra c ­
fostered it in the first place.
tiv e to fo reign investm ent.
W ith a m inim um w age o f
Since he took o ffice Dec. 1,
ju st under $4.35 a day, jo b s
p o lice have stepped up raids
that can req u ire a p p lic an ts to
in th e T e p ito ’s co n trab an d
be both young and a ttrac tiv e
m arket and elsew here.
and pap erw o rk that can hold
D espite those effo rts, ven­
up a new b u sin ess for m onths,
dors
in M exico C ity ’s crowded
m any M exicans p re fe r to pay
streets blast m usic from ste ­
a sim ple bribe for a slic e o f
reos, trying to sell pirated CDs
sidew alk.
for as little as a few dollars.
T hey set up a m a k e sh ift
O
thers haw k stolen goods or
kitchen or c lo th in g stan d and
k n o c k o ff d esig n er fashions,
are in b u sin ess, o ften m aking
like G U P — instead o f GAP
m ore than th o se in the form al
—
jean s.
econom y and p ay in g no taxes.
Informal jo b s have long been
F ifte e n y e a rs a g o , J u lio
a part o f M exican life. B efore
O so rio left his jo b as an a c ­
the country started opening
co u n tan t at a bank and opened
up its econom y in the 1980s,
an e le c tro n ic s sta n d in the
m arkets like those in T epito
tough n eighborhood o f Tepito.
w ere am ong the only places to
He pays a street boss 15 p e r­
M
4
buy good q u a lity im ported
products at affo rd ab le prices.
The inform al econom y grew
in the 1980s and 1990s, when
the country suffered a series
o f econom ic crises that sent
inflation soaring and cost m il­
lions o f jo b s.
A ccording to a recent study
by the N ational S tatistics In ­
stitute, m ore than a q uarter o f
M exican w orkers are in the
inform al econom y. O ther stud­
ies put the num ber at near 40
percen t.
S hopkeepers com plain the
street vendors have an unfair
advantage, and have tried for
years to get the governm ent
to crack dow n.
But an attem pt to clear ven­
d o rs fro m M e x ic o C i t y ’ s
d o w n to w n s tre e ts in 1997
sp a rk e d p ro te s ts th a t sta rt
anew w ith every effort to end
the street trade.
F o x ’s desire to bring people
into the formal econom y is part
o f his plan to create jo b s and
raise w ages, giving M exicans
m ore o p tio n s than w ashing
cars or sneaking across the
border into the U nited States.
He has talked o f trying to 4
harness the in g en u ity o f those I
in the inform al econom y, help­
ing them get loans to start
legitim ate sm all businesses.
Piense: Su hijo es inteligente
saludable y encabeza la lista
para ir a la universidad. Le
encanta la trayectoria que su
c a rre ra ha to m a d o . Está
aciendo muchas de las cosas
que planeó y hasta otras que no había planeado. Vivir
la vida en plenitud es fácil cuándo tiene una familia que
lo respalda American Family Mutual Insurance. Llame
ahora mismo y platique con nuestros agentes amables.
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