HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’s radio magazine in SpecialEnglish.
(THEME)
This is Doug Johnson. On our program today, we:
play some music by Kenny Lattimore …
answer a question about VOA …
and report about how Muslims in the United States celebrateRamadan.
Ramadan in the United States
HOST:
It is almost the end of Ramadanfor Muslims around the world. Recent studies say about six-millionMuslims live in the United States. Shirley Griffith tells us howsome are observing the Muslim holy month.
ANNCR:
For the past few weeks, Muslims have avoided food, drink andother pleasures from sunrise to sundown every day. During Ramadan,believers are to pray, be more spiritual and help others. The monthof fasting will end when Islamic experts report the appearance of anew moon.
Some Muslims in the United States started observing Ramadan onthe morning of Friday, November sixteenth. That was the dateannounced by several North American Islamic organizations. However,other Muslims started Ramadan on a different date set by Islamicgroups in their country of birth.
This year, Ramadan is taking place during an internationalcrisis. Three months ago, terrorists claiming to represent Islamattacked the United States. The attack resulted in the American-ledcampaign against terrorism and the war in Afghanistan.
The feelings of the Muslim community in the United States aremixed. They love the United States and oppose terrorism. At the sametime, they want peace and are concerned about the innocent people inAfghanistan.
Last month, President Bush led a traditional Ramadan meal forMuslim diplomats and others at the White House. He thanked thoseattending for their support of the American-led campaign againstterrorism.
For Muslims in the United States, breaking the fasting period atsundown is a time to gather with family and friends. Food is alwaysan important part of the celebration.
Muslims in the United States are from different cultures. So manydifferent kinds of food are served during Ramadan. For example,Yenni Djahidin Grow lives with her family in Virginia. She is fromIndonesia. Missus Grow cooks special foods during Ramadan for hertwo brothers, husband and son. One of her Indonesian specialties israndang, a kind of fried beef with hot spices. She also preparesmixed fruit, cake and sweet rice with brown sugar.
Missus Grow is making plans to serve other sweets and specialfoods at Id Al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. Indonesian Muslims in theWashington area celebrate at the Indonesian embassy. They willattend a religious service there before attending parties andvisiting with friends.
VOA
HOST:
Our VOA listener question this week comes from China. Xiao Haitaoasks if our VOA programs are popular with the American people.
The short answer to that question is not really-because the Voiceof America does not broadcast within the United States. VOA wascreated to be the voice of the United States government to foreignnations.
Congress approved a law in Nineteen-Forty-Eight that banned theVOA from broadcasting to the people of America. However, this lawdid not bar Americans from listening to VOA programs if they wereable to receive the signals on their short wave radios. Today,people in the United States and around the world can use a computerto find and listen to VOA news and feature reports on the VOA website.
VOA made its first broadcast during the Second World War, onFebruary twenty-fourth, Nineteen-Forty-Two. It was a short,fifteen-minute program in the German language. It told the Germanpeople that every day, the Voice of America would broadcast news ofAmerica and the war. “The news may be good or bad,” it said, “but wewill tell you the truth.”
The Voice of America continues to broadcast the truth. It reportsthe news. It tells about America and its people, and the policies ofthe United States government. Today, VOA broadcasts in fifty-threelanguages, including English.
When VOA began, all our listeners heard our broadcasts only onshort wave radios. That has changed. Today, the fifty-three languageservices provide VOA programming to more than one-thousand radiostations around the world. VOA programs can be heard on local A-Mand F-M stations in many countries as well as on short wave andmedium wave around the world. More than ninety-million people listenevery week. People also use computers to listen to any of ourfifty-three languages in Real Audio, read the reports and copymaterials.
Twelve VOA language services also produce television programs.Much of the television programming is also broadcast on the radioand the Internet. The VOA web site provides the latest news andinformation twenty-four hours a day. It also provides informationabout the Voice of America, program schedules, times andfrequencies. That VOA Web site address is v-o-a news dot com. Again,the VOA Web site is v-o-a-n-e-w-s dot com.
Kenny Lattimore
HOST:
American singer and songwriter Kenny Lattimore went to college tobecome a building designer. In college, he joined a singing group.Jim Tedder tells us more.
ANNCR:
Kenny Lattimore grew up singing in the church, performing inshows and studying classical and chamber music. He joined a singinggroup called Maniquin while he was a student at Howard University inWashington, D-C. The group gained some success. However, he left thegroup to sing on his own.
In Nineteen-Ninety-Six, his first album was released. It iscalled “Kenny Lattimore.” The song “For You” was a hit.
((CUT ONE – “FOR YOU”))
In Nineteen Ninety-Eight, Kenny Lattimore recorded another albumcalled “From the Soul of Man.” It is a collection of songs aboutproblems in love relations. Music critics praised his soulfulsinging and song writing. Listen as Kenny Lattimore sings “If I LoseMy Woman.”
((CUT TWO – “IF I LOSE MY WOMAN”))
Kenny Lattimore’s latest album was released in September. It iscalled “Weekend.” He says he wanted to create music that youngpeople could enjoy and still keep the adult interest of his pastsongs. We leave you now with the title song from Kenny Lattimore’salbum, “Weekend.”
((CUT THREE – “WEEKEND”))
HOST:
This is Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today. And Ihope you will join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC – VOA’sradio magazine in Special English.
This AMERICAN MOSAIC program was written by Lawan Davis, GeorgeGrow and Nancy Steinbach. Our studio engineer was Tom Verba. And ourproducer was Paul Thompson.