DOSSIER TEXT 4

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DOSSIER (TEXT 4)

• From Daniel Franklin,
• the Editor of
• The World in 2009
• A special issue of
• The Economist

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TEXT 4 Some initial questions

• What predictions do you agree/disagree with?
• What predictions have surprised you most?
• What issues have not been paid enough attention
  to?
• How would you describe the prevailing tone of the
  article ( e.g. pessimistic, optimistic, neutral,
  light, humorous) ?

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TEXT 4 The World in 2009 Structure

• Genre a one-page editorial, which introduces a
  special issue of The Economist with predictions
  for 2009
• Format A highlighted statement. The photo of the
  editor
• Text made of 8 paragraphs, each developing a
  topic, which is usually announced in the initial
  topic sentence
• 1. What to expect for 2009
• 2. In politics Obama will become Americas first
  black president
• 3. In politics beyond America many countries
  will be involved in elections (e.g. India,
  Germany)
• 4. In the economy the economic crisis will
  continue
• 5. Some countries of the emerging world will
  still do quite well
• 6. Global warming will be a cause for concern
• 7. Plenty of fun in 2009!
• 8. Will predictions prove true?

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TEXT 4, Paragraph 1

• a.Anyone hoping for a period of calm after the
  turbulence of the past year will be disappointed.
  
• b. For the economy and for business, as well as
  for politics, 2009 promises to be a year of
  bracing adjustment to a changed world

• a. Use of understatement
• ---------------------------------------------
• b. Bracing (1) cold in a way that makes you
  feel full of energy
• Bracing (2) shocking or unexpected in a way
  that is good because it makes people aware of
  something
• Adjustment (1) a change of attitude or
  behaviour
  
• Adjustment (2) a change that makes something
  better
• 1) TONIFICANTE ADATTAMENTO A UN MONDO
  COMPLETAMENTE CAMBIATO
• 2) IN CUI CI SI DOVRA PER FORZA RENDERE CONTO
  CHE IL MONDO E CAMBIATO/
• 3. IN CUI SI DOVRA FARE APPELLO A TUTTE LE
  PROPRIE FORZE PER AFFRONTARE IL CAMBIAMENTO IN
  ATTO

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REFERENCES TO PEOPLE AND PLACES For what
READERSHIP?

• Obama Americas first black presidenta
  remarkable achievement and a remarkable
  opportunity . A Democratic Congress
• India the world biggest democracy
• Germany Europes largest economy
• The whole 27-country European Union / The
  European Parliament
• Indonesia the worlds most populous Muslim
  country
• South Africa, Iran, Afghanistan pivotal places
• Brazil, Russia, India, Russia countries of the
  emerging world
• Post-Kyoto agreement
• Dubai
• Barbie
• Asterix
• Year of Astronomy, 400 years after Galileo
• Israel/Syria
• Queen Elisabeth II

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TEXT 4 , PARA 7Shift to a more informal, and
humorous tone

• If all this sounds a bit earnest, dont worry
  there will be plenty of fun in 2009 as well.
  Dubai will open the worlds tallest building,
  China the worlds biggest Ferris wheel. Barbie
  and Astérix will celebrate their 50th birthdays.
  Africans will enjoy a new fascination with maps,
  thanks to the internet, while soaring numbers of
  twitchers in China will indulge in a new
  fascination with birds. Scientists will map the
  brain as well as search for Earth-like planetsin
  what will be the International Year of Astronomy,
  400 years after Galileo first peered through a
  telescope.

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Text 4, Paragraph 8 ALTERNATING SERIOUS AND
LIGHT MATTERS

• As always this volume is full of predictions, a
  few of which may actually prove right. This time
  weve even included several things we think
  probably wont happen, though they just might
  forecasts whose chance of coming true falls
  roughly between 5 and 20. Might 2009 see a
  peace deal between Israel and Syria, a cure for
  cancer or the abdication of Queen Elizabeth II?
  Probably not. But you read it here first.

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Two semantic fields the economic crisis and the
environment

• The aftershocks of the financial crisis
  rumbling on
• Extraordinary boom
• GDP (Gross Domestic Product) PIL Prodotto
  Interno Lordo ) / rise
• Global growth (spectacular/ robust/ slide below)
• Rich economies face recession
• Bankruptcies
• Belt-tightening
• Unemployment
• (cherished) perks
• (visionary) bosses
• The chief financial officer
• Cash
• Opportunities
• Buy competitors on the cheap

• environment
• (to tackle) global warming
• To cut greenhouse emissions
• Climate change
• Carbon trading
• Water shortages
• Alternative energy

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COMPARISON OF TWO ARTICLES ABOUT THE SAME TOPIC
FROM RHETORICAL AND AUTHORIAL STRATEGIES TO
LEXICAL CHOICES TEXT 5
TEXT 6

• From The Times , February 10, 2009
• By Richard Owen
• Right to die coma woman Eluana Englaro dies
• The photo of E. Englaro with the caption
  Eluana Englaro was in a coma for 17 years

• From The Economist print edition, feb.12 2009
• Italy and the right to die
• Death in Udine
• What the row about Eluana Englaro says about
  Italy and its political rulers
• The photo of E. Englaro with the caption a
  bright 21-year old, 17 years ago

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TEXT 5 TEXT 6

• Eluana Englaro, the comatose woman at the centre
  of a euthanasia debate that has divided Italy and
  sparked a constitutional crisis, died last night
  at the age of 38, four days after doctors began
  to remove her life support.
• May the Lord welcome her and pardon those who
  brought her to this point, a senior Vatican
  official said.
• The news of Ms Englaros death came as the Upper
  House of parliament began debating emergency
  legislation rushed out by the centre-right
  Government of Silvio Berlusconi. It would have
  ordered medical staff to restore all nutrients.
  She had been in a vegetative state for 17 years
  after a car accident.
• Ms Englaros father, Beppino Englaro, had been
  fighting for a decade for a dignified end to his
  daughters life in accordance with what he and
  her friends have testified were her own wishes.
  At his request doctors at a clinic in Udine
  stopped feeding Ms Englaro on Friday.
• The news of Ms Englaros death was given first
  to her father by Amato De Monte, the anaesthetist
  at the Udine clinic. Yes, she has left us, Mr
  Englaro announced.

• ON FEBRUARY 6th, at a clinic in Udine in
  north-east Italy, doctors withdrew nutritional
  support from a woman in an irreversible coma.
  Three days later, more quickly than expected,
  38-year-old Eluana Englaro died of a heart attack
  brought on by dehydration.
• Similar things happen every day in other parts of
  Europe. But in Italy this was a national drama.
  Outside the clinic, pro-life and pro-choice
  demonstrators came to blows. On national
  television, programming was suspended so that Ms
  Englaros death could be discussed. In the upper
  house of parliament, which was debating a bill to
  keep Ms Englaro alive, there was uproar. Eluana
  has been killed, cried a leading member of
  Silvio Berlusconis governing People of Freedom
  (PDL) movementa phrase the prime minister
  himself repeated soon afterwards.
• The affair highlighted two characteristics of
  todays Italy. One is the enduring influence of
  the Catholic church and its teaching on the
  sanctity of life. The other is its prime
  ministers impatience with the rule of law.

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TEXT 5 TEXT 6

• 6. The Senate interrupted the debate and observed
  a minutes silence as a mark of respect. After
  the silence came recriminations. She didnt die.
  She was killed, Gaetano Quagliarello, a
  centre-right senator, shouted, while others
  screamed murderers, murderers towards the
  Opposition benches.
• 7. Mr Berlusconis law would make it illegal for
  carers of people unable to take care of
  themselves to suspend artificial feeding.
  Euthanasia is illegal in Italy but refusing
  treatment is not.
• 8 The Prime Minister expressed deep pain and
  regret that he had failed to save Ms Englaros
  life but government officials vowed to push the
  Bill through. I hope the Senate can proceed on
  the established calendar so that this sacrifice
  wasnt completely in vain, Maurizio Sacconi, the
  Health Minister, told legislators minutes after
  she

• After a nine-year struggle, Ms Englaros father
  won a ruling from Italys highest appeal court
  that his daughter should be allowed to die. A key
  point was that she had apparently stated a
  preference, before her car accident, for not
  being kept alive artificially. The Vatican was
  appalled, seeing the judgment as licensing
  euthanasia. Mr Berlusconis health minister and
  PDL regional officials set about trying to thwart
  the judgment by bureaucratic means. Until then,
  Ms Englaro had been in a church-run institution,
  so she had to be moved. But fear of reprisals
  deterred most hospitals and hospices from taking
  her.
• On February 3rd, however, she was admitted to the
  clinic in Udine. Soon afterwards Mr Berlusconi
  changed tack. His cabinet approved a decree
  which, had it been countersigned by President
  Giorgio Napolitano, would have forced Ms
  Englaros doctors to continue treatment.

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TEXT 5 TEXT 6

• 6 Why? There were no votes to be had. Polls
  suggested that a large majority of Italians
  backed Ms Englaros right to die. Mr Berlusconi
  scarcely seems like a committed Catholic. Rarely
  seen in church, he is a divorcee who had the
  first of his children by his second wife even
  while he was married to the first. Opponents
  claimed that he wanted to inflict a defeat on the
  judiciary ahead of a law reform later this year,
  and that he also hoped to cow the president as
  part of a broader strategy aimed at taking over
  the presidency himself and giving Italy what his
  admirers say would be a more decisive form of
  presidential government.
• 7. Undaunted, Mr Napolitano refused to sign the
  decree, forcing Mr Berlusconi to rejig it as a
  parliamentary bill. Ms Englaro died before it
  could be rushed through. But Mr Berlusconi had
  already given a glimpse of the populist side of
  his political character. If there were not a
  chance of resorting to decrees, he said, I
  would go back to the people to ask for the
  changing of the constitution and the government.

• 9. Mr Berlusconi drew up the Bill after President
  Napolitano refused to sign an emergency decree
  last week on constitutional grounds. Mr
  Napolitano said that the decree contradicted a
  Supreme Court ruling last November that gave Ms
  Englaros father permission to find doctors who
  would end her life.
• 10 The Vatican and Roman Catholic Church had
  opposed the ruling fiercely and were swift to
  respond to news of Ms Englaros death. Cardinal
  Javier Lozano Barragán, the Vatican Health
  Minister, said I will continue to regard her
  death as a crime. Earlier Cardinal Angelo
  Bagnasco, head of the Italian Episcopal
  Conference, declared that refusing food and water
  to Ms Englaro was murder. A light is going out,
  the light of a life, he said.
• 11 For the third day in succession Pope Benedict
  XVI referred indirectly to the case, declaring
  yesterday that the sanctity of life must be
  safeguarded from conception to its natural end.
• The tussle over Ms Englaros life has revived
  accusations that the Vatican is dictating Italian
  politics.Mr Berlusconi, who had previously stayed
  out of the controversy, reportedly reacted after
  Cardinale Tarcisio Berton, the Vatican,s
  Secretary of State, implored him to stop this
  crime against humanity

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TEXT 5

• 13 In response to accusations that he was
  bowing to pressure from the Church, The Prime
  minister said that he represented the feelings of
  most Italians. Opinion polls suggested that
  Italians were divided, with 47 percent in favour
  of Ms Englaros right to die, 47 per cent against
  and 6 percent undecided.
• s Englaros longtime neurologist, Carlo Alberto
  Defanti, predicted last week that his patient
  could remain alive for another eight to ten days.
  During the first week without food and water,
  Eluana wont run a big risk, Dr Defanti said in
  an interview published yesterday. Her physical
  condition is excellent. Probably . . . she will
  resist for longer than average. Apart from her
  brain injuries Eluana is a healthy woman. She has
  never been ill and never taken antibiotics.
• Dr Defanti admitted last night that Ms Englaros
  death had come more swiftly than expected. It
  was something we did not foresee, he said.
• Ms Englaro was called Italys Terri Schiavo, in
  reference to the American woman in a vegetative
  state who was allowed to die in 2005 after a long
  legal fight. Mr Englaro battled his way through
  Italys courts for ten years to have her feeding
  tube disconnected, saying that it was her wish
  not to be kept alive artificially
• Romes right-wing mayor, Gianni Alemanno,
  announced that the Colosseum would be lit all
  night in a sign of mourning for a life that
  could have and should have been saved.

• 8 Tense relations between Mr Berlusconi and Mr
  Napolitano may not be the only legacy of this
  affair. It has also generated widespread
  parliamentary support for a law that would enable
  people to draw up living wills, stipulating how
  they wish to be treated in the event of losing
  consciousness. The idea is to avert similar
  disputes in future. But Ms Englaro was 21 when
  she had her car accident. Is it likely that she
  would have made a living will at such an early
  age?

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TEXT 7 , The Economist, Nov.13th 2008 A case for
changeUniversities desperately need reformyet
resist change

• Some selected references to how Italian
  universities are described.
• The entire examining board made by octogenarians
• The retirement age for Italian university
  teachers is 72
• the worst managed, worst performing and most
  corrupt sectors in Italy
• Italian universities are not over-funded
• Overweening power of the BARONI (barons), or
  tenured professors
• The power of academic life and death
• faculties as personal fiefs
• Nepotism and favouritism creation of jobs for
  relatives and friendscronyism
• Proliferation of courses and departments
• Some valuable research and inspirational teaching
• Uniform mediocrity
• Five universities are bankrupt
• Not one Italian institution is in the top 100 of
  the 2008 Times Higher Education World University
  rankings.
• The Baroni wield considerable influence over
  goverments, particularly of the centre-left, and
  have used it to bury most attempts at reform

All this might seem good news for
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TEXT 7. Final paragraph

• All this might seem good for students and
  teachers. Yet students have staged protests
  around the country. This week the main trade
  union federations planned a national strike,
  though one of them pulled out at the last minute.
  The opposition argues that no good will come of
  reforms inspired by cost reduction. But the
  government retorts that Italy's ultra-low birth
  rate has created what Ms Gelmini calls "an
  historic opportunity" to raise quality while
  spending less. At least her plans deserve a fair
  hearing