Unit 3 Refugee Issue Safe but Not Secure

1.GETAFE, Spain—A year ago, Osama Mohsen, a Syrian soccer coach and civil war refugee, started a promising new life here on the outskirts of Madrid after enduring an infamous fall.

2.In September 2015, as Mohsen tried to run across the Hungarian border while holding his son in his arms, he was tripped by a camera woman reporting from the scene.Footage of the episode went viral on social media, providing a vivid reminder of the plight of Syrian refugees, forced to flee a civil war only to find themselves facing significant risks—and, at times, significant opposition—as they sought safety in Europe.

3.Mohsen, 52, acknowledged in an interview that becoming the victim of a spiteful attack came with a measure of good luck.He was almost immediately identified as a soccer coach when his fall made headlines, and a Spanish soccer school offered him a job.He moved into a two-bedroom apartment, and Cristiano Ronaldo walked his son onto the field before a Real Madrid match.

4.“I always know how very special Spain is for football—it is the best—so it is lucky and it is very good to arrive here, ” Mohsen said.

5.The story, it seemed, had found its happy ending, and the world moved on.The school, which hired Mohsen to help recruit Arabs for its courses and promote the school internationally, particularly in the Arab world, paid him 1,200 euros a month (about $1,320).It also provided, at no cost, the furnished apartment that he shares with his two sons in this working-class dormitory town.

6.But a year after his moment in the news media spotlight, Mohsen's life is hardly settled, and his future in Spain is hardly secure.

7.During an interview in September, Mohsen said he was worried about his prospects; his contract at the soccer school was expiring that month.A week later, the school, Cenafe, told him that he could continue until the end of the December.Officials declined to make Cenafe's president available for an interview, but the school said it was possible Mohsen's contract could be extended again, into 2017.

8.“Three months is good, but it is only three months, ” Mohsen said.“I hope I have good future in Spain, but if you don't have job, you don't have good life, and to get job here is very difficult.”

9.Mohsen said that he would probably leave Spain if he lost his job but that he had no alternative destination in mind.He has a five-year permit to stay in Spain, but his more immediate concern—after keeping his job—is his hope that the rest of his family will be allowed to join him and his sons in Spain by the end of the year.That reunion requires approval from the Spanish authorities.

10.Mohsen and his family escaped the eastern Syrian city Deir ez-Zor after the country's civil war began in 2011.He had played for a local club, Al-Fotuwa, and eventually coached the team after studying sports science at a university.

11.He first fled into neighboring Turkey together with his wife and four children, but the family was soon divided.His 17-year-old son made his way alone to Munich.Eventually, Mohsen decided to join him in Germany, together with a younger son, while his wife and the two other children stayed behind in Turkey.

12.Mohsen said he could not afford to pay traffickers for the whole family to go to Greece.“It was very, very dangerous to all travel in the small plastic boat, but I also don't have money to go all together, ” he said.

13.After reaching Greece in an inflatable boat, Mohsen and his son traveled a route that has been taken by thousands of Syrians since the start of the war, crossing Macedonia and then Serbia before reaching the Hungarian border.“It was hard: much walking, sometimes bus and sometimes train, ” he said.

14.After the harrowing Hungarian crossing, and as the video of him being tripped was garnering global attention, Mohsen went on to Austria before reaching Munich.There, he was reunited with his older son, before they moved together to Spain when Mohsen received the soccer school's job offer.

15.With the support of some Spanish nongovernmental organizations, Mohsen also got back on the field over the summer, coaching the youth team of a local club.The players were mostly 16- and 17-year-olds, but Mohsen said they were better than his players on Al-Fotuwa, which played in the top division in Syria.“This is not Syrian football but Spain, the best place in the world, ” he said.

16.Mohsen said he had a successful season, and he beamed as he recounted how the team had won three times as many matches as it lost.The job was unpaid, however, and Mohsen no longer coaches the team.

17.Nowadays, he leads a quiet life in Getafe, finishing work at the soccer school's offices at 2 p.m.He has received some invitations to speak abroad, but he rarely ventures into central Madrid, even though he has a Syrian friend there, he said.His neighbors in Getafe have given him a warm welcome, he said, and he sometimes attends a mosque in the city.

18.The memories of his heady first few weeks in Spain—the visits to Real Madrid's training sessions and the meeting with the coach of Spain's national team at the time, Vicente Del Bosque—now live on as souvenirs on a shelf in his apartment.His only soccer these days is an occasional kickabout in the park with his son Zaid, after he picks him up from school.

19.“It is boring here, without my mother, ” said Zaid, 9, wearing a Real Madrid shirt with his name printed on the back.

20.Zaid has learned Spanish, but his father has picked up only a few words.When he was coaching the youth squad last season, three players on the team were Arabic speakers, and the assistant coach spoke some English, helping Mohsen overcome the language barrier.But in daily life, it remains a significant obstacle.

21.“I can say things like ‘short pass, ' ‘long pass, ' ‘forward, ' and ‘defense, '” Mohsen said in Spanish.“It is not many, but enough, ” he added, shrugging his shoulders and switching back to English.“In football, there is no need for too much.”

From The New York Times

Words & Expressions

·refugee 避难者，难民

a person who has been forced to leave his or her country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster

·outskirt 郊区，郊外

suburb, far away from the city

·infamous 臭名昭著的，声名狼藉的

notorious, disreputable, ill-famed, of ill-repute

·viral 病毒的，病毒引起的

of the nature of, caused by, or relating to a virus or viruses

·plight 境况，困境

difficult situation, awkward situation, mess, difficulty

·victim 受害者，受骗者

sufferer, injured party, casualty

·spiteful 恶毒的，居心不良的

malicious, mean, nasty, cruel, unkind

·at no cost 无偿

without cost

·inflatable 可膨胀的，可充气的

capable of being filled with air

·harrowing 悲惨的，令人伤心的

acutely distressing

·recount 详细叙述

tell sb.about sth.; give an account of an event or experience

·mosque 清真寺，伊斯兰教寺院

a Muslim place of worship

·kickabout 到处游荡

wandering around

·squad 小组

a small group of people having a particular task

·shrug 耸肩，提高肩膀

raise (one's shoulders) slightly and momentarily to express doubt, ignorance, or indifference

Questions

1.What did Osama Mohsen do previously?

2.How did Mohsen make his way to Spain?

3.What did he do after arriving in Spain?

4.How is his current life in Spain? What kinds of problem he met?

5.Why did Mohsen still feel unsecured?

Buzzwords of Refugee Issue

News Style

News Values (2)

Timeliness

Timeliness refers to the news property that hard hitting stories would lose their newsworthiness if not reported immediately.The freshness is most concerned among all features of hard story.Whichever media an individual chooses, be it daily newspaper, the hourly newscast, or the online news service, the first thing they seek to know is the recent development of weather changes, stock index, scores of NBA games, or the latest situation of an ongoing event, for example, the war in mid-east.Andre Gide, French novelist, defines journalism as “everything that will be less interesting tomorrow than today, ” and “Yesterday's newspaper is only good for wrapping fish.” Williamson also holds the similar idea that “the all-important news element fades into history within 24 hours.” No matter how significant the event and how eminent the people get involved, news value diminishes with time.

Timeliness is of particularly value for online and broadcast news media.Print or electronic, the news media is still governed by deadline of contribution and competition of industry.However, timeliness is not only restricted to something happened lately.An event that occurred century ago may still be timely if it were recently revealed.Titanic was lost in 1912,but if a suitcase of one passenger were found from on the wreck, it would still be news.

Currency

Currency refers to the themes that are heatedly concerned for a time being.It is the “flavor of the month” set on the agenda of editors.The value of currency comes into play when a particular theme is already being covered by the media, but the enthusiasm has not been lost among readers, listeners, and viewers because they are still concerned about the further developments or side stories.For example, many media outlets ran stories closely related to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games prior to, during, and after the event.Travel media were talking about holidays to Beijing; women's magazines featured stories about the hottest players;men's magazines discussed the hottest WAGs; children's media dealt out football tips, and so on.

Proximity

Whatever the news carrier is, proximity should be taken into account while journalists are selecting the sources of news, otherwise, the newspaper, magazine, broadcasting, or online service will lose the readers, listeners, or viewers.

Proximity is called relevance or nearness, referring to the closeness of the event to the audience.As readers pick up news items, primarily they care about the events that are geographically or emotionally close to their interests.To the priority, a farmer is most concerned with the weather forecast among other news; A banker is eager to know the recent exchange rate; A hoop fan wants to know whether Kobe Bryant has won a game competing against Lebran James.When the Beijing Olympic Game was held in 2008, although it was a global event, people in China were more interested in what was happening of the game than people in Argentina, and people in Beijing were more concerned about the event than people in other parts of China.

Conflict

Is the issue developing? Has it been resolved or does anybody care? These are the issues both editors and readers are concerned.

The best novel or drama hang on conflicts, the same is true of news stories.Strife, antagonism and warfare always catch eyeballs, because they are of nature of conflicts and normally considered newsworthy.Conflict can range from strife within a family to war between nations.On December 22, 2011, a rumor of military operation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea abruptly cut down the stock index of the Republic of Korea, and this break news soon covered on the front page of world press.Conflicts are mainly of four types: actual conflict, politics, crime, and natural disasters and accidents.

News Resource

The New York Times is the largest metropolitan newspaper of America founded in 1851.It is also influential quality newspaper in the world, with “All the News That's Fit to Print” as the motto.More than one thousand journalists are contributing to it in 26 countries.For its national edition, it switches to cover from the columns of political issues, the arts, business day, sports Monday according to events and newsworthiness.57,423 issues have been published up to Nov.21, 2016, .

Website: www.newyorktimes.com

The Washington Post is the most widely circulated and also oldest newspaper published in Washington, D.C., America.It was founded on Dec.6, 1877.With the current slogan“democracy dies in darkness, ” the newspaper has a particular emphasis on national politics.Under the leadership of former editor in chief, the newspaper has won numbers of Pulitzer Prizes.In the early 1970s, two reporters made investigation in what became later known as the Watergate scandal.The reporting in the newspaper greatly contributed to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

Website: www.washingtonpost.com