Spain, the land of sun, sea, and sand - and a shrinking economy.

I have listened a podcast from BBC News

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p006mrhk

This podcast is about Spain`s struggling economy. I had to listen to it twice in order to understand it better. The major problem for me in understanding was the accent of interviewed people. Most of the words were easy to understand because I have learned them at my English lessons.

Now, about the podcast. As I mentioned before, this podcast is about economy in Spain and people struggling to survive during the financial crisis time. Lesley Curwen has interviewed two people with opposite views on this situation in Spain: Javier Andres, who is a leading economist at Valencia University and Spain's Secretary of State for the Economy, Jose Manuel Campa.

Javier Andres was first. He told that 1.000.000 of jobs have been lost in one year and now there are high rates of temporary workers in Spain. In his opinion, the government does not see the necessity of undertaking any kinds of reforms and also politicians say that Spain is an example for the rest of the world, that`s why they do not need to change anything, which is really bad.

On the other hand, Jose Manuel Campa is more optimistic about this situation. Lesley Curwen asked him if Spain is becoming the second Greece, which is in a bad debt situation right now. His reply was not clear enough economically wise, because he said that Spain is in a  better situation than Greece, but, still Spain’s debt is almost as bad as Greece`s and an employment rate is even higher there. He is more optimistic about the possibility of that reforms will take place.

Meanwhile, Spanish people will never lose their hope but they are very pessimistic about their future. They are just focused on getting through the next couple of years. One of them said: “We`ll try to live”

This podcast seems very interesting and very realistic to me, though it is very sad to see how people struggle for their lives.

Internet in Brazil

I have listened podcast from BBC Radio Brazil Program.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p006h6q7

This podcast is about the use of the internet in Brazil and whether or not it makes people richer there. When I listened to it for the first time I understood almost everything, but I had to listen to it for the second time to understand it better. Some of the words and the proper names were hard to understand, but most of them were pretty much easy to understand, because I have learned them at my English lessons.

Let me say some words about the podcast. Brazil is a partly rich, mainly poor country. The internet connection is not very expensive there, but still not all of the Brazilians have an opportunity to buy a computer to connect to the internet. Buying a computer is one of the life`s defining moments for Brazilians. An internet connection is not only seen as a useful tool for getting some information, but it is also a symbol that you have some wealth. It is a reason for pride and it is normal when people place their computers in the living room to show off.

A lot of developed countries in Europe and the USA have reached a “maturity” level in a growing rate in the use of the internet, while Brazil has the fast growing rate right now. That is because they have cheap computers there, which stimulate people to buy them and they got more broadband offer. Now an average Brazilian internet user spends 70 hours a month online. It is more than anywhere in the world. They pay the bills, investigate some information and find jobs online.

The Brazilian`s “online revolution” has created the opportunities to make some small business, which simply did not exist before. Mark Gregory has met one of the Brazilian entrepreneurs, which has a creative way of selling T-shirts. The point of his business is that he lets the customers do the work. The designs for the T-shirts are placed on a special web-site where people vote for which they like the most. Internet helps his business to increase sales every year.

This task of the podcast seems very interesting to me, because the use of the internet nowadays is very necessary to develop in different fields.

Economic situation in Haiti

I have listened podcast “Business Daily: Haiti`s Economy”, broadcasted on 19 February 2010

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0063zcg#synopsis

This podcast is about an economic situation in Haiti after the earthquake. I had some trouble understanding some of the words and phrases while listening. So, I needed to listen to podcast not once. The rate of podcast presenter `s speech was not too fast, but still it was difficult to catch the meanings of some phrases. The hardest part is when there are some annoying voices on the background of the podcast.

Now, let me tell about the main idea of the podcast. Haiti. This is the report from the capital of Haiti -Port au Prince. We all understand the difficulty of the situation in Haiti. It is about a month passed after the earthquake happened and the main struggle for all the people is to get a cash to help themselves. The number of the dead people is estimated to be over 200 thousand people. Most of the country is now ruins and most of the people have lost everything in those ruins. Now people clear up the ruins for 5 US dollars per day, but still there is not enough work for all who need it.

This podcast was pretty hard to understand, but still I have heard a lot of words I have known from my English lessons. I think this podcast helped me to realize how well I’m ready for an exam.