Half of US Jobs Now Held by Women

According to the article, women are on their way to holding more than half of all American jobs because they have entered the labour market over the years and recession has been harder on men. The unemployment rate for men was almost eleven percent, and manufacturing and building lost more jobs last month. On the other hand, health care and temporary employment services have had job growth and the unemployment rate for women was eight percent. Women feel pressure because of cultural expectations that working women will still take care of the children. In addition to that, men who are not the main earners may feel threatened.

In my opinion, both men and women should earn their living and both of them need to take care of their children. It is fair and men do not have to feel threatened, because they work inside and outside of their home.


http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2009-11/2009-11-19-voa3.cfm

How Loneliness Can Infect Social Networks

According to the article, loneliness has been linked to depression and health problems. For instance, loneliness can affect relationships between next-door neighbors and the loneliness spreads more easily among women than men.The average person is said to experience feelings of loneliness about forty-eight days a year, but having a lonely friend can add about seventeen days.

I expect that the number of people who feel lonesome has risen in recent years because children play computer games all the time and most grownups live in their own apartment alone. I recommend children and grownups to participate in a volunteer activity and communicate with each other. Finally, the happiness will spread readily.

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2010-01-06-voa1.cfm

Banks Recover, but the Economy Struggles in 2009

In the United States, two thousand nine is the year the world avoided an economic depression and stock prices sank to their lowest levels in March. However, stocks recovered strongly for the year although the housing market continued to suffer its worst downturn in generations. According to the article, Mortgage financer Fannie Mae explains "Payments on five percent of its single-family home loans are late. The ten percent unemployment rate has meant that many people are struggling with their house payments."

I hope housing market recovers as soon as possible and all people can pay home loans . The companies both in the United States and Japan should not go into bankruptcy and aggravate the economic depression.

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2009-12-31-voa4.cfm

Google May Leave Fast-Growing China

China has become the world's top exporter and it is the world's largest Internet market, but Google says it may leave. Google is estimated to have around a thirty percent share of the search market in China, and it is only about half the share of the Chinese search engine Baidu. In addition to that, there are censorship laws in China and the government tries to limit access to many sites. According to the article, Fariborz Ghadar says "Google has to make a decision whether they want to basically deviate from their vision mission statement that they 'do no harm' and stay in China. Or whether they have just had enough and they don't like the restrictions, and they don't like the cyber attacks, and they're going to move out so as to preserve their name and brand."

Personally, I feel that censorship laws are not effective because China has become the world's top exporter and most Chinese people can access on the Internet without censorship laws in foreign countries. Google should stay in China, the world's largest Internet market, and persuade the government.

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2010-01-14-voa3.cfm

JAL wins approval to cut pensions by 30 percent

Japan Airlines said that 67 per cent of its existing retirees had now agreed to the requested 30 per cent cut in pension pay-outs and cleared one of the roadblocks to its restructuring plan.Earlier this month, 91 per cent of the carrier's employees agreed to the cut.Prime minister Yukio Hatoyama told reporters earlier on Tuesday that "in general" shareholders did bear some responsibility.

In my opinion, the reason why Japan Airlines have to rebuild the company is that retirees, employees, and shareholders did not do anything although they knew about the financial deficit. Therefore, I accede to prime minister Yukio Hatoyama's statement, and all retirees and employees should agree with cutting their pension.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/BUSINESS/01/12/jal.ft/index.html