In honor of the first president of Brazil we are going to read the following article. Respond to the questions in a short essay. Post here.
What is the tone of the piece? Who is the intended audience? Now visit the website where it was published and check your hypothesis.
Comment of the writing style, examples and clever word-play which enlivens the piece. How is the tragic history of this woman interspersed with banter? Does the banter lessen the impact or seriousness of the president's ordeals? If so, why does the author do this?
Give concrete examples of how Emily Tan does this juxtaposition of concepts: the heavy with the lighthearted. What do you think is the point of the piece? Does the author admire the Brazilian president? How do you know this?
Now look at the article about the Women of the Year Award from AllAfrica.com. It's author isn't identified, which could mean that it is a press release. How would you describe the style and how does the style fit its purpose? Is "entertaining" an admirable goal for certain audiences and certain kinds of writing situations?
Rewrite the piece for
Lemon Drop in Emily Tan's style, which one might categorize as descriptive. You chose the audience. Do you agree with its terms of service?
SUPER WOMANNov 3rd 2010 By Emily Tan
Meet Brazil's First Female President (& Ex-Guerrilla)
After winning the presidential election in Brazil, Dilma Rousseff will be the country's first female president -- and part of the ever-growing group of lady heads of state, which includes former Philippine president Corazon Aquino; Finland's current president, Tarja Halonen; and Costa Rica's newest leader, Laura Chinchilla.
Hello, America? But in the meantime, more on Rousseff.
"I want to state my first commitment after the elections: to honor Brazil's women so that today's unprecedented result becomes a normal event," 62-year-old Rousseff said in a speech soon after hearing about her win on Sunday. "I would very much like that parents look into their daughters' eyes and say, 'Yes, women can.'"
Before running for president, Rousseff held many powerful political positions, including secretary of energy, which later turned into minister of energy, where she was credited with heading up the "Luz Para Todos" ("Light for All") program -- making sure that electricity would be in over a million Brazilian homes.
She was then named chief of staff to the outgoing and extremely popular Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (known to everyone as Lula). Sharing the same vision for the economic and social improvement of Brazil, Lula handpicked and fully backed Rousseff to be the presidential candidate for the Workers Party.
Keep reading for more on her flip-flopping position on abortion and super-secret past as a guerrilla fighter ...
Even though Rousseff is now seen as a role model for women, her "iron lady" persona -- as well as her conservative stances on certain issues (like abortion) -- has placed her under fire. The new president-elect defended abortion rights earlier in her campaign, then started losing the support of religious groups. After sniffing a potential loss of votes, Rousseff retracted her earlier statements. "My position is against abortion, which is violence against women," she said during a meeting with Catholic leaders. "No woman is in favor of abortion."
And there's the fact that she's a former guerrilla fighter.
Born to a school-teaching mother and Bulgarian father who was a lawyer, Rousseff went to an all-girls private school in her younger years. However, once she hit her teens, she became aware of the military regime in Brazil and traded her ballerina dreams to fight for her country's well-being. She joined the left-wing armed resistance in the '60s. Being part of a guerrilla organization forced her to go underground and take on various aliases in order to keep herself and her family safe.
A ballerina/spy president? Now that we can get behind.
Although she's owned up to her guerrilla past, Rousseff, now 62, makes it known that she didn't fire weapons because of her poor eyesight. "My involvement was just political," she said in a 2008 TV interview. "I used to have more than a ninth or 10th degree of myopia."
But being involved made her a fugitive in the military government's eyes. Rousseff was arrested in 1970 and subjected to rounds of torture that included being hung in a "parrot's perch" and, well, electrocution to make her sing. "They gave me electrical shocks, a lot of electrical shocks," she said in another interview. "I began to hemorrhage, but I withstood. I wouldn't even tell them where I lived."
After her release in 1972, Rousseff went to school for economics and jumped into a career that has led to her now being one of the world's most influential and powerful women.
Who do you think would win in an arm-wrestling competition? Her or Sarah Palin?
Liberia Government (Monrovia) Liberia: President Sirleaf Among 5 Female Heads of State Honored By Glamour Magazine As 2010 Women of the Year2 November 2010
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Women of the Year Awards, Glamour will honor five heads of state in recognition of their individual achievements on behalf of their respective countries. These women are quite literally the most powerful women on earth, and their successes prove that we are moving ever closer to the global empowerment of women. The honorees are: Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor of Croatia, Prime Minister Iveta Radicová of Slovakia, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, President Dalia Grybauskaite of Lithuania, and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad and Tobago.
"I am so thrilled to be recognizing these five outstanding leaders," said Cindi Leive, editor-in-chief of Glamour. "Each of these women has demonstrated tremendous leadership, and their work is an inspiration to girls and women everywhere."
- Jadranka Kosor, Prime Minister of Croatia, is the first woman to become prime minister of her country, and she has worked tirelessly to promote gender equality and to promote women to leadership positions. She's been fiercely involved in causes that protect women who have been victims of violence and refugees. She has fought against gender stereotyping in the media and in schools.
- Iveta Radicová, Prime Minister of Slovakia, is also the first woman to become prime minister of her country. She has made women's rights and human rights a priority. During her years as one of Slovakia's leading sociologists, she specialized in social affairs, family policy and children's rights. She has stood up for the country's minorities, especially the Roma and ethnic Hungarians. She has said, "The ability to listen is my most valued possession."
- Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, was a political prisoner who became the first female elected president of Africa in 2005. She has said she knows her example will inspire girls all over Africa "to go to school to break the chains that make them marry early to break the tradition in which they're left behind when the young boys go to school because they have seen there are ones who can succeed." She has stressed education, the inclusion of women in government, and providing women with vocational skills and improving their employment opportunities.
- Dalia Grybauskaite, President of Lithuania, won in a landslide to become Lithuania's first female president. She is a champion of women. This summer, Lithuania became home to the European Institute for Gender Equality. In Lithuania today, women are active participants in political, business and public life, and the gap between men's and women's employment has been narrowing.
- Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, is determined to tackle her country's crime rate, boost pensions and eradicate poverty-all issues that greatly affect women. She is known for her inclusive leadership style and her desire to get more women into office.
About Glamour's Women of the Year: It's the premiere event honoring women from the United States and around the world. Past honorees include Madonna, Meg Whitman, Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton, Susan Sarandon, Maya Angelou, Geraldine Ferraro, Jane Goodall, Katie Couric, Carolina Herrera, First Lady Michelle Obama and Venus Williams.
From http://allafrica.com/stories/201011031000.html
