Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2008 (20. évfolyam, 3-51. szám)
2008-05-16 / 20. szám
NEW YORK, May 7, 2008 - Television journalist Barbara Walters says she felt comfortable around celebrities at an early age. The daughter of a successful nightclub owner, her childhood was alternately exciting and lonely. “On the one hand, here was this glamorous life of nightclubs and gorgeous showgirls and big stars,” says Walters. “I’m sure it’s a life that people would look at and envy. ... But I didn’t want that. I wanted a normal life. I wanted a daddy who was home.” In her new memoir, Audition, Walters recalls a childhood marked by her father’s long hours and her parents’ troubled marriage. “The biggest misconception, until now, is that I have had this blessed life — that part of it is true. But the misconception is that it’s all been smooth sailing,” Walters tells Steve Inskeep. “I wanted people to know that my life, too, has had not just great ups, but also great downs.” In revealing the biggest misconception about herself, the veteran journalist answers a question that she’s been asking her subjects for years. Walters recalls first using the question with the opera singer Maria Callas, who had been in love with Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Callas did not want to discuss Onassis or his new wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, so instead, Walters asked the singer to address the public’s misconceptions. “And she launched into a big thing about Aristotle Onassis and Jackie Kennedy,” remembers Walters, who adds that she uses the question to engage her subjects on topics that might otherwise be off limits: If you ask subjects about the biggest misconceptions about themselves, “very often they will come out with the very thing that people want to know but they have not wanted to talk about,” Walters says. The first woman to co-anchor a nightly newscast, Walters says she has interviewed “almost every head of state of importance, every president of importance, every murderer of importance.” But despite all of her experience, she says, “I really have felt that I have been auditioning most of my life.” The longtime television interviewer was in her 10th-floor office at ABC on a recent afternoon, talking about her new autobiography, “Audition.” In it, Walters spills about her guilt-ridden relationship with her mentally disabled older sister, her father’s attempted suicide, her daughter’s turbulent adolescence, her three failed marriages and various run-ins with male colleagues. Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the 612-page book - - aside from her confession of an affair with a married African American U.S. senator in the 1970s — is Walters’ admission that she was long haunted by insecurities. AMERICAN English Page Hungarian Journal Barbara Walters' Tell-AII Book 'Audition' Veteran television journalist Barbara Walters reflects on her illustrious career — and her lonely childhood — in her new memoir, Audition How to End the Global Food Shortage THREE STEPS to Fix the World Food Crisis 1. Give farmers in poor countries access to high/yield seeds and fertilizer 2. Stop the biofuel nonsense 3. Help farmers protect crops from drought and other disasters The English Page of the Hírlap can serve as a bridge between the non-Hungarian-speaking members of the family and the community. Use it to bring people together! Subscribe to the Hírlap! Advertise your business in the Hírlap! If you have any questions or suggestions, please call (323) 463-6376 DUNA Travel 8530 Holloway Dr. ft102 W Hollywood, CA 90069 Spa, Hotel foglalások, Kocsi bérlés Kedvezményes repülőjegy árak LAX-BUD-LAX $513 -tói +TX. H-Fee Információért hívják ZSUZSÁT TEL: (310) 652-5294 FAX: (310) 652-5287 1-888-532-0168 Május 16, 2008 fD AMERIKAI lifagyar l(írlap The world economy has run into a brick wall. Despite countless warnings in recent years about the need to address a looming hunger crisis in poor countries and a looming energy crisis worldwide, world leaders failed to think ahead. The result is a global food crisis. Wheat, corn and rice prices have more than doubled in the past two years, and oil prices have more than tripled since the start of 2004. These foodprice increases combined with soaring energy costs will slow if not stop economic growth in many parts of the world and will even undermine political stability, as evidenced by the protest riots that have erupted in places like Haiti and Bangladesh. Practical solutions to these growing woes do exist, but we’ll have to start thinking ahead and acting globally. The crisis has its roots in four interlinked trends, to which Time Magazine’s Jeffrey Sachs seems to have found viable solutions. The first is the chronically low productivity of farmers in the poorest countries, caused by their inability to pay for seeds, fertilizers and irrigation. The second is the misguided policy in the U.S. and Europe of subsidizing the diversion of food crops to produce biofuels like corn-based ethanol. The third is climate change; e.g. recent droughts in Australia and Europe, which cut the global production of grain in 2005 and ‘06. The fourth is the growing global demand for food and feed grains brought on by swelling populations and incomes. In short, rising demand has hit a limited supply, with the poor taking the hardest blow. So, what should be done? Here are three steps to ease the current crisis and avert the potential for a global disaster. The first is to scale-up the dramatic success of Malawi, a famine-prone country in southern Africa, which three years ago established a special fund to help its farmers get fertilizer and high-yield seeds. Malawi’s harvest doubled after just one year. An international fund based on the Malawi model would cost a mere $10 per person annually in the rich world, or $10 billion in all. Such a fund could fight hunger as effectively as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria is controlling those diseases. Second, the U.S. and Europe should abandon their policies of subsidizing the conversion of food into biofuels. The U.S. government gives farmers a taxpayer-financed subsidy of 51“ per gal. of ethanol to divert corn from the food and feed-grain supply. There may be a case for biofuels produced on lands that do not produce foods-tree crops (like palm oil), grasses and wood products-but there’s no case for doling out subsidies to put the world’s dinner into the gas tank. Third, we urgently need to weatherproof the world’s crops as soon and as effectively as possible. For a poor farmer, sometimes something as simple as a farm pond-which collects rainwater to be used for emergency irrigation in a dry spell-can make the difference between a bountiful crop and a famine. The world has already committed to establishing a Climate Adaptation Fund to help poor regions climate-proof vital economic activities such as food production and health care but has not yet acted upon the promise. What is true for food will be true for energy, water and other increasingly scarce resources. We can combat these problems-as long as we act rapidly. New energy sources like solar thermal power and new energy-saving technologies like plug-in hybrid automobiles can be developed and mobilized within a few years. Environmentally sound fish-farming can relieve pressures on the oceans. The food crisis provides not only a warning but also an opportunity. We need to invest vastly more in sustainable development in order to achieve true global security and economic growth. World Championship and Olympic Coaches Get the American Hungarian Foundation’s 2008 ABRAHAM LINCOLN AWARD 45th Annual Carousel Ball - at Blossom Time AMERICAN HUNGARIAN FOUNDATION HYATT REGENCY HOTEL - NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ SATURDAY, MAY 17, 2008 You are cordially invited to attend the American Hungarian Foundation benefit gala for the presentation of the ABRAHAM LINCOLN AWARD honoring Béla and Márta Károlyi World Championship and Olympic Coaches and the presentation of the DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD honoring James E. Elek, President and CEO J.J. Elek Realty Company and Dr. Tibor Sipos, Partner and owner of Johnson Company, Inc. Business Development Board, Atlantic Stewardship Bank 1961 graduate of Rutgers-The State University The Károlyi Family Béla Károlyi (left) and Márta Károlyi (right) with their daughter Andrea (middle)
