Wall Street greedl Nat here

NEW DELHI, India - With freshly cut keys to their new brick-and-cement homes, families in an impoverished settlement on the outskirts of India's capital honored a surprising hero last month : Richard S. Fuld Jr., head of the now-defunct Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers.

freshly (tout) récemment / key clé / impoverished pouvre, misérable / settlement campement / outskirts périphérie, abords / defunct defunt, feu, disparu.

2. Before the 158-year-old investment firm went bust, it sponsored construction of low-cost housing with Habitat for Humanity in the destitute Bhalaswa neighborhood. retour Although the $50,000 contribution was a pittance for a multibillion-dollar Wall Street firm, it was enough to help build 100 single room houses for about 500 people retour, mostly children, who were living in shanties of tarpaulins and old clothes.

2. to go, went, gone bust faire faillite / destitute pauvre, misérable / neighborhood (US)= neighbourhood (GB) quartier / pittance somme dérisoire, presque rien, goutte d'eau / shanty baraque, masure, cabane / tarpaulin bâche goudronnée.

Philanthropy

3. The largess of Wall Street has fed hungry children in Haiti, funded trauma centers in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region and paid for rescue boats for flood-prone Bangladesh. retour But with the economic crisis deepening, aid groups and economic experts fear that those donations will dry up as quickly as easy credit.

3. largess largesses, générosité / to fund financer / traumo traumatisme / war-torn déchiré, ravagé par la guerre / rescue boat canot de sauvetage / flood-prone souvent inondé (prone to enclin, sujet à) / to deepen s'oggraver / to fear craindre, redouter / to dry up s'épuiser, se tarir.

4. "This is a very real issue, which people are just beginning to think through, " said Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. The school has an internship course called Global Entrepreneurship Lab, one section of which works with health-care projects in Africa. retour "A top priority now is to find new sources of funding in a hurry, because aid will fall," Johnson said.

4. issue problème / to think, thought, thought through analyser en détail, réfléchir à / former ancien / MIT = Massachusetts Institute of Technology / internship stage / health-core (de) santé, médical, sanitaire / funding financement / in a hurry très vite.

5. The fear of shrinking aid comes as the poor in developing nations struggle to keep pace with inflation and sharply rising prices of food and fuel. At least 100 million people who did not need food aid six months ago can today no longer afford food. aid experts said.

5. to shrink, shrank, shrunk se réduire, diminuer / to struggle lutter, s'efforcer de / to keep, kept, kept poce with suivre le rythme de / sharply nettement, fortement / fuel combustible / to afford se payer.

Giving away

6. U.S. corporations. foundations, charity organizations and individuals together gave more aid to the developing world than the D.S. government did in 2006, according to the Hudson Institute's Index of Global Philanthropy: Private donations totaled $34.8 billion, compared with the government's $23.5 billion. retour But with the D.S. economic meltdown - and its worldwide ripple effects - aid experts doubt those numbers can be sustained on either the private or the government side.

6. to give, gave, given away distribuer / meltdown débâcle / worldwide international, mondial / ripple effect effet de cascade, de dominos, répercussions / to sustain maintenir.

7. Those in the humanitarian community say the backlash will be felt in the coming months as fundraising for next year begins. But the impact on the world's poor is already being debated at conferences in Geneva and in classrooms at MIT.

7. backlash répercussions, choc en retour / fundraising collecte de fonds.

Exemplary examples

8. Donations from Target, Coca-Cola, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation helped fund efforts to reunite tens of thousands of parents with their children who went missing during the floods. retour Clothing and hygiene kits were also distributed, and temporary schools were put up for those in camps, said Thomas Chandy, head of Save the Children in India .

8. to go missing disparaître, être porté disparu / flood inondation / to put, put, put up installer.

9. "That is what the money can do. The impact of the American economic meltdown will be experienced everywhere, and India is no exception," Chandy said. He said he is looking to alternative sources such as governments in oil-rich countries or wealthy individual philanthropists.

9. wealthy riche, fortuné.

10. In Bhalaswa, the houses were unveiled on the day Fuld, the former Lehman Brothers chief executive, was questioned by a House committee about his failure to rein in risky investments while raking in millions of dollars in bonuses for himself. "It's one tiny housing story Lehman got right - in Delhi's backyard," read a front-page headline in the Indian Express newspaper.

10. to unveil présenter, inaugurer / House committee commission de la Chambre des représentants / failure échec, impuissance / to rein in maîtriser, freiner / to rake in empocher, encaisser / bonus prime / tiny minuscule, infime, dérisoire / in Dehli's backyard dans les faubourgs de New Dehli / front-page (de) une / headline gros titre, manchette.

Water and electricity

11. Many Bhalaswa residents are migrant workers from poor states. They came to New Delhi in search of economic opportunity and were evicted from one of the oldest slums in the city, a vast encampment alongside the polluted Yamuna River. In Bhalaswa, they initially found a congested maze of shantytowns surrounded by a landfill, picked over by cattle, pigs and crows. There was no access to clean latrines or electricity. Some slept under mosquito nets on the ground.

11. in search of en quête de, à la recherche de / to evict expulser / slum bidonville / encampment campement / congested encombré, embouteillé / maze dédale, labyrinthe / shantytown bidonville / to surround entourer / landfill décharge / to pick over fouiller, trier / cattle (inv.) bétail / crow corbeau / mosquito net moustiquaire.

12. "The struggle to get a roof over my head has been a long and hard one," said a smiling Bindu Gupta, 38, who has six children. She cracked a coconut on her new doorstep in an Indian tradition to mark an auspicious beginning. "Now my life has greatly improved," Gupta said. "I have cleaner food and water in my home. I'm so proud 1 will call over my friends for tea and meals. 1 can't believe that 1 have my own toilet."

12. roof toit / to crack briser / coconut noix de coco / doorstep pas de porte, seuil / auspidous de bon augure, propice / to improve s'améliorer / proud fier.

13. The families were asked to contribute $170 for the construction of their homes, retour and many saved all year and pooled funds. Kamlesh Saha, a 35-year-old mother of three, said that during the monsoon season her old makeshift shelter was submerged in floodwaters. "Now, when 1 see my new house. I feel great joy and pride," said Saha, adding that she didn't know who Fuld or the Lehman Brothers were - but thanking them anyway .

13. to save économiser / to pool mettre en commun, regrouper / funds fonds / monsoon mousson / makeshift shelter abri de fortune / pride fierté.

Richard S. Fuld Jr.

Richard Severin Fuld, Jr. is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., under United States Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. According to Equilar, an executive pay research company, Fuld earned about $45 million in 2007. From the years 1993 to 2007, he is reported to have received nearly half a billion dollars in total compensation. CNN named Fuld as one of the "Ten Most Wanted: Culprits" of the 2008 financial collapse in the United States, Fuld was number 9 on the list.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer PDG / bankruptcy faillite / culprit coupable / collapse effondrement, débâcle.