愛薇塔樂學英文

Ralph Nader (pronounced /ˈneɪdər/; born February 27, 1934) is an American attorney, author, lectu

Ralph Nader (pronounced /ˈneɪdər/; born February 27, 1934) is an American attorney, author, lecturer, political activist, and four-time candidate for President of the United States, having run as Green Party candidate in 1996 and 2000, and as independent candidate in 2004 and 2008.

Areas of particular concern to Nader include consumer protection, humanitarianism, environmentalism, and democratic government. With grassroots democracy civic actions, green politics and left-wing politics, he is a reputed populist, harking to 19th century American populists and movements like Henry George's geoism, which he referred to in his 2004 presidential election platform.

Background and early career

Nader was born in Winsted, Connecticut. His parents, Nathra and Rose Nader, were immigrants from Lebanon, and his mother was Orthodox Christian. His family's native language is Arabic, and he has spoken it along with English since childhood. His sister, Laura Nader, is an anthropologist.

Nathra Nader was employed in a textile mill, and at one point owned a bakery and restaurant where he engaged customers in political discourse.

Ralph Nader graduated from Princeton University in 1955 and Harvard Law School in 1958. He served in the United States Army for six months in 1959, then began work as a lawyer in Hartford, Connecticut. Between 1961 and 1963, he was a Professor of History and Government at the University of Hartford. In 1964, Nader moved to Washington, D.C., where he worked for Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He also advised a United States Senate subcommittee on car safety. Nader has served on the faculty at the American University Washington College of Law.

Automobile-safety activism

Nader's first consumer safety articles appeared in the Harvard Law Record, a student publication of Harvard Law School, but he first criticized the automobile industry in an article he wrote for The Nation in 1959 called "The Safe Car You Can't Buy."

In 1965, Nader wrote Unsafe at Any Speed, a study that revealed that many American automobiles were unsafe. The first chapter, "The Sporty Corvair"-the one-car accident, pertained to the Corvair manufactured by the Chevrolet division of General Motors which had been involved in accidents involving spins and rollovers. There were over 100 lawsuits pending against GM in connection to accidents involving the popular compact car. These lawsuits provided the initial material for Nader's investigations into the safety of the car.

A 1972 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration safety commission report conducted by Texas A&M University concluded that the 1960-1963 Corvair possessed no greater potential for loss of control than its contemporaries in extreme situations. GM executive John DeLorean, asserts in On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors (1979) that Nader's criticisms were valid.

In early March 1966, several media outlets, including The New Republic and the New York Times, reported that GM had tried to discredit Nader, hiring private detectives to tap his phones and investigate his past, and hiring prostitutes to trap him in compromising situations. Nader sued the company for invasion of privacy and settled the case for $284,000. Nader's lawsuit against GM was ultimately decided by the New York Court of Appeals, whose opinion in the case expanded tort law to cover "overzealous surveillance."

Nader's advocacy of automobile safety and the publicity generated by the publication of Unsafe at Any Speed, along with concern over escalating nationwide traffic fatalities, contributed to the unanimous passage of the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. The act established the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and marked a historic shift in responsibility for automobile safety from the consumer to the manufacturer. The legislation mandated a series of safety features for automobiles, beginning with safety belts and stronger windshields.

Activism

Hundreds of young activists, inspired by Nader's work, came to DC to help him with other projects. They came to be known as "Nader's Raiders" who, under Nader, investigated government corruption, publishing dozens of books with their results:

    * Nader's Raiders (Federal Trade Commission)
    * Vanishing Air (National Air Pollution Control Administration)
    * The Chemical Feast (Food and Drug Administration)
    * The Interstate Commerce Omission (Interstate Commerce Commission)
    * Old Age (nursing homes)
    * The Water Lords (water pollution)
    * Who Runs Congress? (Congress)
    * Whistle Blowing (punishment of whistle blowers)
    * The Big Boys (corporate executives)
    * Collision Course (Federal Aviation Administration)
    * No Contest (corporate lawyers)
    * Destroy the Forest (Destruction of ecosystems worldwide)
    * Operation: Nuclear (Making of a nuclear missile)

Nader speaks out against the Iraq War at a September 15, 2007, anti-war protest.

In 1971, Nader co-founded the non-governmental organization (NGO) Public Citizen with fellow public interest lawyer Alan Morrison as an umbrella organization for these projects. Today, Public Citizen has over 140,000 members and investigates Congressional, health, environmental, economic and other issues. Nader wrote, "The consumer must be protected at times from his own indiscretion and vanity."

In the 1970s and 1980s Nader was a key leader in the anti-nuclear power movement. "By 1976, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who later became allied with the environmental movement 'stood as the titular head of opposition to nuclear energy'" He advocates the complete elimination of nuclear energy in favor of solar, tidal, wind and geothermal, citing environmental, worker safety, migrant labor, national security, disaster preparedness, foreign policy, government accountability and democratic governance issues to bolster his position.

Ecology

Nader spent much of 1970 on his campaign to educate the public about ecology. Nader said that the rivers and lakes in America were extremely contaminated. He said that "Lake Erie is now so contaminated you're advised to have a typhoid inoculation before you set sail on some parts of the Lake."

He also added that river contaminations affect humans because many residents get their water supply from these contaminated rivers and lakes. "Cleveland, takes its Water Supply from deep in the center of Lake Erie. How much longer is it going to get away with that?"

Nader told how some rivers are contanimated so badly that they can be lit on fire. "The Buffalo River is so full of petroleum residuals, it's been classified an official fire hazard by the City of Buffalo. We have the phenomena now known as flammable water. The Cuyahoga River outside of Cleveland did catch fire last June, burning a base and some bridges. I often wonder what was in the minds of the firemen as they rushed to the scene of the action and pondered how to put—put this fire out. But we're heading in river after river: Connecticut River, Hudson River, Mississippi River, you name it. There's some rivers right outside of Boston, New Hampshire and Maine where if a person fell into 'em, I think he would dissolve before he drowned."

Non-profit organizations

Throughout his career, Nader has started or inspired a variety of non-profit organizations, most of which he has maintained close associations:

    * Citizen Advocacy Center
    * Citizens Utility Boards
    * Congress Accountability Project
    * Consumer Task Force For Automotive Issues
    * Corporate Accountability Research Project
    * Disability Rights Center
    * Equal Justice Foundation
    * Foundation for Taxpayers and Consumer Rights
    * Georgia Legal Watch
    * National Citizens' Coalition for Nursing Home Reform
    * National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest
    * Pension Rights Center
    * PROD (truck safety)
    * Retired Professionals Action Group
    * The Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest
    * 1969: Center for the Study of Responsive Law
    * 1970s: Public Interest Research Groups
    * 1970: Center for Auto Safety
    * 1970: Connecticut Citizen Action Group
    * 1971: Aviation Consumer Action Project
    * 1972: Clean Water Action Project
    * 1972: Center for Women's Policy Studies
    * 1973: Capitol Hill News Service
    * 1980: Multinational Monitor (magazine covering multinational corporations)
    * 1982: Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
    * 1982: Essential Information (encourage citizen activism and do investigative journalism)
    * 1983: Telecommunications Research and Action Center
    * 1983: National Coalition for Universities in the Public Interest
    * 1988: Taxpayer Assets Project
    * 1989: Princeton Project 55 (alumni public service)
    * 1993: Appleseed Foundation (local change)
    * 1994: Resource Consumption Alliance (conserve trees)
    * 1995: Center for Insurance Research
    * 1995: Consumer Project on Technology
    * 1997?: Government Purchasing Project (encourage purchase of safe products)
    * 1998: Center for Justice and Democracy
    * 1998: Organization for Competitive Markets
    * 1998: American Antitrust Institute (ensure fair competition)
    * 1999?: Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest
    * 1999?: Commercial Alert (protect family, community, and democracy from corporations)
    * 2000: Congressional Accountability Project (fight corruption in Congress)
    * 2001: Citizen Works (promote NGO cooperation, build grassroots support, and start new groups)
    * 2001: Democracy Rising (hold rallies to educate and empower citizens)

In 1980, Nader resigned as director of Public Citizen to work on other projects, forcefully campaigning against what he believed to be the dangers of large multinational corporations.

 

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拉爾夫·納德
　　作家，律師。1934年2月27日生於康涅狄格州溫斯特德。1955年畢業于普林斯頓大學。1958年獲哈佛大學法學士學位。
　　1965年出版了一本名為《任何速度都是不安全的》的書，引起公眾注意。該書成為當年最暢銷書。曾被《美國新聞與世界報導》列為美國最有影響力的人物之一。
　　納德被認為是美國現代消費者運動之父。在過去的幾十年裡，他一直單槍匹馬、堅持不懈地提高美國消費者的自我保護意識，呼籲政府規範工業生產，提高產品安全。
　　1996年納德參加總統競選，但只在21個州獲得了參選資格，得票率不足1％。2000年7月納德被綠党提名為總統候選人，贏得了2.7％的選票。民主黨人士認為，正是納德的參選分走了民主黨的部分選票，才使得戈爾在大選中以極小的差距敗給了共和黨總統候選人布希。
　　現年74歲的納德2008年以獨立競選人身份參選，這次是他第5次參加總統競選，他的名字將出現在美國至少46個州的選票上。不過和2000年總統競選大不相同的是，今年納德幾乎處於被美國主流媒體忽視的狀態。
　　納德曾經擔任過律師，他在晚年成為著名的保護消費者權益的宣導者。納德認為，美國兩大黨民主黨和共和黨如今已沒什麼區別，它們都代表著大企業的利益，對消費者的權益漠不關心。納德稱自己之所以參加總統競選，是因為看到現在很多美國民眾，因不滿伊拉克戰爭和國家經濟窘境而對兩大党失去信心。納德稱，雖然他知道自己競選總統不可能成功，但他仍要“明知不可為而為之”，因為他想讓更多的人瞭解他的政見，瞭解美國大企業的貪婪和保護消費者權益的重要性。
　　雖然身為百萬富翁，但納德卻過得相當節儉。他沒有任何固定資產，沒有汽車，隻身一人住在華盛頓的一間小公寓裡。有媒體稱他只有一台黑白電視機，連彩色電視機都沒有。他將自己的大部分收入都花在了創建各種消費者權益倡儀團體上。