Jamaica
牙买加
Sick transit
坎坷之行
Jul 3rd 2008
From The Economist print edition
The murder of an anti-corruption campaigner
谋杀反腐斗士案
A PROMISE to root out corruption was one reason why Bruce Golding led his Jamaica Labour Party to an election victory last year, ending 18 years of rule by the People’s National Party. But suddenly the battle to clean up government has turned bloody. On June 27th two gunmen murdered Douggie Chambers, the chairman of the Jamaica Urban Transit Company. He had gone out into the street for a quick smoke before signing an agreement with union leaders. Even in a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates, his killing on June 27th came as a shock.
承诺根除腐败是布鲁斯•戈尔丁(Bruce Golding) 在去年领导牙买加工党选举胜利的原因之一。牙买加工党的选举胜利结束了人民民族党18年的统治。但是，国内清理政府的争斗活动在突然之间变得十分血腥。6 月27日，两名枪手杀害了牙买加城市运输公司主席乔布斯（Douggie Chambers）。在同工会领导签署一项协议之前，乔布斯走进街道快速过把烟瘾。即便是在一个世界上谋杀率最高的国家之一，6月27日乔布斯的被杀事件还是令人震惊不已。
Mr Chambers was an accountant and a specialist fraud investigator brought in by Mr Golding on a token salary to reform the transit company, which runs the capital’s bus service. It was losing over $25m a year, because of petty scams and a padded staff, with almost ten workers for each functioning bus. Several managers were fired within weeks. On the day he died, Mr Chambers had finalised redundancy terms for 485 workers.
在戈尔丁的引荐下，乔布斯成为一名从事象征性工资调查的会计师和欺诈案的调查专员，以便助其对牙买加运输公司实施改革。该公司在负责首都金斯顿的公共汽车业务。不过，牙买加城市运输公司每年因小型诈骗案件和夸大的员工数量所造成的损失要超过2500万，每辆运营的巴士几乎有10名工人在工作。数名经理已在几周内被解雇。在乔布斯身亡的当天，他已把员工数量裁减到485人。
For all its everyday violence, contract killings of public figures are rare in Jamaica. The finger was quickly pointed at the Klansman gang, which runs protection rackets around the bus depot in Spanish Town, the district where Mr Chambers was shot. His murder is a big setback for Mr Golding and for Jamaica, whose anaemic economy and indebted government are saddled with several loss-making state enterprises. The public sector already found it hard to recruit capable and honest managers, and will now find it harder.
在所有的日常暴力中，契约谋杀公众人物在牙买加是很少发生的。此后，矛头迅速指向在西班牙城（离乔布斯受害现场不远）公交站台勒索保护费的三K党。乔布斯的被害对戈尔丁和牙买加则是一重创，牙买加缺少活力的经济现状和负债累累的政府还要背负挽救若干亏损国有企业的负担。国有部门曾感到很难聘请到能干而又诚实的经理，而现在则是更为困难。
The government is trying to clean up the customs, a “hotbed of corruption” involving private companies and officials, according to the finance minister, Audley Shaw. It is also reforming the National Housing Trust, which provides cheap mortgages. Last month it signed an agreement that turns the loss-making state-owned sugar industry into a joint venture with a Brazilian ethanol company.
财政部长奥德利•肖（Audley Shaw）透露，政府当局正在尝试清理海关部门–一个牵涉私营企业和政府官员”腐败温床”。政府还将对提供廉价按揭贷款的国家房产信托基金（National Housing Trust）进行改革。政府还在上月签署一项协议，将一家亏损的国有制糖企业同巴西一家乙醇公司展开合作将其转型为合资企业。
Will Mr Chambers have died in vain? The government has sent a bill to parliament to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate corruption. A junior minister from the former government was charged in February with fraudulently extracting cash from a Cuban scheme which supplied free energy-saving light bulbs to Jamaican households.
乔布斯是不是白白牺牲啦？政府已向议会提交一项法案，请求任命一名特别检察官调查腐败问题。一名前政府政务次官在2月份被指控以欺诈手段从一项古巴方案中提取现金。此方案要求向牙买加家庭免费提供节能灯泡。
Not everyone has been applauding the new government’s efforts. The main business lobby complained that Mr Shaw’s drive for tax compliance was “anti-private sector”. After Mr Chamber’s murder, it offered a reward of less than $7,000 for information about the crime. That will do little to ensure that his killers-and their associates-are swiftly caught and punished.
并不是每个人都一直对新政府的大力工作表示赞赏。一家主要的商业游说集团抱怨说，奥德利的守法动机是”反对私营部门的”。在乔布斯被杀后，政府对提供线索者提供少于7000美元悬赏。此举对确保凶手–及其同伙–迅速被捕和得到惩罚将不起作用。
译者：captain21 http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12535&extra=page%3D1