作者：Eco Team

The Supreme Court
美国最高法院

Following Souter
跟随苏特的脚步

 

May 7th 2009 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition

Barack Obama has a chance to rejuvenate the Supreme Court’s liberal wing
贝拉克•奥巴马有机会复兴最高法院的自由派。

AP

DAVID SOUTER (second from right, above) is a singular character. Though wealthy, he lives the life of Diogenes. He lunches frugally at his desk, typically on yogurt and an apple, which he eats to the core. He seldom goes out. He has no time for modern distractions such as television. But most unusually of all, despite having life tenure as a judge on the Supreme Court, he is planning to retire at the tender age of 69.

大卫•苏特 (图上方从右边数起第二位)是个非凡的人物。尽管他很富有，却过着如第欧根尼（古希腊哲学家，犬儒学派的代表人物，据说第欧根尼住在一个木桶里，所拥有的所有财产包括这个木桶、一件斗篷、一支棍子、一个面包袋——译者注）般的生活。他中午就在办公桌旁简单地吃点东西，通常是酸奶和一只苹果，而且他会把苹果吃得只剩果核，一点也不愿浪费。他极少出门，从不把时间浪费在诸如电视等现代社会中令人分心的事物上。但是最不寻常的是，尽管拥有最高法院法官这一终生职位，他还是计划在69岁这个相对较轻的年龄卸甲归田（读者也许会问，69岁还年轻吗？不妨来看看现任首席法官罗伯茨之前的三任美最高法院首席法官离职时的年龄：威廉•伦奎斯特，81岁，任上病死；沃伦•伯格，79岁，主动退休；厄尔•沃伦，78岁，主动退休——译者注）。
继续阅读“”

Scotland’s Muslims
苏格兰的穆斯林

Islam in tartan
身着格子呢的穆斯林

May 7th 2009 | GLASGOW
From The Economist print edition

Changing identity and nationalism north of the border
国境之北的穆斯林——身份和民族的改变

MUSLIMS in Scotland have historically given their allegiance to the Labour Party, long seen as the champion of the underdog. That may now be changing. Last month the Scottish National Party (SNP) picked a Muslim activist to fight the Westminster constituency of Glasgow Central. Osama Saeed, a former spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, which is ideologically close to the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, is not everyone’s cup of tea. But his selection says much about Scottish Muslims’ evolving identity.
有史以来，苏格兰的穆斯林一直效忠工党，一直被视为这一时运不济党派的支持者。但是现在局面恐怕有变。上月，苏格兰民族党挑选了一名穆斯林激进分子，来对抗格拉斯哥中央选区。乌萨马.赛义德原是英国穆斯林协会发言人，这一协会在观念上很接近伊斯兰教穆斯林兄弟会。但并不是人人都认同赛义德。然而这一选择却反映，苏格兰穆斯林的身份逐渐得到了认同。
继续阅读“”

Egypt’s pigs 埃及的猪 What a waste   如此浪费 May 7th 2009 | CAIRO From The Economist print edition Is it wise to kill the capital’s rubbish-ridding pigs?   除掉首都的垃圾清理猪明智吗？ IN A city not much noted for efficiency, Cairo’s traditional rubbish collectors, or Zabbaleen, have long been something of a paragon. While failing to keep Egypt’s teeming capital very clean, the Zabbaleen, nearly all of them members of Egypt’s 6m-plus Coptic Christian minority, do an excellent job of processing waste. Trucking refuse to the half-dozen rag-picking settlements that ring the city, they carefully sift out recyclable glass, paper and plastic. The rest is fed to pigs. 在一个不怎么以高效率而著名的城市里，开罗的垃圾清理工，或者称为Zabbaleen（扎巴里人，阿拉伯语，意思是捡的垃圾的人），一直是了不起的劳动模范。Zabbaleen成员几乎都是信仰埃及基督教的Coptic（科普特人），埃及基督教是一个信徒刚过600万的少数教派。虽然不能保证这个埃及富裕的首都完全的清洁，但Zabbaleen垃圾处理工作，做的非常优秀。垃圾货运环绕城市居民区半打的垃圾回收点，他们仔细的挑选出可以循环再用的玻璃瓶子、旧报纸和塑料制品。余下的垃圾就喂给猪。 继续阅读“”

Obituary
逝者

Hans Holzer
汉斯•荷尔泽

May 7th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Hans Holzer, ghost hunter, died on April 26th, aged 89
汉斯•荷尔泽，驱鬼师，卒于四月廿六日，享年八十九岁。

AS FAR as Hans Holzer was concerned, his Uncle Henry had started it. Uncle Henry, despite his humdrum life as a Viennese shop assistant, was a very strange man, who could feel “imprints” from the past in his 18th-century bed, and who taught his young nephew to say good morning to the fairies in the trees. After he had passed over he did his damnedest, via a British medium, to keep in touch with Hans, who had emigrated to New York. This ran up a fortune in transatlantic telephone bills. “Tell him the dog’s name was Rigo,” cried Uncle Henry, faintly and through static from the Other Side, when he thought his bona fides were doubted.

说到汉斯•荷尔泽，都是他的亨利叔叔挑的头。亨利叔叔是个维也纳店员，有平淡的生活，却是个奇怪的人。他可以在自家那张十八世纪传下的床上察觉“印迹”。他教这个小侄子向树上的精灵说早安。他去世后竭力托一位英国灵媒师和汉斯联系。其时汉斯已迁居至纽约，因此花了很多跨洋长途电话费。“跟他说那条狗叫瑞格，”亨利叔叔叫道，声线自彼岸通过静电弱弱传来，那时他觉得自己一片热诚，却遭了怀疑。
继续阅读“”

The Supreme Court
美国最高法院

Following Souter
跟随苏特的脚步

May 7th 2009 | WASHINGTON, DC
From The Economist print edition

Barack Obama has a chance to rejuvenate the Supreme Court’s liberal wing
贝拉克•奥巴马有机会复兴最高法院的自由派。

AP

继续阅读“Following Souter”

Europe’s economies
欧洲各经济体

A new pecking order
崭新的权势等级

May 7th 2009
From The Economist print edition

There has been a change in Europe’s balance of economic power; but don’t expect it to last for long
欧洲的经济力量均势发生了改变；但不要期望它能持久

AFP

继续阅读“[2009.05.07] Europe’s economies 崭新的权势等级”

Piracy
海盗问题

Wrong signals
错误的信号

May 7th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Confusing laws hamper international naval efforts to fight piracy
令人困惑的法律阻碍了各国海军打击海盗的努力

WHEN pirates attacked the MV Kition, a Greek tanker, late at night in the Gulf of Aden on May 1st, a Portuguese helicopter scared off the assailants and tracked their skiff to its “mother ship”. Portuguese special forces boarded the vessel and found dynamite, automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). That was plenty of evidence, but the pirates went free (after being disarmed). Other countries, including Canada and the Netherlands, have acted similarly. America says such leniency sends “the wrong signal”.

5月1日深夜，当海盗在亚丁湾攻击希腊油轮——“奎神号”内燃机船时，一架葡萄牙直升机吓退了袭击者，并且一路追踪小艇，找到了“母舰”的位置；随后葡萄牙特种部队登上母舰并查获了炸药、自动步枪和火箭弹。尽管有这么多证据，但海盗们还是在被缴械后获得自由；包括加拿大和荷兰在内的其他国家也有过类似的处理方式，美国认为这种宽大的做法发出了“错误的信号”。
继续阅读“”

Dachshund racing
达克斯狗赛

Dogs in a hurry
小狗快跑
Apr 30th 2009 | BUDA, TEXAS
From The Economist print edition

Stubby-legged racers take off
短粗腿的赛犬们起跑了

Illustration by Claudio Munoz

ROSCOE, a piebald dachshund, was the runt of his litter. No one wanted to buy him. So the breeder gave him to Jeremy Dingle, who soon realised that he had a special pup, now a top dog in the dachshund-racing[1] world. Fresh from victory in Lubbock, Texas, Roscoe was a potential winner as he prepared this week for the semi-final of the Wiener Dog Races in Buda.

Roscoe是一只长满花斑的达克斯狗，他是窝中的小侏儒，没有人愿意买他，所以饲养员把他送给了Jeremy Dingle。Jeremy Dingle很快就发现，他得到了一只特别的小狗，现在是达克斯狗赛[1]界的佼佼者。经过数周的准备后，Roscoe在美国得克萨斯州的卢博克市初战告捷，并有望在布达（Buda）的腊肠狗赛的半决赛中一举胜出。

继续阅读“”

Europe’s economies
欧洲各经济体

A new pecking order
崭新的权势等级

May 7th 2009
From The Economist print edition

There has been a change in Europe’s balance of economic power; but don’t expect it to last for long
欧洲的经济力量均势发生了改变；但不要期望它能持久

AFP

FOR years leaders in continental Europe have been told by the Americans, the British and even this newspaper that their economies are sclerotic, overregulated and too state-dominated, and that to prosper in true Anglo-Saxon style they need a dose of free-market reform. But the global economic meltdown has given them the satisfying triple whammy of exposing the risks in deregulation, giving the state a more important role and (best of all) laying low les Anglo-Saxons.

多年来美国人、英国人、甚至本刊都一直告诫欧洲大陆国家的领导人们说他们国家的经济僵化、监管过度、过于由政府主导，如果想要真正地以盎格鲁-撒克逊经济模式繁荣的话就需要一系列的自由市场改革。然而，全球经济衰退给了他们让人飘飘然的三重魔咒——揭露国家减少干预经济的风险、让政府发挥更大的作用、以及（最棒的）贬低盎格鲁-撒克逊经济模式支持者。

继续阅读“”