Tablet computing

平板电脑

The book of Jobs

乔布斯书

It has revolutionised one industry after another. Now Apple hopes to transform three at once

苹果已先后发起一项又一项产业革命，现在则希望同时进行三项变革。

Jan 28th 2010
From The Economist print edition

APPLE is regularly voted the most innovative company in the world, but its inventiveness takes a particular form. Rather than developing entirely new product categories, it excels at taking existing, half-baked ideas and showing the rest of the world how to do them properly. Under its mercurial and visionary boss, Steve Jobs, it has already done this three times. In 1984 Apple launched the Macintosh. It was not the first graphical, mouse-driven computer, but it employed these concepts in a useful product. Then, in 2001, came the iPod. It was not the first digital-music player, but it was simple and elegant, and carried digital music into the mainstream. In 2007 Apple went on to launch the iPhone. It was not the first smart-phone, but Apple succeeded where other handset-makers had failed, making mobile internet access and software downloads a mass-market phenomenon.

苹果公司经常被评为全球创新性最强的公司，不过，其创新别具一格。它并不开发全新的产品系列，而是擅长从既有的半成熟想法入手，向全世界展示如何做才恰如其分。该公司总裁史蒂夫·乔布斯头脑灵活，思路开阔，在他主导下，公司已经有三次这么做了。1984年，苹果公司推出麦金塔电脑。这并非首个以鼠标操作并应用图标（注1）的电脑，但却将这些理念应用为有用的产品。然后是2001年，iPod面世。这不是首个数字音乐播放器，但其简洁精巧，将数字音乐引入主流。2007年，苹果再接再厉，推出了iPhone。这不是首款智能手机，但苹果在其他手机生产商失败之处崛起，将移动网络及软件下载培育成大市场。

As rivals rushed to copy Apple’s approach, the computer, music and telecoms industries were transformed. Now Mr Jobs hopes to pull off the same trick for a fourth time. On January 27th he unveiled his company’s latest product, the iPad—a thin, tablet-shaped device with a ten-inch touch-screen which will go on sale in late March for $499-829 (see article). Years in the making, it has been the subject of hysterical online speculation in recent months, verging at times on religious hysteria: sceptics in the blogosphere jokingly call it the Jesus Tablet.

其竞争对手群起仿效苹果成功之路，遂使电脑、音乐与电信产业获得变革。现在，乔布斯冀望第四次再施其妙招，再获成功。1月27日，他展示了公司最新产品iPad－－10英寸触摸屏的薄薄平面产品。该产品将于3月末上市，售价499至829美元（见有关文章）。这款东西研发多年，近几个月来，网上掀起对其猜测的风潮，其热度有时接近对宗教之狂热：博客圈中的无神论者戏谑地称之为平板耶酥。

The enthusiasm of the Apple faithful may be overdone, but Mr Jobs’s record suggests that when he blesses a market, it takes off. And tablet computing promises to transform not just one industry, but three—computing, telecoms and media.

苹果公司追捧者的热情可能有些过火，但乔布斯以往成功表明，他青睐于哪个领域，哪个市场就会火起来。平板电脑笃定将转变不只一个、而是三个行业－－电脑、电信与媒体。

Companies in the first two businesses view the iPad’s arrival with trepidation, for Apple’s history makes it a fearsome competitor. The media industry, by contrast, welcomes it wholeheartedly. Piracy, free content and the dispersal of advertising around the web have made the internet a difficult environment for media companies. They are not much keener on the Kindle, an e-reader made by Amazon, which has driven down book prices and cannot carry advertising. They hope this new device will give them a new lease of life, by encouraging people to read digital versions of books, newspapers and magazines while on the move. True, there are worries that Apple could end up wielding a lot of power in these new markets, as it already does in digital music. But a new market opened up and dominated by Apple is better than a shrinking market, or no market at all.

前两个行业的企业对iPad问世感到恐惶，因为苹果公司的历史证明其是令人生畏的竞争者。与此形成对照的是，媒体业真心实意地对此表示欢迎。盗版猖獗，信息免费和广告网上传播，这使媒体公司在网上发展艰难。亚马逊公司的电子阅读器Kindle拉低了图书价格，又不能投放广告，故媒体公司对此热衷程度有限。它们希望这款新产品可推动人们在移动中阅读数字图书、报纸与杂志，带给他们新生。诚然，有些人担心，这些新市场的主宰权有可能最后被苹果攫取，数字音乐就是现成的例子。但是，苹果开启并主导一个新市场要好过市场萎缩，或根本无市场可言。

Keep taking the tablets

继续瞄准平板电脑

Tablet computers aimed at business people have not worked. Microsoft has been pushing them for years, with little success. Apple itself launched a pen-based tablet computer, the Newton, in 1993, but it was a flop. The Kindle has done reasonably well, and has spawned a host of similar devices with equally silly names, including the Nook, the Skiff and the Que. Meanwhile, Apple’s pocket-sized touch-screen devices, the iPhone and iPod Touch, have taken off as music and video players and hand-held games consoles.

以企业界人士为目标客户的平板电脑行不通。微软多年来致力于此，但鲜获成功。苹果公司也于1993年推出了Newton掌上手写电脑，但惨遭失败。Kindle做得相当好，而且引起一系列类似产品竞相效仿，名字也同样怪，如Nook、Skiff和Que。与此同时，苹果开发了袋装的触摸屏产品iPhone和iPod Touch，它们作为音乐与视频播放器及掌上游戏机大为成功。

The iPad is, in essence, a giant iPhone on steroids. Its large screen will make it an attractive e-reader and video player, but it will also inherit a vast array of games and other software from the iPhone. Apple hopes that many people will also use it instead of a laptop. If the company is right, it could open up a new market for devices that are larger than phones, smaller than laptops, and also double as e-readers, music and video players and games consoles. Different industries are already converging on this market: mobile-phone makers are launching small laptops, known as netbooks, and computer-makers are moving into smart-phones. Newcomers such as Google, which is moving into mobile phones and laptops, and Amazon, with the Kindle, are also entering the fray: Amazon has just announced plans for an iPhone-style “app store” for the Kindle, which will enable it to be more than just an e-reader.

IPad本质上就是膨胀了的大型iPhone。作为电子阅读器与视频播放器而言，其大屏幕更为诱人，而且还带着iPhone的一大堆游戏与其它软件。苹果公司希望许多人能弃笔记本而转用iPad。若果如此，它将开辟一个新产品市场：从体积上看比手机大又比笔记本小，从功能上看能充作电子阅读器、音乐与视频播放器和游戏机。各行业已齐集于这一市场：手机生产商正推出上网本等小型笔记本电脑，电脑生产商进军智能手机领域。还有谷歌与亚马逊等新进者也加入这场混战，如谷歌进入手机与笔记本领域，亚马逊携Kindle而来：刚刚宣布了Kindle关于iPhone式“应用程序商店”的新计划，这将使之功能超出电子阅读器范畴。

If the past is any guide, Apple’s entry into the field will not just unleash fierce competition among device-makers, but also prompt consumers and publishers who had previously been wary of e-books to take the plunge, accelerating the adoption of this nascent technology. Sales of e-readers are expected to reach 12m this year, up from 5m in 2009 and 1m in 2008, according to iSuppli, a market-research firm.

根据以往经验，苹果公司进军该领域不仅仅会引发生产商之间的激烈竞争；消费者与出版商以前对电子阅读器持谨慎态度，不愿进行尝试，苹果的新产品还会加速促使他们接受这一新技术。市场调研公司iSuppli的调查结果显示，电子阅读器的销量在2008年是100万，2009年达到500万，今年将增至1200万。

Hold the front pixels

占据技术领先地位（注2）

Will the spread of tablets save struggling media companies? Sadly not. Some outfits—metropolitan newspapers, for instance—are probably doomed by their reliance on classified advertising, which is migrating to dedicated websites. Others are too far gone already. Tablets are expensive, and it will be some years before they are widespread enough to fulfil their promise. In theory a newspaper could ask its readers to sign up for a two-year electronic subscription, say, and subsidise the cost of a tablet. But such a subsidy would be hugely pricey, and expensive printing presses will have to be kept running for readers who want to stick with paper.

平板电脑的广泛应用会拯救挣扎中的媒体业么？很不幸，不会。有些依赖分类广告的媒体－－如都市类报纸－－可能注定消亡，因为分类广告正转向分门别类的网站。其它一些媒体则早已没落。平板电脑价格昂贵，要扩张到一定规模才能实现其做出的承诺，这尚需时日。从理论上讲，报纸可要求其读者注册，如订阅两年电子刊物，并补贴平板电脑费用。但这样的补贴额将极不菲，而且，平面媒体还不得不继续维持成本高昂的印制发行，以满足那些固守纸质阅读的读者。

Still, even though tablets will not save weak media companies, they are likely to give strong ones a boost. Charging for content, which has proved difficult on the web, may get easier. Already, people are prepared to pay to receive newspapers and magazines (including The Economist) on the Kindle. The iPad, with its colour screen and integration with Apple’s online stores, could make downloading books, newspapers and magazines as easy and popular as downloading music. Most important, it will allow for advertising, on which American magazines, in particular, depend. Tablets could eventually lead to a wholesale switch to digital delivery, which would allow newspapers and book publishers to cut costs by closing down printing presses.

更进一步而言，尽管平板电脑无法拯救弱势媒体，但有可能推动强势媒体发展。在网上根据浏览内容收费原来难以实现，以后将变得更容易。读者已准备付费在Kindle上阅读报纸与杂志（包括经济学家）。IPad拥有彩屏，并与苹果公司的网上商店整合起来，这将使下载书籍、报纸和杂志与下载音乐一样容易与流行起来。最重要的是，这可以引入广告，而美国杂志尤为依赖广告。平板电脑最终可能使数字产品批发放送，这将使报纸与书籍出版商停止印制纸质媒体，以削减费用。

If Mr Jobs manages to pull off another amazing trick with another brilliant device, then the benefits of the digital revolution to media companies with genuinely popular products may soon start to outweigh the costs. But some media companies are dying, and a new gadget will not resurrect them. Even the Jesus Tablet cannot perform miracles.

若乔布斯以另一款非凡产品再显神通，那么，对那些拥有真正受人欢迎产品的媒体而言，这场数字革命带来的益处可能很快超过所付出的代价。但是，一些媒体已在消亡，一种新发明的产品不会令其复活，甚至平板耶酥也创造不了奇迹。

注1：首次将图形界面广泛应用到个人电脑上。
注2：似是短语hold the front page引申出来。

PS 译者忠实翻译原文，旨在交流，并不代表认同文中观点。

译者：龙辰
如想与译者本人对该文进行切磋，请到如下链接：http://ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=30559&extra=&page=1

The Bihari enlightenment
开化的比哈尔邦
India’s most notorious state is failing to live up to its reputation
臭名不再
Jan 28th 2010 | From The Economist print edition

ONE of the more unlikely case studies offered by Harvard Business School describes the turnaround of Indian Railways under Lalu Prasad Yadav, a shrewd, roguish politician who ruled Bihar, India’s most depressed and unruly state, for 15 years. His predecessor at the railways, Nitish Kumar, now leads Bihar. He may one day draw similar interest from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, for rarely has a failed state escaped political bankruptcy so fast (see article).
哈佛商学院的学习案例之一就是亚达夫手中印度铁路的逆转，这实在是令人跌破眼镜。印度现任铁道部长亚达夫(Lalu Prasad Yadav)是一位狡猾的流氓政客，他曾经治理印度最贫穷，无管制的比哈尔邦15年。而印度前任铁道部长，现在治理着比哈尔邦的尼蒂斯-库马尔（NITISH kumar）有一天可以会同样引起哈佛大学肯尼迪正政治学院的兴趣，因为时至如今象比哈尔邦这样一个失败的邦省能如此之快地逃脱政治破产的命运，实属罕见。

With a population bigger than Germany’s, Bihar still suffers from potholed roads, indolent teachers, apathetic officials, insurgent Maoists, devastating floods, shortages of power, skewed landholdings, caste resentments and an income per head that is only 40% of India’s as a whole. And yet, bad as that may sound, Bihar is far better today than it was in November 2005, when Mr kumar came to power.
比哈尔邦人口比德国多，面临的问题也不少：道路坑坑洼洼，老师懒于教学，官员得过且过。还有叛乱的毛主义分子，滔天的洪水，短缺的电力，歪斜的房屋，种姓制度（注1）引起的仇恨，这些都够比哈尔邦受的了。除此之外，比哈尔邦人均收入只有全印人均收入的40%。这些听起来是糟透了，可是今天的比哈尔邦可比库马尔刚刚接手时的2005年11月要好多了。

Today Bihar has pot-holes, where formerly it didn’t have roads. Businessmen grumble that they cannot raise money to invest in the state, whereas before they spirited their capital out of it. People complain that Mr kumar’s government has fallen short of its ambitious development plans. But at least it has ambitions. Mr Yadav did not offer development. At best, he promised izzat, or self-respect, to downtrodden castes, who once voted as their landlords demanded, and later enjoyed picking someone their “superiors” could not abide.
今天的比哈尔邦道路上有些小洞，可是以前是连路都没有的。商人们嘟囔着说他们筹不到钱到这里投资，然而以前他们只会从该地抽逃资本的。民众抱怨库马尔政府没能实现其雄心勃勃的发展计划，可是至少政府是有抱负的。而亚达夫连个发展计划都没有，他最多只承诺尊重饱受权势压迫的属于种姓制度下层的人民，这些人曾经只是按照主人的意思投票，而后他们也乐于投票给一些“上层人”受不了的候选人。

How has Mr Kumar pulled off this transformation? He first imposed law and order, restoring the state to its role as night-watchman rather than rogue. He has put several gangsters—the sort of people who in the past became heroes—behind bars. He demanded speedy trials, where formerly defendants could intimidate witnesses and drag out proceedings. He has ensured that convicted criminals no longer get lucrative licences for liquor stores and ration shops, which sell subsidised food and fuel. And just as police reformers in America fixed broken windows, Mr kumar’s police improved perceptions of safety by forcing Bihar’s many gun-owners to conceal their weapons, rather than brandishing them out of their cars.
那库马尔是怎样进行他的改革的呢？第一步，他确立了法律和秩序，让该邦重新回归其守夜人(注2)的角色而不再做个恶棍。一些曾经是英雄的的歹徒被他关进牢笼。他也要求加快案件处理速度，因为从前被告通常威胁证人拖延审判进程。此外，他还担保一旦定罪则不能再取得获利行业执照开设酒水商店和出售补助食品和燃料的配给商店。正如美国警察改革者修补破窗一样，库马尔的警察也提升了该地安全系数，他们要求比哈尔邦枪支所有者掩藏武器，而不能像以前一样开车举出武器炫耀。

People now feel confident enough to buy cars and go out after dark. The economy, always volatile, has grown at double-digit rates, on average, since he took power, partly thanks to funds from Delhi. He built over 2,400km of roads last year. In Bihar’s villages, posters advertising immunisation compete with adverts offering cheap mobile-phone calls.
现在，人们对买车和夜间外出都有足够的信心了。一直波动的经济，自库马尔执政以来也以平均两位数的速度增长了，当然还是要感谢来自德里的贷款。 去年比哈尔邦修建了2400公里长的公路，在村落，宣传免疫服务的广告和宣传提供便宜手机电话服务的广告一样随处可见了。

Thanks. Now what?
多谢了，可是现在怎么样呢？
The policies MrKumarhas pursued so far have broad appeal. After the national elections in May 2009, a survey found that 88% of people were at least somewhat satisfied with the state government’s work. His second act will be trickier. He has shied away from land reform, which is both fiendishly complex and deeply unnerving to the upper-caste landowners included in his coalition. And to overcome what one minister describes as a “crisis of implementation”—teachers who don’t teach, nurses who don’t nurse, roads built but not maintained, funds received but not spent—he will have to overcome the most obdurate caste of all: the local bureaucracy.
库马尔实行的这些政策受到了大众的欢迎。2009年5月的全国大选过后，一项调查显示88%的人民都对邦政府的工作至多至少的表示满意。他另一项行动要赢得人们的满意就困难多了。他避开了土地改革。因为对于处于上层种姓的土地所有者（其中包括库马尔联盟中人士），土地改革既招人怨，十分复杂又让改革者身心疲惫。而库马尔必须要克服种姓制度中最顽固的一关，即克服当地官僚阶级的反抗。只有这样，他才能克服一位官员所提的“实施危机”，即克服教师不教，护士不护，道路修好了却没人维护，各种基金筹集好了却花不了种种情况。

More than the floods that frequently test Bihar’s embankments, local officials fear the rising expectations of people who no longer meekly accept their lot in life. Their instinct is to contain the waters by discouraging such self-assertion. But it is only by giving people their say, by turning unmet need into a political demand, that the state apparatus will begin to do its job. Mr Kumar must win re-election before the year is out. The biggest risk to him may be the rising expectations of his constituents. But that is also the measure of his success.
洪水时常检验着比哈尔邦的大堤，当地政府官员担心的是人们已不再仅仅接受命运安排，对生活的期望值越来越高。color=Red]直觉上他们要做的就是堵住洪水，打消人们的这种笃信。但是只有给人民说话的权利，满足他们政治上的要求，政府各机构才算开始其工作。在今年结束前库马尔一定要在再次选举中获胜。现在面临的最大威胁也许是来自选民高涨的期望，但这也许是他获胜的法宝。

注1：种姓制度：印度人口众多，百分之八十二为印度教徒，其中分为不同等级的社会集团。种姓制度主要存在于印度教中，对伊斯兰教和锡克教都有不同程度的影响。
印度的种姓制度将人分为四个不同等级：婆罗门、刹帝利、吠舍和首陀罗。婆罗门即僧侣，为第一种姓，地位最高，从事文化教育和祭祀；刹帝利即武士、王公、贵族等，为第二种姓，从事行政管理和打仗；吠舍即商人，为第三种姓，从事商业贸易；首陀罗即农民，为第四种姓，地位最低，从事农业和各种体力及手工业劳动等。后来随着生产的发展，各种姓又派生出许多等级。除四大种姓外，还有一种被排除在种姓外的人，即“不可接触者”或“贱民”。他们的社会地位最低，最受歧视，绝大部分为农村贫雇农和城市清洁工、苦力等。
种姓制度已经有三千多年的历史，早在原始社会的末期就开始萌芽。后来在阶级分化和奴隶制度形成过程中，原始的社会分工形成等级化和固定化，逐渐形成严格的种姓制度。
种姓是世袭的。几千年来，种姓制度对人们的日常生活和风俗习惯方面影响很深，种族歧视至今仍未消除，尤其广大农村情况还比较严重。
独立后，印度政府采取了很多措施来消除种姓歧视。首先是制定了有关法律规定。1948年国会通过了废除种姓制度的议案。后来宪法和各邦法律也都做出相应规定，保护低级种姓利益。政府还在教育、就业、福利等方面对低级种姓者提供大量帮助。
随着社会的进步，印度的种姓制度也在发生变化。如种姓制度中的内部通婚制受到冲击，如高种姓的女子现在也同低种姓的男子通婚了。人们对职业的看法也有所改变，衡量职业高低不再以宗教思想为基础，而以金钱、权力为基础。在城市里，各种姓人们之间加强了来往与交流。

注2：守夜人：在18世紀有公民權的時候，國家就是一個night watchman，一個夜警，只是在提醒大家不要去侵犯別人，不要去影響別人的宗教信仰自由，不要去影響別人的言論自由，不要去干涉別人的經濟自由。

译者：hellorainylin
如想与译者本人对该文进行切磋，请到如下链接：http://ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=30449&extra=&page=1

Tony Blair and Britain’s Iraq inquiry

托尼•布莱尔和英国之对伊战争调查

Weapons inspection

武器核查

Jan 14th 2010
From The Economist print edition

The right questions to ask the former prime minister

正确提问前首相

THERE have already been so many inquiries into the Iraq war (including one in the Netherlands that this week judged the invasion to have been illegal), and it was all so long ago, that many people thought the latest British probe, under Sir John Chilcot, would prove pointless. In fact it has already been informative, not least because some of the soldiers, spooks and diplomats who have given evidence have grown franker since retirement. On January 12th Sir John’s panel questioned Alastair Campbell, formerly the government’s main spin doctor. His testimony was a telling rehearsal for the imminent appearance of the star witness: his old boss, Tony Blair.

算上本周在荷兰将对伊战争归结为“非法入侵”的调查，对伊战争调查已进行过很多次了。很久以前，还有许多人认为这场由约翰•柴考特爵士坐镇的英国的对伊战争调查最终会是一场空。但事实上，调查已经取得了大量丰富的信息。这主要是因为一些提供证词的士兵、情报人员和外交官在退休后更为坦白。1月12日，约翰爵士的调查委员会对政府的前高级幕僚阿拉斯代尔•坎贝尔进行了质询。坎贝尔的证词也为即将接受质询的主要证人——他的前领导托尼•布莱尔，做了个铺垫。

Despite his nominal job description, Mr Campbell helped to construct and purvey the controversial case for war. “Nobody was really saying that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction [WMD],” he observed this week. That is true. Saddam’s record of making and using such weapons, the hunches of UN inspectors and the fact that the dictator continued to frustrate them and act guilty until the very end all made it seem that he still retained some WMD.

虽然并非职责所在，坎贝尔仍参与促成了倍受争议的对伊战争。他本周说：“没有人说过萨达姆•侯赛因没有大规模杀伤性武器。”诚然，萨达姆有制造和使用此类武器的“记录”，联合国调查人员的直觉，以及这位独裁者直到最后都不与配合并犯下种种的恶行，这一切都让人以为他仍然拥有大规模杀伤性武器。。

But there are weapons and there are weapons. The nuclear kind is by far the most terrifying; and the evidence presented by Britain and America that Saddam was actively and rapidly pursuing a nuke has come to seem especially dodgy. When they question Mr Blair about WMD, Sir John and his colleagues should concentrate on nuclear weapons—and in particular on the government’s assertion that Saddam might develop one “in between one and two years”. These nuclear allegations, which helped Mr Blair call the threat from Iraq “serious and current”, need further probing.

但是有军队的地方就会有武器。核武器显然是最为可怕的武器，因此英美提供的 “萨达姆正积极迅速地获取核武器”的证据就显得尤其危险（原诡诈）。在调查委员会就大规模杀伤性武器质询布莱尔时，约翰爵士和他的同僚们应该着重于“核武器”——特别是政府对萨达姆有可能在“一至两年内”制造出核武器的断言。这些有关核武器的断言（布莱尔曾凭此称伊拉克威胁是“严重而紧迫的”）值得深入调查。

A second focus should be on how raw intelligence was changed. Mr Blair described as “extensive, detailed and authoritative” intelligence that was, in fact, patchy and old; he described conclusions that were speculative as “beyond doubt”. At the inquiry, Mr Campbell drew a distinction between shifting lines and paragraphs in dossiers and actually fabricating intelligence. Again, fair enough; and it would be futile for the inquiry to try to prove outright lying in Mr Blair’s statements about WMD. Their focus should be subtler: on his government’s negligent approach to the sources of its claims, its failure to confess uncertainty and its urge to overstate.

第二个应着重关注的是：原始情报是如何被篡改的。布莱尔曾将那些拼凑而成的旧情报称之为“多方面、详细且权威的”，并将疑点重重的论断描述为“毋庸置疑的”。在质询中，坎贝尔曾指出移动档案中的文字及段落与伪造情报是不同的。那么，好吧，要立即通过布莱尔在质询中关于大规模杀伤性武器的陈词来证明情报是伪造的只能是徒劳。委员会应关注更为微妙的事件：布莱尔政府对形成其论断的资料采取的草率行径，否认不确定性并且急于夸大事实。

Beyond doubt

毋庸置疑？

There is also a string of outstanding questions about the conduct and aftermath of the war. For instance, why did some British troops seem not to have been fully equipped for the task? Indeed, why did the Treasury, overseen by the man who was then chancellor of the exchequer, Gordon Brown, fail to put its money where Mr Blair’s mouth was? (Mr Brown himself has dubiously been excused from testifying until after Britain’s pending general election.) Another concern is the increasingly vexed issue of when, precisely, Mr Blair committed British forces to the invasion—and whether he simultaneously said different things to George Bush and the British public. And why did he enter the war without much assurance that the Americans had a plan for post-war reconstruction?

对于这场战争的行为及后果还有许多悬疑，比如：为什么一些参战的英国部队似乎没有齐全的装备？确实，在戈登•布朗就任财政部财政大臣期间，为什么不以实际行动力挺布莱尔？（对布朗的质询被推迟在即将进行的英国大选之后也令人生疑。）另一个引起持续争议的问题是：布莱尔究竟是什么时候决定派英国部队入侵伊拉克的，面对乔治•布什和英国公众他是否有两套截然不同的说法？为什么他还没确定美国是否有战后重建方案，就贸然参与对伊战争？

These worries have not arisen because of a petty dispute between Mr Blair and his critics in the media—as Mr Campbell seemed to argue at the inquiry this week. They are important because Saddam turned out not to have any WMD, and because the post-war occupation of Iraq has been disastrous (and for Britain, militarily humiliating). And they are not merely historical curiosities. The unravelling of the case for war, and the calamities of its aftermath, have discredited politicians in the eyes of many Britons, and may inhibit the country’s future foreign policy, not to mention the cost in blood and treasure. Mr Blair’s turn at the inquiry may be the last, best chance to explain those mistakes and allay some of the anger they provoked—if he is asked the right questions.

本周，坎贝尔在质询中申辩：未有这方面的担忧是缘于布莱尔与其批评家在媒体的一次小争论。但这些问题却至关重要，因为萨达姆被证实并没有任何大规模杀伤性武器，而对伊的战后占领却损失惨重——英国在军事上为此蒙羞。这些问题不只是历史的噱头，对伊战争的揭晓以及战后的灾难，使许多英国人都认为政治家是不可信的，这很可能会羁绊英国以后的外交政策，且不说战争引起的死伤及国库损耗了。要平息他们所挑起的公愤，对布莱尔的质询也许就是最后的，也是最好的机会了——如果问到了点子上的话。

译者：mabel.jie

The Obama presidency, one year on

奥巴马就任总统一周年

Time to get tough

刚毅此其时

Jan 14th 2010
From The Economist print edition

Barack Obama’s first year has been good, but not great—and things are going to get a lot harder

奥巴马就任第一年表现尚可，但并不出色，而且面临的挑战将棘手得多

HOW far away it seems, that bitingly cold, crystal-clear morning when almost 2m people filled the Mall from Capitol Hill to the Washington Monument to hear the new president talk of the victory of hope over fear, of unity of purpose over conflict and discord. Recalling the dark days of the war of independence, he pledged, like George Washington, that in the face of common danger Americans under his leadership would come forth to meet it. One year on, how well has he done?

无论多久远，人们都能记得那个早晨，寒气刺骨，天廓澄明。从国会山到华盛顿纪念碑之间，近二百万人聚集在国家广场，聆听新任总统演讲。他谈到以希望战胜恐惧，以万众一心克服纷争龃龉。忆及独立战争时的黑暗岁月，他与当年的华盛顿一样做出保证：在共同的危险面前，他将带领美国人民向前迎战。时已一年，他做得如何？
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The hard slog ahead
前路艰辛

Nov 13th 2009
From The World in 2010 print edition

Barack Obama in Asia
奥巴马总统的亚洲之行

Scaling the Asian wall
小马哥的长城游记

Nov 19th 2009 | BEIJING AND TOKYO
From The Economist print edition

The president pays Asia the compliment of courtesy; rewards are not immediate
[小马哥访华，收获驴粪蛋一枚。]

IT TOOK Barack Obama nearly a year in office to get to East Asia. When he did, it was for an intensive nine-day obstacle course, which he tried to negotiate with the placatory charm and openness to dialogue that have marked his diplomacy. Unsurprisingly, it went down well, but produced little of substance.
[小马哥上台一年，终于秀到东亚来了。行程九天，有拉拢有谈判，任重道远，且看小马哥外交手段如何。这事吧，大面上挺漂亮，其实样子货。]
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The end of the Labour government
工党政府之末

Last, do no harm
以至最后，勿造伤害
Nov 19th 2009
From The Economist print edition

How Gordon Brown and the Labour Party should use their last months in power
戈登布朗及工党应如何利用掌权的最后几个月

Reuters

TWO syndromes often beset governments whose time is almost up. One is listlessness and drift, as discipline crumbles, morale plummets and ideas dry up. Conversely, some moribund administrations embrace desperate hyperactivity to stave off their doom. Gordon Brown and his Labour government, facing probable defeat in the general election that must be held in Britain by next June, have alternately exhibited both these contradictory tendencies. But there is a course between them, and a respectable way for Labour to spend what are likely to be the last six months of a 13-year stint in office: confront the fiscal predicament it has helped to create, and pursue those worthwhile policies it has already got.
任期即将结束的政府常常会被两种状况所困扰。其一是由于纪律瓦解、士气下降、思想枯竭而引起的迟缓低迷。相反，另一些即将离任的政府则具有回光返照的活力可以延迟劫数的到来。可能会在明年一月的英国大选中面对失败的布朗及工党政府交替展现出了这两种矛盾的倾向。但是在这两者之间有一段过程，工党可以以一种体面的方式度过可能是其十三年执政期的最后六个月：直面自己促成的财政困境，实行现行的有价值的政策。
继续阅读“”

Islam and heresy
Where freedom is still at stake
伊斯兰教与异端
宗教自由，在斯一举

Aug 6th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Wanted: Islam’s Voltaire
亟待：伊斯兰世界的伏尔泰

TO MOST Western ears, the very idea of punishing heresy conjures up a time four or five centuries ago, when Spanish inquisitors terrorised dissenters with the rack and Russian tsars would burn alive whole communities of ultra-traditionalist Old Believers. Most religions began as heresies. Today the concept of “heresy” still means something. Every community built around an idea, a principle or an aim (from fox-hunting enthusiasts to Freudian psychotherapists) will always face hard arguments about where the boundaries of that community lie, and how far the meaning of its founding axioms can be stretched. But one of the hallmarks of a civilised and tolerant society is that arguments within freely constituted groups, religious or otherwise, unfold peacefully. And if those disputes lead to splits and new groups, that too must be a peaceful process, free of violence or coercion.

对大多数西方人而言，提到惩处异端，便让人觉得是四、五百年前的事情。当时，西班牙的宗教裁判官用拷问台威胁拒绝信奉国教者，俄罗斯的沙皇烧死整个片区笃信传统东正教旧派的信徒。很多宗教都起源于异端。时至今日，“异端”这个概念仍然有一定意义。每一个建立在某种观念、准则或目的上的群体（无论是猎狐爱好者们还是弗洛伊德派心理医生们），都会常常面临该群体的边界在何处，其奠基理念的意义能延伸到何种程度，诸如此类的激烈争论。然而，一个宽容的文明社会的标志是：此类争论必须在自由建立的宗教或非宗教群体之间进行，以和平方式展开。即使这些争端导致群体分裂和新的群体诞生，这个过程也必须是和平进行，不通过暴力或威慑方式的。
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Redesigning Europe’s biggest economy
重新设计欧洲最大的经济体

Unbalanced Germany
失衡的德意志

Aug 6th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Europe’s champion is justly proud of its exporters. It also needs to worry about markets closer to home
欧罗巴之（经济）翘楚理应为其出口商感到骄傲。但它也需要考虑其国内市场。

Michael Morgenstern

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Asia
亚洲

An astonishing rebound
惊人的回弹

Aug 13th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Asia’s emerging economies are leading the way out of recession; now they must make their recovery last
亚洲的新兴经济体正在走出萧条的泥潭；现在，他们必须要把经济复苏保持下去

继续阅读“”