分类：亚非拉

Argentina
阿根廷
Deadlock
剑拔弩张

May 29th 2008 | ROSARIO
From The Economist  print edition
2008年5月29日| 罗萨里奥
摘自《经济学人》印刷版

Angry farmers v an obstinate president
愤怒的农民PK固执的总统

Farmers, big and small, against taxes
农民老少争相反对征税

IN BRILLIANT autumn sunshine on May 25th, Argentina’s national day, some 200,000 people packed into a riverside plaza in Rosario, Argentina’s third city and its farm capital, in the largest anti-government rally in years. The crowd booed every mention of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the president, and cheered the country’s farmers, who are protesting against her government’s decision to raise export taxes.
5 月25日是阿根廷的国庆节。此日秋高气爽，阳光明媚。约有20万人挤入罗萨里奥（阿根廷的第三大城市和阿根廷的农业首都）的一个河畔广场，组成近几年规模 最大的反政府集会。每当提及克里斯蒂娜总统的名字，人群便发出阵阵嘘声喝倒彩。集会的民众还在为阿根廷国内的农民欢呼雀跃，因为他们正在抗议克里斯蒂娜政 府关于提高出口税的决定。 继续阅读“[2008.05.31] Deadlock 阿根廷剑拔弩张”

Japan and Africa
日本与非洲
Catching up
赶赴非洲为盛宴

May 29th 2008 | TOKYO
From The Economist  print edition
2008年5月29日/东京
《经济学人》印刷版

It’s sushi for Africa’s leaders
为非洲领导人准备的寿司

THE copper is used in computers. The nickel is for batteries. Tungsten is used to fortify steel for cars. Japan buys much of its rare metal from China to feed its electronics and car industries. But as booming China has begun to close the spigot to safeguard its own supplies, Japan, the world’s second biggest economy, has been forced to look elsewhere for an alternative source—in Africa.
铜是制造电脑不可或缺的原料，镍可以用来造电池，钨可以使造车用的钢铁更坚 固。过去日本可以从中国进口大部分稀有金属来满足其电子和汽车工业的需要，但是当迅速发展的中国开始拧紧原材料出口的龙头来保障本国供给时，日本这个世界 第二大经济体不得不把目光转向其他地方以寻找替代来源——这个地方就是非洲。 继续阅读“[2008.05.31] Japan and Africa 赶赴非洲为盛宴”

Indonesia
印度尼西亚
Not yet a dream; no longer a nightmare
迷途已远，来者可追

May 22nd 2008 | JAKARTA
From The Economist print edition

A boom in satire marks a decade of sturdy democracy
政治讽刺的大潮标志着十年来民主的茁壮成长

AMIEN RAIS, a leader of the mass protest movement that brought down the authoritarian Suharto regime ten years ago this week, is being interrogated on a television satire show, “Republik Mimpi” (“Republic of Dreams”) by two impressionists dressed as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his vice-president, Jusuf Kalla. “Why is your new book called ‘Save Indonesia’?” harrumphs the fictional vice-president, “Don’t you think we are already doing everything possible to save it?” The studio audience titters. Moments later, tvOne, the station airing the show, cuts in with an apt but genuine news flash about big demonstrations erupting against the decision by the real-life president and his deputy to slash fuel subsidies, to save the country from financial ruin.
AMIEN RAIS是印尼群众抗议运动的领导人，十年前的这个星期正是他把独裁者苏哈托拉下了台。此刻他正在参加一个电视政治讽刺节目——“满怀梦想的共和国”，节 目的主角是两个穿着像总统苏西洛和副总统Jusuf Kalla的模仿者。“副总统”低声下气的问：“为什么你的新书叫拯救印尼?难道你不认为我们为了拯救它已经采取了一切可能的措施吗？”。场下的观众暗自 发笑，就在此时电视台把镜头切入一个做得很逼真的新闻flash短片，内容是关于抵制现实生活中的总统和他的副手作出的削减石油补助以避免财政破产决定的 大型示威游行。 继续阅读“[2008.05.22] Not yet a dream; no longer a nightmare 迷途已远，来者可追”

Education in Mexico
墨西哥教育
Testing the teachers
测验教师

May 22nd 2008 | MEXICO CITY
2008年5月22日 墨西哥城
From The Economist print edition
摘自《经济学人》印刷版

An attempt to tame the teachers’ union
驯服教师工会的一次尝试

IT IS perhaps the hardest reform of all. Pension systems or energy shortages can be fixed by cutting entitlements or spending more. But no amount of money can in itself make a million qualified teachers materialise in less than a generation. That is the aim of the “Alliance for Educational Quality” launched by Felipe Calderón, Mexico’s president, this month. To signal its importance, he gathered together much of his cabinet for the signing ceremony on May 15th. The document his pen hovered over was not a new law, but rather an agreement with Elba Esther Gordillo, head of the national teachers’ union.
这或许是一次举步为 艰的改革。养老金制度或能源短缺都可通过削减权利或剧增开支来加以完善。不过，大量钱财并不能使100万名合格的教师在不到一代的时间内成为现实。这就是 墨西哥总统卡尔德龙(Felipe Calderón) 在本月发起“教育质量联盟”的目的。为显示这一联盟的重要性，卡尔德龙总统在5月15日召集多数内阁成员出席了签字仪式。事实上，刚刚签署的这份文件并非 新法，而是同全国教师工会会长戈迪略女士（Elba Esther Gordillo）达成的一个协议。 继续阅读“[2008.05.22] Testing the teachers 测验教师”

Asia.view
亚洲观察
Reconstructing Afghanistan
重建阿富汗

May 20th 2008
From The Economist print edition

The lessons of earlier Asian nation-building efforts
早期亚洲国家重建的教训

AP/美联社

A big tent would be better
大点的帐篷都比这好

NEARLY seven years after the toppling of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s future is still up for grabs. Despite tens of thousands of foreign troops, and billions of dollars in aid, the country remains stricken by poverty and insurgency.
推翻塔利班已近七年了，可阿富汗依旧前途未卜。数以千计的外国军队和几十亿美元的援助也于事无补，这个国家仍深受贫困与叛乱之苦。 继续阅读“[2008.05.22] Reconstructing Afghanistan 重建阿富汗”

Vietnam
越南
Shooting the messenger
向报信者开炮

May 22nd 2008 | BANGKOK
From The Economist print edition

The press fights back as two graft-busting reporters are arrested
当两名检举贿赂的记者被捕后，媒体展开反击

THE leaders of Vietnam’s Communist Party say they are conducting a “no holds barred” crackdown on corruption in public life. They implore the country’s newspapers to sniff out and expose the fiddles of officials. In February the party chief, Nong Duc Manh, praised the press for unmasking graft and thereby fulfilling “the people’s desires”. The most notable case was a scandal at the transport ministry in 2006 in which newspapers revealed how officials had gambled around $750,000 of public money on the outcomes of football matches. In the clean-up that followed, the head of a road-building department at the ministry was jailed, along with seven others.
越共领导人声称他们“毫不留情”的打击公共政治中的腐败行为。他们请求报纸寻 找并披露官员的污点。2月份党的总书记农德孟对媒体揭露腐败的行为进行了表彰，称媒体实现了“人民群众的心愿”。最值得注意的是报纸在2006年披露的交 通部丑闻，官员们挪用75万美元公款赌球。在接下来的惩处中，公路建设部门的负责人和其他七名官员入狱。 继续阅读“[2008.05.22]Shooting the messenger 向报信者开炮”

Australia
澳大利亚
The lucky prime minister
幸运的总理

May 15th 2008 | CANBERRA
2008年5月15日
From The Economist print edition
摘自《经济学人》印刷版

Kevin Rudd tries to be a prudent big spender
财政支出一掷千金，回避争议一路审慎

WHEN he led the Labor Party to victory in November, Kevin Rudd, Australia’s prime minister, boasted that he was a fiscal conservative. So when his government presented its first budget on May 13th, everyone wanted to see if he would remain true to that claim or to his other election promises to splurge cash on education, transport, health and the environment. In the event, Mr Rudd managed to do a bit of both.
在11月份领导工党胜利后，澳大利亚总理陆克文自夸说自己是一位财政保守主义者。因此，在政府于5月13日提交第一份财政预算时，大家都想看总理能否言行一致，也想看他能否兑现在竞选中关于在教育、运输、卫生和环境上的投放大量资金的承诺。现在的结果是，陆克文总理成功地做到了两者兼顾。

继续阅读“[2005.05.17] The lucky prime minister 幸运的总理”

Indian bombs
印度爆炸
Blood in the Pink City
喋血粉红城

May 15th 2008 | JAIPUR
From The Economist print edition

Terrorists strike one of India’s tourist capitals
恐怖分子袭击了一个印度旅游胜地

Less lovely Jaipur
不太可爱的斋普尔

BICYCLES carry some extraordinary loads in India—bulging sacks of rice, grain, even coal. But the humble push-bike is earning a reputation as a terrorist’s packhorse. On May 13th seven bombs exploded inside the old walled quarter of Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, and an eighth wreaked havoc outside a Hindu temple nearby. The blasts killed over 60 people and injured over 200 others. According to the Times of India, citing the state’s police chief, several of the bombs were stowed on new Avon bicycles.
在印度，自行车用途甚广，比方说驮运成袋的大米，谷物，甚至是煤。但是小小的自行车如今却落得恐怖分子驮马 的名声。5月13日，拉贾斯坦邦首府斋普尔的老城区接连发生七起炸弹爆炸袭击，第八次发泄怒火的袭击发生在印度庙附近。爆炸造成超过60人死亡，逾200 人受伤。根据《印度时报》援引拉贾斯坦邦警察总长的报道，一些炸弹就安放在崭新的Avon自行车上。 继续阅读“[2008.05.17] Blood in the Pink City 喋血粉红城”

The Amazon
亚马逊
Marina marches off
玛丽娜激流勇退

May 15th 2008
From The Economist print edition
2008年5月15日
摘自《经济学人》印刷版

Brazil’s minister for the Amazon resigns in frustration
护林工作兢兢业业，政治生涯磕磕绊绊

The rainforest’s defeated champion
惨败的雨林保护者

WHEN Marina Silva was appointed minister responsible for preserving the Amazon five years ago, she gave a big boost to Brazil’s standing among the world’s environmentalists. All her adult life, she had been a prominent and uncompromising activist for the preservation of the rainforest, so the choice was a bit like picking a human-rights lawyer to run the police. But on May 14th she resigned—out of sheer frustration. Her departure will now make it a lot harder for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government to convince Amazon-watchers of its determination to slow the rate of deforestation.
五年前，在玛丽娜•席尔瓦 (Marina Silva)被任命为部长负责保护亚马逊地区时，她在使巴西屹立全球环境保护大国之林中给予极大推动作用。在其所有的成年生活中，席尔瓦女士都是一名功勋 卓越和绝不妥协的雨林保护活动家，因此这一任职极象是选择一位人权利律师来管理警察。然而，在5月14日玛丽娜•席尔瓦女士选择了辞职——出于全线崩溃。 现在，席尔瓦女士的辞职将令亚马逊守护者难以相信卢拉政府拥有减缓森林砍伐速度的决心。
继续阅读“[2008.05.17] Marina marches off 玛丽娜激流勇退”

Pakistan

On edge

巴基斯坦：如履薄冰

Jan 31st 2008 | LAHORE
From The Economist print edition

If he rigs, he may have to rig big
窃国者侯

THE army is battling a Taliban insurgency in the tribal areas of the Afghan border, in which hundreds have been killed in recent weeks. In the cities, activists shouting “Go, Musharraf, Go!” are up in arms about alleged pre-election rigging of the vote due on February 18th. Yet Pakistan’s increasingly edgy president, Pervez Musharraf, went on a ten-day European jaunt to tell the West why he is still Pakistan’s best bet in the “transition to democracy” and the “war against terror”.
　　在与阿富汗接壤的部族地区，巴基斯坦的军队正与塔利班武装交火，几周以来已有数百人丧生。在城市里，激进分子们高呼着“滚，穆沙拉夫，滚！”，宣称穆沙拉夫在2月18日即将到来的大选的准备活动中有舞弊现象，并对此大加鞭挞。巴基斯坦国内局势动荡不安，佩尔维兹·穆沙拉夫却到欧洲进行了为期十天的短期访问，向西方社会游说，声称自己仍是巴“民主转型”与“反恐战争”的最佳人选。

继续阅读“[2008.01.31]PAKISTAN-On Edge（巴基斯坦：如履薄冰）”