blog.ecocn.org
巴西、土耳其协助解决了一场酝酿的核子危机，或让危机更加恶化？
May 20th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
对于难缠的伊朗总统Mahmoud Ahmadinejad来说，这份协议代表着未来的强权战胜了「属于过去的暴君强权」。无论本性凶残与否，旁观者必须看看巴西总统Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva和土耳其总理Recep Tayyip Erdogan（上图，站在Ahmadinejad两侧）是否真的成功诱使伊朗走下台阶，结束与联合国安理会关于核武野心争论的冰冷态度。Ahmadinejad政府与其它六国（美、英、法、德、俄和中国）之间几年来断断续续的谈判（大多因伊朗坚持己见而中断）无法逼使伊朗让步，伊朗坚持疑似核武计划无论如何都会继续下去。 继续阅读“巴西、土耳其和伊朗：不是任何协议都可以签”
金砖四国
万亿美元俱乐部
巴西、俄罗斯、印度和中国各自独立发展。然而将金砖四国（或者任何其他新兴力量的组合）视为一体是否有意义？
2010年4月15日 | 来源自《经济学人》印刷版
在任何全球会议上，美国总统通常是同侪之首[1]：他能拍板亦能终止最后交易，并且选择他喜欢的对话者。去年十二月的哥本哈根，当关于最新气候变化条约的谈判进入最后阶段时，美国总统奥巴马和中国总理温家宝紧急召开了一次会议，看起来双方成交的关键时刻即将来临。然而当奥巴马总统出席时却发现除温先生以外，巴西、南非和印度的政府首脑也都在场。这可真是出人意料。此前美国人甚至以为印度人已离开峰会。原先预计的双边对话变成了一场与”新兴市场集合体“的谈判。另一桩标志着世界局势在改变的事件是，一位温先生麾下的媚臣对奥巴马总统居然指手画脚。所幸至少奥巴马先生还能呆在房间里；这些新兴力量和美国就协议最终商谈时，欧洲人直接被排除在外。 继续阅读“万亿美元俱乐部”
土耳其和亚美尼亚
重建的代价
民族分化古来已有 调解还需多方援手
Mar 11th 2010 | ISTANBUL | From The Economist print edition
咫尺天涯
数世纪以来，一座石桥横跨在碧绿的Akhurian河两岸，连通南高加索和安纳托利亚平原。丝绸之路穿过这里的古亚美尼亚阿尼（音）王国，而石桥正是丝绸之路的战略枢纽之一。如今，它本该将面积狭小、四邻环嗣的亚美尼亚与土耳其相接，但战争和自然灾害已使石桥仅剩两个桥墩——对欠佳的两国关系做出的一个“小小批注”。 继续阅读“重建的代价”
一个地图上找不到的国家如何震撼了世界
Mar 16th 2010 | From The Economist online
第一天
地震是改变自然地貌的一种可怕的方式，但地缘政治地震却能产生令人赞叹的变化。立陶宛刚刚庆祝了其重新独立20周年。1990年3月11日深夜，立陶宛苏维埃社会主义共和国“最高苏维埃”的代表们投票表决一致同意撤掉象征苏联统治的徽章旗帜，恢复国家的独立。
现在能看到一些希望了
在当时这似乎是一种毫无成功可能的举动。但这场地震的冲击波震垮了苏联，带来自由，对15个新的国家而言它至少是带来了自由的机会。它使立陶宛能够重振国威，也正如这句成语字面上所表达出的意思，重登世界地图。自1940年被苏联强行吞并后，立陶宛就从世界地图上消失了。 继续阅读“立陶宛：重振国威”
Education
教育
Reaching the poorest
给予赤贫者受教育的机会
Enrolling the world’s poorest children in school needs new thinking, not just more money from taxpayers
要让世界上最贫困的儿童能接受教育，光靠纳税人缴纳更多的税金是不够的，还要在思维上有所创新。
Jan 21st 2010
From The Economist print edition
DAWN has just broken but classes have already started at the village school in Aqualaar, in the Garissa district of Kenya’s arid north-east. Around 30 children, mostly from families of Somali herders, sit listening as an enthusiastic 18-year-old teacher, Ibrahim Hussein, gives an arithmetic lesson. The school is really little more than a sandy patch of ground under an acacia tree. Mr Hussein’s blackboard hangs from its branches. There are no desks or chairs. Pupils follow the lesson by using sticks to scratch numbers in the sand.
尽管天刚破晓，阿奎拉乡村学校就已经开始授课了（阿奎拉位于肯尼亚东北部气候干燥的加里萨区）。听课的孩子有30个左右，大多是索马里牧人的儿女。孩子们坐着聆听着他们18岁的老师易卜拉欣•侯赛因热情洋溢地上算术课。说是学校，其实不过是金合欢树下的一块沙地。侯赛因老师的黑板就挂在树上。那里既没有桌子也没有椅子，小学生们用木棍在沙地上演算，以此跟上进度。
The lack of basic kit is only too typical of schools in poor countries. What is unusual, sadly, is that Mr Hussein was actually present and teaching when his school was visited by Kevin Watkins, the lead author of “Reaching the Marginalised”, a new report on education in the developing world by UNESCO.
缺乏基本的授课设施，是贫困国家学校的一大特点。非同寻常的是，当凯文•沃特金斯（凯文•沃特金斯是联合国教科文组织关于发展中国家教育的新报告《伸手帮助被边缘化的群体》的首席作者。）来参观学校的时候，侯赛因老师居然在学校授课。老师在授课成了非同寻常的事，多少让人心酸。
In India, for example, research by the World Bank reveals that 25% of teachers in government-run schools are away on any given day; of those present, only half were actually teaching when the bank’s researchers made spot checks. That is dreadful but not unusual: teacher absenteeism rates are around 20% in rural Kenya, 27% in Uganda and 14% in Ecuador.
继续阅读“Reaching the poorest 给予赤贫者受教育的机会”
Universities and Islam
大学与伊斯兰
Hearts, minds and Mecca
内心，思想与圣地
Jan 7th 2010 | ISTANBUL, LAGOS AND TORONTO
From The Economist print edition
he rising profile of Muslim students in the Western world
西方世界不断增加的穆斯林学生规模
WHEN news emerged of the life-story of the Nigerian who tried to blow up a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day, there were cries of bewilderment in some quarters, groans of dismay in others, and shouts of “I told you so” from a small army of Cassandras①.
当圣诞节那天传出尼日利亚人试图炸毁从阿姆斯特丹飞往底特律的航班的消息后，某些团体发出杂乱的声音，有些因惊恐而抱怨不已，而有些卡桑德拉斯的信徒则叫嚣：“我早就告诉你会是这样”。
Report Digital
继续阅读“Hearts, minds and Mecca 内心，思想与圣地”
Egypt and global Islam
埃及与全球伊斯兰教
The battle for a religion’s heart
宗教攻心之役
Aug 6th 2009 | CAIRO
From The Economist print edition
In an ideological contest between radicals, populists and moderates, speaking out can still carry a heavy personal cost
在一场于激进分子、民粹主义者与温和派之间进行的意识形态较量中，畅所欲言仍将会付出沉重的个人代价。
Correspondent’s Diary 特派员日记
Bay Area science 湾区科技
Techs and the city 充满科技魅力的城市
Jul 31st 2009
From Economist.com
Lab by lab in and around San Francisco 旧金山的地图上布满了实验室
Monday 礼拜一
SAN FRANCISCO conjures up images of hippies and of free love, the psychedelic 60s and leftist politics. A member of Jefferson Airplane, a rock band, described it as “49 square miles surrounded by reality”. It has always had that air. In a letter written in 1889, Rudyard Kipling wrote of “a mad city, inhabited for the most part by perfectly insane people.” 旧金山往往使人想起这样一种景象,嬉皮士,自由性爱,迷幻的60一代以及左翼政治成为这座城市的标志.摇滚乐队”杰弗逊星船”的一名成员曾经形容这座城市为”被现实所包围的49平方英里”.这里向来有这种气氛.而吉普林在1889年的一封信中写下了这样的文字来描述旧金山”一座疯狂的城市,大部分居民都是彻头彻尾的疯子”.
The United States and Islam美国和伊斯兰教
Let nations speak peace让各国握手言和吧！
Jun 4th 2009
From The Economist print edition
After the chill of the Bush era, ties between America and Islam can only get better—but how much better?
美国与伊斯兰教的关系在经过布什时代的冰封之后只能是改善，但会改善到何种程度呢？
The view from Brazil
来自巴西的观点
An unruly bunch
不驯之众
May 14th 2009 | SÃO PAULO
From The Economist print edition
How the church is faring in the world’s biggest Catholic country
教会在世界上最大的天主教国家进展如何
THOUGH Pope Benedict’s tenure has not had much effect on Catholicism in Brazil so far, it has entrenched an old conflict. The previous pope’s reign saw a “decapitation of the progressive parts of the church in Latin America and particularly in Brazil,” says Antonio Pierucci of São Paulo University. This war against the progressives was promoted by Benedict when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Its price has been a loss of political influence for the church hierarchy, whereas the liberation theologians whom the bosses shunned continue to have the ear of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party. Pope John Paul’s charisma partly compensated for this loss of influence. Pope Benedict does not have that to fall back on.
尽管教皇本笃（十六世）的任期目前尚未对巴西的天主教产生多大影响，但它已经使得一场旧的冲突变得更为根深蒂固。圣保罗大学的安东尼奥•皮耶路奇指出：上一任教皇的统治期内，“拉美地区，尤其是巴西教会中的进步派势力受到打击。”这场针对进步派的战争正是由本笃倡导发起的，当年他的身份还是红衣主教约瑟夫•拉辛格。鉴于那些被上层回避的自由派神学家仍然能在路易斯•伊纳西奥•卢拉•达席尔瓦总统的工人党那里说得上话，这场战争的代价便是教会体系的政治影响力受损。约翰•保罗教皇的个人魅力部分抵消了影响力的丧失，但本笃教皇却没有这种优势可供依赖。
