美国国家公共电台 NPR 黎巴嫩正在经历世界上最严重的危机之一

The World Bank says the economic crisis in Lebanon is one of the worst that the world has seen in over a century.

世界银行表示，黎巴嫩的经济危机是一个多世纪以来世界上最严重的危机之一。

This happens in a country with famous tourist sites that has had a thriving middle class and legendary¹ nightlife.

这场危机发生在一个拥有著名旅游景点的国家，那里有不断兴起的中产阶级和传奇的夜生活。

NPR's Ruth Sherlock is in Beirut. Ruth, thanks so much for being with us.

NPR新闻的露丝·夏洛克将从贝鲁特带来详细报道。露丝，非常感谢你和我们连线。

Thank you, Scott.

谢谢你，斯科特。

Let's begin with what you've been hearing from people.

我们首先来谈谈你从当地人那里了解到的信息。

You know, Scott, it's really terrible. Yesterday, we went to this Armenian Christian² neighborhood that used to be thriving.

斯科特，这真的很可怕。昨天，我们去了曾经繁荣的亚美尼亚基督教社区。

We met with Hasme Tabatyan there.

我们在那里遇到了哈斯梅·塔巴蒂扬。

She was a home care worker but now has no regular income, and she tells us anything she does earn doesn't go far because of that inflation you mentioned.

她曾是一名家庭护理人员，但现在没有固定收入，她告诉我们，由于你刚才提到的通货膨胀，她挣的钱不会太多。

She says she can't afford to pay for a generator³ to get electricity when the state's power is out.

她说她买不起发电机，这些发电机在国家断电时提供电力。

And this is really one of the basics in Lebanon because state power now only works for a couple of hours a day sometimes.

这确实是黎巴嫩的必需品之一，因为国家电力系统现在有时一天只运行几个小时。

And it's a swelteringly hot summer here. She also can't make her rent payments.

现在是黎巴嫩酷热的夏天。另外，她也付不起房租。

She says that she might be evicted⁴ by the end of July if she can't pay.

她表示，如果不能支付房租，她可能会在7月底被赶出去。

And this, unfortunately, is not unique. It's typical of what people are going through.

不幸的是，这种情况并不是个例。这是人们正在经历的普遍情况。

We've met, for example, and out-of-work chef who now collects trash for a living and a teacher that can't make ends meet on their salary.

比如，我们见过一名失业的厨师，他现在靠捡垃圾为生，还有一名老师，现在靠工资已经无法维持生计。

And that's not surprising because baby milk now costs about a quarter of what they would earn in a month.

这一点也不奇怪，因为目前婴儿奶制品的价格大约是他们一个月收入的四分之一。

And supplies of everything seem to be running short, I gather.

我想该国所有的东西似乎都快缺货了。

There are shortages of the basics, so you see gas lines that are miles long with people pushing the cars along by hand in those lines.

必需品都处于短缺状态，因此你会看到加油站排起数英里长的队，而人们则用手推着汽车排队。

We've already talked about the power cuts, but most seriously is the impact on the health care system.

我们刚才提过到停电问题，但最严重的是医疗体系遭受的影响。

There's public hospitals shutting down, and shelves in pharmacies⁵ are sparsely⁶ stocked.

公立医院关门，药店的货架上只有零星的药品。

It's not uncommon⁷ to see people breaking down because they've gone from pharmacy⁸ to pharmacy trying to find sometimes, you know, important life-saving medication.

人们崩溃痛哭的情况并不少见，因为他们从一个药房走到另一个药房，有时试图找到重要的救命药。

Ruth, why is all of this happening now?

露丝，为什么这一切在现在发生？

The thing is this is sadly, in many ways, a preventable crisis that is of Lebanon's own making.

关键是，这是非常可悲的情况，因为从许多方面来说，这都是一场本可以预防的危机，而导致现在这种局面的是黎巴嫩自已。

The people in the government and the banking⁹ sector¹¹ here have either mismanaged, squandered¹² or stolen the cash reserves,

政府和银行部门的工作人员要么管理不善，要么挥霍或窃取现金储备，

and now the state says it's out of money.

现在这个国家称其国库已亏空。

Lebanese people are understandably furious. I spoke¹³ about this with Yasmine Masri.

黎巴嫩民众的愤怒是可以理解的。我就此采访了亚斯敏·马斯里。

She's become a kind of instant celebrity¹⁴ here after a video went viral of her shouting,

她因一则疯传的视频一夜成名，

shame on you, at a top politician in a restaurant and his bodyguards¹⁵ beating her up.

视频显示，她在一家餐厅里对一位顶级政治家大喊“你真丢脸”，之后那名政治家的保镖殴打了她。

She tells me the crisis is actually a way of uniting people.

她告诉我，危机其实是一种团结人们的方式。

Because you know what actually unites people — when everybody gets poor, when everybody in the same country cannot go to the bank and not have medicine,

因为你知道什么能真正将人们团结在一起——当每个人都变成穷人，当同一个国家的每个人都不能去银行，无药可用，

cannot have water running, cannot have electricity, then everybody is looking at the same, you know, disaster. And this is when you wake up.

无法获得自来水和电力，那每个人都会看到同样的事情——灾难。而这是你一觉醒来就要面对的情况。

This is a very divided country, and people used to support the politicians that represent their sect¹⁰ mostly.

黎巴嫩是分裂非常严重的国家，人们过去主要支持代表他们教派的政治家。

Now increasingly, though, people are saying that all politicians are the same. They're all part of the same corrupt¹⁶ political class.

不过，现在越来越多的人表示，所有的政治家都一样。他们都属于同一个腐败的政治阶层。

And the international community is reluctant to help in many ways, aren't they?

国际社会不愿意在很多方面提供帮助，是吗？

That's correct. You know, they've seen financial help squandered in the past through incompetence¹⁷ and corruption¹⁸.

没错。因为过去他们看到财政援助因无能和腐败而被浪费。

They want major reforms, but the politicians here don't seem able or willing to implement¹⁹ those.

他们希望进行重大改革，但这里的政治家似乎没有能力也不愿意实施这些改革。

NPR's Ruth Sherlock in Beirut, thanks so much.

以上是NPR新闻的露丝·夏洛克从贝鲁特带来的报道，非常谢谢你。

Thank you.

谢谢。

1 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

2 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

3 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

4 evicted   

v.（依法从房屋里或土地上）驱逐，赶出( evict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
• They had evicted their tenants for non-payment of rent. 他们赶走了未交房租的房客。

5 pharmacies   

药店

参考例句：

• Still, 32 percent of the pharmacies filled the prescriptions. 但仍然有32%的药剂师配发了这两张药方。 来自互联网
• Chinese herbal pharmacies, and traditional massage therapists in the Vancouver telephone book. 中药店，和传统的按摩师在温哥华的电话簿里。 来自互联网

6 sparsely   

adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地

参考例句：

• Relative to the size, the city is sparsely populated. 与其面积相比，这个城市的人口是稀少的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ground was sparsely covered with grass. 地面上稀疏地覆盖草丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 uncommon   

adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的

参考例句：

• Such attitudes were not at all uncommon thirty years ago.这些看法在30年前很常见。
• Phil has uncommon intelligence.菲尔智力超群。

8 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

9 banking   

n.银行业，银行学，金融业

参考例句：

• John is launching his son on a career in banking.约翰打算让儿子在银行界谋一个新职位。
• He possesses an extensive knowledge of banking.他具有广博的银行业务知识。

10 sect   

n.派别，宗教，学派，派系

参考例句：

• When he was sixteen he joined a religious sect.他16岁的时候加入了一个宗教教派。
• Each religious sect in the town had its own church.该城每一个宗教教派都有自己的教堂。

11 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

12 squandered   

v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He squandered all his money on gambling. 他把自己所有的钱都糟蹋在赌博上了。
• She felt as indignant as if her own money had been squandered. 她心里十分生气，好像是她自己的钱给浪费掉了似的。 来自飘（部分）

13 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

14 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

15 bodyguards   

n.保镖，卫士，警卫员( bodyguard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks came to Jim's office accompanied—like always—by his two bodyguards. 和往常一样，在两名保镖的陪同下，布鲁克斯去吉姆的办公室。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Three of his bodyguards were injured in the attack. 在这次袭击事件中，他有3名保镖受了伤。 来自辞典例句

16 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

17 incompetence   

n.不胜任，不称职

参考例句：

• He was dismissed for incompetence. 他因不称职而被解雇。
• She felt she had been made a scapegoat for her boss's incompetence. 她觉得，本是老板无能，但她却成了替罪羊。

18 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

19 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。