美国国家公共电台 NPR--Nearly half the people in Haiti don't have enough to eat and cholera makes it worse

Nearly half the people in Haiti don't have enough to eat and cholera¹ makes it worse

Transcript²

NPR's A Martinez talks to Jean-Martin Bauer, the U.N.'s World Food Program Haiti representative, about what the country needs from the world to address the acute hunger.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Haiti is embroiled³ in a crisis of epic⁴ proportions. Gang violence and hunger are rampant⁵, and cholera has made things worse. The death toll⁶ from these calamities⁷ is mounting daily, and the United Nations Security Council is weighing options on how to restore order to the Western Hemisphere's poorest country. The U.N.'s food assistance branch, the World Food Program, says nearly half the population, 4.7 million people, now faces acute hunger. The WFP's Haiti representative Jean-Martin Bauer joins us now from Port-au-Prince. If you could just first start off with the situation in Haiti, what are you seeing there?

JEAN-MARTIN BAUER: We're seeing a severe food crisis, and we are sounding the alarm. Half of the population is facing acute food insecurity. That's 4.7 million people, of which 1.8 million are in what we call a food emergency. We also have 19,000 people who live in Port-au-Prince's Cite Soleil district who are facing what we'd call a food catastrophe⁸. This is the most severe situation for food security. This is something we haven't seen in Haiti before, and it's something we haven't seen in the Americas before, that severity of food security.

MARTINEZ: And kids - how is this having an impact on kids?

BAUER: Of course, children are the most vulnerable. Recent data suggests that 1 out of every 5 children in this neighborhood of Cite Soleil is affected⁹ by global acute malnutrition¹⁰.

MARTINEZ: Two of the World Food Program storage facilities were looted last month. What happened there? I mean, what's the impact of the looting on the people that you're serving over there?

BAUER: We need to understand that the millions of people in Haiti have been affected by what Haitians call la vie chere, expensive life. High food prices in Haiti have been quite a problem since the beginning of the year. Haiti imports most of its food, and half of its food is bought on the international market. When there's trouble on international markets, the Haitian population is affected directly. You add to that the fact that there's a severe gas shortage in the country - people just can't go about their daily lives as they used to. And unfortunately, the World Food Program and other humanitarian¹² organizations were targeted. We lost our warehouse¹³ in Gonaives on September the 15, and that was followed by another incident in Les Cayes where stocks were looted.

The impact of that is quite dire¹¹. It means that we're not able to provide school meals to 100,000 schoolchildren in the northwest of the country for at least three months. And in the south, we lost our contingency¹⁴ reserve. This is a stock we've got in place to help people who might be affected by an emergency, like a hurricane or an earthquake. I remind you that Haiti is a very disaster-prone environment, and we had those stocks in country to help people who'd be affected. As a result, this means humanitarian agencies are not as ready to respond to the needs that are mounting in this country. And you did mention in your introduction there's gang violence.

MARTINEZ: Yeah.

BAUER: There's high food prices. There's also cholera that's making needs much, much worse. And these statistics we released on Friday indicate that this situation in Haiti is severe. We're seeing a severe food crisis. This is bordering on a catastrophe for 19,000 people here in Port-au-Prince.

MARTINEZ: How much of an impact have the gangs had on people's lives there?

BAUER: What they've done is that by controlling key infrastructure¹⁵, including the fuel terminal and the ports in Port-au-Prince, they've brought this country to a standstill. This means that farmers can't sell their produce in Port-au-Prince. I remember meeting a farmer in the north who'd grown acres of bananas, who was no longer able to sell them because he's lost his market, as the gangs control the road. We've seen people who are suffering from the fact that public transportation has come to a standstill. They can't get to work. Hospitals have shut down or curtailed¹⁶ services. Schools are closed. So this is a massive impact on all aspects of Haitian society.

MARTINEZ: Is this the worst you've seen Haiti in all your time being there 'cause it just - it sounds as awful as it possibly can get?

BAUER: Well, Haiti's unfortunately gone through the gauntlet over the past dozen years. There was a very serious earthquake in 2010. That was followed by a cholera outbreak that killed over 10,000 people. There was then Hurricane Matthew in 2016, followed by an earthquake in 2021. So it just doesn't stop for Haiti. And unfortunately, these repeated crises have undermined people's ability to cope. And we are now again in a food crisis that's come as a result of not what happened over the past few months, but over years and perhaps decades of neglect and decline.

MARTINEZ: At the moment, is there any hope there right now? Is the spirit of the people there still intact, not broken yet?

BAUER: Oh, it's very resilient. I met my team in Gonaives where a house was looted and that - the people we have in Gonaives told me we want to get back to work. We want to assist the population. We want to meet our commitments to the communities. So I've seen a dire situation, but I've also seen Haitians themselves call on getting back up and getting assistance going again.

MARTINEZ: That's Jean-Martin Bauer, World Food Program's Haiti representative. Thank you very much.

BAUER: Thank you.

1 cholera   

n.霍乱

参考例句：

• The cholera outbreak has been contained.霍乱的发生已被控制住了。
• Cholera spread like wildfire through the camps.霍乱在营地里迅速传播。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 embroiled   

adj.卷入的；纠缠不清的

参考例句：

• He became embroiled in a dispute with his neighbours. 他与邻居们发生了争执。
• John and Peter were quarrelling, but Mary refused to get embroiled. 约翰和彼得在争吵，但玛丽不愿卷入。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

5 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

6 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

7 calamities   

n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事

参考例句：

• They will only triumph by persevering in their struggle against natural calamities. 他们只有坚持与自然灾害搏斗，才能取得胜利。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• One moment's false security can bring a century of calamities. 图一时之苟安，贻百年之大患。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

9 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

10 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

11 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

12 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

13 warehouse   

n.仓库；vt.存入仓库

参考例句：

• We freighted the goods to the warehouse by truck.我们用卡车把货物运到仓库。
• The manager wants to clear off the old stocks in the warehouse.经理想把仓库里积压的存货处理掉。

14 contingency   

n.意外事件，可能性

参考例句：

• We should be prepared for any contingency.我们应该对任何应急情况有所准备。
• A fire in our warehouse was a contingency that we had not expected.库房的一场大火是我们始料未及的。

15 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

16 curtailed   

v.截断，缩短( curtail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Spending on books has been severely curtailed. 购书开支已被大大削减。
• Their public health programme had to be severely curtailed. 他们的公共卫生计划不得不大大收缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》