TED演讲:本世纪最大的不公(5)

 　　Let me tell you about Saima.  我要告诉你们赛玛的故事。

　　She lives in a small village outside Lahore, Pakistan.  她住在拉合尔市外的一个小村子，在巴基斯坦。

　　And at the time, she was miserable¹.  她当时悲惨到家了。

　　She was beaten every single day  每一天

　　by her husband, who was unemployed².  她都被她失业的丈夫殴打。

　　He was kind of a gambler type -- and unemployable, therefore --  她丈夫类似赌徒，没有了工作，

　　and took his frustrations³ out on her.  所以拿她出气。

　　Well, when she had her second daughter,  当她生了第二个女儿后，

　　her mother in-law told her son,  她婆婆对她丈夫说，

　　"I think you'd better get a second wife.  “我觉得你该娶第二个妻子了。

　　Saima's not going to produce you a son."  赛玛生不了儿子。”

　　This is when she had her second daughter.  当时她刚生下二女儿。

　　At the time, there was  那个时候，

　　a microlending group in the village  村子里有小额贷款项目，

　　that gave her a 65-dollar loan.  给了她65美金的贷款。

　　Saima took that money,  赛玛用这笔钱，

　　and she started an embroidery⁴ business.  开始做刺绣生意。

　　The merchants liked her embroidery; it sold very well,  商人们很喜欢她的刺绣；卖得很好，

　　and they kept asking for more.  不停地向她进货。

　　And when she couldn't produce enough,  她没办法生产那么多，

　　she hired other women in the village.  于是她雇佣村子里其她妇女。

　　Pretty soon she had 30 women in the village  很快她的刺绣生意就雇佣了

　　working for her embroidery business.  30个村子里的女人。

　　And then,  接着，

　　when she had to transport all of the embroidery goods  她必须把刺绣品

　　from the village to the marketplace,  从村子运到市场去，

　　she needed someone to help her do the transport,  她需要有人帮她运输，

　　so she hired her husband.  于是她雇佣了她丈夫。

　　So now they're in it together.  现在他们一起干。

　　He does the transportation and distribution,  他负责运输和送货，

　　and she does the production and sourcing.  她负责生产和采购材料。

　　And now they have a third daughter,  他们又有了第三个女儿，

　　and the daughters, all of them, are being tutored in education  三个女儿都接受了教育，

　　because Saima knows what's really important.  因为赛玛知道最重要的是什么。

　　Which brings me to the final element, which is education.  也就是我要说的最后一点，教育。

　　Larry Summers, when he was chief economist⁵ at the World Bank,  拉里·萨默斯，世界银行首席经济学家，

　　once said that, "It may well be  曾说过，

　　that the highest return on investment  “世界上最高回报的投资，

　　in the developing world  就是发展中国家的

　　is in girls' education."  女童教育。”

1 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

2 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

3 frustrations   

挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意

参考例句：

• The temptation would grow to take out our frustrations on Saigon. 由于我们遭到挫折而要同西贡算帐的引诱力会增加。
• Aspirations will be raised, but so will frustrations. 人们会产生种种憧憬，但是种种挫折也会随之而来。

4 embroidery   

n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品

参考例句：

• This exquisite embroidery won people's great admiration.这件精美的绣品，使人惊叹不已。
• This is Jane's first attempt at embroidery.这是简第一次试着绣花。

5 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。