美国国家公共电台 NPR As A Massive Garbage Dump Closes In Brazil, Trash-Pickers Face An Uncertain Future

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

We turn now to Brazil and its modern capital Brasilia. That city was conceived and planned as a kind of utopia, yet its mastermind, the world-renowned architect Oscar Niemeyer, and his fellow planners forgot something critical, which left the city with a dirty secret. NPR's Philip Reeves reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

PHILIP REEVES, BYLINE¹: It's 1960.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Speaking Portuguese).

REEVES: Brazil's capital, Brasilia, is celebrating its inauguration² in a blaze of optimism.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

REEVES: The world watches on TV, dazzled by the modernist architecture and plans for stately parks and promenades³. The new city seemed so orderly. No one expected back then that today, there'd be this.

(SOUNDBITE OF SIFTING⁴ THROUGH GARBAGE)

REEVES: This is the second-largest open garbage dump in the world. Brasilia was created without a purpose-built landfill. Its trash wound up being tossed here, on open ground some 20 minutes' drive from the presidential palace. The dump now occupies as much space as 250 football fields and is as close to resembling hell as anywhere you'll likely find.

(SOUNDBITE OF SIFTING THROUGH GARBAGE)

REEVES: There are vultures everywhere. There are swarms⁵ of flies. There are piles and piles of black garbage bags which are broken open and are spewing their contents out into the sea of mud. There are people all over this, picking through it, looking for bottles, looking for bits of plastic, bits of metal, anything that they can sell to a middleman.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRUCK ENGINE)

REEVES: A garbage truck arrives...

(SOUNDBITE OF TRUCK BACKUP BEEP)

REEVES: ...And disgorges a load of dripping trash bags.

(SOUNDBITE OF GARBAGE DROPPING)

REEVES: The trash-pickers start punching holes in the bags even before they hit the ground and pulling out plastic bottles for recycling. There are kids in their early teens. Quite a few of the pickers are women, including many single moms who struggle to get regular jobs because they've been in trouble with the authorities. Sometimes, they find corpses⁶.

(SOUNDBITE OF GARBAGE DUMP AMBIENCE)

REEVES: Miriam Ribeiro Araujo has been in and out of prison.

MIRIAM RIBEIRO ARAUJO: (Speaking Portuguese).

REEVES: She says she comes here to earn cash to buy food for her son. The garbage and the methane⁷ gas it creates damages the skin, eyes and lungs. Yet some trash-pickers - catadores, as they're called here - wade⁸ around the mud in flip-flops.

ARAUJO: (Speaking Portuguese).

REEVES: Araujo shows her hands crisscrossed with cuts.

(SOUNDBITE OF GARBAGE DUMP AMBIENCE)

REEVES: Trash-pickers work day and night. After dark, they're sometimes hit and killed by trucks and bulldozers.

PAULO CELSO DOS REIS: We have to close it. It's not possible to stay in the 21st century with that open. It's an environmental problem, a social problem, an economic problem.

REEVES: Paulo Celso dos Reis heads a team recruited by Brasilia's federal district government to shut the dump. Dos Reis says for decades, the city didn't care what happened to the garbage so long as it was out of sight. Even now, a lot of people don't know about the dump and, it seems, don't want to know.

DOS REIS: It's unbelievable. I can tell you the majority of people who lives in Brazil does not know it exists. I have friends of mine that do not believe. No, it's not true. I have to show pictures and films of dirt that - that they can believe.

REEVES: In 2011, a Brazilian court declared the dump illegal and ordered it closed. The shutdown was delayed by arguments over where to locate a new landfill to take the city's trash. That landfill is now open out of town. The dump is closing. Yet the authorities haven't decided⁹ what to do with the dump's 44-million-ton mountain of toxic¹⁰ garbage that's polluting the ground water. Nor is there a plan for this place, a shanty¹¹ town that's grown up over the years near the dump. Forty thousand people live here. One way or another, at least half make a living from trash.

JOSE MARIA VASCONCELOS: (Speaking Portuguese).

REEVES: Jose Maria Vasconcelos is in the recycling business.

VASCONCELOS: (Speaking Portuguese).

REEVES: He's worried he'll be destitute¹².

VASCONCELOS: (Speaking Portuguese).

REEVES: Inside the dump, trash-pickers are also worried. They're being offered jobs at new recycling depots¹³, working in collectives, sorting garbage on conveyor belts. They'll earn quite a bit less than their $620 monthly average. But they'll have a roof, protective equipment and health insurance.

GILBERTO FERREIRA ALVES: (Speaking Portuguese).

REEVES: Gilberto Ferreira Alves has been picking trash out dumped for a quarter of a century. He says he's used to the awful conditions.

ALVES: (Speaking Portuguese).

REEVES: The vultures are like work mates, he says. Yet a lifetime on this Brazilian dump has given Alves a profound distrust of government and its promises.

ALVES: (Speaking Portuguese).

REEVES: "We're all very suspicious," he says. Until he's sure his life will improve, he'd rather stay here in hell. Philip Reeves, NPR News, Brasilia.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

3 promenades   

n.人行道( promenade的名词复数 )；散步场所；闲逛v.兜风( promenade的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He often promenades his wife along the Thames Embankment. 他常常带太太沿着泰晤士河堤防散步。 来自辞典例句
• Stoas lined marketplaces and sanctuaries and formed places of Business and public promenades. 柱廊围绕在市场和神庙的四周，是交易和公众散步的场所。 来自互联网

4 sifting   

n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He lay on the beach, sifting the sand through his fingers. 他躺在沙滩上用手筛砂子玩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was sifting the cinders when she came in. 她进来时，我正在筛煤渣。 来自辞典例句

5 swarms   

蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They came to town in swarms. 他们蜂拥来到城里。
• On June the first there were swarms of children playing in the park. 6月1日那一天，这个公园里有一群群的孩子玩耍。

6 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

7 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

8 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

11 shanty   

n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子

参考例句：

• His childhood was spent in a shanty.他的童年是在一个简陋小屋里度过的。
• I want to quit this shanty.我想离开这烂房子。

12 destitute   

adj.缺乏的；穷困的

参考例句：

• They were destitute of necessaries of life.他们缺少生活必需品。
• They are destitute of common sense.他们缺乏常识。

13 depots   

仓库( depot的名词复数 )； 火车站； 车库； 军需库

参考例句：

• Public transportation termini and depots are important infrastructures for a city. 公交场站设施是城市重要的基础设施。
• In the coastal cities are equipped with after-sales service and depots. 在各沿海城市均设有服务部及售后维修站。