VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS 2013-05-31 Economic Experts Say Remittance Costs Are Too High

 

AS IT IS 2013-05-31 Economic Experts Say Remittance¹ Costs Are Too High

This is As It Is from VOA Learning English.

Welcome to the show. I’m Caty Weaver².

Today, we talk about the high cost of sending money home from foreign countries. We also discuss the lack of modern pregnancy³ prevention tools in the developing world. And we look at a new study about the treatment of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in Europe.

The High Cost of Sending Money Home

Asian workers living in foreign lands sent home 260 billion dollars to their families last year. This movement of money to those at home is called a remittance.

Remittances⁵ are more than five times the value of development aid. But, experts say the process can be wasteful⁶. They say reducing costs of remittances would help increase economic growth even more. Avi Arditti has details.

There are 60 million Asian migrant workers in the world. They send home more money than migrants from Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe combined.

More than 60 percent of the world’s 410 billion dollars in remittances last year were sent to Asia. The money went to one out of every 10 households. The four countries that received the most were India, China, the Philippines and Pakistan, in that order. The next three countries were Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

A United Nations report says the money migrants send does more to reduce Asian poverty than the total amount of international development aid. But it says the process of moving the money from country to country costs about nine percent, on average. 

Kevin Cleaver⁷ is the Associate Vice⁸ President at the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development. He says more money could be freed up for direct investment if costs were reduced.

“260 billion dollars in a single year of remittances to Asia. If only 10 percent of that was used for investment purposes, and half of that 10 percent in rural areas, the half of 10 percent is about 13 billion dollars. That’s more money than all of the official development assistance in 2012 for agriculture.”

Kevin Cleaver says too many governments in Asia permit little competition for money transfer services. He says the lack of competition can lead to high prices.

Remittance costs in some Central Asian countries are below the worldwide average of seven percent. But people in some nations in East Asia and the western Pacific pay ten percent or more. The UN report says more financial services should be offered in addition to remittances.

The report is the work of the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Bank. Massimo Cirasino is manager of financial infrastructure⁹ and remittances at the World Bank. He says many migrant workers and their families do not have bank accounts. He says only about 25 percent of remitted¹⁰ earnings¹¹ are saved or invested.

“They just get exposed to the financial sector¹² when they receive money. And, typically, it is cash then and spent in cash. So, if we could leverage¹³ on those services to increment¹⁴ the number of financial services that are offered to these communities, be it savings¹⁵ opportunities, credit or micro-credit, or micro-insurance, I think this is an important agenda.”

Mr. Cirasino says migrant workers are often undocumented. He says they need education and other help to avoid being used unfairly. I’m Avi Arditti.

Modern Birth Control Lacking in the Developing World

A new report says little is being done to meet the growing demand for modern birth control methods in poor countries. The Guttmacher Institute says men and women increasingly want smaller families.

Guttmacher reports that in 2003, about 716 million women wanted to avoid pregnancy. The group says that number rose by more than 100 million over the next nine years.

It says the sharpest increase was in the world’s 69 poorest countries.

Jacqueline Darroch works at Guttmacher. She helped to write the report, which was published in the Lancet medical journal. She says the results were based on household surveys.

“The Guttmacher Institute for a long time has focused on issues of reproductive health and especially the high rates of unplanned child bearing and unplanned pregnancies¹⁶ across the world. And part of the answer to both why we have such high rates of unintended pregnancy - and part of the solution - has to do with contraceptive use.”

She says between 2003 and 2012, modern contraception use in the developing world increased from 71 to 74 percent among women wanting to avoid pregnancy.

However, Jacqueline Darroch says the rates of use can differ from place to place, even within the same area. For example, Eastern Africa rose from 31 to 46 percent; Southern Africa from 75 to 83 percent.

But there was almost no increase reported in western and central African countries. The researcher says that has costs.

“Couples are having children more than they want to, births, that they tell us in surveys, that they either wanted later or they didn’t want to have at all.”

Jacqueline Darroch says modern birth control methods give women more of a chance to have an education. Some of the reasons given for the lack of modern contraception in developing countries include cost and little availability. The report says worry about possible side effects of contraception or the disapproval¹⁷ of a partner can also be barriers.

Homophobia in Europe

The European Union is calling for action following result of a study about homosexual and transgender people. The study shows many of these people live in fear of discrimination and violence. Mario Ritter has more.

The European Union study is the most extensive ever on discrimination and violence against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people in Europe. The community is commonly called LGBT.

Homophobia is the word used to describe unreasonable¹⁸ fear or hatred¹⁹ of homosexuals. It is present in many societies around the world.

The online survey involved more than ninety-thousand people in the LGBT community. More than 66 percent of them said they hid their sexual identification at school. More than 25 percent said they had been attacked or feared being attacked during the past five years.

Viviane Reding is the EU rights and justice commissioner²⁰. She spoke²¹ about the study at a conference in The Hague.

“According to EU citizens, discrimination based on sexual orientation²² and gender⁴ identity is widespread in all member states.”

Concerns increase about homophobia even as a number of EU nations have passed laws permitting gay marriage and other same sex unions. That includes France, although opposition²³ to the measure was strong. 

Ms. Reding said the European Commission has made progress in fighting homophobia, including taking action against individual member countries. But most activists²⁴ and politicians at the conference agreed that more needs to be done to ensure that EU laws and values are enforced. I’m Mario Ritter.

And that’s As It Is for today. I’m Caty Weaver. Thanks for listening.

1 remittance   

n.汇款，寄款，汇兑

参考例句：

• Your last month's salary will be paid by remittance.最后一个月的薪水将通过汇寄的方式付给你。
• A prompt remittance would be appreciated.速寄汇款不胜感激。

2 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

3 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

4 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

5 remittances   

n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额

参考例句：

• He sends regular remittances to his parents. 他定期汇款给他父母。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Remittances sometimes account for as much as 20% of GDP. 在这些国家中，此类汇款有时会占到GDP的20%之多。 来自互联网

6 wasteful   

adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的

参考例句：

• It is a shame to be so wasteful.这样浪费太可惜了。
• Duties have been reassigned to avoid wasteful duplication of work.为避免重复劳动浪费资源，任务已经重新分派。

7 cleaver   

n.切肉刀

参考例句：

• In fact,a cleaver is a class of ax.实际上，切肉刀也是斧子的一种。
• The cleaver is ground to a very sharp edge.刀磨得飞快。

8 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

9 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。

10 remitted   

v.免除（债务），宽恕( remit的过去式和过去分词 )；使某事缓和；寄回，传送

参考例句：

• She has had part of her sentence remitted. 她被免去部分刑期。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fever has remitted. 退烧了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

11 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

12 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。

13 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。

14 increment   

n.增值，增价；提薪，增加工资

参考例句：

• Each increment of knowledge tells us more of our world.知识的点滴增长都会增进我们对世界的认知。
• She receives a salary increment each year.她每年得到加薪。

15 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

16 pregnancies   

怀孕，妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象，战时人口正该补充。
• She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。

17 disapproval   

n.反对，不赞成

参考例句：

• The teacher made an outward show of disapproval.老师表面上表示不同意。
• They shouted their disapproval.他们喊叫表示反对。

18 unreasonable   

adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的

参考例句：

• I know that they made the most unreasonable demands on you.我知道他们对你提出了最不合理的要求。
• They spend an unreasonable amount of money on clothes.他们花在衣服上的钱太多了。

19 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

20 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

21 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。

22 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

23 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

24 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》