VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS 2013-06-06 ＂Wise People＂ Urge Peace in Turkey

 

AS IT IS 2013-06-06 ＂Wise People＂ Urge Peace in Turkey

Hello, again, and welcome.  I’m Jim Tedder¹ in Washington.  Today we are off to Turkey to hear about the possibility of peace between the Turks and the Kurds.  Then we travel east to Cairo to a part of the city that has huge ecological² problems.  We will hear about the animals that are part of the solution.  And in about ten minutes, we will visit an American city whose citizens are celebrating the life of a “strange visitor from another planet.”  “As It Is” is on the air!

Groups of professors, media stars and personalities³ have been traveling around Turkey for the past month. They all belong to the government’s “Wise People” movement. They have been explaining the government’s attempt to end fighting with the Kurdish rebel group, the PKK.

But the movement is becoming a subject of growing concern to Turkish nationalists. They fear that the peace process will lead to a self-governing state for Kurds inside Turkey, like the one in Iraq.

The leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, strongly attacked the peace process at a recent gathering⁴ of tens of thousands of supporters. The leader, Devlet Bahceli, warned against the peace process as the crowd chanted.

“Tell us to strike and we will strike, tell us to die and we will die.”

“Don’t worry, the time will come for that, too.”

For almost 30 years, the PKK has been fighting the Turkish government for greater minority rights. The conflict has killed more than 30,000 people. 

But on May 8th, the PKK began withdrawing its forces from Turkey as part of a peace process. The government has yet to say what it is prepared to offer the rebel group in return.  Retired Turkish General Haldun Solmazturk says there is deep suspicion over the peace process.

“PKK will never disarm⁵ unless they achieve a greater Kurdistan within Turkey. An ambiguous understanding was just imposed on the Turkish state – so, in a sense, blackmailing⁶ the future of our coming generations. This is very disturbing. Turks are not aware of the final outcome because of the self-censorship imposed on the Turkish media.”

Cengiz Aktar is a political scientist in Istanbul. He says he believes that opposition⁷ to the peace efforts remains⁸ limited.

“I don’t think there is a nationalist backlash. I think there are minority groups who are very vocal⁹ (often heard) and who are against any deal which will include the Kurds. But there are not as many as they pretend. We see an overwhelming majority of the Turkish public (moving towards approving) the peace process.” 

Opinion surveys point to conflicting ideas among the public. A strong majority supports a peaceful settlement to the conflict. But there are equally strong feelings against talks with PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is in prison.

Soli Ozel writes for the Haber Turk newspaper. He says the recent protests against the “Wise People” show that the peace process is nearing an important stage. He notes the withdrawal¹⁰ of the PKK forces and the fact that nobody has died in the conflict over the past four months.

The PKK withdrawal from Turkey is to be completed in a few months. By then, the government is expected to start announcing steps it will take to deal with Kurdish demands.  But political observers say until then, members of the “Wise People” could have a hard time getting people to accept their ideas.

Hello, I’m Christopher Cruise.  A city like Cairo, with 18 million people, produces a lot of trash. Much of that waste ends up in a Coptic Christian¹¹ area called Garbage City. People there make new products from just about any material. Lately they are getting help from a secret source. The source is pigs, hidden secretly behind walls of trash and armies of flies.

In 2009, the government ordered that all pigs be killed. Egyptian officials said they were dangerous to health, even though world health officials disagreed. Some farmers took action to save their pigs from the death.

Few Egyptians admit that pigs are present. But those leading the recycling efforts argue that the animals play an important part in turning old waste material into new objects.

Adel Ragi is a leader of the garbage collectors’ union. He says that non-human organic waste makes up half of Egypt’s trash. And, he says the pigs get rid of the trash by eating it.

Since the mass killing¹² of pigs in 2009, Cairo has become much dirtier. Foreign companies have been hired to take care of some of the waste. But Ragi says their methods of dumping waste in landfills is much worse for the environment.

The killings¹³ left thousands of pig farmers without jobs. And only a few butchers – people who cut and sell meat – are still in business. They depend on expensive imports that have cut down on their trade.

The majority of Egyptians are Muslim, and the religion opposes the use and eating of pigs. Christians¹⁴ are free to eat pork meat. And farmers have built a new center for slaughtering¹⁵ the animals in hope that the trade will restart. But the government has yet to approve it.

Butcher Saiid Hakim says officials tell them to be patient. He says that makes him wonder if the government will approve the new center.

Father Samaan Ibrahim is with Saint Samaan Church in the hills above Garbage City. He denies that there are pigs in Garbage City. But he sees no reason there should not be.

In some ways, the pigs are being left in peace. The current government is strongly sympathetic to strict Islam. But it has not been able to take strong control of the country’s basic rules and regulations.  So the pigs live on – as long as they stay out of sight. I’m Christopher Cruise.

And I’m Jim Tedder in Washington. Thank you for being with us on this Thursday, the sixth day of June. 69 years ago, in the early morning hours, the Allies landed on the coast of France, as thousands of troops began to push Hitler’s forces back into Europe.  It was probably the most significant military invasion in modern history.

“D Day” was the beginning of the end of World War II.

And half a world away, Metropolis¹⁶, Illinois, begins, on this day, its “Superman Celebration”.  50,000 people are expected to attend the event in honor of the man …”who, disguised as Clark Kent, fought a never ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way.”

1 tedder   

n.（干草）翻晒者，翻晒机

参考例句：

• Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆？特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
• Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆？泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网

2 ecological   

adj.生态的，生态学的

参考例句：

• The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
• Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.

3 personalities   

n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There seemed to be a degree of personalities in her remarks.她话里有些人身攻击的成分。
• Personalities are not in good taste in general conversation.在一般的谈话中诽谤他人是不高尚的。

4 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

5 disarm   

v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和

参考例句：

• The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. 全世界等待伊拉克解除武装已有12年之久。
• He has rejected every peaceful opportunity offered to him to disarm.他已经拒绝了所有能和平缴械的机会。

6 blackmailing   

胁迫，尤指以透露他人不体面行为相威胁以勒索钱财( blackmail的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The policemen kept blackmailing him, because they had sth. on him. 那些警察之所以经常去敲他的竹杠是因为抓住把柄了。
• Democratic paper "nailed" an aggravated case of blackmailing to me. 民主党最主要的报纸把一桩极为严重的讹诈案件“栽”在我的头上。

7 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。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。

10 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

11 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。

12 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

13 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

14 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

15 slaughtering   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The Revolutionary Tribunal went to work, and a steady slaughtering began. 革命法庭投入工作，持续不断的大屠杀开始了。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• \"Isn't it terrific slaughtering pigs? “宰猪的！ 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

16 metropolis   

n.首府；大城市

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a metropolis in China.上海是中国的大都市。
• He was dazzled by the gaiety and splendour of the metropolis.大都市的花花世界使他感到眼花缭乱。