VOA慢速英语--奥运志愿者是机遇还是剥削?

Olympic Volunteers: Great Chance or Exploitation?

Unpaid¹ Olympic volunteers do almost everything: guide athletes around, welcome important people and help lost visitors. International Olympic Committee officials say the games could not be held without these volunteers. They are praised and thanked by presidents and prime ministers.

Even with billions of dollars to spend on the games, there remains² the need for people who will work for free. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics will require an estimated 80,000 volunteers. And many Japanese people are seeking the chance to take part. About 200,000 have begun the process to gain a volunteer position this month.

The unpaid labor³ enriches Olympic advertisers, powerful television networks and the Switzerland-based International Olympic Committee. But there are critics of the situation.

“To me, it’s very clearly economic exploitation,” said Joel Maxcy, president of the International Association of Sports Economists⁵ and a professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Maxcy described a situation in which volunteers create the product but “someone else is collecting nearly all of the money derived⁷ from those labor efforts.”

So why do people volunteer at the games? For one, it is exciting to be connected to the powerful Olympic brand and to get close to star athletes.

“I’m willing to work for free if I can get a chance to see and talk to Olympians from all over the world in person,” said Yutaro Tokunaga. The 26-year-old attended a recent program for volunteers. He said his employer is giving him five paid days off from work during the Olympics.

Masanobu Ishii is also seeking a volunteer position. He said he wanted to demonstrate the spirit of “omotenashi,” or Japanese hospitality. Some volunteers work the games from a sense of civic⁸ duty or to show their patriotism⁹. Many older volunteers do not need more money.

Andy Schwarz is a California-based labor economist⁴. He said some people would even pay for the chance to volunteer. “It’s easy to imagine the Olympics charging for the right to help if the honor were high enough,” he said.

Olympic volunteers usually pay their own hotel and transportation costs. They eat for free on the days they work. Their training is free and they are provided with official clothing that they can keep at no cost. In Tokyo, volunteers will get up to 1,000 yen¹⁰ daily, about nine U.S. dollars, to get to work on the city’s massive train system.

More than 65 percent of the volunteer candidates for the Tokyo Olympics are Japanese. About the same percentage are women.

A study done for the IOC about volunteers at the 2000 Sydney Olympics said their value was at least $60 million for 40,000 volunteers. Now, games organizers will use two times that number of unpaid workers.

Separately, the Tokyo city government will use another 30,000 unpaid volunteers.

Some say the volunteers represent the spirit of the games. They recall almost 50 years ago when Olympic athletes were unpaid amateurs. The IOC expresses pride in its volunteers. IOC member John Coates heads the inspection¹¹ team for Tokyo. He strongly defended the use of unpaid help.

“They don’t have to (volunteer) if they don’t want to,” the Australian said. “They get trained, they get their uniforms. They are part of something very exciting. ... I don’t think there’s a case for paying volunteers.”

Almost everyone else working the Olympics gets paid. Many get paid a lot. Tokyo is spending at least $20 billion to organize the Olympics. Organizers have raised $3 billion in local advertisements. That is two times the amount of any other Olympics.

IOC members like Coates receive daily pay of between $450 to $900 when they are on Olympic business. They are also provided first class air travel and stays at top hotels.

IOC President Thomas Bach is officially described as a volunteer. But the organization gives him about $250,000 per year. The IOC’s total revenue in the 2013-2016 Olympic cycle was $5.7 billion. It says it returns 90 percent of its revenue to sports groups and national Olympic committees.

American network NBC is paying $7.75 billion for the rights to six Olympics beginning in 2022, an extension on a $4.38 billion contract.

Tracey Dickson studies volunteerism at Canberra University in Australia. She says there are many reasons for volunteering that are more than just “economics.” She said people like the friendships they make during the experience.

“I can understand the economic argument,” she said. “But if they were being paid, it would be a real job with real expectations.” She said a completely different feeling would be created if they were paid.

“If they are just employees well, they’re just another employee. There’s so much value in that feel-good factor,” she added.

The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics had problems with unpaid workers. Organizers said about 30 percent of the volunteers failed to show up on any given day of the two weeks of competition.

Mary Robinson is the former president of Ireland as well as the former UN High Commissioner¹² for Human Rights. She worries about using volunteers in places where there is a lot of poverty and paying jobs are needed.

Robinson is now serving with the Switzerland-based Centre for Sports and Human Rights, an organization established last year.

She says volunteers should not be used by organizations like the IOC that have enough money to pay people.

David Berri, a sports economist at Southern Utah University, said that organizers and Olympic officials should also work for free, or for less pay.

“If the volunteers were paid, there would be less money for everyone else,” he said. “The Olympics have learned people will work for free, so they take advantage of this.”

I’m Susan Shand. And I'm Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

athlete – n. one who engages in sports

exploit – v. to take advantage of someone or something

derive⁶ – v. to take from

hospitality – n. to welcome someone into your home, country etc.

uniform – n. official clothing worn by workers or the military

amateur – adj. someone who is not a professional and does not get paid

revenue – n. money that is made by a business or organizat

1 unpaid   

adj.未付款的，无报酬的

参考例句：

• Doctors work excessive unpaid overtime.医生过度加班却无报酬。
• He's doing a month's unpaid work experience with an engineering firm.他正在一家工程公司无偿工作一个月以获得工作经验。

2 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。

3 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

4 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。

5 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 derive   

v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• We shall derive much benefit from reading good novels.我们将从优秀小说中获得很大好处。

7 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

9 patriotism   

n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• They obtained money under the false pretenses of patriotism.他们以虚伪的爱国主义为借口获得金钱。

10 yen   

n. 日元；热望

参考例句：

• He wanted to convert his dollars into Japanese yen.他想将美元换成日币。
• He has a yen to be alone in a boat.他渴望独自呆在一条船上。

11 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

12 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。