VOA常速英语2007年-Irish Builders Turn Shack Dwellers Into Homeown

By Terry FitzPatrick
Cape¹ Town
08 November 2007

Adequate housing is considered to be a basic human right, but South African officials have been struggling to move millions of residents out of township shacks³ and into proper homes. An Irish charity has been lending a hand this week with a huge building effort in Cape Town. For VOA, Terry FitzPatrick went to take a closer look.

They have been working flat out for week. More than a 1,000 volunteers, on a mission build 200 homes. Most of the workers, like Jason Flannery, are in the construction business.

"As I have gone through life I have been quite lucky. So I felt the give to people who are a little less well off then myself," he said. "And especially here, they are really bad. And what I have seen is frightening."

Each volunteer had to raise more than $5,000 to finance their trip. Padraic Beatty says it was worth it.

"People are going to move into these houses from what you see behind, the shacks you see behind," said Beatty. "And I think that in itself will be fulfillment."

An entire neighborhood is springing up. The four-room houses are made of brick, with cement floors, clay tile roofs, electricity and running water.

 

There will be a community center, communal⁴ garden, and playground. That is where Maria McCullough is painting.  "I am just doing a mural," she said. "It is inspired by the shapes of the different shacks here, and we just wanted to take the colors of Ireland with the emerald green and the African flag as well, and intersperse⁵ it."

This is the fifth year that the Niall Mellon Township Trust has organized its building blitz. Mellon, an Irish property developer, was inspired to start the program while on vacation in Cape Town. That is when saw that a large percentage of South Africans still live in apartheid-era shacks. The foundation has built more that 4,000 homes so far.

This week, one house will go to Insaaf Lakay, who has braved foul⁶ weather to watch her home being built. "They [are] working in the rain," said Lakay. "I am going to sit with them in the rain, because they are working so hard, and we really appreciate it, me and my family."

For nearly a decade, Lakay has lived in a one room shack² with her husband and four children. For her, a home will mean that South Africa's anti-apartheid struggle has finally paid off.

 

"I am very excited, oh, I am really excited," she added. "You know, we went through a lot here. And um, it is finally coming to and end-the struggle. I can tell you that. It is finally coming to an end."

Watching his project unfold, Niall Mellon concedes that 200 homes is a drop in the bucket. He is frustrated⁷ that government and charity projects have not been able to deliver more.

 

"South Africa has built over two million houses since 1994. But with 10 million people still living in shacks it is time to accept defeat that the existing approach has not worked," said Mellon.

Mellon has called on South African construction companies to dedicate 20 percent of their profits to finance low-income housing. He says that can compensate⁸ for a shift that has been under way in the industry.

 

"What is happening here is that developers are making no money out of low cost housing and so they are moving into the more profitable sectors⁹ of middle income and upper income housing," continued Mellon. "And I am asking the South African property developers to recognize that we cannot have one section of the market progressing well at the expense of another."

Mellon hopes that next year, he will also be building a housing factory in South Africa. He says more than 5,000 homes can be delivered every year by pre-fabricating the building components¹⁰.

1 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

2 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

3 shacks   

n.窝棚，简陋的小屋( shack的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They live in shacks which they made out of wood. 他们住在用木头搭成的简陋的小屋里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Most people in Port au-Prince live in tin shacks. 太子港的大多数居民居住在铁皮棚里。 来自互联网

4 communal   

adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的

参考例句：

• There was a communal toilet on the landing for the four flats.在楼梯平台上有一处公共卫生间供4套公寓使用。
• The toilets and other communal facilities were in a shocking state.厕所及其他公共设施的状况极其糟糕。

5 intersperse   

vt.散布，散置，点缀

参考例句：

• Intersperse exclamation marks in the text.在文章中加进一些感叹号。
• You should intersperse colorful anecdotes about your experience with perceptive queries about the vacancy.讲述自己的经历时应该加入一些有声有色的轶事，中间巧妙穿插对所应聘职位的询问。

6 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

7 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

9 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。