VOA常速英语2008年-Zimbabwe Presidential Candidate Says Nation Suf

By Peta Thornycroft
Harare
29 February 2008

Presidential hopeful Simba Makoni, who spent all of his adult life in the ruling ZANU-PF party, blames the party and its leaders, not the West, for the current suffering experienced by Zimbabweans. In an extensive interview with Peta Thornycroft, for VOA, Makoni says he hopes the international community will help mend Zimbabwe's wrecked¹ economy if he comes to power in elections on March 29.

Simba Makoni says he yearns³ to recreate the early days of Zimbabwe's independence when the country led Africa in expanding education and health care and was not only able to feed itself but could export to the region.

"It wasn't excellent, there were blemishes⁴ here and there, but overall it was good across the board," Makoni said. "And I yearn² for that, but I yearn for more; because even if we had that it wouldn't be enough for Zimbabwe in the world of today. So we have not just to get back to where we were but to go where we should be in the 21st century as a serious player in the global village. That is what I yearn for and that is what I am offering to serve Zimbabwe, to become."

The "early blemishes" Makoni refers to were the violent acts of repression⁵ against opponents of President Robert Mugabe in the 1980s. Independent observers say thousands of people were massacred in southern Zimbabwe by the army's North Korean trained 5th Brigade.

Makoni says he does not know if Western countries planned regime change in Zimbabwe as President Mugabe has claimed for the last eight years, adding that talk of re-colonization is immaterial. Makoni says that what is relevant is that, despite its current crises, Zimbabwe still has a great deal to offer its people.

"Even at the moment, you will be surprised," he said. "Life here is terrible compared to what we have been, worse so compared to what we should be, but life is still fairly comfortable compared to other environments. This is not in anyway covering up for the extreme hardships as I have described them before. I am Zimbabwean, and I am biased⁶ and aiming to be the president, I say in spite of these hardships we have this is still a good place to live in, and that's why we want to make it a better place than it is now."

To win the presidential election, Makoni has to persuade considerable numbers of life-long ZANU-PF supporters to turn their backs on President Mugabe and vote for him in the presidential poll. No one is sure, and Makoni will not say, how many or even if there are senior ZANU-PF legislators who secretly back him, and who will encourage their supporters to vote for him.

"The people who are supporting me in ZANU-PF and in other quarters, agree with me that the country is ripe for change at the highest level, that the country needs to take a different direction, a positive direction, a constructive⁷ direction for its people; and the country needs to re-engage effectively with the region and the rest of the international community," he said.

Makoni does not blame President Mugabe or anyone in particular in ZANU-PF for Zimbabwe's current crisis but says the country's fortunes have dramatically reversed by what he says has been a "failure of leadership." He says he came to the conclusion the leadership of the country had to change after years of watching the disintegration⁸.

"There wasn't St.-Paul-on-the-road-to-Damascus awakening⁹. This has been a continuum, incremental¹⁰, things have been building up," he said. "And every time one has had an opportunity to make an observation and analysis on a particular aspect, one has intimated this is not the correct way for our people. It wasn't an event, it didn't just happen."

Makoni said if he wins the presidential elections he will have to ask the international community for substantial assistance, particularly to begin to create conditions which would appeal to skilled Zimbabweans, who left the country over the last few years, to return home.

1 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞

2 yearn   

v.想念；怀念；渴望

参考例句：

• We yearn to surrender our entire being.我们渴望着放纵我们整个的生命。
• Many people living in big cities yearn for an idyllic country life.现在的很多都市人向往那种田园化的生活。

3 yearns   

渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Every man yearns for sympathy in sorrow. 每个遇到不幸的人都渴望得到同情。
• What I dread is to get into a rut. One yearns for freshness of thought and ideas. 我害怕的就是墨守成规。人总是向往新思想和新观念的。

4 blemishes   

n.（身体的）瘢点( blemish的名词复数 )；伤疤；瑕疵；污点

参考例句：

• make-up to cover blemishes 遮盖霜
• The blemishes of ancestors appear. 祖先的各种瑕疵都渐渐显露出来。 来自辞典例句

5 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

6 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

7 constructive   

adj.建设的，建设性的

参考例句：

• We welcome constructive criticism.我们乐意接受有建设性的批评。
• He is beginning to deal with his anger in a constructive way.他开始用建设性的方法处理自己的怒气。

8 disintegration   

n.分散，解体

参考例句：

• This defeat led to the disintegration of the empire.这次战败道致了帝国的瓦解。
• The incident has hastened the disintegration of the club.这一事件加速了该俱乐部的解体。

9 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。

10 incremental   

adj.增加的

参考例句：

• For logic devices, the incremental current gain is very important. 对于逻辑器件来说，提高电流增益是非常重要的。 来自辞典例句
• By using an incremental approach, the problems involving material or geometric nonlinearity have been solved. 借应用一种增量方法，已经解决了包括材料的或几何的非线性问题。 来自辞典例句