VOA常速英语2008年-Rampant Inflation Adds to Somalia's Woes

By Alisha Ryu
5-61285
01 April 2008

In Somalia, continuing insecurity, a surge in food and fuel prices, and uncontrolled printing of money have created runaway¹ inflation that is threatening the lives of millions already suffering from 18 years of war and lawlessness.  From the Somali capital Mogadishu, VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu reports that with virtually no central authority to put the brakes on hyper-inflation, the country is on the brink² of an economic catastrophe³.       

Shopkeeper Abdi Mohamed Islow looks down at the dozens of bags of Italian spaghetti he has had on display for days at his store in south Mogadishu.  

He says up until a few months ago, the bags used to sell in a matter of hours.  Now, spaghetti in this former Italian colony is a luxury few people can afford. 

Islow says, "At the beginning of this month, one package of spaghetti cost 20,000 Somali shillings.  It has now jumped to 32,000 shillings and the price is still going up." 

For many people living in a country that is already at the bottom of economic growth indices worldwide, an annual inflation rate that has now reached triple digits⁴ is nothing short of a disaster.  Staples⁵ such as sugar, flour, cooking oil, and rice are imported and priced in dollars. 

Although the U.S. dollar has weakened in recent months against many other currencies, it has strengthened significantly against the Somali shilling.   

A month ago, one dollar was worth about 22,000 Somali shillings.  Now, the shilling is at an all-time low of about 26,000.  Meanwhile, the price of a 50-kilogram bag of sugar, for example, has risen from $15 a year ago to nearly $30.  That means Somalis are earning less every day while having to pay much more for goods.

In the capital, the economic crisis is severely⁶ testing the resourcefulness of hundreds of thousands of Somalis, who have managed to survive 17 years of incessant⁷ factional warfare⁸ and 15 months of violent anti-Ethiopian, anti-government insurgency⁹ that has killed 6,000 civilians¹⁰ and uprooted¹¹ 700,000 others.  But even the hardiest¹² of residents say they are deeply worried that they may not be able to live through this crisis.  

Fifty one-year-old Fatima Mohamed ran a small vegetable stand in Mogadishu's main Bakara market for 24 years until earlier this month, when everything she owned was stolen by government troops on a massive looting spree. 

In Islow's store, she clutches a bundle of Somali shillings equivalent to about 50 cents, hoping to buy something that can keep her stomach filled for the day.  After a few minutes, she leaves the shop empty-handed.

"Everything is so expensive," she says, adding that she had to beg all day just to earn 50 cents.  She says she is starving and does not know how she will survive.

A surge in food and oil prices globally is one factor battering¹³ Somalia's fragile economy.  Another factor affecting prices is the continuing insecurity in the country, which has forced 80 percent of Somali businessmen to leave.  Their absence has reduced competition, allowing the remaining businessmen to raise their prices.  

The spokesman for a regional business association, Abas Mohamed Duale, says at the same time, a massive, uncontrolled influx¹⁴ of newly-printed money from Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland is causing the Somali currency to rapidly lose its value.

Duale declined to identify the people he believes are responsible for printing Somali shillings in Puntland.  But he says huge amounts are being brought into the country by plane and being exchanged in the markets for dollars.

Since the collapse¹⁵ of Dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's government in 1991, there has been no legal printing of currency.  Instead, currency notes have either been printed in the country by factional leaders or printed abroad and imported by individual businessmen.

Somalia's internationally-recognized interim¹⁶ government, which has been struggling to assert control since it came to power on the back of an Ethiopia-led military campaign against Somali Islamists in December, 2006, is in charge of a central bank that has little authority to officiate monetary¹⁷ policy.

Bank Director General Sharif Mohamed Hassan has vowed¹⁸ to clamp down on people printing and importing money and has promised to introduce new notes to end inflation.

But shopkeeper Islow repeats what many Somalis in the capital believe - that a top leader in the interim government may be the source of the problem.  He holds up a 1,000 Somali shilling note printed in the late 1980s, and then another one that is brand new.

"This one, Mohamed Siad Barre.  This one, Abdullahi Yusuf," Islow said.

Abdullahi Yusuf was Puntland's first president after the region was organized in 1998 and remained in power until he assumed the presidency¹⁹ of Somalia's transitional federal government in 2004. 

Allegations that President Yusuf and some senior Puntland government officials were printing Somali money to raise hard currency surfaced in Puntland as early as last July, when the region's inflation rate began to spiral out of control.   As in central and southern Somalia, food prices in Puntland have doubled, and in some cases tripled, in the past eight months. 

Officials in Puntland and in the interim government blame local businessmen for sparking the currency crisis, printing more money than they were allowed and then flooding the markets with fake notes.  The Puntland government says the printing of money by private individuals has been banned. 

But the ban may be too late to prevent what international aid agencies say is a humanitarian²⁰ catastrophe in the making. 

In the first incident of its kind in Mogadishu in recent years, dozens of hungry residents last week attacked the driver of a commercial truck, carrying wheat flour to the market, and looted the contents.  With a prolonged drought hitting large parts of the country, businessman Abas Mohamed Duale predicts the worst is yet to come.

He says civilians will begin dying of hunger because there is no solution to the problem.  He says only God can help the Somali people now.

1 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

2 brink   

n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿

参考例句：

• The tree grew on the brink of the cliff.那棵树生长在峭壁的边缘。
• The two countries were poised on the brink of war.这两个国家处于交战的边缘。

3 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

4 digits   

n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾

参考例句：

• The number 1000 contains four digits. 1000是四位数。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The number 410 contains three digits. 数字 410 中包括三个数目字。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 staples   

n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
• I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句

6 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

7 incessant   

adj.不停的，连续的

参考例句：

• We have had incessant snowfall since yesterday afternoon.从昨天下午开始就持续不断地下雪。
• She is tired of his incessant demands for affection.她厌倦了他对感情的不断索取。

8 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

9 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

10 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

11 uprooted   

v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园

参考例句：

• Many people were uprooted from their homes by the flood. 水灾令许多人背井离乡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The hurricane blew with such force that trees were uprooted. 飓风强烈地刮着，树都被连根拔起了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 hardiest   

能吃苦耐劳的，坚强的( hardy的最高级 )； （植物等）耐寒的

参考例句：

• This trip will season even the hardiest traveller. 这个旅行会让最坚硬的旅行者适应。

13 battering   

n.用坏，损坏v.连续猛击( batter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The film took a battering from critics in the US. 该影片在美国遭遇到批评家的猛烈抨击。
• He kept battering away at the door. 他接连不断地砸门。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

15 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

16 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

17 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

18 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

19 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

20 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。