中东和非洲：东非骆驼：又快又有味儿

　　The camel trade is increasingly lucrative.

　　骆驼贸易越来越获益。

　　“Allahu akbar!” the boys shout gleefully from atop their camels, the reins of others held in their raised fists, their backs to the setting sun.

　　“真主至大！”一群男孩坐在骆驼背上开心地喊着，高举的拳头里攥着其它骆驼的缰绳，背向夕阳而行。

　　Beside them a metal-fenced racing track cuts through the pancake-flat desert.

　　不远处，金属栅栏围起的赛道穿过薄饼般平坦的沙漠。

　　Every dawn and dusk the camels are trained to run on this plain outside Kassala, a city in eastern Sudan.

　　这块大平地位于苏丹东部城市卡萨拉的城外，那些骆驼每天早晚都在这儿接受赛跑训练。

　　Their owners hope they will catch the eye of the wealthy Emiratis who visit several times a year to buy the fastest mounts for multi-million-dollar prize races in Dubai.

　　养骆人都希望自家的骆驼能够吸引一些富有的阿联酋人的注意，那些有钱人一年会来这好几次，购买跑得最快的骆驼去参加迪拜的百万美元骆驼赛。

　　The Rashaida, a tribe that migrated to Sudan and Eritrea from Saudi Arabia in the mid-19th century, are renowned for breeding some of the world’s speediest racing camels.

　　拉舍达是19世纪中叶从沙特阿拉伯移居到苏丹和厄立特里亚的一个部落，以培育世界上跑得最快的比赛骆驼而闻名。

　　They are also in famous for trafficking Eritreans who cross the border, around 30km (20 miles) from Kassala, in the hope of eventually reaching Europe.

　　他们也因贩卖厄立特里亚人而臭名昭著，那些被拐的人原本是想穿越卡萨拉30千米（20英里）外的边界并最终抵达欧洲。

　　Emiratis buy between 100 and 300 young camels a year from the village of Abu Talha, some for as much as $80,000, says Hamed Hamid, a mustachioed patriarch.

　　大胡子族长Hamed Hamid称，阿联酋人每年从Abu Talha村中购买100到300匹小骆驼，有些卖到8万美元一匹。

　　There are around 800 racing beasts in a settlement of 1,200 people, he estimates, and many more are being raised for slaughter.

　　据他估算，1200户人口的村子里约有800匹比赛骆驼，供宰杀的骆驼数量更多。

　　“The camels are everything. They give us milk, meat and trade,” Mr Hamid says, as his wife brews tea and coffee over hot coals under a starry sky.

　　Hamid说：“骆驼就是一切。它们为我们提供骆驼奶、骆驼肉，并带来贸易机会”，他说这话时，他的妻子正在热炭上煮着茶和咖啡，头上是满天的繁星。

　　Although the Rashaida are traditionally nomadic, many have settled in villages like Abu Talha, a jumble of earthen-walled or brightly painted concrete houses.

　　尽管拉舍达人是传统的游牧民族，但很多人已在如Abu Talha之类的村庄中定居下来，村庄里杂乱排布着泥墙房或色彩鲜艳的混凝土房。

　　They have also adapted to the United Arab Emirates’ ban on child jockeys, after the state was censured by the UN in 2005.

　　2005年，联合国谴责阿拉伯联合酋长国让儿童当骆驼骑师，随后阿联酋出台相关禁令，拉舍达人也已经接受了这个禁令。

　　Boys still train some camels, but others are whipped along by miniature robots dressed in jockey silks and given orders remotely from white Toyota pickup trucks.

　　虽然仍有少量骆驼由男孩带领着训练，但大部分骆驼已由微型机器人打鞭驱策，这些机器人穿着彩色丝绸骑师服，远程接收随行的白色丰田皮卡的指令。

　　Each month the villagers sell around 200 baby camels to Saudi Arabia and 120 adult ones to Egypt for human consumption, says Mr Hamid, pointing out a large female that will fetch as much as 25,000 Sudanese pounds ($1,525 at the black-market exchange rate) .

　　Hamid说，每个月村民向沙特阿拉伯售出约200匹骆驼幼崽，向埃及售出约120匹成年骆驼以供食用。据他透露，一匹大的母骆驼能卖2.5万苏丹镑（以黑市汇率计算约合1，525美元）。

　　Livestock is a big and growing business all over east Africa, in considerable part fuelled by the Gulf’s increasing appetite for meat.

　　在整个东非地区，牲畜贸易都是大买卖，近年来发展迅速，很大程度上源于海湾国家对骆驼肉的需求上涨。

　　Live Sudanese animal exports more than trebled to $670m between 2010 and 2013 (the most recent years for which the World Bank has data) .

　　2010年至2013年间（这是世界银行的最新数据），苏丹的活牲畜出口额翻了三倍多，达6.7亿美元。

　　More than 70% were sheep, demand for which surges around the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, when they are ceremonially slaughtered.

　　其中70%以上是羊，羊的需求量会在穆斯林古尔邦节来临之际大涨，因为那时候这些羊会作为节日祭品宰杀。

　　In 2015 Somalia sold 5.3m animals, worth $384m; livestock counts for 40% of that fractured country’s GDP.

　　2015年，索马里售出530万头牲畜，价值3.84亿美元；牲畜业占到这个支离破碎的国家的国内生产总值的40%。

　　Other Sudanese may sneer that the Rashaida’s new cars and houses have been bought with the proceeds of people-smuggling.

　　其它苏丹人可能会嘲笑拉舍达人的新车子新房子是贩卖人口赚来的。

　　But there is plenty of money to be made in the legitimate business of exporting livestock.

　　但事实上，不少钱是通过牲畜出口贸易合法赚来的。

　　1.plenty of 大量；许多

　　例句:Are there plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet?

　　你的饮食中新鲜果蔬充足吗？

　　2.exchange rate 汇率

　　例句:We've got a fairly unfavourable exchange rate at the moment.

　　眼下汇率对我们不利。

　　3.adapted to 适应

　　例句:When he moved to france, the children adapted to the change very well.

　　他移居法国后，孩子们很能适应这个变化。

　　4.in the hope of 怀着...的希望

　　例句:He was studying in the hope of being admitted to an engineering college

　　他努力学习，希望能被一所工程学院录取。