2006年VOA标准英语-Clinton Signs AIDS Pledge In Hanoi

By Matt Steinglass
Hanoi
06 December 2006

On a visit to strengthen efforts to provide HIV/AIDS treatment, former U.S. President Bill Clinton strolled the streets of the Vietnamese capital, met with young Vietnamese and discussed the work of the newly opened Hanoi office of The Clinton Foundation. But beyond the public relations effort, getting the details right in treating people living with AIDS will still take time, as Matt Steinglass reports for VOA from Hanoi.

Bill Clinton shakes hands with a young Vietnamese on a street in Hanoi 6 Dec 2006

Mr. Clinton went for a walk around Hanoi's Hoan Kiem Lake this morning. In an echo of the exuberant¹ reception he received on his first visit to Vietnam in 2000, when he was President of the United States, dozens of Vietnamese citizens came up to him with greetings, giggles² and requests for autographs.

Later, in his meeting with President Nguyen Minh Triet, Mr. Clinton said he counts the normalization³ of relations between the two former enemies as one of the major achievements of his administration.

He said, "I think the political and economic and personal ties which have grown up between our two peoples in the last 10 years or so are a good model for what our world could be in the twenty-first century."

The former president was in Vietnam to visit the new office here of the Clinton Foundation, which works on prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, especially in children.

Vietnam officially lists 250,000 people with HIV, but unofficial figures are higher.

Mr. Clinton signed an agreement with Vietnam's Ministry⁴ of Health that will provide a year's worth of anti-retroviral or ARV drug treatment to 800 children and 900 pregnant mothers, as well as training for health staff.

Later in the day, Clinton held a panel discussion with six young Vietnamese, including the HIV-positive activist⁵ Pham Thi Hue⁶.  She says the efforts of foreign organizations and the Vietnamese government are having an effect.

Hue said stigmatization⁸ of HIV-positive people is declining, and drug treatment improving.

But some experts have questioned the Clinton Foundation's exclusive focus on children and pregnant women. They say that in some cases children receive treatment, but not their parents, or the other way around.

Doan Thi Quyen, an HIV-positive mother from Haiphong, was in the audience at Clinton's event. She and her six-year-old daughter receive drugs through separate programs. Other parents are not so lucky.

Quyen says in Haiphong, many parents do not receive ARV drugs, and have less access than children do.

Mr. Clinton said the focus on children was necessary, because until recently, few children in the developing world were receiving treatment.

In the meantime, he said, the most important task is to educate people, and to reduce stigma⁷ towards people with HIV.

1 exuberant   

adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的

参考例句：

• Hothouse plants do not possess exuberant vitality.在温室里培养出来的东西，不会有强大的生命力。
• All those mother trees in the garden are exuberant.果园里的那些母树都长得十分茂盛。

2 giggles   

n.咯咯的笑( giggle的名词复数 )；傻笑；玩笑；the giggles 止不住的格格笑v.咯咯地笑( giggle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Her nervous giggles annoyed me. 她神经质的傻笑把我惹火了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I had to rush to the loo to avoid an attack of hysterical giggles. 我不得不冲向卫生间，以免遭到别人的疯狂嘲笑。 来自辞典例句

3 normalization   

n.（normalisation）正常化，标准化

参考例句：

• The visit signalled the normalization of relations between the two countries.这次访问显示两国关系已经正常化。
• He was pleased to the normalization of relationship between the police and the people.他很高兴警方和人民之间关系的正常化。

4 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

5 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

6 hue   

n.色度；色调；样子

参考例句：

• The diamond shone with every hue under the sun.金刚石在阳光下放出五颜六色的光芒。
• The same hue will look different in different light.同一颜色在不同的光线下看起来会有所不同。

7 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

8 stigmatization   

n.描绘，陈述

参考例句：