2006年VOA标准英语-Nigerians Dubious of Efforts to Eradicate

By Nico Colombant
Abidjan
24 February 2006

With Reporting by Pauline Bax in Kaduna and Kano, Nigeria

Even as Nigeria's government gets serious about tackling bird flu among its poultry¹, many Nigerians remain skeptical² about the effort.

Half the chickens in a pen on a school ground in Nigeria's Kaduna state have already died, possibly of bird flu, while the other half were about to be killed as part of efforts to stop the virus. Their owner, Zubaira, looked on, distraught.

"It was on Monday. I saw one standing³ and some others were pecking it, so we removed it and killed it," he explained. "Then on Monday, in the morning, too, one couldn't walk, we kicked it and killed it. And what we discovered [is that] eggs had been broken, and once an egg is broken inside the stomach, they will not be active again."

A Nigerian Ministry⁴ of Agriculture worker takes dead chickens to be burned on a farm in a village outside Kano  
  
An official from the Kaduna state ministry of agriculture, Sylvanus Babachory, has been working around the clock. "What we're doing is, we've discovered the bird flu and we're now stamping it out," he said. "We're taking the samples."

Meanwhile, the newly named chairman of the bird flu task force in Kaduna, Aboubacar Bala, has been spreading awareness⁵ to ordinary citizens, telling them what can and cannot be done. "We are not discouraging people from eating chicken," he explained. "They should understand that they should not eat a sick or dead chicken. Whenever they are going to eat chicken, they should ensure that they clean their hands properly, wash all their utensils⁶ properly and cook the chicken and eggs properly."

At a street snack bar in Kaduna, though, the owner is worried about his business. "Here we are, we do prepare [special dishes] with eggs here," he said. "[But customers come and say they don't eat eggs and it affects our market price, so I'm worried about it."

Another citizen in Kaduna, Faisal Lawal, does not trust the government. He says it never looks out for the common man, so he does not see why it would be different for bird flu. "People think it's a set-up," he said. "They've had so many disappointments from the government. Most people believe everything that comes from the government comes just from a purely⁷ selfish interest and that it's difficult to get them to believe that this bird flu is real."

In another northern bird-flu affected⁸ area, it is the same mixture of government effort and general suspicion.

The chairman of the team monitoring the outbreak in Kano, Shehu Bawa, has just culled⁹ hundreds of chickens, and he is optimistic his work will pay off. "Now, we have about 40 farms involved in Kano and we hope to finish," he said. "We hope to contain the matter in a week's time, in a week."

But the chairman of the local poultry farmers association, Alhaji Aruna, is not impressed with the epidemic¹⁰. "We live with the flu. It's not a big deal to us. We should be less concerned about it in Africa," he said. "We should be more concerned about things that are more devastating¹¹ to us than a white man's disease. If it is only in Africa, little effort would have been made. In fact, in all sincerity¹², corruption¹³ is the highest disease that we have."

Aruna says farmers need higher compensation than the two dollars per chicken culled they are being promised. He says they should get four times as much. Whatever the promises, though, he does not believe the government will ever pay anything. Instead, he believes the government will keep whatever money they get from foreign donors¹⁴.

He says most farmers, rather than killing¹⁵ possibly affected chicken, are hiding them or selling them on the black market.

International experts say the virus could spread across Africa if it is not contained in Nigeria, endangering millions of people. Ministers and officials from across West Africa met this week in Senegal and pledged to do all they can to keep their borders closed.

1 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

2 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

3 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

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 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

6 utensils   

器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物

参考例句：

• Formerly most of our household utensils were made of brass. 以前我们家庭用的器皿多数是用黄铜做的。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

7 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

8 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

9 culled   

v.挑选，剔除( cull的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The herd must be culled. 必须有选择地杀掉部分牧畜。 来自辞典例句
• The facts were culled from various sources. 这些事实是从各方收集到的。 来自辞典例句

10 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

11 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

12 sincerity   

n.真诚，诚意；真实

参考例句：

• His sincerity added much more authority to the story.他的真诚更增加了故事的说服力。
• He tried hard to satisfy me of his sincerity.他竭力让我了解他的诚意。

13 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

14 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。