VOA标准英语2010年-International Community Meets for Hait

The international community meets at the United Nations this week to make financial commitments to earthquake-ravaged Haiti's reconstruction¹. Haitian President Rene Préval is expected to ask for some $11.5 billion to rebuild his country.

Haiti's long-term reconstruction will take years and cost billions of dollars.

The 7.0 magnitude quake that struck in January killed more than 230,000 people and left more than a million others homeless in a nation where most citizens were already living in deep poverty.

On Wednesday, Haitian President Rene Préval will present the international community with his government's needs and its plan for recovery and reconstruction.  He is co-hosting the meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.  Mr. Ban has said the focus is now beginning to shift from emergency aid to longer-term reconstruction.

 

"I hope that this international donors² conference on 31 March will be a crucially important momentum³ where international community express their strong solidarity⁴ and support for the Haitian government and people through very generous financial support," said Mr. Ban.

The United States and several other countries have already expressed their intention to help. President Barack Obama has asked Congress for $2.8 billion to help Haiti.  Last week, the Inter-American Development Bank forgave nearly a half a billion dollars of Haiti's foreign debt.

The U.N. Development Program (UNDP) is in the lead on the donors' conference from the U.N. side.  Jordan Ryan is UNDP's director of Crisis Prevention and Recovery.  He says the hope is that the pledging conference will raise the funds necessary for the first two to three years of reconstruction.

"We do hope that we will find resources in the range of $3.5 billion, maybe a bit more, that would be able to get the early reconstruction underway," said Ryan.

And there is plenty to do.  A top priority is building transitional shelters for Haiti's more than one million homeless.  Funds are also needed for rebuilding the country's heavy infrastructure⁵, its schools and hospitals.

Haiti's government will have the ultimate responsibility for overseeing those plans.  But it will work closely with international partners, including the United Nations, the United States and international financial institutions.

"The international community is working closely with the Haitians in developing what might be an Interim⁶ Development Commission," Ryan added.  "There's talk now, and I think it will be announced at the conference, of engagement of former [U.S.] President [Bill] Clinton as U.N. Special Envoy⁷ to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the Haitian president and prime minister in that commission."

Mr. Clinton, along with former President George W. Bush, most recently visited Haiti last week.  Mr. Clinton stressed the importance of involving a wide range of people and organizations in the reconstruction.

"The diaspora, the NGOs, all the people who have been moved by the earthquake and want to continue their involvement, and the private investment community - we have to get them all going in the same direction and we're going to try to do that," said Mr. Clinton.

Those groups will have representatives at the donor's conference who will give their assessment⁸ of what is needed for the reconstruction effort.

The money the conference hopes to raise is in addition to the $1.4 billion the United Nations appealed for earlier this year to meet emergency humanitarian⁹ needs.  Only about half those funds have been pledged.

 

1 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

2 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》

3 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。

4 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

5 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

6 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。

7 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

8 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

9 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。