这样一份既能提高阅读水平、丰富词汇量，又能培养和积累写作观点的好素材，怎能不先睹为快呢，下面小编分享一期中英赏析版月刊。
一、Contents
Quantum Gas Goes below Absolute Zero
[2013.03.02] The workshop heroes 美国与二战：车里的英雄
[2013.03.02] Special report: Emerging Africa 崛起的非洲
[2013.03.02]Lexington: The view from Maine streets
[2013.03.02] The penny drops 一美分硬币终将退出市场
[2013.03.02] Obsessions 那些痴狂
[2013.03.02] Cuba’s leaders: The new man 古巴政坛新星
[2013.03.02] A hard pounding, this 军工行业遭受重击
[2013.03.07] Timed out 是时候和《时代》说分手了
[2013.03.09]Net benefits 网络净收益
[2013.03.09] Now for the reckoning 下面，让咱们来算算总账吧
[2013.03.09] Fixing the fat cats 修理肥猫
[2013.03.09] Flights of fancy 从幻想到空中翱翔
[2013.03.13] To a war footing 朝鲜半岛正在走向战争
[2013.03.16] Silicon Spring break 硅谷狂欢
[2013.03.16] Looking for India’s Zuckerberg 寻找印度的扎克伯格
[2013.03.16] Russia after Stalin 斯大林离去后的俄罗斯
[2013.03.16] High, wide or handsome
[2013.03.16]Credit watch 信贷观察
[2013-03-16] The economy 美国竞争力报道 - 经济
[2013.03.16] Immigration: Own goal 移民问题：美国自摆乌龙
[2013.03.23]The Alibaba phenomenon 阿里巴巴现象
[2013.03.23] Vape ’em if you got ’em 拿到手，吸两口
[2013.03.23] The joy of stats 玩转统计学
[2013.03.23] Here comes the cavalry 救兵来也
[2013.03.30]Can India become a great power? 印度能成为大国吗
[2013.03.23] The price of detachment 退居二线的代价
[2013.03.30]Bottoms up 经济转型：基本面分析
二、America’s JOBS Act Still not working
Quantum Gas Goes below Absolute Zero
【导读】根据热力学原理，绝对零度是不可达到的;但最新研究结果表明，事实并非如此……
Quantum Gas Goes below Absolute Zero
量子气体的温度达到绝对零度以下
Ultracold atoms pave way for negative-Kelvin materials
超冷原子为负绝对温度材料铺平了道路
Temperature in a gas can reach below absolute zero thanks to a quirk of quantum physics.
Image: PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek/Thinkstock
量子物理的一种反常现象可以让某种气体的温度达到绝对零度以下
照片来自PHOTOCREO Michal Bednarek/Thinkstock
From Nature magazine
本文选自《自然》杂志
It may sound less likely than hell freezing over, but physicists have created an atomic gas with a sub-absolute-zero temperature for the first time. Their technique opens the door to generating negative-Kelvin materials and new quantum devices, and it could even help to solve a cosmological mystery.
这话听起来比地狱冰封了还不靠谱，但物理学家们已经史无前例地创造了一种温度低于绝对零度的原子气体。他们的方法为制造负开氏温度的材料和新型量子仪器打开了大门，而且还可能有助于解决一个宇宙学的千古谜团。
Lord Kelvin defined the absolute temperature scale in the mid-1800s in such a way that nothing could be colder than absolute zero. Physicists later realized that the absolute temperature of a gas is related to the average energy of its particles. Absolute zero corresponds to the theoretical state in which particles have no energy at all, and higher temperatures correspond to higher average energies.
19世纪中叶，开尔文勋爵(Lord Kelvin)认为任何物体的温度都不可能达到绝对零度以下，并以此定义了绝对温标。物理学家们后来意识到，某种气体的绝对温度与其粒子的平均动能相关。绝对零度对应于粒子完全没有动能的理论状态;较高的温度对应于较高的平均动能。
However, by the 1950s, physicists working with more exotic systems began to realise that this isn't always true: Technically, you read off the temperature of a system from a graph that plots the probabilities of its particles being found with certain energies. Normally, most particles have average or near-average energies, with only a few particles zipping around at higher energies. In theory, if the situation is reversed, with more particles having higher, rather than lower, energies, the plot would flip over and the sign of the temperature would change from a positive to a negative absolute temperature, explains Ulrich Schneider, a physicist at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany.
然而到了20世纪50年代，一些研究更不寻常的物质系统的物理学家开始认识到这种说法并非总是正确的：在具体操作时，人们根据某种曲线读出系统的温度，这种曲线描绘了该系统中粒子具有某些动能的几率。在正常情况下，大多数粒子的动能为平均动能或接近平均动能，只有少数粒子以较高动能运动。德国慕尼黑市的路德维希•马克西米兰大学(Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, Germany)的物理学家尤里奇•施奈达(Ulrich Schneider)解释说：从理论上说，如果这种状况逆转，即如果较多粒子的动能不是较低而是较高，这一曲线就会翻转，这会改变绝对温度的符号，由正绝对温度变为负绝对温度。
Peaks and valleys
山顶与山谷
Schneider and his colleagues reached such sub-absolute-zero temperatures with an ultracold quantum gas made up of potassium atoms. Using lasers and magnetic fields, they kept the individual atoms in a lattice arrangement. At positive temperatures, the atoms repel, making the configuration stable. The team then quickly adjusted the magnetic fields, causing the atoms to attract rather than repel each other. “This suddenly shifts the atoms from their most stable, lowest-energy state to the highest possible energy state, before they can react,” says Schneider. “It’s like walking through a valley, then instantly finding yourself on the mountain peak.”
施奈达和他的同事们是利用钾原子组成的超冷量子气体达到这一绝对零度以下温度的。利用激光与磁场，他们让单个原子保持点阵排列。在正绝对温度下原子相互排斥，这使该点阵稳定。然后研究小组迅速调整磁场，让原子之间由排斥转为吸引。“这便在原子有所反应之前突然把它们从能量最低的最稳定状态转变为可能达到的最高能量状态，”施奈达说。“这就像你正在山谷中行走，但顷刻之间发现自己来到了山顶。”
At positive temperatures, such a reversal would be unstable and the atoms would collapse inwards. But the team also adjusted the trapping laser field to make it more energetically favourable for the atoms to stick in their positions. This result, described today in Science, marks the gas’s transition from just above absolute zero to a few billionths of a Kelvin below absolute zero.
这样的逆转在正绝对温度下不稳定，会让原子向内坍塌。但该小组也调整了激光阱场，让原子停留在原处在能量上更为有利。今天的《科学》杂志是这样描述的：这样做的结果标志着气体的温度从刚好在绝对零度之上向绝对零度之下十亿分之几度转变。
Wolfgang Ketterle, a physicist and Nobel laureate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, who has previously demonstrated negative absolute temperatures in a magnetic system, calls the latest work an “experimental tour de force”. Exotic high-energy states that are hard to generate in the laboratory at positive temperatures become stable at negative absolute temperatures — “as though you can stand a pyramid on its head and not worry about it toppling over,” he notes — and so such techniques can allow these states to be studied in detail. “This may be a way to create new forms of matter in the laboratory,” Ketterle adds.
位于剑桥的麻省理工学院(Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge)物理学家、诺贝尔奖金得主沃尔夫冈•克特勒(Wolfgang Ketterle)曾在一种磁系统中证实了负绝对温度的存在，他称这一最新成果是一项“实验杰作”。在正绝对温度下很难在实验室产生的非寻常高能态在负绝对温度下变得稳定了，“这就像你可以把一座金字塔头朝下放又不必担心它会倾覆”，因此这种方法可以让人们得以详细地研究这些状态。“这或许会是在实验室中创造物质新形式的一种方法。”
If built, such systems would behave in strange ways, says Achim Rosch, a theoretical physicist at the University of Cologne in Germany, who proposed the technique used by Schneider and his team. For instance, Rosch and his colleagues have calculated that whereas clouds of atoms would normally be pulled downwards by gravity, if part of the cloud is at a negative absolute temperature, some atoms will move upwards, apparently defying gravity.
这种实验方法是德国科隆大学(University of Cologne in Germany)的理论物理学家阿齐姆•洛什(Achim Rosch)建议施奈达和他的团队使用的;前者认为，一旦这样的系统建成，它们将会有异乎寻常的表现方式。例如，洛什与他的同事们所进行的计算说明，尽管原子云通常会受重力作用向下运动，但如果云的一部份处于负绝对温度下，有些原子就会明显地对抗引力向上运动。
Another peculiarity of the sub-absolute-zero gas is that it mimics 'dark energy', the mysterious force that pushes the Universe to expand at an ever-faster rate against the inward pull of gravity. Schneider notes that the attractive atoms in the gas produced by the team also want to collapse inwards, but do not because the negative absolute temperature stabilises them. “It’s interesting that this weird feature pops up in the Universe and also in the lab,” he says. “This may be something that cosmologists should look at more closely.”
温度在绝对零度以下的气体的另一个奇异现象是它对“暗能量”的模仿;后者是推动宇宙对抗向心引力，并以日益增加的速率向外膨胀的神秘力量。施奈达强调，在该研究小组制造的气体中，互相吸引的原子也有向内坍塌的倾向，但负绝对温度对其稳定作用使这种情况没有发生。“有趣的是，这一出现在宇宙中的奇异特点也出现在实验室中，”他如是说。“这或许是宇宙学家应该更仔细地研究的现象。”
This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on January 3, 2012.
本文于2012年1月3日首发，现经《自然》杂志允许在此重刊。
By Zeeya Merali and Nature magazine
兹亚•米拉里，《自然》杂志
原文地址：http://www.scientificamerican.co ... olute-zero#comments转载声明：本文来自环球科学(huanqiukexue.com)，转载请注明出处
http://ecocn.org/thread-180977-1-1.html 译者：悠悠万事97
[2013.03.02] The workshop heroes 美国与二战：车里的英雄
【导读】同盟国之所以在二战中获胜，工程师功不可没
America and the second world war
美国与二战
The workshop heroes
车间里的英雄
A tribute to the unsung workers
向二战中的无名工作者致敬
Mar 2nd 2013 |From the print edition
Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers who Turned the Tide in the Second World War. By Paul Kennedy.Random House; 436 pages; $30. Allen Lane; £25. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
《奠定胜局的工程师：扭转二战局势的灵丹妙药》。保罗•肯尼迪【注1】著，兰登书屋出版。全书436页，售价30美元。英国地区由艾伦•莱恩出版社出版，售价25英镑。Amazon.com、Amzaon.co.uk 有售。
NEARLY 70 years after the second world war and with most of the combatants now dead, a leading historian can praise the Wehrmacht. Not, of course, its evil racism but its military prowess. On the battlefields, writes Paul Kennedy of Yale University, Germany’s soldiers earned universal respect for their “capacity to react swiftly and fiercely to an assault on any front”. His superlatives continue to flow. The Wehrmacht possessed a fabulous capacity to recover and strike back; Germany’s paratroopers were ultra- competent; the Reich fought with astounding tenacity.
第二次世界大战已经过去了将近七十年，大多数参战老兵也已经离开人世。今时今日，杰出的历史学家可以去赞扬德国国防军【注2】了。当然，不是去赞扬它那罪恶的种族歧视，而是去赞扬它那非凡的军事实力。耶鲁大学的保罗•肯尼迪写道，德国将士“无论在哪一条战线上都能迅猛地应对敌军的突袭”，因此在战场上赢得了广泛尊重。肯尼迪还赞赏道：德国国防军具备令人难以置信的恢复能力和反击能力;德军的伞兵极为优秀;德意志帝国的军人打起仗来出乎意料地顽强。
How then did Germany come to lose the war? The British-born historian strives to avoid reductionism. Unlike others, he says, he does not claim that the Allies’ victory can be explained solely by brute force or by a wonder weapon or by some magical decrypting system. There were multiple factors. Some have been exaggerated. Bletchley Park was “certainly far less important” than most of the popular literature about the codebreakers suggests. Sir Arthur “Bomber” Harris’s determination not to target the enemy’s oil, transport and electricity grids but to blast cities instead was, he writes, a “weird panacea”.
那么，为什么德国还是输掉了这场战争?在阐述这个问题时，肯尼迪这位生于英国的历史学家竭力避免了还原论【注3】。和别人不同，他不认为可以把同盟国的胜利单纯地归功于武力、新型兵器或是什么神奇的解码系统。这场胜利存在诸多因素，而有些因素被人为夸大了。在很多关于解码人员的通俗文学中，布莱切利园【注4】对同盟国在二战中的胜利起到了重要作用，“这显然言过其实了”。肯尼迪写道，阿瑟•“轰炸机”•哈里斯【注5】当年决定不去攻击敌军的石油线路、运输系统和电网，而是去轰炸各大城市——这是一种“兵行诡道的万能战术”。
Against this, Mr Kennedy argues, some reasons for the Allies’ success deserve much greater emphasis. One of them, the stupendous might of America’s military-industrial complex, was recognised at last in Arthur Herman’s “Freedom’s Forge”, reviewed here last year. Mr Kennedy celebrates another crucial component: the role of engineers. What they invented, improvised and improved had, by 1943, begun to turn the tide against Germany and Japan.
相反，肯尼迪认为，有些因素让同盟国取得了胜利，却远未得到足够的重视。其一就是美国的军事工业复合体所发挥出的惊人威力——事隔多年之后，这种威力终于在阿瑟•赫尔曼的《锻造自由的熔炉》一书中得到了认可(去年本报曾经刊载过这部作品的书评)。肯尼迪赞颂了另一个至关重要的胜利因素：那就是工程师们在二战中所扮演的角色。到1943年为止，他们的工作成果已经开始为同盟国扭转战局了，德国和日本的优势不复存在。
By then long-range B-24 Liberator bombers protected convoys of merchant ships crossing the Atlantic; Hedgehog grenades destroyed Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz’s U-boats; B-17 Flying Fortress bombers flew from airfields in England deep into Germany and drove the Japanese back in the Pacific; T-34 tanks led the blood-soaked Soviet counter-attack on the Eastern Front; Mustang fighter planes decimated Germany’s flying aces.
彼时彼刻， B-24“解放者”远程轰炸机保护着横跨大西洋的商船队伍;“刺猬弹”炸毁了德国海军元帅卡尔•邓尼兹的 U 型潜艇;B-17“空中堡垒”轰炸机从英格兰的机场起飞，深入德国境内，并在太平洋战区击退了日军;苏军在东方战线发动了浴血反攻，而前方开路的正是一架架 T-34 坦克;德军的制空王牌也被“野马”战斗机尽数歼灭【注6】。
Mr Kennedy also rescues the engineers of the US Navy Construction Battalions from relative obscurity. Popularly known as the “Seabees”, these were the units that built the bases, the installations, the assembly points and the roads that carried the Allied fight forward. Their achievements more than justify Mr Kennedy’s assertion that engineers are essential to military victory. Yet, as he rightly complains, historians of grand campaigns all too often take their work for granted and assume that troops, fleets and air squadrons can be moved long distances by the stroke of a pen on a large map.
肯尼迪还让美国海军建设营的工程师从幕后走到了台前。这些人被公众称为“海蜂”【注7】，负责建造基地、集合点，并为同盟国军队铺设进军道路。肯尼迪坚称工程师在二战的军事胜利中功不可没，而“海蜂”取得的成就也充分证明了这一点。然而，肯尼迪也抱怨道(这种抱怨合情合理)：研究大型战争的历史学家往往不重视工程师的工作，认为只要在作战地图上大笔一挥，海陆空三军就能深入敌方腹地。
Seabee statistics are still amazing. In the Pacific alone they built, in the midst of war, 111 major airstrips and 441 piers, tanks for the storage of 100m gallons of fuel, housing for 1.5m men and hospitals for 70,000 patients. The famous photograph of General Douglas MacArthur (pictured) fulfilling his “I shall return” promise to the Philippines was possible only after skilful Seabees had managed the pontoon bridges and causeway units that brought the army ashore—along with the photographers, of course.
今天看来，关于“海蜂”的统计数据仍然令人惊讶。在二战期间，他们仅在太平洋战区就铺设了111条大型飞机跑道、搭建了441个码头、制造了可贮存一亿加仑燃料的油桶、修建了可居住150万人的营房以及可接纳7万名病人的多家医院。上将道格拉斯•麦克阿瑟(如图)离开菲律宾群岛时曾经承诺：“我还会回来的”。而如果没有技术高超的“海蜂”来搭筑浮桥、修建堤道的话，美军也就无法登岸了，麦克阿瑟的诺言也将无法实现——当然，假如没有“海蜂”，就连拍下这张著名照片的摄影记者都将无法到场。
Mr Kennedy’s best-known book is “The Rise and Fall of Great Powers” (1987) and his knowledge of earlier conflicts adds depth and colour to his history of the middle years of the war. Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, the Duke of Marlborough, Napoleon, William Tecumseh Sherman and others march across the pages as Mr Kennedy compares and contrasts their actions with those of their counterparts in 1943-44. And he is able to cite several instances of British-American-Soviet bickering to sustain the Duke of Wellington’s grumble that having enemies is nothing like as bad as having allies.
肯尼迪最为知名的作品当数1987年出版的《大国的兴衰》。他研究过历史上的军事冲突，这一点也使他笔下的二战中期历史颇具深度、姿彩纷呈。肯尼迪把1943到1944年间的二战将领和历史上的将领放在一起，比较他们的军事行动;读者在字里行间仿佛看到了亚历山大大帝、尤利乌斯•凯撒、马尔堡公爵、拿破仑、威廉•特库姆塞•舍曼这些历史名将当年的英姿。威灵顿公爵曾经抱怨说，有盟友要比有敌人糟糕很多。而肯尼迪可以从英美苏三国之间的龃龉中找到例证来证明威灵顿公爵的这种说法。
译者注：
1. 保罗·肯尼迪(Paul Kennedy，1945年- )，是英国出生的历史学家，专长于国际关系。他在牛津大学获得了博士学位，1970年到1983年期间在 East Anglia 大学担任历史学教授，后任耶鲁大学教授。他出版了很多关于英国皇家海军、大国争霸、太平洋战争等主题的书籍，其代表作《大国的兴衰》探讨了1500年至今国际舞台上大国兴替的历史。
2. 德国国防军(德语：Wehrmacht)是1935至1945年间纳粹德国的军事力量。第二次世界大战期间的国防军包括陆军、海军和空军。纳粹党的武装党卫队单位有时也配属于国防军。
3. 还原论或还原主义(Reductionism，又译化约论)，是一种哲学思想，认为复杂的系统、事务、现象可以通过将其化解为各部分之组合的方法，加以理解和描述。
还原论的思想在自然科学中有很大影响，例如认为化学是以物理学为基础，生物学是以化学为基础，等等。在社会科学中，围绕还原论的观点有很大争议，例如心理学是否能够归结于生物学，社会学是否能归结于心理学，政治学能否归结于社会学，等等。
4. 布莱切利园(Bletchley Park)，又称X电台(Station X)，是一座位于英格兰米尔顿凯恩斯(Milton Keynes)布莱切利镇内的宅第。在第二次世界大战期间，布莱切利园曾经是英国政府进行密码解读的主要地方，轴心国的密码与密码文件，如恩尼格玛密码机等，一般都会送到那里进行解码。自恩尼格玛密码机被破译后，布莱切利园所收集到的军事情报一概被代号为ULTRA;尽管现今有部份人对这些情报的功用提出质疑，但普遍认为，ULTRA除帮助了盟军外，还提早结束战争。
布莱切利园已为一所向公众开放的博物馆。
5. 阿瑟•特拉弗斯•哈里斯(Arthur Trayes Harris，1892—1984)，第二次世界大战时期先后担任英国皇家空军副参谋长和轰炸航空兵司令，成为皇家空军元帅，是“轰炸机致胜论”的倡导者。人称“轰炸机”哈里斯。因主张对平民无差别轰炸被称为“屠夫”。
6. B-24“解放者”式轰炸机(B-24 Liberator)是美国于第二次世界大战投入使用的一种重型轰炸机，由共和飞机公司(Consolidated Aircraft)研制，在战时活跃于西线、中缅印战区和太平洋战场。
B-17“空中堡垒”轰炸机 (B-17 Flying Fortress) 是美国波音在1930年代为美国陆军航空队所发展的的四引擎重型轰炸机。
T-34坦克是苏联于1940年到1958年生产的中型坦克，分别是装上76.2毫米炮的T-34/76和85毫米炮的T-34/85，两者的炮塔设计并不相同，其设计思路皆对后世的坦克发展有着深远及革命性的影响。
“野马”战斗机，即P-51战斗机，是美国陆军航空队在二次世界大战期间最有名的战斗机之一，也是美国海陆两军所使用的单引擎战斗机当中航程最长，对于欧洲与太平洋战区战略轰炸护航最重要的机种，并且一直使用到朝鲜战争为止。
7. “海蜂”相关资料
Seabees are members of the United States Navy construction battalions. The word Seabee is a proper noun that comes from the initials of Construction Battalion (CB) of the United States Navy. The Seabees have a history of building bases, bulldozing and paving thousands of miles of roadway and airstrips, and accomplishing a myriad of other construction projects in a wide variety of military theaters dating back to World War II.
http://ecocn.org/thread-180993-1-1.html 译者：剑刃
[2013.03.02] Special report: Emerging Africa 崛起的非洲
Africa rising
非洲崛起
A hopeful continent
希望的大陆
African lives have already greatly improved over the past decade, says Oliver August. The next ten years will be even better
非洲人的生活状况在过去十年有了极大的改善，Oliver August说。这十年将会更好。
Mar 2nd 2013 |From the print edition
THREE STUDENTS ARE hunched over an iPad at a beach café on Senegal’s Cap-Vert peninsula, the westernmost tip of the world’s poorest continent. They are reading online news stories about Moldova, one of Europe’s most miserable countries. One headline reads: “Four drunken soldiers rape woman”. Another says Moldovan men have a 19% chance of dying from excessive drinking and 58% will die from smoking-related diseases. Others deal with sex-trafficking. Such stories have become a staple of Africa’s thriving media, along with austerity tales from Greece. They inspire pity and disbelief, just as tales of disease and disorder in Africa have long done in the rich world.
在塞内加尔的佛得角半岛，世界最贫穷大陆的最西端，三个学生在一家海边咖啡厅里挤在一起看iPad。他们正在看网上关于摩尔多瓦的新闻故事，而摩尔多瓦是欧洲最糟糕的国家之一。一则头条写着：“四军人醉酒轮奸妇女”。另一则说摩尔多瓦男性19%死于过量饮酒，58%将死于吸烟有关的疾病。其它的则是有关性奴贸易的。此类新闻已经成为蓬勃发展的非洲媒体的重要内容，还有就是有关希腊财政紧缩的故事。这些故事让人感到怜悯与怀疑，正如关于非洲疾病与骚乱的故事长久以来在发达国家中的影响一样。
Sitting on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal’s capital, the three students sip cappuccinos and look out over a paved road shaded by palm trees where restaurants with white tablecloths serve green-spotted crabs. A local artist is hawking framed pictures of semi-clad peasant girls under a string of coloured lights. This is where slave ships used to depart for the New World. “Way over there, do they know how much has changed?” asks one of the students, pointing beyond the oil tankers on the distant horizon.
这三个学生一边啜着卡布奇诺，一边向外望去。这里是塞内加尔首都达喀尔郊区，平整的马路旁椰树成荫，路边铺着洁白桌布的餐厅里，客人们正享用着海鲜。五彩缤纷的灯光下，一个当地的艺术家正在叫卖有框的画作，画中是半裸的农家女孩。开往新大陆的运奴船曾在这里起航。“远在那边的人们，知道这里有多大变化吗?”其中一个学生问道，一边用手指着远处油轮所在的地平线的另一边。
This special report will paint a picture at odds with Western images of Africa. War, famine and dictators have become rarer. People still struggle to make ends meet, just as they do in China and India. They don’t always have enough to eat, they may lack education, they despair at daily injustices and some want to emigrate. But most Africans no longer fear a violent or premature end and can hope to see their children do well. That applies across much of the continent, including the sub-Saharan part, the main focus of this report.
本篇特别报道将描绘的画卷，与西方对非洲的印象有所不同。战争、饥馑与独裁者越来越少，然而人们仍要努力养家糊口，正如中国人和印度人一样。他们时常缺衣少食，教育落后，处处可见的不公平让他们绝望，有些人希望移民。但大多数非洲人不再因暴力或早夭而恐惧，可以有望看到自己的后代过得更好。整个大陆的大部分地区都是如此，包括本文所重点关注的撒哈拉以南地区。
African statistics are often unreliable, but broadly the numbers suggest that human development in sub-Saharan Africa has made huge leaps. Secondary-school enrolment grew by 48% between 2000 and 2008 after many states expanded their education programmes and scrapped school fees. Over the past decade malaria deaths in some of the worst-affected countries have declined by 30% and HIV infections by up to 74%. Life expectancy across Africa has increased by about 10% and child mortality rates in most countries have been falling steeply.
非洲的统计数据常不可信，但总体而言，从数据上能看出撒哈拉以南非洲的人类发展发生了巨大飞跃。中学入学人数在2000-2008年间增长了48%，因为许多国家拓展了教育方案，取消了学费。过去十年，一些疟疾最严重国家的死亡率下降了30%，而艾滋病最严重国家的感染率下降了74%。整个非洲的预期寿命增加了10%，大多数国家的儿童死亡率都大幅下降。
A booming economy has made a big difference. Over the past ten years real income per person has increased by more than 30%, whereas in the previous 20 years it shrank by nearly 10%. Africa is the world’s fastest-growing continent just now. Over the next decade its GDP is expected to rise by an average of 6% a year, not least thanks to foreign direct investment. FDI has gone from $15 billion in 2002 to $37 billion in 2006 and $46 billion in 2012 (see chart).
经济繁荣产生了重大影响。过去十年的人均实际收入增加超过30%，而再之前20年则缩水了近10%。非洲如今已是世界增长最快的大陆。未来10年，非洲的GDP增长预期为每年6%，外国直接投资尤其重要。FDI已从2002年的150亿增加到2006年的370亿和2012年的460亿美元(见图)。
Many goods and services that used to be scarce, including telephones, are now widely available. Africa has three mobile phones for every four people, the same as India. By 2017 nearly 30% of households are expected to have a television set, an almost fivefold increase over ten years. Nigeria produces more movies than America does. Film-makers, novelists, designers, musicians and artists thrive in a new climate of hope. Opinion polls show that almost two-thirds of Africans think this year will be better than last, double the European rate.
诸如电话之类的许多产品和服务在过去常常缺乏，如今已是寻常之物。每四个非洲人就有三部手机，同印度一样。到2017年，约30%的家庭将拥有电视，十年间增长了近四倍。尼日利亚的电影产量已高于美国。电影制作人，小说家，设计师、音乐人和艺术家们在希望的新时代里兴旺发展。意见调查显示，近三分之二的非洲人认为今年将好于去年，比例比欧洲高一倍。
Africa is too big to follow one script, so its countries are taking different routes to becoming better places. In Senegal the key is a vibrant democracy. From the humid beaches of Cap-Vert to the flyblown desert interior, politicians conduct election campaigns that Western voters would recognise. They make extravagant promises, some of which they will even keep. Crucially, they respect democratic institutions. When President Abdoulaye Wade last year tried to stand for a third term, in breach of term limits, he was ridiculed. A popular cartoon showed him in a bar ordering a third cup of coffee and removing a sign saying, “Everyone just two cups”. More than two dozen opposition candidates formed a united front and inflicted a stinging defeat on him, which he swiftly accepted. Dakar celebrated wildly, then went back to work the next day.
非洲太大了，发展上不能走单一模式，所以各国的道路不尽相同。在塞内加尔，关键在于充满活力的民主。从湿热的佛得角海滩到苍蝇飞舞的沙漠内陆，政客们为选战而努力，西方的选民们对此不会陌生。他们做出夸大的承诺，还是有些承诺会兑现的。最关键的是，他们尊重民主制度。当阿卜杜拉耶•瓦德总统(Abdoulaye Wade)去年想突破任期限制连任第三届时，他成了人们的笑料。在一幅流传很广的漫画中，他在咖啡店里点了第三杯咖啡，却把店里“每人限两杯”的牌子藏了起来。二十多位反对派参选人组成了联合阵线反对他，总统惨败，却旋即接受了选举结果。达喀尔一片欢腾，而第二天仍然照常上班。
At the end of the cold war only three African countries (out of 53 at the time) had democracies; since then the number has risen to 25, of varying shades, and many more countries hold imperfect but worthwhile elections (22 in 2012 alone). Only four out of now 55 countries—Eritrea, Swaziland, Libya and Somalia—lack a multi-party constitution, and the last two will get one soon. Armies mostly stay in their barracks. Big-man leaders are becoming rarer, though some authoritarian states survive. And on the whole more democracy has led to better governance: politicians who want to be re-elected need to show results.
冷战结束时，非洲当时的53个国家中只有三个是民主国家，之后这一数字上升到25个，程度各异。许多国家还举行选举，虽非完美，但也值得努力(仅2012年就有22次)。如今非洲55国中仅四个――厄立特里亚、斯威士兰、利比亚和索马里――非多党制，后两者很快将成为多党制。军队通常驻扎在兵营里。虽然还存在些独裁国家，但大佬式领袖越来越少。总体而言，更多的民主有助于提高行政能力。政客们想再次当选就得拿出成绩。
Ways to salvation
救赎之路
Where democracy has struggled to establish itself, African countries have taken three other paths to improving their citizens’ lives. First, many have stopped fighting. War and civil strife have declined dramatically. Local conflicts occasionally flare up, but in the past decade Africa’s wars have become a lot less deadly. Perennial hotspots such as Angola, Chad, Eritrea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are quiet, leaving millions better off, and even Congo, Somalia and Sudan are much less violent than they used to be. Parts of Mali were seized by Islamists last year, then liberated by French troops in January, though unrest continues. The number of coups, which averaged 20 per decade in 1960-90, has fallen to an average of ten.
民主正在非洲立足，非洲各国还通过三条其它途径来改善人民的生活。第一，许多国家已停战。战争与国内冲突已显著减少，虽然偶有局部战火，但过去十年来非洲的战争已远不像从前般致命。诸如安哥位、乍得、厄立特里亚、利比里亚和塞拉利昂这样的长期热点已逐渐平静，数百万人得到安宁。即使像刚果、索马里和苏丹也远不像从前那样暴力。去年马里部分地区被伊斯兰极端分子占领，今年一月被法国军队解放，但局势仍然不稳。在1960-90年代，非洲平均每十年政变20次，如今已平均十次。
Second, more private citizens are engaging with politics, some in civil-society groups, others in aid efforts or as protesters. The beginnings of the Arab spring in north Africa two years ago inspired the rest of the continent. In Angola youth activists invoke the events farther north. In Senegal a group of rap artists formed the nucleus of the coalition that ousted Mr Wade.
第二，更多的公民个体参与到政治中来，有些组成公民社会团体，其他人参与救援或抗议。两年前北非萌芽的阿拉伯之春激励了非洲的其它地方。在安哥拉，年轻的活动人士以遥远北方发生的事情来支持自己的活动。在塞内加尔，以一群说唱艺术家为核心的联合运动驱逐了瓦德先生。
Third, Africa’s retreat from socialist economic models has generally made everyone better off. Some countries, such as Ethiopia and Rwanda, still put the state in the lead. Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister from 1995 until his death last year, achieved impressive gains by taking development into his own (occasionally bloodstained) hands. Others, such as Kenya and Nigeria, have empowered private business by removing red tape. Yet others are benefiting from a commodities boom, driven by increased demand from China, which has become Africa’s biggest trading partner. Over the past decade African trade with China has risen from $11 billion to $166 billion. Copper-rich Zambia and oil-soaked Ghana are using full coffers to pay for new schools and hospitals, even if some of the money is stolen along the way.
第三，非洲放弃了社会主义经济模式，总体上让所有人都受益。有些国家，如埃塞俄比亚和卢旺达，仍然以国家为先。梅莱斯•泽纳维(Meles Zenawi)从1995年起担任埃塞俄比亚总理直到去年死去，在将发展成果据为己有上可谓硕果累累(偶尔果子上有点血污)。其它如肯尼亚和尼日利亚，取消了繁文缛节从而使私有企业充满活力。还有些则从贸易上获益。中国的需求不断增加，带来了繁荣的贸易，如今已是非洲最大的贸易伙伴。过去十年间中非贸易额由110亿美元上升至1660亿美元。富铜的赞比亚和多油的加纳都赚得盆满钵盈，有钱来盖新的学校和医院，即使有些钱被顺便偷去了。
Inevitably, Africa’s rise is being hyped. Boosters proclaim an “African century” and talk of “the China of tomorrow” or “a new India”. Sceptics retort that Africa has seen false dawns before. They fear that foreign investors will exploit locals and that the continent will be “not lifted but looted”. They also worry that many officials are corrupt, and that those who are straight often lack expertise, putting them at a disadvantage in negotiations with investors.
非洲崛起不可避免地被炒做了。鼓吹者宣告“非洲的世纪”，说着“明日的中国”或“新的印度”。怀疑者则反驳说非洲有过虚幻的曙光。他们担心外国投资者来剥削当地人，非洲大陆“不是被改善了而是被扫荡了”。他们还担心许多官员腐败，而正直的官员又往往能力不足，与投资者谈判时处于不利地位。
So who is right? To find out, your correspondent travelled overland across the continent from Dakar to Cape Town (see map), taking in regional centres such as Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg as well as plenty of bush and desert. Each part of the trip focused on one of the big themes with which the continent is grappling—political violence, governance, economic development—as outlined in the articles that follow.
哪一方是对的?为了寻找答案，本文作者从达喀尔由陆路穿越非洲大陆到达开普敦(见图)，走过了地区中心如拉各斯、内罗毕和约翰内斯堡，也穿过了许多丛林和沙漠。每一段旅程都着眼于非洲正努力解决的主要问题之一――政治暴力、政府治理与经济发展――后面文章中将概述之。
The journey covered some 15,800 miles (25,400km) on rivers, railways and roads, almost all of them paved and open for business. Not once was your correspondent asked for a bribe along the way, though a few drivers may have given small gratuities to policemen. The trip took 112 days, and on all but nine of them e-mail by smartphone was available. It was rarely dangerous or difficult. Borders were easily crossed and visas could be had for a few dollars on the spot or within a day in the nearest capital. By contrast, in 2001, when Paul Theroux researched his epic travel book, “Dark Star Safari: Overland from Cairo to Cape Town”, he was shot at, forced into detours and subjected to endless discomforts.
本次旅程总长2.54万公里，包括水路、铁路和公路，几乎全部是修筑好可以商业通行的。本文作者没有一次遇到索贿，倒是有几次给了警察一些小礼物。行程总共112天，除九天外全部可由智能手机进行邮件联系。旅程很少有危险，也没有什么困难。边境很容易通过，只需几美元即可现场办理签证，或在一天之内在最近的首都办理。相比之下，Paul Theroux在2001年为他的史诗游记《黑星远征：从开罗到开普敦》而探险时，遭到过枪击，被迫绕道，一路都得忍受无尽的不适。
Another decade from now a traveller may well see an end to hunger in some African countries, steeply rising agricultural production in others, the start of industrial manufacturing for export, the emergence of a broad retail sector, more integrated transport networks, fairer elections, more effective governments, widespread access to technology even among many of the poor and ever-rising commodity incomes. Not everywhere. This report covers plenty of places where progress falls short. But their number is shrinking.
从现在起的未来十年，旅行者很可能看到有些非洲国家不再饥饿，有些国家农产品大幅增产，开始出口工业产品，出现覆盖广泛的零售产业，更加完整的交通网络，更公正的选举，更高效的政府，即使穷人中也可普遍接触到新技术，以及更高的贸易收入。并非所有地方，本报告也涵盖了许多进展较慢的地方，但这样的地方越来越少。
Wait for it
耐心等待
The biggest reason to be hopeful is that it takes time for results from past investment to come through, and many such benefits have yet to materialise. Billions have already been put into roads and schools over the past decade; the tech revolution has only just reached the more remote corners of the continent; plenty of new oilfields and gold mines have been tapped but are not yet producing revenues. The aid pipeline too is fairly full. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation alone has invested $1.7 billion in Africa since 2006 but acknowledges that “it takes years and years to shift the system.” Some aid will be wasted, some new roads will remain empty and more than a few barrels of oil will be stolen. Yet whereas currently not even half of Africa’s countries are what the World Bank calls “middle income” (defined as at least $1,000 per person a year), by 2025 the bank expects most African countries to have reached that stage.
抱有希望的最大原因在于，从开始投资到见到成效是需要时间的，许多收益还尚未实现。过去十年已有数十亿投入修路和建学校;技术革新才刚刚到达这片大陆更偏僻的角落;已经开采了许多新的油井和金矿但还没有开始赢利。援助渠道也相当完整。单是比尔和梅琳达•盖茨基金会(Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)从2006年起就向非洲投资了17亿美元，但也承认“要过许多年才能实现系统性转变。”有些援助会被浪费，有些新修的道路仍会无人使用，远不止几桶的石油会被偷走。如今不到一半的非洲国家能达到世界银行的“中等收入”标准(至少年人均1000美元)，到2025年，世行预测大多数将可以达到。
As the hand-painted number 3 bus pulls out of Cap-Vert and travels through the streets of Dakar, the views, bathed in buttery late-afternoon sunlight, reflect aspects of Africa’s current triumphs and tribulations. On the left are new tenement buildings with running water for the urban poor. On a hill to the right stands a 160-foot (49-metre) bronze statue of a man with a muscular torso resembling Mr Wade in his younger years on which he spent $27m of public money. The bus leaves the capital behind and chugs on, passing craggy cliffs and flooded pastures, single-room huts and mangrove forests. Several hours later it crosses a muddy creek near the city of Ziguinchor, heading south towards Guinea-Bissau.
手工刷漆的三号巴士驶出了佛得角，在达喀尔的街道中穿行。沐浴在黄昏时分金黄色阳光中的景色，折射出非洲如今的成就与苦难。左边是为城市穷人新建的带自来水的廉租楼，右边的小山上，矗立着一座49米高的青铜雕像。这是一个身躯强健的男性，像年轻时的瓦德先生，他在这上面花了2700万美元公款。汽车驶离了首都，嘎嘎地前行，经过崎岖的悬崖和洪水淹没的牧场，简易棚屋和红树林。七小时后，汽车穿过济金绍尔市(Ziguinchor)旁的一条泥泞小溪，向南驶向几内亚比绍。
http://ecocn.org/thread-180996-1-1.html 译者：Lichee
[2013.03.02]Lexington: The view from Maine streets
Lexington
列克星敦
The view from Maine streets
缅因人民，你们怎么看?
Barack Obama’s talk of peace does not convince a city marked by war
战争之都缅因质疑奥巴马的和平之说
Mar 2nd 2013 |From the print edition
AFTER long years of messy combat, America’s mission in Afghanistan is going to have a swift and tidy ending, Barack Obama recently told Congress. This spring American forces will move to a support role behind Afghan allies. By the end of next year the war will be over, the mission completed. After a grinding decade, Mr Obama declared ringingly in his state-of-the-union address that “our brave men and women in uniform” are coming home.
近来，贝拉克•奥巴马告诉国会，经过长年混战，美国将干净利落地完结阿富汗任务。今年春季，美军将把一线作战的任务交给盟友阿富汗，自己转为后方支援。明年年末，这场战争就会落幕，而美国也将顺利完成任务。奥巴马在国情咨文演讲中高调宣布，十年的磨难结束了，“在战场上拼搏的英雄儿女”即将回归故里。
That pledge earned a standing ovation. Beyond Washington, in the sort of American communities that provide the backbone of the armed forces, it prompts a more complicated response. The small city of South Portland in Maine is one of many obscure places to be heavily touched by war since the September 11th 2001 attacks. No state has lost more soldiers in Afghanistan, per person, than Maine—a fertile recruiting ground in every conflict since the civil war and still today home to an unusual number of veterans. And the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns cost South Portland dearer than most places in Maine. A windswept coastal city of 25,000, it lost four local men, three of them young graduates from the same high school.
听到总统的承诺，人们纷纷起立鼓掌。然而，在华府之外，在部队主力军诞生之处的地区反应复杂一些。位于缅因州的小城市南波特兰就是态度不明的地区之一。2001年9•11袭击事件之后，这些地区在阿富汗战争中倍受影响。按牺牲士兵占总人口的比例来看，缅因是在阿富汗战争中损失最为严重的州——自南北战争以来的每场战争中，缅因州都输送了大量兵力;至今，缅因仍是大量老兵的故乡。在美阿战争和美伊战争中，南波特兰的牺牲人数也超过缅因其他地区。这个风急浪高的海滨城市总人口仅2.5万，却在战争中失去了四名同胞，其中三名还是毕业于同一高中的校友。
One town cannot represent American opinion. Yet talking to a cross-section of locals, as well as to state military and government officials, the same observations come up repeatedly. It may be useful to record some of them.一座小城的意见不能代表整个美国。但是，在和当地各个领域人民以及和缅因将士、政府官员的对话中，也能听到相同的声音。也许，将这些想法部分记录下来会起到一定的作用。
The cheering in Washington feels painfully premature to those whose neighbours and relatives are still in Afghanistan, or waiting for fresh deployments there with regular or part-time units. A Maine national guard unit left the day after Mr Obama’s speech on February 12th, and more will follow this year. South Portland’s police department is still missing an officer, on duty in Afghanistan. At Broadway Variety, a convenience store which has sent hundreds of care packages to South Portlanders serving overseas, collections continue for fresh parcels of cookies, candy and other home comforts.
看到华府一片欢腾，赴阿富汗军人的家属、邻居以及等待新一轮部署的常备军人和后备军人内心充满苦楚，感叹华府人民过于幼稚。2013年2月12日，奥巴马发表和平演讲。仅一日之后，缅因一支国家警卫队就离开家乡奔赴阿富汗，而今年还会有更多战士被送去阿富汗。南波特兰警察局的一位警官上了阿富汗战场，至今未归。一家名为百老汇杂货的便利店已经给在海外奋战的南波特兰战士送去了数百箱爱心包裹。现在店里的还在源源不断的送着新鲜的袋装饼干、糖果等物品，让他们感受到来自故乡的温暖。
In South Portland the pre-announced ending of the war feels perilous, not stirring. Worries loom about the safety of the last troops, and angst about signs of hostility from Afghans supposed to be allies. Even the most vocally patriotic doubt that the war will end in a way that brings “closure”. Jake Myrick, an Iraq war veteran and campaigner for ex-soldiers, loyally complains that the media do not show the good works being done by Americans in Afghanistan. But after news reports of Afghan forces killing their American trainers, he still wrote in protest to Maine’s governor demanding the withdrawal of the state’s national guardsmen, fearing the Pentagon had lost sight of its war goals.
在南波特兰，提前宣告战事走向尾声并未让人们欢呼雀跃，相反，人们觉得此举过于冒险。人们开始担心驻扎在阿富汗的最后一批军人是否安全，开始焦虑本该是盟友的阿富汗人却显露出敌对的迹象。甚至那些口口声声说着自己忠贞爱国的志士也不相信战事会利利索索的结束。Jake Myrick是美伊战争的老兵，一直致力于退伍军人运动，他的控诉发自肺腑：媒体并未报道国人在阿富汗完成了什么伟业。但当他在最新消息中读到阿富汗军队杀死了美军教官后，他依然坚持向缅因州长写信抗议，要求撤回警卫队，因为他害怕五角大楼已经忘了战争的目标。
The commander of Maine’s national guard, Brigadier-General James Campbell, says that explaining the war’s final stages is “hard”. As troops are drawn down, he questions the war constantly, fearing a moment when a grieving parent or spouse asks why their loved one died, “and I don’t have an answer”.
担任缅因国家警卫队指挥的James Campbell准将说，战事的最后阶段不好解释。随着军中人数减少，他不断质疑这场战争，他害怕悲伤的父母或配偶问他为何自己的挚爱会离去，他说“我也不知道答案”。
No more global crusades, please
请不要再四处征战了
Support for the troops has healed old griefs, which is some comfort to Vietnam veterans who recall coming home to be blamed for an unpopular war. The sight of mostly blue-collar boys pulling on their country’s uniform has narrowed social divisions in a community split by wealth, says Laurie Wood, a local school principal and the aunt of one of the dead. Ideological differences have also been trumped, if not healed, by respect for the troops: although that change only took place after local boys died. The city votes Democratic at election time, but—this being northern New England—it has plenty of prickly independents and libertarian-tinged Republicans too. Starting during the Iraq war, some military families and supporters strung yellow ribbons from lamp posts and electricity poles, prompting other residents to say the city was being made to look pro-war. The argument lasted years and “really divided” South Portland, recalls the city’s chief administrator, James Gailey. A handsome stone memorial in the city’s main park, dedicated in 2011, is an “overdue” statement of thanks for military service, says the mayor, Tom Blake. It is also the product of a truce between the pro- and anti-ribbon camps, who were persuaded to back a monument as a compromise.
越战老兵每每回想起当年回归故乡，人们谴责他们不应该参与一场不得民心的战争时，内心就会涌起悲伤。现在，人们对军队的支持，或许可以抚平旧时的创伤。缅因当地一所学校的校长Laurie Wood在战争中失去了侄子，她表示，多数工人披上了战甲，此举拉近了由财富差距产生的社会分裂。对军队的尊重，如果没消除思想上的隔阂，至少点醒了人们的意识，但是仅当来自本地的士兵牺牲后才有了这些变化。该市在选举中支持民主党，但是新英格兰北部地区也有很多敏感的无党派人士和带有自由论色彩的共和党人士。自美阿战争起，有些军属和支持战争的人民就开始在路灯和电线杆上系上黄丝带[1]，让其他居民也感受到本市对战事的支持。行政长官James Gailey回忆道，双方的争论持续了数年，这才是南波特兰市分裂的“真正原因”。2011年，该市在中央公园树立了一块气派的石碑，市长Tom Blake说这是对人民参军报效祖国的“挽歌”。石碑同样也是双方阵营休战的成果。黄丝带运动支持派说服反对派相信，支持立碑既是做出让步。
Yet some fear that reverence for the troops has dangerously dulled public curiosity. Ms Wood’s beloved nephew, Justin Buxbaum, found himself at war after signing up, aged 16, because without military grants “he didn’t know how to pay for college,” she says. Once in Afghanistan he died in an accident when a roommate’s gun fell and went off. That isn’t the story that people want to hear, she says, but the details matter less and less as time passes, being subsumed into an “amorphous” narrative about heroism. Many stopped paying close attention after Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were killed, she says.
然而，有人担心，拥军行为让人们变得麻木迟钝，减少了对战事的关注。Wood女士心爱的侄子Justin Buxbaum年仅16岁，他刚签署了协议就上了战场，Wood解释说，如果没有军饷，“他就没钱交大学学费了。”在阿富汗从军期间，Justin室友的手枪意外滑落走了火，Justin也因此丧生。她说，但人们不喜欢这种故事，随着时间的推移，真实的细节变得越来越不重要，一切都会湮没于对英雄主义的抽象叙述。她还表示，萨达姆•侯赛因和奥萨马•本•拉登死后，很多人都不在密切关注战事了。
Brigadier-General Campbell admits to being dismayed when he walks through American airports in uniform and strangers try to buy him sandwiches. Volunteer soldiers need no sympathy, he says. On the whole, he says, the people of Maine are more sensible than that, especially those who seek to join the armed forces, whose numbers have not fallen. Maine’s military recruits are asking to serve their country, but “not really signing up to some great moral cause,” the general says.
Campbell准将承认，当他穿着军装穿过机场以及陌生人给他买三明治时，他内心感到很诧异。他说，志愿参军的战士不需要同情。他表示，总的来说，缅因人不应该只了解到这一层面，尤其是那些有志加入军队的人，因为他们的人数有增无减。这位准将说，缅因州招募来的新兵一心只想报效祖国，而不是为了什么“崇高的理想”。
All America may need a dose of such pragmatism, if South Portlanders are right. They call their city more overtly patriotic than a decade ago, yet more cynical, too. For all Mr Obama’s assurances, many fear an untidy ending in Afghanistan, and further messy crises to follow. Whether fresh interventions might be justified divides them. In short, they will believe in the homecoming of the brave when they see it.
如果南波特兰人民的行为没错，所有美国人都应该学学这股务实的劲头。他们认为市民流露出的爱国情怀比十年前更为明显，但同时也更为偏激。尽管奥巴马作出了保证，但仍有人担心阿富汗战争不会结束得很利索，反而随后将会危机四起。新一轮的干预措施是否合理，他们意见不一。简言之，只有亲眼看到勇士们回归故乡，他们才会相信这场战争确实已经结束。
译者注：
1.黄丝带：表示等待久违的亲人回来，来源于1971年10月14日《纽约时报》上的一个小说，后改编成歌曲，故事大意也在歌里。
http://ecocn.org/thread-181026-1-1.html 译者：BearDY
[2013.03.02] The penny drops 一美分硬币终将退出市场
The coinage
硬币制造
The penny drops
一美分硬币终将退出市场
The case against small bits of metal
小额硬币退市事件
Mar 2nd 2013 | WASHINGTON, DC |From the print edition
MOST people would not pay two cents for something worth one. But America’s government spent $116m last year doing just that. The money-losing purchase was money itself: the penny, which has cost more than a cent to produce since 2006, due mainly to the price of zinc, the coin’s primary ingredient.
价值一美分的东西，多数人不会花两美分购买。去年，美国政府却耗费1.16亿美元反其道而行之。偏偏这冤枉钱又花在了钱本身：一美分硬币。06年起，由于主要原材料锌价格的上涨，一美分硬币的成本便已超过其面值。
Steel is not much better, as Canada has learned. The government there recently ditched its steel-based penny. American politicians, while loth to take lessons from their northern neighbours, may have noticed. In an online forum on February 14th Barack Obama intimated that the penny was no longer change he believes in.
钢材也好不了多少，这一点加拿大深有体会。该国政府刚刚废除其钢制的一分硬币。美国政客们，虽说不愿借鉴北部邻国的经验，也可能注意到这一点。2月14日，奥巴马于某在线论坛上表示，虽然他一直提倡“改变更换”，但是“更换”一美分零钱已不在他提倡的事物之列。
Fifty years ago a handful of pennies would buy a hamburger at McDonald’s, but inflation means the coin won’t even get you one French fry today. Relegated to jars and lost behind cushions, the penny is failing to perform its primary function: to facilitate commerce. Vending machines and parking meters don’t accept it. Penny scourges note that fiddling with them adds some two seconds to each transaction, costing the economy many millions of dollars a year.
50年前，几美分便可买到一个麦当劳汉堡，但由于通胀，如今却连买一根炸薯条都不够。一美分硬币要么被丢进存钱罐，要么滚到垫子后面消失不见，如今的它已无法发挥其主要功能 ：简化交易。就连自动售货机和停车计时器都不接受它。一美分硬币的批评者认为它还会使每份交易多花费2秒钟左右的时间，从而导致每年数百万美元的经济损失。
Penny lovers and zinc-industry lobbyists counter that the coin’s demise would cost consumers, as merchants would round prices up to the nearest nickel. Some economists disagree, suggesting that shop keepers might in fact round down in order to avoid moving from a price of, say, $9.99 to $10. Americans anyway seem willing to accept a fee for penny removal, as evidenced by the self-imposed cost of leaving them idle and the success of coin-counting machines, which take a cut when turning them into bills.
一美分硬币爱好者与锌产业游说者认为，一美分硬币一旦消失，顾客便会蒙受损失，因为商家会将价钱撩到面值最近的五美分。经济学家却不以为然，因为为避免价格从9.99美元上涨至10美元等情况的发生，商家反而可能抹零。但无论如何，美国民众似乎甘愿为废除一美分硬币缴费，他们宁愿多花钱也不愿用它，而硬币兑换机(在将硬币兑换为钞票时会收取一定费用)的广泛运用同样能够证明这一点。
Other countries have eliminated low-value coins with less-than-dire results, and indeed, so has America. In 1857 it ditched the half-cent, then worth nearly as much in real terms as today’s dime. This has led some to suggest killing the nickel, which costs about ten cents to make, as well as the penny.
美国和其他国家都曾尝试废除小面值硬币，且并未造成可怕的后果。1857年，美国废除了半美分硬币。按实值计算，当时的半美分相当于如今的十美分。于是有人呼吁废除五美分(造价为十美分)和一美分硬币。
Congress has not authorised coin culling as yet, so the Mint is studying ways to make pennies more cheaply. Mr Obama, meanwhile, is finding value in the penny’s symbolism. “One of the things you see chronically in government is it’s very hard to get rid of things that don’t work so that we can then invest in the things that do,” said the president. “The penny, I think, ends up being a good metaphor for some of the larger problems we got.”
国会至今仍未批准废除一美分硬币，所以铸造厂正研究如何降低其成本。奥巴马也同时在寻找其象征意义中存在的价值。他说：“一直以来你们也看到了，政府很难取消那些没有实际用处的事物，并转投其它有益的事物。我想，这一美分硬币就形象地说明了我们曾面对的其它一些大问题。 ”
http://ecocn.org/thread-181048-1-1.html 译者：林木木
[2013.03.02] Obsessions 那些痴狂
R.B. Kitaj
罗纳德·布鲁克斯·基塔伊
Obsessions
那些痴狂
Two British shows eval
