VOA双语新闻 - 岛国在非洲治国名录上名列前茅(在线收听

   A newly-released list that ranks the effectiveness of governments in sub-Saharan Africa shows small island nations such as Mauritius, the Seychelles and Cape Verde at the top, and conflict-ridden countries such as Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia at the bottom. The rankings were released in Addis Ababa.

  最近发表的一份名录是撒哈拉以南非洲地区国家政府的治国效率排名。这份名录显示,像毛里求斯、塞舌尔和佛得角之类的小岛国名列前茅,而诸如苏丹、刚果民主共和国和索马里之类在战火蹂躏下的国家名次最差。这份名单在亚的斯亚贝巴发表。
  The rankings indicate two thirds of African governments are getting better year-by-year. Liberia is perhaps making the biggest strides toward good governance.
  这一排名显示三分之二的非洲国家政府都在逐年改进。利比里亚可能是向良好治理迈进途中进步最大的国家。
  On the other end of the scale, a few countries, particularly those where wars are being waged,are failing. Somalia, ungovernable for more than a decade, ranked last of the 48 countries surveyed.
  在另一极端,有几个国家,尤其是那些战火蔓延的国家治理越来越差。索马里十多年来一直处于无法无天的状态,它在被调查的48个国家里是最后一名。
  Those are the findings of the, an annual ranking of sub-Saharan African nations according to quality of governance. They are based on data for 2006, compiled and analyzed by experts from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
  这是易卜拉欣非洲国家治理名录所发现的情况。这个名录每年把撒哈拉以南的非洲国家根据治国质量来进行排名。他们的依据是2006年的资料数据,哈佛大学肯尼迪政府学院的专家对这些资料进行了编撰和分析。
  The Index is the idea of Sudanese businessman Mo Ibrahim, who made a fortune bringing mobile-phone technology to much of Africa during the past decade. He is now devoting his time and a substantial portion of his fortune to addressing what many consider Africa's biggest failing, bad governance.
  编排这份名录是苏丹企业家穆.易卜拉欣的主意,易卜拉欣在过去十年里因为把手机推广到非洲的大部分地区而发财致富。如今他把自己的时间和相当大部分的财产用来研究治国无方问题,许多人认为这是非洲的最大绊脚石。
  Ibrahim unveiled his second annual index at a news conference in Addis Ababa. He was joined by several board members of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Among them were Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and U.N. Human Rights chief, as well as Salim Ahmed Salim, the former head of the Organization of African Unity and former prime minister of Tanzania.
  易卜拉欣在亚的斯亚贝巴的记者会上公布了他的第二次年度名次名录。穆.易卜拉欣董事会的几位成员也和他一起出席了这次记者会,其中有爱尔兰前总统和联合国人权主管玛丽.鲁宾逊,非洲统一组织的前主席,也是坦桑尼亚的前总理萨利姆.艾哈迈德.萨利姆。
  One of the most disturbing findings is that the quality of governance deteriorated between 2005 and 2006 in the Horn of Africa and the surrounding region, including Sudan. Salim Salim says regional conflicts are undermining all progress.
  最令人忧心的发现是2005年到2006年间,非洲之角及邻近地区,其中包括苏丹,治国质量恶化。萨利姆说,地区冲突破坏了所有的进展。
  "You talk about conflicts. You talk of Somalia. You talk of the situation right now in Somalia which affects Ethiopia," he said. "You talk of the Ethiopia-Eritrea situation. You talk of Sudan, [this all] is involved in deterioration of the situation in Sudan, so the number-one problem that has affected this region has been the issue of conflict."
  他说:“谈到冲突就会谈到索马里。你谈起索马里的目前形势,这一形势也影响埃塞俄比亚。你随即也会谈起埃塞俄比亚-厄里特里亚的局面。你也会谈到苏丹的形势全面恶化,所以影响这一地区的首要问题向来都是冲突问题。”
  Ibrahim admits the Governance Index is not perfect for two important reasons. First, the data is often provided by the rated governments themselves, and he says governments lie. Second, the picture is already dated, since the most recent data is from 2006, the last year for which statistics are available.
  易卜拉欣承认由于两个重要因素这个治国名录并非完美无缺。首先那些资料数据往往是那些被评比的政府自己提供的。他说,政府不说实话。第二,那些情况已经过时,因为最近的资料也是2006年的,这是能得到有关统计数据的最近的一年。
  But he says the index is a valuable tool, giving governments an assessment of the quality of services provided to their citizens. He says when he began looking at ways of re-investing the millions he made from his African company Celltel, he recognized good governance as the top priority.
  但是他又说,这份名录是有价值的工具,它评估了政府为本国公民服务的质量。他说,当他开始考虑把自己从非洲赛特尔公司赚取的几百万美元重新投资的各种途径时,他意识到治国有方是首选项目。
  "We could have given this money to the people in the camps in Darfur, to the vaccine for AIDS," Ibrahim said. "These are all pain killers, what we need is to define the root for conflict. Why Darfur happened. Why Somalia happened. Why DRC happened. What we need is to deal with the root of the disease, not to give aspirins. That is why I decided to give the money to this foundation."
  他说:“我们可以把这笔钱花在达尔富尔难民营的难民身上,也可以花在艾滋病的疫苗上。这些都是止痛药,然而我们所需要的是挖掘冲突的根源。为什么会发生像达尔富尔那样的情况?为什么会出现索马里的灾难?为什么会有刚果的战乱?我们需要的是解决这些弊病的根源,而不是给一颗阿斯匹林来止痛。这就是我决定把这笔钱用在这个基金会的原因。”
  This year's index ranked Mauritius as the best governed sub-Saharan African nation for the second year. Next came Seychelles, Cape Verde, Botswana and South Africa, in that order. Liberia showed the most progress, jumping more than 10 points on the index, to move up to 38th place among the 48 countries surveyed.
  在今年的名单上,毛里求斯再次被列为撒哈拉以南非洲地区治国最有方的国家。名列第二的是塞舌尔,随后依次排列的是佛得角、博茨瓦纳和南非。利比里亚显然取得的进步最大,它在这个名单上的得分跃升了10分以上,在48个被调查的国家里,上升到第38名。
  After Somalia, Africa's worst governed countries are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, Sudan, Angola and the Central African Republic.
  治国最差的国家是索马里,其它排名最低的国家依次倒数分别是刚果民主共和国、乍得、苏丹、安哥拉和中非共和国。
  Zimbabwe ranked 33rd among African nations in 2006, though analysts say recent developments will push it further down in future surveys.
  在这份2006年的名单上,津巴布韦在非洲国家中排在第33名,但是分析人士说,最近津巴布韦的局面将使得它在未来调查中的排名更低。
  The index measures governance based on five criteria: safety and security; rule of law; transparency and corruption; participation and human rights; economic opportunity and human development.
  这份名单根据五项标准来衡量国家治理的优劣,即安全和保安、法治、透明度和腐败程度、民众参政和人权、以及经济机遇和人才发展。
  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/voabn/2008/10/147355.html