歌手用音乐照亮世界上最贫穷的地方

AS IT IS 2015-09-19 Singers Use Music to Light Up World's Poorest Places 歌手用音乐照亮世界上最贫穷的地方

Pop singer Raghav Mathur is using his music to light up African villages where there is no electricity.

The song is called “Until the Sun Comes Up.”

If you listen to the words of the song, you might think the piece is just dance music. But it is helping¹ to change the lives of school children in a small African village in Tanzania. 

The Canadian-Indian singer says he wanted to help others when he learned that more than one billion people live without electric power. 

“That 1.3 billion people have no electricity, and so when I say that number, people often think, I mean to say million. It's a sixth of the planet with zero electricity. And until you go there and not just go there, but experience or hear the stories of the negative experiences through the kerosene² industry, you can't really totally understand the impact." 

Raghav teamed with SolarAid, a non-profit group working to end the use of kerosene lamps. Working together, they presented 320 solar-powered lights to school children in Tanzania.

Raghav says he got the idea from watching an old YouTube video.

"They take a bucket of water and they put it in a village in India or Bangladesh or somewhere in what is clearly an impoverished³ village, and in it they put a light, and I think the first people kind of look at it like, 'What is this hanging around here?' And throughout the YouTube video you see people start coming up to it, playing with it and the joy that it creates, and I thought what a great way to depict⁴ joy if we could incorporate⁵ that in a pop record.''

He made a video for the song with help from the American rap⁶ artist Nelly, and Indian movie star Abhishek Bachchan. In the video, they filmed the reaction of the students when they received the lights. Raghav says that the happiness on the children’s faces in the video is real. There was no staging or theatrics.

"Their idea in their homes or in their school would have been the use of kerosene. And when the sun went down, that's the climax⁷ of the video. They kind of started partying without ... it wasn't choreographed⁹ and it wasn't shot to be a music video. They just were having such a great time."

The lights will help the students study for more than 375,000 hours. That will save their parents nearly $60,000 on the cost of kerosene oil and candles.

Raghav says he hopes the video raises interest in the need for electric power in the developing world, especially south of the Sahara.

"Six hundred million of the 1.3 billion that have no electricity are in Africa. Obviously, I have toured extensively throughout Southeast Asia and I imagine the rest are all throughout India and Bangladesh and Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and all over. But Africa's a funny one. People don't really seem to really care in the mainstream¹⁰ about what happens there. So hopefully we can change that."

He also says he hopes his song and the video will motivate other musicians to become socially active and aware. 

Words in this Story

choreograph⁸ – v. to plan a series of steps or moves for a performance

climax – n. the most exciting or important part of a story

kerosene – n. an oil that is burned as a fuel

stage – v. to organize or do something that is designed to get public attention

unabashedly – adj. not afraid of expressing strong opinions

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 kerosene   

n.(kerosine)煤油，火油

参考例句：

• It is like putting out a fire with kerosene.这就像用煤油灭火。
• Instead of electricity,there were kerosene lanterns.没有电，有煤油灯。

3 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 depict   

vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述

参考例句：

• I don't care to see plays or films that depict murders or violence.我不喜欢看描写谋杀或暴力的戏剧或电影。
• Children's books often depict farmyard animals as gentle,lovable creatures.儿童图书常常把农场的动物描写得温和而可爱。

5 incorporate   

vt.包含，加上，吸收；把…合并，使并入

参考例句：

• Paints incorporate with oil.颜料与油混合在一起。
• We had to incorporate the company for tax reasons.由于纳税的原因，我们不得不把那家公司合并了。

6 rap   

n.轻敲，拍击，责骂，厉声说出，说唱音乐，谈话，最少量；vi.轻敲，敲门，表演说唱音乐，畅谈；vt.抓，抢，拍击

参考例句：

• I heard a rap on the door.我听到有轻轻的敲门声。
• Today we are going to rap about relationships.今天我们要聊聊关系的问题。

7 climax   

n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点

参考例句：

• The fifth scene was the climax of the play.第五场是全剧的高潮。
• His quarrel with his father brought matters to a climax.他与他父亲的争吵使得事态发展到了顶点。

8 choreograph   

v.设计舞蹈动作

参考例句：

• Achim had choreographed the dance in Act II himself.阿希姆自己设计了第2幕的舞蹈动作。
• She has danced,choreographed,lectured and taught all over the world.她在世界各地跳过舞、编过舞、讲过学、也教过书。

9 choreographed   

v.设计舞蹈动作( choreograph的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• There was some carefully choreographed flag-waving as the President drove by. 总统的车经过时，人们按精心编排的动作挥舞着旗帜。
• Achim had choreographed the dance in Act II himself. 阿希姆自己设计了第2幕的舞蹈动作。 来自辞典例句

10 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。