2006年VOA标准英语-Nobel Laureate: Alleviating Poverty Key to Main

By Stephanie Ho
Washington
20 November 2006

This year's Nobel Peace Prize recipient¹, Muhammad Yunus, says the award is shining the international spotlight² on the fundamental link between alleviating³ poverty and maintaining peace. He spoke⁴ to reporters Monday in Washington.

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Muhammad Yunus (file photo)

The head of Bangladesh's Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus, says getting the Nobel Peace Prize meant a big change in his life.

"Suddenly, you are in the spotlight, the global spotlight, and your every word is analyzed⁵, and your every move is watched," he said.

Grameen Bank is a financial institution that specializes in extending micro-credit, which involves lending small amounts of money to poor people to help them get started in money-making activities.

Yunus says he is especially gratified that the award has highlighted the crucial link between poverty and peace, and that alleviating poverty is an important part of maintaining peace in the world.

"I am particularly happy because the Nobel Peace Prize has done a wonderful thing to us - linking poverty and peace together," he said. "This is one message [that] kind of got lost. I was very happy that they could link it, and they linked it very strongly, that poverty is a threat to peace."

He said the other side of that argument is that ignoring poverty can create the conditions that lead to terrorism.

"Terrorism cannot be fought with guns. That's no solution," he said. "You can put it down for awhile, keep it quiet for awhile, until it comes back with more force. So, this [Nobel] prize kind of highlighted that issue, that poverty is an issue that you have to pay lot of attention to, because otherwise, it becomes a breeding ground for all kinds of violence, all kinds of possibilities to disturb peace in the world."

Yunus started the Grameen Bank 30 years ago, after he made his first loan of $27, out of his own pocket, to a Bangladeshi woman who was making bamboo stools.

Now, he says, the bank lends nearly one billion dollars a year in small loans that average about $130 each. He adds that nearly all of the bank's seven million borrowers are Bangladeshi women, who, he says, deserve to share the spotlight.

"So, that's another message, that poor women in Bangladesh are worth having the Nobel prize, they are the Nobel laureates," he said. "And they will be the one who will be receiving the prize."

He said the Grameen Bank's millions of borrowers are all part-owners of the bank, and said he initially⁶ wanted to take all of them with him to Norway to receive the prize.

"When the Nobel Committee announced half of the prize goes to me, half goes to the Grameen Bank, I said, 'we'll take the owners of the bank to the Nobel Committee, to receive the prize, all seven million of them.' They got kind of scared, because the total population of Norway is [only] four and a half million," he said.

He said lending money to the poor is not just business, for him and his bank, it is a mission.

1 recipient   

a.接受的,感受性强的 n.接受者,感受者,容器

参考例句：

• Please check that you have a valid email certificate for each recipient. 请检查是否对每个接收者都有有效的电子邮件证书。
• Colombia is the biggest U . S aid recipient in Latin America. 哥伦比亚是美国在拉丁美洲最大的援助对象。

2 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

3 alleviating   

减轻，缓解，缓和( alleviate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• If it's alleviating pain,who knows what else it's doing? 如果它减轻了疼痛，天知道还影响什么？
• Measuring poverty is not the same as alleviating it, of course. 当然，衡量贫困和减轻贫困是截然不同的。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。