VOA常速英语2007-Rare Video Inside Zimbabwe Shows Impact of Hyper

By VOA News
Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
18 October 2007
 

We bring you a rare look inside the troubled southern African nation of Zimbabwe.  Today, this nation of between 10 million and 12 million is teetering on the edge of what a member of its own parliament is calling "the world's gravest humanitarian¹ crisis."

But few outside Africa understand the depth of Zimbabwe's plight² because the government has declared independent reporting a crime.  There are harsh penalties, including beatings and jail, for journalists working without government approval.

But for several months beginning in June, a television reporter was able to travel across Zimbabwe with a camera.  A correspondent for VOA, who must remain anonymous³ for security reasons, files this undercover report from Bulawayo. The report begins in a place well-known to many international tourists.

We are cruising the Zambezi River that separates Zimbabwe from Zambia, with a boat-full of visitors from Europe, the United States and Japan.

It is called a "booze cruise" because the wine flows freely.  The captain carefully maneuvers⁴ his boat into the shallower water -- better for close-up photos of sleepy crocodiles lounging along the bank. 

But here, even the thunderous roar of one of the seven natural wonders of the world, Victoria Falls -- cannot overpower the more discordant⁵ voices -- now being raised in the less tourist-friendly parts of this troubled country.

Here -- a noisy public street protest against the government of President Robert Mugabe, taking place in one of Zimbabwe's largest cities. This one is staged by more than a hundred members of a group called Women of Zimbabwe Arise.

Minutes after this undercover video was taken, marchers were attacked by blue-helmeted riot police.  Many of the women were beaten and arrested. One said, "They come running with battle sticks.  They beat me, beat me all over and then they beat me at the breasts."

Many tourists never hear or see this -- hundreds of Zimbabweans, desperate to feed their families, pressed against the iron security bars of a butcher shop, hoping to get in to buy a tiny ration⁶ of meat.  It is a commodity that has basically disappeared from stores across the country. They shout at the shop workers, begging to be let in, waving their $100,000 Zim -- notes worth now only 14 cents U.S. each.  

Other undercover video shot from a moving car shows Zimbabweans waiting, hour after hour, in massive queues searching for necessities of life -- bread, maize⁷ meal, beans, meat.  They queue from first thing in the morning until late in the evening.

The cruelest irony⁸ is that in a country with rampant⁹ poverty and an unemployment rate approaching 90 percent, almost everyone on these streets is technically¹⁰ a millionaire.

Inflation in Zimbabwe is now the worst in the world, acknowledged by the government to be running at over 7,000 percent, although experts put it much higher.

$1 Zim, once equal in value to $1 U.S. is now actually worth less than a single sheet of toilet paper -- offered in one store in bulk for one and a half million dollars per pack.

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president of 27 years, blames his country's hyperinflation on a plot he says was engineered by Great Britain and other western nations to sabotage¹¹ the economy. He said, "Our detractors have redoubled their efforts to achieve illegal regime change in order to reverse our land reform program."

A woman shopping in the grocery store said, "One donut is $16,000." And so in mid-June, instant coffee costs over a million dollars a jar and a chicken sells for a quarter million.  Days later, Mr. Mugabe's government simply ordered the price of everything sold slashed¹² by 50 percent. 

Zimbabwean police task forces were issued orders to force businesses to lower their prices, regardless of what they pay wholesale¹³ -- causing disorder¹⁴ on the streets, and forcing hundreds of businesses to close their doors for fear of bankruptcy¹⁵.

Now most of the shelves are empty and there is almost nothing left to buy or eat.

"I think that one of the tragedies of Zimbabwe is that there are people who are not going to survive this," says David Coltart, a member of the Zimbabwe Parliament.

A leader of the opposition¹⁶, David Coltart, was elected from a district that is overwhelmingly black.

He says, "The only graphic¹⁷ evidence that one can give a journalist or a visitor to this country of the devastation¹⁸ caused to people is by taking them to cemeteries¹⁹. When you go to cemeteries they look like the Battle of the Somme [World War I battle in France, with more than one million casualties], acres and acres of mounds²⁰ of earth, freshly dug, freshly filled, containing the bodies of thousands of Zimbabweans who are falling off the edge of our society."

It is these graves -- now dug even smaller than a coffin-sized template -- that Coltart and others say bear strongest witness to the human cost of the country's economic collapse²¹.

This cold June in Zimbabwe, shortages include even the space that is needed to bury the tiniest of the dead.  

1 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。

2 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

3 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

4 maneuvers   

n.策略，谋略，花招( maneuver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He suspected at once that she had been spying upon his maneuvers. 他立刻猜想到，她已经侦察到他的行动。 来自辞典例句
• Maneuvers in Guizhou occupied the Reds for four months. 贵州境内的作战占了红军四个月的时间。 来自辞典例句

5 discordant   

adj.不调和的

参考例句：

• Leonato thought they would make a discordant pair.里奥那托认为他们不适宜作夫妻。
• For when we are deeply mournful discordant above all others is the voice of mirth.因为当我们极度悲伤的时候，欢乐的声音会比其他一切声音都更显得不谐调。

6 ration   

n.定量(pl.)给养，口粮；vt.定量供应

参考例句：

• The country cut the bread ration last year.那个国家去年削减面包配给量。
• We have to ration the water.我们必须限量用水。

7 maize   

n.玉米

参考例句：

• There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
• We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。

8 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。

9 rampant   

adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的

参考例句：

• Sickness was rampant in the area.该地区疾病蔓延。
• You cannot allow children to rampant through the museum.你不能任由小孩子在博物馆里乱跑。

10 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

11 sabotage   

n.怠工，破坏活动，破坏；v.从事破坏活动，妨害，破坏

参考例句：

• They tried to sabotage my birthday party.他们企图破坏我的生日晚会。
• The fire at the factory was caused by sabotage.那家工厂的火灾是有人蓄意破坏引起的。

12 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

14 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

15 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

16 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

17 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。

18 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 cemeteries   

n.（非教堂的）墓地，公墓( cemetery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It's morbid to dwell on cemeteries and such like. 不厌其烦地谈论墓地以及诸如此类的事是一种病态。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In other districts the proximity of cemeteries seemed to aggravate the disease. 在其它地区里，邻近墓地的地方，时疫大概都要严重些。 来自辞典例句

20 mounds   

土堆，土丘( mound的名词复数 )； 一大堆

参考例句：

• We had mounds of tasteless rice. 我们有成堆成堆的淡而无味的米饭。
• Ah! and there's the cemetery' - cemetery, he must have meant. 'You see the mounds? 啊，这就是同墓，”——我想他要说的一定是公墓，“看到那些土墩了吗？

21 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。