美國從賑災中找油水

紐約時報的社論太精彩了。刺破了美國的低劣手段。讓我們從中偷師，用英語去關心世界，去傳播和平。以下是社論的節錄:

Are We Stingy(吝嗇)? Yes Published: December 30, 2004

President Bush finally roused himself yesterday from his vacation in Crawford, Tex., to telephone his sympathy to the leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, and to speak publicly about the devastation of Sunday's tsunamis in Asia. (利用放假跟世紀的災難對比，突出了布殊的坐視不理)

We beg to differ. Mr. Egeland was right on target. We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world's poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world's richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That's less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities. 一千五百萬美元的捐款實在少得可憐，共和黨人打算花在布殊就職活動就已高出一倍。十多萬人已成海嘯亡魂，十多個相當窮困的國家需要天文算字的金錢去安頓及重建，美國作為最富裕的國家卻只捐出一個幾亳！透過捐款與就職活動的花費對比，狠狠地突顯了事情的匪夷所思，值得學習。

Bush administration officials help create that perception gap. Fuming at the charge of stinginess, Mr. Powell pointed to disaster relief and said the United States "has given more aid in the last four years than any other nation or combination of nations in the world." But for development aid, America gave $16.2 billion in 2003; the European Union gave $37.1 billion. In 2002, those numbers were $13.2 billion for America, and $29.9 billion for Europe. (再用數字反駁Powell之說:美國過去四年的捐助比任何國家都要多，實則跟歐盟的捐助一半也比不上)數字無情，是就說是，不是就說不是。是有力的武器。

Making things worse, we often pledge more money than we actually deliver. 很好的主題句:講就天下無敵，實則捐得更少。Victims of the earthquake in Bam, Iran, a year ago are still living in tents because aid, including ours, has not materialized in the amounts pledged. And back in 2002, Mr. Bush announced his Millennium Challenge account to give African countries development assistance of up to $5 billion a year, but the account has yet to disburse a single dollar.(透過一年前伊朗地震及零二年對非洲捐助的Millennium Challenge account兩實例，強而有力地說服了讀者美國的偽善。)

明報12月31日社論再點出美國不但吝嗇，還想撈油水。The US announced that it and Japan, India and Australia would form a 4—nation core relief group to co—ordinate efforts to provide relief to countries hit by the tsunami. Desirous of a dominant role, the US showed a chauvinistic(本族第一主義的,又譯沙文主義的,大男人主義就是male chauvinism) eagerness to order others about. That has unnecessarily caused selfless relief efforts to smack of politics. (無私的救援變成為己利的政治)

馬家輝在1月4日明報筆陣說得好:先把南亞人民從洪水留下的泥濘裏拖救出來，止住他們的血，抹去他們的眼淚，然後，一起真誠地思考「全球倫理」的各個面向，誰被救了﹖誰來救人﹖救人是權利抑或義務﹖再或是權力的另一種展現形態﹖ 如果這是個單一地球，人類如何各安其位、和平共樂﹖

是時候醒醒。美國實在太過份。學英語的朋友不能坐視，不能不激動起來。