Seychelles: A president in paradise
BEST known as a destination for honeymooners in search of perfect white beaches and swaying palms, the Seychelles islands rarely make any sort of headlines. Few tourists would even have noticed the presidential election on July 30th, in which James Michel, leader of the Seychelles People's Progressive Front, was returned with 54% of the ballot. For Mr. Michel, it was the first time he had faced the islands-62,000-odd voters, having been promoted from vice-president two years ago by his predecessor, Albert René, who had ruled the islands for 27 years since taking power in a coup in 1977. To the casual eye, Seychelles seems both fortunate and wellgoverned. The 115 islands, most of them uninhabited, cover a mere 445 square kilometers (175 square miles) of the Indian Ocean, north of Madagascar, and enjoy several advantages over most of the rest of Africa. The weather is never extreme. There is no malaria. The islanders have free education and health care. Their multiracial society is pretty harmonious. With GDP at around $8,000 a head, there is almost no discernible poverty. But this standard of living has come at a cost: the IMF says its public debt is too high and may be unsustainable. Mr. Michel's main opposition, the Seychelles National Party, which scored 46% in the elections, claims that Seychelles, per person, is the world's most indebted country; with some $590m of external debt for just 82,000 people, it is certainly one of them. A black market in foreign currency already exists as speculation persists that the government, unable to meet its obligations, may be forced to devalue. Basic consumer goods sometimes run out. If, as the IMF predicts, GDP falls by over 1% this year, Mr. Michel may find his next five years in power more testing than he had hoped. The country needs more ways of making money. In the cold war, it was easy. The Seychelles played each side off against the other, remaining a member of the Commonwealth as well as the Non-Aligned Movement and taking military aid from the Soviet Union while leasing a satellite tracking station to the Americans. Since those streams of revenue dried up, the main Seychellois streams of revenue have been from tourism-leasing land to foreign hoteliers-and from tuna: the government earns about $200m a year from selling tuna-fishing licenses to Spain, France and South Korea. But conflict in the Middle East has brought Seychelles an unexpected bonus: Western warships stop off in the islands, which offer rest and recreation. The soldiers and sailors scubadive, sail and drink Seybrew, the local beer-and pay for it all in hard currency. 考研詞匯： sway[swei] v.搖擺，搖動 ballot[ˈbælət] n.選舉票，投票，票數(shù);vi.投票 [真題例句]Shortlists for job interviews, election ballot (n.) papers, lists of conference speakers and attendees: all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their recipients lose interests as they plough through them.[2004年閱讀2] [例句精譯]求職面試、選舉投票、會議發(fā)言或參加會議等諸多名單，也是按字母表順序排序，當(dāng)人們費勁地往下查看時，興趣也隨之索然。 predecessor[ˈpri:disesə] n.前輩，前任，(被取代的)原有事物 [真題例句]Thus the American president and vicepresident have surnames starting with B and C respectively; and 26 of George Bushs predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. [2004年閱讀2] [例句精譯]如此這般，美國總統(tǒng)和副總統(tǒng)的姓氏分別是以B和C開頭，而且喬治•布什的前任有26位(包括他父親在內(nèi))的姓氏均在字母表的前半部，而姓氏在字母表后半部的卻僅有16位。 sustain[səˈstein] v.①支撐，撐住;②維持，持續(xù);③遭受 [真題例句]Mozart, he theorized, may have sustained(③)it in a fall, and that would help explain the severe headaches the composer was said to have suffered more than a year before his death. [2005年閱讀4] [例句精譯]他推斷，這可能是由莫扎特摔跤所致;同時，這也為莫扎特去世前困擾他一年多的嚴重頭痛病提供了解釋。 lease[li:s] n.租借，租約，租賃物，租期，延續(xù)的一段時間;vt.出租，租出，租得 stream[stri:m] n.①小河，溪流;②川流不息的事物;v.流出，涌 背景常識介紹： 旅游業(yè)和漁業(yè)為塞舌爾兩大經(jīng)濟支柱，工農(nóng)業(yè)基礎(chǔ)薄弱，糧食和日用品主要依賴進口。20世紀70年代中期勒內(nèi)執(zhí)政后，實行部分國有化。80年代中期，政府調(diào)整經(jīng)濟發(fā)展政策，提出諸業(yè)并舉的多元化經(jīng)濟戰(zhàn)略，重點發(fā)展旅游、漁業(yè)、保稅區(qū)加工業(yè)和農(nóng)業(yè)等，推進私有化進程，改善投資環(huán)境，吸引外資，經(jīng)濟明顯好轉(zhuǎn)。至90年代初期，經(jīng)濟年均增長率為4%，被世界銀行列為中等收入的發(fā)展中國家。1995年以來，西方國家對塞減援、停援，塞財政拮據(jù)，外匯短缺，國際收支出現(xiàn)危機。近年政府先后推出經(jīng)濟改革計劃和10年經(jīng)濟發(fā)展目標，重點振興旅游業(yè)，緊縮財政、貨幣，推進國企私有化和貿(mào)易自由化，放寬"環(huán)保"標準，增售捕魚許可證，財政虧空狀況略有緩解，但經(jīng)濟形勢依然嚴峻。 參考譯文： 恍如置身天堂的總統(tǒng)--非洲島國塞舌爾一瞥 說起塞舌爾群島，許多人只知道它是度蜜月者找尋美麗的白色沙灘和搖曳的棕櫚樹的目的地之一。除此之外，幾乎很少有媒體對其進行報道，就連游客們也很少有人注意到7月30日該國舉行的總統(tǒng)選舉。這次選舉中，塞舌爾人民進步陣線領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人詹姆斯•米歇爾獲得了54%的選票。對于米歇爾而言，這是在他兩年前被前任總統(tǒng)阿爾伯特•雷納從副總統(tǒng)提拔為總統(tǒng)后，首次面對該島6.2萬余名選民。雷納自1977年在一場政變中上臺以后已經(jīng)統(tǒng)治該島國27年。 乍一看，塞舌爾似乎很幸運，治理得也比較好。它位于印度洋上、馬達加斯加以北，全國共有島嶼115個(其中大多數(shù)無人定居)，總面積僅為445平方公里(175平方英里)。相比非洲其他國家，它擁有不少優(yōu)勢。不冷不熱的天氣，沒有瘧疾，島民們享受免費教育和醫(yī)療，他們的多種族社會十分和諧。由于人均GDP大約有8000美元，因此幾乎沒有明顯的貧困現(xiàn)象。 不過，達到這種生活水準是要付出代價的--國際貨幣基金組織說，該國國債過高，可能難以為繼。米歇爾的主要反對黨、在本次選舉中獲得46%選票的塞舌爾民族黨斷言，塞舌爾是世界上人均負債最多的國家。由于投機買賣屢禁不止，外幣交易黑市已然形成，因此無法盡職盡責(zé)的政府或許將被迫對貨幣進行貶值�；A(chǔ)性消費商品有時候也消耗一空。根據(jù)國際貨幣基金組織預(yù)測，如果今年GDP下降超過1%，米歇爾就會感到在隨后的五年執(zhí)政歲月中，他要接受比他所期望的更多的考驗。 這個國家需要更多賺錢途徑。這在冷戰(zhàn)時期是很容易的。塞舌爾當(dāng)時仍然是英聯(lián)邦以及不結(jié)盟運動的一員，它一邊接受蘇聯(lián)提供的軍事援助，一邊又把一個衛(wèi)星跟蹤站租給了美國人，可謂兩頭得利。自從那些收入來源枯竭之后，塞舌爾人收入主要源自旅游業(yè)--出租土地給外國賓館經(jīng)營者--和金槍魚(政府依靠向西班牙、法國和韓國出售金槍魚捕魚許可證，每年可掙得2億美元)。 不過，中東沖突已經(jīng)給塞舌爾帶來了一份意外收獲--該島為經(jīng)停的西方戰(zhàn)船提供休閑和娛樂場所。士兵和水手們在那里潛水，玩帆船，喝當(dāng)?shù)厝酸勗斓钠【?-全都用硬通貨(美金)買單。 |
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