蹒跚的凤凰(双语)

ABOUT two hours’ flight north of Maputo, the Mozambican capital, lies the town of Tete on the crocodile-infested banks of the Zambezi river. A narrow suspension bridge forms the only crossing point for the main trade route linking landlocked Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. Until a few years ago, Tete was no more than a dusty down-at-heel stopping point for weary lorry drivers. But now, thanks to massive foreign investment in what may be the world’s biggest unexploited coal field, it is fast becoming a bustling boom town, already boasting three banks, three car-hire companies, half a dozen decent hotels, an international school and a new airport with twice-a-day flights to Maputo.
从莫桑比克首都马普托乘坐飞机向北飞行大约两个小时，便会到达坐落于鳄鱼泛滥的赞比西河畔的太特城。城中一座狭窄的吊桥是连接内陆国津巴布韦、马拉维与赞比亚的贸易主干线。还在几年以前，太特城充其量只能称得上是一个让心神疲劳的卡车司机落脚的到处灰尘、邋遢破旧的停车点。但是现在，由于巨额的外资涌入到莫桑比克那堪称世界上最大的未开发的煤田，太特城也快速地发展成了一个熙熙攘攘的繁荣城市，并自豪地拥有了三家银行、三家汽车租赁公司，六家豪华旅馆、一所国际性学校以及一个每天两次飞往马普托的新机场。

With emerging economies such as those of China and India crying out for more coal, the basin around Tete is expected to play a big part in developing Mozambique’s fledgling economy. After a 17-year civil war that destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure, logistics remain poor. But in February the long-defunct railway between Tete and the Mozambican port of Beira was reopened after its complete renovation; a few kilometres upstream from Tete, a new bridge is being built, which should relieve the town’s gridlocked Samora Machel bridge, named after the country’s first post-colonial president, of its heaviest traffic; and the Zambezi river provides a plentiful supply of cooling water for mining operations as well as a source of hydroelectric power.
随着诸如中国与印度的新兴经济体对煤的渴求大幅提高，太特城四周的煤田则预期将在发展莫桑比克初具规模的经济发挥很大的作用。国家在经历了长达17年的内战，摧毁了国内大部分基建设施之后，交通物流的状态让人担忧。但今年二月，从太特城通往贝拉的莫桑比克港的瘫痪已久的铁路，在整体翻新后再次得到通车运行；太特城上游的几公里处，一座桥梁新建完工，这样应该能缓解萨莫拉-马克尔大桥（这是以莫桑比克首任后殖民主义总统来命名的）繁重的交通堵塞的压力；而且，赞比西河为煤矿的开采工作提供了大量的冷却水，同样也为水力电气发电提供了源泉。

Indeed, Mozambique already has Africa’s most powerful hydroelectric plant, the state-owned HCB power-station on the Cahora Bassa dam at Songo, some 200km (124 miles) north-west of Tete. It can generate more than 2,000MW an hour, most of it exported straight to neighbouring South Africa, while all around Songo villages are still plunged into darkness at night, the glow of wood fires the only sign of human habitation. The Chinese, Mozambique’s second-biggest investors after South Africa, are considering building a second power-station some 70km downstream from the Cahora Bassa, and the two biggest mining houses in the region, Australia’s Riversdale and Brazil’s Vale, are planning to build their own plants near Tete.
的确，莫桑比克已经拥有了非洲大陆最具能量的水力电气工厂，即位于太特城西北面约200公里处松戈卡堡拉-巴萨大坝上的国有HCB发电站。这个发电站每小时能产生2000兆瓦的电能，大多数电能直接向外输出到了邻国南非，儿松戈村附近一带在夜间却仍是漆黑一片，四处散发的零星篝火才能让人知道还有人居住。中国作为南非之后的在莫桑比克第二大的投资人，正在考虑在卡堡拉-巴萨大坝下游70公里处建造一个该国第二大的发电站，而该地区两个最大的矿业公司——来自澳洲的Riversdale与来自巴西的Vale，也正在计划在太特城附近建造自己的发电站。

At the end of the civil war in 1992, Mozambique was arguably the world’s poorest country. Its transport, education and health systems were in ruins. Many Mozambicans with marketable skills had fled. But now its economy is one of the fastest-growing in the world. In the past 15 years it has swelled by an average of 8% a year, dipping slightly to 6% during last year’s global meltdown, with nearly 7% expected this year, well above the 4% the World Bank forecast for southern Africa as a whole.
1992年，莫桑比克内战进入尾声之时，该国被认为是世界上最贫穷的国家，但对此争议四起。该国的交通运输、教育以及医疗体系都濒临崩溃。许多有生意头脑的莫桑比克人都逃离了这个国家。但现在，莫桑比克的经济是世界上增长最快的国家之一。在过去的十五年里，其经济的年均增长率达到了8%，去年因为全球经济萧条的原因仅增长6%，今年则预计增长7%左右，这远远高于世界银行所预测的4%的南部非洲整体水平。

Mozambique’s government is democratically elected and stable, its macroeconomic policies sound, its press reasonably free. Often held up as one of the best examples of post-conflict recovery in Africa, it has become a donor darling. This year international aid will total some $1.6 billion, worth more than half the total state budget. Foreign investment is pouring in.
莫桑比克政府通过民主选举产生，而且稳定，政府实行的宏观经济政策切实可行，新闻媒体的自由度也合情合理。作为非洲冲突后复苏最佳典范之一，莫桑比克已经成为了一个捐款亲睐的宝贝。今年，国际援助款将总计达到16亿美元，这相当于莫桑比克国家预算的一半。外国投资也是源源不断地涌入。

But the country has a long way to go. In various international rankings, it is still among the world’s worst performers: 129th (out of 133 countries) in the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index; 172nd (out of 182) in the UN’s human-development index; and still in the bottom dozen in terms of GDP per head a year, at less than $1,000 in purchasing-power parity, according to the IMF. Despite a much-aired fall in the poverty rate from 69% in 1997 to 54% in 2003, the absolute number living below the poverty line rose to 11.7m in a population of around 20m. The latest national household survey, due out in August, is expected to show little improvement. Inequality has been growing.
但是莫桑比克仍有很漫长的路要走。在各种国际排名中，该国仍处在世界上表现最差的国家当中：在世界经济论坛的全球竞争力指数评比的133个国家中，它排名第129位；在联合国的人类发展指数评比的182个国家中，它排名第172位；在人均国民生产总值的评比中，它仍是处在倒数几位，至少根据国际货币基金组织的统计，莫桑比克的人均购买能力少于1000美元。尽管媒体大肆宣扬国家的贫穷率从1997年的69%下降到了2003年的54%，但生存于贫穷线之下的人民绝对数达到了1170万人，而国家总人口数仅2000万人。预计在今年八月公布的最新国民家庭调查，几乎不会有任何的进步。不平等问题也与日俱增。

Moreover, Mozambique, hitherto praised for its free and peaceful elections, has been dropped from the list of “electoral democracies” compiled by Freedom House, an America-based watchdog, because of alleged shenanigans surrounding October’s election, when President Armando Guebuza and his Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo) were returned with three-quarters of the vote. The ruling party’s power is pervasive. State patronage and corruption are growing. So, too, is organised crime, sometimes apparently with political backing. Last month Mohamed Bashir Suleman, a Frelimo party stalwart and one of the country’s most prominent businessmen, was placed on America’s official list of drug-traffickers.更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/
此外，迄今仍受自由和平的选举赞誉的莫桑比克，已经在由美国监察机构“自由之家”编撰的“民主选举国家”的清单中的排名出现下滑，因为在去年十月的总统大选中被指控非法操控选举，当时，莫桑比克总统阿曼多•格布扎与他领导的莫桑比克解放前线以四分之三的选票优势获取了胜利。统治党的权力无所不在。国家的官职委派与腐败不断滋生。组织性犯罪同样增多，有时候的犯罪还明显有着政治上的后备支持。上个月，莫哈曼德•巴希尔•苏雷曼被登上了美国官方的毒品走私犯名单中，而他却是莫桑比克解放前线的一位坚定地支持者，也是该国最具成就的商业领袖之一。

International donors, keen to point to Mozambique as a rare African aid success, have been getting worried. Earlier this year a group of 19 Western countries threatened a “donor strike” unless Mozambique cleaned up its act. Only after its government meekly agreed to implement the 35 reforms proposed by the so-called G19 did the aid start flowing again. Far from sounding resentful, however, Mozambique’s prime minister, Aires Aly, says the threatened strike was “in some ways good for us, because it made us realise that some issues in our programme needed review.” Without the aid, he knows his country would not be such a star performer.
将莫桑比克视为非洲援助成功典范的国际捐赠也一直忧虑重重。今年早些时候，由19个西方国家组成的集团威胁莫桑比克要实行“捐赠罢工”，除非该国能够理清一些非法行为。在莫桑比克政府颇为谦逊地答应将按照所谓的19国集团提议的35项改革进行实施之后，援助金才再次缓缓流入。然而，莫桑比克的总理大人艾雷斯•阿里并没有为此感到愤愤不平，他表示，威胁中的捐赠罢工实际上“从某种角度而言是为我们好，因为这让我们意识到我国制度中的一些问题需要得到仔细反思与解决。”总理大人心里非常清楚，如果得不得这些援助，莫桑比克在国际上的表现不会那么优秀。