愤怒的穷人（双语）

A policeman shoots teargas grenades at protesters in Maputo, Mozambique.
一名警察在莫桑比克首都马普托向群众发射催泪弹

FOLLOWING recent riots in Maputo, the capital, and in other cities in Mozambique that have left at least a dozen dead and more than 400 injured, the government has called off a 30% increase in the price of bread. Police said they had to resort to live ammunition against protesters after running out of rubber bullets. The government has apologised, saying it had never authorised the use of lethal force.
最近，莫桑比克首都马普托以及其它一些城市出现了暴乱，致使至少十二人死亡，四百多人受伤。暴乱之后，莫桑比克政府制止了面包价格30%的上涨。该国警方表示，他们在用完橡胶子弹后不得不又拿起真枪实弹来打击抗议者。该国政府发布了致歉书，表示政府从来授权使用致命的武器来针对民众。

Shops and banks were looted, cars stoned and roads barricaded with rocks and burning tyres during three days of alcohol-fuelled rioting that paralysed the capital and shut down the main airport. Nearly 300 demonstrators were arrested, including nine accused of “incitement” for sending out mobile-phone text-messages urging people to join the protests against rising utility, transport and food prices.
用酒精做燃料的三天暴乱让首都陷入瘫痪，主要的机场被迫关闭，商店与银行被洗劫，汽车遭受石头打击，道路上到处堆满着石头当路障。近三百位游行示威者遭到逮捕，其中有九人因发送手机短信叫人加入反抗公共服务、交通与食品价格上涨而被指控有“煽动”行为。

Despite getting billions of dollars in international aid since the end of its civil war in 1992 and having one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, Mozambique remains grindingly poor and unequal. Most of its 20m people live on less than $1.25 a day, the UN’s measure of “extreme poverty”. There is almost no state welfare. The smallest rise in the cost of living can become a question of life and death.
1992年底。莫桑比克获得国家独立，并一度成为全世界发展最快的经济体之一，但尽管自独立后获得过数十亿的国际援助资金，但该国仍处于极度贫穷中，贫富差距极为严重。该国两万千人中大多数人的每日开销还不到1.25美元，这是联合国衡量“极度贫穷”的标准。此外，该国基本上没有任何社会福利。生活成本最小程度的上升都将关乎于生与死。

The government has blamed the rise in the cost of bread on soaring global wheat prices. But that is not the main factor. It has more to do with a sharp fall in the metical, Mozambique’s currency, coupled with this year’s poor harvest in the country’s south, due to drought. Despite vast swathes of potential farmland, only a small proportion is developed, so the country relies on imported food, mostly from its rich neighbour, South Africa. In the past 12 months the metical has dived against the rand.
莫桑比克政府将面包的价格上涨归因于全球飙升的小麦价格。但那不是主要的原因。更有影响的因素是莫桑比克货币梅蒂卡尔近期出现急剧的贬值，同样也由于干旱而导致国家南部地区的收成不够理想。莫桑比克拥有广大的潜在农田，但仅有一小部分得到开垦，这样便致使国家需要依赖于食品进口，主要向其富裕的邻国南非进口。在过去的十二个月中，梅蒂卡尔兑换兰特（南非货币）出现持续贬值。

In February 2008 similar deadly protests in Mozambique were part of a worldwide wave of angry protests against soaring food prices. But they were also against a sharp increase in minibus-taxi fares, the main form of transport for poor people throughout Africa.
2008年2月，莫桑比克爆发了同样极端的抗议活动，当时全球食品价格飙涨导致了全球性的愤怒抗议，莫桑比克只是其中的一份子。但他们同样抗议国内小巴士出租车（非洲穷人主要的交通方式）费用的高涨。

Police officers arrest protesters during a rally in the neighbourhood of Benfica, in the suburbs of Maputo
警官们在马普托市郊的本菲卡居民区的一次集会中逮捕抗议者们更多信息请访问：http://www.24en.com/

This time in Mozambique other factors are also again at play. The government is phasing out a fuel subsidy, which is pushing up transport costs, and is sharply upping electricity and water prices. It has now announced an “action plan” to cancel the rise in utility tariffs for the poorest, to reduce the prices of rice and sugar, and to drop the 30% rise in bread prices forthwith. However, to show it is not irresponsibly spending its way out of trouble, it has also promised to freeze the salaries of politicians and senior civil servants. Most international donors say they like the government’s rapid but sober response.
莫桑比克此次的抗议活动也是其它因素的作用结果。该国政府逐渐取消了燃油津贴，这样就提高了民众的交通费用，并且还急剧调高电费与水费。目前，政府已经宣布了一项“行动计划”以取消最贫穷的人所需缴纳的公共事业税款，以减少大米与糖的价格，以及立即降低30%的面包价格。然而，公布这些计划并无法让政府从麻烦中摆脱责任，政府同样承诺将削减政府官员以及高级公务员的薪资。多数国际捐助机构表示，他们对政府如此快速但冷静的反应感到满意。

The latest measures will remain in force only until the end of the year. By then the government hopes to have a longer-term plan for economic and social stability. But it will need clever juggling to appease Mozambique’s poor and angry majority as well as foreign aid-givers and investors.
最新的措施还将继续执行直至今年年底。到那时，政府希望能为经济与社会稳定制定出一项长期计划。但要安抚莫桑比克的穷人与愤怒的多数群众以及外国援助者与投资者，该国还是需要采取一些巧妙的手段才行。