VOA常速英语2015--信任危机加重埃博拉疫情

信任危机加重埃博拉疫情

As health officials in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone struggle to eliminate the final cases of Ebola, a new report said some hard lessons have been learned. The group International Alert says a lack of trust between the Liberian people and their government made the outbreak worse.

就在利比里亚，几内亚以及塞拉利昂的医疗官员努力解除埃博拉疫情之时，一项新的报告指出，我们吸取了惨痛教训。非政府组织“国际警报”称，利比里亚政府与民众之间的不信任为此次埃博拉疫情雪上加霜。

The report’s author, Ashoka Mukpo, said that “many people mistrust official institutions and even feel threatened by them.

这份报告的记者阿诗卡·穆库称，许多民众不相信政府机构，甚至感觉他们是一种威胁。

Mukpo, an American, is an Ebola survivor 1 himself. He contracted the disease last year in Monrovia.

穆库是一位美国人，同时他也是埃博拉病毒的受害者。去年，他在蒙罗维亚感染了埃博拉。

It was a bad couple of weeks. I was very, very sick. I’ve never been that sick in my life and I was quite scared.

对于我来说，那几周真是非常痛苦。我病得非常重。我从来没有病得如此厉害过，我真是有点害怕。

After being treated for five days in Liberia, he was airlifted to a medical facility in the U.S. state of Nebraska.

在利比里亚接受5天治疗后，他被飞机运往了内布拉斯加州的医疗中心。

The International Alert report is entitled Surviving Ebola: Public Perceptions of Governance and the Outbreak Response in Liberia.

“国际警报”组织将这份报告命名为“埃博拉：民众对政府的态度，以及利比里亚对疾病暴发的应对。

International Alert is an organization that looks at underlying 2 dynamics 3 to maintain peace in fragile states. And one of the things we’re really curious about with the Ebola outbreak in Liberia is how much did people’s perceptions toward government contribute to the outbreak? And what we found when we talked to people is that there were very high levels of mistrust and suspicion towards the government’s motives 4. And this was really what underpinned 5 people’s initial refusal to take their warning seriously about how deadly Ebola was,

“国际警报”是一个透过本质来促进不发达国家和平的组织。而对于埃博拉疫情在利比里亚的暴发，有多少是因为民众对政府的态度而导致疾病暴发的？这是我们最好奇的问题之一。我们在与民众交谈时，发现民众对政府相当不信任，并怀疑政府动机。当政府对埃博拉疫情向民众发出警告时，这样的不轻信也造成了民众起初对警告的忽视。

The mistrust, he said, stemmed from history and unfulfilled expectations.

他称，这样的不信任有历史的原因，也有许多是因为未完成的期许所产生的失望感。

On one hand, Liberia has quite a history of tension between citizens and government. It had a civil war about 15 years ago. But I think right now what people felt is that there is this tremendous sense of hope. That with President Johnson Sirleaf’s election this would mean development and accountability for corruption 6 and these kinds of things. And the results actually have been quite disappointing. So, people are savvy 7 enough to see that what they were hoping would happen hasn’t actually happened.

从一方面来讲，利比里亚政府与民众的紧张感由来已久。15年前，利比里亚发生了内战。然而，我认为如今的民众拥有的是更多的希望。约翰逊·瑟利夫的上台就意味着发展，意味着打击腐败。然而，结果却令人非常失望。所以，民众所期望的事情终究不会发生。

Mukpo said Liberians had expected more from the healthcare system when the Ebola outbreak took hold.

穆库称，就在利比里亚受埃博拉侵扰时，民众所期望的要多于对医疗制度的期许。

People felt like so many millions of dollars have gone into aid and development over the past 10 years. With the health sector 8 that completely collapsed 9 so quickly, there was this perception that, well, there must have been some kind of corruption – that people were taking money and not putting it into places it was supposed to go. So, fair or not, if you look at the record of this government in battling corruption, it’s been so poor that even if there were much bigger issues, you know, with how hard it is to fight an Ebola outbreak people’s perceptions automatically went to corruption.

在过去十年间，政府将数百万美金投放在了救助与发展项目。随着医疗部门的迅速垮台，人们感到这一定是腐败在作祟，官员收取金钱，而不是将资金投在应该落实的项目上。不管公正不公正，如果你看一看政府打击腐败的数据，你就会发现我们还有许多尚未解决的大问题，通过政府打击埃博拉，民众会自然而然将问题对准腐败。

He said, however, perceptions were not the same for the international community.

然而他认为，民众对国际社会的观点却截然不同。

You know, actually, I was really surprised by this. As someone who lived in Liberia for a few years I really expected that the levels of trust in the international community would have been equally as low as the government. Because, you know, I’ve heard people say, well, these are the folks who support this government [in] the way that they act. But actually the levels of trust that were given to the international community were much higher than the government. In fact, most of the remarks in most of the reports on the international community’s performance during Ebola, and just, in general, its concern for Liberians, was very high.

你知道，我对此感到非常惊讶。对于住在利比里亚多年的我来说，我非常希望民众对国际社会的信任程度能够和政府一样低。因为，我曾听人们说到，是国际社会支持了政府的行径。然而实际上，民众对国际社会的信任程度比政府要高很多。事实上，许多关于国际社会在处理埃博拉疫情时所发表的言论都表示了对利比里亚民众的担心。

He said that “one of the critical and under reported narratives” of Liberia’s Ebola crisis involved community leaders.

他称，许多关于利比里亚埃博拉危机的报道都不切实际，而这些报道与许多他国领导人有关。

Initially 10, there was this really authoritative 11 effort to quarantine communities and force them to do things differently. And it kind of didn’t work. And what really worked is once you sat down with communities – and once the government actually got to community leaders and said, look, what can we do to assist you in fighting this outbreak? What do you need from us and what can you do to help? Then once that kind of collaborative effort started, then that’s really when you started to see cases reduce.

起初，人们对国际社会使用了行政命令，并敦促他们各司其职。但是这并不奏效。真正有用的是双方坐下来，谈一谈，当政府与国际社会领导人真正坐下来，我们能为疫情做些什么？你们需要我们干什么，我们能帮助你干什么？一旦合作开始，我们才能真正看到疫情的缓解。

Mukpo said community trust played a major role in the safe burial of Ebola victims. Touching 12 and washing dead bodies helped spread the disease, despite government warnings against the traditional practice.

穆库称在妥善，安全处理埃博拉病人的尸体方面，国际社会起到了至关重要的作用。尽管政府对传统的埋葬方式发出了警告，抚摸和清洗仍然传播了病菌。

Really, when you’ve got community volunteers involved, these are the people whose neighbors doing these secret burials，whose neighbors were hiding the sick. So, it’s much easier to hide somebody from an official who doesn’t live in your neighborhood than from someone who grew up 30 yards away. They come and knock on your door and say, you know, look, I hear your sister is sick. We need to take her to the clinic. And I really think that was the tipping point that once it was people that folks trusted and that knew had their best interests in mind, that that’s really when people started to be more cooperative and change their behavior.

当社区志愿者加入时，是志愿者的邻里帮助进行秘密葬礼，是他们将病患藏了起来。所以，将住户隐藏起来要比将住在30码以外的人隐藏起来要简单的多。他们会来敲你家的们，说我听说你妹妹病了。我们需要将她带到诊室。我真的认为这一时刻来临了，人们互相信任，并开始互帮互助，逐渐改变了自己行为。

The International Alert report said, “Post-Ebola policy-making and aid delivery must take into account the need to repair the bonds between Liberians and their government, in order to strengthen good governance and accountability.It added that projects that seek to strengthen health services, promote good governance and rebuild service delivery must incorporate civil society and communities into planning and decision-making.

“国际警报”称，“后埃博拉政策以及救助工作需要将改善利比里亚人民与政府的关系囊括在内，这样做可以改善政府的领导，增强政府的责任感。还称在改善医疗服务，增强政府管理，重塑服务系统等策略和决策制定上，都必须和民间社会结合在一起。

It also recommended that security forces exercise restraint during demonstrations 13 and protests, that anti-corruption agencies be strengthened, and that the Liberian government support a free press and civil society.

报告还建议称，安全部门需要对游行和抗议进行限制，加强反贪部门的工作，利比里亚政府需要支持言论自由，以及民间社会。