| The momentum is building ahead of next month's G8 summit in Scotland where the leaders of the world's richest nations will debate what they can do to help some of the world's poorest. 下个月在苏格兰举行的八国峰会上，世界上最富有的几个国家的领导人将会讨论他们要做些什么来帮助世界上最穷的国家。 Africa is the priority and the politicians will discuss reducing the debt burden, ending trade regulations which put the continent's economy at a disadvantage, and giving more aid. Mark Doyle, who's reported from Africa for many years, looks at why aid is necessary, and why much of what's been donated in the past has not worked. 非洲是他们帮助的主要对象。政治家们将讨论减少非洲的债务负担，结束那些束缚非洲经济发展的贸易规则，而且要给予非洲更多的援助。马克·多伊勒是一位在非洲工作了多年的记者。他将会探讨为什么一定要给非洲援助，以及为什么以前给予非洲的大部分援助都没有起到作用。 All around the edge of Africa -- along the coastline, near the continents' ports -- are monuments to exploitation. On the island of Goree, for example, just off the coast of Senegal, there's the Slave House. 在非洲边缘的一些地方，沿着海岸线上，大陆港口附近矗立着很多关于剥削的纪念碑。比如离塞内加尔海岸线不远处的戈雷就有一个奴隶交易所。 This was the last place many Africans saw before being shipped off to a lifetime of slavery in the Americas or, just as often, to death on the high seas. 这是很多非洲人被运出非洲之前所能看到的最后一个场景。他们很可能一辈子做奴隶，而且经常会在途中死在茫茫的大海里。 There are many more places like this dating from the three hundred and fifty years or so of the African slave trade. When people wonder why Africa is so poor, they need look no further for the start of an explanation. 还有很多这样的地方，他们可以追溯到大约350年前的非洲奴隶交易。当人们问到非洲为什么会这样穷时，他们不需要听其他的解释。 The end of the slavery was followed by a century of colonialism. Some people argue that colonialism brought limited development -- railways and schools and so on -- the system was principally designed to turn Africa into a vast plantation and mining site for the profit of outsiders. 奴隶制度结束以后，非洲又经历了殖民统治。有些人争辩说，殖民主义还是给非洲带来了非常少量的发展的——比如铁路，学校等等，其实这些主要都是为了让非洲成为一个巨大的种植园和矿区，来满足外人的利益要求。 Of course, some Africans gained from this period. Chiefs who sold their enemies to the European or Arab slavers, for example, and coastal people who creamed a little off the colonial trade which flowed through their land. 当然，也有些非洲人则是在这段时间赚了一笔。比如贩卖奴隶到欧洲的人，阿拉伯奴隶贩子，还有那些从盛行的殖民经济中受益的沿海居民。 But on the whole, for almost half a millennium, the general rule was systematic exploitation. 但是总体来说，五百多年来不变的规则就是剥削。 This must, surely, be the basic reason why Africa is poor. You could add that the climate is punishing, that tropical diseases are rife, and that today's independent African rulers are far from perfect. 这肯定是非洲穷困的根本原因。你可能会说，非洲的气候太恶劣，热带疾病猖獗，或者说现在的非洲统治者还远不完美。 All true. But these factors, powerful in recent decades, seem marginal when set against to the pattern that was set for centuries. 这些都不错，但是这些原因同几百年来的奴隶问题比起来，都是微不足道的。 The solution, or, at least, the project SOLD as the solution to, has been "aid". Emergency aid, development aid, agricultural aid, economic advice. Billions of dollars worth of it. The problem with this solution is that, patently, it hasn't worked. 解决方案，至少可以说是计划中所被称作的那个解决方案，就是援助。紧急援助，发展援助，农业援助，经济咨询等价值几十亿美元的援助。这个解决办法的问题就是，很明显，不起作用。 On the whole, Africa has got poorer. 总体上讲，非洲是越来越穷了。 |
