2019年经济学人 斯里兰卡连环爆炸袭击(1)

 

Leaders

《社论》

Sri Lanka

斯里兰卡

Easter evil

复活节恶魔

The bombers¹ wanted to provoke a clash of civilisations. Don’t fall into their trap

炸弹袭击者想挑起一场文明冲突，不要落入圈套。

A few months ago National Thowheed Jamath (NTJ), an Islamist group from Sri Lanka, was known for little more than defacing statues of the Buddha². On April 21st nine of its members walked into churches and luxury hotels on the island and blew themselves up, killing³ more than 350 people. Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the deadliest set of terrorist attacks in Asia in modern times. 

几个月前，斯里兰卡的伊斯兰极端组织NTJ以毁坏佛像而闻名。4月21日，9名 NTJ 成员走进岛上的教堂和豪华酒店，引爆了自己，造成350多人死亡。伊斯兰国宣称现代亚洲最致命的一系列恐怖袭击事件都与其有关。

How could this happen? Start with Sri Lanka’s bungling⁴. The world has learned a great deal about how to thwart⁵ terrorists since September 11th 2001. A crucial lesson is that it is vital to share information quickly and widely, so that fragmentary intelligence can be pieced together and followed up. This is precisely⁶ what Sri Lanka’s government failed to do, despite receiving unusually detailed⁷ warnings. Part of the reason for that appears to be shameless politicking⁸. The island’s president, Maithripala Sirisena, has been at loggerheads with the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, since the former tried to sack the latter in October. Mr Wickremesinghe has been excluded from meetings of the national security council since then.

这种事是怎么发生的？要从斯里兰卡的混乱说起。自2001年911事件之后，世界在如何挫败恐怖分子方面就已经学到了很多。快速广泛地共享信息至关重要，这样就能将零碎的情报拼凑起来，跟踪追查，这是一个重要的经验教训。而斯里兰卡政府尽管收到了异样的情报警告，却并未做到这一点。部分原因似乎在于无耻的政治活动。因为去年10月，斯里兰卡总统迈特里帕拉·西里塞纳试图解雇总理拉尼尔·维克勒马辛哈，所以两人一直不和。西里塞纳从那时起就被排除在国家安全委员会的会议之外。

A second explanation is that, although Sri Lanka has no history of jihadist terrorism, nor even of much tension between Muslims and Christians⁹, it sits in an ocean of bubbling extremism. In recent decades in South Asia, intolerant strands¹⁰ of Islam have edged out the broad-minded forms that used to predominate. That has created fertile ground for jihadists. The Maldives, just a short flight from Sri Lanka, sent more recruits to is in Iraq and Syria as a proportion of its population than any other country. Bangladesh, across the Bay of Bengal, has suffered a wave of Islamist attacks on secular¹¹ activists¹² and minorities in the past six years. Sri Lanka’s suicide-bombers reportedly contacted is veterans from both those countries. International jihadists have also cropped up across the Palk Strait in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which is bound to northern Sri Lanka by ethnic¹³ kinship. It was an is suspect arrested there who is said to have yielded some of the intelligence passed to Sri Lanka’s government (which was then ignored).

第二种解释是，尽管斯里兰卡没有圣战恐怖主义的历史，甚至穆斯林和基督徒之间也没有多少紧张关系，但它却处于极端主义的海洋之中。近几十年来，南亚一些不宽容的伊斯兰派别排挤了过去占主导地位且包容的宗教形式。这为圣战分子提供了沃土。马尔代夫距离斯里兰卡只有很短的飞行距离，它向伊拉克和叙利亚伊斯兰国派遣的新成员占该国人口的比例超过了其他任何国家。孟加拉湾对岸的孟加拉国，在过去6年里遭受了一波针对世俗活动人士和少数民族的伊斯兰主义袭击。据报道，斯里兰卡的自杀式炸弹袭击者和来自这两个国家的退伍军人有关。国际圣战者也在印度泰米尔纳德邦的帕尔克海峡出现。在那里一名伊斯兰国嫌疑人被捕，据说他传递给斯里兰卡政府一些情报(后被忽视)。

1 bombers   

n.轰炸机( bomber的名词复数 )；投弹手；安非他明胶囊；大麻叶香烟

参考例句：

• Enemy bombers carried out a blitz on the city. 敌军轰炸机对这座城市进行了突袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Royal Airforce sill remained dangerously short of bombers. 英国皇家空军仍未脱离极为缺乏轰炸机的危境。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 Buddha   

n.佛；佛像；佛陀

参考例句：

• Several women knelt down before the statue of Buddha and prayed.几个妇女跪在佛像前祈祷。
• He has kept the figure of Buddha for luck.为了图吉利他一直保存着这尊佛像。

3 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

4 bungling   

adj.笨拙的，粗劣的v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的现在分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成

参考例句：

• You can't do a thing without bungling it. 你做事总是笨手笨脚。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• 'Enough, too,' retorted George. 'We'll all swing and sundry for your bungling.' “还不够吗？”乔治反问道，“就因为你乱指挥，我们都得荡秋千，被日头晒干。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛

5 thwart   

v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的)

参考例句：

• We must thwart his malevolent schemes.我们决不能让他的恶毒阴谋得逞。
• I don't think that will thwart our purposes.我认为那不会使我们的目的受到挫折。

6 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

7 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

8 politicking   

n.政治活动，竞选活动v.从政( politic的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• A lot of politicking preceded the choice of the new director. 在选新领导人之前进行了大量的拉拢活动。 来自辞典例句
• This colleague is always politicking. 这位同僚总是忙于政治活动。 来自互联网

9 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

10 strands   

n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Twist a length of rope from strands of hemp. 用几股麻搓成了一段绳子。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She laced strands into a braid. 她把几股线编织成一根穗带。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 secular   

n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的

参考例句：

• We live in an increasingly secular society.我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。
• Britain is a plural society in which the secular predominates.英国是个世俗主导的多元社会。

12 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。