2005年NPR美国国家公共电台七月-One Man Against AIDS in China

This is All Things Considered from NPR news. I'm Michelle Noris. And I am Robert Seagull, and we are going to continue now with our series on the growing sense of individualism in China. The series is called "A Nation of Individuals". After decades of Communist rule, the Chinese people are beginning to strike out on their own, often for the first time. Today, NPR's Rob Gifford has the story of Li Dan, a young idealist who has devoted¹ his life to helping² people with HIV/AIDS.

It's 8 o'clock on a hot summer morning, and 27-year-old Li Dan is standing³ outside the You An Infectious Diseases Hospital in southern Beijing. With him are three children, aged⁴ between 7 and 9 from Henan Province, south of the capital.
Li is briefing the father of one of the children about the test they are all about to undergo.
Inside the hospital, 9-year-old Ji Haibo stretches out his arm for a blood test watched by his father and by Li Dan himself.
The boy was recently told he had contracted HIV from an infected flood transfusion⁵. The only reason he is here is because Li Dan knows how to get treatment for him and will help him pay, otherwise he'll be sitting in his poor village back in Henan waiting to die. Outside， the boy's father Ji Jianguo can't stop thanking Li Dan.
"We are so grateful to Li Dan. We didn't get any help from the local government. All these costs are being paid for by Li Dan himself."

The rise of China on the world stage is coinciding with the emergence⁶ within China of a new type of citizen. Whether these citizens succeed in building the society they want to will be crucial in shaping what kind of country China becomes. Chinese society is at the turning point after more than 25 years of economic reform. The party has retreated from people's everyday lives, but has also left funding of many basic services such as health care and education to market forces. Many poorer members of society are falling through the cracks. Into this space have stepped a small group of new idealists, activists⁸ who don't want to just follow the money-grabbing way as the GOGO 1990s. Li Dan exemplifies this group.

"I first became aware of AIDS when I saw the Tom Hanks movie Philadelphia in 1998. I realized there was a group of people being ostracized⁹ by society because of this disease. It was pure youthful idealism on my part. I just wanted to do something to help them."

Much to the horror of his parents, Li gave up his graduate studies in solar physics at a good university in Beijing, and threw himself into full time voluntary work, publicizing the AIDS problem. Li has become skilled at using the foreign and increasingly the local media, which can now report some sensitive issues such as AIDS. He can often be seen sitting in a downtown Mc Donald's briefing reporters on the latest news. When he first began he says his activism went quite smoothly¹⁰, then he heard about the AIDS villages of Henan Province south of Beijing, whole villages of people infected with HIV through the unhygienic practices of government-run blood collection centres. That is where the boy Ji Haibo, whom Li Dan has brought to Beijing, became infected. Incensed¹¹ by how the Henan government was trying to cover up its complexity¹², Li set about trying to help the children orphaned¹³ by AIDS.

"Many officials in Henan thought we had a political agenda, but we didn't. We were just trying to help the AIDS orphans¹⁴."

Even so he and his small group of fellow volunteers have been detained several times and beaten by local police. Li Dan has now officially set up an NGO called rather euphemistically "The All-kid Culture Communication Centre", to try to help the AIDS orphans. He says you still can't use the word "AIDS" in the name of an organization. Big problem, he says, is the complete lack of any concept of civil society in modern China, that space between the individual and the government that has long been filled in the West by religious or civic¹⁵ organizations.

"What China needs most of all is civil society. Since 1949, there has been none at all. The government tries to keep all the good works on its own hands but then doesn't do anything. It's very difficult because there is no precedent¹⁶, no one to teach us how to do it, so we are just feeling our way tentatively."

Li says there are more organizations like his in China set up by persistent¹⁷ individuals like himself doing more and more good works. And he says they've carved out a limited space in which to work independently and they've started influencing the government. Beijing has within the last year dramatically changed its AIDS policy, admitted its problem and set up ways to deal with it. Many experts credit activists like Li Dan for raising official awareness¹⁸. But he says the government still doesn't want too many people like him doing this kind of work.

The next day Li is talking to a group of students at a university in central Beijing. They've gathered to hear him giving a lecture about AIDS. Just five years ago, three years even, such a public lecture would have been unthinkable.

It's not often that these 20-year-old students hear people speaking on the subject of oral and anal sex, but here he is, a skinny activist⁷, only 27 himself, describing all the details of how AIDS can and can not be transmitted. Afterwards back in McDonald's he gets into a long discussion with his friends about where China is going.

I am not optimistic about the future, of course as a Chinese person I want China to be strong. But Americans only see the flourishing cities, and I think they misunderstand. The cities are a tiny part of what's going on in China, and they are not representative at all."

Asked about the future of NGOs he is even less optimistic. For civil society to flourish, he says, you really need a lot of people to stand up and take part, and demand power from the government in a peaceful way as Mahatma Gandy did. There are some people doing it, he says, like me, but it's simply not happening on mass scale yet. Chinese people he says because of their education are used to being told what to do but not used to getting up and starting things himself.
Rob Gifford NPR news, Beijing

AIDS and HIV researchers and health care providers from around the world are meeting in Rio De Janeiro right now. Among the topics of discussion: how HIV is spreading along the route that heroin¹⁹ travels from Afghanistan to Eastern Europe.

Christ B of Johns Hopkins said at the conference that infections are rising in countries like Belarus, Iran, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Cheap heroin is easier to come by in those countries since the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Heroin is often injected and IV-drug users who share dirty needles can spread HIV. Doctor B said that it is a relatively²⁰ recent epidemic²¹ but it's fast growing. He said drug treatment and HIV prevention must be implemented²² now everywhere that heroin is flowing.

 

 

1 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

4 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

5 transfusion   

n.输血，输液

参考例句：

• She soon came to her senses after a blood transfusion.输血后不久她就苏醒了。
• The doctor kept him alive by a blood transfusion.医生靠输血使他仍然活着。

6 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

7 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

8 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》

9 ostracized   

v.放逐( ostracize的过去式和过去分词 )；流放；摈弃；排斥

参考例句：

• He was ostracized by his colleagues for refusing to support the strike. 他因拒绝支持罢工而受到同事的排斥。
• The family were ostracized by the neighborhood. 邻居们都不理睬那一家人。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 smoothly   

adv.平滑地，顺利地，流利地，流畅地

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• Just change one or two words and the sentence will read smoothly.这句话只要动一两个字就顺了。

11 incensed   

盛怒的

参考例句：

• The decision incensed the workforce. 这个决定激怒了劳工大众。
• They were incensed at the decision. 他们被这个决定激怒了。

12 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

13 orphaned   

[计][修]孤立

参考例句：

• Orphaned children were consigned to institutions. 孤儿都打发到了福利院。
• He was orphaned at an early age. 他幼年时便成了孤儿。

14 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。

15 civic   

adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的

参考例句：

• I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
• The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。

16 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

17 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

18 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

19 heroin   

n.海洛因

参考例句：

• Customs have made their biggest ever seizure of heroin.海关查获了有史以来最大的一批海洛因。
• Heroin has been smuggled out by sea.海洛因已从海上偷运出境。

20 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

21 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

22 implemented   

v.实现( implement的过去式和过去分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• This agreement, if not implemented, is a mere scrap of paper. 这个协定如不执行只不过是一纸空文。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The economy is in danger of collapse unless far-reaching reforms are implemented. 如果不实施影响深远的改革，经济就面临崩溃的危险。 来自辞典例句