TED演讲 全球经济的隐形推动力—寄钱回家(2)

 And in poorer countries, smaller countries, fragile countries,  在更穷，更小，或者正发生冲突的国家，

conflict-afflicted countries, remittances¹ are a lifeline, 移民汇款就如同救命稻草，

as in Somalia or in Haiti.  比如说在索马里或海蒂。

No wonder these flows have huge impacts on economies and on poor people.  难怪这些资金流会对经济和贫困人口带来巨大的影响。

Remittances, unlike private investment money,  不同于私人资助基金，

they don't flow back at the first sign of trouble in the country. 移民汇款不会在国家一出现问题的时候就回流。

They actually act like an insurance.  它们更像保险金。

When the family is in trouble,  当家人遇到麻烦，

facing hardship, facing hard times,  碰到问题，遇到困难的时候，

remittances increase, they act like an insurance.  它会增加，就像保险金一样，

Migrants send more money then.  移民们会寄更多的钱回去。

Unlike development aid money,  它们也不像发展资助基金，

that must go through official agencies,  那些必须经过正式的机构，

through governments, remittances directly reach the poor,reach the family,  通过政府。而移民汇款直接到达穷人手中，到达家人手中，

and often with business advice.  通常还附带着商业建议。

So in Nepal, the share of poor  在尼泊尔，

people was 42 percent in 1995,the share of poor people in the population.  1995年时穷人占人口总数的42%。

By 2005, a decade later, at a  十年之后，2005年时，

time of political crisis, economic crisis,  当时尼泊尔正遇上政治危机，经济危机，

the share of poor people went down to 31 percent.  可是穷人的比例却降到了31%。

That decline in poverty, most of it,  贫困人口的减少，大部分，

about half of it, is believed to be because of remittances from India,  大约一半，是依靠从印度，另一个穷国，

another poor country.  寄来的移民汇款。

In El Salvador, the school dropout² rate among children is lower in families that receive remittances. 在萨尔瓦多，儿童辍学率在接受移民汇款的家庭中就比较低。

In Mexico and Sri Lanka,  在墨西哥和斯里兰卡

the birth weight of children is higher  儿童的出生体重

among families that receive remittances.  在接受移民汇款的家庭中较高。

Remittances are dollars wrapped with care.  移民汇款是被爱包裹的钱财。

Migrants send money home for food,  移民们寄钱回去买食物，

for buying necessities, for building houses,  买必需品，建房子，

for funding education, for funding  用于教育，老年人的医疗，

healthcare for the elderly, for business investments for friends and family.  还有家人和朋友的商业投资。

Migrants send even more money home for special occasions like a surgery or a wedding. And migrants also send money, perhaps far too many times, 遇到特殊情况， 移民们还会寄更多的钱，比如手术或婚礼。也许更多的时候，遇上突如其来的葬礼，

for unexpected funerals that they cannot attend. 他们因为无法参加而寄钱回去。

Much as these flows do all that good,  虽然这些资金流动有这么多好处，

there are barriers to these  它们的流动却受到很多阻碍，

flows of remittances, these 400 billion dollars of remittances.  阻碍这四千亿美元的流动。

Foremost among them is the exorbitant³ cost of sending money home.  最大的障碍是寄钱回家的高额费用。

Money transfer companies structure their fees to milk the poor.  现金传递公司收费的方式就是在压榨穷人。

They will say, "Up to 500 dollars if you want to send, we will charge you 30 dollars fixed⁴." 他们会说，五百美元以下，我们固定收取30元的手续费。

If you are poor and if you have only 200 dollars to send,  如果你很穷，只能寄两百块钱，

you have to pay that $30 fee.  你也得交30元的手续费。

The global average cost of sending money is eight percent. 寄钱的全球平均花费是8%。

That means you send 100 dollars,  也就是说你寄100块钱，

the family on the other side receives only 92 dollars.  到了另一边你的家人只能收到92块。

To send money to Africa,the cost is even higher:12 percent.  寄钱到非洲的花费就更高：12%。

To send money within Africa,  在非洲内部寄钱，

the cost is even higher:  费用还要更高：

over 20 percent.  超过20%，

For example, sending money from Benin to Nigeria.  比如从贝宁寄钱到尼日利亚。

And then there is the case of Venezuela, where,  而在委内瑞拉，

because of exchange controls,  因为货币兑换受到控制，

you send 100 dollars and you are lucky if the family on the other side receives even 10 dollars. 如果你寄了100块钱，你的家人在另一边如果能拿到10块钱就不错了。

Of course, nobody sends money to Venezuela through the official channel.  当然了，没人通过正式渠道往委内瑞拉寄钱。

It all goes in suitcases.  都是装在行李箱里带。

Whereever costs are high,  收费高的地方，

money goes underground.  钱都从地下走了。

And what is worse,  更糟的是，

many developing countries actually have a blanket ban on sending money out of the country. 很多发展中国家实际上还全面禁止往国外寄钱。

Many rich nations also have a blanket ban on sending money to specific countries.  很多富裕国也全面禁止向某些国家寄钱。

So, is it that there are no options,  那是不是没有办法，

no better options, cheaper options, to send money?  更好，更便宜的办法寄钱了呢？

There are.  还是有的。

M-Pesa in Kenya enables people to send money and receive money at a fixed cost of only 60 cents per transaction.  通过肯尼亚的M-Pesa寄钱，手续费是固定的每笔60美分。

1 remittances   

n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额

参考例句：

• He sends regular remittances to his parents. 他定期汇款给他父母。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Remittances sometimes account for as much as 20% of GDP. 在这些国家中，此类汇款有时会占到GDP的20%之多。 来自互联网

2 dropout   

n.退学的学生；退学；退出者

参考例句：

• There is a high dropout rate from some college courses.有些大学课程的退出率很高。
• In the long haul,she'll regret having been a school dropout.她终归会后悔不该中途辍学。

3 exorbitant   

adj.过分的；过度的

参考例句：

• More competition should help to drive down exorbitant phone charges.更多的竞争有助于降低目前畸高的电话收费。
• The price of food here is exorbitant. 这儿的食物价格太高。

4 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。