经济学人:北欧掌控 一次斯堪的纳维亚狂潮

 　　The Nordics in charge

　　北欧掌控

　　A Scandinavian wave

　　一次斯堪的纳维亚狂潮

　　How the Nordics get so many senior international positions

　　北欧为何拥有众多较高的国际职位

　　WHEN it comes to international jobs, Scandinavia does well. Sweden, Denmark and Norway have only 20m people, yet their nationals often run global organisations. Jens Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, is taking over from a former Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as NATO's boss. Thorbjorn Jagland, another former Norwegian prime minister, has just won a second term at the Council of Europe. Now attention is on the current Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is a front-runner to succeed Belgium's Herman Van Rompuy as president of the European Council.

　　说到国际工作，斯堪的维纳亚（在地理上是指斯堪的纳维亚半岛，包括挪威和瑞典，文化与政治上则包含丹麦）表现算是个中翘楚。尽管瑞典、丹麦和挪威仅有2千万人口，他们的公民却掌舵者全球组织。挪威前首相 Jens Stoltenberg正接棒前丹麦首相Anders Fogh Rasmussen成为北约的领袖。另一位挪威的前首相Thorbjorn Jagland则刚刚于欧洲议会选举中赢得了第二任期。现今关注的是当前丹麦首相Helle Thorning-Schmidt能否继任比利时的 Herman Van Rompuy成为欧洲理事会主席。

　　北欧掌控.jpg

　　With the European Union's foreign-policy chief and the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, this job should be filled at an EU summit on July 16th, after the European Parliament confirms Luxembourg's Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president. Ms Thorning-Schmidt has disavowed any interest, saying she hopes to lead the Social Democrats¹ to another election win next year. But Mr Fogh Rasmussen played a similarly oblique² game in 2009, repeatedly denying any interest in NATO. Afterwards he claimed that “being a candidate” and “canvassing” were separate. Ms Thorning-Schmidt's real drawback is that Denmark is not in the euro. But as a woman from the centre-left, she balances Mr Juncker. She is also married to the son of Neil Kinnock, a former British Labour leader and European commissioner³.

　　有了欧盟的外交政策首脑和众欧洲集团财政部长领导的推动下，这件工作会在欧洲议会明确来自卢森堡的Jean-Claude Juncker接任欧洲理事会主席之后，于7月16日在欧盟峰会上宣布结果。Thorning-Schmidt显然已失去任何兴趣，她表示，她希望能够带领SD党赢得明年选举的胜利。但Fogh Rasmussen在2009年曾玩过类似的把戏，也曾一度声称对北欧不再关心。后来他表示“成为一名候选人”和“为自己拉票”这两者是相互独立的。对Thorning-Schmidt来说真正的劣势是丹麦并不属于欧元集团。但是作为一名中左派的女士，他与Juncker旗鼓相当。她也已经同前英国工党领袖和欧盟委员Neil Kinnock的儿子成婚。

　　Other politicians are less coy. Finland's former centre-right prime minister, Jyrki Katainen, has stepped down to seek a big international job. He is now interim⁴ economics commissioner (replacing another Finn, Olli Rehn), and he might stay on or take the Eurogroup job. Sweden's foreign minister (and another former prime minister), Carl Bildt, is a possibility for the foreign-policy post, though some find him too abrasive⁵.

　　其他的政治家就没那么扭捏作态。芬兰前中右派首相Jyrki Katainen已为一份优渥的国际工作而辞职。如今他是临时的经济专员（替代了另一位芬兰人Olli Rehn），而且她很可能留任或是接手欧元集团的工作。瑞典的外交部长（也是另一位前首相）Carl Bildt，很可能上任外交政策的职位，尽管有人发现他行事并不谨慎。

　　What gives the Nordics a head start? One answer is that they are unthreatening to big countries . Another is that a history of parliamentary compromise gives them the ability to cross ideological⁶ divides. It has been a long time since any Nordic country had a single-party majority government. Mr Katainen's 2011-14 cabinet was a six-party patchwork⁷. Yet there is a limit to how many Nordics the world can absorb. No matter how perfect they are, not all will win prizes.

　　到底是什么给予了北欧这样的优势？一种解释是他们对大国并无威胁。另一种是议会的妥协给了他们跨越意识上分裂的可能性。距北欧国家建立一个多党合作的政府到现在已经有很长时间了。2011-14年Katainen的内阁曾由六党组合而成。然而对于这个世界能接受多少北欧人还是存有一定限制。无论他们有多完美，也不可能人人获胜。

　　1.come to 苏醒；达到；来到

　　例句:There are thousands of students absolutely gagging to come to this university.

　　肯定有成千上万的学生都渴望到这所大学念书。

　　2.take over 夺取；接管；接收

　　例句:Prime candidate to take over his job is Margaret Ramsay.

　　接替他工作的首要人选是玛格丽特·拉姆齐。

　　3.hope to 希望能够

　　例句:I hope to God they are paying you well.

　　我真希望他们给你一份好的酬劳。

　　4.step down 辞职；下台

　　例句:The manager had to step down on account of poor health.

　　那位经理由于身体不好,只能辞职不干。

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 oblique   

adj.斜的，倾斜的，无诚意的，不坦率的

参考例句：

• He made oblique references to her lack of experience.他拐弯抹角地说她缺乏经验。
• She gave an oblique look to one side.她向旁边斜看了一眼。

3 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

4 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

5 abrasive   

adj.使表面磨损的；粗糙的；恼人的

参考例句：

• His abrasive manner has won him an unenviable notoriety.他生硬粗暴的态度让他声名狼藉。
• She had abrasions to her wrists where the abrasive rope had scraped her.她的手腕有多出磨伤，那是被粗糙的绳子擦伤的。

6 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

7 patchwork   

n.混杂物；拼缝物

参考例句：

• That proposal is nothing else other than a patchwork.那个建议只是一个大杂烩而已。
• She patched new cloth to the old coat,so It'seemed mere patchwork. 她把新布初到那件旧上衣上，所以那件衣服看上去就象拼凑起来的东西。