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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
JUDY WOODRUFF: We take a closer look now at the world's surging refugee problem, which the United Nations point person on the issue calls a mega-crisis.
MARGARET WARNER: For nearly a decade, Antonio Guterres has overseen2 the U.N. High Commission for Refugees' far-flung operations around the world. Recently, his agency issued a staggering new report. There are now more than 51 million people worldwide who are refugees or displaced in their own lands, more than any time since World War II.
The conflict in Syria, and now in Iraq, makes up more a quarter of that toll4, as millions seek refuge in neighboring Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Northern Iraq. Guterres is in Washington this week to spread the alarm.
I spoke with him today at the UNHCR's Washington office.
High Commissioner5 Guterres, thank you for having us.
You have been at this job for nine years. Is this worst you have ever seen in terms of displacement6?
ANTONIO GUTERRES, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Undoubtedly7. And I think things will get worse, before eventually they will start to get better.
We are seeing a multiplication8 of new crises, a mega-crisis in Syria, old crises that go on and on and on, and all this reflects the lack of capacity of the international community to prevent conflicts and to timely solve them.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, many respected research institutions and even President Obama said recently, if you look back over the decades, there are actually fewer armed conflicts in the world than there used to be and fewer people killed in armed conflicts. If that's the case, why are we seeing more displaced people?
ANTONIO GUTERRES: We are witnessing different forms of fighting.
In the past, we had wars between two states or between a state and a rebel group. Now we have conflicts with a multiplicity of actors, national forces, international forces, ethnic9 militias11, religious militias, rebel groups, bandits. Banditism has been benefiting from this chaos12.
Sometimes, is a bandit in the morning and member of a militia10 in the afternoon, which means that the impact on civilian13 populations is much larger than the impact of classical conflicts of the past.
MARGARET WARNER: And they're also less controllable by political leaders then.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: Well, I think political leaders have this impression that they can trigger a conflict, because, as the international community today, we live in a world without a global governance system. But we also live in a world where power relations became unclear.
So political leaders feel that there is an environment of impunity14. And there is also an environment of unpredictability. And they think that they can trigger a war and go on with that war. Let's see what's happening in South Sudan. And then the humanitarians16 will come and clean the mess.
The truth is that we no longer have the capacity to clean up the mess.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, when you say the humanitarian15 structure can't deal with it, are you talking about both your own agency and NGO's and all these neighboring countries that all are involved in this?
ANTONIO GUTERRES: Look at Lebanon. One-third of the Lebanese population now is foreigner, Syrian refugees, Palestinian refugees. Can you imagine the impact on the economy, on the society, schools, hospitals, infrastructure17, water, electricity?
Lebanese poor people competing for jobs with Syrians, and they're ready to work for whatever price. So salaries are going down, prices and rents going up, a huge impact. The same in Jordan, the same in the northern part of Iraq. There is no way the international community is supporting these countries as they need.
MARGARET WARNER: Let's talk about Syria and Iraq. Winter is approaching — in fact, winter is here in some parts in — in the higher elevations18. Your agency has said you're $58 million shortfall I think just to get through this — the end of this year.
What are you going to do? I mean, how are you going to choose who to help? You can't help everyone.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: Well, we are moving money as much as we can from all kinds of savings19 everywhere to be able to increase our capacity locally.
We are asking other partners to enhance their efforts. But, indeed, it's an enormously challenging situation. People think that, in the Middle East, it's warm, but it's not. In winter, some of these areas are very cold. They have negative temperatures, snow, floods. And people can suffer tremendously, because many of them have very precarious20 shelter.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: We are trying to avoid it at all costs.
Last year, it was possible outside Syria, for the refugees outside Syria to avoid any casualty due to cold temperatures or bad weather. Inside Syria, unfortunately, the capacity to deliver is much more limited, even for security reasons.
I hope we will be able to do the same this year, but now we have an additional problem in Iraq. And, as you know, most of the refugees are in Kurdistan. And in Kurdistan, you have also very, very low temperatures and a very harsh winter.
MARGARET WARNER: Now, what is the impact of all of this, both on the refugees themselves and the wider world, if these funding needs aren't addressed, for starters?
ANTONIO GUTERRES: Well, first of all, that means an enormous amount of suffering for the people.
But there is another dimension. I believe what we do is important for humanitarian reasons, but we are dealing22 with a world in which these crises are not only humanitarian crises. They are also threats to regional peace and stability. You have fighters from all over the world in the region. One day, they will go back. And we can imagine the risks that correspond to that.
So, to support these populations and to support the local communities to avoid that people feel abandoned, frustrated23, angry is absolutely essential also to help stabilize24 the area and to help avoid what could be the creation of an environment that would facilitate the life of those radical25 groups. And so that is why it's so important to bring development factors and to think out of the box on how to fund humanitarian emergencies in the world.
MARGARET WARNER: And so if the answer is to think outside of the box, you have been traveling around to all these Western capitals, trying to raise this alarm, what more can the West do, other than write bigger checks?
You say that nub of this is, you have got these conflicts that start. And once they start, they just rage on and on and on. Is there a role for the international community in resolving some of these?
ANTONIO GUTERRES: Yes. But, unfortunately, you see the Security Council paralyzed. And as the power relations are not clear, people feel sentiments of impunity and they go on doing what they are doing.
We need an international community able to come together to forget about the differences, contradictions, the different perspectives, and to understand that in the wars of today, nobody is winning, everybody's losing.
And I hope that the divisions that we are witnessing, sometimes the memory of the Cold War divisions, the Sunni-Shia divides, I think these are much less important than the threats that today are there and that are serious threats for everybody everywhere.
MARGARET WARNER: High Commissioner Antonio Guterres, thank you so much.
ANTONIO GUTERRES: Thank you very much.
点击收听单词发音
1 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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2 overseen | |
v.监督,监视( oversee的过去分词 ) | |
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3 ration | |
n.定量(pl.)给养,口粮;vt.定量供应 | |
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4 toll | |
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟) | |
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5 commissioner | |
n.(政府厅、局、处等部门)专员,长官,委员 | |
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6 displacement | |
n.移置,取代,位移,排水量 | |
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7 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
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8 multiplication | |
n.增加,增多,倍增;增殖,繁殖;乘法 | |
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9 ethnic | |
adj.人种的,种族的,异教徒的 | |
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10 militia | |
n.民兵,民兵组织 | |
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11 militias | |
n.民兵组织,民兵( militia的名词复数 ) | |
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12 chaos | |
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
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13 civilian | |
adj.平民的,民用的,民众的 | |
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14 impunity | |
n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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15 humanitarian | |
n.人道主义者,博爱者,基督凡人论者 | |
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16 humanitarians | |
n.慈善家( humanitarian的名词复数 ) | |
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17 infrastructure | |
n.下部构造,下部组织,基础结构,基础设施 | |
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18 elevations | |
(水平或数量)提高( elevation的名词复数 ); 高地; 海拔; 提升 | |
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19 savings | |
n.存款,储蓄 | |
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20 precarious | |
adj.不安定的,靠不住的;根据不足的 | |
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21 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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22 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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23 frustrated | |
adj.挫败的,失意的,泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 );挫败;使受挫折;令人沮丧 | |
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24 stabilize | |
vt.(使)稳定,使稳固,使稳定平衡;vi.稳定 | |
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25 radical | |
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的 | |
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