【英语语言学习】沙特阿拉伯对埃及的影响

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

 

With protests continuing in Egypt, public acceptance of the new military government's rule may rest on its ability to kick-start an economic recovery. Egypt's sputtering¹ economy has brought electricity shortages, long lines of people waiting for diesel² fuel and rising unemployment. It's one of the reasons that Egyptians took to the streets and ousted³ President Mohamed Morsi a couple of weeks ago.

 

This week, Egypt received a massive get well gift - $12 billion from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. We called up Robert Powell. He's a Saudi Arabia specialist at the Economist⁵ Intelligence Unit and asked him to explain just how dire⁶ Egypt's economic situation is.

 

ROBERT POWELL: It's in a profoundly bad state. Since the fall of Hosni Mubarak, the balance of payments have been hemorrhaging about a billion dollars a month and they've been running down their foreign exchange reserves, which are akin⁷ to a savings⁸ account. In short, the clock has been ticking, which is why the $12 billion that is coming in from these oil-rich states is absolutely vital.

 

SIMON: And what moved these oil-rich states, as we always call them, to be so generous?

 

POWELL: Primarily it's political, particularly in the case of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both countries are historically extremely antagonistic⁹ towards the Muslim Brotherhood¹⁰, as you're aware. Mohamad Morsi, the president of Egypt who was removed, was from the Muslim Brotherhood and has several hundred members of their leadership are being arrested.

 

This is something that has won the approval of the oil-rich leaders who typically view the Muslim Brotherhood as a potential rival in the future.

 

SIMON: The U.S. gives Egypt $1.5 billion every year but after President Morsi's been forced out, there've been some calls in Congress to suspend a lot of that aid. The Obama administration says, in fact, it's reviewing its aid to Egypt. Is this just talk? Do you see any realistic chance that aid will be suspended?

 

POWELL: Well, it's unusual because typically people wouldn't want to get caught up in semantics. Is it a coup⁴, is it not a coup? There was suddenly a popular movement behind the ousting¹¹ of the Egyptian president. However, in this case, of course, there is a legal requirement for the U.S. administration to cut off its aid if a military coup has taken place.

 

The likelihood of the U.S. actually cutting off the money at this stage is not high and so far actually been has been exceptionally cautious in all its responses since the revolution. The U.S. is kind adopting a wait-and-see policy, hoping that a new democratic transition emerges, but they may well be disappointed.

 

SIMON: Do the U.S. and, say, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Emirates share the same goals for Egypt?

 

POWELL: In the near term, everybody would prefer a stable Egypt. It's on the border with Israel, it's the most populous¹² country within the region. It does have enormous potential, of course, economically, but because it's home of the Suez Canal through which around 8 percent of all the world's trade passes. So the Saudi money will certainly be welcome by the U.S. at the moment.

 

In the longer term however, Saudi Arabia would probably be far more comfortable with a regime that resembled that under Hosni Mubarak, in effect, a dictatorship. It's generally more comfortable with secular¹³ dictatorships in the Middle East than anything resembling a democracy.

 

For the U.S., it would be far more comfortable giving it's $1.3 billion a year to a country with a measure of accountability that had some respect for human rights. So there is actually a sharp divergence¹⁴.

 

SIMON: But wasn't the United States pretty happy with the Mubarak regime up until the last few months?

 

POWELL: Within the region you had young populations disenfranchised for a long time, excluded from the rising economic wealth of a small coterie¹⁵, often centered around the president. They were globally aware, they knew the other countries had democracy, they had accountability. So something was going to explode. So, this combination of unsustainable foreign policy on the part of the U.S. and inherent domestic changes within Egypt meant that there was going to be a sharp shift.

 

So really talking about what happened under Hosni Mubarak is no longer relevant anymore. It's what happens going forward. Can the U.S. have a similar foreign policy with a new Egyptian dictatorship? Probably not. It cannot repeat what came before 2011, so it's going to have to forge a new policy. At the moment, though, we're seeing very little.

 

SIMON: Robert Powell, Middle East analyst¹⁶ with The Economist joining us from New York. Thanks so much for being with us.

 

POWELL: Many thanks for having me.

 

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SIMON: And you're listening to NPR News.

 

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1 sputtering   

n.反应溅射法；飞溅；阴极真空喷镀；喷射v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的现在分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出

参考例句：

• A wick was sputtering feebly in a dish of oil. 瓦油灯上结了一个大灯花，使微弱的灯光变得更加阴暗。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）
• Jack ran up to the referee, sputtering protest. 贾克跑到裁判跟前，唾沫飞溅地提出抗议。 来自辞典例句

2 diesel   

n.柴油发动机，内燃机

参考例句：

• We experimented with diesel engines to drive the pumps.我们试着用柴油机来带动水泵。
• My tractor operates on diesel oil.我的那台拖拉机用柴油开动。

3 ousted   

驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• He was ousted as chairman. 他的主席职务被革除了。
• He may be ousted by a military takeover. 他可能在一场军事接管中被赶下台。

4 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

5 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

6 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

7 akin   

adj.同族的，类似的

参考例句：

• She painted flowers and birds pictures akin to those of earlier feminine painters.她画一些同早期女画家类似的花鸟画。
• Listening to his life story is akin to reading a good adventure novel.听他的人生故事犹如阅读一本精彩的冒险小说。

8 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

9 antagonistic   

adj.敌对的

参考例句：

• He is always antagonistic towards new ideas.他对新思想总是持反对态度。
• They merely stirred in a nervous and wholly antagonistic way.他们只是神经质地，带着完全敌对情绪地骚动了一下。

10 brotherhood   

n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊

参考例句：

• They broke up the brotherhood.他们断绝了兄弟关系。
• They live and work together in complete equality and brotherhood.他们完全平等和兄弟般地在一起生活和工作。

11 ousting   

驱逐( oust的现在分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺

参考例句：

• The resulting financial chaos led to the ousting of Bristol-Myers' s boss. 随后引发的财政混乱导致了百时美施贵宝的总裁下台。
• The ousting of the president has drawn widespread criticism across Latin America and the wider world. 洪都拉斯总统被驱逐时间引起拉丁美洲甚至全世界的广泛批评。

12 populous   

adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的

参考例句：

• London is the most populous area of Britain.伦敦是英国人口最稠密的地区。
• China is the most populous developing country in the world.中国是世界上人口最多的发展中国家。

13 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。

14 divergence   

n.分歧，岔开

参考例句：

• There is no sure cure for this transatlantic divergence.没有什么灵丹妙药可以消除大西洋两岸的分歧。
• In short,it was an age full of conflicts and divergence of values.总之，这一时期是矛盾与价值观分歧的时期。

15 coterie   

n.(有共同兴趣的)小团体，小圈子

参考例句：

• The name is known to only a small coterie of collectors.这个名字只有收藏家的小圈子才知道。
• Mary and her coterie gave a party to which we were not invited.玛利和她的圈内朋友举行派对，我们没被邀请。

16 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。