VOA慢速英语2019--海地政治动荡加剧了日益严重饥荒

In Haiti, Political Unrest Fuels Growing Hunger Crisis¹

Celavi Belor has lost so much weight over the past year his clothes are too large for his body.

The 41-year-old farm laborer² looked up from working in a rocky field in the mountains of northwestern Haiti. Sometimes I go two or three days without eating," he said.

The only food Belor, his wife and five children had to eat the day before was ground corn. Now they only have a pepper and some old beans.

"My biggest worry is one day I just won't be able to get up anymore," he said.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere³. It has long had one of the world's highest levels of food insecurity. For the past few years, a lack of rainfall has damaged harvests, causing food shortages⁴ and raising prices.

The northwest, one of the Caribbean nation's poorest areas, has suffered the most.

Imported food is too costly⁵

Over half of the food Haitians eat comes from other countries. The gourde, the money of Haiti, has lost much of its value. That means that imported food is too costly for many people like Belor. He earns just 40 cents a day when he can find the work.

Last autumn, the situation got worse. Anti-government protesters blocked roads and closed businesses and public services for three months. Food aid could not reach those in need. Many people could not find work. The value of the gourde dropped even more.

Haitians call this standstill the "peyi lock," in the Creole language. It has led to a new hunger crisis.

Third of Haitians need food

One in three Haitians, about 3.7 million people, urgently need food aid, the United Nations said in December.

If immediate⁶ action is not taken, by next month 1.2 million people will only be able to eat one meal every other day in the Caribbean nation, U.N. officials warned.

Frena Remorin lives down the road from Belor in the community of Dessources. She said, "No one has eaten yet today but if I feed my kids too early in the day, they are hungry by night and cannot sleep. I don't have enough money now for two meals a day."

Political instability

Since a powerful earthquake in 2010, Haitians have lived with an ever-changing political situation and bad governance.

With no official government or budget, Haiti cannot take money from international organizations to help end the food crisis. Foreign aid to Haiti's government went down by half in 2019.

President Jovenel Moise is working with international organizations to create an agreement to share power with other Haitian politicians. Protestors question his 2016 election and want him to resign from the office. Parliament suspended meetings in January.

Self-sufficient

The country was not always like this. Haiti grew most of its own food until the 1980s. Then the United States asked Haiti to import more crops. The U.S. crops cost less than the ones Haitian farmers grew, so they could no longer make a living by farming. Few people invested in agriculture.

Add to this the effects of climate change. Haiti is one of the nations in most danger from powerful hurricanes that are becoming more common. That is because it has little infrastructure⁷ and cannot recover easily.

Cédric Piriou is Haiti Country Director for the aid group Action Against Hunger. He says the real effects of the crisis will show in six months or so as malnutrition⁸ begins to harm more people.

Death rates among babies already appear to be rising. Margareth Narcisse is a doctor and an official with Saint⁹ Damien's Pediatric Hospital in Port-au-Prince, the capital city. She said that in the past few months twice as many children were dying from malnutrition as before.

Helicopter aid

The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) is working with other international organizations to help Haiti's most needy¹⁰. They have increased their operations by supplying more food and money. Because of violence on the roads, the WFP has also arranged for a helicopter to move its employees, other humanitarian¹¹ workers and some supplies.

U.N. officials estimated in November it needed about $72 million to pay for this emergency operation to 700,000 Haitians for eight months.

On Wednesday the WFP said it had raised only $19 million of the money it needed.

One Haiti-based European diplomat¹² asked, "Why should we bail¹³ the authorities out if they helped create this crisis?" adding that politicians were not being blamed for the problems. "How do we change that so that they don't hurt people when they are going hungry?" Humanitarian workers — and Haitians — beg the world not to ignore the immediate suffering.

Back in Dessources, Belor says his children have little energy.

In the past, at least they could eat produce growing on fruit trees if they did not have money to buy food. But thanks to the dry weather, these trees are no longer producing.

Belor no longer even attends religious services because he cannot pay for the clothes he feels he needs to attend.

"I live without hope," he said.

Words in This Story

hemisphere – n. half of the Earth

standstill – n. a situation in which there is little or no activity

kid – n. a child

hurricane – n. a storm with powerful winds

infrastructure – n. the buildings, roads and power supplies needed to operate an area

malnutrition – n. the unhealthy condition that results from not eating enough food or not eating enough healthy food

arrange – v. to organize

bail out – v. the act of saving or rescuing something (such as a business) from money problems

beg – v. to ask someone for something such as food or money

1 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

2 laborer   

n.劳动者，劳工

参考例句：

• Her husband had been a farm laborer.她丈夫以前是个农场雇工。
• He worked as a casual laborer and did not earn much.他当临时工，没有赚多少钱。

3 hemisphere   

n.半球，半球地图

参考例句：

• This animal is to be found only in the Southern Hemisphere.这种动物只有在南半球才能找到。
• In most people,the left hemisphere is bigger than the right.多数人的左脑比右脑大。

4 shortages   

n.不足( shortage的名词复数 )；缺少；缺少量；不足额

参考例句：

• Food shortages often occur in time of war. 在战争期间常常发生粮食短缺的情形。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• At the same time, worldwide food and fuel shortages eased. 同时，世界性粮食和石油短缺的现象终止了。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

5 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

6 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

7 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

8 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

9 saint   

n.圣徒；基督教徒；vt.成为圣徒，把...视为圣徒

参考例句：

• He was made a saint.他被封为圣人。
• The saint had a lowly heart.圣人有谦诚之心。

10 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

11 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

12 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

13 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。