VOA标准英语2011--Desperation, Hope Mix in Zimbabwe Fight

Desperation, Hope Mix in Zimbabwe Fight for Democracy

Though he has covered wars and conflicts, journalist Peter Godwin wasn't prepared for the surreal mix of desperation and hope he encountered when he returned to Zimbabwe, his broken homeland, in 2008.
After ruling for nearly 30 years, President Robert Mugabe finally lost an election. However, instead of conceding power, he launched a brutal¹ campaign of terror to stay in office. With most foreign correspondents banned, Godwin was one of the few observers to bear witness to the period locals call "The Fear." His new memoir² recounts that experience.
Liberators' old boys' club
Mugabe led a civil war against the white minority government in Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was known then. Since its independence in 1980, the eloquent³, highly educated 87-year-old has been the country's only president.
'The Fear' by Peter Godwin
"There is a kind of liberators' 'old boys' club,'" says Godwin, who was born and raised in Zimbabwe. He says those liberators' parties are still in power in the southern African countries that fought anti-colonial wars. Godwin points to the South West Africa People's Organization, SWAPO, in Namibia and the African National Congress, ANC, in South Africa.
"Mugabe says to people, 'No one can be a leader in Zimbabwe without having fought in the war.' Well, the war finished 30 years ago," says Godwin. "So you hear Mugabe talking to audiences about the war and you look at the youthful audience and no one in that audience was alive then. And of course that liberation war message does become weaker as the generations go on."
Consequently, the liberators begin to lose their support among the population. While Mugabe always managed to win elections, his government's policies were increasingly unpopular, and the opposition⁴ won a majority of Parliamentary seats in the 2008 vote.
'The Fear'
Instead of conceding power, Mugabe forced a run-off, and used terror and intimidation⁵ tactics against the opposition party and its supporters.
Godwin went to Zimbabwe to cover the final results of the elections, and didn't expect to see what he did.
"Mugabe and his militia⁷, and the army and police helping⁸, launched a campaign of torture on an industrial scale. Ironically they used the abandoned schools as a site for the torture bases," says Godwin. "So they would fan out into the villages and they would pick up opposition office holders⁹, the party secretaries and chairmen at the village level even. They would often attack them, burn their houses down, and herd¹⁰ them into these torture bases. There they would torture them very,very severely¹¹."
Godwin interviewed hundreds of these men, when they finally were able to get to hospitals.
"Many of them, they were in such pain that they couldn't lie down, or sit, or stand because the flesh and the skin on their back. They had been literally¹² flayed¹³ alive," he says. "Some people were killed during the torture, but many more people were tortured and then were released to go back to their communities. And they acted as human billboards¹⁴. They were advertisements for what happens to you if you oppose the regime."
According to Godwin, Mugabe's use of torture as a campaign tactic⁶ has lingering effects. "Once you've done something like this to people, it can condition them. The next time you threaten them, they know it is for real. Now as we gear up perhaps to new elections, which Mugabe is talking about holding either later this year or maybe early next year, people still remember what happened last time and they are afraid."
Profiles of courage
But not all of them are afraid. In his book, "The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe," Godwin shares dozens of stories of Zimbabweans who continued fighting for democracy despite having been tortured. One of those people was a man who had been arrested many times.
"In fact, we think he is the most arrested man in Zimbabwe. I said to him, ‘Don't you sometimes think it's enough already, maybe you should give it a rest.' He said, ‘I tried to give up and just do a quiet life. I felt like I wasn't doing what I should be doing, I had a duty to do this, I had a duty to help democracy to happen. I just felt empty.'"
In the book. Godwin writes of Chenjerai Mangezo, a candidate for the Bindura Rural District Council, who was brutally¹⁵ beaten by militants¹⁶ loyal to Mugabe.
He managed to hoist¹⁷ himself up a little so that he could look at his assailants, now lit against the newly emerging moon. And he said to them, ‘"ou had better be sure to kill me. Because if you don't, I'm going to come after you, all of you. I know who you are.'"
Not only did he survive, Mangezo won his election.
"When he heard that they were having the first day of the local council, he was still in the hospital," says Godwin. "He was determined¹⁸ to be there. So he got people to load him into a pickup¹⁹ truck because he couldn't bend his legs. They drove him down a bumpy²⁰ road, several hours outside Harare. Some of the people who had assaulted him, you know Mugabe's people, were there, and they were shocked to see him because they thought he died."
Godwin says it is that resilience which compelled him to write "The Fear." Zimbabweans already have functioning political institutions and the desire to pursue democracy. What they need and deserve now, he says, is fair elections.

1 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

2 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

3 eloquent   

adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的

参考例句：

• He was so eloquent that he cut down the finest orator.他能言善辩，胜过最好的演说家。
• These ruins are an eloquent reminder of the horrors of war.这些废墟形象地提醒人们不要忘记战争的恐怖。

4 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

5 intimidation   

n.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• The Opposition alleged voter intimidation by the army.反对党声称投票者受到军方的恐吓。
• The gang silenced witnesses by intimidation.恶帮用恐吓的手段使得证人不敢说话。

6 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。

7 militia   

n.民兵，民兵组织

参考例句：

• First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
• There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

10 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

11 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

12 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

13 flayed   

v.痛打( flay的过去式和过去分词 )；把…打得皮开肉绽；剥（通常指动物）的皮；严厉批评

参考例句：

• He was so angry he nearly flayed his horse alive. 他气得几乎把马活活抽死。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The teacher flayed the idle students. 老师严责那些懒惰的学生。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

14 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

15 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

16 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

17 hoist   

n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起

参考例句：

• By using a hoist the movers were able to sling the piano to the third floor.搬运工人用吊车才把钢琴吊到3楼。
• Hoist the Chinese flag on the flagpole,please!请在旗杆上升起中国国旗！

18 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

19 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

20 bumpy   

adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的

参考例句：

• I think we've a bumpy road ahead of us.我觉得我们将要面临一段困难时期。
• The wide paved road degenerated into a narrow bumpy track.铺好的宽阔道路渐渐变窄，成了一条崎岖不平的小径。