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世界上最穷的总统,震撼了联合国!

 闲云野鹤qpab3u 2020-09-17

英语口语

此生能遇见你,已然

幸福得一塌糊涂

Jimmy's Note

吉米老师前言:他的全部家当只有1800美元。

 “Poorest ” President

来源:心悦读bar(ID:iread_bar

乌拉圭总统何塞·穆希卡专访视频

Laundry is strung outside the house. The water comes from a well in a yard, overgrown with weeds. Only two police officers and Manuela, a three-legged dog, keep watch outside. 

屋舍外面晾着洗好的衣服,院子里杂草丛生,有口井用来取水。门外只有两个警察和一只叫曼努埃拉的三条腿的狗在守卫。

This is the residence of the president of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, whose lifestyle clearly differs sharply from that of most other world leaders.

这就是乌拉圭总统何塞·穆希卡的住所。与大多数国家领导人相比,他的生活方式迥然不同。

President Mujica has shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provides for its leaders and chose to stay at his wife’s farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo. 

何塞·穆希卡总统放弃了乌拉圭政府提供的豪华住宅,选择住在他妻子的农舍里。农舍位于首都蒙得维的亚郊外的一条脏兮兮的泥土路旁。

The president and his wife work the land themselves, growing flowers.

总统和第一夫人共同打理这片土地,种植花草。

This simple lifestyle—and the fact that Mujica donates about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000, to charity—has led him to be labelled the poorest president in the world.

穆希卡把自己月收入的90%,相当于1.2万美元用于慈善,而自己过着简朴的生活,因此被称作世界最穷总统。

“I may appear to be an eccentric old man... But this is a free choice.”

“别人也许觉得我是个怪老头……但这是我的自由选择。”

“I’ve lived like this most of my life,” he says, sitting on an old chair in his garden, using a cushion favoured by Manuela the dog.

“我的大半生都是这么过的,”他说。他坐在自家花园的一把破旧椅子上,垫着瘸狗曼努埃拉喜欢的垫子。

“I can live well with what I have.”

“我现有的足够让我过得很好啦。”

His donations—which benefit poor people and small entrepreneurs8—mean his salary is roughly in line with the average Uruguayan income of $775 a month.

他将自己的收入捐给穷人和小型企业,每月剩下薪水775美元,大约相当于乌拉圭民众的人均月收入。

In 2010, his annual personal wealth declaration was $1,800, the value of his 1987 Volkswagen Beetle. 

2010年,他个人年度申报单上的财产为1800美元,也就是他那辆1987年产的大众甲壳虫轿车的价值。

Elected in 2009, Mujica spent the 1960s and 1970s as part of the Uruguayan guerrilla Tupamaros, a leftist armed group inspired by the Cuban revolution.

穆希卡在2009年当选乌拉圭总统,他曾在20世纪六七十年代参加乌拉圭游击队团帕马洛斯——一个受古巴革命影响而成立的左翼武装组织。

He was shot six times and spent 14 years in jail. Most of his detention was spent in harsh conditions and isolation, until he was freed in 1985 when Uruguay returned to democracy.

他曾6次遭到枪击,坐了14年牢,大多数时间他被监禁在恶劣的环境里并与世隔离。直到1985年乌拉圭恢复民主他才重获自由。

Those years in jail, Mujica says, helped shape his outlook on life.

穆希卡说,坐牢的日子对他人生观的形成起了作用。

“I’m called ‘the poorest president’, but I don’t feel poor. Poor people are those who only work to try to keep an expensive lifestyle, and always want more and more,” he says.

“我被叫作‘最穷总统’,但我并不觉得自己穷。在我看来,工作只是为了维持奢侈生活,并且欲望无止境,这样的人才叫穷人。”他说。

“This is a matter of freedom. If you don’t have many possessions then you don’t need to work all your life like a slave to sustain them, and therefore you have more time for yourself,” he says.

“这事关自由。如果你没有很多财产,你就不需要像个奴隶一样劳役一辈子来看守家产,这样你也就拥有更多属于自己的时间。”他说。

The Uruguayan leader made a similar point when he addressed the Rio+20 summit in June 2013: “We’ve been talking all afternoon about sustainable development. To get the masses out of poverty.”

2013年6月,在里约热内卢20国峰会上这位乌拉圭总统陈述了类似的观点:“我们整个下午都在谈论可持续发展和让大多数人摆脱贫困的事。”

“But what are we thinking? Do we want the model of development and consumption of the rich countries?I ask you now: what would happen to this planet if Indians would have the same proportion of cars per household than Germans? How much oxygen would we have left?”

“但是我们在想什么呢?我们真的想效仿富裕国家的发展和消费模式吗?我现在问你们:如果印度人的汽车拥有率同德国人一样,地球会变成什么样子?我们将会剩下多少氧气?”

But however large the gulf between the vegetarian Mujica and these other leaders, he is no more immune than they are to the ups and downs of political life.

尽管素食者穆希卡同其他领导人之间存在巨大的差距,他却依然无法避免政治生涯中的起起伏伏。

他虽然被称为最穷总统,

但他拥有最富有的灵魂。

编辑|Vijun

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