[page]听力原文[/page]
Fraeed Zakaria at GPS, CNN Sunday morning, 10 estern and pacific.
Last week marks exactly the 10 years sinced the term Bric was coined. The catchy acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China used to describe the new power house in emerging markets. But the man who invented the moniker now says one of the four has been a great disappointment. Known not Russia with all recent troubles, not Brazil whose economy contracted in last quater, and certainly not China which continues to power on.
Goldman Sach Jim Neil says the country that has been the biggest letdown has been India. He pointed this out last week that India's inability to attract the foreign investment could actually lead to abdunce of payment crisis. From brick to basket case, what in the world is going on ? Well, some numbers tell us trembling story.
Growth has dipped below 7% for the first time in two years. The Idian rupeeis Asia's worst performing currency this year. Falling to a historical low against the dollar, India's deficits are soaring and funding is drying up, India received less than 20 billion dollars in foreign direct investments in the first 6 month of 2011. China got 3 times of that amount even Russia with a smaller GDP, took in more.
Why is India struggling?Sadly the real problem isn't economics. India has a very dynamic private sector probably the most dynamic in the emerging markets. But it has a government that simply doesn't work. And it's not for the lack of knowledge, India has the know-how the government is afterall led by a reformed-mind and world classic economists, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,the problem is politics.
The world's largest democracy seems to be paralyzed since government recently announced the plan to open up India's retail sector to freign investors, a continuation of reforms that jumpstart the economy 20 years ago.
The proposal would have made it easier for big western chains like Walmart to set up a shop in India. Now, Indian agriculture is hugely inefficient. Middleman take a huge cuts, and the supply chains are inefficient upto 2/3 of farm products vegetables for examlpe, rot, before they reached the market. So, the Walmart model would transform India's agriculture, and its retailer sectors, and it would empower farmers, lower prices for consumers, and create a huge gains of productivity. But it was not to be. Indian opposition turned this into a story of a big guy fighting the little guy. Walmart vs the Mom-and-pop, parliament was gridlocked for days, politicians moblized mass demonstrations.
Small stores across the country were kept closed and protested. So, what does the government do ? Instead of standing firm, it back tracked and cancelled blind reform to retail sector altogether, this is depressingly familiar pattern. For 2 years, Indian government has done nothing. Hanging onto power, presenting no plans to open up the economy, raising living standards, building infrastructure or attract a new investment.
In the west India's leaders sell the story of dynamic and incredible India. "India, incredible India". But at home, they banned the populous protectional sentiment, and dole out subsidies and do basically nothing. And that paralysis is hurting the economy. India's blessing and curse is that it has messy chaotic decentralized democracy. Unlike China, it has no unified sense of direction, but prevailing feel has often been that when the going gets tough, New Deli gets its act together. That's what they did 20 years ago when it was on the brink of defaulting and on blanace of famous crisis. Well, this time, once again, it's time for urged reform. NewDeli has for years expressed pride in being part of Bricks. Well, if it doesn't get its act together, 10 years from now, people might still be praising the bricks except the "I" in brick, might stand for Indonesia not India.
[page]参考译文[/page]
我是GPS节目主持人弗雷多•扎卡利亚，这里是CNN节目，现在是星期天的上午10点。
上周标志着术语金砖四国已经届满10年。朗朗上口的首字母缩略词指的是巴西、俄罗斯、印度和中国,用来描述新兴市场的新势力。但发明了金砖四国的人现在称四国之一的一个国家则愧对这个名号。肯定不是最近烦恼满身的俄罗斯,也不是经济在过去的四分之一年简约的巴西,当然更不是经济呈持续增长势头的中国。
高盛资产管理部萨荷•吉姆•尼尔表示对印度这个国家最失望。他在上周提出这个观点,无力吸引外国投资的印度会导致负债危机。从金砖到破筐,究竟是怎么回事呢?嗯,有些数字会告诉我们故事的来龙去脉。
2年内首次增长已跌破7%。印度卢比是亚洲今年表现的最糟糕的货币。不仅货币降至历史新低,同时印度的赤字也在不断攀升，而且资金枯竭。2011年的前6个月印度接受了不到200亿美元的外国直接投资。中国得到了该数量的3倍,甚至连国内生产总值(GDP)非常小的俄罗斯也得到了更多。
为什么印度如此挣扎?遗憾的是真正的问题不是经济问题。印度有一个非常活跃的私人部门，这可能是印度最有活力的新兴市场。但它的政府却完全不工作。而究其原因，并不是由于知识匮乏。印度政府在世界级的经济学家总理曼莫汉•辛格领导下知道如何去做,但问题的关键则是政治。
这个世界最大的民主国家政府在最近宣布了20年前就已经开始的连续启动经济改革,对外国投资者开放印度的零售业这一计划以来似乎陷入瘫痪。
这项提议将使西方的大产业链诸如沃尔玛在印度建立一个商店为更容易。现在,印度农业已经陷入巨大的无能。中间人从中巨大削减，供应链效率将被减少三分之二，举农产品蔬菜为例，在它们还没来得及进入市场时就已经腐烂。所以,沃尔玛的进入将势必从零售行业改变印度的农业模型,它赋予农民权利,而消费者可享受更低的价格,并创建一个能带来巨大收益的生产力。但这并没有实现。印度反对派把这想成了故事书里大个子欺负小家伙的桥段——沃尔玛对祖国,议会数天陷入僵局,政客举行大规模示威抗议活动。
全国各地的小商店一直关门大吉进行抗议。那么,政府到底该做什么?政府不能沉得住气,它需要做的是切实取证及取消零售业的盲目改革,这是令人沮丧的熟悉模式。已经2年,而印度政府什么也没做。虽然拥有权力,但根本不打算开放经济、提高人们生活水平、基础设施建设和吸引新投资。
在西方，印度领导人把这个故事讲的令人咋舌。“印度,令人难以置信的印度”。但在自家门口,他们禁止发放补贴，基本上什么也没做。这使得经济受到伤害直至瘫痪。印度的祝福和咒诅,是因为它有杂乱和混沌分散的民主。与中国不同,它没有一个统一的方向感,但常常被普遍感到,当事情变得棘手,首都新德就会一起做参与。就像20年前他们处于那次著名的危机边缘时一样。嗯,这一次,再一次,是时候敦促改革了。多年来新德里一直为成为金砖四国而感到自豪。好吧,如果不共同行动,从现在起10年后,人们可能还会一直赞扬金砖四国，而其中“I”也许就是印度尼西亚而不是印度。
[page]词语解释[/page]
1. catchy a. 引人注目的, 易记住的
The melodies are catchy, fun to sing.
旋律让人记住，唱起来也很有趣。
2. moniker n. 名字, 绰号
No one but Pinky and Sister Heavenly knew his straight moniker.
除了平吉和海文莉修女外，没有人知道他正确的名字。
3. contract n. 合同, 合约
She has contracted a severe fever.
她感染上了严重的热病。
4. currency n. 货币, 流通
The word has attained general currency.
这个词已经通用起来了。
5. dynamic a. 动态的, 有活力的
Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.
动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。
