Pope appeal for shift of resources to combat world hunger

Pope Benedict XVI lamented that hundreds of millions of people in the world do not have enough to eat. He said it is a scandal, which must be combated by changes in style of life, consumption and fairer distribution of resources.

Speaking from his studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, Benedict noted that the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization recently reported that more than 800 million people are undernourished, and that many people, especially children, die from hunger.

Certainly, the pope said, one needs to eliminate the structural causes tied to the system of governing the world’s economy, which earmarks most of the planet’s resources to a minority of the population. Pope Benedict described the situation as an injustice, and said that, to make an impact on a large scale, it is necessary to convert the model of global development.

Ten years after world leaders pledged to cut by half the number of hungry people in the world, almost no progress has been made. FAO says, in developing nations overall, hunger continues to rise.

专有名词

Pope Benedict XVI  教皇本笃十六世

Food and Agriculture Organization=FAO  粮食与农业组织

生词

pope  n. 教皇

lament  v. 对……感到悲痛，痛惜，对……表示失望

scandal  n. an action/attitude that you think is shocking and not at all acceptable

undernourished  adj. 营养不良的，缺乏营养的

eliminate  v. 排出，清除，消除

earmark  v. 指定……的用途，预先安排，确定

翻译

教皇本笃十六世对目前世界上有数亿人得不到足够的食物这一现实感到十分悲痛。他表示这是一个令人无法接受的事情，我们必须通过在生活、消费方式上的改变和更加公平的资源分配与之战斗。

在俯瞰圣彼得广场的演讲视频中，教皇提到，最近、总部设在罗马的联合国粮食及农业组织公布，全世界营养不良者达8亿以上，而那其中很多人、特别是孩子，死于饥饿。

教皇指出，毫无疑问，我们需要消除与控制世界经济体系紧密相关的结构上的因素，是它使得绝大多数的地球资源集中在少数人的手中，这样是不公平的。教皇本笃还表示，为了对这个体系造成大规模的冲击，必须要转变世界发展的定式。

世界各国领导人曾承诺要使世界上的饥饿人口减少一半，而今，十年过去了，事情几乎没有任何进展。联合国粮食及农业组织表示，所有发展中国家的饥饿人口都在不断地增加。

posted on 2006-11-14 05:07 annika 阅读(1267) 评论(7)  编辑  收藏 所属分类: 标准VOA 网摘收藏