Daira Din Panah这个小镇上有一座漂亮的蓝色瓷砖砌成的苏非派圣坛,如今被数公顷潮湿腐烂了的甘蔗围绕。降落于此之后,谢里夫部长激励聚集的人群,承诺将给他们送来九月十一日巴基斯坦的开斋节的礼物。然后他来到镇上的诊所,检查墙壁正在变干,提出看一看X光机是否可以工作,并向已经累得筋疲力尽的医务人员表示祝贺——然后离开该地,到别的地方继续这种类似的例行工作。
Its chief minister said he had no choice but to lead from the muddy front because his district officials, the main dispensers of public services in British-built South Asia, could not otherwise be relied upon.
该省首席部长表示他除了在泥泞的前线领导之外别无选择,因为他的地方官员们——这些在英国殖民时建造的南亚公共服务体系中的管理者们——在其他方面不能信赖。
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could not otherwise be relied upon ,这里的otherwise是说这位部长要是不在前线领导督战的话,其他官员们就会偷懒,靠不住(could not be relied upun),这实在是个无奈之举。
Through the chopper’s open door, Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab, pitches a sack of food, then looks down and heaves out another.
旁遮普省首席部长沙赫巴兹•谢里夫通过直升机开着的门向外扔出一袋食物,然后低下头又举起另一袋。
Mr Sharif has sacked the bosses of two of Punjab’s six worst-affected districts. And he disparaged the rest: “I’ve found most have brains below average.”
谢里夫先生已经把旁遮普省受灾最严重的六个地区的两位领导撤职。而且他还这样批评其他人道:“我发现他们的智力都低于常人。”
The National Disaster Management Authority, set up at America’s expense after 3m people were displaced by fighting in the Swat area last year,
去年斯瓦特地区的三百万人民因战斗而无家可归,在美国的帮助下国家灾难管理局成立了。
关于potemkin看一亿这个---Potyomkin villages is an idiom based on a historical myth. According to the myth, there were fake settlements purportedly erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigory Potyomkin to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787. According to this story, Potyomkin, who led the Crimean military campaign, had hollow facades of villages constructed along the desolate banks of the Dnieper River in order to impress the monarch and her travel party with the value of her new conquests, thus enhancing his standing in the empress' eyes.也就是说这个难民营完全是为领导来作秀。
rattling the tin at home and abroad: tin-英国俚语”钱“,就是说巴基斯坦整天说需要资金,希望得到援助。
civil power 【法】 政权, 统法权
Then again, considering that by one estimate the armed forces lay claim to a third of Pakistan’s budget, quite right too.
但是综合考虑到军队开支,根据一份估算,占到了预算的三分之一,军队此次的表现也是应该的。
leader of the Karachi-based Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), seemed to call for one. one是指上面提到的coup.