Last September, President George W. Bush stood in New Orleans, where the lights had just come on for the first time since Katrina struck, and promised ” one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen” Then he left, and the lights went out again.
経済学者とは思えないほど鮮明なイメージを与える文章。 NEW ORLEANSの再建状況とBUSHがしたことをこの短い文章で全て表現している見事さ。 TITLEもBROKENをうまく使いきれいに決まっている。 こんな英語書けたらすごい それにしても、BUSHって “ one of the largest efforts the world has ever seen”のような大げさな言い方をよくするように思う。これって空疎そのものの言葉
What happened next was a replay of what happened after Bush asked Congress to allocate $18 billion for Iraqi reconstruction. In the months that followed, congressmen who visited Iraq returned with glowing accounts of all the wonderful things we were doing there, like repainting schools and, um, repainting schools.
////// like repainting schools and, um, repainting schools ここの的確な日本語訳は難しい。できるだけニュアンスを捉えたつもり
In the months that followed のような言い方もちょっと難しくていえないです。
But when the Coalition Provisional Authority, which was running Iraq, closed up shop nine months later, it turned out that only 2 percent of the $18 billion had been spent ,and only a handful of the projects that were supposed to have been financed with that money had been started. In the end, America failed to deliver even the most basic repair of Iraq’s infrastructure; today, Baghdad gets less than seven hours of electricity a day.
The Bush administration likes to talk about all the money it has allocated to the region , and it plans a public relations blitz to persuade America that it’s doing a heck of a job aiding Katrina’s victims.
But as Iraqis learned, allocating money and actually using it for reconstruction are two different things, and so far the administration has done almost nothing to make good on last year’s promises.
////// KRUGMANが明確に国民への説明を政府がPR活動(世論の誘導)をするといっているのは興味深い xxxx are two different things は使ってみたい表現
But even the cleanup remains incomplete: Almost a third of the hurricane debris in New Orleans has yet to be removed. And the process of going beyond cleanup to actual reconstruction has barely begun.
The failure to get moving on reconstruction reflects lack of leadership at the top. Bush could have moved quickly to turn his promises into reality. But he didn’t.
私達が習った文法では could have moved・・・・で、できたはずだけどできなかったという意味だから、But he didn’t と付け加えたのは「できなかった」ことを強調しているんだろう。
それと、こういうreflectの使い方もかっこいい。
そして、彼の結論は皮肉たっぷりに・・・
Maybe the aid promised to the gulf region will actually arrive someday. But by then it will probably be too late. Many former residents and small-business owners, tired of waiting for help that never comes, will have permanently relocated elsewhere; those business that stayed open, or reopen after the storm, will have gone under for lack of customers. In America as in Iraq, reconstruction delayed is reconstruction denied- and Bush has, once again, broken a promise.