美媒靈魂拷問:全球疑惑地看着,美國怎麼像個第三世界國家?
美國約翰斯·霍普金斯大學發佈的新冠疫情最新數據顯示,美國累計確診病例已超過700萬例。
當地時間9月25日,美國《紐約時報》在一篇報道中感慨,伴隨着美國失控的疫情,全球或投以同情的目光,或深感失望:“我為美國人感到難過”;“就像是看着羅馬帝國衰落”;“美國本是第一世界國家,卻表現得像個第三世界國家”……
《紐約時報》報道截圖
在這篇題為《我為美國人感到難過:全世界困惑地看着美國》的文章中,《紐約時報》援引了加拿大、墨西哥等鄰國,以及印度尼西亞等發展中國家各界人士的觀點,為美國應對疫情不力感到擔憂和失望。
在疫情以及總統選舉臨近之際,全世界都在看着美國,夾雜着震驚、氣憤,更多的是困惑。
Amid the pandemic and in the run-up to the presidential election, much of the world is watching the United States with a mix of shock, chagrin and, most of all, bafflement.
2萬面美國國旗擺放在華盛頓紀念碑附近悼念20萬新冠逝者
到底是怎麼了?《紐約時報》發出一聲靈魂拷問:一個超級大國是如何讓自己被病毒打倒的?
How did a superpower allow itself to be felled by a virus?
全世界都在同情美國
此外,《紐約時報》這篇報道還援引了多國人士的觀點,他們紛紛對美國表達出失望的情緒。
即便是緬甸這樣一個發展中國家,都在為美國感到遺憾。
緬甸這樣一個貧窮的國家,正在與種族衝突和新冠疫情作鬥爭,這使得該國本就破舊的醫療體系更加超負荷運轉。但這些都沒有阻止政界人士同情這個他們認為“已經迷失方向”的國家。
Myanmar is a poor country struggling with open ethnic warfare and a coronavirus outbreak that could overload its broken hospitals. That hasn't stopped its politicians from commiserating with a country they think has lost its way.
緬甸國會議員敏烏表示:“我為美國人感到難過。但我們幫不了美國,因為我們國家太小了。”
"I feel sorry for Americans," said U Myint Oo, a member of parliament in Myanmar. "But we can't help the US because we are a very small country."
緬甸政治分析人士昂圖年更是一針見血地指出:“美國本是第一世界國家,卻表現得像個第三世界國家。”
"The USA is a first-world country but it is acting like a third-world country," said U Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst in Myanmar.
在同為發展中國家的印度尼西亞,人們感受到的是美國讓世界失去了方向。
印度尼西亞政界人士、活動家耶尼·瓦希德表示:“全世界看到的是美國社會內部凝聚力的瓦解,以及應對疫情的混亂狀態。領導層面的空缺需要填補,然而美國並沒有扮演好其領導角色。”
"The world sees the dismantling of social cohesion within American society and the mess in managing Covid," said Yenny Wahid, an Indonesian politician and activist. "There is a vacuum of leadership that needs to be filled, but America is not fulfilling that leadership role."
作為一直被美國針對的國家,柬埔寨拒絕了美國提供的援助,因為此類援助往往伴隨着對該國人權問題的干涉。對於美國應對疫情無力的現狀,柬埔寨有些嘲諷。
He has turned his back on American aid because it often came with conditions to improve human rights. Now, he and his administration are ridiculing the United States and its handling of the pandemic.
在談到特朗普時,柬埔寨人民黨發言人索克·伊森(Sok Eysan)説:“他有很多核武器,但是面對一種看不見的疾病,他卻很疏忽大意。”
"He has many nuclear weapons," Sok Eysan, a spokesman for Mr. Hun Sen’s Cambodian People's Party, said of Mr. Trump. "But he is careless with a disease that can't be seen."
美國的鄰國、發達國家加拿大,存在相似的感受。
加拿大薩尼亞市市長邁克·布拉德利(Mike Bradley)表示:“就我個人而言,就好像在看着羅馬帝國的衰落。”
"Personally, it's like watching the decline of the Roman Empire," said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia.
鄰國墨西哥更是如此。
與其他國家相比,墨西哥更像是特朗普的“出氣筒”。但是現在,墨西哥人對美國更多的是同情,甚至多於憤怒和困惑。
Mexico, perhaps more than any other country, has been the target of Mr. Trump's ire…Now they are feeling a new emotion that has overtaken their anger and bewilderment at Trumpian insults: sympathy.
美國全球形象“自由落體”式下滑
皮尤研究中心對包括加拿大、日本、澳大利亞和德國在內的13個國家發起調查,結果顯示,這些國家對美國的負面情緒達到多年來的最高值。
在每個受訪國家中,大多數受訪者都認為,美國在應對疫情方面做得很糟糕。
A Pew Research Center poll of 13 countries found that over the past year, nations including Canada, Japan, Australia and Germany have been viewing the United States in its most negative light in years.
In every country surveyed, the vast majority of respondents thought the United States was doing a bad job with the pandemic.
事實上,特朗普政府無視國際規則,奉行“美國優先”政策,導致美國國際形象下滑,早在疫情之前已經初露端倪。而現在,美國的聲譽已經呈現自由落體式下滑了。
The diminution of the United States' global image began before the pandemic, as Trump administration officials snubbed international accords and embraced an America First policy. Now, though, its reputation seems to be in free-fall.
報道稱,從歷史上來看,這種全球範圍內的負面形象一般都出現在政治制度不夠開放,或者有鐵腕人物掌權的國家。
Such global disapproval historically has applied to countries with less open political systems and strongmen in charge.
但是現在,甚至是那些曾被特朗普嘲笑的發展中國家都發現,美國正在出現的跡象看起來並不“吉利”:疫情不受控制,針對種族和社會不平等的大規模抗議活動正在進行,還有一位似乎不願承諾支持“選舉民主”原則的總統。
But people from just the kind of developing countries that Mr. Trump has mocked say the signs coming from the United States are ominous: a disease unchecked, mass protests over racial and social inequality, and a president who seems unwilling to pledge support for the tenets of electoral democracy.
文章稱,在菲律賓、墨西哥以及其他國家,當選的領導人每每出現言論不一致、無視制度、不容異議、反感媒體等等問題時,都會將自己與特朗普相比。
In places like the Philippines, Mexico and others, elected leaders have been compared to Mr. Trump when they have turned to divisive rhetoric, disregard of institutions, intolerance of dissent and antipathy toward the media.
美國人民:生活在脆弱的民主國家
處處都是麻煩
現在美國人也發現了,生活在脆弱的民主國家中必須忍受各種麻煩。
But there is also a sense that Americans are now getting a glimpse of the troubles people living in fragile democracies must endure.
移民安全專家、墨西哥非營利組織“移民議程”負責人尤妮斯·倫登(Eunice Rendon)稱,“現在美國人知道了,生活在‘脆弱民主’國家的人過的是什麼樣的日子:違反規範、國際貿易規則和自己國家的制度。這個世界上最強大的國家突然看起來很脆弱。”
"They now know what it's like in other countries: violating norms, international trade and its own institutions," said Eunice Rendon, an expert on migration and security and the director of Migrant Agenda, a nonprofit organization in Mexico. "The most powerful country in the world all of a sudden looks vulnerable."
文章更是提到了一個細節:持有美國護照,曾經可以方便地訪問世界上幾乎所有國家。如今,美國護照也失去了它的價值。因為疫情尚未得到有效控制,美國遊客被禁止進入歐洲、亞洲、非洲、大洋洲和拉丁美洲的大部分地區。
目前,只有阿爾巴尼亞、巴西和白俄羅斯等少數幾個國家不對美國人到訪做出限制。
Already, an American passport, which once allowed easy access to almost every country in the world, is no longer a valuable travel pass. Because of the coronavirus, American tourists are banned from most of Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America.
Albania, Brazil and Belarus are among a small group of countries welcoming Americans with no restrictions, however.