9月22日VOA聽力：信賴危急加劇埃博拉疫情
As health officials in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leonestruggle to eliminate the final cases of Ebola, a newreport said some hard lessons have been learned.The group International Alert says a lack of trustbetween the Liberian people and their governmentmade the outbreak worse.
The report’s author, Ashoka Mukpo, said that “many people mistrust official institutions andeven feel threatened by them.
Mukpo, an American, is an Ebola survivor himself. He contracted the disease last year inMonrovia.
It was a bad couple of weeks. I was very, very sick. I’ve never been that sick in my life and I wasquite scared.
After being treated for five days in Liberia, he was airlifted to a medical facility in the U.S. stateof Nebraska.
The International Alert report is entitled Surviving Ebola: Public Perceptions of Governance andthe Outbreak Response in Liberia.
International Alert is an organization that looks at underlying dynamics to maintain peace infragile states. And one of the things we’re really curious about with the Ebola outbreak inLiberia is how much did people’s perceptions toward government contribute to the outbreak?And what we found when we talked to people is that there were very high levels of mistrustand suspicion towards the government’s motives. And this was really what underpinnedpeople’s initial refusal to take their warning seriously about how deadly Ebola was,
The mistrust, he said, stemmed from history and unfulfilled expectations.
On one hand, Liberia has quite a history of tension between citizens and government. It had acivil war about 15 years ago. But I think right now what people felt is that there is thistremendous sense of hope. That with President Johnson Sirleaf’s election this would meandevelopment and accountability for corruption and these kinds of things. And the resultsactually have been quite disappointing. So, people are savvy enough to see that what theywere hoping would happen hasn’t actually happened.
Mukpo said Liberians had expected more from the healthcare system when the Ebola outbreaktook hold.
People felt like so many millions of dollars have gone into aid and development over the past 10years. With the health sector that completely collapsed so quickly, there was this perceptionthat, well, there must have been some kind of corruption – that people were taking money andnot putting it into places it was supposed to go. So, fair or not, if you look at the record of thisgovernment in battling corruption, it’s been so poor that even if there were much biggerissues, you know, with how hard it is to fight an Ebola outbreak people’s perceptionsautomatically went to corruption.
He said, however, perceptions were not the same for the international community.
You know, actually, I was really surprised by this. As someone who lived in Liberia for a fewyears I really expected that the levels of trust in the international community would have beenequally as low as the government. Because, you know, I’ve heard people say, well, these are thefolks who support this government [in] the way that they act. But actually the levels of trustthat were given to the international community were much higher than the government. Infact, most of the remarks in most of the reports on the international community’sperformance during Ebola, and just, in general, its concern for Liberians, was very high.
He said that “one of the critical and under reported narratives” of Liberia’s Ebola crisis involvedcommunity leaders.
Initially, there was this really authoritative effort to quarantine communities and force them todo things differently. And it kind of didn’t work. And what really worked is once you sat downwith communities – and once the government actually got to community leaders and said,look, what can we do to assist you in fighting this outbreak? What do you need from us andwhat can you do to help? Then once that kind of collaborative effort started, then that’s reallywhen you started to see cases reduce.
Mukpo said community trust played a major role in the safe burial of Ebola victims. Touchingand washing dead bodies helped spread the disease, despite government warnings against thetraditional practice.
Really, when you’ve got community volunteers involved, these are the people whose neighborsdoing these secret burials，whose neighbors were hiding the sick. So, it’s much easier to hidesomebody from an official who doesn’t live in your neighborhood than from someone who grewup 30 yards away. They come and knock on your door and say, you know, look, I hear yoursister is sick. We need to take her to the clinic. And I really think that was the tipping point thatonce it was people that folks trusted and that knew had their best interests in mind, that that’sreally when people started to be more cooperative and change their behavior.
The International Alert report said, “Post-Ebola policy-making and aid delivery must take intoaccount the need to repair the bonds between Liberians and their government, in order tostrengthen good governance and accountability.It added that projects that seek tostrengthen health services, promote good governance and rebuild service delivery mustincorporate civil society and communities into planning and decision-making.
It also recommended that security forces exercise restraint during demonstrations andprotests, that anti-corruption agencies be strengthened, and that the Liberian governmentsupport a free press and civil society.
【參考譯文】
就在利比裏亞，幾內亞和塞拉利昂的醫療官員盡力消除埃博拉疫情之時，一項新的申報指出，咱們汲取了慘重教導。非當局構造“國際警報”稱，利比裏亞當局與大眾之間的不信賴為這次埃博拉疫情落井下石。
這份申報的記者阿詩卡·穆庫稱，很多大眾不信任當局機構，乃至感到他們是一種威逼。
穆庫是一名美國人，同時他也是埃博拉病毒的受害者。客歲，他在蒙羅維亞沾染了埃博拉。
對付我來講，那幾周真是異常苦楚。我病得異常重。我歷來沒有病得如斯鋒利過，我真是有點畏懼。
在利比裏亞接收5天醫治後，他被飛機運往了內布拉斯加州的醫療中間。
“國際警報”構造將這份申報定名為“埃博拉：大眾對當局的立場，和利比裏亞對疾病爆發的應答。
“國際警報”是一個透過實質來增進不蓬勃國度寧靜的構造。而對付埃博拉疫情在利比裏亞的爆發，有若幹是由於大眾對當局的立場而致使疾病爆發的?這是咱們最佳奇的題目之一。咱們在與大眾攀談時，發明大眾對當局相稱不信賴，並疑惑當局念頭。當當局對埃博拉疫情向大眾發出告誡時，如許的不輕信也造成為了大眾起先對告誡的疏忽。
他稱，如許的不信賴有汗青的緣故原由，也有很多是由於未完成的期許所發生的絕望感。
從一方面來說，利比裏亞當局與大眾的重要感由來已久。15年前，利比裏亞產生了內戰。但是，我以為現在的大眾具有的是更多的願望。約翰遜·瑟利夫的上台就象征著成長，象征著襲擊腐爛。但是，成果卻使人異常絕望。以是，大眾所盼望的工作畢竟不會產生。
穆庫稱，就在利比裏亞受埃博拉擾亂時，大眾所盼望的要多於對醫療軌制的期許。
在曩昔十年間，當局將數百萬美金投放在了救濟與成長項目。跟著醫療部分的敏捷塌台，人們覺得這必定是腐爛在作怪，官員收取款項，而不是將資金投在應當落實的項目上。無論公平不公平，假如你看一看當局襲擊腐爛的數據，你就會發明咱們另有很多還沒有辦理的大題目，經由過程當局襲擊埃博拉，大眾會自但是然將題目瞄準腐爛。
但是他以為，大眾對國際社會的概念卻判然不同。
你曉得，我對此覺得異常驚奇。對付住在利比裏亞多年的我來講，我異常願望大眾對國際社會的信賴水平可以或許和當局同樣低。由於，我曾聽人們說到，是國際社會支撐了當局的行動。但是現實上，大眾對國際社會的信賴水平比當局要高許多。究竟上，很多關於國際社會在處置埃博拉疫情時所揭櫫的談吐都表現了對利比裏亞大眾的擔憂。
他稱，很多關於利比裏亞埃博拉危急的報導都不確切際，而這些報導與很多他國引導人有關。
起先，人們對國際社會應用了行政敕令，並催促他們各司其職。然則這其實不見效。真正有效的是兩邊坐下來，談一談，當當局與國際社會引導人真正坐下來，咱們能為疫情做些甚麽?你們須要咱們幹甚麽，咱們能贊助你幹甚麽?一旦互助開端，咱們能力真正看到疫情的減緩。
穆庫稱在妥當，平安處置埃博拉病人的屍首方面，國際社會起到了相當主要的感化。只管當局對傳統的安葬方法發出了告誡，撫摩和洗濯仍舊流傳了病菌。
當社區自願者參加時，是自願者的鄰裏贊助舉行機密葬禮，是他們將病患藏了起來。以是，將住戶隱蔽起來要比將住在30碼之外的人隱蔽起來要簡略的多。他們會來敲你家的們，說我據說你妹妹病了。咱們須要將她帶到診室。我真的以為這臨時刻光降了，人們互信任任，並開端互幫合作，漸漸轉變了本身行動。
“國際警報”稱，“後埃博拉政策和救濟事情須要將改良利比裏亞國民與當局的幹系席卷在內，如許做可以改良當局的引導，加強當局的義務感。還稱在改良醫療辦事，加強當局治理，重塑辦事體系等計謀和決議計劃制訂上，都必需和民間社會聯合在一路。
申報還發起稱，平安部分須要對遊行和抗議舉行限定，增強反貪部分的事情，利比裏亞當局須要支撐談吐自由，和民間社會。
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