【经济学人】严厉打击互联网和英语使用者丨2017.03.09丨总第841期

THE images beaming from the screens of Cameroon’s state television channel, CRTV, show a country riding on a wave of glory. In February the national football team, “The Indomitable Lions”, beat Egypt to win the Africa Cup of Nations trophy for the first time in 15 years. In January a Cameroonian teenager became the first ever African winner of the Google coding challenge, an international programming competition.

喀麦隆国际电视频道CRTV播放屏幕显示这个国家正沐浴在荣耀当中。2月喀麦隆国家足球队“不败雄狮”战胜埃及，十五年来第一次赢得非洲国家奖杯。1月一位喀麦隆少年成为谷歌编码挑战赛（国际编程比赛）的首位非洲获胜者。

• Indomitable 不气馁的，不可战胜的
  

But turn away from the goggle box and the country is troubled. When the footballing trophy was brought to Bamenda, Cameroon’s third-biggest city, placard-carrying protesters joined the crowds of onlookers. And for almost two months the country’s young Google prodigy, along with hundreds of thousands of others, has been unable to surf the web because the government has shut it down in two English-speaking regions (see map). The plug was pulled as part of a clampdown on Anglophone activists in which more than a hundred people have been arrested and pressure groups have been outlawed. At least six people have been killed and scores more injured since December by policemen and soldiers who have opened fire on demonstrators.

但是如果我们把目光从电视里移开，可以发现这个国家正问题缠身。当喀麦隆第三大城市巴门达捧回足球奖杯时，手持标语牌的示威者加入了围观人群。因为政府将两个英语区(见地图)的网络关闭，导致近两个月的时间里，年轻的谷歌奇才和其他几十万人都无法上网。该行动是对英语活动家进行压制的一部分。在这场压制活动中，有一百多人被逮捕，压力团体也被取缔。自从去年12月份以来，警察和士兵向示威者开火，至少有六人被其打死，还有更多人受伤。 

• prodigy  奇才，神童
  

• goggle box  Google公司的推出的智能电视盒

The protests initially began as a series of strikes by the country’s English-speaking lawyers, who took to the streets in their wigs and gowns in October 2016 demanding English translations of the country’s key legal texts and better treatment by the authorities. Since then many others have joined in, including teachers. The conflict between the government and the Anglophone minority is escalating.

抗议最初起始于该国英语律师的一系列罢工活动。在2016年10月，他们戴假发穿长袍走上街头，要求国家的关键法律文件翻译成英语，还要求得到政府更好的待遇。从那时起，包括教师在内的其他许多人也加入进来。政府和英语少数群体的冲突正在不断激化。

The roots of Cameroon’s linguistic rift date back to 1919, when Britain and France divided the country between them, having taken it from Germany after the first world war.After both parts gained their independence in 1960 and 1961, they reunited to form a bilingual, federal republic. （读者试译）But English speakers, who are less than fifth of the population, feel hard done by. They say that their regions get less than their share of public money and that it is too hard to interact with the state in English.

喀麦隆语言分裂的根源可以追溯到1919年，当时一战后英法两国从德国手里接管此地，并将它一分为二。“期待您的翻译，将您的理解留言在文章下方留言处，第二天将会有长难句解析哟~”两部分在1960年和1961年相继独立以后，重组为双语的联邦制共和国。但说英语的人占总人口不到五分之一，因此觉得受到了不公对待。他们说，和对公共资金的贡献相比，他们地区得到的不足一提，而且很难用英语和其他人互动。

• rift 裂缝
  

President Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982, is sub-Saharan Africa’s second-oldest ruler, afterRobert Mugabeof Zimbabwe. Yet despite his age, he has mastered social media, in the sense of figuring out how to silence digital dissent. After young Arabs used smartphones to organise the uprisings of the Arab Spring, despots everywhere grew nervous. But then they found the off-switch. Last year 11 African governments, including Zimbabwe and the inaptly named Democratic Republic of Congo, interfered with the internet during elections or protests.

自1982年执政以来，总统Paul Biya是撒哈拉以南非洲第二年长的统治者，仅次于津巴布韦领导Robert Mugabe。尽管年事已高，从消灭网络抗议的意义上来说，他仍掌控着社交媒体。

自从阿拉伯年轻人使用智能手机组织阿拉伯之春的起义后，各国独裁者都紧绷神经。但是之后他们发现了关闭网络这一灵丹妙药。包括津巴布韦和刚刚命名的刚果民主共和国在内，去年11个非洲政府在选举或抗议期间对互联网实施过干扰。

• inaptly 不熟练地
  

• despot 专制者

The government cut off the internet to a part of the country known for its technology start-ups, which probably hasn’t done much for economic growth. Before the crackdown internet usage in Cameroon had been soaring, with penetration rising to 18% in 2016, from 4.3% in 2010. Phones are also ubiquitous, which may be why the communications ministry has been sending text messages, sometimes several times a day, warning of prison sentences of up to 20 years for anyone “found guilty of slander or propagating false declarations on social media”.

政府切断了以新兴技术公司闻名的部分地区的互联网，这对经济增长可能没起多大作用。但在遭受限制之前，喀麦隆的互联网使用率一直急剧上升。从2010年到2016年，互联网渗透率从4.3%上升至18%。手机也无处不在，这或许解释了为什么交通部一直在发布短信，三令五申，警告任何人“只要被发现在社交媒体上诽谤他人或散布谣言”，会面临最长20年的监禁。

• slander 诽谤
  

• ubiquitous 无所不在的

Journalists have been arrested and a popular radio station has been taken off the air. Although the conflict in Cameroon has mainly affected the English-speaking minority, the government’s heavy-handedness suggests that worse may lie ahead. Next year the country’s 84-year-old leader is expected to run for a seventh term. With no clear successor or challenger in sight, Mr Biya probably has no need to ratchet up repression. But meddling with the internet can be addictive, like the internet itself.

在这场镇压中，记者被逮捕，一家广受欢迎的电台被停播。虽然喀麦隆的冲突主要影响说英语的少数群体，但政府的大张旗鼓表明更糟糕事情的可能就在前面。明年84岁的喀麦隆总统有望获得第七次任期。既然眼前没有明确的继任者或者挑战者，Biya先生或许没有必要升级这场镇压。但是干涉互联网可能会让人上瘾，就像网络本身一样。

• meddling with 干涉
  

• ratchet up提升

翻译 ▍木三阳

审核 ▍ww

编辑 ▍hua外音