Трудности перевода. Инфинитив в различных функциях
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partisan сторонник, приверженец, фанатик, партизан (редк.); партийный, необъективный, предвзятый control v. руководить, управлять, распоряжаться, владеть, контролировать, иметь большинство (в палате парламента) meeting собрание, заседание, митинг; встреча; дуэль dramatic драматичный; драматический; яркий, неожидан- ный, впечатляющий, важный realize выполнять, реализовать; представлять себе, осо- знавать record запись, летопись; учет, регистрация, данные, характеристика, протокол, рекорд, позиция argument довод, аргумент; спор. Примечание. Эти слова могут иметь и другие оттенки значения и в зависимости от контекста переводиться иначе. 3. Причиной ошибок при переводе может быть грамматическое несовпадение схожих английских и русских слов. Так, ряд существительных в английском языке употребляется в единственном и множественном числе, а в русском — только в единственном. (Например, economy, policy, industry). Во множест- 156 венном числе industries может означать отрасли промышленности или промышленность (ряда стран); policies политика, политический курс ряда стран или в разных областях), например: foreign and domestic policies of the new government — внешняя и внутренняя политика нового правительства. nuclear weapons ядерное оружие democracies демократические государства Некоторые существительные в английском языке во множественном числе приобретают новые значения. Например: difference разница, различие differences 1) различия, 2) разногласия development 1) развитие, 2) участок, подлежащий освоению; 3) микрорайон; 4) тенденция. developments события Проанализируйте и переведите следующие предложения. The heaviest blow that the atom bomb fanatics got, however, came with the dramatic announcement that the Russians also have got the bomb. As they participate in the fight for dramatic reforms large sections of the population come to realize the necessity of unity of action and to become more active, politically. The Administration, of course, is loath to contemplate such a fun damental change in its foreign policy. The stakes are too high and Ameri can bonds with Europe too numerous to permit such a dramatic situation. The Prime Minister's dramatic European move was timed to divert public attention from the more dismal news of the freeze. There is & popular tendency, among most newsmen and radio and TV commentators, to portray Congressmen as men who are working themselves to death, sweating and suffering heart attacks to serve the people. He seems to have excluded himself from the vice-presidential can didacy at a time when the public Opinion polls report that he is more popular than both the President and the Vice-president. The victory of the popular revolution in Cuba has become a splen did example for the peoples of Latin America. The President of Brazil made himself very popular when he killed 157 hyperinflation and gave his country a solid currency. But he didn't follow through by reforming government itself. 9. This year the election falls on November 3. The outcome is gener ally known the next morning, though formally the balloting takes place in the Electoral College in early December. The Prime Minister will reply to the speeches on Monday, after informal talks last night, this evening and tomorrow with the Common wealth Prime Ministers, who have been invited in three groups. Some right of privacy, however qualified, has been a major differ ence between democracies and dictatorships We must fortify the international system by helping transitional or otherwise troubled states become full participants. This is essential to maintain the momentum of democracy's recent advances. In foreign policy political democracies may be isolationist, inter nationalist, or imperialist A country whose people are willing to march out into the world, and if necessary to die there, is a likelier candidate for great-power rank than one whose people do not feel that way; and the difference matters even more between two democracies than it does between two dictator ships, because in a democracy people's wishes count for more. This policy will ensure that successive currency crises do not af fect the level of economic activity and overall welfare of the nation The meeting expressed the hope that the remaining points of dif ferences would be settled when the conference is resumed in Geneva. The main item on the agenda, and one over which most differences exist, was the proposed agreement. A conspiracy is being brewed in Wall Street and Washington to deny the people any choice in the Presidential elections. The tactic is to suppress the issues and blur any differences between the Republican and Democratic candidates. A general strike is one which affects an entire industry, an entire locality or a whole country. 20. Disarmament will release for civilian employment millions of people now serving in the armed forces and war industries. This fact is recognition of the weight and power of public opinion, of its growing influence on international developments The State Secretary was reported to be dispirited by the outcome of the day's developments and waiting to see what would be done to shore up his authority. Such development would emphasize the region's economic im portance and growth potential which would be reflected in its population growth, housing and overspill problems. 158 The Prime Minister said that the Government was prepared to set up publicly owned enterprises in the development areas. In a strategic sense, the Norwegian approach if pressed further, appears to be a development that could lead toward dividing Europe from the United States. Already very many sections of the Labour, trade union and coop erative movements support policies on these lines. Their members num ber millions. To get the kind of Budget the country needs means a fight for a different policy within the Labour movement. American politics is passing through a highly unusual phase. In a country where local issues usually dominate voting patterns, foreign pol icy has surprisingly emerged as the defining issue of the current political debate. Mrs. Robinson admits she is not a natural politician in the Irish sense: she lacks the glad-handing skills so valued in the small world of Irish politics. Aides billed the president's speech to California business and policy leaders as a major address laying out his goals for the remainder of his term. In the fluid world of Middle Eastern politics, the Iraqi Kurds, de spite massacres and betrayals, still maintain lines of communication with the President. But even if conservatives triumph, those involved in the contest say the energy of street-level politics, and the sense among Iranians that the election is providing them with a genuine voice in local government, can only speed the process of liberalization. Nothing would do more to protect American security in the dec ades ahead than ensuring that Russia's immense stockpile of nuclear weapons and materials is diminished and adequately controlled. The next decade or two may bring specific threats from specific Muslim countries, such as a nuclear-armed Iran or Algeria; but there is no sign yet of a shoulder-to-shoulder Islam. It can certainly be said that lax management, waste and worse have been part and parcel of Brussels programmes for decades. No particular fan of an American model, Mr. Pfister describes the investigation of the US President by an independent counsel as partisan, inspired by the right wing of the Republican Party, and using inquisition — like methods. It is surely chauvinistic to identify the West with America and 159 Britain alone, and partisan to attribute its slow triumph to one favoured thread of an ever complicated politics No mean partisan Representative, Tom Campell, Republican of California, has joined with Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, to gather some 40 congressmen to demand on constitu tional grounds that the president obtain authority from Congress before taking military action against a country [Yugoslavia]. A full warning [of nuclear blackmail] came from the report of the commission on missile threats. This was a bipartisan commission, with members who have often disagreed on weapons issues. Under a compromise already reached by the Environment Minis ter, a Greens lawmaker, and the Economics Minister, a non-partisan en ergy expert, the ban (of sending spent fuel out of Germany for reprocess ing) will not take effect until a year after passage. Years of partisan wrangling over the US deficit, taxation, foreign aid and contributions to international organizations have created a con sensus that Americans cannot pay more and resentment that the European allies appear to be paying less. The Iraqi Kurds may be running their affairs autonomously for now, but all know how devastating the disciplined Iraqi armored units can be against their lightly armed guerrillas. The report said the Mayan population in Guatemala paid the high est price, when the military identified them as natural allies of the guer rillas. Whether a second chamber should be elected or nominated, with regions or special interests represented, is getting decision the wrong way round. The death of about 500 people in an explosion in South-Eastern Nigeria is being blamed on the sabotage of a fuel pipeline: saboteurs breached it last week. Tired of corruption and crime in the state (Maharashtra, India), voters, with some help from a few honest bureaucrats, are starting to dis own bad government. Few among her admirers would call her a natural bureaucrat, or a natural diplomat, or a good «details» person — all of which a European commissioner needs to be. In recent years in particular, an emboldened class of investigating magistrates has made unprecedented progress in investigating public offi cials suspected of abusing their position. In the Balkans and elsewhere, we are supporting the advocates of moderation and tolerance against the ruthless exploiters of ethnic hatred. 160 Americans must exert themselves not only to listen more carefully to European concerns but also to convey them accurately to political opinion makers in the USA. Domestic law enforcement has many techniques for gathering data, including lawful wiretaps and grand jury investigations. Many of the most internationalist of administration officials feed rather than combat congressional resentment [over the European allies]. The war in Kosovo is a reminder of the split between interven tionists, such as Mr. McCain, and isolationists, such as Pat Buchanan, a fire-breathing presidential aspirant who says that the United States should never have got involved in the Balkans in the first place. The offenders were told, that the Police Department would use all its legal powers against them unless the killings stopped. The new model was brought to Barclay, which is a public school. It means lots of homework, a gruelling workload of spelling tests, rigor ous instruction in math and science, and steady infusion of world history, literature and art to ensure that the children become «culturally literate.» Calvert is an exclusive private school in Baltimore, with an over whelmingly white, middle-class student body and an outstanding aca demic reputation. The traditional curriculum, such as it was, virtually disintegrated during the campus upheavals of the 1960s, when millions of students de manded and won the right to get academic credit for studying whatever they pleased. Direct democracy obliterates the distinction between government and the governed, it is a system of popular self-government. With American unemployment at record post-war low and the economy steaming ahead, industries such as steel and memory chips have resorted to anti-dumping suits to protect themselves against imports. Mr. Howard is relying on the minutes of a meeting held on January 10th at the Home office to support his claim that he did not mislead MPs. If the Prime minister is to win the referendum he plans to call soon after the next election, he needs the European project to continue to con vey an impression of remorseless forward momentum... What, though, if the momentum stalls, or seems to? Часть II i ПРЕДЛОЖЕНИЯ ДЛЯ ПЕРЕВОДА НА СМЕШАННЫЕ ТРУДНОСТИ 1. Сделайте синтаксический и грамматический анализ следующих предложений и переведите их, обращая внимание на перевод различных функций инфинитива, герундия и причастия. But just when they need time to work through their promising changes and help from the United States in completing them the Euro pean allies risk running into political static in Washington because of U.S. wishes to recast NATO in a role approximating a global policeman — a fu turistic vision of the alliance that European policymakers see as prema ture now, and perhaps forever. The European Commission argues that «unfair tax competition» among EU countries distorts the single market — by allowing low-tax countries, or heavens, to attract capital from high-tax jurisdictions — and indirectly contributes to Europe's high unemployment rates by shift ing taxation from capital to labour. Europe seemed to find its footing in NATO's post Cold-war pos ture, finally making a promising start on European military cooperation demonstrating a new readiness to use force and pulling down barriers to con solidating its national defence companies into Europe - wide industries. «Truths!» Charles de Gaulle is supposed to have shouted. «Did you think I could have created a [Free French] government against the English and the Americans with truths? You make History with ambition, not with truths». Taken with the smooth closure this year of alliance enlargement to include new members from Central Europe, there seems to be much to celebrate next year when Washington hosts ceremonies marking the anni versary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. If the Parliament insists on pushing through a policy forged in the heat of an election campaign rather than out of the calm consideration and consultation that the Parliament's committee structure is supposed to en courage, ministers in London will have to accept the anomaly or follow suit. 162 7. Attempts to strengthen common foreign and security policy, the EU's «second pillar», by importing majority voting or incorporating the Western European Union, Europe's defence club, into the EU, look like failing. The biggest changes are likely to come in the «third pillar»: justice and home affairs. Considered on the fringes of legality because of its liberal views, the Freedom Movement (of Iran) has been allowed to field four candi dates for the 15 municipal council seats in Tehran. Built-in encryption also could make it easier to add access controls to PC's and routinely scramble all stored data, making it harder to steal computer resources or files. The deal struck by European Union governments at their Berlin summit leaves both their budget and their enlargement plans in a worse state than before. « The Brazilian government move highlights the difficulty of im plementing a deep belt-tightening in a country in which more than 40 percent of the population live in poverty», — said an analyst in New York. In remarks focusing heavily on his so-called new Labour govern ment policy — which seeks to marry social justice and workers' rights with a pro-business market-oriented economic policy — Mr. Blair heaped praise on South Africa. Thousands of people rampaged Friday through the town, hurling stones at police stations and looting shops. Police fired plastic bullets at the mobs, killing at least one person and wounding nine. «Boston college has wronged me and my students by caving into right-wing pressure and depriving me of my right to teach freely and de priving them of the opportunity to study with me,» said Mary Daly, 70, an associate professor of the college in a telephone interview. No sooner had the European Commission resigned than the Prime Minister popped up in the House of Commons to tell MPs that this was no setback but a golden opportunity to push through « root and branch» reform of a Commission whose failings had been tolerated for far too long. Stretching a point, he boasted that it was his lot that had brought the Commission down. The vice-president began by allaying fears that he would burden business with a green and heavy hand: government has its place as long as government knows its place, he said, adding that slump in the devel oping world makes growth a top priority for governments. Until then [1918] the infant Labour party had been the junior of the Liberals, helping them to win their landslide victory of 1906 and to enact a sweeping programme of social, and constitutional reform in great part inspired and led by Lloyd George. 163 These universities (Oxford and Cambridge) were rural rather than urban, and therefore residential, they took a collegiate form. Their func tion was not only to train the young for the professions, but to preserve the heritage of the past and transmit it to succeeding generations and to prepare them morally as well as intellectually for the larger duties of gov ernment and society. Boeing executives suspect commission officials of passing on in side information about airline contracts to airbus officials in Toulouse. For that reason the Seattle company has been rather vague in some of its answers to the commission's requests for information, while formally co operating with its inquiry. The commission is making a habit of interfering with firms from outside the EU when it thinks that competition is likely to be lessened. Germany has complained strongly to Washington about restric tions facing foreign companies seeking to enter the US telecommunica tions market. Germany's finance minister expressed concern at the dis cretionary powers of the Federal Communications Commission to restrict access which, he said, could result in foreign companies being denied access to the US market «for general foreign policy or trade policy reasons.» A college education is often a collection of courses without any connecting fiber. Yet decision-making is a function of being able to inte grate what seems like unrelated variables, and understanding the balance between analytical and intuitive skills. Without knowing these variables, it is impossible to determine what information is needed, know how and where to get the information and select the information that is pertinent. In facing up to the dangers, and living up to the importance of his task, President Kim [of South Korea] has made a good start. But to un derstand that start, and to get the measure of what is required of him in future, it is vital to ditch the idea that he is a «left-winger» who is be coming, or has to become, a convert to free-market ideas once anathema to him. That is so partly because such labels are everywhere much less helpful than they were, but partly, also because in South Korea's circum stances (and Mr. Kim's) they are especially misleading. 2. Сделайте синтаксический и грамматический анализ следующих предложений и переведите их, обращая внимание на страдательный залог, сослагательное наклонение и модальные глаголы. 1. The place that scores highest in the coming superpower test is, beyond much doubt, China. China's economy may not keep up its dizzy growth of the past 15 years, but even something more modest — an en- 164 tirely possible 5-6% a year, say — would be enough to create a serious amount of power-projection over the next quarter of a century. That means a Chinese navy which can reach out into the Pacific; an army and air force capable of quickly putting an expeditionary force on to a foreign battlefield; and an expansion of China's existing long-range nuclear armoury. China may or may not be able within this period to match the electronics of America's military command-and-control system but, even without that it will be a formidable power. Most cases that come to the European Court of Justice are about en forcing single-market rules. A famous example was the 1979 ruling which said that a product approved for sale in one country must be ac cepted by others. This paved the way for mutual recognition of standards to become a cornerstone of the single market. The future of EMU* is shrouded in political uncertainty. The right kind of EMU would leave governments maximum sway in other aspects of policy. There is no reason in logic why a single currency should oblige governments to «harmonise» their tax or labour-market policies, for in stance, and one good reason of political economy why any such thing should be opposed — namely, that harmonization enlarges the power of the state at the expense of individual freedom, whereas competition among governments (the alternative to harmonization) does the opposite. Yet many of Europe's politicians seek harmonization as an end in itself, others would accept more of it as the price for more effective action to reduce unemployment, promote competitiveness or what you have. Reviewing earlier research and drawing on new work for this book, Messrs Dollar and Pritchett establish, first, that the raw correlation be tween aid and growth is near zero: more aid does not mean more growth. Perhaps other factors mask an underlying link, they concede; perhaps aid is deliberately given to countries growing very slowly (creating a misleading negative correlation between aid and growth, and biasing the numbers). More of the new rich may discover philanthropy and good manners, just as the Astors did before them. But there is one difference. Much of the new pain, like much of the new wealth, is being created not by the rich but by globalisation. Already several politicians seem to be taking aim at the « winner-takes-all society». It is not hard to imagine talk of supertaxes or higher trade barriers to stop the injustice. But that might turn out to be like trying to ram an iceberg. The back-to basics advocates will be surprised to learn that Japa nese teachers are nothing like as authoritarian as they have assumed, and EMU — European Monetary Union 165 there is more learning-by-experiment and less by rote than is often claimed. 7. Sweden, even this Mecca of equality can't reconcile the female di lemma of balancing family and career. A whole new employment crisis could be closing in on the European Union. The population is shrinking, in some countries drastically, and that means fewer taxpayers to keep the social safety net hanging together. The Americans are irritated by what they consider to be tax havens, some just off their coast (the Caribbean territories), perfectly placed to launder the earning of Latin American drug barons. (Drugs are thought to be the primary source of dirty money). The British, and other big countries trying to crack down on money laundering, fear that it may prove impossible. After all, as the report noted last month, no sooner has one loophole been closed than another opens. Illicit cash can be laundered through a whole variety of frauds us ing property, construction, insurance, stockbroking, foreign exchange, gold or jewellery. Mr. McCarthy, the Cayman's finance secretary, recently accused G7 countries of «trying to impose their political will on the less strong». Such noble concerns for human rights and for the weak might resonate more widely were it not that some offshore centres still enforce repressive social legislation, while thriving, in part, on the proceeds of crime. The banks cannot blame all their woes on outside events. There are 25 new commercial banks that eagerly sought licences when the rules were liberalised. Many lent inadvisedly, often to their business affiliates. Much of the money went into property. Other loans went straight into the stockmarket. As it slumped so more loans went into default. Spare a thought for Indonesia's bank doctors. Most of their pa tients became fatally ill last year, but in the interest of dignity they have to announce the deaths in instalments. The announcement was greeted warmly by the World Bank and the IMF, which had scolded the government for delaying it. Joseph Warren was a hero of the magnitude of Washington, Jef ferson, or Lincoln. A medical doctor, he was a leader of the Sons of Lib erty, a friend of Sam and John Adams, and he organized against tyranny and oppression. He conjured a sense of what a virtuous American people could do to rescue humanity from degradation at the hands of brutes and bullies. China's improved infrastructure, increased know-how and better direct trade connections to the world mean that Hong Kong's ability to command the situation has been diminished, 166 Mr. Blair needs no reminding that the throw-the-rascals-out mood that gave the government its landslide had much to do with Mr. Major's broken promises of lower taxes. If Mr. Blair breaks his, he cannot expect to be forgiven. More and more Swedish women work part-time and the majority are clustered in the public sector, in lower-paying occupations like teaching and nursing. Just as the Scots throughout the 1980s lamented being governed by English politicians they had not elected, so the English — in time — may resent the Scottish say over their affairs. The US President plans to call for a new round of global trade ne gotiations during his State of the Union address today. The talks would target industrial tariffs, agriculture, services, intellectual property, labour rights and environmental protection. The president was to be wined, dined and entertained, but he was also expected to be confronted with demonstrations and protests. A dem onstration was planned by environmental groups to protest the alleged re neging by the United States on promises to limit fallout of acid rain on Canada. The House of Representatives will begin deliberations Tuesday on a bill to increase transportation aid to cities. The nation's handicapped are demanding the bill include regulations requiring cities with mass transit systems to improve facilities for handicapped and disabled people. A bill on mass transit passed the Senate in June, and supporters are pushing for passage in the lame duck House session. They anticipate a tougher battle should the bill have to face next year's more conservative Congress. What the Prime Minister has to do is to convince a basically con servative government and business establishment at home that changes must be made for Japan to continue as either an economic or political power. At the same time he must move away from the old, tired promises of his predecessors and convince the international community that his na tion has at last recognized the need and has the will to take a more meaningful role in the international arena (with all that it implies). Given the pressure both at home and abroad the going is bound to be rough but present premier just could be the one to pull it off. His seemingly passive form of government may well in the end be recognized as the most active of the postwar era. For the teachers the inspectors have only praise. Their attitude «is of professional commitment and resourcefulness». 167 But, the report adds: «There is evidence that teachers' morale has been adversely affected in many schools. «Its weakening, if it became widespread, would pose a major problem in the effort to maintain present standards, let alone improve them.» The National Union of Teachers backed up this judgment, the report showed that those who had accused the NUT of alarmism were wrong, the union said. Behind this action lies an admission of, and a determination to solve, the real problem of every weatherman — that meteorologists actu ally know frighteningly little about the weather. «If a scientist in any other field made predictions based on so little basic information,» the head of the United States Weather Bureau's international unit remarked recently, « he'd be flatly out of his mind.» And if chemistry were now at the same stage as meteorology, a colleague added, the world would just be beginning to worry about the horrifying effect of gunpowder in warfare. Both countries have an interest in avoiding such an extention of the area of conflict because of the threatening consequences, were the lo calization to fail. A heavy expenditure on atomic development for peaceful pur poses, if controlled by the people, would ultimately pay handsome dividends. The chairman of a firm of timber importers, gently chided his fel low-industrialists. He reminded them that some of the presidents of the larger Russian trade corporations had told him that orders which might have been placed in Britain had not been because whether British export ers were unable to quote or were uncompetitive. The Prime Minister's famous victory last week against the rebels within his own party was surely cheaply won. His own performance may have been — indeed, must have been — more effective to listen to than to read later, for despite the fact that it was a speech for all seasons, it left unanswered or inadequately answered, so many questions about Britain's future role in the world and how it is to be fulfilled, that the great debate is very far from conclusion. For all his political skill, the Prime Minister has only written another chapter, he has not closed the book. Some excuse for the behaviour of Tory chieftains might be pro vided if it could be shown that the leadership battle revolved round cen tral issues of public importance. But throughout the dispute it has been concerned with personalities and patronage-gang warfare in all its sterility. Many past air crashes, as subsequent investigation has shown, could have been avoided. There are many points which need an answer. Perhaps the answers to these questions will be satisfactory. In this case every possible step may have been taken that could have been taken, and 168 it may be shown that only a human error that could not have been foreseen caused the crash. 30. The Administration, which has been on its best behaviour throughout the summer in not pressing Britain to reach an early decision, is now making it plain that it would welcome an immediate answer. Seri ous discussions are to begin next month with Germany, Italy and others, and if Britain is not to miss the boat she must be ready to take part. A threat to developing countries that they must pursue policies pleasing to the U.S. if they want financial aid was made in Washington yesterday by the U.S. Undersecretary of State. «If a country is to be able to achieve self-sustaining growth within a reasonable future,» he told the annual meeting of the World Bank, «it will have to pursue realistic poli cies to acquire the capital it needs.» An urgent public inquiry is now needed into the whole running of the Metropolitan police. Last night's World in Action exposed what has long been suspected and hinted at; the Countryman inquiry into corruption at Scotland Yard was frustrated by the very people under question — senior police officers at the Yard. Yet again we have a stark example of the police adamantly refusing to accept that the public have a right to question the activities of the men and women who are employed to police Britain. One reason the police put forward is that such inquiries damage public confidence in the police. But on the contrary, the exact opposite is true. 3. Проанализируйте и переведите следующие предложения, обращая внимание на перевод атрибутивных словосочетаний и других лексических трудностей. In November 1955, at the Messina conference that laid the founda tion for today's European Union, Britain's representative, a pipe-smoking Oxford-don turned-civil-servant called Russel Bremerton, made a brief comment: « The future treaty which you are discussing has no chance of being agreed; if it was agreed, it would have no chance of being applied. And if it was applied, it would be totally unacceptable to Britain. As a look at European households by the Family Policy Studies centre found, «the pace of change can only be described as leisurely». Similar research from America produces the identical conclusion. Even in Sweden, where it has been national policy for decades to make both the public and private spheres strictly gender neutral, the reality is that this is far from the case. Very few men take paternity leave and the jobs women go to are overwhelmingly « female» ones like day-care and nursing. 6-553 169 3. In Mr.Aznar's book the socialists who ruled post Franco Spain for 13 years, over-reacted by idolising all things foreign and despising the home-grown. That, says Mr. Aznar, meant being too obsequious to — among others — the European Union. But it is proving hard to legislate Spaniards into being prouder of their history. Tired of corruption and crime in the state [Maharashtra, India], vot ers, with some help from a few honest bureaucrats, are starting to disown bad government. Some citizens are challenging the abrupt transfer of their municipal commissioner, who had upset the rich and influential by or dering the demolition of some of their illegal buildings. Elaborate international networks have developed among organized criminals, drug traffickers, arms dealers, and money launderers, creating an infrastructure for catastrophic terrorism around the world. Aspects of the welfare reform program have infuriated legislators on Labour's left wing and interest groups representing the sick and dis abled, who say that the proposed cuts will take benefits away from some of the neediest people. During the Thatcher years, when whole industries collapsed, many people who lost their jobs found that their doctors were willing to declare them incapable of working. This enabled them to sign up for incapacity benefits, which pay more than unemployment benefits, and allowed the government to claim that fewer people were actually unemployed. What to make of her [Albright's] humiliation? Some say it shows that charm and sound-bites are no substitute for geopolitical grasp or for attention to detail. A law of 20th century communication has become evident: The length of a sound bite is inversely proportional to the complexity of the world and the overload of information to which we are exposed. Colum nist G.W. summarized it best when he noted that if Lincoln were alive to day « he would be forced to say, « Read my lips: No more slavery!» The Liberal Party has pushed for a reinterpretation of Japan's pacifist constitution to allow greater freedom for the military overseas, but the Liberal Democrats opposed that. The two sides finally agreed to allow Japan's Self-Defense Forces to «actively participate and co-operate in UN peacekeeping missions if asked to do so by the organization.» So, it's back to the drawing board for the U.S. Treasury and the IMF. Will they really come up with some new «architecture» this time, something like going out of the global management business? Don't count on it. Assuming that Vodafone completes its takeover of Air Touch, the 170 resulting mobile-phone behemoth will become the world's largest cellular group. A fashion designer sued the government of Kuala Lumpur for as sault and battery Friday, saying he had been coerced into making a false confession. He and two others confessed but then retracted the allega tions, saying police had forced them into making false declarations through the use of threats and physical abuse in order to build a case against the ex-finance minister. «Regional Independent» offer (for takeover of Mirro Group PLC) is subject to financing, which some observers said could be tricky given the company's already leveraged condition. Both Chancellor of Germany and President of France played down reports of a monumental row between their countries over how to bring the EU budget and agricultural programs under control. Elections for the European Parliament are due in June, and almost all publicity is good publicity, from the parliament's viewpoint. In determining the choice of candidates, was it a case of the more tele'genic they were, the more chance they had of success? The show [exhibition on Arab Spain in Grenada] was an eloquent statement about the need for an introverted country [Spain] to acknowl edge its Moorish past and build bridges — to Maghreb as well as the New World and Europe. Instead of tackling the problems of racism, jobs, inflation, social services and the like, which would make life more fruitful for the masses of people, the «revitalization» plan is organized to fill the formula de manded by big business. In brief, «revitalization» is a raid on the Treasury for the benefit of big business. But it is also more; it includes the factor of an increase in monopolization of the economy, as The New York Times' editorial indicated. More, it tightens the grip of monopoly on government; it is a step in the direction of something like a « corporate state». It means less popular influence on government. It will only increase the problems and troubles confronting the people. 20. The transport union executive yesterday announced a stepping up of the campaign to defend fair fares — after London Transport confirmed redundancy proposals and the Transport Minister held out no hope for their cause. The union decided to allocate £10,000 for a campaign to defend subsidised transport in London and places such as South Yorkshire. It also announced that its members would not obstruct members of the public who refused to pay the increased fares, due in two weeks' time. 6* 171 While a few MPs are believed to favour this revolutionary pro posal certain party leaders and older MPs are opposed to it. Another early confrontation could occur in Nottinghamshire over the proposed closure of New Hucknall colliery near Mansfield. The Board announced yesterday that « redundancies are inevitable» in Kent, as it plans to shut Snowdown Pit within three months, putting 960 jobs in jeopardy. 23. Senior staff at Granada TV's London offices staged a one-day strike yesterday in protest at the company withdrawing creche facilities for staff children. All 50 members of the TV technicians' union, at Granada's Soho offices stopped work for the day, both men and women. Most of them were producers, directors and researchers. The strike was called because of the company's decision to end the creche facility for staff children at a local nursery centre. 24. Leaders of the Federation of Labour met representation of the Government and employers on Nov. 17 to discuss how to further imple ment the suggestions regarding a longer term wages policy which had al ready been discussed. The major element in the discussion was the implementation of a Court ruling to hear the case for wages rates «catching up» in relation to past inflation. At present, even the existence of the office is officially classified. In the intelligence community, it is known as a «black» operation, meaning that nothing about its work or the identity of its officials is sub ject to public scrutiny. The vision one gets of a so-called constitutional reform is one of cheap nagging and bargaining, all at the expense of the Canadian people, who have been completely excluded from the debate. As for the New Democratic Party, « Rather than coming forward with a truly democratic alternative to the constitutional crisis, the NDP too has become part of this 'wheeling and dealing' at the expense of the national rights of the French Canadian people, the rights of the native peoples, the economic and social rights of the Canadian people,» the statement charges. From being among the advocates of Canadianization of resources, the NDP has now become the champion of provincial ownership of resources, even though these resources are in fact in the hands of the multinational corporations. 27. In the case of the Union of Post Office workers a member could be excluded from membership for up to twelve months since there was no provision for any stay pending appeal to annual conference. 172 The company is reluctant to consider the workers' demand for wage increase. What seems to be the case is that it wants to prevent any drastic steps being taken to interfere with their profit making activity. The fact is that local industrialists were invited to become mem bers of the board when it was set up, and it must have been obvious that they would not only be concerned with local development, but in some cases be personally involved. Complicated legal issues which have arisen are being studied by the Attorney General's department which believes there is a case for dam ages against the tanker's owners. Yet for large and small nations, their record in the General As sembly does provide a yardstick with which to measure the application of their publicly announced foreign policy. Mr H. is the only serious rival at present, and if politics was a sci ence, he would be a formidable rival. He has a splendid record as a re form mayor and a courageous Senator. Mr N. had been under fire from many sections of the student community for allegedly being out of touch with the problems of ordinary students, and his speech tonight was being regarded as a make-or-break bid to win back popular support for executive policy. The biggest problem, however, is likely to be on the wage front. How cooperative will the unions be this summer as their demands culmi nate? A strong point is that the Chancellor of the Exchequer can now have as fullscale and thorough a Budget as he thinks necessary. The tourist potential is as yet largely untapped. But every effort is being made to develop the industry into a major foreign exchange earner. Apart from the existing facilities, the National Development Corporation is embarking upon a major programme for tourist accommodation facilities. There has been a vast deterioration of public facilities throughout the nation over recent decades, according to the study just made public by the Council of State Planning Agencies. The council's 97-page study declares that the nation's streets, roads, including the Interstate Highway System, publicly operated solid waste and toxic waste sites, treatment plants, port facilities and dams have been permitted to deteriorate drastically. Hundreds of billions of dollars are necessary to halt the ongoing deterioration and to restore the facilities to their former level, let alone expand them to fill growing needs. The most important factors in the deterioration are not included in the study: the diversion of hundreds of billions of dollars from maintenance of the nation's public works into the pockets of the rich, through tax giveaways and the huge war budget. The cancer is bipartisan. 173 Americans are accustomed to a confrontational, adversarial rela tionship between the government and business. Japan's regulatory style is based on intensive dialogue and extensive interaction that leads to com promise. Americans may have been disturbed by Lockheed's conduct but few of them had any sense of wounded national pride or much concern over loss of face in the international community. The problem now is how to de-escalate this international crisis. America should weigh the president's program on its merits and ignore the pretence that all the changes he has proposed are either neces sary or sufficient to conquer stagflation. Coming mainly from academia and think tanks, where they had been on the outside for years, they (Russian emigrants) found that being on the inside was both exhilarating and excruciating. Big business relies on its massive public relations rumor mill to twist truth into lies. There is no question that this campaign has been a success. 4. Сделайте синтаксический и грамматический анализ предложений и переведите их, обращая внимание на передачу значений артикля. 1. The role of the Japanese military is a touchy subject, one that rattles China and other neighbors as well as Japanese citizens, all parties that still have bitter feelings about Japan's role in World War II. 2. With economic confidence across Europe already fragile and economists cutting back growth forecasts, rising jobless totals in Europe's biggest economy threaten to further sour the mood, economists said. «It is not an easy problem. But if we don't stop the conflict now, it clearly will spread. And then, we will not be able to stop it except at far greater cost and risk». The wealth of Britain's architectural heritage rests upon strata of changing taste. There were no reports of violence during the protest. But scattered Christian-Muslim skirmishes on the island injured a handful of people Friday, witnesses said. 6. Many economists are predicting the labor market will weaken somewhat this year, although it will remain healthy by historical stan dards. 7. The state's troubles sent the Brazilian stock market plummeting as investors speculated the political battle over the debt would weaken the 174 central government resolve to slash a budget deficit and ease interest rates. The claim that congressional approval strengthens a president's policy is not one that presidents leap to test. Whereas everybody wants a new president of the European Com mission in place as soon as possible, Parliament — always keen on adding to its power — wants the procedure to go ahead under the new Amsterdam terms. Iran and the Soviet Union once had the Caspian Sea to themselves, amicably dividing its precious caviar. The two knew the sea contained mineral wealth but neither did much about it. « The larger a company gets, the more difficult it can be for the left hand to know what the right is doing». Hurt by the economic slump in Asia and a litany of production and delivery problems, Boeing sought to put the best face on its annual pro duction and delivery data. Reflecting Japan's spectacular economic growth, Tokyo's rapid development and, above all, Maki's [architect] evolving architectural philosophy, the changes helped create a dynamic complex that today an chors one of Tokyo's most popular neighborhoods. Many critics of the government's program argue that it reflects what they say is Mr Blair's Achilles' heel: the desire to be all things to all people, to appeal to the conservative-leaning middle class that helped propel him into office in 1997 while not abandoning the poor and work ing classes, labour's traditional base. The tough talk, they say, is one thing; the reality may fall short of the promise. Human rights are a basic American interest, and the administration should not flinch from promoting them. The civil service is a black abyss of underpaid, underemployed, unsackable people. There are calls for cutting the numbers radically, but if you do, you end up with an indigent army of unemployable people. The once empty, and beautiful, Mediterranean shoreline has be come a solid block of wall-to-wall holiday homes with their private beaches and marinas for middle-class Egyptians. Genre painting existed in the ancient world but was generally deemed an inferior pursuit suitable for less talented artists, an assumption that was inherited by the Renaissance establishment. The native Melanesian Ambonese are mainly Christians but many Asian Muslims from elsewhere in the vast Indonesian archipelago have come to the island for business and as civil servants. 175 The democratic peoples [of NATO members] admittedly do not relish sending their soldiers into foreign fields, but the evidence of the 20th century — two world wars, the cold war and, in the 1990s, the Gulf and Bosnia — suggests that they will generally act when they conclude that a principle or a major interest is under attack. The public outrage gave Beijing «a chance to redirect some of the political energy in a population that might otherwise be antigovernment,» says a China scholar of Wellesley College. French, long dominant at the commission of EU, has been rapidly losing ground to English, which, the French note acidly, is not even a language of continental Europe. Some economists warn that a further slowdown in Europe's econ omy could encourage opponents of the common currency, the euro, to blame Monetary Union for the hard times. ...the description of a solution to a problem as a «political» solu tion implies peaceful debate and arbitration as opposed to what is often called a « military» solution. The record number of mergers of large companies into even larger ones last year has raised fears at many arts organizations and other non profit groups that a decline in corporate donations may be an unfortunate byproduct. 5. Проанализируйте и переведите следующие предложения. 1. The euro is expected to accelerate European crossborder deals. By creating the foundations of pan-European market for capital, it exposes markets to stiffer competition. So it seems few taboos are left in Europe's once sleepy banking business: banks are merging with each other, with insurers, fund managers and others as never before. But are Europe's banks really set for a merger wave to rival that seen in America? In theory, Europe already has a single banking system. The reality is rather different. For some years to come, further consolidation will be stymied by resistance from politicians, workers and even bank bosses and by the way that banking system has been structured. 2. EU presidency is enough to test any country's skills to the limit. It means arranging dozens of ministerial meetings and managing the paper work for hundreds of specialist committees. Rare is the government that does not come to the end of its six months both relieved and exhausted. The Finns have a big reputation to live up to. Since joining the EU, and despite coming from its most distant edge, they have displayed an 176 almost uncanny mastery of its workings. Many point to them as the very model how a «small country should operate within the EU's institutions: merely modest and purposeful matching a sense of principle with a sense of proportion. Once the state has rooted out absolute poverty, how much wealth, if any, should it confiscate to reduce inequality for its own sake? How much should it curtail individual freedoms — to purchase extra education, to pass on an inheritance — so that people have an equal chance in life? Is there some level beyond which inequality cannot be stretched without snapping the bonds that hold people together? Whatever the answer, these are questions a government should frame clearly, not bury in the ob- fuscation of « fairness». Still less should a budget be so subtle that no body can divine, whether, why or how much a government believes in re distribution. Devolution is a healthy and abiding tendency. To de-emphasize the federal government is to resurrect one of the original principles of Ameri can politics. The nation was conceived as a union of 13 pre-existing states. The concept of national citizenship, as distinct from state citizen ship, did not even exist until 1787, 11 years after independence. In the early days, the states showed their distinctive personalities by what they did about slavery or the enfranchisement of non-citizens, rather than wel fare policy or the length of prison terms. But whatever the issues the taste for autonomy has endured and now seems, once again, to be growing. So long as the democracies remember what experience has taught them, they are probably unbeatable. Take Europe and America apart, and that comforting prospect vanishes. The Americans by themselves will still have the means to act, as well as their keener sense of ideological com mitment; but they will have fewer material interests in the outside world to feel concerned about, and the shock of the break with Europe could push them back to their old dream of hemispheric self-sufficiency. The goal of the EU constitutional conference will be to streamline the European Commission and to fine-tune the voting powers of national governments in the Council of Ministers, so that both institutions can ac commodate an influx of new members, mainly from Central and Eastern Europe, in the decade ahead. In contrast to Plato's claim for the social value of education, a quite different idea of intellectual purposes was propounded by the Renais sance humanists. Intoxicated with their rediscovery of the classical learning that was thought to have disappeared during the Dark Ages, they argued that the imparting of knowledge needs no justification — relig- 177 ious, social, economic or political. Its purpose, to the extent that it has one, is to pass on from generation to generation the corpus of knowledge that constitutes civilization. The study [of two University of Chicago researchers] is not good news for minorities. First, Latinos are significantly more likely to live near a hazardous-waste site than blacks or whites with comparable in comes. Second, the authors suggest that blacks are less likely than whites to live near Chicago waste sites in part because they have been excluded from areas near high-paying industrial jobs by decades of residential seg regation. The Chicago study will stimulate the debate. Some earlier stud ies in other cities have found a significant correlation between race and hazardous waste; others have no. But even in cases where hazardous- waste sites appear to be disproportionately located in minority neighbor hoods, they may not have been put there deliberately. It is currently fashionable to argue that nobody can hope to foresee what is going to happen to big-power politics in the next 30 or 40 years. Some of those who say this then add, contradicting themselves, that there is unlikely to be any great challenge to the security of Europe and Amer ica in the next generation or so: the world is for the time being, safe for democracy. Neither of these things is necessarily true. It is possible to make a reasonable guess at how power will redistribute itself round the world in the opening decades of the new century and how this redistribu tion of power will show itself in what counties do to each other. This rea sonable guess holds little comfort for the democracies of the West. 10. Though they seldom admit it, many Hungarians continue to har bour prejudice against gypsies, which is one reason that campaigners pre fer to use the term « Roma», arguing that from the lips of most Hungari ans, «cigany» is itself derogatory and that the word's most usual (and value-free) English variant, gypsy, should also therefore be dropped. What is less arguable is that it has been almost taboo, in Hungarian politics, to acknowledge that gypsies do have a real grievance. So for the foreign minister even to be discussing the subject is progress of a sort. 11. An inexperienced crew is working late shift, packing apples at the Northwestern fruit produce plant here. The new hires barely keep pace with roaring conveyor belts. But things are hard here. Last month, half the packing plant's 180 employees were laid off. In what turned out to be one of the biggest employment sweeps ever by the Immigration and Naturali zation Service, agents sifted through the records of 5,000 workers in 13 local packing plants here — and forced the companies to sack 562 de termined to be illegal immigrants. 178 In a move that clears the way for a wave of high-tech interactive gadgets in cars and trucks, five of the world's biggest auto makers said they are pursuing a common wiring standard for new vehicles. The stan dard should enable automotive suppliers to design their products to plug into millions of cars and trucks, regardless of the vehicles' maker. It could reduce the cost of such devices by allowing suppliers to standardize manufacturing processes. Germany wants a European Employment Pact to be adopted at a June summit of EU leaders in Cologne, Germany but some EU diplomats question whether this will be possible. At a meeting Monday, France and Italy meet opposition with their call for specific growth targets. Mean while, proposals by Spain and Britain for a more decentralized approach also find little favor. The Scottish National Party (SNP), which had campaigned quite ineffectively since it was founded in 1928, became a significant political force when it latched on to the discovery of North Sea oil in the 1960s to argue that an independent Scotland could escape from the economic de cline caused by the collapse of traditional heavy industry. Given the contempt with which I hold television, why would I want to appear on it to promote a new book that deals with its perverse effects? I have no easy answer. I struggle daily to find one. The best that I have been able to come up with is that I believe strongly that there is a deep, unsatisfied hunger on the part of the American people for some thing better, for something that speaks directly to our constant search for meaning on the basic issues of life itself. Egypt was committed, under its agreements with the IMF, to de nationalise one of the four state banks that together control 60% of retail banking. When the agreements expired, with no bank privatised yet, the IMF decided to give the government more time. Although Egypt's banks have a sounder reputation than some in the region, their closets still rattle with the skeletons of dodgy loans, handed out to inefficient state enter prises on government instructions. One reason why foreign investors still tend to hold back is that they are seldom invited to buy a controlling share of a company. The law has been changed so that there are no longer restrictions about the spe cific level of foreign shareholding; moreover, the new laws on repatriat ing capital and profits are very liberal. But multinationals tend still to think that the government's policy is not quite convincing: the legal groundwork for offering them a controlling share is there but it doesn't often happen in practice. Bad public relations, say Egyptians, plus preju diced foreigners. 179 Mr. Clinton's domestic critics are dismayed. They understand his words are another sort of code: permission for the appeasement-minded on the Security Council — including Russia, China and France among the five permanent members — to plead mitigation for Iraq and so make a military response from the 35,000 American servicemen currently mas tered in the Gulf anything but automatic. Hungarians like to think that ethnic hatred is something that takes place only in the Balkan badlands to the south. The government also re alises that it needs to be seen to be doing something — not least if its own lecturing of its neighbours on the fights of ethnic Hungarian minori ties is not to sound hollow. But what? — The government acknowledges that the country's current policy is inadequate, that all is not well with its showpiece policy, a system of ethnic self-government. These autono mous, democratically elected bodies are quite good at doing such things as organising dance troupes for ethnic Germans, but are ill-equipped to deal with the many problems facing gypsies. Donors can still help by spreading knowledge of a technological or institutional sort. This is one rationale for (small-scale) project aid. But what donors should not be spreading in these cases are large quantities of cash. That policy not only wastes money; it also undermines political support for every kind of aid, including those that work. While it remains true — as this study makes crystal-clear — that the key to development is good economic policy, and that this is something, which only the gov ernments concerned can put into effect, aid can play a useful role. It is up to donor governments to see that it does. From the recruiting sergeants who haunt the high schools and malls and Mс Donald's across America to the generals who count bunk and beans, there is a growing concern that generational and demographic changes have overtaken the ideals of military service. Sweden, of all places, has one of the most segregated work forces in the West. And while it didn't much matter economically when Sweden was a prosperous, welfare state, the country faces increasing pressure to tighten its belt. Sweden can no longer afford the disparity, needing women to contribute their full share into government tax coffers and pen sion funds. In fact, economists and policy makers warn that this is a challenge that much of Europe will face. Economic and social transformations of the past 20 years of re forms are likely to have been less destabilising than if modernisation had not taken place. This does not mean that social instability poses no risk at all. A serious economic downturn would make it harder for the government to buy off the disaffected. 180 What of the party? Here lies the problem. For, much as China's economy and society have been transformed, its political structure has not. Its political institutions were designed to change society, but are now incapable to adapt to it. The high divorce rate and liberated lifestyles of the boomer gen eration may now be producing more cautious, conservative attitudes among the young. « Generation X-ers basically believe the baby boomers went too far with their lifestyle, taking it to the brink», says Ann Clurman of Jankelovich Partners. «Children of divorce are 50 per cent of gen X- ers. They think they are victims of divorce and want to pull back from the precipice. Down the road we will definitely see less divorce». Like the Council of Ministers, the EU Parliament has been accru ing power at the Commission's expense. Yet, it too suffers from weak leadership. It needs to attend to its own faults if it is to exercise better control over the executive, bringing to an end, in particular, its expensive dual life in Brussels and Strasbourg. Best stick to Brussels, even though this would require a treaty change. Germany's chancellor faces two general difficulties and one par ticular one. First, he has to show that he really has some sense of what he wants to achieve: he has, in other words, to dismiss the impression that he has no central values and no clear idea of how Germany, or indeed Europe, should be run. Second, he has still to reform his party, which has been subjected to none of the colonic irrigation of that other new Middler, the British Labour Party. And then, unrelated to these general concerns, and perhaps even harder to achieve, he has to cajole the other members of the EU into accepting a budgetary arrangement that makes it possible for newcomers to join. America has the best technology, so it is inevitably the best, and right target for espionage, by China and a host of others. Given that China does indeed have spies, and that it is an actual rival and potential threat, America should be spying on China in return. Have no fear: it is. China rightly senses that trade can be used as a lever to soften, or blur, foreign policy issues. American businesses lobby for a softer line and for rule-changes at home to allow them to sell more in China, particularly for high-tech goods previously controlled on security grounds. They reinforce that pressure with political donations. 28. The challenges of running a country may also stimulate Scottish intellectual life. Many Scots fondly dream of a new « Scottish Enlighten ment», like the one the country enjoyed in the 18th century when Scottish thinkers like David Hume and Adam Smith were at the center of the 181 philosophical revolution which swept through Europe. The French philosopher Voltaire remarked, only slightly sarcastically, that if one wanted to learn anything from gardening to philosophy, one had to go to Edinburgh. The Enlightenment was partly stimulated, some think, because political union with England ended the Scottish preoccupation with battling against its more powerful southern neighbour and opened northern eyes and minds to the possibilities, both intellectual and commercial, arising in a fast-changing world in which Britain was then playing a decisive imperial role. 29. Between principle and practice, of course, can lie an ocean of dif ference, and seas of ink have indeed been drained in arguing about the consequences of accepting that gender as social. If it is, mustn't society be overturned to better women's lot? Is it inequality with men or male stereotyping that women suffer from? Isn't talk of suffering itself a new form of victimhood? Naomi Wolf, in her book «Fire with Fire» (1993) blamed older feminists for exaggerating women's powerlessness and for the supposed excesses of political correctness. 30. Mr. Menem's [of Argentina] past services are undeniable. Elected in 1989, he inherited hyperinflation. That alone might have led back to strongman rale. Instead, his government by creating a currency board, has killed inflation stone-dead. He has brought to heel the armed forces, still snarling when first he came to office. Today, these once masters of the land serve its elected government. Abroad, Mr. Menem has mended fences with the United States, taken Argentina into the Mercosur trade group, and solved its border disputes with Chile. This is a solid record. There are clear arguments to be made in favour of equality (relief of poverty, the encouragement of social cohesion); but there are also clear arguments to be made against imposing it (this is unnatural, unattainable, suppresses initiative, attempts self-defeatingly to create a sense of broth erhood by coercion). « Fairness», by contrast, is a label a government can slap on pretty much any policy it chooses. Equality is measurable, fair ness — in the eye of the beholder. The left thought equality was fair; the right thought inequality was fair. When overseas aid was under Foreign Office control, it was clearly a tool of foreign policy as well as a way of helping poor countries. 182 And it sometimes subsidised British business by being tied to British goods and services. But that approach clearly had drawbacks. Aid priorities were distorted by the pursuit of commercial advantage. Britain, for example, was discovered to be funding a dubious dam project in Malaysia in the hope of winning arms sales. When New Labour came into office, it announced that aid should be purely for helping the poor. Modern youth becomes the dreaded avenging angel of his parents, since he holds the power to prove his parents'success or failure as parents and this counts so much more now, since his parents' economic success is no longer so important in a society of abundance. Youth itself, feeling in secure because of its marginal position in a society that no longer depends on it for economic security, is tempted to use the one power this reversal between the generations has conferred on it: to be accuser, and judge of the parents' success or failure as parents. With monetary policy in the hands of the European Central Bank, fiscal policy — budget deficits and surpluses a la Keynes — is the re maining tool with which the member states of European Economic and Monetary Union, or EMU, can affect their own growth and employment. The sense of energy and optimism generated by Mr. Blair's at tempt to create a brave new Britain could easily give way to disillusion ment — as it did in the 1970s — if his government cannot turn visionary rhetoric into something rather more substantial. It is less than a month since the prime minister decided to break cover, stand up in the House of Commons, launch his «national changeo ver plan», and make it plain to anyone who had ever doubted it that he really did intend to lead Britain into the promised land of the euro. This was the very week in which big business started to fire its pro-euro artillery, with the official launch of the «Britain in Europe» campaign headed by chairman of British Airways. 37. The US elections have often been compared to a circus. It is a shame that the comparison has some truth in it. It is a time when a clear and precise estimate of the national situation should be made, a balance drawn and a course agreed on for the next period, but it is actually a time when the leading political contestants exert themselves most to deceive the public, falsify the record and lie about the future. It is national aberration-time when politicians roam the land, trying to put matters more out of focus than usual. It is the time of statistics-twisting, juggling with facts, gymnastics in the position-taking, and hocus-pocus. Such a situation is contrary to the interests of the people and to the national interest. More and more voters are disgusted with it. It is, there- 183 fore, more urgent than ever not only to bring the real issues to the fore and to mobilize the broadest possible coalition around «people before profits» solutions, but also to take steps to restore — or to impart — to elections their real function, to correct what is wrong and to steer a better course for the future. 38. There are powerful big business lobbies in the capital, and an ele ment in the Democratic Party here favors pampering multinational corpo rations. This group insists that any legislation favorable to working people in the state must also include financial incentives to big business. Labor observers here see a similarity between recent contract negotiations and the approach of big business to legislation. «Make it worth our while,» they say, «or we'll pack up and leave.» Corporations shut plants and move operations in order to maximize profits. Some move to get out from union contracts. Some move to states offering financial incentives. Some move to the South where wages are low. Some move totally out of the US. The legislative proposals, which are not yet fully formulated, lean heavily in the direction of the corporations. They offer increased incentives to keep corporations from moving out of the state — more profit — and place the burden of picking up the pieces after a plant has moved on the shoulders of the tax payers of the state. 39. Officialdom in Huyton, Liverpool, does not know the meaning of democracy, which we are supposed to have in Britain. They charge what rent and rates they like and think they are doing us a favour if they do any maintenance or repairs to the council housing, which they assume they own, as apparently the councillors do not regard themselves as the elected representatives of the people. 40. The Prime Minister has come down heavily in favour of waiting for a consensus to build, based on the belief that « a strong leader is not needed for the Japanese people because they themselves are full of vital ity» . But his self-cast role as orchestra conductor to the numerous minis tries and agencies in Tokyo while the body politic calls the tune is said by. many to neglect the fact that participatory democracy is still only surface deep in Japan. Also, that role is directly at odds with the high-profile, ас- tive stances taken by former premiers. Contrary to popular belief, the Prime Minister has not totally forsaken day-to-day political matters. He is well aware of the pressing problems: the Foreign Minister is being given a somewhat larger role to play in 184 policy planning and is to lend a hand in calming the still rough Japan-US economic waters. 41. The Prime Minister's insistence on the « politics of waiting» and his homespun advice to proceed « slow and steady» have opened the door to critics of his approach to the running of the government and matters of state — but perhaps they have moved the discussion into an area that fits well within the premier's game plan. There is little argument from any camp that the new government is facing problems — for instance, slow economic growth at home, the continuing problems between Tokyo and .the United States, the difficulties involved in the emergence of a new political role for Japan and the on-again, off-again courtship of ASEAN. How quickly and in what manner these are approached does lead to disagreement. 42. Children demonstrating outside the Belgrave Children's Hospital in South London at the weekend marched to Downing Street to hand in a petition as part of a widely supported campaign which was launched in South London to keep the children's hospital open and persuade the local area health authority to improve facilities there. The hospital's once thriving out-patients department is already being reduced, and staffing problems are getting worse. At weekends, one student is often left in charge of a ward. But the hospital now faces a threat to close all the beds meaning that the only children's operating theatre in the district will shut down despite recent modernisation. The worsening economic problems of the country derive ulti mately from causes which no party or government can readily cure, even if it knew what to do. A century and more of industrial underinvestment, export of capital, low growth, failure to exploit innovation richly but vainly provided by British science (U.S. industry has done well out of British inventions neglected at home), — these are at the root of Britain's contemporary troubles. Labor did not cure them, but neither have the Tories. His distinctly high-profile leadership conflicted with the ideas of other chiefs as to how an operation of this kind should be carried out. The Chancellor of the Exchequer impressed on the House that all that was needed was that everyone should behave sensibly and realize that if the country threw away this opportunity it might be long before it got another anything like so favourable. Stable prices could be assured only by price reductions in the field where progress was fastest and if the benefits of progress for which the whole community was responsible were shared by the whole community. 185 That view will gain ground because a new shock awaits the Par liamentary Labour Party and the Labour movement. The Prime Minister appears to have won the case, and carefully calculated leaks are coming from Cabinet Ministers to prepare us all for yet one more reversal of policy. It is not the critics of the Minister of Economy who are cynical. That is a word which could be more accurately applied to a Minister who says he is for prices being kept down, and then supports a Budget which puts them up. If the staff at Labour Party headquarters get the 12 1/2 per cent pay rise which it is reported they are to be offered, or the bigger increase they may ask for, they will no doubt congratulate themselves not only on their own efforts, but on having employers prepared to stand up to the Gov ernment and defy the pay freeze. The argument about whether the motor companies should release workers to the rest of the labour market rather than put them on short time reveals once again the great divide between economic ideas in the ab stract and the way the British economy works at present. The big question in industry today is security of employment. As redundancy and short-time working spread throughout the car industry and the many industries wholly or largely dependent upon it, as the same process operates in the other sections producing consumer durable goods of all kinds, like furniture and refrigerators, and as the programme of pit closures gets under way, workers everywhere must be worried about their own jobs even if they are not in one of the immediately hard-hit industries. It is a thorough disgrace that a Labour council should be acting in this way. A Labour council should set an example as a model landlord, not as peacemaker for the avaricious, grasping private landlords. The rea son for the increase in rents is the usual one — the council is in the red on its housing account. But that is not the fault of the tenants. It is the fault of the Government, which has failed to keep its election manifesto prom ise to «introduce a policy of lower interest rates for housing». It is also the fault of the council for not insisting that the Government honour its pledge. Instead of an increase in rents, the council should insist that inter est on housing loans should be cut. This is something the Government could do. It was he who with the Prime Minister turned the scales against having a snap election in November without making even the pretence of coping with the dollar crisis. It was he who threw his weight in favour of February as the best moment to send the Labour machine into action; and it is he who will profit most among the party's leaders if Labour wins. 186 In his speech to newspaper editors yesterday the Paymaster Gen eral named monopoly and big commercial advertisers as a threat to Press freedom and democracy. But having revealed many of the things that were wrong, unfortunately he did not assist us by making proposals which would help to put things right. The Government itself has helped the «process of concentration and monopoly» which, the Paymaster General said yesterday, he regarded as a danger not only to Press free dom, but to democracy itself. By giving the Press tycoons all this adver tising, and depriving the independent press of a fair share, the Govern ment is helping to increase the danger to democracy. It is time it was understood that history does not develop according to the formulae of those who would like to conserve it, those who would like to arrest the movement of the people along the road of progress. The Prime Minister has done the right thing in ending speculation about a summer election. He had pretty well forced an announcement on himself. Irritating the Labour party with his cat-and-mouse tactics did not matter; the fact that he was teasing the public as well did. The announce ment is also timed. To have made it earlier might have taken any zest there was out of the local government elections; to have made it later would have invited the charge that the Prime Minister had been influ enced by their results. The new Cabinet shows significant changes, both personal and constructional, from the old one. Naturally it will be looked at most searchingly in the Ministries which touch the home front, and particularly its economics. It was the failure either to coordinate these Ministries successfully or to present an intelligible picture of their activi ties to the electorate, which was the chief weakness of the previous Cabi net. The Prime Minister's own record is here at its most untried. He will have to show that his capacity for government is not overestimated to make him as successful on the home front as he has been on the overseas. The real need is for the Western powers not only to maintain their basic objectives, but to be more supple in applying them in the search for unity, and the beginning should be in a recognition that unity is more likely to come in a relaxation of general European tension. Complete ri gidity is in danger of defeating the ends it has in view. The Black revolt has many causes, but its basic power is that of the force of economic wretchedness. It is this wretchedness that techno logical change is threatening to exacerbate beyond endurance by auto mating out of existence many of the unskilled and skilled jobs Blacks hold. That the Black community is in the throes of profound economic crisis is evident from the unemployment figures. 187 Although military aviation can be said to have started in 1870 when balloons were used during the siege of Paris, it was not until the First World War that it became of substantial importance. It may be unprecedented, but it is not illogical for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to have used his Budget speech for announcing the Government's intention of hustling through Parliament an Act designed to shackle the trades unions. The Budget, like the preceding ones of this Government, has as its main objective to devalue our wage packets. The decision to rush through the anti-TU legislation is aimed at disarming the working people, and hampering them in their struggle to retain the real value of their hard-earned wage packets. It is a policy aimed at ensuring that any increase in either productivity or output should lead not to more wages, but to more profit... There can be no other explanation for the Chancellor's moan that increased production and productivity rose only four times as much as wages. The Congressman was deprived of his seat last month by vote of the House pending investigations by the special committee on the grounds that he had put taxpayers' money to his own use, flouted the law by refusing to pay libel damages, and evaded jail sentences imposed for contempt of court 61 One cannot expect to see as yet, any decisive change in the pattern of the economy in these countries. The change from developing country to a developed one is a huge task. 62. If the capital needs of developing countries are particularly heavy, one must recognize that their absorptive capacity, on the other hand, remains more limited than was the case of Europe in the nineteenth century. |