超级军网沙特贫困问题
来源：百度文库 编辑：超级军网 时间：2024/04/28 17:36:44
新闻主人公生五个，另外沙特人口从1970年的600万飙升到了今天的2800万，翻两番~！！
再多的石油也架不住子宫武器。
译文：http://www.2muslim.com/portal.php?mod=view&aid=64999
【中穆资讯】（ilhan译自英国《卫报》）1月11日消息：沙特首都奢侈品商场几公里外的一个垃圾遍地的小巷子里，住着苏阿德·沙米尔（Souad al-Shamir）一家。她没有工作，没有收入，有5个不到14岁的孩子和一个有慢性心脏病的失业的丈夫。她啜泣着说，“我们生活在社会底层，孩子们在哭，我却无能为力”。
数百万沙特人在一个世界上最强大的经济体的边缘挣扎。沙特的人口从1970年的600万飙升到了今天的2800万，但就业和社会福利计划未能与人口的增长保持同步。
据估计，有多达四分之一的沙特人生活在贫困线以下。在阿卜杜拉国王（King Abdullah）治下，沙特政府已经花费了数十亿美元用于帮助越来越多的穷人。但批评者抱怨说，这些投入是不够的，与帮助有需要的人相比，一些王室成员似乎更关心国家的形象。例如，2011年，在批评者发布了一个有关沙特贫困的在线电影之后，3名沙特博主被判入狱两周。
沙特学者罗西（Rosie Bsheer）撰写了大量关于发展和消除贫困的文章。他说，“国家把穷人隐藏得非常好。精英看不到穷人的痛苦。人们很饿”。
沙特政府的官方数据显示，沙特的最贫穷人口很少。但媒体报道和私人估计表明，有200万至400万的沙特人月收入不足530美元，低于沙特的贫困线。
沙特是一个实施双重经济的国家，由1600万沙特人和大量的外国劳工组成。由于青年失业率高涨，沙特的贫困率持续上升。沙特政府的统计数据显示，超过三分之二的沙特人在30岁以下，近四分之三的沙特失业者都是20多岁。
作为一个建国仅70年的国家，沙特已经从一个赤贫的穷乡僻壤的沙漠游牧民族成长成了一个经济强国，去年它的石油工业为其带来了3000亿美元的收入。
《福布斯》杂志估计，阿卜杜拉国王的个人财富约为180亿美元，位居泰国国王和文莱苏丹之后，是世界上排名第三的最富有的皇室。他将政府资金用在了一些备受瞩目的项目上，最近准备花费700亿美元建设四个“经济城市”，为“500万居民创建工作、生活和娱乐”环境。
去年，阿卜杜拉国王还宣布，计划拨款370亿美元用于住房、增加工资、失业救济和其他项目，这被普遍认为是为了安抚沙特中产阶级，阻止任何“阿拉伯之春式”的不满。国王和许多王室成员也以广泛的慈善捐赠而闻名。
多年来，注重形象的沙特官员否认存在贫困。这是一个官方媒体避免触及的、禁忌的话题，直到2002年阿卜杜拉国王参观了利雅得的一个贫民窟之后才有所改善。那天的新闻报道让很多沙特人第一次看到了自己国家的贫困。
后来参观贫民窟的王储苏尔坦·本·萨勒曼（Prince Sultan bin Salman）在接受记者采访时说，政府已经意识到了贫困的存在，正在努力“履行对本国人民的义务”。王储表示，通过发展经济、小额贷款、就业培训和为穷人创造新的就业机会，沙特政府将在“三到五年内”显著减少贫困。
沙特政府每年花费数十亿美元向所有公民提供免费教育、医疗保健和各种社会福利，甚至包括免费的丧葬。政府还向穷人、老人、残疾人、孤儿和因工受伤的工人提供退休金、月补助金，并支付食品和水电费。
沙特大部分的福利支出来自伊斯兰教的天课制度（zakat）。天课是安拉对那些丰衣足食的穆斯林的主命，指令他（她）们将每年盈余财富的2.5%捐出，用于帮助贫民和有需要的人。沙特人将天课支付给政府，由政府分发给有需要的人。
王储萨勒曼说，“住在沙特就像生活在一个慈善基金会，这是我们的重要组成部分。如果你毫不仁慈，你不是穆斯林”。
尽管有这些努力，但贫困和对腐败的愤怒持续增长。通过裙带关系网络、腐败和政府合约，大量的金钱最终进入了王室的口袋。沙特和美国分析家罗西表示，通过腐败计划，例如，从往往是穷人的私人业主手中没收土地，然后将其以高价卖给政府，一些王室成员中饱私囊。
另一方面，许多最贫穷的沙特人是以女性为户主的家庭，如苏阿德·沙米尔一家。她们要么丧偶、离婚，要么丈夫不能工作。根据伊斯兰法律，男人需要在财政上支持妇女和他们的孩子。女性发现自己的丈夫没有收入，因为王国严格的宗教和文化限制自己又很难找到工作时，她们就开始斗争。
像苏阿德一样，即使她们在沙特出生，由于“无国籍”、没有正式被确认为沙特公民，许多家庭的情况很糟。据联合国估计，在沙特有7万人无国籍，他们大多出身于游牧部落，其传统领地分散在好几个国家。他们的尴尬境地使他们更难获得政府的福利。
35岁的苏阿德生活在一个巨大的水泥厂的阴影里。这里的房屋和街区被朦胧的烟雾和灰尘覆盖。她的水泥房坐落在一条狭窄的巷子里，小巷龟裂的墙面上满是涂鸦，地上堆满了垃圾。房东威胁要撵她走，当地的商店老板也不再让她赊欠食物和天然气炉。她主要靠富有的沙特人的救济生活，获得食物和衣服。
最近的一个早晨，她的孩子们跑到门口，帮助从利雅得的一对中产阶级夫妇的SUV里卸下他们丢弃的食品。苏阿德说，捐款帮助她支付了电费，但她依然无力为孩子们购买学习用品。尽管中产阶级的沙特青年都拥有所有最新的小玩意，但苏阿德14岁的女儿诺拉（Norah）从未发送过一封电子邮件，也没看到过Facebook。
苏阿德说，她的丈夫做保安时一个月能挣500美元，但五年前由于健康原因他离职了。她表示，一直想找一份裁缝或者清洁工的工作，但都是徒劳。
苏阿德说，“这些年来，我一直在耐心等待。期盼安拉赐予我的孩子们更好的生活”。
===========================================================
Saudi Arabia's riches conceal a growing problem of poverty
In a country with vast oil wealth and lavish royalty, an estimated quarter of Saudis live below the poverty line
A few kilometres from the blinged-out shopping malls of Saudi Arabia's capital, Souad al-Shamir lives in a concrete house on a trash-strewn alley. She has no job, no money, five children under 14 and an unemployed husband who is laid up with chronic heart problems.
"We are at the bottom," she said, sobbing hard behind a black veil that left only her eyes visible. "My kids are crying and I can't provide for them."
Millions of Saudis struggle on the fringes of one of the world's most powerful economies, where jobs and welfare programmes have failed to keep pace with a population that has soared from 6 million in 1970 to 28 million today.
Under King Abdullah, the Saudi government has spent billions to help the growing numbers of poor, estimated to be as much as a quarter of the native Saudi population. But critics complain that those programmes are inadequate, and that some royals seem more concerned with the country's image than with helping the needy. In 2011, for example, three Saudi video bloggers were jailed for two weeks after they made an online film about poverty in Saudi Arabia.
"The state hides the poor very well," said Rosie Bsheer, a Saudi scholar who has written extensively on development and poverty. "The elite don't see the suffering of the poor. People are hungry."
The Saudi government discloses little official data about its poorest citizens. But press reports and private estimates suggest that between 2 million and 4 million of the country's native Saudis live on less than about $530 a month – about $17 a day – considered the poverty line in Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom has a two-tier economy made up of about 16 million Saudis, with most of the rest foreign workers. The poverty rate among Saudis continues to rise as youth unemployment skyrockets. More than two-thirds of Saudis are under 30, and nearly three-quarters of all unemployed Saudis are in their 20s, according to government statistics.
In just seven decades as a nation, Saudi Arabia has grown from an impoverished backwater of desert nomads to an economic powerhouse with an oil industry that brought in $300bn last year.
Forbes magazine estimates King Abdullah's personal fortune at $18bn, making him the world's third-richest royal, behind the rulers of Thailand and Brunei. He has spent government funds freely on high-profile projects, most recently a nearly $70bn plan to build four "economic cities", where government literature says "up to 5 million residents will live, work and play".
The king last year also announced plans to spend $37bn on housing, wage increases, unemployment benefits and other programmes, which was widely seen as an effort to placate middle-class Saudis and head off any Arab Spring-style discontent. Abdullah and many of the royals are also famous for their extensive charitable giving.
For many years, image-conscious Saudi officials denied the existence of poverty. It was a taboo subject avoided by state-run media until 2002, when Abdullah, then the crown prince, visited a Riyadh slum. News coverage was the first time many Saudis saw poverty in their country.
Prince Sultan bin Salman, a son of Crown Prince Salman, said in an interview that the government has acknowledged the existence of poverty and is working to "meet its obligations to its own people".
Prince Sultan said the Saudi government was "three to five years" away from dramatically reducing poverty through economic development, micro-lending, job training and creation of new jobs for the poor.
The Saudi government spends several billion dollars each year to provide free education and health care to all citizens, as well as a variety of social welfare programmes – even free burials. The government also provides pensions, monthly benefits and payments for food and utility bills to the poor, elderly, disabled, orphans and workers who are injured on the job.
Much of the welfare spending comes from the Islamic system of zakat, a religious requirement that individuals and corporations donate to charity 2.5% of their wealth; the money is paid to the government and distributed to the needy.
"Living in Saudi Arabia is like living in a charitable foundation; it is part and parcel of the way we're made up," Prince Sultan said. "If you are not charitable, you are not a Muslim."
Despite those efforts, poverty and anger over corruption continue to grow. Vast sums of money end up in the pockets of the royal family through a web of nepotism, corruption and cozy government contracts, according to Saudi and US analysts.Bsheer said some Saudi royals enrich themselves through corrupt schemes, such as confiscating land from often-poor private owners, then selling it to the government at exorbitant prices.
At the other end of the spectrum, many of the poorest Saudis are in families headed by women such as Shamir, who are either widowed, divorced or have a husband who cannot work. Under Islamic law, men are required to financially support women and their children. So women who find themselves without a man's income struggle, especially because the kingdom's strict religious and cultural constraints make it hard for women to find jobs.
The situation for many families, including Shamir's, is worse because they are "stateless" and not officially recognised as Saudi citizens, even though they were born in the country.
The UN estimates that there are 70,000 stateless people in Saudi Arabia, most of them descended from nomadic tribes whose traditional territory included parts of several countries. Their legal limbo makes it harder for them to receive government benefits.
Shamir, 35, lives in the shadow of a huge cement factory. The houses and streets are covered in a haze of smoke and dust. Her concrete house is down a narrow alley, where graffiti covers the cracked walls and litter piles up in the street. Her landlord is threatening to kick her out, and a local shop owner has cut off her credit for food and gas for her stove. She lives mainly on charity from wealthy Saudis who show up with food and clothes.
One recent morning, her children ran to the door to help unload food being dropped off by a middle-class Riyadh couple in an SUV. Shamir said donations help her pay for the electricity to run an air conditioner, but she does not have enough to buy school supplies for her children.
While middle-class Saudi youths have all the latest gadgets, Shamir's 14-year-old daughter, Norah, has never sent an email or seen Facebook. Her husband has a second wife who has another 10 children. Most of them are unemployed.
Shamir said her husband earned about $500 a month as a security guard until his health forced him to quit five years ago. She said she has tried in vain to find work as a seamstress or a cleaner.
"I've been patient all these years," Shamir said. "I hope that God will reward me with a better life for my children."
原文：
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ ... -poverty-inequality
新闻主人公生五个，另外沙特人口从1970年的600万飙升到了今天的2800万，翻两番~！！
再多的石油也架不住子宫武器。
译文：http://www.2muslim.com/portal.php?mod=view&aid=64999
【中穆资讯】（ilhan译自英国《卫报》）1月11日消息：沙特首都奢侈品商场几公里外的一个垃圾遍地的小巷子里，住着苏阿德·沙米尔（Souad al-Shamir）一家。她没有工作，没有收入，有5个不到14岁的孩子和一个有慢性心脏病的失业的丈夫。她啜泣着说，“我们生活在社会底层，孩子们在哭，我却无能为力”。
数百万沙特人在一个世界上最强大的经济体的边缘挣扎。沙特的人口从1970年的600万飙升到了今天的2800万，但就业和社会福利计划未能与人口的增长保持同步。
据估计，有多达四分之一的沙特人生活在贫困线以下。在阿卜杜拉国王（King Abdullah）治下，沙特政府已经花费了数十亿美元用于帮助越来越多的穷人。但批评者抱怨说，这些投入是不够的，与帮助有需要的人相比，一些王室成员似乎更关心国家的形象。例如，2011年，在批评者发布了一个有关沙特贫困的在线电影之后，3名沙特博主被判入狱两周。
沙特学者罗西（Rosie Bsheer）撰写了大量关于发展和消除贫困的文章。他说，“国家把穷人隐藏得非常好。精英看不到穷人的痛苦。人们很饿”。
沙特政府的官方数据显示，沙特的最贫穷人口很少。但媒体报道和私人估计表明，有200万至400万的沙特人月收入不足530美元，低于沙特的贫困线。
沙特是一个实施双重经济的国家，由1600万沙特人和大量的外国劳工组成。由于青年失业率高涨，沙特的贫困率持续上升。沙特政府的统计数据显示，超过三分之二的沙特人在30岁以下，近四分之三的沙特失业者都是20多岁。
作为一个建国仅70年的国家，沙特已经从一个赤贫的穷乡僻壤的沙漠游牧民族成长成了一个经济强国，去年它的石油工业为其带来了3000亿美元的收入。
《福布斯》杂志估计，阿卜杜拉国王的个人财富约为180亿美元，位居泰国国王和文莱苏丹之后，是世界上排名第三的最富有的皇室。他将政府资金用在了一些备受瞩目的项目上，最近准备花费700亿美元建设四个“经济城市”，为“500万居民创建工作、生活和娱乐”环境。
去年，阿卜杜拉国王还宣布，计划拨款370亿美元用于住房、增加工资、失业救济和其他项目，这被普遍认为是为了安抚沙特中产阶级，阻止任何“阿拉伯之春式”的不满。国王和许多王室成员也以广泛的慈善捐赠而闻名。
多年来，注重形象的沙特官员否认存在贫困。这是一个官方媒体避免触及的、禁忌的话题，直到2002年阿卜杜拉国王参观了利雅得的一个贫民窟之后才有所改善。那天的新闻报道让很多沙特人第一次看到了自己国家的贫困。
后来参观贫民窟的王储苏尔坦·本·萨勒曼（Prince Sultan bin Salman）在接受记者采访时说，政府已经意识到了贫困的存在，正在努力“履行对本国人民的义务”。王储表示，通过发展经济、小额贷款、就业培训和为穷人创造新的就业机会，沙特政府将在“三到五年内”显著减少贫困。
沙特政府每年花费数十亿美元向所有公民提供免费教育、医疗保健和各种社会福利，甚至包括免费的丧葬。政府还向穷人、老人、残疾人、孤儿和因工受伤的工人提供退休金、月补助金，并支付食品和水电费。
沙特大部分的福利支出来自伊斯兰教的天课制度（zakat）。天课是安拉对那些丰衣足食的穆斯林的主命，指令他（她）们将每年盈余财富的2.5%捐出，用于帮助贫民和有需要的人。沙特人将天课支付给政府，由政府分发给有需要的人。
王储萨勒曼说，“住在沙特就像生活在一个慈善基金会，这是我们的重要组成部分。如果你毫不仁慈，你不是穆斯林”。
尽管有这些努力，但贫困和对腐败的愤怒持续增长。通过裙带关系网络、腐败和政府合约，大量的金钱最终进入了王室的口袋。沙特和美国分析家罗西表示，通过腐败计划，例如，从往往是穷人的私人业主手中没收土地，然后将其以高价卖给政府，一些王室成员中饱私囊。
另一方面，许多最贫穷的沙特人是以女性为户主的家庭，如苏阿德·沙米尔一家。她们要么丧偶、离婚，要么丈夫不能工作。根据伊斯兰法律，男人需要在财政上支持妇女和他们的孩子。女性发现自己的丈夫没有收入，因为王国严格的宗教和文化限制自己又很难找到工作时，她们就开始斗争。
像苏阿德一样，即使她们在沙特出生，由于“无国籍”、没有正式被确认为沙特公民，许多家庭的情况很糟。据联合国估计，在沙特有7万人无国籍，他们大多出身于游牧部落，其传统领地分散在好几个国家。他们的尴尬境地使他们更难获得政府的福利。
35岁的苏阿德生活在一个巨大的水泥厂的阴影里。这里的房屋和街区被朦胧的烟雾和灰尘覆盖。她的水泥房坐落在一条狭窄的巷子里，小巷龟裂的墙面上满是涂鸦，地上堆满了垃圾。房东威胁要撵她走，当地的商店老板也不再让她赊欠食物和天然气炉。她主要靠富有的沙特人的救济生活，获得食物和衣服。
最近的一个早晨，她的孩子们跑到门口，帮助从利雅得的一对中产阶级夫妇的SUV里卸下他们丢弃的食品。苏阿德说，捐款帮助她支付了电费，但她依然无力为孩子们购买学习用品。尽管中产阶级的沙特青年都拥有所有最新的小玩意，但苏阿德14岁的女儿诺拉（Norah）从未发送过一封电子邮件，也没看到过Facebook。
苏阿德说，她的丈夫做保安时一个月能挣500美元，但五年前由于健康原因他离职了。她表示，一直想找一份裁缝或者清洁工的工作，但都是徒劳。
苏阿德说，“这些年来，我一直在耐心等待。期盼安拉赐予我的孩子们更好的生活”。
===========================================================
Saudi Arabia's riches conceal a growing problem of poverty
In a country with vast oil wealth and lavish royalty, an estimated quarter of Saudis live below the poverty line
A few kilometres from the blinged-out shopping malls of Saudi Arabia's capital, Souad al-Shamir lives in a concrete house on a trash-strewn alley. She has no job, no money, five children under 14 and an unemployed husband who is laid up with chronic heart problems.
"We are at the bottom," she said, sobbing hard behind a black veil that left only her eyes visible. "My kids are crying and I can't provide for them."
Millions of Saudis struggle on the fringes of one of the world's most powerful economies, where jobs and welfare programmes have failed to keep pace with a population that has soared from 6 million in 1970 to 28 million today.
Under King Abdullah, the Saudi government has spent billions to help the growing numbers of poor, estimated to be as much as a quarter of the native Saudi population. But critics complain that those programmes are inadequate, and that some royals seem more concerned with the country's image than with helping the needy. In 2011, for example, three Saudi video bloggers were jailed for two weeks after they made an online film about poverty in Saudi Arabia.
"The state hides the poor very well," said Rosie Bsheer, a Saudi scholar who has written extensively on development and poverty. "The elite don't see the suffering of the poor. People are hungry."
The Saudi government discloses little official data about its poorest citizens. But press reports and private estimates suggest that between 2 million and 4 million of the country's native Saudis live on less than about $530 a month – about $17 a day – considered the poverty line in Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom has a two-tier economy made up of about 16 million Saudis, with most of the rest foreign workers. The poverty rate among Saudis continues to rise as youth unemployment skyrockets. More than two-thirds of Saudis are under 30, and nearly three-quarters of all unemployed Saudis are in their 20s, according to government statistics.
In just seven decades as a nation, Saudi Arabia has grown from an impoverished backwater of desert nomads to an economic powerhouse with an oil industry that brought in $300bn last year.
Forbes magazine estimates King Abdullah's personal fortune at $18bn, making him the world's third-richest royal, behind the rulers of Thailand and Brunei. He has spent government funds freely on high-profile projects, most recently a nearly $70bn plan to build four "economic cities", where government literature says "up to 5 million residents will live, work and play".
The king last year also announced plans to spend $37bn on housing, wage increases, unemployment benefits and other programmes, which was widely seen as an effort to placate middle-class Saudis and head off any Arab Spring-style discontent. Abdullah and many of the royals are also famous for their extensive charitable giving.
For many years, image-conscious Saudi officials denied the existence of poverty. It was a taboo subject avoided by state-run media until 2002, when Abdullah, then the crown prince, visited a Riyadh slum. News coverage was the first time many Saudis saw poverty in their country.
Prince Sultan bin Salman, a son of Crown Prince Salman, said in an interview that the government has acknowledged the existence of poverty and is working to "meet its obligations to its own people".
Prince Sultan said the Saudi government was "three to five years" away from dramatically reducing poverty through economic development, micro-lending, job training and creation of new jobs for the poor.
The Saudi government spends several billion dollars each year to provide free education and health care to all citizens, as well as a variety of social welfare programmes – even free burials. The government also provides pensions, monthly benefits and payments for food and utility bills to the poor, elderly, disabled, orphans and workers who are injured on the job.
Much of the welfare spending comes from the Islamic system of zakat, a religious requirement that individuals and corporations donate to charity 2.5% of their wealth; the money is paid to the government and distributed to the needy.
"Living in Saudi Arabia is like living in a charitable foundation; it is part and parcel of the way we're made up," Prince Sultan said. "If you are not charitable, you are not a Muslim."
Despite those efforts, poverty and anger over corruption continue to grow. Vast sums of money end up in the pockets of the royal family through a web of nepotism, corruption and cozy government contracts, according to Saudi and US analysts.Bsheer said some Saudi royals enrich themselves through corrupt schemes, such as confiscating land from often-poor private owners, then selling it to the government at exorbitant prices.
At the other end of the spectrum, many of the poorest Saudis are in families headed by women such as Shamir, who are either widowed, divorced or have a husband who cannot work. Under Islamic law, men are required to financially support women and their children. So women who find themselves without a man's income struggle, especially because the kingdom's strict religious and cultural constraints make it hard for women to find jobs.
The situation for many families, including Shamir's, is worse because they are "stateless" and not officially recognised as Saudi citizens, even though they were born in the country.
The UN estimates that there are 70,000 stateless people in Saudi Arabia, most of them descended from nomadic tribes whose traditional territory included parts of several countries. Their legal limbo makes it harder for them to receive government benefits.
Shamir, 35, lives in the shadow of a huge cement factory. The houses and streets are covered in a haze of smoke and dust. Her concrete house is down a narrow alley, where graffiti covers the cracked walls and litter piles up in the street. Her landlord is threatening to kick her out, and a local shop owner has cut off her credit for food and gas for her stove. She lives mainly on charity from wealthy Saudis who show up with food and clothes.
One recent morning, her children ran to the door to help unload food being dropped off by a middle-class Riyadh couple in an SUV. Shamir said donations help her pay for the electricity to run an air conditioner, but she does not have enough to buy school supplies for her children.
While middle-class Saudi youths have all the latest gadgets, Shamir's 14-year-old daughter, Norah, has never sent an email or seen Facebook. Her husband has a second wife who has another 10 children. Most of them are unemployed.
Shamir said her husband earned about $500 a month as a security guard until his health forced him to quit five years ago. She said she has tried in vain to find work as a seamstress or a cleaner.
"I've been patient all these years," Shamir said. "I hope that God will reward me with a better life for my children."
原文：
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/ ... -poverty-inequality