巴西在成堆的問題中進入奧運倒計時

RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil’s president is facingimpeachment. The country’s economy is in sharpdecline. Bodies of water that will be used forOlympic competitions are polluted, and global publichealth officials are trying to tamp down the Zikavirus epidemic.

里約熱內(nèi)盧――巴西總統(tǒng)面臨彈劾。這個國家的經(jīng)濟正在急劇衰退。將被用于奧林匹克競賽的水體遭到污染，全球公共健康官員正在努力遏制茲卡病毒(Zika)的傳播。

With less than 100 days before the Olympic Gamescome to South America for the first time, Rio de Janeiro faces more than the usual challengesthat bedevil host cities, like delayed stadium construction and transportation concerns. (Riohas those, too.)

再過不到100天，奧林匹克運動會就要第一次來到南美洲。苦惱的主辦城市們通常都要面臨種種挑戰(zhàn)，比如場館建設(shè)延誤和交通問題，但里約熱內(nèi)盧要面對的問題遠遠比這些要多(當然，這些問題里約也有)。

The mood here, however, is hardly one of panic. Officials in charge of executing the SummerGames say they feel insulated from Brazil’s turmoil at this late stage. The Olympics, after all,tend to exist in their own bubble, elaborately coordinated to ensure that the multibillion-dollaroperation goes off smoothly.

不過這里的情緒很難稱得上是恐慌。負責執(zhí)行夏季奧運會的官員們說，他們覺得，在最后這個階段，自己和巴西的動蕩完全沒有關(guān)系。畢竟，奧運會往往是存在于自己的小世界，組織者們努力協(xié)調(diào)，確保這場價值數(shù)以十億美元計的大型活動能夠平穩(wěn)運行。

“The machine is in place, and it’s relatively stable,” Ricardo Leyser, Brazil’s sports minister, saidin an interview this week. “My biggest concern isn’t any individual issue. It’s the smalldemands that all come at once.”

“機制已經(jīng)就位，而且相對穩(wěn)定，”巴西體育部長里卡多·雷瑟(Ricardo Leyser)在本周接受采訪時說。“我最大的擔心并不是某個具體的問題，而是許多小的需求一下子全都冒出來。”

Local organizers are beginning to lay colorful comforters — patterned with the silhouettes ofcartoon cyclists, fencers and swimmers — on the twin beds in the athletes’ village. They aremonitoring the growth of 14-month-old grass that will be transplanted to Maracanã, the storiedsoccer stadium that will also be used for the opening and closing ceremonies. They are pullingtrash from Guanabara Bay, where the Games’ sailing events will be held; mopping up standingwater to minimize mosquito breeding; and ramping up a round-the-clock security operation —all while publicly expressing little worry about the unrest encircling them.

本地組織者們開始給運動員村雙人間的床上鋪彩色被子，上面還繡著卡通自行車手、擊劍運動員和游泳運動員的身影。他們監(jiān)控草皮的長勢，這些草皮已經(jīng)生長了14個月，將被移植到傳奇的馬拉卡納足球場，也就是奧運會開幕式和閉幕式的舉辦地。他們在奧運會帆船場地瓜納巴拉灣清掃垃圾;清理死水，把蚊蟲滋生減少到最低;加強全天候的安保——與此同時，他們很少對身邊的動蕩公開表示憂慮。

On Wednesday, with the handoff of the Olympic flame in Greece and the start of a journey thatin little more than a week will bring it to Brazil, the official countdown to the Aug. 5 openingceremony began.

星期三，奧運火炬交接在希臘舉行，經(jīng)過一周多的傳遞后將來到巴西，奧運倒計時已經(jīng)開始，迎接8月5日的開幕式。

In Rio, the race to be ready is intensifying, with construction workers here still laboring onmass transit projects that were key promises seven years ago in the city’s bid to host theGames. Costing several billion dollars, those projects include a new subway line and express buslanes that connect the Olympic Park in Barra da Tijuca to the rest of the city, which is expectedto swell with more than half a million visitors.

在里約，奧運籌備的賽跑已經(jīng)進入白熱化階段，建筑工人們?nèi)栽诿τ谛藿ù笮徒煌椖浚鼈兪瞧吣昵斑@座城市申辦奧運會時作出的關(guān)鍵承諾。這些項目造價數(shù)十億美元，包括一條新的地鐵線路及若干快速公交路線，把位于巴拉·達蒂茹卡(Barra da Tijuca)的奧林匹克公園和里約的其他地方連接在一起，屆時，這里預(yù)計迎來超過50萬的游客。

As the value of the Brazilian real has drastically declined over the last year, some haveexpressed doubt that the transit projects will materialize beyond the sleek, modernistweather shelters that have been built at various stations. At a news conference Wednesday,the city’s secretary of transportation said the new routes would be ready in time but did notspecify when.

因為去年巴西貨幣雷亞爾急劇貶值，一些人開始懷疑：除了各車站已經(jīng)蓋好的那些漂亮的現(xiàn)代風格風雨棚，這些交通項目到底能不能完成。周三的新聞發(fā)布會上，里約交通事務(wù)秘書長說，新的線路將及時竣工，但他沒有給出具體時間。

To the vast majority of people watching the Games on television, however, such infrastructuremay not matter.

不過，對于絕大多數(shù)通過電視觀看奧運會的人們來說，這樣的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施可能無關(guān)緊要。

The permanent venues for competitions here are mostly complete — all but those for tennisand track cycling — and athletes from around the world have competed in dozens of test eventsin Rio in recent months. “It’s about the filling of the cake,” Mr. Leyser said. “It’s not about thestadiums; it’s about the scoreboards.”

除了網(wǎng)球場和田徑賽道，那些永久性競賽場館已經(jīng)基本完工，最近幾個月來，世界各地的運動員們已經(jīng)在里約參加了幾十項測試賽。“現(xiàn)在的工作就是給蛋糕裱花，”雷瑟說，“主要的工作不在于場館，而在于計分牌。”

As of the latest counts, 62 percent of the 5.7 million tickets on the market had been sold —roughly half of the total tickets for the Olympics — and 24 percent of tickets available for theParalympics had been sold. But compared with past Olympics, the buyers of those tickets maybe disproportionately international, said Andrew Parsons, the president of the BrazilianParalympic Committee.

據(jù)最新統(tǒng)計，市面上的570萬張門票已經(jīng)售出了62%，差不多相當于這屆奧運會全部門票的一半，在售的殘疾人奧運會門票也已經(jīng)賣出了24%。但巴西殘奧委員會主席安德魯·帕森斯(Andrew Parsons)說，和往屆奧運會相比，本屆奧運會賽事門票國外購買者的比例可能會非常高。

For some Brazilians, the country’s political and economic crises have cast a shadow on thecelebration. President Dilma Rousseff’s ouster looks increasingly likely amid a sweeping graftscandal, and those in line to succeed her have their own controversies hanging over them.

對于一些巴西人來說，這個國家的政治和經(jīng)濟危機已經(jīng)給這場慶典蒙上了陰影。 巴西總統(tǒng)迪爾瑪·羅塞夫(Dilma Rousseff) 身陷大規(guī)模的貪腐丑聞，愈來愈有可能遭到罷免，而按照序列有望接替她的人自己頭上也籠罩著種種爭議。

Questions of corruption have extended to Olympics planning, particularly after a businessmanwho worked on many Olympic projects in Rio was convicted of corruption and moneylaundering related to separate contracts. Mr. Leyser said that the questions centered onirregularities at the Deodoro event site and that no public official had been accused ofwrongdoing.

腐敗問題亦延伸到了奧運會的籌備之中，尤其是一名參與里約許多奧運項目的商人被裁定涉及與多份單獨合同相關(guān)的貪腐和洗錢。雷瑟稱，這個問題集中于德奧多羅場館設(shè)施建設(shè)中的不規(guī)范行為，沒有政府官員被控違法。

“It’s more an administrative issue than a corruption scheme,” he said. “It’s basically aquestion of the numbers.”

“這主要是管理問題，而不是腐敗陰謀，”他說，“基本上是一個數(shù)字問題。”

Mr. Leyser called the devaluation of Brazil’s currency an opportunity because it increases thebuying power of foreign money coming into Brazil for the Games.

雷瑟稱將巴西貨幣貶值稱為一個機遇，因為它提高了為奧運會而進入巴西的外幣的購買力。

But not everyone sees the event as a boon to the country. Shirlei Alves, who lives in the SantaMarta favela of Rio, criticized the government for spending on the Olympics in the face ofBrazil’s problems.

但是，并非所有人都認為這項活動對國家有益。住在里約貧民區(qū)圣瑪塔的謝萊·阿爾維斯(Shirlei Alves)批評說，巴西明明有種種問題，政府卻把錢花在奧運會上。

“The world is just getting worse here,” Ms. Alves said, noting that she was without medicationand electricity. “The government is making a mistake. I’d like if they’d take a better look at thepoor people and not help people who are already rich.”

“這里正在變得愈來愈糟，”阿爾維斯說。她說自己既沒有藥物，也沒有電。“政府正在犯錯誤。我希望他們好好看看窮人們，而不是去幫助那些已經(jīng)很富裕的人。”

Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio, said Wednesday that the city had a “comfortable financialsituation” and had spent on stadium construction 1 percent of what it spent on healtheducation.

里約市長愛德華多·帕埃斯(Eduardo Paes)周三說，里約“財政狀況良好”，而且花在場館建設(shè)上的錢只是花在健康教育上的1%。

“I know people are skeptical,” Mr. Paes said, citing the “huge deliverables” for the Olympics. “Of course the situation here has been difficult. But there is a commitment of the Brazilianstate to deliver the Olympics.”

“我知道人們都在懷疑，”帕埃斯說，他提及奧運會帶來的“巨大成果”。“當然，這里的形勢一直很困難。但巴西承諾辦好奧運會。”

Perhaps the most vexing issue for local organizers — the one that may stir anxiety amongathletes and spectators — is the mosquito-borne Zika virus, which has been linked to birthdefects and temporary paralysis. Zika is of greater concern outside Rio, in the far north partof Brazil, but the World Health Organization has declared the virus a global public healthemergency and has advised pregnant women not to travel anywhere in Brazil.

或許對于本地的組織者來說，最令人煩惱的問題、同時也是有可能令運動員和觀眾不安的問題，就是由蚊蟲傳播的茲卡病毒。這種病毒已經(jīng)被證實與出生缺陷以及暫時性麻痹有關(guān)。茲卡疫情在里約之外、巴西偏遠的北部更為嚴重，但世界衛(wèi)生組織已經(jīng)宣布這種病毒為全球突發(fā)公共衛(wèi)生事件，同時建議孕婦不要前往巴西任何地方。

“The Olympics is a pretty effective way of taking whatever disease is local and making itglobal,” said Ashish K. Jha, director of the Global Health Institute at Harvard.

哈佛大學全球健康研究所主任阿希什·K·賈阿(Ashish K. Jha)說：“奧運會是傳播任何一種地方疾病、使其變成全球疾病的一種相當有效的方式。”

Some scientists have suggested that by the time the Olympics start in August — wintertime inBrazil, when mosquitoes are less numerous — the virus might be more prevalent in thesouthern United States.

一些科學家提出，8月奧運會開始時正值巴西的冬天，蚊蟲較少，但茲卡病毒在美國南部或許會更流行。

“Zika’s been spreading effectively on its own, but there’s very good reason to think theOlympics will accelerate the spread,” Dr. Jha said.

賈阿醫(yī)生說：“茲卡病毒自身一直在進行有效傳播，但有充分理由認為，奧運會將加快它的傳播。”

But the virus poses a unique problem because it is so far beyond the control of localorganizing officials, and so many questions about it remain unanswered. Few athletes havepublicly expressed concern, but it is unclear how many might withdraw as the Games drawcloser.

但這種病毒構(gòu)成了一個獨特的問題，因為它遠遠超出了本地組委會官員們所能控制的范圍之外，而且關(guān)于它仍然有許多問題未能得到解答。幾乎沒有多少運動員公開表達憂慮，但隨著奧運會臨近，不清楚會有多少人可能退賽。

“At this point you just keep going,” David Wallechinsky, an Olympics historian, said. “You haveto continue as if everything’s going to be fine. These are real concerns — Zika, the waterquality. But even if Dilma is forced out of office, it’s not going to stop the Olympics.”

“到了這個時候，只能往前走，”奧運史學家大衛(wèi)·沃利欽斯基(David Wallechinsky)說，“你得繼續(xù)向前，就像一切都會好起來似的。茲卡病毒、水的質(zhì)量，這些都是切實的憂慮。但就算迪爾瑪被趕下臺，也擋不住奧運會。”