No work, no pay, no food

没有工作，没有报酬，没有食物

People who lack savings or a functioning safety net cannot simply stop working. Yet millions are being forced to do so. Before the crisis Jonathan Solmayor drove a tuk-tuk in Davao City in the Philippines. “I am feeding four mouths,” he says, but “my only source of living was stopped.” In western Nepal men have seen the hours they can work for wages fall by about 75%, according to the Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale. In Uzbekistan the number of households where at least one person works has dropped by over 40%.

缺乏储蓄或安全保障体系的人不能简单地停止工作。然而，仍有数百万人被迫这样做。危机前，Jonathan Solmayor在菲律宾达沃市驾驶一辆嘟嘟车【三轮小摩的】。“我要养活四口人，”他说，但“我唯一的生活来源停止了。”根据耶鲁大学创新与规模研究计划(Yale Research Initiative on Innovation and Scale)的数据，在尼泊尔西部，男性的工作时间减少了约75%。在乌兹别克斯坦，至少有一个人工作的家庭数量下降了40%以上。

 

As the number of breadwinners falls, the price of food is rising. In India the price of potatoes has jumped by over 15%. In Uganda the prices of most key foods have gone up by over 15% since mid-March. The global food supply is holding up, but local disruptions are severe. In the province of Quezon in the Philippines an “extreme” quarantine has seen squash, beans, and watermelons wither in the fields. In India vegetables that were harvested have been left to rot as they cannot be transported to market. In East Africa covid-19 is not the only plague to strike this year: trillions of locusts are once again devouring crops.

随着养家糊口的人越来越少，食品价格也在上涨。在印度，土豆的价格已经上涨了超过15%。在乌干达，大多数主要食品的价格自3月中旬以来已经上涨了超过15%。全球粮食供应状况良好，但局部地区供应中断严重。在菲律宾奎松省，一场“极端”的隔离让南瓜、豆类和西瓜在田间枯萎。在印度，收获的蔬菜由于无法运输到市场上而腐烂。在东非，新冠病毒并不是今年袭击的唯一一场瘟疫:数万亿的蝗虫再次吞噬庄稼。

词汇

Breadwinner/负担家计的人；养家糊口的人

Quarantine/检疫隔离期

Squash/挤进，塞入；压制

Wither/枯萎，凋谢

 

Some hope that the rural poor may escape the worst. The virus has taken longer to reach remote villages, where social distancing is easier than it is in slums. Subsistence farmers might be able to feed themselves. But even the poorest rural households in Africa buy almost half their food. Many would normally top up their income with paid work, but no longer can.

一些人希望农村的穷人能逃脱最坏的情况。病毒需要更长的时间才能到达偏远的村庄，那里的社会距离比贫民窟更容易。自给自足的农民也许能够养活自己。但是，即使是非洲最贫穷的农村家庭也要购买近一半的食物。许多人通常会用带薪工作来增加收入，但现在不可能了。

词汇

Slum/贫民窟

Those who were already miserable have become more so. In Uganda the WFP has cut rations for refugees by 30%, and funding is drying up. In Bangladesh more than 70% of Rohingya refugees say they are now unable to buy food.

那些已经很痛苦的人变得更加痛苦。在乌干达，世界粮食计划署已经削减了30%的难民口粮，资金正在枯竭。在孟加拉国，超过70%的罗兴亚难民表示，他们现在无法购买食物。

 

The most concentrated suffering will be in big cities such as Kolkata and Kinshasa, says Ms Sánchez-Páramo. Even before the pandemic about 130m city-dwellers were extremely poor. Many kept their heads above the poverty line by pedalling rickshaws or hawking vegetables. Lockdowns have stopped that. In India 84% of poor urban self-employed have lost their work.

Sánchez-Páramo女士说，像加尔各答和金沙萨这样的大城市将遭受最集中的痛苦。甚至在疫情爆发之前，就有1.3亿城市居民极度贫困。许多人靠骑人力车或叫卖蔬菜来维持生计。封锁已经阻止了这一切。在印度，84%的贫困城市个体经营者失去了工作。

词汇

Pedal/骑（自行车）

Rickshaw/人力车，黄包车

Hawk/叫卖

Even where lockdowns are less strict, the urban poor are struggling. In Mexico City, where staying at home is more of a suggestion than a requirement, Romaldo San Juan Garcia normally spends his days polishing shoes. But these days the kind of people who can afford shoe-shines no longer wear leather shoes, since they are staying away from the office. In a long day on the street Mr Garcia polished only two pairs. Just to pay his monthly rent, he needs to shine about 100. In tough times his children would usually pick up extra shifts waiting tables. But because of the virus, the restaurants are shut.

即使在封锁不那么严格的地方，城市贫民也在苦苦挣扎。在墨西哥城，呆在家里与其说是一种要求，不如说是一种建议，Romaldo San Juan Garcia通常每天都要把时间花在擦鞋上。但是现在，那些能买得起皮鞋的人不再穿皮鞋了，因为他们远离了办公室。在街上漫长的一天里，加西亚先生只擦了两双鞋。仅仅是为了支付他的月租，他就需要擦100双鞋。在经济困难的时候，他的孩子们通常会接些额外的班。但是因为病毒，餐馆都关门了。

 

With so few other options, many of the newly destitute are doing things that will make it harder for them to escape poverty even if the economy recovers. They are eating less, selling productive assets and even pulling children out of school.

由于几乎没有其他选择，许多新近陷入贫困的人正在做的事情，将使他们更难摆脱贫困，即使经济复苏。他们吃得更少，出售生产性资产，甚至让孩子们辍学。

词汇

Destitute/贫困的，缺乏的

“When I eat supper it means I will sacrifice lunch,” explains Nathan Tumuhimbise, a flower worker in Uganda who was sent home on unpaid leave. He has no idea whether he will be able to pay for his daughter’s next instalment of school fees. In desperation he has called his father in the village to sell some of the family goats. “I’m overwhelmed,” he says. Other workers he knows are even selling off their land. Why? “Survival, life and death,” he says.

“当我吃晚饭时，这意味着我将牺牲午餐，” Nathan Tumuhimbise解释道，他是乌干达的一名花卉工人，以无薪休假被遣送回家。他不知道他是否能付得起女儿下一笔学费。绝望之下，他给村里的父亲打了电话，想卖掉家里的一些山羊。“我不知所措，”他说。他认识的其他工人甚至在出售他们的土地。该如何选择?“生存，生活和还是死亡，”他说。

词汇

Instalment/分期付款

Assets such as land, livestock and motorbike taxis can be sold only once. When so many people try to sell them at the same time, prices collapse. And people who sell their productive assets today will have no source of income tomorrow.

土地、牲畜和作出租车用的摩托车等资产只能出售一次。当如此多的人试图同时出售时，价格就会暴跌。今天出售生产性资产的人，明天将没有收入来源。

 

Cutting back on food is risky, too, especially for children. Malnutrition stops brains and bodies from growing properly. Stunting results in lower IQs, greater risk of chronic illness and lower lifetime earnings. In towns in Sierra Leone almost 60% of people said they had eaten fewer times than normal in the past week, according to the Yale Research Initiative. Fully 14% have gone a whole day without eating.

减少食物摄入也有风险，尤其是对儿童而言。营养不良会阻碍大脑和身体正常发育。发育迟缓导致智商较低，患慢性病的风险较大，终生收入较低。据耶鲁大学研究项目(Yale Research Initiative)的数据，在塞拉利昂的一些城镇，近60%的人表示，过去一周他们比平时吃得少。整整14%的人一整天都没吃东西。

词汇

Malnutrition/营养失调，营养不良

Stunting/萎缩；发育障碍短小症

Pulling kids out of school has awful long-term consequences. One World Bank paper found that if schools remain closed for just four months, the reduction in their lifetime earnings will be equivalent to 15% of a year’s global GDP.

把孩子们赶出学校会产生可怕的长期后果。世界银行的一份报告发现，如果学校只停课四个月，其终生收入的减少将相当于全球一年GDP的15%。