2015年11月
2015年11月24日
他のオバマの成功 ドットフランク財務改革は機能している(2)
Of course, that obvious need didn’t stop the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, financial industry lobbyists and conservative groups from going all out in an effort to prevent the bureau’s creation or at least stop it from doing its job, spending more than $1.3 billion in the process. Republicans in Congress dutifully served the industry’s interests, notably by trying to prevent President Obama from appointing a permanent director. And the question was whether all that opposition would hobble the new bureau and make it ineffective.
dutifully:忠実に
permanent director:終身重役
hobble:を故意に妨害する
At this point, however, all accounts indicate that the bureau is in fact doing its job, and well — well enough to inspire continuing fury among bankers and their political allies. A recent case in point: The bureau is cracking down on billions in excessive overdraft fees.
fury:激怒
overdraft:口座残高がマイナスになること
Better consumer protection means fewer bad loans, and therefore a reduced risk of financial crisis. But what happens if a crisis occurs anyway?
The answer is that, as in 2008, the government will step in to keep the financial system functioning; nobody wants to take the risk of repeating the Great Depression.
But how do you rescue the banking system without rewarding bad behavior? In particular, rescues in times of crisis can give large financial players an unfair advantage: They can borrow cheaply in normal times, because everyone knows that they are “too big to fail” and will be bailed out if things go wrong.
rewarding bad behavior:悪い行為に対しての償い
The answer is that the government should seize troubled institutions when it bails them out, so that they can be kept running without rewarding stockholders or bondholders who don’t need rescue. In 2008 and 2009, however, it wasn’t clear that the Treasury Department had the necessary legal authority to do that. So Dodd-Frank filled that gap, giving regulators Ordinary Liquidation Authority, also known as resolution authority, so that in the next crisis we can save “systemically important” banks and other institutions without bailing out the bankers.
seize:差し押さえる
Ordinary Liquidation Authority:秩序立った精算権限
Bankers, of course, hate this idea; and Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell tried to help their friends with the Orwellian claim that resolution authority was actually a gift to Wall Street, a form of corporate welfare, because it would grease the skids for future bailouts.
corporate welfare:企業助成政策
grease the skids:ことを速やかに運ぶ
But Wall Street knew better. As Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute points out, if being labeled systemically important were actually corporate welfare, institutions would welcome the designation; in fact, they have fought it tooth and nail. And a new study from the Government Accountability Office shows that while large banks were able to borrow more cheaply than small banks before financial reform passed, that advantage has now essentially disappeared. To some extent this may reflect generally calmer markets, but the study nonetheless suggests that reform has done at least part of what it was supposed to do.
fought it tooth and nail:必死に戦う
Government Accountability Office: 《米》(連邦)政府監査院((連邦議会の付属調査機関.連邦予算の支出,政府機関の活動を監査し議会報告する一方,上下両院の各種委員会からの要請を受けて実態調査・分析評価活動を行う.1921年に設立され,ワシントンDCの本部に加え全米各地11カ所に支部を有し,職員3,000人以上を擁する大組織である.元々はGeneral Accounting Office(会計検査院)と称したが,業務の拡大を反映し2004年7月7日付けで現行名称に改称.長官Comptroller Generalは大統領に指名され議会の承認を得て就任するが,独立性確保のため法定任期は15年と長い.2011年1月現在の長官はGene Dodaro氏で,代行期間を経て2010年12月22日に正式承認された。
Did reform go far enough? No. In particular, while banks are being forced to hold more capital, a key force for stability, they really should be holding much more. But Wall Street and its allies wouldn’t be screaming so loudly, and spending so much money in an effort to gut the law, if it weren’t an important step in the right direction. For all its limitations, financial reform is a success story.
gut the law:法律を骨抜きにする
火曜日。今日はこれまで。昨日は一日仕事ができた。ほぼ溜まっていた資料をこなすことができた。今回のASEANの人たちへの依頼の事項はまだ処理していない。今日やろうと思っている。昨晩は高橋がタイ料理に連れて行ってくれて、ご馳走してくれた。今日は何も予定がない。今夜のフライトで日本に戻る。ではまた明日。
dutifully:忠実に
permanent director:終身重役
hobble:を故意に妨害する
At this point, however, all accounts indicate that the bureau is in fact doing its job, and well — well enough to inspire continuing fury among bankers and their political allies. A recent case in point: The bureau is cracking down on billions in excessive overdraft fees.
fury:激怒
overdraft:口座残高がマイナスになること
Better consumer protection means fewer bad loans, and therefore a reduced risk of financial crisis. But what happens if a crisis occurs anyway?
The answer is that, as in 2008, the government will step in to keep the financial system functioning; nobody wants to take the risk of repeating the Great Depression.
But how do you rescue the banking system without rewarding bad behavior? In particular, rescues in times of crisis can give large financial players an unfair advantage: They can borrow cheaply in normal times, because everyone knows that they are “too big to fail” and will be bailed out if things go wrong.
rewarding bad behavior:悪い行為に対しての償い
The answer is that the government should seize troubled institutions when it bails them out, so that they can be kept running without rewarding stockholders or bondholders who don’t need rescue. In 2008 and 2009, however, it wasn’t clear that the Treasury Department had the necessary legal authority to do that. So Dodd-Frank filled that gap, giving regulators Ordinary Liquidation Authority, also known as resolution authority, so that in the next crisis we can save “systemically important” banks and other institutions without bailing out the bankers.
seize:差し押さえる
Ordinary Liquidation Authority:秩序立った精算権限
Bankers, of course, hate this idea; and Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell tried to help their friends with the Orwellian claim that resolution authority was actually a gift to Wall Street, a form of corporate welfare, because it would grease the skids for future bailouts.
corporate welfare:企業助成政策
grease the skids:ことを速やかに運ぶ
But Wall Street knew better. As Mike Konczal of the Roosevelt Institute points out, if being labeled systemically important were actually corporate welfare, institutions would welcome the designation; in fact, they have fought it tooth and nail. And a new study from the Government Accountability Office shows that while large banks were able to borrow more cheaply than small banks before financial reform passed, that advantage has now essentially disappeared. To some extent this may reflect generally calmer markets, but the study nonetheless suggests that reform has done at least part of what it was supposed to do.
fought it tooth and nail:必死に戦う
Government Accountability Office: 《米》(連邦)政府監査院((連邦議会の付属調査機関.連邦予算の支出,政府機関の活動を監査し議会報告する一方,上下両院の各種委員会からの要請を受けて実態調査・分析評価活動を行う.1921年に設立され,ワシントンDCの本部に加え全米各地11カ所に支部を有し,職員3,000人以上を擁する大組織である.元々はGeneral Accounting Office(会計検査院)と称したが,業務の拡大を反映し2004年7月7日付けで現行名称に改称.長官Comptroller Generalは大統領に指名され議会の承認を得て就任するが,独立性確保のため法定任期は15年と長い.2011年1月現在の長官はGene Dodaro氏で,代行期間を経て2010年12月22日に正式承認された。
Did reform go far enough? No. In particular, while banks are being forced to hold more capital, a key force for stability, they really should be holding much more. But Wall Street and its allies wouldn’t be screaming so loudly, and spending so much money in an effort to gut the law, if it weren’t an important step in the right direction. For all its limitations, financial reform is a success story.
gut the law:法律を骨抜きにする
火曜日。今日はこれまで。昨日は一日仕事ができた。ほぼ溜まっていた資料をこなすことができた。今回のASEANの人たちへの依頼の事項はまだ処理していない。今日やろうと思っている。昨晩は高橋がタイ料理に連れて行ってくれて、ご馳走してくれた。今日は何も予定がない。今夜のフライトで日本に戻る。ではまた明日。
2015年11月23日
なぜアメリカ人は彼らがするようなやり方でイスラエルを見るのか。(3) 他のオバマの成功 ドットフランク財務改革は機能している
Oppressed people will respond. Millions of Palestinians are oppressed. They are routinely humiliated and live under Israeli dominion. When Jon Stewart is lionized (and slammed in some circles) for “revealing” Palestinian suffering to Americans, it suggests how hidden that suffering is. The way members of Congress have been falling over one another to demonstrate more vociferous support for Israel is a measure of a political climate not conducive to nuance. This hardly serves America’s interests, which lie in a now infinitely distant peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and will require balanced American mediation.
Oppressed:迫害を受けている
dominion:支配権
lionized:として〜を特別扱いをする/もてはやす
slammed:殴る/酷評する
revealing:あからさまになった
falling over one another:先を争う
vociferous:どなる/声だかな
conducive to nuance:特別な意味合いにつながる
infinitely:限りなく
mediation:調停
Something may be shifting. Powerful images of Palestinian suffering on Facebook and Twitter have hit younger Americans. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that among Americans age 65 or older, 53 percent blame Hamas for the violence and 15 percent Israel. For those ages 18 to 29, Israel is blamed by 29 percent of those questioned, Hamas by just 21 percent. My son-in-law, a doctor in Atlanta, said that for his social group, mainly professionals in their 30s with young children, it was “impossible to see infants being killed by what sometimes seems like an extension of the U.S. Army without being affected.”
without being affected:影響を受けないで
I find myself dreaming of some island in the middle of the Atlantic where the blinding excesses on either side of the water are overcome and a fundamental truth is absorbed: that neither side is going away, that both have made grievous mistakes, and that the fate of Jewish and Palestinian children — united in their innocence — depends on placing the future above the past. That island will no doubt remain as illusory as peace. Meanwhile, on balance, I am pleased to have become a naturalized American.
blinding excess:分別を失わせるような過度な状況
absorbed:受け入れる/取り込む
grievous:深刻な
united in:では共通している
illusory :錯覚の/偽りの
on balance:結局
naturalized:帰化する
これはニューヨークタイムズだ。
Obama’s Other Success
Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Is Working
AUG. 3, 2014
Paul Krugman
他のオバマの成功
ドットフランク財務改革は機能している
Dodd-Frank Financial Reform:ドッド=フランク法(Dodd–Frank) ウォール街改革法(Wall Street Reform) 金融規制改革法(Financial Regulatory Reform)
金融システムにおける説明責任および透明性を改善することにより合衆国の金融安定を推進するための、「大き過ぎてつぶせない」を終わらせるための、ベイル・アウトを終わらせることによりアメリカの納税者を保護するための、乱用された金融サービス実務から消費者を保護するための、ならびにその他の目的のための法律
(an Act to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end "too big to fail", to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes.)
Although the enemies of health reform will never admit it, the Affordable Care Act is looking more and more like a big success. Costs are coming in below predictions, while the number of uninsured Americans is dropping fast, especially in states that haven’t tried to sabotage the program. Obamacare is working.
sabotage:妨害する
But what about the administration’s other big push, financial reform? The Dodd-Frank reform bill has, if anything, received even worse press than Obamacare, derided by the right as anti-business and by the left as hopelessly inadequate. And like Obamacare, it’s certainly not the reform you would have devised in the absence of political constraints.
if anything:むしろ、それどころか
received even worse press:メディアにより悪く取り上げられている
derided by:冷笑される
devised:考案する
in the absence of :を除外して
But also like Obamacare, financial reform is working a lot better than anyone listening to the news media would imagine. Let’s talk, in particular, about two important pieces of Dodd-Frank: creation of an agency protecting consumers from misleading or fraudulent financial sales pitches, and efforts to end “too big to fail.”
fraudulent:不正な
sales pitch:売り込み/セールストーク
The decision to create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shouldn’t have been controversial, given what happened during the housing boom. As Edward M. Gramlich, a Federal Reserve official who warned prophetically of problems in subprime lending, asked, “Why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers?” He went on, “The question answers itself — the least sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products.” The need for more protection was obvious.
controversial:論争の余地のある
prophetically:予言的に
sophisticated:高い教養のある
duped:騙されて
月曜日。今日はこれまで。明日朝が早いので、今日アップしておきます。本日は1日観光でした。ダラットの街をあちこち行って、特に刺繍博物館はベトナムの歴史博物館で飛んでもなく大きなところでした。中身は素晴らしかった。また、フランス人が昔住んでいたところとか、教会とかを訪問した。明日早朝、ホーチミンに向かう。一日予定はないので、仕事をする。夜は高橋と会食の予定。ではまた明後日。
Oppressed:迫害を受けている
dominion:支配権
lionized:として〜を特別扱いをする/もてはやす
slammed:殴る/酷評する
revealing:あからさまになった
falling over one another:先を争う
vociferous:どなる/声だかな
conducive to nuance:特別な意味合いにつながる
infinitely:限りなく
mediation:調停
Something may be shifting. Powerful images of Palestinian suffering on Facebook and Twitter have hit younger Americans. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that among Americans age 65 or older, 53 percent blame Hamas for the violence and 15 percent Israel. For those ages 18 to 29, Israel is blamed by 29 percent of those questioned, Hamas by just 21 percent. My son-in-law, a doctor in Atlanta, said that for his social group, mainly professionals in their 30s with young children, it was “impossible to see infants being killed by what sometimes seems like an extension of the U.S. Army without being affected.”
without being affected:影響を受けないで
I find myself dreaming of some island in the middle of the Atlantic where the blinding excesses on either side of the water are overcome and a fundamental truth is absorbed: that neither side is going away, that both have made grievous mistakes, and that the fate of Jewish and Palestinian children — united in their innocence — depends on placing the future above the past. That island will no doubt remain as illusory as peace. Meanwhile, on balance, I am pleased to have become a naturalized American.
blinding excess:分別を失わせるような過度な状況
absorbed:受け入れる/取り込む
grievous:深刻な
united in:では共通している
illusory :錯覚の/偽りの
on balance:結局
naturalized:帰化する
これはニューヨークタイムズだ。
Obama’s Other Success
Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Is Working
AUG. 3, 2014
Paul Krugman
他のオバマの成功
ドットフランク財務改革は機能している
Dodd-Frank Financial Reform:ドッド=フランク法(Dodd–Frank) ウォール街改革法(Wall Street Reform) 金融規制改革法(Financial Regulatory Reform)
金融システムにおける説明責任および透明性を改善することにより合衆国の金融安定を推進するための、「大き過ぎてつぶせない」を終わらせるための、ベイル・アウトを終わらせることによりアメリカの納税者を保護するための、乱用された金融サービス実務から消費者を保護するための、ならびにその他の目的のための法律
(an Act to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end "too big to fail", to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes.)
Although the enemies of health reform will never admit it, the Affordable Care Act is looking more and more like a big success. Costs are coming in below predictions, while the number of uninsured Americans is dropping fast, especially in states that haven’t tried to sabotage the program. Obamacare is working.
sabotage:妨害する
But what about the administration’s other big push, financial reform? The Dodd-Frank reform bill has, if anything, received even worse press than Obamacare, derided by the right as anti-business and by the left as hopelessly inadequate. And like Obamacare, it’s certainly not the reform you would have devised in the absence of political constraints.
if anything:むしろ、それどころか
received even worse press:メディアにより悪く取り上げられている
derided by:冷笑される
devised:考案する
in the absence of :を除外して
But also like Obamacare, financial reform is working a lot better than anyone listening to the news media would imagine. Let’s talk, in particular, about two important pieces of Dodd-Frank: creation of an agency protecting consumers from misleading or fraudulent financial sales pitches, and efforts to end “too big to fail.”
fraudulent:不正な
sales pitch:売り込み/セールストーク
The decision to create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau shouldn’t have been controversial, given what happened during the housing boom. As Edward M. Gramlich, a Federal Reserve official who warned prophetically of problems in subprime lending, asked, “Why are the most risky loan products sold to the least sophisticated borrowers?” He went on, “The question answers itself — the least sophisticated borrowers are probably duped into taking these products.” The need for more protection was obvious.
controversial:論争の余地のある
prophetically:予言的に
sophisticated:高い教養のある
duped:騙されて
月曜日。今日はこれまで。明日朝が早いので、今日アップしておきます。本日は1日観光でした。ダラットの街をあちこち行って、特に刺繍博物館はベトナムの歴史博物館で飛んでもなく大きなところでした。中身は素晴らしかった。また、フランス人が昔住んでいたところとか、教会とかを訪問した。明日早朝、ホーチミンに向かう。一日予定はないので、仕事をする。夜は高橋と会食の予定。ではまた明後日。
2015年11月22日
なぜアメリカ人は彼らがするようなやり方でイスラエルを見るのか。(2)
In Germany, of all places, there have been a series of demonstrations since the Gaza conflict broke out with refrains like “Israel: Nazi murderer” and “Jew, Jew, you cowardly pig, come out and fight alone” (it rhymes in German). Three men hurled a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue in Wuppertal. Hitler’s name has been chanted, gassing of Jews invoked. Violent demonstrations have erupted in France. The foreign ministers of France, Italy and Germany were moved to issue a statement saying “anti-Semitic rhetoric and hostility against Jews” have “no place in our societies.” Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, went further. What Germany had witnessed, he wrote, makes the “blood freeze in anybody’s veins.”
refrain:決まり文句
cowardly:卑怯な
fight alone:孤軍奮闘する
rhyme:韻をふむ
hurl:強く投げつける
gassing:ガスで処理をする
invoked:行使する
veins:静脈
Yes, it does. Germany, Israel’s closest ally apart from the United States, had been constrained since 1945. The moral shackles have loosened. Europe’s malevolent ghosts have not been entirely dispelled. The continent on which Jews went meekly to the slaughter reproaches the descendants of those who survived for absorbing the lesson that military might is inextricable from survival and that no attack must go unanswered, especially one from an organization bent on the annihilation of Israel.
apart from:はさておき
constrain:強要する/抑制する
moral shackle:道義上の足かせ
malevolent:悪意のある
dispel:払いのける
meekly:従順に/おとなしく
reproach:非難する
descendant:子孫
inextricable:回避不能な/密接な
unanswered:返答のない/うやむやにされた
annihilation:壊滅
bent on:しようとしている/するつもりである
absorbing the lesson:教訓を吸収する
A strange transference sometimes seems to be at work, as if casting Israelis as murderers, shorn of any historical context, somehow expiates the crime. In any case it is certain that for a quasi-pacifist Europe, the Palestinian victim plays well; the regional superpower, Israel, a militarized society through necessity, much less so.
transference:感情転移
cast:みなす
shorn of:を奪われた
expiate:罪を償う
quasi:擬似的な
much less so:ほとんどそうではない
Anger at Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is also “a unifying element among disparate Islamic communities in Europe,” said Jonathan Eyal, a foreign policy analyst in London. Moroccans in the Netherlands, Pakistanis in Britain and Algerians in France find common cause in denouncing Israel. “Their anger is also a low-cost expression of frustration and alienation,” Eyal said.
bombardment:爆撃
disparate:異質の
alienation:疎外感/孤立
Views of the war in the United States can feel similarly skewed, resistant to the whole picture, slanted through cultural inclination and political diktat. It is still hard to say that the killing of hundreds of Palestinian children represents a Jewish failure, whatever else it may be. It is not easy to convey the point that the open-air prison of Gaza in which Hamas has thrived exists in part because Israel has shown a strong preference for the status quo, failing to reach out to Palestinian moderates and extending settlements in the West Bank, fatally tempted by the idea of keeping all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
skewed:歪曲された
resistant:抵抗する
slanted :歪曲された/偏った
cultural inclination:文化的な傾斜
diktat:理不尽な命令
日曜日。今日はこれまで。昨日の午前はASEAN青年会議所のセネター会議があって、午後は農場の工場を見学した。今日は1日、どこかに行くようだ。いつもそうなのでが、彼らの行動予定はわからない。その時々で変えてしまう。効率はいいのだが、今日は何をするのかわからない。ではまた明日。
refrain:決まり文句
cowardly:卑怯な
fight alone:孤軍奮闘する
rhyme:韻をふむ
hurl:強く投げつける
gassing:ガスで処理をする
invoked:行使する
veins:静脈
Yes, it does. Germany, Israel’s closest ally apart from the United States, had been constrained since 1945. The moral shackles have loosened. Europe’s malevolent ghosts have not been entirely dispelled. The continent on which Jews went meekly to the slaughter reproaches the descendants of those who survived for absorbing the lesson that military might is inextricable from survival and that no attack must go unanswered, especially one from an organization bent on the annihilation of Israel.
apart from:はさておき
constrain:強要する/抑制する
moral shackle:道義上の足かせ
malevolent:悪意のある
dispel:払いのける
meekly:従順に/おとなしく
reproach:非難する
descendant:子孫
inextricable:回避不能な/密接な
unanswered:返答のない/うやむやにされた
annihilation:壊滅
bent on:しようとしている/するつもりである
absorbing the lesson:教訓を吸収する
A strange transference sometimes seems to be at work, as if casting Israelis as murderers, shorn of any historical context, somehow expiates the crime. In any case it is certain that for a quasi-pacifist Europe, the Palestinian victim plays well; the regional superpower, Israel, a militarized society through necessity, much less so.
transference:感情転移
cast:みなす
shorn of:を奪われた
expiate:罪を償う
quasi:擬似的な
much less so:ほとんどそうではない
Anger at Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is also “a unifying element among disparate Islamic communities in Europe,” said Jonathan Eyal, a foreign policy analyst in London. Moroccans in the Netherlands, Pakistanis in Britain and Algerians in France find common cause in denouncing Israel. “Their anger is also a low-cost expression of frustration and alienation,” Eyal said.
bombardment:爆撃
disparate:異質の
alienation:疎外感/孤立
Views of the war in the United States can feel similarly skewed, resistant to the whole picture, slanted through cultural inclination and political diktat. It is still hard to say that the killing of hundreds of Palestinian children represents a Jewish failure, whatever else it may be. It is not easy to convey the point that the open-air prison of Gaza in which Hamas has thrived exists in part because Israel has shown a strong preference for the status quo, failing to reach out to Palestinian moderates and extending settlements in the West Bank, fatally tempted by the idea of keeping all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
skewed:歪曲された
resistant:抵抗する
slanted :歪曲された/偏った
cultural inclination:文化的な傾斜
diktat:理不尽な命令
日曜日。今日はこれまで。昨日の午前はASEAN青年会議所のセネター会議があって、午後は農場の工場を見学した。今日は1日、どこかに行くようだ。いつもそうなのでが、彼らの行動予定はわからない。その時々で変えてしまう。効率はいいのだが、今日は何をするのかわからない。ではまた明日。
2015年11月21日
なぜアメリカ人は彼らがするようなやり方でイスラエルを見るのか。
これはニューヨークタイムズだ。
Why Americans See Israel the Way They Do AUG. 2, 2014
なぜアメリカ人は彼らがするようなやり方でイスラエルを見るのか。
Demonstrators in Paris oppose the violence in Gaza. July 23, 2014. Credit Romain Lafabregue/Agence France-Presse TO cross the Atlantic to America, as I did recently from London, is to move from one moral universe to its opposite in relation to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Fury over Palestinian civilian casualties has risen to a fever pitch in Europe, moving beyond anti-Zionism into anti-Semitism (often a flimsy distinction). Attacks on Jews and synagogues are the work of a rabid fringe, but anger toward an Israel portrayed as indiscriminate in its brutality is widespread. For a growing number of Europeans, not having a negative opinion of Israel is tantamount to not having a conscience. The deaths of hundreds of children in any war, as one editorial in The Guardian put it, is “a special kind of obscenity.”
moral universe:倫理的宇宙 the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice は、米国公民権運動の指導者であった Martin Luther King Jr. 牧師が好んで使った語句のようです。「精神宇宙の大弓は長いけれども、それは正義に向かって曲げられているからです。」
fever pitch:最高潮
anti-Zionism:反ユダヤ主義
anti-Semitism:ユダヤ人差別
flimsy distinction:説得力のない区別
synagogue:ユダヤ教会
rabid fringe:過激な一派
indiscriminate:無差別の
tantamount:も同じことだ
conscience:良心 o
bscenity:残忍さ/卑猥
In the United States, by contrast, support for Israel remains strong (although less so among the young, who are most exposed to the warring hashtags of social media). That support is overwhelming in political circles. Palestinian suffering remains near taboo in Congress. It is not only among American Jews, better organized and more outspoken than their whispering European counterparts, that the story of a nation of immigrants escaping persecution and rising from nowhere in the Holy Land resonates. The Israeli saga — of courage and will — echoes in American mythology, far beyond religious identification, be it Jewish or evangelical Christian.
warring:敵対する
overwhelming:圧倒的な
outspoken:言いたいことを言う
Holy Land:聖地/パレスチナ
resonate:共鳴する
mythology:神話/迷信
evangelical:福音教会派の
America tends toward a preference for unambiguous right and wrong — no European leader would pronounce the phrase “axis of evil” — and this third Gaza eruption in six years fits neatly enough into a Manichaean framework: A democratic Jewish state, hit by rockets, responds to Islamic terrorists. The obscenity, for most Americans, has a name. That name is Hamas.
unambiguous:明白な
eruption:爆発/噴火
Manichaean:マニ教の
James Lasdun, a Jewish author and poet who moved to the United States from England, has written that, “There is something uncannily adaptive about anti-Semitism: the way it can hide, unsuspected, in the most progressive minds.” Certainly, European anti-Semitism has adapted. It used to be mainly of the nationalist right. It now finds expression among large Muslim communities. But the war has also suggested how the virulent anti-Israel sentiment now evident among the bien-pensant European left can create a climate that makes violent hatred of Jews permissible once again.
uncannily:不思議なほど
adaptive:適応性がある
virulent:憎悪に満ちた/猛烈な
bien-pensant:Right-thinking, orthodox, conformist
permissible:許容されうる
土曜日。今日はこれまで。昨日は4時前に起きて、ホーチミンからダラットに移動し、1日忙しくしていた。11時になってもまだ、解散しそうになかったので、帰って寝た。今朝は8時半から会議がある。食べ過ぎなので、食事に気をつけている。彼らはよく酒を飲む。今日の1日遅くまで予定が詰まっている。健康管理に気をつけないと、体を壊しそうだ。このアジア人も欧米人に負けないくらい活気と体力がある。日本人の私は完全に負けている。それとお互いの信頼はこの連中は得意だ。改めて、勉強になっている。ではまた明日。
Why Americans See Israel the Way They Do AUG. 2, 2014
なぜアメリカ人は彼らがするようなやり方でイスラエルを見るのか。
Demonstrators in Paris oppose the violence in Gaza. July 23, 2014. Credit Romain Lafabregue/Agence France-Presse TO cross the Atlantic to America, as I did recently from London, is to move from one moral universe to its opposite in relation to Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Fury over Palestinian civilian casualties has risen to a fever pitch in Europe, moving beyond anti-Zionism into anti-Semitism (often a flimsy distinction). Attacks on Jews and synagogues are the work of a rabid fringe, but anger toward an Israel portrayed as indiscriminate in its brutality is widespread. For a growing number of Europeans, not having a negative opinion of Israel is tantamount to not having a conscience. The deaths of hundreds of children in any war, as one editorial in The Guardian put it, is “a special kind of obscenity.”
moral universe:倫理的宇宙 the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice は、米国公民権運動の指導者であった Martin Luther King Jr. 牧師が好んで使った語句のようです。「精神宇宙の大弓は長いけれども、それは正義に向かって曲げられているからです。」
fever pitch:最高潮
anti-Zionism:反ユダヤ主義
anti-Semitism:ユダヤ人差別
flimsy distinction:説得力のない区別
synagogue:ユダヤ教会
rabid fringe:過激な一派
indiscriminate:無差別の
tantamount:も同じことだ
conscience:良心 o
bscenity:残忍さ/卑猥
In the United States, by contrast, support for Israel remains strong (although less so among the young, who are most exposed to the warring hashtags of social media). That support is overwhelming in political circles. Palestinian suffering remains near taboo in Congress. It is not only among American Jews, better organized and more outspoken than their whispering European counterparts, that the story of a nation of immigrants escaping persecution and rising from nowhere in the Holy Land resonates. The Israeli saga — of courage and will — echoes in American mythology, far beyond religious identification, be it Jewish or evangelical Christian.
warring:敵対する
overwhelming:圧倒的な
outspoken:言いたいことを言う
Holy Land:聖地/パレスチナ
resonate:共鳴する
mythology:神話/迷信
evangelical:福音教会派の
America tends toward a preference for unambiguous right and wrong — no European leader would pronounce the phrase “axis of evil” — and this third Gaza eruption in six years fits neatly enough into a Manichaean framework: A democratic Jewish state, hit by rockets, responds to Islamic terrorists. The obscenity, for most Americans, has a name. That name is Hamas.
unambiguous:明白な
eruption:爆発/噴火
Manichaean:マニ教の
James Lasdun, a Jewish author and poet who moved to the United States from England, has written that, “There is something uncannily adaptive about anti-Semitism: the way it can hide, unsuspected, in the most progressive minds.” Certainly, European anti-Semitism has adapted. It used to be mainly of the nationalist right. It now finds expression among large Muslim communities. But the war has also suggested how the virulent anti-Israel sentiment now evident among the bien-pensant European left can create a climate that makes violent hatred of Jews permissible once again.
uncannily:不思議なほど
adaptive:適応性がある
virulent:憎悪に満ちた/猛烈な
bien-pensant:Right-thinking, orthodox, conformist
permissible:許容されうる
土曜日。今日はこれまで。昨日は4時前に起きて、ホーチミンからダラットに移動し、1日忙しくしていた。11時になってもまだ、解散しそうになかったので、帰って寝た。今朝は8時半から会議がある。食べ過ぎなので、食事に気をつけている。彼らはよく酒を飲む。今日の1日遅くまで予定が詰まっている。健康管理に気をつけないと、体を壊しそうだ。このアジア人も欧米人に負けないくらい活気と体力がある。日本人の私は完全に負けている。それとお互いの信頼はこの連中は得意だ。改めて、勉強になっている。ではまた明日。
2015年11月20日
アフガニスタンの連立政権 決して終わらなかった選挙(2)
Mr Ghani however, perhaps feeling confident that his contested lead will stand up in the face of the audit, seems reluctant to put too much “share” in power-sharing. Referring to the Afghan constitution, his side insists that the real power must remain in the hands of the president. “Nobody can push the president,” as Abbas Noyan, a member of Mr Ghani’s team, puts it. He says Mr Ghani is committed to the agreement, but that “further details about the national-unity government will be discussed after the announcement of the audit result.”
contested:戦う
in the face of the audit:監査を前にして
national-unity:挙国一致
Mr Noyan claims that positions in the unity government must be based on merit, not simply on whomever the losing side chooses to introduce. And that the leader of the opposition is supposed to be someone who is loyal to the government of the president. A prime-ministerial post may be established, Mr Noyan allows, “but we will not change the system to a parliamentary one.” It becomes unclear exactly what power will be left to the executive council—Mr Ghani’s side says that its chief will be “responsible for implementing government policies”.
merit:長所
A decade ago it was widely thought that democracy in fissiparous Afghanistan could only work with a strong central authority. But Mr Karzai's unsatisfactory and increasingly whimsical rule, under which cronies flourished, has underlined the disadvantages of an overstrong presidency. When the Kerry deal was announced, Mr Karzai called it “a bitter pill”. As it turns out, some Afghan voters are finding it hard to swallow. “They don’t respect our votes,” said Lutfuddin Osmani, a 28-year-old NGO worker. “Why did they have to spend so much money on the elections, if [the candidates] are going to share the power anyway?”
fissiparous:党派争いをする
whimsical :気まぐれな
bitter pill:受け入れがたいこと
hard to swallow:信じがたい
As a result of this dispute, talks behind the scenes have stalled. Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah have met only twice since Mr Kerry’s visit, most recently on July 18th.
The technical part of the agreement also provides grounds for disagreement. As the audit limps along, the agents of both candidates are arguing strenuously over minor details. Should they void only individual votes that appear spoiled? Or should they dump the whole of any contaminated ballot box? In what cases does a sharp increase in voter turnout warrant suspicion? Can a fingerprint stand in for a tick mark? Initially scheduled for four weeks, the audit was suspended for the third time on July 26th, and will not resume until after Eid. At its current pace, Afghanistan will not have a new president to inaugurate until December.
limps along:もたつく
strenuously:頑強に
spoiled:ダメになった
warrant:正当化する
stand in:代役をつとめる
resume:再開する
Eid al-Fitr festival: 《回教》イード・(ア)ル・フィトル祭、イスラム教徒の断食明けの祭り、ラマダン明け祭り、断食月間の終りの祭り、断食明けの祭典
Mr Kerry’s mission to Kabul left many Afghans feeling relieved. He appeared to have salvaged an election in which Western donors had invested over $130m. But neither of the rivals seems to have accepted the basic fact of the contest between them: one of the two must lose more than the other. Stalling and prevarication are the only outcomes on which they seem to stand in agreement.
relieved:安心する
salvage:救う
Stalling:言い逃れ
prevarication:ごまかし
金曜日。今日はこれまで。明日の朝は4時半に出発するので、今日書く。今日はJETROへの訪問と夜は青年会議所のASEANのOB会があった。10時半までということだったが、先ほど帰ってきた。それでも、今は11時近い。明日は朝6時50分の飛行機でダラットに向かうので、バスが4時半に出る。こっちの人は朝が早い。ではまた明後日。
contested:戦う
in the face of the audit:監査を前にして
national-unity:挙国一致
Mr Noyan claims that positions in the unity government must be based on merit, not simply on whomever the losing side chooses to introduce. And that the leader of the opposition is supposed to be someone who is loyal to the government of the president. A prime-ministerial post may be established, Mr Noyan allows, “but we will not change the system to a parliamentary one.” It becomes unclear exactly what power will be left to the executive council—Mr Ghani’s side says that its chief will be “responsible for implementing government policies”.
merit:長所
A decade ago it was widely thought that democracy in fissiparous Afghanistan could only work with a strong central authority. But Mr Karzai's unsatisfactory and increasingly whimsical rule, under which cronies flourished, has underlined the disadvantages of an overstrong presidency. When the Kerry deal was announced, Mr Karzai called it “a bitter pill”. As it turns out, some Afghan voters are finding it hard to swallow. “They don’t respect our votes,” said Lutfuddin Osmani, a 28-year-old NGO worker. “Why did they have to spend so much money on the elections, if [the candidates] are going to share the power anyway?”
fissiparous:党派争いをする
whimsical :気まぐれな
bitter pill:受け入れがたいこと
hard to swallow:信じがたい
As a result of this dispute, talks behind the scenes have stalled. Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah have met only twice since Mr Kerry’s visit, most recently on July 18th.
The technical part of the agreement also provides grounds for disagreement. As the audit limps along, the agents of both candidates are arguing strenuously over minor details. Should they void only individual votes that appear spoiled? Or should they dump the whole of any contaminated ballot box? In what cases does a sharp increase in voter turnout warrant suspicion? Can a fingerprint stand in for a tick mark? Initially scheduled for four weeks, the audit was suspended for the third time on July 26th, and will not resume until after Eid. At its current pace, Afghanistan will not have a new president to inaugurate until December.
limps along:もたつく
strenuously:頑強に
spoiled:ダメになった
warrant:正当化する
stand in:代役をつとめる
resume:再開する
Eid al-Fitr festival: 《回教》イード・(ア)ル・フィトル祭、イスラム教徒の断食明けの祭り、ラマダン明け祭り、断食月間の終りの祭り、断食明けの祭典
Mr Kerry’s mission to Kabul left many Afghans feeling relieved. He appeared to have salvaged an election in which Western donors had invested over $130m. But neither of the rivals seems to have accepted the basic fact of the contest between them: one of the two must lose more than the other. Stalling and prevarication are the only outcomes on which they seem to stand in agreement.
relieved:安心する
salvage:救う
Stalling:言い逃れ
prevarication:ごまかし
金曜日。今日はこれまで。明日の朝は4時半に出発するので、今日書く。今日はJETROへの訪問と夜は青年会議所のASEANのOB会があった。10時半までということだったが、先ほど帰ってきた。それでも、今は11時近い。明日は朝6時50分の飛行機でダラットに向かうので、バスが4時半に出る。こっちの人は朝が早い。ではまた明後日。
2015年11月19日
アフガニスタンの連立政権 決して終わらなかった選挙
これはエコノミストだ。
Power-sharing in Afghanistan
The election that never ended
Jul 29th 2014, 16:42 by S.R. | KABUL
アフガニスタンの連立政権
決して終わらなかった選挙

THREE airless aluminium warehouses, shaped like giant armadillos, sit hunched on the outskirts of Kabul. Inside hundreds of volunteers and international election observers have been bustling around in stifling heat, arguing over the shape of tick-marks on individual ballots. During Ramadan the lack of food and drink made the stale atmosphere inside the godowns all the more draining. The Ramadan fast has since broken, but the counting goes on. Until it has finished, the presidential election that was supposed to replace Hamid Karzai hangs in suspension.
armadillos:アルマジロ
sit hunched:背を丸めて座っている
bustling:バタバタと動き回る
stifling heat:息がつまるような暑さ
stale atmosphere:ムッとした雰囲気
godowns:倉庫
all the more draining:いっそう疲れさせる/水気をなくす
fast:断食
since:その後
hangs in suspension:保留になっている
After a surprising reversal of fortunes suddenly favoured Ashraf Ghani in the second round of the presidential elections, his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, cried foul. Alleging fraud, several of his powerful supporters threatened to establish a breakaway government. It took an emergency agreement brokered by John Kerry, America’s secretary of state, to keep the process alive, but the deal is starting to show some of its inherent flaws. Mr Kerry has moved on and the two presidential hopefuls are now left to wrestle over its shortcomings.
reversal:逆転
cried foul:非難する/違反だと叫ぶ
threatened:脅す
breakaway:分離した/脱却した
brokered :を仲介する
inherent flaw:内在する瑕疵
shortcoming:欠陥/欠点
To prevent Afghanistan from splitting down the middle, the candidates committed themselves to a two-pronged agreement: a full, internationally supervised audit of all 8m votes cast; and the formation of a government of national unity. Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah were induced to hug each other before Mr Kerry and the cameras on July 12th. Since then the mood has soured.
splitting down the middle:分裂する
two-pronged:二股の/両面の
induce:仕向ける/引き起こす
sour:悪化する
One dispute is over the national-unity bit of the deal. Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah agreed to divide power between the president and a “chief of the executive council”, to be nominated by the losing side. In two years’ time, a loya jirga (a gathering of tribal elders, local power-brokers and elected officials) is to vote on the option to turn the new executive role into the post of prime minister.
To this extent, both sides agree. The balance of power, however, is a matter of debate. Mr Abdullah is pushing for something close to a 50-50 division of power.
division of power:権力分立
木曜日。今日はこれまで。昨日はホーチミンに朝早く着いて、午前中はホテルで休息。昼はホテルの近くで昼食。少し散歩してから夕刻まで仕事。夕食は高橋さんと彼の顧客2人と会食。ベトナムの経済とか諸々のことを話すことができた。ベトナムは若いことを実感した。今日は4時からJETROで、高橋さんが連れて行ってくれる。青年会議所のASEANの夕食会は6時半からだ。ではまた明日。
Power-sharing in Afghanistan
The election that never ended
Jul 29th 2014, 16:42 by S.R. | KABUL
アフガニスタンの連立政権
決して終わらなかった選挙

THREE airless aluminium warehouses, shaped like giant armadillos, sit hunched on the outskirts of Kabul. Inside hundreds of volunteers and international election observers have been bustling around in stifling heat, arguing over the shape of tick-marks on individual ballots. During Ramadan the lack of food and drink made the stale atmosphere inside the godowns all the more draining. The Ramadan fast has since broken, but the counting goes on. Until it has finished, the presidential election that was supposed to replace Hamid Karzai hangs in suspension.
armadillos:アルマジロ
sit hunched:背を丸めて座っている
bustling:バタバタと動き回る
stifling heat:息がつまるような暑さ
stale atmosphere:ムッとした雰囲気
godowns:倉庫
all the more draining:いっそう疲れさせる/水気をなくす
fast:断食
since:その後
hangs in suspension:保留になっている
After a surprising reversal of fortunes suddenly favoured Ashraf Ghani in the second round of the presidential elections, his opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, cried foul. Alleging fraud, several of his powerful supporters threatened to establish a breakaway government. It took an emergency agreement brokered by John Kerry, America’s secretary of state, to keep the process alive, but the deal is starting to show some of its inherent flaws. Mr Kerry has moved on and the two presidential hopefuls are now left to wrestle over its shortcomings.
reversal:逆転
cried foul:非難する/違反だと叫ぶ
threatened:脅す
breakaway:分離した/脱却した
brokered :を仲介する
inherent flaw:内在する瑕疵
shortcoming:欠陥/欠点
To prevent Afghanistan from splitting down the middle, the candidates committed themselves to a two-pronged agreement: a full, internationally supervised audit of all 8m votes cast; and the formation of a government of national unity. Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah were induced to hug each other before Mr Kerry and the cameras on July 12th. Since then the mood has soured.
splitting down the middle:分裂する
two-pronged:二股の/両面の
induce:仕向ける/引き起こす
sour:悪化する
One dispute is over the national-unity bit of the deal. Mr Ghani and Mr Abdullah agreed to divide power between the president and a “chief of the executive council”, to be nominated by the losing side. In two years’ time, a loya jirga (a gathering of tribal elders, local power-brokers and elected officials) is to vote on the option to turn the new executive role into the post of prime minister.
To this extent, both sides agree. The balance of power, however, is a matter of debate. Mr Abdullah is pushing for something close to a 50-50 division of power.
division of power:権力分立
木曜日。今日はこれまで。昨日はホーチミンに朝早く着いて、午前中はホテルで休息。昼はホテルの近くで昼食。少し散歩してから夕刻まで仕事。夕食は高橋さんと彼の顧客2人と会食。ベトナムの経済とか諸々のことを話すことができた。ベトナムは若いことを実感した。今日は4時からJETROで、高橋さんが連れて行ってくれる。青年会議所のASEANの夕食会は6時半からだ。ではまた明日。