“我为美国人感到难过”：世界如何看待如今的美国
‘I Feel Sorry for Americans’: A Baffled World Watches the U.S.
HANNAH BEECH
2020年9月29日
BANGKOK — Myanmar is a poor country struggling with open ethnic warfare and a coronavirus outbreak that could overload its broken hospitals. That hasn’t stopped its politicians from commiserating with a country they think has lost its way.
曼谷——缅甸是一个贫穷的国家，正在与公开的种族战争以及可能导致该国破败的医院不堪重负的新冠病毒暴发作斗争。但这并没有阻止它的政客们去同情一个他们认为已经迷失了方向的国家。
“I feel sorry for Americans,” said U Myint Oo, a member of parliament in Myanmar. “But we can’t help the U.S. because we are a very small country.”
“我为美国人感到难过，”缅甸国会议员吴敏乌(U Myint Oo)说。“但我们帮不了美国，我们国家太小了。”
The same sentiment prevails in Canada, one of the most developed countries. Two out of three Canadians live within about 60 miles of the American border.
加拿大，这个最发达的国家之一，也存在同样的情绪。三分之二的加拿大人居住在距离美国边境不到60英里的地方。
“Personally, it’s like watching the decline of the Roman Empire,” said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, an industrial city on the border with Michigan, where locals used to venture for lunch.
“我个人觉得，这就像见证罗马帝国的衰落一样，”萨尼亚市长迈克·布拉德利(Mike Bradley)说，萨尼亚是与密歇根州接壤的一座工业城市，当地人以前爱跑过去吃午饭。
Amid the pandemic and in the run-up to the presidential election, much of the world is watching the United States with a mix of shock, chagrin and, most of all, bafflement.
在大流行和总统大选即将到来的背景下，全世界无数人以交织着震惊、懊恼，以及最重要的——一种迷惑的心情关注着美国。
How did a superpower allow itself to be felled by a virus? And after nearly four years during which President Trump has praised authoritarian leaders and obscenely dismissed some other countries as insignificant and crime-ridden, is the United States in danger of exhibiting some of the same traits he has disparaged?
这样一个超级大国怎么就让自己被病毒击倒？在近四年的时间里，特朗普总统不断赞美威权领导人，肆意斥责其他一些国家微不足道、犯罪猖獗，但美国是否有可能表现出他所蔑视的某些特质？
“The U.S.A. is a first-world country but it is acting like a third-world country,” said U Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst in Myanmar.
“美国是个第一世界国家，但它的行为却像个第三世界国家。”缅甸政治分析师昂杜迎(U Aung Thu Nyein)表示。
Adding to the sense of bewilderment, Mr. Trump has refused to embrace an indispensable principle of democracy, dodging questions about whether he will commit to a peaceful transition of power after the November election should he lose.
让人更添困惑的是，特朗普拒绝接受一项不可或缺的民主原则，对于如果他在11月的大选中失败，是否会承诺和平移交权力的问题，他一直在回避。
His demurral, combined with his frequent attacks on the balloting process, earned a rebuke from Republicans, including Senator Mitt Romney of Utah. “Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power,” Mr. Romney wrote on Twitter. “Without that, there is Belarus.”
他的迟疑，再加上他对投票过程的频繁攻击，遭到了包括犹他州参议员米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)在内的共和党人的指责。“民主制度的根基就是权力的和平过渡，”罗姆尼在Twitter上写道。“没有这一点，就会变成白俄罗斯。”
In Belarus, where tens of thousands of people have faced down the police after the widely disputed re-election last month of President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, Mr. Trump’s remarks sounded familiar.
在白俄罗斯，当总统亚历山大·G·卢卡申科(Aleksandr Lukashenko)在上个月充满争议地再次当选后，成千上万的人上街直面警察，而特朗普的言论，他们听起来很耳熟。
“It reminds me of Belarus, when a person cannot admit defeat and looks for any means to prove that he couldn’t lose,” said Kiryl Kalbasnikau, a 29-year-old opposition activist and actor. “This would be a warning sign for any democracy.”
“这让我想起了白俄罗斯，一个人不愿承认失败，却千方百计想证明自己不会输，”29岁的反对派活动人士、同时还是一名演员的基雷利·卡尔巴斯尼考(Kiryl Kalbasnikau)说。“对任何民主制度而言，这都是一个警示信号。”
Some others in Europe are confident that American institutions are strong enough to withstand assault.
其他一些欧洲人相信，美国的机构足够强大，能经受得住这样的攻击。
“I have no doubt in the ability of the constitutional structures of the United States with their system of checks and balances to function,” said Johann Wadephul of Germany, a senior lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.
“我毫不怀疑美国宪法架构及其制衡体系的运转能力，”德国总理安格拉·默克尔(Angela Merkel)所在的保守党资深议员约翰·瓦德富尔(Johann Wadephul)说。
Still, that the president of the United States, the very country that shepherded the birth of Germany’s own peaceful democracy after the defeat of the Third Reich, was wavering on the sanctity of the electoral process has been met with disbelief and dismay.
尽管如此，美国总统对选举过程神圣性的动摇，还是引来了怀疑和失望情绪，要知道美国可是那个在第三帝国战败后，引导了德国和平民主制度诞生的国家。
The diminution of the United States’ global image began before the pandemic, as Trump administration officials snubbed international accords and embraced an America First policy. Now, though, its reputation seems to be in free-fall.
随着特朗普政府无视各种国际协议，奉行美国优先的政策，美国的全球形象在大流行之前就已经受损了。但现在，它的声誉似乎在直线下滑。
A Pew Research Center poll of 13 countries found that over the past year, nations including Canada, Japan, Australia and Germany have been viewing the United States in its most negative light in years. In every country surveyed, the vast majority of respondents thought the United States was doing a bad job with the pandemic.
皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)对13个国家进行的一项调查发现，过去一年里，包括加拿大、日本、澳大利亚和德国在内的国家对美国的看法是多年来最为负面的。在每一个接受调查的国家中，绝大多数受访者都认为，美国在应对疫情方面做得不好。
Such global disapproval historically has applied to countries with less open political systems and strongmen in charge. But people from just the kind of developing countries that Mr. Trump has mocked say the signs coming from the United States are ominous: a disease unchecked, mass protests over racial and social inequality, and a president who seems unwilling to pledge support for the tenets of electoral democracy.
在历史上，这种全球范围内的反对态度往往只适用于那些政治开放程度较低、有铁腕人物掌权的国家。但来自特朗普曾经嘲笑过的那种发展中国家的人也说，美国表现出的迹象不妙：没能得到遏制的疾病，针对种族和社会不平等的大规模抗议，以及一位似乎不愿意承诺支持选举民主原则的总统。
Mexico, perhaps more than any other country, has been the target of Mr. Trump’s ire, with the president using it as a campaign punching bag and vowing to make Mexicans pay for a border wall. Now they are feeling a new emotion that has overtaken their anger and bewilderment at Trumpian insults: sympathy.
在所有国家中，最常被特朗普用来发泄愤怒的可能要属墨西哥，总统在竞选中把它当出气筒，发誓要让墨西哥人出钱修建边境墙。现在，他们感受到了一种新的情感：同情，这已经超越了他们对特朗普侮辱的愤怒和困惑。
“We used to look to the U.S. for democratic governance inspiration,” said Eduardo Bohórquez, the director of Transparency International Mexico. “Sadly, this is not the case anymore.”
“我们曾经向美国寻求民主治理的启示，”透明国际 (Transparency International)墨西哥办事处负责人爱德华多·博霍尔克兹(Eduardo Bohorquez)说。“可悲的是，情况已经不一样了。”
“‘Being great’ is simply not enough,” he added.
“只有‘伟大荣光’是不够的，”他还说。
In Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority democracy, there is a sense that the United States has left the world adrift, even if its application overseas of democratic ideals was imperfect. For decades, Washington supported some of Asia’s most ruthless dictators because they were considered vital to halting communism in the region.
在印度尼西亚这个人口最多的穆斯林多数民主国家，人们感觉美国让世界失去了方向，尽管它在海外实施的民主理念并不完美。几十年来，美国政府一直支持亚洲一些最残忍的独裁者，因为他们被视为阻止该地区共产主义的关键人物。
“The world sees the dismantling of social cohesion within American society and the mess in managing Covid,” said Yenny Wahid, an Indonesian politician and activist. “There is a vacuum of leadership that needs to be filled, but America is not fulfilling that leadership role.”
“世界看到了美国社会凝聚力的瓦解，以及在新冠病毒管理方面的混乱，”印尼政治人士和活动人士叶尼·瓦希德(Yenny Wahid)说。“有一个领导力的真空需要填补，但是美国并没有履行这个领导角色。”
Ms. Wahid, whose father was president of Indonesia after the country emerged from decades of strongman rule, said she worried that Mr. Trump’s dismissive attitude toward democratic principles could legitimize authoritarians.
瓦希德的父亲曾在印尼摆脱几十年铁腕统治后出任该国总统。瓦希德说，她担心特朗普对民主原则的轻蔑态度可能会让威权主义名正言顺起来。
“Trump inspired many dictators, many leaders who are interested in dictatorship, to copy his style, and he emboldened them,” she said.
“特朗普启发了许多独裁者，许多对独裁感兴趣的领导人模仿他的风格，他给他们壮了胆，”她说。
In places like the Philippines, Mexico and others, elected leaders have been compared to Mr. Trump when they have turned to divisive rhetoric, disregard of institutions, intolerance of dissent and antipathy toward the media.
在菲律宾、墨西哥等国，如果民选领导人发表制造分裂的言论、无视体制、不容忍异见，对媒体报以反感态度，就会被拿来与特朗普相提并论。
But there is also a sense that Americans are now getting a glimpse of the troubles people living in fragile democracies must endure.
但人们也有一种感觉，美国人现在也能看到，在民主制度脆弱的国家里，人们必须忍受什么样的麻烦。
“They now know what it’s like in other countries: violating norms, international trade and its own institutions,” said Eunice Rendon, an expert on migration and security and the director of Migrant Agenda, a nonprofit organization in Mexico. “The most powerful country in the world all of a sudden looks vulnerable.”
“他们现在知道了其他国家是什么样的：违反规范、违反国际贸易和自己的体制，”移民与安全专家、墨西哥非营利组织移民议程(Migration Agenda)的负责人尤妮斯·伦登(Eunice Rendon)说。“这个世界上最强大的国家突然间看起来很脆弱。”
Already, an American passport, which once allowed easy access to almost every country in the world, is no longer a valuable travel pass. Because of the coronavirus, American tourists are banned from most of Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America.
美国护照曾经可以令持有者方便地进入世界上几乎所有国家，但现在它已经不再是一张宝贵的旅行通行证。由于新冠病毒，美国游客被禁止进入欧洲、亚洲、非洲、大洋洲和拉丁美洲的大部分地区。
Albania, Brazil and Belarus are among a small group of countries welcoming Americans with no restrictions, however.
阿尔巴尼亚、巴西和白俄罗斯是少数几个对美国人不加限制的国家。
The State Department has tried to play up its role in battling the coronavirus overseas, even as the United States struggled to supply its own doctors and nurses with adequate equipment early in the pandemic. In March, the United States provided 10,000 gloves and 5,000 surgical masks, among other medical supplies, to Thailand, which today has recorded fewer than 3,520 coronavirus cases and 59 deaths. Despite the low caseload, most Thais continue to wear face masks in public and the country never suffered a mask shortage.
国务院一直试图在海外与新冠病毒的斗争中发挥作用，尽管美国在疫情早期连给本国医生和护士提供足够的设备都有困难。今年3月，美国向泰国提供了1万副手套和5000只外科口罩，以及其他医疗用品，目前泰国的新冠病毒感染病例不到3520例，死亡人数为59人。尽管病例数很低，但大多数泰国人仍在公共场合佩戴口罩，而且从未出现过口罩短缺的情况。
“Through the American people’s generosity and the U.S. government’s action, the United States continues to demonstrate global leadership in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic,” a State Department statement said.
“通过美国人民的慷慨和美国政府的行动，美国继续在应对新冠病毒大流行方面展示全球领导力，”国务院的一份声明说。
In Cambodia, which reports being largely spared by the virus so far, there is a measure of schadenfreude toward the United States. Prime Minister Hun Sen has survived as Asia’s longest serving leader by cracking down on dissent and cozying up to China. He has turned his back on American aid because it often came with conditions to improve human rights. Now, he and his administration are ridiculing the United States and its handling of the pandemic.
据报道，迄今基本上没有受到病毒影响的柬埔寨对美国有一定程度的幸灾乐祸。首相洪森(Hun Sen)通过镇压异见人士并向中国示好，成为亚洲在位时间最长的领导人。他没有理会美国的援助，因为这种援助常常附带改善人权的条件。现在，他和他的政府正在嘲笑美国及其对疫情的处理。
“He has many nuclear weapons,” Sok Eysan, a spokesman for Mr. Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party, said of Mr. Trump. “But he is careless with a disease that can’t be seen.”
“他有很多核武器，”洪森所在的柬埔寨人民党(Cambodian People’s Party)发言人苏艾山(Sok Eysan)在谈到特朗普时说。“但他对一种看不见的疾病却不以为意。”
