Sample of Russian Translator's Exam

UNITED NATIONS NATIONS UNIES

OFFICE OF HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

GESTION DES RESSOURCES HUMAINES

2013 COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION FOR

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE TRANSLATORS / EDITORS

27 August 2013

2013 CONCOURS DE RECRUTEMENT DE

TRADUCTEURS / ÉDITEURS DE LANGUE RUSSE

le 27 août 2013

PART 1

PARTIE 1

Questions booklet

Fascicule de questions

SAMPLE

Examinations and Tests Section

Exam Sample

THIS SAMPLE IS PROVIDED FOR REFERENCE ONLY. THE ACTUAL EXAM MAY VARY IN FORMAT AND LENGHT.

1

PART 1

Translation of a general text in English into Russian

Instructions

Please translate the text in this examination paper into Russian.

Please note that this paper is eliminatory. Only candidates who are successful in this

paper will have their other papers marked.

The time allowed for this part of the examination is 3 hours. You are responsible for

managing your time.

The use of black or blue pen is required.

Please write your answers in the assigned answer booklet.

You should write only on every second line.

Only answers written in the odd-numbered (1,3,5,….), lined pages will be marked. You

may use the even-numbered (2,4,6,….), blank pages for drafting.

Please do not remove any page from this booklet.

SAMPLE

2

General text

In the 19th century, the heyday of European colonialism, those two great imperial rivals,

Britain and France, agreed to carve up not merely the world, but the universe. The

capacity to describe that universe depends on the ability of scientists to relate their

discoveries to the fundamental quantities of length, time and mass. The British gained

control of time, which is why the Earth’s prime meridian runs through Greenwich, a

suburb of London. The French annexed length and mass.

They kept them, in the form of two lumps of metal, in sealed jars in the International

Bureau of Weights and Measures in Sèvres, a suburb of Paris. The metre was the distance

between two scratches on a bar composed of a special alloy of platinum and iridium. The

kilogram was the weight of a lump of a similar alloy. The foot and the pound, to British

chagrin, were legally agreed to be mere fractions of these fundamental units.

Science moves on. Time is now defined by readily available clocks that use caesium

atoms as their pendulums, while distance is specified in terms of the speed of light in

metres per second, and these days that speed can be measured with great accuracy using

easily purchased equipment. Mass, however, remains stubbornly stuck in Paris, under

three concentric glass lids strangely reminiscent of cheese covers, which are intended to

stop it either absorbing or shedding matter and thus changing in value.

Unfortunately, the cheese covers have not worked. Over the years the standard kilogram

has put on weight, or possibly lost it. Nobody quite knows which. But they do know that

it is not the same kilo that went under the lids in 1889.

Science would thus love to be free of this awkward lump of metal, but attempts to define

mass objectively—with reference to, say, the mass of a proton—have always foundered

on the question: “So how do you measure that?” For all the fancy equipment that

scientists now have for monitoring the behaviour of caesium atoms and the value of the

speed of light, no one has come up with a more accurate way of measuring mass than

taking the Parisian ingot out of its sarcophagus from time to time, and putting it on a set

of scales.

Some physicists do believe they have an answer. It involves Planck’s constant (the

fundamental principle of quantum physics), the speed of light and an apparatus called a

watt balance. If a meeting next year approves this idea, the Parisian mass will at last

become redundant. But the watt-balance approach itself has critics, for such balances are

costly.

Being able to weigh things without reference to a bit of Bonapartist bullion would mean

that all means of measurement were based on universal truths rather than mere artefacts.

That would bring cheers from mensuration laboratories around the globe. But the

measuring itself will still be done by human minds, with human ideas of what sorts of

thing to measure, and of how to make those measurements make sense—what axes, in

other words, to use to define the universe of the measured. And here, at least, there is a

sop for French self-esteem: though mass will no longer be Parisian, at least the co-

ordinates will remain Cartesian.

SAMPLE






27 August 2013



le 27 août 2013

PART 2

PARTIE 2

Questions booklet


SAMPLE

1

PART 2

Translation into Russian of a text in Arabic, Chinese, French or

Spanish

Instructions

Please translate into Russian one of the texts in Arabic, Chinese, French or Spanish in

this examination paper.

The time allowed for this part of the examination is 1 hour and 30 minutes. You are

responsible for managing your time.



In the upper right hand corner of the first page of the answer booklet, please indicate the

language of the text you selected.





SAMPLE

2

Arabic Text

االيأقجههقجلم هه ا لتواجههالامههأزمل إنههنلة خههق أنلظق اههنلجلسههةلااليأههق ل هه نلن هه ل هه صلنههملاماتههقشلاض ههلوهه اقجلمأههههقلعههههقج ل ههههةلتاههههق لاضإنههههنلالهههه ل ل لههههولنههههقل خههههيعةلتههههظ ل ادتاههههقرلن هههه شلامااههههرعل امرعق ههههنلام،ههههتأنعل

ل ن كسلذمكلع ىلام ز أنلا ياقمأنلبرنيهق.نههقلحههقال هقلنههملت ا ههل 2011تاق زههالالقمههنلان خههق أنلننهه لا هه رلامعههود لن هه لعههق ل جلل54خهه نلامااههرلة لعل

فه لةال،هقئألاملقئن علف ه لعهملا هيزرادلتهف لام جته لاضفقد هنلب هكةل هونةل ه لقشلاام ق لاملقوةل م نهكلامهل مفل جئل هر قجلحبخبلتا راشلالكوننلامأزنأن.ل24

باأزههنلةلقمأههنلت ههه للظ ههنلا هههياقبنلان خههق أنلامل مههنلبهه لتناأهه جلامهههأزملعههملاملاههأ لضنهه لامليتهه لا ع ههمللعههةل دلم ههههق لل702 امرعق ههههنلام،ههههتأنلل وهههه لع2013ن أههههوالل املأههههقللامن أاههههنل اللاخل ههههنلإههههريلة لتههههوفيلام هههه ا ل

لن ل صلنملاماتقشلاض لو اقج.ل7.7قلع للغيلقلنملاخلنقشلالأو نلملعههه لا هههيارادلجللد للعهههةلاضنههه لامليتههه ل ام هههقن لاملقوهههأ عللهههقل لة ل ههه ال ههه بلاضإنهههنلة لا وههه رابقشل

ن ههه شلنا اهههنلنهههملا ههها ل اهنأهههقدلجلن ههه لاخلهههنقشلاض ق هههأنعلبهههقمي انملنههه لإ هههق ل عههه لجلنخهههيو قشلامااهههرل و لامي ن ل.اضنملام ائةل

ا هههي مهههنل هاريلنهههملجهيههههقلتاهههو لالكونهههنلةاللاضإنهههنلتاهههو لةنكق أقإهههقلاملقمأهههنلجلسهههةلعاههه لجلاملواإ هههنلام قنهههنلم ت أهبلم هنلاضف هق ل مأقتال لبيتزهةلنخهي ت قمهبلاويزه لامه قبأبلت،ه رلامهناالامهدلتهدلع أههقلعوائهلع هي عل

لع ىلاض وا .لل

اللالكونههنلتواجههالن ههك نلام جتهه لبخهه بلامن اعههقشلاماظ أههنلجلة لع نههةلمههرئأسلالكونههنل ههقدلاملخي ههقدلان لة لاموفهههق لبي هاتهههالل. ونأهههقلادلتهههف لام جتههه لاضفقد هههنثههه الظقف هههقشعلبقنوهههقفنلة لا هههيزرل عهههقلاويزههه لامههه

ظهههه دالنهههملتاههههق لامووههه لان خههههقكلةالل ل كهههمللنههههق ل ههههر للعتهههوفيلاضنههههوا لامكقفأهههنلمخههههلااليأقجهههقشلاملي ههههرد ملعقجة.

انعهه لامووهه لان خههقكلجلامهه لب ههالجلالقمههنلظ ههيللل لبخهه بلت ا ههل خهه نلحههفلدئههأسلنرعهه لامههأزملم دا ههقشل ظو ل ،فلامخكقاللجل اصلالق لجلاضنهملام ه ائة. هلنهملالاه لاميته قشلامووه ل اللله الل وه للاماارل

الههنل عهه الع هههىلامل ر أق ههةلغههيلنخههيارلع ههىلاملخههيو لامههاظ ةعل نههق لالكونههنلامههدلت زههةلجلسههةلوهه ل نههتلعقش.لنخيو لاملن انلب كةلعق علف لعملادتاقرل خ نلام قمن لتو فلع لنملامل ر

ة ههقل ههل ل ههه الهه دلصي،ههواللنههمل اللا هه لامههأزملة لنربهه لاوقعههنل اةلتاعأقتههالع ههىلأام ز أههنلا ياقمأههنلفاههاعل عههههه لاملن زهههههقشلام قن هههههنلجلاوهههههق للطهههههقم وااملن اهههههنلب عز ههههههقعل بهههههع لبهههههران لالكونهههههنلجلامي اأهههههفلنهههههملامااهههههرل

لان خقك.

Chinese Text

SAMPLE

3

80年代以来的自由化改革使许多拉美国家建立起统一的社会保障体

制，即依赖市场和个人储蓄的保障计划，这在一定程度上消除了原

来在国家管理体制下的分配不公现象，但也相应地产生了新的社会

分化和保障不平等问题。这种不平等源于市场体制自身的缺陷。以

私有化养老金制度为例，由于退休金水平完全取决于参保者个人的

收入状况和在资本市场上的投资回报情况，因此，这种制度对于富

有的社会中上层来说是有利的，从而也能得到他们的认同和支持；

而对于无储蓄能力的社会底层来说，他们处于弱势地位，因而社会

底层不支持这种制度。现实表明，在进行养老金制度改革后，大多

数拉美国家的社保覆盖面呈下降趋势：由于劳动力市场的不稳定性

、就业方式的变化等因素，大量自雇者、失业者及贫困群体被排除

在私营体制之外。在正规部门就业人口与非正规就业人口之间，在

不同职业者之间，在城乡之间，养老金收入的差距呈扩大化趋势。

French Text

SAMPLE

4

L’argument revient en boucle, à propos de l’Egypte : les élections ne signifient pas la

démocratie. Cela est tout à fait vrai, et la France en sait quelque chose. Le 29 mai 2005,

par une majorité de près de 55 % des voix, le peuple français a rejeté le traité instaurant

une Constitution pour l’Europe. Malgré ce choix clair, le traité a finalement été imposé.

En mai 2012, à la suite d’une longue campagne présidentielle, le peuple français a élu

François Hollande ; résultat, sa politique est à l’exact opposé de ses promesses.

Ainsi donc, les élections ne signifient pas la démocratie. Mais peut-on imaginer une

démocratie sans élections, une démocratie qui piétine les élections ?

On dit souvent, pour l’Egypte, que le peuple se serait exprimé dans la rue et que le

président Morsi aurait perdu sa légitimité. Les responsabilités de Morsi sont écrasantes

dans la crise actuelle, mais l’argument de la perte de légitimité est dangereux, comme

celui qui invoque les risques d’instabilité. Rappelons qu’il y a bientôt quarante ans,

l’armée chilienne renversait le président Salvador Allende, avec les mêmes arguments, et

qu’elle disposait alors d’un vaste soutien dans une partie de la population. La question

qui se pose est : qui décide ? Et, à chaque fois, la réponse est : l’armée.

Parfois, l’armée a pu jouer un rôle positif. Ce fut le cas lors du soulèvement des colonels

contre le régime dictatorial au Portugal, la fameuse Révolution des œillets. Mais, dans la

grande majorité des cas, les militaires arrivés au pouvoir ont imposé des régimes

dictatoriaux.

Un autre exemple pertinent est celui des élections palestiniennes de janvier 2006. Pour la

première fois depuis des dizaines d’années, une élection relativement libre avait lieu.

Résultat : les Palestiniens envoyaient à l’Assemblée une majorité de députés du Hamas.

Tous ceux qui s’étaient faits les apôtres de la démocratie expliquèrent alors doctement

que les Palestiniens avaient mal voté. Il s’ensuivit une guerre civile inter-palestinienne et

une coupure entre Gaza et la Cisjordanie. Finalement, la démocratie n’a avancé ni à Gaza

ni en Cisjordanie.

Spanish Text

SAMPLE

5

Nelson Mandela agoniza en un hospital de Pretoria y es probable que cuando se publique

este artículo ya haya fallecido, pocas semanas antes de cumplir 95 años y reverenciado en

el mundo entero. Por una vez podremos estar seguros de que todos los elogios que

lluevan sobre su tumba serán justos, pues el estadista sudafricano transformó la historia

de su país de una manera que nadie creía concebible y demostró, con su inteligencia,

destreza, honestidad y valentía, que en el campo de la política a veces los milagros son

posibles.

Todo aquello se gestó en la soledad de una conciencia, en la desolada prisión de Robben

Island, donde Mandela llegó en 1964, a cumplir una pena de trabajos forzados a

perpetuidad. Las condiciones en que el régimen del apartheid tenía a sus prisioneros

políticos en aquella isla rodeada de remolinos y tiburones, frente a Ciudad del Cabo, eran

atroces. Una celda tan minúscula que parecía un nicho o el cubil de una fiera, una estera

de paja, un potaje de maíz tres veces al día, mudez obligatoria, media hora de visitas cada

seis meses y el derecho de recibir y escribir sólo dos cartas por año, en las que no debía

mencionarse nunca la política ni la actualidad. En ese aislamiento, ascetismo y soledad

transcurrieron los primeros nueve años de los veintisiete que pasó Mandela en Robben

Island.

En vez de suicidarse o enloquecerse, como muchos compañeros de prisión, en esos nueve

años Mandela meditó, revisó sus propias ideas e ideales, hizo una autocrítica radical de

sus convicciones y alcanzó aquella serenidad y sabiduría que a partir de entonces guiarían

todas sus iniciativas políticas. Maravilla pensar que Mandela, perfectamente consciente

de las vertiginosas dificultades que encontraría en el camino que se había trazado, lo

emprendiera, y, más todavía, que perseverara en él sin sucumbir a la desmoralización un

solo momento, y veinte años más tarde, consiguiera aquel sueño imposible: una

transición pacífica del apartheid a la libertad, y que el grueso de la comunidad blanca

permaneciera en un país junto a los millones de negros y mulatos sudafricanos que,

persuadidos por su ejemplo y sus razones, habían olvidado los agravios y crímenes del

pasado y perdonado.

(Mario Vargas Llosa, El País) 366 words

SAMPLE






27 August 2013



le 27 août 2013

PART 3

PARTIE 3

Questions booklet


SAMPLE

1

PART 3

Translation into Russian of a specialized text or a text in a third

UN language

Instructions

Please translate into Russian one of the following texts in this examination paper: option

(i) one of the four specialized texts (economic, legal, social/political, or

scientific/technical); OR option (ii) one of the texts in a language different from the one

selected in Part 2. In option (ii), if the French text was selected in Part 2, for example,

you must now select a text in Arabic, Chinese or Spanish.

The time allowed for this part of the examination is 1 hour and 30 minutes. You are

responsible for managing your time.



In the upper right hand corner of the first page of the answer booklet, please indicate the

specialized area or language of the text you are translating.





SAMPLE

2

Economic text

If any economy is known for its industrial might, it is China. Manufacturers, miners,

utilities and builders accounted for over 45% of China’s gross domestic product (GDP) in

2012. In America, by contrast, they typically contribute less than 20%. China, according

to caricature, makes things you can drop on your foot. America merely designs, brands

and peddles them.

Chinese industry is unusually large not just in comparison with post-industrial America,

but also when set alongside other economies. According to calculations by Ejaz Ghani of

the World Bank and Homi Kharas, now of the Brookings Institution, manufacturing’s

share of China’s GDP was more than 18 percentage points above the global norm in

2005. Services, in contrast, were almost eight points below.

Armed with data like these, critics have accused China of a factory fetish. Subsidised

land, credit and power have favoured industry, which tends to be capital-intensive and

power-hungry. A cheap yuan has also favoured manufactured items, which can be sold

abroad, over services, which often cannot be.

But 2013 may be the year that China’s services officially step out of the shadow of its

smokestacks. According to the national statistics, services (which include transport,

wholesaling, retailing, hotels, catering, finance, real estate and scientific research, among

other things) accounted for 44.6% of China’s GDP in 2012. That is less than one point

behind industry’s 45.3%. And services are growing faster.

The strength of services may reflect the ongoing rebalancing of Chinese demand away

from exports and towards consumption. Their rise may also help to promote that

rebalancing. Because services tend to be labour-intensive, their expansion should

encourage faster job creation, higher wages and greater household spending. That would

serve the world economy well, too.

SAMPLE

3

Legal text

In the 1990s experts were convinced that crime would keep rising. Law-abiding citizens

would retreat to gated communities, patrolled by security guards. Politicians and police

chiefs could do little except bluster and try to fiddle the statistics.

Now, it is clear that the pessimists were wrong. America’s crime wave was breaking. Its

cities have become vastly safer, and the rest of the developed world has followed.

Some crimes have all but died out. Last year there were just 69 armed robberies of banks,

building societies and post offices in England and Wales, compared with 500 a year in

the 1990s. In 1990 some 147,000 cars were stolen in New York. Last year fewer than

10,000 were. In countries such as Lithuania and Poland the gangsters who trafficked

people and drugs in the 1990s have moved into less violent activities such as fraud.

Cherished social theories have been discarded. Conservatives who insisted that the

decline of the traditional nuclear family and growing ethnic diversity would unleash an

unstoppable crime wave have been proved wrong. Left-wingers who argued that crime

could never be curbed unless inequality was reduced look just as silly.

The biggest factor may be simply that security measures have improved. Car

immobilisers have killed joyriding; bulletproof screens, security guards and marked

money have all but done for bank robbery. Alarms and DNA databases have increased

the chance a burglar will be caught. Some crimes now look very risky—and that matters

because the main deterrent to crime is the fear of being caught.

Better-trained police officers could focus on new crimes. Traditional measures tend not to

include financial crimes such as credit-card fraud or tax evasion. Since these are seldom

properly recorded, they have not contributed to the great fall in crime. Unlike rapes and

murders, they do not excite public fear. But as policing adapts to the technological age, it

is as well to remember that criminals are doing so, too.

SAMPLE

4

Social/political text

In 1961 Israel kidnapped Adolf Eichmann from Argentina and put him on trial for crimes

committed 20 years earlier. His trial in Jerusalem was a model of meticulous process. The

prosecutor was Israel’s attorney-general; the defence lawyer, a leading German attorney;

the proceedings were broadcast. They were everything the Holocaust was not: open,

subject to evidence and challenge, and legal.

Now consider the trials under way at the International Crimes Tribunal in Dhaka, the

capital of Bangladesh. There too, men are being tried for dreadful crimes committed

many years ago, in this case in 1971, during Bangladesh’s war of independence from

Pakistan. The defendants have been accused of genocide, mass murder, mass rape and

attempting to exterminate whole groups of people. But their trials have fallen a long way

short of Israel’s model of due process.

The government has interfered in the court’s deliberations. Public discussion of the

proceedings has been restricted. The number of defence witnesses was curtailed. In one

case, the presiding judge resigned and the death sentence was handed down by three men

who had not heard all the witnesses. In another, the defendant was represented by a

lawyer who did not have nearly enough time to prepare a case. That also ended in a death

sentence. These are profound judicial failings, falling short not only of the standards of

the Eichmann trial but also of the requirements of Bangladeshi law.

Sadly, most Bangladeshis are cheering on the tribunal’s flawed proceedings. When the

court passed a life sentence (rather than a death sentence), the crowds that gathered to

protest against this leniency were the biggest that had been seen in Dhaka for 20 years.

Now the government wants to rewrite the law to allow death sentences to be applied

retrospectively. Few seem to care a jot for due process; rather, everybody thinks that the

defendants are getting their just deserts.

SAMPLE

5

Scientific/technical text

Which source of renewable energy is most important to the European Union? Solar

power, perhaps? (Europe has three-quarters of the world’s total installed capacity of solar

photovoltaic energy.) Or wind? (Germany trebled its wind-power capacity in the past

decade.) The answer is neither. By far the largest so-called renewable fuel used in Europe

is wood.

In its various forms, from sticks to pellets to sawdust, wood (or to use its fashionable

name, biomass) accounts for about half of Europe’s renewable-energy consumption. In

some countries, such as Poland and Finland, wood meets more than 80% of renewable-

energy demand. Even in Germany which has poured huge subsidies into wind and solar

power, 38% of non-fossil fuel consumption comes from the stuff. After years in which

European governments have boasted about their high-tech, low-carbon energy revolution,

the main beneficiary seems to be the favoured fuel of pre-industrial societies.

The idea that wood is low in carbon sounds bizarre. But the original argument for

including it in the EU’s list of renewable-energy supplies was respectable. If wood used

in a power station comes from properly managed forests, then the carbon that billows out

of the chimney can be offset by the carbon that is captured and stored in newly planted

trees. Wood can be carbon-neutral. Whether it actually turns out to be is a different

matter. But once the decision had been taken to call it a renewable, its usage soared.

In the electricity sector, wood has various advantages. Planting fields of windmills is

expensive but power stations can be adapted to burn a mixture of 90% coal and 10%

wood (called co-firing) with little new investment. Unlike new solar or wind farms,

power stations are already linked to the grid. Moreover, wood energy is not intermittent

as is that produced from the sun and the wind: it does not require backup power at night,

or on calm days. And because wood can be used in coal-fired power stations that might

otherwise have been shut down under new environmental standards, it is extremely

popular with power companies.

SAMPLE

6

Arabic text

تواجههالامههأزمل إنههنلة خههق أنلظق اههنلجلسههةلااليأههقصلمههالنلنت ههشل ههفالنههملامجاههقللاا هه ل ههلجق ل االيأقجههق لم هه ا ل امرعق ههههنلام،ههههتأنعل ادتجههههقرلنلهههه للامجاههههرعل لههههولنههههقل خههههي عةلتهههه ظتل مأههههقلعههههقجتل اههههةلتجههههق لااإنههههنلالهههه ل ل

ل نلكسلذمكلع ىلاملز أنلا ياقمأنلبرنيهق.جلل54عل نههقلحههقالاهقلنههملتسا هه ل خههانلامجاههرلة ل2011 أنلننهه لا هه رلام ههود لنم هه لعههق ل تجق زههالالقمههنلا خههق

مانهكلامه علف هتلعهملامهيزرادلته ف لامتجاهشلاافقد هنلب هكةل هونةل له لقللااملق لاملق ةل فه لةال،هقئألاملقئنل مفل جئل هر ق لحبخبلتا راللالكوننلامأزنأن.ل24

ظمههنلا مهههياقبنلا خههق أنلاملل مههنلباأزههنلة قمأههنلتا ههه للبهه لتنجأهه جلامهههأزملعههملاههأ لاملانهه لامليتهه لا ع ههملل ههةل اللاخلمههههنلإهههه ريلة لتههههوفيلام هههه ا ل املأههههقللامن أجههههنل امرعق ههههنلام،ههههتأنلل هههه لع2013ن أههههوالل دلملههههق لل702

لنت شل فالنملامجاقللاا ل لجق .ل7.7قلع لل غيلقلنملاخل نقللالأو نلملمهههابلااإنهههنلة لا هههمرابقلل عههه لا مهههيارادلجلاملهههقنشلاملق هههأشعللهههقل لة ل هههااللاانههه لامليتههه د لل هههةل ل

اهنأهههقدلجلنل ههه لاخلههه نقللاامقمهههأنعلبهههقميسانملنههه لإ هههق ل عههه لجلنخهههيو قللامجاهههرل نلههه للنا اهههنلنهههملا لههه ا لل.اانملام ائةل مو لامي ن

نكق أقإهههقلاملقمأهههنلجلسهههةلعاهههسلجلاملواإ هههنلاملقنهههنلم مهههنل امهههيه اريل نهههملجهيههههقلتاهههو لالكونهههنلةاللااإنهههنلتجهههو لة قبأبلت،ه رلامهنجالامهدلته دلع أههقلعوائه لعاهي عل تمقمهبلاويزه لامه لبيتزهةلنخهي مأقتال ت أهبلم هنلاافلهق ل

لع ىلاا وا .لل

بخههابلامنساعههقللام اظ أههنلجل اللالكونههنلتواجههالن ههك نلامتجاههشلة لعتنههةلمههرئأسلالكونههنل ههقدلاملخي ههقدلا عهههقلاويزههه لامههه لة لاموفهههق لبيله اتهههالل. ونأهههقلثهههتالظقف هههقلعلبق هههقفنلة لامهههيزرادلتههه ف لامتجاهههشلاافقد هههن

ظهههه دالنهههملتجههههق لامو ههه لا خههههقكلةالل ل كهههمللنههههق ل ههههر للع تهههوفيلاانههههوا لامكقفأهههنلمخهههه لااليأقجهههقللاملي ههههرد ملعقجة.

دامههقلل ا عههت لامو هه لا خههقكلجلامههات لب ههالجلالقمههنلظمههي لبخههابلتسا هه ل خههانلحههفلدئههأسلنرعههسلامههأزملم ل ل س ه لنهملالاه لاميته قللامو ه ل اللله الل ه للامجارل ظو ل ،فلامخكقاللجل االالق لجلاانهملام ه ائة.

الع هههىل نههق لالكونههنلامههدلتلزههةلجلسههةل هه ل نههتل مأقمههةلغههيلنخههيارلع ههىلاملخههيو لامهه اظ ةعل عههاملمر الههنللنخيو لاملنمانلب كةلعق علف تلعملادتجقرل خانلامامقمنل تو فلع لنملامل ر عقل.

اةلت اعأقتههالع ههىلأاملز أههنلا ياقمأههنلفاههاعل ة ههقلمههل ل ههه الهه دلصي،ههواللنههمل اللا ههس لامههأزملة لنربهه لاوقعههنلاملن زهههههقللاملقن هههههنلجلاوهههههق للبههههه ع لبهههههران لالكونهههههنلجلاميفجأهههههفلنهههههملامجاهههههرل عههههه ل طهههههقماوااملنماهههههنلب عز ههههههقعل

لا خقك.

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7

80年代以来的自由化改革使许多拉美国家建立起统一的社会保障体

制，即依赖市场和个人储蓄的保障计划，这在一定程度上消除了原

来在国家管理体制下的分配不公现象，但也相应地产生了新的社会

分化和保障不平等问题。这种不平等源于市场体制自身的缺陷。以

私有化养老金制度为例，由于退休金水平完全取决于参保者个人的

收入状况和在资本市场上的投资回报情况，因此，这种制度对于富

有的社会中上层来说是有利的，从而也能得到他们的认同和支持；

而对于无储蓄能力的社会底层来说，他们处于弱势地位，因而社会

底层不支持这种制度。现实表明，在进行养老金制度改革后，大多

数拉美国家的社保覆盖面呈下降趋势：由于劳动力市场的不稳定性

、就业方式的变化等因素，大量自雇者、失业者及贫困群体被排除

在私营体制之外。在正规部门就业人口与非正规就业人口之间，在

不同职业者之间，在城乡之间，养老金收入的差距呈扩大化趋势。

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8

L’argument revient en boucle, à propos de l’Egypte : les élections ne signifient pas la

démocratie. Cela est tout à fait vrai, et la France en sait quelque chose. Le 29 mai 2005,

par une majorité de près de 55 % des voix, le peuple français a rejeté le traité instaurant

une Constitution pour l’Europe. Malgré ce choix clair, le traité a finalement été imposé.

En mai 2012, à la suite d’une longue campagne présidentielle, le peuple français a élu

François Hollande ; résultat, sa politique est à l’exact opposé de ses promesses.

Ainsi donc, les élections ne signifient pas la démocratie. Mais peut-on imaginer une

démocratie sans élections, une démocratie qui piétine les élections ?

On dit souvent, pour l’Egypte, que le peuple se serait exprimé dans la rue et que le

président Morsi aurait perdu sa légitimité. Les responsabilités de Morsi sont écrasantes

dans la crise actuelle, mais l’argument de la perte de légitimité est dangereux, comme

celui qui invoque les risques d’instabilité. Rappelons qu’il y a bientôt quarante ans,

l’armée chilienne renversait le président Salvador Allende, avec les mêmes arguments, et

qu’elle disposait alors d’un vaste soutien dans une partie de la population. La question

qui se pose est : qui décide ? Et, à chaque fois, la réponse est : l’armée.

Parfois, l’armée a pu jouer un rôle positif. Ce fut le cas lors du soulèvement des colonels

contre le régime dictatorial au Portugal, la fameuse Révolution des œillets. Mais, dans la

grande majorité des cas, les militaires arrivés au pouvoir ont imposé des régimes

dictatoriaux.

Un autre exemple pertinent est celui des élections palestiniennes de janvier 2006. Pour la

première fois depuis des dizaines d’années, une élection relativement libre avait lieu.

Résultat : les Palestiniens envoyaient à l’Assemblée une majorité de députés du Hamas.

Tous ceux qui s’étaient faits les apôtres de la démocratie expliquèrent alors doctement

que les Palestiniens avaient mal voté. Il s’ensuivit une guerre civile inter-palestinienne et

une coupure entre Gaza et la Cisjordanie. Finalement, la démocratie n’a avancé ni à Gaza

ni en Cisjordanie.

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9

Nelson Mandela agoniza en un hospital de Pretoria y es probable que cuando se publique

este artículo ya haya fallecido, pocas semanas antes de cumplir 95 años y reverenciado en

el mundo entero. Por una vez podremos estar seguros de que todos los elogios que

lluevan sobre su tumba serán justos, pues el estadista sudafricano transformó la historia

de su país de una manera que nadie creía concebible y demostró, con su inteligencia,

destreza, honestidad y valentía, que en el campo de la política a veces los milagros son

posibles.

Todo aquello se gestó en la soledad de una conciencia, en la desolada prisión de Robben

Island, donde Mandela llegó en 1964, a cumplir una pena de trabajos forzados a

perpetuidad. Las condiciones en que el régimen del apartheid tenía a sus prisioneros

políticos en aquella isla rodeada de remolinos y tiburones, frente a Ciudad del Cabo, eran

atroces. Una celda tan minúscula que parecía un nicho o el cubil de una fiera, una estera

de paja, un potaje de maíz tres veces al día, mudez obligatoria, media hora de visitas cada

seis meses y el derecho de recibir y escribir sólo dos cartas por año, en las que no debía

mencionarse nunca la política ni la actualidad. En ese aislamiento, ascetismo y soledad

transcurrieron los primeros nueve años de los veintisiete que pasó Mandela en Robben

Island.

En vez de suicidarse o enloquecerse, como muchos compañeros de prisión, en esos nueve

años Mandela meditó, revisó sus propias ideas e ideales, hizo una autocrítica radical de

sus convicciones y alcanzó aquella serenidad y sabiduría que a partir de entonces guiarían

todas sus iniciativas políticas. Maravilla pensar que Mandela, perfectamente consciente

de las vertiginosas dificultades que encontraría en el camino que se había trazado, lo

emprendiera, y, más todavía, que perseverara en él sin sucumbir a la desmoralización un

solo momento, y veinte años más tarde, consiguiera aquel sueño imposible: una

transición pacífica del apartheid a la libertad, y que el grueso de la comunidad blanca

permaneciera en un país junto a los millones de negros y mulatos sudafricanos que,

persuadidos por su ejemplo y sus razones, habían olvidado los agravios y crímenes del

pasado y perdonado.

(Mario Vargas Llosa, El País) 366 words

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