Obama Tells U.N. New Democracies Need Free Speech
奥巴马在联合国声言捍卫言论自由
UNITED NATIONS — President Obama on Tuesday used his last major address on a global stage before the November election to deliver a strong defense of America’s belief in freedom of speech, challenging fledgling Arab and North African democracies to ensure that right even in the face of violence.
联合国——本周二，奥巴马总统用11月大选前最后一次在国际舞台上发表重要讲演的机会，强有力地捍卫了美国的言论自由信念，同时敦促新兴的阿拉伯和北非的民主国家，即使面对暴力，也要确保言论自由的权利。
The speech was in many ways a balancing act for Mr. Obama, who has had to contend with angry anti-American demonstrations throughout the Middle East during the past several weeks, and a Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, who says the president has projected weakness in his foreign policy. Mr. Romney has criticized the administration for issuing what he called “an apology for American values” in its initial response to the demonstrations.
此次讲演对奥巴马来说，是一个在很多方面平衡利益的行动。在过去几周内，他不仅要应付整个中东地区愤怒的反美游行，还要应付共和党的对手米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)。后者称总统在外交政策上表现得很软弱。罗姆尼批评奥巴马政府对游行的最初回应是“为美国价值观道歉”。
Mr. Obama’s message seemed intended to appeal to a domestic audience as much as to the world leaders at the General Assembly.
奥巴马所表达的信息，看来是为了吸引国内听众，也为在同等程度上打动出席联合国大会的世界各国领导人。
In a 30-minute address, he affirmed what he said “are not simply American values or Western values — they are universal values.” He vowed to protect the enduring ability of Americans to say what they think. He promised that the United States “will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” And he asserted that the flare-up of violence over a video that ridicules the Prophet Muhammad would not set off a retreat from his support of the Arab democracy movement.
在30分钟的演讲中，他重申了自己的观点：这些“不仅是美国价值或西方价值，而是普世价值”。他发誓将捍卫美国人表达自己看法的经久不衰的权利。他承诺，美国将“竭尽全力防止伊朗获得核武器”。他还宣称，嘲笑先知穆罕默德的视频所引发的暴力事件，不会让他在支持阿拉伯民主运动上退却。
Mr. Romney was also in New York on Tuesday, talking about foreign aid at a forum sponsored by the Clinton Global Initiative, where Mr. Obama also spoke after his United Nations address. But Mr. Romney was left to make his own case on a much smaller stage, where the host was former President Bill Clinton, an Obama surrogate.
罗姆尼本周二也在纽约。他在克林顿全球倡议组织(Clinton Global Initiative) 主办的一次论坛上，发表关于对外援助问题的讲话。奥巴马在联合国讲话之后，也在该论坛上发言。不过，罗姆尼发表观点的讲台要小得多，他所面对的是，论坛主持人、奥巴马助选人、美国前总统比尔·克林顿(Bill Clinton)。
Mr. Romney called for a rethinking of how American foreign aid is disbursed, suggesting that it could be tied directly to how governments and organizations work to open up their markets and encourage employment. “The aim of a much larger share of our aid must be the promotion of work and the fostering of free enterprise,” he said.
罗姆尼呼吁重新考虑美国对外援助的分配，建议应该将援助与接受援助的政府和组织开放其市场及鼓励就业的程度直接联系起来。他说，“我们所提供的援助中的大部分，应当用来促进就业，以及培养自由企业体系。”
That idea is bound to set off debate, since many labor rights organizations — and in fact, many American labor unions — argue that free trade pacts like the ones advocated by Mr. Romney serve only to ship jobs overseas.
这个想法必然会引发争议，因为许多劳工权利组织（包括许多美国工会在内）认为，罗姆尼所提倡的这类自由贸易协议，只会让就业机会流失到海外。
Mr. Romney managed a smile when Mr. Clinton, who has been slamming him in swing states on behalf of Mr. Obama, introduced him, and he even joked about the help Mr. Clinton has been giving his rival on the campaign trail. “If there’s one thing we’ve learned this election season, it’s that a few words from Bill Clinton can do a man a lot of good,” Mr. Romney said.
论坛上，罗姆尼在克林顿介绍他时，勉强一笑。克林顿一直在摇摆州代表奥巴马猛烈抨击罗姆尼。他甚至还拿竞选活动中克林顿给其对手提供的帮助开玩笑。罗姆尼说，“如果我们在这个大选季节学到了一样东西，那就是比尔·克林顿的寥寥数语能给一个人帮上大忙。”
Mr. Obama appeared to relish the larger canvas of the United Nations and his subject, freedom of speech and why in the United States, even making “a crude and disgusting video” is a right of all citizens.
联合国的大舞台似乎更合奥巴马的口味，他似乎也更喜欢自己讲话的主题：言论自由，以及为什么在美国，即使拍摄一段“粗俗恶心的视频”也是所有公民的一项权利。
“As president of our country, and commander in chief of our military, I accept that people are going to call me awful things every day,” Mr. Obama said. “And I will defend their right to do so.” For that, he received cheers in the cavernous hall.
奥巴马说，“作为我们国家的总统和三军统帅，我接受人们每天都会叫我各种坏名的事实。但我仍将捍卫他们这样做的权利。”他的这番话，在宏大的会场上赢来一片喝彩声。
The president worked to explain — before a sometimes skeptical audience that has never completely bought into the American idea that even hateful speech is protected — why the United States values its First Amendment so highly.
奥巴马总统尽力解释了美国为什么高度重视其《宪法第一修正案》，虽然他的听众不时表示怀疑，听众中很多人从来没有完全接受即使是仇恨的言论也应受到保护的美国理念。
“We do so because in a diverse society, efforts to restrict speech can become a tool to silence critics, or oppress minorities,” Mr. Obama said. “We do so because given the power of faith in our lives, and the passion that religious differences can inflame, the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech — the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect.” He said Americans “have fought and died around the globe to protect the right of all people to express their view.”
奥巴马说，“我们这样做是因为，在一个多样化的社会，限制言论的努力可能成为消除批评和压迫少数族群的工具。我们这样做是因为，鉴于我们生活中信仰的力量，以及宗教分歧可以激起的情绪，对抗仇恨言论最强有力的武器不是压制，而是更多的言论自由。用宽容的声音来对抗偏执和亵渎的言论，来提升理解和相互尊重的价值观。”他还说美国人“为了保护所有人表达观点的权利，在全球范围内进行了斗争并为此牺牲。”
Just two weeks after the beginning of violent anti-American protests that led to the deadly attack on an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, Mr. Obama vowed that even as the United States worked to bring the killers to justice, he would not back down from his support of democratic freedoms in the Muslim world.
暴力反美抗议活动致使利比亚班加西的美国驻外使团大院受到致命的袭击。这些袭击发生仅仅两周后，奥巴马发誓，在美国正努力将凶手绳之以法的同时，他不会在支持穆斯林世界民主自由的道路上退缩。
“It is time to marginalize those who, even when not resorting to violence, use hatred of America, or the West, or Israel as the central principle of politics,” Mr. Obama said. “For that only gives cover, and sometimes makes excuses, for those who do resort to violence.”
奥巴马说，“有那么一些人，虽然他们不用暴力，但总是把对美国、西方、或以色列的仇恨作为其政治的中心原则。是将这些人边缘化的时候了，因为他们为那些动用暴力的人提供掩护，有时也提供借口。”
It was the president’s first truly expansive response to the unrest that erupted over the video made in the United States and the attacks in Benghazi that claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.
这是奥巴马总统首次对最近事件做出的真正全面的回应。一个美国制作的视频导致骚乱爆发，还导致包括克里斯托弗·史蒂文斯大使(J. Christopher Stevens)在内的四名美国人在班加西的袭击中丧生。
“There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents,” Mr. Obama told the General Assembly. “There is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy. There is no slander that provides an excuse for people to burn a restaurant in Lebanon, or destroy a school in Tunis, or cause death and destruction in Pakistan.”
奥巴马告诉联大，“没有给杀害无辜开脱的借口。任何视频都不是袭击大使馆的理由。任何诋毁都不是火烧黎巴嫩的一个餐馆、毁掉突尼斯的一所学校、或造成巴基斯坦的死亡和破坏的借口。”
Though neither Mr. Romney nor Mr. Obama repeated the partisan attacks on foreign policy issues that have heated up the campaign, the presidential election seemed to be a subtext. While Mr. Romney was the first up at bat in the dueling speeches on Tuesday, Mr. Obama had the more presidential forum in the high-ceilinged General Assembly chamber. After the ritual of waiting for 10 seconds in a chair just below the stage while he was introduced, Mr. Obama walked to the podium.
尽管在各自讲话中，罗姆尼和奥巴马都没有重复那些在选举活动中不断升级的、两党在外交政策上的相互攻击，但其中还是能听出大选的潜台词。虽然周二罗姆尼首先登台，但宽敞的联大会场给奥巴马提供了更符合总统身份的讲台。奥巴马礼节性地在台下的座位上坐了10秒钟，等主持人介绍完毕，大步走上讲台。
“I would like to begin today by telling you about an American named Chris Stevens,” he said. He spoke of Mr. Stevens’s “love and respect” for the people of North Africa and the Middle East, of his penchant for “walking the streets of the cities where he worked, tasting the local food, meeting as many people as he could, speaking Arabic and listening with a broad smile.”
他说，“今天，我想从讲一个名叫克里斯·史蒂文斯的美国人开始。”他谈到史蒂文斯对北非和中东人民的“爱慕与尊敬”，谈到他喜欢“走在自己工作城市的街道上，品尝当地食物，遇到尽可能多的人，说阿拉伯语，满脸带笑地听别人说话。”
At the close of his remarks, he returned to the slain American envoy. “Today,” he said, “I promise you this: Long after these killers are brought to justice, Chris Stevens’s legacy will live on in the lives he touched.”
演讲结束时，奥巴马把话题转回遇难的美国大使。他说，“今天，我向你们许诺。很久以后，凶手早就被绳之以法，而克里斯·史蒂文斯遗留下来的东西，将在受过他影响的人们心中源远流长。”
whitehouse
2012-09-27
whitehouse
399次
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