美語情景對話 第308期:Cuba and Japan 古巴和日本

OK, I'd like to talk about consumerism in capitalist and communist countries. I don't know if anyone has actually noticed but Japan is very, what's the word, "consumerized." Everything is built for the consumer. You've got huge adverts, you've got talking trees, you've got people with microphones outside the shop screaming "Ireshaimase" at everybody as they go past. Everything is built for advertising, for consuming, for buying, for competing, for constantly making newer and better goods so people buy them. A complete reverse of this is somewhere like Cuba, which is one of the last sort of communist states around, and probably the only place where communism has actually worked. In Cuba everything is owned by the government so there's no companies competing with each other for advertising space, sort of trying to out do each other, and driving prices up, everything's done by the government, any adverts are for the same products owned by the same people. When I was living in Cuba we tried to explain how in a capitalist society, how consumerism would work, so I'd like to give you a quick example.

好，我想談談資本主義國家和社會主義國家的消費主義。我不知道是不是所有人都意識到了，但是日本是一個非常“消費化”的國家。所有的東西都是爲消費者建造的。你會看到巨型廣告，會說話的樹，你會看到在商場外面用麥克風對所有過路人說“歡迎光臨”的人。所有的東西都是爲廣告、消費、購買、競爭、不斷製造更新、更好的物品而建造的，這樣民衆纔會購買這些商品。與日本完全相反的地方就是古巴，那是一個絕對的社會主義國家，可能是唯一一個真正實行社會主義制度的地方。古巴的所有東西都歸國家所有，所以沒有互相競爭廣告版面的公司，沒有這種試圖把競爭對手趕出去，並競相擡價的行爲，所有的東西都是由政府完成的，同類產品的廣告都由一個人來掌控。我在古巴生活期間曾經試圖解釋消費主義在資本主義社會的運作，現在我想舉一個簡短的例子來說明。

In Cuba there are many people selling really cheap orange juice on the street. Um, they make it from like a, like a cordial, like a powder which they add water to and they dilute it and keep it cold and they sell it for the equivalent of about 10 yen a glass. Many people sell this. I tried to explain to my host family, OK, if this was, if we wanted to sell this orange juice in the street, we would find out the supplier, buy all of it, and then open up shop charging three times the price as anyone else. No one would be able to sell any because they couldn't naturally get hold of it. The Cubans have no idea this would be a good idea. We received questions such as, "Why would you do that? But that would mean no one else could sell any. That would mean you would get all the money and no one else. We were like, "exactly!"

古巴有許多人在街頭賣極便宜的橙汁。嗯，這是他們用一種甜果汁飲料，一種沖劑做成的，他們會在裏面加水進行稀釋並冷藏，他們出售的價格大概是一杯10日元。許多人會賣這種飲料。我試圖對我的接待家庭解釋，如果在我們那裏，要在街頭賣這種橙汁，那我們要找到供應商，從他們那裏買來所有的貨，然後開家店鋪，價格定爲其他人的三倍。這樣就沒有別人能再賣了，因爲他們根本無法得到貨源。古巴人並不認爲這是個好主意。他們通常會問我們這樣的問題，“你們爲什麼要那樣做？那樣的話其他人都不能賣了。那樣你會得到所有的錢，而其他人就得不到了。”我們會回答，“就是這樣啊！”

重點講解：
1. drive up
使上升；擡高；
eg. The growth in demand is certain to drive up the price.
需求的增長一定會使價格升高。
eg. This could drive up the demand for gold.
而這些趨勢將導致黃金需求有所上升。
2. the equivalent of
等同物；等值物；對應物；
eg. That dress cost the equivalent of a week's salary.
買那件連衣裙花的錢相當於一個星期的工資。
eg. Breathing such polluted air is the equivalent of smoking ten cigarettes a day.
呼吸這些被污染的空氣就相當於一天抽10支菸。
3. open up
開放；開設；開展；
eg. They decided to open up a business in the town.
他們決定在城裏開展業務。
eg. They decided to open up the island for cultivation.
他們決定開發這個島。
4. get hold of
（通常指好不容易）得到，獲得；
eg. I'd like to get hold of two tickets for the concert.
我想搞到兩張音樂會的票。
eg. If the newspapers get hold of this scandal, they'll really have a field day!
報紙如果能抓住這件醜聞，那可就有機會大做文章了。
5. have no idea
不知道；不瞭解；
eg. We have no idea how to persuade him to give up the idea.
我們不知道如何說服他放棄這個念頭。
eg. I have no idea why he resigned his post.
我不知道他爲何辭去他的職務。