1. The Self-Immolation of Tibetan Monks
1.僧众的牺牲
It usually takes a U.S. President tweaking Beijing by meeting with the Dalai Lama, or a celebrity-studded Richard Gere fundraiser, to get Tibet into the news these days. Even then, the attention is fleeting. Not so the despair of many Tibetans at their plight under Chinese rule, now in its seventh decade. TIME's Hannah Beech sneaked into Twu in eastern Tibet earlier this year to report one of the most gripping stories out of the region in years: At least eight Tibetan monks, two of them teenagers, have torched themselves this year to protest Chinese rule. Self-immolation is an old and horrifying form of protest that Americans first saw on television during the Vietnam War, and which touched off Tunisia's democratic uprising and the wider 'Arab Spring' earlier this year. Its emergence among Buddhist monks in Tibet illustrates what Beech called a "new, nihilistic desperation [that] has descended on the Tibetan plateau." Despite the efforts of the Chinese authorities to quickly dispose of the bodies in the hope of heading off further protest, Beech wrote, "Monks on fire grab headlines." Hopefully, more attention will be paid.
现在通常是当美国总统执意会见一位诺贝尔和平奖获得者挑动了某国领导层神经，或像李察·基尔这样有名人效应的基金发起人牵涉在内时，敏感词问题才会重新出现在资讯中。即便如此公众的注意力还是转瞬即逝。然而生活在敏感词地区的人们因遭遇长达七十年的困苦而产生的绝望情绪却不会消失。《时代周刊》的Hannah Beech于今年年初潜伏进这一敏感词地区东部某地，报道了这一地区多年来众多令人揪心的事情中的一件：至少八名该地区的僧众，其中两名是十几岁的青少年，为抗议当局统治自焚。美国人在越战期间第一次从电视中见识到了这种古老而恐怖的为表达抗议而自我牺牲的方式，这样的事件也引发了突尼斯的民主起义及今年年初波及范围更广的“阿拉伯之春。而发生在僧众之中的此次事件表明了Beech所称“一种新的、虚无主义的绝望正发生在这一地区。尽管当局迅速处理了遗体，希望阻止未来进一步的抗议，但Beech写道：“这一事件还是成了头条。我们希望更多人能关注此事。
2. The NCAA Cartel
2.美国大学体育界垄断联盟
The debate over the place of college sports in American culture began well before the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. As TIME's Sean Gregory has pointed out, big-time college teams are essentially professional franchises housed on college campuses, and calls for change have been growing. In August 2011, a former University of Miami football booster came clean to Yahoo! Sports about the eight years he spent providing players with booze, meals, prostitutes and entertainment. Then, in October, Pulitzer-prize winning author and civil rights historian Taylor Branch published a scathing indictment of the NCAA in Atlantic magazine titled, "The Shame of College Sports." Calling the NCAA a cartel, Branch made the case that college sports' governing body, while proclaiming amateurism its highest ideal, exploits athletes to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. If nothing else, perhaps the Penn State scandal — the largest, and some believe the biggest, in college sports — will change our values; it's certainly changed the conversation.
对美国文化中大学体育运动所处地位的争论在宾州性侵儿童丑闻案爆发前就由来已久了。如《时代周刊》的Sean Gregory指出的，大学体育强队实际上是隐藏在大学校园内的职业特权组织联盟，而要求对此进行改革的呼声也日益高涨。2011年八月，一位前美国迈阿密大学的橄榄球支持者对雅虎体育频道爆料说，他曾在长达八年的时间里为球员提供吃喝嫖娱等服务。然后在十月，曾获得普利策奖的作家兼民权方面的历史学家Taylor Branch在《大西洋月刊》上发表了一篇措辞尖锐的针对美国大学体育总会（NCAA）的檄文，文章标题为“大学体育界之耻。Branch在文中声讨说NCAA是一个垄断联盟，他还给出证据证明大学体育事务的管理机构一边声称保持大学体育运动的业余性质性是他们的最高宗旨，一边每年利用运动员们赚的钱却多达数亿美元。不出意外的话，此次的宾州性侵儿童丑闻案——大学体育界发生的最严重的事件，可能会改变我们的价值观。而这件事也确实对舆论发生了一些影响。
3. A Climate-Change Skeptic Changes His Tune
3.一位气候变化的怀疑者改变论调
Two years ago, the Charles G. Koch foundation funded a study whose purpose appeared to be to prove once and for that climate change was a fraud. The project was led by physicist Richard Muller, founder of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature project at UC Berkeley and a prominent critic of the science of climate change; its billionaire funder Charles Koch, together with his brother David, is a major funder of conservative political activism. Still, if the study was expected to provide scientific cover for conservative hostility to efforts to combat global warming, Muller's preliminary findings proved to be a shocker. In an October Wall Street Journal article titled "The Case Against Global-Warming Skepticism: There were good reasons for doubt, until now," Muller wrote that his scrutiny of the data demonstrated that he'd been wrong all along. Although he claimed the issue of whether (or how much) human activity contributed to phenomenon remained unresolved, he believed, there was no getting around the facts. "Global warming is real," he wrote. "Perhaps our results will help cool this portion of the climate debate."
两年前，由Charles G. Koch基金会资助的一项研究试图证明气候变化是无稽之谈。该项目由伯克利大学地表温度研究项目的发起人，物理学家Richard Muller领导，他同时也是众所周知的对气候变化科学结果持怀疑态度的批评者。这一项目的资助者是亿万富翁Charles Koch及其兄弟David，这位富豪同时也是保守派政治激进主义的一位主要金主。然而，如果这项研究的初衷是要为同全球变暖的努力做对的保守的敌对势力提供科学外衣，Muller的初步成果却令他们意外。在十月的一期《华尔街日报》中的一篇题为《一个另全球变暖怀疑论者缄口的例证：到目前为止，确实存在合理的怀疑》中，Muller写道他对数据的周密分析表明他一直以来都是错的。尽管他声称，对于人类活动是否（或在多大程度上）影响了气候这一问题仍然悬而未决，但他已经相信全球变暖这一事实是无可回避的。“这是真的，他写道，“也许我们的结论能有助于对气候变化有关问题争论的降温。
4. Bahrain: The Frozen Arab Spring
4.巴林：阿拉伯之春遭遇倒春寒
Throughout the Middle East, 2011 was a year of revolution and uprising as the Arab Spring pushed from Tunisia to Egypt, Yemen and Libya to Syria. But when it reached the Gulf, the forces of freedom and democracy faced an aggressive push-back from the oil-rich monarchs. Nowhere was the backlash more brutal than in the tiny Kingdom of Bahrain, whose Shi'ite majority came out in protest to demand greater freedom and equality from the island's ruling Sunni royal family. They were answered by a violent crackdown orchestrated by neighboring Saudi Arabia, which blamed Iran for stoking the protests and sent troops to help clear the streets of Manama. The crackdown led to an estimated 36 deaths and more than 500 injuries, as well as numerous accounts of torture — confirmed by the report of Bahrain's official Independent Commission of Inquiry, which also found no evidence to back the claim that Iran was behind the protests. But the Bahrain crackdown got far less media attention than the dramatic events elsewhere. For one thing, the Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera, which had been the media mainstay of the Arab Spring, showed a lot less enthusiasm for covering the turmoil in the fellow monarchy next door.
随着阿拉伯之春从突尼斯波及至埃及和也门，以及从利比亚到叙利亚，2011年对于整中东地区来说都是革命和起义的一年。但当这股春潮到达海湾地区时，民主进程遭到了把持着石油红利的君主的强烈抵制。阿拉伯之春中任何一个地方的反应都没有这个不大的巴林王国中的情形残暴，当地占大多数的什叶派民众上街抗议，要求从逊尼派的皇室统治者那里获得更多的自由和公平。然而他们遭到了暴力镇压，邻国沙特也参与了镇压，沙特指责伊朗煽动了抗议，沙特同时还派出部队帮助肃清巴林首都麦纳麦的街道。镇压导致了估计36人死亡，另有500多人受伤，以及无数严刑拷打——以上事实都由巴林独立调查委员会的报告所证实，这份报告还证实并未找到伊朗是此次抗议活动幕后主使的证据。但是巴林的镇压却没有得到其他引人注目的事件所获得的媒体关注。首先就是，半岛电视台作为此次阿拉伯之春运动的主要媒体支持者，都显得对这个君主制邻邦中所发生的动乱进行报道的兴趣不大。
5. Some Good News on HIV and AIDS
5.艾滋病防治方面的好消息
Twenty years after Magic Johnson's shocking announcement that he would retire from the NBA after testing positive for HIV, the former basketball superstar is still going strong. Unfortunately, so is the disease he helped bring to the world's attention. But this year, there was finally some good news about the disease. In May, New York magazine ran a story about Timothy Brown, who had contracted HIV in 1995. After a series of stem cell treatments in 2007 and 2008 to combat his leukemia, Brown's cancer went away — and so, apparently, did the HIV virus. He stopped taking anti-retrovirals and, four years later, seems to be free of the disease — the closest anyone has yet come to curing AIDS entirely. Good news was reported on other fronts as well: according to UNAIDS director Michael Sidibe, the number of people dying of AIDS fell in 2011 to 1.8 million, from 2.2 million at the height of the epidemic. And perhaps most importantly, the organization reported a 20% increase in the availability of antiretroviral drugs in sub-Saharan Africa.
在魔术师杰克逊发表了震动世人的声明，说他将因艾滋病确诊阳性而退出NBA的二十年之后，这位前篮球超级明星健康状况仍旧不错。不幸的是，这种因他而另世界瞩目的病毒也仍然茁壮。但是今年（2011）关于这种疾病终于有些好消息了。5月，《纽约时报》报道了一则关于Timothy Brown的故事，他1995年罹患艾滋病。在2007、2008年接受了一系列针对他的白血病而进行的干细胞疗法后，Brown的白血病得到治愈，而很明显的是，艾滋病病毒也被杀死了。他停止服用抗逆转录病毒药物，且四年后仍未有艾滋病复发的表现——他是迄今为止最接近于完全治愈的艾滋病患者。而其他研究前沿也捷报频传：据联合国艾滋病联合工作组（UNAIDS）总干事Michael Sidibe说，因艾滋病而死亡的人数从高峰时期的220万每年下降到2011年的180万。而最重要的可能是，该组织报告称非洲撒哈拉以南地区能够获得抗逆转录病毒药物的认输比例增长了20%。
6. Vladimir Putin Takes Back the Reins
6.普京重新上位
The Obama Administration's "reset" of U.S. relations with Russia sputtered and died in 2011, with the erstwhile Cold War rivals squabbling over everything from NATO's missile defenses, to how to tackle Iran's nuclear program. Expect the chill to deepen: Vladimir Putin, Russia's prime minister and de facto autocrat, now seems poised to reclaim the presidency he relinquished to protege Dmitri Medvedev in 2008. Washington had hoped to make headway by ignoring Putin and dealing primarily with Medvedev, but the president's decision to step aside for his patron (who was constitutionally required to take a four-year break from the presidency) underscored the fact that he had simply been keeping Putin's seat warm. The former KGB man, meanwhile, burnished his tough-guy image by writing a book on judo, and allowing himself to be photographed shirtless on horseback, welding and shooting a Siberian tiger with a dart. Putin's more assertive nationalist posture poses challenge for Western governments, but a recent poll found his domestic approval rating having dipped to 61% and his United Russia party took losses in recent parliamentary elections, winning only 53% of the seats, down from the 70% they previously held. That could portend a rougher ride back to power than Putin had anticipated.
奥巴马政府对美俄关系重新“复位，虽态度激昂但未免语焉不详，而此次复位在2011年以失败告终，结局是这对冷战时期的旧日冤家为大小事件争吵不休，从北约导弹防御系统到如何解决伊朗核问题。现在就等着寒意更深一步吧：俄国总理普京是实际上的掌权者，现在看来试图收回他在2008年拱手让与梅德韦杰夫的总统大权。华盛顿曾试图通过忽略普京而主要与梅德韦杰夫谈判来取得进展，但梅德韦杰夫的决定都不被采纳，因为支持他上台的普京（他一直被要求在两次连任之后让出总统职位）一直强调这个事实：他的作用只是帮普京暖着总统的位子。而同时这位前克格勃不断打磨他的硬汉形象，通过出版柔道方面的书，以及让人拍到他赤裸上身骑在马背上的照片、做焊工活儿的照片以及用飞镖射中一只西伯利亚猛虎的照片。普京强硬的国家主义姿态对西方政府来说是种威胁，但是近期的民调现实他在国内的支持率下降到61%，而他领导的统俄党也在最近的国会选举中失利，只得到了53%的席位，而之前他们拥有七成席位。这也许预示了重掌大权之路比普京预期的要艰难许多。
7. Food Prices as a Trigger for Revolution
7.食品价格成为革命触发点
For the world's poorest and most vulnerable people, 2011 started off bad and only got worse. Food prices in many parts of the world jumped by 19% from September 2010 to September 2011, according to the World Bank food price index, and while global prices didn't quite hit the record highs of 2008 they stayed far above 2010. The Horn of Africa experienced intense droughts which affected an estimated 13 million people; in Somalia alone, a reported 29,000 children have died, a quarter million remain under threat of starvation and half a million refugees have fled to Kenya. Meanwhile, floods in Thailand pushed the price of rice up 25-30%, according to Oxfam. These increased costs aren't just an exercise in economics, or merely an issue for aid workers: rising commodity prices were one of the main factors contributing to the Middle East uprisings of the Arab Spring. Higher costs, many fear, can only lead to more — and more dangerous — instability.
对于世界上最穷困最弱势的人群来说，2011年以艰难开始，而结局愈加悲惨。根据世界银行的食品价格指数，世界多地的食品价格自2010年9月到2011年九月上涨了19%，尽管未达到2008年的价格最高纪录，2010年的食品价格一直居高不下。非洲之角经历了极度干旱，大约1300万人受到影响。据报告称仅仅在索马里就有2万9千名儿童死亡，25万人仍旧受到饥荒的死亡威胁，50万人难民逃往肯尼亚。同时据牛津饥荒救济委员会（Oxfam）称，泰国洪灾使得水稻价格上涨25-30%。这些价格上涨并不只是经济方面的事，或者仅仅是援助人员需要头疼的问题：商品价格的飞涨还是阿拉伯之春事件中中东各国起义的主要因素之一。许多人担心，更高的价格只会导致更多和更危险的不稳定。
8. The Spreading Drug War
8.扩大的毒品战争
In what local police spokesman Donald Gonzalez told Reuters was the "worst massacre we have seen in modern times," some 200 gunmen in May attacked the town of Caserio La Bomba, which lies in northern Guatemala near the border with Mexico. The raiders, believed to be members of Mexico's notorious Zetas drug cartel, killed 25 men and two women, beheading most of their victims. And while such carnage has become frighteningly common in Mexico, the Guatemala attack was a gruesome indicator that the narco wars have spread across Mexican borders. Guatemalan authorities have spent months trying to expel the Zetas, but reports indicate that entire regions of the country are still under the cartel's control.
在一起当地警察部门发言人Donald Gonzalez告知路透社，称其为“当今时代中我们所见过最恶劣的大屠杀事件中，约200名枪手在五月发生在Caserio La Bomba镇的一起冲突中遭到袭击，这个镇位于和墨西哥相邻的危地马拉北部靠近两国边境的地区。人们确信袭击者是墨西哥臭名昭著的Zetas 贩毒集团的成员，他们杀害了25名男子和两名女子，大部分被害人被斩首。尽管这样的大屠杀在墨西哥已经令人震惊的成为普遍现象，发生在危地马拉的袭击还是令人毛骨悚然的表明毒品战争已经跨越了墨西哥边境。危地马拉当局用数月的时间试图肃清Zetas贩毒集团，但是报告显示该国全境已落入该贩毒集团的魔爪控制之下。
TIME's July 11 cover story by Latin American Bureau Chief Tim Padgett chronicled the bloodshed of Mexico's escalating war over the $65 billion-a-year drug trade from the point of view of victims, police, and U.S. and Mexican officials. Since Mexican President Felipe Calderón deployed tens of thousands of soldiers and marines to fight the gangs in 2007, drug-related murders have risen more than 500 percent. But as the cost of doing business has risen in northern Mexico as a result of increased U.S.-backed Mexican government action, the cartels have spread to Mexico's south, and even to its southern neighbors.
《时代》杂志7月11日的封面故事是拉丁美洲局局长Tim Padgett从受害者、警察、美墨官员等角度描写的关于价值650亿美元的毒品产业战争升级的喋血记。自从墨西哥总统Felipe Calderón在2007年部署了数万名士兵和海军和黑帮开战以来，和毒品有关的谋杀事件暴涨了500%。但随着由美国做后援的墨西哥政府打击毒品行动的进行，使得在该国北部贩毒的成本上升，毒品集团开始向墨南部夸张，甚至到达南部邻邦境内。
9. Heroism Makes a Comeback
9.英雄主义归来
President Barack Obama awarded the nation's highest decoration for heroism to two living recipients in 2011 — in 2010, there was only one. The President awarded the Medal of Honor to Sgt. First Class Leroy Petry, who saved the lives of his fellow Army Rangers but lost his hand while throwing back an enemy grenade; and to Sgt. Dakota Meyer, the first living Marine to receive the award since Vietnam, who fought his way back into an ambush five times and saved the lives of 36 Marines and soldiers. Writing about Meyer's actions, military historian Big West said, "For a man to charge into fire once requires grit that is instinctive in few men ... to go in a fourth time is to know you will die; to go in a fifth time is beyond comprehension." The honorees have appeared on Letterman and The Daily Show, been hailed at NFL games and rung the bell at the New York Stock Exchange. Yet there had been precious little coverage of a controversy from the Battle of Ganjgal, for which Meyer was decorated. Several veterans of that battle, including Meyer, have described the unheralded heroism in that same fight of former Army Captain William Swenson, who openly criticized his commanders for refusing to send support. Marine General John Allen personally re-opened the battle record and recommended Swenson for the Medal of Honor, saying it was "the right thing to do." The recommendation could be downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest award for heroism. This would require little fanfare and avoid questions about whether the troops who fought that day were adequately supported. But if Swenson is recognized with the Medal of Honor, it would continue 2011's trend of honoring heroes as the war in Afghanistan finally moves towards a close.
2011年奥巴马总统为两名生还的士兵颁发美国表彰英雄行为的最高荣誉奖章——2010年只有一人获此殊荣。奥巴马总统将此最高荣誉授予Leroy Petry上士和Dakota Meyer中士，前者为把敌人的手榴弹扔离他的战友Army Rangers而炸掉了一只手，后者是自越战后获此殊荣的第一位生还海军，他五次往返于伏击地点，救出36名海军队员和士兵。军事历史学家Big West这样记载Meyer的事迹：“对于一个人来说，冲进战火一次就需要极大的勇气，极少数人才有这种勇敢的天性……而重返战火四次，这个人已经视死如归；他第五次仍然这样做的原因已经超越了普通人的理解。两位获奖者出现在了大卫·雷特曼秀和每日秀的节目中，在美国国家足球联盟（NFL）的比赛现场也受到赞誉，还敲响了纽交所开市钟。但是对于Meyer因此而获得奖章的那场Ganjgal战役，曾出现过一些争议，并有少量珍贵的报道。包括Meyer自己在内的那场战役的一些老兵曾讲述了同一场战役中不为人知的另一位士兵的英雄事迹，陆军上尉William Swenson。他曾公开批评他的指挥官拒绝派出后援。海军上将John Allen以个人名义重开战役记录，并推荐Swenson为荣誉勋章的获得者，称此举“是在做正确的事。这个举荐可能会降级为美国表彰英雄行为的第二高荣誉——优异服役十字勋章。这样可能会吸引比较少的关注热情，从而避免诸如是否当天参加战斗的部队得到了足够的支援这样的质疑。但如果Swenson被授予了荣誉勋章，这股表彰英雄的热潮可能会随着阿富汗战争接近尾声而延续下去。
10. How the Military Brass Dodges Budget-Cut Bullets
10.军队高级将领如何闪避军费预算削减
Early in 2011, then Defense Secretary Robert Gates proposed cutting $78 billion from the military budget over the next five years, in the process eliminating the positions of 102 generals and admirals — about 10% of the top brass. Needless to say, those who wear or want the stars on their uniforms were not pleased. As TIME's Mark Thompson noted in April, efforts to cut $1 trillion in defense spending over the next decade aren't going too well. The Navy has started constructing a $15 billion aircraft carrier to follow the one-fifth-completed and equally-costly USS Gerald R. Ford. Hopes that Gates' successor, Leon Panetta, would pick up his predecessor's budget-cutting axe were dimmed somewhat when the congressional "super committee" failed to agree on budget cuts, leaving Panetta warning that the resulting half trillion in additional cuts would create a "hollow force." The ranks of the brass, meanwhile, continue to grow: Over the past seven years, the Air Force has cut more than 42,000 personnel — while adding 44 generals. Last month, Panetta issued a list of 39 colonels being promoted en masse to brigadier general.
2011年初，美国国防部长盖茨建议在未来五年里削减约780亿美元的军队预算，撤销102个陆军和海军上将的职位——大约削减百分之十的高级职位。无需多言，那些已经身居或觊觎这些职位的服役人员对此很不满。如《时代》记者Mark Thompson在四月指出的那样，想要在未来十年削减1万亿美元国防开支的计划行之不易。海军已经开始建造一艘价值150亿美元的航空母舰，以跟进已经建好五分之一，且同样烧钱的杰拉尔德·R·福特级航空母舰。而在国会的“超级委员会没有达成预算削减计划的情况下，盖茨的继任者里昂·帕内塔接过他前任削减军费开支大斧的希望渺茫，帕内塔警告说一旦削减，剩下的5000亿美元会造成“国防空虚。而同时高级将领们的军衔也在上升：在过去七年来，空军裁员4.2万人，而同时增加了44名上将。上月，帕内塔公布了一份名单，将39名大校一次性提拔为准将。
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