经济学人下载:刚果出租车司机皮埃尔·曼贝尔(2)

Because he was so audacious, and had good instincts, and would go to places other drivers wouldn't, his taxi became the car of choice for Western journalists. It was good money, $35 a day in the 1990s (though the best money came from Western tv crews, if they turned up in town). His regular passengers for years included Michela Wrong and Stephanie Wolters of Reuters, Howard French of the New York Times, Dino Mahtani of Reuters (and The Economist), on whose office sofa he would take naps, William Wallis of the Financial Times. Though he spoke no English and growled thickly in French, often just to himself, they all knew what he was grumbling about.
因为他非常的无畏，而且有良好的直觉，他会去其他司机不去的地方，所以他就成了西方记者的首选。在上世纪90年代每天35美元，这是一笔不错的收入（尽管最好的收入来自西方电视台的工作人员，如果他们出现在镇上的话）。多年来，他的常客包括《路透社》的米凯拉·容和斯蒂芬妮·沃尔特斯，《纽约时报》的霍华德·弗伦奇，《路透社》的迪诺·马哈塔尼（还有《经济学人》），皮埃尔会在他办公室的沙发上打盹，还有《金融时报》的威廉·沃利斯。虽然他不会说英语，还用法语粗声粗气地咆哮着，经常是对着自己，他们都知道他在发什么牢骚。

He was the conduit through which they, and their readers, came to grasp what was happening in Congo. None of it was good. C'est pas bien, c'est foutu, finger wagging angrily as he careered along. He had ulcers, his stomach hurt and his wife was divorcing him, but his country pained him more. Everyone was corrupt. Everything was screwed. In his lifetime Congo had gone from brutal Belgian colonialism to brief independence under Patrice Lumumba to dictatorship under Mobutu Sese Seko, before the Kabila clan took over. He had met Lumumba at rallies in Kisangani, and liked him. For Mobutu and his henchmen he had no time at all. Nor for the Kabilas, whose claims to be rassembleurs, unifiers, made him laugh out loud. His hopes lay with Etienne Tshisekedi, "the Sphinx", founder of a party for democratic change without violence. But Tshisekedi never made it to president, and his son Félix managed it only by villainy, like all the rest.
他是记者和他们的读者了解刚果正在发生什么的渠道。这些都不好。这是不对的，这个无法挽救了。他愤怒地摇着手指疾驰而过。他得了溃疡，胃疼，妻子也在和他离婚，但他的国家让他更加痛苦。每个人都是腐败。一切都完蛋了。在他的一生中，刚果从野蛮的比利时殖民主义到帕特里斯·卢蒙巴短暂的独立，再到蒙博托·塞塞·塞科的独裁统治，直到卡比拉家族掌权。他在基桑加尼的集会上见过卢蒙巴，并且喜爱他。对于蒙博托和他的追随者来说，他根本没有时间。卡比拉斯自称是集团者、统一主义者，这让他放声大笑。他的希望寄托在“狮身人面像”反对党领袖奇赛科迪身上，他是“非暴力民主变革党”的创始人。但奇赛科迪从未当上总统，他的儿子费利克斯和其他人一样，只是靠邪恶的手段才当上了总统。