It is a crying shame.

2019/03/26 04:12:25 網誌分類: 生活

26 Mar

        　　Did you know over 800 million people in the world do not have enough food to eat? That's about one in nine people on earth. These malnourished people live mostly in Africa and Asia. Over 150 million malnourished children are stunted. If you are malnourished, it means you are weak and unhealthy because you don’t have enough food to eat. If you are stunted, it means you have not grown to a normal size. People in rich countries are mostly tall and healthy but people in poor countries are usually short (stunted). It is a crying shame that people in rich countries waste so much food when 800 million people in the world are malnourished. The expression “crying shame” is used to describe a situation that is shameful, disgraceful, or sad.

        　　When I lived in the US, most people in restaurants asked for doggy bags for their leftover food. The expression “leftover food” means food that still remains after people have finished eating. A doggy bag is a bag or container for leftover food, supposedly for your dog to eat. But, of course, most people want doggy bags not for their dogs but for themselves to eat the leftover food. Many Hong Kong people also ask for doggy bags for leftover food. But whenever I have dinner with friends in mainland China restaurants, they often do not ask for doggy bags for leftover food.

        　　When I asked a mainland friend why people don’t ask for doggy bags, he replied many mainlanders prefer fresh food to leftover food. He also said it made people look cheap to ask for doggy bags. The word “cheap” used this way means miserly. Last week, I went to a large dinner banquet at a Chinese restaurant in a Hong Kong hotel. All the guests went to different tables to talk to friends and to take pictures with mobile phones. Very few guests ate the food. About five dishes at the table I was at were not eaten at all when the guests left. It made me think about the 800 million malnourished people in the world.

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        　　你可知道，全球有八億人口不夠食物吃？那差不多是地球上每九個人之中便有一人捱餓。這些營養不良的（malnourished）人大部份居於非洲和亞洲。超過一億五千萬營養失調（malnourished）的孩童都是發育不良的（stunted）。若你是malnourished，意即你因為不夠食物吃，以致你瘦弱和不健康；若你是stunted，即是你發育不良。富裕國家的人大部份都長得又高又健康，但貧窮國家的人則通常身形矮小（stunted）。當世上有八億人口營養不良（malnourished）時，富裕國家仍有人浪費掉那麼多的食物，那真是太不像話（crying shame）了。習語crying shame是用來形容莫大的恥辱、很丟臉或遺憾。

        　　我還住在美國時，去餐廳用膳如果吃剩食物，大部份人都會問店員拿打包袋（doggy bags）去帶走他們的剩食（leftover food）。習語leftover food意即用餐後吃剩的食物。A doggy bag就是用來盛載剩食（leftover food）的袋或是盒子，原本打包回去是給狗吃的；但當然，大部份的人要打包袋（doggy bags）盛載剩食（leftover food），不是給他們的狗吃，而是讓自己回去再吃。許多香港人也會問店員拿打包袋（doggy bags）盛載剩食（leftover food）。但每次我在中國內地跟朋友們吃晚飯時，他們通常都不會要求拿打包袋（doggy bags）去帶走剩食（leftover food）。

        　　我問一位內地的朋友，為何人們不會要去拿打包袋（doggy bags）？他回應說，許多內地人都較喜歡新鮮的食物多於剩餘的飯菜（leftover food）。他又說，如果要拿打包袋（doggy bags），就會顯得有點cheap；cheap在這裏解作孤寒、俗氣的。上星期，我去了香港某酒店中菜廳的一個盛大的晚宴。所有的賓客都到不同的枱去找朋友傾談和用手機拍照，很少賓客有吃東西。當賓客離開時，我那張枱上有差不多五碟餸完全沒有被碰過。這令我想起世上那八億營養不良（malnourished）的人。

        mickchug@gmail.com

        中譯:七刻

        Michael Chugani 褚簡寧

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It is a crying shame.

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