アメリカの銃規制が一向に進まないのはNRAという強力なロビー団体があるからだというのは日本でも知られていることですが、the N.R.A. is not a monolith. It is malleableと、この団体は一枚岩ではなく、さまざまな亀裂が入っているというのが記事の趣旨です。
This is the N.R.A. that we now take for granted, but it has existed as such for little more than a generation. And the crucial takeaway from recent history is that the N.R.A. is not a monolith. It is malleable
it has existed as such for little more than a generationとあるのは、以前取り上げたNew Yorkerの記事でも触れていましたが1960年ごろまではNPAは銃規制に協力的で現在のような主張をするようになったのは1970年代を過ぎてからのようです。
Demographic shifts in the country don’t favor the core constituency of the N.R.A., which is white and male; the group likes to present women as the “fastest growing segment” of its membership, but according to a General Social Survey conducted by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center, since 1980 gun ownership among women has remained largely unchanged. The number of gun-owning households in America is shrinking: from about half in 1977 to about a third in 2015. To keep gun sales rising—as they have been—the gun industry needs to sell more guns to people who already own guns, a practice that gun critics call “hoarding” and that gun enthusiasts call “collecting.” Either way, the industry must produce ever more attractive gun models to sell to fewer people. It is this self-interested agenda on the part of manufacturers, as much as a constitutional concern about gun rights, that lies behind the N.R.A.’s opposition to any form of effective regulation. Meanwhile, technological advances, such as the 3-D printing of guns, which allows anyone with a 3-D printer to build a gun in the privacy of his home, may eventually force the N.R.A. to choose between the interests of its financial backers (gun manufacturers and distributors would hate the idea of 3-D printing, for obvious reasons) and those of some of its most ardent constituents (who love the idea)
Meanwhile, the N.R.A. has broadened its activities into political arenas that have little to do with the actual ownership of guns. It has worked to pass bills that prevent pediatricians from speaking to patients and their families about guns they have in their homes. It has lobbied for bills that prevent military counselors from asking enlisted and former military officers about their personal firearms, even if the soldiers appear at risk of doing harm to themselves or others. The N.R.A. opposes micro-stamping, a technology that would help match bullets found at crime scenes to the guns from which they were fired. The organization opposes “smart gun” technology, used in Europe, which permits a gun to be fired only by its owner. The group has lobbied aggressively to prevent the Centers for Disease Control from studying gun violence as a public-health issue, even though the C.D.C. routinely studies the health consequences of many products and technologies, including automobiles.
As for those members, what does that claimed number of five million actually represent? Mother Jones has done extensive work analyzing the actual number of members of the N.R.A., a figure the organization guards with extreme secrecy. It appears to fluctuate. Even taken at face value, the number is a tiny sliver of gun owners in America—about 6 percent. And there are good reasons not to take the number at face value. Many of those members are people who signed up in order to get into other events free—such as the people who signed up at the Great American Outdoor Show I attended. Manufacturers such as Beretta, Taurus, Browning, Wilson, and Tactical Combat have, at times, given free memberships to anyone buying one of their products. The N.R.A. itself, according to a 2012 document obtained by Bloomberg News, regards only half of its membership as “active and interested.”
To mark her 90th birthday, Queen Elizabeth II sat for a series of portraits by Vanity Fair contributing photographer Annie Leibovitz. The resulting portfolio—which includes two photos exclusive to Vanity Fair—captures the Queen in the intimate, familiar setting of her home at Windsor Castle. “The most moving, important thing about this shoot is that these were all her ideas,” says Leibovitz. “She wanted to be photographed with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren; her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh; her daughter, Anne, the Princess Royal; and her corgis. I was told how relaxed she was at Windsor, and it was really true. You get the sense of how at peace she was with herself, and very much enthralled with her family.”
I think that giving voice to characters who have no other voice is the great worth of what we do. ほかに一切声を持たない役に声を与えるということ―それこそが、私たちの仕事の持つ素晴らしい値打ちだと思うんです。
同じようにMy role is to bring a voice to people who are voiceless.と考えている報道レポーターがいました。Janine Di GiovanniさんはTEDでそのように語っています。
I'm not a U.N. conflict resolution person. I'm not even a humanitarian aid doctor, and I can't tell you the times of how helpless I've felt to have people dying in front of me, and I couldn't save them. All I am is a witness. My role is to bring a voice to people who are voiceless. 私は国連の紛争解決に 携わっているわけでなく 人道支援の医師でもない 目の前で亡くなる 人を救うことができず 何度 自分の無力さを 思い知ったかわかりません 私は傍観者に過ぎません 私の仕事は 声なき人に 声を与えることです
A colleague of mine described it as to shine a light in the darkest corners of the world. And that's what I try to do. I'm not always successful, and sometimes it's incredibly frustrating, because you feel like you're writing into a void, or you feel like no one cares. Who cares about Syria? Who cares about Bosnia? Who cares about the Congo, the Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, all of these strings of places that I will remember for the rest of my life? 同僚は この仕事を 世界でも最も暗い片隅を 光で照らすことに例えました 私は それを目指しています いつも成功するわけではなく 不満がつのる時もあります 記事を書くことが無意味で 誰もが無関心に思えてきます シリアやボスニアなど 誰が気にかけるでしょう? コンゴやコートジボワール ― リベリアやシエラ・レオネなど 私にとって 生涯 忘れられない場所でも 誰が関心をもつと 言うのでしょう?
But my métier is to bear witness and that is the crux, the heart of the matter, for us reporters who do this. And all I can really do is hope, not to policymakers or politicians, because as much as I'd like to have faith that they read my words and do something, I don't delude myself. でも私の仕事は 証言することです それが私達 記者の仕事の 核心であり 本質です 私にできるのは 希望をもつことだけですが 政策立案者や政治家への 希望ではありません 彼らが私の記事を読んで 行動を起こすと思うのは 自分をごまかしています
But what I do hope is that if you remember anything I said or any of my stories tomorrow morning over breakfast, if you can remember the story of Sarajevo, or the story of Rwanda, then I've done my job. 本当に望んでいるのは 皆さんが 私の話を 明日の朝食の時に 思い出してくれること ― 皆さんがサラエボの話や ルワンダの話を 覚えていてくれたら 私の目標は達成です
my métier is to bear witness(私の仕事は 証言することです)のmétier自分の仕事をかっこよくいった感じでしょうか。日本でも「メチエ」みたいにカタカナで本のタイトルに入れ込んでいる人もいます。
(オックスフォード) métier a person’s work, especially when they have a natural skill or ability for it He followed many unsuccessful paths before finding his true métier.
(ロングマン) métier formal someone's metier is the type of work or activity that they enjoy doing because they have a natural ability to do it well: Acting is not my metier.
You're all fired! Donald Trump released a scathing statement via Twitter late Tuesday, January 26, about boycotting the upcoming Fox News–hosted Republican presidential debate on January 28. Trump's boycott comes down to his contentious relationship with Fox News host Megyn Kelly, who is one of the debate's moderators. On Monday, January 25, the GOP presidential hopeful tweeted: "Fox will drop Kelly if it means no Trump. Nobody will watch w/o Trump." (The qualifying candidates for Thursday's debate were announced on Tuesday and include Trump, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich and Rand Paul.)
FROM THE MAGAZINE JANUARY 31, 2016 7:00 PM Blowhards, Beware: Megyn Kelly Will Slay You Now The brightest star at Fox News, Megyn Kelly is a newly minted role model for women who sees her gender as irrelevant, and a conservative champion who transcends politics with her skillful skewering of windbags of both parties, most notably Donald Trump. Evgenia Peretz gets to know the woman behind the contradictions. BY EVGENIA PERETZSTYLED BY JESSICA DIEHL
Five-time Tony Award® nominee Kelli O'Hara (The Light in the Piazza, South Pacific) and Academy Award® nominee Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, Inception) star in a magnificent new Broadway production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's beloved THE KING AND I.
Tony winner Bartlett Sher (South Pacific) directs this classic tale of a British schoolteacher's unexpected relationship with the imperious King of Siam.
Featuring a cast of more than 50, choreography based on the original by Jerome Robbins, and a score of treasured songs including "Getting to Know You," "I Whistle a Happy Tune" and "Shall We Dance?" in their glorious, original orchestrations, Lincoln Center Theater's new staging of THE KING AND I invites you to get to know this inspiring and enchanting musical classic.
Additional casting will be announced at a later date
For a Broadway musical that premiered in 1951, The King and I is shockingly relevant. Strip the show of such classics as “Getting to Know You” and “Shall We Dance?” and what remains is the story of a ruler with a dictatorial bent who is grappling with Western cultural influences and is at odds with women who demand to be heard. The contemporary feel of The King and I is what persuaded Bartlett Sher to stage the revival that opens this month at Lincoln Center Theater. “Rodgers and Hammerstein are like Shakespeare,” Sher says. “You are engaged in very serious questions and at the same time have a good time.”
渡辺謙がミュージカル?って感じですが、あの存在感が欲しかったようです。謙さんは“Even a pig will climb a tree if you sweet-talk him.”とあのことわざを使って今回の出演を語っています。
Sher’s surprising and shrewd pick is Japanese film star Ken Watanabe, whose performance as the quietly noble garrison commander in Clint Eastwood’s 2006 Letters from Iwo Jima so impressed the director that he sought out the actor two years ago in Vancouver, where Watanabe was filming Godzilla. “Bart said to me, ‘I do not need a good singer. I do not need a good dancer. I need a king!’ ” he recalls. Sher prevailed, which is a tribute to his cajolery as much as it is to Watanabe’s intrepidness. “In Japan, we have this expression,” says Watanabe. “Even a pig will climb a tree if you sweet-talk him.”