Societies on the move.docVIP

A special report on Latin America 拉丁美洲特别报道 Societies on the move 社会在进步 Expanding the middle class requires better schools and reforms in public spending 逐渐扩大中产阶级群体需要更好的教育以及社会福利的改革 Sep 9th 2010 Hands up if you want a better teacher 想要给更好的教师请举手 HOME to over 1.5m people, Nezahualcóyotl sprawls over a flat, dried-up lake bed on the eastern outskirts of Mexico City. Back in the 1980s it was an impoverished settlement of dirt streets and one-storey shacks built of grey concrete blocks. Today the shacks have become comfortable homes of two or three storeys, the streets are asphalted and the traffic-clogged thoroughfares are lined with businesses of every type, lots of restaurants and several imposing gyms to work off all those meals. Since last year they have been facing competition from a big new shopping mall that would not look out of place in a suburb in the United States, anchored by Sears and CA, with scores of boutiques and a multiplex cinema. Next door stands a large Wal-Mart and a private hospital that offers low-cost treatment. Behind, on a former rubbish dump, a new outdoor sports centre with 19 football pitches opened in July, operated by the charitable arm of Telmex, a telecoms firm. 房间堆满了超过1.5的人们，Nezahualcóyotl驻扎在墨西哥城东郊干煸平整的胡床上，拥有150万人口。退回到20世纪的80年代，曾经是贫民窟，到处充斥着脏乱不堪的街道以及用混凝土砖砌成的一层简陋房子。现如今，小茅屋早已变成舒适的二到三层的小别墅，沥青铺的街道，各种各样的汽车整齐有序的排在道路上，许许多多的饭馆以及一些壮观宏伟的体育馆提供着应有尽有的服务。自从去年，他们面临着来自新开的大型超级市场的竞争，在靠着Sears和CA的支持，以及流行女装精品店和多媒体电影院的影响，超级市场根本就没把美国边界的地方放在眼里。隔壁就是大型沃尔玛超市和一家为低收入提供治疗的私人医院。除此之外，在7月份，由墨西哥的Telmex电信通讯公司赞助，一所占地大约有19个足球场那么大的室外体育中心即将在曾经的垃圾场开馆。 Few people in Neza, as it is known, are still poor. “Before, people wanted a bicycle to get to the market. Now the least they want is a secondhand Volkswagen. They can afford to go out to eat at the weekend and take a holiday once a year, going to Acapulco,” says Luis Ayala, a journalist who was born in Neza and now works for its mayor. His story typifies gradual upward mobility: his father was a factory worker; his elder son