Brazil has become one of the developing world’s great successes at reducing population growth - but more by accident than design. While countries such as India have made joint efforts to reduce birth rates, Brazil has had better result without really trying, says George Martine at Harvard.
巴西已經(jīng)成為發(fā)展中國家在減少人口增長方面取得的巨大成功之一，但更多的是偶然而非設(shè)計。哈佛大學(xué)的喬治·馬丁說，雖然印度等國共同努力降低出生率，但巴西在沒有真正實施的情況下取得了更好的結(jié)果。

Brazil’s population growth rate has dropped from 2.99% a year between 1951 and 1960 to 1.93% a year between 1981 and 1990, and Brazilian women now have only 2.7 children on average. Martine says this figure may have fallen still further since 1990, an achievement that makes it the envy of many other Third World countries.
巴西的人口增長率從1951年至1960年的每年2.99%下降到1981年至1990年的每年1.93%，巴西婦女現(xiàn)在平均只有2.7個孩子。馬丁說，1990年以來這一數(shù)字可能進(jìn)一步下降，這一成就使許多其他第三世界國家羨慕不已。

Martine puts it down to, among other things, soap operas and installment plans introduced in the 1970s. Both played an important, although indirect, role in lowering the birth rate. Brazil is one of the world’s biggest producers of soap operas. Globo, Brazil’s most popular television network, shows three hours of soaps six nights a week, while three others show at least one hour a night. Most soaps are based on wealthy characters living the high life in big cities.
馬丁把它歸結(jié)為20世紀(jì)70年代推出的肥皂劇和分期付款計劃。兩者都在降低出生率方面發(fā)揮了重要作用，盡管是間接的。巴西是世界上最大的肥皂劇生產(chǎn)國之一。巴西最受歡迎的電視網(wǎng)Globo每周六晚播放三小時的肥皂劇，另外三個電視網(wǎng)每晚至少播放一小時。大多數(shù)肥皂劇都是以在大城市過著奢華生活的富有人物為原型。

“Although they have never really tried to work in a message towards the problems of reproduction, they describe middle and upper class values-not many children, different attitudes towards sex, women working,” says Martine. “They sent this image to all parts of Brazil and made people conscious of other patterns of behavior and other values, which were put into a very attractive package.”
馬丁說：“盡管從來沒有真正嘗試過傳達(dá)關(guān)于生育問題的信息，但它們描述了中上層階級的價值觀——孩子不多，對性的不同態(tài)度，女性工作。這張圖像發(fā)送給了巴西各地，讓人們意識到了其他行為模式和價值觀，這些都非常有吸引力。”

Meanwhile, the installment plans tried to encourage the poor to become consumers. “This led to an enormous change in consumption patterns and consumption was incompatible with unlimited reproduction,” says Martine.
與此同時，分期付款計劃試圖鼓勵窮人成為消費者?！斑@導(dǎo)致了消費模式的巨大變化，消費和無限生育是不相容的，”馬丁說。