Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, has snapped at a Congolese university student after, as she heard it, he asked what her husband thought about an international financial matter.
"My husband is not secretary of state, I am," she said. "I am not going to be channelling my husband."
Mrs Clinton was speaking in Kinshasa during a seven-nation trip through Africa.
"You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" she asked incredulously when the student raised a question about a multibillion-dollar Chinese loan offer to Congo.
"If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion," she said. "I am not going to be channelling my husband."
The moderator quickly moved on.
State Department officials said the student approached Mrs Clinton afterward and told her he had meant to ask what Mr Obama, not Bill Clinton, thought about the Chinese loan. A senior Clinton aide said that Mrs Clinton assured the student not to worry about it.
The question, according to the State Department translation, went like this: "Thank you. Mrs Clinton, we‘ve all heard about the Chinese contracts in this country. The interference is from the World Bank against this contract. What does Mr. Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton and what does Mr. Mutombo think on this situation? Thank you very much."
It was unclear whether the French-speaking student or translator had erred. Either way, she was not pleased at the mention of her husband‘s name.
Mrs Clinton quickly recovered her cool and moved on to other subjects.
Just before the question, another student had asked if the US and the West felt a need to apologise to the people of Congo for colonialism and postcolonial interference.
That brought a pointed rebuttal as well.
"I cannot excuse the past and I will not try," she said. "We can either think about the past and be imprisoned by it or we can decide we‘re going to have a better future and work to make it."
当美国国务卿希拉里•克林顿听到刚果（金）一名大学生向她询问她丈夫对一项国际金融事务的看法时，希拉里勃然大怒。
“我丈夫不是国务卿，我才是，”她说，“我也不会为我的丈夫传话。”
正在进行非洲七国之旅的克林顿夫人当时在金沙萨发表演讲。
当那个学生针对中国向刚果提供数十亿美元贷款一事提问时，希拉里吃惊地反问道：“你想让我告诉你我丈夫的想法？”
她说：“如果你想知道我的想法，我可以告诉你，但是我不会为我的丈夫传话。”
会议主持迅速跳过了这一尴尬场面。
美国国务院官员说该学生后来去找克林顿夫人，告诉她他的本意是想问奥巴马先生对这笔中国贷款的意见，而不是比尔•克林顿的意见。克林顿的一位高级助手说，克林顿夫人安慰该学生，让他不必为此烦恼。
根据美国国务院的翻译，这个问题是这样的：“谢谢。克林顿夫人，我们都听说了中国在本国的合同。但是世界银行却这项合同进行干涉。不知道克林顿夫人能否告诉我们克林顿先生的看法，以及穆托姆博先生对这一情况的看法？非常感谢。”
当时不清楚究竟是说法语的学生出了错还是翻译出了错，但是，不管怎样，希拉里对于在这种场合提到她丈夫的名字并不高兴。
不过克林顿夫人很快恢复了平静，并转移到其他话题。
就在该学生问这一问题之前，另外一个学生提问说，美国和西方是否认为需要为过去的殖民政策和后殖民主义干预向刚果人民道歉。
这个问题也引起了一阵尖锐的反驳。
她（希拉里）回答说：“我不能为过去推脱责任，我也不打算这么做。我们可以沉浸于过去，被过去所囚禁，但是我们也可以立志拥有一个更美好的未来，并为了实现它而努力。”
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