译者 frmann
In Burma's villages, floods and power cuts mean more than reform
As world leaders jet into the capital and Aung San Suu Kyi's party rallies in the cities, rural leaders must tackle more immediate issues
在缅甸的农村，洪水和电力不足的问题比改革更为迫切
世界领袖飞到首都，昂山素姬的党在城市中集会，但农村的领导者需要解决更迫切的问题
Jason Burke in Zigon The Observer, Sunday 8 January 2012
杰森·博克于自公，观察家，2012年1月8日星期天
Drive out through Rangoon's bumpy streets – past the pagodas and the gently decaying colonial architecture, past the new shopping malls and the bustling alleys of Chinatown, past the tenements where families live nine to a tiny flat – and cross the old bridge over the Bago river. Beyond the margins of the city, in a country beyond the margins of the international community, is the village of Zigon.
驶过仰光崎岖的街道，经过那些宝塔和沧桑的殖民时代建筑，经过新建的商场和兴旺的唐人街，经过那些拥挤的住房，通过巴沟河上的老桥，通过城市的边缘后我们来到了仰光这个国际化都市的郊区一个叫自公的村子。
There is nothing particularly remarkable about Zigon. It is better off than many villages in a country where the average annual income is £650. But when, during the first visit of a British foreign secretary for 56 years, William Hague flew last week from the new capital of Naypyidaw down to Rangoon, he would have passed over thousands of settlements like it.
自公没什么特别的，不过它已经比这个农民人均年收入650英镑（约六千三百元）的国家大部分村庄生活得好了。阔别这个国家56年之后，英国外交大臣终于又来到这个国家。上星期威廉·黑格从缅甸新首都内比都飞往仰光的时候，他应该会经过成千上万这样的村落。
Naypyidaw, with its 12-lane highways and monumental architecture, has been carved out of scrub and farmland as a monument to the power of the autocratic and secretive military clique that has ruled Burma for decades – a power that now appears to be waning, or at least evolving.
在丛林和农田上崛起的内比都与它的纪念碑和12车道的公路一起，成为了统治了缅甸数十年之久的军政府的丰碑。不过军政府即使不是力量在衰退也至少发生着一些转变。
Hague's visit, coming after that of Hillary Clinton, his American counterpart, in December, would have been unthinkable even 18 months ago. "The aim of my visit is to reinforce change in this country," he said last week as he sat on the terrace of the British ambassador's vast residence in Rangoon, itself a monument to former rulers whose power finally faded.
在美国国务卿去年12月访问缅甸后，黑格也访问了缅甸，这样的访问在一年半以前还是难以想象的。黑格上周坐在英国大使官邸的露台上称：“我来访的目的是强化这个国家的变革。”宏大的英国大使官邸也是已经成为过去的统治者力量的象征。
But if there has been talk this week of democracy in Burma and the tentative reforms being implemented by the government since an election in November 2010, there has been less interest in the rural areas, where 70% of the population live.
虽然这个星期举行了关于民主的会谈，政府在2010年大选后就推行临时的改革措施，但没什么人关注有70%的缅甸人居住的农村。
The focus, inevitably, has been on Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel prize-winning campaigner who was released from decades of house arrest only 14 months ago, and her largely urban-based National League for Democracy (NLD). If few are interested in places like Zigon at the best of times, last week such communities seemed almost non-existent.
万众瞩目的焦点是昂山素姬，这位已经遭受软禁数十年的诺贝尔和平奖得主14个月前刚刚获得自由。她领导的主要活动于城市的全国民主联盟也因为她而进入人们的视野。自公这样的地方在情况最好的时候也没有太多人关注，它们在上星期的会谈中仿佛隐形的一样。
Nay Zinn Latt, the Burmese president's political adviser, described a bright new democratic and capitalist future for Burma. "Unless we grow economically there will be unrest in our cities and no one will be able to drive a Mercedes down a street without fear," he said, interviewed in the hotel he owns in Rangoon. "If we want capitalism, we need a free market – and that means we need some freedoms that we didn't have before. So now is the time for change."
缅甸总统的政治顾问剌奈辛描绘了缅甸光明的民主和资本主义未来。他在他自己仰光的宾馆中接受采访，说：“只有我们的经济发展了才能避免城市骚乱，让人们不再提心吊胆地开奔驰上街。如果我们希望实现资本主义，我们需要自由市场，这意味着我们需要一些人民原本没有的自由。现在是变革的时候了。”
He did not mention the villages. And though British officials spoke of economic issues in Burma in background briefings, Hague's announcement that £10m of existing British aid would go to provide small, cheap loans to the "poorest of the poor" seemed almost an afterthought.
他没提到农村。虽然之前英国官员给黑格作了关于缅甸经济情况的背景简报，他的将会有一千万镑的英国援助用于给“贫困人口中的最贫困者”提供小额低息贷款的宣言更像是马后炮。
It is true, of course, that the 1,000 or so inhabitants of Zigon – a strip of largely wooden homes built on a narrow spit of land at the confluence of two rivers – have much to worry about apart from politics. O Win Thei, the head of the local council, lists the problems faced by his fellow villagers: their wooden homes barely keep out monsoon rains; no proper sewers mean effluent floats around the village during frequent floods, bringing gastroenteritis and worse; clouds of mosquitoes bring deaths from dengue fever every year; the public school is overcrowded and the monastery school has no places; and it is only due to a donation from the Singaporean government that the village has a clean water supply.
如果这是真的，那两河之间的自公的一千多名住在木屋中的村民有很多比政治更令人担心的问题。自公村委会主任台偶温列出了他的村庄面临的问题：他们的木屋几乎不能抗拒季风带来的暴雨。他们没有合适的污水渠，导致污水在洪水四溢时无法排出，带来肠炎和更严重的问题。成群的蚊子像乌云般飞过，每年村里都有人因为蚊子导致的登革热去世。公立学校挤得满满的，而教会学校更是早就招满了学生。村里有清洁的饮水完全是新加坡政府捐款的贡献。
"It's tough here. Sometimes when we have a bit of money we eat chicken or even beef, but usually it's vegetables only. If I can get fish from the river then we'll have that, but even the fish are rare these days," says Moe Moe Win, 46. "It was easier when my sons were smaller, but you know how hungry teenage boys get."
46岁的温莫莫说：“这里的生活很艰难。偶尔我们手里有点钱，我们吃鸡甚至是牛排，但基本上我们只吃素菜。如果我能从河里捞到鱼，我们就吃鱼，不过最近河里的鱼都少了。我的几个儿子小时候日子好过点，不过你知道十几岁的孩子吃头牛都没问题。”
Zigon does, however, have electricity – unlike 90% of Burmese villages – installed by the government late last year. This has meant a number of changes. One of the more significant is the arrival of television. A satellite dish has now been installed at the village tea shop, largely used to watch state TV networks and Premier League football.
不过，自公和90%的缅甸农村不一样的是它有电，这是政府在去年下半年接通的。有电意味着村子在很多地方都不一样了，最重要的变化之一就是村民可以看电视了。村里的茶馆安了个卫星信号接收器（大锅），主要用于收看国家电视台的节目和（缅甸足球）甲级联赛。
Though censorship has been eased in recent months, information is still tightly controlled. News of the Arab revolts last year was blocked for weeks – though millions use cheap Chinese-made radios to listen to the BBC, Voice of America or other networks broadcasting in local languages.
虽然近几个月审查制度有所放松，信息依然受到严格的管制。去年阿拉伯革命的新闻在几个星期后才能传到缅甸，当然几百万使用廉价的中国收音机收听BBC和VOA以及其它电台的缅语广播的人除外。
But ask about the changes in the country and people talk, albeit warily. All remember the elections of 1990. These followed an uprising against military rule two years previously and, once it became clear that Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD had won a landslide victory, were annulled. "I was sad, like everyone else, when that happened," says Moe Moe Win.
不过人们还是小心翼翼地问道和谈起国家的变化。所有人都想到1990年的大选。之前两年反对军政府的暴动迫使军政府举行选举，但当昂山素姬的全国民主联盟赢得了压倒性的胜利后，选举结果被取消了。温莫莫说：“这一切发生的时候，我和其他人一样伤心。”
Most of the villagers participated in the last election in November 2010, casting votes for a range of different parties. Neither free nor fair, according to international observers, and boycotted by the NLD, the polls resulted in a huge majority for the ruling clique's political vehicle, the Union Solidarity and Development Party. A government candidate, unsurprisingly, won in the Myo Hong East constituency of which the village is part.
许多村民都参加了2010年11月的选举，把他们的选票投给各个党派。根据国际观察员的判断，这次遭到全国民主联盟抵制的选举既不自由也不公平。选举结果是军政府的政治组织——联邦巩固与发展党赢得了多数。不出人们所料，政府候选人赢得了在自公所属的东勉洪选区。
But issues such as the continued detention of between 300 and 1,700 political prisoners, depending on the estimate, or the ongoing conflict between ethnic groups and the Burmese army in the north-east of the country, both repeatedly stressed by Hague during his visit and by Aung San Suu Kyi, matter little here.
不过，昂山素姬以及来访的黑格一直强调的问题对自公来说没太大意义。在押的三百到以前七百名政治犯（根据不同方面的估计），以及民族冲突，还有国家东北部的缅甸军队，这些都不是自公人关心的问题。
"We are not political people. We are too busy trying to make a living. Most of the men here are day labourers and work is scarce," says O Win Thei. Such answers are sensible in a country where criticising the government can earn a lengthy prison sentence for "defaming national leaders" but also reflect local priorities. The villagers say they support political change – if it means development.
台偶温说：“我们不是政治人物，我们忙于生计。这里的很多人都打短工，现在工作不好找。”这样的答案很合理，在这个国家，指责政府的人可能因为“毁谤国家领袖”被判长期监禁。不过村里的要务也的确不是政治。村民说如果政治变革意味着发展，那他们就支持政治变革。
There are currently two major questions in Burma: is there a genuine desire to "democratise" on the part of a regime which in 2007 used live ammunition against demonstrating monks and responded to the catastrophic Cyclone Nargis a year later with mendacity, incompetence and a cynical disregard for human suffering? And if so, how fast will those changes occur?
目前，缅甸面临两个重大问题：现政府中的很多人都来自2007年使用实弹镇压僧侣示威、却在2008年灾难性的飓风纳尔吉斯面前无所作为只会用谎言来掩饰的无视人民疾苦的政府，他们是不是真的有“民主化”愿望呢？如果是，变化何时才会发生？
Hague believes that the Burmese president, Thein Sein, is "sincere", though he stresses that pressure from the international community must be maintained. Yet many doubt the capacity of the president, who was appointed by the ruthless dictator Than Shwe on his retirement from public life, to counter conservatives.
虽然黑格强调国际社会应当对缅甸保持压力，但他相信缅甸总统登盛是“真诚的”。不过很多人怀疑这位在缅甸无情的独裁者丹瑞离休时任命以对抗保守派的总统的能力。
Thi Haw Saw, a newspaper editor in Rangoon, believes "a backlash is possible" and even Nay Zinn Latt, the presidential aide, admits that nothing is "irreversible" for the moment. As for the speed of the changes, Hague has indicated that if they continue the European Union may modify, or even lift, sanctions by April. To many observers, this seems too rapid. "There has been no real change yet. We must be cautious. Any transition will take much more time," said one recently released political prisoner.
仰光的报纸编辑索蒂浩相信“反弹是有可能的”，就连总统顾问剌奈辛也承认目前没什么东西是“不可逆的”。黑格在谈到变革的速度时暗示如果缅甸继续改变，欧盟可能在四月份调整甚至放松制裁。很多观察家认为这太快了。一位刚获释的政治犯说：“现在还没什么真正的变革。我们必须保持警惕。转变需要更多的时间。”
The villagers of Zigon have a different timescale in mind. Their land is disappearing at the rate of 30ft a year due to erosion of the banks of the river. Having cleared the mangrove swamps that once lined the muddy shoreline, there is nothing to hold back the earth. The operations of a government-run gravel company – the profits of such enterprises usually flow back to people who are part of, or connected to, the ruling clique – make the problem worse. Within five years, tidal surges will have reached the heart of the village, rendering half the homes uninhabitable. Another few years and Zigon will disappear.
自公的村民没有这么多时间。他们的土地每年由于河水侵蚀河岸后退九米。一旦河水漫过了以前河边泥泞的沼泽就再也没办法保持水土了。国营的砂石公司让问题变得更严重，这些企业的利润通常会流向统治集团成员或者其他和他们有关系的人。五年之内，河水就将拍打村庄的心脏，村里一半人的房子就没法住了。再过几年，自公就将彻底消失。
A non-governmental organisation run by Phone Win, a political activist who stood in the 2010 elections, is replanting mangroves but can only cover a small section of the shoreline each year and the plants take time to grow. Eventually they will be 50ft high with roots firmly anchoring the earth, he says. But that will take a decade – and, like much in Burma these days, the outcome of the project is uncertain.
参加过2010年大选的政治活动家温福成立了一个非政府机构在河边种植红树，但他们每年只能在一小片河岸种上树，而且树的成长也需要时间。他说，这些树最终会长到15米高，它们的根会牢牢地抓住泥土。但那需要十年的时间，和如今缅甸的许多事情一样，这个项目的前途充满着不确定性。
"We are hopeful," says village head O Win Thei. "We are hopeful."
“我们还有希望”，村主任台偶温说：“我们充满希望。”
from 译言-每日精品译文推荐 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/235852/245048
