Rediscovering treasures of Bamiyan

Rediscovering treasures of Bamiyan

By Alastair Leithead,
BBC News, Bamiyan

When the Buddhas of Bamiyan were carved out of the mountainside, the Roman Empire still held sway.

巴米安的大佛自山壁雕鑿而出之際，羅馬帝國仍稱霸著一方。

They towered over a rich valley in what is now central Afghanistan, where caravans of traders would stop and rest on the Silk Road as they transported goods between east and west.

佛像高高地聳立於富庶的河谷，也就是現今阿富汗的中部，在絲綢之路上的商隊，載運各式各樣的物品往返於東西方之間，都會選擇在此地佇足休息。

For centuries the two huge statues stood guard over Bamiyan.

兩尊立著的巨大佛像，幾世紀以來，一直守護著巴米安。

But in 2001, just months before they were forced from power, the Taleban dynamited what they considered un-Islamic representations of the human form.

但2001年，就在塔利班被推翻的幾個月前，佛像就因人形塑像違反伊斯蘭教義而被塔利班以炸藥炸毀。

Today all that remains are the recesses where they stood, and the labyrinth of fragile caves surrounding them.

之前佛像佇立著的地方已空蕩蕩的，只剩下迷宮般脆弱的石窟依舊環伺。

Iconic art

Today there isn't even a paved road connecting the valley to Kabul, but yet inside the caves are a reminder of Bamiyan's past wealth and glory and a new claim to fame that could put the province back on the map.

雖然Kabul和這片河谷之間至今依舊沒一條鋪設完備的道路，但石窟的內部還是不斷的喚起世人對昔日巴米安富裕輝煌的記憶，而且最近大出風頭的發現讓這個省份又再度聲明大噪。

Inside those caves the steep, narrow steps are crumbling, there are cracks in the mud tunnels carved into the mountainside, and still visible high in the echoing chambers are pieces of Buddhist iconic art which are now thought to be the oldest oil paintings in the world.

石窟內部陡峭狹窄的臺階正逐漸在崩壞，鑿進山壁的泥道也出現許多裂縫，會產生回音的內部空間的高處依稀可見一幅幅佛像，這些作品目前被認為是世上最早的油畫。



Japanese, European and American scientists restoring the cave murals dating back to around 650AD, discovered oil was used in the paint.

前來修復這座擁有公元650年壁畫的石窟的日本、歐洲及美國科學家們，發現當時壁畫所使用的顏料中還參入了油。

Yoko Taniguchi, one of the Japanese experts working on the caves, told reporters this is the earliest known use of this technique in the history of art.

其中一位在石窟裡工作的日本專家Yoko Taniguchi告訴記者們這在藝術史上，是目前已知最早使用這種技術的。

She said it was previously thought the technique originated in Europe during the Renaissance, eight centuries later.

她說，之前普遍都認為這樣的技術是起源於八個世紀後的歐洲文藝復興時期。

But wandering through the Buddhist temples carved out of the rock, there is little left of the murals destroyed in the last 30 years of war after surviving for centuries.

但是漫步穿梭在石刻的佛寺之中，你會發現經歷了漫長幾個世紀的壁畫，在最近30年間的戰爭中已遭毀壞並且所剩無幾。

A tourist guidebook to Afghanistan written in the 1960s and 70s by Nancy Dupree, a famous traveller who dedicated much of her life to the country, gave an account of the artwork as it was then.

著名的旅行家Nancy Dupree幾乎將她的一生全部奉獻給阿富汗，她在1960年與1970年間寫了一部阿富汗旅遊指南，裡頭有對這些藝術品的描述。

Fragments

"The rest of the hall is elaborately decorated in a varied palette of burnt sienna, green, lapis lazuli blue, and yellow ochre depicting flowers, trees, stylised floral sprays, cornucopias and figures of kneeling worshipers," she wrote.

她寫道: "走廊其餘的部份到處都有精巧的裝飾，滿是用褐色、綠色、天青石藍、黃土色等各種顏色來描繪的花朵，樹木，植物花葉飾物，各種富饒的象徵以及跪拜著的信徒畫像，"

"A series of Buddhas dressed in sombre-hued maroon robes and framed with aureoles against an azure background walk on lotus pads set among flowers."

"一整排身穿暗淡褐紫紅袍的佛像，在美麗的蔚藍色襯托下，頭部頂著光環行走在花叢間的蓮葉上。"

There's little evidence of this today apart from a few scraps of colour and detail here and there, but there are isolated caves higher up the mountain, impossible to get to without a rope, where some of the best examples still survive.

然而現在在那裡，除了散佈在各處的極少部份和顏色之外，我們幾乎完全看不出來，但是在更高處的山壁上一定有其它隔絕且只能以繩索才能到得了的洞窟，在那裡一定倖存著絕佳的像那樣的作品。

A combination of the vibration from artillery shells, the Taleban chiselling away the depictions of faces and hands, and looting put paid to most of the paintings.

砲彈產生的震動、再加上塔利班鑿去了佛像的臉和手，還有偷盜等摧毀了大部份的畫。

But there are enough fragments left to give a hint of what it must have been like.

幸好留下的碎片足夠讓我們確定它原先的樣子。

The views from the caves looking out over the valley are stunning and there is another twist to the story of the Buddhas of Bamiyan.

從石窟朝河谷望去的景色真是美極了，而且關於巴米安佛像的故事還有一個意外的轉折。

A Buddhist pilgrim wrote around the time the paintings were finished in the mid seventh century of the amazing statues - but he described three.

一位佛教徒曾於七世紀中葉當這些繪畫已臻完工時前來朝聖，他寫下了這些驚人的佛像 - 但是他說的佛像卻有三座。

According to his account, the third reclining Buddha was a 1,000 feet long and lay on the valley floor.

根據他的描述，第三座是臥佛，全長1000呎，而且被平放在河床上。

It would be remarkable if it was buried beneath the river sediment and two teams of archaeologists, one from France another from Japan, are in a race to find it.

如果真被埋在河流的沉積物下，那會是多麼的驚人。因此兩組分別來自法國與日本的考古學家團隊都搶著要先找到它。

It sounds like an Indiana Jones film, but there have been many interesting archaeological discoveries in Bamiyan and this beautiful valley may not yet have revealed all its secrets.

雖然聽起來猶如印第安那瓊斯電影中的情節，但是巴米安已經有這麼多有趣的考古發現，而她美麗的河谷必定還存在著更多的秘密等待世人去發掘。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7508917.stm

Published: 2008/07/17 09:38:53 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

The fabled city of Timbuktu

The fabled city of Timbuktu
By Hamilton Wende
BBC News, Mali


Timbuktu is a name that conjures up ideas of the unattainable or magical and, as Hamilton Wende discovers, it still remains relatively inaccessible even in today's world of quick and easy travel.

Timbuktu (廷巴克圖)這個名字，它會讓你腦中浮現一種不可能的或者充滿神秘的想法，Hamilton Wende發現，即使像時下的旅行是這麼的快捷與簡易，它依舊相對是那麼的難以到達。

Our journey began badly. Only a few hundred yards from our hotel in Bamako, the capital of Mali, I suddenly noticed that our driver Ibrahim looked curiously relaxed as we waited at an intersection.

我們這趟旅程一開始就不怎麼順利。離我們在馬利首都Bamako的旅館才不過幾百碼遠，我突然注意到我們的駕駛Ibrahim看起來格外懶散，當時我們正停在十字路口。

Then, horrified, I realised he was snoring loudly with his head drooped over the steering wheel.

接著，令我感到害怕的是，我看到他的頭在方向盤上垂了下來，而且正大聲的在打鼾。

He had been up all night partying, so I insisted on driving.

他徹夜狂歡，因此我堅持不讓他開車。

As our convoy headed north into the semi-desert, he slept like a baby in the passenger seat for four hours.

當護送我們的車隊緩緩駛進北方的半沙漠地帶時，他像個嬰兒一樣在乘客座上熟睡了四個鐘頭。

It was only when we stopped for lunch under an acacia tree that he finally awoke.

只有當我們停下來在阿拉伯橡膠樹下享用午餐時，他終於醒了。

In order to help him along, Moussa, another driver, pulled out a goatskin bag containing an ornate teapot that looked like something out of the Arabian Nights and a small gas burner.

我們另一位駕駛Moussa為了幫他，從一個山羊皮袋裡拖出一個像天方夜譚裡面裝飾華美的茶壺，和一個小瓦斯爐。

"Chai," he said to me with a cigarette clenched in his teeth, as he squatted in the hot sand to brew some mint tea.

他蹲在熾熱的沙地上煮著些薄荷茶，"茶，"他嘴裡咬著雪茄對我說。

"This could take a while," one of my travelling companions muttered.

"這又要一陣子了，"我的旅伴抱怨著。

"Traditionally, they have to drink three cups. The first is bitter like death, the second bitter-sweet like life and the third sweet like love."

"他們習慣要喝上三杯。第一杯苦澀得有如死亡，第二杯甘甘甜甜猶如人生，而第三杯則像愛情一樣甜蜜。"

Moussa and Ibrahim, however, limited themselves to a single cup and we got back onto the road.

Moussa和Ibrahim還是很克制的只喝了一杯之後，我們就再度上路了。

Changing colours

The heat shimmered off the white sand as we drove, while the empty sky was bleached almost white by the sun. And baobab trees stood stark against the horizon.

我們行駛間，氤氳的熱氣在白色的沙上閃動翻騰，而萬里無雲的天空在耀眼的陽光下呈現白茫茫一片。幾株猴麵包樹孤零零的站在地平線上。


The journey proved hard and exhausting, and we all wondered what lay ahead.

這趟旅程是那麼的艱難、讓人精疲力竭，我們都很想知道究竟還會發生什麼事。

The landscape and towering sky were at first drab but then started to change with the alchemy of light in Africa, layered with subtle tones of green, brown, yellow, blue, silver and white.

起先，一路上的景緻與高聳的天空都是單調的黃褐色，接著便開始隨非洲光源的神奇力量而起了變化，出現了微妙的綠色、棕色、黃色、藍色、銀色與白色色調的漸層。

That range of colours was interrupted suddenly by people in the villages who were wearing bright clothes of emerald, canary and azure.

突然間，村落裡穿著著翠綠色、淡黃色、蔚藍色鮮麗服裝的村人將這色系全部打亂。

Two Tuareg men in traditional turbans zoomed by on motorbikes.

兩名纏著傳統頭巾的圖瓦雷克男子騎在摩托車上疾駛而過。(圖瓦雷克族是一支主要分佈於非洲撒哈拉沙漠週邊地帶的遊牧民族)

The houses were almost all of mud, and the mosques with their green shuttered archways had minarets of mud and logs.

這裡的房舍幾乎全是用泥土蓋成的，就連他們綠色拱道遮蓋的清真寺的尖塔也是用泥土和木頭所搭建。

Colourfully painted donkey carts and buses piled impossibly high with luggage careened down the road in both directions.

由驢子拉的運貨車被漆成五顏六色，上頭行李堆的高得離譜的公車，在雙向道路上搖搖晃晃的行駛。

Hours passed. Ibrahim remained alert.

幾個小時過去了。Ibrahim依舊保持警戒。

Finally, as dusk fell, we came to the town of Mopti on the bend of the Niger river.

最後，當黃昏已至，我們來到位在尼日河彎延處的Mopti鎮。

Long pirogues were poled across the pink and silver currents of the river at sunset, frogs called loudly from the banks and huge bats swirled overhead in the last of the light.

用篙撐著的長長獨木舟橫越在河面上，落日將粼粼流動的河水染上一層粉紅色的銀光，河岸邊的青蛙大聲的鳴叫，巨大的蝙蝠在天空僅存的微光中盤旋著。

The heat was oppressive and we still had 250 miles to go the next day.

高溫令人難以忍受，而我們明天仍要趕250哩的路。

Ancient human landscape

We left shortly after dawn.

天剛破曉不久，我們隨即動身。

North of Mopti, the landscape grew harder and more bleak. There were hardly any villages now.

Mopti北方的景象越來越嚴峻且荒涼。現在那裡幾乎沒有任何的村落了。

But, as remote and forbidding as it is, this is an ancient human landscape, settled and travelled across for millennia.

但是，即使是這樣的偏遠與險惡，這片古老的人文景觀，幾千年來不斷的有人在上頭屯墾與行走。

For well over a thousand years, camel caravans have traversed the dry sands carrying salt, gold and slaves.

多少駱駝商隊在千年之間不斷地往返於這片乾燥的沙地上，載運著鹽、黃金，還有奴隸。

Finally, after another eight hours of driving, we came to the Niger river again. We crossed by ferry and drove the last few miles to our destination.

終於，再八個小時的車程後，我們又來到尼日河。我們搭乘渡輪橫渡後，再行駛最後的幾哩路終於來到我們的目的地。

"Welcome to Timbuktu. The city of 333 saints," read a battered sign along the road.

路旁斑駁的指示牌標註著"歡迎來到Timbuktu(廷巴克圖)。這座有著333位聖者的城市。"

Soon a low mud gateway appeared in the fading light. It was a disappointing entrance to the fabled city.

很快的，一道低矮的泥砌通道出現在昏暗的光線中。這道通往寓言中城市的入口真讓人失望。

A few yards on, goats browsed among piles of garbage. We passed through a few streets with houses of mud and cracked concrete.

羊隻在幾碼之外的垃圾堆中吃著草。我們越過幾條街，一旁的房子都是以泥土和水泥塊砌成。

There was little to see. The marketplace was filthy and rundown, the people brusque or insisting that we buy their overpriced souvenirs. The heat was near unbearable.

沒什麼值得看的。市場裡相當的骯髒與殘破，當地人唐突或堅持要我們買他們定價過高的紀念品。高溫簡直讓人難以忍受。

There was, it seemed, not much left of the mystic grandeur of Timbuktu.

看來，Timbuktu的神秘顯赫已所剩無幾。

We were exhausted and disappointed. Moussa and Ibrahim brewed more tea on the steps of our hotel.

我們不但精疲力竭而且還感到失望。Moussa和Ibrahim在我們旅館的臺階上煮了更多的茶。

Centre of learning

The next morning we saw the ancient Djingareyber mosque.

次日早晨，我們參觀了古老的Djingareyber清真寺。(提姆布克圖的三大清真寺，Djingareyber、Sankore、Sidi Yahia)

As non-Muslims, we could not enter but inside is an ancient door which, legend says, if it is ever opened, it will signal the end of the world.

由於我們都不是穆斯林，因此無法進入參觀，但是裡頭有扇古老的大門，傳說一旦開啟後世界末日隨即來臨。

A few crowded sandy lanes away is the ancient mud-walled Sankore mosque, the site of Africa's first university.

幾條滿是沙土擁擠的巷弄之外，是一座古老的、泥砌牆圍繞的清真寺Sankore，這裡同時也是非洲的第一所大學。

Timbuktu was once a centre of great learning and there are an estimated 700,000 manuscripts dating back to the 9th Century in its libraries.

Timbuktu曾是昔日的學術中心，它的圖書館裡估計約有七十萬份手稿，而且定年都是在九世紀以前。

Many have been damaged by water, sand and termites, but all of them offer a gateway to a past that has been almost forgotten.

雖然許多都已被水、沙塵與白蟻所毀壞，但這些全都提供了一個幾乎已被世人遺忘、通往過去的入口。

The thousands of leather-bound volumes are filled with beautiful calligraphy, ancient medical secrets and even maps of the stars.

上千捲以皮革裝訂的卷宗，裡面呈載了許多美麗的書法，古老醫術的奧秘，甚至還有星圖。

As we walked the streets of the town, I began to see something different about it, that its glory may be gone but its wealth still exists.

當我們信步在小鎮的街頭，我開始以不同的角度來看待她，那些昔日的榮景雖已不復存在，但它的財富卻是永存的。

What I had learned was that the road to Timbuktu is a journey not only into geography but also into the realm of memory and imagination.

我已經了解到通往Timbuktu的道路，不僅只是趟地理環境的旅程，同樣也是一趟進入過往記憶與想像力領域的旅程。

The old saying "from here to Timbuktu" might not mean what it used to, but I am glad that I have been there.

古老的諺語說"離開這裡，到廷巴克圖去"，指的也許是它的過往，但是我很高興我來過了。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7488149.stm

Published: 2008/07/04 10:22:04 GMT

© BBC MMVIII
※"from here to Timbuktu"，是先知鼓勵穆斯林追求知識與真理，即使是再遙遠的地方，都應該懷著一顆崇敬的心，每天都渴望到那裡去追求人生的意義與真諦。
而西非諺語說：「鹽來自北方，黃金來自南方，阿拉的教導和智慧的寶藏來自廷巴克圖。」就能知道當時Timbuktu在學術文化上的地位是多麼的重要。

The Balkans' bakers keep on rolling

The Balkans' bakers keep on rolling

By Nick Thorpe
BBC News, Kosovo

Almost all the bakers of the old Yugoslavia were Albanians, from one small corner of Kosovo. They have lived through war and upheaval but the toughest test for some came in February this year when Kosovo broke away from Serbia.

幾乎前南斯拉夫所有的麵包師傅都是來自科索沃的阿爾巴尼亞人。他們歷經戰火和動亂，但對一些人來說最艱巨的試煉莫過於今年的二月，科索沃自塞爾維亞獨立。

The first poppies of summer are blood scarlet on the shores of the White Drim river as we drive out of Prizren, up onto the slopes of Mount Pashtrik.

當我們駛離Prizren市沿著Pashtrik山的山坡向上爬時，今年夏天第一批鮮紅血色的罌粟花在White Drim河岸邊正盛開著。

The lunchtime bread in the largest village, Djonaj, is white and so fresh it melts like chocolate in your mouth.

午餐時間在最大的村莊Djonaj所享用的麵包，又白又新鮮，像巧克力一樣入口即融。

Dine Rexhbecaj is 50 and home for a short break to see his family. He has eight children, six girls and two boys. They live here while he works in distant Zagreb, in Croatia, seven or eight months of the year.

50歲的Dine Rexhbecaj利用短短的休假期間回來探視家人。他有八個小孩，其中六個是女孩，兩個是男孩。他們住在這裡，而他一年當中有六到八個月的時間是在離這裡很遠的克羅埃西亞的Zagreb這個地方工作。

"I like my work," he said. "But I would hope for something better for my children. Now that Kosovo is independent, I hope they can find work here and not travel abroad."

"我喜歡我的工作，"他說。"但我還是希望我的孩子們能有更好的選擇。現在科索沃已經獨立了，我希望他們能在這裡找到工作而不須要再離鄉背井到國外去了。"

'Bread money'

The village streets bustle with women and children on their way home from school. Four little girls, each dressed in a different shade of pink, giggle by.

村裡攜來攘往的街道上都是女人和下課返家的小孩。四個身著粉紅色深淺不一的小女孩，咯咯地笑著從我們旁邊經過。

In a graveyard beside the road, children play ball, and brown cows graze among red and black Albanian flags.

小孩子在路旁的一座墓園裡打球，紅黑色的阿爾巴尼亞旗幟間，可以看到有棕色的母牛在低頭吃著草。

Houses are being repaired with money sent from abroad, "bread money" one might call it. It goes towards new bathrooms in the traditional extended-family compounds, and to repair the tall outside walls and daunting gateways.

修繕家園所需的金錢都寄自國外，也可以稱之為麵包錢。這些錢幫助這些傳統大宅院蓋了新的浴室，修補高聳的外牆和令人望而生畏的大門。

This is a male-dominated society but the men are gone, scattered to the four corners of the Balkans, to Serbia and Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia.

這是個以男人為主的社會，但是現在男人都出外去，分散在巴爾幹半島的四個地區，塞爾維亞、克羅埃西亞、波士尼亞和斯洛維尼亞。

Working a baker's dozen of hours each day, they roll out the much sought after burek - spinach or cheese, potato or meat-filled pies - round breads and crescent-moon-shaped rolls, star-scattered with sesame seeds.

麵包師父每天十幾個小時的工作中，他們做出許許多多極受歡迎的布雷卡 – 一種有菠菜或起司，馬鈴薯或肉餡的派 - 圓麵包和新月型麵包捲，佈滿了芝麻。

And when they finish their long shifts, the fathers can only dream of the children growing up without them.

長長的工作時間結束後，這些做父親的只能想著成長中沒有自己陪伴的孩子。

"I started work as a baker in Montenegro when I was 13," Alush Maloku tells me in Planeja, a village at the end of a mountain road, hunched against the Albanian border.

"我13歲的時候在蒙特內格羅開始學習當麵包師傅，"Planeja村的Alush Maloku告訴我，這個村子在山路的盡頭，推進到阿爾巴尼亞的邊界。

"Then I came home and worked as a shepherd for 12 years."

"接著我回家當了12年的牧羊人。"

Then he went back into baking, this time in western Serbia. All these places were part of one country, then Yugoslavia.

接著他又再回去烤麵包，這次則是到了西塞爾維亞。所有地方都是屬於前南斯拉夫這個國家。

In 1979 when his father died, he came home to run the village shop. As the eldest son, he had to care for his family.

1979年他的父親過逝，他回家經營開設在村子裡的店舖。身為長子，他必須照顧他的家庭。

Trade map

We are sitting barefoot, cross-legged on a rug on his porch, looking across the valley at the ruins of his old house.

我們光著腳盤腿坐在他家陽台的地毯上，望著位於河谷另一頭他的老家。

American B52 bombers blasted the Serbs into submission here in 1999 after the Albanian villagers had been driven out. The Serbian army, living in quarters nearby, sustained some of its heaviest losses in the air raids.

在阿爾巴尼亞村民被驅逐之後，美國B52轟炸機的轟擊迫使塞爾維亞在1999年投降。塞爾維亞軍隊，特別是在附近的幾個軍營，在空襲遭受了幾次最嚴重的損失。

Unexploded bombs still lie buried deep in the earth. Alush said he knows of five people from a neighbouring village who have lost limbs as they stumbled across war litter.

好些未爆彈仍深埋在土裡。Alush說他知道鄰村有五個人都是因為不小心碰到這些戰爭中投下的未爆彈而失去了手或腳。

"We paid a high price for liberation," he says.

"我們為了自由付了極大的代價，"他說。

"Why do all the men here become bakers?" I ask 79-year-old Azem Collaku from the village of Zym.

"為什麼這裡的男人都會成為麵包師傅? "我問一位來自Zym村79歲的Azem Collaku。

He rolls out a mental map of Kosovo, divided by traditional trades.

他攤開了一份被傳統貿易劃分開來的科索沃心智地圖。

The bakers from the Harsi i Thata - the dry hearth - so called because of its paucity of water. The builders from a certain valley. The farmers from the flat, fertile lands between Prizren and Djakova.

麵包師傅來自Harsi i Thata也就是乾燥的爐灶之意，源自於當地缺乏水資源。建築工人來自某個山谷。農夫則是來自Prizren與Djakova間平坦肥沃的土地。

Azem worked for 40 years in the family bakery in northern Kosovo, in the ethnically-mixed town of Mitrovica. In 1999, when the Nato bombing started, the hostility of the local Serbs to the Albanians increased.

Azem在科索沃北邊自家的麵包店工作了40年，那是一個有著多元化民族的城市Mitrovica。當1999年北約轟炸開始時，當地塞爾維亞人對阿爾巴尼亞人的敵意便開始增加。

Like all the Albanians here, he tells the history of the Balkans in bakers' terms.

像這裡所有阿爾巴尼亞人一樣，他也用麵包師傅的遣辭用語來講述巴爾幹的歷史。

"We knew we were in trouble when the Serbs stopped delivering our flour," said Azem.

"當塞爾維亞人不再運麵粉過來時，我們就知道我們有麻煩了，"Azem說。

So they had to stop baking.

因此他們不得不停止烤麵包。

"The strange thing was, the day we fled the city, the flour we had paid for weeks before actually arrived. But by then it was too dangerous to stay," he added.

"奇怪的是當我們開始逃離這城的那一天，我們幾個星期前所給付的麵粉卻在這時候送到了。但是那時候情勢太危險了誰也不敢留下來，"他又說道。

Radical youths

His son Afrim worked in the Serbian capital Belgrade until January this year. Then Serb refugees from Kosovo smashed the windows of the bakery in a spate of anger, on the eve of Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia.

他的兒子Afrim在塞爾維亞首都貝爾格勒工作直到今年的一月。那時候從科索沃來的塞爾維亞難民在盛怒下砸碎了麵包店的窗戶，就在科索沃宣佈自塞爾維亞獨立的前夕。

"They didn't like the idea that we could come to work in their country, while they couldn't return to Kosovo," said Afrim, almost sympathetically.

"他們不喜歡我們能到他們國家工作，而他們卻無法回到科索沃這種想法，"Afrim幾乎是充滿同情地說著。

But he is hopeful the bakery will soon re-open after the defeat of Serb nationalists in last weekend's elections.

但自上星期的選舉中塞爾維亞主張民族主義的激進黨遭受挫敗後，他對麵包店將重新開張充滿了希望。

Only a month ago, radical youths in Sombor, in northern Serbia, handed out free bread outside an Albanian-run bakery to try to drive it out of business.

只是在一個月前，Sombor市的激進青少年在一間阿爾巴尼亞人所經營的麵包店前發送免費的麵包企圖迫使它停業。

And like-minded youths posted a film clip of themselves on the video sharing website YouTube setting fire to another Albanian bakery.

而理念相同的青少年則拍下他們對另一間阿爾巴尼亞人所經營的麵包店縱火，並將影片放上YouTube。

In the Kosovan capital Pristina, Ramadan and Lerim from the village of Djonaj load logs into their wood-burning ovens, and mix flour and water and great cakes of yeast from Serbia into a stainless-steel drum.

在科索沃首都Pristina，來自Djonaj村的Ramadan與Lerim將木頭放進燒著柴火的灶裡，並將麵粉、水與好幾大塊酵母加進一個不銹鋼圓筒裡。

"There is no better job than this," Ramadan explains. "You can sleep soundly knowing that the money you spend you earned with your own sweat."

"沒有比這更好的工作了，"Ramadan跟我們解釋。"知道自己所花用及所賺的錢是靠著自己的汗水而來的，你可以安然的熟睡。"

He blows out the candles, by the light of which he kneaded the new loaves. Only the early morning sunshine breaks through the windows here.

靠著燭光他揉捏出一條又一條新做的麵包，現在他將蠟燭吹熄。只剩下透過窗戶照射進來的微微曙光。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7404612.stm

Published: 2008/05/17 11:07:05 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

A Basque encounter with pirates

A Basque encounter with pirates

By Nick Rankin
BBC, Spain

When a Spanish fishing boat, with its cargo and crew, was seized off the Horn of Africa recently, it prompted Madrid to call for the extradition of the hijackers and for international action against piracy.

最近，一艘西班牙籍的漁船，連同貨物與船員，在離非洲之角不遠處的海上遭到挾持，立刻引起馬德里當局要求引渡這些強盜並請求國際對海盜行為採取行動。

For centuries, bold Basque sailors have ventured out on the seas that crash on their homeland in the Bay of Biscay.

幾個世紀以來，勇敢的巴斯克水手就已經航行到比斯開灣的外海去冒險，比斯開灣洶湧的海浪不斷地拍擊他們家鄉的土地。


Basques, chasing whale and cod, were probably the first Europeans to reach North America.

追捕鯨魚與鱈魚的巴斯克人很有可能是最早抵達北美的歐洲人。

The Portuguese, Ferdinand Magellan, is credited with being the first man to sail around the world, but actually he died in the Philippines and it was a Basque, Juan Elkano from Getaria, who brought his ship home.

葡萄牙人，費迪南德麥哲倫被譽為首位環球航行的航海家，但事實上他在菲律賓時身亡，把他的船開回家的則是一位來自Getaria的巴斯克人Juan Elkano。

So when a Basque-owned tuna fishing boat called Playa de Bakio was seized off Somalia, with five Basque among its crew, the story was a big one in the Basque country. The press were keen to find out all about the kidnapped fishermen and their anxious relatives. Pictures were vital.

因此，當這艘名為Playa de Bakio的巴斯克捕鮪魚船以及船員中有五名巴斯克人，在離索馬利亞不遠的海上遭到挾持時，隨即成為巴斯克地區的頭條大新聞。記者們莫不努力的想找出任何與被綁架的漁夫以及他們焦急的親屬有關的大小事物。照片更是不可少。

"This is gold dust," said my friend Vincent, the Reuters photographer, tapping a good image of the fishing boat in the newspapers, next to personal ones of the crew.

"這實在是太難了，" 我的朋友Vincent，同時也是路透社的攝影師，輕輕敲著報紙上一張漁船清晰的影像，對著身旁的一位組員這樣說。

"I wonder where they got those."

"我懷疑他們是從哪兒弄來的。"

Ransom

In the bad old days, foot-in-the-door journalists used to steal framed family photographs off the mantel, but nowadays a second with a digital camera is all a good snapper needs.

過往艱困的歲月裡，得寸進尺的記者常竊取擺在壁爐架上鑲了框的家庭照，而如今一個好的攝影師只需用數位相機拍下那一瞬間。


The day before Vincent had been photographing the daughter of one of the kidnapped sailors and he still had her phone number. I called her mobile to offer a crumb of reassurance.

在Vincent為到其中一位被綁架船員的女兒拍照的前一天，他還留有她的電話號碼。我打行動電話給她，希望能使她稍為安心。

I told her I had made a BBC radio programme about Somali pirates and had learned they did not usually harm foreign captives. All they wanted was the ransom money.

我告訴她我曾製做過一個關於索馬利海盜的廣播節目，而且從中得知他們不常傷害外國俘虜。他們要的只是贖金。

She told me the company was prepared to pay and I said that in that case her dad would soon be back safe. And indeed, after a million or so euros changed hands, the crew were freed.

她告訴我船公司已經準備付贖金，於是我說如果是那樣，那麼她的父親很快就會平安歸來。果不其然，在大約一百萬歐元到手後，船員就被釋放了。

A Basque newspaper interviewed Andrew Mwangura, the sensitive man who runs a charity that helps distressed African seafarers.

一間巴斯克的報社採訪了Andrew Mwangura，這個感情細膩的男人辦了一個慈善的團體，專門幫助那些痛苦的非洲船員。

"Hello, Andrew!" I said out loud reading the paper because I had spent time with him in Mombasa.

"嗨! Andrew! "正在看報紙的我大聲的喊了出來，因為我跟他在Mombasa(孟巴薩，肯亞第一大港)一起待了一段時間。

Andrew Mwangura explained that Somali piracy was a rational economic activity in a lawless country. There was no government to regulate the fishing grounds in the Indian ocean off Somalia.

Andrew Mwangura解釋說，索馬利人的海盜行為在這個無法可管的國度裡是種合理的經濟行為。而且沒有一個政府在離索馬利亞不遠的印度洋明定漁場。

The hijacked Playa de Bakio may have been licensed to fish for tuna, but scores of other European and Asian fishing boats trawl illicitly in Somali waters, running big risks for high returns.

被挾持的Playa de Bakio或許有補鮪魚的執照，但是大多數歐洲及亞洲的漁船，為了高報酬而甘冒極大的風險，在索馬利人的海域進行非法的拖網捕漁。

Mwangura estimated that this pirate fishing off Somalia is worth over £50 million a year. And so the Somali pirates in their turn levy a kind of privatised tax or toll on any foreign vessels they can seize, claiming territorial rights.

Mwangura估計在索馬利亞近海這種掠奪式的捕漁，一年價值超過五千萬以上。因此現在索馬利海盜向任何一艘他們有能力挾持的外國船支強行徵稅或通行費，以示他們的領海權。

Civil War horror

A few days later, in the cemetery at Gernika, I ran into my own personal pirate.

幾天後在Gernika的一座墓園裡，我也遇到了一個海盜。

Gernika is a place whose history has been fought over. In 1937, during the Spanish civil war, the town of Gernika was burned down. There were two different stories about what happened.

Gernika這地方的歷史向來是爭論不休的。1973年，西班牙的內戰時期，Gernika城鎮是一片焦土。而對於事情的發生則存在兩個不同的版本。


The Spanish victors of the civil war claimed that the communist citizens of Gernika blew up and burned their own town. The Basques said their town was fire-bombed by foreign aeroplanes as was indeed the case.

西班牙的內戰勝利者宣稱支持共產主義的Gernika居民炸毀並焚燒自己的城市。巴斯克人則說他們自己的城市被外國飛機轟炸才是實情。

I wrote a book about George Steer, the Times journalist, whose truthful report of the Nazi bombing inspired Pablo Picasso to paint his famous, black and white picture, Guernica.

我為時代雜誌的記者George Steer寫過一本書，他誠實的報導了納粹的轟炸驅使畢卡索繪製了他著名的黑白作畫，Guernica。

The Basques have now put up a bust of this reporter, George Steer, in the town - and every year on the anniversary I accompany his son, who lays flowers at the tomb of the dead.

巴斯克人於是為這位記者George Steer在城裡立了一尊半身像 - 每個週年紀念日，我都會陪著他的兒子到死者的墓前獻花。

After this year's ceremony, I was told that someone who had written in Basque about George Steer wanted to meet me.

今年的典禮結束後，有個以巴斯克文為George Steer寫書的人說要來見我。

Intellectual pirates

He was my age, with the rough scruffy look that is the badge of authenticity among left-wing, Basque nationalists.

他跟我一樣年紀，看起來粗獷、不修邊幅，這在左派巴斯克民族主義者中是貨真價實的標誌。

"Your book made me cry," he said, "so I copied it."

"你的書讓我感動得哭了，" 他說，"所以我就拿來抄襲了。"

He handed me a slim volume for young people. The cover was instantly familiar, because it was the same as my own.

他遞給我一本薄薄的少年讀物。封面一看就眼熟，因為跟我的書一模一樣。

I still did not quite grasp that someone had picked my pocket and was now presenting me with my own wallet as a gift.

我仍舊不清楚是誰先搜括了我的口袋，現在才將我的皮夾當成禮物送給我。

Only later did I find all the pictures were lifted, without credit or permission, and realise that the publishers were the same intellectual pirates from Navarra who had also ripped off G L Steer's original Spanish civil war book and copyrighted it themselves.

一直到我發現所有的照片未經許可的被剽竊之後，才知道Navarra這些出版商全都是些盜版商，他們同時也剽竊了G L Steer的原著西班牙內戰這本書並逕自將版權歸於他們。

It is territoriality again, anything about Basques they feel belongs to them.

又是所謂的領土權，他們認為任何與巴斯克人有關的東西都是屬於他們的。

Although they flout international laws of ownership, the Somali pirate and the Basque publisher both claim their action is somehow in the national interest. As Dr Johnson said: "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

儘管他藐視所有權之類的國際法規，索馬利海盜與巴斯克的出版商都宣稱自己的行為是關乎國家利益。這就如同Johnson博士所說:"愛國主義是惡棍的最後避難所"。

Madrid called for the hijackers of their trawler to be extradited to Spain and for international action against piracy.

馬德里當局要求引渡這些挾持他們拖網漁船的強盜，而且請求國際對海盜行為採取行動。

I won't hold my breath waiting for law and order to reach Somalia. But the Basque country is in Europe where intellectual property rights are more protected.

我不敢期待等到法律與秩序降臨索馬利亞。但巴斯克地區所在的歐洲可是有更多對智慧財產權的保障。

I am minded to go fishing for trouble, with a heavyweight copyright lawyer.

我倒是有意帶個著作權法權威的律師，悠悠哉哉的去找麻煩。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7392623.stm

Published: 2008/05/10 13:11:40 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Anti-French fury in the Comoros Islands

Anti-French fury in the Comoros Islands

After African Union troops were sent to remove the president of one of the Comoros Islands from power, a diplomatic crisis swiftly followed when Colonel Mohamed Bacar escaped, apparently with French assistance. Jonny Hogg watched events unfold on the ground.

從非盟派遣的部隊將葛摩其中一座島嶼的總統去除職權後，一場外交危機正接踵而至，顯然地在法國的協助下，Mohamed Bacar上校得已脫逃。Jonny Hogg在現場關注事件的發展。

My footsteps were the only sound and even they seemed muted in the damp, heavy darkness of a tropical night.

儘管是在潮溼、漆黑的熱帶夜晚，我輕柔的腳步聲還是劃破了四周的寧靜。

I was already regretting my decision to walk to the hotel to send an e-mail. It was too silent for a capital city.

我對步行到旅館發電子郵件的決定已感到後悔。這根本不是首都該有的寂靜。

Suddenly a figure emerged out of the shadows. I started and muttered the traditional greeting, "salaama".

突然在幽暗中出現了一個身影。我嚇了一跳，隨即低聲含糊的說了"salaama"，這是他們傳統的問候語。

"Salaama," came the reply in the darkness. I walked on but the figure was now turning, accosting me, seemingly angry.

"Salaama，"黑暗中傳來了回應。我繼續向前行，但那人影轉向我而且似乎在生氣。

A few minutes later I was a chastened man. Abdul - for that was his name - was not impressed that I had walked past him in the middle of the night without at least stopping to pass the time.

幾分鐘後，我成了個接受管束的人。Abdul – 這是他的名字 – 他對我在深夜裡從他身旁走過也不停下來寒暄一下感到非常不滿意。

I mumbled an apology. My nocturnal niceties evidently were not up to scratch. Abdul, having ticked me off, gave me a big smile.

我咕噥著說了聲報抱歉。顯然我的夜間禮節還未達到標準。責備我的Abdul給了我一個可掬的笑容。

"Perhaps we shall meet tomorrow when you are less stressed."

"等明天你不那麼緊張了，也許我們該見個面。"

As I walked on, I was grinning in the dark.

我在黑暗中露出了微笑，繼續往前走。

The Comoros - or the Islands of the Moon - lie in a crescent shape in the Indian Ocean, north of Madagascar.

葛摩或稱月之島，座落在馬達加斯加以北的印度洋上，呈現出一個新月形狀。

It is a volcanic archipelago and Grande Comore, the largest island, is dominated by the hulk of Karthala, one of the world's most active volcanoes.

她是一個火山群島，其中最大的島嶼稱為大葛摩，上頭就有一座世上數一數二活動最頻繁的活火山Karthala

Since 2005 it has erupted four times. Its forested slopes are streaked with the scars of old lava floes. The electric blue of the Indian Ocean laps against the jet black volcanic rock that forms the island's shoreline.

自2005年至今就爆發了四次。森林覆蓋的山坡上留有一道道之前火山熔岩流過的痕跡。電藍色印度洋碧波萬頃，輕輕拍打著島嶼以黑玉色火山岩形成的海岸線。

To the south are the islands of Moheli and Anjouan, separated by water but part of the Union of the Comoros nonetheless.

南方隔海相望的兩座島嶼Moheli(莫愛利)與Anjouan(安樹昂)仍屬於這個葛摩聯盟的一部份。

Eruptions

The country is infused with a vertigo-inducing sense of other-worldliness.

這個國家處處充滿了那種超脫塵世而令人頭暈目眩的感覺。

Rainbows burst at crazy angles from clouds that boil and surge on Karthala's flanks.

幾道彩虹怪異傾斜自雲端翻騰直衝Karthala火山的兩側。

Large birds that circle above turn out not to be birds at all but giant bats, flapping eerily over the capital, Moroni, with slow, thoughtful wing beats.

看起來體型很大的鳥在上空盤旋，結果那非但不是鳥而是巨大的蝙蝠，怪異地舞動翅膀在首都莫羅尼的上空，緩慢、小心的飛行。

It is not just the islands' volcanoes that are prone to eruptions.

經常爆發的可不只有島上的火山。

Since gaining independence from France in 1975, this Muslim country has seen 20 coups which, if you are interested, works out at approximately one every 1.65 years.

1975年自法國獲准獨立至今，這個穆斯林國家已經發生了20次的政變，如果你有興趣的話，可以計算出大概每1.65年會發生一次。

What is so strange, however, is that the Comorians - desperately poor and with few job prospects - remain some of the most welcoming people I have ever met.

然而，非常奇怪的是葛摩人 - 窮得要死也幾乎沒什麼工作前景 – 卻仍是我所遇過最好客的人之一。

How does such political instability equate with the spiritual peace that seems to permeate the leisurely pace of life there?

這麼不穩定的政局是怎麼和看似已彌漫在悠閒的生活步調裡心靈的平和劃上等號的?

In fairness, at least three of the coups were orchestrated by the French mercenary, Bob Denard.

公平地說，至少有三次的政變是由法國傭兵Bob Denard(鮑勃‧德納得)精心策劃的。

Anti-French protests

Once more, in recent days, the Comorians have had to contemplate the possibility that they are not masters of their own political fate.

在最近幾天裡又發生了一次，葛摩人已不得不思考他們並非是掌控自己政治命運的人這種可能性。

In the space of a few hours, I saw the warmth and friendliness of a Comorian welcome turn into shaking fists and thrown stones. Anti-French protests swept the country.

幾小時前，我看到葛摩人揮舞著拳頭、丟擲石塊，而非他們向來好客的熱情與親切。反法的抗議橫掃整個國家。

Even the Comorian government said it appeared that France had been quietly helping the rebel Anjouanaise president, Mohamed Bacar.

就連葛摩政府也認為這看起來像是法國在暗中幫助反叛的安樹昂總統Mohamed Bacar。

He escaped by speedboat to the French island of Mayotte, evading 1,000 African Union and Comorian soldiers sent to remove him from power.

他乘著快艇逃離並前往法國屬地馬約特島，躲開了一千名前去免除他職權的非盟及葛摩士兵。

In the hours leading up to the invasion, people spoke of bringing Mohamed Bacar to justice for his alleged crimes.

準備入侵的幾個小時裡，人們談論著要使Mohamed Bacar因著自己可能的罪愆接受制裁。

One man said, shaking with anger: "We are ready to eat. It will not be easy to eat a whole man but we shall eat Mohamed Bacar."

其中一個人氣得全身發抖: "我們準備將Mohamed Bacar吃了，就算很不容易我們也打算把他吃了。"

Metaphorical perhaps, but so far the feast has been denied them. He is currently requesting asylum with France.

也許是隱喻，但到現在他們仍舊未能享用這套大餐。他目前正向法國要求政治庇護。

Just before the invasion, a helicopter carrying two French policemen crashed off the coast of Anjouan. The French authorities say it was surveying illegal fishing.

就在入侵前，一架搭載有兩名法國警察的直昇機墜毀在安樹昂的外海。法國當局表示當時正在調查非法補漁。

Graffiti in Moroni says: "Since when have the French ever surveyed illegal fishing?"

莫羅尼市的街頭上的塗鴉: "是什麼時候起法國曾調查非法捕漁? "

Some suspect the helicopter was there to rescue Bacar.

一些人懷疑這架直升機是要前來解救Bacar。

Ansur, a Comorian, told me that people might attack the French embassy in Moroni.

葛摩人Ansure告訴我，人們可能會攻擊法國在莫羅尼市的大使館。

He is a neat, quiet English teacher and I hardly believed him. Yet when Colonel Bacar escaped and independent but unconfirmed reports said ammunition boxes addressed to the French embassy had been found in his headquarters, Ansur was proved right.

他是個乾乾淨淨且沉默的英文老師，我簡直無法相信他的話。然而當Bacar上校成功脫逃後，再加上獨立但未經證實的報導指出在他的總部發現幾個裝有彈藥的盒子是要給法國大使館的，Ansur是對的。

Throat-slitting gestures

He too was in the crowd, baying anti-French slogans as lines of police held them back.

當警察排成好幾道人牆阻止群眾前進，他也在當中，用長長的聲調喊著反法的標語。

I was told to leave because I was white and could be mistaken as French. The same people who had welcomed me so warmly made throat-slitting gestures as they went past.

由於我是個白人而且很可能被誤以為是法國人，因此被勸離當地。那些曾熱情招待我的人們從旁經過時還做了一個割喉的手勢。

Tear gas and bullets were used to disperse the crowd but emotions remained high.

群眾被催淚瓦斯和子彈驅散，但是情緒依然高張。

The day after I left, the main hotel in Moroni was attacked after it was rumoured French nationals were hiding there.

我離開後的一天，莫羅尼市主要的旅館遭到攻擊，因為謠傳有法國人藏身在那裡。

"Time and time again the French have interfered in our country," Ansur told me with rage. "They must leave."

"法國一再的干預我們國家，"他憤怒的說。"他們非離開不可。"

I liked the Comorian people very much, their passion and their gentleness. I do not know the truth of the political intrigue that swirls around the tiny archipelago but I hope that, when these latest tremors have died down, more people will visit the Islands of the Moon.

我非常喜歡葛摩人他們的熱情與和善。我不清楚席捲整個小群島的政治陰謀背後的真相為何，但我希望在最近這些動盪逐漸平息之後，將會有更多的人造訪月之島。

They will not regret it. And perhaps if you live in the shadow of a volcano, it is not surprising if you are a bit explosive.

到此一遊的人們絕對不虛此行。或許你在火山的陰影下也會有點暴躁，這是一點也不意外。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7330498.stm

Published: 2008/04/05 11:06:34 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Fish key to reef climate survival

Fish key to reef climate survival
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent,

BBC News website

A healthy fish population could be the key to ensuring coral reefs survive the impacts of climate change, pollution, overfishing and other threats.

健康合理的魚群數量可能是確保珊瑚礁在氣候變遷、環境污染、過度捕撈及其他威脅等各種衝擊下存活的關鍵因素。

Australian scientists found that some fish act as "lawnmowers", keeping coral free of kelp and unwanted algae.

澳洲的科學家們發現一些魚類著實扮演了"除草機"的角色，使珊瑚礁得以避開巨藻以及多餘海藻的糾纏。

At a briefing to parliamentarians in Canberra, they said protected areas were rebuilding fish populations in some parts of the Great Barrier Reef.

在對坎培拉國會議員做的簡報中他們表示，在部份大堡礁的保護區域中已重建魚群數量。

Warming seas are likely to affect the reef severely within a few decades.

最可能在短短幾十年間嚴重地影響珊瑚礁的就是海洋的暖化。

Pollution is also a growing problem, particularly fertilisers that wash from agricultural land into water around the reef, stimulating the growth of plants that stifle the coral.

環境污染也是一個日益嚴重的問題，特別是由耕地上所使用的肥料被沖刷到珊瑚礁附近的水域後，刺激植物的生長進而使珊瑚窒息。

Protect and survive

The assembled experts told parliamentarians that fish able to graze on invading plants played a vital role in the health of reef ecosystems.

前來參加會議的專家告訴國會議員，能夠吃掉大批入侵植物的魚群，對珊瑚礁生態系統的健康狀態扮演了不可或缺的角色。

"The Great Barrier Reef is still a resilient system... and herbivorous fish play a critical role in that regenerative capacity, by keeping the dead coral space free of algae, so that new juvenile coral can re-establish themselves," said Professor Terry Hughes from James Cook University in Townsville.

"大堡礁仍舊是一個具有彈性及恢復力的系統，這些草食性的魚類對再生能力起了關鍵性的作用，牠們使海藻無法佔據在已死去的珊瑚上，因此新生的珊瑚可以在上頭生長，" Terry Hughes這位來自Townsville James Cook大學的教授說。

His research group has conducted experiments which involved building cages to keep fish away from sections of reef.

他的研究團隊進行了幾個實驗，就是將幾段珊瑚礁以網籠隔開阻絕魚群的進入。

They found that three times as much new coral developed in areas where the fish were present as in the caged portions.

他們發現魚群環繞的珊瑚，其生長率比被網籠隔離的珊瑚足足高出三倍之多。

Parrotfish in particular use their serrated jaws to scrape off incipient algae and plants.

特別是鸚哥魚，牠們可以用有鋸齒狀的下顎將新生的海藻及植物整個刮除。

More recently, his team has also identified the rabbit fish - a brown, bland-looking species - as a potentially important harvester of seaweed.

另外，最近他的團隊也確認到褐籃子魚(臭肚) – 這種褐色、看起來性情溫和的魚類 – 是強而有力重要的海草收割機。

"So managing fisheries can help to maintain the reef's resilience to future climate change," he said.

"因此管理漁業能有助於維持珊瑚礁在面對未來氣候變遷保有彈性及恢復力，"他說。

In recent years, Marine Protected Areas have been set up along the Great Barrier Reef in order to provide sanctuaries where fish and other marine creatures can grow and develop.

近年來，大堡礁的四周已設置了好幾個海洋保護區，為的就是提供魚類及其它的海洋生物一個得以生長及發展的環境。

Dr Peter Doherty from the Australian Institute of Marine Science presented data showing that just two years of protection brought significant increases in populations of important species such as coral trout and tropical snapper.

來自澳洲海洋科學學會的Peter Doherty博士提出的資料顯示，僅僅兩年的保育使得重要的魚類，如花斑刺鰓鮨及熱帶真鯛，在數量上都有顯著的成長。

"More importantly, more eggs are being produced... nearly three times the number of eggs per unit area being produced in the surrounding territory," he said.

"更重要地，產卵的數量也提高了....在周邊的範圍內每一區的產卵量都高出了三倍之多，"他說。

The eggs, he showed, travelled well outside the boundaries of the protected zones, potentially increasing fish populations in non-protected areas too.

他告訴大家，這些卵隨波漂流到保護區邊界以外，連帶也可能增加非保護區魚群的數量。

Burning issue

The scientists emphasised that a comprehensive approach to reef protection would include measures to lower greenhouse gas emissions and to reduce run-off from agricultural land and human settlements along the coast.

科學家強調綜觀珊瑚礁保育的方法包含了降低溫室效應的氣體排放量、減少耕地及沿海住家的排水量。

"You have got a three- to nine-fold increase in sediment loss," said Professor Iain Gordon from the governmental research organisation CSIRO.

"沉積物招致的損害已經由原來的三倍增加到九倍之多，"來自CSIRO政府研究組織的Iain Gordon教授說。

"[There are] increases in nutrients that feed into the system, nitrates and phosphates and also new kinds of chemicals in the water that is around the reef; pesticides and herbicides, they haven't been there before."

"增加的養份進到生態系統裡，硝酸鹽、磷酸鹽，還有其它幾種化學藥品滲入珊瑚礁附近的水域；殺蟲劑和除草劑，這些是從前不曾有過的。"

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from the University of Queensland noted that unusually warm water in 1998 and 2002 had bleached and damaged coral in southern parts of the Barrier Reef.

來自Queensland大學的Ove Hoegh-Guldberg教授注意到1998年及2000年異常溫暖的海水使得大堡礁南部的珊瑚白化與損害。

"The reef literally goes from being brown and healthy to being a stark white, and this happens with very small changes in temperature," he said.

"在極些微的溫度變化下，原本棕色和健康的珊瑚真的完全變白，"他說。

In the past, he said, bleaching events happened only at the warm extremes of natural cycles such as El Nino; but now the overall water temperature is higher, which makes the peaks of the cycles more harmful to coral.

他表示，在過去，珊瑚白化事件都只發生在大自然週期最溫暖的時候，像是聖嬰現象；而現在則是水溫全面的升高，這使得週期當中的高峰期對珊瑚的危害更嚴重。

"Because sea temperatures are now a lot higher, they are now reaching the thresholds at which coral get into distress, and of course it is really large scale impacts."

"由於現在海水的溫度高出許多，已經到達一個對珊瑚造成威脅的門檻，當然這是極大程度的衝擊。"

At high temperatures, coral polyps expel the algae which normally live with them in a symbiotic relationship, turning the reef white. The algae typically provide most of the polyp's nutrition; without them, the polyps eventually die.

高溫下，珊瑚蟲會驅走這些正常情況下享有共生的關係的海藻，轉而使得珊瑚變白。海藻很典型地供應珊瑚蟲大部份的養份；沒有了海藻，珊瑚蟲終究會死亡。

Even if a bleached zone contains live polyps and carries the potential to recover when waters cool, a quick invasion of kelp, or types of algae that do not live symbiotically with coral, can make the die-off permanent - hence the protective role of plant-munchng fish.

即使白化區仍有活著的珊瑚蟲，當水溫降了下來時還是有復原的機會，而巨藻或其它幾類無法與珊瑚共生的海藻的快速入侵下，致使珊瑚相繼死絕 - 由此可知這些大啖植物的魚類，牠們的保護作用。

The Great Barrier Reef is worth about six billion Australian dollars (US$5.5bn; £2.8bn) to the national economy, primarily through tourism and fishing.

大堡礁對國家經濟價值約六十億澳幣，主要是由於觀光與漁業收入。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/7306693.stm

Published: 2008/03/20 14:31:31 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Nauru seeks to regain lost fortunes

Nauru seeks to regain lost fortunes
By Nick Squires
BBC, Nauru

There are not many countries you can bicycle around before breakfast. One of the very few is Nauru, a Pacific island nation halfway between Australia and Hawaii.

世上沒幾個國家可以讓你在吃早餐前騎腳踏車繞上一整圈的。諾魯正是極少數之一，這個太平洋島國位在澳洲與夏威夷的中央。

Dubbed Pleasant Island in the 18th Century by the captain of a passing British ship - it is the world's smallest independent republic, a coral speck dwarfed by the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.

這個全世界最小的獨立共和國，在十八世紀被路過的英國船長封為快樂島，浩瀚無垠的太平洋使得這座珊瑚小點更形渺小。

On most assignments, one of the first tasks is to hire a car. On Nauru, it didn't really seem worth the bother, I opted instead for a battered mountain bike.

大部份被分派到的工作之中，首要的任務就是去租輛車。而在諾魯，根本就不值得這麼麻煩，我選擇了一輛破破的腳踏車來代步。

It took me about an hour and a half to cycle the narrow coast road, sweating profusely beneath the fierce equatorial sun. Before I knew it, I was back where I started. I had just circumnavigated the entire country.

毒辣的赤道豔陽下，我汗流浹背的在岸邊狹窄的小路上騎了一個半小時的車。回到起點時我還渾然不覺。我剛可是繞行這個國家一大圈了。

Nauru may be little, but it once enjoyed enormous wealth. In fact Nauruans were among the richest people, per capita, in the world.

諾魯雖小，在昔日卻享有巨大的財富。事實上，平均每個諾魯人都算得上是全球首富。

A quirk of nature means that their island consists of some of the world's purest phosphate - the legacy of millions of years of sea bird droppings reacting with an uplifted coral.

在大自然巧妙的安排下，他們的島嶼遍地都是全世界最精純的磷肥 - 是幾百萬年來海鳥的糞便與隆起的珊瑚起了化學作用所形成的。

Spending spree

From independence from Britain and Australia in 1968, until the 1990s, Nauru earned a fortune exporting its phosphate for fertiliser.

從1968年自英國與澳洲獨立出來，一直到1990年代，諾魯靠著輸出製作肥料的磷肥賺進了大筆財富。

The decades of mining left the once-lush interior a bleak moonscape of strange, grey coral spikes - all that is left once the phosphate-rich top soil is scooped out of the ground - but Nauruans did not care.

數十年的開採使得一度蒼翠的內陸轉而猶如荒涼的月球表面般怪異，灰色的珊瑚長而銳利 – 一旦蘊藏豐富磷肥的表土由地面上被鏟走，剩下就是這些了 – 而諾魯人卻一點也不在意。

They gave up their jobs, brought in migrants from other Pacific islands to do the hot, dirty work of digging and sat back waiting for the royalty cheques to drop into their hands.

他們把工作交由那些自其他太平洋諸島引進的民工，由這些人去做那些在酷熱中挖掘的苦差事，然後一旁涼快等著開採權利金的支票悄悄的滑入他們手中。

They then went on an extraordinary spending spree. Families who had never left the island would charter aircraft to take them on shopping expeditions in Hawaii, Fiji and Singapore.

接著他們開始揮霍無度。從來沒離開過這座島的一家子一家子的人，也會租下整架飛機載著他們遠征夏威夷、斐濟和新加坡去購物。

Sports cars were imported, despite the fact that Nauru has only one paved road and the speed limit is 25mph.

跑車也跟著進口了，儘管諾魯實際上也只有一條路，而且速限是每小時25英里。

A police chief memorably bought a sleek yellow Lamborghini, only to find he was too portly to fit in the driver's seat. "We just didn't know how to handle it all," a barefoot islander told me as he played his guitar beneath a tree.

記憶中，一個警察局長買了一輛鮮黃色流線型的藍寶堅尼，不料他的噸位太大根本沒辦法擠進駕駛座。"我們實在也不知道該拿它怎麼辦，"這個打著赤腳的島民在樹下一邊談吉他一邊告訴我。

"Hardly anyone thought of investing the money. Dollar notes were even used as toilet paper," his friend told me. "It's true," he insisted seeing my look of disbelief. "It was like every day was party day."

"幾乎沒什麼人考慮要將錢拿去做投資。鈔票還甚至被當成衛生紙來用，"他的朋友告訴我。他看我一臉不信還強調說"這可是千真萬確，好像每天都開派對一樣。"

A procession of conmen and carpetbaggers persuaded successive governments to invest in a string of bizarre schemes, including a West End musical about the life of Leonardo da Vinci.

一大堆的騙子與政客說服幾個繼任的政府投資一連串奇怪的方案，當中還包括倫敦西區劇院一齣講述李奧那多達文西生平的歌舞劇。

Nauru amassed a property portfolio of hotels and office blocks around the world. But corruption and downright incompetence took their toll and by the early part of this century, most of the assets had to be sold off to pay for the country's mounting debts.

諾魯積聚的飯店及商務辦公大樓等產物投資遍及全球。但是貪污與無能卻使得他們損失慘重，並且在本世紀的初期，許多資產都被變賣好償還這個國家龐大的債務。

Now all the money is gone.

現在，所有的錢都沒了。

Angry islanders

Signs of Nauru's former wealth are few and far between. Homes are dilapidated, with holes punched through their walls.

諾魯之前富裕的象徵已難以復見。家園荒蕪，圍牆上盡是破洞。

An area known as Location is one of the most squalid slums I have come across in the South Pacific, a concrete ghetto of smashed windows, stray dogs and graffiti.

一個就叫做Location的地區是幾個我在南太平洋見過最髒亂的貧民窟之一，用混凝土建的貧民窟，盡是破損的窗戶、流浪狗和牆上的塗鴉。

The brand new cars which islanders bought are rusted wrecks smothered in tropical undergrowth.

島民所購買的全新車輛業已鏽爛，被厚厚地覆蓋在熱帶矮樹叢中。

Last week a mob of angry islanders burnt down Nauru's only prison in what the government said was politically motivated unrest orchestrated by a former president.

上星期憤怒的島民聚眾滋事，燒毀了諾魯唯一一座監獄，政府直指這種政治上有目的的動亂是前總統精心策劃的。

Now comes another blow to this Micronesian micro-nation. A refugee detention centre, set up by Australia seven years ago, will close down at the end of this month.

另一項對密克羅尼西亞這個小國家的打擊卻又接踵而至。一座由澳洲在七年前設置的難民臨時拘留所即將在這個月底關閉。

It was built by the government of Prime Minister John Howard at a time when hundreds of boat people were trying to reach Australia.

那是當時的總理約翰霍華德的政府，為了上百位船民企圖入境澳洲時所建。

It proved a huge vote-winner, but Mr Howard was turfed out in November and his successor, Labour Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, swiftly moved to shut it down. Nauruans are distraught - the facility brought much-needed jobs and hundreds of big-spending contractors, police and officials.

此舉讓他贏得了許多選票，但是去年十一月霍華德先生黯然下台，而他的繼任者，勞工黨的總理陸克文很快促使它關閉。諾魯人十分煩惱，因為這個拘留所可以帶給當地最缺乏的工作機會、上百個出手大方的承包商、警察與官員。

Despite all these trials, Nauru is determined to get back on its feet. A new reformist government is hatching plans to establish the island as a pit-stop for international tuna boats to refuel and repair.

儘管舉步維艱，諾魯決定還是要靠自己。一個嶄新改革的政府正計劃將這座島定為一個休息加油站，專門為國際捕鮪魚的船隻進行加油與修復的工作。

A mining company hopes to extract precious metals from the surrounding sea-bed. Phosphate mining has resumed with the government claiming there is another 30 years of reserves up in the scarred interior.

一個採礦公司冀望能在周圍的海床上截取珍貴的金屬。磷肥的開採也因為政府聲稱在滿目瘡痍的內陸還有三十年的蘊藏量而重新開始。

Hangover

"We find ourselves in a big hole," concedes newly-elected president and former weight-lifting champion, Marcus Stephen. "We're doing our best to climb out of it. It won't be like in our heyday, but at least we'll be comfortable."

"我們好像掉到一個大坑洞裡，"這位新總統同時也是為前舉重冠軍得主Marcus Stephen承認說。"我們會盡最大的努力爬出來。雖然不會再像過去我們的全盛時期那樣，但至少我們將會舒服一點。"

Nauruans realise that the party is well and truly over.

諾魯人了解到派對是徹底結束了。

Now comes the hangover and then, with luck, some sort of recovery. But it will take squeaky clean governance, hard work and rock-solid investments for Pleasant Island to once again live up to its name.

現在先是難受的宿醉，接著一些些運氣，有幾分復原。但這還得要這個毫無瑕疵的政府終日辛勤工作以及絕對可靠的投資，才能讓這個快樂島再一次使她名副其實。

It may not yet be paradise lost, but it is most definitely paradise postponed.

天堂終究不會消失，只一定還在後頭。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7296832.stm

Published: 2008/03/15 11:54:23 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

借用Chief Seattle's Statement西雅圖酋長宣言最後幾段做為本篇翻譯的感想，我想是非常足夠了。
Where is the thicket? Gone.叢林哪兒去了？ 消失了！

Where is the Eagle? Gone.老鷹哪兒去了？ 不見了！

The end of living and the beginning of survival.美好的生活已經結束， 殘喘求生的日子開始！

House of Augustus opens to public

House of Augustus opens to public
By Christian Fraser
BBC News, Rome

Almost 50 years ago, archaeologists searching for the ruined house of Augustus found a tiny clue buried deep in 2,000 years' worth of rubble overlooking the Forum in Rome.

約莫五十年前，在奧古斯都已成廢墟的居所中不斷搜索的考古學家找到一個微小的線索，兩千年來一直給深深埋藏在俯瞰羅馬古墟的碎石瓦礫堆之中。

The single fragment of painted plaster, discovered in masonry-filled rooms, led the experts to unearth a series of exquisite frescoes commissioned by the man who would later become Rome's first emperor.

在堆滿磚石的幾個室內找到的這個上了顏色的石膏碎片，引導著這群專家們發掘了一系列精美的壁畫，可能就是這個後來成為首位羅馬皇帝的人命人繪製的。

On Sunday following decades of painstaking restoration, the frescoes in vivid shades of blue, red and ochre went on public show for the first time since they were painted in about 30BC.

這些在西元前三十年以藍色、紅色和黃土色等鮮麗色彩所繪製成的壁畫，經過幾十年下來毫不懈怠的復原工作，在這個星期天做了首次公開的展示。

One large room boasts a theatrical theme, its walls painted to resemble a stage with narrow side-doors.

有個大房間更是以劇場主題為其特色，牆面上繪有一座舞台與幾個狹窄邊門。

High on the wall a comic mask peers through a small window.

一幅滑稽的面具由高牆上的小窗戶透了出來。

Other trompe l'oeil designs include an elegant garden vista, yellow columns and even a meticulously sketched blackbird.

其他採錯視畫法的設計中，有一幅雅緻的花園景色，黃色的圓柱林立，還鉅細靡遺地描繪了一隻畫眉鳥。

Builders' names preserved

The Rome authorities have spent nearly 2m euros preserving the four Augustus rooms - thought to comprise a dining-room, bedroom, an expansive reception hall at ground-level and a small study on the first floor.

羅馬當局已經花了近兩百萬歐元來保存四間奧古斯都的房間 – 應該包含了有一間餐廳、臥室、一樓高貴的宴會廳以及二樓一間小書房。

Experts say the frescoes are among the most splendid surviving examples of Roman wall paintings, on a par with those found in the towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Archaeologists believe they may have been painted by an Egyptian.

專家們表示這些壁畫與龐貝城與Herculaneum城擁有的，並列為所有羅馬保存最完好的壁畫之一。考古學家們認為這些壁畫可能是由同一個埃及人所繪。

In the large entrance hall, graffiti on one wall is believed to have been left by the builders, who seem to have sketched out geometric designs, possibly for mosaic floors, and left their names.

刻在寬闊門廊上的字被認為是當時建造者所留下來的，這些留有他們的名字的人好像草擬了幾何圖案的設計，可能就是用來製作馬賽克地板。

In 31BC Augustus - or Octavian, as he was then known - had triumphed over the combined forces of Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium.

西元31年，奧古斯都 – 也就是當時的屋大維，在亞克興會戰中大勝馬克安東尼及埃及女皇佩托拉克聯合的軍隊。

The victory brought Egypt, and with it immense wealth, into the empire.

戰爭的勝利將埃及以及她巨大的財富一併納入了帝國的版圖。

But if the frescoes on the walls are exquisite, their surroundings, though impressive, with vaulted ceilings, are less than palatial.

即使她的壁畫是這樣的精美，壁畫的四周和一重重美麗的穹頂也教人望而生畏，卻仍不及宮殿的華美。

The Roman historian Suetonius described how Augustus lived in a modest house on the Palatine before he assumed supreme power and built a sprawling imperial complex higher up the hill.

羅馬歷史學家Suetonius描述奧古斯都在握有至高無上的權力並在更高的山丘上建起一座向四面八方延伸的巨大建築之前，是如何生活在Palatine山中簡樸的房子裡。

Painstaking reconstruction

The great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, he took the name Augustus on becoming sole ruler in 27BC after the civil wars that followed Julius Caesar's assassination.

凱撒大帝遭到暗殺以及隨之而來的內戰結束之後，這個凱撒大帝的甥孫同時也是他的養子，在西元前27年取得奧古斯都的封號並成為當時唯一的掌權者。

His rise ended the Roman Republic and marked the beginning of the Roman Empire. He died in AD14.

他的掘起終結了羅馬共和國，並且揭開了羅馬帝國的序幕。他逝世於公元14年。

Some of his interior decoration was found intact when the Italian archaeologist Professor Gianfilippo Carettoni finally broke through to the rooms in the early 1970s.

1970年初，當義大利的考古學家Gianfilippo Carettoni教授排除萬難進到這幾間室內時，一些內部的裝飾仍是完好如初。

Other frescoes had to be pieced together from fragments found by a team led by Irene Jacopi, the archaeologist in charge of the Palatine Hill.

負責管理帕拉蒂尼山的考古學家Irene Jacopi所領軍的團隊，則必須由尋獲的碎片中將其他的壁畫拼湊出來。

The art is so delicate that no more than five visitors at a time will be able to enter the rooms. Nevertheless, they are expected to attract large crowds.

由於這些藝術品需要非常小心的照顧，因此一次只能讓五位遊客同時進到裡頭參觀。但預計仍會吸引大批的人潮。

Recent archaeological work in Rome has boosted tourism by as much as 40%, according to the city authorities.

根據城市當局所說，近來羅馬的考古工作為旅遊業增加了約40%的業績。

The Palatine Hill has been giving up new finds for years, although much of the site is off limits to visitors and under threat of subsidence.

儘管帕拉蒂尼山的許多地方是禁止遊客進入而且有下陷坍塌的危險，數年來仍舊一直不斷有新的發現。

Future revelations

The minister of culture, Francesco Rutelli, said that 12m euros had been set aside to help protect the extensive ruins.

文化部長Francesco Rutelli說撥出的這一千兩百萬歐元是用來幫助保護這片廣闊的廢墟。

Mr Rutelli, who is standing for election as mayor of Rome next month, described the opening of the Augustus rooms as an "extraordinary event, the fruit of decades of work".

下個月將代表參選羅馬市長的Rutelli先生形容開放奧古斯都的幾間房間是件"破天荒的大事，也是數十載辛勤工作的成果"。

"Ancient history is here," he said. "Every day you have a new discovery. It's incredible - in the very heart of the city, in the middle of the traffic and ordinary life."

"古代歷史就在這裡，"他說。"每天都有新發現。這實在是太不可思議了 - 而且就在市中心，在車水馬龍、在日常生活中。"

In November last year archaeologists located a grotto deep beneath Augustus's imperial palace that may have been the shrine where ancient Romans worshipped Romulus, the founder of the city according to legend.

去年的十一月，考古學家在奧古斯都的宮殿下方深處找到一處洞穴，有可能是座古羅馬人用來敬拜傳說中創建羅馬城的Ramulus的神殿。

Next year archaeologists hope to open to the public Augustus's mausoleum - once a monument in white travertine marble that is now an overgrown ruin.

考古學家希望明年能夠將奧古斯都的陵墓對外開放，這座昔日以白色的石灰華大理石所打造的紀念碑，現在是一片雜草叢生的廢墟。

From Monday entry to the Roman Forum will no longer be free. Instead, visitors must pay 11 euros ($16; £8) for a combined ticket that will give entry to the Forum, the Palatine Hill and the nearby Colosseum.

從星期一開始，進入羅馬古墟將不再是免費的了。不僅如此，觀光客必須付11歐元購買套票，才得已進入古廣場、帕拉蒂尼山以及附近的古羅馬競技場。

Officials say the proceeds will fund increased security and restoration work around Rome. "There are exciting new finds every month," said Mr Rutelli, "and we need this money to preserve these treasures for future generations".

官員表示這些門票收入將用來提升羅馬各處的安全措施與修復工作。Rutelli先生說，"每個月都有令人驚喜的新發現，因此我們需要這些資金好為後世的子子孫孫保存這些貴重的古物"。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7286305.stm

Published: 2008/03/09 14:59:46 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Leaving Captain Cook's 'paradise'

Leaving Captain Cook's 'paradise'
By Nick Squires
BBC, Cook Islands

With their blue lagoons, white sand beaches and palm trees, the Cook Islands present, at first glance, a vision of paradise. But the islands are also experiencing a slow exodus as people seek a better standard of living.

蔚藍的潟湖、白色的沙灘和迎風搖曳的棕櫚樹，乍看之下庫克群島呈現出天堂般的美景。但是隨著人們紛紛追求更好的生活，群島也正經歷著一波緩慢的人口外移。

It is all but impossible to get lost on Rarotonga, the picturesque main island of the Cook Islands.
There are two roads and two buses. The front of each bus bears a sign which indicates its destination, or rather its direction.

要在庫克群島風景如畫的主島Rarotonga迷路幾乎是不可能的。因為島上只有兩條道路及兩輛公車。每輛公車前掛有一個標誌註明她的終點，或者應該說是她的方向。

One is marked Clockwise, the other Anti-clockwise, and they leave from the Cook Islands' sleepy capital, Avarua.

一個是順時針方向、另一個則是逆時針方向，兩班車都是從庫克群島那叫人昏昏欲睡的首都Avarua出發。

Forty minutes is all it takes to go right round the island, which is only 20 miles (32km) in circumference.

周長不過只有20哩，因此環島一圈只需40分鐘。

Before you know it, you are back where you started.

等你繞回出發地點還渾然不覺。

The bus travels along a winding coastal road, passing smart beach resorts, quiet villages and beautiful 19th-Century churches built out of crushed coral and lime, dazzling white in the sunshine.

公車順著曲折彎延的岸邊小路行駛，一路上經過幾個漂亮的海灘勝地和幾座建於19世紀美麗的教堂，教堂是以碎珊瑚與石灰所打造，在陽光下潔白耀眼。

But between the fields of ripening paw paw and the luxuriant hedges of bougainvillea and hibiscus you also see many empty houses, shuttered and forlorn, slowly mouldering in the tropical heat.

但是在成熟的paw paw樹、濃密的九重葛樹籬與木槿重重交錯間，依然可窺見許多空蕩蕩的房子，窗板關著、孤寂荒涼，然後在熱帶暑氣中逐漸崩塌。

Doors and windows are boarded up, the gardens have run riot and there is often an old car rusting away in the drive.

門窗用木條給釘上，花園雜草蔓生，停在私家車道上的舊車往往也是任其銹爛。

They are the homes of Cook Islanders who have left the country in search of higher-paying jobs and better education for their children.

這些原為庫克群島居民的家，他們為了尋找待遇更好的工作以及他們的下一代能有更好的教育而離開著個國家。

Most of them go to New Zealand. A special arrangement means that islanders are automatically entitled to Kiwi citizenship.

大部份的人到紐西蘭去。因為一項特殊的協議，讓島上的居民自動賦予紐西蘭公民的身份。

Others make their way to Australia or the United States.

其他的則是到澳洲或者美國去了。

Dramatic scenery

Depopulation is a huge issue here. About 14,000 people live in the Cooks but another 80,000 live overseas, with big expatriate communities in Auckland, Wellington and Sydney.

在這裡，人口減少是個大問題。目前住在庫克群島上的約有一萬四千人，但是其他旅居海外的就有八萬人，奧克蘭、威靈頓及雪梨等地就有幾個較大的旅外社區。

At first glance you wonder why anyone in their right mind would possibly want to leave a place like this.

乍看下，你會懷疑任何腦筋正常的人是不會想要離開這種地方。

The Cook Islands are the epitome of the South Seas tropical hideaway.

庫克群島是南太平洋充滿熱帶風情與世隔絕的典範。

The beaches are long and all but empty, the sand is bone white, the lagoons a hundred different shades of blue and the coral reefs home to jewel-like tropical fish and giant clams.

連綿的海灘幾乎沒有什麼人跡，骨白色的沙，座座潟湖透著許多深淺不一的藍，還有珊瑚礁裡住著寶石般瑰麗的熱帶魚和巨蚌。

As a local tourism slogan goes: "Visit Heaven - while you're still on Earth."

就像當地旅遊業的標語所傳達的: "造訪天堂 – 趁你還活著的時候。"

Fifteen islands make up this tiny country, scattered over an area of ocean the size of Western Europe.

這個由十五座小島所組成的國家，散佈在海洋的總面積約有西歐這麼大。

Rarotonga is particularly dramatic, a volcanic remnant with a mountainous interior made up of dark green peaks, razorback ridges and sheer cliffs.

Rarotonga格外引人注意，深綠色的頂峰，削尖的山脊和陡峭的崖壁是火山內部噴發的遺跡。

The Cook Islands' beauty and its laid-back pace of life have ensured that tourism is the main employer and the biggest earner.

庫克群島渾然天成的美景與悠閒的生活步調，確保了觀光業是最重要的業主同時也是最大的贏家。

Honeymooners flock here, as do people wanting to get married on the beach.

就因為人們想在海灘結婚，這裡聚集了許多前來度蜜月的人。

The place is choc-a-bloc with canoodling lovebirds, so much so that I often felt I was the only lone traveller in the whole country.

這地方總是有許多摟抱在一起的情侶，多到讓我常覺得自己在這個國度裡是唯一孤單的遊客。

Cannibal tourism

As if romance and resorts are not enough to entice tourists, Cook Islanders are also happy to play up their sometimes bloodthirsty past.

彷彿這裡的浪漫與這些渡假勝地不夠吸引觀光客時，庫克群島的島民們也很樂意強調他們時而嗜殺的過去。

In other parts of the Pacific the mere mention of the C-word - cannibalism - can cause grave offence. But here the locals make light of their ancestors' habit of eating their enemies.

在太平洋的其他部份僅是提起這個C開頭的Cannibalism吃人這個字，可能會招至極大的反感。但在這裡，當地人對他們祖先吃掉敵人的行為完全不以為意。

I came across T-shirts being sold in the local market with a cartoon of an islander dangling a boggle-eyed white man over a steaming pot. "Send more tourists," the caption read. "The last lot were delicious."

我在當地的市場看過幾件上面印有卡通圖案正準備要出售的T-shirts，繪製著一個島民將一個眼神驚恐的白種人吊在滿是蒸氣的大鍋上。"送更多的遊客來，"標題寫著。"上一批很可口"。

A boat skipper I met recounted with relish how his ancestors would prepare a large underground oven - or umu - in which to cook their victims.

我遇到一位船長加油添醋的講述他的祖先們總會準備一個覆蓋在地下的灶或者稱為umu，準備拿來燉煮他們的敵人。

"In those days if you made one little mistake, we'd eat you," he said, chuckling to himself. "But then the missionaries came and people realised that they shouldn't eat each other any more."

"在那時如果你犯了點小錯，我們就會把你給吃了，"他說著便逕自咯咯地笑了起來。"但是接著傳教士來到這裡，大家才意識到不應該再有任何吃人的行為了。"

Returnees

The captain was telling me this as we cruised the lagoon of Aitutaki, an island to the north of Rarotonga.

船長跟我說這些時，我們正航行在Aitutaki的潟湖上，這座(環狀珊瑚)島就位在Rarotonga的北方。

The lagoon, acclaimed as the most beautiful in the world, is enclosed by a string of idyllic sandy islands.

這座潟湖被譽為是世上最美的，由一長串景色優美被沙所覆蓋著的小島所圍繞。

Some of them were used earlier this year for the latest series of Survivor, the American reality TV show.

就在今年(2006)年初時，其中幾座小島還被拿來做為最新一季Survivor(我要活下去) - 這個美國實境節目秀的拍攝地點。

They have also been the setting for a British show, Shipwrecked. Together these productions have brought millions of pounds and hundreds of jobs.

這裡同時也是英國影集Shipwrecked的拍攝場景。相繼幾部影集已為當地帶來幾百萬英磅以及幾百個工作機會。

Many islanders told me of friends and relatives who have decided to come home after years abroad.

許多島民告訴我，他們的親友在旅居海外數年後已經決定要回家了。

They also seem to have coincided with a renewed sense of optimism.

他們似乎也同樣再度回復到原來樂觀的樣子了。

Typical of the trend was a guide called Nga who took me on a tour of Aitutaki's interior in his bright yellow Landrover.

開著鮮黃色的Landrover載我遊覽Aitutaki內陸的嚮導叫做Nga，他足以做為這股趨勢的代表。

He spent 10 years working in a paper mill in Melbourne. "I got sick of the rat race," he said. "So I decided to come home."

他在墨爾本的造紙廠工作了十年。"我厭倦那種沒完沒了的競爭，"他說。"所以我決定回家。"

He now has a thriving business. "A lot of people are coming back," he said as we jolted along a rough dirt track built by the Americans in World War II.

他現在有一間生意蒸蒸日上的公司。"很多人都要回來了，"當我們顛簸在二次大戰時由美軍所鋪設簡陋的煤渣跑道上時他這樣說。

It would, however, require a truly epic economic renaissance to tempt back even half the Cook Islands' far-flung diaspora.

然而，這可得是個非常巨大的經濟復甦，才能吸引半數庫克島那些遠渡重洋離鄉背井的人回家。

That is unlikely to happen any time soon. The islands will retain their easy-going charm and sense of isolation.

那在近期內是不太可能發生。這個群島將保留他們原有悠然的魅力以及遺世獨立感覺。

A taxi driver I met, a formidable matriarch with five grandchildren, put it this way: "God gave us a little piece of paradise in this secret corner of the world."

我遇到一位計程車司機，她是位望而生畏、有五個孫子的女族長，她這樣表達她的看法: "神所賜予我們的是在這世界偏遠角落裡的一小塊樂土"。

Anywhere else, that would sound like tourist brochure hype. Down here in the Cook Islands, they really mean it.

在任何其他的地方，這些聽起來像是旅遊手冊裡天花亂墜的吹噓。在庫克群島，那都是真的。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6112916.stm

Published: 2006/11/04 13:24:57 GMT
© BBC MMVIII

The wave that destroyed Atlantis

The wave that destroyed Atlantis
By Harvey Lilley
BBC Timewatch

The legend of Atlantis, the country that disappeared under the sea, may be more than just a myth. Research on the Greek island of Crete suggests Europe's earliest civilisation was destroyed by a giant tsunami.

亞特蘭提斯，這個從海平面上消失的國度，她的傳奇也許不再只是個神話。針對在希臘克里特島上所做的研究報告指出，這個歐洲最早的文明有可能是毀於一場巨大的海嘯。

Until about 3,500 years ago, a spectacular ancient civilisation was flourishing in the Eastern Mediterranean.

這個繁榮於地中海東部、令人嘆為觀止的古文明，在約三千五百年前倏然而止。

The ancient Minoans were building palaces, paved streets and sewers, while most Europeans were still living in primitive huts.

古邁諾安人建了宮殿、鋪設街道與下水道的時候，大部份的歐洲人尚居住在簡陋的小屋裡。

But around 1500BC the people who spawned the myths of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth abruptly disappeared. Now the mystery of their cataclysmic end may finally have been solved.

但是在西元前一千五百年左右，這些創造出Minotaur這個半人半牛神話與迷宮的人們，卻突然之間渺無蹤影。現在這個驟然間畫下休止符的謎團也許終將得已解開。

A group of scientists have uncovered new evidence that the island of Crete was hit by a massive tsunami at the same time that Minoan culture disappeared.

一個科學家小組已經發現了新的跡象，顯示克里特島曾遭逢一場大規模的海嘯，發生的時間正巧就是在邁諾安文化消失的時候。

"The geo-archaeological deposits contain a number of distinct tsunami signatures," says Dutch-born geologist Professor Hendrik Bruins of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

"地質考古的沉積物當中含有數個明確的海嘯特徵，" 來自以色列Negev Ben-Gurion大學的荷籍地質學教授Hendrik Bruins這麼說。

"Minoan building material, pottery and cups along with food residue such as isolated animal bones were mixed up with rounded beach pebbles and sea shells and microscopic marine fauna.

"邁諾安文明使用的建材、陶器和杯子，與食物的殘渣，諸如圈養的動物骨頭，一起全部混在海灘上小圓石、貝殼與微小的海洋生物之間。

"The latter can only have been scooped up from the sea-bed by one mechanism - a powerful tsunami, dumping all these materials together in a destructive swoop," says Professor Bruins.

"只有藉威力強大的海嘯這樣的機制，才有可能將後者從海床上舀起，毀滅性的一瞬間將所有物質同時傾洩，" Bruins教授說。

The deposits are up to seven metres above sea level, well above the normal reach of storm waves.

沉積物足足高出海平面七公尺左右，遠超過一般暴風激起的大浪所能達到的高度。

"An event of ferocious force hit the coast of Crete and this wasn't just a Mediterranean storm," says Professor Bruins.

"一個地中海的暴風是不可能以這種雷霆萬鈞之勢侵襲克里特島沿岸的，" Bruins教授說。

Big wave

The Minoans were sailors and traders. Most of their towns were along the coast, making them especially vulnerable to the effects of a tsunami.

邁諾安人是水手也是商人。他們大部份的城鎮都是沿著海岸而建，使得這些城鎮格外難以抵禦海嘯的侵襲。

One of their largest settlements was at Palaikastro on the eastern edge of the island, one of the sites where Canadian archaeologist Sandy MacGillivray has been excavating for 25 years.

他們其中一座最大的聚落就建在島上東邊的Palaikastro，加拿大的考古學家Sandy MacGillivray在其中一個遺址從事挖掘工作已經有25年了。

Here, he has found other tell-tale signs such as buildings where the walls facing the sea are missing but side walls which could have survived a giant wave are left intact.

在這裡，他發現另其他幾個足以解釋所有問題的跡象，例如，好幾幢房屋朝海的那幾面牆全部不見，而可能遭到巨浪侵襲後倖存的側面牆則依舊完好。

"All of a sudden a lot of the deposits began making sense to us," says MacGillivary.

"突然之間，對我們來說，那麼多的沉積物就解釋得通了，"

"Even though the town of Palaikastro is a port it stretched hundreds of metres into the hinterland and is, in places, at least 15 metres above sea level. This was a big wave."

"雖然Palaikastro是座港口，但這個城鎮朝內陸延伸了幾百公尺，有幾個地方甚至高出海平面15公尺。這是個巨浪。"

But if this evidence is so clear why has it not been discovered before now?

但是，如果證據是這麼的明確，為什麼之前沒被發現呢?

Tsunami expert Costas Synolakis, from the University of Southern California, says that the study of ancient tsunamis is in its infancy and people have not, until now, really known what to look for.

來自南加州大學的海嘯專家Costas Synolakis表示，對於研究古代所發生的海嘯還在初期的階段，一直到現在人們才真正了解要找的是什麼。

Many scientists are still of the view that these waves only blasted material away and did not leave much behind in the way of deposits.

許多科學家仍持著這樣的觀點，認為大浪只會將一切物質摧毀殆盡而不會留下太多的沉積物。

But observation of the Asian tsunami of 2004 changed all that.

但是2004年南亞海嘯的觀察報告卻將之全然改觀。

"If you remember the video footage," says Costas, "some of it showed tonnes of debris being carried along by the wave and much of it was deposited inland."

"如果你對電視幾個鏡頭還有印象，" Costas說，"大浪一路挾帶了幾公噸的碎石瓦礫，而大部份都沉積在內陸。"

Volcanic eruption

Costas Synolakis has come to the conclusion that the wave would have been as powerful as the one that devastated the coastlines of Thailand and Sri Lanka on Boxing day 2004 leading to the loss of over 250,000 lives.

Costas Synolakis已做出了一個結論，他認為在這裡曾遭逢的巨浪威力可能與發生在2004年耶誕節次日導致超過二十五萬人喪生並且蹂躪泰國及斯里蘭卡沿岸的海嘯是一樣的。

After decades studying the Minoans, MacGillivray is struck by the scale of the destruction.

以他幾十年下來對邁諾安人的研究，MacGillivray對破壞的規模有所感觸。

"The Minoans are so confident in their navy that they're living in unprotected cities all along the coastline. Now, you go to Bande Aceh [in Indonesia] and you find that the mortality rate is 80%. If we're looking at a similar mortality rate, that's the end of the Minoans."

"邁諾安人對他們的海軍是那麼的有信心，所以他們沿著岸邊居住在不設防的城市。現在你到印尼的亞齊省去，你會發現死亡率是八成。如果是同樣的死亡率，那就是邁諾安人的末日。"

But what caused the tsunami? The scientists have obtained radiocarbon dates for the deposits that show the tsunami could have hit the coast at exactly the same time as an eruption of the Santorini volcano, 70 km north of Crete, in the middle of the second millennium BC.

但，是什麼引發了海嘯? 科學家對沉積物做碳-14定年法所測得的時間，也就是海嘯侵襲的那個時間，與克里特島北方70公里處的聖托里尼火山爆發時間相當穩合，約是在西元前第二個千禧年中間。

Recent scientific work has established that the Santorini eruption was up to 10 times more powerful than the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. It caused massive climatic disruption and the blast was heard over 3000 miles away.

最新的科學已證實聖托里尼火山爆發的威力相較1883年Krakatoa(克雷克吐爾)火山爆發足足有10倍大。Krakatoa造成了氣候的混亂，產生的爆炸聲遠在三千哩外都聽得見。

Costas Synolakis thinks that the collapse of Santorini's giant volcanic cone into the sea during the eruption was the mechanism that generated a wave large enough to destroy the Minoan coastal towns.

Costas Synolakis認為聖托里尼火山在爆發時，巨大的火山錐崩塌到海裡所產生的浪，大到足以毀掉邁諾安沿海的城鎮。

It is not clear if the tsunami could have reached inland to the Minoan capital at Knossos, but the fallout from the volcano would have carried other consequences - massive ash falls and crop failure. With their ports, trading fleet and navy destroyed, the Minoans would never have fully recovered.

海嘯是否侵襲至內陸的邁諾安首都克諾索斯，目前尚不清楚，但是火山爆發的餘波必定招至其它的後果 – 大規模的落塵以及農作物的欠收。由於他們的港口、貿易艦隊及海軍都被摧毀，邁諾安人要完全恢復到原狀是不可能的。

The myth of Atlantis, the city state that was lost beneath the sea, was first mentioned by Plato over 2000 years ago.

亞特蘭提斯的神話，這個消失於海面下的城邦，最初是兩千年前由柏拉圖所提及。

It has had a hold on the popular imagination for centuries.

幾百年來一直支配著眾人的想像。

Perhaps we now have an explanation of its origin - a folk memory of a real ancient civilisation swallowed by the sea.

一段民間記憶記載了一個真實存在但最後卻被大海吞沒的古老文明 – 也許我們現在可以解釋它的由來了。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6568053.stm
Published: 2007/04/20 08:05:45 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

※在經歷這樣大規模的毀滅後，考古學家發現存活下來的邁諾安人之間可能爆發了宗教危機，神殿和神像被刻意砸毀、焚燒。導致那些曾經支撐了這個璀璨文明好一段時間的價值與信仰逐漸崩解。
在另一篇報導裡曾引用詩人艾略特在The Hollow Man幾句著名的詩句:
This is the way the world ends 就這樣世界終結
This is the way the world ends 就這樣世界終結
This is the way the world ends 就這樣世界終結
Not with a bang but a whimper 不發轟然巨響而只嗚咽

對邁諾安人來說，似乎他們的世界是在轟然巨響與嗚咽聲中同時瓦解。

The Med's 'forgotten' island

The Med's 'forgotten' island
By John Pickford
BBC, Gavdos

It is hard to imagine a more spectacular edge of a continent.

真難以想像陸地的邊陲一帶還有這麼壯闊的景色。

On the crest of a 1,000ft (304m) ridge, stupendous cliffs dip to the Libyan Sea. Africa lies 180 miles (289km) to the south, closer than Athens. To the north loom the Cretan mountains.

在千呎山脊的頂峰，巨大的峭壁朝著利比亞海險降。非洲就在南邊180英哩處，比起跟雅典的距離更近。北邊隱隱約約勾勒出的是克里特島的群山。

Sperm whales are sometimes sighted off Gavdos, in what is one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean, and from its southern cliffs you see an endless traffic of container ships and tankers, plying the sea lanes between Suez and Europe.

抹香鯨有時會出現在Gavdos外海，那是地中海最深的部份，從南邊的懸崖望去，川流不息的船隻、油輪往返於蘇伊士運河與歐洲間的航道上。

But Gavdos feels by-passed by this global trade. Homer described it as "a world apart" and 27 centuries on that still seems right.

但Gavdos感到自己被全球貿易所忽視了。荷馬形容Gavdos是個隔離的世界，在兩千七百年後看來依然是對的。

It was the scene, he tells us, of the shipwreck of Odysseus on his way home from Troy.
He was rescued by the alluring goddess of the island, Calypso. She warmed him beside a fire of cedar wood and held him in pampered imprisonment for seven years.

他在奧德賽由特洛伊返鄉途中發生船難的那一幕中告訴我們。奧德賽被島上迷人的女神Calypso救起。女神將他放在燒著香柏木的火堆旁取暖，並且軟禁了他整整七年的時間。

Population decline

And Gavdos, as the myth suggests, does have charm.

Gavdos，如同神話裡所示，的確是那樣的千嬌百媚。

It is a small island about 10 square miles and looks surprisingly green given the harshness of the climate. Summer temperatures of 40C (104F) are a regular occurrence.

她是一座約十哩見方的小島，即使在這樣嚴苛的氣候之下，她看來格外地蓊鬱蒼翠。夏季攝氏40度的高溫是經常的事。

The greenness comes from a carpeting of pine trees and scrub, but beneath it lies a lost world, as abandoned terraces built up by peasant families through centuries of toil revert to wilderness.

覆蓋在上頭的松樹林與灌木叢使得她無比鮮綠，但底下卻靜靜的有著一個失落的世界，那原本由農家世世代代辛勤開墾建築的臺地，被棄置後又再度一片荒蕪。

Gavdos for decades has been haemorrhaging people. The 500 or more on the island at the beginning of the last century has fallen to fewer than 100 today.

Gavdos幾十年來已經有大量的居民出走。上個世紀之初，島上約有五百多位居民，到今天更縮減到不滿100個人。

At the last census in 2001, the biggest village - Kastri - had just 23 residents.

2001年最後一次人口統計，最大的村子Kastri才只有23位居民。

Numbers do swell with an influx of young visitors in July and August, drawn by free camping, nude bathing and unstructured hedonism on the island's beaches. But the kind of organised tourism that has transformed - and in some cases wrecked - other Greek islands has so far passed Gavdos by.

七、八月裡因為湧入的年輕觀光客而使得人數增加，全是衝著宿營免費、裸泳，並且可以恣意在沙灘上享樂而來的。但是成功改善–當中也有蒙受其害其他希臘小島的那些有組織的旅遊業，至今仍就漠視Gravdos.

Vivid procession

What is more remarkable, perhaps, is not the people who have left but the ones who have stayed, and who have kept some kind of economy going that has traces still of the old island life.

或許，更值得去注意的並不是那些已經離去的，而是留在島上的這些人，還有那些繼續維持收入的人，仍舊保有些許島上傳統的生活。

You see this vividly when the ferry turns up. In winter, there is only one a week and it is often delayed by bad weather.

這在渡輪一出現時，就可以很鮮明的領會到。在冬季，每周只有一個航班而且還常常因為天候不佳的關係延期。

The first sign of its approach is an amazing procession of battered, wheezing vehicles assembling on the harbour front. By the time the ferry's docked in the little harbour of Karabe, half the island, it seems, has arrived.

一長排老舊、引擎聲很大的車輛聚集在港口前即是渡輪即將抵達的前兆。當渡輪駛進Karabe的小港口時，就好像已親臨了半座以上的島嶼。

There is the grey-bearded Greek Orthodox priest playfully poking a farmer in the back as he swings a fertiliser bag onto his shoulders. That is the tousle-haired island baker collecting his flour.

正當一位農夫將一袋肥料扛上肩頭時，有個灰白鬍子的希臘東正教教士好玩似地戳了戳他的背。那個頭髮蓬亂的島上麵包師傅正在點收他的麵粉。

There is the young doctor in his white van. Fresh graduates from medical school can do a six-month stint on Gavdos in place of military service.

有個年輕的醫生坐在他白色的小貨車裡。醫學院的畢業生可以在Gavdos有六個月工作期的替代役。

There is the Earth Mother of the island, Evangelina Tsigonakis, whose solitary taverna in Karabe is the one place out of season where you can be sure of finding food, drink and other people.

Evangelina Tsigonakis在島上Karabe開設的唯一一間小酒館Earth Mother是不分時令的，在這裡你一定可以找到食物、酒還有其他的同好。

And that man wheeling a lorry tyre onto the boat is surely the one who passed me the other day on his moped with a shotgun over his shoulder.

還有那個把一只卡車輪胎推上船的，一定是前幾天騎著機車、肩上倚著枝獵槍從我面前經過的男人。

They are a resilient and, on the whole, a cheerful bunch.

大致上，他們是有適應力而且快樂的一群人。

Bombshell

And, in fact, these stalwarts of the island have more reason now to be optimistic than for many a year.

事實上，相較於多年以前，島上這些頑強的人更有理由樂觀的去面對一切。

Two extraordinary developments in the wider political world have combined to put Gavdos on the map in a way that no-one could have predicted.


在更為廣大的政治世界裡，有兩個重要的發展卻先後以沒有人能料想得到的方式讓Gavdos大大的出了名。

First in 1996 during the planning of a Nato exercise south of Crete, Turkey suddenly announced that Gavdos should be kept out of the exercise because it fell into a "grey area" so far as its sovereignty was concerned.

首先是在1996年，在規劃北約組織準備在希臘南部進行軍事演習的過程中，土耳其突然宣布應將Gavdos排除在軍事演習之外，因為就主權而言，她屬於一個灰色地帶。

This bombshell rocked the whole of Greece, but so far the outcome for Gavdos has been benign.

這起突發事件震撼了整個希臘，但至目前為止的結果，對Gavdos一直都是有利的。

The Greek prime minister actually paid a visit, and over the past seven years funds from both the Greek government and the European Union have poured in.

不但希臘的首相竟真的來此地參訪，在這過去的七年之間，來自希臘政府與歐盟的資金也相繼注入。

New arrivals

Gavdos at last has a few metalled roads. It has a reliable electricity supply, an impressive new harbour, a heliport and even an open-air theatre.

Gavdos終於有了幾條碎石鋪路。也有了可靠的供電系統、能給人留下深刻印象的新港口、直升機停機坪，還有一個露天的電影院。

Then in 2002, it was discovered that a leading member of the November 17 terror network - based in Greece - who had just been arrested, had been living on Gavdos more or less openly for years.

接著在2002年，發現一名隸屬於"11月17日"這個恐怖組織最重要的成員，這名以希臘為根據地被逮補的嫌犯已在Gavdos公開地住了差不多有一年的時間。

The islanders were astonished. They had known him as an amiable beekeeper.

島上的居民都感到吃驚。他們只知道他是個和藹可親的養蜂人。

This second bombshell brought more publicity and a new kind of tourist: fashionable Athenians who come in the searing heat of August to sample an exotic curiosity, the forgotten island on their doorstep.

這第二次的突發事件不但讓Gavdos知名度大增，也帶來了不一樣的觀光客： 時尚的雅典人在酷熱的八月來到這裡體驗充滿異國風情的驚奇，那個彷彿在他們門階上，一個被遺忘的島嶼。

The most positive consequence of all this attention must surely be the re-opening of the primary school.

所有這些關注所產生最具建設性的成果無疑是當地一所小學的重新開設。

It now has nine pupils and a new school building in a breathtaking location. There it sits on top of the ridge in the centre of the island, Africa to the south, Europe to the north, sea views all round, on the edge of a continent.

這個現在已經有九名學童的新學校建在一個令人屏息的地方。她座落在島中央山脊的至高處，朝南是非洲，向北則是歐洲，被美麗的海景所環繞，就在陸地的邊上。

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7205519.stm

Published: 2008/01/24 14:41:50 GMT

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