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！