【中文标题】海地和中国：两场地震的故事
【原文标题】Haiti and China: A Tale of Two Earthquakes
【登载媒体】时代周刊
【原文链接】http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1954644,00.html
【原文作者】Austin Ramzy
A woman mourns her deceased relatives in Beichuan on May 12, 2009, one year after a massive earthquake devastated China's Sichuan province
Looking for parallels to Haiti's catastrophe, many point to China. In May 2008, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck the southwestern province of Sichuan, pancaking homes, schoolhouses and other buildings and killing at least 68,000 people. But the ferocity of the temblors and the huge death tolls may be the only parallels between the two quake-stricken nations.
I went back to Sichuan six months after the catastrophe and was amazed at the speed of physical and economic recovery. In Dujiangyan, the largest city in the quake zone, the rubble and tent cities had disappeared. The jumble of debris was replaced by piles of new bricks, lumber and other construction materials. There was a building boom across the region, and dozens of temporary villages were erected to house the 5 million people who were rendered homeless by the quake. The prefab housing was made out of blue aluminum siding lined with Styrofoam insulation. It had concrete floors and was arranged in neat rows in flat spots at the bases of the mountains. Conditions weren't luxurious, but the camps were clean and the housing dry and fairly warm.
I found no evidence of homelessness, though there were reports of people in the mountains who refused to spend their rebuilding funds and chose to remain in tents. "When you compare this to the tsunami and other major disasters, it's rare to see something so efficient take place. It was well organized and well planned. All the international people who came in spoke very highly of this," says Ramsey Rayyis, regional representative for the American Red Cross in China.
China has several advantages over Haiti when it comes to reconstruction. While China's disaster affected millions of people, the destruction was concentrated in rural areas and smaller towns, not a dense city. The mountainous parts of Sichuan and surrounding provinces hit by the 2008 quake are poor, not destitute, and they all had a basic level of food and water supplies, access to medicine and health care, and transportation and communications infrastructure. When much of that was wiped out by the quake, China's central government responded quickly, sending tens of thousands of soldiers and paramilitary troops to the region. They freed trapped survivors, delivered food and water, rebuilt roads and ensured stability. I witnessed no incidents of looting or other lawlessness when I was there in the days immediately following the quake. While there were safety concerns because of landslides and aftershocks, there was no danger of violence. "You do have a strong central government, a government that's able to support the people, and I think that makes a difference," says Rayyis. "Whereas in a place like Haiti, that's going to be a struggle. You're going to need a lot more external intervention."
With such speedy reconstruction, there are obviously questions about the quality of building. At the same time, there has been an intense focus on controlling graft. Despite allegations that corruption led to the shoddy construction of schools in the first place, China hasn't punished anyone for any wrongdoing that occurred before the earthquake. Grieving parents who protested over the deaths of their children in collapsed schools were silenced by payments and by threats of punishment if they continued their agitation. Officials have declared that the extent of the destruction was due to the intensity of the temblor, not substandard buildings. But the government has taken a hard line on misuse of rebuilding funds, and a handful of people have been punished. While the size of rebuilding efforts means that there will inevitably be some graft, the extent of official and unofficial scrutiny means it is one of the riskier places in China to skim funds.
In 2008 the government said it would spend $176 billion on reconstruction by 2011. (The total recovery cost is estimated at $250 billion.) As of last June it had already spent more than $50 billion. Some of the expenses have been shouldered by other parts of China. Twenty provinces have set aside 1% of fiscal revenues for two years to help rebuild Sichuan. That's another advantage that China has over Haiti. As a large nation with a rapidly growing economy, it can divert money from more prosperous areas to aid one devastated region.
Likewise, the economy of the quake zone has done well. Much of the region was agricultural, and farmers were able to get back to work fairly soon after the disaster. The massive rebuilding effort also provided direct investment and job opportunities. Several of the dislocated people I met in the temporary camps had family members working on reconstruction. Overall the quake region produced less than 1% of China's GDP, so it did little to slow the national growth engine. A chief concern was that rebuilding would contribute to inflation. That was largely forgotten over the past year.
2009年5月12日，灾难性的地震摧毁中国四川省一年之后，一名妇女在北川哀悼她去世的亲人。
如果要寻找一个与海地灾难相类似的事件，很多人都会指向中国。2008年5月，7.9级的地震袭击了四川省西南部，房屋、校舍和其它建筑物被摧毁，68000人丧生。但是，地震的惨烈和巨大的伤亡数字也许是这两个受灾国家仅有的相似点。
灾难发生6个月之后，我回到了四川，惊奇地看到了当地基础设施和经济恢复的速度。在灾区最大的一个城市都江堰，瓦砾和帐篷都已经不见踪影，取而代之的是成堆的新砖、木材和其它建筑材料。整个地区都在热火朝天地施工，已经修建完成的数十个临时村庄住进了500万无家可归的人。预制房屋都是用蓝色的铝板和聚苯乙烯泡沫塑料搭建成的，山脚下的空地处整齐地码放着水泥预制板。临时性房屋的设施并不奢华，但是整洁、干燥、暖和。
在这里我没有看到无家可归的人，尽管有报道说，山区里的一些人不愿意花掉自己的补偿款，宁愿住在帐篷里。美国红十字协会驻中国的地区代表Ramsey Rayyis说：“如果你把这里的情况与海啸和其它受灾地区做比较，会发现重建工作极少进展得如此高效。一切都安排得井井有条，计划得有条不紊。所有来到这里的外国人士都给予了高度的赞扬。”
在灾区重建方面，中国比海地具有几个方面的优势。尽管有几百万中国人在地震中受灾，但是被毁坏的地区主要是农村和小城镇，没有波及人口密集的大城市。四川和临近省份山区的居民相对贫穷，但还不是赤贫。他们有基本的食物的饮水保障，享有医疗卫生服务，也有交通和通讯设施。当这一切都被地震破坏之后，中国中央政府迅速反应，派出数万名士兵和预备役人员奔赴灾区。他们不计报酬地抢救幸存者、运送食物和水、重建道路、确保灾区情况稳定。地震发生后几天我就到达了灾区现场，没有发现任何抢劫和违法事件。尽管当时还存在着山体滑坡和余震的危险，但是并不存在暴乱的威胁。Rayyis说：“你有一个强大的中央政府，这个政府有能力保护它的人民。我认为这就足以体现出不同。但如果是像海地这样的地方，条件就艰苦了许多，你需要更多来自外界的干预。”
重建工作进展得如此迅速，就必然会出现质疑建筑质量的声音，同时出现的还有对监控贪污的严密关注。尽管人们声称腐败是导致劣质学校建筑物的首要因素，但是中国并没有因地震前发生的错误行为而让任何人受到惩罚。那些在倒塌的学校前哀悼死去孩子们的悲伤的父母们，被补偿金和拘留的威胁封住了口舌。官方宣称，建筑物遭受损坏的程度是强烈的地震造成的，与建筑物的标准无关。但是政府在挪用重建资金方面亮出了硬手腕，已经有若干人为此付出了代价。尽管由于重建的规模庞大，多少存在的贪污行为无法完全避免，但是来自官方和民间的监控让这里成为中国贪污行为最危险的地方。
政府在2008年宣布，到2011年，将花费1760亿美元用于灾区重建。（总重建费用预计为2500亿美元）到去年6月份为止，政府已经花费了500亿美元，这其中部分费用是由中国的不同地区分别承担的。20个省份把两年中每年1％的财政收入用来支援四川的重建工作，这是中国相比于海地的另外一个优势。作为一个具有高速经济增长的大国，中国可以把富裕地区的资金分流到受灾地区。
与此同时，灾区的经济状况也恢复得不错。当地大部分区域都是农业型经济，农民们在地震后很快就回到土地上劳作。大规模的重建项目也提供了投资和就业的机会，我在临时性房屋里遇到的几个人都有家庭成员在重建工地工作。总体来说，地震灾区对中国整体GDP的贡献不到1％，所以对全国经济增长趋势的影响微乎其微。唯一的担心就是灾区重建将会引发通货膨胀，而这一点在去年被所有人抛在脑后了。（译者注：去年发生的经济危机让人们无暇关注这件小事了。） |
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