China accepts earthquake aid from Japan and Taiwan
中国接受日本台湾的地震救援
World Today - Friday, 16 May , 2008
2008年5月16日 星期五 《今日世界》节目(此节目每天中午12点在澳大利亚全国ABC各地方台播出)
Reporter: Stephen McDonell
记者:斯蒂芬•麦克唐纳
ELEANOR HALL: China's Premier Wen Jiabao is describing the earthquake which has devastated large parts of south western China as the most destructive in the history of the Communist republic, and says China will accept foreign aid even from its arch rival, Taiwan.
埃莉诺•霍尔(节目主持人):中国总理温家宝形容这场摧毁中国西南大部分地方的地震是共和国历史最严重的灾难,并表示中国将接受国外甚至它的主要竞争对手台湾的救援。
China's state news agency is quoting the Chinese leader saying the quake which hit this week was more powerful than the 1976 earthquake which killed 240,000 people. The Government has put the official death toll at 19,500 people but has warned it could climb much higher and officials say the quake has produced as many as 10-million refugees.
中国官方新闻社援引中国领导人的话,说这次地震比1976年那次夺去24万人生命的地震更为强烈。政府已经将官方统计的死亡人数上升到19500人,警告说这个数字还可能大幅增加,官员说这场地震已经造成了1千万人无家可归。
But authorities are at the same time cracking down on anyone suspected of spreading what the Government calls "malicious rumours" about the disaster. Stephen McDonell is visiting a volunteer centre in the devastated Sichuan province and he joins us now. So, Stephen what has being set up there for the refugees who are flooding in to the bigger centres in Chengdu?
不过同时当局准备严惩被认为散布关于这场地震的“恶意的谣言”的任何人。斯蒂芬•麦克唐纳正在采访位于重灾区四川省的一个志愿者中心,我们现在连线他。斯蒂芬现在在成都对那些涌进相对大的中心城市的无家可归者,已经有了那些准备?
STEPHEN MCDONELL: Well all around Chengdu, in fact all around many of the cities in this area, these tent towns are popping up. Sometimes it is just people have got like a tarpaulin, plastic tarpaulin. Other times it might be just a sort of bed sheet or something like that. There are makeshift tent towns just all around the place and people piling into them.
斯蒂芬•麦克唐纳:情况是这样的,成都四周,实际上这个地区许多城市的周边涌现了这些帐篷城。有时候帐篷实际上是人们得到一块防水帆布,塑料布。其他情况下帐篷可能就是像床单那样的东西。这种临时性帐篷城实际上就是围着某个地方人们不断聚集在一起。
You know, you might have like 70 people piling into a sort of medium-sized tent and a lot of? because the main relief effort I guess is going to people in the hardest areas, I suppose it is a bit of a feeling once you get to somewhere like Dujiangyan or Chengdu that you can sort of make do so people are kind of looking after each other at the moment, you would have to say, because all of the sort of emergency supplies of water and food are going to these much more isolated areas where people could die if they don't get food and water soon.
就像大概70人挤进一个中等大小的帐篷,因为我估计主要的救援努力都用在那些最严重的地区了。我相信一旦你来到像都江堰或成都这样的地方就会有一种感觉,你也会像这里人们此刻做的一样,大家相互照应。你不得不承认,因为所有紧急提供的水和食品要送往那些还与世隔绝的地方,那里的人们如果不能立刻得到食品和水的话将会死去。
ELEANOR HALL: So what is the volunteer centre doing there then?
埃莉诺•霍尔:那么志愿者中心在那里做一些什么工作呢?
STEPHEN MCDONELL: Well, what we are seeing here, this is really an indication of the outpouring of public support for the earthquake victims. Hundreds of young people have walked in here and they are signing up their names to become volunteers to join the rescue effort. And veterans, war veterans are sort of forming them into sort of little teams, especially they are picking out. I am just walking along the rubble here to get a bit closer so you might be able to hear some of the orders being shouted out.
斯蒂芬•麦克唐纳:在这里我们看到的是一个真正地为地震幸存者源源注入公众支持的场景。几百名年轻人走到这里来,签上他们的名字要成为志愿者加入救援行动。同时,退伍军人他们组成小分队,并被特别挑选出来。我现在走过一片瓦砾堆尽量靠近他们,你也许能够听到他们喊出的指令。
They are sort of forming them into teams of I suppose, rescue volunteers who I guess each group there is about 20 of them or so, and they are going to hike it into there into the worst hit areas. Now we've been thinking what is the point of doing that? It is probably 100 kilometres to get in there. It is going to be too late to save anyone, but there is all sorts of work they can do beyond digging people out of the rubble. For example, those who survived, well, they need the supplies that they can carry in there. They can also administer first aid for survivors in these towns and there are an awful lot they can do to help people.
看样子他们正在组建队伍,我估计救援志愿者每支队伍大概20人左右,他们将要徒步前往受灾最严重的地方。我们也曾想(他们)为什么要这样做?到那里大概有100公里的路程,要去救人的话似乎太晚了,但是那里还是除了把人从废墟中挖出来之外还有很多事情要做。例如,对那些还存活的人,他们能够携带一些那些人需要的物资。他们还能够为在那些村镇的幸存者做一些急救工作,那里还有大量事情他们能做可帮助别人。
People are wearing their t-shirts that have got things like "I love China". And they are wearing little yellow ribbons around their arms as sort of arm bands, and some people are actually carrying red flags in as well so it is quite a sort of, I suppose, a patriotic thing as well and they are kind of revving each other up.
志愿者们穿的T恤上面写着“我爱中国”之类的文字,他们在手臂上戴着像臂章那样的小黄丝带,还有一些人携带着红旗以及相当多的各种物品。我猜想其中还有一种爱国主义的情绪,他们也相互激励着。
You can hear one of the sort of corporals, these ex-army corporals are giving them a real come-on, let's hear it, cheers, cheers and they'll all do a sort of chant or something like that. Pretty soon they are going to sort of march out of here in these groups and head up to the worst hit areas.
你能听到一位像是以前军队里连长一样的人在激励他们,让我们来听一听,加油加油,以及这类的呼喊。很快这些队伍他们就要出发离开这里,开往受灾最严重的地方。
ELEANOR HALL: Now Stephen, we are hearing that as many 10-million people are needing shelter and supplies, to what extent are supplies getting through to these people?
埃莉诺•霍尔:斯蒂芬,我们听说有1千万人需要避难场所和其他物资,那些人现在得到了一些什么东西呢?
STEPHEN MCDONELL: Well, in some areas they are getting through, but I guess it would luck in a way or how close you might be to a river or something like that. People have probably have seen the images of paratroopers jumping into to these really isolated areas carrying supplies and also doing drops from the air.
斯蒂芬•麦克唐纳:哦,情况是这样的,在一些地区人们得到了这些,我估计这在某种程度上是一种幸运,或者看你离河边有多近之类的事情。人们可能已经看到伞兵空降到那些真是完全被隔绝的地方的一些画面了,他们携带一些物资,同时也空投了一些物资。
People in these really remote areas are close to the river, well the army, we went and watched them yesterday travelling up these mountain rivers and they are bringing rescue workers and also supplies along the river. So even though someone is isolated, if they are in a area close to a river for example, they can get help. But there would be? it is a huge and remote area up there to the north of Chengdu. There will lots of areas that haven't received any help, any supplies and even those who survived the earthquake would still be in trouble if they can't get emergency supplies soon.
在那些相当偏远地方的人们靠近河。昨天我们去了那些山区的河边,并看到军队带上救援物资和救援人员沿河而上。因此如果有一些人被隔绝了,比如只要他们住在靠近河边的地方,他们就能得到救助,不过这仅仅是一种情况。成都以北是大量的偏远山区,那里还有许多地方还没有得到任何帮助,任何物资,甚至那些地震幸存者也有可能依然处境危险,如果他们不能立即得到紧急援助的话。
ELEANOR HALL: Are you surprised at the way the Chinese leader has been talking about this disaster and about the death toll?
埃莉诺•霍尔:你是否惊讶中国领导人谈及这场灾难和死亡人数的方式?
STEPHEN MCDONELL: Yes, it has been quite open and I think the days of China just pretending things like this don't happen are long gone. I mean, the first we knew about how bad this was, was when President Hu Jintao - this was before anyone was even proclaimed to be dead - within I guess, half an hour or an hour of the earthquake hitting, he was coming out and saying everybody get ready for big casualties.
斯蒂芬•麦克唐纳:是的。这次相当开放,我认为在中国那种假装什么事都没有发生的日子已经过去了。我的意思是,我们首先意识这场灾难有多么严重是从胡锦涛主席那里得知的,他站出来告诉大家将要面临一场巨大的伤亡,这甚至是在公开宣告死亡人数之前,我估计那是地震发生以后半小时或是一小时的时候。
Because its one of the reasons we hightailed it straight down here from Beijing, because we knew it would have to be bad if, before we'd even heard one person was dead, he was already talking about, you know, the casualties and how many people have died and the massive effort that is going to be needed to save those who remain.
所以这是我们赶紧从北京飞到这里的原因之一,因为我们知道这次地震可能相当严重,在我们还没有听到任何人死亡之前,他就已经谈及伤亡人数,多少人已经死亡和马上要对依然幸存的人展开大规模救援了。
Obviously, he has received word through the army or whatever the extent of the damage and told people straight away. Wen Jiabao, China's number two leader was on the scene here pretty quickly and we have seen him going up and speaking to people underneath the rubble with a megaphone. Don't worry, help is on the way, this sort of thing.
显然他是已经收到来自军队或其他什么渠道关于损毁的情况汇报了,因此立刻就通知了大众。中国的第二位的领导人,温家宝相当迅速就到达了现场,我们已经看到他爬上废墟,通过麦克风向被埋在下面的人喊话,“一定要挺住”,“救援马上就来了”之类的。
I mean, I think they have changed tack. In years gone by, these sort of disasters, the authorities always we don't want any announcements about this sort of thing. For example SARS, they are widely criticised for the handling of that, but now it is much more a case of marketing public support and international sympathy and they are realised that if you are open about these things, that you can get a lot of help and we've seen it from other countries, they are offering help.
我的意思是,我认为他们已经改变了完全不同的行为方式。一些年以前,对于这类的灾难当局总是说我们无可奉告之类的。例如非典,他们被广泛批评隐瞒不报,但是现在这次是广泛地获得公众支持和国际同情,他们意识到如果你公开这些情况,你就能得到许多帮助。我们已经从许多国家看到了这种反应,他们愿意提供帮助。
ELEANOR HALL: Well, yesterday, there was talk the Chinese government wasn't letting in aid from Japan. Today it has allowed not only Japanese aid in but also aid from Taiwan. Did that surprise you?
埃莉诺•霍尔:昨天还在谈论中国政府不允许来自日本的救援进入。今天它已经同意不仅日本还有台湾的救援进入。这个是否让你惊讶?
STEPHEN MCDONELL: Yes, this is truly remarkable that the old Cold War enemy, Taiwan offers support and that China, not only did the offer it but they would even think that China would accept it, but then China turns around and says we do accept it.
斯蒂芬•麦克唐纳:是的。这是绝对值得大书一笔的。长期的冷战敌人台湾来提供支援,他们不仅愿意帮助而且认为中国将会接受,但是中国转了一圈说我们接受帮助。
The thing that is great about this actually is that Taiwan is obviously in a big earthquake zone and the same with Japan, but the Taiwanese and Japanese are offering help, well they've got sophisticated equipment to dig into rubble. They've got very well trained people who are used to earthquake emergencies. Both those countries are regularly hit by strong earthquakes.
实际上这件事是非常好的,众所周知台湾和日本一样处于大的地震带上,但是台湾和日本愿意提供帮助,他们有先进的装备探测废墟,他们有训练有素经常参与地震紧急情况的人员。这些国家频繁地遭受强地震袭击。
I was in Taiwan last year and we were just sitting around in a bar and the whole thing started shaking and everyone so used to it and blase about earthquakes there that they sort of laughed it because it wasn't a very big one, so they are used to it, the Taiwanese and the Japanese and it is great for them to offer and very smart of the Chinese to accept the help that they are offering.
我去年在台湾的时候,我们刚刚在一个酒吧坐下,所有东西就开始摇晃了,每一个人都习以为常,毫不在意那时的地震,他们甚至笑着说那不是一个很强的地震,因为他们都很习惯了。相当不错台湾人和日本人来提供帮助,非常聪明的中国人接受了他们的援助。
ELEANOR HALL: Stephen McDonell, our correspondent in Chengdu, thank you.
埃莉诺•霍尔:斯蒂芬•麦克唐纳,我们在成都的记者,谢谢你。