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原版报刊阅读:废除当代奴隶制度

时间: 2009年04月17日 15:55    作者:memetics    来源:网络
导读:奴隶制似乎早已成为过去,早已为世人所唾弃和抛弃。然而在当今社会,奴役似乎仍然存在——童工、性奴、血汗工厂。形形色色的奴役依然存在,但人们的认识却不够,各国还缺乏实际行动。2008年3月17日的《新闻周刊》对此进行了报道。本文作者是英国著名女演员Emma Thompson,她在这篇短文中呼吁每个人拿出实际行动废除当代奴隶制!


Slavery In Our Times

An actress learns human trafficking doesn't just happen 'over there.'(traffic动词非法交易,要先加k再加ing/ed)

Emma Thompson. NEWSWEEK. Mar 17, 2008


When I was growing up in London, I walked past a massage parlor(按摩场所也指打着按摩场所的招牌提供非法性服务的场所) on the way to school every day. If my friends and I ever gave a thought to what went on behind its doors, we saw it as a bit of a giggle; it existed in a world away from our own.


Fast-forward(快进) 30 years to 2006, when I first met 19-year-old Elena through my work with the Helen Bamber Foundation, a U.K. charity that helps abuse victims. Elena's story was all too(很非常) common but had a huge impact on me.


An intelligent girl with ambitions, Elena had been enticed(entice诱使诱惑) to London from Moldova(摩尔多瓦) with a promise of a good job and a bright future. Once in the U.K., however, her passport was taken from her and she was kept in solitary confinement(单独监禁) to break her will(意志力,这里作者在说女孩被一个人关起来是为了攻破她的心理防线). She was warned that her family in Moldova would suffer harm unless she did what she was told. And then she was put to work as a sex slave, servicing(service这里是动词指为…服务) a procession(一行一群一队列) of men in the most appalling circumstances.

What made her story so personal for me was where she'd been imprisoned: the same massage parlor I'd once treated as a joke. It underlined an awful truth: that human trafficking is not just a problem for other communities or other people. It exists on our own doorsteps, and our lack of action shames us all.

It's hard to put an accurate figure on the full scale of this misery(痛苦悲惨). But the International Labor Organization estimates that there are at least 2.5 million forced laborers who are victims of human trafficking at any one time. Their plight(不幸遭遇) can be seen as the hidden side of globalization: a sickening(令人反感作呕的) business worth more than $30 billion a year.


It is a crime that scars(原指伤疤这里是动词指使…留下永久性的伤害) every region and almost every country. Some 120 nations are routinely plundered(plunder抢夺) by traffickers for their human raw materials, and more than 130 countries are known as destinations for their victims.

Like Elena, these victims may end up in the sex trade. Many others find themselves condemned as slave laborers, forced to work in domestic service, in hazardous(危险的) factories or at grim sites like the cocoa plantations(种植园) of West Africa. Thousands more, many just children, become unwilling conscripts(部队招募的人) in bitter wars. Nearly all suffer physical or sexual abuse, creating mental and physical scars they carry for the rest of their lives.


To help people understand their plight, a powerful and disturbing exhibition has been put together. Called "Journey," the exhibit is based on the testimony of Elena and other girls like her. It has had a searing(灼热的烫人的) impact on all who have seen it. But "Journey" also contains a message of hope. It reveals—as I have learned from Elena and other survivors—the extraordinary resilience(适应力,迅速从疾病、变化或灾难中恢复过来的能力) of the human spirit. It shows how, with support and care, these courageous women can rebuild their lives.


The exhibit traveled from London to Vienna early last month for an extraordinary international gathering of 1,400 experts, legislators(立法者), law-enforcement officers(执法官员), business leaders and campaigners, all determined to help stamp out(灭绝镇压) this evil trade. And it should be coming to the United States soon.


A unique initiative of six organizations under the rubric(这里指title,name) of the U.N. Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking (UN.GIFT), the Vienna Forum highlighted how little is being done to fight the problem internationally. U.S. State Department figures show that in 2004 (the last year for which numbers are available), there were only about 3,000 successful convictions of criminals worldwide for related offenses. With more than 80 women being smuggled(smuggle走私偷运) into Britain alone each week for the sex trade, this lack of action should make us all very angry.


I passionately hope the Vienna Forum and UN.GIFT manage to persuade countries to step up their enforcement efforts. But I left Vienna more certain than ever that, while leadership at the top is crucial, each of us must also step up to the mark(step up to the plate美国习语在棒球运动的大菱形内场上人们注目的焦点在球场下端的角上。这是个十四英寸见方的木块或者橡胶,称为本垒home plate,也可以简称为垒plate。击球手就站在这块 plate上面,击打投手向他投掷的球。当一名棒球运动员准备击球的时候,他就拿起球棒踏上本垒。英文的说法就是step up to the plate。这个说法被借用到日常生活的其它场合已经有多年了。它可以用来表示着手开展某一事情).


Much as we need international organizations, national governments, the police and courts to bring traffickers to justice, we must all examine how we behave. The solutions lie in all our hands. Businesses must ask searching questions about their suppliers and not let themselves be fobbed off(fob off搪塞,用诡计借口等把…对付掉) with convenient answers. As consumers, we need to think about what we buy, where it comes from and under what conditions it's made. Everyone can make a difference. If we explain to our own kids how children are forced to work as slaves in cocoa plantations, for example, they will press us to buy Fair Trade chocolate.

(公平贸易认证组织(FLO-CERT),是全世界最大的公平贸易稽查与认证单位。FLO-CERT是2004年1月从Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International分出来的两个组织之一(另一为国际公平贸易标签组织)。FLO-CERT目前接受稽核与认证的生产者组织大约有600个,分布於亚、拉、非等50多个国家,总计约有一百万名劳动者在这个体系,农民与工人各半。其根据国际标准化组织(ISO)的规范(ISO 65)来进行产品认证,并且非营利的独立运作。Fair Trade chocolate是指经过FLO-CERT认证后贴上标签的巧克力,表明发展中国家的种植园工人并没有遭到剥削,待遇条件较好)


Above all, we have to keep our eyes open and not be afraid of letting our voices be heard. This is not a problem happening somewhere else. It is on all our own doorsteps.


Elena and many thousands of people like her need us to come to their aid. We can no longer keep walking past their door and ignore their cries for help.




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