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 [转帖]泰晤士报：北京奥运的“启迪” |
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万润南
[个人文集]
加入时间: 2006/04/03
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作者：万润南 在 驴鸣镇 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org
泰晤士报27日刊登了专栏作家马丁萨缪尔（Martin Samuel）的一篇文章。在这篇题为“中国的辩护士是易骗又无知”（China’s apologists are wide-eyed and clueless）的文章中，萨缪尔指出，北京奥运表演相当精彩。但它接下来带给某些统治者的奇妙启示就是如何成功地控制你的国民。萨缪尔的文中首先拿北京奥运的成功对津巴布韦独裁者之启示来破题。
萨缪尔写道，可怜的老罗伯特－穆加比（津巴布韦总统），你知道他需要的是什么吗？奥运会。最好是把2012的奥运会搬到津巴布韦首都哈拉雷去，他真的是没有明察此道。须知，如果他有了一个组织良好的奥运会，那就什么都搞定了。把表演搞好，再“吐出”盖几栋令人印象深刻的建筑，那么全世界的人就会成为你的朋友了。
奥运结束后，从北京回国的路上，到处都是对奥运会充满惊叹而转变观念的人，他们已经看到了极权主义的亮点。“中国给奥运立下了非常高的标竿，”国际奥会主席贾克－罗格说。“某些东西是伦敦将无法比拟，也没办法并驾齐驱－－比方将数万名自愿者分派到不同地点去的能力。”是的，贾克所言不虚，一旦在别无选择之下，人们能够完成之事，确实是令人惊讶的。
在中国，民众真的是别无选择。在北京以南大约100英里的一个地方，为奥运将一个农业社区毁掉了，因为需要将那里的水源北引进城，好让北京奥运绿意盎然、鲜花盛开。从这个村子往北走，一路都设了路障。计程车司机被告知，如果发现有任何乘客举止异常，就要直接把他拉到公安局去。
而中国的官方报告却说，那些3.1万名失去家园或土地的人，都乐于为奥运作出这样的牺牲。“奥运会的这些遗产最终将取决于中国人民，”罗格如是说。但那也是一个谎言。受压制的人们什么也不能决定。
下一步，中国会发生什么事情，民众决定不了，就好比过去的伊拉克，她的命运并没有掌握在伊拉克人手里一样。清除了萨达姆萨的，是西方国家，而不是伊拉克当地民众。当全球的眼睛不再盯着北京时，中国政府将会回到老路去，她转回头的速度，将会比牙买加人冲出起跑线的速度还要快。
其实，中国即便在受到全球注目的时候，也并没有作多少假装的改革。国际奥会同意设立示威专区后，提出的示威申请有77个，但没有一件获得许可。其中有一些申请者甚至被判劳动教养，包括两名分别是79岁与77岁的老太太，其中的一位，几乎已经瞎了而且行动不便。
“假如你批评这个压迫人的政府，就在英国就会成为头条新闻，但如果走得太远，就可能有危险，”英国政府负责伦敦及奥运事务大臣泰莎乔威尔（Tessa Jowell）女士说。琼威尔说得不错。压迫政权也有感情的，不是吗？
作为布莱尔政府的内阁成员，泰莎乔威尔显然并不认为，指控一个专制政府拥有大规模毁灭性武器(WMD)、然后轰炸它、侵略它、最后找不到任何大规模毁灭性武器的证据，是一件做的太过分的事情；但她在北京，领略到了极权的快乐，她知道媒体的刺耳声音会给极权政府带来什么样的痛苦。其痛苦的程度甚于在入侵的过程中杀死平民百姓。
萨缪尔指出，这就是北京奥运最令人忧心的遗产。它向我们的部长们、文官与体育官员显示出，假如我们能够禁锢公民的个人自由，我们就可以达成的怎样的成就。改变已经准备在西方发生了。
伦敦奥委会在24日的北京奥运会闭幕式上的8分钟演出，出现了一个令人尴尬的时刻，在当晚上播放的、一段由伦敦观光局所拍摄的录影中，画面上居然出现了米拉韩德莉(Myra Hindley)这个英国历史上最变态的连环杀人凶手的影像。
伦敦的做法令人发笑，我们试图呈现一个非常酷的英国不列颠形象和充满效率的样子，但是却让一个恶名昭彰的儿童谋杀犯的影像却出现在大屏幕上。好在，我们应该感激我们生活在一个自由表达艺术的社会?。虽然这看来可能也不太长久了。
“英国的荣耀在今晚被污损了，”一位政府发言人说。“应该把负责影片制作的人查出、然后炒鱿鱼。”或者也许可以把他送到劳教所去。现在，英国政府也有人学北京的政府控制腔调和手段，而且学得惟妙惟肖。
伦敦前市长肯－利文斯顿(Ken Livingston)受到中国政府的豪华款待，并不令人意外。他敏锐地把天安门广场屠杀（根据中国红十字会的说法，有2000至3000人死亡）与伦敦的人头税暴动（根据每个人的说法，没有人死亡）等同而论，从而大大地理顺了英中关系，显而易见的是，他被中国制度的什么东西深深地吸引住了。
利文斯顿最近说：“当我开始对政治感兴趣的时候，报刊销售店里所有的报纸都有一整页来专门报导国会议员的演讲。每天早上那就是最重要的报导。”
当权者的言论由报纸毕恭毕敬地纪录，然后忠实地展示，没有任何评论。利文斯顿很欣赏吗？中国人民都知道那是什么滋味。
当然，北京奥运没有任何阻碍地举办了。实际上，任何人只要手中有了令人恐惧的、对民众的完全控制权，他就会让这些民众齐步行进、鼓声震天、舞蹈整齐、笑容满面、言行合拍，如果有必要的话，甚至赴汤蹈火。“他们看起来并不是一副受压迫很深的样子，”一位观察者写道。不，他们并不了解，假如你知道抱怨会有什么后果的话，你也不会露出受压迫的样子。
以上这位专栏作家还写道，在运动比赛开始之前举著牌子的女青年们，“就是中国年轻美女的完美例子。”她们的确是的。然而你要知道她们是被用什么样的目的、方法和条件选出来的。那些几万名的申请者，必须从中挑选高于1.66米、脸孔美丽的女性，然后被脱衣进行评审，由评审人员尺量每位申请者的身材比例。这样的做法难道是健康的吗？
那些在开幕式中只表演了三分钟雨伞舞的人，训练长达6个月，每天练习14至15个小时，然后，而900名展开卷轴和造成活字方阵和担任晚会中心表演的士兵们，必须穿著纸尿裤，因为他们必须躲在舞台下7个小时，不能上厕所。而这就是英国政府奥运部长称为之为神奇美妙的开幕式？是罗格认为很难比拟的奥运开幕式？
萨缪尔最后写道，北京奥运是中国的“意志的胜利”。呈现得完美无缺，但它不仅仅是舞蹈创作和表演，还有更多的因素和涵义在里面。
From The Times
August 27, 2008
China’s apologists are wide-eyed and clueless
The Beijing Olympics were quite a show. But then it’s wonderful what you can do with total control over your people
By Martin Samuel
Poor old Robert Mugabe. Do you know what that guy needs? An Olympics. Harare 2012, he really missed a trick there. A well-run Games and nothing else matters. Put on a show, throw up a couple of impressive buildings and the world is your friend.
The road home from Beijing is lined with wide-eyed converts who’ve seen the light on totalitarianism. “China has set the bar very high,” Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, said. “There are some things that London will not be able to compare to, or equal - such as the ability to bring hundreds of thousands of volunteers to different sites.” Yes, Jacques, it is amazing what people can achieve once they appreciate there is no alternative.
And there isn’t in China. About 100 miles south of Beijing, an agricultural community has been destroyed because its water supply was rerouted to deliver a green and blooming Olympics. Road blocks stop people from that area travelling north, while taxi drivers were told to take any passengers with unusual requests directly to the police.
Official reports state, however, that the 31,000 people that lost homes or land are delighted to be making this sacrifice. “The legacy of these Games is ultimately up to the Chinese people,” Rogge added, but that is a lie too. Nothing can be decided by an oppressed people.
What happens next in China is no more determined by its citizens than the destiny of Iraq was in the hands of Iraqis. The West got rid of Saddam Hussein, not the locals. When the eyes of the world turn from Beijing, this regime will go back to its old ways quicker than a Jamaican sprinter out of the blocks.
Not that it made much pretence of reform while under scrutiny. There were 77 requests to protest in official zones agreed with the IOC, but none was granted. A number of applicants were sentenced to re-education through labour, including two women, aged 79 and 77, one of whom is disabled and almost blind.
“You can get big headlines back home by slating the oppressive regime, but there is a risk of going too far,” Tessa Jowell, the Minister for the Olympics, said. Quite right, Tessa. Oppressive regimes have feelings, too, don’t they? As a member of Tony Blair’s Government, Tessa clearly did not think that it was going too far to accuse an oppressive regime of possessing weapons of mass destruction, bombing it, invading it, and then finding none; but having got on the totalitarian happy pills in Beijing, she knows the pain that a media barb can bring. Worse than collateral damage, that is.
This is the most worrying legacy of the Beijing Games. It has shown our ministers, civil servants and sports administrators what could be achieved, if we could only suspend personal freedom. Change is afoot. There was a sketch in the infamous Brass Eye television comedy in which the predatory paedophile and child murderer Sidney Cooke was to be fired into space, only for it to be discovered that an eight-year-old boy was sealed in the capsule with him.
The London Games had its Brass Eye moment on Sunday night when a video, made by the tourist authority Visit London and screened at the handover party, was found to contain an image of Myra Hindley, from a portrait by Marcus Harvey, shown at the Royal Academy in 1997.
I admit that I laughed. There we are, trying to look all Cool Britannia and icily efficient, and a picture of a notorious child murderer finds its way into the show. At the very least, we should be thankful to live in a society in which freedom of artistic expression is allowed. Although maybe not for much longer.
“It is disgraceful this night of British pride has been sullied,” said a government spokesman. “Those responsible should be found and sacked.” Or sent for re-education through labour, maybe. Now there is someone who has been supping too deeply from the cup of governmental control in Beijing.
No surprise that Ken Livingstone was lavishly entertained by the Chinese Government. Having done so much to smooth Anglo-Chinese relations with his astute comparison of the Tiananmen Square massacre (death toll 2,000-3,000, according to the Chinese Red Cross) with the poll tax riots (death toll none, according to everybody), it is clear what appeals to him about the Chinese system.
He said this week: “When I first got interested in politics all the quality papers had an entire page reporting MPs’ speeches. There would be the most salient point reported each morning.” The pronouncements of the powerful, dutifully recorded and displayed without comment, Ken? The Chinese people would recognise that.
Of course the Beijing Games went without a hitch. Give anyone total, terrifying control over a population, with force, and they will make them march in unison, drum, smile, dance, mime, jump through hoops if necessary. “They don’t look very oppressed,” wrote one observer. No, pal, and neither would you if you knew the consequences of complaint.
The same columnist wrote that the young girls carrying the flags before events were “perfect examples of what a beautiful young Chinese woman looks like”. Yes, they were. This is how that was achieved. Those applying for the job, who numbered thousands, had to be above 1.66m tall, pretty of face and stripped naked for the judges, who measured their body proportions. Isn’t that healthy?
Those performing the three-minute umbrella dance at the opening ceremony trained for six months for 14-15 hours each day, while the 900 soldiers unrolling the scroll that was the centrepiece of the production wore nappies because they had to stay hidden for seven hours, with not even a trip to the toilet allowed. And this is the event that our Olympics Minister called wondrous? That Rogge thinks will be hard to beat?
The Beijing Olympics was China’s Triumph of the Will. Immaculately staged, but there is a bit more to it than just choreography.
作者：万润南 在 驴鸣镇 发贴, 来自 http://www.hjclub.org |
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