In the Spooky World Of Global Shipping
船員生活艱難 女作家親身體驗
By Dwight Garner

Rose George is a young British journalist who writes smart books about subjects we mostly prefer not to think about. Her last one, “The Big Necessity” (2008), about human waste and society, is among the best nonfiction books of the new millennium.
蘿絲‧喬治是個年輕的英國女記者，寫了些主題通常我們避而遠之的電子書。她前一本著作「廁所之書」（2008年出版）探討人類排泄物與社會，是新千禧年最好的非小說類書籍之一。

“Ninety Percent of Everything” her new one, is timely and deft look at shipping, and thus globalization.
她的新作「每件事的90%」（Ninety Percent of Everything，暫譯）適時而熟練地審視海運業，從而也探討了全球化。

In part, “Ninety Percent of Everything,” is an adventure story. Ms. George is permitted to catch a ride on a giant container ship, the Maersk Kendal. It carries her from the “southern English port of Felixstowe to Singapore, for five weeks and 9,288 nautical miles through the pillars of Hercules, pirate waters, and weather.”
在某種程度上「每件事的90%」是個冒險故事。喬治獲准搭上巨型貨櫃輪「馬士基肯德」號。巨輪載著她從「英格蘭南部菲力克斯托港出發，穿過直布羅陀海峽兩岸對峙的峭壁『海克力斯之柱』、海盜出沒的水域和惡劣天氣，到達新加坡，歷時五周，航程9,288海里」。

The Maersk Kendal is a relatively new ship, yet life onboard is ascetic. There is no Internet. Cellphones don’t work. Alcohol is not permitted. The lighting is industrial, the food grim. The crew has no idea what is in the containers being hauled.
「馬士基肯德」號還算新，船上生活卻似苦行。沒有網路，手機不通，不許喝酒，採用工業用照明燈具，吃得很差，船員不知載的是什麼貨。

Ms. George wants to cure herself, and us, of what the chief of the British Navy has called “sea-blindness.” The sea is something we fly over now. We rarely stop to think about the millions of who work aboard these ships.
喬治想治好她本人和讀者的一種病，就是英國海軍司令所謂的「對海洋的無知」。海洋現在是我們飛越的東西。我們極少停下來想一想在船上工作的那數百萬人。

This soulful writer is a moralist. “Buy your fair-trade coffee beans by all means,” she says, “but don’t assume fair-trade principles govern the conditions of the men who fetch it to you.”
喬治這位熱情的作家是個道德主義者，她說：「儘管去買你的公平貿易咖啡豆，但不要想當然地認為，把咖啡豆運來的人也是在公平貿易原則主導的環境下工作。」

Ms. George is shrewd on the economies of scale at work in global shipping. Her book is replete with facts that will make you slowly rub your forehead. “Shipping is so cheap that it makes more financial sense for Scottish cod to be sent 10,000 miles to China to be filleted, then sent back to Scottish shops and restaurants, than to pay Scottish filleters,” she writes. This book frequently broadcasts an alien, spooky glow. The ship she is aboard is immense, for example, but is staffed by only 20 people.
喬治對全球海運業目前的規模經濟感受很敏銳。書中滿是會讓你驚訝到慢慢摸起額頭的事實。她寫道：「海運這麼便宜，以致即使把蘇格蘭鱈魚送到一萬英里外的中國去骨切片，再送回蘇格蘭店家與餐廳，都比在蘇格蘭當地處理便宜。」這本書經常散發怪異、令人毛骨悚然的氣息。比方說，她坐的這艘船大到不行，卻只有20名船員。

The ocean itself is indifferent, implacable, deadly. Ms. George notes that 2,000 seafarers die at sea each year, and more than two ships are lost each week. These events do not make the evening news.
大海冷漠、絕情，會置人於死。喬治提到，每年有兩千名船員死在海上，每周超過兩艘船失蹤。這些事都上不了晚間新聞。

The ocean is a wild, mostly lawless place. When an accident does occur, it can be difficult to seek even meager justice. “There is no police force or union official to assist,” the author says. Ms. George lets her mind play over many aspects of shipping in her book. We read about how the Suez Canal is known as the Marlboro Canal because for smooth passage, “every ship’s captain has to have a ready stock of Marlboro’s to dispense. Immigration, port health, police, security guards.”
大海杳無人煙，大抵而言法律鞭長莫及。每遇意外，連些許正義都難尋得。喬治說：「汪洋中既沒有警察，也沒有工會幹部幫忙。」喬治在書中探討海運業許多面向。我們會讀到為何蘇伊士運河會稱為「萬寶路運河」：為了順利通過運河，「每個船長都得備妥萬寶路香菸，好分送給入出境機關官員、港口檢疫人員、警察和安全警衛。」

“Ninety Percent of Everything” is consistently absorbing, and there are moments when its pulse quickens: tales of survival, rescues, and about old codes of conduct that still apply.
「每件事的90%」從頭到尾引人入勝，談到求生、救命的故事和當今仍然適用的古老行為準則時，節奏還會加快。

The most engrossing sections are about pirates, so many of them coming out of Somalia, young men, optionless, chewing khat to get them high and dull their fear. Ms. George spends a week on a Portuguese frigate patrolling for pirates. Many boats have armed guards now, or panic rooms. The best panic rooms work well. “A poorly designed one,” she remarks, “can become a tomb.”
最讓人聚精會神的是關於海盜的部分。有這麼多海盜出身索馬利亞，這些年輕男子人生別無選擇，嚼著阿拉伯茶，好讓精神亢奮並用以壯膽。喬治曾在一艘偵察海盜的葡萄牙巡防艦上待了一周。目前許多船隻都有武裝保全或避難室。她說，最好的避難室很管用，「設計不良的卻可能變成葬身之地」。

Ms. George tells the stories of some recent hijackings at sea, and interviews a maritime hostage negotiator. These events can drag on for months.“Sometimes, for fun, I ask friends and acquaintances – educated, sophisticated ones – how many hostages they think are being held by pirates,” she writes. “Usually they suggest a dozen, when it is often 40 times that.”
喬治書中提到近來一些海上劫持事件，並訪問一名海上人質談判人員。劫持事件可能拖上數月。喬治寫道：「有時候我會為了好玩，問問教育程度高、懂世故的朋友和熟人，他們認為目前海盜扣有多少人質？他們常會說12個人上下，實際人數卻是40倍。」

Ultimately, the author’s words ringing in your ears. She asks, “Who cares about the men who steered your breakfast cereal through winter storms?” She declares, “How ironic that the more ships have grown in size and consequence, the less space they take up in our imagination.”
最後，作者的話餘音繞樑。她問道：「誰會在乎那些頂著冬季的暴風雨、用船隻把你的早餐麥片運來的人？」她說：「諷刺的是，這些船隻變得越大、越重要，在我們想像中占據的空間就越小。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/17/books/ninety-percent-of-everything-by-rose-george.html

2013-11-05聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 李京倫譯 原文參見紐時週報十二版左