小國家們找到的分享利益

SMALL NATIONS DISCOVER THE BENEFIT OF SHARING

(Sam Knight: Read 047)

小國家們找到的分享利益

      When Sydney Pollack shot his new thriller “The Interpreter” on location at the United Nations, he did not do so on the fourth floor of 800 Second Avenue.  That is hardly a surprise.  The place is not accustomed to much attention.

當Sydney Pollack在美國外景拍攝地拍攝他的最新驚悚片“The Interpreter”「雙面翻譯」時，他絕不會選擇在第二大道800號4樓，此地一點也不驚奇，也不具有更多的注意力。

      The fourth floor of Number 800, a sturdy office building that is protected by concrete flower boxes and sits on the corner of 42^nd Street, represents a rare pocket of international office-sharing in the ostentatious world of diplomatic missions.  Known formally as the Joint Office for Commonwealth Permanent Missions to the United Nations, it is the place where Gambia might borrow the fax machine belonging to the Solomon Islands, which might be wondering whether to split the cost of a cab downtown with the Maldives.

第二大道800號4樓這棟建築坐落於第42街的轉角處，且被混凝土的花牆所保護著，這個小地區象徵著在華麗的外交任務中所扮演的國際性分享角色。對於美國聯邦政府而言此地形式上被認知為聯合辦公室，在此地方有可能是甘比亞正在使用屬於所羅門群島的傳真機、也有可能你會感到困惑，搭上屬於馬爾地夫的出租汽車是否需要劃分出其車資。

      The Joint Office, which has beige walls brightened by occasional posters from its mainly tropical inhabitants, formally came into being 20 years ago.  These days, 10 nations from three regions – the Pacific, the Caribbean and Africa – have their United Nations missions there, and for some countries these offices serve as their embassies to the United States and Canada as well.  The only nation on the floor that is not entirely made up of islands (or a SIDS, a small island developing state, in U.N. language) is Gambia.

此聯合辦公室是在20年前形成的，他的外觀主要是當地熱情的居民偶爾會將鮮明的海報掛在它的米黃色牆上。從那時起，來自3個地區（太平洋沿岸國家、加勒比海地區、非洲）的10個國家在此地類似聯合國的大使館工作，並且來自這些國家的官員同時也是任職於派駐美國或加拿大的大使職務。其中只有甘比亞是不完全由島嶼所組成(或者可稱為一個充滿嬰兒猝死症候群、一個小島低度開發的國家)

      Unsurprisingly, it was their only New Yorker, a Brooklyn dentist named Lamuel Stanislaus, who was the driving force behind this solution to the rent problems of these small nations.  Dr. Stanislaus, 85, served as Grenada’s permanent representative to the United Nations from 1985 until his retirement last year. 一位85歲服務於聯合國格瑞那達代表的牙醫師Dr. Stanislaus自1985起至去年退休都在此工作，他認為解決這些小國家的租金問題，其背後驅動力是不令人意外的。

      “As soon as I got there, I couldn’t understand how you had such a number of small states operating in such an uneconomical manner,” Dr. Stanislaus said.  In the pricey precincts of Midtown, those poor countries were toughing it out on their own, paying rent on separate offices. 當我ㄧ到達那裏我不能了解，你要如何以相當不經濟的方式來經營操作這些小國家。在這高價的商業區裡，那些貧窮的國家只能以分租方式來共享這間辦公室。

      In the end, it was the Commonwealth, the organization of nations of the former British Empire, that agreed to the Stanislaus plan.  The Commonwealth’s largest donors, countries like Britain, Australia and New Zealand, would pay the rent for the shared office, while the tenants would pay other expenses.  So the tenants get a break on rent as well as the efficiency of shared services.

最後大英聯邦政府同意了the Stanislaus的計畫，由大英聯邦下的最大資助者如英國、澳洲和紐西蘭來共同支付這間辦公室的租金費用，以令這些住戶能有喘息的空間去支付其他的費用，並有效的分享此地的服務。

      Most of the ambassadors agreed that cost and convenience were the main benefits of the arrangement, which allows them to share a conference room, a reception area, a library and copying machines.

多數的大使人員同意這些費用與便利設施能餵他們帶來最主要的利益，而這些設備如會議室、接待處、圖書事與影印機等均允許他們共同分享使用。

      “All of these things you would normally have to break your head worrying about, someone else deals with them,” Ambassador Crispin Grey-Johnson of Gambia said, referring to the receptionist and to Tania Laumanulupe Tupou, the floor’s manager, who is from Tonga.

「所有這些事情通常會使你感到擔憂，但仍有些人會加以處理」來自東加群島負責接待的大樓管理員表示

      Ambassador Ali’ioaiga Feturi Elisaia of Samoa, noting that tiny missions often shared their notes because none could attend every U.N. meeting, added, “I can’t imagine what life would be like without it.”

一位薩摩亞的大使人員留意到通常他們都會分享這裡的紀錄，因為沒有人都會去參加每次的聯合國會議，他補充說「我沒有辦法想像沒有這裡的一切我們的生活會像什麼樣子」

      The Joint Office is about more than shared facilities; its tenants also have shared interests.  Beyond the struggle against what Mr. Grey-Johnson calls “the problem of smallness” – the difficulty in having any presence in international diplomacy – these countries jointly grapple with specific troubles.

此聯合辦公室不只是在設備上的分享，他們幾乎已能分享其產生的利益。除此之外努力去對抗所謂的「匱乏的問題」，這種困難乃是國際外交上共同存在的特別憂慮的事。

      Global warming is one, with many of the states facing the prospect of losing islands and coral reefs to rising seas and temperatures.  Securing beneficial trade treaties is another.

一個是全球暖化的問題，有更多的國家正面臨著如海平面與溫度的持續上升導致島嶼與珊瑚礁消失的景象。如何保護有利的商業交易協定則是另一個困難問題。

      Banding together will not cure these troubles.  But it helps.  “The moral support is there for one another,” said Ambassador Mohamed Latheef of the Maldives, which lost more than 100 lives during the tsunami and suffered extensive damage to a third of its 1,191 islands.  We are small, we cannot offer anything else.” 

這兩個問題始終無法徹底消除，但是它卻協助了「來自世界各地你我不分彼此的道德上支援」這些問題在曾經發生的海嘯期間奪走了超過100條生命，也讓1191個三分之一的島嶼造成重大損傷，我們的地球真得很小，我們不能在提供任何地方來遭受到破壞了。