紐約時報：風災災民對台灣總統感到憤怒

紐約時報在8月13日發佈一則關於昨天（12日）台灣政府針對莫克拉風災在台灣旗山地區救援情況的報導，標題破題似的表示《 Taiwan President Is Target of Anger After Typhoon 》（譯：風災災民對台灣總統感到憤怒）隱約透漏著對於台灣政府的執政團隊的不滿。最後，感謝網友 mlkj24 熱心翻譯外電全文，可參考《紐約時報對馬英九處理颱風的報導》一文。

順便一題，同個場景（旗山國中）的台灣媒體新聞為《馬英九勘災，少女哭倒在懷裡》大意是馬英九接受災民的陳情後，直升機救難也隨之出動的感人新聞。（不過，實際上距離災情發生已過四天了）

CHISHAN, Taiwan — If President Ma Ying-jeou thought he might be treated presidentially on Wednesday as he toured a center for survivors of last weekend’s typhoon he was mistaken.

The moment he stepped onto a soccer field that had been doubling as a landing pad for rescue helicopters, Mr. Ma was besieged by angry villagers who accused his administration of moving too slowly to help those still trapped in the mountains near here. As they hurled at him, the skies opened and Mr. Ma quickly became drenched to the skin, all of it captured live on television.

報導指出，總統到高雄縣旗山國中進行探訪時，遭到憤怒的災民團團圍住，指控救難團隊效率不佳，無法救助到尚困住在危險地區的家人。（譯註：實際在災區運作的救難人員在人力不足的環境下非常辛苦，我認為是指防災中心的統籌單位）

“Save us, people are dying,” the villagers yelled while holding aloft handmade banners that read “The government doesn’t value human life.”

村民們揮舞著「政府罔顧人民生命」的標語，吶喊著：「救救我們，人們快死了」

Chen Tai-sheng, who trudged out from his mud-soaked village two days ago, said the president should spend less time touring the country and more time orchestrating rescue efforts. “This is a war, not a political campaign,” Mr. Chen yelled for all to hear.

Chen Tai-sheng大喊說：「這是戰爭，不是政治宣傳（譯註：村民會直接說：「不要作秀」啦）」他認為總統應該多花時間去協調救災進度，多瞭解實際情況有多糟糕。

Typhoon Morakot, one of the worst natural disasters to hit Taiwan in 50 years, is also turning into an unpleasant political experience for Mr. Ma, the former mayor of Taipei who was elected last year by a respectable margin but whose popularity has been steadily dropping.

The storm, which killed at least 67 people across Taiwan and left scores missing, has turned into the kind of test that can make or break a political career, or in the case of Mr. Ma, provide fodder to the opposition — and irresistible images to a voracious press.

On Monday, during an earlier tour of his waterlogged nation, Mr. Ma was seen promising a bulldozer to a man who was searching for the body of his father. Two days later, after failing to persuade officials to make good on the pledge, the man, Lee Yu-ying, was forced to rent his own equipment to dig out his father’s mud-encased car.

星期一，馬英九總統到水鄉澤國的災區時，曾允諾一位災民給予挖掘設備以尋找他的父親，但是這兩天以來，該災民卻無法說服官員兌現其承諾，只好被迫自行借用設備在一台被泥土覆蓋的車中挖掘出自己父親的遺體。

“What kind of help was that?” Mr. Lee asked TVBS, a cable news channel.

「這算哪門子的幫助？」（譯註：默）

As with most natural disasters, there has been plenty of blame to go around. When the extent of the storm’s wrath became clear on Sunday, Mr. Ma criticized the country’s water resources agency for ineptitude and accused the national weather bureau of failing to predict rainfall that soaked some parts of the country for three or more days.

隨著災害的擴大，也災民們指責的氛圍逐漸清晰，不過在星期日的災情逐漸擴大時，馬英九總統卻將其責任歸責於氣象預報的不準確，導致政府無辜誤判。

On Tuesday, the president of the government’s investigative arm, the Control Yuan, said he would look into whether agencies or officials had a role in the extent of devastation.

“If no corrective measures are taken we will impeach them, impeach them and impeach them until they do what we want them to do,” said Wang Chien-hsuan, the agency’s president.

Most everyone here has been stunned by the ferocity of the typhoon, which dumped more than 80 inches of water in some places, swelling rivers that washed away bridges and spurring landslides that buried entire villages.

A weekend of typhoons claimed two dozen lives in eastern China, Japan and the Philippines, but Morakot had its deadliest impact on the isolated hamlets that dot the mountains of southern Taiwan.

Rescue officials, cut off from dozens of communities, have been unable to estimate the number of the dead or missing. Residents who have made it out alive, however, suggest that the figures could be well into the hundreds.

Li Jing-rong, a 50-year-old farmer from Hsiao-lin, a village of 1,300 set deep within the craggy folds of Kaohsiung County, said the most densely settled part of town was completely erased by a wall of rock and dirt that narrowly missed his home.

防災中心至今仍無法預估死亡以及失蹤的數量，由於目前資訊統合尚未健全，導致至今能有許多位於災區深處的部落能如孤島般失聯而隔絕於外界。相對於獲救的災民所述的：受害民眾可能達數百人。

五十歲 Li Jing-rong 是來自於有1300人口的小林村村民，小林村如今已完全被石頭與泥土覆蓋住。自己也已無法明確地認出住家的位置了。

“No one could have survived that,” he said.

「那種情況（指上述的滅村），人是無法生還下來的」

He said that at least 600 people, including his parents, were swept away around 6 a.m. on Sunday. The survivors from his end of the village, about 40 people, scurried to an open area and then spent three days waiting in the rain before helicopters arrived on Tuesday. He said a separate group of 30, including his brother, were waiting for help in another valley.

“I wish the government would work faster because they have nothing to eat,” he said after confronting the president.

他表示，至少有600人，包括他的雙親。在那星期日凌晨六點的瞬間遭泥水沖走。逃到村落週圍的倖存者僅有四十人，在颱風風雨中的高地度過三天，救難直升機的出現是在風雨平緩時的星期二（譯註：天氣惡劣直升機無法起降），他表示，他的弟弟是與其他三十人在另一個山谷等待救援的。

「我希望政府的救援行動能夠迅速，因為受困的災民們尚處於毫無糧食充飢的狀態。」

Throughout the day, as sunshine alternated with soaking downpours, helicopters thundered in and out of Chishan Middle School’s sports field. During the morning, the helicopters picked up supplies. By afternoon, they were returning with muddied and barefoot villagers from a town called Minzu.

As the survivors scurried across the grass, rotors whirling above their heads, a crowd of people, some weeping and wailing, surged forward to meet loved ones, or to ask about those still unaccounted for. “Have you seen my mother?” one woman screamed again and again. No one responded.

直升機以旗山國中作為起降場，無論天氣雨晴，在運送物資與救助 Minzu 部落的災民之間來回，忙碌的架次從早到晚不間斷。（譯註：為辛苦並冒著自身安全危險的救難人員致敬！）

當直升機降落，生還者在螺旋槳旋轉的草地上尋找著親人，或詢問下落。「你有看到我媽媽嗎？」婦女一次又一次尖叫地問。

沒人回應。

The injured were bundled into ambulances; yellow taxis and minivans took away everyone else. During the quiet between the arrival and departure of each helicopter, people worried aloud about the unrelenting rain or complained that too many boxes of instant noodles were being air-dropped to those huddling outdoors without access to water or stoves.

Others simply shook their heads over the fact that three days into the disaster, so many people were still cut off from the outside world.

Aijo Wu, a 23-year-old law student who has had no word from her extended family in the village of Taoyuan, was the last person to talk to Mr. Ma before his security detail whisked him away. She beseeched him to send more soldiers into the mountains, use more military helicopters and accept offers of assistance from other countries.

其他人則是一直搖頭，災難已經度過過第三天了，至今仍有受困民眾與外界失聯。

Aijo Wu，一名二十三歲的法律系學生，與在桃源鄉的家人仍然沒有信息聯繫。她嘗試與馬總統陳情對話，卻遭到隨護拒絕並立刻將總統帶離現場，她想對總統建議能派出更多軍方人力支援，派出更多直升機搜救，以及同意外國的援助。

“If there are 20,000 people stranded but the army is only using 30 of their helicopters, a lot of people are going to die,” she said. “I’m angry that the president won’t ask the outside world for help.”

「如果只使用三十架直升機而去援救毫無自救能力的兩萬人，很多人會因此得不到實際援助而死亡的。」她說「我對總統婉拒國際救援感到生氣。」

David Yu contributed research.

翻譯協助：
最後要感謝 mlkj、clown、reverence、StanKitty 網友們的熱心翻譯與協助。