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Colombia's Pacific region
哥伦比亚太平洋地区
More than perfume, please
拜托，不仅仅是牛粪上喷香水
The poverty-stricken Pacific eludes attempts to improve it
哥伦比亚贫困的太平洋区域逃避改善这一现状的尝试和努力
A grim view of the ocean
眺望海洋，神情严峻
FOR decades, Colombia's masters have told the world, and their own citizens, that they cherish being a Pacific power—and they truly want their poor Pacific region to catch up with more vibrant places, for example on the Caribbean coast. Getting anyone to believe that is harder.
数十年以来，哥伦比亚的领袖就曾向世界以及本国国民宣告，他们珍视作为一个太平洋国家的身份，他们衷心希望本国贫穷的太平洋地区能够追赶其他像加勒比海岸更具活力的地区。然而，要让人们相信这一点似乎更难了。
The latest rallying cry was sounded in the port of Buenaventura by President Juan Manuel Santos on October 25th. He unveiled new details of a 400m development strategy for the Pacific coast, including a pledge of 12m to provide drinking water for every resident of the city. Admitting that people had heard all this before, he vowed: “This time...it is not a strategy that comes from the capital...it will be implemented and supervised from here.”
10月25日总统胡安·曼努埃尔·桑托斯在布埃纳文图拉港（哥伦比亚太平洋岸的最大港口）喊出最新的口号。他宣布了一项金额高达4亿美元的太平洋海岸发展战略细节，其中一项是保证为该市所有的市民提供饮用水的1200万美元资金。他承认以前的政府也说过同样的话，但是他发誓：“这一次，这以发展战略不是来自中央，将会切实实施并由本市监督。”
Yet as Colombia booms—the central bank forecasts growth at 5% for 2014—the Pacific part lags. In Buenaventura, the country's second biggest container port, huge ships sail past wood-slat houses where taps flow for three hours a day at most, children are ill-fed and violence is rife. Unemployment in the port exceeds 40%, and elsewhere in the forested, mountainous region things are worse.
然而当哥伦比亚全国繁荣发展之时——中央银行预测该国2014年经济增长率为5%——太平洋区域有滞后了。在全国第二大的货柜港口布埃纳文图拉，巨型货船穿行于木板板条订成的房子中间，这里，自来水每天最多仅有3小时出水，儿童营养不良，暴力非常普遍。该港的失业率超过40%，在该区域森林覆盖的山区情况更加严峻。
Governments have tried to help. Over the past 40 years there have been master plans, policy papers and road maps. Some focus on infrastructure, some on ecology, others on poverty. But they tend to peter out. That is despite the fact that in foreign policy, Colombia holds dear its status as a Pacific nation. It has dreamed for two decades of joining the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum, whose members account for 63% of its trade and 50% of foreign investment. And Colombia founded—along with Mexico, Peru and Chile—the Pacific Alliance trade group which has slashed tariffs.
政府为此做过努力。在过去的40年，总体规划、政策文件以及公路线路图相继出现。有的聚焦于基础设施建设，有的立足于生态环境保护，另一些则致力于削减贫困。然而所有的这些似乎都不了了之了。尽管哥伦比亚在外交政策上非常重视其作为太平洋国家的地位。20多年来，哥伦比亚一直梦想这加入亚太经合组织论坛，哥伦比亚与论坛成员国的贸易额占该国总贸易额的63%，论坛成员国对哥的投资比例高达50%。哥伦比亚与墨西哥。秘鲁和智利联合成立的太平洋贸易联盟为该国减轻了关税。
As part of the latest Pacific plan, authorities have dusted off old projects, including one for a pipeline and a railway to stretch from oilfields in the east to Buenaventura. Another calls for a “corridor” to link the Caribbean and Pacific by river and road through Choco province.
作为最新的太平洋计划的一部分，政府抹去了一切旧项目，这包括由东部油田至布埃纳文图拉的石油管道和铁路，另一个是经由乔科省连接加勒比海和太平洋被称为“廊道”的河流及公路系统。
Such plans need to offer economic gains for ordinary folk and protection for the area's biodiversity, says Luis Gilberto Murillo, a man from Choco whom Mr Santos has asked to head the latest initiative.
穆里约，桑托斯任命指导最新计划的乔科省人称，这样的计划应该要为普通民众增收服务，为保护该地区的生物多样性服务。
But there is mistrust between Pacific residents and the capital. National power-brokers balk at letting light-fingered local authorities handle funds. A provincial assembly member from the country's north was banned from politics by Colombia's inspector-general for 13 years after voicing these suspicions in a way deemed racist; he said, in 2012, that “investing money in Choco is like putting perfume on a turd.”
但是在太平洋地区居民及首都政府之间横贯这不信任的鸿沟。国家权力代理人不愿意让手脚不干净的地方政府人员经手资金。来自该国北部的一名省议会成员自从以一种种族主义的方式质疑政策之后，被哥伦比亚总监剥夺政治权利长达13年之久。2012年他声称：“向乔科省投资无异于给牛粪喷香水”。
Meanwhile Pacific locals resent plans made in Bogota. “The plans aren't for us, they are for big businessmen,” says Mario Riascos, a community leader in Buenaventura. Acceptance by residents is crucial, as 84% of land in the Pacific region is subject to collective-title rights granted to black and indigenous groups. The introduction of such rights in 1993 was seen as a triumph for the poor, but business leaders say it hurt growth. A port manager in Buenaventura says it makes life much harder for firms needing access to land.
同时，太平洋地区的居民也地址哥伦比亚首都波哥大的计划。布埃纳文图拉的社区主任马里奥·里亚斯克斯称“这些计划根本不是为了我们，而是为了那些大商人”。要使当地居民同意这些计划相当不易，因为太平洋地区84%的土地受黑人及土著人所有的集体支配。1993年引入的该项权利被视为是穷人的胜利，但是商业领袖称这将不利于经济增长。布埃纳文图拉的港口经理人这使需要土地的公司经营陷入困境。
Already the grand plan sounds hollow to some. On November 4th Buenaventura residents protested because some districts have had no water for ten days.
现如今，如此恢弘的计划在一些人看来依然空洞无力。11月4日，由于有些区域已经连续10天没有饮用水，布埃纳文图拉居民进行了抗议。 译者：占文英
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