世界之巅上的垃圾

随着每年攀登世界最高峰——珠穆朗玛峰的季节的到来，这座宏伟的大山也将经历人们演绎的新一轮恐怖故事。今年也没有什么不同。世界屋脊似乎变成了一个垃圾桶，供络绎不绝、寻求关注的西方人在其穿越曾经一度无比危险的斜坡时丢弃垃圾。今年，垃圾和废弃氧气瓶的数量如此惊人，以至于尼泊尔政府要求游客承诺将收集并从山上额外带回8公斤的废弃物——当然，他们还需要带回自己制造的所有垃圾，否则，将无法获得登山证。

必须对此进行要求已经足够令人沮丧了，这一要求还很可能会被忽略则更是雪上加霜。来自西方的登山者已经支付了大笔金钱来攀登萨加玛塔山（珠峰的尼泊尔名称——西藏地区将其称为珠穆朗玛峰），他们将想方设法绕过这些规定，或者让当地的夏尔巴向导替他们搬运垃圾。这一要求紧接着去年发生的大事件出台，当时，一队未带助手的欧洲登山者与一群夏尔巴人发生了激烈的争吵，后者试图将经验较少的登山者安全地运送上山。这场争论变得非常不愉快，欧洲人声称他们为了生命安全，不得不逃离了该区。

尽管珠穆朗玛峰是地球上最美丽的地方之一，近来该区的景象却似乎表明了地球上的部分阴暗面。我们不会为在世界最高峰上丢弃垃圾和废弃物而感到不安，也不关心当地的生态系统和我们可能会其造成的破坏，这表明了我们生活在一次性文化中。此外，它也展示了我们在持续存在的全球不平等方面所面临的问题。

欧美富有的年轻冒险家横行在珠穆朗玛峰上，他们认为财富让他们自动拥有了前往他人土地的通行证，也让他们可以在那里随心所欲。同时，尽管这些登山者为该区带来了大量金钱，按理真正属于这片土地的当地人却仍然生活在贫困中。以传统方式谋生将让他们处于贫困和营养不良的境地，加入因珠穆朗玛峰旅游而兴起的人为经济则是快速赚钱的最佳方法，这就是他们目前所面临的情况。因此，当地的夏尔巴人最终变成了西方人的仆人、厨师和挑夫，在许多情况下，如果没有他们的帮助，这些西方人绝不可能活着登上这座山峰。但是，要处理尼泊尔的贫困问题，这可不具备真正的可持续性。

在将珠穆朗玛峰上的烂摊子收拾干净之后——这里的烂摊子可不仅仅只是垃圾，还有廉价的冒险和甚至更为廉价的服务业造成的难堪局面——就将标志着我们开始进入了一个更有尊严的时代。当对自然之美和当地人民及文化的尊重取代目前对到达山顶、然后说我做到了的痴迷时，我们才能说自己对这个世界充满了尊敬。到那时，我们将发现我们也同时到达了一个更公平和平等的世界，在那里，尼泊尔人民和他们的土地将不再只被视为为西方富人背包的骡子和拍照的背景。

从英文版翻译而来。
原文于 4月2, http://annie65j.blogspot.com/2014/04/trash-at-top-of-world.html

[ 珠穆朗玛峰, 垃圾, 废弃氧气瓶, 于尼泊尔政府, Everest, 登山者 ]

Education, economics, or exploitation?

The New York Times has recently reported that British universities are facing a big problem – student enrolment is falling for the first time in years. Not among British students, who are still taking out their £9,000 loans to pay for tuition every year, having been told that you need a degree to get a job (and then finding out upon graduation that there are no jobs to be had anyway). Rather, it is foreign students who are starting to turn their backs on the British educational system, particularly when it comes to one-year Masters degrees – in which foreigners make up the majority of students.

This is worrying for British universities because those foreign students pay considerably higher fees for the privilege of attending a UK school than domestic students do. Of course, that might seem like the most immediate problem here – not only are fees already higher for foreign students, but they have been rising rapidly in the past five years, ever since the government lifted the cap on the amount universities could charge. Although things are getting worse for domestic students, it’s important to remember that foreign students from the Commonwealth and other rising countries like China have long been the exploited cash cows of the British university system – paying extortionate amounts of money for half-baked, underfunded courses in exchange for the ‘prestige’ of studying in England, and not even having the safety net of the student loan system that native British students can fall back on.

For both domestic and foreign students, the recent rise in tuition fees has been a part of the neoliberal project to fully integrate education into the capitalist economic system, in a way that it had previously managed to resist to some extent. Education in the UK (and other countries) is now being treated as a business rather than as an intellectual pursuit – departments that focus on topics which are considered ‘economically useful’ are funded (business, chemistry, physics, etc.), while others are told that they are of no use in the modern world and suffer huge cuts (English, history, philosophy, etc.). Meanwhile, students are made to see university as an ‘investment’ that is only available to those who have money or are willing to take on debt, and consequently their expectations change – lecturers all have numerous stories about students who expect to get top marks no matter what they hand in, ‘because we’re paying for it’.

What is unsaid in the New York Times piece is the possibility that foreign students are increasingly realizing that they are only important to the universities in terms of those economic equations. Their hopes, dreams, and futures are of no importance – they are just seen as useful figures on a balance sheet, and they only get attention paid to them when they stop showing up on that balance sheet with as much regularity. Hopefully, at least part of this drop in student numbers comes from the realization that the British educational system is now nothing more than a business based on exploiting students (and, in many cases, their badly-paid professors and lecturers).

It’s time for a change in the university system, and hopefully this drop in student numbers will be the first step. We need to encourage people who want to learn purely for the pleasure of learning, rather than seeing everything as a calculating economic move or encouraging students to see the world as an unending competition between themselves and everybody else. And we need to help poorer people from all countries attend university to better themselves and to achieve their own goals – rather than simply to fill up the bank accounts of the universities themselves.

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Sampah di Puncak Dunia

Tiap tahun, musim pendakian gunung tertinggi dunia Everest, menyisakan cerita tentang kerusakan yang kita lakukan terhadap gunung yang ‘agung’ ini. Tahun ini pun tidak berbeda. Tampaknya, atap dunia yang merupakan gunung paling berbahaya ini telah berubah menjadi tempat sampah bagi banyak “pendaki gunung yang ingin dikenal” dari negara-negara barat saat mencoba menaklukkannya. Jumlah sampah dan tabung oksigen bekas telah bertumpuk begitu banyak sehingga pemerintah Nepal memutuskan untuk hanya mengeluarkan izin pendakian jika pengunjung berjanji untuk membawa turun sampah tambahan seberat 8kg selain sampah mereka sendiri tentunya.

Kenyataan bahwa pemerintah Nepal sampai harus mengeluarkan permintaan ini tentu sangat tragis. Lebih buruk lagi, permintaan ini kemungkinan besar akan di abaikan. Tampaknya, para pendaki dari negara-negara barat yang telah mengeluarkan banyak uang untuk dapat mendaki sagarmatha (nama gunung Everest dalam bahasa Nepal - orang Tibet menyebutnya chomolungma) akan menemukan jalan pintas untuk mengabaikan persyaratan ini, atau akan meminta pemandu sherpa setempat untuk membawakan sampah ini. Asumsi ini berasal dari kisah yang menghebohkan tahun lalu di mana sekelompok pendaki tanpa pemandu asal Eropa bertengkar dengan sekelompok sherpa yang sedang mencoba membawa beberapa pendaki amatir melewati jalur yang aman. Pertengkaran tersebut memburuk, dan para pendaki Eropa mengaku bahwa mereka harus melarikan diri untuk selamat.

Meski gunung everest adalah salah satu bagian terindah dari planet kita, belakangan ini pemandangan di sekitarnya seolah menjadi gambaran dari aspek negatif planet kita. Hal tersebut memperlihatkan bahwa kita tinggal di tengah masyarakat yang terbiasa membuang sampah. Sedemikan buruknya sehingga kita tak merasa bersalah atau berpikir akan dampaknya terhadap ekosistem serta kerusakan yang ditimbulkan dari membuang sampah dan limbah di puncak tertinggi dunia itu. Lebih jauh, hal tersebut juga memperlihatkan bahwa kita tinggal di dunia global yang berat sebelah.

Kini gunung everest dikuasai oleh para pemuda kaya pencari ketegangan dari Eropa dan Amerika yang merasa bahwa kekayaan mereka memberi mereka hak untuk memasuki tanah milik orang lain dan berbuat semau mereka. Sebaliknya, meskipun jumlah uang yang berasal dari para pendaki gunung ini cukup besar, penduduk setempat yang merupakan pemilik sah dari gunung tersebut masih hidup dalam kemiskinan. Penduduk ini telah mencapai titik yang memaksa mereka untuk keluar dari pola hidup tradisional, jika mereka tidak ingi terus miskin dan kelaparan. Sedangkan jika mereka mereka memilih untuk berpartisipasi dalam perekonomian semu dari pariwisata gunung Everest, mereka akan cepat mendapatkan uang. Para sherpa kini hanyalah pelayan, koki, dan pembawa beban bagi orang-orang barat, yang tanpa bantuan mereka, kebanyakan tidak akan bisa sampai ke puncak gunung dengan selamat. Ini bukanlah cara berkelanjutan untuk mengatasi kemiskinan di Nepal.

Saat kekacauan di Everest berhasil dibersihkan, bukan hanya sampah melainkan seluruh kekacauan yang ditimbulkan oleh pencari ketegangan dan industri jasa murahan, kita akhirnya akan benar-benar memasuki era yang lebih bermartabat. Jika obsesi keberhasilan mencapai puncak gunung Everest digantikan dengan rasa hormat akan keindahan alam, keunikan budaya dan masyarakat setempat, maka kita dapat sungguh-sungguh menghormati bumi kita. Jika ini terjadi, kita akan berhasil mencapai dunia yang lebih adil karena bangsa Nepal dan tanah mereka tidak hanya dipandang sebagai tenaga kasar dan latar belakang foto indah milik orang-orang barat kaya.

Diterjemahkan dari Bahasa Inggris, artikel asli di publikasikan tanggal di 02.04.2014: http://annie65j.blogspot.com/2014/04/trash-at-top-of-world.html

[ gunung tertinggi dunia Everest, tabung oksigen, membawa turun sampah tambahan , mendaki sagarmatha, gunung Everest, chomolungma, sherpa ]

欧洲空置房的耻辱

最近的一份报告显示，欧洲目前约有1100万座空置房，它们能够安置的人口数差不多是欧洲大陆流浪人口总数的三倍。在西班牙分布有340万座度假屋，法国和意大利各有200多万，德国180万，还有700,000座在英国。再加上分布在葡萄牙、爱尔兰、希腊和其他国家较少数量的空置房，我们就能得到这个庞大的数字。欧洲预计共有410万人无家可归——四百多万人经常流落街头，或是短暂而不稳定栖身于住宅和临时收容所中。

当然，空置房和流浪人口并不是完美的组合。许多空置房从未有人居住过，因为它们建成于导致市场崩溃的金融危机之前，要么是度假屋，要么就修在遥远的城市远郊。因此，它们从一开始就处于空置的状态，摇摇欲坠，在许多情况下，甚至都没有恰当的用水和电力供应。另外，流浪人口分布在数十个欧洲国家，而这些房产本身却主要集中在最大最富裕的五个国家境内。不过，许多这类房屋的购买者都是在外地主，他们将其视为投资，认为在等待房价上涨期间，让房屋空置更为合适（以此避免处理维修、租赁法、收取租金等问题），以便日后将其出售，赚取利润。

这是明白无误的公开牟利行为，空置房和流落街头的人并存，是对社会应优先处理的事项的尖锐评论。各国政府不但没有通过寻找使用这些房屋的方法来解决问题，而是让问题变得更难解决。以英国为例，当前政府通过了反占屋法，据称，该项法律旨在阻止“反政府主义者”和东欧移民在屋主外出度假期间占用他人房屋。实际上，类似这样的情况从未发生，当然，此项法律也阻止了无家可归的人占用被业主空置数月或数年的建筑——在以前，要在此类房产中居住数周，直到法院令其搬出是完全有可能的；而现在，这变成了一种犯罪行为，警察可以立即将他们驱赶出去。

正是透过这类法律，我们才能清楚地看到，人们是如何利用“私有财产”这一思想体系来确保穷人永远贫穷，富人持续富裕的。只有成功的人才能拥有土地和住宅；而同时拥有数套房屋，并让大部分住宅处于空置状态，等待市场回暖，就只能是富人们才能实现的事情了。然而，任何试图改变这种状态的努力都会遭遇“私有财产”的呐喊！随后，穷人和中产阶级就会想“这是对的，我以后也不愿意任何人来拿走我的财产”。但是，他们却忘了在一个拥有一套小小的住宅、一辆车和一台电视机，与一个拥有数套这类财产的在外地主间存在着巨大的差异。

是时候让政府开始将房屋视作基本资源，确保人人有权使用这种资源了——就像水或食物一样。各国政府都应制定政策，鼓励屋主以合理的价格出租空置房（借助于细致而灵敏的物业税法规和系列租赁控制，也很容易实现管理）。在那时，我们就能利用这些空置房来帮助人们重新振作，维持自己的生活，最终，我们的政府将不再只是为资本主义谋利的机构，而将变成代表全体人民最佳利益的组织。

从英文版翻译而来。
原文于 3月13, http://annie65j.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-shame-of-europes-empty-houses.html

人无家可归, 临时收容所中, 空置房和, 流浪人口并不, 金融危机之

Trash at the top of the World

Every year, the new season for climbing Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain, seems to bring a new round of horror stories about what we have done to this majestic mountain. This year is no different. The roof of the world, it seems, has been turned into a trashcan by the constant stream of attention-seeking westerners traversing their way up its once-dangerous slopes. The amounts of rubbish and discarded oxygen containers have gotten so bad that this year the Nepalese government is only issuing climbing permits if visitors promise to collect and bring down an extra 8kg of waste from the mountain – as well as bringing back all their own garbage, of course.

The fact that this has to be asked for is tragic enough. The fact that it will probably be ignored is even worse. Western mountain climbers who have paid a lot of money to make it to sagarmatha (the Nepalese name for Everest – the Tibetan is chomolungma) will find a way around the requirements, or will simply get their local sherpa guides to carry the trash for them. This comes on the back of last year’s big story in which a group of unassisted European climbers got into a heated argument with a group of sherpas who were trying to safely transport less experienced climbers up the mountain. The debate turned ugly, and the Europeans claim they had to flee in fear of their lives.

Despite being one of the most beautiful parts of our planet, the scene around Everest these days seems to be symptomatic of some of the uglier aspects of our planet. It shows that we live in a disposable culture, to the extent that we feel no qualms about storing our trash and waste on the world’s highest peak, with no concern for the local ecosystem and the damage we might be doing to it. But it also shows the problems we have with continued global inequality.

Everest is a mountain which is overrun by young, rich thrillseekers from Europe and America who feel like their wealth gives them an automatic pass to access the land of others and do whatever they want on it. Meanwhile, despite the large amounts of money that these mountain climbers bring to the region, the local people who rightfully belong on the land remain in poverty. They have reached a point where living their traditional lives will leave them poor and malnourished, while participating in the artificial economy of Everest tourism is the best way to make some quick money. The local sherpas thus end up as servants, cooks, and carriers for westerners who, in many cases, could never make it up the mountain alive without their help. This is not really a sustainable way of dealing with poverty in Nepal.

When the mess on Everest is cleaned up – and by the mess I mean not just the trash, but the whole disgraceful scene of cheap thrills and an even cheaper service industry – we will have a sign that we are beginning to enter a more dignified era. When the current obsession with reaching the top of the mountain just so you can say you did it is replaced with a true reverence for the beauty of nature and the uniqueness of the local people and culture, then we can truly say we are being respectful of the world. And when that time comes, we’ll find that we have also reached a more fair and equitable world, in which Nepalis and their land are not just seen as pack mules and photo backgrounds for the rich of the West.

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