加拿大美麗小島需要人 來工作就送地
WHYCOCOMAGH, Nova Scotia —When a land-rich family in sparsely populated Cape Breton wanted toattract workers for its understaffed country store, it offered free land toanyone who would come and work for five years.
新斯科舍省懷科馬——人煙稀少的布雷頓角島(Cape Breton)上有一戶人家擁有大量土地，爲了吸引工人來自己缺少人手的鄉村商店，他們向任何來這裏工作五年的人免費贈送土地。
They expected a few dozenresponses; more than 50,000 poured in — and the calls keep coming.
他們原本以爲會收到幾十條回覆，結果卻有五萬多人打來電話，而且還有電話不斷打來。
“I expected a response, justnot one as huge as this,” said Sandee MacLean, a woman with multiple tattoosand copper red hair, who came up with the idea with her sister.
“我料到能得到迴應，只是沒想到反響這麼大，”珊迪·麥克林(Sandee MacLean)說。她有一頭銅紅色頭髮，身上有多處紋身，她和姐妹一起想出了這個主意。
Of course, Canada has a lot ofland, but not a lot of people, and economically sleepy regions like Cape Bretonin Nova Scotia have steadily leaked population. The island, a scenic4,000-square-mile patch of rolling forest and farmland jutting into thenorthern Atlantic Ocean, has only about 130,000 residents and has been losingwell over 1,000 people a year for the last two decades.
加拿大當然不缺土地，但人口稀少。在新斯科舍布雷頓角島這種經濟不活躍的地區，人口在不斷流失。這個小島風景優美，面積4000平方英里，有着起伏的森林和農田，延伸至北大西洋。但它只有約13萬居民，在過去20年裏，每年流失1000多人。
As Cape Bretoners becomeincreasingly frantic about stemming the tide of outward migration, giving awayland just might be a solution.
布雷頓角島人越來越瘋狂地想要阻止人口外流，贈送土地也許是一個解決辦法。
“It is validation that land isan attraction,” said Chris van den Heuvel, president of the Nova ScotiaFederation of Agriculture. He hopes the strong response to the giveaway willhelp his group’s effort to create a land bank that would make farmlandaffordable and bring newcomers to the province.
“土地肯定具有吸引力，”新斯科舍農業聯合會(Nova Scotia Federation ofAgriculture)主席克里斯·範登赫費爾(Chris van den Heuvel)說。他希望土地贈送引發的強烈反響能對他的組織創立地產銀行帶來幫助——地產銀行將讓人們買得起田地，吸引更多人來這個省。
Several economically depressedcommunities in the United States have tried the same idea in recent years,including towns in Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota.
近些年，美國幾個經濟低迷的社區也嘗試過同樣的方法，包括艾奧瓦州、堪薩斯州和明尼蘇達州的一些小城市。
There is a long history of givingland away. European powers that wanted to populate their New World possessions,as well as Canada and the United States in their youth, gave land to anyone whowould settle on it and make improvements.
土地贈送歷史悠久。當年歐洲強國爲了吸引人們移民到它們在新世界佔領的土地——包括早期的加拿大和美國——向所有願意在那些土地上定居並作出改進的人贈送土地。
But in Nova Scotia, theoverwhelming response is also a measure of how many people, unmoored by theglobal economy, are hungry for a sense of community. To many, the proposalseemed to present a connection to a famously rich regional culture full ofScottish fiddling, community suppers and square dancing.
但是，新斯科舍引發的強烈反應也說明，很多人因全球經濟衰退而流離失所，渴望獲得社區歸屬感。對很多人來說，這項提議似乎意味着，他們可以與一個非常豐富的地方文化產生聯繫，它包括蘇格蘭小提琴演奏、社區晚餐和四方舞。
All of that was far from mindwhen Jim and Ferne Austin decided to turn their store over to their daughtersthis year. For the two women, Ms. MacLean and Heather Austin Coulombe, the mostimmediate concern was where to find employees.
今年，吉姆和費恩·奧斯汀夫婦(Jim and Ferne Austin)決定把商店交付給兩個女兒打理。現在發生的一切完全出乎他們的意料。對麥克林和希瑟·奧斯汀·庫隆布(Heather Austin Coulombe)這兩個女人來說，最迫切的問題是去哪裏找僱員。
“We were in a panic, we wereso short staffed,” Ms. Coulombe said.
“當時我們很恐慌，因爲我們急需人手，”庫隆布說。
The Austins opened thebusiness, the Farmer’s Daughter Country Market, in 1992 in Whycocomagh, NovaScotia, after a life spent dairy farming. The combination bakery, producemarket, ice cream parlor, fudge factory and gift shop now occupies a collectionof barn-red buildings along the side of the road on a quiet stretch of theTrans-Canada Highway.
奧斯汀夫婦幹了大半輩子乳製品工作，1992年在新斯科舍懷科馬開設了這個名叫“農夫女兒鄉村市場”的公司。它包括麪包房、農產品市場、冰激凌店、乳脂軟糖廠和禮品店，位於跨加拿大高速公路(Trans-Canada Highway)一個安靜地段旁邊的一片穀倉紅建築羣裏。
Mr. Austin’s father, also adairy farmer, had amassed more than 600 acres; after sell-offs, about 200 acresremain. The land that is left is mostly mountain woodland — pretty to see, butnot of much value unless it were logged. No one in the family wants to shavethe hillsides for that.
吉姆·奧斯汀的父親也是奶農，曾經積累了600多英畝土地，賣了一些後還剩下約200英畝，大部分是山間林地。它們看起來很美，但是如果不把樹砍掉就沒有什麼價值。家裏沒人想爲此砍掉山坡上的樹。
By the end of this summer, thecountry market was down by three full-time workers, making it difficult to meeta local grocery chain’s demand for baked goods from the Farmer’s Daughter. Thebaking business helps the operation stay afloat in the bleak winter months.
今年夏天快結束時，這個鄉村市場只剩下三名全職工人，所以“農夫女兒”商店很難滿足當地連鎖雜貨店對烘焙食品的需求。烘焙生意幫助他們在寒冷的冬季維持生計。
Ms. MacLean and Ms. Coulombetried hiring locally, but said capable and dependable hands were not visa process for foreign workers was too cumbersome, too.
麥克林和庫隆布試過在當地進行招聘，但她們說，找不到能幹又可靠的人。招聘外國工人的簽證手續又太繁瑣。
That is when they came up withthe idea of giving away land.
這時她們想出了贈送土地的辦法。
The women put together aquestionnaire that emphasized commitment and values and made it clear that theland they were giving away was remote and well off the grid.
兩個女人設計了一個調查問卷，強調自己提供的承諾和價值，同時也明確說明，贈送的土地位置偏僻，沒有電力供應。
At around 10 p.m. one Sundayin late August, the sisters posted a gentle appeal on the market’s Facebookpage under the title, “Beautiful Island Needs People.”
去年八月一個星期天的晚上，10點左右，姐妹倆在該市場的Facebook主頁上發了一條溫和的懇求貼，名叫“美麗的小島需要人”(Beautiful Island NeedsPeople)。
In about 500 words theyoffered a job, community and two acres of land to anyone who would come andwork at the market for five years. They have since raised the offer to three acresto allow for a septic system.
她們的帖子大約500字，向任何願意來這個市場工作五年的人提供一個工作機會、一個社區和兩英畝土地。後來她們還把贈送土地的面積增加至三英畝，以便能夠建立化糞池系統。
By morning, the appeal hadbeen shared 200 times. By afternoon, a local radio station had called for aninterview. Soon national radio and Television stations were calling and theland offer was the top trending news story on the Canadian BroadcastingCorporation’s website. When the report was picked up around the world, thefloodgates opened.
到第二天早上，她們的帖子已被轉發200次。到了下午，當地一家電臺打來電話，要求進行採訪。很快，全國電臺和電視臺也打來電話，土地贈送成了加拿大廣播公司(Canadian BroadcastingCorporation)網站上最熱門的新聞故事。這則報道在全世界流傳開來後，一發不可收拾。
The sisters had already zeroedin on several candidates well before their appeal went viral. Within a week ofthe original post they had interviewed the people they eventually hired.
早在姐妹倆的帖子被瘋狂轉發之前，她們已鎖定了幾位候選人。在原貼發出一週內，他們已經面試了最終招聘的人。
The newcomers consist of threefamilies: the Andersons, the Walkinses and the Taits, who arrived in time forCanada’s Thanksgiving on Oct. 10. The Austins, the parents of the sisters whoare taking over the store, invited them all to their home for a traditionalfeast, the biggest Thanksgiving dinner they had ever put on, they said.
新來者包括三個家庭：安德森一家(Anderson)、瓦爾金斯一家(Walkins)和泰特一家(Tait)。他們來的時候正好趕上加拿大10月10日的感恩節。接管這個商店的兩姐妹的父母奧斯汀夫婦邀請所有人到家裏享用了一頓傳統晚宴，她們說這是他們準備過的最盛大的感恩節晚宴。
Over plates of turkey andturnips and local condiments like the Farmer’s Daughter Cape Breton chow (arelish made with green tomatoes), the families appeared to blend effortlessly.
面對一盤盤火雞、蕪菁和當地調味品，比如“農夫女兒布雷頓角美味”（一種用綠番茄做成的調味品），這幾家人似乎輕鬆融入進來。
All three families said thatit was the promise of community in a simpler, beautiful place that was thebiggest attraction. Each parcel of land is worth only a few thousand Canadiandollars, and Cape Breton has plenty of land for sale.
這三家人都說，最吸引他們的是在一個更單純而又美麗的地方融入社區的承諾。每塊地只值幾千加元，布雷頓角島有大量土地出售。
“I never even asked about theland,” said Sonja Anderson, a former mortgage banker who drove nine days acrossthe country from Vancouver, British Columbia, with her 10-year-old daughter andtwo dogs.
“我甚至從未問過地的事兒，”索尼婭·安德森(Sonja Anderson)說。她曾是一名抵押貸款銀行業者。她帶着十歲的女兒和兩條狗從不列顛哥倫比亞省溫哥華市開了九天車，穿過整個國家來到這裏。
Micah Tait said that he andhis wife, Trish, had long dreamed of making such a move. “Everything wasexactly what we were hoping to work toward and we just took a sort ofshortcut,” he said.
邁卡·泰特(Micah Tait)說，他和妻子特里什(Trish)一直夢想這麼做。“一切正是我們所向往的，我們只是抄了捷徑，”他說。
Both said they missed the“feeling of belonging” in their life in Vancouver, where they worked assecurity guards.
兩人都說，他們在溫哥華做保安時一直缺乏一種“歸屬感”。
When Brett Walkins lost hisjob in British Columbia as a project manager building wastewater treatmentplants, he and his wife, Kerry, sold their house, bought a truck and acamper-trailer and headed down the North American coast.
佈雷特·瓦爾金斯(Brett Walkins)曾在不列顛哥倫比亞做項目經理，修建廢水處理廠。失去工作後，他和妻子克麗(Kerry)賣了房子，買了一輛卡車和一個露營拖車，向北美海岸駛去。
Months later, having traversedthe continent with two children and two dogs, they were on Prince EdwardIsland, west of Cape Breton, biting their nails over bidding on a new house.
幾個月後，他們帶着兩個孩子和兩條狗穿越整個大陸，來到布雷頓角島以西的愛德華王子島省(Prince Edward Island)，懷着緊張的心情競拍一座新房。
“An hour after we found outsomeone else had bought the house, I saw the Farmer’s Daughter post,” Ms. Walkinssaid. Mr. Walkins emailed that day under the subject line, “communityopportunity.”
“在我們發現有人已經買下那所房子後一個小時，我看到了‘農夫女兒’的帖子，”瓦爾金斯夫人說。瓦爾金斯先生當天就發了郵件，主題是“社區機會”。
“That’s what spoke to me,” hesaid. “To be welcomed into what we could tell was a close-knit family.”
“我看中的就是那一點，”他說，“感覺自己被歡迎加入一個在我們看來非常親密的家庭。”
Mr. Walkins has already walkedon the land, accessible by a muddy logging road, looking for a building site,while his wife has taken up her duties baking pies and making fudge. The coupleplan to construct a solar-powered, self-sustaining home.
通過一條泥濘的木板路，瓦爾金斯已經可以在自己的土地上行走，尋找一個建設地點，而他的妻子已經承擔起烘焙點心、製作乳脂軟糖的工作。夫妻倆計劃修建一所利用太陽能發電的自給自足的房子。
The new arrivals havechallenges ahead. They arrived in the midst of Cape Breton’s beautiful fallfoliage display, but a long frigid winter and then the region’s famous blackfly season await.
新來者也面臨着一些挑戰。他們到來時，正值布雷頓角島樹葉飄落的美麗秋季，但是緊接着是漫長寒冷的冬季和這個地區著名的黑蠅季。
Along with an uptick inbusiness, the publicity has had other consequences for the Farmer’s Daughter. Alocal couple have offered the sisters 42 acres they do not use. Televisionproducers have called to talk about a possible reality show or, more to thesisters’ tastes, a documentary series tracking the newcomers’ integration intothe community and their development of the land.
除了對生意的提振，這次宣傳還給農夫女兒商店產生了其他影響。一對當地夫婦把自己不用的42英畝土地送給了姐妹倆。一些電視節目製作人打來電話，詢問是否可以做一個真人秀節目或者一系列記錄新來者融入社區和開發土地的紀錄片——後者更合姐妹倆的口味。
