被十大隔離牆割裂開的世界(下)
ralian Rabbit Fence
5.澳大利亞兔子隔離牆Not every barrier is intended to separate people. From an ecological point of view, Australia is very isolated. It's also a very harsh environment, so native species had to develop resources for defense and competition. Long story short, there are a lot of species in Australia that can kill you.
並不是每一道隔離牆都是用於隔離人。從生態學的角度來看，澳大利亞很孤立。那裏的環境也惡劣至極，因此，澳洲本土生物必須爲了本種族的生存而與其他物種競爭。長話短說，在澳大利亞有很多物種可以將人置於死地。
But the one species that's been the most destructive isn't one we would consider dangerous, nor is it native to Australia. In the late 1800s, someone had the brilliant idea of bringing rabbits to the country. Anyone who's ever had a garden knows that rabbits will eat almost any vegetation. Likewise, anyone who's ever heard the expression breeding like rabbits knows…. well, you get the idea. The rabbits quickly spread all over eastern and central Australia and were devouring what little vegetation there was. People on the West Coast knew that it was just a matter of time before they would be there and would consume the small but fertile farmland available to them. Knowing that attempts to exterminate them had proven futile they came up with the next logical step — a fence across the entire continent to keep them where they already were. So a nearly 1200 mile fence was built in the early 1900s. Virtually the entire length of the fence runs through uninhabited areas, and maintenance has proven to be quite a challenge. It's the most benign barrier on this list, as it's only about five feet tall and made from steel mesh. To anyone who happens to come upon it would appear to be nothing more than a normal property fence. Many rabbits have found their way through the fence, but not enough to be considered an infestation. The fertile fields of Western Australia have been producing well for the past 100 years, making this seemingly ridiculous idea one of the most successful on this list.
但是最具破壞性的一個物種絕對是我們所始料不及的，並且不是澳大利亞當地物種。在19世紀末，有人出了個極好的主意：把兔子引入澳大利亞。擁有花園的人都瞭解：幾乎所有的植被都可以作爲兔子的食物。同樣，沒有人能夠像兔子一樣完美地解釋生育之道。對，你懂得！兔子很快遍佈澳大利亞東部和中部，並且以風捲殘雲之勢侵襲着那裏的植被。西海岸的人們都，知道兔子將寸土寸金的良田破壞也只是時間問題而已。人們心裏都清楚，想消滅兔子只能是徒勞，所以他們想出了一個合乎邏輯的方法——安置一道柵欄，將兔子與未被破壞的土地徹底隔離。於是在20世紀初，人們設立了一道近1200英里（約1931千米）長的柵欄。這道柵欄幾乎跨越了整個無人區，但是維護問題也是一個巨大的挑戰。因爲鐵柵欄的高度只有5英尺，所以這或許是本名單中最無害的一個。當人們看到它的時候也只會認爲這就是普通的柵欄吧。儘管許多兔子發現了穿越柵欄的方法，但這也只是一小部分而已。在過去的百餘年裏，澳大利亞西部沃土的豐收，也使得這個在列表中看似最滑稽的主意毫無爭議的成爲了最成功的一個案例。
el-West Bank Border Fence
4.約旦河西岸的隔離牆
Anyone who's read the news at least once in the past 70 years knows that Palestinians were displaced for the creation of the State of Israel. Most Palestinians are now living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This, of course, has resulted in a great deal of tension between the two sides.
在過去的70年中，但凡讀報紙的人都知道，以色列的建國導致了巴勒斯坦人無家可歸。大部分巴勒斯坦人生活在約旦河西岸和加沙地帶，這裏理所當然地成爲了巴以局勢高度緊張的地區。No country devotes more of its GDP to preventing terrorism than Israel. Finally fed up with attacks, in the '90s they proposed walling off the occupied Palestinian territories. Today the wall is mostly complete, and is arguably the most imposing on this list. In urban areas a concrete wall stands as high as 26 feet. In rural areas it's mainly a 10 foot high chain link fence topped with razor wire. When fully complete it will stretch more than 300 miles and be fully monitored and patrolled. To say that this has increased tensions is a bit of an understatement. Palestinians have stated that they feel like prisoners, and the decision to build the wall has drawn considerable criticism from the international community. Many have compared it to a new version of the Berlin Wall. In some places graffiti makes a direct comparison, as you can see above.
從防止恐怖主義方面的花銷佔該國GDP的比重這一角度來看，以色列的這一比例要比其他任何國家都要多。最終，在上世紀90年代，以色列因爲厭煩了恐怖襲擊事件，提出用隔離牆把巴勒斯坦的領土隔離起來的想法。現在，該隔離牆幾近建成，這也是本榜單最受爭議的圍牆。該隔離牆在城市的部分是混凝土結構，高有26英尺（約7.9米）；在農村部分，高10英尺（約3.0米），牆頂佈設鐵絲網。完全建成後，長度將達300英里（約482千米），並有24小時的監視和巡邏。如果說這堵牆僅僅加重了一點緊張的局勢，那麼這種說法未免有點輕描淡寫的嫌疑。巴勒斯坦人表示，他們感覺自己像犯人一樣，修建隔離牆的決定受到了國際社會的普遍譴責。很多人將之視爲另一座柏林牆。正如上面的圖片所示，一些地方的塗鴉與之形成了鮮明的對比。t Wall of China
3.中國的長城
It's actually the Great Walls of China, as there were several versions built in different areas over the course of 2000 years. Most sections are fairly simple and only a few feet high, providing nothing more than a basic barrier to protect China from Tatar tribes to the north. The wall that everyone knows was built in the 14th century during the Ming Dynasty and is an imposing structure ranging from 15 to 30 feet high, with guard towers spaced every few hundred feet. The most famous section runs through the town of Jinshanling, where it's been completely restored to its original state. This is its closest point to Beijing, making it a popular tourist destination.
中國的長城在跨越2000多年的修建時間裏，在不同的地區有着不同的建築風格。大部分結構都很簡單，高度只有幾英尺，修建的目的僅僅是爲了抵禦北方的韃靼部落的入侵。我們現在所知的長城指的是14世紀明朝所修建的"明朝長城"，其高度從15至30英尺（約4.5~9.1米）不等，每隔幾百英尺就有一座烽火臺。最著名的長城就是金山嶺長城，其展現的完全是最原始的狀態。金山嶺長城毗鄰北京，是著名的旅遊景點。As you get just a few miles away from Jinshanling, the wall begins to look like it's 700 years old. In many places it's falling apart due to natural decay and being scavenged for materials by locals over the centuries. As you go farther west it's either unrecognizable or simply gone. While it's still impressive, in its heyday it was easily the most formidable structure on earth. All told the walls stretch around 4500 miles. And no, it's not visible from space.
從金山嶺長城向西走幾英里，有一段700多年曆史的長城。幾個世紀以來，長城由於受到自然的侵蝕，或者當地居民將之用作建築材料，很多地方都出現了塌方。長城雖然受到破壞，但仍然是宏偉的建築。在其鼎盛時期，長城是世界上最令人敬畏的建築。長城的總長大約4500英里。然而，人們在太空上是看不到長城的。Border Fence
2.美國-墨西哥隔離牆
In 2006 the United States Congress passed the "Secure Fence Act," which approved building a fence along the border with Mexico to curb illegal immigration and drug smuggling. Bear in mind this is a nearly 2000 mile border, most of which is rural desert. It's not an electrified fence, nor does it have any traps or even alarms. It's mostly made from material that's difficult to climb, but if you bring a ladder…
2006年美國國會通過了"安全圍欄法案"，此法案主要是爲了在美墨邊界建立一堵圍牆，以此來抑制非法移民和毒品走私。這是一條將近長達2000英里（約3218千米）的邊界圍牆，其大部分在沙漠地區。這並不是一條電圍牆，它也沒有任何陷阱或者報警系統。它只是由不易於攀爬的材料砌成，但是你如果藉助梯子的話便可輕鬆翻牆。So in order to be fully effective it requires near constant surveillance at all points, a daunting task. Even if there were cameras surveying the entire length, jumpers would likely be long gone before dispatched border control officers could arrive on the scene. A fragile ecosystem with a fence in the middle can also make it difficult for migrating animals, because they don't really care about international borders. Finally, as the fence approaches the Gulf of Mexico along the Rio Grande delta, a decades old treaty with Mexico prohibits building in the floodplain. This means that in places the wall is more than a mile from the actual border. This is one of the few urban parts of the border, so the result is a lot of Americans trapped on the wrong side of the fence. Imagine how they feel knowing they have to cross through a checkpoint to get to the store or visit their neighbors! Many feel that the fence is mainly symbolic, and has been described by more than a few as a boondoggle.
因此如果想要這堵圍牆起作用，就需要不間斷的監控，這是一個艱難的工作。即便整個圍牆都安裝足夠多的攝像頭，在監管人員抵達現場後翻越圍牆的人早已離開。在脆弱的生態系統上建立一堵圍牆，這對於不喜歡障礙物的遷徙動物來說也造成了很大困難。因爲圍牆一直從里奧格蘭德三角洲延伸到墨西哥灣，十年前美國在與墨西哥的協議中明確表示禁止在河漫灘上建造房子。這就意味着有些地方的圍牆佔地面積比實際佔地面積要廣。隔離牆的一部分橫跨城市，導致很多美國人被困在圍牆的另一邊。他們必須通過關卡去商店或者去走親戚，可以試想一下他們的感受。很多人認爲這堵圍牆主要就是起一個象徵作用，很多人都認爲它就是一個障礙物。r German Border
1.德國國內的隔離牆
This was the barrier that separated East Germany from West Germany. Like the Berlin Wall, its purpose was not to keep its enemies out but its own people in. It was to the Berlin Wall what a semi is to a pickup truck. The people of East and West Berlin were separated by only about 100 feet. The national border wall went mostly through rural areas, and as a result the barrier was over three miles wide. It also stretched the entire length of the border, more than 1000 miles.
德國隔離牆將德國分爲東德和西德。就像柏林牆一樣，它建造的目的不是爲了防禦敵人而是防止本國國民出逃。跟柏林牆相比它就像一輛卡車一樣橫在東德和西德的人民之間，兩德人民相隔僅僅100英尺（約30米）。德國隔離牆寬達3英里（約4.8千米）以上，大部分都位於鄉村地區。它一直延伸到整個疆界，長達1000多英里（約1609千米）。Very few got across this barrier, both because of its size and the sheer terror involved. First there was a modest fence which separated the three mile border zone. There were some towns and farms within the border zone, but those who were permitted to live there could only travel to their home, with no other travel within the zone permitted. Of course, why would you want to travel considering that within the zone were guard patrols, tripwires, booby traps, vehicle traps and landmines? If one were to make it through the border zone they would come to the scariest fence ever built. It was a roughly 12 foot high steel mesh fence booby-trapped with spring guns, which are cone shaped bombs loaded with shrapnel. When the fence was touched it would trigger an explosion and direct the shrapnel at the point of contact. Merely touching the wall would kill you. If you were somehow fortunate enough to get over that wall there was another death strip similar to the one in Berlin, then another steel mesh fence. All along these fence lines were towers staffed with guards trained to shoot on site. The final fence was about 100 feet from the actual border, meaning that if you were fortunate enough to get past all those fortifications guards could still shoot you before you reached the actual demarcation line. Sadly, a handful of people that close to freedom met that fate. Like the Berlin Wall, Germans couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Like the Korean DMZ, it also created a unique natural habitat and even today much of the land is preserved for nature.
因爲德國隔離牆又高又陡，所以很少有人能翻越這堵牆。起初，這堵牆並不高，寬度有3英里（約4.8千米）。在隔離牆內有一些城鎮和農村，界限內的人只允許往來於自己的家，不允許出入其他地方。當然，人們不會在一個到處是武裝警衛、鐵絲網、陷阱和地雷的地區閒逛。有人如果成功的穿越了3英里寬的空地，那麼就會抵達最令人畏懼的柵欄。那是一個約12英尺（約3.6米）高，並且設有爆炸裝置的鐵柵欄。一旦觸碰柵欄就會引發炸彈爆炸。基本上只要你一觸碰這個柵欄你就會命喪黃泉。你如果足夠幸運，翻越了這堵像柏林牆一樣剝奪了很多人生命的隔離牆，那麼就會到達另一個鐵柵欄。這些鐵柵欄周圍都有經過嚴格訓練的武裝警衛把守。最後一個柵欄距離邊界大約有100英尺（約30米）的距離，這就意味着如果你足夠幸運的避開了前面的所有防禦線，你到達目的地之前也會被射殺。遺憾的是，很多人就是在到達目的地之前遭遇了不幸。就像柏林牆一樣，德國人並不能在短時間內將之拆除。它也提供了一個獨一無二的自然棲息地，直到今天很多土地還保留着自然的狀態，就像朝韓非軍事區那樣。翻譯:梅子九 來源:前十網
