Tuesday, September 28, 2010

China’s Human Rights Report: Autos, Autocracy

令人捧腹 调侃中共白皮书
信源:华尔街日报 (http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/09/27/chinas-human-rights-report-autos-autocracy/)

如果要美国的政治人物解释“人权”,你可能得到一长串的自由民主名词:言论自由,集会自由,人身保护令。 如果问一个中共政治人物,你得到的答案是……汽车所有权?

上周末发表的一份白皮书中,中共国务院新闻办公室声称,中共当局过去一年在保护人权方面取得重大进展。这份名为“2009年中国人权事业的进展” (Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2009)的白皮书提出大量的数据和论述,展现了中共对人权概念界定,成为令人捧腹的消遣。

拿汽车做为例子。尽管很少西方人认为汽车所有权是一项基本人权,白皮书把保护汽车所有权作为一种主要的广告。在第一节“人民的生存权和发展权”的 第二段指出,到2009年底,全国轿车所有权已达3136万,比上年增长28.6%,还说私人轿车增长更大,达到33.8%。在“人权的司法保障”一节再度提到这一点,声称放宽了驾驶证的身体条件,为残疾人驾驶汽车提供方便。

对于西方读者,这份文件不太像人权报告,更像是一个用数字和分析来美化包装的“国家整体进步”结论。

在第四节“经济、社会和文化权利”中,文件声称2009“电视节目综合人口覆盖率97%”。不过对于几乎所有电视节目来自依属中共当局的电视台避而不提。

另外,在“公民权利和政治权利”一节中,白皮书声称,“互联网得到广泛普及和运用”。指出有将近29%的中国人口上网,或3.84亿网民,却没有提到YouTube和Facebook这些颇受欢迎的互联网服务商被封锁,以及对网络新闻和论坛的审查。

西方的人权团体没有被这份白皮书打动。美联社报导,人权观察亚洲分部主任理查森(Sophie Richardson)称这份文件“从好处想是失去了一个机会,从坏处看是一个笨拙的粉饰。”理查森发现文件特别遗漏了对异议人士的迫害。

该白皮书开宗明义表示:“2009年是进入新世纪以来中国经济发展最为困难的一年”。接着便是描述当局在经济方面的努力及成就:四万亿人民币(5860亿 美元)刺激经济;粮食产量5.32亿吨;国内生产总值增长 9.1%。还有“2009年,国家安排就业资金420亿元,比上年增长66.7%;全国城镇新增就业1102万人,下岗失业人员实现再就业514万人;城镇登记失业率4.3%;应届高校毕业生就业率达到87.4%;以及还有外出农民工总量1亿4千5百万人,比上年增加492万人。”

一句话,人权的进步就是汽车、电视、电脑、工作机会以及粮食产量等数字的增加。

当然,在西方人眼中,这样的白皮书无异于一纸荒唐的黑色幽默。

~~~
* September 27, 2010, 3:12 PM HKT

China’s Human Rights Report: Autos, Autocracy

Ask American politicians to explain “human rights” and you’re likely to get the usual litany of time-worn liberal democratic abstractions: freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, habeas corpus.

Ask a Chinese politician and you get…car ownership?

In an extensive whitepaper released over the weekend, China’s State Council Information Office argues authorities in Beijing have made significant progress in protecting human rights over the past year. Entitled “Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2009 (full text), the paper features a cornucopia of statistics and arguments that throws into stark, and sometimes amusing, relief the different ways Chinese and Western governments define the concept.

Take, for example, the automobile. While few Americans would consider car-ownership a fundamental right, the whitepaper gives it prime billing as a measure of rights protection. In the second paragraph of the first section, “The People Rights to Subsistence and Development,” it notes that car ownership increased 28.6% year-on-year to 31.36 million by the end of 2009, adding that private car ownership had grown even more quickly at 33.8%. The paper returns to the subject in a section on judicial guarantees of rights by highlighting a change to China’s driver’s license law that loosened driving restrictions on people with hearing and physical disabilities.

To the Western reader, the paper comes off less like a human-rights report and more like a summary–packed with numbers and rose-tinted analysis–of the country’s progress in general.

In Section 4 (”Economic, Social and Cultural Rights”), the paper happily notes that in 2009 television broadcasts reached more than 97% of the population. It neglects to mention, however, that virtually all of those broadcasts came from government-run TV stations.

Elsewhere, in a section on civil and political rights, the paper argues that “the Internet is given full scope in China.” While noting that nearly 29% of China’s population, or 384 million people, have access to the Internet, it fails to address blockage of popular online services like YouTube and Facebook or censorship of online news and discussion forums.

Human-rights advocates in the West are less than impressed. In an Associated Press report, Human Rights Watch Asia advocacy director Sophie Richardson calls the paper “at best a missed opportunity and at worst a clumsy whitewash.”

Among the omissions Richardson finds particularly galling is the persecution of dissidents like Liu Xiaobo, the author of a bold pro-democracy manifesto called Charter 08 who was imprisoned last year on charges of subversion.

But China’s leaders have always argued that material rights should take precedence over political rights, a position the whitepaper makes clear on the very first line: “The year 2009 was the most difficult one for China’s economic development since the beginning of the new century.” From there, the paper goes on to document all the government has done in service of its subjects’ economic well-being: Four trillion yuan, or $586 billion, in stimulus; a record grain output of 532 million tons; 9.1% GDP growth. And then there’s this:

In 2009 China appropriated 42 billion yuan for the increase of job opportunities, a rise of 66.7 percent over the previous year. In 2009, 11.02 million new job opportunities were created and 5.14 million laid-off workers were reemployed in urban areas of China; the registered unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in urban areas; the employment rate of that year’s college graduates reached 87.4 percent; and the number of rural migrant workers totaled 145 million, an increase of 4.92 million over the previous year.

While Western leaders aren’t likely to accept car ownership, or even employment rates, as a measure of human-rights progress any time soon, numbers like this could take a little swagger out of the finger-wagging in Washington.

–Josh Chin

Monday, September 27, 2010

Globe PM2.5 Map (Fine Particle Pollution)

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/health-sapping.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2010/09/27/an-overhead-view-of-chinas-pollution/



New Map Offers a Global View of Health-Sapping Air Pollution
09.22.10

In many developing countries, the absence of surface-based air pollution sensors makes it difficult, and in some cases impossible, to get even a rough estimate of the abundance of a subcategory of airborne particles that epidemiologists suspect contributes to millions of premature deaths each year. The problematic particles, called fine particulate matter (PM2.5), are 2.5 micrometers or less in diameter, about a tenth the fraction of human hair. These small particles can get past the body’s normal defenses and penetrate deep into the lungs.

To fill in these gaps in surface-based PM2.5 measurements, experts look toward satellites to provide a global perspective. Yet, satellite instruments have generally struggled to achieve accurate measurements of the particles in near-surface air. The problem: Most satellite instruments can't distinguish particles close to the ground from those high in the atmosphere. In addition, clouds tend to obscure the view. And bright land surfaces, such as snow, desert sand, and those found in certain urban areas can mar measurements.

However, the view got a bit clearer this summer with the publication of the first long-term global map of PM2.5 in a recent issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. Canadian researchers Aaron van Donkelaar and Randall Martin at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, created the map by blending total-column aerosol amount measurements from two NASA satellite instruments with information about the vertical distribution of aerosols from a computer model.

Global satellite-derived map of PM2.5 averaged over 2001-2006. Credit: Dalhousie University, Aaron van Donkelaar
› View larger
Global satellite-derived map of PM2.5 averaged over 2001-2006. Credit: Dalhousie University, Aaron van Donkelaar

Their map, which shows the average PM2.5 results between 2001 and 2006, offers the most comprehensive view of the health-sapping particles to date. Though the new blending technique has not necessarily produced more accurate pollution measurements over developed regions that have well-established surface-based monitoring networks, it has provided the first PM2.5 satellite estimates in a number of developing countries that have had no estimates of air pollution levels until now.

The map shows very high levels of PM2.5 in a broad swath stretching from the Saharan Desert in Northern Africa to Eastern Asia. When compared with maps of population density, it suggests more than 80 percent of the world's population breathe polluted air that exceeds the World Health Organization's recommended level of 10 micrograms per cubic meter. Levels of PM2.5 are comparatively low in the United States, though noticeable pockets are clearly visible over urban areas in the Midwest and East.

"We still have plenty of work to do to refine this map, but it's a real step forward," said Martin, one of the atmospheric scientists who created the map."We hope this data will be useful in areas that don't have access to robust ground-based measurements."

Piecing Together the Health Impacts of PM2.5

U.S. satellite-derived map of PM2.5 averaged over 2001-2006. Credit: Dalhousie University, Aaron van Donkelaar › View larger
U.S. satellite-derived map of PM2.5 averaged over 2001-2006. Credit: Dalhousie University, Aaron van Donkelaar


Screen capture from animation, based on data from the Goddard Chemistry Aerosol and Transport model, simulates the global movement of black carbon soot from August 1, 2009 to November 19, 2009. Black carbon is shown in white. › View video
Screen capture from animation, based on data from the Goddard Chemistry Aerosol and Transport model, simulates the global movement of black carbon soot from August 1, 2009 to November 19, 2009. Black carbon is shown in white. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio
› Download video


Heavy haze hugged the southern face of the Himalaya in mid-December 2009. › View larger
Haze hugged the southern face of the Himalaya in mid-December 2009. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image on December 14. Credit: NASA/Goddard/MODIS
For more info on this image, visit the Earth Observatory. Take a deep breath. Even if the air looks clear, it's nearly certain you've inhaled millions of PM2.5 particles. Though often invisible to humans, such particles are present everywhere in Earth's atmosphere, and they come from both natural and human sources. Researchers are still working to quantify the precise percentage of natural versus human-generated PM2.5, but it's clear that both types contribute to the hotspots that show up in the new map.

Wind, for example, lifts large amounts of mineral dust aloft in the Arabian and Saharan deserts. In many heavily urbanized areas, such as eastern China and northern India, power plants and factories that burn coal lack filters and produce a steady stream of sulfate and soot particles. Motor vehicle exhaust also creates significant amounts of nitrates and other particles. Both agricultural burning and diesel engines yield dark sooty particles scientists call black carbon.

Human-generated particles often predominate in urban air -- what most people actually breathe -- and these particles trouble medical experts the most, explained Arden Pope, an epidemiologist at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah and one of the world's leading experts on the health impacts of air pollution. That's because the smaller PM2.5 particles evade the body defenses—small hair-like structures in the respiratory tract called cilia and hairs in our noses—that do a reasonably good job of clearing or filtering out the larger particles.

Small particles can make their way deep into human lungs and some ultrafine particles can even enter the bloodstream. Once there, they can spark a whole range of diseases including asthma, cardiovascular disease, and bronchitis. The American Heart Association estimates that in the United States alone, PM2.5 air pollution spark some 60,000 deaths a year.

Though PM2.5 as a class of particle clearly poses health problems, researchers have had less success assigning blame to specific types of particles. "There are still big debates about which type of particle is the most toxic," said Pope. "We're not sure whether it's the sulfates, or the nitrates, or even fine dust that's the most problematic."

One of the big sticking points: PM2.5 particles frequently mix and create hybrid particles, making it difficult for both satellite and ground-based instruments to parse out the individual effects of the particles.

The Promise of Satellites and PM2.5

The new map, and research that builds upon it, will help guide researchers who attempt to address this and a number of other unresolved questions about PM2.5. The most basic: how much of a public health toll does air pollution take around the globe? "We can see clearly that a tremendous number of people are exposed to high levels of particulates," said Martin. "But, so far, nobody has looked at what that means in terms of mortality and disease. Most of the epidemiology has focused on developed countries in North America and Europe."

Now, with this map and dataset in hand, epidemiologists can start to look more closely at how long term exposure to particulate matter in rarely studied parts of the world – such as Asia's fast-growing cities or areas in North Africa with quantities of dust in the air – affect human health. The new information could even be useful in parts of the United States or Western Europe where surface monitors, still the gold standard for measuring air quality, are sparse.

In addition to using satellite data from NASA's Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) that flies on NASA's Terra satellite and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument that flies on both NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites, the researchers used output from a chemical transport model called GEOS-Chem to create the new map.

However, the map does not represent the final word on the global distribution of PM2.5, the researchers who made it emphasize. Although the data blending technique van Donkelaar applied provides a clearer global view of fine particulates, the abundance of PM2.5 could still be off by 25 percent or more in some areas due to remaining uncertainties, explained Ralph Kahn, an expert in remote sensing from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and one of the coauthors of the paper.

To improve understanding of airborne particles, NASA scientists have plans to participate in numerous upcoming field campaigns and satellite missions. NASA Goddard, for example, operates a global network of ground-based particle sensors called AERONET that site managers are currently working to enhance and expand. And, later next year, scientists from Goddard's Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York will begin to analyze the first data from Glory, a satellite that carries an innovative type of instrument—a polarimeter—that will measure particle properties in new ways and complement existing instruments capable of measuring aerosols from space.

"We still have some work to do in order to realize the full potential of satellite measurements of air pollution," said Raymond Hoff, the director of the Goddard Earth Science and Technology Center at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and the author of a comprehensive review article on the topic published recently in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association. "But this is an important step forward."

~~~

To get a sense of how China’s air quality compares with the rest of the world, there’s a new map of global air-particulate pollution from Canadian scientists using National Aeronautics and Space Administration satellite data. The verdict: It doesn’t look good.

Eastern China’s industrial area is just about the reddest part of the map, meaning it has the highest concentration of particulates. That doesn’t bode well for the hundreds of millions of people there. And if you’re in the middle of that red zone, you’d have to travel far afield for fresh air.

The researchers, Aaron van Donkelaar and Randall Martin at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, used U.S. space-agency satellite data to measure particulate matter across the globe, figuring ground-based detection is nonexistent or spotty in many areas. The map was published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

It’s important to note that the data used for this map are derived from 2001 to 2006. But as The Wall Street Journal noted in July, authorities affirmed that China’s air quality continues to get worse, not better.

According to the NASA post, health officials say fine particulates can get past the body’s hair-like cilia defenses, penetrate the lungs and blood, and lead to chronic diseases, such as asthma, cardiovascular disease and bronchitis.

– Alex Frangos

Friday, September 03, 2010

优雅起 来,世博开启国民素质成人礼

世博奇观,丢尽中国脸(南方周末本期世博专稿,原文已被删改)有此一说 2010-09-
02 23:04:21 (《HIGH过之后,优雅起 来,世博开启国民素质成人礼》初稿)

这篇稿子历经七次修改,数次送审,最后出来的稿子已经与原文完全不同,所有批评世
博会的内容悉数删除。

世博固然是一场盛会,但它只是一个国家成长历程中的一 个节点,我们记录这期间发
生的尴尬,并不心怀恶意。

所谓的“文明”从来指的不是老百姓是不是随地吐痰、大小便,而应是生活在其间的公
民如 何自主地改造生活,如何生活得更加从容、克制、理性而有尊严。

探讨文明现象,不代表我们用柏杨式的文章对国人“横加”指责,我们更愿意由此展开
对一 个城市乃至一个国家治理方法论的探讨。

直面尴尬,心怀美好,改变随时随刻可以开始。



作者:陈鸣、实习生 刘高阳



上海世博会,又一个属于中国的时间。在展现城市文明的同时,这 个横跨浦江两岸的
巨大园区本身就是一个存在184天的微型城市。游客将与现代场馆共同构成这次展示。

“城市让生活更美 好”,然而,行走在这个临时城市里的游客却正在让这个系统濒临
崩溃。




失控的“热情”

在经历了最初的好奇之后,很多外国场馆工作人员对中国的好感被冲刷殆尽。

两个月前,阿娜斯塔西亚(Anastasia Yevets)对上海世博会充满了期待,而
如今,她的心情却比上海连绵的梅雨更加糟糕。

这个来自白俄罗斯的姑娘和她的同事们正在目睹一场“灾难”的发生——他们的
场馆越来越像一个动物园。中国游客们在场馆里大声喧哗,接打电话,拿起相机对 着
每一个金发碧眼的老外狂拍。“有时候,中国人一手猛拍着桌子,一边对你喊着嘿!嘿
!嘿!他们想喊我合影,却让我觉得自己像只被围观的猩猩。”最令阿娜斯 塔西亚难
以置信的是,几天前,一位中国老太太甚至放任她的孙子在场馆的正中央拉了一坨大便。

处于震惊和崩溃边缘的并不仅仅是阿娜斯塔西亚。

在古巴馆,Shela Borges Glez见到了令她不解的一幕。一开始,她们在墙上划
出一小块区域供游客留言,但是,只用了两天不到的时候,汉字 就像蝗虫一般疯狂地
覆盖了整个场馆的墙壁。中国游客的热情程度显然令这些加勒比海居民猝不及防,甚至
连Shela的办公室都不能幸免,在玻璃门上,中国人 写满了“XX到此一游”和“XX我爱
你”之类的字样。在数次清理之后,Shela和她的同事放弃了努力,每次擦完不久,中
国人又将攻占他们的玻璃。他们只 好贴出“禁止往墙上涂画”的告示,以这样的形式
为自己一开始的错误决定埋单。

世博园里发生的这一切,就上海的雨季一样,无休无止,令人心生厌倦。

埃及馆的Tahany刚刚从开罗飞到上海来接替她同事 的工作,那位好心的前任馆
长提醒她“一定要看好我们的石头!”场馆里摆的雕像都是公元1000多年前的文物,其
中包括有“阿蒙霍特普四世的巨像”和“爱神柱”之类的珍品。

这些从开罗运送过来展品大部分没有加装防护罩,“因为在我们国家没有人会
去摸文物,因为那是一种犯罪行为”,但很快,埃及馆的大部分工作人员不得不放弃原
先安排的工作,他们每两个人守着一处雕像,并拉上围栏,阻止每一只靠近的手掌。一
个中方工作人员告诉南方周末记者,埃及人迅速地学会的第一句汉语不是“你 好”,
而是“不要摸”,每天念咒般地重复上百遍。

在捷克馆,游客们一度像苏联红军攻占柏林德国国会大厦一样纷纷爬上圣约翰
·波穆克的青铜像,直到铜像被护栏围了起来。在孟加拉馆盖章,一位黑人工作人员面
色冷竣,机器人一般地只重复说一句话:“排队,排队,排队,排队……”。

在经历了最初的好奇之后,很多外国场馆工作人员对中国的好感被冲刷殆尽。

“他们刚到上海的时候,看到那些宏伟奇特的展馆,都是‘Wow’的惊叹,觉得
中国人很了不起,而在见识了中国游客之后,所有人都开始讨厌中国人。”和那 些面
对人山人海的中国不知所措的朋友们不同,阿娜斯塔西亚算是半个“中国通”,她有一
个中文名字叫做“梅芳”。然而在学习汉语三年以后,她突然发现不知该 如何向自己
的朋友解释这样一个复杂的中国。

在梅芳的朋友里,很少有人像她一样游历过中国贫穷的乡村和小城镇,更不用
提理解眼前这些操着各类不同口音的人做出种种“失礼”举动的原因所在。“我经常告
诉朋友们,不是所有中国人都是这样。”

但即使是梅芳,也很快失去了耐心,她的眼睛在无数次突如其来的闪光灯照射
后开始干涩胀痛,有一天因为制止游客插队,一个中国男子用地图狠狠地拍打了梅芳的
手臂,这次袭击让她委屈得哭了起来。在中国小孩在场馆中央大便之后,白俄罗斯馆
终于用巨大的围栏把中央的圆形场地围了起来。



守不住的场馆

作弊与反作弊,破坏与反破坏,偷盗与反偷盗,成了一场每日上演的拉锯战。



当“梅芳们”在场馆里焦头烂额的时候,蔡雯俊和她的同伴们也在人潮中努力
站稳。她来自华东政法大学,是世博文化中心的一名志愿者。很多时候她被调配到北门
疏导人流,在这个出口,人群被分成两队,一队通往六楼参观,一队则直接出馆,两个
队伍中间用隔离带隔开。很多时候隔离带和志愿者的引导被视若无睹,只有在 发现走
错了之后游人才返过来要求志愿者让他们原路进馆。“他们既想不受控制地乱走,又丝
毫不愿承担走错的后果。”

连不明国情的外国工作人员也很快明白,“过度热情”已经无法解释眼前发生的
一切。除了不讲礼貌和规则,更多千奇百怪的状况从第一天开始,从场馆的入口处,就
层出不穷——一位法国馆的工作人员告诉记者,最初的几天他们像目睹奇迹一样,看着
那些从绿色通道坐轮椅进入的游客一进馆就纷纷站立起来行走。

破坏规则的好处显然十分诱人——当别人还在排两三个小时甚至更长时间的队
时,绿色通道上的人员却可以在二十分钟内进馆,而且还能捎进一个“护理人员”。在
一些场馆门外至今可以看到为数甚众、真假莫辨的残疾人排起长队。

“有一次,一个有着强壮肱二头肌的中年男子坐在轮椅上,很疼似的紧紧握住
自己的手臂,却告诉我们他患的是小儿麻痹症。”一个在沙特馆门口协助维持秩序的志
愿者说。一些明显已经接近10岁的孩子被父母安排坐进了婴儿车,以此换取不排队的
特权。

在经历了最初阶段完全开放的姿态之后,很多场馆开始小心调整收缩他们的策
略。所有试图由绿色通道进馆的老人、孩子和残疾人都被要求出示相关的证件,一些明
显有作弊行为的游客被挡在通道之外。

但这只能挡住一部分人,精明的游客们依然能够掏出各类红绿缤纷的证件。有
的家庭为了让一家老少都能通过,在场馆门口精心商量着如何分配手头的老年人身份
证、残疾证和婴儿车。这看起来像是一盘跳棋游戏,任务就是一堆棋子搭上另一堆棋子
的顺风车,从而跳到场馆的那一边去。

即使作弊失败,对大多数人来说也没有什么损失,“通常被戳穿了之后游客们
还一边大骂工作人员,一边离开,脸上不但没有惭愧,反倒对我们有不通融办事的鄙夷
”,一位来自江西科技师范学院的工作人员愤怒地说。

进入场馆内部之后,游园狂欢才刚刚开始。在捷克馆,一个名为“捷克明珠”
的视觉装置吸引了游客围观,这个由5个巨大玻璃面组成立体屏幕璀璨明亮,令观众仿
佛触手可及。开馆之初就不断地有游客用脚磕打玻璃,他们只是想知道屏幕到底是不是
玻璃做的。于是一个专门的工作人员被派在此处专门制止人们的破坏行为。

在摩肩接踵的嘈杂环境里,偷盗与反偷盗,也成了一场每日上演的拉锯战。

在泰国馆的最后一个参观环节是放映一部3D的电影,场馆内的设施会随着电影
场景洒水和喷施香气,显然十分钟的尖叫体验令很多观众沉醉其中,于是,他们决定
趁混乱把3D眼镜捎回家去。

泰国馆的解说在每场电影结束时都会向游客们恳求:“这个眼镜在家里看电视
是不会有3D效果的,我们的眼镜已经越来越少,请您不要拿走。”但结果令人无奈,
泰国馆馆长Saranpat Anumatrajkj向南方周末记者抱怨,馆内的3D眼镜每天以5%-7%的
速度丢失,“每放一场电影大约会损失10个, 而我们每天大概会放50多场电影。”

在中国铁路馆,3D影院的200多个座位如今只能坐100多人,原因是3D眼镜被偷
到只剩这么多了。

香港人似乎对3D眼镜遗失的可能性有更充分的预判,他们直接在眼镜上贴条形
码,在场馆出门处设立安检门,任何试图带眼镜离开的人都会引起机器的尖锐叫声。
尽管如此,人们并没有放弃努力,安检门因此每日鸣叫不已。

比眼镜更小的物品更适合被带走,在波黑馆,狭长走道上的液晶电视上的8GU盘
被游人尽数拔光,最后馆方不得不把数据盒藏起来,通过USB线再连接到电视 上。

也有人尝试更有挑战性的目标,6月27日下午,波黑馆的两名中国游客从严密封
闭的玻璃壁橱里成功地偷出几件嵌有珠宝的首饰,没有人知道他们是怎么做到的。 幸
运的是另一位游客在离馆前及时地举报了他们。




盖章族的围攻

“他 们做的就是盖章盖章盖章盖章……”中国人自己打了起来。打斗密集地持续了一
两天后就没再发生,因为印章也被偷走了。



“世博会的主题曲应该是一片笃笃笃的敲章声。”突尼斯馆的Anis Basti调侃
道。世博护照,这个起源于1967年蒙特利尔世博会的玩意儿从来没像在中国这么火爆过
,这令他根本无法理解。

围绕世博会赚钱的黄牛们开始提供盖章服务,游客只要在门口等待,黄牛入馆
盖章,最后收取一笔数十元的手续费。

场馆有冷热门之分,而在盖章这一事情上,每个国家的场馆终于实现了“平等
”。在只有6个房间的乌拉圭馆,为应对盖章的人流,其中一半房间被改成了盖章专用
房。在泰国馆,铜、木、橡胶等各类材质的印章则被悉数敲坏。

中国游客的狂热在盖章上终于全面爆发。在丹麦馆,游客为争夺印章而与工作
人员发生冲突,这被拍成视频传到了网上。爱尔兰馆的印章被当场抢去,原因是工作人
员拒绝为同一个人盖数十本护照,于是游客决定自己动手,最后爱尔兰工作人员不得
不报警。

拒绝这些长时间排队的中国游客的盖章要求时常要冒一定风险。“死爱尔兰鬼
”、“死丹麦鬼”、“死法国佬”……各种口音的咒骂足以令人崩溃。

Shela所在的古巴馆干脆将盖章台移到场馆外面,并用铁链将章子链了起来。更
多场馆把印章收了起来,不再提供盖章服务。在白俄罗斯馆,工作人员同样挂出 了纸
牌,上面直截了当地写着“没有章”。“他们做的就是盖章盖章盖章盖章,根本就不看
我们的馆”,一位挪威馆的工作人员在面对上海电视台的摄像机时忍不住痛哭。

泰国的Saranpat告诉记者,盖章的人群不时地与工作人员发生冲突,最后他们
干脆把印章放在桌子上让人们自己动手,导致的结果却是更加混乱,中国人自 己竟然
也打了起来。打斗密集地持续了两三天后就没再发生,因为印章也被偷走了。

Saranpat很不理解,他们的场馆设计用很多技术手段设计了逼真的互动体验,
依然有很多中国人进来只是盖个章,然后就匆匆寻找出口。

对这一点中国人看得更清楚,一位经常出入世博园的上海本地记者说:“其实
世博会更像一个充满异域风情的游乐园,人们来这里玩耍,心态和旅游没有区别,那些
代表现代科技走向的技术既没人懂,更没人看。”

而“盖章”则不一样,这在中国从来不是一件简单的事,有时候甚至是一种文
化。有一次,白俄罗斯馆要送一个平板小推车进园区,最后盖了十多个章才获得批准。
每一次填写表格,都是疲于奔命地在楼上楼下四处寻找那些手握印章的人。

“这是一个很奇怪的社会系统,所有人在找人办事。在我们国家,一个章就足以
通过所有审批。”梅芳无奈地说。





失去尊严的地方

一群筋疲力尽的排队游客终于情绪失控,他们在场外齐声大喊“纳粹!纳粹!”,以
致于德国馆不得不 向园方要来了更多的保安。



每一天发生的零星不快,并不足以阻止游人的到来,相反,在开园初期遇冷之
后,每天游客数量都在节节攀升。每天游览人数已经从最初的每天20几万人上升到现
在的45万人以上。

顾晓芳是江苏一家国企的员工,6月初她被单位组织前往上海参观世博。在人满
为患的沙特阿拉伯馆,她看到很多散客因为长达5个小时的排队时间而瘫坐在地,这 个
过程中大人们没有机会上厕所,小孩子们开始随地大小便,有的人开始打牌玩游戏机,
更多人无所事事。这样的场景让她想起了恐怖的春运。

闷热潮湿的上海加剧了人们的烦躁。上个月德国媒体报道,一群筋疲力尽的排
队游客终于情绪失控,他们在场外齐声大喊“纳粹!纳粹!”,以致于德国馆不得不向
园方要来了更多的保安。

顾晓芳认为网络上把园区里出现的种种不文明现象都归结到游客身上并不公平
,在她看来,超长的排队使人们失去了尊严。“园区可以修得很大,蛇形栅栏可以设置
得很弯很长,人们的耐心和体力却是有限的。”

在志愿者蔡雯俊看来,很多时候园区和游客需要共同改进,比如世博文化中心
的6楼有几家餐厅,前来就餐的人可以由餐厅人员带领直接上楼,但是很多人并没有途
径可以订餐。蔡雯俊和她的同伴做过尝试,他们试了包括查号台在内的各种方法都没有
找到订餐电话。“我们都联系不上的话,游客更不可能了,最后他们肯定就要 开始抱
怨。”

来自上海第二工业大学的刘永生是该校志愿者在中国馆的带队老师,她认为在
排队两三个小时后人会极端疲惫,场馆方在设置上可以更加人性化。她举例子,在中国
馆南广场排队的游客通常比较长,平时尽量安排到伞亭处,如果遇到天气炎热的情况
,就把队伍再往里放,一直排进手扶电梯,“让游客觉得毕竟是进馆了,这样就 可以
很好地安抚他们的情绪。”

然而陆续增加的旅游人数,无疑还将对园区公共服务构成持续挑战。公共汽车站
大部分时间人头攒 动,尤其是世博大道线上的乘客时常需要分流到过江线上,再从就
近站点步行到达场馆。

就在顾晓芳参观世博园前后几天,世博局发布的旅行社团队入园预约情况信息
显示,6月4、5两天的预约团队数共达到9152个,预约游客人数共达35.35 万人次。截止
5月底,世博局票务中心提供的数据,已售出的3771.2万张票中有接近三分之一是团体
票,而其中大量是单位采购的“福利票”。到上海看世博 在很多地方更像是一项任务
。一位在重庆工作的女士因为害怕拥挤的原因拒绝参加世博,而被所在工作单位罚款
1500元。





中国成人礼

世博会不止是拍个照,盖个章,不理解世博真正的含义,无以理解现代化




在园区的许多角落,游客似乎正在让世博会走向尴尬。在靠近美国馆的吉野家
,欧洲广场附近的肯德基餐厅,在公交车站,不时可以看到冲突的人群。人们因为碰撞
、排队、踩脚而爆发了各类口角。

成年人们看起来兴奋而富有激情,同时像小孩一样易怒。他们中的很多人从周
边的江浙一带赶来上海,心情迫不及待,然而从每天早上排两小时队进园开始,这一天
的游览就注定是一个极费体力和耐心的工程。

阵雨不时地袭击人群,在那些拥挤的队伍里,撑伞的人们互相把雨水滴到周围
人的身上,然后开始了互相指责。6月27日早晨7点钟开始,南方周末记者体验了一次两
个半小时排队入园的经历。游客的争吵从未停止。两位来自香港的游客在队伍中为人劝
架,他们对园方表示不解:“明知道每天队伍都这么长,上海最近又每天 下雨,为什
么不多盖一些遮雨棚?明知道每天好几万人等着入场,为什么不把开馆时间提前?”

精心建设对比走马观花,在世博园这个微型城市里,人与城市的不匹配成了目
前为止最大的尴尬。

在志愿者蔡雯俊看来,世博会让很多人聚焦在一个空间里,很多问题就会放大
凸现出来,这并不是世博会的问题,而是人的素质问题。在大部分行色匆匆的游客的理
解里,花160元人民币进园就是享受服务的。在应聘上海世博志愿者时,蔡雯俊曾经怀
揣着不错的预期,“我们对游客提供了帮助,他们应该会是感谢的态度,结 果他们经
常喊我们服务员!”

在集中逛了几个热门场馆之后,顾晓芳和几位单位同事便放弃了继续参观,“
说实话,都是看个热 闹,什么高新科技真的看不懂。”他们围坐到高架步行桥下一边
打牌一边抱怨这里一点都不比普通游乐园好玩。

“四十年前的日本大阪世博会参观者突破6000万人,日本一半的国民参加并见
证了那场盛会,其成功的举办被公认为是日本国家现代化到来的标志。而上海世博 会
的价值正被低估,一个本来应该是全民科技的盛会正在成为一个的只是养眼的景点。”
一家上海媒体评论说。

6月26日傍晚,梅芳坐在白俄罗斯馆的角落里,这份工作已经让她精疲力尽。她
开始怀念在北京的生活,她回忆起北京奥运会时候的愉快经历,“所有事情流程顺畅,
每个工作人员会讲英语,没有观众会袭击你……”

有时候她也在沮丧中表达了理解:“我知道你们有过三十年的封闭,人们的价
值观被推翻并重建,就像苏联时候的我们一样。”这似乎正是她理解中国人行为的机缘
所在,面对她那圈已经厌烦中国的朋友,她说:“如果只到了上海和北京,那你就没
有真正到过中国,更多的地方不发达。这里有坏人也有好人,有时候他们只是因为还不
富裕。”

这一天傍晚,在雨水和排队双重考验下,游客们已经筋疲力尽,人群东倒西歪
地坐在路边的草地上。一场盛大的花车游行让他们重新兴奋起来。那是一场连绵细雨之
后的移动演出,远处是吹奏着西洋乐曲的铜管乐团。近处的一辆花车上京剧演员们京韵
婉转,围拢而来的游客们爆发出震耳欲聋的欢呼声,在雨后的阳光下,演员们 水袖挥
舞,华装闪亮,那样的场景宛若盛唐。