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RoseGeorge_2013S-_海上运输业知多少_
A couple of years ago, 几年前,
Harvard Business School chose the best business model of that year. 哈佛商学院选出了 当年的最佳商业模型。
Harvard:n.哈佛大学;哈佛大学学生; Business School:n.(大学里针对毕业生的)工商学院;
It chose Somali piracy . 他们选择了索马里海盗。
piracy:n.海盗行为;剽窃;著作权侵害;非法翻印;
Pretty much around the same time, 也就是差不多在这个时候,
I discovered that there were 544 seafarers being held hostage on ships, often anchored just off the Somali coast in plain sight. 我发现有544名海员 被当作人质扣押在船上, 就在索马里海岸不远处, 目光可及之处。
seafarers:船员; hostage:n.人质;抵押品;
And I learned these two facts, and I thought, what's going on in shipping? 在我知道了这两件事以后,我想, 海上运输业到底在发生什么？
And I thought, would that happen in any other industry? 我又想,这样的事情可能在其它行业发生吗？
Would we see 544 airline pilots held captive in their jumbo jets on a runway for months, or a year? 我们可能看到544名飞行员 在他们的喷气客机里面或跑道上 被押为人质达数月甚至一年么？
airline:n.航空公司; captive:adj.被俘虏的;被迷住的;n.俘虏;迷恋者; jumbo:adj.巨大的;特大的;n.庞然大物;巨型喷气式飞机;体大而笨拙的人或物; runway:n.跑道;河床;滑道;
Would we see 544 Greyhound bus drivers? 我们可能看到544名灰狗巴士 （美国一个巴士公司）司机被押么？
Greyhound:n.灰狗(一种猎犬);快速船;
It wouldn't happen. 不会。
So I started to get intrigued . 所以我开始觉得好奇。
intrigued:adj.感兴趣的; v.密谋; (intrigue的过去式和过去分词)
And I discovered another fact, which to me was more astonishing almost for the fact that I hadn't known it before at the age of 42, 43. 这时我还发现了另一个 让我震惊的事情, 之所以震惊,大概是因为 我居然在42、43岁之前完全不知道。 之所以震惊,大概是因为 我居然在42、43岁之前完全不知道。
astonishing:adj.令人十分惊讶的;v.使十分惊讶;使吃惊;(astonish的现在分词)
That is how fundamentally we still depend on shipping. 这就是:我们依然非常依赖海运。
fundamentally:adv.从根本上;基础地;重要地
Because perhaps the general public thinks of shipping as an old-fashioned industry, something brought by sailboat with Moby Dicks and Jack Sparrows . 可能普通人 会以为海运是已经过时的行业, 那是白鲸迪克和杰克·斯派洛的帆船发展而来的。 那是白鲸迪克和杰克·斯派洛的帆船发展而来的。
general public:n.普通百姓;大众;公众; old-fashioned:adj.老式的;过时的;守旧的; sailboat:n.帆船; Moby:adj.大的,巨大的; Dicks:n.迪克斯(男子名); Sparrows:麻雀(sparrow的名词复数);
But shipping isn't that. 事实则不然。
Shipping is as crucial to us as it has ever been. 海运对我们的重要性完全没有降低。
crucial:adj.重要的;决定性的;定局的;决断的;
Shipping brings us 90 percent of world trade. 海运给我们带来了90%的全球交易物资。
Shipping has quadrupled in size since 1970. 自1970年以来,海运的能力是原来的四倍。
quadrupled:adj.四倍的;v.quadruple的过去式;
We are more dependent on it now than ever. 我们从没有像现在这样依赖海运。
dependent on:依赖于;依靠;
And yet, for such an enormous industry -- there are a 100,000 working vessels on the sea — it's become pretty much invisible . 然而,就是这样一个庞大的行业—— 海上有十万艘工作船只, 它却几乎完全被人们所忽视。
enormous:adj.庞大的,巨大的;凶暴的,极恶的; vessels:n.血管(vessel的复数);船舶;容器; invisible:adj.看不见的;n.看不见的人或物;
Now that sounds absurd in Singapore to say that, because here shipping is so present that you stuck a ship on top of a hotel. 也许在新加坡那样说听上去有些荒谬, 因为这里海运到处可见, 甚至你们还把一艘船安在了一个酒店楼顶 （新加坡金海湾金沙酒店）。
absurd:adj.荒谬的;可笑的;n.荒诞;荒诞作品;
(Laughter) （笑声）
But elsewhere in the world, if you ask the general public what they know about shipping and how much trade is carried by sea, you will get essentially a blank face. 但是世界其它地方, 如果你问普通人 关于海运及其承载的交易量的问题, 你只会看到一张茫然的脸。
elsewhere:adv.在别处;到别处; essentially:adv.本质上;本来;
You will ask someone on the street if they've heard of Microsoft. 你可以问路人 是否听说过微软,
I should think they'll say yes, because they'll know that they make software that goes on computers, and occasionally works. 我想他们会说“听过”, 因为他们知道微软制造 那些电脑上运行的软件 并偶尔成功工作
occasionally:adv.偶尔;有时候;偶然;
But if you ask them if they've heard of Maersk, 但是如果你问他们是否听过马士基,
I doubt you'd get the same response , even though Maersk, which is just one shipping company amongst many, has revenues pretty much on a par with Microsoft. 听到的答案可能就不同了, 虽然马士基, 很多海运公司中的一个, 创造的收入和微软几乎持平。
response:n.响应;反应;回答; amongst:prep.在…之中;在…当中(等于among); revenues:n.[会计]收入;税收;[会计]收益;营业收入(revenue的复数形式);
[$60.2 billion] [602亿美元]
Now why is this? 为什么会是这样呢？
A few years ago, the first sea lord of the British admiralty -- he is called the first sea lord, although the chief of the army is not called a land lord — he said that we, and he meant in the industrialized nations in the West, that we suffer from sea blindness. 几年前, 英国海军本部的第一海军大臣—— 他被称为第一海军大臣, 虽然陆军的最高领袖并不叫“陆军大臣”, 他说,我们,他指的是 西方世界的发达国家, 患有海上失明症。
lord:n.(英国)贵族,大人,大臣;v.使成贵族;作威作福; admiralty:n.海军部;海事法庭;海军上将的职位; industrialized:adj.工业化的;v.使工业化;将…组成产业(industrialize的过去分词);
We are blind to the sea as a place of industry or of work. 我们看不到海, 其实是一个行业领域、一个工作的地方。
It's just something we fly over, a patch of blue on an airline map. 我们认为那只是我们飞行经过的地方, 飞行地图上的那一片蓝。
patch:n.补丁;小片;眼罩;色斑;v.修补;打补丁;缝补;
Nothing to see, move along. 没什么可看的,继续行进。
So I wanted to open my own eyes to my own sea blindness, so I ran away to sea. 所以我想睁大我的双眼, 克服自己的海上失明症, 于是我跑向了海。
A couple of years ago, I took a passage on the Maersk Kendal, a mid-sized container ship carrying nearly 7,000 boxes, and I departed from Felixstowe, on the south coast of England, and I ended up right here in Singapore five weeks later, considerably less jet-lagged than I am right now. 几年前,我登上了 马士基肯德尔, 一艘中等大小的集装箱货运船, 上面有近7000个箱子, 我从英国南海岸的费利克斯托港口出发, 我从英国南海岸的费利克斯托港口出发, 五个星期以后,到达了我现在在的地方,新加坡, 五个星期以后,到达了我现在在的地方,新加坡, 不过没有像我现在这么严重的时差。
mid-sized:adj.中号的;中等尺寸的; departed:adj.过去的;死去的;以往的;n.死者;v.离去;去世(depart的过去分词); considerably:adv.相当地;非常地; jet-lagged:adj.有时差现象的;飞机晚点的;
And it was a revelation . 我受到了很大的启示。
revelation:n.披露; adj.暴露的;
We traveled through five seas, two oceans, nine ports, and I learned a lot about shipping. 我们穿越了五个海, 两个大洋,九个港口, 我学到了很多关于海运的东西。
And one of the first things that surprised me when I got on board Kendal was, where are all the people? 当我登上肯德尔时, 第一件让我惊讶的事情是: 当我登上肯德尔时, 第一件让我惊讶的事情是: 人都在哪里？
I have friends in the Navy who tell me they sail with 1,000 sailors at a time, but on Kendal there were only 21 crew. 我的海军朋友告诉过我, 通常一次会有1000个海员出行, 可是在肯德尔上,只有21个船员。
Navy:n.海军;深蓝色的;
Now that's because shipping is very efficient . 这是因为海运效率非常高。
efficient:adj.有效率的;有能力的;生效的;
Containerization has made it very efficient. 集装箱的使用大大提高了其效率。
Containerization:n.集装箱化;
Ships have automation now. 现在的船只装有自动化系统。
automation:n.自动化;自动操作;
They can operate with small crews. 他们只需要很少的船员就可以操作。
But it also means that, in the words of a port chaplain I once met, the average seafarer you're going to find on a container ship is either tired or exhausted , because the pace of modern shipping is quite punishing for what the shipping calls its human element , a strange phrase which they don't seem to realize sounds a little bit inhuman . 但是这也意味着, 用我曾经碰到的一个港口的牧师的话来说, 集装箱货运船上的一个普通的海员 通常都非常疲惫,甚至精疲力尽, 因为现代海运的节奏 牺牲了海运行业称之为”人性要素”的东西, 牺牲了海运行业称之为”人性要素”的东西, 他们似乎没有认识到“人性要素”这个奇怪的字眼 听上去其实有点不人性。
chaplain:n.牧师;专职教士; exhausted:adj.筋疲力尽的; v.使筋疲力尽; (exhaust的过去分词和过去式) element:n.元素;要素;原理;成分;自然环境; inhuman:adj.残忍的;野蛮的;无人性的;
So most seafarers now working on container ships often have less than two hours in port at a time. 所以大部分在集装箱货运船上工作的海员 通常一次在一个港口待的时间都不超过两个小时。
They don't have time to relax . 他们没有时间放松。
relax:v.放松,休息;松懈,松弛;变从容;休养;
They're at sea for months at a time, and even when they're on board, they don't have access to what a five-year-old would take for granted , the Internet. 他们常常在海上一待就是好几个月, 而他们在船上的时候, 他们也没有一个五岁的孩子 认为是理所当然的东西——因特网。 他们也没有一个五岁的孩子 认为是理所当然的东西——因特网。
take for granted:认为…理所当然;
And another thing that surprised me when I got on board Kendal was who I was sitting next to -- 我登上肯德尔后,第二件让我惊讶的事情是: 坐我旁边的人,
Not the queen; I can't imagine why they put me underneath her portrait -- 不是女王, 我也不知道他们为什么把我放在她的画像下面,
underneath:prep.在…的下面;在…的支配下;n.下面;底部;adj.下面的;底层的; portrait:n.肖像;描写;半身雕塑像;
But around that dining table in the officer's saloon , 而是在那个官员餐厅的餐桌边,
dining table:餐桌; saloon:n.酒吧;大厅;展览场;公共大厅;大会客室;
I was sitting next to a Burmese guy, 坐在我旁边的是一个缅甸人,
I was opposite a Romanian, a Moldavian, an Indian. 坐在我对面的是一个罗马尼亚人,一个摩尔多瓦人, 一个印度人。
On the next table was a Chinese guy, and in the crew room, it was entirely Filipinos. 隔壁的桌子是一个中国人, 在船员的房间,则全是菲律宾人。
So that was a normal working ship. 这就是一艘普通的工作船只。
Now how is that possible? 怎么会是这样？
Because the biggest dramatic change in shipping over the last 60 years, when most of the general public stopped noticing it, was something called an open registry , or a flag of convenience . 因为在过去的60年里, 海运业的最大的变化, 因为在过去的60年里, 海运业的最大的变化, 当普通大众不再关注海运业的时候, 就是所谓的“开放登记”, 或“方便旗”。
dramatic:adj.突然的;巨大的;令人吃惊的;激动人心的; registry:n.注册;登记处;挂号处;船舶的国籍; flag of convenience:n.方便旗(指船由于法律或经济上的原因挂外国国旗);
Ships can now fly the flag of any nation that provides a flag registry. 现在船只可以悬挂任何国家的国旗, 只要他们给予登记。
You can get a flag from the landlocked nation of Bolivia, or Mongolia, or North Korea, though that's not very popular. 你可以从一个内陆国家获得一面国旗, 比如玻利维亚、蒙古, 或者北朝鲜,虽然这不是很流行。
landlocked:adj.为陆地所包围的;
(Laughter) （笑声）
So we have these very multinational , global , mobile crews on ships. 所以我们有这些来自多个国家的、 全球的、移动的船员。
multinational:adj.跨国公司的;多国的;n.跨国公司; global:adj.全球的;总体的;球形的; mobile:n.手机;汽车;移动电话;adj.活跃的;可动的;
And that was a surprise to me. 这让我非常惊讶。
And when we got to pirate waters, down the Bab-el-Mandeb strait and into the Indian Ocean, the ship changed. 当我们到达了海盗水域, 穿过曼德海峡,进入印度洋的时候, 船只发生了变化。
pirate:n.海盗;盗版;侵犯专利权者;v.掠夺;翻印;剽窃; strait:adj.狭窄的;苦恼的;n.海峡;困境;
And that was also shocking, because suddenly, 这让人很震惊,因为突然
I realized, as the captain said to me, that I had been crazy to choose to go through pirate waters on a container ship. 我意识到,船长也这么跟我说, 我选择坐集装箱货运船穿过海盗水域 简直太疯狂了。 我选择坐集装箱货运船穿过海盗水域 简直太疯狂了。
We were no longer allowed on deck . 我们被禁止到甲板上去。
deck:n.甲板;舱面;层面;一副(为52张);v.装饰;打扮;布置;用力击倒;
There were double pirate watches. 他们密切监视海盗的出现。
And at that time, there were those 544 seafarers being held hostage, and some of them were held hostage for years because of the nature of shipping and the flag of convenience. 而那个时候,正有544名海员被押为人质, 有的被押了数年, 因为海运本身以及“方便旗”的关系。
Not all of them, but some of them were, because for the minority of unscrupulous ship owners, it can be easy to hide behind the anonymity offered by some flags of convenience. 不是所有的人,但是其中一些, 因为碰上了无良的肆无忌惮的船主, 很容易被隐藏起来, 借以“方便旗”的匿名性。
minority:n.少数民族;少数派;未成年;adj.少数的;属于少数派的; unscrupulous:adj.肆无忌惮的;寡廉鲜耻的;不讲道德的; anonymity:n.匿名;匿名者;无名之辈;
What else does our sea blindness mask? 我们的“海上失明症”还隐藏了什么？
Well, if you go out to sea on a ship or on a cruise ship, and look up to the funnel , you'll see very black smoke. 如果你跟着船只出海, 或者坐游艇,抬头看烟囱, 你会看到黑烟。
cruise:v.巡航;乘船游览;慢速行驶,巡行;猎艳;n.航行;乘船游览; look up to:尊敬; funnel:n.漏斗;烟囱;v.通过漏斗或烟囱等;使成漏斗形;
And that's because shipping has very tight margins , and they want cheap fuel, so they use something called bunker fuel, which was described to me by someone in the tanker industry as the dregs of the refinery , or just one step up from asphalt . 那是因为海运的利润非常小, 而他们需要便宜的燃料, 那是因为海运的利润非常小, 而他们需要便宜的燃料, 所以他们用一种船用燃料, 一位油轮行业的人告诉我, 那是炼油厂的糟粕, 跟沥青几乎相差无几了。
margins:n.边缘; v.给…镶边; (margin的复数) bunker:n.沙坑;煤仓;燃料库;vt.使陷入困境;把球击入沙坑; described:v.描述;形容;把…称为;做…运动;(describe的过去分词和过去式) dregs:n.渣滓;少量;沉淀物(dreg的复数); refinery:n.炼油厂;制糖厂;精制厂; asphalt:n.沥青;柏油;v.以沥青铺;adj.用柏油铺成的;
And shipping is the greenest method of transport . 而海运已经是最环保的运输方式了。
transport:n.运输;输送;运送;运输机;v.输送;传播;使产生身临其境的感觉;(旧时)流放;
In terms of carbon emissions per ton per mile, it emits about a thousandth of aviation and about a tenth of trucking. 就每英里每吨的碳排放而言, 它是飞机的一千分之一, 货车的十分之一。
carbon:n.[化学]碳;碳棒;复写纸;adj.碳的;碳处理的; emissions:n.(光、热、气等的)发出,排放;排放物;散发物;(emission的复数) emits:发出;放射;发行(emit的动词单数第三人称形式); aviation:n.航空;飞行术;飞机制造业;
But it's not benign , because there's so much of it. 但这仍然不是好事,因为还是有很多排放。
benign:adj.良性的;和蔼的,亲切的;吉利的;
So shipping emissions are about three to four percent, almost the same as aviation's. 海运的碳排放大概是3%到4%, 跟飞机差不多。
And if you put shipping emissions on a list of the countries' carbon emissions, it would come in about sixth, somewhere near Germany. 如果你把海运的碳排放 放在各个国家的碳排放的列表上, 它会大概排在第六位, 靠近德国。
It was calculated in 2009 that the 15 largest ships pollute in terms of particles and soot and noxious gases as much as all the cars in the world. 据估计,2009年15艘最大的船只 排放的颗粒、烟尘 和有毒气体, 和全世界的机动车加起来差不多。
particles:n.微粒,粒子;粒子系统;碎木料(particle的复数形式); soot:n.煤烟,烟灰;vt.用煤烟熏黑;以煤烟弄脏; noxious:adj.有害的;有毒的;败坏道德的;讨厌的;
And the good news is that people are now talking about sustainable shipping. 但是好消息是 人们正在讨论可持续的海运。
sustainable:adj.可以忍受的;足可支撑的;养得起的;可持续的;
There are interesting initiatives going on. 一些有意思的初步行动正在展开。
initiatives:n.积极性;主动权(initiative的复数);创始;
But why has it taken so long? 那为什么要那么久呢？
When are we going to start talking and thinking about shipping miles as well as air miles? 什么时候我们才会开始讨论和思考 海运里程数,就像飞行里程数一样？
as well as:也;和…一样;不但…而且;
I also traveled to Cape Cod to look at the plight of the North Atlantic right whale, because this to me was one of the most surprising things about my time at sea, and what it made me think about. 我还去了科德角看 北大西洋露脊鲸的困境, 因为这是我的海上经历带给我的 最震撼的让我思考的事情。 因为这是我的海上经历带给我的 最震撼的让我思考的事情。 因为这是我的海上经历带给我的 最震撼的让我思考的事情。
Cape:n.披肩;披风;短斗篷;地角; plight:n.困境;境况;誓约;vt.保证;约定; Atlantic:adj.大西洋的;巨人阿特拉斯的;n.大西洋;
We know about man's impact on the ocean in terms of fishing and overfishing , but we don't really know much about what's happening underneath the water. 我们知道人类对海洋的影响, 就捕鱼和过度捕捞而言, 但是我们并不知道 在水下到底发生了什么。
impact:n.影响;效果;碰撞;冲击力;v.挤入,压紧;撞击;对…产生影响; overfishing:n.渔捞过度;vt.过度捕捞(overfish的现在分词);
And in fact, shipping has a role to play here, because shipping noise has contributed to damaging the acoustic habitats of ocean creatures . 而事实是,海运在其中起了一定的角色, 因为海运带来的噪音 破坏了很多海洋生物的声音栖息地。
contributed:v.捐献,捐赠(尤指款或物); (contribute的过去式和过去分词) acoustic:adj.声学的;音响的;听觉的;n.原声乐器;不用电传音的乐器; habitats:n.[生态]栖息地;(动植物的)[经]产地(habitat的复数形式); creatures:n.生物;动物;(具有某种特征的)人(creature的复数)
Light doesn't penetrate beneath the surface of the water, so ocean creatures like whales and dolphins and even 800 species of fish communicate by sound. 光线无法穿到水下面, 所以诸如鲸鱼和海豚之类的海洋生物, 甚至800个鱼的物种 都靠声音交流。
penetrate:v.渗透;进入;穿过;看透; beneath:prep.在…之下;adv.在下方; species:n.[生物]物种;种类;
And a North Atlantic right whale can transmit across hundreds of miles. 而北大西洋露脊鲸的声音 可以传播上百英里。
transmit:v.传送;发射;播送;传播;传染;
A humpback can transmit a sound across a whole ocean. 座头鲸的声音可以传播整个海洋。 座头鲸的声音可以传播整个海洋。
humpback:n.驼背;座头鲸;
But a supertanker can also be heard coming across a whole ocean, and because the noise that propellers make underwater is sometimes at the same frequency that whales use, then it can damage their acoustic habitat, and they need this for breeding , for finding feeding grounds, for finding mates . 但是一艘超级油轮的声音也可以 穿越整个海洋, 而因为螺旋桨发出的噪音 有的时候跟鲸鱼发出的声音的频率是一样的, 可能会破坏鲸鱼的声音栖息地, 而鲸鱼需要这些声音来繁衍、 觅食 和寻找配偶。
supertanker:n.巨大油轮;[船]超大型油轮; propellers:n.[航][船]螺旋桨;[印刷]螺旋辊(propeller的复数); underwater:adj.在水中的;水面下的;adv.在水下;n.水下; frequency:n.频率;发生率;重复率;频繁; breeding:n.繁殖;饲养;教养;再生;v.生产;培育;使…繁殖;(breed的现在分词) mates:n.朋友; v.交配;
And the acoustic habitat of the North Atlantic right whale has been reduced by up to 90 percent. 北大西洋露脊鲸的声音栖息地 已经减少了近90%。
But there are no laws governing acoustic pollution yet. 然而还没有法律来约束声音污染。
And when I arrived in Singapore, and I apologize for this, but I didn't want to get off my ship. 当我到达新加坡的时候, 我必须对此表示道歉,我不想下船。
I'd really loved being on board Kendal. 我爱极了在肯德尔上的日子。
I'd been well treated by the crew, 船员对我非常好,
treated:v.以…态度对待;把…看作;(treat的过去分词和过去式)
I'd had a garrulous and entertaining captain, and I would happily have signed up for another five weeks, something that the captain also said 我有一个爱说、好玩的船长, 我很愿意再在船上待上五个星期, 虽然船长觉得我这个想法很疯狂。
garrulous:adj.唠叨的;喋喋不休的;多嘴的;
I was crazy to think about. 虽然船长觉得我这个想法很疯狂。
But I wasn't there for nine months at a time like the Filipino seafarers, who, when I asked them to describe their job to me, called it "dollar for homesickness ." 但是我没有一次性在船上待上9个月, 像菲律宾的海员那样, 当我让他们跟我描述他们的工作的时候, 他们称之为:乡思美元。
Filipino:n.(西)菲律宾人;菲律宾语;adj.菲律宾的; homesickness:n.乡愁;
They had good salaries, but theirs is still an isolating and difficult life in a dangerous and often difficult element. 他们的工资待遇不错, 但是他们过得仍然是一种孤立的、艰难的生活, 在一个危险的、困难不断的环境里面。
isolating:adj.孤立的;绝缘的;v.使隔离;使绝缘(isolate的ing形式);
But when I get to this part, I'm in two minds, because I want to salute those seafarers who bring us 90 percent of everything and get very little thanks or recognition for it. 说到这里,我有些矛盾, 我想对这些海员致敬, 因为他们给我们带来了90%的东西 却得到很少的感激和认可。
salute:n.致敬,欢迎;敬礼;v.行礼致敬,欢迎;致意,打招呼;行礼; recognition:n.识别;认识;承认;认可;
I want to salute the 100,000 ships that are at sea that are doing that work, coming in and out every day, bringing us what we need. 我想对那10万艘海上的船只致敬, 我想对那10万艘海上的船只致敬, 它们每天不停工作,进进出出, 满足我们的所需。
But I also want to see shipping, and us, the general public, who know so little about it, to have a bit more scrutiny , to be a bit more transparent , to have 90 percent transparency . 但是我也希望看到海运 和我们这些对海运知之甚少的大众, 有更多的关注, 有更多的透明度, 有90%的透明度。
scrutiny:n.详细审查;监视;细看;选票复查; transparent:adj.透明的;显然的;坦率的;易懂的; transparency:n.透明,透明度;幻灯片;有图案的玻璃;
Because I think we could all benefit from doing something very simple, which is learning to see the sea. 因为我觉得我们都可以从非常简单的事情中获益, 因为我觉得我们都可以从非常简单的事情中获益, 就是学会看海。
Thank you. 谢谢！
(Applause) （掌声）