柬埔寨 昔日的種族殺戮場 如今的退休者天堂

Cambodia is a country of many a bad memory. American B-52s carpet-bombed it during the Vietnam War. It barely survived the rise of a despot named Pol Pot and the genocidal killing fields of his Khmer Rouge regime.

柬埔寨這個國家有着太多糟糕的回憶。美國B-52轟炸機在越南戰爭期間對它進行過地毯式轟炸。暴君波爾布特(Pol Pot)的崛起及其領導的紅色高棉政權設立的種族滅絕屠宰場，差一點就讓它走向滅亡。

Who would have guessed that it would become, of all things, an affordable retirement haven for foreigners, including many Americans who were of draft age when the country was convulsed by those much darker times?

誰也不曾想到，它竟然會變成外國人眼中的廉價退休療養地，包括許多美國人。當柬埔寨在黑暗歲月裏掙扎的時候，這些美國人正處於可以應徵入伍的年齡。

Thousands of older people from Australia, Europe and the United States have moved to Cambodia in recent years, or are thinking about it as an option — especially people on fixed incomes who are attracted by the low cost of living. The Cambodian government is encouraging the influx by making it simpler for foreign retirees to apply for visas.

近年來，已有成千上萬的老年人從澳大利亞、歐洲和美國移居柬埔寨，或者正把它當成一個選項加以考慮——尤其是那些收入固定、深受這裏的低廉生活成本吸引的人。柬埔寨政府正通過簡化外國退休人員簽證申辦手續，來鼓勵他們的涌入。

“Opportunity often lies in that space between the public’s somewhat negative perception about a place and the much more positive reality on the ground,” said Jennifer Stevens, the executive editor of International Living, a monthly magazine that caters to older people who are thinking of moving to less expensive countries.

“公衆對一個地方持有的某種負面看法，和當地正面得多的現實情況之間，常常存在着機會，”《國際生活》(International Living)主編珍妮弗·史蒂文斯(Jennifer Stevens)說。《國際生活》是一本月刊，面向的是考慮搬到生活成本不那麼高昂的國家居住的老年人。

The magazine reported that an American retiree could fund “a relaxed and comfortable lifestyle” in Cambodia on nothing more than a $1,000-a-month Social Security check. “You just get great value there,” said Eoin Bassett, the magazine’s editorial director.

據這本雜誌報道， 一名美國退休人員每月頂多只要拿到一張1000美元的社保支票，就能在柬埔寨維持“一種輕鬆舒適的生活方式”。“在那裏可以過得很實惠，”該雜誌編輯總監約恩·巴塞特(Eoin Bassett)說。

The image change is certainly welcomed in Cambodia, where the unspeakable once happened.

在有過慘痛遭遇的柬埔寨，這種形象的轉變當然是件好事。

It began with the secret bombing ordered by the Nixon administration code-named Operation Breakfast, which dumped 110,000 tons of explosives on the country in 1969 and 1970. Air Force B-52s made at least 3,500 raids inside Cambodia, contributing to a legacy of bomb fragments and unexploded bombs that still make parts of the country off limits.

事情是從尼克松政府下令實施代號爲“早餐行動”(Operation Breakfast)的祕密轟炸開始的，在1969年至1970年間，總共有11萬噸炸彈被投放在這個國家的土地上。美國空軍的B-52轟炸機在柬埔寨境內至少執行了3500次任務，遺留下不少炸彈碎片，以及至今讓某些地方成爲禁區的未爆炸炸彈。

Later came five years of rule by the Khmer Rouge, and one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century. Pol Pot declared a new society; reset the nation’s calendar at Year Zero; forcibly emptied the capital, Phnom Penh, and other cities; and slaughtered about two million people.

接着是紅色高棉掌權的5年，以及慘烈程度足以在20世紀躋身世界前列的一場大規模暴行。波爾布特宣佈要建設一個新社會：該國從零開始重新紀年，首都金邊等城市被強行清空；約兩百萬人遭到屠殺。

But that is ancient history to today’s Cambodians, the vast majority of whom were born well after the Khmer Rouge regime collapsed in 1979, routed by a Vietnamese invasion. The median age in the country is about 24.

但對今天的柬埔寨人而言，這些都是遙遠的歷史。他們中的絕大部分都是在1979以後出生的，那一年，紅色高棉政權因越南入侵而垮臺。目前，柬埔寨人的年齡中值約爲24歲。