柬埔寨 昔日的种族杀戮场 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.

柬埔寨这个国家有着太多糟糕的回忆。美国B-52轰炸机在越南战争期间对它进行过地毯式轰炸。暴君波尔布特(Pol Pot)的崛起及其领导的红色高棉政权设立的种族灭绝屠宰场，差一点就让它走向灭亡。

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?

谁也不曾想到，它竟然会变成外国人眼中的廉价退休疗养地，包括许多美国人。当柬埔寨在黑暗岁月里挣扎的时候，这些美国人正处于可以应征入伍的年龄。

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.

近年来，已有成千上万的老年人从澳大利亚、欧洲和美国移居柬埔寨，或者正把它当成一个选项加以考虑——尤其是那些收入固定、深受这里的低廉生活成本吸引的人。柬埔寨政府正通过简化外国退休人员签证申办手续，来鼓励他们的涌入。

“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.

“公众对一个地方持有的某种负面看法，和当地正面得多的现实情况之间，常常存在着机会，”《国际生活》(International Living)主编珍妮弗·史蒂文斯(Jennifer Stevens)说。《国际生活》是一本月刊，面向的是考虑搬到生活成本不那么高昂的国家居住的老年人。

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.

据这本杂志报道， 一名美国退休人员每月顶多只要拿到一张1000美元的社保支票，就能在柬埔寨维持“一种轻松舒适的生活方式”。“在那里可以过得很实惠，”该杂志编辑总监约恩·巴塞特(Eoin Bassett)说。

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

在有过惨痛遭遇的柬埔寨，这种形象的转变当然是件好事。

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.

事情是从尼克松政府下令实施代号为“早餐行动”(Operation Breakfast)的秘密轰炸开始的，在1969年至1970年间，总共有11万吨炸弹被投放在这个国家的土地上。美国空军的B-52轰炸机在柬埔寨境内至少执行了3500次任务，遗留下不少炸弹碎片，以及至今让某些地方成为禁区的未爆炸炸弹。

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.

接着是红色高棉掌权的5年，以及惨烈程度足以在20世纪跻身世界前列的一场大规模暴行。波尔布特宣布要建设一个新社会：该国从零开始重新纪年，首都金边等城市被强行清空；约两百万人遭到屠杀。

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.

但对今天的柬埔寨人而言，这些都是遥远的历史。他们中的绝大部分都是在1979以后出生的，那一年，红色高棉政权因越南入侵而垮台。目前，柬埔寨人的年龄中值约为24岁。