Bandi Mbubi: Demand a fair trade cell phone

Translator: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Morton Bast

翻译人员: Yi Shao 校对人员: Candice Wang

I want to talk to you today

今天我想与你们分享

about a difficult topic that is close to me,

一个与我息息相关的尖锐话题，

and closer than you might realize to you.

也许你们没有意识到，它其实也十分贴近你们的生活。

二十一年前我来到英国

I came to the UK 21 years ago, as an asylum-seeker.

寻求庇护。

I was 21.

那时我二十一岁

作为一名学生活动家

I was forced to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

my home, where I was a student activist.

我被迫离开我的祖国刚果民主共和国。

我希望我的孩子能够见到

I would love my children to be able to meet my family in the Congo.

我在刚果的家人。

But I want to tell you what the Congo has got to do with you.

但今天我要说的是刚果和你们的关系。

But first of all, I want you to do me a favor.

首先，我想请大家帮我一个忙。

Can you all please reach into your pockets and take out your mobile phone?

请各位把手伸进口袋里

拿出你们的手机。

感受一下那熟悉的重量，

Feel that familiar weight ...

how naturally your finger slides towards the buttons.

手指滑向按键时是多么自然。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

你能想象没有手机的生活吗？

Can you imagine your world without it?

它将我们和海内外的爱人、

It connects us to our loved ones,

our family, friends and colleagues,

家人、朋友和同事

at home and overseas.

联系在一起。

它是世界内部相互联通的标志。

It is a symbol of an interconnected world.

But what you hold in your hand leaves a bloody trail,

然而你手中的手机其实沾满斑斑血迹，

这一切始于一种矿物：钽

and it all boils down to a mineral:

用于提取该矿物的钶钽铁矿是在刚果开采的。

tantalum, mined in the Congo as coltan.

It is an anticorrosive heat conductor.

钽是一种抗腐蚀的导热体。

It stores energy in our mobile phones, PlayStations and laptops.

在我们的手机、游戏机和笔记本电脑中

被用于储存能量。

在航空和医疗领域被用来

It is used in aerospace and medical equipment as an alloy.

制作合金。

It is so powerful that we only need tiny amounts.

钽的性能非常优良

因此用量很小。

It would be great if the story ended there.

这个故事如果就此结束就可谓皆大欢喜。

Unfortunately, what you hold in your hand

不幸的是，你手中的手机

不仅带来了惊人的技术进步

has not only enabled incredible technological development

and industrial expansion,

和产业扩张，

but it has also contributed to unimaginable human suffering.

也带来了超乎一般人想象的

痛苦与折磨。

Since 1996,

1996年以来，刚果民主共和国境内

over five million people have died in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

有五百多万人死亡。

Countless women, men and children have been raped, tortured or enslaved.

无数的女人、男人和小孩

被强奸、折磨、被迫成为奴隶。

Rape is used as a weapon of war,

强奸成为了一种武器，

用来散播恐惧

instilling fear and depopulating whole areas.

减少整个地区的人口。

The quest for extracting this mineral

对这种矿物的开采

没有缓解，反而让

has not only aided, but it has fueled

刚果内战愈演愈烈。

the ongoing war in the Congo.

But don't throw away your phones yet.

不过暂时不要扔掉你的手机。

Thirty thousand children are enlisted

三万儿童被迫加入武装组织

参与战斗。

and are made to fight in armed groups.

在全球健康和贫富排行榜上

The Congo consistently scores dreadfully

in global health and poverty rankings.

刚果的得分一直糟糕的吓人。

But remarkably,

然而根据联合国环境保护署的估计，

the UN Environmental Programme has estimated the wealth of the country

刚果居然拥有价值

两千四百亿美元的财富。

to be over 24 trillion dollars.

国家管理的开采已经崩溃，

The state-regulated mining industry has collapsed,

钽矿的控制权

and control over mines has splintered.

分崩离析。

Coltan is easily controlled by armed groups.

钶钽铁矿很容易被武装组织控制。

卢旺达边界是一条著名的

One well-known illicit trade route is that across the border to Rwanda,

非法贸易路线，

where Congolese tantalum is disguised as Rwandan.

来自刚果的钽被伪装成卢旺达的矿产。

不过还是不要扔掉你们的手机，

But don't throw away your phones yet,

because the incredible irony

因为这其中的关系有些讽刺

is that the technology that has placed such unsustainable,

手机通讯给刚果带来的是不具可持续性的开发

devastating demands on the Congo

和巨大的伤害

然而也正是这项技术

is the same technology that has brought this situation to our attention.

引起了我们对这些问题的重视。

我们对刚果

We only know so much about the situation in the Congo and in the mines

和钽矿情况的了解

because of the kind of communication the mobile phone allows.

都来自手机通讯

传递的信息。

As with the Arab Spring,

和阿拉伯之春一样，

during the recent elections in the Congo,

在刚果最近的选举中，

选民可以通过短信

voters were able to send text messages of local polling stations

将地方选举站的情况发往

to the headquarters in the capital, Kinshasa.

位于首都金沙萨的总部，

And in the wake of the result,

选举结果公布之后

the diaspora has joined with the Carter Center,

各地的群众立刻与卡特中心

基督教教会和其它观察机构一起

the Catholic Church and other observers,

呼吁世界关注选举中的不民主现象。

to draw attention to the undemocratic result.

手机是世界各地的人民

The mobile phone has given people around the world

an important tool towards gaining their political freedom.

争取政治自由的重要工具。

It has truly revolutionized the way we communicate on the planet.

它彻底变革了

人类沟通的方式。

它促进了

It has allowed momentous political change to take place.

重大政治变革的发生。

So, we are faced with a paradox.

因此

我们深处一个两难境地。

The mobile phone is an instrument of freedom

手机既能带来自由

and an instrument of oppression.

又会引起压迫。

TED一直赞赏技术，

TED has always celebrated what technology can do for us,

成熟的技术，

technology in its finished form.

对我们生活的改善。

It is time to be asking questions about technology.

然而现在我们也要

提出与技术有关的问题。

一项技术来自何方？

Where does it come from?

Who makes it?

由谁制造？

为何存在？

And for what?

Here, I am speaking directly to you,

现场的TED观众、

来自刚果或是世界各地

the TED community,

and to all those who might be watching on a screen,

通过屏幕或者手机观看的人们

on your phone, across the world,

今天

in the Congo.

我与你们直接交流。

All the technology is in place for us to communicate,

技术给我们相互沟通的机会，

技术让我们传递这样的信息。

and all the technology is in place to communicate this.

现在

At the moment,

there is no clear fair-trade solution.

我们还没有找到保证贸易公平的明确措施，

But there has been a huge amount of progress.

但在这一方面已经取得了显著的进展。

The US has recently passed legislation

美国近期通过了

to target bribery and misconduct in the Congo.

意在整治刚果境内的贿赂和不法现象的有关法律。

Recent UK legislation could be used in the same way.

英国最近通过的法律也有类似的功效。

In February, Nokia unveiled its new policy on sourcing minerals in the Congo,

2月，诺基亚公布了有关

在刚果境内采矿的最新政策

and there is a petition to Apple to make a conflict-free iPhone.

也有人向苹果请愿

要求他们制造不涉及冲突的iPhone手机。

There are campaigns spreading across university campuses

大学里也兴起了广泛的

建立无冲突校园的

to make their colleges conflict-free.

宣传活动。

But we're not there yet.

然而我们的使命尚未完成。

We need to continue mounting pressure on phone companies

我们必须继续向

手机制造商施压

to change their sourcing processes.

要求他们改变获取原料的流程。

When I first came to the UK, 21 years ago,

21年前，我刚刚来到英国的时候

I was homesick.

非常想家。

I missed my family and the friends I left behind.

我想念留在国内的家人和朋友。

Communication was extremely difficult.

和他们联系非常困难。

Sending and receiving letters took months --

书信往来往往需要好几个月。

if you were lucky.

信件常常丢失，运气好的时候才能收到。

Often, they never arrived.

即便我能付得起

Even if I could have afforded the phone bills home,

打电话回家的费用，

like most people in the Congo,

和大多数刚果人一样

my parents did not own a phone line.

我的父母没有电话。

Today, my two sons --

如今，我的两个儿子

大卫和丹尼尔

David and Daniel,

can talk to my parents and get to know them.

可以和我的父母交流，并了解他们。

我们为什么要让

Why should we allow

such a wonderful, brilliant and necessary product

如此美好、优秀、必要的产品

to be the cause of unnecessary suffering

成为不必要的人类痛苦的

for human beings?

源头？

We demand fair-trade food and fair-trade clothes.

我们在食品、服装等方面

要求公平贸易。

It is time to demand fair-trade phones.

现在是倡导手机公平贸易的时候了。

This is an idea worth spreading.

这是一个值得传播的理念。谢谢。

Thank you.

（掌声）

(Applause)