Deep Wounds of the Sichuan Quake
四川地震的深度創傷
Deep Wounds of the Sichuan Quake
One of the recurring themes from last year”s earthquake in Sichuan is official corruption and the extent it contributed to the collapse of substandard schools, killing a still unknown number of children. Another, less discussed issue, is the degree to which many local officials in the disaster zone were victims themselves.
自去年四川地震以來，一個反覆出現的主題是關於政府官員的腐敗，以及因之產生的未達標學校的倒塌，導致仍不知確切數字的孩子們的死亡。而很少論及的另一個問題，是災區地方官員自己成為受害者的程度。
In Beichuan, where as many as 15,000 residents were killed, a quarter of the local officials also perished in the quake. Many of the survivors lost family members. When my colleague Lin Yang and photographer Ian Teh went back to Sichuan last fall, we met with a Beichuan official whose wife and daughter were both killed on May 12. Zhang Kangqi keeps a drawing of them, sketched from old ID photos, by his bed. All other mementos of them were buried in Beichuan. (You can see Ian”s photos of the recovery efforts, including a portrait of Zhang, in this gallery.)
在北川，多達15，000名居民死亡，四分之一的地方官員也在地震中死去。許多倖存者失去了家人。去年秋天，我和同事楊林和攝像鄭永仁回到四川時，遇到一位北川官員，他的妻子和女兒都在5.12地震中死亡。張康齊保存着從舊身份證的照片上臨摹下來的一張她們的畫像，放在床頭。她們的其它所有遺物都被埋在北川下面了。（在這個畫廊中，你可以看到鄭永仁畫的在關恢復工作的照片，其中包括一幅張的肖像。）
Zhang immersed himself in recovery efforts, but not all his co-workers had the same capacity to work through their suffering. A few weeks before we visited Dong Yufei, another local official who lost his son, killed himself. "He was a good man," Zhang said of Yu, "but not everyone can handle the pressure. His child had died."
張專註地做着恢復工作，但是，他的同事並不都具有同樣的戰勝痛苦的能力。在我們採訪董玉飛之前幾個星期，另一位失去兒子的地方官自殺了。“他是個好人，”張提到玉飛說，“不過，並不是每個人都能應付壓力。他的孩子死了。”
Yesterday brought the grim news that another Beichuan official committed suicide. Feng Xiang, the vice director of the Beichuan publicity department, had lost his 7-year-old son in the quake. Shortly before his death Feng, 33, wrote a post on his blog titled "What If," urging his family not to grieve. "Son, when you left, your father did not have a future, did not have hope, did not have any expectations," Feng wrote. "To be with you is my biggest joy."
昨天，又傳來一個無情的消息，另一位北川官員自殺了。北川宣傳部副主任馮翔在地震中失去了七歲的兒子。33歲的馮翔死前不久在博客中以“假如”為題力勸家人不要悲傷。馮寫道：“兒子，你離開了，爸爸沒有了未來，沒有了希望，沒有了憧憬，與你相聚，是爸爸最大的快樂。”