FT社評：遷都的講究

Egypt’s president aspires to build a new administrative capital in the desert. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi appears undeterred by the likely costs, the consequences for Cairo’s 19m residents, or the city’s 1,000-year history. He might draw some useful lessons, though, from countries that have tried similar experiments — from Australia, Brazil or Turkey to, more recently, Kazakhstan and Myanmar.

埃及總統(tǒng)希望在沙漠地帶興建一座新的行政首都。阿卜杜勒•法塔赫•塞西(Abdel Fattah al-Sisi)似乎不畏懼可能的成本、對開羅1900萬市民的影響，以及這個城市1000年的歷史。不過，他也許可以從嘗試過類似實驗的國家汲取一些有用的經(jīng)驗，從澳大利亞、巴西或土耳其，到近年的哈薩克斯坦和緬甸。

There can be good reasons to attempt a transplant of government. When Australia opted to build its capital on the site of Canberra, the reasons included security from naval attack, climate and, above all, a wish to prevent either Sydney or Melbourne dominating the new federation. Brasília was founded with similar aims of sharing resources and influence across a large country. It was also planned on utopian principles, from the aeroplane shaped design declaring Brazil to be modern and global, to the residential blocks intended to promote social equality.

試圖遷移政府所在地可能有很好的理由。當(dāng)澳大利亞選擇在堪培拉建造首都時，其原因包括避開海上打擊的安全考量、氣候，以及(這一點最重要)希望阻止悉尼或墨爾本主宰新的聯(lián)邦。巴西利亞建都的目的類似：在一個幅員遼闊的國家共享資源和影響力。它的規(guī)劃還基于烏托邦原則，從宣告巴西將變得現(xiàn)代和全球化的飛機形狀的設(shè)計，到旨在促進社會平等的住宅樓。

Another honourable example is Ankara, whose elevation from provincial backwater to capital of the Turkish republic was driven by military necessity. Istanbul was under allied occupation. Ankara became an embodiment of Ataturk’s secular, westward-facing republic — an exercise in urban planning with the great man’s mausoleum more visible than the minarets.

另一個值得稱贊的例子是安卡拉，它從一個落后的小地方升格為土耳其共和國首都，是由軍事必要性推動的。當(dāng)時伊斯坦布爾在盟軍占領(lǐng)之下。安卡拉成了現(xiàn)代土耳其之父凱末爾(穆斯塔法•凱末爾•阿塔圖爾克，Mustafa Kemal Atatürk)建立的親西方的世俗共和國的象征;在城市規(guī)劃上，這位偉人的陵寢比清真寺的尖塔還要醒目。

More recently, the construction of Abuja made sense as a means to lessen Nigeria’s regional, ethnic and religious rivalries, and to take the pressure off Lagos, whose explosive growth had made it unmanageable. The new capital has in some ways become a showcase of what Nigeria can be like when it is well run. This has come at a cost, though — in the form of countless procurement scams, ruthless clearance of informal settlements and lingering resentment at the funds Abuja sucked up at the expense of other regions.

時間再拉近一些，阿布賈的建設(shè)是有道理的，它有助于減少尼日利亞的地區(qū)、民族和宗教對立，并且為拉各斯減壓;此前拉各斯的爆炸性增長讓它變得很難管理。從某種角度看，新首都展示出管理有方的尼日利亞會是什么樣的。然而，遷都是有代價的，其形式是不計其數(shù)的采購欺詐、對非正式居住區(qū)的無情清理，以及人們對于阿布賈獨吞財政資金、犧牲其他地區(qū)利益的不滿。

There is a fine line between creating a national showcase and pursuing a vanity project with ample scope for corruption that may offer a less flattering reflection of an autocratic regime.

創(chuàng)建國家形象與追求面子工程之間只有一條細(xì)微的界限，后者會制造出大量腐敗空間，可能會讓一個威權(quán)政權(quán)呈現(xiàn)出不那么得人心的形象。

The decision by Kazakhstan’s leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to abandon Almaty for a hastily built capital on the country’s empty northern steppe had some strategic merit, to fend off Russian claims to the territory. But the result, Astana, is bizarre: dotted with structures commissioned from international architects, but conceived by the president and plastered with his portrait, from a shopping mall shaped like a nomad’s tent, to a tower that references Kazakh folklore.

哈薩克斯坦總統(tǒng)努爾蘇丹•納扎爾巴耶夫(Nursultan Nazarbayev)拋棄阿拉木圖、在該國北部大草原匆忙建都的決定，在當(dāng)時有一些戰(zhàn)略邏輯：阻止俄羅斯人對這塊領(lǐng)土的主張。但建成的新都阿斯塔納是一個怪異的城市：委托外國建筑師設(shè)計、但由總統(tǒng)構(gòu)思的建筑散落在城市各處，建筑上張貼著總統(tǒng)的畫像——有像牧民的帳篷一樣的購物中心，還有取意于哈薩克民間傳說的高樓。

Then there is Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, built in secrecy under military rule in an apparent bid to move the country’s parliament as far as possible from most of its population. Vast, gilded and strangely empty, there could be no better illustration of the isolation and paranoia of the junta.

還有就是緬甸首都內(nèi)比都：在軍政府統(tǒng)治時期秘密建造，目的顯然是為了將該國的議會搬到盡量遠(yuǎn)離人口中心的地方。這個龐大、金燦燦、空蕩得吊詭的城市，堪稱軍政府與世隔絕、疑神疑鬼的最佳象征。

Even for the well-established capitals of Canberra and Brasília, the question remains whether people want to live there. Canberra’s functional suburbs — more politely described as the world’s biggest garden city — are notoriously unloved. As one official review notes, Canberra is often used simply “as a surrogate pejorative to describe decisions made on Capitol Hill”. Brasília’s residents appreciate its unusual architecture, but many still decamp to Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo for fun at weekends.

即便是堪培拉和巴西利亞這樣建成已久的新首都，也依然存在人們是否想要住在那里的疑問。堪培拉的功能性郊區(qū)被禮貌地形容為世界最大花園城市，在缺乏人氣方面出名。正如一份官方評估所指出的，堪培拉往往只被用作“一個指代來自國會山的決定的帶有貶義的名稱”。巴西利亞的居民欣賞這座城市別具一格的建筑，但很多人周末仍然跑去里約或圣保羅玩。

Egypt’s government should take note. Yes, civil servants might be glad to escape Cairo for a sanitised new capital. But to most Egyptians, prioritising a vast, military-led construction project while the country grapples with rising inflation and worsening militant violence might look like an attempt to bury heads in the sand.

埃及政府應(yīng)該注意這些前車之鑒。沒錯，公務(wù)員或許樂于逃離開羅，搬去一個潔凈的新都。但對大多數(shù)埃及人來說，在該國仍然受到通脹不斷上升、武裝暴力活動不斷加劇的困擾之際，優(yōu)先推進一項龐大的、由軍方牽頭的建筑工程，看起來可能像是在要把頭埋在沙子里。