Koala Diary

[Excerpt from THE JAPAN TIMES]

Rural Chinese have had to make a kind of Sophi"s choice:
Trade in one child"s future to salvage that of another.
They are too poor to educate more than one child.

The Huang brothers, Ting and Meng, they had to grow up
in a hurry when their father died about 10 years ago, po-
isoned by the insecticides he sprayed on his crop.
Their father made more than a dollar a day but had been
the sole breadwinner for the boys, their ill mother and th-
eir grandmother.

A few years later, Meng discovered life at the dump during
a chance trip there with some fellow villagers.They showed the boy how to turn trash into cash.
He was only 13 at the time.

The trash heap where Meng toiled rises from the flat fields
like a mountain. To save time, Meng would not go home
for breaks. When he became tired, he would nap on a plastic
tarp, among the swarming flies and horrible smell.
Because his work was too dirty, he could not bring his food
with him. He relied on his grandmother or disable mother
to bring him bread for lunch. Sometime he had to go hungry
because mother walks slowly and never showed up.

His back is already looking bent from repeating the same
motion over and over. His immune system is down. He has
little appetite, and he is so skinny.

As Ting adapts to life as college student and Meng a janit-
or, this is the one that is going to set them furthest apart.But Ting is determined to come back to his brother.
Because he can not abandon his brother or his family.

In one grievous case, a father had his son and daughter
draw straws. The winner would go to school. The otherwould work. The daughter lost. She ran away and jumped
off a cliff.

In another family, all three sons were able to finish high
school only because the parents begged their daughter,
then 19, to prostitute herself.

[Vocabulary]

rural　農村の
insecticide　殺虫剤
breadwinner　稼ぎ手
tarp　タープ（tarpaulin）防水シート
janitor　守衛、管理人
prostitute　身売り
Sophie"s Choice　苦渋の選択

『ソフィーの選択』
ナチスによるホロコーストが題材の小説(1979年)
ピューリッツァー賞を受賞
映画化(1982年)メリル・ストリープ主演
アカデミー賞を受賞
Sophie at Auschwitz with her children,
and how a Nazi officer forced her to select
one of her children to be killed, the other
would be spared.
Despite her plea of "Do not make me choose.
I can not choose", Sophie"s words fall on deaf ears,
and when a young Nazi is told to take both
Sophie"s children away, she releases her daughter,
shouting "Take my little girl!".
Sophie can only watch as the screaming
little girl is carried away to die.

[View]

It is really the bitter true story, isn"t it?
Indeed there are country which are more terrible
situation than this story, but this is our neighbor
country China honestly!! 
They are quite advanced nation, aren"t they?

Though Meng is never complaining,
but I wonder how he could manage his feeling?
If I were in his shoes,
I might be lost my mind and feeling!!

[意訳]

苦渋の選択を強いられる農村の中国人

兄の将来を救済する弟貧困のため、弟は教育を受けられず

ティンとメン、ハング兄弟は、10年以上前に
父親を農作に使用する殺虫剤が原因の病気で失った。父親は、メン兄弟と、病気の母、年老いた祖母を
少ない給料で養う、唯一の稼ぎ手だった。

数年後、弟メンは、村の仲間と行った廃品集積所見学で、
ゴミ捨て場に生きる糧を見出した。
当時、彼は、まだ13才だった。

平地だった場所に、メンは、充分な休みもとらず、
ゴミを集めて山をつくった。
疲れが溜まると、ハエが集り、酷い臭いを発するゴミ山に
防水シートを敷いて休憩した。
そこは、あまりにも不衛生なため、
彼は昼食を持参できなかった。
彼は、祖母か母が、昼食を持ってきてくれるのを
待つしかなかったが、歩行が不自由な祖母は、
時々昼食時間に現れなかった。

メンは、同じ姿勢が断続的に続く作業のため、背中が曲がり、免疫力も低下し、食欲もなく、やせ細っている。

メンの犠牲により、大学に通うことのできる兄ティンは、
弟に比べ、至って健康である。ティンは、弟と家族を守るため、学校を辞め、
実家に戻る決心をした。

ある父親は、息子と娘に藁で作ったクジを引かせた。
勝者は学校へ行き、敗者は働くこととなる。
敗者となった娘は逃げ出し、崖の上から飛び降りた。

まだ、こんな家族の話がある。
息子3人を全て学校へ通わせることのできた親がいる。
なぜなら、19才の娘に身売りをするよう懇願したからだ。

[感想]

まったく惨い話ですよね。
たしかに、世界には、もっと過酷な状況の国もありますが、これが、いまや先進国となった、お隣の中国の話だっていう
から驚きです。

弟メンは、愚痴一つ溢さないそうですが、
一体、どんな心境なんでしょう？もし、私がティンの立場だったら、心なんてなくなって
いるんじゃないでしょうか？