Mysterious and terrifying, North Korea is the most isolated country on earth. Kim Jong Il, known as the Dear Leader, rules as a god-king. He controls the world’s fourth largest army and plutonium for nuclear weapons. As we penetrate North Korea with a doctor on a mission to make the blind see, we’ll find a world of absolute conformity full of government minders and unimaginable horrors that people risk their lives to escape.
神祕、駭人的北韓是全球最孤立的國家。「親愛的領袖」金正日,統治風格猶如君權神授,他控制全球第四大軍隊,擁有製造核武的鈽。我們這次跟著身負讓盲人重見天日任務的醫師滲透北韓,將看到完全服從的世界,到處都是政府督察,人們甘冒生命危險逃離無可想像的恐怖。
It’s 1.45am at the 38th parallel along the border of North and South Korea. The 238km-long border is the most heavily militarized in the world. This joint South Korean-American platoon is on constant alert for infiltrators from the North. Behind these fences, North Korea has a million-man army and now nuclear weapons which they could use or possibly give away to terrorists. The soldiers can monitor every sound and movement close to the border. But what makes this place so dangerous is the uncertainty of what lies on the other side of the divide.
凌晨一點四十五分,這裡是南、北韓交界的北緯三十八度線。兩百三十八公里長的邊界是全球最多重軍駐守之處,美韓軍隊隨時注意是否有北韓人滲透。北韓在圍牆後部署了一百萬軍力,現在還有核武可供自用或交給恐怖分子。士兵可監控邊界附近所有動靜,然而這裡之所以危險,是因為邊界另一邊對這裡一無所知。
North Korea is one of the most secretive countries on earth and is regarded as an intelligence black hole. But we know some basic facts: North Korea is roughly the size of Greece. It has 23 million people, a showcase capital, Pyongyang, and is completely controlled by Kim Jong Il. The Dear Leader is an absolute dictator, worshipped in a personality cult perhaps more extreme than any other in history. Kim Jong Il is the son of God in North Korea. Kim Jong Il is the state. The notion of questioning his ability to rule or what he does doesn’t enter into things. Everyone is trained from birth to love the Dear Leader, and no outside sources of information are allowed. Newspapers and television are controlled by the state. There’s no Internet, cell phones have been banned and many don’t even know a man has walked on the moon.
北韓是世上最神祕的國家之一,人稱「情報黑洞」,但我們知道某些基本事實:北韓面積大約相當於希臘,人口兩千三百萬人,首都平壤如同展示櫥窗,全國都由金正日掌控。親愛的領袖是絕對的獨裁者,可能是有史以來最受崇拜的政治人物。他在北韓如同天神之子,他就是政府,沒有人會質疑他的領導能力或作為。所有人出生後就被教育要敬愛這位「親愛的領袖」,人民不得接觸外界資訊,報紙與電視都由政府控制。北韓沒有網際網路,也禁止使用行動電話,許多人甚至不知道人類已經上了月球。
North Korea is known as the hermit kingdom because of its extreme isolation from the rest of the world. But on the other side of Asia, one man is literally planning to bring light to the darkness of North Korea. Nepalese eye surgeon Dr Sanduk Ruit travels the world setting up eye clinics in developing countries. Dubbed a miracle doctor by the media, Ruit trains local doctors in inexpensive and effective treatments for cataracts. North Korea may be his biggest challenge yet. Thousands of people go blind due to a lack of even the most basic medical facilities. The annual number of surgeries performed is tiny and the blindness magnitude is one of the highest in the world.
北韓是所謂的「隱士王國」,完全孤立於全世界之外。但在亞洲的另一端,有名男子計畫要名副其實地將光明帶進黑暗的北韓。尼泊爾眼科醫生桑都•魯特周遊列國,在開發中國家設立眼科診所,媒體稱他為「奇蹟醫生」。魯特訓練當地醫生以便宜又有效的方法治療白內障。北韓可能是他至今的最大挑戰。因為缺乏最基本的醫療設備,成千上萬人因此失明。每年接受手術的人數少之又少,因此北韓的失明人數是全球最多的國家之一。
Rice is an essential ingredient in Taiwanese cuisine. Many foods are made of rice, adding more variety to our cooking, such as rice cake, or “gui.” Wagui is made by steaming rice flour batter in a bowl. The term “gui” refers to a type of food made from rice, while “wa” refers to a bowl. The pronunciation of “gui” in Taiwanese Hokkien is similar to the word for “nobility” in Chinese, so it is common for people to prepare various types of gui, including wagui, as offerings to the gods or ancestors,. 米是台灣重要的主食,用米製成的食品十分多元,豐富我們的飲食,如米做成的「粿」。粿的意思是米做成的糕點,碗粿是將在來米漿倒入碗中蒸熟,因而得名。粿因為音同「貴」,因此碗粿等粿食常用作供品祭拜神明和祖先。 nobility (n.) 高貴,高尚;貴族 offering (n.) 供品 While Taiwan may not be
Drive-through (or drive-thru) restaurants provide people with the immense convenience of being able to purchase and pick up meals without needing to leave their vehicles. These restaurants have been around for decades, and their success has spawned a number of equally handy services. The drive-through concept originated with the drive-in restaurant, the first of which was established in the US in 1921. Patrons would order and eat the food that was delivered to their cars by workers called “carhops.” Ten years later, a drive-through service was introduced, but it was not until 1947 that the first exclusively drive-through restaurant opened its
On Tuesday last week, the flame for this summer’s Paris Olympics was lit at the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games in southern Greece in a meticulously choreographed ceremony. It will then be carried through Greece for more than 5,000km before being handed over to French organizers at the Athens venue used for the first modern Olympics in 1896. The pageantry at Olympia has been an essential part of every Olympics for nearly 90 years since the Games in Berlin. It’s meant to provide an ineluctable link between the modern event and the ancient Greek original on which it was initially modelled. Once
A: “Forbes” magazine just revealed Hollywood’s top 10 highest-paid stars of 2023. B: How much did those superstars make last year? A: Denzel Washington was at No. 10, having made US$24 million, which is about NT$771 million. B: That’s an astronomical figure to me. A: No. 9 to No. 6 were: Ben Affleck with US$38 million, Jason Statham with US$41 million, Leonardo DiCaprio with US$41 million, and Jennifer Aniston with US$42 million. A: 《富比世》最近公布了好萊塢去年的片酬排行榜。 B: 大明星的片酬到底有多高? A: 第10名是丹佐華盛頓、片酬2400萬美元,大約7.7億台幣。 B: 天啊這根本是天文數字! A: 第9到6名是︰班艾佛列克、3800萬美元,傑森史塔森、4100萬美元,李奧納多狄卡皮歐、4100萬美元,珍妮佛安妮斯頓、4200萬美元。 (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)