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Assembly of the Poor is the strongest peoples’ organization in Thailand, with one of its roots in the struggle against the World Bank-funded Pak Mun dam, completed in 1994, which displaced at least 600 families from their villages, starved the river of fish, and gave the people meagre and unfertile lands in recompense. Primarily fisher-folk, fishing was a deep part of their culture and the basis for their livelihoods. As a result of displacement by the dam, many were forced to join the ranks of the destitute in Bangkok. Dam-affected villagers have never given up their fight, and have fuelled Thailand’s dynamic anti-dam movement which also opposes the Rasi Salai dam further down the Pak Mun river, among others.

窮人議會是泰國最強烈的人民組織，它的根源之一是為了抗爭受世界銀行資助的帕穆大壩，於1994年完峻，完峻的水壩讓至少600個家庭離開他們的村莊，讓河裡的魚受餓，但也僅給出貧瘠的土地做為補償。主要靠捕魚維生的人，漁業是他們重要的文化之一以及賴以為生的方式。由於大壩的建置，許多人不得以加入曼谷這個貧窮的陣營之中。受到大壩影響的村民們從來沒有放棄過抗爭，除了助長泰國的反水壩運動，也進一步反對帕穆河下游的拉西薩萊大壩等等。

 

They have also fuelled a wider movement against globalization made up of all those, rural and urban, left out of the Thai economic ‘miracle’. On 25 January 1997, the Assembly of the Poor made a huge impression on the Thai political imagination when 20,000 dam-affected villagers, small farmers, and fisher-folk erected a makeshift ‘Village of the Poor’ of plastic shacks which stretched back nearly a mile down the Nakhon Pathom Road outside Government House in Bangkok. A spanner in the works

of the globalization project, they camped there in the stink of the smog and the traffic for 99 days, growing vegetables illegally along the banks of the city’s river. Then in 1998, international speculators betting against south east Asian currencies, caused the economy to go into free fall, revealing that Thailand’s prosperity was built like a house of cards. The Government bowed to resulting austerity measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), belts tightened and unemployment soared.

他們還推動更廣泛的反抗農村和城市中的全球化運動，擺脫泰國經濟”奇蹟”。1997年1月25日，窮人議會在泰國的政治力上作出了大幅想像時，2萬個受大壩影響的村民，這些小農和漁民搭起了一個"貧困村"─塑膠的臨時棚屋，在曼谷總督府外的Nakhon Pathom路拉起將近一英里的距離。在破壞全球化的計畫中，他們在那個排放惡臭廢氣的道路上駐紮長達99天，沿著城市的河岸邊非法種菜。然後在1998年，國際投機份子放空南東亞貨幣投資，造成經濟了崩盤，揭露泰國的繁榮就像紙牌搭蓋的房子隨時都會倒榻。國際貨幣基金（ IMF ）的徵收使泰國政府發布緊縮措施減少開支，失業率上升。

 

So in 1998 the village came again, this time to join the coalition of protest movements against the IMF, and protests and resistance have continued ever since against structural targets of globalization such as the WTO and the Asian Development Bank.

因此，在1998年貧窮村又來了，這次他們加入國際貨幣基金的抗議運動聯盟，抗議和抵制全球化的結構性指標，如世界貿易組織和亞洲開發銀行。

 

Power Generation:the protest villages of Thailand

by Velcrow Ripper

力量的世代：泰國反抗村

~Velcrow Ripper

 

Pak Mun Dam, Thailand, July 2000 In the soft gold of magic-hour an old man is weaving a fishing net that will catch few fish. Behind him is the metal mesh of a chain-link fence emblazoned with the Thai words, “Danger! High Voltage!” and the silhouette of a man killed by the misuse of power. Inside the fence stand the hulking transformers connected to the turbines of the dam, the dam that destroyed the old man’s village. High-tension powerlines stretch off to massive pylons disappearing into the distance, taking the electricity to the city. A meagre output – the dam delivers a fraction of what it was supposed to, and then only in the rainy season.

2000年7月在泰國帕穆大壩，微微曙光的朝夕中老人在編織捕撈僅能捕獲少少魚類的漁網。他身後是印有泰文的金屬網狀圍欄，“危險！高壓電！“和人被濫用的權力殺害的剪影。圍欄內是醜陋的變壓器連接到大壩的渦輪，大壩摧毀老人的村莊。巨大高壓電纜塔上的高壓電力線綿延到看不見的遠方，為城市電力帶來電力。大壩實際上只提供一小部分的發電，而且僅只在雨季。

 

But the actual productivity of a dam is rarely the issue. The World Bank contributes a generous loan, contractors get fat, everyone at the top of the food chain benefits – at least until it's time to pay off the debt. The government can feel a step closer to joining the exclusive club of ‘developed’ nations. And the price? Incalculable. The loss of a way of life for a people, the loss of life for countless species. And for some, that existed only here in the Mun River, the greatest loss, extinction. Worse than mere death: the end of birth.

但大壩實際的生產力是很少見的議題。世界銀行慷慨地資助貸款，立約者從中獲利，在食物鏈頂端的每個人都獲得了好處-至少到現在是要償還債務時候了。政府可以感覺到對加入"已發展'國家的不公開合議又更加靠近。那價格呢？是無法估量的。人民生命的損失無以數計。和一些，在穆河這些最大損害和滅絕是存在的。比死亡更可怕的是：生命的終結。

 

The first towering metal pylon rises above a new village, Mae Mun Yuen One, Mother Mun Protest Village Number One, Thailand’s first protest village. Six thousand villagers are (next page)

 

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spread around the land surrounding the dam in thatched roofed bamboo huts built on stilts. They've been here for 15 months. The numbers keep growing, their spirit of resistance strengthening with time, not weakening as the officials hoped. Instead, the shacks are spreading out, gaining more ground in a nonviolent wave of people power.

第一個高聳的高壓電纜塔豎立在一個新的村莊， Mae Mun Yuen One, Mother Mun 抗議村莊是泰國第一個抗議村莊。六千個村民在大壩的土地周圍搭蓋起用茅草做屋頂的竹棚高腳屋。他們已經在這裡長達15 個月。成員還在不斷增加，他們的反抗精神隨著時間的推移增強，而不是如同政府希望減弱的那樣。相反的，棚屋的擴散，以人民為力量的非暴力浪潮取回更多的土地。

 

It has become an autonomous zone, attracting like-minded people from across the country, from around the world. The state does not enter here. Taxes are not collected, laws are applied by the community. There are refugees from the military dictatorship in Burma, landless peasants from the Cambodian border, activists from Canada, Australia, India, here in solidarity, to offer their bodies, to receive shelter, to

learn from the strength of this movement. The wave of resistance is spreading throughout Thailand, which is now witness to more than 200 protests a year.

它已成為一個自治區域，吸引來自全國與世界各地志同道合的人。這裡脫離國家的範圍。沒有稅收稽徵，法律也適用於社區。有來自緬甸軍事獨裁政權的難民、泰柬邊界沒有土地的農民、加拿大，澳洲，印度的行動主義者團結在一起，去貢獻自己的身體，取得庇護，向這個社會運動的力量學習。反抗的浪潮在泰國全境擴散開來，現在是見證每年有超過200多名抗議者的時候到了。

 

A diverse spectrum of factory workers, fisher-folk, students, landless farmers, urban poor, all those affected by so-called ‘development’, have banded together under an enormous umbrella group called the Assembly of the Poor. Throughout the camp hand-silk-screened red or yellow flags    proudly proclaim “Poor!” in Thai and English. The Assembly was born in 1997 from a protest encampment of 20,000 people in the centre of Bangkok. That moment gave a focus and unity to the movement which still resonates in Thailand today, the way Seattle sends out waves of inspiration.

各種不同領域的工廠工人，漁民，學生，無地的農民，都市貧民，所有受這些所謂'發展' 影響的人，在稱為龐大的雨傘團體的窮人議會下已經團結起來。整個陣營都是紅色或黃色的手工絲幔旗幟，印上泰文和英文，正當地宣告“貧窮！”。窮人議會成立於1997年，抗議陣營的2萬人在曼谷該中心集結。這次運動讓整個反抗力量聚焦並且團結起來，今天這股力量仍然在泰國引起共鳴，這也引發西雅圖的運動方式的靈感。

 

The struggle against the Pak Mun Dam has been going on since 1990. Initially the Electricity Generating Agency of Thailand (EGAT), ran into a snag: the dam site was located on national park land. That was easily worked around – the staff of EGAT simply had themselves declared park rangers. They were merely improving the park. They moved in and began blasting away the 50 rapids of the Mun River – the spawning beds for the fish, the fish the villagers depended on for their lives.

帕穆大壩的抗爭從1990年以來一直持續著。起初泰國發電局 (EGAT) 遇上了一個問題：大壩位置是位於國家公園的土地上。這很好解決-發電局員工只要聲稱自己是公園管理員。他們只是要改善公園。他們搬進去，並開始在穆河引爆50個急流-那是魚產卵的河床，村民以這些魚為生。

 

What was once a parking lot for the dam's visitor centre is now the headquarters for the dam protest. Sentries sit next to a bamboo gate which is raised and lowered with the help of a makeshift pulley system. Standing guard on one side of the gates, a giant fish trap towers up 20 feet, woven from reeds, a long slender cone. It was used to capture a single fish, the giant dinosaur fish that lived only in the Mun (next page)

 

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River. Now they live nowhere on earth.

曾幾何時大壩遊客中心的停車場變成是抗議大壩的總部。坐在竹門旁邊的哨兵是為了暫時拉放竹門的滑輪系統。駐守在在大門的一邊，一個巨大、塔高達20英尺、用蘆葦編織而成的長錐形陷阱等著這些魚。它只被用來捕獲一種魚，一種巨型的恐龍魚，只生活在穆河。現在，他們在地球上消失了。

 

In the centre of the paved lot, in a little green island, is a bronze coloured statue of three life-sized human figures, two kneeling on the ground, another standing proud with fist raised to the sky in a gesture of defiance. A sign reads “Monument to the Poor”. There is a stage with speaker system and microphones hooked up to loudspeakers and a bamboo hut on stilts that is the nerve centre of the operation. Inside I am surprised to see a fax machine, a couple of computers, and a line of cell phones charging.

在一個小的綠色島嶼，停車場的中央是三座人體身形的青銅雕像，有兩座跪在地上，另一座戰勝的姿態站立、向空中揮舞著拳頭。標誌內容是“窮人的紀念碑”。在竹棚高腳屋的台子上裝有發言系統和麥克風連接的擴音器，那是行動的中樞。在裡面我很驚訝看到一台傳真機，兩台電腦和一排的手機在充電。

 

Political posters adorn the walls – a dove impaled on a machine gun, commemorating the anniversary of the students massacred in 1992. Another photo from the student massacre of 1976. A soldier in the foreground, holding a rifle, and hundreds of students lying on the ground with their hands behind their heads. A batik painting of the Village of the Poor, electricity pylon rising in the centre, bamboo huts spread out around the hillside.

牆壁上用政治海報裝飾-一隻鴿子被槍刺穿，每年紀念1992年發生的學生大屠殺。另一張照片是1976年的學生大屠殺。一名士兵在前頭舉起步槍，數百名學生躺在地上，他們的手舉在頭上。一張關於村莊窮人的蠟染畫懸置在電纜塔中間，竹棚在山坡上散佈開來。

 

Morning, and we gather on the deck of the big house to eat sticky rice, fish paste, and a basket of greens harvested from the river, seated on a woven reed mat under the shadow of the enormous pylon. EGAT, the village dog, comes sniffing around hoping for hand-outs. People love to say, “Bad EGAT!” to him. Poor dog, stuck with the moniker of the enemy.

上午我們聚集在大房子甲板上吃著糯米飯、魚醬以及一籃子從河岸採收的蔬菜，坐在蘆葦席上，有巨大的電纜塔遮蔭。泰國電力局，像是村裡的狗，過來嗅嗅味道渴望憐憫。人們總喜歡對他們說，“壞電力局！”。可憐的狗，堅持被賦予這個敵人的綽號。

“Rivers and forests on which the survival of rural families depend have been plundered from the people… the collapse of agricultural society forces people out of their communities to cheaply sell their labour in the city…The people must set up the country’s development direction. The people must be the real beneficiaries of development.” – Assembly of the Poor, 1997

農村家庭的生活來以為計的河流與森林被掠奪…農業社會的瓦解迫使人們離開自己的地方到都市中出賣廉價勞力…人民必須建立國家的發展方向。人民必須是發展的真正受益者。“-窮人議會，1997年

 

I meet Pon, who has been an activist for over a decade, though he is only 30. He was beaten and arrested in the early years of the struggle to save the Mun and thrown in (next page)

 

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when he was seven. Paolo is focused, determined. “This river is not for me, myself but for all people everywhere and in the future too,” he says. “Everyone uses the river. No one is an owner. No one owns the forest. So I’d like to tell everybody who can see this that they should look out for nature. In our free time what do we do? We go out and have fun. We waste time. We should use this time to educate ourselves on what is the actual situation. What is the effect of these mega-projects.

我遇到Pon，他做為行動主義者已經十多年，儘管他只有30 歲。他在早年穆河的抗爭中遭毆打和逮捕，當時他僅7歲。Paolo專注而且堅決："這條河不是我的，而是世界各地所有人以及要留給未來的"。他說。“每個人都需要這條河。沒有人有權擁有它。沒有人有權擁有森林。所以我想告訴大家誰能夠以明白到這一點就能夠展望未來。在我們的空閒時候能怎麼做？我們出去找娛樂。我們是在浪費時間。我們應該利用這段時間來教育我們自己到底什麼是實際情況。這些幾百萬的投資計畫到底有什麼影響。

 

We’re still kids. Not long from now we will grow up. Our children, our grandchildren gonna have children. They’ll have children and are they gonna see that nature returns?” I hop on back of a motorcycle with Pon and a Filipino- American media activist named Cray. We speed along the broad paved road and out onto the dam crest.

我們還是孩子。沒多久之前我們才長大。我們的孩子，我們的孫子還有孫子們的孩子。他們也將有孩子和他們可以看到大自然的原貌嗎？“我跳上Pon的摩托車後座和一名名叫Cray的菲律賓裔的美國媒體行動者。我們沿著寬廣的道路進入大壩頂端。

 

On 15 May 2000, a year after the establishment of the protest village, the villagers awoke at 2.00 am and made their way here to the fence, blocking the dam itself. There was only one guard in his little house by the gate that night, asleep.Unbeknownst to him, he was also locked inside. The villagers, young and old, carrying reed mats and pots of food, scaled the fence and began running across the crest of the dam. High

above the water rushing through unseen turbines, past the surveillance cameras, to a second gate. Again they climbed, and they were in! The gate was cut and a sound system on a truck pulled in, blasting out traditional Thai music. The villagers danced ecstatically while the sun slowly rose.

2000年5月15，成立了抗議村莊的一年之後，村民們在凌晨2點醒來，用他們的方式圍堵並阻擋大壩。那天晚上只有一名警衛在閘門的小房子裡睡著了。他沒有警覺地被反鎖。村裡的青年人和老人，帶著蘆葦席和裝了食物的鍋子，攀登圍欄並越過大壩頂端。穿過隱藏在高水位下的渦輪機，通過監視器，抵達第二個門。他們再次攀爬，然後他們進到裡頭！他們切斷閘門，擴音設備播放著泰國傳統音樂。在曙光緩緩上升之際，村民們投入地跳著舞。

 

Today the protest village extends along the entire top of the dam. The fishermen climb down the catwalks above the turbines and string out their nets to catch a few of the meagre remnants of fish that still swim the river. It’s a startling juxtaposition of the villagers with their traditional nets against the metal and concrete monolith of the dam. At night guitars around campfires strum out protest songs: “I'm tired, but I'm still fighting...”

今天抗議村莊擴散在整個大壩頂端。漁民爬下渦輪機上狹窄的通道，灑下漁網捕捉河裡所剩無幾瘦弱的魚。這是一個驚人之舉，村民用他們傳統的網子對抗金屬和牢不可破的大壩石門。夜晚圍繞營火的吉他彈奏出抗議的歌曲：“我累了，但我仍然戰鬥... ”

 

Rasi Salai dam

One day I climb into the back of a pick-up truck with Sikyamet, an activist with the South East Asia Rivers Network, for a two hour drive south, down to the site of Mae Mun Yuen Protest Villages – Numbers Two, Three, and Eight (next page)

 

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– which surround the Rasi Salai Dam, another blockage downstream on the Mun River. We pass a long row of deserted concrete buildings high on stilts – the houses the government had built in hopes of enticing the villagers away from the protest site. No-one had taken the bait, and the houses, surrounded by infertile soil, sit empty.

拉西薩萊大壩

有一天，我和Sikyamet 爬進一輛小卡車的後頭，他在東南亞河流組織裡是一個行動主義者，車子往南開了兩小時的車程，抵達Mae Mun Yuen 抗議村莊-二號，三號，八號的抗村落圍繞著拉西薩萊大壩，它們是另外在穆河下游的封鎖線。我們通過一排長排水泥搭蓋的空屋建築物-是政府建立的房屋，希望誘使村民離開抗議村落。沒有人因此受到誘惑，這些房屋蓋在貧瘠附近空無一物的土地上。

 

Now the reservoir of the Rasi Salai dam stretches before us, murky water, remains of a forest rising up from its depths, dead trees, twisted forms against a threatening sky. This dam was ostensibly built to provide irrigation to the surrounding fields. Unfortunately, the land contains underground repositories of salt – a legacy of the distant past when this land was a sea bed – and the water of the reservoir became salinized, useless for agriculture. The government did an environmental impact assessment, the villagers later told me, after the completion of the dam.

現在，拉西薩萊大壩的水庫展現在我們眼前，渾濁的水，殘留下來的是森林的死寂，枯死的樹木，在天空下呈現扭曲的樣貌。修建水壩表面上是做為周圍的土地的灌溉供水。不幸的是，這片土地過去曾是一個海床，土地下殘留的鹽是歷史的遺產，而水庫的水已經鹽化，不能用於農業。大壩完成後村民告訴我，政府曾對大壩進行一個環境影響評估。

 

They were able to laugh at this incredible stupidity when they told me, though it was the ruin of their lives. They have encountered nothing but lies and manipulation by the dam builders, who would prefer them to conveniently disappear. But they will not disappear. Instead, they have made their presence well-known, constructing a protest village in the middle of the reservoir, above the flooded land that was once their homes. They have spent nine months living in this makeshift village, perched on stilts, waters slowly rising around them.

當他們告訴我，儘管它毀了他們的生活，他們仍然能夠嘲笑這種難以置信的蠢事。他們遇到只是大壩建設者的謊言和操縱，並希望他們適時消失。但是他們不會消失。相反的，他們讓他們的存在廣為人知，在水庫中央建起抗議村莊，淹沒的土地曾經是他們的家園。他們在這個臨時的村莊生活了9個月，棲息在高處，水在他們周圍緩緩上升。

 

We climb into the middle of a long dug-out, sat crosslegged on a flat platform of woven reeds, and push out into the water. Our smiling boat driver starts up the outboard engine and lowers the propeller, jutting six feet out the back of the boat at the end of a long metal shaft. We glide past lily pads dotted with lotus flowers. Purple tinged white. The lotus is a Buddhist symbol of awakening.

我們爬進獨木舟中間，盤坐在蘆葦編織的平台上，並將船推入水中。我們微笑的駕駛啟動舷外引擎，放下螺旋推進器，伸長的金屬圓軸末端，離船身後方有六英尺。我們滑過蓮花遍佈的河道。是紫白色的蓮花。蓮花是佛教頓悟的象徵。

 

It emerges from the mud of existence, but is unstained, only strengthened, fed. For the villagers, there can be no compensation for the loss they have experienced. Yet, they have had to plumb their depths for previously unknown strength, to stand up and fight, and have learned to fight without violence. To live in unity, united in their opposition, supported around the country, and gradually learning that they are part of a much larger community, coming to understand the greater world of resistance, in the face of the greater world of repression.

它超脫於淤泥之中，但卻沒有沾染污泥，反而更加堅強。對於村民而言，在那裡他們無所謂損失和賠償，他們探測到以前不知道的力量，於是起身來抵抗，並且學會了沒有暴力的抵抗。團結生活，聯合抵抗，全國各地支援，逐漸地學到他們是一個更大的社會中的一份子，了解到這是屬於全球的抵抗，是面對世界的壓迫。

 

After 20 minutes we pass four outhouses sheltered by tarpaulin atop a little island. Soon we enter ‘water world’: a collection of thatch roofed huts with bamboo walls and floors, interconnected with precarious one-plank walkways high above the water. Outside many of the huts, ancient dugout canoes bob in the murky water. We pull up to the big house and hoist ourselves up onto a catwalk. We remove our shoes as we step onto an open bamboo platform covered with a thatched roof. In the centre of the room a large brown painting depicts three men in uniforms holding aloft a huge scroll which represents the constitution of the country.

20分鐘後，我們通過一個小島嶼上四個用防水布遮蓋的屋子。很快我們進入'水的世界' ：由竹子圍成牆面和地板以及茅草大概的小屋，房子間靠著水面上不牢固的走道相通。許多小屋外面，古老的獨木舟漂浮在混濁的水面。我們在大房子前停下來，走上狹窄的通道。我們脫掉鞋子，走在鬆散用茅草鋪蓋的竹板上。房間中央的畫是描繪三名穿著制服的男子，高舉一個象徵憲法國家的巨大卷軸。

 

Around them are the faces of peasants, in their conical woven straw hats, or wearing bandannas emblazoned with revolutionary symbols. The boots of one of the uniformed men rests firmly atop the head of a peasant man. (next page)

 

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The villagers stand up to their waist in the water, the rising waters threatening to drown them, as it has drowned their very way of life. Their hands are raised in prayer position as they enact their morning ritual of thanks to the river, of apology to the river, of thanks to the Buddha. Each night, another ceremony is dedicated to their brothers and sisters in the struggle at the Narmada Dam in India.

農民在他們周圍，帶著圓錐草帽，或戴著革命的象徵的紅色頭巾。當中一個人的靴子放置在農民的頭上。村民們站起來，水到他們腰間，上升水有可能會淹死他們，就如同淹沒他們的生活。他們舉手祈禱感謝河流是每天早上的儀式，對河流道歉，感謝佛祖。每天晚上，另外有儀式獻身於他們在印度的Narmada Dam鬥爭中的兄弟姐妹。

 

We slowly drift towards them in a dug out canoe as they chant in front of their sinking village, past the lines of committed faces, ending in silence, hands in prayer position, standing unmoving in the water that was their land. They don't spend all day standing in the water, just each morning, and night. The fact is, however, that the villagers are prepared to drown. They will not leave unless the dam is decommissioned. A similar protest is held at the Narmada dam site at monsoon time. Villagers chain themselves to their original homes as the waters rise, determined to drown until they are removed by force.

我們坐在一個獨木舟裡慢慢地滑向他們，當他們在淹沒的村子前唱歌，經過一排待陣的面孔，他們沉默後雙手祈禱，站在他們被水淹沒的土地上。他們不是整天站在水裡，只是在每天的早上和晚上。然而事實上是，村民們已經有被淹沒的準備。他們不會離開，除非大壩停止運作。類似的抗議活動是在拿馬達大壩的季風時間舉行。當河水上升時村民把自己鏈在他們原本的家決心淹死，直到他們被武力驅逐。

 

Early morning, we’re gliding above the flooded land in a long dug out canoe that needs constant bailing. “This is where the forest was,” say the villagers accompanying me. They point to dead twisted trees rising from the murky water. Eerie silence. “The sound of the birds used to accompany us on our walks. There were deer, wild chickens. We would gather herbs and mushrooms.” Through the light rain, threatening clouds reflect on a glassy surface. “We believe that there is a spirit in everything, in the forest, in the river. We call the forest grandfather.

清晨，當我們行駛過被淹沒的土地時，我們必須不斷舀出獨木舟裡的水來。“這裡是森林，“和我一起的村民們說。他們指向浮起在渾濁的水面上的大樹。不安的寧靜。“鳥的聲音曾經在我們走路的時後伴隨著我們。有鹿，野雞。我們可以採集草藥和蘑菇。“一陣小雨之後，壓迫感的雲彩映攝在玻表面。“我們認為萬物有靈，在森林中，在河裡。我們稱森林為祖先。

 

The river is female.” Running parallel to us is another boat filled with villagers. In the bow of our boat, an old woman with wrinkled face and betel-nut-stained teeth sits in contemplation, her gnarled hands weaving reed into basket. Hours pass. In the distance, through the skeletal trees draped in seaweed, the Rasi Salai Dam appears, disappears, re-appears. The little engine of the boat is the only sound in the dead calm of the stagnant water, stopped up by the slowly approaching monstrosity.

河水是女性。“與我們並行的是另一艘載滿村民的船。在我們的船頭，一個滿臉皺紋、牙齒因嚼植物葉片而染色的年長女人在位子上沉思，她粗糙的雙手編用蘆葦織成籃子。時間過去了。在遠處，通過被藻類覆蓋的枯樹，拉西薩萊大壩出現，又消失，又再出現。船的小引擎是死寂中唯一的聲音，被慢慢靠近的可怕東西堵塞了。

 

Colourful tents become visible atop the dam, the tents of the protest village, Mae Mun Yuen Number Eight. “A few days after the protesters at Pak Mun dam took over their dam crest, we did the same thing, marching from the first (next page)

 

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protest village, along the road, to the gates of the dam. We waited for the news from Pak Mun and when we saw that they hadn’t been arrested, we too climbed the fence and took over this dam,” a villager explains, laughing. We drift parallel to the massive impassive grey concrete of the dam with its incongruous cavalcade of fabric from the protesters sprouting from the crest. There are 700 protesters at this site, many of them the original villagers. The sound of water rushing through the partly opened gates reverberates. We pull up to an enormous concrete-covered slope, and hop out of the boat, scrambling up to the camp above.

大壩上色彩繽紛的帳篷清楚可見，Mae Mun Yuen第八個抗議村莊的帳篷。“過幾天，在抗議者接管帕穆大壩頂之後，我們也做了同樣的事情，從第一個抗議村莊遊行，沿著公路，抵達大壩閘門。我們等待來自帕穆大壩的消息時，而且我們看到他們並沒有被逮捕時，我們也爬上柵欄和接管這個大壩，“一名村民說著就笑了起來。我們隨著大壩頂的抗議者散開來，並行滑入巨型、冰冷、灰色水泥的大壩。有700名抗議者在這個地方，其中許多是原來的村民。水流流過部分開放的閘門時引發回聲。我們在一個巨大水泥斜坡停下來，爭相跳出船來到營地上。

 

A man in army fatigues walks through the lines of tents, shouting through a megaphone, calling people to their daily meetings. Sykamet explains that “the larger group is split into a number of smaller groups, and every day they get together in meetings to discuss problems, discuss strategy. Each group is of about ten to twenty people.” Like the concept of affinity groups, smaller autonomous groups within the larger community.

一名穿迷彩服的男子走過一排帳篷，通過擴音器呼喊，要求每個人的日常會議。Sykamet解釋說，“較大的團體分裂分成幾個小團體，他們每天得在一起開會討論問題，討論戰略。每個小組約10至20人。“，這就像族群的概念，大社區中的自治小團體。

 

From the dam, fisherfolk hang nets 100 feet down to the rushing water to try and snare the few fish that make it through. Stretching away from the dam, Pak Mun takes on the appearance of a river once again – though what I am seeing can no longer be accurately described as a river. Scientists would call it “reservoir outflow”, a sadly depleted echo of its former existence. The water coming from the reservoir is severely de-oxygenated, and much of the usual life cannot survive.

從大壩，漁民在急流下掛起100英尺的魚網，嘗試捕抓為數不多的魚。遠眺大壩，帕穆河再次呈現河流的容貌-儘管我所看到的再也不能準確地描述這條河流。科學家稱之為“水庫流出”，一個昔日存在的可悲枯竭迴聲。來自水庫的水已經嚴重的氧化，許多平常的生命無法生存下去。

 

“Gleaming there and humming, [the dam] stands like a very talisman of change, a miraculous intrusion, as though its engineers have flown down from Mars itself and brought their anvils with them.” – James Morris, The Road to Huddersfield, here commenting on World Bank-funded Bhumipol dam in Thailand in a book commissioned by the World Bank, 1964

“閃閃發光，並哼唱， [大壩]的站立像是一個環境變動的象徵，驚人的入侵，就如同從火星來的策劃者帶著他的鐵台一起下來。“-詹姆斯莫里斯，哈德斯菲爾德之路，這裡談論的就是世界銀行委編的書中受世界銀行資助的泰國Bhumipol dam，1964年

 

Further down the road, near the gate they had scaled a month earlier, a group of villagers are busy digging a tunnel. They have decided to take matters into their own hands, and with picks, shovels, and their bare hands, are creating a channel through the road, to drain the reservoir, and return the Mun river to its old course. Fifty villagers, men and women, young and old, are toiling in the heat of the sun, on both sides of the road and have already succeeded in making an appreciable dent in the artificial earthen mound. Four men in longs, stripped to the waist, stand in the mucky water of the reservoir, chopping into the red clay with energy.

公路前方，一個月前一群村民攀登到閘門附近，他們正忙著挖隧道。他們決定赤手進行挖掘，建造一個渠道，疏散水庫的水，讓河水回到它昔日的水徑。50名村民，男子和婦女，青年人和老年人，在烈日下辛勤工作，兩邊的道路，已經完成一個可觀的凹狀人造土丘。四名男子在那裡赤裸著曬紅的上身，站在水庫混濁的水中。

 

A huge banner hangs along the roadside above proclaiming, “Assembly of the Poor”. A man with a megaphone paces back and forth, urging the workers on. After about half an hour, the exercise is terminated for the day, and villagers return to the camp, in two orderly rows of men and women.

一個巨大的旗幟掛在路邊上面宣稱，“窮人議會”。一名男子隨身攜帶擴音器來來回回地走著，鼓舞這些勞工。經過約半小時，暫時終止當天的活動，村子的男女有序地返回營地。

 

The whole day I find myself smiling broadly, invigorated (next page)

 

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by the feeling of resistance and solidarity in the air. These people are not content to sit quiet and be victimized. They are standing up. Chances of the dam being completely decommissioned are slim. But they will always know that they fought, they did not allow themselves to be silently, meekly transformed into yet another poverty-stricken community, tribal people dependent on the government for handouts.

一整天下來，我發現自己很愉悅，被抵抗和團結的活力激勵。這些人不是坐以待斃，成為受害者。雖然讓大壩停止運作的機會非常渺茫，但他們仍起身反抗。他們將永遠知道他們並沒有沉默，而是起來戰鬥，平和地轉變成為一個基進的社區，部落的人希望政府改變立場。

 

UPDATE: Since 2000, the protest villages and marches have successfully pressured the government into opening the sluice gates of the Pak Mun dam to let fish through. As a result, for the first time in the ten years since the dam was built, a single giant fish, thought to be extinct, has been seen in the river, and fishing has resumed. A groundbreaking study of villagers’ ecological knowledge of the river’s ecosystem has done much to raise the issue of rural participation and knowledge in development, and public understanding of the ecological and social issues involved. However, the villagers continue to face serious

crackdown – in January 2003 one of the protest villages was burned down by a gang of unidentified thugs. International campaigners are pressuring the World Bank to remove funding for the dam.  

最新資料：自2000年以來，反抗村莊和抗議遊行已成功迫使政府開放帕穆河的水閘讓魚類回游。因此，從大壩設立的十年內，被認為絕種的唯一大型魚類首次再被看見，又可以開始補漁。一個關於村民對河流生態系統態知識的突破性研究，對於發展中的農村參與和知識提出爭議，公眾了解到這也包含生態和社會問題。然而，村民持續遭受嚴重的迫害-在2003年1月1一幫身份不明的暴徒縱火燒毀了抗議村莊。國際運動對世界銀行施壓，迫使它們在興建大壩事件中撤資。

 

Velcrow Ripper is a Canadian Academy Award (Genie) winning documentary filmmaker, writer, media activist and web artist. In progress is ScaredSacred, a book, documentary, and web project based on journeys to the ‘Ground Zeros’ of the world in search of stories of transformation, resistance, and hope.

Velcrow Ripper是一個加拿大奧斯卡獎獲獎的紀錄片製作人，也是作家、媒體行動者和網站的藝術家。在一種"神聖與恐懼"的過程中，藉著旅行尋找地動天搖的世界中的轉變、反抗和希望的故事，發展成書、紀錄片和網站。

 

Resources:

» The International Rivers Network supports local communities working to protect their rivers and watersheds: www.irn.org

» A multimedia website documenting a long term project documenting scared and sacred places of the world: www.scaredsacred.org

資源：

»國際河流網絡支持當地社區致力於保護他們的河流和水源區： www.irn.org

»多媒體網站長期投入記錄破壞和拯救世界的計畫： www.scaredsacred.org