A few weeks ago, somebody tweeted during the midterm elections in the United States that Election Day should be made a holiday. And I retweeted, saying, "Well, you're welcome to come to my country and vote. You'll get the whole week off to allow the military to count it."
几周之前, 有人在美国中期选举期间发推特, 呼吁将选举日定为官方假日。 我回复了他, “欢迎你来我国投票。 你会有一周的假期, 以方便军方统计票数。“
I come from Togo, by the way. It is a beautiful country located in West Africa. There are some cool, interesting facts about my country. Togo has been ruled by the same family for 51 years, making us the oldest autocracy in Africa. That's a record. We have a second-coolest record: we have been ranked three times as the unhappiest country on earth. You are all invited.
顺便说一下,我来自多哥。 多哥是一个美丽的国家, 位于西非。 我的国家有一些很酷很有趣的事实。 多哥曾被同一个家族统治长达51年之久, 使其成为欧洲最古老的独裁政权。 这是其中一个纪录。 还有一个很酷的纪录: 我们曾三度被评选为 世界上幸福感最低的国家。 你们都参与了投票。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
So just to let you know, it's not very cool to live under an autocracy. But the interesting thing is that I have met, throughout the course of my activism, so many people from different countries, and when I tell them about Togo, their reaction is always, "How can you guys allow the same people to terrorize you for 51 years? You know, like, you Togolese, you must be very patient." That's their diplomatic way of saying "stupid."
你们要知道, 生活在独裁政权之下可不酷。 但有趣的是,在我推动活动过程中, 我遇到过来自不同国家的各色人等, 每当我谈到多哥时, 他们的反应都是: "你们怎么能容忍 同一个家族统治你们长达51年?" 他们会调侃说,你们多哥人一定有耐心。 这是他们说“愚蠢”的外交辞令。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And when you live in a free country, there's this tendency of assuming that those who are oppressed tolerate their oppression or are comfortable with it, and democracy is projected as a progressive form of governance in such a way that those people who don't live under democratic countries are seen as people who are not intellectually or maybe morally as advanced as others.
当你生活在一个自由的国度, 人们趋于认为那些受压迫的人 能够容忍迫害并淡然处之, 并且他们觉得 民主是一种先进的治理方式 以至于他们认为专政国家的人 在智力上或道德上 比不上民主国家的公民。
But it's not the case. The reason why people have that perception has to do with the way stories are covered about dictatorships. In the course of my activism, I have had to interview with so many news outlets out there, and usually it would always start with, "What got you started? What inspired you?" And I reply, "I wasn't inspired. I was triggered." And it goes on. "Well, what triggered you?" And I go on about how my father was arrested when I was 13, and tortured, all the history ... I don't want to get into details now, because you'll start sleeping. But the thing is, at the end of the day, what interests them the most is: How was he tortured? For how many days? How many people died? They are interested in the abuse, in the killing, because they believe that will gain attention and sympathy. But in reality, it serves the purpose of the dictator. It helps them advertise their cruelty.
但实际上不是这样的。 人们有这种刻板印象的原因, 与独裁统治的相关报道密切相关。 在我推动政治活动的过程中, 我需要接受许多外媒的采访, 采访的开端往往是: “ 你是怎么开始的? 是什么启发了你?“ 我的回答往往是: ”我没有受到启发,我是被触发的。“ 接着会问:“是什么触发了你?” 我会说13岁那年 父亲被逮捕和折磨的故事, 我现在不想回忆那些历史的细节, 因为你们听了会昏昏欲睡的。 谈话的最后, 采访者最感兴趣的话题是 我的父亲是如何被折磨的。 他被折磨了多久, 有多少人被折磨致死。 他们对虐待和杀戮最感兴趣, 因为他们觉得这些内容 能博人眼球,引人同情。 但实际上,这正中独裁者下怀 外媒帮他们宣传了他们的暴政。
In 2011, I cofounded a movement I call "Faure Must Go," because Faure is the first name of our president. Togo is a French-speaking country, by the way, but I chose English because I had my issues with France as well. But then --
2011年,我发起了一个名为 “富尔下台”的运动, 富尔是我们总统的名字。 顺便提一下, 多哥的官方语言是法语, 但我选择说英语,因为我对法国也有矛盾。 但之后——
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But then, when I started Faure Must Go, I made a video, and I came on camera, and I said, "Well, Faure Gnassingbé, I give you 60 days to resign as president, because if you don't, we the youth in Togo will organize and we will bring you down, because you have killed over 500 of our countrymen to seize power when your father died. We have not chosen you. You are an imposter, and we will remove you." But I was the only known face of the movement. Why? Because I was the only stupid one.
但之后,当我开始 “富尔下台”的运动后, 我录了一段视频,上了镜头, 我说,“富尔·格纳辛布, 你60天内必须下台, 否则, 多哥的年轻人将会起义, 把你拉下马, 因为你为了在你父亲死后夺得政权, 你已经杀了500个人。 我们没有选你。 你是个骗子,我们会推翻你的。” 我是运动中唯一一个露脸的人。 为什么呢? 因为我就是那个愚蠢的人。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And the backlashes followed. My family started receiving threats. My siblings called me one morning. They said, "You know what? When they come here to kill you, we don't want to die with you, so move out." So yes, I moved out. And I'm so angry at them, so I haven't talked to them in five years.
接下来是一连串的反击。 我家人陆续受到了威胁。 我的兄弟姐妹有天早上给我打电话。 他们说,“你知道吗? 当他们来杀你时,我们不想给你陪葬, 所以搬出去吧。“ 所以我搬了出去, 我感到很生气, 甚至在五年里都没有和他们说过话。
Anyway, moving forward ... For the past nine years, I have been working with countries to raise awareness of Togo, to help the people of Togo overcome their fear so they, too, can come and say they want change. I have received a lot of persecution that I cannot disclose, a lot of threats, a lot of abuse, psychologically. But I don't like talking about them, because I know that my job as an activist is to mobilize, is to organize, is to help every single Togolese citizen understand that, as citizens, we hold the power, we are the boss and we decide. And the punishment that the dictators are using to intimidate them must not prevent us from getting what we want. That is why I said it is very important to cover the stories of activists in the way that it helps mobilize people, not in the way that it helps deter their action and force even more their subjugation to the oppressive system.
不管怎样,还是得前进… 过去九年间,我和很多国家合作 以唤醒多哥人民的觉醒, 帮助他们克服恐惧, 这样,他们就有勇气来喊想要变的声音。 我受到很多迫害 无法透露的迫害, 我也受到很多的威胁和虐待, 精神上的。 但是我不想谈论这些, 因为我作为积极分子 的要务是去动员, 去组织, 和帮助每一个多哥人民了解到 作为公民,我们掌握着权力, 我们才是国家的主人, 我们才是国家的主宰。 那些独裁者用来恐吓民众的惩罚 不能阻止我们的步伐。 所以我觉得 报道社会积极分子的故事很重要, 因为这可以鼓动民众, 而不是阻止他们 甚至迫使他们屈服于残暴的政权。
During these years that I've been an activist, there are days that I felt like quitting because I couldn't take it. Well then, what kept me going? The one thing that kept me going: I remember the story of my grandfather, and how he used to walk 465 miles from his village to the city, just to protest for independence. Then I remember the sacrifice of my father, who was tortured so many times for daring to protest against the regime. Back in the '70s, they would write pamphlets to raise awareness on the dictatorship, and because they couldn't afford to make copies, they would reproduce the same pamphlet 500 times each and distribute them. It got to a point where the military knew their handwriting, so as soon as they stumbled upon one, they'd go and get them. But I look at that and I'm like, you know, today you have a blog. I don't have to copy the same thing 500 times. I blog and thousands of people read it. By the way, in Togo, they like calling me the WhatsApp girl, because I am always on WhatsApp attacking the government.
在我成为积极分子的这些年, 有好几次我都心生退意。 那么是什么促使我坚持呢? 其中之一是: 我铭记着我祖父的故事, 他是如何从他的村庄走465英里到城里, 只是为了独立抗争。 我还牢记着我父亲的牺牲, 因为他敢于反抗政权, 而被折磨过无数次。 上世纪70年代,他们可以写小册子 来提高民众对于独裁的认知, 因为他们没钱印刷, 他们每个人把小册子抄了500遍, 然后分发出去。 随后,军队知道了他们的笔迹, 所以只要军方发现,他们就会去抓。 但是如今我们可以使用博客宣传。 你不用把同一份材料复印500份。 我发博客后,会有成千上万的人阅读。 在多哥,人们称我为社交女孩, 因为我总是在社交软件上攻击政府。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
So it's much easier. When I'm angry at the government, I just make an angry note, and I send it out and thousands of people share it. I'm rarely this composed. I'm always angry, by the way.
所以事情变得更容易了。 当我为政府的所作所为感到愤怒时, 我就写一篇愤怒的博客。 然后发出去被千万人传阅。 顺便说一下,我很少这么沉稳。 大多数时候我都很生气。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
(Applause)
(掌声)
So I was talking about the necessity to showcase our stories, because when I think about the sacrifices that were made for us, it helped me keep going. One of the very first actions of our Faure Must Go movement was to come up with a petition, asking citizens to sign so that we can demand new elections, as the constitution allows. People were scared to put their names because, they said, they don't want to get in trouble. Even in the diaspora, people were scared. They were like, "We have family at home."
以上我都在谈论 讲述我们故事的必要性, 因为每当我想起 那些牺牲者的血与泪, 我都会为之奋进。 我们组织第一次活动 是发动市民在请愿书上签字, 这样我们就可以在 宪法允许的范围内重新选举。 人们都很害怕签名, 因为他们不想惹麻烦。 即使是移民散居的人群, 也很害怕签字。 他们会说,我们还有家人。
But there was this woman who was in her 60s. When she heard about it, she took the petition, and she went home, and by herself she collected over 1,000 [signatures]. That inspired me so much, and I was like, if a 60-year-old that has nothing more to gain in this regime can do this for us, the young ones, then why should I quit? It is the stories of resistance, the stories of defiance, the stories of resilience, that inspire people to get involved, not the stories of abuse and killings and hurt, because as humans, it's only natural for us to be scared.
但是有一位60多岁的老妇人。 她听说这件事之后, 毫不犹豫地签字了, 然后她回到家, 自发收集了1000多个签名。 这深深地触动了我, 如果一个难以从政权中 得到什么利益的60岁的人 都可以为我们做这些, 那年轻人凭什么退出呢? 是这些反抗、抗争的故事, 这些不屈的故事, 激励着人们, 而不是那些虐杀、伤害的故事, 因为恐惧是人类的自然反应。
I would like to share with you a few characteristics of dictatorships so that you can assess your own country and see if you are also at risk of joining us.
我想和你们分享一下 独裁者的一些特质, 以供你们国家参考, 并且判断一下 你们是否面临着独裁的风险。
(Laughter and cheers)
(笑声和欢呼声)
(Applause)
(掌声)
Number one thing to look at: concentration of power. Is the power in your country concentrated in the hands of a few, an elite? It can be a political elite, ideological elite. And you have a strongman, because we always have one guy who is presented as the messiah who will save us from the world.
第一个特征是中央集权。 你们国家的权力是集中在少数人 甚至是一个精英的手中吗? 这个精英可能是 政治精英或者思想精英。 你们会有一个铁腕人物, 因为在我们国家总会有一个叫“救世主”的人, 号称可以救我们脱离苦海。
The second point is propaganda. Dictators feed on propaganda. They like giving the impression that they are the saviors, and without them, the country will fall apart. And they are always fighting some foreign forces, you know? The Christians, the Jewish, the Muslims, the voodoo priests are coming for you. The Communists, when they get here, we'll all be broke. These kinds of things. And our president, in particular, he fights pirates.
第二个特征是宣传。 独裁者靠宣传为生。 他们喜欢以救世主的身份示人, 就好像离开他们之后, 国家就会分崩离析。 并且他们总和国外势力作斗争, 基督教,犹太教,还有穆斯林, 巫毒教祭司都会来找你麻烦了。 还有如果共产主义者来了, 我们就会灭亡了。 诸如此类。 尤其是我们的总统,他和海盗斗争。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
I am very serious. Last year, he bought a boat that's 13 million dollars to fight pirates, and 60 percent of our people are starving. So they are always protecting us from some foreign forces.
我是认真的。 去年,他买了一艘价值 1300百万美金的船去抗击海盗。 而我们国家60%的人民 还饱受饥饿之苦。 所以他们不让我们接触国外势力。
And this leads to point three: militarization. Dictators survive by instigating fear, and they use the military to suppress dissident voices, even though they try to give the impression that the military is to protect the nation. And they suppress institutions and destroy them so that they don't have to be held accountable. So do you have a heavily militarized country?
第三个特征是军事化。 独裁者善于煽动恐慌, 他们用武力镇压反对党, 虽然他们想要表现得 好像军事力量是在保卫祖国。 他们镇压并且破坏一些组织, 这样他们就不用承担责任了。 所以你的国家高度军事化吗?
And this leads to point four, what I call human cruelty. You know when we talk about animals, we say animal cruelty when animals are abused, because there's no charter acknowledged by the UN saying animal rights charter. Point one: all animals are created equal. So you don't have that. So whenever animals are abused, we say animal cruelty. But when it comes to humans, we say human rights abuses, because we assume that all humans have rights. But some of us are actually still fighting for our right to have rights. So in that condition, I don't talk about human rights abuse or violation.
第四个特征是虐待人类。 当我们谈及动物时, 当动物受到虐待时, 我们称之为虐畜罪, 因为联合国没有宪章 来保护动物的权益。 第一点:所有的动物都是平等的。 当动物受到虐待时, 我们称之为虐畜罪, 当人类受到虐待时, 我们称之为侵犯人权, 因为我们假设所有人都有人权。 但实际上并非如此。 所以,我不称之为侵犯人权。
When you live in a country and you have an issue with the president and the worst thing that can happen is he bans you from the presidency, you are lucky. When you come to my country and have an issue with the president, you just run, disappear; you vanish from the universe, because they can still find you in Turkey. So people like myself, we don't get to live in Togo anymore. And people like myself, we don't get to live in the same place for more than a month, because we don't want to be traced. The way they abuse people, the type of cruelty that happens in all impunity under dictatorships are beyond human imagination. The stories of some of the activists that were killed, their bodies dumped in the sea, that were tortured to the point where they lost their hearing or their sight -- those stories still haunt me. And sometimes, as an activist, I am less concerned about dying than how it will happen. Sometimes I just sit down and I imagine all scenarios. What are they going to do? Are they going to cut my ears first? Or are they going to cut my tongue because I'm always insulting them? It sounds cruel, but it is the reality. We live in a very cruel world. Dictators are cruel monsters, and I am not saying it to be nice.
当你生活在一个 由你反对的总统治理的国家时, 而最坏的情况时他禁止你从政, 那么你是幸运的。 如果你生活在多哥, 而你反对多哥的总统, 你可能得逃亡, 甚至是消失在这个世界上, 因为他们甚至会通缉你至土耳其。 所以像我一样的人, 我们不住在多哥。 像我一样的人, 我们在同一个地方 生活不超过一个月, 因为我们不想被追踪到。 他们虐待人的方式, 独裁统治下的虐待, 超乎人类的想象。 分享一些积极分子被杀的故事, 他们的尸体被沉入海底, 他们被折磨 直到失去听力和视力-- 这些故事常常萦绕在我的脑海中。 有时候,作为积极分子, 我更关注死亡的过程 多过死亡本身。 有时候我会坐下来 然后想象那些场景。 他们会做什么? 他们会先把我的耳朵剪下来吗? 或者他们会因为我经常侮辱他们 而割掉我的舌头吗? 这听起来很残酷, 但这就是现实。 我们生活在一个很残酷的世界。 独裁者是残暴的恶魔, 这不是好事。
So yes, that is the final characteristic. The list goes on, but that's the final thing that I want to share about autocracies, so that you look at your country and see if there are risks there. It is important that you acknowledge the gains of freedom that you have today, because some people had to give their lives for you to have it. So don't take this for granted. But then at the same time, you also need to know that no country is actually destined to be oppressed, while at the same time, no country or no people are immune to oppression and dictatorship.
这是最后一个特征。 还有很多特征, 但是这是我想分享的最后一点, 所以请审视一下你的国家, 看看你们是否面临独裁风险。 你们要感恩你们所拥有的自由, 因为这个世界上的一些人 为之付出了生命。 所以不要觉得理所当然。 同时,我还想告诉你们 没有哪个国家注定是要被压迫的, 同时, 也没有一个国家 能免受压迫和独裁。
Thank you.
谢谢!
(Applause)
(掌声)