As the highest military commander of the Netherlands, with troops stationed around the world, I'm really honored to be here today.
作为荷兰本土军队 以及荷兰驻外军队的 最高指挥官 我很荣幸今天 来到这里
When I look around this TEDxAmsterdam venue, I see a very special audience. You are the reason why I said yes to the invitation to come here today. When I look around, I see people who want to make a contribution. I see people who want to make a better world, by doing groundbreaking scientific work, by creating impressive works of art, by writing critical articles or inspiring books, by starting up sustainable businesses. And you all have chosen your own instruments to fulfill this mission of creating a better world. Some chose the microscope as their instrument. Others chose dancing or painting, or making music like we just heard. Some chose the pen. Others work through the instrument of money.
当我环视着 TEDxAmsterdam讲台 我看到了一群非常特别的观众 ——“你们”, 也就是我今天 同意来到这里进行演讲 的源动力 我环顾四周 我看到 那些想要奉献自己的人 我看到他们想用 自己的努力来创造一个更美好的世界 通过进行开创性的科研工作 通过创造无与伦比的艺术作品 通过撰写评论文章 或是励志书籍 通过开创立足长远的企业 大家都选择了 各自不同的工具 来达成这些 创造更好世界的目标 有些人选择了显微镜 作为他们的工具 其他人选择了舞蹈或者绘画 或是谱写出了像刚才我们所听到的音乐 有些人选择了笔 还有些人则用钱
Ladies and gentlemen, I made a different choice.
女士们 先生们 我的选择有些不同
Thanks.
谢谢
Ladies and gentlemen ...
女士们,先生们——
(Laughter)
(笑声)
(Applause)
(掌声)
I share your goals. I share the goals of the speakers you heard before. I did not choose to take up the pen, the brush, the camera. I chose this instrument. I chose the gun.
我跟你们有相同的愿景 我有着和刚才我提到的那些人 相同的目标 我没有选择 拿起钢笔 画笔或是相机 我选择了这个工具 一把枪
For you, and you heard already, being so close to this gun may make you feel uneasy. It may even feel scary. A real gun at a few feet's distance. Let us stop for a moment and feel this uneasiness. You could even hear it. Let us cherish the fact that probably most of you have never been close to a gun. It means the Netherlands is a peaceful country. The Netherlands is not at war. It means soldiers are not needed to patrol our streets. Guns are not a part of our lives. In many countries, it is a different story. In many countries, people are confronted with guns. They are oppressed. They are intimidated -- by warlords, by terrorists, by criminals. Weapons can do a lot of harm. They are the cause of much distress.
像你现在所感受的 或是曾经所听过的那样 离这把枪如此之近 也许会让你感觉不舒服 甚至觉得有些可怕 一把真枪 就在据你几英尺的地方 让我们先稍微停一下 来感受一下这种不适感 你甚至能听到这种感觉 其实这种情况是很值得珍视的 那就是你们大多数人 从来没有如此靠近过一把枪 这意味着 荷兰是一个和平的国家 没有接受战火的煎熬 这意味着士兵们不必去 巡视街道 枪支也不是我们生活的一部分 但在很多国家 情况却完全不同 在许多国家里 人们必须和枪支打交道 他们被压迫 他们被威胁 这可能来自军阀 也可能来自恐怖分子 或者来自罪犯 武器可以制造很大的伤害 它们是众多灾难 的根源
Why then am I standing before you with this weapon? Why did I choose the gun as my instrument? Today I want to tell you why. Today I want to tell you why I chose the gun to create a better world. And I want to tell you how this gun can help.
那么为什么我会拿着这把枪站在 你们面前? 我又为什么会选择枪 作为我的工具呢? 今天我来告诉你们原因 今天我来告诉你们 为何我选择枪 来创造一个更好的世界 同时我想告诉你们 这把枪是怎样帮助我们的
My story starts in the city of Nijmegen in the east of the Netherlands, the city where I was born. My father was a hardworking baker, but when he had finished work in the bakery, he often told me and my brother stories. And most of the time, he told me this story I'm going to share with you now. The story of what happened when he was a conscripted soldier in the Dutch armed forces at the beginning of the Second World War. The Nazis invaded the Netherlands. Their grim plans were evident. They meant to rule by means of repression. Diplomacy had failed to stop the Germans. Only brute force remained. It was our last resort. My father was there to provide it.
我的故事 开始于奈梅亨城 它位于荷兰的东部 这是我出生的城市 我的父亲 是个勤劳的面包师 但是当他完成了面包房的工作以后 他经常给我们两兄弟讲故事 大多数时间 他都会讲这个故事,我现在也想和大家一起分享 这个故事发生在 他正值二战初期 应征入伍 加入荷兰军队的时候 纳粹入侵荷兰 他们侵略野心已经凸显无疑 他们希望通过 镇压来统治 外交途径已经无法阻止德国人 只有残忍的战争这一条路 这是最后的手段 我父亲当时就在那 时刻为战争准备着
As the son of a farmer who knew how to hunt, my father was an excellent marksman. When he aimed, he never missed. At this decisive moment in Dutch history my father was positioned on the bank of the river Waal near the city of Nijmegen. He had a clear shot at the German soldiers who came to occupy a free country, his country, our country. He fired. Nothing happened. He fired again. No German soldier fell to the ground. My father had been given an old gun that could not even reach the opposite riverbank. Hitler's troops marched on, and there was nothing my father could do about it.
作为一个农夫的儿子 他很善于狩猎 我父亲是个神射手 他只要瞄准 就不可能射不中 在荷兰历史生死攸关之际 我的父亲被派遣到了 瓦尔河河岸驻守 离奈梅亨很近 他对那些德国士兵进行射击 阻止他们企图占领一个自由的国家 他的国家 我们的国家 他开了枪,但什么也没发生 他又开了一枪 却没有德国军人应声倒地 我父亲被分配到了一把 老枪 根本不能打到 河对岸那么远的地方 希特勒的军队逼近 我父亲却不能阻止他们
Until the day my father died, he was frustrated about missing these shots. He could have done something. But with an old gun, not even the best marksman in the armed forces could have hit the mark. So this story stayed with me.
直到我父亲去世的那天 他依然对此耿耿于怀 他本可以做些事情 但是拿着一把老枪 即使最好的射手也 无法命中目标 这个故事一直伴随着我
Then in high school, I was gripped by the stories of the Allied soldiers -- soldiers who left the safety of their own homes and risked their lives to liberate a country and a people that they didn't know. They liberated my birth town. It was then that I decided I would take up the gun -- out of respect and gratitude for those men and women who came to liberate us. From the awareness that sometimes only the gun can stand between good and evil.
然后在高中时 我被联军的故事 所吸引—— 那些战士们远离自己的家乡 冒着生命的危险 去解放和他们素不相识的国家 和人们 他们解放了我的家乡 就在那时我决定了 我要拿起枪—— 出于对那些解放了我们 的前辈们的尊重 和感激—— 也出于意识到 有的时候只有枪 才能斡旋于 正义和邪恶之间
And that is why I took up the gun -- not to shoot, not to kill, not to destroy, but to stop those who would do evil, to protect the vulnerable, to defend democratic values, to stand up for the freedom we have to talk here today in Amsterdam about how we can make the world a better place.
这也是为什么 我选择拿起枪—— 不为射击 不为杀戮 不为毁灭 只为阻止邪恶 保护弱者 保卫民主价值 也为了捍卫我们今天 所讨论的自由 就在此时此地 关于如何去创造一个更好的世界
Ladies and gentlemen, I do not stand here today to tell you about the glory of weapons. I do not like guns. And once you have been under fire yourself, it brings home even more clearly that a gun is not some macho instrument to brag about. I stand here today to tell you about the use of the gun as an instrument of peace and stability. The gun may be one of the most important instruments of peace and stability that we have in this world.
女士们,先生们 我今天站在这里 不是想对武器进行赞颂 我其实不喜欢枪 而且如果你曾经饱受战火 那么你就会更加明白 枪并不是用来展现自己男子气概的 装逼工具 我今天在这里 想告诉大家的是枪是如何被用作 维护和平与稳定的工具 枪也许是我们所在的这个世界上 用来维护和平与平稳的 最重要的工具之一
Now this may sound contradictory to you. But not only have I seen with my own eyes during my deployments in Lebanon, Sarajevo and as the Netherlands' Chief of Defence, this is also supported by cold, hard statistics. Violence has declined dramatically over the last 500 years. Despite the pictures we are shown daily in the news, wars between developed countries are no longer commonplace. The murder rate in Europe has dropped by a factor of 30 since the Middle Ages. And occurrences of civil war and repression have declined since the end of the Cold War. Statistics show that we are living in a relatively peaceful era.
你们可能觉得这听起来有点矛盾 但我不仅可以作为荷兰国防部长 用我在在黎巴嫩 萨拉热窝和其他某些国家的 的所见所闻去证明 同时,这个道理也可以被 统计数字所证实 暴力活动在过去的500年中 大幅减少 除去我们每天 在新闻中看到的画面以外 战争在发达国家中 已经不常见了 谋杀率在欧洲 自中世纪以来 已经下降到了1/30 同时内战和镇压 自冷战结束后也已经显著减少了 统计显示 我们生活在 一个相对和平的年代
Why? Why has violence decreased? Has the human mind changed? Well, we were talking about the human mind this morning. Did we simply lose our beastly impulses for revenge, for violent rituals, for pure rage? Or is there something else? In his latest book, Harvard professor Steven Pinker -- and many other thinkers before him -- concludes that one of the main drivers behind less violent societies is the spread of the constitutional state and the introduction, on a large scale, of the state monopoly on the legitimized use of violence -- legitimized by a democratically elected government, legitimized by checks and balances and an independent judicial system. In other words, a state monopoly that has the use of violence well under control.
为什么? 为什么暴力会下降? 人性改变了吗? 我们今天早晨讨论的就是人性的问题 是否我们真的已经不再为某些东西怀着残忍的冲动 比如复仇 比如某些暴力仪式 以及某些纯粹的愤怒? 亦或是其他什么原因? 根据最新的一本 哈佛教授史蒂芬·平克所写的书—— 以及许多在他之前的思想家—— 都总结说 使暴力减少 的原因之一就是 国家法制化的盛行 以及大规模引入的 合法使用武力 的国家垄断—— 通过民选政府来合法化 通过政府之间相互制衡 以及独立的司法系统来合法化 换句话说, 国家的垄断 使得暴力使用 被很好控制住了
Such a state monopoly on violence, first of all, serves as a reassurance. It removes the incentive for an arms race between potentially hostile groups in our societies. Secondly, the presence of penalties that outweigh the benefits of using violence tips the balance even further. Abstaining from violence becomes more profitable than starting a war. Now nonviolence starts to work like a flywheel. It enhances peace even further. Where there is no conflict, trade flourishes. And trade is another important incentive against violence. With trade, there's mutual interdependency and mutual gain between parties. And when there is mutual gain, both sides stand to lose more than they would gain if they started a war. War is simply no longer the best option, and that is why violence has decreased.
这种在暴力上的国家垄断 首先 它成为了 一种保障 它消除了社会里 两个潜在的 敌对双方之间 武力竞争的可能性 其次,处罚这种存在的本身 远优于使用武力所带来的好处 它使这种平衡得以更好的维持 放弃暴力 比发起一场战争 更加有益 现在,非暴力的成效已经得以显现 并且有一种继续发展的惯性 它进一步促进了和平 没有冲突的地方 贸易才能繁荣 同样,贸易是另一个抑制暴力 的因素 贸易的前提来自相互依存 以及双方的互利 当双方处在互利的情况下时 战争的爆发 对于贸易双方来说 弊要远大于利 很明显 战争 不是最好的选择 这也是为什么暴力在逐渐减少
This, ladies and gentlemen, is the rationale behind the existence of my armed forces. The armed forces implement the state monopoly on violence. We do this in a legitimized way only after our democracy has asked us to do so. It is this legitimate, controlled use of the gun that has contributed greatly to reducing the statistics of war, conflict and violence around the globe. It is this participation in peacekeeping missions that has led to the resolution of many civil wars. My soldiers use the gun as an instrument of peace.
女士们先生们 这就是军队之所以存在的 本质理由 军队 保证着国家对于暴力的垄断 我们在合法的前提下 在民主的要求下继续这种 暴力垄断 这是正当的 限制枪支的使用 从而在全球范围内 减少战争 冲突与暴力 做出极大的贡献 正是这种维护和平的行动 减少了很多 内战的爆发 我的战士们用枪 作为维护和平的工具
And this is exactly why failed states are so dangerous. Failed states have no legitimized, democratically controlled use of force. Failed states do not know of the gun as an instrument of peace and stability. That is why failed states can drag down a whole region into chaos and conflict. That is why spreading the concept of the constitutional state is such an important aspect of our foreign missions. That is why we are trying to build a judicial system right now in Afghanistan. That is why we train police officers, we train judges, we train public prosecutors around the world. And that is why -- and in the Netherlands, we are very unique in that -- that is why the Dutch constitution states that one of the main tasks of the armed forces is to uphold and promote the international rule of law.
这正是为什么没有成功进行暴力垄断的国家 是如此危险 这些国家 缺少对于武力的法制化管理和民主化的控制 这些国家并不了解 枪其实是维护和平与稳定的工具 这就是为什么这些国家 可以把其所在的整个地区都 带入混乱冲突的深渊 这也是为什么推广 法治国家的概念 在我们外事工作中 是如此的重要 这同样是 我们现在在阿富汗建立司法体系 的原因 同样,我们在全世界范围培训警员 培训法官 培训公诉人的原因也源于此 这也是为什么—— 在荷兰,我们在这个方面是很独特的—— 即在荷兰这个法制国家 军队所担负的主要 职责之一 就是撑起并促进 国际法制体系
Ladies and gentlemen, looking at this gun, we are confronted with the ugly side of the human mind. Every day I hope that politicians, diplomats, development workers can turn conflict into peace and threat into hope. And I hope that one day armies can be disbanded and humans will find a way of living together without violence and oppression. But until that day comes, we will have to make ideals and human failure meet somewhere in the middle. Until that day comes, I stand for my father who tried to shoot the Nazis with an old gun. I stand for my men and women who are prepared to risk their lives for a less violent world for all of us. I stand for this soldier who suffered partial hearing loss and sustained permanent injuries to her leg, when she was hit by a rocket on a mission in Afghanistan.
女士们,先生们 看看这把枪 我们面对的是 人性邪恶的一面 每一天我都期望 政客们,外交官们 社会发展工作者们 可以化干戈 为玉帛 化威胁 为希望 我希望有那么一天 军队可以被解散 同时人类可以找到和平共处的方式 远离暴力和镇压 但是那一天到来之前 我们还不得不面对 理想与现实中 人类阴暗面碰撞的现实 在那一天到来之前 我支持我的父亲 一位曾经试图用一把旧枪 射杀纳粹的老人 我支持那些 为了全人类对抗暴力的世界 随时准备着牺牲自己的人 我支持这位战士 她丧失了部分听力 同时承受着腿部永久性的伤害 这些伤害是她在阿富汗 战场任务中被导弹击中所致
Ladies and gentlemen, until the day comes when we can do away with the gun, I hope we all agree that peace and stability do not come free of charge. It takes hard work, often behind the scenes. It takes good equipment and well-trained, dedicated soldiers. I hope you will support the efforts of our armed forces to train soldiers like this young captain and provide her with a good gun, instead of the bad gun my father was given. I hope you will support our soldiers when they are out there, when they come home and when they are injured and need our care. They put their lives on the line, for us, for you, and we cannot let them down.
女士们,先生们 在我们真的可以丢掉枪支 的那一天到来之前 我觉得我们都认同一点 那就是和平稳定 不会无故的到来 这需要许多的努力 大部分并不会为人所知 这需要精良的装备 以及良好的训练,勇于献身的战士 我希望大家可以支持 军队对子弟兵 的培养 就像这位年轻上尉 为她提供一把精良的枪 而不是一把像我父亲用过那样的老枪 我希望我们的军人在聚光灯之外 同样可以得到大家的支持 当他们回家之后 当他们受伤的时候 当他们需要我们关爱的时候 他们把自己的生命放在了前线 为我们,也为你们 我们不应该让他们失望
I hope you will respect my soldiers, this soldier with this gun. Because she wants a better world. Because she makes an active contribution to a better world, just like all of us here today.
我希望大家可以尊重我的战士们 这位战士手持钢枪 因为她憧憬一个更美好的世界 因为她为了那个更美好的世界做着 积极的贡献 就像我们今天在座的各位一样
Thank you very much.
非常感谢大家
(Applause)
(掌声)