As the highest military commander of the Netherlands, with troops stationed around the world, I'm really honored to be here today.
作為荷蘭的 最高軍事統帥, 擁有駐紮在世界各地駐紮的軍隊, 令天我真的十分榮幸 來到這裡。
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.
我環顧四周 在這會場中 我看到一群很特別的觀眾。 你就是我答應 這個邀請 今天來到這裡的原因。 當我環顧一下, 我看到 一群想有所貢獻的人。 我看到 一群想把世界變得更美好的人, 藉著從事開天闢地的科學研究, 創作動人的藝術品, 寫作批判性的文章 或發人深省的書籍, 或開創可永續經營的生意。 你們都選了 自己的工具 去達成讓世界變得更美好 的理想。 有人選了顯微鏡 作為他們的工具。 其他人選擇舞蹈或繪畫 或譜出像我們剛聽到的音樂。 有些人則選擇筆桿。 其他則透過金錢工具。
Ladies and gentlemen, I made a different choice.
先生女仕們, 我作出了截然不同的選擇。
Thanks.
謝謝。
Ladies and gentlemen ...
先生女仕們 --
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
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.
我與你們的目標一致。 我與剛才你聽到的講者 的目標一致。 我沒有選擇 拿起筆桿、 畫筆或攝影機。 我選擇了這種工具。 我選擇了槍桿子。
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.
對你來說,你也聽過, 這麼接近這枝槍 可能會令你感到不安。 甚至令你感到害怕。 一枝真正的槍械 就在咫尺之遙。 讓我停下來一會兒 去感覺一下這種不安的感覺。 你甚至能夠聽得出來。 讓我們珍惜這個事實 其實你們大多數 都從未接近過槍械。 這意味著 荷蘭是一個和平的國家。 荷蘭沒有戰爭。 這表示我們不需要軍隊 去巡邏我們的街道。 槍械並非我們生活的一部份。 在很多國家 那是另一回事。 在很多國家 民眾面對著槍械。 他們受到壓迫。 他們受到 軍閥、 恐怖份子、 和罪犯的威嚇。 武器可做成很多的傷害。 它們是諸多苦難 的原因。
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.
那麼為何我拿著這件武器 站在你面前呢? 為何我選擇槍械 作為我的工具呢? 今天我想解釋一下。 今天我想靠訴你 為何我選擇槍械 去創造一個更理想的世界。 我亦想告訴你 這枝槍怎樣幫我達到目的。
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 在荷蘭東面的 一個城市 --奈梅亨 -- 我出生的城市開始。 我父親是 一位勤勞的麵包匠, 但當他完成麵包店的工作後, 他經常會為我和兄弟說故事。 而很多時候 他都會說我現在與和你分享的這個故事。 一個在二次世界大戰初 他被荷蘭軍隊 徵召入伍 發生的故事。 納粹入侵荷蘭。 他們冷酷的計劃人盡皆知 他們要進行 高壓統治。 外交途徑無法阻止德軍。 我們最後逼不得己 訴諸殘忍的武力。 我爸爸 正是其中一員。
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.
作為農民的兒子 他懂得打獵, 我爸爸是位優秀的神槍手。 當他瞄準目標, 他永不失手。 在荷蘭歷史上這關鍵時刻 我爸爸部署於 奈梅亨城附近 的瓦爾河岸邊。 他能毫無障地瞄準 來侵佔一個自由自國家,他的袓國, 我們的袓國, 的德軍。 他開了槍。沒事發生。 他再開槍。 並沒有德軍倒下。 我爸爸獲配的 是一把舊式槍枝, 它的射程 連對面河岸都去不到。 希特拉的軍隊繼續邁進, 而我爸爸則無法可施。
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.
直至我爸爸離開人世, 他還為此耿耿於懷。 他應能有些作為。 但只得一把舊式的槍枝, 連軍隊中最好的神槍手 也無法命中目標。 這個故事一直存在我心中。
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.
上高中時, 我深深受到盟軍故事 的感染 -- 關於那些離開自己安全的家 冒上生命危險 去解放他們並不認識的 人民和國家。 他們解放了我出生的家鄉。 就在那一刻我決定 要拿起槍桿子 -- 出自對那些 來解放我們的男士和女士 的尊敬和感激 -- 了解到 有時只有槍械 才能分隔開 善和惡。
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.
這就是我拿起槍桿子 的原因 -- 並非要去射擊, 並非要去殺戳, 並非要去破壞, 而是要去阻止做壞事的人, 去保護弱小, 去捍衛民主價值, 去維護我們所擁有 今天在阿姆斯特丹 這裡討論 如何令世界變得更美好的自由。
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.
先生、女士門, 我今天站在這裡並不是要 告訴你武器的光輝。 我並不喜歡槍械。 當你曾經受襲, 你會更明瞭 槍械並非某些值得吹噓 具男子氣概的工具。 我今天站在這裡 跟你談論利用槍械 作為維持和平穩定的工具。 槍械可能是我們在這世界上所擁有的 維持和平穩定的 最重要工具之一。
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.
現在這聽起來好像是矛盾的。 但在作為荷蘭國防部長 派駐黎巴嫩 薩拉熱窩和其他國家時 我就親眼目睹, 這亦得到充份和確實旳 統計數字的支持。 暴力在過去五百年 顯著減少了。 儘管每日在新聞上 我們看到的照片, 已開發國家間的戰事 並不常見。 自中世紀以來 歐洲的謀殺率 跌至過去的三十分之一。 內戰和壓迫的出現 在冷戰結束後亦減少了。 統計數字顯示 我們正活在 一個相對和平的時期。
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.
什麼原因呢? 為何暴力減少了呢? 是否人類的思維改變了呢? 我們早上談論過人類思維。 是否我們簡單的失去了 報復, 暴力儀式, 統粹憤怒的獸性衝動? 或者還有其他東西呢? 在他的新書裡, 哈彿大學教授 Steve Pinker -- 以及很多在他之前的思想家 -- 總結出現較少武力社會 背後的一個主要驅動力 是憲法國家的流行 以及大規模引入 國家對合法使用武力 的壟斷 -- 由民選政府, 存有制衡, 和獨立司法制度去決定是否合法。 換句話說,國家壟斷 令使用武力 受到充份的控制。
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.
這種國家對武力的壟斷, 首先,成了 一顆定心丸。 消除了社會上 潛在不友善團體之間 軍事競賽 的誘因。 其次,使用武力得到的懲罰 遠超武力的好處 令平衡更傾向一邊。 放棄武力 較發動戰爭 變得更為有利。 現在,非武力開始 如飛輪運作。 進一步促進和平。 沒有衝突 貿易蓬勃發展。 貿易又是另一個 減少武力的誘因。 貿易帶來互相依賴 和互利互惠。 當出現互利的情況, 雙方開戰 帶來的損失 會高於得到的好處。 戰爭簡單來說 不再是最佳選擇, 武力因而減少。
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.
先生,女仕們,這 就是我的軍隊 存在的理由。 軍隊 對武力進行國家壟斷。 我們合法地執行 只應民主的要求 去做。 就是這個合法的 受控制下使用槍械 對減低全球戰爭、 衝突和武力 的統計數字 帶來重大的貢獻。 就是這些參與維持和平的任務 得以解決 很多內戰。 我的戰士使用槍械 作為和平的工具。
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.
這亦正是非正常運作國家 為何會是那麼危險。 非正常運作國家 在使用軍事力量上沒有合法和民主的控制。 非正常運作的國家不知道槍械 是和平穩定的工具。 這是為何非正常運作的國家 可令整個地區 陷入混亂和衝突中。 這是宣揚 憲法國家這個概念 是我們在國外的任務中 那麼重要的一環。 這是為何 我們正嘗試在阿富汗 建立司法制度的原因。 這是為何我們在世界各地培訓警官, 我們培訓法官, 我們培訓檢察官的原因。 這是為何 -- 在荷蘭,我們是獨一無二的 -- 這是為何荷蘭憲法聲明 軍隊其中一個 主要任務 是維持和促進 國際上的法治。
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.
先生,女仕們, 看著這枝槍 我們面對著 人類思想的陰暗面。 每一天我都希望 政治家、外交家、 發展人員 可把衝突 化為和平, 把威脅 化為希望。 我希望最終有一天 可把軍隊解散 而人類找到方法 在沒有暴力或壓迫下一起生活。 然而,直至那一天到來, 我們還是要在理想 和人類錯敗 之間取得妥協。 直至那一天到來, 我支持我爸爸 試圖用舊式的槍枝 射擊納粹軍隊。 我支持我的男女戰士 他們為了一個少些武力的世界 準備好犧牲他們的性命。 我支持這位戰士 她在阿富汗執行任務時 被火箭炮攻擊而 喪失了部份聽覺 和導致一條腿部永久傷殘。
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.
先生,女仕們, 直至那一天到來 我們可以拋棄槍械時 我希望大家都同意 和平穩定 必須付出代價。 它須要努力, 經常是幕後看不見的努力。 它需要良好的器材 以及熟練和投入的戰士。 我希望你支持 我們軍隊 訓練像這位年輕隊長一樣 的戰士 提供她一枝良好的槍枝 而不要像給我爸爸那樣差勁的槍械。 我希望你們支持我們的戰士 無論他們駐紮外地, 回到家裡 或者受了傷 而需要我們的照顧。 他們為我們,為你們 冒上生命危險, 我們不可令他們失望。
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.
我希望你們尊敬我的戰士, 這位拿著這枝槍的戰士。 因為她想要一個更美好的世界。 因為她對更美好的世界 作出積極的貢獻, 就像我們今天在這裡一樣。
Thank you very much.
十分多謝大家。
(Applause)
(掌聲)