巴西風情:聖保羅會是未來之城嗎?

Last week I chaired a Financial Times conference in London, flew to São Paulo and did the same there.

上週，我在倫敦主持了一場英國《金融時報》的會議，然後飛往聖保羅主持了另一場。

Our subject in both was the “millennial generation”, those aged between 18 and 30.

兩場會議的主題都是“千禧一代”，也就是現在年齡為18至30歲的那一代人。

I am not in this age bracket, but the conferences prompted the question: if I were stArting my career now, would I prefer to do it in the UK capital or Latin America’s most powerful city?

我不是這個年齡段的人，但會議上提出了這個問題：如果現在開始我的職業生涯，我是希望在英國首都還是在那個拉美地區實力最強大的城市開始？

For ease on the eye, you would surely choose London. São Paulo has some greenery, but nothing to compare with London’s parks. While some of London’s suburbs have a brick-and-slate dreariness, São Paulo’s vast stretch of high rises surely appeals only to the most ardent architectural modernists.

從賞心悦目的角度來看，你肯定會選擇倫敦。聖保羅也有一些綠化，但與倫敦的公園沒法比。雖然倫敦一些郊區有一種磚石建築的沉悶感，但聖保羅大片的高樓大廈只能吸引那些衷心熱愛現代主義建築的人。

Road journeys in both cities are unpredictable. I was told to leave at least an hour for a five-mile taxi ride in São Paulo. It took 11 minutes, but that was at 7am. One of our mid-morning conference speakers found himself snarled.

兩座城市的地面交通都不靠譜。有人告訴我，在聖保羅，打車去五英里外的地方需要至少預留一個小時的時間。實際上那段距離只需要11分鐘，但那是在早上七點的時候。我們上午會議的一位演講者就被堵了很長時間。

The clatter of helicopters, both morning and evening in São Paulo (at one point I counted eight immediately overhead), suggests many of the wealthy prefer not to leave these trips to chance.

早晨和晚上，聖保羅上空直升機的轟鳴聲（我有一次數到頭頂上同時有8架直升機）表明，很多富人不願意讓運氣決定行程需要多長時間。

London is safer. My São Paulo hotel receptionist told me to remove my watch before I went out, unless it was a cheap piece of plastic. (I rolled up my sleeves to show would-be assailants that I don’t own any sort of watch.)

倫敦更加安全。我在聖保羅的酒店前台建議我在出門之前把手錶取下來，除非我戴的是一隻廉價的塑料手錶。（我把袖子捲起讓可能襲擊我的人看到，我手腕上沒有任何手錶。）

The statistics say such caution is justified. London had 1.6 murders per 100,000 people in 2009, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. São Paulo had 10.8 – although the homicide rate in both cities has almost halved since 2003.

統計數據表明，這種謹慎是必要的。聯合國毒品和犯罪問題辦公室(UN Office on Drugs and Crime)數據顯示，2009年，倫敦每10萬人發生1.6起兇殺案，而聖保羅的這一數字是10.8起——儘管自2003年以來，兩座城市的謀殺犯罪率都下降了近一半。

In cultural offerings, London’s advantage is overwhelming, but it has had centuries longer to accumulate its riches. Greater São Paulo has a population of 19m. As Larry Rohter, the veteran New York Times correspondent, points out in his book Brazil on the Rise, in 1870 its population was 31,000. There is some exciting new Brazilian art and the São Paulo Museum of Art has a fine collection.

在文化演出方面，倫敦的優勢非常明顯，但倫敦之所以文化底藴更深，是因為它的歷史比聖保羅長几個世紀。大聖保羅區有1900萬人口。《紐約時報》資深記者拉里•羅特(Larry Rohter)在他的《巴西：一個國家的崛起》(Brazil on the Rise)一書中指出，1870年，大聖保羅的人口還只有3.1萬。巴西有一些激動人心的新藝術，聖保羅藝術博物館(São Paulo Museum of Art)也很不錯。

The weather: no contest. It was warmer and sunnier last week at the start of São Paulo’s winter than during London’s fitful summer.

天氣方面，倫敦不是聖保羅的對手。倫敦在夏天裏也是時冷時熱，上週剛剛入冬時的聖保羅，都比夏日的倫敦更暖和、更晴朗。

What is it like to be young and ambitious in the two cities? Both conferences heard from entrepreneurs and community activists, as well as from policy specialists. The young Brazilians were notably more downbeat than their London counterparts. Bia Granja, co-creator of youPIX, “the largest internet culture festival in Brazil”, complained about the lack of tolerance in the country, saying: “I’ve never seen so much prejudice in my life.”

雄心勃勃的年輕人在兩座城市的境況如何？兩場會議的演講者中，都有企業家、社區活動人士，以及政策專家。巴西的年輕人明顯比倫敦的年輕人更牢騷滿腹。“巴西最大的互聯網文化社區”youPIX聯合創始人比亞•格蘭雅(Bia Granja)就抱怨巴西缺乏包容性，他説：“我這輩子就沒見識過這麼多的偏見。”

This pointed to a startling difference between the two conferences: in spite of São Paulo’s rich racial mix, every speaker and almost every conference delegate was white. The same is true in the city’s upmarket neighbourhoods and restaurants.

這讓我想起兩次會議的一個明顯區別：儘管聖保羅種族構成比較豐富，但每一個發言人和幾乎所有與會代表都是白人。在這個城市的高檔社區和餐館裏，情況也是如此。

This is not to oversell the UK capital’s tolerance: shortly after our conference there, an Islamic centre was burnt down in the wake of a soldier being hacked to death in the city’s streets.

這並不是説英國首都的包容性值得吹噓：就在我們的倫敦會議結束後不久，一個伊斯蘭中心被燒燬，縱火者是為了報復一名士兵在倫敦街頭被砍殺。

But the London panels and the delegates were more varied and optimistic. They were more mobile too, including Bobby Kensah, a UK-trained lawyer with an award for his pro bono work, who now lives in Hong Kong, and Rokhaya Diallo, a French anti-racism campaigner who popped over for the day. Ms Diallo was worried about how her English would hold up. It was fine.

但倫敦的發言者和代表更加多元化，也更加樂觀。他們的移動性也更高，比如在英國接受教育、曾因公益工作獲獎的律師鮑比•肯薩(Bobby Kensah)，目前生活在香港，法國反種族主義者羅哈亞•迪亞洛(Rokhaya Diallo)那天也到場了。迪亞洛擔心自己的英語不利於溝通，結果沒事兒。

The São Paulo conference began in English, but most of the Brazilian speakers switched to Portuguese. There is nothing wrong with this: why shouldn’t they speak their own language in their own country? The few foreigners present had simultaneous translation headsets.

聖保羅的那場會議開始用的是英語，但大部分巴西的演講者都改説葡萄牙語了。這倒也天經地義：在自己的國家為什麼不能説自己的語言？少數與會的外國人可以戴同聲傳譯耳機。

The problem is that Portuguese is, as one of the Brazilian panellists said, spoken “only in Macau and some places in Africa” (she seemed to disregard Portugal). It is striking how few people in São Paulo, even in luxury hotels and shops, speak any other language, and how few foreign publications are on its newsstands.

但正如一位巴西與會者所説，只有“澳門和非洲一些地方使用”葡萄牙語（她似乎有點看不起葡萄牙語），這是個問題。令人吃驚的是，在聖保羅很少有人説葡萄牙語以外的其他語言，即使是在豪華酒店或高檔商店也是如此，報攤上也很少有外語出版物。

Even though Brazil’s growth has slowed, its rich natural and agricultural resources suggest it has brighter prospects than the UK. In manufacturing, Brazil, unlike Britain, makes complete civil aircraft. That is perhaps why its citizens feel less need to look further afield. São Paulo talks about Brazil. London talks about the world.

儘管巴西的增長有所放緩，其豐富的自然資源和農業資源表明，它的未來比英國更加光明。在製造業方面，與英國不同的是，巴西製造的都是民用飛機。巴西民眾相對而言更關心身邊的事情，原因或許就在這裏。在聖保羅，人們談論巴西，而在倫敦，人們談論世界。