【BBC】新加坡何以干净得一尘不染

作者：Tim McDonald

译者：王津雨 & 邵海灵

校对：赵萌萌

策划：邹世昌

What did it take for this sovereign-city state to become Asia’s cleanest, greenest metropolis?

作为亚洲最干净、最环保的大都市，这个城邦国家经历了什么？

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About 200 volunteers scoured the housing estate looking for rubbish in Khatib, a neighbourhood in northern Singapore. There were families with young children and volunteers from a local hospital. And a few, mostly senior, volunteers in matching shirts from the “North West Brisk Walking Club” were there too.

新加坡北部的卡迪社区里，约200名志愿者为翻找垃圾而搜遍了整个住宅区，其中有带小孩的家庭，有当地医院的义工，还有一些“西北快走俱乐部”的志愿者，他们身着同款衬衫，里面很多是老年人。

scour/skaʊr/ v. To search very carefully and thoroughly through an area, a document etc （彻底地）搜寻，翻找，搜查

Some edged into the bushes to pick up a couple of cigarette butts. Others found the odd tissue abandoned on a tabletop. To be honest, this clean-up day seemed like something of a misnomer. It was clean already. None of the volunteers returned with bulging sacks of refuse.

有人钻进灌木丛，就为捡几根烟蒂；有人发现人们在桌子上乱丢纸巾。老实说，把这天称作“清扫日”似乎有点夸张，因为社区已经很干净了，没有一个志愿者是带着鼓鼓囊囊的垃圾袋回来的。

misnomer /,mɪs'nomɚ/ n. A wrong or unsuitable name错误的名字；不恰当的名称

But that’s to be expected in Singapore. The country has long had an obsession with hygiene and cleanliness. And this month marks a big milestone: Founding father and first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew kicked off the Keep Singapore Clean campaign 50 years ago this month.

但这在新加坡却是常态。这个国家一直很注重卫生清洁。而本月是一个里程碑式的时间点：50年前的这个月，被称为“新加坡国父”的首任总理李光耀启动了“保持新加坡清洁运动”。

Cleanliness campaigns were already well-established by that time, but this one was different. It was the first time the government used fines as a method of social control. But Singapore’s economic advance seemed to short-circuit its initial success. By any measure, Singapore is clean. But not for the reasons you might think.

当时大大小小的清洁运动都很成熟了，但这个运动不同，这是新加坡政府首次使用罚款进行社会管控。该运动获得了迅速的成功，但新加坡的经济发展似乎让这一成功偏离了运动的初衷。不管以什么标准来衡量，新加坡都可以说是很干净的，但个中缘由未必是你以为的那样。

short-circuit /ʃɔrt ˈsɚkɪt/ v. If someone or something short-circuits a process or system, they avoid long or difficult parts of it and use a quicker, more direct method to achieve their aim. 绕过

Clean and Green

清洁与环保

If you’ve ever walked in the same direction as a rubbish truck as it idles up the street on its daily collection here in Singapore, you immediately understand why the city is cleaned so relentlessly. The dumpster perfume really slaps you in the face.

如果你跟一辆缓缓驶过的垃圾车走在同一个方向，就会明白为什么这座城市总是没完没了地在打扫————垃圾桶里那扑面而来的味道，简直就像狠狠打了你一耳光。

In cities with a cooler climate, it’s probably okay to go a little longer between household collections. But in the hot, humid tropics, it’s an urgent task. Lingeringhousehold and commercial waste can be downright dangerous.

在气候较为凉爽的城市，人们收生活垃圾还能稍微迟些。但在炎热潮湿的热带地区，收垃圾就刻不容缓了。生活垃圾和商业垃圾一旦搁太久，就会特别危险。

lingering /'lɪŋgərɪŋ/ adj. continuing to exist for longer than usual or desirable拖延的，久缠不去的

“If you have littering like you see in other countries, it can breed rodents, flies, cockroaches. They are all carriers of bacteria and germs,” said Edward D’Silva, chairman of the Public Hygiene Council. Mosquitoes are an even bigger worry. You won’t get malaria here, but in a bad year, there’ll be tens of thousands of cases of dengue.

新加坡公共卫生理事会主席爱德华·德西尔瓦指出：“如果你像其他国家的人那样乱丢垃圾，就会招来老鼠、苍蝇和蟑螂，它们都携带着病菌。”蚊子更麻烦。新加坡没有疟疾，但要是哪一年运气不好，就会有成千上万人患上登革热。

Clean and Green

清洁与绿色

When he introduced the Clean and Green policy, Lee Kuan Yew had loftier goals in mind. It was part of a larger push that included changes to public health laws, the relocation of street vendors into hawker centres, the development of proper sewage systems and disease control measures. At the same time, the population moved from Kampongs (Malay-style villages with wooden huts) into housing estates with better infrastructure.

李光耀在推行清洁与绿色政策时，心中怀有更加宏大的目标。这项政策只是他全面改革的一部分，其他措施包括修改公共卫生法、将路边摊迁至小贩中心、完善污水处理系统与疾病管控措施等。同时，住在小村子（译者注：Kampongs是指建有木屋的马来西亚式村庄）的人搬到了基础设施更好的住宅区。

hawker centres: 新加坡和马来西亚的小贩中心（又称熟食中心），是由政府兴建的室外开放式饮食集中地，售卖食品物美价廉、种类繁多，以东南亚熟食以及饮品为主。

“We have built, we have progressed. But no other hallmark of success will be more distinctive than that of achieving our position as the cleanest and greenest city in South Asia,” he said in 1968.

“我们已进行了社会建设，也已取得了进步。但如果新加坡能成为南亚最干净环保的城市，这将成为我们最具特色的成功标志。”李光耀在1968年说道。

In addition to adverts, there were public education activities, lectures by health officials and spot checks by the government. There were also competitions which highlighted both the cleanest and the dirtiest offices, shops, factories, government buildings, schools and public vehicles.

除了宣传，政府开展了抽查行动，卫生机构也举办了公共教育活动、组织了讲座。此外还有比赛，重点评选出最干净和最脏乱的办公室、商店、工厂、政府大楼、学校和公交车。

The campaign was followed by a plethora of others. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, there were campaigns that urged Singaporeans to keep toilets, factories and bus stops clean. The 1976 Use Your Hands campaign had students, parents, teachers, principals and civil servants cleaning up schools at the weekend. There were also numerous tree planting initiatives.

这一运动开始后，其他运动也像雨后春笋般出现了。在整个七十到八十年代，涌现了不少类似的运动，敦促新加坡人保持厕所、工厂和公交站的清洁。在1976年的“投入双手”运动中，学生、家长、老师、校长和公务员要在周末打扫学校。此外，人们还种了很多树。

The aim wasn’t just to make the city more pleasant. A cleaner city, Lee Kuan Yew reasoned, would create a stronger economy.

运动的目的不仅是为了让新加坡更加宜人。在李光耀看来，城市环境更加干净，经济就能更加强劲。

“These standards will keep morale high, sickness rate low, and so create the necessary social conditions for higher economic growth in industry and in tourism. This will contribute to the public good, and in the end to everyone’s personal benefit,” he said.

他还表示：“设立这些标准会让人民斗志高昂，降低疾病发生率，从而创造必要的社会条件，让工业和旅游业经济增长更加迅速。这场运动会改善公众福利，最后每个人都可以受益。”

On all of these counts, Singapore has done well. Life expectancy has grown from 66 to 83 (which is third best globally). In 1967, tourist arrivals were a little over 200,000 compared to a just shy of 10 million for the first three quarters of 2018. Inward foreign direct investment ballooned from US$93m in 1970 to US$39bn in 2010. It’s now the fifth largest recipient of foreign direct investment, receiving $66bn in 2017.

在上述所有方面，新加坡都做得很不错。人民的预期寿命从66岁增长到了83岁（达到了全球第三的水平）。1967年新加坡入境游客人数只有20万多一点，而到2018年，前三个季度的游客人数就已接近1000万了。外国直接投资也从1970年时的9300万美元飙升到2010年时的390亿美元。现在新加坡接受的外国直接投资额排名全球第五，在2017年就收到了660亿美元。

Nobody claims it’s all down to a single anti-littering campaign. But the health benefits are understood. It makes sense that tourists would return to a clean destination. And clean streets send a signal to foreign executives that a city is capable and adheres to the rule of law. It’s difficult to say how much, but in some way, shape or form, this campaign mattered.

没有人会说之所以能取得这些成就，是因为发起了一场反对乱扔垃圾的运动。但健康卫生带来的效益是有目共睹的。干净整洁的旅游地会带来更多回头客，干净整洁的街道也在告诉外国公司高管：这座城市是法治城市，也能坚守法治。很难说清洁运动有多重要，但从某种程度上说，不管是规模还是形式，这场运动都意义重大。

As a rule, campaigns are not huge line items for departments or government budgets. Between 2010 and 2014, for example, Singapore’s National Environment Agency spent an average of $3m per year on anti-litter campaigns and outreach activities.

一般来说，社会运动在部门或政府预算中不会占很大比重。比如2010至2014年间，在反对乱扔垃圾运动和各种宣传活动上，新加坡环境局平均每年的花费是300万美元。

A Fine City

爱罚之城

Discount and souvenir stores in Singapore often carry T-shirts that read: “Singapore: A fine city” followed by a multitude of things for which you can get fined. As jokes go, it’s tired - Singaporeans are more likely to roll their eyes than laugh.

新加坡的折扣店和纪念品店经常会卖这种T恤，上面印着“新加坡：一座美丽的城市” （译者注：fine也可表示罚款），这行字下面还印有很多漫画，告诉你做什么会被罚款。但玩笑开归开，老被罚款还是挺让人厌烦的——新加坡人就不觉得好笑，只会无奈地翻个白眼。

But it’s not wrong. Singapore has a habit of banning what it sees as undesirable behaviour and enforcing each ban with financial penalties. The 1968 Keep Singapore Clean campaign was the first to attempt to moderate citizens’ behaviour through fines. Since then, Singapore has adopted fines with gusto. Typically, the authorities issue tens of thousands of fines a year for littering. The minimum fine is SG$300 (US$217).

但这种说法并没有错。新加坡已经养成了习惯：只要觉得是不当行为，就马上禁止，而且还要课以罚款。1968年的“保持新加坡清洁运动”首次尝试了通过罚款来规范公民行为。从那以后，新加坡一直积极采取罚款措施。通常当局每年会对乱扔垃圾行为处以数万元的罚款，最低罚款标准为300新币（折合217美元）。

The push to make Singapore spotless started during Lee Kuan Yew’s time. He would intervene personally, sending notes to his ministers or bureaucrats when he saw something out of place. He believed that little things mattered, and worried that people would “take advantage of a slackening of the administrative grip on the situation" if smaller infractions were ignored.

在李光耀时代，政府就致力于把新加坡变得一尘不染了。要是哪里秩序混乱，李光耀会亲自出面干预，对他的部长或官员做出提醒。他相信防微杜渐的道理，担心如果对微小的违规行为置之不理，人们就会“钻行政管控放松的空子”。

There are laws on the books that have always seemed weirdly strict to foreigners. Singapore famously banned the import of chewing gum (it’s not illegal to merely possess it). There are fines for bringing durian (a pungent smelling tropical fruit) on the train and for not flushing a public toilet (mostly a moot point, given that most toilets flush automatically now).

成文的法律似乎对外国人总是异常严格。新加坡以禁止进口口香糖而闻名于世（单单持有口香糖并不违法）。地铁上带榴梿（一种有强烈刺激性气味的热带水果）要罚款，上公厕不冲水也要罚款（这一条其实已经没有实际意义了，因为现在大部分厕所都是自动冲水的）。

on the books: Set down in writing or an audio or video recording 记录在案的

There are also fines for spitting or for using someone else’s wifi without permission. In 2009, a taxi driver was fined for being naked in public view in his own home. Vaping e-cigarettes has already been banned.

随地吐痰、未经许可就连接他人的WiFi，这些也要被罚款。2009年，一个计程车司机因为在家里没穿衣服而被处以罚款，罪名是“在公众能看到的地方裸露身体”。电子烟则早就已经在被禁之列了。

Perhaps it shouldn’t seem so unusual. It’s true that the West certainly differs when it comes to civil and political rights, and penalties here can be extremely tough, including the death penalty for drug offences. But Singapore is hardly the only jurisdiction to show enthusiasm for fines to discourage petty offences. New South Wales in Australia collected over $172m (US$121m) in parking fines in the last financial year, while councils in the UK collected £820m in a similar period. (Parking is actually a far smaller administrative challenge in Singapore because of deliberate policies to reduce car ownership rates).

也许这没什么可以大惊小怪的。确实，西方国家在民事和政治权利上肯定有所不同，有些刑罚也是相当之重，比如毒品相关的罪行可以导致死罪。但要说到热衷以罚款来防止人们在小事上犯错，新加坡的司法机构可不是唯一一个。在上一个财政年度里，澳大利亚的新南威尔士在违章停车一项上就罚了1.72亿澳币（折合1.21亿美元），英国法院则在同样时间里罚了8.2亿英镑。（停车管理在新加坡其实倒是容易得多，因为政府早已通过各项政策降低了轿车的拥有率。）

Even the broader approach has analogues in the West. George Kelling and James Q Wilson wrote the famous essay Broken Windows in 1982, which argued that a broken window “is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing”. So the prescription was to address small infractions aggressively before they became major problems. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani claimed to have reduced crime in New York with this approach. It sounds a little familiar in Singapore.

即使在更大层面的政策上，西方也有和新加坡类似的例子。乔治·凯林和詹姆斯·Q·威尔逊于1982年发表了一篇名为《破窗效应》的文章，认为一扇破掉的窗户“就意味着没人在乎它，所以打破更多窗户也就不会有任何后果了”。从中得出的教训是：千里之堤，毁于蚁穴，所以一定要在事态扩大之前，用严厉的手段把小问题消灭在萌芽状态。纽约前市长鲁迪·朱利安尼称自己正是用这种方法降低了纽约的犯罪率，这听起来和新加坡也有点像。

Do fines work?

罚款有用吗？

At first, the policy worked, according to Liak Teng Lit, chairman of the National Environment Agency. A combination of public awareness campaigning and punitive measures made a difference. More people picked up after themselves. The city became cleaner.

一开始是有用的，新加坡国家环境局主席陆圣烈如是说。旨在唤醒公共意识的运动和处罚措施相结合，的确带来了改变。越来越多的人开始养成物归原位、井井有条的好习惯，城市也变得干净了。

In 1961, Singapore had a “broom brigade” of 7,000 day labourers who were directly employed by the department of health. By 1989, there were only 2,100.

1961年，新加坡建立了一支“清扫队”，由卫生部直接雇佣了7000名工人来做临时工。到1989年，这个数字已经降到了2100。

day labourer: an unskilled worker hired and paid by the day 按日计酬的临时工

But things changed. The city became wealthier, and it became easier to use low-cost labour to clean up. Nowadays, says Liak, Singapore isn’t clean because locals fear fines. It’s clean because there’s an army of workers scrubbing it. They do the heavy lifting. More than anyone else, they keep Singapore clean.

但后来情况发生了变化。这座城市变得更为富裕，也更容易雇佣廉价劳工来清洁打扫了。陆圣烈说，今天的新加坡之所以能干干净净，并不是因为人们害怕罚款，而是因为有一大波工人在仔细打扫，是他们承担了运送垃圾的重任。这些人对城市清洁做出的贡献，比其他所有的人都要大。

“Singapore is a not a clean city. It’s a cleaned city,” Liak declares.

“新加坡不是一座干净的城市，而是一座打扫过的城市。”—— 陆圣烈

There are 56,000 cleaners registered with the National Environment Agency. There are likely thousands of independent contractors who aren’t registered. Mostly they’re low-paid foreign workers or elderly workers. Taipei, by contrast, has maybe 5,000 cleaners, Liak adds.

国家环境局注册在案的清洁工有56000个，没有登记的独立承包人估计也有几千个。他们大多是低薪雇佣的外国劳工或上了年纪的工人。“但台北只有大概5000个清洁工。”陆圣烈补充说。

Edward D’Silva is frustrated about the way the rise of this army of cleaners has changed the culture in Singapore. With so many cleaners, Singaporeans came to regard cleaning up as someone else’s job. Today, Singaporeans often leave their tray on the table at hawker centres after eating a meal, because they don’t consider it littering, or they think it’s the cleaners’ job to clean up after them. (In fairness, tray return facilities were only installed in 2013.)

清洁工人数量的增加已经改变了新加坡的城市文化，爱德华·德西尔瓦对此很是懊恼。因为有这么多清洁工，新加坡人开始把打扫看成别人的事了。如今，新加坡人经常在吃完饭后把餐盘留在小贩中心的桌子上，因为他们不认为这是乱扔垃圾，或者他们觉得收桌子是清洁工的事。（说句公道话，餐盘回收装置直到2013年才开始普及。）

D’Silva says students don’t pick up after themselves either, because they’ve always had a cleaner to do it for them. It’s something the Public Hygiene Council is trying to address at local schools. Simply put, he thinks Singaporeans have had it too easy for too long, and they need to change. Liak agrees.

德西尔瓦说，就连学生也不会自己收拾桌子了，因为总有清洁工在后面帮他们收垃圾。这也是公共卫生理事会在当地学校教育中试图改善的一点。简单来说，他认为新加坡人的舒服日子过得太久了，需要做出改变。陆圣烈也同意这一点。

“The government cleans the apartment [building], right up to your corridor, typically twice a day. When you have a very efficient cleaning service, and your neighbour messes up the place, you don’ t blame the neighbour, you blame the cleaner for not picking it up,” he says.

“政府会打扫公寓楼，一直扫到你家门口，而且是一天扫两次。如果有这样高效的清洁服务，即使邻居把楼道弄脏了，你也不会怪他们，反而会责怪清洁工没有及时来打扫。”他说。

Changing behaviour

改变行为

In Japan, Australia or the UK, there isn’t the same availability of very low-cost labour to take on the cleaning jobs. In Singapore, cleaners are mostly drawn from a pool of roughly a million foreign workers as well as local aged workers. But as Singapore’s population grows and labour becomes more expensive, it simply won’t be affordable to employ so many cleaners.

在日本、澳大利亚和英国，没有同等廉价的劳动力可以承担清洁工作。而在新加坡，清洁工大多是从约一百万外国劳工和本地大龄工人中挑选出来的。但随着新加坡人口的增长和劳动力成本的上升，政府也承担不起如此多工人的雇佣费用了。

Edward D’Silva says part of the original push for a cleaner Singapore was economic. Cleaning public spaces is expensive and it takes money away from more valuable pursuits. He says that’s still the case, and Singapore needs to change its behaviour fast. Singapore spends at least SGD$120m (US$87m) a year on cleaning public spaces.

爱德华·德西尔瓦说，在起初推动新加坡成为清洁城市的改革中，部分是出于经济原因。公共场所的清扫工作耗资不菲，而这些钱本可以用来达成更有价值的目标。他说这一情况至今仍未改变，新加坡需要迅速做出改变。现在政府清扫公共空间的花费一年至少有1.2亿新币（折合8700万美元）。

“If you are able to instill and cultivate a habit whereby people don’t throw their litter anywhere and anyhow, then the money you would have otherwise spent to employ those cleaners, well, millions of dollars could have been better spent on health and education,” he said.

“如果你能激发并培养人们不乱扔垃圾的习惯，也就不需要雇佣那么多的清洁工，那用省下来的几百万推动健康和教育不是更好吗。”德西尔瓦这样说。

Cleaning up

清扫进行时

Lee Bee Wah is the local MP for Nee Soon. She’s at the clean-up day in Khatib. In fact, she attends at least one a month in her constituency. She’s passionate about cleaning up. She not only encourages her constituents to pick up litter when they see it, but also to speak up when they see someone littering and to report offenders to the authorities.

李碧华是新加坡义顺的地方议员，她也参与了卡迪社区的清扫日活动。事实上，她在自己的选区每个月至少要参加一次这样的活动。她对清洁工作热情满满，不仅鼓励本区的选民随手捡拾路上的垃圾，看到有人乱丢垃圾也会出言劝阻，并将其告到有关当局。

constituency /kənˈstɪtʃuənsi/ n. the body of voters who elect a representative for their area （选举国会议员的）选区； 选区的全体选民

She says public education is every bit as important as fines. In fact, it’s quite difficult to impose fines, because it often requires an official or at least a citizen to witness the offence.

她认为，公共教育和罚款条例的重要性是旗鼓相当的。实际上，落实罚款条例非常困难，因为这往往需要一个官员或至少一个市民作为犯罪目击者。

“It is better to convince them, to get them to buy in, rather than just to depend on fines,” she says.

“说服和劝说比单纯依赖罚款要好得多。”她说。

Once a year, there’s a constituency-wide “no-cleaners day”, when every cleaner in the district puts down their broom and local citizens clean up instead. She says it’s a good example of how a community can change for the better. At the first event in 2013, volunteers picked up 1,430kg of rubbish. This year, it was just 292kg.

该选区每年都会举行一次“无清洁工日”的活动，选区里的所有清洁工都会放下手中的扫帚，而当地的居民会进行清扫的工作。她说，这为社区如何进步做出了一个好榜样。2013年他们第一次举办这个活动时，志愿者收集了1430公斤的垃圾，而今年只收了292公斤。

If there are too many cleaners and Singaporeans are too lax about picking up after themselves, she says her constituency is proof that progress is possible.

如果清洁工人数太多，而新加坡人又太不注意培养自己保持清洁的习惯，李碧华说，她的选区就是一个人们可以改变行为以推动进步的证明。