The United Nations Friday announced an international competition to design a memorial honoring the victims of slavery. It’s estimated that over 500 years, more than 18 million people were abducted from Africa and forced into slavery in the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe.
联合国星期五宣布，举办一个纪念奴隶制受害人的纪念碑国际设计比赛。据估计，在五百年内一共有超过1800万人从非洲被诱拐劫持到美洲、加勒比海和欧洲等地并沦为奴隶。
The sculpture will be located at U.N. headquarters in New York. Its official name is The Permanent Memorial at the United Nations in Honor of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
这座雕塑将矗立在联合国纽约总部，正式名称是联合国奴隶制和跨大西洋奴隶贸易受害者永久纪念碑。
“The issue of slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade stands out still today as a crime against humanity - one of the first manifestations of man’s inhumanity to man,” said Ambassador Raymond Wolfe of Jamaica, chair of the memorial committee.
牙买加驻联合国大使沃尔夫是永久纪念碑委员会主席。沃尔夫说：“奴隶制和跨大西洋奴隶贸易在今天因为它的反人类罪性质仍然引起了人们的关注，这是人类对人类发动的最早的不人道行为之一。”
The memorial, he said, is not an attempt to dwell on the past.
沃尔夫大使说，纪念碑不是在缅怀过去：
“It is to bring the international community to acknowledge, to take note of what has been one of the worst chapters in human history is finally being acknowledged and honored here at the United Nations and what better place,” he said.
“它要让国际社会承认并重视，奴隶制曾是人类历史上最黑暗的篇章之一，现在终于为联合国所承认和纪念。”
The memorial is expected to cost around $4.5 million dollars. An urgent appeal is being made to both the public and private sector to raise the needed funds.
纪念碑预计花费大约450万美元。联合国向政府部门和私人机构发出紧急呼吁以筹措兴建资金。
Wolfe said, “Now we also understand that we are still experiencing a very severe global economic recession and ability of member states to contribute from government coffers is limited. But there are a number of countries which really have gotten us to where we are in terms of very significant contributions.”
牙买加驻联合国大使沃尔夫说：“现在我们也了解到我们还处在非常严重的全球经济衰退，而成员国从政府预算中捐助的能力有限。但还是有一些国家一直作出可观的贡献，让我们得以达到今天这个地步。”
UNESCO, the U.N. educational, scientific and cultural organization, is playing a major role in the creation of the memorial – including an education campaign. Philippe Kridelka, UNESCO’s U.N. representative, says,”In order to build peace in the minds of men and women, it’s important not to forget the tragedies of history,” such as the Holocaust and other events.
联合国教科文组织在建造纪念碑上扮演了重要的角色，包括教育宣传活动。联合国教科文组织的联合国代表克里德卡说，“要在男女老少的心中发展和平概念，记住历史悲剧是非常重要的，”例如大屠杀和其他事件。
“That is why,” he said, “UNESCO has put the cell where Nelson Mandela was detained on Robben Island on the list of World Heritage of Sites mankind. That is now why with partner countries working on school programs on apartheid so that apartheid is never forgotten. That is why we’ve been working Ethiopia, Italy and the African Union so that the Obelisk of Axum in Ethiopia, which had been stolen during the colonial period, has been brought back to Ethiopia.
克里德卡说：“这就是为什么联合国教科文组织将曼德拉被关在罗宾岛的牢房列入了世界文化遗产。这就是为什么现在我们和伙伴国家发起在学校教导种族隔离项目，如此一来种族隔离才不会被遗忘。这就是为什么我们和埃塞俄比亚、意大利和非洲联盟合作将阿克苏姆方尖碑带回埃塞俄比亚。阿克苏姆方尖碑在殖民时代被意大利偷走。”
Efforts now begin to let designers around the world know that the Permanent Memorial Committee on Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade is now accepting their ideas.
联合国现在开始宣传让全世界的设计者知道，联合国正在为奴隶制和跨大西洋奴隶贸易受害者永久纪念碑广征设计方案。
The current timetable calls for the memorial to be completed by the end of 2013. It is not yet clear where on the U.N. grounds it will be located. The memorial will be erected under the theme: “Acknowledging the Tragedy; Considering the Legacy; Lest We Forget.”
永久纪念碑预定在2013年年底前完成。目前还不清楚它将放在联合国总部哪个地方。纪念碑的主题将是“承认悲剧，省思遗产，唯恐我们忘记”。
Information about the design competition will be posted at www.unslaverymemorial.org.
设计竞赛的信息将在网站www.unslaverymemorial.org可以找到。 |