[翻轉視界 2] New Humans of Australia

同理心(empathy)是一種將自己置於他人的位置、並能夠理解或感受他人在其框架內所經歷的事物的能力，也就是，能站在別人處境思考的能力。透過他人視角觀看世界來發展你的同理心。這能幫助你去理解哪些與我們完全不同的人們。

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原文及圖片授權來自於 New Humans of Australia

My father stepped on a landmine and was brought home to us in pieces in a casket. After that, my mother was left alone, in a hostile environment, with four kids under the age of fifteen.

1. step on a landmine 採到一枚地雷
2. a casket 一副棺材
3. a hostile environment一個艱難的、不友好的環境
4. under the age of 不滿…歲

我的父親踩到一枚地雷後支離破碎的被裝在棺材帶回家給我們。在那以後，留下我媽媽獨自一人在一個艱難的環境裡，與四個不滿15歲的孩子相依為命。

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She was Catholic Croatian and my father was Orthodox Serbian. It was very unusual for people from these two backgrounds to marry, until 1940, when Tito tried to bring the country together as Yugoslavs under communism, and part of that was encouraging mixed marriages.

5. Catholic Croatian 克羅埃西亞天主教徒
6. Orthodox Serbian塞爾維亞東正教徒
7. mixed marriages 異族通婚

母親是克羅埃西亞天主教徒，我父親則是塞爾維亞東正教徒。在當時這兩個背景的人結合是極不尋常的。直到1940年，當狄托試圖將國家結合作為共產主義南斯拉夫，其中一部分便是鼓勵通婚。

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As a child, I spent my days looking after goats and sheep in an idyllic environment on the coast. But in 1993, Croatians suddenly decided they wanted to break away from Yugoslavia, and my father, as a minority Serb who lived in Croatia, enlisted in the war to fight against the independence movement. It was an extremely difficult time for my mother, because she was an ethnic Croat living alone in an enclave full of Serbs, at a time when neighbours were killing neighbours. People would loiter in front of her house, sharpening their knives, and she frequently faced death threats. She feared for her life, and started sleeping with an AK-47 beneath her bed.

8. an idyllic environment 恬靜閒適的環境
9. break away from 從...脫離；決裂
10. loiter 遊蕩
11. the independence movement 獨立運動

在我還是孩子時，我在沿海田園詩般的環境中照看羊群。但在1993那年，克羅埃西亞人突然決定要脫離南斯拉夫。我的父親，作為少數居住在克羅埃西亞的塞族人 ，參加了反對獨立運動的戰爭。對我母親而言這是個萬分艱難的時期，因為她是個獨自居住在塞爾維亞人群聚地的克羅埃西亞人，而當時兩個族群卻在互相殘殺。人們會在她屋前遊蕩，磨刀霍霍，她經常面對死亡的威脅。她對自己的生命感到擔憂，便開始將一把AK-47放在床下才能入睡。

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It was a difficult time to live. There was little food. We frequently had to run to bomb shelters, and saw dead bodies on the streets. Finally, when I was 8, we, along with over 300,000 ethnic Serbs, were removed from our homes in the biggest movement of people since World War II. Although Serbia took us in, they didn’t want us there, as they saw us as cowards who hadn’t put up enough of a fight.

12. bomb shelter 防空洞
13. along with 與...一起
14. a coward 膽小鬼；懦夫
15. put up a fight 對戰爭進行反抗*

那是一個艱難的時期。食物缺乏。我們常不得不躲進防空洞，也看見街上有死屍。最後，當我8歲的時候，與超過三十萬的賽族人一起在二戰以來最大的人口遷移中離開家園。儘管賽爾維亞讓我們進入國界，他們並不想要我們停留，因為他們將我們視為不敢反抗戰爭的膽小鬼。

*put up a fight : to show or express a particular type of opposition to something

https://bit.ly/2x0pt70

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Then the Kosovo war started. This led to even more running and displacement for us. It was even worse when NATO started bombing because they had planes with bombs that would dig a crater. We fled into the mountains and hid in the dark, because there were no bomb shelters capable of providing sanctuary for so many people.

16. displacement 被迫移居他地
17. flee (尤指因危險或恐懼而）逃跑
18. be capable of 能夠
19. bomb shelter 防空洞
20. provide sanctuary 提供庇護（所）

後來，科索沃戰爭開始了。這加劇了我們的流離失所。當北約組織開始轟炸時情況更糟，因為他們的飛機攜帶炸彈，可以炸出大坑。我們逃到山區藏匿於黑暗之中，因為沒有足以容納這麼多人的防空洞。

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Finally, we found out we had been accepted to come as refugees to Adelaide, in Australia. Arriving was a healing process for us, but there were also a lot of challenges. The kids at school called us war criminals and accused of being responsible for Serbian massacres that we knew nothing about. They also called us the KGB Twins, and sometimes they would tap us down before going to class to ‘make sure we didn’t have any bombs on us’.

21. a refugee 難民
22. a healing process 一個療癒的過程
23. war criminials 戰爭罪犯
24. Serbian massacres 塞爾維亞大屠殺
tap 擊

最後，我們發現已被接受以難民身份去澳洲的阿得雷德。對於我們抵達是一個療癒的過程，但那兒依舊有許多挑戰。學校裡的孩子們稱我們為戰犯，並指控要為我們一無所知的塞爾維亞大屠殺負責。他們更稱我們為KGB*的雙胞胎，有時會在上課前擊打我們 「確保我們身上沒有炸彈」。

*KGB: 國家安全委員會 (蘇聯)
https://bit.ly/356yzM3

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One time, we were beaten up after school and my twin ended up in hospital with swelling around his brain. It was horrible because after all we had survived, he was on the verge of dying on an Australian playground because of racism. It took a couple of years for us to really find home here, and that was because we ended up changing to a more multicultural school in year 11, where we found other students who were survivors of wars from Somalia, Iraq, Vietnam, South Sudan and Cambodia. And we all bonded together as children of war.

25. racism 種族主義
26. on the verge of… …的邊緣
27. a multicultural school 多元文化的學校
28. bond together 團結、凝聚在一起
29. children of war 戰爭兒童

有一次，我們在放學後被毒打而我的雙胞胎兄弟被打得滿頭包最後進了醫院。這實在太可怕，畢竟在戰爭中存活下來的我們，卻在澳大利亞的學校操場因為種族主義而瀕死。我們花了幾年才在這片土地找到家，而這還是因為最後我們在11年級時轉學到了一個更多元文化的學校，這學校裡的學生有來自索馬利亞、伊朗、越南、南韓和柬埔寨的戰爭倖存者。我們因同為戰爭兒童而凝聚在一起。

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My eldest brother had always wanted to be an engineer, but as the man of the family, he had to go to work instead. As soon as he arrived, he went to work at Holden in Elizabeth, where he made cars for 18 years, until the day they shut the factory down. Sometimes he would bring home pamphlets from the union, and as a result I became really interested in employment law and industrial relations. So I decided to go to law school, and I’m now a union lawyer for the CFMEU.*

30. the man of family一家之主
31. pamphlet　小冊子
32. employment law and industrial relations 勞工法與勞資關係
33. a union lawyer 工會律師

我的大哥一直想成為工程師，但作為一家之主，他不得不去工作。一抵達澳洲，他就去伊莉莎白的霍頓汽車工作，在那他從事汽車製造18年，直到工廠關閉的那一天。有時他會從工會帶小冊子回來，因此我對勞工法與勞資關係非常感興趣。所以我決定要去上法學院，而現在我成為了CFMEU的工會律師。

*CFMEU:Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union

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I represent factory workers who are low paid and award dependent. It’s a privilege to recover stolen wages and represent these workers when they’ve been unfairly dismissed or discriminated against. I especially love representing non-English speaking migrant workers, as they are prone to exploitation. I see my mother and my older brother in every one of them.

34. low paid 低薪
35. It’s a privilege to… 是一種榮幸…
36. be unfairly dismissed or discriminated 被不當解雇或歧視
37. be prone to... 有...的傾向；容易遭受…

我代表低薪與依賴獎金的工廠勞工。為勞工爭取被偷的薪水並為被不當解僱或被歧視的勞工發聲是一種榮幸。我特別熱愛為不說英語的移工發聲，因為他們是首當其衝遭遇剝削。我在他們身上看到我大哥與我母親的影子。

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For the last 6 years, I’ve also volunteered for a refugee legal centre, helping asylum seekers to complete their temporary protection visa applications. Out of my siblings, I think I was the most affected by the war, so hearing their stories of trauma isn’t always easy. But I feel it’s important for me to try to help others in need of protection.

38. asylum seeker 尋求庇護者
39. protection visa 保護簽證
40. out of 在...之中
41. stories of trauma 創傷故事
42. in need of… 需要...

在過去六年，我也作為難民法律中心的志願者，以幫助尋求庇護者完成其臨時保護簽證申請。我的兄弟姊妹之中，我想我是最受戰爭所影響的。所以聆聽他人的傷痛故事不是件容易的事。但對我而言試圖幫助其他需要被保護的人是非常重要的。

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資訊與照片出處:
https://bit.ly/3cEJkYz

Visit New Humans of Australia for more stories!

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如何增進同理心: https://bit.ly/34qSKnC

Humans of Taipei: https://bit.ly/2S2Avjz

#ChangingPerspectives

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