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Books and Arts; Football and murder in Mexico；Direct shot;
文藝；墨西哥的足球與暗殺；直接干掉；
This Love is Not for Cowards: Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juarez. By Robert Andrew Powell.
《這種愛不為懦夫：華雷斯市的救助與足球》, Robert Andrew Powell著。
Ciudad Juarez, an important stop on the cocaine trail to America, has long topped the list of Mexico's most violent cities. By contrast its irredeemably hopeless football team, the Indios, is more used to life at the bottom of the rankings. Following 27 consecutive games without a win, it recently became the worst team in the history of Mexico's primera división.
華雷斯城是可卡因暗中銷往美國的重要一站，早已排上墨西哥最暴力城市的榜首。相比之下，其無可救藥的球隊印第烏斯毫無希望可言，更習慣過排名墊底的日子。最近在連比27場無一勝績之后，印地烏斯隊成了墨西哥甲級聯賽史上最差的球隊。
Robert Andrew Powell, an American journalist, arrived in Juarez at the end of 2009 as the drug war was heating up and the Indios were fighting to stay in the primera league. After taking care each night to bolt the four locks on the door of his pastel-coloured flat (“like military housing for an army of Teletubbies”), he decided to highlight Indios wins on his calendar and to mark murders on a wall-map in red felt-tip. After a month he gave up, no wins to report and the map already soaked crimson.
因為毒品戰升溫以及印第烏斯隊力爭保級，2009年年底美國記者羅伯特·安德魯·鮑威爾抵達華雷斯。他住的公寓色彩柔和，“象天線寶寶軍團的軍用住房”，他決定每晚在小心鎖好房門上的四道鎖后，都在日歷上圈出印第烏斯隊贏球的日子，并用紅色簽字筆把謀殺案發生的地點標注在墻掛地圖上。一個月后他放棄了，因為沒有贏球的報導，地圖卻被深紅色浸透了。
Unlike most chroniclers of Mexico's misfortunes, Mr Powell deals calmly with Juarez's breathtaking murder-rate. Following a spate of killings, an American friend sent him a message: was he still alive? Sitting in a McDonald's, where a little-league team was having hamburgers and a Snow White-themed party was going on, the question seemed absurd. Juarez's mix of ordinariness and horror has seldom been so honestly described.
鮑威爾與大多數敘述墨西哥不幸的編年史家不同，他冷靜地交待華雷斯驚人的謀殺率。在一連串的殺戮發生之后，一位美國朋友給他發了短信，問他是否還活著？當時他正坐在麥當勞里，少年聯隊正在那里吃漢堡，白雪公主主題晚會也正在那里進行，這個問題似乎有些荒謬。華雷斯雜糅了平凡與恐怖，卻很少被這般如實地描述過。
But the violence seeps in. The Indios' youth-team coach was killed, perhaps because his uncle wouldn't pay protection money on his mobile-phone shop. (No one will ever know: the police are so hopeless, and local reporters so intimidated, that virtually no murder is investigated.) Next, the star striker's brother was shot dead, which the coach decided not to tell him until after the day's game.
但是暴力在滲入。印第烏斯青年隊的主教練被殺害了，或許是因為他的叔叔不打算支付手機店的保護費。永遠不會有人知道，警察非常絕望，當地的記者非常害怕，所以幾乎沒有謀殺案被查處。跟著是明星前鋒的弟弟被槍殺，而教練決定當天比賽結束后再告訴他。
The Indios' slapstick performances bring welcome comic relief to the book. The antics of el Kartel, its dubiously named supporters' club, are especially enjoyable. At an away-match against posh Monterrey, a granny Kartel-member was arrested. “She had lifted up her Indios jersey to flash Monterrey's fans, who graded her breasts with chants of ‘chicharrón!'—a stadium snack of wrinkled and fried pork.”
印第烏斯隊的鬧劇表現給本書帶來了喜劇性的調劑，頗受歡迎。埃爾卡特爾是該隊的支持者俱樂部，名字有些令人費解，他們古怪的動作讓人特別喜愛。在客場對陣一流的蒙特雷隊時，一名身為卡特爾會員的老奶奶被逮捕了。“她舉起她的印第烏斯隊球衣向蒙特雷隊的球迷進行褻瀆性暴露，而蒙特雷隊的球迷高喊著“炸豬皮”為她的胸部評分，炸豬皮是一種起皺的油炸豬肉體育場小吃?！?/div>
There are sharp comparisons, too, between events on and off the pitch. As the Indios battle rival teams, the city's resident drug mafia is locked in a turf war with the Sinaloa mob, run by Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzman. As the Indios' manager complains that the referees are biased, locals suspect that police have taken sides in the turf war. “Guzman wants Juarez. The home team refuses to give it up…That's the sport being played,” writes Mr Powell.
球場上下發生的事件也明顯地兩相對照。當印第烏斯隊迎戰對手球隊時，常駐該城的販毒集團也跟華金·厄爾查坡·古斯曼率領的錫那羅亞州暴徒展開了地盤爭奪戰。正如印第烏斯隊的經理抱怨裁判偏心一樣，當地人懷疑警方在這場地盤爭奪戰中袒護一方。 鮑威爾寫道，“古斯曼想要華雷斯。主隊拒絕放棄它......這就是正在上演的游戲。”
The complexity of Juarez's problems means that the anecdotal style of the book sometimes feels thin. In one excellent chapter Mr Powell makes a convincing case that the infamous murders of women in Juarez have been exaggerated by an excitable media. But elsewhere he repeats popular theories (about the alleged corruption of politicians, or the supposed failure of Mexico's free-trade deal with America) without really probing them. Near the end he mentions that the Indios themselves might be a giant money-laundering operation. This important claim deserves more than the few pages' attention it receives, 21 chapters into the book.
華雷斯問題的復雜性意味著本書的軼事風格有時讓人感覺薄弱。有一章鮑威爾寫得很出色，他列舉了一個有說服力的案例，華雷斯臭名昭著的婦女謀殺案被容易興奮的媒體夸大了。但在其它章節，關于政治家涉嫌貪污，墨西哥與美國的自由貿易很可能失敗等，他重復著流行的理論，而沒有真正地調查它們。臨近結束時，他提到印第烏斯隊本身可能是巨額洗錢的操作。這一重要斷言值得多加幾頁來關注，它應該作為第21章收進本書之中。
There is a happy ending, of sorts. Mr Powell left Juarez in 2010, a dreadful year, convinced of the goodness of most locals but predicting that the violence would get worse. In fact, 2011 saw the number of mafia-hits in Juarez drop by about a third. So far, this year has been quieter still. Juarez may, possibly, be turning a corner. The Indios, sadly, remain useless.
本書的結局皆大歡喜，但有些名不符實。鮑威爾2010年離開華雷斯，那真是可怕的一年，他相信大多數的當地人都是善良的，但卻預測暴力會變得更糟。事實上，2011年華雷斯黑手黨犯罪的數字下降了約三分之一。到目前為止，今年仍然平靜多了。華雷斯很可能會轉折。但可悲的是印第烏斯隊仍然沒有起色。
