回顧星期天LBS - 非洲時事趣聞 All about Africa
挺你所想！與你一起生活的銀行 中國信託銀行推出TISA級別基金，每月千元就能投資，定期定額終身0申購手續費之外，中國信託銀行提供「終身免收信託管理費」，挺你省的有感！ 了解更多 👉 https://fstry.pse.is/88sfll —— 以上為 Firstory Podcast 廣告 —— 逐字稿如下： Topic: Are African Artifacts Safer in Europe? 非洲文物在歐洲更安全？ Is Africa's cultural heritage better off in Europe or in Africa? 非洲的文化遺產存放在歐洲或非洲，何者比較好呢？ That is the question at the heart of a yearslong debate that has gripped museums in Europe, where many officials say they support the idea of repatriating artifacts, but worry that African museums cannot compare to state-of-the-art facilities in Britain, France or Germany. 這正是歐洲博物館界討論多年的問題的核心，許多歐洲博物館的管理階層表示，他們贊成應把文物送回非洲的想法，卻又擔心非洲各地博物館不具備英、法或德國那些先進博物館的的條件。 That debate has been given new life in recent months after an investigation by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper found that many of the artifacts that will be on display in the Humboldt Forum, a huge new museum under construction in a rebuilt Berlin palace, had for years been stored in less-than-ideal conditions. The report featured searing depictions of flooded storage rooms and depots choked with toxic dust. 最近幾個月，這場討論再度熱絡起來，因為南德意志報調查後發現，預定在「洪堡論壇」展出的文物之中，許多已存放在不盡理想的環境下多年。洪堡論壇是興建中規模宏大的新博物館，將位在柏林一座重建的宮殿內。這篇報導對那些文物的存放室淹水，庫房覆滿有毒灰塵，作了特別尖刻地描述。 The Humboldt Forum will bring together the collections of several existing museums in the city under one roof, but reports in German news media have focused on the storage facilities of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin, which will be the Forum's largest single contributor. 洪堡論壇將把柏林幾座現有博物館的藏品集中在一起，不過德國新聞媒體的報導著重在柏林民族學博物館的庫房。這座博物館將是洪堡論壇展品的最大提供者。 Officials at the museum, which closed to the public in 2017 to prepare for the move to its new home, have responded with what observers call an unusual degree of openness. 民族學博物館2017年起停止對外開放，好準備搬新家。館方回應外界質疑的態度十分開放透明，開放程度之高觀察家以異乎尋常形容。 They have denied some of the reports, in particular the claim of flooded storerooms, but said their depots were beset with problems common to museums across Germany. Those included outdated facilities, a lack of staff members, and a sense of disarray that dates to moments of crisis in German history. 館方否認報導中的某些部分，尤其是庫房淹水，不過他們說，倉庫發生的問題在德國各地博物館都很常見，包括設施陳舊、人手不足和擺放方式雜亂，這些問題從德國歷史上那些動盪時期以來就一直存在。 Despite all that, they steadfastly rejected that those conditions might call into question their stewardship of the artifacts, many of which were collected during the era of European imperialism. 雖然倉庫有這些問題，但館方堅決否認這些問題意味著管理不善。倉庫內許多文物是在歐洲帝國主義時期收集而來。 Sindika Dokolo, a Congolese art collector who runs a foundation that has organized the return of artifacts to Congo and Angola, said it was true that "a whole generation" of museum professionals, like curators and conservationists, needed to be trained "in most of the African countries." But while that new generation was being trained, he said, it is European museums' responsibility to make sure African audiences had access to the artifacts in their possession. 剛果藝品收藏家多克洛管理一個基金會，在這個基金會安排下已有一些文物送回剛果和安哥拉。多克洛說，「多數非洲國家」的確有必要訓練「一整個世代的」博物館專業人員，如策展人和文物修復師。不過他說，在非洲訓練這個新世代的同時，歐洲博物館有責任確保非洲的文物愛好者能看到歐洲握有的非洲文物。 It is up to them to create the conditions that would let African artifacts "play their role where they need to be right now, in Africa," he added. 多克洛說，歐洲博物館有責任創造條件，讓非洲文物「在非洲當下需要的地方發揮作用」。 Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/345221/web/ Next Article Topic: Neanderthal genes found for first time in African populations African populations have been revealed to share Neanderthal ancestry for the first time, in findings that add a new twist to the tale of ancient humans and our closest known relatives. 非洲的人類族群首度被科學家揭露帶有尼安德塔人的血統。這項發現為古代人類和尼安德塔人──與我們血緣最相近的親戚物種──之間的故事，帶來新的轉折。 Previously it was believed that only non-African populations carried Neanderthal genes due to interbreeding that took place after a major human migration out of Africa and across the globe about 60,000 years ago. The latest findings suggest human and Neanderthal lineages are more closely intertwined than once thought and point to far earlier interbreeding events, about 200,000 years ago. 先前，學界普遍認為只有非洲以外的族群帶有尼安德塔人的基因，這是因為人類大約在六萬年前發生過一次大型的「源出非洲」遷徙，散播到全球各地，而後與尼安德塔人異種交配。最新的研究結果顯示，人類和尼安德塔人的譜系比科學家先前認為的還要緊密相繫，並且指向更早以前──大約在二十萬年前──就出現過異種交配。 "Our results show this history was much more interesting and there were many waves of dispersal out of Africa, some of which led to admixture between modern humans and Neanderthals that we see in the genomes of all living individuals today," said Joshua Akey, an evolutionary biologist at Princeton University and senior author of the research. 普林斯頓大學的演化生物學家、也是該篇研究的資深作者約書亞‧阿奇表示：「我們研究的結果顯示，這段歷史其實更為有趣。其實歷史上曾經發生過好幾波源出非洲的向外擴散，其中幾次造成現代人類與尼安德塔人混血，也就是我們今日在所有現代人類個體的基因組中所看到的現象。」 The study suggests living Europeans and Asians carry about 1 percent Neanderthal DNA, compared with on average 0.3 percent for those of African ancestry. Akey and colleagues believe that this Neanderthal DNA arrived in Africa with ancient Europeans whose ancestors — over many generations — had left Africa, met and mated with Neanderthals and then returned to Africa and mixed with local populations. 這份研究指出，相較於祖先來自非洲的現代人，身上平均帶有百分之零點三的尼安德塔DNA，現代歐洲人和亞洲人則帶有百分之一的尼安德塔DNA。阿奇和他的同事認為，這個尼安德塔DNA和古老的歐洲人一起抵達非洲，而這些歐洲人的祖先──在好幾個世代以前──從非洲離開，遇到尼安德塔人，並與他們交配，然後回到非洲，再與當地人口混血。 "An important aspect of our study is that it highlights humans, and hominins, were moving in and out of Africa for hundreds of thousands of years and occasionally admixing," said Akey. "These back-to-Africa migrations, largely from ancestors of contemporary Europeans, carried Neanderthal sequences with them, and through admixture, contributed to the Neanderthal ancestry we detect in African individuals today." 阿奇指出：「我們的研究其中一項重要的層面在於，它點出人類，以及其他古代人類亞族，在數十萬年間不斷地移入移出非洲，並且偶爾發生混血的情形。」他補充說：「這些回到非洲的移民，主要來自於當代歐洲人的祖先，他們身上帶有尼安德塔人的基因序列，並且經由混血，導致我們今日在非洲人身上探測到的尼安德塔血統。」 The increasingly fine-grained details of our ancestors' migration patterns and intimate encounters with other types of human are coming into focus thanks to the advent of sophisticated computational genetics techniques. These statistical methods allow scientists to line up the Neanderthal genome side by side with that of ancient modern humans and DNA from different living populations and figure out whether the different lineages have been steadily diverging or whether there are blips where large chunks of DNA were exchanged at certain time points. 多虧了精密電腦計算基因學技術的來臨，關於我們祖先的遷徙模式，以及與其他人種的親密接觸，愈來愈細緻的細節逐漸變得清晰。這些統計學方法讓科學家能夠將尼安德塔人和古現代人的基因組並列，進行對比，也能夠對照今日不同人類族群的DNA，判斷這些相異的譜系是否一直持續產生分歧，又或者是否有跡象顯示某些時間點曾經出現大塊的DNA交換。 The latest comparison highlights previously unnoticed ancient human genes in the Neanderthal genome, apparently acquired from interbreeding events dating to about 200,000 years ago. This suggests an early group of humans travelled from Africa to Europe or Asia, where they encountered Neanderthal populations and left a faint imprint on their genome that could still be detected more than 100,000 years later. 最新的基因組對比，凸顯出先前不曾被注意到的古人類基因存在於尼安德塔人的基因組中，明顯來自於距今約二十萬年的雜交事件。這項發現顯示，曾有早期人類族群從非洲前往歐洲或亞洲，在當地遇到尼安德塔人族群，並在後者基因組中留下淺淺的印記，在超過十萬年後的今天仍然可以探測得到。 The paper also highlights the relative lack of genetics research in African populations, despite modern humans having first emerged on the continent and despite African populations today being more diverse genetically than the inhabitants of the rest of the world combined. "To more fully understand human genomic variation and human evolutionary history, it is imperative to comprehensively sample individuals from all regions of the world, and Africa remains one of the most understudied regions," said Akey. 該篇論文也點出，儘管現代人類最初發源於非洲大陸，而且今日非洲人類族群的遺傳多樣性遠高於世界其他地區居民的總和，目前學界對於當地族群的基因研究仍顯得相對缺乏。阿奇指出：「如果要更全盤了解人類基因組的變異，以及人類演化的歷史，廣泛對世界各地區的人類個體進行採樣是絕對必要的，而非洲目前仍然是研究最為不足的地區之一。」 It is not known whether all African populations, some of whose roots stretch into the deep past, share this Neanderthal heritage. KhoeSan (bushmen) and Mbuti (central African pygmy) populations, for instance, appear to have split off from other groups more than 100,000 years ago. The findings are published in the journal Cell. 目前仍不清楚是否所有非洲族群──其中有些族群的根源延續自遙遠的過去──共同擁有這項「尼安德塔遺產」。舉例而言，非洲的「科伊桑族」（亦稱布須曼人）以及「姆巴提人」（非洲中部的一支矮黑人），似乎在超過十萬年前就已經和其他人類族群在演化上分道揚鑣了。該篇研究刊登於期刊《細胞》上。 Source article: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2020/02/16/2003731045/2 Next Article Topic: About Africa - Mysterious Mineral from Earth's Mantle Discovered in South African Diamond A single grain of rock lodged in a diamond contains a never-before-found mineral. And that newfound substance could reveal unusual chemical reactions unfolding in the depths of the mantle, the layer of Earth that lies between the planet's crust and outer core. The entire mantle is about 1,802 miles (2,900 km) thick. 包裹在一塊鑽石內的小晶粒，含有一種此前從未在鑽石內發現的礦物。這項新發現有望揭示地函深處發生的不尋常化學反應，地球地函位在行星地殼與外地核之間。地球地函的總厚度約1802英里（2900公里）。 Scientists unearthed the mineral from a volcanic site in South Africa known as the Koffiefontein pipe. Shining diamonds speckle the dark, igneous rock that lines the pipe, and the diamonds themselves contain tiny bits of other minerals from hundreds of miles beneath Earth's surface. Within one of these sparkling stones, scientists found a dark green, opaque mineral that they estimated was forged about 105 miles (170 kilometers) underground. 科學家從南非一處名為「科菲芬丹火山管」的火山區挖出這種礦物。閃閃發亮的鑽石散布在火山管內暗色的火成岩之中，鑽石本身則含有其他來自地表下數百英里的微小礦物。在其中一塊閃亮的石頭內，科學家發現一種暗綠色、不透明的礦物，他們估計這種礦物生成在地底下105英里（170公里）處。 Scientists noted that, for a mantle mineral, goldschmidtite has a peculiar chemical composition. 科學家指出，對地函礦物而言，「針銀碲金礦」具有獨特的化學組成。 Next Article Topic: Kenyans rush to swap banknotes as cash ban looms 鈔票禁令在即，肯亞人搶著換鈔 A man walked into a Nairobi car yard and paid for a luxury Mercedes with a mountain of 1,000 shilling ($9 euros) banknotes, desperate to offload cash that would be worthless after September 30. 一名男子走進奈洛比市一家汽車展示場，拿出大量1000肯亞先令紙鈔（約9歐元），買下一台豪華賓士轎車，急著將9月30日後就一文不值的現金脫手。 With the deadline looming before the Central Bank of Kenya bans all old edition 1,000 shilling notes, big fish with their fortunes stashed in cash are under pressure. 隨著肯亞中央銀行禁止所有舊版千元先令流通的日期逼近，握有大筆現金的大人物備感壓力。 A new print of the 1,000 shilling banknote, the largest denomination, was rolled out in June. The operation is aimed at flushing out dirty money being hoarded by tax evaders, crooked businessmen and criminal groups. The central bank in June said there were roughly 218 million 1,000 shilling notes in circulation. 最大面額1000先令的新版紙鈔在六月推出，這項行動旨在迫使逃稅者、奸商和犯罪集團，釋出積存的來歷不明財富。肯亞央行六月表示，約有2.18億張千元先令在市面流通。 People are getting creative, devising schemes to quickly unload small amounts of their cash. For example, a liquor shop owner gets 500,000 shillings every day to bank together with his daily sales, as a deal with a wealthy guy, and get between five and 10 percent in return. 人們開始想方設法，擬定可以迅速脫手小額現金的方法。例如，一名酒商和有錢人達成協議，每天幫對方將50萬先令，連同自家營業額存進銀行，藉此收取5%到10%的回饋。 Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1322040; https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1321332
Ireland