2013.11.21 香蕉共和国的名字是怎么来的？

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Where did banana republics get their name?
From the American fruit companies that threw their weight around in Central America
Nov 21st 2013

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By T.W.


VIOLENT, poor and politically wobbly, Honduras meets most people’s definition of a banana republic. On Sunday it will hold a closely-fought presidential election, four years after a coup in which the then president was bundled out of the presidential palace in his pyjamas and put on a military plane to Costa Rica. Its murder rate is the highest in the world; its economy is in a pickle. Its problems are not new: the turbulent country has the dubious honour of being the place that first inspired the description “banana republic” more than a century ago. But where did the phrase come from, and what exactly does it mean?

It was coined in a 1904 book of fiction by O. Henry, an American writer. Henry (whose real name was William Sydney Porter) was on the run from Texan authorities, who had charged him with embezzlement. He fled first to New Orleans and then to Honduras where, staying in a cheap hotel, he wrote “Cabbages and Kings”, a collection of short stories. One, “The Admiral”, was set in the fictional land of Anchuria, a “small, maritime banana republic”. It is clear that the steamy, dysfunctional Latin republic he described is based on Honduras, his jungle hideaway. Henry eventually returned to the United States, where he spent time in prison before publishing his short stories and then hitting the bottle, leading to an early death.


His phrase neatly conjures up the image of a tropical, agrarian country. But its real meaning is sharper: it refers to the fruit companies from the United States that came to exert extraordinary influence over the politics of Honduras and its neighbours. By the end of the 19th century, Americans had grown sick of trying to grow fruit in their own chilly country. It was sweeter and cheaper by far to import it instead from the warmer climes of Central America, where bananas and other fruit grow quickly. Giants such as the United Fruit Company—an ancestor of Chiquita—moved in and built roads, ports and railways in return for land. In 1911 the Cuyamel Fruit Company, another American firm (which was later bought by United), supplied the weapons for a coup against the government of Honduras, and prospered under the newly installed president. In 1954 America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) backed a coup against the government of Guatemala, which had threatened the interests of United. (Historians still debate whether the CIA's motive was to protect United or, as many now believe, to nip Communism in the bud.) Hence the real meaning of a “banana republic”: a country in which foreign enterprises push the government around.

In Honduras that remains the case—but the product in question is no longer fruit. Bananas remain an important part of the economy, and workers still have complaints about their foreign employers. But these days the pushiest businessmen are those who sell another agricultural product aimed at American consumers: cocaine. Honduras’s position on the trafficking route from South to North America means that most of the cocaine bound for the United States passes through its borders. With that trade come the violence and corruption that have marked the run-up to Sunday’s election. Honduras may no longer be a classic banana republic. But it is in danger of becoming something far worse.



香蕉共和国的名字是怎么来的？
来自美国的水果公司，他们在中美洲大展拳脚。
2013年11月21日



作者：T.W.


暴力、贫穷、政治上摇摆不定，洪都拉斯符合大多数人对香蕉共和国的定义。周日，洪都拉斯将举行一场激烈的总统选举，在那场政变的四年后，当时的总统穿着睡衣被捆绑出总统府，送上一架飞往哥斯达黎加的军用飞机。该国的谋杀率是世界上最高的；其经济陷入困境。它的问题并不新鲜：这个动荡的国家有一个不光彩的荣誉，那就是在一个多世纪前首次激发了 "香蕉共和国 "的描述。但是，这个短语从何而来，它到底是什么意思？

它是由美国作家欧-亨利在1904年的一本小说中创造的。亨利（他的真名是威廉-悉尼-波特）当时正在躲避德克萨斯州当局的追捕，后者指控他贪污。他先是逃到了新奥尔良，然后又逃到了洪都拉斯，在那里，他住在一家廉价旅馆里，写下了《白菜与国王》，这是一部短篇小说集。其中一篇《海军上将》的背景是虚构的安丘里亚，一个 "小型海上香蕉共和国"。很明显，他所描述的那个充满蒸汽、功能失调的拉丁共和国是以洪都拉斯为基础的，他的丛林藏身处。亨利最终回到了美国，在那里他在监狱里呆了一段时间，然后出版了他的短篇小说，然后酗酒，导致早逝。


他的这句话巧妙地勾勒出一个热带农业国家的形象。但它的真正含义更鲜明：它指的是来自美国的水果公司，这些公司对洪都拉斯及其邻国的政治施加了非凡的影响。到19世纪末，美国人已经厌倦了在他们自己寒冷的国家种植水果的尝试。到目前为止，从中美洲的温暖气候中进口水果更甜更便宜，因为那里的香蕉和其他水果生长迅速。联合水果公司等巨头--金吉达公司的祖先--进驻并修建公路、港口和铁路，以换取土地。1911年，另一家美国公司库亚梅尔水果公司（后来被联合公司收购）为反对洪都拉斯政府的政变提供了武器，并在新上任的总统领导下繁荣发展。1954年，美国的中央情报局（CIA）支持了一场针对危地马拉政府的政变，该政府曾威胁到美联航的利益。(历史学家们仍在争论，中情局的动机是为了保护美联航，还是像现在许多人认为的那样，为了将共产主义扼杀在摇篮里）。因此，"香蕉共和国 "的真正含义是：一个外国企业对政府横加干涉的国家。

在洪都拉斯，情况依然如此--但问题产品不再是水果。香蕉仍然是经济的重要组成部分，工人们仍然对他们的外国雇主有抱怨。但这些天来，最狡猾的商人是那些销售另一种针对美国消费者的农产品的人：可卡因。洪都拉斯位于从南美洲到北美洲的贩运路线上，这意味着大部分运往美国的可卡因都要经过其边境。这种贸易带来了暴力和腐败，这些都是周日选举前的特征。洪都拉斯可能不再是一个典型的香蕉共和国。但是，它有可能变成更糟糕的东西。