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1、Weaving the world together连结世界Mass migration in the internet age is changing the way that people do business互联网时代的大规模移民正在改变人们经商的方式IN THE flat world of maps, sharp lines show where one country ends and another begins. The real world is more fluid. Peoples do not have borders the way that parcels of l
2、and do. They seep from place to place; they wander; they migrate.在地图上的扁平世界里，凌厉的线条展示了一个国家的起始和另一个国家的终止。但真实的世界是更加流动的。民族之间并不像一块块土地之间那样界限分明。他们四处渗透，游荡，迁徙。Consider the difference between China and the Chinese people. One is an enormous country in Asia. The other is a nation that spans the planet. More Chin
3、ese people live outside mainland China than French people live in France, with some to be found in almost every country. Then there are some 22m ethnic Indians scattered across every continent (the third Indian base in Antarctica will open next year). Hundreds of smaller diasporas knit together far-
4、flung lands: the Lebanese in west Africa and Latin America, the Japanese in Brazil and Peru, the smiling Mormons who knock on your door wherever you live.想想中国和华人之间的区别。一个是幅员辽阔的亚洲国家，另一个是遍布全球的民族。住在中国大陆以外的华人比住在法国的法国人还要多，几乎在每个国家都能找到一些华人。接着，有大约 2,200 万印度人分布在几乎每一块大陆上（南极洲的第三个印度基地将于明年开幕） 。成千上万的更小的移居群体将遥远的陆地连
5、结起来：西非和拉美的黎巴嫩人，巴西和秘鲁的日本人，不管你住在哪儿都有可能会来敲门的微笑的摩门教徒。Diasporas have been a part of the world for millennia. Today two changes are making them matter much more. First, they are far bigger than they were. The world has some 215m first-generation migrants, 40% more than in 1990. If migrants were a nation,
6、they would be the worlds fifth-largest, a bit more numerous than Brazilians, a little less so than Indonesians.几千年以来移居群体一直是世界的一部分。现今有两个变化正在使他们变得更重要。第一，他们比以往更壮大了。全世界现在有大约 2.15 亿的第一代移民，比上世纪 90 年代多了 40%。如果移民也是一个民族的话，他们会是世界第五大民族，比巴西人略多一些，比印度人略少一些。Second, thanks to cheap flights and communications, peopl
7、e can now stay in touch with the places they came from. A century ago, a migrant might board a ship, sail to America and never see his friends or family again. Today, he texts his mother while still waiting to clear customs. He can wire her money in minutes. He can follow news from his hometown on h
8、is laptop. He can fly home regularly to visit relatives or invest his earnings in a new business.第二，由于廉价的航班和通讯，人们现在可以同他们所来自的地方保持联系。一个世纪以前，一个移民登船航行至美洲，可能就再也见不到他的朋友和家人了。现在，他可以一边跟母亲发短信一边等候通过海关检查。他可以在几分钟之内把她的钱汇过去。他可以在笔记本电脑上关注来自家乡的新闻。他可以定期飞回家探望亲属或者把盈利投资到一个新的商业项目上去。Such migrants do not merely benefit from
9、 all the new channels for communication that technology provides; they allow this technology to come into its own, fulfilling its potential to link the world together in a way that it never could if everyone stayed put behind the lines on maps. No other social networks offer the same global reachor
10、commercial opportunity.这样的移民们不仅仅受益于技术提供的所有新的通讯渠道，他们也使这种技术逐渐得到重视，发挥其潜力把世界连结在一起，而且是以一种如果每个人都待在地图上的界线后面，这种连结就永远都不可能发生的方式。没有其他的社交网络提供同样的全球性覆盖或者商业机会。The immigrant song移民之歌This is because the diaspora networks have three lucrative virtues. First, they speed the flow of information across borders: a Chines
11、e businessman in South Africa who sees a demand for plastic vuvuzelas will quickly inform his cousin who runs a factory in China.这是因为移民网络有三个有利可图的优点。第一，他们加速了信息的跨国界流动：一个在南非的中国商人，看到当地对塑料呜呜祖拉（Vuvuzela，南非足球迷用于助威的大喇叭）有需求，则会马上通知他在中国经营工厂的表亲。Second, they foster trust. That Chinese factory-owner will believe
12、what his cousin tells him, and act on it fast, perhaps sealing a deal worth millions with a single conversation on Skype.第二，它们能促进信任。那个中国工厂老板会相信他表亲告诉他的信息，并且迅速按他的话行动，可能在 Skype（一个网络语音沟通工具）上简单交流后就敲定一笔几百万的交易。Third, and most important, diasporas create connections that help people with good ideas collabor
13、ate with each other, both within and across ethnicities.第三，也是最重要的一点，移民创造联系，帮助本民族内和跨种族的有好主意的人们相互合作。In countries where the rule of law is uncertainwhich includes most emerging marketsit is hard to do business with strangers. When courts cannot be trusted to enforce contracts, people prefer to deal wit
14、h those they have confidence in. Personal ties make this easier.在那些法治不稳定的国家包括大多数新兴市场同陌生人做生意是很困难的。当无法信任法院能执行合同的时候，人们更愿意跟他们信任的人打交道。私人关系使这一切变得更简单。Chike Obidigbo, for example, runs a factory in Enugu, Nigeria, making soap and other household goods. He needs machines to churn palm oil and chemicals into
15、soap, stamp it into bars and package it in plastic. He buys Chinese equipment, he says, because although it is not as good as European stuff, it is much cheaper. But it is difficult for a Nigerian firm to do business in China. Mr Obidigbo does not speak Chinese, and he cannot fly halfway around the
16、world every time he wants to buy a new soap machine. Worse, if something goes wrong neither the Chinese government nor the Nigerian one is likely to be much help.例如，Chike Obidigbo 在尼日利亚的埃努古经营一家工厂，生产肥皂和其它日用商品。他需要机器搅拌棕榈油和化工品放到肥皂里，做成条状，用塑料包装把它打包起来。他说，他购买中国的设备，因为尽管没有欧洲的设备好，但是便宜很多。而对于一家尼日利亚的公司来说在中国做生意真的很困难。Obidigbo 先生不会讲中文，而且他也不能每次想买一台新肥皂机的时候就飞越大半个地球来中国。更糟糕的是，如果出什么差错的话，中国政府和尼日利亚政府都不可能帮上很大忙。Yet Mr Obidigbos firm, Hardis and Dromedas, manages quite well with the help of middlemen in t
