纽约时报 沙特王储欲打造后现代生态乌托邦(1)（在线收听）

Blood Line

血统

Mohammed bin Salman unveils an absurd answer to the question "What's next?"

穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼对“下一步是什么？”这个问题给出了荒谬的答案

By Robert F. Worth

文/罗伯特·F·沃尔斯

To the rest of the world, Saudi Arabia may look like a quasi-medieval kingdom where women still struggle for basic rights, where bearded clerics run the courts and where convicts are routinely beheaded by sword in public.

在其他国家看来，沙特阿拉伯看起来像是一个准中世纪的王国，那里的妇女仍在为基本权利而斗争，那里留着胡须的神职人员管理着法庭，罪犯通常在公共场合被剑斩首。

But the Saudi monarchy - like its neighbors in Dubai and Abu Dhabi - has long cherished dreams of leapfrogging into a high-tech future.

但是沙特的君主制——就像它在迪拜和阿布扎比一样——长期以来一直怀有跃进高科技未来的梦想。

The last Saudi king created plans for six new cities in the desert, all billed as transformative steps toward a world beyond oil.

上一任沙特国王为沙漠中的六座新城市制定了计划，所有这些都被宣传为朝着“不仅是石油”的世界迈出的变革性一步。

Now the Saudis have announced a fantasy that makes all their previous efforts look tame.

现在沙特宣布了一个空想，使他们之前的所有努力看起来都很平淡。

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler, released a short film in January outlining his plans for the Line, a postmodern ecotopia to be built on the kingdom's northwest coast.

实权领导人穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼王储在一月份发布了一部短片，概述了他对The Line的计划——在沙特西北海岸修建的后现代生态乌托邦。

It will be a narrow urban strip 106 miles long with no roads, no cars and no pollution.

它将成为一条106英里长的狭窄的城市地带，没有道路，没有汽车，没有污染。

M.B.S., as the crown prince is known, plans to pour $500 billion into the Line and related projects, which is a lot of money even by Saudi standards.

众所周知，MBS计划向该项目投入5000亿美元，即使按照沙特的标准，这也是一大笔钱。

He calls the Line a "civilizational revolution" to be inhabited by one million people "from all over the world."

他把该项目称为“文明革命”，将有100万“来自世界各地”的人居住。

Why anyone would want to move there, and why a city should be shaped like a strand of capellini, is anyone's guess.

为什么有人会想搬到那里，为什么一个城市应该被规划成天使细面的形状，人们都在猜测。