澳洲男拍賣失意人生 1165萬台幣賣出去了！

2008/06/30 10:06
國際中心／綜合報導

您有沒有想過，自己的人生值多少錢呢？澳洲一名離婚的失意男上網拍賣自己的過往人生，29日結標以新台幣1165萬賣出，有網友覺得這名男子是個自戀狂，這麼做是為了想要出名。

長達一週的競標，終於以澳幣39萬9300元（新台幣1165萬元）決標，拍賣的，是「44歲失婚男子的人生」。

主角厄許爾表示，他不後悔以低價出清過往。厄許爾說，「也許吧，決標價錢不如我預期，但這麼做超有趣的。」

44歲的厄許爾拍賣自己的人生，讓大家嚇一大跳。六年前他與妻子從英國移民到澳洲，以賣地毯為生，不料去年妻子愛上別人後和他離婚，因為不想睹物思人、觸景傷情，決定將他在澳洲的一切上網拍賣掉。

厄許爾3月介紹這項拍賣時說，「我要在eBay上賣掉我所有的生活，包括一棟房子，有院子的，我的汽車、我的摩托車，我的水上摩托車，我的SPA 設備、投影機等。所有的東西，真的是我所有的生活型態。」得標的人除了動產、不動產，還買到認識厄許爾朋友的機會，也可以在他工作的地毯公司試做兩週。

厄許爾在網站上留言說，他要跳上火車到未知的地方，讓未來帶領他進入人生另一個階段，然後再做一些瘋狂的事。

厄許爾的「套裝人生」引來60多人競標，不過也有人批評他是自戀狂，以為別人對他的私生活有興趣，但對厄許爾來說，也許這是他揮別前妻的最好方法。

No way out: Teen girls sell bodies in Seattle

Hundreds on streets find little help to escape that life, report says

By CLAUDIA ROWE
P-I REPORTER

Though police and outreach workers acknowledge that Seattle has long had a problem with juvenile prostitution, a new report states that hundreds of girls are working the streets with little or no substantive help from authorities.

They are teens like Bella, 16, already arrested numerous times for prostitution and other crimes, who told a social worker that her pimp makes her work 20 hours a day without food, according to the report.

"She says he beats her, spits on her and does not allow her to look up -- ever. To cement his control, he forces her to walk naked in front of his friends. The pimp's name is tattooed on her neck."

The report, "Who Pays the Price? Assessment of Youth Involvement in Prostitution in Seattle," is Seattle's first attempt in decades to quantify a notoriously elusive population. And while its author, Debra Boyer, notes that her figures -- culled from case studies and police reports -- are conservative estimates, she is razor sharp about the dearth of services available here for prostituted youths.

Safe housing for girls to escape violent and domineering pimps: nonexistent. Outreach programs: understaffed. Substance abuse and mental health counselors: untrained to address these teens.

"I don't even know how to ask them these questions," one social worker admitted.

Bella, who has been in and out of juvenile detention, is well known to authorities but never seems to get help. She is among 238 adolescents who engaged in prostitution during the past year, according to the report, which was commissioned by the city's Department of Human Services and presented at a forum Thursday.

"The inadequacy of community services for the population of youth who have come to the attention of the juvenile justice system is nothing less than shocking," wrote Boyer, a cultural anthropologist who has been studying street life for two decades. "Whose problem is it when a 12-year-old is being prostituted?"

More and more, she added, the girls have pimps who are affiliated with street gangs.

At the forum, about 60 outreach workers, defense attorneys, prosecutors and police officers listened, often nodding in agreement as Boyer unveiled her findings. Eileen Corcoran, who does outreach on Pacific Highway, said she sees ever more girls who are ever younger.

Terri Kimball, director of the city's Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Division, vowed to do more to combat the problem.

"In spite of raising the issue over the past decades in a variety of ways," she said, "we cannot get ahead of this problem. Little, if anything, has changed for most of these youth."

The question now: What to do about it?

The report makes several recommendations aimed at city officials, chief among them: secure housing with recovery services, improved coordination among existing outreach programs and increased fines for clients, or "johns." The standard penalty now is $500.

The Mayor's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Boyer's study comes at a time of renewed national attention to the problem. On Wednesday, federal investigators rounded up about 300 pimps and others accused of forcing children into prostitution in 17 cities. Seattle was not among them, though Las Vegas -- a hot spot where many youths recruited here have worked -- was on the list.

Boyer also railed against local laws that classify juvenile prostitutes as criminals -- despite international protocols that make plain their status as victims.

"I do not think we can have it both ways," she said. "How is it that multiple services become available for women and girls out of the country, but not here?"

Her research involved combing through the case files of 1,528 youths, 15 percent of whom noted involvement with prostitution.

On average, they started at age 14, and the vast majority had been sexually victimized at home. Street life simply extended the pattern.

"I believed I had to accept this life -- this is what was dealt me," one young woman told Boyer, describing her fear of the pimp who controlled her days. "Someone had to prove I could go somewhere he couldn't get at me. Do you really have somewhere I could go?"

黑輪仔伯

『基隆港邊的鐵路下　 有一個下港來的老阿伯
他細漢甘苦嘛真壞過　 推車出外在賣黑輪
常常也苦勸這位少年仔　 有閒書就愛淡薄啊讀一下
不要像我少年時就假漂泊　 一世人就麻西麻西
這無情的社會　 學歷可以勝過一切
別人若比你較會讀冊　 每天蹺腳來泡茶
目睭一貶少年仔已經五十歲 坐在忠孝東路的黑頭仔車裡底
他說司機啊!請你路邊稍停一下 我若像看到彼個黑輪仔伯啊!』

暌違36年 西方石油公司重返伊拉克

暌違36年 西方石油公司重返伊拉克

〔編譯俞智敏／紐約時報十九日報導〕包括美國艾克森美孚、荷蘭皇家殼牌、法國道達爾與英國石油等在內的四家大型西方石油龍頭公司，目前正與伊拉克政府就重返伊拉克油田的服務合約進行最後協商，預料本月底會正式公布合約內容，這將是三十六年來西方大型石油公司首度重返伊拉克。

海珊時代 喪失開採權

這四家石油公司原本即為伊拉克石油公司的原始合作夥伴，但在伊拉克前總統海珊掌權後，這些公司就喪失了在伊拉克的石油開採權。現在這些石油公司，以及美國的雪佛龍石油公司與其他數個較小型石油公司，卻正與伊拉克石油部就伊國最大的數座油田提供諮詢與訓練服務，展開非投標合約的談判。

這些合約在石油業界並不常見，而且向伊拉克政府提出類似服務瞭解備忘錄的石油公司共有四十多家，包括俄羅斯、中國與印度等國在內，但只有美歐等西方國家公司可望與伊國簽署合約。

僅美歐公司 可望簽約

雖然合約時效僅有一到兩年，規模在石油業界也不算大，但仍讓這些西方石油公司未來爭取投標合約時佔有相對優勢，而許多專家認為伊拉克是大規模增加石油產量最有希望的國家。

由於阿拉伯國家與美國有許多民眾認為，美國出兵伊拉克的目的就是要奪取伊拉克境內的石油，因此伊國政府官員極力強調，這些西方石油公司獲選，是因為它們過去兩年來就一直免費提供伊國相關建議和人員訓練，同時擁有所需技術。伊國希望能在半年內，將石油產量自目前的每天兩百五十萬桶增至三百萬桶。

對於無法再深入俄羅斯、玻利維亞與委內瑞拉等主要產油國家開發新油田的西方石油公司而言，隨著國際原油價格逼近一百四十美元，伊拉克提供了罕見而珍貴的新商機。對美國政府而言，伊國石油產量大增，則可達成全球石油增產、紓解石油供應吃緊導致油價不斷飆漲的外交目標。

增產抑油價 符合西方利益

石油專家則指出，西方石油公司與伊國簽署的服務合約規模雖小，但卻前景無窮，這些公司未來在爭取開採伊國新油田的長期合約時就已先站穩了腳步。專家也認為，如果伊拉克既有油田修復完成，石油產量可在數年內達到每天四百萬桶，若再加上新油田開採成功，產量更可達到六百萬桶，可望有效抑制油價。

雖然西方石油公司此次與伊國簽署的為服務合約，而非石油開採合約，但卻包括了一項可讓石油公司靠著高價石油大發利市的條款，未來伊國可能以石油而非現金來支付石油公司所提供的服務。專家認為，這些合約是要避開伊國國會的立法僵局，在國會通過石油開採法案前，先把具備經營大型油田經驗的西方公司引進伊拉克。

科技大亨建秘密淫窟 還囤毒品

更新日期:2008/06/08 04:16

如果你是退休的網路科技業大亨，你會怎麼享受人生？根據美國加州檢方對亨利．尼可拉斯（Henry T. Nicholas III）的起訴書，這位富豪坐擁存放大量毒品的倉庫和數千萬美元裝修的秘密淫窟，經常招妓狂歡；萬一無聊得發慌，就在別人的飲料中下藥取樂。 　尼可拉斯是高科技電子公司Broadcom的創辦人，2003年離開公司，去年10月被美國司法部以多項詐欺罪名起訴，主要是控告他將股票選擇權的憑證日期回溯（backdating），讓公司的高級主管得以「低買高賣」該公司股票，造成投資人的鉅額損失。 　但司法部在詐欺之外還附帶起訴尼可拉斯進行毒品交易等罪名。起訴書詳細指控他囤積毒品、乃至在他人飲料中下藥等種種違法行為。 　起訴書說，尼可拉斯在加州橘郡擁有四處房產，他把其中一處作為囤積毒品的倉庫，裡面存放大量古柯鹼、快樂丸、大麻和安非他命，為掩飾其不法行為，他要求供應毒品給他的人在進行交易時使用「派對寵物」和「新鮮貨」等暗號。 　根據起訴書的描述，尼可拉斯對大麻的使用量非常龐大，2001年他搭乘私人噴射機往返橘郡和洛杉磯時在飛機上吸大麻，煙霧濃到飛機駕駛必須戴上氧氣罩。另外他還喜歡「有毒同享」，曾經兩次對他的科技業同行下藥，讓他們喝下摻有快樂丸的飲料。 　起訴書說，尼可拉斯花了3000萬美元將他一處豪宅的地下室裝修成美侖美奐的淫窟，裡面有百萬美元的音響設備和各種奢侈的裝潢。他常在這裡和朋友縱慾狂歡，還用錢及毒品供養高級妓女和伴遊女郎，讓她們隨時應召。 　法官亞瑟．中里5日開庭之後，下令讓尼可拉斯以330萬美元交保，但鑑於他之前有威脅證人的情事，規定他必須接受限制住居和電子監控，他的兩架私人座機也得停飛。 　尼可拉斯擁有電機工程博士學位，1991年和朋友共同創辦Broadcom電子零件公司，1998年公司上市，讓他一度擁有百億美元身價，高科技股幻滅之後，他的財富仍達20億美元，去年在美國《富比士》雜誌富豪排行榜排名165。四月以來，尼可拉斯一直住在加州馬里布一個每月收費6萬6000美元的戒毒中心。 　根據法律，尼可拉斯多項詐欺罪名合併最高可處340年有期徒刑，在毒品部份的罪名最高可處20年有期徒刑。