The numbers are almost too large to fathom, so many Americans stop trying. As bodies pile up in disaster after global disaster, even the most sympathetic souls can turn away.
傷亡數字實在太大難以估算，因此很多美國人乾脆放棄。當全球災難不斷發生，屍體越堆越高時，連那些最有同情心的人也感到厭煩。
Charities know this as "donor fa-tigue," but it might be more accu-rately described as disaster fatigue — the sense that these events are nev-er-ending, uncontrollable and over-whelming. Experts say it is one reason Americans have contributed relatively little so far to victims of the Burma cyclone and China's earthquake.
慈善團體稱之為「施主疲勞」，但比較正確的說法應該是災難疲勞，感覺上，這些事件好像沒完沒了，難以控制，勢不可擋。專家說，這也是美國人對氣旋重創緬甸和地震震垮中國，捐款給災民相對較少的原因。
Ironically, the more bad news there is, the less likely people may be to give.
諷刺的是，壞消息越多，人民越不可能捐輸。
"Hearing about too many disasters makes some people not give at all, when they would have if it had been just one disaster," says Michal Ann Strahilevitz, who teaches marketing at Golden Gate University and special-izes in the factors at play in charitable giving.
「聽到太多災難，使人根本不想再捐錢了，但如果只有一件災難，他們還是願意慷慨解囊，」在金門大學教行銷的史卓希李維茲說，他專門研究哪些因素影響慈善捐輸。
Compared with disasters like the South Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, those in China and Burma have generated just a trickle of aid.
跟南亞海嘯和卡翠納颶風等災難相比，捐給中國和緬甸的錢有如九牛一毛。
A number of factors may be at play in the slow American response, in-cluding a lack of sympathy for the re-pressive governments involved, doubts about whether aid will get through, and an inclination to save pennies because of shaky economic times at home.
有幾個因素可能造成美國反應遲緩，包括對當事的高壓政府缺乏同情心，懷疑援助是否能送達災民手中，及美國國內經濟風雨飄搖之際，使人連小錢也要省。
But Americans may have also been influenced by the quick succession of monumental catastrophes in two dis-tant lands. At least 130,000 people are dead or missing in the Burma cyclone, and more than 60,000 in China's earthquake dead.
但美國人也可能受在兩大遙遠的土地上連續快速發生翻天覆地的大災難影響。緬甸風災到少有13萬人死亡或失蹤，中國地震則有逾6萬人死亡。
"For the vast number of Americans, if they just gave to some disaster far away and then another disaster hap-pens, in their mind that's clumped as 'faraway disaster,'" Strahilevitz says. "So they will feel, 'I just gave to a faraway disaster.'"
史卓希李維茲說：「對廣大的美國人，如果他們捐錢給遙遠的災難，接著又發生另一起災難事件，在他們心目中會把『遠處的災禍』送作堆，他們會覺得，『我已經捐過錢給遙遠的災難了』」。
This problem came up after the 2004 Asian tsunami, an event that brought an avalanche of $1.92 billion in charity from the United States, ac-cording to the Giving USA Founda-tion. Hurricane Katrina eight months later generated even more, $5.3 billion. 據「美國捐款基金會」表示，這個問題在2004年發生南亞海嘯，湧入19億2千萬美元善款就開始有跡可循。八個月後，卡翠納風災捐款更暴衝到53億美元。
But then fatigue seemed to set in. The earthquake in Pakistan that killed nearly 80,000 people generated just $150 million from Americans. And the Guatemala mudslide shortly thereafter that killed at least 800 was virtually forgotten.
但此後以乎就開始出現彈性疲乏的現象。巴基斯坦地震，造成近8萬人死亡，但美國人只捐了1億5千萬美元。瓜地馬拉不久後山崩塌方，至少也造成八百人死亡，但幾乎為人遺忘。
If one disaster can be galvanizing, several in a row can be paralyzing.
如果一場災難可以激起行動，一連發生幾起，可就令人痲痺了。
"It's too much pain, too much tragedy for someone to process, and so we tend to pull ourselves away from it and either close off from it out of psychological defense, or it over-whelms us," says Cynthia Edwards, a professor of psychology at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C.
「太多痛若、太多悲劇要處理，因此，我們會把自己抽離，我們只能運用心理防禦機制把它關在門外，否則它就會吞噬我們，」北卡羅萊納州洛利梅瑞迪斯學院心理學教授辛西雅‧愛德華茲教授說。
A string of tragedies can also make potential donors feel nervous about their own safety, making them less likely to give. That could be especial-ly troubling now for Americans, many of whom are worried about their jobs and rising food and gas prices.
連串悲劇也會使有意捐輸者擔心自身的安危，使他們較不願捐款。現在美國人尤其感到自身難保，很多人擔心他們的工作及食物和油價上漲。
It's too soon to judge the effects of the economic downturn on giving, says Del Martin, chair of the Giving USA Foundation, although early fig-ures show that donations rose in 2007. In general, people tend to give to causes closer to home. In 2006, Americans gave more than $295 bil-lion to charity, but less than 4 percent of that went overseas.
但「美國捐款基金會」董事長馬丁說：「要研判經濟不景氣對捐款的影響仍言之過早。」但初步數字顯示，2007年善款仍有增無減。一般而言，大家比較願意捐款給地緣上較接近自己住家的善行，以2006年為例，美國人捐的善款超過2千950億美元，但不到百分之四捐給海外。
That's part of why Dave Morris, 34, has yet to open his checkbook — he's not sure he could really help. Morris aims to give 10 percent of his income to causes such as public radio, the Red Cross and breast cancer. But the engi-neer from Ypsilanti, Mich., hasn't given to the relief efforts in Burma and China, in part because the world's problems seem impossibly large.
那也是34歲的莫里斯還沒有開支票的部分原因，他不確定是否真的幫得上忙。莫里斯的目標是要把十分之一收入，捐給公共電視台、紅十字會和乳癌防治機構等慈善事業；但這位來自密西根州伊斯蘭堤的工程師尚未捐款給緬中，部分因世界上的問題似乎太大，他覺得個人無能為力。
Still, experts in the field are opti-mistic that Americans may still come through for victims of these disasters. The Giving USA Foundation says companies are pledging relief funds for China, perhaps because so many do business there. "I think we may also see a surge of donations for the China relief effort because of people's frustrations with the Burma govern-ment's resistance to the aid effort there," says Gerard Jacobs, director of the Disaster Mental Health Institute at University of South Dakota.
但慈善事業專家仍很樂觀，美國應該還是會為這些災難的受害人踴躍捐輸。「美國捐款基金會」說，企業行號都保證要提供中國賑災善款，可能因為很多企業都到大陸作生意。「我想，我們可能也會看到賑濟中國地震的善款大量湧入，因為大家對緬甸政府拒絕接受援助感到挫折，」南達科他大學災難心理健康研究所所長賈可布斯說。
《詞解》
Disaster Fatigue 災難疲勞
fathom 估算
turn away 厭煩
overwhelming 勢不可擋
charitable giving 慈善捐輸
tsunami 海嘯
hurricane 颶風
repressive 鎮壓、高壓