卫报 对蝙蝠侠来说香港的细菌太多了

他曾与哥谭市（Gotham City）最黑暗的罪犯，包括小丑（Joker）、谜妖（Riddler）、猫女（Catwoman）、企鹅（Penguin）。但如今蝙蝠侠再一个更致命的敌人面前崩溃：香港污染的水体。

　　2005年电影《蝙蝠侠诞生（Batman Begins）》的结局篇《黑暗骑士（Dark Knight）》在香港维多利亚港周围拍摄。在发现那里的水中含有威胁生命程度的细菌之后（演员贝尔（Christian Bale）面临的危险可不只是感冒那么简单），这位勇士从“大力士C130（Hercules C130）货机跳入香港岛和九龙之间的海中的一幕显然报废了。

　　《南华早报（South China Morning Post）》引述制作队消息人士的话，“计划是让蜘蛛侠跳入水中，然后爬上码头的一些竹子或类似的东西。但当他们检查水样的时候，他们发现各种东西，沙门氏菌和结核病菌，所以就取消了。现在改为在大厦里拍。”

　　在两次世界大战期间的殖民时代，商人在海港游泳消暑。他们会在午餐的时间快速地泡一下，然后到香港会所（Hong Kong Club）喝点东西，看看板球。但数十年来密集的航运，加上未经处理的污水排入海港，一切都改变了。这些日子里，通常只有少数顽固的政治活动家会跳进香港海港——因为人人都知道挑战这样的水域带有牺牲的意味。

　　最近从新西兰访港的著名海洋生物学家贝兰丁（Bill Ballantine）表示，香港是世界上海洋环境最恶劣的地方之一。“人人都跟我说你是否记得它在六十年代的样子，渔业几乎没什么剩下的了，而且生境也退化得很厉害”。

　　政府开始净化海港，第一阶段是“海港区处理计划（Harbour Area Treatment Scheme）”，但官员承认水还不适合游泳。他们表示开始于2009年的第二阶段将大大改善情况。

　　同时，蜘蛛侠将不得不把他的大胆行为限制在香港的旱地。他将到太平山，从半岛酒店（仅限于非常有钱的人的消遣场所）的屋顶抓住直升机。（作者 Vaudine England）

Hong Kong's bacteria are too much for Batman

Water bat... Christian Bale won't be swimming in the waters surrounding Hong Kong.

He has locked horns with Gotham City's darkest criminals, including the Joker, the Riddler, Catwoman and Penguin. But now Batman has crumbled in the face of an even deadlier foe: the polluted water of Hong Kong.

The Dark Knight, a sequel to the 2005 movie Batman Begins, is filming in Hong Kong in and around Victoria Harbour. But a scene where the caped crusader jumps out of a Hercules C130 cargo plane into the sea between Hong Kong island and Kowloon has apparently been scrapped after the water was found to contain such high levels of life-threatening bacteria that the actor, Christian Bale, would have been at risk of catching much more than a cold.

"The plan was for Batman to be seen jumping into the water and then climbing up some bamboo, or something similar, on to a pier. But when they checked a water sample, they found all sorts of things, salmonella and tuberculosis, so it was cancelled. Now the action will cut to inside a building," the South China Morning Post quoted a production team source as saying.

In colonial times between the two world wars, businessmen swam in the harbour to cool down. They would enjoy a quick dip at lunchtime before retiring to the Hong Kong Club for a drink with a view over the cricket ground. But decades of intense shipping and the emptying of raw sewage into the harbour has changed all that. The only people usually seen diving into Hong Kong's harbour these days are a few die-hard political activists - precisely because everyone knows what a sacrifice is involved in braving the waters.

Hong Kong has one of the worst marine environments in the world, said Bill Ballantine, a renowned marine biologist who recently visited from New Zealand. "Everybody tells me if you can remember what it was like in 1960, there's hardly anything left in terms of fisheries and the habitat also is very degraded," he said.

The government has begun cutting the levels of effluent in the harbour, with stage one of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme, but officials admit the water is not yet ready for swimmers. They say Stage Two, beginning in 2009, will improve matters considerably.

In the meantime, Batman will have to confine his derring-do to Hong Kong's dry land. He is due to be filmed travelling up Victoria Peak and catching a helicopter from the roof of the Peninsula hotel - a pastime limited to the very rich.