英国卫报:绑架为何成了一门生意(3)（在线收听）

To his South American clients, Milne was as quintessentially British as James Bond.

对米尔恩的南美客户来说，他是一个像詹姆斯·邦德般典型的英国人。

He attended boarding school in Scotland, and dresses in tailored suits with a perfectly positioned pocket square.

他在苏格兰的寄宿学校上学，身穿剪裁整齐的西装，口袋里有一个完美的方形口袋。

He enjoys a stiff drink, sometimes two. “When I went to Colombia, everyone wanted to see me,” Milne told me.

他喜欢来上一杯烈性酒，有时两杯。“我去哥伦比亚的时候，每个人都想见我，”米尔恩告诉我。

“I started with a few contacts, but it grew like Topsy. All their friends at the golf club wanted to meet.

“一开始我只接触了一些人，但后来就像社交网络一样越来越多。他们在高尔夫俱乐部的所有朋友都想见他。

It suddenly became a viable business.”

它突然变成了一项可行的业务。”

Some grumble that in an industry that values discretion, Milne is a bit of self-promoter.

有些人抱怨说，在一个重视谨慎的行业里，米尔恩有点自吹自擂。

But no one denies his success. By the time he wrapped up his stint in Latin America in the 1990s,

但没有人否认他的成功。90年代，当他结束在拉丁美洲的工作时，

he had sold hundreds of new policies, recruited a specialised team in London focusing on the Latin America market,

他已卖出了数百份新保单，在伦敦招募了一支专门研究拉美市场的团队，

and developed a new service to provide risk mitigation – a “preventative training” programme

并开发了一种新的减少风险的服务——一个“预防培训”计划，

that educated clients on how to reduce the risk of kidnap and how to respond if it does happen.

该计划会教客户如何降低被绑架的风险，以及一旦被绑架时该如何应对。

He then convinced insurance companies that they should foot the bill.

然后，他说服保险公司来买单。

(After all, both insurance companies and their clients have an interest in reducing the likelihood of a kidnapping.)

(毕竟，降低绑架的可能性对保险公司和他们的客户都有好处。)

Over the past few decades, the K&R insurance business has grown.

在过去的几十年里，绑架和赎金保险生意有所增长。

More than 75% of Fortune 500 companies have K&R insurance policies.

超过75%的世界500强公司都有绑架和赎金保险业务。

Today two insurers – Hiscox in the UK and AIG in the US – dominate the market,

如今，两家保险商，英国的希斯科斯公司和美国的美国国际集团统治了整个市场，

and there are also many security firms that specialise in kidnap response.

还有许多专门从事绑架应对费用的安全公司。

Hostage negotiation has become something of an industry, with conferences, conventions and shared strategies.

人质谈判已经成为一个行业，有联合会、惯例和共享策略。

More than 97% of kidnappings handled by professional negotiators are successfully resolved through the payment of ransom,

根据几个不同的掌握内部行业数据的安全顾问的说法，

according to several different security consultants with access to internal industry data.

超过97%的由专业谈判者参与的绑架案都通过支付赎金成功解决。

A small percentage of hostages escape, and a very few are rescued through high-risk operations. Less than 1% are killed.

只有一小部分人质逃脱，极少数人质通过高风险行动获救。只有不到1%的人被杀。