印尼贫民流行“卧轨电疗”

在印度尼西亚，新近流行的“卧轨电疗”似乎为身患疾病而负担不起医药费的贫苦民众带来了一线希望。据悉，“卧轨电疗”其实就是横躺在两条铁轨上，等待列车接近时发出的电流穿过身体，以此达到治病的目的，然后在列车靠近前迅速离开铁轨。

Villagers lie on a railway track for an electricity therapy in Rawa Buaya, Jakarta, Indonesia.
Ignoring the red-and-white danger sign, Sri Mulyati walks slowly to the train tracks outside Indonesia's bustling¹（熙熙攘攘的） capital, lies down and stretches her body across the rails.

Like the nearly dozen others lined up along the track, the 50-year-old diabetes² patient has all but given up on doctors and can't afford the expensive medicines they prescribe（规定，开处方） .

In her mind, she has only one option left: electric therapy.

"I'll keep doing this until I'm completely cured," said Mulyati, twitching³ visibly as an oncoming passenger train sends an extra rush of current racing⁴ through her body.

She leaps from tracks as it approaches and then, after the last carriage rattles⁵ slowly by, climbs back into position.

Pseudo-medical treatments are wildly popular in many parts of Asia — where rumors⁶ about those miraculously⁸ cured after touching⁹ a magic stone or eating dung from sacred cows can attract hundreds, sometimes thousands.

That may be especially true in Indonesia, where chronic¹⁰ funding shortages and chaotic¹¹ decentralization（分散） efforts since the 1998 ouster of Suharto have left many disillusioned¹²（幻想破灭的） with the state-sponsored health system, said Marius Widjajarta, chairman of the Indonesian Health Consumers Empowerment Foundation.

Medical experts say there is no evidence lying on the rails does any good.

But Mulyati insists it provides more relief for her symptoms — high-blood pressure, sleeplessness¹³ and high cholesterol¹⁴ — than any doctor has since she was first diagnosed with diabetes 13 years ago.

She turned to train track therapy last year after hearing a rumor⁷ about an ethnic¹⁵ Chinese man who was partially¹⁶ paralyzed by a stroke going to the tracks to kill himself, but instead finding himself cured.

It's a story that's been told and retold in Indonesia.

Until recently, more than 50 people would show up at the Rawa Buaya tracks every day. But the numbers have dropped since police and the state-run railroad company erected¹⁷ a warning sign and threatened penalties of up to three months in prison or fines of $1,800.

No one has been arrested yet, and none of the participants in train track therapy has died.

But the dedicated¹⁸ dozen a day who still come say they have no plans to stop.

"They told us not to do it anymore, but what else can I do," said Hadi Winoto, a 50-year-old stroke victim who has trouble walking.

"I want to be cured, so I have to come back."