Italianshave reacted with a mixture of indignation and self-criticism after an episode of The Simpsons mocked the country as a den of corruption. A cheating scandal at Bart and Lisa Simpson's school leads Kent Brockman, the newsreader character in the long-running cartoon, to describe it as "more corrupt than the Italian parliament." He shows the principal of the school, Seymour Skinner, undercover footage of students cheating at their exams. "If these children are our future then I for one do not want to live," the news anchor says in the episode, which was broadcast in the United States this week. The episode sparked a debate among Italians on social media, with some seeing the funny side but others expressing disgust that the venality of politicians had led to Italy being held up as a synonym for corruption. "We've really hit rock bottom," said one Twitter user. "It's official – we are now the laughing stock of even the Simpsons," tweeted another. "If even the Simpsons are taking the mickey, isn't it time to start asking ourselves a few questions?" wrote an Italian woman. Others were more defiant, saying the United States had more than enough graft of its own. "This comes from the country that has the largest number of banking scandals in the world," said one Twitter user. Italy was ranked 72 out of 174 states and territories in Transparency International's most recent Corruption Perceptions Index, which lists countries based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. The least corrupt countries, jointly at number one, were Finland, New Zealand and Denmark, while the most graft-ridden was Somalia. Silvio Berlusconi, the three-times prime minister, has faced a wide range of corruption allegations during his 20 years in politics, from tax fraud on a massive scale to abusing his office by having an under age prostitute released from police custody and bribing a Left-wing senator three million euros to join his centre-Right party. |
《辛普森一家》新劇集嘲笑意大利是“腐敗窩”,意大利人心情復(fù)雜,既感到憤怒,又不得不進(jìn)行自我批評(píng)。 在《辛普森一家》新劇集中,巴特和麗薩·辛普森的學(xué)校爆發(fā)作弊丑聞,動(dòng)畫片里的新聞播報(bào)員肯特·布羅克曼稱“這比意大利國會(huì)更腐敗”。 他指出,學(xué)校校長西摩·斯金納默許學(xué)生在考試中作弊。 “如果這些孩子是我們的未來,那我寧愿不活了。”動(dòng)畫片中的新聞主播這樣說道。這集動(dòng)畫片于本周在美國播出。 這集動(dòng)畫片在意大利社交媒體上引發(fā)了爭(zhēng)論。許多人認(rèn)為它很搞笑,但另外一些人感到反感,政治家們的貪贓枉法讓意大利成為腐敗國家代名詞。 一名推特用戶寫道:“我們真的觸底了。” 另一名用戶寫道:“因?yàn)橐獯罄賳T,我們現(xiàn)在成了《辛普森一家》的笑料。” 一名意大利女子寫道:“即便《辛普森一家》拿我們開玩笑,難道我們不應(yīng)該開始反思一些問題嗎?” 還有人對(duì)此感到憤怒,稱美國腐敗現(xiàn)象更嚴(yán)重。 一名推特用戶寫道:“這些嘲弄來自擁有世界上銀行腐敗丑聞最多的國家。” 據(jù)了解,在“透明國際”公布的全球清廉指數(shù)報(bào)告中,意大利在174個(gè)國家和地區(qū)中排名第72位。 并列排行第一的全球最清廉國家是芬蘭、新西蘭和丹麥,排行末尾的則是索馬里。 曾三次當(dāng)選意大利總理的貝盧斯科尼在其20年政治生涯中,面臨許多腐敗指控,包括大規(guī)模稅務(wù)欺詐、濫用職權(quán)(保釋了一名被拘留的未成年妓女)、用300萬歐元賄賂左翼參議員讓其參與他的中右政黨等。 (譯者 墨寶LCY 編輯 丹妮) |