本帖最后由 aha 于 2009-5-3 14:50 编辑
【原文标题】Selling Democracy (and Tea) in India
【中文标题】在印度贩售民主（和茶）
【登载媒体】NYT
【来源地址】http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/opinion/03fernandes.html?ref=opinion
【译者】aha
【声明】本翻译供Anti-CNN使用，未经AC或译者许可，不得转载。
【原文库链接】http://bbs.m4.cn/thread-161836-1-1.html
【译文】
ON Thursday morning, my neighbors and I joined an orderly line in front of the election desk at the end of our street. We did what the public-service ads had been urging us to do for weeks: “Give them the finger.” The polling officer didn’t even raise her head. After dipping a plastic straw into a bottle of purple ink, she drew a blotchy line down the middle finger of my left hand. Then I stepped up to the voting machine to press a button in India’s 15th general election.
周四早上，我和邻居们一起在街尾的投票桌前排队。我们按照几个星期以来公益广告的教导：“伸出手指（give them the finger）。”选举官头也不抬，用塑料棒沾了紫色墨水就在我左手的中指上抹下一条污渍。然后我移步走去投票机器前并按下按钮，这是印度的第15界大选。
The scene was repeating itself across Mumbai. At another polling station, I saw Bollywood B-listers happily show off their ink-smeared digits to TV cameras. A practice that had originally been instituted to ward off electoral scams like ballot-box stuffing (we call it “booth capturing”) was transformed into a proud reaffirmation of faith in Indian democracy.
这样的场面在孟买随处可见。另一处投票站，我目睹了一些宝莱坞的B卡们兴高采烈的冲着摄像机炫耀他们手上的墨渍。这种手指上涂墨的方式原先是为了避免重复投票（ballot-box stuffing ）（我们称之为“拿下票箱”“booth capturing”）那样的选举舞弊行为，如今已经转变为对印度民主信仰的骄傲宣示。
In the weeks leading up to this election, the ink smearing became a source of inspiration for a barrage of pun-studded campaigns aimed at getting normally apathetic middle-class Indians to fulfill their civic responsibility. The election — with more than 714 million voters — was also a fantastic advertising opportunity. An automobile parts company ran an ad of a finger imprinted with an ink mark in the shape of a car battery. “Vote for a trouble-free five-year term,” was its message. A purveyor of tea, India’s pick-me-up, declared: “If you continue sleeping, so will our politicians. Wake up and vote!”
选举前的数周，墨渍成了灵感的源泉，筑成了一条双关语的战线，旨在推动普通的对选举无动于衷的中产阶级完成他们公民责任。这场选举——共有7亿1千4百多万的选民——同样是一场精彩绝伦的广告大战。一家汽车零部件公司发布了一个广告，在汽车电池状的物体上赫然印着一个手指印，文案是“投票，选一个没有烦恼的五年”。印度人喝茶提神，一家茶商宣称：“如果你继续睡下去，那些政客们也不会醒。赶紧起来，投票。”
On Thursday, many Indians ignored that advice. Turnout was sluggish across the city, but the figures were especially disappointing in affluent South Mumbai, which had been a particular focus of the get-out-the-vote effort. Only 43.3 percent of eligible voters in the area exercised their franchise, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. Rich Indians have long known that they command more powerful means to influence politicians than votes.
星期四，许多印度人对此建议充耳不闻。结果整个城市都懒洋洋的，而较富裕的南部孟买，虽然之前已经受到“出来投票运动”的特别关照，其最后的数据却尤其令人失望。投票人口中只有43.3%履行了他们的权利，不过这也并不令人意外。印度富人有比投票更有力的方式去影响政客，这也早已广为人知。
This contradicts India’s perception of itself as a deeply rooted democracy. Democracy is the superior virtue we claim as we smugly survey the chaos that military dictators have visited upon Pakistan. Democracy is our defense against China’s superior record of alleviating poverty and raising standards of health and literacy.
这与印度自我认知的根深蒂固的民主传统相违背。当我们自鸣得意的调查巴基斯坦的军事独裁者造成的混乱时，民主是我们宣称的高尚美德。当面对中国出众的脱贫数据以及日益提升的健康水平和识字率时，民主是我们的借口（defense 防卫、屏障、辩护 译者注）。
And yet our inability to protect religious minorities is obvious to the thousands of Muslim victims of the Gujarat riots of 2002. Our most famous painter, M. F. Husain, who lives in exile under threats from extremists for daring to paint Hindu deities in the nude, knows that we have yet to secure the right to free expression. And the brutality against ethnic separatist movements in the northeast and Kashmir demonstrates our unwillingness to make pragmatic compromises.
然而，在2002年造成数千穆斯林受害的古吉拉特邦骚乱中，我们对宗教少数派的保护无能已经暴露无遗。我们非常著名的画家，M. F. Husain，因为胆敢将印度大神画为裸体而受到极端分子的威胁于是流亡海外，从这点看，我们仍然不能保护自由表达的权利。还有，在东北各邦以及喀什米尔对待民族分裂运动的残忍手段显示，我们不情愿作出务实的妥协。
Our experiment with democracy has been far more successful than some others, but despite regular elections, it has failed many Indians. After all, in South Mumbai the government responds to its residents — whether they stand in the sun for that purple streak or not.
虽然我们的民主试验远比许多国家成功，可是尽管拥有常规选举，仍有许多印度人没能从中受益。毕竟，在南部孟买，政府会体恤（respond 回应，译者注）那里的民众，不管他们是否站在太阳底下被涂上了墨渍。
Naresh Fernandes is the editor of Time Out India.
作者Naresh Fernandes是印度版Time Out 的编辑。 |
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发表于 2009-5-3 14:22
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