巴西不高興 充斥憤怒 焦慮與冷漠的里約奧運
RIO DE JANEIRO — How do Brazilians feel about their big Olympic moment?
里約熱內盧——巴西人對自己舉辦奧運的大日子感覺如何？
First there is the anger: Rioters pelted the Olympic torch relay with rocks as it approached Rio de Janeiro, while bumper stickers have rearranged the Olympic rings into a four-letter word.
首先是憤怒：奧運火炬傳遞到里約熱內盧的途中，暴民向其投擲石塊，還出現了把奧運五環重新排列成一個四字母單詞的汽車車貼。
Then there is the anxiety: With gallows humor amid a crime wave and fears of terrorism, a bingo game is circulating for people to wager on which day during the games an attack will occur.
再有是焦慮：一波犯罪潮出現，而且人們擔憂發生恐怖襲擊，黑色幽默卻也應運而生，在一個賓果遊戲中，你可以下注在奧運會期間哪一天會發生襲擊。
And the indifference: The media giant Globo will not even bother to broadcast the Olympics during the coveted Sunday afternoon slot, opting instead for domestic soccer. A sizable number of hotel rooms here remain unreserved, forcing travel agents to slash rates in a desperate attempt to entice Brazilians to come.
還有就是冷漠：巴西媒體巨頭環球電視臺(Globo)甚至沒興趣在週日下午的黃金時間播出奧運會節目，而是選擇了巴西足球節目。大量酒店客房仍然無人預定，旅行社不得不降低價格，拼命招攬巴西人光顧。
“Just thinking of the Olympics leaves me revolted,” said Ana Caroline Joia da Souza, 21, a street vendor who sells sweets in front of a Rio metro station. “Our politicians want to trick the world into thinking things are great here. Well, let the foreigners see for themselves the filth we live in, the money our leaders steal.”
“一想到奧運會我就感到噁心，”21歲的安娜•卡羅琳•喬伊•達索薩(Ana Caroline Joia da Souza)說，她在里約熱內盧的一個地鐵站前擺攤賣糖果。“政客想瞞騙整個世界，讓大家覺得巴西很好很棒。好吧，讓外國人自己來看看我們住的這個骯髒地方，看看巴西領導人偷走的錢吧。”
It is something of a ritual in countries that host the Olympics to engage in soul-searching on the eve of the games. And Brazil is no exception, unleashing a withering exploration of the country’s political, economic and ethical troubles before the opening ceremony on Friday.
東道主國家在奧運會前夕進行反思幾乎已成慣例。巴西也不例外，在奧運會本週五開幕之前，該國就其政治、經濟和道德方面的問題展開了一波疾風驟雨般的探究。
Nearly two-thirds of Brazilians — 63 percent — think hosting the Olympics will hurt the country, according to a recent survey by the polling company Datafolha. Only 16 percent said they were enthusiastic about the games, while 51 percent said they had no interest in them. (The poll, conducted on July 14-15 in interviews with 2,792 people, had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.)
民意調查公司Datafolha近期舉行的一項調查顯示，將近三分之二巴西人——具體是63%——認爲舉辦奧運會有損於巴西。只有16%的受訪者說自己熱切期盼奧運會，51%的人則表示他們對奧運會毫無興趣。（調查是在7月14日和15日進行的，共有2792名受訪者，抽樣誤差爲正負兩個百分點）。
The grim mood stands in stark contrast to the ebullience shown in 2009 when Rio landed the Olympics. At the time, Brazil was basking in its triumphs — including a growing presence on the world stage, the lifting of millions of poor people into the middle class and the maturing of its young democracy after 21 years of military rule that had ended in 1985.
這種沉鬱的氣氛，與2009年裏約熱內盧奪得奧運會主辦權時的興奮之情形成了鮮明對比。當時的巴西沉醉在勝利的喜悅中——該國在全球舞臺上的存在感日益增強，數以百萬計的貧困人口進入了中產階層，在21年的軍人統治於1985年結束後，年輕的民主制度在演進中日益成熟。
But, today, the Olympics are competing with both a harrowing recession and Brazil’s other public spectacle: bare-knuckled political dysfunction.
但如今，與奧運會爭搶人們的注意力的，除了令人飽受煎熬的經濟衰退，還有另一出在公衆視野裏展開的大戲：巴西的肉搏式政治亂局。
The country has not one, but two presidents: Dilma Rousseff, who was suspended to face impeachment proceedings that will continue to unfold during the games, and Michel Temer, her interim replacement. Both Rousseff, a leftist, and Temer, who is shifting to the right, are deeply unpopular around the country. In fact, voters are fuming about the entire political establishment.
目前巴西的總統不是一個，而是兩個：一個是已經停職的迪爾瑪•羅塞夫(Dilma Rousseff)，她面臨的彈劾案將在奧運期間繼續展開，另一個是臨時頂替她的米歇爾•特梅爾(Michel Temer)。無論是左派的羅塞夫，還是日益右傾的特梅爾，在巴西各地都非常不受歡迎。事實上，選民們對所有政治權貴都極爲不滿。
The runup to the Olympics has been marked by such a long and varied list of fiascos — from protests over forced evictions to complaints about both thefts and plumbing debacles at the new Olympic Village — that the British sports historian David Goldblatt ranks the preparations here among the worst in Olympic history.
在里約奧運會開幕之前，出現了一大串各式各樣的惡劣問題——從抗議強制驅逐行動，到抱怨新的奧運村發生了盜竊和管道無法使用的事情——英國體育歷史學家戴維•戈德布拉特(David Goldblatt)說，這是歷史上準備工作最糟糕的奧運會之一。
In an effort to bolster security in Rio during the games, the federal government is deploying thousands of troops to patrol the crime-weary city. But critics say that bringing in soldiers from violence-ravaged cities in northeast Brazil could embolden gang activity there and in other parts of the country.
里約的犯罪率居高不下，爲了提高該市在奧運期間的安全性，聯邦政府把數以千計的軍人部署到這裏進行巡邏。但批評者說，巴西東北部一些城市暴力肆虐，從那裏調兵到里約會導致當地和其他區域的幫派變得膽大妄爲。
Supporters say the traditional Olympic narrative often involves an escalation of tension before the games, only to be replaced by excitement once they are underway. There are also those who say the country needs to stop complaining and start enjoying the spectacle.
支持者說，在歷屆奧運會開幕之前，往往都有緊張局勢升級的說法，但是開幕之後，大家的情緒就會振奮起來了。還有一些人說，該國民衆應該停止抱怨，享受這一盛事。
“Everyone wanted the games here when we got them, so all the criticism now is hypocritical,” said Cleide Correa, 72, a real estate broker in Rio de Janeiro. “Of course they spent a lot of money to organize this, but that’s the case in every host country. We need to make the best of the situation now.”
“當初我們贏得主辦權的時候，每個人都希望在這裏舉辦奧運會，所以現在的批評全都很虛僞，”72歲的里約熱內盧房地產經紀人克雷德•科雷亞(Cleide Correa)說。“當然，他們花了很多錢來辦奧運，但是每個東道國都不例外。我們需要在現有狀況的基礎上做到最好。”
Eduardo Paes, the mayor of Rio de Janeiro, who has hitched his political fortunes to the games, contends the negative sentiment around the Olympics is largely because of Brazil’s “stray-dog complex,” a term used by the playwright Nelson Rodrigues to describe the inferiority with which Brazilians sometimes view themselves in relation to other countries.
里約熱內盧市長愛德華多•帕埃斯(Eduardo Paes)已經把自己的政治前途和奧運會連在了一起，他說，圍繞奧運會產生的負面情緒主要源自於巴西的“流浪狗情結”。這個詞是劇作家納爾遜•羅德里格斯(Nelson Rodrigues)提出的，指巴西人在將自己和其他國家做對比的時候存在着一種自卑感。
The International Olympic Committee, Paes said, “is noting how we sell ourselves short.” He then argued that blame for the problems at the Olympic Village rested with an Argentina-born Olympic official, and contended that Brazilians were rapidly resolving the issues.
帕埃斯說，國際奧委會(International Olympic Committee)“已經注意到我們在妄自菲薄”。他隨後表示，奧運村的問題要怪一個在阿根廷出生的奧林匹克官員。他還說，巴西人正迅速解決這些問題。
Others say the country’s merciless self-questioning at the moment holds a cathartic value, reflecting a democracy where freedom of expression remains resilient.
另外一些人表示，巴西此刻進行無情的自我檢討，可以起到宣泄情緒的作用，還說明在這個民主國家裏，人們享有極大的言論自由。
In an essay, writer Eliane Brum listed some of the problems that make Brazil seem like a holy mess, including man-made environmental disasters like the bursting of a dam last year in the state of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro’s sewage-infested Guanabara Bay, where sailing teams fear colliding with dead bodies.
作家埃莉亞尼•布魯姆(Eliane Brum)在一篇文章中列出了把巴西看變成一團亂麻的若干問題，其中包括人爲造成的環境災難，比如米納斯吉拉斯州的一道水壩去年發生了決堤事故，再比如瓜納巴拉灣被裏約的下水道污水嚴重污染，帆船隊擔心在那裏撞上死屍。
Still, Brum said, it would be a joke to submit Brazil “to the judgment of the so-called First World,” given the number of recent problems in those countries and elsewhere.
但布魯姆表示，把巴西交由“所謂的第一世界去評判”會很可笑，因爲在那些國家以及世界其他地方，最近也出現了大量問題。
Brazil’s malaise has some arguing for realistic expectations.
面對巴西的弊病，一些人開始呼籲拋開不切實際的期待。
“We’re clearly not about to project an image of a powerful and efficient country,” said Fernando Gabeira, a politician and writer.
“我們顯然不可能展現強大、高效的國家形象，”政治人物、作家費爾南多•加貝拉(Fernando Gabeira)說。
“Maybe we can show how we’re starting to get past our economic, political and moral disaster,” Gabeira said. “We could be like those athletes who manage to finish the marathon with their tongues hanging out, almost fainting. But they make it to the finish line.”
“我們或許可以展現的是，我們正着手應對經濟、政治和道德災難，”卡貝拉說。“我們可以像那些設法跑完馬拉松的運動員一樣，他們伸着舌頭，幾近暈厥，但他們抵達了終點。”
