The rotting garbage piled up on the streets of Naples has become an enduring symbol to Italians of the many problems facing Silvio Berlusconi's crumbling conservative government. The prime minister came to power as a “Mr. Fix It” less than three years ago vowing to clean up a mess that his centre-left predecessor had failed to sort out, and often cites the clearing of Naples' streets as one of his biggest successes.
那不勒斯街頭遍地堆積著腐爛的垃圾，早已成為長期困擾義大利總理貝魯斯柯尼搖搖欲墜的保守政府諸多問題的表徵。總理不到3年前剛上台時，以「搞定先生」自居，他誓言清理中間偏左的前任總理未能清理的爛攤子，還經常自稱，清理那不勒斯街頭垃圾是他任內最重大的政績之一。
He even held his first cabinet meeting there, promising a break with past administrations that had failed to solve the chronic rubbish problem in Campania—the poor, southern region of which Naples is the capital. Halfway into his term, facing the prospect of early elections due to the implosion of his centre-right coalition and a string of sex and graft scandals, Berlusconi is seeing Naples' trash back on the front pages of newspapers and TV bulletins.
他甚至在那不勒斯召開首次內閣會議，誓言和未能解決坎佩尼亞垃圾這個老問題的前政府畫清界線，那不勒斯是坎佩尼亞這個南部貧窮地區的首府。老貝任期過半，由於中間偏右聯合政府內鬥，加上貪汙和性醜聞頻傳，使他面對提前改選的前景，並眼睜睜看著那不勒斯垃圾問題又上了報紙頭版和電視要聞快報。
The Naples garbage crisis—first declared a national emergency in 1994 — can hardly be blamed on Berlusconi's government alone. It is the result of years of political mismanagement, corruption and the influence of the local mafia, the Camorra, which makes a fortune out of illegal waste disposal.
那不勒斯垃圾危機1994年首次宣布進入全國緊急狀態，但這不能全歸咎於貝魯斯柯尼政府。這是多年施政不當，貪汙腐敗和當地黑手黨「卡莫拉」交互影響的結果，卡莫拉從非法垃圾處理中賺取暴利。
“Naples garbage? It's just like two years ago,” read the headline of the daily La Stampa. This time, Berlusconi no longer seems to have the political capital even to temporarily push the filth under the carpet to boost his popularity, now at a record low. The pungency of 250,000 tons of rotting garbage is almost indescribable. “It is like a heavy, soiled blanket that smothers us each night,” says Ferdinando Mosca, who owns a fruit shop across the street from the entrance to the Cava Sari landfill in Terzigno. “It burns your eyes. It closes your throat. The children vomit and cough. Our bodies are covered with rashes.”
義大利日報《新聞報》的標題怒吼：「那不勒斯垃圾遍地？ 2年來情況依舊。」這回老貝似乎再也沒什麼政治資本，可以暫時把垃圾掃到地毯下，以拉抬自己跌到谷底的聲望。25萬噸臭氣沖天的腐爛垃圾幾乎無法以筆墨形容，那不勒斯附近小鎮特茲格諾卡瓦沙里垃圾掩埋場入口對街一家水果攤老板莫斯卡說：「這簡直就像一條沉重骯髒的毯子，夜夜覆蓋著我們，我們快窒息了。我們眼睛灼痛，喉嚨鎖緊，孩子不斷嘔吐咳嗽，身上起疹子。」
Mosca is not exaggerating. Since Berlusconi's election promise to solve the Naples garbage crisis nearly three years ago, the Cava Sari landfill has been used to hide the government's unwillingness to confront the Camorra crime syndicate. Now, with the resurgence of the garbage issue, Berlusconi is facing new calls for his resignation and allegations that his government is in bed with the mob. “Berlusconi may have won his election on solving this garbage crisis,” says Francesco Paolo Oreste, a police officer who has become an advocate against the government's handling of the crisis. “Then he should lose his premiership because of it.”
莫斯卡並非危言聳聽。自從貝魯斯柯尼近3年前競選時承諾解決那不勒斯垃圾危機以來，政府一直利用卡瓦沙里掩埋場，來掩飾不願衝撞卡莫拉犯罪集團的事實。如今，隨著垃圾問題死灰復燃，老貝正面臨要求他下台的新聲浪，外界並指責他的政府和黑手黨狼狽為奸。反對政府處理這次垃圾危機方式的員警歐瑞斯提說：「貝魯斯柯尼可能因解決垃圾危機而贏得選舉，那他也應為此引咎辭職。」
Children wear masks near the entrance of the Cava Sari landfill, where hundreds have been protesting a proposed new dump. Rising rates of leukemia, throat cancer, and respiratory illnesses are a testament to the severe pollution of the air and water. They can't open their windows, and the children can't play outside because of the intensely sickening smell. No tourists come here, despite the picturesque landscape, and no one wants to buy any of the agricultural products grown in these fields. As if that's not enough, the landfill sits inside the Vesuvius National Park on the flanks of a live volcano. “We live in a tumor factory,” says Oreste. “How can we accept that we have to pay for the Camorra's profits and the government's convenience with our health and that of our children? Enough with the trash. Enough with the lies.”
在卡瓦沙里掩埋場入口附近，兒童戴著口罩，當地好幾百人抗議擬議中的新垃圾場。白血病、咽喉癌和呼吸系統疾病病例不斷攀升，足證空氣和水汙染問題嚴重。由於臭氣沖天令人作嘔，他們無法開窗，孩子也不能到戶外玩耍。雖然美景如畫，但遊客絕跡，沒有人願意買這些地方生產的任何農產品。雪上加霜的是，掩埋場在維蘇威國家公園內一個活火山旁。歐瑞斯提說：「我們有如生活在一個腫瘤廠，我們怎能坐視我們必須支付卡莫拉黑手黨黑錢，和政府犧牲我們和我們子女健康的事實？我們實在受夠了垃圾，受夠了謊言。」
Damning comments this week from European Union inspectors who said Italy had failed to deliver on pledges to fix the problem rubbed salt in the wound. “He obviously never had a magic wand but this time he is under so much pressure on all fronts that he can't even pretend to deal with the rubbish effectively,” said James Walston, political science professor at the American University in Rome.
本周歐洲聯盟檢查人員痛批義大利未能兌現承諾，解決垃圾問題，不啻在傷口上抹鹽。在羅馬的美國大學政治學教授沃斯頓說：「他顯然根本沒什麼法寶，但這回他面臨各方龐大的壓力，他甚至不能再假裝有能力解決垃圾問題。」
But with the media tycoon facing a confidence vote in parliament on Dec. 14, television images of Neapolitans walking past shoulder-high mounds of trash, holding their noses and covering their faces （AFP）, have become a symbol of his own failure. They have also given ammunition to critics who say his taste for partying is distracting him from running a country emerging only slowly from its worst postwar recession. “This is undermining his ‘can do’ image and adding to a growing sense that his time is up, particularly in the south,” Walston said.
但隨著這位身兼媒體大亨的總理12月14日將面對議會信任投票，電視不斷播出那不勒斯人走過堆積如山的垃圾的影像，他們有的掩鼻而過，有的包覆著臉孔（見圖，法新社），在在成為他施政失敗的表徵。他們還授人以柄，使論者得以痛批他愛搞轟趴，不能全力帶領義大利走出戰後正緩緩回升的最嚴重衰退陰影。沃斯頓說：「這正在破壞他『敢作敢當』的形象，使人愈來愈覺得，他已經玩完了，南部尤其如此。」
Last month, Berlusconi pledged to solve the latest crisis in a matter of days. Instead, the emergency has, if anything, grown bigger. The government was forced to ditch plans to open a new landfill near Naples, without an alternative solution, after a month-long protest by locals complaining of the foul smell and toxic waste being dumped at an existing site near their homes. At the height of the garbage protest, one banner in Naples read, “Berlusconi, you have lost the south.”
老貝上月承諾在幾天內解決最近這個頭痛問題。但事與願違，危機不減反增。政府被迫放棄在那不勒斯附近新建垃圾掩埋場的計畫，但又提不出替代解決方案。過去1個月來，當地居民不斷抗議惡臭和有毒廢物亂丟在住家附近。當垃圾抗爭達到頂點時，那不勒斯有人拉橫幅說：「老貝，你已痛失南方民心。」