爲什麼意大利政府推廣生育卻激起公憤大綱

ROME — One ad pictured a woman holding an hourglass next to the words: Beauty has no age limit. Fertility does.

羅馬——有一則廣告描繪了一名女子舉着一個沙漏，旁邊寫着：美沒有年齡限制，生育有。

Another portrayed a pair of baby shoes wrapped in a ribbon of the Italian flag.

另一幅廣告上是一雙嬰兒鞋，上面用意大利國旗圖案的絲帶紮了個蝴蝶結。Yet another showed a man holding a half-burned cigarette: Don’t let your sperm go up in smoke, it read.

還有一幅顯示一名男子夾着一根燒了一半的香菸，旁邊寫道：不要讓你的精子隨煙而逝。

They were part of a government effort to promote Fertility Day on Sept. 22, a campaign intended to encourage Italians to have more babies.

這屬於政府爲宣傳9月22日生育日而開展的活動的一部分。這項宣傳活動旨在鼓勵意大利人生育更多孩子。

Instead, the ads set off a furor, were denounced as being offensive and within days were withdrawn.

但這些廣告反倒引發了公憤，被人譴責粗俗無禮，在幾天內就撤下了。

What they did succeed in doing, however, was to ignite a deeper and lasting debate about why it is that Italy has one of the lowest birthrates in the world, and what can be done about it.

不過，它們的確成功地激發了更深層次的持久討論，促使人們探討爲何意大利是世界上生育率最低的國家之一，以及可以就此做些什麼。

The problem is not a lack of desire to have children, critics of the campaign say, but rather the lack of meaningful support provided by the government and many employers in a country where the family remains the primary source of child care.

批評這項宣傳活動的人士表示，問題不在於缺少生孩子的慾望，而是因爲在一個依然主要由家庭照料孩子的國家裏，人們缺少來自政府和僱主的實質支持。

I should be a model for their campaign, and I still feel very offended, said Vittoria Iacovella, 37, a journalist and mother of two girls, ages 10 and 8.

我應該是這次宣傳活動的一個樣板，但我到現在還覺得自己受到了很大的冒犯，37歲的維多利亞•亞科韋拉(Vittoria Iacovella)說。她是一名記者，養育了兩個女兒，一個10歲，一個8歲。

The government encourages us to have babies and then the main welfare system in Italy is still the grandparents.

政府鼓勵我們生孩子，但意大利主要的福利系統依然還是祖父母。

Many working women, without an extended family to care for a child face a dilemma, as private child care is expensive.

很多沒有大家族幫忙照顧孩子的職業女性要面臨兩難的選擇，因爲私人託兒所價格昂貴。

Some also worry that their job security may be undermined by missing workdays because of child care issues.

一些人也擔心，因照顧孩子的問題而請假，會讓她們工作不保。

Many companies do not offer flexible hours for working mothers.

許多企業沒有給職業母親提供靈活的工作時間。

Not surprisingly, Italy’s long slowdown in childbirth has coincided with its recent economic slump.

意大利生育率長久以來的減退，恰好趕上了近些年的經濟滑坡，這一點並不奇怪。

But Italian families have been shrinking for decades.

但意大利家庭的萎縮已經持續幾十年了。

In 2015, 488,000 babies were born in Italy, the fewest since the country first unified in 1861.

在2015年，意大利共有48.8萬名嬰兒出生，是該國自1861年統一以來人數最低的一次。

It has one of the lowest birthrates in Europe, with 1.37 children per woman, compared with a European average of 1.6, according to Eurostat figures.

歐盟統計局(Eurostat)的數據顯示，意大利是歐洲嬰兒出生率最低的國家之一，平均每個女性生育1.37個子女，而整個歐洲的平均數字爲1.6。

By contrast, in France, the economy has been flat, too, but a family-oriented system provides a far more generous social safety net that includes day care and subsidies for families to have children.

相比之下，法國的經濟也不景氣，但以家庭爲重的制度提供的社會保障服務要豐富得多，包括日託和爲家庭發放生兒育女的補貼。

There, women have two children each on average.

在法國，一名女性平均生育兩個孩子。

On paper, Italian women have equal rights, said Tiziana Bartolini, editor of Noi Donne, one of Italy’s most prominent feminist magazines.

從理論上講，意大利女性擁有平等的權利，意大利知名女性主義雜誌《我們女人》(Noi Donne)的主編蒂齊亞納•巴爾託利尼(Tiziana Bartolini)說。

But reality tells us a different story.

但現實告訴我們的是另外一碼事。

Women are expected to care for children.

大家期待由女性來照顧孩子。

If they live in regions where services are good, or in small towns, they keep their job.

如果是生活在服務比較好的地區或是小城鎮裏，她們可以保住自己的工作。

If they live in big, chaotic cities and have no family nearby, they are very prudent about becoming pregnant.

而如果是生活在混亂的大都市，附近又沒有親戚倚靠，她們在懷孕這件事上就會很謹慎。

Or they stop working, she added.

要麼就得放棄工作，她接着講。

Yeah, sure, thought Maria Scioli, 41, a teacher who depends on her family to care for her 15-month-old boy, when she spotted the debate on her Facebook page.

嗯，好吧，41歲的教師瑪麗亞•肖利(Maria Scioli)在自己的Facebook頁面上看到那些爭執時想。她依靠家人照顧15個月大的兒子。

I’d love to have a second child, Scioli said, but my job situation worries me.

我倒想再要一個孩子，肖利說，但我的工作狀況讓我感到擔憂。

And I even feel lucky. I think about all those women my age or younger that couldn’t have babies and had to watch that offensive ad.

想到在我這個年齡或更年輕的女性無法要孩子，還得看這種令人不快的廣告，我甚至感覺有些幸運。

Even Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, whose own health minister started the campaign, distanced himself from the ads in a radio interview, noting ironically that none of his friends had their kids after seeing an advert.

在接受電臺採訪時，就連意大利總理馬泰奧•倫齊(Matteo Renzi)也與由他手下的衛生部長髮起的這項宣傳活動保持距離。他不無諷刺意味地指出，自己的朋友沒有一個是在看了廣告之後要的孩子。

Renzi said that to increase the birthrate, structural issues like day care and services needed to be addressed.

倫齊表示，爲了提高生育率，首先要解決日託和服務等結構性問題。

Under Renzi, Italy’s government has tried to help families with a so-called baby bonus of 80 to 160 euros (about $90 to $180) for low- and middle-income households, and has approved labor laws giving more flexibility on parental leave.

在倫齊的領導下，意大利政府在努力爲家庭提供幫助，爲中低收入家庭提供了數額在80至160歐元之間的嬰兒津貼，還通過了一些勞動法規，讓人們獲得更靈活的產假。

But Italy allocates only 1 percent of its gross domestic product to social protection benefits — half the European average.

但意大利只撥出國內生產總值的1%用於社會保障福利，其額度僅爲歐洲平均水平的一半。

One child out of three here is at risk of relative poverty.

在意大利，三個孩子中就有一個面臨陷入相對貧困的風險。

Italy has a terrible combination: low birthrate, low women’s employment and high risk of child poverty, said Alessandro Rosina, a professor of demography at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.

意大利有一種糟糕的組合：生育率低、女性就業率低，以及兒童貧困風險高，在位於米蘭的聖心天主教大學(Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)擔任人口學教授的亞歷山德羅•羅西娜(Alessandro Rosina)說。

On this path, Italy can only but have increasing costs for aging people, and increased public debt.

沿着這條路往下走，意大利只會有更多的老齡化開支，也會背上更多的國債。

We defend our present, but can’t design the future, he said.

我們可以維持現狀，卻不能設計未來，他說。

Iacovella, the journalist, said her child’s kindergarten closed two hours before she got off work, and noted that working mothers are frustrated by the little help that Italy gives to women.

記者亞科韋拉表示她孩子所在的幼兒園在她下班兩小時前就會關門，還指出職業母親爲意大利政府給予女性的幫助非常之少而感到失望。

She was so offended by the government ads that she vented her anger on Facebook soon after they started appearing, and her comments went viral online.

政府的廣告讓她很生氣，廣告出現後不久她就在Facebook上發泄了自己的憤怒。她的評論在網上瘋狂傳播開來。

Italy’s health minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, responding on Facebook, wrote that the Fertility Day campaign was not a call to reproduction but a day to discuss the fertility issues that 15 percent of Italians deal with.

意大利衛生部長貝亞特麗切•洛倫津(Beatrice Lorenzin)在Facebook上做出了迴應。她寫道，設置生育日不是呼籲繁殖，而是讓大家在這一天就15%的意大利人都要面對的生育問題進行討論。

She promptly canceled the campaign.

她迅速取消了這項宣傳活動。

I am saddened that the launch of the advertising campaign misled many people, Lorenzin said.

發起廣告推廣活動讓很多人產生了誤會，我感到很難過，洛倫津說。

I withdrew it to change it.

撤下廣告是爲了進行整改。