『Desperate to stamp out malpractice in the Thai capital, the mayor of Bangkok Samak Sundaravej sent a handwritten letter to all 50 municipal offices saying any local officials taking bribes would suffer terrible misfortune and calamity. The letter was designed to stamp out extortion by city officials of local street vendors, who have traditionally had to pay bribes to get permission to sell their wares.

“May those city officers who commit extortion from vendors run into disasters until their retirement, have illness and die in their early days”, the fulmination declared. A spokesman for Samak said that the governor hoped the curse would have more impact than previous polite warnings. 』

《世說英語》Page 16

Vocabulary

malpractice，n，弊端。

municipal，adj，市的。

calamity，n，災(zāi)難、不幸。

extortion，n，敲詐、勒索。

wares，n，商品。

fulmination，n，嚴(yán)詞譴責(zé)，爆發(fā)。

Phrases

stamp out，消滅、根除。

a handwritten letter，手寫信。

take bribes，受賄。

pay bribes，行賄。

commit extortion，實(shí)施敲詐。

die in their early days，夭折。

從官方試圖利用詛咒遏制賄賂的行為來看，宗教文化對(duì)于泰國民眾有著深遠(yuǎn)的影響[1]。另一方面，泰官方對(duì)于腐敗處理手段多少過于仁慈了些。

[1] “佛教是泰國代代相承的傳統(tǒng)宗教，也是泰國人的生活重心。在四千七百萬人口中，佛教徒占了百分之九十五。泰國95%以上的人信奉佛教，據(jù)說全國有3萬多所寺廟；而“天使之城”的首都曼谷便有“佛廟之都”之稱。”（引自百度百科-泰國佛教）