Peter Brookes for The Times
Una carcassa di automobile usata come metafora del degrado ed abbandono di una grande città americana
Detroit.
Detroit è fallita
Diversi fattori hanno influito sui problemi economici di Detroit, tra cui il calo di un quarto di abitanti tra il 2000 e il 2010 (erano 1,8 milioni negli anni Cinquanta, oggi sono meno di 700 mila), così come la fuga di imprese e classe media, che hanno diminuito drasticamente le entrate fiscali. Il deficit nel bilancio cittadino è stimato in oltre 380 milioni di dollari, ma Orr ha stimato i debiti di lungo periodo a oltre 14 miliardi di dollari, forse addirittura 18,5 miliardi.
E paradosso tutto questo succede mentre l'industria automobilistica ha un boom!
The city of
Detroit, once the heart of the U.S. automobile industry, filed for
Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection in federal court on Thursday, laying the groundwork for a historic effort to bail out a city that is sinking under billions of dollars in debt and decades of mismanagement, population flight and loss of tax revenue. The bankruptcy filing makes Detroit the largest city in U.S. history to do so.
Full story
In this cartoon from
The Daily Telegraph, Blower uses the rusty wreck of an American automobile as a metaphor for the decline of this once great city. (I'm no expert on cars, but I think it's a
Cadillac.) The hood is open and the wheels have been removed. A solitary tire lies on the ground. The license plate bears the words "Motor City", a nickname for Detroit. On the right, we can see the ruins of a house, another symbol of Detroit's decay.
NOTE
The cartoonist may also have been thinking of the expession
Rust Belt, the name given to the heavily industrial area of the northeastern U.S. containing the older industries and factories. The term gained popularity in the United States in the 1980s as an informal description of a postindustrial region straddling the Northeastern and the East North Central States.
VOCABULARY1. Cars are one of the areas where American English and British English differ in their vocabulary.
• automobile (US) = (motor) car (UK)
• hood (US) = bonnet (UK)
• trunk (US) = boot (UK)
• license plate (US) = number plate (UK)
• windshield (US) = windscreen (UK)
• fender (US) = wing (UK)
• tire (US) = tyre (UK)
• flat (US) = flat tyre, puncture (UK)
2. If you describe something, such as an old car, as rusty, you mean that it is covered with rust (a reddish-brown substance that is formed on some metals by the action of water and air). Rust is also a verb. • Brass doesn't rust. • Water had got in and rusted the engine.
Enzo Apicella
Detroit
By
Sean Delonas, CagleCartoons.com - 7/18/2013
Crash
By
Petar Pismestrovic, Kleine Zeitung, Austria - 7/19/2013
Detroit
By
Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette - 7/19/2013
new guy
By
Luojie, China Daily, China - 7/20/2013
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ALSO SEE
•
Detroit's Beautiful, Horrible Decline (TIME Magazine photo gallery)
•
The rise and fall of Detroit: A timeline (The Week)
•
Detroit è fallita
