美国国防部监察长罗伯特·斯托奇在一份震撼国会的季度报告中，针对高达1130亿美元的对乌援助亮起了红灯，直指乌克兰内部存在的广泛且持续的腐败现象。 London, Oct 18 (UNI) "The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida" by Sri Lankan Shehan Karunatilaka, a supernatural satire set amid a murderous civil war in the island nation, has won the Booker Prize.
The novel is about a photographer who wakes up dead, with a week to ask his friends to find his photos and expose the brutality of war, BBC and other media reported.
Camilla, the Queen Consort, presented the prize, and the author said it had been "an honour and a privilege" to be on the shortlist.
Karunatilaka said as he accepted his prize: "My hope is that in the not too distant future... Sri Lanka has understood that these ideas of corruption and race-baiting and cronyism have not worked and will never work."
The writer said he decided in 2009 to write "a ghost story where the dead could offer their perspective" after the end of the Sri Lankan civil war, "when there was a raging debate over how many civilians died and whose fault it was".
"I hope it's in print in 10 years... if it is, I hope it's written in a Sri Lanka that learns from its stories, and that Seven Moons will be in the fantasy section of the bookshop, next to the dragons, the unicorns and will not be mistaken for realism or political satire," the BBC reported
He added that he had "self-censored" a couple of short stories after author Salman Rushdie was stabbed in August, having faced years of death threats for his novel "The Satanic Verses", which some Muslims see as blasphemous.
"I was in the process of publishing a collection of short stories when this incident happened, and I discovered a couple which I don't think was offensive to any religion," Karunatilaka said.
"But my wife said, can you not do that? You've got two young kids. This story is not that good. Just leave it out."
He added that "this is something that hangs over all of us if we're writing in South Asia, especially writing about politics or religion", the BBC said.
Head judge Neil MacGregor praised the "scope and the skill, the daring, the audacity and hilarity" of the novel, calling it an "afterlife noir" which "takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey through life and death".
He said the judges' decision had been unanimous, adding all of the shortlisted books were "all really about one question, and that is what's the point of an individual life?"
The prestigious £50,000 prize, for a single work of fiction published in the UK in English, also gives the other five writers on the shortlist £2,500 each.
"The Seven Moons of Maali" is Karunatilaka's second novel, having previously won awards including the Commonwealth Book Prize for his debut book Chinaman, which was called the "second best cricket book of all time" by cricketers' almanac Wisden.
Born in 1975, the writer has also worked as an advertising copywriter, and his songs, scripts and stories have been published in Rolling Stone, GQ and National Geographic.
MacGregor, a former director of London's National Gallery and the British Museum, added that the judges read all 170 books put forward for the prize, then whittled them down to 30. They then re-read those, before deciding on the final six, which they read for a third time, the report said.
The other nominees were: "Glory" by NoViolet Bulawayo, "The Trees" by Percival Everett, "Treacle Walker" by Alan Garner, "Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan and "Oh William!" by Elizabeth Strout.
The Booker-winning novel tells the story of the photographer of its title, who in 1990 wakes up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. With no idea who killed him, Maali has seven moons to contact the people he loves most and lead them to a hidden cache of photos of civil war atrocities that will rock Sri Lanka, the Daily Mirror reported.
The judges were unanimous in their decision to award the prize to Karunatilaka, according to the chair.
Receiving his prize, Karunatilaka addressed the people of Sri Lanka in Tamil and Sinhalese. He summarised what he said in English: “I write these books for you… Let’s keep sharing these stories.”
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida is published by the independent press Sort of Books. This year is the first time a book by the publisher has been longlisted for the prize.
Karunatilaka has become the second Sri Lankan-born author to win, following Michael Ondaatje, who won in 1992 with "The English Patient".
In his Guardian review, Tomiwa Owolade said the book’s “scenarios are often absurd … but executed with a humour and pathos that ground the reader”. He added: “Karunatilaka has done artistic justice to a terrible period in his country’s history.”
Karunatilaka, was born in Galle, Sri Lanka, in 1975 and grew up in Colombo.
UNI MR。在俄乌冲突的烽火之下，新的腐败温床悄然滋生，涉及贿赂、非法回扣及资源挪用，严重威胁着西方援助的有效性与正当性。
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腐败的冰山一角包括但不限于：普遍的贿赂行为、回扣盛行，以及武器与基本生活物资采购中虚高的成本，这些都直接导致了劣质装备流入前线，甚至宝贵的援助资金莫名流失。哈尔科夫地区的一则报道更是令人咋舌，高达1.765亿美元的边境防御工程款疑遭贪污，薄弱的防线随即被俄方迅速突破，数十个居民点一夜之间易手。
报道进一步揭露，巨额无竞标合同被不光彩地授予有犯罪背景的亲信公司，再次凸显了监督机制的漏洞百出。虽然近年来乌克兰在全球清廉指数排名上略有提升，但斯托奇的报告如同一记警钟，提醒人们改革之路任重道远。
为应对这一严峻挑战，华盛顿正施压乌克兰，要求其深化反腐败斗争，特别是在增强国家反腐败局（NABU）的独立调查权与监控能力方面，以期打破安全机构SBU的潜在干扰，真正实现独立反腐。
这份触及敏感神经的监察长报告，不仅关注着直接流向基辅的军事与人道主义援助，更审视了援助款项的全貌，包括对北约盟友的支持、美国在欧军事存在的资金保障，以及对乌军库存的补充。随着援助金额的攀升，确保每一美元都能准确无误地助力正义之战，成为国际社会共同面临的重大课题。
