2012 Makes The Mayan Angry

Last Friday brings the big theatrical release ofColumbiaPictures 2012,a new Hollywood disaster flick inspired bythe endof the Mayan calendar. But down in Guatemala -- the home ofa bigchunk of the nearly 7 or 8 million living Mayans -- oneelderappears more indignant than worried.

The Mayan texts say nothing about this, said Carlos Barrios,aleading Mayan shaman, over the phone Wednesday. These guyshavebeen talking about the end of the world …… Its not the end oftheworld.

In the movie, the world faces an apocalyptic naturaldisaster andMayan prophesy is cited as having predicted thecatastrophe. TheMayans saw this coming thousands of years ago,says onecharacter.

Barrios isnt sure where the misunderstanding in Tinseltowncamefrom, but it may have gone like this: The Mayan calendarinquestion (just one of 20 of them, all extremelycomplicated)operates on a cycle of about 5,200 years. For sure,2012 --specifically Decr 20, 2012 -- is a key date for the Mayas,as itrepresents the end of the fourth of these millennial cycleswhichelders say is symbolized by water.On Dec. 21 (2012), thefifthcycle begins, says Barrios, who insists that the world wontendthen. In fact, the fifth cycle will be a time of harmony andmorecloseness to the natural world. Thats a far cry fromthetrailers prediction: a tsunami smashing into Rio de Janeiro.(NASAis also trying to dispel myths about 2012.)

Barrios is (fairly) sure Hollywoods got it wrong about theworldending in a couple years. Hes made predictions before, hesays,and many of them have come true, from the date of theAmericaninvasion of Iraq to the presidential election of BarackObama.Forget 2012 as far as disasters go, he says. Watch outbetween themonths of August and Novr 2011. There are morepossibilities forfinancial crisis, says Barrios.

Asked to respond to the Mayan shamans debunking of 2012,SteveElzer, Senior Vice President, Media Relations, for ColumbiaTriStarMotion Picture Group said, This is a purely entertainingwork offiction.

哥伦比亚电影公司出品的《2012》上周五在美国各大影院上映。这部好莱坞灾难片的灵感来自于玛雅历法中记载的最后一天。但在当今近700万至800万玛雅人的主要居住地危地马拉，一位长者的愤怒远远多于担忧。

知名玛雅巫师卡洛斯巴罗尔斯周三在电话中说，玛雅文字中没有谈到这个。这些人总是在谈论世界末日……这不是世界末日。

在影片中，世界面临着一场带来末日的自然灾害，据说玛雅人早就预测到了这场灾难。一位角色说，玛雅人在几千年前就看到了这点。

巴罗尔斯不清楚好莱坞的误解来自何处，但情况可能是这样的:让人们产生疑问的这部玛雅历（只是20部历法之一，都极其复杂）是以约5,200年为一个周期。的确，2012年，具体地说是2012年12月20日是玛雅历法的一个关键日期，因为它代表着第四个千年周期的结束，长者称这个周期是以水为特征的。巴罗尔斯说，到2012年12月21日，第五轮就开始了。他坚信那时不是世界的末日。事实上，第五轮将象征着和谐和与自然世界更为紧密的时刻。这与预告片的说法──海啸毁灭了里约热内卢──相距甚远（美国国家航空及太空总署(NASA)也试图打消有关2012年的荒诞说法）。

巴罗尔斯相当肯定地认为，相信好莱坞有关世界末日将在几年内来临的说法是错误的。他说，他在以前做出预言，其中许多都变成了现实，如美国入侵伊拉克的日期和奥巴马当选美国总统。他说，忘记2012年会发生灾难吧。关注2011年的8月和11月份。巴罗尔斯说，届时更可能爆发金融危机。

在回答对玛雅巫师揭穿《2012》真相的反应时，哥伦比亚公司媒体关系部高级副总裁艾勒泽说，这纯粹是一部虚构娱乐片。 译文:幼芬