原作者：
来源Greece on the Brink
译者花港游鱼
Greece on the Brink
边缘挣扎的希腊
By Evelyn Toynton
伊夫林 托尼顿(Evelyn Toynton)
There’s a story circulating in Athens lately about George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister. Arriving with his retinue at a popular taverna just outside the city, and noting that many of its patrons were smoking — a practice banned inside eating places in Greece, as in the rest of the European Union, for some years — he wheeled around and went outside, to give people time to put out their cigarettes. When he reentered, several minutes later, everyone was still smoking.
最近在雅典有一个关于希腊总理约帕潘德里欧的故事。他和他的随行人员来到城外一家受欢迎的餐馆，看到餐馆的很多顾客们都在吸烟—希腊在几年前就已经禁止在就餐地点吸烟这一行为，欧洲联盟其余的地方也是如此—他转过身，走出餐馆，想让大家把香烟熄了。当他几分钟后再次进入时，大家还在吸烟。
The anecdote is meant to illustrate the ineffectiveness of the Greek leader (”You see how hopeless he is?” a Greek friend asked, after telling me the story), but it also says a great deal about the Greeks themselves. Often accused of being anarchists, they take a certain pride in their unruliness. “The Greeks have never learned to be citizens, to see themselves as part of the state,” another friend explained. “Myself also. If my courtyard is clean, I really don’t mind if there is rubbish in the square.”
这件事是为了说明希腊领导人的无能（“你看他是多么失望？”一个希腊朋友告诉我这个故事后说道），但它也反映了希腊人自身的很多特点。 他们虽常常被批评为无政府主义者，却以其无法无天略为自豪。“希腊人从来没有学会做一名公民，将自己视为国家的一部分。”另一位朋友解释说。“我自己也是这样。 如果我的院子是干净的，我真的不介意广场上有没有垃圾。”
For the past few days, there has instead been rioting in the square. As the financial press waxes gloomy about the prospect of a Greek default (calling it a “Lehman moment”), and the International Monetary Fund pressures the reluctant Germans to agree to a second bailout, protesters from across the political spectrum have rallied in opposition to the strict austerity measures proposed by the hapless Papandreou, who has been forced to promise the Germans further drastic cuts in seeking the loans his country desperately needs.
在过去的几天里，广场上没有垃圾，倒是有一场暴乱。 由于金融新闻表示希腊违约（称为“雷曼时刻”）的前景暗淡，而国际货币基金组织迫使不情愿的德国人同意第二次救助，来自各政治派别的抗议者团结在一起反对不幸的帕潘德里欧提出的严格的紧缩政策，因为他一直被迫答应德国人进一步大幅削减他国家迫切需要的贷款。
Some of the protesters are angry that their generous pensions have been cut; some, that the bloated Greek civil service is going to eliminate more jobs. Others are concerned that the proposed measures will cut into tax revenues, making it less likely than before that the Greek government will ever be able to repay its debt, and potentially sinking the economy further into recession. Still others feel they are being punished for sins the rest of the world is still getting away with. Greeks — and Greece — may have lived beyond their means for decades, but as they point out, so did many others, including Americans. And what about the American bankers of Goldman Sachs, who colluded in 2000 with a corrupt right-wing government to hide the true levels of Greek debt so that the country could join the Eurozone? They made a fortune off the deal, but no German is insisting they pay it back or surrender their birthright (as two German ministers did in March when they suggested Greece sell off its islands, or even the Acropolis).
一些抗议者是因为他们丰厚的退休金被缩减而愤怒；一些是因为臃肿的希腊行政部门将要削减更多的就业机会。另一些担忧提出的措施将会减少税收收入，使希腊政府比以前更不可能无法偿还债务，并有可能使经济进一步陷入衰退。还有的人认为他们正在为世界其他地区仍在逃脱的罪恶接受惩罚。希腊人民 – 和希腊 – 入不敷出的生活可能已经持续了几十年，但正如他们指出的，很多人也都这样，包括美国人。高盛投资公司 (goldman sachs)的美国银行家又怎么样呢，他们在2000年和腐败的政府右翼相勾结，隐藏希腊债务的真正水平使希腊得以加入欧元区。他们这笔交易中掠去了一定的财富，但没有一个德国人坚持他们要偿还或放弃其基本权利（如两个德国部长在三月时所做的，他们建议希腊廉价出售其岛屿，甚至是雅典卫城）。
There will be an emergency meeting of European finance ministers in Brussels this weekend — the second such gathering in less than a week. To protect the Euro and prevent potentially catastrophic defaults, the Eurogroup will almost certainly issue further loans. France and the European Central Bank have finally managed to persuade Germany that such a step is necessary. Papandreou, after failing to form a coalition government, has now appointed a new finance minister, who has pledged to wage war on the country’s economic problems. The financial press reports that “the markets” have been calmed by his promises. Whether the Greek people will also be calmed is still an open question.
欧洲各国财政部长的紧急会议将在本周末在布鲁塞尔召开 — 在不到一周内第二次这样的聚集。若要保护欧元和防止潜在的严重违约，欧元集团将几乎毫无疑问地发行进一步贷款。法国和欧洲央行终于说服了 德国 采取这一必要步骤。在组建联合政府失败后，帕潘德里欧目前任命了一名新的财政部长，新财政部长承诺继续与国家的经济问题做斗争。财经媒体报道，“市场”已因他的诺言恢复平静。但希腊人是否会平静下来，仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。
本文由自动聚合程序取自网络，内容和观点不代表数字时代立场
