Austerity Is Connected To Misery in Greece
希臘日子苦 撙節惹的禍
By Suzanne Daley

NEA IONIA, Greece – Alexandra Nikolovieni, 55, lost her job escorting young children on a school bus four years ago and has not been able to find another one since. To help financially, her daughter and her son-in-law, who have two children, moved into her house. But now they have lost their jobs, too.
55歲的亞莉珊卓．尼可羅維也尼4年前失去在校車上護送學童的工作後，到現在還找不到其他工作。女兒和女婿有2個小孩，為了接濟她而搬來和她同住，現在他們倆也失業了。

Ms. Nikolovieni, who volunteers at a food pantry in this suburb of Athens, says that every month she sees more and more people like her, qualifying for bundles of groceries and picking out used shoes for themselves or their children.
尼可羅維也尼如今在雅典郊區的紐愛奧尼亞食品分發站當志工，她說每個月看到愈來愈多人像她一樣符合資格，請領成綑的食品雜貨，為自己或子女挑選舊鞋。

“Are things getting better?” she said. “I don’t think so.”
「日子有比較好過嗎？」她說。「我可不這麼認為。」

Nowhere have austerity policies been more aggressively tried – and generally failed to live up to results promised by advocates – than in Greece. After more than four years of frugality, patience is wearing thin, and tentative signs of improvement have not yet trickled down into the lives of average Greeks.
沒有任何地方比希臘更用力推行撙節政策，成果卻遠不如撙節鼓吹者當時的許諾。4年多的縮衣節食下來，耐心消磨殆盡，經濟的初步改善卻尚未惠及一般民眾的生活。

Now, after its Parliament failed to pick a president in December, forcing early elections, Greece faces a turning point in how to heal its devastated economy.
由於國會去年12月無法選出總統，國會必須提前改選，希臘該如何收拾經濟的爛攤子，面臨轉捩點。

In the January 25 general election, a majority center-right coalition government that has reluctantly stuck with austerity policies will face a charismatic left-wing challenger who says it is time for Greece to take its future into its own hands and do what it can to stimulate growth. Whichever path the country chooses, the outcome is likely to have broad implications for Greece and its place in the European Union.
在元月25日的國會大選，勉強遵守撙節政策的中間偏右聯合政府，將面對充滿群眾魅力的左派挑戰者，這位挑戰者宣稱希臘民眾掌握自身命運，並盡力刺激經濟成長的時刻已經來臨。無論希臘選擇哪條路，大選結果對希臘以及希臘在歐盟的地位想必都會有深遠影響。

In 2010, with Greece crippled by debt and threatening the survival of the euro, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank began imposing German-inspired austerity on the country. The aim was to slash the budget deficit and address problems like corruption and a failure to collect taxes. Such policies, they promised, would get Greece back on its feet, able to borrow again on financial markets.
2010年希臘債台高築，危及歐元存亡，歐盟、國際貨幣基金和歐洲央行開始強力希臘實施德國發想的撙節政策。目標是大砍預算赤字，處理貪腐和課不到稅的問題。當事者承諾相關政策能讓希臘恢復元氣，再度從金融市場借到錢。

Greeks grudgingly went along, assured that painful reform would return the country to growth by 2012. Instead, Greece lost 400,000 jobs that year.
希臘人心不甘情不願地配合，相信痛苦的改革能讓國家在2012年恢復成長；反而希臘在那年有40萬人丟掉工作。

Greece’s unemployment rate was supposed to top out at 15 percent in 2012, according to International Monetary Fund calculations. But it roared to 25 percent that year, reached 27 percent in 2013 and has ticked downward only slightly since.
國際貨幣基金估算，希臘失業率應於2012年達到最高點15%，卻飆到25%，翌年更升到27%，迄今僅微幅下跌。

Now, Greece is no longer spending far more than it receives, when debt payments are excluded, its officials say. It has remained in the European Union, and can again borrow in the bond markets, though at interest rates that have been creeping up again, indicating investors’ concern about the nation’s path.
希臘官員說，排除應償債務後，希臘不再嚴重超支。希臘仍留在歐盟，再度能在債券市場借錢，儘管利率悄悄上揚，顯示投資人對希臘前景仍有疑慮。

But the failures have been striking. About 900,000 of the more than 1.3 million who are out of work have not had a paycheck in more than two years, experts say.
但失敗之處仍令人心驚。專家說，目前130多萬失業民眾中約90萬人已有2年多沒領過一次薪水。

Kostas Polychronopoulos, who runs a volunteer soup kitchen in Athens and has been out of a job since 2009, said he had seen many shocking things in recent years, including an old woman in a fur coat who watched from a distance for a long time before finally approaching to accept food.
科斯塔斯．波利克諾波洛斯在雅典經管一家志願施食所，他從2009年起待業至今，表示近年來看過許多令人震驚的事，包括一名穿皮草的老嫗站在遠處觀望許久後，才趨前請領食物。

When he insisted on taking her home, he found she was living in an empty apartment. “She didn’t even have water,” he said.
他堅持送老嫗回家，發現她住在空蕩蕩的公寓。他說：「連水都沒有。」

Even supporters of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras say that he faces a difficult challenge to persuade the electorate to stay the course after five years of austerity.
歷經5年的撙節，即使支持者都說，總理薩馬拉斯要說服選民繼續撙節，會是艱難的挑戰。

His principal opponent, Alexis Tsipras, is promising to defy Greece’s creditors, renegotiate the country’s enormous debt, cut some taxes and work to restore cut pensions.
薩馬拉斯的主要對手齊普拉斯承諾要對抗希臘的債主，重新談判龐大的債務，還要減稅並且設法恢復被砍掉的退休金。

It is unclear if Greece’s creditors would be willing to change their approach or if the country may face expulsion from the eurozone, or even the European bloc altogether.
希臘的債主是否願意改變做法，或希臘是否會被逐出歐元區，甚至歐盟，目前仍不清楚。

Yet for many Greeks who have lost everything, rebellion may be a choice they cannot resist, even if it is a scary one.
但是對於已經失去所有的許多希臘人來說，造反也許是一個無法抗拒的選項，縱然是一個讓人提心吊膽的選項。

Michalis Mitsopoulos, an economist who has written two books on the crisis, says many of Mr. Tsipras’s ideas are unworkable.
經濟學家米佐波洛斯針對希臘危機寫過2本書，他說齊普拉斯的許多構想並不可行。

But, he adds, many Greeks are desperate, saying to themselves: “I have no job. I am going to lose my house. My children have no future. What more can happen to me?”
但他接著又說，許多希臘人已經被逼急了，他們告訴自己：「我沒工作，快要保不住房子了，我的子女沒有前途，還有什麼能打擊我？」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/world/europe/greek-patience-with-austerity-nears-its-limit-.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/world/20141231/c31greece/zh-hant/

2015-01-13聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 張佑生譯 原文參見紐時週報七版上