Wednesday, 9 November 2011

希腊小商品业陷入窘境

希腊小商品业陷入窘境

译者 布娃娃
ATHENS — The tiny jewelry shop in the working-class Athens neighborhood was open for business — barely.
雅典—在工薪阶层的社区里，仅剩这家小珠宝店还在营业。
The shop’s proprietor, Tasos (he preferred not to disclose his last name), has not had a sale in more than three months. Because he cannot afford to pay his electricity bills, there was no light to illuminate his storefront display of jewels.
这间铺子的主人，塔索斯（他不愿透漏自己的姓氏），已经有三个多月没有一宗买卖了。因为他支付不起电费，无法点亮店里珠宝橱柜的照明灯。
Like most shell-shocked Greeks here, he has, over the past few months, spent more time watching television than conducting commerce as Greek politicians veered from one political crisis to another. His senses have been battered with all possibilities of a disaster, not least the prospect that Greece might leave the euro.
像这里多数迷茫不安的希腊人一样，过去的几个月里，由于多变的希腊政局，他大部分时间都在看电视而不怎么做买卖。各种可能发生的灾难一次次击打着他，尤其是，希腊将要退出欧元区。
The effect on his small business — which he says may  have to close — has been devastating. His regular customers, whom he rarely sees these days, owe him €14,000, or $19,300, and those that he does see are looking to pawn their family heirlooms to get by.
对他的小买卖来说 — 他说，可能不得不关门大吉了 — 是毁灭性的。他以往的常客，有的这些天几乎见不到了，他们还欠他14000欧元，或者19300美元；他能见到的那些，打算变卖家产以维持生计。
“The politicians are playing games with the people,” he said, his eyes red with exhaustion and stress. “This city is boiling. I am not a protester, but soon the top on the kettle will pop.”
“政客们在耍弄人，”他说，红红的眼睛里充满了困乏和紧张。“这个城市快要沸腾了。我不是一个抗议者，但用不了多久，人们的愤怒会让这个城市沸腾。”
That the Greek economy is in a downward spiral from a relentless program of austerity is well known. Greek manufacturing saw one of its sharpest falls ever in October, and this year overall production is expected to contract by more than 6 percent. What has not yet shown up in the official figures, though, is the extent to which the crisis atmosphere has brought the economy to a virtual standstill.
世人皆知，由于严酷的紧缩政策，希腊的经济在急速减慢。今年10月，希腊制造业经历了最严重的下滑，全年生产总量将缩减6%以上。尽管官方数据还没显示出来，但危机的扩展已经使经济陷入停滞了 。
Auto sales have essentially halted and are at their lowest level since 1993. People who do have cars have trouble paying to operate them. In the last three months, the number of uninsured drivers increased by 500,000, bringing the total to 1.5 million.
汽车销售基本停止，销售量跌至93年以来的最低点。有车的人养不起车。过去三个月里，没上保险的车主增加了50万，总计150万。
Small shops, in many ways the lifeblood of the Greek economy, which relies on domestic demand, are shuttering by the day. And, most acutely, the heightened speculation that Greece might have to return to the drachma has given new impetus to the flood of money leaving Greek banks — money to be deposited abroad, stashed at home or in one’s car and most certainly not spent.
小商品业可以说是希腊经济的命脉，依赖国内需求，现在每天都有铺子关门歇业。最严重的是，希腊可能重新启用德拉克马的推测使更多的现金从希腊银行流失 — 人们将钱转存国外，储藏在家中或汽车里，当然，不会花掉。
Since January 2010, Greek banks have lost €46 billion in deposits — or about 20 percent of annual economic output. But bankers here say that in September and October the numbers picked up substantially, with estimates ranging from €10 billion to €15 billion for just these two months alone.
从2010年1月开始，希腊银行损失了460亿欧元存款 — 约20%的年经济流量。但是银行家称，9月和10月份数量大幅回升，估计仅在这两个月就有100亿到150亿欧元的存款。
Dimitris, a retired truck driver who also did not want to have his full identity revealed, recently sent his €50,000 in life savings to Sweden because, as he put it, “Greece is going bankrupt.”
蒂米楚斯，一位退休卡车司机同样不愿透漏姓氏，最近将他的5万欧元棺材本存到了瑞典，因为，他说：“希腊快要破产了。”
And he has no doubt where the blame lies. “I am impressed that the people have not yet stormed into Parliament and burned the politicians alive — like a souvlaki,” he said.
他知道该怪谁。“很难相信人们没有冲进国会把那些政客活活烧死，就像烤肉串一样，”他说。
The vitriol toward politicians is in many ways more intense than the outrage expressed toward Europe and the International Monetary Fund. Politicians here rarely venture out into public places, and when they do, even the most obscure member of Parliament is accompanied by at least one bodyguard.
人们对希腊政党的批评要比对欧盟和国际货币基金组织的更为强烈。这里的政客们不敢外出，就算他们出来，哪怕是议会里最不起眼的人都要有至少一名保镖跟着。
All of which is giving rise to talk that, instead of putting forward another coalition of failed parties and leaders, new people with new ideas outside the political establishment 机构should be brought in.
所有的议论都是关于这个，应该让有新思路的政治机构以外的新人来解决问题，而不是让已经失败的政党及其领袖重组。
They include Lucas D. Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank, and Stefanos Manos, a former economy minister for the New Democracy Party who has long argued that until Greece lays off a large chunk of its inefficient public work force any hope of true reform is hopeless.
他们包括欧洲中央银行前副总裁卢卡斯巴帕德莫斯；新民主党前经济部长斯蒂芬诺斯，他曾经声明除非希腊大量裁减低效率工人，否则任何真正有成效的改革都是不可能实现的。
Mr. Manos’s latest program is even more controversial. He proposes that as much as €300 billion worth of Greek assets be put into a vast “goody bag,” including plots of land, sites of historical significance and even prized islands, as collateral to secure an immediate €75 billion loan from Europe that would be used to buy discounted Greek bonds and pay off debtors. In return, Greece would agree to sell most of the assets in the goody bag within the next 10 years or so and pay back the loan — with a bit left over, he hopes.
巴帕德莫斯最近的计划引来更多争议。他提议将希腊价值3千亿欧元的资产投入一个“福袋”，包括土地，历史遗迹甚至有价值的岛屿之类的作为相关担保，以获得 欧盟750亿欧元的贷款，这些贷款将用来购买折价希腊国债和还债。接下来，希腊同意在未来10年内卖掉“福袋”中大部分资产来偿还贷款 — 他希望袋子里还会有些许剩余。
“Call me a taboo killer if you will,” he said. “Fire Greek workers, sell Greek islands — politicians here have to overcome their taboos.” And, he added, they have little time to do so. “Everything has stopped here,” he continued. “People are taking their money out of the country. The bomb is ticking.”
“如果愿意你们可以管我叫违戒者，”他说。“解雇希腊的工人，变卖希腊的土地 — 政治家们需要打破那些禁忌。”而且，他们的时间不多了。“一切要从现在停止，”他补充道，“人们正把的钱带出希腊。这是颗滴答作响的炸弹。”
For many in Athens, it has already gone off. In the upscale neighborhood of  Kolonaki, where much of the Athenian elite live and shop, flashy clothes and luxury shops are shutting down left and right, the result of a Greek consumer strike that includes not just the lower and middle tiers of the economy but its highest as well.
许多希腊人离开了雅典。在科罗娜及的高档小区，这是雅典精英们居住和购物的地方。由于希腊消费者罢购运动，参与者不仅来自中低阶层还有富人，漂亮服饰和奢侈品店铺一家接一家的关门了。
In part this has been driven by the intense pressure the government has been under to meet set targets to secure its next round of loans. With tax collection still a challenge, Greece has imposed heavy doses of value-added taxes on consumers and, most controversially, a special real estate tax has been attached to Greeks’ electricity bills.
这样的局面一部分由于政府面对强大的压力，它必须完成既定指标才能获得下期贷款。因为税收不足，希腊政府向消费者课以重税，最具争议的，是希腊电费中附带的特别房产税。
But making matters worse, shop owners say, has been the political uncertainty and the constant strikes and riots that can shut down their stores for days at a time.
但这让情况更糟，商铺店主们说，政局不稳以及连续发生的罢工和骚乱，每次都让他们的店铺歇业好几天。
“Our business is in a free fall — down 70 percent since the crisis,” said Maurizio Urcivolo, the owner of Maurizio’s, a high-end women’s clothing boutique. It’s the end of the day on a Friday, and while the street outside bustles with activity, his store is empty of customers — as it has mostly been during the past two months as the crisis reached its peak.
“我们的营业额在直线下降 — 自危机发生以来下降了70%，”马瑞左乌册沃罗说，他是马瑞左这家高级流行女装店的老板。这天是星期五，一天就要结束了，外面大街上闹哄哄骚动起来，他的店里一个客人也没有 — 自从危机严重以来的两个月里，一直是这样。
He is closing his flagship Kolonaki store in January and he, too, knows who is to blame. “We hate all politicians,” he said. “We think they are responsible for all this.”
一月份他关闭了科罗娜及的旗舰店，并且他也清楚谁该遭到谴责。“我们讨厌所有的政客，”他说。“他们该为这一切负责。”
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