The acronym was cruel enough. More than a decade ago, as Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain fought to prove their creditworthiness to a doubtful world, the term “PIGS” caught on. But it was an innocuous-sounding phrase, “the periphery”, that really hurt, like calling Poland “eastern” Europe. (Or Hampstead a “suburb”.) For millennia, the Mediterranean world viewed most of what happened north of the Alps as incidental, if not barbarous. How stinging to have that condescension reversed.
這個縮寫已經夠殘酷了。十多年前，當葡萄牙、義大利、希臘和西班牙努力向懷疑的世界證明其信用時，「PIGS」這個詞流行起來。但真正傷人的卻是一個聽起來無害的短語——「外圍」，就像稱波蘭爲「東歐」一樣。幾千年來，地中海世界將阿爾卑斯山以北的大部分事件視爲無關緊要，甚至是野蠻的。如今，這種優越感被逆轉，真是刺痛人心。
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