PIGS

[Ireland (Nagasakee)]

To: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
From: Michael Martin, Foreign Minister, Republic of Ireland

Re: PIGS

Madam Secretary, it was my pleasure to recently hold the very first bilateral meeting with you on 16 March 2009. I believe this meeting the start of a new chapter in the continued good relations between our countries and the legendary good will between the Irish and American peoples.

Recently, however I have learned of a campaign throughout some parts of American media that is portraying the current economic crisis in the European Union, and specifically in the countries of Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain in a hugely and quite inappropriate light.

The campaign in specific refers to these four countries, including my own beloved Ireland, as PIGS, using the first letter of each country in an acronym format.

Typically I would not bother you for trivial name-calling. However in Ireland we believe in what I think is actually an American saying, that "perception is reality".

Ireland has recently submitted a proposal to the EU membership requesting a seven country meeting on this very issue. Being referring to by this unfortunate acronym could easily set the international "narrative".

As the foreign relations leader in country controlling the greatest marketing media force the world has ever known, I beseech you to make an immediate statement regarding the disparaging use of "PIGS".

[China (Dax)]

(( This belongs in the US's foreign affairs thread. ))