I am a 43 year Greek living in Greece. I have been working for 20 years straight since I was 21.

Now I am unemployed for almost 2 years. My plans, my hopes, my dreams, my future are gone. Period.

I have never gotten paid/susidized/granted funds by the State. I have never bribed anyone to get something done. I never got a job in the public sector - never wanted one. I have always paid all my taxes on time. I did my time in the army and have tried to respect the law.

My father (born 1932) retired at 67. My mother at 62. Most people I know don't expect to SEE retirement - never mind retiring at 50 as some say.

I've worked in tourism for 15 years, 24/7, always on call, no schedule, never punched a card. I worked as a sales exec, pitched for my money and my career, put in the hours, the miles, the stress and the infighting, I toed the company line. Always thought "9 to 5" was just a song title.

I didn't vote for the BIG FAMILY NAMES, or in order to get a kickback, I voted for people I believed in - they never got elected.

I took out a loan, couple of credit cards, never lived THE BIG LIFE, never "stood around in groups doing nothing" as someone wrote - as if describing cattle - always tried to live within my means, with my family, my friends. Now I cannot make my payments.

Like most Greeks, I had fun - living in one of the most beautiful and lively countries in the world has its perks. But after working hard, we like to have fun - blow off steam. We don't believe that everything dies after 21:00, or that we have to go out once a week to get blasted and pass out in the gutter.

The middle-aged shopowner who closes his shop at 22:00, way after regular hours, will stop and have a glass of ouzo with his pals at the corner cafe. The young execs will go to a bar straight after the sales meeting that finishes late in the evening, to unwind and "socialize". The construction worker will find time to go with his family - or friends for a pizza (or souvlaki if you prefer). That is the standard not the exception. If this offends the grey masses that march from factory/office to bed and back, so be it.

If, to someone who visits the country for 10 days in the middle of summer this looks like people who are living a laid back life, all I can say is... nothing. They will never get it. But I've had the good fortune of many friends from all over the world, who always marvelled at a) the long hours we worked b) our eagarness to have fun after work and c) our rediculous wages.

My country entered the EU and the Euro - noone asked me by the way. Main difference? 5 out of 6 cars at the traffic lights are Volkswagens and 8 out of 10 washing machines are Bosch. The European industrial states opened up our market. And then they loaned us freely so we could buy and buy and buy some more from them. We stopped producing. We let tourism - our one true heavy industry - decline and wither. The state - the politicians - were content to just hand out the money in one form or another. No infrastructure was created. Private enterprise and profit were demonized and condemned to the stake. Industry and R&D died.

Now I am told that I owe billions of Euros to banks, states and the IMF. The economy is dead, pure and simple. I cannot get an interview - never mind a job. My almost 80-year old parents can barely manage on their social security pensions - and they also have to support me... I try to start a small business and the state won't let me, demands I atually have to pay them for the right to start something on my own, condemns me to indefinite unemployment.

It is easy and maybe gratifying for some to simply blame "the GREEKS" as a nation, as a whole. And for sure Greeks carry a lot of blame for our own systemic inadequecies and problems. However, it is much more difficult to acknowledge that the blame is far more widespread, that the current financial systems and institutions all but guarantee that soon we may not be the exception but rather the rule...