Katalin - a Hungarian living in Sweden

I am a Hungarian living in Sweden. I was living here for almost four years. It was never the less an adventure to come ere. Lets just say, I was coming to somethintg better than what I had in Hungary. I got everything I have longed for under these 4 years. I got love, learnt swedish, and a got a well-payed job. It is like a dream.

When the horrible news from NY came to us, I was at work. We sat in the lounge and watched TV. It really felt like a movie. People jumping, sceaming, planes crashing into skycrapers, skycrapers falling down, heroes and villains. It was all there, live on CNN. My first reaction was that this must be some kind of a fake news, in the spirit of Orson Welles´s Mars Attack radioplay. Took a few days until all this felt a bit more real.

But what I did not know, or expected, that this event will affect my life too. Sitting around 10000 miles from NY, it is really not likely that could happen.... or?

This attack has shaked the grounds of the security of companies. And not just the security, but also the self-security. The investers suddenly stopped investing, the companies stopped their marketing campaigns, all of them clutching desperetaly to their money.

And with this sudden "panic-attack", the almost a year-old financial lavine has won new strength and started its journey downwards the indexes. And you ask how this involves my person. It is simple. I am making advertising for a living. And since the companies does not invest because the insecure world economy. No investing in marketing, means no job for me, or my company. And with that my dream has ended abruplwith a short notice om my epmployer, that my services are not needed because work"shortage". So, here I am, no job, and insecure future. It is almost like waking up to a nightmare. But it seems such a triviality to feel sorry for myself. I instead feel sorry for the suffering woman in Afghanistan. I know it will get better for me, but how about them? Will they ever have the good living standard I have as an unemployed? Hardly. Might be their daughters? I hope.

So thats it. My english is not THAT good, so fell free to comment on the above. Regards,

Katalin