the central Athens meat market with the
economy on a knife edge for less
well-off traveled big distances to look
for bargains here they've reduced our
pensions and we have to pay more tax on
that it's becoming very difficult to
survive for many it's only going to get
harder to make ends meet by night
middle-class Athenians step out to
escape their troubles meeting in busy
tavernas it's become they say a kind of
therapy itself a Greek word inside it's
difficult for me I'm gonna explode I
don't have any if I do that I think that
I'm gonna be true to my bed's all day
and all night
many can still afford this way of life
despite the gloomy prospect and while
they may yearn for better times life
they say must go on
for the poor and the elderly some living
on just a few hundred dollars a month
there's no escape we don't see light at
the end of the tunnel we don't see light
anywhere we don't have hope these are
both difficult and humiliating times in
ancient Greece the Agora
or marketplace was the vibrant heart of
a society that gave birth to the modern
values of Commerce and democracy it's
changed a bit since then they still talk
politics and the economy but there's
little of another Greek word in the air
enthusiasm the marks of yesterday are
everywhere many fear what tomorrow will
bring
Jonah Hall al Jazeera Athens