The two faces of the crisis

February 25, 2010
English Language P.4
*Mrs. Vanderhe*yden
Human Interest Story
THE TWO FACES OF THE CRISIS
During these last days we have seen the damages that the crisis is doingand how it is affecting everyone in too many different ways. The people who were used to live very well now are barely eating and paying the bills. There are always interesting stories about all thesepeople, some of them couldn’t survive the crisis, but some of them have tried to afford it.
We’ve seen a lot of suffering caused by this crisis, a lot people losing all they had. A lot of familieswithout hope, but that is the wrong part of the process, because there is always hope, and there is always a way to survive. And that’s why I’m going to tell two stories, because it is necessary to seeboth parts of a situation.
The first one begins with the arrival of Carlos and Maria both from Venezuela to the United States 8 years. They, like so many people came here following the AmericanDream. And the situation at the beginning was not easy, finding a job, a house, trying to save money; but after three years the things seem to work out. Both of them had full-time jobs, “We were finallygetting good money, and living a good life”, Carlos says, “My wife and I were so happy, we even tried to convince our families there in Venezuela to come here, everything was good for us”. Theybought a house, they both had cars but the problem was that they were not saving any money. He talks about one day that he was with Maria at their house, he remembers himself saying to her, -“I think wecan buy a new house, a bigger one, what do you think?” Maria not convicted with the idea told him, -“Carlos we have not finished paying this house, how are we supposed to buy a new one, I don’t think itis a good idea”, and he just said –“we can ask for a new credit, is not that hard, we should try, it is good investment”- So they did. Now, he feels bad for the decision he made that night, because...