Monthly Archives: April 2012

International Workers’ Day: 1 May 2012

29 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in United States, Working Life

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Labor Day is commemorated internationally on May 1. For this reason, the day is also known as May Day. It is a national holiday in more than 80 countries – including Guyana and Brazil – during which workers and their labor unions organize street demonstrations and marches.

In the United States, Labor Day is not celebrated until the first Monday in September (3 September 2012). Nevertheless, on Tuesday, 1 May 2012, the OCCUPY Movement has organized an Occupy May Day – General Strike.

No work – no school – no shopping – no banking – no trading.

Learn more about events planned for that day in your city at occupywallst.org.

Earth Day 2012: Mobilize the Earth

22 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Nature and the Environment

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Planet Earth: Our Home

Source: technologybloggers.org

Today is Earth Day.  It’s the day of the year that the Earth Day Network (EDN) mobilizes people worldwide to appreciate our planet and to do our part to protect it (www.earthday.org).

Forty two years ago, on 22 April 1970, the first Earth Day roused 20 million Americans to the plight of our planet that provides us with food and shelter. The new awareness of how our actions were affecting and destroying our environment led to the environmental movement.

Since then, the Earth Day Network works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement. This expansion has led to the yearly participation of more than one billion people in Earth Day activities.

Planet Earth is in distress. Record hot temperatures are affecting animal and plant life. Tornadoes and hurricanes are increasingly more intense and ruthless in their destruction. Melting ice caps are re-shaping our coastlines. While some regions of Earth experience years of drought, other regions face devastating floods.

The simple truth is that we humans have grown too much and too fast for our planet. The US Census Bureau estimated that the world population on 12 March 2012 had exceeded seven billion (www.census.gov). When mankind learned to utilize and appropriate the natural wealth of our planet for building and supporting our great cities and nations, we embarked on a race to self-destruction. Modern man has failed to learn from the excesses of ancient civilizations.

To quench the world’s ever-growing need for food, water, energy, and the trappings of modern life, large-scale producers and transnational corporations – with no allegiance to any nation, seeking only to maximize profits – lace our soils, groundwater, rivers, lakes, oceans, and the air we breathe with toxins.

It’s up to you and me to continue demanding responsible actions in utilizing and exploiting the Earth’s natural resources. You and I must also look at our own behavior to put an end to our waste; to learn to conserve and re-cycle. If you already do so, Mother Earth thanks you.

Gravity keeps us rooted to the earth. With gravity of mind, we have to re-think the way we live or suffer the consequences: an inhospitable planet.

UPDATE 20 FEBRUARY 2013

Watch “Spaceship Earth” in the movie Overview by Planetary Collective, released on 7 December 2012 (duration 19:02 minutes).

Dear Reader, my debut novel, Under the Tamarind Tree, is now available at Rosaliene’s Store on Lulu.com and other book retailers at Amazon, BAM! Book-A-Million, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, and Indie Bound.

Learn more about Under the Tamarind Tree at Rosaliene’s writer’s website.

Nightmare for Job Seekers in the USA

15 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in United States, Working Life

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Job Fair in Los Angeles 2012 – California – USA

Source: dodgersphotog.mlblogs.com

When I emigrated with my sons to the USA in 2003, my experience in international trade and fluency in Portuguese were not enough to secure a position with an import-export company. My older son, with a Brazilian associate degree in computer programming, did not fair well either.

We joined thousands of job seekers at job fairs in Los Angeles. Flash interviews with company representatives at the various booths brought no success.

Some months later, learning about vacancies at a retail store opening in West Hollywood, we joined a line with over 2,000 people in Plummer Park. Over two hours elapsed before our turn came to enter the Community Center building where the job interviews were held. We first had to complete application forms, followed by an interview, and then a written test about integrity and work attitudes. A short film presentation about the corporation ended the day’s events.

I got a position but my son did not.

Since 2008, the global financial crisis has opened the eyes of Americans to a new reality. Looking for a job has become a nightmare. In March 2012, 12.7 million people were out of work. Over five million of them were unemployed for four months and more. Consider their plight of finding a job when there were only 3.5 million job openings in February. Discouraged, 865,000 people have stopped looking for work. (Figures published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 2012.)

Lz, my Brazilian-American friend, did not give up. During a recent phone conversation, she told me: “Rose, we do what we gotta do.”

Lz is a fashion consultant. We met about two years ago when she opened a boutique in my neighborhood. I loved her taste in clothing and accessories. Her boutique was a joy to explore. But business was slow. Efforts to boost sales did not yield results. It saddened me when she had to close her business.

About six months after closing her boutique, Lz called me with good news. After failing to find work, she was in training to become a tourist guide. She was ecstatic about going on her first trial tour in Los Angeles with a group of Brazilian tourists.

Lz has re-invented herself. Accepting the new challenge entailed moving to Palm Desert in Riverside County, a two-hour drive from Los Angeles, where her employer is located. She and her husband left their home of thirty years. Their son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters remain in Los Angeles.

In a tough economy, competition for jobs is fierce. First-time job seekers compete with older and experienced candidates. Workers without the required qualifications and skills will be left behind. Job seekers must be prepared to learn new skills or re-locate.  (A young neighbor, unemployed for almost a year, finally got a job in the US Virgin Islands. His girlfriend left her job to join him.)

Today, I am pursuing a new career as a writer and novelist. Every profession has its challenges. As Lz reminded me: We do what we gotta do.

Marathon Job Interview at a Brazilian Exporting Company

08 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Brazil, Working Life

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 Melon Production for Exportation – Ceará – Brazil

Source: http://www.carlosescossia.com

Looking for work is tough in a marketplace where job openings are scarce. Extra earnings from private English lessons and Portuguese/English translations, done in the evenings after work, were insufficient to cover my shortfall. I considered moving my sons to a less expensive private school, but one of their teachers advised me against the move. My older son begged to stay.

I submitted job applications to all the major exporters in Fortaleza. No response. Then a friend told me of an opening for an Import/Export Analyst at a medium-sized melon producer and exporter. The company’s administrative office was within walking distance from my sons’ school. Perfect, I thought.

Two days later, I waited in the company’s front office for a job interview at 2:00 p.m. The Commercial Director, an international trade professional from Southeast Brazil, interviewed me in fluent English. At the end of the interview, I had to complete a written English test, as well as compose and type a response to a letter from an overseas client.

After I completed the test, he took me to the office of the Finance Director who spoke with me only in Portuguese.

Following the second interview, I waited in the front office for a meeting with the owner and President of the company. During my half-hour or so wait, the company driver pummeled me with questions. (Brazilians are friendly people who enjoy talking with strangers.)

The Commercial Director accompanied me to the President’s office. The President, a man in his late forties, filled the large chair behind the desk. We chatted about my impressions of Brazil.

When I left the one-story house converted into offices, the sun had already disappeared.

A week later, the Commercial Director called with the news: the job was mine.

On joining the company, I shared an office with the Import-Export Manager and his assistant. While his assistant took care of the import-export documentation, the Import-Export Manager spent most of his time at the port, airport or the banks.

For one month, I worked with the Commercial Director in handling overseas orders, queries, and accounts for shipments of fresh melons on consignment. After he left to set up offices in London and Rotterdam, I became his link with the Fortaleza office and the company’s two melon farms.

I had completed three months with the company the day the President informed me that the Import-Export Manager was no longer a member of the staff. “You are taking over his responsibilities,” the President told me. This was an unexpected development.

No wonder they put me through the grind during the job interviews, I thought on my way to pick up my sons at school later that evening.

In the months ahead, I had a lot to learn…and fast.

In small- and medium-sized companies, job candidates not only have opportunities to grow as professionals, but also the chance to make a difference in a company’s success.

Be the difference.

Job Interview: Seeking a Position in Guyana’s Civil Service

01 Sunday Apr 2012

Posted by in Guyana, Working Life

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Source: Job Interview Mistakes (www.askmen.com)

To prepare for our entrance into the workplace and lead productive lives as adults, we spend years in elementary and secondary schools and, for those who can afford it, college or university. Then, when the time comes to enter the workplace, we discover that our academic achievements are not enough to get a job. We have to face a selection process. It helps when we have a relative or friend in the company, organization or government agency to help us to gain entry. But this is no guarantee to obtaining the desired position.

The unwritten rules of the selection process did not work in my favor when I applied for a position with a newly established government planning commission in my native land, Guyana. The then Head of the Geography Department of the University of Guyana recommended me for a position and arranged a job interview.

Judging from the response from my four male interviewers, the job interview was proceeding well. Then one of the interviewers asked me what I thought about our education system. I applauded the government’s bold step to make education free from nursery to university – achieved two years prior to my job interview.

Based on my experience as an Acting Headmistress at a high school in a remote interior region, I added: “But with the short supply of text books and teaching materials, I think the government needs better allocation of funds for our less privileged interior schools.”

The atmosphere changed in the room. My job interview came to an abrupt end. I knew then that I had blown the opportunity of getting the position.

When the Head of the Geography Department met with me two weeks later, he did not greet me with his usual dimpled smile. “Your criticisms didn’t go down well with the government people,” he told me.

“Yeah, I noticed.”

I believed that the position called for a person with integrity. And integrity must begin with the job interview.

“You should’ve left your criticisms for later…after you got the job,” my best friend told me.

Had I told my future employers what they wanted to hear, would I have to sacrifice my principles at a future time in order to keep my position? These are choices we have to make and must live with the consequences.

After failing at that job interview, I learned that my future did not lie in the civil service unless I was prepared to remain silent. My dream of serving my country as a civil servant was shattered. In Guyana’s ethnic-racial civil service, academic qualifications, experience, and skills are of secondary consideration. Allegiance to the ruling party continues to be paramount for obtaining top positions.

The job interview is a two-way process. For the job applicant, it provides insight into the behavior of the organization’s executives towards their staff members and how you would likely be treated when hired. As employees, our job satisfaction and opportunities for professional growth depend upon these considerations.