Monthly Archives: June 2012

U.S. Self Storage Inc.

24 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in Human Behavior, Nature and the Environment, United States

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Self Storage Building in Compton, Southern California

Source: http://www.selfstorages.com

 

In Los Angeles, when you drive through middle class residential areas in the early morning and evening, you will notice that cars line both sides of the street. Although many families have more than one vehicle, not all of them use their garage for its intended purpose. The garage, for lots of people, is an area for storing stuff.

Problems arise when the stuff accumulated can no longer fit in the garage. While some take the time to organize their stuff and donate or dispose of it through yard or garage sales, others opt to rent one or more self-storage units. Until recently, a close relative stored her collection of collectible dolls and action figures in such a unit. Another relative, forced to downsize her home, now keeps her excess furniture and household articles in self storage.

According to the American Self Storage Association (SSA), the industry grossed over $20 billion in 2011. Based on the industry’s performance since the economic recession of September 2008, Wall Street analysts consider the business “recession resistant” (www.selfstorage.org). Moreover, there is a growing lucrative business in auctioning off the contents of self storage units for non-payment of monthly fees (www.storageauctions.com).

Considering that millions of Americans have lost their homes to foreclosure since the global financial crisis, there is also an increased demand for storage space as homeless families find shelter with relatives and friends and put their belongings in storage. Moreover, while we continue to crave more stuff than we have room for, the self storage industry will continue to be a lucrative business enterprise.

All this unused, excessive stuff that we store in our garages and rental storage units comes with a big price tag. The production of consumer goods contributes to the depletion of Earth’s non-renewable mineral resources. Then, when we dispose of our non-perishable and toxic junk, we contribute to the pollution of our natural environment. News about the cumulative effects of man’s activities on our planet grows more somber with each new day.

Can we maintain our high consumption rate without detrimental consequences for our own well-being and those of our children and grandchildren?

 

Remembering our Fathers on Father’s Day

17 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in About Me, Family Life, Guyana, Human Behavior, Relationships

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My Father, P.E. Fung – Photo taken during a hunting trip in Guyana

Our fathers are rarely everything we would like them to be. Many of them focus all of their energies on their work to provide us with a safe home, a good education, and all the stuff that makes us happy. Many others turn their backs on us while we are still young, leaving us to be raised by our mothers or other relatives. Some of them, like my father, are emotionally challenged: unable to express their love for us.

My father seemed to like spending time with his friends more than he did with me and my four siblings. He and his many friends went fishing; shooting birds; and hunting deer, wild pig, and wild cow (tapir). As the “cook-man” among his friends, he prepared and cooked the wild meat killed during their weekend hunting trips. “Cook-night” was party night in our back yard.

In our home, my father enforced the rules of good conduct.  At a time when corporal punishment was acceptable behavior, he did not spare the rod and spoil the child, as he believed. We feared him for the licks he meted out.

After leaving home at eighteen, I learned over time to forgive my father for the shortcomings that negatively impacted our lives. With parenthood came my perception of the difficulties he must have faced to father five children during turbulent and uncertain times in our country’s history. I realized that, given his circumstances and shortcomings, he did the best that he could as a father to direct us along the right path.

Reflecting on my life with my father with an open heart, I learned to appreciate all that I had inherited from him: a love of books and reading, music, and the natural world. (I do not know from which side of the family I inherited my talent for drawing and painting.) My fascination for international trade was also his gift to me. As I mentioned in an earlier post, my father was an import clerk. He was responsible for preparing the mustard-yellow customs forms (sometimes done by hand at our dining room table), taking care of bank import documents, and clearing the goods at the port.

Eleven years ago, my father died alone in his home in Georgetown, Guyana. We had all left him for distant shores. (I was the last to leave Guyana.) But, despite his stormy marriage, he never abandoned us. I would like to believe that staying with us was his way of demonstrating his love for us.

No matter how old we get, the influence of our fathers in our lives, for good or for bad, remains with us. This Father’s Day, I prefer to remember the good times I spent with my father and to think of him with love in my heart.

Brazil: Training as an Import/Export Manager in the Fresh Fruit Market

10 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in Brazil, Working Life

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Port of Rotterdam, Netherlands – Europe’s main trading and distribution center for fruits, vegetable and fruit juices (Source: thelink.co.in)

When I embarked on my new career as an international trade professional, there were no international business courses yet available at the educational institutions in Fortaleza, capital of the Northeastern State of Ceará. Anyone seeking qualification in the field had to move down south to the major commercial cities, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Then in 1990, President Fernando Collor de Mello (1990-1992) opened the Brazilian market to imports, increasing the demand for qualified international trade professionals throughout the country.

By the time I had joined the import/export team at Melon Exporters S.A. (fictitious name), two-day specialized certificate courses (a total of 16 hours) had become available at privately-run training institutes for business executives and entrepreneurs. Qualified experts in their fields, the majority of them from São Paulo, conducted these courses. During the two years (1992-1994) that I worked at Melon Exporters S.A., the president and owner of the company, at my request, not only granted me the time off (usually Fridays and Saturdays), but also (at his own discretion) granted approval for payment of these courses.

I also participated in one-day seminars conducted by the Banco do Brasil, controlled by the Brazilian government and responsible for issuing Import and Export Licenses; conferences for importers and exporters held by state and federal government organs; and regional agricultural fairs and expositions.

At the request of the company’s Commercial Director, I kept a record of the UK wholesale market prices for melons published in the Fresh Produce Journal. I read the weekly-published journal from front to back, as well as a monthly English magazine for fruit growers (the name slips me) that the company also subscribed to. Through books (we did not have Wikipedia at the time), I immersed myself in the European fresh fruit market and the logistics of moving fresh fruit from the farm gate to overseas buyers.

It was a fascinating and challenging journey of discovery, learning, and achievement!

When one lacks funds, time or whatever obstacles stand in the way of achieving one’s goals, there is always a way. It requires more effort and determination. With focus and passion, it is truly amazing what one can achieve.

America’s Fallen Warriors

03 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by in Human Behavior, United States

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Memorial Day 2012 – Long Beach – California – USA

Source: http://www.presstelegram.com

As a high school teacher in Guyana, I worked for one year with Sister Barbara (fictitious name), an American Christian missionary in her late thirties. She was the first American I had met with a personal connection with the Vietnam War. My knowledge about the war had come from reading and the movies.

On Memorial Day, May 28, when Americans remembered the men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. Armed Forces, I recalled Sister Barbara and her older brother who had served in the Vietnam War.

When her brother returned from the Vietnam War, Sister Barbara had told me, he was no longer the caring and happy person she had loved and looked up to. He had become withdrawn and always on edge. Never a heavy drinker, he started drinking to drown the haunting nightmares. Within a year of returning home, he had died on the street. Sister Barbara did not share the details of his death.

Losing her older and only sibling had changed Sister Barbara’s life. Since she never mentioned her parents, I assumed that they had also passed away. That she spoke to me about her brother, over ten years after his death, indicated how much she still felt his loss. Perhaps, her missionary work in a poor, developing nation was her way of giving meaning to her life.

In 2009, more American soldiers deployed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had taken their lives than those who had died on the battlefront that year. Forty five percent of them were between 18 and 25 years of age (study done by U.S. Army Public Health Command). With the growing number of soldiers suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who have committed suicide, following their return home after deployment, it is important that we also remember their sacrifices on the battlefront. They are no less warriors than those who died in action.

That our warriors suffer the trauma of combat is a sign of their humanity. We were not created to slaughter our fellow human beings but rather to preserve and protect life. Engaging in warfare, in order to defend our nation and to protect our families and our way of life, requires that we release the dark, vile side of our human nature.

Our warriors who took (and will continue to take) their lives at battle’s end also died on the battlefield. They, too, should be remembered yearly on Memorial Day. Their despair in the face of atrocities and carnage on the battlefield should give us pause in our personal pursuit of happiness and freedom.