13:44 - 03/18/2011
tsunami
We can all quit. Stop. Cease. Desist. Get over it. Fugedaboutit. Oftentimes we don't, stubbornly persisting in behaviour that seems irrational to everyone else. Sometimes that brings scientific or social breakthroughs, while at other times it brings devastation or death.
It was St. Patrick's Day yesterday, which led me to contemplation about the meaning of my given name. It's Irish you see. My Mom was reading a magazine article about a particular river in Ireland whilst in labour with me. She decided that that river's name was somehow meant for me - my name. Even before the advent of baby name books I searched for the meaning of that name in the original gaelic. What I found - don't laugh - was that it meant little old wise one. Something that some of my family would question. Digging deeper into the meaning of the name/word its earlier meaning was salmon, which appeared to have become a symbol for wisdom through ancient Irish mythology. Yet real salmon swin against tremendous odds, through waiting predators and enormous physical obstacles in order to lay their eggs in the same spawning grounds each season. Then they die. How is that wise? Maybe the salmon know something humans don't about a greater plan for this planet. Survival of their species seems to be dependent on this sacrifice.
What triggered that reverie were the events globally lately. The earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan. The floods in Australia. In the sunspot cycles there is a long known and carefully measured correlation between peak solar flares times and seismic/weather patterns inimical to humans. Those flares are now at their strongest and their frequency at the moment is very high. There is also a softer correlation between periods of increased solar activity and aggressive human behaviours such as war. We see the human response to those challenges both in the ways of fighting against all odds to ensure that others survive even if it means one's own demise. We also see those who would destroy everyone else just so that they can maintain a status quo that steals life and a living from those around them. Free will, I guess.
I think maybe salmon are wiser than humans after all. Maybe humans not directly affected are being tested to see whether they understand and can emulate the personal behaviour of the everyday heroism of the people in places like Japan. What saddens me most are those who see and take pleasure in those trials and suffereing as if it was some form of twisted revenge on the Japanese for not being like "us" or for past grievances from generations ago.
Personally there have been the usual trials in my own life. I received a call last weekend from my contact at the placement agency telling me not to return to my assigned worksite, as a "reorganization" was being undertaken. It seems that the project lead from that agency and the liaison from the client were both let go. Replacing the liaison is someone who has been an employee at the client company whom both the agency I was working for and the host company where I was working were supposed to be working for together. The project I was working on was shifted to in-house staff. As a result I am looking for work again.
In all honesty I'm not sorry that the contract is ended - except for the loss of wages, which is a major crisis for me and the other women who were employed by the agency. Oddly, we all three seemed to be chosen partly because of our personal circumstances. In desperate need of employment due to a period of ill health when we couldn't work, to the point where each of us losing our homes is a real possibility. It almost seemed as though what was wanted from us was our knowledge and expertise legally, in handling the documents we were assessing, with the expectation that we wouldn't insist on integrity and due diligence in how that material was handled. At a guess, the onsite host had bid too low for this contract against fierce competition. The client who wanted their data converted were the ones who insisted that outside staff - us - be brought in for their expertise. The client whose site was chosen for their technical facilities did not want us there and made it abundantly clear in their treatment of us.
What was terribly frustrating about the entire scenario is that it was a feud between the two collaborating parties in this assignment that we were sent to, that is what caused the on-again, off-again nature of our job. It was only during the last three weeks of the assignment that we were even allowed to see the data and the work requirements that we were hired to analyse. Prior to that we were left looking for tasks that could be done for the onsite company to justify our presence there. One day when I was at home sick one of my peers called to ask if I could suggest some tasks for to do her because she was refused any from the on-site staff.
Before that last three weeks, an absence was deemed a good thing by the one party whose site we reported to. In fact each week up until I got sick, we were subjected to the president of the on site company coming down and storming into our liaison's office screaming (literally) that our wages were way too much, given that we weren't even working on the data we were hired to analyse. However, it was their company's responsibility to set up, test and run the software we needed to do the work. It seemed as though the people on staff to do the software coding didn't know how to do so and so the long delay.
The contract must have been fairly lucrative for the host company to allow us on site at all, because in every other way they had been as obstructive as possible, without actually descending to harrassment - although I think the screaming fits once a week come close, don't you? However, the one day when I was offered a short temp assignment in a real industry related company, there was a flurry of accommodations made for us - just to be withdrawn the next week.
I think the client may have called the host company on their tactics three weeks ago - setting an impossible deadline for us to meet with respect to processing their data - at least in a "test" phase. We suddenly had tools, like computers and basic office supplies, which we had been refused earlier. We also finally had access to at least a bit information about the requirements the client had for the project as well as some information about the standards they want us to meet to manage their data.
The contract I signed was supposed to begin December 6 2010 and to run for a year. The host company refused to allow us onsite the two weeks over Christmas although all their staff were still going into work, so that was another two weeks of pay lost to an involuntary layoff we hadn't seen mentioned anywhere in our contracts. Just a bad scene altogether. I have to run now dear diary. Will add links and clean up my grammar when I return.
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