Esperanto About meAuthor: David Poulson Introductory note for new visitors to the Esperanto Topic. If you have only just begun to take an interest in Esperanto and wish to know some basic information about this fascinating subject, please start your reading at the first article of this series. Having already completed 69 articles, I am now at the stage of writing articles for those readers who have learned quite a lot about the Esperanto language and movement already, and who are now wanting to find out more than just the basic introductory information. To get to the beginning of this series After you have read the first article, click on the link at the top of the page which says "Articles" to find the rest of the series, which is listed in reverse chronological order. ________________________________________________________ Well, here I am back with another article for the Esperanto Topic at Suite 101 after a break which was longer than I either wanted or anticipated. And now I am not sure how much longer I will be able to continue this series of articles. I would like to take this opportunity to explain my present circumstances to the many loyal readers of this topic who have supported me during the last 18 months. Their letters of appreciation and valuable contributions to the Discussions have been a real morale booster for me at a time when my professional life was at its lowest ebb. So this article, if you will forgive me, will say nothing about the history and development of the Esperanto movement, but it will say a little about the recent history of a fairly well known veteran Esperantist. Me! New readers should go straight to the beginning of this series of articles where they will find a great deal of information, enough to keep them occupied for many hours. At the end of 1998, the senior executive of the university where I have worked for the last 21 years, decided to launch a misguided and counter-productive re-structuring exercise which, in the view of a large majority of staff, could (and did) only achieve two things: the loss of a bout 100 jobs, nearly all of them useful and productive administrative and technical support staff, and inflated salaries for a new managerial elite whose greed is only matched by their ignorance of how basic functions are performed and their inability to get things done. Although I myself was invited to apply for an over-paid senior position I chose instead to write to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, explaining that I was wholly unsupportive of the university?s initiative and would not have anything to do with it. since my own job was eventually ?disestablished? I eventually, in June this year, received a letter advising me that I was now ?deemed excess to requirements.? Connoisseurs of irony may appreciate knowing that: a) that same week I received another letter saying that I was ?the perfect person? to teach a unit in an off-shore programme in Thailand, and would I please do it?? b) the Public Relations Officer wrote to me and said that because of my 20 years of continuous service, she was proposing to write a feature article about me in the University magazine; c) so many competent staff had left the place by August this year, that I had to personally manage every step of my own dismissal and resulting compensation. I know it?s hard to believe! Anyway, to cut along and depressing story short, when my wife new, in early 1999, that I was going to be ?my usual stubborn self? she went out shopping with my two teenaged daughters. They bought three cars and two houses and then my wife said sweetly, ?NOW they can fire you!? Considering the fact that we had absolutely no savings at the time, (my wife has been a full-time and unpaid mother and my salary just paid the bills), I?m sure you?ll agree that my panic attack was not entirely an unreasonable response. But here are the results of my very clever wife?s very bold gambit. My elder daughter, who had her twentieth birthday this year, is now settled in a fully furnished, new and beautiful home of her own. Her sister may join her later but has decided to move into a little villa near the beach for now. From the Inland Revenue service I have just received a huge re-funded --the largest of my life! After a month?s hard work, cleaning, painting, repairing and gardening, our large house is ready to be offered for sale. After it is sold, my wife and I will move into our other new and smaller home, (which we bought for a very low price!) and then we will be able to pay off all of our debts and have a substantial sum of money left over. But, of course, moving house is a very disruptive business and, complicating matters even more, I plan to return to Thailand for a several weeks in January. And that puts the long-term future of this topic in some doubt. In the short-term, however, I have several weeks before the end of this year, during which time I will write as much as circumstances allow, and even, if I am very productive, stock-pile enough material to see me through until March, when I will be home again from Thailand. So, that's my story. I hope that next week, I can continue the much more interesting story of Esperanto in China. I'll see you all then. |