Thursday, October 01, 2009

Employ me! Now!

Here is a quick unemployed, irrational, base-less rant.

Cause the bleeding-heart faked-concern smattered all over this tv is killing me. (And maybe the impatience & unanswered-hoping is getting to me).

There have been earthquakes & tsunamis in the area. From Samoa to Indonesia.

The Aussie news… let alone over-focusing on how many Australians have been affected - but the insular nature of the Aussie news is a whole other rant - pulls up top guys from well-known aid organisations to have their opinioned say about this horrible event. Every two seconds, along with scenes from people’s cell phones of the devastation, is some guy talking about how much good him & his organisation are doing and what his “humble” opinion is about how to Save The Day!

And something I am fast learning about the top guys from well-known aid organisations here is that they are opinioned! Over opinioned. Over confident. Over arrogant.

Two weeks ago, at the Climate Change seminar that we attended, we were forced to listen to some smug man from an organisation that I know well platform away his views, his name-dropping, and his bad witticisms. All while lauding the work of his organisation. An organisation that I will not apply for because, for years, I have disagreed with their policies and their admin fees (Admin fees are how much people like me & this smug guy get paid, rather than there being more resources for the project to be expanded). And when we walked away from the seminar, we realised nothing of substance has actually been said. All we had witnessed was why to give his organisation more money, “because they are doing so much good”.

A week before this, I had attended another seminar to learn about HIV in some Pacific Island. All it involved was looking at someone’s photos of their work trip to the island and observations so mundane & outdated. I was disappointed. But not as disappointed as when someone introduced her to me & said that maybe I could help her with some part time work. She looked down her nose at me, recommended I get on some job mailing site, and flounced off arrogantly… hardly daring to spend a minute too long giving lowly me her time.

Just now, I see another man on tv, sitting & lauding his opinion & let it be known to the world that he does good. He gets out of his comfort zone. He helps “those less fortunate than him” who are “in more dire straits than him” while the rest of us selfish commoners sit back and just watch this unfold from the comfort of our couches [Donated bean-bag in my case].

Do you know how many times I have applied to that organisation!
From ever angle, in every form of wording, for every type and level of job!

Do you know how many companies that I have applied for since realising I would be moving here. And the few that bother to reply politely tell me that I have all the skills… in actual fact, my skills rock their world!... but my experience in their region is lacking.

And so I am trumped by some kid who read a book on Papau New Guinea and was given a degree for doing so. I can read all the books that I want, but if they are not read through a hefty-sum-paid-to-a-first-world-university-degree, then it don’t count.

And as for this bluddy experience…

I COME FROM AFRICA! You cannot get more dire than that! On projects in “Aaaafrica” (oh, and how they love to tell me in the job interviews, just before they decline me, that they have actually done a week’s worth work in “Africa” too! “Like, snap!”), people only dream of the resources that the Aussies have here, for their paid do-gooding.

So, do not tell your fellow citizens that you are one in a million because you work for such-and-such an organisation & are ready to “drop your entire life to help the poor”, when I have dropped my entire life, brought my hard-worked-hard-learned-skills here, and STILL CANNOT GET INTO YOUR ORGANISATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I want to throw something at the tv now.

Maybe it will be a smug opinionated aid director.

(The one thing that us folk in the aid world never ever seem to allow into our heads is, if we really are that great & are solving the world’s problems, then how come you never ever see a dent in the world’s problems. How come the problems are as glaring as they were last decade?)

Ok. It’s out of me. Rant over.

3 comments:

boldly benny said...

Good rant! I found this interesting and annoying at the same time!

john dodds said...

have put out feelers for you

Champagne Heathen said...

Benz - Ha! If it even got you annoyed, it must have been a good rant!

John! How are you? Thanks!!!