Downsizing

[I love it! Andres is getting the blogging bug! Here's a little something from him that he asked me to publish... too bad there is truth to it!]

I have recently had to experience one of the wonders of development. My workplace, a public institution, decided to follow the book of industrialized countries and downsized its personnel under the lame excuse that Ecuadorian Public organizations are stuffed with employees. I am not going to provide any facts, data or information in order to prove that downsizing is absurd in a public institution since I am just blogging and all I want is to vent. I am just going to ignore all the believers of the private sector who fancy that a citizen needs to pay for the air he or she breathes, and instead I am going write on how this decision has affected my family and me.
As I fortunately belong to the board of this institution, the government decided not to eliminate my job but to cut down my salary. As a good Ecuadorian, I tried to see a solution to the problem without stressing myself to the point of justifying the action of the U.S. Postal workers during the 80´s and 90´s. After talking to my family, we all decided that we would do what people do in the “developed countries”: find a part time job bussing dishes in a restaurant or passing out flyers downtown. In other words, find a “Mc Job” in order to use all the knowledge acquired throughout my 21 years of formal education, my co-authored books and my extensive travelling. Perhaps, my family and I thought I could even apply abroad and find a better job. People in the First World must be dying to hire a Third World countryman to become the CEO of one of its trusts.
As a result of this illusion, I spent several hours searching for the perfect job in a developed country that would not require me to have a work permit, a visa, or even a political point of view. The answer was obvious…

Then my family and I got together and decided to be more austere. Cut down our expenses: no trips to see the in-laws, no Christmas shopping, no shopping at all as a matter of fact, no eating out, and not even turning on extra lights at home. This will have some consequences but if we want to survive as a modern and developed family we need to put up with the fact that my children will not see their grandparents and aunts; that Christmas will be, again, a strictly and only religious merry celebration and that shopping will be saved for when daddy’s public company gives him his salary back.

As a last resort, we thought of opening a free web page and asking for contributions for this poor Third World country family who has almost lost its income. I learned how to blog, and how to open a web user account. However, I did not learn how to make people feel pity for me and my family. The blog account and the web page are up, but no cent has been donated. It’s ok., though; only few fools believed in the Trickle Down theory.

The fact is that I, as well as my family, will need to reshape our expending habits thanks to a reduction in my salary. Please read this blog in case I don’t see you this summer, fall, winter or fall due to our family austerity.

Disposable Cars

I have been largely absent these past few days, and not for lack of things to say. For those of you who know me, you’ve probably heard about our little situation last weekend. I was at work on Saturday, working in the office on a translation, when there was a problem upstairs. I ran upstairs with the other coordinator, making sure to lock the door behind me. I came back about two minutes later, and there was a guy (looked like a thug!) standing by the door, text messaging someone. I tried to open the door, and he started asking me questions about registration. I told him that they could answer his questions upstairs, but he continued pestering me. Meanwhile, I noticed there was someone in the office, trying to open the lock and get out. I stepped back and two guys came running out of the office. I yelled after them to ask what they needed, and they said that the “Teacher” already helped them. Well, there was no “Teacher” around on a Saturday, so I ran after them, calling for the guard (who, of course, came fifteen minutes later: “Do you need something?”… : | ). Meanwhile, the lookout guy started running down to where the cars are parked. I followed him, and he ran back upstairs and out the door. I never caught up with the other two. I think they had another guy waiting in the parking ramp, because later the guard noticed that someone had gotten out of the elevator on the fourth floor (no English classes there!) and stuffed an empty yogurt container in the door, so it (the elevator) wouldn’t move.

Eventually, I got back to the office to see what they had taken. They had gone through all of our bags and purses (things were not out of order but we noticed because all of the zippers were left open) and not taken anything – no money, no credit cards, no documents, no car radios, no cell phones. The only thing that was missing was our car key. [The landlady later told us that she had seen some guys downstairs checking out the cars that morning, and had kicked them out of the building. They came back, obviously, and right at the time that our Saturday students were leaving, so everyone thought they were students.]

To get to the point, our key is an electronic key with a remote control, and opens the doors and turns off the alarm automatically. Which means the thieves can now open our car and steal it. Well, for the past week we’ve been talking to the car company and other mechanics, and basically what we’ve been told is that we cannot change the micro chip of the car, which controls the remote. Which means that, for about $1000, we can change the key and all the locks, but the thieves will always be able to get into our car because they have the remote control, and that cannot be changed. In other words, they may not be able to take the car immediately, but with time they can hotwire it and take it anyways.

Not such a good system.

We’ve asked for advice from at least ten “experts,” and what they have all told us that the only real option we have is to sell the car. This month we make the last payment on it, and we are also waiting to get our contracts renewed, so not a good time for us to be buying a new car.

I don’t know what we should do. Actually, I guess I do, but I didn’t want to be forced into buying a new car. But what’s worse: save some money right now but be worried about leaving our car at work (since the thieves obviously know where to find it) and possibly have it stolen, or sell it, get what we can and use that money to buy a new car?

Sigh. As my grandma would say… It’s always something!