faulty towers

January 4th 2006. Martin had suggested we take the newly paved road to Kep instead of the main route 3. This turned out to be an excellent suggestion as the road passes close to the elephant mountains and the road was smooth with little traffic. We stopped in Kep, at the Veranda, for a bite to eat around 3pm. When we reached Kampot the staff at the hotel had been alerted to our visit and they gave us a quick tour. Dusty furniture was piled up with big metal signs and loads of trash in the foyer. The place smelled bad. The water wasn’t working (the pump needed replacing) so the rooms were not ready to stay in. We went off in search of a hotel. A helpful moto-dop lead us to all the hotels he gets commissions from. We ended up at the Boray Bokor II hotel. A fairly new four story place that had hot water and air con for $20/night. The rooms still managed to be shabby and the staff were less than helpful. The next morning I asked the front desk for some coffee, they said they didn’t have any, so I asked if there was someplace near-by to have breakfast. They replied that yes, there used to be a place right across the street but it closed a few months ago. Anyplace that’s open? They looked at each other and shrugged. We went back to the Bokor Mountain Club and went through it again with some of the old staff that were still on the FCC payroll; Mr Punsavaan, the accountant, Mr Kunsavaan, the night guard, Tula (the old bartender) and Vitu, the day guards. I made rough sketches of the rooms and what was missing or needed fixing and took photos. We asked Tula about the boat that the FCC supposedly owned and he replied that it was docked across the river. We decided to go look at it. He described the road to take and that it was a long open hull fishing boat painted light blue. We followed his directions, drove over the bridge and then turned left, over a smaller bridge. Every boat was painted light blue and there were dozens moored there. We took a quick look at a pagoda that overlooked the river then decided to drive out towards the entrance to Bokor Mountain National Park. We missed the turn off and were about a third of the way to Sihanoukville when we turned back. It was 5pm when we stopped back at the BMC. Rather than spend another disappointing night at the Boray we booked a night at the Champrey Inn in Kep (mainly because it had such a nice photo in the guidebook of its pool). We had an excellent meal, and a very engaging conversation with the proprietor, Nicolas. How do I put this diplomatically? I was engaging Nicolas in conversation about ancient Rome, global warming, satellite imagery, Khmer history, and boutique hotel management, while Eric was still contemplating how to react to the frenchman’s Khmer husband. Eric was polite in the end but he was conspicuous in his fishing for strategically useful information (land values, potential competitors in Kampot, government contacts, etc.).

unemployment uninsurance

I used to work for a big corporate photo lab in LA. They handled all the big defense contractors and some movie studios. I started in order-entry but then moved up to black and white contact printer. The machine printers were pretty unique - big contraptions that sucked long rolls of photo paper through all the chemical baths and then dried and cut them into 8x10 glossy prints of head shots or experimental aircraft. At photography school I had learned to dodge and burn on graded archival paper using strict formulas for developing times and temperatures, none of which was required to run this machine. The guy who used to run the machine was an old timer who had been moved to the color roll printer because Lockheed had a big order for color glossies of it’s new stealth fighter. He trained me before he started the Lockheed job. The main things to worry about were paper jams and dust. I liked the job because when I was in the darkroom, if I turned on the safelight, a little red light went on outside the door forbidding anyone from entering my private space. I would listen to the gulf war on NPR and doodle. The place was thick with chemical fumes and it was too dark to read but no one, not even the boss, could enter when that red light was on. Jobs would be delivered to order entry by the in-house drivers. Then they would go to the repro department, unless it was a reprint job. Repro would turn the original image into an 8x10 neg and deliver it to me. I started work at ten, but most jobs wouldn’t get to me until after noon. This meant most nights I was working overtime. As time went by I started coming in later to work and my overtime disappeared. Three months went by, the Lockheed job was done - delivered to the congress and the press, and my mentor was let go. He was fired just before he was eligible for his retirement benefits. I was notified of this only after I went looking for him to help me with a particularly fucked up paper jam. They had the nuts to call him at home to ask him to talk me through the problem. He was noble enough to help me but I felt dirty. I was due for my yearly review (and expected raise) but they postponed it, explaining that my next review would be one year from the day I started as a printer ( having moved from customer service to production). I objected and they agreed to give me a review in six months. Some time later we got a big job from McDonnell/Douglas (another stealth fighter). Now they asked me to do the color contacts as well. I kept my overtime down by coming in late but I was still exhausted - they had us coming in on saturdays! My review came up. I went into it expecting a 25 cent an hour raise - the same as my previous reviews in order entry. They told me I was doing a great job but because I was late so often they were only going to give me a ten cent an hour raise. They also asked me to start training someone from order entry to run the contact machine. I did my best to explain their depravity and gave my two weeks notice. They offered my a 25 cent raise but I refused. They offered me a fifty cent raise. I told them if they wanted a loyal employee they shouldn’t have fired my mentor. I meant to point out that if I had accepted the raise I would be first in line at the next downsizing. They told me they needed me to finish the McDonnell/Douglas job and to train my replacement, so I agreed to give four weeks notice. Some months later I applied for unemployment insurance. They explained that I was not eligible because I had quit my job. Up to that point in my life I had no idea what unemployment insurance was, nor had I ever expected to need it. I explained that I quit because I was about to be downsized and I wanted to make a statement. I said that I quit because I was constantly exposed to hazardous fumes. I said I quit because my employers were cretinous fuckheads. They explained that I was not eligible because I had quit my job and my ex-employer has the last word on that.
I was reminded of this period in my life when recently my old employees at the Lodge have all been fired or quit and have come to me looking for work or a loan.
I thought about the economics of the unemployed. If jobs were plentiful and you could easily quit and find another job or have some expectation of insurance (that you had been paying dues on) until you found a better job, then managers and owners would have to actually work to keep things running smoothly. Most employees don’t slag off or steal or sabotage unless they have reason to. That reason is poor management. Managing a company is a cakewalk if your employees act like slaves because they are afraid they cannot put food on the table.