This day and age sees more and more children and adults alike trapped into the lures of the computerized gadgets that keeps their attention for hours with only the fingers moving while the rest of the body is in inertia,
The study of 'ergonomics', (the study of people's efficiency in their working environment.), has been pointing towards the dangrers of allowing one's physical body to function in only one posture at any given activity for long hours at a time without change of activity to counter or compensate and provide a balance.
"Physical stressors include repetitive motions such as those caused by typing or continual use of a manual screwdriver. Other physical stressors could be tasks involving vibration such as using a jackhammer, or tasks which involve using excessive force, such as lifting boxes of heavy books. Working in an awkward position, such as holding a telephone to your ear with your shoulder, can also cause problems. Repetitive motions, vibration, excessive force, and awkward postitions are frequently linked to ergonomic disorders; however, the majority of "Cumulative Trauma Disorders "(CTDs) or "Repetitive Strain Injuries" (RSIs), are caused by repetitive motions that would not result in undue stress or harm if only performed once. Carpal tunnel syndrome, Tendonitis, Tenosynovitis, DeQuarvain's Syndrome, Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, many back injuries, and several other conditions may result from repetitive motions."
OSU- Safety Training.
For three years I was a Health and Safety Officer, working for three major contractors in the construction industries in Malaysia. For a period of no less than three years i was involved with the construction of the Kerteh and Gebeng Petronas Petroleum Refineries. I started out working for Ibai Bina one of the major construction companies in the East Coast from Terengganu. With this company i was safety officer to the first structure being raised for the present petroleum complex one sees as one drives along the East Coast highway. At night you get to see the fierceness of gas flames shooting into the darkness shedding eerie lights against the hillsides. I was privileged to have been a part of this project as it had many things to teach me what it takes to care for the welfare of a few hundred workers on one site and they came from Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, India and everywhere else, each with ow attitude and idiosyncrasies, there not just o work but to outshine the other guys especially the local management teams, Malays, Indians, Chinese, project managers, and staff; no one likes the word Safety. Safety was spelled $afety.I le4arned my lessons through many mistakes but I made my growth into the Malaysian scene after having just arrived back after being away for over 24 years of my life; I took the Job and was good at it. if I may say so.
I met many great men who were experts at what they do by global standards, men who were flexible but uncompromising when it came to Safety. BACHTEL, Samsung Industries, Lynde and Olyfin Industries, all the men who served these companies I watched and learned from,how they function as leaders in the industry. Most I have developed respect for and some disdain at their performances when it came to what is Safety; the safety of an employee at the job site.I sat in just about every Safety meetings involving the whole site Managers and the Company's Safety Officer. It felt great to be among men! The builders, movers and shakers, at least once in your life; yes I dreamt before to feel like it would be working on a construction site, the red earth and the blazing hot afternoon sun, the little roadside huts and stalls that cropped up along the dirt roads where men took a break and a cup of teh tarik or kopi O peng. I spent three years of my life driving every weekend to and from Kualatrengganu to Kerteh and later to Gebeng in Kuantan. Back and forth and often in the middle of the night and all by myself using the Jerangau Jabur road where there was no lights and most of the way the road is lined with Oil Palm trees and night cattle crossings or lying in the middle of the road. The things one do to be the man! Only those boys who have driven this road back and forth like me can appreciate what it was like. It was like entering the twilight zone right at midnight and just driving into darkness. This the road that tigers were still found making their appearances every now and then.
I remember one day talking to a United States Coast Guard Officer about why he had to 'Log and tag our boiler and imposed a stop work order.We were at my work place the H&H Ship Services located on the San Francis co Bay water front Hunter's Point Area, 220, China Basin was the address and I was a yard sweeper and garbage man By the second year I became the Department and Yard Superintendent the boys called me the Yard Dog: my mission was to care for those who worked under my supervision. From no supply of gloves and coveralls I asked and received for each of the Yard employees seven pieces of work coveralls that they change daily while working in hazardous conditions.African Americans, Latinos, Vietnamese and Filipinos and last but not leas the red necks white boys.
I survived a punch to my jaw, a knife to my throat and a pipe held to strike at me to wake me up and face the moment as it arose. I became their Safety Officer and mad the turn around for the company from close to being shut down to a multi million dollar operation. The only company along the West American Seaboard that could handle the thousands of Underground Fuel and other Storage Tanks that were required by law to be pulled out and disposed off as their warranty was due or mostly way overdue. Most tanks brought into the yard to be steamed cut cleaned and dispose off had at one or two leaky holes in them, the amount of fuel that leaks into the ground year in year out is incomprehensible. To me then working at this Job was like being in Heaven and Hell both at the same time, thus H&;H. If anything i got out of working with the company it was the fact that I was actually working there! me, part of the"Boys"! on the San Francisco water front where movies are made every now and then. I hung out at The Bouncer's Bar by Pier 39 and I knew Old Willie, the owner. I worked on the water front as the yard Boss for 6 years, till my family and I moved to Sendai, Japan.
Why am I sharing all these non connected evens in my life? I don't know perhaps, still on the subject of work ethics or it has become another attachment this need to look back and forth and making sense out of nonsense purely to entertain one self with memories while looking to solve what needs to be solved in the future, like what am i going to paint on the wall of the Gala House restaurant which I might be commissioned to do by the owners, the green light is yet to be given after I mentioned the cost. The truth be, if not for my children being here and under the circumstances I accepted to do it as it is the best thing that can happen for us. The Organic Farm at Lintang, Sik Kedah will have to wait. If what i am asking is too much for them then I will have to go to plan 'B' with my son Timo which is doing three large paintings on stretched canvass all set and ready to go.
It is a scorcher! Hotter than and humid and that is what makes it a whole lot more uncomfortable to even take a walk out of the house, what is one to do? Just blog it all out! Tell it as it was, as it is and how it will be before it all comes to an abrupt end;. no more tales to tell.
If one can count how many non related thoughts one has in one day it would be phenomenal! However it is said that looking back into the past too much can stifle one's growth into the future and often causes stagnation of one's creative endeavors. Be as it may, when all else seems to settle down into a routine why not? Why not take a trip or two down memory lanes to awaken the spirit of old, those that mattered when you needed them. those that were benchmarks of your exploits beyond the beaten trails of ordinary man. What good would it do to have lived life to the fullest if you cannot share a single tale of it.
The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.
I am a Green Bay Packer's fan if you ask me. Ya Hey! GREEN bAY!.
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