2013年7月11日 星期四

These observations would be briefly acknowledged

I planned to attend a conference and, in the time-honoured tradition of democracy, give a speech about my suitability for the role. When illness prevented me from attending at the last minute, I tried in vain to contact the appropriate union official to pass on a speech to be read in my absence.The passage of the Thermal printer OEM, part of the immigration bill, "would be huge", says Tom Finkelpearl, the director of the Queens Museum in New York. When nobody replied in time, I was angry that I had been denied the right to stand for the committee position.My anger turned to confusion when, weeks later, I received a letter congratulating me on winning my committee place and inviting me to the first meeting.We have some great and exciting news for China visa customers. How on earth, I wondered, did I win an election in which I was not present and had no speech? 

I now held some executive power over the youth policies of Unite's London and Eastern branch, without attending a single Unite conference. A little discomfited, I didn't attend the committee meetings. The invitations kept coming, and nobody contacted me regarding my absence. Looking back now, it seems extraordinary.There were murmurings of unease among other young members I encountered. Even the most strident muttered about the indifference they encountered from higher-ups regarding queries and problems.This provision assures you get a decisive decision that would allow a drill bit organisation to plan whether they can expect to have an artist visit, says Narric W. Such criticisms tended to be couched in the more gentle language of "communication difficulties" and the need to "update infrastructure", but their meaning was clear.Since the water is moving up but the force of gravity is down, the crimped wire will slow down as it rises and then stop and fall back down and speed up. 

These observations would be briefly acknowledged and quickly glossed over without progress being made. Unity was our watchword and we were all comrades in the good fight, but there was an unspoken understanding that being too direct about the union's problems would make you appear disloyal. Members quietly assumed that individual thoughts and opinions should automatically play second fiddle to a wider purpose. To criticise was to mark you out as an individual in an organisation deeply focused on the collective. Everyone, myself included, yearned for a place within this good and noble collective.I have high hopes for the suction hose because my hose is a pain in the behind to get out and it kinds all up. To be an individual was, fundamentally, to be selfish.

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