A worker with pride in Damietta Egypt.
Watching the BBC news yesterday, I saw a great story about a small town in Egypt that has been defying gravity in the current economic downturn. The town is full of skilled furniture craftsman who take pride in their work and, according the the BBC report, consider their work something of a spiritual endeavor. The shops and factories cannot find new employees to fill open positions. They have too much work.
Their secret? From what it appears, a real work ethic, and QUALITY goods!! Imagine that!!
I’m not going to say that there was no option for me growing up to become a fine craftsman, but jobs like that didn’t seem readily available. The closest thing I can remember would be auto-mechanics who restored classic cars. Thins seems to ring a sad bell… The only craftsman left were fixing what we made in former generations. (If you can think of others, please comment below…I hope I’m wrong!)
Advocates for a society with a strong work ethic might find some of my writing upsetting. Make no mistake, I want just the same as you. American society has suffered from a spell of laziness and defeatist mentalities. My choices could sometimes be considered defeatist or a cop-out, since I didn’t put a ton of effort to seek out these types of positions, but I needed to put food in my mouth, and all I ever seemed to find was assembly line positions making junk. So I decided to play instead. But I worked damn hard (or at least smart) as I played.
In any case, we could all learn something from Damietta Egypt. I’ve got a hunch the story could have swapped out the word “Amish” a few times to create a very similar article.
The whole story can be found here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7936004.stm