GorillaDung- It's good to be back in the States! Life is good, and will be getting better!
What is this gorilla crap all about, and why should you care?
Greetings to all! Please allow me to introduce myself again for new readers. My name is Curt Redden.
My family and I have recently returned from living in China for the last few years.
My family includes my wife Abbey, my son Sam, and my daughter Aly. We also brought in tow a Golden Retriever named Ody, that we acquired in China. Our hopes were to save him in a “puppy outreach” program where we prevented him from being the main course at a local eatery. I had actually wanted to name him Commie Bastard, or “CB” for short, the family overruled me, making some weak case about political correctness.
By now, you are probably burning with curiosity over the purpose of this blog. What exactly is Gorilla Dung, and really why should you care about Dung in general?
Allow me to digress into fond remembrance of what life looked like we I left the US in the fall of 2006. Everybody seemed happy. Everybody seemed to have employment of some sort. The American dream was alive and well. You could accomplish anything. Real Estate was on fire. It seemed like you could buy a dumpy duplex one month, and flip it the next month for a 200K profit. What a freaking country! It didn’t seem to matter that a stripper from Lauderdale could get financed to buy an oceanfront home, or that an unemployed plumber could lease a new Mercedes, everybody was riding the wave of easy credit.
Fast forward a couple of years upon our return in January in 2009. The wave has crashed. I’m not sharing anything you don’t know. But I think I have a different perspective.
You see, in China millions are emerging into the middle class every year for the first time. While overly general, they are hard working people who desperately want (and are willing to work) for a better life for them and their families. Employees think nothing of working 7 days a week and long hours, knowing that the hard work will eventually pay off. Their children attend school longer than ours, and then amazingly spend 5-6 hours a day on homework. They study crazy stuff like, Science and Math. Multiple language training is a must, and everything is competitive in a chase to secure the coveted spots in University. They are hungry, and looking to carve a much bigger piece of the global pie.
The rough translation in Chinese for Gorilla is Xin Xin. As Mandarin is tonal, this also sounds like the rough sound of “Super Star”. The US has been the Superstar on the world stage for the last few decades. Unfortunately, the lights on that party are being switched off. It’s like a bar at closing time, drink em up, and get the hell out! It seems The Apes in Charge in the US, have made consistently bad decisions for us to reach this point. It doesn't matter, and I really don't care what side of the aisle you sit on. There has been unprecedented greed and bad judgment, that led us to the piles of Dung we currently see everywhere. Everybody’s pointing fingers, but the way I see it, you are being crapped on in a fairly balanced approach, so at least it is equally opportunity sludge.
A banking system that continued loaning money to people they knew could not, and would not ever be able to afford it. A government that actually created this fiasco by demanding banks relax lending standards to increase home ownership. Corporations that continue to maximize short term returns to shareholders, but are outsourcing the American dream to the rest of the world. A sense of entitlement and lack of personal accountability that almost make me want to go back to law school, and become a personal injury attorney. (Sorry, I was digressing again- I’ll be better after my medication).
Gorilla Dung will look to explore these issues. I will make every effort to update weekly, unless something urgent is happening like a good football game, or perhaps a relaxing colon hydrotherapy treatment. As my background is exclusively in Sales and Leadership training, I will exert a little effort to actually try to weave in best practices and tips for how we all can prosper in spite of the Apes in Charge.
Until next week, here is to a prosperous tomorrow for you all! I look forward to the journey.
Greetings to all! Please allow me to introduce myself again for new readers. My name is Curt Redden.
My family and I have recently returned from living in China for the last few years.
My family includes my wife Abbey, my son Sam, and my daughter Aly. We also brought in tow a Golden Retriever named Ody, that we acquired in China. Our hopes were to save him in a “puppy outreach” program where we prevented him from being the main course at a local eatery. I had actually wanted to name him Commie Bastard, or “CB” for short, the family overruled me, making some weak case about political correctness.
By now, you are probably burning with curiosity over the purpose of this blog. What exactly is Gorilla Dung, and really why should you care about Dung in general?
Allow me to digress into fond remembrance of what life looked like we I left the US in the fall of 2006. Everybody seemed happy. Everybody seemed to have employment of some sort. The American dream was alive and well. You could accomplish anything. Real Estate was on fire. It seemed like you could buy a dumpy duplex one month, and flip it the next month for a 200K profit. What a freaking country! It didn’t seem to matter that a stripper from Lauderdale could get financed to buy an oceanfront home, or that an unemployed plumber could lease a new Mercedes, everybody was riding the wave of easy credit.
Fast forward a couple of years upon our return in January in 2009. The wave has crashed. I’m not sharing anything you don’t know. But I think I have a different perspective.
You see, in China millions are emerging into the middle class every year for the first time. While overly general, they are hard working people who desperately want (and are willing to work) for a better life for them and their families. Employees think nothing of working 7 days a week and long hours, knowing that the hard work will eventually pay off. Their children attend school longer than ours, and then amazingly spend 5-6 hours a day on homework. They study crazy stuff like, Science and Math. Multiple language training is a must, and everything is competitive in a chase to secure the coveted spots in University. They are hungry, and looking to carve a much bigger piece of the global pie.
The rough translation in Chinese for Gorilla is Xin Xin. As Mandarin is tonal, this also sounds like the rough sound of “Super Star”. The US has been the Superstar on the world stage for the last few decades. Unfortunately, the lights on that party are being switched off. It’s like a bar at closing time, drink em up, and get the hell out! It seems The Apes in Charge in the US, have made consistently bad decisions for us to reach this point. It doesn't matter, and I really don't care what side of the aisle you sit on. There has been unprecedented greed and bad judgment, that led us to the piles of Dung we currently see everywhere. Everybody’s pointing fingers, but the way I see it, you are being crapped on in a fairly balanced approach, so at least it is equally opportunity sludge.
A banking system that continued loaning money to people they knew could not, and would not ever be able to afford it. A government that actually created this fiasco by demanding banks relax lending standards to increase home ownership. Corporations that continue to maximize short term returns to shareholders, but are outsourcing the American dream to the rest of the world. A sense of entitlement and lack of personal accountability that almost make me want to go back to law school, and become a personal injury attorney. (Sorry, I was digressing again- I’ll be better after my medication).
Gorilla Dung will look to explore these issues. I will make every effort to update weekly, unless something urgent is happening like a good football game, or perhaps a relaxing colon hydrotherapy treatment. As my background is exclusively in Sales and Leadership training, I will exert a little effort to actually try to weave in best practices and tips for how we all can prosper in spite of the Apes in Charge.
Until next week, here is to a prosperous tomorrow for you all! I look forward to the journey.
posted by Curt at 10:44 AM
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