Reconstruction 7.2 (2007)
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Norris - A Growing Plant / Gayle Goldstick
<1> 'Industriehafen' is the ugliest place it's possible to find in the beautiful German city of Bremen. The first time I saw it, it reminded me of some of the more offensive eyesores around the Los Angeles Harbor or Wilmington where so many chemicals are stored in large tanks along the hills.
<2> You smell Industriehafen before you see it. The chemical plants belch out horrific, acidic fumes which cause choking on a foggy day (Bremen has many) and on one hot summer day, riding a taxi in an effort to get out of the oppressively sickening air as soon as possible, I surprized both myself and the unprepared taxi driver by spontaneously vomiting into my handbag.
<3> The company, Norris International, which produces glossy plastic for book covers, has been my assignment for the last five months. I teach Business English to the employees there. The factory can be spotted first by a huge white smokestack which climbs endlessly into the sky like a blanched version of Jack's beanstalk, whose top is obscured by the smoky grey clouds of its own manufacture. It is surrounded by some smaller grey smokestacks, also bellowing fumes, and the Norris plant itself, a medium-sized industrial building with manufacturing machines and equipment outside and offices inside.
<4> Each day I go to Norris, I have to pass by the "tank farm." I was shown this new addition by the creator of it himself, an engineer in middle management, one of the participants in my course. Contrary to its promising name, sounds of barnyard animals did not emanate from the place. Instead I saw a structure of about six grey cylindrical forms built thirty feet high and six feet wide, for the purpose of emptying chemicals into trucks. When it was first built, Herr Schlink showed it to me, a gleam in his eye, explaining its functions in detail. Devoid of life. Perfectly organized. Steel grey. His offspring. He stood, admiring his work, the proud father, bearded and benevolent.
<5> Today, I have only one course participant, Heike, from the export department. The others are on vacation or on business trips. We talk about company gossip (hers and mine) activities of her colleagues and the events of the last week. Last week wasn't so good, she said. Friday she had a call from the Dangerous Chemicals Department at the harbor. They were doing a random inspection of various containers. They had randomly picked one from her department. When they opened the container and looked inside they found chemicals randomly spilled all over. "It was SCHEISSE in there!" the inspector had shouted at her on the phone. He was pretty upset. I could see it all in my mind as she told about it. I imagined the surprised inspector opening the door of the container. The various great drums fallen down with their stinky liquids, solids and powders of various colors splattered all over the floor. The stench, the shock and the anger it must have aroused in the harbor inspector.
<6> Well, OK she had signed the form that said she had checked the container to see that it was safely and securely packed before it left the plant. And had she really looked into the container? Well, no she hadn't. Sometimes she does check the containers and sometimes she doesn't. Unfortunately this time she didn't. And how dangerous were the chemicals? Well, flammable at any temperature higher than eighteen degrees below zero, Celsius. Oh. That's not good. No it isn't. We both laughed a little - nervously. "Well," she said, "If there's an explosion or fire in the container while it's on the ship at sea, an emergency system opens holes in the container and dumps the entire contents into the ocean." Oh, I see.
<7> Was she in trouble? Well, it's not so good. It will cost the company a lot of money. And time. But the boss is on holiday, luckily, and won't be back till Monday. Anyway, she's not afraid of him. He's like a big bear and he'll growl and roar and shout. But it won't be too bad. Three officials came yesterday to supervise the packing of a container and to set new regulations. What had previously been a two-hour process will now take entire work day. That should slow things down a bit here. Yes it will.
<8> I looked outside at the white beanstalk bellowing smoke. I looked at Heike. On the table between us, the glossy blue plastic cover glistened on the text used for our course Business Objectives. I said to Heike, "The air here stinks. Does that ever bother you?"
<9> "Yes it does," she said. "It smells so bad up here. Everyday, by lunchtime my nose is totally clogged up. She paused. "I work in this plant that makes chemicals and it's not so good for nature. But on the other hand, I do care about nature a lot. For example, I'm a passive member of Greenpeace," she said perking up. And last month my husband and I signed papers to adopt a baby whale."
<10> She looked really proud. "Our daughters were excited because they had seen the movie Free Willy, so we thought we'd do it for them." But the next moment her face fell. She looked disappointed. "Unfortunately, last week we got a notice in the mail that we are no longer the adoptive parents, because, for use in his own private park, Michael Jackson bought the whale." She looked so betrayed, like someone had stolen something from her, something she wanted very much, something she deserved. It wasn't fair. Michael Jackson bought the whale.
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