I don't talk about my employer a lot, but I'm proud to work for DHL.
We have global operations in over 220 countries worldwide. Usually when I say that, it's in the context of telling customers that we can get their goods from one point to another worldwide. That's an abstract concept generally because most people haven't been to the far corners of the earth. Its an abstract concept to me too. I'm pretty well traveled, but I haven't been to all of the "high risk" parts of our global operations.
DHL has always had extensive operations in the Middle East. On Saturday, October 25th, the risks of working in this environment became very real. Two DHL Express executives were murdered in downtown Kabul, Afghanistan by a security guard hired to protect them.
David Giles of Great Britain was deputy director for DHL Afghanistan. David died in the company of Jason Bresler from South Africa, who was the Kabul station manager. The security guard, who had been a DHL employee for a month, took his own life as well. Somewhere now, three mothers grieve.
Folks forget that shipping is an art. Getting goods from point A to point B across the globe engages challenges with weather, politics, time, machinery reliability, human frailty and many other factors. Much of that hasn't changed since man first set out upon the seas. Nevertheless, demands are made to track packages, send data to ERP systems and feed databases. In the quest to do just that, people in far away lands do many things to satisfy customer and company needs. In every country on every continent, there are guys like David and Jason, doing the job.
DHL is the only express parcel company with an office in Kabul.
Eric
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