User:Martin1homas
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Martin Thomas:
[edit] Areas of Interest
He collaborate with the Wikipedia in the Uruguay section, he thinks there is much more to be added, and quality to be improved (including in the sections he have added). It is very important for Uruguay to have a good entry in wikipedia in English since it is a very popular source of information for foreigners, and helps to promote Uruguay, show our culture and opportunities. Since Uruguay is a place that could be great to live if improved. Nevertheless the information should be accurate and reflect the reality of the country, and not a garden of roses deniying the existent problems.
[edit] Biography
Uruguayan, born 1972, the last of 3 brothers.His father Charles Thomas was a Merchant Pilot and his mother Milda Rosalia Gonzalez a school teacher, both of them leftist, had to flee the country in 1975 during the Uruguayan military regime, with their sons, including Martin, after a short stay in Buenos Aires where the dictatorship was about to take over. And fearing for their security there, they flee to the north of Spain, in Vizcaya the Vasque Country. (Where Martin's grand father was originally from).
Martin first attends preliminary school and primary school at Colegio San Francisco Javier, and Escuela de Mamariga in Santurce. Her mother dies of Cancer in 1979 and the grandmother take charge of the children and flew back to Uruguay in 1979 while their father was away working as merchant pilot.
He attends primary school at the Public School Florencio Sanchez in Montevideo, from those years there, in the middle of a turbulent family situation will meet his long lasting friend, who late would became journalist Mauricio Olivera. In his childhood develops and interest in sciences, electricity, and physics, although their academic result are pretty poor, reflecting the emotional problems derived from a complicated familiar situation.
In 1984 enters secondary school at liceo 26 Liber Falco where meets another long lasting friend, who late would became Mechanical Engineer, and a national expert in Corrosion in Uruguay, Marcos Tenconi. In 1990 would finish the secondary school with good qualifications, after having attended classes with the well know Uruguayan Mathematics Professor Ceyser Olivera. During his secondary school years he made some long lasting friends, between them Fernando Lopez Bello and Daniel Stolovich, both of them would become systems engineers and end up working for Grupo Quanam. In the latter years also Javier Zincof became another long lasting friend. Following advise of his father, he enrols as a student of Marine Engineering in the Carrasco navy school. During the 4 years that the career lasted he travel in Uruguayans Merchant ships, twice to Europe (Germany, England, Spain, Holland, France and Belgium) and one to the Americas (Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, U.S) He graduates from there in 2004 and flew to Dubai, UAE to work as a Marine Engineer in the M/V Amanecer, where his father was the master. Back in Montevideo after trip not without complications, characterised by failures in the old ship main engine, he decides to start studying again in the University of the Republic, Uruguay, to pursue his career as an Engineer. In 1996 approves its first test in physics in the university. At this stage the family has long disintegrated as a unit, his elder brother Ernesto lives in what remains of the family house, and her sister Marina emmigrated to the US. His father lives with his partner in a small second home, suffering of heart problems which are fortunately well treated in the Uruguayan healthcare system.
In 1996 along 3 friends bough a small, 23 feet’s sail boat named 'Nativo'. After a last contract as Marine Engineer in Dubai, which was expended mainly on-shore and in some ex-pats pubs like Hotel discos and Dubai's Stella Maris Sailors centre pub, he come back and left the sailor life for good. He works one year for the Mercedes Benz dealer in Montevideo, but left afterwards to study and teach mathematics and physics, an environment in which he feels more comfortable than in previous jobs. This year he fell in love with who later would became his wife, Ximena Corbo, they start dating at the beginning of the autumn of 2007. She studies translation (French/Spanish) and work in a Bank. During the next years he will do a triple job, studying electrical engineering, taking care of his grandmother and teaching physics and mathematics, some privately at his grandmother house, others at Academia Epsilon Pi of Pablo Arriera Teacher. In December of 1999 he and his girlfriend Ximena purchased a small Mini Morris car. That will randomly run during those years. In the summer of 2000, he decided to pursue the telecommunications options in the career, after considering seriously power engineering and ruling out electronics. He reads the jobs adverts in the newspapers, and see a strong requirement for something called TCP/IP, the next semester he enrol in courses regarding network theory in the University. Her grandmother is over 90 years old and requires more care, eventually a series of caretakers are needed to take care of her. In the University he meet Nicolas Scaglione, grandsoon of General Balinas, one of the founders of the Broad Front, with whom he shared long study evenings and nights, many times interrupted with talks about politics, local and international, in the old house of the Simon Bolivar street in Parque Batlle neighbourhood of Montevideo. He also meets Pablo Varela a former Ceyser Olivera student. With them he would make the Final thesis for their graduation about image processing and latter will participate in a Regional Exibition [1]. In 2001 he enters Techtel Telecommunicaciones, where he sees for the first time a small black device, full of lights. A Cisco 805 router. He would become a field engineer, installing Motorola Vanguard and Cisco routers, with VoIP in some cases. He integrated some different vendor equipment to implement a VoIP solution. In 2002 they move to live together with Ximena to a flat in Punta Carretas where they start living under a common roof. Nevertheless the country's situation is worsening, during the 90s the inflation was kept under control using a floating band for the exchange rate. Following policies advised by the IMF .In 1998 Brazil devaluate its currency creating a deficit in the trade. Argentina is in recession. The waves start to be felt in small, dependent, Uruguay economy, which still keeps its currency overappreciated. In 2003 Ximena's bank goes bankruptcy along other financial institutions, Uruguayan peso is devaluated in two days, from 17 to 30 $U. Martin's salary purchase power is reduced in a matter of days. Inflation reach two digits figure. Ximena gets redundancy compensation and left the bank. She goes to Paris for a contract of 8 month as a Spanish teaching assistant. Martin's grandmother dies in september 2003, she was a reflection of the generation that lived in the 'Switzerland of America', born in 1906, she had access to superior education, pursue a successful carreer in the Primary Education, divorce, retire with a very decent pension, had access to healtcare wich gave her a long longevity. Martin quit his job in 2004, to finish his career that has been halted due long working hours at Techtel. Also discouraged by the lack of progression chances in the small local branch of the company. By the autumn of 2004 Ximena returns from France, since the last 2 or 3 years, the continuous deterioration of the situation in the country has made the couple to think about trying their luck overseas, at least for a while. In September 2004, Ximena and Martin married. In 2004, in a warm December evening, Martin finishes his career in the university. It had been 8 long years in the dear concrete building of Facultad de Ingenieria. Since years ago, from his stay in Dubai, Martin had the idea of going to England. He searched for jobs in www.monster.com and other pages, for jobs he could apply in the UK. The Internet which developed during Martin's lifetime, create the possibility of research job markets of a country being thousands of miles away. In the autumn of 2005 he test for CCNA, Cisco Certified Network Associate. Free from taking care of his grandmother and study in the University, he decides to take a chance and see what is outside his small country. He himself, 3rd generation of European emmigrants, has a spanish citizenship inherited from his mother.
The 7 of June of 2005, exactly the same day, but 8 years latter than his sister took off to the states, he was on a one way ticket flight to London Heathrow. Crossing the atlantic in the opposite direction than his Spanish and French grandfathers once did.
He landed first near Turnham Green west London, and used to go to an internet cafe in Earls Court to look for a job. After 6 weeks, the day after his 33dr birthday he got an interview, and got a job offer. He moved latter to South Ealing. He worked as network specialist for Atalanta Consulting until March 2006. He installed routers series 7200, 3800 and 2800 for the connecting for health program. A program part of a huge investment done in the Health Service by Labour. He learns about L2L VPNand IPSec protocol. (33 is Martin's lucky number). In April he joined Accenture Services as a Project Engineer, working for BG, the former upstream part of the old state owned British Gas, privatized as part of the reforms introduced by Margaret Teacher. He has gained great experience working in a truly multinational/international company, having to travel overseas frequently to perform implementations (Egypt, Tunisia, and Norway). He has attended ITIL courses, PIX and ASA courses, and currently is studying for the CVoice exam, one of the five exams required to be CCVP. He visited Uruguay in September 2006 and plans to go back again in 2007. He and Ximena plan to buy a flat in Montevideo, and return there again, to the beautiful Montevideo, and hopefully get better opportunities with the experience gained abroad. Martin is a strong believer in to develop a platform for business and services in Uruguay along with continue exploting the natural resources where Uruguay has a competitive advantage. He also loves to sail in the boat, and the cafes of Montevideo where he can meet with his friends.
He can be contacted at martin1homas@yahoo.com
(Source: Martin Thomas, martin1homas@yahoo.com, 447813798502 )
