How one man has travelled halfway round the world to pursue his demolition dream.
Friday, 25 February 2011 00:00 | 
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Reproduced from Demolition News with the kind permission of Mark Anthony
Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson and Richard “The Hamster” Hammond caused a stir recently when they made a series of disparaging remarks about the Mexican race. Depending upon your viewpoint, those remarks – which suggested that Mexicans were lazy and feckless – were either borderline racist or just plan funny. But one thing is clear; such criticisms cannot be levelled at all South Americans, as one ambitious and passionate naturalised Bolivian is eager to demonstrate.
Gabor Prudencio dropped us a line a few weeks ago to let us know that he was seeking work in the UK demolition business. Nothing unusual there; we receive emails and calls like this all the time. But what marked Gabor’s message as unique was his back story.
Hungarian-born, 29-year old Prudencio spent his life in Bolivia. Highly educated, he was ultimately employed by the Bolivian government as a civil engineer with a first response role to co-ordinate demolition projects following natural disasters such as floods.
But he was frustrated by the lack of demolition expertise in his adopted homeland, and by the severe lack of the type of heavy equipment that the European demolition industry takes for granted. And so he packed his bags and paid his own way to Germany to attend last year’s Bauma exhibition to see precisely what equipment was available, before finally arriving in the UK with a single burning ambition – To make a living in the UK demolition industry.
Since arriving, he has put himself through a number of National Demolition Training Group courses and is now actively seeking work, which took him to last week’s Institute of Demolition Engineers’ spring seminar in Leeds. Clearly impressed by Prudencio’s passion, commitment and enthusiasm, IDE President John Woodward personally paid for Prudencio’s ticket, allowing him to rub shoulders with some of the leading lights of the UK demolition industry. And we took the opportunity to conduct an interview with him, which you can hear below.
But, just one point before you listen to the podcast on Mark's website. As you listen to Gabor Prudencio explain how he has followed his dream halfway around the world, all at his own cost, compare him to some of your current workforce for whom early mornings, rain and “difficult” bus journeys are seen as reason enough not to work.
Now who is feckless?
If you would like to contact Gabor, please drop us a line via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and we will pass it on to him. And, as an added incentive, we are hoping to follow Gabor’s progress through the UK demolition industry. So, if you are able to offer him a position, you will receive some positive and FREE publicity as a result!
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Where does Danny go from here?
