David  (1968) (Ireland, Switzerland)

Something that reminds you of living, being at peace, feeling happy:

I actually have to say the mountains. That’s one of my, one of my big sort of… Peace. Whenever I want to get away, even just for a bit of sport or bit of stress free time… Chill down. I have to say the mountains is one of the big things that I really like to get into, you know. 

Small things that make you happy?

Oh yeah, when I open my wallet I have a picture of my mum and dad… that’s one of the main things. And then..just trying sort of think about like good stuff with the family and friends. That’s all.

What’s your first memory as a child?

That’s quite hard. My first memory as a child I would say was me and my twin brother, because you know I have a twin brother. So we click off each other pretty good. So we used to do like a lot of stuff together and because we were the same age and everything like that we sort of you know… I always remember the two of us did a lot of things together even when we were kids. We played football quite a lot, yeah. 

What pictures or thoughts come to mind when I say these following words?

Protest/to protest: Ok. At the moment..That’s quite interesting… at the moment it would have to be what’s going on with the demos. With the Black Lives Matter. Is that ok, is that like a good enough answer? It’s only because.. It would actually be a pretty hard question to answer if all this stuff wasn’t going on. But as soon as you would say protest the one thing that comes into my head at the moment is this. You know the protest and the guy that was killed. They are doing it everywhere, even on sports-fields now and everything. So that’s why that’s my answer. Although I don’t actually get involved at all.

What would you have maybe answered if I had asked you at a different point in time, maybe around twenty years ago?

Hard to say. Actually. Hard to say. Cause I’ve been living in Switzerland and I’ve never really come across a lot of stuff going on then even if I can remember at the beginning. 

Was there any kind of protest in Ireland?

Yeah, no. There was a few..more like about worker’s rights and stuff like that. So maybe it would have been like sort of industrial things…that kind of thing. 

How long have you been living in Switzerland?

In August it will be 24 years. 

Power: Power…Well, that’s a good one actually. I’d probably have to say… ‘cause I don’t have to deal with that too much ‘cause my boss is pretty good… I would say power…How about money. Is that ok for you as an answer? Does that make sense? Like people with a lot of money, they actually think that they have the power to do whatever they want, you know. Break the rules. Sort of do… cause misery to other people, because they have like the means to build and other people don’t. 

Society: I would say. Max. Well Max and Susi from Paddy’s. They really taught me how to deal with society like two people that have never changed in the 24 and a half years I’ve worked for them. They have a good business… they based it on just being themselves and just being fair. And I just really think that just kicks back the whole thing to society to how they were brought up and then they sort of instilled that into us. So you could sort of say: my boss. Their way of life or dealing with it is just being fair. Just keeping it simple. Not getting carried away like you know keeping the business running. Making ideas to keep it running. If it’s not running don’t get to…just try and get motivated. Motivate everybody. They’re very good motivators. And it just makes everybody sort of…it just creates a really nice atmosphere …Looking at society as a whole, in a country or in the world… No, it’s definitely not the same. I think it’s a little mixed up, generally. It’s definitely not equal anyway.   

How do you see the world in 50 years? (realistically)

…Mixed up I would say…I think it’s…I would be very happy to say that in fifty years I would probably be..well I won’t be here anymore obviously, sorta probably glad…I think it’s gonna get…everything is changing. I mean look at us now, between the time when I was growing up, Kate, and when you grew up. Everything has become…Social Media has taken over everything. That creates like a lot of publicity. Not always good, but some good stuff as well. I think like the whole thing is going to change. Everything is going to become all digitalised…umm. You’ve seen yourself what’s been going on with the corona thing. And how one thing can just actually break everything down and how people have to adapt. Some people have struggles, other people have done quite well. So I would say society is really gonna be reliant on technology of course and Social Media as well. 

You said mixed up before, what did you mean by that?

Stuff like you know… everything that’s going on with the demos and you know rights…what do they call that LGBTQ+? You know all the sort of homosexuals, lesbians and all of that sort of thing… 20 years ago it was nothing. And now of course it’s like a big…it’s sort of a “heikel Thema” you know. Everybody gets love should they get married should they not…The way I look at it is as long as no one is causing any trouble to anybody they deserve to be treated the same as everybody else, you know. I just I don’t care what somebody is…what colour they are…Once you know if they’re fair people and they want to be given the chance and they give everybody the same. Then I think that’s fine. 

What does “being” human mean?

Ok. For me being human means just being fair. Just to be fair to people. Don’t get carried away and don’t misjudge people. I’ve done it before, I’ve misjudged people and they’ve ended up being you know really, really nice and also it’s worked the other way of course. There’s people that have been really nice and you know I’ve seen that they… I sort of judged them wrong and they ended up being not really… very nice people either. But it’s just like… just try to be…like give everybody a fair chance. So to speak. …These are pretty tough questions by the way. No, no that’s really cool. I’m actually quite impressed. If I ever need a psychologist I’ll just call you. You can steer me through the difficult roads ahead (laughing).   

What do you believe in?

Ahh, ok. Well that’s actually…I do actually believe in god. I’m gonna say that. I was brought up as a Catholic but of course I don’t go to church anymore. When we are eighteen we were given the independence by our mum and dad that we could decide if we wanted to go…Until eighteen we were told and it was sort of expected. So I mean I do still believe in something like that when things are bad… I do.. If I want to think about anybody that I’m close to, I would actually just sort of say like a little half minute prayer or something. And…I just believe in like just trying to stay positive you know…There is a lot of good out there. My parents have always sort of taught us as well…My mum in particular, my dad also. He was always…He would make a decision and that was it about somebody. But mum was always very sincere. She would never really sort of make a decision about somebody or talk bad about somebody. She would like..say her thing and that’s it. So I look like…But don’t get me wrong. I do talk like…If a customer gets on my nerves or something like that I do let it bug me and I do talk about it. Because it’s the way I sort of get it out of my system. Rather than just bottling it all in. 

Do you blame god for things that happen? 

No, no. I really believe that if, you know if something happens…Even as hard as it is or as against it…you’re thinking about it…There has to be a reason for it. There has to be a reason, unfortunately even for the sad things…

Anything to add?

No, no unless you have something. Are you happy with it? Do you think you can put all that together? How about you? Am I allowed to ask you about protests? Do YOU have anything to say?