Rob(1953) (New Zealand)

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

I like going to Golden Bay and just…because it’s right on the beach – there I can just do a few jobs, go and sit out in the sun, go foraging, killing some shellfish, go out in the boat fishing. Yeah just relaxing. Is that what you’re sort of wanting?  

What’s your first memory as a child?

Uuuu, I’m old. I’m an old fart! …I think my first memory was when I was in hospital, not sure what age I was…maybe three or four…and I remember being in the ward and I had a like a child’s bed that you sort of couldn’t fall out of, sort of vertical rails and I could stand up, put my hands on the top and look out through the things and I suppose…not that I knew anything about prison then, but that’s probably what it felt like. Maybe looking back later on. 

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

Protest/to protest: 1981…Protests in New Zealand in regards to the Springbok Rugby Tour. I was an anti Tour person, so I had a lot of protesters come to my restaurant, because they seemed to get to know that I was anti Tour and …People were protesting against the Tour because in South Africa blacks or coloured people weren’t allowed to play in the Rugby Team..So it was an all white team and so people in New Zealand thought that wasn’t fair and other people argued that you shouldn’t bring politics into sports… But…and so…Yeah those Tours were keeping the two factions apart, the pro Tour and the anti Tour… and the police were in the middle. So…there were a lot of arrests and I suppose you would say violence. 

Power: …Probably…when I was…in 1976 I was in Uganda and Idi Amin was the Dictator there so…He certainly was…as a dictator ran the country with…If you didn’t agree with him then you’d be arrested and jailed or even killed… You just saw it around..the presence of a lot of police and a lot of  the army just making sure that yeah he wasn’t going to be toppled basically. I was there as a tourist. They left us tourists alone…yeah…white people really in Africa didn’t get bothered too much…  

Society: Well society is not really in a good shape at the moment…um. Obviously the financially…it’s very tough after the covid-19  problem. And also before that not so much in New Zealand and Switzerland but certainly in a lot of countries…are still in…there’s a lot of fighting going on in the Middle East and Africa. Not so much South America…and of course then you have the USA wich seems to be a real mess at the moment… From their leader down to people protesting BLM so… Yeah, this is going to be interesting in the States in the next year or two… leading up to the elections in November…

How did you see Society…maybe when you were my age?

…It was more clear. It was probably more black and white…obviously we didn’t have cell phones and so there was no Social media, Facebooking, Twittering…I don’t do any of those, apart from talking on WhatsApp…But now I think for young people there’s a lot of grey area and I think that makes things a little bit harder for people to make decisions. They are persuaded by other people easier. The young ones anyway…what they’re saying on Social media back to them…In those days we just had old dial-up phones. I didn’t have a television in my house till I was 21 so…We listened to the radio we  just did a lot of…We played a lot of sport. I started gymnastics when I was four and then by about the age of ten I started playing Rugby, Basketball…around the same time and then also Volleyball…when I was about 13 years old…I played tennis and a little golf, some rowing…Yeah I played a lot of sports…So we were outside…Yeah life was good then.      

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

(laughing) Kate, I really don’t know. I won’t be here in 50 years I’m 67 years old now. I really don’t know…where the world will be. I mean at the moment it’s in a pretty bad way. I mean last year there were 11 Million people who died of starvation in one year and now we are worrying about half a Million odd people dying of the Corona Virus soo… You know we’ve gotta help the people that are not so well off more than what we are doing now because as they say…the rich get richer and the poor get poorer…And the rich they don’t need all that money. You can only drive one car at a time. So why do you have 10 cars in your garage? A four bedroom house and only two people live in it… There’s excesses that rich people who…which I don’t consider good for humanity.   

What does “being” human mean? 

Being human? Well just obviously trying to stay informed about things that are going on in the world, whether it’s locally, nationally or internationally. Being kind to people…You know there’s a lot of people out there who don’t have such a good life as what I’ve had. And so I try, if I can…if they need help either financial or giving them something they may need or just being there to support them, I try to help. I think those are sort of human traits which I like to sort of push out. I try not to let jealousy get hold of me…I try not to let envy…But these of course are natural human traits so… You know everybody does feel them in some way…

What do you believe in?

Spiritually, religiously…I’m not…of Christian faith, although I was baptised…I don’t…The only time I really go to church now is for a funeral or a wedding. But I do believe that there is an energy which… I guess Christians would call god and the Muslims would call Allah. I think there is an energy that doesn’t get destroyed when you die, carries on because it’s made up of molecules and they decompose and come back and form carbon and oxygen and nitrogen and calcium and you know trees probably…Tree roots would take those chemicals and turn them into something. And so the energy that is associated with those molecules carries on and so…Laws that a matter cannot be made and cannot be destroyed. You can split it and change it like chemical reactions and…but it’s the same number of molecules that are always there. That’s how I like to think of things. 

Anything to add?

For you guys…Be kind to each other, look out for each other. It’s a complex world out there and just be nice, considerate, respectful, show empathy towards other people. And I think if we can get some of those things going strong enough, then you know, maybe there won’t be so many people starving and so many people going to war and killing each other and blowing each other up… It would be nice for the world to live in peace for a change and all that money spent on war and that…it could be used to feed people who are hungry.