Week 2: Interview Transcript

Interview Transcript

Hi Dad,

Thanks so much for being willing to participate in this short interview! Keep in mind this is only for a short piece so you don’t need to feel that you have to go into exhaustive detail for each question, summarizing is fine.

1.   As an immigrant from the United Kingdom you have been a beneficiary of what we have learnt to refer to as a Physical “Flow” of Globalization. Meaning in essence an increase in the freedom and ability to move globally in a relatively short space of time. What were some key factors that influenced your decision to travel to Australia originally?

I was affected by my dad leaving home & needed some space from the family, adventure, the chance to become totally independent & make my own choices good or bad, something new & exciting beyond “the norm”, free travel with a commitment of only 2 years if I didn’t feel suited or became homesick.

Out of interest I asked for further elaboration on what entailed this free travel…

I left London UK (it was icy cold & lightly snowing) around 5:00 pm (London Time) on February 11 1969, just 10 days before my 18th Birthday & arrived in Sydney (It was 25 degrees & bright sunshine) around 9:00 am (Sydney Time) on February 13th.

We travelled on the biggest passenger jet liner available at that time, a Boeing 707 & re-fuelled at Zurich in Switzerland, Rome in Italy, Karachi In Pakistan (West Coast of India at that time), Calcutta (India East Coast), Hong Kong & Darwin, next stop Sydney. A total of approx 30 actual hours of travel. Quite an adventure for a 17 year old never been on an aircraft before & never been to London before, let alone these foreign cities around the world albeit, we were restricted to stay in the Air Terminal buildings & surrounds. Looking back, I could have done the same journey again in reverse I was so excited.

An Australian Government initiative called “The Big Brother Movement”, (sounds a bit lame I know) but they meant well & frankly, they did well to look after us, I’m very grateful. Australia was a rapidly advancing & huge industrial economy at that time & was desperately in need of engineering trades people. The Big Brother Movement was designed to offer British Commonwealth apprentices the chance to migrate to Australia & complemented their current “White Australia Only” Immigration policy which was working well.

The difference was, a commonwealth apprentice would be flown to Australia for free, would be provided with free initial meals & accommodation & a guarantee of an apprenticeship job to assist them in completing their trade, initial funding to a health fund & permanent accommodation (at the migrants cost) would be found within the local area of their apprenticeship employment. The migrant’s commitment to The Big Brother Movement was a restriction to remain in Australia for a minimum of two years (this was the same as the general migrant policy) otherwise, you could do as you please & travel anywhere within Australia with no further restrictions. The migrant could also refer back to TBBM for help during the 2 years if they were in distress, trouble or just needed someone adult to talk to. More adult than you thought you were lol. In my case, I was in touch with TBBM for the the first 2 weeks of my arrival & never referred to them again. I guess they just did their job well.

2.    In this subject we are studying the rapid advancements in technology and particularly the media’s role in globalisation. Was there any influence from your local media in the UK (TV, news, magazines etc.) that encouraged you to look abroad for opportunities? And do you feel that advancements in technology since then would have a positive or negative impact on somebody in a similar position today in 2013?

There was not much influence from local media in those days, however, what coverage there was showed the Australian lifestyle in a very positive way which made it look attractive. The main influence was word of mouth between family & friends, particularly those with family already in Australia. I guess 2013 technology would have taken a larger chunk of the mystery out of migrating & most probably increased the positives.

3.    Anecdotally it could be argued that many from your generation are quite reluctant to embrace new and rapidly changing technology, particularly relating to communication and the internet, however it is fair to say that my own personal interest in technology has very much been inherited from you!  What were the key factors that developed your interest in technology? Was it related to a hope to bridge the physical gap between yourself and your family still living in the UK? Or simply a hobby that developed into a lifelong interest? 

In no way was my interest in technology to connect with family, 1985 was too early for that, the internet didn’t really come on stream until a decade later. It was the power of the personal computer that drew me in, the ability to have a machine at home to help organise a myriad of interests, hobbies & tasks, not the least of which was playing games with you guys. I also found application programming challenging, fascinating & rewarding.

In terms of how communications have adapted to it, I feel todays communications have become less personal over the last 30 years & people have become more difficult to contact because of ‘message bank choices’ both personally & commercially. People communicate with you now only by their choice, this makes it difficult if what you want to discuss is more on the negative side, a complaint about a product for instance.

4.    Electronic arcade and video games have evolved substantially in recent years and now stand in stark contrast to what you may have experienced both while growing up and even after moving to Australia.  What were some of your experiences of video and arcade games? Would you agree that the transition to more unified (and globally available) platforms such as Microsoft Windows in the 90’s has made a positive impact on gaming or do you pine for the days where you could pop a coin in for a round of pinball at the arcade?

Although there's more realism in todays games I would say there's still room for enjoyment in the earlier tech of pinball type games & I’m sure the Y & Z gen would still enjoy selecting songs from a juke box from a device at a cafe table, 1950’s stuff. Personally, outside pinball which I played sparingly, as a teenager, arcade games were unaffordable to become addicted to. Only at annual holiday time could the arcades be enjoyed. In closing, I think Microsoft has made the games more affordable & their influence has been mostly positive.

5.    Have you found the transition from the domination of print media to the digital age difficult? Do you feel your experiences as a “global” citizen have equipped you better than others in your generation to deal with the rapid growth and change that globalization provides?

In answer to this question, a simple ‘no’ in both cases.