Mark: So you came to Toronto when you were about two and a half? Burke: M-hm. Yep. Mark: And your parents, were they Canadian or? Burke: Yeah they were both Canadians. They were simply … They were trained as teachers and so they joined the government program called CSIS. Mark: How do you spell that? Burke: C-S-I-S. Mark: Uh-huh. Burke: And it was in order to help developing countries train professionals, in this case, training them how to teach. Mark: So they worked in Ghana as teachers? Burke: Yeah. Teaching teachers how to teach, so methodology… Mark: Ah teacher trainers. Right. Ok. Burke: Yep. Mark: And then they went to Europe. Burke: Yep. Mark: They were doing the same thing in Europe? Burke: Ahm Europe.. they were just seeing the country with… My sister would have been like five or six and I would have been, as I said, about two at that time so they traveled with two children just to show us I guess.. Mark: Right. Burke: …a taste of Europe and… Mark: That must have been wonderful. Do you remember very much? Burke: Actually the only memory I have of Europe is a green beer bottle and a window sill in Amsterdam. Mark: Wow! Burke: And the beer was called Oranjeboom. I remember just looking down on this intersection and there was this kind of cobblestone kind of look and I just have that imprint and a sort of a feeling with it but I do not really have any other extended memories from that time.
Mark: Ok. It is my first day on the job. I am a new reporter for the Mosquito City Herald. Hello, Brad. Brad: Hi, Mark. How are you doin’ there? Mark: Good. Good. How are you? Brad: It is really god to see you. Are you having a good time? Mark: I am having a good time. Brad: Wonderful. Mark: I got a new job. Brad: You got a new job. That is terrific. Terrific. Mark: I am a journalist. Brad: A journalist! Mark: Yep. Brad: Oh. That is fantastic. I didn’t realize. Mark: I was an English teacher before but now I am a journalist at the Mosquito City Herald. Brad: Oh. You have blown me away. Mark: Today is my first day. Brad: First day. What are you going to do then? Mark: I am going to interview Peter Bestluck, the richest man in Mosquito City. Brad: Oh Peter Bestluck. He is a really nice guy. Mark: Is he? Brad: Oh, he is wonderful person. Mark: I have heard different things about him. Brad: What have you heard? Mark: Some people say he is a nice person and some people say he is a great bloke and some people say he is ok. I haven’t heard anything bad. Brad: Oh that is right. You will never hear anything bad about Peter Bestluck. Never. He is a wonderful person. Mark: A wonderful fellow. Good. Ok, well I better get to work. I have got to be there in half an hour. I (had) better hurry up. Brad: OK. Great. Have a good time. Have a great interview. Mark: See ya later, mate. Brad: See ya later. Mark: See ya.
Mark: OK. There is the Mosquito Herald. I have just finished reading The Mosquito Herald. There is the building. Well! The Mosquito Herald! There is a sign in the window. It says: “journalist wanted”. They want a journalist. They need a journalist. I used to work on the college newspaper and I have written a couple of articles on the internet. I am going to try and get a job.
(Knocking) The Man in the Newspaper Office: Come in. Mark: Hello. The Man in the Newspaper Office: Hello. How are you doing? Mark: Good thanks. How are you? The Man in the Newspaper Office: Very well thank you. Mark: Good. I was just walking by and I saw the sign in the window: “journalist wanted”. The Man in the Newspaper Office: Yeah, that is right. Mark: Are you still looking for somebody? The Man in the Newspaper Office: Yes, we are. Mark: Well, I don’t have a lot of experience but I worked on the college paper when I was a student and I have written a couple of things on the internet. The Man in the Newspaper Office: What did you write on the internet? Mark: I just wrote a couple of articles. One was about a village that I used to live in. The Man in the Newspaper Office: Traditional village?
Mark: Yeah. The Man in the Newspaper Office: Where was the village? Mark: In Thailand. The Man in the Newspaper Office: Oh Thailand. That is very interesting. Mark: And another one was about a trip that I did in Australia. The Man in the Newspaper Office: Mm. Where was it? Did you go into the desert or? Mark: Yeah. Through the desert. Yeah. The Man in the Newspaper Office: That sounds fascinating. So you have a bit of experience. So yes, why not? Mark: Ok. So, I have got the job? The Man in the Newspaper Office: You have got the job. Mark: How much is the pay? The Man in the Newspaper Office: Well the pay is pretty good actually. It is about..Gosh..Well the starting fee is twelve thousand dollars every month. Mark: Twelve thousand dollars a month! Wow! This Mosquito City is a really good place. Free food. Free hotel. Friendly people. Twelve thousand dollars a month! Great! What is your name? Frank: Frank. Mark: Nice to meet you, Frank! Frank: What is your name again? Mark: Mark. Frank: Hi Mark. How are you doing? Welcome. Welcome to the team. Mark: Wow! This is great. This is great! Good stuff!
Australian Guy: So in 1979… American Guy:Seventy-nine I moved to San Francisco. And at that time… it was the height of the punk season. It was still the waning years of the punk era. But punk was the dominant music form at that time and there were people living in inner city breweries; breweries that were abandoned and there were these punk kids living inside these vats. Australian Guy: The brewing vats. American Guy: The brewing vats Australian Guy: Wow! American Guy: And they had parties there and they were like … skateboarding was also coming on at the time. It was a big thing then. Australian Guy: How old were you then? American Guy: I was twenty-three then. About twenty-three. I was twenty-three. And there were … there were abandoned schools; schools that were shut down. And people were living in them. Houses; a lot of people were living there and squatting. It was wild. The gay movement was in full swing. It was pre-AIDS. And in the Castro people were walking around with leather “chaps”. Australian Guy: Cowboy pants? American Guy: You know these black “leather chaps” with their “butts” hanging out like “naked butts”. They would all go up to the Russian River which was about an hour and a half north of San Francisco and the “Russian River Gazette” which was the newspaper from that town was available in San Francisco because a lot of people had houses up there. It was wild. They had “Hare Krishnas” on Haight Street. You would go out to Haight street and they had these gangs of “Hare Krishnas” walking down the street. Australian Guy: It sounds like “the sixties“. American Guy: Yes. It was weird. There was still…it was a decade after “the sixties” but it was still; there were a lot of … people who were like still living a sort of you know …there were hippies … there were the punks…there were the gays…it was wild. Australian Guy:Wild. American Guy: Every part of San Francisco had a different .. Australian Guy: Sub-culture like. American Guy: Subculture going on. (to waitress) Thank you very much.
And you could live cheaply. There were like a lot of houses you could live very cheaply in or for free if you were squatting and then if you were living in a big Victorian house. American Guy: And then Punk faded and the New Wave came. I was working at a restaurant then. I was going to art school then later on too … everything…. starting like…Everything went downhill in the nineties. Australian Guy: Why? What happened? American Guy: Because………..it started…it was basically…San Francisco is not a big city. And it became…These areas became gentrified...the Haight Street was run down. The hippies ran down Haight Street. It was a shambles. Some people that lived there; they said that the real estate prices, because of so many people who had moved in there, had plummeted and a lot of stores had closed up but then there was a revival; a renaissance. New businesses came in. The hippies all moved out and it became very trendy to live there. And because of “Silicon Valley”; the closeness to Silicon Valley; a lot of people who had made money in the computer industry would also live in San Francisco and commute down to the south Bay. Australian Guy: How far is that from San Francisco? American Guy: It is about forty-five minutes to Palo Alto. So a lot of people would live there and commute from there and what happened was eventually they tore down the breweries. A lot of abandoned buildings were torn down and real estate became scarce. And real estate prices started going up. Abandoned buildings were being used again. They were being bought up and refurbished. Factories…inner city factories that had existed from the fifties and the post war era and were basically just abandoned were torn down for new housing developments or they built a big school or something… Australian Guy: Mm. American Guy: And in the nineties the “dot.com” businesses completely destroyed San Francisco. San Francisco became a ? for the computer industry especially for the internet. And there was a lot of small internet shops that opened up in San Francisco that had you know the whole internet; the early internet craze. So everybody had a website and tried to get something on the internet ; medical websites. Selling something on the internet . And a lot of them were based in San Francisco. The people that worked for them were highly paid. All the early network engineers. Australian: Web designers. American: Web designers. They were getting six hundred thousand dollars a year. They were like twenty-one years old. There was a lot of resentment. Doctors and lawyers who were making that kind of money who had studied at you know like Princeton. Australian Guy: Mm. American Guy: And then spend like a lifetime… and then angry that these twenty-one year old punks were making that kind of money. And that lasted for about six or seven years but it completely… There was a housing shortage in San Francisco because there were so many new people coming in. If there was an apartment to rent people would line up at 6am in the morning to be the first ones to get in. And they would pay more than the asking price. If the apartment was (advertised) for one thousand dollars … people would offer fifteen hundred to try to get it. And it pushed out all the alternative people who used to work in the political scene and a lot of the musicians. They all packed up and moved back home to the midwest. And it really destroyed the arts scene, the music scene and also the political scene because everybody worked for non-profit..who was doing it for…. How do you say this? Australian Guy: Moral? American Guy: Or some kind of cause. Australian Guy: Voluntary? American Guy: Yeah. Voluntary. All the volunteers. Australian Guy: Community-minded people. American Guy: Yeah. They could not afford to live there any more. They got completely priced out. Australian Guy: Around the village like? American Guy: Yeah. They were literally constrained. When money moves in there is always… when there is an economic boom… That happens. The city is doing well. New jobs are being offered. Then people come in with high-paying jobs and they push people out who have low-paying jobs. The landlords; you can’t blame them. They had strict rent control in San Francisco and they still have it. In New York they abolished rent control and landlords were able to charge what they felt like. But San Francisco had rent control and if you could be in a place, you could hang on. New York; they abolished rent control. Australian Guy: Where did people move to? American Guy: This was the question. I asked some people Some of them moved out to like God knows where…
Mark: Ok, so I have got my newspaper. I am going to sit down and read the newspaper. I have to find a park. There is a lot of traffic here. There are lots of cars. There is a park over there in front of the city office. I will go and sit there and read my newspaper….OK….Very interesting. Very interesting…Hello! A Woman in the Park: Hello. Mark: How are you? The Woman in the Park: Oh very well thank you. Mark: Lovely weather. The Woman in the Park: Oh it is beautiful… What are you doing? Mark: Just reading the paper. Just relaxing. I am new in town. The Woman in the Park: Oh wonderful! Mark: You live here? The Woman in the Park: Yes, I live just round the corner. Mark: I have just come from Japan. The Woman in the Park: Oh Japan! Mark: I have just moved here. The Woman in the Park: Very interesting. Mark: Have you been to Japan? The Woman in the Park in Front of the City Office: Never. I know very little about it. Mark: It is a very interesting place. The Woman in the Park: Sumo wrestling. Mark: Sumo wrestling. Sushi. The Woman: Oh yes. Sushi. Mark: Have you ever eaten sushi? The Woman in the Park: Well, actually there is a sushi bar here. Mark: Oh really. Have you tried it? The Woman in the Park: Yeah I try it regularly. Mark: Right. The Woman in the Park: It is not a “Kaiten Sushi“, though. It is just an ordinary very small sushi bar. Mark: I don’t eat a lot of sushi actually. I like vegetables. The Woman in the Park: Oh vegetables. We have plenty of those. You might have found out about that. Mark: Yeah yeah. I have seen there is a lot of fresh fruit too. It is good. It is lovely. This is a lovely place. What do you do? The Woman: Well, I am a farmer. Mark: Oh. The Woman: A farmer’s wife, excuse me. Mark: Right. OK. And you are at the City office today…You have come in to do some business? The Woman: Well, Mosquito City isn’t that big. Mark: Right. The Woman: So I like to stroll around, you know, interesting atmosphere. Mark: Right. OK. The Woman: I know a lot of people here. Mark: Right OK. That is a lovely duck you have there too. Is that your duck? The Woman: Yes, that is my duck. Mark: Right OK. The Duck: Quack quack. Mark: Right. OK. Oh well. I think I will go for a stroll. The Woman: OK. Have a nice day. Mark: Nice talking to you. Bye. The Farmer’s Wife: Bye Bye.
First English Bloke: Have you been to Cuba? Australian Guy: No, I would like to go. I really like Castro. First English Bloke: It is an incredible country. It is just aah.. Everything is run by… because tourism is a such a massive part of Cuba now.. you know.. and it has become kind of like a cheap Caribbean Island to get to… as I say … all the resorts are owned by Castro. Australian Guy: Right. First English Bloke: And they are all very contained so you don’t really get to see a lot of Cubans as such.. Australian Guy: Mm. Second English Bloke: Well that is purposeful isn’t it? The way they have actually tried to segment “decadent western tourists” away from “honest Cubans”… First English Bloke: It is. It is. I mean it is amazing. I found the attitude towards Castro amazing. The attitude towards Castro is amazing. How they aar… Australian Guy: They love him. First English Bloke: Yeah. Englishwoman: Yeah. First English Bloke: They talk about him like their own grandfather; Australian Bloke: Yeah Yeah Yeah. First English Bloke: They literally talk about him like he is a family member and they won’t have a bad word said against him. Australian Guy: Is it true that everyone uses their first name? … Like when a six year old child talks to Castro he calls him “comrade Fidel”. He doesn’t… First English Bloke: Fidel. Fidel. Australian Bloke: He does not call him “Mr Castro” or “Senor Castro”. First: English Bloke: No, I would say they talk about him…They talk about him as “Fidel”. Yeah. If they were talking to you they would talk about him like that. Australian Bloke: Cuba has the highest literacy in the Americas? English Woman: Yeah… Female illiteracy… First English Bloke: It has the lowest female illiteracy rate anywhere in the world apparently. Including like any western country. Second English Bloke: And it also has got one of the highest …highest kind of longevity rates as well. Australian Guy: Medical as well. Medical systems. Best in the world Englishwoman: Compared to its neighbours too. Mexico and places like that… First English Bloke: They have so much which is really good and so much that …communism; it makes you think it is actually almost working in Cuba. Second English Bloke: Well it never ..it did in a way… did it? First English Bloke: …but there is so much which isn’t working as well because there is so much poverty. Second English Bloke: As soon as Russia collapsed I mean they were buying all the sugar. They were buying all kinds of exports and the rest… At beautiful rates. Australian Guy: Mm. Second English Bloke: And as soon as Russia collapsed they were plunged into poverty. First English Guy: When Russia collapsed …Everything was imported because they were the last communist country so they had chickens and stuff from Bulgaria. Everything. Second English Bloke: Yeah. First English Bloke: Everything was imported. Once communism collapsed and they carried on, they had nothing. No-one was giving them food. They lived on bananas for a year. Pretty bad. Bananas were all they could get. English Woman: (?) First English Bloke: And it was terrible. America gave them free passes and that’s when thousands died trying to get over to Miami on like home-made rafts and stuff Second English Guy: Yeah. First English Bloke: But it was awful. America said we open our gates but you get your own way here. Australian Bloke: Yeah. Yeah. But I mean… Look at things like… Israel. When Israel was a new country, there were a lot of like Russian Jews, like Russian intellectuals who moved down to Israel and they started the kibbutzim….. First English Bloke: Yeah. Australian Bloke: A kibbutz was basically a kolkhoz, like a collective.. First English Bloke: Yeah. Australian Bloke: You know? The same as the Soviet thing; that was a really good thing and it worked for thirty or forty years when they were building a nation… First English Bloke: Mmm. Australian Bloke: And now that Israel is a rich country and everyone is selfish and wants to do their own thing and go the disco and all that; now they don’t work any more. Second English Bloke: The kibbutzim still exist though, don’t they? Australian Bloke: They have stopped. I think the last one… They are nearly all gone now. Second English Chap: Really? I didn’t know that.
First English Bloke: The reason why it has worked so well in Cuba is because of Castro though. Second English Bloke: Well Castro’s brother now has taken over… First English Bloke: There is a real feeling is that if the country gets richer, we get richer. Australian Bloke: Mm. First English Bloke: And Castro still at his age now will stand in a square for four hours and give like four hour speeches to people. They have huge water trucks to keep everybody hydrated and once they finish the speech they all turn into free rum trucks and everybody has free rum. (laughter) And they love him.
(Laughter.)
Mark: Wow! That fellow was a bit funny. Ok. Here we are. Here is a newsagent down here. Yes. Ok. The Mosquito Post. The Mosquito Herald. There’s a couple of newspapers here. OK. I think I will try the Mosquito Herald.
Excuse me could I have a copy of the Mosquito Herald, please? The Man in the Newsagency: Sure. help yourself. Mark: Thanks. The Newsagent: That will be a dollar. Mark: Here you are. The Man in the Newsagency: Thank you very much. Mark: Thanks a lot. Bye The Newspaper Vendor: Bye. See you again. Mark: See ya.
