I randomly got interviewed on the BBC today on the program World, Have Your Say:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldhaveyoursay/2010/12/on_air_extreme_world_-_rich_an.html
It was for a series about extremely poor countries and extremely rich countries. Which is AWESOME because of my harsh views on “homeless people” in the United States.
At 10:00am in the morning, a call woke me up, and it was from a BBC producer who had saw my blog and homeless experiment, and thought I’d have a unique opinion on this subject. Our conversation was along the lines of:
- Does money make people happier?
- Are people born in some countries luckier than others?
- How does money impact lives?
- etc etc….
So I agreed to be interviewed over Skype within the next few hours. I really had no idea what they would ask, or what format this was in, but it sounded fun.
FAST FORWARD AND CUT TO THE PROGRAM…..
I’m sitting at my computer, on Skype, wearing headphones to hear, and a studio condenser microphone to speak (the technician for the BBC was amazed at how much clearer I was coming in than the other guests, thanks for the gift Ashdin!)….
…and I can hear the program being broadcast live. After a minute or two, I learned the whole program was literally being broadcast from Sierra Leone (An African country which is considered one of the poorest countries in the world)!
The BBC crew was holding up torches because there was no electricity, while the people being interviewed were cooking on a fire for the nights meal.
They wanted the people in Sierra Leone to speak to people in “rich” countries. So it was a man from Australia, a woman from Norway, and a bratty little kid from America (me) who were going to speak to them.
So the interviewer introduces me, but didn’t ask me a question, so there is an awkward silence for a while. Then he says, “What would you like to say?”
In my head I’m thinking, “Uhhhhh…..I didn’t want to say ANYTHING, you people brought me here to ask me questions!” But instead I kind of went with the theme of the show and started saying that I had more opportunity by growing up in America than most people in the world yadda yadda.
When I was done, I had pissed off at least ONE guy in Sierra Leone!!
I said something I knew might rub someone the wrong way, and that was that “I am luckier than they are.”
The one ultra-religious die-hard-Sierra-Leone-Guy being interviewed said exasperatedly, “NO, I am luckier than HIM!” He kind of reminded me of how the news tends to interview only the wackiest of people just to make it more interesting.
But at least he was the only nutjob in the group. After going on my rant of how crazy-lucky I was to grow up in America in a good family etc….The other people being interviewed said in response to me:
“I feel UNLUCKY to be in Sierra Leone.”
“I do NOT consider myself lucky to be born here (Sierra Leone).”
“If I could, I would leave and go to America.”
IN YO FACE Nut Job Sierra Leone Guy!
RESOURCES:
The article about this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldhaveyoursay/2010/12/on_air_extreme_world_-_rich_an.html
Listen to the entire program:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00c344s
(My segment starts at 43:30 and ends aat 46:50)
Download the mp3 of just my segment:
https://www.nevblog.com/audio/bbc-interview-neville.mp3
Listen to my segment:
[audio:https://www.nevblog.com/audio/bbc-interview-neville.mp3]
(I come in slightly after 1 minute)