MONDAY, 13 JANUARY 2003
(BRAND realises shortly after high school that he no longer wants to live in the same room where he spent his last years at school. He doesn’t have a penny to his name, but he believes “everything will work out”. The first part of the interview dates from this period.)
BRAND: I’m finished with school now. I think it’s time I left my parents’ house – to see if I can make something of myself. What are my options?
SAGE: Well, you can either sleep against the wall at the post office at night, or you can get a “place” with a door you can close when you’re inside, and that you can lock when you go outside. A place also has the advantage that you can keep some of your “stuff” there, like boxes full of junk you don’t want to throw away, and old clothes, old love letters, cups to drink coffee from and so on. The problem is that you have to pay, every month, to live in such a place.
BRAND: What should I do to get money?
SAGE: You can steal money, but you can end up in prison if you get caught. Plus, it’s wrong to steal. The alternative is that you work for it.
BRAND: I delivered newspapers a few years ago … What else can I do?
SAGE: You can wash dishes in a restaurant, or cars at traffic lights. Or you can sell makeup. Or hot dogs.
BRAND: That doesn’t sound like enjoyable work.
SAGE: You can of course do work that might be a little more interesting, but for that you’d have to be trained. Seeing that this interview takes place in the early nineties, it means you have to go to university.
BRAND: Which university? Can I go to Stellenbosch?
SAGE: Considering that your parents are living in Pretoria at this time, I would say the University of Pretoria is probably the more reasonable option.
BRAND: But I really want to go to the Cape …
SAGE: Then you go to the Cape. I’m sure you’ll be able to survive years of being broke, and landlords who’ll get hostile when you can’t pay your rent.
BRAND: What do you think I should study? What should I train for?
SAGE: Well, what are you interested in?
BRAND: I love history, and religion … stuff like that.
SAGE: Well, you can’t become a reverend because you don’t have money to study theology. It seems education is your only real option. You can try to get a scholarship that will cover tuition fees.
BRAND: Great! But … but doesn’t that mean I should become a teacher later on?
SAGE: In theory … hey, what happened to the last slice of pizza?!
(A few years later …)
BRAND: I don’t want to be a teacher anymore. I want to study Psychology or Philosophy, or do my master’s degree in Religious Studies, or History. I want to go overseas for a few months. Europe is such an interesting place …
SAGE: You can’t afford to go to Europe. It costs a lot of money, you know?
BRAND: Well, I’ve got a student loan from the bank. I could …
SAGE: A loan? From the bank? I thought you said you’d never go into debt – especially not at a bank!
BRAND: I know. It’s a long story …
(A few months later. BRAND is back from his European trip.)
BRAND: Wow, now I have no money left. And I really want to go back to Europe. To tell you the truth, I’d go anywhere, as long as it’s overseas. But how will I get my hands on more money?
SAGE: Here’s an ad in the Cape Times for teachers in Korea. They say they’ll even pay for your plane ticket …
BRAND: Oh, well. I guess I’ll have to go to Korea, then.
(After 22 months in Korea BRAND is back in South Africa.)
BRAND: I want to belong, and I want to commit myself to something or someone. I don’t want to wander around aimlessly anymore. I want to be a writer, and a scholar. Power is everything. In every relationship you can see who’s in control, although in ideal relationships this will vary according to the situation. But if you don’t have power, you have nothing – no freedom, no choice. I need more power. And I don’t have to be concerned anymore that the socio-economic middle class would suck me in while I sleep. You’ve actually got to work very hard to get in there. So I can relax. Now I just need more money because my savings from 22 months in Korea is rapidly getting depleted. Maybe I should go overseas again …
(BRAND survived eight months in the country of his birth. For six months he worked in an office, and gained first-hand evidence for his suspicions about money, power, and relationships. Amongst other places he stayed in a servant’s quarter with pink walls, where he slept on a “mattress” which consisted of two pieces of sponge he had joined together with adhesive tape.
At the end of this experiment in Belonging & Commitment he packed his clothes and audio tapes in a bag, and with money a friend in Taiwan had loaned him, he was on his way again – back to the Far East.
A few weeks later, he had a job, an apartment, and a scooter. After a few years he had acquired a dog, an electric guitar, and a computer. And two Chinese dictionaries.
The last part of this interview takes place shortly after he decided to provisionally stay on for a fifth year on the subtropical island.)
BRAND: I want to go home, but where will I live? How will I make money? I simply have to stay here a little longer. But what if I want to get married some day? What if I want to have children one day? Where will I meet the right woman? How would I earn money for myself and for a wife and children? Where will we live … because actually I like living abroad, but I also miss out on all the cultural festivals and the Afrikaans music concerts. I would also like to eat proper potato salad again. And I want to improve my Chinese and learn to speak Russian. I want to work from home because I don’t like offices. I hate having to comply with other people’s rules – with which I almost never agree. And I want to go back to Europe for a while. It’s such a beautiful and interesting place …
SAGE: Oh, my goodness.
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