Transcription

This is a video of an interview done with Mr Shaun Koh of Syinc, a social enterprise.

SHAUN KOH: I didn’t really really really get involved until I watched a film actually. The short story I told you about you know, about this young person watching the film and gets to ____, that was actually me.

PERSON: okay.

SHAUN KOH: Yeah, um, um, two years ago, two three years ago, yeah three years ago before i went into the army I had some time in between JC and the army and I er, watch this vid called BLACK GOLD it’s about uh, about friendshipscourt happenings?! It’s like oh companies like starbucks, at that point of time, will pay very little to bargain and it would end up, you know, not making enough money to sustain themselves and end up doing drugs, and and that in turns destructs the community and i was like wow, i gotta do something about this.

When I watched that, I was naive enough to get out of my chair, go to my neighbourhood uh coffee bean and tea leaves, walk up to the four waitresses down there, and asked them “Hey um, under what social economic condition were your coffee beans grown under?” And um, she was like “What?” You know and I, I didn’t ask like “Um um wait, are you being fair trade? You know fair trade? ” And they’re like “Uhhhh, sorry, can’t really help you, I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” And I’m like “Will you, will you be growing a bean sprout?”. “Oh I can help you with this,” and she drag out the garbage bin bag and um, she brought out the tablet and all that kind of thing and it’s not what i need .