VOA Connect Episode 189, Being Yourself
Metadata
- VOA Connect Episode 189, Being Yourself
- August 27, 2021
- Category
- Language English
- Transcript/Script VOA – CONNECT EPISODE #189 AIR DATE: 08/27/2021 TRANSCRIPT OPEN ((VO/NAT)) ((Banner)) Caring for Self ((SOT)) ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) I just turned 60 a month ago. I didn't want to get to 65 and say, “Why didn't I do it?” Life is too short to be somebody that you are not. ((Animation Transition)) ((Banner)) Caring for Cows ((SOT)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) Let’s go! Everybody out. Come on. You never run out of something to do on a farm. And in the summer, that's when you'd patch your fences and you cut all the tree limbs off your hay fields, so the tractor can get up to the very edge and it's not shading the hay. ((Animation Transition)) ((Banner)) Caring for Ecosystems ((SOT)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) A lot of the birds and other insects rely on the native flora for protection, for food and everything. And in some areas now, certain birds aren't around. ((Open Animation)) BLOCK A ((PKG)) REUTERS PHOTOGRAPHER ((TRT: 06:28)) ((VOA Russian)) ((Topic Banner: Being Oneself)) ((Reporter: Anna Nelson)) ((Camera: Vladimir Badikov)) ((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki)) ((Map: New York City, New York)) ((Main character: 1 female)) ((NATS)) ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) I’m Gina Chua. ((Courtesy: Reuters)) I'm executive editor at Reuters. You know, when I was young, ((End courtesy)) I didn’t feel like I was like everybody else. I don't know what age that would be. Eight, nine, 10, you know, something like that. I don't think I really knew what it was. And, you know, and if you think back to those days, which was the 1960s and the 1970s, there just really wasn't a lot. There was no internet, there was nothing you could look up, ((Courtesy: Reuters)) you know, to really start to understand that I was transgender. ((End courtesy)) So, I'm from Singapore. I was born in Singapore. All males in Singapore have to join the army and so, I was in the military for two and a half years, started working as a computer programmer for a bit and then as a journalist and then went off. I won a scholarship to go to Columbia Journalism School in New York, so I came for a year. That was, that scholarship was paid for by Reuters. And then nine months after that, I became editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal. Did that for eight years, moved to New York for The Wall Street Journal, became Deputy Managing Editor after a couple of years and then left in 2009 and went back to Hong Kong to be Editor- in-Chief of the South China Morning Post. And in 2011, came back to Reuters in New York and I've been here since. ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) You know, how did I manage it through all of the years? I'm very good at compartmentalizing. It’s like, this part of my life here and then it's done and now I'm in this part of my life here. And, you know, slowly over the years, you try to pull them closer together and that's, I think, what has happened to me as well, until you come to this moment where you say, “Look, I have one life. I don't have two lives.” ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) The pandemic has gotten in the way of this transition. In some ways, the pandemic has been really good. And that's not to downplay all the suffering that's been caused. But because you are at home and you're spending time away from other people and the only thing that people see of you is, you know, this much on a screen, you can really start to just settle into a different skin. ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) Eventually, you know, as of late December, just make the decision to become public and actually transition. And then I started telling people at work and, you know, especially H.R. [Human Resources] and my boss and my boss's boss and so on, about what the timeline would look like. And I started planning the timeline. Before I transitioned, obviously I was a little more careful about how I looked on camera. And then afterwards, I look like this. ((Courtesy: Reuters)) My name was Reg. At the office, I don't think anyone. ((End courtesy)) I certainly am not expecting anyone to react badly. Well, some people will have trouble with names and pronouns and so on. But again, you know, as long as people are trying, you know, that's fine. ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) I look a little different. My name is different. I'm doing exactly the same things I did before. I still eat the same food. I live in the same place. I mean, it's, that hasn't changed. And that part of it, that normality of it, has become fantastic. As I say, I used to spend ((Courtesy: Reuters)) a lot of my time, a lot of my brain occupied about thinking about this is, who I am. ((End courtesy)) ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) When I went out as Gina before I transitioned, I would open the door of my apartment and then listen to see if anybody was in the corridor, so that I could get out without being seen. I mean, even now, I open the door and sometimes I think I should listen to this. And I say, “Why am I listening?” I just go out. Everybody in the building knows me. What difference does it make?” And so, the normality of it has been great. Look, Reuters has been fantastic, right? I mean, all the way through from the H.R. policy and health benefits and everything. It's been wonderful. ((NATS)) ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) I've had colleagues, I've had friends, I've had strangers even write to me and say, “You know, my child is trans” or “I have a friend who's trans” or in some cases, “I'm sort of on the same journey as well.” And sort of be able to hear their stories and to reach out and to offer help or advice or resources. ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) I think a lot of trans people go through cycles where they try to deny that they are trans. And for trans men, you know, I think that's turning to becoming much more feminine and seeing if that's their life. And for trans women, it's becoming much more masculine. It's joining the army. It's playing football. It's doing things right. Because you want to “cure” yourself of this, right? You want to see, you know, you want, you think there's something wrong with you and so, endless cycle of questioning yourself. ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) It is the inability to tell people about yourself. It's the sense that you're hiding something. There's a sense of shame. Attempted suicide in the trans community is, I mean, it’s horrifying. You understand that the level of despair that some people have about this. You can be trans and you can still get by in the world. You can be who you are and not suffer for it and you can be, you know, you can be successful. I think the important thing is, you remove one element of the unhappiness in your life. That doesn't necessarily make you happy, but you do get rid of one thing that's bothering you. You get rid of one thing that is occupying part of your mind. ((Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Reuters)) I just turned 60 a month ago. It was one of the factors in my decision honestly but I didn't want to get to 65 and say, “Why didn't I do it?” Life is too short to be somebody that you are not. ((NATS)) TEASE ((VO/NAT)) Coming up ((Banner)) Caring for Cows ((SOT)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) She's got a spot here. That's Eve, right there. And then Ginger. The cow over there is her daughter and then that calf right there is Ginger's daughter. So, you’ve got three generations standing right there. BREAK ONE BUMP IN ((ANIM)) BLOCK B ((PKG)) HOME IS WHERE THE HERD IS ((TRT: 05:45)) ((Topic Banner: Home Is Where the Herd Is)) ((Reporter/Camera: Orlando Pinder)) ((Map: Hico, West Virginia)) ((Main character: 1 female)) ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) My name is Joyce Crawford. I live in Hico, West Virginia, on a farm, which is kind of been a lifelong dream of mine. I always had this thought that if you lived on a farm, you were self-sufficient. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) Herefords are kind of like the Labrador Retriever of cows. They're very gentle. They're very calm. I feed them grain at least once a week. Call them all in and look at them. Make sure, you know, they don't have bad feet or no injuries. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) Come on, girls! They're all going to come right off that mountain there. Come on, girls! Come on! ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) I can go out and bang the chain on the gate. And that's their cue and here they come. Where’s my pretty girls? Come on, girls. I know! Come on. Come on, everybody! Here’s all my pretty girls. Come on. Come on. Come on. They have different temperaments. Just like people, some of them are a little more headstrong than others. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) I’m the only one out here that gets to have an attitude. If they got a bad attitude, they gotta go because I don’t have time for that. ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) Some of them will let you go right up to them and pet them and talk to them. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) They do establish a dominance between them as to who is ruling the roost out there. I have yet to have a bull that ruled the roost. They just kind of stand back and let those cows go at it. I guess it's important to me to be, have a relationship with my cows because that's why I do it. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) Come on. Come on up here. Going to miss the grain. ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) They are livestock. I am raising them to sell them off. But they respond better to me. They're calmer around me. And it makes it easier for me to do my job. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) I had my favorites. My very, very favorite is a cow named Eve. She was my very first calf. And she's very, very loving. And she's getting a little age on her now but I'm not getting rid of her. I like her. So, she's got a spot here. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) That's Eve, right there. And then Ginger. The cow over there is her daughter and then that calf right there is Ginger's daughter. So, you’ve got three generations standing right there. ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) I don't yell at my cows. I don't respond well to that. I don't think they respond well to that. I just kind of talk to them. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) Let’s go! Everybody out. Come on. Nope. Let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go. Come on. There you go. Come on Butterbean, learn the drill. ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) And plus, you can look like a hero if you just pay attention. Because if a cow is standing here and you walk up right here, that cow’s going to go that way. You can train you easier than you can train them. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) My days are, in the summertime, are kind of as busy as I want to make them. You never run out of something to do on a farm. And in the summer, that's when you'd patch your fences and you cut all the tree limbs off your hay fields, so the tractor can get up to the very edge and it's not shading the hay. It's important to rotate your pastures because if you let them eat everything you got all the time, they will eat it down so much uniformly that there's not enough to eat there. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) There were cows here when I bought this place. I originally bought it to just come up and sit on the porch and read a book and chill out. And there was this guy ((Photo Courtesy: Joyce Crawford)) that was cutting hay and had cows and I couldn't figure out if he wasn’t interested or if he was just flat stupid. But anyway, ((Photo Courtesy: Joyce Crawford)) we finally ended up getting together. He knew about cows. He'd always had cows. And then he passed away and now I do it by myself. And it’s a lot of work. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) Now, I have the world's greatest neighbors. I am telling you. I have the world's greatest neighbors. ((NATS)) ((Neighbor)) Is the bull going? ((Joyce Crawford)) Everybody’s going. ((Neighbor)) Okay. ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) I don't have to ask them for things. They just show up and they help me. And I try to do that with them as well. ((NATS)) ((Joyce Crawford, Farmer)) I like raising beef that I eat because I know where it came from. I know what it ate and I know how it was cared for. I personally think my beef tastes better than anybody’s. ((NATS/MUSIC)) TEASE ((VO/NAT)) Coming up ((Banner)) Preserving the Woods ((SOT)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) If we want to save our native flora and fauna, we've got to make sure that we control these plants. BREAK TWO BUMP IN ((ANIM)) BLOCK C ((PKG)) WEED WARRIORS ((Previously aired May, 2021)) ((TRT: 09:15)) ((Topic Banner: Weed Warriors)) ((Reporter/Camera: Deepak Dobhal)) ((Map: Silver Spring, Maryland)) ((Main character: 1 male)) ((Sub characters: 1 female; 2 male)) ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) You see growing in on the ground throughout this area is, what's called, lesser celandine. This is a plant that's, I believe, it comes from Asia that was brought into this country as an ornamental. And it's a beautiful plant but it's gone rogue on us. Ten years ago, we didn't see this. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) The native plant, which is the spring beauty, this used to be the predominant flower growing in our open areas and base of the woods until this critter came in, this lesser celandine. Now, it's the predominant one. That's the trouble with invasive because this outcompetes our natives. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) A lot of the birds and other insects rely on the native flora for protection, for food and everything. And in some areas now, certain birds aren't around. Some insects are going down because they haven't got the plant that they've evolved with and lay eggs on and eat. Lot of areas of, we don't have milkweed. And therefore, the monarch butterfly just cannot reproduce. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) We'll just have to take time to see what really happens if lesser celandine doesn't die out on its own because there's just nothing that we can do about it. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) Another bad one is bush honeysuckle. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) Sometimes these things are pretty tough to get at. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) If we want to save our native flora and fauna, we've got to make sure that we control these plants. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) Here we got the root out. But now, we have a lot more. But once you take it out by the roots, generally you don't have to worry about that one anymore. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) Bush honeysuckle was brought into this country probably in the early 1900s or 1800s as an ornamental plant. It didn’t evolve here. It doesn't have any diseases or insects that bother it. So, it just has a, really a free lunch. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) We'll walk up here and just see if we can find some other type of invasive plants that we're interested in removing. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) I thought when I retired, I’d spend more time fishing. I took up golf, so I play golf once in a while. But then there was this need to help this, our ecosystem around and our parks. I got involved in that. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) I generally work for no more than two hours when I work out here. I used to work longer but as I mature, I find I just don't have the stamina to stay up much longer than that. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) Had my left hip replaced and that went very smoothly and within, you know, a year, I could go out and could walk and work in the woods again. And a couple of years after that, my other hip started bothering me and I realized it's time to get that replaced. And this one gave me a little more problem because it got infected and I had to have it replaced again. Since then, it's been probably six years ago that I had that last hip replaced, I'm really almost back to normal. But I have to be careful going down hills and watch for things that I don't trip on, because that can be a serious effect. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) We aren’t going to get rid of all the invasive plants but what we can do is cut them back a little bit, so our native plants can come in. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) Well, I mean not win it but we've made a lot of progress. When I remember what it looked like here and now the park field [workers], it can start coming in into some of these areas and planting things. But now what happens when I leave? I need to have someone come and take over. And one of the things that we're trying to do is get some Weed Warriors to adopt an area like this that we've already cleaned up quite a bit. But to keep it cleaned up. And it’s a good concept but a lot of people don’t want to do it. Eventually, I think, we'll get people that'll do that. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) I'm a, what's called, a Weed Warrior supervisor and I can help train people and I can take groups out that aren't Weed Warriors and have them work, work with them to show them what plants to pull and which ones to leave alone. The Weed Warrior program was started in Montgomery County. Carole Bergmann, who is the head ecologist in the park, started this program, training people, volunteers to go out into the woods to remove invasive plants. And this is grown now where there's, I don't know, how many thousand trained Weed Warriors. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) This morning, we've got two Weed Warriors that are actually supervisors as well. They can take groups out later on. They’re both very experienced Weed Warriors, have been in the program for many years. ((NATS)) ((Edward Murtagh, Weed Warrior)) In this section, we've been working for about six months, five or six, all winter long. You've got to look at things over 10-20 years. If you look at over just a few months, you're going to get really frustrated because it's just so much. ((NATS)) ((Ross Campbell, Weed Warrior)) You know, people try to help out in ways that they know they're not going to wake up one day and say, well, that job is done. But they think they can make some contribution in a small way and maybe encourage other people to try to help out too. ((NATS)) ((Edward Murtagh, Weed Warrior)) You take this. I’ll get another one. ((Linda Farley, Weed Warrior Trainee)) I'm sorry. ((Edward Murtagh, Weed Warrior)) That's no problem. We are already glad you are here. ((NATS)) ((Linda Farley, Weed Warrior Trainee)) I'm new to the organized program, The Weed Warriors. I don't necessarily think that wildflowers are necessary to keep the globe spinning and people alive. I just think it's an aesthetic and ethical, you know, responsibility. ((NATS)) ((Linda Farley, Weed Warrior Trainee)) Seems that some people can walk in a forest of green and just be happy that it's green and they don't look closely. But maybe that's a problem in all kinds of areas in our lives, you know. We're just not paying attention. So, and eventually it will become a problem on larger scales. You know, ecological imbalance causes all kinds of problems with humans. Disease is one of them. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) Violets that are coming up. That gives some satisfaction knowing that it's kind of nice to do that and you're helping the environment. ((NATS)) ((James Anderson, Weed Warrior)) I guess, I'll continue doing this until I really can’t and it might be getting close. ((NATS)) CLOSING BUMPER ((ANIM)) voanews.com/connect NEXT WEEK / GOOD BYE ((VO/NAT)) ((Banner)) The Everyday Hero ((SOT)) ((Joseph Irizarry, NYC Train Operator on 9/11/2001)) My name is Joseph Irizarry. I was a train operator on the R Line on September 11, 2001. It was scary. Because at that point, nobody knew that it was terrorism. You know, everybody just thought it was an accident. There were people running down the stairs to get on the train. I told my conductor to keep the doors open until he saw that everybody had gotten on the train safely. ((NATS)) ((Joseph Irizarry)) I’m glad you’re here. ((Linda Desilvio)) Good again to see you. ((Joseph Irizarry)) Thanks for finding me. ((Linda Desilvio)) The MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority] did. ((Joseph Irizarry, NYC Train Operator on 9/11/2001)) It’s a good feeling, you know, to think somebody, you know, considers you a hero. I still say that’s what we do every day down here. That’s our job, to keep our customers safe. CLOSING BUMPER ((ANIM)) voanews.com/connect BREAK THREE BUMP IN ((ANIM)) SHOW ENDS
- NewsML Media Topics Arts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
- Program Name VOA Connect
- Network VOA
- Expiration Date September 26, 2021 12:42 EDT
- Embargo Date September 16, 2021 17:40 EDT
- Brand / Language Service Voice of America - English