Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 48


     
     1
     2   Q.   What were you intending to suggest to yourself, if nobody
     3        else, by the reference to "investment in cattle production
     4        in Thailand"?
     5        A.  I think that was -- we had had a conversation, again
     6        with Paul Hickling -- I had a number of conversations with
     7        Paul Hickling -- and we just talked about -- I mean, I was
     8        genuinely fascinated by the fact that McDonald's would go
     9        into -- he told us at some length about the nature of going
    10        into a country like Russia where, in order to ensure that
    11        the quality of McDonald's hamburgers as they deemed they
    12        wanted to have the quality, they would actually have to
    13        move into supervising a -- I mean, maybe by a particular
    14        beef farmer's herd.  So he was just talking about the whole
    15        process of it, which I thought was fascinating.  So he
    16        would talk about, that is some of the kind of things they
    17        did in Thailand.  That is actually a reference to the
    18        conversation, which was quite a long conversation which
    19        ranged around apricots for apricot pies and all sorts of
    20        things.  He told us in that, for example, about when
    21        McDonald's went to Australia, and the Australians did not
    22        really like the way the pickle was put on the hamburgers.
    23        So it was a very wide ranging -- it is a reference to
    24        that.
    25
    26   Q.   I perfectly understand.  As it is written, I thought
    27        perhaps you were trying to suggest that McDonald's own
    28        cattle in Thailand?
    29        A.  No.  I think that was not necessarily -- I do not think
    30        it is was necessarily saying it owns cattle in Thailand.
    31        I think it was -- he said what they were going to do in
    32        Russia, was that they would get exclusive  rights to the
    33        use of this particular herd, in order to guarantee that the
    34        herd was treated, you know, as McDonald's wanted them to be
    35        treated.  I have no idea whether McDonald's own cattle in
    36        Thailand or what, but it was a reference back to that
    37        conversation which Jane had been present at.
    38
    39   Q.   Yes, I see.  In the last paragraph on that page, you write
    40        this: "But they need to persuade themselves that they are
    41        doing more than that; otherwise" -- that is say, selling
    42        hamburgers -- "otherwise you might wake up one morning and
    43        ask myself 'Why am I working 92 hours a week just to sell
    44        hamburgers for not very much money?'"
    45
    46        What people did you have in mind when you asked that
    47        rhetorical question in the first person: "Why am I working
    48        92 hours a week just" -----
    49        A.  I think that was talking about the kind of hours that
    50        Michael Metcalfe had told us and Mass had mentioned, that 
    51        he done these three 18 hour shifts on the trot.  It was 
    52        that kind of -- that in order to -- I mean, there is a kind 
    53        of -- it is not just McDonald's; I think, in order to get
    54        into surviving in that kind of atmosphere, you have to
    55        convince yourself that it is fun doing this and that is
    56        what you really want to do.
    57
    58   Q.   Why do you say that?  It might be thought that it is a
    59        somewhat patronising attitude.
    60        A.  No, I do not think it is patronising.  I think it is --

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