Alex Bodnar: No, no (Oh yeah) I haven’t no.

José: Oh yeah, oh yeah. Um, I think the last year they were having problems with security, and and um a lot of the uh what looked like construction happening around here was the establishment of security cameras all around the campus.

Alex: Oh really. (Yup) Oh that’s- Maybe I noticed it in other places because I work at different places and uh here it seems there isn’t any.

José: Oh there are, for example um, one place they put up is really obvious they want it to be seen (Mm-hmm) is uh the exit that I take to get to the parking lot and that was put up there maybe only uh maybe around May or so (Mm-hmm) and I noticed that one, I noticed another one and lots of places. Do you think that actually helps things? Do you think that that actually helps security? You know in in a situation like this? Like for example in London they’re sayingin this case, “they” means society in general. (1:02) that it’s really hard to walk around London for any more than 10 metres without you being in range of a security camera.

Alex: I think it’s got tosaid really quickly so it sounds like “GOTTA” (1:10) have an effect. Uh I think uh we’re more and more in a kind of uh surveillance society. It’s almost like uh, George Orwellthe famous British author who wrote 1984 (1:21) predicted. You know it’s- you can’t do anything without being seen these days.

José: Sound like you think it’s a bad thing.

Alex: Uh it could be a bad thing but uh it could serve the public good too. Right um, there’s the issue of security and there’s the issue of privacy. So uh as long as um surveillance cameras are used in a in a meaningful way, in in an altruistic way, then I’m fine with that. Um…

José: That’s tough tho’ you know, um once you put power into the hands of people who wield it, (Mm) they’re really reluctant to give it up. Even if they’ve never it used to any degree that was actually beneficial they start telling themselves “Yes but I have this power, I wield this power, I know that it could be good so don’t take it away from me”. (Mm-hmm) So if we suddenly started to say all those security cameras are invasions of privacy, I don’t think we would get much of a sympathetic response from the people who put itthe subject of the pronoun was “security cameras, so José should have said “them” (2:31) up

Alex: Hmm you have a point there. That’s a valid point.

José: Um, I don’t know if they put it up towards the problem of um um sexual violence on campus. In Japan I don’t know if it’s as big a problem as it would be in North America, but it sure seems like it’s a big problem to me, in North America.

Alex: Mm-hmm uh sexual violence on campus in North America? (Yeah) Yeah, uh occasionally I hear stories, you know, uh when I was a university student, uh uh I well it’s been a few years now and I thought we’d made progress and I would think that sexual violence is not an issue you know, uh but still uh you hear stories uh in in the news.

José: And that’s all that we can go on because all of this is like it’s it’s anecdotal evidence and it’s perception and your perception depends on who you listen to and what you read.