Overview to Social Change Interview:
This interview with James Shedd offers a vivid account of an American expat whose life reflects broader patterns of global economic development, migration, and cross-cultural exchange. Born in 1959, James first moved abroad in the 1980s as part of his military service and eventually built a decades-long career in the international mining industry, primarily in Southeast Asia and East Africa. Along with the experience of raising a family in these type of environments.
James discusses how moving abroad initially caused intense culture shock, especially during his first assignment in Panama. However, over time, his discomfort evolved into enthusiasm, and he began actively seeking international opportunities. He recalls the cultural adjustments required in Indonesia—navigating religious customs, learning local languages, and understanding business practices shaped by corruption. His observations align with larger themes on the site, such as globalization, migration, and the challenges of ethical development work.
His insights into corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices are particularly compelling. In remote areas of Indonesia and Tanzania, James mining operations built infrastructure like roads, schools, and health clinics. Yet, he acknowledges the tensions between local expectations and business realities, including an incident where a village in Sumatra demanded a hospital and football stadium, leading to the mine’s eventual closure.
Throughout the interview, James reflects on how living and raising a family abroad reshaped his identity and worldview. Which impacted him beneficially due to exposure to different perspectives and ideas. The networking in the international community ultimately led to more business and projects to overall improve the quality of life where operations happen.
Biography:
James Shedd is an American that moved away from the US in the 1990s, working and living in Africa and Asia. Born on December 8, 1959, James joined the armed forces and also studied at the University of Maryland. During his time in the military he was stationed in Panama and South Korea. After finishing his time in the military, he moved to Indonesia and started to work in the mining industry. James met my mother and raised their son in Indonesia. He then moved to Tanzania working in the mining industry.
Interview with James Shedd, History 150 Spring 2025, Conducted by Alexander Shedd, March 9, 2025.
Alexander Shedd 0:02
Okay,
Alexander Shedd 0:04
First question is, can you describe what it was like to move away from the US and start a new life in a completely different country?
James Shedd 0:19
Okay, the first time I did that was, I was 22 years old. I got stationed in Panama, in Central America, on the Canal Zone.
James Shedd 0:32
It was a shock to me when, when I got there I was supposed to stay there. I was on a three year tour. And when I got there, you know, I brought, I brought my wife at the time she came, and we had to live on the economy because I didn’t have enough stripes, so we lived in the Panama City, and I had to use public transportation, things like that. And at first, I just hated it. Hate it every day. Couldn’t wait. Kept thinking, Man, I can’t wait for three years to end so I can come home and and then, you know, because it was just totally foreign to me, everything, the language, the everything, using public transportation and all that. But after about six months, me and my wife at the time, both of us, all of a sudden, we just loved it and started being like an adventure. We liked it so well. We ended up extending a year and stayed there for four years.
Alexander Shedd 1:27
Okay, and can you just explain a little bit more, just for context, after Panama, where’d you end up going? When did you end up in Indonesia?
James Shedd 1:38
Oh, that’s a long that’s a long track. But okay, so
James Shedd 1:43
when I was in Panama, I got to do things like, they call them embassy runs on a military so I used to get sign up for these flights. And I went to, like, Peru, Chile, Argentina, whole bunch of countries on these c1 40 ones to drop off cargo. And you know, it kind of gave me the travel bug.
James Shedd 2:02
So after that, I got stationed in California, and it drove me crazy. I wanted to go back overseas, so I volunteered and went to Korea.
James Shedd 2:13
Okay, so stationed in Korea for two years, and then I went back to the US again. I got itchy feet, and James Shedd 2:23
got out of the military, and I went back to Korea for two more years and taught English.
James Shedd 2:29
And then when that was over, I tried again to move back in the US, and it drove me crazy. So then I got a consulting job in Hong Kong, and in 1997 so I was in Hong Kong for most of that year. And from that point on, I didn’t even look for work anywhere, except if it was international. And then from there, you know, I’ve worked there, then I worked in Singapore, then I worked in Thailand, and then I ended up in Indonesia in 1998 and, yeah, this has been my base ever since.
Alexander Shedd 2:56
What were some of the biggest cultural differences you noticed when you first moved to Indonesia? And how did you adjust?
James Shedd 3:08
Oh, the biggest cultural differences here was mostly the food and
James Shedd 3:15
and, you know, religion. Religion is a big part of the culture here, depending on where you’re at. Well, you know,
James Shedd 3:22
they don’t really,
James Shedd 3:24
lot of places don’t like you to drink, or if it’s during Ramadan, they don’t even want you to eat during the daytime, you know, sort of things like that. But after a while, you get used to it. And then, you know, learn the language a little bit, and then you liked it, of course, that’s why you kind of stayed.
Alexander Shedd 3:38
Can you describe what working in the mining industry was like in Indonesia and Tanzania?, and how it compares to what you knew from the US, like, in terms of business?
James Shedd 4:00
well, in the US, things, things you know, are a little bit more regulated. People are a little bit more educated, and you know, corruption is not a big part of American culture, at least from the lower levels, like normal people.
James Shedd 4:16
But in Indonesia, both Indonesia and Tanzania, corruption, everyone’s corrupt. Everyone’s trying something. So running a business in in either country, you you spend a lot of time putting out fires. You know, you trying to stop the theft, the the fraud. You know, they do weird things about pricing, and then get kickbacks. And you know, and you know, after a while, you learn that you can’t stop it. You just try to regulate it as much as you can to you know, cool, cool.
Alexander Shedd 4:51
What role did language play in your experience living abroad and working abroad? Were there any memorable moments where language shaped an interaction? I.
James Shedd 5:01
Uh, well, uh, in mining, because most people in mining are mining engineers or mechanical engineers, you know, those sort of people. They all know English because that’s what they study. Because English study those things. But when you’re working with, like, the operators and stuff, yeah, you just after you’re there a while, you just start picking up the language and, you know, but it’s, it was never frustrating, and sometimes it was kind of funny, you know, like, like, one time,
James Shedd 5:30
one time, when I first got there, you know, I have I shaved my head back then. That was first time I started shaving my head and, and when I’d walk her, and nobody did that in Indonesia back then, then I’d walk around, and people used to yell, Botox, and then I’d look at them and they’d wave at me. So for, yeah, for like, a week or two, I thought Bo doc meant Hello, oh my God, but it means bald man. It means bald man. That’s funny, that’s funny, that’s funny. Um, over the years, how have you seen the communities you lived in change socially or economically. What factors do you think contributed to those changes?
James Shedd 6:06
Well, there’s been a lot of change, especially,
James Shedd 6:11
I think, with smartphones and things like that. Because, you know, when I first came started traveling over here, especially in Indonesia, hardly anyone had a, even had a hand phone. And, you know, there was no
James Shedd 6:26
and there weren’t many ATM machines, yeah, or ATM, you know. But gradually, you know, that stuff, not gradually. I mean, almost all at once, hand phones came out, and everybody seemed to have them. And then smartphones, you know? So they just seem to propel things forward.
James Shedd 6:45
I mean, in Tanzania, for example, you know, you’ve been out there at the mine site, that village, there has no power, but everyone has a hand on.
Alexander Shedd 7:03
Did you ever hear, did you ever hear, like a saying, like most people in like Tanzania have access to a hand to a phone than a toilet?
James Shedd 7:20
Oh, I’m sure that would be the case, yeah? Because most of those houses, especially out in those villages, they don’t have to the house. Yeah, I’ve seen, I’ve seen. But another question, or follow up question, is, you mentioned that you worked in, like, the mining industry in very remote areas around the world.
Alexander Shedd 7:39
Is there any like, any like, did your company ever give back towards the community that lived there? If so? Like, what? What changes were there?
James Shedd 7:59
Yeah, all the minds that I’ve worked at, they have what they call corporate, corporate social responsibility. normally we like, like in benkulu, when I was in Indonesia, in the island of Sumatra, and we gave, we gave that village there. We hired almost everyone to work in our mind. We gave the village running water.
James Shedd 8:14
We gave them electricity. We gave them we hired a full time doctor, and, you know, he delivered babies and stuff like that. So that’s what we had there. And then when they needed something like,
James Shedd 8:28
you know, maybe one of the public buildings that broke, or something, you know, we do some repairs or things like that. And then in Tanzania was similar. We had a, there was, like, a Catholic hospital near the mine.
James Shedd 8:43
We didn’t give money, because if we gave money, nothing happened and the money disappeared. So we had a my policy there was okay if you need a new part to your hospital or a new classroom for your school, we’ll build it.
James Shedd 8:58
So we used to do things like that, and we and, you know, like their roads, we’d fix their roads, their bridges. Awesome. And, yeah, okay, they were, they were happy about it. Were the people happy about about it? Okay, cool, except you always have trouble. Remember, in Indonesia, that one time they they stormed the mine and burnt buildings and beat up and demanded a bunch of stuff. Yeah, yeah. That’s, that’s probably, like, one of the, that’s probably one of the downsides when it comes to, like, just, like, providing for, like, communities and stuff there some people, like, they expect too much, or something like, yeah, they don’t. They’re not very educated. They’re, in fact, they’re not educated at all. They’re in Vancouver. I don’t even think they, you know, people might go to the third grade, and that’s about it. You know that they, they have, they had, like, a communist mindset from, you know, from decades ago. They, they live up in the mountains there. And, you know, like I said, when they did that and they, they grabbed me for a couple days. They wanted to, they wanted, uh, what?
James Shedd 10:00
Said they wanted a football stadium and a hospital. They wanted us to build a football stadium in a hospital. And what did you tell them? I told them, it’s impossible.
James Shedd 10:11
I reasoned with them, and I said, Look, man, we give you all jobs, we give you water, we give you electricity. I mean, come on, we have to make money, you know. Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I feel like that’s we ended up closing that mind because those people were just, we just couldn’t do, Got you? Got you? Okay, yeah, so it could go. That’s something that’s, like, probably overlooked, looked at when, when, like, a person who’s not familiar with, like, like, like, international, like, like, morals and stuff like that. Like, they don’t know, if they don’t know what’s going on. This is like something that gets overlooked. Yeah, sometimes you go there with your own perspective, and you can’t, you can’t really understand things from their perspective. You know, touching him, yeah, takes a lot of time for you to start to really think deeply about what, what would he be thinking and why would he be thinking that way? Because they have nothing, you know, they have no power, no water, no
James Shedd 11:07
they don’t really think about the future or anything. They’re more. Yeah, they don’t know what’s really better. You know,
Alexander Shedd 11:13
over the years, how have you seen the communities you lived in change socially or economically? What factors do you think contribute to those challenges changes. Basically, you basically just answered that with with that, with that. Another question is, how did raising a family in Indonesia and Tanzania shape your perspective on parenting and cultural identity?
James Shedd 11:36
Oh, that’s a good question,
James Shedd 11:38
because we always put you in the International School. We didn’t put you in the local schools because the the language and the curriculum, you know, they weren’t real strict on what they were teaching, especially in Indonesia, because a lot of it is, you know, they require you to learn Islam, and a lot of their hours are spent doing that. So we put you in international school, and that gave us all
James Shedd 12:04
a good look at culture. Because, you know, there were so many different cultures at that school ever, you know, I don’t know how many countries were represented in in both schools, but like, you know, you you met people from Africa, Asia, Europe, you know, so, right, right. Yeah, you saw you sort of end up amongst you and your friends, and me and my friends. We we almost have our own culture. You know for sure where we’re at and what the situation is. 100% 100%
Alexander Shedd 12:37
Um, another question I have for you is, can you describe a time when you faced an unexpected challenge while living abroad, and how did you handle it?
James Shedd 12:48
An unexpected challenge?
James Shedd 12:52
I think everything that happened to me was unexpected, but
James Shedd 13:00
there’s little things I could talk about, and there’s extreme things, you know, like one time I got drugged, somebody was trying to drug me, and then they tried to rob me. And, you know,
James Shedd 13:11
there’s that. And then, you know, like when we were in Mozambique, you know, we were going to have that gold mine, we thought, Oh, this is going to be good. And then the insurgents came, you know, that kind of
James Shedd 13:22
changed our plans. Remember that? And then we had to evacuate, yeah,
James Shedd 13:27
you know, just yeah, things can happen. And we, you know, we’ve experienced earthquakes, floods,
James Shedd 13:35
I mean, yeah, volcanos even, remember, we didn’t fly in here because of the volcano for a while.
Alexander Shedd
How would you compare the work, work culture and business environment in Indonesia and Tanzania to that of the US like, compare from in like, a more international environment to and the US like, what’s what? What differences?
James Shedd 14:04
in the US, and it’s been a long time since I worked in the US, but in the US, work environment is more
James Shedd 14:12
I’d say, you know, it’s you can talk, you can use first names with each other, and, you know, even with your boss and things like that. But normally, like in Indonesia and Tanzania, they don’t want to call you by your first name. They want to call you sir or or PA or, you know, they’re very
James Shedd 14:31
respectful, more more respectful to their bosses, you know, and, and another issue is, you know, like when I’m when I’m the boss and I’m trying to do stuff everyone always agrees with me. In in these countries, where, in the US, if some, if they don’t agree with you, they tell you. And you know, it’s important, if somebody disagrees with you, you need to listen to them and find out why. Because in Indonesia and Tanzania, if, if I if they all disagree with what I say, I could make a huge mistake.
James Shedd 15:00
They didn’t tell me, yeah, that’s really interesting. You brought that up because, like, people only be saying that just to, like, keep their jobs. I feel like in in more of, like, outside the US, they agree with their boss to keep their job, you know? And, I mean, yeah, yeah. And, and to teach that to them, that, no, it’s important for you to disagree with me. I want you to disagree. If you disagree, say so. Just Yes, you might be
Alexander Shedd 15:23
looking back, how do you think living and working in different countries shaped you personally and professionally?
James Shedd 15:34
Wow, personally, it’s just made my life wonderful. I love to travel. I love to go to new places. I just even, you know, I’m in Bali now, and I love it here every single day. But the even here, after
James Shedd 15:48
eight weeks or so, I want to take a trip. I want to go somewhere and see something new. I just, I just can’t get enough of it. And professionally, it’s just the experience, you know, I’m, you know, like I said, with the people agreeing with you or or not not telling you their thoughts. You know,
James Shedd 16:07
when you get that sort of experience, you you start to understand places you know, and you and so. So when I go in, like I do a lot of operational reviews on mines, where I go see how they work, you know, I know the right questions to ask, because I know how they think now, you know, and, and based on other places I’ve been and, you know, I can, I can find things easier, you know, opportunities, good opportunities to pursue. I find them easier than someone who hasn’t really worked in many different cultures.
Alexander Shedd
Okay, wow, that’s very, it’s very insightful. My last question here, What advice would you give to someone considering moving abroad for work and starting a life in a completely different environment?
James Shedd 16:54
Well, first of all, I would encourage it. I just that to me, it’s been, you know, I’ve been doing this since I was 22 I’m 65 now. My whole life I’ve been doing it, and it’s just been awesome. But sometimes, you know, people just they worry too much, or or they plan too much, when sometimes you know you should just go things are going to go bad. You’re going to have bad days, but you’ll get over it. But also, the first thing is, and that’s what happened to me in Panama when I told you the first six months I couldn’t stand it, and then, you know, it’s called culture shock. I don’t know if you’ve learned about that in your psychology class or anything like that, but it was a real culture shock. You know, once you once you get past culture shock one time, which, if you move overseas for the first time, you’ll get it, might last a week, might six months, might be a year, but most people get a little bit of culture shock, and they they start thinking, Oh, I made a mistake, but if you just just hang in there, it’ll go away. That culture shock goes away and things become like normal. It’s like, like, here is it’s home to me now.
Research: The economic evolution of Indonesia and Tanzania provides critical context for understanding the American Expat experience of James Shedd. During the 1990s, Indonesia’s mining sector saw significant foreign investment following policy changes under President Suharto. According to the Monthly Review written by Arianto Sangadji, this fueled economic expansion, especially in coal mining, but also led to environmental challenges and issues within the government (Sangadji). The strengthening of Indonesia’s economic ties with Western nations, particularly the United States, further aided foreign investment and industrial growth (Simpson). While these changes contributed to job creation and infrastructure development, they also highlighted concerns about corruption, labor conditions, and resource management.
In the 1990s, Tanzania implemented significant economic reforms to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into its mining sector. Particularly in gold mining, positioning Tanzania as a notable player in Africa’s gold production. However, this surge in mining activities also resulted in environmental degradation and social challenges, including the displacement of artisanal miners and conflicts over land rights. However, due to increase in economic development within Tanzania, this draws the attention of many expat’s, who are basically people who live outside their own country. Such as my father James Shedd and continued to make a living, raise a family all in a third world country.
Bibliography:
Magai, Petro S, and Alejandro Marquez Velazquez. Tanzania’s Mining Sector and Its Implications for The …, Aug. 2011, www.lai.fu-berlin.de/homepages/Alejandro_Marquez/Publikationen/Tanzania_s-Mining-Sector-and-Its-Implications-for-the-Country_s-Development.pdf.
“Peer Reviewed”
Simpson, Bradley. “Indonesia-US Relations, 1949–1999.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, 28 Aug. 2019, oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-354.
Follow-Up Commentary:
The interviewee, James Shedd, approved the transcript on March 9th 2025. No changes were requested.
Interview Technology and Process:
This interview was recorded over Zoom, because James Shedd lives in Bali (Indonesia), and I currently live in Harrisonburg Virginia. This meeting was recorded and the audio file was converted into a mp3 file. I also used otter.ai to help transcribe the interview, which then edited the transcript manually.
Transcription Process:
The interview was primarily transcribed with the help of otter.ai. I then proceeded to manually edit the transcript to take out all the pauses within the interview along with the formatting as mentioned in the instructions. When I first inserted the audio file into otter.ai, the transcription came out without the label of who is speaking. So I would have to read the transcription and figure out who was speaking in that specific part of the interview. Additionally, otter.ai made a few mistakes on spelling and word placement. Which then I edited so that it is easy to follow along. Lastly, I sent the transcript over to James Shedd, in which he gave me the all clear.
Biography:
James Shedd is an American that moved away from the US in the 1990s, working and living in Africa and Asia. Born on December 8, 1959, James joined the armed forces and also studied at the University of Maryland. During his time in the military he was stationed in Panama and South Korea. After finishing his time in the military, he moved to Indonesia and started to work in the mining industry. James met my mother and raised their son in Indonesia. He then moved to Tanzania working in the mining industry.
Interview with James Shedd, History 150 Spring 2025, Conducted by Alexander Shedd, March 9, 2025.
Alexander Shedd 0:02
Okay,
Alexander Shedd 0:04
First question is, can you describe what it was like to move away from the US and start a new life in a completely different country?
James Shedd 0:19
Okay, the first time I did that was, I was 22 years old. I got stationed in Panama, in Central America, on the Canal Zone.
James Shedd 0:32
It was a shock to me when, when I got there I was supposed to stay there. I was on a three year tour. And when I got there, you know, I brought, I brought my wife at the time she came, and we had to live on the economy because I didn’t have enough stripes, so we lived in the Panama City, and I had to use public transportation, things like that. And at first, I just hated it. Hate it every day. Couldn’t wait. Kept thinking, Man, I can’t wait for three years to end so I can come home and and then, you know, because it was just totally foreign to me, everything, the language, the everything, using public transportation and all that. But after about six months, me and my wife at the time, both of us, all of a sudden, we just loved it and started being like an adventure. We liked it so well. We ended up extending a year and stayed there for four years.
Alexander Shedd 1:27
Okay, and can you just explain a little bit more, just for context, after Panama, where’d you end up going? When did you end up in Indonesia?
James Shedd 1:38
Oh, that’s a long that’s a long track. But okay, so
James Shedd 1:43
when I was in Panama, I got to do things like, they call them embassy runs on a military so I used to get sign up for these flights. And I went to, like, Peru, Chile, Argentina, whole bunch of countries on these c1 40 ones to drop off cargo. And you know, it kind of gave me the travel bug.
James Shedd 2:02
So after that, I got stationed in California, and it drove me crazy. I wanted to go back overseas, so I volunteered and went to Korea.
James Shedd 2:13
Okay, so stationed in Korea for two years, and then I went back to the US again. I got itchy feet, and James Shedd 2:23
got out of the military, and I went back to Korea for two more years and taught English.
James Shedd 2:29
And then when that was over, I tried again to move back in the US, and it drove me crazy. So then I got a consulting job in Hong Kong, and in 1997 so I was in Hong Kong for most of that year. And from that point on, I didn’t even look for work anywhere, except if it was international. And then from there, you know, I’ve worked there, then I worked in Singapore, then I worked in Thailand, and then I ended up in Indonesia in 1998 and, yeah, this has been my base ever since.
Alexander Shedd 2:56
What were some of the biggest cultural differences you noticed when you first moved to Indonesia? And how did you adjust?
James Shedd 3:08
Oh, the biggest cultural differences here was mostly the food and
James Shedd 3:15
and, you know, religion. Religion is a big part of the culture here, depending on where you’re at. Well, you know,
James Shedd 3:22
they don’t really,
James Shedd 3:24
lot of places don’t like you to drink, or if it’s during Ramadan, they don’t even want you to eat during the daytime, you know, sort of things like that. But after a while, you get used to it. And then, you know, learn the language a little bit, and then you liked it, of course, that’s why you kind of stayed.
Alexander Shedd 3:38
Can you describe what working in the mining industry was like in Indonesia and Tanzania?, and how it compares to what you knew from the US, like, in terms of business?
James Shedd 4:00
well, in the US, things, things you know, are a little bit more regulated. People are a little bit more educated, and you know, corruption is not a big part of American culture, at least from the lower levels, like normal people.
James Shedd 4:16
But in Indonesia, both Indonesia and Tanzania, corruption, everyone’s corrupt. Everyone’s trying something. So running a business in in either country, you you spend a lot of time putting out fires. You know, you trying to stop the theft, the the fraud. You know, they do weird things about pricing, and then get kickbacks. And you know, and you know, after a while, you learn that you can’t stop it. You just try to regulate it as much as you can to you know, cool, cool.
Alexander Shedd 4:51
What role did language play in your experience living abroad and working abroad? Were there any memorable moments where language shaped an interaction? I.
James Shedd 5:01
Uh, well, uh, in mining, because most people in mining are mining engineers or mechanical engineers, you know, those sort of people. They all know English because that’s what they study. Because English study those things. But when you’re working with, like, the operators and stuff, yeah, you just after you’re there a while, you just start picking up the language and, you know, but it’s, it was never frustrating, and sometimes it was kind of funny, you know, like, like, one time,
James Shedd 5:30
one time, when I first got there, you know, I have I shaved my head back then. That was first time I started shaving my head and, and when I’d walk her, and nobody did that in Indonesia back then, then I’d walk around, and people used to yell, Botox, and then I’d look at them and they’d wave at me. So for, yeah, for like, a week or two, I thought Bo doc meant Hello, oh my God, but it means bald man. It means bald man. That’s funny, that’s funny, that’s funny. Um, over the years, how have you seen the communities you lived in change socially or economically. What factors do you think contributed to those changes?
James Shedd 6:06
Well, there’s been a lot of change, especially,
James Shedd 6:11
I think, with smartphones and things like that. Because, you know, when I first came started traveling over here, especially in Indonesia, hardly anyone had a, even had a hand phone. And, you know, there was no
James Shedd 6:26
and there weren’t many ATM machines, yeah, or ATM, you know. But gradually, you know, that stuff, not gradually. I mean, almost all at once, hand phones came out, and everybody seemed to have them. And then smartphones, you know? So they just seem to propel things forward.
James Shedd 6:45
I mean, in Tanzania, for example, you know, you’ve been out there at the mine site, that village, there has no power, but everyone has a hand on.
Alexander Shedd 7:03
Did you ever hear, did you ever hear, like a saying, like most people in like Tanzania have access to a hand to a phone than a toilet?
James Shedd 7:20
Oh, I’m sure that would be the case, yeah? Because most of those houses, especially out in those villages, they don’t have to the house. Yeah, I’ve seen, I’ve seen. But another question, or follow up question, is, you mentioned that you worked in, like, the mining industry in very remote areas around the world.
Alexander Shedd 7:39
Is there any like, any like, did your company ever give back towards the community that lived there? If so? Like, what? What changes were there?
James Shedd 7:59
Yeah, all the minds that I’ve worked at, they have what they call corporate, corporate social responsibility. normally we like, like in benkulu, when I was in Indonesia, in the island of Sumatra, and we gave, we gave that village there. We hired almost everyone to work in our mind. We gave the village running water.
James Shedd 8:14
We gave them electricity. We gave them we hired a full time doctor, and, you know, he delivered babies and stuff like that. So that’s what we had there. And then when they needed something like,
James Shedd 8:28
you know, maybe one of the public buildings that broke, or something, you know, we do some repairs or things like that. And then in Tanzania was similar. We had a, there was, like, a Catholic hospital near the mine.
James Shedd 8:43
We didn’t give money, because if we gave money, nothing happened and the money disappeared. So we had a my policy there was okay if you need a new part to your hospital or a new classroom for your school, we’ll build it.
James Shedd 8:58
So we used to do things like that, and we and, you know, like their roads, we’d fix their roads, their bridges. Awesome. And, yeah, okay, they were, they were happy about it. Were the people happy about about it? Okay, cool, except you always have trouble. Remember, in Indonesia, that one time they they stormed the mine and burnt buildings and beat up and demanded a bunch of stuff. Yeah, yeah. That’s, that’s probably, like, one of the, that’s probably one of the downsides when it comes to, like, just, like, providing for, like, communities and stuff there some people, like, they expect too much, or something like, yeah, they don’t. They’re not very educated. They’re, in fact, they’re not educated at all. They’re in Vancouver. I don’t even think they, you know, people might go to the third grade, and that’s about it. You know that they, they have, they had, like, a communist mindset from, you know, from decades ago. They, they live up in the mountains there. And, you know, like I said, when they did that and they, they grabbed me for a couple days. They wanted to, they wanted, uh, what?
James Shedd 10:00
Said they wanted a football stadium and a hospital. They wanted us to build a football stadium in a hospital. And what did you tell them? I told them, it’s impossible.
James Shedd 10:11
I reasoned with them, and I said, Look, man, we give you all jobs, we give you water, we give you electricity. I mean, come on, we have to make money, you know. Yeah, for sure, for sure. And I feel like that’s we ended up closing that mind because those people were just, we just couldn’t do, Got you? Got you? Okay, yeah, so it could go. That’s something that’s, like, probably overlooked, looked at when, when, like, a person who’s not familiar with, like, like, like, international, like, like, morals and stuff like that. Like, they don’t know, if they don’t know what’s going on. This is like something that gets overlooked. Yeah, sometimes you go there with your own perspective, and you can’t, you can’t really understand things from their perspective. You know, touching him, yeah, takes a lot of time for you to start to really think deeply about what, what would he be thinking and why would he be thinking that way? Because they have nothing, you know, they have no power, no water, no
James Shedd 11:07
they don’t really think about the future or anything. They’re more. Yeah, they don’t know what’s really better. You know,
Alexander Shedd 11:13
over the years, how have you seen the communities you lived in change socially or economically? What factors do you think contribute to those challenges changes. Basically, you basically just answered that with with that, with that. Another question is, how did raising a family in Indonesia and Tanzania shape your perspective on parenting and cultural identity?
James Shedd 11:36
Oh, that’s a good question,
James Shedd 11:38
because we always put you in the International School. We didn’t put you in the local schools because the the language and the curriculum, you know, they weren’t real strict on what they were teaching, especially in Indonesia, because a lot of it is, you know, they require you to learn Islam, and a lot of their hours are spent doing that. So we put you in international school, and that gave us all
James Shedd 12:04
a good look at culture. Because, you know, there were so many different cultures at that school ever, you know, I don’t know how many countries were represented in in both schools, but like, you know, you you met people from Africa, Asia, Europe, you know, so, right, right. Yeah, you saw you sort of end up amongst you and your friends, and me and my friends. We we almost have our own culture. You know for sure where we’re at and what the situation is. 100% 100%
Alexander Shedd 12:37
Um, another question I have for you is, can you describe a time when you faced an unexpected challenge while living abroad, and how did you handle it?
James Shedd 12:48
An unexpected challenge?
James Shedd 12:52
I think everything that happened to me was unexpected, but
James Shedd 13:00
there’s little things I could talk about, and there’s extreme things, you know, like one time I got drugged, somebody was trying to drug me, and then they tried to rob me. And, you know,
James Shedd 13:11
there’s that. And then, you know, like when we were in Mozambique, you know, we were going to have that gold mine, we thought, Oh, this is going to be good. And then the insurgents came, you know, that kind of
James Shedd 13:22
changed our plans. Remember that? And then we had to evacuate, yeah,
James Shedd 13:27
you know, just yeah, things can happen. And we, you know, we’ve experienced earthquakes, floods,
James Shedd 13:35
I mean, yeah, volcanos even, remember, we didn’t fly in here because of the volcano for a while.
Alexander Shedd
How would you compare the work, work culture and business environment in Indonesia and Tanzania to that of the US like, compare from in like, a more international environment to and the US like, what’s what? What differences?
James Shedd 14:04
in the US, and it’s been a long time since I worked in the US, but in the US, work environment is more
James Shedd 14:12
I’d say, you know, it’s you can talk, you can use first names with each other, and, you know, even with your boss and things like that. But normally, like in Indonesia and Tanzania, they don’t want to call you by your first name. They want to call you sir or or PA or, you know, they’re very
James Shedd 14:31
respectful, more more respectful to their bosses, you know, and, and another issue is, you know, like when I’m when I’m the boss and I’m trying to do stuff everyone always agrees with me. In in these countries, where, in the US, if some, if they don’t agree with you, they tell you. And you know, it’s important, if somebody disagrees with you, you need to listen to them and find out why. Because in Indonesia and Tanzania, if, if I if they all disagree with what I say, I could make a huge mistake.
James Shedd 15:00
They didn’t tell me, yeah, that’s really interesting. You brought that up because, like, people only be saying that just to, like, keep their jobs. I feel like in in more of, like, outside the US, they agree with their boss to keep their job, you know? And, I mean, yeah, yeah. And, and to teach that to them, that, no, it’s important for you to disagree with me. I want you to disagree. If you disagree, say so. Just Yes, you might be
Alexander Shedd 15:23
looking back, how do you think living and working in different countries shaped you personally and professionally?
James Shedd 15:34
Wow, personally, it’s just made my life wonderful. I love to travel. I love to go to new places. I just even, you know, I’m in Bali now, and I love it here every single day. But the even here, after
James Shedd 15:48
eight weeks or so, I want to take a trip. I want to go somewhere and see something new. I just, I just can’t get enough of it. And professionally, it’s just the experience, you know, I’m, you know, like I said, with the people agreeing with you or or not not telling you their thoughts. You know,
James Shedd 16:07
when you get that sort of experience, you you start to understand places you know, and you and so. So when I go in, like I do a lot of operational reviews on mines, where I go see how they work, you know, I know the right questions to ask, because I know how they think now, you know, and, and based on other places I’ve been and, you know, I can, I can find things easier, you know, opportunities, good opportunities to pursue. I find them easier than someone who hasn’t really worked in many different cultures.
Alexander Shedd
Okay, wow, that’s very, it’s very insightful. My last question here, What advice would you give to someone considering moving abroad for work and starting a life in a completely different environment?
James Shedd 16:54
Well, first of all, I would encourage it. I just that to me, it’s been, you know, I’ve been doing this since I was 22 I’m 65 now. My whole life I’ve been doing it, and it’s just been awesome. But sometimes, you know, people just they worry too much, or or they plan too much, when sometimes you know you should just go things are going to go bad. You’re going to have bad days, but you’ll get over it. But also, the first thing is, and that’s what happened to me in Panama when I told you the first six months I couldn’t stand it, and then, you know, it’s called culture shock. I don’t know if you’ve learned about that in your psychology class or anything like that, but it was a real culture shock. You know, once you once you get past culture shock one time, which, if you move overseas for the first time, you’ll get it, might last a week, might six months, might be a year, but most people get a little bit of culture shock, and they they start thinking, Oh, I made a mistake, but if you just just hang in there, it’ll go away. That culture shock goes away and things become like normal. It’s like, like, here is it’s home to me now.
Research: The economic evolution of Indonesia and Tanzania provides critical context for understanding the American Expat experience of James Shedd. During the 1990s, Indonesia’s mining sector saw significant foreign investment following policy changes under President Suharto. According to the Monthly Review written by Arianto Sangadji, this fueled economic expansion, especially in coal mining, but also led to environmental challenges and issues within the government (Sangadji). The strengthening of Indonesia’s economic ties with Western nations, particularly the United States, further aided foreign investment and industrial growth (Simpson). While these changes contributed to job creation and infrastructure development, they also highlighted concerns about corruption, labor conditions, and resource management.
In the 1990s, Tanzania implemented significant economic reforms to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into its mining sector. Particularly in gold mining, positioning Tanzania as a notable player in Africa’s gold production. However, this surge in mining activities also resulted in environmental degradation and social challenges, including the displacement of artisanal miners and conflicts over land rights. However, due to increase in economic development within Tanzania, this draws the attention of many expat’s, who are basically people who live outside their own country. Such as my father James Shedd and continued to make a living, raise a family all in a third world country.
Bibliography:
Magai, Petro S, and Alejandro Marquez Velazquez. Tanzania’s Mining Sector and Its Implications for The …, Aug. 2011, www.lai.fu-berlin.de/homepages/Alejandro_Marquez/Publikationen/Tanzania_s-Mining-Sector-and-Its-Implications-for-the-Country_s-Development.pdf.
“Peer Reviewed”
Simpson, Bradley. “Indonesia-US Relations, 1949–1999.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History, 28 Aug. 2019, oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-354.
Follow-Up Commentary:
The interviewee, James Shedd, approved the transcript on March 9th 2025. No changes were requested.
Interview Technology and Process:
This interview was recorded over Zoom, because James Shedd lives in Bali (Indonesia), and I currently live in Harrisonburg Virginia. This meeting was recorded and the audio file was converted into a mp3 file. I also used otter.ai to help transcribe the interview, which then edited the transcript manually.
Transcription Process:
The interview was primarily transcribed with the help of otter.ai. I then proceeded to manually edit the transcript to take out all the pauses within the interview along with the formatting as mentioned in the instructions. When I first inserted the audio file into otter.ai, the transcription came out without the label of who is speaking. So I would have to read the transcription and figure out who was speaking in that specific part of the interview. Additionally, otter.ai made a few mistakes on spelling and word placement. Which then I edited so that it is easy to follow along. Lastly, I sent the transcript over to James Shedd, in which he gave me the all clear.