Character Profile
James Henry Jopeen
Name:
James Henry Jopeen
Age:
22
Occupation:
Student
Where do they live (geographic coordinates or location)?
Pershore, England
Why did they choose to live where they live?
To study horticulture at the University of Worcester's Pershore Campus.
What kind of dwelling do they occupy?
Four-bedroom house.
With whom do they live?
Three other final year students at the college: William, Claire and Nirmala.
How do they get to work?
By bicycle, or occasionally in William's car if the weather is bad.
How do they get around their community in general?
Locally by bicycle or on foot.
How do they relate to the people in their community?
He has little contact with most of the town's residents, except other students.
Who do they interact with most?
Fellow students at the college, especially following the Horticulture course, and lecturers. He is engaged to Claire.
Do they travel?
Most weekends are spent travelling to parents' homes in Cardiff and Canterbury to make preparations for their wedding in August, but he has little appetite for foreign travel.
Where have they commonly traveled?
Cardiff, Worcester, Tenby (on family holidays as a child), Oxford, Canterbury.
What is the furthest distance they have travelled? Where?
350km (220 miles) to Canterbury
What is the one place they would like to visit and why?
Southern Italy, to see the beautiful countryside and get in touch with a bygone way of life that seems more in harmony with nature as well as to enjoy the relaxed Italian way of life and sunny weather. It is his honeymoon destination.
What is their attitude toward food?
He is passionate about sustainable agriculture. He eats organic food wherever possible, much of it produced locally in the Vale of Evesham and delivered to his door. What little meat he eats is always "free range" or "cruelty free" and he would like to raise his own livestock and keep bees one day. He does eat fish, but is becoming increasing concerned about over-fishing and isn't sure what to do about it.
What is their favourite meal? What is something they have never eaten but would like to try?
He loves Thai cooking and often frequents The Legends restaurant on Pershore High Street, although he's starting to worry about the food miles involved. Their mushroom soup is unbelievably good and he enjoys seafood dishes also. He would like to start synthesising foreign cuisine with traditional ingredients grown (or raised) locally, but never seems to be able to make the time to do this.
What is the highest level of education they pursued/completed?
He is in the final year of his BSc (Hons) degree. He does not intend to move into post-graduate education at present.
How much do they earn monthly?
He is mainly supported by his parents and has a student loan now totalling £6700. During holidays he has done part-time clerical work in his father's surgery earning £600 per month.
What was their most expensive purchase?
He bought a laptop PC for £800.
How do they relate to material wealth?
He does not think material wealth is important, although he recognises the importance of saving. He wants to buy land and/or become a smallholder and is troubled by the thought of having to pay off his student loan before he can realise his dream.
What is their global footprint? To what do you attribute the largest part of their footprint? (ie travel, purchases, food)
His global footprint is well below the UK average, but still equivalent to 1.4 planets. The largest part of his footprint recently has been increased travel in relation to his wedding plans, but heating his poorly insulated (rented) student house has formed the largest component over the past three years.
What are their hobbies and interests?
He loves nature, and bird-watching particularly. More socially, he loves opera but can rarely afford to go. He also enjoys folk music and has organised barn dances for the student union at the college. He's very interested in sustainability, especially where it concerns agriculture.
What is their favourite colour?
Racing green.
Who is their favourite music band?
He listens to opera and folk music. He is largely turned off by the modern popular music scene, considering it too "manufactured" and preferring older bands and artists like The Pogues, The Men They Couldn't Hang, Bob Dylan and Billy Bragg.
What was the last book they read?
Permaculture by Bill Mollison
What is their attitude toward technology and why?
He has an uneasy attitude to technology, seeing at as being largely responsible for the world's ills, yet recognising its importance in escaping from them. He particularly distrusts bio-technology and would desperately love to find other ways to make organic agriculture more productive and so feed the world's population. He also sees the Internet and communication technology as essential to reducing our demand for ever-increasing mobility.
What technology could they not live without?
His laptop and internet connection.
What are their key values?
He values family ties and is a loyal friend. He believes in hard work and living within his means, being frugal and avoiding waste, and not taking more than his "fair share" of the planet's resources. He hankers after a greater sense of community, but has only found this so far in his student friends.
How would you describe their upbringing? How have things changed?
He was brought up to believe in honest, hard work and to make a contribution to his country as a good citizen.
His father is a GP in Cardiff and wanted him to follow him into a medical profession. His elder brother, David, did just that and is now a junior doctor at Cefn Coed psychiatric hospital in Swansea. James, however, did not relish the long hours and study involved and so followed his own leanings towards agriculture.
His mother is Welsh and instilled in him a great sense of pride in being Welsh. She gave both her boys plenty of encouragement to follow their chosen paths and gave up her secretarial job to be a mother and home-maker until James started secondary education.
His father has had less and less influence on him personally as the years passed, working increasingly long hours but continuing to provide substantially for his upkeep.
His father is a GP in Cardiff and wanted him to follow him into a medical profession. His elder brother, David, did just that and is now a junior doctor at Cefn Coed psychiatric hospital in Swansea. James, however, did not relish the long hours and study involved and so followed his own leanings towards agriculture.
His mother is Welsh and instilled in him a great sense of pride in being Welsh. She gave both her boys plenty of encouragement to follow their chosen paths and gave up her secretarial job to be a mother and home-maker until James started secondary education.
His father has had less and less influence on him personally as the years passed, working increasingly long hours but continuing to provide substantially for his upkeep.
What are their personal strengths and weaknesses?
He is intelligent, loyal, tenacious, determined, caring and idealistic. However, he can be narrow-minded and alienate people by expressing his opinions on the modern world too frankly. His fianceé, Claire, is having a good influence on him in this respect, helping him to accept people as they are more easily. He also tends to bite off more than he can chew and is perpetually busy.
What is their next big life event?
He has two big events lined up very soon: graduation in June; marriage in August. He also needs to find a vocation and somewhere to live, but has yet to secure either.
What do they care about?
He cares about creating a better world for the next generation, and for his fiancée, close friends and family.
What six words would describe their personality or character traits?
loyal, frank, caring, idealistic, thoughtful, energetic
What do they believe in and why?
He believes in justice, the struggle to end poverty and the need to care for the earth and all living things.