Welcome to Toffy TV, it is the Everton News Daily. Sean Dite has given his first pre-match press conference ahead of the new 23-24 Premier League season. The manager was asked about the fitness of Dominic Calvert-Lewman and whether he'd be involved in Saturday's game. This is what the manager had to say about that. We were more being cautious over the last couple of games, as you can imagine, because the squad is still a bit skinny. We've got a couple in and loans and stuff, a couple of injuries still that are going to take a bit of time. So, yeah, it's more managing the players, but no, he's fine. He's earlier. Yeah, but he just needs game. He needs game time, Dom, because unfortunately the games have just run out in pre-season for him. If it could have been a couple of weeks earlier, we could have got more game time in, but he's fit and well as we go. Generally, we're just finishing off the games programme and as long as he comes through that, then he'll certainly be, we'll be looking forward to having him back. We'll have to make a call on that. I've spoken to him about it anyway and how he's feeling and stuff like that, so make a call on that. There you go. I'm still going for East. He's playing a little bit jiggery pokery there. I think Dominic Calvert-Lewman will be involved. I think he'll start, but what do I know? What do I know? Damana Tewis also asked about injuries to other players in the squad. And Sean Dyche gave this update on those players. Deli, unfortunately, has had a setback. He's finding himself, which is important, of course, after the recent news. He's welling himself, but obviously it's a setback when he was just getting fit and he was just back in training, so that was an ideal. He's a bit of time, but anyway, he's got time anyway. We know that to make sure he's well on the pitch and off the pitch. Do I unfortunately, it's not going to be days, it's going to be weeks. Loads of weeks, we're waiting to see, but certainly it won't be days. That's an unfortunate one. An ankle ligament injury. It's never, in my experience, not been injured very often. So we're hopeful that his body deals with that pretty quick. Show me just on his way. Natural part of his rehab or coming through the natural part of his rehab. So this is more of a timescale thing, as regards the plan that was in place for that type of injury. One player that wasn't mentioned there is James Sarkoff. The manager confirmed he is fit and ready. He will also be the captain when James Coleman isn't in the side. But it's good news that he will be available to face Fulham on Saturday. He moved on to transferring Cummins. Try to push, vinyl connect from Sky. Try to push the manager on a evident move for Wilfrid Nonto and also where they were up to with Yousaf Chimitty. This is what you and I had to say. Well, as you know, I don't tend to speak about other players. He's a good player. There's lots out there. What I will speak about is Yousaf. He's nearly at a situation for me to be clear on. It's very close now. So that's why I'm happy to speak about that one. So hopefully that will get done. And that's a young player, of course, who can, like I say, add a different layer and a different dimension to rebuilding or adding to the squad. So yeah, there's a number of players out there. I've said all along we're working hard, which we are doing. So let's see what we can open up. There you go. Yousaf Chimitty expected to be unveiled tomorrow by Evan. The manager was asked if there was a specific number of new additions he would like in before the transfer window closed. This is what he had to say on that one. Well, there are challenges. That's been apparent. We've been linked with many. That's always the case. No, I think it's not really an exact number, but I think I spoke last year and I think everyone knew it, certainly Abatonians. There was a big imbalance in the squad, too many players in certain positions. So we're having to, and we've somewhat done that, we're having to rebalance. So therefore we need to find that balance. So the players can fill in the slots if you like. But obviously have a quality that we think is appropriate and finding that right mixture. We have got some experience here. Can we find the next young players as well to add into that experience and build the squad in a different way than that has been in the past? And finally, Sean Ditesford has asked about what his expectations are ahead of the new season. Obviously lots of people have got their ideas of what Everton should be aiming for this season. Are they any different from the managers? This is what I have to say. What expectations do you have of your squad? I think overall, doing better than the last, or the last couple of seasons, but obviously in my time here, good work done enough to make sure we're in the division, of course. That was the biggest challenge. And then from there, can we take some of the stuff we've learnt from that forward and improve? I think that's the first step. There you go. Moving on from that, more on Everton's pursuit of Wilfrid Nonto. It's hotten up, it certainly is. Nonto refused to play in Leeds United to one victory over Shrewsbury Town in the Carabaugh Cup last night. The player wants to move to Everton as we've repeatedly said on here, despite some other stories being out there. And the latest thing as him has had them, liking a picture on social media of him in an Everton kit, which has upset the Leeds United fans rightly so, I suppose he's still, of course, a Leeds player. Everton thought to be very, very close now with Leeds United in terms of valuation, which could see the 19-year-old moving to Gullison Park very soon. One player that doesn't look like he's going to be moving to Gullison Park is Paris Saint-Germain striker Hugo Kittikey. Despite an inquiry from Everton and being elated that of his availability by PSG, it's thought that the player wants to remain in France. Obviously, that isn't done and dusted, but that is what is doing the rounds today, so that might be a watch this space one to see how that progresses. Everton do have other interests in strikers, such as Lachio Cheadans, being other names that have been bounced around so far this summer. Finally, Everton's under-21 side will take on Athletic Club, AS Monaco, Firenord and Ben Ffika in the 23-24 Premier Cup. The 21s begin their domestic campaign on Monday, August 14th with a Merseyside derby against Liverpool. That is it for the news daily. Subscribe to the channel if you haven't and if you want to become a Toffy TV Premier member the link is in the description and the QR codes on the screen now. See you later.


As we've previously touched upon, feedback loops are central to understanding the dynamics of complex systems of all kind in that they help us to get some kind of global vision as to how the different elements within the system interact. In this module, we'll be continuing on with our discussion as we talk about the different types of feedback loops, virtuous and vicious cycles, attractors and stability landscapes. Ecosystem feedback is the effect that change in one part of the ecosystem has on another and it forms the basic dynamics for regulating the overall state to the ecosystem. A negative feedback loop is where the state of one element affects the other in the opposite direction, with the net result of this being a stable system where different forces are counterbalancing each other out, creating some kind of equilibrium. Negative feedback can be identified as providing stability. All ecosystems are composed of many negative feedback loops that keep every part of the system within the boundaries necessary for the whole system to continue functioning. Population regulation is a classical example of negative feedback. Because the resources that sustain populations are limited, no population can exceed the carrying capacity of the ecosystem for long. Negative feedback loops between predators and prey work to keep plants and animal populations within the limits of the carrying capacity of their environment and thus maintain some form of stability. Positive feedback stimulates change and it is responsible for the sudden appearance of rapid changes within ecosystems. Positive feedback is a circular link of effects that are self-reinforcing. When part of the system increases, another part of the system also changes in a way that makes the first part increase even more. Positive feedback is a source of instability and strong force of change as it can drive the system outside of its normal operating parameters. As an example, we could cite exponential population growth when there is a surplus of resources or lack of predators. This allows a plant or animal population to grow without limits. More population leads to more births and more births leads to an increased population creating a compounding effect over time. Ecosystems and complex systems in general have a tension between forces that resist change, the negative feedback and forces that promote change, the positive feedback. Positive feedback may dominate at some time and positive feedback may dominate at other times depending on the situation. As a result, ecosystems may stay more or less the same for long periods but they can also change very rapidly. This change can be a rapid switch from one state to another. This flipping is known to be a characteristic of nonlinear systems and complex systems in general. As an example of these two counteracting forces, we can look at the succession of an ecosystem from grass to shrub community. Beginning with an ecosystem in which the ground is covered with grasses, shrubs may be present but they are young and scattered. The ecosystem may stay this way for 5 to 10 years or possibly longer because shrub seedlings grow very slowly. They grow slowly because grass roots are located in the topsoil whilst most of the shrub roots are lower down. Grasses intercept most of the rainwater before it reaches the roots of the shrubs. Because the grasses limit the supply of water to the shrub seedlings, they maintain the state of the ecosystem as primarily a grass community. At this stage, negative feedback is acting to keep the biological community the same. However, after a number of years, some of the trees and shrubs which have been growing slowly are finally tall enough to shade the grasses below them. The grasses then have less sunlight for photosynthesis and their growth is restricted. This results in more water for the shrubs, which grow faster and shade the grass even more. This process of positive feedback allows the shrubs to take over in a relatively short period of time. They now dominate the available sunlight and water and the grasses now decrease dramatically and this is the non-linear stage in the process of change. The term vicious cycle refers to a complex chain of events which reinforce themselves through a positive loop. If the outcome is a negative result, this would be termed a vicious cycle. The melting of polar ice caps is an example of a vicious cycle. As the reflective ice sea caps melt, they reflect less sunlight and heat back to the atmosphere. With more of this heat being trapped, the dark ocean which is now exposed by the loss of ice cap retains even more of the sunlight's heat. This retained heat then increases the temperature feeding back to induce the melting of more ice caps, creating what we would call a vicious cycle. As another more concrete example, we might cite the pollution of the lagoons that surround small South Pacific islands. Many South Pacific communities now consume imported packaged and canned foods, depositing of the empty cans and other waste in dumps. Rainwater runoff from the dumps pollutes the lagoons, reducing the quality of fish and other seafood. With less seafood, people are forced to buy more and more cheap canned food. The pollution becomes worse and the lagoon has fewer fish. This positive feedback loop changes the lagoon ecosystem whilst also degrading the people's diet, again creating a vicious circle. The term virtuous cycle refers to the opposite phenomena, a chain of events which reinforce themselves through a positive feedback loop, creating some favorable outcome. As an example of a virtuous ecological cycle, we might cite the Philippines fishery after World War II, with the introduction of destructive fishing methods such as dynamite, cyanide and small mesh fishing nets, a number of interlocking and mutually reinforcing vicious cycles were set into motion to significantly degrade the state of the marine ecosystem surrounding Apo Island up to this point. The positive tipping point for Apo Island was the creation of a marine sanctuary, setting in motion a cascade of changes that reverse the vicious cycle, with additional virtuous cycles arising in association with the marine sanctuary. The sanctuary served as a nursery, contributing directly to the recovery of the fish stock in the island's fishing grounds. Success with the sanctuary stimulated the fishermen to set up sustainable management for the fishing grounds, a virtuous cycle of increased fishing stocks accompanied by growing management experience, pride and commitment to the sanctuary was set in motion. As fishing improved around the island, fishermen were no longer compelled to travel far away for their work. Fishing right at home, they had to live with the consequences of their fishing practices. This reinforced their motivation for sustainable fishing and this compounding of a positive outcome is a virtuous cycle. Negative feedback loops create what we might call an attractor, that is a relatively stable set of states that the system cycles through. In order to understand an attractor, we need to firstly talk about what is called a state space. The state space of a system is a model that tries to capture all of the different states to that system. If for example we define a range land system by the amount of grass, shrubs and livestock that are present, then the state space is the three-dimensional space of all possible combinations of the amount of these three variables. The state of the system at any time is defined by their current combined values, creating one unique point within the state space that represents the overall makeup to that system at that point in time. A basin of attraction is a region in the state space in which the system tends to remain. For systems that tend towards an equilibrium, the equilibrium state is defined as an attractor. The basin of attraction constitutes all initial conditions that will tend towards the equilibrium state with it being held within that equilibrium by negative feedback of some kind. There may be more than one such basin of attraction for any given system, for example there may be two or more combinations to the amount of grass, shrubs and livestock towards which a range land might tend depending on the starting point. The various basins that a system may occupy and the boundaries that separate them are known as the stability landscape. Both exogenous drivers such as rainfall or sunlight availability and endogenous processes such as plant succession or predator prey cycles can lead to changes in the stability landscape such as changes in the number of basins of attraction, changes in the position of the basins within the landscape, changes in the positions of the thresholds between basins or changes in the depths of basins, where depth is a measurement of how difficult it is to move the system around within the basin, with steep sides implying more and stronger negative feedback loops, where greater perturbations or management efforts are needed to change the state of the system. Restructuring the system changes its position within a basin relative to the edge and defines its precariousness or capacity to move into a new basin. In evolved systems that have been subjected to strong selection processes, the elements to the ecosystem have co-developed and often form strongly interrelated negative feedback loops. For example one axis of the stability landscape for individual human health is temperature. One could imagine three basins of attraction in this landscape, healthy, sick or dead. For good physiological reasons the optimal temperature for the body is very close to the threshold between life and death and thus very precarious. Many millions of years of homeothermal natural selection has ensured that there are strong negative feedbacks in the form of temperature regulation mechanisms making it highly unlikely and difficult for the body to move across the critical temperature threshold. In other words being precariously close to such a threshold has meant the evolution of strong resistance. Evolving towards what is called the edge of chaos corresponding in this case to the edges of the basin of attraction is often a consequence of selection for maximum efficiency. Recently developed industrial systems such as managed fisheries and virtually all agro systems for example have short co-evolutionary histories therefore we cannot rely on such selected relationships of feedback control and the likelihood of crossing thresholds is much higher as evidenced by the many examples of collapsed fisheries and other degraded agricultural and forestry regions. These attractors within the landscape can change over time given internal or external alterations for example many lakes occupy a stability landscape with essentially two basins of attraction one that is initially wide and deep characterized by clear water and a smaller one characterized by turbid water agricultural practices within the larger socio-ecological system through application of fertilizers and manure have gradually increased the phosphorus content of soils in some wetlands this cross scale effort has changed the stability landscape of the lakes in several ways as lake basins fill with sediment a third basin attraction has appeared one in which the lake is dominated by rooted vegetation the first basin clear water and sparse vegetation shrinks and nearly disappears from the stability landscape the second basin turbid water and frequent blooms of toxic algae moves from being small to being wide and deep repellors correspond qualitatively speaking to the opposite behavior of attractors given a fixed point or cyclical trajectory of a dynamical system they are called repellotype trajectories if small perturbations can make the system evolve to trajectories that are far from the original one thus these are unstable regimes characterized by positive feedback if there are several attractors in a phase space then their attraction regime are separated by unstable points sets representing repellors so that all or almost all neighboring phase trajectories are repelled from each other we can say then that the stable equilibria are attractors with negative feedback unstable equilibria are repellors governed by positive feedback where the positive feedback can give us the butterfly effect a non-linear amplification of some small event into a large change process the idea of feedback loops is central to how we currently interpret ecosystems resilience as with the model of feedback loops attractors and the stability landscape we now have some basic models for approaching this subject resilience is the capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change so as to still retain essentially the same structure and functionality this can be interpreted as the strength and number of the negative feedback loops creating the likelihood of the system staying in the same basin of attraction given some perturbation when we ask what is the maximum amount the system can be changed before losing its capacity to recover we are basically talking about the width of the basin of attraction wide basins mean a greater number of system states can be experienced without crossing a threshold we can talk about resistance as the ease or difficulty of changing the system this is then related to the topology of the basin deep basins of attraction indicate that greater forces or perturbations are required to change the current state of the system away from the attractor within this model we can talk about the precariousness of a system which would correlate to the current trajectory of the system and how close it currently is to the limit or threshold which if breached makes recovery difficult or impossible in this module we've been continuing on with our discussion on feedback loops a topic of central interest in systems ecology and systems theory in general we first gave a brief outline to the two different types talking about negative feedback as a stabilizing mechanism while positive feedback can have a destabilizing effect leading to both rapid compounding beneficial outcomes called virtuous cycles or compounded detrimental outcomes called vicious cycles we then went on to talk about some of the basics to non-linear dynamics introducing the idea of a state space and attractors within that space with these attractors forming some stable equilibrium to the system state we looked at the idea of a stability landscape that can have multiple stable basins of attraction within it and the idea of a repeller that forms an unstable space governed by positive feedback between the attractors finally we talked about how the models of feedback loops and stability landscapes can be used as a basic framework for analyzing the resilience of an ecosystem


Good day, fellow investors. Today we're going to talk about... Hi, I'm Bill Ackman. I'm the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management. Thanks, Bill. So let's dig into the annual report that was just released from Pershing Square, analyze the long-term and short-term performance of the fund, discuss the top 10 portfolio holdings and finish with the possible implications for your investment strategy. Let's go. Pershing Square Holdings is a closed-end investment fund run by Bill Ackman. He's very well known because he's a self-made billionaire due to a 25-year record of beating the market. In 2004 he launched his fund and as you can see he has beaten the market by more than double since then. So today is so popular to say, oh, invest in index funds, invest in ETFs, but if you invest in those in index funds, you will be average. And we can see, we constantly see on this channel, Ackman, Buffett and Claremont, Parby, everybody, that there is a way to beat the market constantly over time. You cannot say that those are Sigma events because they do that constantly. So I think that really by doing smart investments, great businesses like Ackman has been doing in the past, he is a little bit more activist, but you can beat the market. That's the whole philosophy of this channel. Ackman's performance was 13.4% for now, a few years ago it was 20% per year, but the S&P in that period delivered 8.7%, so he's still far far ahead. Now there are two types of hedge fund managers, investment managers. There is the passive investment manager like Buffett, who likes to buy a company and not interfere too much with the management, he likes to buy good management. And there is Ackman who likes a good business with bad management so that he can actively replace the management and put in new management to do the job better and unlock the value of the great business. A perfect example of how Ackman operates is his investment in Canadian Pacific Railway. He accumulated a large position, then convinced the board that the management needed to take major changes to the business. When management resisted, Ackman convinced the board to fire the CEO and senior management and replace them with management that was willing to make the changes Ackman prescribed. Needless to say, the stock increased from 46% when Ackman was buying to more than 150% when he sold his position. Ackman was right, the new management made the changes, they were successful, the business thrived and the stock went up more than 300% in two years. Forbes magazine called it one of the great corporate turnarounds in recent memory. Another big winner for Ackman was the short position he took in MBIA, a large mortgage insurer. He discovered in 2002 that MBIA had liabilities of 764 billion against only 5.5 billion in equity, a ratio of 139 to 1. This is needless to say insane and very risky. Ackman was shocked that the bond rating agency had not changed the ratings from AAA. He believed that if he simply brought this to the agency's attention, they should downgrade to debt and when that happened, the company would essentially blow up. What he did not count on was that as we found out in the housing crisis, the ratings agencies were corrupt and bought and paid by for the companies they were rating. So Ackman had to hold his short position in the company all the way from 2002 until the housing crisis finally blew up the company. A 7 year wait. He was ridiculed and pronounced a fool for almost the entire time. But he held to his conviction, he was right and he was rewarded. Big time. So now that we know something about Ackman's past performance, let's dig into the recent performance, which is not that stellar. However, it might be a possibility to invest in his funds or in one of his holdings that fit your portfolio. Let's see. Pershing's return in 2007 was a negative 4%, negative 13% in 2006 and negative 20% in 2015. The reasons behind that were one of his bad investments like valent, herbalife, short etc. And here you can see what his activist activity has been over time. He started with Wendy's by spinning out Tom Horton's, then other companies Sears, Borders, Target, PNG, Chipotle and ADP are the last two. If looking at the 2017 performance, we can see that the underperformance was broad. Across all his holdings he underperformed the SAP500. This also shows that it wasn't just herbalife or valent that hit him. The bulk of his positions were not doing good. So after the underperformance, should you invest with him or in his holdings? Well, he says yes. He believes that this is a particularly attractive time to invest in the fund because the portfolio trades at the widespread to intruistic value with a lot of catalysts that should contribute to value recognition. The shares are currently trading at 23% discount to net asset value. The idea generation engine is intact and productive. They have resolved the liabilities coming from herbalife and allergen and the management fees are reduced because of the higher watermark. So let's discuss about making that decision to invest with or like Ackman or not. What is important? A four-year track record or a 15-year track record? That's the key because if you look at the four-year track record as most investors do and most investors are selling perching square because in the last few years he did badly. But if you look at the 15-year track record he did extremely well. So that's always the key with investing, short-term versus long-term. As we have discussed in a few days ago in Graham's video we are hardwired for the short-term and we make decisions based on the short-term, not on the long-term. And that's very very costly for long-term investment success because investing is about the long-term. So I don't know whether we should write Bill Ackman off or he will re-emerge. We will see and we will follow. So please subscribe to the channel. Let's now dig into the top 10 holdings that Ackman has. So let's dig into perching holdings and see whether they are overvalued, fairly valued, undervalued and whether they are actually great businesses as Ackman describes them. The first company is automatic data processing ADP is a company that is the largest paycheck processor in the world but the competitor Paychex is really eating up the margins and market share and that's huge. ADP's market share has been falling especially in the enterprise segment of the market the biggest and most lucrative and because this segment carries the biggest margins ADP's overall operating margins have been shrinking. Last fall Ackman made a big push to gain activist control of ADP's board to try and force management to make major changes or be replaced. The effort failed and that's key but Ackman believes he still accomplished something important that he got the attention of other ADP investors and that management will now be more responsive to his ideas. Here is what Ackman says about ADP. The status quo is harming the long-term competitive position of the company. The company is losing market share and losing very material ground. The current legacy products and systems are really issues that need to be addressed. The current price to earnings ratio is 29 which is pretty high but ADP has always been considered a great business and that's why it deserves a premium to the market. So Ackman believes that margins and earnings will grow at 7% over time. Operating margins should expand from 19% to 35% and he expects net margins to improve 500 basis points. By 2022 this should lead to an earnings per share of $20 for ADP. We have seen the price now multiply that to a market premium of 25 let's say even if it drops from the current 29 and you are at the price of 500 so the potential return for Ackman is 400% here. But if Ackman's perception is not applied by the management is not seen by the management and he doesn't manage to convince the board that urgent replacements are necessary then ADP might not be a great business anymore, might be just a good business with deteriorating market share and that's not such a promising story. So here is the risk reward. What's my take on it? Definitely ADP was a great business in the past. Ackman is really right on what he's saying if they follow there might be surely positive surprises. We will have to follow what's going on and whether Ackman manages to actively change the management or the actions or directions or not will follow and see. Restaurant Brands International owns three major restaurant chains Team Horton's Burger King and Popeyes. Ackman believes there is much more scalability in their business coming from acquisitions and organic growth. For example, Team Horton's is highly successful brand in Canada but hardly known in the US. The price turning ratio is 22 and the price to free cash flow is 21 so he sees it as undervalued relative to peers which trade at the multiple of 24. Another company that Ackman has invested is Montalaz, the international manufacturer of packaged foods and beverages that include familiar brands like Oreos, Nabisco, Cadbury, Toblerone, Trident Gums and whatever. As you can see from the chart Montalaz has badly out underperformed the market over the past year and a half. It's very interesting to know that short interest has been rising in the stock lately so we'll see how that works out for Ackman. With the PE ratio of 18 times consensus 2018 earnings Ackman says we expect continued acceleration in revenue growth, double digit EPS growth and clarity on the CEO's strategies will cause Montalaz's valuation to rise to levels approaching intrinsic value. The Howard Huge Comparations is Pershing's longest standing portfolio holding. He pitched the company at the 2017 SON conference as his top idea so it is a developer specializing in fully planned mixed development communities. You can check a detailed investment case on the company on their website. Chipotle Ackman believes it's a perfect turnaround opportunity. If I would have one cent for every time I heard that story I would be rich. But let's dig into the company and see what Ackman thinks about what he's doing, he managed to do something and whether that worked. Let's see. So Ackman really helped the management to bring the new CEO Brian Nicoll. Nicoll is the former CEO of Hume's Taco Bell. Ackman believes Nicoll can bring superior knowledge of system efficiency to Chipotle. However, critics believe this is a classic mismatch. A CEO from a company that serves extremely unhealthy food focusing on volume over quality being brought in to run a company whose brand was built on healthy fresh ingredients. The first big idea for the turnaround was bringing a new kezzo deep to the menu. Historically the company said it would never sell cheese deep but now the CEO thought it could be a huge winner. Chipotle spent heavily on promoting this as a big focal point. Ackman personally promoted this on CNBC. Unfortunately it seems the dining public and media did not agree. So this is a case of inept management and poor execution. First they obviously didn't properly test the product before launch, then they made matters worse with a pre-launch media strategy that set expectations in the wrong place. Which led to this embarrassing headline. Chipotle Ackman admits that its main selling point is the kiss of debt for its kezzo. And this became, as this headline put it, a master lesson in how expectations cause failure. With the end result that consumer sentiment remains tepid with the chain noting that 15% of its order include kezzo, a paltry portion in comparison to the 40% that include guacamole. Another position is Fanny May and Freddie Mac. Here the bet lies on the housing reform where Ackman believes the prices will be multiples of the current if that goes true. The investment is a bet and those are usually asymmetrically priced. There is a potential for zero and there is a potential for a much, much higher value. The stock price is also very volatile. Platform specialty product corporation Ackman states that the fair value for the company is 19 because the company generated 7% organic EBITDA growth driven by 4% organic revenue growth and cost savings. The company also refinanced 4 billion of debt significantly lowering interest expense. In August 2017, the company announced that it intends to separate its ag and performance solution business into two publicly traded companies by the second half of this year in order to increase long-term value. So a spin-off is a potential catalyst for the unlock of the value and we can see that the unlocking of the value would increase the price by 100%. We'll follow the company and see what happens. Ackman describes Nike as a high quality business that we expect can compound long-term earnings at a high rate due to strong revenue growth and margin expansions. I must agree with Ackman and so the only thing when investing in Nike is the price and that price exploded I think 30-40% since I made a video about Nike in August 2017 and since Ackman invested heavily in Nike he made about 100 million on that investment and closed the position because he sees better opportunities elsewhere now that Nike is 30% higher. So always check okay great business yes but always check the price and remember just six months ago Nike was under great threats from competitors and now everybody seems to forget about that. It will re-happen again and then you will have another opportunity to buy at the deep don't worry. So Herbalife.  It didn't happen so he was in a fight for five years also with Carl Eichen and he believes that he believes that he was correct in his call but underestimated Herbalife's ability to access that capital and use financial engineering which coupled with Icons share purchases to materially reduce the company's free float has driven share appreciation. So this was a fascinating battle there are a lot of investment lessons there so it deserves a special video which I will make in the future so please subscribe to get noticed when that happens. Ackman exited SAP 500 which he sees as another great business but he was unable to establish a full position due to the stock price appreciation. He also exited his investments in air products, hilton, nomad foods and additional undisclosed positions so we still don't know which one is that and valiant during the year. I have three big takeaways from this story. The first one is Bill Ackman can't stay in cash with a 3% management fee so he has to invest he has to be fully invested no matter the risk reward so he might pick riskier investments where there are no opportunities and thus hurt his long-term performance. So looking at his fees nobody can stay in cash with a 3% management fee why would you pay somebody 3% to do nothing? This is in contrast with what Buffett does because Buffett has huge piles of cash now and he doesn't charge a management fee he used to charge just the performance fee and a 0% management fee when he was managing other people's money in funds in his partnerships. The performance fee was 50% but that's why the management fee was 0 and he could sit in cash if he thought that was the best thing to do. Secondly the most significant risk when investing with Ackman or in his businesses is his activist success so he goes in the company he wants to change the management or make them do certain actions convince the board to change the management or so if he fails to do that then the value won't be unlocked and that's the risk of investing with activist investors. Thirdly we have seen Ackman's poor performance over the short term but huge outperformance over the long term and this is the key with investing. Good active management will always outperform the market however I emphasize good active management because this is what Buffett also says that poor and mediocre managers underperform the market so the key with investing and the key of this channel is to make you or to give you as much knowledge so that you become a good investor and when you are a good investor and a long-term investor you can outperform the market by investing in great businesses over time. So that's the message for today hope you enjoyed the video consider subscribing if you like the content and the mindset feel free to ask your questions in the comments I love those and I'll see you in the next video.


Welcome to ITU Telecom World 2016 in Bangkok Thailand where I'm pleased to be joined in the studio today by Mr. Sang Hong Lee who is Senior Director of Multilateral Corporation for the Ministry of Science, ICTs and Future Planning for the Government of Korea. Mr. Lee, thank you very much for being with us today. Thank you for having me here. Now I'd like to start off by talking about something which is called the Creative Economy Initiative which has been launched by the Government of Korea. I wanted to find out what's the main vision of this and perhaps you could tell us a little bit about it. Yes, this Creative Economy Initiative is established four years ago and this is a national strategy. This is not run by only by some specific ministries, this is really a very broad and a national initiative and then this initiative aims to lay foundation or make as a very start-friendly ecosystem. And then we also aim to boost entrepreneurship and then the development of SMEs, yes. I was going to ask you SMEs, entrepreneurs here in the tech sector are very much the focus of attention. What is the Government of Korea doing to support these? Yes, for that so we have pushed forward with very relevant policies especially at the like to raise, show the policy related to Creative Economy and Innovation Center, we call it very shortly CEIs. And then these centers are established all across the country in 17 cities and provinces. So with these centers many and diverse government supports delivered to the startups and SMEs. So the SMEs and startups could get the consultation and the financial support and also some networking services with foreign business. So many startups and SMEs could get benefit from these centers. Now from your perspective, what is the role of collaboration in growing the digital economy? So in the digital economy here really the collaboration is a kind of a master precondition for further development. So between private sector and public sector, between big and small company, between companies and consumer, so the collaborations are very diverse and very unnecessary. So every players in the market or in the society should very seriously consider about how they actually enlarge the collaboration with their partners and sometimes even within their people. So that's the meaning of collaboration for me. Now the Republic of Korea will host ICU Telecom World 2017 next year. What can we expect in Busan? Oh yes, for people who don't know about Busan, if I briefly introduce, Busan is the second biggest city in Korea and then the biggest harbour city in Korea of course. It has a very beautiful sea and then also one of the most advanced city, especially in ICT field, the city in Korea. So there are so many things to enjoy and to see and to experience. So for that I think that's why ICU Telecom is going to be held in next year in Busan, yes. And from your side, what's the value for you of events such as ICU Telecom World? So ICU Telecom World is, if I'm right, it's the biggest and then the most important event which connects business to government, government to business. There are so big events such as CES or MWC but the Telecom, ICU Telecom is uniquely really the genuine event which is good for especially developing countries who want to develop, who want to benchmark, who want to connect with companies, industries and developed countries, yes. Well, Mr. Sangun Lee, thank you very much indeed for being with us and we look forward to catching up with you again in Busan. Okay, see you there. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.


Uh, we're gonna go, we're gonna open some boxes. What do you guys think? Should we open this one? I think we're gonna open this one. Pretty heavy. Okay. Well... Let's try opening this one. Much more carefully. Hey! Wow, there's a lot of heat in this thing. How did you get here? This is insane! Chat! It's Ginny! Okay, return to sender. Yeah, we're gonna return to sender. Yo, let's think that we're gonna return to sender. Let's put it in here. I'm gonna take care of that after stream. Ginny's back! Official start of season two guys. This is gonna be so awesome. You two are the best combo. Alright, well stream's over. We'll see you guys later. We finally meet! Yeah. After six months. It's been like six months, actually. You're not supposed to use your phone in class.  Okay, so suit means senior. And welcome to Es Gordo. Episode... Number one of season two. Yes. Today we'll be joined by our chef of honor. Jimbo? Jim... Jimbo. I just saw that. J-I-M-B-O. Jimbo. Yes. He hails from Southern Alabama. Jimbo has joined us bringing 50-pound bag of Tonys. Now they see his puckles. Real excited. He's got family in Louisiana. So we got a little bit of Cajun flavor coming in today. It's gonna be real good. I forgot. Thank you for joining us today for Es Gordo. Today, we will be cooking chicken, steak, rice. Milk steak. No. It's of last year. It's 2011. 2009. Straight from the other. Yeah, use milk. No. Yeah. We're not using milk. We should use milk. We should... We should make... No. No, it's gonna be actually... No. Season two. Oh, it's really good. Oh, it's really good.  Oh, it's really good. So chat, this is a very well-planned stream.  I didn't know that Ginny was shipped in a box that was labeled as OTK. Mmm.  What?  Okay. So, our chef of honor, Ginny Tty, is going to make pasta for us. Yes. No, no, no. You are gonna make pasta. Wait, how am I gonna make pasta? I don't know how to make pasta. Okay. Okay. So how much water is in this? This doesn't matter. Okay. It doesn't matter, huh? It doesn't matter how much. Okay. So let's add some salt. How about tonies? No. A little bit of tonies. No. Peanut oil. Have you had peanut oil? No. The chicken fillet uses peanut oil. Mmm. It's good. It smells so good. Peanut oil is good. You know what it smells like? What? Peanuts. Okay. It smells like peanut butter. Yeah. So. So can you cook egg in here? Uh, I think chicken is good with peanut oil. Not egg, but chicken is good. How it's supposed to... Oh, let's put more water. Let's put more water. Yeah. So it's... Make it like a sea salt. So make it like a... Shake it like a salt shaker. No. Ocean water. And then... Like for example, if you get crab from ocean. Crab. Crab. Oh, crab. Crab. Crab from the ocean. You don't want to get crabs from the ocean. Yeah. Yeah. You get crab from the ocean. And then when you cook it, you get crabs from somewhere else. Oh, all the time. Oh, all the time. Yeah. Really? No, not all the time. I've never had crabs. Ever? Ever. Crab. King crab. Crab. I mean, I don't know what... I don't know any of the slang. No, it's not slang. It's a food crabs. Oh, okay. Crab. Uh... So people eat those. I thought it'd be like a health issue. No. Really? It's so good crabs. Even though they're just all like in the... So weird. You have to experience more food. Really? Okay. Your... Your tongue is... Oh, I'm allergic. Oh, my tongue? Don't we continue? Your tongue is a virgin to so many stuff. It really is. Yeah. It's not good. You have to try a lot of different kind of stuff in order to figure out what's out there. World is your oyster. World is my oyster. What if I'm allergic to oyster? I'll be allergic to oyster, crab, lobster, and cats. What about clams? Clams, too. Clams, too. Clams, too.  But that's weird.  Or you're allergic to life octopus. I don't think so. Okay. Maybe. Yeah, but anyway, crab... Like, you don't... When you... When you get crab from ocean... Yeah, tell me about getting crabs. And then you don't really have to season it. And then you just cook it and it's still salty. You know why? Because it's ocean... It's from ocean. The same thing goes with the pasta. If water is salty and you pasta into... You laugh it. I'm sorry. I was laughing at something. What?  Just continue. Yeah, and then pasta absorbs salt water and it becomes kind of like salty. Mmm. It's a little salty. Yeah. That's why a lot of chefs, when they cook pasta, they put salt in the water. Come on. Let the pasta absorb salt. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very good. Have you ever heard of a story where... It's my Uber Eats. What did you order? Did you order two pauling? Ordered some cookies for myself. Tips, treats. Yeah, don't mind them. Anyway, you can cook your lunch and I'll make mine. I'll eat mine. What is that? It's cookies. What do you see? Tips, treats. It has an address on it.  It's okay, I won't eat them. Okay, so here's what we're going to do. Cut the steak into cubes. Yes. So... You can do it. Let's get a nice zoom on this. Slap it a little bit. Don't want to tenderize it.  It smells good. It does. Pull my finger. It's like Pinocchio, whenever you're lying. Like, your nose gets bigger, it's like the same thing.  It's like the same thing. Extra virgin? Yes. Let's do... Like oil. Let's do avocado. No, no, no, no. Olive oil. Do we have better than olive oil here? Take this one. No, it should be extra virgin. This is extra virgin. Is it? That's not only olive oil there is. You think in this house there's going to be something other than extra virgin? No. You can't buy them for cooking streams. We already have this. No, no, I'm asking. There are multiple kinds of olive oil. There's like mild virgin. There's kind of virgin. Oh, okay, okay. It's countless. I don't think that's a real thing. That is real thing. I don't think that's real. No, it's real thing. I don't think that's real thing. It's real. I tried it. Do you want to throw one pasta? How you doing? Okay. You should do it. You should do it. Because you've never tried it. Can't you just eat it and tell if it's done? No, I'll just throw it. Yeah, but I could have just done the... Then? Not anymore. Ready? Careful. Five second rule. No, no, no, no. Six second rule. That one tastes like apple juice. Yeah? I wonder why. Glass. Chad, look at the technique. Chad, have you approved this technique? Five second rule. Ready? No meat left in pan by time. You're done mixing. I hate that this is good. See, I told you. It's actually good, Chad. It's very good. Something is seriously loose on that camera. Cheers. This is very good, Chad. I will admit. Spicy butter noodles mistake. I like it. I really like it. Yeah, it is good. I think you're right. If we had like Parmesan cheese, it would be perfect. Yeah, that was good. Keep up at it. Okay. We have some wild stuff to do. We have some madness stuff we could do. For sleep? I'm going to figure something. Do you want to do anything else before we go through that? That's not what I said. I said, do you want to do something before you go through that? Oh my gosh, Chad. What? Okay, okay. This is enabling so hard, dude. Babe. Dude, that was a mistake. Well, I don't even know why you said that. Because I wanted to call you mate. Why? Because I call everyone like, no, no, no, no. Why do you call me mate anyway? Well, that's not true, mate. No, that's not true, man. What are you? Who are you? Australian? Are you British? No, I'm nobody. Oi! Oi, Aspen! Oi, babe. Oi, Aspen! I'll chat babe, too. Chad, babe.  You whisper sweet nothings to Chad.  I said you, not we. You said we. I said you. Watch the board. Watch your language. Watch the board. Watch the board. Before you go through that. Before you go through that. Do you ever do karate, or Taekwondo, or any martial arts?  You can. I can. Prove it.  Right now.   I'm just people. No.   Oh, you wouldn't? Why not? I'm not fragile. Thank you very much. I'm vulnerable. How am I fragile? What do you mean? Look at me. What do you mean? I'm like twice your size. It's a little really better. Thank God.


She's currently working with the Janice Foundation and she's been very instrumental in directing the Mending Nations series of programs that have been going on around the Bay Area. So I turn the program now over to Sue Richter. Thank you. Thank you, Daphne. And I'd like to give you a special thank you for organizing this event tonight. And I'd also like to just thank Josette personally with Borders for being the bookseller this evening and selling wonderful books from around the world. I'm the founder of Mending Nations and I wanted to just briefly talk about how Mending Nations started. It started several years ago after I met Lely Bacchar-Vandillian and we've had many, many discussions about Iran in the Baccharian tribes. And quite frankly, I didn't know much about the Baccharian tribes before I met Lely. What I knew about Iran was what I'd read in the newspapers or seen on the television. And it was obviously more slanted toward the political side. So after many years of speaking with Lely, I've learned quite a bit about the Baccharian tribes. I've learned that they're the oldest continuous migrating tribe on the face of the world over 5,000 years. And I've learned about their migrations up and down the Zagros Mountains. I've heard about places like Chahar Mahal and Isfahan and had many, many cups of chai tea. Later I met Luba Brezhnev and Miriam Chavez. And again, I didn't know a whole lot about Cuba and I knew some about Russia, but not a lot. And after speaking with them for quite a few months, I learned much more about Cuba and Russia. I learned about the great cafe societies in Cuba. I learned about the great family traditions that are still carried out today. And in Russia, I learned about the great spirit of the people. Even though they've been through many difficult times, their spirit is incredibly strong. So what happened with me personally is I noticed that my heart and my spirit really shifted towards Iran and Cuba and Russia. And I went from a spirit of caution to one of passion for the people and the traditions and the cultures of these countries. So we all sat around at dinner one night and decided that we needed to have a Mending Nations program to educate people and through great literature. So with that, I'd like to start with Miriam and ask Miriam. You were born in Cuba and then you came to America with your parents. And perhaps you could discuss what happened, what were the circumstances that were around that. I was born in Cuba and in 1959, my sister was born, but my father, instead of in the hospital with my mother, he was in the Sierra Maestra Mountains with Fidel Castro. He was a revolutionary and as you know, Batista was the dictator at the time. And Fidel Castro had a lot of support of the whole country. There are revolutionaries in the mountains. They came down from the mountains and took over Havana and the government. And Batista left in New Year's Eve and left with a couple of his family and friends and left the country. So my father was very, very involved in changing the beginning of the government. He didn't ever take part in the government of Fidel Castro because he was a journalist and a newspaper man. And he started, he had a radio show and a couple of months after Fidel Castro took over, they started curtailing his radio show and he couldn't say this and he couldn't say that. Then Fidel Castro aligned himself, as you know, with the Soviet Union. And my father in the middle of the night with 12 other people that were in the Sierra Maestra Mountains with him left in a small boat and ended up in McAllen, Texas in an immigration detention center. My mother and my sister and myself were left in Cuba and Fidel Castro signed permission for us to be able to leave. We went to Mexico City and we ended up in Miami, met my father after the Bay of Pigs in 1961. Miami at that time was a very, very strange place because there were a lot of people from the Batista regime, they were there, and then all these new people from the, that were responsible for putting Castro in power were there also. So there's a lot of conflict and commotion going on. My father started a radio show in the garage of our house and we had to be really, really quiet at six o'clock in the afternoon because my father would tape this radio show, which was all political and had to do with Batista and what was happening and with Castro and all throughout my life. He always wanted to reestablish relationships with Cuba because he also, he always thought that through communication you were going to get more done than through embargoes and hate and different things that went on during the time in Miami. So during all, all throughout my life I always was taught that through communication and exchange a lot more will get accomplished. Now your full name is Miriam Lesnick Chavez and so you married into the Chavez family. Caesar Chavez is your father-in-law and many of us know him as the deceased labor leader but many of us don't know him as a human being. Do you have a personal story about Caesar? I met my husband in 1980 when I worked for the Kennedy campaign. Edward Kennedy was running for president and I had just graduated from Columbia University graduate school of international affairs and I had, I was called to work in Senator Edward Kennedy's Senate office and then he started, he began his Kennedy campaign to run for president and I switched over and my husband came from California and he was the Latino at that time who was Hispanic coordinator, that's what we would call his Latino Hispanic coordinator at the time for the whole country and I met him there and after a couple of months of getting to know my husband I realized that we had very similar upbringing and they always, always the same thing, always very unpopular. My father and Caesar always had unpopular views with the majority of the people and he was always, but they never, never wavered and they always had the same, ideas and never, never switched up no matter how hard everything really got. My husband always tells this great story about his father that I've read everything, probably has been published on Caesar and all his biographies and I haven't read this little story which is very telling of how Caesar is and was and because is because he's still with us and how he really raised his family and how, what kind of man he really was. It was during the height of his, of his fame and he was a threat to everyone. Big corporations didn't like him. He was saying things that, that no one wanted to hear. So the Johnson administration offered him to head the Peace Corps in Latin America and that was a job that a lot of people probably, I think Sergeant Shriver took that job a little later on. It was a very, very prestigious job but basically he knew that they were offering him this job so he could leave the country, not organize farm workers and stop making waves. So he sat the whole family down. The whole family lived in a house, no more, they were, my husband was one of eight. So they lived in a two bedroom house in Delano with one bathroom and in a very, very poor area and my mother-in-law was still working as a farm worker and coming home and cooking these huge meals for eight children and my father-in-law sat everyone down and said, I have been offered a job. They always had dinner at a certain time every night. I have been offered a job in Latin America and this job will take us, I think it was, Buenos Aires or Santiago, I'm not sure, but we've been offered this job, I've been offered this job but I really, I want to discuss it with the family. Now I have to tell you that this is organizing the Peace Corps and it's going to be a job where you're going to have to live in a big, huge house.  You're going to go to private schools and you're probably going to have a chauffeur because in Latin America we're probably going to have a chauffeur, yes, a chauffeur. And then also I think we're going to have a huge, the house I think we're told has a pool and it's going to be a great, great life. You're going to all learn how to speak perfect Spanish. They all spoke Spanish but this is going to be much better because you're going to speak Spanish all the time. Your grandmother can come with us. It's going to be a great life.  Now who would want to go to Latin America so I can organize the Peace Corps?  So everyone voted to stay except Bertie who was three years old and he says I want to go. So that's basically very telling because again the whole family, the whole United Farm Workers and the whole movement was basically a family effort and without all the family and all the people that helped wouldn't have gotten where it is today. Thank you for that great story. Well many of us know that there have been strained relationships between Cuba and America for decades but your parents just took a trip to Cuba and you go every year and perhaps you could tell us a little bit about what the atmosphere is like in Cuba today. I go every year like Sue said to Cuba. I take my children every year because like my father and Caesar always used to say that if you don't know who you are you don't know where you're going or where you're going to end up. So I take them to Cuba and I also take them to La Paz where my mother-in-law is to see how it's a union headquarters and to be with her cousins for a couple of weeks during the summer. My parents just came back, they go more often than I do and they just came back and they say every year it changes and it's much better. And this year when they just returned they said that there were a lot of Americans there and that's really unusual because three years ago there were no Americans and now in the last year there were a little bit more and this year there's a lot. But they said, my parents also said that they are not taking their children yet and I guess they're a little hesitant but I think next year you're going to see American children. You're going to see the more they go the more you see that it's a great place and it's a wonderful place to see and I think it's going to be really, really great. Every year it changes and it becomes a little bit better. Now you wrote a book too called Sacrifice and it's going to be published next year and so we'll come back to that and you can read a little bit about that in a moment. Thank you. Now we'll go to Luba Brezhnev who she is the niece of Leonid Brezhnev and also the author of The World I Left Behind. And my question for you Luba is why did you sacrifice everything you had in Russia to come to America and write The World I Left Behind? Thank you, it's a very good question. I'm often asked by Americans and also by Russians why was I leaving that was most dear to me my relatives, my friends, my job, my home and what was the reason for this kind of sacrifice and why did I have to choose to leave the hard life in a new country? At the end of 80s I was aware that Americans and Russians had an unique and great opportunity to establish a new civilized relationship and to know each other better and to become friends and I decided to come to America and to share with Americans who had an approximate idea about Russia and Russians my life experience, my knowledge to help Americans to understand events in former Soviet Union. Unfortunately, Russian knowledge of America and Americans and I'm talking about average people in general can be summed up in a few words like Donalds, Jeans and Monica Lewinsky and American knowledge of Russia and Russians is almost at the same level as Kremlin, Vodka and Garbachev so but I know that the Russians who know better Americans or have Americans friends or to leave or to work with Americans they say Americans are great guys they are hard workers and we have a lot to learn from them for example how to do business or how to be patient and tolerant and polite and Americans who live with Russians or work with Russians they say I've never seen warmer, kinder and more charming people than Russians that's what comes from knowledge of each other and when I came to America I didn't speak any English and I knew only two sentences my name is Lyuba and I love you and I was very lucky because there's two sentences I signed a contract with Random House in a few months and my editor very lovely gentleman we're still in touch, we're still friends he has been working in Random House for 47 years he told me Lyuba it's just you came to America and you said my name is Lyuba I love you and we signed a contract so here in this hall I have two friends my very close friends we are friends for 7 years Michael Morpher and Dale Berman when they made me 7 years ago I didn't speak English it was hard time so and for many years we were sure Americans and Russians that all our misfortunes came from Communism but now the Cold War has ended and the Communist Party doesn't exist anymore but we are still facing very serious problems not only ethnic and national problems but the problems between Russians and Americans unfortunately most of people live by the principle if I don't understand it I don't like it and I don't accept it and I decided to write my book which was published by Random House in 1995 and this is the book not about the politics or political situation or about my uncle this is the book about myself about my family about my people about my country about its soul and heart and this is the book a little bit about my uncle of course but it's not about Leonid Brezhnev as a politician but as a human being thank you so Luba you've told me many times about the great spirit of the Russian people and could you tell us a little story about the common people in Russia it's my pleasure because I like to talk about average Russians unfortunately in the recent years which have been very important for relationship between Americans and Russians most of the coverage of Russia presented to Americans has shown the most negative aspect of Russian life and there had practically nothing about Russian culture, Russian history Russian poetry, Russian literature but there has had plenty to see and read about Russian crime Russian corruption on mafia and this gives a terribly distorted portrait to Russians however Russia is the country of a very high spiritual culture currently as you know Russia is struggling trying to survive and to solve economic and social problems but her spirit is very strong and her faith is very strong people are going hungry but it's still very hard to get a ticket to play people have been lost the faith in the government but the churches are full and I would like to talk about average people for example about a little Russian seven year girl who lately walked about 100 miles with her parents to visit the holy grave of one of the most beloved saints of Russia or about Russian doctors who unpaid for months continue to treat and operate on patients or about Russian teachers who also unpaid for months continue to teach the children they are the true face of Russia thank you your uncle Leonor Brezhnev he taught you a very valuable lesson about life through borscht could you tell us that story yeah but before I'll go to the story it's a funny story I would like to read a very small piece of my book using glasses unfortunately when several days after the funeral of my uncle my father came to my home his blood pressure had shot up his eyes were still red his face was blushed I invited him to stay for supper he sat down on the bench in my kitchen and then without saying a word let his head on the table and began to sob I'm like a dog without his master he told me as he wiped his tears they lost the general secretary I lost a brother so millions of people in Russia in former Soviet Union lost Leonid Brezhnev as a general secretary I lost my uncle so my point is that he never was a general secretary to me he was just an uncle the person I loved the person who took care of me and the person who gave me a lot of lessons by the way this night I got a call from Moscow and I'm going to publish my book in Moscow it's coming out on October and the editor called me to Aluba just a recent poll in the former Soviet Union shown that your uncle Leonid Brezhnev was the best politician of this century and they call his period his heir as the golden socialism and when they ask the people the thousands of people for whom they will vote tomorrow the answer was for Leonid Brezhnev and I want to go to define his story when I was a teenager teen so my uncle loved very much borsh you know most of people in Russia they're crazy about borsh there are some people who eat borsh three times a day so my uncle belonged to this kind of people if there wasn't borsh he thought it's nothing to eat in the house so and when I was a teen I don't remember 13 or 14 years old I decided to please him and surprise him and I made a borsh for him and I forgot to put their beets but without beets it's no borsh you can just throw it in the garbage and my uncle said my dear never remember about main ingredients in your life and I remember this and I'm trying not to forget about main details in my life main things thank you thank you for that great story too and we'll come back to another reading from the world I left behind and now I'd like to move over to Laylee back to your Van Dillon she's an award winning poet and has a new novel out called Herum Letters and I have some questions for you as well the first is in many ways our nation is in a cultural revolution and how do you see your work and Mending Nations assisting that Mending thank you Sue it's a good question the concept of cultural revolution in Mending Nations my novel Herum Letters is basically based on the life of Dr. Abul Ghassan Bakhtiar who is from a 5,000 year old nomadic tribe living in the Zagros Mountains he's from a tiny village of Burujan and from this village he completed his education by the age of 10 he sat on a small carpet out under a tent and after he could read Arabic in the Quran his education was considered complete what he came to learn later when he befriended Shapur Bakhtiar's family Shapur Bakhtiar was the former prime minister of Iran and he was the prime minister in 1979 just at the time the Shah of Iran was leaving Iran he wanted to be sure the parliament had approved Shapur to be the next prime minister so he wouldn't leave the nation in anarchy Shapur was elected or nominated as prime minister and he was assassinated eight years ago in 1991 I had met him in 1989 back in Burujan village in the Zagros Mountains these two men were friends and they both believed in the concept of knowledge the concept that words can heal the importance of education consequently many of the Bakhtiaris who were shepherds who have flocks my grandfather for example before he came to America to become a physician he was a peddler of fruits until he was 40 years old realizing in his poverty that he would never amount to anything one of the BB Queens in the tribe took him to the capital Tehran where another Bakhtiar before Shapur it was actually Shapur's uncle was prime minister as well and eventually he met a Presbyterian missionary he was invited to America in 1919 after World War I and he came at 40 speaking little English went to Syracuse University then medical school at Syracuse and then he wanted to return in 1929 during our Great Depression with his wife as a career doctor to help the poor in needy they had no hospitals in Iran and if you were dying you were taken in a wheelbarrow to a Maris Hunay, a sick house so my grandfather and grandmother were the first physician and nurse in Iran and wiped out malaria they believed back to the concept of mending nations that what was critical to humans and civilizations to continue to understand each other was to become educated and so they believed in the healing power of words and myself as a journalist and a fiction author and my friends Luba and Miriam this is what we believe in reconciliation and hope through understanding and enriching our lives by learning about other cultures you visited Iran in 1997 and are there still sacred rites that are exercised there as tradition with the elders? it's a very important question and I think universally the concept of elders in Iran today I was there two years ago and every home I went to to eat a sofray a sofray is when you spread a big Persian rug well the Persian rugs are on every floor but then a tablecloth on the carpet so that 20-30 people can sit around that sofray and eat the concept of the elders when you come into a home there's an image of a grandfather and grandmother who may have passed away and the youth seek the elders for their wisdom this is how cultures are continued by passing on these stories of the elders and when I met Shapur in Paris this was again the same quest to return to one's roots to ask of the senior citizens the most serious questions about your life and in this case of course I asked him about the revolution about we had hoped to work together because I spoke French I have a master's degree in French literature and he speaks better French than English and my Farsi is improving but it's still not there so at any rate what I learned from Shapur and I can never forget it this is the kind of experience one has in Iran sitting with elders throughout the day and having Chahi he said Lely if you look into the eyes of democracy what you'll see is suffering it's a great price one must pay for democracy he also said I believe the human mind grows naturally toward democracy and Shapur had certainly had the life experience he had been imprisoned by the same Shah who actually put him back into power if you will or approved of his power so the concept of going to the elders was a ritual that I saw in poor families in the cities of Esfahan, Shiraz we went into the old kuche the old streets and talked with the nannies they are the old family wise women who have a thousand eyes and I write about them in harem letters your mother is an expatriate from Iran and your father is a retired navy officer this must have impressed upon you a great need to be a communicator and bridge east and west did your writing come from this? yes my father is Irish and my mother is Iranian so being Irish-Iranian there was an incredible amount of energy in our family and my father came from four generations of Irish sea captains from the United States Naval Academy there are McNair roads on the academy grounds there's a USS McNair there's a Fort McNair in Washington DC and yes indeed I observed as a child from a family of six I have five brothers and I observed for survival's sake I observed these two cultures my Iranian mother my Irish father they've been married 49 years tried to put these stories together and weave a life of cultural reconciliation and all my work is about reconciliation all my work is about the hope of understanding that two people can come to understand the mystery of life the mystery of another person's tribe or clan and indeed my mother had complete respect for this navy clan these Irish warriors if you will these seafaring captains and she adored it I must admit as the story goes my 17-year-old Persian mother at the time went with my 27-year-old father to Annapolis, Maryland the home of the United States Naval Academy where my grandfather Captain and Mrs. McNair were awaiting to see his new, shall we say, fiance and he had seven sisters with curly blonde Irish hair and extremely fair skin and when he arrived on his doorstep with a very exotic 17-year-old Persian woman it raised eyebrows I think they were speechless at any rate what I have seen in terms of reconciliation and what is possible between a man and a woman, a family life is respect between them there was a lot of times not understanding my father also loved Bakhtiari food the Bakhtiaris did not come for one night they came for months and years one day at breakfast my father's mother was from the Chief Justice John Marshall family and we have their formal dining room table and my father, they were about 20 at the breakfast table and my father said to this Iranian gentleman well, have you enjoyed your stay in America? and he said, oh yes, Mr. McNair this has been wonderful and he went on to ask him numerous questions and he said, well now how long have you been here? and he said for about a month and he said, and where have you been staying? and he said, well Mr. McNair, upstairs in your home and this is very typical and it's actually quite typical of my home today I welcome a lot of cultures in my home and I believe that the stories that I've written in harem letters reflect how hope can continue through sharing cultural stories thank you and we'll come back to reading from harem letters may I add some few words about many nations? sure, sure, thank you so as I already said that most of people are living by the principle if I don't understand, I don't love it and I don't accept it and the most destructive prejudices are those based on religion, ethnicity and nationality and I have been experienced of some of them when I was a young girl and I fell in love with a German man German military pilot my uncle who was the first person in the country he was a general secretary he said, aren't there any more Russian men? it wasn't necessary to fall in love with a German man and when later I married an Armenian guy so my mother in law accused her son of having half Russian children so I just and I remember that actually I was in the same way somehow because I give you an example when my ex-husband signed a contract with an Algerian university and we came to Algeria in 1978 I felt so isolated from this country and I was so miserable and I just had a negative feeling toward this country everything smelled different and didn't look like in Russia and my ex-husband said either you stay and try to understand this country and love these people and to be happy or you have to go back to Moscow and I didn't have any choice and I stayed and I did my best to understand this country I gained a lot of friends there and I loved them very much I was very happy and when the time to live came I cried Thank you Thank you for that story and now Maryam is going to read a passage from her soon to be released book Sacrifice and she's going to set up that whole scene for us Yes this is a I took a year off from law school and went to live in the Dominican Republic because I always thought that I was so I was very confused in the United States I thought I felt American one day and then maybe Latin American another day I just had to go somewhere I couldn't go to Cuba because at the time no one was going to Cuba so I went to live in the Dominican Republic where my grandfather had a house and I worked for a TV station this book idea came from my years living there and I think the chapter speaks for itself it's about an American woman that marries a Latin American woman living in the country a Dominican wife breakfast 8.30 Spanish doctora vals 10 o'clock dance Gustavo Télez 11 lunch 12.30 siesta 2 free time 3 to 5 riding Carol Choa 5.30 dinner 7.30 Tuesdays instead of riding gourmet cooking entertaining Monday instead of dance massage Tuesday instead of Spanish and dance manicure pedicure Sandy's days were planned by Esmeralda Lozano thought it was kind of his aunt to take the time and the days marched on the first year she saw only her teachers manicurist, hairdresser and the servants she was expected to dress in black dresses all of the paintings and the mirrors in the villa were covered with black cloth the Lafortes were in mourning and life would resume in one year Lozano was traveling more and Sandy spent much of her time alone lately he was leaving for two weeks at a time he returned his return was always full of fun and romance that kept her going and boxes from Valentino Escola de la Renta and Hermes Cristian Dior arrived via Flores almost every day that first year she found evening gowns and Italian silk dresses and alligator shoes with matching purses filled her closet every Saturday evening Lozano gave her a piece of jewelry to go with her new clothes some of the pieces had been his grandmothers and others he had sent from Harry Winston in New York and emerald necklaces and diamond ear clips filled her jewelry chest as Rala became excited every time Sandy received a new piece of jewelry she gave her suggestions Sandy should wear her hair pulled back with almost the most elaborate necklaces and ear clips it was more flattering to the face and showed off the stones diamonds were not to be worn in the daytime she suggested pearls after a few months of practice Sandy looked like a Dominican wife Sandy avoided Esmeralda when the subject was not clothes, hair or jewelry and tensions were high when they were in the same room one day they had a confrontation and Sandy knew it was just a matter of time it happened in the library and Esmeralda approached her from the back what are you doing in here Esmeralda stood by the door looking for a computer paper I want to print out a letter Sandy had already seen the stacks of money in the boxes and there must have been thousands of dollar bills next time ask Patricio this office should be locked there are no limits my husband died in here and I don't want you snooping around Esmeralda was not snooping Esmeralda turned around and left why would they have all this cash lying around next time she checked the office was locked when she asked Lozano he told her the money was to be deposited in Switzerland we always have to be prepared for the worst he said he did not elaborate and the time passed slowly I'm looking forward to the release of this book so we can read more thank you and now Luba is going to read a passage from the world I left behind about her uncle Leonor Brezhnev as the human being yeah, as you know or maybe you remember that my uncle organized the conspiracy against Khrushchev and he succeeded him in October 1964 actually it was very easy because at that time not only Politburo but the whole country was sick and tired of Nikita Khrushchev's experiments so and I would like to read a small piece about my uncle what happened after he became the general secretary once soon after Leonid had become first secretary he took a walk in the woods with my father because my father had played such a vital role in the revolt Leonid felt a special gratitude toward him so I took his side I don't know how long I'll leave I don't even think about it I only think about how we can do more for our people they have suffered greatly and deserve better our extreme poverty has always shocked me are Russians worse than Czechs or Germans they should eat their fill and sleep in comfort if you want them to work well was my uncle really concerned about the people's needs he really believed that he had been selected by fate to be their benefactor like any politician he needed to feel that his actions were justified he had often repeated the formula the people are not here to save us we are here to serve us we are here to serve the people but this idea faded and was forgotten as the years passed I have no intention of making excuses for him but it would be unfair to deny that he loved his country he did in his own way he wanted to make the Soviet Union more prosperous and more happy but he did not believe after a certain point at least in the triumph of socialism in Marxism-Leninist principles or in the possibility of communism it was the late 60s during another one of the frequent walks in the woods Yakov my father himself a party member I'm sorry asked his brother, general secretary of the communist party what do you think, Leonia? will communists ever come? Leonid laughed without mirth oh for heaven's sake, Yasha what are you talking about? all this stuff about communism is a tall tale for popular consumption after all we cannot leave the people with no faith the church was taken away desire was shot and something had to be substituted so let the people build communism my father came away from this conversation deeply disappointed I would like to read one more very short oh my gosh I'm struggling my book is like later my father later my father admitted that a few weeks before Leonid's death he had called him something he did rarely only when his wife was not around to know and said Yasha, I can feel that the end is near I'd like to be able to start everything again again from the beginning but my strength is gone I'm so tired I'm tired of living I answered Leonid and hung up when my father related this short conversation to me I sensed immediately that my uncle had been reaching out for understanding and forgiveness who besides his brother was left for him to confine in thank you very much I'm still struggling with my English I'm sorry it must have been extraordinary for Leonid Brezhnev on one hand yes because I'm kind of proud of being the niece of this guy because he was a really nice and kind person and very honest person very decent person and finally the Russian people realize it right now so starving to death right now and seeing the Russia falling apart but on the other side it wasn't easy because I always felt like a a goldfish in some bowl or whatever everybody could come to my life and everybody was curious about my private life about my business life about my friends, my children so it was a kind of heart so Lely your next question is that Mending Nations is about educating ourselves about different cultures and traditions and I believe that you're going to read a piece from Heron Letters is it The Bath House or The Bazaar? The Bath House Persia is an ancient land which like many in the Middle East or Near East is dusty and people are on foot and labor throughout the day what they look forward to at the end of the day is to go to the Hamam which is The Bath House and this is not just a ritual cleansing but it's also a time to socialize and a time to hear the politics of the day the news of the day and perhaps the matchmaker might be in the Hamam so there are a thousand eyes in the Hamam and this is a story of where the mother is going to take her four daughters the story is about four sisters and these four sisters are young and in Persia and they're going with their mother their mother is actually American and their Aunt Daisy has come from the United States to visit them but she sees everything and Persia is unclean and debatable so it begins a little bit with Aunt Daisy we drop Aunt Daisy off at home since she's not comfortable to go to the open Hamam Bath House which Mama loves I want Aunt Daisy taken to the Great Salt Desert forever the five of us continue our whirling day with the ritual cleansing on entering the dark Hamam Mama visibly relaxes Old Nanay-Parsia arranges our clothes and we disrobe and wrap and soft towels immediately inside the great cavernous Hamam five human washers approach us are they relics from the past we sit on the wet tiles the dripping steam falls from the tall glass dome down by our sides our hair is scrubbed with piquant vinegars for shine and oils and essences for scent we serve sweet juicy pomegranates kinses, barberries and mulberries while our feet are ground into smooth flesh with pumice rock the skin on our backs is shed for new skin with a rough scrub pad Mama is massaged as well and her body oiled with attire of roses as though preparing for her death after many hours of cleaning and polishing nibbling on honey tea and sweets and drinking a 3,000 year old lemonade recipe we are driven home for our afternoon nap Mama insists since we have a big occasion coming up we must rest a few days she's always preventing us from tiredness so we will be immune to the exposure of bacteria and viruses at the end of the story the four sisters find out that there was a matchmaker in the bazaar that day and the matchmaker will soon visit that family and one of the girls will have a marriage proposal and that's a very interesting story a marriage proposal she doesn't want I think Albert Einstein summed this whole Mending Nations theme up years and years ago he said life cannot long endure on the basis of a crude force understanding for our neighbors justice in our dealings willingness to help can give human society permanence and so what I'd like to do now is open the floor for questions but what we'll have to do is wait until Daphne can get to you with a microphone so that we can capture the question and people won't have to repeat again do we have any questions for Laylee Luba or Miriam everything is clear then I will ask a question and I will ask a question of Laylee you are from a revolutionary family and do you see yourself as a literary revolution yes I do see myself as a literary revolutionary the story I told about Shappor back to Yarr is a very personal family story he was on the front cover of Time magazine and he lost his life assassinated in Paris in a very brutal way and some people such as Shappor he said I was asked and called to come and help the people I had devoted my life and sacrificed had given my body as living sacrifice to our nation and to the poor and the needy in my particular case my type of sacrifice is really as an author to share the stories of people such as Shappor I share them in fiction the characters are fictionalized though it's based on the back tiari and what I've known of these people's incredible commitment their toughness their endurance in a very inhospitable indomitable part of the world the Zagros Mountains is taken for people like that to be on a path a quest, a journey for knowledge and understanding of other nations the Persians I grew up with in the tribe believe that we are all gateways to all other nations and in that case my writing is perhaps revolutionary in that it aspires and continues to hope and it refuses to be apathetic Do we have any questions? I visited the Soviet Union in 1962 and if there are not going to be any other questions I will give some information and then ask a question or if you want one quick question Could you give us a quick question? For which I am hardly prepared I cannot state a quick question that's not what I had in mind but I will make it much Thank you I was visiting a children's summer camp in Leningrad with a group of 20 people and the director came to us and we had an interpreter and then we had our opportunity to ask a question if we wanted to and I was the first my question was have you noticed that children are cruel to each other and if so what do you do to correct that so I would like to ask you what your answer is and then if I may I will give the answer that the director gave and then what happened afterwards you mean that you have information about the children, Russian children who are cruel toward each other that is the question I asked him because I had something maybe I missed something I don't remember that we were really cruel toward each other in the Soviet Union well I think children all over the world are cruel to each other they are selfish they are not more cruel than any other children and maybe it's better to talk about childhood about children at that time in the 60s and now this is the big difference it's better to talk about this what is the difference between the children of 1962 and the children of 1990 it's a big difference if you saw the children in the summer camp most of children were allowed to the summer camp I grew up in the summer camp for example it was a common case thousands and thousands of millions and we were very happy to go there because I remind in the 1960s I remember that one of my friend I was a student at that time and I remember that one of my friends he was French he came from Sorbonne University from Paris and he came first time he visited the first time the Soviet Union and he stayed there a few months and I asked him what is the most wonderful that you saw in the Soviet Union the most is the happy childhood we had the special our children always were to care of nobody was indifferent for our children we had the special pioneers palaces we had the special over classes groups the children could stand classes up to lessons in the spend time in the schools so it was a kind of they were to care now the children are polishing of new Russian shoes now the children are washing their cars now the children are selling newspapers on the streets now the children instead of going to the school they are selling their bodies because their parents don't know how to make money and they don't want to live in this messy country that's what is the big difference between children at 60s and children so it's too late to talk about unfortunately we're very short on our time but we can come back to that question in just a moment you don't want to hear what the director said and what happened I'd love to hear it we'll come right back to it in a moment but I do have another question about the children in Cuba and perhaps I agree with Luba because in Cuba they also have pioneer camps and the children are the country revolves around the children and they're very very special and I was in a school many schools that I visit and I take my children to and the children are as opposed to here in public school that a lot of the teachers don't get involved and all children are cruel to each other over there they really intervene so it's basically it's more of a softer touch and of course I'm generalizing but when I take my children to Cuba I also take them to ball parks and the children are so happy playing baseball without gloves and with a ball made of a big piece of cloth I don't tell my children look they're the best baseball players in the world and they don't need $150 bats and my children go yes okay and then of course they take that and say agree and then they come to the United States and they want the $150 bat what can I tell you thank you well unfortunately we do have to close and we'll come back to your question after we close the program Lely is going to be shown by Rumi who is from Iran and it's about reunification could you read that or recite it for us Rumi is a classic Persian poet and this piece from Rumi reminds us that it's never too late to begin again it's never too late to come together and it goes like this come, come, whoever you are wanderer, worshiper, lover despair still, if you've broken your vows even a thousand times still and yet come again thank you thank you so much, thank you for coming to Mending Nation