big day. Okay, here we are live on the metal voice. Look at this Alan, this is what we've all been waiting for. Scorpions. Let me just take a look. See here my notes. I have to admit we did a show recently and one of the things we want to know what albums are the most anticipated and this was right at the list. Yes. Rock believer. But it's Scorpions. Yeah. This is believe it or not their 19th studio album Rock Believer. And it's going to be released February 25 on Vertigo in Berlin. I'm not sure if it's Vertigo Berlin or throughout the world, but there's different, you know, labels fine farm I have spine farm. It's coming out of spine spine farm. Yeah, it could be depending on where and of course on this album you had the James Kotak who was the drummer was been removed ever since. And now it's Mickey D. Mickey D. Thanks for Motorhead King Diamond. Don Dawkins. You name it. Incredible drummer. All right. So what'd you think? What would you how do you want to do this? You tell me you know what you put it on the first time? What'd you think? Okay. This is a sad day for me. Okay. So let's let's let's start. Let's get it out of the open. Okay. Okay. Love drive. sexy. Animal magnetism. Blackout. Love first thing. Even savage amusement, right? And vinyl. And then see these look I got even got you know, winds are changed face to the heat. They're all here. They're all here. Humanity hour one. Very integrated. Sting in the tail. Right. So huge, huge scorpion fan. But we'll get that out of the way right now. Okay. Enjoy the scorpions. Love the scorpions. But I realized today, you know, listen to the album that the scorpions I knew no longer exist. This is this is kind of the this is the way it's going to go from now on. This is this is the new scorpions. This is this is this is all we can expect. Now the positives. Okay, let's start with the positive. Well, you started off with the negatives. They no longer exist. They no album today. All right. Okay. But you know, the positives cause mighty his voice, right? Hey, let's look at what we say. Same as always. Sounds as good now as we did back in the 70s. I mean, just just a great voice. Doesn't change. You know what to expect. Like Brian Johnson ACDC, you know what to expect, right? Then you've got Mattias jabs, yobbs, yobbs, yobbs. Mattias yobbs. What a tone. This guy's got a guitar tone his solos. And nobody talks about when we interviewed him. That's what came up. Nobody ever talks about this guy. But what a tone. Just a lovely, lovely sound that he has on all his solos. Mickey D, right?  But there are a few songs that he's able to do a few little flurries, I can say. So that's the positives. Then, you know, but the songs that started with me with Peace Baker, when I heard that come out of me, I'm an average man, like, you know, after all these years, you want a big splash. For me, just didn't do it the first single, then the second single. Okay, rock believer. Okay, good lyrics. I like the lyrics. But again, it's just that middle of the road, kind of soft rock beat. Mickey, Mickey does this thing at the end, the little flurries and drums trying to liven things up a bit.  Again, again, one of the most anticipated albums of the year, from a group that I think I've proven that I've supported over a decade now, and that I enjoy listening to.  Back to Neverland? Back back to forever? Return to forever? Return to forever? Yeah, you were disappointed with that one. But I tried even hour one, I love that. I think in the tail, there's some some really good songs on there. So I'm able to find positives and everything. You can't find positives in this album. Rock believer for me. It's a little more difficult to find. Enthusiastic enthusiastic about many different songs. It's just not there for me. You know, Alan, I'm gonna also, I'm gonna ask everybody out there, if they have any questions, they'd like us to answer about the new album, you know? Okay, go ahead. No, that's that you're the mic is yours. One, one in my opinion, overall opinion. My overall opinion is like the reverse of yours.  And I have to say, I was kind of kind of bored on this one. I was kind of bored on that one. Not to say it wasn't so bad. But even though I liked it at the time, I was like, I'm never putting it on the old CD player, right? I'm just not listening to it. This album, what they brought back is sort of like sprinkles of their history. Like, oh, that sounds like dynamite. Oh, that sounds like the little reggae riff on is there anyone there? Is there anybody here? Is there anybody here?  Pop off. I want to jump on by all means. I agree with you. Who's that? Martin? Martin's watching. Martin, if you want to jump on, I'll send you the link you could jump on if you like. I mean, do we have time for Martin? We have time for Martin. We always have time for Martin.  You saw that. I love Martin. But, but anyways, that's what we want to get into the song.  Mm hmm. And I, you know, Mark Storaci, Storaci, this solo album, Live and Let Live, I did. And I'm glad I did. Waited three times. This one, I'm not. This I'm giving you my first impression after my first couple of listens here. And we're gonna go over the songs if you want. Look, this is my first impression. It's the actually the complete opposite of yours. I think Klaus, like you said, we agree on, he sounds phenomenal.  You hear his voice, you know, right away, Scorpius, right? Absolutely. The guys that one of the most distinctive voices are on Matias. It's finally Matias. Okay, let's bring on pop off here. Hang on. My fight as well. Bring pop off on might as well, cheese. Oh, God, we got to bring him on. He's gonna, here we go. Here he is. There's the man. Let's bring it to a third person here. Martin, there's the man. Hey, folks, can you hear me okay? Talk about last minute. Should have asked you before. All right. Martin. All right. So, Alan kind of just, you probably heard a little bit of that, right? Alan's going through it. He's a little disappointed. He's historically we're all huge Scorpions fans. I'm kind of the other side of things. Guys, I'm getting a big echo. I'm getting a big echo going all over the place. You want to just maybe put some headphones on? We can hear you perfectly. All right. Turn, turn off the volume on your computer. We can hear you perfectly. Oh, maybe I gotta close the YouTube link. Yeah, that's right. You gotta close that. Rookie mistake there, pop off. Hang on. That's right. You gotta close that. Rookie mistake there, pop off. There's the delay. It's like, it's like, it's like the radio. Yeah, exactly.  And YouTube going in the back. You think you would have learned by now, Martin? Yeah. You think I would have learned? Are you're an experienced podcast or my friend? I've never signed on to a show where the show is going before. So, anyway, it's just the way we roll. Martin, Martin got so upset from my initial review. He said, I gotta get on. All right. So, let me just finish up here. Matias Yabs, if that's how you pronounce his name, he brought his tone back. That, that, that, those, those little guitar fills and the soloing, it's all back from the black out era and and love it first thing. He's brought that back.  I hear a little dynamite. I hear a little bit of reggae. I hear a little bit of everything from every era, but I also hear a little new scorpions, a new sound, a new direction, a little out of the box. Martin, go ahead. What are your initial impressions? I know. Yeah, I just wanted to find my notes on all this because, okay, so basically, um, I interviewed Matias and Rudolph for this and I had to write up a story for Goldmine for. So, I heard it a couple of months ago and I've been playing it kind of ever since and um, what, what I, what I said at the time on Facebook is, is I said, it's their best album since blackout, right? And then everybody freaked out. There was a lot of comments and then I, I said, guys, it's not hard to be the best album since blackout, okay? I didn't say it was better than Taken by Force or Virgin Kill. I didn't say it was better than blackout. I didn't say it was better than Animal Mag. I didn't say it was better than Love Drive. It's definitely better than Love at First Stink, I think, but in my opinion, right? So, my, my point is that, um, so with the, with the limited edition tracks, it comes up to 15 songs, right? Um, now they did, they did a, what's that? Four Too Many. Okay, okay, so, so 15 songs, limited edition. Okay, let's talk, let's talk about the album then we'll talk about the, the deluxe version with the extra tracks. Okay, so, so basically what happened is somebody who, who worked at the label, you know, is like, this is not rocket science. This is not hard to do, but someone at the record label that they, I guess, listened to and was a Scorpions fan said, hey, it would be great if you would do an album like blackout. So this is the story, right? And they said, okay, well that's easier said than done, but what a great idea. Uh, so they went away and they made their heaviest album since then and they made an album that has a lot of blackout elements to it. Now, now, I don't think it has Love Drive elements to it. I think it's, I think it's a cross between Love at First Sting, blackout, and, and, and animal magnetism. It's got that, Alan, you're right. It's got that simplicity to it and it's got those certain kind of like pretty mid-pacey beats. It's not crazy one way or another. It is pretty, you're right. I mean, Mickey is kind of reined in and he's pretty behaved. He doesn't do much too crazy on it, right? Um, but I, but I do love that it is, it is quite heavy. They did it without a producer. So they, so they canned the, they're friends, they say. Martin, Martin, was it, was it, was it a, was it a Shanker, 90, like it was written by them too? Is that what it was? Like going back to old school? Yes.  And so they did this just down the road from where they lived in Hanover at a, at a studio there. They called it, it's peppermint, peppermint something. Peppermint Park. Peppermint Farm. Yeah. I don't know, I just, so, so they did this without a producer. So they had an engineer, right? And um, so it was, as Mattias said, Rudolph wrote pretty much everything. So it's not Mickey writing, it's not Mattias writing, it's not, it's not Klaus writing, it's not Pat, Pavel I think has one song on it or something like that. So it is basically Rudolph writing the songs, although a neat thing Mattias said was that he feels, you know, he gets his creativity in when he, he says, when I'm doing my soloing, I usually tend to write a whole new riff to solo over, right? So, so he writes those parts. But yeah, just basically, when I first heard it, I was hoping my impression wouldn't change over, over time and I don't think it has. I do feel it's got so much stuff on it. And when you get to the Extra Limited Edition tracks, it's got some kind of experimental songs like Unleashed the Beast, When Tomorrow Comes is kind of a weird one. So they were smart when they worked out the sort of sequencing to put the ones that were a little, little orders into there. But of those odd songs, that's, that's five songs, four of those are heavy. And, and of the 11 songs on the original, 11 of those are rock and scorpion songs, right? Now, I understand the lyrics can be a little, you know, they're goofy scorpions lyrics. They're, they're kind of Herman Rarebelli lyrics, right? And as they said, we're writing about our life, we're writing about scorpions, we're writing about our life on the road and what we've learned and all that kind of stuff. So it's, it's sort of autobiographical what they're doing. But I, I think, I think all of, all of the songs have a lot going for them, even the ballad. I don't know, man. I gotta tell you something, Martin. I'm going to stop you right there. I think I agree with you on most your points, but I think the ballad is probably the weakest link on the album. Yeah, well, yeah. We're headbangers, right? We don't want that. No, no, no, but I like wind of change. I like wind of change. I like when the smoke's going down. It's standing. Well, well, I mean, I'm a, I'm a headbanger, but I got a soft heart. Yeah. I got, I got a soft. Well, I don't like scorpions ballads. I love tons of mellow music, but scorpions ballads, none of them I like. Look, holiday, going back to holiday. Holiday always somewhere when the smoke is going down, wind of change. Those are great ballads, but I found this ballad on this album was probably the weakest of the ballads. But who cares? There's 15 tracks on it, right? That's the great thing, right? It's there's 15 tracks and they're all rocking except for one ballad done twice, right? Well, apparently to Alan, according to Alan, they're not all rocking and they're all been done and they're all kind of boring. I understand what Alan's getting at. He's making a very, very cool point. It's a very key point that they are in this conservative zone, right? I think that's what you mean, right? I can't get enough. That's a rocking song. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying. There's no love drive on here. It even comes close to that as far as I could. No, but I think these songs are rocking the same way most of, most of the heavy stuff on, like I say, animal magnetism blackout and love it for staying a rock. Well, I would put it at savage amusement, crazy world, blackout, animal magnetism and a little bit of return to forever. Yeah. That would be my mix more, you know, because there is a lot of savage amusement there and return to forever. There is that because Klaus is not seeing super high or screaming, right? That's the other point. Yeah, I made that point early on when I heard it that I thought they wrote a little bit too comfortably in Klaus's range, right? Which is far from me a little bit. That's, they, Herman left the band because they were in that box that they didn't want to get out of. He wanted to be the rocker and go, we put up with a lot of albums over the time, like, you know, a current stink and savage amusement and it's okay because that's the scorpions, but there's always some kind of, I don't know, it just seems, this album seems to be just really too focused on that type of middle of the road, I guess I could call. I kind of agree, yeah. But again, you know, you clearly find a lot of things for me more because, you know, I've listened to Seven Sun, that's got that China white feel, like you would not believe to it. So now I understand what, you know, and when I lay my bones to rest, I mean, that's blondies one way or another, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, fast punky one I've got in my notes. They got the reggae one. Well, hold on a second guys, let's just go through each track like fast, okay? Okay. Gas in the tank, that's the opener.  It's cool. Alan, did you like that one? Wham bam, thank you, man. I think they lost me when I heard those lyrics on that song. I kind of agree, yeah. And I, my notes say mid-paced groover. So there's your Alan argument right there, right? It is one of those that it's really good, but it's not great, right? Right, that's the way I was finding it. Track two, roots in my boots. This is the exact riff of Dynamite. Or even maybe blackout. Blackout, sorry, blackout. I might not say it's like blackout, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So it's that, that, that, that, that is the sound, but the solo, Matthias, Yabs, all over the place, great tone, you know. Yeah, yeah, I like it. All right, good. Three, not be dead. The title, the title says it all. So when it comes to the lyrics, that's the best part of it is just going to get roots in my boots. I totally agree, yeah. That's an epitome of that song. Yeah. But I like the first two. And then the third one, knock them dead. Alan? But Alan makes a great point. It really will come down to, for a lot of fans, how much are the lyrics bothering you, right? Well, I mean, I'm Dynamite. You're Dynamite. She's Dynamite.  Yeah, yeah. I don't know what you're expecting at this point. I bought this album, okay, Scorpions, which they were blowing off Rainbow on that tour. And I bought this up the same day I bought Coney Hatch's first album, okay? And I'm like, these are the Scorpions that have been around since the 70s. They're, they're, you know, they're headlining barns or co-headlining barns at Coney Hatch. This is their day two album, right? And I get to, like you said, just I'm Dynamite. You're Dynamite. She's Dynamite. But that is my favorite Scorpions album. And I'll tell you why. It's not because they repeat the same Coney lyrics. It's because of the attitude, the energy, and it's just so in your face. You know, it's crunchy. It's Klaus is like screaming. You know, he's got problems with his throat. So he's just yelling it all out. You know, that's why I like it. Can't live without you.  Again, the music's fantastic. But like, go back to your point when it comes to the lyrics. It's a little repetitive. But like you say, if it's by you then, just plug your own body or now. What's the word? Knock him dead. That's got a really good 80s feel. Yeah. A fantastic solo on it. I love that solo on it, but it's got, for me, that's more of an 80s feel to that. Yeah. Did you like that one, Martin? Yeah. My notes say more like a party rock and sleazy hair metal Motley Crew song. Cool exclamation mark. Well said. 100 in agreement, 100 percent. I did like rock believer, which is the next track. I love the lead breaks. Big hit. And I think it's going to be a song that it could be in their sadness for years to come. It has a cool pop kind of feel to it a little bit. It's got a really sophisticated chorus. I think that's that's one of the great things about this album, I think as well. It's got really cool sophisticated chord changes. Yeah. Yeah, it does. I love the lyrics, but that's where I really, you know, if this is the biggest hit off of this or the second one, it just falls short for me. That's all right. Shining of your soul. Shining. I love this. I was kind of surprised, you know, the is there anyone? It's is there anyone there, right? Or here, which is that off love drive? Is there anyone there? Yeah, Dan. We're off the left. That's the reason I have the same reggae feel and we haven't heard since then. Yeah. My notes say the best reggae tinge thing they ever did. Kind of a Russian melody. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. Seventh son. Of course, we talked about that. That's the China white track off the album. And most people have heard that. Great song. I think it's fine. Yeah. Probably better than China Wait, if you ask me. Yeah, pretty cool. Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't disagree with you, Jim. Yeah. Yeah. Hot and cold. Hot and cold. Alan. That's that's for me the weakest track on the album. Wow. For me, I think it's the heaviest song on the album. And it's I put killer galloping song. So this this is actually a different beat for them. And it's really heavy. But you're you know, everybody has their opinion on whether they like it or not. Right. Yeah. And again, I want to make clear I wanted to love this album. Okay. Like I said, I've supported them for decades now. Yeah. And just maybe after more listens, I don't know. And to your point there, Martin, you know, there's I think some minor key stuff going on there, which is not really typical of the scorpions on that track. You know, they're just they're just there's a lot of chord progressions happening there. All right. When I lay my bones to rest that's that's an odd one. That's an odd one for them. That's a punky, bluesy, upbeat song. I mean, it's not the greatest song, but wow, they're a little out of the box there. I totally agree. My notes say fast, trashy, punky, old rock and roll party song. Alan says one way or another. I'm going to get you. I'm going to get you. So I like the lyrics, a lot of fun lyrics on that. And they agree with that punky feel. Peacemaker. OK, everybody knows that song. I love it. I totally love the song. It's heavy even though it repeats. You know, I'm singing it. It's contagious. You know, I just keep singing throughout the day. Great song. Great song. No problem there. My notes say up tempo, melodic, simple, chugging, awesome chorus. Alan, what is yours? What are your notes? I heard it when your first came out. I'm like, oh, man. All right. Here's my big song. Call of the Wild. I think this is suddenly the Scorpions are no longer the Scorpions. They've become sort of this like this groovy Led Zeppelin. I don't know. The the vocal lines are great. The phrasing is great. And suddenly they're out of the box, but they're in a good area out of the box. They've got this great, great melody to me. That's probably the best song on the album. I know I'm way up there too. My notes say a weird, melodic, slow thing, different exclamation Mark Bluesy. Yeah. Out of the box doing some different things. Just like Blackout had some experimental things on it. So does this. And you know, the seventh son thing and the roots in my boots seem like they just like, okay, they told us to right now I'm like, Blackout, let's do those two, like those two songs. Like, like there's a direct correlation. But I think you get with something like Call of the Wild. You get some of that, that extra creativity. Okay. And Alan, I know you, I know you told me before the show started about this song. For me, it's the second weakest track on the album. But, but I agree with you guys. They are doing different things. There's, you know, so we have to respect that, I guess. Yeah. And then here comes the ballad. When you know where you come from, I thought this was probably the weakest track on the single disc. I don't know. It's just doesn't do anything for me. It's okay. It's nice to hear, but it ain't no end of change. It ain't no Valentine's Day song. That's what I'm trying to say. Thank God it ain't no end of change.  But, you know, they're, I love the scorpions. Okay. You love winds of change. Yeah, yeah. And still loving you. Yeah, yeah. And all these ballads, right? You named them what?  And they're like, what's that? You know, not so strong in that. So for me, I love all their ballads. I don't care what Martin says. I've always loved the scorpion ballads. May I remind you there's whistling in the cage. By far, by far, the weakest ballads I think they've ever made. But Queens Rates also got whistling too, Martin. That's right. Whistling, whistling is not allowed in that, in rock. All right. So that concludes, that concludes, that concludes the single disc. No whistling in rock. This concludes the single disc. So now to Martin's point at the beginning, they have one, two, three, four, five songs that are on the deluxe version. So that's 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16. You know, what are those songs? We all listen to the deluxe version. So that's it. That's right. So the last song we could like knock off because it's just an acoustic version of the terrible slow song that's on the album. So that's a nice touch. It's okay. It's all right. Where are we at now? Shoot from the heart. That would be undisturbed. For your heart. Shoot for your heart. Yeah, I'm tired. I'm tired. My notes say up tempo, punky, great groove, simple, big chords. I can't remember what it goes like, but I was fine with it. There you go. We'll leave it at that. My notes say nice solo, savage amusement, fast paced rocker. Yeah. Okay. All right. And here it comes. Now number 13, which is this one, this is the oddball. This is why it wasn't on the album in my opinion. Because now we're slapping the bass. I think Klaus Maini is, he's doing a little rapping. A bullhorn sort of speaking, rapping in some sense. But the chorus is great. Martin. Yeah. My notes say one and three beat to start. So it's one of these and very German melodies, weird Klaus vocal over bass, post-punk experimental in caps. I'm great. I'm fine with them doing something cool like this, something experimental and different. I'm still totally on board. Okay. Alan, Alan. No. I don't have any problem than doing something different. Okay. Good, good to hear. And then Unleashed the Beast. I thought this was a Saxon song, but it wasn't. A little out of the box and a great nice melodic chorus. That's kind of like, it's a heavy song, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. My notes say weird electronic opening sound than rock and cool and groovy, dark, experimental again in caps, amazing, strange, Prague-y chorus. That's a nice way to say it. That's what I love. See, Martin's an author. Because he's a writer. He's a writer. Look at the way, Martin's an author. Look at the way he described that. I described this song with two words only. Complete filler. But see, I'm not an author like Martin. Martin was able to really give us an insight into the song. Well, you have to remember that I'm making kind of a few more words into these notes because I'm on a Zoom call with them and I got to kind of remember if they say, well, what did you think of that one? I have to say something, right? All right. Crossing borders. Now, this one to me was like a boring mediocre blues track and I would use the word as Alan would use, filler. But it's on a bonus diss.  So my notes say, sleazy bluesy great white motley sound Southern Rock. Oh, I like that. I like that. It's a good thing we had. I don't say possibly my favorite song on the album, great groove. But not on the album. I love this song. I think it's not on the album.  I mean, I think I hope I hope that everybody who ever talks about this album or thinks about this album thinks about it as a 16 track album because it's a juggernaut with 16 tracks. I'm glad they're all here like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So and I think that the last track is just the acoustic version of the slow song, right? I liked it better. I preferred that to the one on the album. The story on that one, I don't know if I said this, but they said they did the acoustic one first. And then the label said, you know what? You never know. You might have a hit. You better do an electric version to like a full band version just in case it's a big hit song. And it's a, you know, standard cliche hit Scorpion's Ballad. That's exactly it. The record company says I'm not hearing anything on this album. I need I hope this takes off because we're counting on the ballad. So put it on twice. So, Martin, is there anything? Completely jaded today. I don't know. It's because the Valentine's Day I'm sitting home alone. I don't know what it is. But I You celebrated yesterday. Did you know? So much. Yeah. I got the promo and I'm great. All right. Let's stop that right on. Let's start listening to it right away. What do you think of the album cover? I love that cover. Yeah. It has a very blackout sort of George Lucas. THX there was a call this first film there. Very sort of, you know, dystopian, you know, in a sense. We're talking about the same one, the red one, right? Yeah. Because let me explain. Always known for their album covers, right? Let me explain something. So they said that the first album cover that they had was the single they used for piece. I think it's no rock believer. The one that Klaus Vorman designed for them who designed Beatles Revolver. It's an amazing, amazing, cool drawing of the band. Very stylized. It's really neat. But for some reason they said that they didn't like it enough for an album cover. So they used that for the single and they went back to the label and said, can you come up with something different? And they liked this. And as Rudolph says, they really liked it because they've never used red on an album cover before. And it, you know, implies danger and passion and all that kind of stuff, energy. And they thought that was kind of cool.  And she's a real rock believer. We thought rock believer. Oh, this is great. So we put a blanket over her and we hold her down. She is a rock believer. Exactly. We tattoo her tongue and hold her down with the blanket. She is a rock believer if she likes it or not. I'm glad to see they're back to a risky album covers like they had in the 70s and the early 80s. I just love the red like that, the red and the yellow. It's like, wow, this looks so 70s. Like that looks so cool anyway. I mean, there's no naked people or dogs or anything like that. So they got rid of all that kind of stuff. It's a little suggestive, you know. It is. But it's a little edgy. They've always been a little edgy. That's what I'm surprised. It's been a while since we've seen a few album covers edgy like this from them, I would say. Yeah, yeah. So overall, what would you give it Martin out of 10? Wow. I think I would probably go 8.5. Oh yeah. I would, I would agree with that. I would probably maybe give it an 8.3, 8.5 around there. And Alan. Solid 6. You know, that's good.  What would you guys give it? What two marks would you guys give it? What would you give the 11 track version? And what would you give the 16 track version? I think it would be the same for me. I don't think it changes. I think the bonus stuff is just a little extra and it's not going to change my rating. If those last few tracks were horrendous, then it might have changed it. But there, I like them. I do like them. I think it's worth the extra few bucks, I guess. Just have a little more scorpions because you're probably not going to get another Scorpions album for a long time. So I'll go down to an 8 because I think I really like the added experimental-ness that you get on those extra tracks. I think that, you know, to Alan's main complaint about the album, I think, I think the fact that they are experimenting a little more makes the album a little better. I think the album is a little more, a little more conservative at the 11 tracks. Okay, so now I'm going to talk about the new loudness, Martin, and I want you to stick around. I don't know if you've heard the new loudness. Oh, I got to go, actually. Sorry, I got to. No, I have to go. Oh, Jesus. I've got to do stuff. Yeah. Oh, my God. Jesus. Well, thanks. And I haven't heard the new loudness anyway. So, uh- No, no. I was just going to tell you about my story. I'll see you guys later. Thanks for popping on. This was a lot of fun. Thank you very much. Feel free to jump on any time. Okay. Let's do segment on the middle voice. Pop it on with pop-up. All right. Talk to you guys later. Talk to you guys later, man. Thanks for joining. Alan, you just don't know who's going to pop on. So, you're going to do the loudness. Yeah, I'm going to do the loudness. You just don't know who's going to jump on this show. You just don't know. It could be anybody. You ready? Now. Now, this is what happened. Here we go. Alan, do not like the same thing of scorpions. Do not like the different things scorpions do doing the ballad. And he loves Iron Maiden doing the same year after year. Alan, do not like the same thing. I like, no, I've had problems with some of the Iron Maiden albums recently. I, but the last one is Stratigo. I really, again, again, the first listen Stratigo. I'm like, yeah, exactly what he said. They're the same. They're the same. They're the same. And then you just start listening to it more and more. And you're like, oh, actually, this one's not, this one's a little different. But yeah, I know a lot of Maidens. Yeah, they're not the Maidens of the 80s. And they seem to be a little similar. I agree. But again, the Scorpions, I wanted to love this album. I couldn't wait the moment I got the promo. I had to listen to it. I've listened to it. I'm going with a couple of listens.  Yes. That's just it. I mean, I'm maybe like it. Look, this is your first impression, we'll say. First impression, first reaction. It's the middle of the road. It's, you know, we all know Scorpions aren't the rockers that they once wore. These guys were crazy on stage. That's a super rock in Japan. They're in 84 with Anvil and Bon Jovi and Scorpions. Then Michael Shanker, then White Snake, right? Scorpions stole the show. Nobody, nobody could go on after these guys. And I'm just saying, and I've seen them recently, but it's okay. They're not those guys anymore. But you know, I thought they stopped recording. Now they're going to record. They were supposed to be all finished. So you're looking forward to this album. And for me, they just didn't do it. That's all. No, it's fair enough. Fair enough. You know, it's good to have a contrast of opinions, right? People could then decide after listening to us if Alan's right or wrong. Let's make a difference. Okay. Here we go. Loudness. People are saying loudness. What the heck? They came out with an album? Not, not only did they come out. And by the way, this is like old school leads up and there's no, nothing says loudness on it. Like you have absolutely no idea. If you turn it on back, it's called Sunburst. Or on the side, you have no idea. They released this album. And it's not one album. It's, it's a double album. It's a concept album that people have no idea that was released or they knew it was released, but they have no idea how to get it. So I, you know, here I am calling up Japan, right? And I got a copy and I went through the whole thing of trying to get it and I'm a huge loudness fan like you are. I know you are too, Alan. I finally got it and it came in this big package like this. And I go, what the hell's going on?  It's because it also came with a poster, Alan. Jesus, it also came with a poster.  Beautiful poster, right? It'll probably take me a year to iron this out because it's so tightly wound. So I got this whole poster with my loudness CD. Then DHL calls me up and they go, you got to pay duties. And the duties, I repaid all this money for the CD. You know, I got to pay duties here. I am, you know, what am I going to do? Like send it back, right? So anyways, I got it, finally got it. I'll let you hear it, let you hear it as well. And I got to say, the first thing is to your point, I need a Japanese dictionary. Who was your first impression? And there's nothing wrong with the Japanese language. No. There's nothing wrong with the Japanese language. I'm, you know, like the first few, you know, the first four were, the first four loudness albums are all in Japanese. It's all good. It's all in Japanese. It's all good. Soldier, birthday Eve. I even got Tusk and Gaguar. I love loudness. Loudness, I don't care if they're singing English or Japanese or whatever. But it threw me off. I'm just, that's all I'm going to say. It threw me off. There are a few tracks that they do sing in English. But I got to say, it's really good if you love concept albums. They're. What's the concept? We don't know. No, you don't know. I have no idea what the concept's about. I don't know what they're saying. How do you know it's a concept album? Well, because I read the notes. It's a concept album. But what I do like about this album, they're out of the box, kind of like we were talking about the scorpions and how they kind of broke out of the box. Well, they're not playing that thrash and speed that they've been doing for so many years. They're actually playing the songs, playing the solos. And for Akira Takasaki, he's actually, he wrote most of this album. And you can consider this, maybe this is even a solo album, but wow, it's great. K-man saying Ernesto Ramos, you are the new here. Jimmy and Al and our old school heavy metal fans. Ernesto, who is it? They wanted to know about the drums. Yeah, the drums are incredible. We spoke about the drums earlier on the scorpions. Mickey D has a few flourishes, especially at the end of Mark the Lieber. But again, these are the scorpions, right? So you're not going to get the drumming, maybe from Motorhead or some of the other bands you put in, like King Diamond, right? Yeah. And look at this. And look at this. Beautiful, beautiful. Just a beautiful album. And I have to say, I do like it, even though it's in Japanese, they did a great job. If you like concept, if you're expecting MZ-A, forget about it. It ain't going to happen. There are a couple of few hit songs on this, a lot of moody sections, a lot of conceptual pieces, a lot of different flavors with keyboards on it. But overall, very, very enjoyable. Very enjoyable. I did like it. Oh, hold on. Yeah. All right, cheater. Comments. Yes. There you go. Yes. Great album. Yes. Road racer. And what a song. I love that. Love Live Loud, a live loudness of Tokyo, a vinyl double album. Road racer. How does the new loudness compare to the old loudness? Different eras. You had the sort of the era that Alan's talking about, you know, that the early days, when they were much more traditional metal, I would say, and then they became sort of a little on the more popular metal side. Then they went into this other era of Pantera. And then they went into this sort of thrash speed. This kind of comes back to the early days in terms of musical style. But it is in Japanese, which is basically probably not the same thing as that. But point being, I do enjoy this, but I would wait for a US release before you fork over so much money to get it in Japan. You know, wait for an American release from this. They might even include some English tracks, more English tracks. So there you go. Alan, do you have any notes, any comments about that album? No? You like my poster? Should I show everybody my poster again? I got this. Is it upside down? What is it? Yeah, it's upside down. How do you like my poster? Nice. Okay, I got it. I should see it. Let's end it off with your comments on, of course, we love Triumph Rock and Roll Machine. You watched it last night. Yeah, yeah. I was looking forward to the documentary. We were nice and lucky enough to interview all three members. And Rick was saying, you know, a lot of stuff brought up some deep, deep emotions that he thought were varied. But talking about them in the documentary, you can see how emotional it was, talking about that whole breakup period. Even in our interview, he was a little, for Clint, if we can use that expression. And yeah, it was a good watch. I liked a few things. And, you know, how we always heard growing up in the 80s, how Triumph were immediate headliners. They never opened for anybody because they're a light show and stuff. And it explains a little reasons why they had the audacity to become headliners very, very, very early in their career. Yeah, yeah. Not released in the U.S. yet. Only released in Canada. So all U.S. folks are no spoil alerts. Just a great documentary, well made. Banger, banger film. Banger films covers their whole sort of era or their whole whole sort of, I guess their legacy and where they stopped and how they stopped and why they stopped. And like Rick Emmett told us, Alan, in his book, he's going to explain a lot more of what really sort of, more of the details of that breakup.  But obviously, when you sing half the song and you're a principal songwriter, you know, you kind of saying, I'm moving on for these reasons, but I also know that it's going to be a nail in a coffin for you two guys, right? They tried coming back. You know, with the excess of edge of excess. Edge of excess, yeah.  Yeah, Phil X is terrible at interviews though, I hear. Yeah, well, we tried. I wouldn't know because he ditched us. All right, on that note, Alan, I'm going to go have supper. All right, man. Happy Valentine's Day to the whole world. Thank you for tuning in and enjoy. All right.


What's the purpose of the Wisconsin Energy Institute? I think what was laid out before, the great interdisciplinary undertaking, that's certainly part of it, but I take it as nothing less than to revolutionize the energy system. That is the goal. The ultimate goal is to fundamentally change how energy is produced and consumed. So why would you need, and it's hard enough to put diverse life scientists together with diverse forms of engineering and come up with a coherent emergent property that is something to eat that was bigger than some of its parts? That's hard enough. So why would you need, the question I will ask today, an empirical question, is why would you need social scientists? That's the question I want to ask. I think it's an empirical question. Why would you need anthropologists? Let's throw that right out. Because I think you need to leave open the possibility that the answer is you don't. If you do not have an answer, if you do not, because the knee-jerk assumption that you need to reach all the way across campus without knowing why you're doing it will not produce the effect that you want. So I think you'd have to ask the question, why would you need an anthropologist? Why would you need a geographer, a sociologist? Is there a problem? I'm going to stand back here. It's making a lot of clicking noises. I move around a lot. Can you see that? It's not pressing. This is the last part. That slide comes to the very end. So what I'm saying is that we can render this question empirical. And I'm going to give an example that's outside of the domain of energy. In the late 1990s, the Environmental Protection Agency was interested in reducing the amount of commercial chemicals being used by consumers on their property. That's herbicides, pesticides, the kind of stuff that you put on your lawn. It's being used in quantities five or ten times what's put on the bag. The analytical chemistry is very clear on what these exposure pathways do to people, to children, and it's winding up in the waterway. So the EPI is trying to revolutionize how you communicate to people, to citizens, that they maybe shouldn't use all of those chemicals. In national study we performed, it turns out that people who think that lawn chemicals are bad for the environment, for their children's health, for their family are statistically more likely to use those chemicals than people who don't think that. So if you take the superior correlation, more environmental education actually means more chemical use. More reverse correlation. The real, the gut question then when you drill down is, what the hell is going on? Who are these people and what are they doing? And there's a significant majority of the population of homeowners across the United States. If you do drill down into the data, and I'll come back to energy in a moment, you'll learn several things. One, people are concerned about the value of their property. They need microeconomic trade-offs on the order of $10,000 to $15,000, and the exposure pathways to certain kinds of eugenic chemicals in their households, in large numbers. And if you consider that 25% of the land cover of Franklin County, Ohio is turf grass lawns, that is a remarkable microeconomic trade-off being made around risk decisions. You can imagine what the implications of this are for driving certain kinds of vehicles or embracing certain kinds of technologies, right? But that explains only a small amount of the variance. If you drill down into the data, what else do you learn? You learn that people who use lawn chemicals can name more of their neighbors than people who do not use lawn chemicals. This is an embracing, loving, social practice. It's okay, I wouldn't read that till the very end. It's an embracing, loving, social practice. People are exposing themselves to chemicals that are largely unnecessary, or at least in the quantities that they're being used, because they want to feel good about their relationships with their neighbors. As rational as that is, it's a structured and patterned behavior. So what is my point? My point is if the EPA wants to change people's behaviors around an environmentally relevant problem, then they need to know the microeconomics of households. They need to know the sociology of behaviors within communities. They need to know the macroeconomical economy of the pesticide industry. I probably left a few out. So what are the implications for the Wisconsin Energy Institute? The same thing holds for energy is what I want to suggest. If you want to revolutionize the energy system or create a sustainable city with a transportation network that looks fundamentally unlike the one we have now, you are talking about a revolution in consumer behavior and practice, the way firms and businesses behave and relate to consumers and buyers, to the way communities relate to one another. If you think about a microgrid within a community or a neighborhood scale or a household scale, you're actually talking about a different kind of moral economy within a household. You can make all kinds of things available without any change, fundamental change of behavior. So this map, which I put together about 30 seconds at a request by folks here at the Institute, is my notion of at least some of the kinds of political, social, human and behavioral sciences that impinge on the question of revolutionizing energy. For example, this building itself is the product of a political event. The relationship of the DOE, certain kinds of funding at the state level. There's actually a science fleet or not that studies this. Science policy is irreparable for you. With referee journal articles that can predict where and when, to some degree of accuracy and inaccuracy, you will find close of capital towards certain kinds of research, certain kinds of investments and certain kinds of change in the landscape. Are there people who know how to do that on this campus? You bet there are. Are they studying energy? Maybe not. Next, you can imagine science communication and journalism. There's an enormous range of problems related, for example, to the communication of climate change, the communication of energy needs. This is a known problem. Are there people who actually study how things are framed, how they're communicated? The answer is, hey, how are they on this campus? The answer is yes, they are. Are they studying energy? I don't know that they are. If you consider environmental perception or behavioral economics, behavioral economics is that part of economics that has discovered that people are not rational. There are behavioral economists on this campus. Are they studying energy? I don't know. I bet not. On the other side, there's the trade-offs that occur in the landscape between certain kinds of energy choices. What occurs if you create a biofuels revolution in the past? In the agricultural industry trade-offs between different kinds of crops, do we study that? Fortunately, I can say we do study that, and we do study in the field of energy at the Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment. I'm stepping in here for Carol Barford, who should be speaking on this occasion. Science and technology studies, location and optimization. That is, how and when are those power lines going to be placed? How do you optimize those kinds of outcomes? That's both a mathematical problem that can be solved with a computer, but ultimately it is a political problem, which is related to infrastructural development, the granting of roads, and the way municipal as well as state government operates and functions. To revolutionize the energy system, in Wisconsin requires that you would need to know all these things. To say nothing of land cover trade-offs that would spill out from certain kinds of choices, and finally, those opposition movements that do not want NIMBYism, that does not want something in its backyard, we can say, hey, that's irrational, this is good for everybody. Those people have arguments. They have ways that they operate. They have politics. They have constituencies. And they function. Are they studiable? Are they predictable? Can they be? Are they amenable to negotiation? The answer is yes, but you need someone who studies social movements. You'd need an anthropologist. So, to revolutionize energy, and the Energy Institute, I would suggest, means a further enormous challenge, which I think we have to take very seriously, which is to think about this as a whole campus enterprise for a 10-year moonshot to, in 10 years' time, to have revolutionized that grid, or 20 years' time, wherever you want to put that goalpost, is going to have to be a truly full campus partnership around these questions. And there are people out there who are itching to support this kind of science with their own, who may not even know they're itching to do it. But they have the tools at their disposal if they were given a problem, intractable and weird enough like the one with long chemical. To put it, to bring it to bear on energy-relevant questions and problems. In the absence of that, a revolution in the energy sector will fail. Thank you very much.


Thank you very much Mr. President. So we're going to start the discussion and then we'll ask you two questions and after those two questions we will take Interventions from the participants and members My first question will be about Rwanda itself It is Very simple just very simple to ask for me not to answer To what extent is the Rwanda model exportable to other African countries one Rwanda is Almost on everything work in the progress We are still Doing a number of things still experimenting still but some progress has been made now in terms of Being a model I suppose relates to What has worked? even in the Worst of circumstances or the diversity we have faced Has been so challenging therefore The model we have applied Can apply in other places Depending on demonstration of what where we have come from what challenge you have Addressed And the outcomes now Therefore it's not the overall model that is going but except if you pick a few pieces one piece I have in mind is The model is going to work because it builds Putting people at the center of addressing the problems and involving them and From there move forward The second piece is if you can change People's mindset For example in our case what we try to do as and this is practically a Discussion with everybody or people in our society. We would go to every part of our country We have the conversation with our people and tell them that Much as we have a lot of problems There is a lot in them that They can bring out to meet these challenges and address them So we are telling people that we had been telling people are long that You can't sit back and wait that people will come and help Yes, many times the people have come and helped absolutely but Why wait for people to come and help? Even on the things you can do yourself. This is what we have been trying to Plant in the minds of our people. This is what I'm talking about in terms of mindset because Apart from other problems. We found There was also this mentality that no people are poor No, they have no this they have no that so some people who have more will bring what they need They bring medicines bring food We found actually the country about 45% of Our food needs we are coming from outside as a donations And we said no, but we can't grow food to feed ourselves And let's do it Then we started moving forward. So the model can work anywhere Not everything is going to work for everybody or everywhere but overall The conceptual aspects the philosophy behind it Can apply in any situation in Africa or beyond it's about saying we can do it What we can't do then we can rely on friends or partners and we still can move forward until Over time we are able to actually do what we were not able to do before So I think it can it can work and for us we Don't have in mind Anything else that would have changed our situation Unless we Involved ourselves Sort partnerships sort Systems, but always knowing that this is our responsibility A footnote to the same question. Have you yourself been inspired by the experience of Lee Kuan Yew Singapore when we started off with our Liberation struggle and the challenges we faced then during and after We did not even think about that But as we started Rebuilding we started looking all around us whether in Africa or beyond and in particularly we did look at the case of Singapore Because Some of the things we have done have come from us many other things have been lessons learned from others How they address their problems at one time or another with the kinds of problems and the approaches they Made And so that we can also find something in our own so it was at a later stage Let's say 95 96 on the margins when that was ending That is when we started looking around to say what is it that is going to help us Overcome these insurmountable at that time. They looked so Challenges so the Singapore case was very appealing It was the case of Singapore mainly it was a case of South Korea And we looked around in fact we looked around for not only development models but also governance models in fact our Constitution is built on Patching up ideas from one place looked at South Africa which you know was also Being born at the time things they were doing to reconcile the society and Approach different things for their development we looked at some European Constitutions the origins the why things are the way they are looked at the US looked at We went to other places. So we kept pieces of What we thought was appearing and particularly to address to deal with our situation and So Singapore was very appealing in many ways looked at what How they have approached? investments in technology Application of different technologies for efficiency effectiveness in things they are doing looked at how they invested in their people Sciences mathematics different things and then how Doing business when people Want to do business companies Whether small or medium or big ones What is it or making investments? What is it that would be appealing? For people to come to wonder especially with that Background we had that was not appearing at all So we had so many things to change so that we can Stop being seen as Some place where people can't do anything and created that Appeal but learning from and and definitely the case of Singapore as one of them Thank you very much. So all that was my first question. The second question is Larger you served as a president of the African Union so First what have you learned from that? experience What have you achieved? What are you proud? I would say to have achieved during their terms and Do you would you say also that the African Union is to use your own? expression a work in progress and if if it is so progressed towards what? Well Africa on one hand is a place of enormous resources whether human or Natural resources there's no question about that. So the challenge therefore is If you have that on one hand How would you fail on the other hand? to have the kind of prosperity the kind of transformation That you should have given These enormous resources the statement by everybody that we want to do better want to be better want to prosper want to do this At the same time decade after decade We are a place That can easily be dismissed So there is a paradox here that we need to to resolve So with that in mind one year is a very short very short time To do anything significant so I was chairman for 12 months, but The beauty is of that you don't do anything alone. That's why you have to start from so working with other African leaders and Having heard all these things in the mind that we needed to do to get going Start with the example The institution of the African Union How can we Get it to better organize better Effectively Producing the results that the Africans want How does it become effective? So we agreed on that we need to pay attention to that and that was the birth of the reforms that we had to cut out and The African leaders entrusted me with the responsibility to read the reform process, but it was really reading the reform process with them also Doing different parts of that process one thing we Achieved at this many there are a number of things which you achieve with the partially even if they are not completed, but at least we got started and We know where we are standing and work will continue with other leaders who come after and take the leadership of the African Union. For example, we working with the president of Niger President Yusuf We are able to put together the African Continental free trade area that has been created which is going and we hope by July next year is we are going to be the biggest Free trade area in the world But we we are not just thinking about the area. It's not just the area It's also what we do and how well we do what we need to do in the free trade area. How do we as Africans trade well with each other? How do we are our pre-movement of people and goods and services? How do we Partner with other parts of the world as a Group of African countries in this free trade area. So we've seen that come up. I mentioned in my speech the peace fund Which means from our own resources as Africa could contribute something We can contribute in the area of prevention of Conflict in the management of the conflict that exists We can't always just be running to other countries that Have the capacity and went to the UN and say, you know, we help with everything. So we said we can Contribute even if it is 10% Then if it is 15% We needed to contribute and now the Africans have contributed the fund which is running into 130 million US Dollars is a good thing. It never existed before we have never been to this level the levels like sometimes 10 million or even less so and Then there is a new is in place another chairman of the African Union we always hope every one who becomes the chair Helps cover another area that he needs to be covered Well, thank you very much. Mr. President. Now. We are going to take a few questions Renaud Girard will whom you know will be the first one Mr. President, I'm very happy to meet you again First time I met you in when the the bush in the north of Rwanda the place called Moolindi and after that you took the power and You are ruling Rwanda for the last 25 years You have been able to maintain peace And to develop In an extraordinary way your country in agriculture tourism industry services and so on And it's obviously a big success You have run Rwanda. I would say with a iron fist But iron fist Which works we call that in French despotism éclairé so it's a beautiful success, but What will happen in Rwanda? after Kagame Do we have a guarantee that the civil war will not resume? Yeah, there's the party you started with Which I think is a good thing You started with all the good things you said Happening good things don't happen because you are doing a bad thing They happen because you are doing a good thing so that that is Second I also mentioned it earlier There isn't really going to be a situation where only one person Does everything even in our situation even with So-called the iron hand you are talking about that iron hand has its own limits Is the way it starts from and the way it ends? third the judgment in the most cases by Rwandans of our own situation from Given where we started from and where we are and what has happened in between One is the most important second It's a fair judgment. It's a fair judgment fairer than when Somebody uses an outsider's eyes To make judgment about Rwanda or its leadership Fourth if I were to go into statistics of what has happened of people we have trained young people people actually who by the way people who were born during and after genocide That is around 25 years constitute 42 percent of our population those under 30 now about 32 below 71 percent These are actually the people who are doing most of these things we are talking about They have hard education. They have trained We have been sending people outside to go and study with Europe or there was a program to send Massively young people to one and what is interesting is that? Over 90 percent of those we send outside come back on their own There is no enforcement About bringing people back home They come back home, and they are the ones running the institution is most of them you those who have been there recently We will have made some of these young people running these things so The Kagama you made that time so long ago, and you were able to see the Iron fist that iron fist has passed on to many other fists There are many young people men and women doing their work efficiently you give results and And that's how I found my time to come here and have a conversation with you. They are doing the rest of the work So when but my time will come when I have to leave and these same young people will We decided what to do with their country and we choose from among themselves who Carries on the baton. Well, thank you. Thank you very much for this answer Which is both precise and Unprecise, but that's normal and I think that generally speaking After successful stories succession is always difficult That I think is a generality we can agree on so Even where succession has come so rapidly and where Success has been across the world There is no guarantee that things don't go wrong. We can talk about two cases if you want Yes, we have had a rapid Succession and we still have not benefited from that if it has any benefit from We see it by the way from across the world whether it is developed world or Meado The kind of note of the Developing order like ours, but that's another story for another conversation Thank you very much. So I saw several hands. Well the gentleman to my right. Yes, you I Think you is you good. Thank you Your Excellency president polka gummy Well, my question focus on the model of development Rwanda's model of development Well, you try to actually you explained it basically is People centered and then it has also governance Model as well, which you took from different parts of the globe So my question is What is actually the model because there are already known models Is it the modernization type which is not which I understand This is a developmental state paradigm or any other paradigm because for me To my readings and my personal observation Rwanda is becoming a model of development to Africa I mean everyone can can say it even some of them Have started to say Rwanda is the Switzerland of Africa not only the beautiful mountains, but the Development as well. So that is one one of my my question. The second one is The reform the African Indian reform process You you let the process at a critical stage now Well, someone has taken over So are you personally? Following it or well, I know as a member state. Yes, but I'm in the future.  Thank you Well, quickly, let me say this The model people call it all kinds of things I'll break it down into some realities Maybe we see whether that Constitutes a model of one kind or another or a model at all But I get there I guess there are things that have to be Put into consideration one There is the role of the state is a role the private sector there is the role of The ordinary citizen some of them organize In civil societies One has to find the formula that brings these Responsibilities together because it's one country that is being solved So ours what we have tried to do is to strike this balance in a manner that gives results The state how far does it go in delivering the goods it should deliver The private sector, how does it work together with the state or what does the state provide? as an environment for the private sector to do what it needs to do and Then on the side of the citizens The governance part how do they participate how do they get involved so that they feel they own what they have this is This is the these are the three Legs of the stool if you will that we we have worked on but centrally, let me quickly also give you an example when we were Dealing with the partners during those years. They were very active in Rwanda supporting From all the emerging situation to normalization and development Every time we used to tell our partners that We appreciate the kind of support they give us In fact, we need more even of it not less but We also want to be the ones in the driver's seat leading our development process So we had to form a partnership. We said we will decide for ourselves or If you will we will even work together in the deciding for ourselves We will tell you everything we want to do how we want to do it and we can make you partners But we will have to be the ones to decide this was as I was in 1996 for example so that in itself is very important and Whatever you call the model Those things have to be there the understanding of The balance that has to be struck People at the center People I mean the citizen is about also their leaders working together and The rest is what you get On the part of the African Union I still play a role of continuing the leadership of the reform process, but in support of whoever will be Coming or whoever is there as the chair of the African Union after me and Yeah, this is then we will report to the African Union General Assembly and we have the African Union Commission at the center driving The day-to-day responsibilities around that have the Commission and the chair and the commissioners and they participate in that Well, I am told by the protocol that we should white wind up now You know, I think the protocol in this case is probably the kitchen, but I will take nevertheless one question, please Mr. President Rwanda has been the country that has the most The biggest number of female parliamentarian in the world And I Think also that women are positioned strategically very strongly either In the economy in the politics. I like to ask you whether You saw some real value added on Promoting and supporting gender equality and would you see the link with this success that everybody's Describing my assumption is that there is a link very strong link in putting women where they need to be in a very strong position and The result you were able to have both in the economy and the society as a whole So we would like you to explain to us How the case went about making sure that women's rights is good for both the economy and development as you did it I definitely First of all want to confirm what you've just stated and then I rebuke it with These points that Will come along one Women involvement or participation as you have said it say that their contribution to the Economy It's also their rights and Then if you look at the numbers just look in in our case in Rwanda 52% of our population are women So I mean it is basic very basic If we were to remove 52% of your population and make it to Redan land I Don't think it's a very clever move and I don't think you get anywhere But if you can also look at many other aspects When we tried for example when you invested in education for women because women were lagging behind almost everything including education education business and Even the area of governance they were absent So we first invested in their education in fact their health their education for women What is going to be the result? I also tell you that in the management of our population growth The rates we have seen year in year out Rwanda was growing the population growth rate was at 3.2 percent She was quite Rwanda is a very small country geographically So we have managed to bring down that population growth rate to something like 2.4 from 3.2 what has contributed largely to Other elements including family planning for example Was education of women and women being educated participating in the economy In doing business in doing work public service or anywhere You know started bringing some sense of sanity In the whole economy and society So there is a direct link and there is a direct benefit no question we have seen so we What we in Primary and secondary school education the enrollment rate in Rwanda is one of the highest if not the highest on our continent about 92% of people who need to go to school Access school for the first 12 years And that is how we brought in women who were being left behind because with the poor families If they have girls and boys in the family because of low incomes, they would leave girls at home and Take the boys to school And so we have now made sure that no guy is left behind Everybody's getting educated and the performers whereas the boys In some cases much better So all of these things can't add up to nothing they they add up to this Impressive progress and the results we see in every sector of our society by numbers alone raising people women who participate by Restoring the rights they should have for their participation in what affects them and what affects everybody's by improving their health Their productivity in the area of agriculture in business or anywhere else I mean you can go on and on and on every case Speaks for itself for that women Should not by the way if you flipped it the other way around if it was women Leaving behind a man You would end up with the same poor results So it has to be the society as a whole being taken care of and particularly Making sure that women are restored right at the center where they belong and as part and parcel of our society Well, mr. President I Think that a good evening is when you can combine in a harmonious way food for thought and food for eating I Think we have reached a good equilibrium tonight. I wish to thank you again very very much For having come Here with us it was a great honor pleasure and I think you have indeed given us a lot of food for thoughts So thank you very much, and I hope that it is not the last time that you will come To the world policy conference


what's going on guys welcome back to another video so we have a really really huge life changing exciting news to share with you guys first do you want to tell them what you did the other day the other day I went wedding dress shopping and I ended up saying yes to a dress she didn't let me see it I wanted him to see it but obviously on the actual wedding day we're gonna be doing a big reveal and I'm walking on the aisle he's gonna finally see the dress we're gonna do a first touch but we're not gonna do a first look cuz we both want to be surprised when we see each other she had like tell me and explains me what like the first touch thing is I was just like what do you mean by that she was like oh we just like touch hands like you're on like one side of a wall and I'm on the other side of the wall and we don't see each other and I'm like what are you talking about like what and then she showed me a picture I'm like oh okay that's cool make sense yeah now make sense after you showed me a picture like I was like I'm a visionary learner you said yes to a dress and how long does it take to make this particular dress doesn't have to be custom made I believe it said up to I think three months three months to make the dress yeah because they're sending the dress to a designer in New York City she went wedding dress shopping she said yes to the dress your boy has not seen it and she won't let me see it obviously until the day of which I prefer to keep it that way anyway because I want to be completely shocked when I see her for the first time all I know is as soon as I think when we do like the first touch even though I still don't see you at that moment I'm gonna cry and then when I go down and wait for you at the end of the aisle and then you finally show yourself when you're about to walk down the aisle I'm gonna cry again and I feel like everybody's just gonna be laughing at me and all that but it's gonna be so freaking fun I can't wait for the day should I show them like the options of the dresses that I tried on that I did not pick no no no why not because then I see it and then I get to rule out like all right she's not going for this look she's not going for this look and then it's just gonna make me wonder about the dress that you did pick like I feel like it helps me figure it out it's not I don't want you it's not are you sure I promise it's not all right so you want to show them do you I don't know I if you about that okay so maybe not I guess I don't want I just don't want to be able to like rule out any options and be like all right it's not this it's not that she's not going for this look she's not going for that look and I'll be like all right so she has to be going for something like this and then I'm just gonna do digging because I'm like that yeah you are like that I don't want to see it you don't want to see any of the options that I didn't choose all right show me one we'll put one picture up here just one one just one all right I could put one up all right this is the photo so I'm gonna put it right here all right so let me see it this is the dress that you didn't pick this is the okay so I'll show you this is the dress that I went into thinking that I wanted this dress 100% does it resemble the dress that you picked not at all not at all not even a slightest bit not even a little bit okay so I went in I had this dress picked out for I would say almost like five months now right I booked this specific place because they had this dress in stock and I asked for the dress I went in there like yes this is just I want to dress I'm getting I tried it on and I hated it I hated it it's a beautiful dress but it's just like not for me the material was so itchy I was feel like too short for it show me you're ready yeah show me let me see you look amazing so wait this doesn't resemble the dress at all that you actually picked right not at all but I hated that dress I'm literally getting like watery I just want looking at this right now don't be zooming or swiping cuz the dress that I picked is in there why didn't you like it you said it was itchy in what it was so itchy babe and it was really stiff I'm getting I'm getting like watery I don't I don't want to freaking look at it anymore you want to stay on three what our big announcement is yes okay so one two three we know our wedding date officially getting married on a 2024 our original date when we started dating was actually October 16th and we decided we want to keep that date we just feel like it just suits us we love the month of October it's in the fall so the weather especially over here in Florida is gonna be on the cooler side everything just works out amazingly over here so I guess we can also tell them that we also have our wedding venue booked as well so everything is official everything is pretty much planned the only thing that's still like in the works is like the decorating part but again we have like a little less than a year but yeah we have like 11 months to figure all the decoration and like that stuff out but yeah it's gonna be crazy we're honestly still like in the works of getting DJs getting bartenders all the little things like I want to have something specific that I'm really trying to go for hopefully it goes through oh no that'll be fired yeah so I'm really trying I don't know it's really yeah we have the major stuff already like book like we have a videographer we have a photographer we got the venue we got our vent planner it's really just like the vendors like the bartenders and the DJ and think that's really it just like little stuff here and there that's our big announcement it's like we're getting married in 11 months that's nuts that's that's crazy to say in 11 months we will be husband and wife I know are you ready to deal with me for the rest of your life I already been dealing with you for like literally the most eight you've been dealing me for eight years are you ready to deal with me for like 90 plus more if I make it that far yes all right yes you guys heard here first so when we're old and wrinkly and like 92 years old still making videos if she's beating me where it came she's signed up for this can we also just acknowledge that we went with our first choice for everything so far that's a hint for them for the wedding then you so that's a nice little venue they didn't see the whole thing but if you guys watch that vlog you guys got a little taste of it yeah so you guys should go back and you know look for that if you haven't and when I tried on the dresses I went with my first the first dress that I tried on yeah let me see let me see no everything is pretty much set in stone at this point we are just counting down the days which I think at this point we're at 345 days I think it was at the 347 day mark where you tried your dress on it is and that was two days ago right Saturday so yeah today so we're at 345 days until our wedding yes that is going to be insane guys everything is gonna be so freaking crazy we can't wait for you guys to see it we're gonna be doing a crazy job is making sure as far as like getting all the just video and photo so you guys can feel like you guys are there as well all I have to say to you and to everyone watching I love you but you guys are gonna be so shocked by the dress that I chose I just feel like completely different I'm gonna figure it out what I actually like what I just showed y'all the only people who know right now my dress looks like is your mom and she keeps teasing him about it yes she does she called me the day of her wedding dress shrine it was like she looks so beautiful just teasing me yet she was like I just want you to know that I'm like thanks it's just his mom and then my mom my aunt and my little sister those are only ones who know what my dress looks like I'll get it out of one of them no you won't that is it for today's video that is our huge announcement we can't wait to the day of we have literally 11 months to go we hope you guys are excited as well and with all that being said I can't believe it 345 days we'll see you guys in the next video