I just want to welcome everyone who has arrived so far and it's really delightful to see Adam for the first time since he's arrived at SOAS in my case. So good morning and really to thank Angelica and Mahesh for a most extraordinary collaboration which we're really looking forward to engaging with all of you today. This is our launch event for a new partnership between UKZN and SOAS and it's been a team effort all the way through and the engagement and participation is really just inspiring so we're looking forward to talking to you all later today. I can only echo what Kaya said and Kaya said it was a team effort and it certainly was but it was not an equal team effort I think we all have to say that the great bulk of the work was done by Angelica so this really wouldn't have happened without Angelica's input and just to say that I'm really very pleased that we have this collaboration with our colleagues in South Africa. I forget when it was when we first met Mahesh a couple of years ago and she came to us and we met on campus and Mahesh spoke to us about putting forward or creating some kind of collaboration between ourselves and the University of KZN and at the time we certainly didn't kind of know you know where it would go and exactly what we had in mind and we spoke about doing student and staff exchanges and so forth but we decided on this format to launch our collaboration we certainly hope that this is the first of many. So welcome everybody. Thank you Wayne and Kai. I would now like to formally open the symposium and welcome our director and deputy vice chancellor to start off. We're starting with professor Adam Abib from SOAS who's going to say a few words of welcome. Thank you Adam and over to you. All right well thank you very much Angelica it's really lovely coming to South Africa from London. It's one of my first public engagements at least or at least by second with colleagues at the African continent. You know when when kind of directors of vice-chancellors are invited to open symposiums they often have a scripted brief and that scripted brief is often done by organisers and Angelica has has done so very carefully and I'm going to formally say that it's important to recognise that this conference which I'm welcoming all of you to in un contested spaces epistemic symmetries mobility and identity really emerges out of an MOU between SOAS and UKZN. But I'm going to go off script once I've said that so forgive me Angelica and say for me that it's a particularly special occasion. You know UKZN is an alma mater in many ways. It is the institution that I studied my undergraduates in Petermaritzburg and my masters and it is also the institution ironically that I did started my academic career at the University of Dublin-Westmore and I launched the Centre for Civil Society some 20 years ago at UKZN. So it is an institution with particular attachment to me. I was a union activist there as a political activist and so in many ways it's a very special institution and I cannot think of a better institution to have one of my early engagements with in South Africa. So thank you Angelica and Kai and Mahesh and Vivian and Warren and Wayne and all of you for facilitating this. I also want to say a second thing which I think is important and that is that I think we're in a new historical moment and in this new historical moment in a way more profound than any other our challenges are all transnational in character. I think this this pandemic demonstrates this more than anything else but it doesn't matter what you take whether this pandemic or climate change or energy or inequality or social and political polarization those are transnational challenges and they require transnational solutions and to be able to have transnational solutions you need institutional capacity and human capabilities across the world and the fear I have is that our partnerships for many years 20 30 years we've got many global partnerships but in effect those global partnerships have undermined the development of institutional capacities and human capabilities those have been profoundly unequal partnerships and more importantly what they really worry about was identifying and I know there's an irony in Adam Habib saying this there's it was about identifying talent student talent and bringing them to London and New York and Beijing and Berlin and weakening institutional capacities in that regard and it seems to me that we've got to reimagine in this historical moment not a completely high education the digitized technologies enable us but we need the political will in universities to enable us and so we've just launched a new strategic plan at SOS and it's just been or at least the first elements have been and been through its board of trustees and at the heart of the strategic plan is a new internationalization strategy and that internationalization strategy says this it says our challenges are transnational and we need to move to co-curriculation co-credentialing co-teaching and so as once to pioneer this model in a financially sustainable way but we're also quite keen on establishing research centers that and we're arguing that some of that will be in you in London but you can't you can't think through and write about and reflect on and understand the planetary questions about time through the lens of Africa Asia and the Middle East from only London and so we're thinking about partnering institutions in South Africa and the rest of the continent and in Asia and in the Middle East five six seven selected partnerships to build co-finance co-build research institutions that teach our students both in UK Zedden and in in SOAS that do joint research in a real sense that co-partner and co-organize and ironically it allows institutions in these countries to compete for UKRI grants through the SOAS link because you will be co-owned in co-partner so it's a fundamental rethink of how we're going to do partnerships and in part we think partly because we're small partly because we're London partly because we've got a mandate that speaks to SOAS I mean to Africa Asia and the Middle East we can be a progressive influence for higher education in the UK and the world and it's something that we we're thinking through quite profoundly we're right at the beginning stages of it and so in a sense what is happening Mahesh and Vivian and Wayne and God and Angelica you pioneers if you like in imagining a new partnership in imagining a reimagination of higher education itself in many ways and we I must say I'm quite keen on this and I'm particularly keen and attracted to the fact that it's happening in conversation with UK Zedden where I began my academic trajectory and I began my student life so I tend to go on a colleague so I'm going to shut up at that point and give inshamsla an opportunity to speak I wish I will listen to inshamsla but at some point I might have to speak up so forgive me for that I wish you all of the best in this deliberation and hopefully at some point we can do this face to face perhaps in South Africa and hopefully in London thank you very much you know I wish you the best of deliberations in the coming days thank you many thanks many thanks professor abib very inspiring welcome thank you and I pass now to professor he said to say he's welcome from UK Zedden thank you thank you very much program director and also thank you very much prof adam abib for those good words of introduction I would like to begin by addressing prof adam abib the director of the school of oriental and african studies of the universe of London and of course our friend and his entire delegation from source our keynote speakers and friends professors and member yam joe louis Hamilton and rasul professors ojong and nidu in their respective capacities in the school of social sciences members of the university management of both institutions members of the academic community the student representative council fellow academic students and all lifelong learners globally ladies and gentlemen all protocol observed I welcome you all on behalf of the vice chancellor professor nanapogo and his executive the theme of this symposium is decolonizing knowledge a timely and necessary but also a complex undertaking how can we restore marginalized ways of seeing and knowing without taking cognizance of the biological interpenetration incompletion and indeed the interaction of all knowledges throughout human history for some the endeavor will be a form of restorative justice for others perhaps a means of enriching our lives akin to restoring ecosystem diversity still others believe that decolonizing knowledge will enable new and more beneficent forms of social economic and political organization the potential is vast but we can only realize it through painstaking work it will of course include the slow the liberative process of reckoning with our past and what we have come to accept as our histories predictably it will also open up debates about what comes as knowledge and how we communicate and work with the rest of the human community and the rest of creation and other life forms we might also have powerful insights into other ways of apprehending the physical and social worlds with a bearing on how we begin to address the perennial question how shall we live and what is the relationship between us beings presumably endowed with superior intelligence and other life forms but there are risks as well it can be quite difficult to tease apart and excise the pernicious and limiting elements of legacies from those that have demonstrable benefits it would for example be perverse not to upload the astonishingly rapid development of vaccines against the COVID-19 virus to which UKZN has made a substantial contribution I have in mind as well the unfortunate and ideological positioning and distortions of the great knowledge traditions that we inherited from the Nile Valley civilizations as part of the African and human community to further some myopic patriarchal interests at the heart of all of this therefore is our positionality the telling of this great human story and the vantage from position from which this narrative is told above I have referred to the sterling role that has been played by UKZN and South Africa in general in mapping the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic we should be mindful as well that there is a vast repository of medical and other forms of knowledge that remain at the periphery of the academy and it is about time that the logic of scientific analysis as it was developed by ancient sages such as Emotep of Kermit amongst others is also applied to establish the efficacy of these traditional medicines I do not think we can delve into these questions without addressing the philosophy of science the history of humanity and human ideas in general for me the heart of the decolonization of knowledge challenge which has placed universities at its center is this can we deploy the tools of evidentiary exploration and logical analysis to interrogate those very tools as well as the other ways in which knowledge is generated and validated and how do we factor in different ecologies of knowledge and epistemologies as we do so I believe we can do this and I say so for two reasons first we and our sister universities throughout the continent and indeed throughout the world are committed to the truth that is to expanding understanding of the physical and human worlds I believe that initiatives to decolonize knowledge will open up interdisciplinary and even transdisciplinary avenues of inquiry thus helping us to read ourselves of the illusion of the separation between the natural and human worlds pursuing knowledge in this manner will also facilitate creative and enabling insights into the human condition secondly decolonizing knowledge is not nearly a local or a national concern my point is not only that we in South Africa have much to learn from our counterparts in Latin America and Asia but that's the institutions in what we have come to call the west have their own reckoning to undertake now widely acknowledged we have a great deal of thinking and feeling to work our way through and we can best undertake it in good faith and with a school class care with as many of our fellow academics and scholars as possible so in the furtherance of that work and more it is my pleasure to announce that the University of Guazulunatal has signed the memorandum of understanding which saw us at the University of London this framework will facilitate mutually beneficial opportunities for our students and staff from scholarly exchanges to research collaborations and community engagement for all of the universities that are facing for all that universities are facing under the shade of this global pandemic they are vital research and levels to be undertaken made more intellectually challenging and rewarding by our shared growing awareness that the pursuit of knowledge is never free from the weight of human history it is my firm believe that this awareness will enrich rather than inhibit our work and it is both an honor and a pleasure to welcome the members of source into closer working relationships with the members of the University of Guazulunatal in conclusion Thank you very much Professor Mkisei thank you so much for your welcome and thank you again Professor Abid and we are now moving to the keynote we are very pleased to have Professor Kilimbenben here with us today you know we are all very very thrilled about that and it's going to be in conversation with our academic doctor Amina Yakin thank you so much Amina I will now pass on to Amina to take over the session and introduce Kilimbenben and also a little bit more about herself thank you Amina over to you thank you Angelica good morning all and it's such an honor and a pleasure to be here this morning as Angelica just mentioned I'm Amina Yakin and I'm a post-colonialist myself and chair of this decolonizing working group and so as festival of ideas and Center for the Study of Pakistan so it's lots of things that connect with global connections and ideas and I'm would like first of all to begin by thanking Professor Mkisei Professor Habib my colleagues Kai, Wayne and also Mahesh and send greetings to everyone at KwaZulu Natal it's this is such an amazing collaboration and the start of new journeys for us at a time in which there's not been much to look forward to so you really have given us something to look forward to in these very challenging times it's my also great honor and pleasure as a post-colonialist to be in this conversation with Professor Ashil Mbembe and I'll give you an introduction to him and I hope I can do justice in the introduction and I'm very much looking forward to our conversation. Professor Ashil Mbembe was born in Cameroon he obtained his PhD in history at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1989 and he has lots of accolades he's been many places he's been at Columbia University as assistant professor of history a senior research fellow at Brookings Institute in Washington DC and again at Pennsylvania in history at the University of Pennsylvania he's been an executive secretary of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa in Dakar and he was also a visiting professor at the University of California at Yale University and what I love about Ashil's work is that it's also connected with the university with public policy and with social science research and he's the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Paris and also Belgium he has also held the Albert Great Chair at the University of Cohn but let me talk to he's been awarded numerous awards and including the 2018 Gerda Henkel award and the 2018 Ernst Bloch award and what we know him the most for in postcolonial studies is as a major figure in the emergence of a new wave of French critical theory who has written extensively on contemporary politics and philosophy including on the postcolony which was a kind of groundbreaking book followed by a critique of black reason necropolitics and out of the dark night there've been numerous essays also and including essays on decolonization his books originally written in French and numerous articles are translated in 13 languages and I think as as to really be on a global stage that is something that is very very important and necessary and he so I again to say as a postcolonialist to have this opportunity to be in conversation with Ashil on the theme of today's these two days this two-day symposium of contested spaces epistemic asymmetries mobilities identities is is a huge kind of canvas to chart an obvious and a little bit like Adam we might steer off territory sometimes but we'll we'll try and focus our conversation as much as possible around the task that we've been given of decolonizing knowledge production so I think already what's been mentioned are transnational solutions digitized technologies and internationalization the strategies within the institutions and Ashil perhaps we I'd like you to start before I ask you to start I'd also like to draw your attention to something that we did here at SOAS that really connects quite deeply with your work I was involved with putting together the festival on the theme of decolonizing knowledge which we felt was it was really inspired by your series of lectures and conversation with the roads must fall movement and in in those lectures you spoke about several things from demythologizing whiteness to reinventing a classroom without walls and the necessity of reevaluating a Eurocentric canon so that we may open the door to a variety of knowledges rather than universalizing one particular truth and we dug deep into our institutional kind of work that we do and also the work that I do you know what does this mean for postcolonial studies for the research at SOAS our teaching what kind of real and our sort of engagement our public engagement and what kind in those relationships what kind of real world values do we offer the kind of space you envisage in your lectures on the archive is a very open one that celebrates difference bringing together a variety of publics in the act of co-learning your vision speaks to the kind of that kind of work that we are very keen to connect with and that we do quite a bit of as well so essentially I mean I'm sort of probably saying things that you've um repeating yourself to you but just to kind of reiterate this that decolonizing knowledge is about the acknowledgement and reordering our world from a global south perspective to critically analyze the movement of capital enslavement ownership of land migration and trying to understand the epistemic violence of history so I just wanted to put that on the table as a conversation that we've been having quite a lot of in the autumn and I hope that this conversation is an opportunity to reconnect to it and also to continue in new directions so I thought the first question that I would ask you that is both topical and necessary is what is the impact of the pandemic in South Africa and what are our life futures and also thank you very much for being here and a warm welcome to you thank you Amina you asked me what is the impact of the pandemic in I mean I imagine on intellectual life in South Africa and in our universities I'll just give you one small example yesterday we meaning the Vitz Institute for Social and Economic Research organized launched in fact it's 2021 public positions series it's a series where people take position on a number of what they consider to be key issues of our times so it was launched yesterday this year it has been decided that the public positions series would focus on France Fanon the title of the series is Fanon after Fanon Fanon after Fanon in a context in which on the one hand finally we have the totality of his work what he has written about his very short life not only political writings but also a psychiatric writing his literary work he was also a play writer we finally have all of that Fanon also at a time when we know what's going on in terms of the resurgence of racism worldwide racism in this age of covid since you mentioned covid which means in this age when the distribution of risks in this case mortal risks is unequal and risks affect all certain categories of people are more exposed to them than others so Fanon is topical in that sense we put up using digital technologies a webinar which attracted 600 scholars people from all over the world this we didn't do before covid i want to draw the attention to the kinds of new possibilities which are suddenly at reach at our reach which allow us in fact to begin thinking about how we could expand the boundaries of the intellectual common let's just give it that name the intellectual common which i hear meaning what adam was sharing with us a moment ago was talking about in terms of a new model of international internationalization i would call it a new model of how we constitute a global intellectual common professor Landla also evoked it so it seems to me that in the midst of the tragedy that is going on there are a number of possibilities which are abetted by the technological capacities we now have which are understand not at everyone's not everyone has access to them in equally but in any case they are there and they allow us to rethink the world and reorganize intellectual work in ways that can really make make a difference and in ways that are it's in a way that is urgent it is urgent because there are a number of global developments going on which the concept of decolonization or the project of decolonization has to take up if it is to to remain pertinent if it is to be more than just a slogan so so look that's one way of entering into the conversation you're inviting me to enter into okay thank you thank you if i may pick you up on the the the question of Fanon as you as you brought him up and the you mentioned the totality of his work and Franz Fanon after Fanon and i'm i'm thinking of the need and the necessity in these times of radical thought and what you think is your engagement with Franz Fanon has been a major part of your work and where do you think that what kind of challenges are present in this current moment around radical thought you know what are your thoughts on this and the question of community and the concept this kind of goes back to your work on the post colony as well and i have a connected question to that which i'll ask you after that but if i can just sort of first ask you to to come in on on Fanon radical thought and where we are in in sort of postcolonial studies in african studies what do you think is the future for this but i mean there's so many things first of all a paradox that seems to me to be going on on the one hand there is an injunction to decolonize which is coming from almost all over the world and if you google the term decolonize or decolonization it will be astonished at what might come up so there is a global injunction to decolonize which manifests itself in every single discipline it's not one single discipline in the broad field of knowledge that is not facing interpolated as we speak at the same time especially in most uh some important countries in the north there is a huge anxiety emerging in relation to a number of currents of thoughts thought traditions of thought postcolonial studies decolonial studies gender studies uh critical race studies uh debates surrounding the question of intersectionality most of these currents of thought or subfields are under assault they are under assault by not only right wing forces but by democratic liberal governments as i speak such is the case for instance in France in all countries in the world such is the case of course in Hungary and the kind of my friend Arjuna Padurai calls it the fear of small disciplines you see it in India too so that's part of the the paradox but i would really like to put on the table a number of key developments i think we have to attend we cannot not attend the first one i would argue has to do with a changing epistemological landscape a changing epistemological landscape which itself i believe is um uh the result of technological innovations um it is the result of epistemic reconfigurations or shifts which are underway in various disciplines and sub-disciplines um there are underway debates going on in terms of i mean what is data how do we harness new kinds of data how do we reshape what constitutes a unit of analysis that new bodies of thought i think which are increasingly involved in rethinking the nature of knowledge itself we're no longer sure what is knowledge and what is not what is true and what and what is what is not um the nature of of matter for instance um the degrees of agency and the way in which they are distributed across human agents non-human agents there are a whole set of debates of this nature which are unfolding and if we want to be serious about decolonization we have to be part of those those discussions um so it seems to me that what we are witnessing we are in the midst of an intense period of i would say heightened curiosity and experimentation i don't believe like many that the humanities are in crisis maybe certain sectors of the humanities are in crisis but not all of them in in a number of others this is a amazing period of curiosity and an experiment mission um the second thing which we have to put on the table amina is the extent to which the historic antagonisms uh between the the sciences and the humanities the extent to which they are breaking down they are breaking down uh as a result of the the gradual recognition that we humans are not at all disentangled from other species and this is really an important uh uh let's say development uh so so we see a renewed dialogue between the social sciences science and technology studies for instance life and biological sciences philosophy uh renewed dialogue which is uh uh in in in the making uh for instance issues that have uh early uh been the object of the life and biological sciences are being or are becoming the subject of theories and methods within the humanities and vice versa and these raises all kinds of challenges for the so-called decolonial project i could go on and on but it seems to me that uh we have to bring those uh take them into account during these conversations no i think that that's really uh there's so many things that you've said there where i've wanted to jump in and say can i ask you to stop there and just um speak a little bit more about this so one of the things that i think is emerging from our conversation is that how do we think about decolonial studies and how do we think about postcolonial studies and the intersections and uh technologies and science and data and all those those conversations and dialogues which you mentioned are hold a lot of hope but at the same time they are also as you mentioned um in in the sort of background is is the challenge to democracy and how democracy is shaping itself for the future and if i can kind of take you back uh to that question of democratic liberal governments and ask you if where do you see uh how do you sort of see that in relation to africa and where do you see the precariousness and fishes of african life today and what can europe learn from this know what europe can learn from europe is is not that keen to learn from from anybody um which is which is a very serious problem um but europe will sort of by itself a hope and look i mean behind questions of democracy development quote unquote behind all of that lies and an even bigger preoccupation for for critical thought in these specific times um an even bigger question which has to do as far as i'm concerned with i just call it life futures the question of life futures and when i say life futures i simply mean the question of planetary habitability the question of our existence on earth and when i say our i mean the humans humans non-humans the entirety of the living if you want of course i take for granted the recognition that recognition of the the grounded of the the territorialized reality of our existence on earth we live on earth and nowhere else but we live on earth at a very specific moment a moment when i believe the the complex networks of relations that sustain life on earth these complex networks are in deep crisis and it is a crisis that is the result of a very specific set of events all of which have to do with our entry into what some have called a new climatic regime so the question of the conditions for life to be sustained is for me at the heart of almost everything else at the heart of the attempts for instance at expanding our concept of democracy because democracy as you know has been mostly imagined as democracy for the humans or in fact for certain categories of the human what would be a democracy that would be imagined as encompassing more than the human a democracy that encompasses for instance other living entities a maritime species kind of democracy if you want where questions of ecology environmental well-being the sustainability of our millions climate animals all of that is uh uh uh let's say taken into consideration and this is this not just an African question it's a planetary question so this question of planetarity is at the heart of whatever we might want to mean by the decolonial project a decolonial project that is nationalistic that is chauvinistic that is regional does not at all address the core of the issue first of all the fact that colonialism was a planetary enterprise and second the fact I have just spoken about that what is at stake now today is this issue of life futures of planetary habitability so that's how let's say this requires of course sort of new research agendas in line with what was the lander and Adam with uh voking a moment ago okay so thank you I think um the planetarity question in relation to the decolonial project is something that you've mentioned several times and I think I'm uh definitely getting uh a sense of the I think considerable amount of work that you've also and time that you've spent working with development studies as well and and work in the development field to that that's sort of it also uh I think informs your work uh quite a lot in terms of of thinking of the life futures and how life is to be sustained and then and then the challenges of of democracy you know that that we face here I mean in this country I suppose um I mean one of the biggest challenges right now we're facing right is how the vaccine is going to to be distributed to be shared to be um across the world and in you know is it going to be uh reiterate those differences of global north and global south um relationships and also the science behind it you know what are the ethics and protocols and we've got vaccines that have been produced in different parts of the world and there is um there are different ethical protocols for example with the Russian vaccine with the Chinese vaccine with a um Pfizer vaccine or a you know Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine there are lots and lots of questions connected that that come up in relation to those very things that you're talking about and and I'm not going to um sort of um put you on the spot with that particular to kind of chart a way for us out of the vaccine equation but I'm just wondering what are the conversations that are happening in Africa um around this and in South Africa around this particular question of um moving forward out of the pandemic and how do you see the planetarity and the decolonial project making those possibilities more viable or do you see see it more of a kind of challenge that that is going to have to be thought of in different ways I mean do you think that that planetarity is going to be possible going forward or or is this kind of the science of the vaccine is that going to you know we're being led by this obviously a very important agenda of science that is necessary to our sustainability for the future as humans um and also we've got this this I mean in this country you know there's a big talk about the levelling agenda you know that we're kind of levelling across the country and class and that's going to be something that's going to be not a factor in in how this is kind of going to be a more democratized project but in reality you know when we kind of explore and see we've seen lots of uh issues being raised for example around the vaccine and the vulnerability of um uh black and asian populations around that in in these um situations but also the responses to that have been very um interesting and different and they keep recreating those very divisions or or leading us into those very divisions that nationalism has been very susceptible to in the past in terms of minoritization and an attack on the sort of vulnerable so I just wondered what what you thought about that you see I'm trying to stay away from the nitty gritty questions you're trying to get me to to address um um you see in some of the circles I interact with um what strikes me uh broadly speaking is the um the um the return to the return of big questions um which doesn't mean that uh quote unquote small questions are of the picture but but big questions in the sense that they almost every single uh issue we face today is transversal uh it doesn't belong to us it doesn't tp-pise us either in terms of location but but it is also faced by many others in many different other ways elsewhere uh this question of the overwhelming presence of the elsewhere in in our midst so the return of big uh questions but also the return of what historians have been calling of late deep time deep time at a at a moment when mean uh our levels of attention if they are more than 10 minutes I mean that's that's a not time is now uh calculated in minutes that because of the yeah as a result of technological escalation uh time itself has been uh um divided subdivided fractured uh to a point where uh uh it is uh increasingly measured um um let's see uh along the uh the axis of the instant that that the speed speed of time itself uh the speed in itself has is is um uh in danger of abolishing time if you want to to put it philosophically that time is uh in danger of being superseded and destroyed and abolished by speed that that huge war that is going on between time and speed so the return to deep time and the return of big questions most of which turn around the relation of human life to planetary life so when we bring in covid or vaccines in the midst of this broad picture what do we see first of all and this is something I've been uh debating with colleagues in the world bank who work on questions of African development first of all covid is not an accidental event covid is the result of the ways in which to put it very simply we have organized our relationship with nature and other species the way we have organized our interaction with other species has made it possible for this type of pandemic to emerge this pandemic has deep a deep genealogy even more and this genealogy itself is related to for instance put it simply the models of development we have been pursuing over uh the last few centuries since in any case the industrial revolution which have led to what the depletion of resources the extinction of multiple species terrible encroachment of human activities onto the activities of the of other species so so these issues are back on the table what model of development do we need um how can we building on our own history location in this place come up with new uh emancipatory narratives which uh might be of use uh for for the world at large so this question of the world at large is how do we reconstruct it is what is at stake in uh let's see the debates on the apartheid sanitary apartheid that is going on where pharmaceutical industries come here do all the tests use us our bodies our organisms as testing uh dispositives produce a vaccine which to which we have no access or can only have access at very very high prohibitive costs so how do we reconfigure such a world and imagine a world in which every single one has a place as opposed to a world where some have a place and others don't how do we share it now the sustainability of our planet will depend to a large extent on our capacity to remember the world meaning putting back together all its components and sharing it so look this is the way in which some of us are thinking about these issues or coming into these debates what is colonialism what is decolonization at a time when uh to old models of colonialism have been substituted new forms of techno molecular colonialism when is the living itself life itself that is the object of colonial sub subjugation or colonial forms of extraction and exploitation so is these kinds of shifts if you want that uh uh i personally am interested in in rethinking so when adam says uh i keep referring to adam because because he adam is he knows how to put on new new ideas when he when you guys at so as rethink what you call internationalization what are the epistemological foundations on the basis of which you want to push for this this new model so that it goes beyond the signing of memoranda of understanding which of course understand that they are important so it's these kinds of issues i am personally interested in okay thank you shell what nationalization mean in a time of as i was arguing incipient convergence between uh the social sciences the humanities life biological sciences technology studies and so forth and so on and if indeed it is true that we are witnessing a kind of incipient convergence between fields that were somewhat antagonistic how do we trigger then the development of new research agendas which uh might privilege the complex the uh the processional the non-linear the relational nature of phenomena mm-hmm which make it such that what's going on here speaks to an endless way mm-hmm okay so so i think what we're talking about what you are talking about very much then is the labor of um working our way out of the neoliberalism project through the question of being human and who who we are or re rethinking that question and i and i think what i'm really interesting interested also to to get more um to ask you more about and i know we're kind of almost at the end of our time in the q and a box is absolutely exploding with questions for you so i'm going to turn to that in a minute um are those that indeed colonial studies the emphasis on south connections and in post-colonial studies we are also talking about the global south and i um and i'm trying to understand my own kind of um way around this and i i just wondered what is it that we mean when we say south south connections in in terms of um and i know that this is also connects with some some of sort of adam's work and and you know is is also in in a sense embedded in this mo you and this relationship uh with um with with sort of these two universities and how um and if i may connect it to in a sense the the very um that that question again you know of of what can you learn from this in in terms of like how do we um how do you envisage the south south connection i mean i i think if it's possible just for you to just or do you think it's me it's the viable it does what sort of does it mean to you if that's a better way of asking you the question you see responses to questions such as the one you just asked also depend on one one's own experience i mean my experience has been one of being constantly in motion i mean i was born in cameroon i left when i was in my early 20s i never went back i went to france studied there for a number of years moved again to the u.s and then came back to the continent not in my own country but in sinigar and then from sinigar to south africa and from south africa i mean i have been uh it has been a life of permanent and settlement if you want and and uh permanent crossing of boundaries or attempts at crossing boundaries as they keep becoming ever more rigid talking about a sanitary passport in addition to uh so so that has been my experience that's how i think so categories such as south south of course they are they understand the importance and colleagues who are really working on these deliver men and for instance but not only him many many more but i'm more interested in what i would call triangulations because although i mean the not and we see those triangulations going on including in the actual experiments south south experiments which are also happening hopefully they are no longer only mediated by the north but a lot of them include those collaborations include the north in so far as there is a south in the north there are many souths in the north so so what are we talking about territories are we talking about geographies that are beyond territoriality or are we evoking imaginaries or a world in which networks are reshaped in in light of the for instance the current digitalization of our world and so far and so on so so those questions let's see i'm inhabit me and i don't have a response to them all i know and all i sense is that in an age which we have characterized as planetary we need we will increasingly need to draw from the archives of the world at large that we can depend solely on the archives of the north to account for the transformations we are witnessing or experimenting with and therefore some way of imagining what a global intellectual common could be is something we too in south africa in the continent have the responsibility to think about we cannot only leave it to others to think about what these global intellectual common which is in the making what it would look like and how we can make it such that it doesn't simply reproduce inequalities of of the past and okay thank you and i think that really responds to a question that i had planned on asking but i think you've already answered it so i won't ask but i'll just just for people's interest say that i had thought about this in relation to shill's work book necropolitics and the idea critical response to michelle foucault's idea of biopolitics and and a shill in the book you say where the human civilization can give rise to any form of political life at all is the problem of the 21st century and the book is very both pessimistic i thought and hopeful speaking of a planetary democracy and the demand for justice and reparation and and you've just i think given us a vision for how you are thinking about a global intellectual common as the kind of way forward from from that sort of direction that you left us with at that point so i'm going to kind of pause my speaking there and start picking up the q and a there are raised hands as well as questions in the q and a box so they're asking you to close the session okay okay sorry no they're asking me to close at 10 20 so we have 18 minutes for questions is that okay for us to today thank you you're not just saying you're i've tired you out at home so what i'll do is angelica can can we take questions live as well or do we is it just best to take the q and a box questions um and no we we prefer to take the q and a box session that's okay with you please we are not yeah okay i know there are a lot unfortunately of them all sure that's fine because i know some people had raised hands so if the raised hand people can then just stick their questions in the box we'll try and get through them so she'll if it's okay with you i'm going to read through your four questions at a time and uh some you may have answered already so please um bear with me as we kind of work our way through this there's a question from adrian watson i'm interested in the panelists views on the role indigenous knowledges might have to play in drawing on the archives of the world to advance the project of decolonizing epistemology and building a planetary global collective common so that's that's one question there's another from ester ramani um and an apologies if i'm mispronouncing your name um i'm intrigued by ashile's idea that time itself is being overtaken by speed in academia has this not to do also with the pressure to publish quickly to move away from slow scholarship has this to do with the speed of technology the information and knowledge overload how can we do intellectual work that respects complexity and the need for more thoughtful ways of making and disseminating knowledge and sofi chohan's question which is connected what role do you imagine for the university in the future global intellectual common um and just one more cilia's s before i ask you to to kind of give us your thoughts ashile what is the role of the local and the rural in the global south in decolonizing knowledges acknowledging the difficulties added by the intersection with class poverty and the power hold it by european educated elites in the creation of knowledge how to include the local and the rural without patronizing um so would you like to comment on any of those questions ashile or respond very complex questions i will do my best um as far as the indigenous knowledges are concerned i can only come back to a point i was making early on that we we the the complexities of of our times um we we will have to draw uh from all the archives of the world and i use the term archive here in a very philosophical sense and we will have to to be multi-literate if if you want uh multi-literate in the sense uh that uh we we will have to know a bit more than what what we need we will have to be steeped in more than one tradition let me put it like that we'll have to be steeped in more than one language we'll have to become multilingual i use the term language here as a repository active repository of uh different forms of knowledge uh and different forms of imagining the world and inhabiting the world so that capacity for a multiplicity of forms of habitation that is it seems to me the function let's say the role of future knowledges so this question of future knowledges those knowledges which allow us to inhabit a world that is becoming more and more complex that is in which there's no here without an elsewhere that is a world of concatenations and entanglements those future knowledges require the um require us to indeed take seriously what the questioner calls indigenous knowledge but i prefer uh it's a matter uh that is not that important to terminate the archives of the world at large the same applies to um the last question on the local rural um and the decolonization of knowledge and so far as applies to to all of this here and in line in line with what i was trying to say early on this let's say there's no no local today that is not at the same time non-local i start from the assumption that all is entangled there's no city on one side and rural area on the other hand when we have to look at the passages the the forms of interlocking because a lot of what is going on let's say and which is really decisive for the future happens at the interfaces it helps that's where it happens it happens at the intersections if you want in these spaces of entanglement which many wants want to disentangle which in itself is part of the violence of of our times the drive to disentangle what in fact is is entangled so as far as i mean this local global thing is concerned uh rehabilitation of indigenous knowledge is uh it it requires a whole set of moves it requires the taking seriously of questions collective intelligence and the uh rehabilitation of local memories for instance and but but look all of these in the knowledge that these things are in of themselves the object of contestation there's no local that is not contested there's no um indigenous knowledge that is not itself the object of contestation contestation so there's a political dimension to all of this which is at the heart of precisely difficulties we we face okay thank you ashile we are um for a very comprehensive answer to those questions and i think very important questions of indigen indigenous knowledges and uh also the multi um lingual knowledges that you responded to and i kind of heard a connect synergies with gertry spivak's work and your work as well um uh there are some more questions i know you might not have time to answer them but it'll be good to hear other people's voices i mean i also have to rush to the airport okay oh okay so would you do are you taking your leave no i have to take kids to the airport okay of course in the next two minutes okay so i think okay all right so in that case i think we will um just wrap up by uh if i just by thank you very much the questions that are on the chat shall we send you the questions yes i will respond to the questions if you send me the question on the chat okay took you so i have to take two children to the airport i think that's um a responsibility that falls on all of us at many times in in life so it's it's good to you uh see you um taking charge of that and and who are we to stop you from your from taking your children to the airport i think that would be very unkind so um we will um i as ashile has said very kindly he will take the questions that are in the in the question and answer box in angelica we will forward them to ashile and ashile if you have the time and if you have the um capacity if you are able to send some responses then we will reach out to those people who have sent in the questions and and send them out so it remains for me to to thank you um and to say um that this has been an invigorating um and really um wide-ranging conversation we it it feels like we've touched the surface of things that we really need to get deeper and deeper into but this is only the beginning of this um kuzulu natal and so has relationship so we hope that we have you for much many more years ahead to continue these conversations and to continue these dialogues okay so thank you very much ashile um and and we so around a virtual around a virtual applause uh for our speaker and um thank you all very much and and uh safe journeys to the children


Growth is an essential part of life and we can only grow by developing ourselves continuously. To do this, we have to build a reading culture and also be willing to learn. Dr. Swoey is an American children auto and political cartoonist. One said, the more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. It's one thing to learn how to read. It's another thing to cultivate the habit early enough in one's life, especially in your 20s.  It's a decade where you get to make a lot of significant decisions and take big moves, whether in your career, finance, or family. You learn to become more responsible because at this point, no one will take responsibility for your actions but you. Hal Ehrald, an American auto and success coach, said, the moment you take responsibility for everything in your life is the moment you can change anything in your life. So, what better time to start changing your life than now? In this video, I'll share with you 21 books you should try and read before age 30. If you're new here, consider subscribing so that you don't miss out on exciting videos like this. 1. The Defining Decade Why 20s Matter and How to Make the Best Use of Them by Meg Jay In this book, the author, Dr. Meg Jay uses both science and real-life stories to describe how our personalities, relationships, and identities can change more in this decade than in any time in our lives. You see, our 20s are a period of our lives where we face new things and encounter challenges that can almost have us giving up on our pursuits of success. So, to effectively deal with this phase of our lives, we ought to be informed and prepared of the challenges and responsibilities that we are about to face so that we can use them as stepping stones to success in the future. 2. The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham When you think of investments, this book should come to mind as one of the best books to help you make the right choices as far as the subject is concerned. The book, endorsed by Warren Buffett, an investment expert as the best book on investing ever written, focuses more on loss minimization rather than profit maximization. The author, Benjamin Graham, explores the fundamentals of smart financial investment to help its readers understand the market. 3. The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan Marina Keegan graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale in June 2012. She had a job waiting for her at the New Yorker and had written a play that was to be produced at the New York Fringe Festival. Then tragically, Keegan was killed in a car accident just five days after graduation. The book, The Opposite of Loneliness, is a collection of Keegan stories. After her death, some of Keegan's stories were found where she had left them behind, which mostly captures the universal struggles that all of us face as we try to figure out who we want to be as we face hope on certainties and the endless possibilities. 4. Design Your Future by Dominic Quartusio Life can be a little tricky and discouraging if all we do is wait for rates to throw us whatever whenever it likes. The key to happiness, however, is to design your life and the future you want. However, to gain control of your life, Dominic Quartusio advises realizing what your hidden beliefs are and disrupting your self-destructive patterns. 5. Traditions Making Sense of Life's Changes by William Bridges Your 20s are a time in your life where you will experience a lot of changes personally or professionally. In this book, Transitions, Making Sense of Life's Changes, William Bridges takes readers through the three stages of any transition, the ending, the neutral stage and the beginning stage. He also explores how best to take on some of life's biggest challenges. 6. Zero to One, Peter Thiel Peter Thiel, the author of the book Zero to One, takes readers on a journey of becoming valuable and leaving a mark on the world. It's simple. You have to learn how best to innovate and think critically. 7. Awakening the Giant Within Anthony Robbins Our dreams and hope is to achieve our goals in life. We want to build something bigger than us. How can we do this if we lack what it takes or are not sure of the resources we have or don't have to achieve these goals? It's all about searching deep to find out your hidden potentials. And that's what writer Anthony Robbins helps readers understand in this book, Awakening the Giant Within. 8. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Glassen You know, an increased ability for common sense is responsible for growth and success in the workplace, or as an entrepreneur. In this book, George S. Glassen helps readers to understand that there is a difference between common sense and common knowledge, going further to explain what common sense is in the workplace. 9. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young Searching through life to find out the meaning it holds for you, as well as struggling your way up the ladder of success can be very tasking and draining. So, what do you do when you have tons of friends competing with the attention your career or your goals need to get you ahead? How best should you deal with them? Toby Young, using a series of personal experiences, shows some reasonable ways to handle a time like that in your life. 10. Algorithms to Leave by Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths If life had a formula for happiness, wouldn't life be easy? Guess what? There is a code for happiness, and Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths, authors of this book, Algorithm to Leave, demonstrates how we can get it and enjoy a peaceful life. 11. One Our Investor by Vishal Reddy Yes, you've managed to cultivate a savings habit, but maybe you need to take it a step further. 12. Investment Okay, right now, the truth is that you don't exactly have the time to figure out that investment stuff out. Well, Vishal Reddy will walk you through all the basics in just one hour in this book, One Our Investor. The book will help beginners learn how to invest wisely in stocks, mutual funds, and bonds without the need for a foreign language interpreter. 12. Great, The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth Success is not based on talent, but on passion and persistence. Angela Duckworth explains what this concept means and how it works in her book, Great, The Power of Passion and Perseverance. 13. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki One of the timeless pieces on this list is the famous best-selling robot Kiyosaki's Rich Dad, Poor Dad. According to the author Kiyosaki, in school, we learn that mistakes are bad and we are punished for making them. Yet, if we look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes, we learn to work by falling. If we never fell, we would never work. Well, if you take up the challenge of learning the things we weren't taught in school, like learning how best to manage our finance, just maybe we will get it and become sooner than the rest of the world. 14. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill According to Napoleon Hill, success doesn't mean acquiring wealth and financial freedom alone, but enjoying life as a whole and growing a productive mind. So how do you do that? Hill describes some of the critical values we should focus on in life while devoting time to achieve our financial goals. The concept of this book is, whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. 15. Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel When you focus on something, you get it. This is the concept of Victor Frankel. In this book, Man's Search for Meaning. Franklin tells us that, if you have meaning in your life, you can achieve anything. Without it, however, no matter how good your life is, you will never be deeply fulfilled. 16. Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kainman Not in life is as important as you think it is while you're thinking about it. What goes on in your mind when thinking? How can you think better? Is it much more effective to think fast or slow? Are thinkers losing out or gaining? Where's your stand? Daniel Kainman provides all the answers to these questions in this book. 17. The Power of Now by Eckhart Toll Not your past, not your future matters more than your present. It's about making the present moment count. Of course, we've heard that it doesn't times over, but is it something we live by every day? According to the author, Eckhart Toll realized deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the now the primary focus of your life. 18. The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Pearle Our happiness depends on our minds and habits. It means that happiness is not tied to several situations or feelings, but our perspective and mind. In this book, you'll learn how to build a positive mindset if you genuinely want to be happy. 19. The Power of Habits Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Dubic Matt Magandy, an Indian lawyer, once said, Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits.   Charles Dubic explains how habits are formed and how these habits can affect every area of our lives. Also, he provides tips that can help you overcome bad habits and replace them with good ones. 20. Design Your Life Build a life that works for you by Bill Bunnett and Dave Evans Again, to make your life meaningful and create the happiness that you so wish, you have to take charge of your life. Be in control. To be in control, however, you'll need to learn how to design your life. Learn to do what works for you, not the world. There is more than one formula for happiness. Find yours and stick to it. 21. Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey I'll give you a secret to becoming successful in life. Learn from those who have achieved what you want to get. Stephen Covey helps you accomplish this by penning the habits of some of the best leaders in the world. Now that you have this list of books, tell us which of the books is your favorite, which books have you read, and which haven't you read. Thank you very much for watching our videos. If you like this video, watch more videos on our channel and subscribe. We love you.


Thank you, Mrs. King. We are honored to have Governor John Ashcroft, Governor of the State of Missouri, present to us our prayer for national leaders, Governor Ashcroft. You know, it was nearly 2,000 years ago that Paul wrote to a friend of his, Timothy, and he said, I exhort you therefore to pray one for another, for kings, and for all who are in authority that we might lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty. That's good advice now, just as it was then. I can't think of a more noble aspiration than that we would lead quiet and peaceable lives in godliness and honesty. I would like to ask you to stand with me and stand in prayer for the leaders of our country and leaders of nations around the world. And please join me in prayer as we petition God to bless those who lead us. Father of the universe and creator of us all, we bear before you today those who minister to us and minister to you who are our leaders. We thank you for leaders who are sensitive to your spirit. In particular, we lift up our president, Ronald Reagan and Nancy and the Reagan family. Together, we pray for them. We pray for our vice president, George Bush and Barbara and the Bush family. Father, we covet your blessings for them. We ask you to bless them. We pray for the members of the cabinet who have joined us here this morning and who serve to translate policy into program for the people. We ask that you would inspire them for the members of the Congress, both the Senate and the House. Father, we express our gratitude and we invoke your blessing. Strengthen them. Give them courage. For the members of the Supreme Court and the judiciary, we pray your blessing upon them. As they rightly settle disputes that come before us. We know that blessed are the peacemakers. Revive us again. All of us fill each heart with your love. May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Creator of us all, create us again, again in your image. We would do your will. We pray that in all of us your will be done in our leaders we pray. Thy will be done. For our leaders and for the people, we pray for wisdom. We know that when Solomon prayed for wisdom, you blessed him and the nation richly. We pause to pray for wisdom. For our leaders and for ourselves, we pray for righteousness. For we know that righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. For our leaders and for ourselves, we pray for vision. Help us to see ourselves for what we are. Help us to see you for who you are. Help us to see ourselves through your eyes for what we ought to be and what we can be. We pray for vision because we know that where there is no vision, the people perish. Father, endow us with vision, a vision of your truth. For as long as he sought the Lord, God made us to prosper, make us to prosper. Father, we pray for our leaders that they be listeners as well as leaders and that we as well listen. Help us all amid our responsibilities to lead, to listen, to listen to your voice, the still small voice of justice within us. This morning we pray for peace, peace among nations, peace in ourselves, peace with you, peace in our family. Father, give us all your peace today. Father, help us to participate and our leaders to participate in your redemptive mission of forgiveness in the world. Through forgiveness free us from the past that we might face a future of opportunity and service. Father, endow us all with memory. May we and our leaders remember now and forever that thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Governor Ashcroft, we thank you for that inspiring prayer. Our speaker this morning is a woman who has distinguished herself in many ways. Elizabeth Hanford Dole is an honors graduate of Duke University where she served as student body president. She also received a master's degree in education from Harvard and a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School. Mrs. Dole has served in several important government positions and currently serves in the president's cabinet as secretary of transportation. But more important than these, Elizabeth Dole is a woman whose personal convictions and strong faith serve as an example for us all. Please welcome our speaker this morning, the honorable Elizabeth Dole, secretary of transportation. Thank you, Dan. Mr. President, Mrs. Reagan, Mr. Vice President, Mrs. Bush, Mrs. King, Dr. Graham, distinguished colleagues and guests. I consider it one of the greatest possible privileges to be invited to share this morning a little of my own spiritual journey with fellow travelers. Like most of us, I am just one person struggling to relate faith to life. But I am grateful that members of the Congressional Prayer Groups have asked me to speak from the heart about the difference that Jesus Christ has made in my life. But first, I must mention a political crisis. A crisis from which I have learned some very important lessons. Now, this is a political crisis involving high stakes, intrigue, behind-the-scenes negotiations, influence in high places, and even a little romance. Where have I learned of this crisis? On the front page of the newspapers? No. The newspapers haven't carried this story. No, the political crisis I'm talking about occurred around 2,450 years ago. And we learn about it in the Bible, in the book of Esther. Esther is the saga of a woman forced to make a decision concerning the total commitment of her life, a decision she was reluctant to make. She had to be vigorously challenged, and it's this part of her story to which I can so easily relate in my own spiritual journey. For while the particulars of her challenge may differ greatly from the challenges that you and I face, the forces at work are as real as the moral is relevant. The basic lessons Esther had to learn are lessons I needed to learn. Thus, the story of Esther over the years has taken on great significance for me. Indeed, it reflects an individual's discovery of the true meaning of life. The story takes place in the ancient kingdom of Persia, where there lived a particularly faithful man of God named Mordecai. Now, Mordecai, a Jew, had a young cousin named Esther, whom he had adopted after the death of her parents and raised as if she were his own daughter. In fact, Mordecai had raised a young woman literally fit for a king, for Esther grew into a woman of extraordinary grace and beauty. Then one day Xerxes, the king of Persia, commanded that a search be made throughout all the provinces for the most beautiful women so that he could choose a new queen, a sort of Miss Persia pageant. Esther, above all others, found favor in the eyes of the king, and this young orphaned girl was crowned Queen of Persia. The king was so delighted with his new queen that he threw a magnificent banquet and even went so far as to lower all the taxes. Mr. President, I thought you would particularly like that part of the story. Meanwhile, Mordecai, out amongst the people, learned to his horror that one of the top men in government had developed a very careful plan to put to death all of God's people, the Jews, throughout the entire kingdom. Of course, Mordecai immediately thought of Esther and he sent an urgent message saying, Esther, you must do something.  But Esther wants no part of this. Her response to Mordecai, all the king's officials and the people of the royal provinces know that for any man or woman who approaches the king in the inner court without being summoned, the king has set but one law that he be put to death. The only exception to this is for the king to extend the golden scepter to him and spare his life. But 30 days have passed since I was called to go to the king. In other words, Esther is saying, Mordecai, you don't understand protocol. I have to follow standard operating procedures. Chances are that if I go to the king, I just might lose my head. Well, Mordecai has no sympathy with Esther's refusal to help. Tens of thousands of her own people stand to lose their heads. Mordecai feels compelled to send a second message to Esther. I once heard a very insightful pastor, Gordon MacDonald, highlight three distinct parts to this second appeal. Three profound challenges which strike at the heart of Esther's reluctance. First, Esther, think not that you'll escape this predicament any more than other Jews. You'll lose everything you have if this plan is carried out. All the comforts, all the fringe benefits. It seems that Mordecai is saying, if the thing that stops you from being a servant to thousands of people is your comfort and your security, understand it, lady, for you're no more secure in there than we are out here. Esther shares the predicament. The second theme is privilege. If you keep silent Esther at a time like this, deliverance and relief will arise from some other place. God has given you, Esther, the privilege to perform. If you don't use that privilege, he may permit you to be pushed aside and give your role to someone else. The third theme is providence. Mordecai says, Esther, who knows, but that God has placed you where you are for such a time as this. Finally, Mordecai's appeal struck home. Esther's response, go, gather together all the Jews and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish. That's total commitment. Indeed, the story of Esther is for me a very challenging and humbling one, for there came a time in my life when I had to confront what commitment to God is all about. My witness contains no road to Damascus experience. My spiritual journey began many years ago in a Carolina home where Sunday was the Lord's day, reserved for acts of mercy and necessity. And the gospel was as much a part of our lives as fried chicken and azaleas in the spring. My grandmother, Mom Cathy, who lived within two weeks of her hundredth birthday, was my role model. I remember many Sunday afternoons with other neighborhood children in her home, the lemonade and cookies. I think that's what enticed us. The Bible games, listening to Mom Cathy as she read from this Bible, which is now one of my most cherished possessions. She practiced what she preached and lived her life for others. In a tragic accident, Mom Cathy lost a son at the hands of a drunk driver. The insurance policy on his life built a hospital wing in a far-off church mission in Pakistan. Although Mom was not at all a wealthy woman, almost anything she could spare went to ministers at home and missions abroad. When it became necessary in her 90s to go into a nursing home, she welcomed the opportunity. I can still hear her saying, Elizabeth, there might be some people there who don't know the Lord, and I can read the Bible to them. I love to find her notes in the margin of her Bible, notes written in the middle of the night when she couldn't sleep. For example, I find by Psalm 139 this notation. May 22, 1952, 1 a.m. My prayer, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. I can't remember an unkind word escaping Mom's lips in all the years I knew her, or an ungracious deed marring her path. My grandmother was an almost perfect role model, and I wanted to be like her. From an early age I had an active church life, but as we move along, how often in our busy lives something becomes a barrier to total commitment of one's life to the Lord. In some cases it may be money, power, prestige. In my case, my career became of paramount importance. I worked very hard to excel to achieve. My goal was to do my best, which is all fine and well. But I'm inclined to be a perfectionist, and it's very hard, you know, to try to control everything, surmount every difficulty, foresee every problem, realize every opportunity. That can be pretty tough on your family, your friends, your fellow workers, and on yourself. In my case, it began crowding out what Mom Cathy had taught me were life's most important priorities. I was blessed with a beautiful marriage, a challenging career, and yet only gradually over many years did I realize what was missing. My life was threatened with spiritual starvation. I prayed about this, and I believe no faster than I was ready, God led me to people and circumstances that made a real difference in my life. I found Ed Bauman of Foundry Methodist Church, a tremendously sensitive, caring pastor, who helped me see what joy there can be when God is the center of life and all else flows from that center. A spiritual growth group gave me renewed strength as I began to meet each Monday night with others who shared my need to stretch and grow spiritually. And I was strengthened through Bible study with other Senate wives. I learned that Sundays can be set aside for spiritual and personal rejuvenation without disastrous effects on one's work week. And suddenly, the story of Esther took on new meaning. I finally realized I needed to hear and to heed those challenges Mordecai so clearly stated. Mordecai's first challenge, predicament. Don't think your life will be spared from the slaughter Esther.  It's a call to total commitment, to literally lay her life on the line. But I can sympathize with Esther's dilemma.  And when you get all those things around you, it can build up a resistance to anything which might threaten that comfort and security they seem to provide. I know all too well how she felt. Perhaps you do too. I enjoy the comfortable life.  I had God neatly compartmentalized. Crammed into a crowded file drawer of my life somewhere between gardening and government. That is until it dawned on me that I share the predicament. That the call to commitment Mordecai gave to Esther is like the call which Jesus Christ presents to me. If anyone would come after me, Jesus tells us, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world yet forfeit his soul? Hard words to swallow when you're busy doing your own thing. But the most compelling logic I've ever heard. For if Christ is who he says he is, our Savior, the central figure in all of history, who gives meaning to a world of confusing, conflicting priorities, then I had to realize Christ could not be compartmentalized. It would be different if I had believed that Jesus was just a man, as some do. Then I could easily have compartmentalized him. Or if I had believed he was just a good teacher of morals, then perhaps I could have just put his book away on my shelf. Or if I had thought he was just a prophet, even then I might have been tempted to file him away. But I knew that Jesus Christ was my Lord and my Savior, the risen Lord who lives today, sovereign over all, and I knew it was time to cease living life backwards. Time to strive to put Christ first, preeminent, with no competition at the very center of my life.  And God accepted my resignation. Mordecai's second challenge was privilege. If you don't take this privilege seriously, Esther, God will give it to another. This too was a challenge I needed to hear. What God had to teach me was this. It is not what I do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through me. God doesn't want worldly successes. He wants me. He wants my heart in submission to him. Life is not just a few years to spend on self-indulgence and career advancement. It's a privilege, a responsibility, a stewardship to be lived according to a much higher calling, God's calling. This alone gives true meaning to life. Mordecai's warning to Esther is sobering. God forbid that someday I look back and realize I was too distracted by things of this world, too busy, too driven, and my work was given to another. The third challenge, providence.  What Mordecai's words say to me is that each one of us has a unique assignment in this world given to us by sovereign God to love and to serve those within our own sphere of influence. We've been blessed to be a blessing. We've received that we might give. The challenges Esther needed to hear were challenges I needed to hear and continually need to hear. The call to total commitment. But there is one last lesson I had to learn from Esther. The way in which her heart responded. Esther called on her fellow believers to pray and to fast. And then she cast herself, indeed, her very life upon God in dependence on him. If I perish, I perish. And how did God work in this situation? What was the outcome of Esther's commitment and dependence on God? Scripture tells us that the king extended the golden scepter, sparing Esther's life that his heart went out to her cause and that God's people were gloriously rescued. Esther could have played it on her own wits and charm and just left God out of the picture. But she knew her cause would only succeed if God were with her and she rallied others to join her in a spirit of humble dependence through prayer. It has struck me that this is really our purpose in gathering together this morning at this, the annual National Prayer Breakfast. We have come to humbly acknowledge our dependence on God. We have come as our invitations to this event state to seek the Lord's guidance and strength in our individual lives and in the governing of our nation with the hope that the power of Christ may deepen our fellowship with one another. But in this city accustomed to giving directions, it's not easy to seek them instead. Dependence on God is not an easy thing for Washington type achievers and it has not been easy for me. Often I find myself faced with tasks demanding wisdom and courage beyond my own and not just on the big decisions. I am constantly in need of God's grace to perform life's routine duties with the love for others, the peace, the joy inherent in God's call. I've had to learn that dependence is a good thing, that when I've used up my own resources, when I can't control things and make them come out my way, when I'm willing to trust God with the outcome, when I'm weak, then I'm strong. Then I'm in the best position to feel the power of Christ rest upon me, encourage me, replenish my energy and deepen my faith. Power from God, not from me. Yes, the story of Esther is actually a story of dependence. It's a story not about the triumph of a man or a woman, but the triumph of God. He is the real hero of this story. And in the same way I've come to realize there can be only one hero in my story too, God and Jesus Christ. Total commitment to Christ is a high and difficult calling, and one I will struggle with the rest of my days. But I know that for me it's the only life worth living, the only life worthy of our Lord. The world is ripe and ready, I believe, for men and women who will accept this calling. Men and women who recognize they are not immune from the predicaments of the day. Men and women who are willing to accept the privilege of serving, and who are ready to see that the providence of God may have brought them to such a time as this. Thank you and God bless you. Secretary Doyle, thank you for a most inspiring personal testimony. Ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honor for me to present to you someone who is deeply loved and respected, the President of the United States. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. Distinguished clergy and senators and congressmen, guests, all our good friends, Nancy and I are delighted to be here with you today. It gives one a very good feeling to see so many of our national leaders here and so many representatives of other countries gathering together in a community of faith. Two hundred years ago, another group of statesmen gathered together in Philadelphia to revise the Articles of Confederation and bring forth our Constitution. They often found themselves at odds, their purpose lost in acrimonious self-interest, until Benjamin Franklin stood up and said, I have lived a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? And then he called upon the convention to open each day with prayer. How, with so much against them, could our founding fathers have dared so much? To declare for all the world and all future generations the rights of man, the dignity of the individual, the hopes of all humanity. Was it because they believed that God was on their side, or was it because they prayed to discover how they might be on God's side? Our founding fathers knew that their hope was in prayer, and that's why our Declaration of Independence begins with an affirmation of faith, and why our Congress opens every day with prayer. It is why the first Congress of the fledgling United States in the Northwest Ordinance provided for schools that would teach, quote, religion, morality, and knowledge, because they knew that no man, no nation, could grow in freedom without divine guidance. If I might be allowed a personal note here, when I attended the commencement ceremonies at the Air Force Academy, I was surprised at how many of the graduating cadets came up to me, hand extended 930 in all, and told me they were praying for me. When I mentioned this to the commanding general, he told me that every morning you could find several hundred cadets in the chapel, beginning their day with prayer. Hardly a day goes by that I'm not told, sometimes in letters, and sometimes by people I meet, that they're praying for me. It's a warm but humbling feeling. Sometimes I answer when someone says that, I feel I have to say something, and I tell them that if they ever get a busy signal, it's because I'm in there ahead of them. I grew up in a home where I was taught to believe in intercessory prayer. I know it's those prayers and millions like them that are building high and strong this cathedral of freedom that we call America. Those prayers and millions like them that will always keep our country secure and make her a force for good in these two troubled times. And that's why a nation, as a nation we must embrace our faith for as long as we endeavor to do good and we must believe that will be always. We will find our strength, our hope, and our true happiness in prayer and in the Lord's will. I'd like to conclude with a story that is told by Dr. Paul Brand, the noted leprosy specialist in his book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. Dr. Brand tells us of how after World War II a group of German students, young people, volunteered to help rebuild a cathedral in England that had been a casualty of the Luftwaffe bombings. And as the work progressed, debate broke out and how best to restore a large statue of Jesus with his arms outstretched and bearing the familiar inscription, come unto me. Careful patching could repair all damage to the statue except for Christ's hands, which had been destroyed by bomb fragments. Should they attempt the delicate task of reshaping those hands? And finally the young workers reached a decision that still stands today. The statue of Jesus has no hands, but the inscription now reads, Christ has no hands but ours. Isn't that really what he was always trying to tell us? Trying to tell us that we must be the hands, as we've heard so eloquently here by so many already today. Well, thank you all. God bless you all. Thank you, Mr. President. I often wonder what visitors to the Capitol must think when they pass by the door of the House of Representatives members' prayer breakfast. And here are 50 or so Republicans and Democrats singing that wonderful Christian hymn, Bless Be the Tie that Binds. Our song leader in those breakfasts is the Honorable Danny Akaka of Hawaii. Will you please stand and join him in singing another well-known hymn, the words of which are printed in your program, Amazing Grace. Remain standing after the song for prayer. Let us express our faith and our commitment in this song. We'll sing the second verse without accompaniment and we'll modulate into a higher key for the third verse. Let's sing together Amazing Grace. Ladies and gentlemen, we close this time of fellowship with a prayer by a man whose entire life has been devoted to a single cause, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. No one has done it with greater dedication or greater impact. After the prayer, please remain in your places until the President and Mrs. Reagan and Vice President and Mrs. Bush have had an opportunity to leave. For our closing prayer, Dr. Billy Graham. Thank you, Dan, President Reagan, Mrs. Reagan, Vice President Bush, Mrs. Bush, distinguished guest. Patrick Henry wrote in his will, I have now disposed of all my property to my family. There's one thing more I wish I could give them and that is faith in Jesus Christ. If they had that and I had not given them one shilling, they would be rich. And if I had not given them that and I'd given them all the world, they would be poor indeed. Our faith has been encouraged this morning. I've been to every one of these prayer breakfasts since the first one, except two. And I believe this is one of the most moving that I have attended in all these years. We're grateful for all of those that have participated and led us and we leave here the richer for it. And I'm going to ask that we have a moment of silent prayer and let us pray, not only for the leaders of the nation and the world, but let us pray for those that are hostages, our friend Terry Waite and others that are trying to do something and for all of those that are in need of prayer today that may be in prisons or wherever and pray for ourselves and our families. In just one moment of silent prayer and then I'll say just a brief benediction. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance unto thee and give thee peace. Let us go in peace. This has been a great morning. Mr. President and Mrs. Reagan, Mr. Vice President and Mrs. Bush, we thank you for being with us. And we thank all of you for your participation here this morning. May each of us leave here with joy in our hearts and a renewed commitment to serve the God who made us and who loves us.


Off the shores of the Republic of Singapore, a Singaporean crew and craft make their way for a drop zone, which takes us to Gunnery Sergeant Hunter Sorals. He's come with Marines and U.S. sailors from the Third Reconnaissance Battalion to work with the Republic of Singapore's Navy Underwater Demolition Group right now. That has him as a safety insert officer on the radio trying to contact incoming colleagues. This is a helocast, one of the various methods of insertions that sandfisher focuses on, used for times when small crafts aren't conducive for getting a recon team where they need to be, as Gunnery Sergeant Sorals watches and maintains radio contact with the Chinook. Finally, the first set of divers make their way for the water, which in turn is quickly followed by the safety boat, getting the Singaporean divers on the craft with help from their U.S. diving partners. Petty Officer Justin Whiteman, Singaporean Camp, Republic of Singapore.


Pentagon considers providing striker combat vehicles to Kiev. The U.S. Department of Defense is considering the possibility of providing striker armoured combat vehicles to Kiev. Politico wrote, citing Pentagon sources, According to the news outlet, Washington believes that the vehicles could help Ukraine fend off an unexpected Russian spring offensive. The strikers may be part of the next tranche of military aid that could be announced next week. However, no final decision has been made. The news outlet noted, citing the sources, Washington and Berlin issued a joint statement following the January 5 phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, saying that the United States intends to supply Ukraine with Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and Germany intends to provide Ukraine with Mada infantry fighting vehicles. According to the Pentagon's estimates, since the onset of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, the U.S. has provided over $24.2 billion in military aid to Kiev. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other Russian officials have repeatedly pointed out that Western weapons provided to Ukraine might end up in other parts of the world. Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov warned that the West's militarisation of Ukraine posed a direct threat to European and global security.