Welcome to International Hawaii. I'm your host Cindy Matsuki. International Hawaii showcases local import and export businesses to help others new to the industry. It's such a complex industry. So the more advice we can share, the better. Today, my guest is Chris Pierce, founder of World Sake Imports. They're a local import company and an FTZ-9 tenant. Hey, Chris. Thanks for joining me. Thank you. So I wanted to ask you about World Sake Imports. Could you briefly tell me when and how you got started? Well, you know, Hawaii has a deep history with sake. And the first sake brewery outside Japan was made in Hawaii in 1908. Yeah. And it was the leading business of the Japanese community here before the war. And after the war, it started up again. And they were lucky enough to have an amazing technician, research technician come from Japan to help them learn to make sake again. And it kind of like thrived after the war. And it kind of like generated a sort of a community of sake lovers, you know, the sake drinkers. I was actually the founding member of the International Sake Association in Hawaii in 1984 was when it started. And through that, I got to know Nihesan. And you know, we would have events and we would bring sake back from Japan and we would enjoy it, you know, and think it was great. But we could never get sake like that in Hawaii. The regular importers at that time, they just won't eat that kind of sake here. They would usually ship it to LA in an unrefrigerated container and it would stay there and unrefrigerated warehouse. And by the time I got to Hawaii, it was in bad shape. And I would just sit in a warehouse here. So, you know, sake is quite delicate, so you can't treat it that way. And so I kind of got the idea to just start bringing some sake in here because we couldn't get good sake in Hawaii. I didn't have a big business plan. It was more for personal reasons. I just want to bring more in. That's kind of helpful. But I think we registered as a company in 1998 and we brought our first shipment into Honolulu in 1999 for I think it was for a moon viewing party that we had at the Japanese consulate here. So that was kind of the kickoff. I think our first shipment was maybe 60 cases or so. And these days we probably move around maybe 3,500 cases per month. So the 60 cases? Did that come by air? No, it can't. It was shipped up by sea. And at that time, we probably started with FTZ at that time. I'm pretty sure they were there for us from the very first shipment. And so we brought it into FTZ and although they don't have refrigeration, they do have a cool area because of the refrigeration. So that was good. And yeah, we couldn't have started here without more trade funds. We're very grateful to them. Oh, that's awesome. That's great. How did you navigate just the importing when you first started? The importing is not so bad. You just have to have a license to import alcohol. It has a federal license. And then you have to have a state license in Hawaii to sell the alcohol. So those are the two things that are required. But on the Japan site, because the exports, when the stock is exported to Japan, documents have to be filed with the National Tax Administration. Because taxes are assessed, the sake brewers in Japan, they have to pay an alcohol tax. But that's waived when it's exported. It's kind of like an induced birth. All that paperwork has to be done and all that tax deferment has to be calculated. And it's not the kind of thing you can do yourself. You have to have an agent in Japan to do that. So we do have a very good agent in Japan and sort of a family friend. And they took that part over. But we were able to do the Japanese side quite well and the US side quite well. And we had been introduced to the brewers by the wife of Takawa Nihie, the brewmaster I told you about earlier, who'd become a close friend. And so when we said that we wanted to bring good sake in Hawaii, she said, okay, I can make some connections for you. And she did and she connected us with a few of the most famous breweries in Japan. And I guess it's just how it is if you have introduction from someone that is respected, goes a long way. So that's what helped us connect with the breweries that we represent now. That's amazing. And so the technician moved to Hawaii from Japan? Yeah, it's an amazing story. You want to read more about it. You can go to the Honohou website. They have this issue has an article about it. There's even a video. But yeah, he was the one that was appointed to go to Hawaii in 1954. Because after the war, they couldn't make the sake well anymore. Too many of the people that had worked in it had retired, the equipment hadn't been used for a long time. And sake means working with microorganisms. And so starting everything from scratch wasn't easy and they could have made good sake here. And so they brought Nihesan over to be their consultant.  And it wasn't confident that he could solve all the problems, but it's amazing what he did. And he was the one that developed the kind of techniques for making sake from California rice that were later followed by the big Japanese breweries when they went to California. And he had lots of innovations that he did so that he became famous in Japan as a researcher. And it was actually, you know, given a big award and everything. And so yeah, that was, you know, that sake was such a big part of Hawaii in those years and it still is today. Wow. Did a specific sake company bring him over? Yeah, it was at that time after the war, the only one that started up after only one that was big enough. And during the war, they had made shoyu, they made miso, you know, they made other things just to keep going. But after the war, they wanted to get right back to Tokyo and they make it on a big scale. They were selling a lot of it and not only in Hawaii, but they exported to California too. And sold a lot of it. It was a big business. And so they needed somebody that could do it on a large scale. Okay. So when you say you found your suppliers from your connections, and then how do you find the buyers? Like who are you selling your sake to? Mostly to restaurants, you know, in our case. Although because of COVID, now we're respecting the stores a lot more, you know, the retail stores because so many more, more people are, you know, drinking at home. Oh yeah. We started out the companies that and in Hawaii, there's a lot of Japanese owned Japanese restaurants. I mean, you don't always find that if you go to a city on the mainland, they might be Japanese restaurant, but maybe the owner's not there. But here, the Japanese owners were here and they recognize the names, the breweries that we represented because they were famous, you know, Masumi, De La Zacura, Koshinokamai, these types of breweries were well known, you know, to anybody. And so we didn't have much problem meeting with them. And also because we were bringing the sake into Hawaii in a in a reefer container, so it was refrigerated. And we were selling it quickly. The sake was in amazing fresh condition. And there was a comparison between our sake, other sake that were available for the distributors. So we quickly established the sake. Wow, that's such a great story. And did you, how did you find the restaurants? Or did they find you? Or did you kind of go door to door?  And you know, you get the best way we found is to kind of concentrate on the best restaurants that are respected by other restaurant people. So if there's someone, someone like that, then, you know, if they carry it, then others say, okay, well, yeah, and then it is a word of mouth. Must be okay, you know. So we started out with Furusato restaurant.  They had four restaurants at that time. They still have the oldest Japanese restaurant in Hawaii. So it's left, it's on Kalakaua right at the corner of the Hyatt. You can see. So it's called Furusato. It's the oldest Japanese restaurant on Oahu, as far as I know. And but at the time, they had other ones too. And they, they, they right away, you know, got all the stuff. That was the start for us. That's amazing. And then are you guys now exporting anywhere? We, we have offices in New York and in San Francisco and in London. And we have sales representatives working with home office or the home offices in Miami and Las Vegas. So yeah, we've kind of expanded. Probably, probably 85 or 90% of the sales are now outside of Hawaii because those are much bigger markets. That's amazing. And is it pretty much the same importing from Japan to these different locations? Pretty much. I mean, once you, once we started exporting to New York, we didn't send it from Hawaii to New York. We would arrange a direct shipment. And that, that was okay.  Teamsters on the West Coast, that's happened a few times. You know, and so then it just backs up everything. Makes delays. And right now, you probably know, there's an international shipping notebook. There's a charge of containers. Our shipments now are at least five, our shipments to New York and to the West Coast are five weeks late. Oh, you know, they kind of arrive and when it actually arrives, it's like five minutes later. And it's probably not going to get any better for a few months. So that creates enormous problems because, you know, you have people wanting to order sake and they can't do it. And then once the shipment finally arrives, you have so many back orders that it depletes all your inventory and you're, you're out of things again, you know, just after the boat arrived. Wow. That's kind of what's going on right now. But it has a, Hawaii, Hawaii seems to be a little bit protected, you know, because it's, it's, I don't think it feeds into the international shipping schedule quite, quite as much. It seems they go back and forth in Hawaii and Japan, you know. And so that's been fairly regular, but even so, they canceled all the April ship to Hawaii. So there's no shipments coming in Hawaii in April from Japan. Wow. But I know what, you know. Who is your shipper that ships direct from Japan to Hawaii? They consolidated recently that the ocean network, something like that. Oh, one. One, yeah. But they're like a monopoly. And formed by a consolidation of three, three Japanese shippers. Now they're owned out of Singapore and the service is really deteriorated, but it's not the same level of Japanese attention and service that existed back. Oh, it's too bad. But any business has its head. And it's, yeah, I think the number of shippers that will come direct to Hawaii is minimal. Yeah, maybe they'd only want. I heard about one coming from Hokkaido. A ship comes from Hokkaido and brings rice. I guess there's other ones too. Yeah. But not, it's hard to find. Oh, we have a question from one of our viewers. They're asking, is your main market demographic Japanese people? Or do other? No, it's not. Maybe in the beginning it was more that way. But now I think it's really, sake has been accepted, not only in Hawaii, but, you know, in main markets, energy, you know, they all have a lot of good Japanese restaurants. Anybody that walks into a Japanese restaurant, I mean, they're kind of like positive orientations who order sake, right? Yeah. So it's really the Americans that are driving. It has a self-sustaining momentum, self-sustaining growth momentum. You know, it's interrupted by things like COVID, but normally it's been growing by 8, 10, 12% a year for a long time. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, what a great market to be in. And I wanted to ask for our new importers, did you ever have any problems with your import shipments coming in? Do you have any horror stories about anything getting held up?  That's good. I really haven't. There's horror stories, but they had nothing to do with what happened to the sake after, you know, how it landed in Hawaii. We haven't had any problems with customs, really, and nothing's ever been held up. We're quite happy, you know. I love that our, even though we sell sake in the United States and Europe, I'm really happy that our headquarters. That is great. So is it a growing thing in Europe? Yeah. We just opened a world sake imports EU, a perfect timing right before the pandemic. So it's kind of on hold right now, but we have everything in place. We have a company. It's in Germany that our branch company is registered and all the paperwork is fine. We're registered as a German corporation. We have a warehouse that we have refrigerators. We have delivery and we have scale first. So it's all on hold right now for COVID. Huh. That's amazing. We are going to take a short break and this is International Hawaii on ThinkTech and we'll be right back. Hi, welcome back to International Hawaii. I'm Cindy Matsuki, your host and my guest today is Chris Pierce. He is the founder of the World Sake Import Import Company in Hawaii and we're talking about how he's established his business and found his customers, but he also has another business that he also runs and I have no idea how he manages his time, but you also publish and run Honohou Magazine. This is the magazine that you can find in Hawaiian Airlines. Yeah. We were always in the publishing business first. We had a magazine in Hawaii. I started doing magazines in Hawaii in the early 80s. Wow. So this is before the whole sake thing. Yeah, before the whole sake. So that's actually how I met Nihesan. I think a Japanese reporter took me up to visit him one time. So yeah, I've always done magazines and I like having, I think when you live in a place like Hawaii, which is so dependent on things that happen in other parts of the world, that it's good to have two businesses somehow managing, you know. This was told by me, but our first distributor was on Guam for World Sake Import. And he told me, he said, Chris, it's really a good idea to have two businesses. He said, we have two businesses. We have one in Guam and we have one in Saipan. And when the typhoon, it's Saipan, wipes everything out, we still got Guam. When the typhoon, it's Guam and wipes it out, we got Saipan. I never forgot that, you know. And I think it's pretty good advice, actually, you know, to try to, if you can, you know, try to hedge your businesses. So we thought we were going to kind of get out of publishing and just concentrate on the world sake, but then Hawaiian Airlines kind of like knew about us and approached us about their inflight magazine. And then, we decided we were going to do it. So we've been doing it for the last 21, 22 years. That's amazing. I love the magazine. I mean, I don't know how you find like those specific stories that are so amazing. Yeah, we've never repeated a story. It just goes to show you what kind of a place Hawaii is. How many experiences there are here and how deep and rich the culture is. It's just endless. I was going to ask, like, how do you maintain your relationship with your suppliers? Like, are you in Japan a lot visiting? Well, yeah, I'm usually going there. I would probably go four times a year, four times a year. I always visit each group at least once a year. But we're good friends by now. You know, it's not all of them.  And so, it just, it's just a really, really good relationship every single one of them. I think they just hired us as part of their company office. That's wonderful. And then you mentioned how the pandemic has kind of slowed restaurants down. And how did you, how did you change the business? Well, that was, yeah, we, like everybody else, we didn't really see it coming. You know, January, February, but then, then in March, by end of March, it was starting to hit big time, right? New York and our major markets are California and New York. And they both then just got slammed. And then by the last 10 days of March, the sales were getting down. And then, and then by, by February, February and April, we were probably just 15% of our money. So we applied for the PPP funding. We got it, you know, and so that enabled us to keep everybody on salary. And the salespeople that depended on commission, we put them all on salary. But we didn't have to let anybody go. Wow, that's great. We've just, and then we tried every way we could to try to, you know, get sales from the out of the situation that was there. If they only have takeout, we would have to take out menu for something too, you know, if they wanted to, especially we would make it. You know, we always had something going on promotion. And actually that reacted to our benefit because people really appreciate the effort that we made to help, you know, to try to find some way, you know, to move that. And now that we're lifting up, I mean, we're seeing like a lot of business just pour back. This month, this March is a big month for us. Oh, great. That's good. How far ahead do you have to plan, like a month or two months, as far as, you know, ordering? Order, from the time we order the saute to the time we get the saute, if it's like New York, let's say, or West Coast, it'll probably be about three months. And then, yeah, it's a long period for the ordering, right? You have to order it and then the brewery has to deliver it and it's got to stay in Japan for a while, while various people and stuff like that. So by the time we, by the time, from when we order it to when we sell it, I would say it's probably about four months before we turn it around, you know, that kind of thing. Wow. So were you ready? Like, did you kind of predict around now is when business would start picking up again? And so you've been kind of, I kind of thought it would get better in March. In March, yeah, but I mean, I didn't think it would get this. There's clearly a lot of pent up demand, you know, and that's one thing is the, I think with sake, you know, with something that people go out to restaurants to have a good time, you know, as soon as they can get back to that, they're gonna want to get back to that. You know, they're gonna want to go out to a restaurant. Maybe they form the habit, you know, over the last eight months of, or last year, actually, of not going out, you know, and it's going to take them a little while to start going back to restaurants. It's not a habit anymore. Apple will be reestablished, you know, maybe by June or so. I think I feel like May and June, April and May are going to be kind of like intermediary months. But if the vaccine keeps rolling out like it is, and if no really crazy variant, you know, diseases pop up, it should be really, really strong economy. Yeah, I hope so. Just taking the evidence of how much people want to drink, you know, which I think is a good indication. Did you see an increase in, like, not restaurant, but store sales? Like, do you distribute to? We went out, we got a lot more, stores would contact us, we contacted more stores, we got a lot more retail customers, and the percentage of the retail sales went up significantly compared to the restaurants, so that's probably not going to change.  Asake, you know, it's now established, you know, it's now part of life in the United States. And it never really quite seems to happen, you know. It always seems to be like this fringe thing that people get just when they go to Japanese restaurants. But as a result of this pandemic, it might worry what very well would have happened, you know, this thing, you know, we'll see, you know, but, you know, because of buying it into retail stores and stuff. So it's not, you know, Sake is really great. I mean, and the more you learn about it, the more you appreciate it. As you drink a variety of soft drinks, you know, from many different breweries, you know, that are always in, like, perfect condition, you know. People really get into that, you know, and they want to learn more about it, you know, try different ones. So it's, education is always been a big part of our, you know, mission, if you will.  We don't do it ourselves, no. Okay. We've never got around to it.  And just because, just because you're able to, you know, put your own Sake's online, you know, at a reasonable price, it may be going to range to ship it. That doesn't mean you have to do all the other things.   Yeah, that's true. Better to have larger customers with less orders, but larger orders. Yeah, we continue to work with lots and lots of restaurants. That makes sense. What are, what are some of the biggest challenges that World Sake faces? Like is it hiring or is it shipping? Well, really the, the worst thing that could happen is foreign exchange. So for example, during the, during the meltdown, financial meltdown in 2008, 2009, that just slaughtered the dollar, you know. So nowadays, with, with one dollar, right, with one dollar, we can buy 110 yen worth of Sake, you know. Now in those days, with one dollar, you could only buy 80 yen worth. Wow. A week a dollar worth.   That's one of the good things about, you know, being in business for a long time.  Wow. Foreign exchange can really slam the, and it's not going to escape. It coincides with a bad economy in the whole country. That's why, you know, that's why the dollar is weak. Wow. That is tough. Any advice that you would share to somebody just starting out? I think it's great to love your product if you can, you know. You know, so you have that natural enthusiasm and that you like talking to people about it, share it, you know.  What do you do? You get to buy this great stuff that I have, you know. It's going to make your business better. It's going to improve quality of your, you know, of what you sell, you know. I think, you know, you want to be able to communicate that kind of enthusiasm. At least in the consumer area that we are in. That's great advice. I love that. Where can people find out more about your stocking, your company, and your events? We have a website, worldsocket.com. We're very involved in the joy of sake. That's the world's biggest sake event outside Japan that's held every year. It's been held in Hawaii for 20 years now. It started in 2001. We couldn't have it last year because of the pandemic, you know. It just, it wasn't allowed, but we're hopeful to have that one. So, that's it. That's the amazing, incredible sake event. Usually there's 500 different sake, all of which you can taste if you want. I need to go to that. It's absolutely sake, and there's usually about 20 restaurants that prepare sake. Are you planning to host it this year? Yeah, we can't wait. As soon as the governor loosens up, you know, that's his public events again. We'll schedule for sure. Yeah, it's at the convention center. That's where we have it. That's great. In the ballroom. Definitely let me know about that. I'll help share the news. Okay, I appreciate that. Chris, I want to thank you so much for all your advice and sharing stories on International Hawaii with me.  And we'll see you next time on International Hawaii and thank you. Okay, thank you so much for inviting me. I enjoyed it. Thanks, Chris.


Who am I? I'm Sebastian Ko. I'm chairman of the Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London in 2012. I think the Olympics is compelling because of its scale. I think the spirit and the history behind it and the fact that there is no organisation, no gathering political or otherwise that includes 250 countries all under pretty much the same roof at the same time. It is beyond any sporting comparison and in large part beyond any other comparison. The public come to an Olympic Games because they know it's different and they also know that they're not only going to see extraordinary sport. That tends to happen when you have the world's best athletes together competing. But I think they also know they're going to see extraordinary feats physical and mental as well. And there's a massive well of humanity that runs through this and what gathering on equal terms pitches American runners against competitors from Burundi. It's just the breadth of that engagement and I think they understand that they're part of something that is very, very special and only takes place every four years. My earliest recognition of the Games was actually before I'd even thought about competing. I remember the Tokyo Melody that the BBC ran back in 1964 so I was about nine years old then. And then in 1968 it became more profound because we were all marshaled into an assembly hall at my secondary school in Sheffield in an early morning of a late September. And the reason we were in there was to watch the performances highlighted packages but the performances the night before of Sheila Sherwood and John Sherwood, two husband and wife athletes in my home city who got the bronze medal in the four hurdles. John Sherwood and his wife narrowly missed out in the women's long jump and got the silver. And I remember watching this and I couldn't really articulate it any more than the fact that I just instinctively at that moment knew this is what I wanted to do. I then joined the Athletics Club that they were members of. I queued for nearly three hours to wait for them to come back as conquering heroes with their medals. And two years later Sheila gave me the first pair of running spikes I took to an English schools track championship. So the 1968 games I couldn't have properly understood the athletic feats that I was watching but I certainly understood that this was something that was really rather different from anything I'd seen before. It's very difficult to describe an Olympic Games all that experience without sort of winding the clock back a year from the moment that you hear you've got selection. Because that in itself is quite an interesting year. You know that you're probably with a bit of luck and some judgment and hard training going to make the games. But it's training from Olympic Games is a knife edge occupation. You know you're training hour by hour. You're reading the signs of overuse and potential injury. And of course it's not as though you're heading for the average season. You know that in the course of your career there may only be possibly one opportunity to do this and at very best too. And if you're extraordinarily lucky you might be born in the right year to perhaps get three of them. So when I got to Moscow it was actually almost the relief of getting there. Because of course the year before we'd been mired in the political arguments about whether it was appropriate for a British Olympic team to be present at a games in Moscow. Given that the Soviet Union had just only a few months earlier invaded Afghanistan. The world doesn't change that often and in great ways.  And the British Olympic Association as an autonomous body stood firm against the view of the government of the day. And so it wasn't just about managing my first major championship. It was also about managing some of the extraneous events that really were beyond my control. I tried at all times and my coaches tried at all times to keep this simple. That actually this isn't an Olympic Games but it's the same physical principle. You have to start at a point and you have to get across the line ideally before anybody else. And you have to think your way through it and don't let the enormity of the occasion take you down into cul-de-sacs and mentally become blind to the things that you would automatically do without even thinking about it at Crystal Palace or in my case up in Yorkshire or even international events. Don't let the moment get you. It's very much easier said than done because of course in the 800 meters I made probably every cardinal sin it was possible to commit in the space of a minute and 45 seconds and paid a very high price for that. But when you are running on that track you are all the time trying to tell yourself this is no different from how you would approach a race at Crystal Palace. Only you've got President Brezhnev and 100 heads of state sitting in the stadium watching you at the same time. I think having lost the 800 meters and not that I was beaten by Steve Avet and most people think this was my irritation afterwards or my disappointment was solely based on the fact I'd been beaten by Steve. Actually that was irrelevant. I knew on that day I'd actually underperformed. Steve actually is a very good close friend of mine now. I would have been just as disappointed had I been beaten by a German or a Kenyan or an American. It was just that I knew on that day of all days I had underperformed. So pulling the knitting together over the next three days before stepping back onto the track to challenge him again over a distance that he was frankly unbeaten for in nearly 42 outings over that distance actually was probably the best thing to have happened because I just wanted to finish the 1500 meters and not necessarily winning it but knowing that I never wanted to walk off a track feeling as disappointed because I had so underperformed as I did in the 800. And that was my template. I knew that I just wanted to finish that race knowing that if somebody's in front of me it's because they're fitter, younger, faster, mentally more agile. Not that I had sort of fallen 10% short of what I was capable of. I was once asked by a journalist what the difference between sport and politics is and I joked, once joked that the difference, that sport and politics have two great similarities. Firstly, you get injuries in both activities but rarely in sport are they inflicted by your own teammates. So there are, I mean politics is quite a brutal process and I think that the ability to be a self-starter in both activities is really quite key. In sport as in politics there are lots of things that you do by instinct and learning the hard way in sport to come through a system, understand it, understand the processes understand that from time to time you're working with a coach who's going to be supremely critical about what you do and good athletes crave criticism because it makes them better athletes over the course of the coming season. All those things actually I think are quite useful. And sport gives you, the one thing I'm always very grateful about sport is it gave me an insight into life that I probably would not have had for at least another 20 years had I not been involved in sport and the best example of that is by the age of 24 I'd competed in every Iron Curtain country. So when I'm listening to some of my peers at the time talking in abstract about the Cold War and with great certainty I was actually able to sit there and think I've practically experienced what that means to be on that side of the fence and I think there were things that certainly sport gave me that have helped certainly in what I did in politics. I've got many many friends around the world who have come from sport into politics the great mistake actually is to conclude that they've gone into politics as a thought after sport most of us have actually not been actively political but most of us actually had our political commitment forged during our sporting career and maybe because of it. I went to Singapore to pitch to bring the games back to this country the first time in 64 years driven by my Sheffield experience knowing full well that at the age of 12 I was exposed to something which changed the way I just viewed the world and whether that's in art whether it's in sciences whether it's in sport that is what we should as a nation always try to achieve and the opportunity to expose young people specifically in sport to the greatest exponents of their generation in sport in their own backyard I think harness properly can change the way we view sporting participation in this country and also be a fantastic bridgehead into other areas of activity that sport has so consistently accessed in a really profound way I will go to my grave knowing that the most potent social worker in all our communities is sport it's been doing it for a hundred years it will go on doing it for a hundred years I think by having the Olympic and Paralympic Games here we just give a helping hand to all those people that are out there doing this all the time the other legacy that we are determined to pursue is that through the Paralympic Games I think we can genuinely change public attitudes towards disability and the way the public view disability if you look at what Paralympic athletes are doing they're doing something that 99% of the so-called able bodied community can't get within a mile of so I think that already disability is deserving of redefinition I think the Paralympic Games can give that a real practical nudge is it the taking part or is it the winning? I think it's both I think it's both from where I sit now as president of an organizing committee the greatest driver of participation in sport is the well stockshot window the Chris Hoyes, the Kelly Holmes, the Tani Gray-Thompsons who encourage more people by dint of their own herculean efforts into that sport but you also need the structures in place that encourage people just to want to take part and I think that I don't see these things as being mutually exclusive I think they come together in one narrative I'm going to feel very proud of having ridden both bicycles one of the great advantages I have in helping organize a Games is I see it through any number of prisons I've been a working journalist I'm the vice president of the International Federation I've worked in the International Olympic Committee but fundamentally I am a runner I'm born from sport so being able to look at this through the eyes of a former athlete I think makes the Games a better chance of the Games being a better spectacle for the athletes and occasionally when I see old footage it just frankly makes me feel older by the day it sort of carbon dates you really I want the Games to be a shop window for the extraordinary creativity of this country the extraordinary diversity of this country our sporting heritage our broader historical impact on the world I want people to feel proud that we have staged the Games and that we have been given the opportunity to showcase and provide bridgeheads for so many other areas of activity I want more young people involved in all sorts of things that they would never have dreamt of doing had we come back empty handed from Singapore


Silicene is a two-dimensional material composed of silicon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. It is highly conductive and can be manipulated using electric fields. Silicene-based optical MOSFETs, metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors, are proposed as a promising tool for optical integration due to their small size, low insertion loss, infinite extinction ratio, and high quality factor. This article was offered by Hamday Mominijad, Alimea, Sinab Loris Thaneways, and others.


From Soldiers Radio and Television, this is the Army Now. Soldiers of the 427th Field Artillery Regiment are sending rounds downrange. The 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team Soldiers are conducting a live-fire exercise as part of the Network Integration Evaluation, or NIE 12.2, a semiannual capabilities assessment of new military technology. The heavy metal batteries are firing 155mm shells from the M-777 Howitzer and the M-109 Paladin, using live ammunition to keep the training as realistic as possible. I always have to say proficient at your M-11s. You can train all you want in the motor pool, dry fire, but it's not real training unless you actually get to do your job, shoot live in the field environment. As heavy metal soldiers experience the tests, there's just no substitute for the real thing. Army Sergeant Brian Spradlin, Fort Bliss, Texas. This is the Army Now.


Well, moving on now, a seven-day creative festival is set to heat the city of Lagos come February next year. This is expected to bring together all the creatives and talents in Nigeria, fashioning them into unique champions. A creative industry group who paid a cut to visit the Plus TV Africa said the festival is in the bid to take a number of youths out of the street and encourage them to harness T.S. Kills. Jacinta Obukuhasmoor. Plus TV Africa played host to a creative group. The mission is simple. To lay bare their plans on the first of its kind festival, seven days in Lagos, from the 7th to 13th of February 2022. What creative industry will bring to the government? Oye cannot bring it. It's just that our leaders, they don't know this and we're trying to educate them to let them know that creative industry is bigger than oil. And that is why we put up a festival that has never happened before to bring all the youth to bring everyone within the creative space together to have one festival. We are working behind the time to ensure that we meet these things by the board and redirect and really educate them because part of the festival I get is to run the talent fund, which will produce three winners that will go home with three vehicles, three cars, and then we also will take contract, you know, contract. We realize that there's need lapse in the setting of our culture. Rather than setting, we're trying to import other people's culture whereas our parents should be to promote ours. So it's a very important activity that we think should be properly established and especially in bringing young people into accepting and contributing towards the cultural development of Nigeria. The managing director of PLOS TV Africa, Lekon Ugunbao, while acknowledging the guests, stress their idea is necessary and timely. Nothing beats a good idea whose time has come. I believe that this is the kind of event we should be promoting and believe it's also the kind of event we should be showcasing to the younger generation. Seriously, when you were talking about growing up, look, there are things we saw that up to today they have people, if you call me now I'll be saying yes. The one-week festival will showcase different activities like concerts, exhibitions, and awards, which we will take place at the Tafawa Balewa Square Lagos. Just enter Ubuuku for PLOS TV Africa. Fresh News Updates


The Shoazel Salty Bus Constituency Council has been mandated to pursue development in conjunction with residents. Harmadi Mark explains. The Shoazel Constituency Council saw the installment of new councillors to the local governing body. The council, formerly named the Shoazel Village Council, now holds the responsibility of governing and the development of the Shoazel Village and Salty Bus Community. Parliamentary representative for Shoazel Salty Bus addressing the newly installed councillors urged them to approach their positions on the council with due seriousness and preparedness by familiarizing themselves with the Constituency Council Act. And your foremost purpose as councillors and Shoazelians is to maintain a social conscience and serve that conscience. It should never, never just be warming a seat, never be warming a seat at council meetings and collecting a stipend. You must have the passion to put your community first and to have an intimate awareness of where vulnerability exists. And when I speak of vulnerability I do not only speak of residents but I also speak of residents, T and C. A priority for all councillors and the council should always be to unite Shoazelians. Permanent Secretary in the Department of Housing and Local Government, Dr. Kadeelia Lean Ambrose, encouraged councillors to engage in consultation with the various sectors in the Constituency as they work towards the development of Shoazel Salty Bus. Shoazel Salty Bus, a constituency renowned for its culture, heritage, resources and in particular the outstanding and unique craft which is produced right here. Once tapped into, will fulfill its optimum potential. We urge you additionally to create opportunities that will unify the various communities, embrace the farmers. Shoazel is known for its sweet potatoes among other agricultural produce. Embrace the fishers. Embrace the crafters. They are all part of the network that will work collectively towards the success of this constituency. John Preville was installed as Chairperson of the Constituency Council and Philomena Lafe as Deputy Chair. From the Government Information Service, Hilmidy Mock reporting.


Boris Johnson is currently under fire due to leaked texts sent between himself and British businessman James Dyson in the text. Johnson said he could fix a tax issue which Dyson claimed was a barrier to his firm entering the ventilator challenge during Britain's first wave of the pandemic. Now, Boris Johnson defended the texts. He said he was just doing everything in his power to get ventilators out in the middle of a pandemic, but it's difficult for them because obviously it seems at this point in time, like basically we have government by WhatsApp. If you're friends with the government, you can get stuff done. If you're not, you're going to struggle. Because this Dyson story was feeding into this narrative of sleaze, many people believe the Downing Street operation did something we call a dead cat strategy that's throwing a different dramatic revelation on the table so that newspapers talk about something else. And on Thursday night, so last night, they made the dramatic decision to point the finger at Dominic Cummings for making these leaks, for leaking the Dyson text. So they're saying, let's stop focusing on the contents of these leaks and start focusing on who's leaked them. And they said it's all Dominic Cummings. They said Dominic Cummings had not only leaked the texts with Dyson, but had also been the one to leak details of the October lockdown to Britain's newspapers. Now, if this was a dead cat strategy, if the aim was to distract from awkward issues about cronyism or sleaze, it worked. Cumming accused of leaking number 10 texts. The sun has gone for Boris Dom's a text maniac. And the Times went for Cummings is accused of leaking PM's texts. So they've completely shifted the news narrative, not to be about sleaze, but to be about personality and especially Dominic Cummings, someone the press loves to talk about in the short term successful. However, in the medium term, potentially starting a war with Dominic Cummings, someone who likes a battle and also has quite a lot of dirt on Boris Johnson, wasn't necessarily a great idea. So Dominic Cummings today wrote a blog published a blog, responding to the allegations, we're going to go through some of the claims he makes now he's rebuts the allegations one by one. So first of all, on the Dyson texts, he says, this is the text between Boris Johnson and James Dyson. I do have some WhatsApp messages between the PM Dyson forwarded to me by the PM. I have not found the ones that were leaked to Laura Coonsburg on my phone, nor am I aware of being sent them last year. I was not directly or indirectly a or the source for the BBC Coonsburg story on the PM Dyson texts. And later on in that section, he writes, I am happy to meet with the cabinet secretary and for him to search my phone for Dyson messages. If the PM did send them to me as he is claiming, then he will be able to show the cabinet secretary on his phone when they were sent to me, it will therefore be easy to establish at least if I was ever sent these messages. So Dominic Cummings sounds quite confident that he can clear his name on the issue of the Dyson texts. That would potentially be embarrassing for the PM because they'd brief something false. I mean, it'd be survivable, wouldn't it? There was a rebuttal to a second point, though, which could be pretty damaging for Boris Johnson, I think. This was the one, the claim that the Downing Street source made last night to so many newspapers that Dominic Cummings was not only the source of these Dyson, Boris Johnson texts, but also the source of a leak in October about a lockdown. So you might remember the situation. It was fairly dramatic. The government looked pretty weak and in crisis because they had a meeting about a lockdown. It got briefed to the papers instead of being told to us by the politicians. Everyone was pretty angry. Now, there was at the time an inquiry into this leak, and it was led by the cabinet secretary. So it's kind of the top civil servant in government. And Cummings is saying, look, this wasn't me because an inquiry was launched by the cabinet secretary and he cleared me. Not only did he clear me, you were in the meeting and in the meeting where we were in about that inquiry with the top civil servant, he said, it wasn't me, Dominic Cummings. It was actually Henry Newman. Now, Henry Newman, you might not have heard of him. He's a different advisor to Boris Johnson. So someone else who works in number 10. What happens next is interesting because Cummings writes that after Johnson was told this news, he said, or he was, he says, the PM was very upset about this. He said to me afterwards, if Newman is confirmed as the leaker, then I will have to fire him. And this will cause me very serious problems with Carrie as their best friends. Perhaps we could get the cabinet secretary to stop the leaking inquiry. So Boris Johnson essentially saying, look, there's an official investigation going on by a politically neutral civil servant into a matter of government. It's quite important who's leaking COVID policy before it's being delivered through the proper public health channels. And he's saying, oh, if we point the finger at that guy, it will upset my girlfriend. So therefore, let's quash the whole thing. Now, you might say, look, this is just one one person's word against another. Should we believe Dominic Cummings? He's obviously got an axe to grind. Let's go to what's next in the blog. Dominic Cummings writes, I told him that this was mad and totally unethical, that he had ordered the inquiry himself and authorized the cabinet secretary to use more invasive methods than are usually applied to leak inquiries because of the seriousness of the leak. I told him that he could not possibly cancel an inquiry about a leak that affected millions of people just because it might implicate his girlfriend's friends. I refused to try to persuade the cabinet secretary to stop the inquiry. And instead, I encouraged the cabinet secretary to conduct the inquiry without any concern for political ramifications. I told the cabinet secretary that I would support him regardless of where the inquiry led. I warned some officials that the PM was thinking about canceling the inquiry. They would give evidence to this effect under oath to any inquiry. I also have WhatsApp messages with very senior officials about this matter, which are definitive. So there he's saying he's got this juicy claim that Boris Johnson tried to quash a leak inquiry because it was pointing to a friend of his girlfriend and saying, I've got the WhatsApp messages to prove it. He's saying I've got the evidence and he's constantly sort of inferring throughout this blog that he will reveal it when he gives evidence before MPs. There's one more revelation we're going to go to in a moment. First of all, Aaron, what do you make of this blog? It's such a tough one, Michael, because on face value, Boris Johnson versus Dominic Cummings, in terms of who has more credible testimony, who would you trust?  But effectively, neither comes with a strong kind of character references, and they also have a history of lying at the very highest level, Dominic Cummings most memorably around a year ago in regards to Barnard Castle and so on and so forth. What I find fascinating for me, and maybe, I mean, you're going to peel this back and go to, I think, a story which I think is probably the biggest one of the lot in this blog. But this will lead on BBC, you know, not World at One, but PM, 6 o'clock news, News Night, it'll be, you know, bigger over the weekend. But for me, I mean, I think just comparing it to the other stories that we're talking about tonight, I think we should talk about it because it's going to shape the political context of British politics and Tory infighting is a big variable if they want to keep power, obviously. But it's just not a big story compared to the Biden on climate change, what's going on in India, and so much more. I think where it does is very potentious. It kind of could have real importance going forward is, you know, to what extent are we going to see a breakdown in relations between vote-leaf Tories and kind of establishment Tories that came together behind Boris Johnson. Because of course, if that happens, he will struggle to, he will struggle to A, govern and B to win another election. And I don't say that as somebody who thinks Labour, you know, in with a strong chance of winning next time. But that was the coalition he brought together in December 2019 and really talented campaigners and strategists obviously around vote-leaf, Lee Kain, Dominic Cummings, Matthew Elliott. And so if this gets really bitter and rancorous, that's only bad for number 10, and it's only bad for Tories if they're seeking re-election. Now, I mean, to respond to a couple of those points, I mean, of course, this is not as important as a COVID crisis or climate change. But there are some revelations in this. And again, I agree that no one's going to take Dominic Cummings as his word, he's going to have to, you know, provide the receipts. But if he can provide the receipts, I think potentially this could do some damage because unlike those text messages to businesses during the COVID crisis, when Boris Johnson can say, look, we're in a pandemic, I was trying to get ventilators made, even though Dyson didn't make any ventilators, but he can say at least I was trying to get ventilators made, or I was trying to get PPE. That's why I gave this contract to my friend. You know, he's got an excuse there and the public, you know, contracting stuff is very complex. I barely understand it. And I'm a political commentator. I shouldn't say, I mean, I have a reasonable understanding because I try and explain it to you. But what I'm saying is it's not something that's that immediate. Whereas, I mean, trying to intervene in an investigation to protect your girlfriend, I think that's a bit more easily understandable. So if Dominic Cummings can provide the receipts, I think that could be awkward. Again, obviously, the big variable here is do the press want to go to war with the Conservative Party over this? I think quite unlikely at this point in time. They did in the 90s because, you know, they were one rather board of John Major and also they were really, really confident having Tony Blair in power because he basically won all the billionaire class over. Will that happen now? Keir Starmer's not quite there yet, although he's trying, the final bit of awkward information from that blog. I think this is what Aaron thinks is most damaging. This concerns Boris Johnson's Downing Street flat. So this was renovated at a cost of £200,000. And it's alleged that part of that was paid for by Tory donors. There's lots of claims and counterclaims about this at this point in time. But on that issue, Dominic Cummings writes, read the flat. The Prime Minister's DOC, that's Director of Communications, has also made accusations regarding me and the leaks concerning the PM's renovation of his flat. The PM stopped speaking to me about this matter in 2020. As I told him, I thought his plans to have donors secretly pay for the renovation were on ethical, foolish, possibly illegal, and almost certainly broke the rules on proper disclosure of political donations. If conducted in the way he intended, I refused to help him organize these payments. My knowledge about them is therefore limited. I would be happy to tell the Cabinet Secretary or Electoral Commission what I know concerning this matter. Aaron, you think this is the really damaging one? I mean, I can see why. If this was written down in black and white that Boris Johnson wanted to secretly have it funded or paid for by donors and Dominic Cummings was saying, no, that's completely unethical and Boris Johnson does it anyway. I mean, that's pretty damaging to his integrity, isn't it? But also, I mean, you've got a former sort of close advisor saying, I think this is illegal. That's a big claim. Even if it's not illegal, the frame there is that former advisor says to Prime Minister in office, you shouldn't do this, it's probably breaking the law. He does it anyway. He's now saying he's willing to talk potentially to the Electoral Commission. And again, look, the Electoral Commission kind of toothless and do much. But this stuff can, it has done in the past, led to criminal charges. That's not going to happen here. But when you start talking about legality and the Cabinet Office and the Electoral Commission, this isn't just, oh, he said, she said, that's a serious accusation. Like you say, Michael, if he can bring receipts, and if there are sort of ancillary witnesses with testimonies which kind of stack up, then yeah, Boris Johnson has problems.


Yes, some of us may be having what you call expired QID. If your QID expired long period of time and your employer is not willing to renew what you call your QID, yes, you have the right to compile or file a case against your employer, but what do you need to do before you file a case against your employer regarding what you call not renewing your QID? Yes, in this situation we see that we have to play ourself that we are not got in trouble. Yes, the first process or the first step for you to take is that write, put in writing requesting your employer to renew your ID or request him to give you a new ID for that case, if you don't have an ID or if you have an expired ID. If for example this employer does not respond, what do you definitely have to do then you can go and file a case against your employer in the ministry of labor you can either do what you call an online filing a case or definitely you can go directly to what you call the ministry and file a case against your employer. What the ministry is going to do, the ministry is going to call your employer and request your employer that you've got a case and you need you've not renewed this person ID who is under your custody. So if the employer does not comply, yes the case will give an option will definitely give an option to the employer either to give you a no no C to go and look for another job or even to let you know a dirty time or to go and look for another. So most of the time it's very important for you if you want to file a case against your employer definitely the first thing that definitely you need to do as an individual put it in writing. That writing first to the employer is going to act as what you call evidence and it's going to be one evidence that you are going to use as one to make sure that you can file a case against him or file a case against your employer for that cause. Hope I try to shape something for you and definitely hope those that people that have the QID that are definite experts is the only way that you can do and get off and to see that your employer can renew your ID in case he has not renewed your ID.


I want to talk about Reed College. Reed College is one of the top colleges in the country. It produces more PhDs in the humanities, I think, than any other college in the United States. Let me see if I got that statistic right. But yeah, it's one of the top humanities projects, right? So it's ranked second, no, not first, a second for future PhDs in the humanities and fourth in all of the subjects. It's also, it's also, and this should tell you a lot about this, the most left-wing liberal student body. So it's considered to have the most left-wing liberal student body. Now that should tell you something about future professors. If this college produces ranked second for future PhDs, so these are going to be influential PhDs, which means teachers. And they start off before they even get to college. It's the most liberal. And then you'll hear what's happening over there. You'll get a sense of what the future of America is going to look like in terms of education, in terms of what the education is. So there's a lot to say about Reed College because a lot has been happening most recently. There's been a sit-in. Remember the sit-ins that students used to do in the 1960s where there's a sitting sit-in? Basically, students have occupied the administrative building now for 11 days. They're rotating 40, 50 students at a time sitting in and occupying the administrative building. The school has actually had to close down its finance office. It's actually had to move sensitive documents to a new location. Of course, the one thing that the administration is not considering is bringing the police and dragging these students out and maybe putting them in jail. That would be, that would be a suit of, and that would be violent and oh my god, you can't do that. The sit-in is organized by a group called Reedies, Reedies from Reed, against racism. Reedies against racism as if anybody from Reed is not against racism, as if we're not all claiming to be against racism. We'll see how against racism they really are in a minute, but not only are they sitting in, but they are abusing staff members. They're harassing staff members. And what is the administration doing about it? Nothing. Now, why are they sitting in? Why are they sitting in? They're sitting in to protest the fact that Reed College has a business relationship with Wells Fargo, who is considered an unethical bank. And why is it considered an unethical bank? Because I guess it has some corporate partnerships, corporate partnership with private prisons and with the Dakota Access Pipeline. So when I talk about, I don't know, Wells Fargo funding terrorism or Wells Fargo, I don't know, even being, I can't even think what could be incredibly horrific. No, they have a relationship with private prisons and they have some kind of business relationship with the Dakota Pipeline. And for that, staff members are being harassed, physically threatened. For that, the administrative building, parts of the administration to be shut down. And, you know, this is what the Reedys for racism against racism, although the name should be Reedys for racism, we'll get to that in a little while.  You know, they claim that the relationship that the school has with Wells Fargo is racist and that it harms brown students and black students and creates potential for the system to be continuously perpetuated, the system of racism, institutionalized racism. Why? Because Wells Fargo has a business relationship with private prisons and the Dakota Access Pipeline.  Nobody says, I guess because brown and blacks are disproportionately in the prison system or something like that. I don't explain it, right? They don't have to explain it. They declared Wells Fargo as a racist organization and therefore having to do anything with them is banned. And all they have to do is declare it. Any explanation would be oppressive to them. And I'll explain why any explanation would be oppressive to them. These people don't have to explain anything. I've just got started in Reed College because it's just amazing what's going on there. The sit-in is the least of what's happening. This, Reedies Against Racism, which was founded a couple of years ago, actually last year on September 26, 2016. It was a response to the police shootings and a Facebook post. Everything's a response to Facebook post. I think our lives revolve these days just around Facebook posts. But it was a post by actor Isaiah Washington who urged, quote, every single African American in the United States that was really fed up with being angry, sad, and disgusted. So rise up. Make your voices heard. So a response on Reed was the creation of Reedies Against Racism. And they boycotted classes for one day and then they put out 25 demands on that date. And the number one demand that they had was reforming a class that every freshman at Reed College has to take. It's called Humanities 110. This is a year-long course that all freshmen take together. And it has both classes taught by professors and then small breakout classes where the students learn how to discuss, debate, and defend their readings. There's some quoting out of Reed's kind of manual on this. The Humanities 110 class is basically a Western civilization class. It is a class about the foundations and the basis of Western civilization, or of liberal humanities thinking. And here I use the word liberal, not in the modern sense to denote crazy leftists, but in the traditional sense of, you know, Western liberal freedom, market kind of view of individual liberty. That's what liberalism used to mean. So they defined Reedies Against Racism, defined this class as a racist class. Why? Why? Because they were reading Greeks, and they were reading Potions and Mesopotamians and Egyptians, right? So the text includes Mediterranean, Mesopotamian, Persia, and Egyptian readings. And they decided that this was Eucentric, Caucasoid. I didn't even know that was a word. And as a consequence, oppressive. It was offensive to students of color. One of these Reedies Against Racism quotes the saying, it feels like a cool test for students of color. It traumatized my peers. They're traumatized by reading Plato. They're traumatized by reading Aristotle. And they have demanded that the syllabus be redesigned to include, of course, more readings from more different parts of the world. Now, the fact is that the fact is that this part of the world, Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, and primarily Greece, is where most of human knowledge originates from. It's the place where writing, mathematics, science, logic were discovered, invented. This is where civilization comes from. The fact is that in sub-Saharan Africa, there is no civilization, was no civilization. The fact is that in, you know, there's Chinese, there's civilization in China, which is worth, I guess, studying. But this is about Western civilization. This is about the world in which we live. And indeed, even China today is much more Western than it is. It's much more rooted in ideas of the West than it is rooted in ideas that come from Chinese civilization. So the most important ideas that we understand today are Western ideas. Now, Western ideas happen to be the best ideas. And let's define what best means. Best means consistent with human nature. Best means consistent with human flourishing, with human success, with human prosperity, with human freedom. Those are the right ideas to be studied. Good for humanities 110. Good for Reed College having a course on Western civilization. Indeed, some universities, some universities don't have a course on Western civilization because of opposition from either faculty or students. So here's Reed College, one of the most liberal colleges in the country, actually teaching students about Greek civilization, getting students to read the priestocratics and Plato and Aristotle and the great plays and studying the art of the Greeks. These are the foundational ideas that all humanity benefits from no matter what skin color you have, no matter what your ethnic origin is, no matter where you come from. The only good ideas, the only pro-life, the only pro-human flourishing ideas come from this Western tradition. They come from, they originate with the Greeks. The Greek philosophy, philosophy was discovered as a field of human study by the Greeks. No, this is racist. I don't even know that the Greeks, the original Greeks were whites in a sense that we understand that term today. I don't know what white even means, but you know, because it's a complete fiction, the exact genetic makeup of the Greek, of the historical Greeks is not the same makeup the Greeks today. Who knows? They're probably an Asian tribe, somewhere from Central Asia. But who cares? Who knows? What differences they make? You're not studying their genetic makeup. You're studying their ideas. Ideas are not racial. Ideas are not genetic. Ideas are not about ethnicity. This is why I say, Reedies against racism are really Reedies for racism. They are racists because any attempt to identify the ideas of a person with this race, not study certain ideas because of the race of that person, not study Aristotle because he was so-called supposedly white, is racist. Any attempt to place race as a primary or as important in any way is racist.   It's a disgusting ideology that these leftist students have completely, utterly, unapologetically embraced in totality. I cannot think of more racist people today than these. Now, they are racists on the right as well, but these racists make those racists on the right in many ways possible. All right, so they oppose this humanities class and they have, they've occupied the building and they occupied libraries and they've disrupted class more than 60 times. We're going to take, we've got the news break coming up here, so I'm not going to get too far into this, but when we come back from the break, I want to go deeper into what they're actually doing, how they're intimidating faculty members, intimidating students, they're using violence, how they're taking over classes and what they're doing to disrupt these classes. It's fascinating and disgusting at the same time. So we were talking about these students at Reed College, one of the most liberal colleges in the United States, but a place that trains many of the PhDs of the future, many of our teachers in the future, a place that is considered maybe the most liberal college in the United States. And it has, it has this group, Reedies Against Racism, which I would argue who are real, the real racists in the story. Anyway, at Reed College, they have a course called Humanities 110. It sounds like a pretty good course. I mean, I'm tempted, I'd like to sit in, although my guess is that it's being taught by very, very left-wing professors. So the content, I would probably be pretty upset, but content, although they claim they encourage debate. I wonder, I wonder if somebody challenges the professors on some of what they say, whether they would, whether they would actually be open to that debate. I don't know, and I don't want to judge them. Maybe they're great, right? But this Reedies Against Racism wants to shut down this course. And what it's done is it's disrupted the classroom 60 times. Mostly last year, their school years just started this year. And what did they do? How did they disrupt the class? We'll get to what they did this year, but how did they disrupt the class? What they do is, and I've seen pictures of this. It's pretty wild. The professor standing at the podium kind of lecturing. And what the Reedies Against Racism do is they all, they sit right next to the professor up front in the class, facing the students with big signs. The signs say, we demand space for students of color. Well, I think they have space. They're right there. I don't know what that means, right? We demand space for students of color. Oh, we cannot be erased. Who wants to erase you? Who's trying? I mean, F, humanities 110, lots of vulgarities that I can't say on the radio, lots of vulgarities, right? Stop silencing black and brown voices. The rest of society is already standing on their necks and on and on and on. Just signs. And of course, many of the signs have photos of black Americans who've been killed by police. So this is in front of the class. Your professor, I've been a professor, standing on the stage, standing by the podium, trying to lecture, and you've got these students waving things.  And he's a freshman. This is their first encounter with class at a college level. And they're standing there and they want to learn. And instead of actually having an opportunity to listen to professor talk about Greece and the birthplace of civilization and maybe even talk about Rome, instead of that, they can hear the professor, but they're constantly distracted by these signs in their face. And by these messages that mean nothing other than to obstruct. And this is the learning environment these freshmen face. The professor's a harassed. So there's a professor, her name is Lucia Martinez Valdivia. I can guess she's Hispanic. And she has preexisting PTSD. Don't know what the source of that is, but she has PTSD. And she said, look, it's these protests, it's going to be difficult for me to face them. It's going to reignite my PTSD. Please don't cover protests when I teach the class. And the Reedy's for racism, you know, they wrote an open letter to her. They offered a little bit of sympathy for her PTSD. And then they accused her of being anti-block and discriminating against those with disabilities. I don't know where that came from because she's PTSD. And they never specified the charges. They never actually said why she's anti-black or why she discriminates against disabilities. And when they were asked, could you give us some specifics? What has she done? What's her crime? This is the answer. And this is, this is very revealing. I think they said, quote, asking for people to display their trauma so that you feel sufficiently justified is a form of violence. So asking people to actually give reasons for the accusations they make against other people is a form of violence. I mean, this is nuts. This is what's going on in American campuses. This is where you're sending your kids to school. This is what you're paying thousands, no, tens of thousands of dollars for their tuition so that they can encounter other kids who believe this crap. One of the accusations against this professor is that she wore a t-shirt that said poetry is lit. Poetry is lit. Okay. And they say, that's wrong. She can't wear a t-shirt like that. Why? Because she's appropriating African American, vernacular English. And that is a form of anti-blackness. So I guess lit, L-I-T, is a form of African American, vernacular English. I didn't know that. That's new to me. And that anybody who's not black is not allowed to say the word lit because then you're appropriating their language and it's a reflection of anti-blackness. I would think it was a form of respect. It isn't flattery, a form of respect. But yeah, I mean, now there's this big thing. You can't dress up like somebody from a different ethnic group. You can't listen to their music. Oh, I've got a great one about listening to their music. So there was a dance at this, there's a party, at this, at Reed College. And I guess they were going to play some music sung by black people, right? I guess. I mean, a lot of the popular music is such. So the Reedies for Racism put out a declaration saying, and I'm quoting, this is what they wrote, they're requesting that students, specifically white students, so white students give a suggested amount of $5 to Reedies Against Racism if they planned and consuming black and brown culture at the ball. This money explicitly regarded as reparations was collected at the door by student activists. So this is the, so you have to pay them reparations because you are consuming their, their culture because black singers are primarily black and belong to black people.  I mean, I can't even repeat this stuff. It's such garbage. And it's so nonsensical.  And I wish somebody would call them. I wish some of these guys would come to my lectures and ask questions.  They place race above all else. And therefore they are racist. Now, the theory says, and this is a theory that a lot of professors support, that a black person cannot be racist. Only whites can be racist. This is the whole intersectionality theory that exists today on American campuses. Only the oppressed, only, only the oppressors are racist. The oppressed can never be racist. But exactly what readies for racism is doing is oppressing. It's exactly what they're doing by, by, by disrupting these classes. Indeed, at the beginning of this year, they stopped the class, they started, they took over the microphone and stopped the class and wouldn't let the professors teach. They wouldn't let the professors teach. And they've done that now three times this year, not letting the class go forward, not just standing there with signs, but taking over the class and not letting people teach. Coming up with their own statements, claiming that it was just as important to hear them, that it was to hear the professor, not what your parents are paying, not what parents are paying kids, paying the universities for, to listen to some crazy nuts rather than listen to.  It's just unbelievable. So they stopped classes three times. And it, and, and of course, what's the administration doing? And this is, this is, I think, indicative. It's appeasing them. So they've given it to their demands. They've had meetings. So they've had meetings. So the administration has given it to most of the demands. They've hired, they had new hires in the office of inclusive community. So there's an office at this university, which you are paying for with your tuition money for the office of inclusive community. They are fast tracking the reevaluation of humanities 110 syllabus. And they are having the, having these six by six meetings, think about this, six racist, sorry, readies for racism, students, and six humanities professors to solicit ideas for the syllabus. Now remember, so they're basically soliciting ideas for class, from students, but not from any students, the most nutty, crazy racist students. Now it turns out that the meetings have ended because the students were offended by the fact that the faculty members were insisting that like Aristotle being included in the new syllabus and they found it to quote that they were forced to sit in hours of fruitless meetings listening to full grown adults cry about Aristotle, the most important philosophy in human history, philosopher in human history, they felt that was insulting. Now I want to end this segment just on a little bit of good news. And the good news is that that the freshman class now, the freshman class at Reed College is up in arms about this. They're not tolerating this. They're actually speaking up against readies for racism for the first time. In the past, the freshman has just gone along and they've been silent partially because they were intimidated, not because they agreed. Most of the students at Reed don't agree with what's going on, but they've been intimidated. They've been, they've been harassed. They've been violently threatened. This freshman class is standing up for them. And indeed, Reedies for racism has seen a dramatic decrease in their, in the number of people affiliated with their organization. So the good news is maybe if we look across American campuses, the good news might be that there's a rebellion against the craziness that students, from the students, are standing up. But even the faculty, so one of the faculty members published a editorial in the Washington Post attacking Reedies for racism, students now are standing up, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. All of us talking up against this issue, all the free speech campaign that they unrendered stewed and many others have been engaged in over the last year or so. Maybe it's finally starting to resonate. Maybe, maybe, maybe one can hope on American campus now there's a backlash against the sheer nuttiness of what's going on. And then we can go back to the regular nuttiness that is American campuses. But the craziness that's been happening recently on some of these universities, not all of them, but some of them. Maybe that's declining. Maybe there is some hope.


Hello everybody. I have with me today Alap Desai, Chief Creative Officer, Densu Creative West and Experiences. Alap was part of the Radio and Audio Jury and he's here to tell us more about his experience over there. Hi Alap. How was your experience being part of the Radio and Audio Jury? I think Radio and Audio is a category that people think is dying. But I genuinely felt and so did the jury members that the craft in Radio is something that we should kind of encourage. So that's what the primary experience was. Everyone thinks that we are moving towards audio innovation and tech and everything. I was so happy to see a jury that's also in it for the thinking, the idea and is not just wowed by the tech or the innovations around it. And there's one thing that the city president said that was that Radio is weird and it's wonderfully said. I think he said that a 30 second spot can fight a 30 million dollar campaign for the same metal and win many times. And I think that's just a wonderful way of putting out how different Radio actually is. That's a power of the written word, right? Yes, absolutely. It's lovely. And are there any campaigns that really stood out for you and resonated with you? So I love the gropry that we've given for Skinny. I think it's a beautiful way of using audio. You put up ads and get people to record them. I think it's a beautiful way of integrating all the 360 elements. It was on a coffee cup that turned into an audio ad, into a radio ad. It was on a billboard that turned into a radio ad like a pure 360 campaign. I think it was wonderfully done. Now, are there any other learnings that you take back from your experiences as a jury member and also from the campaigns that you've seen that you believe can be translated into, say, future work in India? Yes. I think we underestimate the amount of understanding that the case is giving. I feel that we should explain cultural nuances better because when I have done international juries before but when I was sitting in the room, people were not getting. There were some Brazilian pieces that we were awarded and there were some Brazilian people in the jury and they actually made us realize the cultural nuance. Now, we live in it so we don't think that we need to explain that much as we should ideally do and that's what I realized. If you're coming from a cultural nuance, then it needs to be explained really well or it just goes somewhere. Now, whenever we met two or three creative people, whenever what they say is that when we see this campaign, it's like, oh, I had this idea before. So has there been any campaign that you've seen over here that you said, oh, God, I've also had this idea before? So Skinny is one of them. I envy that campaign a lot. There's another from Brazil called Files of Freedom. It won a gold in radio and audio and other categories. They just gave up the files like a music video was being released by the most famous drag queen in the world. They just made it available to everyone to create content with green screen with the music tracks. I think that if I had a brief to launch a music video, which I do quite many times, that was totally doable. That made me burn with envy that, hey, I should have done this for one of the music videos that we keep launching. Finally, let's come to Denso Creative. You've had wins for both Vedantu as well as for more team. So what is it about these campaigns that you believe really struck a chord with the jury members? So we won a bronze for Vedantu yesterday for industry craft design. We've got a lot of shortlist for Tikka and I think maybe just keeping our fingers crossed for now. And for both pieces, I feel that we've worked really hard on both pieces. It's not only months, it's like years of work that's gone and in case of Vedantu, it's been two years since we were developing the book. It's been more than two years since we've been developing the craft of the book. The Tikka has its own journey. Every idea has its journey. Like the Tikka has its journey of being fortunate enough to find the right client partner at morning and then we just drove it together and that every one of them has a beautiful story. I'm just happy that we are getting recognized and appreciated on a global stage. I think that's what matters. Thanks a lot for Investor Fluck also. I hope there are more wins to come for Denso Creative. Thank you so much. Thanks.