Hey guys, it's Brandon. I'm happily dressed, a sewing resource dedicated to self-acceptance, self-confidence, and self-sufficiency. And welcome back to the channel. So apologies for the setup, the lighting, the echo. I'm in a new place and I'm so excited to be here. Also, I know this looks a little crazy, but this shirt is too small. And I had it buttoned up to the very top and it was cute, but it was choking me. So I have to loosen that boy up. I've been away from YouTube far too long to sit here and try to do an intro and think I'm going to get it right on the first go. But also, I want this video up before the new year, so I'm not going to be doing much editing or starting over. Hopefully the sound is good too, because I'm using a new mic. If it's a little crazy, that is okay. We'll get better. This is a great benchmark for where we'll be this time next year because I am returning to YouTube. I'm very excited. I don't know in what frequency, but I've been feeling called to produce a lot more content for this channel. If you've been following me on Instagram, you know I update over there pretty regularly. But Instagram can't have all the fun, so I'll bring some over to YouTube. So like I said, today I'm showing you how I made this really cool blazer. It's not necessarily a step-by-step tutorial. Honestly, it felt more vlog style because it's been a while since I picked up my camera to film. But this is a, this is actually my second blazer ever that I've made. And it's actually lined, which I am in love with. So happy that I was able to do that. But my very first blazer I only made a week ago. That very first one is also on my Instagram. But I thought it'd be cool to challenge myself to make my holiday blazer for the Christmas season. But I wanted to take you guys along for the ride. Also before we get started, I have a sewing pattern out. Finally, I have a sewing pattern out. I am so excited. They are a jean pattern. There will be a step-by-step tutorial on this channel coming very soon. Hopefully right at the top of the new year is the goal to have that out. But I'm actually wearing the jeans right now. You'll see them when we get to that part in the video. Please go check it out if you're interested in making it. And there will be a step-by-step tutorial very, very soon. Let's get into the rusty, but raw and true and great video. All right. Hello, everyone. The lighting in here is literally horrible. It's just a overhead light. But welcome to my new sewing space. A little bit of an update. I'm like, how can I find the best lighting for you guys? I moved very excited, my first time, not my first time moving out, but it is my first time moving out without a sibling, which is very exciting. But I also got a juki, which I'm super excited about. Maybe I'll just make a separate update video. But I have all the pieces cut out for this blazer. If I haven't shown you guys already the inspo for this, I found it on Instagram of this guy wearing this really cool red blazer. And I want to basically copy that with this pattern and then the ranger gene, which hopefully is out or soon to be out by now. But I'm going to stop trying to guesstimate when this video is coming out and what I've been up to. I'm just going to hopefully sell some stuff today. Oh, but the pattern I'm using is the Viper Blazer by Gunner Bethridge. I don't know how to pronounce his last name. I've seen actually his videos on TikTok or Instagram reels, et cetera. I did not know he sold patterns, but in my search for blazer patterns that were oversized, his came up and I watched the video and all that. It seems like it'll be, it has the right lapel too for what I'm looking for. If you follow me on Instagram, you would have saw that I tested a different blazer pattern that I was excited for, but the lapels were just so skinny. I really wanted some drama for the holiday season. So I'm hoping this will go well. And this is fully lined unlike the other pattern, which was more of a costume pattern. So there was no lining. I'm still not sure how much I want to ramble in these videos during my return to YouTube, but I got my little stuff. Hey, it's so crazy to see all my stuff in not my bedroom. But yeah, so now I'm going to set up the Juki to start sewing. I'm using a corduroy from Joanne and a lining fabric that I thrifted. So I'm going to set up the machine and then hopefully start sewing. So I'm trying to see where to begin. And he actually starts by doing the darts, which I'm actually going to exclude because this is like a cropped like fitted blazer. And I want it to be as loose as possible. So I'm not going to do any of the darts. I actually lengthened the pattern by lengthen. There we go. I've actually lengthened the pattern by two inches. So hopefully that's enough. But yeah, not doing the darts to keep it as wide as possible. So just fast forward and see where it takes me after I did the machine. I'm still looking for good, um, like Juki thread. So right now I'm just using this that I got off Amazon. That's supposed to be for like industrial machines, but obviously not because that's so tiny. So this is where we're ending the night. So you can only see half of my face. I guess I could back it up. Hold on. Hey, so I'm still, I have the shell all put together and the lining halfway put together like this. I just need to add the sleeves. I just need to add the sleeves. And then I'm still trying to debate if I want to do the welt pockets or not, because it is pretty short. I added two inches, but still it's going to be hemmed up an inch and a half, which probably like this. So it's still going to be pretty cropped. So I feel like the welt pockets might get in the way, but it's crazy because honestly, I forgot like you can't really iron corduroy on top. We have to like iron the back part or use like a pressing cloth. So it's been really hard to get these seams where they need to be. So I haven't even tried. I'm going to call it a night now and just finish working on this tomorrow, not finish it, but continue to work on this tomorrow. It's been a few days. The blazer is still sitting here. It is actually Christmas Eve and I want to wear this blazer on Christmas. So I thought I'd jump back into it and just get it done. Hopefully not speed through it. Take my time, but I'll probably stop checking in like this and just do some video of me putting things together and hopefully it looks good at the end. I really wish, I don't know if I originally talked about it, but there was like a more like holly Christmas green that I wanted and they didn't have it at the joey and I was at and I was like, you know what, I'll just do this one. I'll do this color because this like sagey color I could wear outside of the Christmas time outside of Christmas time. The other one I could not wear outside of Christmas time. Like it literally looks like, it's like Christmas green, but I'm kind of just, I wanted the, I think I really wanted the Christmas green, but anyway, hopefully when I finish this, I'm able to press it in a way that's nice to where it looks good. And then I might make that final pair of ranger jeans or just use ones that I already have. I just finished altering the pattern from the testing period that I did. So it's right and it's good, which is really exciting. It did shift my size chart basically. So I might have to make a size down, but anyway, I'm just going to finish sewing this blazer. I'm trying on the blazer. I just sew the lining to the body. I had to go to my room because my mirror is right here, but it looks so good. What I'm excited to do though, I don't like how the collar, the upper collar doesn't meet with this lapel part. So I think what I'm actually going to do is flip it back out, wrong side out, take this off and cut out a new one that comes all the way down. And that's just a little bit wider because it's so thin compared to the rest of the jacket. I found a good place to hem the sleeve. I haven't hemmed it yet, but it's also not where the sleeve is supposed to be hemmed. I'm really reworking this pattern. And what I need to do is just draft a blazer pattern from scratch next time, but I don't have the time because Christmas is tomorrow. So I'm going to go ahead and change this lapel and hopefully it'll look, or excuse me, the upper collar. And hopefully it'll look a little better. But actually I'm loving the way it looks together right now. I want a black tie, but I don't own a tie. So I'm going to have to go either find one or like make a makeshift one. Okay, so here is the old collar. You see, it doesn't meet where it's supposed to. And it's pretty short. I'm probably going to take this tag out too because I wasn't able to sew it exactly the way I wanted to sew it. But anyway, here is the new collar. Nice. Oh my God. I'm very excited. So it's going to reach this end. I extended each side by three quarters of an inch and then I raised it by, raised the height by an inch and a half. But now I'm going to take this one out, put that one in and see what it looks like. All right, I have a secret. It's actually been a few days since I filmed whatever last clip I just showed you. It's actually the 27th. It is actually the 27th. I was able to finish the blazer on time, but I was not able to film it or finish it on time and get it filmed to show you. I will say, if you follow me on Instagram, then you did see it because I posted about it. So make sure you follow me on Instagram if you're not. I still need to blind him the bottom. Here's the blazer and all its glory, all its beauty. And now I think of it. I skipped the welt pocket because I didn't think that it would look nice with the length. But once I wore it for Christmas, I realized that it would have looked really nice with the welt pocket. So if I make another one, I will make the welt pocket. I have the place I need to blind stitch or blind him or hand sew. I have a safety pin for right now because that's how I wore it the day of Christmas because I did not hand sew. Like I'm just not a hand sewer. I do not hand sew. I don't like it. So I waited a while for this pattern. I made a size 40. So I'm going to put this on with the outfit that I wore. BRB. All right. So this is how I wore it. Where am I? I don't know if you guys can see me because I'm still working out how to film in this room. I'm basically yelling. I'm probably echoing. But here it is and all of its glory. Super excited with how it turned out. Truly love the length. I think I might have shown you the picture that I was emulating, but I can put it up now. I found this tie at Goodwill. It's too big, but honestly kind of worked with the vibe. Okay, perfect. Yeah, I'm wearing them with my ranger jeans, which the sewing pattern is out now. If you want to sew some wide leg baggy jeans, one stay tuned for, oh my God, you can't even see me, one stay tuned for the sew along video that will be on the channel around the first week of January. But also you can go buy my first ever sewing pattern, these pants, the ranger jeans on my first ever sewing pattern. Super excited. I would give you a better look, but I just don't know how to do that in this room right now. But yeah, so this is how I wore it. Like I was saying before, I do think it would have been cool if I would have kept the welt pockets and I actually did them. But maybe for the next one I will. I love how I fixed the collar. I think that was the last clip that I filmed before. It was actually Christmas. But yeah, I love how I fixed the collar. So yeah, here is the finished look. So I hope you guys enjoyed this video. I actually had a blast making this. And just in case I didn't mention it before, which if I'm editing it probably did, so maybe I'll cut this out. This is the Viper Blazer by Gunner Deathridge. I think that's how you pronounce his last name. But yeah, super stoked on how this turned out. I love the full look. Super excited to give you guys more sewing content. I have a Juki now. I think you guys saw that. I forgot to even mention that. I have a Juki now, which is so exciting. It doesn't mean that I will stop using my domestic. I think I'll just like swap back and forth depending on how resourceful I want the video to be. So I think for like the ranger jeans tutorial, I probably use my domestic just to show that jeans can be sewn on a single heavy duty. If you like the chaos you saw here today, please make sure you hit that subscribe button. Cannot wait to produce more content for you guys. And for those who have been patiently waiting on me to return, thank you so much for your patience. I truly appreciate it. And if you want your itch scratched and not from a YouTube video, please follow me on Instagram because I post there pretty regularly, especially when I'm making something for the first time. But with all that being said, I hope to see you all in my next video. And until then, see you guys later.


The relentless rise in prices of goods and services has had a profound impact on SMEs affecting their operations, profitability and overall sustainability. Despite these challenges, Nigerian SMEs are resilient and resourceful, while the right strategies and support they can continue to drive economic growth and create jobs. My guest Nnamdi Ibe is a certified management consultant with the International Council of Management Consulting Institute with over 15 years of experience. Over the years, over 600 businesses have been able to overcome their break-even stage through his expertise in management and strategic business growth. Nnamdi has authored over 15 books on business startups, business operations, human resources and organizational structure, among others. He sits on the management board and board of directors of multiple organizations and is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council. Ibe is the founder of the Organized Small Business Academy, where small business owners learn practical and simple way to structure their small businesses. Many thanks for joining me, Nnamdi, on business insights. Thank you very much, Justin. Alright, it is indeed a pleasure to have you on the show. It is really a sad one because I have spoken to so many small businesses and their main concern right now is that they are not really profitable anymore. Since May 29 when the president announced the end to fuel subsidy, everything skyrocketed, prices, the economy just was going so high. Even small businesses have been impacted by these policies.  How would you really rate small businesses some growth and development in Nigeria? Okay, so here's my approach to not just small businesses, but businesses in general. I think a lot of, majority of the successes for any business, whether it is small, medium or large, is dependent on who is sitting at the helm of affairs. Who is in control? Who is making decisions for the business? Now, you see situations where a lot of, for example, in a Nigerian economy, a lot of businesses, a lot of Nigerian business owners are complaining about the business environment and how harsh it is. But yet some people come from outside Nigeria, come in here, face the challenges and succeed. So there's something they know, there's something they are conscious of that makes them succeed where many of us in Nigeria are unable to succeed. So I think the decision maker for every business is a key strategic factor as to why a business succeeds or fails. And I say this frequently, where you are today in your business is your fault, where you would be tomorrow is your responsibility, regardless of where you are today in your business. Where you are today in your business is your fault, where you would be tomorrow is your responsibility. and I can prove it. Who started the business? Who chose the business name? Who chose the business line? Who hired the employees? Who chose the location of operations? You made all those decisions that led to where you are today. If you had chosen a different line of business, you probably would have a different set of problems. If you had chosen a different location, you probably would have had a different set of problems. Basically, what I'm saying is the responsibility for success of your business, regardless of the difficulties in the environment, the policies, it still boils down on you. Nokia, for example, started with, I think, making detergents or something ridiculous. Now eventually, they started making phones. Lamborghini started making tractors and then they pivoted and started making luxury cars. And so it's how you see, when you change the way you see things, the things you see change. All right. That's a very good way to start it. So the overall, you know, direction per se of the business actually falls on the entrepreneur himself and the owner. Okay, fine. In our pre-chart, when we were discussing this yesterday, you talked about some useful strategies that businesses can actually, you know, adopt, you know, in trying times, such as the ones that we are facing right now. Can you share some of them? All right, fine.  Many years ago, in my first business, I used to sell women's shoes, clothes, and burn. You promised you wouldn't laugh. I used to sell women's shoes, clothes, and burns. And I would bring them from outside Nigeria and bring them to Port Hacod where I was staying at the time and then I'll try to sell. But I noticed that even though I was putting a lot of energy into that business, I was struggling. I wasn't making money. So it took some, you know, I say this sometimes, if you truly are building a business that will stand the test of time, you will get to those moments where you ask yourself, should I just drop this thing and go and pick up my CD. And so it was in one of those moments, I just did an evaluation of the things I was spending my time on and the things that actually brought money into the business. I realized that I was spending money on starting the goods, traveling to go and buy the goods, reviewing which items were good and which items were bad. Those items were not bringing, those activities were not bringing money into the business. The activities that were bringing money into the business were me making phone calls, me doing marketing, me putting those products in different stores, me posting on Instagram or sorry, on WhatsApp, doing those activities that bring money. And so what happened, you know, after that realization, because I tried to focus my attention on those things, was that it became easier for me to do a lot more, to make a lot more and get a lot more from my businesses. It is from that experience that these five strategies I'm going to share which it came from, because they worked for me and they worked for a lot of my clients. The first strategy is traffic. The first strategy is traffic, yes. Look, there are two kinds of businesses. Businesses that serve to very few people and charge a large amount of money. Then there are those that serve to, that charge very smaller amounts but have to serve multiple people. For you to serve multiple people, you need to have enough people knocking on your door, looking for a meeting room and trying to do business with you. That means the one question you should ask yourself when you wake up every morning is what are the things I can do today to make a lot of people pay attention and try to do business with me. That's called generating traffic. For example, some people will post once on social media and rest and hope miraculously that angels will come from somewhere or you just open your business, post a signboard there and you wait. No, no matter how much you pray and fast from January to December, the angels will answer in heaven but you still need to draw people's attention. Let me digress a little. See what this incredible comedian and musician is doing. Last boy with his song. He's collaborating with everybody to draw attention. That's traffic. So what are some things you can do to do traffic? Don't just stay one place and hope that customers will come. Those days are gone. Go look for them. That's the first strategy. The second one is consistency. Consistency, okay. Look, yes, your business does not require as much passion as you think it does. Passion is 5%. The remaining 95% is discipline. Majority of the things you need to do for your business to succeed don't require passion, you require discipline. You don't need passion to pay your shop rent. You don't need passion to pay your staff salaries. You don't need passion to show up every day. You need discipline because you wouldn't feel like showing just in even you who is working where you are. It's not every day you feel like showing off work. You show up because of discipline. Of course. You need to be conscious of consistency. This is where you make up, you set up parameters, you set up things that make sure you show up every day. For example, if you have five key things that you must do for your business every day, you wake up in the morning and you attend to those five things first. Do that consistently for 13 days. Your business will finish. All right. That's number two. Number three is packaging. Packaging. So let me explain it this way. Justine, I saw one of the pictures you said to me. I know you don't like to wear ties. But you're wearing a tie. It's packaging. Press it. Let nobody deceive you. In the Bible, it is only God that sees what is inside their heart. All of us see what's outside. And so, I'm wearing a suit. Not necessarily because I like suits. But I have to...  Hold the capture by force.  But there are places that they bring it and they bring the bill you start to complain. It's the same effort. It's just packaging. So I'm not saying spend a lot of money rebranding and packaging, no. But you can do something that will stand you out. These are things like exactly at your small level, a small branded waterproof, a thank you note, a simple, a small chocolate, different things you can put together just to make your product different from other people. I went to a supermarket some months ago and I saw where they packaged crayfish so neatly. We didn't need it in the house. I bought it. Packaging. So that's three. Number four. Focus on the market. On your market. Focus on the market, on the market. So what do I mean? Many people want to sell what they want to sell, not what the market wants to buy. But then you have to identify what the market is then. Exactly. So let me give you a practical example. All the books I have written, I did not start writing it until I had sold 50 copies on pre-order. That for me is a litmus test. My partner and I own a fashion brand called Asserted Ethics. We started that business by testing the market first. We made samples, wore the samples, did photo shoots, and put it out there for people to indicate if they were interested first. So we are creating something for the market first, not just what we want to sell. The market tells you they want to buy cupcakes.  My brother, my sister, please sell cupcakes. Sell cupcakes. So focus on the market. Create offers that appeal to the market. Create offers. Speak the language that the market will understand. So it's not about you. It's about what the market is willing and able to buy. All right. And then finally, the fifth strategy is structure. Now for you to be able to do everything I have mentioned, you need structure. What is structure? Structure is you being able to have the right people in the right role doing the right work. So you get the right results. Structure is the right people in the right roles doing the right work paying the right policies so that you get the right results. Okay, so you have to get the right people and being they also have to be at the right place as well. The right place to me is the place that allows you to serve the market the best. So how do you go about identifying the right place? So when we look at place, it depends on the kind of business that you are doing. Here's an example. My consulting business, my fashion business, the academy that I own, three of them are domiciled in Portugal, but our clients are all over Nigeria, all over Nigeria, all over the world. We have people attending and we do business with them from everywhere. So location is really irrelevant here. But we also own a hotel. That hotel is domiciled in Portugal. Now the hotel, we have to be conscious of the environment where the hotel is. You get the point that I'm making. So the nature of your business will determine how you will approach this location issue. But my thinking is this, be conscious of one fact and one fact only. Where will you stay that is the cheapest, most affordable from which you can serve your clients, from which you can serve the market? All right, Andy, for some sake of time, I understand you actually have put the bulk of your ideas in a particular book which you just authored. Can you just share about what it is about really? So Organized is a simple book that helps you put together some of these things I had mentioned. It helps you set up a structure for your small business. So in the book, I talk about the important things you need to put in place for your small business to stand and make more money without pressure, so much pressure on you for you to be able to make money consistently in your business. Because many business owners would make money today, they don't make tomorrow. So what are the things you need to do that will help you with marketing, that will help you with staffing at your small level, that will help you with the basics you need to set in place, even if you're the only one in your business. All right. That's what I put together in the book. Yes. Organize how to structure your small business. What's it called again? How to structure? Organize small. Organized. How to structure your small business. All right, Andy, indeed we have to bring you again on the show because there's a whole lot to talk about business moves and all of that. You cannot really exhaust everything in 30 minutes. Very true. Namde Ibe, many thanks for joining me. Namde Ibe has been my guest. He's a business consultant, a serial entrepreneur and you can actually follow him Namde the Surgeon on Instagram. That's the size of the show for today. I am Justin Akadoni. Many thanks for being there. We'll see you again next time.


Welcome back. This is the 18th show in the series Rehabilitation Coming Soon, where we have been discussing a massive incarceration in Hawaii and throughout the United States and addressing other issues that are important in our community with respect to our correctional system. I'm Bob Merce, and I'm going to be the host for today's show and for the shows on the next two weeks to give our usual host, Aaron Wills, a little bit of a well-deserved vacation. Our guest today is retired Circuit Court Judge Michael Town, and we're going to be talking about restorative justice. Before we begin the conversation, I'd like to give you a little bit of background on Judge Town. He holds degrees from Sanford University, from the Hastings College of Law, and he has a Master of Law degree with a special emphasis in constitutional law from Yale University. He's a former Peace Corps volunteer in Columbia, South America, in the early days of the Peace Corps, 62 to 64, when it was just being formed under President Kennedy. As a lawyer, he has a long and distinguished career in Hawaii. He was a law clerk for Associate Justice Bernard Levinson a number of years back. He was a supervising attorney and litigation director of the Legal Aid Society of Hawaii. He was a district court judge then. He was a family court judge in the First Circuit for many years, where he developed a well-deserved reputation of being a cellist advocate for children. He then became a criminal on the criminal bench in the First Circuit Court and presided over a lot of cases until he retired in 2010. He retired in 2010, but he didn't have much of a retirement because very shortly thereafter, the next year, Governor Abercrombie appointed Judge Town to the Hawaii Paroling Authority to a four-year term. That term expired and he was reappointed for another term by Governor E. Gaye and is presently one of the five members of the Hawaii Paroling Authority. He also has a very active alternative dispute resolution and mediation practice DPR or Dispute Prevention and Resolution here in Hawaii and is very sought after as a mediator. Judge Town has lectured and written extensively on restorative justice. I've heard him called by some people the father of restorative justice in Hawaii. He's trained many of the practitioners he's talked and lectured both nationally and internationally on the subject of restorative justice and we're very, very pleased to have him. Welcome, Judge Town. Thanks, Bob, for having me on the show. I'm excited to be here. Many of our viewers probably know something about or have heard about restorative justice but aren't really clear as to what it is and how it works. I wonder if we could just begin with you giving us kind of an overview of what restorative justice is. Without being a law professor just as a kid playing in the backyard community justice it's the way that neighborhoods solve their problems. It's the way that families should solve their problem. It's about helping the victim if there is one to become whole again and how to repair that by an apology, by restitution, by maybe getting some services and also accepting the fact that somebody may have made a mistake. If you take this sort of community justice and you expand it, it's swept around the world many times informally in First Nation communities and just cross America in our neighborhoods. So it's basically a way of just getting TS, building sustainability and helping victims get by into the process rather than this adversary system that can butt heads and nobody wins. If I was a victim of a crime and I wanted to participate in restorative justice what would I be looking forward to? What would happen with me, what would happen with the person who harmed me, stole my material or whatever it is that they did? How would this work as a practical matter? There's informal types. In a school setting it might be with the teacher or the vice principal or restorative justice professional. We have restorative justice in the misdemeanor courts and the family court. They meet with the probation officer. People don't have to buy into it. Victims may want nothing to do with the perpetrators, the offenders. Others really want to know why was I targeted, what's going on here and what do I want from my perpetrator to make this whole? Usually it's an acknowledgement, maybe an apology and if somebody, let's say, a kid rips off their car or rips off the house how to make that right? They can go out and earn some money, make them whole. So the person who committed the offense tries to make up for what they did in some way by restoring the balance between the two of them. Yes. To a state of equilibrium kind of. Yes. We have an initiative in the judiciary that Chief Justice Moon put in a while back. It's called Pono Kaulike means restorative justice. It's righteous equity. It's happening already and we all know this instinctively. It's not some fancy new program with bells and whistles and it happens around the world. Is it a new idea, an old idea? What are the origins? Where does it stem from? It's an old idea. In Europe the victim is actually a party to the situation and it comes out, as I said, first communities. I went to New Zealand. They have family group circles up in Alaska and in Canada. They have sentencing circles. People talk about it. Now ultimately the judge has to make a decision. Is this the right thing to do? As a judge sometimes I didn't always, let's say the victim wanted to forgive the person, wanted to get off scot-free. I'm not going to accept that usually as a judge. But at least gives the victim input and it lets the offender hear the harm because sometimes they're in denial. So how long does the process take? Let's say we've scheduled a restorative justice session with somebody who's committed a misdemeanor and let's say it's a shoplifting and somebody from ABC stores is there and somebody in the young, let's say it's a juvenile who's stolen some sunglasses. How would that work then? Well the probation officer usually or the sentencing official and the judge but sometimes people don't show up. The victims don't want to show up. They want anything to do with them. Others want to know why was I targeted? Why'd you pick on my house, my car? Why'd you pick on my kid? Why did you take my kid's cell phone? That kind of thing. Juvenile courts real good. In schools it's real good. Misdemeanors is better sometimes too. I've seen it in felony courts and I've read nationally like in Minnesota. They do it in homicide cases. The person's locked up and then they bring in the family and the family, it has to be voluntary. So they don't force people and they want to hear what happened. In the circuit court if you are a crime victim does somebody talk to you about the option of trying to have a restorative justice session with the person who is the perpetrator? I don't know if they have them in our circuit court anymore. I retired in 2010. I got re-inspired to do mediation and work in the parole board but we sure like to hear from the victims in the parole board. I think that's important they have a say. I want to look to see if the offender really is ashamed of what they did in a constructive way.  Does restorative justice have any sort of antecedents in native Hawaiian culture or in indigenous cultures throughout the world? Yes, we've read a lot about that. Much is written. If you look on God forbid Google, you'll read a lot about it. In New Zealand we saw that with family group circles. In Hawaii and then certainly in Canada and in Alaska there are these sentencing circles they're called. They're a serious business. The ones I saw at least videos of, sometimes there's 10 or 15 people. Everybody who cares about this, let's say this kid that violated the law and they let him know but he also has to take responsibility. I think part of the key is accountability. So there's three parts really. Accountability and then competence, building competence in the offender and then is the community safe? I want to make the point, public safety is critical. If we're not going to put the public at risk just because of this program. What do you hope is the outcome, let's say, for each of the two parties? Let's say it's a theft case. What do you hope that will happen psychologically to the victim and what do you hope will happen to the person who committed the offense when the whole process is over? I wrote an article, it came out in the advertiser 16 years ago about restorative justice helps the victim become whole again. I don't know, it's fact intensive, it's discretionary. This is a process if you will, it's not an event and so it's driven by the needs of the parties and they're going to trust it that way. If they think we have some new fancy program, they're not going to buy into it. So it's very voluntary and it's upfront and sometimes in your face. What kind of training does someone need to go through in order to be a facilitator in one of these restorative justice sessions? That's a great question. I went to public school and you have some common sense and you've played a lot of sports and you develop a sense of common sense and then you've got to be alert, you've got to be empathic, empathy for different people's positions and not have this thing of I'm straight law and order, I'm straight forgiveness, you have to blend in all these different needs and there are trainings for it. And I've engaged in those trainings as a judge because we were pretty much this false dichotomy of punishment versus rehabilitation and that's a false dichotomy. There's this areas of gray if you will in between. Okay. I was reading some articles before today to sort of read up on restorative justice and I read one that I thought was kind of interesting where a boy took a cell phone that a girl had abandoned for a few minutes to go somewhere and he sent some really awful text messages to her friends and to her mother and she found out about it and she was really, really upset and she had a lot of work to do with the people who received these messages and say look it wasn't me and the boy really didn't understand what he did and just to the article though was that one of the text messages went out to her mother and said I hate you. And so the mother came and she told the boy look maybe it was a joke for you but this is how it affected me and then the friends said this is how it affected me and they had everybody who got the text messages everybody was there and it appeared that for the first time the boy understood the real serious consequences of what he did and that seemed to me to be a lot more important than suspending him from school for three days and not really understanding how you hurt people when you do those things. I agree. Do you want a robust take on what really happened and whether that child or that adult understood what they did, the harm they did. I know in our court system today we have what they call therapeutic courts. Yes. We have a mental health court, a drug court, a veterans court. How are those related if they are to restorative justice? It's a parallel collaborative process. I always kid people it's not collaborative or we force them in as collaborative so it runs parallel. There's an ethic of care. If I go down to the ER and I've got a sore toenail I want to be treated properly, patiently, timely, therapeutically and that's the same ethic of care in the court. Instead many times people go to the court system and they're marched around like automatons and that doesn't work and they're often treated in tough ways. So it's therapeutic justice. It's wonderful and there's national conferences and books on it now. About time for a break. We'll be back in a few minutes. This is Bob Merce with Judge Town and this is Rehabilitation coming soon. Hi, I'm Keely Akina, president of the Grassroot Institute. We're here to join us every week Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. for Ehana Kako. Let's work together. We report every week on the good things going on in our state as well as the better things that can go on in the future. We have guests covering everything from the economy, the government and society. See you Mondays on Ehana Kako at 2 o'clock p.m. Until then, I'm Keely Akina. Aloha. Hi, I'm Donna Blanchard. I'm the host of Center Stage on Wednesdays at 2 o'clock here on Think Tech. On Center Stage, I talk with artists about not only what they do and how they do it, but the meat of the conversation for me is why they do it, why we go through this. A lot of us are not making our livings doing this and a lot of us would do this with our last dying breath if we had that choice. And that's what I love to talk to people about. I hope you enjoy watching it and I hope you get inspired because there's an artist inside G2. Join us on Center Stage at 2 o'clock on Wednesdays. Bye. Welcome back. This is Bob Merce again and we're here discussing restorative justice with retired Supreme Court, I said retired circuit court judge, Michael Town. When we left off Judge Town, we were just talking about some of the very basic principles. I take it that one of the things that we want to happen when we have restorative justice is for the perpetrator of the offense to understand the harm that they cause and to get the victim of the offense to have some sort of satisfaction about what's been done to them and that the other person does understand it. Yes. Is it difficult to... I'm thinking if you're the victim of a serious crime or you've been beat up and it's a physical crime, is it difficult for people to face the person who did it and try and work out a sort of a mutual coming together and mutual understanding? I think it takes preparation and if there's a good facilitator, that will work and everybody's different. I had one woman who lived by herself. I think she'd lost her husband. She'd been burglarized and she wanted this young adult to understand how that broke her heart, reached her privacy. The stuff he took was awful but she also wanted to be able to forgive him if she could hear that he was contrite and ashamed and so she came into court and she spoke to him and to me and said that happened and she needed this for quote-unquote closure so it's a process again. Other people want nothing to do with it. They'll just say we're done. You know, we trust the judge to... they'll say hammer him. I've also had other people say we're over this. We know the family, cut him slack. Ultimately it's up to the judge and people come in in all different ways, Bob, and that's what's interesting about it. There's no one size fits none or one size fits all. And I take it not everyone is a success. I mean, you try to get people back on the same page to understand each other, to restore it but probably, you know, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Well, they have to reflect and take accountability and be ashamed. I want them to be constructively ashamed. That's very important but usually people get that but if they don't, then we've got to be worried about public safety. It's just going to happen again and again. So it varies. I think generally it's constructive. Okay. Are there criticisms of restorative justice? Are there a downside to it or have scholars who have looked into it said, yeah, it's good in these ways but, you know, it's got some problems. What is the take on that? Oh, absolutely. There's plenty written and so the people that are interested can, again, Google it and read the different things. I don't know if there's one on Wikipedia on restorative justice. There probably is. But I've heard people say, I'm very, very dissatisfied. I didn't get my pound of flesh. I want this to be way more punitive. I've heard people, I had a homicide case where a kid was driving too fast. He ran over a kid by the road, killed a young kid, and the family forgave him. But we needed to hear out that guy and he clearly put on probation with some additional jail time or maybe prison time. So each one varies. And ultimately the judge has to make the final call. And that's another training thing. I hope that more judges learn about restorative justice. I had a call, gee, last week about restorative justice in the federal courts and I know Judge Kobayashi understands it, which is what I told the attorney. This attorney never heard of restorative justice. I thought it was a newfangled project. You mentioned the word forgiveness. Is that a key element of the whole restorative justice process? I think so. If people are contrite and they apologize authentically and genuinely, then sometimes there's forgiveness. But again, the judge has to make that call. Okay. I know in South Africa they had a long process following the restoration of the new government there and it was called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It sounded like that's part of the restorative justice process too. Would that be right? Absolutely. That's like exhibit A of how to do it. Bishop Tutu was one of the conveners. He heard the victims and the victims' families, how much they suffered. And then also he heard the perpetrators and apartheid, racist perpetrators that had finally seen the light. They'd heard the shame that went on. They'd heard what went on. And at some point Bishop Tutu put his head under the table because the pain was so much. So that raises the question whether we as judges or mediators or restorative justice professionals can bear hearing all this hurt. And is that empathy too much? Are we suffering from compassion fatigue or secondary trauma? And some people don't want to hear that. Other people I think they should welcome it. So we need justice professionals that embrace that. As I understand you actually have talked all across the country to judges about burnout and being overtaxed with all of the trauma that you see every day and have to hear every day. Particularly in family court but domestic violence cases, homicide cases. And we see it in the parole board. You've got to take a long hot shower when you go home and you've got to take a long hot walk and hug your families and realize that I think this is the right work to do. And if it isn't you may have to look for something else to do. I just had a thought that it seems like sometimes when a criminal is convicted and sentenced they say community service. But the community service that they perform isn't necessarily in any way related to the offense they committed or to the person who was harmed. And I'm wondering might it be smarter justice for us to try and if the victim is willing to realign that so that the community service would in some way confer a benefit on the person who was harmed and thereby make both parties feel a lot better because you've really tried to restore the status quo. Absolutely. It should be tailored and targeted. Double T, T2. And if that's done then the community service really makes a difference. And it's not again just another bureaucratic program that has no sense. Yeah, that seems... Great point. Has the Hawaii courts formally recognized restorative justice as a way of resolving disputes? Yes, I have right in front of me signed by my colleague Ronald T. Waimoon, Chief Justice of State of Hawaii and the date is October 10, 2000. Resolution concerning restorative justice and the concept of Pono Kauliki. And he recognized it, it's a resolution and he wanted it to continue and it is. It's part and parcel of the Hawaii judiciary. You mentioned Pono Kauliki, what does that mean? Well, my law clerk, Kilipak Yvonne, figured that out together. It means righteous equity, literally. But it means restorative justice. Many of these terms, they have 14 different kauna. I like Pono Kauliki. In a way that it's making the relationship between the two people Pono. Right, and we want sustainability because people, thank God we don't have the death penalty in Hawaii.  And the community feels that this person has learned. And with this mass incarceration movement is being stopped and hopefully halted around the country. President Obama, Attorney General Lynch and even in Hawaii, we're addressing crazy mass incarceration. That is not the answer. Do we know if, let's say, somebody is found guilty and they go through a restorative justice session? If the people go through these who participate in restorative justice if we have a lower recidivism rate for those people or have we not collected that data yet? It may be there. I don't know it. I was Chief Judge of the Family Court when I got the worst cases and these family cases once they settled voluntarily and there was entered into an order. Those orders lasted way longer than ones that were judicially imposed. If a judge forces a solution versus the parties agree to one the forced solution will fall apart faster than they agreed upon one. For obvious reasons everybody's bought in. If I can chime in on my own experience as a civil attorney if you go to trial you have a big battle with the other side. One side wins, the other side loses. Once the jury gives its verdict the case is over basically and you don't see the other side again and it's not a very good resolution. I mean money is paid or whatever but it's just, it's not but if I contrast that with the cases I've settled where everybody sits around the table we reach an agreement and everybody shakes hands or hugs and says you know this is a good solution then I think everybody feels better about how the case was resolved. It's party driven not attorney driven and in family law internationally I think the clergy and the community non-adversarily sorted these out not in the courts. So we have this adversary system in America one-size-fits-none or all and in commercial situations same thing a committee would handle them not the attorneys but in America everything's adversary and expensive and time-consuming. I think we're just about running out of time here. We have a couple more minutes. Do you think we're using restorative justice enough here in Hawaii or do you think that there's room to expand its use both in the courts let's say and in schools for example it seemed to me to be a great setting for it. I don't think we use it enough but I can't prove it but it needs to these will grow informally formally I know that there are universities that have restorative justice majors particularly in Europe and I know that there are prisons that have restorative justice like in Norway where you went our first show is about that. That works. People are dressed in a therapeutic way in a personal collegial way inmates are and the staff so the more we train and treat each other better in the long run the better community we're going to have. Granted there are needs to have some people locked up a while but those are few and far between. A lot of the people in these shows have talked about trauma and it seems like what you're talking about here is a way that you can really reduce that trauma or make it less traumatic for everybody concerned. Yeah and the legal system shouldn't increase trauma that's called they call it a medicine isogenic harm caused by the care I call it jurogenic. Okay. Okay. Judge Town has been great having you on the show I think we've learned a lot I wonder if you have any last comments here on restorative justice for us before we go. Yeah but I wrote my article talk about it at your dinner table see if it makes sense truth test it see if it's authentic and transparent and see if it works and in your church your school your workplace sort things out informally. Sounds like a great idea thank you for being with us and taking your time out of your busy schedule to join us here today. Thank you. So that ends the show for today and we hope you'll join us next week and coming up next on think tech Hawaii is sustainable Hawaii with Kristen Turner. Thank you all for tuning in today. Hi my name is Aaron Wills you are watching think tech Hawaii dot com I am the host of the show rehabilitation coming soon you can catch us live on think tech Hawaii dot com at 11 a.m. on Tuesdays I will see you there.


Ottoman is an IoT-based decision support tool for irrigation scheduling and carbon footprint labeling. When it comes to water management, there are three main aspects which define the effectiveness of water governance. It involves when water needs to be delivered, where water needs to be delivered and how much. And Ottoman helps to address all these three core principles of water governance. Ottoman provides irrigation advisories to multiple stakeholders based on their interests, roles and responsibility in water management. This platform of Ottoman use a hybrid approach of remote sensing and IoT-based sensors to measure and compute the water demand at a landscape scale. In the Philippines with support from the Department of Agriculture, IRI is testing this tool in partnership with the Philippines Rite Research Institute, FILRIES and other DEA agencies. The tool has been tested both as small and large scale irrigation system. The advisory is provided through Otomo, help the irrigation managers and farmer associations to manage the water effectively and save 10-15% irrigation water at the watershed scale. Click on the link above to learn more about Ottoman and let's work together to manage water wisely.


So I had an interesting dream a while ago. I was standing before the entrance of a cave. In my peripheral vision, I saw a light beside me. I knew it was the Lord. He asked if we could enter the cave and without hesitation, I agreed. Once inside the cave, I saw many tunnels and caverns each filled with darkness. The Lord and I walked into these chambers one by one each time He asked me if we could enter. As we entered each room, they would fill with light. We came to the entrance of a particularly dark chamber. The Lord asked only once if we could enter and then stood patiently beside me. I hesitated all the while sensing His knowing attention. He could see through me fears, doubts, motives, pride. Finally I said, yes, Lord, you can have this chamber too. And then I woke up. The Lord revealed to me that the chambers represented areas of my heart. The Christian life is one of continual surrender.


Pentagon orders AMROM missiles for Ukraine. The US Department of Defense has ordered AMROM medium-range air-to-air missiles for Ukraine from Raytheon Company. The US company Raytheon Missiles in Defense will purchase advanced AMROM missiles from various sources to the tune of US$192 million. The delivery timeframes and the number of missiles to be purchased are not disclosed. This is scheduled to be done by 29 November 2024.The funds to purchase missiles are allocated from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative Fund. The AIM-120 AMROM is an American all-weather medium-range air-to-air guided missile. These guided missiles can hit targets at a distance of up to 180 kilometers. The AMROM missile is the core air-to-air weapon for all modern US Army fighter jets. Fighter jets of NATO and other US allies also use these missiles. Ukraine has used older variants of the highly effective missile, carried on a Nasem's air defense system to defend against Russian drones and missiles. Raytheon is ramping up to essentially double its production of the missile as weapon stockpiles have diminished over the course of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.


Hello everyone and welcome to Prophecy Files Briefing. We're glad that you've joined us today and I hope that you'll take a few moments to share this out on your social media. I wanna be able to give you a brief on a subject that is very important, that's happening apparently worldwide and it's something that you should be alerted to. This particular article deals with the global food crisis as a harbinger of things to come. And we're seeing that take place with the rise of concern, of course, of the economy, the rise of food costs. How does that play into Bible prophecy? We've seen in recent days that this is even more heightened from the recent bridge catastrophe that's taken place there in Baltimore and how important that it is for us to be a people that are prepared. The Bible says that it is a prudent man that prepares. We understand here on the Gulf Coast how important that it is that we're ready for disasters, for hurricanes and things like that. And how important that it is that every person, according to the scripture, is a person that is prepared. The Bible speaks of that throughout the entirety of the word of God. In this particular article, the concern is the rise of the world food shortages that could lead certainly to a famine according to this particular article and the scripture in coming days. Even in Europe where there's a well-fed continent, this article says there is increasing concern and unease about future food shortages that could spill over into a global crisis. This is coming from Bloomberg publishing an article at Europe's New Security Nightmare is Food Supply. Now, in the brief for us today, the Bible tells us in the book of Revelation chapter six how that there will be a time when there will be a rise of economic catastrophe that will result in a food shortage and people having to work all day long for one day's pay in order to be able to feed themselves according to the scripture in Revelation six, verse five and six, the Bible says, and when he, the lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ has opened the third seal. The seals are his wrath according to the scripture that Jesus brings back here on the earth.  And he heard a voice in the midst of the four bee saying, a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny, and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. This particular passage of scripture is certainly describing a hyperinflation, extreme measures that is going to take place according to the scripture in Revelation chapter number six in the tribulation period. If we're already seeing that take place as a sign of things to come, how important that it is that we are a people prepared. Now, it's not to say that the church is going through the tribulation. I do not believe that according to the scripture, we are saved from the wrath that is to come. I am a pre-tribulation rapture preacher. I believe that Jesus is coming back as he did for Noah, as he did for Lot. Now, all of these and others are examples of what the Lord is gonna do for the church to rescue, to rapture the church before these terrible things take place. However, we're living in a period of time where it may get extremely difficult in the days that are ahead. How are we a people that are prepared? What are we going to do? And how can we be able to even serve in the capacity of building the kingdom before Jesus Christ returns in the rapture? What do we need to do? I think it's prudent for us to be a people that is prepared and to be able to let other people know. I think a lot of preparation has to do with making sure that people understand what the truth of the word of God has to say. Matthew 24, Revelation chapter six, are parallels of that as Jesus describes the times of perilous times, these rumors of wars, earthquakes, and so forth. We're seeing right now, these signs that are all around us. And the only question is this, are you ready? Are you prepared? And then are you prepared helping to prepare other people? I believe certainly that the scripture describes here in Revelation six that a day's worth of wages for just one meal or he goes on to describe as this Greek word that translates out for us lets us know that there could be a gathering of wages amongst people to be able to buy cheaper food perhaps and so forth. All of these are indications of what we're seeing right now. Are you ready? Are you prepared? Well, Pastor, how am I supposed to be prepared if this is going to come? I'm talking about the ability to tell other people about the return of Jesus Christ, helping people to get into the kingdom. That is the preparation. And then of course, as you would prepare for any disaster or global crisis such as COVID that was, we have a clear example of what that's all about. Then we should be just like we do here on the Gulf Coast, people get prepared, they buy supplies and they prepare themselves. That is totally scriptural that you can go all the way back to the Genesis and find that as Joseph was leading the nation of Egypt. These and many, many more particular articles and information, things that are pointing toward the return of Jesus Christ, I'm going to be sharing this coming weekend right here at Pace Assembly. You can log on to paceassembly.org or download the app, it will be exclusively there. And I'm going to be bringing a prophecy files update this coming Sunday night, April the 7th at 6 p.m. You'll not want to miss it. It's going to bring you information like this as it ties into the scripture and the return of Jesus Christ and how important that it is that we're ready for that next great event on the calendar of God. I hope that you have been enlightened by today's briefing and I hope you'll share this out on your social media till the next time we get together just like this. Remember Jesus Christ is coming soon.


Hi everyone, it's MJ the fellow act tree and I have created a shadow channel. Yes, as you can see I've uploaded a whole bunch of videos that have got shadowed next to their name and their visibility is unlisted I actually recorded them back in September 2021 and Life has just been so crazy and then I heard YouTube was thinking about doing NFTs and I was like whoa That was my idea last year So let's just push these things up and get them up So how does this whole thing work? How do you go and see the shadow channel and essentially the shadow channel is something very much like this It's me behind the scenes talking about my YouTube channel These ones are very much specifically talking about those videos. So the underwriting cycle was the very first video I ever created back in 2013 It's almost 10 years ago Then the actual exam structure and how to start studying with just two early videos that got a little bit of traction Got a few more views than the average one. So what I'm doing is I'm making some NFTs They're a one-of-one NFTs. So almost I could almost turn this whole YouTube channel into a collection Each video will only have a one-of-one. So they're all unique and what you can do is if you purchase One of these NFTs, you can see they've got some unlockable content that unlockable content is The link to go and see the shadow channel now. Look, I'm not gonna lie It's not like the greatest content ever like it's not worth the price It's more a fun mechanism to kind of show how YouTube creators So if anything this is a template It's an example to the more serious youtubers out there that what you can do is turn all of your videos into a Meaningful NFT because not only are you collecting something that is relevant to your your video But you can also include a secret link that only the holders have that gives them some additional Content so if you're a youtuber you probably have got better You know behind the scenes footage or any additional content that you want to share you can do that You know people simply come here Like I said, maybe this will have historical value my very first Video it's been made as an NFT You can see if you click here to reveal unlockable content and you own it you can then see it Of course, you can buy it you can get the link you can share it with all of your friends And then reset it at even a profit potentially, but that's not financial advice I kind of feel like you always have to say that nowadays whenever any form of currency is is involved So you can see this thing has just been made. It's minty fresh So come check it out, but like I said at the end of the day not expecting these things to to sell I Just wanted to show how YouTubers can use NFT technology as a meaningful experience for their subscribers And hopefully this is something that if YouTube does into me let him implement that implement NFTs That they will also make them just a bit more meaningful and not just You're buying an image and that's it. Of course You'll see on my profile. I've got a lot going on The big focus is the treasure hunt getting that already because I think that is going to be absolutely awesome And then I've also got my my art that I'm posting on on Super S You can come check me out on open sea and I mean you can see I've got a whole bunch of other NFTs on a whole bunch of your other things I mean the airdrop club we've spoken about Even bought that crazy thing busy buying some sky Weaver cards you are both those all today Crazy stuff chess pieces also have reduced the price of some of my chess pieces. So go check it out NFTs are the future people so Best best start learning about them and you're on that note We will be making a series of videos explaining exactly what these things are and so that you guys can all have a good understanding We might make a unique course about it But I've been blabbering on for way too long. So let me maybe wrap up this video. Thanks so much for watching and Yeah, just come and explore coming for the blockchain especially on polygon gas views are so low It's worth playing around and job just figuring out this new technology and how you can utilize it. Keep all everyone. Cheers