It's a pleasure to share this information for the Colombia and for the main Latin American countries regarding the recent evidence about the foreign investment and total investment and for the case of Colombia, the role of some determinants for the investment in Colombia. Maybe these big pictures complement some figures that you presented before. Well, in this first slide, I present the foreign investment for these five countries in the Latin American region for the last five years in billions of US dollars. At the regional level, these five countries explained more or less 85% of the total for the region, for the Latin American and Caribbean countries. When we compute these flows represent more or less between 2% and 4% of the GDP for these countries and clearly the hard competition with taxes in the region by a track foreign investment is between these countries. For Colombia, in this slide, I present the importance of the foreign investment in the total investment and the national investment in the last 10 years. Here we can see that the blue line is the foreign investment, which more or less represents between 4% and 5% of the GDP and explained more or less between 20 and 25% of the total investment in our country. In this slide for Colombia, we present two things. In the left side, we present the pie of the foreign investment by sectors and in the right side, we present for the total investment the observed figure, the observed investment in the country with respect to the trend of the long run. As we can see in the pie, more or less 50% went to the oil mining and financial services. This is more or less the left of the foreign investment go to these three sectors. And in the right side, we can see that after the pandemic period, the country has recovered the investment to the previous years. Actually, the recent negative gap for the investment in Colombia is more or less 3% of the GDP. If we made the same exercises for all countries in the region, for Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Mexico and compute the investment gap, we have here that only Brazil and Chile has in recent quarters a positive gap, recovered the foreign investment levels previous to the pandemic, but Mexico and Colombia has negative gaps today. In fact, Colombia has the most negative gap in the investment. Well, let me go now to identify what factors, what is the chief factors that could play an important role in the investment. Here in this chair, we use the World Bank sources, the global amendment report in 2019. Once the source is now surveyed for 2500 multinational enterprises located in 10 countries in the middle income countries. The important point here is to check the green bar. As you can see, the low taxes is placed in this report. According to this survey, the political stability is the crucial important factor to the investor decision. The second factor is the macroeconomic stability. The tier is the level and regular environment. The skills of the labor is the four and taxes is the five in this context. Well, why this is important? Because the taxes and the tax benefits, which is the way to do tax competition is the way. And in this chart, we present in the upper side of the slide the statutory income tax and the effect of income taxes for corporate enterprises for the five countries that I analyzed. And you can see there are no big difference between statutory and effective tax rates for 2021, except Chile. Except Chile, that really there are a good difference. In this bar, we present for Colombia the items, the items for tax competition and the cost of these benefits for corporate income taxes. The items is income exemptions, discounts, deductions, reduced tax rates for any sector, for some special sectors. And in 2029, the fiscal cost for these tax benefits represent more or less 1.4% of the GDP. The point here, as you listened before, the tax competition is through the taxes and through the tax benefits. And this is the picture for Colombia. Well, the taxes is computed for empirical purposes, is computed in the cost of the use of capital. Here we have a formula which shows the three components of the cost of use of capital. The first is the taxes in red. Here are the rates and the benefits taxes. Here we have the relative prices of the capital. And here we have the real interest rate. As we can see here in this picture, in this blue line, the cost of use of capital for Colombia, the rate going down from 50% at the beginning of the 80s to more or less 5% in recent times. Clearly, this go down for the cost of the capital use is possible, has been possible with the fiscal and monetary policy at through the interest rates. Here in this picture, we show the relationship between the cost of the capital and the investment. Clearly, as the theorists say, there are negative relationships between these variables. Well, as the chart before I show, there are other important factors to explain investment. One is, as the chart said, is the market side, the macroeconomic stability, infrastructure, human capital, etc. Well, in the exercise that we done, we relate the investment with the GDP, especially in per capita terms, and the investment with the total factor productivity. And we have the following results in the exercises to end. We show here the regression results for the main determinants of the investment in Colombia with respect to the others. The main factors are the cost of capital in which there are the taxes in this concept, the economic activity and the total factor productivity. As we can see, these are elasticities. As we can see, the total factor productivity, which reflects the skilled labor and other things, the infrastructure has a larger elasticity. And there are other factors that influence the investment as the opportunity cost of the real exchange rate or the trade openness, which has the expected impact and the coefficients of the elasticities are very important in this behavior of the investment in Colombia. Well, this is the finishing I hear. Thank you very much.


I just happened to see a sign that Lynn had posted on the front door as I come in the side entrance of the Jones saying, are you going to be around for the summer? And that particular summer, which was probably two or three summers ago by now, I don't remember, I was. And I looked at the advanced English conversation, yes. And I signed up and I got my first and then I asked for another one and another one and so it's been since then. I think right now I happen to, oh, I just got an email from one of my women who went back to Korea a month ago and she was still quoting something I'd shared with her and wanting me to elaborate on something else. It's just wonderful. I'm always thrilled when it's Tuesday or Thursday. I started with one. I now have about seven. And no two are alike. What is so amazing is that in one hour I'll be helping somebody study for their TOEFL. In the next hour somebody will ask me for help on how to make a friend. In the next hour I will be going over somebody's writing for the TOEFL exam, but they're not ready to take it yet. At the next hour it may be about parenting. They ask me every question you could imagine and when I answer that gives them a chance to listen or if they come in and they have a particular situation at home, I get to ask them questions. That gives them a chance to speak. It's just, it's the most rewarding, stimulating, relaxing and no lesson plans, no reports to type up, no test scores to have to hand in. It's the perfect, perfect way to meet people from all over, learn a lot, share a lot, enjoy a lot. Don't even give it a second thought. Start with one, but know that whichever one you start with the next one will be different in some completely different way. One person will be shy, one person will be talkative, one person will speak better English than she's aware of and so at first won't talk very much, but when you start in conversation she forgets she doesn't remember English and all of a sudden she'll start talking and then you can point out to her, look, you use this word or you use this phrase, it's, if you're thinking about doing it, do it.


Hi everyone, Joe for jamsbeasecasebreaks.com coming at you with 2022 Penise Select Baseball. This filler pack is the only one we got to do, but we're giving away the final 11 teams in that clearly authentic Pick Your Team 4 break. That's going to be in the next video. First ice roll is always going to be for names and teams, and then the last ice roll will be for the giveaway part. Four or two six times for names, one, two, three, four, five, and six in final time. Four or two six times for the teams, one, two, three, four, five, and six. Alright, here's the first half of the list right here, second half of the list over there. Go trade windows as alphabetized by a team, and let's print and rip. There's only five cards in that select hobby pack, so it's going to be pretty fast. There's the clearly case. That's going to be in the next video, and we got a Chasmacormic relic. That's for Houston. That's going to be for Chase, to 250, and a Wanso and Fuego silver. Washington edition, that's still going to go to Nestor, Vico in the chat. Alright, there you go. Let's flip screens here, and let's see who's going to win those teams. So it's going to be top 11 after seven times, one and a six. One, two, three, four, five, six, and seventh in final time. So it's just the top 11 after seven. We're just randomizing your names, not the teams, just like always. Now, Chase, my apologies. My apologies to everybody here, 12 through 30. Stephen K, though, you got a team. Oliver, Chase, Stephen, Chase, Chase, Chase, Sean Healy, Chase, Chase, and Nestor. There you go, congrats to the top 11. You are in. Just buy teams straight up, then you don't have to worry about fillers. You can be a sharp collector. Alright, Nestor with the rays, Chase, Yankees and White Sox, Sean with the Padres, Chase, Nats, Tigers, Astros, Stephen K, Cardinals, Chase with the Cubs, Oliver with the Twins, and Stephen K with the Rockies. We'll put those little rooftop symbols next to your name so you know that you won those spots. I'm Joe for JasperJasperHakes.com. I'll see you next time for the next one. Bye-bye.


And welcome to your brand expert tips. Have you ever wondered what it takes to create a really good strap line or tagline for your business? Well, today, that's exactly what I'm gonna cover. You see, Melanie Wardron has written in asking about how to create a really compelling strap line for her business that she can build her brand on. So Melanie, I hope that I can answer your questions today. And if indeed you're watching this video and you aren't Melanie, it will help you with your business too if you are also thinking about creating your strap line or tagline. So there are a number of things that you need to consider when you are creating the strap line for your business. And the first thing I really would advise is that you keep it really, really simple. You wanna go for simplicity, something that is easy to trip off the tongue. And remember that other people are gonna be building your business on your behalf as well through word of mouth and telling other people about what it is you do. And if you've got a compelling strap line and something that is really easy for people to remember, that kind of does what it says on the tin, other people will find it much easier to refer you. Now you'd have to forgive me because there are planes flying above my head today. So hopefully it won't interfere with the sound and the noise quality too much. I will try and speak as loud as I can over the top of them because some of them are bloody huge and they're going over and creating a right old racket. You can probably hear it going over now. Oh, and I'll just let you know as well that because I'm down the park, I have Bonnie with me and we've been playing frisbee. So she's likely to be heavy breathing. If you can hear heavy breathing, it isn't me as much as I'm enjoying bringing this video to you. It's not me, it is my dog. So let's crack on. So Melanie, simplicity, make sure that is simple.  You know, in the family, they might be moving home, for example, or there might be somebody moving to the UK who is looking for a place of residence in London, as I believe that you are setting up a residential lettings company that helps people to find a place that they can feel safe in, in London, whether they're either moving to London, moving within London or moving from abroad. So it's really key that you step into your customer's shoes and make sure that you are thinking about it from their point of view. Don't think about your strap line as something that sounds good, that you think is great. You've got to step into your customer's shoes and make sure that it is something that really speaks to them. I think the other thing that you need to do is think about what is your mission and your reason why, because if you know what your reason why is for creating the business and building the business, and it's not most cases, it's not that you're setting up a business just so that you can make money. I'm sure that you're doing it for other reasons that are much greater than that. So what are your reasons for setting it up for your customers? And think about what it is that you do that is important to your customers. You want to get something like that in your strap line because that will really get across the essence of what you're saying. So keep it simple. Make sure it's clean so that you have a lot of clarity around your strap line and also make sure you get across the essence.  That's really important. So think about what it is that your customers value most about the services that you provide. Some people, they think that making promises in their strap line is the wrong thing to do, but it's not the wrong thing to do if you are gonna deliver on your promises. So for example, some strap lines, they'll say something along the lines of, always deliver on time. Good quality every time. So you could make guarantees in your strap line and that will be compelling to the people who you are trying to sell to as a business and try to let with you and buy from you as somebody that they trust in your industry. So you could put something in there that's along the lines of a guarantee. That does work, but you must make sure that you follow through on your promises if you're gonna build your brand on that. The other thing you can think about doing with your strap line is to use something that has your keywords in it so that you know that people, when they're passing it on, it could also be something that you have as your URL. Now for example, a company that we did the branding for last year, they have a mortgage company. So they give really, really good, honest mortgage advice to businesses who are buying properties that they want to obviously get very tax-efficient mortgages to help them make sure that they're not spending too much money in their business and also to help people on a personal level to find their dream home and be able to buy it in a way that doesn't have them stressed and worrying about how they're gonna pay their mortgage back. So Alison approached us a few years ago and we started working with her last year to really help her create the brand and the strap line and all the key messages around her business. Now mortgage advice and mortgages is a very, very competitive search term. So competing on Google wasn't something that Alison wanted to do, but what we did want to do was get the essence of Alison's message across and one of the things that was really key to Alison was that she wanted to protect people that were living already in their dream home but because of the recession and because of inflation of interest rates and things, people were having to sell their homes, their family homes in some cases that they're grown up in and have to move or downsize and she wanted to really help people with that to protect their property and to protect their security and their family home. So that was one of the angles that we looked at for Alison's business when we came up with the four concepts for her strategy and it is actually the one that she went for. Here we go, heavy breathing. You might hear that. She's coming back with the Frisbee. Come on then. So with Alison, what we did, we came up with the strap line and the concept of protect your nest. So that's exactly what she was doing. So the brand, the logo, everything was designed around protecting your home, making you feel safe. You know, if you've got a sea of mortgage advisors and in most cases, people will see four or five mortgage advisors and then they will, you know, they'd have to decide between those five people when there's not much differentiation between them if they're all providing the same service. So that really was Alison's key differentiator was that she really is an honest mortgage advisor that could help you to protect your nest, protect your assets and your family home. So her strap line is protect your nest and consequently her URL, her domain name is www.protectyournest. So you can incorporate your strap line into your URL and if you do that, it's actually quite clever because that way you're getting a strap line that is catchy but it also, if they remember it and you hope that they will, they'll then type that in online and you're the first person that's gonna come up because it's sticky and they associate that to you. Come here. And they associate it to you. So that's also a really good thing to do is to look at creating a strap line that you could also have as a URL if you are not competing on Google. Now there's loads of ways you can drive traffic to your business. You don't necessarily have to be coming up in the organic search rankings. But come here, hand. But I would advise you do, if you are going for something that you want to create that is really easy to find on Google, always try and get your keywords in there. You know, with hard work and time and patience, you can absolutely get onto the first page of Google and within the first three search listings of Google. But it really depends on what you're wanting to do. If you're wanting to build your business on a word of mouth strategy and you're not expecting a lot of business to come through online marketing, then it's okay to create a strap line that doesn't have, that isn't keyword optimized. The other thing that you can do, come here there. The other thing you can do is to think about your strap line as what are the feelings and emotions or the call to action that you want them to take once they've read it, once they've come into contact with your brand. So for example, if you think of Nike, Just Do It or McDonald's, I'm loving it. You think Just Do It is a very action driven word. It's a very action based company. They sell products that help you to take action and become a competitive athlete. So Just Do It is a perfect term for them because it's a very motivated term. It suits their business incredibly well. When you've got Pickfords, for example, they're a moving company. And what they wanted to do was create the essence of we look after your property. Like we're not gonna just get hold of it and shake it about and break it and drop it. We really care about it. So their strap line is the careful movers which I think is brilliant. It's great because it's descriptive. It tells you exactly what they do. But it also gives you the emotion that they're gonna look after your property. So that's exactly the essence that they wanted to get across. If you think of Toyota, for example, or Nokia, Nokia is a great example, connecting people, because that's exactly what they do. So it does what it says on the tin. Whatever it is that you wanna get across, is it a feeling that you want them to have? Is it an action you want them to take? What is it that you want them to do? So you're better off when you're thinking of your strap line. Start with the end in mind and really put yourself in the mind of your customer. And think, what is it that I'd really want them to say to me that would make me feel safe putting my life or my business in their hands? Now, Melanie, if you need any more help, I don't really have time to go into a great deal more today. Obviously, we do this in a lot of depth when we're doing the branding for our clients, but what we have done is created a course which is perfect for small businesses just like you if you want to learn how to become the leader of your industry. So a three-day course and over that three days, we'll help you to understand and step your business into the future to create all the key messages you're gonna need to create to use through social media, through excuse me, you've got planes about to go over, through social media, through the online marketing that you do for your website, whether it's videos that you're creating, whether you're writing blog articles or creating video logs. What we'll do is over that three-day period is work with you to create all of those key messages to step into your clients shoes and really extract from you what are all the things that you do that you take for granted that you will probably completely forget when you're thinking about your online strategy and your brand and how when you're talking at a networking event and how you're, when you're giving your elevator pitch for 60 seconds, what are the things that you really need to say about yourself? So we extract all of that and put that into a strategy that you can then take action and traction on so that when you go out after three days, you've learned how to become the leader of your industry, how to attract, engage and convert the clients that you want to work with and to also build yourself up as a key person of influence in your industry. So if that's something of interest to you, I'm gonna put a link below so you can get more information about that course and hopefully we'll look forward to seeing you there because it's a brilliant, cost-effective way of helping you to really become the brand that you want to see in the world. So take care, have a brilliant day, I very much look forward to hearing how you got on with your progress and of course seeing your strap line in action. So take care, if you've got any other questions, please do pop them in the comments box below this video and I will do my very best to answer them in the next couple of weeks for you. So take care, have a great day and we'll see you soon. Bye-bye. Okay.


I think the best takeaway for today for everyone here would be that we have to encourage and appreciate more gender equality around us and especially I think for people at work place if we can start with that to encourage gender equality not just at the workplace but also for it to begin at home. So I think that would be the right beginning and that's what we need to kind of spread the message across other people around us.


Hey you guys, so I know those of you who are confused, this is in the past, way back in the past. It is January 10th, three days before JB's birthday. Y'all, introvert parents to an extrovert child. I should probably start a vlog, excuse me, on that because JB has indirectly scheduled a birthday party for himself. I initially had just invited over one little boy, right? And so I went over to where he is at during the daytime. One of the neighborhood parents, he keeps him. And I've been over at her house several times. She's real cool, real chill, from Chicago. Chicago people are real chill, right? So I reminded him, I said, baby, remember, I'm gonna go over and ask your mom, but remind you to come over on Saturday for your birthday party. Some other little kids over her, that. And she was basically like, can I come? There was like a three second pause, me looking at her with cute little long hair. And before I could even like make up something, JB was like, yeah, you're all invited. I was like, yeah, sure. Yeah, you, no, it's okay, it's okay. So overall, there's gonna be about three or four kids. Well, yeah, three or four kids and about five or six adults. So anyway, I went to the Dollar Tree. I immediately went to the Dollar Tree because you guys, I'm a type of person, when I invite, usually I invite people over, but she's a baby. So when I invite people over, I plan like two or three weeks in advance because that's just how I am. So I literally have three or four days to put this all together. Went to the Dollar Tree, got a few things. Dollar Tree is slacking. Then it hard to have hardly anything. So I told them all, I said, this is very informal. You don't even have to give gifts. You don't have to bring any gifts, it's very informal. I'll probably do like two or three appetizers. I'll show you guys all of that, all of the setup because I like to make people feel at home. These people have never been in my, actually that's all I, two of them have been in my home. The other family has been in my home, but I like to make people feel comfortable. So I'll probably make about two or three quick appetizers, make sure there's all kit-friendly because it's for the kids. And I will be serving a punch. I won't be serving, put it like this. I won't be serving loose alcohol. So you can't come over here and have vodka for cranberry.  I'm not gonna be having no wine. And it's walking distance. Everyone is walking distance between, for me. I'm a little, when it comes to alcohol with kids, especially at birthday party, because it's supposed to be about the kids. But since I know these people, and again, we're walking distance, I'm okay with serving just a punch. Girl, just a punch. If it was like people from the school or people, parents, I don't know, I would not serve alcohol. That's just how I feel. I wouldn't do any alcohol at all. But I wanna do a little punch. A little cranberry, cranberry vodka punch. And like I said, everyone is like walking distance. Anyway, meatballs, chicken nuggets, all corn salsa. And that's it, his birthday cake, child. JB doesn't eat cake. And y'all see me? I am pretty good, I think, at making cake. So I'm gonna make a regular white cake with a strawberry filling. Cream cheese, buttercream cheese, buttercream cheese, whatever, frosting, girl, it's gonna be good. And I'm gonna decorate it with gummy bears for him. So yeah, it'll be cute. It'll be cute, it'll be something. I just get a little, what is that? I am cleaning. You guys, I don't keep my hair, house hair. I don't keep my house cluttered or very dirty. But I'm looking at my house with Southern Baptist eyes. I'm judging everything. So it's three days before the get together. I don't even wanna call it a party. Three days before the get together, I'm gonna go ahead and straighten everything. Just start straightening stuff, putting stuff away. Like my camera equipment and my background. They don't need to see all that. I'm gonna put that in the guest bedroom. Wiping everything down with bleach. I don't know, I'm getting to the point where I really don't like candles as much. And I don't even like those glade plugins. Those can be overwhelming to me. I like incense still, because I'm, I don't know, a little old school, I like incense. But from what I understand, those candles can even be a little bit toxic. We ain't gonna get into all of them. Anyway, like to straighten up, get everything ready. I really focus on the areas where the people will be walking in and the bathroom, really focus on that girl. Y'all, I took the time, the perfect time to stop vlogging because, hold on, let me kind of zoom this out some. It has been crazy.   I pulled him, immediately pulled him out. So he's been home with me for two weeks now. It has been fun, let me tell you. I mean, he has been, he was good the first week, meaning last week, but this week, baby, like the last two days were crazy. So I actually took him over to a neighbor who runs an indoor daycare and I had her to watch him for an hour or two. I actually had to pay her. My husband made a good point. He's like, because she offered to do it without me paying her. She's like, I was just watching for an hour or two for you. But he says, since that's what she does for, that's her career, I should pay her. So I'm gonna drop her off some money. Anyway, so he was over there for a few hours today and that seemed to help him because he calmed all the way down. But it's just been crazy week. I mean, because of that, I've been pulling him out and then last week was winter break out here.  These kids were out for two weeks for winter break. They had a fall break. I'm like, oh my God. So anyway, everyone just got back this week as my whole point. So literally every day I've been touring a different school, you know, on my lunch break, looking at different school, finally found one I think that's gonna work out today. I interviewed them today and I'm gonna register him for that. But I'm just, I'm just frustrated y'all because I have to do all that, pay another registration fees. These fees are not cheap. I mean, I'm dropping minimum 500 on Friday, just for school. Oh my God. So anyway, that's going on. Went to the Dollar Tree and picked up a couple of more things for his party on Saturday. And he called himself, saying his throat was hurting today. Y'all, I did a quick prayer over him, dropped him some medicine. I think that is due to the weather. The weather is changing here. It dropped 15 degrees. So I'm going to just stay on him for the couple of days until his party on Saturday. He should be okay by then. I think it's his allergies. So anyway, that going on and ciao. Why did I check the mail a couple of days ago? I remember there was a ticket in there. I knew it was coming. A camera had flashed on us while I was in Scottsdale. It was the week of Christmas. They probably like, let's make sure all these cameras are in tune. Get all these dangling people. So I know what happened. I was in Scottsdale on Tatum. Was that Tatum? Yup, Tatum. I forgot that they have cameras out there. They removed the cameras on the freeways or highways, but the cameras on those damn streets. Oh yes, they got cameras everywhere. But baby, I haven't had a ticket in years. So I'm going to take driver's defense class. But let me tell you the issue with that. Got the ticket and it has my maiden name on it, right? So I immediately called the court and I'm like, look, my maiden name is on this ticket. First of all, the girl was like, I'm like Vivian L. Jackson's on this ticket. I'm Vivian Denta. She's like, oh, so that wasn't you? I said, no, the name, but she's like, oh, so that she was trying to get me out of that. But I'm like, no, because it was a sister, I could tell it was a sister on the line. But I'm like, no, y'all, I'm very honest. If something's my fault, I'm going to own up to it. And I was like, no, it was me. I got my name changed. I even changed my middle name. I have two middle names, so I changed. I said, no, that was me. I was speeding and I saw it. So this is my ticket I'm going to pay for. Thank you, but no. Because then what happens, I'll get another ticket for double that, right? It'll come around some other way. So anyway, she was basically like, oh, well, you need to contact on the MVD because the record is under your old name. So I'm like, cool. That was a couple of days ago, right? So I called back today and I'm like, well, let me figure something else out. So this young lady was like, child, she knew exactly what to say. I could tell she'd been doing this for a long time. She was like, yeah, you need to contact the MVD. I'm like, what's the number? She read it off like a dang on computer. 6-0-2-2-5-0 girl. Go take a break, dang. So anyway, she gave me the number. I called them up. They're like, well, do you have a lease? Are you making payments? I'm like, yeah, I'm making payments in the car. What does that have to do? She said, well, did you change your name with them? I had to think about them. Like I changed my name with my bank. I didn't change my name with the credit union though. And that's who, so I'm like, oh, so I had tried to change my name with the credit union last year.  And so I just never got around to it. So again, my fault, I'm owning up to it. So I got to do that. Now I have to change my name through the credit union and then they have to resend that to the MVD. And then the motor vehicle division has to department, whatever the hell, they have to redo my registration, core registration, resend the ticket. And I'm like, I hope y'all send this within two or three weeks because, so dealing with that, dealing with JV school, birthday party coming up, y'all, it's a lot this week. And my hair is looking, all types of mess. I am way behind on a wash day. And typically I wouldn't be concerned about it, but since I'm going places and have to do stuff, I need to actually do my hair. So I'll probably wash my hair in the morning. I wanted to do that Jane Carter wash video too, but at this point, I won't be able to do that. But thank God I'm off.  Yeah, we always do this. We always take off. We wanna focus on him. He's our only child. We just wanna focus on him. So I took off for two days and I think he took off for a week. I'm like, I gotta see you all with him. We'll probably go out to eat next week. Oh, but baby, I'm gonna sit up for this. The Black Panther tickets would on sale this week. Y'all, I knew it was gonna happen. I think that Black Panther, the movie, it's going to be the highest gross movie this year. I'm claiming it right now in the name of Black Jesus. I really do. Y'all know what I'm just playing at. I really do think that. And I'm so ready for it. I did not know. Look, now I'm really sitting up. Let me find his name. Hold on, y'all. Girl, Black people, we do not age. But when I tell you we can be anywhere between we can be anywhere between 25 and 45 if in any given day. I think that Black people don't even start to age until after 50. Chadwick Bosman is how old is he? When I found out how old he was, I'm like, that double is a lot. Chadwick Bosman, 42. Why does he look 15 years younger than that? At least, I thought he was a kid, meaning in his late 20s, like 28, 29, 42 years old. That man is fine, one, and he looks good for his age. And 42 is not old at all. He's American? That's a strong jawline. Y'all really thought that was a Nigerian jawline. I know you're thinking, what's a Nigerian jawline? Y'all know Nigerians have strong facial features. I really thought he was, but South Carolina. South Carolina brothers and sisters didn't really mix with other ethnicities or other races, I should say, but that could explain it. Yeah. Yeah, he looks like his family just was like, no, we good. How are you guys? So it is the night before JB's birthday party and this is his cake I made. I'll show them that, baby. I'll show them that stuff. He's so excited, y'all. This is his first birthday. This is the cake I made. He wanted a sour patch cake. It's not perfect, but he loves it. You like your cake, baby? It looks big. It's two layers now. I'm a bit concerned because, one, I'm not sure how to cook this. I'll have to call my mama how to cut it. I didn't put, he's laughing. I didn't put any icing in between the layers. I put, what did I put? I put strawberry preservatives, but the reason why I'm concerned is the cake, it's a little overdone. So the icing in between would have made it moist, but I did do a little drizzle of lemon, so hopefully that'll work. So, okay, baby, I'm coming over. So, this was a last minute birthday party. Somebody just willed themselves a birthday party into existence by inviting random people. So I went to the Dollar Tree and got a couple of decorations. I have some balloons here I got today from the Dollar Tree, but well I put them all up. Plastics, ware, and stuff like that. Now I will be serving, now I changed my last, I changed my mind at the last minute, for appetizers. We're gonna be having chips. Daddy's in the back, baby. I'm gonna be making Mexican corn with chips, meatballs, and chicken nuggets, and these two. I have some yellow cake, I know this is crazy because we're gonna be having cake, but yellow cake with chocolate icing, like a loaf type of cake.  This is not even heavy. I know, baby. Too easy, too easy. Testing it out, girl. This will be the most amount of people we've had in our house. Hold on, baby, I'll show it to them. This will be the most amount of people we've had in our house, including my husband and I. It'll be about 10 or 11 people in this house. Woo-hoo, girl, I need some sage to cleanse my house after they all leave. No, I know these people, but, ooh, shh. Lord, I give JB two dollars. Hold on, y'all. Two money, two money. You got you some money? You got some money with two. You got another dollar? Let me put this cake back in the fridge, baby.  Okay, baby, I got to put this cake back in the fridge. I'm just gonna show you all the cake. So, it's white cake on the bottom and the yellow cake on the top. But, yeah, I couldn't put any buttercream in. I only had enough buttercream icing just for the layers. It'll work out. Good morning, you guys. That's the coffee maker being all out. It's the morning of JB's birthday. I'm a pearly because I get a pearly, but, y'all, it's staying dark here in the valley till, it's dark till close to seven o'clock. So, it'll stay dark for a while. But anyway, I'm up early, getting everything out, cleaning all the surfwear. They're gonna come, boo-boo. Okay? They're gonna come. We excited? It's my birthday today. Yeah? Happy birthday. Baby, not yet, JB. Can we wait until the other kids get here, please? Yeah, you need to wait. Let me see what's in there now. I'll show you here in a minute. Thomas says, then look at me. Yay! I know I look crazy, y'all. I'm gonna lie on my hair for a stretch.  It is the week after JB's birthday. They're gonna light, y'all. It's the week after JB's birthday. Everything's going good. We just came back from making busters, you guys. Just a little impromptu David and Buster's run. So look, every time we go to David and Buster's, actually any of those type of kids, places where you play games, JB always win a jackpot. But today, not only did he win the jackpot, but the machine starts short circuit and it gave him every ticket that was in the machine. So literally he got over 1,000 tickets.  So I really didn't got someone at David and Buster's. Look, y'all, I'm very honest. I'm very honest. So I went over and got grabbed someone to work at David and Buster's and the machine just wouldn't stop. So then the kids around him were looking like, one little girl was like, she actually saw the number. She's like, why is it giving him more than 500? So I gave her like 10 tickets.  I'm like, here, don't say nothing. No, but we had so much fun. He still doesn't grasp the concept of those type of games. So he only got him like a little ball that was like 25 points. I'm like, child, you got 1,000 tickets anyway. So we just came back from there. Tomorrow is his first day of school at his new school. Y'all, he's a little bit different at this school. Not sure how I feel about it. It's way better than his other school. I mean, it's a private school and they offer private kindergarten, way more affordable, not way more. It's about $3 or $4 cheaper a day, which is still something they do. What am I trying to say? Uniforms, school uniforms. Now this school does follow the school district calendar. So he will be out for the summertime, which means that I'm gonna have to put him in it into a cab. Might as well get used to it, child, because this is, he starts school in August. He starts kindergarten, I should say in August. My husband was like, excuse me, y'all. My husband was like, well, how much is the kindergarten there? I told him, look, we are not paying for private kindergarten when kindergarten is free. He's gonna go to a charter school, public education out here. Phoenix is horrible. We're worse than Texas, no shade to Texas. He's going to a charter school. I already toured the school last month. Look, you guys, I am on my crossing my T's, dotting my I's when it comes to his education. Make sure to get, make sure we have a good foundation. But to pay for kindergarten. But yeah, you guys, everything is going well. Look, I don't know when I'm gonna load this up, but I've stopped doing hair videos. Not necessarily stopped, but I don't have any hair videos to do. I hear JP. I have a Jane Carter wash day that I need to record, but that's in like two or three more weeks. I don't have any hairstyles because I need to keep my hair in this protective style for a good three or four weeks. Yeah, so just tell me y'all what's been going on. Besides that, I really have been starting further researching what I wanted to do as a career path. I started saving images for my vision board. I'm going to do a separate vision board, like I mentioned in my 2018 goals video. I'm doing a separate vision board for my career path. I really don't know which area I want to go in you guys, but I think I can get back into doing, taking care of me and figuring out what I want to do for the rest of my life. Because I'm young, you know. Yeah, besides that girl, my husband got cataracts. He has to go have cataract surgery on both of his eyes. And he, it's just a genetic thing. He had cataracts when he was, I think he told me he had cataract surgery. Do y'all know where SMU is at in Dallas? Is that, what is that? Steven, no, is it Steven? No, he said he went to SMU. Where is that at? Somewhere, I know it's in Dallas. He went to SMU and had some kids do it. He was a kid too. You know, he was, I think he said he was like 21, 22. And so, so yeah, it's not that he's getting older. It's just that he needs to have it redone. So yeah, besides that, I had stopped working out for a good two weeks, but I did a hip exercise today. I haven't gained any weight, thank God. But I haven't lost any weight either girl. I am postponing my membership, gym membership, because I'm just so busy right now. And I know I'm not gonna go to the gym. So the good thing about my gym is that you can postpone payments. And I'm also thinking that since JB is gonna be in school a lot more often and a lot more consecutive days. And when he's not in school, he's gonna be at karate. I made this continued childcare services for him, save my coins, baby. Besides that, oh, I'm getting baptized. I know I'm random, y'all. I'm getting baptized girl next week at the Juicy Fruit Church. I went from, they went from these holes they loyal to Juicy Fruit. But baby, let me tell you something. The first lady actually, they do a thing when she asked you to, I don't know what, she was doing church announcements and she asked them to play a little music for them before they do church announcements. And they started playing Juicy Fruit. And she in a very PC manner said that that was not acceptable. And I was like, high five sis. Thank you for, she did it. Yeah, she said, we gonna have to talk after services about something a little bit more holy. Holyness. So I was like good, someone said something. But no, I am getting baptized at this church. They do baptisms quarterly. And so I signed up for it for next week on the 21st. I'm really excited, y'all, very, very excited. I was going to get it done. You guys know I mentioned it briefly last year. But the church, first of all, that church were Trump supporters. One, they are still, the pastor and wife are still anointed. There's no denying that. But I didn't realize how much they supported Trump. But not only that, but it's a good hour away. I haven't been to that church in a year or two. It's a good hour away. And it's getting dark here. Like at six o'clock, it's getting dark here in Phoenix. And I honestly cannot drive in dark. I cannot, it's not safe for me to drive in the dark. And with this church, the church that I go to, now I've been going to on a regular basis. It's only 15 minutes away. And yeah, yeah, I'm comfortable with having my baptism there. I've been reading up on the scriptures on baptisms and the importance of being baptized. And I already knew this. Yeah, so excited about that. What else, you guys? I feel like I'm singing a lot right now, only because I know that I'm not doing my regular vlogs. And I want this vlogging series before I really start doing real time vlogs just to keep you guys informed on what's going on. That's all I said, y'all, I am happy. Can you tell, baby? I'm happy, I'm excited. I'm just excited about the new year. And I'm just so grateful for what God has done for me and is continuing to do for me. And I give all honor to him, you guys. There's a pet co over here. Yeah, there's a pet co. I don't do pets. I just gave him the pet talk that after his dentist appointment on Monday, candy would be like once, like a holiday or something. Right, baby? He's ignoring me, right? What do you mean? You little. Yoga. We have been back from, oh my nose, it's just, I need to organize my makeup. We're at the end of January and just a couple of things. You probably won't know until I actually upload the video. I'm supposed to be getting baptized in a couple more days, but not to share too much information, but Aunt Flo came early. So I called my mama about it and she started laughing. She said, yeah, no, she's a super safe thing. She said, oh, no, you can't get into that water unclean.  That, and of course it's tax season because it's the beginning of the year. One thing that I had kind of sort of thought about when I was doing my recertification for my student loans last year was how we would do our taxes since now we're married.  So this is why I need to get baptized to get out this attitude. So why is it that when we are, if we are to do, so best off, if we are to do our taxes married, but separately we lose all types of credits. Childcare credit done. And baby, I paid close to five. Well, we paid close to $5,000 last year. Charity done. Education done. But if we, sorry, I thought that was Shabby, if we do it married jointly, my student loans payments and his too, even though he doesn't have as much as mine, mines will literally go up by double. Yeah, I would be looking at close to 500. If not, actually, she said well over 500. I'm sorry, $500 a month. So the, I've called Navient at all. I called them, yeah, sorry, but I've been livid about this for about a week. I've been contacting Navient several times and the last for I spoke to, she was really optimistic. She's like, well, you never know. You may get a raise or a better career job. Things may happen for you, you know, happen by the time you do your recertification in September and your payments may not be that much. I'm like, please don't get me all hopes up, you know, for that, but I might just need to bite the bullet because quite as it kept, we're not really supposed to be getting, what do you call it, a tax return because that's basically mean we're overpaying every paycheck. So if we adjust our withdrawals, our withdrawal, country-ass, we will be getting more for pay period more throughout the year. So yeah, I'm just gonna go ahead and then just be like, secure it. Forget the child girl credit. You scared me. Y'all, I thought there was a snake cause it was like water running. It was like, I don't know why I thought it was a snake. But anyway, y'all, come on baby, let's get out of here. Come on. I'm a snake. Besides that, I got good news from my doctor's appointment recently. My labs is good, everything is okay. I have my paperwork submitted to get these treaties taken down. What the, what the, what the, what the, what the? The back surgery is so good. Look at me. Oh Lord, y'all haven't seen the baby in a while. Look at. You too close, Pumbu. What are you doing? I need my coffee cause it's my way. Watch you. Give me some sugar. I wanna show you guys Ryan. Oh. Are you a belcher? The little stool. We're back out here at Desert Ridge again. Y'all, my hair is growing. Hey man. We're back out here just for a sec. Yo, it's snow day. And it's a little, it's cloudy as you can see. It's overcast. It was sprinkling over there by us. I'm hungry. I don't need to buy me some snacks. But anyway, they're supposed to make it snow. And so, there's a line of everything. God, there's a lot of people out here. They just started the event 20 minutes ago. Now it's about the rain. I could feel the rain. I left my umbrella in the car. I'm up here and granted it's not that far away, but just the thought of getting ready and going out. First of all, it's cold. Phoenix, we're not used to this type of chilliness. It's 55 degrees right now. I gave JB one of my gloves cause I couldn't find his gloves. I couldn't find my other two gloves. Cause we, what do we need gloves in Phoenix, right? But Chow, you could really tell that Phoenix people are not used to cool weather. And quite frankly, 58 degrees is really not that cold. So I see people with their kids. They have on mittens, they have on gloves, they got scarves. One person have their kids in these big overalls. Like you remember that scene from the Christmas story where those kids were all layered up? That's how these kids are.  It's people. But it's raining. It is raining. But Jackson doesn't do the rain, I'm country. If it's raining and cold, we all gonna get sick. So we were out here for about 25 minutes. I'm like, JB, we gotta go. We gotta go. So we need to find somewhere where we can go inside while I can eat, cause I'm hungry and he can have fun. So we think about Chick-fil-A. Sorry, y'all. Y'all, I'm up in this child. We're at the dentist. We had to move JB's dentist appointment cause he's not feeling too well. It's all allergies. So come on, baby. Y'all, look at these child's cavities. Come on, baby. Let's get out. Let's hurry up. Ooh, it's cold. Ooh. My baby has on everything but a coat. He wanted his little mittens on. Look at him. Let's look at his stuff. Got my teeth hurt too. Your teeth hurt, baby?  You guys, I am at the dentist and look at these. And look what's over here. I'm gonna raise some. Yeah, we're back from the dentist and he got himself a balloon. He did really well. The dentist, let me turn this car off. The dentist said she was very surprised at how well he did. I mean, we were done within 20 minutes. Girl, I'm not backing up. I'm not backing up. Going the other way. Anyway, he did really, really well. I could tell there were some parts where it hurt a little bit, boo-boo. The camera's green. The camera's green. I'm not necessarily hurt by a little pressure, but I made another appointment to come back up here. I'm not here in two more weeks because it's like a two-step process. And, okay, baby, they can't hear me. The silver fluoride diamine, I don't know the correct term, you guys. I've looked it all up.  And she made a good point. She said that children who have asthma are, you know, it's not a good idea to completely put them under. And she would even recommend me going to the hospital to do that. I'm not alone. Did I go under?  So this is an alternative to it. It's basically, it's almost like a patch. It's not like a band-aid meeting to stop the decay from wanting me further. So yeah, she said he did so good that she said he would be able to sit there while she actually fills some of his teeth. I'm like, you trying to get any type of money? I can't because this thing was free. You were okay? Yeah. And I was so okay. You did so good, baby. I know, I know, and then I got a blue. I know. Pink eye cup from. JB has the pink eye, it's not funny. But at least I know what's wrong with him for the past two days. He's been congested, coughing, and the pink eye can have cold. And stomach hurt too. Stomach hurt from coughing. You can have cold-like symptoms, but when he got up this morning, his entire eye was crusted. But thank God, I have, yeah, I'd be keeping my medication. I don't throw away nothing. So I have pink eye medication.   And so he's gonna stay home for at least two days. For at least two days. I'm gonna turn the camera around on him so I can show y'all what he looks like of all this madness going on. With the silver, dynamite, fluoride paste for his teeth, it will turn his teeth dark. And so I've been talking to him. He's been looking at his teeth saying, oh, I'm sad. So I've been washing his teeth. I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna show you. Stop it. I've been. Stop it. You better stop it. I've been brushing his teeth with, whoa, I've been brushing your teeth with baby, baking soda. Baking soda. And that's been helping. And so he has to have another session of it in two more weeks. I want to show you guys my teeth. Okay, baby. Here we go. Did you guys see my teeth? Yeah, so what happens is that.  So you say cheese, but it's really not that bad.  Oh, you see that right there?  And so they put the paste on it to stop the decaying of the teeth. I'm gonna have pink eye. He has a pink eye. Just a hot mess, boo-boo. Pink eye. Yes, but that's okay. We know what the pink eye is. We have medication for it. But anyway, he did. Anyway. He did, what was that? What was that spilled? Are you peeing or was that the juice? Uh, juice? I'm about to say. He did really well at the dentist yesterday. Even the dentist, she was just very amazed at how well he did. What? What? It's just a lesson learned. It really is. No more candy. And you guys, he gets offered candy by everybody. My neighbors. And I do all the candy. I just want to break. I really want to break.  He will not be here. When I be going to school today, hopefully he can go tomorrow. If not, what is your, you know, policy on Ms. Day? So you just like, well, unfortunately, he has to stick to the schedule. Meaning he just can't show up. Like if he missed today, clearly he missed today. He can't show up choosing Wednesday, Thursday. Call them his sick day, right? Hopefully he'll feel better come the morning time. But then a couple of hours later, he's crying, his ear hurts. I'm like, oh my God. So now your ear hurts. Your eye hurts.  I'm like, oh my God, can I not have a break? And it literally, y'all know, all of these, all last month we were both sick.  And now we're at the last end of January and he's back sick again. It's just, it's just too much for me. Need a break.  Just a break.  Heads up, all you young girls. You don't get a break once you become a mom. You don't. My hair is dirty. I suppose I've been doing a video today. I can't do no videos when he's here. So I'm gonna have to postpone that till tomorrow and hopefully he'll be back tomorrow. You can see what my hair looks like now. So I had said that it's just, that's enough to chow because I'm just running around and my to-do lists are getting out of control because yeah, there's just certain things you can't control over. But the only thing I can control at this point is how I respond to it. And that's what I'm choosing to do, y'all, is. And look, now after everything had hit the fan. It's real quick, y'all. I just got finished watching a video. First of all, well, let me just tell you. By Cravey Craven Curly Kinks. Is it Craven Curly Kinks or Craven Kinky Curls? Anyway, I know some of y'all have seen this video because it's gotten almost 100,000 views at this point. And the title of it is YouTube broke my hair. Now before I give my take on what happened, I'm gonna say this. I'm very empathetic to the sister. I just subscribed or discovered her two weeks ago, actually. I love her hair. She has beautiful hair. She seems to know, she seems to know what she's doing. However, she had a setback. Overall, like I said, I'm empathetic to what happened because growing can happen to the best of us, right? You can know your hair for 10 plus years and still have a setback when it comes to your hair. That's just the reality of it. But this is what I think happened with her hair. And let me tell you what the video is basically about. It's fairly long. It's about 30 minutes long. She tried a new hair product on her hair at Coastal Gel. She hadn't used gel in years. I think she said she's been natural for seven years. First of all, she has beautiful hair. Absolutely gorgeous. This is one of the reasons why I subscribed to her. She has beautiful four-category tailbone length hair. She's only been natural for seven years, okay? So she basically used Eco-style gel. Let me wrap it up. She used Eco-style gel. And according to her, she said it tangled up her hair. Then she decided to use Aussies, that Aussie. But I believe she probably used the Aussie 3 in Miracle, which is a great conditioner. However, in my opinion, is not the best conditioner for detangling. She was a clarifying shampoo and it just got worse and worse and worse and worse. So now she's seeing Eco-style gel run to her hair. But in the same talk that she's also seeing, she's not sure what happened. Let me tell you what I think happened because this has happened to me before, not necessarily for product, but with a style. One, number one, you're never supposed to shampoo your hair while it is matted or tangled. That is the biggest mistake. Now she shampooed her hair, but she used a clarifying shampoo. Clarifying shampoo, meaning I need to strip the ingredients. I need to strip your hair. I need to take away all the oils, which helps you to detangle your hair. But she didn't, again, she didn't know this. Now, I think the reason why she said, maybe she used a clarifying to get rid of the buildup. So I don't know what she's done, because again, I didn't rethink, excuse me, look at the entire video, but looking at the amount of hair she has, it's gonna take her a while. I had an issue where my hair was very dry and tangled. And I did, not only did I do a treatment, I did a protein treatment on top of my hair. So my hair was tangled, I shampooed, I did a protein treatment. I don't know if you guys remember, but this was about two years ago. My hair was severe, was it this or was this side? My hair was matted, like all up in here. I cut, it took me hours to just detangle that one section, but then I had to end up cutting some hair. And I think this is what she's leaning towards, is trimming some of her hair, but looking at the way her hair looks, again, I feel bad for her, I really do. Looking at her hair, it looks choppy, but I think that's from over manipulation of trying to get all the tangles out, but yeah. When your hair is tangled and matted, don't shampoo it.  That's if you have the patience, but she can get her hair back together. She has beautiful hair, so yeah.


't go together you cannot force anybody to be a class rep okay just to make it clear to people at home voting and stuff are you actually when you if you do win the position you will sit as president you will I will do my best to your best okay that's fine anyone else have anything to say on that or is it just okay we'll move on to the next question so Niall and I wanted to ask you at Hostings you said you would organize mindfulness and yoga classes and I wanted to ask you are aware that they are already available on the glass and camps in the disability learning support service yeah oh I was just saying that it was more of a case of making a part of it in my campaign that's already on the same page campus so at the moment we have a wellness Wednesday which started up and I don't like giving you props but in your Manisex you were initiated that and now I've taken their idea and I want to make it widespread I think Wednesdays in particular people go out in the night on a Tuesday it's a bit of a hump day in the week especially on the same page campus for people in the education faculty they're 95 every day and they really are feeling the kind of the the dip in the morale so I think that by actually producing these part of a university campaign that's more what I was talking about it wasn't actually about what's already available it was more about just kind of gathering all together and putting together a grouping like that was only the start of it so even stuff like they brought an ice cream van on the campus stuff like that just make it a little fun but also with the underlying current of your doing it for a reason and the reasons mental health for back to the mind from the classes would you use the is it the SU that we're running these as well as yes you absolutely so if there's ones already available then a hundred percent utilize them yeah keep the cost down you didn't know that they were already available I did know they were available yeah but I meant like the whole campaign is trying to gather things together okay perfect and and Imer then this year a lot of path students would have said that same your colleague Manitz would have been more of a face on St. Pat's then and then you were and there was also a number of things in your manifesto that say people would say haven't been followed up with could you do you want to talk about that at all or kind of yeah knowledge is that it's just from the St. Pat's from the ground St. Pat's that's what I think I think that's more so a visibility thing and purposely I had them wanted to keep things very even keel I didn't want to be the Pat's girl from Pat's talking to Pat's about Pat's that's not what the incorporation's about it's about all different institutions coming together and I was hugely involved with the societies and in DCU previously to the incorporation and so like I felt like I was that kind of person that was you know in between I was Pat's student but I also had been involved in Glass-Evan and I had seen the benefit that the incorporation could have and not many people impacted though yes that's the thing and so I kind of tried to leave this view of you know things will get better it's of course going to be a bumpy year and St. Pat's students have certain needs that they need fulfilled and we did fulfill them I worked very closely alongside Manus I sat on boards with James regarding graduation I ran alongside Cody I ran every single campaign that was based down on St. Patrick's campus and I'm sure every student down there can say that I was the one who was down there actually leading those campaigns physically being there and as well as that I worked extremely hard on Constitution to make sure that St. Pat's students have class reps for next year as this year they were underrepresented in that way so I think it's slightly unfair to say that just because my face wasn't out there and I wasn't sending weekly emails to a certain cohort of people that I wasn't doing a job and I was trying to represent all students whether they be St. Pat's students or Glass-Evan students and then what was the other question what have I accomplished kind of throughout this year how would you yeah yeah so like even little things that aren't known I think a lot of the time is things like we have a new bike scheme that's coming in that's 50 bikes I've been working on civic engagement forums I've been working on getting a green flag for St. Patrick's campus all these things that are unknown to students sitting on a lot of boards so on disciplinary I sat on governing authority for a couple weeks these things are unknown to students I think a lot of the time and it's not visible that the work is still going on okay how would you make it visible because I feel like that's what students are looking for yeah of course it's about self-promotion but I felt like we needed to balance it out a lot and I didn't want to again I didn't want to be the Pat's person all for Pat's because I obviously wanted to continue on and run for presidency and I feel like you do need to adhere to what their needs are but I don't think it's something that you should visibly be like oh yes I'm the Pat's person and I'm on Pat's campus and it's more of about a presence and it's about an equal equality between all campuses okay now I need something to say there on that matter yeah I just think that I agree with what some of what you were saying there but I also think that if you knew that things were going wrong especially like if you're talking about looking at what students issues actually are and you're looking at for the overall thing if you saw the Pat's students in particular weren't happy you think that you would snap back into looking out for their needs as Manus did and I think that that's why he was more visible and that's just my comment on that okay which is why we ran things such as Welles Wednesdays which you you are obviously wanting to continue on and we ran events on campus we've come together with Why Not which is run by the X and St. Pat's we've come together with them on on nights out and stuff we have given Pat's students what they want we've worked extremely hard to get extended library hours for them just because my face is not at the forefront of that James you are a Pat's student talk to us what do you think No we're not from as a Pat's student perspective As a Pat's student my main interactions would have been through Manus rather than through EMA as a result because I knew Manus Manus was in my year up until third year when he took the position on the SU and continued forward we were friends so I would have went to Manus more directly ahead of that and EMA was engaging through the talks for the grad for Pat's but if you talk to a lot of students a lot of students mostly now in my year as well would see Manus as the head of the union down in the Pat's campus versus EMA okay and say if we if we go back on that then say this is actually my question for you James is that you are a Pat's student and you would have a great presence on the same path how you wouldn't say it's have as good a presence as say some of the other candidates on Glass, Neven campus and how will you be through that if you do get the position of president like making yourself known? We're going around and interacting with the students and making sure that I go to events that are on all the time throughout the weeks and you won't say do the opposite say this year and I focus on Pat that you know you have to keep it. No no no I want to interact with all three campuses like even all Hallows I have no interaction with that at the moment I want to make sure that if elected I would interact with all students equally from all the campuses and another way of doing that is through the class reps council interact them with the elected representatives for the students and discuss the problems that they have but I think the key issue is that yeah I'm a Pat's student I was when I signed up in the CAO I signed up for St. Patrick's College not DCU but if I'm elected I'm over 17,000 students who come from three different campuses I can't link back to my old roots and I will make sure that I stand for all 17,000 students that I'm elected over make sure that I interact with them and make sure that I know what they want as a whole unit not just one group because it won't work if I just focus on one group that it just can't work that way I have to ensure that I work for all the students that I am elected represent. I think everyone agrees with you there yeah okay so Sarah then I move on to you for your question you proposed an increase of 150 euro to the student levy yeah for free gym access for all students yeah absolutely okay and so what I'm wondering is how can you kind of how can you kind of um do that if there are students on campus that say with physical disabilities that cannot avail of those kind of services how can you make that level on all on all levels like how how can you expect people to pay that fee if they're not even able to avail the service yeah that's a very good question and I think from a level I thought there will be a surplus and I've been talking to Ken several times in the last couple of weeks um it's absolutely feasible but I think from that point of view there will be a surplus and facilities can be developed and I think particularly the gym down in paths and we talked about this about at hostings as well I think it's really important to engage with those students kind of on a one-to-one basis um just to see even what they want if they're interested in you have to remember it's not just the gym there's a pool there's different classes there's there's something for everyone there and certainly I believe there would be such a surplus from that but it would be feasible okay and the issue of overcrowding which has been going over for Trinity and Jim even though you compared that that there is a free access for Trinity students there was a huge overcrowding issue so how would you deal with that again just to go back to people have to be aware of all the facilities that we actually have even like the high performance uh gym down in Sinclair's the pitches in Sinclair's the gym and paths should be developed I think uh some facilities should be allocated down to all Hallows and they certainly would be if it came about um so I think again you just have to push the surplus and that and Ken is 100 behind it thinks it's feasible he even said you could scale back on the uh non DCU students members if uh if it came to it okay okay yeah I think like obviously the Ken Robinson he's a nice lad but he's in charge of DCU sports so obviously his opinion is going to be quite biased towards um developing the sports side of things not every student is going to have um sports in mind obviously with so many clubs and societies here that's what makes DCU um so a diverse the fact the big range of clubs and societies I think we have to acknowledge that obviously Sarah is from a sporty background she has the huge amount of um credentials in that aspect but there is a lot of other students in campus that wouldn't and by imposing like 150 euro and actually we even like the USI um fee which is only about 80 euro I think 78 euro that was a huge deal so here's 150 euro and the students who might not pay it who may be struggling maybe on the access program may not actually have enough money to pay rent is a huge thing that it's just kind of looked over at that the fact that the person in charge of the sports center wants it obviously he wants to build more pitches but he's not going to build more pitches next year. Okay Sarah what do you say? I think if you look at UCDUL numerous college we're probably nearly one of the only colleges that don't actually have a system like this and I think it works so so well I've talked to students they don't know students that don't know where the gym is even that would like have no interest in it at all and they all think it's a good idea I've got such good feedback on it I haven't actually heard one person other than the four colleges I kind of run it down which is fair enough like but I absolutely think it's feasible Ken does too I see it working so so well across the other campuses I think as well a lot of parents pay fees and they're going to want their their kids out being healthy being active as much as possible so I really do think it's a feasible idea and would be obviously you'd have to check out demand from students first like and I do think the demand there so I don't think it would be a problem okay I finally regret it my question for you is the two words you've used in your campaign were professional and transparent that's the s the su that you would like to see my correct that's what in making an su that's professional surely it's a student student union is student body base so why would you make it less approachable for students to make this professional entity why make it less you know friendly and welcoming make it a professional kind of business like suit I think it's not the same professional and approachable are absolutely compatible okay I think what I mean with professional is it cannot be you get notices with one hour time that's nonsense it cannot be you get important meetings overlapping with other events this is nonsense you mean like tonight for example okay I was at CRC I wanted to be here too it's not about not being approachable you can be approachable you can come to the debate paint it as break hard there's no problem I think it's not about being approachable it's about prioritizing that there are people like maybe more qc's master postgraduate people and others that look at you and they don't want to think oh okay I'm not interested in this this is just some shit show that's going on there for few ones but surely the student elections are as important as you know you're representing yourself at the CRC because your entire student body is voting for you as a position of your their president so I mean surely this kind of an event is just as important as say turning up to CRC meeting which does take place every much more often obviously like I consider this event really important that's why you're here that's why I'm here but I would like to be able to be in both events because I consider CRC is also important there are some votings going on tonight at CRC okay I cannot be there to vote no rep that actually wants to follow fully the debate can be there to vote I guess when running though for the well the ones running obviously they cannot be there but I mean in general it's just a feeling over the whole year I will act a lot of professionality as I said in my manifesto so professionalism in many points and then it's really hard to argue against it because I don't think you cannot be fun and be professional at the same time I think it's perfectly possible. Anyone have anything to comment on that? Just I think it's this funny that he says professionalism but he's faced by not. Well I don't have a campaign t-shirt I know it's I'm actually just making a joke. I can't laugh so yeah um right so if that's all we have to say for each other then I have a few twitter questions that want to be asked okay so the first question is from a guy called um I'm not telling you now sorry from a girl called Holly Farrell and this is for you Ricardo professionalism in his manifesto yet he asked could he bring his sword into the debate very hard for press. Yeah. Can you comment on that? I heard last year there was a sport so I just thought it would fit. This is true. Right. Okay that's fine. Emer you stated during your hostings um that you would always support a DCU student why is it then that you openly voted against a DCU student running for the position of on the U.S.I. and that's from Sean Rooney. Um okay yeah of course I'll support any DCU students and when I when I say I'll support any DCU student I mean I'll support them if I can do something for them and I don't feel that my vote personally that shouldn't be a thing that should be I feel shouldn't be brought up that's an anonymous vote that you know shouldn't be really something that should be spoken about but and then again my personal opinion on who I think is going to do the best job and my own personal view on something is not something that I'm not representing students in that vote that was my own personal vote for my my own personal opinion and I wasn't representing students making that vote I was representing myself of course and that was actually um it was an opinion vote it was it didn't actually go into anything I didn't actually vote on anything so that's fine okay we go Ricardo first and then we'll take that. I would say you mentioned transparency in my manifesto it is a second important point I am about like I want to raise why is the voting anonymous why should the voting be anonymous I just mean that was my own personal vote that wasn't do you mean now for the for these in general like as you vote why do they have to be anonymous right like governmental elections are also anonymous that would be probably why the deputies votes are not anonymous okay you can track who voted what because you elected this representative to vote so you are allowed to know what you like what he votes so here it should be the same class where we are not just our personal beliefs we are the beliefs of our students of our class and maybe overall you can think about the whole student body so I don't think our vote is treatable as if I go to voting on election so yeah um my opinion on that would just be as a governmental election of course it would be biased if we were to openly promote each other and so I think it has to be an anonymous vote it's only secure and safe I feel like people would be and subjective to you know being and I know personally like I know I would take it to heart if I knew some of my own personal friends were voting for me and so I think my own personal vote shouldn't have been brought into this in any way shape or form but at the same time this is open to all for all to know yeah it's social media and again transparency it's totally fine like it's just kind of exactly what this is in regards to Sean Cassidy a DC student who's running for USI campaigns and Sean I'm sure will vague for me that I have supported him a hundred percent I've been the one on the Student Union who's actually helped him with his campaign and with getting printing done supporting him messaging him every time he had and hustings I'm the one who's been in contact with him so I'm sure he wasn't offended by my own personal opinion sorry yeah sorry I find it a bit contradictory and like hypocritical to think that you're going to support somebody all the way along through like printing off stuff and then suddenly just go vote against them and like I think they can call it a personal vote when clearly like everyone's going to look up to their students union they're going to know who they are they're going to see them voting for something that's not really a personal vote especially if it's for university students it's not outside of college or university it's it's in at a base or an opinion piece whereby like you're elected to represent the students and I think that by openly supporting students from letter Kenny when you're and or where was it it wasn't actually it wasn't but like she didn't even know who it was but like it just wasn't okay that was gonna take it back to you Renee go on and I just think it's ridiculous to call me hypocritical when I am entitled to my own personal view and opinion and I made that vote based on my opinion I wasn't representing any students I was representing my own as well as that there was other members of executive who made the same decision as me and made the same vote as me they we have nothing against Sean of course he's gotten very personal yeah but I feel like at the end of the day no not but I've supported him in his race and I've supported him as a DC student and of course very proud that he's running but personally at that point in time I voted for a student or for an elective representative that I thought would do a better job and that was my own personal opinion I did not make a vote at congress okay to go against that well we get back to the student elections anyway and we will um just before we finish up has anyone got anything they would like to say um this is kind of I guess your last chance before voting open Sarah can I just come back to my slogan again I just I just want to say firstly apologies to anyone that it did cause um upset or of any sort to okay but just to actually have a look at my manifesto because I really believe that my manifesto is the best and a slogan shouldn't mean anything like so I'd really just encourage everyone to click on to my facebook page and have a look at my manifesto okay and also just to let everyone know that all manifestos are available on the sc website as well so you can take a look at them anyone else have anything like for a finish you asked me if my running for president was a joke I would say it definitely was not a joke so the only thing is coming back to the joke about the face I don't have the time I clearly saw I don't have the time to run a campaign like you guys do and I don't have the connections because I'm a PhD student I'm here for two years probably for two more years okay so I don't want anybody to misunderstand it's not a joke it's a serious candidacy so we did everything that had we collected 200 signatures if I recall because we think there needs to be some changes and obviously I think I can't leave these changes but what I can understand is if you don't have the time or the kind of you know the connections to run and to do a campaign how are you going to get the students behind you how are you going to get the vote I can well I heard let's say that student union elections are a popularity election right means it just depends how many friends you have I don't think elections need to be a popularity election because I agree that's what I mean I just thought I'd like to campaign at the end of the day myself just running putting myself forward I try first of all to not only engage for square rates so come on if I can be here everybody can just have a class rep or something even simpler show up answer the questions redeem us and second we had to just utilize as much as we could the little resources time ways that we had that explains probably the face because it's really hard as a part of our late student really really hard to see the amount of time that needs to be put on this so I don't want to hear next year everybody can run I don't believe everybody can run in the current situation because everyone can run anybody can run but it's not a fair race how is that you just said how am I going to get to vote students because you didn't put a campaign you're not campaigning not because you're not popular because you haven't got to the front like you said I'm saying you didn't put the energy into a campaign I don't have the schedule but that's what yeah I don't have the schedule I'm nine to five in the lab but then don't run then not everybody can run okay there we go okay well that's it then has anyone else got anything they want to say yeah I just want to urge everybody to get out there and look around the festival I'm someone I really feel like I've got that experience and from last few years I've worked hard to get where I am and onto the students union faculty rep this year and I just do please go tomorrow or not okay yeah same as I'm kind of coming in as an underdog I haven't been on the SU before but I've done many things outside of college that have proven to be quite successful I've done lots of things and I enjoy giving back to others that is one of the big thing and if I was to be elected I would ensure I give back to all the students of DCU and my manifesto is online my video is fighting for you and I hope you come out and vote that is the biggest thing and one of the biggest issues that is for DCU at the moment is voting numbers can be a bit down at times and I would like to encourage all students come out and vote and pick the candidate that you believe will lead the future SU in a in a direction that you believe is right for whether that means changing out the old dog and bringing in a new breed or not it is up to you okay thank you James Anima um yeah again um just reiterate what James said there that it's important to get out and make an informed decision so please do read all our manifestos I personally honestly do believe that I'm the best candidate for the presidency I've been here already a year I'm an ex-class student I'm a class graduate so I understand that the incorporation has been hired and but there's a couple of things that need to be done to make it a little bit better for students and I promise that I will work for the students and with the students so um please vote in your word president okay um yeah I honestly think my manifesto is the best I think I'm the fresh approach that the SU needs I'm really really passionate about uniting the campuses and I think it's huge as Alad said Anima um it's so so important people actually get out there and make an informed decision so I would encourage everyone not to just read my manifesto but actually to read everyone's and to pick who they think is the best for the job but I honestly do believe it's me I would say my manifesto probably is not the best but it's the shortest so definitely you can read it and I would say everybody should share what I'm defending in this manifesto so everybody should want a really professional student union a really transparent student union and definitely a more engaging student union than what we actually have I would say that's it so obviously vote for me okay well then that's it for this year's live student union election debate don't forget voting open tomorrow at 9 a.m and close Thursday at 5 p.m with results following at 6 p.m in Newborough so thank you all to the reproduction crew and everyone involved and all the candidates best of luck thanks okay thank you


As St. Lucia strives to secure its food supply, key stakeholders of pesticide use and regulation gathered to evaluate the effectiveness of the country's existing pesticide regulations. The meeting was organized in collaboration with the Forden Agriculture Organization, FAO, and the Ministry of Agriculture under the African-Caribbean and Pacific ACP, MES, three capacity building related to multilateral agreements. Experts discussed the findings of an assessment that was conducted last year to review the legislation on pesticides in the country with a focus on improving pesticide management and recommending changes to the regulations. National Project Coordinator of the ACP-MEA's three project, Lishan Monroe's, in highlighting the significance of the project's implementation to St. Lucia, insists that providing the necessary technical assistance and training to improve pesticide regulation and management is key to addressing the weakness in pesticide governance. This phase of the project focuses on sustainable agriculture and biodiversity conservation and use. Pesticide is inextricably linked to biodiversity health. When we manage our pesticides, we also contribute to the health of our ecosystems and our abundance of biodiversity in St. Lucia. We know it has been well documented that the indiscriminate uses of pesticide leads to detrimental impacts on the environment, loss of habitats, and killing off of biodiversity in the front of the flora and what not. And this is an area where St. Lucia needs improvement. This is why pesticides were selected to be one of our key focus areas under the project. Director of Agricultural Services, Dr. Aurea King-Snack, in emphasizing the importance of balancing agricultural productivity with environmental protection, says sustainable agricultural practices are crucial for safeguarding the health of our communities and preserving the natural resources which sustain our livelihoods. There is great concern regarding adhering to labels, use and disposal of these pesticides and their containers. Even more alarming is the fact that pesticides are considered one of the most popular contributing factors in suicide and poisoning in children. We all saw what occurred in our neighboring islands of Martinique and Guadalupe, where a pesticide link to cancer was spread on banana crops for many, many years, and now nearly all adults in the population have traces of it in their blood. Notwithstanding the damages and the prevalence of the danger sorry, and the prevalence of pesticides in and around the home, there are many easy and very practical ways in minimizing the exposure, such as integrated pest management systems and as simple as keeping our surroundings clean. The assessment of pesticide regulation in St. Lucia underscores the need for ongoing efforts to strengthen regulatory frameworks and improve compliance with pesticide regulations. Through continued collaboration and support from organizations like the FAO, the Agriculture Ministry continues to work towards a safer and more sustainable agriculture sector. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anitia Antoine reporting.