I love collaboration boots, especially when they're between one of the great Pacific Northwest brands and one of my favorite brands of boots. If you want to know how you take a comfortable last and build it on a perfect chassis, stick around. I'll tell you all the things I like about this boot and the one thing that I don't. How you going? Welcome back to Bootlossophy and if you're new here, my name is Tech. I acknowledge the traditional custodians of the lands that I live and work on, the budget people. This is the Nix and Parkhurst collaboration boot called the V1. Nix announced it as the first ever collaboration between two boot companies. There's a lot I like about it, but when I summarized my review at the end of this video with pros and cons, I'll tell you about the one thing that I don't like about it. So this is the Nix Parkhurst V1. Nix made this, taking the classic Falcon boot and its usual full leather stitch down construction and built it around Parkhurst's iconic 602 last to create a sleeker and dressier profile. Looking at it, it isn't actually that different from the classic configuration Falcon except that the toe box profile and more pronounced almond toe shape is sleeker. It's perhaps more of a service boot design than a work boot design plain toe, slightly over a six inch high shaft, big leather pull loop, flat block heel, bright brass eyelets and speed hooks and constructed with Nix usual stitch down construction. I'll explain all that when I get into construction. They came with super long leather laces, but I found the twisted brown and light tan look of the laces. I found them a little too distracting, so I swapped them for these Whites MP flat wax cotton laces. I see no point in having a dressier lasted boot and be distracted by thick two-tone leather laces even though I ordinarily like leather laces in the right boots. You can see what they look like with the stock laces in this picture and you'll probably see the bright white stitching on the stitch down construction as well. I brushed them with some brown boot cream to tone down the contrast for the same reason as swapping over the laces. A little too stark and distracting. You can catch them in all the out of the box glory in this unboxing video up here. I'm still working out what outfits they best go with, but I think at the end of the day it's going to end up being jeans mainly, whether in denim, black or earth tones like brown. These kaki chinos will also probably work and that's probably as dressy as they'll go. One thing I have found in the last couple of weeks wearing this around, the very big pull loops get in the way of my slimmer jeans and even some of my straight leg jeans. I tend to tailor my jeans and pants to break just on my instep. This means that even with looser fitting pants, when I sit down and sort of crook my legs, the pants hem rises to just above the top of the shaft and catches the pull loops. I've been shaking my pants down a lot these last couple of weeks. Now let's talk about the brands. Parkus was founded in 2018 as a small batch direct-to-consumer company by Andrew Savisco, a former stock analyst who was motivated to make a quality boot for around a 300 to 400 dollar mark and in doing so try to keep industry localized. Parkhurst's most iconic last is the a 602 last, named after the landing ship tank that Andrew's grandfather served on in the Second World War. Building his foundational plain-toe allen boots and captoe Richmond boots on them, he's created some innovative make-ups with really different leathers like kudu, mohawk and moose as well as trying out different oil or combination tan leathers from tanneries like Seidel instead of the ubiquitous homine chromic cell. The 602 last is applauded by Parkhurst fans. A last is the 3D shaped mold around which a particular boot is built. The design ends up taking on the shape of the last. Andrew designed the 602 last himself when often the boot makers will go to last designers and their license of shape to use as theirs. It's a combination last in that it's molded with a narrow heel and waist, starting I believe with a B or C width heel and then widening out to an E width forefoot combined with a rounded almond shaped toe. This means that it grips your heel but offers comfort around the ball of your feet and does not squeeze your toes while still looking dressy, sleek and sharp. This is the last that Nyx took as the collaborative piece. Nyx's lasts tend to be high arched and with a more consistent width up and down the foot, mostly with a rounded and higher profile toe box. You can see why being grounded on work, logging and firefighting boots that their lasts offer comfort in the field and for standing up all day. Nyx with no apostrophe and more correctly Nyx handmade boots was started by Russian immigrant Nyx Blahucin, I hope I got that right in 1964. He eventually sold the company to co-worker Gary Meyers in 1980 before retiring. In 1991 the company was sold again to Nyx Patrilli who in turn sold it in 1999 to Dick Hosely and then in 2013 it was sold again to current owner Steve Moe. This is how interrelated the Pacific Northwest boot companies are. The original Nyx worked for White's Boots before he started Nyx. Nick Patrilli's brother Frank, who also worked at Nyx, left to start Frank's Boots in 2016. John Kadzi who worked for Nyx in the late 90s for a few years also left and started JK Boots. It's interesting to me how the Pacific Northwest is so well known for work and heritage boot making but so many of its best known companies have totally interrelated roots and they're all within a relatively small geographical footprint. Nyx is primarily a work boot manufacturer specializing in outdoor work boots for builders and trades and people who work in the logging industry, linemen and so on. American bush firefighters are regular customers as well. They entered the heritage service boot type world in the 2010s with the Arrobert boot. Take a look at my review up there. They now offer what is a what is potentially a confusing array of articles and models but basically classify them as work boots, heritage boots and fire duty boots. The Falcon and a few other service boot styles are in the heritage section. As for the construction of this boot, my information is a little scant and I'm gathering bits and pieces from Nyx own very informative and entertaining YouTube channels as well as a little bit from what Andrew Savisco told me. Let's see what we can gather and I'll start with the construction method which is the stitch down construction method. To see the different types of construction methods take a look at this video up there where I explain the main methods. Basically the leather pieces making up the uppers are stitched together and then last it that is they're pulled down tightly over the last and the front of the uppers are then flared out in readiness to stitch to the midsole. Inside the insole is assembled and stitched on then the flared out uppers are stitched down onto the leather midsole to the outsole. As you can see it's a double row stitch down and both stitches go through the uppers midsole as well as the outsole. The midsole is a solid five millimeters thick of really thick vegetarian leather. I don't know how thick the insole is but it's not flimsy and the rubber outsole is about itself eight millimeters thick so this is a solid raft that this boot sits on. The outside by the way is the outsole is Vibram 700 rubber outsole or commonly known as the V bar sole due to the V shape pattern on it. It is low profile so it befits a casual dress boot but it is reasonably grippy on everything except the wettest and slicker stuff. The back half of the boot is glued sewn and nailed to the insole construction. The heel block is made up of stacked leather pieces and topped by a Vibram Quarbog heel. This boot is full of names that are hard to pronounce. As it's built in the Knicks way I think the inside of the boot under the arch is built up with shaped leather pieces and a leather shack to build up the arch similar to Knicks usual H&W moderate arch support. You can feel the level of the arch inside at about halfway up the inside arch area and there is a slight bulge under the arch for all that leather support. It feels superb and I'll expand on that when I talk about fit and comfort. Moving on up I chose brown chrome excel for the uppers because it was a quick shift option and I didn't have to wait although even then quick shift meant a wait from May to August. Did I tell you that Knicks business model is built to order right? A quick shift wait time of three months is pretty good in that context. Others who opted for other less quickly available stock leathers they're still waiting. Chrome excel as you probably know is tanned by Horween tannery a tannery that started in 1905 inventing the famous combination tan chrome excel in 1911. It is a pull-up leather and used by almost every quality boot maker out there.  The structured toe puff is slastic but the external heel counter is veg tan leather and it's tough. There is a two-piece backstay protecting the heel counter with the central piece moving up and protecting the Achilles tendon and attached to that is the beefy pull loop. The stitching on the uppers isn't going anywhere it's triple stitched in the bottom backstay multiple chevron stitched in the Achilles backstay and quadruple stitched at the quarters. For as big as the hand stitched stitch down stitches are the stitching on the uppers are small consistent and very clean. The hardware is bright brass four eyelets three speed hooks and a top eyelet. They're evenly spaced and feel very solid in the brass material and also in the way that they're fixed. The tongue is a fully gusseted tongue I think it might be made of chrome excel as well but it is a much thinner hide one and a half to two millimeters and so it's very malleable that's great because you need to fold it over itself I use this S shape since it's fully gusted. The boots come with chrome excel cuties false tongues to protect the softer real tongue from being scratched by the hardware and to keep dirt off the falls of the real tongue. The top of the shaft is reinforced by a piece of chrome excel that's very nicely rolled for comfort and I guess looks as well. It's a beautifully constructed boot all sturdy and solid so solid in fact there with all that leather weighs in at a hefty 1.1 kilos per boot it's very heavy I'm having problem holding it but that's not what I dislike about it in fact the heft just feels right you feel protected when you put the boots on and it feels like oh you know you're wearing something substantial and important as for leather care it is chrome excel so as usual number one keep it clean of dust dirt and gritty things which are the enemy of leather. Two condition it now and then with a conditioner of your choice the boots come with a small container of boot grease which I've been told is actually obanoffs. Some people may not like putting obanoffs on chrome excel because it will darken the leather. I can see why you would use chrome use obanoffs. If you use this as a work boot the obanoffs grease would help the moderately water resistant boot become a much more water resistant boot. If you have to wash the boot if it gets dirty and then it dries out I prefer conditioning it with some neat foot oil which doesn't darken the leather but if it really isn't dried out and all you're doing is some regular conditioning I recommend venetian shoe cream in neutral. Just a thin smear let it haze and absorb and then brush it off with a good quality horsehair brush. Venetian will also give it a soft polish. Now let's take a look at sizing and how the fit of this collab boot feels as against a standard parko 602 boot. When I first bought my first Nix I took a stab and chose my usual size in heritage boots 8D which is a half size down from my brannock size of 8.5D. Now that fit well so I did the same sizing here it's a good fit there was hardly any break in in fact on the second day I went for a six kilometer walk with no bad effects whatsoever. The heel and waist lock in the arch support is great the ball of the foot is snug like a firm handshake and there's enough room for my toes to wiggle but not so much that I have to find grip when I'm walking. When these arrived and I put them on my Instagram account Andrew Savisco messaged me and asked how they fit. I told them what I still feel now the fit is good but a tiny bit more generous than in one of his boots. The arch support is much more apparent of course on P&W construction and the length visually looks longer but I don't think it is. I understand that as all that leather under my arch settles down with my weight on them my foot will gradually slip down the slope and fill up the toe box more. Right now there's a little more than the thumbs width in the front of my toes so I expect that will settle in. There is no sense of being loose about it. The sturdy feel of the build the arch the firmness of the uppers all combined to keep you reminded you have a pair of boots on your feet and that they are sturdy and real boots and important I can't describe that feeling any better. Now these boots cost 599 US dollars when I ordered back in May 2023. That's a lot of money in Australia especially the postage cost wait for it 123 US dollars ah that total Australian $1,134 even I have to admit that was a lot but 599 US about 940 dollars for the boots has to be separated from the highway robbery that is 123 or Aussie 200 dollars for postage. Come on USPS at 599 US these are incredibly well built. Vibex service boots are 700 US white MPs are 600 so it's all in the ballpark would you pay that much depends on what you get I think to me these come well made and feeling important so yeah value seems to match price so even the cost isn't what I don't like about this so what is it that I don't like about these boots on the pro side I put firmly the fit and comfort definitely the sturdiness of materials and construction the arch support is worth a mention the look and aesthetics of a casual dress service boot that feels like a work boot is well up there as well and the feeling when you put these on the feeling that I have something important on my feet on the con side one and only one thing I really dislike about these boots they're called the Knicks cross parkhurst v1 for a reason there's going to be a v2 that means I'll have to buy the v2 when it comes out oh god I hate that but hey you probably love it because that means if you like and subscribe I'll have to do another unboxing and another review of the v2 so go on click on like and make sure you're subscribed until then take care and I'll see you again soon


Good evening, please take your seats Thank you I'm Susan Collins the Joan and Sanford Wildein of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy And it was a pleasure to meet so many of you yesterday at our graduation open house and tonight It is such an honor to welcome students family friends and community members here for what is the formal highlight of our academic year the Ford schools 2012 commencement ceremony of our platform party with me on stage is miss Carol Bellamy and I will be actually on this side She is our commencement speaker and I will be introducing her more fully in just a few moments to Carol's left is Janet Weiss the dean of Rackham graduate school and the university's vice provost for academic affairs for graduate studies Janet is here to represent the university of Michigan but it is also our great fortune that we count her as a member of the Ford school faculty so we're very honored to have Janet with us here this evening as well also on stage are two additional faculty colleagues John Chorchari who'll be reading the names of our graduates and Susan Donarski who will deliver the faculty address and finally elected by their respective classmates to provide the student commencement addresses soon to be Ford school MPP graduate Chad cooking him and be a graduate a junior core safety from the mid 20th century to the present this university has been the site of powerful and influential student action it was on the steps of our student union in 1960 that presidential candidate John F. Kennedy junior first called the University of Michigan students to service a call they heated and still act upon more than 50 years later a voluntary organization for international service which of course we know as the Peace Corps was born on this campus as the product of student passion and compassion and while it's perhaps best known it is but one of many examples of the ways that Michigan and Ford school students have mobilized their skills and energies to make a difference both in this country and throughout the world we now face a myriad of seemingly intransigent challenges and arguably there has never been a greater need for that determined spirit to act to confront our challenges through action action Ford school students are committed to public service to shaping and enacting good public policy they will make decisions about water conservation about nuclear power about how to increase literacy rates they will work in local communities for private organizations for the government they will act they'll roll up their sleeves and put the skills they've learned to use certainly as leaders but also as managers organizers writers lawmakers teachers as president Ford observed and I quote while we can never do all we might miss wish we must always do what we can and that is how Ford school students can meet these challenges they will do what they can even as students today's graduates engage here at school in the local Ann Arbor and Metro Detroit communities and in the larger world Ford school students create paths to change where none existed they partner with other committed individuals and organizations and sometimes they even create new organizations they work to find innovative solutions to the serious public policy challenges that confront us and that means they that means you serve in the best and the most dynamic senses of that word so bravo congratulations keep up the good work Ford school classes of 2012 we're so proud of you but before our graduates cross this stage and take up their new challenges now seems like a very good time to address a question that might be a common one around your family gatherings and that is just what is public policy anyway well public policy is our collective quest to address pressing and often stubborn problems why is income and equality a persistent and growing American challenge how can good science be translated into action to slow the pace of climate change how can Detroit and other rust belt cities cope with the massive employment restructuring that followed the shift of American manufacturing abroad and how can we ensure that human rights and security persist in the context of growing threats to national security the complexity of these and other problems requires bright and energetic doers who are prepared to work to find creative and viable solutions in 2014 the Ford school will celebrate 100 years of educating just these sorts of public policy professionals always a leader the University of Michigan established the Ford school's forerunner 98 years ago as the first program of its kind in the nation to train professionals for public service primarily in state and local government in 1968 we were renamed the Institute for Public Policy Studies and reoriented reoriented towards applying social science research to the task of building sound public policy and like today's MPP graduates Ip students received rigorous training in the quantitative analysis of economic political and organizational questions over time our focus broadened considerably to encompass national and international issues and our flagship MPP program remains one of the best in the country in 1999 the school was named for the university's most distinguished alumnus president Gerald Ford it's a name we're very proud of in light of his lifelong commitment to principal public service his integrity and his ability to reach across the aisle and forge consensus being named for president Ford remains a point of pride for our students they call themselves forties and use the president's name and likeness on t-shirts event posters co-ed fraternity his face even adorned sports equipment this spring when a very enterprising group of students established an all school and it really was all school lunchtime beanbag toss tournament our naming for president Ford propelled an era of tremendous growth we moved into wild hall our beautiful new building in 2006 and growth in our educational programs has truly reshaped our identity and made us a comprehensive full-service source for outstanding public policy education and research and last fall the school celebrated the 10th anniversary of our joint phd programs with economics sociology and political science so far 38 students have received their doctoral degrees they've had impressive success on the job market earning tenure-track faculty positions prestigious postdoctoral fellowships and research posts with organizations like mathematical policy research the gates foundation the federal reserve board and the state department we launched our undergraduate program in the fall of 2007 and it was an immediate success in terms of the quality of the students that it attracted and the deep engagement of our faculty in teaching and mentoring and also in the post graduation impact of our students our ba alums are working in troubled school districts as teach for america volunteers they're serving abroad in the peace corps they're learning the ropes in dc and on political campaigns and they're earning advanced degrees in law business public policy and medicine our excellent faculty has grown as well the broad range of their expertise links us with the top-ranked departments throughout the university including economics political science sociology math history business social work education natural resources information and urban planning they're thoughtful and enthusiastic teachers and mentors and they're actively engaged with public policy challenges and let me just give you two examples su dinarski's research her research shows that we can reduce the achievement gap increase graduation get graduation rates and save money by simplifying that faffsa form over the past few years she's worked with government leaders to do just that and john churchari is a legal advisor is a legal advisor to the documentation center of cambodia helping bring justice to helping helping bring to justice excuse me perpetrators of atrocities committed over 30 years ago by members of the chimera rouge regime i am so proud of our terrific professional staff as well a team that keeps the education research public service and engagement missions of the school moving forward at this point i would like to ask all faculty and staff of the ford school to stand now if you would join me please stand it's a pleasure for me to publicly thank them for all that they do and now for the accomplishments of tonight's graduates what have they learned during their time here and what have they already given back to us let me start with our newest phd graduate ashley read brown who was earned a doctorate in public policy and political science her training at the university of michigan was interdisciplinary and policy relevant phd students receive a strong theoretical grounding in a social science discipline and pair that with rigorous coursework in empirical methods and policy analysis ashley will take a position as a management consultant with mckinsey and company not today 95 students will receive a master's degree the ford school's rigorous mpp and mpa curriculum gives students the skills to collect analyze evaluate and present information about a wide range of public concerns we encourage our students to take seminars that involve real world policy consulting and we require mpp students to apply what they learn in the classroom during a summer internship our graduate students are incredibly diverse they speak 21 different languages and hail from nine different countries they're also a tight-knit group it seemed that they didn't want to be parted even over the summer and many of them completed their internships in twos and threes there were two at direct relief international and two at the clinton foundation three at the michigan governor's office three at the white house and so on so they really are a very tight-knit group now around 42 percent of our class has already finalized their immediate employment plans and so to the parents in the room please accept my personal reassurance that our current employment rate is squarely on track with past years and all of our graduates will find work in city state federal governments the private sector think tanks ngo's in the u.s. or in other countries around the world there are 55 students graduating today with a bachelor of arts and public policy and they have received much more than your typical undergraduate education we kind of think about it as liberal arts on steroids in small classes with some of the university of michigan's best faculty our b.a. curriculum trains students to think critically across disciplines to understand a policy challenge and develop solutions the b.a. students are curious hard-working and engaged the group boasts 12 Phi Beta Kappa's who are wearing gold cords tonight as well as nine angel scholars they are truly the leaders and best across a wide variety of campus and activities including athletics publications politics and more the b.a. and m.p.p. graduating classes presented the school with generous parting gifts totaling nearly eight thousand dollars to fund opportunities for future classes their gift speaks volumes about their belief in the value of a Ford school education and the importance of making their experiences possible for others and we're very grateful to them for that our graduates did not arrive at their accomplishments alone and we are also joined by perhaps eight hundred family members and friends tonight and I know that all of our graduates value the love and the support that you have provided over the years and so graduates I'd like to give you the chance to thank your families and friends those who are here in person as well as those only able to be here in spirit thank you so much now graduates on behalf of the Ford school community I say thank you to you for your investment in this community it has been a pleasure to work with you and to get to know you I know that many of you are likely to have very mixed feelings about what today represents you've achieved so much already but will miss many of the joys in life in Ann Arbor and at the Ford school you'll miss your friends and classmates of course holiday skits the Ford school prom the chase for the Stevenson Cup ladies of corn dominix but despite all you'll miss today is also full of promise the promise of new work new cities new friends and new challenges tracy k smith who was awarded the 2012 Pulitzer prize for poetry writes perhaps the great error is believing we're alone and that the others have come and gone if there's one thing a Ford school graduate is not it's alone you uplift our community with your collaborative spirit and engagement and your insistence that the world can be changed and for the better every day our alumni all over the country and the world offer their time and expertise to mentor students and shepherd them into the world of public service many of you will do the same for the next generation of Ford school graduates you must always do what you can this applies to the world of policy and to the world at large as unsteady as unsettled as it often is it also applies to you you must do what you can for each other what you so generously offered us here you must continue encourage each other and uplift your new communities with knowledge courage and empathy we will remember you we will follow your achievements with great interest and we truly hope that you remain engaged with the life of the Ford school so follow us on twitter friend us on facebook read our magazine talk about the school in your professional circles join our linkedin group subscribe to our newsletter listen to our podcasts on itunes and someday please hire our students you might even fund an internship so whenever you're in town please walk through the doors on state and hill just to say hello and know that you will always have a home here in Ann Arbor we're so proud of you congratulations and best wishes to the classes of 2012 go forth and go blue and now i would like to introduce our 2012 commencement speaker carol bellamy miss bellamy's inspiring career has spanned politics finance international aid and development and activism here are just a few highlights she was among the very first peace corps volunteers serving in guatemala from 1963 to 1965 three decades later she was appointed by president kent clinton to direct the peace corps the first returning volunteer to later lead the organization she served as executive director of the united nations children's fund for 10 years and towards the end of that tenure led unicef's response to the devastating tsunami that struck the indian ocean in december of 2005 she's worked on wall street for more than a decade with stints at bare sterns in morgan stanley she served for five years in the new york state senate and in 1978 became the first woman president of the new york city council carol we welcome you to on to an arbor and it is our honor to have you here today to deliver our 2012 commencement address uh dean collins members of the dais of friends and family and graduating classes of 2012 as chair of the global partnership for education and let me tip my hat to those of you particularly who are um specializing in education we need some good advocates in that area and also as someone who has been engaged in the public sector for about 40 years and thank you for the definition do you know how long it's taken me to try and explain to my parents what being anyway somebody who has been involved in the public sector for about 40 years it is an honor to stand here today before you the classes of 2012 and the many distinguished guests in the audience i am keenly aware of the importance of brief graduation addresses particularly if you're outside so when you're inside they are a little longer but so anyway let me get to my points i have been fortunate enough to have joy to have enjoyed a multiple career life that's what i call it in my old age um there was a time when i'd been a wall street lawyer a investment banker and a new york politician i only needed to do real estate and i would have been in every profession that your mother will not tell her neighbors about actually however as i said in my in my old age i'm proud of the fact that i've enjoyed a multiple career life as a peace corps volunteer and okay how many rpcvs are they here they have to be a bunch of them best thing i ever did anyway as a peace corps volunteer a wall street lawyer investment banker new york politician unicef director ceo of a non-profit and now working to get kids in school in the world's poorest countries i thought i would talk to you today about some of the lessons that i've learned along the way about getting through life i have a number of them not too many lesson number one simple as the writer daniel pink among his books a whole new mind it says to his audiences do what you love or as i might say follow your passion and not your passion the reason this soft advice is now a very hard headed survival strategy in my view is because as one of my other favorite authors tom freedman has been reminding us for some time the world has become not just getting but has become much flatter modern technology communications and transportation have increased our access to things in which we couldn't engage readily before and indeed have made made the world flatter the flatter the world gets the more essential it is that you do what you love because as pink says all the boring repetitive jobs are going to be automated or outsourced in the flat world the good jobs that will remain will be those that cannot be automated or outsourced they will be the jobs that demand or encourage some uniquely creative flair human flair passion imagination in other words jobs that can only be done by people who love what they do so whatever you plan to do whether you're going to continue to graduate school take some time off to think go directly to a job 40 percent that's pretty good or maybe you're still figuring out what to do next listen to your heart it's the best career counselor is there is do what you really love to do and if you don't know what that is quite yet well just keep searching because you'll find it you'll bring that something extra to your work that will help ensure that you will not be automated or outsourced lesson number two is that the most enduring skill you can bring to your coming years is also one of the most important skills one learns certainly I suspect here at Ford and that is the ability to learn how to learn whether it's in the classroom or far beyond the classroom learning how to learn ensures a better ability to survive in today's world I certainly need remind you that these days it's a bit tough to take the security of your future career for granted what you should be sure of however is that you and your peers will be at an advantage having gone through a Ford education that has such an emphasis on critical thinking at its heart and by the way never underestimate the value of lifelong learning in all my experience while following I hope my passion I also learned about the world its people and its needs lesson number three is don't get carried away with gadgets I'm sitting next to somebody who's going to give her remarks from her iPad well at least I don't have a flip chart here I mean that's and I'm not suggesting you shouldn't go on Facebook or or whatever else you want to go on it's true I often wonder how I used to survive in the pre-email error and as you can see from my gray hair I grew up in a time of troglodytes but in this age of the cloud and smartphones the internet and Google e-readers and iPads remember one thing all these tools might make you smarter but they sure won't make you smart they may extend your reach but they will never tell you what to say to your neighbor next door or how to comfort a friend in need or how to imagine a breakthrough in science and literature you cannot download passion imagination zest creativity you have to upload it the old-fashioned way within your brain with reading and writing and math travel study reflection music and art and human interaction your experience at Ford will have instilled in you a natural curiosity respect and understanding for people of different backgrounds languages cultures and religions this is the most valuable passport to take with you as you go on life's journey lesson number four is to always remember that there is a difference between skepticism and cynicism skepticism is about asking questions being dubious being wary not being gullible but always being open to being persuaded by a new fact cynicism is about already having the answers or at least thinking that you have the skeptic says I don't think that's true but I'm going to check it out the cynic says I know that's not true it couldn't be again you're lucky Ford excels at teaching one to question to consider other viewpoints and to understand that other people with their differences can be right lesson number five this is always a hard one for me because I have a hard one with this lesson but I really believe it I only wish I could stick with it as a number five be patient change of any sort takes time and effort a graduate degree as important as it is and it's important is only the start to a long career of ups and downs with hard work and a bit of luck I can assure you there'll be many more ups than downs lesson number six develop the ability to synthesize Howard Garner reminds us the future mind must be able to take this myriad of data and information that we're bombarded with and narrow the interpretation to key points and concepts lesson number seven be a global citizen I talk about this a lot so what does that term global citizen mean I'll give you I'll give you a definition tonight tonight as well in my view the first way to answer the question is quite basic pragmatic and it goes straight to the bottom line as I noted a few minutes ago the globalized world we live in and the future we're looking at demands new skills and competencies to be effective and competitive but of course global citizenship is much more than just a skill set to be acquired more than just a set of knowledge or means to build a resume or a career and global citizenship is certainly not about the number of stamps in your passport or indeed whether you go into international work global citizenship is a mindset to be embraced acted upon and lived and breathed in one's daily life global citizens embrace and advocate for the broadest most inclusive worldview and they seek to translate their beliefs into concrete actions and outcomes in their everyday lives something I just heard that you do very well global citizens have an ideal vision of the world as it could be but at the same time are realists in how they apply that vision to create change they seek to move beyond political ideologies and ethnic divisions and they work hard to acquire knowledge skills and capacities that will help make them effective global citizens are agents of change who are not afraid to step outside their comfort zones and bridge differences you know when we open ourselves to people from different cultures we overcome our fears and misconceptions we see opportunities that we never dreamed of before we find common ground that we never imagined we come to relish differences rather than fearing them because they enrich our lives adding vibrancy color and a dazzling array of new experiences all the ingredients we need to stop our lives becoming mundane and humdrum becoming a global citizen I can guarantee from firsthand experience is the root to the life less ordinary so what do these global citizens look like well look around I have no doubt that we have a room full right here I know we all get hung up on celebrating uh you know the bonos and the operas of the world who in my view no question do great work and and and serve in models in their own way but I'm here tonight to tell you that even people who require a first and last name to be recognized can make a difference practical experiences shows all of us that you do not have to be famous or uniquely talented or blessed or some heroic type person to make a difference leadership and good citizenship are more about making choices than destiny each and every person can make a difference they start small they stay compassionate and they remain committed my last lesson lesson eight I think I was being told that I better get to the last lesson I think this is a really important lesson keep a sense of humor life can be very serious but enjoying the ride through humor can sometimes make it much more palatable and certainly much more enjoyable so let me wrap up by saying that happiness happiness is a journey it's not a destination if I've had any success in my career it's because I found a way to enjoy the journey as much as the destination I had as much fun as a Peace Corps volunteer 50 years ago in Guatemala as I do now working with the global partnership I've had my dull and down moments there's no question but more often than not I found ways to learn from and enjoy some part of each and every job you can't bet your whole life on one single destination you have to make the journey work too so let me conclude and leave you with a bit of wit and wisdom attributed to that very unique American author Mark Twain this is what he reminded us I think good to keep in mind always work like you don't need the money always fall in love like you've never been hurt always dance like nobody is watching and always always live like it's heaven on earth to the classes of 2012 I wish you much success in your future careers thank you very much thank you so much I am now delighted to welcome the members of amazing blue to the stage amazing blue is the University of Michigan's oldest co-ed acapella ensemble and they will perform two classics from the University of Michigan's songbook please thank you each year the Ford school's graduating students are asked to elect people to play key roles in our commencement one faculty member is chosen to speak to the classes and both sets of graduating classes choose a representative student speaker as the faculty speaker the classes of 2012 elected professor Susan Denarski Sue is an education economist who has a joint appointment in the University of Michigan School of Education she has a BA and an MPP from Harvard and earned her PhD in economics from MIT she's been called one of America's most visible influential education scholars from the optimal design of financial aid to rigorous evaluations of charter schools her research explores the causes and consequences of inequality as well as innovative policy solutions one of the courses that sue teaches here at the Ford school is called quantitative methods for program evaluation now as you might suspect from the title it's a course that challenges our students and she's not considered an easy teacher so when the graduating students elect to hear one last time from someone who teaches one of our toughest courses you know that we're in the presence of a great teacher and so I'm delighted to invite sudenarski to speak on behalf of the faculty so apparently I engaged in poor planning because I failed to call Dean Collins and check what she was wearing today and ended up wearing exactly the same outfit very embarrassing and I failed to talk to Carol Bellamy to find out what she was gonna lesson she was going to impart to you and it turns out many of them are the same lessons and they were said far more eloquently than I'm going to but I'll I'll do what I can I've stood in front of a lot of you for much more than the six minutes that I'm told to stand here today but I'm much more nervous than I was for any of those lectures and I think it's the funny little hat combined with the weightiness of saying goodbye to another wonderful class of Ford students so let me start with the flattery that's the first thing in any speech at graduation you guys have been a pleasure to teach you demand a lot of your instructors you demand relevance from your classes right these are not theoretical classes we teach you you want them connected to the world of practice and this makes teaching you a very tough but an extremely rewarding job besides teaching you hearing from you after graduation about where you are and what you're doing and how your Ford education has affected the way you move through the world that's another great joy so please keep us surprised whether it's on facebook or email or even walking in and saying hi okay so now on to a few gems of wisdom that I have collected over the years I seem to have been collecting in the same places as Carol and I'm now going to bestow them upon you when you charge out into the world flying the Ford school flag you keep these things in mind if you violate any of them we're going to find you and take away your degree okay so number one I think I numbered a couple of things with the same numbers we'll find out if my quant students catch this there'll be a quiz after the talk one no jargon okay cut the jargon out of your out of your writing in your speech you're all wicked smart that's a technical term sorry so impress people with your clear thinking rather than with inside or mumbo jumbo so for example and this is hard to do especially once you get inside the beltway that is Washington DC keep speaking English so don't use the word incentivize for example when encourage and motivate are perfectly good words that are used and understood by normal human beings okay dialogue is not a verb you don't dialogue with someone you talk with them and if you use the word impactful in any context we will not only revoke your UM degree but also contact any other institution from which you have graduated and get those pulled to all right number two no tiny fonts all right you're gonna go forth and use powerpoint there's no way to avoid it no font smaller than 18 point okay write that on the inside of your hand and just follow that for the rest of your life okay now on to the bigger more spiritual stuff so how about that career do you have it all mapped out yet the other 58 percent of you some of you are really organized planners and you've got your futures mapped out you're the people who read what color is your parachute and you've done your Briggs Myers and you make the rest of us really nervous so what I say here is for the muddlers seek out and work with people you like and whose work you respect so look around the world and look for people who are doing things that really impress you and who you like and do what you can to work with them volunteer with them join their organizations stick close to them a prestigious title a fancy firm something looks good on a business card a nice office furniture they're all worthless if you don't like and respect the people who are on your team so working with good-hearted and smart people is what sustained me throughout my career and it's pretty much the only career plan I've had and it's worked out pretty good for me don't worry about appearances don't waste your time worrying about what people think of you instead be of use this economist MIT trained just like Susan that's what this outfit is is the MIT robes the key to productivity is doing stuff so get out there and do stuff and that's how you'll be productive ask questions we already heard this one if somebody asserts that something is obviously true take that as a red flag right off the bat make them back it up find the facts do your analysis draw your conclusions and make yourself heard speak truth to power is the fancy way we put it right don't tolerate fools when Ron things are said speak up okay if the emperor has no clothes point it out make a joke about them don't go along to get along that's the easy way to go you don't need a Michigan education to take the easy path right so stir up the waters and make trouble if you need to on that front a very smart piece of advice I once got was to be as helpful as possible to the people who work for you and a little bit of a pain in the ass to the people above you so final final word you want to change the world and that's how you came into Ford was want to change the world you had a strong heart you got strong hands and now I hope you're going out with an even stronger mind because you need all three you need to care and you need to work hard and you need to work smart and with all three of these I know you're going to move mountains it's going to be an inch in a time one inch forward half an inch back but I know you're going to do it please come back and tell us about it when you're done thank you very much Sue and as you can tell our faculty really love what they do which is wonderful the undergraduate class of 2012 elected adjuni corsetti to speak on their behalf adjuni is the james b angel scholar and has been an active leader during her time here at michigan she served on an advisory board for the dean of students was communications director for the outstanding student-led publication consider magazine and coordinated advertising and activities for TEDx of u of m while studying abroad last year in strassburg front france she worked as a press intern for the council of europe adjuni exemplifies the wonderful spirit of activism here on campus as well as our diversity of thought and ideology having organized a halloween day zombie protest of one of our own speakers that's great adjuni it is a great pleasure to welcome you to the podium thank you many of you at the ford school may know me as um professor ellen dirdorf um or perry zealock um but today uh much to the dismay of the ford faculty and staff i'm sure um i'm just myself a fellow student who has shared this completely bizarre year with you shared the same feelings of panic uncertainty and excitement i look at my friends with their computer science and engineering degrees and their med school tracks and i think where am i with my public policy degree uh that does not directly translate into a laid out path i've been driving myself crazy thinking about public policy in my past and my future for the past few months so i decided that we need a break so today i'm going to talk about physics uh which i know nothing about so here goes um specifically newtons laws of motion newtons first law states that an object in motion will remain in motion until an opposite external force is applied to it it states that will keep moving until something hits us hits us really hard one month ago one of my best friends committed suicide when i was writing the speech i kept stopping at that last line while i'm talking to you today i stop at that last line it hits me every single time but then without a doubt something happens newtons lab is not real life in newtons lab there is one isolated object but in real life there are many many objects moving at the same time what got me and the rest of jordan's friends and family through the past month are the people around us that would not let us simply stop out of our loss came intense beauty and profound love people reaching out to people across campus across states across nations and the only thing that they had in common was their love for jordan and their grief over her loss but the point that there exists many objects does not detract from each individual object the most beautiful and terrible part of jordan being gone is that nobody and nothing can replace her like the individuality of a person no other experience will be able to replace your years here at ford and your years at michigan but we can be sad and happy at the same time sad about what we leave but excited for what we take with us and what we head towards we don't have to move on from and let go of experiences that form us but we do have to move forward we cannot stop the two things that will carry us are the people around us and ourselves at the ford school we don't have to reach out we don't have to know each other's names or make wild hall feel like home or parade around main and south u bar-to-bar wearing matching american flag bandanas but we do and we did and that's why it's hard to leave and that's why i'm going to miss you guys like crazy and that's why it is all worth it we will keep each other i know that we will and wherever we go next we must continue to build more communities things will hit us sometimes hard enough to make us stop and it is the people around us that make sure we move again we must remember that when we stop it is okay for others to carry us and that we must carry others when they cannot carry themselves lastly we must never undervalue our own power no one will be able to contribute to this world what we will and in the way that we will i know it's hard for you to imagine that you are that important but you are ergo newton was wrong but thank god republic policy majors what up and that is what ford students can do we can redefine the boundaries we can create our own rules and we can prove newton wrong congratulations ford family thank you thank you thank you for what you've given me for what you've given our community and for what you will unleash into this world be ever with the families that you create stay ever in motion and much love and now we will hear from the student elected to speak from the master's class of 2012 chad cookingham chad is an outstanding student who was an awarded a gerstacker fellowship for x for academic excellence here in bachelor's degrees in economics and psychology from dartmouth college in 2002 and since then he has taught mentored coached and tutored young people in a number of settings including the gunnery school in washington connecticut collegio americano de keto in keto ecuador and wuster school in danbury connecticut he completed his summer internship doing program evaluation for the denver scholarship foundation in colorado and chad has accepted a full-time position as the college and career director for generation schools in denver chad i'm delighted to invite you to the podium faculty and staff friends and family fellow graduates my name is chad cookingham some of you know me as the guy who changes his facial hair all the time some of you know me as the only person to actually do all of the reading for 585 but most of you probably know me as my most famous role mary's husband for those of you who do not know my wife mary and i came to the forward school together and both of us are graduating with our mpp's today when we tell people that people often have lots of questions about us going to policy school sometimes the questions are more general about policy school but sometimes they're very specific about going to school with your spouse sometimes people ask us whether we hold hands together in class of course i tell them we do not even though we do and one of the most common things people want to know is if we take a lot of classes together and when they find out that we do what they really want to know is so how do you deal with it when your spouse does better than you in a class to which mary responds i don't know if you should probably ask chat though we do get asked many questions about going to school together most of the questions that people ask us are questions that all of us have been asked over the years the first question people ask is really a two part question of what is policy school and why are you going there i'm not going to lie in the beginning i was not very good at answering the first part of that question because i'm not really sure i knew what policy school actually was before getting here thankfully i am better prepared to answer that question now but it's the second part of this question i've been thinking about a lot lately why did we all come here to policy school and what is it that does unite us we all have very different policy interests from technology to education to food to national defense so what brought us all to this place to study together when i think about what we all have in common it seems to me that it is the deep-rooted belief that the world can be a better place and that we have a role to play in making it so to me one of the most important things that we can do in our post-forward lives is to make sure that we never lose sight of the fact that we can change the world whether we end up in the public sector the private sector the nonprofit sector we must always stay true to this belief we can never fall victim to the cynicism that pervades the media these days while others may be fine saying oh that's just the way it is we cannot afford that luxury no matter how hard it is we need to fight so that we can live in the world that we want not the world we were given we can change the world and we don't have to do it alone which leads me to the other question people have been asking lately the other thing they want to know is what it is that i've gotten out of graduate school and while the mind obviously goes first to the skills and knowledge that we have all gained i think the most important thing that we can take from here are the relationships that we have made as long as we stay true to our belief that the world can be a better place than we always have each other to help us get there from our professors to career services to the broader University of Michigan community people will always be willing to help us in our path but most important of all are the people sitting around next to us we are all here to support one another because we're all here for the same goal even if we're approaching it from different angles we should never hesitate to reach out to our fellow classmates when we need help or advice introduction or collaboration as Cesar Chavez said you're never strong enough that you don't need help so as we leave this beautiful place that has taught us so much for the real world that can be so cynical we can't lose sight of the fact that together we can change the world and though it may be sad to leave behind all the friends that we have made we need to remember that we are all headed to the same place even if we set off in different directions and no matter how far we end up for man arbor we should never forget that it is great to be on michigan wolverine go blue thank you chad we are now at the moment that family and friends have been looking forward to all evening our graduates are ready to come to the stage to receive official congratulations on a job so well done this year the names will be read by john torturi john is assistant professor of public policy he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on politics political institutions and post-conflict law and transition he taught a course on economic and social policies in columbia and then took 20 students to bogota this spring to meet with policymakers and other leaders john has an undergraduate and a law degree from harvard capped by a master's and a phd in international relations from the university of oxford i'm very pleased to introduce john torturi to call the names of our graduating students good evening to begin i'll call our graduate earning a doctoral degree and i'd like to welcome vincent hutchings to the stage vincent's a professor of political science in the college of literature science in the arts and he'll hood our phd graduate vincent ashley read brown ashley's dissertation title is coffee shop conversations and exploration of how local elected officials develop and engage their social networks and now we'll welcome our graduates receiving a master's degree in public policy or public administration maggie allen sarah jane blumenthal trisha keosley bosler a u.s. navy veteran scott burgess daniel cabezas cobin calhoun neil clarence carter kathryn l chen yo hei chiba gregory huynatsky mary rose cipolloni alexandra citron charles clark adrian julia cohen chad brian cookinham morrin reed downs brendan john egan masahiro enso amit yavushan erdem anna erickson kate fletcher caroline massid francis jesse michael franceblow rafi garabedean collin girst devy glick alita halflet yoshinora yoshinori harada ben johnson june condo gabriel james creshock kevin quo jiyun lee claire ruth lainan haruka maeda oliver tuckman matthews suneki matzuo salvador maturana rogers devon mcmacken lindsey taylor minima cut lejo mo illua jonathan riley moore harlan edwardo pacheco figaroa elizabeth rose paluzola dionizio garcia pires keenan pontoni dylan curtis pressley jessica hope pressley ryan william pretzer evan alexander raleigh emily elizabeth rinner nathan keller ricks kathryn maria radriguez joel ruder komolchan oxaitang rodney m sap aamon patrick scanlan julie marie schneider alexandra martin shukoff sarah shubatowski hillary holstein smith syrie fidel sokari marin miriam spolem george stanco amer sultan stephanie swercheck pauline z greg thorn justin d tully yon tulek shinichiro suri david turner serena astraya vialba jeffrey warner christin elizabeth welling elizabeth caroline wilson coji yamashita yuki yamaguchi and perry zealock and now we'd like to welcome to the stage students receiving a bachelor in arts in public policy missy allen kandace amori viddy bomsai andrew michael beeline zachery berlin nina bada charia emily biel christopher crackiola daniel rachel de priest kathryn de hunt leili door alisha dugle michael florick i am frankle benjamin gordon jamie goresh brian jordan gutman ashley marie hill meredith harowski sanjay jolly ruben cap brandon cappy me emily knoll jeremy levy maria lew lora mason megandine mckiever lydia mcmolyn lared michael mirar loren mandry alexander odell jonathan olinger charles o'neill farine osman mary grace pelagrini karen donna ridder emily elizabeth rogoff devin rubenstein joseph mullen sandman jamie beth surlan ajuni korsetti alexis heather smith christopher john sorenson benet stein derek a Sutton abigail white matthew welful masha zilberman evan zinnaman and steven zuckerman graduates please stand and face your guests in the audience b.a. students at this time please move your tassel on your mortarboard from the right to the left i am so pleased to present to you the gerald r ford school of public policy classes of 2012 congratulations graduates thank you all for coming today and sharing in this very special occasion i'll ask you please to remain seated while until the class has exited and then we have light refreshments in the lobby and i encourage you to stay take some photos greet one another um and enjoy the company again we're so proud of you graduates go forth and go blue


If you had the chance to change one thing in Africa, will you change? I will change bad governance because you see Africa is a place where when you get into position, you forget about the people who voted for you. Thank you so much for welcoming me and I believe that I don't know who I am. I got one of your books because I love Africa with all my heart but reading is a bit difficult for me yet but I'm trying my best. You did the definition of the mother of Africa, the mother of the virgin lady and I really want you to tell my people about how you did that definition before I even start talking about anything. Thank you very much my son. It's a pleasure having you in my house. My son has told me a lot about you and what you are doing for the African continent. This book was published in the year 2010 and what you are referring to we call it the allegory of the murdered virgin. Where we used the African continent to represent the virgin who was killed by fortune seekers and her body was cut into several parts and the body was preserved using different methods. The people who killed her decided that they would preserve the body so that in the event of the crime being detected they would hand over the body to the parents of the lady. So after a long time the crime was detected, the body parts were retrieved and stitched together. So that lady is the African continent that we have. So the cutting of the lady into parts is the division of the African continent among the colonial powers during the colonial struggle in Berlin 1884. You know in Berlin the conference was called by Otto von Bismarck. He was then the chancellor of Germany and there were seven European countries Germany, Portugal, Belgium, Spain, France, Britain. US was there as an observer but no African country was invited. What was the reason? They wanted to calm the tension that resulted as a result of the scramble for Africa. They divided Africa among themselves and they came and claimed their colonies. At the conference two principles came out. The principle of effective occupation of the colonies and then the principle of the recognition of King Leopold of Belgium as the owner of the Congo Basin. Can you imagine that Africa was being shared among Europeans and no African was there. So the sharing is the matter of the virgin and then the struggle for independence was the retrieval of the body parts. The stitching of the bodies, those are the colonial boundaries as we have it now. You see and then the methods of preservation of the body are the different colonial policies. Britain used what you call the crown colony system and the indirect rule. France used the assimilation policy where the people were divided into citizens and then subjects. So the methods of preservation were different. That is why it is very difficult for Africans to act together as one people. The colonial, even after independence, the colonial powers continue to control us because despite independence there is what you call new colonialism. Are you a great part of common culture? Yes, I am. I support and stand by the ideas of Ungruma. After independence Ungruma wanted Africans to be united. So that they can control their resources and use it for the development of Africa. But what happened? The people thought he wanted to become the first president of the United States of Africa. They were against him. All the things he recommended. He said he wanted a common parliament for Africa. He wanted the Supreme Court of Africa. He wanted common currency. He wanted a single president and all those things. Fifty-eight years ago, that's what the European Union, they have implemented those things. And we Africans, we are still struggling with the ideas that come in Ungruma. Why? Because we are divided. It's crazy how I'm in Kinshasha but I can see Brazzaville right there and they both have the name Congo. But there is no bridge that is connecting the two countries.  You need a visa to go there. Sometimes I feel like we should stop blaming colonialism. Sometimes it's our fault. I just don't get it. That's crazy. They speak the same language. But because they were colonised by the French and this one was colonised by the Belgian, they decided not to come together. They decided to do in their separate ways. But sometimes when they think about these things, I'll be like, I mean, colonisation is over, right? Do you think that Africa will ever unite? Yes, Africa can unite. How can we unite? If these barriers I'm talking about now are removed. And as I was telling another gathering, you know these borders and I also mentioned to my brother, these borders that you create silos for yourselves amongst, you must always remember are not your creation. These were creations of people outside of this continent who made these borders not to develop you but to extract from you. Now that you want to develop yourself, we must start looking at these borders and we must start removing the barriers that we have put that have defined and defined us in the past and now hinder us from being the giant that we should be. Do you think meant us to slavery still exist in Africa? Yes, it does. I'll give you just one example. For example, here in Africa we have presidents, we have parliament, we have ministers of state. But who controls them? Does it mean that Africa is not economically independent?  Nobody claims he is independent and he is fed by another person. He is our independence. We were politically independent when we had our flags, our national anthems and no losses. But economically we were still dependent on how we talk about budget deficit. We prepare our budgets, we go outside for money. When our president wants to have conferences outside Africa, the TNT and PDM, it is another country that pays. Can you say you are independent? We are going right now to help solve the problem of Africa because we have been talking about the problems of Africa for so long. The youth are yearning for solutions. What is the way forward? I mean, what role are you playing in terms of solving the problem that we have as a continent? Thank you very much for that question. It is a very complex question. It is not something that one person can do anything about. We have to go back to what the Krumas that they are saying, that until Africa is united, we are not going to take control of our resources and to be able to manage them to solve our problems. And he did this by setting up what you call institutes of African studies where the youth in Africa will know about their history, about their economy, about things that happened before they were born. They will have confidence in themselves so that they can be proud of their Africans and work here in Africa. But what have we seen? Leadership of the continent has disappointed all of us. All over the world, when people get money, they easy to develop their economies. If you take people like Mobutu, people like Abacha, they take money from Africa, they save it outside the country and that money is used to give us loan to Africans. When they die, the money remains there. When Gaddafi took over, he said no Krumas dream of independent Africa is a good one. He wanted to do it. He wanted to destroy the man-hard weapons of mass destruction. So they killed it. They didn't see any weapon in this thing. They actually destroyed Libya. They destroyed Libya. If you go to Libya now, it's a miserable place. They said there is no democracy. People have food to eat. They have buildings to stay in. Their education system was good. Health was good. They said democracy was upset. Do we eat democracy? I think Africa deserves democracy. That's very good. You see, Prof. Lumumba once said that one of the challenges we have is that our leaders in Africa don't have ideas. And those who have ideas do not have power. You see, those who have ideas do not have power. So was democracy, was it like a book that was brought by the white man and presented to us and we are not understanding. What is your understanding of democracy? Before the whites came with this idea of democracy, we were also ruling ourselves in Africa. Chiefs were elected. If a chief would be elected, the council of elders and the king-makers met. They looked at the character of all the people who would best represent the interests of the town, the community or the state. Then they made him chief. Whatever he would implement, the elders are the people who would tell him. If he misbehaved, he went after somebody. He was distilled and a different person came. That was what our traditional system was. It was a collective thing that you would be the person in charge of. But the decision was taken by the whole community. And then you implement. Today, if you have money, you wake up one day, you are in parliament. You don't have any ideas. So do you think we should have accountability of what our president or our leaders do in the country? We already have that in the constitution. Our constitution is a very excellent document. But are we able to go by it? Are we able to go by our constitution? If you take a look at the auditor general's report, about 12 billion cities have been wasted. And those people are supposed to be arrested and the money retrieved from them. Have we collected the money from them? Today, we are people who are very knowledgeable and very fearful, but they don't have the right attitude. What do I mean? There are a lot of youth in Africa who have unconsciously rejected themselves. They have not accepted themselves as Africans. They don't have confidence in themselves as Africans. So you are working about them. They even have American flag around their neck. They have UK flag around their neck. They have Israeli flag or Chinese flag. It means they are rejecting their identity as what? As Africans. Which is very sad. What does it mean? What is it saying? His name is Chicago. This is not America. Why are you called Chicago? I come from Chicago. You come from Chicago? I live for a long time. Oh, wow. Your business? How is Chicago? America is sad. And why did you leave Chicago, bro? Don't worry, man. Would you say that because we don't accept ourselves as Africans, that's why we experience racism when we go abroad? Because we... No, no. No. If we had accepted ourselves, it would have been easier for us to handle racism. The inability to accept is not the course of racism. As for the racism, it was something that was imposed on us here so that we can feel inferior. For example, there was one professor in the UK who called him Professor Trevor Roper. At the time of colonialism, where they were making Africans look inferior. They regarded Africans as he was of wood and drawers of water. They felt that our brains were so small and we behaved like children. He saw an African, he's like a child. When you give him a knife, he can use it to cut himself or wound another person. At the point he even said undergraduates seduced by changes in journalistic function demand to be taught the history of black Africa. Perhaps in future, there may be some African history to teach. At the moment, there is none. There is only the history of the black man in Africa. The rest is darkness and darkness is not the subject of history. For people like Professor Roper, they think that since Africans were not writing, they don't have history. But fortunately, today as we speak, they know that history does not begin with only writing because we have oral history. That was why when they came to Africa, they visited places. It was tall guys from Africa who led them to our mountains, our rivers, our lakes. For example, Mongopak, he was led by tall guys to go and see River Niger. When he got there, he said, I have discovered River Niger. If I go to London now and I say, tell European that I have discovered River Thames. Who do they think that I am a man?  Does that link with the self-esteem that you are talking about because you definitely don't know yourself, you don't know your roots, you don't know where you are coming from. Yes. You know why? It is not your fault. These are descendants of ex-lives. Those of us here in Africa where we know the people who sold our brothers and sisters to the white man, where we know now the people we sold are better off than us. They are better off than us. Just like the brothers of Joseph who sold him into slavery. He became a prime minister and he had to save his brothers. So Africans in the diaspora, they don't want to be associated with Africa. They may have their own reasons. One, it was our grandparents who sold them out. Two, the kind of things they hear about us that we are primitive, fighting each other. We are hungry. There is disease. There is death. We are killing each other. That's why they don't want to be associated. You are here in Africa now. When you come, it's a very peaceful place. You can sleep on the ground here on a mattress till tomorrow. Nothing will happen to you. It's a very peaceful place in most cases. But the civil wars that are happening is what is the cause. Is he not the Europeans because they want control over our resources.  Slave trade that they brought. It brought distortion. They were giving us guns, gunpowder. Whole villages were banned. We brought women being the boy. Now when industrial revolution broke out and they no longer needed women beings, machines were replacing women beings, they said for humanitarian reasons less end as slave trade was not good. After practicing it for 300 years before you realize it's not good. The truth is that it was for economic reasons. When industrial revolution broke out they needed raw materials to feed their industries. They needed markets to sell their goods. They needed military installations to defend their interests.  All the people in Europe were educated that they are interested so much in Africa. The type of education they brought was to prepare to work for them to help them exploit our resources. So why is it that they did not bring trains to my hometown, Qatar? Because there is nothing there. It went to Qumansi, it went to Obasi, it went to Gold mining centers. That is where they are interested. That's where the railway lines and the roads went to. Why didn't they go to Tamali? Why didn't they construct railway to Tamali? Bolga and what? They don't, the people don't have anything. Then you say you are bringing development to us when the development goes to only the mining centers. No, the truth is they were interested in our resources. Is there any way we can get our gold back? Why? After we have sold it to them and they have paid us something small for it. But they have to pay for reparation now. Now that argument has been there and I have touched on it that there must be reparation for the slave trade. It's not a strong argument. If I sold my brother to you and you have paid me and my brothers have gone to suffer then I say you were the one who bought my brothers that's why we are suffering so you should pay me. That makes sense. The only reparation we can ask the soldiers who died in the first world war second world war fighting to protect their land for them if you take France for example during the second world war about 500,000 people were recruited to go and fight for them and about 2,000 people were what you call workers in various sectors some of them died, some of them were mean some of them became mad after the war they left them, they came back nothing was given to them if you want reparation it's fine but we can talk about debt cancellation because most of these things that we took didn't benefit us in any way. Where can we get this book? It's available on Amazon.com so anybody who wants it you can get copies of it on Amazon.com it's a political economy of colonial and post-colonial Africa it deals with a struggle for independence against colonial rule nationalism and struggle for independence the post-colonial Africa military interventions dependency problem and then poor governance in Africa it will give you a total understanding of the challenges that we are facing and the rule that the youth should play in helping Africa to achieve a united states of Africa so that we have control over our resources we have a common parliament a common currency an African high command no barriers the single taxation system internal trade Africans will trade with each other then we will have control over our system we will no longer be subject of control by foreign powers that will continue to take our resources away and we will be suffering here every day every day every day till our children become indebted forever if you had a chance to change one thing in Africa or only change I will change bad governance Africa is a place where when you get into position you forget about the people who voted for you we need to change bad leadership and for me bad governance is when you are the president but you are controlled by forces outside your country and you do things that are not in the best interest of your people that is one thing I would work to change it you share something so that the youth of Africa can get to have a piece of this knowledge I am forcing this in terms of transfer of knowledge to the youth of Africa and I believe you will be the best person to teach us the African history for us to know where we are coming from and who we are as Africans how proud are you to be to call yourself an African well I have always been a very proud African because I feel that it was not a mistake that God made me sent me to Africa I have to discover my purpose in life and know why God has sent me to Africa so that I can work to fulfill that destiny and I have all my life I have been working to build the self confidence of the youth so all most of the students that passed through my heart said that you have made us who we are now because you can have the knowledge you can have the skills but if you don't have the right attitude towards life and towards yourself you always have an emptiness in you which nothing can fill that is you must know who you are as an African before you move on to find our message for Africans watching us we need to unite and take control of our resources as Nkrumat told us years ago the advice he gave us is what the Europeans have used to have a European Union so what about with the originators we have to act now and this is the time act now the time is now but I think the African Union we have right now the Pan-African spirit that existed from day one the people that came together to establish the African Union it's currently dead and we want that spirit to result once again my name is Mr Ghana Baby and thank you so much for watching I really appreciate each and every one of you like this video share so that every African can have a piece of proof the name is Simon Amegajifiglo of Ghana thank you so much and I'll see you all in the next one peace out


Hello and welcome to the session. In this session we are going to discuss the following question and the question says that Samantha has 20 marbles in a bag and these are 10 red, 4 blue, 3 yellow and 3 green. She randomly selects one marble from the bag. She wins money which is described in the form of given table. What is the expected value of her winning? Here in this table we have two columns, one for marble's color and the second for the amount 1. And if she selects a red marble then she gets $2. For a blue marble she gets $1. For a yellow marble she gets $3. And for a green marble she gets $4. Now let us start with the solution of the given question. We are given that there are 20 marbles in a bag and one marble is drawn at random. And out of the given 20 marbles 10 are red in color, 4 are blue in color, 3 are yellow and 3 are green. Now probability of drawing a red marble will be given by number of outcomes favorable to the event upon total number of outcomes. And here number of outcomes favorable to this event are 10 and total number of outcomes are 20. So we get this probability as 1 by 2. Similarly probability of drawing a blue marble will be equal to 4 upon 20 that is equal to 1 by 5. Probability of drawing a yellow marble will be equal to 3 by 20 and probability of drawing a green marble will be equal to 3 by 20. And in the table we are given the amount 1 when each of the given marble is drawn. Let us denote this amount value by small x. Now we draw a table for the values of small x probability of small x small x into probability of small x. Here the small x values given to us are 2 dollars, 1 dollar, 3 dollars and 4 dollars. And we know that for red marble the amount 1 is 2 dollars. For blue marble the amount is 1 dollar. For yellow marble the amount is 3 dollars. And for green marble the amount is 4 dollars. And probability of drawing a red marble is 1 by 2. Probability of drawing a blue marble is 1 by 5. Probability of drawing a yellow marble is 3 by 20 and probability of drawing a green marble is again 3 by 20. Now we shall calculate small x into probability of small x values. And here we get 2 into 1 by 2 which is equal to 1. 1 into 1 by 5 that is equal to 1 by 5 which is equal to 0.2. 3 into 3 by 20 is 9 by 20 which is equal to 0.45. And 4 into 3 by 20 is 12 by 20 which is equal to 0.6. And we know that expected value of random variable capital X is given by E of capital X is equal to summation of small xi into probability of small xi where i varies from 1 to n so here expected value is equal to summation of small xi into probability of small xi where i varies from 1 to 4. Since the number of observations here are 4 so i varies from 1 to 4. And it can also be written as summation of small x into probability of small x and this is equal to 1 plus 0.2 plus 0.45 plus 0.6 and this is equal to 2.25. Thus we say that expected value of her winning is 2.25 dollars which is a required answer. This completes our session. Hope you enjoyed this session.


What to do let's try it out. Oh Thank you 84 bones I'll take in it. Oh, I got like BP Take him out if we can there we go. I rub him next turn. Oh, he has no BP. That's in the hunt beginning All right girl get the Robin. I am ready Maybe not quite yet Wait, how about you live my turn now? Thank you Thank you 120 boys whoo coming if you The hunt and I never reset this on stream Labels Letting my arrows fly in true severe thunderstorm warning Let's see when this ends Second here the thunder rumbling outside Ends at two o'clock Eastern It's probably gonna be a follow-up one, too. So that's in about 40 minutes It's moving northeast. Oh, that's coming right to me severe thunderstorm morning summer basically Letting my arrow fly in true Well save the world is 50% off on fortnight. I might I might pick I might play that again, man I love save the world. Oh I Just it just made me um made me nauseous Sadly just made me nauseous man over and over and over again those shaking shaking stuff Okay, can I go south here? Oh find out up this fight. I am ready. I am ready. She sounds so petite Um, yeah, let's just hit this guy in the back. Yeah What to do what to do? They're gonna back to re-shelter front flying guy Letting the hunt beginning They're gonna front. That's not the egg in the front chat That would have been real nice if I would hit the egg in the front now. He's buffed Now they're both buffed chat God Letting my arrow fly in true Could did that last turn I'm ready. Oh, this guy was dagger. Oh Oh, so the flying dude egg in the back. Who did that? Can't be having that bite broken. Oh And he's dead. I could even could even rob him chat. We go. He's broken letting the hunt begin big damages Can even rob them. All right one of these dudes gotta get robbed I am ready. There's a thunder again. It's truly joy About to be broken That one don't kill him now. We can rob now.  I am ready.  Oh, yes. Thank you 120 more chat the monies I grow strong Health is ticking away though All right, let's see Okay Yeah, that's peace looking good Tressa. She can heal her own SP which is awesome She has a skill called rest which heals her SP. Well, it's so good. Um People leveled up. I don't think I can get more skills But I can Stop wall. Yeah, I remember I got this yesterday before I had to revert Did he get any more supports? He did endure Mm-hmm, wait, how about you? No, you only have to You have three you have three. All right, can I go down south? Looks like I can man, I love the look of these maps wow five dudes And I don't know a lot about these flying dudes, so We're gonna assume arrow. We assume wrong chat. I Am ready Dagger, maybe that would be a nice What next? ax Axe works chat Let's kill them coming if thou darest, okay Let's break these hyenas before they get too annoying. I'm ready Everything okay, but shall be mine break that one Let in the hunt and break that one Watch a broken folks See if we can rob them. I didn't mean kill them Think I'm getting too strong. I might not get another chance No, no 63% is pushing it coming if thou darest. I'm keeping them alive. So It's like a trouble rob them before they die 84 bones after that that'll have to do coming if the hunt and I'm getting sleep weed Maybe I can start selling that stuff It's like a lot of that's dropping here We're up to 5k now so we went from like 2,500 to 5k So we're gradually getting the monies up As I still try to make my way to The next zone here Southern zone out the way Big um so against me Then be hunted. I am ready. There is shall be mine Letting my arrow fly in true No buffing others. I will not be my prey. I am ready. All right now it's time to use BP Letting the hunt begin I wonder if a summon would be better than just doing that the arrow there I can never kill them here. I'm trying to burn them down and I just don't have enough Let's try a beast here Usually hits the wrong one though like that Ha he hits the wrong one Well, we're about to get attacked guys here it comes here comes the green the battle is truly He's a tough bird. Oh it might as well steal from him boom It didn't do that much damage. I am ready. Let's be thy prey. Let's break him Oh, I was gonna rob him. I am true. No I was gonna rob him. I thought it was just breaking Whee 84 bones I'm slowly getting stronger man I guess your stats go up when you level up. I haven't been paying attention to that So if I look at my So physical attack is 139 for you 123 184 and 109 elemental attack Like nobody has a good elemental attack Except for the dancer she's got the dark damage stuff Evasion Dancers got good evasion of course, but Warrior doesn't just sister takes it max sp And her sp is pretty Maybe I should put the sp earring on her Who's got the sp earring let's take that off put the Yeah, he get more evasion from that She can probably benefit from the sp earring now her max sp is 82 Which is good. Okay, ryan jc. What's Going on here we go So maybe this area. I don't think I've been here We'll be better to grind some levels and To get some just money on the ground chat Trust is so good Of course the dancer has the dark damage. I know right I hope the sponsor stream went well last night. Eh, we didn't we didn't hit our mark That's okay Let me keep trying All right, we're gonna save here We didn't get the bounty, but whatever. We'll keep trying keep grinding. I like this this buy. Oh I think I actually have been here coming if thou darest yeah, because I got vulnerabilities already so I have been here um Nope, not axe. I am ready Maybe dagger Nope What to do? Oh chat. It's cool Stop hitting me. I am ready I'm purposely not using skills chat because I'm just farming money and Levels so I'm like Really being um I'm being Careful about how much sp I use and stuff like that and just trying to conserve resources because I'm trying to save money Let's get rid of flying dude. I don't like them Let's in the hunt beginning Um, so this bow for him. I have oh, yeah The the frogs don't like the bow chat. All right next round. We'll start robbing dudes If I don't kill them first the battle is truly joined Let's get rid of let's break this guy out of my coming if thou darest Um, I gotta be careful here because I don't want to kill people Thank you All right, this is why I need to rob 120 How's the money xp farm? I'm doing it for the first time now Um, I actually don't know This is the first time I actually had to stop and grind because I was Grossly under level I went to the wrong zone and tried to fight this boss and just got utterly destroyed All right, let's just go Possibly hurt him a little bit and we'll kill them the show is over So I'm basically dragging out these fights so I can get some at least one robbery And then I kill everything Yeah, I've been here. Where am I on the map? Okay, I meant to go I meant to go over here and then go south. So I went the wrong way.  It's okay. It's all gravy. We'll probably have another fight before we uh get out of here Ooh, they're all vulnerable. I can't help it chat. I gotta spend no we gotta do it Yeah, I had to do that It's a thing Uh, who's up? Let's go with The froggies And the froggies Actually, these guys have two in the back too. So let's get him and the froggies Let's one the front break him Oh Oh, well Y'all want to do that Hurt my tressa I just wanted to play nicely y'all want to hurt my tressa.  Goodbye. The show is over Knox root. I don't know what that does Going back north going back north. I'm gonna have another fight, aren't I? Okay. No, I didn't Okay, so now we got to go west And then go well southwest southwest That's what I thought I was doing here, but I wasn't Uh, here comes a fight right now I remember you guys Letting my arrow fly into letting my arrow fly in true I have at me. All right. I am ready. Let me just follow up and hit him Get rid of this uh hyena She'll be mine And him Letting my arrow fly in true True Everybody's knocked out. You know what to do girl 80 bones Letting the hunt beginning Holding back nothing Good to buy three shall be mine. I think I only need two. I don't need all of them Yeah, I got a steal from you dudes Thanks for the loot. Appreciate it. I'm ready. Oh, he did uh might not be able to steal from Letting my arrow fly in true They might die Nope Thank you 84 South quarry crest pass All right, so this is the right way I think Yeah, so I have to go here and then go south Okay, so You guys have to go left It might no it's not right Stand as though against me Then be hunted How about you? Okay, these are the guys I remember hating. Let's get the monkey out of here.  I thought that was a sword No I am ready. All right. Now the monkey's out Letting the hunt beginning I'm gonna start hurting now. I should be able to rob him next time So he's down to one armor. All right rob him coming if thou darest He's broken. Nope 42 All right, so we got three of these. Let's poke him Coming if thou darest coming Why that's wish to air?  I am ready I didn't want to kill him. I thought he was tougher than that Well, this guy's like impossible to rob Well, we're not robbing anything this time Time for the long fight chat Letting my arrow fly in true Things are getting harder now using this Bolo, what's up, man? How you feeling? How you doing, man? Um, this is called octopath traveler. It's a game by square enix Very reminiscent of uh Final fantasy and like and alike I better use this It's been some SP. We broke him. Yeah, it's nice, man. It's really fun so far Um, let's do a little brick here Really fun so far how far in the game am I eight hours About eight hours in But I have no idea what how far that is relative. Some people say is 80 hours per character And some other people say other numbers, so I don't know But I think I'm pretty early on Do some basic attacks to build up some BP You know what she can't help here, so let's donate to To him I don't know what I mean people are still playing it. So I don't think anybody's completely finished it yet Still trestle Yeah, man, it feels very old school not only in replay replayability, but it's like It's like really really It's got a lot. I like it, man I just like it I don't like gear and stuff beginning. Uh, there's vendors I never played bravely default. So I don't know I really like the BP system though I really like the BP system is really good one of my favorite parts of combat, but I never played bravely default Just got my switch, uh


Governor Tim Walz is pledging the state government won't leave behind any Minnesotans as it works to fill gaps left by the partial federal government shutdown. Surrounded by faith, community and governmental leaders on Tuesday, the Democratic governor said the shutdown represents uncharted territory and that his administration is still assessing all the implications. But he says the state has measures in place to protect the most vulnerable Minnesotans at least through the end of February. He says all benefits are being paid. Nobody in state government has been laid off and he's not asking the legislature to come up with additional money yet. Walz says his administration is working to try to ensure that the state gets fully reimbursed from the federal government for all the expenses it's covering. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.