ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third-party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. A few Brian's later and oh boy, everyone's Brian? That is, if crucifixion is not one's preferred way of having a good time. While Brian, the naive and simple man unsurprisingly wasn't the Messiah in Monty Python's second feature film, Life of Brian, he was in fact the Brian from Nazareth the Romans asked to be released. Due to this absurd situation, the poor man was left hanging, crucified to the tune of always look on the bright side of life as the credits rolled. While the scene was undoubtedly funny, in reality it's not so amusing if your name is Brian and you look like a Brian who, let's say, is a criminal wanted for manslaughter and on top of that you get arrested for being the closest match. Today a simple fingerprint check would do the trick. However, back in the day and up until the beginning of the 20th century fingerprinting hadn't been invented, so if something like this happened to a person, that person would be in quite a pickle for sure whether or not they did look on the bright side of life. In fact, such a situation did happen, yet it wasn't a Brian but a man by the name of William West convicted of a minor crime who in 1903 upon arrival at the Leavenworth Penitentiary in Northeast Kansas was informed that he was already in prison serving a life sentence for first degree murder. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome weirdos, I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. If you're new here welcome to the show and if you're already a member of this weirdo family please take a moment and invite somebody else to listen in. Recommending Weird Darkness to others helps make it possible for me to keep doing the show and while you're listening be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com where you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and more along with the Weird Darkness Weirdos Facebook group. Coming up in this episode. In November 1638 Dorothy Talby killed her three-year-old daughter. She admitted so when first arrested but then she refused to say anything when brought before a judge. But then what would you expect from a woman which we all know is more easily persuaded by Satan to sin and women were much more likely to be seduced by witchcraft too? At least that's what people believed in the 17th century. It's understood and mostly agreed to by most that while it is a lot of fun to think about time travel is simply not possible and will probably never be possible seeing as we've never met any time travelers. Or maybe we have. Stories of shapeshifters seem to be told worldwide and the Celtic nations are no different. We'll look at a few shape-changing creatures from Ireland, Wales and Scotland. But first, how do you convince people you are innocent of a crime committed by someone who looks exactly like you and even shares your name? It's the strange story of William West and William West. We begin with that story.  When police arrested Donald Smith for the 2008 carjacking and murder of a preschool teacher in Gwyneth, Georgia, it seemed certain they had the right man. With matched witness descriptions, he seemed to appear on nearby surveillance camera footage and there was DNA evidence apparently proving he was at the scene of the crime. Throughout it all, though, Donald Smith earnestly claimed that he didn't do it and instead offered an unusual defense. He said his identical twin brother, Ronald Smith, was to blame according to police. When investigators followed up on Donald's claim, they found a Trump card in his favor among a battery of other evidence. Fingerprints at the scene of the crime did not belong to Donald but to Ronald Smith. Even though identical twins do share the exact same DNA, they do not share the same fingerprints. After he was presented with the evidence against him, Ronald Smith admitted to the crime. Ronald's attorney, Lawrence Lewis, said that he has not seen the alleged confession and maintains his client's innocence. This is an unusual case, Gwyneth County Police Corporal David Shirali told ABC News. 1. I'm glad that we were able to find the right brother and that we were able to find evidence to exonerate the other brother. Our investigators were faced with a tough task, dealing with identical twins. In a justice system that often relies heavily on high-tech DNA testing, it was fingerprinting a practice more than a century old that succeeded here where DNA failed. It is thanks to a very similar case from more than 100 years ago that fingerprinting is today just as critical to investigations as the much newer DNA evidence. At the turn of the 20th century, investigators had tinkered with fingerprinting, but the technique was not widely used according to the FBI archives. Rather, to identify suspects, investigators relied on the much-trusted Bertilin system, which measured dozens of features of a criminal's face and body and recorded the series of precise numbers on a large card along with a photograph. That system, which had been used by investigators following its initial implementation in 1882 in Paris, met its match, so to speak, when convicted criminal Will West was marched into Leavenworth Federal Prison in Kansas in 1903. The intake process was mind-numbingly routine for Leavenworth's clerks. Will West, newly arrived in May 1903 to serve a 10-year sentence in the Kansas prison for manslaughter, was about to become inmate number 3426. His name and personal details were written down. Mugshot photographs were taken. Then, staff members produced calipers and rulers to add West's body measurements to the state-of-the-art Bertilin identification system. They made 11 notations on a standardized card, including his height, the length of his feet, the size of his right ear, and the distance from fingertip to fingertip when he stood without stretched arms. The chief of the prison's identification unit, Matthew McClaffery, was renowned for his ability to remember faces, and he was certain this was not the first time he had seen this face. You've been here before, he said. No, sir, West assured him. A check of the prison's files produced a Bertilin card for William West, a man serving a life sentence for murder. His measurements were an almost perfect match, and the attached mugshots were a dead ringer for this new inmate. But, according to the card, this other William West was inmate number 2626, and he was already incarcerated in, of all places, Leavenworth. Though West was shown the mugshot, he seemed confused and unsure what to say. That may be my photo all right, but I don't know how you got it, he insisted. I've never been here before. Prison officials suspected West was posing as a newcomer, perhaps in hopes of being assigned to a different work detail. But why would he use his real name? Ensuring his ruse would be easily discovered. The truth only emerged when William West, the convicted murderer, was found where he was supposed to be, at his post in a prison workshop. There were two Will Wests. Leavenworth's current inmate was brought to the prison's offices to confront his namesake. They could easily pass off for twins, the Leavenworth Times reported a few years after the encounter. Each thought he was looking into a mirror. The men had never met before, but they were both from Texas and had been born months apart, and each one had been convicted of crimes committed in what would soon become the state of Oklahoma. McLaughrey concluded the men must be related and were likely cousins, but he realized the discovery of the almost identical Will Wests was more than an extraordinary coincidence. It could be a death blow to the Bertilin system. A system his father, Leavenworth Warden, Robert McLaughrey, had introduced to America from Europe and had championed for years. If William West had escaped and in searching for him, Willie West would have been arrested, Matthew McLaughrey told Leavenworth Times in 1907, nothing in the world but the turning up of William West would have prevented the other from serving out the latter's term in prison. But something in the world could sort out who was who. Their fingerprints. The identification system that bore Alfons Bertilin's name was a scientific solution to a problem that had long bedeviled detectives and judges, without a reliable means to identify convicted criminals. Many recidivists were being punished as first-time offenders and receiving lighter sentences. Photographs have been used as an identification tool since the mid-19th century, and major police forces and prisons maintained rogues galleries of offenders. But facial features change as an offender ages, and a mustache or beard might be enough to alter a man's appearance and make identification difficult. Bertilin, a clerk at the headquarters of the Paris police, was familiar with anthropometry, the study of the proportions of the human body, and in 1879 he suggested measuring a criminal's body parts to identify repeat offenders. While two men might be found to have the same-sized foot, for instance, the chances of multiple measurements being identical were remote, and the odds of finding two subjects with an identical set of measurements was estimated at one in more than four million. The idea that science could be used to fight crime was still novel for the time. Years passed before Bertilin was allowed to test his system, but he identified enough recidivists to prove it worked. Police forces and penal institutions across Europe soon adopted Bertilinage to make a misidentification even more unlikely the subject's face was photographed and eye color and any tattoos or scars were also recorded. Robert McLaughrey, warden of the Illinois State Prison and Joliet, introduced Bertilinage to the U.S. in 1887. It substitutes certainty for uncertainty, he claimed, a thoroughly reliable identification for the shrewd guess of the detective or the scarcely more reliable testimony of the photograph. Within a decade, 150 American police forces and prisons were using the system. Possessing a set of Bertilin's tools, noted the criminologist Raymond B. Fostick, became the distinguishing mark of the modern police organization. But Bertilinage had its drawbacks. Trained technicians were needed to ensure measurements were accurate. Tools became worn or bent as they were used, producing results that could match an innocent man to a criminal of similar size and build. And Bertilin records could only be used to identify a repeat offender. It could not link an unknown offender to the scene of a crime. No man can be pursued by the police or by any detective, McLaughrey conceded, by means of this system. Another method of identifying criminals was on the horizon. Early in the 19th century, a Czech scientist remarked on the marvelous groupings and curvings of the minute furrows associated with the organ of touch, which proved to be unique to each individual. Their crime fighting potential was finally recognized in 1880, when a Scottish doctor, Henry Falls, called on police to collect the forever unchangeable finger furrows of important criminals for comparison to prints found at crime scenes. Falls urged major police forces to adopt practice, but his breakthrough was ignored for years, almost two decades past before Scotland Yard began collecting and indexing fingerprints in 1901 and another four years before they were used for the first time in a British murder case. The New York police would become the first in the U.S. to use fingerprint evidence to solve a murder case, but not until 1906. Fingerprinting was earning converts as an alternative to Bertilin measurements, but it was still a novel forensic tool when Matthew McLaughrey came face-to-face with Will and William West. McLaughrey had studied anthropometry in Paris under Alphonse Bertilin, and by 1903 he was regarded as the greatest expert in the Bertilin system outside of France. But finding two men with almost identical body measurements appears to have shaken his faith in the system. There were minor differences between the Wests. Juan was a half-inch shorter and had a slightly smaller left foot, but one newspaper report asserted that any prison clerk with Bertilin training would have sworn they were one and the same. While the odds of two people sharing the same Bertilin measurements might be four million to one, it now appeared this might not be enough to prevent an innocent man from being misidentified as a criminal. In 1905, McLaughrey convinced his superiors to add fingerprinting to Leavenworth's identification procedures. While the Bertilin system is accurate, he said, I believe that the fingerprint system, which is not less accurate, will supersede it. The fingerprint can be taken without an expensive apparatus and by any person of ordinary skill. By then, even Bertilin had been won over, and his system's cards were revised to include a space for a subject's prints. When the Wests were fingerprinted, the distinctive loops and whirls of their fingertips finally made it possible to distinguish between the doppelgangers. The discovery of the lookalike Wests has been recounted in books on criminal identification and fingerprinting since 1918 and is cited in the official history of the FBI, but is it a tale too good to be true? Fingerprinting expert Robert Olson dismissed the story as a fable in the 1980s after he was unable to find contemporary reports of the lookalikes. In his 2001 book, Suspect Identities, criminologist Simon Cole argued the episode was fabricated or at least embellished after the fact to bolster the reputation of fingerprinting. He cited several discrepancies, including evidence the Will West convicted of manslaughter was lying when he said that he'd never been locked up in Leavenworth. The clerks did not realize he had served time there prior to 1903 under the name Johnson Williams. But neither Cole nor Olson appeared to have been aware that the Leavenworth Times had reported on the incident only a few years after it occurred in a pair of articles published in April 1907, and its significance was obvious from the outset. One of the articles declared it the greatest victory the fingerprint system of identification has yet scored over the batillian system. These reports also quote Matthew McLaughrey bolstering their credibility. Regardless of how crucial the incident was to the adoption of fingerprinting, the men's prison records, including their mirror image mug shots, matching batillian measurements and mismatched fingerprints, survive to authenticate an amazing coincidence. Will West, the newer of the two Leavenworth inmates, served his manslaughter sentence and left no trail after his release. William West, the lifer, spent time in solitary confinement for fighting and creating disturbances during his early years behind bars. He was released on parole in 1919 but not before making a dash for freedom. By 1916, West was a model prisoner and a trustee, an inmate entrusted to guard and discipline other prisoners on work details. One afternoon he succumbed to the temptation, as he put it, and walked away. He hopped a freight train and made it as far as Topeka before he was arrested the next day and returned to Leavenworth. The police officers who picked him up did not need fingerprints to confirm he was an escapee. A prison issued circular bearing his mug shots and a written description that already reached Topeka. Ironically, they were enough to nab a man who had helped to modernize the identification of criminals. Coming up, in November 1638, Dorothy Talby killed her three-year-old daughter. She admitted so when first arrested. But then she refused to say anything when brought before a judge. But then what would you expect from a woman, right? I mean, we all know they're more easily persuaded by Satan to sin and women are much more likely to be seduced by witchcraft, right? Well, at least that's what people believed in the 17th century. That story and more when Weird Darkness returns. Suicide or murder in a shadow of a nation's capital. Alice, you were right. There was a body in the cellar last night. You know that? I'm positive of it. Only there were two bodies. The screen's master of horror. Bella Ladosi has the answer to this mysterious death. This time, she saw the refuge in a strong man's arms. I just ran into yours. Mine might be dangerous. Ladosi as a madman on a mission of vengeance. Is he friend or foe? You'll find the answer to this fantastic mystery in Black Dragons. Join us Friday, January 26th for our next Weirdo Watch Party as we watch Black Dragons presented by Horror Hotel's resident vampire, Lainia Queen of the Dark, bringing us trivia about the film, the actors, and all things horror related in between segments of the show. And then stick around after Black Dragons because Doc Dredd will be with us with one of his popular and fun movie reviews, giving his opinion of 2023's award-winning horror flick, Beneath Us All. The Weirdo Watch Party's always free to watch online with everybody, so grab your popcorn, candy, and soda, and jump into the fun, and even get involved in the live chat as we watch the movie. It's Black Dragons, starring Bella Ladosi from 1942, presented by Horror Hotel's Lainia Queen of the Dark, then Doc Dredd's movie review talking about Beneath Us All. Friday, January 26th, starting at 10 p.m. Eastern, 9 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Mountain, 7 p.m. Pacific. See a few clips from the film and invite your friends to watch along with you on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. We'll see you Friday, January 26th for the Weirdo Watch Party.  Though cases of mothers committing filicide are likely as old as history itself, the kind of punishment these women receive afterward has varied across time and in different societies around the world. Even today, public reaction over stories such as that of Susan Smith and Andrea Yates has ranged from shock and disbelief to calls for their execution. While postpartum psychosis and mood disorder are being increasingly recognized in these cases, treating filicidal mothers as mental patients rather than as murderers is still a relatively recent phenomenon, which brings us to the case of Dorothy Talby. Life tended to be hard for women living in 17th century Massachusetts. Along with the widespread belief in witchcraft and demonic possession shared by the deeply religious residents of cities such as Salem and Boston, laws provided little protection for wives dealing with overly brutal or dominating husbands. Women who dared to criticize their husbands or resist their authority in any way risked being placed in stocks or even publicly whipped as common scolds or shrews. Part of the problem was the widespread belief that women were especially vulnerable to being led astray by Satan, something clergymen frequently declared in their regular sermons. Even many of the religious books published in that era spoke about how women were responsible for original sin. Gee, thanks Eve. William Perkins 1596 book, A Discourse on the Damned Art of Witchcraft, was downright lyrical in condemning women. In all ages it is found that the devil hath more easily and oftener prevailed with women than with men, he wrote, of more women, of more witches. Relatively little is known about Dorothy Talby's early life, though she was later described as being of good esteem for godliness. Along with her husband, she was a regular churchgoer and lived an unremarkable life. But everything changed in 1636 when her daughter, whom they named difficulty, was born. Perhaps that was the issue right from the beginning. For reasons that remain lost to history, Dorothy Talby suddenly began experiencing emotional problems which made her increasingly moody and aggressive. According to the diary of Massachusetts governor John Winthrop, Dorothy's bizarre behavior put her in odds with her husband and her church. She was described as falling at differences with her husband through melancholy or spiritual delusions. She sometimes attempted to kill him and her children and herself by refusing meat, saying it was revealed to her, etc. Since she failed to improve despite efforts by her church leaders, she was formally cast out of the church. If anything, though, learning that she had been excommunicated made her even more uncontrollable. After several more incidents involving her husband and children, Dorothy was then charged to appear before the magistrate in 1637 after being accused of assaulting her husband. She was initially sentenced to be bound and chained to a post and, later that same year, was sentenced to be whipped over new offenses directed at her from her husband. The flogging appeared to do the trick, and Dorothy began obeying her husband again, at least for a while. In November 1638, Dorothy Talby killed their three-year-old daughter, difficulty, by breaking her neck. Though she freely admitted committing the horrific crime when first arrested, she refused to say anything at her arraignment hearing. Colonial law being the way it was at the time, the governor eventually grew tired of her refusal to speak and threatened to have her pressed to death unless she confessed. Realizing she had no alternative, Dorothy admitted to the murder and stated that she killed her daughter to quote, free it from future misery, unquote. Throughout her trial, she said nothing more in her defense and mostly refused to cooperate with the court for any reason. At the time of the trial, there was no such thing as an insanity defense, though it would be adopted under Massachusetts law not long afterward. Though people with severe mental illness were typically locked up in asylums to prevent them from harming themselves or anyone else, Governor Winthrop seemed disinclined to show any kind of mercy for Dorothy Talby. As he later wrote about her in his journal, she committed the murder not due to insanity but because she was so possessed with Satan that he persuaded her by his delusions which she listened to as revelations from God to break the neck of her own child. In the eyes of the Governor and the court, the death sentence was the only acceptable option in Dorothy's case. By all accounts, she showed little real emotion on being told she would be hanged for her crime and said nothing to suggest that she was sorry for what she had done. She did ask to be beheaded instead of hanged, arguing that it would be less painful or shameful but her request was denied. On the day of her execution, Dorothy Talby had to be dragged to the gallows where she refused to stand. Her pastor and several other clergymen went with her hoping to provide some sort of comfort at the end but she refused any last-minute rights. She even refused to wear the black hood that was standard for condemned prisoners. Instead, she took off the hood and used it to make the noose more comfortable for her. The actual hanging was a horrible sight since this was long before the use of the marwood drop in which the gallows simply broke the condemned person's neck. Dorothy Talby was fully conscious as she slowly strangled to death. She even tried to grab the gallows ladder as she was swinging. She was then declared dead. So why was Dorothy Talby punished so severely? While infanticide is a horrible crime, the courts have always had a fair bit of latitude in sentencing. When Mercy Brown of Wallingford, Massachusetts killed her son in 1691, she also went on trial for her life but she was treated much more humanely than Dorothy was. Not only was her sentencing delayed because of her distracted state but she eventually received a prison sentence since she was regarded as mentally unfit. In Mercy Brown's case, however, she was openly remorseful and she also cooperated fully with the court, something Dorothy Talby refused to do. Instead of recognizing that her crime was due to mental illness, the courts saw her execution as an opportunity to educate other women about the consequences of acting improperly, i.e. failing to be submissive and obedient as a good wife should. Dorothy Talby's fate was sealed by her long history of unwomenly behavior and her refusal to abide by the teachings of her church. Much as in the Salem Witch Trials which would take place just years later, women of that era were expected to know their place. Much has been said about time travel, but still few believe that it is actually possible. After all, at first glance, there's no evidence that people or objects can instantly move from one point in time to another, but this is only at first glance. In 1912, the mayor of the Norwegian city of Aat, Johan Nygaard, sealed with sealing wax a certain package telling him to open it after 100 years. For 80 years, the envelope was kept at the post office in Oslo and another 20 years it was on display at the Gruvensdahl Museum. When it was finally opened, everyone was in for a huge surprise. It was opened at a festive and crowded atmosphere and TV journalists with cameras were also present. At first, however, the contents were disappointing. Inside were some old city office documents of no value and a Norwegian flag. Among the papers were two newspapers from 1914. It seems that the mayor had, after all, opened the envelope two years later in order to put them there, but why? Meanwhile, experts have determined that the envelope has never been opened since 1912 and that Nygaard never had access to the Oslo post office, so where did those newspapers from two years later come from? We have to assume that either Nygaard had been to the future in 1914 and brought the newspapers back with him or that they had somehow fallen into his hands. He decided not to tell about this to any of his contemporaries, but in such an extraordinary way to tell about the anomalous fact to distant descendants. Such a case is not unique. The Harisfeld family in Louisville, Kentucky, USA keeps a greeting card received in the mid-1950s with a view of the German city of Frankfurt. Rita Harisfeld received it once from her grandfather who died in 1959, but the thing is the postcard itself was issued in 1983 and has buildings on it that were not yet built in the 1950s. Again, she received it in the 1950s. A certain resident of Schardzau tells an even more amazing story. When he was a kid for some reason he wasn't accepted as a pioneer for a long time. The boy really wanted to read the Pioneer Truth newspaper, but only members of the children's organization were allowed to subscribe to it. One summer night our hero went to sleep in the yard. He couldn't sleep and the school boy began to pray to God, in whom his grandmother had taught him to believe, God, help me become a pioneer and read Pioneer Truth. Suddenly there was a whirlwind of dust and then the boy saw the newspaper swirling in the air. He grabbed it and the wind immediately died down. It turned out to be the Pioneer Truth. The next morning he began to read it and to his astonishment discovered that it was dated the next year. Still not understanding where the Pioneer Truth had come from, he decided that it was the newspaper of the girl next door, but the neighbors denied everything. The next year the boy was accepted as a pioneer and he subscribed to Pioneer Truth. And one day he got exactly the same newspaper as the one that the wind had brought him a year previous. So that newspaper really came to him from the future? Recently it's possible to meet the information about various paranormal phenomena connected with mobile communication and the internet. So they tell about strange CMC. Someone receives messages from the year 2023, someone from the year 2080. What they all have in common is that they are written in an unknown language that cannot be deciphered by computer means. Anatoly Grishin is a student, an ordinary citizen of Chelyabinsk. That is, he thought he was until he started receiving mysterious SMS messages. The first of them came on the birthday of the young man. The number was unfamiliar to him and the text consisted of hieroglyphics. Anatoly paid attention to the date though, January 1st, 2040. He thought somebody had just decided to play a joke on him by giving him the wrong date and coding. But similar messages began to arrive every few days and all of them had the year 2040 on them. That got the guy thinking. He saved all the messages just in case and tried to decipher them on his computer, but only recognized some of the characters. Calling his mobile operator, Tolya found out that the mysterious CMC did not match the database, so it turned out that he did not receive those texts at all. He was offered to change the number. After that, nothing came for about a month and then he received the text message again, this time not only in hieroglyphics but also in numbers and the text was dated 2042. Trying to find out the telephone number from which the messages came, Grishin found out that it was not assigned to any operator. It was as if the mysterious number did not exist in nature. Soon the student noticed that after receiving each message some unpleasant thing would happen to him. For example, after receiving one of them he had an accident. Alarmed Anatoly consulted a psychic. The lady said that there was nothing paranormal in the messages he received. They were written by a man and had nothing to do with other worldly beings. Most likely they come from the future and the author is one of Grishin's friends or relatives or maybe even himself. The psychic suggested the following hypothesis. The person who writes the messages somehow found out about Anatoly's future and is now trying to warn him about the coming troubles and troubles, but for some reason he cannot do it directly or does not have the technical conditions. Messages reach the addressee only in coded form. A few years ago computer people noticed an ominous black banner that appeared from time to time on one webpage and then another. Clicking on it led nowhere and after a while the banner disappeared on its own. At first programmers feared that a new virus was masquerading as a black banner but then unexplainable things began to happen on the servers where this glitch was noticed. Thus physicist Michael Dodgison from NASA reported, when we analyzed the DNS servers we found 102 links leading to non-existent resources or to put it simply to nowhere and all of these links have dates between 2030 and 2070. At the end of 2000 a person claiming to be John Titor began posting on the net predictions for the near future. John claimed to have appeared from the year 2036. Titor left messages on various sites and forums. Sometimes he took the pseudonym time travel underscore zero. The prophecies made by this mysterious person look pretty grim. The man said that a civil war would break out in the United States splitting the country into five regions with Omaha as the capital. In 2015 we were supposed to face a world war three which would kill three billion people. Good thing that didn't come to fruition. In 2036 a global virus is supposed to destroy the entire computer network which will be a disaster for the rest of the world. John Titor tells his readers that his mission is to go back to 1975 and to get hold of the IBM 5100 computer which must contain the programs to fight the future virus. How then did Titor get to the year 2000? He really wanted to meet himself at the age of three he explained. That was how old he was that year. Whether that venture succeeded is unknown. As you know the theory of time travel denies the possibility of meeting your loved one from the past, the whole grandfather paradox. Many of course reacted to Titor's posts with skepticism but there were those who were interested in the information. For four months Titor answered in great detail all the questions that curious people asked him and he described the events of the future in a poetic style much like Nostradamus. Among other things the mysterious stranger wrote that there were many realities and his own reality might not be related to ours that is the future in which he lives may have nothing to do with our past present or future.  Titor also talked about some technical aspects of time travel and even posted pictures on the web of the device he supposedly used to travel to the past although the pictures were not of very high quality. Titor last went online March 24th 2001 to offer his end-of-the-world advice to his fans. He said take a gas can with you when you leave your car by the side of the road. After that Titor closed all his accounts and no one has ever heard from him again. Jeremiah is one of our Weirdo family members and he sent in a true story that happened to him called Cold Hands. Here's what he wrote. This is my first time taking part in something like this. I started listening about a week ago and I'm pretty addicted to it so I decided to share my own. This had happened when I was about six or seven. I can't recall correctly though. Back then I had lived in Pakistan since my family was Christian we moved here to the Philippines. I'm 16 now but I still remember a lot that happened back then. A lot of it comes from the house we lived in. It was given to us by the church we went to since our family took part in almost everything. The house was close to a mansion. It was a giant one-story house and it had a massive garden surrounding it. A couple of large trees, beautiful flowers, would even plant vegetables and fruits in the backyard and I guess it was a picture perfect life to live. Now here's the thing that really freaked my mom out. The house had an old jujube tree. It was like the ones you'd see in horror movies filled with those giant roots covering it and what was weird was the fact that I used to call the tree my friend and how I wouldn't want to leave it. My mom's brother and his family would often visit us. His son who was the same age as me was basically my best friend back then. This day they had stayed a little later than usual so me and my cousin tired ourselves up pretty good. After we played we ate and after that it was time for them to leave. I said my goodbyes and my mom sent me to my room. This usually wouldn't happen since it was impossible for me to sleep without my mom back then so I called her and she told me to go to my room again.  Since it was 7 p.m. and everyone was outside all the lights were off probably also because my grandma was sleeping in her room.  I could somewhat make out the goodbyes from my room and that kept my scared child brain at rest. As I waited I looked at my hands for some reason I always had been creeped out by hands. Looking at my hands I started to feel scared and alone. I could no longer hear my parents voices. I thought that they were about to come towards the house. To reassure myself I called out mama and I got no response. After that I wanted to go out to check but I was too scared to get out of my bed and then suddenly I saw something move near the outside. That creeped me out but I thought it was nothing. Right then I felt a cold hand tickle my foot. It felt small and bony literally like how a dead person would feel. I gotten so scared I wrapped myself inside of that thick blanket and used the bed as a barrier against me and whatever that thing was. There was silence everywhere and that silence made me even more afraid. I cried myself to sleep that night. The next morning I woke up to my mother gently scratching my back. I was so relieved and she told me about what had happened. Turns out my German shepherd outside had bitten my cousin on the leg. They had taken him to the hospital while I was basically alone. Our family sometimes talks about that house and how many things they had seen there which leads me to believe the house was really haunted. To this day I sleep with my feet inside my blanket because of that ghostly hand. Thanks for the story, Jeremiah. I can't say that I can really relate to being afraid of hands but I will say I have seen a few feet in my life that would deter the boogeyman from getting too close. Those feet being mine. If you have a story to share like Jeremiah you can visit WeirdDarkness.com and click on Tell Your Story or you can call the dark line to verbally tell your story. It's a toll-free call. Call 1-877-277-5944. That's 1-877-277-5944. Or again, if you'd like to write out your story just click on Tell Your Story at WeirdDarkness.com. When Weird Darkness returns, stories of shapeshifters seem to be told worldwide and the Celtic nations are no different. We'll look at a few shape-changing creatures from Ireland, Wales and Scotland. Up next. I'm a man of habits. Okay, truth be told my bride says I'm boring. I like the same stuff and that's what I stick with and that includes what I eat. Even for breakfast I used to opt for a leftover pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers. Did I mention pizza? Anyway, now that I'm trying to lose weight and cut back on the carbs I've had to make changes for breakfast. Now instead of a big heavy breakfast I just grabbed one of my built bars. The best tasting protein bar on the planet. Built bars satisfy my hunger with up to 19 grams of protein and also satisfy my sugar craving despite being less than three grams of sugar. And at only about 150 calories per bar if I'm really hungry in the morning I can grab two of them and still feel good about it. Try replacing your dessert or even a meal like breakfast with a built bar. You won't even know it's not really a candy bar. Visit WeirdDarkness.com slash built and build a box of your own.  That's WeirdDarkness.com slash built promo code WeirdDarkness Sheep shifters are found in most mythologies and folk traditions around the world from ancient to modern times. In such traditions humans change into vampires, werewolves, frogs, insects and just about any other creature imaginable and back again. Sometimes the transformation is controlled by the transformer who shifts shape at will. Other times it is an unwelcome event such as a punishment and sometimes it is forced by a magical spell or a curse. But there are many other reasons besides. Sheep shifters can be good or bad, often moving the story forward in a novel way or have some kind of symbolism that the teller wants to get across to their audience. There are many different kinds of shape-shifting and here we'll look at different examples from Ireland, Wales and Scotland that provide differing glimpses of shape-shifters in action in the myth, folklore and tradition of these three Celtic nations. And let me apologize now before I get into the pronunciations. I might have a lot of Irish in my blood but definitely not in my tongue so I apologize for the mispronunciations in advance. In Irish mythology the morrigan was a shape-shifting war goddess who could transform into a woman of any age and also change into animal or bird form. She had the power of prophecy and as a war goddess would sing her people to victory in battle. Sometimes she could be seen swooping over the battlefield in the form of a raven or a crow and devouring the bodies of the slain. In the story The Cattle Raid of Cooley the morrigan appears as a crow to warn the bull named Don Cooley that Queen Medab is plotting to abduct him. Queen Medab attacks Ulster after the bull but is resisted single-handedly by the hero Coo-Colin fighting a series of duels with her champions at a fjord. In battle Coo-Colin undergoes a spectacular change in his form described as Riastrod or warp spasm that sees his body twist and contort into the most grotesque and fearsome appearance terrifying his opponents. In between the duels the morrigan appears before Coo-Colin as an attractive young woman seeking his love and offering her help. He rejects her and feeling slighted she seeks revenge by aiding his opponents. First she turns into an eel and trips him. Next she turns into a wolf and causes a herd of cattle to stampede towards the fjord. Lastly transforming herself into a heifer she leads the stampede. Despite the magical shape-shifting she fails and Coo-Colin manages to wound her on each transformation. Later she transforms into an old woman milking a cow bearing the three wounds. She offers him milk to drink and he blesses her healing her wounds which he later regrets. There are many examples of shape-shifting in Welsh mythology where a human takes the form of an animal or a bird and even flowers are transformed into maidens. In the story the fourth branch of the Mabanogee the maiden bloatwood was created by Moth and Gwydian out of the flowers of broom, meadowsweet and oak and was later transformed into an owl. Gwydian had earlier undergone a series of transformations changing into a stag, sow, and wolf even producing offspring as a punishment inflicted by Moth. Arguably one of the most exciting and extraordinary examples of shape- shifting appears in the story of the birth of Talysyn. The sorceress, Herodwen, brewed a potion to give to her son Movran Abtegrid that would endow him with great wisdom and knowledge. She gave a boy named Gwion Bak the task of stirring the brew and tasked a blind man with feeding the fire. As Gwion was stirring three boiled hot drops spat from the cauldron onto his hand.  This endowed him instead of Movran with knowledge and wisdom and he foresaw Herodwen's wrath at the accidental ruining of her scheme. Knowing he must escape he transformed into a hare but she transformed into a greyhound hot on his tail. Therefore he transformed into a fish and leafed into a river but she transformed into an otter and closed in on him. In the nick of time he transformed into a bird and flew away. She transformed into a hawk and again began to close in on him. Seeing a pile of winnowed wheat and a barn he dived into that transforming into a single grain of corn. Transforming herself into a black hen she pecked it all up including him. With him inside her she was now pregnant and nine months later gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Realizing the baby was actually Guionbac reborn she wanted to kill him but because of the fairness of his brow could not. Giving him a slim chance of survival she placed him in a leather bag and cast him into the water. He would later be rescued and became the greatest Welsh bard of all time. In Scottish folklore Selkies and Kelpies are two very different kinds of shapeshifting entities from the examples of Irish and Welsh mythology we've looked at. They are completely different from each other having very different characteristics but both featuring in interesting legends and traditions. First we take a look at the Selkie followed by a look at the Kelpie. A Selkie changes its form from seal to human by removing its seal skin. To revert to its seal form it must put its seal skin back on. Often it is the female Selkie who becomes trapped in a relationship when a man steals her seal skin while she's in human form. With the theft of her seal skin her power has been stolen and she's unable to transform back into her original form and must now live on land as a woman. Sometimes she will marry but spend much of her time pining for the sea. She may have children but if she ever recovers her seal skin she quickly forsakes them and her husband to return to the sea. According to tradition male Selkies are very handsome in human form and women find them very seductive. The male Selkie tends to seek out those women who are unhappy in their marriage such as fisherman's wives who wait patiently at home alone for their husband's return. Kelpies on the other hand are a different kind of entity in Scottish folklore. They are dangerous supernatural horse-like entities with shape-shifting abilities dwelling in rivers pools and locks. According to tradition lone travelers sometimes encounter Kelpies lingering near watery places. They often take the form of a beautiful woman or a horse but can also adopt other guys such as that of an old man. One sign of their true identity can be revealed when water weed is noticed entangled in their hair. A folk tale from the island of Bara tells how an amorous male Kelpie transformed into a handsome young man hoping to seduce and marry a local girl. While the young man was sleeping she noticed he were a silver necklace which was really his bridle. She removed it and he transformed into a horse. The girl took the horse to her father who was a farmer and he put it to work for a year. When the year was up she took it to a wise man seeking his advice. He advised her she must give the silver necklace back which she did and the horse transformed back into the handsome young man. The wise man asked the younger man if given the choice he would prefer to live as a Kelpie or a mortal man. The young man asked the girl if she would be prepared to marry him if he kept his human form. She confirmed that she would and the Kelpie chose to be a mortal man and married the girl. From gods and goddesses to witches and sorcerers to strange dangerous supernatural entities that haunt the wilds, Celtic mythology and folklore has an abundance of shapeshifters. The idea of the transformation of a human to animal or other form predates the Celts and examples are found in the rock art of ancient people all around the world. Similarly in the modern age shapeshifters are found in all of the traditional and modern media which reflects on its continuing popularity and the fact that it still strikes the right chords for many people just as it did for people in antiquity. Thanks for listening. If you like the show please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darren at weirddarkness.com and you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Lines, Miwi and the show's Weirdo's Facebook group on the contact social page at weirddarkness.com. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. Will a real William West please step forward was written by Dean Job for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Martin Chalakosky for Vintage News and Lee Farron for ABC News. The case of Dorothy Talby is by Romeo Vitale for Providencia. True Time Travel Moments was posted at earthchronicles.com and Shapeshifters of the Celts is by Steve T. Evans for FolkloreThursday.com And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. 1 Peter 1 verses 8 and 9, Though you have not seen him, you love him and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. And a final thought from Stephanie Catherine. Starting over doesn't make you a failure. Hit the restart button as many times as necessary and keep on keeping on. I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness.


President Mohamed Ubarri on Friday instructed the Inspector General of Police, IGP Usman Baba, to quickly tackle the menace of insecurity in the country and reduce it to a minimal level. This came after the police council, made up of the president, vice president, governors, ministers of police affairs, Interior and the Federal Capital Territory, confirmed unanimously, Baba, as the substantive police boss. Recall that President Mohamed Ubarri, on the 6th of April this year, announced Usman Baba as the Acting Inspector General of Police. Baba was a Deputy Inspector General of Police before the council confirmed his new appointment.


Well, good morning, good afternoon and good evening everyone to our session on delivering social justice in the new economy. My name is Caroline Casey and I am the founder and director of the valuable 500. The global CEO community transforming disability inclusion through business leadership and opportunity with our very proud partners the world's economic form. Now we have a huge announcement to make on Friday the 29th which I think really plays into the importance of what we're about to discuss today. But I wanted to just open this up and give a little bit of context I'm the moderator and just to give the flow of how we're going to spend the next 30 minutes together in the public form and then we will be moving to a private session with our members between 630 and 7 o'clock. Also to explain to you, I am registered blind so I'm going to give you a very quick audio description of myself for best practice and inclusion. I'm a white woman with blonde hair with the blue background and a pair of black round glasses apparently look like Edna from the Incredibles not sure but that's where it is. I am dialing in from Ireland's Dublin beside my washing machine. And I just want to start by saying we know that video has best captured what is happening in our world. And it's January and we've been here now it feels like for a very long time and we are tired exhausted, worried and frustrated and yet there is hope to. We know that this global pandemic has also been a pandemic, essentially a humanity, it has been the great social in equalizer. The inequalities that existed before our global pandemic have been exacerbated, they have been compounded, and they are terrifying to look upon. We know that every part of our humanity is suffering in some particular way. And we know when we speak to this how we're going to build back better, this great reset. These are all great words and we know that we have to do it. But how do we do it? How do we really do this when we have so many agendas on the table? The issues of gender, LGBTQI, age, economy, disability. It's really tough and it's really hard and I think we have to be honest and be provocative. Because if it was so easy we'd have done it better before even now. So today's conversation is going to look at how can we look at all of these unique and pressing agendas within a collective and collaborative intention for full human inclusion, equity and justice within this new economy. What is the role that business has to play? And also looking at some of the great new and most promising initiatives that we have seen. And we've just seen the announcement of one of them with the World Economic Forum today on racial justice. We have panellists who are coming from three very specific areas or two different, which is around academia, business and from policy. Because every different field has a different lens. And that's what we're trying to do, try to see how we can move forward together with our different views, our different lens and our different agendas. So I am going to ask each of our panellists to introduce themselves to tell you where they're dialing in from their name and the current role they have and if they feel inclined to give a description. So I am going to hand over to Peter Grower who I know and I'm a mad fan of for many years. So Peter over to you first. Thank you Caroline and thank you for the opportunity to be here with such an incredibly impressive panel on what's going to be a very interesting next hour that as it unfolds. I'm Peter Grower. I'm executive chairman of Bloomberg and chair our management committee have been at Bloomberg for almost the last 20 years and have really been the primary spokesperson at the senior most levels of our firm along with Mike Bloomberg, really putting a stake in the ground about diversity, equity and inclusion and trying to address the challenges both within our company and as a global media financial information company going forward. I also want to let everybody know captioning is available please use this. It is all of the sessions on the Dabbitt agenda are captioned. Minister Kutier, would you like to introduce yourself? Yes, hello. Good afternoon. My name is Tatiana Kutier. I'm a minister of economics in Mexico. And I'm very, very happy to be here and listen to all this great discussion that as you say Caroline, we are going to have to do something very disruptive as to a ship what we have in front of us as a world. Thank you minister. Ashley, we said we share a global future council together would you like to introduce yourself? Absolutely. I'm Ashley Shalvy-Rosette. I'm a professor and senior associate student at the future student business. And it's such an exciting to be here amongst the student panel and to take part in what is a really important conversation in line with the best practices that Caroline has initiated. Yes, we describe ourselves. I am a black literally woman with red blotches and a lovely brown background. Thank you Ashley.  Would you like to introduce yourself? Thanks Caroline. It's great to be here with everyone. My name is Carmine DeCibio. I am the global chairman and CEO of EY. EY is an organization, a professional services organization with over 300,000 people in over 150 countries around the world. And we do value ourselves in terms of being really leaders when it comes to DNI. In terms of me and I'm sitting about 20 miles west of New York City in a suburb in New Jersey, which is where I'm coming in from. And I do, I'm a white male of Italian descent and I do have EY background just to make sure that people know who I work with. Anyway, that's it Caroline, back to you. Brand placement, always an opportunity. Okay, listen, the first question I want to ask each of you. Look, this is the decade of disruption. We know, as the minister says, we're going to have to do things very differently. And we know collaboration, collective power. We know we need to have the intersectional lens. We need, we know we need to have multi stakeholder approach. We know all of this. Once again, easier said than done. So I was going to ask each of you from your particular field, what do you see is the barriers to this intersectional multi stakeholder approach. And because we're going to have some positivity, the opportunity. And minister, I'm going to go to you first. Okay, well, one of the things that I, one of the big challenges we have at this moment. I believe that is how are we going to be integrating and putting the agenda that it's all these ideas that come out worldwide. And that we have to introduce very fast when we have an agenda that has been going on for a longer time. And how are we going to be like, what it's going to be our priority? Nonetheless, I assume that one of the priorities we're going to have to be facing at this moment, it has to do with women. How are we going to be including women in this challenge? How are we going to be including women and re-skill them as we were saying a few minutes before in all the digital area, especially in countries like ours in Mexico, where we have a very different, very different areas where we have women that are pretty far behind in all the digital arena. So the big problem is how are we going to be attending the most important things in the color, the most important things at this moment. But at the same time, we have like a very long agenda that we were trying to improve with women where they were fighting for stopping violence. But at the same moment, they need to work and in order to have them working, we need to have them with digital education. We need to have them very fast in the economic integration. And I think that's why it's like, which thing are we going to be taking as priority? And how are we going to be putting all these suggestions worldwide? Because we do have our main problems in Mexico now that we lost 9 percent. Well, we lost 657,000 awards. And I think that the main problem we have at this moment is people are fighting and say, do we keep our health or do we keep our work? So the main thing that we're going to be facing at this moment is how do we make a balance in between the two of them? And if we have hospitals that are almost full, what is the balance we're going to have to have? How do we give families the means to be working and to be achieving money to their houses? And how are we going to be postponing not having them sick and not having them in hospitals? Yeah, I mean, this is perfectly saying exactly how do we do with all of these competing needs and all of them priorities? And what is that way forward? So, Ashley, from your perspective, this idea of intersectionality and multi-stakeholder, what do you see as some of the barriers from the field of academia and what's coming up in research? Sure. So before you even tackle, I think, the notion of the multi-stakeholders and intersectionality, I think fundamentally there is a misunderstanding as to what we mean when we say social justice. Frequently we say social justice, people hear one thing and we mean something completely different. And so social justice and social equity are simply about being treated fairly, that all people should be treated fairly. But frequently that isn't the case. The remedy for social equality is differently social equity. Remedy for social equality means that we want to treat people equally. Remedy for social equity is disparate treatment. And sometimes that notion of disparate treatment is why we don't have that understanding and that we have that resistance in terms of understanding what social inequity is. We have social dominant groups and advantages and privileges of social dominant groups. We have social dominant groups and disadvantages of capabilities. We have to learn to acknowledge the unfairness that we've met previously before we even talk about stakeholders. The second aspect that we want to consider is the status quo. And the communities with which dominant groups maintain the status quo. In organizations, there usually exist two systems. One system of meritocracy and one system of provisional oppression. We often recognize the system of meritocracy, but we don't recognize that system of privilege and oppression that works within our organizations because it can be threatening to our self-worth, our self-value to say we didn't necessarily completely get all of our accomplishments on our own. And so that can be problematic. So of course this gets a definition down. Of course it's recognized that people don't acknowledge social justice because of these threats and they put their differences in the negative enough. Now we try to tackle multi-stakeholders, but we have to find and then we recognize that social justice is no different than any other agenda. And that is the problem and the reason why it can't necessarily advance with multi-stakeholders is that everybody wants a piece of that social FMI, but we can't all be at the same time. If we start talking about race, people say, well, what about gender? And what about social, what about religion? And what about all these other things? It's okay to talk about one topic at a time. But what you do is you say we're going to focus on race. But within race, we have various different categories. We have women, we have men and we have religion and we have these differences. But you have to focus on one thing at a time because historical inequities and historical context and it's given a rise to a difference in racial inequality and inequity, a difference in gender inequity, a difference in religious inequity, they're all different. So hey, focus on one topic at a time and recognize there are multiple layers. And so our inability to do that I think has contributed to our inability to move this multi-stakeholder approach forward. Peter and Carmine, Peter, I'll come to you first. I think that is, I mean, considering when you look at Bloomberg and you are looking at signing up to several different initiatives, giving individual focus, but then part of a collective good. How do you want to respond to what Ashley's just said? Well, I think Carmine and I enjoy a little bit of a special position in this august group that we've assembled to talk about this subject. And that is we are products of the practical as much as we are anything else. And our responsibility, his as chairman and CEO and mine as chairman and chairman of our executive committee, along with my six colleagues on the executive committee, is to obviously try and become an exemplar in Bloomberg of what people talk about with regard to diversity, equality and inclusion. And we've evolved in our thinking over the last six or seven years where we initially focused heavily on women and people of color. We've evolved into the LGBTQ community. We've involved into colleagues with disability and making sure that they feel as though they are both welcome and can bring their whole selves to work every single day. And really using the Bloomberg envelope, if you will, as a test ground for doing a range of different things. And we have lots of programs that are underway where we're trying to make a more meaningful impact. It all in my judgment boils down to the tone at the top of the organization and the leadership exhibited by the senior executives who are lucky enough to be in a position of responsibility to really help do something about this challenge around racial inequality and all that goes with it. We also have the kind of unique position as a global provider of news, data and analytics with multiple platforms to be able to use those platforms to influence people thinking and making sure that they are focused on the severity and the responsibility of these issues going forward. And we try and use that as well. And then the third thing we do are engagement in activities at the World Economic Forum. Carmine and I are both members of the New York City CEO Jobs Council that Jamie Dimon started about a year ago. We are very proactive in Chicago, for example, in skilling and allowing people to compete more effectively for jobs going forward. So the intersectionality occurs in a lot of different places. I think the responsibility of leadership is to identify that and lead and execute as we go forward. Carmine, as the global CEO of over 300,000 employees all with different areas of interest and passion, how are you finding juggling that and are you feeling that pressure moving forward as to have a more holistic approach with the balance of the individual agendas? Yeah, so thanks, Caroline. Look, to me at EY and our culture really embeds D&I and it's been that for 30 years since I joined. And so that's important. I do think we have to talk a little bit more about the role of business. As Peter mentioned, today it is extremely important that all business leaders from the top have the right sense in terms of what it comes to in terms of D&I. And I think it's more important than ever because in many places around the world, I think governments have struggled with this and unless businesses really help, we're going to struggle. So even today in one of the Edelman surveys, 66% or two thirds of the people think that CEOs have to play a bigger role in justice, in social justice, in the causes. So we at EY have been very proactive when it comes to D&I and same as Peter, we were more heavily weighted towards gender. We then became more weighted towards LGBTQ as well as gender. And really I think the George Floyd incident in the United States woke us up a little bit that we probably weren't as focused on people of color, not just in the United States but around the world. And so we actually set up a global task force around this issue. And it's really incredible when you see our global task force on these screens and you see, you know, 50 people from around the world dealing with the same issue. This is not just a US issue. And that's what I think is great, the George Floyd situation really opened people's eyes all over the world. It's great to see that this is now at the top of the agenda in terms of making sure that we solve, you know, the inequity problems and the racial problems around the world. So that part I think has helped. But the barriers Caroline, you know, to me, the barriers are really around, you know, and as Peter said, some of the thinking from the top and these organizations is not a long term thinking. It's a short term thinking. And so companies aren't willing to invest there aren't willing to in in some of the things that we have to get done. And because of that, they're not really thinking long term. And frankly, it's not working people being left behind. And so this is something that's become obvious through the pandemic as the video showed when we started. It's something that we have to solve. Now is the time to solve it. There's a lot of momentum, you know, as we move forward as we come out of the pandemic. Minister, if we come to what Carmine has just said on this long term look to the future, which is difficult in governments as much as in business. And how what are some of those policies that you are seeing or are going into place and also how you can support, I guess the business community as well as you're moving forward so the business community can work in partnership with governments. Okay, one of the things that I that I agree that they have been saying is how CEOs have to be more realistic now about how to put in their all equation, not only making money but social justice and also how they're going to be working with governments and with the society in the people left behind. I think that the pandemic has helped us a lot to put an eye in something that we did not put it before. And we also have another thing in Mexico, which has to be do with migration migration also plays an important role in here. And now I'm going to go back to trying to answer your question. First of all, Mexico has, as I said before, has lost a lot of jobs. And one of the things that we believe it is very important is that President Lopez Obrador has has as a main issue all the time, working with social justice and trying to give a hand to those people left behind. One of the main things we are doing at this moment, it is trying to make infrastructure development in the south part of Mexico. As for that, one we have more infrastructure than the southern part of the country. We can have those people and better jobs there. And a lot of people indigenous people and people that have less education or less formal education in our country is pretty concentrated on the south. So we believe that the train Maya, the Maya train and the inter-oceanic is a connection that we're going to be having there. It is going to be very important. So because some other business are going to be getting there, some more investment is going to be getting there. And what we're trying to do is that the business that come around those big infrastructure, infrastructure development has to do with local investment involving the people from the little cities, involving the people from that community in the development. Otherwise, we're just going to have big business coming into this and the people are going to be doing like the same things we have done in other places. They're going to be just workers that get paid very low instead of being like partners in some areas and having them better development. Some of the other things we are doing at this moment is, as I said before, including women, but including women in many areas. And that has to do with the digital transition in all ages and also re-converting or re-skilling women in different areas. We have been working with not only with the government, but also with business and some embassies as to having them work together with us and help us re-skill the women in all the areas that are e-commerce. Most of these women have little commerce or have little stores. They need to be introduced in the new way to deliver the products and doing like change with other areas so they can be selling the products. Some of the other things that we have been including is helping the small business with some of the credits and some amount of money. So they can keep on moving and moving the local economics in their towns. And that's one of the things where we have been putting a lot of emphasis. For that, we have had two in the digital inclusion programs. We have something that we did that it's called a platform that includes all the little business. So people can see that all national-wise and we can keep on moving the local commerce. Some of the other things we did is we have been doing a lot of work with businessmen as to be working especially in small companies that SMEs, which we believe that they are the ones that are suffering the most. We have more or less 80% of those companies in our country. And if we don't put emphasis and we don't provide little credits for those ones, I think we're going to be losing the main change of the economics. I think one of the things that the difference between small and medium business and large business is very different. And I'm sure both Peter and Carmine can speak to that. I've been given the flag for five minutes. It's insane that we have to try and have a conversation like this in such a short period of time. But I want to come back to something, Ashley. We've heard about Carmine and Peter speaking to the importance of business leadership. We've heard the ministers say that is a really important collaboration with government. Look, you're at the front face of research around diversity and equity and inclusion within business. What is the research telling us? And I know you spoke to the importance of talking about individual before we even talk about multi-agendas. But what's the research telling us? Yeah, to keep it short, I think Carmine and Peter have done a lot of the work in answering that question for us. And here's what I mean. What they both have described to their companies are exemplars that many of you should aspire to be. When we talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, Caroline, frequently what people do is they describe it as appropriate as an initiative to invent. That means something singular in nature. That means that once that goal is accomplished, we're done, right? We're finished. But what Peter and Carmine said is that diversity, equity, and inclusion has been an integral part of our organization. So just as we set revenue goals for our organization, we need to every year set diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. Just as we have tactics and strategies that accomplish our revenue goal, big tactics and strategies that accomplish our diversity, equity, and inclusion goals. And just as we have measurements and analysis that assess our revenue goals, both we need measurement and analysis to also assess the diversity and equity and inclusion goals. So it has remained at the forefront. The second thing, Caroline, that I would tell you that we know about over the last year is that oftentimes people make the mistake. Organizations make the mistake, and they start with the output as opposed to the input. Many people want to say representation. What we want to do is we want to make sure that we have a diverse organization, but they don't want to do the work to ask themselves, how do we get here in the first place? Right? They have to ask what decision-making processes work. What's our culture like, right? What are our shared values and beliefs? Because if you hire these individuals and you bring them into an organization that does not value diversity, representation, representatives, equity, how people feel the fairness that's associated with that diversity. And then also the inclusion, meaning they don't belong, it's not going to work. So it has to come from the top, and it has to be this integrative notion. And that's what the research is telling us. That's what the best practices is telling us. And that's what the last 10 months, the last few months since the George Ford killing has taken place. And the initiatives that we've seen be implemented, that's what it's telling us. Caroline, let me mention one other thing. You've got 30 seconds, Peter. You've got 30 seconds. That's all you got, my friend. This is a race without a finish line. Yeah. We should not expect things to change overnight, but we should be judged on the long term impact that we have on these critical issues. And that I believe strongly and I think Carmine would agree with me is the responsibility of leadership and organizations like ours, but all of us around this panel for our responsibility to contribute our fair share to make it happen. But it's going to take time. We've got to be persistent and we got to get it done. And everybody recognizes that. You're absolutely right. And we also got to know and say what we don't have the answers. And I think that's it is to keep questioning and make the time to innovate and to fail. I am being shouted at over the phone. So I just want to say, this is really hard. I appreciate all of you. Thank you so much. What we're going to do now is end the public part of this. I ask the panels to stay on here with us. For the members of the forum, please dial off and go back on again through top link for the interactive session, which will begin in two minutes. And to the public. Thank you so much for bearing with us. Sorry, this conversation is so short, but I want to say a huge thank you to Peter, to Minister Kutcher, to Carmine and to Ashley. Thank you very much everyone.


COVID-19 has affected us as we are not going to churches I saw one of the leaders say, if you have opened hotels and other areas, then we need reopen our churches. But when you go to churches, remember the church that you worshipped and how many people do you congregate in a given service that particular one or between those 30 minutes compared to a hotel where you just walk in when the needs arise and I mentioned the stomach and when the stomach asks for the Freud Hotels So we can't really compare. We're trying to fight coronavirus and there has been a lot of politics going around. We have seen change of guards. We have seen what people have been doing. And just like we said the other day, we are in an era of house of cards. Everyone is holding their cards close to their hearts. You don't know what will happen. And right about now we want to delve into politics kidogo. See how things have been happening and what they mean and what we are looking forward to. Later on I'll be speaking to Pastor Mangeti. Actually he's writing the studio but the interview is coming in a few minutes from now. We'll be talking about spiritual health. But for now I'm with Syras Elitsa political analyst. Let's put things into perspective on what is happening. Syras how are you? Happy Madarakade? Madarakade I'm very fine. Freedom of worship compared to what is happening right now in the political cycles. I think we should just allow the churches to go on. Churches will manage themselves better than how the politicians are managing themselves in the social environment. You saw what happened in Kajadu, Kutengalata at all in the home the other day. You saw even the pressure the politicians were giving the other day when the NASA fraternity parliament were changing the leadership, the parliamentary leadership in the parliament. The other day people mingo living without putting on the mask but when you run trying to jog like the guys in Kisumu then you are arrested. So there's no freedom. Impunity. There's impunity at its highest level. There has been an outcry on the social media about the whole of this thing. They defied the cessation of movement. I don't know what that is but anyway who is the king of Mulaimbe? I have always said and I will continue saying Mulaimbe will never have a king. We believe in fighting for our democratic space. If you look at the communities in this country one community that is very democratic is the Mulaimbe Nation and then being democratic say that you are not united and I have always sat down to look at the narrative of unity and I felt understand does voting in one basket define unity or when I live with my brother in the same land without fighting that unity or this unity because from where I come from if you go to western Kenya if you have the entire counties someone in Kaka-Mega can easily live in Bungoma can easily live in Viga can easily live in Busia we interact freely but when it comes to when exercising our democratic rights we know how to exercise our democratic rights we are not people who just follow the wind just for the sake of following the wind and since time memorial we have seen how the voting has always been in the western Kenya so we don't have a king and I have always said this we don't desire to have a king because when we have a king then we shall turn out to worshiping this person the way other communities are doing and then when it will come a time of the weeping you feel like you are being punished you feel like your person is being targeted your community is being targeted you have always had those narrations that oh my person is being targeted oh how many Luya people who have been in high profile positions have you seen being disciplined over misconduct gross misconduct there are so many and how many Luya people have you seen on the streets crying that you are targeting our community if you have ever seen one then mention I think I am going to mention one we had Nancy Baraza the deputy chief justice when there was a violation of gross misconduct what happened did you see the Luya on the streets demonstrating did you see them even going to media stations and saying that our community is being targeted no because we believe in the rule of law and that is how it is sometimes back we saw Vanabo Musale being enthroned to be the person for the Luya community and this was done by one and only Mr. Tuli and he has done it again to someone else so it has Musale been stripped off his powers in the Luya community to answer that that was political it was in 2016 yes it was political so that to plan for the political realignment of that time 2017 and you saw how it was now I have been following even yesterday night I was following the conversations on Twitter at all his statement when Mudavadi issued a statement regarding the Kup in Ford Kenya and at all he said it clearly he has nothing to do with the Kup in Ford Kenya and Mudavadi is still our leader let him lead us that is from his Twitter handle and you can go and such it is there that is from his Twitter handle at all himself saying that so he is the one who is still Mudavadi is the leader of the Luya community he still believes Mudavadi is the leader and from his own statements he says these are the leaders who are going to be used to appreciate government whatever projects and other machineries government developments that is why he has Lusaka and those other things those are political statements in one of the other they are coded you can say so and from his own statements he still believes Mudavadi is still the leader so he still states that I am still on my word or wish to win Mudavadi I still respect him as my leader that is what if I can read and interpret his statements from his Twitter handle that is what he has tried to mean so what was happening last week was a show business what I can say that those are political arrangements that are there just on matters to do with the BBI on matters to do with the handshake and then you see these are some of the things that happened in two or two you saw how political parties when change of God was coming that is from Kano we see you are going to have a change of God now you saw how parties even NDP for Raila joined Kano in a skia go in another thing so those are some of the things those are the alignment that always happen you saw in 2012 there was a G7 Alliance if you can remember almost all political parties were now folding to be in one place all the political leaders were clinging around the president just to seek that mercy of endorsement from the president so these are some of the things that always happen at the change of God and believe me or not these are the things that are happening today come 2027 everybody will be on their own but come 2032 you will see now the politicians grouping themselves why the same things I talked of last week the political indiscipline that we have in this country the political indiscipline has led to this parties don't believe in their own ideology they believe in an individual not political ideology if we can have parties compared to ANC of South Africa whereby they believe in their own ideology have you seen any political party leader from EFF joining ANC of South Africa or the other party that comes always second it is always the debut award that comes second in South Africa joining the ruling party no because they believe and they subscribe to their own manifesto and ideology come Tanzania CCM we have Kafu we have other small political parties but there is no day CCM or Kafu or Chadema has left its own ideology just to join hands together with CCM they work on their own even Ghana they decided to work in the same direction and you see they are working the opposition works in its own way and the ruling party works in their own way everybody believes and subscribes their own ideology and like in Kenya we have taken democracy to be a tool whereby we can trade and do business with that's why political parties are times breakfast parties actually you have brought about the issue parties and what is be failing or what has be failing Moses Retangula what is happening to him or what happens to the party maybe if you could explain how did he find himself there and what is being accused of you see one from my own perspective the thing is this you see you cannot write off Rayla Molodinga at the moment that is not going to wife of presidency and one thing you should know that he has to arrange to make sure that he has food soldiers in one way or the other remember it is Retangula when they were in Kod he stood and said I am going to wife of presidency but things came and changed NASA came then Kod died so there was no Kod so NASA was there so they believed there was those short changings now when we are going to 2022 we cannot say that he has given up from the presidency no he is still looking forward he is still looking forward to that now when he is still looking forward to that he looks at who am I going to work with remember Retangula he fought hard to ensure there is no ODM seat in bungoma for parliamentary which is true if you go back to bungoma the parties that are there it is ANC we have Jubilee we have Ford Kenya there is no ODM MP from bungoma MCAs are like 4 or 5 MCAs from bungoma on ODM ticket so these are some of the things somebody sits down and says this is a person who has fought me and has made me not even lose seats in bungoma now let me take the sympathizers or somebody whom we work with so that I get back or I bounce back having seats in this county so these are some of the mathematics somebody sits down to calculate you see when you were sparing for something for the future you need to start working now so these are some of the strategies that are being used the other day 2-3 days ago we saw Rayla Odinga meeting Ujin Mamalwa saying they were discussing development agenda for the western people but back in my mind I knew there was something cooking so this is the development that they were discussing whatever happened yesterday they were discussing so much we cannot talk about we are still looking and waiting on a skeleton which I have always had a problem with because it has never executed its own mandate it is not independent the way it is supposed to be it is an independent that follows directions and instructions from a certain angle so this is one of the problem that we have in this country the political parties act if the political parties act will step up and play it so the way it is supposed to play as per the constitution then the political parties in this country become institutions and not individuals because as I have always said these political parties when they become institutions these youth whom they are used they use always during the political time to howl, to throw stones to shout on the road they will be employed by these political parties because if you have a very nice structure over a political party then most youth will be employed so when we talk of employment when I am not because I am a political party leader I talk of an employment and within my political party I am doing nothing then I am just missing this country I am just missing Kenyans and I am just taking Kenyans for a fool it is a high time Kenyans should realize that they are just being used for a fool they need to rise up they need to do what is right and what I keep on saying the political parties act should play to its role alright now after the political parties have been formed and everyone has come on board they will look into an election and right now we are looking to maybe just maybe the constitutional amendment and if we could look to the statement that was made by Honorable Mudavadi on the status of IBC remember this is an institution that has been dependent but every time there is a question of elections it is questioned and I don't know how you make about the sentiments by Honorable Mudavadi saying we cannot trust the IBC this is a statement that we have had over time every time we are close to the elections very true does it mean we will never have a clean IBC and if that is the matter thank you constitutionally IBC should be independent as per the constitution of 2010 we used to have ECKE whereby ECKE was just but a body that was being appointed by the president but now IBC is a rigorous process whereby it has to go through parliament then goes through there the president those people send their CVs they are shortlisted they go for the interview then they are recommended to send the president then the president then the parliament approves then about that they are swearing in of the commissioners and the staff but whatever is happening right now as I have said politicians are taking Kenyans for a ride because right now there are very few who are calling upon the IBC to be changed and those ones who are not doing so but they will shout more when the election will come and find out that they are on the receiving end and not getting whatever they expected so this is to mean IBC will become evil during the elections but the referendum question IBC is always evil and times of elections and that one sit down, do your analysis try and check when does IBC become evil at what time do people sit down and start fighting on how to have their own people the people they will control at IBC because each and every person wants their own person at IBC so that this person will be able to favor them these are the rangos that we saw even in 2017 the IBC itself didn't have that cooperation Chibukati is speaking this way Chiroba is speaking this way there was a lot of confusion in IBC the same confusion we still anticipate if the changes are not going to be made when we cry for something then we should step up and work to ensure that what we are talking about is well managed for prosperity not for my sake but for also the other generation to come so we always cry for change to suit ourselves and not for the other people who will come and enjoy the same foods so we are very selfish so we cry for all of things when they don't suit us but when they suit us we don't cry we are comfortable we sit down and relax and eat whatever we are getting so that the challenge you are having in this country with the chances of having the referendum amendment or the referendum coming up soon Honora Borreira said rege hasn't stopped it will still continue if the amendment will go through referendum do you think it's just about time we should look into changing the officials of the IBC right now or them that are there should be given more powers or I can say in fact IBC itself I think it has three commissioners only the rest are not there so it's already it's a layman's station which needs first of all to be to be filled the way it's supposed to be as per the constitution but right now IBC and you see the same IBC has contacted how many by elections so far a number of by elections that have still favored even people who come and cry so these changes were needed even before the referendum thing even before any other any other thing that was in need when we cry full of IBC when we are looking at the referendum then we are saying we are looking at something that is going to suit our interest because if it remain the way it is then the people will still cry when they come out people will cry as usual so what should happen right now is to ensure we have good mechanism in place to ensure that IBC is independent the I should not be silent but the I should be very active to show the independence of IBC but as it stands right now you cannot differentiate between IBC and ECK the people and the name this was electro commission and they are this there independent whatever so that's the only difference alright maybe as we come to a close many young people right now are forming their groups I have met a number of them coming up with their political parties I've had others having their ideas on how they want to have a political party that is different from what we are used to or what they have learned from our so mentors we could say how with these things that are happening right now edging into the youth how will they get now to learn and maybe the changes they want to bring on board be completely different from what we have seen is it about the ideologies you've been mentioning and actually how can the youth now align themselves to ensure that when they come on board or when they come to campaign themselves near later from now how good things be what I can say is that and I still go back to my word the political parties act should step up to their role because it is only in Kenya whereby a senior politician will come and go aside get a number of people create some kukun political parties so that cause destruction in a favor that will favor him what I can talk and I am talking as a youth the only thing we need to do in this country is to align ourselves with the desired political parties and it is better to fight when you are within and like when you are outside you will have a sound voice when you are within the system and like when you are outside the system because when the youth now will step up and demand that the political parties act should step up to their role 1. we shall see discipline in political parties 2. we shall see a number of youth getting employed if the political parties will follow the rules that are there within the constitution that each and every political party should have an office a running office almost 25 counties to make it national then this tell me how many youth are going to be employed in the 25 counties a number of youths from the national level to the county level from the county level to the grassroot level these are people who are going to be employed so employment has already been created how many manis go to political parties let us say in 2012 2013 money was allocated to Jubilee at TNA URP ODM and I was a wiper these are the parties that go today the lion share now in 2017 money has been allocated to Jubilee ODM not a million but billions of money what are these manis used to what are these manis supposed to do these manis are supposed to ensure the offices are running in the 25 counties people are employed to manage the offices because there is always an office there is always an executive whereby we have those people who are elected to manage the police call affair and there are those people who are employed in the office to ensure the office is up and running so these are some of the things that we need to sit down and ensure they are there so it is not a matter of you running and forming a political party after 5 yas we will also still see I am not getting what I wanted I still need to form another political party because this one has not fulfilled my desires that will be the trend so the only thing we can do at the moment as youths let us align ourselves with the political parties that subscribe to our ideology because each and every person has their own ideology and these parties have ideologies and manifesto so sit down read a manifesto read each and every political party then find yourself where you suit find yourself where you belong then align yourself with that political party then get a group of people whom you reason the same then fight from within state your grievances explain what you want then come out when the youths come out in large numbers who are from different political parties demanding their rights youth within the political parties then this country will change but if I say I want to go and form a party it will just be a vehicle that I will use and be paid some monies after I have been paid monies will I remember those people whom I am working with no but don't you think when they do this they will find an established system where they can't voice everything we have right now was long established there is nothing that has never been established if we could take out the example someone very fresh goes in there and start saying if only we could change this how many people would listen to that person and you see the person who wants to go and form a political party let me tell you now the truth it's not a person from a campus who just graduated the other day this person has been in the same political party either from the grassroots or from somewhere else so it is a transfer of ideas yes this is a person who has aligned himself in a political party maybe for a very long time but the problem is when we don't come out to speak or when we feel if I speak I want to be heard so I want to go there so that I can be heard this is the challenge that we have in the society it just has to step up I belong to a certain political party let me go and marshal other youths and speak up if we do this consistently believe me or not change will be there alright let's jump to a different matter as we are fighting COVID-19 a lot is happening in the political arena now the MCAs in this country have spent their whole budget for the year in just 6 months what is this the problem we have our elected MCAs is that they lack priorities that is one thing then when they lack priorities what took them to their offices was monies because the county assemblies that you see today they are not working as per the constitution they are supposed to ensure that devolution is up to task but what they are doing they get the little thing they get 10,000 they are hungry people we don't have leaders we don't have leadership in them they are just there to eat then after that they are done so how many bills have we had they have sponsored in the even county assemblies that has gone through that will benefit the common man inch for devolution to work we need serious people in the county assemblies we don't need hungry people we need serious and focused people because if each and every county assembly will articulate its mandate I am telling you this country will be very much developed because we have health we have education we have all these offices whatever we have at the national level are the similar things we have at the county level so they need to work together they need to ensure that money is allocated the budget is well managed and the money is allocated it is well distributed to the people down there now, in my understanding I know this money was allocated for them to spend for the old here but now 6 months down the line what contributed them to have all these settings is there a crisis other than the COVID that you are fighting to see things and now the allowances they have spent everything what emergencies were they solving and that's why I have told you there's no emergency they were solving because they were hungry they came up with policies they just came up with reasons that will make them sit so that they can have that money remember their salaries is always deducted on mortgages and the car loans they always get so most of them go home with even a thousand shillings on the pay sleep so they are looking at what will make me sustain myself the next day now they realize we have committees so let us use the committees let us come up with the mechanisms let us come up with agendas as long as people will see that we have seated then they are sitting allowance so I love just to sit for me to get that sitting allowance and this is why I say we need to get good leaders who know their roles in the society no just people who are hungry who are just there to eat and then forget finally what do you make of the Dr. Ruto's appointment with the global leadership the thing I can make is that congratulate the deputy president and ask him to execute his roles and mandate the way he is supposed to the only thing I can say to him is a good thing do you think it gives him an upper hand in the politics? it gives him an upper hand one is now going to interact and relate with other global leaders so it gives him that upper hand in one way or the other because there is one thing in leadership networking and good relations with other people so that one gives you a plus and one knows the other then what I also can say also on what is happening in the U.S the same thing if we cannot manage our country today there is only one thing that will happen and after it will happen people will go to the streets you cannot tell me what is happening today in the U.S. it's only about the death of George Floyd no people were tired people were crying and no one was listening to them but they have decided to use this as a stepping stone they have decided to use the death of this guy of this guy as a way to now express their grievances they are burning things in the U.S they are destroying things in the U.S. because of the anger they have had and stored for a long time the same thing will happen in this country people are oppressed, people are crying so one day something small will happen and it will trigger demonstrations in this country that the president will decide to hide the way Trump has been hidden somewhere in the safety place in White House hope it doesn't happen in our country if things still stand the way they stand if things remain the way they are it will happen many people are suffering many people are crying but the only way to get out they don't have a way to get out so when something will happen they will get out and they will use that thank you Sylas for coming and all the ideas you have put in that particular space now