Hi everybody, it's Sam from Mixed Up Craft. Thank you for watching my tutorial today. I'm going to be showing you how to make this cracker gift box. I was actually looking for tea online and I saw a box very similar to this which had loads of lovely different like specialty teas in it and I thought well I know how to make a cracker. So let's make a cracker gift box and this is the size I've done. Now inside here are four walnut whips so these you can get four of them in there so it makes a really nice little gift. It's a great size it's four by four by three and a half but you also have that extra bit of height here as well so you can certainly get quite a bit in there and it's really easy to make so let me show you how. Okay so I'm using the Almost Christmas I just love this it's working so well for my Christmas projects this year and this time I'm using so the same paper for the top but I'm using this one here with our lovely baubles and you've got the robin and the mistletoe you've got a rose there and a wreath so it's a really pretty design and I think it's going to work really well so I've already done one half so this is what we're going to achieve. This look here I'm going to do two of these so you'll want two pieces of card stock that are eight and a quarter so this is a four okay so it's a default a four piece it's eight and a quarter by 11 and three quarters 11 and five eighths okay so along the eight and a quarter side you want to score it four and eight so you're going to have a quarter of an inch tab which is plenty and then rotate it so that tabs are at the bottom and you're then going to score it four seven and a half nine and a half and then nine and three quarters so don't worry if you're a four is you know 11 and three quarters or 11 and five eight you might even have 12 inch length it won't matter all it means is that this top bit here is a little bit bigger the only thing you might have more bigger border when you go to put your mat layer down but it shouldn't really make too much of a difference you basically do that twice okay then you want to fold and burnish all your score lines on both of your pieces and then with these score lines here I've got a color core card stock so and it's a craft UK one it doesn't crack so I've actually I've done all of those as a mountain fold but these two here I've done both as a valley you see so kind of like that don't worry too much but let's get it into that shape because that's how it's going to be when we start to fold it all together so when you've done that with both of them you want to do a little bit of cutting now actually I think it's going to be best if you mark with a pencil first so what we do is you want to mark you're going to be working on these two score lines here so it was the nine and a half and the nine and three quarter working within this section here it's four it's four inches wide okay it's my four inch marker which runs down that middle score line so you want to just put a pencil mark at one and three quarters and two and a quarter on the top line and then just mark the same on the bottom line I just bring that up there you see my two pencil marks there we go so I've done it on the bottom line and on the top line okay what we're creating just so it makes some sense is this this shape here okay so we're going to be cutting all of this so you've done it in that section then bringing your ruler across to this section here again you can see it's four inches so I'm going to mark at one and three quarters and two and a quarter on the top line and then I'm just copying that again on the second line okay just make them out you can rub all these out then what you want to do is pop it on its side and on the top here is just mark one inch so that's a one inch section there you want to do one inch on that middle score line and you want to do one inch on the end here as well okay so you can just see you've got a little pencil mark there there and just at the end there next you want to fold this piece in half okay so I've got this facing me that where you've marked on this middle score line make sure you can see the pencil from both sides now what you want to do is we're working you'll have this section this little thin section and this section the big two big squares ignore okay keep them away from you you're just working from here so the top this score line here so the top of the second big square that's where you want to start cutting and you're going to cut across up to that first pencil line on that bottom score line okay so you can just see there's that fold there you can see what I've just done I'm going to change between six now I'm going to bring in my little snips because what you want to do is just snip up to that next pencil line just across there okay and then I'm going to come in again with these and from that one inch pencil line you're going to come across and just join them up and then just snip another way but don't worry if it's a little bit maybe not so great there because you're going to cover all that with your ribbon and then if you come around to this side ignore the tab for the minute because what you can do with your snips is just cut across that tab to meet up with that little one inch pencil mark that you would have there okay and then you want to do the same so this time we're starting from the top so now we're going to start from that pencil mark and we're going to come across to that pencil line there so it's going to start the paper's going to start to get a bit floppy now but you're doing it right so don't worry and then again I'm just going to come in with my snips just to cut across that section there and then you're just now going to cut down and what you can do here because you're actually going to start to create a tab is just cut straight across and just keep going across that tab that's overhanging because now you just put a little angle on it and notch which is what you need to do in a minute anyway so now if I open this up you should have this and you want this tab piece left on here and you've started to already create the tab here so now we can just finish off along the bottom here you want to cut up that score line just to the middle on there the first one and then this section you want to remove all of it and then just on an angle just come in like so so now we've created this little tab and it's this tab here and this tab here that we're going to use to connect it to the other piece but now you should have one half of your cracker box now you want to do that twice you've got obviously two pieces and then whilst they are flat you want to stick these pieces on so I've got the fourth I'll bring this piece in now because we can start doing all of the other mats and layers as well and I'll show you how to cut that shape so these ones here you're going to want four pieces the width is three and three quarters and the height is three and a quarter so make sure if it's directional you're getting your height there on the three and a quarter measurement and then you're just going to stick these across those four sections so I've done those two so I'm just going to pop these two down so while that's drying I've then got it's actually the reverse of this pattern which I'm using to map the top sections here so to get this shape you want to cut four pieces that are one and five eighths by three and three quarters okay you only need to do this on one of them turn it over and with a pencil you want to mark the halfway point along the long side which is one and seven eighths of an inch I'm just putting a pencil mark at one and seven eighths and then you want to come down each side three quarters of an inch so I know you can't really see this because of the pattern but I'm just coming down there three quarters of an inch and then with my scissors I'm going to cut from the three quarters of an inch right over to the center there and again from the center up to that three quarters of an inch and you'll have this now that will fit nicely and give you that border then with that one just line it up on the next piece and just draw around just well you can draw around it or cut around it but it says you're having to use your ruler each time and then I'd already done that one there but now I've got those four and I'm going to stick them down now you may want to stick these down when you put it all together because it's worthwhile putting kind of a little bit of a shape into this because you'll see that's the kind of way that it ends up kind of folding it's got that curve to it so it's up to you I mean if you use in the cloud you've got a bit of wiggle room I'm going to leave these and stick them on at the end and I'm just going to put some shape into them now but you might find it a little bit more fiddly putting it on when it's together and you might prefer to do it now so either way do what works best for you but they're already now for when I go to stick them down and then all you want to do now is stick these pieces together I'm just going to take a little wedge off of each corner there like so I'm just going to pop a bit of glue there if you would rather have a bigger tab than have a piece of eight and a half and just score it four and eight and you'll have a half inch but I've used quarter inch on lots of 3d projects and it's fine and you know this has got very lightweight gifts in it and this is actually going to my neighbour so I'm going to pop it on the front doorstep just rub out the pencil there and just make sure that your base score line lines up all of this you can you know cut and trim and do whatever with but the base if you get that off if you focus on the top then your base is off then you've messed up the whole project it's much easier to rectify any of this and then I'm just going to flip it over fold this one side over and pop my glue again on these two tabs and then I'm going to fold over this half it should all line up perfectly so if you're a little bit off there you can trim it but I'm really not worried but time it all when it's folded together and you've got the ribbon and all the decoration no one's going to notice any of those things but if you do want to get rid of any of the pencil marks then just rub those out okay and then you can open it up decide which way or which part you want to be the front and the back because you're going to have a join on both sides so I think I'm going to go with this as the front I'm just looking at the design really yeah I'm going to go for that one so this is going to be the last one I stick down so I'm going to pop down this one first if you want to take some wedges off the sides of these you can or you can trim it all when it's all together it either way you know it doesn't matter do what works best for you fold one half down and you could put a nice candle in this because you've got four layers of cardstock that you're now you know sticking on top of each other and with this strong glue this will become a really strong base so you could definitely put something with a bit of weight inside this one and then just fold the last one down there pop on its side make sure it's in its you know you get it all square and then you can just push down on that glue like so and then you should just be able to push that all in it will very easily go into that shape so what I'm going to do now is pop in these now I must confess I've only got three because I've eaten one so I will buy another one but if you pop them side by side they will all fit in there you can see there's plenty of room for the last one but now I'm just going to pop my ribbon and then I'm just going to tie off my bow and I'm just going to trim off these I didn't put my tag on I put my tag on before I put the ribbon on last time so I'm just going to feed that through there I mean you kind of get the idea I need to take this all apart again anyway but I'll just see if I can just get it underneath here feed it through I'm just going to just seal the ends of my ribbon there and this little tag is one of my favorites at the moment I'm really liking it I've used it on a few projects you can see there and then I can just write on the back of that I've got a lovely silver gel pen and also your white gel pens then you'll be able to obviously see everything on there also another thing I wanted to mention before I stick those last bits down is when you have it flat before you actually stick it together if you've got any edge punches you could have a decorative top there but because I'm putting the mat layer having that and then the mat layer just don't I think it would have looked a bit too much you would have seen the mat layer there would have probably interfered with the the detail of it but if you don't want to put those mats on then you could do that and that would be a nice effect but now I'm just going to stick these all on because I've put the little shape into them it just means that they sit much nicer so if you just kind of pinch one side and then just let it curve into that shape you can wiggle it around a little bit that's there I'm just going to hold that there for a second okay so there's the finished box you can see now all those mat layers and then my tag which I just love and I put some little bells on there as well as some hot glue you can just open it up now pop your gifts in and that's all ready to go to my neighbors so I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial as always I'll link all of the product that I've used in the description box and I'll be back very soon with more packaging ideas thanks for watching bye


Maen nhw'r ffordd yn gweld bod Buckingham Palace yn teimlo that the Queen's doctors are concerned for Her Majesty's health and have recommended that she remain under medical supervision at Balmoral. As with Westminster, we will continue with our business at this time and we will keep members updated. On behalf of all members and all staff in the Scottish Parliament, I send our thoughts and our prayers to Her Majesty and her Royal Family. Rwy'n gweithio cyngh метh cwestiynau, mae cyntaf y portfoliw yn cael eu cygrifennu llwy yn y cynhyrchiol, a gael i'r mwy o hemil o'r gymysgau 1, 5, 4, 7, 8 oes cymdeithas下去, a gael i'r cyfrym o'r cyfrifysgau aethau, onD ond mae'r dddangos cyfreisio ac yn methu o'r cyfrifysgau sydd press their request to speak button, or please indicate in the chat function. Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government what trade, investment and cultural opportunities expects to arise from its melding office in Copenhagen. Thank you. On behalf of the Scottish Government, I join with the First Minister, the Presiding Officer and members right across the chamber in extending our best wishes to Her Majesty the Queen and to her family at this difficult time. In answer to Kenneth Gibson's question, Denmark, Norway and Sweden are already some of Scotland's biggest trading partners, with all three in our top 20 export markets, and £2.6 billion of goods and services exported to those countries by Scottish businesses in 2019. The Nordics are also responsible for major inward investment into Scotland, including in Scotland. The First Minister visited Copenhagen to open our new Nordic office on 26 August. As part of that trip, she had conversations with a number of major energy companies and investors. It is clear that the energy transition, renewable energy and hydrogen will be major opportunities for Scotland and the region. I am also struck by the scale of the opportunity for life sciences and medtech with UNICEF's base in Copenhagen, one of the world's largest buyers of crisis and medical supplies. Kenneth Gibson. I thank the cabinet secretary for that reply. Does he agree that this new office is essential to boost trade with our Scandinavian neighbours, ultimately creating and sustaining jobs, and that Tory opposition shows their utter lack of ambition for Scotland, Scottish business and the Scottish economy? Scotland has borrowed many of the best Nordic policies from baby boxes to rural parliaments and most recently district heating, but Nordic colleagues are interested in what we know how to do, particularly around community engagement. There is also high interest in our recent period poverty work, which was, of course, supported across this house. Our cultural exchange with Nordic neighbours is a reality, with Finnish and Danish showcases at Edinburgh international festivals and a strong showing of 12 Scottish bands playing in one of Europe's largest folk music festivals in Denmark and a joint exhibition between the Danish Natural History Museum and the Edinburgh National Museums next spring. Of course, there is much to learn from Danish broadcasting, whose success has been marked over recent years. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the opening of the new Nordic office in Copenhagen. The First Minister visited Copenhagen on 26 August to officially open the new Nordic office. The office has been operating since May, in line with our programme for government commitment. Productive meetings with Danish Government, private and public sectors were held, and we look forward to following up with opportunities for trade, investment and cultural exchange. Alexander Stewart I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. I acknowledged the First Minister visiting Denmark to launch the new Nordic office recently, and I also acknowledged that there are opportunities for trade co-operation to be advanced, but we already enjoy substantial economic links with the country. Therefore, cabinet secretary, with the current cost of living crisis, is this the best use of taxpayer's money at this time? The Scottish Government has had overseas offices since the Scottish Parliament reconvened in 1999. Those offices continue to generate significant economic and reputational benefit to Scotland at a time of increasing global uncertainty. We need our friends and allies more, not less. We are pleased to see the enthusiasm on and consensus for the excellent job that Scotland's international offices do day-to-day in the European Constitution, External Affairs and Culture Committee's recent report on the Scottish Government's international work. I invite the member to read the British Council's report on Scotland and soft power from 2019, which in fact suggests that we should expand the network as we are now doing. Donald Cameron Thank you, Presiding Officer. Before I turn to my question in relation to the health of Her Majesty the Queen, can I associate those benches and the Scottish Conservative Party with the comments of both yourself and the cabinet secretary? Our thoughts and prayers are with Her Majesty at this time and with her wider family. Can I ask the cabinet secretary in relation to the Scottish Government's new office in Copenhagen how is it working with the United Kingdom embassy to pursue common aims of both the UK Government and the Scottish Government? My colleagues introduced three comments on behalf of the Conservative and Unionist Party. Confirmed to him, I think that he is aware of this, that the Scottish Government team is based on the British embassy, as is the case in most Scottish Government offices around the world. There is very strong and collegial co-operation between the Scottish Government officials and the rest of the UK embassy. The new Copenhagen office will, of course, offer a new way for the Scottish Government to realise its ambitions on Nordic co-operation. Can the cabinet secretary detail how the new office's mission will enhance the aims of the already existing Nordic Baltic policy statement? Cabinet secretary, there is nothing better than having people in place in region to understand the opportunities that exist in a particular region. For us, our northern European neighbourhood, whether we are talking about Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the three Baltic States, Iceland and Faroes, is our immediate neighbourhood. There is so much that we share in terms of needs, interests, concerns and expectations and across policy issues from energy, economic growth and sustainability and, indeed, cultural exchange and much besides. There is so much that we could and should be doing and having a dedicated team focused on delivering what the Scottish Government wishes to pursue in Scotland, but also working as a conduit to colleagues in our Nordic neighbourhood is the ideal way that we wish to pursue the collegial relationship that we want to have with our nearest overseas northern European neighbours. To ask the Scottish Government how it continues to assess the impact of Brexit on Scotland. As the Scottish Government has repeatedly warned, Brexit has been hugely damaging to households, to communities and businesses across Scotland. Due to the hard Brexit chosen by the UK Government, Scotland's total trade with the EU was 16 per cent lower in 2021 than in 2019, while Scotland's trade with non-EU countries fell by only 4 per cent over the same period. Mairi McNeill. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer, with yet another rix that obsessed Conservative from Downing Street and the cost-alying crisis escalating, will the cabinet secretary reiterate the need for the people of Scotland to have the opportunity to decide their own constitutional future to make up for the worst democratic deficit, which has seen Scottish concerns utterly ignored under the Tories and Westminster? I agree with my colleague on the democracy point, but remaining on the economic challenge, Brexit has, of course, had visible impacts. For example, analysis in April by researchers at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, which showed that post-Brexit trade barriers have led to a 6 per cent increase in food prices in the UK. We in the Scottish Government continue to engage with stakeholders to understand the impacts they are experiencing and will continue to carefully study further economic indicators as they are released. I am glad that the cabinet secretary is monitoring the impacts of Brexit. He and I share the view that it is incredibly damaging, but he also knows that I feel obligated, and every time that question is asked, to point out the parallels between Brexit and independence. Even in these quieter, more reflective moments, does he also not recognise those parallels? Cabinet secretary, the short answer is no. There is no parallel. The Scottish Government's plans are for Scotland to reapply and become part of the European Union again. That is totally diametrically opposed to the Brexit priorities of the UK Government. Can I first of all echo the Presiding Officer and the cabinet secretary's comments and say on behalf of Scottish Labour and my colleagues that our thoughts are with Her Majesty and her family today? My question is to ask the Scottish Government how much funding it is providing to third sector organisations in the Lothians that are supporting refugees from Ukraine. Thank you, Presiding Officer. First of all, I thank Sarah Boyack for our earlier reflections, which of course we all share. The Scottish Government has committed £1.3 million to the Scottish Refugee Council to increase its capacity and extend invaluable help and support to arriving Ukrainians. The Scottish Government has also provided £48,000 to Just Right Scotland's Ukraine advice service, where displaced people can receive confidential free legal advice on safe routes to Scotland. Further, we are providing funding uplift of £77,000 for Edinburgh's third sector interface organisations at EVOC and volunteer Edinburgh to assist with their important work. I commend all those organisations across Edinburgh and the Lothians. Lights of AUGB help Ukraine Scotland and others that are doing such phenomenal work on behalf of our guests. Sarah Boyack. I thank the minister for that answer. He does agree with me that the volunteers in the voluntary sector are doing a commendable stretch of work to support the high number of people from Ukraine who have arrived in Edinburgh and across the Lothians. Last week, I visited the welcoming charity that supports New Scot to make in their home in Edinburgh, and they told me that the demand for their services has increased substantially. They have had to turn away Ukrainians staying in Edinburgh who needed to access their English language sessions. They also said that they are now receiving referrals from the Department of Work and Pensions, the council, service teams on the MS Victoria, but they have not received any additional funding and groups like them are providing front-line services. Will the minister commit to meeting with the range of third sector organisations that provide direct support on the ground to people who have fled from Ukraine and ensure that they receive funding to continue their incredible work in what is an incredibly tough financial time for them? Yes, I would absolutely be more than happy to meet the groups that Sarah Boyack has mentioned, and I commend them for the work that they are doing. There are a number of points there that I wish to respond to. First of all, in terms of ESOL support, part of the funding that is going to local authorities is around providing ESOL classes. It is up to each local authority to ensure that that is provided in the best way that is fitting in those areas. The Scottish Government has been campaigning with the UK Government to try to uplift and provide parity with the ESOL provision that was provided for Syrians and Afghans, quite rightly, for Ukrainians as well. Of course, if there is more that we could do within the very tight financial situation that we were in, obviously we will look to do that. However, it would be useful for me to be able to meet with that excellent group that Sarah Boyack has quoted to hear further about the work that they are doing. I will be coming to the supplementaries at the end of this grouping. I call question number seven, Fulton MacGregor. To ask the Scottish Government in what ways it will continue to ensure that refugees arriving from Ukraine will be provided with adequate shelter and support on arrival in Scotland. The Scottish Government's priority is to ensure that displaced people arriving from Ukraine are able to stay in appropriate temporary accommodation and get the right support ahead of moving into safe, sustainable, longer-term accommodation. Welcome hubs across Scotland continue to provide immediate support such as healthcare, language support, clothes, food and trauma support, as well as access to temporary welcome accommodation. We are taking significant action to increase our temporary accommodation capacity, including the chartering of two passenger ships, and we are boosting our matching system to maximise the number of people who can be placed with volunteer hosts who have completed the necessary safeguarding checks. I thank the minister for that response. In the same line as the previous question from Sarah Boyack, it is important that those who come here get as much support as possible. Therefore, can the minister provide an update on the increased support of local charities? In my constituency, Copebridge and Chrystian are likely to receive in order to manage the increased workload associated with the arrival of those from Ukraine and helping them to settle in the local community. Thank you. I thank Fulton MacGregor for his question and also his engagement, very positive engagement around the work that is going on in his constituency and across North Lanarkshire to provide long-term accommodation for those who have been displaced from Ukraine. Obviously, that engagement between the Scottish Government, local parliamentarians such as Fulton MacGregor and Claire Adamson and the local authority is going to be really important. We fund third sector interfaces to provide a single point of support for third sector organisations with one in each local authority area. TSIs have been heavily involved in co-ordinating efforts to welcome and settle displaced people from Ukraine. Local authorities are also given funding to support welcome activity for displaced people and can decide how best those funds are used, taking into account local circumstances and need, and local authorities may choose to use some of that funding to contract with third sector organisations to increase their support. The refurbishment of up to 200 homes in North Lanarkshire supported by £5 million of Scottish Government funding is an example of our commitment to providing safe, sustainable accommodation. However, as always, my door is open to Fulton MacGregor and others to discuss any further support that may be required. We have exceeded our initial commitment to welcome 3,000 people under the Scottish Super Sponsor scheme. As a nation, Scotland is now providing safety to over 16,500 people from Ukraine. That is 18.6 per cent of all UK arrivals in the highest per head of population in the four nations. Although the Super Sponsor scheme has had to be temporarily paused for new applications, the Scottish Government continues to work with the convention of Scottish local authorities and local councils to provide safe, suitable accommodation and a wraparound support offer to the displaced people from Ukraine who are already in our country and to those who have been granted permission to travel here. Jeremy Balfour Can I thank the minister for his answer? Has the Scottish Government set itself a target for how long an individual will be housed on the ship here in Edinburgh before being moved into more permanent accommodation? We want people to be out of temporary accommodation, regardless of whether that is a hotel accommodation or the ship that has arrived in Leith or the one that has been worked on in Glasgow. We want people there for a shorter period as possible and want to move people on to longer-term accommodation as quickly as possible. We want to give people the opportunity to be able to rebuild their lives here in Scotland. We do not want people to stay any longer than is absolutely necessary. Paul Sweeney Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I associate myself with comments from colleagues across the chamber about the health of our Majesty the Queen. The minister will be aware that Ukrainians are not the only people seeking refuge in asylum in Scotland. There are almost 5,000 asylum seekers in the country, and extending the concessionary travel scheme to all those asylum seekers would have proved their lives immeasurably. The discussions that I have had with the Government have generally been positive, but progress has been painfully slow. Can the minister confirm whether the Government does or does not agree that the concessionary travel scheme should be extended to all asylum seekers? First of all, for those arriving from Ukraine, which is my responsibility, the concessionary travel scheme already applies. Those over 60 and young people already have access to the concessionary travel scheme. I have heard the representations that I have met with Mr Sweeney and Bob Doris, Mark Ruskell and others, on the proposal to extend the concessionary travel scheme further. We continue to work on doing what we can to see if there is more that can be done within the limited financial resources that we have. Can I ask the minister what assistance the Scottish Government is giving to third sector in charitable organisations such as Trun's Micah project, which is giving vital support to Ukrainian refugees in Scotland? First of all, I would like to pay tribute to the group in Trun that Siobhan Brown quotes, the Micah project, the work that they are doing, and the Scottish Government has provided additional funding to national charities. We have committed £1.3 million to the Scottish Refugee Council and £36,000 to just right Scotland's Ukraine advice service. That funding will increase capacity and extend invaluable support to arriving Ukrainians. That, along with support from local authorities, will provide local charities with the assistance that is required to support displaced people from Ukraine who are living in Scotland. It is worth reiterating the fact that we have also provided support to local authorities to ensure that there is support for local organisations as well. If there is more that is needed to be done, I am happy to hear that representation and see what more is possible. Councils need to know how many Ukrainians are arriving to provide support, but often ministers are better informed than they are. I am often referred to Home Office data when I raise those questions, but that does not show which local authorities will receive Ukrainians under the supersponsor scheme or how many. Will the Scottish Government publish its own detailed breakdown on arrivals under the supersponsor scheme in the near future? Following comments from the now former Refugee Minister in Westminster and with the cost of living crisis escalating across the UK, has the UK Government asked for views from the Scottish Government on increasing monthly payments to homes for Ukraine hosts? First of all, I want to put on record my thanks to Lord Richard Harrington for the work that he did very collaboratively with the Scottish Government and Welsh Government. We work well together and I am sorry that he has moved on and I will wait to see whether his position is replaced in the UK Government reshuffle. We are actively pressing the UK Government to increase the funding arrangements for hosts, particularly at this time of the cost of living crisis with soaring energy bills. I agree with Richard Harrington that it is essential for the UK Government to increase the thank you payments for hosts to £700. I hope that the new chancellor will take that and reflect on it as he considers future support for the Ukrainian schemes. In question 6, Willie Coffey. Thank you to ask the Scottish Government what next steps the programme for government proposes for Scotland's international office network. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Scotland's international network creates domestic opportunities, attracts investment and ultimately benefits the people of Scotland. I am sure that my colleague will have been delighted to see the First Minister open our new Nordic office in Copenhagen. We are also committed to opening a new office in Warsaw during this parliamentary term. We will also ensure that our international work is measurable, is transparent and available to the public from next year onwards. We will publish an annual report explaining how our international offices work to promote our values, objectives and priorities across the world. Willie Coffey. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. That Copenhagen office is now tightening our ties with our Nordic neighbours and the proposed Warsaw office promises to facilitate our dialogue with central Europe. Can the cabinet secretary elaborate on how the expanded international office network will amplify Scotland's distinct voice on the world stage and how the global affairs framework guides that work? The first thing that I would say is that it is hugely beneficial that we are seeing the network grow, that we are having a greater footprint in northern Europe, that we are having a greater footprint in central Europe. It is also worth observing that the Scottish Government manages this in value for money terms with significantly less resource than is spent by other similar devolved governments elsewhere in the world. At the present time, obviously, we are living within financial constraints. Our plans have been focused on delivering the opening of the office in Copenhagen and moving forward with the central European region, which is so important for Scotland, not least because of the great many people who have chosen to move to Scotland. Obviously, there are many opportunities that we can pursue. Hopefully, in time, we will look at growing the network yet further. However, in the here and now, I am absolutely delighted that we have been able to open the office officially in Copenhagen and that we are moving forward with opening an office in Warsaw. Thank you. That concludes portfolio questions. There will be a brief pause before we move to the next item of business.


Welcome to the Shimshan Lashinsky Kabab Tour. Basically just explaining what Kabab is but we've got a lot going on. Is Kabab just a Middle Eastern meatball? Or is there a lot more to it? We're going to find out. We've got to define our relationship with Kabab. Is it just a Middle Eastern meatball? Or is it a whole spiritual experience? You're going to find out here. The first place we're going to go to is called Ktsitsot, which is called Meatballs. His father is a butcher and he himself has been in the meat business since he was born. He's always been there. So we're going to go through the back alleys of the market to find him. I hope I find the place.  Are you ready for the Kabab crawl? Are you ready for it? Okay, the Kabab heroes will see how it goes. Let's go. The reason why we started here was because Mayor has been in the meat game for so long. He knows the texture of combining beef with a certain amount of fat. And it was fresh meat. His father is a butcher, his grandfather is a butcher. So it was a delicious combination. Of course, we just had a sample. You could see here all day and eat a few of these. But we've got the next stop to go. So I would give him 8 out of 10. This is the place of Kabab, this is the Ktsitsot. And what it does is they have a very, very special connection between shuman, we call it shuman, very, very special. And basar in a very special way. When we have basar in a very special way and a number of shuman, very, very, very special in a very special way, this is the correct translation. Yes, tablinim, more tablinim, less tablinim, but it's less important. What's important is that there are three directions. The first is basar, the second is shuman and shuman purity. And the third thing is basar, which is very special, because in basar, it's very special. Guys, attention, ladies and gentlemen. Kabab Alert. Peter basar is the newest Kabab places in Jerusalem. It just opened two weeks ago. It's run by twins. They're following their dreams. He's got a very good story about it. And it's doing quite well at the moment. So I think you'll be impressed by what's going on here. This is a new place. It just opened two weeks ago. It's part of a chain, it's a franchise. Nadav here used to work in welfare. He was cooking in a city called Beitar for youth with problems. He loved cooking and he decided to get into the business. So Nadav is one of twins running the show. He's going to explain his vision of what a good Kabab is. And of course we're going to go in there in the kitchen. And you're going to get the full show here. First of all, thank you very much. Thank you very much. He's going after his dreams this guy. And his brother really wanted to start with his questions. It's very successful. What's the role of the T'china with Kabab? Is T'china important for Kabab? Is it important? T'china with Kabab is really important. It's the same as Kabab and the T'china T'china with Kabab and the T'china with T'ima is the most important. So from there I really liked the food and I was very interested in the food. I also had a place in the US called Paul B. Papers, you know. I came to Mahdi Yudas and he's one of the biggest customers in Israel. And now today we can say the mainstream of the show. And from there I'm very happy. We're working on everything and to get the T'china and to get the T'china and to come back here again. What do you think of the T'china with Kabab? The T'china with Coca-Cola. My T'china is full of Kabab stains all over it. This is part of the risks of the job, you know. Being a foodie and getting all my T'china is not easy. It's a difficult life, you know. We have to do the best we can. I really loved the T'china. I thought it was very pure tasting. It wasn't diluted with lemon juice or garlic or cumin or anything funky like that. It just had a really nice nutty natural taste and I really liked that. If one were asked to think about the quintessential Middle Eastern food the answer might just be Kabab alongside hummus. Tourists when they come to Israel seek out. Kababs have actually been around since the 14th century. The earliest recorded history of Kababs probably goes back way before that was that Turkish soldiers using their swords to grill meat over an open fire way way back in the 14th century. Since then a lot's happened in the world of Kababs, particularly from Turkey, Kabab spread to Europe in the 20th century and Donor Kababs as anyone who's been to Germany knows Donor Kababs are now a huge thing. But what about Kababs in Israel? Shwarm is famous in Israel. How good are the Kababs here? Where is good and what's new on the local Kabab scene? To figure out the answers to these questions and more we met up with local Jerusalem food commentator and Facebook poster, Shim Shon Sam Lashinsky and a panel that he pulled together and we're here to see what some of the interesting Kabab places are like in Jerusalem. This is the conclusion of the Kabab tour. I was good, I heard another five places but I think we took the three best out of them believe me I've been to them all. And what do you want to do of Kabab? What do you want to do? First of all, what I want to do is the security of the Basar. Because the Basar is really unique and you even have to take a look. So Kabab tour needs to be held once a day at least for four hours and for the tour, I'm the mother between F and S minus one and you don't have to spend your days together His level is very minimalistic I also use a lot of Kabab and Kabab. 30% is the best. 30% is the best. Look, in size it's 20% and 35% is the best. And you also need to be careful there are some types of care you need to be careful and you can do all these things and really let it go like it needs to be done and connect with the other people so you get the Kabab. We really got a diversity of Kababs tonight. We had Sizzot which was kind of like the old classic bare bones Kabab and we had Pizza Basar with a new trendy new place taking Kababs and giving it a more personal flavor and then we had gave it a modern more like upscale For me, I think Sizzot definitely takes the win. It's the best Kabab it just really felt authentic, felt homey and that takes the gold medal for me. The first place we went to had the atmosphere and the story were excellent but even just talking about the meat he made something that was closer to our rice but having the fat in the bread in the meat gave a very very strong very rich taste which I really appreciate it it may have also helped that it was the first place we ate so I ate it but I really appreciate it and of course the salads tasted very fresh and they were made there and that definitely added quite a bit Okay guys, this is Shimsha Lashinsky thanks for joining us here there's a lot more action I post it on Facebook, secret Jerusalem group all the time I've also on the Shimsha Lashinsky fan club and the YouTube you can find me as well lots of different lifestyle and food stories and keep in touch and check me out


It is the Itsy Bitsy ESP32. This is the version with the onboard PCB antenna. It has eight megabytes of flash, two megabytes of PS RAM. There is no USB cable plugged into it. And yet I'm able to code it right from a web browser. I'm running circuit Python code here. You can see I've brought in time, board NeoPixel, and then rainbow IO and a color wheel. I'm setting up the onboard NeoPixel. I've set some little variables for some colors there. If I go and just change one of these, let's just change that to red, hit Save. Again, notice no wires, right? And yet I've just changed that. I've just re-saved the code.py file. We can change that again. Here, let's go to blue, hit Save, and Badoosh. The Itsy Bitsy ESP32 with the eight megabytes of flash, two megabytes of PS RAM, and the built-in PCB antenna.


What's called that? It's a pump to be there. Last DevCon, so DevCon 4, Mike and I were just roaming around. We didn't actually have an official talk, but it was super funny because everybody was talking about the entity. It was around the same time that Eve 2 was evaluating the ability to beat, to adopt it, and so on. So it was a lot of buzz, and we ended up realizing that people actually wanted to learn about the ability. People want to up their skills and understand what this thing is all about. So we ended up working as a collaborative workshop on the last day, very impromptu, relegated over telegram, and very self-organized. We had a turnout of, I don't know, 40 to 50 people in a tidy room, and we had to move all the furniture around and sit on the ground. So it felt like the start of something very special, and this marriage between the theory of it and the ability to beat. And the fact that we actually have official sessions this time, so it's great. We have, this is one of two sessions that we are running here at DevCon. What I'm going to talk about is what has been up in the creativity project over the last few months, and what's coming next. A lot of super exciting stuff coming up next. So I have a lot of ground to cover. I'm going to go super, super quickly. I don't even know if I'm going to be done with this in time, but if I don't, come talk to me. Come find me. I'm going to be around. The second talk that we're going to be having at DevCon is about gossip talk. So a lot of people, gossip talk is an important protocol that is being adopted at the Eve2 project, and a lot of people have shown interest. So we decided to do kind of like a deep dive in gossip talk, about gossip talk that's happening on Wednesday, Room B10, and you've got the details in the slideshow. So I'm just going to get started now. So I see a lot of familiar faces here. So who's actually a user of LB2B right now? Okay, that's pretty cool. Who contributes to LB2B? Nice. Okay, we've got a table there that's contributing to LB2B. That's awesome. So let's get started. As I said, we have a lot of ground to cover, very little time, and what I want to go through today. So who's actually pretty familiar with LB2B? We'll just say like, who's the five that need to be more or less? Okay, five and above. Cool, awesome. So I think the one on one is going to be important to go through today, that I'm going to talk about what we've shared in the last few months and what we are actually building and what's going to be shared over the next few months. So yeah, cool. So let's do a little intro to LB2B. So LB2B is a modular peer-to-peer networking stack. It is, I like to call it a layer zero of decentralized platforms because it basically is, so if you realize everything that we're building here, everything that's going to be built in this conference by teams that are attending this conference and so on, rests on top of unstoppable networks. If we don't have a good peer-to-peer, block-solid networking foundations, we have nothing, right? Because the very nature of everything that we're building is decentralized and decentralized means that different nodes around the world without knowing each other can operate across a set of protocols and across a set of processes. So LB2B is a modular peer-to-peer networking stack, which is essentially a composable, it's a composable set of built-in blocks to assemble a free peer-to-peer network. So it runs on many run types, server, browser, there have been experiments in mobile environments as well and soon there's a team that's working on making LB2B run nicely on embedded devices. It originated in the IDFS project and it's right now implemented across seven different languages at different levels of maturity. This is bustling cross-project community. Initially it was created by PLA protocol labs and it's stewarded by protocol labs, but by no means does protocol labs own the community or the individual. At this point in time it has become a public, right? It's being adopted all across the end of the system. It is currently licensed officially under the MIT stack, but soon we're going to be transitioning under the MIT license. Soon we're going to be transitioning this to the privacy license stack, which gives you even more guarantees in terms of us being not claiming to hold any rights over LB2B. So LB2B really hinges on this concept of decentralized process addressing. What is decentralized process addressing? The grand vision of LB2B is to provide the ability to locate, connect, authenticate, negotiate, and interact efficiently with processes around the world, no matter where they are, no matter what transport they're using, no matter what runtimes they're using, as long as their identity is cryptographically derived from their public key. And LB2B really tries to make this happen and see this matter by taking care of natural reversal, relay, active switching, and a few other things that are important to make sure that different processes that are running anywhere in the world can find other processes in this global fabric that is the internet and interact with each other. Even as those processes relocate, roam, evolve, mutate over time. The concept of process addressing is completely juxtaposed to endpoint addressing, which relies on targeting a process by where they are in the world, by an IP address. So LB2B, as I said, is a stack of composable building blocks, and these building blocks are transports, multiplexes, secure channel, peer discovery, pop-up, controversial, and several other things that I've not even mentioned here. So think of LB2B as a toolbox to assemble the networking layer of a decentralized platform from composable pieces, kind of like a network puzzle. These elements plug into each other by abstractions, and each of these elements can have multiple backing implementations. So for example, we have multiple transports, DCP, QUIC, there is a group of transports that's up and coming, then we're working on UDP, so there's a number of backing implementations to each of them. So that's kind of like what I have, I have very little time, so this is what I have for an intro, and now we're going to talk about what we shipped in the last few months, and this is super exciting. So we have, so LB2B has seven native implementations, which are not shipped, the shipping and signature, right? Nothing is ever done at this level, right? What's cool about this is that each community, each implementation really is backed and supported by a different provider, a different community, a different team in the ecosystem, and these teams are actually working.  Say this over there, so we've got LB2B, we've got the signal frame team over there, that signal frame team, Rust2B2B, that's working with the weapon foundation to implement Rust2B2B. We have others, I think we have the Java team around. Well, we've got Go and JS over there, this is pretty cool. So what's cool about this is that all of these implementations actually follow the LB2B specifications, so they're interoperable with what I know. They are at different levels of maturity, so the three most mature ones that we consider are JS, Go and Rust, and Pilot, B2B, JVM, and NIM, are mostly driven by the Ethereum 2 project, and CBB and LB2B is driven by the Polkadot project. So this is pretty cool, and what's great about this is that each implementation in a way also targets specialized environments, right? So in the case of NIM, they are making a strong effort to target embedded and constrained devices, right? In the case of JVM and LB2B right now in the current version, it is a Java implementation, but in the next version it will be very geared towards Android as well, right? So this is, you know, this is pretty, I'm very happy about this, right? So in terms of adoption, the adoption of LB2B over the last few months is somewhat skyrocketed, and it's been kind of like a network network effect that's been amazing. So what's cool about, so here you've got like a few of the adopters, some that are that are worth mentioning, of course Polkadot, Ethereum 5.9 BFS, the kind of like the top ones over there, and then there is ZRX that's doing a lot of awesome stuff, OpenBazaar that I've created, another introsport for LB2B, and that's what's cool about all this traction and having a, basically having a bunch of communities that when you look at how they would have built their networking layers from scratch, they would have looked a lot like one another, right? Because that's, like they all share the same concerns, right? So connectivity, addressing, peer discovery, natural reversal, these are things that are common across the ecosystem, right? So there's no point re-engaging the wheel at each of these projects, and what's cool is that all these projects are now collaborating with the LB2B open community to pull their brains and the hands to build a broad-solid networking foundation. And what's great is that most of these projects are actually contributing actively to, so not just using the technology, but actually contributing. A few weeks ago, we also saw the seven-way interop let-off of the EVE 2.0 projects. So a bunch of teams actually locked themselves up in a few cabinets in Canada and came up with a network of a LB2B-based network of all seven clients built at different languages interacting with one another. And this is impressive. This is a tweet that was super popular by Johnny Ray, who I don't know if it's in his room right now. Cool. So a few weeks ago, we also launched DebtGrants and we made, so DebtGrants is the place where we're going to be publishing and you get, where we're going to be publishing work that we would like to get done, but it's also a collaborative space for different projects across the ecosystem to publish items that they would like to ship in LB2B and co-fund those items and pool funds together to make sure that those happen. And at one point, we're speaking as well with a few teams that are going to help us fund much of this work via Dallas and a few other things.  We've also shipped talks and specs. This has been a long-standing issue for the VCQ project thanks to everybody who stuck by us during the direct times while we didn't have good conceptual dots. We now have an amazing website where we engage in a full specs rewrite to make sure that the specs actually match and they're aggregate with the implementations. We've created a specs maturity cycle, we're defining an RSC process, so we're maturing a lot in terms of, you know, the things that are just not cool. We've launched the discussion for us as well. So if you have any usage questions, if you want to start a discussion about things that are not necessarily bugs or change requests and so on and so forth, this is the place to go and not really get help. And we've shipped a bunch of features as well, right? So this is just a list of the ones that came to mind. We've got we created an auto relay experiment, so we launched an auto relay experiment at IVFS, gathered a bunch of learnings from that, TS 1.3 specs and implementation and goal in between prep transport with draft 23 support, web RTC direct transport, which was actually promoted and created by the folks at Xerox, I think they're here, brought a browser base to Watson deployment. So browser base was a deployment, so BrustDB and GoDBDB as well, with a lot of support from the Xerox guys, who I see in the room as well. We've got concept support that was created by the guys at Sigma Prime in Rust, so attaining the reference guarantee from GoDBDB and porting it over to Rust, as well as the guys from Chinsafe who did the work for JS and for JS and B2B, then they are at the back. Amazing. We also shipped a B2B demon, we have refactored the interfaces and loaded B2B and adopted GoMod. There is an up and coming Bluetooth transport that has been created by a team, a French team that's called Bertie, who are building a decentralized peer-to-peer offline-first message application, and they've got that running on GoDB, shipped in iOS, and of course we've done, we've upgraded any stability and performance fixes across the board. So that is what we've shipped so far in the last few months, the things that actually came to mind. There have been a lot more things that didn't come to mind, so sorry if I did mention some that you think are relevant, and I'm going to talk about what we working on and what's on the roadmap for the next few months. So number one, I would say number one priority, not just for us, but for a lot of projects and a lot of teams across the board is testing that scale. As this has been a recurring topic, whenever I speak to the team, they're pretty confused that they don't, they always ask about, hey, how are you testing IBFS? How are you testing Libby2B at scale? What are the techniques and so on? So when we're actually this has become a bottleneck for us, we want to make sure that every single release of Libby2B and IBFS and other projects that we put out there is well, so that the improvements or the deterioration of each release and each commit is well quantified. And for that, we need a platform which we're calling the Interplanetary Test Ground to be able to create distributed and reproducible tests that hits magnitudes of 100,000 nodes, with simulated network conditions. So this is going to be a platform that is currently in development. We have architected this platform. It is, we're racing towards it. And what we want to make sure is that it's tightly integrated with the engineering life cycle. So basically, it's just no use and having a platform where you have to do things manually every single time, right? So we want for every single commit of Libby2B and IBFS to be subjected to a battery of tests of different kinds, right? So comparative testing, how does this commit compared to a previous commit or to a previous branch? How does this PR deteriorate or improve the status quo in terms of how my node behaves, whatever runtime characteristics, and also in terms of emergent network behavior as a result of deploying that PR in the network of 10,000 nodes, 100,000 nodes, right? We want to be able to do things like chaos testing, interpretability testing. So being able to take, for example, a particular proportion of nodes that are running IBFS or Libby2B version, whatever, 50% that are running this version, 20% that are running this version, and 10% that are running another version and understand how that combination actually plays out in terms of performance. This is what the architecture is looking like. If you want to follow this separate, if you want to track what we're doing, make sure that you watch this rep or IBFS test run. It is right now under the IBFS umbrella, but it's probably going to be moved to the Libby2B umbrella at one point because it's way lower in the stack than IBFS or even a separate top-level project. Another thing that I'm super excited about that we're working actively on is instrumentation. So a lot of teams have asked us for meta observability and essentially the capability to x-ray into what the Libby2B stack is precisely doing in real time. So we currently link the groundwork by taking a data first approach, right? So yeah, it would be awesome to create and help visualizations about things that are having a Libby2B, but really the scalable way to build this is to tap into the inner guts of Libby2B and expose a fire hose of instrumentation data by a standard protocol such that any implementation of Libby2B by adopting a standard protocol would render itself to being visualized and being inspected by a common framework, right? So the next step, so we're focusing on building the fire hose by an introspection protocol that we're drafting. And the next step is to create a binding framework that consumes that data in a browser, creates essentially a reactive state repository on the browser that React D3-driven visualizations can subscribe to and visualize data, whether it's a recording of a slice of time and where we want to get people the ability to move backwards and forwards three times so that you can, if you want to debug a particular situation, you can start up a recording, take a dump, and then load it into the browser and visualize and move through time, as well as watching the activity of a node in real time. So yeah, we plan to release a browser library for developers to compose reusable visualizations and we definitely hope that this will kick-start a catalog of reusable visualizations across the board that are compatible with all Libby2B implementations. And by the way, this project is called Named Phantom Dreads, so if you see those terms, now you know what it's about. So a few of the things that we're going to be working on that we're actually working on are message orientation. So this has been a long-standing missing feature in Libby2B. Yeah. So we're intending for Libby2B to become an entry point. So for Libby2B's entry point to become a factory of stars from which you'll be able to create different kinds of hosts. We're working on that whole bunch in a direct connection upgrade. So we already have UDMP and that PMP port opening support and we have the auto relay and auto-net subsystems that are capable of sensing if you're running behind a map and automatically starting up a connection with a relay and advertising those addresses to the rest of the world so that you can receive in-bound connections, but that is super inefficient. And what we need to do is move to a place where we use that relay connection as an embryonic connection to do signaling between the two between various peers to start to initiate a whole bunching procedure and hopefully be able to whole bunch, right? We're going to be working on robust pervasive fixed point as well with TLS 1.3 and this is important because this combination of protocols is what's used in HTTP 3 as well. And if we make Libby2B run on port 443, this means that we basically have a high chance of being a lot more sensitive to systems than we are. These are a few of the things that we're working on negotiation protocol negotiation. I won't go too deep into this. I have very little time.  So they're super high priority for us. We are creating new security channels, TLS 1.3 and noise handshakes. Noise handshakes is going to be using noise pipelines, which uses a combination of optimistic scenarios with abrasive fallbacks when the key has protected on the other end. We're going to be working on TLS 1.3 and all languages. We currently have support for Google and there are some roadblocks in JS and Rust. So we're going to be switching through those and more of a loop. And basically, yeah, so a few more things here to mention like with specific improvements and maturity, pop-up and pollution. So make sure that you come to the concept succession on Wednesday, which is at 2.55 room B10. Because we're going to be talking about some of the things that are coming down the pipe in terms of where this is heading. We're going to be talking about something called TEPISO, which is the future generation of concepts. More evolution, so hardening the DHT, which is a critical thing right now for us. And this is dependent on the test ground. We are aiming to get even better specs. So we're aiming for 100% accurately specced and there's a contributor and there's a figure that's working actively on this. Other topics, CTK, onion routing, repetition, these are things that are ideal every year. We're developing our heads and we hope to flush out over the next few months. Also wanted to showcase what I talked about earlier, the Bluetooth transport in WBTP, which was developed by our friends at Birdty. Unfortunately, it is still closed, so we can't demo it. There's no public access to the code, but that will change hopefully shortly. And that's pretty much all I have for today. So that was super rushed, a lot of content to share. And if you have any questions, make sure to hit me or to pin me around. I'm going to be rowing around. Make sure that we come to the next session that we have about gossip stuff, which is tomorrow at 2.55 and room B10. And make sure if you're excited about the BTP, like we are and a lot of people in this room are, make sure to get involved either by shaping the future, getting everything to the specs, by hacking on meaty things, looking at the dev brands and taking on some of that work. And if you just want to contribute on particular things, then make sure to watch the project levels. So if you have some contact details, if you don't mind being around or if you want to talk a little bit about BTP, make sure to pick me on those highlights. Thank you.


The Primary Teachers PSA in our province is a world-class leadership organization. We base the network thinking on how the primary teachers have always behaved in this province because they've always been brilliant. The first time I went to a primary PSA conference, it was in Chilliwack, and I was really nervous because I was teaching at Intermediate. And people came up afterwards and said, I love your ideas. It was the days of the young writers. And I thought, this is a group of people who adore ideas. How fantastic is that? And they're persistent. And they're provocative. And they're political in a good way. So spiral of inquiry. We were just at the rural literacy. And a person from Bayview, an intermediate teacher, said, that looks like a lot of one of my failed cabbage roles. So people were kind of looking at the image and making connections. We hope it looks to you like a really fantastic thing because Judy's going to open up this process with you. I love intellectual underpinnings. That's the other thing. It's a dream come true for Judy and I to be here with all of these friends and colleagues because our dream was always to work with a high powered, ethically fit, morally purposeful group of educators on meaningful work wearing comfortable clothes. We want every kid in our province to be as curious when they leave grade 12, when they walk that stage, as when they entered. That's why inquiry. We want that curiosity to drive the system. We don't want to be data driven. We want to be curiosity whole. Does that make sense to you? I'd like to see those vigorous nods. I used to teach grade nine for a while. Yes, thank you. So that's one big goal. And primary teachers are good at this. And then we want this. We want a hard goal. We don't believe in incremental smart goals. We think we need a hard goal. So by 2017, working with Denise and other people, we want to know that we can get every kid in our province walking the stage with dignity, purpose, and options. That means things like math 12 and English 12. And we know to do that. We have to get them off to a good start. Why 2017? Yeah, 2017, five years from now. How hard could this be? It's Canada's 150th birthday. We don't want Aboriginal kids to have success in 2080. That's embarrassing. We're fabulous educators. We get all this brainpower. Look at Mary, our speaker this morning. Wouldn't you like to grow up to be just like her? So we want to make a couple of offers to draw you into the ideas that we've been thinking about. We think that, and I really want to acknowledge Debbie Leyton-Stevens, Laura Tate, Trish Ross-Pro, and Lorna Williams, who's not here, but who has been instrumental in helping to sharpen and focus our thinking over the last several years. And our argument goes like this. Aboriginal education is for everyone. I wish that my daughter had had the opportunity to learn in the way that your kids will, if we weave together the ways that we want to think about a little bit. So we're calling them wise, strong, and new ways. This is the haiku, not the epic, or maybe the appetizer. We'd like to entice you to be curious about these ideas and then over the next while see how these fit with you. Think that our kids need to have that opportunity to think about learning as not something that just happens at circle time or in the confines of the classroom. How do we think about space and land differently? We also think it's really important for kids to have an opportunity to learn across generations. That means even our youngest learners can provide support to a younger child and learn from an older child and learn from a community member and learn from an elder. The storytelling project at W.L. McLeod last year, there's a video clip on the network website just of the importance of story across generations, just how important that is. So we just invite you to be thinking about your learners, their experiences, and as we hear more from Trish and Paige and Laura, how are we building in those indigenous ways of knowing that I wish my kid had, I wish I had? And I've been teaching for a few years and I went to school in Quebec and I knew nothing about Canadian history. I knew a version of it, but it was very, very minimal. So it's our opportunity to explore our own learning as well. Every learner say in their own words why what they're learning is important and how it connects.  If they're embedded in a classroom where clarity around learning intentions and feedback is a way of life, they will be able to answer this. And we say even that's not enough. We're gonna reach a lot of kids if we build in indigenous ways of knowing and strong evidence from research, but we're gonna be creating some new opportunities and creating and designing some new learning. And that's the really exciting part of this project is that you're gonna have a chance not to just say this is the program where we're gonna do it, but to be developing your own ideas. So we need to be thinking about how do we build in imagination, innovation, and how do we think about time, space, relationships, curriculum, technology differently. So that's the framework around weaving the ways. And now we're just going to take a look at the spiral of inquiry for a bit. Okay, so this is the beautiful intellectual underpinning. Here's a guarantee. Judy and myself and Dr. Helen Temperley who's actually received an honorary award from her country for her services to education in New Zealand. She is the most knowledgeable person in the world about the research around professional learning that makes a difference. She had a hard time finding studies that connected professional learning to making a difference. Now that's why I'm so pleased that Fay is here because we got to work for three years when I was teaching primary enrichment around a professional learning program in our school that actually changed learners' lives forever. Those, it was just amazing what being able to concentrate in that way did. So here's the promise. This has been field tested with Maori and Pacifica and Pakeha kids in New Zealand. It's been field tested in BC through the various networks. And it's been field tested in Australia. It will be adopted in probably 20 or 30 countries this coming year. So we are at the leading edge of thinking deeply about the kind of inquiry that's team oriented that changes learning lives and gives us 100% of kids walking a stage with dignity purpose and option which is our big moral purpose. And you're not gonna get that graduation and completion which gives you better health outcomes and all the things that we want unless kids get off to a good start with reading. So scanning, broad process, focusing, then we're gonna develop a hunch, new professional learning. Oh, and then how about taking some action? Didn't that's a good idea? You know, trying something out in a supportive learning team way and then checking. Checking to see if we've made a big enough difference. That's the thing, a big enough difference. Or whether we would be better off trying something else that would be even more powerful. And that's the power of this, you know, we see the world as network. So this is a network. What's working well with the kind of kid that you have, this will travel rapidly because it's been set up in that networking way. Scanning though, we need to give ourselves the luxury of doing that. Usually it just happens in universities. Focusing, where are we going to put our attention? You know, I love the work that Faye did. I said at Maple Lane, we had the 10 strategies that were in that wonderful book reaching for a higher thought. I still want that book to come back, Faye. It was just so useful. We tried all of the strategies over a three year period. And then the ones that really stuck with us, we've used them for the rest of our careers. You know, we still use them with our grad students. So the decision about focusing is an important one. And I think it's, for me, if we'd scan broadly and really thought about the weaving of the ways, which we think is a creative metaphor for VC teaching, then we'll focus intelligently. And we'll weave some of those strategies together. The deep listening, the circle work that Susan Leslie's doing. Her kindergarten kids now lead talking circles. The next part is to develop a hunch. How is our practice helping those kids who are really soaring and how is our practice maybe contributing to some of the kids that are struggling? And kind of what's our role in all of this? So it's just that time to have the conversation in a really trusting way where you can put your hunches on the table. And it's just a hunch. So nobody needs to feel afraid or bad. It's just a, you know, I wonder what. So that's the developing on hunch part. And then Linda talked about this before, but this is where kind of the rubber hits the learning road. So we'll use a school that we know quite well as an example. They had a hunch that they saw that a lot of the kids at primary were really struggling and making meaning for tests. And they had a hunch that maybe they didn't know really how to teach that very well. And then they spent a good portion of the year exploring their own learning. So the next stage is checking. And this is, we know that actually we're gonna make a difference in the lives of kids this year. It's just gonna happen. Kids are gonna grow, kids are gonna learn. They're gonna get better at reading. Our question that we wanna be asking as far as this works, are we making enough of a difference? So that's what we need to be thinking about. What's worth the evidence that we're gonna be looking for and Sharon's gonna be talking more about that. And also the image that Stonestone actually flowed on water. There's something underneath that is supporting them. And the imagery of this comes from the work of Roosevelt Moss Cantor who said that leadership is not about walking on water. It's about creating the foundation so that others can. And I think that what we're doing together is we're creating the foundation so that kids are gonna look much better, happier and healthier lives. And our thing is, yes, let's just get at it and do it. So thank you very much for inviting us to be part of this and we're really, really, really pleased about the opportunity to learn and grow together. So thank you.


In this age of ad hominem attacks against our holy prophet Muhammad, sallallahu alayhi wa ala ala wa sallam, I'd like to address a few issues that are quite prevalent in a popular discourse. And these are things that we've heard as a Muslim ummah for hundreds and hundreds of years, but because of our context in the contemporary society, these things are sort of mentioned again with a renewed sense of fervor and satanic influence. One of the things I wanted to mention is this idea of questioning the sincerity of the holy prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. A lot of people are making the argument that he was motivated by wealth and power and things like that. Now the first systematic sort of refutation, if you will, of the risala of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was done by a man named John Damascene or John of Damascus. He lived in the 8th century in Syria. And then after him you have a period of monk scholars who are attacking the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam during the medieval period. For example, the abbot of Clooney, Peter, the so-called venerable, he said, and most of these are just out and out lies or things taken out of context. He said, for example, the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he died in the year 666, which is a total lie, right? But you were accustomed to hearing these types of things. And then you come into the period of the classical Orientalist. Most of these people are military officers. Many of them are ethnographers or Europeans who go into the Middle East and into the Orient and they write these books about Muslim society and so on and so forth. This was also the time when the first translation of the Quran from Arabic into English was done by a man named Alexander Ross. A translation that is very, very terrible. And then we come to the modern period, the period of the Neo-Orientalists. Of course, the Neo-Orientalists don't like to be called Neo-Orientalists because the term Orientalism is quite pejorative in its connotation, so they prefer the title Mid-East Expert, right? So these people are quite disingenuous in the way they do hermeneutics of Muslim sources. They pick and choose. They ascribe the most evil of intentions to the holy prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And of course it's quite lucrative. Some of these people have made millions and millions of dollars since 2001 defaming and denigrating and assassinating the character of the holy prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. So I just want to speak to this one in particular. Then we'll go to different issues as well. This issue of the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam motivated by wealth, status and or power. So this hadith of Ahmad Abu Ya'ala al-Bazaar, which indicates that an angel descended to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and asked him, would you like to be a king prophet or a servant prophet? And he said sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, I would rather be a servant prophet. And the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he lived in a state, he lived in a self-imposed state of poverty. This is how we chose to live sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Of course we know in the Meccan period when the Quraish came to the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and offered him all of these ephemeral things, gold and wealth and silver and leadership and kingdom and all of these things. And if he was in this for that reason then this would have been the perfect opportunity to seize upon it. But the prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he says, He says, even if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left hand, which is impossible but he's using a hyperpolyic example, even if they give me everything, the heavens and the earth, if it was in their ability, I would never abandon this mission until Allah SWT, He makes it victorious or I'm destroyed in the process. He's willing to give his life and limb for this message, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. We were told during the Medinan period that three months would go by. This hadith mentioned in the Shama'il An-Nabawiyah by Imam Abu Isa Tirmidi and many other sources that three months would go by when fire was not seen coming from his house, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, which means they weren't cooking any meals for three months and the Sahaba, they went to our mother, Aisha, radiAllah ta'ala anha and they said to her, What are you subsisting on? And she said, Al-Aswadain, dates in water, the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam subsisted months on end on dates in water, sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He used to tie rocks around his stomach to stave off hunger pains. This happened on two occasions when there was the Muqata'a, there was the boycott or sanctions on the Bani Hashim imposed by the Quraish and the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said, This is from the sifat of the Dajjal. The Dajjal, if you don't agree with his policy, you're not going to eat. Very, very interesting hadith of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. This was one occasion. The other occasion was during the Khandak, Ghazbat Khandak, when they were digging the trench around the city because 10,000 Confederates were about to attack the city of Medina to Munawwara, the city of the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. And the hadith of Abu Talha, which is also mentioned in the Shama'il and Nabawiyah of Abu Isa Tirmidhi, r.a. He says, He says, He says, We complain to the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam because of hunger. And we showed him that each one of us had a stone tied around our stomachs. And we showed him that each one of us had a stone tied around our stomachs. And the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, he lifted up his shirt and we saw he had two rocks, two stones tied to his stomach sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Some of the muhadithin say this narration is weak, it's da'if, because the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam used to fast days on end. And when Sahaba tried to emulate this practice, he said, Don't do that. My constitution is different than yours. My Lord gives me to eat and drink in the night. So you shouldn't do that. But other ulama say, No, the hadith is strong. But the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam simply chose not to eat or drink out of solidarity, out of empathy for his ummah. They mention a beautiful parable.  And she finds some food. Can she eat the food? Knowing her children are starving back at home? Can she eat it? Of course she can't eat it. This is the state of our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam who's like a father figure to us. The verse says, There's a reading that is shadda, that is unreliable in the Mus'haf of Ibn Mas'ud. But it has a strength of a hadith that says, He is their father. And his wives are their mothers.  So while he is given to eat and drink from Allah swt, he could not do it out of love for the ummah. Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam. Imam An-Nawawi relates a hadith in the Riyadh of the Salihin that once the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam led the Sahaba in Salat al-Asr. And immediately after the prayer he got up and left the masjid very quickly. He went to his house very quickly. And the Sahaba asked him, why did you leave so quickly? He said, There was a dirham, one dirham in my house that was bothering me. There was a silver coin in my house that was bothering me. And I had to go quickly and give it, he kept no money in his house. Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam. Does this sound like a man who is motivated by wealth and power? Astaghfirullah. He fed at least 70 people. Fed them, clothed them, give them shelter in the masjid at least 70 people inside the masjid for over 10 years in the masjid. And if you do the math, this comes out to over one million meals that he gave to these people. One million meals. Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. Yet he's tying two rocks around his own stomach. Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam. Ibn Mas'ud, he mentions a hadith in Tirmidhi ibn Maja. He says, That the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam he used to sleep on a strong mat. And then he says, And then he stood up and we saw that on his body were the markings of the mat. There's another hadith, this similar hadith related by Sayyidina Umar where the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam he saw the markings on the jasad, a Sharif of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and Sayyidina Umar began to weep and he began to weep. And the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam looked at him and smiled and said, Don't you know these things are for the people of dunya? Because he said, You know Kisra and Kaisar, you know the king of Persia and the Roman emperor, they have these lavish bedrooms. He said, Those are the people of dunya. Those are the people of dunya. Who is saying this? The Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam. He's the one saying this. The best of creation. Khayr al-Khalqillah lived in these types of conditions. We should take this to heart. We should think about this. So this is one of the issues I wanted to raise. Another thing I wanted to talk about switching gears is this issue of women's rights. This is very quickly. I'm touching on a lot of topics here. But the Christian right, especially these neocon ideologues, they mention a lot of things about Islam with relation to women. I want to mention a few things by comparison with not a lot of commentary because we don't have a lot of time. But Islam gave women the right to vote and inherit and own property and businesses, initiate divorces, choose and refuse husbands, equal status with men in the eyes of Allah SWT. So many of these practices like FGM, mutilation of women and things like that, honor killings, preventing women to be educated. These things are cultural practices that have nothing to do with the Islamic tradition. These are things that are perpetrated by Muslims in Muslim majority societies. There was a brother one time who was in a habit of beating his wife and kids, not in this community. And we approached the brother and we said, why are you doing this? He said, that's part of my culture. That's how I was raised. My father did it to us.  We have to be frank with people. If it contradicts the religion, he didn't beat the Prophet SAW with anything and cut. The Prophet SAW did not strike anything with his hand, SAW, except if he was engaged in Jihad in SAW, neither a woman, nor a man, nor a son, did not strike a woman, not one time, nor a child, nor a servant, SAW. So we have to make these things clear to people. The Prophet SAW, he says in the final pilgrimage, Hajjatul Wada'a, and you can imagine one of his central themes of his final pilgrimage sermon, because he knows there's hundreds of thousands of people there. And this is what's going to be remembered and transmitted. The last words of a person are what's going to be transmitted. One of the central themes of the farewell pilgrimage sermon, the khutbah, was women. And he said, treat women well. Treat women well. SAW. He said, there are three things from the dunya, three things from the world that I like. A good smell, the prayer and women. And he's not talking about anything, licentious, or anything like that, like the Orientalists have said. He's talking about the feminine qualities that he himself, SAW, he embodies, these Jamali qualities. When the father of Zaid ibn Haritha came to claim him, Zaid who is the indentured servant, slave, whatever you want to call him, the adopted son of the Prophet SAW, he wanted to stay with the Prophet SAW. So the father of Zaid said, you choose slavery over freedom, I'm your father. I'm your father. And Zaid said, he is my father and my mother about the Prophet SAW, because he was nurturing, because he did not raise his voice. It is part of the mercy of Allah SWT that you have lean, that you have gentleness, SAW. He has rifq, he has gentleness, SAW. He has these feminine qualities. He has mercy. He is mercy. Rahmatan is a feminine noun. He is mercy. Allah SWT didn't say wa ma'a rasannaki illa an tarham al-alameen or something like that. He didn't say, I have not raised you except that you might show mercy and use a fi'il, use a verb. He says, you are mercy. You are rahmatan. Thatuhu rahma. His very essence is rahma. SAW. So this is very interesting. Because if we read the Tawrah, for example, the book of Genesis, the book of Bari Sheeth Chapter 3, the fall of man is very clearly blamed on the woman. It's very, very clear. So what does it say? When Adam is confronted by God, this is what he says to God in the Hebrew language. He says, This is because of the woman that you gave me. Right? This is because of the woman, and there's an emphasis on you. Atta. Anta. This is because of you. He's actually blaming God. This is the narrative in the Tawrah. It's very interesting. And then God goes to the woman and says, What did you do? What did you do? So then God punishes the woman with painful childbirth. And then he punishes the man. Why? He says, The lesson? Don't listen to your wife. According to the Tawrah. This is not the Quran. This is the book of Genesis. This is in the Tawrah. The book of Bari Sheeth. Because you heated the voice of your wife, cursed is the ground for your sake. Very interesting. What does the Quran say? That shaitan, this is an object pronoun. Right? It's dual. That shaitan, he deluded both of them. Both of them. Not one of them. Both of them. And they made Tawbah. When they made Tawbah, they made it in the plural. Rabbana. La lamna. Anfusana. La nakunana. This is in the plural. Both of them are making this Tawbah. And of course, we don't believe that Adam, because he's a prophet, willfully disobeyed Allah SWT. This is impossible for a prophet. The prophets are ma'asum. They're incapable of consciously disobeying Allah SWT. They were tricked. They were deceived. They were made to forget by the shaitan. That's how we understand the story. I want to quote something interesting. This is from Tertelian of Carthage. A second century Christian polemicist and heresiologist. This is what he says in his commentary on Genesis.  You are the first deserter of the divine law.  You destroyed so easily God's image, man.  Astaghfirullah. In other words, women are guilty of deicide.  Deicide?  This is a exegesis of a pre-Nicene major Christian scholar looking at Genesis chapter 3. Very, very interesting. There's other things we can talk about as well. But we're running short on time. It's a little too graphic. We'll look in the New Testament though, because that's Old Testament. Let's look in the Christian scriptures because Christians believe in the Old Testament, but everything's been abrogated. The Ahkam, all of the Ahkam in the Old Testament is Mansukh, according to Christian theology. So 1 Timothy chapter 2, this is Paul writing now. He says, A woman must learn in silence in an all-subjugation. She cannot teach men. It's a usurpation of authority for Adam was made before Eve. Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in transgression. Very interesting. Women cannot teach men anything. Of course, in our tradition, one of the foundations of the Dean of Islam, especially Ahlul Sunnah and Jama'ah, is on mother Aisha, radiAllahu ta'ala anha, who's one of the six Sahaba who related over 1,000 hadith. Our Dean is built upon her. RadiAllahu ta'ala anha. She's one of the seven Muftis. There are seven Muftis at the time of the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam. Who gave fatwa, the only seven of them, not all of them. There were seven Muftis, six men and one woman. And she used to give fatwa behind the hijab to male Sahaba that are twice her age. RadiAllahu ta'ala anha. This was an amazing intellect. And then Paul says, this is the Greek. He says, Very interesting. Not translated well in the vast majority of English translations. He says she can become saved. She can go to heaven if she bears children. According to Paul, how does a woman go to paradise? You stay silent and pregnant. First Corinthians, chapter 11. The head of the woman is the man. The woman was created for the man. She must cover her head in church. If not, it should be shaved. Speaking in church is shameful. I'll tell you an interesting true story. I was in a church one time called St. Paul Methodist Church. And I was on stage with the pastor. And we were talking about prophecy, Old Testament prophecy. I think it was something Deuteronomy 18 or something. Is it the prophecy, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam? We're having a very congenial, friendly, academic debate. This woman in the back stands up and starts shouting at me. Shouting in the back of the church. And this is interesting because she's interrupting the entire event. And so she was shouting out at the top of her lungs. And I couldn't really make out what she was saying. When she had finished, I said, Do you know what the namesake of this church is? What is the namesake of this church? She says, St. Paul. And I found out later she was actually a physician. This is a highly educated woman. St. Paul Methodist. I said, Do you know what Paul says? What does Paul say? What you just did is shameful. You need to sit down.  Because we're following St. Paul. That's what Paul says to do. And she was saying something. All I heard was the name of the prophecy a few times. And thank God I didn't hear what she was saying. Very, very interesting. The last thing I wanted to talk about, I know I'm kind of jumping all over the place here, but this is something to think about. Something that is important for Muslims to understand is this myth that America was founded as a Christian nation. I want to talk about this for a minute. This is a statement that is perpetuated primarily by the Christian right. And because it implies that non-Christians in America are not quite as American as Christian Americans. That's why they perpetuate it. That if you're non-Christian in America, you're not quite as American as a Christian American. So here's a fact. The fact is this country was founded upon the principle of separation of church and state. This is one of the founding principles of the country. One of the primary intentions of the founding fathers was to avoid what had happened in England. What was happening in England? King George, the Anglican church, ruled everything. There was massive, massive oppression of enlightened thinkers. They weren't allowed to express their opinions. You have a monarchy. So the founding fathers said, no monarchy, democracy. No church and government, separation of church and state. This is one of the founding principles of this country is to be the antithesis. The antithesis of what happened in Christendom. Of what happened in Christian Europe. To be the opposite of that. A founding principle. Sir Isaac Newton, who was a, you asked an atheist, who were the greatest scientists to ever live. They'll say Newton and Einstein. Both of them believed in God and were Unitarians, by the way. Believers in God and Unitarians. Sir Isaac Newton, he, history says he was a devout Christian. But in the 1920s, they found his personal journals. And he said that he completely rejected, repudiated the Trinity. But he couldn't voice this in 18th century England. Do you know why? Because there's no separation of church and state. And this is apostasy, which means that he's going to be killed for this belief. He would be killed. So he kept his, he was practicing taqiyah. He started to practice taqiyah. Because he was afraid of the Christian imperial powers. The monarchy. Very, very interesting. Here's another fact. During the colonial period in this country, only 15% of white people in this country, 1515, identified with a certain church. The vast, vast majority of them were deists. What does deist mean? A deist in the spirit of Plato and Aristotle and the Neoplatonists, is someone who believes in an architect of the universe, but that the creator of the universe, but that this creator does not have any personal relationship with his creation. He doesn't reveal scripture. He doesn't send messiahs. He doesn't send prophets. He has no relationship with his creation. This is deism. And it's really an outgrowth of the 18th century Enlightenment movement as a reaction against Christianity, specifically against Christianity. This is just a fact. They were anti-incarnation. They were anti-Trinitarian. They were anti-Vicarious atonement. Their theology was based on reason. So I don't know what these people are talking about when they say America was founded by a Christian nation. Here's another fact for you. None of the first six presidents of the United States was an Orthodox Christian. None of the first six presidents of the United States was an Orthodox Christian. You look at some of them. George Washington was a deist. He rejected the deity of Christ. He would not take Holy Communion. John Adams was a Unitarian. He did not believe in the Trinity, the deity of Christ, original sin, or vicarious atonement. Jefferson was a deist and a Unitarian, anti-Trinitarian. He once wrote a letter to Timothy Pickering on his cabinet complaining about the incomprehensible jargon of Trinitarian arithmetic. Those are his words. He was anti-Pauline. He said, Paul corrupted Christianity. He said, and I don't agree with this statement. I'm just giving you the facts. He said Christianity is the most perverted system ever shown on man. That's his words, not my words. I don't agree with it. I'm telling you what Thomas Jefferson said. Thomas Jefferson, who's on the $20 bill. No, the $2 bill, right? This was his belief about America, about Christianity. I certainly don't agree with it. But to those who say this country was founded as a Christian nation, implying that non-Christians in this country are somewhat less American than Christians is a total farce. We shouldn't buy into that. Thomas Paine in 1776, he wrote Common Sense, which paved the way for the Declaration of Independence. He says something similar to Thomas Jefferson. I don't have time to go into it. The US Constitution has no reference to God nor Jesus Christ. The US Constitution, when the founding documents of this country was transcribed or written upon the principle of separation of church and state. Article 6, Section 3. No religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States. So while God nor Jesus Christ peace be upon him are mentioned in the Constitution, religion is mentioned twice. That's one. And then the First Amendment, Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of any type of religion. Declaration of Independence, three references to the deity. And in personal abstract, deist God, not the Christian God. He's called nature's God. He says we're endowed by our creator. He's called the supreme judge of the world. And finally, the Treaty of Tripoli in 1797. You can look up this stuff. You can check Sheikh Wikia for the meantime, but don't trust it too much. Sheikh Wikipedia, right? But be careful about that. But look this up. There's good information. The Treaty of Tripoli in 1797. This is very interesting. Signed into law by President John Adams in 1797. I'm sorry, 1797. June 10th, 1797. This is what it says in Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli. As the government of the US of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian nation as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslim men. Who are Muslim men? These are Muslim men. And as the said states never entered into any way or act of hostility against the Muhammadan nation, that's the Muslim Ummah, is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two nations. How far we have fallen from the words of the Founding Fathers. These are just things to kind of think about. Insha'Allah to Allah. We're out of time though. I'll say this and ask forgiveness from Allah. I ask forgiveness from Allah. He is the Most Forgiving, Merciful. Tubu ila Allah. Yatawab tuba anina.