It's me Ethan Nester from 2015 here to tell you from the past You got to take advantage of the show tickets that are on sale right now, but where are they? I'm so glad you asked. There are so many cities around the United States and a little bit of Canada is New York one of them You bet it is how about Pittsburgh. Yes, Indianapolis. You're too late I have to do this dot show and get your tickets now before it's too late. It's me from the past You know it's interesting to me There are certain phrases that like young kids are saying these days that like or like whatever I don't get it But some that I'm like damn. I wish I had that Like dude like that's cap.  I was like what does that mean like capital punishment? I don't understand You know what? I really like what when people say that something's meant I Something that I do now, and I think it's just because I have a lot of friends that are Australian or like in the UK is I end Sentences with yeah a lot where I'll be like we're going out for dinner tonight. Yeah, and like a lot of people don't Jump down the thing I'm a bunny Greg Brilliant for me would be so try hard if I was if I tried tossing that to a normal conversation Greg can be invisible You know I've been dropping shitter a lot.  That's the So can't wait. Are you in a chair? Yeah, I'm in there.  Oh god In the streets.   Wait? Shit what's going on Christian?  No, sir. No, sir. Oh my god. Someone got chaired I wasn't playing a touch of the skill check.   No, I'm about to pop the Jenny Someone just clapped me. No blame. Yes, I know Blaine a lot Sorry, I'm screaming You're safe. Yo, if I don't get MVP this round you guys are not my my cool home There's no way he'll notice I'll tell you what's better than anything else hoggers, dude Oh For sure which which terminology in real life though.  No So embarrassing have you done that Chris? No Oh He has no clue he has no clue And I got Greg women that time where we gold again out of your food grass Oh, I like the wiggle in this game so much better No No, no look straight ahead brother look look look this way ready That's like that's like Hatch Yo, how funny is it like in me? I'm the real like we're all grown men, right? And you turning into like a you turning into like a little object to stay in there and like chillin is so funny Think about it.  Oh Chris is killer Chris looks like what the witches might look like and like focus focus to yeah Village vibes right here. No, dude. It's uh, it's the vampires from Scooby-Doo the hex girls. Oh my god. Are we all gamer girls true?     Oh I got stuck Chris stop Is Ariana Grande in fortnight Yeah, yeah, yeah, well how much money do you think she got paid for that? She probably got an easy mill or a couple mill for that had to have been a couple Do you guys think that Ariana Grande got paid in v in v-box Beaver money How many pounds of ground beef do you think I'm a night all right Was in was getting paid a million dollars that would be a hundred and forty seven two hundred and seventy five ground beef At six forty seven a pound It doesn't stop the I'm gonna leave you on the ground that's so much ground beef A pound to a pound and a half make four burgers Chris, I don't get what that is that CCTV? So that means a quarter-pound. I don't know what it does. Oh Me there's a guy healing you right now Point to five so that's thirty six thousand eight hundred and eighteen burgers Dude, she could feed so many people in burgers. How many burgers get sold Finally got this how many burgers what how many burgers get eaten or sold in a day Hey, how many this burger data roughly breaks down as forty five hundred burgers every minute 6.48 million burgers every day. That's just McDonald's Counting all the other burgers. No. There's so many other burgers. No, dude. I'm a killer. Let's go. I can't Is it hard? No, you're gonna you're actually gonna be you're probably probably gonna win and do well Yo, I love this notion has no idea. This is I literally don't yeah Give me a give me a man. We did it night. You know what I mean?  Yeah, baby Yeah, baby Nice E. Do you remember the time?  Is it? No, it's not like everybody. I remember backyard baseball Yes, yeah I was too cool for that. I'm gonna Yeah, I was Yeah, I'm playing warcraft. I did just pop a Jen and rest two people. I want to Jump little legs on this fire. It's kind of nice actually. Do you see this? Oh my god? Oh my god. It's not the best. What are you? What were you? Were you a McRib?  Wait guys that means that we can DM John Cena You know, it's funny though, I didn't follow him back. I don't know if I followed him back either Because it's clearly like not him. It's like it's like an assistant or something. Yeah, I didn't I didn't follow Because there's no there's no shot. He's like actually like going on his way to follow me There's no shot. What do you guys think about playing fortnight? So we could do four or We could do the Wikipedia speedruns Oh the Wikipedia speedruns would be fun for sure. All right, then we're gonna do some wiki speedruns bad And I uh wiki feet on accident you say Did you actually go to wiki feet? Yeah, it was saved because remember on the other night we did prop on it wiki feet was there


As-salamu alaikum and welcome to our brand new show on Amal Hussein TV, Making a House a Home, with myself, Raghad Baqal and the Ex-Pyc Life Coach and NLP Practitioner, Faheema Muhammad, who today will be discussing how to practically apply the teachings of Ahl-Bait with the now-daily lives when raising young children into adults. As-salamu alaikum, Faheema. Can you start off by telling us what the teachings of the Ahl-Bait are and how they can be applied when raising our children into adults? Of course, the teachings of the Ahl-Bait is very, very simple. We all address that every year in Bahram and the main teachings, and I would say that we have is the love, the love that we have for our households, the love that we have and we bring to each of our family members. And I think that is very vital and very important for us to not just show that when we are, you know, in the processions, in the Majalis, but to actually bring it home. The love. The love. The teaching of love. The actual love of it. And the thing is that brings upon the strength, that brings about so many different issues of compassion and empathy and understanding. So when we are looking at each other as our siblings, partners, spouses, we have that sort of way of thinking because it will address the way in which we respond to each other, how we react to each other, and it all comes from love. Sacrifice as well. Absolutely. Selflessness. Exactly. You know, that's what we hear a lot in the Majalis. Of course. But the thing is we go there, you know, as a ritual a lot of the times. And we go there as, you know, just as mourners and just as remembering, which is all fair and well. But if you really want to take it to the next level and to bring it into our everyday lives, it's not just to go there and then come out of it in a different light, but actually take it home and bring it to your family. I think what a lot of people forget or do is they call themselves mourners. So they'll mourn for Imam Hussein. Yes. That's what he done. He sacrificed. He loved. He was selfless. They don't think that maybe we should learn from that and be that ourselves, do they? Well, the thing is Imam Hussein, you know, was not just a role model for our Islam. You know, Shia, it was for entire world. There's so many followers. And why is that? There's so many reasons for it. And it, you know, that's why we, I think we take the limited version because we feel that, you know, we're just doing it because it's a ritual, like I said before. And I think that we are missing the opportunity right there to actually use him as a role model and to actually, you know, we all say to be successful in life, even in psychology and in business, we have to sort of mirror our role models. And what better way than the teachings of the Ahlul Bayt, you know, with regards to how they were so, you know, selfless, even in the most testing and challenging times.  So when we're going through sort of struggles, when we're going through problems, we easily can get carried away with this day and age thinking that it's modern, even though Islam accepts certain rules and regulations. But actually if you look at the teachings and how they lived in those times, if we had more empathy, more sympathy for each other and one another and bring upon compassion instead of just complaining and, you know, never having enough and always wanting more, then, you know, our households and our communities will be a lot more stronger. Yeah. And if we teach our children as well to be so selfless with each other, then that can help them to grow up to be that much of a better person. I hear you saying the word selfless. I'm not, because that wasn't the main thing. And you know, today it's so common to be narcissists. So it's exactly, it's not just about posting online about yourself, but it's actually the whole concept, the mind about me, that even parents themselves are not even taking consideration of their wives and children or their husbands. And they're just thinking that they're going to move forward and succeed in life because they're just going to put themselves first.  And if this is how your concept is and this is your way of living, then obviously look at your life and see that obviously it's not going anywhere for those reasons. So that's really important and we are struggling in the community today with all the technology, with all the knowledge, with all the advancements, because the essence is not being taught. The psyche is not in our homes. That's why we're not even teaching our children is the proper way. We're just making them go there, dress in black, you know, recite what they need to, you know, perform them the sheets and have the best voices. But at the same time, are we actually living it? Yeah, so I think it's probably time to go back to basics and raise our children by the teachings of the Ahl-e-Baits and. Yeah. And what are the teachings of the Ahl-e-Baits? You know, it's very simple.  It's about being selfless. It's about putting the other person first and you, whoever you may be, the husband, the wife, you know, you have to give a hundred percent. Not depending on what the other person does, but just the fact that that's your values and that's your belief.  So we've got to look at ourselves as, as parents, especially, we have to understand what do we represent? And we only know that if we actually learn what are the teachings? What are each and every Imam, you know, bringing to to help us, you know, to actually overcome whatever challenges that we have? How do they look at their challenges and how do they overcome it? And in in our day, it's so easy to sort of get carried away with such simple things and make it so big. So when our children see us raising concerns, which is not important, and then we complain that, you know, they're not being raised and we have troubled some teenagers, it's only because they're reflecting us. Yeah, I think that the ultimate lesson you can learn from the imams as well as the selflessness is sacrifice. And that's what a lot of people dismiss. No one does that today. And it's always even the small things you can sacrifice. Just sacrifice what you want for something else that the whole family want or your brother would want or your sister would want. So it's just a simple, simple thing. People are not willing to sacrifice anymore. No parents are not willing to sacrifice their own children. And then when the adult, when the child turns into an adult and he's not willing to sacrifice some of his time to come and see his family or his parents, the parents are confused as to why this has happened or why their child's turned out that way. I mean, Islam teaches to respect your parents, to be good to your families and this and that.  But at the same time, we've got to show them that you want them to respect you. You show respect. You want them to love you. You show love.  So when they look for trustworthiness, they see it in their in their parents. They know that their parents never lie. They know that they parent when they make a promise, they keep it, you know, things like that. So when they have strong values within the foundations of that household, then and which is carried, you know, from the teachings of the Ahlul Bayt, then then only they themselves will mirror that in their own lifetime. And if no one's saying we're going to get perfect children, they're going to make mistakes, but they're going to know that it's actually right or wrong and they're going to come back out of that, you know, knowing that we need to correct ourselves and we're there to support them as parents, to help them, you know, raise that awareness and, you know, keep them interested, knowing that this is the path that they have to follow. But we have to follow that first as parents and even a message to parents, even if the child doesn't turn out the way that you would want them to. The fact that you have done all these you've taken steps and you've done your best and you follow the teachings of the Ahlul Bayt, at least if they do turn out differently, you can't blame yourself to a certain extent.  Yeah, you will not go wrong, but just have reassurance.  And it's all fair and well to say that, you know, we're going there to ask for something, but it starts from here. You have to set the standard by being a certain way first. What am I doing that's not getting me what I want? When you're reading your Salah, when you're giving charity, when you're performing certain things that we have to do, are we doing it wholeheartedly or are we just ticking the boxes? You know, are we just seeing our kids and our parents that everyone can see that this is what we're doing and we can speak about it when we're talking generally? When you're in Salah, it should really be like meditation. It should be so revitalizing. But do we actually feel that afterwards? Because we don't give ourselves even a minute before to reflect that this is our intention. So things like that, it only takes sometimes a few seconds to sit in your Salah before you actually perform it, to actually take control of yourself and to focus that this is what I'm doing with the intent of love, not because it's said and put upon me. You know, all we carry when we go away is our good deeds, but our good deeds come from our intentions and our intentions has to be from our heart, which is pure. And even though we're given free will and good, you know, free choices, there's consequences for our choices and we can only make the right choices if we have the right values and beliefs. We don't understand our values and beliefs because we are conforming to society. We're conforming to what the community says instead of the real belief. The Ahlul Bayt was there years ago, but what they stand for and what they represent people even in today's day and age with the modern psychology, I can reflect to it to say that that's actually what was taught then. But we're naming it differently. So you're talking about intentions earlier. Is it a good idea to share our intentions and our thoughts, the good intentions and the good thoughts with our children? You were saying just before the Salah or before a good deed. Is that would that be a good idea? It's it's all about your timing and how how old your kids are. You know, it doesn't have to be every day, but it's good to do that. Absolutely. It's good to show that you can speak out loud. It's not just do that you're reading. It's actually you speaking to Allah. You're speaking, you know, with the real love and feeling because then the children will understand it a lot better and they themselves will feel it. Yeah, because the reason I asked this is because you see a lot of parents who are so pious and so close to Allah. Yet they seem so far away from their children because they probably I'm not sure what what they think, but they probably feel that they just want to get close to Allah. So they have less time to speak to their children. I'm not really sure what goes on. But you do see a lot of families like that. Well, that's lack of understanding, you know, we can be close to Allah. But if you have to be close to Allah, you have to seek knowledge and seeking knowledge is, you know, you want to get close to Allah, then you get close to the Prophet and the family peace be upon him and his family, you get close to knowing what exactly they represented, how they loved their family. Family is such a blessing. People do not understand the meaning of it. You know, people separate all the time. People have conflict. People have, you know, sort of like struggles within marriages. But at the same time, if you knew the blessing of what a family brings, you'll never, ever let that go because that's the strength that the Ahlul Bayt had even in small numbers, which they carried. And that's why we're carrying that forward today because of, you know, the love that they had for each other, the loyalty and the commitment. Just because you've said something years ago doesn't mean it's broken because you feel differently tomorrow or the years later on. That brings us back to sacrifice and selflessness. You know, sometimes what you want is something else, but you've got your family now. That's what your priority. That's what you need to concentrate on. That's what you need to nurture. So that's what that's where the sacrifice and the selflessness comes in. And people complain all the time. They're not getting the right job. They're not getting the amount of finance that they want. They're not having the most happiest fulfilled lives. But even research have shown in studies that, you know, people in LA compared to people in Calcutta, for example, living in the slums can have the same level of happiness. And why is that? Because the people in Calcutta have at least the value of family within them. You know, so it just goes to show that, you know, it's not about having success as in like materialistic things. It's the family. It's the people that you turn to. It's the people that you can trust and give you support and safety. And this is what the Ahl al-Bayt teaches. When you're bringing children into the world, you've got to give them that. It's not just providing materialistic things. It's not even giving them, you know, the secular education. It's giving them the Islamic education. And it's not just sending them to Arabic school. Arabic school is just an icing on the cake. You have to practice that at home every day. Yeah, yeah. A lot of parents do it. I feel those four hours is enough to the Arabic school is going to give them all the Islamic teachings that the child needs. Absolutely not. People don't realize that our religion is an everyday practice and it can be even more so with the right ways, with today's psychology of patience and sacrifice and a better relationships, you know, building that even in challenging times, we don't need to oppose people. We don't have to be horrible to people, even in the most challenging of situations and times, you know, just because, you know, you think that you in a particular situation, you can break relationships, it doesn't work that way. And our children see that in us and we cannot, you know, say that we see up and where the hijab and where black and stand in front and hold the Imam Hussein flag on one occasion. And then, yeah, the second or third day later after the Ashura, you know, and go thinking that this is normal life, it doesn't work that way. Yeah, that's a complete contradiction. Yes, we cannot be hypocritical about the way in which we live as Muslims. And the problems that are arising today is because of the breakdown in the family unit and it's more and more. And the family unit is the most important, you know, station that you can build. It's the most important foundation for not just your home, but for your community, for even outside communities to actually learn from.  You know, things are allowed in Islam like divorce and lots of other things. But is it right for you? And what are the consequences of that? Under what circumstances? Under what circumstances? Now people are not willing to even, like you said, sacrifice or even, you know, put other people first because they just want things for themselves because all they see is themselves and then they want success. And years go by and they're still in the same situation. They're happy. Am I where I want to be? Is this what I want myself? Well, it's not going to happen if your children are not happy. Me, me, me. Whereas if the person stops and asks himself, will they be happy? Will they be, will they be nurtured? What's the best for them? Exactly. Nobody asks that question. The imams, you know, used to live in times where they used to see their cities destroyed and, you know, their families being tortured and the way in which they would respond and the way in which they would react would be so calm, would be, you know, not having not any emotion, but holding back their emotion. Nowadays, we have youngsters who love Imam Hussein so much. And it's amazing to see that, you know, that strength and the power and that feeling that they have. But then they go on the street and they'll see someone that doesn't respect the imams or doesn't respect the month of Muharram and they want to fight with them. And that's not the way to behave. That's not the teachings. You know, that is obviously a very extreme example that I've used, but I have heard it a lot. That happens a lot. And it happens a lot. After the late Majalis. Yeah, your attitude should not just be when you're in the Majalis.  You give them benefit of the doubt and you actually still nurture them to show them that, you know, this is not what, you know, we represent, even if they actually saying that what you're doing is is laughable. You cannot get angry with them because it's their lack of knowledge, their lack of understanding. And it takes it takes a lot of a person to sort of create and build that habit to sort of control the emotion and that anger because you love Imam Hussein. But then see what the imams did in those testing times, which was worse than what we're facing. And that's the teaching of the Ahlul Bayt. And we can't even go home and be nice to our husbands or nice to our wives or nice to our children after the Majalis or help our families when they're struggling. And we follow the Shi'a and we call ourselves the Shi'a. That's not how the households should be in today. And it should be a lot easier, even better than before, to be able to do that. We're much more capable. Yeah. And there's not a lot more accessible knowledge as well now. Absolutely. But like I said, the knowledge is there. It's not about the knowledge, knowledge we can Google. We can Google the whole library if we wanted, you know, but it's about knowing how to take that knowledge and use it. Understanding it properly, taking the right meaning from it, and not just picking and choosing what you want for the moment as well. Being fair about it, that there might be things that you have to call out on yourselves.   Yeah, the main part of raising children is how you act. Teenagers are not a problem. They're not a problem at all, you know, they are the most. In fact, I think it's easy to raise teenagers because they have that understanding and that deep meaning that you can actually interact with them. It's just parents don't have the skill. They don't have the mindset. They don't have the psychology. And the psychology is not just about coaching, it's not about NLP, it's Islamic teaching. And I bring it into NLP and coaching without the Islamic factor in it because it's already been there.  But we've known this for years, but we still don't use it. Yeah. I mean, you're thinking about teenagers and how a lot of parents don't know how to communicate with teenagers and it's very simple in Islam. This is the three stages. Absolutely. And it tells us how to communicate with each stage. The three stages are extremely, extremely simple. And it's been said that, you know, from naught to seven years old, the child is carefree. And, you know, you should really like, you know, guide them and support them in an area of, you know, bringing awareness by maybe having Quran in the background, by maybe having them recite a line or two. But only after the age of seven, then they should be the one where they're gonna be actually taking orders from parents. They're gonna be taking orders from their teachers from the age of after seven. Yes. And then from age, say, 15, 16 over is when they're gonna be taking on more responsibility. Obviously, there's a lot more to it within the each stages. But even I find in the Arabic schools, they're not even conforming to this because the pressure is put on children under the age of seven to learn things which is beyond their development stage. And even in the English society, in most of European countries which are successful is only because the children have started school later. And I know that nowadays parents are working and they want, you know, child mind and, you know, they want sort of like the children away from the house on a Saturday so they can go shopping or have tea and it's another school day for them. But actually you're missing out on all opportunity and I'm not saying don't send them to Arabic school but make sure that the Arabic school is teaching them through play, for example. They understand the children's development. They understand the mindset. Why put pressure on a four, five, six year old to learn sura when they shouldn't really be doing it at that age? And some of them can and some of them can't but remember what is gonna do to them when they themselves are in that young stage, you know, compared to the others, being forced and being stood out and put in a line where they're all reciting half of them can and half of them can't. What does it do for them? Conquering, petition, yeah. And then they burnt out by the time they actually need to actually learn it. So we need to, as adults, as parents, even if you're not a parent, take responsibility as an adult for your community to advise, you know, schools, Arabic schools, the teachers, the curriculum that, you know, this is the shia, this is the teaching, go easy. You know, go easy because you want them to flourish in the long term, not just for that moment. Yeah. Well, we're coming to the end of the first part of the show. Hopefully you can tell us more about the three stages because it sounds very interesting in the next show. And hopefully after the show we'll be taking some of your questions. Thank you very much. Salaamu alaikum and welcome to the second part of our show, Making a House a Home. Okay, Fahima, so we have some questions coming in from the viewers. Okay. Shall I start off with the first one? Of course, yes. So this is from Sister Rukaya. She wants to know how do we raise our children using the past imams experience? Well, the past imams experience was all about, like we discussed earlier, was sacrifice, but also it's mainly about taking a different perspective on the situation that we face. You know, a lot of the times when we face with challenges, we sort of say, why is it us? Why is it happening to us?  We're not faced with testings and, you know, obstacles in life. And I think from an early age, as parents, we want to protect our children.  And the earlier that you can sort of slowly implement that, you know, you're not going to get everything that you want and it's okay. And if you're not going to get what you want and you're going to be faced with challenges, it's not because there's something wrong with you or there's something bad onto you or you're being punished for it. It's just that life is a test. That's a constant saying that life is a test. So those teachings from the Ahlul Bayt that life is a test is that we have to accept that, you know, this life is going to be tough and we're going to just be tougher. Even when you were faced in school, we are among so many different characters and people that may or may not like us or teachers that may or may not give us what we want and, you know, faced with all these different challenges. So then the teachings really are about, you know, implementing to your children and expressing to them that this world is just the start, you know, of the real world, the Akhira. So you can tell them that, you know, this is a trial, it's a test, but it doesn't mean that you're not going to be, you know, having a wonderful life, but we're going to come across many obstacles in every stage, in every age so that we need to be ready for it. And what do we do in that sense? Well, the Imams, they had patience. They accepted and they also gave benefit of the doubt to even their enemies. You know, we don't just fight back or we don't just react. We respond and we understand the other side. So those things are really important to teach our children from a young age so they become tougher, not just physically, but, you know, the mental side of toughness is the most vital for raising any child. So you used very important keywords here, just accepting, understanding, benefit of the doubts. These are all things that we should teach our children and bring it from the Imams and teach it to our children. Absolutely. And again, it said, well, when one of the Imams was always imprisoned, a lot of them were at the time and we would look at it as, oh, you know, we're not living life, we're not being able to do what we want, but they used that as an opportunity to actually, you know, practice the religion more. They were actually happy. They were actually saying that one Imam, the seventh Imam, Barqa al-Alayhi salam, used to be like, at least now I've got solitude to just praise Allah. Now, do you think in this day and age, if we were put in that situation, we would actually think in that way? Any sort of obstacle that comes our way, it's a big problem, it's drama, it's why me, we want life to be perfect and we live every day with those complaints. Negativity are then, positivity. And Allah's there to test us in order to bring out the best in us in order for us to grow. So when we look at trials in that light, then you know what, even when they say, you know, with hardship there's ease, it's not after hardship there's ease, it's within that hardship there is ease. So you're still going through the problems, but somehow when you believe in Allah and you practice and you have that patience and you have that trust to what called, you have that complete trust that it's life happens for us, not to us, then you know, within that situation, it becomes calming, it becomes something that you can actually overcome without even, that's the miracle, that's the essence of a believer and that should be taught to your children because you need to sit and explain and you need to give them examples of even things that have happened in your lifetime, you know, with situations in your family and that can actually help them understand depending on the stages that they're at. So what kind of acceptance, yeah. Okay, I have another question from Sister Fatima, and she said, what is the importance of the lessons of the Ehli Bay to our own family homes? To our own family homes, it's about really showing lots of kindness and empathy. We always picking on each other, especially when we live together for a long time, it's hard. You know, when two different people have lived together for five, 10 years, you know, it can be boredom, it could be monotonous, it could be even some sort of resentment because you know, one can see the other not putting their weight or you know, not being to the level of the standard if one is doing well and the other one is. So, you know, I think it's about always having acceptance, always having the kind of kindness towards one another because when you're in a family constantly seeing each other on a daily basis, that is testing times, that is struggle, and to constantly bring in, you know, that compassion and love and empathy, you're just gonna get in each other's nerves. You can't constantly be loving, you can't. So you need to know how to separate that. You need time apart, you need holidays, you need, you know, different types of learning, you need to sort of experience different types of learning and to be grateful for what you have because we're constantly comparing our household to other people's households and we only see the surface. You know, even what we post and we see online, that is just a moment and that's exactly. Everyone posts the perfect moment.  You know, these things cannot be taken for granted because most importantly, we have our health and we've always remembered that. And secondly, we need to remember that we've been given so many opportunities that we don't take and we're teaching our children the most valuable lessons in life and it's moral conduct and that's been totally mis, you know, sort of like disregarded, misused, teaching discipline, teaching respect, teaching how to behave in different situations. These are the things and the lessons that we need to bring to our homes and telling them stories of the prophets, of the imams, telling them stories, not just of the general things of the tragedy, there's so much more to it and not just in the month of Muharram. You've got to continue this throughout the year. You have to learn these things throughout and bring it to your house on a daily basis. There are certain attributes to each imam. Exactly. And we don't know most of them. Most of them are not. Or our children don't know most of them, yeah. So those things are the things that I would say to bring into your house, you know, talk constantly and maybe in the month of Muharram it's probably not even the ideal time because it's very much ritual, it's very much listening to lectures, but then take away from it during the rest of the months and prepare before that as well and say this is what we're coming towards. Just like in Ramadan, you know, people just say it's so difficult to fast because we only start on the first day of Ramadan, whereas you've got, you know, Rajab Shahaban, you know, to plan, to prepare, to even prepare your body with fasting. And when you do it in advance, it becomes so easy in Ramadan. It's the same with Muharram. It's the same with anything in life that you do, you have to prepare yourself.  So when it comes to our religion, when it comes to our teaching, when it comes to our learning, when it comes to our raising our children, it's constant preparation, constant organization, constant learning, constant seeking knowledge. When there's an awareness, when there's an interest, you're gonna want to actually take the next steps. Even if you know how to find it, the answers will come to you and it will, especially when it's something good, don't tell me that, you know, your door is not gonna be answered because you wanna raise beautiful children and you wanna give them the knowledge, it will come to you. Okay, I have a question from a brother and he wants to know, how do we raise our children to respect us as parents? Yeah, I mean, we have to remember our children are human too and they need to be treated how we need to be treated.  It's the law of attraction.  So in Islam, we only talk about law of attraction in the last 10, 20 years, but it's been in Islam for a long time.  They have their rights as well. You know, you are not just there to just, you know, have babies after babies and then that's it. There's responsibility for what that comes with it and it's not just about giving them a good name, giving them, you know, security and safety and, you know, the right psychology.  So there's positive discipline and when you discipline them with love and kindness saying that if you do something wrong, you will be in trouble, but I'm the one person that's gonna help you and I'm the one person that you can turn to support you so that they know that they will come to you knowing that they've done something and they're gonna get told off, but at the same time, you're the one to pick them up, exactly. And the respect will be there when you're honest with them, when you're open with them and you keep your promise.  It's even in business, you have to invest. So your legacy are your children. It's not the business that you're gonna build, it's not the big house that you're going to buy, it is the time and the effort and the love and the conduct and the virtues that you're going to show them. And when you show them from a young age, they will show you when they're older and that's how it's carried forward to adulthood and you don't have to tell them that, oh, you gotta respect your parents, they automatically will come to you because the love is, you know, it's been given to them, so they're gonna give it back to you.  So it's always, again, the small things, isn't it? Of course it is. And it's not just the one thing, you know, the most simplest lie and the most simplest promise makes a big difference and they remember that. They remember that, they remember it for years to come as well. So it's not about being there all the time because I know people always say, we're not there all the time, we're working moms, but then there are dads that also have to be there. They also have a plot to play and they do play a part a lot of the times and they're not there all the time but they can make an even bigger impact because it's what they're putting into it and how they're putting into it. So the conversations that they have, the games that they play, you know, the interaction that they have, you know, all these things make a big difference and that creates love and it creates that connection and it creates that, the respect that you can have for each other because of the way in which you talk to one another and if there's something that goes wrong, you know, you've got to know the skills of how to set that straight. You've got to be strict. You can't just love, you know, because you're working and you've got to spoil them. You can't just love because you've got to be strict because this is what the religion said. The religion does not say these things. There is a balance and you've got to figure out what that balance is so that it's, according to the child's development stage, it's according to what the Islam says and the psychology that you need to be in. Okay, thank you. I have one more question and it's from an anonymous person and it says, how do I deal with my children who are coming of age when interacting with their cousins of the opposite agenda who are also coming of age? That's a very interesting question and we always have the religious factor that comes into it and they are very strict rules about that and when you say coming of age, let's just make it clear it's about children that are like age nine, 10, who are either wearing hijab or about to wear hijab and obviously for boys it's a lot more older but at the same time, they need to be aware of the differences that girls will interact differently with boys and as parents, as grandparents, whoever, relatives in the house, I think a lot of the times we know the rules that they shouldn't really be kept alone and when they play, it should be where it's not so much physical involvement but generally at that age, children are not aware of the things that we are aware of and if we're gonna make it too obvious and if we're also gonna make them too separate, we can actually create something which isn't there and trigger the awareness and I think it's not healthy as well because they are still family and it's innocence that you're taken away from them so be careful how you do things because if you put too much restrictions on them as well, like, oh, they cannot sit together, okay, no one's gonna sit that close but there's nothing wrong in sitting together and we're sitting as a family. Next to the car or on the sofa watching something. Exactly, there's nothing absolutely wrong and you're sitting in as a family, you're together having dinner or you're watching television or you're looking at a game or whatever that may be, there's absolutely no harm but when you put that restriction and when you go out into the real world, we're living in the Western world and that happens, then they're gonna think they're doing something wrong and they're not. And also it's a bit of a confusion when it comes to coming of age because the girls are nine years old whereas the boys are around 15 or something like that. So when the girl is nine, the girl cousin who's nine and the boy cousin who's also nine, it can get a bit confusing because the boy still has no idea. They have no idea and they need to be children, they need to play, there's nothing wrong in the times of our moms, in the times in the Hanoi Bates, they didn't put and make children to feel uncomfortable. They didn't make them feel that they were doing something wrong. And the way you do it and the way you say it is not to make them feel like, oh, there's something there that's, because that's their innocent mind, we have that mind that we... And then if you do it from a young age and they feel like they're doing something wrong when they go and sit in the train or the tube station or in school with their classmates, that they're gonna feel like a little bit odd and then they'll do something which they think, maybe at the age of 40, that is not appropriate because they've been so restricted from such a young age. So you need to be careful. And you can also be confused if you can't sit for children because especially with cousins, because one minute they're allowed to play together and then the next minute is like, no, you can't play with her anymore, you can't sit too close to her anymore. I think it's confusing. So the rules are there. Yes, I understand that there shouldn't be any physical contact and they shouldn't be left alone, but it's the way in which you say it. You say it as if you're protecting them. This is your oldest sister now. She needs protecting. And we all as humans need our private space. And I teach that not just to like, you can't just teach that to females, you've got to do that for boys as well. It doesn't matter. We all have our private space. They don't get second to school cow anyway. So there is this personal space that needs to be respected no matter what. And maybe that's the age that you can introduce that to and say it in those terms that this is my personal space and this is what needs to be left in that space. And even in play and even in any interaction and if it, you know, there needs to be that distance.   Explain to them to their young minds. Exactly, it's the young mind. You need to understand that's why it comes about. Empathy is not about, you know, showing sympathy. Sympathy is different. Empathy is about putting yourself in their shoes, understanding what they're going through. And there are stages to do it and there are ways to do it. And you can actually make them wrong by even saying it in a bad way. You can bring out something that they never thought of before.  He's just gonna completely not understand what's going on. He might even cry. Yeah, yeah. You know, only if they're in school, how are they gonna understand that? And yeah, he'll go and play. It's about showing, you know, respect. It's not just about parents and children. It's about other children with other children. Teach them respect between each other. Maybe that's a better way of showing it. You know, there's personal space, giving people, you know, that sort of sense that they can play, but from a distance, which is actually better for them. So it's the way in which you explain it. So the Islamic factor does come in. There is definitely restrictions. There is definitely a difference when you reach that age. The way in which you do it is so important. And don't forget, you have an adult mind. So, you know, don't put that adult mind of your thoughts into that child too soon. Yeah. Because it can have an adverse effect. Of course. Okay, Fahima, thank you very much for being here today. We've learned a lot and insha'Allah, you'll be back with us soon. And thank you to our viewers. Mayasalama. If you've been affected by the following topics raised in this episode, please contact your local GP or Fahima Muhammad on coachfm1athotmail.com.


Hi there, good morning London. I'm Gavin Heyman, as we know, and I'm going to tell you how myself and my team at the Open Contracting Partnership are trying to open up trillions of dollars of government deals with companies worldwide. Now, if I press the right button, good.  These were often secret sales of state assets by corrupt dictators at knockdown prices. I've never got anywhere near the heights or the haircuts of Bernstein and Woodward from all the present's men, but hopefully you sort of get the idea of what I was trying to do. And let's face it, public contracting and deal-making, unlike political scandals, are boring and complicated. And yet they're also vital. It's the brooks and mortar of public benefit where government money, taxpayers' money, by us, gets converted into the roads, the schools, the hospitals, the other assets that citizens really care about and notice when things go wrong. And furthermore, the amounts of money that's spent in it are absolutely mind-boggling. To give you some idea, the total spending, the best guess on government contracting around the world each year is $9.5 trillion. You're going to take a dollar bill and stack them, that would take you all the way to the moon and back. That's a whopping 15% of global domestic product. It's also the public activity that's most vulnerable to corruption and also just a massive inefficiency. So personally, after years of picking up the pieces when things have gone wrong, I became really interested in how we could actually make deal-making across government cleaner, better, more efficient and more transparent. That's why I jumped to the opportunity to join the over-contracting partnership. It's a collaboration between governments, companies, civil society and technologists to open up all the dollars and deals around the world. The heart of our approach is a public data standard that actually describes the key bits of information and how to release them in an open source. It tells you about what, when and how to release the information and it links together the entire chain of government deal-making from tenders and planning through to the contracts and then very importantly their implementation and assessment. It takes all the documents and the paper archives and the bits and pieces of paper flushing around government and shares the most open structured data that allows you to really dig into the information, connects together the fragmented silos across government, allows them to be reused and reshared and also attaches unique identifiers to that to allow you to do that. We manage that as a global good and we run a global help desk. I think you were hearing from Ben earlier on this morning who's one of the people there working with us assisting publishers. We're working with about ten governments around the world including the Mexican government, the Philippines, Vietnam, Zambia, Canada and the UK and Ukraine. We'll also look at how we open up public procurement and public contracting across cities such as Mexico City and Detroit. Anyway, enough of the theory. Let's get more into the practice as to how things are working on the ground. An example would be in Ukraine where there's the Maidan revolution in the winter of 2013 and now the government's trying to work with businesses and civic technologies. It's used the open contracting data standards right at the heart of a new public contracting and tendering process called ProZorro. They named it ProZorro because it means transparent in Ukrainian. Secondly, it sounds like Zorro. The results so far have been pretty impressive. You can now see all government contracts related to public tendering and contracting openly and freely accessible online. In the first three months of running the system, the government has been saving approximately 10 to 20% on its tenders related to what it was previously spending through its budgets. And competition by businesses has increased measurably. And they're now scaling up ProZorro across the Ukrainian government's entire spending and deal making process to replace the old Soviet system. An example comes from Paraguay and here the government's developed a series of visualisations just giving key procurement activities by year, by entities, by amount and by department. So you can actually see what is going on in contracts, what the spending is and what the results and deliver will be over time. Now, it's still early days for open contracting and there's going to be a huge investment needed to help make users, be it civic technologists, be it companies or be it government take full advantage of the information, but we're hugely optimistic. And let me give you an example of impact. This is from Slovakia. Now there was a series of Slovak government scandals that led to popular protests people out in the streets in relation to high level corruption. A result that Slovakia changed the law, it wasn't going to be an official government contract, it wasn't legal until it was made public. And the results of that have been amazing. Something like 8% of citizens have now actually looked at government contracts online. Examples of waste, fraud and abuse have come to light. A classic example of being hospital scanners that were being sold by a shell company for twice the usual price by a government politician. Those have all been ended. Expensive government contracts on seafood, cognac and luxury cars have all been cancelled after they were picked up and published by the media. Perhaps the most interesting thing though is that business have been a key user's information. Businesses love to see what government contracts look like, they predict what's coming up next, how to bid and how to provide better and more innovative services to government. A result of that has actually been an uptick in public contracting and the number of companies bidding for public contracts. It's actually doubled over time from about 1.6 per tender to about 3.7. So if I can recap quickly at the end, over contracting can help save government a fortune in time and money. It can also help create a better and fairer playing field for businesses. It can unlock public innovation, it can deter corruption and hopefully improve service delivery. We can all become a bit more like Bernstein and Woodward and actually dig into the data. The minister is still in the room. I'd love to pitch to you that UK could do more on opening up its public contracting as well. At the end I just want to say that the future of contracting is open contracting. Thank you very much.


Redwall! Even if what I think is that it sucks. Like I said that on the internet. Hey guys it's Leanna and I'm here today with my November TBR. Did I learn anything from October? I learned not to put 30 books on my TBR. Instead I have, however many this is, I actually haven't counted 19 books, which sounds like a lot normally. But after having read 30, however many in October, this is nice and light. What do I mean to be completely honest? Like I am not going to like force myself to read all of these because October was nuts. I am pooped. I want to have fun reading. So we're just gonna do for sure the obligations and then as many of the others as I can comfortably get through. So in no particular order, here are the books that I will be reading in November. First up I have Redwall by Brian Jakeways. I, this is super random, but so I was shopping for fall mugs as one does and I stumbled upon it of course ordered a mug that has sort of like a fall scene with some like mice and like acorns and fall things. And of course the first thing it made me think of was Redwall, which then made me think of and realize that I hadn't been thinking of Redwall in a very long time. I was like, oh yeah, Redwall. I forgot that existed. I read a bunch of the Redwall books when I was in elementary school. I love Redwall. And then I just like totally forgot that it existed. So I decided that I just really wanted to revisit Redwall, like literally because of that mug. I was like, you know what? I want to reread Redwall and it's a really fall vibey kind of story. So I have here the first Redwall book and I might read a few more in the coming months. We'll see how I feel. But definitely reading this one just because like the nostalgia bug got me. It just called me. I was like, Redwall, does that sound perfect right now? Speaking of children's and middle grade literature, the next thing I've got is Wondersmith, the calling of Morgan Crow. This is the second book in the Morgan Crow series. Okay, I finally think I figured it out. The series is not called The Trials of Morgan Crow. The first book is called Nevermore, The Trials of Morgan Crow. This is Wondersmith, The Calling of Morgan Crow. So I think it's just the Morgan Crow series. I'm glad we could learn about this together. I invited you to read Nevermore with Vish from Books with V and we will be reading Wondersmith together as well. I think we're going to read the third one together as well. If not, I've just decided that we are and you better be okay with that, Vish. Yeah, I really, really enjoyed Nevermore. It is a fun middle grade story with honestly the best thing about Nevermore. I mean, I think it's good. I don't want to make it sound like it's not good, but like my favorite thing about Nevermore is Morgan Crow. She's such a feisty and snarky character, like from borderline page one, I was like, oh, I like her. Okay, I think I'm gonna like this.  So I'm really looking forward to the second installment and to buddy reading it with Vish. Next up I have, actually, let's do this one next. Speaking of middle grade, I'm actually reading a lot of middle grade. The Blades and Bodies Rippers book club pick Mara's choice is Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan. This is the spinoff series from Percy Jackson. So Percy Jackson is all Greek and Roman gods. And then Magnus Chase is Norse gods. So basically Mara is throwing out the best hope she's got of me lanking Rick Riordan by like dangling Norse mythology in front of me. I really hope for Mara's that everyone else is saying that I don't hate this. I would like to like Uncle Rick's books. So I'm, I am looking forward to this and I'm going in with, with hope and with enthusiasm and very much going to just very, I hope, I mean, I can't make myself like something, but I'm very positively disposed towards this. It will receive the benefit of every doubt. So I would like to like this, but regardless, you will see how we all feel about it in the live show on Mara's channel, which is a little early this month because of the holidays. So it'll be the Saturday before American Thanksgiving. So come join us for that chat where we'll all find out if Uncle Rick is for me or not. Next up I have The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson. So I read the Trulidivius series and really liked it and then I didn't know that there would be more books in that world, I guess it's weird to say in that world because it's not fantasy. But I believe this is a spinoff, like that mystery wrapped up in the third Trulidivius book. But I think this is a spinoff about one of the characters from Trulidivius, I believe. I mean this is very much like obviously in keeping with the Trulidivius song. I think it says on it that it's a Trulidivius novel. I feel like I said that on the internet. Anyway, so that's why I'm reading it because I like Trulidivius and I finished it and then there's a wait, there's more. So I was like, all right, well let's do that too, even if it is purple. Lots of purple books in my stack.  All four of those. Oh, who even am I anymore? Next up I have the next two that me and Heather are tackling in our Hogarth Shakespeare project and that is The Merchant of Venice and the Retailing Shylock is My Name by Howard Jacobson. I really like The Merchant of Venice. I think it's, it's not my favorite Shakespeare play. We already did that one. But it is one of my favorites. I do really love The Merchant of Venice and I do think The Merchant of Venice, more so than some of the others, I, like this makes sense to me why they would choose that as something to retell, like I think it lends itself to, well actually me and Heather were talking about this in our previous live when we talked about The Winter's Tale about how there are certain things about The Merchant of Venice that I'm like, I wonder if they just will omit that because I really struggled to see how you would include that in a modern retelling. But in any event, we will find out how they tackle it and whether or not it's good and then we will chat about it live on my chances. So please join us. Next up I have the Dragon Republic by RF Kwong. One of my goals for the year was to finally finish the Poppy War series and I realized that I have very few months left to do that so I pretty much have to read The Dragon Republic in November and the, what's it called, the Burning God in December if I want to achieve this. This is supposed to be even darker than the first one, so Geronimo! Next up I have The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothes which is obviously a reread. I actually read this last November as well. It's just a very November-y book. It's also one of my all-time favorite books on a shelf that is out of frame right now. I have like 10 different copies of it. So yeah, Bethany and I will be rereading The Name of the Wind because it's also one of her favorites and we want to do a podcast episode on The Name of the Wind. So not that we need to read it again but why not? It's just a great time of year for it. So very much looking forward to hanging out in the world of the Cancular Chronicle once again. Next up I have Hamlet by Maggie O'Farrell. This, please stop falling. This is a book about Shakespeare's, William Shakespeare's son who whose death is said to have very much affected him and I think is a lot to do with why he named Hamlet Hamlet. I believe Hamlet is named after Hamnet. This is just supposed to be an absolutely immaculate book. I've heard nothing but praise for it since it came out. It's supposed to be quite, you know, I mean it's about Shakespeare's dead son. I'm not sure if it's taking place before he dies or while he's dying or right after he's dead. I don't know. I tried not to know too much about it. All I know is that everyone says it's like absolutely stunning. I love Shakespeare and I also like torturing myself with with bitter and bitter sweet books so many tears will probably be shed. Looking forward to this. Next up I have The Starless Sea by Stop. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. The author of The Night Circus. I read The Night Circus in October and I figure I may as well get around to The Starless Sea as well finally see what this lady is all about. She's only written those two books as far as I know right? Also by Erin Morgenstern. The Night Circus. Okay so I mean this is an absolutely stunning book and I have two editions of it. I have this regular UK hardcover for it which I kind of think is prettier than the Waterstones edition which is very similar. I mean it's just an absolutely stunning book so for that reason alone I really hope to like it so that I don't want to get rid of a book that is this beautiful because I hate the story. I've heard very mixed things about this. I could see myself loving it. I could see myself hating it so we'll see how I do with it. Next up I have The Fourth Book in The Chronicles of Prudain by White Alexander. The uh this one is Taryn the Wanderer or Taryn Wanderer? I thought it was the wanderer. I guess it's just Taryn Wanderer. That's kind of a silly name. Anyway um this is the fourth installment four out of five um so I'll read the fifth one December and we'll call it a day. I've been really enjoying my Prudain journey. I read a lot of White Alexander when I was a kid but never The Chronicles of Prudain but I have seen the Black Cauldron movie many many times so I've always wanted to read these books. One of my goals for the year was to finish The Chronicles of Prudain so that's what I'm doing and I'm excited about doing it. Next up I have A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martens as you may already know as you probably should already know. Myself and Jimmy from The Fantasy Network and Alex from Alex Nieves are buddy reading and doing a read-along of The Song of Ice and Fire books. We did Game of Thrones. We did the live show on my channel in October where we talked about Game of Thrones for three hours and got quite drunk. So in November we will be talking about A Clash of Kings and this time we're going to be on Alex's channel. Exact date and time TBD but uh we will towards the end of the month for sure be discussing A Clash of Kings and I am super stoked to continue this reread of A Song of Ice and Fire. It is just so good to be back. Where it all began to where to like remembering like oh my god it actually was so good it is so good and then we'll always have the books no matter what the show did we'll always have the books. Anyway stoked for this stoked to chat with Jimmy and Alex so please join us.  Lady Midnight Bixandra Claire this is the first book in the dark artifices. One of my goals for the year was to start the dark artifices. So I'm starting the dark artifices. This book is really really long which is you know great love that for me. The text isn't super tiny but it's not super big either. That's all I have to say about that. Next up I have Half a King by Joe Abercrombie and Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. These are the first two books in the Shattered Sea trilogy. My patrons and I will be buddy reading Half a King which is actually a reread for me and I put this as one of the options because I realized that I could very duably read everything that Joe Abercrombie has written in the year 2021 because I reread all of the first love books in anticipation of the release of Wisdom of Crowds and then obviously read Wisdom of Crowds. Then I had a Gap Month in which I could have read Half a King but better late than never I realized November and December I could totally knock out these first two books and then in December knock out the third one and then have read everything that man has written in one year. So that's that's gone on here. I always did mean to go on with the series but it's been a minute so I would like to reread this anyway to refresh myself on this world and whatnot and to give it a second chance because I was kind of let down by it the first time. Although I have heard that the second and third books are considerably better so I'm looking forward to some more Abercrombie even if it's not first law.  Air of Nahron which is the third and final book in the Rear Irrevolations which is actually a bind up of two so this is what are the two in here? Winter Tide and Perseplicus so yeah it's a chunky book um but I have been reading the Rear Irrevolations for freaking years and I wanted to finally read or finally finish the Rear Irrevolations so that I can read the Rear Chronicles so that I can read the age of whatever it's called the prequel books that are so so gorgeous and hardcover and and I don't think you can see them behind me anymore I moved them. I haven't been collecting those because they're so pretty and I bought them before I ever knew that they were prequels anything so I just need to finally knock these out and I'm excited because I like these books I just they just keep falling off of my radar my priorities so the prioritizing we're finishing the Rear Irrevolations this year it's happening. Next up I have the book that my patrons are making me vlog for them and that is the Ember Blade by Chris Wooding I really need to start giving my patrons page limits on what they could pick for me so this is 800 pages they assure me that it is spectacularly wonderful that I've been known to shit on things that people think are spectacularly wonderful so we shall see what I think at the very least it's long so if I hate it I'll be hating it for a long time which is never good news but uh I mean if it is epic which I very much hope that it is and epically good then I mean I'm all about a long chunky fantasy book and I can I mean Hob books are not short and I enjoy every second of a Hob book so I very much hope that I like this because this is a long book to be reading if I hate it. Speaking of long books that I might hate next up I have the Eye of the World by Robert Jordan because of course I want to read the book before the show comes out I'm not gonna lie I've been told for a long time now that I probably will not like these books and I don't doubt that I'm also not gonna lie the ads for the show do not thrill me this isn't a situation where like watching the ad for the show makes me go oh actually that looks kind of cool like I want to be into that no the ads for the show make me even less keen but regardless I want to know what I think of this book and then know what I think of the show even if what I think is that it sucks I might vlog this I don't know we'll see obvious reasons for this and last but not least I have the declaration or a declaration of the rights of magicians by HG Perry this was actually sent to me by Bethany because she didn't like it she thought it was really really boring and dry when she was describing it I was like that sounds kind of like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and a lot of people complain about that book being too long and too dry and I love Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and so Bethany was like hey you might like it so she sent it to me I hope I do I love the title I love the concept I mean it is a lot like Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in terms of like placing telling us sort of a magic story but in a placing in a very specific historical time period and then involving like that historical time period so like involving like the economy and tax policy and diplomacy and everything but like with magic because that's kind of what Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell does where it very much tells a story about the Napoleonic war era and about the Napoleonic war but there's magic and there's this whole battle of magic between Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and there's a lot of historical detail and it goes into it and it it definitely took Susanne Clark a long time to research and pull that together so this is anything like that I am keen but um this takes place in the age of enlightenment and we've got Robespierre is a mesmer and we have a weather mage in Toussaint Le Verture and then we have the Prime Minister William Pitt it will require the combined efforts of revolutionaries magicians and abolitionists to unmask this hidden enemy before the world falls to darkness and chaos I mean the sounds dry but a dry that very much appeals to me so it's really all in the execution this concept I am sold I really hope that the execution is as charming as I'm hoping that it will be because if it is it could totally be my new favorite thing and those are all the books that I hope to be reading in November let me know in the comments down below if you've read any of these books if you plan to read these books if you would recommend these books to me or if you would like to discourage me from reading these books whatever you want to let me know I post videos on Saturdays other random times as well but I think Saturdays so like and subscribe join my patreon if you feel so inclined and I'll see you when I see you bye


Welcome to the Everton News Daily, the Premier League fixtures are out. I've done a reaction video so I'll go into it in more detail on there but basically Marco Silva will begin his reign as Everton manager with a trip to malling you on the opening day of the season. Tough game, tough opener, could have been worse but it is a tough opener, Wolves are at a good side. So we're going after two Portuguese managers going head to head on day one. Other notable dates, the Merseyside Derby will be played at Anfield on December 1 and the return game at Gwladyswn Park on March 2. Everton are away on Boxing Day at Burnley at home on New Year's Day against Leicester City and we finished the season with a trip to Tottenham Hotspair, the final game of the season. Everton away day one and away on the last game as well. Like you say, I've done a reaction video to my thoughts on the way the fixtures have fell. So make sure you check that one out, I'll talk more about the games in there.  Rylan Morgan's Evans fitness coach brought in from Crystal Palace under Sam Allardice has left the club. It was expected that he would stay on but he has gone. So I suppose the slate is clean. Duncan Ferguson remains, he's the only one from most of the backroom staff of Sam Allardice. Duncan's been here for a while anyway so not a surprise he's staying but like you say Rylan Morgan has gone and that's all of Sam Allardice's staff out the door. Denise Barra Baxendale has been talking about the weight of expectation as CEO when you're an Evertonian. She says that she feels the pain that we do because she's a fan only she feels it doubly because you get it in the neck from a family and she wants Evans to be the very best. She's been in the role for around about a month now. She's had some big decisions already. You know Day 1 was chasing Sam Allardice and Steve Walsh. She's also restructured the back, you know the board, not board but the backroom. We'll get the board and stuff like that. She's restructured that or she's been part of that restructure. She's brought some changes behind the scenes. They were announced earlier in the week. So you know she's really making herself known. She's been based working at a Finch farm for the last few weeks. She's done fantastic work of course with Evans in the community. So it's going to be interesting to see what she can achieve as we go through the season. It's good to have an Evertonian in charge because it is about time we started acting like the big club we are and we started demanding more of everybody. The fans included because this club has gone far too long without any kind of success and the only way you get success is by aiming for the stars. Marco Silva is apparently considering giving Morgan Snydlan another opportunity at Everton. Snydlan, who is, I was nearly saying, split the fanbase. He hasn't split the fanbase. He pissed the fanbase right off. There's a good player in there, as we saw when he first came in from Manchester United. So a very, very good player in there at Southampton. Didn't really do it at United. Hasn't really done it at Everton. So the first half of his Everton career he did well last season was a right off, really poor. He picked it up the last month or so. So yeah, so Marco Silva potentially going to give him another go. I mean, let me know your thoughts on that. Mine is, I think his attitude has made me kind of go at rather your left. But listen, if the manager is going to back him and he puts a shift in, then I'll back him because we want the best for our football club. And if the manager decides Morgan Snydlan is part of it, then so be it. And we deal with it. We get on with it. We back him and we hope that he fulfills his potential because like I said, there is a good footballer in there. A player linked with a move into Everton, and it's, yeah, listen, it's an interesting link. Is there anything in it? I don't know. It's well cut winner Mario Goethe, who is at Brosiadol, 26-year-old German midfielder linked with a £25 million move to Everton. Arsenal allegedly interested as well. Yeah. He's a very good player, scored the winner in the 2014 World Cup final, of course. Very, very skillful. Number 10, he's a quality footballer. Would he come here? I don't know. I don't know where the links come from, but there you go. It is out there. And that's the thing, isn't it? Once it's out there, it's out there. You know, people are getting a little bit restless at the moment because we haven't done anything, but we know that brands and silver have been planning for a while, so you've just got to kind of let them get on with it and see what happens. One player linked with a move away from Godson today is Mo Bezzich. He apparently is open to a move to Middlesbrat, where he spent the second half of the season on Loneham. He's very, very good by all accounts. Bezzich apparently would consider moving to the Ridderside on a permanent basis. So again, it's a watch this space. And Anthony Robinson has said that he's ready to fight late in Banes for the Everton left-back spot. The young United States left-back, because that's what he is played against France the other night, following on from a good performance in his full debut. Don't know right against France, so, you know, confidence is there. And again, Marco Sildar, Marcel Brands speaking about youth, speaking about wanting to give players the opportunity to perform and trying to mould the team. Are the academy players as well as players coming in as well as players who are already there. So it's going to be interesting to see whether or not Anthony Robinson can force his way into Marco Sildar's thinking, but it looks as though Everton are still in the market for buying the left-back. It's a watch this space, I suppose. And that's it. That is it. So make sure you subscribe if you haven't already. Join us on Patreon. Lots going on there. Just going to get better and better over there as well. And that's it. So thanks for watching. See you later on Sophie TV.


Hi, I'm Bob Sullivan. And you're looking at a picture of one of my favorite metaphors, the golden spike. Even if you don't remember this image, it's probably lodged somewhere deep inside your consciousness, at least if you attended primary school here in the US. This is a picture of the installation of the last railroad tie that connected the first transcontinental railroad across the United States. The moment that east and west coast were connected, sort of. It's also a metaphor for projects, as in, hey, are you done with that last copy of it? That's the golden spike, right? I can press publish now. But this moment, this image, is not what it appears to be. If you had a good history teacher, you probably know that too. So why am I showing it at a talk about fake news? Well, some people argue that this photograph was, in fact, the very first occurrence of fake news, the modern kind anyway. One can argue that the thing which finally unified America set the stage for tearing it apart. Let me explain. When Americans now complain about the proliferation of fake news, I believe they mean a lot of different things. The way it was initially used during the 2016 election cycle was to identify bloggers who were making big money by writing obvious falsehoods as clickbait, such as Pope Francis endorses Donald Trump, push a headline like that out on the world, trick hundreds of people into sharing it, and earn thousands in ad dollars, all from a basement in Macedonia, great business. Today, the phrase is often shorthand for news stories that you just disagree with. And it's a dead end road, a phrase that I'd love to burn from our lexicon, particularly because I think it might be the single most powerful phrase in the realm of digital propaganda. This single two word expression turns off the minds of otherwise thinking people across the planet now. So I think it's worth talking a bit about its deeper origins, talking about how we made the wrong turn that led to this dangerous dead end. In fact, the street that led to this dead end was lined with what could be called pseudo events. 60 odd years ago, historian Daniel Borstein coined the term pseudo event in a book called The Image. It lamented modernity's turn away from authentic experiences like traveling, which were being replaced by TV programs about traveling. In a way, Borstein was the first to cry fake news. In journalism, a pseudo event is pretty easily recognized. A press conference is a pseudo event. Most of the time, nothing actually happens at a press conference. People just talk in front of cameras. An event, a real news event, is a traveler being detained at an airport or a person being laid off. A pseudo event is a person, a spokesperson talking about a travel ban or a commentator talking about unemployment. Or a pseudo event could be a Russian typing Facebook comments from Moscow. Smart people, marketing types of companies, political handlers, propagandists figured this out and began to master the pseudo event, the dog and pony show.  The real news isn't a press conference about legislation. It's the back room bargain that pushes a proposal past 50 votes in the US Senate. It's not a CEO promising to reform a company's misbehaving ways. It's the secret memo from legal, which instructs customer service agents how to continue misleading customers. Situ events aren't necessarily nefarious. They're often the product of mechanics. The Golden Spike in Utah was just such an event, why? Taking a photograph in 1869 was hardly a trivial affair. It had to be staged. Of course, as you'll recall perhaps from high school history, that photograph suspiciously omits many Chinese workers who did most of the hard work of laying rail over the Rocky Mountains. Situ events, therefore, are easy to manipulate. Anything that's staged is easy to manipulate. These necessary mechanics make pseudo events very, very easy to manipulate. It should be obvious that pseudo events rose in power and influence right along with the rise of visual media. There's a perfectly reasonable explanation for this perhaps you've considered it. Like making photographs in 1869, making television is very hard. Getting cameras set up, checking audio levels, ensuring clean transmissions. I'm just making up a guess here, but I think it's fair to say that making TV is often 90% mechanics and just 10% journalism. This is why when you watch cable news, you see almost the same thing day after day. Person speaking at podium, person speaking at desk, other people talking about all of this talking, that's the easiest and cheapest way to make TV. Talking about the unemployment report is easy. Going to Scranton, Pennsylvania to talk to someone who was just laid off is hard and it's expensive. Naturally, that means plenty of news doesn't get covered on television. Instead, TV is dominated by pseudo events and the easy visuals they provide. This plays into the hands of folks who are good at manipulating easy visuals.  But if you call what you're watching on TV, fake news, I'd like to offer you an alternative name, pseudo events. They're easy to spot. As you watch or read, simply ask what actually happened? If it's just a person speaking, probably nothing has happened or whatever it is already happened. The back room bargain was already struck. The victim was already injured. One politician calling another politician a nasty name. That's not news. That's the ultimate pseudo event. And of course, the ultimate distraction. But up in the ante on this problem was the birth of 24-hour news, first on cable and then on the internet. Always on news creates a voracious appetite for pseudo events. There's a massive void in time which needs to be filled. Into this void steps power hungry people who know how to make things sound like news, who know how to mass produce pseudo events. Think of pseudo events as the bug in the software and politicians or propagandists as the virus which exploits this bug, this vulnerability. A friend of mine, Lisa Napoli, recently wrote a great book called Up All Night about the birth of CNN. She was there at the time. And it's a great primer on the problem of 24-hour news. When you feel like all the news you see on TV is commentary, this is why. You're seeing a string of pseudo events. Don't get mad, don't get distracted by the emotional content of this discussion. Distill for yourself, what has actually happened. Change the channel or read something with actual news in it. Just a quick example of how things could be different. When I started out as a cove reporter covering city hall and school boards in New Jersey, I made a decision early on that cost me a few headlines but I think it made me a better journalist. City council members love pulling reporters' side and insulting members of the other party. A 30-minute interview might sound, a 30-minute interview might include 29 minutes of insults and one mention of a new road project. Initially, I did what all young journalists do and all teenagers and health parties do. I breathlessly ran to the opposition and said, did you hear what he said about you? How do you respond? And so the cat fight was on. My ink, my paper and my words hijacked by the manipulators. As I grew up and grew into the profession, I learned to ignore the 29 minutes and get back to discussion of the road project. I was literally no fun. Some politicians just stopped talking to me but in the end, I think I serve the readers better and I've tried to take this lesson with me for the past 25 years or so. Insulting someone is just a pseudo event. Building a road, building a wall, well, that's news. These days, I think a lot about the impact of technology and what the impact is having on journalism and on democracy in a larger sense. I'm a visiting scholar at Duke University examining this topic for many angles. Among the most obvious, whatever I'm telling you now about journalism and pseudo events, about the role that TV and then 24-hour news played in fueling pseudo events, about how easily they're exploited. Well, that's all exponentially more true about social media. Facebook's currency is pseudo events and fake news. The more fake, the more pseudo, the more algorithmic juice. You all know this, you feel it. You've seen how years of work by groups like this by people like Hari Hirstie to secure elections and election technology is being used right now by others who simply want to undermine confidence in elections and in democracy. Fake news hurts the most when it's close to home. Sudo events, as Borstein feared, have replaced real life for some people. There aren't great, easy or obvious solutions to this problem, but I do believe talking about pseudo events can at least put a seed of doubt in the minds of people that what they see on TV and online, not only is it possibly propaganda, it's almost by definition propaganda. By definition, it's not real, a pseudo event. If we can get people to stop watching TV programs about travel and start traveling, that would be a great start. Maybe they can go see that Golden Spike in Utah for themselves. If we can get people to stop tweeting and posting and start engaging with the real world over real problems like roads and immigration and housing and voting, well, that would be even better. Thank you.


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Would this Asian doubles team of Kato and Sujati have been disqualified? If they weren't Asian, the internet is discussing. Yeah, this is going viral in the sports world and the tennis world. Andrew, the names involved in this incident, Buzkova, Thormo, Kato, Sujati. They are very cool sounding because we're talking about the French Open. Now, a lot of people are basically saying clearly the Asian team was unfairly dequeued for an accidental hit towards the ball girl. However, a lot of people are also saying that this unfair dequeued never would have happened if it wasn't Europeans versus Asians. Basically accusing the French Open of some underground racism.  So guys, we're going to talk about it. Go into the comments section and we just really want to ask this question. Do you think of what happened if that doubles team was not Asian and they were in France and everybody else was, you know, not Asian? Yeah, by the way, guys, we're not saying this is the most serious issue. It is a silly issue, but oftentimes people don't like to talk about actual serious issues. They want to talk about, you know, see the dynamics within something more trivial or more silly, even though, of course, if you really love tennis, you take this serious. Yeah, so please hit that like button. Check out other episodes of the Hot Pop Boys. All right, so we're just going to play the video down here. As you can see, there was no real intent by Kato for hitting the ball girl. The ball girl is crying.  Maybe you should be able to take a hit with the ball to be honest.  Yeah, your job is to possibly get hit with a ball on accident. So it happens all the time. Um, maybe Kato wasn't, uh, as apologetic right away, but I don't think she knew how hard she hit her. But anyways, the judge, as you know, calls a warning at first, but then somewhere along the line, the other opponents insist, insist. Tordemore and Buscova, they make a very big, they're like, there's blood, there's blood from her face. You must dequeue. You must default. You must default. And you know, originally Andrew, the French judge is like, no, no, no, I cannot. It's an accident that she's fine. But then a French supervisor from the French open comes over and makes the final decision. That's where some people are like, I don't know guys. This looks pretty messed up. Yeah. All right. So let's get into the comment section because this is a bad look for the French open. Somebody says that Buscova and Tormo should be ashamed. No sportsmen like conduct. They were seen snickering and laughing at the situation. The French open officials should be taken a task as well. The rule book states violently. There was absolutely nothing violent about the way Kato hit the ball. The ball girl seemed like she was more shocked and embarrassed by the situation, possibly more scared. If anything, it wasn't because she was super hurt. Right, right. Honestly, that tennis ball, I don't think is going to hurt anybody.   Do you think this was like some rich old French persons like Nice, who like probably has no idea what she's doing? You know, like Europe, in my opinion, guys, I'm not saying it has a lot more of these like old world dynamics. You know, like nepotism from bloodlines and things like that. That's a really good point. Actually, I didn't think about that, but maybe somebody said Kato, even at the grace to shake her opponents after the default work. They clearly cheated. I personally couldn't have done that. Oh, man. And here's the thing about Buzkov in them. They insisted for the other team to get disqualified. Now, I get it. If they didn't just, if they just stood there and were like, oh, well, if they get DQ, that's what the judges say. But they went up to the judge and were like, no, you got to get them out now. They are in competition and you want to win by any means necessary. In Buzkov and Thordemore, we're losing. They were losing the match. They were losing. They were about to lose this game. So what they did, although was dirty, in my opinion, it was not completely illegal. Yeah, you can to some extent, guys. And like I said, of course, you know, I'm supporting Kato and Sujati. But at the end of the day, you can argue that what they did was just like what any sort of ultra competitive person would have done. But it was also unsportsmanlike and a lot of people feel like they cross a certain threshold of competitiveness into dirty, poor taste. You let me know in the comments down below. Was it just dirty? Was it advantageous or was it just part of the sport? Andrew, USA tennis fans that are mostly white actually use this as an opportunity to say that one French tennis is completely washed in number two. Not all of them, but some of them even said a little racist. Yeah, this is basically US white tennis fans accusing the white French tennis people of being washed, even though I believe they are the sport first. Let me tell you this. This is a bad look for the French open. I'm not going to lie. Like whether they were Asian or not, just even if you change the colors or flip the colors of people in this situation, it just looks bad because it's a horrible DQ on any level. Yeah, if it would have happened in Japan and I'm not saying there hasn't been some Olympic things in Asia to like every home crowd, like I guess taters to their own tribe of people, but it would have been wronged as well. Right. But you know, Bushkova and Tormo, neither of them are French by the way. So there's known their Spanish and Czech. Right. Somebody said ball kids cannot possibly be this sensitive about balls or else do not be there. And this kind of went back to like, yo, the French are such wimps. Clearly the French are putting people who are unqualified in certain positions out of nepotism. This would never happen in America. We have ball boys in America and even our ball girls are super tough. So this kind of turned back to the American French difference, cultural difference or beef. Yeah. Somebody said in the 70s, 80s and 90s, Kato doesn't even get a first warning, let alone a full DQ. This just goes to show you society is getting soft. The game is getting soft and it's transferring over to tennis. That's crazy because tennis is already not the hardest sport at least like contact wise. So if tennis is already getting softer, I don't know. Like you said, Andrew, there was still some comments supporting Tormo and Bushkova saying the opponents took advantage of an opportunity. Even though it is dirty, it is completely within the rule book. Their job is to win more money and advance their careers and score more French open points. Ultimately, I don't like it, but I'm supporting the DQ. Oh, that's interesting. You know, someone said, I don't like it, but I support the other opponents using their advantage when they can. Right. And other people pointed out there's a reason why Tormo has made half a million dollars in a career. Bushkova has made $120,000 and Miyukatu has only made $60,000 in her career. David, so I think there's different levels of this in different sports. Like in basketball, I think that this is kind of like flopping. Right. Flopping is not liked. It will eventually start getting fined in the NBA. Right. They have to put a stop to it, right? Because it's gotten out of control. And people complain about flopping, but it is kind of part of the game right now. And a lot of people do it in Europe as well. And a lot of people flop and soccer as well. Also in boxing. It's is it kind of like Mayweather duck or like what they say Mayweather duck certain opponents that were going to be tough so that he could stay undefeated. Right. He didn't fight certain fighters in their prime. Is it kind of like being hyper calculating and what they did technically like we said wasn't illegal, but it was unsportsman like and it was frowned upon. But I mean, they didn't. Yeah. Let me say this. Let me say this. Any competitor will have that thought cross their mind. But in my opinion, and we're going to address this later, the only reason they drove it to the 10 out of 10 level of execution was because the other team was Asian. I truly believe that I truly believe any competitors going to have that idea because you see an opening. You see an opportunity window who that wants to wants to win more money and preserve their career. Doesn't want to shoot that window, but whether or not you do has to do with the respect for your opponent. That's true. That's true. Somebody says I'm kind of 60 40 on Kato's side, but she still messed up and didn't overly quick rush over to the ball girl when she hit her. That's what she would have did. It was a little absent minded. And what can you do when people take advantage of your absent mindedness? All right. So here's the thing about her being absent minded.   You're in the middle of a match. You're trying to move on to the next round. This is big for your career. Super locked in blinders on the last thing you're focused on is a ball girl getting hit by a bounce hit or whatever they call that. It's not a straight slam. It's not like Kato hit it with bam. She just kind of hit it underhand. Yeah. And in a way it's like goes to show you how good the tennis players are because it was right to her. Yeah.  You're not focused. Oh, I'm so sorry. I got to rush over and like that the ball girl supposed to be an assistant. They just you know later Kato did win actually the championship for mixed doubles male female partners. So it goes to show you me you caught to one one slam Tormo one zero Buscova one zero and then somebody said haters one me you caught to one two but Tormo and Buscova one ten million haters each. I do think that a lot of people are very very displeased with Tormo and Buscova. I'm sure they can make it up and have good careers moving on. I don't think they should be banned from the sport of tennis or anything like that. But it was definitely a bad look. Yeah. All right Andrew. Let's get into the question section. What should have happened to Kato based on your knowledge? Obviously me and you. We do not know a lot about tennis. I'm going to go ahead and say in 2023. She probably deserved a warning. Just give her the warning that the initial line judge gave her and then that's it. And if there's another hit that goes straight to the ball girl's face or a three hits then dock some points or think about a DQ then literally off one accident is crazy. Yeah.  Rafael Nadal has done it before but he's never been DQ'd for that. I heard there was one incident where Nadal or I forgot the other big guy in tennis like they did it on accident but they just went over to rush over to purposely show that they were like extra apologetic to make sure that it didn't potentially lead anywhere. Yeah I do think Kato the one thing I would say she could have done was apologize quicker. That was it. That's the only thing but ultimately still should have just got a warning. Yeah I think she's got to be more savvy knowing and I think that maybe some of the other guys that were the champions like Nadal and I forgot the other name but like like they were like aware of where this could potentially could lead. Now if you tell me that the ball girl is part of the game like things like this are just part of tennis where if you do hit one of those people or you hit the judge then you got to be extra nice and you have to play that game and you tell me like that's part of the theater of it all being a savvy player just kind of like you know how a referee is on the football field or if you bump into a referee they're part of the game if a referee gets in the way of your shot but yeah it helps to be really apologetic like I remember LeBron was really apologetic to Scott Foster when he bumped into him in the playoffs. Yeah yeah exactly like being nice to refs and being mean to refs I guess I guess if you tell me this part of the game I'm sorry. Somebody said if they were not Asian I honestly think multiple things do not happen. I don't think that the mean girls of Tormo and Buzkova pushed that hard for the DQ and I don't think the French supervisor comes over and actually DQ's them to be honest I don't know I actually agree with this. You know what it is the French supervisor needs to come out and say well you know I did not see Keto apologize to the girl. She did not apologize and all we ask at the French open is that you apologize if you hit somebody because you know to be honest that was my niece. So you know I had to look out for my niece and that is how it goes in the French open. That's how we do things here anyways you guys we're going to wrap it up there. Let us know in the comments down below what you think watching the clip over do you think Keto could have done anything differently or do you think this was kind of racist or do you think race maybe wasn't a factor and it's just an unfortunate DQ let us know in the comments down below because the rest of the Internet is debating. It is true that right now tennis is mostly primarily in terms of a statistical level. It's mostly Europeans and Asians. So I'm just saying the match was in Europe. It's got to count for something. I don't you know I don't want to say how much I think it mattered. All right everybody. Thank you so much for watching. We are the hot pot boys until next time we out. Peace.


Welcome everyone to the third meeting in 2019 of the Committee on Scottish Government's Handling of Harassments Complaints. Can I ask all those present to turn off any electronic devices that might interfere with proceedings? Move to agenda item 1. May I ask whether members are agreed to take item 2 in private to allow us to consider a letter from the permanent secretary? Thank you very much. I now move the committee into private session.