Therefore, it's time for the member's statements to the member from your office. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to rise today and recognize Whiteman Telecom. Whiteman has been nominated for a national award in the Tuned In Canada CCSA Awards. Whiteman Telecom is based out of Clifford, Ontario, which is shared by the member from Great Brazil and Sound, the member from Perth, Wellington, as well as myself. It operates in 17 different exchanges in south-central Ontario. They are known for their advanced fibre-to-home technology that provides excellent phone service and some of the fastest high-speed internet speeds in Canada. Tuned In Canada is a project that aims to highlight the work of local television and communication providers in Canada. They are sponsored by the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance. Every year, they have an award where they recognise people who are making a difference in their community. And the winners receive a trophy and an opportunity to donate up to $2,000 to a community charity of their choice. Whiteman Telecom has been nominated for the award known as Best Community Building Story. In 2016, Whiteman Telecom partnered with Blue Water Radio Station to broadcast the first annual Blue Water on air for local healthcare radio. I called in, I made my pledge and we had a lot of fun challenging other local politicians to do the same. It was a six-hour-long live TV and radio show and it raised over $40,000 for local health. They should have the honour of winning both the Walken and District Hospital Foundation and the Hanover and District Hospital Foundation will share the prize. There's two days left in the open online voting at tunedincanada.com. That's how Whiteman did it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'd like to talk about an important part of my community, our local Lions and Lioness Clubs. Three Lions Clubs will be celebrating anniversaries this weekend. The Stanford Lions Club, the Lioness Club will be celebrating 60 anniversaries. The Chippewa Lions Club will be celebrating 75th anniversary and the Fort Erie Lions Club will be celebrating 90th anniversary. On behalf of our communities, I'd like to thank all the Lions and Lioness Clubs for the incredible work they do in our region each and every day. Mr. Speaker, the Lions do incredible work in Niagara and here are some of the examples. The Stanford Lions and Lioness Club in Niagara Falls is known for harvest breakfasts, their Christmas dance, which are great events with terrific food and raise important money for community initiatives for organized like the Niagara Health System. The Fort Erie Club has a long history of helping the Fort Erie community. Funds raised for this, the work actually went to purchase the first ambulance at the Douglas Memorial Hospital. My community office is even in the Lions Club. Every day myself, my staff get to witness the incredible programs they offer for seniors, such as their monthly senior lunches, bingos, bridge and crib. Lastly, I'd also like to highlight the Chippewa Lions Club. They're hosting a free community appreciation event this Saturday with a barbecue, children's activities to thank the community for the support over the years. While the Lions Clubs focus on hunger, diabetes, vision impairment in their community, they also contribute to opening and closing Camp Dorset, which offers a vacation retreat for those who need dialysis. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the province, I would like to congratulate all these Lions and Lioness Clubs on their anniversaries and thank them for the incredible work they do in our community. Thank you again, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Asian Heritage Month, which is recognized every May. To celebrate Asian Heritage Month on Ontario 150 on May the 10th, I will be co-hosting with the East Asian Women's Empowerment Group Celebration 15 Voices of Chinese Canadian Women in Ontario at the Toronto reference library. Celebration 15 will honour Chinese Canadian women in Ontario who have contributed to the changing history of Canada and another 15 women who have strengthened our local communities. These women have devoted tireless passion, time and commitment to shaping Ontario. They provided leadership in arts, civic engagement, culture, education and community building. Celebration 15 will recognize exceptional Chinese Canadian women including Greta Wong Grant, the first Chinese Canadian lawyer, called to the bar in 1946, former Senator Dr. Vivian Poy, who brought forward a Senate motion designated May as Asian Heritage Month in Ontario. Adrienne Clarkson, the former Governor-General of Canada. As first Chinese Canadian female MPP, I'm proud of my Asian heritage. I'm privileged to represent Scarborough Asian Court, one of the most diverse and multicultural writings in Ontario. Mr. Speaker, on May the 10th, I'm honoured to recognize these trailblaze in Chinese Canadian women who demonstrate how diversity strengthens our community and to contribute to our economy. And most important, Mr. Speaker, making Ontario a great place to work, play and work. Thank you. Thank you for the member statements from Oxford. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to rise today to recognize Children's Mental Health Week in Ontario. It's a great opportunity to recognize the importance of speaking up about mental health. Last year, we had a tragic loss of a number of youths in Oxford County. These tragedies have left the whole in our community. I met with students who said we need to do more to provide mental health education and services in our schools. They also told me that bullying is still a problem in schools and online. According to the survey done by Children's Mental Health Ontario, over 28% of youth indicated that mental health issues are not covered in the school curriculum. Meanwhile, over 35% said that mental health issues were only covered once in one class. We need to do more to educate students on how to cope with their struggles. I'm happy to announce that this weekend on May the 7th, Kids Help Phone will host their fundraiser Walk So Kids Can Talk presented by the BMO for the first time ever in Oxford. This is a very exciting for our community, and I command Kids Help Phone for their great work supporting our children and for raising awareness in this important issue. I encourage any young people who are having problems to reach out to Kids Help Phone or their local mental health organization. It's okay to talk about it. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm standing in a house today to recognize and congratulate the team that shaped and produced a movie, Painted Land, in search of the Group of Seven from their Barbara Sears Award for Best Editorial Research at the Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto last March. Congratulations, Goulay River adventurer, Joanie and Gary McGuffin, as well as Sault Ste. Marie artist and art historian, Michael Birch, for their major roles, along with Nancy Lang, Rebecca Middleton and Emma Hambly of White Pines Productions. You created such an amazing movie that really highlights the untouched nature that can be found in Algoma. This movie is a beautiful tribute to the art and life of the Group of Seven, Seven of Canada's greatest landscape painters as they adventure up in Northern Ontario in search of inspiration. The beautiful landscape in this film really showcases why every year thousands of tourists travel to Northern Ontario and to my writing of Algoma Manitou, Mr. Speaker. From watching this movie, you just get a sense that everyone involved had such passion for the work they were doing. It conveyed perfectly the wilderness, the beautiful wilderness of Ontario's north. This movie makes you want to retrace your steps along with the shores and cliffs and lakes of Algoma and Lake Superior. I also wanted to highlight Algoma Central Railway, which the cast and crew have stated without their cooperation, this documentary could not have been made. Congratulations. Thank you. I'm sure the members want to know that the founder of the Group of Seven, Lauren Harris, was born in Bramford, Ontario. Just saying. Just saying. Member Savits, it sounds like a statement. The member from Ottawa South. It's my pleasure to stand and rise today and say I had the opportunity with the Attorney General a few weeks ago to attend the 7th Annual Somali Hope Academy gala in my writing of Ottawa South. The Somali Hope Academy is a local charity whose vision is to reach out to poor and destitute children in Somalia and offer them a free education. The founder of the Somali Hope Academy is Sergeant Mohamed Elmi of the Ottawa Police Service, more affectionately known as Sergeant Moe. Sergeant Moe's vision was to help those children and help those children in need to get them in education, to give them opportunity. So Somali Hope Academy has built a school, a community of over 300 children in that school. So their next project is to build a well so that they can make the school self-sustaining. I want to congratulate the Academy, Sergeant Elmi, his Ottawa Police Service colleagues who always support him to all the volunteers that were there that night to restaurant her Dave Smith who was there doing a live auction and was very good at enticing people to open their wallets. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker to represent a community where families from over 125 countries speaking 90 languages have chosen to make home. And what really amazes me is our ability inside our community as in many communities in Ottawa South in Ontario rather to reach outside and to realize that we need to support those around the world. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Today it arrives in the House on behalf of the PC Caucus and our leader Patrick Brown to mark the 226th anniversary of the adoption of the Polish Constitution the world's second oldest constitution. The signing of the Polish Constitution on May 3rd, 1791 is an event of great pride for Poland and a significant moment in the history of democracy. It has served as a symbol of freedom during the 120 years of partitions and during the Nazi and Soviet occupation. Ontario's Polish roots run deep in the streets dating back to the confederation 150 years ago before the confederation. Our province is home to half a million Canadians of Polish heritage. The values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law which is this day celebrates are values that we share in Canada. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Camp Kosciuszko a Polish Army training camp at Niagara on the lake. It was here in Ontario where 22,000 Polish soldiers trained from 19 to 1919 to fight against Germans on the western front. Today the small piece of blessed ground in Niagara on the lake symbolizes both the patriotism of the Poles and the alliance between Poland and Canada two countries which are brothers in arms and share their love of freedom. I look forward to attending this year's Jubilee pilgrimage to Niagara and Lake to pay homage to the soldiers who have paid their highest price for the protection and values of our two countries. It is free from work and many celebrations, parades, exhibitions and public events take place. To all my Polish-Canadian friends Happy Constitution Day, Stola Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the member from Tobokowo, Lake Shore. Well, Mr. Speaker, once you've had Polish that's all you relish. I'm pleased to stand today to speak to the Polish Constitution Day. May 3rd is Polish Constitution Day a national holiday for Poland and people of Polish heritage around the world. Polish Constitution Day celebrates the declaration of the Constitution of May 3rd, 1791 one of the landmark achievements in the history of Poland. This historic document was the first democratic constitution in Europe and second in the world only to the US Constitution. Despite being in effect for only 19 months, the Constitution of 1791 helped inspire Poles and independent and just society for generations. It did not save the Polish state at the time but it did save the Polish nation. And although the celebration was banned under various authoritarian regimes between 1792 and 1990, Constitution Day is now openly and proudly celebrated in Poland and around the world each day, each year. Today members of Polonia were at Queens Park to commemorate this important day and I'd like to specifically recognize Mr. Jacek Boguski, Secretary of State of Agriculture for the Republic of Poland, Mr. Grzegorz Morawski, Council General of Poland and Mr. Juleusz Kirejczyk, President of the Canadian Polish Congress, Toronto Branch and other distinguished guests who are here to celebrate the 226th anniversary. I want to thank these community leaders for all their efforts in keeping our Polish traditions and heritage strong until we die. Thank you. Further member statements. The member from Bruce Cray Owensal. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. I rise to share at the house some exciting news from accessibility advocates who are working diligently to bring the new dynamic symbol of access to Ontario. On April 23rd I joined the Forward Movement co-founders Dylan Itzkiewicz and Jonathan Silver at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto where they launched before the Gap founder Luke Anderson and Gold Medal Paralympian Paul Rosen the new dynamic wheelchair symbol they're hoping Ontario will adopt. The idea behind the new icon is to stop associating people with disabilities with the image of a stationary person in a stationary wheelchair and accept the fact that they can be just as active and engaged as the rest of us. For this reason the new graphic shows movement, emphasizing differing abilities. Its background is still blue but the person in the wheelchair is leaning forward I first learned of the new dynamic symbol of access when I met Dylan about a month ago at Queens Park and was immediately inspired by a story and campaign. Two years ago Mr. Itzkiewicz was suddenly shifted to a wheelchair reliant after he was hit by a drunk driver in North York. He has since co-founded the Forward Movement together with Mr. Silver and they're working hard to bring the accessible icon project to Ontario. I want to clarify that the Forward Movement isn't pushing for old symbols to be changed which were created back in 1969 but rather for the new symbol of modern art. Mr. Speaker I am fully supportive of the change as I believe it's a good way to change perceptions and educate people about the importance of removing barriers and making Ontario more inclusive. As such I pledge to do what I can to help advocate for that change here at Queens Park. I invite members to visit the website themoveforwardmovement.ca and check out the new and exciting accessible icon which is now also part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you.


Hello everyone. Welcome to NPTEL course on rural water resources. This is week 9, lecture 2. In this week, we are looking at how to manage rural water resources using engineered infrastructure. The whole idea is we have been seeing that rural water issues are there, lot of water is mismanaged and infrastructures are absent to capture excess runoff or aid groundwater recharge. On that note, in the last lecture we looked at the largest infrastructure that could be possible which are large dams and irrigation networks. In today's lecture, we'll be looking at the smaller brother of the dam. Hopefully it is not much different but just the size is different. Let's take a look. So we are looking at check dams for this lecture. What you see here is you can see people walking on the check dams whereas in the large irrigation project I mentioned, you cannot walk on top. There is really security issues that you cannot even go near to that wall of the dam, the storage structure of the dam whereas here you see people happily walking on top and going around. So this is more like a localized small size dam and those are called check dams and there are multiple multiple designs. First let's look at the check dam but before that I would like to also talk about the areas that are above and below the dam, the area above the dam is called the catchment area whereas below it is called the command area where the water is going to be given. So this is your dam be it check dam or large dam and then you have a catchment area on top. This is where the water is caught and then stored so that you can release the water later. Even though it says check dams and reservoir, those terms are kind of used and misused in literature but reservoirs are larger dams and check dams which are placed on the top you could see are smaller dams. Each check dam will have its own command area, very small command area at the bottom and catchment area on the top. Let's use different colors. So where the water is going to be caught is called the catchment area. So this is the catchment area, check dam. For the big dam, this is the catchment area. So it is that area above that point where water will drain and come into the storage. Then water is used below the dam for irrigation. So that is a small more smaller area or it depends on the crop etc. I'm just drawing because of the space but it could be any design, any shape whereas the catchment area is normally a watershed shape, fern leaf or a leaf shape. So the command area is where the water is released and given for irrigation through canals, river networks and other water bodies. So let's look at the specifics of check dams. Again there's a lot of government assets, books on these, I'll give you the links. Please go ahead and look at it because these are very, very important for rural water resource management. Not only for groundwater, not only for surface water but it gives a holistic picture of capturing water, storing water and then slowly releasing it through the downstream communities. What is a check dam? It is an engineered structure across the stream network. It is not parallel perpendicular to the flow of the stream, river etc. If it becomes a large river then it becomes a dam.  These are also low cost, you don't need to clear the land. How does it differ from a dam? Check dams are smaller in length and built across secondary stream networks while dams are considered major rivers. As I mentioned, major please underline. If you go to the Ganges River, those who are from that area, you would see the river is around more than a kilometer width. How do you build a check dam? You cannot and that is where water is being stored in big, big dams and then released in the South Cauvery and other stuff. Less downstream impact compared to the dam. Luckily I have a figure which has both the large dam and the small dam, check dam in one image. You could see the sea is a check dam and this is the large dam. What it says is there is less downstream impact. When you block water, when you're blocking the water, downstream there is no water. As a result, you are kind of stopping the water which is due downstream and then storing it in your large dams. Whereas the check dam, yes you're storing water, however the volume is very small. So sometimes water fills and then over goes and then goes to the next check dam or downstream. You could see that is what is happening here. Okay, so the water is coming and then there's a check dam, oops, there's a storage and then it goes down, another storage and then goes down. So you're not actually drying down this area, whereas in a dam, this area would be totally dry, no water where this dam is being filled up. There are uses for it. They want to create the level up so that they can draw hydropower. It's called maintaining a head or an elevation of the water so that when water falls it can be used for your hydropower. Whereas check dams normally you don't use for hydropower. It is mostly for water recharge, irrigation, lift irrigation, etc. It is less costly, small size therefore less costly. You don't have to clear the land. So all this land would have been cleared because the water is inundating the area. So let's think about it for a second. You have all this as a forested area, okay? Before the dam was constructed, all this was a forested area. And then what you do is when you make the dam, this water front would be inundated, which means water would be filling up. When water fills up, those land cannot have any vegetation. It suffocates, the plants will suffocate and die. So it is better to clear them off and then make it more storage. Like you take out the soil, take out the rock so that water can be stored. So basically you clear the land, take out the soil and rock so that water can store more volume. Whereas in check dam, you don't do that. You just make maybe you clear the sides a little bit so that the bank is stable. You could see they have done some work here. And then you also deepen this part. So deepening a little bit to store water, otherwise it doesn't make sense to have a check dam in a high elevation. So this is also a decentralized versus a centralized approach. Whereas a decentralized means it is not one dam for everyone. So that is the large irrigation project, a centralized approach, centralized heating, centralized AC we call. So an air conditioner, which is for the entire floor, it's called centralized air conditioning, theater, a movie theater, for example. But when you call decentralized, then the hallway need not be aced, but you have each room in the office, each in a floor, each room can have air conditioner, its own small air conditioner that is decentralized. So here what we say in the dam is the large dam would store all the water and then release it to many, many acres of land, that is centralized approach. In a decentralized, every small acre would have its own check dam and that water will be used only for that acre. So as I said in the drawing, this area, the command area, which is going to be here, all the area would be given the water from the centralized dam. Whereas in the check dam, it's only this small area which will get benefit, this small area which will get benefit. So you could see that instead of putting one dam and having all the area irrigated by one dam, you're breaking it into smaller pieces and giving it a small area of influence. Now, this is easier to maintain because people power, etc., is easier if you have a decentralized for water. Otherwise, the controlling agent would be sitting on one end of the watershed, whereas people are fighting for water on the other end. So that distance is a big problem. Check dams and associated benefits. Let's look at the check dams and their benefits. Does not require relocation of people. As I said, when the big dam is filling up, all the areas on the side, the houses have to be removed because the water will be full. And so in the check dam, nothing, you just have to clear the sides and then the in-stream. Does not require clearing of land. You're not going to clear the land and then make the dam. Less considerable negative impact. Negative is more subjective and it depends on who uses it. But here overall, negative is less in a check dam because you don't clear the ecosystem. You don't clear the forest or vegetation. So the birds, animals, everything still remains. Whereas in a big dam, all of those have to be cleared. Community-based solutions, check dams are community-based. As I said, decentralized means it has less water, less number of people benefiting. But those people would be happy to maintain the check dams. Easier to manage due to the size. Again, the size is very, very small compared to large dams. And that gives them a very good way of managing it, more freedom and less people. For example, for large dam, you need a big agency to maintain it. Whereas a check dam, every week, one house can maintain it. They just go and check. So like here you could see, they're just checking the dam, the wall on the sides, etc. And most probably everyone will be using it for the daily activities also like washing, bathing, fishing. Whereas in a large dam, you don't see those kind of activities. Localized benefits, the benefits are visual. You can see it, local people would enjoy and they then understand that they should manage it. Whereas in a large irrigation dam, you don't know how, for example, in Pune, water is being poured and it can be sent to Mumbai for use. Would Mumbai people know about these dams and the areas they may not know? Whereas if it is a check dam, a smaller tank, for example, that is a decentralized, a small tank within Mumbai and people are getting water from that, they would know about the tank. So that is where localized benefits help in getting ownership and also benefits of the water to the people. This is a decentralized approach. I have spoken a lot about this. So I would move on. Let's look at the operations of check dams. Stores runoff in smaller volumes. Let's quickly look at what did we say has runoff? You have precipitation on a land. Some precipitation is happening, part of it goes in as infiltration, part of it goes as percolation into the ground water aquifers. Plans uptake is there. Whatever remains, which is a big amount, will go as runoff. In most systems, runoff is the biggest component of the rainfall. When you rainfall into different compartments, your runoff is the biggest factor because all the others processes is much slower than the rainfall rate. Whereas runoff is much faster. It can be faster than the rainfall, thereby giving you ease of movement of water. Water wants to move. It doesn't want to stay in one location because of law of physics. It has to flow from high to low potential. Agent recharging radially the groundwater aquifers in the vicinity of the check dams. What it needs here is the check dams. For example, you have a river and then you put a check dam. There is a check dam. Radially, the influence of the check dam is felt in the groundwater. This is radially. It depends on how the aquifer is, what type of rock, soil, water content, etc. But most probably the lateral movement of recharge from the check dam, water would be moving and actually contributing to groundwater recharge. Most probably it will. Why? Because initially the river was flowing. The water level may be at the same level of the groundwater. But now, because you are pointing it up, the level rises in the check dam. And because of the level rise, the water is at a high potential compared to the groundwater, which is at a low potential. So, water would move from the check dam into the groundwater. But also, all these would depend on is there space for the water to move? Is it empty, unsaturated, etc. Agent increasing soil moisture near the check dam. Because it is recharging to the groundwater, in the process, the soil moisture also gets recharged. So, initially it is the soil moisture depending on the depth of groundwater recharge. Or if it is moving in the seepage, in the depth of the groundwater, it can move in the soil moisture profile because of plant uptake, etc. Mostly built by local agencies on a log. It is very, very low compared to the irrigation dams wherein you don't have to have lot of rules and regulations except some permissions are needed. So, the local agencies can build these check dams after they get some clearances. You don't have to have big, for example, economic clearances, impact assessments that you need in the irrigation dams. For small check dams, normally it is the people who have to talk to the low downstream communities. And also to the people who actually manage the water body, CWC, PWD, those kind of agencies, and then get permission and do it on a lower budget. As I said, it gives you the freedom to use any material you want. It could be done by wood, it could be done by bricks, sandstone, mud, rocks. So the budget is low. You don't have to worry about it. Whereas in a dam, large dam, it has to have the dam clearances, safety inspections, the thickness of the wall should be appropriate. So there's a lot of issues because once it breaks, all the downstream communities are washed away. Whereas in a check dam, not much disaster happens. You don't see disasters by check dam failure. You see that in the large dam failures. Maintenance is not built into the budgets. As we looked at the issues before this class in the last week, the major issue is people don't maintain it. So it concerns. It's a big concern because it is your property in terms of it is a property. You are the major stakeholder. You're the major benefactor. Why are you not maintaining it is the question. So we've looked at multiple answers to this question. Most importantly, they don't know that if they're allowed to manage the water, manage the check dam because the flowing river, they never managed. And that they know that that is their water, they go and take it etc. But they don't manage the river. It was a natural system. It just flows and then suddenly one day the river will wake up and she thinks I should move in a different direction. It will move in a different direction like the Ganges. But check dam is like a structure and it involves money. Even though it is low budget for villages, it might be a big budget. So that is where the maintenance is not built into the budgets may lead to sanitation upstream of the check dams. So where the check dam is there, for example, there's a check dam right in this point. When water is blocked, then this area can also have sedimentation. This we can see in the large dam also. So the physics doesn't change between the size of the dam. So you have water flowing and then a dam which is actually stopping your water because your water is flowing in this way, for example. And then it goes like this. When it comes to this part, the water slows down. So all the sediments and rocks and pebbles that it carries is deposited before the check dam. This is a common thing because the velocity was enough to carry it. Now the velocity is slow, so the materials drop. So materials drop down here. And that leads to sedimentation. Once this is not clear, then water will go over the check dam. There's no point of storing the water. So that is what nature is. You can try to stop it and curb it, but if you don't maintain and accept the power of nature, she will just run through your check dam or large dam anything. So you have to be very careful about nature. Mainly to less downstream flow and associated impacts on agriculture and aquatic life. Even though you are making a small section of water storage, still it is a water. So you have to accept that yes, down people would have lesser water than before. And the impact could be on agriculture and aquatic life. For example, the fish. The fish need flowing water to lay eggs. And if it is not there, then it is a problem. Insects, all these things are tied in the ecosystem. So it is better to understand and then build these check dams. Anyway, any non-natural infrastructure will have impact on agriculture and nature. Anything. Your road, for example, has to have an impact on the land and the nature. Any engineered product will have an impact. That is why if you see tribals, they don't, they practice agriculture and associated things in one piece of land. Then they move to another land. They don't own the land. They'll just go to another land and then they start agriculture. So the old land will recuperate or bounce back into a forest. So this we don't do because we are engineering the land. So still there is less downstream flow that comes down. So you have to be careful. In the previous figure, we saw that there is, here you could see that if everyone is stopping the water in the up check dams, then what do want to come down into the reservoir? Slowly, I'm saying, if one check dam is 1000 liters, just for example, I'm saying, and your big dam is 50,000 liters. You build 50 tanks, 50 check dams above the major dam or the dam. You won't get any litter of water in the dam because you're already de-centrally holding the water and only less water would come down into the reservoir. For example, only this area rainfall will contribute to the water, whereas all the other check dams are big and storing the water. So this understanding is needed to talk to communities about dams, any dams, large or small check dam. The only positive is it is less, much, much less compared to a large dam. But if you can share the profit, make some aspects for aquatic life and agriculture, then it is a very good method to store water and use it for lean season, non-monsoon season, agriculture. As I said, these check dams have been proved worthy in many, many areas. However, you have to do considerable estimations of the properties before you assess if they work. Check dams, as I said, have been highly beneficial in many Indian religions, in fact, across the world. Many people have seen rivers getting back to life because of check dams because initially the water would flow through the river and gone. Only three months the water would be in the river. But now since you slow down the river water through check dam, you are seeing the water flow annually, every day, the year it will flow. This brings a lot of happiness to the people around because they used to see this water flow every day. So the Narmada, Dabti and all these rivers in the northeast and north regions were used to flow fully. There's a river called Vahegai in Madurai, which used to flow every single day.  But then now there's no water because things have changed, climate change, etc. Water abuse, capacities, etc. But now if the water is slowly, slowly released into Vahegai, it will start to flow again. What are the benefits of the check dam? As I said, there are many benefits. Let's look at some. Irrigation scheme is a big hit in the check dams because you're storing the water, you're creating upon thickness of water at the check dam. And now you can put a pump and remove it for agriculture because recharge groundwater can take time, whereas this kind of activity can at once take the water and prevent evaporation laws, recharge laws and apply it to the field. There is some energy component needed because you are using a pump, but farmers have the money to do it if they want to have a product, an agricultural productivity. The most important thing you need to understand here is, can you do this in a flowing water? Yes, but we don't know if actually the water would be there throughout. Whereas in a check dam, you pond the water and you see the water, okay, I have this much volume of water, now I can pump it up. So you know how to better control the pumps and also irrigation area, whereas in a running thing, you cannot. Now this is the NM Sadguru Foundation, which is an NGO in Daho, Gujarat. I've been there multiple times to see the wonderful work they do. They bring communities together, these land were not agriculture productivity at all. There was no water, very less rainfall and water doesn't flow from check dam to the land because the land is high elevation, the check dam is low elevation. So you need a pump water up, which is highly energy intensive. One farmer cannot do it, but if the community joins together, that's what this foundation has shown, if the community joins together, then they can collectively work to pump the water and spread it for agriculture. So look at this, 10 community lift irrigation schemes were installed in one year. That's pretty big. What they do is they pump the water, bring it to a central location and from there, they channelize it to different farmers. And from here also, they can pump to different elevations. But most importantly, this storage can be used to send water to each and every field. NM Sadguru Foundation is in Daho, Gujarat. Please look at this link if you would like to get in touch. They have good training programs for people who are interested and they can take it up. It's an NGO, so it's not for profit. Lift irrigation from a check dam. So this is how the schematic works. You have the water in the check dam. You have a pump house as you've seen in this diagram. This is the pump house. And then you pump it into a reservoir or a smaller tank where water is stored. And from there, you disperse it to the field. So there is some power and cost for lifting the water, the pipes, etc. But this NGO would give money for 10 years and then later, they say, okay, I will build it. You manage it. The farmers should manage it and then if you want, you can increase the area of acreage. 401 community lift irrigation schemes are executed. And this is how, as I said, the distribution point, these are called. So from one check dam, the water goes to this distribution point and every farmer can now manage the water. Also, it's making it easy for the farmers to get the water. And this has also been done by the Government of India schemes, especially the MG Nerega. Under the MG Nerega, there is the NRM, Natural Resource Management. And under the NRM, there is a lot of budget for water resources, almost 75% of NRM budget. Then what do they do is mostly they do check dams. You can see here, they do small, small ponds which are not connected to a river or a street. Farm ponds and ponds are not connected. So along the river, the biggest investment is a check dam where they stop the water and then from there, they spread the water. If you look at budgets also, compared to ponds and farm ponds, check dams are pretty expensive compared because ponds and farm ponds are small. There's no machinery involved, etc. Whereas check dams are running water. Then you have dug wells and bankments, etc. So there's lots and lots of assets we call them. These are each one of our assets have been created because of the positive impact on the farmer's livelihood, total livelihood. It's also used for drinking, for washing, bathing. All I said, the check dams store the water. People go there for fishing, take water for drinking or cleaning the vessels. In rivers and stuff, you would see in villages, it's the same water for everything. They boil it, maybe they filter it. But at the end of the day, the water is good for them. They've been doing this for a lot, lot of years, a lot of generations, I would say. The impurities are very less. So here you could see in Maharashtra, where the locations are and some locations like Latur has less, but others have a lot of check dams. So the benefits of check dams have been studied very, very explicitly and detailed in many, many literature. Let's look at this study. This study used remote sensing to look at, has the check dam improved the condition of soil water and the groundwater recharge? This was in a location in Gujarat, same Tahore location. And you could see that the number of check dams increased from 1990 to 2015, so from 0 to or P to 52. And then all these areas are the basin boundaries where the check dams are placed. And you could see that in a year where the rainfall is comparable, same rainfall, 1991, 2017, the rainfall is almost the same. But you could see that the NDWI, which is an indicator of water in the soil, is higher in 2017 after the installation of 52 check dams. You could see here all these areas are turning into yellow. And if it is positive, high number of positive means it is more water is available. You could see all the red is converting into yellow or orange. And these pockets are coming up where water is there. So there is a radius of influence, but overall these check dams have improved the water because from here they take the water out and recharge the entire area. There is lift. So with this, I would conclude today's lecture. We looked about check dams and how they are useful. I will meet you in the next lecture with another Engineer Infrastructure for Rural Water Management. Thank you.


Welcome to Vermont House Judiciary Committee. It is 2.14 p.m. Thursday, April 7th. And we are back on S.163 and actually relating to state court petitions for vulnerable non-citizen youth. We were not able to hear from DCS General Counsel Jennifer Bica and she is here today. Welcome, good afternoon. Thank you for waiting a little bit late, so. So I had actually gotten a notice that it was going to be at 2.15 this morning. It had gotten updated. So your committee assistant is on the ball. Okay, well, yeah, worked out well. Thank you. Yes, she is. Hey, so. All right, thank you. My name is Jennifer Mica, General Counsel for Vermont Department for Children and Families. I'm here to testify on S.163 relating to non-citizen youth. And I wanted to just preface this by saying the only reason we got involved in this case on the Senate side is because we were concerned that expanding this bill up to age 21 would implicate DCF guardianship up to that age. And so nobody thought that should be the case. And so there's language in the bill on page seven under section 5126B, which provides for the court's jurisdiction in these cases. And that language states very clearly that it does not intend to expand the jurisdiction of DCF guardianship over these youth. And my understanding from talking to the witness you have from Vermont Law School and Vermont Attorney General's office is that these are always private guardianships. And we certainly have not in the time that the existing statute has been in place. We have not had any involvement in these. I have asked around and we sent out an APB to all the different districts and none of our family services workers has been involved in any of these cases. So we have no objection at all to the statute, to the bill as currently drafted as long as that language stays in there. Okay, thank you. That's very helpful. Thank you. Any questions? Nope, no. All right. Okay, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. Take care. Take care, bye now. Yep, bye bye.


So, please enjoy every part of the festival. I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I want to thank I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am They're here. I love to go. Medical services. I love to go. I love to go. I love to go. I love to go.


Welcome to get another episode of Buz with Taz and guys as you can see I am hanging out with the star my name is Miss Kipinji and this is father Mo from the famous school of Buzi Geng Pada mo anya zi? Kwa sana? Uko fiti? Uko fiti Ara minigopo ani mebresana kufuona Umecha kina Joe Fett wa? Joe Fett a kola sho?  E, kai Umeha yuko singo ma warembo pole sana ja na Pada mo How have you guys been? Metulia ki doga ma mokham kia? What's the plan? E, bida yu tu metulia as another group Tu nukatu na waki album Which tu mewa kia from like march Yes Na hime tanka inekakalio E, that's a long time Maji E Uki onadi wasi ikona familio E Ikona lava lava Buzi gen, you're not playing I, see what we're doing Ehe, nani mungine? Nani mungine? E, K.R.G. Ehe P.U.N.I.T. Y.R.A. Crystal What? How many tracks does the album have? Tachil Tachil That's crazy, what's the name of the album? Three Wife Goats Three Wife Goats E, the G.O.C. That's really nice, we're looking forward to that by the way Now, arafi kwa tungeli album tena kido go Um, guys, Shamra Shamra was like my favorite hit of, you know, 20, 20 rata Lemi teli, adi platikalo sali kujakatupunza moves ni ni ni ni ni ni ni E, mi, I used to dance Shamra Shamra from A to Z That was a hit song I would like to know What is the role that major played in your career during that particular time? Eh, bila tuli, tuli ongoma, kuna sii wengi wa higali kwa na sema Bilsom, ni kwa huge to a major Sehana Yes, zakata but ini pio fudi ni kwa ready before me as in it was already cooked before me sa major ndali kwa na misia aku spoon field Ok Mafal ea li pisei diya pushi, goma ni uwa definitely so, ni ni biles, aduki iskia Tumeto kwa album ku nangame uitoblesi Tumemu appreciate Oh, and it's nice Really? Are you guys planning to do another collaboration with him? Mama? You never know You never come The intogs That's really good to hear I would actually like to know after you guys released Shamra Shamra It was a hit Did you feel the pressure of not coming more and going even more hit How was it? You know after Tugidomo Tugidomo is a 2.2 million That was our first solo Actually it was Tugidomo So it was a hit So the song My fans all wanna say I'm a music teacher A kula venue I'm not saying I'm not saying Then we released Shamra Shamra So what we can tell you We don't talk a lot To not talk through our music Our album Kwa doki skia nika Blazing hit Kwanziya, fast soul and the emotion I can't lie You guys need to stream those songs Kutia comment section Tuambie Kuma penda gani Kama iso Now, for the more When you guys now were hit Amma bitua ta mkwe hit Nani nani kwa tukafu jua Kuna mkweni mkwe approach Aka look down upon you guys Kata na ano Nani kwa tukafu jua How was it? Na wu yoni nani? How was it? How was it? How was it? Kwa kolaabu zi kanda dollars How was it? I'm not a collaboration How was it? I don't know Kona wasa ni kiburizao Nani kwa kuboksi na Kwa kuboksi nabreiki na Chansi ondi How was it? Kwa kuboksi na Breiki jua? We became huge We became huge somehow. I foolished one of the young groups and their approach. One and only Breda in W. Oh, Breda, eh? They did a song. Agreements again come to Fanyangoma. I left while shooting a video and I was worried. So, I did an interview and I agreed to do it. So, I made a story and I learned how to do it. Sure, people. So, Breda, what was the story? Eh, Breda even told me that he was in Germany. Wow, okay. But now, looking at where you guys are, because of course I foolished to tell you a story. How do you feel? Nah, me, ashen, na please bless. I may be happy. Yeah. Well, I'm happy. I'm happy. Yeah. I do not know my words. I'm not sure I understand. Could you tell me? And then... I would like to know. Out of the datin tracks in your album, what's your favorite? Me na pela yeni asiiko. ah We can't wait to see that. We are waiting to see that. So, fast videos dropping? Happy Birthday. We are doing it with Kjell Lavalava. Kjell Lavalava for both of them and you guys. Kjell Lavalava. Ni to Lavalava. Nei. Black market records. How was it working with Lava Lava? Eh eh eh Ali kwa rastiyangu adi Uloja at first uta moga fuyamsa ni kubuwa ni Kwa safi ni ni ni ni That's getting kwa tuna jokinaya daily As in daily Adi na ima Ali kwa na bambika dina iso miskanize to atakaya ni Which was fun I mean we can't really wait to see the album And the first video that you guys are dropping Guys make sure you watch that video when it drops Na utwambi e una temaji Hapibat de wewe Tuka temaji lewe Adi unyempa kawlewe Nisi kuyako lewe Eh eh eh That one is a hit I am also verified It's gonna be a hit But thank you so much for the moka kusonge We wish you guys all the best We wish you a video to retain it here Become and cover the behind the scenes And just show people what is happening Alright thank you so much Guys this was for the moka kusonge Booty Gang Joe Fest, I foolish talimikeni sana We hope to see you next time My name is Miss Kipinji And this was Buzz Itself Right here on FPM Buzz Subscribe


Ecclesiastes, chapter 1, beginning at verse 1, reading to verse 3, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king of Jerusalem, vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? And so we're about to begin a series taken from the book of Ecclesiastes, and the reason why I decided to teach this book is because of the timeliness of its message. I believe we're living in days that the contents of this book, we're living in days that the contents of this book can apply to, can inform us about, and so as I was considering what book we ought to move into and study after we finished the book of Proverbs, it became obvious to me that the book that would be important for us to look at would be the book of Ecclesiastes because this book encourages us to discover what we would call our highest purpose, and he's going to make it very clear as we go through Ecclesiastes that everything that eliminates God is without purpose, and ultimately is meaningless. The word vanity speaks of something that is worthless, and you can see that he begins even from the beginning in verse 2 by saying vanity of vanities, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The point he's making is that life without God has no purpose and has no meaning, and that would include every human endeavor. And he speaks concerning every human endeavor and uses a phrase under the sun. So you're going to see that phrase repeated under the sun some 29 times as we go through the book of Ecclesiastes, and so all human endeavors that exclude God from anything is all vanity. The word vanity itself is used 37 times, and it's used to describe a variety of things that vanity is used to describe human labors, human wisdom, prestige. It speaks concerning pleasure. It describes youthful strength, and it even goes so far as to describe human knowledge. So everything done under heaven without God is completely useless. Everything done under heaven without God is vanity, and that's the point he's making. Now at the end of the book, Solomon will conclude with what is the purpose of our lives, and so we'll see that when we get to chapter 12 because in verses 13 and 14 they'll say it to us, let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil. So he concludes, and we'll see that when we get there in chapter 12 with what matters, what matters is fearing God and keeping his word. So as we look at this, I'll continue my background and then we'll look into the study. This book is attributed to, refers to the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, it's attributed to King Solomon. Eight times he gives clues to himself as the author. In verse one, notice how he calls himself son of David. Notice in verses one as well as verse 12, he refers to himself as the king of Jerusalem and Israel. In chapter one in verse 16, he is identified as the wisest man. In chapter two verses four through six, he's identified as a builder of great works. In chapter two verse seven, he possesses great herds. Chapter two verse eight, he has great wealth. And in chapter two verse nine, he was greater than all who had lived in Jerusalem. All of this describes King Solomon. So Solomon, Solomon was the son of King David and a woman by the name of Bathsheba. And he is the wisest man of his time. It is believed that he was born around 990 before Christ. He was crowned in 970 before Christ. He died around 930 before Christ. When we read first Kings, first Kings records that God appeared to Solomon. And when God appeared to Solomon, he asked him a question that is, to me, it's always been an amazing question because he asked him this, what shall I give you? Now if you were asked that question by God, say God would appear to you. And he said to you, what do you want? What shall I give unto you? Can you imagine what you would ask for? What would you ask for? You know, I've said this before. Some of you might remember when my children were small, we read first Kings together. I gave my children devotions and we were in first Kings and we got to the portion of Scripture where God is speaking to Solomon. And he says to him, what is it that I shall give unto you? Ask. As high as the heavens. You ask, what is it that you want? And now my kids are very small. And I think that the youngest one, Anna, may have been around four years old at the time. That would have made the oldest one around 10. So I'm not expecting especially profound things to come out of them. You know, what do you expect from a 10-year-old or whatever? You know, I just wanted them to think, if you were asked, what is it that I can give anything that you can think of, anything you want? What do you want? So I just wanted to see where my kids were spiritually. And so I still remember, you know, Corinne and David and Joseph all answering in a way that they thought would be pleasing to me. Oh, I would want to know you more, God.  The only one who was really up front and honest was Anna. She was only around four. So I said, okay, baby, God is going to give you anything that you ask him for, anything. What is it that you want? I'll never forget. She looks at me and she says, gum, that was it, you know. She's still that way. She still loves gum and so does her daughter. I mean, that was my Anna.  I think many of us are pretty much like that to this day. We ask for things that are used up momentarily. But when God said to Solomon, what is it? Ask of me. What do you desire? What shall I give you? First Kings three, verse nine gives us his answer. Give to your servant an understanding heart to judge your people that I may discern between good and evil for who is able to judge this great people of yours. What do I want more than anything? I'm but a youth. I don't have wisdom. I don't know how to go out and I can't even come in when it's raining. I don't have any wisdom. Therefore give me wisdom because I've been placed in a position of being king over your great people. So what I desire more than anything is a heart of wisdom. And God responded in first Kings chapter three, verse 12. And he said, I have done according to your words, see, I have given you a wise and understanding heart so that there has not been anyone like you before you, nor shall any like you arise after you. And in first Kings four, 29 through 34, God gave Solomon wisdom and exceedingly great understanding, largeness of heart like the sand of the seashore. The Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the men of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt. For he was wiser than all men than Ethan, the Ezraite, and Heman, Chalkal, and Darda, the son of Mahal. And his fame was in all the surrounding nations. He spoke 3,000 proverbs. His songs were 1,005. He spoke of trees from the cedar tree of Lebanon, even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He spoke also of animals, of birds, of creeping things, and of fish. And men of all nations from all the kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom came to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Can you imagine that? People were coming from everywhere just to hear this incredibly wise man. And that's why he says that he was the wisest. Going on, I should say that Ecclesiastes was written probably around 935 years before Christ. It is one of three books that are attributed to Solomon. It's been said, and if you think about it, it makes some sense, that he wrote Song of Solomon when he was a young man. When you read the Song of Solomon, you can see a young man would write like that. He was a young man, but then it goes on, and he more than likely wrote the book of Proverbs when he was in his middle age. But you can see in the book of Ecclesiastes, this would have been a book that was written in his older age. And so he wrote three books, and this is the one that was written as he was an older man. This is the book of Ecclesiastes. Again, beginning at verse one, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. So Solomon identifies himself. Notice as the preacher, the son of David. The word preacher in the Hebrew language speaks of a public speaker. It speaks of a speaker in an assembly. And so the preacher is a title. It's repeated a variety of times here. As we go through Ecclesiastes, you'll see him use that. That title varies times. As a self-identifier, he is someone who is speaking openly. And this is what the preacher has to say. Verse two, vanity of vanities says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? So he begins by saying everything is vain, all is vanity. So he begins with a strong statement. Everything that he's encountered in life can be categorized as futility, as vanity. His opening thought is a life not dedicated to God, is aimless, it's empty, it's unsatisfying. Jesus would ask the same kind of question. He did so in Matthew chapter 16, verse 26. Jesus asked this question. He said, for what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? What would you give in exchange for your soul? When we're young, we don't think of our soul very much. When we're middle-aged, we may begin to start thinking, I'm growing older. I wonder if I've accomplished the things that I would have liked to have accomplished. I wonder if I moved in the right direction, then we have that middle life crisis. I should have bought a motorcycle. I should have wore gold chains and opened my shirt up more. We go through our mid-like crisis, you know. When you get old, you begin to think about a life that you've lived and you begin to wonder, did I do the right thing? Did I go in the right direction? Did I choose the things that had value? Was I always pursuing the things that didn't last? Did I always want things that really perished with the using? What did it profit me and what does it profit me? So he begins with that question, a question that many people relate to. He begins with a question that the majority of people have asked or will ask. And that question, verse three, what profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? What's the use of all of this? Why am I working in the first place? I can attempt to find meaning in my physical labor, but it will always be unsatisfying. If it were possible, I could become rich, perhaps famous. But you can have a nine ache, an ache in your heart, an emptiness in your heart. You can have everything that money can buy and still be very lonely. You can have enough money to purchase anything in any store at any time and still be empty. Somebody in this room says, well, give me a chance to find that out on my own. But it's true, but it's true. You can have so many things and you discover at the end that things did not make you satisfied. My father as a young man was in the Navy and he served in World War II and he had a chance to travel a bit. He was on a battleship called the USS Pennsylvania. And my father had a chance to see some of the world and when he got out of the military, he had the travel bug. My dad had always wanted to travel and to see things and never had an opportunity really to do as much as he would have liked. And one day when I was a young man, my mom was speaking to me and my mom said something to me that I've never forgotten at Bear's Repetition at this point to emphasize the point that I'm making. My mom said to me, you know son, when your dad was young, he wanted to travel and he had a friend and his friend traveled a lot and his friend would bring movies and show my dad these little video clips, movie clips of Italy or Spain or the various places he saw and my mom said your dad would come and talk to me and she said your dad would say to me how he wished he could have traveled. He wanted to travel and my dad at one point when we were young, little kids had told my mom, you know, I've got these small kids, man. I've got kids and my whole life is going towards them.  And then my mom was telling me this and she said, you know, your dad was jealous of his friend because his friend bought things, his friend traveled, never had children, it was just my dad's friend and his wife and one day his wife died and he wasn't that old and he came and spoke to my dad and he told my dad something like, Frank, I am so jealous of you. He said, I only had a wife and I never had children. He said, and now I'm alone. He said, you at least will always have your children and my mom said, your father learned the value of his family from one who didn't have one. You know, you can travel, there's nothing wrong with it. If you have a chance, it's always great. I think it's a good thing. You expand your horizons, you learn new things. This is not a knock on traveling, what I'm saying is these things are great, the experiences are wonderful but they don't fill you up. There are other things that matter and those are the things that we need to discover in our search for purpose. You see labor in and of itself will bring a certain level of satisfaction but labor in and of itself leaves us empty. Ecclesiastes, we'll see this later in chapter six verse seven says all the labor of man is for his mouth and yet the soul is not satisfied. So material thing does not bring you spiritual satisfaction. Physical labor alone cannot produce spiritual abundance and physical labor alone cannot produce completeness. Your job in and of itself can never bring spiritually abundant satisfaction. And so from the beginning he's simply saying life without God is a life lived without meaning. It is simply a grasping for straws. You'll see in chapter two verse 11 how he says I looked on all the works of my hands, all the works that my hands had done and on the labor in which I had toiled and indeed all was vanity grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun. Again, Jesus in Mark eight, 36 and 37 made it clear. He said, what will it profit a man if he gains the world and loses his own soul? What will a man give in exchange for his soul? So the point he's making is obvious. A life lived without God has no purpose. Therefore we labor for the things that last beyond a lifetime. Again, John six, 27, Jesus said, do not labor for the food which perishes but for the food which endures to everlasting life which the Son of man will give you because God the Father set his seal on him. Don't labor for things that don't last. Ultimately you end up leaving everything you labored for behind. Again in chapter two verse 18, he says, I hated all my labor in which I had toiled under the sun because I must leave it to the man who will come after me. And in chapter two verse 21, he went on to say, there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge and skill yet. He must leave his heritage to a man who has not labored for it. This also was vanity and a great evil. I have to leave it all behind. Not a single thing will be taken with me. And so the only thing that lasts eternally is what we have done for the Lord. And again, Matthew six, 19 through 21, that's why Jesus said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy where thieves break in and steal, lay up for yourself treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys where thieves do not break in and steal for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. A life that is lived without the Lord is vain. It is aimless, it is without purpose. Paul said that in Ephesians two in verses one through three. He said, you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. He said, he made you alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked. That word walked in the original language means to meander. You once walked aimless is what he's saying. You once wandered aimlessly, but when Christ saved you, he made you aware of what eternity is and what purpose is. And there he discovered the meaning of life and it came through a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. So we are wise when we labor in pursuit of the Lord. That's why Colossians three verse two says, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Pursue the things that last. And from the beginning, the preacher Solomon would be making that very clear. Vanity of vanities says the preacher. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What prophet has a man from all his labor in which he toils unto the sun? Verse four, one generation passes away and another generation comes, but the earth abides forever. The sun also rises and the sun goes down and hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, turns around to the north. The wind whirls about continually and comes again on its circuit. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full to the place from which the rivers come. There they return again. And so he continues on to share and all. And he's comparing here in verses four, especially four through six, he's comparing the permanence of the earth with the impermanence of man. From outward appearances alone, nature endures longer than human flesh. Nature, he's saying, seems to be an endless cycle of activity. It goes on forever, but in contrast, man is simply passing through. In verse seven, all the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea's not full to the place from which the rivers come. There they return again. Your lifespan is short in comparison to these things, to the mountains, to the seas, the rivers, the deserts. It's like what Job said in chapter 14 of the book of Job, verses one and two. He said, a man who was born of woman is a few days and full of troubles. He comes forth like a flower and fades away. He flees like a shadow and does not continue. Compared to the centuries, some things exist. Man's lifetime is brief. Psalm 90 verse 10 tells us that Moses said, the days of our lives are 70 years. And if by reason of strength, they are 80 years. Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away. 70 years. Maybe if you're strong 80 and then you're gone. Now that's not a real cheery thought, is it? Especially some of my gray hairs out there, including me. That's not a cheery thought. But the point is it should cause us to consider making best use of time. In James four, verse 14, you do not know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? It's even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. We have to understand that. Teach us to number our days. Teach us to realize. I was just speaking to someone just recently, just within the last couple of days. A young man. I think he's around 45. That's a child to me now. He was a baby. He was in his pampers. And as we were talking, I asked him, I said, what are you doing for your retirement? And he says, I said, you ought to do something in the event that the Lord tarries.  If you can, you ought to. Well, I said, listen, I said, I didn't begin doing anything till I was 50, 51 years old. I have a friend of mine who didn't start preparing for retirement till he was 62. He's not gonna retire. So we were talking and I said, it's a wise thing to make sure that, and we'll see this by the way next summer together. We'll look at this in chapter two, because a wise man leaves something for his children's children. And it's a wise thing to think in terms of future because your life is just a vapor.  And I felt like I had so many years ahead. And yet you really don't. So you have to be aware of that. From the moment a person, this is cherry, here's a cherry thought for you. From the moment you are conceived, you begin to die. And it may end 80 years later, but it does end. And so we need to learn to number our days and to use them with wisdom and to realize that we are a vapor. And this is coming from the pen of the wisest man on the face of the earth, Solomon. And he's saying this is what I know. And we are wise if we listen to his wisdom. And he's saying that he's making it very clear when generation passes away, another generation comes, the earth abides forever, it seems to be permanent. The sun rises, the sun goes down, hastens to the place where it is. There are cycles of life. The wind goes toward the south, turns around to the north. The wind whirls about continually seems to be without cessation of any sort, constantly moving. All the rivers run into the sea. The sea's not full till the place from which the rivers come. There they return again. Then verse eight, all things are full of labor. Man cannot express it. The eye's not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. So that communicates again the vastness of creation, nature's in the constant state of activity. It is constantly changing. It never seems to be at rest. So man for all his activity is constantly in motion, but never simply at rest. He will never really have it outside of the rest you have in the Lord. So the eye isn't satisfied with seeing. The ear is not filled with hearing. In an entire lifetime, you never completely exhaust your ability to see and hear as long as you have eyes to see and ears to hear. They never get full. There's no sign like you used to see in some old cartoons where the eyes would suddenly say full. That doesn't happen.  You know, on this earth, it's never full and your ears are always constantly hearing. You're always listening. There's always sounds. Even when you're asleep and you think you're not listening, you're always hearing. That's what's taking place. It's like Google is always listening to you. There's a big thing going on with that. Some of you are aware of right now because your phone is constantly recording everything. If you've got a phone, it's constantly recording everything. You're everywhere you're going and it's all locking in. There's all kinds of information on you that if they wanted to, if people wanted to, they could tell you where you went, at what time, getting out of your car and all the locations right now. And all of us have our phones and it's one of those ways that we are, and I'm not preaching, by the way, something for you to be afraid of. We're not going to have a phone burning. I'm just saying. I'm just saying that you are being tracked 24-7. And you can say something like, man, I need to get to a gym. Man, I got to get to the gym. And tomorrow, you're going to have some kind of feed that's going to give you the locations of gyms. And some of you have discovered that, haven't you? You say, how come I'm getting things about a gym? Did you tell? It's because there's an information source, a constant thing. They're always listening. Well, it's never full. And so, no matter what it is that we see, no matter what it is that we hear, you always desire to see and to hear more. Beauty doesn't necessarily fulfill us. You're going to always want to see something a bit different in Proverbs 27, verse 20. The eyes of man are never satisfied. So it's just, it's constant. You can see, you can want more. You can see, you can want more. It says in verse nine, that which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done. There's nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, see, this is new. It has already been in ancient times before us. Man's desires, man's complaints, man's pursuits are always basically the same. As far as something completely new, ultimately we don't necessarily create, we innovate. People constantly look for something new and different, but there's really no such thing as something that is completely new.  You know, look at the latest cars. You know, well, before there were cars, there were carts, before there were carts, there was something that had some form of wheels. I mean, it's just innovation. It's not a new creation. That's the point he's making is we simply innovate, but we're not really creating anything that's new and completely different. It's all basically the same. And so styles and music are constantly recycled. You know that, in our society you know that. I find it interesting now to watch the recycled things because I've lived long enough to see something come in and become popular and then fade in popularity. And then suddenly it's back again. And it was goofy then and now it's goofy again. You know, I get entertained by pseudo hippies, by the kids today trying to act like they're hippies and they talk like they're hippies. You know, they're not hippies, they're dippies.  That's all it is. And he says in verse 11, there is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who will come after. History is soon forgotten in our never ending quest for something new and improved.  And nobody remembers your accomplishments. I, verse 12, the preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all that is done under heaven. This burdensome task God has given to the sons of man by which they may be exercised. So he says, I set my heart to seek. When he says I set my heart, the heart speaks of intellectual faculties. He's saying I applied my mind to seek. I determined to search out by wisdom all that was done under heaven. I searched out the meaning and purpose of life here on planet earth. I wanted to understand why men do what they do, socially, politically, privately. And he said in verse 13, this burdensome task God has given to the sons of man. So these things in the garden were already known. But after the fall, it became a task. It is something that we are trained by as we seek out purpose and we seek out meaning. In many ways, this life is difficult and this life is filled with pressures. He says, God has given this task to the sons of man by which they may be exercised. It's a difficult task to discover the purpose of life. So in verse 14, I've seen all the works that are done under the sun. Indeed, all is vanity grasping for the wind. I've looked at how human beings behave and what drives them. They all seem unsatisfied. Life on earth is painful. And life, because it is difficult, can break a person's spirit. So human efforts and achievements, he's saying ultimately our vanity, they're meaningless. They don't have any purpose or meaning without God. He says in verse 15, what is crooked cannot be made straight. What is lacking, it cannot be numbered. You see, frustration does arise when we try to correct the problems of man without God. When we encounter problems, we try to solve them without moral directions. A lot of people try to help other people to get well or to gain purpose, but they don't consider God's word and they don't ask God for his help. So we try to fix lives. We can even try to fix our own lives without him.  I got to that place. You did too. If you have any testimony of ever remembering to be without Christ, some of you were raised in Christian homes, you have a different path that you took. But for those of us who didn't get saved until we had lived for a while, I can tell you life was difficult. I can tell you it was a pressure. I could tell you that it had no meaning. I could tell you that as a young person, I had no purpose. I had no hope. I had no joy. I had no plans for the future. I had no hope for the future. Because in my day, it's similar to what it is today, things don't really change what was is and what is was once. It doesn't change, he makes that point. Yeah, we had questions about climate when I was 20, 21 years old. Yeah, but at that time it wasn't that everything was getting too hot. At that time, everybody said we're gonna freeze. That's what they said back in the 60s, late 60s and early 70s, some of you may know that. There's gonna be another great freeze, but climate was a question. We had questions about justice. We had questions about, you name it, whatever's going on now, we had the same kinds of questions. They don't change, the questions don't change. What are you gonna do about the unjustness in society? What are you gonna do about the impoverished? What are you gonna do about wars? What are you gonna do, and we would talk about those things and how are we gonna handle inequities and how are we, that was our generation, that's this generation. It's not brand new, the things that are happening while they all have been done under the sun. All is vanity, all is grasping for the wind, he's saying. It's all basically the same. We have encountered problems, we try to solve them. When you go to school and some people go to school and I'll tell you this, I know this for a fact, and it's been demonstrated in things that have been printed, but there are many people who go to college, for example, and they wanna be a psychologist, so they're taking psych, 101 and whatever, and they go on to get their degrees in psychology, but the teachers will tell you this, how do I know, because I was a psych major, that's how I know. And they said, do you know the reason people are taking psych classes and social science classes, which were the other classes I took, is because they're trying to find purpose, meaning, and explanations for behaviors. And that's true. That's absolutely true. Many people who were going for their degrees in psychology were really self-analysing. They wanted to know why they were messed up. That's a fact. They wanted to know why they think the way they think and why they do the things they do, and they were looking for explanations for that, and they went to confused teachers who had taken God out of the equation, and all they ended up with was more questions and more hopelessness. That's a fact. More questions and more hopelessness. And for those of you who've been to college, you know this is true. You go into a class expecting to get answers and you leave that class with more questions, because the professors present questions, but very seldom present any real answers. And then the answers that they give to you, if it's a secular college, are almost always without God in the equation. And Solomon would say, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Everything is futile when you don't have God in the equation. Everything is. That's what we're seeing here in the quest for purpose. What do we do to solve the problems that we see people have? What does this nation do? I wrote some things down. What do we do to solve the problems while we pass out birth control in high school? We provide transportation to clinics, to high schoolers who wanna get an abortion without notifying the parents. We legalize drugs. We provide clean syringes to junkies.  We reclassify homosexuality and make it acceptable and even normal. We say that AIDS is caused by a virus, not drugs or promiscuous sex. We refer to abortion as a woman's right to choose. We call alcohol and drug dependency a disease. And we create various genders for people to choose from. That's how we handle our difficulties. We don't. We just create new categories and invent answers that satisfies no one. So human wisdom excludes what is spiritual and because it excludes God, it is bankrupt. So in verse 15, what is crooked cannot be made straight. What is lacking cannot be numbered. What is crooked cannot be made straight means it cannot be said in order. What is lacking is something that cannot be provided for by our own efforts. Someone said human wisdom cannot make straight that which is crooked and human deficiencies cannot be cured through man's vain attempt at solving problems that in their root is spiritual. And so verse 16, I communed with my heart saying, look, I've gained greatness and have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My heart has understood great wisdom and knowledge. I set my heart to no wisdom, to no madness and folly. I perceive that this also is grasping for the wind for in much wisdom is much grief and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. I set my heart to no wisdom because you see, I had said in verse 16, I attain greatness. I have great knowledge, but I haven't applied wisdom to the knowledge that I have. And because he had great knowledge, Solomon actually became proud of all that he knew. Now that's something to be aware of because you can actually become proud of all that you know. In first Corinthians chapter eight, verse one, Paul very clearly said knowledge puffs up. The more you know, the greater you may feel yourself to be. And that's why I am fascinated with and such a fan of and in love with Jesus Christ because Jesus, wow, he could have gone on Jeopardy and won forever, he had never lost. I mean, think about it. And yet read the words of Christ and look at how he handled the questions when the sincere ones would ask them. Look at how he treated children. Look at how he treated babies. Look at how he treated people who tried to keep babies from him. Look at his compassion, look at his wisdom. Look at how he treated people and I admire him. Even when he rebuked those whom he loved, he did so with the gentleness. Martha, remember that situation with Martha and Mary how Jesus was there at the meal and Martha was in the kitchen, banging pots and pans.  Come and help me. But in Martha's case, she went a step further. She walked up to God himself and rebuked him. Think about that. I mean, think about it. Don't you care that I'm here working by myself? Tell her to get up and help me. I'm banging these pans in here, making mussel soup and you're not doing anything about it. Can you imagine? Martha, Martha. You are overwhelmed and troubled by many things but your sister has chosen the better part. You see, before you serve me, you need to learn from me. Before you do something for me, you need to learn who I am and why you should do those things and if you think that I'm more blessed by the meal than I am in giving a meal, my word, you've got things to learn. You see, even in his conversations, there's a gentleness that Jesus knew all things, all things that he needed to know and yet he didn't have an arrogance but then on the other hand, you see the Pharisees, you see the Sadducees, the religious leaders and you'll hear their questions and you will see their arrogance in them and that's the knowledge that puffs up, that knowledge that makes you think you know more because you have information and so the bottom line is, he could have been proud. I communed with my heart saying look, I've attained greatness, have gained more wisdom than all who were before me in Jerusalem, my heart has understood great wisdom and great knowledge. I set my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceive that this is also grasping for the wind. I lived as a wise man and I've experienced life as one who's a fool and crazy and I've discovered something, verse 18 in much wisdom is much grief and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Happiness is not the ultimate product of an education. Keep that in mind. He who increases knowledge, he says increases sorrow. Happiness is not necessarily the product of an education and many college students can tell you that their faith, their innocence was actually stolen from them when they were in college. Their innocence very often has been stolen by a professor who kept on citing statistics and studies and ridiculing their faith in Christ and their faith in God has been undermined. I did my time in college. I went to both secular and Christian colleges and in the secular college, I had professors who outright told us that they thought we were foolish, outright. I don't know how you could believe in that little book, that little black book that you say is from God. The first day of one class, I still remember a professor of a sociology class that I took and he said, how many of you, how many of you believe are born again Christians? That's the, how many of you are born again Christians? There were about 30 of us in the class and about four or five of us raised our hands. The very first lecture, very first class, how many of you are born again Christians raised our hands? I don't understand how you can believe in that little black book. I don't, I believe in studies. He told us, I believe in studies and statistics, scientific knowledge. I do not know how you can walk by or believe these things. How do you live like that? That was our opening conversation.   He says, I have studies in my office. I can bring here and show you that demonstrate that there's no correlation between tobacco and lung cancer. He died of lung cancer. He did, he died of lung cancer. He had three wives, he had been married three times, but he pitied me because I was happily married, but that's only because I'm stupid, I guess, because I'm a believer and he didn't respect us.  And after a while, you start thinking, you know, that may very well be. I've always just clung to these things because I learned it in Sunday school. I, how would I know whether it's true or not? And these have statistical evidence. And slowly but surely in your education, well, he who increases knowledge increases sorrow. Your joy is stolen from you because it's not centered on God and the wisdom that you receive from him. To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society. And that's true. The knowledge that ultimately satisfies us is the knowledge of God. Many years ago, now I was invited to go to a high school baccalaureate. They had asked me to give the speech at their baccalaureate. And I still, it's been a long time now. I still remember going to do it. It was a Sunday night. And one of the teachers walked up to me and said to me, you cannot mention God. And I thought, how interesting, a baccalaureate is a worship service. That's what a baccalaureate is. Traditionally in the United States, it's a religious service that is tied into the graduation. It was to encourage people to have morals and that's what a baccalaureate is. So please don't talk, you can't talk about God or Jesus. I said, really? So I went up and there's all these kids for the baccalaureate. And I still remember some of what I said. I said, listen, you went to four years of high school and you've had a lot of classes that have given you a lot of information and they've taught you a lot of things about a lot of things that you will encounter in life. But the one thing they haven't told you is this, Jesus Christ is the Lord and he died on a cross for you. And you can gain all the information you want in life but if you don't have the true knowledge of God and sins forgiven, you have no knowledge. And I never was invited back, but guess what? That's the truth, right? That's the truth.  I mean, you got a C in math.  No, no, what they really needed is true knowledge and the true knowledge comes through God and sins forgiven. In Proverbs one, verse seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. That's where it begins, knowing God and fearing him. And as we go through the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon is gonna give us examples and tell us how vain it is. Give us examples, tell us how vain it is until the end when he says the only thing that matters is fear God, keep his commandments. We'll see that as we go through Ecclesiastes.


This is stock number 10038, we are here at Summit Automotive in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, your new and used sports car headquarters. Today we are checking out this super clean 2009 Chevy Corvette 06. This vehicle has a 7 liter LS7 V8 motor which pumps out 505 horsepower. From this HD video you will be able to tell just how clean this car is all the way around inside and out. Cyber gray metallic is the color on this vehicle and we shoot all of our videos in 1080p. So if you have HD capabilities on your computer tablet or smartphone device turn them on right now because it's like you're right here looking at the vehicle with me. See the 06 logo right there comes with the 06 rims, nice chrome no scuffs or scrapes and this car has brand new hand-cooked Ventus 275 35 R18 tires on them. In the front at least they are brand new we put those tires on in our shop. Front fenders absolutely perfect no dense dings rock chips or anything like that has the HID headlamps the factory fog lamps. Front valence is in pretty nice shape it's not cracked or anything got a couple minor little scuffs but that bottom valence can be replaced so it's not that big of a deal. Passenger side fender excellent shape as well no scuffs or scrapes on that rim and that tire is brand new too. As we go down this side of the vehicle you can see just how clean the body is how reflective and mirror like that paint is. We take these HD videos so if you are far away or even if you're close by and just can't make the trip down but you're still interested in purchasing the vehicle you can still see the vehicle hear the vehicle and have confidence in what you're looking at before you even get here so that when you do get here there's absolutely no surprises. Very clean down that side. This back rim excellent condition as well no scuffs or scrapes you got the drilled rotors and these back tires are brand new as well. We replaced all four tires on this car as we come to the back of the vehicle it has the quad tip dual exhaust I believe it's all stock sounds really good the rear bumper is in really nice shape as well you can really see that metal flake and the cyber gray there down this side of the car just as clean as that passenger side and for full disclosure this back rim excellent condition as well and one more time down this door very very clean inside the Z06 package gives you the black leather interior you get the Z06 stitched headrest there are no rips or tears you get the Z06 floor mats the Z06 plate on the sill there power windows power locks power mirrors this one does have auto head lamps and as we hop inside here you can see that this car has twelve thousand five hundred and forty three miles instrument cluster is very nice and clean leather wrap steering wheel no scuffs or scrapes on that and it does have an AM FM CD player and it does have Sirius XM radio capabilities can see it as the push button start along with your information center controls dual climate control and of course the six-speed manual transmission get the carbon fiber dash trim right there passenger side floor mat and seat are in excellent condition as well and the headliner is very clean on this car to boot has the on-star capabilities and your compass mirror we'll take a quick look at the back and then we'll check out under the hood as well if I can get out of here there we go back trunk area is in excellent shape has the nice floor mat back there that shuts nice and solidly and under the hood we have the seven liter 427 LS7 motor five hundred five horsepower engine base very very clean runs very smooth this car has been fully safety to and inspected by our service shop has a fresh oil and filter change all the fluids have been checked and topped off four brand new tires and this car is 100% ready to go to see more pictures of this car or one of our other 450 new and used cars trucks SUVs minivans Wrangler sports cars you name it we got it go to our website www.summitauto.com full pictures and descriptions of every single vehicle on our lot videos of every single used vehicle that we have all at summit auto.com from two locations at summit auto.com if you want to check out more HD videos you can go to youtube.com slash summit auto remember to like subscribe and share on this video and all the videos that you see there in fact in a second you will see a link to subscribe to our YouTube channel on your left a link to more sports car videos like this one on your right if you have not been to our website on the bottom link to this vehicle on our website click those check us out and we really look forward to help you with this super clean 2009 Chevy Corvette 06 thanks again


and followed the recent statement made by the governorship candidates of the all-progressive congress and the deputy senate president center of Yomal Gege saying that the present governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifaya Kourwer and the vice presidential candidates of the People's Democratic Party at the forthcoming 2023 general elections in the country, abandonded Delta Central in the past seven years in office. It has been seriously faulted by the commission of works Mr. Nual Amodan speaking with our sub-correspondent of Pomejaro Friday in Asaba, the state capital, the commission of works, highway and up and road. Nual Amodan said the governor, Dr. Kourwer led the government has constructed over 400 road projects across the eight liquid government areas in the Delta Central senatorial districts, adding that they should not be deceived by the words from the APC governorship candidate and that is was just a line to get favours from voters. On his part, the commission of works Solomon Ghali noted that in the rural area it is the senatorial districts that have been constructed that we will lead to the construction of the east. We have 20 road projects that have been constructed. In East of West we have 20, 26, in the open local government we have 19, in Uvelino we have 16, in Sable we have four, and in Udu we have seven local governments. It is purely at the local ethnic senatorial districts and we have one on round, one on one, two road projects that have been constructed. If we say the rural nation has been neglected, it is the complete force of this kind because when you go there, you see things for yourself. There is virtually no local government that you don't feel independent of Dr. Irfan Yokoa in terms of old construction and virtually all the local governments, the eight local governments, so it will be very wrong for anybody to argue. The capacity, the group called the chairman of the IDF, Dr. Yokoa. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.