Good morning there, my beautiful, lovely internet friends, and welcome back to my channel. I'm gonna let you in on a shocking secret. I'm an amputee. It's true, and in my comments section, I'll often get the same questions over and over again about like, how did you learn how to drive? How did you learn how to swim? Because in a lot of people's minds, these are gonna be the most difficult activities. False, ouch, that pulled my hair out. This is very sticky and jelly, and it'll catch your hair and it doesn't feel good. False, this video I wanna reveal the top five most difficult things that took me so much time to learn, and some of them that I'm still learning. Now, I am in an Airbnb right now. It's pretty cute. I actually did just wake up, so I'm gonna talk to you as we get ready for the day. Let's head downstairs and get my leg on first. First things first, coffee, and this place has an espresso machine, which I'm kind of obsessed with, so let's get that sweet, sweet caffeine flowing.  Let's start off with traveling, because this has been something that you think I would have figured out by now, but even three years into this whole limbless thing I still struggle with. So think about when you travel, right? Like, you gotta think about socks, underwear, what kind of outfits you're gonna wear, what kind of medications you might need, make sure it's all packed and good to go. Take that and then double it, and then add on the stakes that if you do not remember correctly or plan far enough ahead, you're not gonna be walking. That sounds dramatic, but it's also kind of honest. I went on a trip to Hawaii where I was at the beach and some sand got in the valves of my leg, and it was broken for like a day. Like, I could still walk, but it was making weird noises. It wasn't suctioning onto me correctly. It was really uncomfortable, and I was like, am I gonna spend the next eight days in Hawaii unable to walk? There are a lot of things that can go wrong in general with your leg, but to think ahead to bring all of them, you're kind of bringing an additional suitcase. And here's an example of what I was packing when I was going to Hawaii, right? If I wanted to be fully prepared. So it's a lot of thinking ahead. It's also a lot of additional anxiety, and these aren't things that you can pick up at like the local CVS or Walgreens. They are things that you have to get from your prosthetist and pretty much just them or it takes a while to order. So if something breaks, if something goes wrong, I'm SOL. Figuring out how to be comfortable on planes. Do I leave my leg on? Do I take my leg off? Do I ask a stewardess to put my leg in the overhead bin? It was just different. There's definitely a huge learning curve to traveling, to planning ahead. And it's the one thing on this list that I'd say I'm actively still getting better at. Okay, coffee is flowing through the veins. Let's get dressed for the day. You know, I was gonna like put makeup on and look super cute for the camera, but you guys saw me when I just woke up, so I think we can dispense with that. Yes, all right. Thing number two that was incredibly difficult, frustratingly and unexpectedly so is an amputee. But before we get to that, a word from our very fitting sponsor today.  AWS Courses are tech industry based and they work to overcome the barrier to entry in the tech world. So speaking on a personal note, over the past three years, my life has looked a lot different than it did before. There have been so many things to adapt to, overcome and figure out how to cope. And I personally found that one of the biggest beneficial things that I could do for myself was learn new things, expand my mind. Whether I was recovering from a surgery, whether I was frustrated with my job, if I felt overwhelmed that everything else are frustrated or bored. And I found a new skill to focus on learning even like 10 minutes a day. It's something that really improved my mental health and gave me a sense of purpose when it felt lacking other places and also on a practical note, gave me new skills, which has been fantastic. And so an AWS learning reached out to me to ask if I wanted to partner with them. My response was a resounding yes, because I so believe in the power of continued learning as a way of taking care of ourselves, investing in ourselves, expanding ourselves. You can learn AWS and really important skills today on Amazon.com with courses created by AWS experts. You can choose from a selection of popular courses and receive video instruction, text, quizzes, downloadable materials and knowledge checks to make sure that what you are learning is actually sticking. And I'll be honest, I'm not the best student. Like I don't have 15 hours a week free to learn something new, but that's one of the great things with AWS courses. Many of them start at 30 minutes, you know, an hour or less. They're quick but really rich courses that don't require some kind of major time commitment like going back to school but can equip you with very useful tools. It's easy to feel stuck sometimes when we're having a hard time in life or even when we're just sort of in the routine of things and shaking it up by adding or learning something new and reminding ourselves that we can always grow no matter where we may find ourselves. It's something that is wonderfully beneficial to so many areas of my life. And I personally believe can really help you as well. So check out AWS courses today. Link in the description to start learning new skills today. Thank you so much to AWS courses for sponsoring today's video. Thank you for checking out that link and helping to support this channel. And with that being said, let's get back into it. I'm not really sure what that was. Yeah, let's back into the topic at hand. Okay, so skill number two that was very difficult to learn as a new amputee that I never would have even considered being a thing. How to communicate how your leg feels very, very clearly. So when you are getting fit for a prosthetic socket these things are not cut and dry. You don't just like get casted for your leg. Everything feels fantastic and you're good to go. It'd be really nice if it works that way but it doesn't. There are a lot of complications like the fact that there are gonna be pain and pressure points. The fact that your limb is gonna be shrinking and changing sizes for years upon years.  They're not gonna be able to fix it unless you get very specific about exactly what is hurting. Exactly what doesn't feel good. Is it pressure or is it pain? Is it only with certain movements? Does it last longer than 15 minutes after you take your leg off? Are there any red marks involved? And then they take your leg back. They make some adjustments. They give it back to you. You try it on and you have to figure out if it feels okay and that can be really difficult when everything feels so foreign and so weird. And for me personally, I feel like that's one of the reasons why getting fit for a prosthetic leg that fits good takes so much time because you're trying to figure out does this feel right? I don't know. I've never done one of these before. Sometimes you don't know until you've walked on it for days. And when I say, hey, it hurts here when I walk. Fix it, Zach. He has to be an artist and figure out how to best alleviate pressure in the area that I've hopefully clearly communicated. Working with a prosthetist is a collaborative process and you have to be willing to be like, nope, that's not it. Nope, that still doesn't feel good. I'm so sorry. I really appreciate the work that you're doing but this still hurts. You've got to find a way to be articulate, to be very respectfully and kindly as sort of for your own body because there is no way they can make this work well for you if you cannot communicate what you need. Okay, so true story. I've been in this Airbnb for just about three days now and I've spent absolutely no time in this adorable room. Look, there's like a chess area. I could play chess with myself. That would be sad but let's do it. Should I be white or black? I think white starts first, doesn't it? I shall start with the Queen's Gambit. Is that a thing? I don't know. I watched the show, it was pretty cool. Take that. Really? Should I open with that move? I can counter this in a heartbeat. Thing number three that was kind of my sworn enemy for a brief period of time was stairs. Learning to walk on stairs was much more difficult than learning to take normal steps on a prosthetic leg because the mechanics of how your limbs move are completely different. There were so many times I would kind of jack up my hip or kind of tweak my lower back because I was still trying to walk downstairs like I had two meat legs but I didn't. Here's the thing, prosthetic legs, absolutely incredible but they do not move the same way that a foot that is joints does. So you've got to learn how to step differently and also the balance takes a little while to get control of. The thing that I learned that was really helpful was that you cannot step with your full prosthetic foot down on a stair. You kind of have to dangled off the side here. I'll show you. Like this because your ankle doesn't have the range of motion that it used to have. To be able to bend your knee and kind of kick that forward you've got to have the motion of coming down the stair to do that effectively. It did take a little while to kind of gauge how to do that comfortably and naturally where now I can just kind of bounce down stairs where at first it was very specific watching where I was putting my feet because I didn't want to fall. Because honestly I had seen enough doctors and I didn't want an ER trip for a busted wrist. I think it is clear with my two opening moves that I've beat, do you surrender? Yes, yes I do. Okay, awesome. Let's move on. Oh, I didn't realize that they have a Mr. Rogers book sitting here. I absolutely love Mr. Rogers. He's like my hero. Let's make the most of this beautiful day. Okay, so thing number four. The social impact of being in amputees is pretty substantial. So there are little things that you'd probably expect like people staring at you in public if they can see that you're missing a leg, being asked questions, some changes in relationships. Though honestly, most people in your life if they care about you, if they're close there's not like a major relational change. But the one thing that became very exhausting very quickly was having to find words to quickly tell people I didn't know my story. Because a lot of people ask like, oh my God, hey, I see you're like, what happened? And for a long time I always felt like a deer in the headlights because it was like, this is new to me. This is still kind of painful. I want to be able to answer your question to satisfy your curiosity. But maybe I'm a little overwhelmed right now. Maybe I don't like the fact that I no longer feel invisible in society. I don't like the fact that everyone's staring at me and wondering about me. And so how do I answer your question? Kindness and compassion make this a good interaction but also get out of it as quickly as possible. So what I figured out that I had to do is find a very concise way that was almost rehearsed and memorized to be like, oh yeah, I had a really bad horseback riding accident. They worked to try to save my ankle but it didn't work and here we are now. Politely exit conversation because there are some days where I might be up for having a chat with someone about it because people have questions but there are other days where especially at the beginning there it was a little overwhelming to talk about especially when it could come out of nowhere. And while I could always say, hey, I appreciate the question. I'm not in a place to talk about this. I found that for me sort of having the rehearsed sentence to fall back on where I could answer someone's question, be kind and then move on worked really well for me. But that was definitely a learning curve to realize I cannot tell everyone my full story every time they ask because that is so emotionally exhausting and draining to me. Which brings us to thing number five. Let's move to another room because seeing changes are more interesting in videos I feel like. Oh wow. This couch does not look comfortable to look at. It is very comfortable to sit on though. Let me make myself at home and rip my leg off. Okay, so I realized by clicking on this video what you were probably expecting at least I'm guessing is a long list of structural logistical things like the actual process of learning to walk which yes was hard or learning to bike again or things like that but in all reality for me and my personal experiences is gonna vary for everybody. Everything that happened in my mind like all of the mental aspects of adjusting life as an amputee were exponentially more challenging because I can learn a skill, right? Like I can learn how to walk properly, walk correctly. But the next thing that really took a while to learn and was a challenge to adapt to was expectations. When I lost my leg people had one of two reactions, right? Either they thought that I was incredibly inspiring I was definitely gonna run marathons immediately now because why wouldn't I? Or they thought it was sad and pathetic and my life was over and they wouldn't want to live my life if they were in my situation. It was very divided by people on the internet or sort of on the periphery of things or even some like acquaintances who expected me to be this pillar of inspiration. I'm just gonna say something that's super not socially acceptable but I realized that I fit into society's mold of acceptably disabled. What I mean by that is I am still fairly independent I'm grateful for that ability right now. I fit into enough of the parameters of America's version of acceptably attractive able to talk about this. I realized that when it comes to disability I'm sort of the entry level and most people find a way to be comfortable with because I can present myself like an able-bodied person even though I am not one.  And I really, it took me a moment to learn what to do with that because suddenly as I was going through this massive life change, a huge loss, a lot of grieving a lot of people were looking up to me and expecting me to be something or to do something cool just because I had lost my leg. Most of the representation you see of amputees in the media is like paralympic athletes and commercials. Now we're seeing more disabled models which is absolutely amazing, you know running and doing cool things. You hear these amazing stories of so and so lost their leg and they still climb this amazing mountain. Oh my God, that's incredible. And so a lot of people's only interaction with amputation or disability is that like you must be doing incredible things. Wow, look at you. And it can be difficult to get past that and be like nope, I'm still just a person. I don't have to be inspiring.  Sorry for cussing dad. And kind of on the flip side when people have this expectation of your life is over and poor, poor you you feel a need to prove them wrong which I think is okay but for me can get into toxic territory pretty quickly where I'm like I have to show everybody I'm 100% okay and I'm doing great all the time and look at me doing all these things. It becomes easy to neglect the grief because you want other people to think you're positive you're doing this, you're gonna be just fine. You wanna be just fine but there is a process of pain and hurt that you gotta feel that you gotta go through and you don't have to be happy go lucky all the time. You don't have to be inspirational. You don't have to be anything other than exactly what you are. And it took me years to learn that to figure out what I actually wanted to do. Like I actually did want to learn how to run. I actually did want to run a 5K. I got to do that. It was amazing but that was for me that wasn't for the expectations of other people. It wasn't to prove someone wrong or to be inspiring just because I could be. It was because it was something I genuinely wanted. Realizing that people have very set and preconceived notions when it comes to you is a weird thing to navigate. I've talked about this before but there's kind of this thing that we like to refer to as inspiration porn that's like the posters of someone in a wheelchair getting up and going outside and we're like, wow, what's your excuse not to get outside today if this person can do it with all they're facing? And it really is very patronizing and not very helpful when it comes to seeing disability as whole people and not as the only aspect of your identity. There's just a lot to mentally adjust to and honestly more than anything the mental health process of learning how to be an amputee, learning what this actually means to me, learning how much of my identity this is gonna inhabit or not. It takes a long time and is an ever-revolving process. Now I wanna take a left turn for just a second and talk about some of the things that people would think would be very difficult. Swimming, literally no different.  Driving super simple, I literally just tuck my leg underneath my other leg and I drive with my left foot. Sexual intimacy is something a lot of people have questions about like well how do you do it? And I'm like well first of all that's not necessarily your business but second of all, part of me is gone but not a lot changes with that. Those are my top five logistical and also just interpersonal and mental things that took a lot of learning and some of them are still very much in process. I'm curious to any of these surprise you or what would you like to hear about as far as what was difficult versus what was easy, let me know in the comment section down below. Thank you for hanging out with me and letting me share pieces of my little life with you I really appreciate it. Big thank you again to AWS Courses for sponsoring today's video. Please check them out in the link in the description. I think what they're doing is really cool and you could get started for free, taking these courses for free right now. So check it out. To my amazing patrons over on Patreon, thank you for allowing me to do what I do with your generous support.  It means the world to me. You could be anywhere else doing anything else but you chose to hang out with me for a few minutes and I really appreciate that. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Should I take a shower today? I don't know, I'm gonna be like alone in this house the rest of the day. My hair doesn't look too greasy, does it? All right, I think I'm gonna skip the shower. Don't tell anyone. Hey. And her from the sky.


Good afternoon and thank you for joining us here on non-profits mean business to on think tech Hawaii I have the privilege and the honor of interviewing a puny Jackson the director of kakua kakua Kalihi Valley KKV and She's gonna talk a little bit about her her mission statement now before we get to that I just want to say that the nature of the show essentially is to help the greater community understand the What's going on in the community as far as the non-profits how they serve the community as the gap between government and private entity so With that having been said, I'd like to introduce puny Jackson Aloha Thank you so much for welcoming me and I want to make just a tiny correction that I'm not the director of kakua Kalihi Valley I'm the director of holu aina, which is a project and program of kakua Kalihi Valley Thank you for making that clarification Sure, we have the most amazing executive director and his name is David DeRopp, but I couldn't never take his place That's awesome Well, I'm pretty. Thank you again for taking time out of your busy schedule I want to ask you a little bit about we'll start out with the mission same. So let's talk a little bit about The mission that you guys are doing Sure, I'm gonna go ahead and read the mission statement because it's one of those ones that hit deep in your heart But when you get to the end of the statement, you kind of have forgotten the beginning. It's really long I'm gonna read it out loud together We work toward healing reconciliation and the alleviation of suffering in Kalihi Valley by serving communities Families and individuals through strong relationships that honor culture and foster health and harmony Um, that's a statement a mission statement that we all hold very dear. It's something that's on all of our I don't have my badge on me, but that's on our name badges It's something that we use when we do any sort of organizational training that helps us to remember the why like why we do what we do really touches back to those initial team members that sat around the table in 1972 and And made the choice that this is what the community needed a community health center Somebody who is going to be able to look out for the diverse needs of our community And and you do do that You have a variety of services that you offer the community if you'd like to tell us a little bit more about that sure well Let me start with the our founding story that we always love to share and so When Cocoa Kalihi Valley was founded we had three super aunties we call them Elder women in the community that went door to door. Well, now they're elders at the time. I think they were quite young They went door to door in the community saying how are you feeling? How are you? What is it that you need and In many cases overwhelmingly the answer was health support. We need doctors. We need dentists and so our work started with Just a donated trailer in the parking lot of a church and Executive director at that time. His name is Jory Watland. He's still a community member here in Kalihi in the back and He just got don't Doctors and dentists and slow by slow in the 70s just responding to what was needed and in every wave Shifting that Kalihi Valley went through from that time forward Cocoa Kalihi Valley was listening and responding so we didn't ever move away from that sort of listening door to door a lot of times nowadays in You know academics teaches you you're gonna do the evaluation and then you're gonna implement Well, we are formative from the beginning and all the way through till now In the 80s, we were the first ones to have a domestic violence shelter I think somewhere in the late 80s, maybe early 90s We even had a Credit Union because we found that many of our community members were Facing the inequity of not being able to establish healthy banking and economic systems But we've responded in every new wave of Challenge that our community face and In from dentists to doctors. I'm personally. I'm the director of a nature preserve So in the back of Kalihi Valley is a 100 acre nature preserve called Hulu Aina and On that nature preserve we do everything from native forestry Community food production Laulapa native medicines We do everything that we can with community engagement. So who are I know this idea of sharing the land and friendship and Whether we're painting a structure or planting a row of Olena We want the community engaged and then we we also do a lot around culture and listening Evaluation making sure that the ways that Our community and the systems beyond this community are responding to needs Has to do with the indigenous values of this place and so that's part of what Hulu Aina is all about That's my kind of pre-pandemic Ongoing job and since the beginning of the COVID Pandemic here in Kalihi Valley, I've also taken on the Responsibility as director of Hui Hauaka, which is our response to the pandemic needs and so February and March that included Outreach calls and in-home deliveries food support cleaning supplies public health education all different kinds of things and as of late as many of us know Kalihi has One of the highest or the highest rate of COVID in the state currently And so Hui Hauaka is deep in the trenches of working with systems and developing systems and Interim implementing the systems to make sure that people are safe a lot of it has to do with economics and And so sometimes you don't necessarily think of a health center as responding to economic needs But we do all of the different facets and we always have And so Brandon, I'm really grateful that you wanted to start with our Mission because never have we gone deeper into our mission since the COVID crisis Yeah, I'd like to talk a little bit about that. That was part of the agenda was that we would get an opportunity to find out how COVID has affected how you your operations, of course and some of those challenges and What you've done to overcome those and then But you continue to serve the community nonetheless That's right. That's right. Um, if If anything, it's taken us back to our roots You know over time we started as a small nonprofit a small little health center in a trailer and now We're the largest employer in our community the largest employer in the valley and so we have I'm just like 220 maybe Staff members and but that's a that's a big Employer for Kalihi Valley. So most of our Communities members kind of leave the valley to to support Other industries Oh, yeah, no, that's great that that you guys still have you have the you have access to the resources continue to communicate and develop new resources as well as Finding ways to serve your community regardless of the challenge at hand and so Being in the situation that you are there's obviously some Challenges around code 19 within your own organization that you guys are no doubt addressing and that you're Taking that information the education out to the community. You want to talk a little bit about that? Sure, sure So in the very beginning we had many people were being shut down throughout the community and businesses and As we all remember and some of our care Services What we're also not able to be performed so some such as dental and lo me lo me That really intimate impact. We wanted to really protect against that You know the spread or any sort of contagion and so our dental Department got redeployed and they became farmers and cooks and food hub operators and Delivery teams and all of our different departments including dental but far beyond to we started to Integrate and support each other You know normally in a nonprofit as you have no granted that you have a grant you have deliverables You have the project you have the program and it's sort of siloed siloed by funding siloed by deliverables and Our actual Relationship with one another and with our community is much more integrated and so as we redeployed like responding to the challenge of Employment or you know shifting and employment within the organization We actually found that the network of support became much stronger People were connecting much deeper to their sort of why you know their their motivation behind being part of Kukua Kalihi Valley and serving the community in the most urgent ways and so yes, we responded and we reached out to many funders and support agencies and we had you know 48 years of Relationship building we had some really powerful cheerleaders on our side that stood up with resources and donations and volunteers and really making it happen and I think our position as a FQHC Also made it a lot easier for us to navigate with the Department of Health and be able to communicate Like this is what we really need. This is what we're hearing and seeing on the ground we recognize that government is not nearly ever as nimble as Community organizations or grassroots networks and so we were able to like pivot very quickly and then partner as The cup Capacity building on the government side became more ready and we're so grateful for some of our relationship building and some of the really challenging Tasks that leadership within both the city and the state took on The media was really rough on our community The media was rough on the state the media has been rough on the city And so it's been really hard to be able to say like look what we really want to do is tell a story of love and connection and Collaboration and everybody has the long-term outcome of equity and care and health for our community And I I feel good about the kinds of partnerships that we're seeing Rise up and unfold Did would you like to care care to elaborate on any of those partnerships or how they came to be and What they're doing and how you know how they're supporting you Well, we have I Word away and start so the whole community foundation is I would I would like to say that they have been Just amazing really really supporting and like getting in those parts of support where it's hard for You know, like for example the Kersic Act money or HRSA funding It's harder to to get into those little details, you know Like actually our community needs rice and Simon and can fish And her some money wasn't gonna cover that so HCF really stood up for that and our elders who were sheltering at home and having much a lot of challenges we were able to deliver Not only the fresh organic produce from our food hub that actually scaled up to this week I think we're over seven thousand pounds of fresh organic produce from Local farmers from this island So we're delivering fresh food but we also need those sort of dry goods food for the elders and the kupuna and those who are in the COVID-positive families who are in quarantine and Funders like HCF Bank of Hawaii The Consuelo Foundation. Those are partners that really like stood up and say, well, we'll fund the gap Well, we'll put forward for for those in-between spaces You know, Hawaii Dental Services was supportive So we we've had some amazing and you know this long and non-profit You know, you have this relationship and the funder and the accountability and the deliverable and the evaluation and all of that This is the first time that I felt like the return on investment got put on the side because they absolutely knew and trusted That Kokua Kalihi Valley knew what the community needed and was going to give everything we can to make sure it gets there And I would love for that to be the flavor of foundations and funding and even government relationships between Geos and NGOs moving forward that when you know that on the on the ground the grassroots guys that you know That they know the community deeply that every way that we can kind of get out of the way so that the resources flow in the right way I think that is what is Pono. That is Aloha and I felt that very strongly in the last six months from our partners Wow Foundation also was very I can't even I'm a little bit embarrassed that I should have a thorough this way I can't name Oh, that's okay That's all there's always a challenge with that and you know, I would just say that of course it Look, you know talking to you and get I get a feeling By talking to you about the passion that you have and that you're not just working there. You're living it It's part of who you are it is the very fact and not just a foundation of the organization, but it's it's You carry that with you everywhere you go And so you do a very effective job of communicating that and I'm sure that any of your partners, whoever they are will understand that and I just wanted to give you an opportunity to do a shout out to some of those organizations that have been there for you and the fact that you have these challenges of You know trying to they've given you a square peg and they've actually put it into a round hole and you're like well It doesn't all doesn't work that way So need to open up that conversation a little more and and talk about how we can bridge those gaps for For those various organizations. I think you guys are doing a great job. And I think I think you articulated that very well Thank you. I am very passionate about the work and that's the truth for all of KKV You know our staff members they live in this community their families are our patients, you know So the that interconnectedness it makes you really clear that This is not just my job where I go and get a paycheck and wait for the clock to be done Or you know, this is not that kind of job. It's not even a job. This is my life You know that I'm able to live every day what I was taught to do and what I was taught to be and I I'm Grateful also to be able to extend that to the staff members that I help That all of our staff members can truly live their best gifts and apply them to the kuleana that we feel here in Hawaii If there were anything in specific is it just I look is it just financial? Resources that you need or is what sort of things is it that that you find that you would need at this point in time or that you If You could use help with Yeah Well, there's all kinds of ways that people can help. I think the first thing and I I've been I've been asked this a lot of question times and I I'm a little I'm hesitant to say but I really truly believe this that within your circle of influence to bring love To be loving to be to bring aloha with absolute courage To your circle of influence and to make that relationship building a model for every other relationship I think that that is the best way that we can do The systemic change in our world I feel like we enter into professional space and we forget the way that our grandparents taught us You know, we enter into our business or nonprofit space and we become competitive or Extractive the way that our educational systems have designed our minds to work and nonprofit is that one place that native peoples and people of color across the whole world and people who care about the earth and People who care about the earth and People who remember values who care deeply about the values that they were raised with nonprofits is that really sharp tool where you can say Aloha matters our values matter my relationships matter that I'm not going to give up on something just because it's hard You know, not nonprofits the 501c3 is that sharp sword and so what I would love Yes, we need canned fish. I need volunteers to pack rice in bags. I need some delivery staff I need somebody to help me with some of the data. Yes, I need all of that. But the first thing is To be courageous enough to make choices with aloha And if you were raised that way that you can be influencing that way With people that look to you as a leader Because leaders are in this place in this place of Hawaii if we can make sure that our leaders are not looking at money before Love and care and humanness and long-term survival of our water system and our land It takes courage to make choices that come from aloha It takes courage to live that way and I think that that's the most important thing that we can do You know, I like I said we need stuff like a van to deliver the stuff and all of those things but Overwhelmingly, I need people to go to bat for what is right You know that we faced a lot of things a lot of stories in this last few months where People were blocked from getting really good care because of their ethnic background because of their economic status because of their inability to speak English maybe and There's no Reason why in every place that people who were raised with a certain value set of aloha That every seat every cubicle every bus seat that if you employ aloha and be courageous in that That we would really make a difference You know, I'm I love your passion. I've it's Even though this is a video take I feel like I'm sitting in the room with you You know, we got a question from a viewer and I'd like to address that and says how can individuals help KKB at this time? especially with the lockdown being extended With the lockdown and especially if you have any needs for your own, you know Protection we want to make sure to you stay stay at home. That's really helpful. It's heroic at this point to stay home You can donate online Cocoa Kalihi Valley has a COVID response. You can definitely donate online if you want to make it fun You can go to Hulu Aina's website and purchase objects There are you know, some we didn't have nobody has time for a go fund me But you can buy stuff that we make and that's helpful. So financially donations. That's really good if you have Relationship with people who have resources so that could be PPE that could be dry goods that could be Cleaning supplies then you can read you can advocate for those resources to be Shared with our delivery staff and with our fans here. If you know some people who are really great Really great workers with good hearts and great work ethic and maybe have a good mind for public health and social determinants of health have them apply online for Employment that we want to we we think that the best way to help the economy is to employ people And so we're going to continue to fight for that to happen you can go on to the KKV website and apply under Hui Hauaka advocate and that's what I'm talking about as far as Aloha I'm Employing that every person be an advocate if you hear or see Inequity in your community when it comes to resource or access be an advocate if you speak any other language than English That's really helpful. We are community speak 27 different languages So we need translators often I don't know I could go on and on frantic, you know, that's the whole purpose, you know We want to know more about what you're doing What your needs are to help you continue to serve the community in the way that you do One of the things that you mentioned early on that strikes a chord with me, of course is values even though one may come and Interface with your organization either in the form of providing resources or coming to work or volunteer the takeaway for them As they'll come to find is going to be several fold more than what it is that they actually give That's the thing that we talk about in the organization I volunteer my time to and you had indicated you are familiar with that organization and that's teaching the next generation We're teaching them the value system. We're teaching them what Aloha is. We're we're teaching them About caring for the community. We're teaching them all these different things that that we're not Outwardly in a classroom with books and pencils and paper We're doing it in a much more impactful way I think number one. We're doing it by example, right? We're leading by example We're showing them what's important, but not only showing them and telling them, but They're by doing it They get to embody it and then it cements it with them as far as carrying that forward in their own value system And they're a lot more likely in the future to be positioned to to want to give back to the community And they'll know how to do it Absolutely. Absolutely. You're you're totally true and we were taught that you put in the most and you take out the least You know, and I think that that that sort of shift is really important right now Remembering that that's how we were raised, you know, one of the Words that that I found on your website that struck me as if I were to you know, want to try to choose one word Which would be hard to do but it's reconciliation We hear that word used a lot, but I'd like you to explain to the viewers what it means To your organization, what does that mean? Yeah, reconciliation is one of the most powerful ways to think about Trauma historical trauma personal trauma Colonial trauma and then to make them right Make that trauma right. Hooponopono to make it clean again to make it correct again to make it healed and connected and whole again Reconciliation among two people that connection to others is when your relationship is good, but there's also internal reconciliation There's reconciliation between oneself and one's culture between oneself and one's land between oneself and one's ancestor those stories of reconciliation Like it takes courage for an organization not only to focus on what's good and awesome and aloha and fright But to be fierce about it that I acknowledge the pain that we've come through I acknowledge the sacrifice that has been made for me to be here and I'm here to make that right I'm here to invest my mana to that healing for me. That's what reconciliation is all about That's awesome and that's such a powerful word and One of the things that strikes me or struck me about the organization as well was the Hum our relationship to the land we hear people talk about that all the time and The reality is how very critical It is to nourish the land because the land nourishes us, right? So I mean I Think we forget that because we go to the store and we Ever there it is on the shelf or there it is in the freezer section or whatever Understanding where's all that come from and why is that even important and And you guys have a whole program built around that Yes, that's right because it's not a nice to have it's a must-have We don't survive without the earth the earth clearly can serve by without us And and so this idea of familial connection Family kin connection to land not that not only that my grandfather taught me about it But that the land herself is my grandmother That that is our Approach to land engagement and health on the idea that wholeness and that comes back also to reconciliation because our connection to land and our connection to The ways to Malama Aina and Aloha Aina to make sure that the Aina is leading our choice making around politics and economics and food systems and health systems Land should lead. She is first, you know And so sometimes people see like oh nature is nice, you know, I go for a walk and it's something superfluous, but in fact Nature is foundation. I know the earth. She is our foundation without her Human health is nothing You know, I just want to I'm gonna wrap up on that note No doubt we could go another hour and a half two hours I have so many questions for you. I just want to thank you so very much for coming on the show I want I'm so thankful for the contributions that you make to the community and Even by doing this show you're making a contribution in the community. So I just want to thank you for that Thank you. Mahalo


The highest paying jobs for career changers. That is the topic of today's video. And if you like this type of video, go ahead, gently tap that like button. Let's set the goal for a thousand likes. And I like my videos to be as social as possible. So go ahead, comment down below your thoughts, comments, criticisms, et cetera, that you have on your video and also share it with your friends because I don't have some big marketing department like all these universities do that want you to go $40,000 in debt. What? What the? I just wanna teach you the best possible careers that you can get into with a lot less and a lot less time, but I have to rely on organic marketing because I don't have a million dollar marketing budget like these universities. All right, so let's go ahead, jump right into it with the first one on the list, which is digital marketing. Now there are several different types of digital marketing. It's one of my favorite careers out there. It's one that you can get into without a college degree, you can get into it without any experience, or you can switch over from a career that you're not enjoying. So typically digital marketing is going to be social media ads. So the ads that you see pop up on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, et cetera. Also paper click ads. So that's when you see something pop up at the top of Google or on a website and search engine optimization, which is where you try to rank at the top of Google search engine. Now there are a lot of careers out there that have a ton of demand, but it's not at the entry level. They have a lot of demand for people who have years and years of experience, but usually these websites will only tell you how much demand there is for the career. And they don't tell you whether it's for people who have lots of experience or people at the entry level. And it certainly doesn't help that almost every job posting says they need like two to five years of experience, even for entry level jobs. However, if you looked at LinkedIn, they have a specific function where you can sort by entry level jobs only. And in the last month, there's been 92,000 entry level jobs posted for digital marketing. That is phenomenal. And on top of that, digital marketers make about $76,000 a year. I interviewed Kishan on this channel. I'll put that up like right here. He made about $50,000 in his first year and $70,000 in his second year after he decided to skip college and he didn't have any experience. And if you're interested in digital marketing and you want to learn more, you don't have to go to an expensive $15,000 bootcamp. I happen to know the person who has probably gotten more people digital marketing jobs than any other human being on the entire planet. And that is Seth Jarrett. I also did an interview with him and he does have a free masterclass where you can tell if digital marketing is a good idea for you. And if you don't believe me about him getting people jobs, he literally has thousands and thousands of reviews on his Instagram and probably hundreds of reviews on his YouTube channel. So all you got to do is just take a look. And his digital marketing masterclass I will put down in the description below as well as the pinned comment. Next one on the list is another one that I like a lot that I talk about quite a bit on this channel. And that is tech sales, also known as software sales, business development representative and sales development representative. So this is one that you can get into even faster than digital marketing, believe it or not. I am consistently seeing people get in in one to two months whereas digital marketing tends to take maybe like three to six but to be fair, more people tend to be interested in digital marketing versus tech sales. So it really just depends on your personality which one's going to be better for you. Now, when you type in business development on LinkedIn over the last month there has been 284,000 job postings. When you type in sales development over the last month there's 103,000.  And as a business development representative you would expect to make about $79,000 a year and you can make a heck of a lot more than that down the line. So yeah, another super, super solid career definitely one that you should look into. Next one on the list is going to be web development. This is probably the easiest type of software development for you to get into. And this is of course software development for websites. So you're going to help design and code the website. Now the specific type of web development I recommend going into if you're a complete beginner is to become a web developer for something like Shopify. Right, so Shopify is a super successful company it's growing incredibly fast. It's not that hard for you to learn Shopify web development and start getting gigs doing freelancing jobs or even get a full-time position. And then you can start learning all of the other coding stuff from there. And guess what, you're getting paid to do it. Now if you type in web developer on LinkedIn you'll see 15,000 results in the last month at the entry level. And if you type in web development you'll see 101,000 in the last month. So yeah, tons of demand for this one another super, super solid option. Next one on the list is very similar. In fact, they kind of go under the same umbrella and that is software development, right? So there are boot camps out there for just about like every different type of software developer that you can become. So there's many, many different options and software development much like doctor or lawyer is starting to develop different specialization. So if you type in software development over the last month entry level jobs you're gonna see 300,000 results ton of demand for software developers. Even if you type in software development engineer on LinkedIn over the last month entry level jobs you're gonna see 146,000 results. Now I will say that out of all of them on this list this is gonna be one of the harder ones for you to break into. Yes, there are a lot of boot camps there's a lot of resources out there but typically it's gonna take longer than just a few months like you could get into with digital marketing or tech sales. But it's definitely not impossible. Some people even just teach themselves they don't even buy any products and they're able to get their first job as a software dev. And you can expect to make about $111,000 a year which is phenomenal. The next one on the list is somewhat related and that's going to be a quality assurance analyst. Now there's several different names for this one there's software quality assurance, quality assurance tester, quality assurance analyst and it is related to software development as well. But basically you are going to be testing software to make sure there's no bugs because bugs can cost the company something like 20 to $100,000 a day in some cases. And when you type in quality assurance on LinkedIn over the last month entry level jobs you're gonna see over 100,000 postings. And software quality assurance testers on Glassdoor make about $93,000 a year. Next one on the list, number six is going to be information technology and there's a lot of different specialties and sub-careers that go under this one. But you can break into IT without getting a degree you can do it by getting certification, self-teaching and many other different methods. And I think everybody knows what IT is that stands for information technology and it's where you're gonna be working with computers and making sure that the infrastructure of the company's technology and computers are set up. And this could range from anything as simple as just setting up a desktop, downloading software onto it all the way to actually helping to design a software program that only that company uses. And when you type in information technology on LinkedIn entry level jobs over the last month you're gonna see 134,000 results. And like I said, information technology comprises a wide range of skill sets and specialties, but typically information technology overall they make about $72,000 a year. But I can tell you, you can make a lot more than that if you specialize in certain areas. Next one on the list, very closely related to IT is going to be cybersecurity, right? So this one is very similar to IT but it focuses more on the protection side of things. So making sure nobody can hack in making sure there's no data leakage, et cetera. So you basically want to make data easily accessible to the people who need to see it but at the same time safe to anybody else. And this sounds really easy to do but it's actually incredibly difficult. Now if you type in cybersecurity on LinkedIn entry level jobs over the last month you're gonna see 43,000 results, computer security you'll see 52,000 results and for IT security you see 62,000. And typically in cybersecurity you can expect to make about $91,000 a year. Now this is another one where it is a little bit of a stretch for you to get into it without a degree or without any experience. And it's a little bit difficult for you to teach yourself as well. Hopefully there's gonna be some better resources that come out but it's not impossible you can still get into this without experience and you can still switch into this from other careers especially if you have a little bit of an IT background or you're good with technology. Next one on the list is going to be data analyst. So this one is all about collecting, processing, cleansing, transforming and modeling data. And data is incredibly valuable. There's articles that have come out saying data is more valuable than oil or gold. And it's true data is more valuable than oil or gold.  But I digress. If you type in data analyst over the last month at the entry level you're gonna see 181,000 job postings. And if you type in data analysis you'll see a mind boggling 410,000. There is such high demand for data analysts that Google actually came up with their own certification program to train people in data analytics. That's how much demand it was. These companies got so tired of trying to find people that they actually created their own program to train people in this skill set. So yeah, pretty valuable. You can also expect to make about $77,000 a year. Another really cool one you can look into this is not entry level but it is one that you can switch into if you have some experience in other careers and that is project management. And this is basically where you lead a team in order to complete a goal within a company that has specific time and money constraints. Now, if you look at LinkedIn you type in project management not entry level of course because this is not an entry level job. You'll see over the last month 529,000 job postings. And for project manager you'll see 238,000. So tons and tons of demand for people who have this skill set. And project managers make about $98,000 a year. Now another one that does get confused with project management quite a bit and it is somewhat similar so it makes sense is going to be product management. And this is the process of planning, developing and launching a product or service within a company. Now, product manager is definitely a higher level career than project manager. As a product manager you're almost like an entrepreneur within a business because like let's say an entrepreneur has to wear 15 different hats, right? They're the sales team, marketing team, they're the accounting team, the finance team, et cetera. A product manager might have to wear like 10 to 12 of those hats. Like they really do have to know a lot about a lot of different things. And this is another one that a lot of people tend to switch into later on in their career. It's definitely a great step up as well. And if you type in on LinkedIn product manager you will see in the last month there is 205,000 job postings. And product managers make about $120,000 a year. If you enjoyed this video don't leave check out my interview with Kishan I'll put that right up here. He is somebody who got into digital marketing without any experience or a college degree. So I'll see you over there.


I'm so sorry, but I'm really sorry. I am delighted to welcome once again Prime Minister Gandhi to the White House. Prime Minister and I have had useful discussions on the status of US-Indian relations. We noted that in the years since our meeting in 1985, substantial progress has been made. Bilateral trade has expanded. Collaboration between our private sectors has intensified. We've enjoyed cooperation in defense production, notably the Indian Light Combat Aircraft. The memorandum of understanding on technology transfer has been implemented, and the United States is working with India to launch its satellites. The US-India Fund for Cultural, Educational, and Scientific Cooperation has been inaugurated, and we're working together to combat terrorism. Beyond such concrete achievements, there are powerful political, economic, and cultural currents that are drawing our two societies into closer collaboration. Our shared dedication to democracy is paramount among these currents. We're also building on a strong foundation of cooperation in the fields of science, technology, and space, which permits us with confidence to set ambitious new goals. In this connection, the Prime Minister and I have agreed to the following, to renew the Ronald Reagan Indira Gandhi Science and Technology Initiative for an additional three years beyond 1988. We agreed to take steps to substantially expand two-way trade and recognize the need to reduce barriers to free trade. To consult regularly to ensure that US supercomputer exports to India reflect the rapid pace of scientific advances while at the same time safeguarding US technology. To work even more closely together to stem drug trafficking and abuse. To expand defense cooperation in technology and other military areas. To undertake joint research projects to explore the enhancement of arid zone agriculture, water management, and evolution of groundwater resources. To increase the educational resources about our countries as appropriate using the US India Fund for Cultural, Educational, and Scientific Cooperation. To establish a program in research institutions in both countries for short-term exchange fellowships in development-related subjects. Expanding on our leadership exchanges, the Speaker of our House of Representatives will visit India this year, and his Indian counterpart will visit the United States next year. Today, the Prime Minister and I also discussed East-West relations and the prospects for an historic treaty, eliminating an entire class of intermediate-range nuclear missiles in the United States and the Soviet Union. The Prime Minister emphasized India's long-standing encouragement of such efforts to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons. In this context, I urge that India and Pakistan intensify their dialogue to build greater mutual confidence to resolve outstanding issues and to deal with the threat of nuclear proliferation in the region. We also discussed the tragic situation in Afghanistan and strongly endorsed movement toward a political settlement, a settlement that would remove all foreign troops from that country and permit its people to live in peace as citizens of a neutral country and free from outside intervention. On the subject of US security assistance to Pakistan, I assured Mr. Kandy that our objective is stability and reduced tensions in South Asia and that our assistance is not directed at India. Finally, let me acknowledge the statesmanship and courage demonstrated by Prime Minister Gandhi and the President of Sri Lanka in their efforts to end the ethnic strife in that troubled island nation. I've pledged to both leaders our full support. It's been a pleasure to have had this opportunity to discuss these issues with Prime Minister Gandhi and to renew a very real friendship. It's always a pleasure to be at the White House. Thank you, Mr. President, for your invitation and for your warm words. May I, at the outset, wish Mrs. Reagan the speediest recovery. We know what a source of strength tree is to you, Mr. President, in your work for your country and the world. I also take this opportunity to congratulate the people of the United States on the 200th anniversary of the Constitution. It is one of history's momentous documents that has made the United States grow to greatness. Your Constitution has been an inspiration to us in our struggle for freedom and liberty. As the President informed you, we have had good and most useful meetings. We spoke of world peace and our concern for the well-being of humanity, and we spoke of the relations between our countries. We agreed upon further methods of strengthening our mutual friendship. The relations between our two countries have always held much promise. In recent years, we have made notable progress towards realizing that promise. Your personal attention and interest, Mr. President, have contributed greatly to our expanding partnership. We have agreed to collaborate at the frontiers of technology. We have reaffirmed the tradition of scientific interaction which has been the hallmark of our relationship. The growth in high technology, trade, and transfers has been a source of considerable satisfaction. I hope that the United States would recognize India not just as a market, but as a partner in technological progress. In the field of bilateral trade and investment, we have agreed that much can be done to expand the present level of activity. We will encourage increased interaction between our trading entities. Having successfully launched our cooperation for the Light Combat Aircraft Project, we have now agreed to explore other avenues in the field of defense. This is yet another step forward. I am confident that after our talks today, we will be able to place our relationship on a more enduring basis. We share not only aspirations and values, we sometimes face common threats. We have each recognized the dangers to our societies posed by terrorism and narcotics. I mentioned to you today our determination to fight these problems. I'm aware of your personal concern about narcotics, the price they extract in the form of blighted youth and wasted resources. I would like to reiterate once again, our commitment to cooperate with you to this end. Turning to international issues, I should first like to applaud the statesmanship demonstrated by you, Mr. President, and by General Secretary Gorbachev in pursuing the vexing and complex issues of nuclear disarmament. Your endeavors have given a glimmer of hope to a world threatened by imminent nuclear holocaust. An INF agreement will be a historic step. For the first time, an operational nuclear weapon system will be withdrawn and dismantled. We hope that this will be the beginning of the elimination of nuclear weapons altogether. An objective to which you are dedicated. I sincerely wish you, Mr. President and General Secretary Gorbachev, every success in these endeavors. All humankind is with you. Our deliberations today also covered the situation in Afghanistan. We agreed on the need for an early political settlement there and support the efforts of the UN Secretary General. I believe that a just solution must ensure a sovereign, independent and non-aligned Afghanistan. Foreign intervention and interference must cease. The Afghan refugees must be allowed to return to their homes in honor, dignity and security. We would welcome any earnest efforts in this direction. We had a frank discussion on the dangers of nuclear proliferation, both horizontal and vertical. My country has consistently recognized that a secure world order cannot be built on nuclear weapons. Our actions have spoken louder than any words in expressing this commitment. We do not have nuclear weapons. We do not want nuclear weapons. And we certainly do not want nuclear weapons in our neighborhood. We have watched with concern developments in our immediate vicinity. Nuclear stockpiles have multiplied. Yet another country now seems on the threshold of fulfilling a long-time goal of acquiring nuclear weapons. On our part, let me assure you, Mr. President and the people of your country that we have no intention of producing nuclear weapons unless constrained to do so. Mr. President, you and I have discussed these matters and expressed our mutual concerns. Time is not on our side. We are faced with critical decisions on issues which need to be addressed urgently. We appreciate your support to the efforts to end the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka, Mr. President, in particular to the July 29th agreement which I signed with President Jayavartani. We are determined to ensure the full implementation of its provisions as it represents the best hope for peace in the region. I thank you, Mr. President. Once again for your hospitality. Our discussions have been most productive and I leave Washington confident and optimistic about the future of our relationship. Thank you. Hold the summit with him. Mr. President says his wife doesn't like the Communists and she's not pushing him to win a Nobel Peace Prize. What do you think about that slap at you and Mrs. Reagan? I liked his apology better when he said he didn't mean it.


I'm just going to present, given the time limit in 15 minutes, four or five ideas of what I consider to be some of the key issues regarding governance of landscapes for sustainable development. And I've tried to shape this both in terms of where I think there are some very key challenges but also where I think there's grounds for optimism and new opportunities. And to make sure I respond to Marie Claire's request mentioned two minutes ago, I'll start out by just a simple statement of what I think are some of the issues that need to be looked at at a broader scale. Human induced environmental change associated with the advance of the Anthropocene is projected to increase due to population growth, meeting higher per capita resource demands and some quite profound dietary and social changes that are occurring in many emerging economies. Current sectorial approaches to address the challenges associated with the land and resource management are invariably inaccurate, inadequate, to address particularly the complex challenges of addressing poverty alleviation, food security, energy security, biodiversity conservation and climate change. And this is particularly the case in contexts that are distinguished and have been distinguished over the last 20 years by an effective decline in the regulatory leverage and reach of the state, the growing commodification of nature and it appears the renewed faith in both global development but also in instruments such as multilateral environmental agreements. The recent and renewed I stress interest in integrated landscape approaches, so I'm responding to Marie Claire, notably some of the work that's been done by Jeff Sayer and my colleague Terry who's sitting at the back of the room, Terry Sunderland, is suggested as one of the ways to try and manage the very complex trade-offs between these different interests to see how we can balance the competing demands in terms of access to and use of these resources with the aim of achieving sustainable land and resource use and hopefully to establish more viable landscape governance systems. Now what I'm going to do is simply select four or five themes where I think there are still very large challenges. Perhaps not surprisingly the first one I want to talk about is a very broad area that I call and we refer to in our research as C4 land governance. Now for many this relates simply to the questions of securing access to land and your secure rights of tenure to access and use the land and all resources on the land. But I think there's been more recent interest in particularly a rather emotive term that has emerged in the literature namely land grabbing to look at much broader issues that have been associated with some quite fundamental changes particularly in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of the large areas of land which have been acquired by different mechanisms to support investments in many of the agricultural commodities the world increasingly needs. And the research at C4 has highlighted that based on some of the most recent estimates in the period after 2005 we've seen something of the order of 22 million hectares of land in sub-Saharan Africa which has been acquired for these purposes. And again it's a generalization so treated as such with a little bit of caution. The overwhelming evidence suggests that many of these investments in these large scale land investments have been relatively poor performers when it comes to both social and environmental performance. And so I partly to be a little bit provocative based on our research want to throw out a suggestion particularly given the fact that we have a large number of lawyers in this room and given the knowledge we have now of the multiple complex associated with the existence in many countries particularly in sub-Saharan Africa of both statutory provisions vis-a-vis access to and use of land but also the vestiges of many customary laws associated with access to land and resources. And based on that complex I think I would like to suggest as we also raise during the earlier cites that perhaps we need less law and much more emphasis being placed on ways in which we can improve institutional performance on the grounds that there is no shortage it would appear in legal instruments. Now that might be a bit controversial in this context but I'm throwing it out for reflection. It's also based on the fact that I think by focusing our attention more on institutional mandates on institutional capacities on institutional incentives and accountability mechanisms of those institutions we may actually be able to move further forward than simply focusing our attention on further legal reforms. So that's my first suggestion vis-a-vis the complex associated with land governance. The second one you may have heard something about yesterday during the cites workshop and that is I think the overarching concern vis-a-vis capacities and I think again based drawing on a large body of research by C4 and others we see that capacities in many developing countries remain weak. This has been alluded to by many presentations this morning and during the cites workshop yesterday. What I want to focus on in particular are jurisdictional sub-national capacities, local governments and their capacities to actually translate and transform the noble aspirations that are implicit in many of the international agreements into action on the ground and given the theme of the conference biodiversity sustainable development and the law. I want to focus on some recent research that's been published just a couple of months ago. Versera Guignet at the University of North Carolina and she's published a very interesting piece which is highlighted based on an analysis of 21 different types of environmental and or biodiversity guidelines. She's concluded that very few of these are of actually any use or relevance to many local governments for a number of different reasons. And these include the fact that many of them are very much based on a biological approach that's species specific in terms of the data and information requirements. This is often not available and or costly for local governments. It's based very often on not being particularly prescriptive or not providing clear guidance in terms of action in terms of follow-up and intervention. These are very often guidelines which tend to be very complex and there are far too many items that need to be considered. They're very often non-sequential and few actually incorporate some of the critical socioeconomic constraints regarding biodiversity conservation. So this is work that's been published just a couple of months ago and highlights some of these critical capacity constraints particularly at a subnational level. Again this draws on from my own experience as well much of the interface that I've heard referred to rather than integration between multilateral and environmental agreements and national governments remains largely at national governance levels. It very often does not trickle down to subnational institutions which ultimately have the responsibility for implementation. So this is a critical area where additional capacity building is needed. Now my third point is I think a trend that provides many of us I think with some hope in terms of the very recent gush I think I would call it of interest and expressions of interest in meeting the ambition of transforming global commodity chains into zero deforestation commodity chains. You're probably aware that Bank in Moon shared a session in New York that resulted in the New York Declaration on Forests where if I recall among many other governments and NGOs there were 40 of the world's largest corporations who are involved in the production of much of the world's food who have now committed initially with an accent particularly on the oil palm global value chain but increasingly to a large number of other commodities. And these are corporations including Cargill, Golden Agri resources, Wilmar, Simdabi, many around the world who are simply some of the largest players in terms of the landscape transformations that are taking place in many parts of the world. But the caveat to this is what does zero deforestation actually mean? How do you measure whether a corporate actor has actually moved in terms of changing their current practices and their current behavior towards reducing deforestation in their supply chains? And how do you ensure that there is some form and degree of independent verification of the claims that are made by those corporate actors are actually variably independently verifiable? Many questions which I think provide new opportunities for research institutions such as C4, universities such as Cambridge and many others but which will need to be unpacked if we are to see any real change in corporate behavior. Linked to that I want to also flag something that's come out of some recent research I've been doing in West Africa looking at a very important agroforestry parkland system that occurs across more than 4,000 square kilometers of West Africa, namely the sheer nuts parklands of West Africa which remain to the present day a very significant source of income for particularly women and women headed households. The empirical work that's been done by Becker and others suggests that this represents more than half of all income for women in terms of the incomes they can control but which as a parking system is increasingly threatened by probably three dominant forces. One is the fact that following legislative changes by the European Commission that allow the use of five percent of what are called cocoa butter equivalents in the production of chocolate, a multi-billion dollar a year industry, the demand in West Africa for sheer as one of the best cocoa butter equivalents has increased tenfold. This is resulting in changes in both the structure of the global value chain which for at least 250 years has been managed controlled by women and increasingly three global companies out of the four that control the production of cocoa butter equivalents are increasingly evident in these value chains. But increasingly it's not just this new global demand, it's the growing demand to meet food production based on the classic neoliberal model of large scale investments has resulted in the clearance of these parklands particularly for example in northern Ghana and certain landscapes in southwest Bukina Faso so that mechanized agricultural production can result in the increased production of food as well as the demands for firewood to meet the demands growing demands in urban centers. These are all having impacts on the sheer parklands and potentially on the livelihoods of tens of thousands of women who depend on this value chain. The glimmer of hope that I want to draw attention to is a new initiative which I think represents perhaps a novel approach that is being used in other contexts and that's the namely the creation of multi-stakeholder platforms as a platform that attempts to try and bring together the large number of actors who intervene in a landscape and have interest in the landscape to try and negotiate under more formalized structures and outside of any international treaty but negotiate ways in which the different interest groups in the landscape can be resolved and here I'm referring to something called the Global Shear Alliance and this is a new platform that is emerged in West Africa partly representing interests of collective action amongst many of the women's associations but also representing the oligarchy of the three big companies AAK, IOI, Lauders-Cocklin and 3Fs, Fats, Foods and Fertilizers if you want to know what company that is it's an Indian transnational corporation and I won't give you any prizes for guessing what their particular interests are given that name so I think this provides an opportunity look at ways in which we can perhaps outside of the established frameworks of say multilateral environmental agreements look for creating new platforms that can perhaps provide ways in which we can achieve greater negotiation, greater communication between the different actors to look at ways in which we can resolve these very different and competing often interests in the resources the same resources across the landscape so those are my just my four points I don't know how much more time I have I want to make one last comment though more as a plea and in the hope that perhaps there may be some donor communities donor representatives in this audience I don't know if there are one thing that struck me vis-a-vis much of our own research and the growing influence of what I would call a monitoring in in a valuation culture which I think we are all affected by in universities in research institutions in maybe the secretariat of the conventions and I think one of the perverse effects of that monitoring and evaluation culture is that we are increasingly confronted with quite unrealistic time frames to achieve the expected results that are written into many of our project documents and I think this is a worrying trend I think we're being asked to deliver more far too quickly and we've seen this for example in the negotiation of the UN framework convention on climate change and the whole discourse around fast-tracking well I think it's a fast track to nowhere if we're going to obviate the risks of avoiding getting involved in the complex issues surrounding resource access and resource governance and as an example of this we've contrasted in some C4 publications the difference between the process that was adopted under the forest law enforcement and governance and trade initiative in Indonesia which involved a 11 year long process of defining legality under the what's called the SVLK the legality legal assurance system specific to Indonesia as a way of ensuring that all actors who have an interest in the timber trade in Indonesia were involved were consulted not once not twice but multiple times through the creation of another type of multi-stakeholder process in contrast what we've seen under the red policy initiative is an attempt to try and fast-track all this but red is ultimately part of one of the biggest governance challenges we face today the international community has endorsed a new value for forests it's called carbon and what that new value has done has opened up a Pandora's box of new claims new contests but it hasn't resolved all the old standing claims and the old unresolved contests and we have cases that we've written about in Indonesia where we have for example multiple claims to the same area of land the same piece of property we have claims that are recognized under a statute of the adept communities the indigenous peoples in the country we have claims on the same piece of land by an Australian investment bank that wants to develop a red project we have claims by Indonesian companies that want to exploit the brown shale the below ground resources and we have claims by other Indonesian investors who want to convert this forest to oil palm what we don't have is an institutional and or legal framework that actually provides for any form of arbitration who actually decides which of those claims is valid all have the requisite documentation to justify why their claim is valid so I'll stop here now Marie Claire's asked me to shut up I will oblige thank you very much feel for parents thank you