From January 1, 2023, the minimum wage rose in 23 states in the US, which is something of a record. This comes following a year when inflation hit new highs and working class people struggled across the country. However, the increase in the minimum wage did not come due to the generosity of employers or the government, but due to sustained struggles by workers, especially in the unorganized sector. What has been the trend in minimum wages over the decades, and how have workers fought for its increase? Why has the federal minimum wage remained so low? Eugene Poirier of Breakthrough News explains. When we look at what's happening with the minimum wage here in 2023 in the United States, we have to step back about 10 years. We're actually just past the 10-year anniversary of what is known as the Fight for 15 movement, which started with fast food workers, but really expanded to a whole wide range of low-wage workers, thousands upon thousands of workers in major cities and small towns all around the United States who started coming out and striking. Many of them did not really have legal union representation. It's very difficult in that sector to get it. In some cases, there are legal realities that make it difficult for them to actually form unions. So these were workers who had very minimal protections, but were just sick and tired of living in poverty wages, which almost all of these fast food employers and unfortunately many, many other employers in this country are paying. And in fact, in just about every single jurisdiction in America, the minimum wage is not a living wage. So these workers who started this massive movement that's been going on for 10 years have really swept the country. And it's created a reality that has turned around the situation as it concerns minimum wage increases. Almost very few of those took place in very far apart from about 1979 to about 10 years ago. And in the past 10 years, we've seen a significant push forward and including in 2023 where we're going to have a record 41 cities in 23 states waste the minimum wage. But it would never be happening if it wasn't for this huge movement that is still ongoing by the way of really tens of thousands of rank and file workers at low wage jobs who have been willing to take huge risks to their job, their family, all these different types of things by walking out, by protesting and by boycotting and doing everything they can to build solidarity with their struggle. You know, I think when we look at what's going on vis-a-vis the issue of the minimum wage in the United States and important to remember, there's federal minimum wages, there's the state minimum wage, and there are local minimum wages. Now, no minimum wage can be lower than the federal minimum wage, which actually is still $7.25 an hour. It's unchanged since 2009. And that's like in almost every major state in America, 10, if not 15, if not 20, if not $30 below what would be considered a living wage. In most major cities in America, a living wage is going to hover around 20, 21, sometimes a little bit more dollars per hour.  So the living wages in America are, you know, well above what even the vast majority of people who are not vast majority, but a significant number of people who are not low wage workers actually make. So what we've seen in the minimum wage increases is that $15 an hour was 10 years ago, sort of the number that was pegged by the fight for 15 as not necessarily a living wage in all places, but at least the start of what a floor should be for the whole country. Now, Congress, because it is so right wing, whether the majority is Democratic or Republican, there's a conservative majority, has declined to raise the minimum wage for a range of regions, but by and large, because they buy the capitalist propaganda that raising minimum wages decreases jobs. So at the federal level, there's been almost nothing. Obama said he was going to try to do something. Didn't do it. When Democrats controlled, you know, both houses of Congress and their presidency, Biden, same thing, didn't do it. Both of them have done different things to get contractors to raise the minimum wage, but by and large at the federal level, it's been a debt issue because of the influence of conservative corporations on the politicians at the state and the local level. However, working class movements have been able to open up way, way more and everyone has more or less driven towards this point of $15 an hour. Again, not because it is necessarily a living wage, but to say that if there's going to be a floor, 15 should be the absolute floor. And nothing below 15 should be considered anything other than abject poverty and literally every single jurisdiction in the United States. So we're seeing a significant number of places increase below 15, but also a number, I think about 21 who are increasing up to $15 an hour and what we're seeing. And in this year, 2023, just what we saw in January 1, 2023, it's $5 billion cumulatively in wages for 8 million workers. So it's very significant, but it's still significantly below what a lot of these workers are going to need. But you can see that the struggle of working class people has at least raised the floor in many of the states and cities and other localities in the United States for what wages should be, although there is still a lot left to do. While minimum wages have slightly increased, the year 2022 also saw high levels of inequality with a rich earning more than the poorer sections. What explains this level of income inequality? What are some of the policies that enable it? Yeah, 2021 was another year of wage stagnation in the United States. I mean, we say this every single year since 1979 wages have actually not risen in a real way. There's been almost total wage stagnation overall, but that's basically only been for working class people. The bottom 90% of people, in fact, so even some of the higher levels of the working class, almost all of the people who are above that, the 1%, the 0.1%, they've steadily seen their wages increase as the share of income produced in the economy has been shifted more and more to the richest individuals and further and further away from working class people. So when you think about the big issue that a lot of people were talking about this year for the working class around the world, inflation, inflation was primarily caused by profits about 54% out of every dollar increase in inflation in the United States was by profits. So again, the inflationary mechanism was another way by which profits or money income was being transferred from the working class to the ruling class. So in an era in an era where profits were record profits in 2021, from primarily the just ridiculous increases to prices from inflation, what we have seen then is that the top 1% of earners saw a 9.4% increase in their wages in 2021, while the bottom 90% saw a two tenths of a percent of a percent decrease. So basically for the average working class person, they were running in place in terms of how their wages were. But for the average person in the 1%, they got about a 10% wage increase. And for the top 0.1%, one tenth of a percent. So the richest of the richest of the rich, the billionaires, they saw an 18.5% increase in their wages. So not only in share of income, but in growth of wages, we're seeing the richest people continue to shift more and more income into their pockets and less and less out of the working class. So even when the economy is growing, even when the things are relatively good and unemployment is low, workers are still being shortchanged significantly by all of the various different capitalist mechanisms. In the case of 2021, using inflation as a cover for profiteering in order to shift the money and the wealth that they're creating to the richest 1% and really 0.1% of Americans. You know, when we look at the issue of the deep inequality of the deep poverty wages, none of this is an accident and no one should ever look at it as an accident. There are a range of different things that can be attributed to this. First and foremost, we should talk about the extreme expansion of anti-union laws in the United States. Something called right to work, which has been expanding over the past 10 years. There are state level laws that basically make it very, very difficult to form unions. Similar types of laws at the federal level. There's a kind of a complicated rule called the joint employer rule, which basically means that the big corporation of McDonald's, which franchises out a lot of their individual restaurants, that the big corporation that makes all the money has some responsibility for the wages of the workers, which is a huge issue because some of these smaller restaurants, their smaller businesses, the owners will say they can't pay, whether that's true or not, the ability to have the access for workers working at McDonald's to demand money from the big, you know, international behemoth corporation is something that would allow them to get more income. So you can see on multiple levels, preventing workers from joining unions, establishing regulations that basically play a lot of tricks in terms of who's really responsible for the wages of workers and a lot of these low wage establishments that are deliberately set up to get around existing workers' rights law. So right there, that policy framework of being against unions and weakening the regulatory frameworks around workers' rights have played a huge role. The other one has been the real role back, I guess you could say of the relatively, some would say higher tax rates that existed in the United States from the 50s, 60s, 70s. Were they too high? I think that's another question. But nevertheless, since the 1980s, we've seen the Reagan administration, the first Bush administration, the Clinton administration, the second Bush administration, the Obama administration, the Trump administration. We've seen a steady erosion in the tax base of the United States because the tax rates, the highest tax rates on the richest corporations and the richest individuals have been steadily decreased. The biggest one of course was the 2017 tax law that was brought in by Trump, the Trump tax law, which was basically a $1.7 trillion transfer of wealth to the wealthiest individuals. So you can see really those two things working heavily in tandem. The use of tax policy to do whatever you possibly could do in order to shift the amount of income into the pockets of the richest people and put the burden for running the government, primarily on those who have the least ability to pay and also limiting the ability of workers to fight back, to advocate on the job, to collectively bargain and to find ways to lift their wages and to a higher level in line with productivity, in line with inflation and all those different pieces. So there's more that goes into it than that, but I would say those are probably the two biggest shackles that have really driven a lot of these trends around income inequality and the inability of workers to really keep up with the growth of productivity, which has been skyrocketing since 1979 and also the growth of inflation.


Hello and welcome to TD30, a production of the Government Information Service and NTN. I am your host, Kendall Eugene, and with me today is the CEO of Export St. Lucia, Ms. Sunita Daniel. Today, we are discussing an activity under the Independence Calendar, the Grand St. Lucia Business Expo. Welcome, Ms. Daniel, to the show. Welcome. Thank you, Mr. Eugene. Thank you for being here with us. Let's start with some background info on the expo itself. Individuals who may not have been pre-Z to what the Business Expo is all about. Can you explain to them? Well, we had the inaugural Business Expo last year as part of the 44th anniversary of independence for St. Lucia. What we really wanted to do and what the directive we got from the Office of the Prime Minister was for us to get a space where local businesses could come out and showcase what they have on offer. But also give them a chance to retail their products. So that's basically the objective behind the Business Expo that we held last year. All right. So it was basically to bring out the businesses that we have, businesses that are clients of Export St. Lucia or... Export St. Lucia, the Ministry of Commerce, all our businesses, the small businesses within St. Lucia. And how many, if you remember, were a part of the expo? It's a small number, about 75, when you look at them in comparison to the number of businesses we have registered in St. Lucia, we try in the thousands. We were able to accommodate 75 last year, but this year we're hoping to do a little more. Okay. Where was it held? It was held in Constitution Park under William Peter Boulevard. So those two areas were allocated specifically for the Business Expo and the vendors who in the William Peter Boulevard will set up and give them a space at the Derrick-Walkard Square, which they were also very happy for. From your experience, do you think we have enough information on the local space, especially of our local businesses or about the local businesses? I think we've been trying a lot to highlight the local businesses in St. Lucia. However, there's always room for improvement. There are always areas we can do better in. And so I think the Business Expo allows us to do that. That's one of the avenues to which we can do that. Unfortunately, with the Business Expo, we're not able to target all businesses. And so definitely as we go along, we will be looking at other ways to highlight the successes and the businesses of the St. Lucia entrepreneurs. Now with the Expo, are we going to use it as a channel to bridge that gap of information deficiency, or is it just to promote the business? The Expo is really to promote the businesses. What we're trying to do this year is also to incorporate what you just spoke about. And so there will be some educational activities taking part this year at this year's 45th celebration. But the main objective is really for promotion of St. Lucia's small businesses. Let the rest of the world know that these businesses exist. But a few people did not know about some of them and what they offered. And so that is just another way of promoting. You mentioned that there are in the thousands, that when you said a small number and then you mentioned 75, I thought about 75, it's a big number for me. Do we have a list that probably we can go to and pick out the members for the businesses available or through Expo's businesses that are available via directory to the general public? All businesses are supposed to be registered with the Ministry of Commerce. Export St. Lucia is a statutory agency under the Ministry of Commerce. And so they're the parent ministry. So all businesses, if anybody is interested in knowing who is registered as a business and so on, they could find out from the Ministry of Commerce. How would one become a part of the Expo, what would I have to do? We have put some expressions of interest out. They would be exhibited both on our website and the Ministry of Commerce's website. And so people can go ahead and look at the requirements and fill in the form. So far we've done that from last week. So far the expressions have been overwhelming, a little more than we expected to be honest. So people can go ahead, the deadline for registering to be part of the Expo is actually tomorrow the 31st of January. Hearing the word expressions, if somebody is a little confused as to what exactly does it mean, what would you describe it as? It's just your name, your business name, what do you do, just basic information so we can make a determination as to whether you would be fit to be part of the Expo this year. Okay. If my business is fairly new, for example, maybe six or even 12 months old, would I be considered or would I be there for the years of experience to be a part of the Expo? Not necessarily. So there are some businesses under the Youth Economy Agency who we've seen expressions form. And so those businesses we anticipate should have a fairly good chance and they're very young under a year. So it's really about whether the business has been registered, what good or service that they're offering and that will help us determine whether they would be legible for the Expo. The Expo last year was held in the William Peter Boulevard. We're in our second year with it. Were there any challenges that you and your team faced in executing last year's business Expo? We used the William Peter Boulevard and Constitution Park. So some of the challenges that we experienced, I'm quite a few technical issues but those were rectified very early. I think for us is really the space allocation. The number of persons who are interested in participating in the Expo far exceeds the amount of the number of businesses that we can take on Constitution Park and the William Peter Boulevard. So for us that presented quite a bit of a challenge. The other thing for us too is in terms of our exhibitors being a little more friendly towards the or being more engaging with the visiting public, these are things that we are working on this year. We are very good manufacturers but not necessarily the best salespeople and to sell your products and you have to have some level of confidence that what you're offering to the world is actually world class which it is. But to be able to say it is one of the things we've seen. People the challenges, have you thought any way of revising or revisiting the issues that you have seen or the challenges that you have seen? The space constraint, we are going to be accommodating 90 businesses this year which is a lot more but which is still a lot lower than the expressions that we're getting. So that's something we need to look at how where we can get a much larger space to host the expo but that's we have made a few changes logistically in terms of how to accommodate more businesses so it will be a different setup in the Boulevard and Constitution Park. In terms of encouraging our businesses to sell and sales that's some we've been having some training with them as to how to do that and be able to speak confidently about your product or service. And we've seen a lot of examples of that in the last activity that Expo Solution was a part of seeing all the businesses basically being able to promote and speak about their product and sell it as well. We were quite pleased to see at our Arc Business Expo we did make our rounds to ensure that what they were taught was being put into practice and we are quite pleased to see them actually selling their product and speaking quite confidently about the product that they have on offer. Excellent. We'll take a quick break and when we return we will have more with Ms. Funita Daniel she is the CEO of Expo Solution coming soon as the grand business expo under the calendar of events for our 45th celebration of independence. We'll be right back. Back to TV 30 today we are discussing the Solution Business Expo under the calendar of events for the 45th celebration of independence with us the CEO of Expo Solution Ms. Funita Daniel again thank you for being our guest on TV 30. Thank you. We left speaking about the improvements of the business and the entrepreneurs the business owners and of course what delighted you as a CEO of you seeing the putting in all what they learned they are now putting into practice and it's coming out and being all practical with it. What can I expect from the business expo this year as somebody visiting for the first time? One of the things we also learned last year was from the general public was that they would have preferred the days to be different. So we held the business expo on a Thursday and a Friday last year this year we've changed that up to Friday and Saturday and so if you're coming to the business expo as a first-timer you should expect to see get a lot of excitement on the venue. I think you've visited us before Mr. Eugene and so you would see the level of excitement of our manufacturers of our small businesses the quality of products that you would see. This year we are putting in a few new aspects to it so we have some villages that we are incorporating villages so you would now have a health and wellness village where you can go get a massage get your head on get some makeup done so a health and wellness and you'd also see quite a bit of health and wellness products and services. We have a services aspect so we normally attribute small businesses or exports with just the physical product to being shipped out of St. Lucia. This year we're actually looking at services because services also an export and that's one of the recommendations we got last year is that we should have a booth with services where service providers can come in and you could see what they have on offer so we have that and then we have the manufacturers who will be there and the creatives so there these are four distinct villages you can go in and get a different vibe and a different feeling in each of them so we anticipate that it should be one that is very exciting we're very proud of our manufacturers they've actually very good and very good products and very good services and I've said it before I've seen many others in many other countries and nothing really is preventing St. Lucia from being the number one in terms of the products that we have to offer and the services that we have to offer. We've heard many international agencies mentioned St. Lucia we've heard the name of St. Lucia CMOS for example in a couple of TV series as well many times on Netflix so clearly we are hitting a mark somewhere. What now should the businesses expect from the expo? The businesses were very happy and we are very thankful to them for trusting us last year with the business expo and at the end of it they were all happy in terms of the sales that they generated so I was particularly pleased and to see the enthusiasm from our small businesses who would come back and say I sold everything all by the second day in the morning Miss Daniel I need to go back I need to get more product because everything has sold off so we really want to thank the St. Lucia public themselves for supporting because had they not supported a lot of their retail sales would not have taken place and so the businesses can expect to see a lot more in terms of our the patrons to the expo this year we are bringing in buyers international buyers to the expo so we have buyers from as far as Dubai coming in just for the expo so they could see the products that have that St. Lucia have on offer we have buyers originally who would also be attending the expo that will give them a chance to come in and see those 90 businesses firsthand and be able to sign contracts or be able to make some business deals with them so that's a new thing for us this business expo the last one was shared quite extensively on social media on our social media and so when those buyers saw it they reached out to us and said we'd like to actually be there physically to see it and so I can confirm that quite a few of them will be coming from the region and for sure from Dubai why is that important to have buyers internationally regionally as well coming in not just to support but be a part of the independence experience it's very important for us because when we go out to the markets there are only a limited number of products that we can actually bring with us to showcase and they keep on asking us about more about what else do you have an offer and so we normally have to send on brochures and paper and so on but this time they could actually come in and have a direct conversation with the manufacturers see the people who are actually manufacturing the products those who are providing the service they can learn a lot more than we could ever see about the product because it's the people who are making the product or the service who have the passion for it and who can send the message across much more and much better than we can do and so far as it is very important to have them here we know that having buyers at an expo is also critical for its success ultimately the aim of the expo is for promotion not only to the solution society but for export that these products can then be exported and so we're looking forward to actually having contracts signed at that expo excellent now at the expo just before the businesses come in are there any particular business that the expo is looking to promoting for example agro processing female owned young entrepreneurs or we just looking at a holistic approach at the promotion we are looking at a holistic approach to businesses so you will see a mix of women owned female owned businesses but also very importantly youth owned businesses and we've been seeing a lot of those from the youth economy agency and also young men owned businesses we know that we have particular issues with young men in our society currently and so I think they need to be celebrated when those who do well and who own their own businesses can also be highlighted so you'll be seeing a bit of those you'll be seeing also the established manufacturers but also up and coming manufacturing so it's a mix of businesses and and persons who will be showcased at the expo now you will very excited on your voice changed a little bit when you see young men right owning businesses how important is it for our society to encourage young men to at least try to own a piece of your own and that's why I'm very excited about the youth economy agency and the kind of support that it gives to our young men our young people but also young men we know that we have a particularly vulnerable group of young men in our society and I think that business and owning their own business gives them a sense of pride and gives them a sense of achievement and something to look forward to so I actually think that Saint Lucia is on the right path in terms of encouraging those young men to go into their own businesses and showcase those businesses I think we need to go a little bit further in terms of vulnerable young men and allowing them to have that space where they can put their own creativity on display so it may be in the arts it may be in business it may be but they do have a number of skills that they can actually exhibit just like young women do and actually help them channel those energies into something that would actually make money for them and the last expo we saw a few young women promoting their business the massage therapists were there the hairdressers were there even the cooks the chefs were there but what are some of the businesses that are young men a part of that you are proud of they're part of the IT led business and so we see that with those who are a little more educated than the others so we see them going into the IT field we see them extensively in the creative industries a lot of our performers are some of the young men but even for those who have not gone through a formal education system there are those of them who do CMOS products a lot of them who are engaged in CMOS production and we've seen that in the community of you fought for example quite a bit of young men are actually engaged in CMOS production a few of them are also engaged in teas and craft and so these are some of those we particularly want to highlight at the expo so people can see that young men are actually engaged in very productive activity in our society also excellent we'll take a break and when we get back more with Mr. Daniel the CEO of export solution we're discussing the solution business expo part of the 45th celebration of independence we write back suicidal thoughts like other mental health challenges can affect anyone it can be you your colleague family member or neighbor everyone has a role to play in preventing suicide know the warning signs if you or someone you know is in crisis or emotional distress call the suicide hotline at 203 remember help is available this is a message from the employee assistance program department of the public service contact us at 468 2269 or 468 2260 welcome back to TV 30 a production of the government information service and NTN I am your host Kendall Eugene and with me my guest Mr. Daniel the CEO of export solution discussing the solution business export if you were there last year I'm sure that some of you all did not just attend it to enjoy the services of the businesses that were present but some of the performances that were live on stage will we be seeing this again this year or is that scrapped definitely and we'll also be seeing an umptub set of entertainment taking place so on the Friday evening for example we have confirmed kind of a calypso jam on Friday afternoon so you should be able to see some the best calypso's hair the best calypso's from 1979 to 1999 I've been a gold excellent whatever was the best song it may not necessarily have been calypso but the song for each year which would have been what everybody was raving about in that year you'd see a live performance of those maybe from those who originally sang it or from the band on the Saturday afternoon we encourage everybody to come down to town on Saturday afternoon and we will have a jam band also performing but we also have artists other artists so we have reggae artists coming I we will say a little later who those are reggae artists we have soca artists and definitely what is authentically St. Lucia and the denry segment artists we'll also be on stage we should be seeing a bit of a fashion because what's exports and exports and Lucia without a bit of export the runway in there so you should be seeing a little bit of fashion and actually a very good show for the entire family to enjoy from the Saturday afternoon all right with the cocktail of entertainment and business that's right show me this expo nice and what time on both days is supposed to be so Friday the 16th we begin at 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. so we have the entire day and then on Saturday we begin at 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. okay and sharp sharp now let's just go back a little bit I want to find out if let's say for example I am a business owner small business owner what would my entry requirements be must my products be export ready the standards etc what should I look out for if I'm going to be a part of the business well definitely you must have some level of standard because we are encouraging our businesses to ensure that the products that they offer to the public for consumption is of standard so they must have a Ministry of Health certificate for sure you must have you must have some basic standards in place so we're not asking you to have all the great has happened so on but you must have some basic standards the good thing about it is that we know all of those businesses we normally do assessments and with our partners the SLBS we and the Ministry of Commerce we know those businesses that have good products and offer so those are the ones who will be this year eligible for coming and showcase their products you must also have a business registration so basic things because we preach those things so we try as much as possible to ensure that a business is registered as a business of San Lucia now we're talking businesses and he's mentioned quite a bit of the export factor how many of our businesses are enjoying their products being exported out of solution where are some of the territories that we've probably landed quite a number of our businesses export their products and we're so happy that export sent Lucia has actually raised the profile for those businesses so currently a lot and many people may have seen it coming out expo Dubai would have given us that opportunity to showcase our businesses in the UAE and so quite a few of our businesses are currently doing business in Dubai we're trying to expand into Abu Dhabi quite recently in December we had exports going to New Zealand so we've never done those ourselves on a large scale and we're looking at doing that also currently some of them pre the Russia-Ukraine war Baron products used to go to Russia and so these are some of the things the areas that they go we go to the traditional places all the time so the United States Canada the region the OECS carry come so these are the normal ones we're really looking at expanding into the other parts of Europe to get our products out there excellent now for future goals and objectives what are some of the future goals that the organization like to attain moving forward for us it is really to get a lot more businesses export already we've seen quite great products at the expose and some of them are probably missing just a bit of labeling assistance because if you're going to go into the UAE your product must be labeled in such a way that people can read what you have and we've been working to do French labeling also getting into the Spanish market so that's something we're going to pay attention to but also the packaging which we're making quite a bit of progress on and so we should have an announcement next week on some major packaging differences in our products that you normally purchase some at the supermarket so we're looking at doing those we also want to expand even for the modern the markets but also the product authoring offerings that we have so for example our teas are very highly sought after and I think for us one of the main things is for us to encourage processing of our products one of the things we don't like doing here is at export sandwiches is to export our raw product to another country and then re-import the final products to our country so for example why are we exporting cocoa beans and then importing the same chocolate that was made from the cocoa beans back in St. Lucia right so these are some of the things we are working with other partner agencies to ensure that value is added and so we can export a final product that's one of the things for example the honorable prime minister is very concerned about and he has really encouraged us to do is CMOS to make sure that the CMOS products are actually brought to the final end in St. Lucia and we don't have to import CMOS creams from overseas when they are buying our CMOS to make it right all right now let's go back with the business expo earlier you mentioned that some of the clients who were present and participated in last year's expo they were pleased to announce that they had sold out all of their products what are some of the achievements that were notable for you at the business expo for us I think it's the growing confidence we're seeing in our exporters at the very beginning they were a little shy because they're producers of the product to most of them now we're seeing them speaking a lot more assertively about their products and selling their products I'm very proud to see that I think the other thing for us and our clients is the ability that they have to negotiate right on the spot so we did have clients who negotiated with persons hotels who came in and they were able to negotiate some level of products going into the hotel so for us I think the biggest thing as an agency that we're seeing is the growing confidence of our entrepreneurs acting as business people and we're very proud of that we're very happy to see that they're moving along that way I mean many people would have said before that farmers are producers and farmers are not supposed to be doing the marketing what you're seeing is that farmers are becoming very good at doing that kind of thing and we will have those agricultural businesses also exhibited at the business expo excellent let them know again when the business expo will be held and from what time the business expo would be on February 16th and 17th on the 16th from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on the 17th from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and it will be at the William Peter Boulevard and Constitution Park all right well it's Daniel I'm gonna say thank you for being our guest there on TV 30 wishing you all the success with the solution business expo on the two days all part of our 45th anniversary of independent celebrations thank you for having me thank you for being here folks this has been TV 30 a production of the government information service and NTN thank you for viewing have a good day


Hi, I'm Dr. Andrew Davis. I am a vitro retinal surgeon, currently employed here in Salt Lake City at Salt Lake Retina. And glad to be with you guys today. We're going to go through the basics of doing an ophthalmic exam, focusing specifically on the posterior segment exam of the eye and the retina. I'm a retina specialist, so that's what I do is I look at retinas. And what I'm going to try to do during this process is to give you little keys on how to manipulate the slit lamp and the instrumentation that we use in ophthalmology to be able to fine tune in to different parts of the retinal exam. And by taking the time to learn how to use the instrumentation, the lenses, the indirect, the slit lamp, it'll help you as the eye specialist to be able to properly diagnose diseases. Importantly, by doing things in a step-by-step process, you'll better be able to follow patients and having seen them once. Next time you see them again, you'll be able to monitor for progression. Hopefully, positive changes, although you'll also be able to see negative changes. And so it's worth the time to learn how to use the instruments properly. And so in our discussion today, that's what we're going to do is I'm going to focus on how to use the instruments and hopefully give you a few keys that you can practice with in the clinic and while you're in your training program. So let's go. We have our patient here. Any time you see a patient, they're, at least in my world, they're going to be dilated. And so some of the parts of the end, the vision, the pressure, the pupils will already have been done. So I'm going to skip past those. I think one of the important concepts of doing an eye exam is to do it the same way every single time. So most things in ophthalmology, when we do the exam, we go from left to right. So every part of the exam, from outside the eye to all the way to the back, you're just going to start on the left side, go to the right side. And I think that's important so that you form a repetitive pattern that you follow every single time. And by doing so and doing the same, the exam the same way every time, you're less likely to miss things. And the concept is to try not to miss things because we want to diagnose things and then help people. So vision, pressure, pupils, everything has already been done. My patients are usually dilated. And so we'll start into the slant lamp exam. So first thing you're going to do is you want to make sure your patient is somewhat relaxed. Patients will be very anxious. You want to let them know that you care about them. And so I always kind of tell patients that we're going to be in a slant lamp exam. And I try to make sure they're comfortable. My patient population is generally a little bit more elderly. And so you want to make sure that their back, their neck and things aren't contorted. If they're comfortable in the slant lamp, you're going to be comfortable and be able to find, to be able to spend more time trying to find the diseases. So first thing you'll do is bring the slant lamp over towards the patient. You'll kind of look where they are. The chin rest, I always eyeball where their chin is and I'll bring it down to their level. However, you'll see a black mark here on the slant lamp. That needs to be level with the lateral canthus or the lateral part of where the two eyelids come together.  And so that's one of the first key parts of getting a patient into the slant lamp. So you ask them to please come forward here, chin down in here, forehead up against the head rest. It's important they try to keep their head up against the head rest. You don't have to hound it too much. It's not the end of the world. And then I'm looking, you can't see it right now, but I'm currently looking at that black mark on the right side. And I'm looking at the patient's lateral canthus, and I'm going to make sure it's lined up and it's nicely lined up right there. So next thing I'll do is there are different settings on the power of the beam itself. I usually set it on the half. There's a half and a one. You don't need to blast them with light, but at the same time you brought them here to do an eye exam so you might as well make sure you have enough light to be able to see. Sometimes patients will be light sensitive. Their pupils are dilated. They may have inflammation or redness, or for whatever reason they may be light sensitive, but I do think it's important to make sure you use enough light so you can see and then just be patient with the patient to make sure that you don't blast them with light too bad. So as a general rule, you're going to start with the right eye first and then do the left eye. And you'll look at the eyelids and then you'll look at the conjunctiva and then the cornea and then the anterior chamber and then the iris and then the lens and then you go back to the thumb part of the exam, the retina exam. So make sure you concentrate on those first initial things but as a retina specialist I look at those areas to make sure they look okay and then I'm really thinking about getting back to where the fun starts which is behind the iris. All right so first things first you'll notice on the slit lamp there's a joystick down below that can make bring things into focus by moving it forward and back and also you can move it left to right and then you can spin it and spinning it raises it up and down so you can get the eye and level. Also on the slit lamp these are the main two knobs you're going to use this upper knob that controls the the lateral movement of the beam, the side to side movement of the beam, it also increases the width and so by spinning the knob and you can actually go all the way in and all the way out and spin it all the way around you you widen the beam and so at different parts of the exam you're going to widen or narrow the beam depending on what you're looking at. Also at the top here it gives a size of the beam so this increases the width this increases the height, the knob that's up here at the top increases the height of the beam. On the slit lamp itself it actually gives a millimeter measurement so let's say that you're measuring the size of a corneal abrasion or more importantly for me as a retina specialist if you're looking at the size of a of a hyphaeema which is blood build up in the anterior chamber you can actually measure the size of that hyphaeema or how tall it is and then record that down so that later on you can record that oh it was five millimeter hyphaeema this week and then a week later went down to three millimeters so obviously having less hyphaeema is better than more hyphaeema so you can track that that's especially important with looking at corneal ulcers or corneal abrasions or things like that but in retina the retina world we we use it especially to measure the size of hyphaeemas or blood in the anterior chamber so so i'm just going to start her exam on her right eye i start out by looking at her eyelids and then i look at the conging tiva and then the cornea when you come to your cornea exam that'll be a time where you start to narrow the beam after the cornea you're going to look at the anterior chamber and in the retina world we do a lot of uveitis or inflammation inside of the eye exams and so to look in the anterior chamber you're going to narrow the beam you're going to make it thin and narrow and focus in on the iris and once you have the iris border or the pupillary border nice and focused you can pull back a little bit also you want to turn the beam up and that will allow you by focusing on the iris border having a focus and then pulling back just a little bit or focusing out that will allow you to see if there's any inflammation in the anterior chamber and this patient doesn't have any inflammation in her anterior chamber so after looking at the cornea in the anterior chamber the iris itself then you'll look at the lens and look for signs of cataractis changes in the lens and then after the lens well you'll look back into where like I say where the fund starts in the posterior segment exam of the eye one of the things with patients that I will always look at and I think is critical in doing a retina exam is to look at their vitreous and you can see the vitreous and the fibers or the collagen fibers of the vitreous right in the space behind the iris is a good place to see that it'll allow you to look for blood there inflammation and also for age related or syneurotic changes of the vitreous and I'll look at that every single exam no matter what I'm doing and that can give me signs of or an idea of there may be some sort of pathology back by the retina one of the common exams that we do in the retina world is when a patient has a new onset of flashing light and floaters and when if they were to have a terror in the retina the terror the retinal terror would release pigment cells or rpe cells into the vitreous and that would look like a tobacco dust or little teeny cells floating in the vitreous behind the lens or a Schaefer sign it's called and so how you look for a Schaefer sign is you're focusing on the lens narrow the beam and make sure it's nice and bright and then you tell the patient to look up look down and look straight ahead and then as they're doing that you move the joystick backward and forward until you can see the little collagen fibers and intertwined or floating around those collagen fibers could be those pigment cells or the tobacco dust cells from a retinal terror or inflammation or blood or something like that and so after seeing that then you're going to go to the posterior segment exam of the eye commonly there are two main types of lenses that you'll use the purpose of lenses and doing a a retina exam is to be able to magnify the images in the back of the eye the common common ones that are used are a 78-dopter lens and a 90-dopter lens i'm using a 78-dopter lens and there's some little tricks to be able to pick up the posterior segment of the eye of the retina using this lens first and foremost i like to do my posterior segment exam using the 78-dopter lens and i like to do it with my beam not shifted to one side or slanted to one side of the other but straight on i feel like that helps me to focus it also what i do is i make my beam a little bit taller and i make it a little bit narrower narrower and then once i have the nerve and the blood vessels and the maculine focus then i'll change the size a little bit i'll shorten the beam down and i'll widen it just a little bit and that gives me a a lit up area that's a little bit easier to see and then that'll help me to focus in on the nerve and the blood vessels and and that sort of thing so again when doing the funnest exam from the slit lamp it's good to start out with a little bit narrower beam a little bit taller beam until you get the nerve and the maculine the blood vessels and focus and then shorten it and widen a little bit to start examining around as a general rule you're going to hold the lens with two fingers your pointer finger and your thumb and then you're going to use your pinky and a lot of times your ring finger either resting on the patient's forehead or on the forehead rest itself the plastic forehead rest and then the trick of how to do this is you're going to put it up in front of their eye without touching it but just in front of where their eyebrow is and then you'll look in through the slit lamp and once you find their pupil you're going to pull back a little bit to you see the orange beam come in focus okay when the patient is dilated it's much easier to do on a non-dilated patient it takes a little bit more side to side and up and down movement be able to get the the the nerve and the retina and the macula into view and into focus so first things first now that i've got the nerve and the maculine focus i'm going to narrow the beam shorten it widen it just a hair first thing you do when you look in the back of the eye is to look at the nerve of the eye you'll look at the size you'll look at the optic cup and you'll look at the borders of the nerve and you'll look at the blood vessels coming out of the nerve in the retina world we commonly see patients that have diabetes and that have macular degeneration or vein occlusions there's inflammation there's all sorts of other things but each of these disorders are commonly associated with something going on with blood vessels and the blood vessels in the retina most of them come from or originate from the optic nerve or travel through the optic nerve and so you're going to make sure as you look at the nerve of the eye to look at what the blood vessels are doing there too so we focused in on the nerve of the eye and after seeing the nerve and looking at the blood vessels you are going to pull towards the patient's nose all right and that will shift the beam over towards the macula the macula and the phobia are the high price real estate that's where the majority of vision occurs and where the majority of retinal diseases have their source and macular degeneration diabetes when patients have issues with these disorders and many other disorders when they're swelling or bleeding in the macula it will be the thing that affects their vision and why they came in to see you with vision complaints and so again the key is and i guess a good point to bring up with that is that these lens reverse the images up and down and side to side so the macula is always located temporal or lateral to the nerve of the eye anatomically however when you're doing your exam to see it you're going to pull nasal or towards the nose to be able to get those into view so after you see the nerve you're going to pull nasal and swing the slit lamp over towards the macula to get a good view after looking at the macula then generally i will swing and look at the blood vessels i'll travel along the superior temporal arcade and the inferior temporal arcade and get a good look at the blood vessels and then i'll look a little bit past that in general with the 78-dopter lens and the 90-dopter lens you can see into the mid periphery past the macula a little bit from there you're going to take over with your indirect ophthalmic exam and so those are the basics of the slit lamp exam looking at the posterior segment of the eye and now we'll switch over and go to the indirect ophthalmoscopy alright so we have completed our slit lamp exam and our posterior segment exam using the 78 and 90 and the 90-dopter lens and now that we've looked at the posterior segment the nerve the blood vessels the macula the mid periphery we're going to try to look out farther into the retina so more out in the periphery of the retinal exam and in order to be able to do this we commonly use some different tools one is called the indirect ophthalmoscope this is the indirect ophthalmoscope and then we use two main lenses a 20-dopter lens and a 28-dopter lens and these lenses are sets that allows for a less magnified but more wide field view of the back of the eye thus being able to see out into the far periphery of the retina and so first of all again key concept in learning this is to take the time to learn it and get comfortable by making sure that the beams the head positioning the width of the your your two eye pieces are in the right location so that that you're comfortable you're going to better be able to to assess and view the patient's posterior segment and out into the periphery of their eye so i'm going to go ahead and spin so the cords on my other side and and then in in doing this you're going to put it on the upper knob will uh shorten the height of this sitting on your head and and you want to make sure the eye paces are level with your eye the back knob will tighten it in general you never have to really touch this one it's usually set right and you just un tighten and un tighten it to get it onto your head so i just turned a counter clockwise which loosens it and then i'll turn it back clockwise to tighten it the two eyepieces are set correctly they're about level with my eye if you can see that and and then there's a knob here on the left that turns the beam on and off okay you want to turn the beam on bring the eye the piece here so it's just touching your nose that generally ends up being about the right location not that it's mushing it but it's just touching your nose that way the the kind of horizontal position is located correctly in relationship to your eyes all right and then as you look through you're going to see a beam of light i'm going to turn that up to its highest because we're kind of lit up here in this room in a dark room it'll be a lot easier to see the beam has different sizes there's a wide beam a medium beam and a small narrow beam so three different sizes in general you're not going to use the narrow one very often if there's a very very small pupil you might use the narrow beam but it gives a very small view into the retina so i basically never use that little teeny beam the medium one i use for a lot of my exams except for when i'm doing a scleral depressed exam when i'm doing a scleral depressed exam i'll use the wide beam here okay sometimes in starting out obviously with more of a beam you get more light into the eye sometimes it makes the focusing in and out the field of view a little bit better you may want to start out using the wide beam and then shift over to the medium beam as you do your exam but again i generally use the medium sized beam for most of my periphery exam except when i'm doing a scleral depressed exam and then i use the wide beam and but you'll just have to to to play with it and decide what what each of you like to do best so first things first as i look at my beam and i'm looking through my oculars the beam is a little bit down towards the bottom of my view i want it right in the center if you put it up here you're not going to be able to tell you got to put the beam a little bit away sometimes i'll shine it on the patient do it or sometimes i'll hold out my hand okay and so i've got it there there's a knob here on the left that moves the beam up and down okay so just move it so it's right in the center of your oculars also i open and close each of my eyes to make sure that the beam itself is located in the center for each eye and it's actually going to be the center a little bit left for the right eye and the center a little bit right for the left eye but this is a critical concept a critical concept depending on the distance between your own two pupils you want to make sure in each eye that you can see the entire beam okay and that way when the two eyes work together it'll give you the widest feel the view or it may cut off part of the view on on one particular side and that'll make it harder to focus in on that area so again make sure the beam i literally every exam i open and close each of my eyes and i make sure that that beam is nice and centered for each eye it'll be shifted a little bit nasal for each and then as you open up both eyes it should be right in the middle i think that's a critical step i literally do it thousands of exam thousands of time doing that i make sure that that's centered right because i know that'll help me to get my best possible view of the periphery of the patient's retina okay so that's basically the the nuts and bolts of getting the the indirect ophthalmoscope ready so next i'm going to go to my patient who's been patiently waiting for us so again key concept start do the exam the same way every single time all right i start with the right eye i go to the left eye what i'm going to do and what i do is i first of all i and there's different ways this can be done but what i do is i start superior and i go lateral every single time so i go temporal and i do that with both eyes so on the right eye i'm going counterclockwise and the left eye i go clockwise and by doing the same exam every single time when i note changes there's a change at nine o'clock or there's a change at two o'clock or four o'clock by doing the exact same rotation every single time hundreds of times over i then don't have to think twice about where i saw a particular change so when i write it down on my exam or i type it into my emr or i put it on to my drawing because i do my exam the same every time it helps me to remember where i saw the changes i personally think that's a critical step in doing the ophthalmic posterior segment far peripheral exam do the same thing every single time because let me tell you when you have to start drawing stuff in and writing stuff down and if you see multiple changes in the eyes it can become very complicated and you don't have to get up and do the exam over and over again so the patient will stay nice and relaxed it'll be like they're at the barber shop or the beauty salon because you're going to position their head around a little bit and so i'll start with the right eye i'll tilt their chin just a little bit to the left all right key concept in holding this it's like the 78 or the 90-dopter lens you're going to use your thumb and your pointer finger to hold the lens you use your pinky and your ring finger okay to rest on the patient's chin or their cheekbone and then the key in getting the retina in view is you're going to put the lens in front of their eye you'll be able to actually see in pretty good clarity their cornea and iris and you'll see an orange red reflex when you see that also notice how my head is positioned okay depending on where your head is and you'll learn to adjust this back and forth in relationship to the lens there'll be a distance that will be perfect for you depending on your size your arm length curvature of your hand there'll be a certain distance between those two that is that is perfect for you of where every single time you'll get that retina in focus so i'm used to it i know kind of where mine is and so again you'll focus in you'll see the cornea the iris and clarity you'll see an orange reflex orange red reflex when you see that with your thumb and your pointer finger you're going to pull that lens out towards your eye here sometimes you have to move in a little bit sometimes you don't in general it's a good habit to learn to where to keep your head distance the same and just learn to move this lens in and out once you have the 20 or the 28 doctor lens in the position where the view fills up the whole inside of the lens so you'll see the whole retina inside of the lens not part of it or not over here but filling up the whole lens that's the right location and then you learn to look at all parts of the retina with the view itself being filled with the retinal exam so first thing i do again pinky on the cheek i already know where my head position is i look at the cornea the iris i see my orange reflex of the posterior segment i pull backwards until the retina is in view then i tell the patient to look up same thing i'm moving the lens forward and back my head generally stays still because i know where that proper position is i see the orange reflex i pull backwards one of the little subtleties of this you'll learn to be fluid with your fingers because as you pull back because it's a round surface you're going to have to turn it too a little bit that's okay so you'll pull and turn and you'll you'll you'll pick up the subtlety of that so forward i see the orange reflex i pull back with my fingers it's turning clockwise just a little bit i look up at her superior retina and then you look up into the right so this is her right i always start superior and then work temporal so up into the right and then look over to the right all right to see down into the right really well you can come from up here even from the other side of the patient all right look down into the right so in i see the orange reflex i pull back there's a nice view of her retina look straight down down into the left sometimes let me tell you another key thing sometimes there may be a language barrier we have a lot of patients that speak other languages here in the Salt Lake Valley we also have a very large Hispanic population so learning Spanish is a very nice thing and sometimes if there's a little bit of a language barrier if you just gently tap we didn't have to say you're tapping you just tap especially patients that that can't hear also you just tap in the location you want them too lightly they will naturally look there it works very well and if you have a patient you feel like you're just not communicating with it i don't want to hear you just tap before you focus and they'll they'll just naturally look in that location so look down into the left and then over to the left and i'll just kind of tap where i want it too lightly you don't want to pound them obviously look up into the left and then i have them at the very end look right at me now that right at me exam i get a good view of the nerve the blood vessels the macula again and then that's the exam for the right eye as i'm going i will make a note of where i saw change well i saw a little retinal defect or a retinal tear up at 10 o'clock in my head i think retinal tear off at 10 o'clock all as i'm going i've learned i'll kind of repeat that in my head okay saw a tear at 10 and i'm keep going to my zam remember you have a tear at 10 and that way when i get down i'm going to record my findings i'll write them down but there's a lot of things to think about so now i do the left eye so same thing i'll make sure their head is in the right position i'll have them look straight up and then i work temporal up into the left over to the left down into the left straight down at your toes very good then for this you can rotate to the other side of the body it's easier or you can turn their head this way then look down into the right over to the right up into the right very good and so that's the posterior segment exam the other thing that we'll commonly do is to do scleral depression and that's where you use a little scleral depressor you give them a numbing drop and then you do that same peripheral exam with the scleral depressor around the side of the eye that allows you to see out to the aura serata so the posterior segment of the eye is like a fishbowl where you have an opening in the top and just like when you look down on the fishbowl you can see everything that's straight back well you can't see what's up underneath the rim of the fishbowl unless you stuck your head in there and looked up there and so the scleral depressor allows you to press in underneath that lid of the fishbowl so you can see way out to the side of the eye and that's commonly where disease processes occurs out by the aura serata that's the indirect exam


Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. And today for the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia, things are going to get weird and obscure as we look into one of the most surprisingly powerful gag Devil Fruits in the series being the Washu Washu No Mi. The Washu Washu No Mi is a Paramecia type fruit that allows its user to rather specifically wash and hang either people or objects out to dry as if they were clothing, allegedly turning its user into a laundry human. It was consumed in the series by the quiet yet accomplished Vice Admiral Suru and first bought on very, very sneaky display during the Marine for Dark. I say sneaky because this power is really hidden amongst the sea of other crazy abilities that were demonstrated during this time period. And if you were to so much as blink, then you may have missed this power in both the anime and the manga. This fruit is another one of those obvious ones that takes its name directly from the Japanese pronunciation of an English word being wash, aka Washu.  But for the English incarnation of One Piece, both Viz and Funimation opted to keep things nice and simple this time around by simply dubbing it as the wash, wash fruit. So this fruit, while exceptionally strange, is essentially a fusion of two other much more well-known devil fruits in the series. The first of which would be the Awa Awa No Mi wielded by Kalfa, which gave her the ability to clean people or objects to extreme effect. And the second one would be the Hirahiro No Mi possessed by Diamante, which allowed him to imbue both himself and objects with the ability to mimic the properties of fabric. And what the Washu Washu No Mi does is effectively both, which is both better and worse than either individually, depending on what perspective you're looking at it from. So an example of why the Washu Washu No Mi could be seen as a straight up upgrade is because unlike the Hirahiro No Mi, this fruit allows its user to effect other living things. And in this case, if someone is affected by the Washu Washu No Mi, then they are pretty much instantly rendered prone, which is an incredible advantage. On the other hand, the fact that the user can't necessarily use their abilities on themselves can be taken as a disadvantage factor because it prevents them from accessing the mobility of the properties conjured. Although I should say that due to the very limited amount we know about this devil fruit, a lot of what I'm saying here is pure speculation. It is entirely possible and even probable that the user of the Washu Washu No Mi can elect to make themselves a target. It just may not be beneficial to do so due to the secondary effect of the fruit, which is the whole washing and hanging out to dry business. And I say this because from what we know of the Awa Awa No Mi being quote unquote cleaned results in far more of a detriment than an advantage. Unless of course the user can control the level to which they are cleaned, i.e. turn it into something that more closely mimics the Suba Suba No Mi held by our Vida. However, given the nature of this fruit, I would be hesitant to think that that kind of versatility exists within it. That's because it has a very specific effect, implying that the user can't necessarily choose to engage in the cleaning and clothing mimic portion separately, but rather they are both incorporated into the same process. Speaking of that, the moment we also have no idea exactly how this power is implemented, which has great bearing on its effectiveness overall. Once again, taking the Awa Awa No Mi as an example, it may be a case where the user needs to make physical contact with every piece of an area that they wish to clean and hang out, in which case this fruit could be a tricky proposition. I mean, it worked very well for Califer because she was a super fast assassin, and I'm assuming that Suru possesses similar physical prowess, if not greater, but the average person might find themselves implementing this ability on a very slow and ineffective scale. And that may become especially unrealistic depending on the size of your target. For example, take Kaido or even better, a giant. They would require one hell of a thorough washing to achieve the intended outcome of the fruit. Of course, on the flip side, just imagine this fruit in the possession of a giant, which could make the washing process infinitely faster due to the ability to cover significantly more area at once. But there is also the potential that the effect is even greater than that of the Awa Awa No Mi, and that this may be activated instantly with a simple touch. And there is precedent for such fruits within the Paramecia class, and here I'm thinking specifically about Sugars Hobby Hobbing No Mi, which was activated completely after the mere condition of touch was achieved. If that were the case, then the Washer Washer No Mi would be pretty damn ridiculous, but there's currently no way of knowing that. But with all of this said, I haven't even begun to discuss the most maddening aspect of the Washer Washer No Mi, which is the fact that Oda has stated that the user retains a much deeper ability in that should they choose to use its cleaning powers on more villainous or antagonistic beings, then during the process, their hearts also become a little bit cleaner. And you can probably tell this by the delighted looks of Suru's cleaning victims, pictured here and here. And with this in mind, for what it's worth, let's examine how that power is implemented by the hands of Suru, and really, she is in one of probably the best possible positions in the world to be dishing out the secondary aspect. As a prominent figure in the world's most dominant law enforcement agency, Suru would prove to be absurdly effective in reducing the global crime rate, not only managing to easily disable and capture enemies, but also going on to begin their rehabilitation as a direct consequence. More importantly, it is implied that this is only a slight improvement, so it's not like the Washer Washer No Mi can completely change the heart of a corrupted individual, although it may be possible that a compound effect would eventually be able to generate such a result. So for example, you could essentially capture any number of evil pirates and just keep washing them over and over and over again until they are upstanding members of society and may even want to join the Marines themselves to fight for a newfound sense of justice. That would be an incredibly valuable ability, although only insofar as Suru can apply it swiftly and on a mass scale. And of course, without any drawbacks in terms of potential cost to stamina or life force, which is always something to keep in mind because many powerful paramesias tend to come with that caveat. The other thing I do come to question is how this fruit may affect targets whose hearts aren't necessarily villainous to begin with. And a prime example of that would be Luffy, one of the more pure-hearted individuals in the entire series. But with that said, even Luffy has his minor personality traits that could be considered less than noble, such as his refusal to share food. So maybe someone like Luffy would become slightly more generous as a result of a good old-fashioned cleaning from the Washiwashi Noomi. Onwards with Awakening, though, and really if the Washiwashi Noomi were to follow the Paramecia trend, then it would effectively allow the user to turn the world into one giant washing machine, but I'm not so sure that it would. The thing about Awakened Paramecias we've seen thus far is that they were generating types and the Washiwashi Noomi doesn't actually generate anything, it just changes the physical properties of someone or something. As such, I'd imagine that the user can, by default, change their environment into this wash state, although perhaps maybe not because it would be pretty damn difficult to hang the ground just standing on out to dry. Perhaps not impossible, but definitely tricky and likely not recommended. Instead of that, though, it may be a more simple upgrade to whatever the base properties of the fruit are, which is hard to speculate on, but we're going to do it anyway. So for example, if the user needed to touch every piece of an area to affect it, then that could be upgraded to just touching the general area. And if it were that, then maybe the user could even begin washing and hang things out to dry without touching them at all. That or we could go into more depth with the whole cleansing of hearts things, and instead of a mild wash, we could amp things up to some sort of deluxe wash, capable of completely reshaping a person by giving them a simple timeout on a clothesline. Some other miscellaneous things to consider when becoming a laundry human. Something else we haven't quite explored yet is the idea of exactly how long a villain remains in a state of clothing left hung out to dry. It may be a situation like the Awawa Noomi where they need to stay that way until the soap has been completely washed off or dried, although there is also the potential that this state needs to be deactivated by Sura herself. Likewise, another unknown factor is if the user needs to supply their own clothesline for the power of the fruit to take full effect or if it comes as part of the devil fruit package deal. Although I'd find it kind of hard to believe that it would be the latter because even though this fruit is one of the stranger ones we've seen, generating physical clothesline on top of that just seems inconsistent with the rest of its abilities. So where does this all leave us? Well, look for what is essentially a joke devil fruit. It's pretty absurdly powerful. And if it were to be applied thoroughly within the story, I feel like it would be able to make some real waves in the world. Not that it hasn't already. I mean, Suru has no doubt used it as a big part of where she's managed to position herself here today. But in the end, this is just a little quirky idea from Oda and it's very unlikely to be explored in much depth in the future. But that certainly is not going to stop us from recognizing it as one pretty amazing and unique paramesia. And honestly, if presented with this fruit, I'd probably go for it and attain a super weird, but super fun power. And with that, we are going to commit to the devil fruit encyclopedia. Next time we have another incredibly exciting fruit to examine being our second mythical Zoan of the series, wielded by the mighty fleet Admiral Sengoku, being the Hitohitunomi Model Daibutsu. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if you'd like to see more videos like this but applied to other anime manga series, then please do check out my second channel, New World Review, for all of your wider needs. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time, then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigan retakes place on a daily basis. And finally, please do comment with your thoughts on the Washu Washu Umi. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time. If you could save just one of them, would it be Ace or Whitebeard and why? Hmm, honestly, my initial thought would be Whitebeard. That character just had so much more of a profound effect on me than Ace did. Although I guess it kind of depends because Whitebeard was going to die naturally sooner or later anyway. So saving him may be kind of pointless in the grand scheme of things. I think it definitely would have been worth it though, just so that he could have had the chance to finish off either Blackbeard or Sakazuki because man, that would have been satisfying to see. Could there be a one-piece spin-off? And if so, what do you think it could be about? Yes, 100% yes. And as for what I think it could be about, well, almost literally anything. One of my personal biggest desires for such a thing would be a series that focuses on the Roger Pirates in the same way that one-piece focuses on the Straw Hearts. Because I know that by the time that one-piece is over we will know the bulk of their story, but I really want to experience more of the mundane stuff like the crew interactions in a bit more depth than I think we're ever going to get to. But really, the possibilities are endless. I mean, I'd even eagerly read a series about Gecko Moria as a rookie pirate, climbing his way to notoriety and then ultimately being defeated at the hands of Kaido. You know, back in the days when Moria had that pure lust to become the pirate king and was probably far more interesting than he is in one-piece. Well, you know what? We could forget pirates all together and follow a marine for a change. Maybe a series focusing on Kobe in parallel to Luffy's journey will actually better yet a prequel that features Garth as the main character and takes us through his entire legacy. And there's just so many more options so let me know your prequel desires in the comments. Remember one-piece Super Grand Battle X on the 3DS? No, no, I do not.


Hi guys and welcome back to my channel. So I want to do an update on how my MSN FlexPath program is going with Capella University. I started the FlexPath program as a sponsored student about a little less than a month and a half ago and my life has changed dramatically in this past week. So I wanted to share something exciting. My little baby girl is here. She's here and super precious and she's a FlexPath baby. Honestly, I'm so thankful for the FlexPath format. Going through pregnancy and then delivering it has been one of the least stressful things added into my life. When you hear of going back to school, you always think that sounds stressful because you're adding something else into your life. FlexPath has been the best choice that I could have made as far as schooling goes because it hasn't added any stress to my life. When I went into the hospital to have her, I wasn't worried about trying to change due dates or make up assignments or communicate with professors about like, hey, I'm going to miss this test as I set my due dates for my assignments and so I didn't have to worry about trying to make things up. I officially already finished two classes and I'm starting to work on my third. Now that she's here, it's nice that it can be flexible. I can work on it for a couple hours if I want. I can skip a couple days if I need to and come back to my assignments. Just whatever she needs and whatever I need during this time of being a new mom, adjusting to life and also going to school. It's been really easy to balance school with now being a new mom and eventually I'll be going back to work and all the other things that I do because it's so flexible. It's been an easy adjustment adding it into my schedule, especially with all the changes in my life. This flexible structure can only benefit me going down the road because I know that if something comes up, I can adjust my due dates for my assignments and being a FlexPath student, I know that I do not have to sacrifice anything in my life for school and I can really focus on what's most important in my life right now, which is her and my family and I can do school as time permits. So that's a little update for you guys. If you're interested in FlexPath, I'll leave a link down below. If you have any questions, let me know and I hope you guys enjoyed this little update video and we'll see you in our next video. Don't worry, she likes FlexPath too. She's just a little tired.