Let me just talk real quick about Garrus. He has a lot of tricky stuff you can do, but just on a base level. If you're not an Uber pro, you can still do a chunky amount of damage. So Garrus, just a quick thing about Garrus' gameplay. He's a brawler, but there are times where Garrus wants to keep you away. Or you want to stay away from them so Garrus can set up some of the traps we've been talking about that I'll be showing you in a little bit. So he can lock you down in those ways as well. I think Garrus is going to be good for really a lot of players.   Players who like to play like this. But then also he has a lot of sort of maybe, I guess, upper level moves that some of the higher level players can leverage too. Oh yeah, yeah. I've been playing Garrus for a little bit now, and I'm just starting to test those. Garrus was pretty popular in MK11. Yes. Yeah, and I think in this game he's definitely a thinking man's grappler and brawler. Oh, see, that may be a problem. Could be a problem. So let's actually go ahead and talk about him. I am going to go with, I went with Goro, mainly because I love Goro. And also he does help with my game plan a lot, and we'll go through that in a little bit. And you like a team of bigs. I do. So just real quick, Garrus has a couple, Goro has a couple moves. He has Punch in the Air, right? So you can do that to sort of elongate combos sometimes, things like that. He also has Stomp. You can't have Goro without Stomp. Now listen, Stomp is different. Stomp takes your entire bar. Oh, it does. Yeah, it is full. See? So I know people would be like Stomp, you have to commit to. And then finally he has a thing called the Omelette Toss, which is, I did this. No, that's Punch Walk. Punch Walk again. That's Punch Walk. He has Omelette Toss where he will throw you up in the air. Omelette Toss. Omelette Toss. And he will, so that can be grabbed, like if you're ducking, for instance, that can be, it can be used to. Omelette Toss? Don't do that. So that's what I use. Now I want to go through some of the strings and this will all kind of make sense a little bit how he works. My, probably my favorite string he has is 4-4-4, which is just hits the ground, pops you up. It's a luck. Do you make a little sandcastle there? What do you make a little sand at the end?  So for this, then you can start doing your air stuff. Let's go over the air stuff real quick. He has four unique grabs he can do in the air based off his air combos. So he has this, where he'll give you the old pile driver.  I am. And you can see that. Choke slam. Which sides it depends on. Yes, you can choose what side to switch. And then you can do this with different inputs. Oh, I did it wrong, sorry. And when you say with different inputs, what do you? Different punches in the air. Oh, OK, gotcha. Leads to different things. So one is one-two, one of the other is two-one. Gotcha, gotcha. And then he's got this one, where he'll just go ahead and then on. It's really neat to see the air combat extend to grab. Yeah, yeah, pretty much like. He'll knee you away. Yeah. Air combat, just a huge fan. I just love. I'm so in love with it. He also has this overhead, which is, so it's not safe entirely. But you can throw this out there quite a bit.  He's got back one-two, which is neat, because this is just, this is that range, where you'd like, you don't want to be here, get a little closer, right? And that can be canceled too, so you can do like, things like that. No, you can brought a buddy out. I did. Let's do his throws real quick before I forget, because I know people get mad if we forget the throws, and I understand that. They are very cool. Goro comes in. And Goro kind of got a glow up, too, for anybody that didn't know this, right? From the earlier, like, first use of Goro.  Oh, forget, I don't want to forget this, too, because I know people want to see that he does, indeed, have body splash. And if a character has a body splash, that's instant means Tyler's going to play them. Yes. This is one of the cool moves, too. He's got, I think we've all seen the wall, if he can do. He's got a little belly bump. A little belly bump.  And here's the other thing, you can kind of just throw this out, like, from distance. Let me get a little far away from you. You can kind of, even like, it's not a projectile, but it can be kind of feel like going in a way. Right. And the beginning reminds me of how people block in No Mercy, for instance. It really does. That's important. There it is. Yep. I'm going to go over some specials now. So this is the one that changes his game. Okay. It's called Countdown. And he'll just, he'll put an hourglass out, right? If, and this is what I was talking about, he wants to keep you out. Like, I want to, got it. Now I have three loaded. Once he has three loaded, he can do it again. Behind you, and now you are frozen and the last move you take is the reaction you have, like the frozen thing from the last game. Right. If you meter burn it, you have three already. Now throw a projectile. I wasn't ready yet. Dragon. I got to read harder. Good. So if you do that, you can, if you're hard reading things like that, you can get behind them and whatnot. Sure. So once you have that out, the game changes. Right. They are afraid of moving. Now it's blockable. It is blockable. But they, the game. How are you going to block that? I played with people when they're starting to read it. Okay. All right. I got it. Here's another thing. Go ahead and do some, do some damage thing. Okay. Now we have it set to 1% right now, but when you do that, the other thing you can do is if you meter burn the snap like that, you get, you can read, redo what you've done. Go back to where you were. Rewind time. Rewind time and get your health back. What? Nice. And that uses the same clocks that you would charge for the. Yes. You can charge the clock. And once that clock is fully charged or three times or whatever, then you have multiple moves that branch from that. Yes. Wow. Now this, it, it, it. There's another layer. It gets better. Oh my goodness. I didn't show you one of the different strings on purpose. Oh, okay. So you can do this. This string, as you see, brings out an hourglass. Guess what? That counts. That counts. It does. Oh. That's cool. Let's move on to another move. Right? Sandstorm, right? Now is there different distances for sandstorm or is it track? Yes, there are. Different distances. Gotcha. It also can be a meterless launcher. Oh. Right. So you can be like this and catch them, but I can do that. Meterless launcher. Now where they're, where they're standing in the sandstorm depends on where they, like if they're at the back of it, they'll fly backwards. You got it. In the front of it. That's science. Now, if I meter burn it, see that another clock? It'll time out and then, then explode so you're kind of controlling space. Right. But that also adds to your clock. Interesting. So I, I don't know. And that's gonna force them to either advance or back up. Back up is good for you. Advancing, you know. Right. You can go for your mix ups. So, super cool stuff you can do with that.  So it does, it could change the way the game's played. Yeah. He plays his own game. What I just showed was world stop, just back forward one. You can just stop time and I can do this. Now I can go on, I can go on either side too, where I can pull back and land there. If you meter burn it, it just turns into another time stop. Oh man. He seems pretty nasty. He is nasty. He seems pretty nasty. CFX are amazing looking too. He, definitely. He does have a command grab, which you can throw away or you can throw towards, sorry. Like that. Mm-hmm. Now here's the fun part. Let's say you're in the corner. Let's say you're in. Now I want, I would love Liu Kang to be in the corner. Right. So I can do that, right? Yep, there he goes. Or if I want to do more damage, any time you throw someone away from the corner, you get the one. Oh, cool. Oh, that's nasty. So if I'm throwing my, so you can give up good spacing if you want to cash out that extra damage. Damage or positioning. Like is this gonna end the round? Right. If I do that, throw them out. Yeah, totally. At least I would. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that command grab is really great. It can also like, it will combo too. Like if it's in the air, you can't combo on the ground, but if it's in the air, you can catch people. The range on it is also very interesting. Yeah, so you can do it from close, but also like right about here. That's really, really good. And also just point one. Right. So he's pretty much good up close, mid and far. Far, he has a little more trouble far. Sure. Far, he's gonna be able to set up a stuff. I was gonna say, then you just press advantage. You're putting up clocks if you're far. But who also, you can start getting hit with projectiles during that period. Right. And also like, you will notice the more you play against the Garrus, the snap thing, I've been blocked on it a whole bunch of times. I don't know if you're trying to set that up. But now, obviously then, if they have the mental stack where they are then focused on blocking it or punishing it or doing fireballs, that means that's your opportunity. You've established that, you conditioned them. Now you can advance forward and go over his overhead, his low, his grab. Right. If you're doing something that makes the opponent pause, that's you, then you've won. And is it more dangerous sometimes to hold it for a full round? Exactly, yes. And also they may forget they're looking for the snap and now they do a combo to you and you just rewind out of it. You use it for that. That's a great point. So next thing we got, this is a, oops, there it was again, sir. He's got this burst, right? Denial here. And it's just a, you know, just kind of a pushback. You can kind of go with, right? Nope. But I would say that's not the time you can do it. Mm-hmm. But the cool thing is, it is his metered, it does a- His arm movement. Arm movement, yes, sorry. Oh, okay. So let's say I'm in the corner, then I wanna wake up to it. I can, oh, not me, there we go. Gotcha, get off of me. Yeah. And it's really good if like, I get jumped on on the, like in the, so like. Yeah, it's just your get off me tool. Yes. For sure. So he does have that. I mean, it seems like he has a lot. I will say once you start playing it, it all sort of flows together very, very well. Right. Once you start getting the game plan down, he has this move here, which is really cool. So go full screen for me. I can do this, and now look. I am ethereal. Now, if you hit me, I can take a hit, right? So hold on. And then I will go back where I started. You can do that with projectiles. Oh, really? But now I can do like things like this where I will walk you down. I know I have a hit I can take, or I can walk you down and you're like, what's he doing? What's he doing? And I can still do moves. That's so cool. Now, here's where it gets crazy. This has been pretty crazy already. Like, I don't know what the next level of crazy could be. Yeah, we've never done all these really, but wait, there's more. There is one more thing, which I've actually had Q&A make a video for because I am not good at doing it yet, but it's really cool. So let's, the meter burn version will freeze time and you're able to use your clone and yourself. You'll see. Let's take a look at that video. Woo. That's so cool. It's really giving me some Kenshi vibes. You know, that part is probably will probably be the last thing I put into my repertoire and it'll probably be something simple for myself as just an average player, but I've already started finding things that I can do with it. So that's Garrus. I think he's a ton of fun. I've really enjoyed- Oh, his fatal blow. You're right. What's he gonna say? He didn't do his fatal blow, bud. Let's do that. Oh, right. So it is from about where you start a battle is where, as it's distance, and then it teleports to you and grabs. This is so painful, what are you? He'll be fine. Awesome. So that is- That's Garrus. That's Garrus.


Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Hi, good day. You're with Give the People What They Want. This is the 119th show. Happy to be with you. I'm Vijay from Globetrotter. We've got Zoe and Prashant from People's Dispatch coming to you every week on Friday, bringing you the news of the world. Interesting week this has been given the meeting in Moscow, the personal meeting between China's Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin. Now, two meetings were actually held. The first on Monday started around 4.30 in the afternoon in Moscow time and ended after 9 p.m. It was a very long meeting about four plus hours of conversation between Xi Jinping and Putin, a private meeting. Both of them left pretty happy, it seemed. The next day, there was a much longer meeting with all the other officials involved where they came up and reinforced their great statement that they had made earlier the comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination for the new era. Very long name for the statement. They effectively called this the deepening of that. So that was the second day of the long meeting. It's important to sit back and take stock of what this means. Firstly, it's important that Xi Jinping went personally to meet with Vladimir Putin. They didn't do a Zoom meeting. They didn't send the foreign minister again, previously Wang Yi, who's the highest party member of foreign affairs, had gone to Moscow. This time Xi Jinping went personally. There was no other reason to have gone. There was no St. Petersburg forum to attend. There was no other grand event or declaration. He went to have a long meeting with Mr. Putin. Now, on the second day, there were a laundry list of items released, of course. In all these sorts of meetings, that's precisely what happens. There was a discussion about what is democracy. In that light, they discussed the Chinese concept of the Global Civilization Initiative, which the Chinese have put on the table, trying to understand the different parts of the planet, moving towards their own kinds of democratization. There is no, as they said, superior form of democracy. They talked about Taiwan. The idea of one China was very much on the table. They talked about color revolutions, about the East Turkestan Islamic movement that operates inside Western China. In fact, actually the leadership of that group is in Idlib, Syria. But the group had operations in Western China. They talked about cross-border protection. They talked about the Global Development Initiative. They talked about Nord Stream 2. They talked about AUKUS. They talked about everything. On the second day, it was, as I said, a laundry list. But it's pretty clear that on the previous day, that four and a half hour meeting between Xi Jinping and Putin, what was on the table, and let's be clear about that, was the war in Ukraine. That was what was the principal focus of discussion by all accounts that have come out from that meeting. Now, the Chinese, prior to this meeting and around the time of the Munich Security Initiative, the Chinese had publicly released what they called the 12 principles, towards a peace plan. Very interesting set of principles that give the people what they want to have talked about previously. These are principles that include safer ways to conduct the military operation. For instance, no fighting near nuclear power plants. But they also, of course, include platforms or procedures for a dialback of the violence and indeed of bringing peace to the region. It's an important set of 12 principles. Likely, Mr. Putin and Xi Jinping talked about what would be the possibilities of a peace agreement. That peace agreement placed on the table by the Chinese has been spoken favorably across much of the global south. No doubt that people have looked at this with relief that perhaps if the Chinese can broker some kind of peace agreement, then perhaps some of that cost of living pressure might abate. That's what's on people's mind. United States categorically rejected this agreement. Much of the media in the west has been saying things like, well, it's short on details. Of course, it's short on details. It's a platform or set of principles for the negotiation. It's not doing the negotiation for the Ukrainians and the Russians. That would be to impose a deal on them. It's in fact creating the table or setting the table. When Mr. Xi Jinping left Moscow, it was clear that he left with a big smile on his face. It's anticipated that if the fighting around Bakhmut finally comes to a complete end, if the Russians feel that there is a sufficient ground understanding from their perspective, maybe this will allow space for them to open up a new dialogue with the Ukrainians. Let's see what happens. Hard to tell up to now. It's interesting that at the meeting not much publicly was said about the climate and the environment. They did talk about the Japanese government and it's restarting Fukushima, Daichi, the nuclear power plant. Worry about polluting the waters around Japan. But Prashant, while they were talking in Moscow, it looks like the climate scientists had other fish to fry. The IPCC synthesis report is out and of course there have been a lot of reports in recent times, both by the IPCC by others, climate change far more on our radar these days. But this is an interesting report because it's probably the last of its kind till maybe the end of the decade. So I think the next major report we're going to see on these lines will be by 2030. It is likely that the world will be a very, very different place by then. So this report is kind of significant that way. It summarizes quite a few earlier reports, brings into stock detail some of the conclusions of the earlier report. The report of course is depressingly familiar in the sense that what it talks about the fact that as we have said time and again on the show climate change is already here. It's not some distant ghost or some distant aspect that's going to be around very much here. The impact is already being seen by tens of thousands of people across the world and temperatures have increased from by around 1.1 degrees from 2011 to 20 that is from the pre-18 in the pre-industrial level that is. But I think the key aspect to the report we need to focus on and is basically to look at how the inequality that has always been very central to the issue of climate change. And this report also kind of mentions that basically the fact that the bottom 50% of households contribute just 13 to 15% of greenhouse gas emissions, but as the top 10% contribute 34 to 45% and this kind of automatically shows at a global level the kind of inequality and who's really contributing to climate change. And of course the same thing happens with the global north and the global south as well. There's a legacy of contributing to climate change which countries of the global north have been part of and you know although these facts are very well known I think what each time a report like this comes out what also is apparent is the fact that there has been no real political will from the countries of the global north especially in addressing what these reports say time and again which is the fact that you know there has to be there has to be a moment of reckoning at some point of time. Where concrete steps are taken to sort of deal with the issue that is very much there. Whereas the solutions as this report chronicles seem to be largely you know there's a lot of rhetoric with little money that's put on the table that's one of the main questions that was there 100 billion a year was supposed to be provided by the rich countries it never came. Now there's talk of a loss and mitigation fund but the details are not there by the time the fund is operational again you're going to see more of these irreversible impacts sort of you know people actually facing this kind of impact. So all this together are quite a depressing report that way and I think the other key aspect is the fact that fossil fuel industries continue to benefit there's a lot of money still going into fossil fuel exploration with the Ukraine world many of the global north countries now going back into that mode. So there's a new cop coming this year maybe every year from now but I think again time and again we are going to end up in this situation where there is clearly no roadmap that is given and point is that the left has given you know across the world the left has given clear road maps we need to reduce inequality the global the rich across the globe especially the global north need to sort of start looking at their consumption patterns we need to look at the why billionaires exist to such an extent we need to address the issue of global debt without which any kind of mitigation activity or any kind of adaptation activity for climate change is not going to work sustainably the financing that is being provided for climate change should not be in the form of more loans we need to move out of that mentality as well it should not be in the form of insurance and stuff like that there has to be far quicker mechanisms all these I think the global left of course but even a number of countries who are being affected have raised its time and again but there is no there has been no global move towards it so I think this report yet another moment to sort of take stock of some of these issues. I mean if it took stock of these issues properly then the global media report them adequately seems that there is not enough serious focus on this Zoe you are in Argentina for instance let's talk about not enough serious focus. Argentina's inflation has gone up to 100% over the last couple of days they reported 100% inflation in Argentina the government is forcing public sector companies to sell dollar denominated bonds back into the private sector to guarantee you this is going to really send so called international capital markets to quote a former Argentinian finance minister Martin Guzman it's going to send them it's going to spook them let's see what happens you're in Argentina lots of anniversaries up what's going on with that attempted coup and the political chaos in the country. Well perhaps you'll be able to hear at some point the marching that's happening today is the anniversary of the coup d'etat against the democratically elected government in 1976 which essentially inaugurated the last civic and military dictatorship in Argentina it's one of the most well known dictatorships wherein over 30,000 people were detained and disappeared there was a brutal brutal persecution of the left during this during the six-year period that it was now has left really a mark on the continent the dictatorship in Argentina is something that people from across Latin America and even the world really remember as such a horrible, horrible stain on the history of democracy in the region and of course it happened at the same time as many other coups across the region and that being said this year is celebrating 40 years since the return and the establishment of democracy in the country and this of course means when the dictatorship ended and free and fair elections were held and people's democratic rights were restored so this year is a pretty monumentous anniversary as you said it's happening amid a very, very, very difficult time for Argentina frente de todos which is the progressive coalition won the elections in 2019 but they inherited a country that had been destroyed by neoliberalism a country that had a sorted history with the IMF and had decided to take out yet another loan under Mauricio Macri and left movements have harshly criticized the way in which this loan was handled have alleged that there was illegal dealings with this loan that a lot of the money was actually taken out of the country not even used to invest in social programs and in this context as you said there's 100% inflation there's been constant turnover within the government new finance ministers every other month it seemed and now of course one of the major political issues is also about the law fair campaign against Cristina Fernandez de Kitchener so while this celebration of 40 years of democracy is happening we're also seeing that in other ways institutions like the IMF like the judiciary like the private controlled corporate controlled media in the country are really eroding at this democracy because while people have the right to vote they don't have the right to say for example control inflation or say whether or not the country should be using its own resources to pay back what many alleges an illegal debt with the IMF don't have the right to say for example that the judiciary should not persecute Cristina Fernandez who's one of the most popular leaders in the country she's being investigated on a slew of different corruption related charges she herself and her team have revealed kind of the networks behind these charges the collusion between the judges and the prosecutors who have links to former president Macri these are charges that are based baseless and are of clear political motivation she's continued to condemn the case against her they've also tried to take her out of the running for the upcoming elections she said this week in a speech that she would attempt to be running she gave hints of this that she would try to defy this political ban so it's a really interesting moment we see the celebrating of the return of democracy but in very very very challenging circumstances it's going to be a tough go for Argentina largely because of the economic challenges that the country is going to face who knows what's going to happen when the next coupon is due at the international bond market particularly if they're going to be selling dollar denominated bonds let's see what's going to happen you're listening to give the people what they want coming to you from people's dispatch that's Zoe Prashant I'm Vijay from looking at all things around the world trying to sniff our way to the real stories here's another one World Water Day yes held annually true interesting speeches always something interesting from the government of Bolivia when it comes to the climate or the environment once again here interesting speech by President Arsé but Prashant what have you been following regarding World Water Day right for us the World Water Day courtesy an excellent article by Dr. Nafiz Faisi as well as some of our work really has been on the issue of cholera and it's something we've been tracking for a while and it's kind of shocking actually because the headline of that article is quite interesting because it talks about no cool helicopters to save those at risk for cholera and the reason for that headline is because of how the world addresses the question of cholera whenever there's a natural disaster of course there's a lot of immediate aid that comes in rescue helicopters for instance but the fact is that the number of people who are dying of cholera is so under the radar that there are no massive rescue attempts and it's appalling the fact that in the year 2023 we are actually in a situation where there's been a resurgence of cholera which is actually very easily preventable disease which all it requires is a proper sanitation system a good delivery of drinking water for instance but as in 2021 we saw that 23 countries had reported cholera outbreaks which is simply high compared to the 90s and in 2023 that number is at 29 so something as basic as cholera which we were dealing with 100 years ago 200 years ago we have the technology we have the resources to deal with it we are still struggling with it because the mortality rate is at 1.9% which is way about what is acceptable according to experts which is that even 1% is considered acceptable it's okay so to speak but even that's bad of course but 1.9% is where we are at and it's no surprise where these cholera outbreaks are taking place taking place in Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan parts of Pakistan Kenya, Haiti Malawi for instance the DRC all of these countries which are facing conflicts which have been targets of intervention by imperialist powers for instance each of these countries their health systems completely destroyed by conflict and health not just health but basic infrastructure completely destroyed by conflict very good example I think is recently Pakistan where there was a lot of talk during after the floods about international relief and stuff like that I think the numbers currently say that tens of thousands of children facing malnutrition 10 million people lacking access to safe drinking water at this point of time and I think this really sort of throws a very important question we also some months ago had a very excellent article about the cholera outbreak in Malawi which again not heard about too much but what that shows is really the fact that it's not just about controlling a disease it's not just about fighting the fact that in order to prevent diseases like cholera you need to build up a health system you need to recruit people you need to go back to the same policies of austerity which involve firing a large number of health workers and it is the destruction of health systems in country after country even not through conflict even in countries where there is no conflict just economic policies have destroyed health systems to the extent that cholera has now risen again so to speak the case in Malawi is especially interesting because it chronicles how over the decades in this African country there has been such a wrecking of the health system which has actually led to this disease coming up so I mean I think it's pretty these seem very basic and this is what we talk about climate change as well the steps to address these issues at some level at one level seem very basic they're very much there but the fact that millions are being spent we talk about Sipri reports all the time that billions are being spent on arms when the questions of hunger when the questions of portable water are not addressed really I think and it is essential that we talk more about these topics because often in the flow of news these are the things that actually get missed out the fact that we have a mortality rate of nearly 2% due to cholera globally across the world today you know this question of what is news is so important when the news broke that there was going to be a new memoir from Britney Spears publishing houses around the world found it difficult to access paper because a lot of the paper was bought up by the major publishers that anticipated large sales for that book now I have nothing wrong with there's nothing wrong with her story she has an important story to tell but it tells you how imbalanced everything is who's watching Peru right now who watched it during the coup zoe was there on the ground for people's dispatch covered that coup in fact perhaps led the news reporting on that coup but who's looking at the coup now who's looking at the situation now you better give us an update well it continues to be a very pressing story and that's why people's dispatch we haven't stopped reporting it and really I think today it's the people on the ground in Peru who continue to share what's happening who continue to we're on the streets participating in these protests they are the ones who are actually communicating these stories and it's so important that they continue to do so so the world actually knows what happens is happening there and we're coming up on the four month anniversary of this coup against Pedro Castillo and sadly the violence continues against protesters people have not given up I think that the government of Dina Bolvarte calculated that maybe if you continue to kill people if you continue to repress in such horrific ways firing lead pellets at people you know firing tear gas into people's homes maybe you'll dissuade people from going on to the streets but I think what Peru has showed us and what so many struggles across the world what happens in so many struggles is that actually people these leaders don't understand that people are motivated by so much more and it's such a deeper aspiration to really change the system and they're motivated by decades of exclusion of discrimination and that's exactly what's at play in Peru that's you know the glass has just tumbled over and so essentially this week there have been fresh protests because a protester who was hit with 36 lead pellets during a protest in January at close range by police passed away a 22 year old a young man from the city of Cusco in the south of Peru and once again it has really enraged the people to see that you know the list of people who have been killed by this regime is at least 67 who have been killed by police in military in the context of these protests they continue to be under attack and really the government has shown no signs of listening to the demands of the people and the demands have been extremely clear from day one that Pedro Castillo be released many are calling for his restitution as president Adina Valuarte resign that there be a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution in the country that the congress be closed this is a congress that has over 90% disapproval rating it's one of the lowest or the highest rates of not approving of a elected body and that many of the regional grievances the decades of exclusion of the communities in the south the communities outside of Lima be addressed and the government has essentially stood firm and it has well Dina Valuarte was from the party and you know was the vice president with Pedro Castillo she's done a complete shift a 180 one could say in her politics complete alignment with the ruling class in Peru the media apparatus which we spoke about a lot when I was on the ground there which is one of the probably one of the most intense sensationalist press that has no qualms about calling freely calling protest terrorists with no backing calling them criminals this press has completely fallen in line with Dina Valuarte the far right the center all lining up behind her and supporting the fact that she stay in power despite the massive massive protests that continue to be carried out across the country so it's unlikely that these protests are going to stop people continue to be enraged and now the demands for justice have only grown the fact that four months have passed that they are able to continue killing with impunity that the government continues to say that these protesters died because they were committing criminal acts this continues to be fuel for the fire and I don't think that the people are going to stop until there's a clear solution a political solution a clear political solution in Peru of course Zoe you know you are sitting in Argentina you just need to look north and you'll see the fires that are happening in France a country with a great political crisis ongoing people are on the streets just as they are in Argentina and other countries motivated to some extent by the cost of living crisis but not only they are motivated also by the lack of faith in their governments something interesting that happens in many of the Andean countries it looks like don't trust your vice president remember what happened to to Mr. Correa whose successor Lenin Moreno went far to the right and again now we see this repeated in Peru this is an Andean phenomena we need to come up with some kind of index to make sense of this well old Anthony Blinken fluent in French made his way to two African countries part of this US you know pressure campaign on Africa following Janet Yellen's previous move the US had sent ambassadors and others well Mr. Blinken had a curtailed trip he went to two countries he went last week to Ethiopia tough tough sell in Ethiopia given the fact that the United States had taken a strong position against the Ethiopian governments war in the north with the Tigrayan group there that was a tough meeting much more welcoming meeting in Nihame Niger where he spent some time I've just finished peace for Globetrotter which will be running and it's called the long arm of Washington extends into Africa Sahel it's a very long arm because it's a distance from Washington to the Sahel you know thousands of kilometers it's not a neighboring country but there it is the United States has this habit of extending its arm across the world well it might come to a surprise to some people and I've been reporting this for the last several years that the US is one of the world's largest drone bases in Agates Niger also the French have a very large encampment around the uranium city of our elite now it's interesting Niger has one of the largest yellow cake uranium reserves in the world and yet it stands at 189 out of 191 countries in the human development index you know it tells you a little bit about how the neocolonial structures continue to reproduce themselves well fortunately for the Nigerian government fortunately for them they currently are still a quote-unquote democratic government in other words the prime minister has come to power you know with sorry the president has come to power through corruption and Mahmood Bazum although he's facing a lot of criticism about corruption and so on can still claim that he came to power through the ballot box well this is what the United States tried to make a lot of saying that look across the border in Burkina Faso and in Mali the governments are military dictatorships happens to be the case that those military governments are extremely popular in their countries they of course inherit the kind of Thomas US tradition of militaries in those countries nonetheless United States tried to pledge money into Niger 150 million dollars of humanitarian aid which is half the amount UNICEF has asked for the Sahel region's children's defense you know in defense of children 450 million was the UNICEF request so the US you know give to Niger for humanitarian aid is heard of what the UNICEF is asking for it's extraordinary low amount meanwhile the US is pressured Niger into a Millennium Challenge Corporation grant including with neighboring Benin now interestingly this money has come into agriculture and the sources that I talked to for this story told me quite directly that the US government is using Millennium Challenge Corporation money which is the US government attempt to contest the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative this MCC money is being used to upgrade agriculture and privatize it and deliver the work of small farmers to US based multinational agro businesses very interesting development you'll find that in the story that I have from Globetrotter the long arm of Washington extends into Africa Sahel to give the people what they want this is our 119th episode don't forget those selfies we're still looking forward to seeing pictures of you watching our show you can listen to us as a podcast where Zoe and Prashant from People's Dispatch and Vijay from Globetrotter really happy to be with you see you next week


Hi everyone, Joe for Jasper's case breaks calm coming at you with 2020 panini mosaic football 20 box blaster case Pick your team number 33 with the bangles randomize the group if you follow the instructions right there And let's see who did All right, so Aaron bought at least two teams That's an entry to try to get the bangles basically have to buy an even number of teams Andrew with two Jason with two John with two Karen with two that's an entry la with two Martin bought ten teams. That's five Michael only got the Steelers Matt got two. That's an entry Ryan with two. That's an entry Sean with two that's an entry and Bulldog fan with two. That's an entry right there. All right, let's roll it Let's randomize it four and a six ten times Name on top gets the bangles one two three and 10th and final time after ten It's Mack Mike McCarthy. There you go. Congrats to you. You've got the bangles in this one Familiar what's going on yen's a little guitar tonight? Maybe maybe on the Instagram stream. Maybe I'll serenade Teddy Jaspie All right now I can Print and rip this buzzer breaks Hmm So you can use it and I'm giving my my competition technology advice Not sure do I want to do that? What do you think guys? Should I be nice? It's a 1980s style Polaroid camera. That's what we're using Slide this over right here. Here is all the The final print out right there. Thanks everyone once again for getting in we're using a Sony AX 6000 I think is what it is a a 6,000 a X 6,000. I think it's just maybe it's just an a I'll mix up there and random not org not being icy tonight There is one there's two left in that filler Jor-El saying maybe At this point eff it maybe just grab those last two in the other filler and see what happens yeah, it's It's a it's a One of those old film cameras Like the camera like Zapruder was using on the grassy knoll Two left in the filler the one with two left on the website that here That that one so I guess I guess Vegas did know what they were doing they They knew that Gonzaga could cover the 33 and a half points or the 33 points The UCLA is on channel 2 channel 2 out here UCLA up 63 52 on BYU there you go Bruins carrying over that that overtime momentum CBS is channel 2 for us in Los Angeles. What where where is it for you and where are you located? Of course it is you're in line. You're in the area Talking about people outside of this in this region here Did they really Lonnie they put the bracket on the score? Oregon one VCU zero Everyone took the undrawn that right nice. Thanks Joshua. That's gonna go tomorrow. All right. Nice. Thanks for selling that out folks So that's that's our evening. We're doing this mosaic. What should take us about? 30 40 minutes. I was just just getting started on here. So Probably another 30 or 40 minutes from now and then we'll go into the mini helmets Which is a quick fun break and then impeccable. What's also a fun little break right here? Who was giving UCLA a zero percent chance of winning Logan the pundits the talking heads? I think that if you looked at like the gamecast win percentage or whatever I think they actually had a decent shot Alvin Cook remember greens are not number, but they will ship only veteran commons like this Darren Waller won't ship Pro Bowl inserts will ship And obviously Mahomes with the will to win will ship nice AJ Dylan green rookie green Silver Mariota that'll ship What's gonna happen Mariota? It's gonna happen. Sam DeYens was asking Was asking Where Sam Darnell is gonna go? Now that the Sean Watson's in all sorts of legal trouble now nice green Joe Burrow Bangles Mike McCarthy Now that Russell Wilson doesn't seem like he's going anywhere now he was but he wasn't I still could I guess You know, but that window seems to be closing a little bit Super Bowl champion Kishan Vaughn mosaic pattern buccaneers Andrew. I don't know Dak Prescott's already paid he set So now I don't know what's gonna happen There's Dak Prescott right on cue There's Chase Young green For the Washington football team Ryan I guess Washington still needs a quarterback, right? I think the Saints are sticking with with Winston and Taysum Hill Logan I mean, I think they've always liked those guys from the get-go Think that was the plan.  They don't want to give away too much. But I mean All indications seem to think that they're not dancing around it. They're saying those are the guys and that's that's that Tyler Johnson Tom Brady Super Bowl champ Tyler Johnson Super Bowl champ rookie green going to the buccaneers Andrew No, mix up. I don't mind watching fights, but Yeah, I got UCLA college basketball going on right here. So Watching watching my Bruins There's Chase Claypool NFL debut green nice parallel here from Michael Goluchy steel curtain back in the action and Looks like Juju Smith Schuster back in the action with Pittsburgh. I think he even took a pay cut Maybe not a pay cut, but I think he turned down bigger offers to stay with Pittsburgh and Give it another go All right, another another five If I just ended with a schoolyard headlock Now Logan Logan hates BYU Looks like if you're looking for we're booked for the night on this side, but if you're looking for personal breaks Go Teddy just came back from dinner. He's online at Jasper's breaks on Instagram live You can go to Jasper's comm for personal boxes right, that's the big if for That's the big if for Winston. I Mean he he did he still threw last time he was a starter. He did threw throw throw for 30 touchdown that's a lot Maybe part of that was because he was throwing so many interceptions. He had to catch up, you know But he also had 30 interceptions if he just turns that into If he can cut that in half on 15 interceptions isn't is not still not good, but Even if you drop 15 interceptions, how many how many interceptions of his were like We're directly game losers You know So if if he can just cut that down a little bit that could be huge in that offense Right the infamous not not a good baseball 30 for 30, but the infamous 30 for 30 He's also got to stop doing it. I don't think he's done it since but no more eating W's James Winston. That's just out It's kind of weird No, I don't think Instagram connects to at least not not yet. I know Maybe their messenger is connected together now Instagram and Facebook, but as of now No, the Instagram does not does not broadcast on Facebook. Oh Washington science is Patrick. That's right as a starter. So maybe they're there. Maybe they're drafting quarterback I think you said I might win this one They're up 68 57 with a minute 40 left They just I was just gonna say if they just make free throws down the stretch, which this kid just missed They're gonna be hard to All right, let's roll here. So Adam Coffman if you're still listening. So what's gonna happen with Sam Darnold? Or are they still gonna? now With the Watson situation, I feel like Like no one's really eager to to trade him and I don't know if Houston was eager to trade him in the first place I think they were they were they were down to have a face-off It's a different kind of waiting game now There's Jalen Hurts NFL debut green for Martin and the Philly not Philly's Eagles Philadelphia Eagles There's a base show burrow right here Gut feeling is that Adam saying he needs a Jets guy is that Darnold will still get traded somewhere and the Jets will end up drafting a QB Yeah, I agree. I'm yeah, I think we've shared that opinion. I'm still I'm still on that opinion, too Think just give Darnold one more year Right, I think he has like a year or two left on his deal. Why not just improve other parts of the team? Give him a defense give him some more weapons and You know and See what happens for for the next year. Maybe they'll be surprised I don't know what what did the Hawkinson look like did it if it looked like well, that's not that's a rookie If it looked just like a basic bet common no that that will not ship that'll be considered a veteran common Obviously, if it's a rookie it'll ship if it's silver silver Dak Prescott will ship Otherwise inserts will ship if it said something like that That would ship, you know if it's green like that that'll ship NFL debut green Justin Jefferson Right exactly.  Right, so you may as well just keep them You know Add add what you can in free agency and in the draft this year worse comes to worse, right?  That's the truth of it Front offices will look the other way on just on stuff like that Do you wise who cares if you're Miguel Cabrera and you can you can hit win triple crowns? You know doesn't matter Domestic violence we've seen a lot of teams that just It's not a big deal to them Bill Bates autograph for Dallas It's bulldog fan with Alan. There you go Well Dallas safety Autographs are few and far between in this sort of stuff Yeah, even Vic came back Well, Ray Rice wasn't good. I didn't come back Ray Lewis still came back, you know, so But Ray Lewis was good Hall of Fame good That keeps you in the lead Well, you know, yeah, I mean Ray Lewis was in what I want to say Rex's Rex's scenario was even if Watson was not guilty Which Ray Lewis was not guilty. I don't think I don't think cancel culture is as strong when you're a Top athlete if you're not a top athlete just like everybody else You know, well people was only was only canceled by the fuddy-duddies over at the Hall of Fame and the MLB front office I Think I think a lot of fans at this point I think like you and I probably think that that he should be in the Hall of Fame Yeah, I mean listen, you know You and I tweet out something terrible You know, we probably lose our jobs. I agree Lonnie. I think they're gonna settle anyway I think it's just gonna be too much. I mean deep does the Sean Watson and it's that's the tough part about being a public figure, right? Whether he's guilty or not. I mean smoke and fire. I think something's happening. You know what I mean? You know, but if you're to Sean Watson, you don't want this dragging out it in Public a long drawn out court case blah blah blah Just just tear the band-aid off settle Don't go through this through a civil suit and all that NFL definitely doesn't want that to happen. Good else. Just like make this go away now Is what I am take the suspension whatever personal conduct suspension that he's gonna get from Goodell's office take that and Don't and less than learn don't hear yourself in that position again I think he says gonna win this folks 72 to 60 15.7 seconds left.  Yeah, it helps my bracket too. I had a little financial interest in the little financial interest in UCLA as well a little coffee money now I have more coffees 4.4 seconds left. Just run it out. Nice job Bruins. Good job There's gonna be happy times on Bruin talk on the draw on my drive home tonight Old Bruin talk That's a thing. I don't want to put under place very but that's what angers me it weirds me out that well because then You're most likely have to testify And I think just put yourself in their shoes I think it'd be kind of traumatic to relive this in public in front of court cameras and In court reports in front of an audience in front of press Getting asked questions all that's now out in the public. You know You got people who are probably think they're You probably think a lot of people probably would think they're like lying You know, so you got you got people yelling at them on social media and in the streets and whatnot So I think that I think that's why a lot of times you see You see cases like that get settled because you don't want to get all this dragged through a public court Who knows how long this trial goes if it goes to trial so a lot a lot of times this gets settled If it's with people who have who are rich and who are rich, right? They're pressured to settle because they're almost given Because usually in the settlement case think about it. It's it's it's a power There's some someone has power over you. It's not like two equals in a sexual harassment case or something like that That's that's a little different.  You know, there's ever some Griffin or something like that But with us in the settlement situation, you're talking we're most likely talking about a big public figure and that get that gets tricky When when you're when that public figure probably has a lot more fans than John Q public You know, so it's an uphill battle. So it's got to be Invasion of your own privacy or private life is all the way out in the open. I don't know if I would want to do it If I wasn't the same shoes Put all that out there Yeah, then that that that's the trick that yeah, that's the that's the tricky thing Is that these cases are notoriously hard to Are hard to like handle it whether criminally that the Sean Watson's a civil suit He's not been charged with anything by by the police or anything like that. So this is just a civil suit Which is a little different. There's Lynn Bowden Jr. Still raiders edition here So it's a tricky situation all around. It's it's not this. This is not fun for anybody You know whenever these situations happen these cases are so notorious like you can't really That's why I like I think it's hilarious when people try to put like blanket statements on like so every situation is different Like every situation is different. There's no right or wrong way to To go about any of them silver Viking NFL debut edition though goes to Martin and the Vikings and what do you got? You had a dollar parlay on Maryland, Ohio UCLA and USC minus six and a half and the under for Iona you got the 80 bucks The under on the Iona Alabama game also Oregon five minus five and a half So luckily the money with the one score doesn't count and that was taken out What would it be if you had the Oregon minus five and a half? Exactly Robert situations are situational Absolutely, maybe hundred bucks if you if you had Oregon and they covered well, yeah now I would imagine I don't think the Texans were eager to trade them anyway In the first place, so I don't know what happens with that to be honest with you. Does that mean? They're more you to trade him They probably are now let's just get rid of him He's a PR nightmare at the very least You know or a predator at the worst, you know, like you know what I mean So they're kind of in a weird position, but now do clubs even want to take that Baggage from the Sean Watson. So who knows how this plays out, but Let's chase Claypool rookie. I would be 150 if that organ was still in there Bad though. I'll take that How many times have you won $80 on a dollar scratcher very rare You know, but the $80 on a on a fun little sports parlay For a dollar, I'll take that You know, you're gonna be watching these games anyway So you may may as well try to make a little little money off of it I don't know if Brandon Richards is checked in today, but Brandon Richards has these crazy like $15 $20 Multi-team Multi under parlays, maybe 10 legs or something like that To win like hundreds of thousands of dollars. I want that to happen for him someday. Yeah Right Louis C. K. He's he hasn't been I think he's gonna still work. So yeah Sean Watson things things going worse for him All right, so now we got Abilene Christian Which I think is a school in Texas, right and Texas and Abilene Christian is up by three points with 738 left in this game. What's going on? Where is Abilene Christian? Abilene Abilene in Abilene, Texas. Yes, okay Where is Abilene Texas I need a map and see I just want to geographically know where these places are Home to the Grace Museum Looks like they're about It's like they're about what a few hours away a few hours east of Fort Worth Atomies at Texas win here. What other parley do you have? You did a same parlay plus Chain Larry winning the golf tournament tournament and Danny Hamlin win the NASCAR Yeah, how far is Larry away 25 cents for 1,400. You know what I have not experimented with those multi sport props too often I Think I am on Hamlin though just written down somewhere. Why are they switching out basketball? Yeah, I think I got a little bit on Hamlin a little bit on Kasselowski a little less on Kyle Busch Tiny bit on Christopher Bell scratcher money on Alex Bowman Bubba Wallace Ricky Stanhouse Debondetto and Eric Jones at 101. Yeah, but if 25 cents can get you 1,400 bucks. He just You can do that. You can do that once a week the entire golf and NASCAR season for years Before it becomes a bad bit, right and it just has to hit once I heard a story. I listened to a number of Gambling podcasts and I think this was the behind-the-bets podcast with duck, kazirian Which is a very kind of broad high-level sort of podcast, but it's entertaining I think Who do they have there? I think they have John Murray I think from Westgate Sportsbook director at Westgate This was years ago, but he's but I heard a really funny story, which I would I want to try someday He was saying that there was a regular better NFL better at at Westgate and And this guy would you know Would do a either a money line parlay. I think it was a money line parlay Maybe it was against the spread. I don't know but he would pretty much pick You would pretty much pick all Every single game as one big parlay you know a Week Right, and you bet like a thousand dollars on that to win like I Don't know a hundred K or something like that And he said this guy was good enough where where he would just he would just do it once a week You know, so he's doing it once so he'd win at least once in a season So the sixteen hundred dollars or seventeen hundred dollars seventeen thousand dollars that he's spending You know would be covered right away by like whatever hundred thousand hundred plus thousand dollars No, not tonight Ryan we unfortunately we are booked up for tonight. I'm afraid Yeah, I think I've made it may have made helped you make that decision for you Yeah, I think true ex in Atlanta. I think has traditionally been You've been pretty good there Larsen too But uh Yeah, it's pretty crazy right now If I if I retire and I if I retire to Vegas or something like that I feel like that's something I do I feel like not a thousand dollars Maybe but maybe a hundred dollars on every single game. It's got to win once and I'll be like boom but mix up you got to think about the Think about who can run well on on on on rough tires is allegedly just parodying what I've been reading I don't actually know this but I think I think this is the ooh nice silver burrow Mack who got randomized the bangles Think from what I'm reading Atlanta kind of eats up your tires And you got to be a driver that knows how to drive on bad tires which obviously Hamlin and Christopher Bell are really really good at that Who's good tire strategy It is so important Especially in Atlanta. I think that I you know, I think Lars Larsen and And true ex junior are favorites for the for a reason. I think I think they are the favorites and Harvick to I think it's Harvick true ex and Larsen like are like the favorites at like plus 400 I think Harvick's a plus 400 Larsen might be plus 600 maybe true ex might be plus 500 like five to one around there Harvick four and a half to one. Oh and a Keenan Allen Genesis. Nice. These are pretty rare We've done 33 of these 20 box blaster cases Genesis is not guaranteed in any of these cases We may have pulled 10 Genesis is out of all the those cases that we've done Maybe half Yeah, Harvick will win right? He's a beast in Atlanta Yeah, but it's hard to bet on Harvick because so much variance in auto racing is like Yeah, sure take Harvick at four to four and a half four to one right at Plus 400, but then you're like well, then you got to lay a lot of money You know, and I don't want to invest that much in NASCAR So that's why I try to look for at least like you got a hope for Seven to ten to one around there Sometimes you you'll luck out and get the 25 to one. I remember was it one of the Dylan one of the Dylan's one Daytona Few years ago. I remember that It was like a big wreck I think with like 40 or 30 laps left 20 laps left or something like that knocked out a bunch of the field and I won an Austin Dylan bet at 50 to one or something like that plus 5,000 I know Daytona is a different beast, but but there's enough variance where you're like Austin Dylan, right? There's enough variance There's enough variance that it'll be it's I want to take the longer shots a little more fun anyway I don't know that I haven't gosh. I haven't watched a dirt track Since I I played it on ps4. No, um, you know What are the what are the big uh, what are the cars that have the really big wings on them? And then they're on those short dirt tracks and they're like sliding sideways the entire time, but they got the huge wings It's the one Tony's Tony Stewart killed that kid One of those cars, what are they called? It was like a name for it. I think Jeff earn Jeff earn hard I think Jeff earn her daughter. I think they learn hearts niece. I think she's on that circuit right now But yeah, like 410 sprints. Yeah, I think John. I think John Wenzels got it. Yeah And those are really fun to watch Yeah, like the sprint cars like I had to say That's really fun to watch. I think there's a small dirt track south of us here that where they do some some some racing There which I have not been to but I want to but you know like Fox Sports West or some random channel like late at night will Will have that late at night and and you watch a dirt racing and it's wild So to see it on to see it done up with like a NASCAR production I think it'll be amazing. Is this the first time they've they've done it Jonathan Taylor Green like on in NASCAR They must have had it around decades ago No, there's a CJ Henderson to 25 for the Jaguars Ryan Hynes with that one But yeah, the trucks are gonna be crazy to see I mean Bristol's tiny enough Now you got now you got people sliding around all over the place That's gonna be wild boys and girls. We'll talk about that more a little next week Maybe we should dig up some some racing Some NT racing remember NT racing. All right Thanks everybody For watching that was 20 box blaster break picker team 33 2020 panini mosaic football. I'm Joe I'll see you next time for the next break. Bye. Bye


A-pleasant day to everyone. I am Glesy Atienza from the College of Arts & Letters and it is an honor for me to be with you. Your mere presence in this lecture is an indication of your deep commitment to learning to further your work in drama or your thirst for learning in the field of theater. As teachers, educators, or even as ordinary learners for life, we have taken so much work and we have taken so much efforts to widen our knowledge. What paths have we not taken in sharing our knowledge and skills to make life in our communities better for education? Or what paths have we not done? What roles have we not done? This path of theater, which is seldom taken seriously and has long been regarded as a trivial path, has occupied most of our waking hours and has brought it us to put aside the comforts of a stable career in exchange for the risks of life in theater. Theater must have brought us so much thrill, so much challenges, so much meaning in our lives and yes, so much happiness from taking center stage and performances to doing production work behind the stage, to organizing venues and material support for performances, raising venues, raising funds, research work, and all the works. But these jobs are not at all glamorous or well-paying, but still they are able to generate intense interest and provide immeasurable happiness for people. There is an overwhelming experience of well-being, a sense of achievement, and as we say in Filipino, basta masaya. This particular concept of masaya or happiness is something that we want to use in our search for a deeper meaning of theater in Philippine life. At this point in time, can I ask you to join me in an action song as you very well know our life in theater involves action? So we need to get up from our seats and put on our shoes probably and maybe shake off a little of our tense muscles and join me in this action song. Okay lang ba? Oh, si Ge, game ha? Tayo na tayo. Let's get up, let's get up. Okay, the title of the song is Masaya Kaba. Masaya Kaba meaning are you happy? Oh, are you happy?  Oh, masaya kaba? Igalaw na natin yung uloob natin. Let's shake our head. Masaya kaba? Okay. At this point, we will try to sing a song. Okay ba yun? Masaya ito. Kaya salin na kayo. Okay. The lyrics of the song is very simple. Masaya kaba? Are you happy? And then you will say, Oh, yes. And then I will ask you again, talagabang masaya ka? Are you really happy? And then you will have to convince me. Oh, meaning yes. And I will ask you then, igalaw, move one body part which I will tell you to move. For example, I will ask you to move your shoulder. Then you have to move your shoulder. Okay ba? Okay. You see, we do this in our communities when we ask our audience to warm up and join us in the performance. So let's try it. Okay? Let's do it. So we have to do the lyrics. Masaya kaba? And then you will say, Oh, talagabang masaya ka? Oh, at ipakitalikat. Igalaw natin ang balikat. Let's move our shoulders. Galaw.  Let's do it in a rhythm. Let's clap our hands. Masaya kaba? The experience of happiness or the danas of happiness has brought various heights and depths of meanings to see at your work in all walks of life. In the recent years, happiness has become a major concern among countries. Each one besting the others' claim as having the most G-N-H or gross national happiness, a term which has been created by the young king of Bhutan in the early 70s. Medical sciences have relegated happiness to the fore of contemporary sciences, making it an important subject of research. It has occupied a main agenda in most countries' concern and has become a much sought-after target of success in governance and in the recent past. I found the thought of looking at happiness very interesting because in theater, it has been after all a concern. What would theater be without that feeling of happiness? But this has also prompted me to realize that much has been said about the heights that our theater work has reached in as far as advocacy and social change is concerned. But as far as happiness is concerned, although perinally it is a measure of success, it is something which has not been really studied. Very interesting, isn't it? So I pursued the search of happiness in theater, like Peter Pan's search for that happy thought. After all, this valuable measure of success and achievement in one's work is something that we have all experienced and worked for, though much has not been said about it. I thought it would be easy knowing how common the experience of happiness is in theater. I scored through technical works, technical papers in all fields. And then I came to a conclusion that the search for happiness is all as simple as it looks. In my theater work, it entails a long, arduous and continuous search for truths. Allow me to draw from my experience in theater in the communities. How does one spot happiness? Ano ba yung masaya? Is it the sight of smiling faces? The gleeful clapping of hands? A warm hug? The sound of laughter? Hot meals for hungry performers offered by hospitable communities? Happiness manifests in various moments of theater interactions. To mean entertainment, pleasure, joy of watching or being entertained, or the euphoria which is exclusive to those who are engaged in the experience. Theater, through a collective danas or experience of the imagined and creative space, allows for a special level of excitement and deep sense of joy derived from the magic of something out of nothing. That quality of euphoria exhibits a spectacular quality that lingers only for a moment and prevails in the senses til the next creative experience. Thus, happiness in a theater engagement is addictive as it enlivens the senses like no other stimulant. It is empowering, it breeds confidence, an awareness of possibilities and creates an immeasurable journey for more. In Filipino, several terms pertain to varying degrees of happiness such as masaya or saya which refers to a general danas or experience of pleasure. To what? Say masaya but it insinuates a more direct source of happiness such as a momentary encounter. Libang, which refers to the danas of happiness which takes once attention from asad experience for a fleeting moment or the lugod which may refer to the happiness derived from the pleasures of the flesh or the basal instincts or the ligaya which may sound like the saya but it exudes a deeper base of pleasure especially when transformed into the more encompassing concept and the noble version kaligayahan. What is happiness? You see, biologists have indicated manifestations of happiness marked by physical and chemical changes in the body endorphids, dopamine, adrenaline, scrotinin, melatonin, chemicals which acts as neuro-transmitters and impact on the brain, the heart and other organs to make people alert and happy. A molecular biologist from Slovakia, Ladislav Kovak, refers to happiness as experiences both fleeting sensations and emotions and consciously appreciated as permanent dispositions of the mind. It encompasses two inseparable aspects hedonia the pleasure of the senses and eudaimonia pleasure of reason. Kovak further identifies three major types of pleasure which he uses to refer to happiness the pleasure of the senses the pleasure in reason and the pleasure in function. To my mind, these types of pleasures provide rational explanations as to how the brain and the body functions to sustain the survival of the human race. The sensory experience manifests the body's capacity to calculate the impact of a stimulus by providing pleasurable or painful emotions. The brain's rational side functions to measure and experiences value by finding reason for the experience which is further validated in its function responsive to the person's changing need for survival. The pleasure in function attributed to German psychologist and language scholar Karl Buller combines to the pleasure of achievement the pleasure derived in achieving a certain goal. All this resonate to the integration of thought will and action in achieving a certain state of well-being learning guideposts which have been used in Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophical studies. A closer look at the pleasures pointed the fact that change is an ultimate ingredient in all the pleasures indicated above. A certain level of change a certain level of development transpires from nothing to something to something else. The achievement of pleasure of the senses is derived from the motivations set to titillate and create a sentient experience from a state of unfeeling to a state of feeling deriving pleasures of reason involve the attainment of an experience and the realization of a rationale fulfillment of an experience from no reason to reasonable likewise achieving a goal takes on a process of change from a state of something to be able to progress into becoming something else take note too that change is indicated a something which goes through a process and takes on another form in another level and another state of being Thus, transformation a change in the form state appearance induced by one element onto another which alters its general appearance or mode of life is a more appropriate term Transformation is a natural capacity and a constant quality in all living things without transformation life cannot be possible without transformation therefore theater cannot be realized our theater experience points to a fourth type of pleasure therefore may I say the pleasure of transformation a quality innate in all living things which is found also in theater it is the same quality that attests to the magical power of the creative field interestingly the power of transformation this salient component transformation has not been favored with the amount of importance it deserves it is the same component perceived by Maslow when he mentioned that the fulfillment in the achievement of pleasures usually is found in the achievement of goals and not in the process of achieving it Maslow uses the term achieving the being rather than the process of becoming to my mind what Maslow was referring to is none other than the phenomenon of transformation embedded in the term process of becoming from the state of being it is the same phenomenon which transpires when a life experience is translated into an artistic expression the danas ng buhay or life experience becomes danas na buhay danas ng buhay becoming danas na buhay this is transformation encapsulated in the phenomenon of becoming through performance which we will refer to locally as the ganap so here we introduce the term ganap in my ongoing research on local terms in Philippine theater I came across the term ganap the ganap is present in the manuscripts of many plays performed since the 1900s recently it has come to be known to refer to a group of fans who are enamored by Nora Onor but this is not the phenomenon that we are referring to the Filipino word ganap encompasses the experience as it embodies the act of putting things or ideas into action the term ganap is an old Tagalog word it means realization and equality this comes from Juan Nosedda and Pedro Sanlucar and it is the same term rooted in an old term meaning to make things happen it is the same term used in reference to a performance or to realize a role or to become an actor it is a familiar term among many because we use it in the theater field in the Philippines but it is something which we have not really appreciated probably due to the convenience or bane of using the English term act or to perform to mean the same thing the English translation lacks the local nuance embodied in the word which illustrates ganap to mean the realization of life to a leveled up level or leveled up life or living life this is what we refer to as the buhay becoming buhay I'm very sure that each area has its own local term for this concept but allow me to dwell on this further as this involves our engagement in the science of realizing life and living through theater using local terms as indicators of a local experience the term ganap refers to space, people, experience and its transformation to a new state through the use of devices which appeal to the senses like movement, sound words, visuals and the scenery among others a life experience or danas na buhay is transformed to become a new living experience danas na buhay there is that emphasis there there's buhay and buhay the process of realization or the moment of transformation from a life experience to another level or a living experience transpires through the ganap while a raw sensory experience happens in the danas na buhay in real time a certain level of selectivity in the danas na buhay as life is translated into a creative mode and is realized in a space made alive to create a sensory experience taken from a real life experience but not necessarily the same as the life experience through the intervention of tools of expression such as the body of the actor a life experience or buhay is recreated and relived to become a live and living experience or buhay in filipino there is an arcade term used to refer to the actor that is kilosening literally meaning mover or action taker for an art the term kilosening was noted by Filipino playwright and scholar Severino Reyes indicates the importance of the actors as tools in expressing or realizing a live and living experience the actors take the responsibility of preparing their bodies as instruments of expression with the end goal of creating a connection with their audience through an experience which they hope to create during the performance here lies the power of the actor that inexplicable moment of recreating an experience while coping with the realities of the given performance conditions putting all that has been rehearsed in consideration while keeping their eyes on the goal of bridging the gap between the audience and the performer and the experience that is being created in the process the ganap embodies assemblance of the liminality which Victor Turner discussed in his study of the ritual rights of the Ndembu tribe of Africa he describes the process of realizing a ritual as happening in a space which is neither real or imagined what he calls the betwixt and between because it is made possible or performed by an actor who delves and realizes the imagined space while being part of a real space this phenomenon happens to the actor as he or she negotiates his way into realizing a role in an imagined or created reality during the performance while he's negotiating his way through the realities of his own real performance space siyeter is life performed and made alive through a new danas na buhay a new experience in reliving a sliver of life siyeter as it relives life transforms life siyeter is the embodiment of a living system made alive through the creative process an opportunity for transformation here lies the power of siyeter to create a pleasurable experience transformation in siyeter is not limited to opportunities nor to feelings that siyeter provides action is posed as the ultimate measure of success in siyeter's capacity to effect transformation for centuries of siyeter work in the communities it has pointed to the function of siyeter as a major tool in people's empowerment our own local histories have marked the role of siyeter as potent weapons in exposing the ills of society and calling people to take up concerted actions in their pursuit for a better quality of life our own country's movement for nationalism and independence is marked by the developments in the form and function of siyeter for instance in the 19th century when the Philippines was declared a nation as a result of its colonial encounter with siyeter new technologies of communication affected new ways of information dissemination using music, words and movement the very basic modalities of siyeter which have been in use since the early times oral lore which embodied local tropes through the musicality of words became codified in print a revolution for national independence was in place as siyeter artists coped with the new technologies of communication such as writing, music and the new musical siyeter forms such as the sarswela and the voodville with the new entry of the colonizers the Americans the theater artists most of whom belong to the most articulate and the most learned in the communities together with the new intelligentsia who have been educated in the West developed what was later referred to as the seditious Tagalog place this place were performed before packed audiences in various big shift communities in far flung areas in support of American revolution the actors many of whom belong to the anti-colonial movement used the opportunity provided by this place in encouraging people to support and join the revolutionary cause using satire and local imagery embedded in poetry the performances became opportunities for people to come together and process their experiences with the colonial Americans staging spectacle was used to stimulate nationalism among audiences who were barred from waving their own flag under the American colonial rule the place created quite a stir among the American soldiers who troop to the performances to witness how the place roasted and killed Americans quote-unquote and of course to arrest the players the period of martial law in the 70s to the late 80s was also witnessed to a new kind of theater for empowerment looking on the vision that theater should serve the interests and needs of the people theater skills were disseminated to ordinary people who saw the development of new narratives based on their urgent concerns and life experiences theater became a living newspaper in the face of curtailment of freedom of expression and self-expression theater was created by non-theater people who use their new found skill seek to call attention to concerns begging for change militarization, human rights violations poverty, corruption displacement and even land grabbing theater became a living spectacle in providing opportunities for transformation place were hounded by military who took no time in arresting theater directors and playwrights who criticized the government and post radical ideas to the audience the arrests however did not deter the performances of new plays neither did it stop theater groups from performing plays in a similar note the arrests became living markers of an achievement among the players they were able to put across a clear message calling for social transformation thus earning the ire of the military it was a pleasure in reason and pleasure in function and of course pleasure in transformation in action it is important to take note of the various theater workshops we have become popular tools for introducing new opportunities for expression and critical thinking among these workshop processes PETA's basic integrated theater arts workshop or commonly called the BTAW can be considered as one of the influential theater designs in the use of theater as pedagogy for learning and transformation BTAW initially called the integrated arts workshop started out as a theater workshop design framed on a middle class liberal view of self expression and self awareness the BTAW's popularity served as a timely response to the need for self expression which was curtailed during the martial law its popularization among the basic communities in the regions be faced by challenges of militarization and human rights violations however pushed the BTAW to evolve into a theater design aimed at providing an alternative avenue for self expression and critical thinking using local cultural modes of artistry such as songs dances and wordplay the local issues as basic materials in developing original theater pieces were used BTAW provided an alternative for learning and critical communication tool an antidote for ultra silence westernized consciousness made worse by a repressive military rule significantly many of those who encountered the BTAW as participant or as facilitator do not recognize the fact that the community theater workshop processes strength lies in its radical qualities which embody transformation in community action improvisational theater processes which embody change as the moving force of community action an output and process which is culture based, audience oriented participatory and collaborative and a pool of actors who allow their bodies and minds and hearts to be used as tools to draw critical studies of community concerns geared towards change community theater processes characteristic openness its adaptability and transformative quality can be misleading if taken out of its participatory historically rooted and community concerns responsive framework a number of individuals and groups who have undergone community theater workshops have taken the liberty of using theater learning processes for various educational purposes such as curricular reforms in informal and formal education and have reaped the harvest of evolving effective learning processes others have mimicked its many activities and games to sue their particular needs commercial and otherwise without due consideration to its philosophy as an alternative learning pedagogy relegating its use to the function of entertainment and fun alone and without regard to its development from a venue of self-expression to a culture based and historically rooted transformative action thus transformation in community theater presents political color as it positions people in a power space where they can transform their conditions and take control of their lives advocacy in various forms and levels of interest could not but be related to transformation in community theater because it involves the very elements that make theater happen setting character conflict sequence of action towards achievement of a conflicts resolution or dissolution add to this the creation of an experience based experiment where ideas are tried and validated through the magical theatrical interrogative what if and you have a radicalized take on life and living radical to mean taking its course of action from the roots this experiences that I have shared with you will not be here if not for the colorful life which I have lived in theater mine is a classic example of a showbiz wannabe turned community theater artist I am a product of the turbulent challenges that my country has posed to artists who yearn to make their audience happy and fulfilled and I have taken up that challenge as a commitment to my audience by doing performances writing plays on urgent community concerns sustaining theater linkages and conducting training on community theater work for schools and communities our network is composed of 30 groups from various universities and schools in metro manila it's called the alianza and we embody a mission that is to train actors, artists community oriented teachers organizers, researchers who realize the concept of the ganap using creative artistic approaches and based on the perspective of the capua or literally in filipino the self in the other the core members of our group started doing community work in their high school years and have moved on to become professional teachers and artists today a number of them occupy influential administrative positions in their universities they become union leaders, program heads particular programs and cultural affairs department chairs, directors in television networks among others they seek support from government and non-government partners to spearhead national festivals and theater conferences and conduct trainings and performances using theater as processes to address community concerns these actors, artists, teachers students and employees belong to the new age workforce who have migrated to the cities pastures and who have to cope with the challenges of surviving in their temporary rented homes or children of migrant workers who yearn for a sense of family as they cope with life in their relatives homes these actors represent the new age artists who have been equipped with the tools of theater and who can opt to further achieve fame, fortune and popularity if they wish to but who have instead taken up the advocacy to respond to basic community needs despite the seemingly comfortable life that new modes of living have projected Allow me to share with you a few theater experiences which we had in a remote provincial island with several coastal towns in central philippines as we advocated for the construction of toilet facilities through a play which we called Hello Healthy Goodbye Dummy or Hello Healthy Goodbye Dirty These areas are targets of zero open defecation program spearheaded by the UNICEF through the local government units and our partner institution the Center for Health Solutions and Innovations our musical play entitled Hello Healthy Goodbye Dummy centers on the efforts of four friends called Apat Nakay who are bent on raising community support to put up toilets and water pipes for clean water in every household they took part in a popular TV contest played by Shane when the TV host slipped and got dirty by feces which were scattered all over the place The village chief gets angry with the four case because of the humiliation it has caused the village Soon villagers were running all over the place because of dysentery The four case then investigate how the disease spread and calls on their barangay to wash their hands, boil drinking water and construct their own latrins at home to keep themselves informed to maintain a healthy body The script was based on a scientific research of UNICEF and major considerations were based on the motivations of shame and loss of face to motivate the audience to move, build their own toilets and become healthy Songs and dances were used to demonstrate the fecal oral disease transmission and the songs were composed using the popular genre in the rural areas These were sung by actors using easy to follow movements which were taught to the audience in a style similar to a mascalisthenics program At this point in time I'd like to share with you a song featuring the fly and the feces which were made into animated characters for easy information dissemination on the fecal oral disease transmission It's a love song and it's entitled Ang taekong pag-idik nasa laway kapasin Okay, did you like that love song? It's about the lowly fly and the feces in a love song But this one, the next song features one of the kids as he explains why he defecates in the open The song is entitled kung may kasilya slama ang tiyan inahalukay ganyan ang pagiramdang sasakit ang ulo magdumikahit saan lagnatay magpapakulo sa buong katawa yas lang sana sasakit na dun saan nagkala yas lang sana tayo'y makakakiwas sasakit ng tulog saan saan saan ay To further intimidate and shame the audience a concoction of feces is skirted from his behind making the audience further squirm and laugh. Of course the feces is not real but just the same it makes the same impression of shame among the audience. After going through this grueling experience the audience are made to choose from among the options to address the problem of the seas in the community through a game like activity pictures of different ways of feces management are presented and they are made to line up before the pictures they prefer They are also challenged to identify the image of their community which they wish to present to the world They are then encouraged to take their selfies in front of latrines and toilets which they prefer Throughout the play, roles are done by community members who have been requested to perform cameo roles This further encourages the audience to own the play and consider it as their story Furthermore, local keywords related to the fecal oral disease transmission were used to bring the play closer to the audience Characters and incidents were also taken from popular icons Original music compositions Shoons were inspired by sentimental videyoke and joke box hits which has remained popular in many rural communities The show was performed for four times in four areas to around 800 people All four shows moved people to action in varying degrees and intensities The first show moved a vice mayor to pledge his support for the formation of a local theater group who would perform all over the municipality in support of the ZOD program The local government officials and the school administrators took no time in bringing the school children to the town center so they can watch the play Government buses and trucks were sent to the remote areas to ferry the children to the town center gymnasium The second and third shows made the village health workers move as hosts project implementers and even actors and took turns in setting up the shade for the audience while others helped the performers fix their sets and technical needs The women folk helped prepare refreshments for the performers while the rest became stage hands helping the actors borrow hand props from nearby houses and helping convince some school children to participate in some scenes This occurs in almost all community performances ordinary villagers taking time from their teen and contributing their limited resources to help put up a successful performance The fourth show also made the village health workers and local leaders move But what was interesting about this last show was that the villagers were keen about setting up toilets in their houses One mother was asking the performers if they had brought urinals for distribution She said her family has been preparing a hole in her backyard and is now ready to set up her urinal She was ready to build her toilet This move to build structures in response to a specific call is the ultimate test of theater performances impact in creating transformative action Urgently, though the play ends with another song This time, it leaves the skill and importance of hand washing among children The title of the song Ataman kugas ng kamay Would you like to learn the song? I can teach you the action Alika, pang arala natin Okay, ganito yun The children took no time in learning the song with sticky soap chips distributed as tokens to force them to wash their hands Local government leaders were urged to arrange for the holding of performances of the same play This time to be done by young actors who have been trained to do the performances for their own barrios They have been trained to roll out performances as their share in encouraging their neighbors to build their own toilets and wash their hands toward of diseases in the community Here, theater is identified not only through its capacity to mimic life, but more so by its capacity to transform a problem situation into positive action Through various levels of engagement by people who are directly engaged in the community, as well as those who are engaged through the magical link created by theater Roles are done by people in varying degrees and qualities of participation from being audience to being technical support, organizers researchers and performers Similarly, the performers also did their part in contributing to the advocacy More than three months were devoted to preparing the show from research to writing to mounting the scenes, doing choreography work composing the songs, recording the songs and preparing logistical and technical needs for the production All this contributed to the realization of a sliver of life made buhay or alive through a space transformed so that it may function as a laboratory for community action It takes a new breed of actors to mean artists, community oriented teachers, organizers researchers to do this job It underlines the inaliable role of the theater artist as a community servant whose work faces unending challenges as it negotiates its effect on its audience's life It poses the same challenge taken up by any artist that continuously improving its artistic craft to be able to translate life's idioms into more intelligible forms of expression However the community orientation sets the direction for service as against the usual regard for theater which has fame, fortune or popularity as its ultimate target As actors the primary motivation is to disseminate ideas and information and to engage the community into action Thus the ultimate challenge is in the audience's move to transform and take up an action for the community's benefit Thus to be an actor requires a shift in theater orientation from being limited to individual self-expression to being committed to service and the common good It is a community who takes center stage and the actor initiates explores possibilities and facilitates community action The actor takes on the responsibility of preparing community action and works towards creating markers of distinction specific to the community's needs and cultural priorities Education and critical thinking is an important component in this process because transformation necessitates clear understanding of a mission which the audience has to take part in to be fully realized skills in social mobilization as well as research is likewise important since the objective is not simply to amaze or to entertain but rather to enjoy and encourage transformation among community members The actor then takes on a radical role as educator and forerunner of the most important output of our new age technology transformative knowledge in action I say radical because to be an actor recognizes the importance of knowledge derived from study and skills training and applies this to encourage community participation in effective action where the community is welfare and happiness is the ultimate target and once personal pleasure becoming aligned with the community's concerns our own actor's transformation from being ordinary student artists to becoming leaders in transformative community theater they become equipped with artistic skills and critical tools for analyzing social concerns that their participation becomes processes of unmarking realities our own actors have shared experiences on how issues concerning commercialization of education and rising prices have been made acceptable to rich businessmen through songs and dramatization dramatic performances have become venues for taking erroneous educational reforms and universities theater festivals have become avenues for organizing among theater artists who are also part of the community workforce the teachers, employees, students and community leaders the health workers among others there is a wide spectrum of transformation that theater creates in community life from the very simple opportunity to interact and share to the transformative community action which may lead to radical changes in a community's life it is important for theater artists and educators to know where they stand and where they intend their efforts to lead as their powers are proven to be potent agents of transformation in society after all transformation in theater is living radicalized so may our efforts in theater lead to transformative action with our community's varying degrees of happiness in all its intents and intensities this is Glesy Atienza from the College of Arts and Letters thank you very much for your kind attention


Hello, my name is Kirsten Savda and I come from the Siemenpur Foundation in Finland. We continue our support to indigenous and local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic, because the crisis has underlined the vulnerability of the community's rights to land, natural resources and public services such as decent healthcare.