Welcome back. Welcome back. This is Steve Wa in the morning. Thank you for staying with us. If you're just joining, you're on time for the first conversation of the day on career. And today we're talking all about tapping into hidden potential. And for that, we have Sarah Muni, who's a life coach, an executive leadership and management consultant as well as a corporate trainer and evangelist among many other titles that she holds and she's here to take us through this topic. Remember the hashtag we're using today is why in the morning at Y244Channel. So keep your questions coming if you have any as we go by. Sarah, carry with me, Sarah. Thank you. Thank you so much for the warm welcome. We're glad to have you. Yes, thank you. You hold so many hearts. Yes, of course. Sometimes we need to, you know, you need to, that's why we are speaking about hidden potential, right?  So we need to keep on exploring it and we need to keep on exploiting it so that it can bring out the best version of ourselves. So yes, I do hold many titles. Yeah, just use the one you want me to use and I'll use it. Okay, today we can use the life coach. Yes, that's good. Okay, so let's talk about potential. Tapping into the hidden potential.  I think it's very important to at least know some of the gifts and talents that you have. We need to always have, you know, as a life coach what I do, I usually come into your life and ask you some very hard questions about your life. What are your passions?  Yeah. So I think you need to, first of all, be aware of your strengths and weaknesses as well. And also your abilities, you need to be able to point them out. These are my abilities. This is what I can do. These are the skills I have learned, I have learned by learning.  It comes as a process of realizing those kind of gifts and talents. Otherwise, if you don't know that, you'll end up, you know, getting into any type of career because you don't know really your strengths. You don't know really your talents. So you need to have people like life coaches or mentors or people who just can't just call out the potential in you. Sometimes you're not able to see it yourself. We need other people to look at you and say, oh, you're so good in this. You're so good in that. And then you are able to bring out, you know, the best version. Let me say this. I know, you know, you are speaking about soccer. I think you are speaking about Manu and Asano. Yes. And you know, the coaches, they usually have coaches, those footballers, right? Yeah. The coaches don't play. So the one of the coaches to look at you when you're playing and say, you can't play midfielder, your strength will best come out of you, play maybe number nine, which are the other positions. You best play a striker or you best play midfielder or 18, whatever, you know, because they're able to point or they're able to stand at a vantage point and look at you and say, oh, at this time, you need to sit down because your energy is out. At this point, you need to come back. You need people like that. To guide you. That's why those people are very successful, those footballers because they have coaches and they are people who always keep on bringing out their potentials and their strengths. And it's interesting to think that the same way that, you know, the footballers have coaches and it's normal. It's the same thing with life. It's the same thing. We need coaches, but someone would ask, so how do we start, you know, when you come, when I come to a life coach and I'm confused about something, so how do we, how do we start? What's the process? You've mentioned some of it. You asked some questions. What if I don't know? What happens? Yes, so we can start from there, from a point where you don't know, but we still need, but there are some things you know about yourself, you know. So, and you see coaching is not training that I have to come and pump things into you. First, I have to let you speak and I have to ask you the questions like what do you think are your strengths? What do you think are your abilities? I mean, what are your passions? What are your hobbies? Sometimes somebody doesn't even know their passions, but they speak about hobbies because they reflect your passions, you know. So, we let the person speak and people speak. I was, when I was in school, I was so good in this, when I was school, I was so good in that, you know. I've always had this passion. I've always, people will speak. People always know the areas that maybe they are stronger. Someone may not know clearly what it is, but these are my passions. People know that. So, we try now and build on that. We have to try and build on that. And then also there's that process of I'm knowing your life purpose as well. So, for me, when it comes to career, I like taking people through a process of purpose so that now you align your purpose with your career, you align your career with your purpose, you know. Otherwise, you may end up going through life and then you wake up at 40 and ask yourself, what am I doing in my life? I always find people like that. Somebody wakes up at 45 and say, I have no idea what I'm doing in my life. I don't even know how I got into this career, but I mean, this is what I do and I don't like it, you know. And you have to start now figuring out things from that point. So, what are your passions? What have you always loved to do, but you just don't have the energy or the strength to get into, you know. So, people will point out some things and we start from there. So, a good career should start from a point of knowing your purpose. This is my purpose and let's build a career on that. If you build a career on your purpose someday that you love, you never have to work a day in your life. Like you'd be wondering, do they pay me to do this? Because you're doing what you love. It's fun to me, yes. I don't work. I can be working. I can be doing that at 9 p.m. in the evening and for me, it's no work. It's wonderful. It's fun, you know. Yeah, you enjoy it. And what is purpose? You know, someone might wonder because some people, you ask them, what is your purpose and they are green about it. So, what is purpose? So, purpose is basically the reason for which anything is done, leaves or exists. And every life has a purpose, including you. And when God put you in this world, He put you here for a purpose, you know. And He packaged in you to execute a certain mandate. He packaged in you gifts and talents and abilities and, you know, those things.  So, purpose is the reason for which you exist and you exist for a purpose. So, you're not just here, you know, you just happened on earth at such a time as this, in this generation. And we need to ask yourself, why did God let me live in a country like Kenya? Why on earth am I on earth? Why am I even here in this company? You always need to keep on asking yourself some of these hard questions. Why? You know, why am I here? What is my life purpose? That's one of the basic questions about like anyone should ask. Why on earth am I on earth? Why am I here?  Adults and then die. You are here for a higher purpose and it's always good for you to identify that. So, the first point I always say, and there are many tools that we use to be able to find your life purpose. The first thing I always say, please, you need to find your purpose. The first place is in the, is through your creator. So, you need to seek God because he created you for our purpose. He has a blueprint for your life, you know? So, through his word, through reading his word and through even prayer, you can be able to know your purpose. For me, that's the foundation, that's everything. From there, there are so many other things that we can use to so many other tools that we use. There are some other very basic questions about life that we ask, like one of the questions is, what makes you happy? What makes you happy? What makes you happy yourself? What makes me happy? I can assure you, your purpose is hidden in something that makes you happy. Okay, and should it be something that, you know, is geared towards you doing something for the people or should it be about you, you know, you're giving service to the people or should it just revolve around you? Papas is about other people. Papas is not about you.  Papas is about other people. Even Jesus said, I came, that they may have life and have it more abundantly. So, why did you come and why did I come? You came for other people. You came for others. And when you don't discover your purpose, let me tell you, the world is deprived and is a way it is because people don't know why they came. You came as a solution to a problem in the world. So, your life's mission should be to find that purpose and step into it. Otherwise, the world is deprived and the world is lacking and nobody in life can ever, you know, take your position in life, nobody. Okay, so it's not all about me and my happiness. My happiness should be giving back to people. Yes, it should be giving back to people actually and that's where you find a lot of fulfillment and satisfaction, you know.  There's nothing about it. It's just you. I think you still need to rediscover yourself because you have something that the world needs. You have something that the world needs. And you've said that this is connected to potential. So, once you know your purpose, then it's easy to know your potential. It's easy. Now, you're able to use your potential in the right direction.  So, when you know your purpose, you're able to put your abilities and your potential in the right direction and something that will build your life and be even blessing to other people. Okay. And you said something, okay, in your bio, I heard something that there needs to be changed. Something about change. I don't know if they're connected with potential, but even when you're doing coaching or an organization, the corporate world, you need to create change fast before, you know, the company grows from where it is or it realizes its dream. Yes, change. I usually say change is a loss of something familiar. And the reason why, and change is very important, you need, even in career, you need to be, to keep growing, it's impossible to grow without change. If you want to grow from anything, anything you're building, whether it's your career, it's your business or anything, you need to keep growing. That means you need to keep changing and it changes the loss of something familiar. The reason why it's usually very hard for people to accept change is because it deals with loss. It has to do with loss. And as human beings, we are not very good when it comes to dealing with loss. We are not, you know, so you need to keep changing. You need to keep growing for you to, for you to kind of see the kind of changes that you want to see or for you to keep on achieving the kind of goals that you want to achieve. So change is very important. And even for career, if you want to grow in your career, you need to keep on setting goals and you need to keep on, you know, getting out of your comfort zones, you see, keep getting out of your comfort zones, keep on setting goals way beyond, you know, what you have done before, when is the last time you did something for the last, you know, for the first time. So you need to keep on smashing goals.  Otherwise, you can never go in comfort and you cannot change there. And you want to change your finances, you cannot keep on doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. It just won't happen. So change is very crucial when it comes to growth and especially career growth. Okay. And still on career growth, when still on change. So what happens when someone wants to change or someone wants to try too many things at once, because you want to tap into those potentials maybe that you have still in your career that you have not stretched to. So when do you know that you have overstretched and when do you know that I am operating in the right limitations? It's very easy.  I know the people who have a lot of energy, especially the extroverts, you know, you have a lot of energy to do this and that, do this and that. You need to build something up to a point where you feel, I mean, you have been able to establish yourself, you know, and then from there you can maybe start something else. So if you start this career here and then you want to get into this, you want to get into that, you spread yourself two things and then we also don't know what really to call you.   So it's good to build something, one thing first and then so many other things.  Yes. Okay. All right. So now when do you know that I'm operating in the right dimension? Should you have is that where they say you should be a jack of a master of one a jack of all traits, but a master of one yeah. So now should you when you're tapping into other things, should it be related to what you're doing the main thing, even as you you found the right the main thing. Now this other should they be related to the main thing or can you venture into something totally different still? Is this in terms of career or just like in career in terms of career. So yes. So if like let's say that you're a journalist, there are so many other skills you need that can support that or can help you refine that one career. So yes, you need to build one thing. It's good if you build yourself as a maybe as a salesperson or as a whatever career that already is an accountant. There are so many other skills that you need personal development skills. You need public speaking skills, you need branding skills. They all support this one. They're all to refine this one, you know.  There must be that core skill that you have and then others to just refine. So and even when it comes to purpose the purpose is one but there are so many other things you do they all support ultimately they all support that one. Okay all right and let me take you to now youth empowerment and still in potential because you're a champion for youth empowerment. So how much potential do we hold as youths? What are some of the things that we lag in in terms of career? It can't be quantified the potential in youth cannot be quantified and that's what I'm saying you are created with endless greatness endless potential so it's up to you to be very deliberate to be very intentional to be very purposeful about you know bringing it out and that's why you need people like mentors you need people like life coaches because in yourself you may not be able to do to know you know all the gifts and talents that you have and you know just have that self drive to bring them out sometimes you need somebody to push you and somebody to make sure that your goals remain your priority. So youth have endless potential and that is why we usually have myself I usually hold a lot of programs for youth you know you know just to just bring out that potential in different things you know like there are so many areas of personal development that somebody needs to grow in in their career in business in ministry in anything that you're doing there's so many of them and then by the way I was reading somewhere a certain you know study that a human being has how many gifts I think they were over one thousand and something gifts you know that somebody has but many people they only know two or one and there are even those who say yeah I don't me for me I don't have a gift I don't have a talent because I think a gift and talent is maybe running and growing and singing being able to sing no there are so many others even organizational skills leadership skills mean the ability to work with those are gifts and talents yes and so you need somebody who can be able to point their mouse as a youth so that and you know there's what I say for a youth for youth you have three things number one you have the dreams we have dreams youth have dreams I want to do this I want to do this you have the energy to pursue these dreams you have energy and then number three you have the time you actually have the time so these are your haters so this is the time to really bring out that which you feel you know that great person you've always seen yourself as you know that's the time and that's why you need these people if you don't know how look for help look out for me look out for life coaches look out for mentors look out for people who can see potential in you and bring you out and then let me say this for people who say that I don't know my gift please you discover your gift in service I remember um my mentor uh and you know he he mentored me in so many things and into leadership and he told me Sarah you discover your gift in in service so I'd want if you're in school if you're in university please volunteer don't ignore those clubs you only go there you're part of a club you only go there like once when there's like a some personality coming for their meeting you know you need to be there built make sure you're even like a treasure or something because you're committed people are able to see commitment and appreciate it yeah so be there and serve because that's where you start realizing oh I didn't know I have this ability I don't know I have that ability I don't know because for me I remember when I got into leadership I never saw myself as a leader because throughout high school in primary school I was a perfect throughout high school nobody called me a perfect nobody because you know and even in college in university I was not so for a long time I didn't see myself as a leader and even when I when I started working I was not like a manager or a director or you see so for me when leaders are being called and when responsibilities who will do this me I'll sit at the back I'm not a leader so that's the purpose that's a work of leader so until I got a mentor and they thrust me into leadership and then I realized it was not hard for me to plan and this is what my mentor told me I want you to organize a meeting for youth call a hundred of them how many people do you have on your phone book I say the 2000 you know I was a salesperson you have contacts of everybody everybody's a prospect so I have many so I only want to call a hundred I want I only want you to call a hundred and it was in a period of two weeks so I want you to call a meeting and this is what we will speak about and I test I was praying I was you know but then I is like a new exactly what I needed to do and I had called people personally let me tell you at the end of the day we had a meeting of over 300 people at one of the hotels here in town and it was wonderful and then from there it was establishing a team it was not hard you know for me it was in me it's just that I was not doing it so you volunteer you will discover your gifts in service you discover your gifts in service and they say that once it's your it's your gift you do it easily you don't you don't you flow yes you flow with it so of course you know I've done so many leadership programs from there I've done so many leadership programs I have followed leaders because you know one of the other ways you also know how to lead is by following you cannot lead if you can't follow and if you can't take instruction you can't give instruction and to be followed like you know so you need to be able to stay somewhere and obey you see the way he told me I want you to do this I didn't start saying I have never done this I can't we all just disappear you know that's what many people will do yeah this is hard for me and you just disappear so obedience is very key when it comes to leadership and if you cannot obey you cannot give instructions it will be hard yes it will be hard so learn to obey and when you're somewhere you have a mentor you have a coach you have people who you look at to listen to them and observe also because you learn by observing as well so of course I've had to do a lot of leadership programs today I'm a leadership expert I do a lot of trainings in leadership for companies and organizations and even two youth groups yeah but you need to first of all sit somewhere at somebody's feet and learn and learn yes all right this is very interesting we want to take a short break and then we'll come back to what you do tell us what you do and maybe what you can learn from from that eventually we take a short break stick with us we'll be right back


What is going on guys welcome back to channel critical overload here some time about the Chucky TV series in this video here today First and foremost shout out to UK because you sent me yet again another bit of interesting news Regarding a project that I am looking forward to coming up. This time. It is Chucky Chucky season 2 Looks like it'll start filming in Toronto this upcoming April on April 20th through the month of August from what I see here on this again This is coming to you from production weekly The site or subscription that you can subscribe to to get all the latest details about upcoming projects within the industry I know I did a recent screen six video talking about this for screen six So Chucky season 2 looks like it'll start filming in the month of April out in Toronto You see all the people you'd expect to be listed here. You see Dom Mancini listy She David David Kirschner Nick Antosca Eat the cat is listed there again I believe that was the working title for season one at the very bottom of this It looks like the working title for season two the very bottom last line at the end song bird Now I know that a lot of us are expecting this season to premiere later this fall in the month of October on USA Sci-fi you actually see it at the top of this image and they have peacock next to it And then of course or shortly after it's done airing week to week on those networks It should be going to peacock So with them filming this long, I don't know that's cause to worry for any of you But I think honestly that might just be including the amount of time they think it would take in post production Because depending on how long this season is I don't think it's going to be any shorter than season one if anything it might be longer But I don't think the episode count has been revealed just yet So with them filming this long, hopefully they can still make that fall release I don't see why they can't if anything Put they'll put it out late October this time around and not early October like they did before Late October maybe even not even October unfortunately, but maybe November But if they still put it out in October, that's fine because they could of course always Release the episodes while they're still working on putting the final touches of the ones that they are still working on in post But it just seems like they are going to be rushing It just seems like that. I mean they have time but hopefully everything goes smooth and the shooting only takes maybe three months and then you know they can take a few months to spend time in post finalize some stuff And just go from there and put out a successful second season to a already successful tv series and the fact that again this franchise has managed to jump from Movies to tv with this much success and this character has been around for so long like 30 plus years at this point And having this type of success on tv when you've been doing it this long as a staple in the horror friend In the horror genre, that's very impressive. That's very impressive I think we're all lucky to have brad dorif back as the as the voice of chuckie charlie ray when he's playing the in-person character of charlie ray I think we're all lucky to have him back. We're lucky to have fiona dorif Who did a great job portraying her father doing those flashbacks from season one jennifer tilly alex vinson who knows playing andy barkley just incredibly Blessed and privileged to have this if it is the last who are out with them This is a fantastic thing that they have going for them So I hope the series has a good run while it does and then maybe we get one last movie But if they decide to call it quits with this tv series, i'm all for it You have a lot more opportunities to develop these younger characters that we have and you can spend more time with them and You can bid farewell to the other characters like andy kyle Many of you still think kyle is alive. I mean i'm I don't know if anything The fact that if she's alive, I think i've said this in another video if she's alive That explosion scene at the end of season one shouldn't have happened I'm just being honest that shouldn't have happened if everyone within that explosion just survived shouldn't have happened andy survived uh devin survived kyle survived if that's true So kyle can still be in the series, but it's like if she's alive I mean you had that dramatic moment happen with really no risks taken I feel like you should have took a risk there Andy being alive was fine But if we find out kyle was alive too, it's like oh well Man, I wish one of them would have died if you're gonna Put that out there take some risk with your show devin dying That would have been a little bit harsher for me only because we just met jake and jake has already dealt with so much andy and kyle They've grown and matured. Yes, they have their trauma, but I could have dealt with losing them more so than Watching this newer character who's had a great arc so far now in the finale. He's losing his boyfriend and That we have to deal with that in season two. I would rather one of the old g's go out So if kyle is alive, I mean i'm not gonna be unhappy about it I just would have some Criticisms in regards to that whole explosion that went on because like well, why did you do that? It was so unnecessary in my opinion at that point Of course, it was done to create dramatic interests, which it did but the fact that no risks were taken from that Kind of just is a bummer to me Uh, I think christine at least is a fantastic actress and I love that character But it's just you know if all those people survived like that I mean jesus Why did you do that scene? But who knows what they'll do at season two again I'm hoping that they give us an arc regarding Chucky and his army and what's going on with tiffani and that little world trip she has going on with andy barkley Since again, we saw him pop up at the end of the first season Hopefully we'll get to see glen and glinda because we know that they get referenced in the end of the first season from jennifer herself or tiffani i meant to say and Hopefully we just get some more background details about charlie ray and i again i can't stress this enough i love how we got a Background for him that wasn't rooted in you know, I was bullied. I was abused It wasn't any of those things sure those are some type of factors involved maybe they haven't been addressed yet But from what we've seen this is just an individual who very much so has a similar origin to michael myers one day He just went insane not to say there wasn't contributing factors as again He witnessed his father get killed He seemed to be just someone who was very full of hate um, and they they make it a point to say that some of the best Some of the best killers are just born That's that's what he was there was no real rhyme or reason to why he's doing what he's doing There was just something very off about this child similar to michael myers, which I think was very nicely done We're seeing his youth, but we're not seeing Anything pinpointing why he's like this. He he just is he's just sick. He's just deranged She's just a very troubled little boy who grew up to be a very troubled man Inflicting harm on a lot of people so I like that aspect of like that angle So if we get to see more of this young upbringing of charles, hopefully doesn't give us something that says, you know This is why I'm doing this if it does. I mean don't make it overly sentimental to the point right now I feel sorry for chuckie uh But let me know what you guys think about chuckie season 2 filming in april down in the comment section below If you have a real course make sure you subscribe turn on postification and there's a video in the description I have links to my social media accounts on facebook twitter and instagram you can message me there Of course you let me know if there's any movies news or if you usually let me to cover in the future with audit And my guys I will see you in the next video


So, I was working on this island called Fisher Island, I decided to start a personal training business with the knowledge of sports performance and conditioning that I had from playing the sport of football and other sports, I was able to apply it right away. I began training, CEO of large companies, Fisher Island is one of the wealthiest zip codes in all of the US. So, definitely a good spot for that type of a business. I began training celebrities, multi-millionaires, and even professional athletes. I was traveling with high profile clientele to different parts of the world. I was going to South America, I was going to Europe, I even spent three months in Africa on a special job, flying on private planes and staying on luxury yachts and all that fun stuff. Over the years that I was teaching these people how to get healthy, how to attain their goals, how to stay fit, I myself, the trainer, the coach, was suffering in poor health. I was suffering in chronic pain, arthritic pain, inflammation, and I was depressed. I was taking over 20 Advil a day. I was icing my back four to five times a day just to get through a day of work, day of life. And I remember waking up one morning and looking at myself in the mirror, oh, and I was booked for a multi-level disc replacement surgery that the surgeons weren't even sure it was going to get me out of the pain. They were going to have to go in through the front and implant this hardware in my lower back and there was a lot of risks and ramifications involved and they weren't even sure it was going to get me out of the pain. And I was like, okay, that's it, like, no más, all right? It was at that low point in my life. I woke up one morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and I said, how can you go on living the rest of your life like this? At that point, I had decided that I was going to turn to alternative methods to heal myself. This is something that I didn't think in a million years was possible. Why? Because I come from such a one-sided conventional background where all we did was take pills and have surgeries for injuries and so forth and so on. So when somebody told me about alternative methods, I thought they were crazy, right? Well guess what? I turned to some primal living, taking fundamentals and principles of our primal ancestors and applying them to today's modern jungle. I had a coach, he would make us practice our fundamentals every day in practice before we practice the rest of the day. Fundamentals such as simple footwork, form tackling, wrapping up, grabbing cloth, taking the man down to the ground. Fundamentals that we used to perform at a high level. So I began to take basic fundamentals of health and apply them to my life.


The next item of business is a statement by Fergus Ewing on the repatriation of convergence funds owed to Scottish farming. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Fergus Ewing for up to nine minutes, please. Presiding Officer, this Government, with the support of this Parliament, has been campaigning for many years for the repatriation of the EU convergence funds owed to Scottish farming. We have been united in our endeavour to achieve this, and I want to thank all of you across all parties for your support and efforts. There have, of course, been development since this issue was last discussed in the chamber, and therefore I want to update you on those. First, I thought that it would be helpful to set out the circumstances and history behind this issue. In 2013, the EU announced that a process of external conversions should occur between member states, as it considered that historic allocations of caps supported based on production levels in the 1990s and early 2000s were no longer meeting the objectives for farming and food production. As such, any member state whose average direct payment rate was less than 90 per cent of the EU average in 2013 would be awarded a convergence uplift to take them to at least €196 per hectare by 2020. England, Wales and Northern Ireland were, on average, already above the 90 per cent EU average convergence threshold in 2013. However, direct payments in Scotland were significantly lower on average at €130 per hectare, and were low enough to pull the overall UK rate below the convergence threshold. As a result of Scotland's low payment rate, the UK was awarded an uplift of €223 million of additional CAP funding to cover the 214 to 220 period. Despite the EU's rationale for convergence funding to narrow the payment grab across the UK, the UK Government chose to distribute the money across the UK Administrations based on the historic allocations formulae used for all other CAP money allocations. That meant that Scotland only received 16.3 per cent of the uplift, despite being the only part of the UK on average, below the EU's convergence threshold. There is no doubt that this was neither equitable nor within the spirit of the EU's aims for convergence. This Government tried to prevent it from happening. My predecessor, Richard Lochhead, co-responded furiously with his UK Government counterparts. The Parliament agreed unanimously to support the case for repatriation of convergence funding, all to little avail. The UK Government would not budge. On being appointed Rural Economy Secretary, I took up the cudgels and was determined, frankly, not to lay them down again until every avenue had been explored and every effort made to win Scotland's case. I brought the issue back to Parliament to secure, once again, the on-going support across the chamber in October 2017. In addition, I engaged stakeholders including NFU Scotland, Scottish Tenant Farmers Association, Scottish Land and Estates, the Scottish Beef Association, the National Sheep Association in Scotland and the Scottish Crofters Federation. They all agreed to work in partnership with us to press the case with the UK Government, and they did so. I want to thank them all for helping to keep this matter firmly at the forefront of UK ministers' minds. The UK Government might have imagined that the issue would fade away with the prospect of Brexit, but, if anything, that only served to underscore the urgency of the matter and, indeed, the necessity of resolving it. Therefore, I determined to raise this and raise this at every opportunity with the then DEFRA Secretary, Michael Gove. Whilst I suspect that I may simply have worn him down, Presiding Officer, I must in fairness convey my gratitude to him for finally agreeing in late 2017 to conduct a review. We might not have got, ultimately, the terms of reference that we wanted, with a focus solely on future funding allocations, a change in the planned terms of reference that I understand was made at the behest of the UK Treasury, but, under the chairmanship of Lord Bewe, there has been a review undertaken. I want to thank, firstly, the Scottish Government officials for their input to making Scotland's case robustly to the panel, and, secondly, I want to thank Scotland's representative on the BU panel, Jim Walker, for his sterling efforts on behalf of Scottish Farming, and for all the time that he has devoted to it. Jim has ensured that Scotland's case and voice has been heard, and he has applied himself to the task asked of him with customary gusto and tenacity. Frankly, we could not have asked for more. I understand that the review has reached its conclusions and I look forward to those being published. I do hope that the review panel has accepted Scotland's case as both substantial and compelling. Support has come from perhaps surprising quarters in recent times. Many may have been surprised by Boris Johnson in his campaign to be elected to lead the Conservative Party unequivocally promised to pay out the additional funding to Scottish Farming in 2020 and, again, in 2021. Although I do not intend to make a habit of it, I am happy on this singular occasion to say that I agree with the Prime Minister that we must make sure that Scotland's farmers get the support that they are owed. Where I would disagree with him is the idea that this historic injustice, to use the phrase that he deployed, was as a result of the CAP. The historic injustice was caused entirely by his predecessor Government. What matters at this point is that he is willing to put matters right, and therefore I welcome his further pledge, given to an SNP-MP in the House of Commons chamber, so to do. What concerns me is that subsequent exchanges with DEFRA and my colleague Derek Mackay with the Treasury have not confirmed that the £160 million that Scotland is owed will be transferred. My intention today is to encourage this Parliament once again to unite in calling on the Prime Minister to make good his promise and to do so swiftly. Further, I hope that I can secure support in affirming, as we did in a debate earlier this year, that agriculture is a devolved competence. It is a policy responsibility that we have been dealing with for two decades now, and that we send a very clear message to the Prime Minister, to DEFRA and the Treasury, and to anyone else in the UK Government who needs to hear that message. If we receive the £160 million that is owed to Scottish farming and future allocations as pledged, all the funding comes and comes without strings, there can be no attempt to bind or to determine the way in which the funding is to be used or disseminated. That, Presiding Officer, is this Parliament's responsibility. I want to reassure members on this Government's intentions should we receive what we have been promised. I can announce today that I have secured the agreement of my colleague Derek Mackay, the finance secretary, that all additional convergence funding received will be ring-fenced for agriculture. That is only right and proper, given its origins and its purpose. That is what this Government will do. I understand that people want to get on with spending that funding, but I would caution that we have yet to receive any funding and that we cannot spend, Presiding Officer, warm words. Today, I hope that we can come together as a Parliament and focus on the final part of the six-year-long campaign to ensure its success and delivery of the funding owed to Scottish farming. In doing so, Presiding Officer, and in moving towards closing, I would offer the reflection that this Parliament is often at its best when it can act together and support with one voice a campaign to repatriate money that plainly is in the interests of our farmers and our crofters, who face very real and pressing challenges in the short and medium term, as all of us know. Therefore, Presiding Officer, I urge all colleagues in all parties to use their opportunity today to reaffirm their party's support for the repatriation of the convergence funding owed to Scottish farming in the hope and belief that our collective efforts will shortly result in success. Scotland's farmers and crofters deserve no less. Mr Ewing, the cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement, and I can allow around 18 minutes—very prescriptive today—for questions, and then we will move on. I declare an interest as a partner in the farming business. I thank the cabinet secretary for prior sight of his statement. We all agree in this chamber that this EU convergence fund should have come in its entirety to Scottish agriculture. There has always been cross-party support for this stance. The cabinet secretary recognises many of the organisations that have made the argument, but he neglects to mention the 12 new Scottish Conservative MPs that were elected last year, who have also been working hard to achieve a successful result. The Prime Minister has promised to deliver the fund to Scotland, and we will hold him to account on that promise. However, given the complete lack of planning by this Government for future agricultural support, when this money is delivered, how does the cabinet secretary propose to spend it? Let me say that it will not be acceptable to spend this money on any one sector of Scottish agriculture. It must be delivered right across all sectors, and not just used to plug a hole in LFASS payments created by this Government's inability to plan ahead. Can the cabinet secretary promise that he will not use it to do just that? Fergus Ewing. I think that I did discern that support there for the campaign in a positive start. Therefore, I welcome that. I welcome that politicians elected representatives of Scotland have supported this campaign. In all seriousness, I think that when we can act together, that helps to deliver results. I hope that that will be the case on this occasion, and that is why I am approaching the debate in this way. As to the disbursement of the money, let me make one thing clear. If I promise to you that the cheque is in the post, your reaction, I suspect, may well be one of scepticism. The cheque is not only not in the post, it is not yet signed, and it is not written yet. Therefore, it is premature to start spending money that we have not got. I think that that is a pretty solid message that every farmer in Scotland would understand. However, I have already given the absolute assurance that Mr Mackay, who I have consulted on this in the formal way that is absolutely appropriate in government, has confirmed that this money will be used and used solely for Scottish agriculture. I think that that assurance, which I have announced today, is very welcome. Lastly, Mr Chapman used the phrase, plug the hole in elfast funding. That is not correct. There is no hole in elfast funding. The problem is that the rules that are attached to elfast mean that the payments may have to go from 100 per cent to 80 per cent next year. That is something about which I have indicated previously my determination to do what I can to maintain income for hard-pressed farmers, our hill farmers and elfast farmers, who I think are perhaps those who need it most. I fully intend to make good that promise. It would help, if the UK can make good its promise, and that would allow us to provide a real boost to agriculture at those challenging times. Colin Smyth, I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of his statement. Labour fully supports all efforts to end the convergence fund in justice and give Scotland's farmers what frankly is rightly theirs. We should remember that it was as a result of Scotland's low cap support payment per hectare that the UK was awarded the convergent uplift in the first place. We urge the UK Government to set a date for the publication of the view review as a matter of urgency. The cabinet secretary will know that those who receive the lowest level of support are Scotland's hill farmers and crofters. We will ensure that those funds will be used for convergence, and that means that hill farming and crofting will be prioritised in any allocation of support in the future. Fergus Ewing I welcome support from Colin Smyth and the Labour Party. I genuinely welcome it. Across the chamber, I hope and expect that that will be the case. Let us be quite clear about that. If we argue amongst ourselves all the time, it makes it more difficult to achieve things for Scotland. What gets me up in the morning is doing good for Scotland. In this case, writing a wrong, which has existed for six long years, I think that Colin Smyth makes a very good point that many of those who are in the greatest need are those who are farming in our marginal uplands, our hill farms and our island areas. It is right, therefore, that they should benefit from the convergence monies if, indeed, the promise is implemented by the Prime Minister. I think that we agree in principle that that is the case. Forgive me, Presiding Officer, but I want to see the colour of money in the bank account before we announce decisions about how to spend it. We will move on to open questions. If we have succinct questions and answers, we should get through them all. Emma Harper is followed by Edward Mountain. I thank the cabinet secretary for his continued pursuit of the convergence monies issue. Can he explain a wee bit more about what the BUE review was set up to do? Will he join me in calling for the Secretary of State for Scotland to urge his cabinet colleagues to write this wrong? The terms of the reference of the BUE review were originally to look at why it was the case that the €223 million was not applied to Scottish farmers as was intended by the EU. Indeed, that was the intention of Michael Gove, as discussed in the 6 November 2017, and discussed again in February 2018. However, the Treasury appeared to have intervened and altered the terms of reference. Instead of looking at what happened and why it happened and why UK Government ministers took the decision that they did not to provide this money to Scottish farmers, and what advice was given to UK ministers? Instead of that, the BUE review's remit was solely to look at the forward two years and the convergence monies that are expected to be available for those two years. Whilst we welcome that limited remit, it does not really implement the promise that Owen Paterson first made six years ago. Edward Mountain, followed by Stuart Steedons. Thank you, Presiding Officer, if I remember to my register of interest. In a rare moment of agreement with you, cabinet secretary, I agree with you that the convergent money should have come to Scotland and they will. Will the cabinet secretary therefore please guarantee to the farmers that were disadvantaged by this historic injustice that they will be top of the list when it comes to making sure that the situation is right? Fergus Ewing. I welcome that statement from Mr Mountain and all members who are supporting this case and are being followed through and the payment is being made. I, too, hope and I expect that the payment will be made. It is very serious. It is a real opportunity and it is one that I intend to make the most of. In direct responses question, I think that those whose land was such that they were farming land, which was of the low average per hectare, are those who should be included in those who are entitled to benefit from the convergent money plainly. There is a lot of solid work that will need to be done to make sure that we do just that. I also think that those are, as Mr Smith has said, among the people who need help most. I met many of them, for example, at the Lochaber show just a couple of weeks ago with my colleague Kate Forbes. They are having a tough time—a tough time—as our farmers throughout parts of Scotland, where farming is a tough, tough existence and job. I am determined that they should benefit from this convergent money once, of course, in our bank. Stuart Stevenson, followed by Rhoda Grant. Can I welcome the comments from the Conservative members that indicate that the money would come to Scotland? Does the cabinet secretary share my concerns that the decision-making power as to how it may be distributed might be retained at Westminster? In the light of remarks from the new Secretary of State for Scotland about their taking control over spending money in Scotland, is it simply a new minister being naive or is he being mendacious? I do not think that I am going to stray into talking about mendacity today, if I am saying of course that you may be pleased to hear. However, I have some concerns. There have been suggestions—a number of them—and I will not go into them all if there is not enough time. There may have been or may still be some intention to try to attach strings about how the money is deployed should it be repatriated. That would be entirely wrong. It would be a breach of devolution. It would be a predation of our powers and we would not be willing to accept such conditions. I hope that reason will prevail, however, and that will not be the case. I have also indicated clearly that there is a reasonable common ground about the main thrust about how the lion's share of the funding should be deployed. I, too, support efforts to get those convergence funds back to Scotland and the cabinet secretary's indication that it will be directed to those in most disadvantaged areas. Can I ask if the cap IT system would be able to distribute the funds, especially if they are to be distributed to those who are most in need? Yes, I am confident that the cap system and the operation of it would not be an obstacle to distribution of funds. I should say that those funds were intended to have been distributed over the period 214 to 220 over that seven-year period. It was not intended that the money would be distributed from 2019 onward. Therefore, we have to be very careful in examining the strictures of the cap system in terms of state aid, in particular, and the terminamies rule. We have to weigh up all that carefully. However, of course, the EU did intend that those who are most in need of this money should get it, and therefore I am hopeful and confident that we will be able to find a way so to do. John Finnie, followed by Mike Rumbles. Cabinet Secretary, I commend you and your predecessor's efforts on this in a roundly condemn the UK, the duplicity of the UK Government for its treatment of this. You talked in your statement and in applying about doing good and need, cabinet secretary, and you said that money would be directed to agriculture. Is there an opportunity to do good and address need by directing some of it to the crofting housing grant scheme, please? The crofting housing grant scheme is pretty much separate from that. I had not thought of that. Obviously, I am happy to consider any suggestions that I get, including from Mr Finnie, if he wants to write to me on that. I would say that, from memory, the crofting grant scheme has been extremely helpful to enable us to help several hundred of crofters throughout the mainland highlands, and particularly in the western alf's Dr Allan's constituency. I have been a forthright advocate and a determined deliverer of funding to do just that, but it is an interesting point, and I will consider it. However, I tend to think that my first reaction is that it is not quite what the convergence money was intended for. Mike Rumbles, followed by Alasdair Allan. I agree that those funds should be due to Scottish farmers and crofters, but the varied statements of our Prime Minister on so many varied issues might not be so very sound. Having asked for Lord Buw's review and the review having reached its conclusions, will the Scottish Government accept its findings when they are published, and does he expect the Prime Minister to accept them, too? I am hopeful that the findings will be admirable than the ones that we can support. I had the opportunity to give evidence to Lord Buw, and I thought that the response that I had from him and his team was very positive. I got the impression that he understood the arguments, and I got the impression that perhaps there was a tacit acceptance that the arguments, which are not very complicated, were accepted. I am hopeful of the results. I do not think that I can say in advance that we accept conclusions of a report that has not yet been delivered, but I am hopeful that the Prime Minister, who has made one of the most unequivocal promises that I have ever seen in 20 years in politics, will make good that promise. I hope and expect that that will happen and sooner rather than later. Alasdair Allan. The issue of convergence funding is, of course, not made any easier or fairer as the prospect of anodial Brexit draws closer, with potentially disastrous consequences for sheep and beef producers in the Western Isles. Beyond the very welcome loan scheme that is now under way, what else can now be done to provide some much-needed financial clarity for farmers and crofters as they make their plans for the future? Fergus Ewing. The position is that, on the loan scheme, in respect of the pillar 1 payments, at this time we have issued 15,570 offers worth 394 million euros. That is entirely separate from convergence. That is 95 per cent of the eligible population. After the first week, over 7,500 loan offers have been returned and I would urge all farmers and crofters in Dr Allan's constituency to return their offer as quickly as is possible. If they do so, the intention is and my expectation is that we will deliver payments of nearly 400 million euros if everybody accepts their offers within as early a period as possible, starting the first week in October. I would really like to praise the team of officials in Arped that have been administering the scheme. It is very complicated. They have done it now for a few years. It is money that farmers and crofters will receive before 31 October, before the possibility of a no-deal Brexit, and it is money that will go into the rural economy to pay bills, to pay bills of feed merchants, contractors and other supply chains in the agriculture sector. That is a very important piece of work. It is probably the main practical thing that we are doing to prepare to mitigate, as far as we can, the consequences of a no-deal Brexit. That concludes questions on the ministerial statement on repatriation of convergence funds owed to Scottish farming. Apologies to Donald Cameron, David Torrance, Alex Rowley and Richard Lyle for being unable to take the questions. We will move on to the next item of business. The next item of business is consideration of two parliamentary bureau motions. Could I ask Graeme Dey, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau, to move motions 18641 on committee membership and 18642 on substitutions on committees? The questions on the two motions will be put at decision time, to which we now come. I propose to ask a single question. Does any member object? No, that is good. The question is that motions 18641 and 18642, in the name of Graeme Dey and behalf of the bureau, be agreed or well agreed. We are agreed, and that concludes decision time. We will move on shortly to members' business, in the name of Claudia Beamish, on towards an independent Palestinian state. We are just going to take a few moments for members and the minister to change seats. A few moments.


Hello and welcome to this session in which I will go over the current CPA exam auditing and attestation section and compare it to the CPA evolution 2024, which is the CPA exam changes. Now can you guess which one is the current exam and which one is the new exam? And I guess you can't, why? Because they both have the same four section, one, two, three, four, which is ethics and professional responsibilities and general principle, assessing risk and developing a planned response, performing further procedures and obtaining evidence and forming conclusion and reporting. It's not only the sections are the same, the weight for each section, section 115 to 25, section 225 to 35, section 3, 30 to 40, and section 4, 10 to 20. So the first thing is the topics are basically the same and the weight is basically the same. Now what I'm going to do in this session, I'm going to go through each section separately, starting with one, two, three, four, and break it down by the subsection and see what happened, what are the changes that's occurring between the current audit and the new core that's going to be tested starting January 1st, 2024. Let's go ahead and get started. Before we proceed any further, I have a public announcement about my company, farhatlectures.com. Farhat Accounting Lectures is a supplemental educational tool that's going to help you with your CPA exam preparation as well as your accounting courses. My CPA material is aligned with your CPA review course such as Becker, Roger, Wiley, Gleam, Miles. My accounting courses are aligned with your accounting courses broken down by chapter and topics. My resources consist of lectures, multiple choice questions, true-false questions, as well as exercises. Go ahead, start your free trial today, no obligation, no credit card required. So the format will be the following. I will have the area on the top, for example this is area one and the weight which is going to be the area one and within each area you're going to have this section, for example, old A, new A, then if there's any major changes or something I need to discuss, I will discuss further. So starting with area one, section A, nature and scope. This nature and scope, old A, move to the new C, so it's no longer A. So what happens to A? A became ethics, independent and professional responsibilities. This area used to be B. So all what we are seeing here is some shifting. So notice the old B used to be ethics, independence and professional contact. Now the old B moved to A, nothing unusual. Now what is the new B? The new B, we have a new section called professional skepticism and professional judgment. Hold on a second. Is this really a new section? This used to be part of old B. So this top topic, professional skepticism and professional judgment used to be part of ethics, independence and professional conduct. Now the first thing you would say is well obviously if they are having a section called professional skepticism and professional judgment, they must be covering this topic more in depth. Well let's see. Let's take a look at the details, not really. Let's take a look at the old tasks. Understand the concept of professional skepticism and professional judgment. Understand personal bias and other impediment to acting with professional skepticism such as threats, incentives and judgment, judgment making shortcuts. Let's take a look at the new one. Understand the concept of professional skepticism and professional judgment. Exactly the same. Understand unconscious auditor biases and other impediment to acting with professional skepticism including threat, incentive and judgment shortcut. I would say the same. So notice although they have a professional skepticism as a new area, I don't see any changes. And even on the testing level, they have the same testing level which is understanding and remembering. It's the lowest level. Why did they have it as a separate area? Other than shifting things around, I don't see any value because even from A, from the tasks and from the level, it's exactly the same. Let's move on. Moving to area C. Old C, it used to be terms of engagement. Now they moved it to B. So this one becomes a new B. The new C is nature and scope which used to be old A which is once we shifted all A, we're going to have all the shifting. The old B used to be a requirement for engagement documentation, which is documentation. Now this moved to the new E. Well, again, this became the new E. The new E is the documentation. It used to be old A. Old E used to be communication with management and those charged with governance. This becomes the new F. This becomes the new F. I'm sorry, this becomes the old E became the new F. Communication with management and those charged with governance used to be old E. Now it's the new F. The old F, a firm system of quality control including quality control at the engagement level. This is move to G. This move to G. And again, if we look at the quality control, just give you an example. This is the old requirement. Recognize the CPA responsibilities for its accounting and auditing practices, system of quality control, apply quality control procedures on an engagement. The new is called audit and quality control. The reason I want to show you because the titles look different, but let's take a look at it. Identify a CPA firm responsibilities for its accounting and auditing practice engagement quality. Explain procedure and responsibilities for managing engagement quality. I'm telling you it's a different language. It's the same thing for me. It's the same thing. Although they call it here a firm system of quality control here, they call it audit and insurance quality. I believe it's the same. Conclusion for Area 1. I see no serious changes in Area 1. Some shifting around no serious changes. Again, some topics might be, I did not check each topic, whether it's going to be tested on a different level, but it doesn't matter. In my opinion, once you know a topic, you need to be answered the questions about that topic from easy, medium to medium slash difficult, but no serious changes. Area 2. Again, Area 2, the weight is the same, starting with old A, planning and engagement, new A, planning and engagement, old B, understanding an entity and its environment, new B, understanding an entity and its environment. Area C. Area C, there's a topic called old C, understanding an entity's control environment and business processes, including IT system. Well, the same title except all what I see is they remove the section, which is controlled environment, IT general control and entity level control. I am assuming they're moving to the information system and control to the specialty. That's the only thing I saw different. Area 2, old A, assessing risk due to fraud, including discussions among engagement team about the risk of material in the statement due to fraud and error, this moved to E. And the new D is a section called materiality. And this is not really a new section. This used to be the old F. So they moved the old F, they made it the new D. The old E used to be identifying and assessing risk of material in the statement, whether due to error and fraud. Remember, now the new E assessing and responding the risk of material in the statement, whether due to error or fraud. So simply put, the new E covers this assessing and responding to fraud. So the new E cover basically what we called an auditing frauditing, all the fraud topics. Old area F, remember old area F used to be materiality. It became the new D. New area F planning for and using other other the work of others used to be all the G. Now it's the new F. The older G used to be planning for and using the work of others became the new F. The new G specific areas of engagement risk used to be old H. Old H used to be specific area of engagement risk. The only thing is they moved something called accounting estimate to area three and there is no area H anymore. What is the conclusion from this whole section, which is 25 to 35 percent, the removal of this topic. That's the only thing that I see was removed. Let's take a look at area three, which is represented 30 to 40 percent. Old A, sufficient and appropriate evidence. This topic is moved to B. We're going to see what happened to few things in this topic. This was not removed. This was this is wrong. So the new A, we have a new A use of data and information. This use of data of information is requesting, preparing, transforming data, reliability of data and information and data analytics. This used to be some of it was tested and audit and some of it was tested in BEC, likely in BEC, but this I would say this is a new area in the audit, in the core audit. Now, since this is a new area, I believe it's worth looking at the details of this area. So basically here, we have three tasks, which is requesting, not three tasks, three subtopics, one, two and three, requesting and preparing, requesting, preparing and transforming data. Here are the tasks, explain the component of relational database, explain the characteristic and use of different measurement scale, determine attribute structure format and sources of data needed, determine the method to transform the data, basically cleaning the data, reliability of data information, perform procedures to validate the reliability of data and data analytics. Again, some of it used to be covered in the old section, but this is basically a new section. Here is new information. They are emphasizing the use of data and this section is basically, I would say new, although some of it was tested before, but this is new because it's now its own section. Old B used to be general procedure to obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence. The new B called sufficient and appropriate evidence, which is basically the old A. The old A becomes the new B. The old A becomes the new B. The old C used to be specific procedures to obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence, also this move to D, some of the topic move to D, analytical procedures move to new D, external confirmation move to the new D, and they used to have audit data analytics, move to the data analytics in A for more coverage. So what's the new C? The new C is called sampling technique. This is by its term new, which was part of old A. Old A used to be about evidence and within evidence, they have sampling technique, but now on the new exam, they're emphasizing more on sampling. So you have to do more sampling for the new exam. Old area D, specific matters that require special consideration. This area, this is the topics that were covered in it. It's moved to, it's moved to E. Remember this accounting estimate was moved from area two to area three. This moved to E and they added a small topic, which we'll see on the next slide. The new D is procedure to obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence, which would include analytical procedure, which I told you it's moved to D and external confirmation. They were moved to D from C, from the old C, and they have here test of controls. Old E, misstatement of internal deficiencies. This is moved to the new F and it's basically the same F. So this old E became the same, exactly the new F. The new E, specific matters. This was used to be the old D. Now it's becoming the new E and they added to it one more thing, uniform guidance for single audit. They added this topic here. Old F, written representation. Now it's the new G. So old F, now it's the new G. The new F is misstatement of internal control used to be the old E. Nothing changing, shifting around. The old G used to be subsequent event and subsequently discovered fact. They moved to H and old H, we did not have an old H. Overall, the summary for section three, it's I believe has the most changes. I shouldn't have told you this before I looked at four, but that's fine. We have a new section about data analytics and more emphasis on sampling. Area four, forming conclusion and reporting, basically the same weight, report on auditing engagement, report on auditing engagement, almost the same. Old B, report on attestation engagement and we had the general standard for attestation, agreed upon procedures, reporting on control at service organization. This section is removed. And anything that has to do with SOC service organization, this is moved to the specialty ISC. Now the new B is examination or review almost the same as this one and agreed upon procedures, agreed upon procedures. Old C, accounting and review service engagement. New C, accounting and review service engagement. Old D, reporting on compliance. New D, reporting on compliance. E, other reporting consideration. E, other reporting consideration. They just, the only thing that I noticed real quick is there is no other country framework. Summary four B, they removed the service organization issues. They removed it from the section because service organization SOC one, SOC two and SOC three, they're all going to be major topic in the ISC specialty. Overall summary for area one, no serious changes. For area two, they removed the section. For area three, they added the data analytics, emphasis more on sampling. Area four, again, they moved this service organization to the ISC. Overall, no major changes. No major changes. Whether you take the audit exam now or whether you take the audit exam and the court 2024, they removed some topic and they added some topic. Overall, it's the same. So that should not, should not factor into your consideration. If you want to take the auditing exam, unless you really don't like data, data analytics, that's the only major thing that's being changed here, which is under area three. If you want to see the more details and if you don't like sampling, if you don't like those two, like, you know what, I want to get rid of the auditing now, that's fine. Otherwise, I see no major changes, no serious changes overall. That's my opinion. I will be covering the ISC later on and BEC and I did cover already FAR and and Rag, you can take a look at those recording. Again, make the make the decision and and bar as well. NTCP, I covered all of them. Make the decision that best fits your personal circumstances. Know the fact and make the decision. But audit, I would say should be no, like either or it's the same in my opinion. Good luck, everyone. Visit FARHAT lectures for additional resources and stay safe.


your head about what's going to happen. Right? Right. 19. 19. 20. 20. 8th report. 360 though. Let's go! You see no enemy.


Greetings. Hi, I'm Jeffrey Gio Bryan, the director of lunch poems. I'm really happy to have all of you invisible people out there or in here having made the good decision to let your day be interrupted by an incredible poet, Roger Reeves. We're really happy to have him here with us. I'm just going to talk a little bit about his poetry and then hand it over to Roger who will read for about 30 minutes or so. In a poem from Roger's 2013 book King Me, called Brazil, which is prominently about diaspora, the speaker considers sort of competing with someone to whom he's speaking about the sort of inventory of national traumas and suffering and regionalized suffering that is black in its character and then basically decides not to compete for that kind of suffering award because it's so deeply distributed everywhere. And there's this incredible moment where when he decides not to indicate all the things that have happened in the US around anti-blackness, he says, the symphony hall of atrocities in which every seat is full. This is an amazing moment for entering Roger's work in general because it speaks not only to the desire to witness, document, critique, and reenter spaces of suffering historically and present. But also because he can't do that without thinking about art, right? It's not the warehouse of atrocities, right? Or the military base of atrocities. It's the symphony hall.  Which is to say Roger is always thinking about how art can be used to document, enact, revisit pain and pleasure in ways that aren't mere aestheticization that don't guild, that don't only decorate. In Roger's poems, the casket is open, bodies are decomposing, although decomposition is of course the condition of future life.  So in Roger, we're always going to hear intense thick music, intense patterning, even as he takes on all of those things that disrupt our attempts to produce stability and pattern in our lives. Or when he's taking on the horrific patterns that trade and traverse and attack our lives. I think I'm just going to end there and let you hear what I'm talking about. Roger, over to you. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. So, my name is Roger Reeves, as has been said, I just want to give you a little bit of the ambience that we're in. It's thundering and lightning here in Austin, Texas. So you might catch some of that in the background. We are in the middle of quarantine slash the summer, the end of the summer of unrest that hopefully will continue in terms of the protesting. And so, and also my daughter might come down at any time out of her nap and disturb or enter, right, let's not bother disturbance enter, and so enter with us so just giving you a little bit of background, what we might be contending with. So I'm just going to launch in. And let's go. Grendel. All lines must lean into something other than a roar. James Baldwin, for instance, singing Precious Lord. His voice is weary as water broken over his scalp in a storefront sanctified churches baptismal pool. All those years ago, when he wanted to be somebody's child. And on fire in that being. Lord, I want to be somebody's child and chosen water spilling over their scalp. Water, taking the shape of their longing. A deer diving into evening traffic in the furrow drawn in the air over the hood of the car power and wanting to be something alive and open. Lord, I want to be alive and open. A glimpse of power, the shuffle of a mother's hand over a sleeping child's forehead, as if clearing the city's rust from its face, which we are mostly are a halo of rust, a glimpse of power. James Baldwin leaning into the word light, his voice jostling that single grain in his throat, as if he might drop it or already has. I'm calling to that grain of light to that gap between his teeth, where the many of us fatherless sleep and bear and be whatever darkness or leaping thing. In James Baldwin's mouth, my difficult beauty, my weak and worn, my future as any number of angels, which is not unlike the beast, Grendel coming out of the wild heaven into the hills and halls of the meat house at the heart this call with absolute prophecy in his breast and a desire for mercy for a friend and end to drifting in loneliness and in that coming down out of the hills out of the trees for once bringing humans, the best vision of themselves, which of course, must be slaughtered. Fragment 107. Do I long for my virginity, Sappho asked from the fragments from the sun bright blades and horns of dawn clattering on the floor. From inside a tomb, her office now the old heaven of pleasure, where a God that had been ignored can be called down with its peers and oblivion to a couch or field and submit a body, a lover to the distress of love. And the God comes because God's too need and are lonely and are generally unneeded, accepted matters that cannot be mastered, which are most matters and the shadow of those matters from what you call Sappho. Do I long for my virginity. Why, why Sappho, this marble beneath my tongue, this shadow, this stone across my face, this 30 year memory spreading out over me, as if I could forget its claws confusion. It's flashing bells in violation, the virtue, the virtue of violation. Is there no end.  Is there no end, no way to drive this from me, me arriving bewildered boy naked below the waist in the dark untouched forever awaiting a touch. Do I long for my virginity Sappho confession.  Where, where is the end of being who I was, who I am, who will waking me from the dark from dawn yell, Roger, Roger, you are yet alive and mostly, mostly free for black children at the end of the world and the beginning. You are in the car burning beneath the highway and rising above it. Not as smoke, but what calls it to rise.  Chrysalis hanging on the bow of this night in the burning world. Burn, baby, burn. Anvil and iron be thy name, yea though ye may walk among the harness heat enhancement who bear their master's hunger for paradise and your rabbit death in the beheading of your ghost.   Laugh, laugh at the assassins on the roofs for the time of the assassin is also the time of hysterical laughter. Black child, you are the walking on of water without the need of an approving master. You are in a beautiful language.  So yeah, so I'm reading some poems, you know, you're supposed to talk in between poems sometimes, but for some reason I just feel like reading. I don't know if it's just the steadiness of the rain. But I just feel like, let's just read together. Let's just sort of be here. It feels very, I feel very close to you. I don't know, even though I can't see nobody. This feels very intimate for some reason today, probably because this is my first reading doing something like this. And I feel like I'm talking to myself. So this one's called poem. And I think my homie so much for the title poem. Many are the names of the gods, and many the gods with no names. Many of the shadows cast by wasp plow, and many are born of shadows of wasp dying in the flesh of a fig of plow figging the flesh of the land. Many have come back to the land, the house of their former occupation, found their beds slept in their flower sifted baked into small loaves of bread, cooling on a white windowsill that once held salt and several mistakes, of which a rose was one. It sent still by the door. The rose is an old language of which the new masters believe better burned, buried, rightened by a cemetery wall, the corpse of which they are resurrected spine of the rose, less its thorns. I stay close to the rose in disaster for reasons still son up in the fig, the wasp dying in its rising rose. Tonight, the rose is an evasion of power. Of saying Palestine, the clinic in Hebron demolish days after the clinic is in the pandemic unaware, resting its way over summer, several mistakes, salt hills, and the people quarantine upon them, which is the wasp plowing the flesh of the fig, or is it the wasp in fig plowed under the shadow of power. God, pandemic, occupation, the is, is, is of Israel, my tongue, more willing to hold a rose than cut down the tree of this, because black hands make the American silver shine, whether held above our heads as in Heavenly Father, don't shoot or hanging on the handles of a plow. Black hands, silver the river, make shine, and the rose red peas on Sapello Island. If I get this wrong, then I get it wrong. The gods, the new masters, the rose in its old language, the gucci, my people trying to save their land from occupation from the new masters with a rose hidden inside a white hull. The dead still facing east in their graves. Tonight, the rose is evidence of power. After death, to get the light and dead coming through the window without distinguishing one from the other is the day with and without its mastery, stumbling upon a dead deer in a neighbor's field. Knowing it was left there for you, not his muse, but as memory dropped, broken off. Death no longer concerned with this beast that once covered a field with the white breath of its longing, because the animal is beyond death, and death has no interest in what is beyond it. So now it's off to stare at the barely standing there drunk, swaying beneath two sides, hanging on two boards above his raised eyes, the afternoon drifting into doorways. Death now in a pocket of pines in the thick hair of a boy who turns a skunk over with a stick, watching the Christmas of its intestines steam in the snow. Death touching the boy where it is, he will know him beneath the arm, as if raising him up to this common understanding. Desire is everywhere in this field, even in me, who was not in this field, but from my many windows, watching the night's dark light fall and dwell in its falling, which sends me stumbling to my newborn's invisible breathing, wanting to ensure my invisible holds, my thick branch finger stretched beneath her nose, me wondering, what is beyond death? And what is this rage in darkness? And my father, what is he other than dead? Rage in so much light, in so much light. Hope y'all doing all right out there. Keep it moving. We're going, I think this one will take us up a bit. We'll see. Into the West. It would seem clear that no one can call upon thee without knowing thee. Though Augustine, St. Augustine writes of God here, notorious for his absence. He could be speaking of desire. Pleasure, the tick of snow against the dry leaves, which sends my daughter spinning on her heel, the sound of it, that, Addy, that, sometimes the world, its lording joy is just a that, an absence that calls, demonstrates its overnairness, its being but without a proper name. So a silent sounded, as when I entered the clearing I once begged for, you, at an instant, absolute, and looking back at me, as if witnessing a calendar, a road you've already passed through. So my face now, whatever wolf, vulture, or golden horn of pleasure, that, a ticking of snow against the wet road. Nameless thee, where you've been and left the body of that being. So I, so I hurry and press into your leaving like a leaf, scuttling after the dream of itself, into the sharp wet of the snow against the skin. On into the West, where desire and sometimes pleasure is a type of faith, what you call me to in this spilling, this motion of night, your hair loose in the water of your back, your spine has become the eye you wish for me to see through. But I must close my two good eyes, which is the beginning of any apocalypse or rapture, our daughter, or the day, us touching the north and south of each other, without compass or rose, this stumbling, a type of faith to a scene, but without the dependence on site, or some heavenly ruin as signal of an end. It was like the deer outside, gathering at the window, looking the cold glass, the smoke. I think I'm gonna switch up the order a little bit. Let's see. Let's see what we got. Yeah, let's bring this one. Let's bring this one through. Yeah, let's bring this one through. I always have to have a little improvisation.   I'm interested in the way that like, you know, this critique can be turned on his head or his, his lyric can be turned on its head and turn it to a critique. And so I was writing this poem, because I was trying to think through this and the death of Bert de César Flores, who was an activist and Honduras, who was killed. You know, and just thinking about these things and so I don't know if the whole poem will last but I do know that I do have this one section. That's kind of cool. Just to give you some of the illusion delusory moments. There's a quote I use from Jack Johnson. He was asked why do white women love black men so much. He said because we eat cold eels and think distant thoughts, which is a great, great response like that's the best response to a question that should never be asked I'm going to use that I use that anytime someone's asked me something I think it's stupid because because we eat cold eels and think distant thoughts. And Gertrude Stein appears. Try to think. There's any other oh there's another moment from Frederick Douglass that appears so there's all these sort of. I was just trying to be free when I wrote this poem so let's see if I if I got there. So future from beyond the voice of God. What shall be done with the demand for more selfies selfies of the crow in the wheat in the wheat knocking against the window selfies of my daughter hooting like an owl and beating the back of her cage, the back of her bones selfies of Wittgenstein's eyes settling on the back of a crow, which is the back of a boy delivering milk to the door of his mother where language began begins Gertrude Stein over the Stombergase eating salt fish and conch fritters with Amése Zaire, more selfies of Negroes from Niger New Orleans, blue black in the blue black in the winter of summer and East St. Laurent glasses and pinafores of light pinned to the eyes. No church in the wild, but more selfies of Susie Asada buck dancing on balustrades near the nigger cemeteries, where the chariot swung so low, we just called them commas.    We need more selfies selfies of Frederick Douglass his pen removed from the gashes in his feet and writing hot checks for Rolexes and Rivers, our bodies just can't cash weighed in the water weighed in the water children.  I'm out of time. So selfie. I'm healthy.  Echo from the mountains. Unicorns brought the news of human reason to the border. So we gas them. It was unlike the echo of guitars and a stone cathedral or midnight crow landing snow in a field of wheat. Their deaths had a magpie's clarity for prophecy. In the bits of Maine, snag flags in the tines of the border fence, prophecy in the blood blotting the stones that winked at us as if saying you to you to will become the clock of your disappearance. Leviathan night stick tear gas the century barely beyond its birth rattle had become a banker riding the green back of a brown stallion to dust and bone. Who will shoot the century in the heart. Who will take a selfie with the corpse wearing a sign that reads your selfie will not save you from your corpse. It's ruptured spleen it's begging and blank labor. Every century falls below the imagination of itself, then takes the shape of its falling 401k Roth IRA short term bond funds for his fire. A crow is the emperor of any domain that capitulates to the whistle and weather of crows. No angel will come and bear these migrant deaths beyond this bird in human reason. Someone called it a miracle, the gassing that it could be done remotely with various devices and no one harmed. Another who is dead said it reminded him of getting a haircut on Good Friday.  The mark of visibility is often mistaken for the mark of absence. All desire is shaped by the delusion of consent. Who has not been an entryway shattering in the wind of another's want arose, nailed to some dark longing and bled. All right, I'm gonna be out of to Paul morning. So we can focus back in get back here. American landscaping Philadelphia to Mount Vernon. Who would have thought too much simultaneously. This one planters hovering above the wind beaten statue of the Virgin Mary that cast her gaze down on the repainted lawn jockey.  This is America calling the golden pollen of spring blinging every available sedan stone porch puddle and satin blouse hanging from a smiling white line into yellow salvation or forgiveness. A black dog antique in its hunger for my daughter's hand through a fence. My daughter in her machine and wonder willing to give it is as if every moment is praying for whatever is above it or just outside its grass. The dog for a hand along jockey holding his absent lantern out in front of him for the Virgin whose eyes no longer there January to weigh by the blizzards salt and when stutter with a brown streak.  Even the flies in the earliest part of this sentence twitch above the sidewalk as if being accused of neglect and fantasize murder ending the empire in order to start another in their own image. But what is an empire fashioned in the image of flies. mistake.  It's not a jockey who stands on the wind and paving stones like jockel graves, the slave of general Washington, who froze to death, it unfolded in the snow on the banks of the Delaware River, his lantern out in front of him, awaiting his master's return. He was murdered in Washington, so moved by graves frozen obedience constructs a statue of dead graves, holding a lamp at his plantation home in Mount Vernon, even in death, a slave must labor, though I knew nothing of these clothes. I went on a ferris wheel, overlooking the muddy syringe and bottle banks of Philadelphia, I kissed the girl through the tin smog and chemical plant perfume and carry that kiss through the year touching newspaper edges of blankets, the backs of hamburger buns to my lips to remember the dimming summer, cheapishly backing out of the door, it hurriedly burst through only in America will the sons and daughters of slaves kiss the sons and daughters of their masters and remember it as an opportunity to be human. Thank you all for coming through on this rainy day for me, maybe a sunny for y'all. This is a new poem to this is called teresias at the end of the world, what she will tell you.    She is set your banners of ecstasy on fire. She will stand next to the other women and dance with a sword in her hand. She builds beyond the whistling of death and the lion's head home in the tree. She is not like the hair trembling in the bell flowers praying through the spiders web to the rainbow after the flood. She is not the peaking rose pulling its head down through the hoof and hammer of the wind. She is presence in the hum of summer, the quiet sky and the loud cardinal flying in it, the green page for which all harvest rise. She is the future, not as the blur of the current spring shed away in the seat of the future. Even as a boy with griefs thrown shut up in her foot, she walked the uneven landscapes as a leaping fire as a sun deciding where to lay its brightness, not like the calf whose tongue caged in flame is set to prophecy by an angel. The calf recalling a vision for which he has not been invited to see only utter as is given some animals, partial ecstasy, partial horror, all vision, horror, ecstasy, the uttering calf, the angel, the deluvial light, the surge of suffering and the suffering lifted hers and ours. She hacks at the temples of heaven, sending it tumbling down upon us. She sleeps beside a cat in a window that looks out onto a solitary grave devotion disfigures both the living and the dead. It cannot be rented out like a tune. No region of the night, she says, is without its ecstasy. Thank you. Thank you, Roger. That was very beautiful. And I want to thank also to the Berkeley library for extending the support for this event, and to our AB support staff. Thank you. And I want you to extend also our thanks to everyone who made the time to join us in the middle of the day today. As a reminder, this is an ongoing series, and you can find details about our future events, the next of which will be on November 5th at our website, lunchpomes.berkeley.edu. You can also, from our website, navigate to our YouTube channel where you can find the extensive archive of Lunch Pomes series from past years. And you can also sign up for our mailing list. So thank you all for joining us, and thank you to our director, Geoffrey G. O'Brien, and to Roger. That was really, really beautiful. Thank you for joining us.