Hey everyone, thanks a lot for joining. It's my first time in Vancouver and first time at CityCon as well, so great weather, the sun is out, I'm really happy because I live in London, so, you know. Anyway, today we're gonna talk about developer empathy, a little bit about me, my name is Kunal and I work as a DevRel Manager at Civo. I'm the founder of VmcDev, this is a community I started during the pandemic and CNC for Ambassador, been involved in communities since I can remember from my freshman year and yeah, really excited. Let me start with the story. So, I graduated last year, but I was interning at this company and we had a task, like one of the designers, they had to build a website and make it look great and stuff, but they made the website look great but it was hard to use. So this made it difficult for people to find, you know, what they were looking on the website and even when I raised some of the concerns, it was ignored because I was an intern, they're like, oh, what do you know? Anyway, and as the project went on, they started testing it with the users and as you can expect, they were finding it hard to use the website in terms of buying things and whatever they were selling in terms of the courses and stuff. So the teams didn't really think much about what the users wanted and this basically caused product problems. They didn't think about the suggestions that other people were giving and that's what this talk is all about. We're gonna talk about empathy. I see a lot of mix of groups of people. We have senior engineers, we have people from various backgrounds, we have students and so many people. So something for everyone to have a key takeaway from the session today. Let me start by discussing what empathy is, right? So empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings and perspectives of others. It involves placing oneself in someone else's shoes and seeing things from their point of view but we're gonna focus more on the empathy part in the tech industry, right? In the software development field or whatever. So in software development, empathy plays an essential role in understanding the needs and desires and the pain points, bless you, of the users and the team members, the future leaders, managers, all sorts of things. So quick raise of hands if you can show me. Do you think it's irrelevant? You know what we're talking about today in the field of software engineering? No hands, good. So the whole idea is that when you talk about what is it relevant, is empathy relevant in the whole ecosystem that we have here is, coding is all about delivering messages to people and machines and when you're delivering messages, it leads to communication and where there is communication, empathy plays a huge role. Some of the examples include like commit messages, PRs, tests, error messages, documentation, et cetera. Empathy is an important aspect in software development because it will enable developers to create products that are more user friendly and meet the needs of your intended audience. And when developers have empathy for their users, they can anticipate potential issues and design solutions to address those. This can lead to a more satisfied and loyal user base, better user engagement and increased success for your product. In addition to that, empathy can also improve team collaboration. So we're talking about users, but we're also talking about the people you work with and communication in the software development, the life cycle, by understanding each other's perspectives and experiences team members can work together, you know, more effectively and efficiently. Empathy can also promote a positive and inclusive work environment, which can help attract and retain the diverse talent in the industry. So overall, very crucial skill, especially in like the previous, you know, the intro they were mentioning, like right now all the, with all the whole economy and the layoffs and stuff, so I think it's a good time to talk about that. All right, the next question I want you to ask yourself is like, is your team struggling? So when we talk about, let's say, when team members lack empathy for one another, it can lead to a negative work environment where individuals do not feel valued or respected and this can lead to like lower team morale. Talk about communication, which is a critical aspect, because as I mentioned code is, you know, communication. So critical aspect of software development and the lack of empathy can hinder the, you know, effective communication amongst your teams. So without empathy, team members may not be able to understand or appreciate each other's, you know, perspectives and it may lead to miscommunication or misunderstandings. Product quality, a lack of empathy can result in, you know, products that do not meet the needs or desire of the target audience. Developers who lack empathy may need to design products, like, you know, may design products that are like difficult to use as the story I shared from my experience. And lastly, it's also a crucial aspect in problem solving because I was interviewing, they asked me a question and I just gave them the right answer like that, you know, like, okay, solve this or do this. And I was like, okay, yeah, this is the most effective solution, five, 10 minutes, done. And I was rejected from the interview and I was like really confused. Why did you reject me? I gave all the right answers and I sort of solved it really fast and they're like, yeah, it's good, but you know, you're not gonna be working on your own. We wanna see how you communicate, your thought process.  So the interview is not just about, you know, if you can get to the right answer, but how you get to it. So that was a good point for me. Help me in my future interviews. An example of like, how failure can help you, but yeah. All right, let's talk about importance of empathy in software development. So yeah, building better products, increased team collaboration as we talked about previously, improving user experience. So you can, you know, identify potential issues that users may face and design the solutions to address these issues by putting yourselves in the user's shoes and, you know, developers can basically create products that are more intuitive, accessible and enjoyable to use. Cool. When we talk about empathizing with the users and understanding the needs, it's crucial in software development, and this has several benefits. The benefits include, you know, increased customer loyalty, competitive advantage, reduced costs, increased innovation. By prioritizing empathy, developers can design products that meet the need of the target audience, you know, better than their competitors, resulting in higher user satisfaction. And a few ways, like when we talk about users, when we talk about developing products, let me think about what stops people, you know, what prevents people to empathize, you know, with your users. So there's a lot of biases that we can talk about today. First one is confirmation bias. So confirmation bias is the tendency to seek out information that confirms pre-existing beliefs or assumptions while ignoring the information that contradicts them. So a developer, for example, who suffers from this confirmation bias will only, you know, seek out user feedback that confirms that there are assumptions about the product rather than seeking out feedback. So that's one way how, you know, sometimes it's, you know, what prevents empathy for developers. The second one is curse of knowledge. The curse of knowledge is the tendency to assume that others know what we know. And developers who suffer from the curse of knowledge may assume that users have the same level of knowledge and expertise as they do. And this can also lead to products that are difficult to, you know, for users to understand and use. So that's one. The next one is hindsight bias. So this basically is the tendency to believe that the events were more predictable after they have occurred. So developers who suffer from this bias may believe that the user feedback was obvious in retrospect, but they did not consider it during the development process. So that has happened with me as well. Availability bias is another one, which is the tendency to rely on readily available information when making decisions, rather than seeking out more comprehensive information. And developers who suffer from this availability bias may rely on feedback from, like, a smaller group of users and ignore the feedback that is more difficult to obtain. How to overcome biases? So should strive to, you know, gather a broad range of user feedback and challenge them, you know, their assumptions about the product. This can basically involve seeking out feedback from the users with different perspectives, testing the product with a diverse group of users. So in any field, not just tech, you'll see, like, diversity and inclusion. It's only for the betterment, also for the community, your own product. But, you know, you're helping people, it's also helping your own product and your own company. See, I'm regularly evaluating product design with an open mind. By taking these steps, you can ensure that, you know, you're more effectively empathizing with users and creating products that meet the needs and preferences. How to apply? So when we talk about users, creating personas can help. Personas are fictional characters, which you can create based upon the research to represent the different user types. And, you know, that might use your product or service in a similar way. Surveys are good. Surveys are a popular method. Don't have to emphasize much on that. But, yeah, for getting user feedback. But it's also how you send out that survey. I'm not going to name, like, the company, but recently I got an email. And they're like, attend our five-minute or 10-minute, 15-minute demo and we'll pay you. So that was a little, like, confusing in terms of, like, how you're getting your, you know, clients and users and stuff. So surveys can talk on and on about that. But, yeah, through email or social media or website, website pop-ups, once the survey data is collected, you can analyze the data and use it to inform, you know, for the development process ahead. User testing involves observing the users that are interacting with the product and, you know, in a controlled environment and by watching the users navigate the product and noticing any issues or pain points, developers can, you know, gain valuable insights into how the users use the product and what changes have been made and stuff. It can also be conducted in person or remotely or, you know, however you like. This is a nice step-by-step diagram that I like to present in this, like, session when you talk about empathy with your users. So, again, like, interviews are also a great way. They involve speaking directly with the users to gain insights into their experiences with the product and, you know, analytics, that's another one. You know, data that can provide insight into how users interact with the product and, like, for example, website traffic, page views, click-through rates. You can gain insights with, like, how people, you know, use your product and what changes could be made made to improve it. I do this. I have a YouTube channel, I'll plug over there, but it has an analytics dashboard that I use, and it gives all the information around your target audience and what sort of videos are popular, what sort of tutorials are popular, and obviously the comment section, like, didn't understand this, it was difficult or whatever. So, yeah, getting more feedback from people and things applies really well when you're talking to your users and customers. Lastly, focus groups, like, groups involving together, like, a small group of people to discuss the experiences with the product and, yeah, similarly, can be conducted in person or remotely. So during the focus group, developers can ask questions around, you know, their needs and their preferences and the experiences with the product as well as observe how the group interacts with the product. All right, so that was the user part. Now, moving on to the second part of empathy, we talked about teammates. So empathy is essential for building strong and collaborative teams in several ways. A few examples. The first one is really important, trust. Empathy helps to build trust among team members. When a team member is demonstrating empathy, they show that they care about each other's feelings and perspectives which can lead to an increased trust and respect. Second one is communication. As I already spoke about that, I'm not gonna elaborate on it, but, yeah, can improve communication among team members and when you understand and respect each other's perspectives, the people are more likely to listen. So this can lead to more productive discussion and fewer misunderstandings. Conflict resolutions. So empathy can resolve conflicts amongst team members. When team members are empathetic, they are better able to understand each other's perspectives and find mutual, agreeable solutions. So this can reduce tension and promote collaboration within the teams. Creativity is another one. It can promote creativity within the team and when the team members understand the needs and desires of the target audience, they can develop more innovative solutions that meet those needs. So this can lead to new ideas and approaches that differentiate the team from their competitors, if you will, if you talk about that. Morale. Another important aspect when we talk about teams, sympathy can improve our team morale by creating more positive and supportive work environment. And when we know the team members, I'm sure every one of you as well when you feel like you are being understood and respected, you are more likely to feel motivated and engaged in your work. Now how to do it. Strategies. Active listening involves fully concentrating on what the other person is trying to say. I was watching an interview by Satya Narela, the CEO of Microsoft, and the interviewer asked them, how do you run a good meeting? So he was like, listen more, talk less, be decisive when the time comes. This can help team members feel heard and understood and it can promote empathy and trust within the team. Second one is you can put oneself in other shoes. It's the code that I've mentioned, I think the third time now, because it's really important. The next one is practicing curiosity, asking questions about others' experiences, thoughts and feelings can help develop empathy. And by showing interest in others and their perspectives, the team members can better understand their needs and concerns. The next one is also around, it's called practicing perspective taking. So perspective taking involves imagining oneself in others' position and thinking about their thoughts and feelings and motivations. So that's another one. Providing support, think that's another important one. Where I work, we have this policy, like there are no bad questions, we have no blame culture, you know. So people are free to ask anything and when possible, we support each other and stuff. So offering support and encouragement to team members can also help to build empathy and trust within the team. And by just showing that you care about the well-being and the success of the team members, they are more likely to feel valued and respected. Cool. Next one is bad code. Swap the blame for honor.  So what do we do? Think about, like, in life, I try to think about what I can do, not just in tech. Like if I don't have control over something, I wouldn't worry about it. But ideally, if I'm talking about this example, think of it as an archaeological site. So when archaeologists dig up stuff and they find, you know, like dinosaurs or whatever, and they're like, oh, this is really bad code. It's all messed up and it's not properly aligned and everything. Yeah, because it's, like, really old and the person probably left. So what do you do?  So I like to give this archaeological analogy when you're working with really code that you don't like. Let's put it that way. Speaking of code that you don't like and you're working on it, empathy in terms of, like, the struggles that you are facing, like, oh, this is not a nice code and I'm feeling so much, you know, it's taking so much of my time. And think about the next person who's gonna, you know, work on that same repository. So some of the point which is leave the code better than you found it. It's also, you know, a nice practice that you can apply. Now, messaging best practices, and you talk about working with teammates. So empathy is speaking to others that you'd like to be spoken to. And when you talk about, like, PRs and, like, not assuming that, you know, the other people, like, the biases that I was talking about, not assuming that everyone has, like, the same level of knowledge as you. I believe that good writing is simple writing and don't assume that everyone who is reading your writing knows everything what you're talking about. And, yeah. All right, lastly, here we have empathy for future engineers. So, because that's what we're doing here, you know, we are at the Tomorrow Starts open-source summit. So we talk about 10, 20, 30, 40 years down the line who's gonna manage Kubernetes or the, you know, KITOPS Foundation and everything. Folks who are kids right now. So empathy for future engineers, both in the field of when they're starting out in tech and they're growing and they're, you know, planning to become a contributor. So think about it when you think about a foundation that is, like, what is your mission and who is your, like, why would anyone wanna join? So I get this question a lot. Now I wanna start my own community. How do we do? So think about it, what is the mission of your community? Why would anyone wanna join? What do you have in return to offer? How do you keep people engaged? We talk about future engineers and start with, like, someone who has just joined your team. One of the best things you can do is, like, have readable code because by limiting abstractions, avoiding complex logic and using, like, good naming conventions. And this reminds me of a funny incident. I was working at this company. I was interning, and it was a start-up back in India. And they gave me, like, a project, some pipeline. And I was asking for, like, okay, can you send me, like, some resources? I wanna get started with it. So they sent me some blogs and stuff. They gave me some documentation. So the senior engineer was, like, I am the documentation. And I was, like, but I don't wanna take too much of your time. You know, I feel guilty that I'm taking so much of your time. But anyway, say I feel, again, find yourself in a place where there's no lack of documentation. You should probably help the future people and write good talks. When you talk about future leaders, what are they really like? Some of the finest leaders are the ones who remember what it was like to work their way up from the bottom, or who can foresee themselves in others' positions. Again, this is the fourth time I'm mentioning the senior selves in other people's shoes, because it's really important. And lastly, empathetic leaders also understand imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome, it's not a... If it's out of your control, then I don't think you should. It's like a bad thing, because everyone faces imposter syndrome, senior engineers, juniors, or whatever. That's fine. Nobody invites imposter syndrome. But the thing that matters is what do you do about it? So I think understanding it, working on it, and making sure that you get through it. Yeah, so leaders understand imposter syndrome. I'd like to close this presentation with one question. Can empathy be taught? So from what we've learned today, it's often described as the ability to understand and share the feelings and perspectives of others. However, it is much more than just a feeling. It is also a skill, and just like every skill, it can be learned and developed. Empathy involves the ability to listen actively, communicating and effectively, and understanding the emotions that are experienced by others. We spoke about the users, spoke about the teams, spoke about the future leaders, and these skills that can be taught and practiced over time, much like any other skill as well. So yeah, in a deliberate effort and practice, you can learn. Moreover, it's not a fixed rate that people are born with, while some individuals may have a natural aptitude for empathy. It is a skill that can be developed and strengthened through the, you know, efforts. And research has actually shown that empathy can be improved through training, education, and practice. So lastly, something for you to think about is reflect on a time when the lack of empathy affected a project or a relationship. And I'd like for you to consider ways to practice empathy, you know, moving around, moving forward.  Thank you. If you can connect me, I'm sure.


Hi and welcome to the session. I am Nihar and today I am going to help you with the following question. The question says using Euler's formula find the unknown. Here we are given the faces, vertices and edges of the polyhedral and we need to find the unknowns. Before proceeding for the solution let's recall Euler's formula for a polyhedral plus V minus E is equal to 2, where F represents the number of faces, V represents the number of vertices and E represents the number of edges. This is the key idea for this question. Now let's see its solution. In first part we need to find faces so F is unknown. V vertices are 6 that means V is equal to 6 and edges are 12. So edges is represented by E so E is equal to 12. Therefore by Euler's formula F plus V minus E is equal to 2. Now substituting the values of F, V and E, F is unknown so we will write F as it is plus V is 6 minus E is 12 equal to 2. This implies F minus 6 is equal to 2. Now adding 6 on both sides we will get F minus 6 plus 6 equal to 2 plus 6. So here minus 6 and plus 6 will get cancelled and we will get F equal to 8. Therefore here the number of faces is. Now let's do the second part. Let's see that faces are 5 that means F is equal to 5 vertices that is V is unknown and edges are 9 that means E is equal to 9. So let's do this one we are given faces that is F equal to 5 vertices V is unknown and edges E is equal to 9 by Euler's formula F plus V minus E is equal to 2. Now let's substitute the values F equal to 5 plus V is unknown so let's write V as it is minus E that is 9 equal to 2. Now this implies V minus 4 is equal to 2. Now adding 4 on both sides we get V minus 4 plus 4 equal to 2 plus 4 which implies here minus 4 and plus 4 will get cancelled and we are left with V equal to 6. So here the number of vertices is 6. Now in third part faces F is equal to 20 vertices V is equal to 12 and edges E is unknown. So here we are F equal to 20, V equal to 12 and E is unknown. So by Euler's formula F plus V minus E is equal to 2. Substituting the values F 20 plus V 12 minus E is equal to 2. This implies 32 minus E is equal to 2. Now adding E on both sides we will get 32 minus E plus E equal to 2 plus E. This implies here minus E and plus E will get cancelled and we will get 32 equal to 2 plus E. Subtracting 2 from both sides we get 32 minus 2 equal to 2 plus E minus 2. So here plus 2 and minus 2 will get cancelled and we get 30 equal to E. So here number of edges is equal to 30. Therefore for this question our answer is first part number of faces is 8. So faces are 8. In next part there are 6 vertices. So vertices is equal to 6 and in third part edges are 30. So edges equal to 30. And hence this is our required answer. With this we finish this session. Hope you must have understood the question. Goodbye take care and have a nice day.


So I come from a Christian background, the oldest of five. During the birth, my mom had a difficulty in complication, which one of the reasons why you can see one of my eyelids is a little bit smaller than the other one. My family immigrated to the United States at the age of 13. So I didn't speak any English. I didn't have any friends. And on top of that, this is when all the insecurities that I thought that started to surface. I remember skipping a keyboard in class as a freshman in high school because I was so embarrassed to stand in front of a group of 25 students. So I come from a Christian family. I mean, we read the Bible, went to church. Ukraine, right? Ukraine, yeah. We had no television and no telephone. That's how Christian we were. I mean, very devoted. Soccer team, soccer was the only thing that we were permitted once a week to play, but it was very, very devout. And so I grew up learning about God and everything. And there in the United States here at the age of 13, insecurities, because of my physical appearance. And on the top of that, because my optical nerve was damaged, I had migraine headaches. Every time my head got exposed to the sun. I knew that committing suicide is going to lend me in a bad place. And so I started to develop these chronic, chronic insecurity suicidal tendencies where I begged God to create an accident, what I will die. And so I escaped few accidents without a scratch. And my parents, now they know that, but at that time they did not know that. My parents are the best parents in the world. I had a great family. I had a friend. I had a church. But these insecurities, because of my physical appearance, that's before the social media creeped in. And I remember I prayed with you many times during those days where you would ask people to place their hands on TV. My television, black and white television, was so greasy because my hands were going there all the time. I prayed for God to heal my eyes. It wasn't because I have a problem with the vision. Out of four siblings and both parents, I'm the only guy without glasses. So I have really good vision. I don't have a problem with the vision. It was my self-esteem that was connected to my physical appearance that I had a problem with. And so after many, many attempts of prayer for healing, I started to lock myself in the room and read the Word. And God started to change something in me. And he said this. He said, Adam felt ashamed of his body, not because he gained weight. He didn't feel ashamed because somebody else showed up who was better looking than Adam. Adam felt ashamed is because of what he ate.  I said, Lord, but I'll read your Word. He says, you're reading my Word. You're not eating my Word. And at the age of 14, I started to lock myself in the room for 40 to 30 minutes every day and not read the Bible, but eat the Bible. And the Lord convicted me. And he said, stop looking in the mirror in the bathroom to find who you are. He said, what you see in that bathroom is a skin stretched over a skeleton. He said, what you see in this mirror is your true identity. The crazy, that's so many, the crazy part. Today, I still have the same body.  And the reason why is because I'm not distracted. People don't ask me today, you know, what happened to you? Have you been through an accident? You know, what happened to you? Did you have a surgery or something? People no longer ask me of that words. Before, that was the only question every person asked. They didn't ask me my name. And when you're 13 and 14 and you're aware of something is wrong with you and people ask you about it, like that just hurts. Today, nobody does. I'm still the same guy. Well, on the outside, on the inside, I'm a completely different person. And the Holy Spirit as a teenager at the age of 13, at the age of 15, at the age of 16, 17, 18, 19, I started to go into my room, lock myself, and eat this word. And then I started to experience, become aware, not of my physical appearance, but of his spiritual presence. And I really want to just encourage every single young person. There's something better than taking your life. It's laying it down. Laying it down. Vladimir, thank you, amen. You can go to your seat. And listen, listen. God has a call on you. Go for it, OK? Vladimir, give me a second. Why don't you pray for him? If you're watching us right now and you're in a similar situation, maybe you already have something loaded. You have a gun loaded. You got pills maybe that you're taking or cutting yourself because you don't know who you are. Maybe you've been abandoned, moved from foster home to a foster home. Or maybe your own parents disowned you and called you with name.   There's a reason why my eyes are still the same. I believe God wants to use what he did with me to encourage you. It doesn't mean that you're going to be a preacher, but you will live a life of meaning. And you will live a life of purpose. But you don't find purpose in a university. You don't find purpose in a degree. You find purpose in God's presence. And when you find His presence, you find meaning to your life. You can be the wisest and the richest person like Solomon. And he still said life is vanity and vanity because without God's presence, you don't find your purpose. And when you find your purpose, listen, you begin to appreciate yourself not because you love yourself, but because you love Jesus. And so I'm just going to pray right now for anybody there who maybe your kids just need to watch this and need to share this and need to tell your kids to just watch this part and the whole service. I believe that God is going to encounter some of you. I believe some of you are going to stop eating from the forbidden tree of your physical appearance and the comparison you get in social media and the comments you get from people who are bullying you.  And who's calling to you right now and says, Adam, Lucy, where he says, John, where he says, come to me where you at. I want to talk to you. I want to be with you. Let's just stretch our hands. So the Father in the name of Jesus, I pray for every single young person right now, God, that the enemy is bringing the thoughts of death and suicide and tells them that their life has no meaning and their life is worthless. And if I pray for those who've contemplated suicide already, I come against that spirit of death. I come against that spirit of destruction. I come against you, Pharaoh, in Jesus' mighty name. And I command you to lose that young person. Lose their mind. Lose their sleep. Lose their thought pattern in Jesus' mighty name. Devil, your time has expired in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of the living God who came to bring life and more abundantly. I command you to lose your grip out of that young man, out of that young woman, out of that young kid in Jesus' mighty name. And I prophesy into their life right now and they will live. Their life will have a meaning. They will not die.  And they will not lay it down. And Jesus will pick it up and use it for His glory in the name of Jesus Christ.


We, in the West, owe a debt to the Muslim world that can never be fully repaid. Despite our common religious and spiritual loop, we have thanked them with a century of mistrust, the brutality of the crusade, and the imperial takeover that was conducted with callous indifference to the need of the people we exploit. I want to add something also to the contribution which is part of our daily life so that we never understand it or know its root. For example, the first university in the world, the first university established by a Muslim woman, Fafima Fahriya, which is in Morocco fast, and we call it the Karawiyin. Karawiyin University was the magnet for all the European students from all over Europe to come and study logic, philosophy, because remember, the church at that time stopped teaching philosophy or logic, philosophy of the ancient being dead was dead in the West. So they have to come to study in the Karawiyin. And also one of the very few people know about it, that when the church didn't like the teaching of the Islamic university, tried to stop the student from learning the curriculum of the Muslim university. So the student in Paris went for six years of strike. They refused because they want to study philosophy and Islamic logic and what the Islamic university is giving. So in the end, Thomas Aquinas came to Paris to negotiate with them and talk to them. And in the end, he himself started understanding the importance of science and religion together. And he was influenced by others, which we call in Arabic, even Russian, and later on he had his book published. Also, I find it very strange and really, I couldn't believe it, I saw a letter from King George II in 1028. He sent a letter to the ruler of the Muslim state, the Angeles, asking him if he can send ladies from the royal family, some of the princes, to go to Spain or to the Andalus to learn, so they can bring back the Islamic learning to England. His letter exists if anybody would like, I will show you the letter. It's also another thing, all of us know that this is the month for graduation. And everybody graduated wearing black robe and a hat. Other people, they don't know where this tradition came from. This is a tradition come from the Islamic universities that time because their graduate used to wear the black of time and the turban and that's the European took that and now we see it with the robe. This is for example. Now, another thing, we all drink coffee. And a lot of people, they don't know that the beginning of coffee when it started actually started because of religion, because coffee invented actually in Yemen. The Sufis in Yemen, they want to stay late so they can worship. So they came with the idea of roasting their coffee and grinding and make their coffee. So this way they can stay late. And of course the coffee later on spread all over and all of the West Naui through their Turkish coffee, but it was originally. So there is a lot of contribution of Islam in our daily life. Unfortunately, there is insomnia about when it comes all, you know, trying to ignore it. But there is a lot if you go to the internet and look. So another thing, when we're talking about spirituality, one of the things I would like to talk about is my birthplace, Makkah. I was born in Makkah, which is the West Park of Saudi Arabia. And the city of Makkah, of course, is a very famous city for its spirituality and uniqueness. One of the things it makes you unique is that you cannot have people, of course, like me, coming to talk to you because very few Saudi goes out. Anyway, my family actually, from my father's side, I'm the descendant of Omar bin Khattab, which is the second Khalifa of Islam, the most mighty, you know, second most important. From my mother's side, she's the descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. And also my family inherit the same job of the time of the Prophet, which is hosting all the pilgrims. So I live that life. I live the, you know, the pilgrim and Makkah and the spirituality of Makkah. And I tell you, spirituality of Makkah, Makkah, you will never see in a city like it. It's very unique. It's, spirituality there is amazing. So what makes Makkah special? Why people go into Makkah? Very few reasons. First of all, people go to Makkah because of Abraham. When in the Bible, you have it in the Bible if you go back to the Bible and look. God, when he had his son, Ishmael, when he, Ishmael, God asked him to go and take his wife, Hagar, to go to the valley of Makkah, which is another name for Makkah. So he took his wife with the child, is still very little. So he went to Makkah and he left her. And she was asking him, why you leave me? He said, I've been ordered to do that. So, and then the angel looked at her and he said, this is what's written for you. You have to stay here. So she took the baby. It's a dry valley. There is nothing because Makkah is not a beautiful city. It's a dry valley, but the beauty is something different. It's an abstract beauty. It's a spiritual beauty. So she stayed and when she had the baby, she got thirsty. And the baby was starting crying and she had no water. So she started running between two girls, which we call Safa and Marwa. She was running for seven times. And then when she came the seven times, she found the water under the feet of the little, little kid, the baby, who I'm calling the here, the well of Stamson. So the well of Stamson ages, life started with Makkah and then. So Hagar became the matriarch of the valley. And then later on other tribes came. So, but her tenacity and her devotion and her patience, which make Makkah is very important. I want you to see women in the history of Makkah very long, the history of women. So just as one. So later on, Hagar had killed. And he was ordered to build the first house for God. And this is what we call the Kaaba. And the Kaaba means the king. So he built it. And when he built it, he was so happy he was trying to worship God and trying to praise God. So he kept going around this for seven times. So this is what in the Kaaba. Now outside Makkah is also there is a hill. We call it Arafah. And Arafah in Arabic, it means the condition. And Arafahs we believe that when Adam and Eve descended from heaven, they met there in the mountain of Arafah. And when Eve died, she was buried in the city of Jeddah. That's where the name Jeddah is coming from. So this gives you a little bit of spirituality of Makkah. Now when the people come for the pilgrims, it is something unique all over. You would never see something like that because it's really changed me when I was little kid. I remember standing in my door and I feel like a wave of white coming and keep coming and keep coming. As soon people coming in the Makkah, they start straight away invoking God. And you will hear, Oh God, we're coming here. We worship you. You're the only one. And we see wave after wave and after wave and people coming. And they only speak one language, Arabic. It's the language of the Quran. Only repeat the language of the Quran. So really when you look at it, you feel that this is the kingdom of God. This is the kingdom where people come and when they come, how they dress. They dress in their coffin and what they wear for the child. When a Muslim child was born, he wore two pieces of white, dressed in two pieces. And when a person died, he also wrapped with two pieces of white. So they come with their coffin and the clothes they're going to be worn again. So when they come to Makkah, it's come for death and rebirth. Death of the old person and rebirth of the new person. And when they're there, you cannot use your temper. You cannot say anything bad. If you say anything, your pilgrim is gone. You have to be the best you can because you are in the land of God.  You have to be the best. And you will see people. It is amazing. Day and night. Makkah never stops.  I will never see the mosque empty. Always full. And the amazing thing used to amaze me is when the time of prayer comes. Suddenly you have three million people going and coming and suddenly the prayer star and the azar or the calling for prayer star. And suddenly what you see is three million people stop, line up. Everybody line up. It's like an army. Somebody line up. A general line. You don't need general. It's the love of God and the commitment. You will see people lining up to pray and facing the Kaaba. You will see shopping close and everywhere you go people put their map and the whole place, it doesn't matter because the mosque doesn't take everybody. Everywhere. People stand there and they do the prayer and they're all together up and down and the whole city is quiet. You only hear them walking in the name of God and you listen to that. So this was so impressive for me as a little girl that I always, even when I go to Makkah I always look and I say can't believe it that people line up like that. You know it doesn't matter and you find and by the way women and men mix because I know in the mosque we don't have women in separate and men separate but in the Hajj there is nothing separate.  You know, this is the hill. And this is in the desert.  The time they go it's a tent city or a tent city. And then the people start going to the mountain. And I tell you if you talk about resurrection you have to see that back in that view. People standing there in the looking everybody looking toward heaven. Everybody was walking the name of God's supplication and it is amazing and I tell you is it easy? No, it is very hard. Makkah is a very hard place. It's not an easy to live. There is no air condition. There is nothing bad.  You cannot come on the jewelry. And one of the thing you see the people equal. You don't know who is rich who is poor. There were sandals and two pieces of white they are all the same. Everybody is the same. And it is amazing that you don't see the classes you don't see any of those things you see and people understand that. So equality and it's like and the second thing which is amazing you see people from all over the world black brown white every day in England it's like an international conference of the whole world come to that place to only worship God. So it is a very interesting experience and you stay the whole the whole week and then you will people go after that back and they go to Medina which is the prophet prophet tomb there to go and visit Medina and then come. So okay I'm going to be taking question for five minutes. Anybody has any question? Have a great opportunity to ask. They mentioned equality in the hodge but can you answer your opinion why is it that Saudi Arabia does not have equality today for women for LGBTQ people for Christians and other non-Muslims. Okay. If we go for example let me take the second first thing about Christians. The prophet when he was in Medina a Christian delegation came to him in Medina from Abyssinia. So when the time of the prayer came they said we want to pray outside he said no you stay in my mosque you pray so the prophet went out and gave them the time to pray. So Islam is always thought we always consider Christian and Jews are the people of the book. Now when we come to Saudi because I want you to understand religion is different and the people follow religion are different. Two different things we are people we are weak we have our response I mean you know you know that if you come to the the history of Christianity here you will be shocked. Every religion have the good the bad and ugly and every religion that's why one of the reason actually we have to look at the religion itself not to judge a religion by the people followers because you're doing yourself disfavor you're not learning anything because that's not reality and every religion have that it's not Islam it's not something to Islam. Now Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia they call themselves Islamic but they are not following Islam Islam Islam if you look I hope we have our opportunity another time to talk about women. First religion give women more things than any other religion give the woman the right to divorce give the woman to inherit the woman keep it is it's name women can vote because they voted for the prophet when he went to the dinner so Islam gave women a lot of right now what happened is now we see the culture overwhelmed the religion that's why you find if you look at a lot of the comfort from all over they are women 75% of comfort in Europe because they see Islam is a feminist but real Islam not and by the way before I forgot because of what I'm saying I left a gift for every one of you I have a bag which has the Quran in it because this is one of the things a lot of people unfortunately talk about Quran like they never read it because the Quran is amazing when you read you or completely you see there something you never heard because Quran talking about morality talking about nature talking about equality talking about women family there is a lot of things which is wonderful for us as Muslims we know it is love so I hope if you want you can pick a bag it has some flyer it has some idea to give you if you want and I hope this this occasion it will come for us to learn about each other religion not to judge it by the media but to judge it from its own source and I hope that we can read each other books and read each other think from the people themselves not from the outside to the media because I tell you if you read the Quran you see that what you hear is completely different it doesn't exist even in the Quran so so that's one of the one minute anybody have one question for one minute if anyone else has a question I just didn't hear where you said the first university was founded was founded by because actually at that time in Morocco in Fez in Fez in Fez and after that the spread of the university all over the Muslim world and Europe didn't know university until later when they come in the Islamic system yeah so that's the interesting okay thank you thank you so much and now Dr. Farhav everyone me I also wanted to express my gratitude to Hedutenthal and all of those friends who made this possible it's really great to be here so thank you for this enlightening speech very young it was wonderful and indeed Islam has made significant contributions to our civilization I was thinking of the word algebra algorithm Al-Kharazmi which is also an Iranian created algorithm alcohol was created by so yeah there have been lots of contributions by Islam and it's important for us to all remember them now I'd like to share with you some thoughts about the last point that you mentioned about how culture tends to change religion actually because the way I think about the question that was posed what my religion can do to make the world a better place I'd like to emphasize what can I do as a follower of religion to make the world a better place because religion is really a concept it's just sitting there and the extent to which a religion can change the world is the degree to which we as an individual can adopt those wonderful principles that she mentioned and implement it in our lives practicing our daily activities and make sure we are the best representative of the religion we're representing especially in Mecca in churches in synagogues in wherever we are so the Bahá'í Faith really emphasizes first and foremost individual transformation essentially what it is that we can do as individuals to make the world a better place so as I was thinking about okay so exactly what is it that the Bahá'í Faith teaches for individuals to change the Bahá'í Faith basically emphasizes the concept of unity and equality as was mentioned meaning that we see the world pretty much the opposite of the way it is being seen today today we are living in a world that is divided or at least the division part is emphasized so much more you know we divide the world between men and women you know as an economist I know that basically for similar jobs women earn about 70 cents of the dollar with men we divide the world between black and white we divide the world between Muslims and Christians and Jews and basically war infactions we make religion which was supposed to be the cause of peace we make it the cause of war and in the Bahá'í literature says if religion is the cause of disunity it is better to have no religion at all than the religion that actually causes disunity so we see that even language sometimes causes disunity and hatred and unfortunately we hear a lot of language today and in the past several decades but especially recently language of hatred language that incites violence and all of these are basically individuals these are individuals who are expressing their own beliefs in one way or another so the first starting point for us to actually change ourselves is to try to remove every stain of difference and by difference I mean these artificial differences from our thoughts now the reality the reality is we are all diverse we are all different I mean I'm just looking at the way we address today it's very hot it is actually a beautiful scenery we see men and women different colors with different heights and all that and that diversity is in fact what makes our lives a more richer life a more rewarding life a more prosperous life but beneath all these differences we are all humans and that is really what sometimes we lose sight of so the Bahá'í Faith and it believes in the concept of unity we believe in unity and diversity in other words we celebrate diversity which is all the appearances that we have underneath of which which are essentially human beings human beings with the same sentiments the same emotions the same values we cry when we are sad we laugh when we are happy we basically are we all of us what religion we are the essence of all of these religions are one and the same according to Bahá'í Faith we all believe in honesty, truthfulness fortitude, justice we all believe in all of that so the question ultimately is how can we reflect that and the first step for that is to try to see each other as ultimately one human being and the second principle that Bahá'í Faith teaches is for each individual to seek the truth for himself or herself


You see right there sue he commands all the attention. Yeah, but I'm gonna show you something I want you to say wait wait. That's my laser. Yeah, I'm gonna give it back my only one. I'll give it back Check it out. If you can see if you look over here notice. He's opening up like that But the offensive line is hey wait a second. I thought you said you only had one laser There's four lasers up there. I do just one You see he agrees with me. Oh, I think he agrees with me You're a thing about playing football certainly have the size big fella


You got Bama, September 10th. 52 to zero. Hey, Jordan. Bandool wants to go through the Texas schedule real quick. Honest reaction here. Okay. First we've got UOM.  I think we'll win 48-24. All right, and second game's a tough one. You got Bama, September 10th. 52 to zero. Bama? Texas. They want like the honest answer here? Seriously? Texas. You say so. UTSA? Win. A Texas Tech? Win. West Virginia? Win. Iowa State? Win. Oklahoma State? Win. K-State? Win. TCU? Win. Kansas? Win. The season wraps up with mail work. Win. So buy your record to your Texas's back. Texas's back.


choice creates anxiety. The more choice we have, the bigger the number of alternatives, the higher the anxiety. People hate choice because it disempowers them.  People detest choice. It doesn't empower. Love and time are risks, not opportunities, not promises, but risks. So why should we take them? Why not, for example, avoid love? And why avoid time by, for example, committing suicide? Well, because they do come with their own awards. Love enriches us. It's about us, not about the other person. Love enriches us. Time opens vistas of opportunities for growth and personal development. We are here to evolve. The very process of evolution is rewarding and it's wonderful. And so these are two engines. Time and its losses, love and its pains. These are the twin engines of becoming. If you are goal oriented in the process of self-improvement or self-change, this is an orientation which will guarantee failure. The only reason to improve yourself is yourself. Nothing external, not money, not work, not other people, not your mates, not your children, not your nation, none of this. Only you. You cannot approach the same situation or recreate the same situation and expect a different outcome because you will have, because you have gained some knowledge before. In other words, knowledge and learning will not change the outcome of identical situations. End of story. However, you can work on yourself rather than work on other people. Self-gaslighting is whenever people defend the status quo, whenever they don't want to exit their comfort zone, whenever they have developed laboriously with a lot of investment, a lot of thought, a lot of dedication, a worldview, an opinion, a judgment, and then they would take information and data and falsify them and transmogrify them and transform them and ignore them and deny them and repress them and combine them wrongly with other pieces of data and information and do anything in their power to preserve the equilibrium, the homeostasis. This is self-gaslighting.


Only at certain times, because of a certain work, we have done certain things to remind people of their past lives. I met a lady, she believes one hundred percent, Tom Cruise was her husband. Then I said, you know, I also knew him very well in his last previous life. She would be what? You know, how do you speak about the futility of going after, you know, trying to remember past lives and all of that, because one may not know how to handle all the experiences which come with it, or that's really a non-negative level. Won't it be useful to pick up from that and consciously pick up from that?   You go like this, teary-eyed to her, she's not going to like it.  All the emotions come back, enormous emotions. And all the things that were left unsaid and undone, now you want to do it.   See, already you cannot deal with this, isn't it? You cannot deal with this. Current life's emotion itself is ringing you out, isn't it? This life's emotion itself with different relationships that you've held in your life is just driving people crazy. If you remember all this, it is not going to serve any purpose. Only at certain times, because of a certain work or if you want to call it a mission, was on hand. We have done certain things to remind people of their past lives, but after that never again, because it's not important. I met a lady, I met a man first, the aggrieved husband I met first. The man comes to me and you know, he moved from India to United States and he's doing very well there, successful, everything. But now, the wife has been seeing psychics and on the phone, she's on with them, on with them paying hundreds and thousands of dollars as bills. Above all, the psychic has convinced her, in her previous life, Tom Cruise was her husband. She believes one hundred percent. So she buys a huge house in Beverly Hills and every Saturday she's throwing parties, hoping one day he will walk in. And she's sure he will walk in because the psychic has told her, you just be in that area, just keep throwing parties, one day he will walk in and carry you away. So he came to me and said, Sadhguru, what to do? I have Tom Cruise's wife at home. I said, okay, you send her to me. We will see. So I said, let her come to the Inner Engineering program. We had a retreat on the Great Lakes in Michigan. So beautiful Resort and we have a Inner Engineering retreat which we are not doing anymore. So she came for that. So as soon as she comes, she wants to meet Sadhguru, meet Sadhguru, meet Sadhguru. I said, no, no, no, go through the program, after that we will meet. But she was putting so much pressure on everybody, no, I have to meet him, I have to meet him. So on the first evening, you know, the evening introduction happened, next day I avoided her somehow. Next day evening I got stuck with her. I had to meet her. Then I said, okay, and we sat. Then she opened up. I think my husband has told you already, but I'm telling you, this is one hundred percent true. What do you think? I said, yes, it is true. Even I, I'm very clear, in your previous life, Tom Cruise was your husband, yes. She was very happy at last, she found a guru. Then I said, you know, I also knew him very well in his last previous life.  She was what? It never occurred to her in his previous life, he need not look the same way. So this past life nonsense can get into a deep mess. You don't do that. Handling this life well is important, very important. This is on hand. And another problem that people have is Sadhguru, was I with you in your last life? I said, see, if you were with me and you didn't make it, I don't want to have nothing to do with you in this life.  If you're a failed candidate, what do I do with you? So I'm saying, all you will do is get into hallucinatory states of imagining all kinds of things. This is what you need to get out of because mind has a million compartments. It can make up stories in such a way that you cannot imagine possible, it'll make it absolutely real. See, there are schizophrenic people, people who have multiple personalities. One case which has been recorded is a person having thirty-two full-fledged personalities. Thirty-two. But I'm telling you, mind has the capacity to generate a thousand if you want. That is the capacity of the mind. Unfortunately, most human beings never explore it. If you give this much material to it, it can produce so much out of it. Like today you saw you, you know, you programmed the computer, it can produce every permutation and combination that is possible from that little information. That's what your mind is doing in a much more complex way. So don't yield to these things.


Of course! Of course I won't! Geez, what are you taking for? Oh my god. Oh, well, I took you for seven dollars, actually. Oh, here it is. It's right here. Get this. Oh. But this is an old world, though. Hello? How are you doing today? Hello? Yeah, just give me a moment. Oh, excuse me, my lady. Okay, just a little bit longer. Just a little bit farther until we make it to the door. There you go. Yeah, that's the solution. Hey, what's your new experience? Hello, how are you today? New experience lost. Crop it. It's over. I'm doing quite well. How can I help you, sir? Well, I'm doing quite well. I'm looking for your finest female accomplice. Oh, wow. We've got some right here. Well, there's a nice lady right here. Oh, hello. What? Yeah, color nice. How expensive is this one? Oh, this is an end torch. Had to come from overseas. I don't know, like $8. What are you talking about? Well, I'll do seven. Is seven okay? Eight is good.  What do you think Firefox should take it? Seven? Seven is my favorite number, though. Yeah, I'll take seven. Seven is my favorite number. Okay, I'll take it. Eight bucks is like... Wow, it's only $69. Oh, my God. Well, that's just $7. All right, thank you. Okay, here's your $7. All right, thank you. Oh, okay. Thank you. All right. Yeah, this boy is getting over here. Sorry, I didn't mean to cry. I just sometimes get a little emotional. Well, hello. What was yours? Yeah, just a little bit of tear. Let's go.  Can I get a hand, please? This is a little bit of... Okay, oh, thank you. Okay. Very good. Let's just... Oh, let's just take the hood off right here. Okay. So, what's your name? My name, everyone just calls me Ned. Everyone calls you Ned. Your name is going to be Betsy now.  Betsy. Okay, yes. Sure, sure. Of course, I paid a good $7 for the service, so I... I believe I can call... Well, I mean, that's just an opinion.  So, Betsy, tell me a little bit about yourself. Well, working here, they slaved me around, but yeah. I enjoy my stay, you know. I give everyone their drinks. I make sure everyone's happy. I help everyone else. Well, this conversation is making me very happy. Okay. Well, good. You make me happy too. I'm glad. I'm so glad, really. It has been a while since I've had some female companionship and just having a nice conversation. Really? Yeah, she's... What is a handsome guy like you? Are you kidding me? Oh, I know. Most people wouldn't believe me, but I've been... Oh, yeah. Oh, hello. I present to you some fine Italian cuisine straight from our kitchen. Oh, my God. Oh, look. Oh, what is this? There you go. Oh, uh, carpet. Have you ever eaten stuff with my darling? A dough with sauce and cheese and we add meat. Any sausage? Big, hard, juicy sausage? There's some sausage in there. Yes, there's some sausage in there. I haven't had a big, hard, juicy sausage in quite a few years. Wait, why is the pizza invisible on your screen? There is a pizza there. I don't know why you can't see it. I think my eyes have been causing me some trouble recently. I haven't had a big, hard sausage in quite some time. Again, it's been... Oh, so have I. I've been so long. I missed it. Oh, it's been a lot of years for me as well. Yes, but this pizza is... This sausage pizza is going to be very delicious. Excuse me. Do you know who I am? This man is the best man in the world, so don't leave him, please. Of course. Of course I won't. Geez, what are you taking me for? Oh, my God. Oh, well, I took you for $7, actually. How much do you think you're worth? Well, actually, you know... Oh, free. I like the sound of free. Oh, I'm very glad as well. $7, such a big amount of money on me. Yes. I'm so flattered. Yes, I did pay. What's so funny? Oh, no. What's so funny? $7 is so much, especially... No, the voice... The voice is... In my age, the voice is in my head. Stacked up a little bit. Oh, let's remember this man. Oh, yes. Oh, my God, spicy. Yeah, naughty is a good term. Yes. Hello. Oh, absolutely. Oh, please elaborate. Please elaborate on how I saved you. Oh, yes, exactly, $7.53. This man was just looking for some Snickers bar. Yes. That's true. That's exactly what happened. Why are you paying attention, woman? Oh, no, I'm very... What is this rat doing here? I'm hungry. Can I have this? Is this a Chuck E. Cheese?   So now I'm $70 billion short. I'm sorry, but I think you need to lay back a bit on the food and let the old man eat. He's very important to us. I'm very hungry. I want to let you test him and get him. I swear to God, this place isn't infested. We don't. That doesn't usually happen. We paid... Look, I paid very, very good money for this, and I didn't expect to see rats running around this establishment. I swear to God, dude, I don't even know where that came from. We've never had one of those before. How can we make it up to you? Maybe an extra dessert. Maybe a dessert. Just fine, lady. Could you... You guys were looking for a dessert, so I got a milkshake that will bring all the boys to the arts, specifically you to her yard. There you go. You can serve your one straw. Oh, great. Thank you. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you so much.  Yes, it's true. It's true you do. It's very true. I feel lucky already, just as a sense I met you. Well, you should. It's just so adorable. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. Yes, it is me. I still can't forget. I can't forget the time I was planning this film from behind. I couldn't even come as fast as possible. You came in to come for me. Yes, I did. Yes, yes, I did. That was a true story. Yes, it's true. Is this something you want to tell me? Yes, well, I think it's more something I'd like to show you, but we don't need to get to there quite yet. Tell me about your upbringing. What was your life like? You know, looking for a job. I needed a job, but I couldn't find anyone that dropped him to me and said, I've been working in a business. So, yeah, I've been very grateful for everything I've got, though. Are you awake? Sure, it's getting a little late and I tend to doze off. You were saying your parents were great. I can't remember here. Yeah, they're dead. Oh, they're dead. Oh, that's right. Yes. Well, that's sometimes, you know, you win some, you lose some as they say. Oh, I see you. Well, if you play your cards, right, I could be your daddy now. Oh my God. Yes, yes, I could be your daddy now. Oh, you're welcome. I want to know more about you because, oh my gosh, I'm in love with already what I have seen so far.  My gosh. Wow. Yes, I am quite a bit. I grew up a... I grew up on a farm. I was a young farm boy and I grew up on a farm and they worked with my hands and I handled the sheep in the family. Yes, we did. Eventually, I moved to the city. That's what I did. I've moved to the city with my first wife. Yes, after she was exiled for marrying her cousin. Of course, once I got to the city, you know, things came to a head and I realized, I don't really like this wave anymore so I got a new wife. I met her at a bar, actually. Yes, I met her at a bar. She worked as the barkeep. That marriage ended shortly thereafter. Then my third wife, we actually met at a church. Yes, she worked for a catering service. So I was at the church and she was the catering service. Yes, for a banquet meal. And then that's how I met my third wife. You remind me so much of her. You remind me so much of my third wife. Yes. Oh, my. Yes. Wow. Well, she's dead. She was lovely while she was alive. It is what it is. Like we said before, you win some, you lose some. So it's been about 17 years and I'm looking for my fourth wife. Now, you've never been married before, have you? Oh, gosh. Are you still hungry or do you need anything? Yes, let's order a little bit more. I'm thinking of having children, actually. I've had four... One, two, three. I've had three wives. I've had three wives and no children. Wow. So I'm thinking about... I haven't had any evil. You know what they say. How old are you? I'm basically 20. Well, 20? Well, that's just how it goes. It's, you know, they say it's never too late to start. So I guess... Right, yeah. 20 is, you know, it's a little on the right side, but for motherhood, look, they say it's never too late. Well, I don't know about all that. That is a... Yeah, I don't know about all that. That is something else. Sorry, a little bit tipsy. One day. One day. She's going to wear boots inside that stage. Oh, thank you.  Seriously. That was, of course, the last time I met her. You're okay? Pleasure. No. Do you need changing? I did pay seven dollars for this, so are you experienced in being able to change? Yeah, I've had it all the time. Let's go somewhere a little bit, a little bit private. Maybe, well, we could probably just go into the restroom. Sure, sure. Let's keep going. We're almost there anyway. I know we are. Come on. Oh, it's starting to run down my... You know, can we just... Let's just... Yeah, I... Look, here. Take this. I bring this extra... This extra... Come, come, come, come, come here. Take this. I'll just bend over there. I'll just... Yeah. Okay, just... Just... You know what to do. Please just go ahead and... Oh, okay. Yes, just... Oh, okay. Thank you. Oh, use... Use... Make sure to use the wet wipes. I did it. Yeah, mix... Okay. Very good. All right. I should be ready. Sure. That was quite the journey. Thank you. Thank you for... Oh, you're welcome. That's a problem. That's a problem. I would really love to... Yes? To do this again sometime and... Yes. Oh, I would love to do it sometime too. Yes. Please. I think it would be a fantastic thing to do. We could do this again sometime and... Yes. Well, that's just how it goes, you know. And maybe... Maybe my $7 investment is going to pay off. So... You really think? Yes, we'll see. Oh, my gosh. I mean... Yes. Now, is there a review process for this service? Do I speak to your manager after the fact and... Yes, yes. You can fix her problem. Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much for joining me tonight. And yes, I will go find Robert and we can... We can go have a conversation with him as well. Of course. All right, thank you very much, my lady. Ah, you're very welcome. Thank you for blessing me with your presence. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, it was there. Come on. Okay. She was going on, dude. Oh, hello. Oh, Robert. Yeah, it was a great time, but... It was one of the best nights of my life. But please, Betsy... Betsy, would you please give her some privacy? Thank you, Betsy. It was an incredible time. What did she talk like that? Did she just have a stroke? I don't know, but it was terrible. I don't know why. What? Seven dollars, Robert. I came here for the finest service I could ask for. And you asked for seven dollars for that mess? That was... I'm really sorry. I'm really, really sorry about that. I don't know if I have time for this. Let me walk you out. Sorry. The door... I thought you were never going to come out.  I just... The knees don't work like they used to, you know? But really, Robert, seven dollars...  Look at me. Seven dollars. I'll look at you. Seven dollars. Messeroshi. For that? I apologize. I'm sorry. Ninety-three years. And you need to show some respect to your elders. This isn't child's play. Punish me. Ready? Punish me. Yes. That's three knocks. Three knocks. And lots of pain. Do you apologize for your transgressions? Messeroshi. What are you doing to Rob? Do you apologize? Yes, I was speechless. Not because I was muted, but because I was in so much pain. It sounded like you lost your voice there. I have learned my lesson. Messeroshi, I just want to say it was an honor talking with you. It's been a time with you. Sorry, I just wanted to say that I'm prudent. It's been a great night. And you know what? Thank you. I hope you have a great night. I hope you have a wonderful night. Oh, I had a wonderful night. What did I say? I feel like we're really connected. Yes, we had a wonderful night. We had a fantastic night. We had a fantastic night. Okay, is she leaving? Okay, I just wanted a little bit of privacy. She is the worst. Just an absolute, yes, absolutely. You'll never see her again. You should fire her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll never see her again. She's going to be homeless. She'll never work in this town again. Okay, I like what I did. Good night. Thank you. I'm going to head off to bed as well. Yes. Okay, well, now they don't know what my master plan was. You think I can avoid $7 every night? I can't just avoid $7 every night. If she gets fired, then I can get her for free chat. That was all the plan all along.


Today on breakfast, a new study has found that any type of hormonal contraceptive may increase the risk in developing breast cancer. Quite a chilling revelation will speak with a health practitioner for insight on this. Also on the breakfast, we'll take a look at the recent international table tennis ranking and the Super Eagles AFKON qualifiers game today. And of course, we have a latest look at what the papers are saying. Now the press will take some of the big stories on the front pages of the newspapers analyzing them with our guest who is joining us in a few minutes. Alright, we're back. It's the breakfast of Plasti. We have kind of course been enjoying a hot tea here while waiting for you to be with us. Once again, you're welcome. My name is Kofi Bartels. We have a very interesting conversation ahead. I'm looking forward to hearing more about that breast cancer thing because this hormonal pills and stuff is what we hear women use a lot, you know, even the doctors would prescribe it to you sometimes. So I want to know more about it. I feel like it's a conversation we can never, you know, it can never be overemphasized. And so every time we talk about it's very relevant. Once again, thank you for joining us. I am Messi Bopu. And my name is Kofi Bartels. We begin programming today with a look at the top trending stories. We just take three of them and we'll start with a state that is close to my heart. If you follow this conversation, you know, there are three states that are close to my heart. Cross River State, River State and Lagos State. I love those states so much. This one, I want us to just show this picture so that you can understand exactly what we're talking about. It is a letter, a notice, if we can show it now. A notice that was shared. It was posted on the wall of a facility. Yes. So I'm just going to read what this is saying so that we can just go straight, you know, it's not going to waste time. So this is a quick notice of sorts. Quick notice. It says government of River State of Nigeria, office of the permanent secretary, Ministry of Works, dated 20th of March, 2023. Subject to whom it may concern. To whom it may concern. Proposed G.R.A. phase five, Ozoba, Podhakot demolition notice. It says following the imminent commencement of the above project, all structures impacting the right of way of the project have been earmarked for demolition, including your own. Consequently, you are by this notice requested to remove such structures within 48 hours to allow for speedy progress of work. Please. Signed, Iberia Dennis Mnike misses permanent secretary. And just to provide background, this is simply a quick notice, demolition notice, actually. First quit, if you don't quit, it will demolish from the government of River State, of course, led by His Excellency, Governor Yasun Wike, whom his people affectionately call Yerishi, or as he depend them, it is sweet as, as it is sweet as, it depend them. Okay. And so this was served. This was served on the management of dark communications owners of African independent television, AIT, and Ray Power FM. Okay. And this is for them to remove their structures from a piece of land with the government referring to in two days, a failure of which the structures will be demolished. You know, so we've read that the land on which AIT and Ray Power is built is is in said to be in Ozoba and has been the subject of dispute between the River State government, the community, the River State, and the dark communication PLC. The state government recently claimed the property through a motion passed by the state House of Assembly. So that's that. We hear that meanwhile, the River State chapter of the Nigeria journalist has pleaded with the state government to review its plan to pull down the AIT structure. There's a statement signed not just by the chairman of the NUJ, who was a guest at my wedding, Stanley Job Stanley, but also the secretary, Ike Wigodo, respectively, who appealed to the River State government to review their position on the land dispute and drop their plan to demolish and take over the AIT property. Well, so first, it's quite unfortunate that all of this is happening in River State, like you have rightly mentioned is a state that's close to your heart. And one would begin to think, you know, what exactly is going on, you know, in River State? What's going on, you know, with the government? What's going on with Yesom Wike? Well, it's important to note some people, because if you look at the response and reactions from Nigerians, it practically feels like, you know, this is a vendata. It feels like the government is taking it out on anyone. This is being extra with the powers that you have as a state and as a government. Well, it is also important to note that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended, says that every citizen of Nigeria should have a right to acquire and own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria. The Constitution gives right to every individual who is a citizen of Nigeria. The right to own properties were righted, so you have a right to own as long as you're a citizen. Now, if you look at the crux of the conversation as to the quick notice for AIT, I'm not sure that AIT just erected that structure. The structure was erected in River State. You have been there. I'm not sure that structure just happened in 2023 or 2022. So I'm sure that that structure has been there for a very long time. And so which gives, you know, premise to the question of, so if you say that there's an obstruction of right of way or right of way, there's some sort of obstruction. Now before, as much as the Constitution says that everyone, every Nigerian has a right to own a property where a rightist had a desire in any part of the country, then you ask yourself, at the state level, you also need to have the presence of governance and government. And so who is responsible? What government agency is responsible for ensuring that if a property is being bought, I mean, before you erect a structure, there's supposed to be some sort of approval to ride. Well, all of a sudden that structure is illegal. It's obstructing the right of way and movement of pedestrians or even vehicle movement and what have you. But the next question you ask yourself is who were the persons? Because I'm not sure that AIT as an entity or as an individual just woke up and then they acquired that property. I'm sure that there were procedures. The government gave access or gave a nod to yes, you can, you can build. There's supposed to be all of that. So these properties are not just, people don't just wake up and build structures. There's the laid down rules, government at each level or wherever it is that it is. You won't see it at the state level, at the local government level. There's some sort of control. And so how come all of a sudden that's illegal? Who gave the heed? Because I'm not sure that AIT as an organization or whether you want to look at it as an individual would just wake up and then, hey, they decide to build in a certain space. There would have been procedures, laid down procedures that would have been followed. What gave the approval for that structure to be erected there? All of a sudden the structure is now obstructing the right of way. It's not structured properly and then you have to demolish. It just speaks to a lot of things that's been happening. It speaks to the character or the disposition of our politicians. Especially when you talk about a river state over time, it feels like there's been a lot of some sort of, how do I even put it now? One who's been acting very dictatorial and acting somewhat outside of the premise of the law. And that's what it is. But those who are in the legal space have advised that it's important that they probably file for an injunction stopping the river state government. Don't forget it's not weaker himself. It's the river state government asking for that demolition and whatever will be done. You can't attribute that to a person. But you also cannot take an individual from the state as well. However you look at it, it is what it is. But we hope that we get to a climb and get a society where all of this is not a case. That people will not take their personal grievances or whatever it is out and use the powers within the poor view to act indiscriminately. You mentioned the fact that they consigned the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It gives everyone a right to own property everywhere and all. Which is absolutely true. But also the reason why the state governors are able to do what they want to do. I remember, how would you remember the Inka AFLA case? I think the governor who demolished the radio station, the building of that radio station belonging to Inka AFLA. What's his name again? Is that Jim Moby? That's something I think he's no longer alive. If I'm not mistaken. But that Inka AFLA case is one in point. For those who are in southwest, western part of Nigeria, they remember that the government said that they were expanding the road. And they needed to clear some buildings and all that. So we're used to hearing in Nigeria, in different parts of the world even. But in this country that when government wants to embark on a project, maybe road expansion, they want to dualize the road. For instance, say we're going to break your fence, break your fence, break part of the building, we'll pay compensation. And so people are not able to say no. They actually would just have to go for that compensation. And that's where they can engage in some litigation or negotiation on how much they would receive. The land use act is what has given the governors in the states the right to administer land.  You have to wait for the governor himself to sign. You know, in some states it's actually a campaign promise that if you vote for me as governor when I come in, all pending sea of O's will be signed.  I think it was yes, so Miki was campaigning in 2015, 2014. He promised some of the churches that he was going to sign, you know, just approve their sea when they prayed for him and supported him and all that. So I'll direct us to section 28 of a land use act. That's part five. Part five of land use act talks about revocation of rights of occupancy and compensation thereof, okay, or therefore, you know. So section 28 of the land use act, subsection one says it shall, it shall, and I quote, it shall be lawful for the governor to revoke a right of occupancy for overriding public interest, and that's a simple, you know, law that these governors would always use to do what they have to do. Governors are always powerful. They tell you, oh, it's a federal government. It's a lie. They're able to do a lot. We don't see governors in states in this country declaring people wanted, you know, just to sweep up one day and say, I'm declaring you wanted. Anyway, so there are conditions that is overriding public interest, but section one, subsection one of section 20 of the land use act, it clearly states, and I quote, it shall be lawful for the governor to revoke a right of occupancy for overriding public interest. And we've seen, we've seen the case in point where people who, buildings that hosted political meetings, you know, the governor came out of, yes, we came out and said, see, if your building is not meant for a commercial purpose, you can't host any rally and all that there.  And part of the action some people would expect to be revocation of CFO. You know, there was a politician, I think it was Lee Mayba, who had a house, a piece of land somewhere in a very plush part of Podhaka called Ojiari. That should be like the, maybe Ikoi of Podhaka 10. It was revoked if I'm not mistaken. So, you know, that's why we ended conditions to this. We don't want to go into all of that. So the governor has a right to revoke a CFO in overriding public interest. Now, if you look at the letter or the equidnotes that they issued, they're saying that all the structure is impacting the right of way of the project called GRE phase five was over now. I know GRE phase five was over. Because I used to play football on that land. You know, it's an expanse of land. And where I used to work was just part of that place as well. There has not been touched. You look at development from right from the Uniport Axis. Even if you're entering Podhaka from Worry or from Lagos, you could pass through Bayosa. You'd be coming in through the Uniport Axis. Now, development has taken place from all those places. When I moved to Podhaka, that place was bush, you know. But that's when you get to a place called Obiri Quarry Fly, but that part of Podhaka, you know, that you see a bushy part that has not been developed till now. That is where you call GRE phase five. They said there were plants. The history of that land is longer. We can't go into it today, you know. It goes all the way to the end of the civil war. In Olisha-Gobat-Sangio, some people told me, historians in that area told me, they went into a chopper and flew. And then said we are taking this place for University of Podhaka and all this land from here to here in military now. So the community, they've been, you know, all the communities on that stretch of land. You have many communities that have been, you know, angling for some land. And then the River State Government, of course, which came up after the civil war took over, you know, and then it was a military time from Date Spief, military and all that till the civilians came back in 99. So they had that land. Now the communities were still angling. They wanted that land. The land is a big deal in Podhaka. It's a big deal.  Okay, so they have some judgments and all that. But the thing about it is a government of River State that, you know, in civilian government now, they inherited the land from the military who, you know, let's say annexed it or, you know, apportioned it for public use, was able to give out these lands to media houses. You have a number of media houses who are there. A media house I used to work for had land there. I know the AIT land. It's quite big. You know, if you go into an NTA compound, you know, I've not seen any NTA in this country that is small. It's like that. You know, even the NTA was allocated to very big by government. You know, so you have a number of media houses there. There's one popular television station, the popular one, the private one. They just opened their studio not far. You know, I don't know if that is part of this arrangement. But what I'm saying is the state government had this magnanimity, you know, to welcome media houses and all that. But what we hear is that at some point, the State House of Assembly, if you remember, in 2022 said they wanted to probe the history of that AIT land, you know. And also the community, the Ozoba community, which is a very hospitable community, very nice community. They had some very nice land which they were able to sell. And you know, some of it is still their fantastic place. I used to live there by the way. They had to look into the complaints of the community that they had a court ruling saying that whole land was for them. Now, what some of us expected was that the undeveloped parts of the land, which is quite enormous, a lot of it, you know, will be developed as part of that GRE phase five. Even the football field I used to play on, they brought bulldozers to clear the place. But the thing about it is the River State House of Assembly did a probe, you know, into the acquisition of that land. And when they concluded their probe, they said that their communications is 868 plots. Imagine that, quite a large land. That communications had wrongfully acquired that land. And there was a recommendation or recommendations by the House of Assembly Committee on Public Petitions. We sat over the petition that the community brought. So we have communities, namely Rumu Qwashi, Rumu Si, which is where I used to work, and play football, Ozoba, which is where I used to live. Alla Kaheya, these communities came together to petition the House of Assembly. So what the chairman of the House of Committee said was that Ivan's BP, during his presentation, you know, of the Reported Committee, this last year, September, he said that that communications failed to provide land documents for the said property, you know. And after they had two meetings, and after the two meetings and they had joined for a long time, they requested the management of their communications, you know, to enable them to provide land allocation papers and all that, it said they failed to provide those land allocations. So that was what they ruled. But you see, what the government is doing now may not be connected to that committee because now they are not talking about lack of documents. They are talking about a right of way. We want to build the GRE phase 2, phase 5, and your building is standing in our way. So we're going to move it. Is this politically or not politically related to that? Because we all know that Raymond Dopecy has been a strong member of the People's Democratic Party, at least from the time of Goodluck Jonathan. We all know that the PDP National, and yes, we care the government, they've not really been in good terms. You know that Raymond Dopecy has also been part of the Article Presidential Campaign, a bid, you know. So some people suspect that this is not unconnected with that. Now how do you expect, it's a large expanse of land messy. You have a radio station there, you have a television station there, a lot of facilities. Now how does it also move the building, move the building in two days? So Kofi, just as we coasted down, you have actually said a lot, giving history as to all that has happened, but it's also important to note, as much as you say that the laws, it's within the purview of the governor or any governor, you know, to revoke any property based on land, but you also need to understand, yes, even if you have the constitution saying everyone has a right to owning the property. I'm just saying that it's not possible for you to wake up here and say you want to take a property without, you know, the government being involved. For instance, in Lagos state, I mean, there's something very popular. I'm sure that it should be, you know, national, it should be a national phrase. It's called the building permit, which is essentially a regulatory approval given by government through its relevant agency. So the question that we begin to ask, as much as you say, hey, it's right to way, and I mean, you can't even talk about the obstruction of right to way. Everyone, especially pedestrians, they have a right to way, and so that is not it. But I'm saying that it wouldn't have been possible for dark communications or Raymond Duck by saying, you know, to wake up and acquire property without the approval of the government. It wouldn't have been. So who gave the approval to that? Did that not consider, you know, all of the concerns of the community? I mean, at the end of the day, let's even look at it rationally. I'm not sure that you can wake up anywhere, whoever you are, in this country to wake up and say you want to acquire property without due diligence, without even saying you want to erect a structure anywhere. So that's also another thing to look at. Is it that they just woke up and got to the point and then got a property? Did this government not know that all of these were issues and concern? So how come this is becoming an issue? Why did they, in the first place, whether or not it's long-term or short-term, you're supposed to have your, what's it called, environmental impact assessment over time carried out. So it's just a lot to grapple with, but we can't really dwell so much on that. Yes, just to add that the suspicion, messy that the criticism is for the entire building. I mean, it's like someone saying, here plus C, we should move this in two days. You know, it's not possible. The House of Assembly had, in its recommendations, and the House of Assembly is not, they're not the law. They're not a court. They can't just determine what to be done. It should be done. It's just recommendation. They recommended that part of the land should be given, retained with AIT. The rest of the land is made, it's quite large, okay? They now recommended that the remaining section should be given back to the community. So we have about 10.7 plots out of how many plots or hectares they say should be given to. So I do not know if this crit notice or demolition notice has to do with, maybe the fence, okay, that they want to break and not the entire building, which is all we'll have to see in the coming days. But we just move away from that. There's also another interesting conversation that's gotten the interest of a lot of Nigerians. It's about the, you know, the approval of designation or redesignation of State House Assembly Clinic or State House Clinic to Medical Center. President Mohammed Buhari has a, has a, the renaming of State House Clinic back to the Medical Center. Tijani Umar, who is the Permanent Secretary State House, made the disclosure after the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. Is he under suspension? We thought there was some sort of suspension. The SGV. The, the party in, in Adamah C.A.P.C.F. set a committee to look into disciplinary committee. And they've seen that the, the ward doesn't have, the ward executives don't have the power to suspend Boss Mustafa. Okay, so, but let's move away from that. It's a different conversation. Like I rightly mentioned, Tijani Umar, who's the Permanent Secretary State House, made this known after, you know, the meeting with Boss Mustafa, who is the, you know, Government, I mean, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, he commissioned an inspection of the new Presidential Wing of the State Medical, or State House Medical Center. However, it was, it's also important to note that in March 2019, the President Mohammad Dabuhari had approved that the State House Medical Center, Sokoro, which was facing challenges with funding, deterioration of infrastructure and equipment, scale up, or scale down to a clinic until the challenges were addressed. And now with improvement in the problem and in the areas, the new VIP Wing with the state of the art facilities, it can no longer operate as a clinic. It is now to operate as a State House Medical Center. I don't know if, you know, anyone would contend that if you look at, you know, the issues, can you operate as a clinic or, and let's also forget that there's also a big issue as to not even having a syringe at a time where Aisha Dabuhari had raised that concern. And one would think, I mean, what clinic should not have, especially the one that is located in Asorok? Yes, indeed. I mean, Medical Center, clinic, I don't know if, sorry, Nigerians care about it, you know, because I think these are things that sometimes are terrible not to bother about because you know, you don't want to give yourself too much unnecessary pressure and too much, maybe increase of blood pressure, stress of thinking about the issues in this country. If you want to go into the budgets, to see how much have been how much has been budgeted or allocated to State House Health Center Clinic over the years. I'm not just talking about since it came. It's just, it's just funny, you know, they're having issues, they're not sure, should we maybe take a clinic? Okay, oh, we don't have enough of a less test than really.  The question is, whether it's been related to a health center or not, will it change the fact that Muhammad Buhari, you know, has in 2020, but as at the end of 2022, as of December 2022 spent 237 days on medical trips since his inauguration in 2015. Okay, will it change that fact that he goes abroad, you know, to have his medical attention? I don't think it will change that fact. I don't think so. And then we have another one that is warming up, you know, which is the president-elect. He's already taking a rest, gone to Paris, from Paris is going to London, you know, take a rest. And of course I'm sure that may involve, I believe that may involve some medical attention. So, rest is still part of medicine, is it not?  Have to go to Paris and then London to rest? I mean, so, I don't know. Clinic Health Center, will it change the fact that health facilities are not good enough to take care of a president and senior officials? Will it be good enough for the president? When the vice president had his leg issue, it wasn't a private hospital that he went to. Some private hospitals somewhere in Abuja, or Lagos, I can't remember where. It wasn't in government house clinic, you know, so what will it change? Is the question people will want to ask. I don't think much. We have to go, but just a quick one, very quick one, to inform us that the former deputy senator president, of course, and his wife have been found guilty of organ trafficking, and that story is well covered. What do you think about this before we go? Well, it's not rocket science.   I've seen how Nigerians have reacted. Some people say, oh, can the United Kingdom cut them a slack? Any parent will go a long way to do anything to save their daughter. You don't want to be in a situation where you would do anything. But the next question you want to ask your service, are there procedures? Are there laid down procedures to get the same result? But maybe we're already in a climb where we're used to getting it quick. You know, cutting corners, looking for shortcuts, however it is. And if you look at the judgment, I mean, I read through all of that, you know, they were convicted or for conspiracy to exploit a man of his kidney according to the first verdict and they're looking at the issue of modern day slavery acts. They have that already. Now you want to talk about the laws and implementing the laws and the judiciary interpreting it. I also read some of the comments. It was really really, you know, looking at some of the details that were said, they said the issue of hypocrisy pretend entitlement, all of that. We don't have so much time, you know, to get into the crux of this issue because we need to move you know, to the paper review at this point in time. But just simple and short, it's just a society that has structures that are functioning and the lower tickets cost despite whoever it is that you are.   Wow. And laws would be there. We have fantastic laws in Nigeria. But what's the level of implementation? And if you also look at the judiciary, would we have a different outcome if this case were to be in Nigeria? I have seen comments, but for how long will we continue to make excuses for wrong behaviour? It's just different and it just speaks, you know, entirely to a different polity and a climate. That's what it is. The law is the law. There's no sentiment about it. You can't, you know, say for that. But Kofi, we need to go. I know something that we can talk about. I'm sure we would talk about it on the paper review Kofi. We'll take a break. When we come back we'll quickly dive into the paper review segment. Please stay with us.


Welcome traders, I'm Tim Melcharty at Manipatrimonial. I want to take a look at the Kiwi dollar on the four hour time frame and we're still looking for this bigger corrective pattern WXY to complete at 67.98 which would be the quality objective versus this structure here. So we had this initial move off the 73.16 high to the downside impulse move and we're correcting that now or potentially correcting it in an ABC. Equal Legs comes in at 71.18 versus the 69.46 low. We also have a 50% retracement at 71.21 and we have these prior lows support now to potentially act as resistance. So watch for bearish reversal patterns in this zone, set short positions, tackling a test of the 68. As always traders, plan the trade, trade the plan, manage your risk. Until next time, thanks very much.