Thank you very much, Nova, and thank you to all the organizers for inviting me and for making this possible. So I'd like to say a few words to introduce the overall flow, and also as we do that, that would be a good time for some housekeeping. Earlier today, I introduced the informed consent for the filming. I'd now like to hand out some Flickr devices, and I'll explain how they work in a minute. So I'll invite my colleague, Jules, to pass over. You'll each get one. Please remember to give them back at the end of the day. Hillary will be very upset if I don't come back with them. And as she does so, she will pick up the informed consent form from you. Okay, so hand it over as she hands it over to you. It's another piece of introduction. I'll be presenting these materials to you today, but these are not materials that I alone developed. I'm standing here on the shoulders of giants, so to speak. So that's why you will see on the cover slide of each module, many logos scattered there. So I'd like to now, as we start today, to take a brief moment to acknowledge that. So you'll see, of course, the CERCA logo right next to the description of the workshop that we have here. But you'll also see a range of logos on the bottom. So from left to right, there's the logo of the CGIR, which is the network that Hillary is a part of. Hillary is one of 15 research centers that together form the CGIR network. You'll also see a CGIR research program on human tropics. So the CRP on human tropics funded a lot of this work and also is applying this systematically throughout three continents. So here in Asia, across Sub-Saharan Africa, and in Central America and the Caribbean. So we'll have some examples from those regions. Then, of course, my parent institute, Hillary, the International Livestock Research Institute, based in Nairobi, Kenya, where I'm based. So Hillary has been working on innovation systems and innovation platforms within that for many years now. So what I'll be sharing with you today is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Hillary materials. All of our materials are freely available to you at any time. So we have an open access policy, which means everything we publish, everything we say, everything we do. Makes it onto our open access repository and can be used by anyone for any means under a Creative Commons license. So if you see anything, then references, you can always see me, but you can also just go to Hillary's website and find everything there. Next is our sister organization from the CGIR, IITA, the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture. And next to it, Wageningen University. So IITA and Wageningen have been partnering with us on much of this work, and you'll see many references to their work as we go through the day. In fact, you've already seen some references to the work in Bernie's presentation, and I'll come back to that later. Next is the FARA. FARA is the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa. So it's an umbrella organization coordinating a lot of the research throughout the continent. And lastly, I always wonder what that is, but that's the Royal Tropical Institute logo. So KIT, the Royal Tropical Institute based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. So the materials are drawn up from all of these organizations, and a lot of the insights that you will get come from them. If there are misrepresentations, they are entirely mine. So that's the way this sharing works. Now I also want to recognize a few individuals, because it's always nice to recognize the organizations, but organizations are composed of individuals after all. First and foremost, I'd like to recognize Marc Schutt from IITA and Wageningen University, who co-designed the initial workshop that led to much of this work together with me that we ran back in 2014. I'd also like to recognize my colleague Deborah Weibern from ILRI, who's really taken the lead on most of the work that you see here. And if you'll go on and use these materials later and use the online course that comes with it, this is very much her creation. So all the credit goes there. She's been assisted with Solomon Schimelis and Ilri Fellow working on some of these materials. And there are many others who I won't bore you with at this stage, but this is the work of many people. Okay, so does everyone now have a clicker in their hand? Great. By show of hands, how many have used these clickers before? Okay, great. So what do you think these clickers are for? For queries, responses. Yes, absolutely. So you've guessed it absolutely correctly. And the idea is that throughout the day, at various points, I will ask you questions. Now, normally in a room full of people, when you ask a question, the first thing that happens is nothing. Everyone is very silent. But then as we get comfortable and we get to know each other a little bit better, there may be two or three people who always have something to say. And there'll be another five people who never want to voice their opinion. I find that not a good enough representation of the room. So this is a way where you can anonymously and instantly give me feedback. So I can see whether the concepts are going across well or not. Yes, but also, so I have preferred some, there are some questions scattered throughout, but also we can at any given point say, any one of you can raise and say, can we do a poll on this? We'll just quickly type it in and we can vote on that. So it makes the experience more participatory. So shall we give it a try? So the first couple of questions you didn't need to do any background studying for. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to answer them, especially since there's no right or wrong answer. For instance, who's in the room? So please pick the category that best describes your primary affiliation. Now many of you would say, well, I'm a government person, but I also do research. I come from an NGO, but I also do extension. So whatever you feel is your best description. From government extension, press A or one. You come from NGOs or civil society, press two. Research press three or C. And if none of the above private sector or something else, you can press D for other. Okay, simple enough, right? So I can see, and you can also see, let's see if this works. You see here, I can actually see the number of responses clicking in. So I can see that we're now up to 10, but that's not enough. We should have more. So we have 21 so far. Pick the one that you feel the most affiliated with. Now the way these clickers work, if you clicked on something and you want to change your mind, you can. It will remember the last thing you clicked. So if anyone had a change of heart, they can quickly change it as well. Okay, so we see that we have a majority of the rooms, about two thirds of the room, identifies as government or extension people. We also see that we have about a quarter of the room, slightly over a quarter of the room, primarily identifying as researchers. We have 9% of others. Completely optional, but would someone of the others like to define how they define themselves? Okay. And interesting, nobody here in the room identifies primarily as an NGO or civil society. So that's interesting for us to also keep in mind in our discussions that we have certain representation in the room. So we see the world through a certain lens. So let's remember in particular that there's a certain lens here that we don't have with us in the room today. And let's try to be cognizant of that. So a similar exercise, again, who's in the room?  Is it something that you've never heard of, in which case you click A? Something that you've heard of, but you're not really, really sure what they are or how they function. Is it something you've worked with before and you feel you have a basic understanding? Or is it something that you've used extensively and you feel you have a strong grasp of the topic? Sponsors are coming in. We've got about 16. Now 20, 23. Okay. So it's an interesting, but perhaps not surprising, given the target audience. So an interesting mix. So we have very few of the extremities. There's a few people who feel they've never been exposed to it. That will be completely new. But for most of you, you either have some exposure or you've heard of it. You'd like to know more and so on. So great. So hopefully if I poll you on this question again by the end of tomorrow, we'll get a very different set of answers. Comfortable with the concept of polling? Great. The other reason I love clickers is because I'm an economist by training. And so I firmly believe that people respond to incentives. So I've now given you an incentive to pay close attention. Why?  So this is not an exercise where you can sleep through a nod and get through. So in that case, let us begin our journey. So in terms of the core objectives of this particular module, module one, we want to identify and examine some of the major features and characteristics of complex agricultural problems and explore innovative solutions to those. And also look a little bit under the circumstances where innovations emerge. Now I'm very fortunate to have had Bernie come up with the presentation before me because many concepts here he touched upon. So I don't need to go as much in depth. You'll actually see some identical slides and I promise you we did not precoordinate. So you're getting some triangulation here. First, let's look at complex problems in agriculture. Agriculture is a really integral for both the physical and the economic survival of every human being. We don't eat without agriculture. And agricultural problems are also very cross-cutting. They're multi-dimensional and multi-level and they involve many actors. And therefore the causes of the actual problems are also very complex. So it's a huge problem of complexity that we're dealing with. Agricultural needs to be sustainable. How many times have you heard that? Agriculture and sustainability said together in the same breath. All the time I'm sure. If we want to feed a growing planet, you may hear how many mouths we'll need to feed by the year 2030, 2050 and so on and so forth. So meeting the demands of a rapidly growing world remains a big challenge. In contemporary agriculture it's not just a production. We also have to deal with the environmental issues, the ecosystems, biodiversity. We also have to look at the negative externalities of using toxic chemicals, etc. But agriculture remains on the healthy functioning ecosystem. So we have a lot of positive and negative externalities that we need to manage and this obviously contributes to the complexity of the issue we're trying to address here. We have a few disconnects that affect this issue very much. And I'll touch briefly on three of these in this first module. First is the disconnect between agriculture and the environment. The second is the disconnect between producer and consumers. And the third is the disconnect between policies and expectations. So on the first one, the human activities associated with agriculture have really made a big impact and not always a positive one on the environment. Whether it's water, nitrogen cycles, climate change. They're all major issues that human activity that's associated with agriculture is playing a very big role in. And where if we're really looking at sustainability, we have to think about ways to address. The other thing is that if we look at farming methods, they've really degraded the quality of the soils. So that, for instance, through massive fertilizer use in order to get the yields. So that's one example of such a disconnect. And of course, when I say it like that, it can look very simple, but as the simple graph, well, relatively simple graph illustrates, you actually have many causes for this. So you have climate extremes and you have natural hazards, and then this can lead to natural disasters. Of course, what we're primarily interested in in these cases is the quality of life. So all of these factors are interdependent and that's part of the complexity of the issue. So the challenge, what we want to achieve is easier said than done. A sustainable agriculture in a changing climate. But as all of you know, if you're involved in policy setting or in implementing agricultural policies, that's really easier said than done. The second disconnect that I want to highlight is the disconnect between producers and consumers. So low prices that customers are willing to pay for, especially in food, is being compounded by a crisis of trust, by a crisis of trust in the quality of the foods, food safety issues and so on. Then we have a range of food scares, whether it's mad cow or bird flu or things of that nature, which suddenly scare us from eating a certain type of food where a certain value chain is completely avoided. And a general sense that the supermarket foods or generally the cheap foods that we find are not of good nutritional value, which is not a wrong assumption to have by the way. So we're having a system where both sides are actually discontent. We have a disequilibrium. We also have a disconnect between policies and expectations. So Bernie showed us a range of policies. So every Asian country had its policy, whether it comes from this ministry or that ministry, whether it's anchored on a five-year plan or a 30-year plan, but everyone had one. There wasn't a country that said, okay, we don't need a policy for that. But this valuation is rarely translated into policy to support the family farms that are central to agricultural community. So I promised you that I'll be checking if you're awake. So here's a first clicker exercise. What makes agricultural problems so complex? Is it A, that technologies used in agriculture are more sophisticated than ever before? Is it B, that problems tend to be multi-dimensional, multi-level and involve multiple actors? Is it C, that most problems are linked with climate change, which has brought about complex changes in agricultural ecosystems? Or is it D, that each problem requires multidisciplinary research to discover a solution? We have about 14 replies. 20 replies. The last fan-sitters. Yes, so the majority of the room got it correctly. So its problems tend to be multi-dimensional, multi-level and involve multiple actors. That is the heart and soul of the complexity in agricultural innovation systems. Let's try it again. Which one of these situations do not represent a disconnect in the agricultural production phase? So I'm asking which one does not? Is it A, the graded source requiring higher level of fertilizer inputs? Is it B, a distrust between consumers and producers? Is it C, a strong cultural roots in a country's agricultural heritage? Or is it D, saline intrusion and beech erosion resulting from unprecedented frequencies of storm surges? Which is not a disconnect? Okay, so we have a more interesting answer here. In this case the correct answer would be C. Would someone who answered C like to say why they answered C? So strong cultural roots in your agricultural heritage is not a disconnect per se. It can be something very positive. This particular crop is grown here throughout the years. That's part of our cultural heritage. That's not a disconnect per se. All the others are examples of what happens when you have a disconnect. Okay, and one more. When we say that complex agricultural problems are multi-dimensional, what do we mean? Do we mean that they require input at national, regional, local and sometimes at global level? B, that they demand involvement of multiple actors to achieve resolution? C, that they involve a range of agricultural products? Or D, that they are an interplay of biophysical, technical, sociocultural, economic and political factors? Very interesting. So the answer here was B, but D can also be taken as a multi-dimensional answer. Okay, let's continue on. But I think the stage has been set in terms of attentiveness requirements, right? Okay. So when we look at the complexity of agricultural problems, we want to make sure that the solutions that we come up with will meet all of the dimensions that we talked about, the levels and the stakeholder needs and the entrances, which often need to be addressed separately before we bring them together. And there are multiple factors behind complexity. Let me briefly touch on four. One is that they are at the interplay of biophysical, technical, sociocultural, economic, institutional and political factors. Two is that they have very different implications across different levels. So some might be at a global level, at a national level, and some might be at a local or subnational level. They are further characterized by the involvement of multiple actors and stakeholders. And finally, the development of the problem and the efficiency and effectiveness of the solutions is uncertain and often unpredictable. So we work under a lot of uncertainty with a lot of actors at various levels who come from different angles. And all of these factors coming together are the perfect storm that drives this complexity. So one of the classic examples that we take to illustrate this complexity is climate change and food security, or the effects of climate change on food security. By a show of hands, how many people have not heard climate change and food security mentioned together in some context in the last five years? Right. So we look at rainfall patterns. We look at solutions that look at drought resistance varieties. We can look at a cropping calendar or we can look at reduced yields and incomes and their effects. We can go into global agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol or Carbon Credits. We can get into very long debates on who is responsible and who should pay, who's the polluter. But at the end of the day, it doesn't change the problem itself. So we need to find solutions that address all of these factors. They're also quite complex. For the sake of time, I won't go into all of the examples that are mentioned here. You'll have them, but they're just giving you many examples of how these multi-level interactions requires an interaction across all of these levels. And we have classic examples like the intergovernmental panel on climate change going down all the way to, and then you have a regional one like the SADEC climate change. SADEC is the South African community. Then it can be at a national level such as Kenya, the Kenya National Climate Change Response Strategy. And then it can be at a farmer level. So mitigation and adaptation strategies. For example, here in this photo, rainwater harvesting. So across all of this, we see the two layered arrows. And that's very important to bear in mind. It's not a one-way stream. So information and sometimes resources flow bottom up as well. So multi-stakeholder platforms or partnerships, they don't only bring key stakeholders together to discuss policy issues, but they also foster the sharing of skills and innovation. They promote inclusivity and equity. Promote grassroots mobilization and participation. And they help us develop trust amongst the groups who can be sometimes very suspicious and sometimes even hostile towards each other. So in a typical multi-stakeholder partnership, we can find policymakers, civil society, development actors, donors, farmers, the private sector, consultants, researchers. None of these stakeholder groups can solve the complex problem on their own. That's usually why we call them sort of wicked problems, because you can't just get together in a small group of one category of these and solve the problem. I mentioned just a couple of minutes ago that the efficiency of solutions is uncertain and unpredictable. So the development of the problem over time cannot be foreseen. We can't always know in advance how quickly things will unfold. The type of solutions and some of the external negativity, negative externalities or undesired impacts and how they will work out. We also don't know how the stakeholder interactions will work out. Just because you get people into a room together doesn't mean you're going to have a great outcome come out of it. It also depends a lot on what stage of your policy process or policy formulation you're in. As most of this room comes from a government policy background, you know that very well. So if you're at a stage where the top political authority, prime minister or the president or the minister of your ministry is absolutely keen on getting something done, it's a very different type of engagement intensity than if it's something that you're exploring for maybe in the future. In terms of climate change and food security going back to that, the big questions that we have is how will climate change develop over time and what type of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies will be most effective and will different type of stakeholders continue to work together. So these are simple, easy questions, right? So how will climate change evolve over time? There's an increase in greenhouse gases and then there's a corresponding increase in temperature. Absolutely. So how will it increase over time? Are we heading to a 2-degree warmer world or a 4-degree warmer world or 1.5? Will the world get colder? Who has the answer? Can you tell me exactly how many hectares will be deforested in the next 12 months? Not so sure about that. These are impossible questions to answer. Impossible. Forgive me for asking you impossible questions. The issue here is that if we had answers to these, the problems wouldn't be so complex. We can take our best modelers and our best scientists and make all the assumptions in the world but then something that we haven't factored will completely overturn this upside down. It can be a natural disaster. It can be a political change. It can be a man-made or a person-made disaster. So all of these things can derail. We can suddenly have a key stakeholder pull out. Imagine the private sector decides tomorrow that climate change isn't really happening. And so on and so forth. So these are hugely complex issues that we simply don't know how it will affect. So what's the solution? Do we do nothing? Does somebody have a policy paper from their own government that says our strategy is to do nothing? You laugh and it seems an irrational thing to do but when we look at the results of some of the policies over the years that might actually would have been a good strategy in some of the cases. We'll just do nothing and wait and see. And so the typical solution that we hear is, OK, so then we need innovation. Innovation will solve the problem. We'll have to unpack that a bit more to see whether innovation is always the answer and what is innovation. But basically we see a lot of solution strategies with attention to an integrated analysis across various dimensions. Or we see solutions that advocate for interaction across the multiple levels. Or we will often hear and say time and again that it's very important to get different stakeholders group paying attention to gender and age and ethnic groups and so on and so forth. And finally you'll hear, you've heard already in the morning, the capacity to innovate and the flexibility and adaptive capacity so that we can respond to whatever life throws at us because we can't be sure what we're going to deal with like we just saw with these few simple questions. So before we move on, what do you think about that? What do you think about the main premise that Stephen puts forward that it's the connectedness, the increase in connectivity that's going to increase the rate? Does that resonate with you? Do you agree? Do you disagree? I'd love to hear someone who agrees and someone who disagrees if we have them. There's no right or wrong answer here. Does somebody agree? Is there a microphone on your table? I agree that all of us are interconnected and there are platforms where we can interchange or exchange ideas but it's also a reality that, for example, Facebook gives us so many distractions while we are at it, right? So I'm thinking of linking this idea of connectedness to a certain KM tool that we were introduced recently called community sub-practice, online community sub-practice. Okay, thank you very much for that. Do we have someone who feels maybe not the opposite but is leaning towards the other side that too much connectivity is actually hampering innovation, not fostering it? You should have had a clicker exercise on this, right? Yes, but the fact that we don't have any is actually pretty consistent when I talk with people from many walks of life, the general sense that I get from groups is that, yeah, no, more interactions, more connectivity, it does help us innovate, it does help us come up with new ways of doing things. And so that's maybe a take home for us to take with us. So spaces for creativity is one big part of what is advocated for as good prerequisites for innovations to emerge. Bringing different people to mingle, and the different people is important. Maybe the fact that we don't have any NGO representatives here today is going to hamper our innovation strategies. And when you go back to the ministries, you're going to say, ah, there's a gap here, I have a blind spot, because I didn't have someone from the civil society close to the ground come and share their reality. He talked a lot about finding the missing piece, because often, you know, we have many pieces of the puzzle already. We're not starting from scratch. We have, in many cases, dozens of years of experience to build on, but sometimes it's just that this one thing that comes and suddenly becomes a game changer. And these processes take time. That's often something that we talked about three disconnects. A fourth disconnect would be donor funding cycles, government funding cycles, and the natural time for innovations. So often these things can take 10, 15 years for a real breakthrough to happen, but funded through, you know, three-year cycles, sometimes with stops in between and so on. So these are things to bear in mind on the emergence of innovations. So I'd like to invite you to participate in a role play if you agree. I will take the silence as tacit agreement. So central in our role play is a big forest. We talked about deforestation a few minutes ago. So here's an example. It's a huge forest that is located in between two expanding cities. For lack of a better world, we'll call one Addis and the other Ababa. And they're part of a region that we'll call the Highlands region. Several are from small farming communities who are living in and around the forest. For their livelihood strategy, they rely on small agricultural activities and from gathering natural resources provided by the forest. For example, firewood. As the cities are expanding and land is becoming more scarce, there is a debate about whether to keep the forest as it is and if not, what are the cost and benefits of different scenarios. So let me give you a few scenarios. One of the options would be to keep the forest like it is. No change to the current situation. There is unique fauna and fora in this area. The forest connects two other natural reserves and people from both cities come there to relax, to walk and do sports. Another option would be to cut down the forest and develop houses and industry so that the two cities will become one mega city. Another option is to cut down the forest but instead use it for agricultural purposes and that can supply the region with food. A fourth one is to do the same but use it not for food but for rubber or coffee production which can create much needed cash. For example, biofuels and so on. Maybe you already have a preference. It's possible that based on the information I gave you already have a preference. Quite possible. That's often how it works in practice. When you go into a meeting you don't go as a blank slate.  That's always the case. Such debates often end up on a negotiating table. We'll have people who represent the various stakeholders group. Any such group can bring together a multi-stakeholder process. We'll bring everyone around the table and we'll have a seat. This will be our multi-stakeholder platform and we'll discuss these options. What often happens is that this group comes up with suggestions. We'll have the advocates of the various groups and we'll start discussing. It can also come to a conflict. You have that option available to you today. If you want to storm out of the room you are free to do so. Sometimes people will change their minds and alliances will be created. Feel free to create alliances. And sometimes solutions are arrived at. Only time will tell if the solution is a good one or not. So here's the role division and I'd like you to if possible try to be in groups of five so if you can merge into groups of five that would be good and there will be different roles. You can be the government representative in this case the mayor. You can be a private sector representative. You can be a farmer representative. You can be a nature conservatist representative or you can be a platform facilitator and I'll hand out sheets that give you a little bit of a briefing about each of the roles and what you feel and think is that role. So the starting point is that this is your first platform meeting. Your objective is to discuss the future of the forest amongst all the stakeholders. If you pick the role of the facilitator you're supposed to lead the meeting and facilitate it as the name suggests. In some groups not all roles will be represented. In other groups there may be more than farmer represented. It's okay if you end in such groups. Feel free to create them. We will have two platform meetings of ten minutes. So far is everything clear. Are you ready to split into the groups and have your first meeting on the topic? So as you do that I'll walk around the tables and I'll hand you over a short one page handout that gives a bit of context and then another handout that gives the different roles. So you can already pick your roles, think about which role you want to be and I'll come over and then the facilitator should lead you through the process. You'll have ten minutes and then we'll convene back in the plenary before we go into round two. You can pick your role first and then read a bit more about it. Here's a description of the roles. Once you pick a role you can just take that page and give the others to others. So this is a description of the roles for somebody else. I'll invite you to start talking soon because we only have six minutes left. Can I have everyone's attention back? The meeting room has been flooded and you have to walk outside immediately. You cannot continue with the meeting. It's great to see the passion of the minister convene the meeting and we can no longer continue our side group. Okay. Okay, let's try to be all together for a minute. I'll just go around now very, very quickly and ask for the emerging dynamics and decisions from the different groups. I know you are under unreasonable time pressure and you didn't have time to do all the roles and everything. That's okay. We would like to get just a general sense of where we are. So the table that's speaking will get to speak first. Please go ahead. What is your overall feedback for us, dear facilitator? We look at how our role is, no? Okay, given the four, one, two, three, four, five, three, four, four roles. And then upon our assessment of each of our individual roles, the mayor stood up and he said he's willing to consult with the stakeholders and that the stakeholders agree with the suggestion of the mayor and that the suggestion, it came out that the decision is a win-win solution that everybody could benefit in terms of the forest could be part of the forest that is good for plantation, could be devoted some of it, some would be for agriculture. But there has to be an analysis related to how the urban, how land would be converted into urban area. So you have, you're leaning towards, so we had four options, remember, right? We could, number one, leave the forest alone. We could, number two, convert it into housing and industry. We could, number three, use it for agriculture for producing food or we could use it for agriculture for producing money. Cash crops or biofuels. So you're leaning towards partially number three, if I understand correctly. Agricultural use. Yes. And is it agricultural use for producing food that would be consumed in the community or sold for money? Okay, so you're partially towards number three. Thank you very much. Group one, group two. Utilize the forest with the source of income with fruit tree. But the conservationist, she insisted to preserve the forest as a jungle, as a jungle, so that the flora, the fauna will be preserved there. But as a benefit for the farmers, for the community nearby the forest, the forest will attract the tourists, so it can be an ecotourism that develops there. And fortunately, the private sector, the private sector. Sir, please, can we all be together? When the colleagues are speaking, can we all be together, please? The private sector, the businesswoman here eager and willing happily to finance how the ecotourism system running well. So the mayor happy with that because in his opinion the forest must be projective, but he also insisted that the forest not to be destroyed. Dear facilitator, what is the convergence of your group? Yes. Have you reached any decision? Yes. Which option have you chosen? So we have a forest that built as an ecotourism. Okay, so you're going for mostly option number one, leaving the forest as it is and creating an ecotourism system around it. Thank you very much. Group number three. For group number three, the strategy that we follow is first considering the different roles we have we ask its group or its stakeholders to explain their reasons why. What is their position? What is their objective? I'm going to jump start the process and say what decision you arrived at. Yeah, okay. And then after that, on the part of the platform facilitator, I offered them that this is, you know, when we talk of agricultural, sustainable agriculture, we need the participation of everybody. Nobody can play that role of developing a sustainable agriculture. And therefore when I asked them to play the role, vis-à-vis the concept of, you know, agritourism or green developing of a green city. Of course, within the green city, there is something as agritourism. When we talk about agritourism, it involves so many services, food production, services, manufacturing and so on and so forth. So we agreed that we maintain the forest. We will develop that to become a green city. And the way you are so happy because everybody is satisfied. He will come up with a policy. So you also opted or you're leaning towards option one, maintaining the forest as it is and developing an ecotourism activity around it. That's correct. Okay, thank you very much, group three. Group four, please. This is actually what had transpired with the bidding. So after the meeting, we opted to convert, not to convert but to develop and utilize the forest area into an agroecotourism site and then promoting organic agriculture and maintaining the fauna in flora. So utilizing only the periphery for agriculture but maintaining the forest as it is. So of course these are, the meeting was represented by different stakeholders. So from the government agencies, from the private agencies and then the nature conservationists and of course the mayor. Thank you very much. So we have here an interesting mix. We said that there's problem with deforestation. If you were the policy makers and actors involved in the world, we wouldn't have such a problem because the four groups are primarily concerned with maintaining the forest so far, yes? I'd like you to think if you're some of the other stakeholders, think hard whether you would accept it as easily, you know, to give away more housing when people don't have places to live or to give away on an industry that can bring in so much money but it needs the space or producing more food when people don't have enough to give away more agriculture or producing cash crops, yeah? So all of these are real competitors but for now we have, this is the situation. Now between your first and second meeting something happened. So a scientific research report has been published by ICRAF. ICRAF is the World Agroforestry Organization. ICRAF reports includes a cost-benefit analysis that sustainable rubber production is most beneficial for the region, yeah? Where would sustainable rubber production fit? Option one, two, three, or four, okay? Are you going to consume the rubber?  No, you will sell it. So that would be option four. So you're doing agriculture in order to get funds, yeah? So a scientific report by a world leading scientific organization in the field comes up, has been made available to you and says option four, if done sustainably could be the most beneficial for the region. A month goes by and your group meets again to discuss. Please take the next 10 minutes and discuss again with this additional information that's available to you. Please try to be as real as possible, yeah? As someone who works for a research organization I know how seriously or not they are taken by policymakers at all of their meetings, yes? So please be realistic. So your second meeting starts now. Well, we agreed that we will respect the recommendation of ICRAF because rubber is a high value crop giving high income to planters of the farmers. But we also agreed that we have to maintain part of the forest as part of the watershed and that would provide a very good ecosystem. And therefore we agreed that we are going to pursue an agroforestry system wherein we can still produce food integrated with the rubber because we have to secure food of people especially the small holders. So we have to secure food. We have to increase income and again the mayor is very much happy to hear that. Very good. Thank you very much. Yes, please. Our previous group number one. Okay. So this group has been analyzed in the situation for rural land use planning and when they analyze facilitated the group's discussion all of them, each one of them cited that rubber plantation production is not really beneficial to their own country. Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines. It's not really beneficial so that they have their knowledge about it as not really will not be benefiting the farmers because firstly their choice is about or their decision is for producing agricultural products. And so the stakeholders will stick to their own plan still the plan, original plan. Wonderful. Thank you very much. So we agree with the aircraft report about sustainable rubber production and also co-incentively turn out that the ecotourism doesn't attract as many tourists as we expect before. So the community lack of gas. So we agree to do the sustainable rubber production but then the conservationists make the government to give a policy that only limited part of the forest that will change to the rubber tree, rubber plantation. And the conservationists also propose a system that not the plantation not in one place but rather than such as intercropping. So the rubber plantation, the rubber community get the gas from the rubber that will export it by the private sector and also government will support with some finance to make sure that it is ecologically safe. Thank you very much. And our final group? Since the rubber production has already cost-benefit analysis and the finding is already sustainable and the most beneficial for the region I think the consolidated action of the group would be to go for rubber production but of course we will not be compromising the total area for our production we have to devote at least an area also for the use of activities of the farmers to preserve also the area to maintain the fauna and the flora and then of course the asa what we had agreed a while ago for the first session so we have the agro to use in the site and the maintenance of the organic agriculture. Thank you very much. Okay, so on behalf of ICRAF I'd like to thank all the groups for taking its report so seriously as someone who works for a CG center I can assure you that that's normally how it works we don't just issue a report and policy makers and civil society and the private sector just rush over to implement it instantly it's important to also think about these things critically it's nice to have these fun and games and the process, the discussions are very valuable but we need to be true to ourselves and remain very critical what if I were to tell you that the richest family in the area who are very connected to the mayor they want to develop housing estates there does that change what your groups might have thought? these are all kinds of things that we take into account we spent the morning discussion how these things are very complex they're also very unpredictable we cannot forget stakeholder groups in group 2 for example the nature conservative got a very strong say they would also love to be in that position normally like ICRAF, they're also very grateful these are the sort of things we need to be very critical about when we think of these another thing is, there's no doubt and I think group 2 said it as well on the assumption that the ICRAF report is valid so we'd like to believe that it's valid but do you know the expression when all you have is a hammer every problem looks like a nail? so if your entire career is researching rubber what are you going to write your report about? rubber and what is the cost benefit going to say? rubber is good it's not that the report isn't valid but it's that there could be other trade-offs so we always have to look at triangulation and all of these things and remain very critical when we enter these discussions but what is important and it was nice to see it across all groups all groups actually were open to change their views based on new information that's fantastic that's the best case scenario but we have to remember that in real life many people will not change their mind sometimes there's also another saying if your job depends on you not understanding something the best explanations in the world will not work so we always have to remember that there may be other interests that don't want to hear it and how do we engage in those difficult conversations the conversations that I heard at least were very civil we didn't have any one person aiming to dictate to others and so on but in reality we can't find a very strong stakeholder group that will not budge any change to the current situation would mean I lose whatever it is money, power, influence and so on so I will not budge, whatever you tell me whatever the ICRAF report says so we have to always remember these dynamics okay I am running very much behind time and I'm conscious that we need to break for lunch now so what I will do is I will just very briefly show some of the other slides but I will not cover them the reason I want to show them to you is because you will recognize many of the concepts and frameworks that Bernie had presented earlier yeah and looking at that from technology transfer to food safety and to AKIS to AIS so you have triangulation here that these sources are working and some of the barriers so all of these concepts will be available to you in the PowerPoints they will be sent to you each day at the end so you can go over them, you can look at the list of sources and if there are any questions you can also see me but in the interest of time I won't cover them now so that we can break for lunch so can I hand it back over to you for thank you very much


Hello there my beautiful lovely talented and a delightful internet friends welcome back to my channel Thank you so much for joining me here today on footless Joe. I am Joe I'm missing a meat foot a real foot I've got a plastic one and I want to start today's video off by noting the fact that this is the most Instagram Filter worthy video. I think I've ever done what I mean by that my mug kind of matches my shirt Which kind of matches the candle I have burning in the background for ambiance All I'm saying is I did it and I do think that is important to note moving forward with the important stuff out What we're actually talking about today is growing up being a teenager living through surgeries and chronic pain and injuries This actually sculpted my life quite a lot and I received a comment in the comment section Quite a while ago asking what it was like growing up always having surgeries and being on crutches And I was like, you know what? I think I could give you the broad brush stroke answer of like Oh, I had a different experience than most kids growing up and I kind of went along my merry way I never thought about it further than really just that thought but I've spent some time Ruminating over this idea of what did that do for me or with me or to me What what did living surgery to surgery and getting really talented on crutches and being very used to sitting for a long period of time and being in Pain as a kid as my brain was developing as my life was developing What effect honestly did that have on me and so I thought about it I've journal about it and I'm here to share with you guys today If you are a young person who is going through chronic pain injury surgery chronic illness My heart goes out to you. You are a rock star for getting through it, but I know that it's Special unique. It's a weird kind of living So this is simply my story and I would love to hear from you in the comment section down below If you can relate or if you have any questions as we dive in if you could if you would allow me to do the YouTuber thing and ask you to like this video right there and subscribe That would be absolutely fantastic if you felt like doing it if you liked this video if you like this channel I'd love to see you back here as we continue to launch into today's video I would like to introduce you to our sponsor today proper living company The proper pistol is something that I have been wondering about and wanting to use for a very long time. Look at this It's heavy-duty. So what this is is it's a massage tool and as someone who is pretty active. I'm hopping on my bike most mornings I'm trying to go for a walk or I'm stretching or doing yoga or doing some kind of strength training Also, someone who deals with chronic pain and has difficulty sleeping. 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Thank you so much proper living I would highly recommend checking out these products all linked down below and with that being said let's continue with this video So let us travel back in time the year 2006 as many of you know I was very into horses growing up and I worked at a local barn I got a corgi puppy from them and to work off my debt for that puppy I would muck out stalls and clean the horses and things of that nature and I learned to ride a little bit when I was there And one day I was able to go on a trail ride in this big wide open field on this x-rays horse called Georgia And she liked going very fast and I was not that skilled of a rider So I took a tumble in that field broke my ankle and that changed my life forever And here's the thing kids break things right like teenagers children break bones That's not an uncommon occurrence, but the way that I shattered my ankle was very unique It was very specific. In fact, it was so interesting that when we got the x-rays back in the ER later that day Doctors called other doctors in to take a look because they were like I've never seen this before It's not a good thing to be interesting to a doctor. You want to be very very boring But I was I was the star patient that day because I had something they hadn't seen before What happened is that my tibia had broken off at my ankle and been shoved up about an inch into my leg It was a weird break. It was not comfortable and I ended up having to have surgery for it three days later It was too swollen right away. They couldn't do the surgery. They had to wait for the swelling to go down So I realized that many people have gone through life and never had a surgery In fact, I was talking to a new friend the other day and they mentioned. Yeah, they never had surgery They were curious what it was like. It's always weird to me. I'm like, oh wait There are people who don't have a morning routine before surgery, right? Like who don't do that's not a normal part of their lives So at 13 I had my first surgery and it went well Except that it didn't heal well and two months after that first surgery They had to go in surgically break my ankle again Realign things because they didn't want it healing wrong and be walking funny It's funny to me looking back now that they didn't want me walking funny. Well done guys. Just kidding. It's not their fault I don't think it could be it could be their fault. So two surgeries under my belt. I went along my merry way Now as a 13 14 year old I'll be honest I don't remember a whole lot of that time But what I do remember very clearly is what came next Because with that second surgery my ankle was supposed to heal fine It was supposed to just be good to go no problems once I had gone through physical therapy and all of that But it didn't it didn't get better Um, I remember very distinctly waking up in the morning and going to the cupboard where we had our dishes The intersection where like the cupboard doors closed right there is where I would stick the bottle of rapid release Advil gels and I would take a lot of those every day I would take those every morning when I got up I was just popping Advil like nobody's business as a 14 year old and as time went on it just got worse And I think I was pretty decent in hiding pain even when I was little even when I was younger Um, so this went on for quite some time and by the time I was 15 We knew something was not right and I went back to the surgeon And I have a very clear picture in my mind of my surgeon's face as he walked in The room to tell a 15 year old girl that she had no cartilage left in her ankle And one of the reasons that that really matters is they don't have a good way to replace cartilage once it's gone It's gone. Maybe there are cool options now Over a decade ago. That was not the case. So really the only option I had left was to fuse my ankle What that meant for my future and the reason why his face was so ashen. First of all, it shouldn't have happened They never had an explanation for why all of my cartilage just disappeared and I was walking with bones grinding on bones And also had implications for my future theory. I wouldn't ever be able to run I would always be a little bit different But I always appreciated that his face and his attitude did convey the significance of that result So long story short, I went and found a surgeon who specialized in these things And this is where my memory of life in general clears up a little bit. I remember being a 15 year old I remember going to that appointment and I remember really not liking that doctor And I remember thinking even as a 15 year old There's something about this guy that I really don't like and I really don't trust But he's the best but he's the person everyone says to go to and I remember having a conversation with my dad A few weeks before surgery because it was scheduled to have the ankle fusion and everything was going to be awesome I had a very teenage angst moment of being like no I don't want him to be my doctor and my dad being a good dad was like I hear you I understand you but this is the guy who's good at it. So this is who we're gonna go with Okay, so I totally forgot to mention that in the end. Uh, I did get a different surgeon to do the surgery There was a very talented young surgeon who would just come to town right before my surgery and in a twist of fate He ended up being the one to do the fusion which worked out well But at the time I was not happy But it was a very real moment for me of feeling helpless Of feeling like I didn't have any control over my own life. I didn't have any control over what my body was doing to me I didn't have control over who was doing what they were doing in my ankle and It started a dark spiral for me It was right around that time that I developed an eating disorder and looking back it makes a lot of sense I felt completely out of control with everything around me. I didn't have Say in what was happening to my body. I knew that things were changing and changing rapidly I knew that I was gonna have to go through more surgeries And being a lot more pain in my life was gonna change forever, but I didn't know what to do about it I didn't have the tools to articulate these things and so I just I stopped eating and I got very unhealthy With how I viewed my body and how I view what I was eating that took years to recover from now that surgery that fusion went Okay, all things considered it was considered a success But as I recovered from that I was on crutches for months And I remember going to these classes and like seeing my friends after getting out of surgery and trying to be Normal and cool and just being exhausted I remember being so exhausted Having to go everywhere and try to keep up with people and crutches But I adapted because teenagers are awesome because our bodies adapt to things that are thrown at us for the most part And I'm really lucky that I didn't have people around me that made fun of me or bullied me or anything like that I was in one of those super trendy walking boots for quite some time But eventually things normalized. I started being able to do more things. I got into this martial art called k2 I'm not even sure if it's still a thing But that really like sparked my love for martial arts, which has followed me to this present day training in jiu-jitsu And after that fusion, I kind of thought I was good I thought I'd be good to go But that was not the case and I had to go back in for a hardware removal There were six screws and a plate in there They got five of the screws and the plate out one screw was permanently embedded in the bone because the bone had Like grown around it So I went through that okay, no big deal, but that still didn't fix the problems I was still having a lot of trouble walking So then they went back in did like a special injection Tried to clean things out and then I went on my merry way again But that didn't quite work that worked for a little while and then it stopped working So from the age of 13 onward I had this pattern of going to see a doctor having them say you need surgery or this injection me being like Okay, cool. I trust you and then getting cut open and poked and prodded and recovering for weeks at home And then getting back to things and then realizing a year later. This didn't work I'm still in a lot of pain going back in and the process would continue all over again I think one of the times I had the most difficult time with it was probably at 19 I'd gotten into like my dream school not because of the education the education was great But the environment there was absolutely fantastic and I felt like I was really becoming Me and then my ankle got really really bad and I could walk But I could barely walk and I was popping painkillers like it was candy and For that reason and a number of other reasons I had to come back home and had more work done on it I've told this story on my channel before but the long and short of it is that pattern continued until My ankle got so bad. There was nothing really anyone could do that would actually help it I was in a ton of pain. I couldn't do anything I loved So we went forward with the decision to amputate so that I could actually walk and try to do things again But looking back at my teenage years the first thing that comes to mind when I think about how did that affect me? Or how did that change me having a lot of physical pain seeing doctors all the time going through surgeries I think what I learned as a kid, which has taken a while to unlearn was to hide my feelings I was very good at being the easy to work with person easy to work with patient Easy friend like I didn't complain a lot. I didn't talk a lot about how difficult things were I didn't talk ever. I don't think about how difficult things were. I just soldiered through I was congratulated for being strong and perseverant and not getting better when I could have gotten better And I appreciate all those things. And yes, those were all choices But at the same time, I think I learned when like bad thing after bad thing or just difficult thing Happened to me was I didn't I didn't want to feel emotions I didn't want to feel the things that I was feeling about my life being interrupted so often about having a very unusual Experience for people my age about having no one around me who I could relate to on this I just sort of internally shut down and that's my coping mechanism. Anyways, that's just a personality trait I have that has taken a lot of therapy to work through But I think my little 15 16 year old mind took people's very kind compliments of me going through this in a strong way As a reason why I couldn't ever be emotional or couldn't ever really have a hard time or cry about this And I'm sure I had my moments, but for the most part I kept it together. I was strong I didn't talk about the loss. I didn't think about the loss of many years of my life and many Childhood experiences that I didn't have. I just did it. I just got through it and for the record That's not a bad thing. That's survival. But looking back I realized even to this day that I'm still processing some of the feelings that I just shoved in a box at that point On a happier note, I do think that going through that at such a young age Taught me that people genuinely want to help and it's a belief I carry with me to this day Being a kid and a teenager on crutches or in pain People always wanted to be there. People always wanted to help. I had good friends I had a great family. Thank you mom and dad and sam and I was super independent, right? Like I wanted to do things my own way on top of being a teenager who was like rebelling anyways I also like had a very independent spirit and I wanted to open doors on my own and carry big backpack Well and crutches and in pain and it became very clear to me that people genuinely want to help I think I started learning though It has taken another decade to actually learn this to let other people help me to let other people be there When I don't have to do something on my own I think I began to ingest the seeds of enjoying the moments I have when I have them because they might not last with my ankle constantly having issues and constantly failing I think instinctively I started really enjoying the times when it was good Really loving the fact that I had a body and I could do something with that body I really appreciate strength and not take things for granted. God. I hate that phrase because it sounds so cliche But it also is so important. I feel like I'm relearning that now right now. My leg is doing great It's doing good. I'm able to walk I went for a hike for an hour with my friend the other day like it's cool things are happening But tomorrow it might be awful Tomorrow the bone spur that is at the end of my leg might become too big a problem I might have to have surgery again You never know right you just you never know and I learned as a teenager and again now that all we can really do Is appreciate the time we have and do the best things that we can do with those moments Something I definitely wish I had learned a little bit more about was being assertive with doctors I was taught to respect authority to some extent growing up I think to some extent it's good to respect people in authority I really saw doctors as like gods I saw doctors as these super cool people who could go in and fix things when I was like 13 and 14 And as time went on I began to realize they're they're making their best guess like they're trying hard They're looking at images and making assumptions and they're going in and performing surgeries and that itself Is some guess work and they aren't infallible for a long time I was scared to ever voice any opinions with doctors because they're the authority. I'm the patient I'm just going to do what they say but over time I began realizing it is okay to ask questions It is okay to look into things on your own It's not an insult to get a second opinion for a long time I had this weird thing about getting a second opinion because what if the other doctor knew that I talked to someone else about My condition and it's my body. I can do that It took me a minute to really understand that so my teenage life was very interrupted by surgeries and having to take weeks Or months off or being on crutches, but I also did have a lot of normal experiences They were just abbreviated. They were just a little bit different like I participated in sports. I did that martial art I went to my friend's school dance like I had a date there. It was it was great for martial arts There were some things I couldn't do because of my ankle and I modified them going to that school dance I couldn't wear heels because my ankle didn't bend like that anymore And so I just wore these cute little ballet flats that my mom found me having my formative years be Constant wrenches being thrown into life Definitely taught me a lot about going with the flow and when things explode, there's probably a way to pick up the pieces Right, there's probably a way to keep going and I do appreciate that knowledge I think as a 29 year old I'm still realizing some of the effects that Growing up with some challenges had for the longest time. I didn't ever want to acknowledge that it was hard It was hard. It was hard being a teenager who couldn't do certain things It was hard being in a lot of pain and going under the knife consistently Like that was difficult and for a long time I think I was afraid that if I admitted that was difficult It would make me weak if I admitted that that was difficult It would mean that I was like bitter and not moving on when that's not at all the case It's important to process emotions. It's human. It's normal. We all have feelings for a reason They are protective. They are human. They are real and it's okay to feel those things If there's one thing that I could say to anyone out there, especially a younger person going through difficult things I would encourage you to feel what you're feeling that it really is okay to be mad or grieve or sob or laugh hysterically Whatever it is that you're feeling wherever you are is normal is okay I'm still in the process of giving myself permission for that now I think it'll be a lifelong journey But here we are and I'm really grateful to have made it through that time in my life with the support that I had Thank you to the person in the comment section weeks or months ago who asked me about this You've given me a lot to think about over the past couple weeks. I appreciate that a huge Thank you again and to our sponsor for today's video all their information is linked down below Also from the bottom of my heart. Thank you to all my patrons over on patreon for choosing to support this channel For continuing to support what i'm doing. It means the world to me. I don't take you for granted Thank you if you're interested in being a part of this patreon community Check out the link on screen or in the description down below to see what rewards and what tier levels There are for being a patron community member and most importantly To you watching this video right now Thank you so much for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me hearing my story You could be anywhere in the world doing absolutely anything and you chose to spend a few minutes with me And that means the world to me. Thank you. I love you guys I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys


Sa'dallah and Fathallah were two shopkeeper friends who lived in the same neighborhood of old Cairo. Sa'dallah's business was average. He made enough money to live a simple life because his ambitions were also average at the very best. Regardless of how poor or simple his appearance was, Sa'dallah had a very thick and dark beard that was always at the center of people's attention and a great source of pride for him. Fathallah, on the other hand, had a much larger shop than his neighbor. He was a man of grand stature and prominence, characterized by a deep and resonant voice. It was usual for the two friends to sit outside their shops and pass a time with extensive discussions. Fathallah's dialogue always focused on the growth of his business and the excitement of the buying and trading enterprise. Sa'dallah always spoke of his bad luck and the scarcity of his wealth. He also dreamed openly and excessively of his desires and becoming rich. One day, as usual, Sa'dallah whined about his misfortune and said, If I had something of value, then I would sell it, expand my business and upgrade my lifestyle. But I have nothing worth anything except for this merely shop and there's nothing that has access to my living needs to dispose of and to profit by. Fathallah responded, Your beard is in excess of your needs. You can sell that. And I personally am prepared to buy it. Surprised, Sa'dallah said, Why would you want to buy a lock of facial hair? Fathallah answered, I'm at buy it. But without shaving it, you get to keep it on your face. But it would belong to me. To do with as I please. And you would lose any rights to do anything with your beard. Even if people praised your beard, you would have to respond to them by saying that this isn't my beard. It belongs to Fathallah. I don't mind, replied Sa'dallah. The priority is that I get paid. As this conversation was progressing, the neighbouring cafe owner was listening in and warningly interjected.  Brushing the cafe owner's statement, Sa'dallah said, And why shouldn't I sell it? What's the worst thing that could happen if I sold my beard to my friend? Others started gathering around the three men and became involved in the discussion. All tried to convince Sa'dallah to refrain from this crazy idea of selling his beard. Don't let anyone take away your freedom. If he buys your beard, then your friend will become your enemy. How can you abandon a part of you, even if it's only a beard? Were some of the shouts that could be overheard by the gathering crowd? Fathallah was sitting, still in quiet, outside his shop, following the discussion without interjecting at any point. As the crowd gave up on convincing Sa'dallah to withdraw his offer to sell his beard, the shopkeeper cried out, You'll regret selling your beard, and when you do, no one here will lift a finger to help you. And with that statement, the crowd dispersed and all went about their ways. Sa'dallah refocused his attention to his friend and said, I'm still ready to sell my beard. It definitely is a profitable deal and an easy gain for me. You pay me why you take on board the burden of taking care of it. And so, Sa'dallah sold his beard for a very large sum of money, and a contract was struck between the two, officializing the deal. Sa'dallah took his new wealth and hurried back home to his wife to share with her the amazing news and show her the vast wealth he had gained. Sa'dallah was shocked at his wife's reaction. She started to cry and sob while shouting, How could you sell your beard? A part of you. How can I live with you now? She burst out of the room, collected her belongings, and headed out of the house towards her father's home. Sa'dallah wasn't too affected. He was now focused on his new riches, and off he went to do with it what he dreamed of doing all along. He expanded his shop, then moved into a much larger home, furnished it with new and beautiful things, and bought a new and luxurious wardrobe. For a full week, his life exuded joy and happiness. He completely forgot his moans and groans about life, as if he were rich from the day he was born. Then one day, Sa'dallah was standing in his shop and was taken aback when he saw Fathallah burst into his shop without permission and stood facing him. Fathallah started brushing Sa'dallah's beard and trimming the ends of the facial hair. Sa'dallah shouted, What are you doing man? Get away from my beard. Fathallah calmly replied, This isn't your beard. Don't forget that I bought this from you. Sa'dallah swallowed his pride and fell silent. Since that day, Fathallah took all liberties in taking care of his new-owned beard. Without any consideration for Sa'dallah, at any point or circumstance of the day, Fathallah would show up to check on his beard and make sure that all was fine and dandy. It didn't matter whether Sa'dallah was busy dealing with patrons or even asleep. He would wash it and comb it whenever he pleased, apply fragrances as he wished without care or concern to how Sa'dallah would feel. Sa'dallah became annoyed and started complaining about Fathallah's behavior. He would at times ask for mercy from Fathallah to leave him and his beard be, but without success, his pleas fell on deaf ears. One day, Fathallah stood in front of Sa'dallah's shop and started washing his beard with water and soap, drenching his clothing. The customers started laughing at the scene and left Sa'dallah's shop without any purchases. Sa'dallah cried again to Fathallah, I beg you Fathallah, leave my beard alone. Fathallah replied sternly, Watch what you say. It's my beard. I bought it with my money and it's my right to do with it as I please. And then he continued on with the drying of the beard. Sa'dallah again swallowed his words, but now he started struggling with his predicament. His health started to show the effects of stress, his desire to work dwindled, his appetite for food and sleep diminished. And as he would sit still in his shop, pondering his faith, Fathallah would ceaselessly continue his assault on the beard. One day, Sa'dallah offered to Fathallah the following, Return to me my beard and I shall return to you the money you gave me. Fathallah retorted, But it's my beard and I don't want to sell it. I'll never let it go. Look at how pristine and amazing it looks after all the considerable effort I've put in to take care of it. Sa'dallah searched for help. He went to the cafe and other shopkeepers in the neighborhood seeking their support and assistance, but all declined. They had warned him and he ignored their advice. They all had the same response. You deserve what you're going through. Sa'dallah's physical and mental state deteriorated. He was so depressed that he needed to take major action to escape this fate that he had brought upon himself. He could bear it no longer. So off went Sa'dallah to Fathallah's house in the early morning and knocked on his door.  Negotiations ensued and finally Fathallah agreed to sell back the beard to Sa'dallah, but only if he was paid four times the value that Sa'dallah had received. And so Sa'dallah sold his larger shop, his home with all its furnishings, and all his new wardrobe and moved into a very small, poorly room in the same neighborhood. He started working as a porter in the market. He worked day and night without sleep nor food. Committed to ending his debts to Fathallah and at last one day providence. Sa'dallah managed to save enough money to repay all the funds to Fathallah and take back what was rightfully his, the beard. The final surprise came when one night upon returning to his humble single-room home, exhausted from overwork and undernourished, Sa'dallah would find his wife waiting for him. With food prepared, the comforts of a home returned and the affection of a family restored.


Top 10 Worst Game Attack Mistakes I've seen way too many players make these mistakes over and over again and it just makes their game attack look messy, cringy, or unoriginal. Number 10 is using underscores at the beginning or at the end of your game attack. This just gets off the vibe that your username is already taken and that you just put an underscore there to try to get the name that you want. Now an underscore in the middle of the name is alright because you're using it as a spacebar but at the beginning or at the end of a name that's just giving the name taken vibes. So coming in at number 9 is including your full name.  Something I would try to do is use your first name and do something creative with it so like nick marks for example. At number 8 is putting dots or X's in your name. Again this just looks like your planned username was already taken and that you just added these to get the name. Plus it also looks cringy as it makes you seem like you're trying to make your username sound cool. Imagine Stroud's name being x.stroud.x. It just seems so unoriginal and something like a 9 year old would do. Plus it makes the name messy and just too much especially when you already have a long name. At number 7 is including your channel or page on your game attack. So for example my gaming YT. I have much better stick to something like just my gaming. I've been using my gaming YT for a long time and I found out that barely anyone I played with even cared that I had YT in my name. TTV is also not really helpful either. Only a handful of people that I played with that had TTV in their name I actually checked out. Plus most of the time after the match people stopped watching you anyways.  It's so funny to me how someone would actually add TW at the end of their name expecting to gain followers on Twitter out of all places. Number 6 is adding numbers in front of a name. Now yes I do hate numbers in general on gamer tags but since so many people use them I'll say that I only recommend adding numbers at the end of the name if it is absolutely necessary. If those numbers have some significance. If they don't don't add numbers at all. Now I think that numbers at the front of the name just looks off. Like if I say 29 Tyler it just messes up with your head. If I say Tyler 29 it's much easier to say and read. Next is using numbers as letters. So for example if you want the name Baal but instead of the two L's at the end you replace them with ones.  Instead of this I would recommend you to replace letters with other letters that sound the same. So from cookie to cookie with a K or something creative like what FaZe did. So basically FaZe replaced Ph with F. An easy example of this working is with the word cat. Instead of C4T use K-A-T. It's just a lot cleaner. Number 5 is doing something cringy like underscore killed you or underscore the sweat. Not only is it just cringy it also just gives you this try hard vibe. Also whenever you got killed someone is just gonna come at you for that. Number 4 is using capital and lowercase letters in the same word. Like for example XQCOW it's just not it. Like there might be some underlying meaning but most people will just look at that as a messy and weird username. Either use it in a different word or initial. So for example XQC and then capital O capital W or just everything capital is much more pleasing. At number 3 is using too many symbols. Now I think that symbols and special characters do add to the look of a nickname but I didn't think more than one symbol is just too much. I think the most ideal way to add a symbol is at the end of a clean and short name. Other than that it will tend to look messy if you add multiple symbols especially in the middle of your name. Number 2 is a gaming tag that you think makes you look tough. For example gunkiller underscore 420 or deathkiller 17. Like who's genuinely thinking that this is like the hardest name to ever exist. This just screams 9 year old trying to act tough. No one's gonna think that this goes hard. And at number 1 is a gaming tag where someone's trying to be funny but they just have the lamest humor.  Like bro is that supposed to make me laugh? Some are ironically trying to be funny.  But for real though these just make me cringe. Alright guys if you follow these tips I guarantee you that you will have a better gaming tag. If you want to top 10 tips to improve your gaming tag video I would think about making it. Thanks for watching and have a good day.


Hi and welcome to School of Hustle. I'm your host Sarah and this is a show where we chat with everyday entrepreneurs about everything that goes into starting a new venture. The restaurant industry employs 15.6 million jobs and they had 863 billion dollars in U.S. sales in 2019, the majority of which being small family-owned businesses with less than 50 employees. And our next guest is the co-founder of one of my favorite New York restaurants, Dave Ethan of The Grey Dog. The Grey Dog was started on a quiet West Village street in 1996 by two brothers Dave and Pete who decided to open a restaurant with no prior business experience. Their mission was simple to create a place where people wanted to be and guess what it worked. Today they have five locations and are known for their delicious locally produced food and welcoming atmosphere. Dave it's an absolute pleasure having you on the show and being in your new location here in the Flatiron. Well thanks for inviting me I appreciate it. Well I've been a big fan of The Grey Dog since college and I love your vibe, I love the food here. So tell me about this, tell me about how you started The Grey Dog. Where did the idea come from? You and your brother had never started a business so why why decide let's start a restaurant together? Right so Pete and I were working in New York City at the time doing you know basically restaurant work and I was working for this guy who he wasn't terribly bright but he was really good at what he did in a cafe and it gave me the confidence to be like oh man if this guy can make this work I could definitely do this too. So I got together with Pete and we were both we were both feeling like it's sort of confident and we had a little bit of money saved up like maybe maybe I had 25,000 bucks and he probably had like closer to 40 but back in those days you could do some right you can actually do something with that money. Yeah and so you know he he went around walked around tried to find an area that didn't have a Starbucks or any other coffee shops and said hey Dave I think I found the spot there's nothing around here and without really knowing the neighborhood at all we called the number on the store there was a landlord's number called them up set up an appointment and like I don't know like a week later we had a lease and and you know no game plan. How do you decide on what type of restaurant to actually bring into this location that you found in such a laid-back way? Well you got to go with what you know. Right right and so we were just a coffee shop back then. Oh okay did you serve like little things to go with the coffee like biscuits and cookies and things like that? Right we ordered in baked goods muffins and stuff but we didn't really have much of a menu it was really it was predominantly going to be a coffee shop. Oh we take this space and it's got a kitchen right but but you didn't need a kitchen but we didn't need a kitchen so we were just storing stuff in the kitchen because it was like put all that stuff back there you know we don't we don't need it so customers would come in with groceries and say hey you mind if I use the kitchen and I'm just going to make myself an omelet. See this is what I mean the restaurant is so laid-back the customer would come in. They'd clean up after themselves they were just looking for a home they were looking to hang out and so our menu started to develop in a way where like well if this guy wants a burger let's put a burger on the menu if this guy wants an omelet let's do that and pretty soon we had a fairly expansive menu that you know had basically everything that our customers wanted. So you really just kind of chose the items on the menu based off of what customers asked for or made in your kitchen. It's I mean it's not totally the case but yeah pretty much. So it's called the gray dog can you talk about why it's called the gray dog because I always was curious myself. Yeah which version do I give you. Back when Pete and I were dreaming up this idea we're sitting on our law in this law department that you know I think it was probably a legal rent at the time and we don't really have we don't have kids we don't have wives we don't I don't even think we have we don't even have girlfriends at the time we're or friends two bachelors living in an illegal apartment sounds like New York. But we had our dogs he had a black lab named Goose and I had a yellow lab named Moose.  Yeah and that's that's the gray dog. So it was a morphed dog between your two dogs. A morphed dog between our two dogs because it was you know two brothers morphing an idea. Yeah it made sense at the time. I would have never guessed that was the story. People spend a lot of money these days coming up with you know concepts. But you know your testament to just keep it simple and deliver what customers want because that's working perfectly. Yeah. Don't overthink it. Right. It's like back to basics and basics never fail. Right. Basics never fail. Yeah. In our prison like interview. Yeah everything's basic today. You mentioned that you had some savings to fund the restaurant but I know restaurants in New York it's very expensive real estate often very low margins. So how did you go about funding this and making sure that it will work long term. We we were pretty careful. I mean it took us 24 years to get to this many restaurants but it took it took us 10 years to go from one to two. Wow.  And that it always it always had to stay fun. And then we saved and when it got to the point where we could afford number two and it wasn't going to sink number one if it didn't do well we we took a shot and that one did better than number one. Really. Why do you think that did better than number one. I hit the right crowd. Oh was it a different it was a different location that maybe was like more appropriate for it was University Place. So it was NYU. It was this was your union square location. That's the first one I ever went to. That's the first one most people go to because we we get there I guess there's a migration where we get you know all the college kids and then as they expand throughout the city we get them all the way up through having their own kids now. Yes this is accurate because I'm literally that person. That's it yeah. So you know very well. That was that was the homerun location that was. And then after that so it took 10 years to get to two you got to two and it sounds like that did very well quickly so how long until you got to number three. Well this is where this is where like things got taken out of our hands a little bit right because there wasn't and Pete and I didn't really have these plans to expand and make it a you know multi-chain restaurant. So in in the process of the 10 years Pete had established a killer catering business that we were running out of the basement of the Carmine location. So 10 years probably 12 years in the landlord gets frisky with the rent and he starts causing trouble and saying I'm going to take away your basement space I want this I want that. Because he heard you're being successful so he wants a part of it. He wanted to be a partner. Was that legal with your contract that you had? It's just I mean none of it's legal it's just business that's the way New York works. And if you have a good good relationship with the landlord you could you could work it out. For sure. We had trouble so he took away our catering space. We looked for another space that would have a huge basement. So that's how we wound up in the Chelsea location it wasn't at a let's get bigger and bigger it was out of man we got to save the catering business let's find a space that isn't too expensive and has a huge basement. And then a year later Google opened up across the street. Wow. And it was just like oh man this this is pretty lucky and that's a really cool location. Yes. So here we are growing growing and and you know it's working out but it's not planned it's still not planned. Nothing's planned yet. You say it's not planned but you can't ignore that you guys are really good at what you do. You know like I feel like you're being very modest right now because the food is great and what I've always been impressed with is no matter which gray dog I go into I feel like I'm family. It worked out because we never stopped having fun. Yeah and we never we never treated it like a business where it was we treated it we treated it like hey you know a lot of restaurants would say this is our family the staff is you know family of a my team really feels that way they really felt that way and they've always you know it became about the staff yeah where they made the customers feel so damn good that the customers were able to you know come in and they didn't focus on some of the things that weren't so restaurant quality. I don't know what things you're talking about but I think I think everything's restaurant quality. Speaking of the food you guys focus on locally sourced ingredients most of your food comes from New York and Connecticut within 200 miles within reason obviously you can't get an avocado grown here. Right. Why did you decide to do that? When we when we decided that we were going to actually go for it we got a game plan in place where okay now we're going to now we're going to grow. Yeah. Now we're going to take on some investment money. How many years did that take for you to say okay now let's let's really take on investment money and grow. 23 years. So last year great. So we brought in investment money we brought in a team of really talented people. Alan is our is our chef and he's but he's the type of guy where he knew the he knew the food we were doing was not you know a lot of chefs don't want to spend their time making you know avocado toast you know they want to thrill the world with stuff but he was all about let's let's pay people livable wages and let's bring in everything locally that we can. He partnered up with a bunch of farms around here and started creating a menu that would be you know really responsible. Are there any local farms you work with that you're particularly excited about? Yeah we love working with Rock Steady Farm it's a local farm again one of those partnerships that they could be super proud of. Yeah. We even have a cocktail named after them Rock Steady. Oh Rock Steady nice. Whatever they grow we figure out a way to put into our menu. So is it is it mainly vegetables or do you get fruits from them too? Whatever they have they have great flowers too. Oh nice. I went up there that oh this is a cool story right so we go up to this farm as a group whenever we get the opportunity and they put us to work so I think I spent one day eight hours weeding their flower beds like filled with bugs and dirt and it was one of our most satisfying days I had in the last year and just knowing like seeing the field where we're getting all our food I never had that experience you know it was back in those days when it wasn't really a focus you know where the tomatoes were coming from but now like oh damn those are our tomatoes. You see it direct from the source so you know how good it really is.  Now I heard that there's a very interesting story involving bread and a motorcycle can you please share this story with me. Yeah we gotta go back okay we gotta go back to the beginning so okay so the guy who was bringing all the bread that we were making the sandwiches with his name was Rick Sticky Rick he had a bakery in the East Village Sticky Fingers. Sticky Rick in the East Village doesn't get more New York than that name. Oh he was great he was he was in the Hells Angels and had a beard down to here. Wow. Tats everywhere gigantic guy bullet holes like everywhere. Bullet holes? Yeah he'd been shot several times. Oh like actual bullet scars. Okay. He would deliver our bread on the back of his chopper. Wow. But we had these French doors that would open up and he would drive the chopper right into the store. Oh my god.  Oh my goodness. I miss that guy. That's amazing. So how did the investment help your business expand? Well it gave us the capital we needed to turn a mom and pop shop into a real business. I was contacted by this guy Johnny Hill who you know has become our partner but he he reached out and said asked if we had a interest in expanding and so he and I went for a walk around Chinatown and after about three hours we realized oh man there's a connection here. He was in the investment world but he wanted to do good investments for a lack of a better word. So he created a company called Lanyap that would be focusing entirely on investing into companies that are going to make the planet better. Companies that would focus on being green. Companies that would focus on living wages. It's what he wants to. So he made a promise to all his investors. He's like okay I'm going to set this up. Our first investment is going to be Gray Dog and we're going to turn them into a B Corp. We're going to... What are the benefits of a B Corp? The benefits of B Corp there's really none for the business. It's just you feel you feel good. Because a B Corp means that you're socially responsible and you're doing all these things to help the environment. Correct? Is that what it means? You're socially responsible. You're doing all these things for the environment. You know like Patagonia and Ben and Jerry's. They're companies that you can feel really good about supporting. Business as a force for God. B Corp is a framework for using business as a force for good. B Corp. What changes are you guys doing in your business today? Well starting with the reboot of Gray Dog which this is Gray Dog 2.0. This location the Flatiron which is where we're shooting from. So we have this amazing dude Sam who he's probably in my head right now. He created this as we're getting to be a B Corp. We're close for this location but now we're a green restaurant space here and with Allen our food is just going towards more and more local and our staff now everybody you know with Melissa at the helm of HR you know everybody gets a living wage now. This is all stuff that doesn't really happen in the restaurant world. So now we're in your new location it's coming together beautifully. What does it take to get something like this started because me looking around I mean there's a lot going on here. It takes a pandemic ending. Great. That's the first thing. Still working on that. Right this one was the first time that Pete and I had to collaborate with other people. You know now we had now we had a lot of people who are significant players in the company who would be like well I think the beam should be lower or the sandwich selection needs to be this so it took us it took us quite a while just to get comfortable in making decisions together. Right because before it was just you and Pete. It was just us and it was like I'd be like there was a lot of trust. Right. And I was like you got this man you know what you're doing and I had never bothered I had never bothered to question anything Pete would do. He was you know he was brilliant in my mind he's still brilliant in my mind but we're just having fun and then he'd be like all right you got this I don't have to think about it. So you guys kind of you would do certain aspects and he would do certain aspects and you always did that for all other locations. Yeah absolutely. But now this one because you have an investor you have to clear everything by them. We right we had to we had a new set of standards we had to work with. You mentioned the pandemic obviously that was a devastating thing to happen to many restaurants worldwide. What have you done to try to move forward after something like that happening and having to close down your restaurants for multiple months and only having outdoor dining. Yeah we're staying positive.  We're trying to make a go at it. We've actually you know we had to do everything on the fly. We've never done table service right but we learned in the first two weeks you know we still set up a kiosk outside. My brother made these incredible you know incredible stands like a lemonade stand for everybody and we were doing like 60 bucks a day and we're like oh boy this isn't going to work and so we we got permission to go out into the street like everybody else and we built these pretty cool spaces but we were still using this kiosk style and we weren't doing well and it was like a quick pivot. All right table service well Grey Dog's never done table service and it's it's difficult to you know create the illusion for customers when you know I know hi you know I got gloves on protective gear and they can't see smiles I know right so um but you do it and we're actually we're actually we're kicking ass at it. I'm super proud of our team they're like the whole setup's nuts you gotta bring a whole stage out like when we set this thing up today it was like two hours and it's just you know umbrellas and cameras and stuff. Imagine that you know every day you have to put your dining room outside. I can't imagine you have to show up to work earlier than before because everything has to be set up pretty much it takes a while whatever whatever it is the city feels it feels kind of special. Yeah it feels like it's just for the locals.  We've been lucky to become that. How are you handling your marketing right now since it's such a different vibe that it's just such a different atmosphere at the Grey Dog and trying to keep those customers happy and what are you guys doing? We do a moderate amount of social media but it's it's not it's not something that we've ever gotten really strong at. Is it mainly word of mouth would you say? We've always been word of mouth. Yeah so for you it seems like and I think this is what any successful business owner would do you hire people for skills that you're not good at? That would be everything. No it's not please. You're good at the interaction and that's why you have repeat customers because they come for you they come for the food they come for the atmosphere. I think learning what you're not good at and knowing that you could trust other people to do it that's been one of my biggest learning curves instead of trying to do everything which for years I was under every sync fixing every leak and on the roof fixing AC's and like literally I did it all and now we're in a place where I have an amazing team that you know I trust you know they know what they're talking about yeah they know what they're doing. And that's the natural expansion of any business you know you have people that help you with these things. So here's my final question for you. As a successful restaurateur with five restaurants in New York City which is arguably the most competitive city in the world do you have any advice for aspiring restaurateurs? This one's pretty easy because I think I probably sit down with two or three people a month who have reached out and asked me that question and so I kind of have a standard a standard line where I tell them hey get a job in the industry you know start that way don't just start out everybody has this fantasy I want to open up a cafe with my significant other and we're going to have this wonderful lifestyle and it's like you got to learn the language of the restaurant you got you know it's not you're not dealing with the Boy Scouts it's you know there's a lot of there's a lot of stuff out there that it takes some grit to get through and what you walk in when you walk into per se that's that's heaven but they're behind the scenes I imagine there's some there's some significant changes you know and so get a job in the industry and then you can take the next learn if you like it you know and if and then you know figure out the language figure out how to talk to the people and you know develop a relationship with the people who are really going to make things happen for you and if you get that if you want to get there then yeah take the dive the second one which has been really the secret to our success is do everything for your staff right give them the schedule that they need give that create create the environment that they're going to succeed in once you've done that they're going to want to come to work because they are going to know it's a special place yeah and if you open up a company that you know doesn't put them first it's going to show at least I think so I mean that's what we've done and it wasn't a game plan it was just you know that's treating people with respect yeah that's who we that's who we were from day one right we we never we never altered from that because we didn't even know we were doing it it was just natural it was which is good yeah that's how you do it like how can you not you know in this city everybody's an actor everybody's are performing you know everybody's performing in some degree so work around their stuff let them dream and if if their dream could coincide with you know this dream I think you got something so that's wow well that is incredible advice it's been so amazing having you in the show and also so hilarious you're such an interesting guy so thanks so much for joining us and thank you everyone who tuned in today and if you want to learn more about the gray dog visit the graydog.com follow them on instagram at the gray dog nyc but better yet why don't you step into one of their five Manhattan locations and try some of their delicious food and I promise you your taste buds will thank you it's that good so that's all for this edition of school apostle keep up with all of our episodes on youtube apple podcast google podcast or wherever you stream and download podcast and if you like what you heard please leave a review share with your friends and subscribe to our show and we'll see you next time thanks for watching bye