Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we're joined by senior journalist Poyajay Guhatakurtha and NewsClicks Prabhupur Kaisan. We're going to be talking about the latest in the controversies around Facebook in India. Now over the past few weeks, we have seen a number of reports including by the Wall Street Journal, which first of all indicated that Facebook executives and especially Akhidas, who had policy, did not take enough action to curb hate speech made by various leaders including BJP leaders. And since then we have had this flow of information about the extent of the problem, how much hate speech has been prevalent on Facebook, there have been a number of reports, and how little the company seems to be able to do to stop this. We've also of course had a parliamentary hearing on it and so we're going to be talking about a number of these aspects. Poyajay, so first of all I'll come to you and you've written quite a few articles on NewsClick on this before. So the latest news of course has been that T-Raja Singh, who was the legislator named in the first Wall Street Journal report, has been removed from the platform and this happens quite sometime after the original incident of course. But how do you see right now the latest developments and the company's response? Well the latest article published in the Wall Street Journal points out that T-Raja Singh, who's a member of the Legislative Assembly of Telangana belonging to the Party Janta Party, he has been finally and it's about time that they declared him to be a quote unquote dangerous individual. I mean there have been innumerable complaints against him including from people within Facebook and as the Wall Street Journal has pointed out earlier, Ms Akhidas chose not to act ostensibly on the ground that it would be bad for business. Now Mr T-Raja Singh of course claims that he's not on Facebook, that somebody else has impersonated him and or hacked into his account. But the other important development that has happened is after the two representatives of Facebook in India deposed before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology headed by Shashi Tarul and this happened on Wednesday afternoon. I was also one of the people who deposed but the people, the two individuals who deposed on behalf of Facebook were Mr Ajit Mohan, the Vice President and Managing Director and Sarj Purovin. She is the Associate General Counsel of Facebook in India and I believe this is the first time that top officials of Facebook have deposed before a Parliamentary Committee or Committee of Lawmakers. In the past various organizations, I should say various parliaments in Europe and others had sought to ask Mr Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg to depose but they did not. So that is quite significant and in response to what has come out, their deposition before the Parliamentary Standing Committee and what we understand that is not over. They have been given a long list of questions to which they are going to submit written responses. Facebook's public policy team in Menlo Park, California, United States are now claiming, we take views from people from different political persuasions, a very political spectrum. So all of this is Facebook reacting to the barrage of complaints against them. And I also want to put out a bit of information and I may be probate could interpret what it means. According to the latest data put out by Facebook, whereas Facebook had taken down 1.6 million pieces of quote-unquote hate speech content in the three months of October, November and December 2017. In the months of April, May and June of this year, 2020, this number has gone up, shot up from 1.6 million in 2017, late 2017 to 22.5 million pieces. Now I wonder what this means, isn't that suddenly Facebook has woken up that so much of hate speech is there on its platform or are they acting under pressure because a lot of people, and it's not just the opposition, it's not just the opposition parties have been very, very critical of Facebook for promoting the interests of the ruling party in India. So Praveer Parujar has posed that question of course and we've talked about some of these aspects including how this kind of virality is very central to Facebook's model. But do you see the possibility that there is a, where Facebook can actually intervene or is it too structurally biased or structurally loaded in such a way that there's no real possibility of addressing this issue? You know, let's first go back to the question that why did Facebook react to the Wall Street Journal's reports? While it is known that these reports were made by groups of us have given them a whole bunch of documents which in fact identified a number of people including the ones which Wall Street Journal has disclosed. It was also, there is also Equality Labs, another group which also did a detailed investigation about the hate speech, hate posts in Facebook and both had given reports on this. So there is public information already and Raja Singh has identified a lot of other people who are now in the media eye were identified and even at that time it was said that Raja Singh's posts indicate exactly what Paranju has said, a dangerous person and should not, should not be sort of pulling down his post. He should be banned from Facebook itself. And as he said, the Kaki's response, Akedas' response is again public. What I'm trying to say here is that Facebook's complicity or cover up, not acting on hate speech, was known, disclosed, publicly circulated long before Wall Street Journal did. It is unfortunate that after all these cases, all these things were brought to their notice, Facebook did not respond. And when we find out internally why it did not, is exactly what we have said that it's a part of the business of Facebook to promote virality and hate speech, because that's the way engagement increases and I'll come to this, as well as other people coming into their platform, seeing more and more of this post. So you get a echo chamber which you build, which is based on this kind of posts. But that is only a part of the story. The other part of the story. And this is what makes it much more dangerous that Facebook was not only aware of it, but also protected it, protected this posts and posters because of business interest. And here is the issue that you have a platform which has roughly something like 300 million users in India. You have a platform which also owns WhatsApp, which is another 500 to 600 million users. So effectively, today, you are a major media player, but you claim that since you are an intermediary, you're not responsible for any editorial checks and balances, but you get ad revenue based on the posts that come on your platform. So what you're talking about, what is the business model which promotes this kind of active action by Facebook really comes from the simple fact that more people viral, more people see this posts, more engagement they have the post, more Facebook gains in revenue. So their recommendation. In fact, that's the important part. The recommendation that Facebook makes, what people should see who they should try and friend, who are the people who are close to their views, all of it, in fact, promotes this kind of hate speech and hate groups. And that is the fundamental algorithmic problem that Facebook has. If you want to viral, reach as many viewers as you can, get more and more of them interact with your platform, then hate speech and fake news are very good instruments. So here is the issue. The business interest of Facebook goes against the fact that it is an important element today of our media, because as I said, the ad revenues and Facebook is particularly sensitive about ad revenues 98.5% of Facebook revenue comes from advertisements. They are much more dependent on advertisements than any other platform. Given that, if this is the issue, therefore to see advertisements, you need eyeballs. Why should people pay you? Because you have eyeballs. How do you get eyeballs? Therefore, how do you promote virality becomes the issue? And we know there's a detailed studies have been done by MIT. There is a detailed study that fake news promotes virality.  That's the larger issue. Then Facebook, of course, very mealy mouth and very nice people, they will say, we want to cut it down, but what can we do? There are too many of these things you see.  So then they start pre-valicating about hate speech and free speech. In the case of Rajasin, it's particularly important because Mr. Rajasin was also talking about Rohingyas. How to do that? Shooting Rohingya refugees who enter India. Now Rohingyas had been flagged as a genocidal issue and every country in the world or every platform in the world should be aware of it. That this has been flagged as something which is akin to genocide. And therefore there is a huge issue about the Rohingyas in Myanmar and therefore the question of refugees. What is he saying? Shoot them. So he joins the genocidal outburst against the Rohingyas, which was going on in Myanmar at that time. And this is, as I said, something internationally. It's not an India issue alone. It was an issue which had become international. So this logic does not hold good. And we have to accept the logic that Wall Street Journal has disclosed that Akhidas' simple statement was that these are business interests. And what the later disclosed, the internal Facebook groups indicated that Akhidas' response was not just business interest, but her political beliefs or her sentiments or her emotions were aligned to this output also. She said, you know, good that Congress and its socialism has gone. We've got the free market now. So freedom to exploit the Indian market for our business is now going to happen. And of course that you know is her praise of Modi and how lights drives elections. All of this is a public record. So I think it's much more than a combination of business, sheer business interest. I think in this case, there is a political interest and there is an algorithmic interest while you promote hate speech. I think all three combined in a particularly toxic way when you come to looking at what Facebook has done on this exhibition. I reiterate it's unfortunate that it's only because it's Wall Street Journal that finally action has been taken, though people have flagged it n number of times, two reports have identified with the posts. All these were ever given to Facebook and no action was taken till today. I mean till it happened today. Absolutely. I'd like to add a few points to what Praveer said, to supplement the information that he gives. Remember that it was an official of the United Nations who prepared a report saying WhatsApp and Facebook were responsible, held responsible for the genocide of Rohingyas. Now all this happened after the New York Times wrote about it, when others complained about it, they took no action. When the Rohingya Muslim genocide was commented on by New York Times, the United Nations took action and then Facebook apologized. Remember that, that's important to say, they apologized. Second point is we'll have to wait and watch whether Facebook will take the same action that it has taken against D. Raja Singh, against two other individuals who are particularly notorious for their anti-Muslim, their incendiary inflammatory speeches. And these are Anand Kumar Heddy and Kapil Mishra in particular who has been accused of making really virulent and toxic speeches in just before the communal riots took place in northeastern Delhi. And that's another important point that should be noted. The second point that I want to add to what Praveer has said, yes okay, emails have been leaked from within Facebook. Obviously there were enough people within Facebook who were not just deeply disappointed, I mean their conscience was tricked. So obviously they leaked all this information, including about Akhidas' bias and she herself acknowledged but I am biased, she herself says so. The important point is none of these statements have been denied. All that Facebook is saying, no these have been taken out of context, that she was not alone, these were decisions that were taken by many others. And I just want to add one small point that Praveer flagged, you know about the echo chamber part and we being in a, you know this confirmation bias which is promoted. I believe and there are a number of people who have been writing about it including American scholars like Shoshana Subab, Facebook and WhatsApp have actually hidden big mind. Considerations of free speech, the first amendment to the constitution of the US and privacy to absolve themselves of all responsibility of hateful and absolutely incendiary in inflammatory content. You know I'll go further to say in the last few years, each and every Hindu-Muslim riot, each and every case of mob lynching and there have been at least 30 of them in the last few years, behind all of them there's been a WhatsApp message or a Facebook message. From Muzaffar Nagar to Shah R Khan to Uttar Pradesh, Bangalore you name it. Absolutely. And Parvinder in this context quickly wanted to get your views on the regulatory aspect itself. So the hearings are of course happening right now. But across the world we have seen basically nobody be in any kind of position to say put regulatory shackles on many of these digital monopolies. Some of these companies have been hit with fines of course but that's basically a drop in the water considering how much they earn on an annual basis. And so in the Indian context, does it look like we have any kind of regulatory framework to address these issues assuming of course that there is the will or the possibility to even do it. That's a very difficult question to answer. To the best of my knowledge, it's only in a few countries that some moves have been made. In Australia, the Australian Parliament have said, you know, if you're going to distribute content put out by our media organizations, you should pay them for it. In New Zealand after the Christ Church killings which was shown by Facebook Live and over 50 people were gunned down. The whole issue of what you can show live, you know, blocking that kind of content that issue has come up in Germany, in France and in the United States itself. Remember Twitter put down content by Donald Trump, the American president himself in the wake of all the agitation of Black Lives Matters, but Facebook did not. Facebook chose not to because they felt, although Twitter certainly felt that the American president's tweets or messages could actually foment unrest, police atrocities and so on and so forth. But to, you know, this whole issue of regulation is very complex. I mean, clearly, there are Indian laws, there's an Indian penal code, there's a code of criminal procedure, but Facebook has its own set of code and community standards and guidelines. Now, here are cases where these, this content is violating Facebook's own norms and not just the norms, I mean, this is a legal issue whether it's also violating the Indian penal code and the criminal procedure code. And whether the government of India could put together a law. It's a very difficult question to answer. We have regulatory bodies, telecom regulatory authority of India, the computer and emergency response team, etc, etc. But even Ravishankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Information Technology, when he's also said, you know, there's a murder committed, there's a rape committed, but WhatsApp is saying we can't provide you quote unquote traceability of content because of end to end encryption. Because that's what's applied. No, but that's a different issue for India because the encryption is like a private communication that you have enabled. But the question is Facebook's information or Facebook's posts are public. And therefore, what is the regulatory issue with respect to public post as opposed to private small group posts are still can be debated. Coming back to what you asked, let me also talk about Mr. Ravishankar Prasad's statement. He has pitched in essentially saying people in Facebook are biased against BJP. And that's an amazing statement because now enough evidence is there, including the fact that they pulled out BJP pages, Congress pages, other pages, then they did not disclose to the public that also pulled out BJP pages. They only said Congress and Pakistan pages have been pulled out. So we know that they have been soft. We have the case of Mr. Thukral, who's a part of Modi's election campaign earlier, joining in a very senior position. We have bias of Aakidas herself, who's a very important person, if not the most important person in Facebook in India. So given all of that, to talk about Facebook having a bias against BJP is quite laughable. Now the question of when you talk about regulations, you know, as Parviya said, there are two issues. What are the regulatory framework of countries and what is Facebook's internal so-called regulatory framework. This need for a so-called regulatory framework came up partly because of the genocidal campaign against Rohingyas, as Ponadji has already talked about, but also came about because of various other things including child pornography, bullying small children, sexual harassment, revenge porn, and even the US, which is quite permissive on the question of freedom of speech, has said there are obvious limits even here. So those limits are what Facebook has to respect. The question that comes up is that if Facebook's business interests are involved, why should it then do anything? That's really the question that I'm posing here. And therefore the regulatory framework of countries is also something which Facebook does quite often does not recognize. Earlier its money was paid abroad in the sense that if you advertise in Facebook, you pay the broad. Now their payments are received in India. So you have one weapon that they do business in India. Earlier they claim they really don't do business in India, that all the business is done out of the United States. So that figment of imagination has been now dispensed with reality has been recognized. Yes, they do come under Indian laws and Indian laws with respect to intermediaries is quite clear that if you have offensive material you have been notified that it's your responsibility to take it down if you don't, you are criminally liable. So that part of it is already there. But the point is, who then acts on that the government of India, as you know, has not acted even after the riots, okay, against some of the people who have openly been accused of hate speech, but even in spite of that, no charges have been framed against them. So we are at a point where people who are promoting resistance to government in the civil liberties framework that passive protests, peaceful protests are being charged up with various offenses, but those who have violated those in terms of what kind of speech is acceptable under Indian law, they're not being charged. So we have already that.  So what he is best, the most generous interpretation that can be given that if there is a factual struggle in Facebook, he's on the side of one faction against the other. But leaving that out, the larger question, what is what regulation is possible. There are two issues here that one is if you do state regulation state acts, then of course we have the problem will they act against a faith Facebook if it is promoting them. So that is the one problem that we have to do. But I think the larger issue that these companies are so big we can talk about regulating them in India, but what does a small country do and there are a number of small countries where Facebook can really decide their elections by the way they handle the internal messaging within Facebook. And of course what's up. So I think the real issue is should entities who are so large not be broken up. Should it be, if you look at the monopoly power the wheel today, more than 50% of the revenue and revenue in the world is going to Facebook and Google more than 70% of the digital and revenue goes to Facebook and Google. So you are seeing a consolidation or a concentration of power, which you have never seen not even in the time of the big, the oil companies which were broken up in the United States if you remember, because you have really got what is central to all of this people's data and people's data about people's beliefs people's networks, who they talk to what are their views, what is called also the psychometric data, and all of this can be done in order to do targeting targeted advertising and the advertisers obviously prefer targeted advertising, advertisement over television and newspapers because the conversion rates are much higher and that amount of market power they have accumulated by virtue of knowledge about the people their users becomes more and more because you are also expressing a lot of intimate thoughts on Facebook.  So for each of them you have an advertiser. Okay, so that is the power that the wheel so should a company should set of companies today have power which is so large and let's not forget each of them now are tending towards a trillion dollar mark out of the four which are called in front of the Congress Congressional hearings looked at the monopoly aspect. There three of them are trillion or more and you have Microsoft which is also more than a trillion so four companies already in that range and you have Facebook which is about 800 billion at the moment not too short of the one trillion dollars and now that in India where stopping all the Chinese apps particularly tiktok and also PUBG and various other entertainment ads apps which are there that market becomes now open to Facebook Facebook Facebook saw tiktok as a major major threat to Instagram and in fact Zuckerberg as we know now campaigned against tiktok tiktok ban a promoted tiktok ban in the US mainly because they saw that in the the Millenials younger people who Instagram was capturing from Facebook. That's why they bought Instagram. They were now going for tiktok and that's a competition they wanted to kill. So I think all of this put together. I think there's a much larger regulatory issue involved that how do you handle such large digital monopolies. It's not an issue of Facebook. I just wanted to add a few points to what Robir said. You know it's not just Ravishankar Prasad. It's Rajiv Chandrashekhar. He's a member of parliament and he wrote in an article in the times of India suggesting that there was some sort of internal you know sort of group within Facebook in India who opposed and this was a sort of left wing kind of a hatchet job but then that makes the question how come they chose the Wall Street Journal as the vehicle. The Wall Street Journal is part of a conglomerate headed by Mr. Rupert Murdoch and Mr. Murdoch is certainly no supporter of left or liberal causes. That was one point I wanted to add. The second point that I thought I'd add you know this this bigger issue you know probably talked about child pornography when this very very famous picture of this young girl running naked from the Nepal bombs being bought in the Vietnam war Facebook took down the post saying that this is promoting child pornography without realizing the historical significance. You know when you have algorithms doing all the work for you you're bound to come across these kinds of issues. Two of the points I wanted to make and this is really I think the real problem is much more than Facebook it's what's happening because WhatsApp which is supposed to be a messaging kind of an application for small groups of people is still being used by large numbers of people. The BJP has mastered it very well they use it and they disseminate information and you know as Praveen was pointing out you know you have a country of 135 crore or 1.35 billion. In this country according to the telecom regulatory authority of India you have 1.15 Sims or subscribed by identity modules. You have about 900 million people eligible to vote and WhatsApp has over 400 million users so that's how big they are. To come to a few specific points about India. Two or three points one is that you know what was pointed out by the Indian Express recently is that look even in the run up to the elections Facebook removed 14 out of the 44 pages that had been flagged by the BJP. Now interestingly these included sites supporting the NDTV India anchor Ravish Kumar the television anchor Vinod Dua. But interestingly they reinstated many of these deleted pages and websites like Op India the Chowkwal and now they're saying it was taken down erroneously. Now some of these websites are notorious not just for spreading fake news. I mean take another case postcard news run by Mahesh Egbe and this person was arrested in Bangalore once. He was he was represented in court by Tejasri Surya who's now a member he's an MP a member of parliament of the BJP from Bangalore. And you know the counter attack has come to try to make out that there's some sort of a left conspiracy by the BJP is actually to write diverse attention. So they're saying Ajit Mohan the head of Facebook used to once work with the Planning Commission under the Congress led United Progressive Alliance Government. They're saying Siddharth Mazumdar who was the former public policy head had worked with Prashant Kishore and Amit Patel. Prashant Kishore at one point of time had supported the BJP and Mr Modi don't forget that that is Manish Khanduri who was the former head of news or partnerships in Facebook. Now his father happens to be a former BJP Chief Minister of Uttarakhand. Now he fought the looks of elections on a Congress ticket and lost but his sisters who belongs to the BJP is a sitting member of the Legislative Assembly of the Uttarakhand Assembly. And they also bring out Akhidasa's father-in-law was with the Trinamool Congress etc. So all of these in my opinion are really diversionary tactics because all this muck has come out about how Facebook is biased towards the ruling regime and how they've turned a blind eye to a greggious hateful inflammatory content. And under pressure from international media organizations including Wall Street Journal, Time, they didn't care where Newsweek published all the stories that we did. But now they're sort of forced, I mean they're sort of, they don't have a choice but to react. Absolutely. Thank you so much Paranjar and Prabir for talking to us and that's all we have time for today. Keep watching Newsclick.


So we'll begin reading here in 1st John chapter 2 at verse 9 I'll read verses 9 through 11 and We'll get into our study 1st John chapter 2 verses 9 Through 11 John writes he who says he's in the light and hates his brother is in darkness until now He who loves his brother abides in the light and there's no cause for stumbling in him But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes Now John has been writing to these His recipients of this letter and he's told them that That we've been given a new command. We saw that in verse 8 of chapter 2 He had said again a new commandment when he had spoken of this new commandment I mentioned to you that the word knew there in the original language speaks of that which is fresh a fresh commandment and This new or fresh commandment is new in the sense that it's new in revelation You see the love of Jesus had been something the world had never seen before The love that moved him to embrace across was actually during his day as it would be today It was unheard of the thought that God would send his son to do what he did was beyond belief So that kind of love was a thing that was true in him And this is the love shown by Christ and experienced by his apostles as well as those who have a Relationship with him. He had said in verse 8 that the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining The love that the world shows has been exposed in other words It's been exposed for what it is the love that is of the world is really darkness He said we love in this fashion because we no longer walk in darkness or children of light and The way we became children of light as we saw is because we've been born again It's a word that is used to describe being born again Regeneration we've been regenerated In John 12 46 Jesus said I've come as a light to shine in this dark world So that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark So we no longer walk in darkness and that's why in verse 9 when John said he who says he's in the light and hates His brother is in darkness So what he was doing there and what he is doing is he's Contrasting the true believer true follower of Christ was someone who is a false professor somebody who says I know him But in reality doesn't it's interesting how he uses this this phrase he who says He had used that already in verses verse 6 verse 8 verse 10 Chapter 2 verse 4 and chapter 2 verse 6 that would have been chapter 1 verse 6 8 and 10 And that is a way that somebody who's making a false profession of faith would speak So he who says is speaking really of someone who's just saying but not doing So these are the words that false Christians would use they have a false profession of faith in the Lord Because a genuine Christian and this is the key and a very important point to make that John is making in his letter of a genuine Christian loves other believers loves other believers around the world There is not to be any hatred for other Christians This kind of emotion reveals a hardened even a selfish heart And it can even be evidence that the person who harbors hatred for somebody who knows the Lord Is in evidence that person isn't saved The one who says that he loves God ought to love his brother also and that's just a fact So genuine conversion a genuine regeneration is always revealed by the love of God And is always revealed by a walk in the light. Now. Does that make it easy? Is it easy? To love somebody who's harmed to use that easy of course not I wouldn't pretend that it is Because it isn't It's something you die to It's something that you ask God to give you the ability to do to love those who is just who have spiedfully used you To love those who have harmed you to love those to have a love of God in in you for somebody who Who is far away from God, but not only that But to love those who also love Jesus Christ, you know, there's an awful lot of Antagonism in the body of Christ. There's a lot of anger in the body of Christ. I see it quite often And the Lord would have us to know that no if I love then if I love him then I have to love my brother also And that's what John is talking about. That's what John is saying here He says and notice in verse 10 and 11 he said that the one who loves his brother abides in the light So genuine conversion is going to produce what we would call a walk in the light But those who don't love their fellow believers. He is saying our walking in darkness Proverbs 419 says it like this the way of the wicked is like darkness. They don't know what makes them stumble And so a believer in Christ is not one who hates a brother not one who walks in darkness Not one who has been blinded by the darkness, but has been enlightened by the Lord We're to love one another So he goes on and he says this in verse 12.  I write to you fathers Because you have known him who's from the beginning. I write to you young men Because you have overcome the wicked one.  I've written to you fathers Because you've known him who's from the beginning. I've written to you young men Because you're strong the word of God abides in you you have overcome the wicked one John has been writing Concerning those who walk in darkness So to encourage his readers he's assuring them of what he thinks of them and these verses Give us a picture of the makeup of the body of Christ It gives us insight into the development of Christian maturity as well And I want you to notice this because I'm going to develop this for a few minutes with you Notice how John speaks of little children young men and fathers Every church is made up of of children of young men and fathers This would be speaking of children in the faith that it's not necessarily chronological But it's speaking of maturity and advancement in maturity in the Lord It speaks of both males obviously and female and he's beginning to write here Notice how he begins he writes to little children now in the New Testament calling Calling them my little children is actually a term of endearment It was used by just teachers who are speaking to their disciples So in these verses John is speaking to the members who are young in faith Now they're spiritual children and so he's giving them some encouragement truth that gives them peace First you see it in verse 12. He says your sins are forgiven them for his sake Their sins are forgiven them for his sake and then in verse 13. He says that they have known the father So here's something that is very practical the foundation of spiritual growth And I shared this with you when we were in Ephesians We saw it I think fairly clearly in the in the writing of Paul to the Ephesian church But the foundation of the Christian life the foundation of spiritual growth is Very simple. It's understanding That you've been forgiven it's Understanding and receiving that you have been completely forgiven because you trusted Jesus Christ This is the foundation of our Christian life Knowing that God has forgiven you The sins that once separated us from him have been completely forgiven some 103 verse 12 as far as the east is from the west So far as he removed our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west so far as he removed our transgressions from us that Understanding changes our life That understanding is the foundation of a spiritual life Now he's been writing concerning the error that had crept in a denial of a sin nature a denial of acts of sin He already saw said that in chapter 1 verse 8 in verse 10 So he's reinforcing this basic truth as newly converted believers You have little experience in your walk You're learning the way of your father and you're learning of his love for you and this is important And therefore like Paul said in 2nd Timothy 2 verse 1. He said my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus now There is a fellow some of you may be familiar with his name Carl Meninger the Meninger clinics. He was a psychiatrist and Carl Meninger manager once said that if he could convince the patients in psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven 75% of them could walk out the next day Do you see how important that is even a secular man can say these people are wrestling with guilt These people are wrestling with a burden that they can't relieve themselves up of They need to know you need to know we need to know That we have been 100% forgiven not just 50% or 60% 80% or even 90% What is amazing to me and it took a while for me as a new believer and that's why I'd be referred to as a little child It took a long time for me really to come to grips with the fact that God really had forgiven me because my sin was ever before me because I had I had memories of sinfulness things I had hurt people by doing pain that I had caused other people and and a sense of guilt for doing those things for hurting my parents for hurting my family for hurting friends and When I was given the opportunity by the way when I got saved I asked for forgiveness I asked for forgiveness for my parents. I asked for forgiveness from those whom I'd hurt I I didn't just say oh now I'm forgiven and move on I knew that I had some responsibility to approach people and let them know I know what I've been and I want you to know I'm sorry for that forgive me for that and I did and I asked my dad Dad would please forgive me for the son. I've been and that's something I have to tell you that can stay in the back of your mind that that there are things that you've Done that even though you know God has forgiven you it can still rattle around and and it can still sometimes Pop up in the most interesting ways, but you know, I asked my my my my father my dad I said dad forgive me for the son that I that I have been mama forgive me for the for the This the crazy son that that I've been I asked my sisters You know why because it wasn't just that I was receiving forgiveness from God That was enough, but I also knew that I need to reconcile with those I've hurt So I did that and that's how I started my journey towards healing. So as a new believer I needed to know one thing I have been forgiven by God Now he goes on and he says in verse 13 as well as verse 14 He says I write to you fathers because you have known him you have known him who is from the beginning I'm writing to you fathers fathers have continued in the faith. They've never left their first love They have left behind a legacy of spiritual children who follow their example The fathers are the ones who have gained a deep knowledge of God through trials and experience and that has given them a Certainty that has given them a stability in Jesus Christ. It reminds me of Job chapter 19 verses 25 through 27 Where Job said I know that my redeemer lives and he shall stand at last on the earth After my skin is destroyed this I know that in my flesh I shall see God whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another how my heart yearns within me. I know that my redeemer lives That's the that's the word that a father would say I know beyond a shadow of a doubt That my redeemer lives That's what a father will say a father has a knowledge of God and has walked with the Lord for many many years And then he speaks concerning the young men. He says in verses 13 and 14 I write to you young men you've overcome the wicked one When he says you've overcome the wicked one he's speaking of the devil obviously saying young men have mastered have overcome The wicked one and they are strong in faith. They've gone through spiritual battles and they have prevailed through Christ Young men have endured temptations. They've demonstrated spiritual strength They have resisted the influence of the air that is seeping into the church They resist me by standing in the word of God they they walk in the light and their joy is abounding They're keeping his guarding his word. They're abiding in him. They're loving the brethren And that's because the word of God is abiding in them in John 14 23 Jesus answered him If anyone loves me, he'll keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him These young warriors have strength. They've endured. They have victory in Christ. Their character is being formed. Their faith is developed Because the word abides in them they overcome they conquer the wicked one that word wicked there is a Greek word panoramic It means the malicious one God's word is in them and they practice it They obey it and because of that they are victorious their warriors in Daniel 1132 the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits So I'm 37 31 the law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide So I'm 40 verse 8. I delight to do your will. Oh my God and your lies within my heart now Every one of us in this room Is in one of those stages For the longest time when I first got saved until not that long ago Well when I was first saved and I was reading my Bible and I said little children I said ask how to be talking me and it is I'm young in my faith and I'm beginning to develop it But at a certain point I Began to identify myself with not just the little children because I'd spent time in the word I was learning the word of God going to Bible college teaching Bible studies and putting it into practice And and I found myself identifying with the young men And it was just recently and I don't know how this is gonna come out That God said you're not a young man anymore you're a father But it's the father you're an elder you're an aged man You've grown old and the Lord it's like King David at one time It was time for war it was time for battle and King David started to suit up to go to war and his men said no You're more valuable to us than thousands of warriors You stay behind David. It's time for us to go forward and fight Well that touches my heart because I know that I have entered into that area and I like it I'm glad to be there I tear up because I'd like to put the uniform on But the Lord said you've got experience that you should be giving to others so that they might do the warfare that you no longer Are called to do every one of us in this room is That one of those stages Little children new believers perhaps are those who have yet to develop their faith You might have been walking with God or knowing him since ten years ago But you haven't grown while you still looked at now as a little child. That doesn't mean you have to stay there It simply means that's where you're at right now little children Then you have the young men who want to do exploits who want to go out and do something for God I want to get I used to say I want to get my uniform dirty When I when I played ball and played a lot of sports for a long time when I used to be able to when I was a young man I wasn't the guy who sat on the bench chewing the edge of my glove Wishing I was the guy who went into the game and I wanted to dirty that uniform I wanted to play hard and I did I played hard when Marie and I were going out as it just when she and I were Dating I played on three softball teams a week. I played a lot of sports I played a lot of sports for a long time That's what I did at a certain point. I realized those days are are overhang up the cleats It's time to do something else, but I've always had that aggressive kind of competitive.  Let's do it. I brought that mentality into ministry I don't want to sit on the Lord's bench. I want to be in the game. I want to be out there swinging swords I want to be in there combating because life is is filled with opportunity to do something for God That blesses others right and so that I have men and and women in this room that would be called You know the young warriors. He's referring to him as young men, but it refers to us He has that we have those in our church those who want to do something for God And you have the children you have the warriors and you have the elderly elderly not frail Outerly meaning we have walked with God. I've walked with the Lord next month 52 years It's a long time to be walking with Jesus and he's taught me a lot of things over 52 years of walking with him And these are the things that I want to give to you These are the things that I want to share to our fellowship This is what God can do if you trust him This is what God can do if you hold fast to him God can move through you. Why can't he I used to tell That to people all the time I'd say why can't he use you what is it about your life that keeps him from using you? Why can't he use you? Why not? Look at this world. Look where it's going. Look what's happening. The church has to stand up and speak You should do that. Why not when I was a young warrior and I'd be in college in secular college I didn't go to just Christian college. I went to secular college And I would open my mouth in the class when nobody else would and I would say this is what the Lord says I still remember people who had mocked me I still remember the the response that some had but you know what I didn't care Because somebody had to say something in the name of Jesus Christ And if if people weren't going to do it I said to the Lord this and I still remember saying it father if no one speaks for you I will and that was my attitude then long before I was called Pastor David I was a believer in Jesus Christ who wanted people to know him. I was in a class that you know When I was in college, I was in a class. It was a California history class and the professor said every one of you have an assignment You're gonna have to stand before the class.  I said when you say freedom I Have one who has given me that his name is Jesus Christ He said you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free and every person in this room Who doesn't know Jesus Christ as a slave But Jesus Christ and set you free because that's what Christ came to do and I shared the gospel with him And I sat down and a woman sitting next to me young woman sitting next to me said out loud He doesn't say much but when he does speak he says something important to hear I was willing to do that and I was only a couple of years old in Christ I was not pastor David I'd been a Christian a little over three years three and a half years But these kids needed to know Jesus Christ that professor needed to know Jesus Christ as that Cal Poly I had a homosexual professor who was teaching marriage and the family and so my The he won he had us do a paper and I and the paper you could choose what you want So I I wrote a paper on the husband being the priest of the home And I gave a Bible study to him and paper format of Ephesians 5 homosexual teacher and after the class he approached me he and I walked to the car as he was talking to me and he said to me I've never heard anything like that before So walking through that parking lot with this man real nice guy and everything You know, but walking with him and talking to him shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with him. That's what you do See, that's what young men do That's what warriors do and at a certain point you become the elder Because you you have had your battles. You've had your scars. You've had your your victories You've had your defeats the times that you wish you wouldn't have said that I could have said it better You've learned from those things But there's one thing you haven't done and that is you haven't departed from the truth and That's how I've been for 51 almost 52 years. I've had my ups and I've had my downs and the downs have been bad But the ups are wonderful and at this point now I've come to realize that no, I'm not the little child and I'm certainly not the young man I've become the father and yesterday in our I meet with pastors That's one of the responsibilities. I have as a as a pastor here I meet with pastors in a region that I that I oversee and I had a group of pastors who came yesterday And one of the pastors as we were in the class one of the pastors said to me He said he said pastor David. I'm 60 years old, but I look at you as you're my father and One of my friends who you know says, you know, how old are you? You're 60 and you look at him and he said Dave.  This is going to seem I don't know if everybody will understand this and I don't intend to Exclude anybody by the illustration or inside. I want to be careful with this, but it's true And maybe you need to know this. I don't know My friend who teased me about an older older man calling me father My friend is not a Hispanic man, but the man who spoke to me is and So I turned to my friend another pastor and I said to him one of the things you don't realize or understand that in the Hispanic community when a man calls you his father, that is the highest compliment you can have That is an honor that I receive Because that's what we're like in the community. I was raised in So for a man to say you're a father to me That's one of the highest compliments and I turned to the man who's 60 years old and I said I want to tell you how deeply I appreciate what you just said and I love you for it. Thank you so much I hope that I can live up to your your thoughts of who I am that is what it's all about To be a father to be a mother of the faith to grow and to be looked at by those who may not be that much younger than you But respect you for what God has done in you That's something that I tried to share with my sons to be a man To be a man that they can look at my women my young my daughters be a woman that women can respect Because respect means everything especially in the body of Christ So live in such a way that people will respect you live for Jesus Christ And so John is speaking to them in that way. I speak to you little children I speak to you you young many fathers and he's saying these are the things that I see in you and therefore just hold fast to him moving on Do not love the world verse 15 or the things of the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of The father but is of the world and the world is passing away and the lust of it But he who does the will of God? abides forever Now when he says do not love the world, let me give you brief some brief thoughts The word world is used in various ways in the Bible World can speak of the created or the natural world. We see that in John 1 9 and 10 It says this was a true light which lights every man who comes into the world He was in the world the world was made by him and the world knew him not it speaks of the natural world The world is another way of speaking also of the sinful human race The race that Jesus came to redeem God so loved the world so it can be used in that way It is also used of what has been referred to as the death system that opposes God and is led by Satan In John 14 verse 30 Jesus said I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming And he has nothing in me So John is concerned That the believers would abandon Jesus and desire the world and that's why he says Do not love this world system now when you look at the the language It is literally saying stop giving the world that which belongs only to God, which is your love Stop loving the world is what he is saying and that's a common concern that runs through the history of the church Somebody once said I believe that one reason why the church of God at this present moment Has so little influence over the world is Because the world has so much influence over the church And that's absolutely true absolutely true The world has influenced the church But the church is supposed to be influencing the world for jesus christ. What is in the world? while lust and pride He says first he speaks of the lust of the flesh when he says The lust of the flesh all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lust of the flesh speaks of inward desires It's the appeal to the body appetites It's the temptation to gratify and satisfy our bodily desire When you have this great desire to satisfy what you consider to be Needs that you have it can be exposed in some ways that are very obvious like alcoholism Or gluttony or the use of drugs or venereal diseases Of pregnancies out of wedlock Is diseases like AIDS In first chrithian 6 9 and 10 the bible says do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of god?  Well the desire to satisfy your bodily needs he also speaks of the lust of the eyes The lust of the eyes that's the desire after luxury of every kind It lends itself to the spending sprees or irresponsible spending for things you really don't need I used to use the term credit card mania I knew a lady I knew a lady at one time many years ago now a young lady Who every year would use her credit card every year would use her credit card She would get rid of all the furniture in her in her front room in different areas all of it In every year and then she'd buy new furniture One year then she'd buy new furniture credit card mania Irresponsibly spending lusting for things with your eyes And Psalm 119 verses 36 and 37 incline my heart to your testimonies Not to covetousness Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things revive me in your way In closions three one and two Since then you have been raised with Christ set your hearts on things above Where Christ is seated at the right hand of God Set your minds on things above Not unearthly things Loss of the eyes a desire after these things third pride of life my reputation my achievements my status my titles One commentator said the pride of life speaks of boasting of ancestry boasting of connections or great offices Of name dropping Name dropping is always trippy to me. Yeah, I was talking to so-and-so just the other day Sometimes I don't know who the so-and-so is that they're talking about so I just smile right really that's nice Who is that? In Luke 22 26 He who is greatest among you let him be as the younger He who governs as he who serves You see he's saying that the fashion form and scheme of this world is doomed In 1st Corinthians 7 Paul said it like this versus 29 through 31 He said what I mean brothers and sisters is that the time is short From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not that's pretty good. No, anyway Those who mourn as if they did not Those who are happy as if they were not Those who buy something As if it were not theirs to keep Those who use the things of the world As if not engrossed in them Why is that Paul for this world in its present form is passing away Don't use the system as your model for life Don't think that because and this is this is I believe that if you I should say it this way I'll begin this way I really do believe this is a proper way to think, you know, they you've been given whatever you've been given and thank god for it If you have a great house bless the lord for it, of course you have a nice car wonderful I think that's great. Just make sure that it doesn't take your heart Make sure that you use it and it doesn't use you Because that's where the trap is You know, if you work hard and and the reward of your labor is is material blessing Praise the lord put god first in your giving and and enjoy what he gives you You know, I guess that the the greatest thing that I have learned and I'm learning is contentment I'm just content I'm thankful for a mom and a dad who are not materialistically inclined. I thank god for that I thank god that my dad Put his family where the family should have been Love to his wife to his very last breath Care for his children the way he did So I'm thankful for that My dad wasn't a materialist at all My dad was a man who was not taken by money, but he would use it and I think that's good advice to give even now be careful You can be taken by the money You can you can think that if if I get this particular thing and it's true We all know this especially when you're young, but it doesn't necessarily grow away go away You don't necessarily outgrow it. It's it's something that has to be turned from But when you're young you say, oh if I only had this car if only had this relationship or only lived in this neighborhood Or I only had this degree if I only had this kind of a relationship with a girl or whatever And then those things become yours and then you realize that they perish with the using it doesn't matter You've been saving up your money to get that car and you finally got it and that's wonderful. You enjoy it.  That's a fact. That's just true. You know before you know it you're parking, you know taking up three spaces and We just have to be careful Don't let the system Model your life for you be content in the things the lord gives to you Let's see now. I think I can take you a little bit further I don't know. Let's see shall we Verse 18 little children It is the last hour and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming even now Many antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour They went out from us, but they were not of us for if they had been of us They would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us and so He says it's the last hour the last hour is another way of speaking of the last days It's the time between the first and second coming of jesus christ These last days actually began at pentacost. You see that in peter's pentacost message Acts 2 14 through 17 Peter stood up with the 11 raised his voice. He dressed the the crowd fellow jews and all you who who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you listen carefully to what I say Now pentacost that happened and so the people were being mocked as being drunk So he said these men are not drunk as you suppose It's only nine in the morning No, this is what was spoken by the prophet joel in the last days god says i will pour out my spirit on all people Your sons and daughters will prophesy your young men shall see visions Your old men will dream dreams in the last days god says and so that's when it began Hebrews 1 2 says it like this god has in these last days spoken into us by his son Whom he has appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds So the last period in human history began with jesus and we are now in the final stage John is saying that in the last days many anti christ will arise This all will lead to the revelation of the final world ruler the anti christ. He's the coming world ruler He's empowered by satan. He attempts to replace jesus and we're going to be looking at that as we go through first john And i'm going to develop that further But he's speaking of people who went out. He says now notice in verse 19 He says it like this they went out from us, but they were not of us These are people who went out from us. They separated themselves from genuine believers is what he's saying They departed first from god and then from the church They departed he's saying from the congregation of believers These are people who had been participants in the church, but never were saved They were like judas. They were like demas. They were deniers betrayers. They were traitors to christ And that by the way is something that is part of church life to this day Paul and first grintians 11 19 said it like this. He said there must also be factions The word faction speaks of uh party or a party division or disunion There must also be factions among you that those who are approved may be recognized among you these people have departed But the fact that they departed john is saying reveals them that they were never saved If they'd been of us they he says they would have continued with us If they were of us, they would have accepted the doctrine of the apostles You see evidence of being a believer is abiding in the word of god with other christians So those who are genuinely christian continue in the things of god like jesus said in john 8 31 If you abide in my word, you are my disciples indeed The false teachers leave the church and they take people with them Their departure from truth and the church fellowship unmasks them as deceivers They were not saved because a genuine believer abides in christ So those who depart only had a passing taste of the gospel You see when god is moving deceivers infiltrate it's inevitable The enemy begins his attempts to destroy god's work and sometimes he uses people who come in to destroy by bringing in error with them We have had that here in this church, especially in earlier days When we were lived we were on this property and we had our bookstore There was a particular cultic group that was in upland I was aware of it and had shared with some people related to it And they were teaching that you could be perfect. You could be sinlessly perfect and things like that And so I had warned people and I said be aware of this and what had happened is during that day at that time they would come in to buy bibles here and They began to proselytize to try and convert one of the young men I didn't know about it when it was going on. I had not heard this. Nobody told me But they began to share with the young man who was working behind the counter in our bookstore many years ago And I didn't know about that I knew of the I knew of the cult I knew of the leader of the cult and a variety of things They knew of that but I didn't know they were coming on campus here And they did regularly until one day too late The young man who used to work for us quit so he could go off with them And uh follow the god that they were teaching And there was nothing we could do to help him with that You see these things happen even have happened here We have had people who have left their brochures and pamphlets in church fuse our church fuse here To try and draw people away Part of the reason we have men who are around stationed around You know helping you find a place to park and sometimes people get all upset because how come they're doing that? We have them there for more than one reason One of the reasons is we had people who were coming under the church grounds and leaving their pamphlets on the windshields of the cars They will come on the grounds. They will come into church services. I've had debates with them after church services They will come in and do that they will come in and do that And so deceivers do that they whenever the lord is moving amongst people the the enemy tries to infiltrate It can happen in a variety of ways. It's really big right now through social media So by ignoring their presence they're allowed to gain a foothold. So our responsibility is to teach with conviction and be aware of the error In roman 16 17 and 18 paul said it like this.  They deceive the hearts of the simple What does the antichrist want to do the antichrist has? Antichrists who come in preparing the way for the acceptance of the final world ruler the antichrist They will undermine the gospel of jesus christ. They will present false things that can sound true Especially to a little child A young person in the faith. It sounds true. They're used in the bible. They they say things similar to you But the bottom line is is the christ that they're teaching isn't the same one that's found in scripture Some are saying that jesus christ is the is the savior of the world But when you ask him who is jesus christ, they'll say well He's the brother of lucifer Or when you say who is jesus christ, they'll say well, he's the first creation of god Or you say well, who is jesus christ?  He is a great teacher and when you begin to ask him to define who jesus christ is You discover that it's a different christ entirely And so they use language But they use they put into the words definitions that aren't true to the scripture As a young believer I I spent some time under one of the one of america's premier Apologists his name was walter martin and I had the chance to sit under his teaching for about a year when I was a new believer Uh, I I had that privilege and so he's the one who actually Wet my appetite to be correct in scripture to make sure that the words that are being used are filled with the proper meaning Because one of the things that walter taught us as students was simple He said that you have to know what the definition of the word is because they use the same word that you do But they pack it with the different meaning So who is jesus? That's a big question And when they say well, he's the first creation of god or he's a spirit brother of lucifer He's married to uh, mary magdalene And when they begin to say things like that then you know these are people who aren't speaking the truth out of scriptures It's something that we need to know And so let's see how far I can go right here Let's see. I got a couple more minutes So verse 20 You have an anointing from the holy one and you know all things Again during that time the nostics were we're entering in and given a new definition for who jesus is in the work of god and some of the nostics Anointed with what they called a special anointing oil So john is saying that believers have gods anointing It's his spirit And so he's saying in verse 21 He says i haven't written you because you don't know the truth But because you know it and that no lie is of the truth No lie in other words no matter how well crafted can ever find its origin in the truth Who is a liar verse 22? But he who denies that jesus is the christ he is anti christ who denies the father and the son So that is what has been called a test of orthodoxy Who is jesus christ is jesus god in the flesh second person of the trinity Not a manifestation or revelation of god but god in the flesh You see the nostics denied this they believe that christ was actually separate from jesus There was a there was the christ anointing and and that the christ descended from above and came upon the human jesus at his baptism And because the spirit christ was unable to suffer the nostics taught that that the christ departed at his crucifixion So the denial of jesus's humanity struck at the very heart of the incarnation And that's why he says in verse 23 whoever denies the son doesn't have the father either He who acknowledges the son has the father also Denying the son does not have the father to have jesus is to have god And to deny this is to deny the truth And the denial of what scripture teaches is heresy When you have the son You have the father And so we need to understand that jesus christ is god in human flesh The holy spirit has descended and is filled our hearts. We have become the temple of the spirit of god We serve the lord jesus christ We don't need some secret initiation through nostic Understanding, but we receive that anointing when we ask the lord to baptize us in his holy spirit To fill us with his power and from that point We know him because he has sealed us with his spirit and works within us There was heresy entry in the church. We're going to look at this more deeply as we go through first john There was heresy entering in and john is dealing with that heresy. Why because that's what true teachers do Is they deal with the error to set the people will be taken captive by that error to set them free That's what true teachings intended to do. We'll stop here


Welcome to drinks made easy in the five days of cocktail Christmas today for day three Mike has the next stanza of our song With a little bit of a twist what you ready for this? I don't know It's Christmas time with Christmas trees and Number three put a little bit of vodka with a little bit of cream and you got yourself the Russian raspberry Boom Wow, I that was actually pretty good. I didn't think you could do that How are you gonna integrate that with our traditional songs though? You didn't think that far ahead did you? Do I ever to Shay To build the raspberry rush and you'll start with three raspberries into your glass with no ice that we're gonna muddle on the bottom And this is to help us just get some nice layers Into this cocktail you really want to you could throw all these ingredients in a shaker tin But it would be not quite as attractive on top of that. We're gonna add our ice Then we'll add one ounce of shambord One ounce of vodka one ounce of heavy whipping cream And stir that to integrate and there you have the raspberry Russian as you can see because of this technique We have that nice little line at the bottom Thanks so much for watching Please be sure to like subscribe and click on the bell icon so you'll see the rest of these drinks and we promise That Mike is going to be more traditional in his songs moving forward or at least we hope no I'm not Cheers from drinks made easy


Hi, and how are you all today? My name is Priyanka and let us discuss this question. It says a river 3 meter deep and 4 meter wide is flowing at a rate of 2 kilometer per hour. How much water will fall into the sea in a minute? Now here we are given the depth and breadth of the river. That is, here the height that is the deepness of the river is given to us as 3 meters, whereas the breadth is given to us as 14 meter. The length that is the rate of the flowing is given to us as 2 kilometer per hour. So that means it needs to be changed first of all from kilometer to meter and from per hour to minute, since we want the question in per minute. So the answer will be 2,000 meters divided by 60 to convert it into r and the answer will be equal to approximately 33.33 meters per minute. So, we need to find out the volume of the water volume of the water falling into the sea in a minute will be equal to length into breadth into height. That is 33.33 into 3 into 40 meter cube and the answer is equal to 4,000 meter cube. Right. So this completes my session. Hope you enjoyed and understood it too. Have a very nice day ahead.


everybody and thank you for joining us for another episode of condo insider my name is Jane Sugimura and I'm your host for today's show and I'm really pleased to have with as my guest today Tyler does Santos Tam and he's running for the city council seat for district number six because Carol Fukunaga who currently holds that seat is term limited and so it's going to be an open seat and you know this is part of a series of programs that I'm going to be doing for maybe the rest of this year I want to introduce condo insider viewers to candidates who are running for office and uh and ask them questions about you know how they you know how they're going to support the condo residents like you and me who live in their district and you know so this will hopefully give you some information that will lead to you know a really important decision it's in August isn't it the primary primary's in August but people are going to get their ballots in the mail in late July so even sooner well okay well okay Tyler thank you for being with me today why don't you uh why don't you tell us something about yourself I know you're the president of condo yes we'll get to that um so I'm Tyler dos Santos Tam and it's great pleasure to be here on condo insider um as Jane mentioned I'm the president of my condo association at 801 south street um we're at one of the newer buildings but we're one of the largest condo associations there's about 1040 units in this property it's both buildings a and b I grew up here in town I grew up right by not to know a tea house up in a leba heights and I was on the liliha neighborhood board for six years but the district that I'm running for city council district six goes from ward avenue to middle street so it's got half of the kakako condos all those condos up in newt wanu and downtown you know china town as well as some of those up on punch bowl up in the slopes of punch bowl so it is a big area and lots of associations and then of course you know some of the private subdivisions as well have their own associations up in the valley and so you know uh why are you why are you running for the city council seat while I was on the liliha neighborhood board for six years and I definitely saw how the city government affects people's lives from the time that you wake up and cook breakfast that's city water take a shower city water you go to you know work or school on a city road or a city sidewalk if you walk and then you know you curl up in bed and brush your teeth at night and you know you've dealt with a whole bunch of city issues all day long and for condo owners in particular you know the way that we interact with city government's a little bit different right we often have private trash pickup and things like that and we have to deal with our own sort of water distribution once it gets off you know the city lines and so you know there's a lot of things where I saw as a neighborhood board member and a resident of community where the city has to step up the city can be proactive and be a partner in helping people you know live the best life that they can here on this island and I'd like to step up and serve our community and be a leader who can get that done okay and you know um and I I've lived in you know I've been living in condos for many many years and in uh and you know one thing what I've learned and I've been advocating for condos for over 30 years of the state legislature and sitting counting what I find out that I spend more time educating people because people don't understand what it's like living in condominiums they think we have a ton of money uh you know so so so you know they they think they say oh well you know you live in a condominium so uh you should be paying more because there's more of you it's like excuse me you know and you know so you know we have issues like you mentioned with the city rubbish removal right single family homeowners they pay real property taxes and they get free rubbish removal but if you live in a condominium I mean you you pay real property taxes and you look at a condominium building with maybe 300 units and look at the property taxes if each unit pays a thousand dollars a year uh with 300 I mean that's what 300 thousand dollars that's a ton of money and we we have to pay for our own rubbish pickup and our rubbish pickup is you know it's not peanuts it's like five thousand six thousand a month and that comes out of our our homeowners pockets and you know so uh you know a lot of times you know we're in we're we're at the city council uh you know grumbling about how come you guys are discriminating against us I mean uh and with the bulky item pickup uh you know we have to think about the fines and it's like but you know and I live in a loop where we have a bunch of condos and this may sound silly like children but you know they the the with bulky item pickup you know you have to you can't put it out early you have to put it out like the night before right right and and the and the thing about it is is when you live in an area where there's a lot of condos right in the block and especially in a cul-de-sac and we have six condominium projects on the on the loop and so you somebody sees something being put out they know it's and all of a sudden other people start bringing stuff and it's like wait a minute it's not fair because that's our sidewalk you you people from across the street will walk over and put their stuff on our area and that means that if the bulky item people don't come and pick it up we have to remove it otherwise we get fined because we're the property owners and you know so it's like do we post guards out there to tell the neighbors to not put their stuff on our you know but you know it it creates some issues and you know so we I'm glad when you know they set that program up they asked our group you know to to kind of assist them and you know we we sent out emails to all the different associations asked them for feedback and what kind of issues are you know were they dealing with so that we could tell the department environment of services you know how to because it was a pilot program for a while but you know we have worked with the city on issues like that and you know and I can remember going to hearings for John DeSoto years ago he wanted to change the rates that that condominiums get charged for water and sewer and we we get charged a lower rate than single family homes but and he was saying that that's not fair we should be paying the same rate it's like no because you have you know maybe 300 people but there's only one pipe coming from the city yeah all of our buildings that were you know and and so it it was a long hard fight we had to fight with them with the city when you know so that we so it's it's you know there's this ongoing relationship with the city for day daily you know issues like like you said water sewer rubbish removal and it's all and property taxes property taxes we're always dealing with the city and so it is it's so you can you know if you're going to be sitting on the council you're going to be dealing with issues that you know affect people who live in condominiums in your district so you know it's it's important for for for people in your district to know that you're the go-to person when these things happen yep and again as a president of my condo association and as a condo you know resident myself um I can assure your viewers that you know they'll have a sympathetic year if I'm elected and somebody who you know is willing to dive into these issues and it's their ongoing issues um that that keep on coming up and of course there are there are some changes probably and some of the policies that are going to affect condos and that's going to spill over into the next term yes and you know one one thing I want to bring up because it was introduced there was a an ordinance introduced in 2017 and it was passed in 2018 the fire safety ordinance because of the marco polo fire in in july of 2017 and we all agree that was a horrific event it was just the most it was really really awful and um and but you know what happened uh and you know some of us including me think that you know the mayor at the time it was a knee jerk reaction he decided he wanted to mandate fire sprinklers and all high-rise residential buildings and we and there was a lot of pushback the that's why it you know the ordinance did not pass until 2018 and when it did eventually pass there was an alternative in other words it wasn't you shall everybody shall you know put in fire sprinklers and it wasn't because we were concerned about safety I mean I think most buildings in town thought that they were safe but and that they were being somehow penalized uh because of what happened at the marco polo but you know they want it it's expensive and nobody in town had money in their reserves to pay for a fire sprinkler system it's millions of dollars and even if they did have money they were already planning for you know maintenance to the elevator maintenance to you know the painting the outside of the building made a number of other things they've probably had planned for years and to have this dropped into their lap um is clearly a big burden that they never were prepared for and there's no way to be prepared for um in a short amount of time right and you know so what and our group was part of the task force we were appointed to the task force that came up with the alternative and the alternative was that if you didn't want to put in sprinklers you could do a life safety evaluation and that's where a licensed professional would come and inspect the building and tell you how to make it safer okay because these are all older buildings we all recognize that we could probably make things better to make it safer to address the concerns that were raised by you know the uh bill and so you know so that was and that was cheaper it was cheaper more economical you know for for the and you know because a lot of people didn't like it because they it was a method they had to spend money and so it wasn't like it was you know everybody was you know in favor of it but it was better than you know putting in sprinklers and so back in 2018 we agreed to that and here we are here we are four years later and the bill is in the process of being implemented and we're finding out that there are so many problems there are over 360 buildings that were originally on the list that were subject to the fire safety ordinance about 60 of them are exempt from sprinklers because they're under 10 stories or smaller or they have open exterior quarters and the fire department has deemed that that's safe they don't have to you know put in sprinklers so they're exempt from sprinklers and there are buildings in in Waikiki like the Waailana or the Waipuna Yacht Harbor Tower their open exterior quarters are big buildings but they have open exterior quarters they don't have to do sprinklers and and so um the life safety evaluation is you know I think out of 300 buildings the and and I get copies of the reports that the fire department submits to the city and the last report was April not April it was March of it was in fact there was a month ago and about 240 buildings have submitted their LSEs okay so almost all the buildings have submitted the LSE you know how many have passed have gotten passing scores right it's a very small number right 16 that's a tiny fraction 16 out of 247 buildings that means that you got over 200 buildings in Honolulu who don't have passing scores who technically have to put in fire sprinklers or do something else okay and here we are in 2022 but on top of that we had a pandemic that happened in 2020 that kind of shut everybody down which delayed the life safety evaluations from being done so we got an extension because our deadline for completing the life safety was last year okay and this was extended to May 3rd of this year and Kara Fukunaga submitted another bill recently that was signed by the mayor I think he signed it last week bill 37 and so the deadline for completing your LSE is now August of this year so it's what May June July four more months for about 60 buildings right but our but in order to get a passing score I mean what are the next deadline for us because my building has we we did our LSE in January of 2021 and our deadline for compliance is May 3rd 2025 that's three years away we couldn't put in fire sprinklers even if we wanted to because that's we don't have enough time we are one of what over 200 buildings in Honolulu that have to get building permits right building permits and and we we testified before the city council weeks a couple of weeks ago and we basically said what are you guys going to do here we are there's over 200 of us and and you know all of us have to get you know if we have to do fire sprinklers we have to get building permits how are we going to do this and how are we going to get it all done by May 3rd 2025 right well as you know my background is actually in the construction industry and of course the permit backlog at DPP is one of the the biggest frustrations I think for the industry and so we share that not only with condos but the contractors who are doing this work it holds up their ability to get things done too and so having that background and running for the council if I do get in on the council you know we're gonna DPP is going to be one of my big focuses because there's so many things that DPP you know could be be very proactive and and help people with getting things like this done helping people you know we talk about getting to solar clean energy I mean this is something that also is being held up sometimes in permitting and of course just people wanting to do renovations whether it's in a unit or whether it's you know in their single family home I mean there's all of these things that are being backed up and it it sometimes is a difference between you know life for death and it is the difference between paying you know a certain amount now or who knows how much it's going to be in 2025 if we have to wait and wait and wait for a permit and so it really is you know something that we need to fix and you know I'm willing to roll up my sleeves and get really acquainted with the folks down at DPP and say you know what can we do better and how can we get this done because it is so important to so many people who live in condos here on the silent right and you know oh another thing too you know what we're finding out because back in 2018 when we were working on this ordinance to begin with no like I said nobody knew we were going to have a pandemic right so then now we have the pandemic and the pandemic has resulted in what they call supply chain shortages right so even and a lot of us who have completed our LSE's you have to do little repairs you know fixing our doors you know you know getting getting and we have to wait longer to get right products into Hawaii plus it costs us more money and and and so this is all you know and and two things happened in 2022 that were nobody knew about it we found out early in I think January this year that insurance premiums for high-rise buildings with no fire sprinklers were going to go up and it's not because of anything that happened in Hawaii it wasn't because of the Marco Polo fire it was because the local insurance carriers have to you know when when they have to pay our claims they borrow from a re-insurance and they're offshore you know companies and those companies also give money to pay for the wildfires that are happening on the mainland for the condo collapse that happened in Florida for the the storms that are happening in Europe and damaging buildings and we understand that the the industry has suffered a loss of over a hundred billion dollars and because of that the insurance industry has to recoup their money so they're going to start increasing premiums the my insurance my insurance premium in 2022 we found out in January this year went up 30% it went up $44,000. Yep and in our building it did as well we paid in 2020 about 300 just shy of 300,000 to ensure both of the buildings in this year this past year it went up to 600,000 and and that is a huge amount and we of course have to explain to our you know owners that this is sort of out of our control and we have to unfortunately raise the fees and of course nobody likes that and it's again out of our control here so you know going back to some of the things we can control in the city you know how can we think about this in a logical way that's practical and isn't going to be a burden that just falls out of the sky and then hits everyone out of out of nowhere you know. Right and and and see for for buildings who have done their LSE and have to comply with fire safety ordinance now they have less money less money because now their insurance premiums went up and even the buildings that have the open exterior corridors like the Wailana and the Yathar their insurance went up and so we're trying to set up a meeting with the insurance commissioner to say you know there's this ordinance and it's expressly says that open exterior corridors and small buildings under 10 stories are safe they are exempt from fire sprinklers so so you know why are you allowing the insurance companies to raise their insurance rates I mean you can't be doing this across the board type of thing it's not fair and you know so you know and and and for implementing and you know this increase in the insurance is creating problems with complying with life safety I mean you have you know over 200 buildings including mine we're trying to figure out how we comply with life safety I mean the fire ordinance now we have less money because we had to pay an insurance increase and we found out the second unintended consequence is Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac they're the federal agencies who loan who buy loans from local lenders and they came out with a directive Fannie Mae's directive I think is effective in January of 2022 and Freddie Mac was effective in February and what that says is that you know if you have these problems and if you have a report a detrimental report having to do with your structure and it's filed with a regulatory agency and the minute I saw that I figured oh my god that's the life safety evaluation that's filed with the fire department and how there's over 200 buildings in Honolulu that are that way that means that even now if you want to do a fire sprinkler and you and and typically because we don't have money in our reserves you go out and you borrow money we can't even get a loan and and you know because we're not eligible because now we have a detrimental structural report filed with a regulatory agency and and you know some people say well and you know how are they going to know and are they going to put things into effect I'm the board president of my condominium I'm getting calls from realtors representing prospective buyers and I got a call from a financial institution you know saying we are too and we're building and we're still getting this and what after asking about reserves asking me about raising maintenance fees that are we going to do that and what about you know the fire safety ordinance are we in compliance and you know I don't want to say well we're not and we're you know we still have time we still have until 2025 and so it's not yeah we're trying we're not quite in compliance but we're trying to get there and it's just really difficult and you know Carol Fukunaka set up a permitted interaction group and I was part of that group and we we testified before the city council I wasn't the only one there was the Jonathan Billings from touchstone properties and we had some somebody from Hawaii and we had some Savio you know for the insurance industry and we had a lot and basically the bottom line is is these unintended consequences are making it very difficult for condominiums to comply with this fire safety ordinance and so it should be suspended repealed but something has to happen because if you know the deadlines don't change I mean you're you're going to have 200 buildings you know and it's going to be an awful mess and you know a lot of these lending requirements you know a lot of these older buildings are kind of where people you know young couples maybe are getting their first department they're their first place that they can buy and if you're getting caught up in this this fanny may requirement and you can't buy into or can't get a loan for a unit in somewhere with a black mark whereas a cash fire can simply just come in and take it I mean this really is detrimental to the sort of affordable housing issue that we have here of getting people into their first place that that they you know can raise a family in or you know downsize into whatever the case may be so there there's that connection too between housing affordability and everything that's going on in this industry right now and you know so I mean how would you feel about you know suspending the fire safety ordinance until until we can figure out what's going to happen we know with the insurance issue as soon as the insurance industry can recoup you know those increases should stop but I've been told it's going to go on for at least another two or three years until and and you know with this directive I mean we've already reached out to our congress people I know CAI international has reached out to their national lobbyist to you know talk to people in congress to try to get fanny may and Freddie Mac to uh suspend you know implementation of their directors I mean because I mean it's going to create a really a horrible mess especially with the housing situation and you're absolutely right this is going to be an all hands on deck issue from the federal government to the state side which regulates insurance you know within the state of Hawaii but on the county side you know the fact that there's still there are still over 100 maybe 160 buildings that still need to get their LSE completed haven't done that yet are in the process even if they complete it then they have to implement things I mean this is really a tight maybe an impossibly tight deadline and so we're going to have to look at that but you know I think if you're taking steps and many of them are going to to take steps to implement the other LSE things besides the fire school first the alarms you know other things I'm happy to see that they're doing that and hopefully that satisfies you know those people who are very very concerned about safety it's not just the sprinklers there's other things that we can do to improve safety and like let's get there first those things we can do it'll promote safety without being overly burdensome right you know what we need to do too is if you know we don't suspend enforcement we've got to extend the deadlines like I said you know it's only three years before you know the the compliance deadline you know is in place and even you know like we have done all of our little repairs and so the issue right now is whether we do the fire alarm system which means that it might cost us a little under a million dollars which is still a chunk of change or put in sprinklers and for our building it's going to cost about three and a half million and you know so I have you know and when we have these we had two meetings on this I mean we had a we had a you know substantial amount of owners who usually don't ever show up but they showed up for that because they you know they said if you you know we were we told them you don't show up we're going to install fire sprinklers but naturally you know you know they they kind of all showed up and um but you know for the fire alarm systems we still need the building permits right exactly so we need to have we need to have a fast track method if you know if the city in other words if the city wants us wants to help us comply they got to give us the means and they control the permitting process and like I said there's now over 200 buildings out there that are going to need permits if they're going to do fire alarms or fire sprinklers and right now there's not you know none of us can see a way how the city can do that right and this brings me I think so something that's going on right now the council which is bill 44 which creates a fund you know to help condos with this which I think you know it's great and clearly you know support but in addition to simply the funding is all the mechanics behind that right so you know we could create a fund but if everyone's going to sit in line to get a building permit and everyone's still waiting to complete their LSE and everybody's waiting for all the parts to arrive from you know China or Japan or Korea or wherever it's coming from right and the fund itself is not simply going to be the solution so we need an all you know all of the above approach which includes you know the fund from bill 44 and then of course the question is how do we get money into there and of course get it out to you know the these associations that are trying to do good for the residents right and you know what's really you know kind of strange in the pig in the permitted interaction group discussion we found out that there are some buildings the reason why they have another LSE they really think that the bill is going to be repealed and we keep telling them that you can't rely on that because it I mean that may happen who knows but you cannot wait until the last minute because you're going to get dinged and you know right now you have most of the buildings in Honolulu you know have done their LSE like I said there's over 200 who have not gotten passing scores but you know mostly pride right made a good faith effort that's you know at least we've got we've got the report we know what's got to get fixed right so you know we're halfway there and the problem is now we're dealing with enforcement how do we how do we get our permits how do we get our supplies and materials and how do we get the money to pay for all of this besides paying for our insurance increases you know because of the you know the insurance market and paying for everything else that goes with you know trying to maintain an aging building that's that's what we're all dealing with definitely a lot to work on in the next city council especially those represent areas like district six with a lot of condos are going to have their hands full working on it but I'm ready to roll my sleeves and work with all the stakeholders to try to get something done that's practical that's you know reasonable and isn't going to be a huge burden that's a total surprise you know to everybody involved right because like I said you know when we started this process we negotiated in good faith with the city we came up with the alternative of a of an LSE as an alternative to installing sprinklers and if we didn't have a pandemic if we didn't have the insurance increase and the the lenders you know directives the Fannie Mae Frey then maybe we wouldn't be grumbling we may probably but not as much but right now it's gotten to the point where you you see a lot of frustration out there in the association saying how are we going to do this and you know I'm glad to hear that you're willing to you know roll up your sleeves and work with us and try to figure out how to do this yeah happy to and thanks for the opportunity to be on the show yeah well thanks Tyler for being here and we've run out of time so I want to thank the listeners and viewers for joining us on this episode of condo insider where I'm interviewing candidates who are running for elected office in 2022 it's going to be an exciting year we're going to get a whole lot of new elected officials and but for condo people I urge you to learn get to know your candidates invite them into your buildings and do coffee hours ask some questions hard questions because these elected officials are going to be making decisions that affect your day to day living so you better get to know them bet get you know you got to be their best friends and and hopefully you know that will be the case with you Tyler and we can come and rumble to you and you can be our knight in shining armor and the city council my door is also open but thank you very much for being with us Tyler and thank you to our viewers for joining us for this episode of condo insider please join us next week for another episode it will be Rayleen Tenno who will be your host for the show thank you and mahalo thank you so much for watching think tech hawaii if you like what we do please like us and click the subscribe button on youtube and the follow button on vimeo you can also follow us on facebook instagram twitter and linked in and donate to us at think tech hawaii.com mahalo


Jan, you drew with Abhijit Gupta with the Black Pieces. Your thoughts on the game today? My game today was very bad.  Do you think he missed out something that could have been very dangerous for you in the game? Is there any specific point? Okay, I think he should have exchanged all the rooks and played this position Queen and Knights versus Queen and Knights. Then he would have better chances to play for a win. Because in the game I got very active and it compensates a bit my structural weaknesses. Okay, now you've finished on 7 out of 10 here at the festival. How do you feel about your performance? Okay, it's normal, I think. Not very good, but not very bad either. Actually, I had a hard time winning with White, and that's why I have only 7 points. I think I could do better, perform better, but it's not bad. And how was your experience playing here in Gibraltar? Well, I'm playing here second time. I was playing two years ago and two years ago I played very badly, I think. Now it's a bit better, but I hope next year it will be better. I wish you all the best for this coming year and hope to see you in the evening at the closing ceremony. Thanks.