Okay, we'll take a look at the order flow today in Bookmap. We had the non-farm earlier, so take a look at some of that action as well. And starting with the risk disclaimer, trading futures involves substantial risk of loss. It's not suitable for all investors. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Okay, for more information about Bookmap, you can go to bookmap.com. We'll take a look in just a minute. Become a member there. You'll have access to a lot of the free resources, and the way to contact us is through support at voloxpro.com. If you want to give Bookmap a try, under the pricing tab at bookmap.com, you'll find the basic in the advanced version. 49 per month and 99 per month, respectively. They are billed quarterly, and you get a 14-day trial period with it, though. You can utilize this, check it out, see if this is something that works for you. You're in the webinars right now. That's very good because there's... Bookmap shows a lot of information, a lot of data, and some of this data we're not so accustomed to as traders. We've never really looked at historical limit order book. And Bookmap shows all of this. In fact, I'm just going to jump right in here. And what do I mean? So looking at a dome. Most of us are accustomed to looking at a dome in Bookmap. We can see the best bid and offer here. In fact, let me bring up a dome for the ES. Okay. And we're going to compare it right away. Here's your dome in the ES. Here's your best bid and offer. This is your level one data. Okay. Here's your last traded volume here. Here's your depth on the bid and your depth on the offer. Now, what is this telling you here? What is this showing you? I mean, this liquidity here, I mean, this is the market, and this is the current state of the market. However, these numbers here, they're constantly changing. And you're not going to have any kind of reference to what's going on at some of those levels. All right. In Bookmap, we visualize this data historically for you so you can understand and now utilize this depth of market data where in this sense right now, it's rather challenging to read and understand. It takes quite a bit of effort and quite a long time. Okay. In Bookmap, when you look at it here, here is our dome here. Right. Best bid and offer right here. Okay. Last traded volume right here. Okay. And here's your depth on the bid down to this white line and your depth on the offer up to this white line. Okay. But we give this liquidity here a graphical representation in this window. This is the current market window. Okay. And then we take that graphical representation though and we record it and we project it onto the chart historically. So you can see the auction. You can understand where they're bidding and where they're offering. You're now starting to digest and consume data that is outside of the historical transactions and best bid and offer. Okay. It's what's going on outside of those transactions, where they're bidding and offering. And you can start to understand the intent of these guys, like these guys here, starting to pull their liquidity okay. But down here at 2350, they're staying in the book. So you start to gain information. Look at them get with high liquidity here just above 52. Okay. Skewing that auction and maybe we'll get a push down into this 2350. Okay. And we're putting the pieces together here. Right. That's what Bookmap is going to allow you to do. All right. And that is rather difficult and rather challenging to ascertain from just this dome here. Okay. So anyway, shake it up a little different than I normally cover. But that's the advantage that Bookmap can show you and we're going to get more involved in that process in just a few minutes. Okay. I just want to show you guys a few of the other resources at bookmap.com under the education tab. All of these webinars are recorded. You can find them under this link here and you click on the playlist here. That'll take you to our YouTube channel. And you'll find all of them here. In fact, let me open this up here and I want to show you just that playlist. Okay. This is actually maybe a little more helpful because it lists all of them from the top down. And I'm going to put this into the chat for you if you want to go and review some of the recorded webinars. Okay. This is the one from yesterday. Now I lost the data for the other two days. So it's just Monday and Thursday for this week. So it's really a pity because we had a nice webinar on Wednesday. But anyway, let's move forward here. Other resources. There's another playlist as well for these Bookmap order flow video snippets. Again, those can be found under the playlist here on our YouTube channel. And where is it here? The Bookmap order flow right here. Okay. So let's click on that one. I'm going to put this into the chat for you as well. Okay. I would highly encourage you to watch these and understand the concepts within some of these videos. They're very short videos. They're just a few minutes each. And you can see here, this one's actually pretty long. Four minutes and 44 seconds here. This one is actually, these two are pretty long as well. But you can see the majority of them are around two to three minutes. So anyway, we look at the market phenomena here in a very concise manner. And it's the same thing that we go through during these webinars. Except these webinars, you can answer questions or ask questions. We can look at many more features and many more market phenomena in Bookmap. But these will cover very specific market phenomena. And then you're able to digest that and then move forward with Bookmap. Understand what you're looking at, because you're going to see it repeat again and again. It's just how these markets are. So let's move on. And let's start with integrating Bookmap in order flow into our macro view. Or we'll start with a macro view. Then we're going to look at the microstructure in Bookmap. And then we're going to look at the order flow. So those higher time frame levels is what's of interest. And regardless of how you trade, it really doesn't matter. I'm just going to use some very simple techniques that most people can understand. And it's not any sort of trading plan or approach. It's just looking at some levels. And then we're going to look at the microstructure. You'll understand what I'm talking about here in just a minute. And then we're going to look at the order flow. And very objectively, we're going to read this. And that's going to give us insight to anticipated moves. And we'll see this in real time. And that's what these webinars are about, is being able to understand how to utilize this tool and answer your questions.  So we'll get into reading the order flow here very objectively in just a second. But let's start with those higher time frames. So I'm looking at the ES here on a 30 minute chart. You can see that we had this was post market yesterday, overnight low down into this 2336 area. And then we had non-farm this morning right here. No, that's the open. I'm sorry, 830. Here's your non-farm candle right here. And you can see we're just getting bashed back and forth. It's looking pretty wicked out there today. You can see the nice little move above the high here at 930. The overnight highs, that is, not the session from yesterday. That's up here at 61. Nice liquidity grab up in this area for anyone who is placing their stops down here. And we come right back into the middle of the range. And we trade almost right back up to the top again. And now we're back in the middle of the range. So we're all over the place today looking at this 30 minute chart. Let's see if we can get any more insight looking at the five minute chart. Wow, not much, not much at all. We're just going back and forth. We can see the buying here down at this area. So we're going to just draw a horizontal line in and look at what the... If we come down into these areas here, we're going to look at the order flow. So around this 46, maybe on up to like 47, 48. Kind of a zone there we're going to look at. So let me draw that in. And you can see we came back up here and sold right back off. So we're going to see a nice big volume profile. It's going to be nice and fat in the middle with a single distribution for today. So we may see a break of that today at some point, but we'll just look at the order flow and take a look. So these are my levels of interest. It's basically the highs and the lows. I don't really see anything else in the middle here. Maybe, we did get the retest already, but maybe around this 53 area. Now let's take a look at book map. Let me zoom out. Here is our 930 open. Here's that big move to the upside and that pretty dramatic move right back down and then right back up again and then kind of in the middle here. Here's what the liquidity looks like around that 47 to 48 level. They're actually up a little higher here at 49. And this heat map is not giving me a real good reading here. I don't like it. It's a little too bright for me. So I'm going to come up here and click on the contrast configurations.  And I'm going to bring down that brightness. And let's play around with a little bit more here because we're looking at some pretty high levels of liquidity here and just not getting a real good feel for it yet. Usually it just takes me a second here to get this adjusted, but today I want to zero in on what's really important. I don't want to see some of that shorter term liquidity here. So for example, this is giving me pretty good insight. Look at this 2350 level. We've got the figure here 2350. We know there's going to be buyers down here and there's going to be liquidity here. Just because of the figure came into that, traded through it a couple ticks and bounced, came back down, retested, and looked at the volume that traded down here. Not a lot. So compared to previously, so you can see we rotate back up when we get a nice cluster of volume that traded up here now. Okay. So at this moment, in fact, I'm looking for an extension here to the upside. Just based on what I'm looking for and putting these pieces together, liquidity filled, retest, not too much volume, more volume trading up here. And now what we need to see is some more aggressive buying coming in here and maybe we'll get a push here on up into I don't know, around 53 or 54. Okay. Now you can note here as I zoomed out, as I zoom out, this liquidity down here at 49 starts to show. As I zoom back in, it kind of disappears. That's because this heat map is always making the calculation based on what's in my chart range. So you will need to adjust this. And like I said, it doesn't take much.  So that's all it took. And it's giving me pretty good insight now. I like this view. I was mentioning 53 and here they are. Other traders have this idea as well. And they're already providing liquidity there. So now we need to take a look here and watch and see if we get some nice green dots here that will move right up into that 53 area. Starting to see lack of trading at this point, in fact. Look at the green dots up here, not too big. So we're starting to read the tape here. This isn't about the auction. The auction is happening between 49 and 53 right now. But we're reading the tape at this point. Here we go. See now, look at how that auction actually shifted. Look at how they jumped in here very quickly. These guys at 53 polled. They jumped in here very aggressively with 929 contracts. And look at that effect that it had on price immediately. We see those green dots with a sharp move to the upside of just three ticks just in an instant. And that was due to a skew here in the auction. That helped that. It's not 100% due to it. Nothing is, but you just have to think about this as being an auction. And when you see more aggressive buyers into the auction, jump in just like this, just like right now at 51 and a half. And you see the seller starting to pull. Okay. Well, you get an imbalance in that auction. There's more buyers than there are sellers. It's starting to chase price to the upside. The green dots that we were looking for. Those are starting to occur. We haven't come back and tested our 53 area yet, but this is exactly what we were looking for. Okay. Based on our previous analysis, very objectively, just looking at this auction. Okay. Any questions on this? We go over this every day and putting these pieces together. Okay. It's basically just almost like a deductive argument or reasoning here. Okay. It came shy of our 53 area. But we'll continue to watch here if these guys mean business. So sellers are starting to, they were here earlier. They're starting to flash or show that higher liquidity every now and then. And the market's taking note of that. Okay. So let me go through that in this process. Okay. This is the process where we go through just to understand the order flow. Okay. We started from that macro view, looking at our higher time frames. We started to analyze the micro structure and then looking at the order flow. In this order flow, we actually started with this number three part down here, reading the tape. That's not true. We actually saw the high liquidity at 2350. And we saw that it was filled. And then we saw a retest of that area. And there was very little volume that traded down in that area. That's when we're starting to read the tape. And then we saw a move to the upside. We saw more volume trade at a little higher area. And that's when we started to put the pieces together for the tape reading. But it all started from that 2350 area. And we're looking at where are the majority of the players and how did they behave? Okay. And that can be answered right here. Okay. High liquidity. How did they behave? They stayed in the book and they traded. Okay. And we know that. Look at the transactions that took place here. It's almost all selling, aggressive selling, hitting the bid. And they got all of these, all of these traders here got absorbed. Okay. We can hover over this area. Not a lot of contracts actually. You know, over almost 1,100 contracts somewhere around there. And and then you can see that they got filled. And then we see the aggressive buying coming in. Okay. Get our retest here. And then it's this cluster here that we're looking at, right? Looking for that extension. Okay. And then we saw the imbalances here. Again, reading the auction at this point here as well. Okay. We were looking for those. We saw these imbalances here in that auction. All right. And combined with reading that tape. Okay. And here we go again. Okay. So now we're testing our 53 area. Let's see if these guys start to jump back in. Right. I'm still looking for 50 up here, you know, 54 basically. Okay. Any questions? Really, I'm trying to cover this very, very objectively. This isn't wasn't a crystal ball. It was just putting these pieces together and understanding the transactions and understanding the auction. Okay. And we were starting to anticipate this kind of move. And here we go. Okay. We're just getting up to the 54 area now. Now here, here are the sellers. Okay. We found them. And they're starting to jump in really aggressively here. 53 and a half. Okay. Look at the look at the big, big transactions taking place now here. Okay. Now these guys are staying in the book. 1,500 contracts. 1,550 contracts. Look at how aggressive that is. Right at the best offer right now. And primarily our large lot tracker is showing that primarily all of this here is one individual actor. Okay. It was showing that. Okay. It's not now at the moment. Okay. And we're, we can answer very, I mean, just emphatically here. Do these guys want to trade? And answers absolutely. They're trading. Look at the transactions taking place right into this very, very high liquidity. And look at now, we've traded. Let's zoom out or zoom in a little bit more. We've already traded 1,100 contracts here. Okay. And there's still 1,200 and something. I mean, these guys are, their intent is to get filled. And they are getting filled right now. We can see the transactions, the green dots taking place right into that liquidity. Okay. This answers that second question for us. That second question is how do these participants behave when price approaches them? This goes even a step further. Not only approaches them, trades into them. Okay. And now look at the very, very aggressive buying here take place. Okay. Potentially a little bit of spoofing type of action right here at 53. All right. And these guys are now, now short. Okay. They got their fill here. And they got what they wanted at 53 and a half. Okay. Let me cover this area here again. Okay. Making up for a little bit of lost time yesterday with the, going over the CVD, the cumulative volume delta that we covered in detail yesterday. So if you guys want to review that, then I would recommend watching yesterday's webinar. Okay. That's up on the YouTube channel. Okay. So that spoofing type of action. Okay. So obviously these guys wanted to get filled. Right. We already answered that question as we saw they stayed in the book and they were trading. Just a little bit of a push here. Right. 1856 contracts here at 53. Okay. This was before they were filled. Okay. And look at this action here. Just great to see. Okay. Very, very aggressive in that limit order book. Okay. All of a sudden a skew in the auction. Here's your skew. This is what this looks like. It would be better to see it even closer. But it's one, two, three. It's four ticks away from the best bid. Okay. It's pretty, it's still pretty aggressive. Right. At this point here, it was one tick away. Right. Here's that high liquidity. And then all of a sudden, you know, here's what this picture looks like here. And then all of a sudden, boom, there are a lot more buyers here. We're not a lot more, but there are more buyers than there are up here. Okay. See that this is what I mean by skew in the auction. Okay. Skewing the book. Okay. And then we see that these guys, they even added more in. Okay. And look at the skew now. Look at all these buyers. Think of your farmer's market. And all of a sudden, there's all these buyers. Okay. And there's, there's supply is still the same. Or even less supply.  All right. So the, the, the, and what I mean by spoofing type of action is starting to understand the intent of the traders. Okay. Of these buyers. Did they really want to buy? Or was this as high liquidity to, you know, skew the auction, make it look like there was a lot of buyers that would be spoofing. Okay. Well, they're very aggressive here and no, no one, no one ever tested them, but they, so how are you going to prove that this is spoofing? But you can see here that they didn't stay in there for very long. They were in this limit order book for a little over 10 seconds, you know, somewhere around 12 seconds or so. And then they, then they bailed and jumped. Okay. That wasn't like these guys. This is, this is the difference in the distinction between that, that high liquidity that you see in that limit order book that does not have the intent to trade compared to those that do. Okay. These guys here at 53 and a half had the intent clearly to trade. Okay. Because look at them. They are actually trading at this point. And then, then we traded through them. Okay. So what's going on now? Okay. Where's price now? Okay. Well, these larger traders here, they got, they got their trade on. Okay. So we know that larger participants are short here. And we can clearly see that potentially more spoofing here as well. Very high liquidity. Very short term. Okay. Followed by a nice little cluster of volume up in here. Okay. So you can, you can start to then put this in pieces together. Okay. And then, you know, I don't know what kind of other software is going to be able to show this. You can be able to show this so, so visually and so, so clearly, but you're starting to understand this zone. Okay. And this is where they, we know that there are sellers. Okay. All right. So where are the buyers? Well, that higher liquidity is down here again at 53. And where are we going? Okay. And these guys are actually starting to pull some of that higher liquidity as well. And they're down here at 48. All right. And let's, let's, let's take a step back now. Let's take a look. It was our bigger picture look like. Okay. We were looking for, well, this was, this was the area here. Let's see, between 46, 47 and a half or so. So a little bit lower. Right. But this is the swing here that we saw at 50. Right. So, you know, and we knew that there was going to be high liquidity at 50. Okay. So that's our line here. And now we're just kind of, we see a little bit of back and forth at the moment here. Okay. Okay. But, but we know, we know that these, these guys, you know, they sold. Okay. All right. Any more questions? No, Michael, I think you'd asked me this before. It's not possible to extend that rectangle, but I did put your suggestion in. Okay. So the development team has taken a look at that. The way I would recommend doing, doing that and, and the way I've done it on other, other platforms is, you know, you just got to put in your horizontal lines. And that's, that's basically it. You know, a couple of horizontal lines, and then maybe, maybe you'll, you'll be able to draw in your, let's get to it here. You know, something like that. Right. Let's see. Once you up to the newest beta version, waiting for the beta version. Well, the, it'll be here shortly. I mean, I still don't have a release date for you guys, but it will be here shortly. Okay. They are still, still working on it, but it's, it's got some really nice features in it. Okay. Pretty, pretty, pretty important upgrade. Okay. So let me get rid of a few of these lines here. All right. Okay. Interesting stuff. Okay. So we're getting bashed around here a little bit. Okay. We're coming right back to where these guys were selling. All right. So I'm, I'm keen to know what, what, what unfolds here. And I'm just watching and waiting. I'm, I'm looking to see what unfolds here. Okay. So, you know, to me, like, now we're starting to, okay, here, here we go. I mean, look at them getting aggressive here again. All right. On the, on the bid. Okay. With, with higher liquidity in these areas here. Okay. Look at this algorithmic activity right here. Okay. I guess it's, I don't know why we're seeing this so clearly today. I guess it's because there's a little bit less liquidity here. We're in the, you know, kind of mid to high hundreds. Whereas in a regular day, we'll see into the, the high hundreds and, and, and thousands of contracts. Okay. But look at, look at how clearly we can, we can spot this here in book map. And this is pretty indicative of the, what's been a long week, looking at the, you know, the less, less liquid markets like oil or gold or something like that. You can spot that high liquidity very, very easily and you can understand their algorithmic activity just as clear as this. Okay. I mean, we're pretty, pretty sure this has got to be the same individual actor with these, you know, 1100 contracts here. Okay. 1161. Now, not all of them are that actor. Right. In fact, our large lot tracker showing like a little less than half of them are that one individual actor. Okay. Pulse of liquidity from 52 moves it up a tick, then pulls it from there and moves it up one more tick at the same time. Okay. And that's going to be skewing this auction. Okay. Again, of, you know, understanding that skew and look at, look at very aggressive. You're back at 53. Okay. And they're one tick away from the, from the best bid with high liquidity at 53. Okay. Chase the market right up. It's probably going to scare price away. Not didn't. Okay. They're still, still here. In fact, it did come into them. In fact, look at this little area here. It was the, this high liquidity was the, the best bid for, for a moment here. Okay. So is that spoofing? Well, not, not really at that point. Right. I mean, they, the intent to trade is they're showing intent. Okay. Now they pull here. Okay. Let's see here. A few more questions and then we'll wrap it up and call it a week. Is there a way to eliminate the lines on the chart? Yes, there is. Seth, my, my large lot tracker settings. They are default. Okay. So it's just that, oh, they weren't. Okay. It was a little off. It was like 15% maybe and then 10%. Okay. But yeah, it's, it's, it's default now. Right. So 20% and then 10% here. And then Robert. Okay. So let's, let's eliminate some of these lines here. Okay. So let's click on the, on this tool, configuration tool here. Okay. And horizontal grid. You can take that off as well as vertical grid here if you want. Right. I prefer them. So I keep them on. But anyway, pretty interesting. Again, you know, we're seeing, I mean, just reading the tape here and the order flow. I mean, now we're, we're channeling between these two high areas. We know that there's sellers up here. Okay. But we're seeing a lot of buying interest too. Right. So, you know, maybe these guys were covering from their, their buys. And, and maybe we see re-accumulation. I don't know.  They haven't traded through these guys yet. Right. Or maybe they even want to get more size on up here. Well, we don't know, but we're going to read, we're going to read the auction and we're going to read the tape. And we're going to put it together. Okay. We know that they're here. Okay. Now, if they're getting positioned here, and they're going to flip out if price comes against them, we're going to see a nice move to the upside. Okay. These guys will fuel the fire up to the upside. All right. Or, are they going to continue to add in here? And then we'll see a retest and get our retest to 50. And I imagine even below. Right. I'm kind of banking on that one right now, to be honest. Or not banking, but I'm looking, I'm starting to anticipate some of that. And the reason being is, well, actually, the, the, yeah, being objective about it, we, we really don't see much right now. I need to see right here right now, I need to see some, some pretty big red dots take place. And I want to see these guys lower the offer down, maybe to, you know, 53 or so. Okay. And then I'm looking for, I want to see them hit this bid really aggressively right now. Okay. That's what I'm looking for. And this is not very aggressive right now. Let's see, Frank. Welcome, Frank. How do you get two circles in the lower right hand corner? Okay. Just click on, this is for the indicator panel for the CVD, which is part of our new API and book map, where you can write your own indicators and automated trading strategies. Okay. It might be closed. So what you need to do is first, under the API here, select CVD, okay, the cumulative volume delta. And then you may need to open up this panel. Okay. It's underneath the price ladder here. Just click on the arrow and it'll open up. And then you click on the little sprocket here. Okay. And when it's blue, it means that it is displayed and showing. All right. So there's two different displays here. One is actually for the display in the indicator panel. And that is this icon. Okay. As you can see the green line disappears. And then the other one right to the right of it is for the widget panel here. And you can see that that will display or not. All right. Let's see, Robert, can you take the lines drawing off at once? You have to do them individually. And if the line, so Robert, these are maybe trend lines or horizontal lines that you drew. Is that right? If so, then you'll need to delete those individually. There's no a delete all button for those. Okay. Yeah. And if it's higher than what you can see, well, there's a few different ways. You might be able to do it by just, you know, if you hover over the price ladder and then left click, hold and drag, you can kind of squeeze and expand the chart vertically. Or if you right click on the on the chart, on the price ladder, okay, and let's select re-center as none. Okay. And then I'm going to hold down the control key here. Okay. And note that my double arrow turns into a hand. And I can left click, hold with the control key down and I can drag up. All right. And then you can, you'll be able to delete it that way. Okay. If you want to get back to where you were, you can either, there's a few different ways. You can double click on the price ladder and that will re-center it automatically. Okay. Or let's go back to where we were. Okay. Or we can right click here and we can go to one of the other options. Okay. We can go to re-center last price, re-center now, or we can go re-center auto. And I kind of prefer the auto. I like the way that it does this. I can still see all the microstructure within my view here. Okay. Let me close on Friday. Likely to be slow the rest of the day. I have no idea. Michael, I see nice cluster of volume that traded down here. And, you know, we haven't seen anything today so far, even on the higher time frames. Look at our volume profile. Right. It's just that one nice big single distribution. Okay. The VWAP is right at basically the point of control. Okay. But we'll see. You know, I mean, I'm still looking for 50 here and below to get tested. Right. And just based on what we saw earlier, these guys getting positioned up here. Okay. But I'm still, I mean, we can see that they're still in. Right. But I'm not seeing any kind of insight here. Yeah. I mean, they're starting to pull here. Okay. That we noticed earlier. Hey, that's good. Right. I want to see them get more aggressive with their offers and lower them. And I want to see big red dots. And this is exactly not it. Right. This is not what we're looking for right in this area. In fact, at 51, they're starting to come back into the market. Okay. So this isn't giving me that insight that we're piecing together by reading the objectively reading the auction and when the trans transactions. Okay. So we're not really getting insight right now. Okay. So at the moment, this is what we know. All right. All right, guys, we'll have been going for 45 minutes. Let's call it a day. And we will catch up with you guys next week. If you want to register for next week's webinar series, let me show you where that is. Okay. In fact, maybe I can put this into the chat for you as well. Hold on. Okay. It's when you come into your portal area at Bookmap, you can click on this button here, register for webinar. For those of you who are not members, let me put this into the chat for you. There you go. So you can click on that link and then register. All right. All right. Yeah. Thanks, Seth. All right, guys, we'll have a good weekend and we'll catch up with you on Monday.


Ladies and gentlemen, please find your seats, we're about to begin. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 44th regular meeting of the heads of government of the Caribbean community, CARACOM. We are happy you are here with us this evening for the suspicious occasion, as we also celebrate the 50th anniversary of independence of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the 50th anniversary of CARACOM. We invite you to stand as we welcome all heads of state, accompanied by student leaders of our government primary schools. The Secretary General for the Caribbean community, Her Excellency Dr. Coller Barnett, Antigua and Barbuda, the Honourable Gaston Brown, Prime Minister. Barbados, the Honourable Mia Amor Motley, Prime Minister. These, the Honourable John Prasino, Prime Minister. Dominica, the Honourable Roosevelt Scarrett, Prime Minister. The Honourable Deacon Mitchell, Prime Minister. Diana, His Excellency Mohammed Effan Ali, President. His Excellency, Dr. Ariel Henry, Prime Minister. The Honourable Andrew Holness, Prime Minister. Montserrat, the Honourable Joseph Thara, the Honourable Terence Drew, Prime Minister. The Honourable Philip J. Pierre, Prime Minister. St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. the Honourable Prime Minister. His Excellency, Dr. Prasad Santoki, from the Bahamas. The Honourable Philip, one more time. Let's give a warm round of applause for all our heads of state. For the singing of the National Anthem of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, performed by renowned Bahamian female vocalist Miss Aliyah Coley and the singing of the Caracom song by Bahamian singing sensation Wendy. This waged in far through victory and pain. Maintaining standing for the prayer by the most reverent Patrick Pinder, Catholic Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Nassau. We pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O God of the nations, we place before you the proceedings of this 44th regular meeting of the heads of government of Caracom. Grace their discussions with an abundance of wisdom, courage, compassion, and discernment in dealing with the challenges of our region. Grant the delegates and participants wisdom to grasp the complexity of the issues facing our nations, from poverty to irregular migration, from climate change to food security, from public health to unemployment. Grant those gathered for these talks the courage to face the challenges of our region with honesty, impartiality, and in the best interest of all. May the discussions be graced with compassion so as never to lose sight of the most vulnerable, the most at risk, the most disadvantaged persons among us. Let them be guided by the words of the prophet Isaiah, a bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering quick he shall not quench until he establishes justice on the earth. Lord, grant each participant the power of discernment to distinguish rightly what is the genuine common good. Let the light of your divine wisdom direct this meeting and shine forth in all its proceedings. Where there is common agreement and understanding, let there be gratitude. Where there is difference and disagreement, let the charity and decency prevail. Breathe your own spirit into these discussions, Lord, a spirit of discipline, order, justice, truth, and gentleness. Even in moments of difficulty and doubt, keep the flame of hope ever burning in the hearts of all the delegates. By your grace, Lord, may this gathering here in Nassau be a benefit to all in our region and beyond, and thus give glory to your name through Christ our Lord. Amen. You may be seated. Under the direction of Mr. Ashley Knowles, welcome the Bahamas National Children's Choir performing a medley of Bahamian cultural songs. One more time for the Bahamas National Children's Choir. Welcome the Secretary General of Karakom, Dr. Karla Barnett. The right honorable Philip Davis, Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community. Your Excellency, Chandrika Persad Santoki, President of the Republic of Suriname, and outgoing Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, who isn't with us tonight, but we will hear his message later on. Your Excellencies, Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community, Right Honorable Justin Trudeau, PCMP Prime Minister of Canada, Honorable Mr. Justice Ian R. Winder, Chief Justice of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Honorable Patricia DeVoe MP, Speaker of the House of the Assembly of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Senator Honorable Lashal Adherley, President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Bahamas, Other Heads of Delegation, Heads of Regional and International Institutions, Members of the Diplomatic Choir, Delegates People of the Caribbean Community. As I welcome all of you to the 44th meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, I do so with the thought in mind as our Caribbean Community approaches its 50th anniversary that milestones generally mark achievements, not merely the passage of time. There will be time in the coming months to assess our achievements and justifiably celebrate the landmark anniversary. But for this evening and over the next two days, the focus of attention is on the pressing issues of the day. This will be done in the beautiful setting provided by our hosts, the government and people of the Bahamas, whom I thank for the excellent arrangements and the warm hospitality we have all experienced since our arrival. This is conducive to a most productive meeting. Let me at the outset register the community's appreciation and thanks to the President of Suriname, His Excellency Chandrika Persauds and Tokiri Outgoing Chairman for his outstanding tenure over the past six months. His calm, demeanor and thoughtful leadership guided the community through a difficult time. Thank you, Mr. President. And I welcome and congratulate our new chairman, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Right Honorable Philip Davis, and look forward to supporting him and his ideas for achieving our integration movement in the coming months. I also welcome to his first regular meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government, the Honorable Dr. Terrence Drew, the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Neves, who assumed office last August following his party's victory at the polls. Similarly, in recent electoral contests, the Honorable Gaston Brown, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, and the Honorable Roosevelt Scarrett, Prime Minister of Dominica. Congratulations to them as they continue to contribute to the development of our region. It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge the presence of the Right Honorable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, Dr. Ongozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Ongozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director General of the World Trade Organization, Professor Benedict Orama, President of our Frexing Bank, and Mr. Sergio Diaz Granados, President of CAF, the Latin American Development Bank. We welcome you as friends and as supporters of the community. I also take this opportunity to congratulate Dame Janice Bostwick, who will be bestowed this evening with the Caricom Triennial Award for Women in recognition of her sterling efforts. Thank you, Dame Janet, for your sterling efforts in promoting the rights of women and girls in the Bahamas and across our region. Heads of government, distinguished guests, delegates, ladies and gentlemen, our member states and the global community of nations continue to face many challenges. Many of our economies began to rebound from COVID-induced contractions, only to be affected by sharp inflation and shipping bottlenecks. COVID-19 continued to hover and the conflict in Ukraine carried on. Our member states again face the continued onslaught of climate change with the destruction caused by storms, rain events, and drought. Our hard-won development gains continue to be threatened by these challenges. Yet the Caribbean community did as we often do. We rallied against the challenges. This is particularly important in 2023 when we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the community. This is the year when we commemorate the vision created, the courage had, and the legacy left by those who went before us. It is the year when we renew our commitment to the community and enrich this unique legacy for those who will follow us. This meeting provides us with an opportunity to make long-lasting decisions for our peoples for the next 50 years and beyond. The 43rd regular meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in Paramaribo, Suriname in July 2022 made consequential decisions. I will refer to just two of these. The convening of this meeting as a regular meeting, not an intersessional, follows the agreement to establish a calendar of six meetings of the conference annually with regular in-person meetings being held in February and July and virtual intersessional meetings scheduled during the year. The conference in July also agreed in the context of the bilateral relationship with the United States to urge for the removal of sanctions on Venezuela to allow, among other things, for progress on exploitation of cross-border natural gas fields between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela. This advocacy has borne fruit with the announcement last month by the United States to waive sanctions on Venezuela on the joint project to proceed. At this meeting, decisions on issues such as climate change, food security and community governance would have a lasting and positive effect on the region over the next 50 years. However, even as progress is being made on some fronts, CARICOM and indeed wider international community continue to struggle to help Haiti resolve its multifaceted crises. We will continue our efforts to assist all stakeholders in Haiti to ensure a Haitian-owned resolution to the crises. We will have to show the resilience and the fortitude of the Haitian people as we strive to overcome challenges and advance the initiatives to improve the lives of all citizens of our Caribbean community. That goal, to create a safe, prosperous and viable community for all has been the guiding principle of our efforts for the last 50 years and will continue to guide us over the next 50 and beyond. I thank you and welcome you to this conference. Continuing in the spirit of celebration, performing a dance presentation choreographed by Mr. Robert Bain with musical accompaniment of an arrangement by legendary Bahamian percussionist, Mr. Penitz Taylor, welcome the National Dance Company of the Bahamas. At this time, we would like to recognize the presence of the newly elected head of government of Antigua and Barbuda. Prime Minister of the Honourable Gaston Brown, please give him a warm round of applause. Welcome the newly elected head of government of St. Kitts and Nevis. Prime Minister of the Honourable Gaston Brown, please give him a warm round of applause. President of the State of Aurora. Dr. Terence Truth. Good evening, all. From where I stand, a sea of beautiful Caribbean people, I wish you had this vantage point as I do, gives me great hope that our future as a civilization is, of course, cemented. the onset that I recognize all the heads of governments who are here but let me recognize our secretary general and also our prime minister prime minister of this beautiful country of Bahamas as Prime Minister Davis and I see of course a lovely lady next to him and if it is your wife I want to recognize as well let me recognize also two special guests the Prime Minister of Canada Prime Minister Trudeau and he apologized earlier for not bringing his wife and of course President Oramah from the African export import bank I deem it an honor for me to deliver brief remarks at this the 44th inter-sessional meeting of the conference of heads of government of the Caribbean community in this beautiful city of Nasa in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas I would wish to place on record my appreciation to the government and people of the Bahamas for the excellent arrangements put in place for my delegation and all the other delegations at this meeting and in the same vein I would like to congratulate my colleague the Honorable Philip Davis on his resumption of the chairmanship of the conference and express my confidence in his stewardship in guiding the proceedings of this meeting and throw a course of his tenure I address you today in the context of my recent election to office following the general elections of August 20 22 I am conscious of the mantle of leadership and the strong mandate given to me by the citizens and residents of St. Kitsuneva pledged to do my best to ensure that our decisions at this level be down to the benefit and by extension to the people of our Caribbean community chairman our Caribbean community today stands at the crossroads where we must focus our attention on the myriad of challenges confronting us a small island developing states and the low-lying coastal communities increasing hostile global environment our challenges are well known to us and I point out a few vulnerability to the external economic shocks heavy dependence and a few products our services frequent and more intense natural disasters high cost associated with debt and climate change adaptation and mitigation economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic disruption in supply chains and increase in the cost of imports and production exacerbated by the ongoing war in Ukraine and limited access to grants and the concessional financing mechanisms to enable us to recover from external economic and environmental shocks these overlapping challenges across cutting the effect they impact all sectors of the economy forcing us to play catch-up as we advance our respective development agenda carry come has remained an effective forum for its members to cover space for the international community to seriously address the structural challenges we face as small states we strongly believe that greater consideration should be given to the multi-dimensional vulnerability index as a more holistic metric for addressing the complex issues I highlighted earlier it is more closely aligned to the ever-present danger we face on an annual basis having to endure the ravages of natural disaster including hurricanes drought volcanic eruptions and rising sea levels assessing our high GDP does not adequately consider our vulnerability to economic and climate related shocks the analysis must involve a holistic approach to addressing vulnerability and provide solutions that are effective and sustainable the time has come for the international financial institutions to take positive actions to address the realities we face and enable us not only to recover from national disasters but adapt to the existential threat of climate change by building stronger more resilient communities to benefit the lives of our people the same kids are nervous remains committed to the strengthening of the curriculum single market and economy CSME which regard which we regard as training ground for engaging with the wider global economy we believe in the free movement of skills services and goods capital and other key elements of the CSME we view the region as a single space for the people of our region to live engage in robust economic activity and advance the economic and social prospects of our region it is difficult for us to extoll the virtues of the CSME without addressing the proverbial elephant in the room intra-regional transport the reality is that it is too difficult and too costly for the people of the region to move and exercise their rights within the single space created for them to do so at optimal levels for example coming to this meeting in Bahamas is a classic case in point many of us have to fly to Miami overnight there before taking a flight the following day to our destination here in also Bahamas it takes no less than 24 hours to move from country to country within our region at times compared to other nation developed countries with highly developed transport means and modalities we in the Caribbean remain at a disadvantage in realizing the benefits of the CSME that the framers of the curriculum treaty envisaged moving from New York for example to Washington DC takes a mere four hours by car and less than two hours by aircraft the contrast is a stark reality of the challenge we face on an ongoing basis here in the Caribbean further chapter 6 of the revised treaty of Chagoramas provides the framework for inter alia aid the organization of efficient reliable affordable transport services throughout the community and the promotion of cooperative arrangements for the provision of transport services we recognize that several bodies of work have been invested in this regard the Caribbean Development Bank and other key players continue to seek a sustainable solution to fix the gap that exists and breathe life into chapter 6 of the revised treaty of Chagoramas from a vantage point of view the government to say it's a need is explored several options in collaboration with a few partners to make it easier for people to move to and from our jurisdiction to engage in business or leisurely activities we encourage other member states to do likewise we can do it together we cannot rest on all ours while the efficiency gap ex gets wider causing us to fall behind in achieving our development objectives and as we approach the celebration of our golden anniversary of our beloved Caribbean community I urge us to redouble our efforts to improve the effectiveness of and efficiency of organs of our institution let us strengthen the pillars of functional cooperation the theme selected 50 years strong a solid foundation to build on is quite fitting as it encourages us to consider our rich legacy and build a stronger more prosperous future sinkets and nevis remains committed to strengthening regional integration in the upcoming year and beyond thank you amplifying the happy spirit of the islands performing a hit song my islands in the sun please welcome local singing sensation lady e at this time we acknowledge the contributions of the honorable Chandrika Prasad Santelki former chair of Karakam and president of Surinam who was unable to join us at this time please turn your attention to the screen for his presentation holy heads of government and common chairman of the conference prime minister Philip Dave's secretary general of the Caribbean community Dr. Carla Barnett ministers and senior officials of member states and of the secretariat distinguished delegates members from the media ladies and gentlemen good evening at the outset allow me to express sincere appreciation to you colleagues and all attendees at this opening ceremony of the 44th regular meeting of the conference of the heads of government of the Caribbean community it has been a pleasure to work with you all let me begin by thanking prime minister Philip Davis his government and the Bahamas people for hosting this conference and for their outstanding hospitality to all delegates my apologies for not being there physically because of the budget negotiations in the parliament and also other domestic issues which needs my attention but I am here virtually to the distinguished colleagues friends ladies and gentlemen as I hand over the chairmanship of Karakam in the able hands of my colleague friend prime minister Philip Davis of the Bahamas I also take this opportunity to extend congratulations to him for assuming the chairmanship during this six months I'm convinced that with your experience imminent capability and commitment you will undoubtedly lead our deliberations and decision-making in an excellent manner on many issues facing Karakam member states taking our community a step further on its way to strengthening the integration process and its position on global matters please be assured of full support and cooperation of me the government and the people of Surinama during your chairmanship my friends it has also been a privilege for me to have served the Caribbean community in a leadership role over the past six months and more so at the time when we were dealing with many global challenges including the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war affecting energy prices global supply chains and food security as well as with the challenges of climate change distinguish colleagues ladies and gentlemen as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Karakam this year we are reminded of the vision and goals of the founding fathers force Burnham Errol Barrow Eric Williams and Michael Minley premise on our programs utilizing the resources of the region towards satisfying the needs of the region and competing internationally over the years the region has taken significant steps in creating a solid integration movement the revised treaty of Chagoramas which provided among other things for enhanced cooperation among member states beers testimony to our resolve to work collaboratively towards one goal sustainable development of the region this is particularly significant with respect to accelerating the progress towards the carry-com single market and economy we are carrying on with our work to facilitate business between our countries in that regard the Karikam interactive marketplace suspension procedure Simsie pro portal was launched last year Simsie pro provides a platform where entrepreneurs from carry-com can offer their products from raw materials to finished products it also provides a strategic aim towards improving the efficiency of our regional suspension mechanism directly aimed towards encouraging production more so it seeks to develop our industrial policy therefore I encourage the private sector to use this platform well distinguish colleagues ladies and gentlemen as part of the integration process and to facilitate the free movement of skilled persons in July last year has of government agreed on the definitions of skilled workers household domestics agriculture workers and private security officers in terms of agriculture workers it could not be timelier as we seek to boost production and to reach our goals of reducing the region's food import bill by 25% by the year 2025 and by mentioning this fact I extend my compliments to the cooperative Republic of Guyana the lead hat in the carry-com quasi cabinet for agriculture for spearheading this objective as there is a great potential to expand the production of non-food items that are most heavily imported into the community the conference decided to add a new portfolio of industrial policy to the carry-com quasi cabinet so Surinama was assigned this portfolio in collaboration with the carry-com secretariat and specialized institutions we have been working to prepare a draft action plan it has been proven that exports provides countries with growth opportunities therefore a discretion to expand and diversify our production and this respect I call on member states to participate actively in the process of the industrial policy program to develop the export potential of the non-food sector to contribute to the community's economic growth distinguished colleagues ladies and gentlemen regarding fostering carry-com Africa relations I recall the convening of the first Africa carry-com Summit Health and Bridgestone in 2022 under a team one people one destiny uniting and reimagining our future separate from our region's historical relations with the African countries it is incumbent upon us to strengthen ties with one of the world's most dynamic and fastest growing regions within the framework of South-South cooperation I also recall the celebratory meeting in Barbados for the 50th anniversary of the carry-com Cuba relations the G20 was another opportunity for carry-com to bring its challenges and opportunities to the international table distinguished colleagues ladies and gentlemen there is no more significant threat to our children planet and future generations than climate change climate change is a living reality however the outcomes of the major international climate change conferences did not meet our expectations and lacked the ambition and action so much needed in our community however emerging from COP 27 was an agreement to establish a fund for loss and damages a significant achievement particularly for small island and low-lying coastal developing states sits such as our member states climate change the certification water scarcity and environmental degradation our life and death realities I believe these issues remain pertinent and should remain on our active agenda as we move forward to COP 28 at the summit of the Americas a meeting with US President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris resulted in establishing three joint committees to address cooperation on finance food security and energy security the attacks by Russia on Ukraine have complicated the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and slowed down a return to normalcy in a post-COVID world however we have shown that we will overcome the challenges confronting us with the determination and creativity inherent to the Caribbean peoples distinguished colleagues ladies and gentlemen as lead had responsible for sports please allow me to express once again appreciation to the following athletes who have represented the region exceptionally at the regional and global levels we pay tribute to three faster to women in the world who all hail from Jamaica in particular Thompson Hera who finished in first place to win the gold medal in the 100 meter dash at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo Mr. Shelley and free surprise was now the only athlete ever to hold five individual 100 meter world titles and Mrs. Sharika Jackson will let the way in the 200 meter the entire Caribbean is proud of the performance of the Jamaican women who brought home so many medals and were instrumental in Jamaica being third in overall medals won Anderson Peters from Grenada for the second world title in the Javelin show and the excellent Mrs. Sean Miller Yubo from the Bahamas who brought home a world title in the 400 meter I congratulate all athletes and the entire region sports are a cornerstone for developing a healthy population in the Caribbean and because of your drive the children the Caribbean can dream of someday becoming also world champions distinguished colleagues ladies and gentlemen yes our system nation Haiti is in need of our concrete feasible assistance we must support the building on our discussions in the past year I look forward to how and what way this assistance can be provided democracy free facilitating the work and efficient running of my chairmanship my appreciation also goes to the minister staff and members of the ministry of foreign affairs international business and international cooperation of Surinama and the caricom desk at the office of the president I thank you all and may God bless you all it is now time for the presentation of the 13th caracom triennial award let us welcome the esteemed honoree the right honorable Dame Janet Bostwick a 2022 youth parliamentarian and current student of the University of the Bahamas who will read the citation in recognition of the conferring of caracom's 13th triennial award for women good evening citation conference of the 13th triennial award for women on the right honorable team Janet Gwyneth Bostwick CB DB whereas on the 4th of June 2021 caracom announced that the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick venerated behemian is steam intellectual and respected altruists will be the 13th outstanding woman from the caracbean community to receive the caracom triennial award for women and whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick is an outstanding counsel and attorney a model politician and a pioneer among women in the Bahamas and whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick is admired and respected as a champion for the empowerment of women not only in her native Commonwealth of the Bahamas but also in the region and beyond whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick has the distinction of having achieved several first in Huckabee these include the first female secretary general of the Bahamas the first female prosecutor the first female president of the bar association the first female chairman of the bar council the first female member of Parliament following her election in 1982 first female attorney general and first female minister of foreign affairs and also the first female to act as the prime minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick has held the portfolio of the minister of social services housing and national insurance and minister of justice and immigration throughout her tenure as a cabinet minister she has always held ministerial responsibilities for women affairs and whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick's activism on women issues is renowned having started her campaign in the mid-60s and continued throughout her political career and whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick served as a trade unionist and campaign to improve the status of women primarily because of the inequities they faced regarding the gender pay gap non-existent benefits and job insecurity and whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick upon admittance to the bar became an even more vocal advocate for women's rights to audiences in churches women's groups and unions for more participation of men in the raring of children and the changes in legislation related to sexual offenses domestic violence and matrimonial matters and whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick in her quest of women's rights between 1994 and 1992 led the Behemient Allegation at the OAS Inter-American Commission of Women and served on its committee since 1994 she has served on the executive committee of the United Nations Commission on the status of women in 1995 she served as a regional vice chairperson of the Bureau of the United Nations fourth world conference on women in Beijing China at this conference she was the head of the delegation of the Bahamas and the Bahamas was unanimously selected to coordinate the Caribbean region in this capacity she provoked she presided at all car car meetings and whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick in espousing the cause of women and development has pursued this interest with rigorous scholarships and distinguished herself that in 2001 she was presented with the University of India's Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching Administration Research and Public Service and whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick brought in her advocacy to include the administration of justice and young persons the maintenance and resolution of issues associated with children born on a wedlock an improved custody and whereas the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick in paying tribute to an outstanding academic political and social and philanthropic contributions of this year's acknowledge awarding we acknowledge the fact that the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick has been an inspiration and mentor to the younger generation of Bahamian and regional scholars politicians and social activists and now therefore at this 44th regular meeting of heads of governments of the Caribbean community on this 15th day of February 2023 in the year of our Lord we now so confer upon the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick ladies and gentlemen please welcome the honorable Philip Davis chairman of the heads of government of Kara-com and prime minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas who will present the 13th Triennial Award for women to the right honorable deem Janet Gwyneth Bostwick thank you thank you very much the honorable Philip Davis chairman of Kara-com the Excellency Dr. Carla Barnett the Secretary General of Kara-com heads of government and heads of state and associate states delegates Mr. President Justin Trudeau Mr. President Rama leaders from countries around the world ladies and gentlemen I'm really overwhelmed and I'm taking an elderly woman's prerogative they gave me seven minutes but this is a little bit longer than seven minutes please from November 1957 and for years afterwards I sat at my desk on the second floor of the Supreme Court building not so and I witnessed the Friday morning congregation of women some of them with their children outside the magistrates court below as the waiting for trial of their summonses for maintenance or seeking rape straining orders in domestic violence matters I heard their cries that was my introduction to family law matters but over the years I became painfully cognizant of the inequities suffered by women in most aspects of life not only here in my country but throughout the region but it was actually at a CPA conference in 1991 in Harari where I was exposed to women who knew first-hand or had experienced personally unimaginable gender-based violent and atrocities emulation of widows on the burning fires of their deceased husbands female gender mutilation forced child marriages deprivation of education or health service and this goes on and was then that I knew that I had to be a part of that group which sought change and global recognition of men and women as equal partners in every respect much has been accomplished since that time and I thank those who have enabled me to make a contribution to that change this starts with my parents Lois and Nick Musgrove my one brother now deceased in my sisters Lois Lynn Jackie Willie and Linda I thank you for your support and there there's my husband Henry an extraordinary man a spouse who encouraged inspired and sought to motivate me to seek election to parliament from the time we were childhood students on schools we have high schools with us and that was even before women had the right to vote in the Bahamas an extraordinary man who became my champion in many ways but who is not here with me tonight because of advanced dementia I honor you Henry I hold the torch of freedom I hold I continue to hold the course of freedom and good governance for both of us then each of my children Margot Kelly Lisa and John who sacrificed mum mum time who campaigned supported and the times shielded and protected me suffering great abuse and personal degradation because of their parents political involvement but who have developed into strong individuals all nationalists of whom I am proud their partners my grandchildren Alexander Arias Stephanie John three and Victor who is the only grandchild able to be here with me tonight my great-grandchildren nieces never used in laws thank you I thank my adopted sons and daughters I thank the late says clemen may not candle eyes it's ancestral wall is revealed for their support I extend my special thanks to former Prime Minister Hubert Ingram who entrusted me with ministerial portfolios which played pivotal roles in the development of our country and enabled me to be involved in most of those are activities for which I am today being honored my thank goes also to former Prime Minister Hubert Minnis for the national honors that he bestowed upon me and I also thank our present Prime Minister the right honorable Philip brave Davis for presenting this honor to me today and for memorializing my election to parliament by rational of a plaque in parliament thank you extend my very special thanks to former Minister Franklin Campbell and Dr. Jacinta Hicks for recommending me for this prestigious award and to the Kara Khan committee for choosing me from a ray of very distinguished and qualified women so that I now join the rank of 12 exceptionally outstanding women of the community who have made invaluable contribution to the development of their nations and the region I am grateful very much has been accomplished but much remains to be done we do not have the luxury ladies of focusing our attention primarily on achieving gender equity or equality with the real threat of climate change we must fight now for our very lives and the continued existence of our nations and women who are always the most vulnerable should lead this fight we are blessed to have Prime Minister Mia Mortley lead the charge against climate change and we're so proud because she is our woman of us must do our part the lives of our children are at stake we must take personal responsibility to ensure that our actions lead to the grease the decrease of carbon emissions in our own countries and to guide against pollution of our waters by ourselves as well as by international vessel cruising our seas we must encourage our governments to be mindful in the trade of our precious carbon credits to ensure that that trade does not facilitate the continued level of emissions by those whose decreased emissions are essential to our survival there is much to be done I heard the cries of those women in 1957 and if you listen you hear the cries of mothers now they cry for food security they need food for their children they cry for society cessation of violence they cry for better education and for better and affordable health services and yes they cry for equal rights with their men while we do not in any way discount the rights of all persons to pursue those objectives that are specifically important and relevant to them and the choices which they made we must be careful to not be distracted from our cause for the rights of women it is a battle that is still too far from victory and it is a battle which in my humble opinion is not receiving the acknowledgement attention and action that is required to ensure that the injustice are eliminated it is a battle that has been relegated to a position of lesser importance and it's being choked by the clamour of others this is tragic every one of us who ever existed came into existence through woman we cannot we cannot afford to give precedent to the rights of others if we do not first successfully address and eliminate the inequities that exist throughout our diaspora and indeed throughout the world in respect of the rights of us women I submit that for this we need no redefinition of woman there is much to be done we have the cries of Haiti Haiti's problem is a caracom problem not one to be solved by others we must be seen to unite and fight for Haiti I pray heads and delegates that God guides your liberation in this respect and that this conference results in action which addresses the problem without the historical exploitation of Haiti God your deliberations and again I say thank you thank you thank you very much congratulations Dame Janet Bostwick we are so appreciative of all that you have done and continue to do for the Bahamas the Caribbean and the world ladies and gentlemen we are proud to present the crown jewels of the Bahamas a group of young people who have well represented us all over the world under the direction of mr. Dexter Fernanda we present to you the Bahamas National Youth Choir ladies and gentlemen it is with great pleasure we introduce the incumbent chair of caracom please stand and give a warm welcome to the prime minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas the Honourable Phillip Davis good evening please have a seat your excellencies and fellow heads of government on it is and distinguished guests from within and beyond the Caribbean region ladies and gentlemen I don't like to take this opportunity though to recognize that in our midst we have the Deputy Secretary of State for the United States Brian Nichols is he still here yes thank senator former senators John Kerry and Chris Dodd my friend it's Chris thank you all for joining us here and of course our friend Justin welcome to the Bahamas spent a long time I continue to remind him that this is his father's second home he spent a lot of time here the day my great feeling was present with us tonight I also acknowledged the presence of three former prime ministers I started with the senior Hubert Alexander Ingram Terry Christie and Hubert Alexander Menace I welcome them all here and just let me say to all the delegates and friends welcome to the islands of the Bahamas and welcome to the 44th regular meeting of the heads of government of the Caribbean community you visit us as we embark on celebrations for our 50th anniversary of independence during though these 50 years we have steadily created every major institution in our country defining ourselves not merely as being independent of others but as free people the determined to pursue our own path to fulfillment but even as we embarked on this road to self-determination we knew that we could not go it alone as our founding father Selen and Pinling proclaimed on our session to membership to the United Nations we wish to enjoy the friendship and benefit from the association the wisdom ex and experience of those who wish to be our friends and respect our freedom as we want and know it so it was that we also joined this regional family of nations in this joint celebration of the 50th anniversary of our independence and the 50th anniversary of the founding of our com in a very real way there is a deep understanding and pride to have come this far and as it is in the Bahamas so it is that our region also faces a host of opportunities and an array of challenges we should take great comfort from the fact that our forebears came together 50 years ago exactly for this purpose to take full advantage of the opportunities of our of our time and to implement solutions to the challenges that confront us the four pillars upon which our relationship stands as born fruit in good times and in bad our commitment to functional cooperation has been powerfully expressed in education health and culture our coordination in foreign policy matters has strengthened and amplified our voice in global affairs and given us greater influence over the outcome of international debate as near neighbors our collaborative efforts to enhance our mutual security and for some to advance economic integration has united us in common cause to promote national and regional regional development our shared history steeped in triumph and struggle is testament to our resilience and determination in the coming days we will need to draw on that experience as we engage with the many issues on our agenda colleagues friends I believe we are in vigorous agreement that the crisis in Haiti requires our urgent attention the turmoil and suffering there continue to worsen as a near neighbor the Bahamas is under great strain and many other countries in our region are already already heavily impacted we will all benefit if Haiti is again fully functioning as a state we should learn from the failures of past efforts to help rather than use these disappointments as an excuse for inaction I pray that we can agree a series of concrete steps to help move towards a solution for the Haitian people and the region as a whole we have learnt that inaction has its own costs and consequences nowhere is that more the case than on the issue of climate change which threatens to upend our lives around the world and possess an existential threat to so many of us in this region yet even though we in the caracum region are especially vulnerable to the rising sea levels and temperatures erosion of our coastal communities and hurricanes which are more frequent and more intense by working together we show that we are not powerless I have no doubt that in joining our voices last year to present an agreed position at COP 27 we helped to influence the shift in position relating to loss and damage arising from the impact of climate change there's also genius amongst us the Bridgestown initiative which proposes reforms to the global financial architecture is a shining of example of how this region has much to contribute to solving critical international issues even though it's not the result of climate change that the disastrous earthquake which recently struck the border region between Turkey and Syria is a reminder of what unseen natural events can do as of today over 40,000 people are reported to have died countless others are missing we offer our prayers and condolences to all those affected colleagues friends other issues also command our attention investment and cooperation in education infrastructure food and energy security will help to support our collective national development for all the losses and havoc wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic it did teach us valuable lessons about what's important and about what we need to do to save lives and livelihoods for example here in the Bahamas we have in the past talk about the need to ensure food security but since the advent of the pandemic we recognize that the need to be able to feed ourselves was not just an economic nicety but a matter of survival some of the other priority issues are more protective we should seek to strengthen our collective response to end the smuggling of drugs and guns and must do all that we can to wipe out the misery of human trafficking let us seize the opportunity provided by this meeting to make concrete progress in each of these areas we must remain alive to the possibilities our friends at the AFRI Exem Bank have allocated already 1.5 billion dollars to invest in a caracum region should remaining caracum members join those of us who've already signed a agreed memorandum of understanding that figure would be doubled to 3 billion dollars I encourage you to sign by moving together we can achieve something which benefits us all you know colleagues and friends the newspaper headlines from 50 years ago they are startling similarities the ones we see today rising all prices skyrocketing inflation fractured civil society and seemingly intractable wars appear not to have gone away most of these events are not of our making but they impact the lives of people in the region in a very significant way but one thing is certain whether the issues are old or new in order to make lasting progress we must address and promote our narrow national self-interest firmly within the framework of the interest of us all none of us will be safe until we're all safe none of us will develop sustainably or securely if we leave our neighbors behind none of us will truly prosper if our resources are forever taxed by the poverty and instability of those nearby going it alone will not work that is not to say that while we continue to strengthen and deal our region we should dilute or abandon the founding principle of our nation states namely the right to self-determination and when that principle is tested we must stand firm this is true whether it is the border disputes such as the long-standing issues between Guyana and Venezuela, Valize and Guatemala or as it concerns the internal democracy in our associated states of Bermuda the Turks and the British Virgin Islands further feel we also reaffirm our support for the people of Ukraine whose sovereignty is being threatened by the Russian invasion of their territory as neighbors we should continue to embrace each other and know that we will all succeed if we hold fast the threads that bind us together colleagues and friends the 50th anniversary of Karkam presents us with a golden opportunity in celebrating the institutions and achievements of these five decades the many peoples of our region should look back and rightly feel a sense of pride in all that has been gained and the value added to the region but it is also presents but it also presents an occasion to look forward to seize the opportunity to collaborate to cooperate and through our collective effort build a stronger more resilient and more prosperous region the University of the West Indies is a shining testament to the difference Karkam has made to the lives of the people of the region let us build the equivalent in other areas of life while I work here over the next few days will be all-consuming I do hope you find just enough time to experience our islands our people and our culture and if not on this visit then certainly the next whatever the reason whatever the time you are most welcome I thank you Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas the Honourable Philip Davis we welcome the most reverend Drexel W. Gomez retired Anglican Archbishop of the province of the West Indies to give us the benediction please remain standing good evening let us pray sovereign Lord and Heavenly Father to you belong all power and glory you are the source of all goodness your mercies are without number and without end remember Lord for good all the inhabitants of your created universe especially all who in every place call upon your name and seek your enabling grace and may your kingdom come in all the world on earth as it is in heaven at this time Lord we entreat you to look graciously upon the countries of our beloved Caribbean homeland represented at this 44th meeting of the heads of government of Karakor we offer special petitions for the leaders of our Karakor states and all who make decisions on our behalf that they may be guided by your Holy Spirit to direct our affairs in the ways of justice truth and freedom for all the inhabitants of our Caribbean lands and we pray for wisdom and discernment for our leaders that will facilitate in time the improvement in the quality of life for all Caribbean peoples and finally father we request that you let your blessing rest upon our families and those we love as we intentionally seek to strengthen home and family life across our Caribbean lands watch over the young facing so many challenges support the aged relieve those in pain and sickness and encourage those who render assistance to them comfort the sorrowful and to the poor the hungry the unemployed and all victims of discrimination of any kind we ask you Lord to give relief justice and protection across our Caribbean land and Lord let your peace your infinite peace rest upon us all through your son Jesus Christ our ever-living Lord and the Savior amen and amen please be seated we have come to the end of our program on behalf of the members of caracalm and the people of the common wealth of the Bahamas we thank you for your presence here this evening we ask that you allow our dignitaries to leave first and to join us in the foyer for reception however it is not fitting to end an event like this in the Bahamas without the pulsating sounds of junk anew welcome colors entertainment


In a beating all odds segment, we have with us a CEO whose brand has brought color to our lives. Well, literally. He's Amit Singhal, managing director and CEO of Asian Paints Limited. Hi, Mr. Singhal. Hi there. Good to be with you on this interview. Thank you for joining us. Well, Asian Paints has been one of the most prominent advertisers in the country. How has the lockdown affected you as a brand? The current situation has been very, very exceptional. Yes, we are going through a lot of uncertain times. But as a brand, what we feel is that situations can get tough, but it is important for a brand to keep the brand saliency on. So we've been pretty active. If you see in the last about four, four and a half weeks, in terms of a series of campaigns, which we have done, we've done some two beautiful campaigns on her in terms of really connecting with the customer and really talking of exorting the customer of staying home and staying safe. We've been working on a lot of digital campaigns. We did a live concert with Shahan and Shankar Mahadevan. We also did some other initiatives around the Mother's Day and so on and so forth. So we've been pretty active around the media because we feel that for any brand, times can be tough, but it is important to have the saliency around it. Yes, what we have done is curtailed possibly the spend which would have been in normal times. But at the same time, we've also run ATL, which has been around our Royal Health Shield, which is a brand in the health and hygiene space to that extent. So overall, I think we've been still quite active, maybe not as active. Maybe it would have been in the normal times, but we feel that that is something which any brand should kind of appropriate in terms of even times are not looking very great. Absolutely. Tell me, how have you gone about?  How have you gone about allocating your advertising fronts? Most advertisers literally chose to move away from other mediums and only focus in digital. Has it been a similar approach for you? So we've looked at balancing our spends in the last few months and weeks as we look at it. The largest spends obviously have been towards digital for us as well because we kind of diverted a big chunk of our spends towards digital and we had almost two to three films launched which were there on the digital. So it took a bit of a spend there. But at the same time, we have not shied away from the traditional ATL channels and we have looked at some of our communication happening on the news genre in terms of certain other general entertainment channels which have been there to that extent and therefore have been active in terms of the traditional channels as well. But having said that, yes, there has been a larger spend towards the digital medium to that extent and a lot of innovation which has been kind of done in terms of looking at the social handles and other areas which we have been working around with. And in this period, I think you've come up with more than one digital film and it literally takes us back to your iconic 2007 film by a similar name, Har Ghar, Chup Chaap, Kuch Khe Hata Hai. Tell me, how did you go about making that during the lockdown and most importantly, how did you get Pivash Pandey to lend his voice to the film? Okay, great. So see that entire initiative actually was done in a period of just five days from the idea of germination stage to the actual execution. It was something which we did in five days and I would really credit both the brand and the agency of really partnering so well coming together with the idea and really looking at a very fast way of executing it. Obviously, Kudos to Pivash because in a conversation with him, he really said that this is something which he would like to lend his voice and he wrote himself and that was, I think, a big thing in terms of what he gave an expression to the entire film in a very, very strong way and then started a series of things where we were shooting simultaneously 10 homes through mobile phones and it was almost real situations, real sweet moments which people could relate to, moments which brought joy and happiness to people's lives in this uncertain and exceptional times and really, you know, strengthen the bond in terms of the emotional connect with the homes in a very, very beautiful way. So I would say that it was literally like magic in terms of how it really worked and, you know, Piyush went out of the way in terms of looking at saying that his best voice comes forward in terms of really lending a very strong expression to the film and that's how I think the two campaigns came in. The first one was more in the zone of looking at some of those, you know, daily sweet moments which are happening so that people can relate to them very, very strongly and the second one was more in the space in terms of how we really connect with the homes and almost empathize with homes and in a space when we are staying with those homes for a very, very long time. So both had a very, very different zone and really connected well with the consumers in a very big way. You know, in this period, a lot of brands have had a very CSR-led approach and even in your case, you've pledged about 35 crores towards the relief fund. Now tell me what is the consumer's expectation right now from a responsible brand like yours and how are you going about fulfilling it? So right from the time when this has happened, we have always looked at saying that can we partner the government in terms of fighting this entire COVID battle which is going on. We've also looked at in terms of how we can help the communities around us, how we can help the NGOs which are there. So not only we looked at committing, you know, more than 35 crores in terms of lending it to the government, we've been working very actively with the NGOs in terms of looking at providing food, looking at safety kits, looking at whatever we can do in terms of lending a helping hand. But more than that, you know, the ministries of health and ministry of chemicals approached us and they were seeking from us in terms of saying that is something which the brand can do which would come as a big help to the government. So that came the entire idea in terms of making sanitizers. Okay, and therefore we looked at really entering the sanitizer category and being a responsible and caring brand, we felt that it would be a great imperative to look at in terms of really helping the government, not only in terms of providing the money and looking at helping the NGOs with what we want to do, but also coming out and really providing a strong, you know, strong zone of providing something in the market where there was a big deficit which was happening and that was the whole area of sanitizers. So we've been really working around very strongly in terms of all our manner, in terms of what we can do in terms of helping the communities around, hospitals around and the NGOs around and we think that we are proud of a lot of work which we have done in the last about four and a half weeks in this direction. Okay, about this Sanitizer category, is that something which is very temporary or is that something that Asian pains will continue to do even, you know, after the lockdown is lifted and you know, next year onwards also. So Asian pains always has been responsible and caring brand and we felt that when we got this nudge from the government it was a great opportunity to get into the health and hygiene category and given the fact that we were already working in this category because we have a product called Royal Health Sheet which is an antibacterial paint which goes into the homes and provides bacterial protection. We felt that it is also a category which leverages the existing health and hygiene space in a beautiful manner and therefore as we now go ahead what we are looking at is that our initial production which we have done in our old plant with this viral protect hand sanitizers and surface sanitizers. The initial production is more directed at helping the government in the NGOs but as we go ahead we are looking at saying that this is not like a flash in the pan. We are looking at integrating this farm more strongly with our health and hygiene category. We are looking at a separate distribution network in terms of looking at seeing how we can get this product and range in the market and we have already started reaching out to a set of distributors who are ensuring that the products are now getting available at the right shops so that we are able to kind of take this entire initiative forward. So as we go ahead this category is going to be an integral part of our health and hygiene portfolio and we think we are looking at a lot of innovation around this category both in terms of products and service as we go ahead. Coming back to maybe your main business which is maybe into a very large extent hit because the real estate sector is badly hit so no house warmings are going to happen nobody is going to look at painting their homes anymore. So what is your strategy in that direction? So I won't agree with you that people are not going to look at painting their house anymore because we still believe that we will cajole and get people into painting their homes because beautiful homes is something which Asian paints is already always aligned with. So what we are doing is that as we go ahead we are looking at partnering the customer in a very big way. We have launched a service which is called the Safe Painting Service and as part of that service what we are assuring the customer is that when a set of painters come to their homes they come in with full protection with full safety gear so that they are assured that if they are making their homes beautiful at the same time they are ensuring that they are perfectly safe and people need not get worried about they getting any kind of germs and viruses inside their houses and to that extent it's an assured and safe service to that extent. So I think the whole attempt is to hold the customer's hand and partner the customer in terms of this assurance that we are helping them in terms of a very safe service. At the same time we are also coupling the service with a sanitizing service where we are looking at sanitizing their homes with a range of sanitizers which we have so the customers are doubly assured that not only that we are looking at safe paintings we are also looking at providing them a very very strong health with respect to sanitizing their homes as they kind of go forward. So we feel that as we go forward obviously I think it will take some time to a full normalcy which will come back and people kind of really engaging in terms of the whole painting exercise but we are hopeful that as and when people see the merits of such safe painting practices coming in they will be more encouraged to kind of get the painters within their homes, start painting their homes and start getting into their zones. At the same time we feel that there are a lot of construction activities which have started and some of those construction activities will get into painting whether it is exterior painting or whether it is in terms of a lot of other areas which we offer in terms of water proofing and other areas to that extent. So overall our perspective is as the environment opens slowly. We would kind of see that the market would try to start to open out and that is something which we are having an optimism about that in some time the market will open and you know painting works will start construction, some activity in our business. In such times what are your expectations from your ad agency when business is a hit? Is the focus on making video ads at this point or providing business solutions? So I would say that when you look at the advertising agencies they are very strong partners in this business as we go ahead and they align with the kind of work which we would like the agencies to do. So I think from a point of view of one working along with the brand in terms of developing new prepositions which will suit the customer looking at new creators which we can kind of go in terms of really looking which will be possibly standing with the customer in a very very strong way and also partnering the brand from the point of view of providing more fuel and more you know armory in terms of what we can do as we kind of look at this challenging environment in terms of going ahead. So I feel that the advertising agencies would not just come in in terms of just sitting and making creators with us and looking at new prepositions they will partner the brand in terms of really saying that what are the kind of strategies which we can kind of unleash in the market so that we are able to kind of you know get the brand going in the tough times. Okay and another thing is you know miss because very few brands are like literally advertising at this point would you say it's a good opportunity to maybe stand up for your employees even if the direct selling is not happening in a big way or do you want to be there for the brand is that something that consumer will respect you for eventually? So as we go ahead we are very clear that we will look at supporting a lot of integrated marketing activities for the brand and we will really stand up in terms of ensuring that we have a certain brand saliency in the market because that is very very important in terms of really reaching out to the customers and being top of the mind at the customer level to that extent so some of those initiatives as per me would continue obviously it all depends in terms of how much the market is opening how is it basically the situation enveloping as we kind of go ahead and therefore a lot of force in terms of those initiatives will come in depending on how the situation really unfolds. But you know once the market really opens and the lockdown is completely lifted from across the country or do you see yourself going all out to advertise will you be a little cautious about spending money on advertising because people are still going to be afraid of social distancing I mean they will want to continue to do social distancing they might not really come out and buy the way they would usually I mean not just for the pain sector but even otherwise so how do you see yourself moving forward as an advertiser? See I feel that for any brand we should always take a balanced opinion in terms of looking at going ahead so when the market tends to come into normalcy okay it's not that we are going to really splurge the market in terms of looking at a host of market campaigns and a lot of advertising which is going to happen but as I see it is that once really the market opens and with the impending pester season which is going to come ahead we will look at definitely spending monies in the marketing and the advertising and above the line forays which are there and look at balancing the entire initiative in such a manner that we are able to reach out to the customer, remain top of the mind but at the same time balance it in terms of you know how we see the revenues coming during that point of time okay so I think it's a fairly balanced approach we would like to kind of take and see that you have the relevance in the market you have the salience in the market and you are able to remain top of the mind for your set of consumers and just one last question what is the biggest change that you think COVID-19 onslaught has brought to the entire marketing community so I think the biggest change is that people are learning to work from home and we are learning new ways of really marketing and reaching out to the consumers and at the same time discovering that our potential is much much more so I think people are really saving lots of time in terms of not driving to work and spending time in the traffic and suddenly the availability of time is becoming a very very big asset which people are discovering and I feel that post one everything opens we will realize that our productivity has got you know doubled to a more zillion times than what we were doing earlier Thank you so much Mrs. Singal for speaking to us and may you continue to bring joy to people's lives and a lot of color Thank you so much. Thank you for being there on this interview. Thank you.


What's going on guys got Kyle here with late and sports cards, and we're ripping two boxes for Ryan art Well, it's gonna be 2023 tops archive signature series Good luck Ryan. Let's see what we got the Chevy color blasts the Lamar feedies Was there we're just starting hot today starting hot today. I Like it. I like it for us like this one to 36. We got Raphael devours Nice auto there and that is on the 2020 tops Raphael devours auto nice one there out of 36 in box two Good luck Ryan. Yo, yo Chevrolet color blast. I'm in and the second one is gonna be a one-of-one Byron Buxton on the tops finest 20 2016 tops finest Byron Buxton Nice one there prospect card for a Buxton One-of-one nice two boxes for you there Ryan. Thank you so much. We will get those right out to you