It's one o'clock. It's a given Tuesday. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech and more specifically it's Community Matters. And even more specifically, Peter Hoffenberg is on the show to discuss an interesting topic which has been in the press globally in the last few days, weeks. It's the Orthodox Jewish Orthodox protests against COVID social distancing protocols. Hi, Peter. Hello. How are you? Good to see you. I'm enjoying my hermitage. Nice. I can see you. Your wife went shopping for you. That's nice shirt. Lovely. I'm in good shape. You are. So let's talk about, you know, not all the Jews feel the same way that the Orthodox feel. And the Cassidy Jews everywhere in the world live in a world of proximity, if you will. They pray. They spend time with family. It's a very tactical, tactical, what am I looking for? Tactile. Tactile kind of experience. They need to be near their families. It is a religious thing. Can you describe to me to the extent you know what it's like to be an Orthodox Jewish in an Orthodox Jewish family? Yeah. I'm not sure. As much as I can, I think you're absolutely right about the proximity. And some of that proximity for our viewers might be unusual for them to think about, but you have to live within walking distance of the synagogue. So on a holiday and particularly on Shabbat, you are not allowed to perform any work, which means unlike most Jews in America, they can't get in their car and drive to synagogue. They live in a concentrated area. But for reasons that really make sense for their worldview and their understanding of the Torah. The New York situation is also more compact because there's actually a housing crisis in that community. So many of the buildings, and I think people in Hawaii would appreciate that. I mean, many of the residents since they're multi-generational, like they are here. And so you have probably not only more people living within proximity, but people who are related. So they tend to be, as you say, more, more tactile. So at least in the New York case, some of the issues have been because of the density in which they live, which have both economic and religious reasons. The reference to tactile is important as long as we also sort of stretch it out a little bit. With that, unlike many religious people who go to services out of obligation or duty, and they look at it as a couple of moments to either sleep or catch up on their texting, Orthodox Jews really relish the religious experience. It's supposed to be joyful. It's total. It is absolutely. So the idea of a wedding, the idea of a wedding like the one that was canceled last week, including 10,000 people, is not unusual. Because when you have a wedding or what's called a joyous occasion, it's open to everybody. So I think that perhaps listeners who are not as conversant or aware of this community might think of it as a fundamentalist community, but I don't mean that in a pejorative way. I mean, people who take religion seriously, not separated from the rest of their lives, want to live with co-religionists, want to celebrate that. Okay, so I don't mean fundamentalist in the way that's thrown around as a criticism. Okay, so with that as background, I want to add just a few little things. Not all Orthodox Jews are the same. So in New York, there are particular Orthodox communities which are having this problem. And there are other Orthodox Jewish communities which are putting masks on. All right, so there are various different Orthodox communities that generally follow a spiritual leader. And that spiritual leader who is down one street might very well never talk to the spiritual leader down the other street. Okay, so even though the press says Orthodox Jews and says Orthodox Jews in New York, it's not all Orthodox Jews. It is not all Orthodox Jews in New York. And it's certainly not all Jews. Oh, absolutely not. But also not all Orthodox Jews. And again, probably some of your listeners and yourself and I have some experience with New York. So this also can't be extricated from New York. So years ago, there was the Crown Heights incident in which a Jewish driver inadvertently ran over an African American. There was a stabbing of an Australian Orthodox Jew by an African American. The New York New York has its own memory. And so when you talk about this issue. Those folks in the community don't divorce this issue from their history, which is not in any ways any way to say that there's something inherently trans-racially actually most people in New York get along very well. But this happens. This happens to be an area where there's a history. And I would say that the current administration with Mayor Blasio Blasio has a little bit of a history also of trying to control the Orthodox gatherings, but to be honest, also control most other gatherings, other than the Black Lives public protests and other ones, but many of those have of course people wearing masks. So they're not again, you know, critics of him are not playing on exactly the same level, because if you look at those protests. Most people have masks, and even there's some social distancing, but you know, if you're Orthodox Jew, it would not be unusual for you to look at your window and say, well, look, these people are marching. Why can't I have my wedding. And there are good reasons not to have the wedding, but I mean that's going through the mentality. So to help introduce the issue issue a little bit. There's also the bigger issue. I mean, the massive issue, which is a collision of public health and public safety with the interpretation of religious freedoms. Right, that's sort of the heart and soul. And in that case, certainly Orthodox Jews are not alone. There are other congregations, including Christian congregations, which have been have been holding their meetings as a defense of religious freedom, and that that's not uncommon at all. I mean, if this is New York, so it gets a lot of attention, but their churches throughout the country, and some of the super spreaders in fact early on were church services, in which people are not wearing masks, and not social distancing. That's sort of the larger issue, which is religious freedom as a public interest versus health. Well, in that regard, I think we ought to talk a little bit about the measles, because there were a number of again Orthodox congregations, New York, who didn't want to do measles vaccinations and they paid a price for that. Yes, yes. Can you talk about it. I want to talk about it, but but not again in my usual way remember I'm not representing you age, and I'm not an expert by any means on the Orthodox community. But I think they're similar but not exactly the same so vaccination issue like anti vaccine people across the country. That's a little bit of divinity God will God will protect us and and some suspicion that as as well. So in that case, you're also though, let's let's be honest dealing with some people who feel more comfortable being separated from what we would think of as the real world. And again I don't want to use real in a better or worse term or the Jordan term. So, measles is of course an invasion from the real world, but so is the vaccine. So is trusting a vaccine. I don't think the Orthodox argument is is the standard argument that vaccines will cause autism. I have no I haven't. Right, so that that's a common argument you hear from anti vaccine people based on absolutely no evidence at all. There's is not that I think there's is religious freedom but also religious freedom in which like the shakers and they live in their own community. So medicine isn't just not God like medicine is quite often something from the outside. No, having said that though again let's recognize that there are Orthodox doctors. There are Orthodox frontliners who have gotten caught. It's it's even possible the nurse holding the kids who did get vaccinated was Orthodox so I think we've got to be really careful here. And I don't blame the media because there are millions of stories. But again we got to be careful about the labels and understanding these folks so some certainly thought of the vaccinations, like they think of the masks for example it's not necessary or not being in God's way and God's plan, but there are also those who did get vaccinated right. The great difficulty is you know, is it just takes a couple people not being vaccinated or a couple people not very If this were something you know if this were some other issue which we're not a public health issue, we might not be having this discussion. I mean I'm sure there are other examples in the Orthodox community, where people have refused some kind of medical care, but it has been a personal right it's a personal choice. So you mentioned you know it's a balance of religious religious principles, religious freedom and science. And when I say science I mean the science of epidemiology, because it's clear, you know, you don't have to be a scientist to know that if you if you are infected with something that is infectious, and you don't take steps to protect the next person, you wind up with a whole community that's infected. And you know I mean that's a rational person would come to that conclusion very, very quickly and there are many people in this country, especially in the, you know, especially in this country, who don't buy into that. They think it's a matter of their personal liberty, and they don't see that it's an epidemiological phenomenon. So what what are the Orthodox say about that surely they have an answer. They have an answer but I don't want to misquote it so let me say that the the answer is often again in their minds religious freedom, but also in their minds a celebration really of God and divinity, and God will protect them and God will not protect them. The costs of not living the religious life are too great. But again, I encourage your listeners to try to find official expressions of the Orthodox community, which will be many. But one of them certainly is, and perhaps secularists don't appreciate it. Many secularists may not see not celebrating religion as a particularly high cost. So many secularists would argue, really in the balance public health clearly tries, and I'm not really losing a lot I'm not really losing a lot. We're not going to church or the last meeting hall synagogue, but we have to try to understand the other framework and the other world view, in which not celebrating God, not celebrating with co religious is basically too high a cost. I think that robbing them of what they think of as the essence of their, their lives, and in order for us. I mean, even if we disagree with that I think in order for us as society or political community. We got to recognize that and deal with that. Not dismiss it, not demonize it, but try to negotiate essentially and remind people of these other costs. And that's really part of kind of a plebiscite part of a discussion, which I think as we talked about before with with Mark just can't work on social media. I mean, it requires, you know somebody from the city of New York, sitting down with the rabbi and personalizing it. I just, I just think the way the things are going now, people are so with within their own steadfast positions that they're not even they're not willing to practice any kind of a more moral imagination because of the sense that, like if you practice moral imagination, you're giving up the battle, or something wrong with you, which I personally I don't think at all you can hold very steadfast to your principles, hold them forever, and still try to morally imagine what the other person is is going through. Unless you want to resolve this, you know, in a coercive and alienating way. Except for a few people I don't think I mean obviously there are people who are willing to be coercive and willing to be alien, but for the rest of us, I think we prefer a different mode. There's, you know, in Michigan, where they invaded the state house and in the face in the name of personal liberties, even constitutional liberties, the liberty of being liberated from a mask. It's the same, you know, lack of interest in protecting the community. It's, I mean, the larger community. It's, they believe the Constitution offers them this constitutional right. And there are those religious groups in the country, not the Jews at all, not the Orthodox, you know, who are their cultists, and they follow Trump's, you know, leadership on the point. And they do, they believe it in sort of an alternate reality. But it's different. And you have various groups for various reasons with various mechanics, all coming to pretty much the same conclusion. That is, I have an absolute right to do this, leave me alone to do my thing. Now what's interesting in New York is the Bosio, and also Andrew Cuomo, they come around and say 10,000 people at a wedding. They're not made for a super spreader. We're not going to let you do that. Now that we have notice of what you're doing, it's incumbent on us as government to stop you. That's not unreasonable in any way. Now I suppose there were efforts to try to meet, I know there were efforts to try to mediate this, but those efforts failed because, you know, people were locked on their, their beliefs. They did have the wedding and it was small. It was not. Oh, yes, that's right. They reduced it. Right, which is still a problem, but a lot of times beginning public interests require compromise. And certainly 50 is probably 49 to large, I guess 48, 47, I think I probably gave you that advice and a couple, but certainly I think we could all agree that an invitation of 11,000 people would bother any kind of tracing. I agree with you about the basic points of my rights. Trump Trump, so to speak, the little team, the public interest, but I think students of religion with find it interesting that the Orthodox have no desire for martyrdom, right the Orthodox have no desire to go and stake out almost house and practice firing weapons and kidnap. Part of the problem I think with Christian extremists is they have a kind of modern and complex. I mean, when you think about 13 people are probably not actually going to be able to get now. They're a bit more likely the young man who walked into a worship in the South Carolina church and murder the people around him. He was willing to die. That's kind of modern. I think that's a little bit different. Some of these folks on the general political rights and more often than not, they are Christians. I mean, most Christians have nothing to do with it. They think of themselves as Christians really kind of have a Jesus martyr complex whereas the Orthodox, you know, they protested, they did, and they had a little bit of a riot. They have no interest. They have no interest in dying for the cause. Yeah, which, which makes them a public health problem, but not necessarily a public safety problem. In other words, there are no domestic terrorists in that Orthodox. No, no, no. That would be because of the notion of minion. You know, I remember I was in Tahiti one time and, and they had nine individuals who were have a service, and they were looking all over the, all over Tahiti to find a 10th person to make the requirement for the minion. And they found me. And I was happy to do it, but they would not have had the service. They would have been frustrated beyond description if they didn't have that one extra person. There's always one answer. Here is it can invite a woman. Yes, well, that, that'd be easy. That'd be easy. That didn't occur. I know, I know, but then the time would be quite easy. So anyway, the New York experience was in a funny way Peter was a success. It was a negotiated result. I think the government did the right thing by, you know, putting the heat on them. And then they both did the right thing by coming to a solution. 50 may not be a, you know, a perfect solution, but it's a lot, it's a lot better than 10,000. I think you saw some other significant differences. So for example, the White House wasn't egging on the protests, right? The White House gave no support to the protests and the White House did not attack the governor. Okay, that's very important, right? It was, it was a local issue in many cases. And secondly, there was no outside funding for the protests. So really, the Orthodox Jews were, as their mentality is really talking about themselves. They need or want White House support. They didn't need or want whoever the funders are on the other side. So it really was, you know, a New York issue, which was resolved within New York. And I think for everybody, that's beneficial because as we know when issues like that become public and global, they just scratch the scab off of anti-Semitism. I mean, it had the potential, it had the potential to be another poster moment for anti-Semites. Do you think it was in any way? Well, I don't, and I don't even, I don't think de Blasio was either. But I think de Blasio and Cuomo have to publicly explain why the protests are acceptable. And I think they can do that. But if you just look at the optics, it does seem odd that there can be protests and there can't be ways. And I think there are reasons, but it's another case of public figures.  But if you're talking about the majority of people in the middle who want to hear an explanation and say, okay, you know what, that makes sense. I think, I don't think it was anti-Semitic. And you know me, I find anti-Semitism everywhere. So I really don't think it was. I think Cuomo had to look better than de Blasio. I think this is too much for de Blasio. I just, you know, as a politician. And let's be honest, I mean, outside of being the commissioner major of the baseball, the governor, the mayor of New York is the single most difficult political position. It's much easier to be president of the United States. So I just think that, I mean, de Blasio might very well be a good guy. I just think he's in over his head. Not at his own doing, but I just think this is too much. It shows you how this sort of thing stresses government. Absolutely. COVID stresses government in every way imaginable. But let me move to Israel. Because we've had a parallel, you know, series of events in Israel over the same thing, the orthodox and the rules about COVID and distancing in masks and religious events. Can you talk about how it has unfolded in Israel? Right. I guess probably your viewers in the series know that Israel has an intense rate, very high rate. And they may be on their second waiver. I think one of the differences is though, that in Israel, the religious community plays a very important political role. So there really wasn't much of a political cost for de Blasio to ask the orthodox Jews not to have a big, a big wedding. They don't even vote. They're probably some Trump supporters there. But we're not talking about a really, so we're not talking about the equivalent of Christian evangelicals, right? That's a political point. But I think you're the series of viewers have to rethink Israel where in order for, for example, Netanyahu and Likud to hold the government, they can't piss off the religious communities. And so that makes it many ways much more difficult. And I would say that some communities in Israel are handling it well. Others, not by any means at all. It is a convergence of a political crisis for Netanyahu is being charged with corruption. And the constant tensions with Palestinians and Arab Israelis, which your viewers know about. And combining that with the COVID has really overwhelmed I think the Israeli government and it's just kind of the stasis just hold the deck. I would recommend if you have time. I think it would be an excellent heart journalist Allison Kaplan summer who would be happy to talk with you about the resume. And I think it would be an excellent guests for yourself and your viewers. She lives there to give you really good accounting of politics and COVID. I can only give you what I've read, including things by her. But I think for your viewers, that's just a vital political difference, right? Can you tell our audience, what are our answers? Okay, so hard parts is probably the most popular Israeli newspaper, which tends to be if you need a spectrum tends to be to the left. But it's not a communist or social newspaper. It will publish editorials and articles, which will be critical of Israeli governments, including labor governments, and has a significant number of editorial writers who are sympathetic, often for very good reasons to the Palestinians and the Arab Israelis. So it's not the voice box of the government by any means at all. I don't think there's a direct analogy, but maybe if you watch and posted in New York Times, in the sense that it's a very reputable news outlet. A lot of American news in it. Yeah, and it tends to take a seriously Jefferson's charge for the state must be critical of government. So Netanyahu, how well is he done? It doesn't sound like he's, he's done very well dealing with this issue in Israel. The Orthodox don't agree with him and he's a little, he's stuck. He's stuck a little bit. It can't really solve the problem. Right, because he needs them politically. I would be very wary, though, drawing too much of a parallel between, say, the Brazilian president and the American president and Netanyahu about this issue, because Netanyahu's never publicly mocked science, for example. Like, he knows, he knows masses have to be born. So his is clear and maybe Trump believes in science involves Sarah. I don't know, but they don't say they believe in science. And Netanyahu would never go out and say that, not in Israel, where three quarters of the scientific and medical patents, everyone come out. So I think his is really a strictly political problem. And as many of your viewers know, Israel, it's not parallel to the United States politically, it's parallel to Britain and Germany, where you need a coalition government is very rare for one party to have enough of a majority to run the government. So sometimes you have to make concessions, sometimes hold your nose and make concessions so you can actually have a government. And that's been Netanyahu's case now for several elections where he's sometimes only one or two people short, but those one or two people generally are either other religious community or very closely affiliated with them so you might see a picture. And the individual might might or might, well, probably would be wearing a yamaha, but maybe not wearing the black clothes that your viewers are used to seeing an orthodox, but that person would be standing with probably the orthodox community. So take what's happening in Israel, which is kind of a stalemate. I mean, I think it's more than a political problem. It's a public health problem. And part of the reason that it's a public health problem is that people don't follow the protocols on masks and distancing. And there are a lot of orthodox in Israel and that's got to have some kind of salient demographic effect. But anyway, you take what's going on in Israel and what's going on in Brooklyn and other locations where the orthodox or orthodox people, you know, are taking this kind of position. Where's it all going? I mean, we have a COVID crisis here and there, both. And it seems to me that the government ought to come down on it because the bottom line is we cannot afford to do to allow anything, you know, that perpetuates the infection. I'm thinking of China where they, you know, you want to perpetuate the infection, you go to retraining camp. They're not kidding around. And they have been very successful right now. There's just a minimal number of cases going on in all of China. And you got to hand it to them for that. But ultimately, if we keep going up and up and up, whether Biden wins or not, and the government can't do anything about it, doesn't do anything about it, somebody has to do something. And so this, this is a problem that is not resolved in either place. I mean, what happened in Brooklyn is not a resolution, a long-term resolution. It's a resolution of one event. And somewhere along the line, there's got to be a crunch, don't you think? I agree with you that it will be a crunch, but I think the parallels, say, for example, in China, just don't work when you remind yourselves that public health questions are not divorced from everything else. They're not divorced from the clinical culture. They're not divorced from social interaction. So yes, China has done a good job in this regard, but I think most people will be very reluctant to accept the larger costs for that. I could see Homo and Lazio strategy as, you're right, not eradicating it, but very carefully trying to manage by trying to get the community leaders on board to at the very least restrict these large, super spreaders. The one difference might be, and this is not a partisan position, but if we're, if one party were, or one presidential were to win, I think the tone of wearing a mask public on a regular basis would provide a helpful message. It would at least distance those who do not, from accepted normal behavior. And that's not a partisan. Your viewers are not listening to your mind by politics. It's just an analysis that, you know, in places where the duly elected political leaders, and that includes locally, right, and they've taken on masks. Okay, some people will be angry because they never liked them. But again, you know, the people kind of in the middle who are deciding what to do. That's, that's a validation of acceptable behavior. We always talk about negative behavior as validating people. So for example, a president or chancellor or ex does this, which is nasty, and people can be nasty. And that may be true. But the reverse also works. You can think about things that FDR did. I think things that Carter did that our motivations for moral behavior, not just in. I think it's going to take that I am not a scientist, but I listen to most scientists. You know, I mean, I should say, I listen and heard men heard argument is not heard immunity argument is not going to work. So I fear that, but the CDC is predicting it's going to be a really devastating winter. I fear that. Well, you know, one thing that strikes me I would make a speculative prediction that even in a closed community phenomenon like this in Brooklyn or in Israel. You have people who don't follow the rules. I mean, the COVID rules in close proximity and you're doing this. They're doing this because you know religious principles and religious life, so to speak. But, but what you what you get at the end of the day in reality in science is a very intense infection. And that little community, you know, which doesn't want to be decimated is at risk for decimation.  It's just a tragedy all around them. I can say, gee, maybe we have to rethink this because it isn't working. And maybe we have to rebalance these two considerations. Do you think that will happen Peter. I don't, I don't know the community well enough. I think that's probably true of other communities as well, or if this is going to work. It's going to have to be local police. I mean, local rules and regulations, but the government is going to have to reach out and make sure it has the allies. What I know about this last meeting is most people follow the rabbi and rabbi says that's, and most likely, I mean, you know, two Jews, three opinions, we know that. Okay, and the whole basis of the conversation, but on our many issues. And it's not on like Christians or Muslims who listen to their religious leaders as well. It's not uncommon. I mean, it's only the breakers in their democracy. No other religious organizations really democratic makers. I think that's what's going to happen. Take I'm hoping that they that story of the wedding is negotiation between rabbi and the state of New York and the city of New York, and that that rabbi will then help set the press. Yeah, I agree with you. Not live for religious reasons, but as you talked about the start, because of housing costs reasons, you're asking, yeah, you're asking for a mini epidemic, a destiny. I agree. One thing is clear is that things that we have assumed things we have held on to in our lives or maybe in our cultures that have lasted for hundreds, thousands of years that we have treated as mainstream. And that's part of the fundamental points of living, not only in the Orthodox community, but in every community.  And at the end of this, if there is ever an end at the end of the tunnel as we are in it now, we'll find that a lot of things we made assumptions about are changed. There will be one of them but there's thousands of others and it's, that's why you and I can have these shows, you know, add infant item to evaluate all the changes that are happening around us. There's no end to it Peter. And I agree with you, the only point I'd add is that and you know this as well, that a lot of these criticisms and a lot of cracks have been there for a long time. And I think this has opened them up, right, look, the militia has been around for a long time. Those guys in Michigan, many of their parents were members of the militia, right. So it's a certain degree, it's a matter of the exposure is a whole philosophy about setting up a reason that one of the big differences is that it's a catastrophe create problems, which are not there before, or just just as an open up things to reveal what has been there before. And I think, I think what's happening with us, and it's, you know, doesn't mean it's easier to solve necessarily not. But I think most of the things we're seeing, let's say for example an attack on regulations, they've been people like, since the EPA since before the ink on the EPA documents dry. Already. All right. So, in a way, it's folks who were on margins, who have been fighting for a long time, or in the year a lot. They've been there. Now, it's also true that there are certain new issues and that, and the scientists know that we try to figure out the nature of this virus, you know, exactly how it's transferred doesn't map exactly to the epidemic in 1918. And that does mean there's certain new things, but a lot of things that worry you and me and keep us out of this. Dodgers is our issues which we've been around. They just not have the kind of street cred. And it's an old argument and we've talked about it many times, but it's not incorrect just old. One of the big differences is social. Big difference right and you know, we all everybody agrees and that's not very important by any means at all. But it's allowed people who are just it's allowed to be visible. Not always to actually create a movement necessarily, but give them the impressions of the avenue. That's really dangerous, right the impression that you have a lot of followers or movement. It's almost as dangerous as actually happen. And that's, and again we talked about this but just remind you, and your listeners, they've been other times like that in history like the printing press. A lot of the advantages and disadvantages and regulations years where they were at the printing press. They were there at the telegraph in the 19th century. A lot of very similar issues with of course they're mind or nothing. Nothing can replace pushing button, right. In a few seconds, somebody has been around the world that I'm not saying they're exactly the same, but a lot of things that worry us. Like, it's something true. Well, they worry about that with the printing press, right. Are you connecting international movements. Well, they worry about that with the telegraph, right, but who could have access. We worried about every single kid in Hawaii, having access to wifi so they can get you. Well, the telegraph didn't go everywhere. So they were pockets of people and we're not. So, I'm not, I'm not flattening it out. I'm just saying that history helps us a little bit think through, not equivalencies, but comparisons. There you go. There you go again. History helps us. It doesn't help, but doesn't. Thank you, Peter. I so enjoy our discussions. Absolutely pleasure. Take care of yourself. Be too soon unless the world becomes perfect. Stay safe.


President of the United States. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you very much. I can't start my brief remarks here without remarking about the Herculean job that has been done.  And I hope I won't be plowing plowed ground with my remarks here. But welcome to all of you Republicans and Democrats. I know that this is a bipartisan group and that's good because I want to continue discussing a question that needs a bipartisan solution. One of the reasons that we've asked you here is that we know you're influential back home. Your community leaders and your words and views are respected. We're hoping to win your support in the question of Central America because we know that'll help us in the support of Congress. I know you came here knowing a lot about what's going on in Nicaragua. And our previous speakers here have never been known being shy about presenting the facts. There's probably no one in this country who knows more about the realities of what's happening in Central America than Ambassador Gene Kirkpatrick and Elliott Abrams. What I want to do today is simply address some of the questions that people have about the freedom fighters, the so-called Contras. A lot of people who support the Contras never call them Contras. By the way, because Contra is short for counter-revolutionary. And counter-revolutionary used to mean pro-Samosa. It was a Sandinista insult. And by the way I see it, Samosa's been gone a long time. The revolution that toppled him then became a communist coup. And so the Contras, so-called, are against it. So I guess in a way they are counter-revolutionary and God bless them for being that way. And I guess that makes them Contras and so it makes me a Contra too.  There fighting for freedom and all of this has to do with my first point. I'll call it slander number one. The charge that the Contras are former members of Samosa's National Guard who are fighting to restore a dictatorship. Well the truth is all three leaders of the Contras, Adolfo Calero, Alfonso Robelo and Arturo Cruz fought against Samosa. Calero and Cruz were imprisoned by Samosa. These men aren't fighting the Sandinistas because they're Somasistas. They're fighting the Sandinistas because they're patriots. They're fighting for the only true revolutionary idea of the latter part of the 20th century. And that is democracy. As for the Contra troops, well the average age of the freedom fighters is about 20. So a lot of these soldiers were 13 years old when Samosa fell. And they're supposed to have been in the National Guard, his troops. I don't think they were. Slander number two, the U.S. is only picking on the Sandinistas because well because we're cultural imperialists. And who are we anyway to judge their form of government? Well you mostly hear this sort of thing from the blame America firsters. Now it happens to be famously true that our feelings toward democracy are much like Churchill's when he pointed out that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried before from time to time. But we're not supporting democracy for well shall I call it merely idealistic reasons. We're trying to build and strengthen democracy in Central America because democracy brings peace and communism brings war. So you see we're motivated by some very practical considerations. Democracies bring peace because democratic governments serve at the will of the people. And it's very hard to convince people, mothers and fathers to send their sons off to war. Communist governments on the other hand exert almost total control over the people of their society from the state-run media that gives them nothing but propaganda to the secret police that dragged their sons away in the night. It's not hard for them to wage war. And their whole reason for being is to spread the revolution to strike ultimately at the very heart of the West. And that's what the Sandinistas mean to do. They're players in a drama whose aim is to spread communism throughout this hemisphere. They can't do it peacefully because almost nobody wants the product they're pushing so they have to do it violently. Overt, covert, guerrilla warfare, terrorist campaigns, disinformation, they'll do what they have to. But they're not operating independently. They're just part of the new mob, part of the 20th century's answer to murder incorporated. I have to tell you right here. I have been collecting stories that I can absolutely establish are told by the people behind the iron curtain in the Communist block. And they're stories that reveal their kind of cynicism about the system under which they live. And one of the more recent ones that I heard was about the man walking along the street at night, Moscow, Soviet soldier called to him to halt. He started to run the show. The soldier shot him. And another man said, why did you do that? Well, he said, curfew. Well, he said it isn't curfew yet. He said, I know. He's a friend of mine. I know where he lives. He couldn't have made it. Slander number three. This is the one that the Contras will never stop the Sandinistas. Well, talk about self-fulfilling prophecies. Yes, if we give the Contras no help, if we send them out there to fight with carbines that last saw action in the Korean War, if we give them nothing but a pat on the back and a roll of bandages, they'll probably lose. And the people who refuse to help them will sit back and say, see, we always said they were losers. Well, the truth is there are over 20,000 freedom fighters who are desperately waiting for everything from shoes to ammunition. And when they get them, they'll move. And when they move, they'll win. I think we should ask ourselves one question. Why is it that the communists have had to engage in the forcible relocation of at least 80,000 Nicaraguans? A campaign that has included the burning of the peasants' homes, the destruction of farms, and the placing of the Mosquito Indians in detention camps. Why have they done this? To discourage the general population from giving aid and assistance to the freedom fighters. These freedom fighters are popular with the people because the people like the revolution they once supported have been betrayed by the Sandinistas. I think what we're starting to realize is that the Sandinistas are increasingly aware or afraid of their own people. Slander number four, the U.S. never gave the Sandinistas a chance and that's why they turned out so bad. Well, there's some truth in this. We didn't give them a chance. We gave them about a million chances. I won't repeat the whole sad history here, but I do want to address the issue of talking to the Sandinistas at the peace table. We've tried to do it. We've encouraged the Contadora process. We've tried to resolve this question through negotiations and we're still trying. The Sandinistas have not been interested in talking seriously and sincerely. All of a sudden now their apologists come out and say, oh, it's time to give new talks a chance. Well, that sounds just fine and peaceful and non-harmful. But what some people don't seem to understand is that if we delay aid for a few months while we're talking, the Sandinistas will take that time and use it to finish off the Contras.  I ask you one question. Have you ever in your reading of history heard of a communist regime that just couldn't wait to negotiate itself into a democracy? I'm afraid it's a little like a skunk negotiating itself into a rose. It doesn't happen a lot. That does, I shouldn't, I know, but that does trigger another one of those stories I've picked up from over there. They came to General Secretary Gorbachev and they told him there was a woman in the Kremlin she wouldn't leave unless she could see him so he said we'll bring her in and they brought her in and he said, old mother, what is it? She said, I have a question. He said, all right. What was communism invented by a politician or a scientist? Well, he said a politician. She said that explains it. The scientists would have tried it on mice first. But I believe the truth is obvious. The Sandinistas will come to the negotiating table only when they see the carrot of peaceful settlement backed up by the stick of a well-equipped armed opposition and nothing is as urgent as the question of Nicaragua. There is no question that faces this administration. There's no question I think that faces our times that is more crucial to our future than what happens in Central America. And this is the time to help. You've heard the saying over and over again the cliche time is everything. Well, in this case it's true. If we help now, we can literally turn the situation around and change the future. If we fail now, I think we guarantee untold problems for the people of Central America and for our own children. When I was a young man back in the 1930s a war was simmering in Europe. England was imperiled and its great leader looked across the sea to us for hope. Churchill asked for military assistance. He said, if you give us the tools, then we'll do the job. And we gave them the tools to our everlasting credit. I think all of us or some of us can still remember the lend-lease and the destroyers and so forth on their way across the ocean. Today, Adolfo Calero, Alfonso Robelo and Arturo Crows look to us for hope and we must help them. History will know what we did and it will know that we didn't what we didn't do and history will judge. I've made my position clear. I need your help as much as the Contras need our help. I need for the Congress to know that you want to help the freedom fighters. I am talking to them constantly and they're telling me more and more of the people that they're hearing from back home who don't want us to do this. But there's been a great and very sophisticated disinformation program abroad including high priced lobbyists here in Washington all working for the Sandinista cause and all portraying them as the good guys in this particular fight. Well yesterday over at the State Department I stood with three men all of them veterans from the south one had been a communist guerrilla against the El Salvador democracy and couldn't stomach what was going on and what he saw and switched. He was there and he spoke to the group that was assembled and another one was there who had been in the Sandinista government and he spoke and he told about this disinformation program and the things of that kind and the third he was what they called a creole there their blacks and blacks and Indians and they were just simply attacked for being what they are when the Sandinistas came in and he held up his hands when they jailed him he pulled his fingernails out and he told of the things that he had seen and then there was a display of the weapons that had been furnished by Nicaragua Sandinista government to countries all over Latin America not to the nations or governments to the communist guerrillas in each one of those countries that are there trying to overthrow those democracies. If well if you care if you care we'll win and if we don't care we'll lose it's that simple it's up to us so please help us get this across to the congress we're not asking for American boys to go down there there's been no appeal for them they've told us to the contrary they don't want them they don't need them they just need the tools that we can provide for them just for tools for their people and that's what we're asking the congress to do to enable us to give those tools to those freedom fighters so help us and thank you and God bless you I just had a question on the way out why don't we go to the people Sunday night I think it's eight o'clock I'm going to the people by way of television to try and tell them this story and get their help thank you


Hi, hi to everyone, sorry I'm a little bit shy, so I'm Katerina Demata and he's Luca Di Cicca. And we are from LNC studio, our studio was born in 1997. And I started with a little show reel. What you had seen are our latest TV shows. We work also on commercials and educational works, but we wanted to speak about those today. So, when our studio was born, my father founded to develop art and social issue documentaries. Since 2012 with Luca, we started working in animation and so we switched our basic field but didn't switch our core issues and core values. That's also why we wanted to work since the very beginning with Blender for the animation. We started with the GGI show that was called Spaghetti Western and was aired in Rye. Kids are a national broadcaster and we have developed many, many shows for Rye kids and for YouTube since then. We always have educational and social content at the basis of whatever we produce and with a very strong sense for community, social and shared culture and education. So this is also why we also started to teach at university, Blender since 2009 and my father started that, Luca De Mata. And Luca, Vicek actually was one of his best students and two other students still work with us. He's Umberto Saliani and he's our lead animator and also our executive producer, Afaila Copaneze. So that is also how we started. We started like a group of students and 10 years ago and here we can see a little bit of, no, this is me and this is the production that we saw and this is our studio. This is actually not the office view but the terrace where we can have the studio meetings. Now here are some of our shows, of our TV projects. The one that you see here, Buonanotte, is Good Night, had been all done in Blender. It's cut out animation and it's a short movie about living together and community. Everyone at night wants to play his own music but it's a total cacophony, I don't know if you know this word in English, it's like when it's a mess and when they start to realise that playing together is better, they start to play and make music, harmony. Then we had worked on Utopia, it's a feature film with an older director and we had done a video game style animation also with Blender and this is Take Flight where Luca Di Cicca and Nicolas Damoy spoke about it in 2019 here and it's a story of a little bird that is too scared to fly and how he overcomes his fear and now we had the developers of Season 2, it's both VR and for linear television broadcasting. This had been a very, very interesting experiment also for my kids. So this is Come Fogli al Vento, it lives in the wind and this is a project where it had been very personally involved also for the story. It's the story of Ricardo Calimani, he's a family friend and his parents survived Holocaust and we speak about how they survived. We had done a very, very experimental technique, it's a doco fiction with animation inserts and animation inserts are in 2D animation. We started to test Gris Pencil with that and also to test how to mix live action animation and the animation we had done it was done on real photos of nowadays backgrounds that we gave life to that. So there had been a lot of preproduction work and we will try to here you can see a little bit. Thank you. So we had done this production with Raya Gattai kids and Uche Uche is the Jewish national Italian community and the target were kids but also families and it had traveled all around Italian schools with a very good success especially teenagers and hopefully we think that this is also because we tried to change the language that was used to talk about Holocaust and to make it more modern, more somehow appealing and to talk directly to younger generation. We had worked a lot with YouTube for many, many years and that way we understood a little bit of the timing and what was searched, how much was the attention span and we tried to apply that to a way more difficult topic to speak about than like science actually. So Ricardo Calimani is an historian and writer and he walks around the Venetian ghetto. He's not an actor but the two kids that he speaks to are two actors but both of them are studied also literal history so they knew the topic so some of the questions that they had asked him through the documentary they're real they're not scripted while other things were totally scripted especially the parts in animation like we had so we had done a mix of scripted and unscripted shooting that was pretty interesting and pretty difficult also because he's not an actor of course so he was just saying what he wanted to say when he wanted but we had to be very careful that whatever was animated was carefully planned because what we had done also like here we had like the photos of the stumbling stones and then we animated them to show that Ricardo Brand is the name of Ricardo Calimani parents that went to Auschwitz but we're not telling the history we're telling the story of his parents and his parents survived because they understood that they had to run away not even they didn't understand what they had to run away but that they had to run and of course we speak about race and we speak about other teams and we stay strongly that race doesn't exist this is a little bit of the echo that the series had and this is some background material so we had collected all the archives photos and redraw it on top of that and then put other some animation some with GGI and Luca worked on that and then on the 2D animation another studio worked on that it's John Adapato Studios and he had worked with Gris Pencil also and a little bit on the script here are actors and the location is the amazing city of Venice and here is the Spanish synagogue where we had done most of the interaction between live action and animation because we is the same place where Ricardo Calimani parents got married they got married during Nazi occupation with all the Jewish community that came into the synagogue that seems crazy now and we had transformed and redrawed the synagogue to how it looked in the past adding people and the ceremony and also working a lot with colors to symbolize what was before when everyone was still in the same way of joy and then what happened after when they realized that actually what was the drama that they were working to since the location manager and this is a little bit of animation reference that we used and some color palette and we this was the palette that we started with but then we moved the the palette to a more brighter one because we felt that all the movies that are set in the world war two were too dark and not contemporary while what we wanted to give was the idea of something that is still alive somehow it's not the past it's today's story so this is some stills from the storyboard animation outline here's the scene of the synagogue it's how we transform and redraw on top of it and then give life to that and we had worked a lot with a lot of consultancy from the historians so whatever you will see in the movie that you can find in rye play up it's totally historical accurate like also how the we had done some art graffiti and we had done it with the characters that were done in the times and this is the other show that we had worked at last year we started production in 2012 it's a tv series and with still like it's and this is about science this had been from a production point of view quite complex because we had to mix live action and animation in the same shootings so the two scientists you see here they're not actors they're two real scientists and what they speak about is the incredible of every day we see in color is incredible we don't work on water also that is somehow incredible we need to eat or to drink to be alive and we wanted to simulate curiosity in small kids so that they can start to ask questions about everything and also to find solutions in science to do experiments and so the three fictional characters are like the three small kids and the two scientists of our course the adults so we have a problem at the beginning of the episodes then the fictional characters try to serve it going in a fictional world but of course they make a disaster and they come back to reality and there with the scientists we do an experiment in that experiment we find out everything like about how a cloud is made or the solution and all the experiments that you can do at home we mix a lot of things in the series the their graphics that are 2d and CGI animation and live action and also at the end of every episode we speak about a woman that had a role in that particular science field just to give back woman a little bit of their place in history and this is she's Juliana Galati and she worked at a super quark italian snow the show and under a vehicle and he has a lot of experience also with kids now look i will thank you katerina so i'm luka i'm i work with katerina since 22 for 12 years more or less so i started with this father he was a teacher at university and he's a teach blender maybe 12 years ago so wow and i directed a short film arturian seagull that we presented in two years ago in the at the conference with nicolas arturial agabiotta and i directed i co-directed with katerina come for the albento live in the wind incredibly and a last short film are going on that we presented today so let's start with the three main characters that you saw before so we started from concept made by fabio santomaro who is the architecture on our studio so we started from this simple concept that clear also the the mood of the character so we have three main character to be that it's an ample yes an ample yes i don't know now key it's a monkey and a phone it's like a smartphone with a funny eyes so we start modeling we start of course by storyboarding the the entire scene the entire series and all the episode we use of course the grease pencil and now we have a little a little video about the storyboard we also edit in bsc this this storyboard and if the the final edit is made with the with davinci for for technical stuff and in this thumbnail it's just a thumbnail not a really complex storyboard we figure out the main poses and what an important thing the the expression of the of the character the important thing of this of this this series was have the voices before the animation so we we filmed the the live action more or less one year before the the the animation process and so we have the a voiceover to replicate the the voice when the the animation was was finished so we can go on because it's too long this video modeling still is quite simple for for the character and this is to be this is sorry this is phone it's a smartphone and for for the two characters we use the same leg and arm to simplify also the production because we have more like six months to to create 13 episodes so it was so complex also to to to to give in production also the modeling the rig and also the pipeline to the to the final animation this is what about the rig rig was made by Nicholas Namore who collaborate with our studio and for more or less all the three rig we use the rigify system and Nicholas I ask it we ask it to Nicholas to give expression and of course also for the for mouth for mouth for mouth rig and also for the for the eye you can see that there is um I think Nicholas used some Boolean operation to switch off the this kind of of a emoticon of the of the character and here you can see the this is the rig so the character has a single eye at the at the respose of the at the rig and when you switch off the the other emoticon there are Boolean to to create other expression for the rig for this was more simple I think about the rig also used a rigify system and I think the so moderate shape like for example for example tail and eye and for I think that for the the mouth we use it a lot the properties to switch off mouth in this rig and also in the other rig that is the the ample so to be so here you can see a quick drive a quick properties driven with driver that so drive the shape key so and at last there was this this character to be with the same armor legs of of fun and here we use lattice to to stretch the to squash the the eyes and for this rig in particular we use also the the the mask modifier to switch off the the all the mouth expression and also for the for the liquid inside the for the water inside the the ample we use some Boolean to to have a good result when also the the the character move and so thank you Nicholas here we are some animation test this is first animation test made by Daniela Scali who is the supervisor animator for this series so after the production of the of the entire series we of course we test and stress all the all the rig and of course we we try to organize all the production during the the covid pandemic so in particular Daniela Scali with the supervisor worker from for french and most of people by whom this one is just a test to we try to simplify all the interaction between men and the and the character because we had a lot of scene a lot of minutes to to produce and what about the look they looked at it's so simple because in fact we have a very complex scenario a real scenario so we decided to simplify the the look dev so the lighting a look dev so simply just three point light for each character and one word to to to illuminate all the environment and here there are some some tests some render in the in we call limbo so in in this episode there is a real part where the character interact with the real actor and another part with where the the character alone in their in their limbo so these are the example on how we match the so you can see the scenario are very very complex and full of props and now you can see a small compositing of the tele transport when the character goes to the the limbo the limbo part so this was for incredible incredible the last project I want to present today is a garden so this is a project that a project that I wrote I think three years ago and I remember that Katharina's father Luca Demata encouraged encouraged me to to make a short movie so in fact in the in the opening of this short this is a dedicated praises to his father so what about target audience so I wrote this script three years ago as I said and I want to to tell a story about a dog and his and a boy Argo and audience so if you remember Argo was the name of the dog of Ulisse Ulipsis that it's also called Odysseyo so I tried to switch off the the story so during a journey during the long trip along the Mediterranean Sea Argo and not Odysseyo Audi forgot his his path so during this nightmare during this this trip he met all the character that in the in the real of the sea Ulises Ulises meet but under the shape of animal and this short film was uh we we presented to the to the Italian minister what culture mystery yeah so there is a little trip little trailer about this project that we finished almost one month ago and now we can and now we will present to I think to the to first well sorry okay so the duration this short movie is five minutes of course for kids and we produced it this this year so we started always from our our director Fabio Santomaro who made the concept and the particularity of this short short film were to uh match the 2d concept and try to replicate it in a 3d look in fact you can see that the character are not completely 3d there are no no 3d no real 3d and and of course we created a lot of mood board and concept before starting modeling rigging and then animating so here we can see some concept for from Fabio Santomaro and in particular for character we create to replicate the this style there are a lot of concept of course we created that hand-made hand-made storyboard but it was this was a very old storyboard uh I think three years ago a preliminary storyboard and here we have some video about the the modeling so as you can see modeling is so simple so we we have less few polygons and as you can see if the video turns the body as a as a shape almost 3d instead the the face is similar to a plane because we want to replicate the the the concept of course also for for this for this character I think yes for this character we created a base rig with with rigify in particular as for incredibly TV series we in particular for the eye we we created almost the same technique with the driver and and a mask a mask system tools which off the the various shape of the of the blink so a base rig for this character I don't know if I can yes so you can see you can see the the rigify in in this character and of course this this is almost look that so more or less we use always only vertex vertex color for this for this character except to the for the t-shirt because it's a simple concept of course and and just for the eyes yes we have two properties tools tools which off the the blink I want I want to go again because there is also for the for this character for Argo is the dog we also have a simply a simple model with with with the rigify system so let's okay in particular for this dog that switch I don't know if you remember in the odyssey uh uh uh ulysses uh meet uh the church who transform him the his uh his colleague in pig so for this character we create to switch mesh in particular of the of the tail to a pig shape and also the color so most of the of the material in some shape are regulated by by a little rig and in particular maybe I can go on because the video is so slow I can't so we also try to um to switch the rig of the eye so um for most of time the character are are in this position so the the body goes from for example right left and the and the face it's also always in front so we created a switch between eyes to swap the the the eyes when the the rig when the model have to rotate we have some some animation preliminary animation test so for dog and for the for for for for adi these are some play blasts about the last scene of the of the short and all just in the in the first outline we try to create a match between 2d scenarios not not all not only 3d it's all it's just a paint and 3d part we have also some some animatic here so final scene just in in play blast also there are a lot of secondary character but they are very simple in shape and also in the rig so in particular in that short film it was important to create a match between these two character uh a few simulating system but very very simple because the style is not is not going to a photorealistic uh photorealistic way and some shot of the uh the final image when you you can see also that there is not there's not a um a great match between the 3d part and the and the sky we we try to uh to find a way to interact these two kinds of of seeing of of technique some scene of the of the short film here you can see that the the moon is completely painted and so that's for me cadrina if you want to come thank you so uh now it's 12 years that we work with blender for us had been very important for our productions we have a very simple pipeline more simple than other animation studios we do all in house all with very few artists around 15 20 and some work remotely on but most of them are in the studio so they can interact one another and we think that this from a creative point of view is very important and we kind of miss it during covet time of course and actually last year we had around 50 people working in their studio because we had done also the live action part and so that had been quite massive at least for us and we had done so shooting live action to the animation live action and ggi animation and of course what we had tried to do and our gaudi we it's more poor animation what we had done we started with more simple shows and we had developed it into more and more complex and and next year hope we will pitch you another show that is a tv special that it's a 2.5d if you have questions we're here and if you want to send our portfolio your portfolio we're here and


Have you ever wondered if you're intelligent or not? If you're always picked on to answer questions and handle tasks in your organization, you likely are. Being intelligent has a lot of advantages. However, sometimes it can be a burden. In this video, I'm going to share with you 10 problems that intelligent people have in their 20s. 1. Overthinking. Young intelligent people analyze everything. They are unlikely to just do what they are told without trying to understand why and how it adds up to a larger vision. While this is a desirable trait for vision building and goal setting, it can be a disadvantage for companies that deal with day-to-day sales. A young intelligent salesman is more likely to spend hours pouring over sales strategies than actually selling. This can adversely affect the company's income and eventually lead to him or her losing their jobs. As a young person, work very hard and preserve your intelligence. But when you are in a setting where the action is more important than strategy, suspend your thoughts and do what is requested of you. Over time, you will adapt to using your intelligence even while doing what you are told. 2. Excessive arguments. Do not spend time arguing over everything. Young intelligent people often disagree with others. This makes them engage in a lot of arguing. Arguing with your team will not help you achieve any goals. Intelligent people should understand that no progress is no progress and arguments only lead to this. As a young person, be open to the opinion of others. Disagree politely and always hear another person out before disagreeing. Criticism is more often than not seen as a personal attack. The best approach is to listen and discuss problems, always asking the person if he sees another angle to the problem. Arguing all the time can also push people away from you. As a young person, you need connections for your growth. Being known for excessive argument is not ideal for a person's reputation. This is a problem intelligent young people sometimes face. 3. Pride. When you are young and smart, the tendency is to think very highly of yourself and your ideas. This always has repercussions. As a young intelligent person, do not look down on others because you have a professional degree or top grades in your college. This attitude can cost you. It takes a lot of commitment to stay friends with anyone. Friends are the strongest support anyone can have. If you look down on others, even if they were friends with you, they are likely to leave you.  Your job will not cook your dinner or hang out with you during the weekend. It most certainly will not remember your birthday. Treating others well is one of the best investments anyone can make when they are young. You might be intelligent, but you're still young. Some people are decades older than you in age and experience. Humble yourself so that you can learn from others. 4. Lack of team spirit. The tendency to disagree with the opinion of others common among intelligent people makes them poor team players. Because the intelligent person thinks his ideas are always better, he doesn't see the need for the team and as such does not work well with others. Teamwork is the foundation of most successful companies in the world. They often collaborate with other companies on projects. They do this by sending their teams to the partner organizations to come up with a project plan. A young person who doesn't work well in the team is unlikely to get any promotion in such an organization. As a young person, you need to understand the world doesn't revolve around you or your ideas. Other people also have brilliant ideas and just because you don't approve doesn't invalidate their ideas. Learn to tolerate others and work with them, even when they get concepts lower than you do. 5. Indecisiveness. An average intelligent young person analyzes situations before taking a decision. This can both be an advantage and a disadvantage. It is an advantage when this helps them to see different options to take in every given situation. It can be a disadvantage because it means they take a longer time to make decisions. Most successful people have to make fast decisions daily. They take risk and reap large profits from time to time. A very intelligent young person is very unlikely to take risks. Risks are not rational. Because of this, they can spend time considering their alternatives while their counterparts are making a profit and getting ahead. As a young person, you should learn to take risks. Quick decision making is a desirable skill for entrepreneurs. If you ever want to run an enterprise or work in one, learn to take action faster. 6. High expectations from people. Young intelligent people are often under a lot of pressure. They are typically the best in their areas of interest and as a result have a lot of work to do. Beyond that, people also expect a very high standard output from them. Because of their antecedents, this puts them under a lot of pressure. As a young intelligent person, you are more likely to be given difficult tasks than everyone else. You should however, learn to deal with high expectations while doing your best at the task at hand. The best approach is to acknowledge that you are human, that you will not be perfect in all you do, but give each task that comes your way your best shot. 7. Less empathetic and tolerant. Young intelligent people also have the tendency to be less empathetic than others. They are used to high expectations and giving their best. This makes them unable to understand others who are less intelligent. They are less likely to forgive a misdeadline than others and will not hesitate to point out the wrongs of others. As a young person, doing all this will only help you create enemies for yourself. An average person already has enemies simply because they have something others don't have. Learn to be empathetic and accommodate others. No one loses anything by helping others grow. 8. Wanting everything to be perfect. Young intelligent people also have the problem of wanting everything to be perfect. They are unlikely to set out doing anything unless everyone is in order. While this habit can help one in keeping their environment very neat, such a habit can impede growth. Most times in life, everything is not going to be perfect. One needs to be able to accomplish their goals irrespective of the prevailing circumstances. 9. An intense battle with self-doubt. A lot of smart young people struggle with self-doubt. They sometimes set standards so high for themselves that, when they fail to reach it, they struggle with self-doubt. As a young person, it is important that your self-confidence never wavers. Always believe in yourself no matter what happens. If you don't believe in yourself, you can hardly convince others to believe in you. 10. Envy from others. When you are hard-working, smart and successful, people can tend to envy you. Avoid friends who never call you when they hear you got a promotion or started a business. People will always envy successful people. It is not something you can avoid. However, you can avoid associating with people who feel this way about your progress. If this video inspired you, subscribe to our channel. We love you.