Wow. That's wild. That's sick. Stop with eating stuff. The thing is awesome. What? Some Nutella? That. You look good. Someone won?  Let's go. I am in the wrong outfit for this place. Yeah, you look like a... Bro. I don't know. You know why? Because in the Bible, Jesus went to the brothel and spoke to the prostitutes. Call me a prostitute. Oh, Esfen. Esfen, the Pope's coming. Look to my left. This morning? Hello. Mr. Uber driver. Stop. Stop. Yo. This is my normal... It's going live at my normal stream time. How nice is that? Pretty good, yeah? Oh, sorry. That's a lawsuit. Okay, let's get out of here. Hey, no, no, you're good. I'll always... I'll always like this. You like to take pictures. I'll always disturb. Yeah, of course, yeah. Well, I hope you enjoy your stay, though. Have a good one, buddy. Of course. Thanks for that, right? Have a good one, man. Yeah. Have a good one. Thanks so much for your time. Thank you so much. Why does poker still wear a mask, even though COVID is over? It's not even for COVID. People would wear masks at cons before all the time, because there's just so many people from all over the different parts of the world. It's like normal to get sick at a con. To be fair, it's smart. I can't believe I'm saying this. It's... It's not a bad idea to wear a mask. That was hard. It's a good idea to wear a mask. Something like this.  The chip got to him. But the hell, not my streamer, no more. Unsubbed, unfollowed, unwatched. We're back. Make a moiner here. They're joining us. We. We are in the bike lane. We, we, we, we are in the bike lane. Bonjour. Bonjour. Bonjour. Oh, it means hello. Nice to meet you. God damn, not only I'm fluent in French, you are too. I bet, I bet you can say most things in French and I can, I can do the math. Okay. Say something. Um, escargot. Uh, fish eggs. Ew. Yes. Escargot snails. Is it? Oh, that's caviar. Okay. Il est américain. Uh, you are American. He is American. Well, you is he. Is that correct? Il est. Il est. Il est. Okay. I need, I need a waiter to help me. You're right. I'm telling you, I can actually like do math with languages. That's correct. Yeah. Have you seen the catacombs yet? No. Do you want to see them? Come here. Wait, you can see them? I heard a rumor that you can't stream down. Yo, this is it. This is the catacombs. We're talking about the Paris catacombs. You can't just stream down there. There's so many of the, those places you're not allowed to access. It's over 300 miles. Wait, the catacombs at 300 miles? Of tunnels. What? Is there, there's a comedian's store up here, right? Yeah. Huh? There's a comedian's store up here, thank you. Comedian's store? Yes. I'm buying some jokes. Where's the, You need that as fun. I do need it, actually. Or that you need the most. I do need it. You can go over there and pick up some, some from Nick's aisle of just sexual harassment. Chai, let's sit down. I'm tired now. It's not, it's not showing up. I don't even know. I think it's on. No, it wasn't on.  There you go. I tried turning it on again. I then turned it off. It's still the same problem. Okay. Yeah, that's what I'm doing. That's what I'm doing. Wait. Someone said Nick's actually the worst, one of the worst humans in existence. Really? Of all time? What? Dude, there's no way you put some of my backpack open.   What is wrong with you? That is not spoken.  That was a mistake. Your backpack is wet.  Am I wearing that soy? I'm making it to his mountain cause someone keep playing. Hey, I don't blame you. I think it's stuck in traffic. Oh! Pickles overgrown. I'm so sticky. I don't want to. Wipes? Dude, look at the privilege on this one. She got wet wipes and she can point it. I wish I had wet wipes. Was that my fault too, Helena? No, no, I'm wet.  Sorry. That's me. It's my backpack. It's not my backpack. It's not mine. Hello, press fan? Phone drawer. That's one. Yes, fan. No. I'm sorry. That's not mine. Okay. I can explain. Okay. The only album I've ever bought on iTunes is Lonely Island. It was years ago, so every time I get into a car, it starts playing a Lonely Island. A random Lonely Island song. It randomly. Why does it keep playing? I'm sorry. I'm not. I don't know why. Usually, it's like, it's not a weird one. Usually, it's like Dick in a Box or something. What do you mean? You're just talking. I have these competitions in normal cars. So what was your favorite thing about Twoshkott today? Lonely Island was there. Really? Yeah. Where? It was sick. Did you meet a girlfriend? Several. What happened to them? I lost her. I lost a couple in my day too. But I got the one that mattered. Did you hear what happened to Asan? I did. Isn't that crazy? Okay, so check this out. This morning. Hello. Mr. Uber driver. Stop, stop. No, we're not doing that. I turned it off. I turned it off. Fiffle Tower. Oh, frick. This is crazy. I should get water in France. I think it's important. What? A sin. A sin? Are these rivers from London? This is where the Vikings have dirt, but you know... Yeah. Okay. What country is next to this country? Spain. Spain? Belgium. Belgium? Spain too, right? I'm buying geography. You know what would be crazy? This country is bordering to Spain, right? Imagine if France joined America. The United States of France and America. For America. For America. We could just take over. And then we can rename French fries officially at a freedom price. That's right. That's right, brother. Stop words, eating stuff. The thing is off. I'm actually impressed that I've been able to go two full days without eating food. Dude, I am also... Did you just forget about the double fries and nine nuggets and three hamburgers you had last night? Oh. It's crazy how she has lies. This is what you could hate threats about, by the way. And fry sauce and ketchup and barbecue sauce. She just lies. She was lying. There was no ketchup. Is this the bridge with the locks? Yeah, there's tons of warlocks here. They're all dropping their ports so they can port back. Sierra said, y'all could seize. Buy a lock and you can attach it to... Oh my God, Nick, take a picture for this. Can I... I need to talk about something real quick. I have a real beef with Sierra, actually. Oh. Yeah. I got a real beef with Sierra. Chad. Can you believe this? Sierra, how come I was not invited to Pizza Friday this week? I know you knew that I was at TwitchCon, but I still would have liked to be invited. Okay. Dude, can you believe you invited Technon? I'm not mean. Unbelievable. Even though I couldn't make it. Oh, Art de Triomphe. Art de Triomphe. Wait, wait, wait. Art de Triomphe. No, is that it? Oh my God, it is. Look. Gary was twerking his Art de Triomphe. What do I look at here? Look at the Instagram. Excellent. Wait, that guy's...  What? What? Look at him. The statue. Why was that guy making it? He came out of nowhere.  Why is this city so beautiful? Think about Austin. Why are you comparing Austin to this? And how crappy it is. Well, see, if you go to any of these historic towns like Paris, Paris has existed for like 3,000 years. Think about all the history that has existed in 3,000 years. America, on the other hand, has been around for like 50 years. Look at this random beautiful photo that I got with the sun in the middle. Wow. Can we talk about something that's very important? What? Berry.  I know she tagged us. Yeah, I'm putting it there. She's a good friend. It's good to have allies in different countries. That's all this is. That must be some, like, royal tombstone. So how are the depression levels here? Because in America it's quite high. I think it's high, too. Really? Every big city, I think, is that right? Do your guy's depression come from the same place? Is this it? Yes. Okay. Oh, wow. Thank you. Merci beaucoup. Oh, dude, I didn't realize how much my knees hurt. Oh, I dropped that. Chad, we made it. We're in France. So we have a bit of a journey ahead of us, Chad. Strapping. You're trying to speak Geneva. You're trying to turn that off or I'm leaving. Well, I was trying to make sure it was... We don't need that. But I have it on... What? Oui, oui. Nice. Okay, that was really loud. I'm sorry. I'm about to turn the TTS back on. What did I sound like a cow? My goodness. Chad, Nick went immediately. He be-lined it for the nearest food station. Come on. Yo, are you streaming? Hey, you're streamers? Yes. Are you like from Tujkan? Yeah, obviously. Yeah, yeah. Where are you from, guys? United States. No, I'm from Texas. Ah, Norway. Yeah. Are you guys from here? No, we came from Poland. Oh, really? No, I forgot Poland. We're originally from Mongolia. Oh, nice. Espen? Are you Espen, guys? Yeah, Espen. Oh, yeah, they know you. Do you know him? Es- Espen? Espen, yeah? Espen? What are you asking? Who is Espen? Es- Es- Okay, so my viewers were spamming me. And I go find Espen today earlier. But to be honest, I didn't know you or your content. Okay. And I found you. I found you. Oh, you have nice camera. It's like, whole setup looks so pro. Yeah, that's my cameraman. That's good that you have a camera on. Yeah, that's good that you have a camera on. Yeah, his name is Ben. Awesome, man. You are streaming in 4K? Uh, no. 4K is for losers. So we do 160. Alright. Yeah, and then 4x3. 4x3? Yeah, it's like an old TV. Oh, okay. Like in CSGO? Yeah, like CSGO. Can I have a picture with you? Yeah, let's do it. Nice to meet you. Yeah, of course. Dude, you know what it is? Yeah? I think I look like a famous person. You do? Plus you have the famous camera guy? Yeah. Espen. Yeah? Check. We're equally famous than you. Okay, we're equally famous. We have the same, we have the same followers and everything. Where'd he go now? The difference is, is he has more hate watchers. That's the difference. Who? Nick.  Well, no, you have the same amount of hate watchers. Car. I think I'm having, like, shock right now. Really? It's lack of food, yeah. Yeah, I'm shocked. Wow, this is so cool. Oh, that was crazy. We need to find some burgers. Like, maybe a pizza. It says pizza here? Yeah. What? Some Nutella? That. Some hummus?  Let's go. Sorry. Have a nice day. This place is sick. Yeah. This is definitely a tourist place for sure. Dude, I feel like this, yeah, it just feels like historic. Like, this is like an old, like, downtown area. This feels like everything here is way too expensive. Yeah. Oh, Espen. We're getting close, man. I feel like it's hard with IRL.  Let's go over here. There's nobody behind us. Oh, yeah, there is. Sorry. That looks like Mizz to the right. The guy looks like Mizz to the right. Oh, my gosh. It was Mizz. There was an adult Mizz kiff over there. It's crazy. Whoa. This is actually crazy. It's like a palace.  What is this place? It's called the Basilique Sacré-Cœur. Yeah. What happens in here? I really don't know. What happens in here stays in here. Let's go over here. What is this? Rue du Chavalier de la Barre. Dude, this is unbelievable. Well, we should both stand like this. There's gargoyles on it. It's a church. Wait, is this Notre Dame? Wait. Is this? No. Oh, no. I didn't know. You didn't know the difference between this and Notre Dame. Hey, I'm going to be honest. I didn't know the difference between Notre Dame and Notre Dame. I thought they both had a football team. Okay? The fight in Irish.  It's like human beings can create this. And also make a hate threat. And most people would rather sit on Twitter and complain. It's crazy. It's so cool. Also, how many years ago was this game? Oh, look at this view. Where's my love? Milena. Milena. Nobody cares about this anymore. Look at that. Bro. We got a new toy. Dude, this is nuts. This is unreal. This is crazy. You can see the whole city. This is wild. The Pope is walking out. You're going to see him in a couple of seconds. Are you here? The Pope is behind this wall. I don't think it's the Pope. I think it's like a replica. What are they called? No, I think it's... Many Popes? No, it's like an impersonator. They bring them in for shows and parties. Birthdays. Oh. Are you going to help us impersonator? Yeah, we have to... This is the queue. We should get in line if we want to go inside. Everyone's going in now. Come on. All right. Let's speak up. Let's speak up. Let's speak up. Everyone's going in now. Come on. The scene is fake. It's coming out of a speaker. Wait, what? Show them. It's crazy. They've monetized Jesus. They got bows. Jesus got bows, dog. It's all monetization. I wanted to come here my whole life because it was from the end of John Wick 4, which I definitely watched, and also from Assassin's Creed, which I definitely played. Religion's pretty cool, huh, guys? Thumbs up for religion. Without religion, we don't get this. That's right. Holy divine light. That's right. Amazing. This looks good on camera. Right, guys? People are always talking negative about history and all these bad things that happened. Look at this cool building.  Amazing. That's pretty cool. Hey, do you have two gold? No. I have to train. I don't have any euros. I need to train. I need to get divine shield. No. This is sick. Yeah, you look like a... No, no, no. You know why? Because in the Bible, Jesus went to the brothel and spoke to the prostitutes. The temptress. Wait, is this Christianity? Call me a prostitute. I told you the Pope was here. Isn't that the Pope? He's... To the left, yeah. I don't really know too much about this stuff. Oh, Espen. Espen. The Pope's coming. Look to my left. He had nothing to train me. That was crazy. That was cool. Dude, we just met the Pope. This is like the best day of my life, man. I wish my mom would come with me. My mom is super religious. She would love this place. That's why she called me Jason. Because of French. Jason. Jason? Dave Chappelle. Dave Chappelle show. What year was this built, by the way? I think it was like 2000 when it got canceled. What? No, that's Chappelle show. This church. What year was it built? Wait, I'm gonna Google it. What is this place called? Sacri-Cœur. I... Si. So, I don't know what you told me, but I'm getting a whole bunch of food recommendations. This is cool. This is cool. Let me see. Okay, let me type that back in here. This building was created in 1932. They said tickety because the Kaiser took 20 from him. Can you believe that? What did he just say? No, this place was ground broke in 1875. It was completed in 1914. Isn't that crazy? They made this in 1914. 1914, they made... This place was done. Are you kidding me? I can't even change a light bulb. Holy moly. I'm useless. Wow, this is so dope, dude. You know what's... You know what? I'm just gonna be honest. Elon Musk. He's buying Twitter. You're doing it wrong, buddy. Build yourself one of these. You'll be remembered forever. Twitter's gonna be canceled anyways in a couple years. Will you build one of these things, buddy? This is serious to a lot of people. People probably come in here. Look, there's a confessions booth. They can confess. I can confess something right now. How much are confessions? I don't know. Hey, listen, I can load up Barry's Instagram and I can confess real quick. That's weird. I'm just kidding. I would never have made that joke. That is very weird. That's... Don't try and do what I do. I have a girlfriend for 12 years. So it's the guy who goes to Hassan's Instagram and then embays it immediately. He's like, I gotta go look for passwords. Thanks, guys. Hey, let's do it. Hey, how's it going? Yeah, good. Yeah, basically. Of course it's at the church. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Thank you, guys. Plus one. Plus two. You're a pretty famous guy. You know what? I actually am, I think. I think if you put me in a room with me and two other people, I will probably be the most famous. You know what? I'm starting to think that I just viewbot, huh? Hey, did you talk to her about getting one with her? Irish pub? Hey. That's one of my videos. Sorry? That's your Minecraft I'm talking about. Wait, should we go somewhere we can film some stuff? I don't know if we can. English. This menu is not available today. Okay. Yeah, I don't have a luncheak. Oh, yes. Oh, welcome. Hey, he's my brother. No. He's my brother. He's my brother. It's all good, thank you. You're welcome. I'm sorry, I just made this call because if not, I just know I spent too much time on this actually. We've just been walking around for hours. Whose decision was it to come here? There was that guy that recommended it to me. Huge shout out to that guy. Thank you. I said, are you famous or are you families? Famous. Oh, I thought he said family. That's why I said he's my brother. He said famous. I think he said family. Would you have said no if we said family? You don't think of me like a brother? Yep. What about a brother? Well, I had to get permission first, clearly. I've lost that card apparently, so. That goes. Hello. Do you want to order a drink for a start? I think we're ready to order everything. Can we do that? That routine is okay, let's do it. Do you have spaghetti? Spaghetti? Yes, sorry, I don't really like fries, but oh, it says here after. Do you have spaghetti bolognese? Cheese bolognese? You have spaghetti. Sorry. Spaghetti, I don't know who is spaghetti. Spaghetti, how do you say spaghetti in French? Spaghetti. Spaghetti. Spaghetti. Oh, spaghetti? Yeah, do you have that? Okay, no. I don't have. I'll take any pasta. Sorry. Ask him first. Do you have cheese pizza? No, we don't have pizza. Do you have hamburgers? Yeah, hamburgers. All in here. Can I just get a normal hamburger? No cheese. No cheese? Yeah. How do you like your meat? Medium well. In French it's medium well done. Well done. Well done. Yeah, did you have, man, we call them French fries. I'm not sure what they're. Belgian fries. Yeah. Can I have some of those? Yeah, okay. Okay. That burger with French fries. Yes, yes. Evian water? Or water? Evian? Temp water. Yeah, yeah, temp water. Yeah, still water. Perfect. Thank you so much. I'll do a pan with tomato sauce. Perfect. What's a good drink? A refreshing drink? I'll take that. Okay, nice. Can I get a burger from St. Louis? Okay, which is salmon? Yes. Okay, nice. Wait, it's salmon? Salmon. Salmon hamburger. What's from St. Louis? The one? No, no, no, no. Wait, is it hamburger meat and salmon? I know, it's not burger. Oh, I thought it was like a double meat. You went both? Yeah, that was a double meat. Surf and turf, you know? You know what? Let's do it. Salmon burger. Salmon burger. Can I get French fries? Yeah, with French fries. And sparkling water and no ice? Sparkling water and no ice. With lemon? No lemon. No lemon. And then whatever he wants to. Coke? Yeah. A coke and then French fries. Thank you. Thank you so much. You know I speak French. Dude, we could have just asked you for help. It's hard. Funny to eat. Sorry. I have to try. You have to try. Yes, sorry. Where are you from? Texas. Norway. Norway, Texas? Texas. Are you from Paris? France? Yeah? Okay, I don't want to be that guy. But on the door, it says pizza. It literally said pizza. On the thing. No, that's why she was laughing.  It says pizza. Also, Nick, what is this? Nick kept going, I want cheese pizza. Nick keeps going, I want pizza. I want cheese, I want cheese. And then I want a burger, no cheese. I don't like cheese. Yeah, then why do you want cheese pizza? It's not the same. What do you mean it's not the same? Cheese, cheese. Bro, that's ignorant. What kind of cheese is not cheese? An example. I like to shower with my hockey teammates. Okay. But I don't like to shower with them at my house. Okay, so you like cheese, but only at home? Yep. And I only eat with your teammates. Not the same thing. Okay, what's that? Actually, that's a good analogy. Yeah. What's the most famous food here? Is it croissant? It's got to go. They like meat, uh, meal. Big, juicy meat. It's got to go. They call it beef bourguignon. It's like meat, beef with wine sauce. Oh. Okay. We should get some of that at some point. Can I ask you a question? I don't want to sound offensive. Yeah. Because we're both, you know, like dark, right? Yeah. Where are we called here? People call it black because they are not, how do I say that? They don't want to bother people. So they call it black. It's just black. But in France, usually it's noir. Noir? Like black noir from... It means black. It means black. I'm noir. What happened to you? You metis. We call it metis of black. Oh my God. Noir, dude. That is sick. Noir sounds so cool. So does black. Black's cool. Whoa, chill, dude. I was just dressing like a hoe in that church and I regret it. It's okay. You got yourself some... Some old guy walked by me and he was like, boots. He just always said he was like, boots. Is that what he means in French too? To say boots? Boots? Yeah, that's... Yep. Yep, he was... I don't think he was English. While we were walking earlier, people say in French, Americans are so slow to walk. That's what they said? That's what I love. A lot of feet hurt. It's hard to walk around here. Thank you so much. Wait, is this one... I really have liked Paris so far, man. Has it been a great experience? This has been crazy. Everybody speaks American. It makes it easy to travel. Yeah. It's okay, it's okay. I know. I have small hands. That's okay. It's far. Yep. Thank you. You guys have like orange soda or like orange drink? Yeah, sure.  French, maybe? Uh, what is... What is like... You like confetti or... Uh, like... Like an orange... Like an orange drink with gas. Uh, I have confetti or like... Or maybe the confetti soda. Uh, yeah, like a soda. Yeah, like a soda. Or it's liquor? Yeah, it's liquor, yeah. Oh, I just want like a soft drink. No, I have orange juice. Oh, I have oranges. Yeah. Fresh oranges, no, no ice. Sure. Do you need that stuff? I don't have... No, I don't have phanta. I have orangeina, if you like. Oh, orangeina. Orangeina is good, right? Yeah, precise, do you like... Small, medium or large? Uh, large orangeina with no ice? Large, maybe medium one, yeah. Medium, yeah. Yeah, okay. Thank you so much. Chad, I can get orangeina. They wanted me to get orangeina last night. I couldn't get it. I feel like we should have our wedding here. Yeah, I do, Chad. Is it alcohol?  I think it's probably the ceiling of the building that we just wanted to. Plus the street that we went to. So, look... You were like vibrating yesterday. So my question is, like, Chad, why were people so negative about the city? Is there something I'm missing here? Like, it seems to me like it's a pretty cool place to visit. What am I missing? Jealousy. It can't be jealousy. Like, the people who make fun of me and Hassan, that's jealousy. But I'm not... What are we missing? People call it Paris syndrome. They say that Americans are immune to... What does Paris syndrome mean? Paris syndrome. Paris syndrome. This is delicious, by the way, real quick. Orangina is good stuff. It actually tastes like orange juice. Oh my god, the food's already ready.  That's five minutes. There's some bread. And then we have tomato sauce. Oh. Thank you. And burger without cheese. It's this salmon. Salmon. Salmon burger. And here, without cheese. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Very fast. Thank you. That's super fast. Just quick. French McDonald's. This is how... This is the quality. Yeah, this is great quality. Bon appetit. Bon appetit. Give me a hand-sand one. I'm not going to try to be that guy. But we could have used maybe... A wee bit more fries. Dude, these are... I'm just saying... I'm just saying... I'm just saying... Oh my gosh, that pasta looks so good. I want that. Mine. Is this ketchup? Do you want a hand-sand? Yes. Americans demanding more food. Are Americans spoiled when it comes to, like... You want me to eat that? You haven't started yet. I can eat yours. I'm going to keep it real. Alright, let's give it a go, Chet. French hamburger. French hamburgers. Is this salmon burger, Chet? Salmon burger. It's called a burger from St. Louis. Pretty good. It's hot. This is hot. So hot. It's good, though. You know what's funny? You guys type in chat. What do you guys type? You can tell if you're from America or not. Because someone's like... Burger for ants. Omegalol. The next guy's like... You know... In a diet. Omegalol, you know? It's like... You can just tell where you guys are from. That's true, actually. Some people say, like, if you tip it's offensive sometimes, yeah? Yeah, because it's like... You didn't need to tip me. Do you have dollars? I think I have some. You could pay them in dollars for cameramaning or euros? They have exposure. Oh, exposure? Pay them with exposure? Finn! You didn't credit it to the wrong guy. No, is it Finn? It's not Finn. You know how I know he's good? He said you should call me Finn. It's funny. Oh, it is funny. Here. Is that ours? All right. I tried in the Uber. I didn't know what to say. I was like, what the... Okay, let me sit here. Because S-Finn gets motion sick. No, Nick gets motion sick. That was crazy how S-Finn got a different Uber that quickly. Yeah, it was wild. It's a chat today. We're on our channel, Crape Reviews. We're going to try Nutella Crape. Was that your phone? Twice. We're going to wait.  That's how hot it is. Because it was so hot, she picked it up. She inchly dropped it on the ground. Really? Yep. Was she, like, dense? I mean, she probably wasn't expecting it to be so hot. It was hot. Why do you pick up really hot? What do you mean we picked it up? It was hot. It's on my leg. I can't feel my kneecap. We don't use the word dense. The word's thick. It's thick. It has a different meaning, though. No, it does not. Oh, leg cramp. Oh. I'm going to cramp. My thigh. Put the crepe on. It's hot. That was crazy. You're going to apply some heat. Oh, yeah. Get it heat. Ready? Dude, this thing is hot. It's hot. Oh, my God. It's hotter than my laptop. Actually, it is like a laptop. Yeah. What is that? A piece of paper is so hot. Oh, there's the crepes on it. Like, if I wanted to, let's say, find a lady of the night, would that be possible? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. And it'd be top tier? I don't know. I have to find out. That's why you sounded like that. Like, I don't know. Like, ask me. I'm kidding. I would never do that. Publicly. I'm getting cramps. I don't need water. I need water. I'm cramping up.  You're going to get a lot more cramps. Are you tired right now? Or do you think like, how long would you be until you're tired? I was tired when I got on the stream. More rats? Yeah, I mean, I can. See, I'm going to end it now because Nick was being a good friend and he was going to go the extra mile for me. So, Harrison, chat for Nick. Everybody, Jack, go follow Nick. Tomorrow, the schedule is I go live in the morning. Nick and Milana go live in the afternoon and then I go live again in the evening. I'll do two days. You're going to go to sleep, too, buddy. Hi, chat. We're going to go ahead and end it. No party. No, we went to the party last night. I know we didn't, actually. We went to the party last night.


Are you strict with yourself, or are you lenient with yourself? Well, I want to recommend that you be both strict and lenient, but in the right areas. I recommend that you be strict about showing up, but lenient about the results. Let me explain. Most people, especially maybe a lot of you watching this, tend to be givers. You are very helpful to other people. You tend to more easily show up for other people, but maybe not so much for your own projects that don't have an external deadline, but that you have to set your own deadline, right? You know what I'm talking about? You may be lenient with showing up for your own projects, but then what happens is you get strict about the results. This thing has to be perfect. Oh, it's not good enough to put out there yet. I recommend that you flip that around. Be strict about showing up for your projects, but then be lenient about the results. Why? Because you've got to see excellence and perfection as the entire process.  Do you agree? And if you grow your skills over time, you will inevitably get better results. But if you force yourself to get great results in any work session, you will enter into self-doubt, self-judgment, self-punishment, procrastinating on putting that thing out there. Business with the results in any work session is simply not a very productive strategy. So be strict about showing up on time whenever possible for the thing you have planned to work on, especially if it doesn't have an external deadline, but you know it's important. Ask yourself, I'm curious to know what is the thing that you know if you did consistently will probably benefit your business, but it doesn't have an external deadline. You have to do it yourself. Stephen Covey and the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People call this the Quadrant Two activities. Some people call this the Eisenhower time management matrix. It's the stuff that is important, but not urgent. So you have to set a time for that. There's no other boss telling you to do it. You've got to do it. You've got to show up for it. Now the question is, will you show up? And when you do show up, do you do that task? Or do you give in to fear, anxiety, uncertainty? And do you escape and do Facebook or surf, watch Instagram videos, right? Or do you do the thing that you had planned strictly noticing the unpleasant emotions of anxiety, fear, uncertainty, et cetera. And when you notice it, reframe it into something positive, such as adventure, curiosity, openness, experimentation. The future is wide open in a moment of creation, in a project that is uncertain. That means the future is wide open. And so don't expect and be attached to a particular result. Just be open in creating. Be strict about showing up and working on what you had planned. And then be open, be lenient with the results, meaning be open to whatever happens in that work period. Knowing that you have put in your time, and by putting in your time again and again you're going to become excellent over time. It's inevitable and you will get better and better results.  What do you do then?  Do you punish yourself? Which is what a lot of us do. Observe, oh, I just escaped for half an hour, I just escaped for 15 minutes, I just escaped for whatever, I just escaped for a couple of days, right? Notice that and be strict about coming back to the focus, but be gentle about the fact that you're coming back. Be gentle about that you had escaped and now you're coming back. Appreciate that, just like in meditation, right? When you're meditating and you're focusing on the breath, do you blame yourself? You go, oh, I missed my breath again, I'm thinking of thoughts and I got lost. No, no, no, you go, oh, I just noticed that I'm lost in thoughts. Come back to the breath, come back to the breath gently, but just come back without any self-blame. Same thing with this productivity method of strict about showing up, lenient with the results, just come back to the thing that you had planned to do and just try, just keep your genuine effort going gently, just knowing that you're going to get better over time, just keep doing it and publish, post, right? Share no matter what, what, if you had planned to publish that blog post today, publish it today. If you had planned to make your live video today, make it right now, right? And let me tell you a secret that a lot of people don't know about, about my, my process, I never feel like doing these videos, I don't. I really, I never also, I never feel like writing my blog posts and yet now I have over a thousand blog posts. I never feel like doing these videos and yet now I have over a thousand. And what happens though, if I'm strict about showing up, no matter how I'm feeling, I already had several client appointments today. I've already done my writing today, I've already done quite a bit today. My energy is already kind of lagging. It's not the most optimal time to be doing this, but you know what, right now, you know, my, my wife is out of the house. So it's, it's good, it's optimal time for me to be expressing myself kind of like just to not, not be worried about, you know, bothering her or anything. This is an optimal time right now for me to be doing this video logistically speaking. So I'm going to show up and I'm just going to bring the best that I can. I show up and I notice that once I show up within a couple minutes, I get into the flow and you may have noticed that too. Have you noticed this? If you show up and with a blank page of your writing, you blank page and you just keep on writing, right, you get into the flow before long. You get into the flow, but how long it takes of that uncertainty before you get into the flow? Who knows? But you have to stay with it until you get to the flow. Okay. So show up no matter what strictly for your projects, be lenient with what happens during that work period, knowing that over time, you're just going to get better and better. Okay. And just keep doing that.  That is the path of mastery. Right. And as you take that path, you inevitably become a master. So until the next video, be strict about showing up working on what you planned and be lenient with the results. I wish you well.


Honored guests, ladies and gentlemen, I am honored by the very kind invitation to speak at your 61st annual conference and I must say that the presidential members of council deserve our commendation for convening this virtual conference of our leading economists across the country against all odds. Clearly COVID-19 has lost the battle to technological ingenuity and the human will. The theme of this annual conference, the African Continental Free Trade Area in the post COVID-19 era, what next for Nigeria, is particularly apt. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying global economic shutdown could not have come at a worse time or the African Continental Free Trade Area because trading was to have started on the 1st of July 2020. This has meant a delay in reaping some of the expected benefits of the of the free trade equipment. The theme is also relevant because the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted negatively on almost all African countries and will have lasting effects on several economic sectors and activities. It is therefore incumbent on Nigeria as the largest economy in the free trade area and with possibly the largest assemblage of the finest economic minds to begin to think through what all these developments mean for us nationally and regionally. The AFTA is expected to bring about a number of benefits to producers, to consumers and countries alike. The hope is that African producers would benefit from access to cheaper imports and intermediate goods as well as larger markets for their products while consumers have access to cheaper goods and a broader variety of products. On their part, African economies should experience some gains from trade and further benefit from removing some of the more onerous requirements of belonging to multiple and overlapping trade agreements within the continent. The Economic Commission for Africa has estimated that with full liberalization, intra-African trade will increase by 52.3% as compared to a situation without the free trade agreements. This will be by 2022. Such an increase means that African economies will benefit from the growth that often accompanies increased trade flows. First, and I think the very first question that we are to address is where are we in the journey with the African continental free trade agreements? Where exactly are we today in that regard? It's probably worth noting that Nigeria played a very active role in the negotiations that brought the free trade agreement into being, and the main intensive stages were chaired by the late Ambassador Cheyedu Osakwe, who was then the Director General of the Nigeria Office for Trade Negotiations. The creation of the Office of Trade Negotiations was a deliberate decision by this government to change our approach to trade negotiations by ensuring that our participation is underpinned by top-class technical knowledge and adequate preparations. A considerable amount of work had been done before the suspension of activities relating to the operationalization of the free trade agreement. Work was ongoing on the shadow of tariff concessions for trading goods and trading services and for rules of origin. For instance, it had been agreed that the shadow of tariff concessions would permit 10% of tariff lines of member states to be included in an exclusion list that is not subject to liberalization, and a sensitive products list which is subject to negotiated liberalization. Just to emphasize the point, the member states agreed that 10% of tariff lines, 10% of items, could come under a special category, an exclusion list. So for example, if we felt that we didn't want to liberalize trade in rice, as an example, or trade in soy beans, or trade in so-called, we could put it under that 10% tariff line, which would not be subject. It would be an exclusion list and would not be subject to liberalization. There's also a sensitive products list, which is a list that we would agree to negotiate liberalization. In other words, if not the automatic liberalization would agree to negotiate. These sorts of checks and assurances are put into the trade agreement to assure member states that you can, where necessary, protect certain items. You can decide as a matter of economic policy that you want to specialize in certain items, or you want certain items to be protected from competition, from external competition. And that is factored into the, that is factored into the trade agreements. Also, five sectors have been identified as the initial priorities for negotiations in trade services. And these five sectors are transport, communications, tourism, financial services, and business services. I just repeat that transport, communications, financial services, tourism, and business services. Similarly, product specific rules of origin have been agreed on 88% of product lines with work on key products like cotton, textiles, sugar, and automobiles still outstanding before the delays occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. So we have 88% of product lines, which have been agreed on, the rules of origin have been agreed with respect to 88% of product lines. Now, these rules of origin, as you know, are very important, you know, because one of the chief fears of those who have opposed the trade agreements is that what stops a country, a neighboring country, say, by a republic or Togo, from bringing in a Chinese firm, a Chinese company, that will simply establish itself there in the country and begin to sell its products, manufacture some products and sell those products under the free trade agreements, you know, just using Togo as a staging post or using Ben as a staging post, you know, and just transferring this, simply sending the goods to Nigeria or what stops any other country that just wants to sell its products and benefit from the free trade agreement from coming into any of our neighboring countries and establishing there and simply selling products. So the rules of origin have taken care of that with respect to 88% of products to ensure that we're very clear as to rules of origin, where the goods are originally manufactured is important in the free trade agreement. If they are not originally manufactured in the country, in one of our member state countries, then clearly they cannot benefit from the free trade agreement. Now all this work was disrupted by the outbreak of the pandemic, but it's essential to reach agreement on them before actual trading can start as specific details are required so that customs and customs authorities can make necessary changes and adjustments to their tariff books. Trading was supposed to start on the 1st of July 2020, but the takeoff date has now been shifted to the 1st of January 2021. So virtual meetings at the moment, what is going on are virtual meetings of trade negotiators, senior officials and even ministers, and many of these meetings have been held to keep up the momentum. But of course it seems that they are faced with several challenges in communications. In many cases they are done with problems of reliability and in some cases there's some worry about confidentiality in those transactions and this has somewhat hampered the virtual meetings. All these outstanding phase one issues would need to be completed before negotiations move to phase two, which will deal with the substantive issues of competition, policy, intellectual property and investment. And this is important, you know, the phase two is important because this is one of the very important innovations in the free trade agreements. Competition, policy, intellectual property and investment. Usually trade agreements under the WTO tradition don't necessarily include competition, policy, intellectual property and investment rules, etc. But these particular trade agreements are in the modern genre of trade agreements and you have a lot of pain, considerable attention to competition policy, to intellectual property and to investment rules. The immediate challenge is to bring the economies back to normalcy across the continent. And although Africa has been relatively fortunate in terms of the actual health damage of the pandemic, our business and trading populations will need assurances of safety from the virus before normal economic activity nationally and regionally will return to normal. Besides it to be difficult to restore full economic activities without facing the dangers of a second wave and further economic disruption. So business as usual it seems will only return when they have availability of a vaccine and or perhaps as some have suggested if the virus were just simply to disappear one day. But even this may like trade, even this prospect of a vaccine and the use of a vaccine may like trade be affected by the power configurations between the global south just roughly speaking and the north between the wealthier countries and countries that are poor. Today one of our concerns in Africa is that because the wealthier countries have literally prepaid for the earlier supplies of the vaccines it might take a while for us to get immunized in this part of the world. Clearly we are a Gavi supported country and we're actively involved in Gavi's efforts to ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines under the Covax initiative. Isn't it interesting that we have to talk now about a vaccine as part of trade as part of our economy you know and the availability of a vaccine because it is not available. We may indeed you know have further disruptions in economic activity. Just to explain Covax is the vaccine spiller of a project which is called the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator and is co-led by the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, CEPI, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the World Health Organization and they are working in partnership with developed and developing country vaccine manufacturers. So it is this is a global initiative that is working with governments and manufacturers to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines are available worldwide to both higher income and lower income countries. So this is a this is an alliance that we're working very closely with so that we also will be able to get COVID-19 vaccines at about the same time as other countries are getting or at least shortly thereafter. The challenge of rebuilding our economies is a real one and we had identified this as a major issue as we entered into the free trade agreements even you know in other words even before COVID-19 obviously rebuilding our economies and growing our economies has always been an important consideration. Infrastructure for example access to capital have remained challenges. GDP growth was minus 6.1 percent in the second quarter of 2020. In South Africa which is the second largest economy in which is the second largest economy on the continent, GDP has contracted by 51 percent in the same period so we are you know so we are faced with severe challenges with considerable challenges and we must address those challenges. It's obvious that if there is no production there's very little scope for growth but lack of growth and volatile market economic conditions also pose a great danger to the free trade agreements because the instinct of countries is to look towards and to resort to beggar by neighbor policies such as competitive evaluation, tariff barriers, when faced with such difficulties. Here in Nigeria the approach that we have adopted is a 2.3 trillion economic sustainability plan with a view to mitigating the shock, tackling vulnerabilities and creating and protecting jobs, rescuing businesses and repositioning the economy. Our projections showed that without the stimulus the economy was set to contract by about minus 4.4 percent and possibly up to 7 percent in 2020 but with implementation including ramping up local production we should be able to limit the negative growth to about minus 0.59 percent. Let me be clear that our desire to ramp up local production is not a call to alter key but rather an expenditure switching approach which can complement the free trade agreements desire to deepen original value chains. Indeed one thing that has become clear from our experiences of the last few months is the need for a vibrant and successful free trade agreement. The pandemic has exposed our dependence on commodity exports to other parts of the world and on the import of manufactured goods from them. As of 2017 intra-African trading goods was in the order of about 135 billion US dollars which was about 15 percent of Africa's total trade. This is in sharp contrast to trade in other regions which is as high as 70 percent in the European Union and 60 percent in the Asia trade agreements. The imposition of export bugs including on food items by some countries and the disruption of the global supply chains at the height of the pandemic showed just how exposed and vulnerable African countries are because of the limited productive capacity and a lack of regional value chains. So these are issues that we simply have to deal with and I think that the pandemic has helped greatly in showing us these vulnerabilities and that we simply must improve our current situations and we must ensure that we fully implement the trade agreements to enable us to interact with our neighbors by way of trade. We must of course continue to bear in mind especially here in Nigeria of course that the free trade agreements will not of course automatically bring about growth and prosperity. The reality is that if care is not taken trade liberalization can expose the Nigerian economy to unfair competition and sharp trade practices with adverse consequences for our producers who might have to close down their business series and for workers who will then lose their jobs. So it's a double-edged sword but of course the better picture is that these trade agreements will inspire growth will definitely serve our purposes but we need to be proactive if we are to participate effectively in them. This will entail improving our ability to produce and trade competitively in goods and services which is why the federal government is investing heavily in infrastructure, road, rail, port infrastructure and of course broadband connectivity. We're hoping that our broadband for all by 2023 will work and this is a very important part of our infrastructure and so we're talking to states to state governments to reduce their tariffs or completely erase right of way tariffs that they impose on broadband infrastructure and of course the argument is that if there are no right of way tariffs and private sector individuals can lay their broadband infrastructure it will be much obviously the economic benefits are greater than whatever little IGR can be derived from right of way charges on broadband infrastructure. So these are some of the infrastructure initiatives that we think are crucial to be able to benefit maximally from the free trade agreements. It's also why we're taking active steps to improve the business environment and to facilitate trade across our borders including through the implementation of the national trading platform or the single windows project. Part of that project is the installation of scanners in all of our ports, seaports, airports and our land borders as well. The national trading platform is a very important part of our preparations for the AFCTA. This involves a port community project of course there's a customs aspect of it and this is particularly crucial because it means that all of our trade imports and exports and all of our trade will come through a single platform which of course is technologically powered and it's an electronic platform it will enable us to skip a lot of the processes that slow down imports a lot of the processes that make trading export and import difficult tracking cargo inspecting cargo etc will become much much easier especially because of the benefit of technology. Just about two weeks ago the federal executive council approved an important aspect of it of the trading platform which is the customs segment of it the customs electronic platform and we hope that we would be able to achieve this in the next two in the next two years we hope we'll be able to achieve the full implementation of the national trading platform. Government also realizes of course that it needs to be able to enforce trade rules and apply trade remedies so that our partners in the free trade agreement especially our neighbors don't take on due advantage of our large market. We appreciate that the border closure for example has caused difficulties not just for our neighbors but for many of our businesses and as you probably have heard active steps have been taken to resolve the situation especially by consulting closely with neighboring and approximate countries to address the issues of concern to us especially on bridal smuggling into the country. You probably also wish to know that the National Action Committee of the implementation of the free trade agreement which is chaired by our own Honourable Minister of Industry Trade and Investment is already actively seized with these matters so if the AFTA is to achieve the desired objectives then it's also very important that Nigeria should push for the implementation of complementary programs and protocols including the protocol on free movement of persons the Pan-African Payment Systems and the sectoral program and the other sectoral programs. Quite unlike the free trade agreements the protocol on free movement of persons is not gathering the desired pace of ratification and this is not surprising because of the fear of migrants out competing nationals for jobs and the likely social tensions in recipient countries. We already see the kinds of tensions that are going on in Ghana with our with the Nigerian businesses you know so it then becomes easier to understand why the protocols of free movement of persons is not being taken on as enthusiastically as the other components of our free trade agreements. There's always that tension always that sense that foreigners would come and take over our jobs foreigners will come and take over everything that we own but the truth is that free movement of persons is key for trade he says no we have no choice if we are going to implement the free trade agreements we must have free movement of persons especially trading services such as tourism professional services and all that you know then it stands to reason that the success of the trade agreement itself in the medium term would require a faster rate of ratification and implementation of the protocol on free movement of persons. Similarly the establishment of the Pan-African Payments and Settlements platform by the AFRI Exim Bank long way to in creating the desired continental payment systems and enabling cross border informal trade which is estimated to be about 93 billion dollars per annum so there's no question at all that you know the african free trade agreements by itself is cannot work as it cannot work effectively without these other protocols and these other systems the protocol of free movement the protocol and then the continental payment systems which we hope which AFRI Exim is promoting. In the area of health the COVID-19 crisis has shown the importance of regional cooperation to come up with a continental resilience strategy to cope with similar shocks in the future a good example of this is the African Center for Disease Control and Prevention this is using digitally pulled procurement systems to order for chemical reagents diagnostic and medical equipment and this is important because orders for test kits and health equipment by african countries tended to be small and ignored at the height of the crisis so because we're able to pull our resources as african countries together and buy in bulk you know we cannot be ignored but as individual countries because our orders tended to be small we could be completely ignored so this cooperation is one that you know has yielded tremendous fruit and again is one if you like of the silver linings in the very dark cloud of the COVID-19 pandemic. Successful implementation of the trade agreement requires financing to address various implementation challenges and to promote arrangements in support of integration for instance in addition to making up for potential losses of tariff revenues african countries will face implementation costs including undertaking reforms establishing new trade related bodies improving and upgrading existing facilities etc in addition to these domestic measures there are also costs associated with establishing the secretary at the CFTA secretary and building regional infrastructure finding the resources to undertake these activities at a time like this when practically every country lacks fiscal space will of course prove to be very difficult for Nigeria and other african countries and I'd like to urge our economists to help with innovating financing solutions for some of our economies one important objective of the free trade agreements is to overcome the economic fragmentation of the continent by bringing the regional economic blocks together in a common agreement this being the case african countries should look to negotiating trade treaties with other parts of the world on the basis of the free trade agreements rather than through arbitrarily designed regional blocks the truth is that we should not allow ourselves to be learned into our arrangements we do not serve our long-term development objectives now that we have the free trade agreements it's the african free trade agreement it's important that we don't go back to our echoers agreements to commissar and all these other regional blocks and if we start because if we start negotiating along the same old regional blocks the major advantage of the african free trade agreement will be lost because we'll be fractionalized again we're fragmented again and we'll not gain the benefits of of this of being the largest free trade agreement in the entire world the african free trade agreement is the largest so we are dealing with the largest trade area in the entire world so there are huge advantages and one of the key points for african countries to note is that we mustn't go back to the original to our old regional trading blocks and arrangements and negotiate on that basis we'll certainly be short changing short changing ourselves in summary then apart from reducing the spread of covid-19 and mitigating its effect on the domestic economy nigeria must have an interest in promoting a trade agreement the african trade agreement that catalyzes regional value chains enables free movement of people and attracts investments and improves the continental payment systems as we seek to use the opportunities we must remain alert to the need to create conditions that will enable our businesses to better able to be better able to compete and to thrive within the african free trade area i think this is particularly important you know because being the biggest economy we have leverage we have leverage not just in negotiations we have leverage in in our own in in our size of the cake and so with so so for this reason we owe ourselves as a country a responsibility of ensuring that we create the right circumstances for maximally benefiting from the free trade agreements and and this is the and this is a task not just for the present government but for governments in the future because a trade agreement of course is dynamic it's evolving and there will always be challenges and our economies must respond to it as matter of fact we must begin to think and plan budget planning uh economic planning must take into account the afcta which is why uh the our new uh success of plan to the economic recovery and growth plan is one that will take into account uh the issues around the the african continental free trade agreements because we can no longer plan without taking into account the free trade agreements including permit me to make a to digress slightly and to make and to make this whole to the Nigerian economic society to be more engaged in public policy debates i find that very often uh some public commentators make assertions that have no basis in economic theory of practice and because they dominate the public space they contribute to public misunderstanding of economic principles and their application to public policy once the experts uh like the distinguished assemblage here do not contribute to public debates then the place is left open to charlatans and in the era of social media there is a lot of noise going on a lot of misinformation a lot of misadvice and all of that i know that there are of course doctrinal differences and that not every academic economist will write in a newspaper column or is even interested i i know that academics generally may even consider it uh beneath them to write uh to do newspaper columns but i'm told that Milton Friedman wrote a regular column in the newsweek magazine and that paul krugman who is of an entirely different economic persuasion continues to write for the new york times today i do not think we can afford to leave the space the way the communications is happening is going on the and the rapid way which ideas have been transferred and which ideas have been transmitted we cannot we simply cannot afford to leave the space and write only in academic journals so some of us should take up the conflict and help to shape an informed and reasoned national discourse on the economy i must again thank you very much for the opportunity to speak to this distinguished gathering of economists of our country thank you very much and i wish you very thank you