Well, let's get started with our conversation this evening. It's one that I tend to nerd out over, but it really will be giving us great insights on the state of the national housing market. We're going to look at the slightly lower end of the market when we talk about the housing market and really getting great insights on what the housing market is in that particular grouping, but also looking at government subsidy housing and some of the key things that this research industry that we're going to be speaking to has found in that regard. And I'm joined this evening by Alison Jangana, who's the head of research and market intelligence at the Center for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa. Alison, good evening and thank you so much for joining us on the show. Thank you very much for having me. It's nice to be here. It's such a pleasure to have you with us, Alison. Alison, I think a good starting point before we even look at what the housing market is like in 2022. Perhaps just paint a picture of what the housing market in that lower segment has been some of the trends probably in the past five, even 10 years, because I think oftentimes when we have conversation about trends and some of the key things that we see, key drivers that we see and behaviors that we see, we tend to neglect that lower segment. We talk a lot about that middle segment and even the highest segment and really don't give as much love to the lower segment and understanding what happens there. And the reality is some of our viewers at home are property investors who do cater for that segment. So understanding also what are some of the pressure points in that particular segment is, what are some of the trends in that segment become such an important part of really getting a full picture of the overall housing market in the country. Sure, thanks. And I think, well, when we do our research at CAF, we use DEEDS data. So we're looking at the properties that are on the DEEDS registry, which means that if we're talking about the lower end of the market, we're excluding and this is important to point out right from the beginning, we're excluding informal settlements and we're excluding backyard rental. So what we're looking at is formally registered properties, but more at the lower end of the market. And if we look at the overall market in South Africa, we have about 6.7 million residential properties, which are valued at around 5.96 trillion rand. So that's where we're sitting as a whole. And what we try to do is to understand that market in terms of segments. So not as a whole, but thinking really about the different nuances in the market segmentation. So if we look at that, we actually see that about 32% of those properties, so almost a third, are actually valued less than 300,000 rand. These aren't the high end properties. A third of the properties in South Africa, one in every three essentially, is valued less than 300,000. But these aren't the properties you see advertised in the Sunday Times or in the newspaper. Another 21% or so are valued between 300 and 600,000 rand. So that means over half of the properties, residential properties in the country, are less than 600,000 rand. Now they're sitting down at the bottom of the market. So the stock is quite wide at the bottom. And I think that's an important point to make. What we've seen over time in terms of the segmentation, and this won't be a surprise, is that the percentage of properties that are sitting at the high end is growing, both in absolute terms and as a share of the total market. So although we are seeing increases in all the segments, the growth is larger at the top end of the market, so over 1.2 million. And then as you mentioned in your introduction, government subsidized properties, this is the BNG RDP program, the National Housing Program, plays a massive role in the housing market and in the housing stock and in the residential property market. And I think we know this because we hear the minister say that there's been 2 million housing units delivered, but we don't quite realize what the impact is. We count in our research that about 31% of all residential properties in the country were built by government. 31% of all properties. Now that's a huge contribution to the residential property market. So what we're seeing is obviously the number of new houses that are built by government and transferred to beneficiaries varies from year to year, but essentially we're seeing that about 35, 37% every year of new transactions is actually, it's not the new registrations of newly built houses by developers, it's actually government producing houses and handing them over to beneficiaries and giving them the title deed and the registration of the deed's office. So it's a massive impact and I think that's important to understand right from the beginning that there is a large part of the residential property market that's under 600,000 and that the significance of government subsidized housing in that segment is immense. And you know, Alison, I remember when I spoke to one of your colleagues last year and that was one of the key things that they actually had outlined and we don't hear that statistic often. I think if anything we have an impression that we either firstly just don't have such a huge chunk of the residential property market being either priced at that amount, but also be government being such a big contributor. But I don't want us to focus on that aspect a bit. I think I want us to explore then what are some of the, I want to say market activity in that segment because we know that you actually pointed out as you were answering the earlier question that we don't typically see those properties being advertised whether it's on private property or any other platform. And it's because initially they're obviously being transferred by government but is there then other activity post that transfer? Because we know there's X number of years where you can't sell the property but after that period is there any kind of activity that occurs from people who would have initially received your properties from government in particular. Yes there certainly is there's a resale market for government subsidized properties and there's also movement and resale activity just at the lower end of the market of houses that are built in the private sector. Now the supply of new houses at the very end of the market by the private sector is very low. So you see very few houses delivered below 300,000 and very few between 300 and 600,000 that's mostly a place where government is acting as the developer. But once those houses are built there is activity and there's a there's a functioning, there's a residential property market at the bottom there are transactions that are happening. Now the issue I think is around formal versus informal transactions and I've mentioned that that our research is based on the deeds data from the deeds registry so it's only going to pick up on the formal transactions but we are aware that there's lots of informal transactions that happen at the lower end of the property ladder and that's really for a number of reasons. I think one of them has to do with there may be problems with the title deed. So the title deed may not have been transferred into the owner's name and part of an informal sale. There may have been a death in the family and the process of sorting out the estate was not done. So it's still sitting in Makulu's name. There's also situations where the the rates clearance perhaps is not sorted out and so there isn't an ability to trans transact the property on the formal property market. So there's lots of reasons practical reasons why some households will opt to go informally and the platforms for that kind of transaction as I said they're not sitting in the newspapers and they're not with with Pam Golding. What they are is they're often on Facebook, Facebook marketplace, they're on different online platforms and those are transactions that are often happening on a cash basis as well. So we're seeing less involvement by the banks in terms of offering bonds at the lower end of the market but there is activity. You mentioned as well the government subsidized properties and the market there. I think that's an important one to look at. So as you said because of the nature of the housing subsidy program beneficiaries are not supposed to sell within eight years unless they offer that property first back to the province. Now after eight years there is quite a transaction of resale properties and of government subsidized properties being sold. There's opportunity for more of that but it's an important market because those properties are often sold at a price that is cheaper than buying a newly built house. So if I'm a first time home buyer and I'm not able to access a bond or I haven't accessed flisp often the resale market provides more of an opportunity there than going to newly built units. So that's part of the story that's happening at the lower end of the market as well but there's more that we can do to support it and I think that's one of the key areas of intervention. And that's actually part of what I want us to touch on Alison is basically how do we support it but tied to that is how do we confirm the legitimacy of that transaction because in as much as that you know you could generally be facing a seller where the property does in fact belong to them they may have issues with some of the paperwork because we know how these things sometimes go but the reality is we've seen I've seen more transactions being scams than you know those where it's legitimate owners of whether it's an RTP house or you know a very old township house that's being sold often you know certain properties are sold behind family members' backs so not everybody who is meant to consent to the sale of that property is is actually being given an opportunity to consent so a relatively go and sell it off. So what are some of those steps that can be taken because on the one hand we understand that your property as an asset is a very powerful tool that can be even within that market and that they too should be having the opportunity to use that asset and transact with it if they so wish and could perhaps even be an enabler in for a particular family but in the same breath we also know that we are seeing a lot of scams due to the nature of paperwork not looking like what it would typically look like in other segments. Sure yeah I mean the title deed is a really important document and it's important not just for the buyer but also for the seller to protect the sale and and to to formalize that transaction. We have and and my colleague may have mentioned this a year ago when she was here we have a pilot program that we've been running in Cape Town called the Transaction Support Center and it speaks to what you're talking about in terms of how can we support this market and and get it to be functioning in a way that is inclusive to all households. So the Transaction Support Center is intended to facilitate households and people who would like to transact formally but are encountering those kinds of practical obstacles to a formal transaction that makes it it tempting and and frankly rational to revert to an informal transaction. So the Transaction Support Center works on a case-by-case basis to help households access the title deed if it's never been transferred perhaps to get it into the right the right family member's name as you mentioned can help them deal with the rates clearance deal with with trying to access a bond so so working with the banks and approaching them and getting the kind of paperwork that's in order to apply for that financing and then of course there's the the government program FLISP which provides a subsidy to households in the income segment that is higher than those who can qualify for a fully subsidized house and the Transaction Support Center can also help those households if they qualify to apply for that FLISP to support their their purchase. So I think those kinds of local level hands-on case-by-case supports are really important and what we've seen in the learning on the TSC is that it's extraordinarily time consuming and and that I think is the the main challenge to scaling up that kind of intervention is that these are these are cases where there's just complications the the house has been transferred one or two times and formally and all of that has to be unraveled and formalized from the beginning and moved forward and it's time consuming it's complicated and it requires a lot of perseverance and diligence so I think the the cases that the Transaction Support Center has has successfully intervened with are very important but we're we're needing to think about how do we scale up that model to really support this market and I think there are ways and there are other interventions as well besides a pilot like the TSC. I think we're going to leave it there this evening thank you so much for joining us on the show. Thank you and that is Alison Jangana who's the Head of Research and Market Intelligence at the Center for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa wrapping up the Friday edition of the Private Property Podcast with myself Well believe it or not it turns out it's actually not Matashanganga's birthday her birthday was in fact in January I don't know what was happening in the comment section because we wished her a happy birthday as the Facebook page and everybody was wishing a happy birthday but she says listen she's open to having two birthdays a year and she's accepting presents whether it's property or something else so do show her some love on our Facebook page Well that's where we're going to leave it this week it's been such a pleasure to have you with us and I do hope that you're going to have a great weekend I'll be back on your screens on Monday at 7 p.m. Until then hope you stay home and stay safe


Although we have a choice in becoming the people we strive to be, it is without a doubt that our childhoods shape us to a certain extent. How we choose to react to different situations and the way we express ourselves are behavioral patterns that are formed starting at a young age when we first begin to learn how to make sense of our immediate environment. Marriage and family counselors Dr. Milan and Kay Yerkevik discovered that everyone has a certain love style based on their upbringing. A love style is comprised of our tendencies and inclinations of how we respond to our romantic partners. By understanding how we love, we can learn how our love styles affect our relationships. Here are Dr. Milan and Kay Yerkevik's five love styles. 1. The Pleaser The pleaser often grows up in a home with an overly protective or angry and critical parent. As children, pleasers do everything they can to be good and be on their best behavior so as to not provoke a negative response from their parent. Pleaser children don't receive comfort. Instead, they spend their time and energy giving comfort to their reactive parent. Pleasers are uncomfortable with conflict and deal with disagreements by often giving in or making up for them quickly. They usually have a hard time saying no and because they want to minimize conflict, they may not be truthful and lie to avoid difficult confrontations. As pleaser children grow into adults, they learn to read the moods of others around them to make sure they can keep everyone happy. However, when pleasers feel stressed or believe that they are continuously letting someone down, they can have a breakdown and flee from relationships. Pleasers often spread themselves thin trying to be everything to everyone when it's not realistic and instead of forming healthy boundaries for themselves, they focus more on the needs and desires of others. In order for pleasers to cultivate stable relationships, they have to be honest about their own feelings rather than trying to do what is expected of them. 2. The Victim The victim often grows up in a chaotic home. Victims learn to be compliant in order to survive by putting less attention on themselves so they can stay under the radar. To deal with their angry, violent parents, victim children learn at a very young age to hide and stay quiet. Because being fully present is painful for them, victim children often build an imaginary world in their heads to cope with the dangers they face on a daily basis. Victims have low self-esteem and usually struggle with anxiety and depression. They may end up marrying controllers who mirror the same behaviors as their parents. Victims learn to cope by being adaptable and going with the flow. They are so used to chaos and stressful situations that when they do experience calmness, it actually makes them feel uneasy because they anticipate the next blow-up. In order for victims to cultivate healthy, stable relationships, they have to learn self-love and stand up for themselves when a situation calls for it instead of letting their partner walk all over them. 3. The Controller The controller usually grows up in a home where there wasn't a lot of protection, so they learn to toughen up and take care of themselves. They need to feel in control at all times to prevent the vulnerability they experienced in their childhood from being exposed in their adulthood. People with this love style believe that they're in control when they can avoid experiencing negative feelings of fear, humiliation, and helplessness. Don't associate anger as vulnerability, so they use it as a weapon to remain in power. Controllers have rigid tendencies but may also be sporadic and unpredictable. They don't like stepping out of their comfort zones because it makes them feel weak and unprotected. They prefer to solve problems on their own and like getting things done in a certain manner. Otherwise, they get angry. In order for controllers to form stable, long-lasting relationships, they need to learn how to let go, trust others, and keep their anger at bay. 4. The Vassilator The vacillator often grows up with an unpredictable parent. As children, vacillators learned that their needs aren't their parent's top priority. Without consistent affection from their parent, vacillators develop a deep fear of abandonment, but when the parent finally feels like giving their time and attention to them, vacillators are usually too angry and tired to receive it. As vacillators enter adulthood, they try to find the consistent love they were deprived of as children. Vassilators have a tendency to idealize new relationships, but once they feel led down or disappointed, they grow dejected and doubtful. They often feel misunderstood and experience a lot of internal conflict and emotional stress within their relationships. They can be extremely sensitive and perceptive, which allows them to detect even the slightest change in others and no one people are pulling away. In order for vacillators to cultivate healthy, stable relationships, they need to learn how to pace themselves and get to know someone before committing too soon and getting hurt by their own expectations. 5. The Avoider The avoider often grows up in a less affectionate home that values independence and self-reliance. As children, avoiders learn to take care of themselves starting at a very young age and put their feelings and needs on hold to deal with their anxieties of having little to no comfort from their parents. Vassilators tend to like their space and rely on logic and detachment more than their emotions. They get uncomfortable when people around them experience intense mood swings. In order for avoiders to cultivate healthy, long-lasting relationships, they need to learn how to open up and express their emotions honestly. Which love style do you identify with? Please share your thoughts with us below. Also, we love to give special thanks to our sponsors BetterHelp, an affordable online counseling platform for those who are struggling with mental health. If you're interested, we've included a link in the description below.


There we go guys Got the vet run is pretty good. I Can't go much faster than that because I got those O-rings on the tires, but I'm gonna let this run in a little bit Seems to be running all right now. Yeah, pretty cool This is gonna be a fun track guys. I just wanted to give you this update pretty smooth Not a fast car these this track was never really that fast Now these matchbox Nothing like taiko taiko is really really quick cars I'm gonna just sit here I'm gonna run this for a little bit I don't know if I can get up to speed. Whoops.


This is Stink Tech, Hawaii. Community Matters here. Oh, ha! How you doing? Merry Christmas! Gordo Lintex are here with my good old buddy. Hello, ha, brother. Happy holidays, everybody. Merry Christmas. Happy holidays. You see that hat, man? See my hat, man? Yeah. We can... Oh, yeah. Did you know this was coming? It's the holidays.  We're going to have some fun here today. Welcome to another... Exciting and thrilling episode of Hibachi Talk. Grab yourself a libation. Pull up a chair. Sit down. There we go. There you go. We're Christmas everywhere. That's right, man. It's all holidays here. We're in the spirit and the spirit is in us. Yes, it is. In more ways than one. We're going to have a few things today, I think, that'll show them. High-tech Christmas. We're going to talk about high-tech Christmas. High-tech Christmas and how it's changed. How it's changed over the decades. It's been really quite a change for me. But tell me a little bit about what was Christmas like when you were growing up? You were growing up in Kentucky, right? In Kentucky, we had a... I'm trying to remember... I think we had like a Rambler. I think General Motors. Was it Dodge or General Motors? Dodge. They made a Rambler. I think it was a Dodge Rambler. I think it was like turquoise. Yeah. And so... You had a car. Oh, yeah. We didn't have a car. No? Well, how did you... Did you go to Grandpa's? Oh, my grandpa wasn't around. He had long past. I never saw my grandpa. When you were a kid. Oh, wow. We were pretty darn poor. So what did you do for Christmas? How did you get there? Not much. We were talking about transportation. Technology. We didn't do all that much. I mean, our parents tried. Yeah. But we had the stocking with fruit in it. Nice. So that was nice. That kept you from getting scurvy in the winter. Yeah, it was scurvy in the winter. That's important. Yeah, so... I'm trying to think of technology. Like... Tangerine. We had... We would go to my grandparents. And they would always have a tree with lights and everything. A live tree? Or a dead cut down tree? Well, there was two.  My grandmother, I think, would put the fake, like, flocked one up. And it was rope. You weren't allowed to touch it. She had the things on the... Covers on the furniture. You didn't go in the living room. Oh, the plastic covers on the furniture. Oh, you didn't go up there. Not the kids. No one watching this show is going to remember that. Oh, yeah. They would get new furniture and then cover it up. I don't know who sat on it, but it was never the kids. And then they put the covers on the lamps, and the lamps never went on it. I don't remember that they could have. But I remember that white tree. And it would have lights. I think it had, like, a thing that had four colors that would spin around so it would change... Because it was flocked white, so it would change, like, a green... Yeah, like the primary color. Well... That was technology back then. It was like a light wheel. Wow. It wasn't very exciting. ours was not even close to being that exciting. That was Kentucky technology in 1965 or whatever. I don't even know where my folks got the tree. They'd end up getting a tree. I know that. And then it would show up, and then we'd decorate it with leftover stuff. And then my mom would decorate the house. She'd put all this paper stuff up in the ceilings. Rings? Did you make him rings? Did you make him rings when you were a kid, a little card, you know, color paper, like chains? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. With paste? Yeah, with pasting. You stuck those things together. Yeah, we had that around the house, remember that? We did, though. I forgot all about that. That was like forced labor, isn't it?   You're like, so it takes all day. And you'd wrap it around the tree, right? Just instantly. Yeah, and then we did that. Yeah, paper, highly combustible paper around the tree. I didn't think of that.  Trying to find the bad one. Find the bad one. Find the bad one. Find the bad one for an hour. Yeah. So it's... So that was... It was a low-tech Christmas. Yeah.  Yeah, well, you know, we just did... I remember one of the things that my father was a beer truck driver, and every year they put a Christmas party on for all the beer truck drivers and families. Okay.  But my parents would take it away from us. Wow. They said, I had to go back to Santa, and we wouldn't get it until Christmas Day that would show up underneath the tree. And they'd say, hey, look what Santa wrote to us. Oh, it was like re-gifted. It was re-gifted. From a couple of days earlier.  That's all right. They had to be created. Oh, man.  I see. We had the week. That night, you'd have three weeks. Well, three weeks. Wow. I remember one time, though, I got a mechanical set, and it was from the beer thing. That one I never got that year. They must have liked it. Maybe they got it. It went somewhere else. I don't know where that one ended up, but I never got that one. I never came back in. Well, it's like, it's like there's, there's, now you don't have them. I don't remember like every year. You know, I think I remember some Christmases being better than others. Yeah. It's like that as a kid. Well, I don't remember much. All I'll know is that it would try to figure out what time the parents would get so blasted they could hardly talk. Did you have a bunch of people? No. No. They just stayed home and maybe my brothers and maybe some people would come over. Yeah, family, friends. Maybe, maybe not. We had like, no, we had like seven aunts and uncles. Yeah. You know what I mean? So they all had kids. Yeah. So it would be like. Yeah, no. We didn't have any of that kind of stuff when we were going out. I remember, I told you, we moved a lot too. So, you know, we never really set down roots. Okay. So, but it was. That was in Louisville, Kentucky when we had, it was like, we would try to, I remember like trying to steal, first we would try to steal the, the eggnog, because it would have bourbon. Okay. I never had eggnog until I was in my 20s. I don't think our parents, I don't think they mined it. Necessarily thought that was a bad, but then we got caught. We always get caught. Right.  And then we, we would try to get the, like make a drink. Right. We would steal the eggnog, but not the, but not the other stuff. Don't make like a seven and seven or whatever. I don't remember what we did. Yeah. My parents would buy hard liquor for Christmas for them, obviously not for us. And you know, by Christmas dinner time, they were pretty over subscribed. And then you could steal a little. Yeah. Yeah. We could do whatever we wanted. We had, I remember when we were little, when we were, you know, in Kentucky, they give babies like bourbon if your teeth are sore. I think. Yeah. It's a problem. Whisky. Whisky. I'm sure it's, I don't even know how it's legal today to do that. It's probably child abuse, but you know, in this day and age, you can't do anything. But speaking of, but speaking of kind of like, you know, we're talking about high tech gifts and so on. Yeah. I got a couple of pictures of some things I found that are kind of neat. These are from before or now? Oh, this is now. It's definitely not now. Migration. Migration.  We'll get ready to throw up the pictures there of our, what's this one called? It's called a Sonic beer foamer.  It just stays there. And it keeps the head on the beer all the way through while you're drinking it. So the head on the beer never goes away. Oh, how cool is that? Well, that'd be nice to have. Yeah. I know I'm throwing out the big hints right now. Yeah. Those of you that are watching, Gordon needs a Sonic beer foamer. And we'll put it right here. Maybe some of our watchers will send one of them. I know. We'll test it right on there. If you send it, we'll send it. And we'll thank you for it too. A Sonic foamer? So what is it? Sound waves, I guess. Sound waves. It goes up there and keeps the bubbles. Yeah. Interesting. I wonder if you could just foam over if you just leave it on there. I don't know. It gets warm. We have to take it off, I guess.   Well, not very. Not very. Not as our track record. Yeah. So anyway, Moving on. Sonic beer foamer. Anyway, so let's think about what technology has done to Christmas now. Yeah. So, and I think I got to thinking about a couple things. How about Amazon? Right? Yeah. Just the whole purchasing programs of how you buy. UPS, FedEx. Yeah. I don't have to go to the store, but like briefly. Yeah. I know. You don't. I'm going to go tonight because I always put myself through the pain of doing shopping on one day. Briefly. So that's this afternoon after the gym. And then I'll be there and be ready to go do my shopping. Gift cards. Gift cards. Here you go.   I don't remember that. I remember more the spirit of giving and all that. And of course, when you're kids, you're getting what you love. But then as you get older, you give, but then it's turned, I think, I mean, I'm sure people like to give, but giving is like a click now. Yeah. Send some stuff. It's not like going and getting something thoughtfully. And maybe it's still thoughtful. I'm not going to question the thoughtfulness of the giving, but it's easier. So one of my friends, this is what he did and he lives here, but all his family's on the mainland. He goes and buys everything on Amazon, the gifts and the wrapping paper to his family and tells them to wrap the gifts. Well, wrap your own. Wrap your own. I said, Amazon will wrap the gift for you, but he doesn't want to deal with all of that. Well, won't they just unwrap it? And I wouldn't, I mean, as soon as it came, I have to be honest, I wouldn't wrap it in weight. Obviously, obviously a bachelor, an uncle. He's just saying, Oh, he's okay. Well, that's cool. We ate, you know, kind of thing. Everybody has their own style, but technology's made it. I mean, it's better. Like, it sure is easy to give stuff to people. It sure is easy. It sure is easy. Well, I mean, I was being, so I got another, got another gift, another high-tech gift, the hidden mitten flask. Oh. Now, this is again, another good stocking stuffer. Is that a, so you can sneak it past like the guards at the football game? Yeah. In your mittens. Oh, yeah. It's the hidden mitten flask. I wonder what happens if you get caught. Well, you know, I'm a security guy, so I think like that. I'm not going to say with a hidden mitten flask. No, that's a metal. I'm thinking, I'm thinking they're like, could you take your gloves off? As a matter of fact, I think even in pre-check, you're not allowed to wear gloves. Oh, okay. You can leave your jacket on. Oh, okay. You can, you can or cannot? You can. No. TSA pre-check. Oh, yeah. I want TSA pre-check. But I don't know about mittens. I can try the metal. My mittens, it was empty maybe. But, you know, I think, I think interestingly, a lot of that technology you better do it, get it this year and use it. Yeah, get it this year.   No smoking at the beach, no drinking at the beach, no beaching at the beach. You know, there's almost like No swimming? No swimming at the beach. I've taken everything away. Wow. But, you know, the next gift is for the perfect beach goer. Okay. And it's very thematic on this show. All right. It's the solo cup beer coosie. I mean, you'll have to be hunting somebody down. Yeah, for that one, they could put a diet Pepsi in there. And that goes with that theme of our show because we have a, you know, we have a solo cup theme here. We have a solo cup theme here. I should order a couple of those and get those brought in there. That could be like for the, if a guest does particularly well, they get a solo cup. They get a cup coosie. Coosie. Or every 50th episode. I don't mind. Budget can handle it, though. I know. Well, we're not very well funded on this show. Yeah. We have fun. Anyway, regardless of our low-tech Christmas. So here's another thing that gets to me is, you know, people say, you know, Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Okay. I'm not a big Happy Holidays fan. Okay. It's Christmas. It's Merry Christmas. So you say Merry Christmas. And then after Christmas, it's Happy New Year. Okay. Yeah. So be direct. So people don't say at Easter time, they don't go Happy Holidays. They say Happy Easter. Oh yeah. I say Happy Easter. Yeah. Or Happy Easter. That's what I say. But here's another one. Someone walks down the street and they go, Happy Holidays. And the other one says same to you. Because you know they got it. They don't even say Merry Christmas or Happy New Year or whatever. It just goes same to you. Wow. How would that be? Does that make them think about it? Do you find them to be more thoughtful about what they're going to say? I'm an old soul. And I kind of like Merry Christmas. So that's changed. And a Merry Christmas to you also. That's changed. I say Happy Holidays. Yeah. When I write it, I put D-A-Z-E, like Happy Holidays. Okay. Well, you're trying to be a little... Well, a lot of people, I saw I sent my son something. And because I didn't say Happy Holidays. D-A-Z-E. Mm-hmm. He didn't know who it was from. Oh. Because I guess I didn't sign it. It was like a table thing. Oh. You know, like flowers or something. Oh, okay. And then... But he didn't know who it was from. So he asked the people, 1-800-FLOWERS, well, who's this from? Well, here's some technology. Okay. They wouldn't reveal my information. Oh, there you go. But they called me. They called me. Because they knew my... From the word said, we have a request from your deliverer person, whatever you call him. Recipient. Dude, they want to know who this came from. And since I didn't answer the phone call, I didn't know who it was from. But they said, can you at least call them and let them know who it was from or call us back and we'll let them know. Oh. And I was like, pretty secure for 1-800-FLOWERS. Not bad. Not bad. Holy cow. Okay. Well, speaking of secure, we're going to take a break. You're going to come back with the security minute. I got a little tip. A little tip. And I've got... Angus has something. Awesome. He's getting in trouble because of his Christmas late. Always. Always. We're going to take a break. And we'll be back in about a minute. Merry Christmas. This is Stink Tech, Hawaii, raising public awareness. Hey, hello, everybody. Welcome back to Stink Tech, Hawaii. This is Ivachi Talk. And I got a... I'm Andrew, the security guy. I got a quick tip for you. Something you may not come across, but when you're buying gift cards because I know a lot of you like to give gift cards to people, make sure you check that little code cover, the thing you scratch off, that it's not been tampered with. There's some scans. It's been going on a while, but this year it seems to be more of it.   So make sure you keep an eye on that. Anyway, Angus is here for Christmas. What's up, brother? Good. Merry Christmas there. All right. Good to see you. I got myself... You're looking sharp. I love you. Yeah, I got that there. The last season, I was like, I know you weren't worried what I thought. You weren't worried about that. I know. But I'm already there. You must be a little horny for the holiday. Yeah, I lied. That's what it is. Good hat.  At the estate. I didn't care. I didn't care what they're all excited about. Oh, it looks like they're all out enjoying themselves on your mind. Yeah, they're having a great time in the palm trees. They look really great to me. Yeah, I can see. I think you're going to have a popular lawn. Very popular. I know the lawn is, you know, lots of traffic. That's for sure. Yeah, did you get any help with those? Oh, yeah, lots of help. Get it on myself. Anyway, you'll be careful when you're putting your lights on your palm trees. You might make a little bit of an error.  Okay, that's true. Anyway, you know, it's Christmas time. I wish everybody a Merry Christmas. Put your hat on, brother.  My hat's holding on. It's windy in here. I know. What a Merry Christmas, anyway, everybody. Yeah. A Happy New Year. Oh, like you say, Happy Hogman Day.  Where are you being? Hello. Angus, you know, if you get a chance to go over Angus' neighborhood, go over and check out his lights. Get a few pictures, you know, it's maybe symbolic for him. It's hard to say. We're a pretty good-looking lawn set. Symbolic for Angus. So we're back. What's up? We're back. So we were just talking about, you know, high-tech Christmas and how technology's changed. Technology's changed. I'm giving cryptocurrencies this year. Dude, that's as tech as it gets. Yeah. So this year, can you wrap those? No. But what's interesting is I print off their key. I fold it up in a piece of paper and I put it in a Christmas card. Oh, because then they take their wallet and they read the code. And they get scanned. Well, that's cool. And they load it all up in there. If any of your family doesn't know what that is, just tell them to fold it on to me. Yeah. And I'll accumulate in my wallet. I know how to read those. You'll read how to read those. I haven't learned how to give any away. I've only been a receiver so far. This year, I've asked, do you want cash or crypto? Crypto. And now I'm getting crypto. Nice. So not too bad.   So be careful. And Bitcoin's trading at a little over $16,000 today. It was almost $20,000 on Sunday. Well, and, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you could go online shopping with Bitcoin and like it, you could buy some gifts and just send them with Bitcoin as well. Right. Exactly. So GYFT, the website where you buy all the gift cards and so on, they accept, they're one of the first to accept Bitcoin as a form of payment. Right. And then, you know, they're going to have a Christmas for online, for buying, I could buy an Amazon card using Bitcoin. See, so that, there's a tech change, right? So we went from, like just Amazon packages to crypto purchased items. You know, cryptocurrency as well as crypto. And send you an electronic gift card, not the one that you do this. So all those crypto millionaires that made their million in the last month, they're going to have a Christmas giving away a bunch of stuff. That's their earnings. They can just take it off the top. I mean, they might have made that much this week, depending on how much they give away. Depending on what they did. I saw a beautiful Christmas story. A guy made a hundred, this was about a week old now. He made a hundred. He was at 172 million in crypto earnings. He was wealthy prior, invested early, because he thought it was amazing. And he said, I have way more money than I ever need. He gave 86 million to eight different charities. Oh, that's nice. So about 10 million each. Yeah. He had transferred the crypto currency to them. Oh, that's awesome. What a story. Here's someone with that kind of wealth that was totally unexpected, I think for a lot of these people that that. If I was there with that kind of level of... Yeah. Can you imagine? Well, you're going to give away to family. That's a good thing. Everybody gives to whoever they can give to. They could donate to think tech. It'd be nice to send a little to Jay. Keep the studio going forever. Keep that in mind until next Christmas. Who to donate to, because it is a 501c3. Do we accept Bitcoin and think tech? No, but I talked to Jay about setting that up. It's not that difficult. Gordo transferred, he'll give it over. Send it to me. Just go right ahead. That's a major thing. That's a major thing. I'm trying to decide if it's anti-consumerism or, I mean, what? It's anti-retail for sure. Yeah. It's anti-banking. Well, I mean, I used to give cash. Yeah, yeah. Right? I go to the bank, get cash, put it in the envelope.  They make cards for that. Yes. I wonder if they made any special crypto cards. Apparently, some guy was selling Bitcoins on the street some city. Oh, in New York. I saw that. There was actually Chuck E. Cheese coin. Chuck E. Cheese coin. Dude, he made money. Like, people didn't know. Yeah, people didn't know. They were buying. I mean, well, there's one born every minute. So, another great high-tech gift and something that I need, and I have one here, it's my very special cone. It's a beard cone. A what? It's made in Sweden. I do have a little brush. I don't have a cone, though. See? What is this? My Swedish beard cone. Baxter of California. Yeah, how's that? Wow. Nice. Special for beard. You know, if you're going to wear a long beard, you know, men should be groomed. I know. I don't know when I'm going to train this. Is that one of those? Is that a... It's a knock-off. A knock-off. Angus has the good one. Yeah. I took it from the Pacific Club. Oh. I better bring it back. Wow. Oh, that's from the... Okay. Very well. Anyway, so the beard comb is kind of, you'll understand. Beard comb is a good idea. You know, if you're... That's affordable? One of your family members has a beard and it's kind of messy. Maybe there's maybe a little message implied there, but you know, get them a beard comb so we'll help them out. Probably an electric trimmer. So anyway, so we talked about, so you've got all the different ways you can do it. eBay, Amazon, electronic gift cards. But think about industries like FedEx, which on the delivery stuff.  That'd be awesome. You know, drone delivery. Well, I was, you know, I'm thinking back to now when we were kids and like we would have the pal presence for everybody. Yeah. Like him, because we had my mom's Christmas. We didn't have that. Then we had my dad.  We didn't have a vehicle, so we... We had like a Volkswagen. No, you gotta remember. Well, we had a Volkswagen after that. Oh. Because it was a front loader. Oh. And the stuff would have to fit.  You wrap it, yeah. Yeah. You know, and so we'd do that. But that's funny.  And trudging around the snow and your glosses and all that kind of stuff. Oh, yeah. Kentucky could be, we had, you know, sometimes it could be... Did you get snow? It could be mild, but it could also be like miserable, like, you know, 10 below and icy and crazy. Yeah. Well, we were in Canada. We were... You were miserable. Mostly you had that three days of summer up there. Yeah. We turned, I should turn the heat up for Christmas. Didn't see. Yeah. So that was a little gift there. Yeah. Yeah. You only had to wear one pair of socks instead of three. Yeah. So yeah, we did that. I know, I kind of miss it and it changed. Times have changed. I like visiting cold weather in the winter. So here's the question. Do you have a Christmas tree up this year at your house? No. I have a wreath. Okay. I do not have a Christmas tree up this year, but we have this auction we were at for one of the fundraisers and they had this toy Christmas tree, all decoration, kind of fun stuff. The toys. With all stuff already on it. So we put that up this year. Awesome. Yeah. Did you buy it for charity this year and then put it in your house? And then put it in your house? And then made it as our Christmas tree. I don't know. I don't know why we don't. We just don't. Well, you don't have kids right here with you. No. Things like that. No. And so next year my granddad is coming. I'll probably we'll get a tree just because she's going to be there. Because she I think would be used to. I wonder how many people don't do trees anymore now that. Yeah. And I don't know if it's in, I think in Hawaii it just seems, I don't know. To me it's also a little bit of a fire hazard and stuff. But you know, there's a, you know, I think about it. All right. I know that I think this one is going to be pretty popular. And I wish I'd found it earlier. How about the Star Wars Star Wars toaster? Just in time. Just in time. Where do you get that at? Well, you have to go online just do. Star Wars toaster. Star Wars toaster. And you can find that puppy. I wonder how much it was. I'm surprised Angus didn't get one of them already. It's less than a hundred bucks. You got the hiccups. A hundred bucks. Less than a hundred dollars. To make toast. Oh, Lord. Now. Times have changed. To make toast. I didn't know a toaster cost a hundred dollars. It was the last time you made toast. Good Lord. I don't know. I got a toaster oven. I don't have a toaster. Yeah.  Star Wars. We might get toasted, but we don't have toasters. Like I don't even know what that's about. Toasted. That's, that's it for sure. And then the last one, I got one last gift. And then we'll, let's see. How about the basket case? That looks like something I'd had. The headband hoop game. Yeah. I don't think I had that when I was a kid, but that looks like some rather old packaging. Now, wouldn't that be fun? That one, I think I'm going to try and find. We could play it on the, on the show. We have our guests. We couldn't miss them much though. Yeah. We could, could have our guests. We could put it on Angus. Oh, great. That'd be awesome. So that, I thought that was another gift. That was a nice, well-rounded offerings. There's a plenty of stuff out there. If you find, I'd like to, I'd like to know where you found that. I found that puppy as well. That's pretty good. So anyway, so Christmas is coming. Your shopping is all done. There's, there's one person. Okay. So I've, I have not started yet. So, this is the record. This is the 20th. I start today and I will probably finish tomorrow. So that's kind of how rapid fire happens here. You gave me my Christmas gift already and I'm remiss and I haven't given you yours yet, but it'll be, it'll be, it'll be, it's about giving. That's all I know. It's about giving. I'll give you the empty bottle back. Next year. Next year. We'll pass it. I'll make a candle holder out of it. There you go. Very well. Yeah. We can do that with it. Anyway, so we want to just wish everybody a Merry Christmas. Yeah.  You're in Hawaii for the holidays.  We got our tax break gift and we're going to try to think about some gratitude. Yeah. You know, be great, be thankful for the things you have. You know, it's easy to get caught up in the, especially the commercial. I see a commercial for people getting cars and stuff. All that kind of stuff. Now let's give, you know, give. Have some gratitude. Give. Go there and give. Give and be grateful and be thankful for what you have. All right. So we're going to wrap it up here and we're going to wrap it up with our song that we're gonna play and put it on for us. M kisses than Felice's song. So. You know, it's my first time playing this Christmas thing in Hawaii. So. Yes, he had had a big Shuq. He went off the table, show. Christmas


Let me begin by thanking all of you for being, everybody should sit down, if that's okay. I want to thank you all for being here this afternoon and I want to thank President John Yellowbird Steele and President Steele's staff and Larny Littlehoop and Miss Uglala Lakota Nation, Santana Young Man, Afraid of His Horses, Junior Miss Uglala Lakota Nation, Courtney Littlehoop, Tate Wee, CJ Clifford, Evie Espinosa, and Mel Lone Hill. Thank you all. The reason we're here today is to try to understand what is going on in Pine Ridge and in other reservations. I know and you know there are a lot of problems here. Poverty is much too high, is that right? There are not enough decent jobs in the area, is that correct? The health care system is inadequate. We need to fundamentally change the relationship between the U.S. government and the Native American community. So today I am here not to give you a speech, but I'm here to listen, but I do want to say the following. In America today we have a massive level of income and wealth inequality. You all understand what I mean by that. We are living in a country where some people have unbelievable wealth, but a lot of other people are living in very dire poverty. In America today we have communities where real unemployment is 30, 40, 50 percent even higher. And that is why we need a federal jobs program to put millions of people back to work. In America today, many people are working for wages which are much too low, which is why we have to raise the minimum wage to a living wage $15 an hour. In America we are the only major country on earth which does not guarantee health care to all people as a right. And that means we have got to see more doctors getting out to rural areas including Indian reservations. We have got to substantially lower the cost of prescription drugs. And we have to be much more effective in dealing with problems like alcoholism and drug abuse. In my state of Vermont and up in New England we have a serious crisis with opiate and heroin addiction. And that problem exists all across this country. And we have got to significantly improve mental health treatment so that people get the health care when they need it. And to the young people who are here I want to say this. In my view we should be making public colleges and universities tuition free. Reason for that is that in many parts of this country in order to get out and get a good job you need a college education. But there are a lot of families in this country and I grew up in a family that did not have a lot of money. There are a lot of families in this country who today simply cannot afford the high cost of college. So what I want to tell the young people here is I believe that if any young kid whether it's in South Dakota or Vermont or any place else studies hard and does well in school regardless of the income of that family that child should be able to get into college. Now as many of you know our infrastructure that is our roads and I gather you have serious problems here with the quality of your roads right. And our bridges and our water systems all over America people are worried about the quality of the water that they are drinking. And we've got to make sure that when you drink water it is clean water it is pure water. We have to improve our wastewater plants. We have to improve our rail system and our airports. And that's why I believe we should invest a trillion dollars in rebuilding our infrastructure and also in building affordable housing. And when we rebuild our infrastructure we can create up to 13 million decent paying jobs which is what we need to do. Our goal is to develop a new relationship with the Native American people. As I have said all over this country the United States has learned an enormous amount and owes the Native American people a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid. And one of the most important lessons that Native Americans have taught this entire country is that human beings all of us are part of nature. And we have to live with nature coexist with nature and if we destroy nature we are ultimately destroying the human beings of this planet. And one of the areas that I am very concerned about is the issue of climate change. Climate change is real. It is caused by human activity and it is already causing serious problems in our country and throughout the world. And that means that we have to transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and sustainable energies. So let me conclude by saying again thank you all very much for being here. B, we will develop if I am elected president a new relationship with the Native American people. C, what I understand the case to be that poverty here, unemployment here, substance abuse here is much much too high. And together we are going to create the jobs and the health care and the educational opportunities the people here on Pine Ridge and throughout Indian country are entitled to. Thank you all very much. What I want to do now is we are going to have some folks come up and speak for a few minutes about specific issues. Then we are going to open it up for your questions and your comments. First thought with Tati Wee who is the attorney general here.  As mentioned I am the attorney general for the tribe and so one of the biggest issues that we see in our communities is the high rate of recidivism. Whether it is for our tribal inmate population, our tribal members that are state side convictions or our federal inmates. Over 60% of our federal individuals that are on federal probation are violated on that probation for status offenses. Over 60% status offenses being intoxicated high on some type of drug. We are in this revolving wheel like a hamster wheel here where we are doing the same things putting people in jail and it is not effective. So we have to totally revamp the way we look at criminal justice and incorporate what we are doing to treat addiction medically and behaviorally. I am glad you mentioned the addiction because of our unique status with the federal government our treaties give us that trust and treaty responsibility to our federal partners. IHS being one of them. At what point in time will Indian health service be held accountable for the type of health care they provide for our people? When are they going to get ahead of the curve and start implementing medicine and practices and technologies that are effective for handling addiction? Can I interrupt you? What I'd like to do, let me just, if I might, to make this discussion maybe more vibrant. I want to, you stay up here, stay on, but I want to involve other people. Alright, is, why are so many people getting in trouble with the law? Can I ask that question, Tati?  Let's get, my question is, the Attorney General makes a good point that you have a system that is failing.  Alright, so let's start off, help me out here. Why are so many people going to jail in the first place? Raise your hand, people, yes sir, yes sir. Alright, is marijuana a major, take the mic, take the mic, hold the mic close to your mouth. Yup. I think the federal government needs to decriminalize marijuana. Okay. Are a lot of people getting in trouble with the law because of possession of marijuana? Is that an issue? No. Alright, raise your hand, stand up here please. Paul, get the mic to him. I firmly believe that on these reservations, since we are so remote, that like this lady back here yelled, she said, Bordo. Our youth don't have much to do, let alone the adults. So they reach out for in this extracurricular activities to relieve themselves with some sort of chemical or negative influence. Next thing you know, they end up in jail. And I think that's pretty much the basis, isn't it? Poverty is a big one. Okay. Alright, you know what I'd like, and I'm going to give you the, is this okay? Okay, I just want to involve it and give you the mic. I want young, young people. Some young people. Okay, you guys, stand up, tell me why people are getting arrested. Is it true that people are bored, nothing to do? What's going on? Young lady right here, do you want to stand up? Yeah, you. There's a microphone right behind you. If you're going to stand up, hold it to your mouth. What's going on? It's like everyone's into softball, boxing and everything, and then everyone, and I'm kind of... Are you doing good? Are you doing good? Is there just not enough activities for young people? Not enough activities for everyone. Okay. Yeah, not everyone, not into everything. Okay. Good, good job. Hello. Well, like what Katie was saying, she said there is not really anything to do around here besides sports, but you know, not everyone's into sports. Some people are into skateboarding. The park, art, music, reading, but we don't really have a place to go, or those people don't really have a place to go. Like for me, I'm a basketball player and this right here is my place to go. The readers, they don't have nowhere to go. Let me ask you another, I'm going to ask you a hard question. You ready for a hard question? Yes. The kids here think that when they get out of school, they're going to have decent jobs. All right, who wants to talk about the young man with the interesting hairdo there, right? Okay. There's not enough jobs available for us because some kids are dropping out and not earning their high school diploma, but jobs out there, they require their diploma. But for us, it's hard because of where we grew up. People aren't depending on us more because of, how should I put this? Sometimes it's dependency. People think, oh, I don't have a job, I need to depend on someone else. No. Dependency is when you need the job. They need it to depend on themselves, to get themselves up in the world. Good. All right, thank you. All right, I want to get a sense here. I want to get a sense of how young people feel about the future. Are they happy with school? Are they looking optimistically to get jobs? And I'm hearing that that is not the case on many of the young people here thinking that, in fact, if they do well in school, they can go to college or is college just a distant dream too expensive? Who wants to talk to me about that? I see a young lady over there. Yes. Yes. Can we get a mic to that young lady? Stand up. Where's the mic? No, that's all right. Thank you. Hold that mic right close to your mouth. I guess our views on college and stuff, it seems kind of far. Some of us, we get, we lose motivation. We lack motivation. Sometimes it could be related to home stuff, but here too, it seems so far. Now, if I were to tell you point blank that if you did well in school, if you studied hard, I would guarantee that you would go to a public college or university. Would that make a difference in your life? Yeah, it would probably make me strive for the best that I could be, but sometimes there's no motivation. There's no hope. A lot of us think about our future and we're just like, damn, I wonder if we're going to even be there. Or I wonder if we'll make it there. Will we graduate? Will we get there? Are we going to be able to afford college? Are we going to get there and then are we going to drop out?  Because that's a lot of what happens. Are you seeing a lot of your friends turning to drugs or alcohol? Yep. Myself included. Be honest. Do you want to say a word on that or not? No. Okay, that's fine. It happens. I mean, a lot of us turn to that. It's the truth. I ain't going to lie. No, that's right. Okay. Well, I appreciate your honesty. Thank you. Okay. Let's stay with the young people. Let's get other comments from young people. Anybody else? All right. Where am I seeing? All right. Thank you. Let's get a mic pulled. We get a mic turned. Well, I think that the support, first of all, should come from within the homes. We as young people see our parents, our uncles, our aunties doing drugs and abusing things. All right. Let me stop you and interrupt you. Again, I'm trying to understand what you're saying is in many households, parents are doing alcohol or drugs. Yeah. So we see it and we've grown up thinking that it's okay and that it's acceptable. So if parents are doing it, then the kids are going to start doing alcohol or drugs. Is that what I'm hearing? Yes. Okay. And I feel that if like there's more support there, then we can start believing that we can go to school and maybe if like the college tuition is free, then it's another possibility because a lot of us can't afford school. Okay. And it's like another obstacle like, oh my God, how am I going to pay for this? All right. So if I told you that if you did well in school, I mean, you're going to have to do well in school and be prepared, but if you did well in school, that public colleges and universities would be tuition free to you without making a difference in your life? I think it would make a difference. It would make me push myself to do better and to shoulders that we can do it. All right. Let me change. People can talk about anything they want to, but I want to stay maybe on education and I want you to be honest with me. Are you getting the quality education you think you need? All right. I see a young lady right there. Yes. All right. I think education on the reservation isn't what it should be. The teachers, they're... You know how drugs and everything is a problem on the reservation? Some of our teachers are like that, too, and they just don't care about the education that we're getting, and they just think that they want to be cool with the students and everything, and they're not teaching us what we need to be taught, and they're not motivated to teach either, so they're thinking if they don't want to teach us, then why would we want to learn that? Okay. Very good point. Okay. Thank you very much. Other comments? All right. I see a... Yep. A hand right here, Paul. Okay. Yep. What we need here is support... Hold them, Mike. Close to the mouth. Okay. What we need here is support from the federal government for our school systems to teach the way that we learn. I took my kids out of the public school and I homeschooled them because I didn't feel like the way they were being taught was meeting their needs. We need to restructure our education system across all Indian lands to the way that we learn. We need to bring teachers up to teach how we learn. We don't need to learn American standards. We need to learn our standards first. Okay. Good. Thank you. Okay. I see a gentleman in the blue over there. Yes. Stand up if you could, sir. I personally think that a lot of the problems on the reservation stemmed from how nonviolent drug offenders are treated in the justice system. There are a lot of people that go to prison for using drugs. I have been incarcerated for having dirty pee. And what they're doing, they're having these kids go to these federal prisons for selling marijuana and they're coming back with meth connections. And it's just the justice system isn't really meant for us. Okay. Got it. Thank you. All right. I want to stay on an issue. The lack of a lot of things is a lack of jobs and the lack of income. Is that true? All right. Who wants to talk about that? Why is it? Yes. Young man right here in blue. Yeah. Can we get a mic? Hold that mic close. I don't believe there's a lack of jobs. I just think there's a lack of motivation around here because there are over 100 ranchers that look for help every day. They go around helping, looking for help, pull people out of their beds just to get help. And they pay really well and some people are afraid to stand up to them because they don't know what to do when they go to work. And then there's no inspiration from the educated world to help us motivate us to get our education. There are some jobs available but people don't know, have the job training to know or the confidence to do those jobs. Is that what you're saying? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. We've got a woman right back there. Paul right in front of you. If you can get that mic turned. Okay. What I would like to say actually kind of touches on all of this subject. Yet, when we bring it to the tribe myself, when I brought this back home and said, I have something that will help, I couldn't even get past the door. I developed a gun registration program that is second to none. Absolutely fraud proof using the blockchain. It couldn't, I mean, I've given it to Miss Means Office. No response. We have an ID system for the tribal IDs. Again, making them the most secure ID on the planet. Again, no one will talk to us. Okay. If you become president, would you support the tribe having a cryptocurrency? I would support getting technology and broadband of the highest quality onto the reservations of this country because I don't know how you do economic development if you don't have cell phone service and if you don't have high quality broadband. All right. What I want to do now is I want to bring up, let's see, we have, all right. Tati, did you want to conclude your remarks? Okay. Let me go to Evie Espinosa who's going to talk about health care. Evie, thanks so much for being with us. Okay. So first I want to take this time to first acknowledge Unchi Marie today's her birthday and I want to wish her a happy 96th birthday. Again, I want to thank Senator Sanders and all of you for making the time to come here and be a part of this event today. Elder once told me the most generous thing we can give of ourselves is our time and so I want to thank you and I want to thank all of you that came for that. Specific to health care, I know Senator Sanders, you have a stance that health care should be a right for all. To us it's something more than that because not only should it be a right for all but we have a legal document with this federal government that assures we are entitled to quality and safe health care and that is not being provided right now. Currently at home in Rosebud our hospital is in what's called a systems improvement agreement because they lack the ability currently to provide safe and quality care. Our emergency room was shut down in December. In 6th then 6 of our relatives have died in the back of our tribal ambulances 8 miles from the next nearest ER. That is unacceptable and it's criminal. It's destroying families. It's a modern form of genocide today. That system that is set for us to be able to go there and be taken care of and be helped, it's not that. It's destroying the people that work for it. It's forcing them to enforce policies that go against everything we believe in. It doesn't support and foster making us a stronger nation, a stronger people, a healthy people. It does the opposite. So these staff members that work in these agencies are forced to say either I enforce this policy that I know goes against everything I believe in or I give up my job. Four years ago I chose to give up my job because I could not support a system that I didn't believe in and I know was detrimental to my relatives. And so there has to be a complete overhaul of how healthcare is provided to all of us and all of our knives. Not just in Rosemount, everywhere. Not just in the Great Plains, everywhere. And to respect has to be given. It's due to what our ancestors fought for and why we have these things available for us today. It's extremely disrespectful for the agency that is in existence because of these special arrangements that were made between our governments to do a thing that they're failing so miserably. The Indian Health Service is failing. The Indian Health Service is failing miserably. The system. The system is not set up and is not compatible with providing innovative state-of-the-art healthcare delivery that is available in this country today. There's absolutely no reason why the United States of America has the highest quality of healthcare and we get the lowest quality of healthcare provided in this nation. Absolutely unacceptable. We sit here and we talk about all these negatives. All these negatives. They're all interconnected. And the root cause of that is 150, 200 years ago, our way of life, our identity was taken from us and it created this, what we have to live in and fight for today. All of that was taken for us. So how do we overcome that? We need your help. We need people like you to want to acknowledge that this is wrong from our perspective of what our history is. Help us. Spread that word and help us educate. And that means a lot that you're here today so you're getting that education. And I just, you have so much broader of a network and that's available to you that I ask that you take our voice, our what's important to us back to these people to make it a reality to fix what is going on. Your voice today was our revolution people. We're here. We're broadcasting this. Your voice will get out around the country today. And one of the issues that I feel very strongly about is just what you said, Evie, promises were made. Treaties were signed and those promises were not kept. If elected president, we will keep those promises. All right, I want to, Evie has made a very forceful presentation. I wanted to open it up a little bit if people are interested on the issue of health care. What are your experiences with the health care system? I see a hand here right in the middle. Paul, get that gentleman. If you could stand up, sir. Yeah, right. Get him a mic. No, gentlemen, right behind you. We'll get to you in a minute. Okay, health care. Yeah. All right, well, health care. Yeah, IHS don't do such a great job. My sister had scoliosis for a while. She's been to the ER multiple times. And every single time, except recently, she came back with just painkillers. So, you know, they slag it. All right, she has a serious problem and she's not getting the attention that she needs. Yeah, recently she has gotten laser surgery. So she is recovering and she's getting better. But at the time, IHS was not helping whatsoever. Okay. So, Senator, if I can just touch on it a little bit. So what he's sharing is a real-life thing that we experienced. A relative will go in to seek help for a condition and they're treated with pain medication because that is the most cost-effective way to treat that. But it doesn't address the problem. So what it does is then creates full-blown addictions. And then it overflows onto the family and the ability for that family to be healthy. This addiction caused by an entity that is supposed to be there to protect other topics. So you're saying that painkillers here are being given out in too great a number? I am saying that painkillers are being used to treat conditions that require other treatments that are readily available to everybody else in the United States. Okay. That's what I'm saying. Okay. Healthcare, woman over there, woman in black, yeah. Paul, right over there. Bernie Sanders. I feel so. This is awesome talking to you. Hey, so, you know, what's going, what I hear going on here is, of course, across the Indian country, everywhere. The example of healthcare for me would be personally is your example is you're going to Rapid City. So you got Rapid City, you got Indian Health Service in Rapid City and that hospital has not been, that's the same hospital that my mother, she's gone, bless her soul, she stayed in there during the TB time, back in the 40s, 50s or whatever it was, I remember, but they incarcerated people there for TB at one time. That hospital has never, I don't think, is still the same since the 50s. They've never improved the healthcare there at that hospital. We all are, I mean, we go in there, I personally went in there for something in my leg and came out with cough syrup. So they're not prescribed, they're not listening or whatever it is. There also is a person in the emergency room that can barely speak English. So what's happening in our country, what happens in Indian country, it's called substandard. It's been there since the 50s and 60s when our people were standing up and saying we have substandard health, substandard education, substandard. That's what the government has given us with their promises is just substandard. They have never changed it. And so all of this is just the ill of the substandard care that the government gave us. No, we had all of that in place before colonization. We had, we were well, we cared for our people. We had, we knew the trees, we knew the medicines, we knew that was all taken from us, right? And then replaced into this western medicine stuff that we never got. We never got that. We couldn't speak our languages. We never got that. They took our languages so there's major gaps in our generations that are hurting us. So we couldn't pass those secrets down to our kids to stop the suicide. And so that's where we're at. It's, you need to help raise our, from substandard thinking and care in our country, in our Indian country to raise our substandard and get rid of that word altogether somehow and raise that consciousness. Good. Thank you. Okay. CJ with CJ. All right. I'd like CJ Clifford to come up and talk a little bit about some of the issues as he sees it. Charles Tuna. You know, it's a great honor to be amongst you guys and be able to sit and talk in particular education. Some of that was covered immediately right away. And I want to thank Senator Sanders for opening it up on education. Education is a need that we have every day of our lives. You talk about inadequate funding of the Bureau of Indian Education, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Interior, all the extensions that come, that is supposed to deliver the dollar to us. I don't, I have a different way of telling my story than Chairman Steele does. And what Chairman Steele is the fact about delivering beef to my people in the early days. Delivering sick beef to my people and not all the beef that was awarded to us. Well today is stands in the world of education is the same way. Today out of the dollar we receive 43 cents and the government keeps 57 cents. And I have a dollar light bill in my school systems. I can't afford to pay for that. Let alone I still got to pay for my education to my students and I got to pay my teachers. So here in the state of South Dakota and the Indian country, the average wage is far below where one of the lowest paid states in the United States of America. One of the things that has beaten us is the so-called consultation that the government puts forward in Indian country. They come here and they say we're going to consult with this item. And this item is what we brought to you. It's not what I want to talk about. It's what you're going to tell me what you're going to do and this is what we're going to do. Well today we found a way to battle that and today right now we've taken the government to task getting an education. But bringing it out with your negotiated rulemaking processes that go on through and it comes from the senator's office we need to put together a negotiated rulemaking and we'll come up with some ideas. But still even at the negotiated rulemaking level it is still top-heavy with the bureaucrats weighing in more than it allows my people to have say so are my children. So but if you can keep it open just like you did that is so beautiful to be able to ask them and lean out and ask. Not just of the panel there's so many questions. What I believe in look at the end of the day people know the problems in their own community more than Washington will know the problems. People need the resources but your point is it cannot be the government telling the tribes what to do that has to be common ground and working together and I agree. Yes and you know when we talk about the 43 and the 57 you as a senator appropriate X amount of dollars but the people that work underneath you seem to take the majority of that money. Money is not getting to the people it's going to the bureaucracy. And before we get on too far you know you talked about the treaties and one of the things in our life here is that we would as native people like to see them treaties honored.  Thank you. Thank you very much. Let's hear from Mel Lonehill. Mel. Testing one two. I got our homework to know we're a team by health. The reason I think I said was here. My language and that's my tradition culture. And the if you ask your question is that language being kept alive? Is it being taught to the children? Yes. It is. Some say no, some say yes, but we're trying hard to put those back into our education system. Okay. Okay, the thing is the infrastructure. The infrastructure nationally and locally has deteriorated. Yes. You know, it's gone to the dogs. We don't have no infrastructure here due to lack of education, management, you know, all these things that come in this circle of Lakota, it's not there, or it's there, but you know it's hard to get anything because of the education. And then the first major problem that we have here is our health care. I know there's a lot of vets out there that suffer the health care. We have the VA right here. Does the VA do a decent job? The VA hasn't done a darn thing in my words, in my opinion. And then you're locally. Evie, is that your judgment as well that the VA is not doing what it should be doing or? Our tribal members struggle very much with both systems. And to an extent, they're discriminated against because the IHS says we're a pair of last resort, go to the VA, then the VA says the same thing, and these vets who have fought for this country don't get the care that they need. Okay, Mel, could you continue? I didn't mean to interrupt you, sorry. Yeah. Okay, now you go to the VA today, all the hospitals, I think there's three floors in a VA hospital.  The administration is top heavy, and the patients aren't cared for. If we get sick, we're flown to Rapp City, Sioux Falls, Scouts Fluff, and we're stuck over there. Let me ask you a question if I might. Anybody wants to answer it? Does the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs come here to talk to you? No. No. The toddlers will top every in the Aberdeen area that the money stays up there, maybe 30% or 40% comes here for the infrastructure. So the bureaucracy eats up a lot of the money? Yeah. Okay, so we have the biggest, the major problem here on all the reservations, not locally here, but all Indian country. Yeah, we only get 40 cents out of a dollar to operate the infrastructure that we have here. Okay. Well, Mel, thank you very much. Senator Sanders, if I may add. Yes. For here. Exactly one year ago today, the District of Columbia DC, Washington DC enacted an educational law that says that all schools will teach Native American history in DC, but they only enforced it within the DC area. I would like to see that particular law be mandatory for all states to teach Native American. And I think what CJ and others have talked about is the need to maintain and revive Native American culture. Is that an important issue? All right. And that means making sure the young children know the language and the culture and the history of their peoples. All right. And we're not doing that to the degree we should be doing it now. And non Indians understanding that that needs it. Right. But you have so many other things. I look, look in the crowd and and every talk about that the healthcare system. I I know a young lady I would like to call on and and ask her if she would say a word or two about the healthcare system. Who was that? Miss May Rodriguez. May Rodriguez. May is a survivor of cancer. And I would like to have everybody give her a round of applause. Well, hello, Mr. Sanders and welcome to the reservation.  And I just thank God today by the grace of God, I'm still standing here before you and before my people. And the the way I've gone out and had to do this with getting treatment for breast cancer was having to leave the reservation. And you were unable to you were unable to get the care that you needed here right in this area. Yes. So I left the reservation. I've gone to St. Louis. I've gone to Utah and where Utah is where I and and what are people need to understand when you're on Medicaid? You can go outside of here. You can leave. But the thing is when I left, I had to, you know, let him know that I was staying with somebody in a different state in order to have that Medicaid transfer there. So I've done that. And then when I went to Utah to try to for the treatment there, which I which I received. And that's where I got the surgery and it was successful. But the bottom line, what I'm hearing you tell me is you could not get the treatment that you needed for breast cancer in this area. Right. Well, that's not acceptable. And it's not acceptable. And may I please mention another thing before I close here? When you become president of the United States, we got a lot of hurting parents here. There's a lot of injustice that is done to our people. Mr. Sanders. My son was one of them, and he was murdered in Salt Lake City, Utah. And I'm bringing this out because I was told that our chill that there's no art that it was out of our jurisdiction here to receive justice for my son. And I was told over and over again by Greg Peterman that it was out of their jurisdiction. But since when are our children out of jurisdiction? Thank you. Let me just say this. First of all, I want to thank all of the tribal leaders who have spoken. What I have heard loudly and clearly is there is a lot of pain in this community. There are a lot of people who are turning to drugs to escape the reality of their lives. There are a lot of children who may be giving up. And I want to say something to the kids if I might. I know that there are temptations out there and drugs and alcohol and everything else. That is not going to solve the problem. All right. And what we have got to do on the difficult circumstances, and I appreciate that the circumstances are difficult. You got to fight back. You got to get your lives in order and you got to fight your way through this stuff. Because if you succumb to drugs and alcohol, there is not going to be much of a future. Is that right? All right. So please, I know it is hard. And if I'm elected, you're going to have the resources that you need to get the education that will benefit your lives. We're going to do the best we can to bring jobs into this community so people don't have to turn to crime in order to earn a living. We are going to significantly improve the health care system because I think the point that Evie made is absolutely right. Treaties when negotiated and quality health care is part of that treaty. All right. And that's what we're going to do. And I think, by the way, that's true, not just for Indian country. It is true for every person in the United States of America. All right. We've got a lot of work. We've got a lot of work to do. But the history of everything is that nothing ever good happens if people give up. If we give up, nothing good happens. I want every kid here to be studying hard with the hope and expectation you will get a good education and a good job. But you have got to continue the fight to make that happen. Nothing happens if people just complain. We got to stand up, be involved in the political process. All right. Here's a promise. All right. If elected president, the head of the Indian Affairs Bureau will be here on this reservation. How's that? All right. I just want to thank again all of you for being here today, and I hope to see you again in the not too distant future. Thank you all very much.