I would like to see that I think for us to talk about, I saw it a little bit down here, but I'm not sure how this would go about. So let me say it now. I do think the person who serves in the interim should not run. The reason I'm saying this is because during this five-month period, or six-month period months it is, they need to be focused on what's going to be happening and the resources that are in and out, going in and out, they've gotta pay attention. If you've got someone who tends to run, they're going to be focused on getting a life for the next time. So I do think that if there is somebody who wants to be appointed in the interim, they should not run for the council sheet. We'll address that in the probe.  We're talking right now of characteristics and skills. I know. I think we skipped enough to see. See? Oh, type of work experience, okay? All right, so what type of work experience would you like to see? No, I mean, as a group, we can talk about it. Okay, good question. Thanks for checking. Appreciate it. Type of work experience, does that matter? Does that matter? If it matters, so most people are saying no. Doesn't matter, one person says no. So raise your hand if you think the type of work experience matters. Yeah, yeah, I think it does. Yes, yes, it works, it really matters. Yes. What type of work experience matters? Does the type of work experience matters?  Take a moment. 90 minutes, take a moment. All right, take your moment, don't take it. Take a moment, don't take it. Don't do that, don't do that, all right. Specifically about that, we lose from there, you won't do that right now. Well, I think, okay, we'll address this question. The type of work experience matters based upon the fact that the cross sections of the neighborhoods of East Side San Antonio means that you will be represented more than one working class of people, whether it is master electricians, or whether it's school teachers or teachers' aides, or whether it's persons with accelerated degrees. That type of work experience comes within an organization or comes within cross sections of the community. And the short version of? You have to be able to work with various different levels of people. So it doesn't matter? It doesn't matter to some, but it matters to a certain degree as to how successful the person is going to be, because in that position, you're gonna have to pull together various different levels of people. So if you only have a bookkeeper's experience, or you only have, you know, a custodian's experience, you're not gonna be able to do the same thing because you haven't had that point of reference of the work experience. So it doesn't matter. So one second, one second. I think this is a great dialogue. I'm gonna get in the corner and then I'll get to this. Gentleman in the corner, you raised your hand. I was on the city council in another city. And oh, okay.  I used to work for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and I'll let sure people, you know, quit 50 or 60 at a time. So I have a tendency to not need a microphone. I was on the city council in another city and at the time I worked for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. And that really had nothing to do with my duties as a council member. A council member is part of the city council. They have to agree with each other no matter what kind of work they do in order to get anything accomplished. Beautiful comments, sir. I love to have two different sides of the equation so everybody can make their own decisions. So Liz and then this gentleman in here. Going back to the work criteria, in the totality of the person, the actual physical, I don't know if I need that either. In my opinion, work experience can be substituted for community work, board work, previous council experience because remember what we're trying to do here in my mind is hold the place until those best candidates decide what they're gonna do and bubble to the top. That's what I'm looking at. The totality. Yeah, the entire person. If you've got some community experience, if you're well known, if you've gone to citizens to be heard, if you've been a previous council person, if you don't want to run because you don't need a job, I'm looking at you. That's the one I can't vote on, y'all. Best candidate to come forward in May to serve the district for the next two years. See the beauty of dialogue, you got to walk out of here. Just want to put it this way here and then we'll close this session now. No, right here. So their work experience. Stand up to the folks in the back and hear you. Work experience or the type of work you do cannot dictate whether or not you would be a good council member. If a janitor wants to fight for the community I live in, then yes, please by all means do it because that CEO may not really be interested. It's not about what it is that you do for a living. It's what you want to do so we can live better. They say like oh, what teacher can do that or janitor can do that. If that teacher or that janitor wants to make district two a better place, then they absolutely can do that. So the fact that a person has worked in their life is important, but what type of job they do is not really all that important because it's not what they have done is what we need them to do that matters. And I would rather a person not have such a commanding job because I need them, their focus to be on district two. Right. We've got to call you in a few days and have to meet you. Yeah, I do. I do. I think the only thing I would say is not about work experience. I interview a few hundred percent. I just want to make sure that the person that we choose isn't beholden to their previous work as far as being real estate developing where it might take advantage of residents because that's something that's really important to me is to make sure that the person is for working on behalf of the district and the community and not necessarily on previous financial interests that they might have. So I think that that's really important to consider that which would be the only type of work experience I think that would be something worth noting. It's like, what do people stand to personally benefit from? The people have spoken. The people have spoken. So I'm going to rephrase the question. I'll get to one point. Just one point. Very short. Go for it, sir. Six members of the city council are going to make this appointment in January. Correct. They're either going to make it with this community support or not. Correct. And that's why it's so extremely important what you're doing. Because I, for one, am sick and tired of six other people not related to district two at all making selections about who our leaders are. Thank you. We'll get back to our agenda. Appreciate that, sir. All right, so I'm going to read. Oh, go ahead. I'm sorry. With regards to the economics, I heard people say that the leadership doesn't matter with regards to certain experience level. Most of you are aware that there are 35 different turrets in the city, 35 of them. District two's turrets, which is membered by district one. Describe the turrets. Describe the turrets. Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I'm making it. I'm just going to try and move on. Okay. The short birds, you can't. Short birds. Short birds. Okay, short birds. Tax and finance are home. There's 35 of them, real investors. There's 35 of them. The one in district two, the inner city turrets, is the largest. It has $18 million in it, okay? So what you need to understand, your leadership person, the person we select, not just this five months, but going forward, quarterbacks, they are the chair, person, or lady of that seat. They control the economics. The reason why we have so many problems in district two, besides the crime element, is that we don't have enough money circulating in our community. That's right. We've got to turn up the fire or get more money circulating in our community. The turrets can do that. So that person, he or she, is very important and they need to understand how the turrets work because if not, then staff will just influence your decisions because you won't be sharp enough to move money to the street of district two. Well then we just have to make them smarter about what that is. It's not that easy. It's not that easy. No debate, ladies. No debate, no debate. You can't just make it because there are certain guidelines that the turrets have. So we have to know the game before you get to the table. Thank you, Kim. You can rest yourself. Thank you. Thank you, Liz. Okay. Y'all heard the valuable discourse. Beautiful discourse. That's just, you know. So now let's get back to your question. And the question is the type of work experience. If you are in favor of a certain work experience, please raise your hand.  If you're in favor of a certain work experience, raise your hand. The majority said they don't care. Okay. Got that? Doesn't matter. Work is the type of it, doesn't matter. Let's close that part of it. So the summation of it is that we want someone with at least a high school diploma. We want someone that is full-time on a job, don't have a second job, okay? Someone who has knowledge of the community. The length of residency is at least 10 years, anywhere from six to 10, okay? They've provided services in the district. They've also, the non-political service doesn't matter. That community service, that activist or whatever, okay? And they have good communication skills. Are we all in agreement? Yes. Those are in agreement, raise your hand. We have unanimous support for what we've just laid out. That is what we want to move forward to the council as part of our group, really, in terms of what we're looking for. I have a quick question. You know what would be helpful too, for people to talk about, say who you are. No, I don't. Oh, okay, go ahead then, I'm sorry, go ahead. So what's gonna happen to the staff? We don't worry about the staff. Yes, we are. I am gonna worry about it because they are the right hand of Sean and they have been the ones that have helped us to make this thing. They have no teeth. And it's the staff. So what's gonna happen to them?  But I think if that's one of the issues, that fits on the others. That we'd like to have staff maintain. Okay, let's put that as one of the other desires. He has no teeth, the staff. So we would want that person to do their best to employ the existing staff. It's a beautiful one. Can we go to that? Okay, all right, I'm sorry. I got caught up in a moment. All right, let's listen to the question. There's gonna be two questions. Is there a desire to ensure that our new district two leader keeps the staff in place or not? It just, you know, select who they want. All right, so the first question is the existing staff, we will put forward to that whoever selected that they maintain the existing staff. If that is your desire, raise your hand. One more question. Are you talking about in the interim? The interim. In the interim, that's all in the time real quick. In the interim and keeping your existing staff. You may add it, let's just keep it the existing staff. Okay. Yeah, the interim. As long as they're competent, let's put the cap, let's put the cap down. As long as they're competent. Now I'll keep you, and if you're not carrying on my directives, then we may have an issue. All right, all right, one meeting, please. We want to respect the process, Mr. Karen's been in the corner, and Mr. D, okay. Right. All right, beautiful. Any other issues, that's why I love community input because those things we don't think about are every round of the time. Anything else, okay. Did you say that the person can't have another job? Right, we want to support 100% of this particular. That's asking a lot. What do you mean? We are asking a lot. We're not supposed to be asking a whole lot. All right, welcome. Jordan says, we have a priority on the type of issue. That's next. The district truth is. That's next, I think that's perfect. Thank you. All right, if you look at item number seven, ranking of community issues, we passed out some little sheets so we can collect, but as you can see, and guess what, we've got the word other, so if there's other issues you think are important, we want to address those also. So we're going to go through this pretty quickly. Because we really want to get to the folks who have an interest in running are here. And you may be able to hear from some people that have an interest. For those of you who think housing is priority number one, raise your hand. Come on out, people. Come y'all be in influence, okay. All right. Number one, isn't your number one, isn't your number one issue? Okay, all right, you got that number, normal? All right. All right, let me find a little bit better. I think that's great. Great clarification. Affordable housing. Affordable housing. Show of hands again. Show of hands for affordable housing as your number one. As your number one, let's be clear. As your number one. And the things that go with that. Yeah, just affordable housing, but the stabilization of long-term residents and the stabilization of affordable housing. Yeah, thank you. All right? All right, we've got a number. I mean that's, we're talking about your number one is property tax reform. Property tax reform. Is that your number? You got two number one. I got a couple. Okay. Hey, we've been headless for a minute. All right, property tax reform. Your number one. Number one. I'm surprised there's more. Well, I'm going the way that property tax doesn't go with housing. Right. Yes. Of course. I think that needs to be a little bit more of a. But that's getting into the weeds now. What should we talk about? No doubt they come together. Taxes and property is the one of the same. What I'm saying is, let's talk about your number one. We got number one that we need to address. Property tax. All right. You got your number. Everybody. Your number one. All we're looking at is issue ranking. That's it. We can get a more discussion in a minute. All we're looking at is issue ranking. You want this individual to focus on property tax reform. Is that the number one issue? May I have something? Is it possible for you to list a few of those? Because what we're starting off with only one to consider. They're on here. Right. They're on here. And they're on there. They're on there. They're on two pieces of paper. That's what happened when you got a little bit. That's what happened. That's what happened when I was on fire. Now I'm going to have to have some agony, yeah. Come on. Just to comment, so our property taxes, that's more of a state's influence, right? Versus a local. Working together with the city. For the school district. For the school district. Yeah. Property taxes, okay. Yeah, it's several entities. Yes, ma'am. You know how you do it. Did you sign in? The issues with the food court, maybe I can do a good clarification. I'm very, very sorry. The issues we want to put forward were our new district two leader and some priority items and how they should be ranked. Okay? Representative. Yes, sir. The number one issue for me is the hostel. We don't have a hostel. So that's another. That's it. That's not what it is that it should be. Okay, I'm going to go around. I'm going to probably eat. But now remember that if you're number one, we're getting the group think going on. Thank you for that though. We had it to the list. In this area and this other too. We don't have a hostel. We've added it to the other. Thank you for that, sir. Appreciate it. Number one issue for you as it is jobs. Okay. Number one issue for you, criminal justice. Reform. I would like to mention something here. People who can afford to post bonds, they post the bond and then they show up. So criminal justice reform at the top of your list. We're going to get into the weeds in a minute. Okay. So your hand is up. Criminal justice reform is your number one. Nope. Grazing. Community slash economic development. Is that your number one? Your number one. Do I got no money? Oh yeah. Alrighty. But you can't do the narrative right now. Right. What we should be to do is assist the back and forth to get through an agenda. All right, agenda. We can have all the sidebar conversations and additional conversations during the discussion. But if we get into sidebar conversations, we never do what? Give you the agenda. I got six minutes to do the same. Okay. Six minutes before what? 10 o'clock. Okay. Then we've got a lot of time for conversation because it's a good conversation. Something that's not on your agenda we want to add is your number one streets and drainage. Streets and drainage. So infrastructure. We'll put in some of your past dollars. The attendant, the past dollars, a little different. Infrastructure. Okay. Hands. Hands for infrastructure is your number one. One, two, three, four, six. Okay. Sidewalks. That's it. But we are going. All right. Economic development. And then we're going to go to dance deal hospital slash house. Of course you can. Homelessness. Homelessness. Ooh, that's a great word. Okay. Okay. That's number one. Anyone for homelessness is your number one. I'm changing mine. I want to be with her. I want to be with her. I want to be with her. I am a homeless person. Let's count this first and then we'll get into this two. Whenever you raise your hand to ask a question and then max it out. No, don't count me. Okay. Homelessness. Two. Two. Okay. Three. Three. Okay. Mr. Dr. Jetta. Neighborhood crime. Shootings. That was on the criminal justice. Criminal justice. Reform. Yes. It's a big problem. Okay. It's a big problem. Under these are subcategories. Okay. Okay. Chuck, did you have any other you wanted to add? Poverty. Poverty. Put Frank on with this. Are we going to go with these? Put Poverty. He said Poverty. I agree with that. All right. I see you have a lady here. Development. Okay. New buildings. Economic. Economic. Economic. That's the large economics. Is that we go along with like city codes and full development. Community. Community. Shown as zoning. All subcategories are going to work. Are we going to turn these down? You will. So this is a good question. One meeting. One meeting. The question is how are you going to turn these in? You're absolutely going to turn these in. Pink and you can do it anonymously. See for yourself what your name is. All right. Any other issues? Drug dealers. I don't know if that's the case. All right. So we're moving through our agenda item number eight. Ooh. All right. Let's talk about the summation again. The issues of priority. It looks like affordable housing was number one. Community economic development was number two. Workforce development and job, oh, I'm sorry. Criminal justice reform was number three. Workforce development slash jobs was number seven. Seven. Seven. The next one. Number four. Number four, I'm sorry. And infrastructure. Infrastructure. Number five. So we want to put those four as, what the community has for it. All right. Item number, any other issues before we move up? We'll go ahead and move on from this. Yes, sir. It may come under community and economic development, but what I believe our council person should do is be able to hold the residents accountable who are the resources that already exist and that are coming in to the east side and to district two. So somebody give me a subheading for that. Somebody help me out. Accountability. Citizen accountability and involvement. There needs to be checks and balances anyway, or we wouldn't be having this conversation. I don't think about that one though. Community engagement. Yeah. Yeah, of course the malls are over there. I hear you Mr. Nims, I'm just trying to figure out what's in the subheading. And I need help, but what I see in our community is there are resources that have been put in place by both political and other leaders and other organizations in our community, and we want more without using the one, the resources that we already have. So it's maximizing our existing resources. Right. There you go. And if we're not getting this accountable, that's what we're going to do. Oh, okay. It's not nonprofits accountable. Not just nonprofits, service providers in general. Right. So it's accountability. All right. You got an emergency and you just got an app right here. Got it. Accountability. And then one other thing we forgot, which is the big one, nobody brought up, yeah. I'll put you at this second. Education. Education. Okay. Young lady? Just to clarify a little bit more as to what I'm interpreting from what Mr. Nims is saying. With the, I'm thinking more of monitoring and evaluation of programs. Right. We've got a lot of resources in VISTA too, but a lot of that may have come from places where in which we thought of a good idea in a silo and we didn't make this accountable. Right? It fits on their accountability. It fits on their accountability. Yeah. That's the stuff that we're accountable for. Bear with it? Yeah. I did want to just divert a little bit from what Mr. Nims said. The reason why I said maximizing our resources, because what we end up doing is duplicating a lot of what we have. And then we have a little bit of stuff going on that it's barely eating out living. So that's why I'm saying maximize what we got, figure out how we do that so we get stronger in doing what we do. And then I'll tell you how we can get that done. Okay? I think it is important that our elected leadership, our organizational leadership, our HOAs, we have if not at least a monthly or bimuffly or quarterly meeting need to come together and guess what? Create good communication. That's right. Okay, so put that on there, communication. That our leaders, the citizens of this community said mandate that our leaders come together and have dialogue so that we can do the things that you're talking about. So people are not working in silos, but are working together for the greater good. Does the Gabriella look like you bought the bust out of it? This is what I want, San Diego is just a Gabriella, I live here in the neighborhood. And I apologize for being late and I didn't mean to be disrespectful, but I got lost. Can you believe it? Come out from my house. No. No. No. This is what I'm looking at and I'm looking at both sides. Oh, yes.  We, everything is three and two and one and seven. We are not organized ourselves. We should have this meeting, one, thank you sir. We should have a meeting like this once a month. That's right. This is what's wrong here. We are one once education. This one wants that and I'm on all sides. I mean, I want everything for here. Who will lead? The first thing we need to do is get somebody in this neighborhood. I don't mean, we don't need, come here and fight. And when they ask this question, I wouldn't put anybody in that city council that wouldn't stand up to talk. We need to tell everybody, you know a lot of you, to call me. I got to hear four calls to be here. Would we need, would we need, you know, I'm not going to run. Yes, let's do it. I'm not going to run, so I can't run. But, and I don't, you know, put me on this side. I know a lot of you and you know me, but we need to stand up. And if you're not standing up in this room, you're ain't going to stand up in city hall. What does she need to say? I think we need to be on the list. We need to fight. Yes, we need to fight. That's right. Okay. 17 days since the governor-in-chief. All right, our deep discussion. We'll take a deep dive after we get through our agenda. I'd like to add something to the previous. Okay. There already is an organization that does that. I meet once a month, it's called the Eastern Triangle. It's an umbrella for 16 homeowners association. And it's already there. All we got to do is attend the meeting. So last year is here for every month. Is it only for homeowners? Is it for all residents or just homeowners? All residents. Two and three, right? All residents. Districts, two and three. We got to get our, we got to get our trains going, too. Okay. All right. All right, thank you, sir. Appreciate that. We're going to go to question number eight. And then as we dive a little deeper, we're going to put a little birdie message in my ear. It's a thing we're going to talk a little bit more about. All right, let's look at item number eight, we have the agenda. Will it is to serve until May or after? So let's take a minute. Let's keep our apology right now before we make a final decision. Let's make sure we're very strategic here. Let's talk about the pros and the cons to someone just serving in the interim or someone who's looking at the interim and long term. Now, I'm not going to take any questions on this one. We're going to do a, what we call a round robin bullet. And you stand up, you put your position and then we'll add it to the list. All right, we're going to address the pros first. The pros will be just serving in the interim only and not wanting to run for the long term. What's the pros to that? Please be recognized through your hand, not no one's trimming out. Excuse me, what's that one I know? Someone, a previous person, said she wouldn't run and then she did. She's not here today. I'm saying, they changed their mind. That's right. They lied. Who want to put it grand gently? Sure. Be sure of your position. I love that, Rose. Thank you. Well, since I brought this up, the reason why and I, He's talking to pros now. Pros, pros, focus, you said earlier. Pros, and I'm going to do is pros to only be for the interim. Yeah. They'll only work in there and not run after them. Okay, then this is, and I'm speaking on the right point. I have been elected official as this gentleman. I'm sorry. Our version, okay. What happens when people get there? If they are planning to run, they end up spending all of their time campaigning and they will not make a decision. They'll be afraid on which way to go. We need somebody very focused who can catch up. We're already behind the A-ball. So we need focused attention. And we can also then give us time to organize to really get our great candidate in for the long haul. Isn't it just a few months of the interruption? Yeah, it's just a few months. They will be running in math. So it's four months. Yeah. Six months when they're seated, they won't be seated until July as part of the show. Okay. I mean, yeah, the new person will be seated until July. Any other pros to just serve in the interim? I heard, we're barely seated with focus. Liz? Yeah, that would be the opportunity for the entire community to see because we're working right now. We have an opportunity for the entire community to bet the best candidates. Absolutely. Time to bet is a pro. Okay. Anybody else? You can also use it as a training if you want to run later on. Training is a pro. Yeah. I love the round robin here. We can ease it. Community engagement. Community? Community engagement. That's true. And four months. Okay. That's right. They get to know the community. All right. Pros to the... Ethnicity should not matter as long as you're focused on the job. But it wouldn't matter. It will be. Hold on now. Wait a minute. Everyone has their... We're not going to jump on people for a piece of it. Ethnicity should not matter as long as you're focused on the job. Okay. Ethnicity should not matter as long as you're focused on the job. You don't have the ability to fundraise so your interests are the community, not the other interests. I'm here in a con. That's a con. Not ability to fundraise. No, that's a pro. Because your vacancy is under control. Your loss is only to anyone. You know what? I can't hear 10 people. I can't hear 10 people. Don't even say what you're saying. If you're feeling the vacancy, you can't fundraise or have a treasurer so you're beholden to the community. Not. Isn't that an assumption? Well, you can't... You have your position. You can't focus on it. You're not allowed to fundraise. You're not allowed to fundraise. You're not allowed to fundraise. Hold up, y'all. Let's stay focused. What time is that? I'm going to do my teacher stuff with a bubble in a jar. With a bubble in a jar. So, for clarity, what's possible? Wait just a second. To feel the vacancy, you're not able to appoint a treasurer or to fundraise. So, you're not beholden to any other interest but the community. Then, if you're running a campaign, you're taking checks from businesses or lobbyists or whoever. It's a pro. It's a pro. But it's under control. Hold it to the community. Hold it to the community is what you're saying. All right. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Middleman. Thank you, Dunn. Appreciate it. Okay. I will just remind this, if people came in late, they didn't even know what we're doing. And we're looking at the interim position, the appointed position, the pros and cons for whoever is selected to be only looking at that interim position. Okay. Any other pro? Any other cons? Since we're going back and forth. Let's go ahead. I know you said we weren't going to answer a question but do we actually have influence with Cruz on this selection process? I do. Do we need to all show up and just ask it? We have to do a combination. Okay. I believe that the voice of the people is important. Okay. And I believe that the councilman and the city council and the mayor will listen to the voice of the people. Now they're the final decision makers and I would hope that once the decision is made, they're able to tell the people why they made that decision. Thank you. And that gets to our accountability piece. Thank you. Okay. Do they owe it to us? No. Okay. Well, I think it's kind of... But we can politely ask. Okay. Politely. Thank you. All right. You're doing the polite part, right? You know what? It's the same. You get more with honey and the sugar and the vinegar and salt and what's that other thing? Any other... Anyone wants to add? Okay. So summation. The pro is it allows us individuals to be focused. It gives the community time to drown for them for the future. And they can be more community focused with community engagement and not campaigning why they're there. Barbara, there... I'm sorry. This is correct you. What Liz said was not time to vet. She said it would give time for the community to organize so we can actually find a great candidate for the long-term. Well, but you know, the point about that was to say that the interperson isn't a great person. Yeah, but that interperson has got to make a decision. They're either serving the community or they're serving for the next position. Right. That's what she said. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying... All right. So there's differences of opinion. Yeah. And that's a good one. That's democracy. At work. Can we stop talking about... Hold on one second, sir. We want to respect this individual speaking. Sir. Are we still saying that that interim person cannot be elected further? Some people are saying not everybody. Some people are saying that. Because that person could be the person we're looking for. Right. And it ought to be whoever's going to stop from that point on, you know, at the point that they need to be elected. They should be considered with somebody else that thinks that they can do a better job. All right. That's a great deal. And here's, I think, would be our statement too. Our leadership was going to make that appointment. I want you to hear this good now. Isn't the desire of the community that the individual who was appointed in May or we want to leave it open? Maybe not. We're going to take a vote. We're going to do the democracy. Okay. Alright. I'll get you first and then this. Go ahead. You're voting? Or what? She's beautiful. No, I just wanted to say that if you have that you could contact the other council people if you have an opinion about it. Oh, she did. Of course she did. I'm loving you how this is going. Thank you. You're being good, aren't you? I think there's one thing that needs to be considered here is that it makes no difference. The reason I say that is four months, I can't get my feet wet. I can't even learn the names of city staff within that period of time. So the bottom line is whether they run or not, they should be ignorant from day one, pretty much. Beautiful. So here's our vote. Here's our unanimous, hopefully, decision to move forward to the council. And Tyrone, I want you to put a piece of paper up there across and then we got to really count this. Okay. Interim open. Interim only or keep it open. Okay, beautiful. And we want you to count your hands, y'all. Can I say something real quick? Of course you can. We keep saying four months, six months. The person who wants to be the interim only really has one month to make the decision because you have till February to decide. So at the end of the day, it's really not either or because that person isn't going to have time to decide. So let's not look at it as they're in there for six months and then we're going to see if they want to keep the seat. It's really only about 30 days. So let's be realistic when we think about how we're going to say interim only or keep it open. But today, we want to be able to give our electors our opinion. They're going to make the decision. But part of our voice is as they're making their decision and they will ask the person, do you plan to run in the future, right? And that person may say no. And they come very repeatedly. You didn't motorize. So can we control that? No. All we're doing is trying to lay out desires. That's all we're doing. I'm seeing this question mark on your face. No, no. I just have concerns about that. Interim person being kind of a lame duck. I don't have a message beyond that. I got you. And then we have to restart again and try to find the person that we want in there. Yes, it is. We already have a low bar for the leadership. High school education. We're going to be overwhelmed and struggling to figure out just what's going on. It's our position. That's not fair. It's not a matter of fair, y'all. One thing we've got to be clear in our community is we're moving forward. We're working together. And we're communicating. Everybody has their own opinion. And no one can say there's is right and the other person is wrong. We all have our opinion. And one thing we want to do in this community is that everybody has an opinion whether we agree with it or not. So that we can continue to work together not in anger or despair. I'm going to put this lady over here and switch the camera over to the other two. Well, I think part of the concerns would be that the person that's going to come out of the intro has to be talented and effective to go in there right away because it's going to be very important issues during this time. That if they're not effective and they get there and start doing the job without the worry that they're going to be attacked later that they might run, it doesn't matter because of the people who might run later feel they can't put their name in the basket for the intro because they will be chastised because they're going to run. Then you're losing the opportunity to be the most talented and the most effective person in there to get in there and start voting on things that are so important to our district because you're dealing with budgets. You're dealing with economic development. You're dealing with homelessness right now. They're dealing with your parks. They're dealing with everything they have to do. The agenda is not stopping. We can't put that terrible situation because they're going to feel they're going to get attacked because they're in there trying to be effective but then they can actually end up being effective. Point well made. I suppose my question would be what kind of a person would go in for 30 days? Who wants to go in for 30 days? I mean, would you like that? No. I mean, we want a strong person that knows now what they want to do. Point well taken. This is Gabrielle. That's right. Picking back on Joe's question or comment the con of selecting a person who only will be here for the interim promises to only be for the interim is we limit the talent pool available. Exactly. So, y'all have heard several positions of the matter. Are we ready to call for the panel? We're ready. Call the vote committee. Mr. Nell? You've just been shut down. We're getting ready to call for the panel. Are we ready? We want to be clear. A person that serves in the interim to be limited from serving or being our candidate in man. Raise your hand if that's what you want. You want to put the interim person you want to put the limitations on. Raise your hand. No. Beautiful. The interim has everybody to be our candidate in man. Number nine goes to questions and then number ten is adjournment and then, guess what once we're announcements and then when we're finished you can go out in the parking lot and do all and I have enjoyed being here today. And I enjoy talking to the community. Can we do it again? I think we should always be doing it. That's my desire. So, we're going to call for questions in a minute. Before you go to questions can we meet the person who you said were here? This is after the question. After the question. All right. Any questions? If y'all want to keep y'all questions low we can get people up. Go ahead Steve. As a community organization that operates in district two the question I have for someone who would be running to district two would be would be willing to share an overwhelming 80-90% city budget that's law enforcement heavy back into the community because we are funding vast incarceration in the public criminal justice system and we know this to be true because you've had several presidents and other candidates bring that up so we have to come to the realization that we cannot continue to fund 80% of our city budget and only 10% or 7% into the community. So that's what we're going to do. Now, here's what we're going to do because I think it's unfair to barrage people with a bunch of questions but what we will do is this since there is no other we will allow people who are interested in running and we'll give them a minute and a half just to introduce themselves to you. So that way you can see those people of interest. Are we going to have to go with that? Yeah, let's do it. So for those people who have an interest in running from concentration alright? Two minutes and a half? Two minutes.


Hey there friends. Thanks for checking in at the range now and we're going to do a range comparison With two very fine full-size handguns here We have the Sig Sauer P226 ASC alloy stainless elite with a 4.4 inch barrel versus the CZ 75 SP01 all Steel model the frame is all steel and this has a 4.6 inch barrel both full-size and Not a great difference with the barrel length only Point two inches longer with the CZ many people on this channel love the CZ handguns actually with my Handgun showdown series. I've been running CZ is yet to lose any of those, but let's start with this P226 ASC beautiful handgun it is Currently with an 18 round magazine standard cons with a 15 round magazine with a flat Base plate right there sits flush with the the grip rosewood grips walnut. All right. It does have a Aluminum frame that is PVD coated stainless slide Siglight night sights excellent trigger pull a single action is very nice. It does have that SRT short reset Trigger already mentioned four point four inches now the the P226 models are amazing There are so many different variations of them and when I Showed this this is a tailo edition and when I show this people say wow that thing is really something and it is But what's also interesting is that when this came out? It was around $900 like that's what I paid for it now. It's selling for 1200-1300 part of that is because Firearms are hard to come by also. This is I didn't even know this, but it's become pretty much a rare Model and I'm so happy to have it. It's a beautiful handgun And I love shooting it. I love showing it off. Let's go ahead and take a few shots here. I Don't have 18 loaded up But I've got enough all right Love the P226 line, and I love this tailo edition ASC Alloys tail and sleek does have the decocker on there very consistent with Sig handguns, but a crowd favorite on this channel. Anyways are the CZ's and this is the SP01 all steel frame now I also have the phantom with the polymer frame and They have the same upper they will work with each other, but this is all steel frame does have the rubber grips 19 round magazines the MSRP and this is now 829 and that actually increased throughout the years And I always said I was going to get G 10 grips on there I never did there's still a rubber, but it does have the full pick rail Much like the SIG 4.6 inch barrel also night sights. This here has the thumb safety Can't carry cocked and locked also has the ability to move the hammer Not there right there in the quarter cock Position which would be a good way to carry it or cocked and locked whatever, you know But it's a CZ it runs great. It has been excellent for me It's a good-looking handgun. I don't know if it's as sharp as the P226 I just showed but it shoots just as well amazing Hang on every time I show this one as well people say that thing is awesome and quite honestly It is let's see how I do All right So here we have two Fine handguns. We've got the CZ 75 SP01 and the SIG P226 ASC Which one would you choose? Well, let me give you my thoughts first off both these are mine So I really don't have a bias but I Love this SIG. I love this CZ. I think they're both great But if I had to choose one of these I'm going with the P226 ASC. I love everything about it Now I will mention if this was a shadow 2 which I've shot before I never owned one But if this was a shadow 2 I would choose the CZ but in this comparison I'm going with the SIG my question for you Which one would you choose? If you like videos like this, please subscribe and share I always appreciate thumbs up button. Thanks for watching and you guys be safe


Moslems in Kaduna state have been enjoined to inspire the teachings of love and self-sacrifice. Plus TV Africa correspondent Habila Darufai reports is presented from our studio. Speaking after the aid prayers in Kubauluku government area of Kaduna state, the chief of Dusengwai, Malam Idris, Alhassan says Nigerians must be fair and resolute in the discharge of the responsibilities of maintaining peace, unity and development in the state and the country as a whole. He joined Moslems to use the lessons learned during the holy period for the good of mankind and also called on the state government security agencies and members of the community to intensify efforts at ending insecurity in the state. To give us peace and unity in our community, in our local government, in our state, in Nigeria at large. We call on to our people to be loyal and to open their eyes in this critical condition that we are in the country. A lot of things are happening. Also Honorable Yusuf Usaini Sardana who is also an aspirant of the House of Representatives said that any nation where there is no peace, unity and tolerance irrespective of cultural, religious sentiment, there cannot be meaningful growth and development. There is nothing as good as peace. We shall all engage peace. We shall all embrace peace. We shall know that without peace, nothing will excel. So I am calling on the youth, the shun violence, shun drug addiction, shun banditri, shun all forms of these social vices that we are having at the moment. My message to the people for this Salah occasion is for them to be very patient with one another and live in peace. Youth get something to do that is positive because if they don't engage themselves in a positive way, they may end up engaging themselves in a negative way. Peace.


Welcome back to Think Tech here in the four o'clock rock. This is Think Tech Asia on a given Monday. And we're talking about attracting Chinese investment to the United States. Our special guest is Lou Gibbons. And he joins our co-host, Russell Liu. And both of them are in China in Beijing. And we are connected with them for the duration by Skype. Now, Lou Gibbons first came to China in the late 90s as a Fulbright scholar. He's a well-known scholar and lecturer on doing business in China. He also holds a faculty position at the University of Toledo in Ohio College of Law. Lou has organized many conferences on doing business in China. He chaired the Confucius Institute at the University of Toledo. And has been instrumental in working on public-private partnerships. That's very important in China. Developing greater awareness of business opportunities in China in the Toledo region. So Toledo, although a small city of 280,000, that would be one quarter the size of Honolulu, has attracted Chinese investments, especially in some areas, including the glass industry and the automotive supply chain. Very impressive. So today with my co-host, Russell Liu, with Lou Gibbons, we're going to examine how U.S. cities and regions have to reinvent themselves these days, in light of declining U.S. spending, and in light of rising China. What is the next step for Honolulu to reinvent itself in the global economy? We're going to get some really important advice today from Lou Gibbons. So Russell Liu, co-host, take it away. Morning, Jay, and fellow think-tech audience. I'm really happy here today to introduce Lou Gibbons. Lou is a really old-time China head, and has been very instrumental in working in his community. Now, it's only a city of 280,000 people, but I think if we hear the numbers of what kind of investments and the amount of investments going into their community, we'd be astonished. So we really want to examine today what lessons we can learn in our larger community. Is it too late? What's the platform to develop this, and how do we do this? Navigating a new world. And we're really fortunate of Lou because he's been here all the time for 20 years. In fact, he's going to give a lecture next coming week on intellectual property here, some of the things that he does to interface with the Chinese world. Lou, can you tell me a little bit about your city, Toledo, how large it is, and what's the Chinese investments in the city? Toledo is, as we said before, a small industrial city. It was largely a producer of glass and things that supported the automobile industry in Detroit. So we have Libby Corning's, Lib Owen's Corning's, the glass industry. We have branches of the automobile industry that produces transmissions, and of course the Chrysler factory. What's the second part of the question? Tell us, give us an idea. You know, I was blown away because in 2013, as some of my audience will know, I've been a lawyer in China, and I picked up the New York Times, and I saw this thing about an article about the city of Toledo, and the article was about the blue color industry in the US, the small town of Toledo, is getting a windfall of Chinese investment. Tell me, what was happening in 2013? Okay, basically around the time, we had a mayor who could call Beijing or Shanghai their second home. The mayor was constantly coming to China, and his staff were heavily pushing economic development, encouraging economic development, and insulting economic development. The mayor also supported our sister cities program, and we have a sister city in China called Chenghuang Tao, and again, the mayor was using, leveraging all these resources to encourage Chinese businesses to come to Toledo, take a look, and many of those businesses like what they saw. If I remember correctly, there was something that impressed me, that there was sort of this public private partnership that was a new platform that I haven't seen, and this is in 2013, and where it seemed to be a vehicle to bring investment. Tell me about that. Okay, one of the things we have in Toledo is the regional partnership. This is more or less, as in many states, Ohio has a very robust open records law, and things made available to the state, are freely available to anyone who wants to see them, and for a business, you do not want your competitors to know where you're looking, what you're thinking about doing, how you think about expanding. One way to solve that, Ohio created the regional partnership, which represents the county's Northwest Ohio and Southern Michigan, which is a public-private partnership, and largely it's a private corporation where businesses can go and say, I'm looking for land to build, I'm looking for the factory to remodel, I'm looking to do something, and they would facilitate both the regulatory aspects of it, and help the company make the necessary connections with the university, or the next service connection to see whether or not this would fit. That's brilliant, that's brilliant in the sense that the Chinese like to deal with government agencies, I can tell you that from my own experience, and so when you make a public-private partnership in Toledo, Ohio, and part of it is the government, there's a sort of an assurance that the government will cooperate, that there's also the credibility of the government through the Chinese, so they're much more likely to make a deal with this organization, and they're much more likely to invest in the project, don't you think? You're telling me a unique aspect about this, where it's actually private. It's legally a private corporation, so it can deal with things privately, for example, you can come to them and give them information, they don't have to share it with anybody, and so the business can go in quietly, everyone knows you want to buy land, the price of land goes up, they can go, they'll help you facilitate the contacts, help you facilitate the relationship with the government, but it remains private. That's interesting because the Chinese world, they are so quiet when they do business, they don't want competitors to know in their own world what they're doing, so it gives them assurance that they can do the business quietly, no fanfare, no morale, but get the business done, and the investment closes. Yes, and also it has the credibility because it's struck by the state, and the state has a heavy interest in it, so it's a mixture of both, and the people on the board of directors and the board of advisors are all business people, they know the Toledo, they know the community, and they are able to help you find whatever it is a Chinese business might need to find in Northwest Ohio or Southern Michigan. One thing that strikes me is that we have a U.S. government system where the election comes up every four years, and it seems to me that many times the government leaders are worried about four years, so in other words, if there aren't four years, that project may die because they're not there. Now with this kind of private entity that works with government, it seems like, do you think it removes a lot of political risk? Okay, first of all, the staff people, many of them have been there, I would say 15 to 20 years, so you know the staff, and the leadership will be there, it's continuity of leadership, first you spoke last year, be the next year, regardless who is the governor or regardless who's the mayor of Toledo, which gives you continuity of leadership. Again, they're largely the advisory board and people involved with business people, more business people, they know what you want, and they're not running for election. The mayor of the city, no disrespect to the mayor of Toledo or the governor, they want to announce publicly, I created jobs, I didn't have direct investment, but the business may not be ready, but the business may not, anyone to know, the quantity of the investment or the number of jobs will be created. RPG can help business move as quietly or as publicly as the business wants to, and when the business is ready. So Jay, maybe you can like ask for help. I'm thinking that this is a situation where there might be, and in Hawaii, there might be political pushback, because some companies are having the benefit and others may not be having the benefit. And I wonder if in Toledo, Ohio, there is political pushback, called competition in the city, competition for having these public-private partnerships, competition for having the benefit of these public-private partnerships. Is there a political tension around that in Toledo? I would say some mayors and some politicians, like anything else, are more enthusiastic, some are less. I think the local business community realizes overall this is advantageous. Business comes in, even if they're your competitor, they produce jobs, they pay taxes, they make the community better. And again, RPG is an honest broker, in my opinion, like I speak to myself and not the University of Toledo, is an honest broker. They help the international business, the business looking to relocate to West Ohio, get the best opportunities they can, so hopefully they'll choose Northwest Ohio. But let me just move, I don't know who could cut it. Some of the RPG, what's the economic consequences of the recent years, numbers in Toledo investments? Um, recently some numbers that came out on their annual report indicated that they created, I think with the last year or so, about 1,000 jobs, they've saved about 6,000, almost 7,000 jobs, and about $450 million investments. And so it seems like a pretty unique platform, successfully that it can marry the two, the public sector, the public community, the government leadership, and the private community. So it allows business investment in a fashion that is within the law. It seems to be also great because the Chinese culture coming to the U.S., they don't want a lot of fanfare, they want to be in the radar, because not for purposes, I think more purposes that they don't want their local competition, domestic competitors, see what they're doing. So it seems to be a model to bring investments in. The other thing is, again, since it's politically neutral, it comes and goes regardless of Democrats or Republicans, and it leverages all aspects of the community. It has strong relationships with the University of Toledo, it has strong relationships with the Dolores Community College, and the other community colleges and public, and not for profits in the community that could facilitate the relocation or success of a new business. Well, I wanted to ask you about that. You know, what facilitation does the academic world play here? I mean, you're part of it. Do you help to facilitate? Do you help to negotiate these deals? Do you help to do, you know, find parties to come together? Personally, I don't. I am not involved in details. To realize negotiations, they are tightly done in small rooms that handful of people need to know. However, I would say on a regular basis, I have seen Chinese potential investors touring the facilities at the University of Toledo, looking at the School of Engineering, looking at the science labs. They want to do public-private partnerships. They're looking to have the University assist them in doing research or facilitating other things. We're an honest broker. We're also, over the past, the school business has provided consulting services. And again, we're there as a, one of our commitments as public universities support the economic development of Central Ohio and particularly Northwest Ohio. And we're there as neutral US brokers to provide whatever support we can to facilitate our trade to business. I will put it the other way. When our little businesses want to go to China, the University has provided foreign language training, cultural training. We provide interpretation services. We have done whatever it could we could do to facilitate moving, either way. Let me have this note from my perspective in your 14 years. As I say, in the Chinese world, there seems to be that the education academic world is an honest, credible institution. And a lot of things actually are, they come in the Chinese world to the academic world asking, we need help. They don't necessarily go to a law firm because I have this feeling, my understanding is that they tend to say, you're not there for money. So you can help us. And my experience is going to meetings, when I give them my lawyer card and I give them my law professor card, they put the lawyer card on the bottom. They don't look at it. And they stare at my card and it says, Professor. And I think it, tell me, is your observation the same? I found that the title Professor carries a lot more respect than title lawyer. I would say the United States made me my lawyer title carries more respect. We're honest brokers. I'm not looking through business. I'm not looking to compete. So people will talk to me or can't believe that they might talk to a fellow business person because looking at the fellow business person, how this might, these potentially is my competitor. How can you leverage this information against me? I am just here to learn and talk. And so occasionally businesses have called, just wanted to chat on the phone, I'll chat with them and tell them, I'm just talking, you've got my opinion. Or I can't help you. Why don't you call someone at the university, well, so it's for the community. Maybe they can help you. As we can help you, we can help you with a short break. We're going to help you with a short break right now. We're going to let you relax for one minute and we'll be back right after this break. That's Lou Gibbons and Russell Liu. We'll be right back. Aloha and how only Makahiki Ho, which is happy New Year. And I hope it's a happy and prosperous New Year for you. I'm Kili Ikeena with the Grass Root Institute. Every week we partner with Think Tech Hawaii and produce a program called Ehana Kako. Let's work together. We bring together movers and shakers who are making a difference here in Hawaii, making a better Hawaii for everyone. If you're interested in improving the economy, the government and society, join us every week on Mondays at 2 o'clock p.m. for Ehana Kako on the Think Tech Hawaii broadcast network. Until you see me then, Aloha. Aloha ladies and gentlemen. My name is Pauline Shakmaak-Chen. I'm the host for a new show on Think Tech Hawaii called Outside In. Outside In will be taking a look at how the external world can help shape Hawaii's future. And I will be starting the show hopefully next year in terms of regularly scheduled programming. And we hope to invite a wide variety of different guests ranging from history, philosophy, art and architectural fields all the way to robotics, biotech, cryptocurrency, bitcoin, and the like. So we're going to have a full range of guests to cover many different areas of interest. And I hope to see you next year. Until then, Aloha. We're live. We're happy to be on Skype with Beijing. And we have our special guest, Lou Gibbons, an old China hand and a faculty member at the University of Toronto who consults about business in China. Or Toledo. But I said, I'm sorry. Make that University of Toledo. You know, the mainland is all the same. And Russell Liu, who's a professor also. We have two professors on the scene here. So Russell, you had some more to follow up on this. Yes, I think I'm a selfish point of view looking back to Hawaii. You know, how does this translate to what we can do in Hawaii? And I think we can look at the model of Toledo and understand also the culture of China. How would you bring the vests to Hawaii? And I think one of the things that we look at is, first of all, the public-private partnership, the role of the August broker education industry. But let's look quickly, and let's look at, for example, one industry in Hawaii that emphasis now be placed as an education industry. And I think that that has also been a very big industry in Ohio and Lou impact economy. In Hawaii, there were 4,295 international students that brought in 108.9 million dollars created 969 jobs last year. Now, what's the numbers in Ohio? Toledo, Northwestern, Ohio, we have almost 37,000, a little over 37,000. It's right at 1.1 billion in economic transactions and they create 14,000 jobs. One average point of statistics, three international students result in seven jobs. Think about what students need. They need to go shopping, they need food, they need clothes, they need everything, and they spend money and they can be a little bit more affluent than the average American students. And it's very interesting because this is a North Isle. This is Ohio where it's cold, winters are cold, heavy manufacturing, but they're yet able to capitalize on the education industry. You know, Lou mentioned that Hawaii is beautiful because the weather is beautiful, conscious of crossroads of Asia and the US, English is spoken, a lot of good things to offer. So the question is, maybe we need to look at these certain industries. We need to push it better. And I think hearing from Lou to hear the way Toledo has done it is really the government gets involved with the private community and we sit down to remove political risk. What I think what we're talking about is maybe this private entity comes up within five and 10-year plan, just like China, central planning. So that way we're on the same page and it doesn't matter who the next mayor is or the next governor, we have a direction that we're all working together. And it's important because Ohio is a blue collar industry and yet you're able to do this. Gregory, you need to have consistency. Businesses like planning three, five, ten years in the future, they do not like planning election cycle to election cycle with the Williamson public. You need to know if I put money down today, the money will still buy me what I want to do tomorrow. In terms of the students, I do not speak for the University of Hawaii, but we have negotiated special relationships with our sister universities here to give them certain tuition advantages, to give them certain preferences. One of the reasons I'm in China is to meet with all students and hopefully encourage them to come to the University of Toledo because China is a relationship country. I can send them all the propaganda I want. We can have the world's most beautiful websites, but I can put the most beautiful website as a certain university that started to be named after they're nameless had a beautiful website with nothing behind it. So students want to meet people, they want to have a relationship. Their parents, we have materials in China because our Chinese students speak English, but the parents have to decide. We want the parents to know Northwest Ohio is safe and that we want their students and we'll treat their students with respect and we're committed to their student's success. That's why they come. We were talking earlier, you mentioned that one important aspect is it's not just that the education comes here, that there's a spin-off on that. They like the community and they do their spin-off business. Tell me about that.  They decide what to stay. They found a professor they're working with and they work with H-1B Visa. They decided to do other things. We've had several Chinese people who spun off and credit their own companies. Some were more or less successful, but they came here and I think we're back towards leap year country in case you're entrepreneurial and you want to take risk. And I don't know the numbers. I think the number of patents that we have as a result of that, our Chinese faculty is impressive though. They made substantial contributions to our community. So, you know, when you did this, when the state of Ohio did this and Toledo did it, I'm sure you were there, Lou. And I'm sure you saw how the governmental vectors were working together and how people came into the center of attention and made this project happen. Because it doesn't happen by itself. It doesn't happen automatically. Somebody has to conceive of it and execute the plan. And I wonder if you could offer Russell and me some advice on how Hawaii could conceive and execute a plan to achieve this educational investment, educational interaction between China and Hawaii. You know, Jay, that's a very good question. And the way I see it is that, number one, for 14 years up here, I see the major universities from Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, they come out here with the university president. They bring the governor and the mayor with them.  Now, every year, the University of Hawaii, I believe has about 500 plus, maybe more now, Chinese Student Scholars Association. You need to integrate them with this plan. What happens is that when they come back to China, these students, they introduce and develop relationships. But we really need a partnership of the public and private community on the same page. We need people to share relationships, contacts, second of all, just imagine, I don't think we're utilizing our resources where we need to get more engineering students, high tech people, the film school, out here together with the president and the governor to bring these students back to Hawaii, fill the schools up. Now, think about this. About a court, about 300, 400,000 students come from China alone to the colleges. Just imagine, we get more of these students that like Hawaii, great businesses, they develop relationships. And then what happens is we call Intel saying, we have a large community of Chinese scholars here, we're in the computer chip industry, we've developed here. They speak English and Chinese, they have relationships back in China. We're working with the city of Sun Tso China to create high tech things here. China's big policy now is innovation. So it's no mystery that the students are coming to the US and this is a win-win for the community where we can integrate the ability of these students, their relationships, and the local community. And the local community students will benefit because they become global. They all started to understand. But I think one thing that we need to talk about is from your experience being on the Confucian Institute, how important is language and culture? It's definitely important. I think Chris just said a moment ago, if you have 500 Chinese students every year, that means you have 10 years, a decade, you have 5,000 alums in China. Each one of those alums has contacts and connections that can help you leverage in China, their family, their friends. After a period of time, 15, 20 years, they're now the directors and the managers.  Relationship between the university and the student in China is like a father and son. It lasts long after child leaves. Two years ago, the university still had its first alumni association meeting for our Chinese alumni. This was the first time I've ever seen alums complaining that they did not get an invitation on time. And then we arranged them to give money to start a scholarship for a Chinese student. And when they came, they followed up the year later in Slido for their alumni meeting in Slido, I had alums complain to me that the system was down and they couldn't give as much money as they wanted to. The credit card system, for some reason, wouldn't process it. They had to process the credit card two or three times. Well, Kudo should tell Lido. I think it's great what you've done. Students tell me the credit card machine will process by donation. We have one or two or three times to get the card card through. Well, it sounds good. It's very cultural because in China, I find that there is a lifelong relationship between the two students. They're called lock shirt.  They listen to you and they are respectful. And it's sort of like this, where they come to, becomes graduates of the University of Hawaii or University of Lido and they come back and that relationship is nurtured. And that means they bring, not only the fact that they were there, they bring their business. They bring their relationships to the university. Have the state. Yep. And so those relationships have to be nurtured and built. If you want to get, if you want to either send people out or bring people back, you have this base of family that is willing to help you if you call and let them know. In fact, you don't even have to call. Just let them know somehow that they're needed and they will come. Now, but you guys are both assuming. There are a lot of pieces too. You're both assuming that all things will remain constant here. There's many communities. And I'd like to just offer one thing that may change. And we have a new president. And that's a dynamic that changes from day to day. It's when people read The New York Times more assiduously now than maybe they ever did for all the changes that are happening, including changes in the US relationship with China and the relationship of Donald Trump with Xi Jinping. It's a very interesting story. And it's dynamic and it's changing. And I need for you guys to cover this one question. How is that going to change what you're talking about? Will it make it easier? Will it be nutritious ultimately? Do you think? Or will it be a problem? Can we assume everything will remain constant? Or should we be hedging against changes that may not be constant? What do you think? Okay. In my opinion, one is that we have been reaching out to our third Chinese students and incoming students, trying to tell them, regardless of the direction Washington goes in, people of Northwest Ohio, respect. And we want our Chinese colleagues and our Chinese students to come and spend time with us. This is an ongoing relationship that presidents will come and go, emperors and dynasties come and go. But the people will still be there. The old 100, if you Chinese call them, will still be there. For you. The second thing is the more problematic the HIC is sort of like after September 11th is getting visas. And that might become a little more difficult. The financing and the bureaucracy we go through to get the Chinese there. And again, when we find the exceptionally talented people, the generation, the entrepreneurs, and the scientists for the next generation, it's going to be a little bit harder to get them the H1B visas and the visas that they will need to stay and improve the U.S. economy. But those things will come and go. I will worry about that four years from now. Trust my students. If I can add something quickly to that, I think there's a realization in China that if you're not going to welcome, the government's not going to welcome, you know, the universities in America have to work harder. The state governments have to work harder because you can't rely on federal money. We just have to work harder in our local community to create our destiny. That means universities should make a stronger tab to bring these students in. Notwithstanding, talk about controlling the number of student visas into the U.S. Let the governments handle that. Let Xi Jinping, who realizes that China's policy is innovation. They need students to go to U.S. to learn, get innovation, learn the global culture. Let him take care of that. But what we need to do that I've never seen is how we can get on one page, the state of Hawaii, university president, with the governor and the mayor together, and private visits at the Chamber of Commerce, to come out here and to attract the students there. That's the foundation. That's the lifelong relationship. Laos sure to student.  That's the incubator. That's the safe way. The risk is low. Political risk is low for everyone. But again, as I see it, that window's going to close because if we're not going to do something soon, we have a lot of Chinese students, maybe possibly going to the U.K., going to London. There'll be the benefit. Okay, we'll have to leave it there, Russell and Luz. Thank you so much. Two law professors here on this show, Lou Gibbons, an old China hand, and a faculty member at the University of Toledo College of Law, and Russell Luz, who teaches law in Beijing and who's a Hawaii lawyer. Very important that we have this conversation. Very important that we bring the government into our efforts. Very important that we learn from Toledo. Thank you so much. Shai Shai and Sajian. Yes, yes, Sajian.


Corruption continues to be one of the greatest challenges of our time. It undermines democracy and the rule of law. It distorts markets. It erodes the quality of life. It allows organized crime and terrorism to flourish. And it triggers needless wars and bloodshed. The cost of corruption, therefore, imposes on all African countries and governments a moral obligation to fight it with vigor and political will. I should point out that Nigeria has been at the forefront of sponsoring resolutions aimed at enhancing mutual legal assistance. African countries must come together to keep the issue of asset recovery and return on the front burner of international discourse. We must also work hard to build cooperation and mutual understanding with our global partners. We must insist that recovered stolen assets will return to countries of origin without any preconditions in line with Article 51 of the UNCAC.


What does it mean for us to recite the book and the manner which is ought to be recited? وكيف نتلوه حق تلاوته? The Imam here introduced nine qualities and qualifications for those individuals. The very first, he said, you are a Tulu na aayateh. They recite the Quran. They recite the verses of the Quran. They do not read the Quran. Number two, ويتفقهون معنيه. And they contemplate and they think of its meanings. And it's lessons ويعملون بأحكامه. And they implement its laws. Whenever they come across laws being introduced by the Quran, they understand the laws, learn the laws and implement the laws ويرجون لعده. And they await every single promise made by the Quran. And within the Quran there are many promises. They await every promise within the Quran. ويخشون عذابه. And they are afraid. They give fear to themselves of the punishments introduced within the Quran. ويعمتثلون قصصه. And they incorporate the stories of the Quran within their lives. ويعتبرون أمثاله. And they seek advice and admonishments from its examples. ويعتمرون أوامرة. And they obey its commands. ويجتنبون نواهيه. And they refrain themselves from that which the Quran asks them to refrain from. You may ask the Muslims all around the world, any Muslim. Anyone you ask him, are you Muslim? He says yes. Do you believe in the Quran? Of course I'm Muslim, I believe in the Quran. But according to the Tafseer of Imam al-Sadiq, how many Muslims believe in the Quran? How many Muslims, they refrain from that which is ought to be refrain from in the Quran? Implement its teachings. Understand its principles and ahkam. Take examples from the Quran and bring it into their day-to-day lives. Brothers and sisters, the dites and days of ashwara, مبروب عبد الله الحسين is ought to be dedicated to the Quran. For just like Imam al-Hussain and Amir al-Mu'mineen is mazlum, والله this Quran is also mazlum. Many of us, we have the Quran in our homes. But yet we never go to create a friendship with the Quran. Sometimes we may recite the Quran. We read the Quran. Sometimes we even go to Khatmah and Aam Surat Yasin. We read the Quran, but the Imam says they don't read, but they recite the Quran. And next thing, ويتفقهون في عباراته. They try to understand every meaning of the Quran. So we read the Quran, but yet as soon as the Quran is over, we close the Quran. We kiss the Quran, the ghiba begins. The namima begins. The accusation begins. What does the Quran say about that? We read the Quran. When we come to our businesses, the riba is there. User is there. Cheating is there. But we read the Quran. We read the Quran and the Quran teaches us humility to be humble. But yet we walk with arrogance. We don't spend 10 nights, 20 nights, 40 nights, 60 nights. And the name of Imam Hussein, but yet we forget the main principles of Aba Abdullah. I say this every single year, and I tried to mention it in the very first night of Muharram. Imam Hussein, he had a mission statement. And he made it very clear what his mission statement was. And that is why we have to write the mission statement of Imam Hussein. At the doors of every medallist around the world, so when we enter and we leave, we remind ourselves this is the mission statement of Imam Hussein. Let us not forget why we are here. Let us not waste our time doing other things. Let us focus on the mission statement of Imam Hussein. What was it? This is the mission statement of Imam Hussein. This is where he wants us to be. I did not embark on this journey for any reason besides perfecting the ummah of my grandfather, Rasulullah, bringing perfection to the Islamic world.  Why? Because Imam Hussein, he is whom he is today because he was the embodiment of the Qur'an. Because he implemented the Qur'an.


I would say, and Matthew, you can kind of correct me if I'm wrong, but men don't like you hanging out with everything, right? It's like having a little bit of mystery about you is a good thing.  So, you know, don't feel like in order to be sexy to attract a man that you have to show a lot of skin or show your boobs hanging out or, you know, it really is about balance and subtlety. Yeah, no, absolutely. You're totally right on that. You know, and this might sound a little strange, but, you know, men have, a lot of men have kind of this almost like explore kind of mindset going on, you know, in the background of everything that they do.  That's part of what the whole kind of interaction, the whole courtship, that's what a lot of it's about is just, you know, finding out what mystery is there and exploring and discovering and finding out more about you. And so, yeah, I mean, I totally agree.   And the other thing that I wanted to mention, just to hit on real quick, is that whole idea of youthfulness that you're talking about. And, you know, I have literally seen, I've done workshops and I've had women come into these workshops and they looked, you know, just years older than they were. And by the time they left, you know, they, they, we'd gone through all these different, like, these, these different exercises and things to kind of break them through some of, some of their blocks and some of the things that they had and their energy about them had become a lot more playful, a lot more youthful. And the difference in the way that they look, literally, sometimes would shed like 10 years off of just their presence, the way that they, they, they held themselves and how they came across.  You know, I've met women that were, that were much, much older than, than I thought they were, you know, just because of the way that they presented themselves.  And that's, and that's youthfulness. That's what youthfulness, that's, you know, there's a lot of quotes and different stuff about it. But, but that's, that's what youthfulness is. It's, it's, it's living, it's being alive, it's being playful, it's being, you know, all those different things. And that is extremely attractive to men. I love that. Yeah. I mean, it's an, it's an energy, right?  But for me, it's what you just said. It's about being playful. It's flirting with life really. And that is so attractive. And when women, you know, get kind of gun-shy about that and like, oh, I can't, I can't be like that. I'm such and such age, but then I'll ask them, well, okay, so what kind of guy are you attracted to? Well, I don't want some old guy. It's like, okay, well, there you go. What you want in a guy, guys want in you as well. So again, it goes back to what we were saying in the beginning, like attracts like. Yeah, no, absolutely. And just kind of going off that, you know, what you just said there is, is, you know, I've looked at a lot of different studies from people that, that have been in marriages for just decades and, you know, they're, they're like these older couples and stuff.   And it's, it's something that, that is a great thing to do, no matter what stage you are in a relationship.