And so I think this center is going to be one way to fulfill our vision. And when you look at the vision, what is the vision of the Cardiac and Vascular Center? The vision is really to be the area's destination of choice. But more than that, we want to be considered for excellent outcomes and for the quality of care and the patient experience. You know, I want to thank Dr. Felton and Dr. Vatican, for their leadership on this project here, the ones that have kind of really drove it forward, so thank you for doing that. This project wouldn't have been made possible without the support of our foundations, the Dow Foundation, and the Stirlsaker Foundation in particular. I'd also like to thank Wally Mates, Wally, the chairman of our board, and without the support of the board of directors of Mid-Visual Medical Center Midland. This project wouldn't be possible. It's a little bit of a sad day taking down our original hospital while it's sad that a little bit of our history isn't going away. It's great and we're going to build something great that's going to help so many people here. Also, for some of you that have been around here, if you remember when we were doing the Harlow Drive expansion, and we had somebody help us. So we went back and opened up the cage for our furry little friend, Scott. Take him up a tunnel and we'll let him in.


How about some track and field? Brainerd hosting a triangular, beautiful day for Amit. Boys four by two. Brainerd able to hold off Amidji in the end there to take the event. To the boys, 400. Hunter Turcotte way in front. He beats the field by almost three seconds, 52.67. And finally, girls pole vault Kami Harmer. She would win it. There's a fending section eight two-way champ off to a good start this year. Here's a look at the final team results. Brainerd boys win it with a 175.5 for Amidji in second. And on the girls side, Warriors also victorious there. They finish with 204 points for Amidji right behind them in second. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Rydw i'r next item of business, which is topical questions. We'll start with question number one from Gordon MacDonald. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the recent Migration Advisory Committee report and its implications for Scotland. Minister Ben Macpherson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. As this is my first time speaking as Minister, I first wish to draw members' attention to my voluntary register of interests for transparency. I refer the chamber to that voluntary interest that my partner is employed by Christian Aid in Scotland. Also, before coming directly to Gordon MacDonald's question in relevance to it, I think that it's important to say as new minister that inward migration is crucial to Scotland's growth and prosperity. People who choose to make Scotland their home provide a vital contribution to our country's economy, enhance our collective social and cultural wellbeing and help to make Scotland the open and forward-looking nation that it is today. Since the Brexit vote, the Scottish Government has been consistently clear that we unequivocally value and welcome the positive contribution that migrants make to our country. As new minister, I want to make that information absolutely clearly today. The report from the Migration Advisory Committee, or MAC, that was published earlier this morning, will be of deep disappointment to businesses and employers across Scotland. Employers wanted a system that recognised the importance of EAA citizens, which was simple and low-cost, which met the needs of their sectors. Furthermore, as the report from British Futures showed yesterday, people across Scotland also want a system that gives more responsibility to the Scottish Government, none of which was acknowledged in today's report. Therefore, going forward, this Government will continue to listen to business, and we will also need to ensure that we have enough healthcare professionals and teachers and other professionals working here in Scotland, that we have the workers for a thriving rural economy and that our universities are able to attract and retain talent from around the world. The Migration Advisory Committee was not asked to consider those issues, nor did it fully consider the social and cultural benefits that come from being an open, connected European nation. Therefore, this Government will consider whether to commission further research and independent expert advice where necessary to ensure that Scotland's needs are taken into account. Gordon MacDonald Do the recommendations made in the report not completely misunderstand much of the Scottish context to this? For example, that Scotland's demographic issues, our ageing population of working age, can be solved by raising the age of retirement. Surely there are simpler, more effective ways than that to tackle a shortfall of workers in our public services, for example by attracting more migrants of working age to live here? Gordon MacDonald raised important points around demographics that were not considered appropriately or fully in the MAC report. All of our population increase here in Scotland over the next 25 years is due to come from migration, according to official statistics. However, the Migration Advisory Committee's report this morning does little to consider Scotland's needs. Instead, it suggests that increasing the pension age, quite remarkably, would be a preferential approach to managing demographic change—a completely unsustainable position and one that many across Scotland would reject, and we in the Scottish Government do too. As we saw yesterday from the British Futures report based on ICM polling, there is clear public support for an approach here in Scotland that would give more powers to the Scottish Government, accountable to this Parliament, to develop a tailored approach to migration that meets Scotland's distinct needs, and an approach that would be endorsed by this Parliament. Gordon MacDonald The report acknowledges that the devolution of immigration power is ultimately a political choice. The Scottish Government's outward-looking, welcoming, positive approach to immigration could not be further removed from the right-wing rhetoric emanating from the UK Government in the Brexit context. Indeed, yesterday's poll in the Herald showed that two-thirds of Scots want immigration powers devolved. Is it not at high time that Westminster listened to those demands? Gordon MacDonald Absolutely. It is important to reiterate that the report acknowledges at 7.72 that the devolution of immigration powers is ultimately a political choice. The Scottish Government's outward-looking, welcoming, positive approach to immigration could not be further removed from the right-wing rhetoric emanating from the UK Government. Gordon MacDonald is absolutely right to say that. The report, a year ago from the migration observatory that it published, specifically considered a regional migration system. It concluded that the arguments against a regional visa system were not about practicalities but about politics. As has been mentioned already today, the report from the British Future published yesterday provided some very clear messages. First, people do not trust the UK Government to manage immigration. That was made abundantly clear in the report, with only 15 per cent of people surveyed by ICM thinking that the UK Government had managed immigration into the UK competently or fairly. To quote the British Futures report, the current immigration system does not command public trust and support. Secondly, and also very importantly to us here in this Parliament, people were also clear when polled by ICM about the sort of change that they want to see. 64 per cent of people in Scotland agree that the Governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should have the power to decide how many visas are issued to people who want to work in those parts of the UK, and they agreed to that proposal. There is a clear and building and growing consensus that, in order to meet the economic and demographic needs of Scotland, we need more powers to this Parliament in order to create tailored solutions. It is time for the UK Government to listen to the calls from business, civic society and universities across civic society, and to listen to the people of Scotland who, by two thirds, believe that more powers should come to this Parliament in order to manage our migration system in a more humane and forward-looking manner. Pauline McNeill Thank you, Presiding Officer. Does the minister agree that we should end the discrimination against EU workers referred to in the report? The report said that they were not convinced that the route for low-skilled workers was one that should be created, and the minister will be aware of the two-tier visa currents that apply to a list of occupations where there is a shortage, such as cyber security, pediatrics, game designs and so on. I agree that Scotland should have a say in the immigration policy that should be fit for the whole of the UK and have argued this consistently. However, I would like to know what list of occupations have the Scottish Government put forward for that two-tier visa, and what precise dialogue have ministers had to make the case for Scotland's interests to be addressed in that list of occupations? Should there be a case put for low-skilled workers to be on that list? Thank you, Pauline McNeill, for that important question. The interesting balance that there is between high-skilled and low-skilled workers and the way that the report preferences some above the others is disappointing and will be disappointing to industries across Scotland such as tourism, hospitality, the agricultural sector and social care that rely on low-skilled workers. Although we welcome the fact that the report states and argues for a lifting of the cap for tier 2, that will not be a substantial enough change in order to bring the amount of workers that we need to the Scottish economy to fulfil the demands that there are in the public and private sectors. With regard to the occupation list, there is reference to this at 7.73 of the report where there is an acknowledgement that there is a difference between what the short occupation list could be in Scotland or other devolved areas compared with the UK. That is a matter that I have pressed the UK Government on as minister. I met with Caroline Noakes, the immigration minister in the summer, and pressed her on this point. She gave me an undertaking that the UK Government would look at how there could be Scottish Government input and potentially wider from Scottish civic society and business into the occupation list in order to make sure that it was fit for purpose. I am pursuing a follow-up meeting with the minister in order to continue to press this point. We will also be meeting the chairman of the MAC report and we will be taking this matter up with him in due course. Neil Findlay I have to say to you minister that social care workers are not low-skilled, in my opinion, but social attitudes in Scotland on immigration are very similar to those across the rest of the UK. Does he agree that putting limits on the number of people migrating to the UK is arbitrary, and what we need is a fair, humane and non-discriminatory policy that meets the needs of the nations and regions of the UK in an inclusive way? Neil Findlay I thank Neil Findlay for that important question and share much of the sentiment in it. First of all, I absolutely value all skills in our economy. The point that I was making is that one of the problems with the MAC is that it gives a hierarchy towards some skills more than the other and deeply value the commitment of social care workers throughout Scotland and in my constituency. That is the view of other Government ministers. It is a highly regarded sector, and we want those who are working in our social care sector to stay and continue to contribute and take care of the people that we know, our neighbours and friends and those in our communities. On the wider point that Neil Findlay was absolutely right to bring up around the UK Government's arbitrary, insensitive, unhelpful, inflexible, unworkable commitment to bring migration down to the tens of thousands, he is absolutely right to point out the wrongheadedness of the approach, both logically and in principle. The fact that the report has asked for a lifting of the cap for tier 2 suggests that there should be a shift in thinking on that point across the board. I share the sentiment that he put forward in his question on that point. 2. Jamie Greene To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that £45 million has been loaned to Ferguson Marine and whether that is related to the provision of two new ferries being built under contract to CMAL. Scottish shipbuilding has a proud history and a bright future. That is why this Government will continue to support the industry to thrive and reach its full potential. I advised the Finance and Constitution Committee earlier this year that ministers had approved commercial loan facilities of up to £45 million for Ferguson Marine. The loan facilities were reported to Audit Scotland and the expenditure will be recorded in the Scottish Government's consolidated accounts. The delayed delivery of the two new CalMac vessels is disappointing, but the commercial loan facilities provided to Ferguson's will support delivery of those vessels and help the business to diversify. Unfortunately, it took a number of FOIs and press reports for the Government to come to the chamber and tell Parliament the more information about those loans. Can I read the opening line of the FOI response? It says that the Scottish Government does not hold detailed information on all public funding provided to private companies in Scotland. I am sorry, Presiding Officer. I find that absolutely incredulous. Why does it not hold those details? Let me ask some specific questions to allow the cabinet secretary to clarify this money. First of all, the £15 million loan, what was its purpose? What due diligence was done on the firm before the loan was made? What analysis has been done on how that money has been spent? Secondly, the additional £30 million loan facility was explicitly not to go towards the sea malferries or to pay for budget overruns in those contracts, but instead it was designed to win new business opportunities in contrast to what the cabinet secretary has just said. Can the minister clarify for the record that none of the money that has currently been loaned to Ferguson has not and will not be used on the existing troubled ferry contracts? That is quite an incredible position for the Conservatives to hold. They clearly do not speak to each other. It is just not true to say that I have not informed Parliament of those loans when, in fact, as I referenced in my initial answer, I have informed Parliament, particularly the Finance and Constitution Committee. I did so on April 24 and on June 27. I am under no obligation to present the information to Parliament that I did. I went beyond the expectation in the spirit of transparency to offer that information to the Finance and Constitution Committee, and I think that that is the appropriate thing to do. I have to say that most members of Parliament understand the issues of commercial confidentiality, certainly members of the Finance and Constitution Committee, including the responsible Conservative members of the Finance and Constitution Committee, understand what commercial confidentiality is, and there are some matters that do stay private. Of course, we have fulfilled our obligations under freedom of information again. On support for Ferguson's, I think that it is incredible from a member that seeks to be elected in the west of Scotland trying to undermine Ferguson's in the fashion that he is. However, the financial support for Ferguson's is to ensure, of course, the delivery of the viability, the on-going continuation of work for the yard, to ensure that they had work in capital. That was the specifics around the request. Of course, we want the delivery of the new vessels as well, so I think that it is good for a Government to engage to ensure that we can support Scottish shipbuilding in the fashion that we have. I say again, Presiding Officer, that without any obligation to do so, I wrote and informed the Finance and Constitution Committee of the loans that the Scottish Government was providing. Jimmy Greene That is not about whether the Government should or should not support the marine industry. That is about accountability, transparency from this Government and good governance, none of which I have heard today from the cabinet secretary. The project is already a year delayed, by at least a year, and already tens of millions of pounds over budget. There is also talk of a dispute between the yard owners, the Government and CMAL over project management and where the liability of these financial overruns lie. Can the cabinet secretary tell us in very simple terms, delays cost money? Who will pick up the tab for this dispute? Is it Ferguson Marine or the Scottish Taxpayer? Let me be very clear on Ferry's investment. This Government has invested over a billion pounds in terms of ferry services since 2007. We have deployed new ferries for the network, and that has been an enhancement of the CalMac fleet. Does the Conservatives not even welcome the fact that we are trying to support Scottish shipbuilding? What is so wrong with that position that the Scottish Government is trying to support Scottish shipbuilding? 400 jobs at Ferguson's is that not to be welcomed by the Conservatives and others in the chamber, including new apprentices as well. Of course, the delays are not welcomed. They are unfortunate, but it is still the Government that is committed to that investment for those new vessels. I say again that Jamie Greene might not be familiar with issues of commercial confidentiality, but due diligence has been conducted. That was a question that was posed to me by the member that now seems more interested in other matters. Of course due diligence was undertaken in relation to those commercial loans. Those are commercial loans with commercial terms and bound by commercial confidentiality. Is the member seriously suggesting that we now shouldn't respect that and not respect the fact that the Government's interventions ensure not only have we helped to save the yard but that we are delivering 400 jobs in that part of Scotland, the vessels will absolutely be delivered and the working capital issue that was raised by Ferguson's, we have provided support through those loans. I say again that the more responsible members of the Conservative Party who are on the finance committee were alerted to the loans over and above the expectations of transparency on me as cabinet secretary. In fact, it was to be fully transparent that I offered that information in terms of the loans to the committee who respected that. Finally, I am aware that a committee that Jamie Greene is a member of was invited out to the yard to find out more about the vessels and I do not think that he has yet visited the yard despite that offer having been made. The Government will do the right thing by Scottish industry and Scottish jobs and if that means that a Scottish shipbuilder is building vessels for our CalMac fleet then surely that should be welcomed. Stuart McMillan Thank you very much, Presiding Officer.  I agree with Stuart McMillan in that regard. It has been important that the Scottish Government, not just for shipbuilding but for industrial interventions across Scotland, has taken bold decisions to support Scottish industry. I think that that is a good example of that. The Tory is not satisfied in devastating Scottish industry even now in opposition are undermining and attacking our efforts to support the Scottish economy. Yes, it is surprising when it comes from a member who proclaims to be for jobs in the west of Scotland and Inverclyde to try to undermine those efforts from the Scottish Government here in the chamber today. Colin Smyth I know that the cabinet secretary will be aware that the costs for the completion of the two ferries being built by Ferguson's to serve the Clyde and Hebrides network are rising in the company I've claimed. That is due to insufficient design work by CML prior to them issuing the invitation to tender. Ferguson's have described discussions with CML as frustrate. Does the cabinet secretary therefore not agree that it is time to get CML, the Government and Ferguson's, round the table, to resolve those issues and get those ferries completed as soon as possible at a fair price that delivers for increasingly frustrated passengers but helps to secure the future of this important shipyard and their workforce? Colin Smyth I thank the member for the way in which he's raised that particular issue. I think that's a far more helpful contribution than simply the Tories trying to undermine the loan support that we've given to the company. I am clearly, as finance secretary, interested in procurement right across the public sector, and I think that there is something to be said for ensuring that all parties here do continue to talk to get round the table to ensure that we can make the necessary progress. However, in essence, this question was about the commercial loan that's been offered and I think that I've been able to show that I've absolutely complied with the expectation of Parliament going above and beyond in terms of offering that information to the Finance Committee as to further work in relation to CML, who of course are the procuring authority here, and FML then, yes, I think that we can have further discussion in that regard. Edward Mountain Thank you, Presiding Officer. As a member of the Wreck Committee, I've heard how important new ferries are for Scotland. We've heard that we need a new one to be ordered every year for the next 10 years, so I don't dispute that. What I'm asking the cabinet secretary is does he think that due diligence has been correctly done in this case when the company that the loan has been made to haven't submitted audited accounts since 2015, which actually raises the question of whether it is diligent to lend them that money? Just asking the question, where's your due diligence, cabinet secretary? Well, any offer of a loan, of course, we would expect due diligence to be complied with. It has been. There has been external consultants working in that regard as well as finance officials as well. Again, members would expect me to appreciate and abide with commercial confidentiality, but I can certainly give the reassurance to the chamber that due diligence was carried out. This is a commercial loan with commercial terms. Clearly, the benefits to Scotland and Scottish Shipbuilding are clear, but I am surprised that now the Conservatives are turning on the company involved in the fashion that they are. I think that maybe Edward Mountain might want to engage with—Oh, the Tory seems quite agitated this afternoon. It's your question, I have to say. The Conservatives might want to talk to your colleagues who, of course, are represented on the finance committee in terms of the information that was raised. I have pointed out to Mr Greene, I am sure that Edward Mountain, if he remembers the same committee, would have been given the invitation to visit the yard as well. I have been quite happy to engage in questions that have been asked or any FOI. Further to that, if the finance committee wants further information, I will engage positively with them. I remind the chamber once again that, without any obligation to do so, I volunteered the issue of the loan to the committee. I think that that was a responsible thing to do. Rather than being dragged to the chamber, I have been quite forthcoming in the information that I have presented. We will add the further information that I referred to in my opening answer. Jackie Baillie Thank you very much. I wonder whether I could invite the cabinet secretary to continue to be forthcoming. Does he not consider that the problem here is seamal and not Ferguson's, and when is he going to sort that out? I am sure that Jackie Baillie well understands that, in relation to any procurement issue or dispute, it would not be appropriate for me in the chamber to take sides in that regard. I have referred to her colleague earlier on to say that, if there is anything further, I can do in terms of procurement responsibility. Of course, I will engage in that. I will be genuinely happy to engage with Jackie Baillie on that and any other matter. Thank you very much to the member and to ministers. That concludes topical questions.


I was just, my phone is unlocked and it would start playing. I'm watching Mike's Mike's Recap of Glee. Let me be known, I was on Mike's Mike's stand, like before everyone else was. Welcome back to the next episode of series Wipeout, where this year many of you are like, I'm trying to finish the series. Yeah, whoa. I thought it sucked. I thought the song was horrible and I couldn't believe she thought she was gonna get the number one hit out of any of those songs. I feel like the levels are a bit low. Hang on, let's pump it up, get to pump it up. Would you know, pump it up. Also, let it just be known, we're entering like our iconic era. Look at the shoes I just bought. Are we crying? I've done so much. I have decided to, in this episode, read the most popular series on my TBR that I'm currently in the middle of. So like, not a series that I haven't started, but we're gonna go on to, hang on, let me start the screen recording. On my Goodreads, I have a shelf called series to finish, which is where like all the next books, well, now I only put next books in the series that I need to read. So whatever the next book in the series I need to get to is, that's on that shelf. Now, there are a few first books in series on there. That's what I used to do, but now I only put a book on there if it is the next book I need to read. So we're gonna go on this shelf. We're gonna sort it by number of ratings. So when I say most popular, I don't get confused and think I'm talking about highest rated. We'll probably do that again in the future at some point, but we're talking about the most amount of ratings, okay? We want the most amount of ratings. And I have no idea what it's gonna be. If I had to guess, I would say maybe Robin Harp, maybe The Raven Boys, maybe, what are the popular, maybe N.K. Jemisin, maybe, I don't really know. So we're gonna sort by highest number of ratings. The first few, my guess would be they're gonna be like first books in series because they're obviously gonna have more people reading them, but we're gonna scroll down until we find like the second or third, whatever, installment into the series I am in, probably a second book, logistically speaking, and then we're gonna read that series. So that makes sense. I feel like I'm in my flop era, actually, not my iconic era. I feel like I've messed up already. Okay, okay, okay. So we've got a Core Thons and Roses. First book, we're not reading that. Cruel Prince, first book, not reading that. A Dark Potato Magic, first book, not reading that. Uprutid. I don't even know if Uprutid is technically part of the series. I put it down as it was, but I don't actually think it is. Okay, not reading that. Death on the Nile, okay. Not reading that because I'm reading the Urquiporo books in order and I'm not like gonna read, I'm not gonna finish the whole Urquiporo series. It's not really a series like that. So we're not reading that. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. So we're gonna be reading The Raven Cycle. We're gonna be finishing The Raven Cycle, but look how close it was. Hang on, my mouse is like, flop era, excuse me. Do you wanna move? That's very rude, isn't it? Look how close it is between the Dream Thieves and Royal Assassin, like only like nine K ratings. It was close. Also, I should have thought of Daughter of Smoke and Bone series by Lenny Taylor, but anyway, we're gonna be finishing The Raven Cycle in this video, which I'm nervous about because I only gave The Raven Boys like three stars. So I am nervous about, yeah, how it's gonna go, but that's what I'm glad we're gonna read it. I'm glad we're gonna finish it. So let's get into me reading The Dream Thieves. Oh my God. Hey, hey, hey, just realized I never gave a synopsis of The Raven Boys, but I figured you would all know anyway, basically just a group of friends obsessed with these things called lay lines, trying to find a dead Welsh king and doing strange magic XOXO. Hey, now they learn, let's be honest, sounds like home. Okay, so since I last saw you, I bought some books, which you saw, I popped into all those. I went into pick up two books that I had like ordered into store and I bought three more. I'm fashion, I'm style. And if they can't keep up, then let's say proper. Listen, you'll see them all in the book hall that's coming soon. And then here's the thing, right?   And like took me the whole week to get over it, right? Then on Monday, it's now Wednesday, on Monday, I finally felt well enough to go for a run. That was like a big deal. I was like, oh my God, I'm so proud of myself. I'm going for a run. So me and Tom go for a run. Right at the end of the run, I sprained my ankle. I fall over, sprained my ankle, start crying in the woods. Tom has to like carry me up this hill.  Like I just wanted to disintegrate. I actually just wanted to disintegrate. So I feel like the universe is working against me. So the past few days, I'm only halfway through this book. I haven't done much apart from read the past few days, but I'm still only halfway through this book. I feel like it's taken me forever. I've been trying to rest up. My ankle is now very purple, but I can walk kind of again. So at least there's something. Anyway, I'm halfway through the dream thieves. Like I said, it's taking me a lot longer than it should be. Here's the thing. I just don't know if this series is for me. I'm going to stick it out. I'm going to read all the books because I want to just finish the series and get out of the way. But these books kind of feel like nothing happens. They all feel like prequels for the next thing. Or like it's just a lot of nothing. And whenever I start to get excited for the plot, like I start to really get into what's happening, I lose interest again. There's a moment, like it's keeping moments where I'm like, oh, it's going to get good now. Oh, I'm getting into it. And then I lose my interest like instantaneously. I don't know what's wrong. I feel a bit down, actually. I'm enjoying the audiobook. A lot of people say they didn't like the audiobook, but I'm actually quite enjoying the audiobook and the audiobook narrator and like the accents he does. I think he does a good job. I just, yeah, I don't feel... It feels like older fantasy where not as much happened. I'm very much a plot girl. And I feel like modern stuff is like a detailed plot, a clever plot, but I feel like this is just a lot of sitting around and I don't understand. Also, I never feel like I believe in the characters, right? I feel like I believe the characters are real in the sense that I always feel a separate mood from them. Like when I'm reading a book, I wanna be like, I wanna know the characters so well, especially by the time I'm reading a second book in the series, I feel like I should feel familiar with them. And they just, they constantly feel like strangers I am meeting for the first time. Does that make sense? I don't know. I really like Maggie Stevewater's writing. I think it's very imaginative. I think it's very different. I think it's like my kind of thing that I always say I like. But something about the characters, like Ronan and Gansey, Adam's kind of anonymous in this book, but blue is probably my favorite. But like, I feel like I don't know them. I feel like they're in a book. I know books are fictional, but I wanna feel like that's a real person. Oh my God, the lighting. And I just don't, like I just, I don't buy into it. I can't vibe with it. So I'm really, I have to finish this today. I've been reading it for long enough, which is like three days, but considering I have been nothing, doing nothing else since Monday afternoon, like I don't have an excuse. I have reading spirits on my patrons tonight. So like hopefully I can make a good progress through it then. Yeah, enjoying the audiobook, but like all of these books just feel like this series could have been a duology instead of a four book series. They all feel like half a book to me. Oh my God, I feel like I'm being so harsh. Oh, the lighting. I like the audiobook, Kayla. I know it's got a bad rep. I quite like it. That's like the one thing I like. No, there's more things that I like. I like it. I didn't want to hate it. I quite like the accents he does sometimes. Some of them are a bit like, yeah, should I stop, should I stop audiobook? I could not listen to the audiobook for the live and see if I feel differently. Okay, yeah, okay. I could see that actually. I'm gonna, do you know what? I'm gonna take you up on it and I'm gonna not listen to the audiobook, but I didn't listen to the audiobook at all for the Raven Boys. So I thought I'd try and switch it up, but I can see you're probably right. It's probably a book you should read with your own brain. So yeah, okay, let's do that. I'm gonna just read it physically. I actually can't remember the last time I spoke to you about this book. Like, it feels like it's been forever. I feel like I read this book forever. It's been 84 years. It was like probably like five or six days, but it's not that long a book. Like, I don't know how it took me that long, but I finished the Dream Thieves and I'm gonna give it 3.5. But I'm still holding our hope that the rest of the series is gonna improve me. I have great feelings about the next one that we're about to start, blue, lily, lily, blue. For some reason, I feel like it's about blue. I'm just ready for it to focus on blue. I don't know if like Ronan was really my vibe in this. Caleb, I was talking on my Patreon live stream and Caleb's there. I just felt so bad. Caleb told me off for listening to the audiobook, right? Which I had been listening to it predominantly. And I know the audiobook gets a bad rep, but for me, it was like getting me through the book. But I do think, right? Often in this book, I just felt like I was missing information. I felt like a paragraph was missed out every other couple of pages. And I was just missing out on key parts of information about the book. My brain was just like, anyways, so. So I would often just get really confused and would be able to follow it, but I feel like the audiobook helped me with that. However, the moments of like brilliant writing in this, of magazine, what is writing that is just like, the flavors of my town. You know what I mean? Like it's just so good. Don't read as well by the audiobook. They read like magic when you're reading it yourself. So that's the trade-off. It swings around about. I'm gonna try and start this off not listening to the audiobook and see if perhaps by doing that, I'm like into the book from the beginning. I just feel like not a lot happened. I don't know. I feel like again, my main critique is I feel like I don't get these characters. Like they don't feel like real characters to me. Like I should know them so well, but they're like rough ideas to me. They're not like real characters, but I do love the writing. And there's moments, I kept having so many moments in this book where I was like, right, this is it. This is it. I'm into it. I'm into it. And then like two pages later, I wouldn't be interested again. Because all I'm gonna do is disappoint me. But that was like a constant cycle I kept going through. So to tell you the truth, I don't know. 3.5. Because of what elements of it I did really enjoy, there were points where I was like, this could be a four. If this really turns around, this could be a four. And like the way that magazine wrote a riot says like a lot of like hidden meanings behind stuff. And you're supposed to just like understand what she's saying. And I just don't. I don't think me and Maggie are on the same wavelength. The whole time I'm reading this, I'm like, this should be something I love. It should be, it should be something I loved. You know what I mean? It should be like me and it like, you know? But it's not, I'm gonna start, I'm excited to finish this series. Let's just say that I am excited for this series to not be on my TBR anymore. I don't know what's wrong with me. It's taken me like a week and a half to get up to the halfway point in like, read Dream Thieves and read and like, I'm not about to let the second half of this vlog take a week and a half. It's just not happening. So I read the first 130 ish pages of this, just physically. And then I went back to some audio book and I don't care what everyone says. I think I preferred the audio book. I think it helped me retain some of the information about the book a bit better, like figure out, I don't know why, it's something about this book in my brain just don't connect. It's not like it's the most complex book in the world. Like it's not like an adult high fantasy, but like something about it, I'm just like not a hundred percent vibing with. And it's a really weird reading experience because I'm looking at like objectively, I can see that good books and they're like imaginative and they're bringing something different. But like something about the writing or just the characters just isn't working for me. I think I often like in my series for there to be, there either to be changes in locations in the books or for there to be kind of a growth of the world or like a growth of the, like a marked growth in each book of the responsibility or power. And although we're getting new elements, I feel like that hasn't been really happening. I feel like the book, the series has kind of been one level in terms of its expanse, in terms of its goal. I feel like the whole goal of the series is the same. Do you know what I mean? It hasn't really changed, sorry, my chair is squeaking.  Like, I feel like this could have been a duology or like, I don't know. I want different goals, I think in each book and each series not the same one throughout. And so I think that is perhaps why I'm just not vibing with it. Like, I'm not reading it quickly because I don't have a great desire to pick these up. I just don't. I just don't have a great desire to pick it up and I'm sorry. Sorry. At least don't like you mean it. I'm gonna go try and finish it and hopefully I'll have more to say to you but the series and me just aren't vibing. Okay, I finished Blue Lily Lily Blue. I only took me like 10 years. I finally finished it and it's my favorite in the series so far. Success. I just feel like something really clicked for me, finally. Like, I finally get the characters. Like, it only took me like three books but I feel like I finally, you know, got to know the characters, especially Adam and Blue. I would say are probably my favorites but especially Blue, I really love Blue. There's not nothing nowhere though. Justice for nowhere. But yeah, I feel like I've finally like broken a wall with these characters because I was so struggling to know them and to connect with them. I still think I misconnected them as like a lot of other people are but I feel like I'm finally like on the same wavelength that only took me three books but I really loved like the new characters that were introduced in this one. We have a lot of new characters and I feel like stuff finally happens. I was reading through some reviews because I go on my reviews and everyone's giving us five stars. We'll get into that. We'll get into that. Some people are saying, oh, not as much happened but I feel like more important stuff happened in this. My problem with the series and this problem still stands is I feel like it didn't need to be four books because I don't think enough important stuff happens to like justify it. Number one, please judge me. Number two, please hate me because number three, I love it. And I read, I would say pretty much the last half or last night like in one go and I just was really into it and I finally get it. I feel like I've been like talking quite negatively about this and it's not about the books itself. It's A, my disappointment that it's not a five star because I can feel innately that I should love this. Like this kind of magic, this kind of like whimsy, strange magic is like my favorite thing. So it's partly that and partly that I have been struggling to like read it like to find the motivation to pick it up and to actually read it.  So that's partly I think coloring my attitude towards the book which I'm trying to unpack but I really, I really, really liked this one. I feel like I finally got into it. I do just wanna say I can't really understand why these books are so popular. I don't mean that in like a bad way, that's not a dig but this feels like niche. This doesn't feel to me when I'm reading it like something that everyone's gonna love. Like it feels like kind of like weird like underground like weird fiction.  Like I don't know, I don't get it.  I kind of can't get its populace from that not because it's bad but because I would expect this to be a niche market. You get what I mean? But yeah, more no is needed. I love the family. I love Persephone. I love, oh, I love all of Blue's family because like YA, especially YA of this period had a tendency to like, you know families are relevant. Families are dead. Death to all of them. Oh, Jesus. I mean, to be fair, the boys, their families aren't really part of the story but I love the family element. I think I like this book so much because it focused on Blue a lot more and her family setting and that is just my favorite, one of my favorite parts of the story. Oh, by the way, I've transitioned back into reading it with the audiobook and my physical. I know a lot of people don't like the audiobook but I actually think it's working really well for me. So I read them together and there's certain lines get and they're like a one in a million line but then I fill my connection to the book kind of like go. It's a very strange reading experience that I can't really explain but yeah, I really, really enjoyed this one. Four stars. I feel like we picked it up a bit. I'm feeling a bit more positive. So now we're gonna get into the last one which I feel like sometimes gets a bad rep, The Raven King but I'm really excited to read it. Now I need to try and read the whole thing today because I want this video to go up tomorrow and I need like tomorrow to edit it. So we're gonna try really hard to read this whole book today. I feel like I can do it. I've done this in the past so pray for me that I'm gonna manage it. I'm gonna go out for a walk now and listen to the audiobook and I'll check in with you probably when I'm halfway through this one as well. I was lost in the woods on the dust and the fairies found me. They clear the way. Okay, so I'm halfway through The Raven King and I feel like this last book is pretty difficult to talk about. A, because we're like deep into me trying not to give spoilers territory now and B, because I have just felt like two steps behind this book, the series, this entire time when reading it. Like I've felt like I've been trying to unpack the weird reaction I've had to the writing and the story and why I haven't been 100% vibing with it and like I've been struggling to understand things that like it's difficult for me to draw any conclusions. I'm just like, but I am enjoying it and I think it is setting up the ending quite well.  I think that is a problem how there's kind of one purpose, one aim throughout the entire series and they wanna like, you know, you know a little bit more.  Then I read this and it's like, give me something, I need more. I need more plot, I need more characters, I need more depth. Like I feel like that is now the standard. I'm like looking at what other series I've got to read.  Yes, yes. It's a concern and a worry. I will say, I will say there is a relationship developing for one or two or three or four, no. A relationship developing for some characters that I am like, 100% on board with. I hope it happens cause like it would be perfect. I'm really, really hoping it happens. And I will say there has been quite a few good twists so far. Like there's been a few twists where you're like, oh, gag nation on this. So we all gag nation on this. My problem with it with the whole series is like something romantic has revealed and then it's kind of like forgotten about. Like it's kind of like, okay, you found it out. Let's just forget about it now for like 150 pages. Cause when was this revealed? Okay, 50 pages ago, this big thing that I really liked, this big reveal I really liked was revealed. But then it had like almost no bearing in reality. Like I thought this was gonna shift the entire book and it didn't, like it didn't really change anything. And like we just forgot about it. And so that is not how I like my stories to be told. I don't know, there is something, there is something as much as I'm enjoying it and appreciating these books, there is something about it in my brain that don't mesh. That just don't go together and don't want to go together.  So I don't know, it's difficult, it's difficult, but I am enjoying it. And not enjoying it as much as blue, it might be another like, at the moment it's like another 3.5. But yeah, it's like half sixth of the moment. So I think I am gonna be able to finish this tonight. I think I am just gonna be able to like speed through this last book and the series and just like finish the series. And the first two books took me like forever to read. So anyway, I'm gonna grab dinner, got a paella. And then I will check in with you probably in the morning once I have finished the book. The ending, didn't do it for me loves. It really didn't do it for me. It didn't, it didn't deliver. It did not deliver. I was angry. I was angry.  Okay, no. Now do you see Walter? You accept me to believe. Hang on, I haven't even focused the camera. Let's, let's do that, shall we? Hi. You expect me to be happy with this? Like, I have read these three books right here for that ending. Are you, are you kidding me? Fraudulent, fraudulent. Okay, now I wanna clarify. I like the aftermath of the book, the ending, but like the denouement that that's what we've been waiting for, that's what we've wanted all along. Outrageous, frankly. Outrageous. Out. I've decided by the way, I've amended my rating. I'm giving the Dream Thieves three stars. I look back on books I've given three stars and I feel like I felt similarly about it. So Dream Thieves three stars, blue, literally blue, which I say really badly, four stars, this was a 3.5. There was a lot I really enjoyed about it.  But that ending, I'm like falling over. I am furious. I've literally just finished it. Like, what was the point in me reading this whole book? This whole series. What was the point in me reading this whole series? I can't even talk about it because it'll spoil it. But what was the point? I don't understand. I don't understand. I don't understand why this is the most popular like series out there. I don't understand why everyone loves it. So I don't get it. I don't get it. And I think it's some of you raven cycle galleys in the chat are gonna be like, bitch, you just don't understand it. You don't get it and you're right. I don't. I don't. It's not for main part. I don't get the mass hype and love for it. I'm not saying people shouldn't love it. Like I understand why individual people love it. I can totally get that. I can totally get that. But I can't get why everyone does. Do you get what I'm saying? They're different things. I think in terms of the writing, the characters, the plot, I was like, well, no, it's not quite the characters because I feel like we're missing some of the characters that we grew to love in blue li li li blue. And I feel like we had like few added to this book out of nowhere that didn't make as much sense. But on the whole, I loved as much as blue li li li blue. I feel like this is still a pretty strong book but the ending has infuriated me to no end. I'm actually furious. And I feel like the villain, like the enemy, the like malevolent force in this book, shall we say, was not as good. It was pretty weak. It was pretty like, it just felt like the series didn't go in the direction that I wanted it to or expected it to or that it should have done. How's that? How's that, everyone? How do we feel? How do we feel? Listen, I'm free. I'm free from the series. Not, I didn't dislike it. But like, I also think my reading of the Greenbone Saga, like in one go, really enhanced my reading experience. I think perhaps in this case it took away because this is a lot. Like Maggie Stewart is writing is a lot. It's a lot to the reading in one go. And so I feel like I've gone kind of crazy. I feel like my brain is not, she's not thriving right now. Like thoughts are strange. Thoughts are like kind of starting to become like the characters and I don't wanna think like them. Like that I'm not vibing. So I'm free. I can finally read other stuff. This vlog is finished. I'm about to go finish anything. It dusts my hands a bit and we will never think of it again. But I hope you've enjoyed watching it.  Like I sprained my ankle. Bad vibes have been all around. We're into good vibes now and I just wanna leave. This is the last of the bad vibes. I'm excited. I enjoyed it. So like I'm gonna go. But it was just disappointing and it was hard to read all of these books knowing I should have loved them so much more. But anyways, if you go into the end comment a bird emoji, any kind of bird emoji will do if you go into the end. Let me know what you thought of the Raven Cycle if you finished it or if you've read like one or two what you thought of them. I would love to know kind of what your thoughts are considering you watch me. I'm intrigued to see whether we have similar opinions. So let me know that down below and I'll see you very soon. Bye.


I knew that I wanted to do something bigger than myself. I wanted to do something outside of me. I wanted to help people. My earliest memory of military was when I was a little girl. I saw a convoy of military vehicles driving by on the road and I remember that and never forgot that. I remember going to the recruiter's office and saying to him, I want to be in and I want to drive trucks. My job in Iraq was a heavy vehicle operator. So I drove a PLS truck. It was the second biggest truck that the military has, which I think is pretty cool. While I was in Iraq, I started to have several health issues. I started having a lot of spine pain, back pain and I started to get really extreme migraine headaches. And I'd never experienced anything like that before. I had all kinds of weird things happening to me that affected every literal part of my body, my bones, my joints, everything. And I kept going to doctors and trying to get answers, trying to get results. In the meantime, I had a full-time military job that was my dream job and because I was put on a med board, I lost that. It can go from mental health. It can go to inflammation in her body. She's got skeletal issues. There's 125 different things that Kim deals with on a daily basis and you would never know. Even with line of duty determinations from an army, accepting responsibility for medical conditions, I could not get my medical conditions approved. So I went through a long battle. Of course there's going to be moments of ups and downs, but for the most part the family was shielded from it because she didn't want the kids to feel any of the pain that she was feeling through that. I researched and found DAV and I contacted the office and I was in such a desperate situation and they handled me so respectfully and so kindly. Claims can sometimes be very difficult and this situation with working with Kim, we unfortunately hit quite a few snags. It took multiple times and multiple attempts to get her to where we got today, but overall I would say Kim is a fighter and there's no doubt about that. Leaving the military against my will, when I wasn't ready, I was a lifer, I was a leader, I was good at it, it was something that was meant for me. So having to be ripped away from that was like losing your entire family overnight and I never knew what to do to fill that hole in my heart and I found a way to fill that with DAV and I had my family back. Kim has really taken hold of our women veterans program here in the state. It supported a couple different events, a retreat, a stand up event and then obviously she is one that I go to for those veterans that walk through this door at our office that are in our need of a veteran mentor. There is definitely not a lot of active female members. We have a lot of members, but not a lot of active members in our state and that's something I've tasked myself with working really hard to change. She's got big plans and because of her can-do attitude, it will get done. DAV is fortunate to have Kim. I mean, I look at her leadership and second to none. I guess I look at the programs that she's helped initiate.  When we need volunteers, we look at Kim and yes, I'm in, I'm in for the whole hall. Good girls, look at that site, isn't that cool? What you don't see is her volunteering her time, not in the spotlight. Somebody will call her, we've had several instances where there's a veteran that is on the edge of not wanting to be here anymore, they're suicidal and she will devote whatever it takes to make sure that they're okay. That has happened several times. She's amazing. She is so generous with herself. She takes care of other people more than she takes care of herself. She's now the chapter commander of the largest chapter in South Dakota and that's a big responsibility. A huge time commitment and in addition to that, she's also been elected as the junior vice commander for the department. So she's taken on two roles within our state and that says a great deal about her commitment to EAV. Because of Kim, I see bigger and better things for chapter one for the state of South Dakota and for the national organization. I don't think things are gonna slow her down. I don't think anything's gonna slow her down. She represents everything that I feel a veteran should be. There's two things that matter to me. One is leaving a legacy for my children so that they know to never give up. I actually have a quote that I came up with that's in our house and it is, I will, watch me. And the other thing that I wanna do is as much good as possible while I'm here.


Hello Psych2Goers, before we begin this video we just want to take some time to thank you for all your love and support. Whether you've been with us since the very beginning or you recently subscribed to our channel, we want you to know that we wouldn't be here today without you. There's a strong difference between being lonely and being alone. When we experience long days at work, go to one big social event after another or go to school, our bodies will want to enter hermit mode and that's normal. Just like batteries, we need time to recharge. And what better way than to unwind alone with a cozy blanket and your favorite show? But whether you've been home alone or spending time with people, have you been feeling disconnected? Here are 7 signs you may be lonely. 1. Your insomnia is an ongoing problem. Research shows that the lonelier you are, the more disturbances you experience in your sleep. Dr. Leanna Carina states that lonely people do not experience less hours of sleep, but rather wake up more frequently throughout the night. To alleviate some of the blues before hitting the sheets, reach out to people by either talking to them on the phone or FaceTiming. Texting doesn't work so well because psychologists have discovered hearing someone's voice or seeing their face are factors that strongly play in how we form connections. 2. Your anxiety worsens. Do you already struggle with an anxiety disorder? When you're lonely, it may increase your cortisol levels. The reason being, when you spend too much time ruminating over matters instead of talking them out, it'll often cause you to feel helpless. Thus, your brain will believe you're in danger when you're really not. Instead of criticizing or being hard on yourself, try practicing positive self-talk and healthy mantras like, you can do it, or this too shall pass. 3.  Loneliness can encourage us to stay locked in our homes, specifically one spot, like the couch or bed. You may find you have no problem wearing your PJs all day or binge-watching TV. Doing this every once in a while is understandable, but if you do this on a daily basis, then something may be wrong, especially if you feel emptier than fulfilled. Crack open a window, let some fresh air in, and go out for a walk. Being in nature can help us feel connected and stay in the present. 4. You have difficulty with social situations. Research shows that people who are lonely experience a harder time understanding and adapting social skills. Maybe you realize you have to put yourself out there more in order to make friends and establish a bigger network.  Don't listen to those negative thoughts. Instead, remind yourself that you're only human and give yourself pep talks to boost your confidence. 5. You choose materials over people. Do you spend more time buying things rather than making plans with people? Having nice things can seem great the first few minutes when you get that adrenaline rush knowing you got them while they were on sale. But the sick excitement is not sustainable in the long run. In the end, our experiences hold more meaning than what we own. Substitute your shopping sprees with family nights or vacation with your romantic partner. 6. You're gaining weight. Maybe it's not just the cake or all the pizza that's been making your digits go up. Loneliness can often cause us to overeat when we feel like we can eat our problems away. Our negative headspace makes us most vulnerable when we opt for sugary sweets and carbs that we deem as comfort food. Consequently, our bodies will start to suffer from high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure. The next time you experience loneliness, try not to eat alone. Instead, prepare meals with friends and family. 7. Alone time doesn't feel fun anymore. There's nothing wrong with being a natural homebody. But if you find yourself growing irritable instead of relaxed doing solitary hobbies, it might be time to evaluate what's going on. If you absolutely feel like you have no one to turn to, talk to your doctor, counselor or HR manager. Never assume you have to bottle things up.  Want more self-help content? Check out and subscribe to YesReno's channel. She creates videos on motivation, traveling and overall just learning how to take one day at a time. It would mean a lot not only to her, but to us. Also, if you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up. As always, thanks for watching.


ac yn y gwneud y meddwl mewn y gwirch yn wyf, mae'r gweithio mewn cyfredigol yn y Gwyffredd. Mae'r gennyn nhw yn fawr i gyd ymlaen iawn, bydd y mae'r gwirch yn so rhetoricau yn sy'n flynyddiad. Mae'r gweithio eraill yn siarad i'r rhodill o'r drafodol. Mae'r femn nhw o'n gyfer y gymysgol yng Nghyrch, ond rwy'n cael ei bŵo i fynd. Mae'r gweithio ar y cyflwyno gyda i'r ymwraeth. Mae'r ddechrau'n gwirch i'r ddau mae'r gwirch yn ddyn. Teidw i'r Children of the Palestine School. These are Palestinians in Israel. We're not talking about the West Bank or God's Bank and the vigil sat together on the roadside taking a lot of insult. All my book about these three organisations, the space between us what I was looking at was how do they cross that space with words instead of collins. That had been my question. Ond nid yw, yn 2012, ydyw'n sefyllfa o'ch cymddeithas, y gwrth gwrdd am ddweud o'r cyfnod ddweud, y gwrth gwrdd am ddweud o'r gwrdd cyfnod, o'r gyfnod ddweudio'r Lodol. Wel, rwy'n dechrau'n fwy o'r ddiwedig o'r ysgol i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud i ddweud o'r ddweud. I Bosniau, mae o'r meddwch yn ei ddweud i ddweud i'r ddweud i'r ddweud, ..but reduced in size. And it had lost its mixity. Today, it's almost entirely Bosnian. The director now is Sidin Ha-Haskic, who I've mentioned in the old days as a religious councillor among the therapists. Also still there was another old friend from Rita Gennich. She's now a senior nurse. And she's actually unique in today's medica because she's the only one who's of weak storage and mixed marriage, something very typical of Bosnian builders. She said, I don't belong to any religious groups. I belong only to myself. Nobody sees me as Bosnian croats also because I don't allow it. I celebrate every holiday on the calendar. Christian, Muslim, whatever, to be a good example to the children. It's not a person's name but how they behave, what matters. It's not that the other others, Bosnian serf and Bosnian croats, have been driven away from medica. It's not that. It seems that it just happened. For lack of a positive recruitment policy, some of the women of Bosnian serf and Bosnian croat name have been doctors or psychotherapists who've gone back to their old pre-war jobs in hospitals. Or they've moved on to similar work in other war zones when this project's in Kosovo in Afghanistan. Some have been busy raising families or they've fallen ill or retired. I didn't manage to find an interview 17 of my old friends from 1995. They told me the dominant reality in Bosnia has been and still is the terrible economic situation. And then, brutalised by the experiences of war, I've come back to poverty and joblessness. That has been fertile ground for male violence. By the late 90s, the survivors of war rape had left medica but straight away the centre was needed as a refuge and therapy centre for survivors of domestic violence and civilian rape. Somehow, in the process of adaptation, the feminism of medica changed. Medica had been brought into existence by a partnership of German women in Bosnia Europe. Monica Hauser, Gavin Shikovsky and others had brought their western feminism and Yugoslavia had had its own feminist movement before the war.  Since the war, responding to domestic violence, medica's feminism has changed. It's become very reasonably, actually, a combination of women's aid and women's rights feminism. On the one hand, there are providers running a secure refuge and, on the other hand, they lobby the government for laws to protect women. As international funding dried up, they accepted public funding and this has been crucial. Now, they have a close partnership with Zenith's local council. They share a resource in the social welfare environment. Some of the former medica women tell me they feel that medica's feminist autonomy has been compromised by this proximity to the state. Two women, Dushka Andrews and Selma Haji Khalilovic, who used to work in medica's information department, it was called Infoteca. They've taken Infoteca out now, is independent. They wanted to pursue a more outspoken feminism which they feel is totally lacking and badly needed in contemporary Osmo. Especially is needed by a new generation of young women trapped between, on the one hand, a very commercialised and objective kind of western culture. And on the other, islamic fundamentalism, which is growing in their region because a lot of foreign mojahedin fighters settled in Zenith's after the war and they opened madrasas. I found all of the women I re-interviewed totally angered by the nationalism of the post-war political culture in Osmo. It is relentless. The data record produced a bad design. It created a weak state made up of two rival entities, constitutionally ethnic, the Republic of Serska and the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina, which is subdivided into Bosnia, Bosnia and Crerat Catholic territories areas. Rather than diminishing nationalist enmity, this arrangement fostered it unrewardably. The leaders have just gone on blaming each other for wartime atrocities, instead of acknowledging guilt and practicing transitional justice. The one-on-two political parties that try to recruit from all names and work for inclusive democracy, the women told me it happened a hope of winning elections. After the war, and I can't quite imagine how, they managed to unify the three armies into one army. Now there's talk that it's splitting apart and the most nationalist leaders on the serve side are all strengthening society. It has some features from the present day. Black and white for the past, other from the balance, and it's common here not. It's very mountainous area. Steel industry is absolutely central to Zenfanser from America today. That's good. And training. Still doing drug job training for women who are not. It's still a place we're kind of home in this matter. I saw more kids than adult women. Probably for reasons of tact and all. And everything else we used to look at as so. The love of children. This is a meeting of the star. And in each place I'd call the meeting of all the old timers. Used for posters for prompting discussion. So it was not just the interview to bring but those discussions which were important. OK, to move on. Over to the west in Northern Ireland. It's a job to find the old murals of fighters in Black Balakama helmets, you know, with the soldier rifles still on the walls. In fact there are some that have been newly painted. They haven't gone away with the peace. As well I found a lot of Belfast neighbourhoods are still divided by interfaces. Those high fences built to discourage raids into enemy territory. None of these so-called peace halls have been dismantled since the peace agreement. And I'm told that some have been built. So the things are a lot better. The British Army isn't so much in your face today. They didn't always and I think they still were. But the real IRA won't accept the peace settlement and there have been assassinations of security personnel. And you've probably been reading about the Royal's Riots in the last few weeks about the decision of the Belfast City Hall not to fly the Union flag on every day of the year. So violence hasn't gone away. In Bosnia, militarised masculinity has been corralled into that unified army. In Northern Ireland it's turned its weapons inwards. Loyalist gangs fight each other for controlling the drugs trade. Rebel Republicans brutally punish young drug pushers in their own communities. And like in Bosnia with high unemployment and low public investment in working-class areas, unemployed and demoralised men taken out on their wives and partners. Rising domestic violence has been a feature of peace in Belfast as in Bosnia. I re-interviewed 13 of the women from my original study. I found two of them are still coordinators of those women's centres. Eleanor Jordan is still running the Windsor women's centre in the deeply loyalist neighbourhood called The Village. Gillian Gibson is co-ordinator of footprints in Catholic old glass. They've been trying to keep the women's support networks practice of dialogue going by having a twinning arrangement between their two community centres. So I asked them, is cross-community work like that any less risky now for the women than it had been 15 years ago? Gillian said that it seems acceptable now to exchange staff between the two women's centres. But the women users, the women actually living in these segregated streets, they still don't have much contact with each other. It's from the Protestant side, mainly, that the inhibition against contact comes. And it's not the choice of the women. It's the attitude of the men in these communities who are still punishment in the talk to the end. Eleanor told me that they would really welcome more contact with footprints and with other Catholic centres. There is just a bit, but it has to be done in silence, she says. We don't advertise it. It's interesting that in Zenitsa, in central Bosnia, the remaining serving crowdwomen did not report to me any constraint today on their contact with each other and with the Muslim majority. The nationalist hatred there is expressed in the political level between the parties and the exodus. Here in Belfast it's down at street level still. We still take care of our crossing sectarian lines between them. With the coming of peace, the women's support network of which the Prince of Windsor were once leading members has lost its political edge, they tell me. What it used to call its frontline feminism. Like Medica, perhaps more so. It doesn't any longer challenge the politicians and the administration in a way it used to do. In those old days, when it turned the state's community development programme into what they call women's community empowerment. Reasonably enough, the women's centres have looked to the state to give them secure funding and of course they aren't going to bite the hand that feeds them. However, as in Bosnia, a few of the women have started a new feminist movement that they call Reclaim the Agenda, hoping to recover the radicalism that somehow got entangled in the management of post-war organisation, to look at organisation voters for their women. On the positive side, I have to admit Belfast today, apart from the murals and the fences, it does look somehow more like a European 21st century city. There are new developments like the Odyssey Arena, the Obel Tower and the massive Titanic visitor centre. And the city centre, the place that you used to avoid especially at night, because they closed gates around it and you had to plan over to get home. It was a threatening kind of place. Now they say it feels more like common ground. There are lots of lively venues, arts centres and bars, restaurants, where people of all religions and politics feel okay. The young in particular may be mixing more. Schools are still mostly segregated but a recent survey showed that in spite of that, today's 16 year olds, if you think about it, the 16 year olds are the generation that was born just after the ceasefire. So they didn't know the fight. They are just a bit more likely than their predecessors to cross the religious divide to make friends. Three years ago, one in three had no mates at all on the other side. Today it's only one in five. The power sharing devolved government in Northern Ireland which collapsed twice in the years after the agreement has now held for six years. But an arrangement like that doesn't lend itself to a spontaneous kind of democracy. When all the negotiations between two sides defined by identity qualities, you don't get a right left dynamic. So there isn't a unified left opposition that a lot of these women would really like to vote for. On the other hand, the quality of the relationship between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Union against the party is a good site better than the relationship between positive and conflicted parties. And it certainly compares favourably with the situation in Israel with the influence of the extreme right over the poor and political representatives of the Palestinian minority never get anywhere near power. Some slides from Belfast. So, new developments. That's the Titanic Centre. Very beautiful. This is a new building. This is a new place on Shackle Road. This is Footprints Community Centre. And these are photos of their activities. The Children's Project. They grow their own vegetables and cook them. This was one of my meetings. This is a meeting with the Irish one on the sport network. Gillian was the coordinator of Footprints. In 1996, when I first went to spare time with the women of Bachelor of Arts, it was cautious optimism in the region. The Oslo Accords of 1993 was still holding. The Jewish White didn't like them, of course, and even some Palestinians condemned them as being co-opted to them. But a lot of people on both sides believed still that they were on the way to peace. It no longer seemed to be subversive to advocate a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish state. The transfer of some administrative power to a Palestinian authority was going ahead. But just before I arrived there, Ychek Brabun, the Prime Minister, had been assassinated by a Jewish settler. And they'd been suicidal. So confidence was damaged. Back then, I had seen how the activist dialogue between the Jewish women and the Palestinian women in Bachelor of Arts up there in the gallery was a very unusual thing, calling for a lot of political imagination and care. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised to find when I went back in 2012, no Bachelor on the Talk. The hard work space between the women of the two communities had banished into thin air. What happened was that first in 2006, the northern group split from the main organisation in Jerusalem and changed its name to Batchafon, daughter of the North. The split was mainly because the Northerners felt that Jerusalem women didn't pay enough attention to this internal question, democracy for Israel's Muslim and Christian Arab minority. Then in 2008, the northern group disbanded all together. Two years later, the Jerusalem group also closed. I managed to locate eight or nine former Batchafon members in the Kibwtsiw and in Nazareth and other Arab towns. We had a meeting. I tried to uncover what had brought about the collapse of that group and I interviewed them. So, why? Well, it was simply the attrition of time. Of course, we all were older, we get tired, we get sick, and our activist energy falls away. But more than that, I could hear in their stories a gradual fading of hope. Whereas in Bosnia and Northern Ireland, the accords have turned into something you could at least call post-controlate, even if you couldn't quite call it peace. Here, on the contrary, the overt violence between the Israeli Defence Forces and Palestinians have escalated hugely over the decade. There was the Second Intifada in 2000, the renewed invasion of Lebanon in 2006, and the group of bombardment of Gaza in 2008. These have been full-scale acts of war with casualties of thousands. Imposing the occupation itself also involved daily violence. The relentless militarised Jewish settlement of the West Bank had reduced and fragmented the area available for a Palestinian state. Such a thing was no longer geographically feasible. There was no longer a peace process to support. It was not only Batshalon that had faded in this period. The whole Israeli peace movement, when they told me, was in eclipse. The disillusion that had been wearing us that there were meant to withdraw from Batshalon had been felt most by the Jewish members. The intention of Batshalon of the North had always been to be an example to their home communities in the Kibbutzim to draw more local women into the dialogue. Now Jewish attitudes have hardened. The activists felt isolated on their Kibbutzim. They felt hated even, for seeking contact with Arabs. Lack of funding had forced them to close their one-room office in Afula. They couldn't any longer pay full-time activists. On the other hand, the Palestinians were dismayed by the loss of their Jewish partners. They wouldn't be prepared to keep going. Quite a few of them had also been active in Tandy, the left-room movement of democratic women. And they still go on with that, and they keep up contact with those other Palestinians across the Greenland.  Already before the outbreak of the Intifada in 2000, they had started to work together on annual events to mark Land Day, Yom Al Ar. It's a very important date in the Palestinian calendar because it marks the moment in 1976 on the first internal uprising against the theft of Palestinian land by the Israeli state. For these Jewish women of Batshaf hon, to acknowledge this injustice and join Palestinians in organising war. I don't know the word. It was a bold name. It's not smiling. Yeah, and they did so. Getting involved in Land Day and doing Land Day. They did it specifically as women. It was feminist. Focusing on women part in an strug. What happened to them in that? On Land Day this year, 2012, I was in the Galilee again. I went to the big rally held by Palestinians in the Arab town of Sakmi. There were thousands of women and men, girls and boys with massed flags of Hadash and Balad. But there wasn't any longer a big group of Jewish and Palestinian women who could go on Land Day. In their last years, some of the women of Batshaf hon have come to be among a few in Israel's peace community who dared to say openly that a true state solution was no longer viable. And to say the unsale one. The singular Jewish identity of Israel had to end. Batshaf hon's women had always been convinced that true democracy within Israel and inclusive democracy with Christian and Muslim Arabs as equal citizens is a necessary condition of a peace settlement in the region. Now they were ready to imagine a multicultural entity across the whole Israel-Palestine region from the Lebanon and Syrian borders in the north to Egypt and the south and from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean. A nation of Jews, Palestinians and others in constitutional equality. But this vision was a personal vision. It only jailed among the few women remaining at that moment where Batshaf hon affected your life. Batshaf hon's failure is symptomatic of the feminist peace movement in Israel more generally. This is what they've told me. Some of you may know better, but it had been an active member of the Coalition of Women for Peace for mobilised country-wide action against the occupation and in supported peace moves. Today the coalition I'm told isn't really a coalition any longer. It's rather a simple focus organisation mainly involved in research. It does do valuable research and it has a project called Who Prophets? Enterprises profiting from the occupation. Women in Black which once counted 30 vigils around Israel has shrunk to three in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Hyfford. Yes, there are feminist groups that is ishari shah and Haifa who is concerned about women's rights, equality in sex industry and trafficking and so on. And there's New Profile, a wonderful new profile, a feminist organisation of women and men which continues to support conscientious objectives and refuse to serve in the idea. But there is no successful project to Batshaf hon at the North. There is no sustained and tested partnership of Jews and internal Palestinian women. Meanwhile, what there has been on the streets in the space once filled by peace movement is protest in the style of occupying. Five, 18 months ago there was a huge derbych that made the middle class Jewish youth protesting against the growing gap between incomes and the cost of living. So my last slide shows like this of Israel today. Israel, that was in the very same. He don't have inside of the books, an old olive tree that was probably there before the compilters. Jewish settlements and there is settlement in the north as there is in the occupant of the territories I have explained that later. These are Jewish settlements outside Jerusalem, here in Jerusalem and down at the rock. This is on the green line of the Jewish community on the green line of the Palestinian village on the green line the wall and Lando generation of Palestinian women. This was our meeting. Here are some of the women looking at the posters and discussing the past and told suffering. But in some of its hazes, as feminist students of war and peace processes have often pointed out, it gives some women scope for collective action and their lack of reform. This was the case in Northern Ireland where the oppression of living in districts is set by street-level conflict sparked that defiant work across feminism. It happened in Bosnia when foreign-fooding and feminist activists appalled by the mass raids came to partner local women. And it had happened in Israel, Palestine too. In the late 80s when Jewish women were propelled into their own anti-occupation activism by witnessing the courage of Palestinian women the other side of the green line caught up in the anti-fada. One form of active response to war seen in the three women's organisations I've described is an attempt to create and sustain a dialogue between women defined by the war makers as enemies. Those of us who theorised this as transversal politics described it as a creative and redrawing of boundaries that mark significant politicised differences a process that can quote on the one hand look for commonalities without being arrogantly universalist and on the other a firm difference without being transfixed by it. It's relational work that calls for empathy without saying has shifted without tearing up your roots. But peace negotiations characteristically overlook women and their transversalist insights notwithstanding the scale of sexual violence in the Bosnian War women's representatives and women's issues were totally absent from that airfield in Dayton or Hire where international notables sat down with war criminal leaders in negotiations to end the fighting. But not a woman inside In the case of Israel-Palestine there were no representatives of women at the table in the Oslo negotiations actually even the interests of Israeli Palestinians were not represented there which shocked the internal world. It wasn't too surprising then if it was an uphill struggle getting gender change as part of demobilisation in these new administrations in the post-party years. However, Northern Ireland had been different. The Good Friday Peace Agreement had been the outcome of a much more inclusive process in which women's experience had actually been listened to. As the very tense discussions went on between the political representatives of the British state and the warring parties a movement in civil society had mobilised to contribute ordinary people's ideas about a future Northern Ireland. The women's support network in alliance with others in that vibrant women's community sector and a women's political party of the workers coalition and trade unionists women trade unionists they were able very differently from how it was in Dayton or Oslo to insert themselves on their agenda into the peace process. The result was an accord that wasn't merely a truce between fighters it was a commitment to a fair and inclusive society with equality between Catholic and Protestant communities and equality between women and men and on seven other grounds besides. Humano Beatrix Campbell's Book Agreement is a wonderful and passionate book I really recommend it. She writes that the Good Friday Agreement was a dynamic exemplar of reform democracy for the 21st century embodying a transcendent duty to produce more than peace to begin the millennial work of transforming the sectarian and sexist power relations that structure society. On the other hand now a decade and a half later the Belfars women tell me that the devolved state structures of Northern Ireland in actual fact are still failing to deliver on the equality's duty to produce more than peace. The idea had been to focus policy not on the two sides being nice to each other coming together but on putting right what was wrong with Northern Ireland and a lot was wrong with Northern Ireland investing wholeheartedly in the poorest working class areas that had been the intention Catholic but also Protestant because those Protestant politics too that itself would end the sectarian hatred and the idea that we might be pleased with but it was the only thing that could be restored but recession and lack of political will has derailed that intention. In Northern Ireland as rioting happens again on the streets this month women are still asking as they are asking in Bosnia and Israel Palestine when is peace actual?