The final item of business today is a member's business debate on motion number 12934, in the name of Hans Alam Alec, on growing Islamophobia in Scotland and graffiti on the new central Gurdwara Glasgow. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I would be grateful to those members who wish to speak in the debate. Could please press the request to speak buttons as soon as possible. Once again, could I ask for members leaving the chamber to do so quietly please? I call on Hans Alam Alec to open the debate. Seven minutes please. Thank you very much and good afternoon, Presiding Officer. It is an honour to bring this motion for debate as the vandalism of the central Gurdwara Glasgow was deeply hurtful, incident for many reasons. At the end of March, the sacred religious building was defamed by vandals with the words of No Sharia, a Nazi symbol and another anti-Islamic message that would be inappropriate to repeat today. And as the community heard the news, all the communities were in complete shock that such disgraceful words were put on the walls of a great Glasgow Gurdwara. The Sikh community behaved with great dignity, with challenge, saying, committing. It's the climate of rampant Islamophobia. And today, out of respect to the Sikh community, where the Surapa scarf presented to me to mark the respect to our delegation while visiting the Pakistan-Glasgow-Lahore cycle challenge raising funds for the Sichuan hospital in Glasgow, where we were met by the ministers of the Holy Gurdwara, the Nalkana Sahib, the birthplace of Guru Nanak, and the Gurdwara is, of course, in Pakistani Punjab. Calls to have a dialogue with the police, local and national politicians to create inclusive society and celebrate the contributions made by Scottish ethnic minorities went out to the country. It's shameful that Ionic Gurdwara has been vandalised. However, this is not an unusual case. I still remember the firebombing of the Gurdwara in Kent after the Salmon Salmon London terrorist attacks and the jeers at turban wearing Sikh men from racists at the time. As a Muslim, I totally condone this hateful attack on a beautiful new Glasgow Gurdwara, as it is the place of Sikh worship and community engagement and totally disrespects places of worship. It has also been the most welcome addition to our religions, culture and architectural life of Glaswegians. It is clear that targeting Muslim communities from bigots and hate perpetrators should be challenged by all of us. No community should suffer or be at the end of hate crime. I fully agree with Alec Neill's statement in the wake of the incident that acts like this only reveal the ignorance of few individuals who do not respect or appreciate Scotland's rich diversity. However, actions are needed to minimise this kind of incidents happening again in the future. Mr Neill has equalities as part of his portfolio. I would like to know what he's doing to root out racism and racial discrimination from Scottish society today. I asked the Parliament question in 2013 as to when the Scottish Government would update their 2008 to 2011 race equality statement. At that point, Mr Neill said it would be published at the end of the summer 2013. Two years later, I'm still waiting for the report. I don't know who's writing it. But I can tell you, not only am I waiting for it, but so is the communities. That pretty much sums up how much of a priority this current Scottish Government gives the racial equality agenda, which is already a step down from actually talking about racism. And please note, my criticism of the Scottish Government is just and based on evidence. It's not just hearsay. I'm not plucking these up out of the sky. This episode is a sad reminder that religions and ethnic minorities face public, radical, criminal attacks, as well as many indirect acts of discrimination. We must recognise the severity of this issue. Public and politicians need to follow up and root out the discrimination of all kinds at any stage and any level. Otherwise, we will continue to witness such heartless incidents up and down Scotland.  You are different, so you'll do any excuse at all. So I once again call upon the Scottish Government to step up to its responsibilities and actually do their duty and protect all its citizens equally. Presiding Officer, may I say that the Government has a responsibility? It needs to be aware that there are many people, particularly shopkeepers, taxi drivers, people who are working on the coal phase, who are facing regular incidents of racism. Many have actually given up reporting the incidents because they feel that the police are not treating them seriously. Many have complained that when they have phoned up about racial discrimination or racist incidents, police don't actually turn up for days at a time because it's not an emergency. And the attitude like that means that people lose confidence. And not only that, people who perpetrate these acts get confidence. So we're looking at two balances. One on one end, people are getting disheartened, losing confidence. And the other hand, we are actually encouraging people to continue to perpetrate these crimes because there is no comeback to them. They think they can walk away from these issues. Therefore, it's absolutely imperative that we actually deal with our communities rather than talk about them. These issues about protecting religious freedom, talking about protecting people's ethnic backgrounds is important. I and Hamza Yousaf are proud products of this country. But we even today face discrimination. Hamza has had some very highlighted cases recently. So we know for a fact that this is happening. We don't need additional evidence. What we do need is the government actually to get down, roll up its leaves, get some money and do some work. We need to educate our communities. The schools are doing a wonderful job. I can assure you, we don't need to go and look at the schools and say we need to teach our children and they're doing their job. It's us adults who need teaching. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Thank you very much. We now turn to the open debate speeches of four minutes, please, and I call Kenny MacAskill to be followed by Malcolm Chisholm. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I thank Hamzala Malik for bringing this motion? He has an impeccable track record in pursuing these issues, although I would have to say that I do take issue with some of the comments that I thought were a bit more political and perhaps undeserved. This chamber is united. I disagree with the political positioning of many, both on left and right, on occasions. However, I think that this chamber has always been united in condemning racism, condemning Islamophobia. We did so in 9-11. We do so today and that is how we have to stand. Clearly, there are issues and that's what we're here for and that's why, as I say, I'm sure he'll reflect upon that. The reason I'm happy and delighted to support him is that this is first of all to address two of our not just vibrant but cherished communities, the Sikh community and the Islamic community. They are long-standing. They are part of Scotland and we have to cherish them and look after them. I know the Gurdwara in Glasgow and Hamzala's comments about its magnificence are quite correct. I don't know it as well. I've only visited once as a Gurdwara that I visit regularly down in Leith, but I do know the community in Edinburgh very well indeed. Indeed, I was at the Vaikasi ceremony just a few weeks back. They have been here not one or two generations, but we are now on to the fourth, fifth and sixth generations. That's the situation for the Sikh community in Leith. It will probably be an even greater lineage through in the west of Scotland. They have come from two brothers who first came here, but they are now a vital part of the city of Edinburgh, especially in the Leith area, but throughout the city and we need to look after them. The same applies in even greater terms because of the numbers with the Islamic community. Many have come from the Indian subcontinent, but others have come from elsewhere. We require to look after them and to cherish them. They are as valid and vibrant a part of Scotland as myself or any other member of this chamber. That's how it has to be and that's why we require to ensure that action is taken, that no doubt the minister will comment upon. You don't have to be able to trace your lineage to 1314 to be able to claim any ethnicity as a Scott. The Islamic community and indeed the Sikh community have more of a lineage perhaps than many white Christian communities who have come more recently, but whether they are Spanish or Polish, whether they are Italian or Indian, whether they are able to claim their lineage back to 1314 or even beyond, they are equally, but no more so at Scots than the Islamic and Sikh community. That is how we have to cherish them. We face challenges with Islamophobia and with racism. Hamzala Malik is right to make sure that the Government is held to account, but it is certainly my view that both the Government and indeed the authorities are doing everything that they can to address it. That was, I think, accepted by the Sikh community with regard to the Riragurdwara, but we do require to be ever vigilant. The ignorance is unbounded. The fact that the tenor of the graffiti showed that in terms of being unable to differentiate between Sikhism and between Islam—never mind, as I say, portraying Nazi symbols—is entirely unacceptable. As I say, I think that what we have to do is reiterate as a chamber, which will be done by every speaker from whatever party, that it is entirely unacceptable and the full force and weight of the law will be brought down upon those who carry out racist or Islamophobic hate crime. Equally, and perhaps more so, we require to make it quite clear that the Sikh and Islamic communities in Scotland are a vital part. We cherish them, we hold them dear, they make Scotland a better place and we will not be divided in any way. We stand with them, we stand for them because they are us. Thank you very much. I now call Malcolm Chisholm to be followed by Jamie Macdonald. I hand over to the motion. I am sure that I speak for everyone in the chamber. When I say that we all condemn this appalling combination of hatred and ignorance that we saw in terms of the graffiti on the Goodwara in Glasgow, I think that we need to challenge that. All forms of racial and religious hatred—and, of course, the motion in particular—focuses on Islamophobia, because we know that that has been a particular problem for several years. Like Kenny MacAskill, I would like to emphasise how much we value and celebrate the contribution of the Sikh community and the Muslim community and, indeed, all other ethnic minority communities living in Scotland today. Of course, I know, as the MSP, that it represents the particular connection of the Sikh community with Leith over many decades, and I certainly would like to say, as I have said on many occasions, how much I value the contribution that it has made to Scottish life. However, since the motion refers in particular to Islamophobia, let me concentrate on that. I think that there was a very interesting and important report from the Scottish Government in 2011 about the experience of being a Muslim living in Scotland. I think that it is quite sobering when we read that report to realise the extent of the problems that they are confronted with every day in Scotland. It found that, despite identifying a Scottish Muslim's living in Scotland, experience feelings of otherness and difference resulting from the experiences of religious and racial discrimination. The report also cited research by Hussain and Miller from 2006, which found that almost half of the majority community in Scotland were identified as holding Islamophobic attitudes. That was certainly something that shocked me. I remember 2006 well because I was Minister for Communities then and in 2005, and I did quite a lot on that issue in the wake of the London bombings in 2005. We know that there was an increase at that time, and some other events since then have perhaps reinforced that. Therefore, we must in particular challenge Islamophobia wherever we find it at this time. I thought that the words of David Haynes were very inspiring in relation to that. You might remember that David Haynes was the British hostage murdered by Islamic state militants. The important point is that he emphasised that Islam was not to blame. We have to keep saying that. It is obvious to us that it is obvious to the majority of people in Scotland, but the atrocities that are committed by a few are used as part of the campaign against Muslims in Scotland. He said that the brother of David Haynes said, The Muslim faith is not to blame for ISIS nor is it the fault of people of Middle Eastern descent. The attraction of complete control and the use of terror as an implement of population control has widespread appeal to many disenfranchised shiwite society. I have become aware of a number of verses in the Quran that I feel particularly apt at this time. He quotes, Since good and evil cannot be equal, repel thou evil with something that is better. I think that we need to challenge the ignorance about the Muslim religion, which is shown—not least, I suppose—by the graffiti, when many of the people who are filled with this hatred cannot even tell the difference between Islam and the Sikh religion. However, we have to tell the truth about the Muslim religion, because every Muslim I know—and it does not surprise me to say this, of course—is absolutely as appalled by the acts of terrorism as anybody else in society. Hansel Amalek emphasised education. He is probably right that there is a lot of positive things going on in schools. However, another thing that I read in preparation for this debate was a report that the NESUWT, Teachers Union, did for equality matters on what steps should be taken to tackle Islamophobia in educational settings. It emphasised that schooling college leaders have a critical role to play in ensuring that issues related to Islamophobia are identified and addressed appropriately and effectively. Nobody is born a racist. We all know that people learn those attitudes as they grow up in societies and challenging them in school is absolutely fundamental, because it is schools where people can be challenged when they are young. However, clearly we have a responsibility as politicians as well. I can just end, since my time is up, by quoting the Secretary of the Glasgow Goodwara Charandeep Singh, who said that the sad incident that triggered the debate should energise our political leaders and fellow citizens to continue to campaign to root out such hateful beliefs. Thank you. Before we move on with the debate, I remind members to lift their microphones and speak to them, otherwise the chamber has a difficulty hearing and I do not like to interrupt members' speeches. Jamie McGregor, to be followed by Sarah Boyack. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I congratulate Hans Arlamalick on securing this evening's debate and also pay tribute to him for the good work that he does in consistently speaking out against Islamophobia and, indeed, religious intolerance more broadly and for raising issues that some wish would just disappear without a debate. It is our job in this place to meet racism head on. Bad things happen when bullies are left to run riot and these people who do these things display a brutish ignorance which is similar to the Nazi gangs in their treatment of the Jews in the 1930s. Let me begin, on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, to join in the strong condemnation of these perpetrators of the racist graffiti on the central gudwaro in Glasgow and in need to condemn any incidents of racist or religiously and tolerant graffiti on any religious building. I note from the news yesterday the dreadful anti-Catholic graffiti that has been sprayed on St Andrews' Roman Catholic Church in Livingston. MSPs from across the political spectrum can rightly unite in our condemnation of this type of behaviour and the police should be robust in trying to apprehend those responsible as I'm sure they will do and ensure their crimes are subject to the due legal process. I also agree with the sentiments of Hanzala Malik's motion in relating to the particular victimisation of those in our Sikh communities who were targeted by ignorant extremists so ignorant that they cannot even tell the difference between Muslims and Sikhs. I recognise the concerns about growing Islamophobia in Scotland and note many organisations including the Church of Scotland, the Muslim Council of Britain and all Scottish and the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities have all spoken out against this. All of us as MSPs also have a role to play in speaking out and informing our constituents that those extremists who give Islam a bad name and in doing so attract significant media coverage are a tiny unrepresentative minority who simply do not speak for or represent the vast majority of peace-loving Muslims who live and work in our communities. We also need British Muslims at all levels to continue to speak out in support of democracy, moderation and tolerance as the Muslim Council of Britain consistently seeks to do and I'm pleased that at the recent general election in the UK we saw an increase in the number of British Muslims being elected as MPs and significantly more Muslim women elected. They really have an important role as we go forward. Tackling the causes of Islamophobia will involve many approaches and long-term strategies including education, which is crucial and of course international co-operation and working to resolve the many international challenges we continue to face in the Middle East and elsewhere. These are massive challenges with no quick or easy solutions and Hans-Alan Malik is writing his motion to call for community cohesion and for outreach events which can really be important in local communities. His motion talks of growing Islamophobia and that is all the more disappointing that this should be the case when we Scots now have our own Scottish Parliament whose basic principles are all about fairness, tolerance and equal opportunities. In the past the UK has had a worldwide reputation for religious tolerance compared to much of the rest of the world. So in the new Scotland we should be enhancing and improving things rather than the reverse. So in conclusion, Presiding Officer, I again commend Hans-Alan Malik for bringing this debate to Parliament this evening and I also wish those from the Sikh community involved in the Central Goodwara every success as they prepare for its official opening later in the summer. Thank you. Many thanks. I now call Sarah Boyack to be followed by Jean Urquhart. Thank you very much Presiding Officer. I too want to congratulate Hans-Alan Malik for bringing this debate forward tonight and I do welcome this debate because on one level it's our opportunity to give solidarity to the Sikh community and to stand shoulder to shoulder with them against the horrendous abuse that they have faced by the defacing of the Goodwara in Glasgow. I think it's also important because it does affect so many of our constituents in their day-to-day lives and our response has to be a statement about what kind of society we are and what kind of society we should strive to build with community cohesion, respect between communities and understanding between people of different faiths and none and also the contribution of people from different ethnic communities and the racist graffiti has to be something that we all stand against. It's a symptom of intolerance and lack of knowledge and it's abuse that must not be tolerated. Whether it's Islamophobia, antisemitism or anti-Catholic abuse it's important that we challenge that ignorance and that we stand up for the communities that have been attacked. I think the cross-party action that was referred to in Hans-Alan's motion is symbolic on one level but it's also got to be backed by action. We are all leaders in our communities, we all have the opportunity to support a range of groups that work hard in our communities whether it's through racial equality groups or interfaith groups and to promote community cohesion, respect, understanding and friendship between different communities. I consulted community leaders and representatives in advance of this debate because I wanted some of the views of my constituents to be heard and a common thread was that the state whether it is at the Scottish or community level, at the local council level needs to do more to support the work of interfaith and racial equality groups. Their observation is that there's less resource available, that the financial pressures and cutbacks are making their work harder, not for one-off events necessarily but for their day-to-day work for the long-term work of building cohesion. Suggestions, more interfaith events to bring together people of different faith groups to work with each other but also to broaden that out to the general public so that more people understand the great religions that we have represented in Scotland and understand how they are changing with time in response to links in society. Support for interfaith groups and investment in the skills that interfaith groups bring so that we can build that cohesion together. Support for the work of racial equality councils so that people from different religious faith and ethnic communities can be supported in their work. There are lots of great initiatives across the country. If I was just to talk about the pride that we have in Edinburgh, the work of ILREC, the welcoming, the Edinburgh Mela, the Just Festival and the Edinburgh Interfaith Association and there are others that I could name across the different religious communities. It's important that we support those organisations but I think also to make more demands on our mainstream public services so that they take leadership in being anti-racist and being against the discrimination that people from different faith experience. More work in schools so that people from different faiths are brought into schools from a much earlier age. I don't know if the minister saw the Guardian article that came out last week that looked at racial and religious intolerance among school children. I think it would be very interesting to parallel that work in Scotland because I sometimes think that we imagine that things' attitudes are much more liberal than they are in practice.  For example, the shop workers in my constituency who experience racist abuse and assaults. There needs to be a price paid for those kind of acts and we need to make sure that it's given more attention. Finally, if I can finish on our culture, one of my constituents suggested, what about the soaps we have? What about the dramas that are shown on television and how news reports conflicts? There's much more that could be done to promote religious tolerance, to promote more knowledge and support for our faith communities in what can be a difficult world. There are lots of good ideas. It needs us to work together across the parties, it needs more funding and it also needs the political support not just at the Parliament but at the local authority level as well so that all our communities feel that they are part of our Scotland and that they have a place here and that they are respected and that they are included in everything that we do. I, too, would like to congratulate Hanzala Marek for bringing this debate to the chamber. Islamophobia is not an issue that can be glossed over or sidelined. Since 9-11, Islamophobic attacks, verbal and physical, have been on the rise. Islamophobia can affect lots of people, not just those who are practicing Muslims. It provides a gateway for racist ideologies to generalise and for far-right groups to grow. But Islamophobia as a phenomenon cannot be reduced to the fantasies of the races trying to stir conflict in our communities, rather it is something that has been at work in various ways and undertaken by a range of actors. We have seen a process of demonisation which has left a legacy of discrimination and the spreading of false ideas about Islam. Sections of the media have been vociferous in the negative portrayal of Muslims. In 2007, a study commissioned by the then Lord Mer Ken Livingstone found that in just one week's news coverage, 91 per cent of articles in national newspapers about Muslims were negative. In many ways, Islamophobia has become institutionalised as part of the war on terror narrative. The cycle of blame and generalisation has to be broken. The rise in hate crime is closely linked to the war on terror and the associated rhetoric. That has been shown by screeds of research and evidence gathering. For example, research conducted by the University of Exeter showed that, quote, the major motivating factor for violence against Muslims is a negative and false belief that Muslims pose a security or terrorist threat. To combat this, we need a combination of education and ideological opposition to those who seek to exploit international tensions, often driven by western foreign policy, to suit their own ends, whether that be to incite racism, divide our communities or build the case for cutting our civil liberties. A survey sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust found that 80 per cent of British Muslims had experienced discrimination up from 45 per cent in the late 1990s. Discrimination against Muslims in Britain is going from bad to worse. Unemployment among Muslims in Britain is 17 per cent against a national average of 8 per cent, higher than for people of any other religion. In addition, in the UK, more than 1,000 Muslims have been detained without charge under anti-terror laws, out of which only a handful have ever been convicted of terrorist offences. Here in Scotland, we have challenges regarding Islamophobia. Alistair Macintosh, fellow at the Centre of Human Ecology and co-author of Studies into Racism in Scotland, said that Islamophobia is also a problem in Scotland. He says, quote, Muslims in particular are having a hard time and they all seem to get tired with the same brush. It would be true to say that Islamophobia is a problem in this country. However, this is an area that we should be looking to take a lead on in UK terms, while recognising that we face big hurdles to get to a place where Muslims are free of worry about receiving threats or suffering prejudice from others, whether that be from other members of the community, in the workplace, from the media or indeed from certain politicians. We should be looking to positively combat that by building strong inter-community bonds. Muslims play a huge role in Scotland and are firmly part of our culture, economy and society. I have to say that the Muslim community in the Western Isles, who are largely Gaelic speaking, are a fine example of just a massive contribution to the Highlands and Islands area that I represent. However, we must stand as one in the face of all prejudice. That means standing shoulder to shoulder with Scottish Muslims at what has been a very difficult period in which they have suffered unjust slander and widespread discrimination. I support Hanzala's motion, particularly because it is cross-party Hanzala, and not about attacking out of the Scottish Government. Let the Parliament, let all of us, really support exactly and deal with the problem that you cite. I thank my colleague Hanzala Malik for bringing forward this important debate today. In some ways, we are all proud of the progress that Scotland has made in tackling Islamophobia, racism and prejudice, certainly over the course of my lifetime. However, I suspect that, although many of us would like to take more pride in Scotland's reputation for tolerance and understanding, we are equally mindful of the harsh day-to-day reality for many Muslims' Sikhs and other ethnic communities in this country of ours. Abuse, name-calling, assaults and racist graffiti are unfortunately the all-too-common experience for many of our fellow citizens. An atmosphere of worry, anxiety and fear is the all-too-often common result. Residents in my own local authority of East Renfisher, for example, are proud of our good community relations. We are home to a small but long-established Sikh community, as well as a more substantial and growing Muslim community. For the most part, we enjoy the benefits of living in a vibrant multicultural neighbourhood, but we are not blind to our failings. One of my biggest frustrations in 16 years of serving the local community is the difficulty that we have encountered and still face in building a new mosque to meet the needs of residents. Yes, we have the ground-breaking Wood Farm Education Centre and more recently facilities in Newton-Merrens and the Hurlid. However, so far, every attempt to agree on a purpose-built facility has run into the sand. There are many and varied reasons why each of those separate projects have so far failed to deliver, but in each and every case there has been at least an element of cultural, ethnic or racial prejudice and hostility. If I feel politically frustrated and having my hopes thwarted, it is not difficult to imagine how you must feel if you are a peaceful law-abiding, hard-working Muslim living in East Renfrewshire, yet it may feel even in some small way unwanted and unsupported. The hostility can be far more explicit than that. Three months ago, following strong political backing from the leader of East Renfrewshire Council, Jim Fletcher, we were able to open the first Muslim cemetery in the area, meeting the long-standing and growing need of local families. Within a matter of weeks, the sign indicating the location of the new Muslim burial layers was covered in racist graffiti. Those sort of incidents are not just offensive, they are deeply worrying, and I am sure that I do not have to convince anyone in this chamber that we have to root out that kind of behaviour, but we have a long way to go in doing so, both locally and nationally. I, for one, would like our Parliament and our Government to lead by example. I have no doubt whatsoever that, across party lines, we share the same agenda, the same desire to build a tolerant, compassionate and understanding society, but taking on deep-seated prejudices is challenging. It requires drive and energy. As my colleague Hanzala Malik pointed out, the Government is still consulting on the new framework for the racial quality framework in Scotland, and that does not set out a strong signal if we have allowed the previous framework to lapse. I met recently with the organisation Tell Mama, which records anti-Muslim bigotry and specifically aims to tackle online hate speech and intolerance. It does not receive any Scottish Government funding, and I am not trying to argue any special case for it. When I raised the question, the cabinet secretary replied instead that there are currently more than 300 organisations in Scotland registered as third-party reporting centres with Police Scotland. On the one hand, we all would find that encouraging, but my worry is that, despite that large number of centres, many people do not have the confidence to report an incident and, when they do, they are not sure that they are being followed up. People need the reassurance that they are concerned or taken seriously. Again, I am sure that I have to tell the minister that our public sector equality duty includes a general duty to foster good relations within our society. The Scotland-specific duties are the most comprehensive in the United Kingdom in terms of the information that is required, but we need to act on that information. Now that the first two-year progress reports have been published by all listed public bodies, I wonder whether it is not a good time for the Scottish Government to review whether the equality duties are working in the way that they were envisaged. I welcome the minister's comments on my question. I can assure him that the Government can wholeheartedly rely on Scottish Labour support in pushing the issue up the political agenda and in turning our good intentions into firm actions. I thank again my colleague Hanzala Malik once more for bringing forward tonight's debate, and I hope across the whole chamber that we are able to work together to tackle Islamophobia and racism in our society. I join the chorus of members who have commended Hanzala Malik for bringing this motion and this debate here, which has once again given us a chance to stand united as this chamber is at its best to say that together we can do everything that we can to ensure that Scotland is Islamophobia free and free of any prejudice based on religious hatred. We all in here value Scotland's Muslim, Sikh and other faith communities and a really important role that they all play in making our nation a place that is safe, strong and diverse as well. I think that the record of this Parliament is something that can give solace to anybody who looks at our debates and is concerned about the leadership of the country, that together across parties, across all of our political leadership, we are clear on that message of zero tolerance for religious prejudice. However, the question that has been raised is what are we doing? What are we doing as individuals, as politicians and as a Government to ensure that the attitudes of tolerance and diversity that we express in here are prevailing out there in the country? We have a collective responsibility to challenge prejudice. Any form of racial religious prejudice, including Islamophobia, has to be opposed and has to be called out. Hate crimes target all those that share a characteristic but also embarrass us as a society as a whole if they take place. Everyone has the right to feel safe in their communities and everyone should take responsibility for their actions and how those actions affect others. As politicians, we have a responsibility to ensure that when we talk about Islam and issues affecting our Muslim communities, we do so accurately, clear on our language and intentions. Across society, as individuals, everyone has that same responsibility as to do organisations, not least the media. As Mr Mallick has noted, we do hear alarming growing numbers of reports of Islamophobia. International incidents can have a negative impact on our diverse communities and their feelings of security here in Scotland. We must also guard against stories masquerading as news that perpetuates stereotypes against a collective group, whether that is a religion or any other community. I welcome the participation of all members and all political parties as we are all ambassadors to challenge those views. The Scottish Government's duty, as the Government of a country containing all of those diverse faiths and backgrounds, is to try to create a as safe a society as we can. The Scottish Government has made great efforts to engage with all communities, all religious communities, and I have a list from the last year of four ministerial engagements with Sikh communities, including two visits to the Gurdwara in Glasgow, 17 with the larger Islamic community, including visits to places of worship in Aberdeen, in Vernes, Glasgow and so on. We value in particular with the Islamic communities the relationship that we have with the Muslim Council of Scotland. We are also putting our money where our mouth is. We are investing over £3.1 million in 2015-16 to organisations working to tackle racist and religious intolerance. For the first time, yes. John Finnie? I'm grateful for the minister accepting an intervention. Of course, a significant investment is investment in the police service, and there are issues of perception. It's certainly not my understanding that the police take racist incidents lightly, quite the reverse, but hopefully it's a perception rather than a reality. Will the minister take to discuss with his cabinet colleagues the issue of the police response to these racist incidents that have been highlighted, please? Minister? Yes, indeed. There is a tentative to get to the issue that was highlighted about the 300 third party reporting centres, but clearly that is part of an initiative to make it easier to report these difficulties. In order to maintain that confidence, there has to then be the confidence to know that, if you are reporting, it will be acted on. To go back to where I was in my flow, I was about to highlight the Islam Information Scotland project. Just one example with a grant of £25,000 that's a training and resource provider on Islam offers individuals and companies that work with or have employees from the Muslim community and insight into Islamic culture, beliefs and practices. It also helps mosques and faith groups to develop their interfaith work. We know as well from our funding of Interfaith Scotland how important that can be, and that funding has also risen quite substantially in 2015-16. However, we also recognise that there are times when raising community awareness of diversity is sadly just not going to be enough. There are incidents when individuals don't respect difference, and I was appalled to hear of what happened at the central Gurdwara in Glasgow. Alex Neil rightly highlighted the ignorance of a few individuals that were reflected in that act. Police Scotland carried out their approach for dealing with hate crimes. It followed lines of inquiry, CCTV checks circulating photos of the vandalism around the community, calling for evidence. Unfortunately, to date, no one has been identified for the crime, but the positive engagement that followed the incident, I think, built the confidence that there was that kind of very serious response to the incident that had taken place and had been reported. We know that misidentification in particular is a serious issue for the Sikh community and are working with the community to address the discrimination that people sadly experience. There is an underreporting of Islamophobia. We recognise that, and we urge everyone who has witnessed or experienced hate crime to report the incident to Police Scotland. Yes, some people may not feel able to approach the police directly, but that is why it has been so valuable to have the third party reporting centres where staff can report incidents on a person's behalf. The more information we have about the levels of Islamophobia, the more effectively we can target the prejudice behind it and ensure that individual incidents are brought to the court. If that happens, courts have long-standing powers to tackle hate crime. The Scottish Parliament has legislated— I can give you time back, minister, if you wish. I am interested. Thank you very much for taking the intervention. Would he agree with me, then, that we actually need to do a job in terms of communicating with people who have lost confidence in the police services, who have not responded historically in time, to say to them that now there is other avenues where they can approach and get assistance from? I will certainly back the sentiment that we have to get the message out that those avenues are here. If you report, it will get investigated and action will be taken. As I said, the Scottish Parliament has legislated to ensure that offences aggravated by prejudice are directly brought to the attention of the court. That includes communication of threats of serious violence, threats intended to incite religious hatred, but legislation and government funding are not enough on their own. Attitudinal change is going to take time. Schools are an opportunity and we continue to support the national anti-bullying service to deliver respect to me. Schools and local authorities have a role in curriculum for excellence as well. I will investigate Sarah Boyack's guardian article, because I think that that could be a very interesting piece of work to look at. Not everyone is in school, so the need for more broader awareness-raising campaigns speaks up against hate crimes, which urged people to report incidents to Police Scotland. The one Scotland campaign used a whole variety of media to promote the message that Scotland believes inequality. That broad message that has been taken to all corners of society has to continue to be spread by all of us, because everyone in Scotland should feel free to express their faith or belief openly and freely without fear for their own security. I take the Gurdwara, a new building that will house 1,500 worshipers that is flourishing as a sign of the positivity of Scotland. I quote none other than Mr Mallick, who highlighted that letters of support for the building of the Gurdwara have been sent in from a whole host of communities, not just the Sikh community, who are keen to see it go forward. That is the kind of Scotland that we all want to live in. Thank you minister. That concludes Hanzala Mallick's debate, and I now close this meeting of Parliament.


Dwi'n medddol 3 slyngeis. Eich slyniad wedi gweithio will le o compares 10 minutes. Dwi'n meddwl am Ysgolfyddon. Yr Dyfran Bethrwys Gwynaf Sôm, sôl sydd oises o'r actor seudafol, o'r ffordd o'r Ffyrwyr Fyわyr, o'r ffordd i fyfyd yw'r gweithio. Ym ddaith y Tynlluned Iachol Cymru, o'r Fyafyr Fyrwyr Iachol Cymru, Mae'r holl yma o'r holl yma yn ddefnyddio'r arddangos i'r ffordd yn ffodol. Dgylchedd nhw'n 1.6% o'r Llanlach. Rydym ni'n meddwl i'r Llanlach o'r ffordd i'r ffordd a'r gweld o'r 16,000. Yn ymdwyf o bobl yma, y 17 ar 24 oed yn y Maesad 2030, жydwyd ar 84% i'w 100 – 137,000 – ac mae'r bobl yn Llyfrgell. Mae'n ymgyrch ar y cyfnodol hefyd, Mae'r ffordds fydd o'r bwysig yn adrodd yn bwysig yn hollwysgawr. Mae'n dweud ei gyd o bwysig yn adrodd yn hollwysgawr, gyda'r haf ymwneud â'r hollwysgawr. Felly rydyn ni'n ddweud y bwysig yn adrodd yn hollwysgawr, yn ydw i'ch dweud o bwysig yn hollwysgawr, yn y hollwysgawr. Ac ydych chi'n gweld ei wneud, ond mae'r hollwysgawr wedi'u bwysig yn hollwysgawr. ...ol y 82% of the snow forest area that's burned, we found that 57% over half of that. Was actually what we've termed forest cemeteries, in other words mosaics of scrubs and exposed soils with stunts and down trunks and bronches. Yn cael eu cysylltu'n dros y tu. Hoe'r gweithio? That the 2013 water fires weren't forest fires. In other words they've caused negligible directives to forest fires. However... ...they are part of a process that converts forests to plantations. Ond wedi gweld mewn ddaig ac ystodennu y gallwn yn ei hypegol gan gyda siaradau hyn yn eu bod ni wedi gweld doradau cymaint, felly mewn gwir yw'r gwir yw hanfodol, felly mae iddyn nhw'n gwir i hynny chi'n gwybod o'r progylcheddau. Ond oes y byddai'n gwybod geisdurau cofnod i'r progylcheddau, esg gyd o'r cyf salty ar yighodraedd o'r brith yr yllwyn, geisdurau mewn twyd o'r cyfrannu o'r gweithio. Is there a climatic influence? We said that it was a non-LU years, we're supposed to be, not a climatic influence. 2013 was actually wetter than the average. However, we found rainfall deficits two months before the fire. The fire happened at the end of June. We found that in May and June 2013, rainfall was below average. And when we looked at 12 years of data, we found this correlation between rainfall at which the two months before fire and five hours during that month. So yes, there is some sort of climatic influence in the sense that it is too wet, it's not going to burn. But what's happened last year is that autumn was a short term dry period of about two months for fires to start. Then we measured the carbon emissions and we found, we estimate that those fires released about 171 teragramms of CO2 equivalents into the atmosphere in one single week. This represents 5-10% of Indonesia's total emissions. That's enormous because it originates from 1.6% of Indonesia's land mass and only one week. To summarise, the Indonesian fires, this is going to take away messaging. They were triggered by a two month dry spell in another wise rainy year. Now, this means trouble because it means that fires can actually strike every year. All it takes is just a month or two of drought, not even drought. We're not talking about extreme droughts here, we're talking about dry spells. These fires were short lived, only one week confined to recently the forested creek lands in a localised area, etc. However, the emissions were huge because of the peak, 90% of the carbon emissions came from the peak and the fires generated unprecedented at this very position over its neighbours because of the proximity and the prevailing rains at the time. So, quickly, we've heard. We don't really know, but we think that both companies and small owners are doing it. We've looked at concession data, we've overlaid with burning, and we've found that 52% of the burning was in the concessions, but when we looked more closely, more into detail, at the concession data, we found that a lot of the concessions in black areas here were actually already occupied by communities. And of the 52% that burned in the concessions, the bulk of it burned in those black areas where we think that there's actually overlanding claims, overland ownership between communities and between private sector. So, I will now hand over to Pape Drws, who will enlighten us more about his problem. Thank you very much, David. David just mentioned to us, he's focusing more on the unminutes area, unminutes land. Now we've also looked at the area where it is managed, and you can see when it is managed, the fire exists or not. Just when it was how it managed the land itself, particularly in Pithland, the important part of managing the Pithland area is managing the water level. So that is one of the most important part. David mentioned about 82% on non-forest areas. So you can imagine that if there is a non-forest area, then who holds that area? That is the big question. Later on I will discuss on how the non-forest area is managed so far. Okay, so this is the outline of my presentation. I was asked, I'm not sharing the presentation with David yet, but actually David confirmed why the fire in that area is actually... Can we look at the exact location and why there is some conflict? That's why in my presentation I called it fire and conflict, because David asked me to look at is there any relation with the conflict in that area. So my presentation will be focused in an area, but particularly in our own conversation. And then David also asked me whether that conflict exists, yes there are, but how that conflict is managed. And we also described on how the conflict is managed. Later on Ahmad, the next speaker will talk about that now. If you look at the fire in the area, actually multi-faceted forces, it's not only one force that creates fire in the area. There are multi-faceted from economic reasons, from government issues, from biotysical, and also from social and population issues. If you look at negative tone, if you look at the negative tone of it, for example, for economy, people always say that that is because of land hunger, or timber hunger, or deforestation. But if you look at from the positive perspective, there is because of increased land demand, rapid development, and also more reforestation in the area where it can produce timber. On the issue of governance, you can also see or listen from the publication or from news, negative tone of it. Because if you look at the governance, because uncertainty of land use, David mentioned on the area where 82%, how that 82% area is achieved. So if you look at also from positive tone, that is because of lack of resources, even for simple map in the area. If you plan to listen about the emphasis of having one map, because the map up to now, the spatial planning in the region is not yet by last, sorry, in two years delay. So with that condition, then what happens on the ground is we answer the loop, hold and loop manage the land, that is the important part, why the fire exists. From social aspect, if you look at the negative tone, there is illegal practice, there is people are getting land illegally and so on and so forth. But if you look at from the positive tone, maybe we can see that on the ground there are self-governance. Because of no clear governance on the land use, then there are self-governance. They are looking for their own land by using their own way. Or we can also look at the positive aspect that because people are looking for jobs, people want to work, people want to get land for them. That is the positive tone that we can see. But if you look at the company where I'm now working, I'm working now for April, April is integrated from plantation, palm and paper production. The company has been implementing what we call it an overt policy, since the inception of the company. So we never have the intention of burning the fire. But people will always say, why is your possession of the fire? Of course then I will explain later on why this exists, some fire in our area. Because we are now in a very isolated, we are neighboring with many other land uses and then activities. Land use and activities. So if you ask me why you implement more burning policies. Yes, because the wood or the fiber is our raw material. So no way for us to burn it. Instead of burning you can use it. So that is the policy that we implement. And if you look at the recent news when we have fire, we are fighting more outside of the area than within the area. So basically we provide outside for most of us. The new ones mobilise more than 600 fire fighters. Out on our own, but also community frame fire fighters. To fire mostly outside of the area. But of course we have to protect our homes and most of the fire in the outside area. One issue that we want to elaborate here is actually about the perfecting rule. Why I call it the perfecting rule? Because up to now the community is allowed to burn two hectares of the area. But you can imagine if 2,000 people are having these two hectares, they will be also burning. So that law is being actually in the beginning of the war. The auto will cost them. This is the reason why the fire is jumping out of the area. That is the reason why it is quite open on the ground. So another local wisdom is looks good. Looks nice. But which wisdom? And this they are implementing? That is the problem. Because many people now are supposed to plan only for local variety or species. But in reality they are going for like a pangmoid for example. Or something that is not protected like this one. They are surrounded by proper fire training. Do they do that? That is the big question. So if they have two different regulations that conflict with them, then it will be quite difficult for police or law enforcement to enforce it. This is just an example. In the area, for example, this is our tradition. And then in the area it is burning. We open this area. They are angry at us. Why do you contain the fire? We need to clear back. So that sometimes happens like that. So how can we do that? So this is one example. They burn inside the site. And there are so many fires here while our area is frozen. How to deal with that? And in the area even in this very clear here you have even your village office. But around it by unmanaged area and burning. And then this is another example. Just around the village it can happen like that. And this is not managed. This is one example. So our solution that this is the solution that we suggested or we provided that we need in the short term firefighting course. But we need to work on longer period, longer period of preventing the fires point forward. We work with the community. We work with Badan Redd and also other institutions to work for the short term period. But we need to work in the longer period. In the longer term period. So, for example, we guarantee and license. And then engage with national and international institutions which is working with others. And we also understand in the real situation. Right now we are some professional from Seymour for example. And we work with us to try to find out what is the explanation. And our recommendation to the national government is very limited. We need to identify it right now. So I just recommend that the national government has to finalize the special plan which is arranged for two years delay now. So we have to finalize them as soon as possible to make clear who owns the land and who estimated the island. And then local governments allocate funding for fire prevention rather than waiting for the national to come with the fires already big. And then also to villagers to implement reward and punishment for example. And then to company to provide capacity building support for the whole building. I skip this one. This one is the last slide that I want to show you. That we are spending a lot of money to really maintain the water level to protect the plantation from fire. So that's all because time is up. So thank you very much for your attention. So I'll continue the earlier presentation about fire and conflict. My name is Ahmed. I'm from the recovery center for people. Today I'll talk about conflict and fires in Riau. Although we know that from earlier discussion that fire is indeed a transformation. But today I'll just talk about specific in Riau problems. Why? Because this is where 2013 and 2014 fires were mostly happened. And also because there are a lot of funding over the previous years. I'll talk about three things in this presentation. First is how to talk about the general offer fee of community or site of conflict. Each bank of the R happening in the plantation areas. And also then I'll continue to talk about how fires interact with the other way around. And after that I'll talk about how mediation can be a tool for transforming these functions. Which is most, I'll talk about the results of some of our study on aviation in South East Asia. So Rikof where I work is just before I continue my presentation. Rikof is a capacity building organization. We are focusing on how to strengthen the rise of local people. People of government and fair benefits for local people in many different parts. We have 20 years experience in local people, not just local people, also private people and also government. Ok, let's start the first section of my presentation. Conflict offered forage and land is a key and a recurring issue in Riau. If you read a national or local newspaper you can see clearly that this conflict often covered in the media. And many of them are conflict between local communities and external actors. Such as mining companies or plantation oil pump companies and investors or even migrants in the area. And the trend is increasing nowadays. Not just because there are increasing demand for land, but also because of weak governance, unclear tenure and also economic development and still prioritized national and international interests over the interests of local communities. So this is the picture of the figure of natural research conflict in Riau. As you can see here, natural research conflict in Riau is still dominated by conflict within plantation. It's happening a lot in areas where timber plantation and palm plantation. And few of them are in mining and conservation areas. As you can see here in 2011, in timber plantation there are about 250,000 hectares still in conflict. And where in total there are about 3,000 hectares still in dispute with local communities. And why this is happening? I think there are many of this conflict happening because of the government policies in the past in granting the concentration to the companies. Sometimes when the government grant the concentration in many areas in Riau, there is not an empty land. There are people living there for generations, for centuries and also later. And this map is the map of distribution of indigenous communities in Riau. There are Buonai communities, Sakai petalach, there are Talang Mama communities living there for centuries. So when the government issue a concession in that area, without considering the people there, sometimes there will be causing conflict. So how serious is the issue? In 2011 there are about 30 cases only in Riau for people died. In 2012, 37 people injured. And in 2013 also many people died every year. So this is really a serious issue in Riau. Many, every year there are people killed.  So how fire and conflict relates? In many studies, earlier studies, sometimes fire is used to express the satisfaction of the injustice that the local communities sometimes felt. In the protests or something, sometimes it involved burning. Fire can also use as a tool for claiming land and exclude others. There are studies in the past that there are many fire incidents that some people think that it is made to make an anxiety fear to exclude people. And also indirectly the incidents of conflict can undermine incentive for all the stakeholders on the ground to involve in the fire management. It's likely that when they are in conflict it's likely that there is less motivation, less willingness to put out the fire, to fight the fire. And also conflict or ownership over the land causing unclear responsibility. So I think it has been presented in earlier presentation that because of this unclear ownership it's hard, it's difficult to pinpoint who is responsible for that fire. So how to deal with these issues of conflict in the area? Rikof since 2012 has been doing research to see how mediation can be used as a tool for transforming this conflict. Why we choose mediation as a topic? Because earlier our earlier studies says that in many cases of forest conflict that can be resolved are involved third party will help mediate the conflict. Sometimes mediation alone between two parties it doesn't work because of prolonged conflict they don't trust each other. So sometimes third parties help is needed. So what is mediation? Mediation here is a process whereby an exit to the third party assists conflicted parties in resolving conflict. But without having authority to make decisions. So the decision is still with the conflict parties, not the mediator itself. So this is just a story of one of our case study in the book Chilling Village. According to local communities they claim that they have been there since the Dutch colonial era before 1940s. Here is the graphic showing the separation and duration of conflict. So here since 2007 there is a concentration granted in that area. The conflict started happen flow in that area. The big point is when there is a land clearing by the plantation company to prepare for the plantation. And there are owned by local communities also cleared. So there was a rejection and pressure from local community as well.  But still it's difficult when we ask different. If we ask company, company will say it's local community and local community say it's company made the fire. But one of the important point is that there is a mediation there. Which the mediator can invite the local communities and also the companies together to discuss how to resolve this conflict. The intensity of the conflict is reduced after the series of mediation. The mediation have some roles. Mediation provided platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue. And also they can also build trust between the conflicting parties. And also create conducive environment for problem solving processes. So it's some outcome of that mediation in local clearing. Achievement of the agreement. Significant reduction of tension and intensity of conflict. Relationship with company and community is really improved. And smoother operation for company means higher profits. And we have to ask if it's sure. And additional income for communities. Because of their compensation and everything. Partnership between company and local community. There are challenges maybe I don't have much time to explain this. But take home message from this presentation. There are three take home messages. First is firefighting alone will not be enough to address fire issues in Sumatra. Without addressing land tenure conflict. And also there is the need of recognizing long standing land claims and rights of local communities. Because they have been there for centuries. And they have been managing their land for a long time. And also how to promote mediation as the tool. One of the alternative tool for transforming conflict. And building a long term collaboration between the conflict parties. Thank you. Now it's time for questions. You ask questions. OK. OK, go ahead. What's your question? My name is Susanna Cover from Reabies. Another question about why there was no emphasis on the need for full beaten protection and beaten restoration in your presentation. Because that would be the obvious thing a large plantation company should be doing to prevent forest fires. The bottom line on managing beaten land is how to maintain the water level. So actually if I have time actually I want to explain on how we as a company manage the water level. By using from simple and very sophisticated water gate or water gauge. So we use that kind of thing. So that is the way we manage the water level. Is that answer a question? Yes. It doesn't ask the question of why plantation companies don't commit to full beaten protection as the key mitigating action against forest fires. OK. Indonesia has large area of beaten. And then the government has given us area to manage. So we implement technology to manage beaten land. So if all the beaten land in Indonesia are basically stopped. Then how about the economic value of 22 million hectares of beaten land in Indonesia. Just for example the whole Rio province. 50% of the Rio province is beaten land now. So that situation has to be understood. The whole Netherlands is beaten land for example. Because you use technology you can manage. The only problem is how you manage that particular area using knowledge and technology. OK. So I'm quite pessimistic actually dealing with the pit fire. Because it is not only a matter of conflicting with the social, conflicting with the other communities. But it is because of the nature of the pit itself. Why I'm saying this? Because we don't know exactly the subsurface topography. I don't know. So this is one of the major reasons why it is very difficult to put out the fire from the pit. Pitland area. So in reality you know what happened in almost many parts of the pitland in Indonesia is almost grey. So the main causes of fire because the water in the pitland is already getting down. And the pit materials becoming drier and drier. So back again to Rio. Rio is the largest pitland area in the world, tropical country. It's in Rio. So if you look at what happened in Rio, the Acacia plant, the oil plant. So all of these are not negative species. So they have to drain the water level and then here dry materials.  So this is the difficulty because we don't know where the fire actually hiding somewhere underneath. So again I've got the same mistakes dealing with this. And I was asked by a hotel in Rio. He was complaining our hotel about getting problems because less gas coming in. And I told them sorry this is quite difficult. Fire will be happening every year in Rio. This is my perception. Thank you. Thanks. We said all the presenters. The last one by Amman. I just have a question for you about the agreement in the graphic that he showed. After the uptick with the conflict there was mediation. The graph ends because we're at the present time. Do you have any confidence that after the mediation there's not going to be another escalation? Because previously there were upticks in conflict after it seemed that there was some agreement between the accession holder and the local communities. But then there must have been some breach or maybe not all of the key state holders were included in the agreement. So in this last agreement that he talked about are all of the key state holders included? I'm Faisal Parish from the ASMP Forest Project. Just a question to David Gabel. You mentioned about the 2013 fires. Have you done any comparison with the situation in 2014 yet? Or is that in the pipeline? Or Petrus? I think what you mentioned is part of the solution that the companies need to mobilize. I think in your last one there were four actions for different partners, local government, companies, national agencies and local people. What practical steps or what is needed to put those measures in place rarely to prevent fires in a province like Rio where it's getting worse and worse each year? Thank you. We're working on 2014 analysis. They're also occurring in Rio. They occurred in February, March, a different kind of year, but they're also a short drive spell before that. So it looks like we're more or less in the same conditions as last year. But we're actually working on the details and the numbers. In answering what needs to make that recommendation happen, of course we need to collaborate more open among those players or among stakeholders in the area. Because right now, each of them are working on their own. Recently we have a lot of effort. It's actually spending a lot of resources. Last two months we called and would donate two helicopters or fighting the fire, for example. That is actually beyond our collaborative team, beyond our area. But because we are responsible, we have the government to do that. That is part of the initial stage of the collaboration. We need to do that more. Thank you. Thank you for that. Yes, it's true that all conflict management tools, there's no silver bullet. We just need to choose which one is better than the other. So of course, mediation has many weaknesses and challenges when we implement them in the field. So for example, education is whether it's the possibility that conflict can escalate again in the future. I think the possibility is various. Because mediation alone cannot really address the unclear panel itself. It needs the policy changes as well. So sometimes mediation cannot address it at the policy and national level. That's one of the challenges in the field. Also, it's true that it needs involvement of all the stakeholders in the process of mediation. Sometimes mediation only involves the conflicting parties, which is the company and the community. But without involving the government, which actually the government is part of the conflict itself. So it's true that we need to be comprehensive. We should involve the government because there will still be changes in the policy level to complement the mediation process. Hi. I think I have two questions for the panel. I think the first one is quite clear that for the forestry companies, fires are detrimental to your operations because it harms the fire, the wood, and it's directly linked to your sales of your power and labour. But what I want to understand is that it's also clear that the big companies like UN and Agribil were there have come out to put in place like sustainable palm oil and things like that. So what I want to understand is that for the smaller palm companies, is it India's interest to participate in burning? And I'm wondering is that happening on the ground? So that's the first question for the smaller palm companies. Are there rogue palm companies out there? The second is, hearing a lot today that what's really needed is multi-stakeholder engagements to solve this problem. Question to the panel then is what is stopping, what's the gap, or what's the game changer that can help all of us solve this problem? Who would like to answer the question? I think if the question is game changer, from the plenary we can hear, one is the one map. The clarity of maps in Indonesia is really, really vital for us to improve it. The second one, if you want to do that, then you have to work on the ground, not just from behind the table, but on the ground. Because we can see if you look at why a smaller community are clearing or burning the debris, because they have no tools to do that. So that's why we can help them, for example, by combining all the companies in the real province to provide tools to clear the debris and then introducing how to use composting and so on and so forth. They will not work. I'm very sure about that. Thank you. I'm just adding one more fact that was mentioned is that I think what we need is a comprehensive framework for managing this fire. I think so far there is no comprehensive framework for managing this fire. Comprehensive here means we should have measurement not only at the local, at all levels, at local, sub-national, two-national, even in international level, how international community can also help address these issues. So we need more comprehensive and also collective action is needed. At the moment, I think people still do address fire by their own without collaborating and also how to work together. I think it is also important. Well, unfortunately, we need to wrap up very soon, but we should go from one more question. Thank you. My name is Andy Robey. I work for the British government here in Jakarta as a forestry adviser. It's a great presentation. Thank you very much, very clear. I have to ask the question because now he's gone over to the other side. Last Monday, I heard APP announced their 1 billion hectare conservation programme. Multi-stakeholder approach, they said. I said, where's April? Where's April? They were not in the room. I just wonder if APT are here in the room. Have you guys got together? Have you got time to get together and sort it out in real? With the government, with the resources of RECOFT and the second pointer. The way they resolve conflict that has a big company working, where governance is weak, where government is non-existent. Andy is always teasing me. Andy, thank you for your question. For sure, we're not behind MEP. Both APP and RAPP are hybrid because both are working on that. I skip one slide actually because of getting from the back that the time is up. Actually I put out the sustainable forest management policies that we just announced in the 28th of January this year. So on that announcement, we even commit ourselves to work one on one. One hectare of plantation, we will work hard to conserve one hectare of ocean. So that is one example that we are really concerned. The problem is, when you talk about biodiversity, that is the HEC area. And now, another pressure from, I don't know from where, is about the carbon content or HCS. This is also, we are working towards that direction. Which one is the industry standard availability? If the industry standard for HCS is very bad, then of course, as stated in our policy, we also mentioned that we will follow the industry standard availability for the industry development. Alright, well, thank you very much for turning up and subscribing on this. We need to wrap up, unfortunately we have many more questions, but I'd like to invite you. There's no break and you need to go now to the next sessions. Thank you very much.


What's good y'all, it's your boy Ross back again with another video. So we got some unfortunate news from Biggie. He tweeted out something relating to his injury status update. He's been out of action for quite some time, and it was kind of sad. What he had to say in regards to him returning back to wrestling.  It's just one of those type of things that you hate to hear. But at the same time, you know, it's it's always what's best for the wrestler and his livelihood. So Biggie tweeted, hey, y'all, two year neck scans are in. Things are unchained. My C1 has healed fibrously, but has not formed new bone. I'm not medically cleared and truthfully, I may never be cleared, but I am blessed to be free of pain, immensely happy and otherwise healthy. Life is good. And yes, it is unfortunate, but it seems as if Biggie probably won't be returning to the ring anytime soon with this update. And you hate to hear that in a sense, because I know a lot of people wanted to see him back, but at the same time, the fact that he's not feeling any pain, the fact that he's healthy and trying to enjoy his life. You can't be mad at that, you know, it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, people wanted to see him come back to the ring. I wanted to see him come back to the ring and maybe go for another championship run or see what type of stories Triple H could have told told with him being back from such a serious injury. But at the same time, right now, it may not be in the cards for him to come back and that's not to say that it can't happen. So I wouldn't say this is him officially retiring. But at the same time, I wouldn't say that this is him, you know, that this is a thing that he couldn't come back from. We all saw what happened with Edge. He had to go away for damn near 10 years and he was finally able to come back to wrestling. So I'm not sure if that's going to be the case with Biggie, but there is a possibility where he could come back. So I wouldn't necessarily say it's a retirement for sure, an indefinite one. But at the same time, it does feel like for the foreseeable future of as of now, Biggie, most likely will won't be medically cleared to wrestle anytime soon. And it's just it is it is, man. I just I feel like there's still a lot that Biggie could give into the wrestling business with a love to see him back with New Day. Potential fuse that they could have cooked up would have been nice. And it's it's very unfortunate. But the fact that we were able to at least get the moment of him becoming a WWE champion at one point, you know, that's always beautiful. I love the fact that we were able to get that moment. It sucks how that moment ended with him getting pinned by Brock Lesnar of all people who I feel like in a multi-man match, I feel like that kind of sucked how they ended his time of reign. But for him to get that moment was pretty, pretty special and pretty dope to have witnessed just praying for him to for continual health and and continuing continual healing. And, you know, this is just one of those things where once again, you got to always give praise to these guys going out there and putting their bodies on the line to entertain us. Obviously, this was a freak accident.  When you're in that business, injuries definitely can happen.  So it's always good to be able to show love and appreciation. And I love the fact that people under this tweet are showing love to to Biggie saying we love you and, you know, we appreciate you. And that's awesome. That's this is what it's all about. People showing their love and appreciation for somebody.  Hopefully you're able to come back one day. If not, we still appreciate all you've done for the wrestling business and and being being the person he is. Because when you see Biggie can despite all his his, you know, the situations that he's been in, he always has this smile. He always has this upbeat like upbeat personality about himself even through WrestleMania weekend when he was on the panels and stuff. Like he always seemed to be happy and and have that energetic spirit, radiate considering what he's dealing with. And he's been like that since the injury, since he was injured. So you definitely can tell that he's such he has a kind heart and and he's, you know, very passionate about what he does. And he just radiates positivity. It's not even just like a catchphrase for them for the new day, especially with Biggie. I think that's something that he lives by. So man, this was unfortunate, but I'm glad that he's doing good. So comment down below. Let me know your favorite Biggie moment, whether it was him cashing in becoming the new WWE champion or whether it was him teaming up with the new day on their legendary run they had. Let me know your favorite Biggie moment. But I appreciate all of them support you guys. Sean O'Channel wrote 250 K and I'm still young speedy. You just rest in the world. Appreciate y'all kicking me. See you next week. Peace.


Let's have a closer look on accounting semaphores, which are implemented within freeRTest. Counting semaphore can be seen as a queue of length greater than one. Users of semaphore, so tasks, interrupts are not interested in the data that is stored in the queue, but just whether the queue is empty or not. Before its usage, counting semaphore should be enabled within freeRTest config.h file by defining config.use.counting.semaphore. Counting semaphores are typically used for two purposes. The first one is counting events. An event handler can give a semaphore each time an event occurs by incrementing the semaphore count value. And the handler task will take a semaphore each time it processes an event and decrement the semaphore count value. In this case it is important to set the count value to 0 when the semaphore is created. The second purpose is resource management. The count value indicates the number of resources available. To obtain control of the resource, task must first obtain a semaphore and decrement the semaphore count value. When the count value within the semaphore reaches 0, means that there are no free resources left. So when the task finishes with the resource usage, it releases, it gives a semaphore back, incrementing the semaphore count value. In this case, it is important to set the count value to the maximum count value when the semaphore is created to inform the other components, the tasks, about the maximum number of available resources. Here is an example of counting semaphore usage. Let's assume that we have three tasks on the same priority and single counting semaphore with maximum value specified to 2. At the beginning, task 1 is giving a semaphore, then just after task 2 is giving the semaphore. After this, task 3 is taking semaphore two times in a row. When counting semaphores, we do not have control who will take the semaphore. Scheduler is selecting the task from the list of waiting ones based on the priority, higher priority first, and in case of equal priorities, the task which is waiting longer time is selected first. Let's have a look at CMC's OS V2 API dedicated to counting semaphores. To create a binary or counting semaphore, we need to fill partially its attribute structure, OS semaphore ATTR underscore T type. In fact, it is necessary to specify only the semaphore name. The rest of the fields are filled automatically during the semaphore creation, and those are the semaphore control block and its size and its start address. Then we can create the semaphore using OS semaphore new function. This is the same function which is used for binary semaphore creation. This function needs three arguments. The first one is a maximum number of tokens. In case of binary, it will be one. Then initial number of ready tokens. In case of counting semaphores, it can be either let the maximum value we would like to specify, in case the semaphore name will be used to guard the chart resources, or it will start from zero in case of other usage. Then the third argument is a pointer to the structure of attributes or null in case we would like to use the default values. This creation function will return the semaphore handler or zero in case of error. This error is usually related to memory allocation issues. To delete the semaphore, we should use OS semaphore delete function with semaphore handler as an only argument. This function returns OS status underscore t type, so zero means successful execution and any negative value means an error. Other functions for semaphores are common for binary and counting ones. To wait for semaphore, we should use OS semaphore acquire function with two arguments. Semaphore handler and the timeout in milliseconds, so how long we would like to wait for semaphore. If the semaphore is not available, the task will be sent to blocked state for a maximum timeout time. If, in the meantime, semaphore will become available, task will be unblocked and it will continue its operations. In such case return value will be zero, so it means OS okay, otherwise task will remain in blocked state for a complete timeout time and it will be unblocked at the end of it. And after this, the return value will be OS timeout error, so the negative value. For more details, you can refer to OS status underscore t description within cmcs underscore OS API section in this training. To release the semaphore, we should use OS semaphore release function with semaphore handler as an only argument. And this function returns as well OS status underscore t value, so zero means successful execution and any negative value means an error. Thank you for watching this video.


He says I have an issue I need help with and he then includes this so if you're writing a question Please include this information. I'm running a 2017 iMac 27 inch on Monterey 12.7.1 That's always helpful to have that that is yeah fair. Uh, I seem to have two photo libraries I'm not sure why I did not intentionally create two I did have an issue several years ago where I accidentally deleted all my pictures Oh, sorry when I was deleting pictures off my iPad I did not realize it was taking them off iCloud as well Fortunately, I have multiple backups, so it was mostly fine Perhaps that is how it happened regardless. I would like just one library I have looked it up on google, but seem to find different ways of doing it I'm not wanting to delete everything again Good plan, and I would like some guidance, please and thank you. Sean. Um, wow Yeah, yeah, wow so I found an article at otherworld computing about Which has a lot of good options for merging multiple photos libraries and they they talk through doing it manually You can use the import function Of photos you can export in a variety of different ways. So there are options One of them which would be my favorite is power photos from fat cat software It is a piece of third party software you will pay for this And by golly if you're gonna if if you care and you clearly do about The integrity of your photos library in the end Please take our advice and go this route Also make a backup before you head down any path because anything can happen But I have been through some it and does correct. Yeah I have been through a ton of these And and it will it power photos is helpful I don't want to use the word magic because it will require you to interact with it at some level But it really is magic. It's just not Set it and and forget it because you don't want that when you're doing these merges You want to be able to review things But it will crunch through both of your photos libraries or all three of your photos libraries That you want to merge and then it will show you the duplicates and it will guide you and say I think this is the one you should keep And this is the one you should you know let go and all of that stuff And it will pull it all together and it will maintain your albums and all of those things It is absolutely an essential tool if you're doing this I highly like like you can hear it in my voice. Just go get it. That's the way to go You can read the article at owc if you want to know Sort of the the ways that you're not going to choose and then you're going to just choose this one I I don't I don't mandate things often here and this isn't really a mandate, but you should go It's as close as i'm going to get. Yeah This is one of those tools that I don't think a competitor to it exists Which is weird because of how valuable it is like don't let the fact that this is its own thing out there in the market Don't let that mislead you into thinking that it's not valuable. It is absolutely valuable So that's my praise. Uh, how much is it Dave? You know, uh, I am looking at the purchase page. It is a new license It's $30. So totally You know, it's 30 bucks worth keeping your photos integrity And and you're going to just save so much time with this too It like I I I I saw and heard you sort of acknowledging that that you're your love for this too adam Is that did I get that right? Yeah, I was gonna I was going to jump in when I had an opportunity I have recommended this over and over and over and over again throughout the year Is it is absolutely the tool to do exactly what this question is asking? Um with all the caveats that you already mentioned, you know backup I'm anybody who's listened to my show for years knows I am like crazy about backup Um, and so somewhat related to this another feature of this that's really great from a backup perspective And just a cleaning up your library perspective is if you're like me and I think a lot of people out there Right, you have a huge library with all your photos and stuff in it But maybe a large majority of them aren't like the greatest photos But they're photos that obviously you want to keep right and if you want some a tool to help you Clean and again, you're gonna have to do the manual work for this but clean your library This tool will let you manage multiple libraries and create multiple libraries So a great one a great tip I've given in the past is you know Why not just create an archive each year of the last year's photos and you can do it by doing us You know a smart album just says you know from January 1st to December 31st of this year Create that and then put it into a separate library And then you can archive that you know put it in backup put it on like archive at multiple places And then you know for that year you could go back and safely Remove those less, you know keep keep the photos you really want from that year But you know the ones that are kind of iffy or maybe not so great, right Now you've got in a separate library And then you can use a tool like this to go back and pull that library back Obviously, you can just open the library and photos by holding I think it's the option key right when you can select different libraries So you could keep them around you could just have archive But then that way you're not you don't have your main library cluttered up with a bunch of junk, right? So okay, so I want to I want to restate what you just said for my own benefit to make sure I understand this Because what you said or at least what I heard I really like this Your idea is that you're not when you create this archive and then you save it off somewhere safe And that is a hundred percent of everything that survived the year You know, you might have deleted some things that you know, you took a picture of your pocket or something But right. Yeah. Yeah otherwise everything goes there and then at that moment You don't then delete that entire year from your main library You just then go through and prune freely Knowing that you have this back you have a backup of that of all that other stuff And if you want to go access that stuff, right, you can just go back and open that library, right? And this will let you manage it and you know, it takes diligence, right? You have to be actively It's not an automated thing.  Yeah for for those of us that make sure you're backing up your archives to multiple places Just I'm gonna tell you that you should have a local copy somewhere on a hard drive You should have something in the cloud somewhere like Yeah, don't know that you don't have three copies of that that archive library It's not backed up in my opinion that that's just I I totally agree. Yes 100% Yep No, this is great because it it relieves the That I know there's probably a term for this too, you know, like like I said earlier. I'm a packrat I save everything But I don't always need it at my fingertips, right? And so this caters to that whatever that version of of you know data retention anxiety is That it's like, okay. There it is. You've got it. You know storage is cheap Like you said put it in multiple places to However many you need to appease yourself and and then carry on freely With a photos library that as you're scrolling through to show somebody something from your vacation Four years ago, you're not like, oh, I gotta go through this. I gotta, you know, that kind of thing so and that week between Christmas and New Year's is a fantastic week to find like a little down moment And prune through your photos. I try to do it once a month I generally do it once a year and it's during that week. So yeah, and it's it's good Especially if you use something like iCloud photo library because the larger your library gets one You're having to buy more storage and that's fine if you're you're willing to buy more storage But the other thing is just takes longer to sink everything


Good morning, everyone. So for this presentation, I will be talking about microbial quality of agricultural water. I am the Neofood Safety Specialist and Assistant Professor at Auburn University. And why do we need to focus on water? Why we all talk a lot about water and water quality for fresh produce production. So water is the major contributor to fresh produce, produced contamination. You probably know that previous foodborne outbreaks that were linked to fresh produce, this major source of contamination was water that was used in the field. So we have the example from last year, the huge outbreak that happened last year related to onions and then salmonella contamination. And recently, FDA just released a note saying that irrigation water was most likely the cause of onion salmonella outbreak. And a few years ago, the romaine lettuce outbreak linked to pathogenic E. coli was also tracked back to water sources. So water is a big issue in the farm. So that's why we need to focus on the water and pay attention and monitor the water quality regarding the microbial water quality for these sources that you're using for irrigation, fumigation, frost protection during harvesting and post harvest activities. So what is in the water that makes this unsafe? There are pathogens in the water that can be bacteria such as E. coli, salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria monosatogenis. It can be viruses, norovirus, hepatitis A, or it can be parasites, should jargill emblia or cyclospora cadence. Cyclospora is an emerging parasite in the US. It has been common in the South and Central America, but it's being found in water bodies in the North America. And contamination happens mostly from human or animal feces. And they can contaminate the water when they come in contact with. So this picture, for example, we can see that is one of the ponds that I was having some issues, higher values of generic E. coli. And if you take a closer look on this, you see there's a family living nearby. So probably this is one of the biggest issue of this irrigation pond. But also you can find animals sometimes in some ponds. You can see this one, these cows, they're bathing in the water and they're very big problem if you're using this water to irrigate produce fields. And water source determines the risk. So you have three different water sources that you can use and they have different risks. So municipal water poses the lower risk. They're treated water. And unless you have some problems at your end, it should be safe. Groundwater is between surface and municipal. They're considerably safe, but sometimes you have problems with your groundwater. You have flooding in the area that contaminate the watershed. You can have problems in a well head. And again, you have to assess the risk and determine when or how to test the water. And surface water is the biggest problem is the higher risk of water source. It's open to the environment and anything can contaminate anything can happen nearby. You have animals that can come in. You have birds, you have human activities, anything can contaminate it. So in a fruit and vegetable field, there are different sources of contamination. You can have manure that can directly contaminate fruits and vegetables. You have soil, you have animals that are walking around. But all of this can directly contaminate the water and then water once applied to the fields, it can contaminate the entire crop. As I mentioned, surface water is one of the biggest problem is the higher risk. And on a farm environment, you can see that is a very complex system. You might have animals around. You have water sources that you have runoff. You have wild animals, domesticated animals. And all of this can contribute to increasing the risks of contaminating the water sources. So the key point here is to monitor for risks and test the water. Testing is the only way that you know that the water quality is adequate for fruits and vegetable production. So if you look at the prevalence of foodborne pathogens in irrigation water sources in the southeast, this is mostly for surface water. Most of the pathogens found in the area was salmonella, campobacter, pathogenic E. coli, and cyclospora. And there are some associated factors that can increase the prevalence of these pathogens, such as environmental factors, weather, temperature, seasonality. Let use livestock and wildlife, water nutrients such as nitrogen and water physical chemical properties such as conductivity, pH. And if you look at this map, you see that most of the research that has been done in the past was concentrated in Georgia and in Florida. But we have very little information on how the situation and how the prevalence of these foodborne pathogens in the in agricultural water in Alabama, mostly for those ones that are used to irrigate and during for production of fruits and vegetables. So there is a much need of investigating and then and then getting to know what is going on in our area. So this is one of the my focus area of research here. And if you look at Alabama current scenario for irrigation and nearly 30% of produce farms are irrigated here. But again, we have different conditions here. We have droughts that you don't normally see in Georgia and neither in Florida. We have the black belt area that we have a complete different soil. We have different water that is managed different sewage. It is a big problem there. We have a lot of growers in the area that produce fresh produce. And we have diversity in commodities. You have diversity in weather conditions and everything. But that's why you need to focus in our area and get to know what is going on here. But also application methods matter. The less water that you have contacting your produce, the better. So in a overall idea, drip irrigation poses the lowest risk because it's not directly contacting the edible portion of the crop. And overhead irrigation poses the higher risk because you're spraying everywhere and all the plants come in contact with the water. But you have to pay attention and assess the risks. For example, let's say if you're drip irrigating onions field. It doesn't matter if you're using applying overhead or drip irrigation here. Water will come directly contact the edible portion of the crop. But let's say that you're using microjets for fruit trees. This is a normal practice and a lot of people don't worry about don't test the water for microbial quality because their fruits are hanging on the tree. The microjets are just on the roots. You don't have water contacting the produce. But accidents happen. You're not always around to see what is going on. And sometimes you have this situation happening. Water splashing everywhere and yeah, contacting the fruits. So again, food safety risk assessments is a key point here. You have to assess the risks and then say water is likely to touch the edible portion of the crop or not. Accidents can happen. Do I see animals around? Do I see any suspicious activity around? And you have to test it if you are concerned or if you're not sure of the quality of the water that you're using. So for water quality requirements, FISMA produce safety rule has some established values and standards that to meet the requirements for safe water use. So for pre-harvest water, the geometric means needs to be equal or below 126 CFU per hundred mil. And the statistical threshold value should be equal or below the 410 CFU per hundred mil. And for harvest and post harvest, the limit is no detectable generic E. coli. So in this case, surface water cannot be used as a source of water that is used for harvesting or post harvesting. And this is for produce safety rule. This is for FDA regulation. But other food safety certifications such as GAP certification, they all follow the regulation. So you kind of ended up looking at these numbers and these standards. So you might ask, where can I get my water tested? So in Alabama, we had some certified labs that you can look at this website here. But normally people can send the water for testing in the Waters Ag Lab in Georgia. And there's also this national list of certified labs. There is a map. If you access this link, there will show pop up a map that you can find in the whole country where you can send and we can find certified labs. So for Alabama, this map is still not updated. We are working on updating this map. But on the first link, you can find some certified labs in our state. And in summary, for water quality, you need to know the source of the water and an intended use. Again, you have to assess the risks and then make sure that you're using the good standard water that is touching or likely touching the edible portion of the crop. So you're minimizing any risks of contamination. Choose wisely application method to minimize risk depending on the crop that you're using and monitor and test the water that contacts the edible portion of the crop. So testing is a key point in here because there's no other way that you know if your water is contaminated or not. For example, if you see some changes in color and smell and taste, it doesn't mean that it's pathogens in the water. It could be, it's likely going to be, but it can be chemicals. It can be algae. It can be anything else other than pathogens. But also if you get a clear cup of water and with no smell, no different in taste, it doesn't mean that it doesn't have pathogens in the water as well. So the only way that it can tell you there is pathogens in the water if the water is contaminated is testing the water. So if you're not sure about the quality of your water, if you're, if you saw something any suspicious activity, if you're afraid of the water quality is not good, just grab a sample and send to the lab that would test for you. And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. It can be a point of reference for any food safety concerns that you have on your farm. And I'm here to answer any questions right now. Thank you.