Welcome back to Think Tech. I'm J5LC, 11 o'clock block here in a given Thursday and we're talking about Coronaville coronavirus. What's next with Winston Welsh, Cynthia Sinclair, Kim Apachele, Stephanie Dalton and we have a very important point to make. That's why we call the show lots of shiny objects but no soap on COVID. So Winston, what's your interpretation of that? What are we supposed to talk about here? You know, it's almost, it's true as Jim was saying earlier before our show that yesterday COVID's not even coming up anymore because there's so much other noise out there about the election, about cheating the Russians, Steve Bannon, whatever, that this has just become sidelined. In Hawaii I think it's become a little bit louder because we had this sort of weird scandalous corruption of where did our $50 million go that we got for testing and for monitoring and tracking and all of that and that and the oversight committees that really haven't been oversighting they've been doing what they say is great but the results are we've had an explosion in this state that is not going anywhere but up and out and so for me it's the state that's more important right now because we had zero cases and we could have controlled the sink and become New Zealand and now we are going towards to New New York. Yeah so Cynthia, where is it fit in the priority scale honestly? We have the Democratic Convention that's important, what's going on with the post office that's important, we have Steve Bannon, he's creating a lot of news with his $5 million bail. What is where does COVID fit on those two priorities right now? Well I heard Dr. Fauci being interviewed this morning on CNN and he is concerned about that very same thing. We need people to be constantly aware of this especially when we're sending our kids back to school. We've had these great statistics for kids not really getting it and not getting it badly. We've got to remember that the first thing we did when all this started was take our kids home get them out of school and bring them home where they're safe so they weren't exposed so we really don't know how it's going to affect kids and so to just you know send them back to school to me is so dangerous and we know that everything is on the rise everywhere here in Hawaii we had what we have 5,000 cases now and 40 deaths just over the last month it's gone up so high we have two to 300 a day and then we have over a thousand people a day dying in this country. It's more than that Cynthia. See so it's 175,000 people that have died that's just a huge number that I'm afraid people have become desensitized to and so they don't really it doesn't affect them anymore and even for me I used to cry at every death every new 10 you know number 10 of deaths that happened I would just cry way back when it was only a couple thousand people that had died I was just crying over the fact that a couple thousand people have died and now it's almost 200,000 people that's it's almost more than I can handle to cry about even because it's so overwhelming and I'm sure that a lot of other people feel the same way that I do. Stephanie she talked about education you like education where where are we in education who's doing what and what is the right answer? Well there is a right answer because one country has no COVID cases out of its schools and all the kids are in school and they've been there for five months okay so this this is being publicized because I know it but I don't understand why it's not being referred to for instance the country happens to be the Viking place okay it's Denmark and they did not they their kids are in school they do not wear masks they do not take temperatures what they have done is they have expanded their spaces okay cost a little money they had to get manpower once they figured out what they were going to do so that they can have the kids broken down into smaller groups so they've got them in these little cohorts I think they're maybe from five or not too many more than five and they're using every space they possibly can and they keep them together so the the kids are somewhat egg-created in these different cohorts all day on the regular schedule doing the regular things and what their intervention is in the case of an infection is immediately remove the child and have definite criteria for what that infection is if it's a temperature they feel good a coughing or something what then they take them immediately out and then they work with the parents there's tremendous transparency in all the plans and policies that they have they're constantly in touch on this and the kid goes out and then there is him would you do that here I want to do that I want to I'm sorry yeah Tim would you do the answer is yes I think it's the only responsible thing to do and and and I think parents are going to resent the fact that their children through a political agenda is being used as a political pawn to get their kids in school when the schools aren't safe yet and I know the teachers aren't very happy about it as well so yeah I agree with Stephanie wholeheartedly well let me let me go over another question for you and that is you know Trump has been saying we're we're doing really well I think that's is we're doing really well on COVID and it always it just goes over my head when he says that what are we what is the national government doing can you identify what it is doing on COVID well I could identify what it's not doing much easier you know I'm sorry but I'll just use the quote lies damn lies and the people that tell them Donald Trump has been saying we're getting through this we're doing better than anyone else in the country and anyone else in the world and we've got this thing all locked down and you know he's been lying it's one of the 20,000 lies that he logs up you know since his presidency yeah who would believe Donald Trump anything when it comes to COVID because he's lied you know so magnificently lied so what is the government done um you know the best thing the government has done is Dr. Fauci that's the best thing the government's done is bring him out unfortunately they've muzzled him along with Dr. Bricks and it's a political game it's a political show just so Donald Trump as always uh it wants to ensure his election all things go through that filter Donald Trump's going to be reelected and how we look at COVID how we treat COVID is through that through that lens through that filter you know you know Winston we talk about shiny objects and you know we we certainly have a lot of that I mean today Trump is tweeting up a storm about the Democratic National Convention criticizing everything and anything that anybody said at the DNC and you know we have so many things that he's doing and none of them are relate to COVID it's and people say and the newscasters are saying well he's distracting us the real news is is COVID do you think this is an intentional thing on his part or is he actually interested in all these other things what does he have to gain by by uh trumping up COVID the Trump response to COVID nothing because there's no response that we can discern I mean whatever it is I don't know I don't feel like there's any response that's meaningful at this point I did see that they are bringing back the CDC to count uh numbers again for infections and that sort of thing uh definitely why uh probably just because who knows the intern that was counting in the White House resigned so I don't know why they decided to do that but I just saw pop up in my news feed so that's some tiny bit of good news but again the credibility of our basic institutions has been called into place so what does it matter that the CDC is is in charge again for the diverse whose uh I mean she came out and said that I don't know I I I don't see really any any coherent federal response at all what we need and when we're talking about getting kids back at school or keeping them at home or whatever we need a comprehensive coherent logical response to this we need financial support for people that have been thrown out of work we need a rent moratorium a eviction moratorium and those people that also that are the landlords they need their mortgages guaranteed during this time we need a mass testing we need uh health insurance for people we need to absolutely look at this for the total crisis that it is and it is not going to come from this administration they have no interest in bringing it up it is a it's meaningless when you're basically trying to set save democracy at this point COVID takes a backseat yeah that's what's happening well do you think the public agrees with our you know thought that this should be higher in the priority list or is the public all confused about it I mean you know Trump has been brilliant in confusing the public about everything do you think the public really has a perception of what is going on with COVID well I mean I think since we live in Hawaii we can only talk about what you we can look at the rest of the world and see different things that are going on but we're affected by it here so we have to look at now no gatherings of five people if you go to church no singing and these are common sense that's what I'm talking about really it's that complacency thing you know if you ignore the subject and you have all these shiny objects which are really building is confusion oh and as Tim said no no coherent policy you're really building confusion you're building chaos in the public mind um and you're building complacency which I think that's why and if you build complacency it gets worse well that's why we have had this new lockdown situation is because people have become complacent and I went down to the beach a week before we started out and there were a ton of people just all of each other mostly young people sorry to say I would say between 15 and 30 um and I I don't know what the Russian hole is behind that because they're apparently aware of but maybe they don't I don't know what's behind that but everyone's become complacent and to some degree or another maybe not maybe older people are more aware but um you know the what we so the mayor has finally had to come out and say all we're in an emergency now you can't go out anymore unless you're going for food or medicine or you know just a few exceptions that are out that you can't gather we are going to be very rigorous in our enforcement um so at a local level if this is what it takes to wake people up and say okay it is not business as usual folks uh we need to respond like this the the other half of that coin though is is doesn't exist there what are you going to do if you don't have the job where's the money coming from it's not there so well and for that matter where that where is the health care coming from you know one of the things that I've been thinking about lately is um if you don't have a job and you don't have health insurance and there's no money coming from Washington which is actually the case um then you know what happens when you get COVID what happens when you in Hawaii we're okay in Hawaii we're okay because you can go give free medical care actually it's a certain health care centers uh regardless of income okay so I think we're different here than in the mainland but uh mainland then uh Waikiki health will take you at regardless of your ability to pay it's a relatively qualified health care center and you know we were a model for a long time and we have to remember like when our friends in the mainland say oh and I got health insurance with my job well we've had that for a long time here even if you don't have a job you should be covered to some degree now will you be able to live in the place where you've been renting probably not when you have very high rates of people not being able to pay their rent uh even in June and July it's only going to get worse since you might have been terrified if you didn't have insurance um and you and you and you had COVID I mean what would you know about the Waikiki health center what would you do there isn't a lot of um exposure or advertising for that and so you don't really know what to do and I read an interesting article from the Atlantic that talks about the long-term effects of COVID so past the stages of pneumonia and I need a ventilator so you've recovered and now you're home and you've got tremors you've got brain fog you've got digestive problems you've got clotting problems there's so many other things that come from this disease that we don't know about and these people are just kind of getting forgotten there's kind of dropping through the cracks so now they're having to farm their own groups to talk to each other and it started actually in a different country even and so now finally starting to spread here in the United States but there are thousands and thousands of people that are still dealing with this disease even though they're not in the acute stages anymore and I that's an important place where we need to start making some studies and getting some official studies going so we can learn more about this disease well it's interesting you you say that because I don't know how many of you I circulated this too but I gotta I got an email from a doctor in Canada and he laid out the lessons that the medical community has learned about how to how to deal with COVID in other words the hospital experience what what palliative drugs are helpful what what treatments what techniques the nurses and healthcare workers would use to make the patient more comfortable and ventilators seem to be out these days in fact I had I saw one article for the proposition that all the trouble with the lungs had to do with with clots microscopic clots and they have learned to use blood thinners now this is you know it's this is like it's ad hoc it's not generally known or distributed I don't know whether the healthcare community in general in the world is circulating this kind of information but clearly the hospitals have learned and the stats should be better however Stephanie what is your prediction for the next month or two or three in terms of deaths where what are we 170,000 now are we gonna hit did I say yeah 170,000 we're gonna hit 200,000 by election day by the end of the year how fast is it going and people don't really concentrate you know after a while you as as Cynthia said you get numb you get numb to the numbers you know my my my old remark is why don't we stop the show now and count to 170,000 just to demonstrate how many people that is fact is I calculated this it would take one week 24 by 7 to count to that number okay what do you think as Stephanie we're going to do between now and election day well I think it's going to get a lot worse and it's because the chaos is going to continue and there's no policy just like you say we don't know the beginning here's the beginning here's the middle here's the next part and here's the other part at the end and then here's the extended part as well where's the research across all of those different segments of this disease where are they pumping out the findings as soon as they have some that are evidence based and at a high level confidence we're nothing this is the point about again saying there's no leadership and that we're just like kittens running around you know with every feather that you put in our face we're running off after that so you know and so there's no way that it can get better and if we get to the election and we have a change of administration that's our hope because then we will feel the surge of a framework coming in that will shape how we go forward wouldn't you be worried we'll have as we get closer to the election we'll have yes we'll have a huge increases in the number of cases and tests but we'll also have a huge increase in the number of shiny objects agree which one will we be faced with no but tim we haven't talked about the economy we haven't talked about how this is affecting the economy and it's hard to get your hands around that because we know that the government is and will continue to close things down except in Denmark maybe um and you know we're gonna we're gonna have a continuing decline of our economy this has got to hurt people they can't eat and when people can't eat they are like unpredictable and they're unhappy and god knows what they'll do what do you think about the economy what do we know about the economy both locally and nationally well i i think donald trump again using this the shiny object says the economy is great because guess what the nasdaq the s and p the dow they're at all-time highs uh before covid and therefore the economy is doing great completely ignoring unemployment completely ignoring the loss of gdp completely ignoring all the things that an economy relies on uh so donald trumps again shiny object to distract us that you must be doing well look at your 401ks you you you put your faith into 401k you put your faith in the donald trump there put your faith in my vote and so but this is going to come crashing down this cannot be sustained and these numbers the unemployment the gdp all these numbers are going to finally hit the economy or excuse me the stock market and it's going to come tumbling down why it hasn't come tumbling down before i don't know i don't have an answer i just think that maybe americans are going hey working i put my money i mean i get one tenth of one percent on a cd that's safe fdic insured i can't live on one tenth of one percent so i am forced to put my money in the stock market and ride the risk train and and no one likes that and at some point it's the train's going to come off the tracks and the fed doesn't have much room in its toolbox to keep funding zero percent and uh you know throwing free money into the economy i mean you can get a 30-year fix at two and a half percent that's darn near free money but what good is that money if no one has a job so as far as the economy i think i i think it's in a pretty um precarious place and i think of course locally our economy's on the skids yeah so let me ask you an unfair question this this crash in the market when is it going to happen could you give us a day for example yeah november 4th you think it'll hold up it'll hold up through election day because there are people out there maybe some supporters that want to see it maintain till then remember institutions are made of people and the institutions are the corporations that are the institutional investors in the stock market it's not it's not in the mom and pop people that are are floating this market it's the institutions well when the institutions have lost their fearless leader they're going to bail and when they bail it bails yeah so winston you know in in the 30s we had the depression and i remember studying that in school and my first reaction is what are they talking about depression why the use of that term what would Freud say about the use of the term depression and and i think that we have to we have to take a look at that term because it means that people get depressed what do you think the public state of mind is these days you can include your own you can talk about mine if you want i mean this is getting worse and how you know people are fatigued we've got corona fatigue you talked about complacency before but complacency is because people are getting exhausted and i imagine that this is something like like you know a long-term war or the depression or something where we've settled in now and we realized this thing isn't going away anytime soon and we've got a whole bunch of bad news in front of us no matter how there's light at the end of the tunnel a year down the road a year and a half down the road that's a year and a half down the road so we've got to hold out hope for then well people got to pay their rent right now they got to go give food right now so naturally they can't see their friends they can't hug their moms you know they're they're naturally they're going to have a fatigue and exhaustion and depression and if you're not you're probably not doing corona right because or you're doing it really right because you're so mindful that you're able to transcend it which is great and we all probably need to be meditating and praying more and all of that but i think that for most people our normal social supports have been have been reduced or cut down so these types of things where people can beam in and and see like-minded people sharing ideas we have to rely on on these electronic things but it's also getting out and you can talk to your neighbor six feet away and and say how are you doing you need any milk you can still do all of those human things actually the latest is 16 feet but i don't want to interrupt 16 feet you can you can yell at mrs not you can you can call her on the phone too say how are you doing i think people are but isn't isn't a population that is depressed isn't a population that is worried about the future a perfect opportunity for a dictator to emerge isn't that exactly what happened uh with hitler in germany after world war one he saw it as an opportunity and he moved into it and he took power by reason of it well i i mean that's a corona is just one more thing on to that list so i don't you know this is just we don't i think as we go forward everything will be dated obviously pre and post 2020 but we need to do the best that we can individually i've mentioned this many times we need to reach out on our own we need to contact our friends family relatives appointances touch base be a human as best as you can while we get through it together let me move on to health care you know one of the things that's clear and this is happening even in queen's hospital here in hawaii um is that the the beds that might be available for other illnesses and medical treatments are being are being taken by the covid case i heard that where queen said two floors dedicated to covid now they have three uh and so this is this a trouble it means that if you have some other and when we get older in fact in the normal course of human life experience things go wrong right um it means that when you have some other non-covid problem and you try to get into the health system there's no room for you have we have we arrived at that yet sinthea what do you think we will arrive at it we're very close and in my own experience with being a patient an inpatient at queens um and when i was there it was just two floors like you said yeah now it's a whole mother floor the floor that i was on no longer exists for regular patients like me i mean i needed those blood transfusions to survive what do i do if i can't get them um so it's a it's a personal issue for me too because it's scary when you know the whole beds are being just overwhelmed by covid patients and you know they're being very careful and when they seal off those wards you have to go through a clean room before you can come out of that ward and before you go into that ward so as far as that goes at least i'm really impressed what queens has done in regards to um keeping it separate and really treating it like the deadly disease that it is we owe them a debt of gratitude for sure uh that they they really uh have done a good job so stephanie you know the election day is coming up there are a lot of people who are afraid to go out to uh to the polls physically um on the other hand they're also afraid uh that um you know that their vote might not be counted because of the machinations with with the post office um and i heard recently that the number of physical polls presently planned for oahu can you guess how many physical polls there will be right now in oahu for the november third election guess two two that's roughly half a million you know people in each one although you're voting by mail obviously you're not in that formula what about you are are you going to be concerned about going to a physical poll maybe having to wait in line maybe having to deal with a lot of people you don't you don't know whether they've been exposed uh are you going to trust the males what is your current thinking about that and how might it change well once again hawaii was very successful in the primary and they put all of their orange boxes out so you didn't have to go to the very poll or uh if you had your ballot you didn't have to put it in the mail if you're just not feeling confident about the mail which might not be at that time but right now i'm still thinking they're fixing it and we'll see what happens after the congress gets more into it but we put all those orange boxes everywhere so you had a place you could go which wouldn't require parking walking and all of that and i say hawaii is a model for that and i mean we we we've had the chance to kind of step up here and do stuff really bright and show it off but you'll have to agree with me that the government hasn't really done a good job here either there's a scandal on testing it's all in the funding yeah yeah and the fact that the vets aren't getting their meds and people are and retires are not getting their social security is horrifying this sends more people into poverty and this is i and i i'm not hearing enough range over this in the um in the media um it's there but really not at a very low and this is exactly what led you know to the depression problem i mean we're gonna have to start thinking about soup lines for all these people because we're there's no money car i think we are already are we can remember no money's coming in uh trump's cockamamie proclamation didn't result in anything and congress is still locked up in the senate the senate is still on vacation there's no money coming in people have no money to eat and various organizations are trying to give them soup kitchens so i have one last question for you tim okay this is also a hard question tim gets the hard questions we we talked about you know projecting how many cases we're gonna have in this country and for that matter of why um but let's assume it's a dark assumption let's assume that that trump is successful in creating chaos in in the voting place uh that he's successful in calling the qanons and and the skinheads and the second amendment people to vote for him and and screwing up the election to a fairly well so that either he wins or he is somehow able to retain power hard question tim what will happen to covet it'll get worse he has gone from february 2020 to where we are today virtually doing nothing and he'll continue that policy because it doesn't serve him and i i believe that um it will be at 200 000 deaths well before december and donald trump will treat it as if it was 15 deaths you know congratulate him say uh himself by saying see it wasn't it wasn't 2 million deaths it's only 200 000 deaths and he'll he'll rationalize to himself he'll rationalize to the nation and unfortunately 38 to 45 percent will take it in and believe it and i don't believe covet will get any better uh the only thing that's going to get us out of this is an effective vaccine and or a possible treatment that prevents you from actually dying from covet but you're able to be treated and you'll you'll have it as a chronic condition until you get a vaccine let me throw one interesting object into the discussion before we close and that is uh mexico uh amlo you know amlo uh lopez obrador um he himself is submitting to the the trials of of putin's vaccine and he is submitting mexican people who would participate in those trials god knows what's going to happen so why aren't russians taking the russian vaccine why aren't they engaged in the trials good question too why aren't the russians taking it they know better they don't want to end up like their opposition now he's been poisoned in his tea and he's now in a ventilator they don't want to end up like that oh there it is okay winston Cynthia, Stephanie, Tim thank you so much for this discussion it really gets interesting and it will continue to get interesting and we really have to keep on this it's very important to us and to the people we know and love and to the world in general thank you so much aloha


Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Bismillahi walhamdulillahi wassalatu wassalamu ala Rasulillahi wa ala alihi wa ashabihi ajma'in. We praise Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. We send blessings and salutations upon Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wasallam, his household, his companions. We ask Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless them and bless every one of us. Brothers and sisters, we are looking at the supplications or the du'as that are made mention of in revelation. And revelation is divided into two. You have the Quran and you have the hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam. So within the Quran Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has made mention of many of these du'as. We were speaking about the du'a or the supplication of Musa alayhi s-salam in the previous episode. And I'd like to make mention of the fact that the prophets of Allah may peace be upon them all. They did not curse. They did not seek the destruction of people until a point where they felt that they were totally belied. Then they sought the help of Allah using specific words. So it was not necessarily cursed, but it may have been a du'a of destruction. I give you an example of Musa alayhi s-salam. There was a point where he told Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala oh Allah you have given the Pharaoh lots of wealth and he is using that wealth in order to distract and deviate. He's using it to oppress and to do wrong, to turn people away. So oh Allah I am asking you to extinguish that wealth of his. Oh my Rabb, oh my Rabb Musa alayhi s-salam is saying it miss ala amwalihim. Switch off or turn off or extinguish or eradicate the wealth of theirs. Their wealth because they were using that wealth for evil. And tighten their hearts. The reason why tighten their hearts is because they are not accepting it. Now their hearts will be tightened and they will deserve the punishment because they are not going to believe until they see that punishment. That's what he says. They are not going to believe until they see that punishment. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala makes mention of this du'a and one very interesting factor is that these du'as are made mention of as a warning for us to say that when we harm people they may decide to pray for our goodness. They may decide to pray that we soften our hearts but there comes a point when they give up too. And when they give up what will happen is they start praying against us and I remember saying in one of the episodes اتق دعوة المظلوم فإنه ليس بينها وبين الله حجاب It's a hadith of the Prophet ﷺ Be fearful of the du'a, the supplication made against you by the one whom you have wronged for indeed there is no barrier between that supplication and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala So this was a beautiful example of Musa alayhi salatu wa salam's du'a I want to move on to another du'a that definitely we learn from the Quran where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala speaks of the pious worshippers known as عباد الرحمن عباد الرحمن in Surat al-Furqan Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala towards the end describes the true worshippers of the most merciful and the description is very lengthy I've spoken about it in the past and I'm sure many others have also spoken about it because it is a part of the Quran and definitely lessons from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but there are two supplications that have been mentioned that these true worshippers of Allah utter, they say these du'as the one that is made mention of رَبَّ نَصْرِفْ عَنَّا عَذَابَ جَهَنَّ مَا إِنَّا عَذَابَهَا كَانَ غَرَامًا Oh our Lord, divert away from us the punishment of Hellfire for indeed that punishment is filled with torment with pain, with harm and it is very very severe very dangerous etc etc so when we are true worshippers of the Almighty we have hope in the mercy of Allah we will also fear the punishment of Allah because when we fear the punishment of Allah it leads us to doing deeds that will protect us from that fire from abstaining from deeds that would have got us into the fire or into the wrath of Allah and supplicating calling out to Allah constantly, oh Allah save me from the fire it's very important that we call out to Allah using these words رَبَّ نَصْرِفْ عَنَّا عَذَابَ جَهَنَّ مَا إِنَّا عَذَابَهَا كَانَ غَرَامًا what beautiful du'a and we call out to Allah you see people enter Jannah either because they worked to stay away from Juhannam or they worked to enter Jannah or they worked out of the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala may we fall into any one of those categories the highest being the love of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala so that is a du'a that Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala makes mention of in Surat Al Furqan towards the end where the true believers ask Allah always to protect them from Hellfire because that Hellfire is definitely very, very severe, serious and very painful we then look at another du'a made by the same worshippers of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala and it is this time connected to family members connected to progeny because the true worshippers of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala are always concerned about others as well not just themselves Masha'Allah I've seen the light for example I'm guided I still continue to ask Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala's guidance this is what a person would think this is what a worshipper of Allah would think if you worship Allah alone and you try your best to fulfill your obligations to stay away from prohibitions you should want the same for those who are closest to you starting with your family members and then the circles that you interact with and so on so the du'a that is made is made mention of here in Surah Al Furqan again where Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala says والذين يقولون which means those true worshippers of Ar-Rahman the true worshippers of Allah who is the most merciful they are the ones who say رَبَّنَا هَبْلَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَاجِنَا وَذُرْيَاتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنْ وَجَعَلْنَا لِنْ مُتَّقِينَا إِمَامَا O our Lord grant us from our spouses and our offspring ذُرْيَاتِنَا meaning our offspring not just your children but the children's children and so on قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنْ the coolness of our eyes grant us the coolness of our eyes through our children our spouses, our family members وَجَعَلْنَا لِنْ مُتَّقِينَا إِمَامَا and make us the leaders of the righteous so you are working towards earning this righteousness or being righteous becoming a leader of the righteous becoming a leader of the righteous you see you just have to try you just have to keep on obeying Allah's instruction Allah is the one who grants you success there is no need to fight with someone else when you want to be a leader, no in the case of being a leader in righteousness there is no war with another person but rather there is a sacrifice and a struggle between you and Allah you are sacrificing and struggling for the sake of Allah you are trying your best to please Allah you are not trying to do someone else down you are not trying to attack someone else you will not achieve anything by putting someone else down but rather you will achieve a lot by earning the pleasure of Allah yes, if people are doing something wrong you might want to teach in a positive way you might want to reach out to them or to convey the message to others to save themselves from that type of behavior or from that understanding but we don't need to attack others in a derogatory way in a negative way, vulgar, abusive, etc because being a leader of the righteous it's not just one person a whole nation could be leaders of the righteous we are leading our family members in goodness as the Prophet SAW says each one of you, every one of you is a shepherd and each one of you is responsible for his flock and he goes on to explain that even in the family where the father is a shepherd he has a role to play and he is responsible for his flock so this is the mercy of Allah SWT a quick translation of it once again O my Rab, Rabbana O my Rab, grant me the coolness of my eyes through my family and my children, my offspring and make me a leader of the righteous or make us leaders of the righteous O my Rab, grant me the coolness of my eyes and make me a leader of the righteous very interestingly, this dua can be repeated even if you don't have offspring even if you are not married because obviously it would mean if Allah accepts it from you He would bless you with a spouse who is going to be the coolness of your eyes and insha'Allah children who will be the coolness of your eyes so it doesn't mean that only if I have a spouse and children I would use these words to call out to Allah but rather you call out to Allah from a young age using these words and they will definitely open the doors of goodness by the mercy of Allah SWT similarly a person who is having difficulty, hardship, problems in their married life or with their children some children might be difficult etc together with trying to find solutions to the problems you are facing that would be advisable to call out to Allah and words of this nature are really helpful because they are words that Allah says the pious, those who are conscious of Allah those who are the true worshippers of the most merciful calling on the mercy of Allah would actually use to call out to Allah so this dua goes far and wide in solving our problems and in giving us the mercy that we are searching for from Allah SWT and this is why Allah says after making mention of all these qualities of the people who are true worshippers of Allah they call out to Allah to save them from hellfire they seek forgiveness from sin that they may have committed they are concerned about the generations to come because part of the plan of Allah SWT is a duty or the duty of every individual is to pass the baton you know you have iman it's not good enough to keep it to yourself you have to give it to others and you give it to your children Subhanallah your family members that is the minimum that is the minimum so then Allah says the amazing verse Allah says those are the ones who will be granted who will be granted the reward of Al Ghurfa Al Ghurfa is a special place in paradise for those who were concerned with what Allah has made mention of and the concern includes being concerned about your family members and your children and praying for them and working hard with them spending time with them being dedicated trying your best to make them understand their duty unto Allah remembering that we may not succeed always look there were prophets of Allah such as the prophet Nuh alayhi salam and the others they had children and family members Lut alayhi salam his wife the prophet salam his uncle and so on there are examples of people who are from the family members or broader families who did not accept the message but the trial was there the dua was there the prophet salallahu alayhi salam prayed for them to be guided and so did the others they prayed to be guided Nuh alayhi salam prayed for his son to be guided as well but Allah says no we chose not to guide that particular child so we try our best where the children have grown up as adults there is a point that we may not be able to do much but we've handed the baton prior to that hopefully it's not good enough to be engaged in sin and be engrossed in that which displeases Allah until your child begins to displease Allah too and then you say oh what has happened here it may be too late by that time may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala not let that happen to us so this is why Allah says those who have born patience those who have been patient and those who have tried hard Allah says they will have al-ghurfa the special place in jannah because of that patience and they will be greeted with salam they will be greeted and welcomed with peace you know the peace is the greeting in the dunya in this world as well as in the hereafter and so Allah says they will dwell therein forever and ever may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us all goodness and jannah we move on to yet another supplication a beautiful supplication that is a very very important topic also connected to family members brothers and sisters you want the mercy of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala you must make sure that your relationship with your parents is good if you want the mercy of Allah if you want Allah to answer your du'as if you want goodness in this world you must make sure that you are kind to your parents some people might say well my parents are very bad people they ask me to sin they stop me from obeying Allah's instruction all of that should not stop you from being kind to your parents you must be kind this kindness is something you don't have to compromise no matter what they are doing Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not speak about obedience when it comes to the disobedience of Allah because obedience is for Allah but kindness and you know to listen to them in that which they are reasonable that which they have not gone beyond the limits of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is part of that kindness insha'Allah so in order for us to understand that the duty upon us is to be kind to our parents and its reasoning we need to go back to creation Allah created man and in order to reproduce Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala used a system and that is the parenthood where we will have parents and the parents have had children we are the children so we look up to those whom Allah chose as the creator to be parents of those whom he has brought onto the earth meaning us so this is why there is so much of importance given to parents a lot of people who are bad to their parents they hurt their parents physically or sometimes they are unkind to their parents they taste the punishment of it in this world and in the next and this is why when a parent actually curses the child or makes a du'a, supplicates against his or her own child there are two conditions one is if the child has deserved that du'a or that supplication against the child because they were evil in that case it's very dangerous because that prayer would be accepted you know when a parent makes du'a for a child supplicates for a child to Allah a lot of the times that du'a is accepted especially if it is deserved if it is deserved it is accepted so rather make good du'a my beloved parents out there who are listening to me when your children have done something wrong be careful don't make a bad du'a make a du'a that Allah softened their hearts Allah bring them back Allah guide them Allah make them kind Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala bless them etc etc even when they have done something bad but if you were to use the du'a and to curse them and to make du'a for their destruction they might turn back to Allah and you know what they might suffer as a result of your du'a however the second type of du'a the second category is the curse that the parents make against the children when the children do not deserve that curse that curse rebounds back to the parents remember this it's very dangerous so this is why don't just curse that curse might come back to you with a lot of harm and destruction we have a lot of parents who say may Allah destroy my child he's been so bad and I don't want to see him again may Allah destroy him and curse him and people say you'll always see suffering in your life and you'll always be the odd one out and you will always be the one who is you'll see what Allah will do with you he's going to fix you he's going to destroy you and so on if your child was innocent in what you are arguing with them about and if you were the guilty one actually the harm of that curse will come back to you wa la yahiqul makru sayyoo illa bi ahlihi you know the evil plot does not come and catch anyone besides he who deserves it so who deserves it when you are cursing someone it's evil that evil if it's deserved by you it's going to come back to you it's going to haunt you so be careful there are many children out there who complain to us that our parents are being unreasonable they are cursing us don't curse your children don't curse your children while we are spending a moment today speaking about how important it is for us to pray for our parents we would be failing in our duty if we did not remind the parents to be good and kind to their children as well be reasonable these children actually belong to Allah but they were given to you temporarily by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in order to see whether you do what Allah wants with your children or you are doing what your wombs and fancies want in transgression of the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala against your own children may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala grant us goodness so Allah speaks about in Surat Al-Ahqaf man and Allah says we created man and we enjoined we asked him we requested him to be kind to his parents wa wassainal insana bi walidehi ihsana indeed Allah has instructed mankind to be kind to his parents man to be kind to his parents male and female both included hamalathu ummuhu kurha wa wadaathu kurha his mother carried him during the gestation period with great difficulty and gave birth to him in even greater difficulty amazing so whether your mother is a Muslim or a non-Muslim whether the mother is obedient or transgressing the command of Allah kindness is something that you have no excuse regarding you must be kind you might ask why well Allah has given you the reason because your mother has given birth to you your mother has carried you for nine months your mother has struggled and suffered to give birth to you it was a near death experience in the case of the majority my brothers and sisters we have to honour our mothers respect them for the fact that they took care of us right at the beginning there is an exception and the exception is if your mother has been so evil as to want to dump you to kill you to hurt you to bury you alive it is a commission to distance yourself from that type of a mother or father if your father has abused you tries to abuse you molested sexually whatever else it may be in that case you have the right to be distant from that particular father because the relationship has become such that we need to protect ourselves try not to be bitter although it's very difficult we're humankind but do not have something known as reverse oppression reverse oppression they did wrong it doesn't justify you to do wrong to them you may want to stay away you may want to go very far you may want to have very little to do with them or nothing at all depending on how bad the crime was and that does not justify any misbehavior may Allah SWT grant us goodness so Allah is saying your mother took care of you she gave birth to you so your mother is more deserving of your kindness than anyone else the Prophet SAW was asked who is the most deserving of my kind companionship from the people he says your mother so then he was asked again who else is more deserving of my kind companionship so the term here is not obedience it's kindness kindness and obedience huge difference although part of kindness is to obey in that which is reasonable so he says your mother that was the second time then he said okay the questioner says so who next he says well your mother a third time and then the fourth time he says well who after that he says your father Subhanallah all the dads out there our own mothers those of us whose mothers are alive may Allah SWT make us from those who fulfill their rights before they pass away there is a hadid that says destruction be upon a person who has had the opportunity to serve one or both of his parents or hers in old age and that has not resulted in them entering Jannah Subhanallah which means they haven't served them and they didn't enter Jannah as a result of being their parents it goes to show that when you serve your parents you actually attain Jannah you would actually get paradise so it's not going to be easy this hadid the prophet speaks about being kind to your mother three times more than your father but that does not mean you have the right to be unkind to your father I guess the mothers have a soft spot and emotionally they are very very soft the father is out there may Allah SWT grant us goodness we will continue in the next episode and until then I say I say


We know that it is said that the more we repeat a certain thing, the more we remember it, isn't it? That's why we used to call A for Apple, A for Apple so many times in our childhood. So basically repetition or revising things increases the memory of that learning. So why is it so? Well, the basis for is it long-term potential. So long-term potential says that due to repeated firing of a presynaptic neuron and due to the release of the neurotransmitters, basically increased the release of the neurotransmitters which occur when the presynaptic neuron is repeatedly firing, there will be increased response from the postsynaptic neuron. There will be increase in response and when we talk about response, basically we are talking about the increased voltage change in the postsynaptic neuron that is increased EPSP which ultimately will lead to increase in the number of the action potentials. So whenever the amplitude of EPSP increases, the frequency of action potential increases in the postsynaptic neuron. So in simple terms, repeated firing of the presynaptic neurons will increase the postsynaptic response. So let us see what is the mechanism of long-term potential. See, the fundamentals of synaptic transmission we know that whenever there is action potential in the presynaptic neuron, it causes a release of the neurotransmitters, right? It causes a release of the neurotransmitters in the synaptic left and it acts on the postsynaptic neuron. It combines to certain receptors on the postsynaptic neuron and if it is an excitatory neurotransmitter, it leads to generation of EPSP. If EPSP reaches to threshold, it leads to generation of action potential and these two events are happening in the postsynaptic neuron. Now, when we talk about long-term potential, we are telling repeated firing. So this is the keyword, repeated firing of the presynaptic neuron and whenever there is repeated firing, each action potential is going to release more and more neurotransmitters and for long-term potential, the neurotransmitter involved is excitatory neurotransmitter Glutamate. This Glutamate has two types of receptors on the postsynaptic neuron. So one of these are AMP receptors, AMP receptors or ampereceptors and the other ones are NMDA receptors. So let us make another receptors, NMDA receptors. So this Glutamate can bind to both the receptors, right? So Glutamate binds to ampereceptors and NMDA receptors. So see, these NMDA receptors are actually blocked by magnesium ions. So these do not open. Instead, it is the ampereceptors which open and due to opening of ampereceptors, there is entry of sodium ions causing generation of EPSP. So this is normally happening but with the increased release of the neurotransmitters, what happens that more ampereceptors will open and more sodium ions will enter into the postsynaptic neuron and because of increased EPSP that is more voltage change, it will throw off magnesium ions from the NMDA receptor. So this block of the NMDA receptor is overcome by means of the voltage change. Increased voltage change, magnesium will move out and you know the Glutamate is available. So it will also bind to this NMDA receptors and these NMDA receptors allow entry of calcium ions. So once they open, there is entry of calcium ions. So ampereceptors cause the entry of the sodium ions which leads to EPSP and NMDA receptors cause entry of calcium ions. Now because of the entry of the calcium ions, there are certain downstream changes within the postsynaptic neuron. What are these changes? Calcium basically binds with a calcium binding protein that is calmodulin and this in turn leads to activation of calcium calmodulin pathway. Calcium calmodulin pathway in turn activates calcium calmodulin kinase which will cause the phosphorylation of the ampereceptors. So this is important phosphorylation of ampereceptors. Plus there is also activation of other pathways which leads to more insertion of ampereceptors on the presynaptic neuron. So what we saw here, here, so we drew very less receptors. Due to increase in calcium, the number of the ampereceptors here are going to increase and due to the phosphorylation of the receptors, the conductance of the ampereceptors is increased. So number is also increased and whatever was available, there will be increase in conductance so that more sodium ions can enter through the same channels. So what is happening basically? The same neurotransmitter will now lead to increased response in the postsynaptic neuron. So that is one mechanism of long-term potentiation. There are other things also which are happening. One is release of a gas that is the nitric oxide from the postsynaptic neuron and this gas causes changes in the presynaptic neuron such that with each action potential, now there will be increased release of the neurotransmitter as well. So there are changes in the postsynaptic neuron and there are changes in the presynaptic neuron as well. Third, there is phosphorylation of transcription factors as well and this causes changes at the genetic level causing increase in the synthesis of proteins and with increase in the synthesis of proteins, there will be formation of more synaptic connections with the same neuron. So there are dendrites, right? So they will form more synaptic connections with the same neuron such that the EPSP will now be generated in these dendrites as well and there are high chances of EPSP to reach to the threshold and to be maintained at high level for a longer time, isn't it? So that action potential can be maintained. And here was repeated firing because you see only when repeated firing will happen, there will be increased release of the neurotransmitter which can bind amper receptors such that the EPSP reaches to that level so that the magnesium block of the NMDA receptor is removed. So quickly maybe revise this using a flow chart. So I will leave you with this flow chart. What it says? With repeated firing, glutamate released from presynaptic neuron means to both the receptors on the presynaptic neuron but only the amper channels open due to which there is sodium entry which causes depolarizing, depolarizes the presynaptic neuron and sufficient depolarization. So there should be adequate amount, critical amount of depolarization should be there such that the magnesium block from the NMDA receptor is removed and this opens the NMDA channels causing calcium entry. Then because of calcium entry, there is activation of the second messenger's pathway in the post-synaptic neuron. This will make changes in the presynaptic neuron as well as the post-synaptic neuron. So in the post-synaptic neuron, there will be insertion of more amper channels in the post-synaptic membrane plus phosphorylation of the amper channels will cause increased conductance and hence increased sensitivity of the post-synaptic neuron to glutamate. Then in the post-synaptic neuron, there will be constellation of the transcription factors so that the new synaptic connections can grow and in the presynaptic neuron, there is some retrograde changes also. So there is release of nitric oxide which enters into the presynaptic neuron and this causes increased glutamate release by the presynaptic neuron and all these events cause persistently more EPSPs and action potential. So every time we don't want repetition, right? For some time when there is repeated firing of the presynaptic neuron, later on because of increased sensitivity with a single action potential also, there will be persistently more EPSPs and action potentials. Thanks for watching the video. If you liked it, do press the like button, do share the video with others and don't forget to subscribe to the channel Physiology Open. Thank you.


That's a mighty fine print. Ooh, that's a hot mug, guys. Hey guys, really cool video here. Doing it in my fiance's kitchen right now. I'm just on the island. Speaking of the island, I actually got to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire at the Victoria International Film Festival. I was just there for our anniversary. And then all of a sudden I saw a building that said that, oh yeah, the Victoria International Film Festival was going on. So I just wanted to go to one of these to see a movie that I know I wouldn't see normally in a theater. I've heard so much hype from, let me explain several other websites about this movie so I wanted to see it. Is it as good as they say it is? In my opinion, it's not as amazing as they say it is but it is still very good. I would still say Parasite is far better than this movie but it's still a great movie. The director, writer, she does a phenomenal job with making this film, really putting it into its period piece and making a very, very heart wrenching sort of story but making it feel well placed. It actually feels in the moment. And the other thing that I really got to commend this movie for I feel that this movie does more for women in film more for the message of women empowerment than any of these incredibly obvious on the head movies have done. A little bit of a hot take here but I think that this is probably one of the best female filmmakers in the business right now. This movie doesn't. It's subtle but it weaves it into its narrative to the point where the message is part of the narrative but the narrative is still the majority something of that black mask piece of shit did not understand. Obviously, this is a horrible horror movie. I'm not putting on the same pedestal but Portrait of the Lady on Fire is a fantastically shock film. This is on the Deacons level. The fact that this movie wasn't nominated for cinematography kind of boggles me because so far this is the only other movie that I can think of that would have contended with Deacons for 1917. Is it as good? Oh! But it's still a beautifully shocked film. The landscapes, the colors, the costumes which apparently were created by the director herself which is pretty awesome. All of the color and the symmetry of the film is so well done and the performances are fantastic. Because this is a story about a woman who comes to this island to paint a portrait of this woman who the portrait is meant to send to her future husband who she hasn't even met yet.  There's the relationship between the painter and the subject and something that movies don't kind of talk about at least it hasn't been talked about in a while is while the painter is looking at the subject how often is the subject looking at the painter and what does the subject see about the painter's mannerisms and all these other aspects and the relationship between the two really really builds and it actually develops quite well over the course of a couple of days and there's some fantastic pieces of music there's two actually in the entire movie there's this choir section and then there's the end of the movie but aside from that, there's almost no music in the entire movie which is really cool, really makes you feel like you're on this island it makes you feel like you're in their place it puts you in this period, it makes you live it is it slow? Holy fuck, yes it's slow there was a bunch of ladies in the theater who were snoring next to me and I can understand why this movie moves super slow I think on a first time viewing, I was okay with that watching it a second time though I would definitely be checking my phone there's many parts in the movie where just nothing's happening I think that's again trying to base itself in times of what the film is trying to do but it needs to move along anyways, I enjoyed Portrait of a Lady on Fire I think it's definitely one of the movies that was a big standout of the indie film and the international film festival I think it's a very good time I don't think it's a rewatchable movie but I definitely think it captured the period correctly it captured the romance correctly it's a great example of women in film doing absolutely amazing work in the end, I'm gonna give this movie a 5 out of 7 I think it's a really good I would definitely watch an analysis of this movie I don't know if I could watch it again but I would say that the analysis of it is going to be great there's gonna be a lot of them it's just that runtime that runtime is banana swell that's all for me guys, hope you enjoyed this review if you did, leave a like and if you're interested in more, subscribe otherwise, see you guys next time and with any luck, we'll see you guys soon


I call Tess White. My comments during First Minister's questions were over the line and I would like to withdraw them and apologise to both the chamber and the First Minister. I am grateful that Ms White has reflected on her behaviour and that you have apologised to the chamber for those remarks. You will be in no doubt at all, Ms White, that great offence was caused and I would like to be absolutely certain that that is an unambiguous apology that you withdraw the remarks and that you apologise wholeheartedly. Can you please stand and confirm that that is indeed the case? I confirm, Presiding Officer. I would just like to say further that the fact that on this occasion no further action will be taken does not in any way detract from the seriousness with which I view this incident. Members must be in no doubt at all that I expect that their conduct at all times will be worthy of that of a member of the Scottish Parliament. I remind members that social distancing measures are in place in the chamber and around the Holyrood campus. I ask that members take care to observe those measures, including while entering and exiting the chamber. Please only use the aisles and walkways to access your seat or when moving around the chamber. The next item of business is portfolio questions. The portfolio is rural affairs and islands. If members want to ask a supplementary question, they should press the request-to-speak button or press R in the chat function if they are joining us remotely during the course of the relevant question. I call question number one, Jamie Hocker-Johnson. To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring it has undertaken of island economies following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. We have been monitoring economic conditions across Scotland throughout the pandemic and will continue to do so as and when restrictions ease. Our new 10-year national strategy for economic transformation will set out the steps that we will take to deliver a green economic recovery and support new green jobs, businesses and industries for the future for all of Scotland. Mr Hocker-Johnson, I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer. Recovery from the Covid restrictions across island communities has been mixed and some islands have been able to benefit from the process of opening up while others, such as some of those that are affected by the summer ferry crisis, have not. I raised that issue with the cabinet secretary yesterday and did not get an answer. Can I ask her what, in her role in cross-government co-ordination of island's policy, she has done to address the on-going issues? Will she support the transport secretary coming to this chamber to make a statement as a matter of urgency? In relation to the particular points that the member raised, and as he did raise yesterday in the debate, I hope that he has raised those with the Minister for Transport, Graeme Dey, in relation to ferries. We absolutely realise how critical these are lifeline services and that is why the Minister for Transport has made looking and addressing those issues his absolute priority. I hope that the member will raise that with the relevant minister. Will the cabinet secretary agree that coming out of a pandemic is the worst possible moment for many island businesses then to have to cope with staff shortages caused by the Brexit deal? Will she agree with many such island businesses that emergency Covid work visas for EU citizens would at least alleviate some of the mess that Brexit has created for them? Absolutely. Scotland has to be able to attract talented workers from across Europe without excessive immigration barriers. Under the new points-based system, the main visa routes are for high earners with almost no route at all for those below that threshold who are so desperately needed right across a number of different sectors. That, along with the UK Government's decision to delay the implementation of the majority of the regulated qualifications framework 3 to 5 roles and those that are eligible for the shortage occupation list, really risks continued labour shortages and especially in areas such as our islands. The scale of the situation that faces island businesses is a direct consequence of the UK Government's approach to Brexit and it is refusal to listen to the repeated warnings of the Scottish Government and sector stakeholders. Just last week and again this week we have seen calls from across the food and drink industry as well as the NFUS calling for urgent action to address these problems, which I have also followed up on in my own correspondence to the UK Government. This is a crisis situation of their making through the reckless Brexit that they pursued and they now need to fix it. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to support more sustainable farming. The economic and environmental sustainability of Scottish agriculture is absolutely paramount. I recently announced that agriculture reform implementation oversight board and a consultation building on the recommendations from the farmer-led groups. In order to deliver early action on implementing measures, the board will develop a preliminary package of funded measures for agreement by COP26 and that will be based on the work of the farmer-led groups with an early focus on livestock emissions. I look forward to working together on this vital change programme to give farming and food production the long-term sustainable future that we are all committed to delivering. Fyber production for the textiles industry such as nettles offers farmers an opportunity to support a sustainable supply chain while strengthening their own businesses. Will the cabinet secretary look at supporting the development of regional textile brands based on sustainability credentials to incentivise that fibre production? I thank the member for raising that point. If he has been approached on this issue, he would be more than happy to meet people who are taking this forward and to see what we can do to develop and support that. As we look to be more sustainable and create a circular economy, I think that all those sorts of initiatives are absolutely vital. If the member wants to contact me about that, I would be more than happy to look into it. I am proud of the green Scottish Government agreement in many areas. Are the targets to expand organic food and farming, which will restore the environment and support rural economies? Does the cabinet secretary see those targets as helping to drive the demand for organic food in our schools and other public kitchens, and does that provide perhaps more certainty to farmers that they can convert to organic food and farming knowing that there is a stable market there? Absolutely. That is why we committed in our manifesto and in our recent co-operation agreement to at least doubling the amount of land that is farmed organically by the end of this parliamentary session, because previously we have seen the amount of land that has been farmed organically going in the wrong direction to where it needs to go. That is why I am absolutely committed to working with the sector to see what we can do to improve that. However, the member also rightly raises some really important initiatives that are making a huge difference, such as the food for life scheme, which has run for a number of years, and a number of local authorities are part of. We really want to see what we can do to harness the public procurement power that we have in the public sector, to encourage the food for life scheme to see that expand into those other areas and to encourage organic production, because we can see from the food for life programme the many benefits that have come from that. It improves our health, it improves our local economies, so we really want to see how we can develop and build on that. I am grateful to ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any progress that has been made on the use of mobile abattoirs. The feasibility study, which was commissioned by the Scottish Government and published in March last year, provides details of what would be required to operate mobile abattoirs in Scotland, including the regulatory framework, and it offers a cost benefit analysis of possible operational models. However, the report also highlights the difficulty in achieving a sustained economic return from a mobile abattoir in Scotland. Any next steps would be for a commercial operator who wishes to take this forward, and the Scottish Government, in conjunction with Food Standard Scotland, would of course be willing to discuss in more detail with any organisation who is considering operating mobile abattoirs in Scotland. I thank the Cabinet Secretary for her answer. In recent evidence to the UK Parliament, the DEFRA Select Committee, the DEFRA Minister Lord Benyon committed the UK Government to supporting new initiatives such as mobile abattoirs to help support local demand. The very report that the Cabinet Secretary mentioned, recognition was made that there are areas of Scotland where animals have to be moved over 100 miles before they reach an abattoir. Given the NFU Scotland highlighted as far back as January 2019 that there is a steady and worrying loss of small abattoirs over the last few years, when will the Scottish Government match the UK Government's commitment and when will it happen? As I outlined in my opening response there, that is why we want to undertake a study into that to see if that would be feasible, and that is why we have committed to working with any operators who would be keen to take that forward and to see if that could be something that we could make work in Scotland. I absolutely understand the point that the member has raised. Ideally, we want to see food processed as close to the point of primary production as possible, and we are keen to work with anyone who is willing to take that forward. A couple of supplementaries, I hope that the questions and answers are both brief, firstly, to Jenny Minto. To ask the Cabinet Secretary what support the Scottish Government is providing to Scotland's quality pig producer sector. Well, I was really pleased to have announced this week on Monday that we opened the Scottish Government's Pig Producers hardship support scheme for applications, and that scheme will provide up to £715,000 of financial support to pig producers who were affected by the temporary closure of the abattoir in Breakin earlier this year. Now, we've worked closely with the sector to make sure that that fund provides affected farmers with financial support for the losses incurred that was through no fault of their own. The scheme is open for applications until the 26 of September, so I would really encourage people to make their applications as soon as possible. We on these benches agree that mobile abattoirs are important. However, the SNP Government must support livestock farming to ensure its sustainability. Will the cabinet secretary confirm or deny that her civil servants suggested that Scottish livestock farmers should slaughter thousands of cattle and tell the chamber why the suckler beef climate change group has been ignored since March? As the member will know because I refuted that statement yesterday during the food and drink industry debate that we had, I said that it was nonsense then and it's still nonsense today. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the future of farm support payments. On 25 August, as one of our 100 days commitments, I announced the establishment of the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board, which will contribute to the Scottish Government's work to implement policy reform, incorporating the relevant recommendations of the farmer-led groups to cut emissions across agriculture, support the production of sustainable, high-quality food and design a new support system and approach. A national test programme will include early progress on reducing livestock emissions and the package should be implemented by spring 2022 with the recruitment of farmers and crofters expected to begin this autumn. I thank the cabinet secretary for her reply, but farmers have little certainty about future payments and the Scottish Government has been called out by Chris Stark, the CEO of the Committee on Climate Change, about the overdue national agriculture policy. Does the cabinet secretary really think that new committees to replace old committees and another consultation document are the answer? More deliberation, more dilly-dallying is a disaster for the sector. Why won't this Government make decisions now? We think that it is vitally important to include the people who these decisions will affect in our decision making. I said that this is an implementation and oversight board. I will be co-chairing that with the president of NFUS Scotland, Martin Kennedy, exactly to drive forward the work of the farmer-led groups, which was a manifesto commitment of ours. That is what we have committed to, and that is exactly what this board will deliver. That is why I have set out the actions that I have today, because we want this board to get to work and to deliver. We covered a lot of the ground in the debate yesterday, but I am keen to take the two supplementaries. I welcome the long overdue establishment of the implementation board and the proposals from the farmer-led groups that I hope they implement, but, given the Government's dithering over the past few years and the fact that the minister of the cabinet secretary has just said that a lot of those proposals will not be introduced until 2022, is she absolutely confident that we will meet her targets for reductions in emissions in agriculture that are set out in the climate change plan over the next few years? I will of course be doing everything within my power to make sure that that happens, and that is not to say that a lot of the measures would be delivered next year. That is a specific piece of work that we have tried to set out a timeline for, but, again, I want to see the implementation oversight board get to work in delivering early on the recommendations of the farmer-led groups. It is only right that we involve farmers, crofters and land managers in that discussion as we move forward and as we look to establish a new payment scheme for post-2024. It is also important to remember that we have set out stability and simplicity to ensure that farmers could rely on the payments and knew what was coming over the course of the next few years, but we also know that we need to get going when it looks to tackling our emissions reductions. I know that the sector is keen to get going and I absolutely want to work with it on that. Just like to ask the cabinet secretary, how does she feel that the policy that she will be developing will differ from that of the UK Government's? Probably the first point that I would like to make in relation to that is to point out that the UK Government's spending review overall provides insufficient budget to replace EU funding levels lost to Scotland. There is still little clarity on the replacement of EU programmes, particularly on structural funds, and we only get a single-year guarantee compared to the seven-year EU budget guarantee. There are also key concerns about the internal market bill, which of course represents a clear assault on devolved spending powers. Between now and 2024-25, Scotland will lose out on up to £170 million of funding, and the current one-year settlement does not provide the assurances that we need. DEFRA announced a move away from direct payments and supporting food production to focus on what they call public goods, and that is certainly not the direction that we are intending to take. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plans to support the new entrance into agriculture sector. While reports such as farming for 1.5 underline the stark challenges facing Scottish agriculture, they also highlight the continuing role for skilled and innovative young new entrant farmers and crofters. We agree with that view, and so continue to support new entrants through a number of measures, including the farming opportunities for new entrants programme and the land matching service, which we fund NFUS to deliver. The national reserve can also provide new farmers and crofters with an allocation of payment entitlements under the basic payment scheme, as well as the young farmers basic payment top-up. In line with our own manifesto commitment, I will also announce how we intend to support new and young entrants through a specific fund during this parliamentary term. I thank the cabinet secretary for the answer. The importance of new entrants and young farmers cannot be overstated, nor can the importance of attracting applicants from all walks of life. With that in mind, can I ask the cabinet secretary what actions the Scottish Government is taking to support beam applicants into the agriculture sector? The member raises a vitally important point, and I think that it is absolutely right that we try to encourage diversity where possible. I would be more than happy to meet the member to discuss actions that we can take in that regard. What is the Scottish Government doing to encourage more young people to get the skills and education needed to become farmers, crofters and take up other land-based career opportunities in the Highlands and Islands in order to tackle depopulation? The Scottish Government recently announced the establishment of a commission for land-based learning, which is also part of our 100-day commitments. We intend to consider the learning pipeline from early years to adults with a view to increasing opportunities for more people and particularly more women to gain qualifications and employment in the land-based and aquaculture sectors. Agriculture is one of the key sectors that is included in that review. The review will support the Scottish Government's ambitions of delivering a just transition to net zero and a climate resilience Scotland by ensuring that our learning system equips people with the skills and knowledge needed to work in Scotland's land-based and aquaculture sectors. To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions the rural affairs secretary has had with the UK Government regarding the UK seasonal workers scheme. Food production is critical to the success of our economy and the edible horticulture sector has to be equipped with the necessary tools in order to continue to flourish. Unfortunately, the seasonal workers scheme is not working for employers or for seasonal workers. Scottish ministers have listened to the sector and on 16 March the minister for rural affairs and minister for Europe and international development wrote to the UK immigration minister urging him to make the necessary improvements to the route to make it fit for purpose. Despite migration impacting on devolved areas, the UK immigration minister has refused to recognise the interests of this Parliament and the role of the Scottish Government, failing to respond positively to 19 requests for meetings from the Scottish Government minister with responsibility for migration. I have also written to the UK Government this week to highlight the impacts of existing labour and skills shortages on the food and drink industry. I await a response to that. The past week, I have met Dundee cold stores and Highland game in my constituency, both crucial businesses in the food supply chain that rely on the ability to access sufficient labour, especially during the peak season. Food and Drink Federation Scotland warned that there are now rapidly approaching a crisis, and any few Scotland are calling for an improved permanent seasonal workers scheme. The cabinet secretary offered an assurance that the Scottish Government will continue to make representations to the UK Government to ensure that both agriculture and the wider food and drinks supply chain are able to recruit and retain the necessary staff, as well as access haulage, to get their products to market, both of which those sectors depend on. The member highlights an absolutely critical issue here. As he referenced in his question, members will have all seen the letter that was sent from the food and drink industry to both the UK and Scottish Governments last week, highlighting the crisis situation that they now face in terms of labour. I have responded to the industry in terms of our asks and, of course, we will continue to work with them to assist in any way that we can. Again, as I have just highlighted, I have also written to the UK Government this week to highlight the impact of existing labour and skills shortages on the food and drink industry. We also wrote to the UK Government in July to push for changes to UK migration policies and to highlight the impact of licensing delays for the HGV sector. Scottish ministers will continue to discuss those issues in our on-going engagement with the UK Government and other devolved Governments, and we will continue to press for urgent action. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its engagement with the seafood sector regarding any export challenges as a result of Brexit. We have engaged regularly with the sector to mitigate the impacts of EU exit on seafood exports and its associated challenges. For instance, the food sector resilience group has met regularly to address the on-going challenges that EU exit has caused the Scottish seafood sector. In addition to that, the Scottish seafood exports task force, which included UK Government representation, met regularly between February and July this year and published its final report on 26 August. Over the summer, I have also met seafood businesses first-hand visiting fish farms, fish markets and processing businesses to hear directly from those working in the industry. My officials have been in regular contact with a range of industry representatives about specific issues, such as the introduction of new export health certificates and to explore medium longer-term recommendations about how best to support the sector. Over recess, I visited Peterhead producers market and spoke with seafood industry leaders who are working hard to future-proof the industry from the unmitigated disaster inflicted by a damaging UK Government Brexit. Although the UK Government has clearly sold out Scotland's fishing communities, can the cabinet secretary outline what steps the Scottish Government is taking to mitigate the damage and to support seafood businesses to diversify in the face of those Brexit challenges? Our local food strategy consultation and the development of a sustainably Scottish brand will both support and grow Scottish seafood as a sustainable low-carbon food. Along with our work on a new seafood trade strategy, we have awarded £1.8 million to Seafood Scotland to revitalise the domestic market and help to develop new global markets. We have also provided over £800,000 for seafood businesses, including for storage facilities at a major seafood processor and for seafood businesses in the north-east, to develop seafood processing and training. In addition to that, £5.2 million was awarded to Peterhead Port Authority for harbour and market improvements. The seafood and other sectors in the northern islands have been battling Brexit disruption along with ferry freight capacity limitations. How does the Scottish Government plan to mitigate the twin challenges of Brexit and ferry freight capacity on the lifeline services to ensure that produce can get to market on time? I hope that I have been able to address the first part of the member's question in some of the responses that I have given today. We are working tirelessly with the industry to try and mitigate and do what we can to tackle the impacts of Brexit. Unfortunately, a lot of the levers for that are simply outwith our control. When it comes to the freight issue, I urge the member to raise the issue with the Minister for Transport, who I know has been dealing and looking at those issues. To ask the Scottish Government how it will protect the interests of farmers under the draft co-operation agreement with the Scottish Green Party. The Scottish Government and others across the chamber and across the country believe that Scotland should be a global leader in sustainable and regenerative agriculture. We will ensure that we continue to support the sector to produce high-quality food while we take action to make the emission reductions that are required to contribute to Scotland's world-leading emissions targets, to support and deliver nature restoration and a just transition to net zero. I outline my approach to having farmers, crofters and land managers at the heart of developing new policy, which is why I launched the Agriculture Reform Implementation Oversight Board last week. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer, but does she understand the fear of farmers in my constituency that the Scottish Government now has members within it who have previously advocated a drastic reduction in livestock production and talked up the prospect of covering 40 per cent of Scotland in forestry? We had similar points raised during the food and drink debate yesterday. I would ask the member if he has read the co-operation agreement, where we have outlined our approach. Again, I have established the board to ensure that we can deliver the recommendations of the farmer-led groups and make sure that we have a sustainable future for Scottish farming.