If you've ever asked yourself why a meeting planner isn't getting back to you after you've sent them this email, it might be as simple as you didn't have a clear enough email signature. I've seen some doozies over the years and we're going to talk about how to clean up your email signature so that meeting planners can find you. Hey there, it's Leanne from leancolderwood.com and an email signature you think would be simple enough to put together, to foot any message that you send out to anyone, but it's amazing how many email signatures are missing some critical pieces of information so that when someone receives an email they actually find it difficult to reference where it is that you're writing from or how to get a hold of you in response. So I'm going to talk about some doozies I've seen over the years and of course how you can clean up your own email signature. There might be some of you who work for a brand or an organization out there that has a mandated format to set up your email signature. Before you make any changes to your signature, make sure that you're referring to your own brand's standards to ensure that you're in line with that. And hopefully if your brand has done it correctly, it does indeed include all the critical components of a great email signature already. First off, ensure your email signature has both your first and your last name on it. I know some people choose an abbreviated first name email signature, especially if it's in response to something. Please ensure that your last name is on even those abbreviated emails, especially if you have a common name and it would be easy for a planner to get you confused with another person by the same name. You may also want to add your designation at the end of your name. So for example, if you've gone through the CMP program, make sure that the CMP designation is behind your name. Some people might not find value in it, but I think other CMPs would see a lot of value in it. So have a designation that has importance in the meetings industry. Make sure you put it behind your name. Ensure that your email signature actually has your organization's name. Now if you work at a hotel and your hotel name isn't clear on what destination you are in, so for example, the Fairmont Empress, it isn't clear from the words Fairmont Empress that this is a hotel in Victoria, BC. So if you're working for the Fairmont Empress, you may also want to include the words Victoria BC somewhere in your email signature. Putting the full address of your organization in the email is also great. It does give people a frame of reference.  So ensure that your address is in your email signature if you have some room. Make sure your email has your title and if you're servicing a particular market segment, make sure it includes that as well. I suspect your organization has a number of individuals that may be speaking with that meeting planner. So putting your title at least gives the planner a frame of reference of who it is they're talking to and why. It may go without saying, but please include your phone number and email address. I've seen so many email signatures over the years that have forgotten those two critical pieces of information and aside from hitting reply, I have no way of knowing how to get back to that person. The other reason you should include your email signature again is some organizations, the email format itself is not clear on where it is that you work. And a great example of this, if you don't mind me using is Tourism Toronto, their email format is at TORCVB, which is not screaming Tourism Toronto. So putting your email in your email signature again allows people to start to learn that that's how they get a hold of you and not simply just rely on reply all when they're trying to get a hold of you. And finally, if you have room in your email signature, I think there's a great opportunity to put the website of your hotel and your social media handles. Whether those are the handles for you personally or for the hotel, if they reflect you, your brand or your hotel in a professional light, I think you should include them. Now about all those other bits and pieces, now we see a lot of people in their email signature put all kinds of different things in their signature about the accolades of the hotels, about their own accolades, and I think those are perfectly acceptable. Please gauge how much space you have to do that in and ensure that your email signature isn't droning on for half a page. But by all means, I think putting those accolades in your email signature or any other notes that you think are relevant for your audience is a great fit. Now about those emails that you have to send from your iPhone at minimum, make sure that your phone email signature has your name, your phone number, and again your email address at minimum. Now there are some other phone email tips that I would like to cover with you. I know a lot of people have automatically in their email signature on their phone that this was written from an iPhone or excuse the typos, excuse the brevity. If planners have created a culture that they expect you to answer right away 24-7, then that's bad on us. I feel strongly that you should take the time to write an email that's complete and free of typos rather than excusing the typos and have something go out that looks unprofessional. Now if you are in a bind and you are writing emails and have to get them out to your clients right away via your phone, please do so. But ensure that you're checking it for typos, ensure you're taking an extra 20 seconds to add enough content so that it doesn't look like you've done it in a super rush. I think that's going to go a long way in looking more professional than sending super quick one or two word answers and the words, excuse the brevity from your iPhone. I might be alone in this and I actually want to hear from you if I am alone in this. So will you comment on this video below if you think I'm off the mark when talking about email etiquette from your phone? I would love to hear your thoughts on it as well. So while it may seem simple in nature, I think taking a great look at your email signature and making sure it's complete and attractive is it's going to go a long way to help meeting planners remember you. So take some time today to take a quick look at your email signature, polish it up, tidy it up, add some social media handles, make sure it looks great and meeting planners will be able to find you easier. I hope you found this video helpful for more advice on how to communicate with meeting planners. Please check out my website at liankholderwood.com. There you'll find a number of blog posts that speak to the sales and service side of our industry as well as some productivity tips. While you're there, please subscribe to my newsletter and receive those tips and tricks in your inbox every week. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.


The Insider, a mighty show about living in an association, primarily condos. This show is an educational show and it's all about being if you're one of the board of directors or a homeowner or what it's like to live in a condo, what the common questions are and the common myths and misunderstandings. And I think I'd like to begin this show by wishing a happy marriage to a good friend of mine, Charlie Beck, who recently got married from tropical roofing, he's a good friend, a longtime supporter of the industry and he got married. Congratulations, Charlie, we're thinking of you and hopefully we can all get together and have a glass of an adult beverage in the near future. That being said, I've been in this industry 25 years and forever I keep hearing from owners or board, well we have a property manager, so they should do this work. And I decided to invite today a property manager, which we often call community association manager, to talk about what we really are because we're not really property managers, we're what technically in the law says a managing agent and there is some things called a property manager and what the differences are and what can boards expect from their management company. That being said, I bought a very, very dear friend of mine for a very, very long time, who I tell her all the time she's smarter than me almost and that being said, I brought in Cheryl Franklin. Hello Cheryl. Hi Richard. We've been friends for so long. We have. We have. You know, and would you share with everybody where you work and what your title is and so we know what your background is a little bit. Yes, I work at Associate Hawaii. My title is Vice President of External Affairs. I've been in the industry about 13 years. I too am a friend of Charlie, so I would like to congratulate him as well. But yeah, I've been in the business half as long as you have. You like the business? I do. I do like the business. I enjoy the business, but you're right. Very often customers or clients, they use the term property manager very loosely and it kind of crosses over into two very different industries. Well, you know, from my understanding, you're feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, although I think 1973 was the last time I was wrong, but anyway, the term, the technical term is managing agent under the statute. Yes. And so from your perspective, what is the managing agent and who do they work for? The managing agent works directly for the board of directors of the association. They take all of their direction to manage the property from the board. We don't make any decisions unless we're directed by the board. So the best option for homeowners or clients is to direct their questions and queries to the board of directors, not the property manager, or managing agent is the correct term. Right. Are all managing agents the same? I mean, is the contract exactly the same that the kind of work we do is going to be identical or is there a contract and scopes of work in all of this? It could be, but in most cases it's not. You have fiscal contracts where we just basically manage the financial affairs of the association. You have a full service contract whereby we manage the capital components or help the customer manage the capital components. So there are varying types of relationships that we can have with the board, but it all goes back to either fiscal or full service, basically, or the two. When I looked at the industry and as I said, fiscal would be, this is usually for the larger projects. You're basically doing the accounting, you're collecting the maintenance fees, you're paying the bills as approved by the board of directors, and you're producing a financial statement. You're assisting them with decisions with regard to where to invest their money in reserves, but it's important to recognize it's still the board of directors who makes those decisions, not the management company. The other extreme is what we call full service where you're actually engaged in the physical management of the property, but more times than not, my experience is that that contract is typically more with a smaller association because the larger associations will have a general manager, a site manager, and the association employees themselves handle all the physical management. And so issues with regard to the condition of the pool and whether the coconut trees were trimmed are really not in the contract of the managing agent. And somewhere in between we have what we call fiscal administrative contract where we do the finances, plus attend the board meetings, do the annual meeting, and do the minutes. Yes. Would that be a good way to describe it? You summed it up? And so... Very accurately. When a homeowner looks at that and says, we have a management company, what would your advice be about how they look at this? When a homeowner says we have a management company... Yeah, maybe they accept the pools not clean. Yeah. What they should do typically, they can reach out to the managing agent if they choose, but only as a liaison to the board of directors, or they can attend the board meeting, or send correspondence to the board to address. And then the board of directors will address it at the next board meeting, scheduled board meeting. I may ask this question two or three times, so I'm trying to make a point to our viewing audience. Okay. Does the managing agent have the authority to make decisions independent of the board? Absolutely not. So any decision has to be approved by the board of directors? All decisions have to be approved by the board of directions. And the board may set policy, for example, this is the official window standard, and you have to submit an application, and if the board has given the managing agent the authority to take action based on a set of standards, then the managing agent could... Absolutely. They could case in point, design guidelines if they want to install a certain type or style of window, and they've been previously approved by the board of directors, they can send that application to the managing agent, and the managing agent can approve it on behalf of the board of directors based on the guidelines approved by the board. So if an owner got a late fee, they didn't pay their maintenance fees on time, can the managing agent approve it, or approve waiving the late fee? Only if they've been given authority by the board of directors. And in some cases, boards will give the agent the authority to waive those fees under certain mitigating circumstances. And more times than not, my experience has been to allow... The board will make a policy and allow them to occasionally waive late fees if it's the first time. But if it's involved in legal and foreclosure, the managing agent can't waive those fees. Now, definitely when it, as it pertains to legal fees and things like that, once it's turned over basically to the attorney, we're not involved. And where does the authority to hire a managing agent come from? To hire the managing agent? Right. Where does the board get the authority? From their governing documents, from the bylaws. It's mostly true that the declaration and or bylaws states that you shall have a managing agent. And then the managing agent is described in the condo law as what it is. And therefore you have to hire a managing agent which meets the Hawaii law what a managing agent is. And they don't have the choice whether to hire that managing agent. They have to hire a managing agent, maybe a different company. Do you know what some of the requirements are to be a managing agent? Well, they do have to hire a managing agent unless they change their governing documents and that's a whole other show. But depending on what's in their governing documents, agents usually adhere to certain guidelines as you stated that are required by law. There has to be an assigned broker for the managing agent. And there are certain fiduciary responsibilities the managing agent has to have in certain qualifications that they have to have as well. They are pretty cookie cutter in the industry but there are legal qualifications that all managing agents must abide by in order to serve board of directors or in association. For your information, just a little historical background on that. The primary role of a managing agent is to protect the financial money of the owners in the association by having an independent company because boards change every year or change often, let's say. The legislature felt they wanted to have protection to have an independent company and as such the company had to have a principal broker which now puts all the broker laws on top of the responsibility requiring separate trust accounts and those types of things and requiring the managing agent to have a fidelity bond. So if that managing agent happened to be crooked and ran off with the money, the board had some fallback where if you just had a homeowner changing every year with no checks and balances, the risk was higher, it could be a problem. So most governing documents require and specify that the project, the board must hire a managing agent. Now, are there lots of managing agents in Hawaii, companies? Yes, there are. In fact, I'm kind of a nut on statistics, there's about 125 companies that are managing agents in the state of Hawaii. I didn't know that there were that many, I know the top five. There's probably a half a dozen that are big companies that really specialize in this. We have a lot of real estate brokerage firms that maybe manage one, two, three or four projects that do managing agent type work and they can hire any managing agent. Some declarations of the vital laws require the owner's approval on the managing agent, but my experience most do not, it's a board decision to pick the managing agent. What is the managing agent's duty to the board? As you just stated, to protect their financial investments, often to help them manage the capital components of the project to make sure that the value of the association continues to either be maintained or increased. It's basically to assist them with the operations of the association of the day-to-day. But like you stated earlier, in many instances, the larger associations, they have a general manager that manages the day-to-day, but it's the managing agent that will help them hire a general manager, make sure that they're vetted and do things like that, and help them organize the budget so that the general manager can go about the day-to-day. What I've learned over time that no disrespect the lawyers, but if there's a problem they sue everybody, which means they sue the board, they sue maybe individual directors, and they sue the management company. Does the management company responsible typically for the actions of the board? Is there any kind of hold harmless or indemnity attached to these responsibilities, or you want to shed any light on that? There is an indemnity clause in every managing agent. To answer your question, the responsibility of the decisions are the responsibility of the board of directors, and in some instances, when the board of directors kind of operate outside of their fiduciary duty, then they can become personally liable for any negligence involved in managing the property. The interesting thing about this industry is that by law, the board has to have a director and officer liability policy, like an errors and emissions policy. If they get sued, insurance defends the association, the board, and assuming they didn't have gross negligence or willful intent, they're going to be protected by the insurance. Like you said, and I said that they also send up suing the management company, and the management company, all the contracts that I know of have a hold harmless indemnity. You can't hold me managing agent responsible because you made the decision. The board made the decision. So when they say, well, sue the management company, they're really suing the association because the management company is going to turn it over to the association's insurance defense and say, you indemnified me, hold me harmless from all these actions. Right. And what many homeowners in an association don't realize is that when you sue the association, it's a form of suing yourself because you are a part of that association as a homeowner. And your insurance and all the legal fees are tied into the operational expenses of that association. But many times, owners just don't understand the dynamics of how a board is run. So they get a little confused in terms of what's a legitimate cause for a lawsuit. And it just becomes a check and balance down the line at some point. And I have some more questions. But what we're going to do is we're going to take a short break to give us a chance to get our thoughts scheduled. But I have a few more questions about this. And then I want to talk about a rental manager in that role as well. So we'll be right back after a short break. Aloha. Hi, I'm Lisa Kimura. I'm the host of Family Affairs on Think Tech Hawaii. Join us every Tuesday at 11 AM to talk about the issues that really matter. Everything from policies that need to be changed in Hawaii to the fact that we need better gender equality so that we can all have a better shot. Again, join us every Tuesday at 11 on Think Tech Hawaii for Family Affairs. Aloha. Aloha. This is Winston Welch. I am your host of Out and About, where every other week, Mondays at 3, we explore a variety of topics in our city, state, nation, and world, and events, organizations, the people that fuel them. It's a really interesting show. We welcome you to tune in, and we welcome your suggestions for shows. You got a lot of them out there, and we have an awesome studio here where we can get your ideas out as well. So I look forward to you tuning in every other week where we've got some great guests and great topics. You're going to learn a lot. You're going to come away inspired like I do. So I'll see you every other week here at 3 o'clock on Monday afternoon. Aloha. Welcome back to Condo Insider. We're sitting here talking with Cheryl Franklin, Vice President of External Affairs for Associate about the difference between a managing agent and what the managing agent's role is, and we're going to talk shortly about a rental manager. But where we kind of left off is we've said that a managing agent is an agent. An agent means they are the representative of another body in the sense they've been assigned as an agent to do certain work, which is defined by a scope of work in the contract, which may include the financial, probably always includes the financial, may include board meetings and annual meetings, and may or may not include physical management of the property and larger associations with their own staff. Typically those employees report directly to the board and those decisions are done by the board, not by the managing agent. So when you look at what an agent's role is, they may be the number one person to communicate with the owner on basic issues, but in the end the management agent, the managing agent does not have the authority to make decisions and will have to go to the board for approval and that managing agent is indemnified and held harmless because how can you hold someone responsible for instructions given by the board of directors?  There are a lot of lawsuits, you know? Yes, unfortunately there are. Many of them are related to catastrophes or insurance claims, I should say, like water intrusion and things like that because there are disputes in terms of who's liable. As we know in general, if you have water intrusion, you should absolutely contact the insurance company and especially one end involves multiple units, so you know there's some mitigation that has to happen there, but quite often what happens is the homeowner either doesn't have an HO6 policy or they want to dispute the decision of the insurance company in terms of who's responsible and deductibles and things like that, so they tend to try to circle back and sue the association because they believe that the association should be on the hook for the entire thing. Yeah, what's interesting to me about that is my experience anyway, is attorneys are expensive, they're not cheap, the process is slow. Over the last few years the condo statute has been amended that for $175 for each party, meaning a total of $175 for an owner, they can get to mediation or binding arbitration before a judge on the matter, they don't have to hire a lawyer and the cost, the balance of the cost after the first, if it's two parties, $175 times two is $350, all the costs thereafter are borne by the real-sake education fund, the condominium has put money and all condominiums into this fund, there's well over a million dollars in this fund. The purpose of that is to keep, because a lot of arguments have been that the board has all the money, they can hire lawyers, the owners have no money, they're at disadvantage. The law has changed to allow dispute resolution efficiently for $175 a party where the balance is paid by the condo education fund and that's not used as often as it should be. Yeah, I was going to comment on that because I think that the managing agent, it's imperative that they educate their boards that these resources are available because many of them are unaware that they are available and they end up going a different route, but it all goes back to the managing agent's responsibility is to often lead and advise the board, not legal advice, just kind of leave them and make available to them what resources are out there to help them with their responsibilities. Hawaii condos statutes are fairly specific on insurance and deductibles and there's certainly a longstanding protocol with regards to that. Wouldn't it be simpler if the owner began with just going and talking to the board, either an executive session or at a board meeting saying, I don't understand why we have this problem and looking for ways to address it? Yeah, in simple terms, you're absolutely right, but what sometimes happens is boards aren't as savvy and condo law as they should be as well and homeowners sometimes, like you said, they assume the associations, they have all this money that they're hoarding and they can fight legal claims and so they want to sue because it goes back to your involvement with the association and trust. And if you can garner a relationship where you're educated, meaning the board is educated and they can thereby educate owners, then it's a win-win.  But you're right, everything is pretty clear in terms of the law and in terms of the insurance company summary because obviously they'll come back and they'll say, okay, this unit caused the leak, this unit is responsible and then the managing agent will say go back and file this with your H06 policy and sometimes owners just don't want to do it because for whatever reason they think their rates will go up or something. Yeah, part of the problem is I don't think anyone knows the history of insurance in the sense that going back in the old days when the buildings were younger, the board would get an insurance policy for water claims and all water claims are covered by the association's master policy. All claims, I don't care if it's a dollar, is theoretically a claim. Now the association through its deductible may have agreed to assume part of the risk but it's still a valid claim with regard to the claim. Now what happens is in the old days the board used to have like a thousand dollar deductible. But as more and more claims happen as buildings got older, the claims got to be $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 the deductible. And so what they did is the law change allowing the board to require the owner to be responsible for the deductible. And so the H06 policy of the owner covers the deductible. And so the board doesn't have to be your fault. The board has the right to assess the deductible and the purpose behind that was a typical H06 policy is a couple hundred dollars a year. The cost of reducing the association's deductible to a thousand for all claims would be thousands of dollars a year per owner because they know they're going to have a claim and it's going to be some risk. So it was a way to tap into the fact there's multiple H06 policies by multiple insurance companies and put that portion of liability on multiple companies versus the master policy. Maybe I didn't explain that very well, but the idea behind it was, even though the board can't specifically identify that you caused that damage, they still have a right under the law to assess you the deductible if your unit is involved in the repair. Correct? Correct. So again, I would just encourage people to talk to your board and certainly your management company. But oftentimes they'll give you the answer and people immediately react because it doesn't make common sense to them.  And and and I would tell you that the state of Hawaii has the largest number of director and also liability claims in the country. Yeah, I know that. And we but we also have the most condos per capita. That's true. Yeah. So and they lose. Let's take a property manager because the owner and the property rents out their unit to a tenant and so they hire a property manager who a real estate company to be their manager of the unit. How is that different from a managing agent? That's completely different. That is relegated to the inside of the unit and a rental lease. Managing agents basically manage the common common components along with the board of directors. You can have a managing agent that's one company and individual owners are free to hire another property management company to rent out their unit. So it's basically dealing with rental leases and things like that for tenants opposed to owners. A lot of people may not realize if a owner hires a management company to rent their unit and there's now an insurance claim that the insurance company will not deal with that property manager and will only deal with the owner. Yeah, because ultimately the owner is responsible, especially when in condo land, if you will, everything is is is based on the relationship with the owner because they're ultimately responsible. It's like hiring any other owners can hire any other vendor that they choose. So when there is an insurance claim, the condo association is not going to deal with that vendor. They're going to deal with the owner. It's interesting, I was in a hearing last day or so regarding an owner and their argument about the property manager's duty with regard to an insurance claim. And under the testimony, it came out that that the property manager tried to work with the insurance company and they refused to work with the insurance company, refused to work with the property manager saying, look, the owner of the H.O. Six policies owner, we have to work with the owner. And as far as a claim for a certain amount of money, it's an issue with the owner. It's not an issue with the property manager. And actually, the insurance company refused to provide information to the property manager what was going on, saying it's a privacy matter of an insurance claim between an owner and the insurance company. Yes, that's true. And so that case, the owner was blaming the management company for the property manager, not the managing agent, but the property manager for not getting it done. So anyway, we are down to the last few seconds of our show, believe it or not, went fast. It does. We could probably do this for hours. We could. And we should probably have a glass of wine and a bottle of wine and maybe two or three bottles of wine and really dig into this at the greatest level possible. In summary, I just want everybody to know that when they're looking at working with their managing agent or their rental property manager, they need to realize this is governed by very specific laws and is primarily driven a lot by the scope of work. But also there are certain privacy issues that come about that may to you not make common sense. Before you go sue anybody, file any claims, go to your board of directors, go to your property manager, the realtor, try to get more information. And if you have to, there are dispute mechanisms available that are practically free and are available to you. On that note, we want to thank you for watching Condo Insider. We hope you found the information today useful. And we will hopefully see you next Thursday at three o'clock for another edition of Condo Insider. Aloha.


what's up everybody once again is brand man Sean and as you guys can see it's another yet another interview very special guest for you guys watch you and ghost right and this guy he has a lot of plays on YouTube spotify millions of plays on one song on YouTube a really dope music video on a trap city page probably has about 815k and in views over 300k of listeners on spotify I could go on about the numbers stuff as you guys know I don't really just focus on numbers as far as why I interview people I really think the respect if he has and the path of what he has gone on in music but where he still is on the business side and working his way up in general will probably be useful for you guys so we're about to find that out what is up bro good man first and foremost man let's tell everybody where y'all are from from a city in Canada province of Quebec predominantly French province it's a French but yeah that's that's where we from what's the music scene out there in Montreal I've talked to quite a few people I know a few people I don't think I've ever really talked about on page had it what's the perception of the music scene Montreal particularly hit my fish okay so exact so in hip-hop it's a it's a very small scene and the superstars are really the the producers right we got the K-tranada's we got the high-classifies the P you know a lot of a lot of the producers are the ones that really lead in the way right now and no police that's like out there yet that really is the voice of Montreal as a in terms of like who's leading the scene so it's like a really really really small circle and yeah like you said like the the producers the one leading the way on that but that's only if we're talking about the English language yeah really really what's like really popping out here is like French rap on the French side on the French side of shit that we got guys like Fookie we got loud which is on our stadium here like where the Montreal Canadiens play the hockey team that's called a belson and we have like the first rapper local rapper that's about to have his show there his name is loud and he blew up like he was part of a group but he recently went solo and he's gonna have a show up in there so he's really doing a big miss mostly cuz he got he got local support but he really popped in in Paris in France in Europe Paris France for example but yeah so the French side of shit the guys are really popping but on the English side it's really yeah I mean they're making music and like production doesn't have any language to it just music yeah it surpasses the language barrier in Montreal historically Montreal has been like a dance music so that's why you know like electronic dance music is like a subset of dance music and that's like since the 70s and shit so like all that techno shit like that coke and Molly type of shit like parties and shit like that's what in Montreal is like based on yeah they're also don't like listening to a lot of lyrics but the biggest artist ever from Montreal like Celine Dion fucking simple plan okay okay completely different vibe yeah like that we don't want to hear all the words y'all messing up our high that's so that's the big all right but um but well before we get to some of the specifics of working your path explain your relationship like you and ghosts how do you guys link up and how do you guys work with their music we met okay so in Quebec we have this thing after high school called it's like caught like a junior college type thing we call the CGF here just like two years after you know after I'm high before you go to university and that's what I mean but the thing is like our high schools are five years like you guys have junior high middle school so like after sixth grade there's like five years that we call secondary so set the secondary one or sec one for short all the way up to sec five yeah that's like grades seven to eleven we call that high school got you and then we got that at the CGF thing and then we have CGF for two years just like community college yeah but we're kind of we have to like do it you gotta do it yeah yeah you got one way you can do it you do one year of CGF and then that will count as like finishing high school for like other places because that that would be technically a supplementation for like 12th grade and then you can apply to like colleges outside Quebec so like dates or like somewhere else in Canada it's like it's really particular to Quebec because like you go to Ontario like Toronto and stuff you go to 12th grade and go straight to university so it's a little weird over here but yeah that's what we met we always we're talking about music like you would put me on to a lot of old shit and then we just always talk about music and one day it's like yo can you do this magic managing shit and he's like now I don't know about managing and then he went to do his research for like on the internet for like three days and we came back but I bet I got to talk to him it goes seem like the vibe I catch off a ghost really already is a research heavy dude man you seem like you know about your weird like random facts and shit like that also he got like a crazy his memories is ridiculous so it's like he'll I'll be like yo when do we release this song and it would be like okay was April yeah February 12 2011 whatever damn you need yourself a manager like that you're saying hey hey for real for a lot of people are hurting for a manager says don't you have one so how let's um get to the point where you feel like you were taking rap seriously what made you what made what was that switch where you feel like this is a serious thing for you it was in 2012 me and actually men goes wrong the phone and he just hit me up out of nowhere and we just talk as we were I would kind of doing this music shit but it wasn't we're just doing it for fun right and you know if we're gonna do this like we can do that but we got to do it for real for real we just had this whole this conversation that lasted a long we have a lot of these conversations once in a while like your last three four hours and it's really like yo if we're gonna do it we're gonna do is for real and it's not no local shit like you know if you're gonna rap you want to be the best rapper then we're aiming at our competition is is Kanye is Drake is Kendrick Lamar is Jay Cole Jay Z not even people who are live like it's big it's too far no it's anybody that we ever out of lives in hip-hop anybody music out that's who we're competing against because you focus on the local shit then you only get local success and that's not what we aim you know so one day we had that conversation and that's when we're like it was in 2012 my I bet and from that point on that's when I took it seriously and really started making moves in towards that goal don't man I look I definitely like I've heard no not all you attracts but I definitely heard of you and I would I definitely but like the vibe like the feel you have a very no I'm not even gonna put you on the pocket with anybody but I like that I like the style it's moving it's already highly produced highly you know great production I think for real for I like interest in choices y'all make it might be a result of where you are you know I mean when you talk about people like hey you know I'm not saying like you I haven't heard occasion I beat that you're on but the production choices are interesting than what I oftentimes I'm here and then your flow is you know it's on par with you know just wait anybody else you know I'm saying so where who inspired you who are your primary inspirations when it came to your rap style was it like more of a you more you can do you consider yourself more of a Kendrick camp because Kendrick's probably too he might be too young to be one of your main inspirations but was it more more lyrical type artists in general or was it just anything well appreciate it and yeah that's a good question because actually I don't think it's a too young for me to to to be influenced by our inspired by it because the older I got the more I realized that I could get any body like it doesn't matter who it is what it is it could be like a local a local rapper that I don't really you know listen to like that but if I heard something that really like inspires me then I'll take it but growing up I really love Nas now was my favorite rapper that came from the school of like if you want to go there like more lyrical side but I moved away from only focusing on the lyrics I understand like it's just an aspect of hip hop you know it's like I don't like the segregation of always that lyrical or that mumbo or is it this or that it's like everything is important in hip hop and it's just about how much of each lane can you use you know I'm saying so Nas I love Nas I also love 50 growing up like in my early early teenage years it was 50 50 was everything that I listen to 50 G and it related I was it I even bought fucking the Tony a like that's it I bought like shady aftermath you know like yo I bought the remember that will be choice album I bought will be choice album even the the rear of joint like the Eminem I bought anything that the first album I ever bought was never should I try from then on I was hood you know you were walking around with a bulletproof vest where you ask my mom wouldn't get that summer spammy like man I was just trying to look with you in the clothing like yo that shit was yeah it's been a lot of different people over the year like I said no it's 15 I'm Andre 3000 most death Lauren Hill like it's a lot of people I listen to growing up I really like ASAP too I like drink I like a cake called for a while too like it's I want like my inspiration really came from everybody okay though yeah I can definitely hear a few of those people and then even a content that you talk about before because I like just to understand a little bit about the artist mindset and what they like to talk about even before you necessarily get into just that progress of the music from a consumer and marketplace standpoint and when I hear just your content I've heard it sounds like you care about certain issues you don't just talk like random stuff right you're usually saying something or you're mentioning like something about like I don't know black scam just making a surrender I'm not that I can't think of a certain lyric but there's a sense of consciousness I don't mean like that in the whole pigeon hole type of way you're a conscious rapper but you're you're making statements about things that you care about is that correct yeah I don't like you said I don't go into it as oh I'm the conscious rapper so I have to say I have to make a statement about something every single time but if something is on my mind that I want to address I don't shy away from the dressing you know like a song every black man talking about you know just the feelings of a black man in North America in this type of society that we have like I'm gonna talk about it I'll talk about whatever I want to talk about you know I'm saying so I definitely don't stop myself and talk about shit that I think is important but I also don't make it my point for every single song to talk about those things so it's really it really depends on how I feel or how really what the beat is telling me I'm listening to a beat I'm like okay this this is giving me some angry vibes like I want to I want to go in on this or I want to know it's more relaxed and suspecting type shit so I like it was ghost actually told me one time you like yo this this shit really stuck to me but it's like yo it's really like your voice is just the last instrument to place on a beat so it's like you can't just layer your vocals on top of a beat it's like okay whatever the song is inspiring you you add like the last instrument which is your vocal so whatever whatever the song really really needs is what I had to it.


Man if this arc doesn't end with Frankie putting his fists through pandams face I don't want to see it ladies and gentlemen welcome back to the channel My name is Shaq Tabasar. I should know be in a such 251 252 over one piece watch today last episode Kedah hitting the one-fourth of the way to a thousand mark But in the last two we got a lot of the truth behind what actually went on in water seven whenever Tom was alive again I'm assuming he's dead But he maybe I've just been in prison in any slobby back whenever Tom saved water seven basically and everything that happened Whenever Frankie and iceberg were his disciples and everything he taught them and how basically the government once again Screwed them over and basically framed everything on top and by everything I mean attacking the judicial ship when in reality a lot of the only problem They originally had with Tom was the fact that he built Roger ship We're gonna get into it see what's going on because they said they're going to take Frankie to chewed any slobby If you're new to the channel drop us up and hit that big boy bell. Let's hop right into these bad boys I like how the snails faces changed based on whoever's talking through them like their inflection Why'd he call him spanda?  Please man God This is awkward Is he gonna tell them tell us what happened to Luffy in them? Maybe they'll kick him in the action. Go find them Hopefully I feel so different about iceberg now. We know so much about iceberg now Little mouse you can't do anything to help. Oh Chopper MVP. Oh, he's gonna cut the cut the ropes and save them The only departure that was the departure to any slobby Yeah, why is it like to fully find a travel during awkward Laguna? So this is why there was one at what 11 p.m. to any slobby He knows everything Want to hear his guess oh He from the back streets the corner at Blue Nose, maybe he is talking about them They don't work much. Okay, maybe not the shipwrecks were always in the yard from what we saw at least I Mean unless they're in disguise, maybe you won't see them Chopper giga-chat saving both of them. I like how he has Zoro's blade in his mouth Zoro would like hold it. Oh, yeah, that's my that's my chopper, baby The mouse all saved by a straw hat And he's still focused on helping medical treatment This little mouse is so adorable man.  Yeah, and technically they're government officials Oh, no, oh, no, he's gonna drop it Monster No Kaku, I liked you bro. Yeah, he was the one that inspected it originally Oh, no, that would destroy it completely Just a watch That can't be the end of No No, my gosh Dude, honestly, where is Sanji? I don't I think it's been like 20 episodes or something crazy like that He's awake. He's alive. Look at that little mouse Knowing the backstory of water seven two I'm really happy that iceberg is the one that's in charge that he's the mayor that everybody looks up to Iceberg can vouch for them. He knows everything now Mommy's up to you Bro, there's no way that's your your priority right now I thought would be like just completely making sure icebergs. Okay. We're talking to iceberg. Okay. He's up. He's talked to him Guys, give us some space. Why don't we all take a step back from the burning build growing rocks? Oh a tap on the shoulder works the mouse is so happy, man To say the least Oh more than tom told him To say the least I just want to know why tom knew about her knew that she was going to be involved in this so early on I guess because but she was a child even then Because she could decipher stuff Do they both want a blueton blueprints or just a blueton in general? That's what i'm saying. I think frankie would die without giving them up too And there's no reason for her to help the government she has to owe them or something or they have some dirt on her I don't know She just wants to know the history that's it You knew there was more to it I said Iceberg's been saying this forever And now it's like that with ranking times 20 times 1,000 times 10,000 Maybe you changed your mind right here convinced her that it wasn't worth finding Yo har devils were the ships that she destroyed right?  He's been gone for a minute. It was daytime. They almost like 16 episodes ago Sanji didn't lose faith This is a raised water level did sanji like sneak onto the train or something Wait, that would have been giga check because he saw on the board that one was going to any slobby Uh, they're not gonna get to see if their theories were right or not Wait that scar is he that's not one of the elder stars. Is it Oh, there he is. He is trying to sneak on. I think bingo. Oh shoot Is this about to be like sanji james bond like sneaking around I mean he can tell her he forgives her like he can like they can try to figure it out But they're too deep in now everything with frankie the pluton It's too messy to just straight up leave now I mean we've reached the point where we've found a big chunk of what robin's dream is So it has to be settled one way or another not to mention everything with mary and usopp leaving the crew Luffy being defeated zoro being defeated everybody being out of the loop on everything. That's a lot It's a very nasty situation very messy. Let's go episode two 52 I don't think he's one of the elder star. I'd have to go back and look the scar looks familiar.  That is corgi. Okay. He's not an elder star Is the darkness like the fact that they would be targeted That's a bit of ruckus though, and then the straw hats would definitely be targeted She's trying to protect them Oh my This man bro I I I like how he acknowledges how she's powerful enough to stop all of them either way The heart the heart clouds Yeah, it is corgi. Okay They're cp9 That's rob luchi's son They do look really intimidating. I like their designs all of them Oh So i'm just like, huh He looks familiar It looks clean Oh I'm shocked that lushi isn't the leader of cp9. Gosh gawila is just obliterated. It's so sad They're all trying to save or save anything they can. Oh my gosh, they're so hype Little chopper's okay Okay But it's so fascinated by him That little mouse man There's no way they can catch it they'd have to get there a different way There's no way they'd be able to sneak on the train either way though That's why I feel like sanji might because one person alone is different Aqua laguna just has terrible timing Another i mean dude, how long was the aqua laguna last too? Doesn't kokoro have some part in the train though running maybe she's the key of this The direction just look that way all he's questioning his entire existence Oh, man, this is tough to explain He's saving them saving their names. Wow shameless girl He doesn't want to have people question the ship rides from now on just because of them Go go go Yeah, not until everything's figured out and settled Dang Good guy paulie still my number one contender for the ship ride position. Do they need to get to like higher ground? Look at chopper But he's got soros sword. Let's go find them Oh, man, the winds it begins aqua laguna Did you just find the highest vantage point or is he? Oh, okay. He's yelling for them That's quietly whispers in we stopped come back to us Chopper they're all yelling this is so wholesome actually We stopped come back to us That's so wholesome So she's going right to the train station it's chopper's job to find them build them in They just don't know the extent of the whole thing with the pluton and all that I mean they kind of do Robin Bag it government dogs. Uh-oh they're gonna get beat for that Sanji, what are you doing man? Go found the move. He's not even on Oh Yeah, kind of jinxing it back on some wood There's no way they can make it there and like quietly get on the train though Let alone find luffy and zoro and get on the train Poor iceberg this whole world is just falling apart. It's already falling apart Frankie's wondering the same thing about you iceberg.  I thought zoro was on one of the rooftops Luffy They've been in battle Final oh, that's right. He's stuck between a building again. That's right. Just chucked him in my god. I wonder they can't find him Oh, no wonder they can't find him. Oh my What do you mean? I they disappoint me on on such a new level. It's it's impressive. How are they supposed to find them? Oh, they're really high up I mean luffy's really high up zoro's just in a chimney At least they're safe from the flood if luffy was stuck somewhere low in between a building He would literally just just die. I guess the regular person would do even just drown either way Yeah, leave I'm not shocked.  Yeah yell louder for the stop. Maybe it will It's just sad that this is the the train that that tom bill He's being used for things like this like just it's all part of this operation. Oh my god. She's thinking back to this Same to life She knew a catch up to her eventually She had to be prepared for it.  I don't know how they can even get unstuck Soros is honestly more disappointing. He's slim. I think this luffy was just thrown right into that Did sanji just get on the back? That's too late for mommy I don't see sanji if this man did not make it on we will have some problems that he took his Dang sweet time. I mean, maybe he was taking his time so that no one would receive when he got on But obviously he was walking towards the train that he made it on 1 million percent 1 billion percent If not in the last 16 episodes of him being m ia were for nothing I'm pretty sure he's just been scouting this entire time trying to figure out what was going on without getting in the middle of All of it, which was a good idea because if he hadn't then no one would have gotten on that train aside from I guess Frankie and usopp are there but they're taken prisoner sorrow luffy again has an excuse sorrow slipped and fell in a Jimny brother My question is now like how are they going to have any part in anything that happens Whatever in east lobby is the train is going to take that group there And how the hell is this group supposed to get to in east lobby? They can't even sail there I'm assuming because of aqua laguna even if mary was in good condition So it's going to be very interesting to see this split perspective because of how far apart they're going to be I always say I'm it's kind of a toss up for me whenever the gang is all all split apart But this is a very interesting dynamic based on everything that's going on But guys, that's been it from so 251 252 over one piece watch through do drop a sub on the channel If you are new and I'll catch you guys in the next one space


The fourth season in the league with the Houston Rockets made the all rookie team Jay Chante joining us now from a cold midwest area of the country. Good luck with that by the way. Rockets 18 and 18.  What's different? I mean everything.  Our young Corey's has been everything and Alperin Sangoon coming into his own playing at an all-star caliber has really been great for us as well. Jay Sean like you said it's Eme Udoka's first season as head coach of this team.  I think he's just given us a defensive presence identity. We really pride ourselves on that end and I think we've been a problem for teams and you know there's going to be growing pains and there's some games that we thought we could get away with that you know we have to learn from but ultimately we're in a way better spot than we were prior years and we're only going to continue to get better. Jay Sean you guys had a tough loss last night. Sorry brother I should have you had a follow-up question. Teamwork. Teamwork. I just saw that.  Come on now. They got three wins though. Is there some sort of pressure going into a game like that? You don't want to be that you don't want to lose to those guys right? I wouldn't say we're worried about them as much as it is about us you know Coach Silas is over there so it's always good to see him but you know we're trying to get more wins on the road. We protect at home at this point pretty good but we're still trying to find a road identity and you know it's a good good chance that we do that tomorrow. Jay T you're learning real fast man that was a great that was a great answer. Don't give him anything to put on the clipboard with some added incentive to beat you guys. I gotta ask you this you guys added Dylan Brooks in this in the summertime in off season what's that been like playing with Dylan and what does he give you guys? Yeah it's funny because you know I didn't really know Dylan before before he came to the team but I mean he's one of the best teammates man he's one of the best teammates to take the floor with you know I enjoy being this teammate and what he brings for us to this team is important and you know we're missing him out there right now but he'll be back real soon. What have you what have you seen him do on the floor with some of his antics or you like damn I'm glad this dude on my team and not the other way around. I mean he just doesn't play take take plays off man I mean he's he's he's full of throttle at all times like he's locked in from when we get there from shoot around till game time and you know his work ethic shows in the game he just brings us that fire that grit and we feed off of it for sure. He's a great he doesn't break character like he's a great heel I'm I'm just that whole pre that pregame stare down thing he never breaks. I think he stole that from me too by the way but that's another kind of guy.  All right earlier in the season you were ejected from a game for quote an overt gesture and you question the integrity of the ref. We are huge fans of overt gestures here so what was it and what did you say to the ref statute of limitations is up. You're safe. Oh I think man so many games I gotta even think that many games. Honestly I think I literally wasn't even talking to you but I said it's like we're playing 8 on 5 out here. Yeah that'll get you. That's gonna do it. Yeah but anytime you insinuate the refs are cheating they will get. They don't like that. So sensitive. All right.  Yeah I mean for sure I mean I think throughout my journey everywhere I've been has been a different style of play. You know my first year in Belgium I really felt like I learned how to play the game you know really the importance of ball movement being off the ball spacing and stuff and then when I went to Australia I had the opportunity to be coached by Will Weaver who also was an assistant coach here with the Rockets a few years ago and he kind of molded me to be able to play that style when I got to the league and you know I got to play with some great players who are on the way some some European greats Andrew Boget was my teammate over there at and Sydney and then fast forward to now you know the last four years in Houston I think my role has changed every year and in the position so it's just been a learning experience this year has been a learning experience and I'm just taking me how it goes. Food items in Belgium that you miss any. I gotta say the first prize. People don't know first prize are actually from Belgium. With the mayonnaise right? No that's poutine. Sure. What do they call it poutine? No that's it's not rancher. It's not no indeed the mayonnaise thing at first you're like I don't know but it's gross. It's gross. No it's not gross. Both of y'all are terrific. He's telling you. He is telling you all right so you had a look James Harden has had quite the roller coaster ride in the league and you played with him in Houston it was only eight games what an interesting time for you to have to play with James Harden. I don't imagine he was thrilled in those days like what was that like. Yeah I mean there was a lot going on coaching change you know some players want to change and all I can really remember is just like you know that was my rookie year so that first week everybody caught COVID you know I wasn't even expecting to really play like that you know coming in um want to not guarantee and then half team caught COVID so you know I went out there I'm like yo this is I remember the first game was Portland uh versus us and you know him and them we're just going back and forth at it and I'm like oh okay this is this is the real deal and um you know he he definitely was you know um helpful with me that first year for the eight games I had just being able to play with a pro like him um and uh you know I wish you but success all right I know y'all had one incident in practice what happened uh it just it was it was just basketball you know the second unit was getting up on the first unit um you know it just got a little competitive but it was blown way out of proportion we were cool we always we always tell these stories Chandler and I we always say like trust me if y'all really seen what goes on behind the scenes and practices when it gets heated and competitive that's just the tip because we don't see it like with the Jordan pool dream I think there was a video but we don't see it usually if you don't see yeah like these things there's a story every day that it's something happening every day you know whether it's personal or whatever play going out of coach whatever yeah let me ask you you've you've played next to boogie cousins um you have any good boogie stories I got a I got a ton of boogie stories here's my guy have you got any good boogie stories I think the funniest story I got was boogie is uh we were in the training room one time and we got this full mirror we got this like full body mirror and he was buying he double takes he goes what happened to me I used to look like I used to look like that I was like one of the funniest stories uh that I got of him because you had the whole whole uh training buddy behind the scenes life life comes out you fast it's very it's very fun that you're real fast jay shawnt you've also you've been compared to a few vets pj tucker's one of them dream on greens the other do you like these comparisons do what do you think about these um I definitely think there's some some similarities but um you know at the end of the day um you know I'm I'm just jay shawnt take you know I'm saying um there's definitely things that um I try to you know take from them and learn from them uh from afar you know I got the opportunity to play with pj um for for a year my first year as well and um man he was hard he was hard uh on me that first year um with the low man and how just being in the in defensive um in the right position so uh that was a learning point for me so I definitely uh do that I remember how he used to yell at me and then fast forward I'm yelling at rookie just like he did so there's definitely some some some similarities but uh I think we're all different it's all cyclical all right off the court for a second uh over the summer you you interned you volunteered at a burger joint through the drive first of all why would you want I mean I I did the restaurant stuff for a long time people are mean did you like it I'm not gonna lie that was giving me a hard time what do what is coke then he wanted ice and bill what he wanted ice and coke in different cups line was long I wasn't there too long man it was a humbling experience um but you know uh shout out to bumby uh he has a great establishment going man and the burgers are actually tourist I'm gonna go out on the land and say me and jt are probably only two people in this conversation that has had trill burger trill burger no you got trill burgers shut up channel wait is that is that the show knows that James Harlan was having like he had a bunch of burgers in the same way man I'm asking I'm asking he's genuinely asking I'm you guys remember that video I'm gonna win a little off topic here is it a good burger it's an actually a smash burger it's like a smash burger yeah I'm rolling it's an actually good burger shout out the bar they got a vegan burger as well see okay you don't no thanks no trailer said no thanks okay fair enough um you're very much involved in the community you've got Christmas for kids a basketball clinic for special needs kids um local coffee which we could use right now uh why where does all that passion come from um yeah I mean you know Houston is like the first uh you know team to give me an opportunity and this has been my home here for the past five years and um the community the community has shown nothing but love to me and you know I've been blessed um where I am and um you know where I come from it's it's always good to you know be involved and get back so um like I said I got blessed to meet some really good people uh through coffee uh David Brewer who owns uh blacksmith coffee is one of the best baristas um in the city so if y'all ever go to Houston you want to check that out um he put me in contact with uh a guy named Remi Yusuf who runs the ninth wonder foundation um like you said uh is a uh a foundation that helps kids uh on the spectrum um play play basketball um have clinics and stuff like that but also through just networking I met um a girl named Lily um Lily the ball I just want to get her name right a 14 year old girl um who has a warehouse full of toys that she just gives out to the community and um she she's been doing this for uh you know a few years now and it's grown every year and uh this Christmas was a very great experience where we had a couple families come in and um give them some rocket gear and they got to pick out I mean they had so many toys that you know I kind of felt bad for their mom I'm like I told them they got to pick up these toys when they go home too many toys now oh man so many toys but um yeah uh it's just been a great uh great experience for me being in this city and you know I love the city in it and when you give it love it'll love you back so you got that Jason I got drafted there in 2011 and some of my best relationships are still the you know people I've met from the courtside sitting courtside or these gallows so you you nailed it that that city in particular for me you do you show love you do things that you're doing in the community and they're gonna love you always bro so keep doing them so Jason everyone has a welcome to the NBA moment I need to hear yours besides the Boogie Cousins moment maybe that was you know interesting in your own NBA win for you specifically I got a good one I can't remember which um which moist when it was oh gosh never a good start I think it was I think it was the Lakers it was like in Boogie Cousins actually in this story as well um but you know I'm a big tier guy so you know when guys cut you're supposed to chuckle you know I'm saying so guys guys are going in like I'm chucking them you know to stop the cut man I must check wrong wrong wrong person I know I'm I'm I'm being there behind the bathroom but uh I don't keep us at him yeah yeah it was it was uh that was definitely one of my welcome to the league moments um but you know Boogie Boogie had my follow-up and uh I'm like you know what happened like I asked him again he's like yo you can't be doing that out here like no like we don't do that up here so um that's definitely definitely was my first one I love that everyone has a story it's so good Jay Sean this has been a pleasure thank you so much good luck the rest of the way stay warm up there appreciate it thank you thank you good luck the rest of the way bro Lou you want to apologize to shams he was right shams was right yep shams was right same burger same burger yeah that's the burger the burger in the picture we're going to take quick break when we come back that man has a family


Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we have with us Siddharth Roy who's joining in from Bali is on the ground. Siddharth G20 has always been an important event for all of us because we watch what international affairs look like and this is a place where leading players do meet. What are you hearing on the ground particularly with the two most important issues will start with the first one which is the Ukraine issue. Are there possibilities of some thought or are we going to see the continuation of keep Russia isolated, give them a pariah state as which what the western world seems to be doing of course led by the United States. To be quite direct about what is up with the G20, it is essentially facing a complete communications breakdown both internally and externally and the breakdown is so big that what we expect the G20 to be might entirely be derailed and it has everything to do with of course the Russia and Ukraine going on. So picture this that we have had zero talks between the US and other major powers barring the back channel talks between India and them or China and them. There's such a standoff that we all know that you know the family photo as I call it the photo of all the leaders standing together was foregone. It's gone to an extent where they don't even want to be seen in one photo together. How does the G20 even function when communications are at this level? Let alone the possibility of a thought, I don't think we have seen such a breakdown, such an isolation since the peak of the Cold War. That is what the ground reality is. Now it is much too, I mean there is no other way to dress this up but the West's approach primarily of course the United States but also their allies in the US. So we can use the term like the NATO allied countries kind of. It has not only on Russia they're in trying to isolate Russia the so-called project of isolating Russia.  Say for example the Saudi Arabia. We know that there is no communication like official communication happening between the Saudi Arabian contingent here with the American contingent. So from a functioning point of view that G20 literally has a huge long list of things to attend to. It's not just the leader's summit right? It's not just military and security affairs. There is a massive event called the B20, the business side stream of it. Do you see anything about that much outside? No. There is O20, the one related to ocean and affairs. Do you see much about that? No. So not only is the communication being broken down between the powers that be, the ones who can really make decisions, come to agreements and so on and so forth. It literally has come to a point where there is no external communication neither because as if the entire agenda of G20 has been hijacked by nothing other than the Russia-Ukraine affair. In this case isolate Russia as the strategy. Not simply that it will be focused on discussing Ukraine but focused on isolating Russia. Is that what in the sense you are telling me? Absolutely. It is not merely that we've already been through several sessions of the United Nations and the Security Council and so forth where the NATO nations and Ukraine have been lobbying different countries and telling them come on board, get against Russia. It's not merely that tactical thing. Now it's come down to a matter of we will discuss nothing but Russia and Ukraine. And at the front lines of this very sorry state of affairs is in fact the Western corporate media. So I'm standing outside the meeting rooms. The reason I'm actually hanging outside of the meeting rooms is because here is where I'm getting inside the meeting rooms. It's just the very prepared statements which are vacuous to say the least. What would expect that in G20 you will actually come out with concrete things but we're getting nothing of the sort. I invite anybody watching this to just go on Twitter. You will see that there is nothing other than inter alia. There is nothing overtly stated by any of the leaders, any of the delegations that we're going to do AX, YZ, etc. So standing outside here, coming back to the point of the Western press, I obviously have been fraternizing with them and talking to them. It is very evident that they have come with a single point agenda of rabble rousing, cornering the Russian delegation and the reluctance of the Russian team to actually interact with the press, the Western press is evident that they are not interested in playing up to these games. Now what is this doing in terms of news and communicating to the outside world is that if an entire contingency of journalists have come simply to raise a ruckus, then there will be no briefing to the press. The world at large will not know what is happening. What are the conversations here? That's a very interesting point because G20 is a place which was an expansion from G7. Idea was that it will get the big leaders of the world in who are the decision makers for their countries. If G20 does not become such a platform, that means we are going back to the belief that G7 can run the world and that's really then what is likely to happen. And you can see that Southeast Asia is a major economic player in the world today and Indonesia being the G20 head today is a recognition of that and after that it was going to be India's turn. Now if this is what happens to G20, in fact what it does is to knock out the intermediate players globally who are the emerging countries. India is not just an emerging country. It's a big economy now. It's replaced UK as the fifth largest economy in the world. So given all of that, it means going back to the old boys club of the G7. Is that what the idea is that isolate Asia, marginalize the rest and we will decide what's going to happen in the world? Without a doubt, I mean what is happening here is now you have the US and its allies in Europe who are holding the entire agenda of G20 hostage. So that is, if that is not a negation of the very spirit of moving from a G7 to a G20, what else is? If you really look at, you know, there were the rumors, I mean there's nothing but more than rumors that Putin did not attend because of a threat of assassination. I have not found, I mean not that there is no real evidence to back that claim up, but let us unpack that argument a bit here. Let us for argument sake assume that yes, there was a credible threat to Putin being assassinated attack, something like that. If that's the case, is it not a complete negation of all the efforts put in by the Indonesian government to actually secure this island? This island today has become a fortress. There is no stone left unturned to use a cliched term which is being done by the Indonesian government to keep the people, the delegates, the leaders, everybody safe. So where, I mean, basis what was this rumor floated on the internet that Putin is going to be assassinated? That is an absolute negation of the very effort that this is a place which is outside of wars. This is like the culmination of the ultimate efforts of diplomacy where there will be talks. So that has been initiated, point one. Point two is that the Indonesian government, the Indian government, both these, let's not say government, let's say Indonesia and India have been showing a lot of goodwill. If you read the, if you go and watch the press conference, the interview done by India Sharpa for the G20, Amitabh Khan with Vion, you'll see, read inter alia. It's, he says that, you know, we are trying to be honest brokers. What does that mean? That means we are really trying to make this work, but we are unable to. The Sharpa meeting going on is extending to insane hours. Like the Sharpas are trying to come up with a basic protocol, a basic common minimum program of getting the people to talk. So in all ways, in every way imaginable, the brouhaha over centralizing Russia and Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine by the west is completely derailing the spirit and the letter of G20. And we are not going to see anything except now the economic sanctions play out in the world. And of course, the military course of the war, which has become de facto a NATO versus Russia war, because all the arms, ammunitions, et cetera, coming from the NATO sources and the Ukraine's economy at the moment is completely underwritten by the European Union and the United States. But moving away from that, do you see any other movement taking place, for instance, the US, China? Do you see any thawing on that count also? Or shall we say that this G20 will have to be written off and we are back to the height of Cold War, no talks and posturing, et cetera, et cetera, as the international, in the name of international diplomacy. Let me elaborate a little bit on this. If you see the Saudi crown prince, MBS had declared, his office had declared that he will be traveling to India and Pakistan in the coming month. And the office of the crown prince just doesn't go out and say something without probably years, if not months of planning. Last night, that was withdrawn. Now, this is a meeting between Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, India. What happened in behind the scenes that the crown princess has said that, oh, maybe it's not going to happen. Because what essentially is happening, Praveel, is that given the preponderance, the hegemony, which one issue has taken over everything else at G20, there is a sense of disappointment among delegates of all countries who quite clearly see that nothing is going to move ahead when it comes to the diplomatic relations. As far as the military, centering the militaristic concept is concerned, you see, the West is really playing a dirty game here.  And the interesting thing is that it's getting retweeted and endorsed and quoted by the mainstream media. A big example of that is that just two days before some from somewhere a tweet came out and it went viral that Russia is probably going to launch a whole horde of missile attacks on Ukraine. Now, is that right? Is that wrong? We don't know. We'll know in the coming day or two. But the interesting part is that how is it that dark news was brought out in connection with the G20? The tweet said that Russia planning to launch a massive missile attack on Ukraine during G20. Why would you say during G20? The war has been going on for months now. So, what has G20 got to do with it? Secondly, you see the duplicity here at play. I mean, there is just no other word to use. You know, the time for using euphemisms is gone. That it was, I think, March or April earlier this year, when the same bunch of Twitter slash mainstream media who had said, oh, Russia is out of missiles. Yeah, we remember that. Yeah, Russia was out of missiles.  You have not put forth one piece of paper, one intelligence report, which backs this claim up. And as yet, there has been no change. Like it's not like there's been a and what's the connection with G20 again. So what we are essentially seeing here is that the militaristic voice from the West, the agenda from the West is actually hijacking every other aspect. And this is an absolute, this is just a slap in the face of all the other countries, whether the BRICS nations or the non-West G20 members of trying to actually talk about things. I mean, there are other things to be talked about. I think that's a very important point that you're making. The G20 success or failure should not hinge only on Ukraine, but a whole bunch of other issues. None of that is on the agenda. It seems that isolating Russia is the primary agenda. The military resolution of Ukraine seems to be the only agenda. And we are back to rather dismal times, which were the height of Cold War. But even during the height of Cold War, they were back channels operating all the time. Conversations did take place. What we seem to see is a total breakdown of communications currently. Maybe in the future, 20 years down the line, we'll come to know maybe there are some back channel communications still taking place. But on the face of it, every communication seems to have broken down. And what you're telling me, this G20 is being set up for a failure and a platform to use against Russia, but not to really do anything, meaning fully diplomatic terms. And it does mean marginalizing all the other countries, players like Indonesia, ASEAN, India, Saudi Arabia, which has just come in. All of these players are going to be therefore not really heard in any meaningful sense. So actually to take more from your point, you see there, the spirit of G20 could have seen a very positive expansion during this session. The African Union has been quite vocal this year, saying that South Africa cannot be the only member. The African Union should be given a seat at G20. If the spirit of G20 was to be inclusive and be accepting of the new global reality, the new multipolar global reality, then that is a very legitimate demand. And here is the interesting part. It is not that there aren't big powers who are not willing to consider and talk about the African Union getting a seat. But what has happened is that that has been washed out. We don't see formal reporting about it. And the reporting part is very crucial here, Praveen. I have been, as I said, moving around in the circles of the press call that has come in. You can see that they have been prepped. What they are going to report is what they already have decided. They are being coached by members of the U.S. State Department and other places. It's quite evident in the way they are speaking. And what this has done is that, of course, beside the standard thing of pushing an agenda, is that independent minded journalists, including my own self for that matter, who won't simply take the official press statement and run it, they stand a very clear risk of being barred from knowing what is happening. That combined with the fact that the only reporting coming out will be like some soft, vacuous statements from ex-leader and y ambassador leads to a complete failure even to the external world. So as things stand today, there is very little hope for G20 to come out with concrete agreements and agenda and programs and so on and so forth. The only possible silver lining to this is that because India was, as we all know, that India was castigated by Ukraine and not very subtly slammed by the U.S. and Europe for not overtly siding with Ukraine against Russia during the UN Security Council meetings. But India has interestingly turned out to be the only nation which is capable of actually talking to all the parties involved. There is, in fact, there was a mention, we're not certain about that. Maybe India actually is going to have a bilateral talk with China as well. But other than that, what all reporters here know is that India is really becoming like the centerpiece for all the back channel talks. The Americans won't talk to the Saudis. The ex won't talk to y, yada, yada. So India has, some of it to its active credit, but also maybe the scenario that's emerged is that India is becoming very important to helping these parties at least do some talking. So if not this one, and perhaps if things get a little better on ground, perhaps the next G20 is where we'll see some disarmament, some stepping back and the thought that you mentioned. So historical past of India with Russia in keeping the channels open, buying Russian oil and goods, of course means communication is also there. So if you want to talk to Russia, but don't want to seem that you're talking to Russia, maybe then you talk to India, is what I hear you saying, could be the... Actually more the legacy of the non-aligned movement. It is almost like we are reliving history. Those of the younger generation who haven't seen the Cold War, who haven't seen the hiddies of the non-aligned movement, it's almost like a return to history. That's a good point, but let's not forget, it doesn't work when it comes to China. When it comes to China, India is not it comes to Russia, it is. So more complex global scenario as yet, but you have hit the nail right on the head, question of the African Union is a very major issue and the fact that they are not players except South Africa is, but again South Africa doesn't represent Africa as you rightly said, and particularly sub-Saharan Africa doesn't really consider South Africa to be representing it. Really complex global scenarios, hopefully, hopefully this G20 will not be a complete failure and maybe some doors, if not doors, windows will open, but as of now fingers crossed and things for what's in that you're telling us things really do not look good. And on that note, I'm going to close this discussion, come back to you again during the course of this next two days, these two days and see whether something will be salvaged or not, or will we go into this winter on a global freeze. Thank you very much for that for being with us and giving us a wonderful view, a brown view of what's really happening in Bali. That's all we have, the time we have today news click, we'll come back to you on our further reportings in Bali, particularly since we have said that, who is there and is going to talk to us, hopefully in the future as well.


As-salamu alaikum. Today Muslims in Canada and around the world will mark the end of the Hajj and celebrate Eid al-Adha. This holiday is a time for loved ones to come together to pray, share a meal and celebrate life's blessings. And it's a chance to reflect on lessons of sacrifice and values like service, compassion and generosity. Muslim Canadians show us the best of those values all year round, whether it's supporting a local charity or being there for neighbours in need. So today let's celebrate Canada's Muslim communities and the many contributions they make to shape our country for the better. On behalf of our family, Sophie and I wish all those celebrating a wonderful Eid al-Adha. Eid Mubarak. May peace and blessings be upon you.