Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Esoteric Atlanta. I am course. I'm I am course. I am of course With my friend and your friend Emmy something from Holistic Genie, I will put her links down in the description box below This is just a very quick Shadow work challenge update for you guys I know Emmy's got to be off at a certain time because she's got her class today So how are you Emmy before we get into it? Just a quick hello I'm doing pretty good. Um, the last few months have been Rough but it's alright. It's alright. I'm I'm in the tail end of the flu or cold or whatever the last two weeks I have been Kind of down and out. So I haven't been very active in the group or on my channel, which is Fine because we all need to take some rest when our body needs rest. So it's what we're saying on the phone the other day It's like Dory from yeah, so I feel like Dory It's like I get to these points where it's so overwhelming and I'm just like I just can't do that anymore And if anybody feels the need to comment about how that's all Hollywood blah blah blah We to let we need to loosen up a little bit. It's a funny thing I I tell myself that all the time like just keep swimming just keep swimming You know, sometimes you just kind of have to keep going and so yeah, it has been very rough and I'm glad you're feeling better I know a lot of people.  I just I wanted to say I wanted to say one thing when this when this 60-day challenge is done Take a break from shadow work. Yeah You can't do shadow work all the time like I would say take at least a good month Like keep up your routine like the meditation and the exercise Yeah, and as far as deep diving into the the real deep issues the traumas all that stuff Give yourself a breather. Yeah. Oh, I'm sure this has definitely been bringing up a lot of Stuff for people and it's been very eye-opening and and very challenging But you just need to Take a break and let yourself integrate the changes that you've made let you let allow yourself to embody the Shift in mindset, you know, it's not a race. This all takes time You know, Bryce and I have been at this for a couple decades and we're still Working on things. We're still struggling. We're still having things come up. So it it's you're never done No, I would say you're done when you're dead, but even then you're not done. So yeah Yeah, I'm so glad you've said that Emmy because that's true We do have what we call and yoga the integration phase and so and yeah, you did that doesn't mean you stop exercising And meditating and journaling it just means you you kind of stop picking up the scab for a little bit and let things integrate I know in the mice or room it's very common to have a Couple of weeks to a month where the teacher is literally on top of you every practice Cranking you adjusting you working you really hard for like a month straight and then all of a sudden for like a couple of weeks The teacher doesn't touch you and that's the integration phase and it's integration time for your body So if we're looking at the very physical aspect of your body opening and allowing the body to kind of Find its balance in the new new the new patterns that are have been created So when you're doing all this deep diving and this work on yourself You're challenging old patterns in order to create new patterns and there's a control demolition And then once that happens there needs to be a back-off period. You're still exercising of course Don't quit exercising don't quit journaling or meditating, but you're not digging deep You're just kind of allowing things to kind of settle And that gives you a time to kind of reflect to see where the changes have actually happened, too So at the end of the month where you're not digging deep in yourself You can kind of see where things have integrated into your system, too So it is a very it's maybe we should even do a show on that After we're done with the 60 days a round table about that because you do you can't just kind of kind of keep digging and digging Without stepping back and seeing How far you've gone or what actually has shifted in you and changed in you because sometimes the shifts are very Subtle, you know very subtle shifts and you don't notice. I know for me specifically I can Look back at 40 I can look back at 30 and I'm a totally different person now From where I was at 30 and I know all that I can see I don't know when all those changes actually happened But I can see when they how they evolved through the 10 years and so Um, that's really important and to give yourself that moment I know I tell my students a lot In ashtanga because ashtanga when you go to mice or classes that is traditionally a class of criticism You're going to be corrected. That's why you're going is to learn And so I always try to make sure every once in a while especially in the lobby with my students just to remind them that You're doing a good job You know, I just want to remind you you have a strong practice Because sometimes we become so especially, you know, I think the more empathic you are the more You we tend to kind of beat ourselves up sometimes and and so it is sometimes Important to sit back and go, you know what? doing a good job And this is hard stuff And so and that that month where you can kind of take a break from really deep diving into how you're feeling You can just celebrate, you know, it can be like a month of sunday fun days where you're just doing some Richard Simmons and Jane Fonda sweat into the old days and just enjoying yourself and enjoying your body and And enjoying the you know, even though we don't do this shadow work for the vanity The vanity is nice. Enjoy the changes in your body. Enjoy feeling You know as the body starts to heal itself on a very physical level the opening and the hips and the Feeling better and the stomach being stronger and I mean, right? I mean like it's kind of nice when the body starts to Look younger, you know Yeah, it is nice. Um, yeah Excited about that. It's okay to be like damn. I look good in a bathing suit, you know Yes, absolutely Absolutely, and then you know in your break with the shadow work too another thing that Has really been helpful for me Is um focusing on and journaling on my character assets, you know So so often we focus on what needs to be changed and and what we don't like about ourselves But it's really really important to balance that with Focus on what you're doing. Well, what you like about yourself what your assets are Um, you know because our our egos are hyper focused on okay, you know What's wrong with me and what do I need to change and and you know that that's important we need to do that but balancing that with resting and taking a break and looking at what we're doing well and What assets we have is is really important because Otherwise, we're just the the focus is unbalanced, you know Need to it's awesome. You must be telepathic and me because that's part of their work tomorrow and oh really? Yeah, and it's so important. It's actually my favorite exercise that we did it in the third day too So I added it to 60 days. This is my favorite. Obviously today is Thursday, February 16th Happy Mardi Gras for those that are celebrating Mardi Gras Um, and so I'm not going to go too much into what you're doing today because I'm going to you This is me posting at the end of the day. So let's go ahead and look at Friday Um, February 17th Uh, so warm up for both beginners and experienced. There's a hip stretch We've also got the sun citations, which the sun citation challenge is coming up Uh, Sean team morning will be coming on the film about that Um, and then beginners you can do a 30 minute kickboxing or an experienced 45 minute kickboxing Which people in the sigma group and we are loving the kickboxing It's fun. It could be fun. So I'm glad that you guys and I'm really and that's why even though like Amy and I have our own Exercises that modalities that work for us again. We've been doing this for a long time So we figured out what works for us but the reason why I um put multiple different exercises in this shadow work is because I want you guys to have the Your own experiences within different modalities. So you know it works for you So you know how the kick like I said if you're someone that struggles with anger issues kickboxing might be something That's going to work for you to help you Uh dissipate that energy And so I'm really really grateful that you guys are are taking the opportunity to experience all these different types of exercises to see To really journal and understand how you're you specifically because nobody is the same No human body is the same. No human experience is the same It's uniquely yours. And so I'm so excited you guys are digging that and um, you have an all meditation or sound ball Meditation you get to pick tomorrow, which one works for you Again, you're doing your uh journaling For your dosha to figure out what foods work for you and again as I said with a 30 day challenge This is not necessarily of course the obvious is the gross body, right? Like oh my god My stomach hurts after I eat this particular food or this particular combination of food or oh my god I have a headache start to notice that but also the subtle body reactions to food Like is there anything you eat that maybe 30 45 minutes after you eat it you feel depressed Or anxiety and you notice a pattern are you starting to notice a pattern? That's also a signal to you that that food might not be energetically Good for you. Um, and so and that's one thing I love about the dosha system is that it is so different for each person Um, it and that's what I love about re beta is there is no one size fits all it is so uniquely different And so it forces each practitioner to really take authority over his or her own diet and exercise because only you really know How you are being affected only you really are the judge of what you're feeling And so that that gives you your in essence.  And that's the big difference between Are you Vedic medicine and western medicine? I hate to say it is that are you Vedic medicine is really going to encourage you To take your power back and of course you need an Ayurvedic doctor to really give you a full exam All that kind of stuff, but they're going to teach you how to work with you And and so that's why I love it so much. So this is what I love what we're doing today Hand write a note to someone you admire and the reason why I'm having you hand write it and that type it is because the hands come from the heart Right the the the chakras in the hands are an offshoot of anahata And so it means more to hand write you can either sign the note or keep it anonymous This needs to be handwritten no typing Either mail the letter to the person or place it in their mailbox or on a car windshield tell this person How much you admire them? How special they are to the world and how grateful you are for them After doing this exercise go back to your journal and answer these questions How did you feel writing the letter to the person you picked? How would you feel if you received a letter like this? Did you sign your name or did you leave it anonymous and why there are no wrong answers here? Just cure it just just for you to understand why you're doing certain things List all of the qualities you admire about this person you picked to write a letter to read over these qualities five times So read over them five times. Have you realized that these are actually qualities? It makes me emotional These are actually qualities of yourself The light you see in someone else That is your light Just like this Yes, everything is our mirror, which is why when you when you are bothered by something and someone else It's because there's something in you that needs healed Yeah, that's why it's so important when we're triggered to not look at the person or situation that triggered us Don't look at that has nothing to do with them. It's just they're they're your mirror The same thing with this when when you value and appreciate Uh a quality or qualities and another person It's because you Have those qualities and they reflect them back to you I posted a short a while ago of one of Marnie Alton's Speeches at the end of her class and she was kind of talking about this and I'll share it in the description box guys And she said something at the end. She said, um, I think I posted I'll have to check But she she was talking about that the light you see in others is your light and the the darkness You see in others is also your darkness too And she said something in order to recognize after all in order to recognize something you have to know it And so and we do focus a lot with shadow work that oh, it's the bad stuff But no, it's also the the qualities you admire in someone those are actually your qualities that you're seeing reflected back at you You know, it's it's the beauty you see in someone. That's your beauty and so Not only are you making somebody else feel really good by writing them a letter of admiration But it's also you realizing that that is a quality you share with that person And they even wrote here with shadow work. We often focus on the dark side For example, what a noise is another people's often qualities of ourself that we need to work on However, on the flip side what we admire and love about others is also the same in us The light you see in others is a light you have within you too Is this the revelation to you you in the person you wrote this letter to carry the exact same light The love you felt for the person you wrote the letter to should be the same love you hold for yourself And so I guess it's the emotional I think it's because we're so used to just criticizing ourselves so much That to realize that it's like raw says more of one even though You know, we harp so much on how earth is gangster planet because it's the hardest of all the polarity of the third density planets And it's got the like we we like overachieve when it comes to the darkness here, you know Like other planets won't touch our darkness but However, because it's so dark here. It has to also be balanced with that much light And that's the beauty of earth is that because there's so much darkness They're equally is that much light So I love it. All right. So we have journal questions. How did how did a high power exercise? How did you did a high power? There we go. You did a high power exercise to again today Once again, this was picked intentionally if there is one thing that I price want people to get from this challenge Is the power of exercise? If you can understand how energy affects the body and how the And how the mind affects the body you can use certain alchemical movements to generate counter energy in the body to heal the body mind and spirit Exercise isn't a punishment, but a superpower Exercise creates the mystic the healer and it heals the human in you So you can be a be a be of service to humanity your body is powerful Your body is limitless once you learn to control the bondage of the mind with that being said Today you did another high powered exercise to exhaust any leftover pain from the previous week's work I wanted you to be clearer to do the extra extra exercises written in blue above Do you understand this? What have you learned from your body during this challenge? So I picked a high powered exercise on this day to get rid of any residual Hangover emotional hangover so that you could be able to move into a place of admiration and seeing the light So exotic and that that works, right? I know a lot of people who have really stressful jobs Will then go and take a run after work just to be I know a lot of attorneys are runners Just to be able to get they might not realize that's what they're doing They come our chemical response to taking in that because energy cannot be created or destroyed It can only be transmuted right and so by taking an energy taking an emotion taking in stress Your superpower is now having the wherewithal to go. You know what I'm frustrated. I'm angry. I'm going to go kickbox And I'm going to go have and I'm going to go exert that energy and let it transmute itself And so that I feel but I know everybody feels better after they've exercised right you feel a little clear minded You've got you've literally Got a been able to transmute that energy and so I'm so glad that you guys are really taking that in because that is your it is And I I personally my conspiracy 10 foil hat I think that the cabal has actually like manipulated The gem and like made us feel like it was punishment to fit into skinny jeans when that was never the point of exercise It was always too alchemically that listen the yogis of yore and the ancient yogis They were living into caves in the himalayas. They weren't trying to look at a bathing suit They were just trying to find god So if we bring even though we can celebrate the benefits of exercise We can still understand the purpose of it is to move energy and really have a moment with god within our body All right So how did the exercise of bluff and blue affect you the letter writing? How did the exercise in the previous 30 day if you did this exercise in the previous 30 day challenge? How did it how did it how did doing it a second time affect you? So for those who are doing this again, how did it affect you for a second time? Do you Recognize the light and beauty you see in others is the same light and beauty that is in you as marney Okay, here we go as marney alton says in order to recognize something you got to know it The beauty you see in others is your beauty if you want to be understood seek to understand others So actually I forgot I actually quoted her here Is this exercise of writing letters of admiration something you would consider doing more often list five things you admire about yourself And I want those to be different than the ones you put in the letter Where do you really shine in life? What is your biggest talent? All right, and remember I know it's hard for us to say things that we love about ourselves But this is in your journal. No one's going to be reading this but you so you can be as honest with yourself Please be as honest with yourself as as As possible and then of course that you have your optional oil bath tomorrow night and then saturday february 18th We have rakey for self study saturday Take detailed notes in your journal over the information you find on rakey. I've got some videos up here with emmy Now we did have a change in schedule. There is a scheduling conflict. Um, it was going to be an a thing I have no system with amanda But we're gonna we're gonna have to change that so it's actually emmy is going to be sending me a link To her her rakey class at two o'clock on saturday eastern time and emmy Do you want to speak on that a little bit about your rakey classes? This isn't actually part of the shadow work challenge. You were just going to be doing it anyway, correct? Yeah, yeah Yeah, I I started um group rakey Um every not every saturday and not every other saturday, but the saturday that is closest to the full moon or new moon of that month So it has worked out the first three months of this year that it's pretty much every other saturday, but in april It's gonna change. Um So I have uh the the dates Under the video on my youtube channel where I talk about the group rakey Um, this is free if you can donate great if not just do something kind for someone else But this is free. You don't have to pay for this It's gonna be ongoing Um, I plan to do this um and definitely I I wanted to start something Now so that I have uh something established for my future students because I'm going to be um teaching rakey soon Um, so I wanted a place for for my students to come afterwards to Um receive rakey and ask questions and learn and and grow and everything But I want this to be available to everyone anyone who is interested in Doing the guided meditation Um receiving a little bit of rakey. It's typically about an hour maybe a little over an hour um, and um, I do a guided meditation with rakey and there are um themes Related to the new moon or the full moon So yeah, awesome. I've done one of your classes. It's amazing guys. So I will be putting the link the new link into the 60 day Challenge template now if you emailed me for you're gonna have the old link there. So please make sure just check back Um friday evening tomorrow evening I'll be putting the new link up on the community tab and I'll probably put it up again on saturday And I'll probably I know emmy you're pretty good about putting it into the signal group That we have and so um, yeah, awesome. And so that is your saturday monday, which is Oh sunday. I was gonna. I was so excited about your birthday. I mean that I almost So day 30 is sunday february 19th.  Take a moment to congratulate yourself New addition to the challenge since you're at the halfway mark You're gonna start making your bed up every morning Some people do that already but just to I know with a lot of it's so simple like I've learned in my 17 years of doing this at some time the simplest of things make the biggest impact on Your organization and your clarity of mind and making the bed up is one of those things I know a lot of people already do that if you're not a bed maker upper Just try it for 30 days straight and see what happens in your life. See how your life I was saying this to someone, you know, it's it's You can tell if you if you know someone who's like really fit Who's like a long-distance runner and they're just real fit if you go to their house I bet you anything their house is super organized because it starts transform everything in your life The more you take care of yourself internally the more the outside of your life starts to reflect that vibrationally match that And that's one of the rules of our uveta is that your internal life has to match your external life I mean m a you've spoken about whenever people get attuned and rakey Sometimes there's chaos after it happens in their house because everything's kind of trying to even out with the new vibration Happens a lot in yoga too where there can be some chaos because you are changing and so everything else is kind of Trying to to to vibe with you, you know, and so it makes sense And so just try making your bed up It doesn't have to be fancy like hotel style military style made up just keeping yourself organized We're also going to be doing your last meal should be between 5 and 7 p.m No snacking after 7 p.m This allows your digestive system to rest So your blood is a chance to cleanse and heal other organs such as your skin So I put a little vanity and ticing there, but I also want everybody to now I'm not I'm not I'm not a food e person But a lot of people are and I think what happens a lot is at the end of the day When we've been able to distract ourselves all day by work kids, whatever All the sudden in the evening When the kids are asleep the day is done and you're just chilling watching tv people go to snack And I think sometimes they don't even realize they're snacking because they're trying to avoid Possible feelings that are coming up and so by trying not to eat after 7 p.m You're giving you're doing one of you're doing two things You're giving your your your organs a sense to recalibrate So your digestive tract can rest so the blood can go elsewhere and really clean cleanse your body And you're also going to be in a very great place to kind of observe Where you are emotionally and if emotions and if you find yourself going to the refrigerator Mindlessly being like why am I doing this now? If you're like generally hungry then go and get something to eat but like most of times or not so So with this sunday fund day usually it's sunday fund day But because it's a halfway point of a very long challenge We're going to take time time today to check in for your exercise. You're only going to do sun salutations You're going to warm up or you can either do 10 sun salutations a and 10 b 36 sun a 72 sun a 108 sun a This is going to be preparing you for potentially doing the sun salutations challenge Which is going to kind of be a side challenge With this challenge but just for you to just kind of check in and see the sun salutations are brilliant Aren't they I mean they're like one of the best exercises And it's a complete practice. You could just do sun salutations and that be a complete practice It's the surya is the prana the sun is the upward rising energy namaskar or salutation is a greeting So it's literally moving your life force waking your life force up And so that's why I've been having you guys do that every day before your exercise just to really get into your Subtle body and really start to feel that subtle body You're also welcome if you'd like to to participate in my virtual class at sacred garden yoga You do have to sign up at sacred garden yoga's website because it goes through her shala meditation again We've got the reiki meditation with emi food journaling Journal again, you're gonna have some well. You guys can look through. Okay. We're gonna talk about subtle and gross body So there you go. That's a good thing to start thinking about what is gross body? What a subtle body and then we'll talk about monday, which is emi's birthday Day 31 so you're making your bed up in honor of emi for her birthday You're not snacking after seven And you're going to be doing looks like a yoga on emi's birthday as well So full on yoga with ashtanga nurse or the 20 minute beginner ashtanga Also, you're going to be doing some meditations as well. And so we are Going I'll probably do another video later on to get into the next section of of the challenge because now you're kind of coming You're at the midway point So you're at the the precipice of the challenge and as I tell my students every sunday When we get to the halfway point of primary series and we're doing navasana everyone hates navasana I'm like, listen, this is the peak of the mountain The view is always the prettiest at the peak of the mountain You can look back at how far you've come And you can appreciate the view and you can see where you're going Right and so so yay. It's an exciting thing Um, you you're learning so much about yourself. And so um, so yeah, it's not like, oh god I'm halfway through. I'm only halfway through. No, you're at the peak honey. You're at the most beautiful part And so all right any Emmy is there anything you want to end off? um, yeah, two things um When you were talking about um the snacking in the evening um, something that could be really helpful for you if you are having trouble with this is um Do a grounding exercise food is very grounding and um A lot of times if you know, you're someone like me who kind of hangs out in the upper chakras or or used to um, I would use food um as a ground and I didn't even really realize that's what I was doing um, so If you're having a hard time stopping the snacking issue or if you find that you are really hungry Before bed try doing a grounding exercise and see what that does for you um, and the other thing is um With the exercise and going forward it might be beneficial to you to Look at your natal chart and I know this sounds kind of funny because it it seems like it wouldn't be related, but Look at all of the different planets and what energies they are in predominantly A natal chart will either have um fixed energy mutable energy or cardinal energy fixed People with a lot of fixed energy in their chart will do well doing the same exercise routine The same journaling routine the same meditation routine going forward um people with cardinal a lot of cardinal energy would do well um of re-evaluating their goals every four to six weeks um, so Um, we'll we'll do we'll do better re-evaluating goals every four to six weeks and perhaps making changes Within and then people with a lot of mutable energy Will do well with changing it up um, so for a few weeks do um this particular exercise and then when you get bored of it um Pick something else and do that. Can you close the door buddy? Thank you Looks like he's exercising.  Um, and and it's really easy to look up The the different energies whether it's fixed mutable or cardinal and then you can kind of add them add them up And see is that something somebody could book an appointment with you and is that a service you could offer someone? um, I do plan on eventually doing the Aspect pattern astrology, which is more of a form of psychology But yeah, if you know what maybe I'll if people are interested enough Leave a comment and I'll do a video And put it up on my channel on how to to find the different energies in your chart I love you awesome and once you do it, then it's me. I'll put it on my community tab as well And because that yeah, it doesn't sound that you know for me I'm so into the world of energy that that doesn't that sounds So if you're looking at your dosha your chart Your oh, that's another thing your The predominant energies in your chart coincide with The dosha system is what I've noticed. It's really fascinating And that's true because I'm lots of pitta. I'm bought and vata is air pitta is fire I'm aquarius, which is air and my rising sign is leo, which is fire Mm-hmm. Very interesting. It's it I I think that the all of these ancient sciences are just so brilliant. They're they're The more I test them um The more I see like everything I've tested with astrology has been accurate and you know, I just I grew up in the church. I am a huge follower of jesus Yashua, I still am in daily contact and you know But I remember him saying test everything test everything test everything So as he's bringing me these things and guiding me to these different areas like to reiki and astrology Um, I was really leery of it, but I was like, okay. He just said test everything Um, and so that's what I did and It's so accurate. And so is the dosha system. It's just it's so fascinating godly It's just so it's maracas and that all the missing books of the bible all speak about this, you know, yashua and the missing books is teaching his Students yoga. He studied in india, you know, magdalene did as well her mother did as well They have a lot of ties to the ancient teachings of the far east and um And it just the more you you understand it the more you see how beautiful god works And it's true the joys family who are my the family that holds the ashwama lineage Um, guru ji who is no longer alive always look at his picture, which I know you guys can't see it's in the wall But I was like look at his picture Like you guys know what i'm doing um He was an astrologer and so so many people who are students of his said that he could You could walk in and he'd be able to read you and know exactly where just by reading your energy You know where the planets were at your time of birth like he didn't even need to see Because that's that's he was a shaman that's what his family did and all the students Who were students of his said that he was He would there they could not figure out the rhyme or reason as to why on some days He was hard on other peoples but gentle on others and it's because he was reading their energy astrologically And so when they say the planets aligned and you got a yoga surgery is what they called them It literally meant that the planets were aligned for him to be able to come in hard for you that day And really pop things back into place for you And so and that is obviously a Yoga master who is heavily working off of the arya Vedic system as well as astrology And so you see the perfect patterning and that is the difference once again according to the navahos That's the difference between black magic and white magic black magic is when you're going against the laws of nature for your own Its selfish desires White magic is when you're working with nature to help people move through Their natural phases of life. So you're not fighting it. You're not fighting the nature You're working with it. You're working with the template god has given each person And so I think that's just so freaking beautiful that That that's the way that system worked and it mean it does mean even though in the ashanga system We're all doing the same six series No, no two people are the same in their practice because every person is being worked differently depending on that person Nothing is better or worse. It's just different because every person's karma is different Every person's work is different and that needs to be respected and acknowledged and so You know and so it's such a beautiful thing and so I'd be so excited if you would do that me because it's um It's it's exciting. It's really for us in the west. I don't I'm not speaking for all Westerners But I kind of am I'm like this is really exciting when you learn this stuff because all of a sudden It's like, oh my god, this makes so much sense like everything just makes so much sense when you're like, okay. Yes Ah, yes, okay. This makes sense. And so um, also I I meant, oh I almost forgot before we sign out. I just had one of our awesome community members David I'm gonna wait because I know he's coming. He's once he his sister has a wedding He's gonna come on and talk about him. He sent me from Canada some of his soap So I got to like show it soap magic here and I'm so excited. I'm all about us Over here on on our side of this internet of this war Really supporting each other and really promoting each other and so David if you're watching leave me a comment down there Buddy, I know you can think you got to get everything set up But once you're ready, I would love to promote your business as well because We really and he sent me some awesome stuff with some rock They got to open it up and look at it But but um, you know, we're all about helping each other out and working together to support each other in our and our walk our walk home our long And trek Yo, we got real lost on the way home We had to take a long way home we got lost We must have been like Hansel and Gretel or we let breadcrumbs out and the birds ate it now we lost We'll make it though. We'll make it together. We might have to hit hit a few wrong wrong turns along the way But that's okay. The wrong turns can't be really beautiful. So We're doing some sightseeing along the way home. So So So I can't wait David for you to come in and talk about that as well Also little update to tomorrow morning Friday morning. I had a video request from a viewer I talked to emmy about doing it. I've talked to Catherine about doing it morning shanta somebody emailed me I know emmy you got to go in a minute, but somebody emailed me about Of vlogging what a day what what my day looks like as far as like incorporating You know, I think and I realized and I wasn't going to do it But because I'm not a vlogger, but I realized that for People who are new to shadow work and new to this I think sometimes people have these really high expectations Of what it's supposed to look like and it's rarely what it looks like I promise you guys we're not skipping off to an ashram every morning like and so I did it I've logged myself this Monday. It'll air tomorrow Showing you what my day looks like with my exercise and journaling and everything I squeeze in when I squeeze it And where I squeeze in I even talk about my food intake because that's an issue for me And so I've talked to emmy kathryn possibly get them to do it too. So We're all very different people with very different lives And so you can see the comparing and contrasting about how we work this into our daily life So you can understand it doesn't have to be perfect It rarely is Yeah Yeah All right, you guys well, thanks for um, thanks for sitting through this I'm you guys are rock stars on this shadow work and I know emmy's got a class. She's got to jump on now So I'm going to go ahead in this. Thank you emmy. I'm so excited about saturday And um, if you guys are having any questions or any thoughts concerns about the shadow work You want us to talk about an upcoming video ask away down in the comment section below You guys are all superstars and rock stars and you're doing a really good job Yes, absolutely Bye everybody


So what we've been doing the last few days is we started out with a showdown to see what we had in our rucks followed by the next morning with PT, our physical fitness test, two minutes push-ups, two minutes of sit-ups, two minutes of pull-ups, and then a two-minute run with a two-minute break in between. After that we did our lanes, so weapons, land nav, vehicle identification, medical, and history lesson line. For weapons, we had to clear the weapon, disassemble the weapon, reassemble it, and clear it for five different weapons, so that was fun. The medical, I had a patient with her leg cut off, so I had to take care of them and make sure they were right until the medics came. I think it meant a lot because when I first got here in Bond Steel into the chow hall and I saw the Best Warrior Award hung up, ever since then I just kind of wanted to do it and wanted to win it, so I'm glad I could do it. It's definitely challenging, both mentally and physically. The hardest moments were probably the six mile wreck at the end of today. Apparently there's a hill here called Soulcrusher, so that was interesting to find, really steep. If I had to say anything to anyone who's considering competing, just do it. I mean, it's tough, it sucks, but at the end of the day it's worth it.


from the campus of MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It's theCUBE, covering the MIT Chief Data Officer and the Information Quality Symposium. Now, here are your hosts, Stu Miniman and Paul Gillan. Welcome back, this is theCUBE, SiliconANGLE's flagship video platform. We are here at the MIT Chief Data Officer and Information Quality Symposium. I'm Paul Gillan, my colleague, Stu Miniman is with me. And we have two guests here who come from sort of different ends of the spectrum. We're going to talk about different things, but all related to big data and it's application to business results. Joe Caserta is the president and CEO of Caserta Concepts, which is a big data warehousing specialty consulting firm. And Yulan Yo-Yo Yuan is a professor at the Department of Tourism Management at Jinwen University in Taipei, Taiwan. And she is leading the first big data conference in that university, perhaps the first big data conference on the island of Taiwan. Is that the case? It's the second one. The second one. So let's talk first about Joe, your topic for your presentation. You're the new CDO now what? Now, we just had a CDO on in the previous session from the Department of Transportation. We asked him to define his role. He has one definition of it. Are you defining any commonality or any similarity of definition to the CDO role? So I've been in the data space for 30 years now and I've seen the evolution of data over that time span. And the CDO is a fairly new role. But in the past couple of years, I've seen it have its own life evolution life cycle. It started off being purely data governance, but now we're seeing that it's also embracing trying to help monetize your data and also help do the analytics portion of your data. And then there is some aspect of a divide and conquer where you have a CDO organization that will have maybe a chief analytics officer, a chief data governance officer. And then that collection of people will be a new division within an organization from the executive leadership level down. Because data is becoming so much, so critical within an organization, it's no longer just a back room collection of data, it's actually becoming a way of doing business. One term I, word I didn't hear you use in that description was technology. Are we making a mistake in thinking of the CDO role as being a technology function? If you are thinking of it as a technology function, it might be a mistake, yeah. I think that what we're advising our clients to do is do more of a collaboration. So if you think agile, you think of a scrum team with specialists in order to solve a problem. And I think the data office, NIT and the business and maybe your project management all come together and bring their own level of expertise. So you do need a technology aspect to provide a solution, but the chief data governor, the chief data office will provide purely the data side of things. Where to get the data, how to govern the data, how to disseminate the data. All of those decisions really are being removed from the IT function. IT function is really just becoming more of an application development function and the data side of it is really becoming separate owned by the chief data office organization. Yo-Yo, I want to change the topic here, talk about what you're doing in Taipei. We hear so much about big data in the context of the United States. It really has been much of the conversations around what is happening on these shores, but what is the state of big data use in Taiwan right now? I'm looking at this question from more tourism industry perspective.  So for using the big data, comparing with the engineering and also computer science, we are trying really kind of, not just one step behind, it's 10 step behind. So why trying to catch up? So my after in Taiwan, my effort, my role in Taiwan is trying to bridge two sides of people, computer science, engineering, with tourism industry people together. So the conference I'm going to host is we'll have all for a special session on this topic, how these two sides of people work together to have a cross-discipline effort together, IT and the tourism. So we have two sides of people together to work on the big data. So speaking about big data in Taiwan, we have really good people from computer science background to working for the big data, especially right now there are several programs established in different universities. One of them is the co-authored, co-together, we host the conference is the Shuzhou University in Taiwan. They have a really great big data program in Taiwan, the Office of Mass Programs in Taiwan. And then we try to bridge the people from different backgrounds from tourism and also from the CS or ICE background to work together. That's what I'm doing. Yeah, so Joe, one of the things we've been looking at for the last few years is kind of the digital transformation that companies are going through. Can you talk to some of the challenges in what you're helping some pretty big companies in their transformation through the leverage of their data? Yeah, sure. So there's two aspects of it, I guess. One is the technology part and then the other one is the people part. The people part is actually the more challenging part. Making the paradigm shift from traditional methods within the technology space to more of a big data platform. It's been since about 2009, the evolution of data technologies have pretty evolved over the past seven years now. But what's really, for it to really be fully embraced by an enterprise to actually change the way they do business is they need coaching from almost like a management perspective, management consulting perspective, where we have to help our clients not only change their technical platform, but also figure out what does your new organization have to look like to support it, who actually is going to help convert just what was basically tech debt into data assets and then be able to generate new revenue based on your data. That is truly taking your business and kind of turning it on its head, where for the past couple of decades we would make decisions using our conventional wisdom and the brainpower of our executive leadership and then use our data to prove whether it's working or not. But what's happening now is we're actually using our data and the insight from the data to actually drive the decision making. And it's a very, very different way to think about running your business. So becoming a truly digital company takes platform, technology change, processes within your organization and then a reorganization of your people as well. I was just gonna say, any kind of, maybe you can't talk about the company specific but any kind of industry specific use case you could give us on that? Oh, there's several. So we have one media company that was probably one of the leaders in the cable business for the past couple of decades but now the new, the media business is really being overtaken by streaming media, the Netflix and the Hulu's and all of that. So in order to stay competitive, there needs to be a transition. There needs to make some kind of change. So going from broadcast to cable or from cable to streaming media, it really changes, again, those three things. It changes the platform. It changes the people and it changes the way you actually run your business. You wrote a best-selling book on ETL which is a topic of particular interest of mine because I've read that InvigData Project's ETL can consume 80% or more of the time of the people working on the project. Is there some sort of magic elixir that's going to make this problem go away or do you see progress being made toward shortening that owner's task? So one of the, yeah, I wrote that book back in 2004 and it has become an industry best seller and it's still today a de facto standard on how to take data from multiple systems and prepared for analytics in a holistic view. And when I wrote it back then, I specifically stayed away from technology. So it's purely best practices and concepts which are still 100% applicable. The difference now is that instead of doing a lot of cleaning, conforming, consolidating, putting it into a rigid data model before you can actually look at it to do analytics, what's changed is we're ingesting data directly from external sources now that we mostly don't have control over like, you know, clickstream and media and trying to medical records, internet of things, right? All the state is coming into a big data platform now. Could be Hadoop, doesn't have to be. And then we're doing analytics on the semi-structured data within these new platforms. Once we do that data exploration and data discovery and figure out if we can actually get some insight out of it, then we take the valuable parts of it and then we structure that. We put it into still a very structured, rigid data warehouse with traditional BI tools, some emerging BI tools, but the BI tools nonetheless for the masses. And the big difference and the big paradigm shift within these organizations is all about governance. You know, the Hadoop or the big data platform was not embraced by the enterprises as quickly as I thought it would have. Like I predicted in 2009, by like 2012, most of the companies would be running on a big data platform. And I think the difference is that most enterprises are used to having fully governed, fully structured data in order to distribute it to the masses. And so what I'm trying to help my clients understand is to really understand the use case for your data and to have more of what we call tunable governance. So if you have data that is really just for data scientists to munch the data to see if they can get insight, does it really need to go through the rigorous process of being fully governed as it would as if you're writing reports for Wall Street, right? And I argue that it doesn't. Right, so. Yeah, to loosen up. Right, loosen up exactly. So that's what we're doing. We're coaching our clients on how to come up with the best practices in today's modern data engineering world. Yo, yo, I'm curious for your conference, what are some of the kind of the key concerns, questions, you know, tracks that you'll be going to. So some of the things that Joe talked about that resonate with you? Before I go into that, I was appreciated for attending this conference in Portia. Actually, most of the topic we are going to talk about will be similar as this one. One thing that's very huge about this is the security and privacy issue. And we are more, if we definitely address it, the one is the cross-discipline collaboration because we perceive the big data and also data governance is not just one discipline issue. It has to bring bridge the different discipline of people together and to work together. So one, the other issue is collaboration. How do we communicate across discipline? That's the second big issue. For, we just keep hearing about the one section doesn't talk to the other people together. It says collaboration actually will be a big hurdle in between the, when people collaborate together. So privacy, security, and also collaborations will be the main to talk about it. Very similar issues as are being debated here. We're almost out of time so just to give you the last word here, is the Chief Data Officer role emerging in your region as it appears to be here? No, I will say no, especially for the tourism industry. Consider it's not a money-making position. So it's right now for the tourism industry is not a position there. But I will say that definitely in the future there will be, this position will be needed in place because as I mentioned, is information intensive industry. So eventually this position will be created for the Chief Data Officer to be here. With that, we're out of time. I want to thank you, Joe Caserta very much for joining us. My pleasure. Yo-Yo Yuan, thanks for joining us. Best of luck with your conference. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Symposium, yes. Symposium. We'll be right back from the MIT CDOIQ symposium in just a moment.


Good morning. My name is Lise Grande and I am the head of the United States Institute of Peace which was established by Congress in 1984 as a public institution dedicated to preventing, mitigating and resolving violent conflict abroad. We're delighted to welcome everyone this morning to a very special conversation on the role of the private sector in promoting peace and development across the African continent. We'd like to thank our co-hosts from the Heritage Foundation for their partnership of today's event. The Foundation has been a leader for many decades in promoting private sector engagement as a key pillar of US foreign policy. For those of you who are joining us in line or in person, please join the conversation on social media using the hashtag African entrepreneurship. The private sector makes innumerable contributions to securing peace by providing jobs and economic opportunities, promoting education, advancing institutions, protecting the rule of law and helping to address the social pressures that lead to extremism and democratic backsliding. We are honored to be joined today by one of the leading voices in Africa across the world on the nexus of economic opportunity and conflict prevention, Mr. Tony Alameu. Mr. Alameu is one of Africa's top investors and philanthropists. The Tony Alameu Foundation was founded in 2010 and is giving 200 million dollars to entrepreneurs across Africa. To date, the Foundation has trained more than 16,000 entrepreneurs across all 54 African countries. We are also delighted to be joined this morning by Ms. Dana Banks, the special assistant to the president of the United States and the senior director for Africa at the National Security Council. I would now like to welcome Mr. Alameu to the stage for your opening remarks before our moderated discussion. Thank you very much. Thank you, President. Thank you, Director Banks. Thank you, Josh. Thank you, everyone, for making this possible. I have been emphatic in my position that economic transformation of Africa lies in the hands of our young ones, our young entrepreneurs, who have great ideas and energy and audacity on what and how they can contribute to the transformation of the continent. Unfortunately, in terms of job creation and opportunities for our youth, Africa suffers or lacks this money behind. Youth unemployment is a waste of talent and a betrayal of a generation. It feeds extremism and insecurity. It has therefore become critical to lead conversations and for partnerships across the world that should help to address this fundamental issue. U.S. relationship with Africa in my view, should be reimagined away from aid to focus on empowerment of our youth and support for sustainable institutions that should allow the timid reuse of Africa to be productive and to thrive. Entrepreneurship, peace, conflict, they are linked one way or the other. When people are optimally engaged, they will like to see peace and they will not be interested in creating problems for my kind. But when people feel they are excluded, when people feel or don't have opportunity for where or see economic opportunity or hope, they would take to extremism to create problems for everyone of us.  Extremism is a product of poverty, joblessness, lack of education, poor access to healthcare delivery. All of these create a vicious cycle of poverty. The fight against extremism and conflict must start from prioritizing our young ones, must start from creating jobs. We need to remove the incentive of being extremists in the 21st century Africa by engaging and providing jobs for our young ones. On my own, in 2010, my family founded the Tony Elmelo Foundation. Our purpose was simple, wanted to democratize luck, wanted to create economic opportunities for people, wanted to play our own role in economically empowering our young ones and making them become better future Tony Elmelo's. We decided to do this by endowing 100 million U.S. dollars to the Tony Elmelo Foundation to help identify and seed $5,000 each to this young African entrepreneurs. Male, female, from across 50 African countries. Sector agnostic. We felt that it was not how much we owned that mattered. We felt it was what was important was the kind of impact we can create. The legacy we leave behind by making sure that whatever we have we spread it in a manner that truly creates sustainability, truly helped to prioritize people and helped to increase and encourage our collective commitment to succeed as a people. So far, we have supported over 16,000 young Africans. We set out to support 10,000, 1,000 every year but through collaboration with like-minded partners who have been able to increase and achieve over 16,000 in seven years since the funding we set up the entrepreneurship program. We trained beneficiaries for 12 weeks and at the end of the program we appointed mentors for them and seed $5,000. Small money but a vital amount of capital to these young entrepreneurs it helped them to prove their concept. We know that they need more than $5,000 to grow to create an Apple organization or the Apple type of organization but they need to prove support to prove their concept. We're scaling up but we see collaboration to do a lot more. When I see on the faces, when I see these young entrepreneurs, African, we're supporting. I like the excitement I see in them. I like the happiness. I like the sense of fulfillment. And I want us to replicate and touch more lives. Every year we have hundreds of thousands of young Africans apply but fortunately we're not able to support all. And so what is supposed to help democratize luck and create the happiness is almost beginning to affect people in a manner that we did not anticipate. We need our friends, especially in the U.S. We need you more now than ever before. Last month in Dubai, I received the Time 100 Impact Award as I received it in my acceptance speech. I stress the need for leaders across the world to pull resources together to prioritize humanity by promoting entrepreneurship, gender equity, sustainability, and digital innovation. I stress that the world we live in today has never been in such a need for all of us, especially the private sector and the world, to come together to do something. I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that the time to act is now and to do so urgently. We need to work together to avert a global catastrophe. I want that we can almost see and feel. We need to bring resources together. We need to bring minds together and that again, president, I want to thank you and Josh, I want to thank all of you for making this platform available for us to continue the dialogue and engagement on how collaboratively we can pull resources, work together to help the world. I appreciate your time, I appreciate the generosity that you've shown and I appreciate the hospitality of this great institute and heritage foundation. I look forward to us continuing this conversation in the Thank you very much. We're watching this online and to all of you who've joined us in person at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Let me take a moment first to introduce our second panelist, the special assistant to the president and senior director for Africa at the National Security Council, Ms. Dana Banks. Dana Banks is a colleague and a friend. She is a 22-year veteran of the Foreign Service and she knows very well the topic we're going to be talking about today, the interconnectedness between development and peace and she spent some quality time on the continent having served in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Togo. So thank you Dana for joining us and welcome to both of you. Let me first start with our distinguished guests, Mr. Tony Emilello. We are really delighted to have you with us today, truly delighted because you understand the link between entrepreneurship, development, and peace building. And peace building is our focus here at the U.S. Institute of Peace and so we're really delighted to be able to weave all of these together to talk about the things that bring about peace long-term and sustainably. I couldn't see that we could have two better panelists than we didn't have Dana Banks and Chairman Emilello, so thank you for both agreeing to be on this panel. The first thing I want to talk about is your very visionary and courageous economic philosophy of African capitalism. It reflects your belief that African businesses, the private sector has to play a role in development on the continent, particularly youth job creation. You've also talked about the importance of creating economic and social wealth, but yet we all know how very challenging it is to do that. In your own country of Nigeria, you recently criticized the loss of 95 percent of oil production due to theft. At a time when the global price of oil is increasing and one would expect to see an oil producing country like Nigeria really generating a lot of revenue for its people, but apparently that's not really the case. So the question I'd like to start with for you, sir, is how can the private sector play a greater role in engaging government on the issue of good governance, which is so important for the enabling environment that brings foreign direct investment and that builds that economic and social wealth we talk about. So how does the private sector engage with the government on that very important topic of good governance? First is we need to understand, and more so our government, need to understand the role of private sector in economic development. Oftentimes I see a disconnect. At times, and I speak not just for our country, but I speak for most of the government across Africa, at times you see government erroneously seeing the private sector as competitors. No. We should see the private sector, the public sector, the development partners as all hands working together to advance humanity. All hands working together to drive economic prosperity, economic growth, social wealth, social justice in the system. And for me, for the private sector to do with that enabling environment must be established. And once it's established, the private sector must therefore take advantage of the opportunities created and plays its own role. I see the private sector helping to catalyze economic growth by creating jobs. Government per se, government does not have the capacity to create jobs that we need on the continent. The rate at which we are growing, the demographic of Africa, and the rate at which people enter the job market on the continent is far, far more than we can even imagine. And so we need a collaborative approach in making this approach. So I want to see a private sector that is strong on the continent because being strong and succeeding will help to drive economic growth. I want to see us prioritize the small and medium scale enterprise on the continent. So when we talk about private sector, not just about the big corporations, we need to cut across all layers and make sure that every segment is included. I believe in inclusivity in governments. We need to make sure we carry everyone along gender inclusivity, youth inclusivity, all facets of society. The lack of it is part of the reason we are a problem. And peace in the world and African particular, we can't even begin to address it if we don't address the issue of youth engagement. The private sector does have a role to play in this. And so does our government. Most of government creating the inevitable environment. But the private sector must also engage with government to let government know. Like you said, the tweet about what I felt was happening. It's not a criticism per se. It's actual what I saw, what I believe happened. And they need to address it so that we can attract more investment into the country. We need massive investment to help create jobs. When we don't have investment coming in due to some of these issues, theft, insecurity, et cetera, for that takes us back or away from achieving our objective of creating development, prosperity, youth engagement on the continent. So yes, we need a multi-purpose system. Let's put a few numbers to this conversation that you've just laid out for us. Just before the pandemic, the Price Waterhouse Clupers released some data that was tracking the economic gains enjoyed by African countries that improved their governance over several years. They estimated that if each African country made improvements in governance equivalent to that made by the strongest performer, which they considered Côte d'Ivoire at the time, the continent's overall gross domestic product would grow by about $23 billion. That's an enormous amount of money, and that's a very impressive figure. So with that kind of growth possible, what are the things that the United States and other partners can be doing to help African people and governments improve their governance to see that kind of a return? I think what the U.S. government, you need to see how the U.S. is perceived across the continent. U.S. is respected, is admired, is loved across the continent. In fact, if anything, people are beginning to wonder if U.S. is still there for Africa because of the encroachment or not the encroachment, but the foray into Africa by other world powers. We would like to see U.S. government engage first to reimagine what Africa needs and the 21st century Africa. It is good, but we need to make sure it gets to the last mile. We need to make sure that we prioritize those who should get it. The situation where you have budgets of billions of dollars coming to Africa, and yet we still have the level of youth unemployment. You tell us that something is not right. The healthcare system is fragile. So many things are not right. So I would like to see one, a change in policy that helps to prioritize the ultimate recipients of whatever we're given on the continent. Two, I'd like to see helping to develop infrastructure that helps to infrastructure that helps to drive sustainability. And I'd like to also see U.S. government help us through the president and the likes of banks to engage in a manner that policy makers, maybe a policy maker training supporting them to see what I said before by the link between the private sector success and the public sector and the publicity goals for the people. I believe some of those approaches will help together. But in summary, I'd like to see a rethink of how to engage with Africa, especially when it comes to aid. I want to see it get to the people who really need it. I'd like to see a strengthening of our infrastructure institutions. There are quite some institutions that are weak and they're not able to engender great good governance. We need to clean all of this up and then public dialogue with our leaders. Joshua, let me turn to you. Yeah, thank you. So Mr. Chairman, I wanted to focus in on something you've already referenced here, and that is the coming or ongoing youth explosion on the continent. Probably many people know the numbers, but 60% of the African population is under 25 years old. By 2035, it's estimated that there will be a larger working class in Africa than in China or India. These are staggering numbers. They're historic. There obviously could be immense benefits here for Africa. A demographic dividend is part of what drove China's rise, for instance, as an economic power. But there's also a danger. We've talked a little bit already about some governance challenges that exist on the continent, unemployment, underemployment, lack of seed capital, things of that nature, could lead to a massive youth population that is disaffected, that is disillusioned, and that's a recipe for potential unrest. So your foundation is tackling elements of this head-on. So you're working on the unemployment issues and related issues. So my question is, after a decade of doing this, after training 16,000 entrepreneurs, are you optimistic? Are you pessimistic? Or maybe somewhere in between about the future for African youths? First is that I'm extremely optimistic about the future, and I'm not just saying that I've been optimistic. When I travel these young Africans, I see a lot of excitement, and I also see foresand from the people who have supported, how they are succeeding, the differences and changes they are bringing to their communities and business environments already. And I know for a fact that if we can all prioritize them for that and give them the support they need, we'll do more. Forget we have over 600 million people on the continent under the age of 13. And we're talking here about 16,000 beneficiaries of the foundation. So it's like less than a tiny drop of water in the ocean. For us to make the kind of impact that will increase our optimism and about the future of the continent, we need to massively scale up this. And again, that is the message I bring to the table that let's poor resources come together to do it, realizing that if there's poverty in Nigeria, if there's poverty in Africa, it affects everyone everywhere. There are young Africans who want to get to Europe even crossing the Mediterranean in a very, very harsh condition, and they don't care.  So we need to all work together to see how to make this change our call. Yes, I'm optimistic. The people who have supported, I see successes, but we need a martial plan. We need something much bigger than these 16,000 to make a difference. We should be talking of millions on a yearly basis across the continent. And who are those to make this happen? The African private sectors who are succeeding, the global development institutions, and friends of Africa across the world, and those who realize who see the linkage between what happened, what happened in the part of the world affects everyone of us everywhere. So I see a future, but that future should be driven by fundamentals. And for me, a key fundamental that is prioritizing the young ones, entrepreneurship, and not just entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is not the only way to do it, but it's one of the callways for us. It's tested. We've done it. We've seen it. We've seen our own life story, where we were before and where we are today. It's solved because of the private sector, the entrepreneurship and success, which is why we created the Tony and Melu Foundation to help democratize luck, to help create access and economic opportunities for others the way we go. Because that is the difference. That's why I'm not on the street today. So we want to make sure that we take more people out of the streets through this kind of initiative. And the good thing is that they're intelligent. If you see some of the unicorns, some of the young companies coming out of Africa being valued properly and people investing in them, it tells you what the future can be if we give more support to these people. And there are millions of them on the continent. What is it about entrepreneurialism that is so well-suited for young people specifically? That's obviously your focus. And you mentioned entrepreneurialism as a core solution to these problems. Why are young people so well-suited to do entrepreneurialism? So for me, Africa is a continent of entrepreneurs. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur on the continent. And I encourage it. My own story validates that. So today's Tony and Melu started from nowhere, so to speak. And I just would imagine if 100,000 or a million across Africa will have this kind of opportunity in 10 years time to be a different continent. And that is why to me, entrepreneurship is key. Today, I am opportunity, I'm lucky to be the chairman of United Bank for Africa Group, UBA Group. UBA operates in 20 African countries. UBA operates in Paris, in London, UK. And it's the only African bank in the United States of America, all of America that has a deposit-taking license operating in New York. I didn't start like that. I was not a billionaire son, but we created this out of sheer entrepreneurialism. Today, we have a part of our group that is into power generation. Access to electricity was important. Obama launched the Power Africa Initiative. Our group committed $2 billion to the program that we're going to, committed, we're going to invest $2 billion to improve access to electricity on the continent. Today, we have generating capacity of 2,000 megawatt of electricity in addition to supply Republican power. I did not start like that. It's just again about entrepreneurship and determination to succeed. I see in Africa today more people, more determined than I was at their age. So, if all the difference between those guys and Tunei Lumelo today is access to opportunities, you know, and that is what I want to create. And that is what I'm mobilizing others in the private sector in particular, let's team up and do something that will be impactful. Let's think legacy. Let's think less about what we'll have in our bank accounts. But as we do so, we need our government to also help to prioritize the kind of philosophy policy that will help us to succeed. And friends of Africa, like the United States of America, what about the poor resources and see how we can create more to new values out of the continent? They are ready. They are ready. The reason something to extremism today is because they don't see hope. So, we need to show examples so that they also get encouraged to know that there could be a better future for them. And yes, I believe strongly that entrepreneurship is one of the ways we can develop Africa in a manner that is truly sustainable. Talking about, A, the question that was asked before, we get support, a lot of support into Africa. And that's the truth. But my own is that we should reimagine how we make that support. How we give that support. Because we need to give from the point of view of creating self-reliance, you know, self-independence and making people less dependent on the known aid. But if we give and forever people cannot finish their budget with that aid, people can't do things with that aid, then we should question that mechanism, that approach, that something is not working. Because it should be an intervention for a period and then you are able to cater for yourself. But it's where it becomes perpetual. It calls for everything. And I believe that entrepreneurship does not lead to that. Entrepreneurship and laziness don't go together. Entrepreneurship at that level or dependent don't go together. You can't keep giving support to someone every time. You provide assistance, you start running. And then you should also be able to expand that, replicate that so that collectively we're all working in a manner to improve the society. Mr. Chairman, I couldn't agree more that Africa is a continent of entrepreneurs. In my travels across Africa, every large city, you see that hustle, that drive, that marketing, that selling in the streets, that cities that never really sleep. That is really the Africa that we know is there. And it's pretty much based in the informal economy. And what is beautiful about your program is how you're transforming it into the formal economy. So with that, I'd like to turn to Ms. Dana Banks to ask about the administration, the Biden administration's plans to kind of really capitalize and tap into that energy, that vibrancy of entrepreneurial spirit across the continent. I know the administration has talked about a private-led growth strategy and it's focusing on youth employment in particular. Tell us a little bit about some of the plans of the Biden administration for really driving that kind of entrepreneurial spirit that Chairman Amalillo has been talking about. What are some of the key programs and initiatives that the administration is pursuing to really drive that? Thank you, Michela.  We are so excited to have partnered with you and your foundation with Power Africa as well as Prosper Africa. And I think that is sort of the genesis of where we are today in the conversations that we're having currently in the administration when we talk about supporting entrepreneurship and youth entrepreneurs on the continent and how that feeds into broader economic growth. It's that creativity, it's the innovation that entrepreneurs bring on the continent that really will help to further the societies that they're in. And as the title of this session leads to when we talk about peace and security, it's something that you cannot sort of sequence peace and security with greater economic growth and investment. It's a mutually symbiotic relationship and so we have to have both at the same time. So we're really looking at how we can partner and how we can support entrepreneurs on the continent. One of the things that we're looking at now is how we support African startups and entrepreneurs. In 2016, I think African startups generated about $350 million in capital. In 2021, I think that was already up to $4 billion and on schedule on track in 2022 to generate $7 billion in capital for African startups. And it's this type of, you know, these numbers, this power that we want to help support and that we need to support. So through our Prosper Africa initiative that was relaunched last July by President Biden, we have many tools in our toolbox to do that. And one of the tools that we just launched recently is something that will support African startups and provide additional credit to them and actual, you know, sort of shaping to help them shape their businesses. And it's a partnership with the Development Finance Corporation working with Prosper Africa to provide and the African Development Foundation, ADF, USADF, to provide some credit and facilities to these African startups and to provide them capital to really harness the power of their innovation, of their ingenuity, and to take the next Tony Elemelos from the continent and who are even more energetic and enterprising and to get them to where they need to be with their businesses to help them grow their businesses but also to help them grow their communities. We see that constantly and consistently across the continent is that young entrepreneurs, they're not just in it for themselves, they're in it to grow their communities. And that's what we want to do. We want to support community led solutions, leaders in the community as they seek to strengthen their communities so we can fight off some of the instability that we're seeing, unfortunately, across the continent. You know, give youth alternatives if they don't have jobs, if they don't have opportunities or access to capital, then you know, terrorist networks and others, these are right infertile grounds where they come in to play. So we want to provide them and keep them on the positive path to really supporting economically and strengthening their communities. We also want to focus on women, you know, women hold the path to the sky. We know this, we've heard this and you've seen that hustle and bustle in the market. It is the women in that marketplace. It is the women in the communities who also really build strong communities across the continent. So we're looking at how we support women in particular but youth in general in building these stronger economies across the continent which can then lead to greater peace and stability and prosperity across the continent. I know that Josh was going to want to ask a few questions about Prosper Africa and the Development Finance Corporation. So I'll shift to another topic that is equally important for growing economies, the digital economy, the digital prospects that are out there. The administration has also talked a bit about how using technology and access to the digital economy really can grow economies so much faster. And in Africa we see the internet use growing faster than any place else on the continent. We see young people really embracing the internet and the job potential, the job creation opportunities there are vast. Can you tell us a little bit about how the administration's thinking about digital initiatives in Africa which we know have the potential to really be exponentially drivers of growth? Absolutely. So we are looking currently in the administration at an initiative for Africa on supporting and growing greater digital access across the continent. But it's not only about that access, it's also about building the skills and the capacity of this large youth population on the continent because what do young entrepreneurs use to grow their businesses? In many places even in the most remote the cell phone is key, access to business, to capital, to banking, to growing their business, to communicating, to their networks. So we want to build the skills, reinforce the structure, the infrastructure that African countries need to further support this business community. So we're hopefully will be able to launch something publicly soon but we're really looking at this from a comprehensive innovative and creative type of standpoint when we look at digital access across the continent. And when we talk about partnering with the private sector, Google just announced recently their large and major investment on the continent over five years and so we're looking at how we can partner with other companies in the private sector to really help grow that because that is what's needed in today's marketplace and in the future to really expand and burden other economies, other young entrepreneurs across the continent. Please, please. Because she just said, she just mentioned Google. I like to say that when I talk about partners working together to help galvanize and support young Africans, especially those in entrepreneurship, I think Google is a good example of that. We just also signed a partnership with Google and a partnership with Google. First, in 2021, they supported I think about a thousand entrepreneurs through the, you know, they spent $3 million, about 600 entrepreneurs through the 2008 Melu Foundation. But more importantly, they sent the team to the foundation just the last month to help. We have what we call the TEF Connect. It's a digital platform that the Melu Foundation uses to reach young African entrepreneurs who have today over a million subscribers to it. And these are young African entrepreneurs networking digital platform that are headed to travel one another across the continent, know what they are doing, support each other. And it goes a world of their own. And Google has come and then we use that platform to train. Because what we do, like this last year, we got over 350,000 applications from these young Africans who are interested, but of course we take only a thousand or two. Now, but we say, okay, even before we have limited resources, let's train all. So everyone that comes on that program would train them. And Google has now is helping not to expand the capacity of that platform. So we'll be able to train more seamlessly across. So I think that is a clear example of the kind of partnership that we need. And that digital partnership is so critical, support for Africa is so, so critical because we have internet connectivity is not so great, bandwidth available is not so great. Yet this young African must connect with the rest of the world. And that is also one area we need to, we need to focus on. And I like to see other global player, tech players support this kind of initiative. We certainly want to congratulate you on that. I think it's probably the first of that kind of partnership for Google on the continent. So really kudos to you and your team for pulling that one off. It's a great addition to the team. And I think I dedicated that to young African entrepreneurs because Google and like they've seen what the potential that these young Africans have, all they need is your support. And President Macron, I think they'll launch the tech for good, where I say technology for good, technology for all. So I think that space is very important for engagement of our young boys. Absolutely. Joshua, you might want to drill a little bit deeper, drill a little bit deeper. I meant to say drill a little bit deeper, not drill, drill a little bit deeper on this issue of Prosper Africa. Yeah, well, we are coming up to summer, so it's grilling season. But yeah, so Prosper Africa recently, the Biden administration both maintained it, but also expanded it. And you just laid out in really interesting detail some of the the focuses that the administration is going to have within Prosper. Is this, can we expect other innovations? Can you, is this sort of a fully baked concept? Or is this something that you're still working on? Should we expect further tweaks or maybe a full scale remodel? Or what do you sort of, if you can cast your eye into the future, what do you foresee for Prosper? Sure, thanks, Josh. So Prosper Africa, it's, as you mentioned, this initiative started in the previous administration and we relaunched, we retooled it last summer. And we really, we brought in some of the elements I mentioned in terms of the focus on gender equality and small and medium enterprises, young entrepreneurs, the youth focusing on the youth and really trying to harness all of the support and the capabilities that the 17 U.S. government departments and agencies bring to the initiative. So the one I mentioned earlier was, you know, it's one of the tools in the toolkit with development finance corporation and U.S. African Development Foundation. But there are, you know, 17 U.S. government departments and agencies, each with its own specific and unique expertise to help match up, you know, American investors who want to invest on the continent with companies on the continent and young entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs in general and companies who are looking for that type of partnership, that type of investment, but perhaps don't know how or where to start. We also recognize that the continent through the African Union and through the African Continental Free Trade Area has set out its vision on how they would like to promote trade investment from abroad. And so we want to work very closely with the AFCFTA and the Secretariat there to help let our investors know, American companies know, what the different regulatory environments are on the continent and how they can best meet those and then bringing in, you know, the government, the power of, you know, our U.S. government development, department, departments and agencies to support that. And then the most critical piece with the private sector, bringing in the private sector on board. Because, you know, government can only do so much. I think you mentioned that. It can only go so far. But it's key for having, for creating the enabling environment for companies to come and want to invest. But the companies also need to know where to go, what to do and how to navigate. So this, we feel like Prosper Africa, there's always room for growth, there's always room to prosper, right? And to retool and to refit, to really adjust. Because, you know, when you take on an initiative of this size that at its heart, that the goal is really to increase, you know, two-way trade and investment and to support it and to support our American investors and their endeavors on the continent. While we're also trying to increase trade investment, because Africa is definitely the new frontier. And we need to make sure that we are partnering with companies, with entrepreneurs, with businesses on the continent in a very real and sustainable way. And this in Prosper Africa is the tool that we are using with all of the tools that we have across the U.S. government to really support and U.S. Africa trade and investment. So yeah, there's always room to grow, so stay tuned. Sure. Great. Well, I, you know, kudos to the administration for really leaning into Prosper. I think it's very exciting and I'm personally looking forward to future innovations. Maybe we have time to squeeze in one more question. Or do we want to try to get to audience questions? Can I ask the question of the chairman that I think I really can't avoid, because we're a piece building into it. Mr. Chairman, we've all been watching, of course, with great concern the surge in coups across Africa, at least six coups and attempted coups since 2021. And we know that there are many reasons that contribute to why a coup happens in a country. But I'd like to get your thoughts maybe on to what extent do you think the lack of economic opportunity is setting the stage for this kind of a democratic backsliding that we see going on. It's very concerning to many of us and we're all thinking of what are the smart interventions. How do you see it from a business person's perspective? What do you see as the economic cause of some of this?  And I will stop the co-debtors that we're beginning to see on the continent. You know, lack of economic opportunities, lack of economic hope, poverty, joblessness, gender inequality, these are issues that create political instability. We cannot have political stability if we don't address these fundamentals. So it is a problem and we hope and pray that it stops there, the country that have already experienced it. And I hope that it becomes a wake-up call to others to sit up, prioritize these young ones, address these social issues, address economic problems so that prosperity, at least a drastic reduction of poverty and pulling people out of the poverty line will help to bring stability.  We can have stability if people are hungry. We can have stability if people are starving. We can have stability if there's no economic hope. People can endure and say okay, the way things are going three years time, five years time, things will be okay. But where there's hopelessness and adherence, and that's what we're seeing. So the solution, good governance, privatization of our people, the young ones in particular, engaging with the private sector to increase the ability to create jobs on the continent so that we can engage with people and making sure that we run an inclusive society that brings everyone to the table. That is the solution. You make a compelling case for the role of the private sector in addressing long-term instability and conflict on the continent. Would you even imagine that private sector can play a role in peace negotiations and peace processes? Private sector, we are not trained to be involved in peace negotiations. However, conflict negotiations, sorry. However, we can play a role to prevent it. For me, rather than deal with consequences, how about making sure it does not happen in the first instance? And the private sector can play a role there. Again, on the African continent, we have issues. I mean, we're discussing today about some of these pockets of the manifestation of bad governance and lack of economic hope and opportunities. Imagine what happened in 10 years time, given the rate of our population growth and especially the demography of our population. It's going to be worse. So, we need to do something urgently. I sit at home and I'll tell you more recently. My young ones, you see, they are playing on the internet, on the iPad, and they tell me all these sort of matches are going to come. And I'm like, what happens to those who don't have access to internet connectivity? What future are we creating? So, you see a future of these kids who are used to the internet. I said they know what's happening in the world, and you see other kids who don't even know what's happening, don't even know have access to it, who cannot even fit. And we're thinking of stability? No, it cannot happen. So, for me, the private sector has a role to play, and that is at the center of Africa capitalism. You know, the leadership role of private sector in 21st century Africa in catalyzing economic growth opportunities and development. But for that to happen, we need our government to create the enabling environment. And I look forward to the upcoming dialogue with African leaders. I pray and hope it's a true dialogue that brings the private sector and African leaders together, and also one that does not even, they should not come and make written speeches. They didn't have conversations like this, so that let's see, come on, people prepare speech for you. Stand up, you read this, which I move on. No, let's engage dialogue and let leaders know what the private sector needs for them to do well, and let them understand that the success of the private sector helps them to meet even their political manifestations and promises to their people, so that they work in harmony within what is generally acceptable, so that we can create an inclusive government. So, private sector should play a role in helping to have that and avoid conflict, rather than being involved in the resolution. But yes, if it gets to that, that there's conflict, the private sector should be involved in discussing terms that bring resolution to the table, and I'm sure what the private sector will be saying is, let's create jobs for our people. Let's improve access to electricity. Let's deal with internet connectivity and bandwidth issues. Let's make sure that we run an inclusive government. Let's make sure that society is inclusive. Let's make sure that females have a seat at the table, young ones have a seat at the table, and that everyone is involved, and that irrespective of your religion or your age, you can have a say in what's happening. That inclusiveness is what we need to move the world to the next level. Let's open the conversation a little bit to our audience here. If you'd like to raise your hand and just identify yourself. I think that one might work, so we can hear you well. If they can increase the volume of the audio. Hello. I'll start again. Hello. I'm Carl von Barton. I'm a post consultant here in DC. I was born in Lagos, Nigeria, so I know the country really well. Now, wouldn't you agree with me that no matter how much money, billions, zillions, we dump into Africa or Nigeria, nothing will change because why? You know, there's no infrastructure. I was discussing with the Nigerian government a few months ago about setting discussions. Can you maybe adjust it? Sorry, I'll do this here. Now, no matter how much money we dump in the continent, nothing will change because there is no infrastructure, no power, no light systems, no healthcare systems. And so when you don't have that environment, no matter how much money you dump in, nothing changes. Let's look at China. It seems the US seems to have an 18th century policy for Africa. What we did in China was quite different. We had American businesses go there and start businesses. We can make this in Africa, but right now we have no power. We have no resources, so we can't do that. So, wouldn't you agree with me that unless we have the infrastructure on the ground, that no matter what discussions we have, we'll send there, nothing will happen? That's my first question. You know, my second question here is, don't you think that it's time we have a true discussion with the American government in the sense where we have a true discussion with the American government, where we have, we push away from why call handbasket, weave in trade policies, which is let's go there and train you. Nothing happens. We need to be China or we tie around. We didn't do this. Let's have American businesses like Google, Apple, go to Nigeria, open factories, build stuff to sell to Americans. This is how it works around the world. We seem to have this 18th century policy of crafting weave baskets and training people that, like a good example, what you're doing is great. You're investing in people to start businesses, but we know for every thousand entrepreneurs only one succeed. That's just the mathematics there. And they're not everyone's going to succeed, but we can take people from Americans here who have done a great job, go there and start businesses. So my second question, don't you think we have to revamp the entire U.S. African trade policy? You want to respond right away? Yeah, because two questions also. So, you know, I think your interventions are right. Let me start with the second one. In my remarks, I said it's time we reimagined the relationship between the U.S. as friends of Africa and the continent. And I call it to a first century Africa. For me, shouldn't be Africa of a dependency issue, Africa of dignity and several lines. And to me, the way to get there amongst others, but to me, tested at what I know I can speak to is entrepreneurship. Let's prioritize young girls and support them because so much billions of dollars have gone into Africa by way of aid, yet the continent remains perpetually dependent. If you do something time and time and time and time, and it's not given the desired impact result, you reassess it. So it's time to reimagine how that engagement and engagement goes. And that banks, I hope, that cross for Africa and also the convention, the convening in President of Africa, that will begin to think of this. How do we change this? We've been doing something the same way, maybe it's time to have a new deal that addresses that. So I agree with you on that. But the first point, infrastructure is such a problem on the continent. In fact, much not long ago here, I talked about access to electricity, internet connectivity issue, bandwidth issues. We need to fix all of this so that entrepreneurship, so that even the private sector can do it. There's so much that can happen on the continent. However, however, we cannot give up. Because if we wait for 100% access to electricity or coal before we start the journey, it will be too late. So let's see all. So some of the entrepreneurs who support today go into solar energy, for instance.  Some into waste management, different things happening, recycling, so much in little, little form. Let's continue that while we wait for the big thing to happen. I said a few minutes ago, so that we need a martial plan. We need a martial plan for Africa to lift Africa sustainably at a poverty. There's a lot to be done in the area of infrastructure as well as entrepreneurship. For entrepreneurs to do well, you need some of this infrastructure in place, especially access to electricity, which will lack in Africa. But at the same time, you need entrepreneurs because at some point, one of these movies I've enjoyed most and books I've read, The Men Who Built America. I like to see how these five men work very hard in their respective ways and sectors to make things happen. So what I see also to my private set of friends is, yes, we can say all of this, but on our own, we should also be able to make a difference. So let's not give up the hope. Let's be optimistic. That's why your question, I'm optimistic because I've seen it. In my own time, if I was hindered or defined or characterised by my background, maybe I wouldn't be where I am today. So let's keep encouraging people, but let's play our own role in making sure that the encouragement is not just word of mouth, but in reality, we're doing something that can bring about the change that we need in that. Let me just do a quick time check. Do we have time for a few more questions? Are we out of time? Are we good on time? No, I'm so pungent. Okay. Let's try and get at least, go ahead. Do you want to try and take another question? Sure. Maybe we'll be one of the online ones so that we can bring our online audience in. So we got a couple here, but I'll just go with one. If there's one thing the Biden administration is going to do that will really benefit African entrepreneurs, what would that be? That's a good question. Yes, one. I think it would be sort of a mix of the previous question in terms of infrastructure, providing the infrastructure to help create the environment where you can have greater investment. And I think retooling, relaunching Prosper Africa was just one way of increasing two-way trade with Africa. Everyone is very familiar with the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a GOA, which is set to expire in 2025. Everybody knows it. Everybody loves it. But when we talk about reimagining, and those are some of the conversations that we're having right now, we have to talk about not just trade benefits, but what we're reimagining how our trade investment would look with Africa post a GOA, post 2025. How can we grow this? How can we harness the power of the entrepreneurship? How can we harness the power of the private sector? How can we provide greater infrastructure so that we can not just mine for minerals on the continent and manufacture cell phones in another country, but that it can be done right there on the continent? And so I think the reimagining the conversations that we're doing now as we look at our Africa strategy, as we prepare for the African Leaders Summit, I think it's setting the foundation, setting the scene for leaders to come together to talk, for the private sector to come in to listen, and for a civil society to also be a part of the conversation to see how we can bring all of these forces together to reimagine our trade investment with the continent. Joshua, Joshua, at that moment. Yes, we are. Unfortunately, we could continue talking about this for hours. And hopefully, we will have future conversations. Chairman Alamelu, my organization, USIP, the Biden administration, we're clearly all big fans of what you do, what you're accomplishing. We want to be partners. And so we look forward to searching into those opportunities to partner with you. So thank you to you, Chairman. Thank you to Senior Director Banks, to Ambassador James. I just realized I'm the only one without a good title on this stage. Thank you as well to the rest of the USIP team and everybody who is involved. It takes a lot of hands to get something like this together. I especially want to go so smoothly and it's so interesting. Thank you for everybody for attending. Thank you for those who joined us online and very much looking forward to future conversations like this.