The businessman's daughter left the poor guy at the request of her father. After 10 years, she regretted it very much. Hey guys, I think many people have heard the phrase that a man builds his own destiny and therefore no one but you will make you happy. No one's responsible for your happiness. As a result, only the one who conquered himself, who conquered his fear, his laziness and his uncertainty win in this life. After all, the life of each individual person is worthy to make a film about it. And I think in this film, there will be a lot of interesting and instructive things to do or not do. Our next story is from a few years ago in Portland, Oregon. A guy named Tom was an ordinary student from a simple family by American standards. His father was a trucker and his mother worked in elementary school. But anyway, the guy was very determined. From a young age, he was good at soccer and played for the school team. Exactly due to his sports achievements, he entered the local college on a free of charge basis. Of course, far from his family, the guy had to provide for himself, so he took any job from the simple courier to a waiter in a local cafe. And by the way, it's the last place of work in a small restaurant that the story begins. Tom was only 19 years old when he first saw and later got to know a girl named Sophia. Already at first sight, she charmed him. She came to the restaurant on the Red Ford Mustang, always at the same time. And judging by the care of the institution staff, the girl was a regular customer. At that time, he worked in the restaurant only for two weeks, and therefore didn't know that she was the daughter of the owner of this cafe. As it turned out, the girl's father had a small chain of seven establishments all over the city. But guys, this didn't prevent our hero to leave a deep mark in the life of this beautiful girl. The guy served Sophia's table several times and since they were peers, they quickly found a common language. Several dialogues and they already have common interests. When Sophia came to the restaurant, she always looked for the guy with her eyes, and Tom in turn always ran to serve her. So with time, a symphony arose between them. One day, having gained courage, Tom offered Sophia to take a walk in the park in the evening. And to his surprise, she agreed. The guy could not believe his luck. He wasn't even embarrassed by the fact that he was an ordinary waiter and she was the daughter of the owner. That day, they walked into late at night, took pictures and told their life stories. Those who were on the first date will definitely understand. When the evening was nearing its end, each of them didn't want a part. The guy even walked the girl home, after which they kissed for the first time. From that warm June day, Tom and Sophia started relations. It was the first and only summer vacation they spent together. At that time, it seemed to them that these feelings would last a lifetime and they would definitely grow into something more, perhaps even a new family. But guys, at the end of the summer, there was a sharp turn in history. After graduating from college, Tom looked for a better job, went through dozens of options and made plans for the future. Of course, the guy was 100% sure that Sophia was also included in these plans. But how he was wrong? One evening, the guy as usual came to get the girl, hoping to spend the evening together. Tom was happy to share with her the fact that he'd found a good job and also wanted to offer to start living together.  The guy expected to rent a small apartment, because he was firmly confident in his feelings, as well as in the feelings of Sophia. He rang the doorbell at the door of a beautiful house where the girl lived. But nobody opened the doors for a long time. When he rang again, the door was opened by Sophia's father, the owner of the chain of restaurants. The guy only managed to say hello, as he immediately heard the terrible words, which were like thunder in the middle of a clear sky. Hello Tom, Sophia will not go out with you today. And this is, you do not come here anymore. You are not welcome here. The guy was in a stupor because it was so unexpected for him. He wanted to say something, but before he could even say the words, the door closed right in front of his face. It was more like a terrible dream. He couldn't believe that it really happened, but he was outraged by something else. Why didn't Sophia come out to him? Like any normal person, a guy did not just retreat because behind such behavior could hide something. That's why Tom was waiting for the girl under her house the next day. And when the gates opened and a car appeared from them, he went there. The guy was firmly convinced that this was all just an evil joke, because before it was all good and she could not do this to him. But what happened next was probably the worst moment in his life. The girl put down the window of the car and said, I'm sorry Tom, but my father told you the truth yesterday. It's not your fault, but I can't go on like this.  It was a simple interest, nothing more. We had a wonderful three months of summer, which I will never forget, but I need a completely different person who can give me much more than just walks in the park. Tomorrow, I am going to university in another city, so don't look for me anymore. And I really am sorry. After these words, the girl closed the side glass and gave it the gas. Tom stood in the middle of the road for a few more minutes and couldn't recover until a car passing by signaled him to get out of the road. So the boys' dreams were broken into many pieces and his heart almost stopped beating. Since then, Sophia and her father never saw the guy. He didn't even take his personal belongings from the restaurant. But as you understand, everything in this life sooner or later falls into place. And this story was no exception. A few years later, the girl graduated from university and returned to her hometown. And a little later, she married a rich young man, the son of a family friend. They played a noisy wedding and began to live and rejoice in life, resting at expensive resorts and wasting their parents' money. And perhaps everything would have gone on like this, but five years after the wedding, the girl's father was gone. And the whole family business passed into the hands of Sophia and her husband. I think many people understand that they have no experience in managing restaurants at all, and none of them have ever worked anywhere. Most of the income from restaurants they invested not in business developments, but in expensive yachts, cars and recreation. Already very soon, things in business went very bad. Credit obligations, staff salaries, rent of premises and so on. All of this was beyond the power of two young people and nobody really wanted to get into the business because they just couldn't do it, relying only on rich parents all their life. After a while, the couple got into big debts, such that they even had to sell cars and houses. The only thing that could save them was selling a chain of restaurants. By the way, 10 years have already passed since the day when the girl left poor town. Sophia and her husband were looking for a buyer for restaurants to no avail, but nobody wanted to pay the amount they asked for, namely $3 million. Until one day, a stranger who was ready to buy their entire business called Sophia's husband on the phone. And this man even agreed to pay more than the couple asked. For the couple, it was not just good news, it was their lifeline. A day later, they made an appointment. When Sophia and her husband arrived at the appointed place, they were kindly met by a stranger named Craig. He said that he was just a director and, frankly speaking, did not quite understand why his boss had made the whole deal. Everyone understands that the cost is overstated, and given the fact that after a few months they'll be completely ruined, a man could buy their business 10 times cheaper. But since the boss said to buy, then he knows exactly what he's doing. And these words, Craig called his boss and said everything's ready. Just need his signature on the documents. Of course, Sophia couldn't even imagine at that time that she would see the one she left many years ago, who was a waiter in a restaurant. Yeah guys, it was just like that. The door to the meeting room was opened by a respectable man, and when Sophia looked up to see this generous millionaire, she almost fell from her chair. It was the same Tom with whom she once spent the summer and whom she left at her father's request. Of course, Tom knew who would be present at this deal. Actually, so was about whose restaurant he buys. The guy just came up to Craig and patted him on the shoulder and asked if everything was okay. Yes, sir, thank you, Craig said. After putting his signature in the right place, Tom looked again into Sophia's confused eyes, and then turned around silently and left the office. The girl remembered this look and once favorite features, but now it was a look of a completely different person, not the boy with whom she walked in the park, the look of a person who has gone through a lot and achieved success. When Tom left the office, Craig congratulated them on the deal. The girl's heart was beating so fast that she could barely ask just one question. And who is this rich man? To which Craig replied that his boss owns a very large chain of restaurants and bars throughout the neighboring state. He also added that Tom was a very good, humble man, but life was quite unfair to him. It is rumored that he was in love with a girl who left him because of poverty. That's why he became what he is now, because he made a promise to himself many years ago to achieve success. I don't know what would have happened to that girl now if she hadn't turned him down, Craig said. A similar story was shared many years ago by a young woman for an American magazine who wanted to remain anonymous. She also said that after selling her father's business, her husband started drinking alcohol after which they got divorced. Now she lives all alone, quite modestly in a small house. And she also works, as all the money received went to pay off loans and other obligations. And this story probably proves the fact that you should choose with your heart, not by dry calculation. Rich parents are no guarantee that you can continue their business. In today's world, it's very important not only to earn money, but also to be able to save and increase your earnings. Guys, that's all for today. Please send your opinions in the comments. Do you agree with these words? Also rate this video if you like it, and see you soon.


Nigeria was, than we think, not as bad as we imagined. Nigeria can currently be described as a nation plagued with unrest, kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, tribal hatred, love of money, and the least goes on. This can best be described as the worst times in Nigeria's history. That is, if we ignore the challenges that happened during the war, the Biafra War, the Civil War era. And thanks to social media, every event is adequately or overly amplified. Nigerians are not terrified. They are tired. Tired of hearing unpleasant news, tired of uncertainties, tired of bad economy, tired of dashed hopes, particularly from politicians. What is terrifying is the fact that the situation is actually worse than we think. Our problem goes beyond politics. It's a mannerism. It's a belief system. It is who we are becoming. I'm shying away from saying who we are because it's still an ongoing transformation. Governments or, in this case, politics only amplifies mannerism. You heard the story of the lady who claimed to be an orphan who had lost her limbs in an accident. What gave her out? Selfishness. When I went for... I mean, she refused to pay the people she was meant to pay or give them the share of the money. When I went for my NIN registration, I saw a guy at the center who was very angry and rightly so. While I did mine without paying a couple, he says he had paid over $50,000 to get NIN number for four people. Yet, after three weeks, he didn't get his card.  In our nation currently, without any fall from our leaders, it is difficult to set up a company or open up a shop and put someone in charge while you travel out of town. We're becoming more and more untrustworthy, disloyal, but I won't say we're greedy. I just won't say that. Now, life is all about self and not society. As long as me at the chop, hungry feet kill my neighbor. And I read Nigerian complaints today about bad governance and because he or she wants a change. But the truth is, he or she doesn't necessarily want a change. It is mostly because he or she is not getting a share of that cake. Once a relative gets into power, the rhythm changes, complains, sees, and suddenly, what is bad becomes acceptable. If you're greedy as an average citizen, what do you expect such a citizen will do? When or if he or she gets into politics, it will deprive you of every single thing you deserve. You expect a sudden transformation, a miracle that won't happen. But Nigeria is not all gloom. We have experienced bad governance for many years. Now we've lost interest in the very existence of the country. We see Nigeria as the worst country in the world, even if the news we hear is fake or what happens here is happening in other countries. We insist Nigeria is the worst. We complain about debt to GDP ratio. When that really is in the problem, where Japan's debt to GDP ratio is over 200%, China is over 55%, UK is over 85%, US is over 106%, even Ghana next door is over 60%. Nigeria's debt to GDP ratio is 30%, and we're giving a talking point to keep criticizing our country, not the politicians. We don't even feature among the top five in Africa. There are countries in West Africa where they have 24-hour light, but residents in the capital city cannot afford to pay for light because of poverty, so they live in darkness while all their neighbors have light. So when we call our nation poverty capital, because of certain research outcome that we have not challenged, we become the laughing stock. If you hear about corruption and corrupt practices in other parts of Africa, you will shudder, I tell you, at the fact that other African countries and even in the West experienced this. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should encourage corruption. All I'm saying is that if other equally corrupt countries are able to attract investments and global respect, why can't we in Nigeria? Why can't we all call out our corrupt leaders but do well to honor our country? One thing we forget is that when we call our country the most corrupt country in the world, we're not talking about politicians. We're talking about the citizens because we are the Nigerians. The world is interested in not the politicians. When we call our country a zoo, it doesn't make us zoologists. It makes us the animals. And the zoologists in this case are the politicians. We hate our country so much that we never miss an opportunity to run it down. An investor can work in a corrupt government because that affords him or her an opportunity to undercut the nation and cut away money. But an investor cannot invest in a zoo or in a jagga-jaga Nigeria because he feels he wouldn't be safe. Nigeria is worse than we can think because we ignore the fact that we need an attitudinal change but it is not as bad as we imagine because whatever we're going through now other nations have experienced it, have overcome it and they're even bigger and better and we can do the same.  Let's start a new hashtag, be Nigerian. I am Nigerian. Do a video on the great things you are doing. Let the world see you as Nigerian. They know not about because you are the one they care about. I want to strangle you. It's your rosy poetry. That's your rosy. I think that the part of it that I like is where you said people that are looking at us from outside and it's not the politicians, it's us. It's not the country, it's the politicians. So truly we the citizens have a lot to play in what has happened to the country because it's not just about the leadership it's also in the little things we do. Do you stop at the traffic lights? When you go to the bank they say line up. Do you line or you shunt the person in front to get to the front?  So it's even those little intangible things. But I'm sorry. I don't know whether it's like an ostrich bearing the head in the sun. It's not working. I don't know how you want me to say it. They are biting me. They are strangling me. They are suffocating me. Then you say no, I'm breathing. No, no, no. Let me set the record right. This is what I'm saying. You see we've waited on politicians for so long to change Nigeria and they keep failing us.   And that's all we are saying that listen, if you keep waiting for politicians to say, okay, let's wait until 2023. We'll bring in another set of people. You're still going to experience the same thing. However, if we in our own little corner start respecting and honoring ourselves, ignoring the politicians, we can't ignore them because we need to vote and get them out. But doing our own little thing to make that impact. Because let me give you an example. I was telling someone that even Twitter went to Ghana, but I can bet that if Twitter had set up the company, the headquarters in Nigeria, the clients would have really good Nigeria. Twitter, you know, it's a better country. Ghana, Nigeria, I can't fancy one concept or country. This country, we're not in the world. You get it. And those things really tarnish the image of Nigeria. Those are the angles. Do we have enough Nigerians who are ready to join the bandwagon that you are talking of? I think he's saying that praise Nigeria, call out the politicians, point the fingers to the ones to blame. Do we? Because over the years, you were talking about, do you stop at traffic light? Do you do this, do you do that? You would find that at a stage, you could just get frustrated because it seems you are the only person trying to do the right thing. There was one morning that a cab was taking me out and the man stopped at traffic light. Quite a little money. If you see how the home behind him, the one he finally moved, if he had it when he was abused, insulted, that's it. I think we actually, in 2015, I was taking a class just before the election and I said to my students, okay, now we want to elect a new president. Can anybody here raise up their hand and say I want to be the new president? And of course, we're like, yes, now I can be the new president. But I said, but you are still a Nigerian. When you get there, you still do the same thing that Bwari is doing. Because we have selected our president from within ourselves and this is who we are as a person. We have lost our mannerism, as you said. Humanity, like you said, the policeman. Where is basic, simple humanity and kindness to the next person? No, I'm not saying that don't be Superman.  Let me just, sorry to call to you again. I think it was Chinua Chebella that we get the nations we desire. You cannot divorce the country from the people in it. So I will extend it to say that instead of shooting the blame on the politicians we should put the blame on us. Each and every one of us are guilty as charged. So I think it comes down to the issue of orientating our values and I also like the hope aspects that are rooted in your script so that things can actually get better. As much as things are so bad out there, I think once in a while when we hear a message of hope it helps to inspire that things can actually get better beyond what it is today. What exactly do you want to expect of us so that we will not be in our heads anymore? No, the basic thing to do is for us to just love our country. Let me give you an example. The president, the head of AFCTA headquarters in Ghana he sent a mail out recently where he said he came into Ghana he was diagnosed to have a COVID positive but he went out, did test at two other labs and he was declared negative so he released the issue. Now generally, straightening it said it is bad enough for the country. I can trust Nigeria, you will have lambasted Nigeria but you know what he generally said? Listen, we are diplomats. Why did you have to make it public? Why didn't you write the president? Why didn't you write the challenge to Ghana Health Service?  Why do you have to make it public? That is a journalist that is defending the nation although he later called out the Ghana Health Service but first of all went out and defended the nation because the image of the nation is bigger than that of the president or anybody. So protect Nigeria. Protect Nigeria, that's it. Let's start the hashtag. Protect Nigeria. You saw the Nigerian branch. That's it, that's it. So up next is Omani and he is saying we should let our boys do the cooking. Boys can cook to save their lives. Stay with us.


senior advisor of Pacific Forum here on global connection. So let's start with China as China, inside China and COVID. We should understand what's going on there because it's not a small thing. What's going on there, Carl? They are basically every time they have an outbreak, they're shutting down the city, locking people down, corralling them in their apartments.  I mean, to put it bluntly, they've become so obsessed with the policy that they've kind of lost track of the larger context of people are dying for lack of medical care because everybody's locked up over COVID. And it's sort of an overblown case of what we had here in the United States where people were putting off medical care for fear of catching COVID and there was the lack of capacity at the hospitals. There, it's just a lack of capacity for caring about anything other than controlling COVID. This is really disturbing in the sense that it reflects either A, what do you want to call it, a government culture point.  For B, Xi Jinping has a specific intention in mind and some people have suggested that this is one way he enhances his power by just showing you just how strong he is. Is it one or both or neither of those two possibilities? What do you think? It's both. I mean, I don't want to give Xi Jinping all the credit because I think he operates in a political system that requires him to gather some support for what he's doing. But certainly, it's the weakness of a centrally planned government where you become obsessed with a particular goal and you lose sight of the larger social contract that you have with the people of the country. And I think this is a glaring example of what happens when people lose sight of what their real responsibility of the government is. That's a revelation of sorts because up to this point, just thinking me, I'm a novice about this, I thought that the Chinese government had the followership, they had the control and they knew what to do for COVID. But now you wonder if their decision process in general is flawed, their perception of the public opinion is flawed, their relationship with the public, with the Chinese people, 1.4 or 5 billion of them, it could be flawed. They don't have to do this is the point, right? I mean, it reflects a lack of adaptability for one thing. I mean, I think that's really one of the key elements here. And again, it's a key element in any centrally planned organization or government, if you will, in this case, that if you don't maintain connectivity to the people, then you lose sight of what really is happening. And I think it's a classic case. If you look at what's happening now in China and Taiwan, it's really kind of interesting because what you see in the Taiwan papers today and over the last couple of weeks is we're not going to do this, what China's doing. We're going to recognize that we need to make some adaptations and we can't just maintain the zero COVID policy. So they're in the position now where they have a lot of cases of homegrown cases, which in the past, Taiwan were doing fairly draconian measures in their own right, but now they've recognized that people are complaining, people are concerned, people are worried, and so they've made the adaptation. China isn't making the adaptation, just like in Hong Kong happened, but in Hong Kong is the other example, which of course went through that same lockdown. So you can see how the different systems play out when you are confronted with something that requires adaptation. Well, autocracy, and I would have to say that, I consider China an autocracy, leads to brutality. And what they're doing here is brutal. And worse than that, it's brutal in terms of dealing with their own citizens. It is applying the same kind of brutality you see in Xinjiang against the Uyghurs, against all the people in China, or the people in Shanghai and Beijing, but it is also, they have lost their mojo with many millions of people who are kicked off at them. And in public, making public statements against the government, we are in a different time, don't you think? I wouldn't, I would be careful in going too far because they've also been very careful to control that narrative inside China. I mean, again, we from the outside looking in want to blow this bigger than it might be. And so I would be careful how they actually play this out. If they do start responding to some of the criticism that they're getting from inside China, because you do see some of it, it'll show up on Weebo for a little while and then it'll disappear. And so there's, they've got to be seeing what's happening. And so it'll be interesting to see how this plays out because they are gonna have to move off zero COVID. It's just a question of how they do it and how fast they do it, I think. Well, why, is this a hard one? And I don't know if you or I would know, but why did they have this surge anyway? I mean, it may not be extraordinary number of cases, but it's more than ever before in terms of day by day infections. What happened? I thought they had a handle on this. I mean, I think there's a combination of things. Is one, there is still traffic in and out of China. And two, the vaccines that the Chinese made vaccines apparently are not as effective as some of the mRNA ones are that they've refused to let in. So, they don't have access to the mRNA vaccines. And so I think that's part of it. But then also, you just simply can't control, especially when it comes to Omicron, the Omicron variants that they're going to get in, no matter what kind of a wall you build, no matter what kind of a tight seal you try to put around these cities. Just a hard one, Drew, of what could happen in the United States? Well, no, I don't think so, because I mean, first, the United States is much more vaccinated with the mRNA. And we've let this sort of natural immunity build by having a lot of cases. So that's kind of the combination of people have had COVID and so they're not as vulnerable anymore. And then the mRNA is a more effective vaccine. So I don't think so. I think that the United States, not just the United States, but also Europe and the rest of Asia are coming to this realization that you have to learn how to live with COVID. So that's why I think you see people like Dr. Fauci saying, it's time that we move on, we're past the pandemic phase and we're now into the end of the phase. You know, one thing in China culturally is the metric for a successful government is the economy. How well people are doing, their lifestyle, you know, whether they have sufficient money and resources and consumer goods available and so forth, all of that. But there have been reports, even from China, I don't know how accurate or maybe they're crossing the line in terms of dealing with the propaganda machine. That say that the economy is being affected. Plants have been shut down. Important economic resources have been tied up because of the draconian steps on COVID. That could have a long-term effect, no? It could be affecting what shows up in your port too. I mean, that's just it. It's not just affecting the Chinese economy. It's affecting the world economy. I mean, there now they're talking, we're taking percentage points out of GDP because there's a bottleneck created in China over consumer goods that aren't leaving the port, aren't leaving Shanghai port, aren't leaving Hong Kong ports. And so it not only affects China, certainly it does, but it also is affecting the rest of the global economy. Will this affect Xi Jinping's power? Will it call for reform? Is there enough displeasure out there whether it's articulated in the media or not that will change China? It could. I mean, it's hard to predict at this point, I think. I mean, certainly these kinds of things demonstrate that his grasp on power isn't as great as some people would like to believe it is. That he's not really all that secure in getting this position of president for life or whatever your ruler for life, whatever you want to call that position. It's really, you shouldn't call it president. It's really not a presidential position. It's really a chairman of everything, a position. And I think that it certainly challenges his ability to impose his will to the extent that just COVID would do that, I don't know. But certainly the economic downturn, certainly the dissatisfaction with the way they've been handling the ability to travel, the ability to move between cities is certainly going to create a lot of displeasure with how the government is running things. Yeah, so much of China seems to me these days is base. They wanna look strong and look like they're in control. They wanna project that as an element of power or maybe a big element of power around the world. And it does give them advantages in their projects in various continents. Is this daff or I shouldn't say daff, that's too strong a word. Is this problem affecting their face, their projection of power? Sure, I mean, it just like it affects his Xi Jinping's power in China. It affects China because people are people from the outside are reporting this. People are reporting the sort of draconian measures. They can't control the media outside of China as well as they can inside. So some of that is out and of course, people in the rest of the world can see it. So yeah, so it hurts their credibility and it reminds people just like we just discussed, reminds people that there are weaknesses in centrally controlled governments. And this is one of the big ones, is you don't have a voice telling you you're headed in the wrong direction. That's a natural segue is the interaction of whatever is going on there, whatever effect it has among the people and in the image of China, the image of Xi Jinping on the question of Ukraine. It's almost like the news from China is not as important as the news from Ukraine. That China is somehow a secondary priority on the world interest and current events. And the fact that Xi Jinping has been unsupportive of the coalition somehow affects that. I think a lot of people, I'm just suggesting to you, a lot of people, a lot of thought leaders in the world say, well, they're doing this thing. They don't wanna support the coalition. They wanna make a mess with Putin. So they're gonna support Putin, but in a very mild mannered way and they marginalize themselves in the global conversation, haven't they? Well, I think we need to be careful by overstating that. I mean, China has been very good at not supporting and supporting both sides. They've been really, really non-committal, but they're not the only ones. I mean, Farid Zakaria had a good piece, I think it was last week, where he pointed out that it's not just China, it's India, it's Indonesia. Those are big democracy. And then he goes on, of course, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, all these countries have been pretty non-committal. And even for that matter, the rest of Southeast Asia, absent Singapore have been pretty non-committal about what's happening in Ukraine. So he's playing, I think China is trying to play a very careful game here where they don't support Russia, but they don't not support Russia. So you've seen on the margins, you've seen like the drone company, quit selling drones to both Russia and Ukraine. You've seen the cancellation of an oil project with Russia. But also, I think China sees this as an opportunity to basically make China much more dependent, to make Russia much more dependent on China. And so they don't really want to alienate Russia either. So they're playing a very, I think a very trying to play a very careful game of showing, just not showing, I mean, I have to say it in the negative, non-supporting both sides is ultimately, other than blaming the United States and Europe for NATO expansion as the real cause. But beyond that, there's been really no support or non-support beyond them. There's a risk in playing on the fence that way, isn't there? For example, and I, who knows how this is gonna wind up? Suppose the Ukrainians win, suppose they win. How does China come out of that? Or alternatively, suppose they lose in a horrendous debacle and disaster for Western Europe. How do they come out of that? What are the risks for China either way? Well, see, I think the downside risk is trying to lean too far one way or the other in their case. And I mean, I would say that sitting the fence has been a fairly effective strategy for Southeast Asia for a long time. I mean, this is sort of something that Asian governments like to do is not make commitments to one side or the other. So they want both sides. They wanna be able to take advantage of the economic relationship and yet maintain the security relationship with the United States. And I think, in some respects, I think China sees this as the real opportunity. Clearly, they've learned lessons about what it means to go against the United States and Europe when they work together to impose sanctions. And I'm sure that China has rethought its reserves and how it holds U.S. bonds. I'm sure it's working hard to try to create an alternative to the swift system of moving money around. They have the SIPs, the China Interbank Processing System. I'm sure that they're working hard to create that system as more to make that system more robust so that people can use that as opposed to the Western-controlled institutions. And so I think that's how China sees it, that they're playing this middle game to take advantage of whichever side ends up winning, that they haven't alienated either one. And so I think that that's how they view it. And I think that's probably an accurate assessment because if Russia wins, they can say, hey, we were there for you, Russia. We continued to buy your goods. There's some talk that the Union Pay Credit Card has replaced Visa and MasterCard. And there's obviously a lot of exchange going between Russia and China with oil and gas. And so I think they're playing that side. And yet if Ukraine somehow wins, and I'm not sure what a Ukraine win looks like at this point beyond retaking the Donbas, I think that then they can come back and say, well, we never really supported China. We didn't give them any military assistance or we didn't really facilitate any procurement of military equipment. So we're still your friend, Ukraine. And they've made overtures to both Europe and specifically to Ukraine, saying that they call for a peaceful settlement and all that. So I think that they see, and I think they're correct at this point that they can take advantage of either way. No, you mentioned doing their own swift system and all that and it raises a very clever thing that Putin did to insist on payment in ruples for oil to avoid the US dollar. I mean, is the US dollar under pressure here? Is one of the benefits that China could achieve is to change the reserve currency, maybe even present the RMB as reserve currency? I mean, I'm not smart enough to know the yes or no answer to that, but I've certainly seen enough argument in the media to support the idea that China is going to try to take advantage of this, of facilitating or increasing the speed of the globalization of the U.N. So I think that that's probably something that they're not resisting. I don't know if they're actively doing it, but they're certainly not resisting people who want to increase the trade in U.N. and whether they're supporting the ruble.  I mean, if you look at what happened to the ruble, it went way crazy up at what, 140 or something and now it's back down to where it was pre-war, it's back down around 90 again. So it looks clearly somebody supported that currency to get it to come back down. So I wouldn't be surprised to see that because China and India for that matter and other places in the world in Africa continue to support purchases in ruble. That in fact, again, but it's not an obvious support. It's sort of a passive accommodation. I think that's the way that the Chinese see it and what they're trying to do is they're trying to be accommodated to the Russian situation. And then they go back and argue that that's consistent with their policy of non-interference. And that's why they continue to talk about the conflict in Ukraine as the special military operation. They sort of take that piece of Russian propaganda and use it for their own benefit because that way they don't have to choose sides and they can say it's something other than outright oppression. It's clever. You gotta say it's clever. Well, but I mean, yeah, I mean, it's clever but it's also should be rather unsettling because you can see that they're really playing the longer game here of trying to hedge their bets on both sides. I'd like to talk for a minute about the Security Council in the United Nations. One of the things that seemed to emerge early on here is that of course, Russia as a member of the Security Council would veto any action against Russia. But it's also clear that China would do the same. And to the extent that the United Nations could refer Security Council could refer cases, war crimes cases to the International Court of Criminal Justice, they're not doing that, even though it seems obvious. And there's been a fair amount of revelation about the United Nations and how it's a failed organization. Isn't in China's best interest to do that? They seem to be standing up with Putin in the same place on all the United Nations decisions where they're vetoing or threatening to veto and stopping any United Nations process. Does that really work in their favor? I think what China has done is they've abstained at the Security Council because they have Russia, they know that Russia is going to object. And so they can basically abstain, which of course is what a lot of countries did in the context of the General Assembly. The countries that aren't part of the Security Council abstain and in the case of China, they didn't vote with Russia, as you know, they abstained in the Security Council vote. So again, they're trying to play that game that says, hey, we believe in non-interference, and yes, we agree that sovereignty is important and that we respect the UN processes without making any commitments beyond what's in the interest of China, which is to avoid making a commitment on this. You know, they say that this war in Ukraine and all the events around it are changing the global world order, the liberal world order anyway. And I guess one of the decisions that China would have made is that's okay with us. We'd like to see it changed. We don't really care to have a liberal world order. We like it to be the way it serves our purposes. I hear you disagreeing, Carl. Yeah, I'm gonna disagree. I think China does benefit from the liberal order and that's why they don't try to push too hard in supporting Russia. That's the other side of the China story, is they're not, they're being very careful to avoid being criticized or accused by the United States of evading, of helping Russia evade sanctions. The only thing they're doing is they're saying, well, we aren't stopping commerce, but they aren't supporting sanctions. Again, everything that China's doing is in the negative. It's non-support. It's not that they're actively supporting either side. It always runs back to non-support. So no, China is the biggest beneficiary of the international liberal order out there. And so they're not going to say, no, we wanna change the order. But as you know, what they want and that's why they keep harping on this, what they want is they want to be able to have more influence on the international order. They wanna be able to maintain their state-owned enterprises. They wanna maintain their supply chain integrity just like we do. They wanna be able to act with impunity just like we do. So they're not suggesting that they wanna overturn the international order. They simply wanna be able to say, we want more control over the international order because we believe that the United States by imposing unilateral sanctions is trying to disrupt that role. So I think that's how I would characterize it. I wouldn't say they wanna overturn the international order.  They wanna be just like Russia. And so I think that's a more accurate description of what China is trying to accomplish here. And I mean, how do we stop that? I think you have to think about how you characterize what's happening. And when we point out to the Chinese that, no, the international liberal order is at risk because people are violating the law, the international norm of sovereignty and using military force, then we force them into a position of having to justify how they are not condemning Russia's action. So it's a dialogue. And on that, my last area of inquiry with you today, Carl, is in all of this, given COVID and the problems they've had with COVID, given the economy problems they've had and maybe the confidence of the people problems and given the path they have chosen in dealing with Ukraine and the Western coalition, in all of that, how was their relationship with the United States doing? And how is our relationship with them doing? Certainly, these things over the possibility that that relationship has changed or is changing or will change. What do you think? Yeah, well, it's a good area to think about because as I was thinking about the show, it occurs to me that what's happened, I think, is China has come to the realization that the United States is going to be a competitor, the choice, and again, they'll put it on us, they're gonna say the United States has made the choice to compete with China. And since we know that, since we Chinese now know that the United States is going to want to compete, we have to protect our interests. And the way we protect our interests is we solidify our own supply chains. We do what the Chinese call dual circulation where they build their own consumer base and they make sure that they have technological advantages in certain areas, they become less dependent on the United States for the financial system. In other words, moving away from Swift, moving away from buying treasury bonds and they have a better sense, a better control over the technology that they produce and their reliance on Western technology. So of course they're pushing their semiconductor industries and the whole technology 2025 push that Xi Jinping has introduced to develop high tech industries like electric vehicles, surveillance equipment and all that stuff. They're looking at pursuing those areas because they see ultimately this is going to become a technological battle between the United States and China. And they're probably right. What about the rhetoric? Has the rhetoric changed? Will it change? What is Joe Biden saying about them that may be different than a year ago? What are they saying about the US may be different than a year ago? Is there any tension is what I'm asking? Yeah, there's tension because there's competition. And I think both sides are falling into this binariness a little bit where it's either us or China. So the United States is pushing hard to get commitments out of the rest of Asia on supporting the United States versus China. This whole Indo-Pacific economic framework that's coming out here in the next while is going to be a big challenge because the United States is pushing it and it's very much looks to the rest of the world like a China containment policy. And China is going to push that narrative, I think that you guys need to be careful what you're doing with the United States because they're making you choose between China and the United States. And what we want is inclusivity. We can show you that through the regional comprehensive economic partnership. You can see that we're trying to become part of the comprehensive and progressive trans-Pacific partnership. All those economic agreements that China is trying to get on while the United States is trying to push its own framework is going to become I think the next area of competition beyond just the natural competition between the countries in Asia and the competition in South China Sea over territorial claims and all that. So yeah, I think the rhetoric has changed and it's reifying itself into very stern terms of us or them kinds of choices. So what's your advice to Joe Biden? Well, my advice to Joe Biden is to really think hard about what he wants in terms of economic engagement in Asia. And I mean, it's sort of a vain, vain request at this point, but you really need to think about how much benefit there is to joining the comprehensive and progressive trans-Pacific partnership. I mean, after the fact, you know, after we walked away from it, it's almost impossible to believe that we could get back to that. But this new economic framework is not gonna do that. It's going to create an even hardened line between US and China and force the Asian countries into having to figure out how to deal with that. And then, you know, I mean, I just think that we are short-sighted. I would say to the President Biden that the Americans are being short-sighted by thinking that we can get away without trying to figure out where areas we can cooperate in. And that seems to be lost.  There seems to be a divergence between what China thinks is doable and what the United States thinks is doable. And certainly there's no talk about, you know, other areas of cooperation in terms of non-proliferation or anything like that. And that would be better to find points of cooperation. But what, you know, what you portray here is we are in a time of change with major events happening around the world, that each one of them has the possibility of changing the world. And thus, a relationship with China is likely to change somehow going forward. And that means, Carl, we'll have to keep on watching it. Don't you think? I mean, in the aggregate, it's clear that there's change coming. And, you know, and it's just a question of how big the change is and how well we can manage the change.  I hope it's not going to be a light switch that goes off. But, you know, I mean, I think the best case scenario is that we see the change, we manage the change and we accept that China is going to play a bigger role and is going to play a role, a bigger role, independent of its relationship with the United States. That it's looking at how it can influence the rest of the world. And that's what we need to really think about how we manage. How do we manage the narrative that goes along with China gaining more and more influence in the rest of the world? Not just in the U.S.-China relationship anymore, but in the rest of the world. And that has to be managed and it has to be managed intelligently, not us or them kind of mentality, but how can we share responsibility for them? That's, I think, the big challenge. Mark Wood and all of that. Carl Baker, Senior Advisor Pacific Forum. Thank you so much for coming around and contributing to our shows, Carl. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Aloha.


Welcome to Nation Beat, I am General Norville bringing you this brief on the pulse of our nation and highlights around the heart of St Lucia. The first phase of the castries redevelopment project is underway. Medical practitioners get training in bedside ultrasounds and the OECS explores opportunities on the African continent. The government of St Lucia has embarked on a new visioning process for the city of castries. The first phase will run for four months to end in December 2018. The aim of this process is to make castries more compact, mix use socially inclusive, better connected and more resilient to climate change through integrated urban planning. The castries redevelopment review is also guided by international policy frameworks that St Lucia has signed on to such as the sustainable development goals and the new urban agenda. In 2008, the government of St Lucia via extensive consultation with a multitude of stakeholders sought to articulate a vision for the island's development via Quadrant Development Plan. Government has mandated the recently established National Integrated Planning and Program Unit NIPP in the Ministry of Finance to focus on the castries redevelopment project by first articulating the 2030 vision for castries using the 2008 vision as a benchmark. Howard Wells is the director of NIPP. Stakeholders at the forum included representatives from civil society organizations, various government ministries. The forum concluded with seven clear declarations outlined as part of the visioning for castries. We also looked at the whole idea of heritage. Castries historically was a place of strong culture, strong heritage related activities, but now we've seen that most of this has disappeared. The United Nations Office for Project Services Unops has partnered with the government of St Lucia on the castries vision 2030. The NIPP director is optimistic that this effort will bear more fruit than other visioning exercises in the past as it will outline tangible, doable projects which can be rolled out for Phase 2 in 2019. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Unit, Glenn Simon reporting. Mayor of castries, his worship, Peterson Francis, is on official visit to Trinidad and Tobago for a series of meetings. According to the mayor, the meetings are geared toward building strong partnerships in an effort to improve and develop the city of castries. Having met with several of his counterparts, Mayor Francis noted that without some level of autonomy from the government, the offices of the mayors are hindered in the crime fighting efforts. One of the things that they realized is that while there are certain things that are under the jurisdiction, they did not have the power over it. Most of the two jurisdictions are mountaineers and the mayor for Arima, although they have city police, but they have actually no control over them. So we are now looking to see how they could strengthen the government, could strengthen the hands of local government. And as I told the gathering that I'm looking at the death of local government, because what is happening, because we are on the ground and basically rubbing shoulders with people and finding the nature of what's happening and reacting to the needs of the people, that is now going to put us in conflict with central government. His worship indicated that the Trinidadian officials have been following the work of his office for some time now. Due largely to its success, the castries mayor was invited to Trinidad for an official visit. During the visit, the castries mayor is meeting with representatives of the mounted and canine branches of the Trinidad and Tobaco police service and commission of police Gary Griffith to discuss crime control strategies within the city of Port of Spain. Mayor Francis explained that the flexibility within city police provides an added advantage. We are on the ground, we are basically on the ground, like in other words, I mean I, the police on myself, the city police, we are the daily basis in contact reviewing as to, I don't think the permission of police has that type of logs here in the sense that I mean, we are a wider team to deal with and we have other administrative things as far as, you know, Madrid Street, the courts, lawyers, I mean they have more work on the thing to do, but with me, I have a smaller team dealing with a smaller sphere of space, so therefore on a daily basis, you know, like we could review, we could see where we go in and I think that is where we have a little more strength in that we are operating the city police on a daily basis. The skills and knowledge of emergency physicians responding to traumatic injuries in the hospital environment is expected to be enhanced with the arrival here of a team from the Stony Brook University. The team from the Stony Brook University is assisting in the training and support of emergency physicians around the island to strengthen their ability to provide care to pregnant and trauma patients using the service of bedside ultrasound. Professor of the Stony Brook University William Marlon says this training will provide an exchange of valuable information on bedside ultrasound which is important in the diagnosis of patients in the accidents and emergency department. Bedside ultrasound is sort of different than what you would get from a radiologist. The areas that we're interested in are real-time clinical decision-making. Is someone having intra-abdominal bleeding after a car accident? Does someone have a popped lung from a broken rib? And so those are the types of things, we're doing more than that, but those are the types of ultrasounds that we're trying to make sure that we're clear on and to teach here today. Coordinator of the bedside ultrasound training, Dr Lisa Charles says, training of this nature are very beneficial to staff and patients as it will improve diagnostic timeliness. Ultrasound really is an incredibly useful bedside test for two sets of patients, our pregnant patients and our trauma patients. And if I can talk a little bit about the trauma patients with limited access to advanced radiology testing like CT scanning. When you have a trauma patient present in the ER, this is a bedside test that can help you figure out whether there's internal bleeding and that can save valuable minutes in terms of getting a patient to operating theatre if required. Bedside ultrasound for internal bleeding is now a routine for every patient who visits the Victoria Hospital with a traumatic injury. Reporting from the communications unit of the Ministry of Health and Wellness, I am Fennel Neptune. This is Nation Beat, stay with us. And genetically modified foods are harmful to health and the environment. Join the Good Food Revolution. Grow, buy and consume organic. A message from Rye St. Lucia and the Ministry of Sustainable Development with funding from the GEF Small Grants Program, UNDP. Welcome back. The Sir Arthur Lewis Community College has informed that cleaning and maintenance work at the Monfortune campus have been completed and authorization has been given by the Occupational Safety and Health Specialists in the Ministry of Labor for the resumption of classes. The college further informs that because of major rehabilitation issues needed attention at the Goodlands extension, the two units' house there will be relocated. Therefore, effective Wednesday, 7th November, 2018, classes for the Department of Health Sciences and the Division of Teacher Education and Educational Administration will be relocated to the UE Open campus and the SALCC campus at Monfortune. The Ministry of Education and Cabinet, as promised in August this year, have released the first disbursement of funds. On Monday 5th November, the college collected a check of $1.5 million. This money will be used to address some operational shortfalls and, most importantly, allow for commencement of the rehabilitation of the two buildings on the Monfortune campus. When rehabilitated, these two buildings will be better positioned to allow the college to accommodate the divisions that have been temporarily relocated. OECS Heads of Government at the 66th meeting of the OECS Authority agreed to strategic representation in Africa as that continent continues to expand economically. The Heads have decided to appoint non-resident ambassadors in several African countries. Dr. Ralph Gonzales, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is the chairman of the OECS Authority. We also took a decision for OECS representation in Ethiopia and at the African Union, which is in Al-Sababa in Ethiopia. We took a decision to establish an embassy in Morocco, the Kingdom of Morocco, and also to establish a non-resident ambassador to Algeria. This is a matter which is long overdue and it's a full aggressive thrust in Africa. It's the country from which most of the people of the Caribbean hail in terms of their parentage, their ancestry. And of course, Africa is a big untapped market, the growing middle class, for tourists, for business, and the like. So this is an important opening. The Heads of Government also reaffirmed the decision to reopen joint diplomatic representation in Ottawa, Canada and considered the shared interest of Barbados in this joint adventure. The OECS is also cementing its presence in Brussels. Not only because it is the headquarters of the European Union, but because in practical terms a lot of issues touching upon development assistance and trade and a multiple set of relations between the European Union and the African Caribbean and Pacific countries and the post-Cotton negotiations. All these things are of vital importance to us. The ordinary man and woman may not think that these things are important, but if you don't get good quote-unquote deals out of all these arrangements, we will be the worst off. Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Chairman of the OECS Authority, Dr. Ralph Gonzalez. The Department of Infrastructure, Ports and Energy will be undertaking road markings from Grozile to Castries. These works will be undertaken during the months of November and December 2018. The markings will take place on the Castries-Grozile and John Compton Highway, section of Jeremy Street, Pena to Bridge Street, Manuel Street, Inner Relief Road and will end at the Bernanke Roundabout. These markings include all edge and centre lines, all lane and directional arrows, all hatch lines and pedestrian crossings. Motorists are asked to be cooperative and be guided by the road signs and cones and should pay attention to the flaggers who will be on location. The working times may vary depending on the type of markings being undertaken. That's Nation Beat. Join us next time on NTN at 7.30pm, with a repeat at 7.30am and on this station as we fill the pulse and heart of our community. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Channel Novel.


I'm very delighted to be able to introduce the Ecosystem Restoration Camp for the Gambia. My name is Maurice Ellipse. I'm the chair of the San Daly Foundation and the coordinator for the camp which we're anticipating will get underway to a great extent in 2021 and beyond. I'm joined this evening by my three colleagues, Greg Kaiser, who is a fellow team member of the online course that we've both recently completed. David Mane, who is the director of the San Daly Foundation, and Alpha Saley Say who is a member of the staff of the foundation and a very valued person as well. So I'd like then just to introduce themselves very briefly please. Hi, my name is Greg Kaiser. I'm based in Brooklyn, New York. I'm an investor, writer and a student of Ecosystem Restoration. Hi, my name is David Mane. I'm the director of San Daly Foundation. I'm grateful to be part of this great initiative. Hello, my name is Alpha Saley Say. I'm a staff of the San Daly Foundation and also a filmmaker. Thank you. The Ecosystem Restoration Camp has been going on for a while. We've been doing quite a lot of planning. COVID-19 has meant that a lot of our work has been delayed and what we are going to be doing is working on two areas, a very degraded land which has come about that way because of wholesale, very large-scale sand mining. We intend to engage with people both nationally, internationally and locally and it will be a collaboration which will take this Ecosystem Restoration Camp forward. We're looking forward to being able to gain access to the sites in 2021. Ecosystem Restoration Camps are based on the interaction between international and national volunteers and local people who all come together to make sure that the land is restored in a very sympathetic way. So we are hoping to make sure that we do recruit many volunteers and my colleagues will tell you a bit more from now on about exactly what we have in mind. So we had a team of professionals who have been looking at the years in terms of the technicality that have worked and are still working on it and also on the ground. We have a team of locals who have been working on the sites in terms of looking at what are the results available, who are the stakeholders that need to be consulted. So our next step as a foundation is to do consultation with the stakeholders and when I talk about the stakeholders, we're looking at the women farmers, the land owners, the available resources in terms of bad watching because all these are stakeholders that are important for the success of the ERC camp. So the sites that we have chosen are in two different communities, one in the community of Gunjur and the other one in the community of Katong. The two communities are not very far from each other, around 10 kilometers apart from each other. These locations where women have been doing their farming, we're not able to do their farming there anymore. The state of the place is right now, the one in Gunjur is really not in good shape because it's just recently mined. The one in Katong is already ahead of the one in Gunjur because the mining has stopped several years ago and so it has given the opportunity for the site to start regenerating because of that process, the community and other people having benefitting from local tourists would normally come to do bird watching. Some of the features, the important features that these two places have is that they have huge amount of dunes that are holding up, holding up the ocean from inundating into the mined place and one in Gunjur has a big thick forest just adjacent to it, which is holding a lot of wildlife within. The key resources that we think are available there is that the place normally has contents a lot of water during the rainy seasons and this has also given us the opportunity to think broadly in terms of introducing new water ideas within those sites. The roads get into the sites, sometimes a little bit difficult especially during the rainy seasons, but it's normally accessible by vehicles and we think it will be accessible if the project is to comment. Thank you. So as we proceed to implement this ecosystem restoration, the one thing we're keeping in mind is that Sandale has a deep base of experience and knowledge and relationships in the area and Alfu and David on the ground. So we're going to start by securing right of access to the Gunjur site using those relationships and hopefully that will happen by February 2021. This will involve working with the government, villages, private landowners, etc. We're also going to develop an ecotourism and bird tourism development plan by March in order to appeal to international partners and to really demonstrate what is possible for this area. We're going to be working with the women farmers so as Alfu said there are women farmers adjacent to the site and we're going to be hopefully involving them in this process, improving capacity for them to continue the work that they do so that they are key stakeholders in this process. We're going to establish two tree nurseries in the early part of the year so that we can take local seeds from the sites and propagate them so that we have plenty of biomass in the form of trees and shrubs, etc. to get into the ground and to start creating that habitat. We're going to prepare a water management plan for Gunjur at the beginning of this year that will involve trying to capture the water that comes on the site and keeping it there as long as possible and to make use of it both for growing shrubs and trees but also for supporting the offspring. Maurice is going to speak in a second about a UNDP grant and I'll just wrap up by saying that this is all only possible if we make it economically sustainable and we hope to do that through courses, camps and events, impact holidays, mind and soil retreat, summer camps, etc., and bringing people from other parts of the world and above them them in this process. Thank you. Mention has been made by Greg of the UNDP plan and this is a major project which will have a price tag on it for around $20 million and it's a much wider program than our ERC plans because it extends a coastal resilience program right along the coast. And the good thing is that the an ideas note has been prepared which just really outlines the range of activities that could be undertaken during the coastal resilience program and the activities that we are proposing for the ERC has been very much taken up. Not only support for the ERC program that we have but also the adoption of the process more generally throughout the country. We mentioned already the establishment of two tree nurseries and the plan suggests that those nurseries might produce 500,000 trees over the next five years. Another element in the resilience coastal resilience program is the concept of integrated farming. This is a way of bringing together livestock, trees, vegetables and all sorts of other farming activities and in a way we as a foundation have been undertaking various parts of this idea of an integrated farm. The next step is actually perhaps to set up some demonstrations of that system. We have been running an improving farming skills course for women and that has been very successful and so extending that into producing an integrated farming system is something we very much look forward to. The plan also suggests the promotion of centers of excellence. We like to feel that the work we're doing is already pretty good but if we could then set up our own center of excellence using some funds from the UNDP that would be wonderful. All of this of course is totally dependent on us making a successful application so none of it is guaranteed but we're really looking forward to undertaking this very exciting program over the next many years. If you wish to know more you can contact David Mann at the direct of Sunday Foundation either via email or via WhatsApp or you can get to us through our Facebook page or also you can get us through our website www.sundayfoundation.org. Thank you very much and I will look forward to hear from you.


DEVCON Decisions by Clay Mackle episode 17 the San Antonio International Airport the San Antonio International Airport has two terminals terminal B only services United in American Airlines and the larger terminal A handles all the other ones there's a free Wi-Fi and entire airport and friendly airport ambassadors to help you after arriving head to the exit and take the escalator down to the lower level a short walk to the left will get you to the luggage if you're by yourself the go shuttle will cost around $37 per person to get to the Marriott better deal is to find a partner to and take a taxi which will run between $45 and $50 if you're renting a car there are offices in the lower floor of the terminal A which may or may not be open I just go directly to the waiting rental company bus after getting my luggage


the study investigated the potential of using coal fly ash senospheres as a replacement for cement in the production of lightweight concrete. The results showed that the use of senospheres resulted in a decrease in the weight of the concrete by 35 percent, which meets the standard for lightweight concrete. Additionally, the use of senospheres also increased the compressive strength of the concrete up to 48 percent. Furthermore, the study found that the addition of senospheres reduced the amount of Portlandite in the concrete, which is replaced by mullite and other alumino-silicate phases. This suggests that the use of senospheres could lead to more sustainable concrete production as it reduces the need for cement and natural resources. This article was authored by Krishna Prakash Arunachalam, Shiva Avyadhyapan, Eric Isavadra Flores, and others.


Morning everybody is Monday again another one rolled around. It's a minus 14 Celsius outside. I'm just gonna minus 14 Celsius to Fahrenheit We're looking at seven degrees Fahrenheit outside right now. It is Monday March 14th, 2022 and We got a load weight for us has taken us to a sense so central Manitoba near Portage little Prairie No time to waste we gotta grab fuel on the way as well The Western Star is still carrying us this week Maybe my truck will be out of the shop this week We're not too sure takes a little while to order parts nowadays Everything takes a while nowadays everything's backed up and parts are hard to come by sometimes The truck is in for a safety And as soon as that's all complete This truck will be I'll be switching to that truck again And we're gonna be looking to put a highway driver in this truck It might be you if you want to drive our trucks you're a Canadian citizen or permanent resident Don't forget email me at the email address in the description trucker dr. Keystone Western comm This truck is looking for a driver could be you So this morning we're grabbing a trailer a roll tight a green one just like this one here This isn't the one though ours is right over there. I'm pretty sure. Oh Wait, no might be right here. Is this the one? That's the one right there. It's supposed to be pretty warm this week I'm actually kind of excited above zero temperatures All week even through the night some nights So all of this snow around here is gonna start melting this week and it's gonna start getting very very messy So I hope you all have your washer fluid handy You're gonna need it double check that we're locked in here. Everything looks good. All these bad boys up These trailers have lights in here No, oh But these ones had lights in here. Hey, that's something done. Let's have to trust me There's a there's a load of freight right here We are out of here before anybody's even in early start today They want this freight out their first thing this morning and then I've got to be up in Toulon before noon Which is north of the city? Shouldn't have any problem. I should still be early for that, but just in case we're getting an early start So like I said earlier, I'm filming this on March 14th yesterday. We had daylight savings time So we sprung ahead an hour So it's still dark when I'm getting going now And this light is still purple at this intersection if you're wondering And I've been noticing more and more than turning purple make a left turn up here I think the customer is right about over here somewhere. It's right near a little town west of Portage, La Prairie All right, this should be it. What is this 65 north? This is 65 north. We're facing south So east should be this way Okay, well, there's not gonna be many places to turn around on this road So I hope they gave me accurate directions forget how far they said it was down here Shouldn't be too far and there's not much else here So not be leading me into a giant pickle in Manitoba here. These are grid roads like farm roads so I mean If I am going the wrong way, I can just take the next mile road. There's a road every mile in every direction it's a Big square square miles When this area was settled Canada still used miles not kilometers Kilometers only came into effect. We only started following the metric system in like the 60s or 70s 70s, maybe We used to be just like the United States. I don't see anything. Oh, there's something there. What in the world? Number is this? Oh, that's definitely not where I'm going interesting. Oh, how about this one? This one's probably it here. They got a big shop Make anything. This is it. It's got big driveway big shop. I'm putting my signal on that's how confident I am that this is where we're going big driveway for trucks This is it. Yep, this is definitely it All right Nice and slow Man, I'd love to have a shop like that in our land one day. That's bigger than the one I have right now That's what I'd love to have. Wow Nice fifth wheel here, too. Beautiful I don't know where we're gonna unload They got more yard over here. Okay. Yeah, they got some yard over here Beautiful home beautiful shop. This is the dream property right here Wow, this is what our property is gonna look like one day with less machinery because I don't own a construction business obviously and more trees our land is Got more trees, but that probably about Something like this Okay, do I want to turn around I want to turn around so that I can Where where do I want to turn around? Where do they want to unload me? There's some more space back there I see I'm gonna park here for now It's gonna straighten out a little bit and then I'll figure it out from here I'm gonna go inside and find someone to talk to Actually, you know what I have their phone number. I'll just call it might be in the house I'm not just gonna go and ring the doorbell They might have kids that are sleeping or something the guy actually came out here and Said hi to me. I didn't have to Call her and they saw me pull in So we're gonna unload at the back here He says we're facing south here now right because there's the Sun. It's rising in the east. It still does that every day And we want to face that way, but back up Over here. He's gonna unload me in this little section here On the south side So it'll be off my driver's side right in this area here is where I gotta line up to a lot of stuff back here I want a lot of space. What's trailers? That's awesome. Yeah, I think this will be good here Show you what we got in there. There's so much stuff always had so much stuff come with me Oh, that's a beautiful picture right there. Oh boy, that might be a thumbnail One seconds that might be a thumbnail right there. Show you what we got in here now See that So they're all belly-wrapped held together in there. They're very heavy that right there is about 40 Good little over 40,000 pounds thing get this thing opened up. He's taken one off already When we have these chalks on either side right so they don't just roll off on their own So he's got these pincher forks on his tractor there they sort of grab the pole and sort of pinch it and then he can Pull it off the trailer like that Let's see. He's still got one two three four five to go. So he's half done He's going pretty quick. We're all finished up now.  I'm gonna do it from up there though. So I can't get much traction down here Or as much Up here. They've got these You know the grooves on the trailer trailer is made for traction Junk up here just left over We'll put this at the front of the trailer We get to a garbage can I want to be careful with those because they have nails on them You don't want to put them just anywhere. All right trailer come with me You're gonna cooperate right right we're gonna be friends Let's see it's easier if I push There we go and hit the road buckle myself in so I don't fall out. Thank you random voice Oh There you are There you are. All right I'm gonna go boat the same way we came in we're going to too long now Our own 45 minutes from here much lighter now. That was a really heavy load Doesn't look that heavy when you first look at it though, right? But yeah, it was heavy. It's sitting over there somewhere ready for whatever Life needs it for hard to tell where the driveway is here is everything so white it all blends into each other He's already just got a guess and hope for the best Look at where other people have been driving here. They got these hills So he sort of assume it's on this side of those hills. I can't wait till we can build our house Hopefully sooner than later It'll be a little while yet though. I'm thinking probably five years We shall see Maybe more I want to make sure we do it right and then we only want to move one more time So we want to be absolutely sure that when we build and where we build is exactly what and where we want Exactly, I don't want to ever move again. It's a whole point of building a brand-new house so that Hopefully you don't have to worry about too many big Problems in your lifetime yet, right other than the regular maintenance and hopefully I know there's sometimes problems with new houses, too But hopefully less than the old houses we've had I Don't know where the edge of the road is here So I don't want to go too far this way It's a guy over here. I want to suddenly slip into the ditch have to make that phone call. Hey Doctor hook. I need a tug And they get a pull me out.  I mean, it's very open because it's on Yonzi that's on the other side of the river. We're on the west side of the Red River right now So this is like a very wide open It's been cleared for farmland for the most part aside from right here, but around out there and stuff Where we're building our house. It's on the other side on our side of the river east side and There's no cleared areas not as much cleared areas for farming. Our land is all tree everything. I Really like that. I Like the privacy and the nature that the bush brings, you know when you have You know here in Manitoba, we call this the bush Or some people might call it the woods or the forest like we call it the bush And in the bush you get all the wildlife, you know, you get all the birds and squirrels and deer Bears and wolves and all the fun stuff, you know it You don't get to see out in the open as much or in the city You gotta sort of be a little bit closer to nature and there's a little bit more of nature on the east side of the river because it's Mostly provincial parks on the east side, so it's mostly untouched whereas on the west side of the river All the way to the Rocky Mountains on the other side of Alberta like 1500 kilometers away or a thousand miles away It's just a thousand miles of farmland that way If not more probably more than a thousand miles like 1500 miles. Oh I'm spinning Traction control it doesn't help anything All it does is it makes you get stuck more There you go. Come on. There you go. Come on. It's okay if you spin a little bit. Come on Come on girl. I Don't like traction control. I'm a traction control. I will judge when I need to let off the throttle You know, that's my job. I'm the driver. Why are you driving for me? I don't like trucks that drive for me. I'm supposed to be in control dog or something on the highway here Up here on the left. I thought I saw something moving there. Yeah, there's something moving Right am I crazy? Am I crazy? No, there's something there There's a dog there I'm gonna honk at it Go home buddy. You're gonna get hurt here. I shouldn't be playing on the road, buddy Makes me sad and scared. I hate to see dogs get hurt on the highway. I Got a significantly large heart for dogs What is house? I've been totally redone old-style house Beautiful see small town But for the most part they're taking care of it Some places need a little bit of updating but they'll get there They'll get there not everybody has the cash on hand to do it right now, but you know Some small towns that you roll through you can tell that it's sort of just you know going downhill because no one's renovating or updating anything That's not the case here. It's good to see We need to keep our small towns thriving The big cities are just gobbling everything up and I'm a I'm a small town boy. I'm a country boy. I like the Outside the city. I don't like I don't like the city I don't want that. I don't want you to take that the wrong way because I realize a lot of you live in a city But I just don't like cities. I I don't know too many people all in one place all breathing the same air I need my own space Excuse me coming in coming in there, bud. Excuse me Looks like he hit a deer driver side of his car was all banged up all right, so we go all the way back to Winnipeg this way and then About a half hour north The roads weren't this bad the whole way. It's just this little stretch of road Well, it's a bright yellow. I've never noticed that. Wow bright yellow house. I Come past here all the time We're just in too long. We got to pick up some freight We are Barely on time. I think we're about three minutes early. So we're still on time. We're still on time. Hey, they got the yard All full today. Okay We're gonna find a way of turning ourselves around in here and then put those things right there those gray long things There's two there and two over there. I believe those are mine Throw those on to the trailer tie them down and Bring them back with me. I still got lots of room here. Oh, yeah Yeah, no problem. I wonder if he wants to load me out here then. I'll just line up right in here Yeah, I'll just back right in the middle there. That's usually where I parked get myself lined up and Show you what we're working with after that See if I can get into that corner without getting stuck in the back here Don't get stuck. Okay, we're good Little bit of a blindside back. It's nice to have that little window back there. There's my trailer I can see my trailer through there. You see that useful. Oh, no, we got it. We got her in the middle Perfect. I worked out. Well, let's go reload Now we can go home opened up a lot easier than I thought it would 25 minutes On the time I stopped at the time I'm rolling out. I wonder if I can get past this guy He parked right in the driveway to unload Just gonna have to wait a minute or two. Here we go Sneak past here. Oh No guard wine wait wait wait wait wait. Oh He's not gonna wait. Okay He can't get in here anyways until I get out We're all in his way. Do your slip into the ditch there, that wouldn't be good then I'm really blocking everything That was fun. All right, so we got an hour back to the yard We'll see if they got any afternoon stuff for us. It is Monday, so Well, you never know. I would usually say it's Monday, so chances are slim But if I say that out loud then when I get back there will be tons to do and I'll be proven wrong So I'm just gonna say, huh? We'll see what happens when we get back. It's almost 7 p.m And this guy is still bright that daylight savings time that messes with me I don't know why we do daylight savings time. I don't see the point of it. Why? Why do we need to mess around with everybody? Now Saskatchewan's got it, right? They don't ever change their clogs. They said no, we're not gonna play with that No, we're not playing that game. Nope Good on them Early wish Manitoba would go the same way, you know, just pick a time and stick with it. I don't like the So what that's not as bright or in the morning or it's not as bright in the evening sometime sometime during the year like What do you guys think I don't like I don't see the point of daylight savings time I think it's useless. I could do without it. I have a couple of things from the pharmacy on my way home Shower by that time it'll pretty much be time for bed do it all over again tomorrow. I don't have a plan for tomorrow yet. I like to have a plan the day before but Often there is no plan till I get there in the morning. So I'll show up there first thing bright and early Make sure I'm ready for everyone when they get there and then whatever they need me to do Well, that's where that Jamaican store is Jamaican grill Jamaican me hungry We have a Jamaican restaurant in town now. I'm gonna go take Britt there and try it out sometime I don't know what Jamaican food is, but I'm gonna find out. It's gonna be great Now it's just my foot. Hey Frank. They're going buddy shake a shake a muzzle shake shake shake shake my hand


Hi, good morning and welcome to today's products and focus. The U.S. there is still staying above potential support at 17.075 I'll be at the Ukrainian issues kind of getting a little bit harder to ignore as the next couple of sessions go on and a lot of threatening rhetoric from the Ukrainian president and also a lot of European Union members about the Russian potential aggression in the country and armor columns in the second front etc etc a couple that together with some disappointing data from From China and also the fact that you have a large number of central bank meetings this week I promise it to be quite interesting You know for looking week anyway, so this is level to be aware of as ever I do like to draw this level at 17151 pretty much got it on there. That is your potential resistance the all-time high on the Dow And now we're in between two ranges. So let's see how that continues on so moving on to the UK 100 Similar picture bouncing close to potential resistance there at 6832 Very volatile session Friday. I managed to eat an ever-select game before they close the play and we're kind of flat today as well Looked to me like we're building up a consolidated area here just below our resistance level depending on how today's council Kind of really goes to continue and it is Labor Day in the US as well. So maybe you might not be expecting too much volatility this stage But if we continue to get consolidation below this level here That could be indicative of the fact there could be a willingness to move that little bit higher Opening up a potential move to the next potential resistance at 6874 Moving on to Japan 225. We are on the broken blows potential support and acting as potential resistance at 15488 Trim above both the 21 and 55 pureed SMA and the technical indicators MACD and RSI are neutral the slow cat Stochastic there is actually just trading a little bit close to that 80% level Indicating obviously there is a little bit of selling pressure But the Japan 225 actually had a really good couple weeks there slowly kind of reversed course The last couple of sessions and obviously if you have a quick look at there at dollar yen Dollar yen right there actually completely the opposite direction. This is quite a change of play for The dollar yen Japan 225 real strong session there on Friday We kind of stopped dead in our tracks so far again today But we are in the middle of two ranges iron up 104 spots 67 is the next potential resistance So actually that's quite quite a change there to have quite a big spike there on Friday And then you don't quite have that same spike there in Japan 225 We do have a move up, but not quite the same formation is quite interesting. So cruel West Texas having a great session there on Friday again Getting up close to 97 spot 64. This is bang on the resistance levels that we've been talking about It's actually gaps like they lower this morning after finishing quite strongly there on Friday But this is this could be a bit of a turnaround for West Texas, but we need to get above 60 97 spot 64 Otherwise, we'll be back down at 94 spot 5 Without that technical breakout. So looking at gold Gold's down a little bit lower. There has been a bit of dollar strength across the board So that will be adding on pressure on to gold and 1295 is still a potential resistance until we get above there Things don't get that exciting for gold But if we do get a breaking close above that that opens up to 1332 and that would be a big change for for gold So looking at your dollar Getting lower as ever one spot 3107 is next potential support level And obviously you've got the ECB meeting this week as well We were pretty much find out if there's likely to be any change to the eurozone monetary policy by Draghi And this has obviously been in the downtrend for quite some time the euros getting significantly devalued against the US dollar and there's a lot of European politicians Obviously want this to happen as well to make the euro more competitive as well So with the potential rate cuts still in the horizon for the euro and the USD gaining momentum This looks to be a kind of a downtrend that has got the potential to continue But we need to get through these potential support levels and obviously be mindful of the fundamentals and that ECB meeting is later on this week Whereas cable seems to be building up a consolidory Area very similar to what we've got for for cruel West Texas one spot 65 58 is a potential support And we're edging up high this morning this after you know to almost two months just down was action on there So I'll be interested to see if we are we are able to re-challenge one spot 6744 But again, that's gonna be driven a lot by the fundamentals. So today we do have German PMI euros on PMI and UK PMI all in a very short period of time Fast-forwarding on to Tuesday. We've got a manufacturing PMI and then Wednesday You do have more PMI crazy. You've got PMI services and manufacturing output. So there's quite a lot of purchasing manager index Data releases that are going to be due or in the next couple of days and make sure you keep an eye on the chart Form as ever and make insights part of your layout and join me again tomorrow to find out what happened next


I'm giving up this year. Not in the sense of calling it quits or admitting defeat, quite the opposite. I'm giving up the ruts I've become stuck in, shaking up my unconscious habitual patterns, and taking a stab at creating sustainable and scalable rhythms for my creativity and health. Because sometimes giving up is the best possible choice. Sometimes giving up is really about taking on something new.


Hey, so I know everyone's excited about the new air table AI beta. I don't do good at this content stuff So I've got to make you a quick video one of the clients that I'm working with is my local county health department and they have a relatively old website and A lot of their processes are super manual So one of the first things we did was we created a way to look at all their documents that they actually manage now map them and all of the Documents and document processes and programs into air table by creating a set of primary tables to kind of get that data Flow and then we went through and map all the processes that are related to the documents and departments Etc. And then created a way for those to work with those processes both internally and externally Internally obviously one of the ways we do this is through the dashboard So we have a dashboard that kind of goes over their whole site. They can see their upcoming events the different departments that they have Different people they have what departments those people run their processes, etc But for the external stuff We have a new program called life and the life program is something that we are building As part of the three main services that we offer and it allows people in the county to see any part of their life And how the county health department and all the county services can help them This is where AI comes in so there's a lot of county services, obviously and when you go to the life Dashboard it comes in this as you can look at your life calendar your life milestones your life moments So all these different people in the county have all this institutional knowledge in their head So what we needed to do was a way to get that knowledge out, but also create these compelling different touch point services So we kind of played with the AI this morning just tested out and this is what we came up with So basically they fill out a life moment like in this case prenatal care Births etc. We tie it back to an age range of a phase a class An error in someone's life and then the different programs and things that for their grants that they get so in this case I'm gonna walk you through a really simple scenario I've got the name and then an internal description So the internal description is something where we actually come in and we tell the team Just put in anything you can think of about this particular job. So in this case for the rabies clinic I'm gonna put in here for pets we offer rabies clinic So the first thing that happens in our three-step AI process is it does the details for those So what we did was we went into the AI field and we described what the system was gonna create We said you're a public health department AI you work from Montgomery County We have a life program helps people understand the different services We do we talked a little bit about the life program and then down here at the bottom We say we'd like you to create a description for this Service name and description that the person just put in and we kind of give them an example and it goes ahead and Generates that so I'm gonna go ahead and say journey the details For the AI assistant on the rabies clinic So I just put a little simple information it knows about the Montgomery County Health Department and boom and went ahead and did that rabies clinics the monthly event Pets kind of office opportunity residents to bring their pets attending rabies crepes is a crucial stuff So does all that all the good stuff that we needed to do The next because this is filled in The why assistant will jump in so why should you go to the rabies clinic or why should you participate in any particular service? So in this case again, we tell it you're the you're the agent This is the program except now we're going and we tell hey, we'd like you to tell about why why having a rabies or the rabies Shots and vaccinations are really important Then go in and go ahead and look at the new description that the AI generated that we looked that we put in We can edit that change anything We'll take that description plus the prompt you work for the health department and then create a compelling why statement So the website and you're looking up you know like much like get rabies shots for my dog I don't really know if this is important in this case We're going to go ahead and talk more about the important things So we prompted it way to give us stats give us figures give us Real-life health examples in this case it says, you know, it's a series of fatal disease if it can be done It can be scratched please attend last thing was to have a life tip pro So what the life tip pro is the same type of thing where we tell it, you know About the program about the health department But now we say that it is going to give someone a life tip And we say try to speak personal from experience as if you're a friend of the person reading and sign it kind of with a little You know personalized signature and life tip pro takes the best of the Description the best of the why statement and then filters it through the context of you work for the health department to create a really compelling kind of why statement for the Person reading the site learning about the different services that the health department can have and in this case Okay, you got me. I know what it is. I know why it's important, but now Make it first person. So in this case it says hey as a pet owner myself I understand the importance of keeping every friend safe the rabies clinic is a fantastic resource We have here in Montgomery County. I take in my own pets there. The staff is amazing The merchant's not so bugging your pets back say it's a great opportunity to ask questions about your pet's health So again offering up personal assistance from someone who went through the service in this case Training the AI to speak as a service. So mark your calendars for max clinic and then we sign it mogul Which is the name of the service and what's really great is all of this information then gets routed out available on the website and creates compelling narratives and information for the residents of the county to learn about this So this is a quick view of AI assistant for air table. I don't make a lot of content. Sorry. I'm bad at this My husband is really good, but that's it. I hope you enjoyed this talk to you soon