Section 1 of Lullaby Land, Songs of Childhood. This is a LibriVox recording, all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Lullaby Land, Songs of Childhood by Eugene Field. The Rockabye Lady. The Rockabye Lady from Hushabye Street comes stealing, comes creeping. The poppies they hang from her head to her feet, And each hath a dream that is tiny and fleet. She bringeth her poppies to you, my sweet, When she findeth you sleeping. There is one little dream of a beautiful drum, Rub-a-dub it goeth. There is one little dream of a big sugar plum, And lo, thick and fast the other dreams Come of pop-guns that bang and tin-tops that hum, In a trumpet that bloweth, and dollies Peep out of those wee little dreams With laughter and singing, and boats go afloating On silvery streams, and the stars peek-a-boo With their own misty gleams. And up, up, and up Where the mother-moon beams, the fairies go winging. Would you dream all these dreams that are tiny and fleet? They'll come to you sleeping.  Garden and cradle. When her babe he goeth walking in his garden, Around his tinkling feet the sun-been Games play. The posies they are good to him, And bow them as they should to him, as fareth He upon his kingly way. And birdlings of the wood to him Make music, gentle music, all the day, When our babe he goeth walking in his garden. When our babe he goeth swinging in his cradle, Then the night it looketh ever Sweetly down, the little stars are kind to him, The moon she hath a mind to him, And layeth on his head a golden crown, And singeth then the wind to him a song, The gentle song of Bethlehem town, When our babe he goeth swinging in his cradle. The night wind. Have you ever heard the wind go, Yew, tis a pitiful sound here, It seems to chill you through and through With a strange and speechless fear, Tis the voice of the night that broods outside When folks should be asleep, And many, and many's the time I've cried, To the darkness brooding far and wide Over the land and the deep, Whom do you want, oh lonely night, That you wail the long hours through? And the night would say in its ghostly way, Yew, yew, yew. My mother told me long ago, When I was a little tad, That when the night went wailing so somebody had been bad, And then when I was snug in bed, Wither I had been sent, With the blankets pulled up round my head, I think of what my mother'd said, And wonder what boy she meant, And who's been bad today, I'd ask, Of the wind that hoarsely blew, And the voice would say in its meaningful way, Yew, yew, yew. That this was true I must allow, You'll not believe it, though, Yes, though I'm quite a model now, I was not always so, And if you doubt what things I say, Suppose you make the test, Suppose when you've been bad some day, And up to bed are sent away From mother and the rest, Suppose you ask, who has been bad, And then you'll hear what's true, For the wind will moan In its ruthless tone, Yew, yew, yew. The dinky bird, in an ocean way out yonder, As all sapient people know, Is the land of wonder-wander, Wither children love to go. It's their playing, romping, swinging, That give great joy to me, While the dinky bird goes singing In the ant-falula tree. There the gumdrops grow like cherries And taffies thick as peas, Carmels you pick like berries, When and where and how you please, Big red sugar-plums are clinging To the cliffs beside that sea, Where the dinky bird is singing In the ant-falula tree. So when children shout and scamper And make merry all the day, When there's not to put a damper To the ardour of their play, When I hear their laughter ringing, Then I'm sure as sure can be That the dinky bird is singing In the ant-falula tree. For the dinky bird's bravuras And staccatos are so sweet, His roulades appoggiaturas And robustos so complete, That the youth of every nation, Be they near or far away, Have a special delectation In that gladsome round delay. Their eyes go bright and brighter, Their lungs begin to crow, Their hearts get lighter and lighter, And their cheeks are all aglow, For an echo cometh bringing The news to all and me, That the dinky bird is singing In the ant-falula tree. I'm sure you like to go there To see your feathered friend, And so many goodies grow there, You would like to comprehend, Speed little dreams you're winging, To that land across the sea, Where the dinky bird is singing In the ant-falula tree. So, so, rock-a-by-so.  Now mind these three kisses Wherever you go, So, so, rock-a-by-so. There's one little thumb-fay Who lives there, I know, For he dances all night Where the dreamikins grow.  Be sure that you pay those three Kisses you owe, So, so, rock-a-by-so.  The blinky-wink garden Where dreamikins grow. So, so, rock-a-by-so. The duel. The gingham dog And the calico cat Side by side On the table sat. T'was half past twelve, and what do you think? Nor one nor tether Had slept a wink. The old Dutch clock And the Chinese plate Appeared to know as sure as fate There was going to be a terrible spat. I wasn't there, I simply state What was told me by the Chinese plate. The gingham dog went bow, wow, wow, And the calico cat replied, Me, yow! The air was littered an hour or so With bits of gingham and calico. While the old Dutch clock in the chimney plays Up with its hands before its face, For it always dreaded a family row.  The Chinese plate looked very blue And wailed, Oh, dear, what shall we do? But the gingham dog and the calico cat Wallowed this way and tumbled that, Employing every tooth and claw In the awfulest way you ever saw, And, oh, how the gingham and calico flew. Don't fancy I exaggerate, I got my news from the Chinese plate. The next morning, where the two had sat, They found no trace of dog or cat, And some folks think until this day That burglars stole that pair away. But the truth about the cat and pup Is this, they ate each other up. Now, what do you think of that? The old Dutch clock, it told me so. And that is how I came to know. Good Children's Street There's a dear little home in Good Children's Street, My heart turned fondly today, Where tinkle of tongues and patter of feet Make sweetest of music at play, Where the sunshine of love illuminates Each face and warms every heart In that old-fashioned place.  Oh, days they are golden, and days they are fleet, With little folk living in Good Children's Street. See, here comes an army with guns painted red, And swords, caps and plumes of all sorts. The captain rides gaily and proudly ahead On a stick horse that prances and snorts. Oh, legions of soldiers, you're certain to meet, Nice, make-believe soldiers in Good Children's Street.  Then, too, I observe she is minus her feet, Which causes much sorrow in Good Children's Street. Tis so the dear children go romping about, With dollies and banners and drums, And I venture to say they are sadly put out When an end to their jubilee comes. Oh, days they are golden, and days they are fleet, With little folk living in Good Children's Street. The Bottle Tree. A bottle tree bloometh in winky wayland, High-ho for a bottle, I say, A snug little berth in that ship I demand, That rocketh the bottle tree babies away, Where the bottle tree bloometh by night and by day, And reacheth its fruit to each wee dimpled hand, You take of that fruit as much as you list, For colleagues and nuisance that doesn't exist, So cuddle me close and cuddle me fast, And cuddle me snug in my cradle away, For I hunger and thirst for that precious repast, High-ho for a bottle, I say. The Bottle Tree bloometh by night and by day, High-ho for winky wayland, And Bottle Tree fruit, as I've heard people say, Makes bellies of Bottle Tree babies expand, And that is a trick I would feign understand, And High-ho for a bottle to-day, And High-ho for a bottle to-night, A bottle of milk that is creamy and white, So cuddle me close and cuddle me fast, And cuddle me snug in my cradle away, For I hunger and thirst for that precious repast, High-ho for a bottle, I say. And a section one. Section two of Lullaby Land, Songs of Childhood by Eugene Field. This lever box recording is in the public domain. Lady Button Eyes. When the busy day is done, And my weary little one Rocketh gently to and fro, When the night winds softly blow, And the crickets in the glen Chirp and chirp and chirp again, When upon the haunted green fairies Dance around their queen, Then from yonder misty skies Comeeth Lady Button Eyes. Through the murk and mist and gloam To our quiet cozy home, Where to singing sweet and low Rocks a cradle to and fro, Where the clocks dull monotone Telleth of the day that's done, Where the moonbeams hover o'er Placing sleeping on the floor, Where my weary wee one lies, Comeeth Lady Button Eyes. Comeeth like a fleeting ghost From some distant eerie coast, Never footfall can you hear As that spirit fareth near. Never whisper, never word, From that shadow queen is heard. In ethereal raiment-dite From the realm of fey and sprite, In the depth of yonder skies Comeeth Lady Button Eyes.  Then she smooths the eyelids down Over those two eyes of brown, In such soothing tender wise Comeeth Lady Button Eyes. Dearest, feel upon your brow That caressing magic now, For the crickets in the glen Turp and chirp and chirp again, While upon the haunted green Fairies dance around their queen, And the moonbeams hover over, Placing, sleeping on the floor. Hush, my sweet, from yonder skies, Comeeth Lady Button Eyes. The ride to Bumpville Play that my knee was a calico mare, Saddled and bridled for Bumpville, Leap to the back of this steed, If you dare, and gallop away to Bumpville. I hope you'll be sure to sit fast in your seat, For this calico mare is prodigiously fleet, And many adventures you're likely to meet As you journey along to Bumpville. This calico mare both gallops and trots While whisking you off to Bumpville. She paces, she shies, And she stumbles in spots, In the tortuous road to Bumpville. And sometimes a strangely mercurial steed Will suddenly stop and refuse to proceed, Which all will admit is vexatious indeed When one is en route to Bumpville. She's scared of the cars When the engine goes toot, Down by the crossing at Bumpville. You'd better look out For that treacherous brute Bearing you off to Bumpville. With a snort she rears up On her hindermost heels And execute jigs and Virginia reels, Words fail to explain how embarrassed One feels Dancing so wildly to Bumpville. It's a bumpity bump And it's jiggity jog Journeying on to Bumpville. It's over the hilltop And down through the bog You ride on your way to Bumpville. It's rattledy bang Over boulder and stump There are rivers to forward And are fences to jump And the corduroy road It goes bumpity bump Mile after mile to Bumpville. Perhaps you'll observe It's no easy thing Making the journey to Bumpville. So I think on the whole It were prudent to bring An end to this ride to Bumpville. For though she has uttered no protest Or plaint, The calico mare must be blowing and faint. What's more to the point I'm blow'd if I ain't So play we have got to Bumpville. Shuffle shoo'n and amber locks. Shuffle shoo'n and amber locks Sit together building blocks. Shuffle shoo'n is old and gray, Amber locks a little child, But together at their play Age and youth are reconciled, And with sympathetic glee Build their castles fair to see. When I grow to be a man, So the wee ones prattle ran, I shall build a castle so With a gateway broad and grand. Here a pretty vine shall grow, There a soldier guard shall stand, And the tower shall be so high, Folks will wonder, buy and buy. Shuffle shoo'n, quote, Yes, I know, Thus I build it long ago. Here a gate and there a wall, Here a window, there a door. Here a steeple wondrous tall, Riseeth ever more and more. But the years have leveled low, What I builded long ago. So they gossip at their play Heedless of the fleeting day. One speaks of long ago Where his dead hopes buried lie, One with chubby cheeks aglow Prattleeth of the buy and buy. Side by side they build their blocks, Shuffle shoo'n and amber locks. The shut-eye train, Come my little one with me, There are wondrous sights to see As the evening shadows fall In your pretty cap and gown, Don't detain the shut-eye train. Dingling the bell it goeth, Toot toot, The whistle bloweth, And we hear the warning call, All aboard for shut-eye town. Over hill and over plane Soon will speed the shut-eye train, Through the blue where bloom the stars, And the mother moon looks down, Will away to land of fay. Oh, the sights that we shall see there, Come my little one with me there, Tis a goodly train of cars All aboard for shut-eye town. Swifter than a wild bird's flight Through the realms of fleecy light, We shall speed and speed away, Let the night and envy frown. What care we? How wroth she be? To the bellow land above us, To the bellow folk who love us, Let us hasten while we may, All aboard for shut-eye town. Shut-eye town is passing fair, Golden dreams await us there, We shall dream those dreams, my dear, Till the mother moon goes down, See unfold, delights untold, And in those mysterious places We shall see beloved faces, And beloved voices here, In the grace of shut-eye town. Heavy are your eyes, my sweet weary, Are your little feet, Nestle closer up to me In your pretty cap and gown, Don't detain the shut-eye train, Tingling the bell it goeth, The whistle bloweth, O the sights that we shall see, All aboard for shut-eye town. Little O dear, See what a wonderful garden is here, Planted and trimmed for my little O dear, Poses so gaudy and grass of such brown, Search ye the country and hunt ye the town, And never you'll meet With a garden so queer, As this one I've made for my little O dear. Miracles white and buttercups blue, Lilies all dabbled with honey and dew, The cactus that trails over trellis and wall, Roses and pansies and violets all, Make proper obeisance and reverent cheer, When into her garden steps little O dear. And up at the top of that lavender tree, A silver bird singeth as only can she, For ever and only she singeth the song, I love you, I love you, the happy day long.  The garden may wither, the silver bird fly, But what careth my little precious or I, From her pathway of flowers that in springtime upstart, She walketh the tenderer way in my heart, And oh it is always the summer time here, With that song of I love you, my little O dear. The flyaway horse. Oh, a wonderful horse is the flyaway horse. Perhaps you have seen him before, Perhaps while you slept his shadow has swept Through the moonlight that floats on the floor, For it's only at night when the stars twinkle Bright that the flyaway horse with a nay, And a pull at his reign and a toss of his main Is up on his heels in a way. The moon in the sky, as he gallopeth by, Cries, oh what a marvelous sight! And the stars in dismay hide their faces away In the lap of old grandmother night. It is yonder, out yonder, the flyaway horse Speedeth ever and ever away, Over meadows and lanes, over mountain and plains, Over streamlets that sing at their play, And over the sea like a ghost sweepeth he, While the ships they go sailing below, And he speedeth so fast that the men at the mast Adjudge him some portent of woe, What hoe there they cry, as he flourishes by, With the whisk of his beautiful tail, And the fish in the sea are as scared as can be From the nautilus up to the whale, And the flyaway horse seeks those faraway lands You little folk dream of at night, Where candy trees grow and honeybrooks flow And corn fields with popcorn are white, And the beasts in the wood are ever so good, To children who visit them there, Would glory a stride of a lion to ride, Or to wrestle round with a bear, The monkeys they say, come on, let us play, And they frisk in the coconut trees, While the parrots that cling to the peanut vine sing, Or converse with comparative ease. Off, scamper to bed, You shall ride him to night, For as soon as you fall in asleep, With a jubilant nay he shall bear you away Over forest and hillside and deep. But tell us, my dear, All you see and you hear In those beautiful lands over there, Where the flyaway horse wings his faraway course With the wee one consigned to his care. Then grandma will cry in amazement, Oh, my, and she'll think it could never be so, And only we too shall know it is true, You and I, little precious, shall know. There once was a bird that lived up in a tree, And all he could whistle was fiddly-dee, A very provoking, un-musical song, For one to be whistling the summer day long, Yet always contented, And busy was he With that vocal recurrence of fiddly-dee. Hard by lived a brave little soldier of four, That weird iteration repented him soar.  Then out came, dear mother-mind, Bringing her son his awfully truculent little red gun. The stalk was of pine and the barrel of tin, The bang it came out where the bullet went in. The right kind of weapon, I think you'll agree, For slaying all foul that go fiddly-dee-dee.  Then loud laughed the youth, By my bottle cried he, I've put a quietess on fiddly-dee-dee. Then out came, dear mother-mind, saying, My son, right well have you wrought With your little red gun. Hereafter no evil at all need I fear, With such a brave soldier as you my love here. She kissed the dear boy, The bird in the tree, continued to whistle his fiddle-dee-dee. And a section two. Section three of Lullabyland, Songs of Childhood by Eugene Field. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. The sugar-plum tree. Have you ever heard of the sugar-plum tree, Tis a marvel of great renown. It blooms on the shore of the lollipop-sea In the garden of shut-eye town.  When you've got to the tree, You would have a hard time To capture the fruit which I sing. The tree is so tall, That no person could climb, To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing.  You say but the word to the gingerbread dog, And he barks with such terrible zest, That the chocolate cat is at once all agog, As her swelling proportions attest. And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around From this leafy limb unto that, And the sugar-plums tumble, Of course to the ground, Hurrah for that chocolate cat. There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes With strippings of scarlet or gold, And you carry away of the treasure That reigns as much as your apron can hold. So come, little child, Cuddle closer to me In your dainty white nightcap and gown, And I'll rock you away To that sugar-plum tree In the garden of Shaddai town. Crinkin' Crinkin' was a little child, It was summer when he smiled, Off the hoary sea and grim, Stretched its white arms out to him, Calling, Sunchild, come to me, Let me warm my heart with thee. But the child heard not the sea. Crinkin' on the beach one day Saw maidenness at play. Fair and very fair was she. Just a little child was he. Crinkin' said the maidenness, Let me have a little kiss, Just a kiss and go with me, To the summer lands that beat down within the silver sea. Crinkin' was a little child, By the maidenness beguiled, Down into the calling sea With the maidenness went he. But the sea calls out no more, It is winter on the shore. Winter where that little child Made sweet summer when he smiled. Though to summer on the sea, Where with maidenness went he, Summer, summer, evermore, It is winter on the shore, Winter, winter, evermore. Of the summer on the deep Come sweet visions in my sleep, His fair face lifts from the sea, His dear voice calls out to me, These my dreams of summer be. Crinkin' was a little child, By the maidenness beguiled, Off to the hoary sea and grim, Reached its longing arms to him, Crying, Sunchild, come to me, Let me warm my heart with thee. But the sea calls out no more, It is winter on the shore. Winter cold and dark and wild, Crinkin' was a little child. It was summer when he smiled, Down he went into the sea, And the winter bides with me, Just a little child was he. Pity pat and tippy toe, All day long they come and go, Pity pat and tippy toe, Footprints up and down the hall, Plating scattered on the floor, Finger marks along the wall, Tell tales smudges on the door, By these presents you shall know, Pity pat and tippy toe, How they riot at their play, And a dozen times a day In they troop demanding bread, Only buttered bread will do, And the butter must be spread, In just thick with sugar too, And I never can say no, Pity pat and tippy toe, Sometimes there are griefs to soothe, Sometimes ruffled brows to smooth, For I much regret to say, To be toe and pity pat, Sometimes interrupt their play With an internessing spat, Five for shame to quarrel so, Pity pat and tippy toe, Oh the thousand worrying things Every day recurrent brings, Hands to scrub and hair to brush, Search for playthings gone amiss, Many a wee complaint to hush, Many a little bump to kiss, Light seems one vein fleeting show, To pity pat and tippy toe, And when day is at an end, There are little duds to mend, Little frocks are strangely torn, Little shoes great holes reveal, Little hose but one day worn, Roodly yawn at toe and heel, Who but you could work such Woe pity pat and tippy toe? On the floor and down the hall, Really smudged upon the wall, There are proofs in every kind Of the havoc they have wrought, And upon my heart you'd find Just such trademarks if you sought, Oh how glad I am to sow, Pity pat and tippy toe.  Away out yonder I see a star, A silvery star with a tinkling song, To the soft to falling I hear it calling, Calling and tinkling the night along. Into the window a moonbeam comes, Little gold moonbeam with misty wings, All silently creeping it asks, Is he sleeping, sleeping and dreaming While Mother sings? Off from the sea there floats the sob Of the waves that are breaking upon the shore, As though they were groaning in anguish and moaning, Be moaning the ship that shall come no more. But sleep little pigeon and fold your wings, Little blue pigeon with mournful eyes, Am I not singing? See I am swinging, Swinging the nest where my darling lies. Teeny weeny, Every evening after tea, Teeny weeny comes to me, And astride my willing knee, Plies his lash and rides away, Though that pulfry all to spare Finds his burden hard to bear, Teeny weeny doesn't care, He commands and I obey.  Oh the strange and lovely sights, Teeny weeny sees of nights, As he makes those famous flights On that wondrous horse of his, Oftentimes before he knows, Weary like his eyelids close, And still smiling off he goes, Where the land of Bilo is. There he sees the folk of Faye, Hard at ring a rosy play, And hears those fairies say, Come let's chase him to and fro, But with a defiant shout, Teeny weeny puts that host to rout, Of this tale I make no doubt, Every night he tells it so.  On at time he went away, Just a little while to stay, And I'm not ashamed to say I was very lonely then. Life without him was so sad, You can fancy I was glad, And made merry when I had Teeny weeny back again. So of evenings after tea, When he toddles up to me, And goes tugging at my knee, You should hear his pulphrene, You should see him prance and shy, When with an exulting cry, Teeny weeny vaulting high, Plies his lash and rides away. Buttercup, Poppy, forget me not. Buttercup, Poppy, forget me not. These three bloomed in a garden spot, And once I'll marry with song and play, A little one heard three voices say, Shine in shadow summer and spring, O thou child with a tangled hair, And laughing eyes we three shall bring Each an offering passing fair. The little one did not understand, But they bent and kissed the dimpled hand. Buttercup gambled all the day, Sharing the little one's mirth and song, Then stealing along on misty gleams, Poppy came bearing the sweetest dreams, Playing and dreaming, and that was all, Till once a sleeper would not awake. Kissing the little face under the paw, We thought of the words the third flower spake, And we found betimes in a hallowed spot The solace and peace of forget me not. Buttercup shareeth the joy of day, Glinting with gold the hours of play, Bringeth the Poppy sweet repose, When the hands would fold and the eyes would close, And after it all the play and the sleep Of a little life what cometh then, To the hearts that ache and the eyes that weep, A new flower bringeth God's peace again, Each one serveth its tender lot. Buttercup, Poppy, forget me not. Winkin' blinkin' and nod, Winkin' blinkin' and nod one night, Sailed off in a wooden shoe, Sailed on a river of crystal light, Into a sea of dew. Oh, are you going, and what do you wish? The old moon asked the three. We have come to fish for the herring fish That live in this beautiful sea. Nets of silver and gold have waved, Said Winkin' blinkin' and nod. The old moon laughed and sang a song As they rocked in the wooden shoe, And the wind that sped them all night long Ruffled the waves of dew. The little stars were the herring fish That lived in that beautiful sea. Now cast your nets wherever you wish, Never afeard are we. So cried the stars to the fishermen three, Winkin' blinkin' and nod. All night long their nets they threw To the stars in the twinkling foam. Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe, Bringing the fishermen home. Twas all so pretty a sail it seemed, As if it could not be. And some folks thought Twas a dream they dreamed Of sailing that beautiful sea. But I shall name you the fishermen three, Winkin' blinkin' and nod. Winkin' and blinkin' are two little eyes, And nod is a little head, And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies Is a wee one's trundle bed.  As you rock in the misty sea, Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three, Winkin' blinkin' and nod. Little Mistress Saint-Mercy, Little Mistress Saint-Mercy, Farith worldwide fancy free, Trotteth cooing to and fro, And her cooing is command, Never ruled there yet I trod Mightier despot in the land. And my heart it lieth where Mistress Saint-Mercy doth fare. Little Mistress Saint-Mercy, She hath made a slave of me, Go she bideth, and I go, Come, and I am fain to come, Never Mercy does she show, Be she wroth or frolicsome, Yet am I content to be Slave to Mistress Saint-Mercy.  Ah, how lonely life would be But for a little Saint-Mercy! Little Mistress Saint-Mercy, Cuttle close this night to me, And the heart which all day long Ruthless thou hast trod upon Shall outpour a soothing song For its best beloved one. All this tenderness for thee, Little Mistress Saint-Mercy. And section three. Section four of Lullaby Land, Songs of Childhood by Eugene Field. This Libre Box recording is in the public domain. High spy. Strange that the city, thoroughfare, Noisy and bustling all the day, Should with the night renounce its care, And lend itself to children's play.  The self-same sport that crowns the day Of many Assyrian shepherd's son Beguiles the little lads at play By night in stately Babylon. I hear their voices in the street, Yet tis so different now from then, Come, brother, from your winding sheet, And let us too be boys again. Little boy blue. The little toy dog is covered with dust, But sturdy and staunch he stands, And the little toy soldier is red with rust, And the musket molds in his hands. Time was when the little toy dog was new, And the soldier was passing fair. And that was the time when our little boy blew. Kissed them and put them there.  So, toddling off to his trundle bed, He dreamt of the pretty toys. And as he was streaming an angel's song, Awakened our little boy blue, Oh, the years are many, the years are long, But the little toy friends are true. I faithful to little boy blue they stand, Each in the same old place, Awaiting the touch of a little hand, The smile of a little face.  Hi-ho, my dearie! A moonbeam floated from the skies, Whispering, Hi-ho, my dearie! I would spin a web before your eyes, A beautiful web of silver light, Wherein is many a wondrous sight, Of a radiant garden leagues away, Where the softly tinkling lilies sway, And the snow-white lamkins are at play. Hi-ho, my dearie! A brownie steeleth from the vine, Singing, Hi-ho, my dearie! And will you hear this song of mine, A song of the land of merc and mist, Where bitith the bud, the dew hath kissed? Then let the moonbeam's web of light Be spun before thee, silvery white, And I shall sing the live long night, Hi-ho, my dearie! The night when speedeth from the sea, Murmuring, Hi-ho, my dearie! I bring a mariner's prayer for thee, So let the moonbeam veil thine eyes, And the brownies sing thee lullabies, But I shall rock thee to and fro, Kissing the brow he loveth so, And the prayer shall guard thy bed, I throw, Hi-ho, my dearie! Fairy and Child! O listen, little dear my soul, To the fairy voices calling, For the moon is high in the misty sky, And the honey-do is spalling. To the midnight feast in the clover bloom, The bluebells are a-ringing, And it's come away to the land of fay That the Katy did is singing.   Child and mother, O mother my love, If you'll give me your hand, And go where I ask you to wander, I will lead you away to a beautiful land, The dreamland that's waiting out yonder Will walk in a sweet posy garden out there, Where moonlight and starlight are streaming, And the flowers and the birds are filling the air With the fragrance of music of dreaming.  And when I am tired I'll nestle my head In the bosom that soothed me so often, And the wide-awake stars shall sing in my stead A song which our dreaming shall soften. So, mother, my love, let me take your dear hand And away through the starlight we'll wander, Away through the mist to the beautiful land, The dreamland that's waiting out yonder. Gander Feather's Gift I was just a little thing when a fairy came and kissed me, Floating in upon the light of a haunted summer night. Lo the fairies came to sing, Pretty slumber songs and bring, Certain boons that else had missed me, From a dream I turned to see what those strangers brought for me. When that fairy up and kissed me, Here upon this cheek he kissed me. Simmerdew was there, but she did not like me altogether. Daisy Bright and Turtle Dove, Pilfer Curds and Honey Love.  Gander Feather kissed me then, Gander Feather, quaint and merry. No attenuate sprite was he, But as buxom as could be. Kissed me twice and once again, And the others shouted when, On my cheek a brosa berry, Somewhat like a mole may have, But they kissmark of that chap. Gander Feather passing merry, Humorsome, but kindly, fairy. I was just a tiny thing, When that prankish Gander Feather Brought this curious gift to me. With his fairy kisses three, Yet with honest pride I sing, That same gift he chose to bring, Out of yonder haunted heather, Other charms and friendships fly, Constant friends this mole and I, Who have been so long together, Thank you, little Gander Feather. Telling the bees Out of the house where the slumber ear lay, Grandfather came one summer day, And under the pleasant orchard trees, He spake this wise to the murmuring bees. The clover bloom that kissed her feet, And the posy bed where she used to play, Have honey store but none so sweet, As ere our little one went away. O bees sing soft and bees sing low, For she is gone who loved you so. A wonder fell on the listening bees, Under those pleasant orchard trees, And in their toil that summer day, Ever their murmuring seemed to say, Child, oh child, the grass is cool, And the posies are waking to hear the song, Of the bird that swings by the shaded pool, Waiting for one that tarryeth long. T'was so they called to the little one then, As if to call her back again. O gentle bees, I have come to say, That grandfather fell asleep today, And we know, by the smile on grandfather's face, He has found his dear one's biding place. So bees sing soft and bees sing low, As over the honey fields you sweep, To the trees the bloom and the flowers the blow, Sing of grandfather fast asleep, And ever beneath these orchard trees, Find cheer and shelter, gentle bees. Contentment. Once on a time an old red hen Went strutting round with pompous clucks, For she had little babies ten, A part of which were tiny ducks. T'is very rare that hens, said she, Have baby ducks as well as chicks, But I possess, as you can see, Of chickens four and ducklings six. A season later this old hen appeared Still cackling of her luck, For though she boasted babies ten, Not one among them was a duck. T'is well, she murmured, brooding, Or the little chicks so fleecy down, My babies now will stay ashore, And consequently cannot drown. The following spring the old red hen Clucked just as proudly as of yore, But low her babies were ducklings ten, Instead of chickens as before. T'is better, said the old red hen, As she surveyed her waddling brood, A little water now and then, Will surely do my darlings good. But, oh, alas, how very sad, When gentle spring rolled round again, The eggs eventuated bad, And childless was the old red hen, Yet patiently she bore her woe, And still she wore a cheerful air, And said, T'is best these things are so, For babies are age-readful. Care. I have suspect that many men, And many, many women, too, Could learn a lesson from the hen, With foliage of vermilion hue, She narrow-presumed to take offence, At any fate that might befall, But meekly bowed to Providence. She was contented, that was all. End of section 4 End of Lullabyland, Songs of Childhood by Eugene Field


attention. It involves answering what part of the input should I focus on. If we are translating from English to French, and we are doing self-attention, that is, attention with respect to oneself, the question we want to answer is how relevant is the ith word in the English sentence relevant to other words in the same English sentence. This is represented in the ith attention vector, and it is computed in the attention block. For every word, we can have an attention vector generated which captures contextual relationships between words in the sentence. So that's great!


to Hawaii together on the ThinkTech Broadcast Network. My name is Jonathan Helton and I'm a policy researcher at the Grazer Institute of Hawaii and today I'm going to be filling in for our regular host which is Grazer Institute President and CEO Dr. Tilly Iakina. So today we're going to be talking about solutions to Hawaii's housing crisis and normally when we think about housing policy we think about state and local laws and regulations but that doesn't mean that the federal government doesn't have a role to play in fixing the housing crisis and in fact Hawaii's very own US Senator Brian Schatz recently introduced a bill in Congress that could help increase the housing supply at the state and local levels and especially near transit projects like Honolulu Skyline. So here to discuss this topic with me today is Andrew Justice. Andrew is a housing policy analyst at the Niskanen Center based in Washington D.C. He's also a licensed attorney and holds a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Michigan. Good afternoon Andrew and thank you for joining me on the show. Thanks Jonathan thanks for inviting me on the show. Of course so just before we get into specifics would you introduce yourselves to viewers a little bit about how you came to work on housing policy? Of course my name is Andrew Justice and like you said I'm a housing policy analyst at the Niskanen Center. Along with my colleague Alex Armelovich we launched the Niskanen housing policy effort in May of 2022. Our focus is generally on growing housing supply nationally and recognizing that most of what limits American housing supply are not technical barriers but regulatory and procedural hurdles around things like land use rules, building codes and other areas. That's exactly what we've been looking at at the Grasser Institute as well trying to streamline state and local approvals for housing projects to hopefully bring down the cost. So just before we get into the meat of the discussion just a quick question about the Niskanen Center. So how is the organization founded? What is the mission of the organization? So the Niskanen Center is a nonpartisan think tank that tries to blend the best ideas from or the best ideas as we see them from the left and the right into solutions for America's more vexing challenges. We call this approach transpartisan rather than bipartisan because we don't merely seek to calculate the average between both sides positions on an issue. We try to come up with the best solution without being overly tied to either the red team or the blue team. Yes and I certainly appreciate this approach at the Grasser Institute we are also nonpartisan and and try to work with both sides of the aisle whatever the issue is we try to find the best solution. So let's talk a little bit about housing. So as you know Senator Brian Schatz recently joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the House and the Senate and proposed the Build More Housing in Your Transit Act. So you've looked into this can you tell the viewers a little bit about what the legislation is trying to achieve? Sure the Build More Housing in Your Transit Act is an elegant solution to this phenomenon of transit projects that are built away from where most people live or they end up where stations get built in lower density neighborhoods and the land and then once the stations are built land use rules don't change to let people and businesses locate themselves near the new transit system or expansion. This trend isn't good or we don't think it's good for the taxpayer who pays to build transit infrastructure through state local and federal taxes because it's not allowed to be as useful as it could be. It's not good for the prospective rider who can't get where they want to go and it's not good for the environment because even though we spend more to build more transit people still end up driving. But back to the bill the latest version as you might have seen is a bit different than last term's version of the bill but the latest version modifies grant scoring for new transit proposals or expansion of existing systems to favor those with land use rules and permitting procedures near stations that will allow the new transit infrastructure to be more useful. These are basic and we think non-controversial things such as not requiring a bunch of surface parking near homes and businesses not having big minimum lot sizes for homes near transit stations and allowing multifamily housing by right without needing discretionary approval from politicians or bureaucrats that almost always add cost and delay to construction. In the end I think this policy will help fix some of our recent you know in the last decade or so transit building issues that encourage bad projects and instead have planners prioritize ridership taxpayers and the environment when they think about how to build and expand transit infrastructure that maximizes its usefulness to people. Of course and so that that's what I was actually going to just ask you is I know there had been a previous version and you know what were the changes so it is my impression that the previous version of the bill did not focus so much on here's a list of policies that we would like to see cities and states take in order to be in order to fulfill the strings attached to the grant. If focused more on we would like to see some plans to pass policies is that a fair categorization? Right ahead a couple of elements one was plans to pass policies the other one was establishing like a local funding stream for TOD and then there was a third kind of catch all for anything that the secretary of transportation identified. The new bill also requires the DOT secretary and the HUD secretary to come together and kind of break down silos between the two agencies when it comes to deciding what policies help build more housing near transit to quote the bill title and that's kind of a core issue with public transit in the United States really since the founding of the DOT and the moving of the federal mass transit program from HUD to DOT is that it's siloed away from the people with expertise on home building. Yes and so when you've broken the people who fund the transit project from people who might be considered about you know what types of housing should be built around it I do understand how the miscommunication would result in what Hawaii has today with the skyline. The skyline was built started on the west side of Oahu and is being built toward downtown Honolulu but on the west side it's a lot of loaded city housing and it you know people do live there but nowhere near as many people or businesses as downtown so we I mean we're certainly experiencing what happens when you build it and then you don't zone the land so that people can build dense housing around it and as a result there's ridership has been low and there hasn't been as much housing being produced around the skyline but I do want to talk about the new starts program that's the program that is a part of the bill and it says you know if a state or a locality wants to receive transit money under this new starts program they have to take these deregulatory actions regarding zoning so Honolulu's skyline did receive funding under this program they haven't received all of the funding that they were kind of allotted is there any chance that this bill is retroactive so that Hawaii would have to pass some of these zoning reforms to get the rest of that money? You know I'm not really sure and I I don't think I could speculate on that yeah no that's that's that's fair it would be it would probably be good to encourage the state and the city council here to try to invest in greater to do zoning and density maybe to get part of that money that they're still looking for on the ramp but let's move on so there was this isn't the only federal bill or federal program related to increasing housing supply at the state and city level so I want to talk about the grant program that Senator Schatz helped get into law on this past year and the the technical name is the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program it's administered by HUD so can you tell me about some of the background of this and maybe what it's hoping to achieve? Actually if there's if we could go back to the Honolulu skyline just for a moment yeah yeah let's go back to that yeah I think like one thing if Senator Schatz's bill was law when this project was being planned maybe you know 20 years ago you would probably see the the proponents of the of the system build it in kind of the opposite order that that it's currently being built where phase three would probably have scored better relative to you know phase one and two and so they would have probably tried to start with that and then phase one would have been probably less competitive especially if you look at systems that were built around the or started around the same time like Denver or Charlotte where their light rail systems go you know right through the center of their downtown and are quite quite useful but that's not to say that vision one or not vision one phase one of the skyline has to be a white elephant you know in perpetuity if you look at photos of the elevated subway in New York City and Queens from like 1915 or 1916 when it was first being built you'll see a heavy rail subway system being built out into what looks for all purposes of rural area but we all know that they the city you know let people build lots of homes and businesses very quickly in that area which made that new transit system very very useful very fast and like you were talking about a few moments ago Honolulu can still let people build homes near that transit system and solve two problems more or less at once in boosting housing supply for the region but also allowing more people to ride the system yes so so in other words if this if this build more housing your transit act it been law back in 2005 2006 then Honolulu might have realized that the incentive was to start downtown and build west as opposed to starting on in the west side building east so I mean probably would have increased ridership I know the ridership numbers they were hoping for maybe 10,000 people a day by the end of the year right now it's looking like maybe 3500 a day on average it is it is not been what they've hoped for and so part of it is because not a lot of people live where the rail is at and where the rail ends I mean it's it's an abandoned stadium it's not it's not the most ideal ending so if you're good we can let's go on to the YMB grant I guess as people have called it before yeah it's had some some colloquial names but yes yes so what does it work and what's its goal so HUD as we've called it the the YMB grant program although it's officially called the community development block grant pro housing grants excellent excellent naming but it will reimburse communities on a competitive grant basis that are modifying local regulations and procedures to allow more housing production generally the program is more of a pilot program in its scale the total budget for the whole country is 85 million dollars and as you can imagine that would be spreading it quite thin so the amount won't reimburse every community that wants to rewrite their zoning code or encourage exclusionary places to you know change their ways all at once but the good news is the applications that do get funded in this fiscal year should be impactful and get homes built where they're badly needed so directionally it's probably a good thing and if it goes well you know we might see it get repeated yes so I know there's been there's been some criticism that this was more aimed at helping fund plans than helping fund direct policy change but with I think they've already started accepting applications do you know if the applications that we've seen so far have been for hey here's concrete policy change to reduce parking minimums reduce minimum lot sizes things like that I think it's been a pretty mixed bag and I saw recently that the the deadline for applications was extended but because there's so little money to go around I'm pretty confident that the the proposals that do get funded will be worthwhile and and have more concrete you know production-based results rather than just mere planning okay and so so I guess that's a PSA for any um Hawaii state or local officials who are listening or watching that the the deadline has been extended so you know it's it's possible that one of Hawaii's counties if they haven't already applied could apply and get some of this additional money but let's um before we move on to some of the other topics are there any other federal bills that are being considered or existing federal programs that create these sort of grant-like incentives for states and cities to boost housing stock not not grants per se you know one thing we're looking at and working with Senator Mike Lee's team on is proposals to transfer some federal federally managed land under the Bureau of Land Management particularly in western states uh to communities that have a lot of housing pressure and and are up butting and kind of hemmed in by by federal land in their area uh we think it's a pretty thoughtful bill in that they go to great lengths to to describe all the the types of federal land that are off limits things like national parks national monuments um environmentally sensitive areas of course like DOD land as well but um it was this working with them on this bill has been really illustrative not just in in how thoughtful they are but in just how much of the west um how much of the west is under federal ownership and how hemmed in a lot of these cities are um so I'm hopeful that you know in the you know months and and year ahead we might be able to make some progress on that um to help provide some relief for these cities uh and in exchange have them um you know commit to building building more housing in this uh in this land I mean that's sound that does sound like a as you said a thoughtful bill and of course we've worked with Senator Lee in the past on on Jones Act and Maritime related stuff which I know um you're familiar with but I do I do want to talk about uh pre-approved plans so you've written about this recently so can you describe to someone who might not be familiar with how pre-approved plans work just kind of how a city would go about creating one and what the advantages are sure as you know we're all kind of painfully aware of housing costs are influenced by a variety of factors um land the cost of land itself and zoning regulations are among the biggest pieces of the overall pie uh but things will call soft costs like building design architectural um design and uh zoning approvals are an underappreciated source of costs and delays soft costs generally account for about 30 percent of project costs and of course they're going to be a higher share for smaller or kind of one-off infill projects like you see in a lot of a lot of cities some communities though are taking what we think is an entrepreneurial approach to reducing these costs within their jurisdiction by drafting on their own what they're calling pre-approved and open source so you don't they're not like copyrighted or anything uh building plans that property owners and developers can use for either minimal cost in a place like milwaukee i think they charge like $50 or no cost in a place like south bend the developer can take these plans know in advance that they're going to be approved in certain residential districts and take them to a contractor and and have them get built we would say this approach not only saves on architectural engineering costs just in absolute but the time savings gets homes built and on the market faster than they would be otherwise with a kind of with one off you know to spoke design an approval process for each project so the way i see it it seems like the pre-approved plans would make it a lot easier for people who didn't have for people who were just maybe small-scale developers or maybe they have the money to put an adu on their property as like it would have a bigger benefit for those people maybe then some of the large development firms who have the the time and money to to sort of wait out the permitting process you think that's accurate definitely um and following that trend of any time you've got small or singular developments the the soft costs are going to be a bigger share than than if you're building you know a hundred unit apartment building at all at once or something um but i think we've seen in not only you know South Bend Milwaukee different cities like what is it Los Angeles and Seattle i think have adu oriented um pre-approved plans specifically for adus rather than like primary residences like in south bend in south bend which we wrote about recently um their their pre-approved infill program is um about one year old probably one in a few months year old now um but at the time of writing i think they had maybe one one home under construction and then like 10 more in the pipeline and then you know since then but then the last i think week or so a non-profit developer from i think Evansville Indiana committed to building 50 homes using those plans uh out of the city's catalog and you can pretty plainly see it's a win win because the city gets you know scores of homes built on vacant land but also that those homes are unknown quality since they would have you know designed them themselves um and they match their aesthetic preferences which is i i guess good and uh meanwhile the non-profit developer saves money that they would have otherwise spent on architectural and design services and can deploy the savings towards their core mission of building homes for people yes no for sure i i just will add to that i i was looking earlier today i found a report from 2016 um from the Maui county council and they were discussing this topic and at least in 2016 they predicted that pre-approved plans would have saved um three to six months on design and permitting and i i don't think that that report um precipitated created any action which which is unfortunate um and none of the other counties have any other approved plans either so it's definitely something to look at considering that in hawaii if you want to get a building permit in most counties you may have to wait for five months to even get your building permit and so compared to the mainland hawaii's programming process is usually even slower so i i think the this proposal is probably something that would be very helpful to people so i i do want to move on to talk about manufactured homes just for a minute um there's been a discussion about bringing manufactured homes to Maui to provide on temporary shelter for people who've been displaced by the wildfires um so you and i talked about this last week and you talked about how there's different building codes and different building standards in place for different kinds of manufactured housing so could could could you um could you break that out for viewers sure so within what we would call um as like a genre factory built or off-site home construction as distinct from on-site home construction which is you're literally building the house in the place where it's going to be used but so off-site or factory built includes three main types one is HUD code manufactured homes colloquially these are referred to as mobile homes but they all will adhere to the national HUD code meaning they're built to this code they can be put in any of the 50 states with you know kind of minimal changes um and then from there you've got modular homes those are going to be built either as you know wall modules a series of wall modules or room-based modules and then assembled um on-site kind of lego style uh and then the third third version is panelized construction where it's just the walls are premade in a factory and then they're all shipped in to the site and assembled on-site the distinction between modular panel and panelized from HUD code is modular and panelized have to adhere to the whatever the local building code is and so you lose some of the efficiency that comes with a national you know HUD code but you do get a little more customization for for local conditions so for the HUD code specifically is that does that just apply to what we would traditionally maybe call mobile homes or is that or is it more is it broader than that well HUD code is a is like a defined term and you know mobile home is just kind of a slang for it but if we're if we're going to get really into the weeds so you've got like a factory that's making HUD code homes on the same production line they could make what are called park models which are uh if you've ever seen like a tiny house those are often non-HUD code but still a uh a semi-permanent home on a trailer right on a trailer chassis but um as far as like primary residents full-time any anything that we would identify as a mobile home is going to be a HUD code home right yeah so that's that's what I was trying to get at is it whether or not there was any maybe any of the kind of penalized as you call them like lego style homes that might might fall under HUD code um oh no they're those are going to be under the whatever the local code is my god so so then talking about building code have you found any states or localities that have a building code that is particularly friendly to um off-site built housing not that i'm aware of most of our most of our efforts are around um you're trying trying to make HUD code homes um able to compete on a fairer playing field with uh with site built site built construction historically you know groups like the national association of home builders were opposed um to normalization of competition between HUD code and site built homes but um today there are HUD code builders as members of the NHB and um they're generally seen as being being on site and and recognizing that america has a a shortage particularly of starter homes for people and that um as the harvard center joint center for housing studies uh has found recently that HUD code homes for the same spec are generally 25 to 70 percent less expensive to build than uh the equivalent site built house and at that end of the market it's just the better tool for the for the job yes and i imagine with um the dramatic increase in input like like lumber prices recently that i mean that that difference may have grown i don't know when that study was was issued that you're referencing but yeah anytime that you know material prices are are higher factory built homes which not only HUD code but modular and penalized as well are going to have an advantage just because because they're in a controlled environment they're wasting less material yes and historically i i think what you're saying holds true for hawaii where a lot of the opposition to any of these prefab homes um comes from some from the home building associations and and some of your contractors so it was i mean it made news headlines after the wildfires when i think that um some of the governor's staff probably met with some of the contractors and and they agreed hey we're going to be trying to bring in a lot of prefabricated homes because we need housing and and we need it fast now we was already in a housing shortage before the wildfire it's it's much worse now but i'll you know i'll throw in one more nugget for viewers in hawaii there's not a lot of there's not a ton of zoning barriers to prefabricated homes although um according to the state land use commission if you want to build a home on agriculture land that is designated as agriculture land by this the state lc you cannot put a mobile home there so because um so much of the land in hawaii is designated as agriculture that that does limit the ability of someone to come in and say hey you know i'd like to use this vacant land and maybe put in some sewer and electric cookups and maybe create a mobile home park um under land land land use commission rules that would be a no go if that's ag land so that's something that i know we've been in discuss in discussion with lawmakers about why do we have this particular requirement when you can put a mobile home on other types of land so andrew i think that we've pretty much run out of time um so i'm just gonna ask you anything else um you'd like to add to wrap up this conversation yeah i think just to close i want to say that in the past you know when humans you know we didn't have elevators we didn't have tall buildings or sanitary sewer systems cars or electric trains um building enough homes so people could leave lead healthy and prosperous lives was a technical problem that was at that time beyond our collective ability to solve it but today we not only have all those inventions but they're mature technologies that can be deployed almost anywhere and used to unlock more housing supply to meet demand rather than an unsolvable technical problem today's housing shortage is an eminently solvable mainly legal and regulatory problem but we just have to let ourselves solve it yeah well i couldn't agree more so i appreciate you joining me for this discussion today um thank you to our viewers for watching i hope that you found this informative and i hope you'll join us again for the next episode of hawaii together aloha thanks jennan


Thank you very much, dear Mrs. Minen, dear guests, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for inviting me to this interesting exchange of ideas and I look forward to a lively debate with you all. Now with regard to the topic, although refugee and asylum policies have been repeatedly at the top of the European Union's agenda for over 15 years now, it never carried as much political weight as in 2015 and 2016 when over a million people suddenly entered the EU member states. And in late 2015 the so-called refugee crisis, which I think should better be named in terms of European crisis of refugee politics, polity and policies, as I shall explain, led to unprecedented political polarization between the member states and to a deadlock in negotiations between the European institutions. Of course I'm talking mainly about the continent, as Ireland currently has no obligation to take in refugees as you negotiated an opt-in or opt-out clause in justice and immigration affairs for the Lisbon Treaty. On the level of politics or political disputes, disagreement about the competences of the EU and those of the member states, who should be responsible for the distribution of refugees for registration and return decisions for the external borders, the member states, the European Council, the Council of Ministers, or rather the EU's own agencies, Frontex, or IAZU, the European Asylum Support Office, who should decide upon about common standards, the Commission and the Parliament, or rather each member state on its own. With regard to policies, these disagreements became manifest above all in the form of disputes about the mandatory distribution of refugees among the member states. We all remember these disputes, I suppose, but underlying was a deep ideological disagreement about the question of EU competences in the area of refugee migration policy, all in all, and the direction of future policy. Ultimately, Europe was divided over ethical, legal, and political responsibility towards refugees and asylum seekers. On the level of polity, that is on the common norms and also common values, the current crisis in EU refugee policy is therefore also rightly seen as a crisis of solidarity and shared responsibility among the member states. Now what does a crisis imply? As a genuine crisis, it involves the risk of further division of interests, of re-nationalization and more and more decreasing solidarity regarding the issue of refugees in Europe. However, it also implies the opportunity to rethink and refocus on the basic principles of human rights and the values of the European Union, let down in the EU treaties, and of shared solidarity and responsibility. This is certainly one of them as are the principles of human rights and refugee rights. And this is why actually my key question in this lecture reads, how can human rights and refugee rights, how can more solidarity and shared responsibility be guaranteed in EU refugee policies even in a situation in which negotiations seem to have become so stuck? The content of EU refugee policy can be analyzed in terms of three concentric circles listed in order from the outside more towards the inside. The following areas can be distinguished. First, cooperation with refugees countries of origin and transit. Second, verifying and monitoring transit routes and external border controls. And lastly, within the inner circle, the European Union and its member states, all measures regarding registration, admission and distribution of refugees and all rights to which they are entitled once they reach the territory of a member state. The focus of this policy has increasingly moved from internal more towards the external issues. It originally focused on justice and home affairs. A policy that you look at very closely at this institute as I've learned before successively concentrating more on the external security and defence policy and also on developmental policy. The latest changes since 2015 have further intensified this change. This is important with regard to competences, of course. Since the European Parliament has hardly any co-decision rights and EU member states often lack a shared position and the ability to strengthen third countries in conflict resolution, promotion of democracy and development. With regard to policies, this touches the question of an eventual outsourcing of the European responsibility to provide protection. I now follow the three concentric circles beginning with the cooperation with countries of origin and transit. Consider a commitment is still required at a European and international level to plan a forward-looking refugee policy and to tackle the root causes of refugee migration by guaranteeing stability, the rule of laws, law and opportunities for participation in countries of origin. We need better data and predictions or scenario building like those made by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, Frontex and the European Asylum Support Office, IASO. Predictions for further refugee movement, patterns and a quicker mechanism to effectively process any future inflows. It is also necessary to co-ordinate the efforts of the member states and maintain reserves for large flows of refugees that might still be coming. In any case, it is vital that the EU and its member states continue to push for global distribution of responsibility for the issue of refugees. Many observers were disappointed to see that the first high-level plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly on Refugees and Migration in September 2016 was not able to establish this principle in a binding way. Two global compacts are to be negotiated by 2018, the Global Compact for Refugees and the Global Compact for Safe, Regular and Orderly Migration, which should now place previous ad hoc reactions to large flows of refugees with regulated processes and prevent a disproportionately high load falling on individual host countries. At the global political level, at the same time, all eyes are focused on Europe and the way we cope with a so-called refugee crisis. It also has a bearing on Europe's credibility, I think, when it calls for refugee rights to be respected at the global level, the way it is treating the refugees. Faced with considerable secondary migration, the responsible decision makers in Brussels are increasingly aware of the paramount need to cooperate with countries of first arrival, which have admitted the greatest proportion of refugees over recent years. Ultimately, developing countries host 86% of refugees worldwide, although these refugees often do not have adequate access to international protection. Protracted stays in refugee camps lasting 18 years on average and the lack of resources among countries of first arrival are also push factors for onward migration, often in the direction of Europe. The EU has also identified partner countries of origin, transit and first arrival in Africa, with which it is keen to make migration compacts or migration partnerships. These compacts initially claim to focus on taking the reasons, calling people to seek asylum. However, the aim is also to stem the flow of irregular migration and to prevent people from smuggling and trafficking. In order to reduce the drivers for onward migration from countries of first arrival, the EU should above all increase the asylum standards along migration routes and countries of transit and first arrival for cooperation. It should not, however, rely on unsafe partner countries with dubious human rights records. It may be worth investing resources and also political capital in building up the border monitoring systems of third countries, but these policies must be accompanied by expanding protection and opportunities for refugees. The EU and its member states are bound to seriously apply these basic principles of human and refugee rights in negotiations with third countries. Cooperation with countries with questionable records on human rights and the rule of law is problematic in normative terms, but also on the grounds of diplomatic credibility. A single-minded focus on migration control in such partnerships, and we seriously see that migration control is one of the big issues in these partnerships, but a single-minded focus should give way to a broader humanitarian development-oriented and rights-based approach. A human rights mainstreaming approach should be developed for each of the stages of refuge and migration. A cornerstone of the new cooperation system with third countries is, of course, the EU-Turkey Statement. It has been criticized due to a lack of human and refugee rights guarantees in Turkey itself and also in Greece. Turkey proved itself to be entirely capable of limiting irregular migration on its coastlines. However, since the attempted coup in 2015, Turkey has come to be an increasingly unreliable partner, actually generating a large number of refugees itself, who are in great numbers coming to Germany. In fact, the agreement is being implemented at a time when Turkey is taking significant steps backwards in the area of the rule of law, human rights and protection for minorities, thus returning to authoritarianism. Despite this criticism of the EU-Turkey Statement and its implementation up to now, the EU aims to use it as a model for further similar agreements with countries in the Middle East and North Africa. This applies particularly in the event that migration movements return from the EG and the Balkan route to the central Mediterranean route, often involving transit through Sudan and Morocco and arriving in Italy. In terms of the conditions relating to human and refugee rights to be required by EU policy, the central question is under which conditions the European Union and third countries can enter into agreements like the so-called Turkey deal, and above all, which standards should be observed in collaboration with them? In view of the disastrous human rights records in the main North African transit countries, Libya and Egypt, it seems unlikely that they should be classified as safe third countries. Asylum applications from people coming from these countries can simply not be classified as manifestly unfounded. One cannot assume that European standards, of course, which even member states fail to implement, can be imposed immediately on third countries and completely. However, the European Union must be guided by the following principle. When it collaborates with third countries, it must encourage them to observe the highest possible standards for protection and processes, and it must continuously monitor these standards itself. At the same time, it is important to extend legal access routes, as developed to some extent in the EU Turkey deal with this kind of resettlement, and currently proposed in a resettlement framework from the European Commission. Proposals for refugee-oriented measures such as humanitarian admission programs, we have had two of them in Germany already, visas on humanitarian grounds and schemes for temporary protection have been on the table for years. These could be bolstered by regular mobility measures, such as extended family reunification, mobility for work and study, and medical evacuation measures. However, even those must be designed to ensure that smugglers and traffickers cannot explore the refugees, and they must offer guarantees against exploitation in host countries as well. In the medium and long term, creating legal access routes does not just relate to the migration of refugees, but also to legal and controlled path for labor migration at all its levels of education, even in the low wage sector. This is the refugee camp in Jordan, right at the Syrian border, which I visited two years ago, and from where many people made their way to Germany, actually as a sort of secondary migration. So now we are at the external border controls. The crisis in European refugee policy in 2015 and 2016, further shook confidence in the functioning of the Dublin system, which had been crumbling for some time already. The significant influx of migrants had been mainly a burden on countries with an external border, although not exclusively, of course, as the case of Germany shows. This led to an overloading of the asylum system in these places. The situation resulted in the construction of new borders. The reintroduction of temporary border controls at Schengen borders, also in my country, and partial closure of the Balkan routes. Rules that had been jointly agreed were broken. Asylum seekers were pushed back or waived through, or detained in violation of the Norwe-Fulmont principle. EU standards were not observed. There was few consultation on decision, and there were also human rights violation as a result of the enormous pressure on countries with external borders. There was, however, a quick consensus among member states that open internal borders should only be restored when external borders had been appropriately secured. However, this must not be at the cost of human and refugee rights requirements, and systematic sea rescue is required also with a consistent approach in order to end the death in the Mediterranean Sea. The European Commission has taken up the resolutions of the Foreign Affairs Council on Combating Smuggling, and the Council of the Foreign and Defence Ministers of the European Union, and this is moving further towards the outer concentric circles, and it agreed to launch a military operation in June 2015. Within the framework of the common security and defence policy, the EU with UNIFORMAD, or the operation SOFIA, is thus for the first time actively involved in a military operation to identify, apprehend and destroy the smugglers' ships carrying refugees and migrants in order to bust the business model of smugglers and traffickers, and at the same time to rescue people in the Mediterranean Sea. A three-stage plan was developed with the aim of disrupting the business model of human traffickers and smugglers. At the same time, we've got a hotspot solution on the Italian and Greek islands, and here, Ireland comes in again. This is where Ireland has opted in, voluntarily agreed to fully participate in the EU relocation scheme, by accepting up to 4,000 refugees, and it has established the Irish Refugee Protection Program. The hotspot solution on the Italian and Greek islands was one of the EU measures introduced during the crisis. However, the system only started up very gradually, to say the least. Not only did it lack an efficient way to assign stuff from other member states, it was also particularly lacking in human rights standards for admission, access to the asylum system, and questions relating to detention, identification and treatment, especially of vulnerable persons, and unaccompanied minors. Hotspots might remain on the external borders, if we look into the future, as hubs for registration, distribution and return. However, it would then be urgent to ensure that the agreed EU standards were observed, quick asylum systems and processes implemented, and adequate treatment and protection were granted. This also includes identifying the people that require special treatment during admission and processes. Vulnerable persons must be treated appropriately. Fingerprints must be taken without the use of force, and detention must only be used as a last resort. There is a need also for a strict monitoring system in the hotspots, I think, led by international organizations, NGOs and independent agents, such as an ombudsman, to check that the hotspots function in accordance with European standards. The link between the hotspots function and the poor functionings of the European Dublin system is, of course, clear. And there we have a new addition, second relaunch of the so-called Common European Asylum System, or CAS. The CAS first reformed in 2013, proved itself to be entirely insufficient under pressure of increased migration in 2015. Large divergences in admission, in the asylum procedure, and finally in the admission rates, continued or even increased, as the rising number of people arrived triggered a so-called race to the bottom. This resulted in lowering standards and stricter barriers to entry. The European Commission had just started 40 infringement procedures, I don't remember that, relating to transposition and implementation of the existing CAS system and directives, but these could hardly have any effect before the European Commission started the revision of the directives and regulations of the CAS. The aim of this new reform, once again, is to speed up the asylum system and to harmonize standards across the EU. As these comprehensive reforms are currently still at the negotiation phase, I can only include a brief overview and I will restrict to the Dublin system the most important element proposed so far in the upcoming third edition of the CAS. The European Commission suggested a new edition of the much criticized Dublin system right from the start. However, alternative proposals for a fair distribution of asylum seekers among member states appeared in an initial communication from the Commission, but it proved impossible to implement them. While the European Parliament recommended a thorough overhaul, the Wiesigrad Group categorically rejected it. The Commission finally opted for a less, much less ambitious version of a Dublin Plus system with the following key items. There are four of them, first transforming the temporary relocation system into a permanent corrective allocation mechanism, a distribution based on population size and the GDP, which would automatically come into force as soon as a member state had admitted 150% of the number of asylum seekers allotted to it. The figure of 150% was of course one of the most controversial proposals. As this threshold once more placed the asylum systems of countries of first arrival under excessive strain and cement the notion of an emergency mechanism rather than a proactive distribution system. Introduction is the second point. Introduction of a system for financial balancing or penalties, let's call them like that, a so-called financial solidarity mechanism in EU speech. If member states refused to admit asylum seekers, this system would force them to pay 250,000 euros for each asylum seeker that would otherwise have been allotted to this member state within 12 months. So a family with four members would mean one million euros. Third point, stricter requirements for the member states. Particularly a restriction of the member state sovereignty clause, which was the one Mrs. Merkel used in September 2015 in order to receive the refugees from Hungary and no shifting of responsibility in case of overrun of deadlines. And also last point, stricter requirements for the asylum seekers themselves. They would be obliged to apply for asylum in the country of first arrival of course, as they are now, but if they do not meet this obligation the responsible member state must assess their asylum application in an accelerated process. Asylum seekers should only receive benefits in kind, not money, in the member state responsible for their asylum process except for emergency medical treatment, and failure to carry out these duties would incur sanctions which remain in the hands of the member states. Despite all these proposals, the Dublin system essentially retains the principle that the countries of first arrival in the EU must still shoulder a particularly large burden, and are responsible for admitting asylum seekers and sending them for relocation or returning them to safe third countries. This means that Dublin 4 as it is called now is only a light alteration which remains in the previous logic rather than an initiative for necessary reform to achieve a more functional and efficient system. Until now, no consideration has been given to differentiated proposals for stronger involvement of asylum seekers themselves, such as free choice, which might be a bit naive, of course, or limited choice or the so-called Dublin miners. Repeated demands have been made to include family and social bonds, language skills, job matching, and other criteria for asylum seekers selection to provide positive incentives for asylum seekers to stay in the allocated country once they are in there and to open up the possibility of internal mobility within Europe through the mutual recognition of asylum processes. The proposal also significantly cuts the rights guaranteed in the now prevalent Dublin 3 regulation and includes new sanctions for irregular onward migration. Now, an important point is the asylum support office, which is in Malta, which will become a fully-fledged agency. And I suppose that the corresponding directive will be here before the summer break, I suppose, because this is a sort of, yeah, it is the Maltese presidency that wants to get it through and it's still the Maltese presidency until July. So it will become a fully-fledged agency. It can contribute to greater convergence between the member states and the future. The relationship between the agency and member states right now is to be changed. Exchange of information is to become obligatory in future rather than a form of voluntary cooperation as previously. In future, EASA should regularly check the member states list of, say, third countries of origin, pass on information about countries that a member state wants to add to a shared list and create guidelines on best practices for the implementation of the common European asylum system. EASA should also provide tailored support for individual member states. And the agency should also use its teams to carry out operative and technical tasks of the CAS implementation in the member states, particularly under a higher level of pressure from migration as Greece and Italy. EASA is therefore gradually expanding to become an asylum agency that could implement harmonized application of common rules in the member states, even if not requested to do so. And if a member state lacks the necessary ability or will, it could intervene independently. This development may offer an opening and even the European Commission sees it as an opportunity, even a long-term opportunity. The aim would then be to gradually eliminate the differences between the emission rates, which should not exist according to the specification of the CAS and thus end the asylum lottery that has been existing in Europe. However, until now, EASA still plays an important role but a support role for the national border for the asylum authorities. A real EU asylum agency or Euro BAMF, as we call it in Germany, is still not in view. There have also been fears with regard to the other directives and regulations that the current race to the bottom among the member states, which accelerated since 2015, could now even result in a reduction of human and refugee rights standards in the coming directives and regulations in the EU and despite some improvements which we are seeing now in the negotiations, particularly in the area of legal assistance and the rights of vulnerable persons and unaccompanied minors, these fears do not seem to be unfounded in light of the increased strictness of some member states. On the contrary, I think it is precisely now the right time for the EU to refocus on human rights as an ideological guiding force. Conclusions, the current situations of conflict and deadlock between member states and between states and the supranational bodies gives little grounds to hope for a refugee policy that is more proactive rather than reactive, more long-term rather than ad hoc and more consistent rather than fragmented. It may be possible, however, to resolve it through a two-speed or even multi-speed Europe with appropriate incentives for those countries that by and by participate in a distribution mechanism based on solidarity. Another option would be a division of tasks, so-called job sharing, where the countries are at the external borders permanently act as hubs for admitting, redirecting, while states in the center and the north work more with integration issues. In view of the upcoming elections still in Germany and possibly in Austria, a growing polarization of public opinion strongest supranational control of EU refugee and migration policy seems unlikely. Although recent individual policies given front-takes, they now called the European Coast and Border Guard, and the other more coordinated competences indicate a certain move in this direction towards a more supranational system. In a system with a more supranational approach in which the EU could overcome its fragmentation and control the movement of refugees effectively and in line with international law, EU policy could even help improve global protection of refugees. This requires to support countries of origin and transit, to create a European search and rescue agency, to provide legal access such as resettlement, extend resettlement but also other instruments, and as an overall frame to introduce a human rights and refugee rights mainstreaming strategy. The European Parliament still has an opportunity to raise the standards proposed in other regulations and directives and not simply defer changes to the ministers in the council. The results of the elections which are still pending, the responsibility to turn the crisis into an opportunity also to the voters. Thank you very much.


Music is said to be food for the soul. In today's episode, we speak to a teacher who is using the power of music to cheer and motivate terminally ill patients. My name is Joseph Minor. I'm a music teacher. I teach the easy way to play guitar, ukulele, drums, harmonica. I'm also a volunteer at Nairobi Hospice, whereby I serve the cancer patients with my music therapy. Before I go to a hospital, first I have to know what they are going through. If it's a kids, I have to prepare kids' songs. So that they have to work on my song, kids' song. See myself already there. You see before you go, you have to see yourself there. So I prepare myself, I sing the song, I see myself playing the kids and that's how I prepare. So before I go to a client, I need to be there first. See what they need, what they are going through. So I prepare myself first. Minor says the idea came from one of his clients who owns a clinic and as a result, he ventured into palliative care in order to have a good understanding of the patients. There's a lady, there's a customer, an Indian lady, a doctor who, she was my customer. I taught the kid, her daughter and she has a clinic so she encouraged me to do a palliative care whereby I can understand my patients and also serve them with my music. So I did a palliative care whereby I can understand the cancer patients and other people who are ailing. Palliative care is like understanding what they are going through. Growing up, minor lost his grandmother to the cancer menace and experiences he was too painful. Therefore, this is where he draws his greatest motivation from. I had a close relative. My grandmother died of cancer. But when I was young, I never used to understand but it was painful. I didn't understand why she had to take medicine. It was expensive. And later now, I understood why she went, what she was going through. And it's a very expensive disease. Cancer as an illness, she'll be given much priority, especially by the government, as it is expensive to manage. I wish the government could support the cancer patients because some of them is, like the people I know, that have cancer are very expensive.  The medicine is so expensive. So I pray and I ask the government if they could support those guys. Because they have families. They have mothers who have kids in school. They have families who are paying rent. So I ask the government if they could support the cancer patients. I feel they are the people who should be there. I teach guitar the easy way to how to play. And I teach ukulele which is easy to play also. Myself is the easy way whereby anyone can learn. Even I teach Indians. So if they can play, anyone can play. So you don't have to be musical to learn with my system. It's easy. So I play guitar the easy way to how to play. And I teach ukulele which is easy to play also. I learn with my system. It's easy. So I play guitar. I teach guitar. Ukulele. I teach drums. And I play the harmonica. And also I help people solve the aerobics cube. He also teaches the aerobics cube to children and interested grownups. This is the aerobics cube. This helps people to concentrate. It helps you, like when you are stressed. And I help people how to solve it. It's easy. And it's a therapy also. Miners musical lessons cuts across all ages as he now teaches the elderly. Apart from teaching, I do music and movement. Like three-year kids. I play with them songs like nursery rhymes, action songs. It's called music and movement whereby we dance with the kids because those ones three years under they can play. So we sing together and do action songs. So from three years I said and then six years they can start how to learn. And for older guys you're not limited. Even they retired. Like now I'm teaching retired people. Yes, because it's a therapy for them when they sing the songs they want to sing. Today's society honestly I can say there's no subject in some music here. But the real music is in the past. There was lesson on the music. And it was like a story. So when you listen to those music you listen like a story. So you want to listen. And imagine could sit with your kids to listen to that story. But today's music unfortunately you can't sit with your daughter to listen to that story. So that's the challenge. I think it's... We are not going in the wrong direction. I think we are not motivated. I think we need to sit with the older people and the guide us. And we see the future. Like this song will be listened to. Like for example if you sang a song would you let your kids listen to that song in the future. So we should see the future. If I produce will it benefit people. Will it be a lesson. Mina says he gets much satisfaction from the positive impact his musical lessons have on the patients. Music heals. Like even for example when you listen to a music when you sad when you listen to music you feel good, you smile. So it's something that cannot be explained. It has no language. Like you can listen to Spanish music though you don't understand the language. So it's something that is more spiritual and also it heals. I feel part of what they are going through and I feel good. And when I see them laughing when I see them not dull and when I see them communicating it's like I'm part of them. So at times I forget what they are going through and that's my joy. Each time I go for volunteer it's like I feel happy and also my wife is so proud of me. She always encourages me and it's a pride when I volunteer. So I feel happy and also make my family happy. So that's a joy. It's not only me who is happy. Also my wife is happy. So it's a Nina joy which cannot be explained. My kids appreciate me and they play music like me. They play all the stuff I do. They are better than me like on the Rubik's Cube I taught them but they are faster than me. And they play music and my wife plays also. You don't have to wait until you're too old to begin chasing success but rather start early. Something I tell the young people and I wish I could reverse my years back because youth are millionaires already. You know a young person can do anything a young person has brains I mean it's easy for a young person to do anything. It's not like the more you grow older. You see a young person can risk. I remember when I was young I could risk and for example I risked and things would open and I remember opportunities open when you risk. So I'll tell the youth to I mean get involved in anything. It doesn't matter as long as you put your heart on that. If it's a business people will see what you're doing and they'll support you. And there are so many things youth can do. There is opportunity. I mean you can create anything and it flourishes. I have a bright future that's what I'll say but in life it's we direct our lives. Future doesn't happen as we direct our future. It just happens. It's you to direct what you want to do to direct your destination. So future is you also. You direct your future. You know what you want and you know where to go.