The next item of business today is the members' business debate on motion number 1, 4, 7, 6, 1, in the name of Bruce Crawford on World Lepracy Day. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would be grateful if the members who would like to speak in the debate could press the request to speak buttons now. I call on Bruce Crawford to open the debate at seven minutes, please, Mr Crawford. First, I would like to sincerely thank all those who signed the motion, and I particularly thank those who stayed behind to listen to the debate today and to take part. World Lepracy Day is a major date in the calendar for those fighting the scourge of humanity. That is Lepracy. Every year, on the last Sunday in January, in some countries that last the whole week, the whole world has a chance to stop and consider the plight of those people who are affected by Lepracy around the globe. It is also an opportunity to take stock to celebrate the many stories of hope, transformation and restoration that have been achieved by the Lepracy Commission. Of course, many other organisations, particularly the churches, are also involved alongside the Lepracy Commission in dedicating themselves to the same ultimate goal of eradicating Lepracy from the planet and thus transforming people's lives. However, it is also an important opportunity to grapple with the scale of the problem that depressingly still exists around the world and the impact it has on individuals and communities. This year, World Lepracy Day will be on Sunday 31 January. I have had the pleasure of visiting the Lepracy Commission Scotland's office in my constituency on many occasions. During my time as an MSP, and the staff and volunteers there do a remarkable job, I believe some of them, may well be in the gallery and I can see them here today, and I welcome them to the Scottish Parliament. Most recently, I had the pleasure of visiting their office at Livalins at the beginning of November, when the minister himself paid an official visit. Not only was that visit fun and enjoyable occasion, but it was provided with a very detailed briefing on their most recent projects, including the fantastic work that they are doing in DACA. In 2013, the Lepracy Commission Scotland received just under £300,000 of Scottish Government funding to help with the rehabilitation project in DACA in Bangladesh, the aim of the project to provide an improved quality of life for people with Lepracy and people with related physical disabilities, all rightly with a focus particularly on women. The plan to set up self-health groups for people with disabilities so that they can begin training in income generation activities. They also intend to help develop individuals and communities capacity to have better access to rights and entitlements to health services and improve access to education for their children. The Lepracy Commission Scotland has been helping people across the world since 1874, providing education support to those affected by the disease. The mission has had around 200 projects across 30 countries, mainly in Africa, Asia and around the Pacific, bringing healing and much-needed justice to people affected by Lepracy. The Lepracy Commission Scotland now has agreed that for the next few years, most, if not all, of the support raised in Scotland will specifically go to help people affected by Lepracy in seven countries. That is Angola, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria and South Sudan. It was great to go along and see the fabulous work done by Linda Todd, the chief executive, and a remarkable team of staff and volunteers who are doing their on a daily basis at the Lepracy mission Scotland. As you might imagine, Lepracy is a disease that commonly comes from places of poverty. Dirty surroundings, overcrowding, poor nutrition, housing and sanitation all make people more susceptible to the Lepracy infection. Thankfully, however, over 95 per cent of people are naturally resistant to the disease. However, let us remind ourselves of the sheer scale of the challenge that they are grappling with across the world. Every day, between 600 and 700 people are diagnosed with Lepracy. That is an incredible one person every two minutes, and the disease is still prevalent in 19 countries, but more than half of those who are affected are still in India. However, it is not all bad news because, over the past 20 years, more than 14 million people have been cured of Lepracy, and the disease has been eliminated from more than 100 countries. Lepracy can be cured, and early diagnosis and treatment with multi-drug therapy for a period of six to twelve months can prevent physical and psychological problems escalating. However, as well as medicines and surgery, those with complex cases may require therapy, rehabilitation, vocational tracing, housing options and much, much more. For thousands of years, Lepracy has been a source of fear and outrage. In many countries, Lepracy is still seen as a taboo topic. Sadly, there are still simply too many stories about how people have been disowned by their partners or family. And cast out of their communities because of a lack of knowledge and fear surrounding the disease. Fear, persecution and prejudice in many communities mean that people affected by Lepracy do not just have to cope with the effects of the disease itself, they often have to face stigma, persecution and injustice, making life doubly difficult. But injustice can come in many forms, and it varies widely from place to place, from country to country. So removing the stigma attached to the disease not only helps to encourage those affected to seek treatment, but also helps their families and the wider community to understand much more about the illness. That is why the Lepracy mission Scotland's efforts in the education field are so vitally important. They are working exceptionally hard at tackling misunderstanding and stigma associated with Lepracy. The mission continues to very clearly demonstrate compassion, dedication and enthusiasm to their ultimate goal of defeating Lepracy worldwide. My own personal attention to the whole issue of Lepracy came in primary six when a great old teacher of mine told us about the story of Mary Slesser from Aberdeen, who eventually became known as the white queen of Calabar. She had done so much work on Lepracy at that time, and I remember the impact that it had on me at primary six. That is why I was so pleased to take part in this debate today. I know that all the people in this Parliament will hope with all their being that the Lepracy mission is successful just as humanly possible in eradicating the disease. It is entirely possible to end the scourge on humanity. It just needs common effort and will to make it happen. I thank my colleague Bruce Crawford for securing this important debating time today. With your indulgence, Presiding Officer, I wish to apologise to the chamber as I will chair the cross-party group on epilepsy at 1pm. I unfortunately have to leave today's member's debate before its conclusion. Lepracy is a bacterium transmitted through constant exposure to those living with the disease, and most of us, if we came into contact, would not be affected and our immune systems would fight it off. Still, there are those weakened by malnourishment, for example, who cannot fight and overcome this unbearable disease. Unfortunately, much of the world does not even know that lepracy still exists, since many associate it as a disease of the ancient past. However, the disease is still prevalent and common in over 100 countries worldwide, with the greatest prevalence in developing countries. Over 200,000 cases were diagnosed by the disease in 2014 alone. It is surely time to increase awareness and work towards eradicating this horrible disease once and for all. For over 30 years, treatment has existed to cure this disease, and although this has dramatically increased the number of sufferers, those with lepracy are often ostracised, living in communities that marginalise, stigmatise and impoverish them as Bruce Crawford touched on. Most are unable to continue with employment, obtain an education or of any prospective marriage which, in some societies, is actually banned by law. Even in 20th century Europe, lepracy sufferers could be banished to leper colonies, of which spin a longer on the island of Crete is probably the most famous and operated from 1903 to 1962. Others, from Latvia to Spain, survived even longer. Because of the way they are treated, those who contract lepracy often ignore the symptoms, making the disease worse, while running the risk of infecting others. The first signs and symptoms of lepracy stacked by the appearance of black or discolored spots on one's skin. In addition, the small nerves on the skin suffers become damaged, creating a loss in pain sensation. When those nerves are being damaged, a simple stone in one's shoe or speck in one's eye can cause significant harm, since those with lepracy have lost the body's trigger response to feel pain. Sadly, without proper treatment, the nerves will continue to get worse and can cause paralysis to muscle tissue, leading to clawing of the feet and hands. Cuts and burns often left unnoticed can lead to significant infections and ultimately cause disability for those suffering from lepracy. Though treatment can cure the disease and prevent the further degeneration of nerve and tissue damage, unfortunately it is unable to reverse the damage already inflicted. The lepracy mission in Scotland has travelled to schools, youth groups, congregations and service clubs across the country, raising awareness and support for the eradication of this debilitating disease, working tirelessly to educate the people of Scotland about what lepracy is and, perhaps more importantly, what it is not, given age-old myths associated with it, how it affects the lives of those infected as well as those around them. Other projects include the Scunhaven lepers village in Ghana, which was established in 1926. It is a settlement for cured lepers who, in discharge, are often disowned by their families because of the nature of the disease and the traditional dread of the disease. The settlement has since provided a safe haven for 120 people who survive by subsistence farming, Government stipends on donations from well-meaning individuals and organisations. In Mozambique, the Mpapa community was set up to treat those suffering from lepracy, and today it is home to 50 families with 834 members of whom 73 have lepracy. The community has little support and no access to a local health clinic or school, but the Evangelical Church of Christ Mozambique, supported by the Church of Scotland, now provides a variety of resources and services to support the community, including agricultural equipment, seeds, medication, personnel and educational resources. We recognise World Lepracy Day this Sunday, 31 January. Since 1991, more than 14 million lepracy patients have been cured, and a low number has continued to fall. There are still those who remain untreated, and most are not aware of its harmful effects other than how it impacts upon their appearance. My hope is that we continue to educate people as the lepracy mission of Scotland has done for so long. I support their vision to transform the lives of people affected by lepracy, resources and care and cure, taking them from a rejection to acceptance and from poverty to economic independence. I am pleased to speak in this debate, and I would also like to congratulate Bruce Crawford on securing the debate. I would also like to welcome lepracy mission in Scotland to the gallery this lunchtime. As Bruce Crawford said, World Lepracy Day is the 31st of January this Sunday, and it is an important way to focus minds to highlight the impact of this condition on too many people around the world—people who are living in the poorest countries around the world with this condition—too often leading to a life of isolation, extreme poverty and stigma. It is a tragedy that people suffer from this disease. Others have said that it is completely curable, yet in 2014, 214,000 people were diagnosed with lepracy, but it is estimated that millions still go undiagnosed. The incubation period is around five years, but it can take up to 20 years to manifest itself. It can be cured with modern medicine, but, if not tackled early enough, it can lead to life-changing disabilities. Attitudes towards lepracy are historic and complex, and the stigma is long established. It is deeply rooted in many cultures. In India, there are currently 17 laws that discriminate against people with lepracy, or people who have had lepracy. However, the fear and discrimination comes from a lack of education on this disease and more needs to be done. Bruce Crawford highlighted countries that are supported by lepracy in Mission Scotland. In India, Bangladesh, Mozambique and other countries that are supported by the charity LEPRA. Bruce Crawford said that those kinds of charities, those dedicated charities, are so important to work with other partners. Small amounts of money can make a huge difference to countries' health and education structures to improve the lives and raise awareness, and £15 could train a community volunteer to recognise the signs of lepracy. That is an important role. We cannot underestimate the importance of local people, of community activists and of peer discussion. We have seen often the most effective way to tackle very stubborn issues and issues connected with long-standing views and with stigma. It is often the best way to tackle those issues through the involvement of local people. It is an argument that needs hearts and minds to be won over, as well as the basic policies that need to be changed. The organisation LEPRA also hosts the academic journal, Lepracy Review. It looks at topics such as research into the medical, physical and social aspects of lepracy and information that is relevant to lepracy control, and it is important to support academic research as well as take direct action. This Sunday gives us an opportunity to raise awareness. I see that there is a social media campaign planned for Sunday, as well as petitions and fundraising activity. As Bruce Crawford said, lepracy at Mission Scotland is based in Stirling, which is in my region. In Fife, many churches have a close relationship with lepracy Scotland, including St Leonard's in St Andrew's, where the minister has taken part in mercy missions to Nepal with lepracy at Mission Scotland. That is an important part of the contribution that we can make that volunteers travel to support local projects and offer their skills and experience. However, we also need international commitment and co-operation to challenge attitudes and practices. The example of India's laws is a case in point. That is a human rights issue, as well as offering aid and support. There is a need for diplomacy and a political argument to be won in tackling discrimination and stigma. I wish lepracy at Mission Scotland well with their plans for Sunday. I know that there will be speakers at a number of church services across Scotland. I thank all the volunteers in Scotland who spend time fundraising, raising awareness of the condition and travelling overseas to support the many activities that are taking part. Many thanks. I now call Stuart Maxwell to be followed by Jackson Carlaw. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I begin by, like others, congratulating Bruce Crawford on securing this important debate? Lepracy or Hanson's disease, as it is also known, is an ancient disease recorded in records for at least two and a half thousand years and a disease that has been greatly feared by many. Indeed, the word leopard means not just a person suffering from lepracy, it has the additional meaning of being a social outcast, because that is what a sufferer from lepracy was—a person who was considered unclean with all the implications of being morally deficient as well as physically afflicted. Few diseases have carried such a heavy social burden as lepracy. That is curious because lepracy is not an inherited condition, nor, though it is a bacterial infection, is it highly infectious. In fact, as others have said, around 95 per cent of the world's population have natural immunity to the lepracy bacterium. The reason that lepracy was so feared was that it was so disfiguring and disabling, and yet lepracy is today a perfectly curable disease. A drug to successfully treat lepracy became available in the 1940s, but it was not until the 1970s that it became possible to consider eradicating lepracy, and yet lepracy persists still. Certainly not in the great numbers of people that are afflicted in years gone by, but still there are people suffering from lepracy today. In 1985, around 5.2 million people suffered from lepracy, but by 2014 there were around 200,000 cases worldwide. That represents a fall in the prevalence of lepracy of over 75 per cent, a fantastic achievement and one that I think not enough people are aware of. However, there are, of course, sadly some places where there are pockets in which lepracy is endemic, such as Nepal, Brazil, Sudan and Indonesia, to name but a few. Like tuberculosis, another ancient disease that is still a stigma attached to lepracy, which means that people are reluctant sometimes to come forward for diagnosis and, more importantly, possibly for treatment. This is a great pity, because only early diagnosis and treatment can mean that the patient can be cured before they have suffered permanent nerve damage, which is what causes the disfigurement and disabilities associated with the disease. The lepracy mission Scotland is a Christian charity based in Stirling, which has been operating since 1874, just one year after the Norwegian doctor, G.H.A. Hansen, discovered the bacterium that causes lepracy. Lepracy mission Scotland is concerned not only with looking after those with lepracy and curing them, but also working for justice for those who suffer from the stigma associated with this disease. People still fear lepracy, and a person who is diagnosed may find that they have been evicted from their home, are ostracised by their neighbours and lose their job. That is despite the fact that once a person starts treatment for the disease, they are very quickly no longer contagious and able to lead a perfectly normal life. Early diagnosis and prompt treatment means that it is possible to have a full recovery, suffer no long-term effects and to be completely cured. However, the social consequences of having contracted lepracy are not so easily overcome. The world lepracy day falls on the last Sunday in January each year, 31 January this year, and in 2016, lepracy mission Scotland wishes to focus on rebuilding Nepal. The World Health Organization has stated that the prevalence of lepracy in Nepal was 2.6 cases per 10,000 of the population, with the number of reported cases in Nepal in 2013 standing at 3,225. In April 2015, there was, of course, a devastating earthquake in Nepal, a particularly devastating blow for those Nepalese who suffer from lepracy, a disease that is both prevalent in the poor and causes people to fall into poverty. In fact, the lepracy mission hospital in Annand Daban, not far from Kathmandu, was the only hospital in the area with facilities to treat many of the earthquake victims. Letters this year on world lepracy day applaud the work of lepracy mission Scotland, which is bringing hope, justice and dignity to so many, and let us remember also the victims of the terrible earthquake in Nepal. I thank the opportunity for this debate to take place in Parliament today, and I thank Bruce Crawford for that. I also associate myself with all the comments that have been made in this short but informed debate so far, indeed to the extent that I do not wish to repeat everything that has already been said. I would like to talk something a little bit more about the stigma. I was born in April 1959. In November that year, William Wiler's 11 academy award-winning MGM film starring Charlton Heston, Ben Hur, was released. If there is a greater recruiting sergeant for stigma and prejudice about lepracy, it is difficult to think what it might be, and yet it is a film that I think is impossible to escape even today, because it is shown at least once a month somewhere without any context. It is difficult to think of anything in popular culture that has ever been released subsequently, which counters that in any way, or any kind of drama that has been associated with trying to show the context of leprosy in the modern era. For many people, it is a biblical disease for which there is no cure, even though common sense dictates that that must be different. I think that that is very unfortunate, because when one looks at the prejudice that many people face, whether that is individuals being evicted from their homes, families breaking down, children being denied education, people being unable to find work, people being denied medical treatment, all of that, as is the case with other illnesses that we have discussed from time to time in this chamber, is fuelled by ignorance. In this case, ignorance, which is not borne out by the reality, which is that this, even though there are people contracting it today, is a disease that can be successfully treated and treated inexpensively, restoring to people that dignity and opportunity in life. That is why I am delighted to be able to congratulate the leprosy mission, the 140 years of contribution made by Scotland as so fitting with the kind of narrative of Scottish involvement in the wider world, and the campaign that they have this year to celebrate the 140 years to encourage the participation of young people through a gap year across 140 churches to further extend the work of trying to eliminate and counter the effects of the disease and the prejudice that is associated with it. I am delighted also to congratulate the Government for the support that has been announced, which has been referred to in the debate this afternoon, to play a part in that work. It is great that there are individuals present here today. That is not always the case when we are able to comment or celebrate a particular organisation. I would say to them on behalf of this Parliament that we are very grateful for the work that you do. It enhances both the reputation of Scotland, it is good that it is tackling in a modern context a disease that can be beaten and yet still exists. I hope that we reflect on the on-going subconscious stigma that can sometimes translate itself into young people. That film, I remember vividly at the time, represented leprosy as almost something more terrifying than the Daleks when I was at that age, and I was at that age when I first saw it. It was represented as something that had to be shut away, feared and shunned. I do not remember anything other than my own interest in seeking to identify what the reality might be and reading about it on a proactive basis that corrected that. I did not, on a reactive basis, find myself exposed to better information. That is something that we should reflect on as we try to counter the stigma that still is attached to a disease that can so easily now be cured with effort and with money. Thank you, Mr Carlaw. I could just point out for future reference, if you turn your back in the microphone, it makes it difficult for us to hear and also for the official report. John Mason. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It did give us the benefit of seeing Jackson Carlaw's face in the back benches. I would thank Bruce Crawford for bringing forward this important topic. First, if I can comment on the specifics of the leprosy mission, I have known them for a long time, and I have to say very highly of them, as clearly others do in the chamber today. As others have said, for many of us, leprosy was one of those things that you heard about as a child. I think that there has been a kind of assumption that it was one of those diseases that we have dealt with and it has gone away, but sadly that is not the case. I was looking at Wikipedia and similar figures to others that have been quoted. It said that, in 2012, there were 230,000 new cases, again with half of those being in India. The good news on the figure front is that 16 million people have been cured of leprosy in the last 20 years. Of course, being cured does not necessarily take away the stigma. All of that really came home to me in the 1980s when I lived in Nepal. Leprosy was still fairly common there, and you frequently saw people with real deformities, caused by the disease even if it was no longer active in their bodies. Nepal is a society that values physical contact, and so that raised interesting questions such as, do you hug somebody who has clearly had leprosy? There is still a huge amount of stigma around leprosy today, even as there was in Jesus' day, when people had to ring a bell as they approached and shout unclean and those things. I know that the leprosy mission Scotland is keen that we do not use the word leper, as that has had so many negative connotations around it, as Stuart Maxwell said in his speech. Clearly, charities like the leprosy mission deserve our support and financial, in other ways, which leads on to the other point that I wanted to make in today's debate, the wider issue of charity fundraising and, in particular, changes that are flowing from the Etherington report. That report stems from the fact that some charities have clearly been overzealous, to say the least, in their fundraising activities. As a result, the intention is to have a fundraising preference service whereby someone could reset their preferences, that is, opt out of any charity contacting them whatsoever. Potentially, that could even prevent an existing charity contacting one of their own regular supporters, if that person had misunderstood the new system. They might have thought that they were only asking that no new charity should contact them, whereas they were actually asking that no charity contact them. I have to say that I am a little unclear about this whole issue, and if the Etherington report will fully apply in Scotland. I have written to Alec Neill about this, and I know that he is aware, because he attended the event run by Oscar and the Institute of Fundraising, where it was raised in Parliament a little while ago. However, I wanted to mention it specifically today, as the leprosy mission has raised that with myself. Finally, there has been a feeling that leprosy has been one of a number of neglected tropical diseases, and that Governments in the international community have not really prioritised it sufficiently. I very much hope that today's debate will help to redress that balance. Many thanks. Can I now invite Humza Yousaf to respond to the debate, Minister? Seven minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and my thanks to Bruce Crawford for bringing this debate to the Scottish Parliament. He referenced the fact that he and I visited the leprosy mission Scotland at the end of last year, and I am delighted that the volunteers and staff and their chair director, Linda Todd, are here with her team. I was blown away by the work that they do. Of course, it is important that this motion is to recognise that world leprosy has taken place this Sunday. However, in terms of the work that is done by the leprosy mission Scotland, I urge all members of the Scottish Parliament, whether they are passing through Stirling, not to certainly pop into their offices and see for yourself the amount of work that they do. It is an incredible organisation, because such a small team, a couple of things, struck me one with the dedication of their volunteers. The staff do a fantastic job and work above and beyond the call of duty. However, I was also taken by how many people from the local community give up their own free time to help to spread awareness of leprosy and have been there for many, many years doing so. I was also impressed by the grass-roots community credentials that the leprosy mission Scotland has. I am delighted that it is here and delighted to extol the virtues of the good work that it does. I am not just saying that because it gave me a wonderful cup of tea and a few pastries on my last visit. As many members, leprosy is an excellent contribution from across the chamber. That is why we have members' debates in the first place to raise awareness of issues that probably would not necessarily get time in this chamber. The awareness of leprosy is one of those issues. I want to just re-emphasise some of what is being said without, hopefully, repeating too much of it. Leprosy is one of those diseases where, if you speak to people about it, many people are astounded that leprosy still exists. Bruce Crawford and I were saying that during our visit, which was shared by the leprosy mission Scotland. They still have people who come to them and go, and I did not even realise that your organisation was needed any more because they thought that it was a disease that had been eradicated many, many moons ago. However, it has not been, of course—and it is to our shame, as an international community—that a disease that was prevalent in the time of Christ and even before that is still being suffered by many people across the world. Then there is the point that many members across the chamber may—I think that almost all members may—across the chamber and, laterally, very powerfully, by Jackson Carlaw's issue about stigma that exists about those who suffer from leprosy. That stigma is important for us to tackle in countries where leprosy is prevalent, because there will be a barrier to those who can get a cure, who can be treated. That can be an absolute barrier that is in the way. If they are portrayed as outcasts and treated as people who are undeserving, or in the worst of cases, some of that stigma comes from the fact that some beliefs and some cultures suggest that leprosy is a result of actions that that person has caused because of a bad action that they committed in the past or even in the past life. That is certainly a social stigma that we are encouraged to try to defeat. The Scottish Government has invested almost over £480,000 in supporting the leprosy mission Scotland's work in Bangladesh. That money has helped to improve the quality of the life of people living with leprosy and has also improved their social economic status by providing loans and training on income-generating activities. That latter point is actually quite important. Providing the loans and training for income-generating activities helps to defeat that social stigma that exists. Somebody who suffers from leprosy that is cast as an outcast by their own societies and cultures, suddenly being able to have a loan access to capital to become a business man or woman in their own local area, providing a service, providing business and maybe having a team working under them, helps to defeat that social stigma as well. Through the leprosy missions rehabilitation programme, in DACA we have supported people left disabled by leprosy, giving people, especially women, the skills and knowledge that they need to access the Government health services that they are entitled to as well as improving access to education for their children. Scotland has a very good record of contributing to global health and I will go into some of that. I thought about a touch upon John Mason's question about the Eddenton report. He will receive a full response from Alex Neil in a good time who I know he has written to. What I would say is that the Scottish Council for Volunteer Organisations and the Charter Regulator in Scotland, as he alluded to Oscar, are now in a process of consultation. How that Eddenton report should apply to Scotland is something that they are consulting the sector. I think that that is probably the best approach to take. Speak to the sector, bring them around the table and hear from them their views. We essentially want to achieve two objectives from that consultation. The first objective is that there should be a positive environment whereby, within the sector, that can help charities and NGOs to flourish. That is very important. Secondly, equally, John Mason would understand that there should be public trust and confidence in the sector. We will achieve those two objectives, so that does not mean that we have to fully apply all of the Eddenton report. It is important that we consult the NGOs and see what can be done so that we can achieve those two objectives. We know that last year was the implementation of the sustainable development goals. It is important that, as part of those goals, infectious diseases are tackled. We all have the responsibility to do that at home, because sustainable development goals are implementable at home and overseas as well. Scotland was one of the first nations to sign up to the UN SDGs global goals in July 2015. Those goals came into effect in the first of January of this year, and they will be implemented through our national performance framework. We will do everything that we possibly can to ensure that we assist in this effort at home, but, importantly, overseas and abroad as well. In conclusion, I am proud that Scotland is a good global citizen playing its part in the fight against leprosy and other global health challenges. I want to commend and take my heart off to the efforts of the leprosy emissions of Scotland, but also the leprosy emissions that are worldwide. That disease cannot be eradicated without a collective effort internationally, but not just a collective effort from one organisation or from organisations in Scotland, but across the world. However, it is on the backbone of the volunteers who give up their free time to defeat that, and we will ultimately be successful in seeing the complete eradication of the disease from anywhere in the world. I am happy to support the motion from my colleague Bruce Crawford. That concludes Bruce Crawford's debate on world leprosy day. I now suspend this meeting of parliament until 2.30pm.


The Independent National Electoral Commission has presented certificates of return to the 26 Oshoon State Assembly members-elect following their victory at the March 18 election. The presentation of the certificates of return, which attracted supporters of the members-elect, was performed by the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mutu Aboke. Mutu Aboke urged them to prioritize the development of the state and not jeopardize their confidence reposting them by their electorate. The People's Democratic Party had won 25 out of the 26 seats in the assembly, leaving all Progressive Congress with the remaining one. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Welcome to the Sports Playbook, where we discuss solutions to issues that impact sports. I'm your host, Angela Hazelett. Today's guest is Roxanne Steinhoff, Attorney and Lead Consultant at Steinhoff Law. Today we are going to discuss sports tourism and destination marketing considerations before the big game. Let's get to it. Welcome, Roxanne. Thank you for joining us today on the Sports Playbook. Well, Angela, thank you for having me. It's an honor to be here. Roxanne, you have a really rich history with sports tourism and involvement with destination marketing. Tell me, what does, what are those terms mean? Yeah, great question to start us off. So sports tourism, just in general, is hosting athletic events to drive visitors to a destination. So of course that goes hand in hand with destination marketing, as destination marketing is of course advertising a particular jurisdiction, a city, a town, a county, a state, a nation, whatever it may be, advertising that destination to attract visitors. So you have kind of this marriage between destination marketing as kind of the big picture and then sports tourism as a niche part of destination marketing. So one of the avenues to attract visitors would be through sports tourism. Yes, that's correct. Well, let's lean into that a little bit more. And some of your background has been working with the Boston 2024 Olympic and Paralympic bid committee, working at the Chicago Sports Commission, hosting, helping them host major international sports events and providing sport tourism consulting. Now you run a legal and consulting firm that specializes in serving sports commissions, destination marketing organizations, and tourism bureaus. So from this collective experience, what are some of the key things that you learned about what it takes to bring a successful sporting event into a community? Yeah, you know, I think the bottom line and what makes doing sport tourism a success for tourism so fun for sports commissions or tourism bureaus is you have to love your destination, right? I mean, that's the bottom line is you have to have a great destination to get people to come and visit or sports or just for general tourism. And usually that's pretty easy. We all have great destinations, but I think to really be successful in this industry and be successful in what you do is you have to plan for events to benefit not just visitors, but of course your residents. And that's why sports tourism is so powerful because everyone gets on board with sports. There's this very famous quote from Nelson Mandela talking about how sports is the universal language. And that's so true. It's true across time and space and borders. And so, again, to be successful in driving a visitation to your destinations through sports, you need to find a way to bring those activities and those facilities and those events also to your residents. And it really helps bridge the gap between the tourism industry and the tourism community with your local residents. I love that. And the powerful impact of sports to cross cultures, languages and geographic boundaries, even. And talk to me about what has changed in sports tourism since COVID. Yeah, great question. Traditionally, the destination working space for tourism, we are a space. People use tourism via destination marketing organization interchangeably. I'll just refer to them as DMOs, destination marketing organization. Just know that it comes as all of the above, right? A traditional metric for success for DMOs and sports commissions has been heads and bets. So, you know, getting those visitors in and making sure that you can wrap up hotel roommates. Well, of course, as we all know with COVID, we that didn't work out so well for everybody, right? And I mean, the heads and bets metric goes right along with how a lot of tourism bureaus, DMOs, sports commissions are funded. Traditionally, they've been funded through hotel taxes. And of course, until that happened, nobody was getting any kind of funding out of hotel taxes and roommates. And so during COVID and coming out of COVID, there's been a huge shift in the tourism industry as a whole, and especially in sports tourism, because heads and beds is not really the quantitative or qualitative metric that is really encompassing of what you're trying to do at the whole destination. Remember, I said at the beginning, the key to success is creating a program or events facilities that will also benefit your residents. And of course, you can make the argument that heads and beds generate economic impact, which is a huge reason, if not the main reason. Of why these organizations this, however, it has to be more than and we've seen from COVID that it's not so much about heads and beds anymore. What it's really about is providing this holistic experience for your visitors and your residents and making sure that you have a sustainable and responsible strategy to keep your destination. Interesting and not say the metric is more than just the number of hotel rooms that are that are booked during that time period. And I know that hosting large national international events can be really expensive. You mentioned historically there's been like a hotel tax and that made sense, at least pre COVID that might have made sense to assess that tax. But what other places is the world's the funding come from? Particularly if it's a city is the one that is hosting a particular event? Yeah, it's a great question. You know, it really depends on the destination and the event. A lot of times, right? I mean, the Olympics, of course, are not just funded by heads and beds, hotel taxes, right? I think that's a microscopic piece of that puzzle. It really depends on the destination and your jurisdiction. So hotel taxes still continuing to be a main artery for funding for sports commissions, which I guess we should back up and say what the sports commissions actually do. Sports commissions are usually a department or an arm of a DML and they're responsible for bringing in sports events. You do have some sports commissions that are completely independent. They're all organization separately funded, but most sports commissions at least in the United States are a part of the DML. And so going back to the hotel taxes still reign supreme, I would say. Some other methods that have come up with funding, it's sports commissions specifically have been tourism improvement districts, which is an assessment model, very similar to the tax of some key differences. Number one, whoever is paying the tax, which is these are businesses in the tourism industry, usually hotels, but more and more and you're seeing restaurants and retail and other businesses that are in the tourism industry that benefit from the activities of sports commissions and DML do, they're the ones that have the assessment. Assessments also only last for a certain period of time, unlike taxes. And most importantly, assessments can't be diverted by the government, right?  So that's why assessments are so powerful because there's a legal protection to the businesses that voted in the assessment. They're supposed to be benefiting directly. So that very much is becoming a popular method of funding sports commissions and tourism bureaus. Down you're talking about the event and specifically, of course, the tourism bureau and sports mission funding, a lot of that goes into bringing these events. It's the main funding sports most of the time. We also private private funding sources after COVID, the federal government gave out grants for the first time to tourism bureaus. So I don't know how long that is going to last into the future, but that was a funding source. And now there's some precedent for that, right? Now we've done the course, so maybe there's more opportunity. Sponsorship is also a huge piece of course, especially when you're talking about big high-profile sports events. And then also many times, especially when you're talking about the Olympics, Super Bowl or these major events, there will be some other kind of public funding elements. So overall, again, it depends on the destination. It depends what the event is. It depends on what legal mechanisms you have to get funding, but there's a wide range of things. But on the sports mission and DMO side, I would say it's still very much rooted in hotel taxes and becoming more popular. Interesting the assessment piece. We're talking about these like tourism improvement districts. And who determines who is part of those districts? Yeah, that's a very good question. So because the businesses have to pay the assessment, ultimately have to approve the assessment. A lot of the times when the Tourism Bureau's sports commissions are putting together their proposal for the district, this is a political strategic piece, right? I mean, if they know, they've got a Nutellier who is not a purpose, let's say, to put so say diplomatically, somebody they know that may not be supportive, they may find a way to cut that hotelier out. However, that also provides some political risk, right? Because then all your other hotels might say, well, this person is going to get one of this business. How is this fair? So as far as determining how to draw your district and what the boundaries are, I mean, this very, all the work really goes into the front end. Before you even bring it to your hoteliers or your business, whoever you would like to contribute to the assessment, that strategic piece, all that work needs to be done on the front end. So then you're not going through the actual process, and there's a, we'll call it a political process, right? Some other factors that determine the jurisdiction, a lot of it will depend on your enabling statutes or, so I guess we'll be back up also. Tourism improvement districts, the assessment model, there's two ways that you can inform them. One is by a grant from state statute, which is how most of them are formed. There are, to my knowledge, 20 some states that have specifically tourism improvement districts enabling legislation at the state level. Most states have a business improvement district enabling statute and some destinations have used their existing bid statute to create these districts. But preferably the best way forward would be to enable a state statute. Now you can also use as a local jurisdiction, you can also use your home rule authority, which all, it depends on your state, but local governments have some degree of their own independent in a mere authority. So depending on how your state treats that kind of local authority, that can be not true. And that's something under a home rule authority have a little bit of flexibility because you're not necessarily constrained to the state statute. So I say all of that to get back to your question on the districts who actually decide the boundaries of these districts and what they look like. Sometimes your enabling statute will belegate you to a county or a city, something like that. A lot of them allow you to expand outside of local government, first digital boundaries. So you could have districts that could span multiple cities or multiple counties. It just really depends on what you're using as your authority. Yeah. I imagine that would get really complicated if something like Kansas City that straddles two state lines, it probably makes it even more complicated to assess funding for a particular event. But let's talk a little bit about, you worked for the Boston 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Committee or with them. And they did win the bid from the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Eventually they was decided that Boston would not move forward with that bid process. And I'm curious from your perspective, like how does a city or how does an entity decide that it is not the best for them to move forward in hosting an event? Yeah, that's a great question. So yes, my first job coming out of grad school, I worked for until holiday, which is the major advertising agency. And they were doing a lot of the marketing and advertising pro bono for Boston 2024. So it was a very interesting situation. So I technically worked for the agency, but my only account was Boston. So we're reporting directly to the Olympic Committee. And Boston was really a unique situation for a number of reasons. The first reason is this was really the first time greater social media played a huge role in what was going on as far as support for the bid. So this is circa 2013 to 2015 as when this process was the U.S. OPC now, excuse me, selected Boston in the winter of 2014. And then Boston was the U.S. city going into the 254 bid cycle. When that happens, all of a sudden, Boston's 254 was on the stage, both nationally and at home. And of course, Boston has a very rich history with governments and major powers coming into play in that city, of course. And so I think a few things happened in Boston. Number one, the fact that the city was even bidding for the Olympics at all was relatively quiet. I don't think that was necessarily intentional, but a lot of people in the city didn't know about this. And now all of a sudden there was this big announcement that Boston was putting its hat in and was the U.S. election. That's number one. Number two, that time was one of the worst winters in Boston on record. They closed the transit system trying to remember it was at least five or six times. There was a huge snowpile that they had in Seaport, which is a district by the ocean, and that snowpile did not melt until July because of how much snow there was. And so I think unfortunately that was a perfect showcase of the city not being able to handle some major thing that was going on.  And then all of a sudden here that there's this little bid. And so there's a lot of consternation about that. And then finally, like I mentioned earlier, this was really the first time where you had a very, very mobilized and dedicated group against the Olympics. You've had those four, but social media was changed. So my job was running the social media for Boston. So this was, I lived and ate this every single day, 24 hours a day. And it was very interesting to see that there was really about, I would say like 30 people who were just on top of Twitter all the time. And those people really drove the conversation in a lot of ways. And you could see the media picking up, what they were saying, because they were so active. You know, whether that's right or wrong, I won't dive into that. But it was absolutely in your backer. And so by the time that August came around in 2015, we held a debate between the CEO of Boston by four and the leader of the no Boston Olympics. And actually, completely objectively, a lot of went well for Boston, especially by four. But the final piece was the IOC wanted the state of Massachusetts to back in. And the governor at that time was hesitant to do so without a study on what the economic impact is going to be and how this is going to affect the state as a whole. And that study hadn't come back yet. And so I think the USOBC was seeing a lot of negativity coming through, again, a lot of it on social media. This is how we reported. And they were questioning the governor to even support the bid on this timeline. And I think that was going to be that. So unfortunately, it was a perfect storm. Right, literally, the picker tibally. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's really interesting, the details or the factors that contributed to that. And the International Olympic Committee's pressure probably was a nail on the coffin, it sounds like. And I knew Chicago had a similar situation, contemplating a bid for the 2026 World Cup. Talk to us about the reasons for not moving forward with that process. Yeah, yeah. So when I was with the Chicago Sports Commission, so coming off of Boston to make my four, I went to work for the Chicago Sports Commission, which is an ARB of Q Chicago, the Tourism Bureau for the City of Chicago. And as you mentioned, Chicago was one of the internet cities for the FIFA Men's World Cup in 2026. So that process is very similar to the Olympic process, where you have a nation do a selection process before it even goes to FIFA. United 2026, of course, is for the first time a re-nation conglomerate bid. So it's Canada, Mexico, and the United States. And so during this process, we were one of the US cities that was trying to get the United 2026 Committee, so the Canada of Expo, and US bids to get them to select Chicago. And we went through this process pretty far. I mean, and this is not just the Tourism Bureau and the Sports Commission, this city. This is our venue partners field, all your practice facilities. And there's quite a bit that goes into this, and we go pretty far. Ultimately, what it came down to, there's a few factors.  That's what FIFA requires. So it's certainly a political issue. That's the first thing. The second thing was some of the venue requirements. Of course, Soldier Field is a hollowed traditional venue that limited some of the gains that the city of Chicago could go after. There's also a lot to this, right? I mean, that doesn't necessarily mean that it wasn't a bad investment from that point. It's just a coincidence. And what it really came down to was the promises and the guarantees that the city as a whole had to sign on to, who were just too much for the administration. It was too much for the venues. It was a huge risk. And so after going through this process and getting pretty far into it, the city and the Chicago bid committee, which is, again, made up of lots of different groups and several different people, made the joint decision to withdraw. And thinking about that, of course, it's always a bower. It's a bower. You want to be a World Cup city. You want to be a Olympic city. And you brought up the point also. Chicago was an Olympic fitting city, too, at one point. And so actually the Chicago Sports Commission was a direct legacy of the Chicago 2016 bid, where Chicago made it all the way into the final round of IOC selection, and unfortunately didn't get selected. And so I think that was part of it, too, is there was a concern about being put in that position again, putting all of this forward and then not being selected. But on the other hand, I mean the one major advantage of a huge city like Chicago, America's sort of largest city, deciding to withdraw from the Olympic bid, is during 2026, that's the whole summer of keeping your, or a whole month and a half, or keeping your venues offline. And these are all, or most of the US's major cities. And so the advantage for Chicago was who was going to take all those events that normally had. Who's going to take those Taylor Swift concerts? Who's going to take those Beyonce concerts? Who's going to take those major conventions that need that convention space that is now going to be tied up with United 2026 and all these other destinations? So Brian, that was a major consideration, too, and ultimately was the right decision for the city. And why, as a whole, Chicago, the Chicago bid contingent for 2026 decided ultimately to withdraw? Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of valid reasons and concerns. And tell us, just kind of an overview, if you can, of some of the events that you actually were able to help be part of. Yeah, absolutely. So I sent over a few pictures, so we can, I don't know if we want to pull those up, but one of my, let's see what, this one's the labor cup, yes. So the labor cup was one of my favorite events that I got to be a part of when I was at the sports commission. I was a part of this from bin to host, which feels really good for anybody in this world. You work so hard to get the bid, then you get the bid, you spend a year, or sometimes three or four years, maybe even longer, compared to these events. Labor cup, I think it was two years that we had the pair out here, roughly. And the labor cup, for those who don't know, is the tennis version of the rider cup. So it was an idea that Roger Federer had a Team Europe versus the World concept, and it switched every year from Europe to a world destination. And Chicago was the second destination, first world destination. So it was an amazing event. Over 90,000 attendees, huge economic impact. It was fantastic. It was held in the United Center. So I think that was the first time the United Center was tennis in roughly 30 years. Something like that. Okay, another wonderful event. It was up there on the screen just a second ago, but the Big Ten, that picture right there, that is a picture from the Big Ten Men's Basketball 2019 final. I'm a native of Michigan. I graduated law school from Michigan State University, and it was a Michigan-Michigan State Final that went into double overtime. Yes, that was a lot of fun. That was a great time. Let's see, some other bets be hosted. Viva said a FIFA Women's World Cup viewing party in 2019. That's that picture right there. That was in Lincoln Park in the middle of Chicago. This is one of those relatively smaller scale events, but it was something that really brought our community together to cheer on the women's national teams. That was a wonderful event. Luckily, it was well attended. Yes, it was very well attended. Yeah, so we worked with US soccer to put that on. US soccer is based in Chicago. Another event, the last event that I did. Well, let's go to this one. This is the Adball Pick-Off. This is in 2019 celebrating the NFL's 100th anniversary, as well as the 100th birthday of the Bears. So a very natural anniversary celebration here. This is in Grant Park in Chicago, and that was Bears versus Packers, which was kind of fun. And then the final event, my very last event I hosted was the 2020 NBA All-Star Game. And that was the longest operation time. That was roughly three years from bid to selection to host. And it was a tremendous event. I will tell you, working with the NBA was a terrain. The NBA truly cares about showcasing the host city they're in, and they really made that All-Star game all about Chicago. So it was so much fun to host that. And a wonderful, wonderful event for this. Of those five events, was there any unique, surprising things that you didn't anticipate or things that you kind of learned? Oh, yeah, hosting those events. Oh, yes. You know, for those of us in the event world, once the train is out of the gate, you just go. And that always event week, there's not a whole lot of sleep. And always something comes up. There's always something that's going to come up and then have to deal with it. I guess an example, I ran the volunteer program for the labor cops that had roughly 300 volunteers who came in. I mean, talk about acting out impact. These people didn't even have tickets to come to the event. But there was volunteers from roughly 16 countries, 25 in some states that came in just to volunteer. And it was wonderful. It was amazing. But it was a lot of coordination and different levels of volunteers and figuring all of that out. So I think the biggest thing I've learned is all you can do is plan as best as you can, work your plan as best as you can, but also have some flexibility, because invariably something is going to come up where you're going to have to do some adjustments. And one final question for you.  So what advice would you give to event owners who want to incorporate a fireworks display into their event? Yeah. Thank you for asking that question. Yes, I am a certified pyrotechnician. I've been doing it for roughly 13 years. I think from the event sign, obviously this is a pretty dangerous endeavor. So from the event side, I mean, you have a lot of very, very excellent pyrotechnic companies that know what they're doing, whether it's an venue or outside or whatever it is. There's a lot of expertise in that industry. From the event perspective, I would just do your homework on your companies, make sure that you can trust them, of course talk with your insurance, because it might not even be worth it or feasible for you after talking with whoever does insurance if the insurance premium is too much. Now there are specialized insurance companies that do handle these kinds of dangerous things, so that's always an option. But just for our practical consideration, your insurance is kind of your first stop. And then again, just making sure that whoever you're working with has a really good reputation, you feel comfortable with them, and they have had some experience doing whatever you're looking for. You got some great skills there. You can advise clients on how to incorporate fireworks into their events or not. You know, yes. Yes, there's always a way. It's whether it is feasible, I surprise, but it's a liability perspective. Yes. Well, thank you for your time, Roxanne. I appreciate all the information and your wealth of experience. And thanks for sharing with us today. Oh, of course. Thank you so much for having me, Angela. I appreciate it. It was a great time. Absolutely. We appreciate you being here, sharing with us about sports tourism and destination marketing considerations before the big game. Thank you to our viewers for joining us today. Our next episode will be with Joseph Cooper, who is going to discuss racism in sport. We'll see you then.


The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific story. In the mounting fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greater sea. The drama of the people whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. Here as another public service is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. Sengkyeong, China's Wild West. On the roof of Central Asia where Russia and China and India meet, in the center of the greatest land mass on Earth, at the point farthest on Earth from any sea, there lies fabulous Sengkyeong, or Chinese Turkestan, crossroads of conflict for 2,000 years and today a teeming center of activity in a war-torn world. Across this fabulous land walled the ancient Silk Road, where for thousands of years, caravans flooded between the Far East and Europe. We are taking the silks of Pate to Rome. We shall bring back furs and priceless treasures. And over this same road, through Sengkyeong, past Marco Polo and Tamalain and Genghis Khan, the fierce hordes, the Mongols, the Turks and the Huns, swept out of these plains and mountains and deserts and sacked the cities of Europe in the rich centers of the Orient. Now for years Sengkyeong has been a crossroads of conflict, for Sengkyeong is a rich land, a land of unbelievable wealth and resources, and Sengkyeong is the land of many peoples, a melting pot of the little-known peoples of Central Asia, where the influences of Russia and Britain and China meet. At the turn of the century, rumors filled the air of Sengkyeong. The Russians are plotting to march through Sengkyeong to invade India. The British are sending agents into Sengkyeong with the idea of developing a road through it to Urca. The Chinese are going to take important steps to keep the Russians and the British from extending their interest in Sengkyeong. And as Japan rose as a power and a peril in the Far East, there were rumors of another kind. The Japanese are conspiring to move into Sengkyeong and use it as a base to set the Muslims of the Middle East in revolt. With the passing years, it became apparent that with the Japanese at least, there was some truth in the rumors. Truth? Because in Sengkyeong, there are many peoples with many conflicting interests. This man is a Kyrgyz. We are shepherds of the upland pastures. There are 60,000 of us Kyrgyz here in Sengkyeong. The Kyrgyz are attractive and civilized people, and this man is a Tatar. We come from European Russia, we Tatars. The Tatars are an exclusive people, the state of themselves. Many of them are rich. And this is a Mongol. We left Russia to escape the rule of the Jars. The Mongols have been in Sengkyeong a long time. And this is a white Russian. There are 14,000 of us white Russians here. We came here when the Soviets overthrew this hour. The white Russians are farmers and clerks and laborers. And this is an Uyghur. We are Muslims. We have been here in Sengkyeong since before the time of Genghis Khan. The Uyghurs are the most numerous of all the peoples of Sengkyeong. They number nearly three million, three-quarters of the population of Sengkyeong. And all these peoples are ruled by the Chinese, the sons of Han, who number only 182,000. All these peoples. Some speak Turkish. Some of them speak dialects of Turkish. The Mongols speak their own language. Some speak Russian. But the official language is Chinese. The sons of Sengkyeong have been soaked with the blood of all these peoples. We, Uyghurs, have fought the Chinese a hundred times. We have joined forces with the Tungans against the Chinese. But when we found the Tungans cruel and bloodthirsty, we have joined with the Chinese against the Tungans. Again and again, the Chinese have fought the bloody rebellions of the Muslim millions. But even this has only been part of the conflict of Sengkyeong. The other peoples of Sengkyeong, each with its own interests, have for centuries used the sword against each other. We of the cities are against the people of the country. We nomads are against those who have settled down. We Turkish-speaking Muslims are against the Chinese-speaking Muslims. We Mongol nomads are against the Turkish nomads. And behind these conflicts is the basic value of the place all these people occupy. Fabulous Sengkyeong. Sengkyeong lies almost in the very middle of the great land mass of Europe and Asia. It lies in that shadow land behind the front doors of China and Russia. It has been little trodden by men of the outside world. Yet it has been the crossroads of trade for centuries. Its plains and mountains and deserts that last are coming to have meaning to the great powers of the world. For years, its borders have trod with the beat of marching feet. It seems to me that Sengkyeong is a buffer between China and Russia. It's more than that. Because of the nature of Sengkyeong, it affects everything that happens in India, Afghanistan, Iran, as well as in China and Soviet Asia. I see. Then it is also affected by everything that happens in these states. That's true.  Two and a half times the size of France. Yes. It seems to be a link between two different kinds of worlds. Well, to the lands around it, it may be regarded as a vast passage from one of these lands to the other. But within itself, it is a land of wonderful promise. Promise. Under its surface lies a treasure. Sengkyeong today is like California before 1849. We are mining gold here in Al-Qaeda. There is so much gold here that for centuries this has been called the Golden Mountain. Gold mines. When they are developed, they will attract railroads. Here we are mining coal. We have coal at Urumqi, Kulja, and Kashkha. Yes. Coal in great quantities. And copper and oil. This is just one of the ten districts of Sengkyeong where oil has been discovered. And we are prospecting in other districts for more. petroleum. Let this Chinese tell you the importance of oil in this part of the world. Highways are the arteries of development in any land. In China we are building many highways. But we have virtually no oil. To import oil is too costly. Unless we have oil and gasoline for our vehicles, our highways are of little value. The oil of Sengkyeong is priceless to China. Yes. Sengkyeong has oil. And it has other products known around the world. Look down at those fields of corn and rice and barley and millet. Look down at those orchards, the apricots and features, the luscious grapes, rich yellow figs and the juicy melons. Ask this Uighur about the melons of Sengkyeong. The melons of Sengkyeong are known throughout Asia. The Sengkyeong pilgrim and the melons. He was one named Ma. And he set out one day from Hamid. He set out to see the great Iron Bridge that the Americans had built over the Yellow River, Merlan Joe. Midway in his journey, he met a countryman from Lan Joe, named Shah. I have heard such wondrous stories about your army melons. And I am on my way to Sengkyeong to see them. And I have heard such wondrous stories of your high bridge that I am on my way to Lan Joe to see it. Yes. Our bridge is the highest yet. A year ago today, a man fell from it. And when I left, his body had not yet reached the river. Ah, yes. Concerning our melons, you are wasting your time traveling all the way to Hamid to see them. They grow to such great size that by the time next year, they will be with you in Lan Joe. Yes, luscious fruits and veal crops and magnificent horses and campers and minerals and oil, precious oil. But besides all these, still another thing makes Tiankeng valuable. It's strategic importance. And this, as much as the others, has been the crux of its history, the crux of the squabbling and scrambling for its control. By 1932, Japan had seized Manchuria, renamed it Manchukuo, and set up a puppet government. By 1932, a Chinese general named Cheng Chi Cai was chief of the general staff of the border defense of Sengkyeong. The Japanese will not stop in Manchuria. Cheng knew the Japanese. The Japanese are imperialists. Cheng had studied in Japan and graduated from the Japanese Military Academy. They are trying to set up a puppet Mongol system in Inner Mongolia. As one of Zhang Kai-shek's high officers, Cheng understood Japanese tactics. Unless the Japanese operations in Inner and Outer Mongolia are brought under control, they might gain access to the caravan routes into northwest China and Sengkyeong. The Oberland passages are the lifelines of Central Asia. There are indications that the Japanese are preparing to take Greyhall. That will give them a corridor from Manchuria to Inner Mongolia. By this maneuver, Japan could cut China off from Russia. For now, Japan was infringed in Manchuria and was looking ahead to her full-scale war against China. Now, a new cycle of rebellions of the Muslim masses was underway. General Cheng. Yes, Colonel? A Tunggung force of great strength is moving toward Tunggyeong. Who is leading the force? He is one called Ma Chong-ying. Ma Chong-ying, yes. He is only 26 years old, but he is an able general. There is evidence that he is supported by the Japanese. Then he is well equipped. Call together the staff at once, Colonel. From Kansu province, Ma Chong-ying, the 26-year-old Tunggung Napoleon, swept with devastating terror across the frontier into Sengkyeong.  One of them! Burn the dwellings and the infidel Chinese! Kill them, everyone! Attack every city and every village of the infidel Chinese! Show no mercy!  Ma Chong-ying swept through the mountains and butchered the Chinese by the tens of thousands. Once again, the soil of Sengkyeong was drenched with blood. Once again, the Muslim masses of Sengkyeong were in famine. General Cheng appealed to Russia for help. Here are heavy trucks for transport and armored cars for combat. In the Russian trucks came machine guns, ammunition and field weapons. Here are bombers to destroy military bases in installation and fighters to spray the ground force. Russian war materials flowed into Sengkyeong and with it came Russian troops and Russian advisors. Ma Chong-ying scourged and slaughtered as he surged forward and General Cheng gathered strength to meet him. Here is the information, General Cheng. Yes? Ma Chong-ying is concentrated on the Urumqi River. You have the disposition of his forces? Yes, General Cheng. His cavalry is concentrated here and his line of communications is here behind him. With three white Russian regiments and with his own Chinese troops General Cheng moved against Ma Chong-ying outside of Urumqi. To all the states bordering on Sengkyeong, this was more than another in the long, long series of Muslim rebellions. For years the borders of Sengkyeong had echoed to the sound of marching troops of China and Russia and Britain. But this rebellion meant that the force power was for the first time exerting important influence in the affairs of Sengkyeong. This was Japan. If Ma Chong-ying succeeded, Japan would, in effect, have a line of control from the Pacific to the heart of the greatest land mass armor. We will attack from this position. Ma Chong-ying will counterattack with his cavalry and then we shall strike with our full power. Riding like the wind, the young Tungan Napoleon's cavalry swept down upon Seng's force. It becomes interesting. Exactly as we planned. And here come our Russian speaking troops. Look at those planes. Flying so low they are cutting the Tungan down like wheat. Not many of Ma Chong-ying's postmen will live through this. No. Look at them falls. Faults is in men, one upon the other. They are breaking ranks. They are scattering like seas before the wind. Can Ma Chong-ying rally them? No man can rally cavalry against striping planes. Ma Chong-ying is lost. Ma Chong-ying was defeated. But from that time until 1937, when the Japanese unleashed their full-scale attack upon China, the Japanese tried again and again through their efforts in Inner Mongolia to promote unrest among the powerful Muslim minorities of northwest China. But meantime, General Shang had risen to power and the Russians had extended their influence in Sengkyeong. Sengkyeong was emerging at the world focal point and observers who had never before taken notice of it now keenly watched its development. General Shang permitted Russia to establish the Soviet garrison here on the condition that the soldiers wear Chinese uniforms. That's a sort of index of the importance of the Russians here. Russia, perhaps more than any other nation, is exerting influence in Sengkyeong affairs. Yes. I recall the movie we went to yesterday with Russia. Most of the experts here in Sengkyeong are Russians. Mining and structural engineers, doctors, agricultural advisors, technicians. Well, what about money? Russia has sent a great deal of money into Sengkyeong, too. In the next several years, there was more and more evidence of Russian influence in Sengkyeong. The Russians brought in modern machinery and the Uighurs, the Khazaks, the Tungans and the Tatars watched them lay down modern roads. My father would not have dreamed there would ever be a road like this in our country. The roads have brought motor cars. And now it is possible to go as far in one hour as we used to with the caravan in days. They are changing our country, General. They have built roads to our minds. And where once we brought out our gold and copper and coal on the backs of beasts, now it is sometimes brought out by these growling machines. Yes. And in our skies are other machines that roar. The Russians have brought them. Yes, and the Russians have built the great spaces where these roaring machines of the air settle down. The Soviets brought in the airplanes and trained the pilots and built the airfield. The Soviets trained and equipped the army. And after the Japanese launched their attack on China, Russian advisors were put in all departments of the Sengkyeong government, and Soviet schools were open. This would indicate that Russia was planning to establish a communist regime among the people of Sengkyeong. On the contrary, no effort of this kind was ever made. While the Russians were sending men and material, General Shang was taking steps to reconstruct Sengkyeong. Among the conflicting factions, he sought to bring about some measure of reconciliation. In the face of the age-old antipathy, many of the factions could do no more than see active opposition to each other. But even this meant progress. First and foremost, there must be racial equality. Racial equality. Among a state of fierce and belligerent people, among a state of fierce and belligerent people of different faith. Second, we must guarantee religious freedom. Religious freedom. In a land where blood has been spilled for thousands of years because of conflicting creed. You see, these principles are evidence that far off as it may be, some kind of understanding between the peoples of Sengkyeong is on the way. It is all based on mutual trust, it seems to me. Yes. And these two principles are only part of General Shang's declaration. He has also declared such policies as anti-imperialism, clean government, reconstruction, peace, and kinship to Sovietism. Sovietism? Uh-huh. That seems to be significant. Actually, Soviet Russia is withdrawn from Sengkyeong. And this can be interpreted as showing Russia's basic thinking so far as Central Asia is concerned. Not only did General Shang proclaim a policy comparable to the Magna Carta to the peoples of Sengkyeong, but under his leadership, Sengkyeong developed from an isolated wilderness into a province with most of the modern innovation. Electric lights? Yes. And many of us who a few years ago did not know what the telephone was, are now daily users of the telephone. Radio? Our own people are trained in radio, and we not only use them, but we build many of our own. Electricity, telephone, and radio. In a land where the vestiges of thousands of years ago are still evidence. Aeroplanes? We are as familiar with them as people anywhere else in the world. Newspapers? Yes, this newspaper is printed here daily. And it brings us all the news of the world. Motion pictures? We see the same pictures here that are shown in the great cities of America and England. Airplanes, newspapers, motion pictures, ideas, ideas in many forms. These are flowing in upon Sengkyeong as a deluge. And out of it is coming literacy.  To all, it is building a basis on which in some degree they can meet. I am a Chinese school teacher. Within the past few years, we have expanded our primary schools from 30 schools to more than 2,000. And some of our teachers even follow the nomads to teach the children. These are helping to knit together the thinking of the peoples of Sengkyeong. I am a Chinese social worker. To help promote understanding, we are forming racial clubs in Tihua and in all the biggest centers of Sengkyeong. Education and social work, basic steps, basic measures come to a forgotten land to well together peoples who traditionally have slotted each other. And these are only part of General Shang's broad program of reconstruction and of modernization. You see, most of the Chinese in the governing class here in Sengkyeong today are from Manchuria. Manchuria. Refugees from the Japanese? Principally, yes. The Japanese took Manchuria in 1931 and 1932. Manchuria and army retreated out here to Sengkyeong. How big an army was that? About 10,000. Most of their officers were men educated and trained in leadership. They are the ones who are leading the way here today. Of course, for centuries before 1931, other Chinese had come here. Peasants, merchants, and artisans. Well, it seems to me that many of the persons I've seen here cannot be identified definitely as of any particular strength. Actually, nearly all of the races here in Demari except the Tatars and the Uzbeks. But gradually the racial lines are fading. But very gradually. The war in Europe and the war in Asia are still only echoes in Sengkyeong. The edges of the Great Seas became the warfront. The edges of Europe and the edges of Asia. And Sengkyeong, as far from any ocean as a place can be on Earth, became one of the many rear areas of the war. But the coming of World War II made Sengkyeong more important than it had ever been before. General Sheng, as Vice Commander of Generaless of Mochungkai-shek's Eighth War Area and Governor of Sengkyeong, took steps to prepare Sengkyeong for its part in China's war. We have hardly touched the oil preserve of Sengkyeong. Sengkyeong seems to be a completely modern field here. Yes, only equipment is modern. Except that old piece there. That's made of wood, isn't it? Yes. It is very crude. The world will work with wooden machinery of that kind before the Russians first came in and installed modern machinery. This field is as modern as any in the world. The Russian experts taught us much about oil operation. Now we know that there is an area of oil land here 1000 miles long. You will need all that oil to develop this country out here. First, we must help win the war against Japan. Yeah, China needs oil badly. It will take a long time to develop these oil fields and it will take a long time to develop the many other resources of Sengkyeong. But this country out here is like your California before your gold rush. Once the world learned the value of the new frontier, people flocked in by tens of thousands. In the ancient cities whose beginnings are lost in the sands of the deserts, modern buildings are going up. Lumber, sawed by hand, is brought in from the forest along the mountain ranges. Wool from Sengkyeong's 12 million sheep is woven into cloth. Flower from the grain of Sengkyeong's rich valleys is milled in modern industries. And tea-war, the capital, is being reconstructed in modernized. Steamroller, are we out here in Sengkyeong? Yes. It's the only one in all Sengkyeong. Sengkyeong is three times the size of Texas. Not much work out here for operators as steamroller is there. All that operator there can do. You see, he's doing an excellent job of making this a main street that tea-war can really be proud of. Is this part of General Shang's plan? Yes. General Shang is building tea-war into a modern metropolis. Tea-war. Why is it that this city sometimes is called tea-war and sometimes called Arunchi? Well, Arunchi is the Turkish name of the city. You see, there are really four languages here in tea-war. Chinese, Turkish, Russian, and Mongolian. That explains the difference in the science here on the street. Yes. Now let's walk down the street. Yes. See that building over there? Mm-hmm. That's a Chinese store. Chinese store, huh? How can he get his merchandise way out of here? That's the big problem. He came from Sengkyeong himself and brought a good deal of his merchandise with him. Now, he is all the other merchants of Sengkyeong is running low. Are there no trucks available for transport? Not many. There were quite a few, some thousands. But most of these are worn out now. Because of the war, replacements are scarce. Mm-hmm. I see. Yeah. Let's stop a minute at this market. All right? Hey, look at those melons. Those are the famous Hami melons. Finest melons in all Asia and perhaps in the world. Mm-hmm. They just smell of this one. Mm-hmm. And they're just as delicious as they are fragrant. And look at those grapes and apples. Think of what Sengkyeong produce alone will mean when this country is developed and gets its lines of transportation. Sengkyeong now stands on the threshold of development. Because of a geographical situation, she is more easily accessible to Soviet Russia than to China to the east and India to the south. Thus, Russia has played the biggest role in her development thus far. But now Russia has withdrawn from Sengkyeong and now the development must be done by the enterprising pioneers. Who, as in the development of America's Great West, must hew out their own world. Today, through General Shang's efforts, fabulous landlock Sengkyeong is open to the world. We have roads, but we need more roads. The opening of our communications provides a great opportunity for western as well as eastern enterprises. Yes. Sengkyeong is almost like our new land. It needs everything. Yes. Airlines and railroads must be built. And we have radio and newspapers and motion pictures. But these must be developed. All your needs out here seem to be tied together to be interrelated. Exactly. When our irrigation systems are developed, this will lead to more agricultural development. And when we have more agricultural development, then we shall have still greater need of transportation. Then, in effect, our new world is taking shape out here. It is a new frontier. Everything is waiting to be developed. Our minds are now in operation, but we have not begun to touch them. We have only scratched the surface. New colonists will probably play a big part out here. The time may not be too far away when the great immigration of colonists will begin. For Sengkyeong will give them the chance to make their all-way in the world. And that is what all of us are seeking. The people of Sengkyeong, as well as the great powers around Sengkyeong, know that Sengkyeong has another value. Its strategic position. And Nazi Germany also knows this. After Pearl Harbor, when Nazi Germany severed diplomatic relations with China, the German ministers left Chungjing with a prophecy. We regret that we must leave. It is unfortunate. We say goodbye now as a mere formality. We hope that China and Germany may resume cordial relations in the not too distant future. We shall return. Possibly more quickly than you expect. Can we interpret that as an omen of hope? That you will have to decide when we return through Sengkyeong. If, when the Nazis invaded Russia in 1941 and drove southeast to the Caucasus, they had been able to drive through Russian Turkestan and Sengkyeong and join hands with the Japanese or with Wang Qingwei's Chinese puppet government, the story of the war in the Pacific would be different. You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the crosscurrent of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send 10 cents in stamps or coins to the University of California Press, Berkeley, California. To repeat, for a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send 10 cents in stamps or coins to the University of California Press, Berkeley, California. The story is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The material for tonight's broadcast was largely taken from the book Gateway to Asia, Sengkyeong, by Martin Noren. Your musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. Your narrator was Gain Whitman. This is the National Broadcasting Company.


Hi everybody! My name is Chance. That's my last name. So today we are coming to interview people like how they feel about this worm and then how they gave like some good word like outside. Gail! I have some of my friends. There is, I don't even know his name but I will ask. Hey! Avery! Yeah we're going to go to a cooling center and around that area and just ask people what they do to cool off and their thoughts just on the current heat because we're all dying currently. What was your name? Avery. Hi folks! I'm Andrew. Yeah we're going to be going to cooling centers asking some questions about the heat and yeah. So good to thank you for allowing us to talk to you real quick. You're welcome. So my first question for you Tim is it right? Yep. What is your main technique for staying cool during these last couple of days? My main technique is to drink lots of water. You know just drink lots of water. That's the main thing so that you don't get dehydrated and then the other thing is just be cool. You know if you don't have to don't do too much don't work. If you don't have to work outside don't. If you do work outside do it early and if you have to work if you're outside during the heat of the day um big hat sunscreen drink lots of water yeah and take it easy don't you know. It's good advice good advice. Do you know about the cooling centers of the city that they set up? I don't I don't know anything about that. If you knew about the cooling centers do you think you would go? I don't think for me it wouldn't be necessary I'm lucky enough to have some air conditioning in my house so I just go home and sit in the room with the air conditioning shut the door you know and yeah yeah so I you know I I don't need that I understand that there are many many many other people who don't have that privilege like I do so these things it's a wonderful thing it's a good thing. Well thank you for talking with us today okay guys have a good one and you do the same thanks. Hi Prince good to meet you and good to speak with you today. Um I got some couple questions for you. What is your main technique for staying cool these last couple of days? Uh my main technique is probably staying home like find a place to have like AC or like fans and stuff because lately you've been getting hot like this weather nowadays if you go like under the sun it's like not good for you. Yeah I um I would akin it to being like taking damage like one percent just standing under the sun. Another question do you know about the city's cooling centers? I've not heard about it. Um have you considered doing something like that I mean I know you said you go to different places just look for AC but like uh if you knew about a cooling center would you go? Yeah I would go yeah only what only like outside is like really hot and then I can just go to that place you just chill there yeah yeah okay okay um thank you for speaking with us yeah your name's Prince right cool like the singer yeah so hi Zach my name is Andrew um this is Avery and we're gonna ask you some questions about the heat for the last couple of days um do you my mic do you um what is your like your main technique for staying cool for like the last couple of days? Staying hydrated it's a big one it's hard to stay in air conditioned spaces with with my work in the parks department so it's important to stay hydrated for me um in the shade if I can um certainly swimming but we're obviously struggling with Lake Champlain right now um and I'm not a ton of time without either but I love love staying hydrated I love staying cool anyway I can I love the heat when there's water so every once in a while I'll take a cold shower even I guess all good things cool um do you know about the city's like mandated cooling centers? Um I have heard a little bit about them yeah I believe there might even be one in this building but I'm not sure I wouldn't what are the nature of these cooling centers? Oh I believe they just provide a public space for people to stay on when there is severe heat you know to the point where it impacts public safety um do you see yourself like traveling to another cooling center today or no no I was pleased to see how well the AC is working in here today when I got back I was out in the field a lot of the day and um yeah my apartment's not as cool as here but it's certainly cooler than some places and um you know I feel very grateful to have a place that's comfortable enough you know personally so I'll say that's those spots for people who might need them yeah cool well thank you for your time yeah thank you guys so I just forgot your name I'm Juliana Juliana Juliana um thank you for speaking with us um this is an interview with CCTV um I'm going to ask you some questions about the heat and like how do you like cope with the heat pretty much okay is what is your main technique for coping with the heat um I think I try to maybe go swimming in the lake well obviously it's you can't swim in the lake right now but we're in a pool or drinking lots of water um maybe taking cold showers some things like that yeah all good things okay um that's cool do you know about the cooling centers I have not heard of the cooling centers before okay and if you knew about the cooling centers would you go I'm not sure um I've been working here this week and so we've just been staying inside a lot and um I'd probably probably go to my house where we have some air conditioning and stuff like that okay well thank you for your time thank you so Nadia um thank you for allowing us to interview um do you know do you know if the city of Vermont I'm sorry no that's good oh oh right so question do you know if the city has like done cooling centers before I don't not to my knowledge I have no idea um what how do you stay cool during this heat honestly just drinking a lot of water and making sure like you're not spending too much time outside and like working out outside like spending less time outside if you're working out outside okay um any advice for people that like are traveling during this time um honestly once again drinking a lot of water but um staying hydrated yeah trying to stay inside even if you're like an outdoorsy person trying to stay inside um and also for people with pets to like make sure that their pets have water right gotta support the pet parents um yeah that's cool well thank you for speaking with us all right coming back to y'all we've uh visited some cooling centers we've talked to some folks um what did y'all think that thing I'm thinking about like when you go in the sun is too hot but when you're coming under the shadow of that tree you can't feel like good and excited of yourself and your body that way you feel so that's the only things I think what do you think about um I found the cooling centers really interesting before today I didn't even know that um those were a thing that existed um and I think that's a really cool ha ha pun um a really cool like option for people that don't have ac and it's like a way to cool themself off and yeah yeah my final thoughts are stay cool and cooling centers should be more of a thing everywhere