Are you wasting time learning Pearl programming in 2020? Well, you reached the right video. Let me explain. This video was brought to you by Diginic Academy, your number one source to learn how to make money programming and get that six-figure salary you desire. Our Academy have a wide range of courses, including 3K in 30 days, our mentorship membership program, and much, much more. When you sign up for our free community, you get access to our membership community with like-minded professionals who's gonna help take your career to the next level. So let's take the first step to get started and really take your career to the next level with our seven-step money guide today. So let's go ahead and click the link below to sign up for our free seven-step guide to help you get your career started today. So guys, learning a legacy programming language like Pearl is not always a bad thing. It's not always that you can't find a job or it's a bad programming language to learn. It really come down to the market and what the use case is for that particular programming language. Let's stick with Pearl since we're there. Pearl has been around for over 25 years, probably a more 30 now, and it's still used pretty heavily by some organizations. Primary problem is trying to use that same programming language across multiple companies in the market. That's where learning a newer programming language for a much more used programming language like Java, which Java's been around just as long, maybe 20 plus years, but it's still used on a heavy basis and have corporate backing guys. But I have a couple of factors that I wanna cover. But guys, before I get started, really wanted to talk about some of the things that got me to the point that I am in now, as far as just which programming language is used, why Pearl suck and really trying to get you guys a better understanding about picking a programming language. I think that particular topic is way, way, way, way overused and people just use all these parameters to find out which the best programming language, but nobody ever looks at their local job market. And the reason I say local is because each region have a specific programming language that they use. So where I wanna live and where you wanna live, it could be totally separate markets. That's why I'm not a huge fan of giving you guys a blanket one programming language to use all the time. So let's stick with Pearl. Well, when I was coming out of college, COBOL was the big thing. That's what they taught at least at Mississippi State. Everybody in the entire program, that's what they geared their criteria off COBOL, which at the time was still, it's outdated today, it's still outdated, still outdated back then, but they didn't wanna change that curriculum and that's basically what it is. Immediately after I got out of college, I didn't have job prospects specifically on COBOL, but I took those fundamentals and really used that to get into the SQLs and the C-sharps of the world and really made my mark as far as just being a developer to where my career is today. You guys need to do the same thing. The good news about colleges today, I think they're leaning more towards Python, but again, let's talk about Pearl. Some of you guys have learned Pearl and you're in the same exact situation that I was in. You're trying to figure out how you can leverage your Pearl knowledge so that you can get that Pearl job and really trying to take your career to the next level using Pearl.  I got at least 12 factors here that's gonna really help you position your Pearl skills so that you can get a job and don't make it sucks as much. Disclaimer, if you haven't learned Pearl yet and you're using this video to decide if you wanna learn Pearl, do not learn Pearl. Check your local job market first and if you have at least four or five major, the biggest companies in your region that do Pearl development, then yes, but I would be shocked if anybody have five of the biggest companies in their city, major city that use Pearl as its primary program link. I'd be very shocked, but if you are that small few, then yes, but if you're just trying to figure out, hey, should I learn Pearl as a secondary or third language to add my arsenal and give you some factors to really determine that here, guys. So number one, are you learning Pearl for a hobby or for a profession? If you're just doing this for a hobby, turn this video off, stick to what you're doing because you're gonna pick the right spot as far as just, well, first of all, hobbies, you dictate what you wanna learn. So go ahead and learn it. But if you form a professional side, you wanna make money doing this, you wanna position yourself to have a long lasting career, then I would say probably not unless you have those top five companies being primarily Pearl. Well, even if it's secondary, I wouldn't be too hard on you, but I'm pretty confident that you got other programming languages like Java, C-sharp, Python that's probably gonna most of the time win out in front of Pearl. That brings me to my next point. It doesn't have a niche purpose that gives it an advantage in the marketplace. Let me explain. Python is different, guys, because you gotta understand what Python is used for data science. It's putting a lot of legacy programming languages out of business because of the easy right case and it's learned, it got a huge community, it's modern, and a lot of people like to use it. In the data science world, AI, all that have a specific use case that other programming languages have, but it's tailored more towards that. C-sharp and Java in the enterprise where you get into these major enterprises who want a programming language that's solid, that's been around, that's stable. It may not be the best when it comes to right time or read time, but it's there and it's solid and they can use it across their organization and feel confident that it works. Python, C-sharp, even PHP to a certain extent with the web development, JavaScript with the front end, React and all that stuff have a unique advantage in the marketplace. Pearl used to have this earlier on until programming languages like Python and other languages come along and start chipping away at those advantages. That's one reason why our pearl is falling. The competition guys competitors. Python is just Python or pearl. If you're a brand new company, go with Python. If you're a legacy company, just trying to maintain legacy pearl code, then do that. I'm not gonna knock you for that, but the minute you have an opportunity to expand or change that core system, it's probably gonna go to another programming language. That's why I tell you guys legacy code, you can get a job working on legacy code, but the minute they decide to switch to something more modern, you better be willing to switch and get your skills on the right track. Job demand, guys. This is a huge one. Yeah, their demand for software developers, but if you have a specific skill like pearl or Python, it puts you on the top of the list. Not to say you can't get a job, but you wanna put yourself in the best position to be a no-brainer for the company. Being a pearl developer unless you have a company that have a legacy pearl system, yeah, you'll be on top of that, but the rest of the companies, no, you will not. They're gonna see you as having older knowledge, not necessarily modern. This is very important to you guys, especially for your older age developers. It's very important that they perceive you as somebody who wanna learn technology and gonna move their company forward with software development and programming languages. Having pearl on there kinda communicates your night. Number five, the age. Perceived age, this has been around 30 plus years. Again, Java's been around just as long almost, but it's just the use case, guys. Pearl has not aged well. Number six, the learning curve is actually not that bad compared to other programming languages. It's just one of those things where the community, well, I'll get to more of the other ones in a second here, but the learning curve is not that bad, but it's just one of those things where the cons outweigh the pros on this one. Right time, read time is average, guys. It's not just super fast compared to C, but the right time is just don't blow you away like a Python, so it's about average, I'll do that. The growth, there's no growth, guys. This is one of the main reasons why it not really moving forward because of the growth that's just not there. You got Python, other program languages chipping away at the market demand for new programming projects, and Python, Pearl is just not gonna cut it. Oh, the community, it has a decent size community. The community's solid, but still, guys. Dying languages, all the legacy code out there is probably not an active community. It's probably a community of people who've used Pearl in some point of their career, but may not necessarily use that as a primary language now. So you gotta understand that part of it, too. No corporate backing, guys. This is a huge one. This is what keeps Java and Pearl so far apart as far as just the corporate backing. You got Oracle, you got a lot of other major corporations who use the Java and the same Microsoft C-Sharp. Pearl do not have any corporate backing that I'm aware of, if so, comment below. No popular programming languages are modern software packages that are written in Pearl, you know? Maybe there are some out there. You guys comment below, let me know what I'm missing, but I'm talking about the Adobe's top software applications and enterprises, I'm not sure of anything that's in 2020 written in Pearl. And last but not least, the salaries average, guys. Salaries just average, you know, it's within the lines of a standard programmer.  That's just give you another reason just to go with a more modern programming language because it's gonna give you options as far as just growth in the future. And guys, I just wanna cover this and let you guys know, again, if you're doing this for a hobby, continue learning Pearl. But for my professional standpoint, you just getting started as a beginner, go with another programming language. I would start with something, me, I'm a SQL developer, so I use SQL, but some of you guys can use Python, C-sharp, Java, even PHP, JavaScript, somewhere along that line. And I wouldn't necessarily pick Pearl, wouldn't be my best, my first option. But if I'm a legacy program, I've been using Pearl for years, I'm pretty solid, I got a network, I know other companies who utilize Pearl, no problem with that either, just know that, hey, I might be in a situation where I might not be able to find a job as fast as a modern programming language guy. So if you like to comment, if you like to content, comment below. Do you agree with me? Do you disagree with me? Comment below. Like, subscribe to the content guys. Go check out my seven step guide if you haven't already, links are below. And if you already signed up for my seven step guide, go ahead and check out some of my premium courses guys. I really want to position guys to be a developer, really take your skills to the next level. So links are below, so you can support the channel. Like, subscribe to the content. I'll have links to my seven step guide here. So you guys go check out the content or the channel. See you guys in the comments. Peace.


10 English Phrases for Remembering, Reminding, and Forgetting from EspressoEnglish.net 1. I remember There are a number of ways to use I remember. I remember plus ing form of the verb. I remember spending every summer at camp when I was a child. I remember plus person or thing. I remember him. We met at a conference last year. I remember that TV show. I used to watch it all the time. I remember plus that, plus subject, plus verb. I was going to make hamburgers, but then I remembered that she doesn't eat meat, so I made a salad instead. 2. I'll never forget I'll always remember Use these phrases for people, things, or experiences that were so strong that they will never leave your memory. 3. If I remember correctly As far as I can recall, use these phrases if you're not 100% certain that what you remember is correct and you want to communicate this small uncertainty. 4. I have a vague recollection of Use this phrase when you remember something but not very well. For example, you remember the general experience a little bit, but not the details. 5. It's on the tip of my tongue Use this phrase when you are trying to remember something, usually a word or a person's name, but you can't quite say it yet. This expression is often used to get a few more moments to remember the word or name you're trying to think of. 6. My mind went blank Use this phrase to describe a moment when you couldn't remember or think of anything. It's common for people's minds to go blank during moments of pressure, like tests and presentations. 7. It doesn't ring a bell Use this phrase when someone asks you if you've heard of something and you want to say that you don't know about it or don't remember it. For example, if your colleague says, do you know Michael Smith? He works in our London office. And you don't remember him or haven't heard of him, you could say, no, the name doesn't ring a bell. 8. I'd like to remind you about I'd like to remind you to This is a diplomatic way to remind somebody about something so that the other person doesn't forget. I'd like to remind you about is followed by a noun. For example, I'd like to remind you about your dentist appointment tomorrow. I'd like to remind you to is followed by a verb. For example, I'd like to remind you to send me the information by Friday. 9. You haven't forgotten about, have you? I hope you haven't forgotten about. Use these phrases to check if someone has remembered or forgotten about something. Again, use about with nouns and to with verbs. You haven't forgotten to do your homework, have you? You haven't forgotten about the test, have you? I hope you haven't forgotten to pay the bill. I hope you haven't forgotten about our meeting this afternoon. 10. It completely slipped my mind. Use this phrase after you completely forgot to do something. You didn't remember or think of it at all. I hope you haven't forgotten to pay the bill. Oh no, it completely slipped my mind. I'll pay it first thing tomorrow morning. Thanks for watching English Tips from Espresso English. If you liked this video, please share it.


Insulate Britain have driven the issue of energy efficiency in UK homes to the top of the political agenda. But their method of doing so, locking cars by sitting on main roads, has made them lots of enemies in the process. Spurred on by a hostile press, we've already seen many incidents where members of the public have forcibly removed protesters from the street. That's now escalated, with an elderly protester being targeted with ink. Let's take it look. It wasn't painful, it didn't hurt. It was unpleasant, but just sad, you know, the whole thing is sad. You know, it's sad that we have to do this.  You know, I'm a retired doctor, I've spent my life trying to help people and I'm reduced to having to do this, because the government won't address the problem adequately, basically. Are you worried about violence against you? Of course, terribly worried, yes. What a sad image. A retired doctor always wanted to do all his life was help people. Now he's got, you know, he's speaking to the media with ink sprayed across his face. It wasn't a pleasant sight and he's, you know, understandably worried about other forms of violence. We've seen people at these protests, you know, driving their cars into people, normally stopping before real damage is done, but it's dangerous and it's incredibly intimidating. And yeah, dragging people from the street. Before I go to Dahlia, let's look at the moment that happened. I saw a bit later today, you know, someone released this clip of the man going along spraying people with ink. What an indictment of our media that they have so committedly cast these people as the villains, like our interlake tactics, interlake Britain's tactics disruptive. Yeah, but do you know what else is like incredibly disruptive? Climate breakdown, like precarious food supplies increases in global floods and droughts and heatwaves and mass displacement. These are all things that are far more disruptive than a road being blocked. And yet our media are letting the people who are continuing to put push us down that path off the hook. We just spoke about earlier in the show about how Sonak's budget is making it easy for people to fly within the UK. And we've heard very little contextualizing of that in the media. We've had very little attention being put towards that in our mainstream sort of political broadcasters. And you know, yeah, it's the elderly protesters who are trying to to ring the alarm on this issue who are facing the bio of the public. And that's because the way the media have treated them is essentially essentially a form of inciting hatred against them. And I often say this, but this is because the people who were in the upper echelons of the media are ideologically very intertwined with those who not only benefit from our fossil fuel economy and would be disadvantaged by a serious shift away from fossil fuel capitalism, but also because they probably feel quite insulated, ironically, from from the impacts of climate breakdown, you know, whether whether right or wrong, someone like I think it was Richard Maidley, who was you know, going after an insulated Britain protest and feeling very good about himself for doing so, he probably feels rightly or wrongly, fairly secure that him, you know, his kids, his kids, children's children, are going to be able to protect themselves from the excesses of climate breakdown.  They'll be able to get up and move freely to somewhere else if they need to.  So he sort of probably has no reason to believe that this is going to be any different, but also we really need to make it clear that whatever you might think of insulated Britain's tactics, which by the way are sort of very standard civil disobedience tactics, like this isn't some kind of historically unprecedented moment. This is what happens when people have exhausted legitimate ways of expressing themselves and legitimate ways of trying to to move the political spectrum towards, you know, an urgent crisis. This is sort of a normal part of the course. It's actually very historically precedented. But we still have to make it very clear that whatever you might think about their tactics or however inconveniencing you might find them, the vast majority of British people's interests are far more aligned with, you know, insulate Britain than they are with those who are telling us that these protesters should be at best ridiculed and at worst, you know, physically attacked, which is a really worrying situation for us to be in. And it's sort of right has become wrong and wrong has become right. And I think we can only blame a sort of insufficient media and toothless media for bringing us to this position.


Good afternoon and thanks for joining us for the CNBC Africa debate coming to you live from Davos, Switzerland where the World Economic Forum is currently in session. For the next 60 minutes we focus on achieving Africa's growth agenda, and that's against a backdrop of slower growth among the continent's top trading partners and of course falling commodity prices. Joining me for what promises to be a robust debate, Jacob Zuma, president of South Africa. Paul Kagami, president of the Republic of Rwanda, Oscar Onyama, CEO of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. John Cumanteros, whose chairman, Flower Mills of Nigeria, PLC, and Sunil Bhati, Mital founder and chairman of Bhati Enterprises India. Thank you so much for your time, gentlemen. President Zuma, if I could start with my first question, sir, and I think before we consider achieving Africa's growth agenda and attracting the relevant investment into Africa, we need to deal with the issue of safety and security. The global headlines we know have been dominated by Ebola. They have been dominated by terror attacks in Nigeria and in the West by Boko Haram. In fact, these are ongoing as we speak and al-Shabab terror attacks in East Africa. If the continent is not stable, nobody is going to want to put their money with us. And that, sir, is my first question. Is it just the perception fueled by journalists or is it the reality? Well, I'm sure we all know that Africa has faced a lot of challenges historically and we still face challenges. But of course, the challenges are in the continent, in some part of the continent, and they do affect the entire continent. The issue of the security, we believe that over the years we have reduced the areas of conflict in the continent. It's unlike what it was before. There are issues that have arisen since the fall of Gaddafi in particular because that tended to undermine the security in the northern part of Africa. And what, for an example, is seen as Boko Haram is part of what happened there. We had our own way of how to handle change in Nigeria, sorry, in Libya. But unfortunately, the big countries thought they had their own way, which then helped a very negative situation to reverse the gains that we had made. So we are in the process now of working out ways and means of dealing with that issue. I wouldn't want that Boko Haram is taken as an isolated thing. It actually arises of the security that was undermined by the manner in which we handled Libya, and we are dealing with it. We are reviving, for an example, the ad hoc committee of the heads of states that were dealing with the road map with regard to that, and therefore the EU is taking up the matter. So the matter is being taken into consideration, as well as Boko Haram in Nigeria. We are looking at it, the summit is meeting in a matter of few weeks. We'll be handling those matters of security. President Zuma, would you say the continent is stable, in your opinion? The continent is relatively stable, that is our view. President Kagami, can I get you to weigh in with your thoughts? Perception or reality from a security-safety perspective? Well, inevitable on many things, you find reality and perception cross paths, in a sense, until you go to find the details. Then you are about to sort out which is a reality and which is a perception. In this case, of Africa, the reality is Africa is largely stable, and also has some problems of insecurity in different parts of the continent. There's no doubt about that. The issue of perception comes in when maybe some level of exaggeration or misinterpretation of certain situations come in. So here we are talking about reality, and like any other situation, there are going to be matters of reality and matters of perception. But we have to deal with these issues nonetheless. Of course, for Africa to grow and continue to develop and reach the prosperity that we deserve and want, we have to start from this very basic principle that there has to be stability. And where there are problems of insecurity, of conflict, we have, as President Zuma has said, we have to get together, collaborate and make sure that we sort out most of these problems. They will be there, but they should not derail Africa's journey to development and to stability that allows that development to take place. Oscar, picking up on what President Kagami has just said, do you think that Africa is in jeopardy of having its development derailed considering? And I want to throw in here not just the terror, but coming back to Ebola. And pandemics of that nature. Certainly, we cannot downplay the how critical these issues are. But looking at it from an investment perspective, I really believe that as you consider which countries you're going to allocate your resources to, there are so many things you check off in terms of risk, right? And security is one of them. It's not isolated to Africa only. Certainly, you want to make sure that anywhere you're putting your money in Europe, in the U.S., in Asia, that your assets are safe. Now, coming back to Africa, most of these challenges that we're facing are quite isolated in isolated pockets. And those pockets are not necessarily the geographies that drive African economy. And so you have to look at it from that perspective. I believe there is a risk, but the risk is not as big as we're trying to make it out to be. I'm not trying to make it up to me, but I am saying that foreign direct investors look at Africa and paint it with one brush. That's the reality that we potentially dealing with on the ground. John, let me bring you in here. You are the number one food and agro allied company in Nigeria. What are you seeing on the ground in terms of your operations? Well, let me speak first as a foreign direct investor. We had to shut our mill down in Maiduguri, but we have 2,000 people in Kano. We're building a snack line there, a noodle line there. We have a $250 million investment in Niger State for a sugar plantation and sugar mill. So certainly in the northeastern region, the people and life is very severely impacted. And, you know, the life in the northeast is under siege, but we are not stopping our investments anywhere else in Nigeria. We're moving full on, full force forward. And don't forget these terrorist attacks are aimed at trying to disrupt people's lives and livelihoods. And I don't think we have to give into that. So I think a foreign direct investment is full steam ahead. I'd like to say that, you know, to the extent that there is external influences, foreign fighters or border crossings, then perhaps these things in relation to Boko Haram should be brought in a more regional context. It should be addressed perhaps with regional help as a regional issue. And to the extent it's related to social inequalities or perceived social inequalities or existing social inequalities, the answer to that is really building the economy, building the agro-allied sector, building the agro sector. And that's really the underlying root cause of all the issues. So I worry specifically more about the oil pandemic. And I think actually in the oil pandemic is where we're going to find a lot of the solutions to what we're looking for, because it's going to force us to go backwards, produce value locally, get value for our crops, get value for our processing, produce the food that we eat, and that's going to create jobs locally, which is going to strike at the heart cause of the issue. We're going to spend a lot of time on commodities, the pressure, the impact that we're seeing on that front and how it's impacting Africa's growth story.  Seventeen countries you are invested in across the African country. You're a co-chair of the World Economic Forum on Africa, which was held in May 2014 in Abudjan, Nigeria. There, sir, you were quoted as saying that you were going to invest a billion dollars on an annual basis into your African operations. Given the current scenario, is that commitment still there? Yes, and once you are in Africa, you're in Africa. You just don't withdraw yourself. And I come from India and we have seen long conflicts in some parts of a country. Punjab has had where I belong to ten years of major issues around terrorism, which thankfully got resolved. Kashmir has seen two decades of strife. Investments have to be made. You have to continue to do the investments. And I would tend to agree a bit with President Zuma. Sometimes the optics created through largely foreign media could be scary. But on the ground, things are not that bad. Yes, north parts of Nigeria are a bit of bother. It's hard to send experts into those areas. There's a stress of Boko Haram. Many of our sites are dismantled or blown apart many times. A couple of our offices have been under attack. But you stay determined on course. And yes, we are spending a billion dollars and perhaps a little more. And I would say 10 years of peace dividend that Africa has enjoyed prior to, let's say, one year brought in a lot of investments and a lot of investors gone with the days when Africa was depended on World Bank and IFC and you started seeing a lot of capital flowing from the private sector. All those MNCs and foreign investors are in Africa now across the continent. And there are some geographical disparities in some sense. Some places have got much more capital than the others. And I think that's the function of what you say, a stable regime, a terror free environment to work. And of course ease of doing business. If you look at Rwanda, they were already doing very well on the charts of ease of doing business. In the last year, they moved another 20 notches up to 46. So there are very good pockets which are inviting more and more investments. And yes, places like Yemen and South Sudan will start falling behind if they don't pick up their environment to operate as businessmen. Yes, we want peaceful environment. That is the best time for people to make investments. But small pockets of terrorism should not scare serious investors away. So it seems that consensus has been achieved. President Zuma, President Kagami ask your voice also into this. And John then reiterated by Sunil that the perception is being made to be more dramatic than the reality on the ground. Then gentlemen, we have a lot of work to do as brand Africa and a lot of work to do with the international media. The next point goes now to growth and to achieving Africa's growth agenda. The World Bank recently released a report saying that Africa is expected to grow by 5.2 percent in 2015 and 2016 and to grow by 5.3 percent beyond that for the medium term. President Zuma, as a South African citizen, I don't want to ask you the following question. As a journalist, I have to ask you the following question. South Africa is unfortunately the drag to that overall growth story. We were looking at growth of 1.4 percent in 2014, expecting growth of around about 2.2 percent come 2015. I know, sir, with the National Development Plan, we are targeting growth to hit 5 percent in South Africa by 2019. But it must be a difficult pull to swallow that South Africa is the dampener to that bright African story at the moment. Yes, absolutely so. But I think it is important when you look at South Africa, not to clump it with other countries. You know, 20 years ago, South Africa was something else. And we are dealing with that legacy. Partly. We are not like countries that have been developing all the time. But I think we are doing our best to deal with the legacy, but also expand the economic situation in the country. We are putting infrastructure very massively. We have a plan, as you have just referred to. We are dealing with energy as a specific area to grow the economy. So from our point of view, we understand why we are where we are, but we are doing everything to quicken the pace to move forward.  And we've got plans to do so. So from our point of view, we think our being a country that is not growing so fast, we understand why we are doing everything to ensure that we catch up. So that is the mood. And South Africa is a very open country for investment. And it is a destination for investment. And we are very, we are very ready to take the challenges and we have been tackling the challenge in the last 20 years. President Kagami Rwandan, GDP growth is sitting at 6 per cent for 2014. Looking expected to come in at six and a half per cent for 2015 and recovering from a very low base of 4.6 per cent in 2013 when you had an issue with a foreign aid that was temporarily suspended. We'll go into that issue a little later and how you recovered from it. But with the task at hand, major economic trading partners of yours and the rest of Africa are experiencing slower growth. Here I'm talking about the Eurozone and China. I know the US plays a very big part in your life. And there we know the situation is much better than in the other geographies that I've referred to. How are you adjusting your economic policies to allow for that changing global environment or global context? Right. First of all, last year, 2014, we actually saw we found we had the growth of 6.8 per cent. In fact, it is projected to be beyond seven. This year, 2015. So the trend is good. I stand corrected. I've got comparative stats on GDP. So we will... Fine. The difference is very small. I'm just making improvement. But most importantly, the question you are raising all along our economy and mainly looking at it in the context even of the region that is increasingly integrating but also looking beyond to what is happening elsewhere in the world has been structured, the economy has been structured in a way that it takes care of the adjustments that are likely to happen because of uncertainties that will always be there and have always been there in the world. And we are seeing indeed when we look at the low prices and continuing to go down in terms of commodities, we will understand that in fact, one has not been mainly growing because of commodities. And in fact, largely in Africa, the myth that Africa has been growing just because of commodities, especially when you look at oil and other things is not very true because you find at the top African countries that have been growing very fast have not mainly if you look at Ethiopia, if you look at Rwanda, if you look at a couple of others, it hasn't been just because of commodities. It has been either in manufacturing, financial services, in large things and so on and so forth. So this is where we have continued to concentrate our efforts as well as behind that, building the capacities necessary in our people, investing more in health, in education, in skills development and so on and so forth. So this and then benefiting from the integration I was talking about when you see the East African community as a whole, five countries, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Burund and ourselves, actually this geographical space of Africa is continuing to grow and benefiting from tying together our economies in terms of trade and investment within and also putting in place the necessary conditions for business to take place, starting from there and then working with the rest of the continent and beyond. Oscar, let's come to you and how we attract our fair share of foreign direct investment in this changed global context. I know that your job at the head of Nigeria Stock Exchange has been a relatively tough one of late with foreigners and foreign investment heading for the hills, so to speak, given the pressure on the oil price and the uncertainty ahead of the Nigerian election come February. But you have stated that you want to make the Nigerian Stock Exchange the exchange for entrepreneurs and attract foreign direct investment. Can you elaborate on those plans? Thank you. I would differentiate between foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment. I believe that last year or 2013, Africa got about 57 billion US dollars in foreign direct investment, so investment inflows. That is a record amount and it continues to grow and it just shows the confidence that the investment investment community has in Africa. And that confidence is not misplaced because if you look back 10 years, most of the African economies have been growing and they're growing because of better policies, policies that have been designed to diversify the economies of the African countries. Granted, we're all very different. If you take Nigeria, for example, with the rebasing of our GDP, not only did we realize that we've become the biggest economy in Africa, but we also realized that our economy is highly diversified. Crude oil accounts for only 14 percent of that. And the growth that we've seen over the last 10 years has really been driven by the non-oil sector. So coming huge growth again to come to the financial services, financial services, telecom, the entertainment industry. So non-oil sector basically has really driven that growth. For us, the challenge that has changed with regards to foreign portfolio investments is really foreign investors needing to manage their currency risk as a result of commodity prices, taking a big bit in lately. And I believe that as they get more certainty as to where currency rates will be, given stability in oil prices, you will see them come back into the markets. We have to understand that there used to be a very significant correlation between commodity prices and the African economies. Given these diversifications we've seen, we haven't seen any African country talk about recession. We're seeing people talk about growth slowing down. If you look back 10 years, you know, this is not the first time we're seeing oil price shocks, right, 87, 97, 2007. You'd have been talking about going into a recession. So the economies are better managed and they are certainly reflected in the confidence we've seen with investors. And I believe that for the Nigerian scene, you have an election cycle coming through. You have the security situation that you've talked about. You have fiscal and monetary policy that people are also watching in order to make those investment decisions. So you have uncertainties that as I believe they go away in this first half, and as you go into the second half of the year, those uncertainties, we should have clarity and you should see investors take positions. So Neil, how are you managing the currency risk that Oscar refers to? Of course, we've seen depreciating units across Africa. The Nigerian unit, the Naira, is under pressure at the moment. I think that's an area to worry about. And for foreign investors, that's a serious risk that one takes going into a new place, a continent like Africa. For a long period, nearly four or five years, we were quite surprised at the stability of the currency. In fact, rupee depreciated in India, but we saw most of the African currencies holding ground. And then suddenly the whole situation changed. We saw massive depreciation in Malawi, 18 months back. But it's a small market, so one could deal with that. And then followed by Ghana, where the shady just sort of lost 30 percent within no time.   When we look at the performance of our various country operations on local currency basis, they're doing reasonably well. 10, 11, 12 percent growth is still year on year. But when you start translating them into dollars, you kind of standing still. You are the same place. You're running on a treadmill and you're not moving forward. That is a frustration because at the end of the day, after four or five years of hard work and very difficult work of building an infrastructure in difficult places, you are standing still. You're still at 4.6, 4.7 billion dollars, whereas by now you should have crossed 6 billion dollars. So that frustration remains. And I think no country can insulate you against currency risks. And oil pressure has been one of the major challenges. And the other part is commodity prices. Global commodity prices have been soft for the last few years. And the prediction from most of the experts is that you're not going to see a phenomenal change in the next two or three years, which means two of the resilient pieces on which Africa's growth is sustainable is under threat, commodities and oil. So hardcore extractive industries are under threat in terms of low demand. And on the other hand, the financial aid from Europe is getting drying up, getting slow, because they have their own difficulties. So there is an overall pressure. The Africa story, which was looking like heading towards eight or nine percent, is suddenly getting challenged at maybe even towards five percent. And that for a country or continent which has to come out of poverty, has to fix health problems, education problems is a sign of worry. You've also made the point previously that strong leadership is needed across the African continent to navigate these somewhat choppy waters. Do you think we're seeing that leadership? You see in different parts. You saw very strong growth in places like Rwanda, which is an outlier clearly. Sub-Saharan Africa this year will grow at five point seven five percent. And some countries will be at seven percent. If South Africa was to pull its weight, as you just mentioned, you could look at it even more healthy of growth because it's a very large piece of that economy. There are parts of Africa which are disturbing. We saw Burkina Faso have had major issues. There's going to be some stability, which will take some time to come there. Three countries are going into elections, Nigeria, Zambia and Kodewa. There are all three elections, which are pretty imminent now. One has to see what the outcome is going to be. Yet you see pockets of great stability. Many parts of eastern Africa, even some of the Francophone countries are OK. So without naming any countries, I think you see the difference between strong leadership, resulting in very good economic uplift and investments. President Zuma, if you can come in, so on your view of leadership across the African continent. Well, firstly, I'm very happy that the investors, they are saying they are pockets and they are not painting Africa with the big brush because I think that is important. If you look at one country where there is instability and then you believe that the whole of Africa is unstable, is a mistaken thing, is part of a perception. I think there is a very strong leadership in the continent of Africa, generally. Even in the countries where there are pockets of instability, I think Africa is discussing those matters collectively. For an example, if you take the security issue where there are pockets of instability, Africa has decided to take this matter to its hands. We are in the process of finalizing the immediate reaction force that will be controlled and financed by Africa itself so that where there is instability, Africa under the AU leadership will move into that area to deal with that matter. It's no longer like if it happens in one area as the end of it. I think we have an example in East Africa where EGAD, the region of East Africa, went into Somali and really dealt with the problem in Somali and began to bring about stability and the government there. I think that is an indication of the African initiative implementing this belief that African problems should have African solutions. And therefore that in itself is not just showing individual kind of leadership, even the collective leadership in Africa. I think it has taken a qualitative change in terms of how are we tackling the issues, including our activities insofar as the economy is concerned. The fact that heads of states are heading certain section of the infrastructure, it indicates Africa that is thinking differently. Again, strong leadership that is being given. I think that in itself indicates that there is strong leadership in the continent. We are moving forward. The very fact that we have had a decade of growth and many countries growing so big, it indicates that Africa has changed. That would not have happened without a strong leadership. President Kagami, on the point of leadership, your leadership has been attributed with much of Rwanda's economic re-emergence and for the last decade hitting that 7% GDP growth rate. Your second term comes to an end in 2017. Can investors look to continued economic stability and investor-friendly policies out of Rwanda come that time? Well, I think as we are talking about leadership, I think it was just said, leadership is in a general sense for when we are talking about Africa, as we see there is no country that is an island. There is many linkages between countries across the continent and even the continent and beyond. And in fact, even the earlier problems we were talking about in security, some things are happening in Africa, but we finally have a connection in Europe or beyond and in other places. So there is always this connection. So leadership is about the same. So leadership in Rwanda, as you have said, has been built on a number of bases, if you will. It's not just individuals, it's also institution. And that's what we have tried to do as we invest for our future. But now, here I'm probably being asked to make a prediction whether two, three years or five years ahead, how things will be here. I have no reason to believe that things are going to be any different. In my country, in another five or 10 years to come, and here we are talking about leadership minus the person we are talking about. So I think the investors who have interacted with us in Rwanda and others, they must have appreciated the stability we have created in the country, dependent on many things with that target leadership. So we keep grappling with what defines the good leadership that we see the continued development in the country. And we also look to working with other countries to make sure that continued growth happens. John, Nigeria Flammals has been in Nigeria. Flammals, Nigeria rather has been in Nigeria since 1961. Over the last five years, you have invested a billion dollars, US.  How important is leadership in that investment game for you? I think leadership is very important. And it shows our confidence that we are investing that kind of money. I'd like to touch on what President Kagami said earlier. You know, if you understand the growth rates in Africa, Nigeria, 3% population growth every year. 60% of the population is under 30. Those fundamental facts are not shifting. Those people will continue, the population will continue to grow. People will need to eat, they will need to go about their life. So there's a fundamental underlying growth in Africa, in Nigeria, which is not related to commodity boom or bus cycle. So when we talk about the commodities, it just then becomes a question of how we fund that growth. It's resource allocation towards that growth that we're talking about. We're not talking about the underlying growth of the nation is going to continue to populations going to grow. 2050, Nigeria is going to be as big as the United States. So I think a lot of the policies that are in place in backward integration in Nigeria, the cement industry, the salt, sugar industry, rice is coming on stream, palm, cassava, all these backward integration policies, which say, you know, you wish to continue to import things. Well, you have to invest in the country to grow it, process it locally. We need to really integrate the countryside with the urban sector. The urban sector, the middle class is growing tremendously. We can't leave the rest of the nation behind. So I think, you know, those policies consistent over time because these things do take time. You don't turn a switch on and things happen are fundamental to the ongoing growth of Nigeria. Again, you've previously said that infrastructure in your opinion is the single biggest risk to the Africa growth story. In fact, you were quoted as saying, African governments should go for broke when it comes to investing in hard infrastructure. Can you elaborate? Yes, to my mind, the multiplier impact that the infrastructure projects have on any economy, and we experienced that in our own country in India, is enormous. And to my mind, back borrowed steel, Africa needs to build infrastructure. And in the absence of infrastructure, you are actually losing a lot of GDP growth there. Look at the intra-Africa trade. It's at 9% of the overall trade. That needs to rise. That's given all the benefits that just have been touted of manufacturing within Nigeria, manufacturing within various places, industries that are in South Africa. Why should a cashew kernel get out of Guinea-Bissau, go to India, the coastal, Kerala, get processed back into being cashews and then get back to Africa or other parts of the world? You need to have much more alignment within Africa. And AU, the Africa Union, needs to start discussing less-created, massive infrastructure, linkages within the countries on roads, highways, train, wherever possible around the coastal areas, through boats and ferries and all. You need to link the continent to a massive infrastructure build-out. And to my mind, if you want to see Africa growing and breaking out free from its current difficulties, I think infrastructure will hold the key. And that is where I would say even the so-called development investment or aid needs to be focused towards. Build infrastructure, rest will follow. And we've seen that in China, they built massive infrastructure and that was the difference between India and China. They went for broke for infrastructure and rest followed. And I believe that is very important. Thankfully telecom piece, we've been able to fix to a large degree. You can go to very remote parts of Africa now and you'll find a radio signal. Let's use that as a digital infrastructure to then build on some other pieces of infrastructure to get the full benefit of African economy miraculously. Oscar, as president of African exchanges, this must also be something which is high on your wish list in terms of connecting Africa exchanges and the impact that that will ultimately have on the economy. Yeah, totally agree. I believe that we have to look at infrastructure as infrastructure. It doesn't matter whether it's hard or soft. The exchanges, for example, at least the key hubs need to be linked so that when investors are coming in, they are viewing a deeper pool of liquidity versus small pools because it's not very attractive to want to put large sums of monies in very small pools. And so that should go for financing not only in the capital markets, but even with our banks because access to capital is one of the biggest challenges businesses have in Africa. And so to the extent that we can link ourselves and a farmer that is looking to raise capital for the next cropping season can access that capital not only in this country, but countries around, it could be very powerful. President Kagami, let's just focus for a moment on the reliance on official development assistance. I come back to the point that I made earlier that in 2013, development aid, or aid was suspended to Rwanda allegations that Rwanda was fueling insecurity in the DRC. This was never proved and that aid was once more instituted. But in 2013, and according to my figures again, they may not be in line with yours, but like for like, you sat at a 4.6% growth rate. So a big fall off from your previous decade of around about 7%. As a result, you have very quickly moved to limit your exposure to foreign aid to help you insulate yourself against shocks on that front. Can you tell us how you've done that? Because again, your growth rates, obviously that aid was reinstituted, but you're now sitting with aid at about 40% of your budget. Yes, first of all, it starts with the original objective. For us, how we have used development aid is to enable us to build capacities we require so that we don't need aid in the long term or medium long term. This is really what we have concentrated on. Not to keep depending on the aid as such. So we've been transitioning, therefore, from this development aid to investment aid. So we've concentrated on what is it that attracts investment, and particularly for the case of Rwanda with its own space histories. And this is why we have concentrated. We have also concentrated on doing business. What is it that attracts people to do business in or with Rwanda? And that goes beyond Rwanda and touches, as I said, in the broader sense, the area of integration. But as we have been building these capacities, therefore, we've been identifying revenue sources that we can depend on, that we have control over other than revenue sources over which we have no control at all. So the transition has been accelerated, in fact, by maybe some of these problems. I think some of these problems come with the silver lining, in a sense. Sometimes you don't invite problems, but when they come, they also come with these silver linings. So we are not saying that we are over with needing aid at all. No, we're only saying we can survive with less aid now than we would have survived the other day because of, one, investing properly in the development aid, two, meaning building capacities, two, identifying these other areas that actually can constitute revenue generation beyond what we get from aid. And that is what we can do from within and also what we can do as a region and beyond. And then the areas of infrastructure has been said that we're not going to be overstated and so on and so forth. So this is really how we have continued to move forward. And perhaps just to put a little context around there in terms of the World Bank's ease of business index or ease of doing business index. Rwanda sits in number three spot when it comes to the African continent, Mauritius being number one and South Africa being number two, President Jacob Zuma. Your thoughts on this shift as we come to the expiry of the Millennium Development Goals in September 2015 from development aid or official development assistance to development investment. What is South Africa doing to capture development investment? Well, we hold the same view that firstly it's necessary that the aid should shift to investment. That helps the countries really to stand on their own and be able to move forward. And we believe that that should be the understanding of those who give aid. I think the example of Africa having developed they have been developing the way it has been. It is partly because Africa I think has been receiving more aid than perhaps other regions of the world. I think that is evidence that there has been very careful usage of it as President Kagama has been saying that it has been used to help propel the economy and therefore with time you would actually stand on our own as the African countries. I think that's an approach we have taken that we need that understanding. Again it comes back to the kind of leadership, how this is being utilized now different than what it was a few years or a number of years ago that the leadership is looking at how we utilize what we get for our tomorrow. But I also wanted to touch on the issues that were touched upon on the infrastructure. I think I touched on this point earlier. The reality is that the leadership, the collective leadership in the continent has taken a decision about infrastructure. And there are processes that are ongoing. We are, it's not just, we are still planning. In some regions actual work is going on because we realized that without dealing with that issue which is again a legacy of colonialism that did not connect countries. If we don't have inter trade, we don't soften our borders, we don't increase the economy among ourselves. We are not going to succeed. That is why the matter of integration of the regions is an ongoing issue. Three regions are now working to integrate and putting together a huge area where in the trade is going to be free among them with a huge population and really going verifying in terms of how much Africa is organizing self-economically as a continent. I think that goes a long way to explain how much the current leadership is thinking. President Zuma, I'm glad you bring up a collective leadership across Africa because it brings me to another point in that we understand that there were diplomatic tensions between Rwanda and South Africa 2014. This is not the forum to discuss those but what I am interested in understanding is whether it has had any bearing or impact on economic cooperation between the two countries. Of course that economic cooperation, as you say, with collective leadership is crucial for the overall Africa investment story. Your thoughts, sir? No, I don't think it has affected our relations, not at all. I think there were some small issues that were there that had been handled by the two countries. In so far as interaction between the countries is very big, it has not interfered with that. We have a lot of students from Rwanda that are in South Africa. There is consistent interaction between the two countries so that has not affected the relations between the two countries, including between the two ruling parties. President Kagami? I suppose I should have asked this question before I sat you next to one another when we began the debate. Please come in here, sir. Well, I think this is the proof that things are doing fine. But even if we were to talk about the perception, because the fact that you raise it, if it is a relative or a perception, but let me even say, even if it was perception, maybe it shouldn't have happened. So this is what I can say. We don't need it, and in particular, we don't need it for when we talk about working very closely and advancing together and so on and so forth. So I'm just saying, forget about how things are now or how we want them to be tomorrow. That should not have happened, that there was even a perception that there was such a misunderstanding, because of course of history and many things which President Zuma has mentioned, because he talked about even political parties and with the history of liberation and struggles that really meant for the positive trends of our peoples beyond the two countries and then governments of today. So maybe the question you raise, even if we don't go into much in terms of details, just underscores how it is important for people to work together. And I think we are all willing to cooperate and work together for this common goal that benefits the continent. Thank you, sir. Ronan, I'd like to turn back to trade and I'd like to propose to President Zuma, we should set up more of a bilateral trade and see what items you're importing from third party countries that we could supply and vice versa and make it a very direct bilateral position to be selling corn in your harvest season, we sell you back, Cassava starch in your off season. I think there's a lot of room to make more efficient the trade balances using what we're buying anyway from third parties between ourselves. And I'd like to propose that for... And then President Zuma, absolutely the right to respond. I think John Kudos for making this discussion into a working group session. That's exactly what the World Economic Forum is all about. I totally agree. I think that's what we are trying to work on because what has in a sense hampered the trade, the inter-trading the continent, has been the infrastructure. For an example, in some countries where there are companies from South Africa that are working, just to shift the goods from South Africa to some of those countries, take such a long time because infrastructure is not there. I was in one country where they were saying, if you are looking for the spares to come, there'll be weeks on the sea trying to get to that country. That is an indication of the problem. The realization by the leadership that we need inter-trade. And we said, even if we are agreed on that one, without infrastructure you cannot do it. That's why we are focusing on the infrastructure. We are looking at South, North Corridor and across. And I think that is what will make that kind of an agreement to be easy. We can today make an agreement. It will be by and large theoretical because how do you reach another country? And that's why we are saying the investment on the infrastructure is the key for us to achieve that kind of an understanding. I understand something on that. Quickly, let me say, really this is important. This infrastructure is key, but also how it is used, which depends on the political aspect of it, is very important. I will quickly give an example and prompted by the point present to Zuma's yesterday. In my own account within our region, for example, to move a container of goods from Kigari, our capital, to Mombasa, used to take 22 days. This is three weeks beyond. Now, because of the collaboration we have put in place and the understanding and so on. And this by the way was mainly not because there are no roads or good roads, it's because of non-tariff barriers. It's actually there were blockages on the roads that were built. That's what it was going on. But we discussed it among ourselves and tried to identify these issues. Now, it has been brought down to six days. From 22 to six, huge benefits. So, first is infrastructure. Second, there must be the political will to drive all these things to make sure they happen. Is it real? Just quickly, I'm happy that we have a real consensus here on infrastructure and intra-Africa trade. So I would say more connectivity between Africa through roads and all, but including flights. I think we need to have many more flights within Africa. It's torturous to travel within Africa. And the other part is the investments that are sometimes celebrated are largely in the extractive industries. Most of the countries when they invite people to investments into those kind of industries must start putting conditions of local manufacturing. Some sort of value addition must be mandated. And the beneficiation theme. Yeah, so therefore, if it is copper in Zambia or parts of DRC in other areas, there must be some industries to follow. And that's where I would like to have the benefit of both the presidents who are very close to India. Investments from India have largely been into manufacturing, services, telecommunications. We have many people here, Godrej is here who are manufacturing, distributing. India brings good capital. I think the selection of capital and perhaps some inverted benefits in terms of concessions and all should be given to those investments, which are generating employment, which are getting manufacturing and linkages within Africa. Well Sunil, you are of course, co-chair of the India Africa Business Council. Perhaps we can book you a room after this session, sir, with the two presidents. He has investments in their countries, right? Oh, it's good. I would like to add to what Sunil is saying. I believe that movement of people needs to be addressed as well. So if you're an African traveling in Africa, you need more visas than a European. And it takes political will to address it. And I think that you don't need infrastructure to do that. So if we're able to address that, then that should help. The second point I wanted to make, the areas that he spoke about, manufacturing, telecom and all of those things, are the areas that are actually driving economic growth in most of the African countries. And so to the extent that we can come up with policies that influence and reinforce those types of investments, then it will only add to the growth of GDP across Africa. We've got seven minutes to conclusion, and I want to throw forward now to a quote from the World Bank global president, Jim Yong Kim, who said that blockages to private sector investment need to be removed. It's critical that blockages to private sector investment are removed in countries because the private sector is the largest generator of jobs, and hence that is the quickest way to reduce poverty. And that comes to sustainable development beyond the Millennium Development Goals expiring in 2015. We're moving to a theme of sustainable development. Gentlemen, I want you in conclusion to come back to me with those road blockages, the blockages to private sector investment, that you would like to see removed. We have two heads of states who can execute very quickly. Sunil, can I start with you? You know, to be honest with you, Africa is very welcoming of foreign investment. There are really no areas where there are any restrictions on FDI, for example. You can enter into most of the countries and invest at will, and there's generally a warm welcome towards those investments. So many countries have FDI restrictions and all and slowly opening up, but Africa, that we have been very good. Secondly, it has realized very early around that its resources, whether it's in the air, like spectrum or under the ground, can be put to good use for the benefit of the societies and economies. And I would say that here again, Africa has actually taken a lead. In India, we struggle with spectrum in Africa. Plenty full of spectrum has been given and the message is go build networks, serve the communities, get broadband connections out there. So I don't think so. There are really any policy issues. There are ground realities which are difficult. We spoke about infrastructure. We spoke about linkages. I think one area where I would say, I was to my dismay, very surprised was skills are not available in Africa. And if they are available, they are so expensive that for an Indian company getting into Africa, there was a shock that people who like to stay back in Africa, who have the necessary skills, want European salaries or American salaries. And that's a disconnect that Africa must deal with. Which means the pool of people who are skilled is rather limited. And with the billion people and very young people at that, we need to have a massive investment towards building skills and training people so that there's a lot of local talent available. John. I don't think I would add much except the known ones. Infrastructure, roads, gas, rail, low cost financing for investment. And especially in agriculture. The most important thing government can do is give a good consistent policy towards development and growth and expansion that's transparent and a level playing field and consistent. And I think those mechanisms are in place. And I think Nigeria and the rest of Africa have come very, very long distances in that regard. I think we, those are the enablers that are needed for business to go. And then government get out of the way and we'll run. I think that's the spirit. Move it quickly Oscar. Oscar. My colleagues have said it. African governments have really put in place policies that are very, very welcoming of investments. In Nigeria, no capital against tax. So it's zero. The dividends are taxed at 10% very competitive. Where I think we really need to do more work on. When we think about industries, we think about policy regulation operation. Policy has really been greatly improved and that is driving the growth that we've seen. Private sector wants the regulations to be consistent and allow them to do what they need to do. And so making sure that over long periods of time, you know under what regulations you're going to be doing your business and you have certainty around that really removes one uncertainty in doing your business. A number of nodding of heads in the audience so in agreement, President Kagami. Well it's infrastructure, skills, creating a predictable environment so that people know what to expect when they are doing business with you. That's very important. Then the other point which has already been made is to make sure that we allow Africans to move freely across borders and invest with and in each other as we should. I think if we do this, then the rest will follow. President Zuma. Well I agree, generally I agree. But I just wanted to make the other point earlier of the borders. I think African countries are discussing that to try to address that issue. It's not an issue that is not getting any attention. It is precisely because we realize this that if you were in Africa it's difficult to move and we are saying you should be quick to move if we are to implement our belief that intra-Africa is important and therefore once we have the infrastructure it should not be blocked by the different kind of countries and borders, et cetera. So that is a great. Also we have skills in the continent that are not in the continent, they are all over the world because there was no industry for those skills to be utilized. We believe that once we have the infrastructure, we have energy, those skills are going to come back as when they are not going to leave the continent. And therefore the question of the shortage of skills is not going to be an issue. But these are matters we are working on. And I'm happy that very critical points have been made. How to make the investment feel free. And I think my brother, they put the three things. I know that regulations are biggest problems for investors. These are matters we are dealing with as to how do we make it easy as well as how to do business easier rather than complicated bureaucracies. These are matters we are addressing and I'm hoping that very so we'll be able to deal with those matters. Given our own experiences in our different countries and the harmony of thinking in terms of what do we need to do for the continent. Thank you so much to my esteemed panellists. Well, one thing is for sure, as Africa ushers in the Sustainable Development Goals for 2015 economic inclusion and poverty alleviation are crucial to broader stability and African growth. One thing is clear, African governments are going to have to invest in their own development. The continent needs to attract all forms of development finance. But perhaps most crucial is creating the right environment for private sector investment to thrive. And once more I'm going to borrow from the quote from World Bank Group President Jim Young Kim. It's critical for countries to remove any unnecessary roadblocks to private sector investment. The private sector is by far the greatest source of jobs and that can lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. Thank you so much for joining us for the CNBC Africa debate coming to you live from Davos, Switzerland where the World Economic Forum is currently in session.


What's going on everyone? Sam here, blatant sports cards from a 22-penny contenders football hobby 12 box full case break number 1 to your random team style. So look again at your random results. As always you can find these on the website under the results tab as well as the link in chat. Good luck. Let's do it. I dropped you that one, right? Especially when I'm breaking. I give you good luck at PYT though, Joshua at least. Random team, yeah, I can't say you've done well with me. Recently at least. That's actually better than I thought it was going to be. So good luck. I saw you let me do PYT. Got no base ships in this, all inserts do, all hits, numbered, all that good stuff. Just no base. Nice Trayvon Walker going to the Jags on card rookie ticket variation. Yeah, random, not great. What's up Jonathan? Kennedy Brooks. The Eagles. Here at Wilson. Michael Vick to 99. Round numbers, Sticerl, 1, 2, 3, top, 4, 5, 6, bottom. It's going to be a 1 going to the top. Donny the artist. He's writing that really hard. I could draw a 2 square to the circle. Tagan, Quiterrino, Texans. Oh really? What did we pull? I forget Huntson. Marcus Jones. No, Nicholas. Base does not ship on a personal either, no. Yeah, this is one of the few products we don't have vet based ship. Alright, 1, 2, 3, left, 4, 5, 6, right. Got them out of the way in box 1, 3. Going to the left. Get wrecked. Yeah, this is like one of the few products where it doesn't. Dominique Robinson, 35 out of 91 ticket stuff. I think we pulled one of those last break, weird. Yeah, it's like just, the only ones really up top of my head is like Bowman Paper and then Contender's Vet Base. Those are like the two that we don't ship based. Oh, that's right, Holiday Printing Played Auto. That's massive. Ooh, Ichiro. Ichiro Griffey, nice. Trent McDuffie, 2, 49 for the Chiefs. Theaters, Mingeo Green. I think he came up with the nickname himself, so I gave it to him. Someone probably gave it to him. Here's Rashad White, 2, 25 for the Bucks. Damon Clark, Cowboys, Rookie Ticket Auto. Josh Allen, MVP Contenders, Jalen Hurts, Supernatural. Jalen Hurts, MVP Contender, yeah, okay.  Waddell Robinson. Okay, I'm at home. I wanted to see the reaction that one came with. Jeremy Rucker, Variation, Rookie Ticket Auto. Oh, you know how it would just states Allen. And like, are you going to say, are you going to defend your quarterback here? Are you going to bring up some Lamar joke? What are we going to do? Oh, I should have a Lamar joke. I feel like being nice to it right now, so. Thanks. Give me an hour or we'll just... Yeah, right. Well, Campbell goes big into Wacky Packs as well. Very true. Smart man. Smart man is right, Greg. Damon Pierce. Tyler Algier, nice one there for the Falcons. First Algier we've hit today, I believe. Gino Smith, MVP Contenders. Wow, who would have thought in 2023 that would be a card? Mario Goodrich for the Eagles. I mean, don't get me wrong. He deserves it. Like, he deserves to have that card, but who would have thought?  I'd have been like, yeah, okay. Should have put money on Vegas. Right? He would have taken out a card that said... MVP Contenders on it. MVP Contenders, CMC. See, that doesn't make any sense. Really? I was kidding. Wandaille Robinson, nice one there on the on-card. Blue variation. Short print. I wanted to make an observed statement. We're going to hit something nasty in this case. I already know. We're going to hit something wild. Hit something, a banana land. Banana land? Banana land. That's where we're going, Donny. We're going to banana land. I don't want to go over there. That sounds bananas. Oh, it is. Who is my friend? You eat, drink, and sleep bananas. Yup. TJ Watts, glad he is. Tickets dub. Is Sam Williams, the 54. Nice one there, Cowboys. 28 out of 54. No, this is regular. This is regular hobby. And it's like kind of in between a blast. You're guaranteed an auto. Here comes a cracked ice. Come on, baby. Give us something big that is Desmond Ritter. Cracked ice, baby. Boom. Oh, Craig. There we go. Craig. Oh, boy. Getting rewarded for the hobbies. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Desmond Ritter ice, baby. Holy cow, dude. That's going right into a mad, Greg. That's massive right now. Right there is right. Michael Carter to 199. I can come back tomorrow. Okay. Thank God. See, when you buy us food chat. True. Let it be known. Greg with the food mojo again. I think Greg's figure is up now. That's nasty, dude. That was so cool. Ticket stub. Josh Pascal to 93 for the Lions. You got it, Craig. No problem, dude. Is Thayer Munfer. Can I pick it? Rookie of the Year contenders. Oh, God. Cracked ice is something else for sure. Shot white. That's like one that I always say. Like if you're doing like, if you're collecting, like super collecting, a player and you have unlimited money, like what are like 10 key cards you have to get of them and a cracked ice out of contenders is one of them, in my opinion. Yeah. I'd say like Jalen Thompson. Rookie Auto, nice one there. I would say the three big ones, NT True RPA, Gold Prism, and cracked ice contenders. Zonovan Knight for the Jets. Nice one there. And base. Hey, have a good one. Hey, have a good one. Have a good one, Donald. Yes, Tegly. That's exactly what I was going to say. Yes, yes, Tegly. You have unlimited money. All right. What else do you guys think? If you're super collecting a player and you want to put together like the best collection in the world of somebody, what do you need? Obviously, you need a one-on-one luminance. Let's just get that out of the way. There's Derek Henry. 299. Every mantle. Fair. Tomari Mathis. Bloop for the Bengals. Or the Broncos. Excuse me, Broncos. Are we talking specifically football or... Yeah, well, it's useful as an example. And I want to hear what other people have to say. Maybe a rookie kaboom or a rookie downtown, but a regular you don't really need. Gladiators, Lawrence Taylor. What about like, I don't know the parallels for it, but like a low out of 10 gold vinyl for like a rated rookie from Optic. From Optic. That's another, yeah. It's another good one. Kobe Bryant. Nice one there. Yes, Zebra Select. If your player has a field level, I would say. Yeah, Zebra Select's a good one. Cool. A one-on-one and a one-eva. Eva one-on-one. Eva one-on-one. Strictly Eva one-on-one. It's going to be a 9-8 for somebody PC. XRC. XRC wouldn't be a bad one too, Kyle. Yeah, NFL Shield. I would say you need an NFL Shield. You definitely need a shield. What product? Probably flawless, I think. I mean, we are talking limited money, right? True. Ryan Stonehouse. 2.99. Packable True RPA, NT True RPA.  Something from Collegiate, I agree. I feel like one logo patch. Yeah, one like stupidly nice logo patch. Yeah. Yup. I feel like back on the field level, like a tie-dye. Yeah, really nice tie-dye. Like a RPA tie-dye. Yeah. I'd say it likely for the Ravens 2.99. Also lowest number auto color match. Also true. Nice one here, Breeze Hall 2.49. Congrats on that, Jets. 31 to 49 on the variation. Very nice. Breeze, chrome rainbow. Yeah, that's probably a good point too. You want to get some sort of rainbow, probably. Optic or prism. Slices you in half when it hits you. Yeah, there you go. That's another Taygan Quitterino. I don't know, I think that's what it is. Another Ticket Stub. Cole Turner this time. The 85 for the commanders. What's up, Quack? There's a... Whoa. What is that? That's wild, whatever this is. Let's do some research here. I got the checklist up. What is it saying? It is... CPBCO. So that's... CP... What was it? BCO. Dash BCO. Penit of some sort. Caramel clutch doesn't go like those carbonate themselves. Penit? Yeah, it's called the penit, I believe. That would make sense. That's sick, dude. I like it. Brandon cooks. That was trying to put it down. Penit, yeah. Or penit, penit. That's so wild. It's cool. Yeah, I like it. I'm in. There's a Chase Garbers. I feel like...  I feel like it can get damaged really easily. Yeah, you gotta be careful with it. Ooh, we got a plate. Ooh, a plate. That is a Drake London Silver Ticket. 15 of 49. Ice one there for the Falcons. Look at the damage on it. It's a little scratch. We'll send an empty box and wrapper. It's a mirror white. What's that? It's not a 49. It's not a 49. It was the gold one, I'd say. Yeah, it's not a 49. Probably not. John Fitzpatrick. He's pulling weird cards all over the place here, everybody. There's Greg again. With the Falcons. Falcons are eating. Falcons are eating. They're eating pretty good right now.  Yeah, congrats again, Greg. That's awesome, dude. There's Sasan Haskins. Nice one there to 49 for the Titans. These cases have been on fire, dude. That is 299. Justin Jefferson. Tyreek Smith for the Seahawks. Yeah, we finished the Corkings for the night, JT. Yeah, we did. Somebody's got a couple in a personal, I believe, though. Rock six. It's not going to stack all of them. Yeah, so am I. It's fighting right now. LSE for all of them, dude. LSE after dark balls. You guys are not really spending much time on the base of the inserts. I mean, there was some good audio. Palo Auto, there was... Ooh, Garrett Wilson. Nice. Base rookie ticket auto. Nice one there for the Jets. I don't think there's anything else super notable. 299, Tyreek Hill to him. There's a Julian Chestnut. Or Julius Chestnut to 49. Yeah, Chet Redemption was pretty big. All the case hits were pretty solid. Another ticket stub. This time, DeLorean Turner yell to 32 for the Broncos. Got a Caleb Evans for the Vikings. Rookie ticket auto. Mario Goodrich. Rookie ticket auto for the Eagles. There's Sam Williams variation to 49 for the Cowboys. It hurts MVP contenders. Halfway through, everybody. Josh, I'm really surprised you're not at 100 yet.  It's still impressive though. Disconnected. And reconnected to 99. Aaron Donald. Drake London. OBS disconnected. Sorry, everybody. Give me a thumbs up if we're good on YouTube and Twitch really quick. Chance Campbell for the Titans. And the recording's still going, so we're good there. Distracted with new games. Fair, fair, fair. What new games have come out? Good. Thank you, thank you. Unless you're playing like the remake of Resident Evil 4, like, what has come out? There's a new Zelda, I think. WW2K43. That's nice for me, though. Oh, is it? Yeah. Yeah, Josh, I said Resident Evil 4. Lucene to 99. Playoff ticket. Come out within like a week. Best question. Fair. Very true. I can't really talk to that. I haven't been playing anything yet. I'm going to do anything. I say it likely for the Ravens. Base ticket auto. Breeze Hall again. Nice one there. Rookie ticket auto. Grats on that one there, Jets. To play the other three houses. Oh, gosh. Tanner Connor. Yeah, my next box too. Same. I've still got the measly Xbox One. I got the S-pad. Ah, we might. Days. Sorry. It's kind of, uh, there's just so limited storage and my external doesn't work. Ah, that's annoying. Like it does, but like if the game has like, let's say, a next-gen model. Trey McBride. Variation on card for the Cardinals. It needs to be installed on the console, not on the external. Not on the external. And I only have like 500 gigs in like, in terms of, yeah. I remember 500 gigs used to get you anything. Call of Duty takes about half of that. It's going to be a Matt Ryan. Nice one there. There you go, Higley. 15 out of 21. Cracked Ice, Matty Ice for the Colts. Percy Butler for the Commanders. Rookie Ticket Auto. Armani Rogers for the Commanders. Supernatural Drake London. Curtis Hodges for the Commanders. Nice one there again. Commanders, what, back to back to back there? Back to back at least. No, back to back to back. Yeah, wow. Be back to back. Yeah, Xion cases are good. I'd recommend Xion cases. We know the, like, the owner of the company. He's a good dude. Kevon Tibodeau for the Giants. Owner of the Kevon Tibodeau. Lance McCutcheon for the Rams. Space Auto. Next box. Redemption is Danny Gray. Rookie Ticket Stuff Variation RPS for the Niners. Nice one there. Should be numbered to like 20-something. Or no, 86. I think he's 86. He's the receiver. TDP is the 225. Tony Gonzalez. Gray's on with him. Niners. Jashon Corbin to 49. For the Giants. PS5. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I know for like Call of Duty, one of my roommates had a PS5 when we were able to play with him. I think it depends on the game. That's literally, because like GTA, that's the biggest flaw of GTA still is it's not cross platform. Yeah, it all depends on the game. Avery Williams for the Falcons. Cracked Ice is A. Oh God. Chigazama Kwan Quo on the Cracked Ice. 16 out of 22. For the Titans. This is not really bad, but for gamers like a really like fun aesthetic pleasing game to play is Power Washington really. Actually that is, it's so on board with that. It's like. I bought that app. It's just like, I don't know what is about it. Britain Covey. For the Eagles. Like Pong Pac-Man. Oh, electric hatch blue finite. Yeah, the one on one. I gotcha. Wow. Four of 25. Chris Olave and Drake London dual. So that'll be a random. No, it won't. Because Greg has the Saints and the Falcons. So that will not be a random. Nice one there. Four of 25. That's dope dude. Greg M with the Saints. Greg M with the Falcons. That worked out well. What's up? Yeah. Those are super tough to hit. I know the chances of that. Honestly. Yeah, that's pretty dope, Greg. That was awesome dude. You're giving me goose. That's what it is. The Huey McGee's Mojo. Huey McGee Wednesdays. Let's make it a day. Magic chicken. I've got that barbecue sauce running through my veins right now. Ah, that's what it is. Juju Smith Schuster to 99. Crystal Lodicon to 99 for the Chiefs again. Yeah, I pulled a couple of them. They're pretty, they're pretty nice. Electric Hatch Blue Fine. I pulled the Kyren Williams and the Drake London. 101's from Obsidian on release day. Those are pretty cool. Drink the extra ranch sauces. I will swear to God I will drink a ranch sauce before I got pretty iced dude. I will drink a ranch sauce. I don't care. Let's blow a pretty ice. I will down a ranch sauce. What if we get some of the King's Jersey? That is Jerome Ford. Nice one there. 234. Ticket stub. For the Browns. Let's get the hottest sauce. You gotta choke the fashion. Jahan Dawson. Yeah, okay. I'm not doing a gallon of barbecue sauce. Three minutes. Ah, probably not, Nicholas. Probably not. We're gonna finish a little bit behind. There's already a pretty, pretty deep queue right now. I'm just gonna be honest with ya. If you order today, it'll most likely go tomorrow though. With Forrest. The Subaru Forrest there. And then Personals will be moving over to Drip. Cleo Shakir. For the builds. With Kyle. Lance McCutcheon. Bason. Basin base. Is it not this week, is it? Yeah, scared money don't make money. That's right. There's a cracked ice. Jesus. Elizabee! Wow! 22! That's still pretty good. That's still pretty good. Go into the Patriots! Tom B! Congrats, buddy! That's nasty.  Two ice. That is not a ranch right there. Barbecue. Yeah.  Yeah, no. You'll be doing back flips with me. While I'm chugging the ranch. That's the case. That's a Magoo sauce minimum. Is that no way? No, okay. I was going to say, I thought that was another cracked ice. I was like, oh Jesus. Deontay Johnson. 2199. Derike Young. For the Seahawks. Picket Rookie of the Year contenders. It's going to get to as many personals as I physically can tonight. Lucene. For the Vikings. Yeah, I would say so. Obsidian looks good this year. I agree with that pack man. Derek Henry. Yeah, I think Obsidian's got a very good design. Big fan. It's Royal Bernard. Nice one there for the Bills. Khalil Shakir again. For the Bills. A long recap. Yep. Yeah, there should be a base Josh Allen Electric. I tried to think. Understandable. Nice, George Pickens. 299. Grats on that one. Nice, Matthew. Going to the Steelers. Pittsburgh, Josh D. Desmond Ritter. In Obsidian, no, there's not, Greg. Not in Obsidian. Who's the rookie? Who's the Knight Moves? Someone said they pulled the Knight Moves rookie. Last box guys, good luck. Oh, not rookie. Well, I mean, it depends on who the player is too. Joe Burrow. That's probably pretty solid. It's a case hit. Yeah, I would imagine that. That's probably one of the better names you can get too. I don't think that would be like a couple hundred dollar cards. Probably, yeah. Sky Moore. Nice one there on card for the Chiefs. 60% of the time Khalil hits every time. What's your opinion on the pickings? What are they doing? No pickings, like Georgia. I know, yeah. Did you look them up or no? Yeah, I'd probably do it. I'd probably do it. Just be safe. Joe Burrow. 2199. Ooh, wow. Holy cow, Mike. That's massive. We just donate it. We donate it. The Lauren Turnery, yeah. For the Broncos. Drake London. Chase Garbers. Nicoby Dean. Probably Jackson Merrill Super Fractor from Bowman Chrome 22. The Super Fractor Auto. Pulled by Trevor Lawrence. Stars and Stripes RPA from NT. Kay Cunningham. Select RPA 101. Nick Cross. For the Colts. Nice one there. Jackie Robinson cut auto. Had a transcendent. It was pretty big. That was a few others. I'd have to thank to be honest. Jordan Davis. Base auto for the Eagles. Favorite product design was? I like Prism every year, I think. It's pretty solid. And base. Not a quick recap, but a recap. Of our autos. All right, good luck to me. Jordan Davis. Nick Cross. Nicoby Dean. The Lauren Turner. Yel. Chase Garber. Sky Moore. Cleil Shakir. Terrell Bernard. Lance McCutcheon. Cleil Shakir. Jerome Ford. Crystal Lodicon. Britton Covey. Chika Zemek-Wankwo. Avery Williams. Shashan Corbin. Danny Gray. Lance McCutcheon. Kavon Tibodeau. Curtis Hodges. Armani Rogers. Percy Butler. Trey McBride. Tanner Connor. Breece Hall. Isaiah Likeley. Louis Seen. Chance Campbell. Sam Williams. Mario Goodrich. Caleb Evans. DeLaren Turner. Yel. That's a pretty big one too, snack. Julius Chestnut. Garrett Wilson. Son Haskins. Tyreke Smith. John Fitzpatrick. Drake London. Chase Garber. Cole Turner. Tagan Quitteriano. Breece Hall. That is Isaiah Likeley. Ryan Stonehouse. Kobe Bryant. Damari Mathis. Son of a Knight. Jalen Thompson. Thayer Munford. Joss Pascal. Sam Williams. Wondale Robinson. Mario Goodrich. Tyler Algier. That is Jeremy Rucker. Damon Clark. That is Trent McDuffie. Dominique Robinson. Marcus Jones. Tagan Quitteriano. Trayvon Walker. Kennedy Brooks. There's our base auto. We had a George Pickens to 99. Had a Chris Olave and Drake London Duel. We had a Bailey Zappi Variation Crackdice and a true base Desmond Ritter Crackdice. Massive card. That'll do it for the break guys. Thanks again for the fill. Next up, number two.


We have next Tom Van Drimelen, a PhD researcher at Leiden University Medical Centre, and Tom is going to talk about researchers' decision making. Tom. Thank you. Very nice to see so many of you still here, especially seeing as the Eurovision Song Contest is on right now, hoping Holland gets through to the finals so that I can see the rest of it on Saturday. But I'm very happy to be here talking to you today about our research project on researcher discretion. Sorry. And when most people, when most researchers talk about researcher discretion, it's usually seen as something, researcher degrees of freedom, it's usually seen as something negative. It's a place where science is vulnerable, where biases, where conflicts of interest seep into the research through the researcher. So usually the idea is that we need to try to curb this researcher discretion as much as possible. So I've got here a quote from a fellow Dutchman, Bichertz, and his colleagues. They wrote that the ideal preregistration of a study provides a specific, precise and exhaustive story of the planned research. That is, it describes all steps, only one interpretation, and excludes all other possible steps. So on this board up here, it's very easy to do that. Bam. What does it look like in practice? Is it even possible? We found that quite a lot of the research that talks about this topic of researcher discretion engages with it on a theoretical level, what people should and can do. Quite a little, not a lot, is on an empirical level. So we wanted to change that. We set out to research, researcher discretion in practice to find out when researchers are required to exercise decision, what components come into these decisions, and how these decisions are actually made. So how do we do that? By doing ethnography in a research group. Ethnography is mainly based on participant observation, triangulated with document research, semi-structured interviews throughout.  I spent 12 months at two different end of life care research groups embedded in their groups, joining formal informal meetings, taking note of observing and taking note of when researchers exercised discretion, when they made decisions about implementing the research plans. So what did we find? First of all, it kind of just slapped us in the face, just the sheer abundance of researcher discretion. How often these researchers had to figure out and still make decisions in the moment, and after long bouts of coding where we tried to identify and categorize these instances of researcher discretion, we found two categories under which this researcher discretion emerged. First of all, it emerged when plans were under-determined. So plans were under-determined in the sense that it failed to, it was not sufficiently precise to specify a specific action for the researchers to take. Something still had to be operationalized. Big circle, the researchers in the moment still had to focus it. So what this comes down to in practice is you have quite clear inclusion criteria. But what we saw is quite often these researchers still had to make decisions in the moment about whether a particular potential participant is wanted to be included in the study, for example, because their medical condition might not fit exactly with the inclusion criteria. Maybe you're not quite sure whether they understand the language, whether they sufficiently mastered the language. These are all things that had to be operationalized in the moment still. So where research and discretion emerged. So the answer at this point seems quite simple and we should indeed be following what Lichards and his colleagues said. We should be making plans that are very specific, very precise, and exhaustive. But that might not be a suitable solution for all either because, on the other hand, we had quite some moments where plans were over-determined as well. So over-determined plans were plans in which the protocol specifies, it's wonderful to specify specifically when, where, how something needs to happen, but things changed under circumstances at hand. Those are no longer desirable or even possible to execute. So you have to do something else. And again, research and discretion emerged. So even though in certain situations, and there might very well be situations in which you can specifically plan for actions in advance, probably this research and discretion will, will stay. But this is nothing new. We all know that plans change and that doesn't have to be a problem either because we've heard before, plans are plans and not prisons, so they can change and it's okay, this adaptation, operationalization is all right if you're just transparent about it. But our next finding kind of problematizes or makes things difficult for this assumption as well. Because we found it quite difficult to identify discretion sometimes. So occasionally in our data it was very clear researchers made a decision. They came together, they weighed different options and they picked one. But in many more other cases, there might have been different options available, but the researchers didn't consider any of them. They just went ahead, it was just implicit. So an example of this obviously is when we identified a decision in the data, but the researchers themselves didn't identify it as such. But interestingly, the researchers amongst themselves also express confusion, disagreement about whether an active decision was merited or whether a decision might have been made in the past. For example, we saw a couple of times where some person, researcher asked a question in the research, should we do this or that? Does this mean this or that? And another researcher just dismissed this, well, it's clear, right? It's right there, so we don't need to think about it anymore. So obviously there was these people identified their discretion differently. And if people identify their discretion differently, then that might mean that we're not really able to be transparent effectively about the things that really matter. Um, tying up a bit, I think tying up a bit. I want to say that maybe our research shows some indications that research discretion is an integral and unavoidable part of the research practice. What makes things a bit more difficult is that if we were just transparent about it, that would be great, but we might not be able to be effectively transparent because we don't know which decisions we've actually made.  They must be well-designed and properly met. And I would say so are plans, and that's why you see this nice double helix because I think we have two ways forward to go here. We need to design a fortress and we need to train the troops. Designing the fortress means that more follow-up research is necessary to contextualize and to qualify scientific rigor when it is necessary and when it is possible. But we may have to abandon fantasies of a protocol that states a specific action that is only interpretable in one way. But the next point is that training for responsible conduct of researchers might also have to include a bit more of an explicit acknowledgement that researchers regularly are required to exercise their discretion. And in order to do so, we might need to build capacity for these researchers to engage with these decisions with critical autonomy and reflexivity in order to responsibly manage the freedom and responsibility that discretion gives them. Thanks so much for your attention. My fellow researchers on the topic are Ria Reis, Niki Slachbaum, next bout there, Yeni von der Steen. There's so much more I'd like to talk to you about. Please let me know if you have any questions or tapping on the shoulder for the rest of the conference. Thanks so much. Great. Thank you, Tom, very much. Great talk and hopefully God is back more or less on time. If there are any troop movements to the microphones for questions, now is the time. To come forward. No, we're... Oh, there's one. Yep, quick, quick, quick. Yep, great. Thank you. This question will be very fast to ask, but potentially a very long conversation. It's part of my wondering about the relationship between metascience as a community and science and technology studies. Your study reminds me very much of Norcatina's study of epistemic cultures, Bruno Latoura's size and action, and this interesting sort of application to thinking about the issue of researcher degrees of freedom. So the question, I guess, is how do you make sense of, like, is this sort of an application of what we knew from STS into a metascience framing, or is there something, how do you make sense of the relationship between what you found and what we know from STS? Great. It's a nice question, and I think the fact that I kind of got through to you is a sign that I kind of succeeded in what I was trying to do. Indeed, I think both disciplines are kind of separated at the moment. I'm trying to combine them a little bit, but honestly, whether I've actually been successful about that is whether people, metascientists in the room, kind of find this credible, and STS people, what they think about this. So let me know. Great. Thank you, Tom, again, very much.


Well the Bemidji American Legion's namesake was honored over the weekend and this week's community spotlight our Josh Peterson shows us how an honored tradition and legacy continues to live on. It was a scene similar to Memorial Day but only this scene played out on August 12th. The day that marks the end of a life but honors an ongoing legacy. Each year the Bemidji American Legion post that bears the name of Ralph Gracie honors its namesake as a way to never forget the first soldier that was killed in combat from Bemidji. Ralph Gracie by all accounts was a very fine young man he graduated from Bemidji High School. Ralph is the price we had to pay for that he and this war. Gracie can be considered a pioneer flying with the American 17th Arrow Squadron with the British Royal Air Force in World War I. For a young man with a rural upbringing high flying adventures called his name. Ralph was doing that he was doing all kinds of loopy loop things and it just surprised all of us that in such a short time they got such ability with airplanes. Flight records and personal letters from Gracie document his tour of duty leading all the way up to his final flight. At the young age of only 25 years old a young Ralph Gracie made the ultimate sacrifice unknowing at the time the legacy he would leave behind. He's representative of the post of the Legion in Bemidji of the things we do in his name. While leaving a legacy he also leaves a story of inspiration like so many others who have given everything for the love of their country. Ralph is a symbol in a way in addition to being our namesake a symbol for all others who have paid the price of their life. With traditions like this and saluting Bemidji's first fallen soldier the Ralph Gracie American Legion hopes that his story will continue to live on with this week's community spotlight in Bemidji. Josh Peterson, Lakeland News. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.