Hello, welcome to Think Tech. I'm Crystal here on FOCTOP, still in Hong Kong. And I am very excited to share this conversation with you today to talk about anti-blackness from an Asian perspective. You know, we talk about racism and anti-blackness in the States. It's a very contentious topic and it's a very black and white binary, as you all know, and we're trying to break through those boundaries. But how about resituating our lens to Asia, to see Asia as a center of perspective, to uncack the way colonialism has affected certain countries, and how those residues of post-colonialism have impacted the way we live and our lens against people of color in Asia. So let's talk about that with my wonderful guest, the founder of the Africa Center in Hong Kong, innocent Lutanga. Welcome, innocent. Thank you. So happy to be here. I'm excited for this conversation. Thank you.  Because sometimes it's those small stories that really impact. I remember actually a few years ago we did this really, the radio interview with you. And you were talking about one of your favorite foods. Do you remember that interview? Yeah, yeah, I do. Talk about your childhood?  So it's been a, it was a hobby growing up. So, you know, I cannot forget one of my favorite foods because I still enjoy it up to today. Yeah, see, it's so specific and, you know, memories are so tied to culture and associations with everything. So that's a great way to start. So give us a little more background about where, what type of a place you grew up in and how and why you came to Hong Kong first. Yeah, I mean, I was born and raised in Zimbabwe, you know, before coming to Hong Kong about 10 years ago. And while I was in Zimbabwe, I think, you know, my childhood is defined by two places. One was rural countryside. And then the other part was coal mining town. So in the rural side of things, that's where, you know, it's kind of going around, you know, finding all the different fruits in the forest. You know, finding this so called bush opera, I think the Egyptians call it Molokai as well, you know, and, you know, and to heading goats and cattle.  You know, that was a very, very interesting coming of age, you know, experience where being a man. I remember it meant that you had to go through some experience, you know, having wasped by two, you know, having to go through some of these very, very painful experiences. You know, from becoming. You call that a coming of age of being stung by a wasp, you know, the stereotype of maybe some coming of ages from certain countries would be something more like some challenge of throwing you into the jungle and having you survive for a few days on your own type of thing. But that was like your normal life growing up. Yeah, it was a thing for us coming of age was not an event.    So that was kind of like my experience, at least within the rural areas. And then the mining town, I always tell people like I know almost everything about coal.  I want something about coal, because I don't know anything about it. You know, nowadays, of course, people talk about poor isn't an unclean form of energy. You know, but when I was growing up, I wasn't thinking it in that way. For me, it was just a source of income for all the miners that were working in there. You know, of course, when I look back, I realized sometimes even the way the houses were arranged, going back to colonialism and apartheid, the houses were arranged. The Europeans were usually their house in the eastern sides, and then the Africans on the western side, so the dust, the coal dust was going to the western side. So a lot of people actually minors were dying because of TB and other different issues around coal dust. And, you know, I mean, I'm only understanding those things when I go older like, damn, this was just not the best way the town was planned. The town planning was planned in a very, very weird way. All these toxic gases, you know, go to the African population, while the European populations are very nice, you know, outside of things as well. So that was kind of like, you know, so dust, coal dust was just the normal aspect of life growing up. That's such a good metaphor. You know, I'm thinking about the U.S. and the kind of the segregating, not on a legal term, but even today in the more subtle ways of redlining, you know, where houses for the disenfranchised are always in these certain kind of communities where they just lack resources, right? The water is dirtier. They have less trees, so it's hotter. And they're just all these trickling residues of these ongoing racial structures. And it's the same in Africa. Yeah, it is. It is. I mean, it's in a lot of these are still there. And yes, you know, there may not be so much European business, the Africans, but now it's a class issue now. You know, where the wealthy ones kind of sort of like continued, you know, of course, move to the other side just where the Europeans were. So these things are very much there.  That in some, but actually could do a very good study on the impact and the effects of this, you know, because a lot of people, the mind has died so young.  But now I think of, but now it's definitely problematic that people have to die so young because, you know, they had to go through these. They don't have the best protection stuff like that. All right. And people don't challenge people don't question or the ones who want to question and challenge don't have the voice or the platform, right? So were you always around your own people? Like was it mostly people Africans? Were there white people or white Africans who were in your area? Did you have like what was your first experience of so-called racism growing up that affected you? It was multicultural and multi-racial in our community. You know, of course, the people around me were Africans, but not necessarily Africans from Zimbabwe. It was also African Zambia, Malawi and all of these was being in mining. That's a very good point because, you know, we had that talk at the Africa Center with my students.  But we tend to think of Africa as this whole monolith kind of like Asia. Like I have this issue with Asian American. There's so many things. So you see the class we had, which was wonderful experience for doing talking about culture and introducing them to African culture. And you were trying in your very short time to be able to explain that every country in Africa has their own very unique thing, which is something we don't learn, you know? Yeah, definitely.   But it actually changes people's minds just to saw a picture, which is fascinating how people's stereotypes sometimes can fall off after just being exposed to various things that I would usually take for granted.  Because these people are already imagining that you're running around with animals without clothes. So just showing that it already cannot have a positive impact in terms of how they perceive the continent and its people as well. Is that one of the efforts you have with the Africa Center when you talk about rebranding Africa? Tell us about that. Yeah, so basically that's one of the aspects we do. So rebranding Africa, rebranding blackness, because you've got people who have these perceptions which have kind of formed through all this negative history that it portrayed Africa in a negative way.  You know, so the continuation, it didn't end with colonial, this charity discourse is also playing the same, onto the same narrative as well. These vulnerable Africans who are very smart and who are quite lazy in some way. So we challenge those perceptions and have people have accurate representations, not just positive. You know, one bit of complete and full, because we're not here to manipulate people like God. You know, we have problems, we also have good things, you know, as I get in society. So we figured out, you know, when it comes to blackness or Africa, it's not a letter of, oh, we are inferior. You know, it's about, you know, we have the fundamental value, we have all these things, just a perception issue. You know, so we're not saying let's industrialize Africa or anything like that. We're saying let's rebrand, because people have the negative ways of looking at Africa. But how do you bring the people into, you know, you can rebrand to your own small little community or contacts, but how do we really make the impact to change and disrupt this way of thinking about. So what we're doing is to, as much as we do directly with people, you know, more tactical, we talk to the schools, talk to students, this media conversations. That's one thing, but also on a strategic point, you know, we're going through like curriculum adjustments, for example, in talking, for example, the Education Bureau, you know, talking with the people who are in positions of making that larger in that they can incorporate, you know, content that's African, they can, you know, they can change some, both when I look at some of these books that were being used in Hong Kong, you know, I remember this one that was talking about the will of charity, you know, where there were these people in Africa who were living in a house that was leaking, and then they ate some organization with some girls somewhere had a charity thing to bring over to save the day.  Yeah, so, so, so, so we had to kind of like, no, we have the conversation with the people, the school, the education, people like that, Facebook, I don't think it's good. So, and then we adjust. So that's more like what a strategic point of view. And also that every child in the future would have absolutely a more accurate, you know, reception, they can't actually get their own view. I think we need this also in the United States. I mean, you know, Hawaii, where I'm based is really a little bit. Well, I mean, it's all comparative and it's all a spectrum, right?  It's a beautiful paradise. But it does. So, the ideas of racism that are inbuilt into the structures and to your point is the education systems, where are we lacking in the ways to unlearn certain things? You know, I think that's a lot of work to do. And you recently had an opportunity to go to the US to do this leadership program. Can you tell us a little bit about that and what that impression was for you about the US being there and kind of comparing, I guess, the anti-blackness in Asia with that in the United States? Yeah. So, I joined a program called the IBOP, it's an international leadership program. This is the very premier exchange program by the State Department, which has been there since 1940. So, it's a fascinating experience, a fascinating opportunity that I was very proud and happy to be part of. So, as part of this, we kind of went to different states and cities, and learning about, you know, my topic was on racial and social justice, and learning about the efforts, you know, the problem itself first, and then the efforts that people are doing to address the issue. You know, I think the issue is very complex in the US. You know, I think, you know, of course, being from outside, initially, I kind of think of it like, okay, this is the US race problem. And once I'm in and then from state to state, city to city, county, county levels and all these different things, I see all these different ways how people are addressing this as well as how the actual problem manifests. It was manifesting in terms of housing, for example, I go to some other places, gentrification is a huge, huge, huge problem.  But of course, on the overall aspects that actually there's been less and less in African Americans in Harlem, as it was, so there's a lot more gentrification, you know, that we're seeing. And then how were you perceived, did you have any encounters of feeling othered by people in America, or fascinated, or, you know, by your difference. The perception, I think one thing that I enjoyed first is that I feel like, oh my goodness, finally I can just mix among with black people and now we are many.   And then you can kind of have this kind of, you know, it's, you know, it's this microaggression that you see a lot more in Hong Kong, that's a problem. So I'm not trying to feel more welcome because there's, you know, there's a community of different people of color that come together in some kind of commonality. And yet sometimes you can say you treat, would you say you have more, what is it, do you have more power or at least voice here because you're not swimming around with so many of your like-minded people and you can do more because of that, would you say? I think there's that partly, but I think the other thing that I don't have much power on is that if you're not many, one negative thing you do, one negative thing one of you does, you know, it's going to stick around in the people of the minds of the dominated group. And so there is no opportunity or privilege to be bad here. One white guy does something bad here in Hong Kong, nobody's going to be running away from white people, okay. But one white guy does something bad, you know, we are going to suffer for the next six months.  But the way being watched, you think it's a little bit different. So the US, that watch, that surveillance, that subtle kind of, or not so subtle type of racism comes embedded based on the foundation the country was built on, right? The legacy of slavery. But in Hong Kong, it's different. There is, I think, to some extent to give, you know, Asians the benefit of a doubt sometimes it's just pure curiosity, right? Where do you draw the line? I think the idea of being watched in this context is that it's not, this one is not curious, this one is absolute fear that this particular person might do this harmful thing. You know, but curiosity is there overall, you know, which, you know, but that's more like on the, you know, on the street on the day to day, people want to laugh, right? So you can have people who are cautious and people who are curious and sometimes happen at the same time. You know, this is something that you would, you know, you sort of also experience. But on the other hand, I think there is quickness to judge. That's what I'm trying to get to within the Asian context, especially Hong Kong and China. There is like quickness to judge based on one little thing, it can paint a whole negative image. So I think it's, you know, that one also manifests on a good way that based on this, you know, sometimes you just show one picture, it undo all the negative imagination that they had. So I feel like, I think people make judgments quickly here.  You know, so the color of your skin is so deeply ingrained and associated with racism that I don't know, and on a global scale, that when we say we need to reeducate, we need to rebrand, how do we even move and break those boundaries? Yeah, I mean, that's the other thing. Here, if you wear in your suit, people are more likely to respect you. That's true. They're going to think like, oh yeah, he's making more money. You know, therefore, I got a, so there's a very classist. The class issue actually plays in more. It plays in, I think a little bit more, but there is an intersection of it. You know, there is an association that darker skin means no economically. So, so you want to necessarily give it the benefit of the doubt that, oh, even if you're darker, you might potentially be on the other side of the, of the thing. The initial assumption is that you're darker, you are lower class. And then when they... Chinese Asians too.  Yeah, that's the impression of, again, class and hierarchy of like privilege of climbing up a social network. And then when you're kind of climbing up the social ladder, the idea of success always associated with wealth, which is kind of sad too. And we're, you know, part of rebranding I think comes from the cultural aspect. And I want to bring it back to our event at the Africa Center last week when I brought my students over to your, your center. And one of the most brilliant things I thought was by introducing the different cultures on the African continent through music.  Northern Africa has what kind of music? What are the moves different? How is it different from like the Southern Africans in the East and the West? I have a short clip of this one of a drumming session where he does this. Maybe we can take a quick look and then we come back to it. What's his name again? That's Ronout, that's Ronout, Bob Wood. So it's brilliant that he brought out all the different African instruments and he's playing and he's getting the students to come and enjoy and embrace. And again, this whole sense of circular gathering is a very important energy that I think a lot of times when we think of education, we think of these kind of very static seats with the teacher in front and the students, you know, and I feel like this really brings an energy together to embrace a certain experience. Yeah, I think one of the important things we try to do with these programs is to be able to learn both the tangible and the intangible aspect of the culture. There is always a tendency to stick on the material side of the culture, like, oh yeah, you guys have these beads, you guys, you know, wearing this kind of clothes, that's all beautiful. But I think with music, for example, we're teaching them the concept of like, you know, how in African culture, you know, you can be different, but together it doesn't preclude you from forming harmony, even with all the difference. You can encourage all those aspects of it. And then through music, people are learning all these beautiful aspects of the culture, you know, which, you know, are not always easy. You can't teach that by saying, oh yeah, you know, this is the clothe, which are all great things to do, you know. So if we try to kind of get the kids to realize that it's Africans, we're not just dancing beings, you know, but there is a thought process behind it.  Oh, I think the FIM, but what about the Africans?  So these are kind of like important things to try to bring up as well. Right, so talking about learning culture through music and different aspects and just exposing it, and I think it goes back to the resituating the lens, how do we change our perception of something if we don't know that there is a different angle to it, right? And I always think about that in terms of everything we apply to, and we're not going to be able to break boundaries unless we do recognize the trapping of the certain framing that we're based in, right? So, you know, if you're in the US and you've never traveled out to Africa, and you all you see are these media examples of what Africans look like then, or in Asia, you're going to get which that really, really surface unfortunately stereotypical aspects. So changing things is harder than absorbing what we have, right? Yeah, definitely. I think one of the things we try to do is make sure people have a full experience of things. If the five senses, right, you know, they have a thick experience of their experience, where you eat, you know, your turn, you know, because one of the reasons why people end up with stereotypes, because they just rely on so much of one sense. They actually did something, they saw something, but because it was not, the context was not full, you know, they formulated an understanding of that thing based on whatever context they come from. You know, so when you start giving all these people different avenues like your students came in the other time, you know, they are eating, there's the listening stuff. Yeah, we had wonderful food. Let's talk about that. I think we have a photo of our dinner. You had an example of different types of food, including African diaspora food. It wasn't just like African countries. Yeah, yeah. So we tried to make sure the food itself is a conversation, you know, that's just throw it in the food.  Yeah, they are not able to resist and empowerment, you know, yeah. Well, resistance and empowerment come with you having to allow yourself to push against something too. Right. We don't sit complacently, even if we're in a society full of diverse communities, we can be isolated in our comfortable privileged shell. I have friends who lived in Hong Kong for years and never go to the Tatan tank, which is the local diners because of the language issue. So but then there's no excuse, we need to, we need to cross pollinate.  There is a publication to it because it feels like some people who are purists feel like we're doing something that's disrupting the system. But at the same time, cross pollinating. And I think you embody that because if you don't mind me going a little more personal now, is you and your, your wife, you have a beautiful daughter who is biracial now. And now I don't know if that changes the way you think about how are you going to move forward in educating her what are the languages and cultures and embracing Hong Kong as your home and how does it all come together. Yeah, I mean, I mean, definitely I think the idea of us, you know, proactively going across cultures, going across ethnic groups is very, very important. You know, we can just let things, you know, I like the idea of self disrupting as humans, you know, can just wait for an outside forces to be the one force change on us. You know, I think it comes to, you know, the parenting aspect, I think for me, what I've discovered is that children are much more confident when they are more familiar with their heritage. So in this particular case, I'm going to make sure she's got the most of the African side, she's got the most of the Japanese side as she's growing up. She's not going to be just half Japanese or half Zimbabwean, half African. She's going to be full Japanese, full African and full Hong Kongized. So, so, you know, that's the platform that I'm going to give to her. You know, it's up to her later on to decide how she want to go forward. But I think that's the bridge for good foundation for confidence overall. You have to have that talk, you know, like in the state, if you're like, you know, African American, especially if you have a son, you have to have that talk about how you present yourself.  How do you, you know, how do you be careful to be not susceptible to violence, which is sad that we have to do that? But how do you feel about that living in an Asian country? Do you think you need to educate somebody to say, hey, you got to be careful of this and that? And I think I'll probably want to be as paternalistic to say you should be doing it this way. But I think I'll be able to expose it to the problems so that she understands the issues. And then she will make a judgment how she's supposed to feel that about it and variance it. I think it's going to be my approach. Because that way, you know, I don't want my biases over her as well. Right. That's great. Innocent, you know, we're out of town, but this is just kind of like the entrance into thinking about and rebranding Blackness by talking about it, and thinking about how we can proactively disrupt those stereotypes. And I really appreciate all that you always have to offer. So we can always continue this conversation. Thank you for all the work you do at the Africa Center. Thank you. I enjoyed it.


Violence in the North Caucasus, a report by the Human Rights and Security Initiative at CSIS. Since January 2004, CSIS staff have been compiling, almost daily, a database that tracks incidents of violence occurring in the North Caucasus. This report highlights data for the period of January 5, 2009 through May 3, 2009. For previous reports that cover earlier periods of time, including the entire year of 2008, please see the link at the end of this presentation. For tracking purposes, the term violent incidents includes abductions, bombings, including attempted bombings, rebel attacks, police and military operations against suspected militants, assassinations of key civilian and military leaders, including failed attempts, the destruction of property by militants, and the discovery of weapons. Regionally, our tracking includes incidents occurring in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabudino-Balkaria, North Asetia and Dagestan. This graph illustrates the number of incidents of violence in the Republics of the North Caucasus from January 2008 through April 2009. If we ignore the significant drop in the number of incidents that occurred in August 2008 due to the war between Russia and Georgia, the overall trend in the level of violence in the North Caucasus appears to be increasing. As this graph demonstrates, however, the North Caucasus is an extremely varied region in terms of violence. While North Asetia and Kabudino-Balkaria remain relatively calm, Ingushetia has experienced a severe spike in violence following the mid-August War. Although there was a decline towards the end of 2008, which coincided with a Kremlin-backed change of administration, the level of violence in Ingushetia began to rise again at the end of the year. This graph depicts the levels of violence in the Republics of the North Caucasus over the last four months, from January 2009 through April 2009. In this four-month period, Ingushetia remains the most violent Republic, which is consistent with the previous 12 months. Dagestan, however, is now the second most violent Republic surpassing Chechnya. We will now note some major events that have taken place during this four-month period. To clarify, we include these events for context purposes only, and we do not intend to suggest a causal relationship. On January 13th, Umar Zorailov, a Chechen political refugee, was shot and killed in Vienna. On January 19th, human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov, an investigative journalist Anastasia Baburova, were murdered in central Moscow following a press conference held to draw attention to the early release of an army colonel convicted of the murder of a young Chechen woman during the war in Chechnya. On January 20th, in response to an escalation in attacks, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pays an unannounced visit to Ingushetia, where he met with the Republics president, Unusbek Yevkorov. Between March 19th and March 21st, counter-terrorist operations in Kakashura leave 29 dead. On March 30th, Solim Yamadaev, an opponent of Chechnya's Moscow-backed president Ramzan Kadyrov, was shot and killed in Dubai. On April 16th, President Medvedev signed a decree officially ending the 10-year counter-terrorist operations in Chechnya. The next day, Chechen authorities reinstate special counter-terrorist operations in Chechnya's more turbulent districts. This graph illustrates the trends in the number of deaths resulting from incidents of violence in the North Caucasus from January 2008 through April 2009. Although there was a decline in the number of deaths over the New Year period, in the months following the turn of the year there has been a significant rise in the number of incident-related fatalities. Of all the republics in the North Caucasus, the deadliest two have been Ingushetia and Dagestan, with the number of fatalities in Chechnya decreasing significantly towards the end of 2008. March was a particularly bloody month in Dagestan, with 35 people killed in one week, of which 29 of these deaths occurred during what appear to have been two government-instigated special operations in Kakashura over a three-day period. This graph shows the relationship between incidents of violence and related deaths in the North Caucasus in the first four months of 2009. It clearly depicts how Ingushetia is by far the most violent republic, but in terms of fatalities due to incidents of violence, Dagestan is on a par with Ingushetia. Although, again, it should be noted that a large number of these fatalities suffered in Dagestan in spring 2009 were due to the two counter-terrorist operations in Kakashura. This graph illustrates trends over the past eight years in the number of Russian citizens applying for asylum in industrialised countries. For comparison, we also provide asylum-seeker rates from Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan and China. As is evident, the number of Russian asylum seekers has remained comparable or even greater than those from failed states and states notorious for their poor human rights records. As this graph shows, in 2008, only citizens of Somalia and Iraq sought political asylum in industrialised countries more frequently than those from the Russian Federation. Moscow officials say that most of the Russian citizens that applied for asylum are from the North Caucasus and suggest that the driving motivation behind these high numbers is a fear of internal blood feuds. Rights activists, however, argue that it is not a fear of internal blood feuds but rather wider systemic problems in the region that are driving up the numbers. CSIS is tracking the level of violence in the North Caucasus and the price of crude oil. Here we offer a comparison of incidents of violence and the price of crude. Although it is too soon to offer any conclusions, we will continue to track the data and present our findings in future reports. This report has been made possible by a grant from the Open Society Institute. For recommendations on ways in which the international community can address issues facing the North Caucasus, see 49 Steps to Improve Human Rights and Security in the North Caucasus, a report by the CSIS Human Rights and Security Initiative and the Robert Bosch Foundation.


Hi, I'm Michael and welcome to today's webcast. Webinar. Phil, thanks for the feedback, but I'm trying to practice this webcast. Webinar. Same-say. Bit different. If you're giving a webcast, you're face-to-face with your audience. Like this. But from what I understand, you're giving a webinar, right? Yeah, that's right. They're at their home, or office, or home office, or boardroom, or the Cornish Cup Lounge, or Tahiti, or... Okay, I'll keep the picture. And I'm here. Or in Tahiti. Now you're talking. But how do I get them to engage, right? I mean, it's easy face-to-face, but here, I mean, it's great. It's just there's so much, so many... Possibilities? Yeah. Well, first, get to understand what your environment is and what it isn't. So if you're doing a webcast, it's like a big full-scale production. It's kind of like TV, but over the internet. It's where your video to take conference or a summit, and then you're streamed live to another conference or to someone's workplace or to their laptops. And if it's a webinar, then it's directly from my laptop or desktop to theirs, yeah? That's right. It's more about PowerPoint and less emphasis on video. So a webinar isn't? Isn't what? Well, that's what I'm asking you. You say get clear on what a webinar is and what it isn't. Well, a webinar isn't just a PowerPoint presentation. Even though there's less video, there's so much more you can do with it, especially with the Redback platform. Like? Well, you can do polls. You can do coaching sessions. You can add audio or video. You can get people to send in questions or even get them interacting with each other. But how? How do I get them to interact, Phil? How do I get them to engage with me? How do I know they're going to like what I've got to say, Phil? I mean, it's easy face-to-face. There, there, you're here. But here, look, it's great, but there's just all this stuff. And I've got to be the presenter and the facilitator and the sound guy and the video guy. Chill. Sure, you've got a lot more to cover, but you've also got more support. And once you get your head around the technology, it'll work wonders for you. And the audience? Well, they'll be eating out of the palm of your hand. Great. What's next? Get to know your web interface. Cool. Now? No, no. In the next video.


I'm your host today, Alex Silva-Satter, and my guest is Kwanukwanei Karmu. And he is the author of this book, Witness, a Civil War through the Eyes of a Child. And he is also the executive director and co-founder of Save More Kids, which is a non-profit in Liberia and operates there and you also have come have elements here in the United States here at UC Davis, agricultural collaborations and other things. So we're here today to talk about what's going on in Liberia today, what Save More Kids is doing, and what the future holds. In a previous episode we discussed the Liberian Civil War and your experiences as a child during that war. And I think just for context for this, during that civil war which lasted 10 to 20 years, 14 years, 90% of the economy in Liberia was destroyed. About half the population at the time it was around 2 million. So around 1 million people were displaced as a result of the war. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed during the civil war. And currently Liberia's population is around 4 million, 4.5 million. And the majority, 70%, right, of the people are under the age of 25. So that's some of the consequences that Liberia is dealing with today as a result of all of the war, the two civil wars. And Save More Kids was founded to address many of these issues. That's correct. And to develop a new future. So could you tell us about Save More Kids? Yes. Thank you for asking again. Thank you for having me on the show.  And it was created to commemorate the struggle of what happened in Liberia, but it also provided a realistic solution to a country that had been devastated by civil war. When we first got into Liberia for Save More Kids, literally we know that what we were doing would be so paramount to the solutions, to drive solutions to problems in Liberia. When we approached Liberia, we approached it not from the outside looking in, but from an individual who understand the struggle of what happened in Liberia. And then, of course, having been fortunate to get education in the United States to adopt to American living. Taking all of my development that I took from here, going back to Liberia with my passion for humanity, allowed us to be able to see things a little differently. So we were on designing solutions from the outside of Liberia, bringing it into Liberia and hoping that it works for Liberians. We were designing solutions after absorbing the crisis of what is happening in Liberia to be able to find realistic solutions to Save More Kids, to just be able to put in a solution that would be able to help the country in the long run. And the best way to go about that was Save More Kids, was just to be able to find that 70% of a population of a little over 4 million is under 25 years old. That was striking to us. And it was something that was right in our face, that if the future of Liberia is to hold, we have to invest in a young mind, into the individuals that will become the 20 years old, the 25 year old, young adults one day. If they are not in power to be able to become a solution in the country, then the country will be a dependent country on the rest of the world. And that's very limited to its potential for what is there. So we turn our attention to mental and kids. And we first started by opening up an orphanage home in memory of my mother for her promise that she made in our killing field in order for us to be able to expand on that promise that she made. We opened up an orphanage home and took in children who had been devastated by the war right from the beginning. So we took in 44 kids into this home and created this environment of empowerment and love on these kids in order to turn them into children who can not only grow beyond their circumstances, but they can become empowered and be able to become a solution in their environment. So over the last 10 plus years, a little over 10 years now, we have ran this home effectively and has been able to impact these 44 kids to begin with. The goal is to expand this home. We are building a bigger facility that's going to house 68 kids. It's also going to turn into an innovative center where the rest of the world can be able to descend in this place and impact these kids from this middle of this country, but also send these kids outside is be able to empower these kids so that one day they cannot be able to go into Liberia and become effective asset of the community. So from the home, we're able to then do a lot of programs. We have a lot of initiatives that we institute in order to be able to solve the problems around the home.  It's really taking the solution, exposing the kids to the problems in their environment and then innovatively aligning them with those issues and growing a passion in their system to be able to solve those issues. So not pretending that the problems don't exist, but making sure that they acknowledge the problems and that they can see that their solutions to the problem and they can become part of those solutions. Exactly. So a lot of what we're doing now is trying to build an academy, save more kids impact academy is what we're calling it, and that academy will speed up the age limit for education because of the war on the atrocity. Many kids start of school later in life. So you will have a 22 year old kid sitting in a 10th grade class or a ninth grade class after having any education. Most of those kids, the future just looks for them because even after high school then trying to go to college and trying to make life all those years go to waste. So we have an innovative concept to be able to build an academy that combines college and high school together in the same type of year. So that a lot of the kids, most of the kids I already make show to be able to handle the multitask things that we will introduce to them. We want to introduce them to trade that they can start learning right from the eighth grade. So they'll have eighth grade all the way to 12th grade, five years of experiencing learning those trades. So by the time you get a 12th grade, you have another experience almost like a dual type of system where you get a high school curriculum, then you have your college curriculum in the same school. And that's one of the ones that you're building right now? That's the one we're building right now. And we can use all of the partnerships possible with institutions that are passionate about change. We're asking them to join us to help us to innovatively build an education system in a society that can speed up progress and be able to have a lot of impact. And one of the other programs that you're doing is also a rubber planting rubber trees and creating a sustainable income that can fund these projects in these schools. Correct. Yes. So one of the things that we started to look at when we got to Liberia, remember when I told you solving problems from inside versus from outside help us to be a lot more effective. We realized that people don't have jobs. So what is the practical notion of trying to give hope to somebody if they can't afford to feed their families? I don't want to be an organization that just feeds people.  So we started to buy large pieces of land throughout Liberia. The organization owns somewhere close to 2,000 acres of land over Liberia. And we decided that since Firestone has been planting rubber in this place for a long time, why don't we start a plan rubber? So we have about 200 acres of rubber trees that we planted over the last five years. And even with that with those trees that we have planted, we are now innovatively bringing that into the classroom. I mean, it's going to be a part of the curriculum for the same old kids impact Academy where kids, teenagers will start learning about rubber technician, you know, how do you take out these trees? Because then when they graduate, they choose not to go to college, they can go straight and get a job in the farm or open their own rubber, open that own rubber planting farm and stuff like that too as well. And you're you're up to I think it's on the website. It's your goal was 125,000 trees, right? You're already at like 40,000 trees steadily going. And we projected income from that will support a lot of schools and the college the trade college that you were talking about sort of combined. And also a clinic, it mentioned a clinic. That's right. So there's enough money from rubber, because it's a very critical crop around the world. Yeah, to support all those activities. Correct. And it grows naturally very well in my area. And then you're also working with UC Davis right to study some other sustainable crops that would provide income and be an alternative to Yes. So we haven't started working with UC Davis. I know David have a program to work with international organizations or even places like Liberia, where farming can be sustainable farming can be a key thing in a place like Liberia. So as part of our institution that we're building in Liberia, we are creating room for schools like Davis students from here to be able to take trips and become part of our impact. So as part of the witness experience, the book, we created a book so that it become it's not just a book you read, but it gave you an experience. So that experience lies in Liberia. So when you read a book, we transport you for the witness experience to Liberia, so that you can actually engage in some of the work that we are doing on the ground, not only where you then come with our team to Liberia, but you get to experience parts of the book and go through what I went through from a tourism standpoint, but with a purpose. And then after you land in Monrovia, we transport you all the way to Banga. It's a 10 day trip. And you come to Sugar Hill where my home is where the home is actually on the still in the home that I grew up in Sugar Hill, we turn into this orphanage home. You experience all of this as from academia perspective, we create a curriculum that that that you go by throughout the trip. But an amazing surprise on top of this hill is you get to discover whether or not my mother made that promise, the promise that she made in a killing field, whether she lived, you get to see everything in action results of all that from that one promise. That's right. And then stemming from all of that, you, you as an academic institution are involved from academia perspective on how do you combine partnerships with a place that desperately need growth and aspiration with organization as forward thinking, obviously about a lot of this, how do you bring that together from from the classroom to another classroom in Liberia, where other students cannot collaborate with students here to be able to solve problems to put your learning and training into effect in a positive way. That's right. Yeah, so we one of our program manager for Save More Kids did a whole practicum on this. So we have a we have a well written curriculum practicum that colleges are looking at. We've already done some of the witness experience or other schools at University of San Diego has put this into their curriculum to be able to to start teaching from this next year. We've had schools in Massachusetts that have come on this trip and students from those trip from our witness experience trip took chapter two of the book, which is called Catching Light and create an entire program called Catching Light based on based on my father bringing electricity to the home. And these students are now providing electricity to impoverished communities around Liberia as a result of coming on the trip to Liberia. And electricity is one of the things that Liberia needs more on, right? Solar. Solar. Yeah. So that sort of with let's leave off on the future. Yes. What do you think is going to for the next 10 years of Liberia? What's what are sort of the main goals you think the country needs to achieve? Not just with the kids program, but in general, that's a great question. The next 10 years of Liberia, if I could imagine it being a great, perfect 10 years, I will imagine an open door where the word is invited to Liberia to be part of impact. We desperately want innovators from the classroom to individuals that are retired to take another look at Liberia, but come with an organization like myself. We are we have the foundation already laid in place where if you feel like you are at a place where your skill set is just dormant, we can put it to use and it will make you feel like you're living again in a whole another way. So it's not only that Liberia is calling you, but you will be transformed as a result of feeling like you are needed in a place and that you will fall in love with Liberia in ways that I can't even put in the words. So I think the next 10 years has to tourism in Liberia has to improve. And then of course infrastructure, building infrastructure, the educational sector in Liberia, we have to take an innovative approach to education in Liberia.   So you can't solve problems the same way it was created. So we have to take an innovative way of solving problems for education, health care, just about everything that that from us. That's why I love students because from a student perspective, they're in it to learn they're in it to give something. So if Liberia was on a plate on, you know, if it was a canvas, how can we paint it together in order to build a future in the in in the place and be able to transform life for a long time. Excellent. That's a great a great way to think leave off on Liberia's had rough past. And it's all about the future now. That's right. All right, we're moving headstrong. And I would just like to say one more thing. Sure. Savemorekids.org. Go to our website. Find out more. The witness experience is on there. So just look for witness experience. Sign up. You know, get more information about what we're doing. Of course, the book you can find on Amazon. You go to witness Liberia that come and it will come up and and start the experience. Okay, well, thank you for joining us and sharing your experience. And again, I recommend the book. I've read it. It's fantastic book. And I think it will open your eyes to a whole new experience.


Welcome to the Thargoid Report, I'm Commander Burr. This is a weekly breakdown of the ongoing conflict with the Thargoids and a guide to how you can easily get involved and make a difference. If you find this information useful and enjoy our content then do give the video a thumbs up and hit the subscribe button to make sure you see all our future videos. There has been a pause in the war. It appears that the Thargoids almost entirely redirected their efforts to the newly established human enclave in the Witchhead Nebula and have, for the moment at least, left the bubble and its inhabitants alone. Unsurprisingly the Enclave stations got the lion's share of the Thargoids attention and are, as a result, almost entirely offline. However humanity's independent pilots responded to the Thargoids attacks with their usual determination and appear to have, at least for the moment, driven back the alien threat from the Nebula. As a result there are no newly attacked stations to evacuate this week, no new scout vessel infestations and no new incursions to report on. There is however plenty of repair work to be done and plenty of Thargoid combat still to be found. The Enclave Interstellar initiative appears to be still ongoing and repair of the stations in the Witchhead Nebula looks to be the next objective. That is however a colossal ask due to the remote nature of the Thargoids stations. With that in mind and with the war appearing to pause for a moment, the team operation IDA, the player group who normally coordinate the ongoing repair of the damaged stations, have made the difficult decision to keep their focus on the damaged stations in the bubble and try to make up some ground whilst the arena appears to be quieter. The team at the post disaster evacuation service have no new station attacks to focus on and so are turning their resources towards the Witchhead Nebula's transport and repair requirements instead. If you want to get involved with either of those efforts then I've linked their respective Discord servers below, they'll be able to tell you what to transport and where you need to take it. If you still want to engage the Thargoids they are always available for a scrap and are actively seeking you out in their old stomping grounds in the Pleiades you'll also find them in permanent instances like those in Dessia. It's always wise to tackle the Goidicles with some support and you'll find links below to Discord servers for the AXI, the Hive and the Hand. Using them these groups have all platforms covered, they're a really friendly bunch and whatever your level of competence, they'll help you find bugs to suit your needs.  That's it for now, thank you so much for making it this far, you can also find us on Twitter, Patreon, Discord and Instagram, links to all those are in the description below and we'll be back later this week with more videos until then O7 Commanders May all your hyperdictions be brief and don't let the horror daisies give you nightmares. We very much look forward to seeing you next time.