So we're here at Computex 2018 here with the analogics. And hi, so who are you? My name's Joseph Wan. I'm the senior marketing manager at Nenogix. And right here, you're showing that this is the, this is the Qualcomm Snapdragon based Windows 10 device. Correct. And it has your chip inside the ANX7 440 inside. What does it do? It actually helps clean up the jitter and noise across high speed signals. So the 7-440 is a DP alternate mode retimer supporting USB 3.2 10G and DP 1.4 HBR3. Is that what you're showing right here? Correct. So you can display port 1.4, which is, what does that allow for? So 4K 60 hertz or above like 4K 90 hertz refresh rate. So you need the DP 1.4 bandwidth to support the 4K resolutions requirements. So this is where analogic excels in the DP interface in terms of signal integrity and also switching, high speed switching and also a lot of T-cons and also converter devices from USB type C to DP or USB type C to MIPI, right? Is it, are you kind of like the display port company or not really? Like because the display port is a consortium, right? Or many companies, but are you like the main one or? We are one of the main committee sponsors. We're one of the key members inside the VESA, V-E-S-A, that support the DP and also a lot of display port type of product solution. So we're in the committee and we're actually one of the key contributor for the VESA memberships. Yeah. Did you invent display port or no?  It's just a display port over USB, is it? Yes, a display port type of an interface. We call it a slim port to MIPI and type of an interface. Isn't it what all the Galaxy S8, S9 and the Mate 10, Mate, the P20, all these phones that have PC mode, they all use slim port over USB type C or is not slim port? Yes, they also use slim port technology from Analogik to enable the display port interface. You're correct, yeah. And this is the latest one or you have a previous generation too. This is the one you're talking about right here. A and X7 440. Yeah, the right here, 744.0 is the latest our signal conditioning devices. So 744.0 will be the flagship of the Retimer product and that supports USB type C connections. What does it mean Retimer? Retimer is a signal conditioning device, removing all sorts of jitter and noise to improve the SI quality, signal integrity quality, right? When you're going through a high speeds, the jitter and noise and crosstalks are going to increase at 10G. And imagine you have a very noisy signals. You're not going to be able to see the throughput because when you have a poor signal quality, you're not going to be able to achieve this kind of data rate because the link's going to break. And I- Is it because the cables are bad or what does it mean? That could happen as well when the cable has a very poor quality of the shielding, the grounding and the noise and crosstalk, you may incur a lot of jitters across 10G high speeds. So how do you compensate or remove all these jitters? You need to have a Retimer where that supports a lot of jitter removals. And this is where we come in and help you to improve those signal integrity across daisy chain. And what we are seeing right here, this is one of the state-of-the-art daisy chain. We're connecting four devices, four Retimer together. So it goes from here to there to there to- To the hard drive. You see? So- Through all four. All four. So you're coming out from the hose. This is a 10G Type-C port, going to the cable up to the first Retimer and then the second one and then third one and then fourth one out to the 10G Scandist SSD drive. So is it just to demonstrate that if you go through, through, through, it's still keeping the same bandwidth? Exactly. It doesn't lose any bandwidth. It does not degrade the bandwidth. It actually improved the signal quality from the hose to the endpoint, right? So this is where we're seeing right here. You see in the 10G benefit, the 858.7 or 800 megabyte per second, transfer rate demonstrating to you this is a 10G throughput happening. Right before- This is a MacBook. This is an Intel device right here, but you can do exactly the same with this ARM part Windows 10 device. Correct. Exactly the same. Exactly the same. And then this is the HP, the latest HP 2-in-1. Which is the, it's called- The MV window system, right? And it has this- Windows over ARM? DP 8.1 gigabit per second. And USB 10 gigabit per second. So that's really fast USB. Exactly. So USB 10G, it's gonna be proliferated across many platform. And then it's happening as we speak because 10G is gonna help improve the data throughput. Imagine you have some video clips like you're gonna be recording a lot of video clips at Computex. It's gonna be like upwards of five gig or seven or six gigabytes of data. Yesterday I recorded 120 gigabytes in one day. So if you have a 10G, if you wanna hook up to your camera and then download to your hard drive with a 10G, it'll only take 10 seconds to finish all the downloading. But it's 10 gigabits per second, right? 10 gigabit per second. You still need maybe 100 seconds. 100, well- 50 seconds. Yeah, if you have 100 gigabytes and then you would take maybe 10 seconds, right? So there's this really cool, the Mate 10 and the P20 from Huawei. But then they have one called the 110. Has the same SOC. Yeah. But it doesn't have the PC mode. Is it because it didn't include your chip, you know? Or is it because it's just software that didn't... Yeah, you mentioned that the Huawei Matebook system, is that right? The Mate 10. The Mate 10. A phone, okay. They actually are requiring that to have DP interface. A lot of phones are being hooked up to the TV. So it's through the DP interface. This is where we analogically can come in and help. You are inside the phone, right? Yes, we're working with the Huawei trying to get design in on the Huawei smartphone or tablet, you know, those Mate 10 systems. Do you also try to go inside their SOC or you always have your own chipset on the PCB? We're gonna have a discrete solution outside of their SOC. Basically... Outside the SOC? Outside, basically. Always outside. Always outside. You don't wanna be inside the SOC? No, because that way they have the flexibility to place our chipset around the PCB board. If you get integrated, you may not have that flexibility to place where you want to place the chipset to improve the signal quality. But don't some of them already included under SOC, this kind of functionality? Some of them are being... Like Qualcomm, maybe? Yeah, some of them are being integrated. For example, some of the power management or some of the amplifier and then or some of the analog amplifier devices and some of them are being integrated, correct. But our chipset, which is a signal integrity product, would be kind of challenging to have them integrated inside the SOC, yeah. So are you saying that yours is maybe better quality than the ones that are inside the SOC? What I'm saying is that there might be some challenging tasks to integrate this type of signal integrity product as part of the SOC-FI. The FI would not be able to handle the integration because it's actually a 30s. And when you have a 30 on top of another 30s, it's always a difficult... What do you say 30s? 30s, a serial deserializer, which is a FI layer, a FI layer, right? So this is where we have this signal integrity product. These are actual 30s. What does it mean, signal integrity? The signal integrity is like, when you have a signal going through high speed, you're going to have the eye mask opening that's fully compliant to the USB IF spec or DP 1.4 VESA spec. You have to meet all the compliancy to be able to get your certification across the USB IF or VESA committee, yeah. And you're also in the Chromebook? Yes. These are the arm-part Chromebooks that are there. I guess this is maybe a MediaTek chipset or maybe a Rockchip. I think it's a MediaTek or forgot. Yeah, this system will be a, I believe, is Qualcomm arm-based. I think it's probably MediaTek. If it's a Chromebook, right? Yeah, I'm sorry, it's a MediaTek. I take it back. It's a MediaTek, yeah. So, but then what does your chipset doing in this one? Is it also for the USB Type-C? Yes, it's actually supporting USB Type-C as well, yeah. But it's not this one, right? It's not a 4K output and everything. It's a 4K 10G output, USB 10G as well, but it's a passive device. It does not have a retimer or signal integrity product built in. It only have a passive MUX to support 10G and DP 1.4, 8.1G. What does it mean, this passive? Passive meaning that you don't have a retimer built in. A retimer is a CTLE signal conditioning device, right? A passive MUX basically without any of the signal integrity, signal conditioning device inside. Yeah. So this is for data and video? Correct. And that's your role in this device? Yeah, we have a part called ANX7447 built in inside here, yeah. Do you also do work with the HDMI or you only work with DisplayPort? Well, we also have HDMI, for example. We have the dango. Let me quickly show you here. This is a slim port, converting DP to HDMI, as you can tell. So an output to the monitor right here. So it go through from the phone right here, it go through our retimer, clean up the signal. Is it the Mate 10? This is the Huawei, yeah. Mate 10, I think. I think so, yeah. Maybe? Huawei Mate 10. Oh, Mate 10, yeah. Finger? Yeah. And then going through our, you know, some ANX7441 retimer. And then hop over to the slim port converter from Type-C DP to HDMI, as you can tell. And output to the monitor with the 4K 60Hz quality, yeah. Nice, and this one even works as a, I think this could be used as a mouse and stuff like that. Correct, correct. And you can use Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, it's like a PC. Yes, you can have a Wi-Fi Bluetooth type of my interface, yes. And here you're showing some, what is this, VR solution? These are the VR solutions. Why is that? These are the, no, the cable, a tatter, tatter, yeah. And what do you do with VR? So we have a, we call it a 76788, a Chicago device, a DP to MIPI. And this is where we actually help the resolutions. And then, and this chips built inside the goggle here. Oh, actually seven, seven, four, three, seven, five, three, zero, DP to MIPI. I take it back. Yeah, yeah. And over here, you are showing that you can do, you have the same solution inside with the Intel too. You have the, this is the ARM Chromebook. Yeah. So the 100E, that's the Miatech, I think, forgot the name, I think eight, one, seven, three or something like that. And then you have a, you're showing stuff with the Intel here? Same? Yeah, this is an Intel, early reference design, yeah. So that means you're, you're chipped here. Yeah, so four, four, seven, like I said, passive mux without the retimer. Basically, the passive mux is placed nearby the connector. So therefore you don't need a retimer right there, yeah. And what are you showing here? What is this? What we're showing here is a T-Con device, our ANX2403 Cedar, which supports HDR 400. So the T-Con device can place directly on the motherboard and it does not need to, you know, directly place on the TV, I mean, the monitor display. So you can place on the monitor, directly on the motherboard and have the driver chips on the nearby the monitor. What does it mean T-Con? T-Con, the timing controller. So, you know, when you have a display, you got to have a timing controller to map the data coming out and driven onto the display. And these can be touch screen, right? Can be touch and then basically is, you know, to control the, right, the touch and stuff. So when you have this solution here, would it lower the cost of the display driver? Or you making a display driver or what does it mean? No, we don't make the driver, but we make the timing controller, the T-Con controller to be able to drive the data output to up to the display area, yeah. And here's some other- Some other, like, the surface book utilizing our T-Con inside the motherboard. So that helps with that. With the pen touch, right? The Microsoft pen touch. All right. So what is analogics based? We're based in Santa Clara near the San Francisco Bay Area in U.S. and then we're headquartered over there and we're very pleased to showcase our latest and greatest technology here at Computex. And this is where we excel in the Retimer, senior integrity product for USB 10G and DP 1.4, as well as T-Con, as well as the digital converter for video and digital converter from DP to BIPI or DP to HDMI type of awesome. And this Mate 10 has your chip in there on the PCB and it's just next to the USB port somewhere nearby? Is that where you put it? Yeah, there's some slim port control inside, I think, yeah. Is there a price for this chipset or is it a secret? I'm, yes, there's a price- Is it less than $1 or what do you think? I think the street market, it actually dictates the market and then I think at this point, I think the price will be quite competitive as well for us. No, right? So every phone should have it, no? It depends on your... It's only like four phones that aren't, high-end phones available right now. There were some before, right? But the latest phones, there's like four or five maybe or something, why not have all the phones have this functionality? It depends on how you want to architect your phone if you want to support 4K display, you definitely need some higher throughput type of an interface, a retimer or converter product and this is where a slim port product able to support you with 4K 60Hz or 4K 120Hz resolution and it'll depend on how smartphone mandate or implement their feature sets, right? But HDMI says that they can do HDMI over Type-C alt mode, right? Yes, yeah. Doesn't that make things simpler if you don't have to convert to display port and then back to HDMI because everybody needs HDMI. Most people at the end, they have HDMI on the TV. Yeah. What do you think? So nowadays, the chipsets come to the building DP port, DP transmitter port. So a lot of them do not, well, unless you have DP dual mode DP, DP plus plus, which supports DP and HDMI mode. But if you don't have, basically DP plus plus has to support DP LVDS signal logic also has to support TMDS to this TMDS logic is actually supported by HDMI. So what I mean by DP plus plus, it must support LVDS and TMDS for HDMI interface. You have a solution that does both? No, we don't. Anybody else? Yes, other people have some of the converter. You have a little chip that does both display port and HDMI alt mode in one device? Yes, yeah. Like one phone on the phone? On the phone, yes. They do have some single chip converter.  We're more into display port type of support, yes. But why can't you just all work together agree on standards and stuff? What does have to be, it seems like there's a fight between the display port and HDMI, is it true? I will say more of the usage model, right? I mean, if you have a DP which are being populated, the attach rate of DP is getting much higher compared to HDMI mostly in the TV and DP is into notebook. Like for example, this monitor has a DP or HDMI? This has a DP and HDMI and then both, right? But many displays like this also have HDMI, right? Correct, correct. So more and more, because the host will be supporting DP more and more in the industry, that's where you see the DP ecosystem will be panning out to other... All the laptops are all these Type-C laptops, they're all doing DP, they're not doing HDMI or Type-C. Correct, because... Because DP was the first on the market? Well, DP is first to be integrated as a display port, as a video port for the processor or chipset. So that goes with what's available from the chipset and they bring it outside to enable the DP port. But all your technologies, all this retimer, all the stuff you're talking about, can you also just do everything in HDMI too? Yes, we also have other part that help HDMI, signal integrity, because HDMI 2.1, it's gonna be running at 12 gigabit per second. So the TMDS gonna transition to fixed ray link, which is an FRL. The FRL logic is running at 12G, so definitely retimer technology will be applied, will be applicable to the HDMI 2.1 as well. Didn't they even say they wanted to 48 gigabit per second, right? It's coming, they don't... 2.1, yeah. 2.1 is only 12 gigabit, but I think going forward, the 48 gig, that is the resolution bandwidth requirement, but with the 12 gig from 2.1, that will suffice in terms of getting the 48 gigabit type of a transfer rate to support that kind of bandwidth requirement. Yes, HDMI, upcoming HDMI 2.1, we'll be able to support that, yeah. And you will support it? We will be factoring those feature set in our HDMI 2.1 support as well. All right, okay, thanks a lot. Thank you. Thank you for...


Good afternoon, and you're all very welcome to the IIEA webinar on the UN priorities in peacebuilding. This is part of the Global Europe project supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs. And especially warm welcome to our guest speaker, the UN Undersecretary General for Political and Peace Building Affairs, Miss Rosemary DeCarlo. Before I hand over the floor after I've introduced her, let me just put a few housekeeping issues out there. Our format today will be a 20 minute formal presentation followed by question and answers. I would encourage you our audience to participate in the question and answers by using the Q&A function on your Zoom screen. You can send your questions in during the formal presentation and we will come to them later. For those of you who wish to follow the discussion on Twitter, the hashtag is at IIEA and in a warm welcome also to those who are joining us via YouTube as this event has been live streamed. Both the question and answers and the formal presentation are on the record. It gives me very great pleasure to introduce the Undersecretary General for Political and Peace Building Affairs Rosemary DeCarlo formally to you. After a very distinguished career in academia and diplomacy, Rosemary DeCarlo was appointed to her current role in 2018. She is, and this is really quite remarkable, the first woman to hold this position in the long history of the United Nations and congratulations to you on that. Prior to her appointment, she served as a US diplomat and had a distinguished career, including at the UN mission in New York, and also as Assistant Secretary, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. She has served overseas and has worked in the embassies in Moscow and Oslo. We very much look forward to listening to you today and engaging with you on this very important topic. The floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mary. I'm pleased to speak with you today about the work of the United Nations in conflict prevention, peacemaking and peace building. And I'm very pleased by your interest in our efforts. Your engagement is crucial in building support for principled action in global peace and security issues. The world today is at a particularly challenging global juncture. The peace and security environment is deteriorating. We're witnessing renewed geostrategic competition. Conflicts are more complex and fragmented. They're also more regionalized and internationalized. They're more protracted and harder to resolve. The wars in Syria and Yemen, which we are trying to help end, exemplify this evolution. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased inequality, rising tension, and social unrest, as evidenced by large-scale protests on several continents. Women and members of already vulnerable populations have been disproportionately affected. In many parts of the world, there's a crisis of legitimacy of institutions linked to a perceived failure of governments to meet the needs of their population. The recent epidemic of coups in West Africa is a vivid example of the consequences of this crisis. The climate emergency is exacerbating risks and creating new sources of stress. The areas like the Sahel, for example, farmers and herders vie for a shrinking share of arable and grazing land. Conflicts are becoming increasingly hybrid, fought on the battlefield and online.  In the last year, we witnessed a major escalation of conflict in the Horn of Africa, leading to a humanitarian crisis and allegations of crimes against humanity and other atrocities. In Afghanistan, the Taliban takeover has resulted in a complex political, economic, humanitarian and refugee crisis and a rollback of human rights, especially for women and girls. And the war in Ukraine, beyond the senseless tragedy it represents for the Ukrainian people has seriously exacerbated global tensions and divisions. These challenges and how we meet them have monumental implications for international peace and security. We're facing a test of the effectiveness of the global collective security architecture and of multilateralism itself. The need to come together to rebuild a common understanding and how to address these challenges is therefore obvious. This is why the Secretary General reached out to the UN membership in his report, Our Common Agenda in September 2021. As part of it, the Secretary General called for a new agenda for peace. This initiative has at its core, the prevention of conflicts and the building of peace with a range of priorities from reducing strategic risks of nuclear weapons to placing women and girls at the center of our efforts to encouraging more investment in prevention and peace building. As the Secretary General argues in Our Common Agenda, to protect and manage the global public good of peace, we need a better understanding of the underlying drivers of conflict. A renewed effort to agree on more effective collective security responses and a meaningful set of steps to manage emerging risks. So what are we proposing to do, you might ask, and what are we doing?  First, there is a need to expand analysis and look at a wider range of stress factors that may trigger conflict or violence. For example, we're now incorporating a political economy approach, as well as a gender and climate lens to our analysis. We're aiming for data driven approaches to mediation and conflict prevention, and we're investing greater efforts on new threats to peace and security. For example, most of our special political missions and peacekeeping operations are in countries that are highly climate vulnerable. Therefore, along with the UN Environment Program and the UN Development Program, my department established the climate security mechanism, which provides analysis and early warning on the potential impact of climate on security. With this information, our representatives and envoys in the field advise governments on risk mitigation and work with local communities on resource sharing and other issues. Ireland, during its tenure as an elected member of the Security Council, has worked hard to galvanize action to address this double vulnerability of climate and conflict. Similarly, we're looking more systematically at the impact of digital technologies, including the increasing central role that social media plays in our societies and how it can be instrumentalized for offline harm as we saw to devastating effect in Myanmar. Second, inclusion must be front and center in our efforts to promote peace and more broadly as a guiding principle for the United Nations. The rationale of the sustainable development goals to leave no one behind is a plan for inclusion. It's also crucial for peace and political processes. The UN's full, equal and meaningful participation, another area where Ireland has been an important champion in the Security Council, has to be a major priority. Well, progress has been slow efforts such as the Syrian Women's Advisory Board and the Yemeni Women's Technical Advisory Group show that we can make a positive contribution to this agenda. The inclusion of youth across the various dimensions of the UN's work is also critical, particularly engaging young people and efforts to prevent violence and promote peace. Third, initiatives to prevent and resolve conflicts must take place alongside long term peace building efforts that address the underlying reasons for violence. This is our approach to address complex challenges such as in Burkina Faso, where fragility as well as the effects of the ongoing crisis in neighboring Mali play significant stress on state institutions and political stability. Our aim is to support local authorities charged with taking part in dialogue, conflict prevention, and peace building. This is why, along with the UN development program, we deployed peace and development advisors to advise governments in 60 different countries in context, ranging from Ecuador to Nigeria to the Maldives. Fourth area, we are focusing on as a growing number of conflicts or crises are felt beyond national borders, there's a need to increase regional approaches through our regional center for preventive diplomacy for Central Asia. We've been supporting dialogue amongst the five Central Asian countries on issues related to the sharing of water resources. We're also placing great emphasis on working in tandem with regional and sub regional organizations who are well positioned to respond to emerging crises for their respective regions. For example, our mission in Sudan is working with the African Union and the Intergovernmental Agency on Development to facilitate negotiations on Sudan's transition to democratic governance. And finally, there's a need to invest in diplomacy for peace and engage to find political solutions to long lasting conflicts. We spare no effort to capitalize even on small windows of opportunity. Our work in Yemen is the case in point, our special envoy painstakingly engaged with parties in support of a nationwide truth, which commenced in April 2022, and has just been extended for another two months. Although still fragile, this is a major milestone in one of the bloodiest civil wars in recent history. Before I conclude I'd like to say more about the war in Ukraine. The General Assembly has made clear in two resolutions that Russia's invasion is a violation of Ukraine sovereignty and territorial integrity, and a violation of the Charter of the United Nations. The war continues to exact a horrific toll on the people of Ukraine. The United Nations is providing humanitarian assistance, reaching over 7 million people so far and providing support to refugees and internally displaced persons. The war has set in motion a crisis that is also adversely affecting food security, global energy markets and financial systems. It has already aggravated vulnerabilities and many parts of the developing world. This is why the Secretary General established the global crisis response group on food, energy and finance. The group is mobilizing the entire UN system, multi lateral development banks and other international institutions to help countries face these challenges. The group has just released its latest findings and they're chilling prices are near record highs for food fertilizer prices have more than doubled. The World Food Program estimates the ripple effects of the war could increase the number of people facing severe food insecurity by 47 million in 2022. For this reason the UN is now working partners to enable the safe and secure export of Ukrainian produced food and unimpeded access to global markets for Russian food and fertilizers to prevent a devastating crisis. The war is also having an impact that is less immediately obvious but potentially just as dangerous. The violence has seriously damaged Europe's security architecture and threatens to undo the painstaking and gradual work of over three quarters of a century to durably rid the continent of insecurity and instability. The longer it continues, the more will weaken the European and global institutions and mechanisms dedicated to preserve peace and security. A political solution to the war then is imperative for Ukraine for Russia and for the world. And that solution must be in line with international law and the United Nations Charter. Thank you very much. Thank you very very much. Let me start the discussion going by maybe feeding a few questions myself. You talked about a test of global multilateral system and it has been facing that test with increasing difficulty in recent years. And you also outlined a list of steps that you have taken within the UN system itself to develop better and better tools that if we had a more responsive system could be more even effectively utilized. My question my first question to you and my second question is related to it is, given the paralysis amongst the permanent members of the Security Council. Do you see the General Assembly as being able to play a more effective role and I'm thinking in the context at this stage of the Littgenstein inspired resolution, which at least asked the those using the veto to come in and explain it to the majority of countries. So that's my first question. Is this a positive sign or will this just leave nowhere. And the second question I have is a resolution which Ireland co-sponsored with me share on the issue of climate change and integrating such considerations relating relating to climate security into the work of peace building and conflict resolution that was vetoed. But does that in any way inhibit your work in this area, or are you able to continue developing your instruments in this area despite that use of a veto. Thank you. Thank you very much for for both questions on the first one it's become it's obviously clear to the world that the Security Council has not been able to come together on a range of issues over the last few years it's been going on for a while but it has reached quite a dramatic point. Right now. I do see that regarding Ukraine, several members of the Council resorted to the General Assembly first for resolutions condemning Russia's actions. A resolution also regarding the Human Rights Council and Russia's membership there. And of course this latest resolution on explaining one's use of the veto. I think, yeah, look, I think both bodies can play a huge role in peace and security the Security Council is charged with that role, but it's not as if the General Assembly hasn't played a role throughout on various issues humanitarian and others. It's a positive sign that members of the Council now have to explain their vetoes to the general membership. I'm not sure how much it's going to change their actions to be perfectly frank. I think when I've seen countries use vetoes, whether it be Russia, China or the United States. They fervently believe in what they are doing. So I think an explanation before the main body perhaps is not as daunting as it might seem to some of us. I think, I, as I said I think both can play a role here. I've seen the GA plays significant roles on the humanitarian side resolutions on Syria, for example in the past. I think, however, that one can really do away with the Security Council, which really produces resolutions that are binding in a form the body of international law on the climate change resolution, which was a disappointment to too many. Obviously, I think it would be helpful for the world to understand that the body charged with peace and security understands clearly the role that the climate change can play on security. It hasn't stopped our efforts and I will explain to you a bit more. First of all, we do have climate raised in several country resolutions, Somalia case in point. And we've prevented us from putting climate security advisors admissions we have one in Somalia now we're going to be putting another five advisors in different missions and in the two regional offices in in Africa. Iraq, and I'm in Sudan, I believe, and I've forgotten the fifth but we are, we're working very hard to do that. And we feel it's a really important issue to focus on we know this is going to become more and more of a problem for stability and for security scarcity of water will continue to increase. And we know that that's one of the biggest concerns. And what the one thing that affects the movement of populations that can lead to intercommunal tensions and even conflict. Thank you for that. I have a question here from Goofran Kulani. Let me read it out noting that the Under Secretary General has previously called for the release of those arbitrarily detained in Syria. The Assad regime continues to forcibly disappear many Syrians in areas under its control. One, do you have any hope for the release of detainees. And two, will the UN and independent monitoring bodies gain access to all places of detention. And three, will the face of curbs of all those forcibly detained be revealed. What are your hopes in this regard. Okay, well, first of all, I still have hope. Let me just put it this way. We, the Secretary General has called for the release of those detained. Our special envoy has made this a major priority of his work. He has lobbied the Syrian government on many occasions has traveled there has tried to come up with initiatives that could help with the release of those detained. Do I think the UN will gain access. I think yes, eventually the UN will gain access. Do I think that there's still hope. Yes, I think that there is hope. I think it's going to be tough. I think it's going to be very hard and I think it's part of the overall situation in Syria I don't think we can divorce it from other things that are happening in Syria the conflicts that continue the humanitarian situation. And the, let's say, in some ways the marginalization of Syria from, you know, others in the international community. I think it's important to keep speaking about it and shouting out on this issue, and not to forget it and not to assume that this will never happen. Will the fate of those who have been detained or perhaps bearish be revealed, but we certainly hope so. Thank you. Thank you for that. Can I ask you a question. Quite a few coming in now but this is something I wanted to ask you myself, and you spoke earlier about working with regional organizations and so on, and I just wanted to ask you in the context of our particular focus on on the EU. Are you happy with the cooperation you have with EU institutions and are there any ways in which in your area of work you'd like to see it strengthened or improved. We're very happy EU is is a very strong partner of ours and we work with them on a whole range of issues. Let me give you one example. We had a quartet that worked on Somalia, it was the UN, the EU, African Union and EGAD. We started at the very beginning when there was plans for the elections working with them on getting those elections on the books, implemented transition, a peaceful transition of power, and also work together on the support for the African Union's force that is combating terrorist activity in Somalia. We've had a tremendous relationship with them on that. We work with them on a whole range of issues that I can't think of anything that is lacking frankly in our in our relationship working with them on Sudan now as well. On a whole range of things we've got a crisis response group that meets regularly and different for where we are cooperating at various levels with the European Union. Obviously, the European Union has brought resources to many of the initiatives that the UN is involved in we are very grateful for that. And is now working with us also on the issue of Ukraine and the humanitarian response there, including getting food grain out of Ukraine and into countries that are desperately in need. That brings me into another question and this question is from Kili Nozolovan, a Development Researcher at the IIEA. She says, you spoke about the impact of the war on Ukraine and food security in Africa. And what steps is the UN taking with local partners in Africa to ensure the food crisis does not lead to further destabilization and crisis across the continent. Our agencies are working with obviously countries in need world food program in particular. Trying to assess what the exact need is, what can be done where the grain can come from grain and other products because it's not just grain it's corn it's sunflower oil etc that's so in need that for which Ukraine was a big exporter in Russia as well. And there's been an effort to try to compensate to get grain from elsewhere in order to supply food in particularly in Africa. But we're not going to make it without getting some of that of the supplies out of both Ukraine and Russia. Are you hopeful in that regard I mean you spoke about it in your address and I know that a lot of this work has to be done behind the scenes and so on but are you reasonably optimistic that there will be a resolution in that area. Yes, yes we are because we've been working very closely with Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, Turkey's played a major role here in trying to broker, frankly, this G refers to it as a kind of a deal to open up the port to allow grain to leave from Odessa from the Black Sea area. While there are no sanctions on food and fertilizer produced by Russia. There, there is a reluctance on the part of many ship owners to go to Russia insurance costs are astronomical, as you can imagine. This is a war zone we're dealing with. And we have to find ways also to enable Russia to export the grain. It's going to be absolutely necessary because they're both very large suppliers and Russia of course for fertilizers huge. But we are we are optimistic the discussions are continuing. And we're very grateful to Turkey for playing a very major role here. That's, that's a very positive statement and thank you very much for that. And can I just turn to another issue and that is, I know that you have been working a lot on the question of involving youth in conflict resolution. Could you speak about that just a little bit what sort of initiatives are ongoing there is it involving digital platforms or how do you deal with this issue. And part of our work with youth, regarding, you know, conflict resolution issues is through digital platforms. We have managed managed to with it's an AI driven technology that we're using. I mean we've reached out to like 500 people at a time. We did so in Libya to get the views of young people regarding negotiations that are ongoing in Libya. And really trying to assess what they wanted to see happen, you know what what do they see is the future of their country what role can they play. Also in Yemen, we've done a couple of those dialogues in Yemen as well. We find it extremely useful. This is something we started doing during the pandemic. I, you know, there was no traveling around the world. We were reaching out more virtually but what we found was that we were able to reach individuals who normally are not engaged at all in such efforts. Yes, technology is not as widespread perhaps in certain parts of Africa. On the other hand, it's, it's spread enough for us to be able to to bring people in and a virtual platform for discussions. It's a major issue, you know, a major area where we're working in, but we do have a lot of youth initiatives and the peace building fund is funding quite a number of them. The focus on bringing, you know, young people and women into discussions about governance, public policy and peace processes, peace building is really I think very important. There will be a big emphasis as well in the Secretary General's efforts to implement all the provisions of his report are common agenda. Thank you for that. I was very struck when I was reading some of the work you're doing in that area reading about it. Think to myself, this is so self-evident, why did no one do it before. So. Precisely. It's amazing. Congratulations on that. The question here from keen Fitzgerald, who's a security and defense researcher at the IEA. And he says, hydro politics and the use of strategic damning has exacerbated climate risks, particularly in the type of Tigris Euphrates basin and the lower Nile, threatening food security and leading to greater instability throughout the region. What is the UN engaging stakeholders and what work is it doing to limit the instrumentalization of water by those seeking to be hydro hegemons. This is something that's being handled by the UN environment program. And, you know, very closely with governments in particular under advising governments on what really needs to be done to save save the plan that make sure that water supplies are not affected, etc. So it's not something my department has really been engaged in but I can assure you that UNEP is very heavily engaged in this area. And the question's now on women and conflict resolution and I suppose indirectly on resolution 1325. Suzanne Keating from the Department of Foreign Affairs asks, despite all the talk about prioritizing women, peace and security. The recent questioning of the role versus ways ruling suggests that we are facing a devastating backlash against progress towards women's rights and gender equality. And to bring renewed urgency to this issue. And another question is the Colombian peace process and its 2016 final peace agreement are widely held to be an international model for gender sensitivity and the inclusion of women's rights. What are the lessons learned and how can this model be replicated and other conflicts. It strikes me that in many of your statements you're very careful to be very specific to a conflict. So can we take lessons from Colombia, and can we apply them to other situations. Yeah, first you know on on women. It's, it's very clear that the UN has paid a lot of attention to women's empowerment, women's role in public life over the last 20 years. Increasingly so, I would say that said that doesn't mean that we've made sufficient progress. I think we all understand it agree in fact, we see backtracking around the world. To the point where you haven't seen a resolution on women's issues and the Security Council in a long time. I mean, first of all, there are a lot of resolutions already that have set up norms that are needed or various initiatives like the special representative for conflict related sexual violence. But I think the underlying reason is progress could not be made. And there's not it is no one wants to see any backtracking on this issue that ends up, you know, in writing. So it's, it's, it's an ongoing issue to promote women, particularly women in, in government roles, women, you know, female candidates for in elections, and of course women at the table and peace processes, which is an area that we work in a lot we work in my department we're working mostly on women in elections and in peace processes. It is a struggle, particularly on the peace process side in some parts of the world. I'll give you a few examples. For the Syria constitutional committee with 30% women at the table. And that's because the UN insisted we're running the process we insisted on it. For the Libya political dialogue forum, we had 22% female again we were running that process we insisted on it. And then we brought the government of Yemen together with the Houthis back in 2018 to open up the port of her data. There was one woman at the table. No more than that. And I think if we were to have a, another, let's say, round table with the Houthis and the government of Yemen in one room I'm not sure we would have more. No, we would be running the process. So it is it's a challenge, but we're going to continue at it. On the issue of Columbia and peace process. Yes, it is. It's incredible. It is. It's a model. The provisions and the gender sensitivity in, you know, the various recommendations and provisions of that peace process, very helpful to integrating women. I think it's a reason why I believe it's like 39% now in the parliament are female. I think it's a reason why women have managed to really make inroads in, in public life and in governance. So we're going to replicate. Yes. Yes, but not entirely let's put it this way. I mean, societies are different with there are a number of measures I think that can be looked at and, and floated, but say as we try to come together with peace processes whether it be in Libya, or Syria, or even Yemen. And staying with Yemen there and shameless Alan asks, are you able to comment on the prospects for a lasting peace solution in Yemen. Well, we're very pleased that we finally have a truce. The first, the truce was brokered for two months. It's been extended for another two months. It may sound like a minor issue, but it's a huge issue for a week. We have the sense that there is a desire to stop the fighting, whether that can really happen and whether the truce can actually turn into a peace agreement. You know, we will keep trying to do so. I think the key here is the those who are supporting both sides. And there has to be a desire not only of the parties on the ground but those who are supporting them to halt the fighting. But we will continue. We also, I mean, it's part of this truce is an opening up of a ties road which had been closed for a very long time. It's not leaving Sunoff or Amman and Cairo ships, more ships coming in. So there's some there's progress. It's fragile. It's modest, but it's a beginning. But again, we need the support of the international community in order to push this forward. Do you find inevitably that given the disharmony between the larger powers that it's difficult to get that to harness that type of support in various conflicts around the world at the moment? I think it is. I think it definitely is. On the issue of Yemen, I don't think there's much of a disagreement in the Security Council, frankly, disagreements are with countries who are not on the Council. And, but it is, it is difficult to see the Council coming together in a range of issues. Libya, for example, Syria. It's much, much more effective if we can get a kind of consensus in the international community for certain efforts. And Mark, another case in point, difficult. Valerie Hughes from Ireland, Syria Solidarity asks, as Russia looks set to veto cross border aid from Turkey to Idlib in July, how is the humanitarian catastrophe for millions of Syrians to be avoided? I think our goal is to get a renewed authorization for cross border delivery of assistance. The things who carry out humanitarian activities have made clear that that is going to be absolutely necessary, that cross line is not good enough. It has to, we have to have both cross line and cross border. Believe we're on our sixth cross line delivery. It's, you know, six in a year's time is not enough. We need, we need that cross border. We're speaking to the Russians on this. And, again, we are, we are hopeful. Here's another question. It's quite complex, but I don't know if you could, I think it would be interesting if you could maybe give us some idea about you again coming back to this idea that each piece process is quite specific to the situation. How does the UN go into a particular situation and begin to develop use or implement the tools that you have available to you, that you are developing to avoid conflict breaking out. Like, what's, I know you don't have an off the shelf. What's your normal. How do you normally operate in this way. Okay, well, first of all, we have to be wanted. And so we have to make sure that the parties in question or not adverse to having the UN, having the one involved, and sometimes they are. And, and sometimes it's better for another party to lead a process or lead discussions.  But what culture are we talking about what country are we talking about you need needs to have, make sure that you've brought on your team somebody who can understand better, let's say, then others. What is happening in a given country and how to reach out, speaking with the parties in question, obviously, but always, always, always, there needs to be a friends group of some kind or countries who will support the efforts of the UN, and support the efforts of the UN in such a way as talking to the parties in question, when needed, as a way of reinforcing messages. That's absolutely key. And when we see that the international communities divide let's take Syria case in point we had two different groups, we have the Astana group and we had the, I forgot the like minor group and I forgotten what they actually call themselves because they don't really do that much anymore. We tried to get them together. The Western group and the Astana group. You know, never the twain she'll meet bear that was it just was impossible because it would have helped tremendously in dealing with the Syrian crisis. We have a group of Libya. I mean we are, we work routinely with a group of countries, not who are all in agreement, who will help move the process forward for us. There's the bigger group, the Berlin process started by the Germans, which is a quite a large group. But we've got a smaller group that's representative of people in that group, coming from different perspectives, who are in helping us and engaging themselves with the parties on specific issues that we think is really important. Is that a challenge to have a group of a contact group situation where you have the main actors or the main influencers is a challenge between having too many people in the room, or too few. Yep. It's a challenge. Absolutely. Too many people in the room doesn't meet lens moral support but doesn't necessarily help you engage. Too few, particularly if it's skewed to a particular side doesn't work either. I mean you really need you need to have, you have to have countries who are willing to engage but also are really interested in seeing a resolution. Even if they disagree and have what the resolution should be of a particular crisis, but they have to be interested in that resolution. So that's a pretty tough decision. And there's a question here then. Another question from Sheamus Allen. And are you able to provide a comment regarding the use of economic sanctions against aggressors. And do you have views on the potential benefits or risks of economic sanctions because we have seen that while they're very effective they can also have unintended consequences. Thank you. Yeah, I mean on sanctions actually my department oversees the UN sanctions committees that have been established the monitoring groups and sanctions committees. And we've seen where, yes indeed sanctions can have can have benefits and changing the behavior of certain parties and the risks, and often the risks are more because there is over compliance. As opposed to lack of compliance in that, for example, I mean none none of the sanctions committees that are UN run our target humanitarian assistance anything that's humanitarian is not sanctionable within the Security Council context. And that said, what we see often is that member states individual companies do not want to take the risk. So, so there's an overcompensation and we're seeing a bit of that right now, frankly with Ukraine, where there's over overcompensation and implementation of some of the sanctions, you know companies thinking, don't want to touch it because there are sanctions and you even though food is not sanctioned, don't really want to touch that. It's, you know, reputational risk, potentially crossing a line not realizing it, etc. We've seen this on Iran, for example, with sanctions on Iran. It has to be really really carefully constructed any sanctions regime has to be really carefully constructed. And certainly, I mean as I said for the UN humanitarian, it's we never have sanctions and anything humanitarian. The Security Council has been very, you know, clear on that. But that often is that's not, let's say it often translates again into lumping everything together. I just ask because I think that's a very important issue you're mentioning there. Will they accept your reassurances, you know, this is not against sanctions or does it require some of the more powerful governments to come out and say clearly to their companies. There's no, there are no sanctions on shipping food or humanitarian goods. Absolutely. It requires the countries themselves are saying it trying to explain a sanctions regime. First, we don't try to explain things that aren't ours, but it's got to come from the countries themselves. For example, on the issue of export of Russian food and fertilizers. The US has said that they're willing with their willing to issue what they call confidence letters to companies to explain. These items are not under sanction. Not only do we not are not, are we not opposed to what you would do in terms of shipping grain. We promote the idea that you do it. And this is going to, if this is needed, because as I said this, there's a sense of reputational risk venturing and dealing with a country that might be under sanctions for whatever to extend to all kinds of other areas. That's, that's very, that's a very interesting point. So another question here from Alex Conway who is in the EU Affairs researcher at the IEA, and he's referring to the peace process on the island of Ireland, and the impact on that of the decision of the British government to unilaterally revise the northern Ireland protocol to its Brexit agreement with the EU. Do you have any views on this issue. This is an issue I would leave to, to, to, to Ireland, the UK and the EU, I would say.  Peace and prosperity. Yes. Thank you. And that's a question from Ekaterina Tarasova. And she asks, and I think it's a response to your earlier, an earlier question to which you replied. And she asks how do you remain hopeful about Russia's cooperation when they've shown such a disregard about international laws and norms. Okay, I think let's, we're talking about food and fertilizer here. We're not talking overall peace process right. Because of the indications they've given, because I don't think they want to be perceived as a spoiler in the developing world. I think Russia has obviously maintained close relations with a number of countries over the years continues to do so. And certainly, at this point, you know, is, is concerned about its reputation going forward. And we've had indications that they want to help resolve this problem. And we will take them at their word and do our best and try to make this happen. And we've had a wide range of questions. So if you permit me I'm going to end with a personal question. Sitting where it's sitting where we're sitting now, and we look in at the UN and we see deadlock by a large sitting where you are there you see problems to be solved. How do you manage to motivate continue to motivate people your own staff included, when you see the difficulties you have to surmount to get the smallest achievement. Well, frankly, it's not very hard to motivate them they are I have a very motivated motivated crew. And, you know, we take small gains as, you know, hope for larger gains. Put it this way I mean case in point Yemen. I mean we were dancing for joy, a two month truce was a huge thing, given what's been going on in that country. And we want to turn it into something longer. Similarly, you know as you mentioned the food crisis and the export of grain and other products. We're willing to keep at it until we get some traction and success now. Do we always have success. No. Let's look at Syria where it's been dragging on since 2011. And it is very sad and refugees not willing to go home understandably so they don't feel the conditions are right. Our role is to take care of those refugees as best pass as possible. Do we see a light at the end of the tunnel in Syria. Well we see one that were that could be a light, but we don't see the sides, being able to reach it. There's just the sense that it can happen. I was, you know, talking to a colleague who said you remember it took over 20 years for North Macedonia and Greece to negotiate the name of the country, but it happened. Yeah, peace peace comes dripping slowly and words of the poet. Thank you so very very much. I've really enjoyed listening to you and I started off feeling quite pessimistic, and somehow you have managed to motivate me and especially I think again, looking at the example of how you use what you have available to try and make some progress. Thank you Mary, it's been a pleasure. Thank you.


Aloha, everyone, and welcome to Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Kilii Akeena, president of the Grassroot Institute. Today we're going to learn some lessons from Houston. Houston is the only city in the country that has virtually no zoning laws whatsoever, or let me put it this way, it's the largest city in the country with no zoning laws. Now, what does that have to do with the Hawaii situation? Well, if you know anything about Hawaii, you know it costs a lot to live here. Our housing costs are exorbitant, some of the highest in the nation. Average house homes, average house prices are about $850,000 for a small three-bedroom home. And we have a large number of people who have to leave the islands because the cost is so great. Well, one of the reasons that our costs are so great for housing is because we have some of the strictest zoning laws in the country. That restricts our zoning, in effect, to about 5% of all landmass being used for housing or urban development. What that means is about 95% of our land is actually not zoned for homes or for buildings whatsoever. Most of it is agriculturally zoned or watershed preserved. And the thing is that much of that agricultural land is not even used for agricultural at all. All of this results in what we call an artificial scarcity of land. That scarcity of land drives the price up tremendously. So one of the reasons we want to look at Houston is to see if what they're doing or not doing in terms of zoning might actually be something applicable in Hawaii, something that might actually help us to get more land developed for the purpose of having affordable homes for everyone. Well, my guest today is an expert in this topic. He has studied the Houston situation and nationally has studied the situations in other cities and urban areas. He is the Senior Fellow and Founding Director of the Center for Opportunity Urbanism. Now, he's going to tell us what Opportunity Urbanism is all about. But I'd like to introduce to you Tori Gaddis all the way from Houston today.  Aloha, thanks for having me, Gailie. Well, it was great to see you at the Freedom Fest convention recently and just the opportunity we had to talk about Opportunity Urbanism and just address a lot of people who are concerned about zoning and the cost of housing. Now, tell me a little bit about your background. How did the Center for Opportunity Urbanism come about? It started when Joel Kodkin, our director and I sort of were doing some papers and studies for the Greater Houston Partnership, which is the business group in Houston wanted to kind of understand what was working here, what was not working here, what was good about our model. And the more we studied it and the more we understood it, the more we were sort of saying other cities could learn from this. We really felt like we had something sort of different and unique to offer, especially being the largest country, a large city in the country without zoning and kind of what that means in terms of our affordability, our opportunity, the ability for the middle class to afford a home and upward social mobility, which is really the core of what we're trying to do with Opportunity Urbanism. Well, Houston is a huge city. I think the city limits are pretty broad, but you go from about 2.3 million population in your proper urban area all the way to maybe six or seven million people in the broader metro area. Is that right? What kinds of opportunities for seeing how housing should work or shouldn't work arise in such a big city? So in Houston, like we mentioned, we do not have zoning. Instead, we have private deed restrictions.  Our commercial and industrial areas are essentially not zoned. Now there are still permitting regulations, things around safety and parking and setbacks and some of these other sorts of basic functions. But we don't, as a city or really, and this also applies to all unincorporated counties in Texas, there's no land use authority. They can't say this is only for residential, this is only for commercial, this is only for industrial, the market decides that. And so we have very adaptive land use when it comes to repurposing for higher density, repurposing industrial for commercial or commercial for residential. Houston has been densifying rapidly. A lot of developers have found pieces of land and put in apartment complexes, towers, and it has kept our affordability much better than a lot of the, especially the coastal cities in America or Honolulu, for instance, where, so our median home is only $240,000. And when you look at salaries in Houston on a cost to living adjusted basis, we actually have the highest standard of living among major metros in the country and probably the world just because of the affordability combined with the high pay and the economic development. Well, I've heard your presentation before and I've been impressed by it and I know you attribute to the fact that you have no land use zoning. Some of the benefits you've mentioned such as the high value in terms of lifestyle as well as the low cost of housing. But if I were to put up my Hawaii lenses on and look at your situation the way many people in Hawaii look at zoning, I would be a guest. And I'd say, how can you live in a place where you don't regulate what goes on? Isn't it just utter chaos? How do you determine, how do you get neighborhoods that are pleasant to live in or urban areas for an industry that don't pollute and so forth? Without zoning, don't you have chaos? Well, absolutely not. I mean, we certainly have maybe more of a mixture than you would find in most cities. But the market is really good at regulating things, high value areas. People don't put industrial use because the land is very expensive. We get very high humidity, master plan communities. So developers all around, especially at the fringes by large chunks of land, they privately develop them, they put in the infrastructure. They float what are called mud bonds, municipal utility districts to build out the infrastructure and then put the houses in and they always, because they're competing with each other, hyper competing with each other. They're always trying to one up each other on amenities. So you get all sorts of amenities, swing pools, community centers, you name it. They put them in these communities. And we have some of the highest rated master plan communities in the country, including the Woodlands, which is a famous one that gets studied by planners everywhere and has won multiple awards for a master plan community. So that happens mainly on the fringes. In the center of the city, we have smaller developments. But you would just be amazed, the market really works it out. And then we still do have obviously pollution regulations. There are still permitting regulations, like I mentioned before. So nuisances, we definitely address. It's it's in and then the market works itself out. And and people you don't have a lot of that NIMBY mentality here that you have in a lot of cities. People are just sort of used to, oh, that, you know, strip center just got redeveloped into an apartment complex. And since it's on a major arterial, most people are OK with that. They don't they don't mind. So the city just adapts. And I think people really recognize our affordability. We're certainly not as beautiful as why you guys have are obviously amazingly beautiful. But but it's, you know, I feel like there's a middle ground, at least, between maybe the level of regulation you guys have now, especially if you have so much agricultural land, it's not getting fully utilized and and and maybe a sort of free for all the free market of Houston. Well, you talk about the free market and you say the market works it out. Yet those are scary words to a lot of people because they don't take into account the extent to which many people in Hawaii believe that planning must be done by the government, careful planning, so that we avoid pollution, so that we avoid the overuse of resources. And so we protect that beauty that you were talking about, beautiful landscape, as well as the the preserve of the preservation of the environment, especially for the sake of our water aquifer and so forth. So would you talk to us a little bit more about why and how the market, quote unquote, works it out? Again, it's a matter of you don't have to declare this land can only be used for X. If you have an issue around protecting your water, have water permitting regulations, have sewer permitting regulations, have nuisance addressing regulations. If there are issues around those sorts of things, you build your regulations around those sorts of things, and specifically rather than this kind of blunt hammer of, we're just going to seal off all this land from any kind of development because that's going to create scarcity and that's going to drive up prices and ultimately really harm your population because population and your economy, because everybody's money is going to make their mortgage payments. And that means they can't they don't have money to spend on restaurants, on shopping, on education, on charitable giving, all of these sorts of things that make for a strong community and a high quality of life. They just don't have the money for it because all their money is going into mortgage payments. So I don't know that quite gets to your question, but it's again, it's about setting your regulations around the very specific things you really want to protect and that are important. For instance, outside of Austin, unincorporated counties, there are still regulations around not polluting the aquifer, they have to have the right kind of runoff, the right kind of water and sewer, all those things can be regulated without saying that just nobody can build on any of this land. I mean, you just set the right regulations around the right things that you want to protect and then let the market figure it out and let people live where they want to live. You know, apparently people in Hawaii are following that maximum of living where they want to live and many of them are choosing to live outside of Hawaii. We now have one of the highest per capita rates of exodus or brain drain from the state and that's largely because of our quote, unquote scarce resource of land and scarce resource of housing driving the cost of housing up tremendously. But talk to me a little bit about the population at Houston. You're experiencing the opposite. You're drawing people to you. Your population is actually growing rapidly and you're benefiting from that in many ways. Yes, our metro population is growing about 150,000 a year and we permit enough housing to accommodate that. So our prices don't move that much. And I would think that the good news for Hawaii, I mean, based on the statistics you just quoted, if 95% of your land is undeveloped and only 5% is developed, honestly, you only need to give up one, two, maybe 3% of that land and start allowing that development and that will probably take a lot of the pressure off without dramatically changing the amount of protected land in Hawaii.  It's not like you're giving up the last sort of shreds of protected land that would still be more than enough of it. And, you know, the same thing is true in California and obviously in Texas, we still have gigantic swaths of empty open land. People act like sprawl is going forever, but Houston, you know, is is actually denser than a lot of other cities that are more regulated because we allow the market and there is a demand to live in the core. We allow more densification. So for instance, we're more dense and on a whole than even Portland, Oregon, which is, you know, known for their smart growth and their regulation. How do you handle balancing high density areas with low density areas so that you can meet the diverse needs and desires for housing? So when we have protected single family neighborhoods, they're protected by deed restrictions usually created by the original developer, they're enforced by the legal department of the city. So if you feel like somebody is about to break the deed restrictions, you can talk to the city and they'll investigate and file suit as needed to make sure that the single family so that the neighborhoods are well protected. And then outside of that, it's pretty much a free market. So along the major arterials outside of the single family neighborhoods, it could be retail, it could be a strip center, it could be an office tower, it could be an apartment complex, it could be a residential tower. We actually are very multi-centric. We have several essentially downtowns, at least a half dozen to 10 different major job centers, major shopping areas, and the market just sort of works it out while still protecting those single family neighborhoods.  Well, if you're in a deed restricted single family community, that's not possible. So honestly, the residents are generally well protected. Now there are, you know, some small pockets in the center of the city where they're not deed restricted, and you just have to know that going in before you buy that house. But I would say probably 99% of the single family homes in the city and the metro area are protected. Dory, we're going to take a quick break and then come back. And when we come back, I hope you'll talk with us a little bit about the philosophy behind opportunity urbanism, what goes into the thinking that makes it work, as well as give us some prescriptions as to how we could adjust what we do in Hawaii to be a little bit more like Houston, not in every way, but in the good way. We'll be right back. I'm Keeley Akina. You're watching Hawaii together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. Don't go away. Aloha, I'm Mellie James, host of Let's Mana Up. Tuesdays, every other Tuesday from 11 to 1130. This show is meant to dive into stories of local product entrepreneurs and how they're growing their companies from right here in Hawaii. I'm so thrilled to have our show kicked off. And so please join us on Tuesdays at 11 o'clock as we talk to local entrepreneurs and hear their stories. Hi, guys, I'm your host, Lillian Cumick, from Lillian's Vegan World. I come to you live every second Friday from 3 p.m. And this is the show where I talk about the plant based lifestyle and veganism. So we go through recipes, some upcoming events, information about health regarding your health and just some ideas on how you can have a better lifestyle, eat healthier and have fun at the same time. So do join me. I look forward to seeing you and Aloha. Welcome back to Hawaii together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Kayleigh Akina. My guest today is Tori Gattis, senior fellow and founder of Center for Opportunity Urbanism in Houston. We're talking about Houston's lessons that can be taught across the country, having to do with lessening the zoning restrictions that are so prevalent in Hawaii and elsewhere. Tori, are you back with us? Great. Yes. I wanted to ask you a little bit about the philosophy of opportunity urbanism. Different regions have embraced different philosophies. For example, environmentalism and smart growth. We hear a lot about that up in Portland, Oregon for a pedestrian experience, aesthetic experience in particular. We hear about that in New York City. We hear about different ways of attracting the elite's gentrification and so forth in San Francisco. So how does opportunity urbanism differ from these other models and what's really at the core of that philosophy? So those were the what you just listed, the smart growth, new urbanism and the creative class. We're sort of three philosophies of cities when Joel and I got started and we were saying, look, we don't believe the purpose, the core purpose of it is any of those three. We felt like it's upward social mobility for your citizens, that that's what a city should be focused on. And just like Portland is the poster child for smart growth or New York for new urbanism or or Austin for creative class or San Francisco. We felt like Houston was sort of the poster child for opportunity urbanism because it's always been a place where anybody can come. Domestic migrants, international immigrants, we have huge populations of both can come and make a life for themselves and really, you know, affordable home ownership and opportunity and build a career. So we gave it the label opportunity urbanism and started a think tank around that. And we've really been promoting this model out to everybody who listen that it's something to look at because when you look at the side effects of some of these other approaches, you get the unaffordability problem. And and it really crushes your population. Your youth can't afford to buy a home. People don't have money for to stimulate the economy. It it really it really hampers you long term to grow as a metro if you if you if you restrict housing supply. You talk about mobilizing upward social and economic mobility for all citizens and their children. Now that's something very admirable. And I think it's something we definitely need in Hawaii. You're talking in essence and really Tory about quality of living. What what kinds of things have happened in Houston in terms of quality of living as a result of opportunity urbanism? Sure. So what we've really sort of done here is I talk about the concept of affordable proximity. You're trying to kind of maximize this affordable proximity, which means you've got a good housing supply and you've got good mobility. And so therefore your cost of living is reduced. You can afford a home within a reasonable commute from work. When your cost of living goes down, your cost of living adjusted incomes go up and that creates more discretionary income. And when you have discretionary income, that creates more economic activity. You can also pursue more education. You can start a business. You can support charities. You can save up the down payment for a house when you have that discretionary income. And it creates this virtuous cycle where people take the discretionary income. They spend it on amenities, things like restaurants, entertainment, sports, you name it. And then that makes your city more attractive to more migrants moving there because they're like, wow, look at all these great amenities, great restaurants. I want to move there. They move there and then they start adding their income and you get this sort of virtuous cycle effect of discretionary income kind of pumping up the quality of life and the standard of living in that metro area. But it really starts with most cities do try to do economic development to attract high paying jobs. But there's the other piece of the equation they ignore, which is keeping the cost of living low. Because what really matters is the spread between those incomes and that cost of living is what determines the discretionary income that can kind of flow through the economy of that city. And that creates the opportunity and the upward social mobility. You've kind of tracked a cycle of development that takes place with opportunity, urbanism. There is, at the beginning stages, opportunity for more education that leads to a better job, that leads to some entrepreneurship and some business as well. And all of that leads to the ability to afford the kind of home people want and that just continues in a cycle as more people get into this circle. Absolutely. That's exactly it. We kind of identified the four things that people need to move for upward social mobility. It's sort of better education or a better job or home affordability. Those sorts of things, the ability to start a business, those are the sorts of things that help people, for instance, I mean a ton of international immigrants move here and then they start a restaurant because it's very easy to start a restaurant in Houston. With the lack of zoning, it's easy to get the permits. They can find a space. We have one of the most hyper competitive restaurant scenes in the country. Zagat says that Houstonians eat out more per week on average than any other city at the lowest average cost of any major city. And of course, the lower cost is part of why we eat out so much is because it's just so affordable to go out to eat and eat great food because we don't restrict the number of sites that are allowed to have restaurants in the city. It's a free for all. And so if you have even kind of B quality food, you're not going to be in business very long. And so this sort of survival of the fittest happens among the great restaurants. And you get great, really fantastic restaurant scene. And Houston's been getting a lot of recognition for that in a lot of different places, a lot of awards. GQ said we're the capital of southern cool. And they were specifically commenting on our amazing restaurant scene. So that comes kind of directly and indirectly from the lack of regulation and zoning, allowing sort of the competition to make things better and to improve the standard of living and the quality of life. Tori, I'm sure you remember back in the 70s, there are all these population models. Paul Ehrlich and the population bomb and Thomas Malthus was revived to the Club of Rome. And it seems as though that talk has been revived again, particularly in Hawaii. I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, come visit Hawaii and go home. In other words, let's not increase our population. And I know that even in Houston, there are limits to population growth in the mind of a lot of people. But what should our mindset really be toward increasing population? And what's the experience in Houston? So there's been a lot of studies of, well, done in Houston in any city. And what they've shown is that when you can double the population of a city, you get a 15% increase per capita in innovation, economic activity. Per capita happens. And then you only need 85% instead of doubling the amount of resources you need to support that population, you only need 85% more resources. So actually allowing your population to grow increases economic opportunity and reduces the things you're specifically mentioned. The resources needed to support that population. So if you really care about sort of saving the planet, you should absolutely allow more densification, larger cities, more intensive development, because that is far more efficient than people spread further out or being forced to migrate to other states or elsewhere where they're not as concentrated. That's less efficient. Both it gives them fewer job opportunities. They're less productive in the economy. There's actually been some studies that say that it has actually cost the US economy trillions of dollars that more people can't live in the hyperproductive cities like San Francisco or New York or some of these other ones because their regulations are so high that people don't live there. And if they could live there, they could make a lot more money and be more productive members of society and the economy, but they just can't afford to live there. Well, even like consultant for a few minutes before you close now, we've got soaring costs of housing in Hawaii, one of the highest costs of living, one of the fastest rates of growth in our per capita and the exodus from our state and so forth. What are some prescriptions for a state that is highly zoned and filled with all kinds of land use regulation? Where do we start? What could we learn? I would say the three kind of low-hanging fruit opportunities I could see, obviously it's hard to get rid of zoning entirely, but I think there are three things you could do. One would just be to stop protecting so much unproductive agricultural land. If it's not being used for agriculture, why not let it become residential development? The second would be when you obviously need to protect single family neighborhoods, but when you have commercial areas, allow those to develop high-density residential sort of by right. There should be no reason somebody couldn't buy a strip center and tear it down and put up an apartment complex. That will help add to your supply and it really shouldn't affect the character of the neighborhood if it was already a commercial piece of land. And then I think probably the most important one would be allowing something that Minneapolis recently did and Oregon did, other places are looking at. They got rid of the single family zoning designation and said, look, the new designation for those neighborhoods will allow by right duplexes, even triplexes, accessory dwelling units. It doesn't change the character of the neighborhood, but all of a sudden now on the same piece of land instead of being limited to one family, two families can live there or three families can live there and you create a ton of housing without fundamentally changing the character of those neighborhoods. And that's really a pretty broad stroke thing that could be done that would add up the potential to add a lot of housing supply very quickly would be just changing that single family housing zoning designation in addition to freeing up the commercial zones and freeing up some of that agricultural land. And it doesn't have to be a whole lot like we've talked about before. I mean, honestly, one or two percent of that agricultural land could add a tremendous amount of residential capacity to Hawaii. Well, that sounds as though it makes a lot of common sense and I hope that our lawmakers in Hawaii will be open to that. Center for Opportunity Urbanism, what are the kinds of activities you do and what kinds of resources do you make available? I'm always available for consultation. I do speeches, as you saw in Austin. I'd be more than happy to come to Hawaii and give a talk and then write papers, reports. All of our materials are available at OpportunityUrbanism.org. And you're welcome to take a look at our reports. I also read a blog called Houston Strategies, HoustonStrategies.com, which has a lot of the similar things. And feel free to reach out to me in either of those places. My contact information is there. And I would I would be happy to talk to anyone who's interested in pursuing more of these kinds of policies. Tori, just for our audience on air, would you state your website address? OpportunityUrbanism.org Or if you just Google the Center for Opportunity Urbanism, it'll pop right up. And then my blog is called HoustonStrategies. It's just houstonstrategies.com. Very good. Tori, thank you so much for being with us today. I do hope to see you in Hawaii sometime soon. Mahalo, as you say. I would love to see you sometime soon. Mahalo. And aloha. And everybody out there watching, this has been a fascinating introduction to OpportunityUrbanism, a different way of thinking that could actually solve many of our problems in Hawaii. And as you heard, Tori, say, we don't have to go from development on 5% and massively increase the development beyond that. It might just be one or two percentage points that can increase the land available and allow us to grow our population base to become all the more effective and efficient in order to meet our needs. I'm Kaylee Akeena with Think Tech Hawaii's program, Hawaii Together. Until next time, aloha.


Using a digital control circuit for positioning, actuators of any type can be precisely controlled. Let's look at a simple circuit that will provide linear motion to a positioning table. The table begins at a binary home position of 000 and is known with the gray code absolute encoder attached to the motor shaft. To move the table to position 5, the operator inputs a numeric value of 5. After the input is received, the flip-flops in the circuit are reset and the equivalent binary number of the user input is loaded into the 4-bit storage register. After the desired position is received, the magnitude comparator compares the 4-bit input a from the user input to the 4-bit input b of the encoder feedback. If a is larger than b, the a is greater than b output is activated. If b is larger than a, the a is less than b output is activated. If a is equal to b, the a is equal to b output is activated. The outputs of the magnitude comparator are input to the amplifier. Amplified potential is transmitted for positioning of the motor. For example, if the a is less than b output goes high, the op amp inverts the plus 5 volt signal to minus 5 volts. As the minus 5 volts is applied to the summing power amp, it is amplified and inverted to positive potential. The output of the summing amp is applied directly to the DC motor of the actuator. Positive potential provides clockwise rotation and negative potential provides counterclockwise rotation. The encoder attached directly to the motor shaft provides real-time feedback of the actuator position in gray code format. Gray code is converted to binary values to maintain a common numbering system for comparison and is input to the magnitude comparator. Conversion is achieved using three exclusive OR gates that change gray code to binary format usable by the magnitude comparator. Looking at the complete circuit, we can see that by entering the number 5, the a values are compared to the b values of the comparator. Amplified potential is transmitted to the actuator until the binary converted input is received by the comparator. As a becomes equal to b, the light turns on to verify the final position has been reached completing the cycle.