All right, Proverbs chapter 13. Let's begin reading here in Proverbs chapter 13 at verse one. I'll read verses one through three, and we'll get into our study. A wise son heeds his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. A man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth, but the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence.  So we'll take some time to look, especially at verse one, I'll give you a little bit of a prolonged approach to that particular verse because it's a very powerful and important one. Again, notice how he says, a wise son heeds his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. If you were to say, what is the point of this one proverb? It's a simple point. Wisdom is demonstrated by the ability to be taught. We use the term teachability. I don't even know if that's a real word, but the point of the proverb is wisdom is demonstrated by an ability to learn or to be taught. Wisdom is demonstrated by teachability.  Well, it's the same kind of thought. In this particular verse though, the context is valuing a father's wisdom as well as a father's instruction. And so a wise son heeds his father's instruction, speaks to us about valuing that which your father has to teach you. A wise son listens to his father's correction. A wise son listens to his father's chastisement, to his father's rebuke. A wise son listened to his father's discipline. A wise son will listen to his father's instruction. Now why would a wise son do that? Well, the reason a wise son will listen is because he honors his father. It's because he respects his authority.  So a wise son is gonna listen to the father because it is his father. And because his father has life experiences. Because his father has something to give to him. When you read your Bible, and I think it's important to point that out once again, when you read your Bible, you'll discover that that a man has a tremendous responsibility. We who are fathers and grandfathers for that matter have tremendous responsibility in the home. If you were to begin to survey and to ask questions related to how did our society get to where it is right now? A lot has to do with the absence of a father in the home. A lot has to do with that. A lot has to do with the disrespect that men in general receive here in the United States. And indeed we do. Just this evening, I was listening to the news and there was an interview of a woman who wrote a book concerning the importance of a man in masculinity. She's a PhD. And she's been pointing out that for many years that men have been looked at and treated as inconsequential. And she was pointing out that men have been devalued in this society for many years. And every man in this room knows that's absolutely true. We all know that.    And that's okay.  But it's okay for us as men to be disregarded and disrespected. But a man in his place in the home is of utmost importance. He models authority. He models godliness. He has a strength. It's interesting, even grandfathers have that in the home. My daughter, Corinne was speaking to me about my grandson. I have a grandson named Josiah. My grandson Josiah is 14 years old. He'll be 15 years old pretty soon. And he sure has grown up so quickly. But he had done something. And his mama had said something to him about, you know, he's gonna be in trouble. But his whole concern was that she would tell me because he respects me as his grandfather. He didn't care if mom gets mad, but don't tell papa about this, you know? So men have, we have that authority, fellas. And we've been called by God to model that.  We're an example. And we also have instruction that we can give to our kids. We can say to our kids, do this and God will bless you.  We can do that. And fathers are intended by God to be that model of godliness. We are to earn their respect and retain their respect. And we are to retain the honor that they give to us. And why is that? It's because if we retain their respect and honor, it increases the possibility of them learning from us. Some children have a father that is a model of what not to become. I have a young man I was speaking to. He's in his mid-30s. He's a pastor. I know his father. And he came to speak to me a while back now. And he's known our family a long time and he knows my son Joseph. And we're having a conversation, he and I, and he's a young pastor and he's coming to an older pastor and asking for advice and all. And as he was speaking to me, he says to me this, and I hope this doesn't sound self-serving to you. If it does, forgive me.  And I said, well, of course, I pay him too. No, I said, I said, yes, I know that.  And I smiled at him. And I said, well, thank you, you know, for saying that.  He says, now with me, there's nothing about my father that I would like to be like. Can you imagine that, dad? Can you imagine that if your son said that about you? If your son said there's nothing about that man that I would like to be like, what a heartbreak that is. And when I heard that, it caused my heart pain for that father had not earned the respect of his son. You have to earn the respect and retain it. You have to be that man that they can look to and they can say, that's the model that I'm gonna use for my life. I can say quite honestly, that in many ways, that was my father. I saw him in a certain way.  So if you wanna be one who can instruct your children, earn their honor, earn the respect. So you can be the person they look to. You see, we do have tremendous influence teaching the children the ways of the Lord, are primarily the father's responsibility. It's not my wife's responsibility. And it's never been the church's responsibility to teach my children the way of the Lord. It's my responsibility to do that. When the children of Israel were about to celebrate the very first Passover and God was given instructions concerning the meal, the Passover meal, he began to speak concerning that meal, its setting and things that would go on around the table. And I mentioned this recently, but it bears repetition in Exodus chapter 12, verses 26 and 27. It reads, it shall be when your children say to you, speaking to the father, when your children say to you, what do you mean by this service that you shall say, it is the Passover sacrifice of the Lord who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he struck the Egyptians and delivered our households, so the people bowed their heads and they worship. When your children say to you, I want you to note that in Exodus 12, it doesn't say when your children say to the mama, it's when your children say to you, see that's our responsibility as men to be that model in the home and to answer the biblical questions that they would have. In the New Testament book of Ephesians chapter six, verse four, it says, you fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. There's a great example of a father in terms of his instruction to a son that is found in scripture. And it would be the model of David who was the father of Solomon who wrote these proverbs. And this is what he says in 1 Chronicles 28, verse nine. King David said to Solomon, as for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. That's a father speaking to a son. And what is this father saying to his son, seek the Lord and obey him, pursue him with all of your heart. And that's a great model and that's a great principle. Now, this is something that applies to us in life. You see, the one who is truly wise is the one who is open to instruction because the one who is open to instruction is going to gain wisdom. How else are they going to continue to learn and gain wisdom if they're not listening to those who've gone before them who have wisdom? And so on the one hand he says, a wise son heeds his father's instruction but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. A scoffer does not listen to correction. The word rebuke is correction. So somebody who is refusing instruction is referred to as a scoffer.  And that scorner, that scoffer doesn't respect authority and will not respond to any level of discipline. According to Proverbs 15-12, a scoffer does not love one who corrects him nor will he go to the wise.  What do you have to say to me that's of value to me? What profit does that give to me? What am I going to gain by listening to you? A scoffer thinks they already know everything. They're Google geniuses. They know everything there is to know. And it's real difficult. It can be real difficult because a person who is not teachable is very unwise. You need to have a heart. Let me speak with an open heart to you for a moment now. You need to have a heart to learn because people can teach you if only you'll listen. And it doesn't necessarily have to be some intellectual genius. It can be the wisdom of a child who's simply speaking to you something that is real and it's true and it's concrete and it can cut to the heart. Like I've shared with you before, I was in Bible college and the assignment that I had for this particular class was to read certain amount of books in the Old Testament in two different versions. And I hadn't finished my assignment and I had to be able to sign it was an honor system. I had to be able to sign that I had read and completed the reading or else I was gonna be penalized and so I was reading through the portions of scripture that I had yet to do and I had to read them twice, one in one version and the other in another translation. And I was just going through it. I was just sitting at my parents kitchen table. I still remember just looking and I basically just intent on reading and there was a little boy about seven or eight who was at the table and he says, what are you doing? And I said, I'm reading the Bible. And he said, you know what? Now this kid was around eight years old. He says, you know what? I said, what? He said, you treat the Bible like it's a textbook. And when he said that to me, I slapped it. No, when he's, get thee behind me Satan.  He was right. He was right. I was treating God's word as it was an ordinary book. You can learn from anybody who speaks truth. Listen, listen carefully because a lot of times the Lord is gonna speak something to you by a source that you would not have intended to hear from. A scoffer will not listen though. A scoffer doesn't respect authority. A scoffer doesn't respond to any level of discipline. He doesn't love the one who corrects him. Why?  Therefore he doesn't want instruction. Proverbs 10 verse eight, the wise and hard accept commands but a chattering fool comes to ruin. It's interesting how scoffers are mentioned concerning the last days. In second Peter chapter three verse three, listen to what the apostle says, knowing this, that scoffers will come in the last days walking according to their own lusts. And I have to tell you that this world that we live in is filled with those who are doing exactly that, walking according to their own lusts and not willing to receive instruction. What happens with a scoffer very often is that they cause dissension. They promote discord. A scoffer breaks the unity of a church because he is constantly arrogantly calling into question everything he hears. Proverbs 22 10 says cast out the scoffer, contention will leave, strife and reproach will cease. How do you deal with it? You have nothing to do with it. Why? Because a scoffer is only looking to cause problems, causing dissension. And so a wise son heeds his father's instruction that a scoffer does not listen to rebuke. Verse two, a man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth, but the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence.  So a man shall eat well by the fruit of his mouth. When it says the fruit of his mouth, the fruit of his mouth refers to the results of what he is saying, the fruit of his speech. Now of course he's not saying that a person produces food by speaking it into existence. It's not like you're there saying ham sandwich and bang, there it is. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying that we have what we say as if we speak things into existence. It's actually understood when you look at the second line of the proverb where it says in verse two that the soul of the unfaithful feeds on violence. The unfaithful, the word unfaithful is a word that means deceitful. The unfaithful are those who attempt to get what doesn't belong to them. So he's saying the unfaithful desires and hungers for violence, but will receive violence upon themselves. In other words, words and wishes will receive their just rewards.  Yeah, it's better to shut up sometimes, isn't it? But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction. It's always safe to measure what you say. You know, you need to know when to say, when to speak and when to be silent. And you also need to learn how to measure your words. Every husband in this room knows that.  But he has said, you know, honey, I think the phone's ringing. I'll be right. You know, need to know how to measure your words. Hold your peace. There are times in general that you do that. You don't have to always fill the vacuum of silence with the sound of your own voice. There are people who think that they get uncomfortable. Perhaps you're one who gets uncomfortable when things are quiet. We've all been in rooms when it gets quiet.  Somebody better talk. So there you go. And it was so nice until you did that.  In Proverbs 10, 19, in the multitude of words, sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise. Proverbs 17, 28, even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace. When he shuts his lips, he's considered perceptive. Psalm 141 verse three, there's a prayer, set a guard, oh Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. You know, for many years I had that particular Psalm taped on my screen in my office. God set a guard over my mouth. Help me to be a person who doesn't feel that I have to speak all the time. Help me to be a person who's quiet and listen because I can listen and I can learn rather than having to always fill the silence with my own voice. There's an Arab proverb, take heed that your tongue does not cut your throat. That's an interesting one, isn't it? Well, Proverbs 21, 23 says whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles. And Proverbs 29, 11 says a fool vents all his feelings a wise man holds him back. So you don't have to talk just because. Keep that in mind. Verse four, the soul of a lazy man desires and has nothing, but the soul of the diligent shall be made rich. The soul of the slugger, the soul of a lazy man. Rather than dreaming about what you wish you had, work towards realizing your dreams. A lot of people don't do that anymore. Just laying around saying, boy, I wish. No, he's saying, no, go out and achieve those things. Proverbs 10, verse four says you who has a slack hand becomes poor. The hand of the diligent makes rich. Go out and work and earn the things that you desire and see if your dreams cannot come true.   This is an interesting one for many, many reasons, but I'll share first, a righteous man out of a pure heart, a morally upright person hates the way that is false. That's because God has changed their heart and therefore they speak the truth and love. In Colossians chapter three, verse nine, Paul said, do not lie to one another since you've put off the old man with his deeds.  I love your law. But this wicked man, notice how he has spoken up. This wicked man is loathsome. Again, we don't use that word loathsome. What does that mean? Well, I like to look up the words and this is an Old Testament. So this word is in Hebrew. So what is the word loathsome mean? And it's interesting what that word speaks about. The word loathsome speaks of having a bad smell. He stinks is what he's saying here. He smells bad. And so what it says literally is a wicked man stinks and he makes himself hateful to any who might know him. He smells bad and nobody wants to get near him. And so the point he's making is very simple. Live a righteous life, serve the Lord and don't be stinky. Okay, verse six, righteousness guards him whose way is blameless. But wickedness overthrows the sinner. Righteousness is portrayed as a fortress. It's a fortress that is actually protecting you but it's protecting you against making bad decisions. Righteousness protects you from making sinful decisions. But wickedness will ultimately lead you to pain the consequences. Wickedness overthrows the sinner. Verse seven, there is one who makes himself rich yet. It has nothing. One who makes himself poor, it has great riches. This is an interesting proverb. It's viewed in various ways. I'll give you a basic way. When it says there is one who makes himself rich yet has nothing, it's speaking about pretense. It's the person who doesn't have anything but pretends that they do. They act like they're very wealthy. They act like they're very rich. They act like they're very, you know, in the know. But in fact, they're not. They're pretending to be somebody. They're pretending to be rich. And so he's pointed that out. There's one who makes himself rich. He's pretending to be rich. He has nothing. But notice, and one who makes himself poor yet he has great riches. On the other hand, there are those who are very wealthy who walk around as if they don't have anything. They pretend that they have poverty but they're doing that to conceal their wealth in order to avoid responsibilities of helping somebody else perhaps or lending money to somebody. So the point of this is don't try to make yourself out to be what you are not. Verse eight, the ransom of a man's life is as riches. But the poor does not hear, rebuke. Rich people are often exposed to assaults. They can be blackmailed. They can be extorted. In difficult times they may have to put all their riches up to save their life or to save the life of somebody else. But a poor person is normally not a threat to lose all that he has because he doesn't have anything. And therefore he's not concerned about losing and what he doesn't have. The poor does not hear, rebuke. Verse nine, the light of the righteous rejoices. The lamp of the wicked will be put out. The light of the righteous. There's a contrast between light and a lamp. Interestingly enough, light would speak of the sun. A lamp is a lesser light. So he's saying the light of the righteous continues but the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. Verse 10, by pride comes nothing but strife. But with the well advised is wisdom. If you're wise, listen to good advice and don't stubbornly argue out of pride. Anybody here ever argue out of pride, just out of pride? I know nobody did, but theoretically. You know, he's saying be aware of that. Be aware because out of pride comes nothing but strife. There are so many fights that people get into that are so unnecessary. So choose the battles that are necessary and don't fight about silly things. Verse 11, wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase. Steady and progressive saving is better than dishonest and greedy grabbing. Be very careful not to get into these get rich quick seams. You know, every week I get two, three, sometimes more, no less than two or three emails. I have some very important people riding me, people from the head of the FBI, people who are corporate bankers. Sometimes I get widows who are simply looking for a charitable place to donate $57 million U.S. All I have to do is send them my social security number, my address, my license, and I can be a multi-millionaire. You know, they wouldn't do that if it didn't work. They wouldn't do that if people didn't send them the information they're asking for.  It's because very often people want to get rich quickly. And so he's saying, avoid this. Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished. Instead of hoping for that lottery ticket of X amount of millions of dollars that some of you bought, make sure you tithe, but he who gathers by labor will increase. Verse 12, hope deferred makes the heart sick. But when the desire comes, it's a tree of life. Oh, that's so obvious. If you keep postponing certain things, you just get depressed. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. There are some things that you just keep waiting and longing for and you get anxious and depressed about that. Now here's powerful verse 13. He who despises the word will be destroyed. He who fears the commandment will be rewarded. The law of the wise is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death. To despise when he says he who despises the word to despise speaks of willfully rejecting. He who despises the word is one who willingly rejects God's word. And if you willingly reject the word of God, you will be destroyed. The word destroyed speaks of being brought to ruin. The person who knows God's word and refuses to do it, their life is gonna be in shambles. Excuse me, how can I say this quickly? I really, as a pastor, as a Christian, as someone who's been walking with the Lord for a while now, one who's been in ministry for a long time, I can tell you this with experience that there are many Christians today who are not being equipped for works of service because they have fallen into the spirit of the age, the spirit of the age that, and you see this in the writings of Paul to Timothy and both first and second Timothy, how they're in the end days will be lying in deceptive doctrines and that people will no longer endure healthy teaching, but instead are gonna heap unto themselves, teachers, because they have itching ears. In other words, they're gonna heap to themselves, teachers that they prefer because these people say what they want to hear, having itching ears. They will voluntarily turn themselves away from truth and will turn unto fables. That's, we're seeing that today. I mentioned to you that when we were in Israel recently that there was a particularly television evangelist that if I mentioned his name, those of you who watch TV and watch what is called Christian TV, you'd know his name the minute I say it. He's very famous. And he was there with us when we were in Israel with 60 bus loads. I had mentioned to you that each one of those buses was sold about 50 people, 55 maximum. So you're looking at 3,000 people who came. And I also mentioned to you that he teaches something called hyper grace, which is undermining what the spirit of the Lord teaches us in his word, concerning what is called sanctification, which is that God's working in your life, removing those things he's not pleased with over time. And the way that happens is that you begin to pursue the things that matter and you reject the things that don't. So you put away line, you put away stealing, you put away these kinds of things, you put those things aside and you pursue the things that matter, holiness, righteousness, you pursue the Lord. But because of the doctrine that this person is teaching, there are multitudes of people who listen to him or being told that there's no need to continue a pursuit of the Lord. There's no need to repent on a daily basis. Repentance is an ongoing thing. It's not what you did the day you got saved and you never repented again. It's an ongoing attitude where you're turning away from sin and turning to the Lord. The word repent means it's from the Greek word, metanoia, and it speaks of a change of mind. And when you actually are repenting, you're changing your mind and that's something you do daily. So there are things when you first get saved that you think are okay and you continue in them because you don't know that's wrong.  Because that's what I was told when I got saved. You know, the Bible says that God made the herb because we called marijuana herb at that time. So I said, oh, that's cool. Bottom line is there were people even at that time who were trying to keep the old life, well, saying they have a new one, but you read your Bible and when you read your Bible, there's a lot of commands that I was mentioning this recently that Jesus gives a lot of commands in scripture. There are things that were to do that demonstrate that we have come to faith and in your life is to be transformed, right? And how's it gonna be transformed? It's transformed by the renewing of your mind. It's transformed because you're no longer being conformed to this world. But you're pursuing the Lord and how are you gonna have a new mind? Your new mind comes to the washing of the blood of Christ, the spirit of God and the word of God. And so, wherewith all shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed there to according to thy word? Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. How do I know that I can live a life that is pleasing to God by hiding your word in my heart and allowing the spirit to write on the tablets of flesh so that I do the things from the inside, not simply because they're printed on a page but because they're printed on my heart. And how does that happen? By turning away from things that keep me from the Lord and turning to the one who keeps me. That's how it works. But a person who despises the word comes to ruin. And that's why in this church, until the Lord removes me from this pulpit, I have to promise you, I will always encourage this church to what God says, love his word, pursue him. Why? So your life will be blessed and you won't come to ruin. That's why. And that's what the scripture teaches us. Obedience results in blessings. Obedience results in heaven. In John 5, 24, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment but has passed from death into life. Verse 15, good understanding gains favor. But the way of the unfaithful is hard. Every prudent man acts with knowledge but a fool lays open his folly. Wisdom makes a man acceptable to God and to man. The unfaithful person's way of life is unpleasant and is offensive to God and to man. Verse 17, a wicked messenger falls into trouble. A faithful ambassador brings health. The unfaithful messenger, a wicked, speaks of an unfaithful messenger. The unfaithful messenger doesn't deliver the message properly. The result is that they will be dealt with because of that. But in contrast, the faithful ambassador brings health. By being faithful, he brings the message unchanged and that message produces good in the life of the one who receives it. Somebody said, this speaks of an ambassador of Christ who does his work faithfully, keeps back nothing that is profitable but instead faithfully declares the whole counsel of God. He has given a message and he faithfully delivers teachings that are health to the souls of men. This one is approved by God and because he is, it results in his own health and blessings. This is the one who will hear one day said to him, well done, my good and faithful servant.  Paul speaks of that in 2 Corinthians 5. We are ambassadors of Christ. An ambassador is an individual representing a kingdom while living in a different place. So you have an American ambassador who's living in Sweden or Germany or France or Russia. He's an American bringing the values of and representing the values of the country that he resides in. He's an American living in Germany but he brings with him what it means to be an American. He's our ambassador.  You may not realize that but that's what Paul calls you in 2 Corinthians 5. We are ambassadors of Christ. And we have a message that we bring. He says in 2 Corinthians 5 that God was in Christ and he says that we have been given a message of reconciliation and we bring this message and we say be reconciled to God. That's our message. We are people who actually inhabit a different place. The earth is not our home. Please remember that. We're just passing through. This is not our home. We're just passing through. We're representing another kingdom. We represent heaven. We gotta understand that. The church has forgotten that. We represent another kingdom and different way of life, a different way of thinking. When we try and blend in and become what they are that's not what we were created to be. We are created to be representatives of the kingdom of God and a faithful ambassador remembers that. And because he's or she's a faithful ambassador they don't change the message. They give it as it is. God was in Christ reconciling man to himself. Be reconciled to God. That's the gospel. You see? And so he's making it very clear that a wicked messenger falls into trouble. Why? Because he doesn't deliver the message. So be careful to deliver the message that God entrusted to you. Verse 18. Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction. But he who regards a rebuke will be honored. The desire that you have will be accomplished. It's actually sweet to the soul when your desire is to do those things that are pleasing to the Lord. Fools don't turn from evil and they don't accomplish any good. So what we desire is to do that which is pleasing to the Lord because it brings pleasantness to our own life also. Verse 20. This is a good one. You might want to mark this. He who walks with wise men will be wise. The companion of fools will be destroyed. I've said this a thousand times. My father said it to me. I say it to my kids. I'll say it to us as a church. Be careful who you hang around with. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that we should run around thinking that. We're so good. We're so much better. Obviously we're not. You know, the closer you get to the Lord, the more you see yourself for what you are. You know that, right? The closer you get to Jesus, the more you see yourself for what you are. It's the people who aren't very close to him who think they're good. That's a fact. It's the people who aren't in the word who think they're just fine this way. It's the people who don't have godly friends that think they're just great this way. As a matter of fact, we all have one or two friends we collect so we can always point to them, say I'm better than that. That's a fact. Be careful who you allow to influence you. Be careful. Your pastor isn't David Rosales. Your pastor's your best friend, whoever that may be. The one who talks to you after a Bible study and says I don't agree with the thing I heard today. That's just not true. I think that you need to understand this and then you listen to them. He hasn't read the Bible, doesn't pray.  Slippier. You will slip. What's the word I'm trying to say? Slippery-er. There's no such word, is there? It's a greasy pole. A slippery slope. Be careful. My mom used to tell me that all the time. I thought my mom didn't know what she was talking about. What does an old woman know? She was in her 30s, my goodness, she doesn't know. What would an old woman in her 30s know? I had a friend named Marika Sada and she did not like Ray. Well, she had good reason. He was sneaky. He was terrible. He was a lot of fun too. Let me tell you one thing about Ray. He and I were 14 years old and we went to a mall and when we went to the mall, he went up to, we're in a store and he went up to a pool table, billiard table and he got the billiard ball and he was just throwing it on, and he just kept throwing it. And you're not supposed to do that. So the salesman walked up and said to him, "'Don't do that.'" But my friend Ray just kept doing it. And the guy said, "'Don't do that.'" My friend kept doing it. And finally, the guy got really mad and he said, "'What's the matter, can't you hear?' You know, this is Ray." I'm not approving of what he did, but this is what he did and this is why my mom didn't like me around him. Ray pretended he couldn't hear and he made the man feel terrible. He made him feel terrible and the man's apologizing. And I'm saying, you know, this is my brother. We didn't look anything alike. This is my brother and I'm sorry, he really can't hear you. Oh, the guy's, you know, he feels terrible because he was so, so I said, my brother says it's okay. And we walked away. And about 20 minutes later, we came back and he walks up, Ray walks up to the guy and says, "'Excuse me, do you sell pool tables?' So I love this guy. He was so much fun, but we got in trouble. His name, he had an alias. His name was Augustus Romero. That was his alias. Because he got pulled over and the police assailed him so much. My name was Don Johnson. I had my alias too.  Be careful who you hang around with because they really do influence you. They really, really do. So choose the people that you're gonna be closest to who can help you to be closest to the Lord. Make that decision. That's what I've done in my life. I know that there are people in my life that I love very much who really are not a help for me to be closer to the Lord. They're my ministry. I know that. I have ministry to them. There are others that want me closer to the Lord than I am right now. They're my friends. So be very, very careful who you allow to influence you. Be very careful because you can be influenced in the wrong direction. Let's see now. Verse 21. Evil pursues sinners but the righteous. But to the righteous good shall be repaid. A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous. Much food is in the fellow ground of the poor and for lack of justice there is waste.  The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul but the stomach of the wicked shall be in want. Okay, we'll just touch on these and conclude. Evil pursues sinners. Verse 21. But to the righteous good shall be repaid. Evil will be exposed and punished in proportion to its effect on other people. But the righteous will receive reward for the good that they have done. The evil receives judgment, proportionate to the evil and the righteous receive reward, proportionate to the good. Romans 2 verse the sixth rate says God will give to each person according to what he's done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But to those who are self seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil there will be wrath and anger. Verse 22 says a good man leaves an inheritance to his grandchildren, that's his children's children. Good is repaid to the righteous. By raising godly offspring when the inheritance is passed on they receive the fruit of your blessings. Sometimes God will pass on the wealth of a sinner to a righteous person. This happens in cases where unsaved parents will leave an inheritance for the children who are Christian. Verse 23 much food is in the fallow ground of the poor. And for lack of justice there is waste. Injustice deals what honest labor produces. If you over tax the poor he loses incentive to produce.  So discipline your children from an early age. And here's an important thing. Discipline them quickly when the infraction occurs. One of the things that can be a mistake is if we'll say the fathers at work and mama got fed up with the kids and she starts saying to them wait until your dad gets home. That's really not a good idea because you're delaying the response to an evil thing. You're delaying that. Not only that you're also encouraging the kid to be afraid when his dad comes home. That's not a good thing either. In Ecclesiastes 8 verse 11 this is a very powerful scripture because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily. Therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully said in them to do evil. It's always best to discipline them quickly, discipline them early, discipline them proportionately.  You know that. Listen, if you only have one child, that's you may not understand that. When you have more than one child, they have such radically different personalities. It's like Marie and I, my wife and I, raised four entirely different people. We did, but it's like their personalities in so many ways are different. Like the two older ones and the two younger ones, it's like those are two separate families. It's like we gave birth to two of them and adopted two. They were so different. It was night and day. You know, Corinne, my daughter Corinne, shh, she was born mad. I'm not kidding. I mean that baby's face was red from the moment she was born and she was mad all the time. Baby David, my son David, my son David has a will of his own, a will of his own. He was the one, if I spanked him, if I spanked him, he's the one who would look at me and say, what? Is that the best you can do? That was David, Joseph. If Joseph did something wrong, all I had to do was look at him and shake my head. And he'd say, and he'd cry. And Anna, she's a mix of them. Anna, I never spanked her. I never spanked Joseph. He says I did. I never did. But Anna, I never spanked Anna.   Because I would talk to her for an hour, an hour. And I would not let her move. And I'd say, you stay right there until I'm through. Oh, she hated it. But that was her punishment. So you have to discover what works. So not every child a tap on the bottom is gonna, doesn't work. And that's what makes parenting difficult, isn't it? It's discovering what it is. So one of the things I also learned, and I'll say this quickly, is how to listen. And what it is that had upset me, why did that upset me? Because some of the things that they did were wrong in my book, but not necessarily wrong in and of themselves. And I had to begin to ask myself, why does this bother me? And I discovered, some of you parents have too, is the things that would get me the most upset were the things I saw in my kid that were most like me. And I remember where I went when I was a kid and I remembered my attitude and that would cause a reaction. And I had to learn that they're not me. And I had to learn how to correct that behavior in a way that it wasn't punitive so much as disciplining them and instructing them.  You need to care about them and shape them, move them in the direction they're to go. You discipline them from an early age and then finally the righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul. Righteous people are satisfied with what they have but the funny thing is, when he says the stomach of the wicked shall be in want, the desires of the wicked are never satisfied. Ecclesiastes 5-10, he who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver nor he who loves abundance with increase. You can have a lot of money and you can have a lot of things but that doesn't make you happy. Happiness does not, joy doesn't come from the things you possess. Joy is something you have because God gives it to you.  The things that you do ought to be pouring out from a life that's satisfied and joyful and that's when you have your greatest satisfaction. It's because you're not looking for something to bring satisfaction even in the effort that you are exerting at that time but you're doing those things simply because you love doing those things and that's where the fruit comes. See, I love teaching the word, I love being a pastor. I'm not trying to be something, I'm enjoying being something and your ministry is really coming out of that relationship that you have with the Lord. It's not that you're trying to make something happen, something happens because God is making something happen in you and that's where satisfaction comes. If you enjoy the Lord, everything else flows from that.


Hello everyone and welcome. This is Melissa Arma with the Stock Swoosh and today I wanted to talk to you about the importance of trade sizing. It's something that I think a lot of people overlook. One of these days I'm going to get on the whiteboard and I'm going to do a show for everyone and show you written down examples on the board of exactly what I mean. But just to speak a little bit about it today briefly, the bottom line is that when you're taking trades, most of your trades should be as close as you can to the same sizing, whatever that sizing is that you choose of dollar and cent risk. That means that your share quantity is not going to be the same for every trade. Whether you're doing options, the cost of options vary, whether you're doing day trades, the cost of the stop, the difference between the risk and the entry and the stop varies. You cannot take a thousand shares, a thousand shares or even one contract in every single option, whatever the case may be. You could take one contract in Amazon that may cost $50 which is $5,000 and if you're not risking $5,000 in every trade, then you're upside down in your risk. That isn't good. What do I mean? Say you take three trades, okay? And so say two of those three trades are positive. Say there are 100% wins, 100% return investments, two positive trades in two options. I'm just making up an example. Then say the third trade is a loser, okay? So what is your win ratio? Your win ratio then is what? Your win ratio is 66% roughly, okay? That's a good win ratio people. So you should be up money. Let's say in this example, the one loser you took an Amazon trade, it cost $50 for one. So you spent $5,000 and the other two trades, you spend two grand on both of those. So you made two grand on the one, made 100%, you made two grand on the other, made 100%, so you made what? $4,000, you lost in the Amazon and you are down what? $1,000. When your win ratio is 66%, do you see how that's off and now it's screwed up? You're going to have a great win ratio but if your trade sizing is off, it's going to be all messed up. So that is not where you want to be. That is why your sizing is so, so critical. And I think people don't understand that. They think of sizing in reference to number of shares or contracts. Every single trade that I take could vary in my sizing. And again, this is not an exact science. If something costs $2,050, I'm not saying you have to undercut it under the two. And so this is an average. But the idea of risking double or triple or quadruple, the amount of risk in a trade is going to make your whole P&L go like this. And consequently, you can have fabulous win ratio but be down money. And that's not where you want to be. And that will be a shame because if you're doing a strategy like mine that works, you want to make sure that you book profits and that you're consistent. And the consistency has to be not only with the gains and the wins, but it has to be with the risk too. Okay. So that's just so how you know and sizing. And again, I'm going to do a mini class maybe and get on my board behind me so you can see really some real life examples. But I just want to do a quick lecture on that tonight. If you're interested in more information, I want to sign up for the next Golden Gap course. I'm doing one more class in August, end of the month, right before fall trading period, August 28th and 29th. If you're interested, email me at Melissa at the stockswush.com. Have a great day, everyone.


So let me welcome you to this panel discussion. The dialogue this morning started pointing in the direction of many of the topics we'll be covering in this window, which will focus on technology and the user experience, what's going to be the regional outlook. So what we're going to do is really deep dive into many of the questions that surfaced earlier today and try to put them into the perspective of our region, specifically in the Gulf. And very fortunate to have a very distinguished panelist with us representing pretty much the four corners of the industry we serve. In no particular order, and starting on my left, I've just marked as the director of corporate strategy and intelligence at QTEL International. So he'll bring the telecom service provider perspective. Next would be engineer Nashi Al-Kharusi, who's a full-time member of the telecom regulatory authority in Oman. We've heard this morning from myself and others regarding the expectations from policymakers and regulators. So I'm afraid engineer Nashi Al-Kharusi that will put you under the spot. You'll have to answer on behalf of all the policymakers. Next is Jeremy Foster. Jeremy is the marketing director for Ericsson Communication in the Middle East. So we'll have the industry of the technology angle to our discussion.  Hamad is the CEO of Knowledge Ventures in Qatar and a board member. And among other things, Hamad and his team have been investing in a number of ICT-related ventures, whether in connectivity and other premises. So I think this is a very, very comprehensive panel. In our discussion today, we'll be having a dialogue among the panelists. There won't be any PowerPoint presentation. The dialogue will be under Shatham House rule, i.e. what is said in this room will say in the room, it will not be attributed to anyone. In particular, I can appreciate that this will be quite challenging for the operator and the regulator. So I cannot give you my firm commitment, but my understanding is there won't be any headline tomorrow morning saying X has said Y and someone will be in trouble. So what I suggest we do, and this is meant to be interactive, so I would like to get as many questions as possible from the audience. And to start to warm up the discussion, what I've suggested or invited the different panelists to prepare some thoughts which they will provide us with around four angles. One, how and what technology will be best realistically rolled out in our part of the world to realize the broadband premise. We've heard this morning a number of ideas. We went through a number of examples from around the world. I think it's time to put it in the context of our economies and our terrain. And they can be quite different, whether you're operating in a country like Bahrain or in Doha or in Kuwait or on the other extreme if you're in Saudi Arabia or you're in the UAE or in Oman. So clearly the dynamics are going to be different. And at the same time, what are going to be the complementary enablers so that to make the roll out of any technology viable? The second question is around the broadband access devices. What is going to be their likely evolution in our part of the world? What is going to be this ubiquitous, this AHA access device that will pretty much bring broadband to a universal level? And again, we may have a debate that there won't be a single one or there won't be a leading one, but let's have that debate. And we would like to know the different views, both from the industry perspective or from the service provider perspective. Thirdly is what are going to be the product and service innovation that will make this broadband promise come to life sooner rather than later? Because as discussed yesterday, we're talking about three things at the same time. We're talking about the superhighway, the mean to travel on the highway and ultimately the destination. So I would like to invite the panelists to talk a bit about the different destinations, what will make broadband truly an important experience. As Chef puts it this morning, it will become pretty much like everything else we have, like power. But we use power to do something. What is going to be that something? And last but not least, and most importantly, what is going to be the government role in this? Should the government be in a role of funding? Should the government be in a role of deploying infrastructure? Or should the government be in a role of operating? So taking the three extremes, funding, deploying, operating, or just limit the government role and the regulator role within a sort of a policy definition and enablement, but do not move the government in any sort of role in the kitchen, if I may refer to it this way. And if not, who should take the lead? So if the government is not going to play a prominent role and we all agree that there has to be a national broadband network, this 21st century digital network, then I would like to hear from my panelists, colleagues who will be taking the driving seat in this process. So on this note, I'm going to pause and Mark, why don't we start with you? Thanks. Broad range of questions. You asked me to limit responses to I think about three minutes to get us started. Let me just pick out a few points and I'm sure we'll get into that. I think what you said around the broadband technology is an important one. I think we spend a lot about hearing this morning about fiber investments and things like that. I think if we look at a company like Qtel, Qtel International, one thing just to emphasize that about 75% of our revenue actually comes outside of Qatar. And a key element we're focusing on a corporate strategy is actually providing broadband in a number of emerging markets, both in the Middle East, Northern Africa region, but also in Asia. If we look at that particular dimension, what we're seeing is that we need to take a very sensible look at where we're putting our investments and there are a number of technologies we can use. Obviously we heard about fiber. In many cases actually upgrading or using legacy copper infrastructure, upgrading that to ADSL to VDSL actually allows for a great opportunity to provide broadband services more quickly and with a more manageable investment as well. And what we see in many emerging markets is that actually that infrastructure might not even exist. So we need to find ways of either indeed putting in completely new infrastructure. And what we're actually doing in many emerging markets is using YMAX technology. We're one of the largest, if not the largest emerging market investor in YMAX in countries such as Jordan, Philippines and Pakistan, which is not a great way of offering it. Now, a fourth element is providing a 3G, HSDPA kind of mobile technology as an alternative to fixed line. Now those things are helpful, but I think we all recognize in the end as data starts to grow, we need to have kind of real broadband networks that deliver that on an ongoing basis. Now, the trick we need to recognize though, it's not just about providing the infrastructure and it comes back to your question about what other kind of activities are required there. We look at a country such as Qatar and it's actually quite specific to some other markets in the region as well. You just need to understand where's all of this traffic, all of this broadband consumption going to. Now, Qatar is quite and many Gulf States are quite specific in that region. If you look at markets such as Japan, 90% of traffic is actually domestic in the sense it's using domestic content just 10% is international. Many European markets about 50% national, about 50% international. If we look at a market such as Qatar, it's actually completely the reverse. 90% is international, just 10% is national or regional. That has a big impact on how countries such as Qatar and other countries in the Gulf look at developing their broadband strategy. A key bottleneck there is not only what you provide for the last mile, but what you provide in the back home. And that's one area where we seek a real need for investment as well. And Q2 as a group is investing heavily. I know Qatar in various forms, Qatar Foundation, knowledge ventures is investing in the back home activities as well. That's a key enabler I think we need to think about as well. On the service innovation side, we also need to recognize again, it's not just, it's not build and they'll come. It's not if you put in a fiber, 100 megabits or a one gigabits that all of a sudden all of these servers will be there. I think we just need to recognize also that stimulation on the demand side is very important. If we look at many of the Gulf, Northern African regions, some of the basic things like e-commerce are actually a bit behind what we see elsewhere in the world. Simply providing high speed internet is not gonna change it, so there are other things that we need to do. Kind of driving that to what is the role in the government in this? I think this is kind of one point. The government can really help and regulators can really help in also addressing those particular points. How do you stimulate the demand? How do you help with things like kind of backhaul? But also how do you look at other things? I mean, what's interesting is great, there are ways of looking at helping support and stimulate fiber investments. The other thing we need to think about as well, well, what is actually in that last mile? And what I find very interesting to hear about our colleague from Hong Kong is about kind of how they help put quality standards for buildings in building wiring, which is quite important. And I think we're seeing a couple of examples here in the region where by having, not having that managed well, you end up having fiber to the building, but then actually having quite a big bottleneck in the building itself. If we look at the overall investment in broadband networks, I think we need to kind of address the thing of, what is there something like Marketville? If you look at a company like Q-Tel, we're definitely investing heavily. We'll invest a lot more in driving next generation investments, taking a leadership role there. As a regulator across markets, I think you need to ask yourself the question, what is indeed the best way? Do we need to drive this? Is it not gonna happen unless we drive this? Should we play a facilitating role? Kind of acknowledging that actually, if you look at markets on average, covering the large 30% of your population actually triples the investment required. Knowing that thing, maybe it's about the subsidizing those kind of things, not necessarily finding ways to move into the areas that the market can manage itself. So subsidizing there might be another area to focus on. And I think, kind of lastly, I think one of the key things that I think, and every regulator would probably acknowledge that, which is really important, you need to be clear for any investment to take place. An investor needs to have at least some degree of certainty about what that investment will do. That they don't find themselves a year down the line seeing the complete regulatory regime change. So clarity about what your regulatory position is is quite important. But let me just leave that down, probably over a gun of three minutes. No, that's perfect. That's exactly what we want. Cover a lot of questions, we'll surface from this. Thank you, Mark. Virginia Arnascio. I will speak on my personal perspective. First of all, I think the government role is, first of all, is to facilitate and create the demand. What it means, it means that they should be service, government service to start with in order to create the demand in the market. Now, to focus on infrastructure without focusing in creating demand, it will be just a wastage of throwing investment into the infrastructure, even if it is coming by subsidies or fully financed by government. So what it means, it means that there should be applications, there should be content where it will absorb the capacity what we are looking at. Second, on the infrastructure, the solutions, it will depend on each country differently. For example, I'm giving an example on Oman. Oman, if you just look at the core business, the core, which means the backbone, that's not a big problem because both the operators, two operators, the existing one has invested heavily on the core and the new operator is going to, he has been, has committed to invest heavily where we are going to have two parallel core network operating at the same time. And the reason, because at home, we had a phase, Guno, you know the, and we suffered from this, that one of, that network which is existing, it went off the air, cut off very badly, it affected all other operators. So we needed to have another one parallel to that, how they will work together that we will see in the next phase once this is implemented. Second, the problem at home is the access networks. The access networks, yes, we have seen, mobile has taken over from fixed. The ADSL, for example, it's not uptaking at all. It seems that mobile broadband is taking over, but it is limited. If you look on a long term, it's limited. So then we have, in the major city or the capital, we have other projects which are going on, on the infrastructure, where like we have a project on wastewater water treatment, which is for the whole city of Muscat, will be connected. Now this is an opportunity for this company to lay the fiber because the incremental cost for the total project is minimal. So it cannot be, it's an opportunity that cannot be repeated. Again, how this network and who will operate it and how it will be regulated. This is, we did not address, we are looking into it. But this is again, it's a long term. It will not be ready except by 2019. Now we have a problem of ADSL. Should we unbundle it or not? Because in the capital area, the new network will be ready by that time. We have auctioned the spectrum for the broadband and we are going to auction more in this year. So all these, all these, what I can say are tools, but is the demand, creation of the demand is important. It is not just to be ready with a network when you do not have applications for it. Thank you. Thank you, Reginald Nassio. Jeremy. Thank you, Karam. I would just like to pick up, it's interesting how the thread of our speakers kind of gets connected and I promise you it's not rehearsed. But I believe that we should start thinking, you know, if we imagine ourselves five years into the future, what kind of applications will our consumers really enjoy? And I'd like to make a prediction about a killer application. And it's based on three things. Context and technology and a particular tipping technology which has actually been around for 700 years, which we only just see coming out in our phones today, 700 years, if you can imagine, what is the technology that has existed in the world for 700 years and why might that make a difference? And then finally I'd like to talk a little bit about values and how the values of our consumers are shifting. So when I joined Ericsson about 13 and a half years ago, we always had this idea that one day in the future, 2010, something like such a long way away, we thought it would be a long time ago, back in those days, we'd be able to walk past a hamburger joint and your phone would go off, would you like? A cheap hamburger. Of course this application never, ever happened because in order for that notification to be useful, you actually need three pieces of information. Yeah, I know where you are, but are you hungry and have you got any money? Because if you're starving and broke and someone sends you a picture of a nice big hamburger, you're not really going to be very happy, are you? The information hasn't been delivered in the context of what you're interested in. And I think the first measure that we should think of of these personalized services, these new revenue streams, all the new kind of stuff which is going to come, we need to make sure it's within the context of the day of the person, otherwise they're not going to use it. And you can test this against things like I make a telephone call to my friends or I rush home and I access the internet. And I think that all of these things meet a context of what the person wants. But what tipping technology will help deliver that context to someone now wherever they are? Well, of course we need broadband, we need it to be mobile. It needs to be ubiquitous. This term ubiquitous comes from the Latin word uberque, which means everywhere. So whichever technology we choose, no matter where our consumers go, it should work just the same. Secondly, most of our devices actually have cameras on them and very nice screens now and I don't think that's ever going to go away. Positioning technology is starting to become available on most phones. And in fact, even only this year you will see that positioning inside buildings not reliant on satellite will start to become significant and watch out Barcelona for something that will get out, not from Ericsson, I have to say. But it will make a big difference. But the tipping point that I'd like to bring up is actually the compass. For me, the compass will be the one piece of technology which suddenly binds all of the other ones together because it's not only that I know where you are, it's I know which direction you're looking at. What are you looking at? What's in front of you? If you imagine being able to filter out 355 degrees of information that is not relevant, suddenly it starts to become very interesting what you can do with your devices. And we already see this is a place like Japan and any of you who are lucky enough to have an iPhone 3GS, any iPhone 3GS owners will have some lucky people here. You have a compass in your phone already today. So what can you do with this to help create the context? Well, in places like Japan, what they see is as you hold your device up and you look around they start to overlay virtual information into the viewing screen of what you can see around you. Now, for example, if I'm hungry, I might have a short code to press feed me. And now as I start looking through the viewfinder, all of the McDonald's stores and Burger King stores and restaurants and Starbucks, they start to look like little icons that I can see in the distance because I know it knows where I am. It knows the direction I'm looking at and I've created the context by saying I'm hungry or maybe I'm shopping or I'm looking for presents, whatever it might be. But the point is, is that I've created that context. Now the interesting thing is from an end user point of view, we kind of think as we're looking at this new world and this term is called augmented reality, using the virtual world to enhance the real world. If you think about it, when I look through, I see these blinking icons of Burger King and for me it feels like they're just kind of blinking there, but what's technically happening is that I created the context and I forced them to blink at me because I'm hungry. Send me this information, broadcast your data to me. I'm the one that created it. And what that means is, is that from an operator point of view or whomever provides that service, they can then go to the Burger Kings or the McDonald's and say, hey, guess what, 85% of the people who are hungry found you when they were standing over here. One of the big things that Google earns a lot of its money from is by providing the context and the insights to the end users who surf the stuff on the internet. This is what they do. Unfortunately though, technology's not really enough and I think values is the last point I'd like to discover. And Karamori mentioned the idea of digital natives and for those of you who weren't here yesterday and inside Ericsson we think of anyone born after 1980 as being a digital native. For them it's very natural that you find things on the internet, every phone has a camera and for us old people, we think of ourselves as digital immigrants. We kind of came to this world. Actually the world kind of came to us and in fact it's our fault in this room, we're the ones that did it. So we're the lucky ones because can you imagine how confusing it must be outside the door of all of those people who see their children starting to embrace their technologies. And you know the interesting thing about values is there's been a dramatic shift and I'd like to summarize this up by convenience versus privacy. And there was a book written many years ago called 1984, all of you oldies will have heard of it, George Orwell, all your youngies would never have heard of such a book anyway. They had this thought police that would read your mind and everyone thought man that would be terrible, terrible future. So we don't need that. We already have that today, we have Facebook, we have Twitter, we have MySpace, people run home and go and update their information, they broadcast the world, it adds value to them. And I think that one of the interesting things for us to consider when we're thinking about policy and plans is that the values of this digital natives is shifting so dramatically. It already happened a little while ago when you saw the difference between call a line ID versus non-call a line ID.  It's William, hi William, how you doing? I'm good.  And he hangs up on me. I'm not offended. I'm happy to give away my privacy for the convenience that we had an interaction. And I think that a question I'd like to throw into the middle of the room for a bit of arm wrestling is the idea that if these digital natives born around 1980, if they're now in their 30s and they're starting to become a dominating factor in our worlds, if we look in Saudi Arabia, we're looking Qatar, the Middle East, there is a huge number of young people who have dramatically different values from all of us. How do we make sure we embrace enough of what is interesting and useful for them as we create our policies so that when we choose our technologies and so on, we choose in the right context related to them? So context I think is key. Delivering context by combining these technologies like the compass and broadband and imaging and so on augmented reality. And then finally values, identifying and embracing those values and recognizing that maybe what we've brought into this room today, maybe some of those things we need to leave out the door and embrace some new ideas. Excellent. We'll go back to the discussion of innovation. Hamad? As-Salaam-Alaikum. I was born in 77, so I don't know what you think of me, which where do I belong to? So we have seen how the telecom companies have really transferred from being a traditional fix operator prior to the mobile. And at that time, there wasn't much of a business case for this company. They were really surviving on the international calls. Then the mobile with the voice and voice used to worth really money. And there was a data which is only the SMS data and we have to differentiate between the data of the mobile regular network and the internet data or internet enabled data which we see in today. So there was a big business case for mobile operators. That's when they really went into privatization. I went into these big IPOs and these big licensing fees. Now I don't think 10 years from today that we're gonna see huge value for any license of a mobile operator internationally. The reason is even when we decided to invest in a submarine cable, we can see that the money is not necessarily is coming only from the operators. It's the content providers who are really bringing the money. Google, Microsoft, or we can call Microsoft Net and Google and Yahoo and Facebook are the most watched sites in the MENA region. I'm not probably international, I don't know where they're on. But if we look all over the globe, you'd see that Google and Yahoo and Microsoft now they're competing to come to each region where they really localized their traffic. So once they localized their traffic, we come to the model which Dr. Hassam mentioned today about the YouTube, sorry, the BlackBerry where they would like to get some of the piece of the cake of the money. We see today Google being engaged with HTC and nobody knows exactly what's their intention behind or what's the business model that they're gonna drive. But it's the big company which really embraced the internet around a business case is the company who's gonna survive in the future. I don't think that there would be a strong business case for operators and that's why they are reluctant to do it. However, if we look at it from a government perspective in which prior to the 1990s, they were really welcoming, subsidizing the telecom. And it was basically part of the basic infrastructure. So whenever you build a house, you'll be guaranteed to have your telephone connected as well as electricity and water. I think the government forget their role about it. And they have to go back to it. The reason is because government care about the well-being of the people and the national competitiveness which is shaped by the internet-enabled data in the next few years. When we talk about the broadband specific, broadband, we have the economical values and the social values or the targets of the broadband. Here in the Gulf, unfortunately, I think government have to step up not only from the telecom or ICT domain. It's a domain that touched the overall government competitiveness from an economical point of view about the objectives of the broadband. The infrastructure really doesn't support the full cycle of the ecosystem of the East Airbus. So for any economical exercise, we'll have to have the full infrastructure being embraced. And again, this is why you see Google signing something with the Saudi Postal company just last month in which the Postal system in Riyadh is really supporting a full cycle of an E-Ecosystem and E-Services. And they are chasing the Saudi Postal company for them to understand how they can be the preferred supplier for e-commerce into that region. If we take Qatar as an example, the Postal services doesn't really is not part of the home delivery system. Also, when we talk about the ports or the custom authorities, they're not really supporting the E-Services game here and beside the railroads and others. When government really care about railroads, they have to care about what they're gonna do in this particular issue. If we look at Malaysia today and 7% of their GDP is really dominant by 7% is related to the e-commerce activities in Singapore. We need to calculate how much of e-commerce contributing to the GDP here in Doha. In China, it used to be 3% and now it's moving to 5% in the last only within two years. So, and from the social perspective, if we take the media as an example, we see how two sides like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, they have really attacked the traditional newspaper Big Time where people really now go into the immediate rich content on the internet instead of going to the local newspapers. And this is only affecting all across the border. So, the question for me is, does government have to step up? Yes. They have to be engaged now to look at it not only from a telco perspective, they have to look at it from their national perspective. And I don't think that role should be only the role of the ICT regulators or enablers. It has to be really coming from the heads of the states to decide. When we see Obama in 2009 and he's really crushed on the stimulus plan to decide what he's gonna spend on and he's spent around 700 billion euros. You see that they really understand the value and how this gonna be part of their competitiveness advantage on the next few years. Excellent. Thank you.


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I wanted to make a video regarding the situation as of a couple weeks ago. Some of you might be wondering why I took so long to make this response. That's mainly because I wanted a good but belated response. I've got a list of things here that I want to talk about. So I didn't want to rush it, basically. I didn't want a terrible, crying, you know, early apology. So after weeks, Slazo has finally come back and responded to the allegations that his ex-girlfriend Shea made. And I'm not sure if it really proved his innocence, but that's exactly what we're going to discuss in this video. What is up, everybody? This is Chris from the Rewired Soul, where we talk about the problem but focus on the solution. And if you're new to my channel, what I like to do is take a look at what's going on in the YouTube community to try to see what lessons we can pull from them to see what we can do to improve our own mental and emotional well-being. So if you're into that stuff, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And by the way, if you're not yet, make sure you're following me over on Instagram and Twitter. My brand new book, Rewire Your Anxiety, is coming out this weekend. Both the e-book and audio book are coming out. I'm giving away a bunch of free copies, but you've got to follow me on Instagram and Twitter, all right? So anyways, yeah, Slazo just released his video. And I'm going to discuss it. Please stay tuned to this whole video. We're going to be talking about a few different angles of it. There are some things that he cleared up. There's some questions that are still there, right? But just to give you a quick recap of what happened. So Slazo is a YouTuber, right? He's blown up pretty big in recent years. I think he had 800,000 or a little over 800,000 before these allegations came up. And he started losing massive amounts of subscribers. But anyways, he does a lot of videos about Reddit posts and DIY life hacks and five minute crafts and a lot of those things that are popular right now on YouTube. But anyways, he had an ex-girlfriend named Shay who came out with a few twit longers about their relationship and how there was abuse, how he forced himself on her and things like that. Okay. And Slazo has pretty much been silent ever since. I'm going to link, I think the links are still there. I'm going to link them down in the description below for these twit longers. So real quick, real quick too, I made one or two videos on this, which I have since then privated after watching Slazo's video, just trying to be a responsible commentary channel and things like that. Like as stories develop and we get new information, I want to update him and get rid of anything that might further hurt Slazo, especially since he came out with some evidence that kind of clear his name, but not entirely. All right, because originally this looked really bad. It looked really, really bad.  Now, what this looks like, and this is just something like I keep trying to tell all of you guys, like everybody wants to be famous, everybody wants to be, you know, a YouTuber or a Twitch streamer or a Hollywood star or whatever it is, like, God, like these were kids, like just doing the most awkward, cringy sexting that we all did. Me and you both did it too, right? And like now it's just there for everybody to publicly see and that's got to be so embarrassing, right? Now, Slazo did apologize for the things that he said because a lot of us didn't say the things that he said, but when looking at the conversations between the two of them, and this is purely just my opinion, like it felt like they were trying to have some like kinky, awkward teenager sexting, right? Like, oh yeah, baby, you like that? You know, just whatever, like now we all get to see it. So when he showed like the full context of some of those conversations, I was like, all right, you know, like I get what he meant, right? So the only the only message that he didn't really explain, but he showed was this one right here. And that one's just a little bit suspect in my opinion. But this is one of the reasons why I hope, you know, young people, no matter what age you are, like you feel empowered to speak up when things happen and talk to parents, talk to adults, like, because this happens, this, this is something that happens where people are in a relationship. Everything's consensual, whatever it is. But what this looks like from the outside, it looks like there was one occasion where these two had intercourse where it didn't seem 100% consensual, right? Where they might have done it a thousand times. But if this one time when she said no, like that is still an issue. So especially if you're a young person, talk to somebody, talk to your parents, talk to a teacher, talk to a counselor, whoever you feel comfortable with, maybe it's like an older sister or whoever, and say like, is this okay?  So Slazo didn't really explain that. Like maybe there is a better explanation and he just didn't think it was that big of a deal. I don't know, all right? But I do think based on a lot of the information that Slazo showed, a lot of the DMs on Discord, that as far as the text when they met up after the breakup, and you know, there was the whole hotel room thing. And something that he brings up which, which like, I get why he did it. But these stories get tricky. And the thing is like me, you like we, we are the court of public opinion, we are not the court of law, right? Like I look at these like when it's such a serious allegation, I'm like, what would a judge think? What would a jury think about this? Right? When Slazo was bringing up how she lied, like this is just, this is something that a lot of people do to make somebody look worse, right? I guess the thing I'm most confused about in this whole thing is why, why would she lie? Why would she say that she'd never been in a relationship before, never kissed before, intended to wait until 16. And twist the truth of what happened in person and make it and make out like she never wanted to do anything. And this wasn't a two way thing, especially at the beginning. But from Slazo's perspective, like being accused of something so horrible, like of course he's got to point out like inconsistencies, like saying like, you know, she wanted to wait until she was 16, as she was saying that she never had any exes before, like he was pointing out that she lied about those things, right? And again, when you have serious accusations like that against you, like you have to show those things, right? But I do want to let you know too, like, because we've seen public cases in the past where things come up, right? And somebody tries to paint that person as a liar, like, oh, well, they lied about this. So they must be lying about everything. And just for all of us, I think at some point that we understand, like, just because someone lies about something doesn't mean that they lie about everything. All right. But anyways, the last thing I want to talk about is this, this part was not addressed in Slazo's video, but there's a part where Shay talks about how this was emotionally damaging her so much that she tried to take her own life and she ended up going to a mental hospital and they prescribed her antidepressants, and she talked about how Slazo wanted her to get off of them. So something, you know, something that I just want to touch on real quick is that it's common. It's common for someone's partner to try to get them to get off of mental health medications because it decreases their libido. And by the way, like, never let that happen.  Like, and unless your partner is your doctor, which they shouldn't be because that's not ethical, like, don't let them ever convince you not to take your mental health medications. But Slazo did not address that part of the relationship. And as somebody who makes a lot of videos focusing on mental health, like, for me, that's an issue. Like I wish that was discussed, you know what I mean? But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, like, this is just, this is messy.  Is it the story of somebody who was concerned for other young women? Like, what is it? I was just talking to another creator friend before I sat down to record this video, we were talking like, what was her motive, right? Like, what was it, right? And even if her intentions were good, they, they might, they might have been, they, I think it's safe to say that they were really irresponsible because she did blatantly leave things out. So I have my own opinions and theories on that of why she, she did it and framed everything the way she did. But I'm not gonna say I'm at this video. I might make another video on that at another time. But anyways, if, if you have any thoughts or opinions on this, let me know down in the description or in the comments below because this is tricky. This is really tricky because I'll tell you this. As a guy, like since I was young, I was always afraid of being accused of something horrendous like this. Like for most of my life, like even in my drinking and drug using and party days, like I had a rule that I would not hook up with a drunk girl. All right, just because like I have always been definitely afraid of these types of accusations, right? Like consent is of the utmost importance and like, this is something that we need to discuss. So I'm glad that Slazo came out and like explained his side of things. Like I feel that he is not the monster that he was painted out to be. I think that he was young, horny, cringy, stupid, right? All these things that he apologized for. But you know, like I, I used to be a teenager.  So I look at it, I'm like, okay, yeah, I couldn't kind of see that. But in my opinion, aside from that one message that that I mentioned earlier, I don't think I don't think that, you know, he did everything. He kind of explained the rest of it away. But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos. And don't forget, follow me on Instagram and Twitter. Rewire your anxieties coming out this weekend. All right, I'm giving away some more free copies and a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing. If you'd like to become a patron, support what I'm doing here. I wanted the tears to get free copies of all my books. But if you want to become a patron, click or type right there. All right. Thanks again so, so much for watching. I'll see you next time.


Hi everybody, happy Wednesday, Joe, for jasmicecasebreaks.com, coming at you with 2022 Leaf Metal Draft Football. Five box, random letter break, number two. We're going by the first letter of their first name, right? First name, first letter. Bryce Youngs will go to letter B, so on and so forth. Five box break, five autos a box, so a lot of stuff in here, so let's do it. Big thanks to this group for making it happen. There are the letters right there. Let's roll it, randomized names and letters, four and a two, six times. One, two, three, four, five, and sixth and final time. Four and a two, six times for the letters, one, two, three, four, five, and sixth and final time. A, down to T. All right, Barry with A, Eddie with B, Barry with C, Jeff, NP, Nestor, S, Jeff, G, Barry, hi, H, I, Jeff, J, Nestor, D, Ryan, M, Jeff, K, Barry, E, V, W, X, Z, Q, and R, and Aaron with T. Let's order these alphabetically, and we're gonna pause the video. When we come back, we're gonna see if there's any trades and then we'll have the break, stick around and be right back. All right, hi, welcome back everybody.  So that list remains the same. Thanks everyone for making this happen. Appreciate it. Remember, as a reminder, we're going by their first letter of their first name and five autos a box. Good luck, everybody. Even knife, there it is. These are all top loaded for me already. Thanks, Leaf. Appreciate that. We're gonna lead off with Troy Franklin, one out of 15, Aaron with letter T. We got draft bound. David Bell. Five out of five. Letter D, Nestor. All aboard the Big Hit Express. D for David. He did indeed get drafted. I think this guy got drafted too. David Oshabbo, another letter D. Another train whistle, Nestor. All aboard. Got Daxton Hill, another D. For Nestor, 14 out of 25. And another D, Drake London. Touchdown Kings. D, that D, that big D. Four out of the five hits for Nestor in box one. Rex wishes he had. Wow, yeah, Rex wishes he had the D. No, Rex isn't even in this. That could have been him. Next up, we got Corey Kiner. I don't know if he got drafted. Barry with C, seven out of 10. Award winners, that's Brian Robinson, Jr. Four out of five, there you go, Eddie. He's the one that was shot in the carjacking, but he's trying to make it back this season. Yeah, he was trying to see how to do it first league. Right? That's amazing. Letter B, Eddie. And out of five. All aboard, the big hit express. Woo-hoo. I know, me too. It's a mere white. 30 out of 30. Letter Z, Barry Roberts. Hope the Raiders can use him a little bit more. There's Romeo Dobbs. He is draft bound. Catching passes from, yeah, he did. Catching passes from Aaron Rodgers, five out of 20. R, R, Barry with the letter R. And we got Trayshon Holden, one of one. Letter T, Aaron Miller. All aboard, woo-hoo. The next box. Back to the D, DeMarvin Leal. Three out of three, one, two, three. And all aboard, the big hit express. Woo-hoo. We got Henden Hooker. This Hooker going to H, Barry with a letter H. And all aboard, the big hit express. Woo-hoo. I'm gonna blow out my voice doing this. There's Alec Pierce, Barry with the letter A, out of 20. We got Xavier Worthy, X, Barry with X, five out of 15. And look at that. Another D, Desmond Ritter. Nine out of 15. There you go. Nestor. Nice hit. Easy rex, that's a family show. Come on, you can't say that. All right, there's Kieran Williams. Touchdown, Kings. Eight out of 25. Jeff with a letter K. Jermaine Johnson, the second. Tenacious, autograph. One out of five, J. Jeff with J, Jeff. All aboard, the big hit express. Woo-hoo. We got Tanner McKee. Nine out of 25. Aaron with the letter T. There's Anthony Richardson, 18 out of 20. Barry with the letter A. And we got Trayvon Henderson. Touchdown, Kings, one out of five. Aaron, letter T. All aboard, the big hit express. Woo-hoo. All right, fifth and final box. Good luck, everybody. That's right, Brandon, 70% of the time. Last bottom mojo hits 100% of the time. Two out of 10, Travis Dye. Travis Tideye for Aaron and the letter T. Trey McBride, another T for Aaron. We got Cameron Ryzen, House of the Rising Sun, 21 out of 40. Cameron goes to Barry and the letter C. We got Breece Hall, Jets running back, 17 out of 20, going to Eddie with B.  Center that a little bit better in the top loader there. And that's Barry with the letter A, 12 out of 20. There you go, ladies and gentlemen, ton of fun, ton of train whistles in here. That was 2022 Leaf Metal Draft Football, five box random letter break number two. I'm Joe for JaspeysCaseBreaks.com and I'll see you next time for the next one. Bye-bye.