Live from the JSA Podcast Studio, presenting Data Movers, showcasing the leaders behind the headlines in the telecom and data center infrastructure industry. Hey, everybody. Welcome to our newest issue of Data Movers. I'm your host, James Spada-Pittaya, CEO and founder of JSA, along with my fabulous co-host, top B2B social media influencer, Mr. Evan Christel. Good morning, Evan. Hey, Jamie. I love being called fabulous. It's the only place I get called fabulous is here on Data Movers. But great to be here when we sit down with the most influential men and women in the data center and telecom space, supporting the infrastructure requirements of this new normal. Jamie, speaking of new normal, what do you do with your money? Do you hide it under a mattress or do you put it in 401k? What's your savings investment strategy? Yeah, there's a mattress involved. Yeah. I only feel this crazy world we live in. I don't know. But no, actually, we do have a 401k plan here at JSA that we matched, which we're very proud of. But yeah, go ahead, Evan. What do you do with your money? Tell me all the things I should be doing. Well, I was just curious because I was reading this morning, 20% of Americans now have money in Bitcoin. So that would strike me as mainstream in terms of crypto adoption. So I was curious if you're a Bitcoin holder or a wannabe crypto enthusiast. Well, it blew my mind today when I read that one Bitcoin equals $39,360. So yeah, I should have wrote that Bitcoin phase, I don't know, a couple years back now, $39,360. I think it's a little too rich now for my blood. But holy moly, I've missed yet another Wild West series here, I think. Well, you missed it, or you saved yourself from losing money. But it's definitely going mainstream. I was checking my Robinhood account. And Bitcoin, my wallet is there. You can also buy Bitcoin on Coinbase. It's in PayPal now. It really is a phenomenon that's not going away. And we all have these alternative coins, too. So Brave New World will have to do a show on crypto at some point, which is pretty relevant to the data center world, believe it or not, in terms of mining and crypto management. But let's get on to our guest, far more relevant and interesting, to be honest. And the story here is connectivity and how do we even power cryptocurrency or keep the world connected? And so they're not draining us all when that started. But it leads us to this fabulous guest, again, fabulous, that I can't wait to introduce you all to Mr. Jim Milti, CEO of Bandwidth IG, joining us today. Jim, welcome to Data Movers. Thanks so much. I appreciate the time that you guys are putting in here. And I've actually never been in the audience of an influencer before, nor do I believe I've been called fabulous. So those are two great firsts for me today. Well, thanks so much. And you have operations both in Atlanta, Georgia, and California. So let's play for you. Which is your favorite destination? Oh, I can't do that. What kind of question is that? Yeah, I can't do that. Of course you can't. They're both great markets. They're vastly different, but both great markets. OK. Well, in that case, tell us more about your two locations, about your background, and what led you to start Bandwidth IG. Sure. Sure, yeah. So I'm a Jersey guy, originally from New Jersey. And I started with AT&T in 1985. So way, way back. And nobody should be doing math right now. I realized after about 12 years of working at AT&T that I was not a big company guy. And I went to work for a couple of smaller firms like ICG and AGL Networks out of Atlanta and eventually got acquired by ZEO. So I retired from ZEO in 2016. Two years later, I got a call from some old friends who asked me to participate in doing some diligence on a dark fiber business. And what we discovered in the course of the diligence was that the demand for Bandwidth was growing faster than the supply. And that the condition of existing networks, which in many cases were 20 plus years old, was just falling short of quality. Yeah, and quality's a big concern here today, especially in fiber connectivity, keeping those data centers and enterprises connected. But at what point did you see the need to build new dark fiber networks in line? Well, we see the world. We basically see two types of businesses in the world today. We see those that have digitally transformed in those that are on the journey to digital transformation. So in both cases, their data intensity is growing enormously, right? And as a consequence of that, the need to process, move, store that data becomes an even more critical business function. So that's all putting a ton of pressure on the network and we don't see that slowing down near term. So as we've been in business over the past 24 months, we've actually found we've got customers deploying gear to leverage C plus L bands and pushing 30 terabits per second on a pair of fibers, which is an enormous amount of bandwidth that you can only get with the brand new network. So these are the things that are playing through for us in terms of why it makes sense for us to deploy brand new infrastructure in these markets. Fantastic, so speaking of those markets, you serve Silicon Valley, you serve Atlanta to very exciting destinations in terms of the economy. And you've also expanded both networks and congratulations on that. Thank you. So why those two markets? What's unique about those opportunities and those metros and are there other expansions on the horizon that you're looking at? Yeah, there are other expansions, nothing I can talk about at the moment, but we certainly see these types of characteristics playing out in other places in the country. But we saw the Bay Area and the Atlanta Metro is being collected for the most part. We saw an enormous amount of data center development going on, so considerable amount of investment there without the corresponding signal of investment from the incumbent network providers. So that led us to think that there may be a good opportunity here. And as we got into the market, what we constantly heard was there were four key things that customers were focused on when sourcing network. One is the first one is they need low signal loss. Second is low latency. Third is maximum diversity. And then fourth is inventory. And the problem is many of the incumbent networks were just unable to meet those four key needs. So signal losses, you may know goes up when you introduce splices into the network or you try to mash incompatible cables together, which many of these incumbent networks had to do. So latency goes up when you have to take an indirect route between sites. Diversity becomes a risk when your network is riding in the same ditch as everybody else's network. And an inventory is a problem when you realize that a lot of those companies placed those networks 20 plus years ago when there were only 400 million people on the internet. Today, there's five billion people on the internet. So 400 million people, you sit and you size it up and say, well, let's put 144 or 288 count cable in the ground and that should suffice for many years. We actually have customers today that are taking 144 strands on their own in a single path. You know, I love how you divided it down to those core four, if you will, the signal loss, latency, lack of diversity and inventory. And really those become even more paramount of importance when technology continues to evolve. We have things like 5G, AI, IoT, really becoming more used, more widely used. So when we talk through these new technologies, what do you think in terms of this new fiber networks, how do you think they're going to evolve accordingly? So I think this is gonna sound, there's gonna be a lot of people who are gonna stop at this but I throw out the D word from time to time when I'm talking about this and that is decommission. So I believe that a lot of these incumbent networks are gonna be forced into a situation where they actually decommission segments of their network in order to make room for more advanced infrastructure down the road. You know, there's 20 billion devices connecting to the internet. So you think of internet at things, that is a population of 20 billion devices right now and this forecasted to grow to 80 billion by 2025. And it may even grow faster than that. All of those applications that all those devices are touching all have to go back through a data center in some way, shape or form. And that's the sweet spot that we focus on is making sure that the connectivity, the fabric between the data centers is robust and able to scale and secure. And so those are the things that we stay focused on. That's a great point. I mean, even if you look at 2G and 3G networks they're already being decommissioned around the US and the world. We're realizing coax and DSL aren't sufficient to many homes, particularly high growth areas. So throughout the pandemic, you know, we saw this demand spike. Anyone with teenagers working from home will have seen that personally. But what did you incur with your customers and prospects? What was the demands spike like and what kind of services did they ask of you? Yeah, we, so as I mentioned, our primary business is connecting between the data centers. So as, you know, as I noted before, every application runs back through a data center, right? Our customers were constantly evaluating application performance and they would reach out to us from time to time for additional fibers, which in many cases, since we were already pre-populated we were able to turn up in just a handful of days. So that was what helped meet their needs. But at the end of the day, we really, we started the business about six months before the world shut down. So, you know, we were fortunate to be in a position to be able to answer those calls in a meaningful way in the, probably the first six to nine months of this serious pandemic that we're facing. Of course. And you know, when you're talking connectivity between data centers of particular note is dark fiber. And I don't think it's a topic that we discuss enough in our industry, mainstream for sure. What resources does bandwidth IG have available to help your prospects, your potential customers understand the difference between older options and then this alternative bandwidth IG option? Yeah, it's a great question. We, you know, so we, our JSA team has done an exceptional job of making sure we have a fulsome set of resources out on our website. So our website is bandwidth IG.com. And we've got blogs, we've got white papers, we've got press releases, we've got a video that we just did that helps explain the business in a little bit more of a fulsome way. And then, and then of course, I've got an exceptional team of people who are more than happy to talk about dark fiber with anyone who has any questions that are answered in those documents or that they need more information on. Awesome. Well, let's, let's learn more about, you know, who is Jim Nolte. I assume you're not related to Nick Nolte. I haven't gotten a Christmas card from him in a while, so I'd say no, probably not. We do have some rapid fire fun facts and tell us the first thing that comes to mind, your favorite place to travel to. You know, my wife and I have a house in Naples, Florida. So we, we have a hard time comparing Naples to all these other great places out there, but we're starting to fall in love with Hawaii actually. After the last PTC, we spent some time in Maui and, you know, saw the whales and all the other beautiful scenery out there. So I'd say, I'd say Hawaii at the moment. You can't go to Hawaii. I want to spend some time on Larry Ellison's Island there. That, that looks pretty good. Right. We'll see. What's the last book or audio book or podcast that you consumed? I'll, so admittedly, I am, I, I hate business books, but I just stumbled over a book and finished it in a matter of days called Working Backwards. I can't remember the name of the authors, but these are two guys that were senior members of Amazon and it basically describes the thought processes and the frameworks that they use to make decisions at Amazon. So brilliant read and really well written book. All right. Are you a golfer? I am a golfer. I will. I'm a hacker. Okay. So what's your favorite course? Band and Dunes and my friends would tell you it's because I actually played well there. So, which is unusual for me. Awesome. And I see you're on Twitter. I'm actually just started following you there. Oh, anything you saw on social media recently that made you LOL, as the kids say. Oh, man. I saw a video of a woman who looked like she was in Asia and she, and somebody drove by on a moped and tried to nab her purse. She ended up knocking them off the moped and stealing the moped. Ah, that was my mom. Karma's a bitch, as they say. Well, thanks so much for joining us, Jim. And it was great. Absolutely. The work you're doing is extraordinary. And also great hearing how Atlanta is your favorite destination. Yeah. I like to get down to Atlanta down, especially in the winter where it's pretty chilly up in Boston. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah, I know. Thank you so much for your time. Both of you, I appreciate it. And look forward to another session down the road. Absolutely, Jim. Absolutely. Yeah, Evan and I like to play East Coast versus West Coast over here. And thankfully, we have been with IG in both places. So thanks again, Jim. We look forward to our next session for sure. And guys, if you enjoyed listening to today's Data Movers podcast, reviewing us, I'm sure hope you did. Go ahead and check us out for more episodes, jsa.net slash podcast. Every week, Wednesday mornings, we release them, so go ahead and check us out. Additionally, go ahead and follow us on Twitter. We've got, of course, the very famous Evan Postel at Evan Postel and at J Scuddo for me. And I'm gonna say at this time, happy networking. Bye, guys.


Hi, my name is Henry Louis Gates Jr., and it gives me an enormous amount of pleasure to welcome you to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund's digital series on Cultural Preservation. Black churches have been at the forefront of meaningful democratic reform at least since this nation's founding, and they're a living testament to the heroic resilience of our ancestors in the face of unimaginably daunting challenges. Please join me as we discuss the legacy work of stewarding historic black churches and explore how their long-term financial stability can enable them to continue to serve their communities for generations to come. It gives me an enormous amount of pleasure to introduce and host this panel on the important role that institutions and stewardship play in our national life, and in particular how black churches historically have been the bedrock of the African American experience from the time of the American Revolution to today. Now, let me begin by congratulating the National Trust's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund on its six years of national leadership and the impact that it has made, the dramatic impact that it has made as we all know in this room in so many communities across the country. Give it up to Brent Legs. This mission is so very important at this moment in our history, and give it up to Darren Walker, the person who brought us together, the person who funds the important work that we do. And let us also applaud the Lillian Dalmat for investing $20 million, ladies and gentlemen. That's 20 million bucks in the Action Fund's preserving black churches project. And over time, this partnership bears every promise of transforming the way our nation protects historic black churches. So it's wonderful to have Chris Cobble and the Reverend Brian Williams of the Lillian Dalmat here with us this afternoon. So let's give it up for the vital work that they are doing to support this mission. Please. Now, let me introduce our outstanding group of panelists, Bishop Anne Byfield, serves as the 135th elected and consecrated Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, representing the 16th Episcopal District. She represents the historic St. James AME Church in Mayfield, Kentucky. Give it up for the bishop. Ted Debrow. Ted Debrow is a preservation leader and chair of the Board of Trustees at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which needs no introduction, where he oversees restoration, planning, and fundraising. Give it up for Ted, please. Got a little fan club out here, Ted. Where were you AME people when I introduced the bishop? Bunch of Baptists in here, Bishop, I don't know. Like Evelyn Brooks Higginbottom. Dr. Noelle Trent is the new CEO of the Museum of African American History and our beloved Boston and Nantucket, where they steward two of the oldest extant African meeting houses in the United States. And she was former executive of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. Give it up for Dr. Trent, please. And last but not least, Valerie McDonald is a journalist, the member of the Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles, where she serves on the Deaconate Board and is chair of Christian Women on the Move. Please give it up for Valerie McDonald. As a way of framing our conversation, I'd like to speak for just a few minutes. I am not a black preacher. I won't be taking a long time. I'd like to speak for just a few minutes on the historical importance of black churches and why preserving them for future generations is very important. Could we roll the videotape? This is our story. The black church was more than just a spiritual home. It was the epic center of black life. Out of it came our black businesses, our black educational institutions. The black church gave people a sense of value, belonging, and worthiness. I don't know how we could have survived as a people without it. To tell the story of American religion is to tell a political story. The black church helped us to withstand all the slings and arrows of segregation and the segregationists. We're willing to be beaten for democracy. Who are the five great black preachers of all time. There's so many. Prathia Hall. Renata Williams. We serve a Jesus who came and turned over the tables. Jeremiah Wright. Gardner Taylor. Gardner Taylor. Howard Thurman. I left out oldest Maas presiding Bishop Michael Curry. Love can be set for special. Did you think that you were going to get one amen out of those Brits? I learned how to see amens in their eyes. I'm going to clap my hands, I'm going to sing to the Lord. Some might argue that the black church is the first black theater. The role of music in the black church is everything. How do you define gospel music? Oh, really, simple gospel music. It's the sonic presentation that talks about the majesty of Jesus. Entertainment shouldn't be in the church. What do you think the preacher does? I don't know if you can't do it. The preacher, hand your high, hand your high. That's entertainment. The African-American church is 80% to 90% women, but the leadership is 80% to 90% male.  If you say you were born this way, then you're saying God. We are a testament to the goodness and the grace of God. Everything in the world has tried to kill us and we're still here. Culture says you the wrong race, your race. And I ain't made no mistake. It was our bomb in Gilead, the place where our people made a way out of nowhere. It was that place from which our souls could look back and wonder how we got over. We call it the church. But the church say amen. The black church was, is and shall always be the heart of our community and for our people. The black church has served as houses of worship, from hushed harbors to praise houses, from brick and mortar churches to mega churches. Dot our inner cities and our Zoom screens, right? And our suburbs. Places of community support. Ground zero for political organizing and social justice. Sanctuaries for the suffering and the marginalized. And engines for transcendent cultural gifts exported to the whole wide world. From the soulful voices of preachers and congregants to the sublime sounds of gospel music. The black church also was the first institution built by black people and run independently of white society. And its roots are interwoven with the birth of the United States at the end of the 18th century just a few examples. First African Baptist Savannah, dating from 1773, officially constituted in 1788. Silver Bluffs Baptist in Aiken County, South Carolina, dating from the early to mid 1770s, officially constituted later in the 1780s. Springfield Baptist in Augusta, 1787, claims lineage from Silver Bluff. First Baptist, Petersburg, Virginia, 1774, but under white supervision and reality, not an independent church until a few decades later. First African Baptist, Williamsburg, Virginia, possibly the first constitution constituted independently by and for African-Americans, officially constituted in the year the United States was born in 1776. The black church is not and never has been a monolith, as each of us knows so well in this room, which is why preserving the diversity of these local institutions across the country is so vitally important. I had the honor and joy of exploring this history across four hours for my recent series on the black church for PBS. And as I said, it's ecstatic that we'll be returning in February to this rich subject matter with another four-hour series on the history of black preaching and gospel music. And so stay tuned for that. Now, through these projects, I've gained a much deeper appreciation of how generations of black people have said the sacred name of God, starting with the ways that our enslaved African ancestors miraculously, and indeed, I think it's one of the great miracles in the modern world, how our ancestors miraculously, modernity starting in 1492, as historians stated, managed to bring their faith traditions from Africa to the New World, translating them into the following, a form of Christianity that was truly their own, with a liberating God always at its center, and a redemptive force for a nation whose original sin was founded in their ancestors' enslavement, captured in Africa, survival across the dreaded middle passage, and then institutionalized over generations in the peculiar institution of slavery on this side of the Atlantic. It's our responsibility, ladies and gentlemen, as the inheritors of this tradition to put its preservation front and center. And it is with this top of mind that we begin our conversation with brief two-minute statements from each of our panelists. And I'll call on them in a minute as I walk over. But please, give it up to our panelists, ladies and gentlemen. All right, Bishop Byfield. Byfield, thank you. The African Methodist Episcopal Church started in 1787 as a protest of injustice and became a Church of Liberation and Reconciliation to all persons, particularly in the treatment of blacks in the society. In 1820, the first church hit Kentucky. And St. James Aimee Church Mayfield came out of that. And so in the mid to late 1800s, St. James Mayfield was started. He was started out of the same commitment for liberation and justice. And what makes this so significant is that not only does it have its own history in that community and in society, but two major African-American artists came out or through that church, which is one of the reasons why it is important to preserve it. Helen LeFrance, who was known and has a major mural all through Kentucky, and another one is Ellis Wilson. Ellis Wilson's name is not known as well. But if you ever watched the Bill Cosby show, the painting of the funeral procession is by an artist that came out of St. James Aimee Mayfield. And so I'm here to speak to the preservation of that and how climate has affected the church and other churches around the world. Thank you, Bishop. Look at that. Under two minutes. That's what I'm talking about. Ted DeBrow. All right. And if you are not a good time, keep up. My wife is in the audience, and she has been on me for the last week. Amen. I'll stand with her. I want to introduce you to 16th Street Baptist Church. Many of you know 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. But let me tell you that it is my house of worship. And it's a church that I love. So that's the first important key of 16th Street Baptist Church. That it is an active church. And it is my house of worship. The second point I want to make is that 16th Street is known historically. Now, the first thing you think about is a bombing. But no, 16th Street was organized 150 years ago as the first colored Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Two years after Birmingham was developed. So historically, it's an old church that not only developed the community of Birmingham, but developed the entire African-American experience in Birmingham, Alabama. Thirdly, it's important because of its architecture. The current church that you see on the screen was really designed by one of the first African-American architects, Wallace A. Rayfield. Trained at Pratt Institute in Columbia University, recruited by Booker T. Washington to come to Tuskegee Institute to teach architectural science. But left Tuskegee to come to Birmingham to establish its own firm in the early 1900s and was available to design the current structure that we are in. So it's important architecturally, built in 1911. It's important nationally because of the bombing that happened on September 15, 1963, that killed four young girls and really caused the nation to change its direction, change in rules, regulations, so we could be a better people. And finally, it's important for today. Where's your wife sitting? It's important for today because of the number of visitors and people who really come to 16th Street to touch it, to learn it, to hear the stories, and then go out as changed individuals to make changes in this world. Thank you. Thank you, brother. Thank you. Give it up for Ted. Dr. Trent, if you please. Good afternoon, everyone. I am the president of the Museum of African-American History, and we have two churches within our stewardship. The first is the Boston African Meeting House, which is the oldest extant church building in the country. The church itself, the first African first Baptist church of Boston, was actually started in the basement of Fanuel Hall. And in 1806, the building was built. It was built by Black people, not just designed. It was designed by a Black person, built by Black people, fundraised by Black people. And it's an incredibly important history. In that building, you have people like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison. Anyone who was anyone in the abolitionist movement, if you needed credibility, you came through the Boston African Meeting House. The Massachusetts Colored General Association was started there. And another organization, the New England Antislavery Society, was started there by William Lloyd Garrison. So we have this tremendous history. The museum itself is founded by Sue Bailey Thurman, who during the Civil Rights Movement is documenting Black presence in Boston. Because a whole lot of people ask the question, are there Black people in Boston? Yes, there are. The next question is, are there Black people in Nantucket? Yes, there are. The Nantucket African Meeting House was formed and inspired by the Boston African Meeting House, and it was consecrated in 1825. We have a long history. It came into our stewardship in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, in 2018, a local neighbor decided to express their hatred on the walls of our building with a pejorative spray-painted there. Thank you to the Action Fund. We were able to work with law enforcement. We were able to address it. But that is one of those things that lingers. So we are not without being affected by the national climate. And I believe, Brent, that was one of the first big crises that you had to deal with. And thank you for all of your support. So that is who we are, and I'll get into a little bit more of that later on in the panel. Great, thank you. Thank you very much. Give it up, please. And finally, Valerie McDonald. Thank you. Good afternoon. I am here to introduce you to Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles, formed in 1885 by a group of men and women in the upper room. From its inception, we were encouraged to vote. People were born slaves, and now they are encouraged to vote in Los Angeles. In 1921, Thomas Griffith decided that because of the growth of the church, it needed a larger space. He commissioned Paul Williams and Norman Marsh to design a building that would seat 2,500 people. And as they built that, it became the largest African-American Baptist congregation west of the Mississippi, very large. In 1928, the NAACP held their first east or west coast convention. They had these annual conventions. And in 1928, it held its convention as Second Baptist. We have had a wonderful legacy of civil rights movements. Anyone who came to Los Angeles, Second Baptist, was actually the place you came to. We were part of, Paul Robeson came to perform, to raise money there. Mary McLeod Bethune spoke to encourage African-Americans to empower themselves, and particularly women. When we were going through our COVID era here, we noticed that there was some damage to our building. And as that took place, we reached out to the Action Fund. And not only did they respond, but they responded enthusiastically and said, we did not know Second Baptist existed. So I am here to introduce to you a wonderful heritage in the Black History Movement. And as Ted says, it is my home. And I love it dearly. And everything that we can share here today, I will give you a little more history on that. Great. Thanks. Give it up for Valerie, please. Wonderful. OK, we're going to start with one question for each of you. And then I'll ask specific questions of you. First, as the caretakers of historic Black Church buildings and the history enclosed there, what are the greatest challenges, do you think, confronting Black Church preservation? And how are you mitigating these real preservation threats to save and protect your churches and legacies? Why don't we just start here and go straight down? OK, I would say that the biggest challenge has really been finances and resources. When you are talking about a church that was a premier church in a city and then with red lining, with highways coming through and really destroying the community, it also destroyed memberships in the church. And so our membership now is probably down to about 300 members. And even though people think of the great 16th Street Baptist Church and probably with thousands of members and all, we have about 300 active members. And really it takes every penny that they can contribute to the ongoing operations of the church. So when you're talking about preservation and the expenses in preservation, we really didn't have those resources. But fortunately, we have been working on this whole preservation scheme for really about 30 years. And I want people to understand that it doesn't happen overnight. It's a long period of time. And so we've been working really about 30 years when the civil rights institute opened across the street from 16th Street Baptist Church. We were told that we needed to get ready for the number of visitors that would come. So we had sort of a cosmetic renovation of the church, which was all wrong. And Jack Plyburn, who's in the audience, really came to us and really gave us a historic structures report that we use for the next 20 years to really preserve our church as it should have been from the beginning. So you gave it a bad facelift. We gave it a bad facelift. We had to go back and redo things. And now we have preserved it with the National Park Service grants, with the grants from the National Trust, from the Main Street Program, from the Black Church Fund, from anywhere we could get the resources that had to be outside of the 300 members in order to preserve the church. We have raised in the last three or four years about $6 million to really restore not only the church, but the possum. That's good. Is that what you need? Yes. So you've raised all the money you need? No, we have not. I'm going to talk about the future. That was an IQ test. I was going to talk about the future. And that's going to come a little bit later. But we have preserved the church, and we are now moving toward trying to raise an endowment to take care of the church for years to come. Endowment is everything. It is. And the National Trust has given us a challenge of $200,000. If we can raise the matching funds, we are really going above over that $200,000 to try to raise a million to invest for the maintenance of the church that we have restored. Valerie? Well, we are baby steps as far as preservation is concerned. This is something that is new to us. And we have just formed a committee for the preservation of Second Baptist Church. It is a small committee of folks who are looking at the resources in the city, in our government, of course, and in our congregation. Now, our congregation is about 80% 90 to 100 years old. So they are retired individuals. And wait a minute. Say that again. 80% are 90 to 100 years old? 80 to 100 years old. It must be something in the water or air. I can retire there. That's pretty good. We have a lot of wheelchairs. We do have a lot of wheelchairs. But there are also wonderful 100-year-old individuals who are walking just perfectly. And they are clear thinkers. And they are actually working on the preservation committee as well. So it is a testament to the character and strength that Second Baptist has. Like I said, it is a beloved church throughout Los Angeles. It has been there for 138 years. We're not going anywhere. We had the opportunity to leave that community when the demographics changed. But we decided that this is a Paul Williams structure. We wanted to maintain it as a spiritual place, which is why it was founded to begin with. So we are there for the duration. And that is our committee's job to find the funding. And with the rest of the congregation, I think we raised a little over 200,000 the first time. So we are just embarking. This is our first venture into preservation.  So thank you very much. And I'm sure that you all know who Paul Williams was. But because of the intervention of Frank Sinatra, among other people, he was the first black architect to be hired to build homes in Beverly Hills in Hollywood, built Sammy David Jr.'s house, Frank's house, et cetera. But I didn't know he did churches. I just want to tell you, too, if you fly into Los Angeles, the thing that they call it is still standing. That's a Paul Williams structure. Oh, really? Yes. Oh, wow. So when you fly into Los Angeles and you see something that looks like it's out of Star Wars, that's the building that he put together. Well, that's great. He was tripping that day. Yeah, I got it.  Bishop, Bishop Byfield. The action fund, I knew of it. I had heard of it. I don't know that I had any relationship with it. So when St. James AME Church Mayfield was hit by the tornado, my friends called me because for five years I had been in the Caribbean. And there I had to deal with churches through hurricanes, mudslides, and floods. Annually. Annually. And so three months after being assigned to Kentucky, I was hit with floods and tornadoes. And St. James was the worst of the worst. And it was the action fund who reached out to me about how they could partner. And so I'm grateful. I mean, I'm absolutely grateful. And this day has been overwhelming for me to see the breadth and width of what is being done. So there are several reasons I think we need to talk about stewardship. Most, not I won't be that general, but a lot of black churches are underfunded, undercared for, and underinsured. And when they were first built, they had no idea that our tornado was going to hit them. And so they structurally, we have problems. Secondly, many of them are in transition, particularly in rural areas, so that St. James Mayfield has less than 50 members. Most of them are 60, 70, and 80, but who have given their lives to that church. So what the action fund and what we had to do with them was that, one, they had no insurance. They had $150,000 of insurance. That's it. And we had to fight to get that out of their hands because they were afraid, if they gave us the insurance, that they wouldn't have anything. So thank God for the action fund because they gave us $100,000 plus $150 to start the work. The second thing is that there is no plan in the black church for a crisis. And so all through the South, in the AME Church, particularly Florida, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, tornadoes are whipping us. And there is no plan. There's no insurance. The builders can't handle it. And so then when calamity hits, the church has no ability to rebound. The last is people are in grief and depression. So when it happens, they are unable to function very well because they're in such crisis. So I would see those things that we can talk about insurance. We can talk about caring for the building consistently and to do what needs to be done that will help a whole lot to get us to stewardship. Right. And that occurred to me in a way that churches are in a continuous state of PTSD. They are. Especially with this whole new climate, with this whole issue of just white. We have conferences. When I say conferences, like a geographical area, that have wiped out 25 churches when a tornado hit, when Florida hit, how do you, as a denomination, how do you, that as a church, how do you, as a community, have to try and rebuild all of that? Right. Great. Dr. Trent. To build on what the other panelists said, we heard finance. We heard climate change. The other thing is community. And a lot of the way that community has been talked about here is that the community that looks like our institutions, right? But my buildings are in Beacon Hill and Nantucket. Now, at one point. Well-known centers of black culture. Well, in the 19th century, yes. Northside of Beacon Hill was like Harlem in Boston. It was. Joy Street. Joy Street was a happening place to be. Same thing in our neighborhood of New Guinea in Nantucket. That was a happening place to be. In the 18th, 19th century, right? So the neighborhood has changed. And so there's a dynamic there to negotiate your continued existence in a neighborhood that has changed around you, especially when the property values and the wealth of the people around you have changed. Because people's expectations of you have changed. I am the daughter of a pastor. So I've been around churches for a very, very long time. And one of the things that I have seen as I've talked to my dad and other ministers is that people forget the church has to function like a business, right? So Ted and I were talking over lunch. People want to come in and tour a 16th Street Baptist church. But how dare they ask for an admission? Well, somebody's got to keep the lights on, right? You got to keep the heat. That HVAC that's helping you out in an Alabama summer is not free. Jesus paid it all, but he didn't pay our electricity bill. You know? And so there's a fundamental, mental shift that we have to think about. People think of the church as this wonderful entity. We rely on it. We depend on it. But they forget that we have to fund it. And it can't just be reliant upon the 300 members, because the nature of worship, the nature of Christianity and religion in this country has changed. And I'm not criticizing that, but we can no longer rely on our membership to guide us through, right? So all churches, especially historic churches are gonna have to change their fiscal structure to preserve, to exist. But then that's gonna come out into the community and people are gonna say, well, you know, the church won't let us do this. The church won't let us do that. Well, you know why we can't let you do that? Because you've exploited us in the past. We're not getting any money for it. If someone were to use a celebrity's image, right, there's a licensing fee for that, right? There's no, nobody thinks about paying churches a licensing fee, right? We should have rights to our image, right? We should force people to pay that. And sometimes we don't demand that because that's the nice churchy thing to do. Well, also the nice churchy thing to do is to be open and functioning as a community cultural and religious entity. No, you're right. You know, the first time I dealt in the black church, please give it up. I was interviewing Bishop Jones, Noel Jones, you all know Noel Jones, who's a great preacher. You know, it's a great show, long and tall, and he accentuates it with his robe.  And he said, brother Gates, all I'm sorry about is keeping more bodies coming in the door on Sunday morning than going out the back door on Saturday night. This is a business. It is a business. And Richard Allen understood that, Absalom Jones understood that, and we all have to understand that. Bishop Byfield, the connection between climate change, you alluded to, I want you to elaborate more on that because I want people to think about it. The connection between climate change and preservation is real, palpable, as you know, all too well. St. Jane's AME was devastated by massive tornado on the night of December 10th, 2021, when a supercell storm that produced the longest tracked tornado system in history tore through the city of Mayfield, Kentucky. The tornado impacted four states that caused the loss of 89 lives. Many good intentioned folks that offered to help demolish the structure and clean up the site. Rather, the church decided to partner with preservationists to rescue this century old heritage that includes Helen LeFrance mural. Tell us about your thoughts on climate change and heritage going forward, and share with us, if you would, what the future holds for the renewal of this deeply sacred space. Absolutely. As I said, I was three months as a Bishop, but I knew St. James Mayfield. My father, Pastor St. James Mayfield, before I was born. So I had grown up hearing the legacy of St. James, the small church that had this community spirit and produced national leaders. And so the structure is wonderful architecturally designed, but when the tornado came, it actually took one side of the church, demolished one side, and then some other damage, stained glass windows, all of that. They cried that day and said, please don't destroy our church. Please don't tear it down. And so we then had to enter to a different kind of perspective because all of the other churches in St. James Mayfield, particularly the black churches, they just knocked everything down, boom, and started over. And most of them have been rebuilt. So now the members of the cry is in, our church is rebuilt. Well, because we are preserving it. So the first thing that we had to do was to make sure that climate, that we could protect it from future climate. Secondly, we had to look at, with how do you preserve a mural in the back of the church? And thank God it was not touched. So part of the problem is working with, and we have Nikita. So everybody said, give it up for Nikita. She's good, man. So we have to come up with a plan which we are working through how to rebuild the church and save and add to it. The problem with some of that is, again, impatience. The people are saying, oh, no, the churches are built. Yes, but you're preserving. We're at seven. The second problem is the time that it takes to do that versus starting over. And how do you keep the people encouraged? So they're worshiping at another church, a Nazarene church, and Nikita, we can't we go back? Well, you can't go back because it's not safe. When you get safe, we can go back. So going into the future, it is my hope that, well, one of the things I've done as a bishop is instituted all over Kentucky and Tennessee, a preservation plan, a history. We didn't have artifacts. We didn't have history. So when Action Fund said, we need this, this, we didn't have it. They didn't have a written history. They didn't have pictures. We had to go all the way to Maryland to somebody who had moved to Maryland who could present it. So one of the things is going forward, every church must have artifacts. They must retain them. They must keep them. They must write real histories of the church and they must have a plan of what will happen. So I hope that we're looking at next year that the church would be built. We're praying that it'll be built. We think it's gonna be built. We just... Yeah. We need some more money. We need about another $500,000. But, and the Army Church has already invested about 300, 400,000 in it. So going forward, those things. And then secondly, lastly, I think is that we need to look at real involvement that climate isn't going away. Pornados are not going away. Hurricanes are not going away. Floods are not going away. And that we need to sit down as a church, as a community, as the fund, as professionals, how we're going to operate in the future with the reality that is going to happen. Right, and realism is the key word in your sentence too. And tough decisions are gonna have to be made. Valerie, second Baptist, rich story. Rich in architecture, civil rights community programs designed by our hero, Paul. And legends like Dr. King spoke there. The church anchored, as you said, a once thriving black middle class, upper middle class. Today, the neighborhood has changed. So why didn't the church cash out? Sell this cultural monument to a developer and move to the suburbs, just put pictures up all around. What motivates the church? What motivates the church to remain in place and work to restore this monumental piece of civic and religious architecture? And what issues are you facing now to preserve the building? The answer to that last question that each one has is money. Money, but I have to ask it, so go ahead. Well, the main purpose was, as I said before, it is a Paul Williams structure, and it was built for the church. When Griffith commissioned Paul Williams that period of time, everything was done by black people, for black people, black construction workers, plumbers, electricians, everyone was black that built that church. And so it is, as I said, people who come to second who have, there are five, six generations in that church. We love that church, and we like it where it is. So we can always preach to the people in the community, regardless of who you are, we can preach that. And so we have stayed there, even though, like I said, during the 20s through the 60s, it was a thriving community. You have the Dunbar Hotel down the street, the Lincoln Theater. It was a place where Martin Luther King, it was called his West Coast home because he preached there so often. Thomas Kilgore was a minister, was a pastor there for 21 years. And during that time, whenever Martin King needed something, he would call Pastor Kilgore because Pastor Kilgore was a voracious fundraiser, and he would raise money for any type of civil rights, event, movement, whatever you needed, he was there for that. So we decided to stay there, and we're not going anywhere. But I have to piggyback on what the Bishop said here, because if I need to talk to you about tornadoes, because there was one that hit Los Angeles for the first time in, I don't know how many years. So we are dealing with the structure right now that the engineers are going through to take a look at the integrity of the building. As I said, a hundred years old, nothing has been done on this church in that 100 years outside of just slight maintenance here and there. We had to put elevators in for compliance in the city. But the building, the structure itself needs a lot of work, and that is what we're dealing with, and with the weather change and climate change happening, we're gonna have to look at the roofing, the tower bells and things like that. But we are in it for the long run. I'd like to see second 300 years, 400 years from now. I hope so. Ted, 16th Street received $200,000 Endowment and Financial Sustainability Grant from the Action Fund. Let's talk about endowment. Why an endowment features critical to sustain the physical preservation of this historic asset and how much the church plans raise and how are you gonna go about it? We are starting a capital campaign really in the next couple of weeks, really to establish this endowment. Well, I would say we established the endowment probably about 10 years ago with $250,000 that we raised, and it is in a fund, and we only use the interest for the maintenance of the building. With that idea, when the church fund opened up its endowment program, we saw this as an opportunity to really build on that endowment by increasing it by $1 million to really use that interest to maybe replace an air conditioner, to replace the carpeting, to keep the building in tip-top shape as we are using it more and more with visitors, with programs, with people coming in and out of the facility just to touch the facility. So there has to be a plan, and there is a plan really now to secure the maintenance of the building. We have restored it. We have put protective windows and glass all around for weather that will come in, but in order to maintain it, we have to have a fund that we can rely on because we can't rely on it without current membership. So with this grant of $200,000, it's a challenge for us to match it with another $200,000, and the church is going over and beyond that to say that we will raise a million dollars to secure the maintenance of the church over the years. Great. Dr.  It's a public museum receiving visitors, tell them multiplicity of stories associated with freedom fighters and abolitionists, as you said, William Lloyd Garrison, Fred, and free black communities located around Joy Street. And some churches are repurposed as cultural spaces, as educational centers, restaurants, and more. How does the museum reuse the African meeting houses to foster community belonging and creative expression, particularly with changing demographic, with white kids moving back and taking over the cities again? Are you, is your task to preserve African American history, or is it to bring African American history to a more demographically diverse neighborhood and bring that diverse neighborhood into the museum? It is both and. And I've only been with the museum since June, so still in kind of the getting to know you, getting to understand the organization. But one of the reasons I was brought in was the museum at one point, particularly the Boston African Meeting House, was on the endangered site list, the National Trust. And because of the support of the trust, we were able to raise funds and actually save and restore the building. And so we're incredibly grateful for this moment, but what that allows us to do is now be more thoughtful and imaginative. And prior to my arrival, the board worked with the Mellon Foundation, who gave us a very gracious grant of a million dollars to allow us to get the structural support in terms of staffing to help us be imaginative. And so in this moment, what we're looking towards doing is, yes, there's tours of the building and the National Park Service by Heritage Trail Tour ends at the Boston site. But one of the things I'm really interested in doing is to reimagine the experience. Boston is a place very dense with historic sites. When you walk a couple blocks over, you run into another one, right? So what's different about us to make it experiential? I think artists are incredibly important and they'll be entwined in our future. I've had experience where you show an artist an object or a document, and all of a sudden, they create something you could have never imagined, right? And your wildest ideas, you couldn't imagine them being inspired and creating something that speaks to all of your themes and ideas in a meaningful way. And so that's the other thing that we're looking to do. The third thing is I'm very invested in reviving the original purpose of the meeting houses. And what I mean by that is that there's a presence to include the liturgical, so bringing ministers in, concerts. But there's also a presence, particularly with the Boston location, that it was always a place for social justice. And if you look at where we are, I think about not so much the leaders, and I love Frederick Douglass, but I'm not so much thinking about what Douglass came and said at the meeting house. I'm interested in the everyday people who were inspired to action, right? And so our challenge is our mission states that we are dedicated to 18th and 19th century black history, and a lot of people don't understand how does that relate today? We can have conversations about issues today and figure out how to create a tangible bridge to the past, almost functioning like a portal. And that's what we're aiming to do. And so I think that churches who have to reimagine themselves differently, who function as museums, yes, you operate at the highest standards of the museum field, but it also provides you a platform to create sustainable connections to the past, to the culture of the black church. And so we've had a few concerts at the museum and I'd get up and do remarks and one journalist blessed their heart that's a Southern expression I picked up in Tennessee said, well, Dr. Trent got up there and she reinvigorated the crowd. And I said, bless your heart, you completely missed what I did. I stood in a pulpit where Frederick Douglass, the Reverend Paul stood. And I let people know in this space, this is a sacred space and at this moment with this gospel concert, we are stepping into as Vincent Harding said, the rivers of the past. We are stepping into a deeply tradition, a deep tradition of religious music. So we are here and I want you, while you're here in this space and another space, you may be at Carnegie Hall, they may not allow you to shout and clap during the song. That's what you can do that here, right? So it was about contextualizing the moment and the culture of who we were historically and who the black church is now. And that's what we're about doing. So I think we can do all of these things very strategically and be open to our black community, but also people who are just interested in black history. And my hope is that even people who are like, I'm not interested in black history, but I am interested in a different experience at a historic site will ultimately come to the museum. All right, makes sense. Let me give you some examples that we have had at 16th Street with our restored space. We had a violin of hope concert. These were violins that had been saved from the Holocaust and rebuilt and restored. So the Jewish community came into our sacred space to hear these violins of hope where they had been restored, the church had been restored. It brought two communities together. And that's one example. Another example is we brought in a play, Memorial. You have all know about the Hanging Museum down in Montgomery. We developed a play around the hangings in Jefferson County and what had happened in Jefferson County and presented that play in 16th Street Baptist Church in the sanctuary that brought in the whole community telling the story in a much different way. We also had another play following that with telling about Judge UW Clemens, the first federal black judge there in Alabama and how his struggle led to finally being a federal judge. We had that play there in the sanctuary of the church. But now that the space has been renovated and restored and preserved, we open up to the community and it's to all of the community. We are not really seen as a black church now. We are seen as everybody's church and everybody's coming. We just had a federal Supreme Court Justice, Jackson Brown as our speaker on the 15th, filled to capacity, overflow into the park, into the museum and people will still land up. And there were all races, all sexes, all everybody trying to get into 16th Street. That's how the preserved space is now making a difference. That's great. That's great. Very clever. We have a minute and 25 seconds left. So these other 15 questions I'm not gonna be able to ask. But let me ask the last one. If you could wave a magic wand and access transformational resources, Bishop, what does the future look like at your heritage site? I want each of you to do a quick response. Sorry, I'm with the Bishop. A new building, a new people, and a restored community as a result of the preservation. Okay. Doctor? I see an unprecedented experience where you can step into the 18th and 19th century and understand the black community in a new way and walk out inspired. Well, I love that. Valerie? I see sort of the same thing. In fact, with living history, with some of our 90 and 100 year olds, and a sacred place restored to continue the community outreach, the social justice, and the spiritual. Finally. And I'm gonna push this out another way. Because I think you probably have heard my dreams of the church, but because I'm talking to funders and preservationists and architects and all, I really wanna see some courses in preservation of black churches, in particular, going into seminaries and into our colleges. Because the ministers are not receiving the training of how to hold on to our treasures. And so one of the important courses that we really need in our seminaries now would be a course on how to preserve a church. Because they're gonna inherit these old churches. And to get started, they got to know how to rebuild those churches and the congregation. Right, no, that's great. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope this conversation has given us all the greater sense of mission and purpose as we get back to work on preserving our history for future generations to touch, to see, and be inspired by and mind, body, and soul. Let's give it up for our great panelists. Thank you. Hello, I'm Felicia Brashad. And I serve as co-chair for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Thank you for joining us for this year-long digital series, which highlights the cultural preservation movement that's happening all over our nation in the name of saving historic African American spaces. We're glad you're here. And we hope you're encouraged to support the preservation of historic African American buildings and spaces.


Welcome back to Titans Tanks. We are getting ready to take on the Las Vegas Raiders and the Tennessee Titans are going to be wearing that two-tone blue. That's right, light blue tops, dark blue pants, dark blue helmets. It's a classic look. The first 17,000 fans at Nissan Stadium are going to receive bucket hats. Now Wednesday was the start of voter registration and everybody wants you to get registered, especially Titans Rookies. They took some time to help Titans fans get ready to vote. The Tennessee Titans take on the Las Vegas Raiders this Sunday at Nissan Stadium. Kickoff for that game is noon. Buckle up folks, it's going to be great.


Hey, what's up guys? This is the Hague Headrest Mount. It's a car mount for your DSLR or video recording cameras. If you wanted to record your car when you're driving the dashboard, the central panel, then you can mount your camera on the headrest of your car with the ball head at the end of this. So I just wanted to set this up, showcase to you guys how this works. Is it easy and is it worth it? So let's go into the car and take a look. Okay, so the first thing you need to know is that this has some sliders here and it can be adjusted to any width of your headrest mount height adjustable bars here. So I would recommend you move this towards the end of the the mount here so that the ball head at the end of this side has enough space for the size of your camera. Now the max payload for this is two kilograms. So make sure you check your camera's weight and the lens weight together. Try not to put any accessories on top of the camera because you might add too much pressure onto this. What I also recommend is you do this from the front side and then you clip it into place like this so that you won't have any of the spikes of the screws facing towards the back of your neck because that's obviously not going to be very comfortable if you lean back. And then the ball head just at the end if you unscrew it you can adjust this in any direction as well like so and then you can tighten that and again the ball head itself you can adjust that in 360 degree to whichever angle you think would be perfect to get the shot of your car. So I'm going to mount it like this. All I need to do is first unscrew all of these so the plate comes off and I will clip it into the height adjustable bar there as well. So let me go ahead and do that. Okay guys so now it's very tight. I've screwed all four of these screws into place. It's super solid.  So I'm going to be testing the stability of this. You might need to have a wide angle camera as well to get a full shot of your car. So just make sure you check your focal lens on your lenses and once I've mounted it let's go for a quick drive and see how it performs. So now it's mounted on top of the ball head. I've secured it. I've put this very tight so that it doesn't move. I've centered it. Now when I'm driving just take note that my lens is 28 millimeters in focal length. I think I could probably get more of the dashboard if I was to have a more ultra wide lens so I'll recommend probably 17 millimeters would be very ideal to get the entire cabin. Now the ball head is the standard quarter inch screw so you can actually put your phone on there as well. So if you get a smartphone mount you can get ultra wide angle footage with your phone not just your camera but for the purpose of showing a max payload on this for professional video recording I'm using my mirrorless camera the Sony a7 III but if I use my mobile phone then I would get an absolute excellent job in getting the wide angle view of my cabin and the road ahead. So I'm recording this clip that you're seeing right now with my phone whilst the camera is on this mount. So as you can see this is the wide angle now and if I was to position this in a similar position in comparison I would get a lot more area for recording in the car so I would do a lot of recordings in the car with my iPhone 12 Pro. So let's go ahead and take a drive and see what you guys think of the stability in it. So one of the use cases why you would use this is if you wanted to do reviews of a car maybe you have a new car you're talking about the screen the functionalities steering wheel any of those kind of things this would be perfect for that. Well if you just want to have like your friends in a car and you want to have discussions of you on a road trip or a general vlog there's multiple different reasons why you would set a camera up like this so let's go ahead for a quick drive and see how this performs and I'll try to reposition the camera in different views so you can see from both the driver side headrest and the passenger side headrest how it looks and what you can see when you set it up in different locations even with a bit of acceleration and a bit of speed I can see that it's very stable so let me know what you guys think in terms of the stability it's a bright sunny day today and it would be very easy to still see all of the dashboard everything on the screen now what I'm going to do is I'm just going to pull up and reposition the camera so you can see more of the road rather than more of the car. Okay guys so now I've aimed this at the road I've made it manual focus so that it doesn't lose focus on me waving my hands around underneath so you can see the screen you can see everything in front so if you're doing any driving videos wanting to showcase some of the views then I think this is great for that as well as you can see it's super clear and it's super steady which is the main thing if you didn't have something like this then what you might need to do is get someone to sit in the back seat and hold the camera very still for you or I've seen some other mounts which mount the camera on a windscreen and those ones are quite risky because they might slip off depending on the condensation or the temperature they might slip off like you sometimes do with sat-navs but this one you can pretty much guarantee it's going to be secure because you have screwed it into place on your seat right so I've just pulled out one more time guys and now I'm going to switch the position of the camera so the passenger headrest and aim it a little bit towards me as the driver so if you wanted to see more of yourself speaking and commentating then this is something that you can use this for as well so let me go ahead and do that right so I mounted the camera on the passenger side headrest I've also tilted the seat a little bit back as well just so I can get a more feel the view of the driver so now let's go for a drive and see how this position comes out if you really wanted to get someone driving more of the steering wheel more of the driver side window then this would be the position to have it at although you can reposition it from this side and have it facing the road or the cabin at the front as well which is not a problem so for me ideally the best position to have this is always going to be on the passenger seat you get more flexibility to cover everything that you might want to do so let's go ahead and take another drive so again I always recommend that you have a wide-angle camera right now this is 28 millimeters you can see me and I've got this on autofocus but it's going to be picking me up most of the time and you just want a different perspective of your videos and you want the driver speaking then this is also a great way to have that so you can point it towards the driver and it'll be absolutely fine now I'm super happy with this anytime I'm going to need to review anything with the car I won't need to ask for any help I can just set this up onto the headrest mount and everything would be perfect so now I'm back home so that's about it guys this headrest mount comes in at 54 pounds on the camera grip dot com website the link is down below if you guys want to check it out if you want to do car review videos this is perfect for that if you also want to just have a recording of your trips or anything like that it's also good there's multiple uses for it and if you guys like this video make sure you give it a thumbs up make sure to subscribe I do plenty of videos for my car car accessories and all types of cool gadgets which I know you're going to like and I will catch you guys next time take care


I'm third speaker, Rayat Sharavideen. I know Rayat for so many years. He was with us at the board of the Arab Monetary Fund. Rayat is, he was a central and commercial banker. He was former first vice governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon. I'm always proud of having him as a good friend. And I know he has depth in the way he look at things and in terms of strategy, strategic thinking. And Rayat will have his opening remarks and the socioeconomic impact with the displaced population, a crisis on countries in the region. And he will take Lebanon as a case. I think this is a very difficult issue for several countries in our region.  Please, Rayat. Thank you, Dr. Hamidi. It's great to be here with you again in one of those beautiful sessions that you run. The, as Dr. Hamidi has said, I was asked to talk about the socioeconomic impact of the Syrian displaced population, a crisis on Lebanon. In the introduction, I would say that the issue of the Syrians, the space in Lebanon, evolved from a purely humanitarian one when the war broke out in 2011 to a massive call for a swift plan of action to repatriate them as they constitute an existential quote unquote threat to Lebanon's, again quote identity, image and future. And I'm quoting the minister of the interior. Like Germany's 2014 versus 2018 reversing sentiments, populists rhetoric in Lebanon is recently echoing calls for self-protection, controlling measures against their movement in and even against their residential arrangements by heads of municipalities, governors and the minister of the interior. Excuse me, while others went all the way to facilitate their immigration by sea to Europe. Additionally, there are demands to review the modus operandi of the UNHCR, which is the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees. And the other relevant NGOs and even terminate their operations altogether, especially with the unfulfilled financial pledges of the international community and the European Union's strong stance on the premature quote unquote return of the Syrians to Lebanon. This is compounded by the disputes among the cabinet members of Lebanon of the caretaker government in Lebanon, which prevents it from convening and addressing this issue. While thousands of Syrians are infiltrating the northern and eastern common borders between Lebanon and Syria. To give you an idea, this is the map of Lebanon. And we have the northern, this is Syria from the northern borders and from the eastern borders. So we have about 387 kilometers of common borders. So this is really, that means I will get to some statistics later on while I'll be talking. So the Lebanese army arrested 25,000 Syrians during the first eight months of the year. While the conflict has abated in Syria where a regime is recapturing more curable health areas and where most Arab countries started the process of approaching the administration, the economic pressures there are mounting and pushing more citizens to flee the country into Lebanon. Benefiting from the United Nations, current policy of offering them $300 per person monthly. Against this backdrop, let's look at the Lebanese economic or macro-social economic scene. Actually, we have been facing ourselves as stressful conditions resulting from multi-dimensional crisis that has been going through and aggravated by regional and global economic turbulences. Lebanon's crisis emerged from a decade of regional turmoil on the one hand, particularly regarding the repercussions and risks of the searing crisis and the difficulties in public finances in terms of the budget deficit and the exacerbation of public debt and its service on the other hand. In the Q&A, if there's any Q&A, I'll get to some numbers and statistics while I'll skip that for now. But the inflationary and monetary financial factors that are really pressured Lebanon more and more, the exchange rate devaluation, the imbalance in the balance of payment, the government's dumb decision to discontinue payments on all its outstanding U.S. dollar-denominated euro bonds on March 9, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic consequences and the Bay Root Port explosion factor of August 2nd, 2020, the energy crisis, the fuel and economic effects and on and on and on has really put us in shambles that is aggravated again with the presidential vacuum since little over a year, since October 30th, 2020. I'll get the statistics if there's any interest about it. Let's look at the numbers of the searing in Lebanon and how much they constitute as percentage of the Lebanese population. And here comes the interesting part. We don't really know for sure how much they are. We have statistics and we have statistics and we have statistics. So we have statistics running for about 900,000 and we have statistics going to 2,080,000. So look at that range and I'll talk a little bit about this variation in numbers. Because the registered population of the UNHCR and they are not registered population and there's the general security at the number that I will talk about here is the official number that the Lebanese general security, general director of the general security had talked about which is 2,080,000. This is 30% of Lebanese. So they constitute 30% of the Lebanese population. In addition to the new waves actually coming into Lebanon and we'll see all kinds of videos of them coming in and hurts. Well, the unofficial estimates indicate that the number of newly displaced people between June and July this year reached 15,000 per month with a total population of 6.77 and this is, if we don't really know how much we are, how many people you are. So we had 6.77 million according to the World Bank estimates and 7.3 million people in habitants according to official estimates. So this is what we have. Lebanon hosts the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world. And definitely as you well know we're in addition to the Syrian brothers, we have the Palestinian brothers who still have about 300,000 Palestinians but the Palestinians are considered refugees. So that's for legal issues. The Syrians are not considered refugees, are considered displaced. And I have here some, a table talks about the percentages of how much they constitute in our neighboring area. For example, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. And actually in Turkey they constitute 3.8. In Jordan they constitute 5.9. In Egypt they constitute 0.14 while in Lebanon they constitute 36%. And based on the numbers I took, I just played with some numbers and in case they continue with their birth rate that they have which is more than the Lebanese birth rate, actually we will be equal by 2043. In 20 years the Lebanese and Syrian population will be equal in Lebanon. Definitely the, as with the impact, just consider that the country is in shambles already. We are in deep political, social and economic problems. Not much infrastructure is built and let alone, maintained let alone built. So all the pressures are, we have those, the guests of ours are using exact same roads, exact same electricity grid, exact same hospitals and x-rays and what have you, transportation. So the education, communication, water and sanitation requirements. So when the same thing that hasn't, not much has been done on this infrastructure over the past several years. The word bank estimates, a report estimates that the economic losses caused by the Syrian conflict in terms of lower GDP is more than $1.1 billion in 2012. Nearly $2.5 billion in 2013 and up to $3.9 billion in 2014. Actually based on the Lebanese central bank, it is about $4.5 billion annually. So recurring. According to the estimates by the Ministry of Finance, between 2011 and 2018, the cost of the seeding crisis inflicted on Lebanon amounted to $46.5 billion. And as we have said, it's concentrated mostly in the sectors of health, education, energy, water, agriculture and the environment in terms of solid waste, sanitation and others. Some more, I skipped the statistics and tell you where they are concentrated because of the proximity as you would expect they are concentrated mostly in the East, like 36% in the Eastern part of Lebanon. In the North, there are 25%, which is next to Syria. In the Beirut and Mount Lebanon, we call it 27% and there are less so in the Southern part of Lebanon, which is 12%. In conclusion, in the speech before the United Nations General Assembly 10 years ago, delivered by the former High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, the current Secretary General of the United Nations, he stated, and I'm quoting here, the burden of refugees on a small country like Lebanon is equivalent to the influx of about 15 million refugees to France. More than 32 millions to Russia and more than 71 millions to the United States. Well, this was 10 years ago. If we have to extrapolate, take exact same numbers that he has talked. So now it's about 27 million refugees in France, 61 million refugees in Russia and 140 million refugees in the United States. Well, certainly there are some positive implications about the Syrian presence in Lebanon in terms of labor market. And we can definitely capitalize on it. And this is something, one of the ideas that I've talked about in the United Nations personnel several years ago, but our government was not interested at that time. This was about 2016. Unfortunately, they want to pressure the Syrians just like they pressured the Palestinians.  So they were, our government of 2016 was not ready to accommodate any of the ideas that we have talked about for Lebanon to take advantage of them. And for really, which is in the best interest of our community and theirs. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ray. So much, and we have to go to the Lebanese, to your education and your skills of the Lebanese. You are everywhere in our region participating. Also the vibrant private sector, even though all those difficulties you go to Lebanon and as if the private sector is, and as if it were isolated, which is not isolated, but it's very vibrant.


All right cyber traders, let's get after it welcome on back this afternoon Thursday November 30th Great to see my friends Andrea Phil Scott and all of us live inside our live trading room Just let me know if you can hear me loud and clear should be good to go across the board there and across the board on social Media at cyber trading you always look to follow and subscribe us right there and all of our social media streams and platforms to know When we're going live when we're streaming etc. So with that said M. I Nm minimum ink as that's the name of the company had a huge pop-up in pre-market Obviously, it's up over like you're nearly 800% at this point It was up over a thousand percent at one point in pre-market now Heading into the afternoon normally a stock like this typically doesn't make a second big move into the close It's up like 750 percent. How much more could you expect? Well take a look at VVOS right just about 24 hours ago yesterday. We wrote this stock off saying yeah I mean this thing is just not really worth it going into, you know, 2 o'clock 2 30 and then add a know where it was pretty much During this meeting pop and then it ended up continuing up even more up to 50 bucks But obviously look at where it is today. So M I N M All right, and I'll put it on our watch list keyword watch It's not the C to you. You must trade this stock list, right? We always like to say that because hopefully there's plenty of other trades that we could work with going into the close So between our scanners that we have here, of course, we'll break out our trusty Benzinga pro, which we love here And we'll take a look at that in just a moment Let's actually just rip it right from top to bottom now because we got we got class coming up later on this afternoon The phase two stock was continuing along discussing more buying opportunities just with time and sales again But Pixie ended up making a nice little poppy morning topped off this definitely being a lower high here Pass on that now And we'll pretty much just keep going through a quick little shout out to our friend that later just resting up at home right now I know she'll be just on the couch for a couple days Hopefully back by if not early next week then we shall see but we shouldn't her the best but BMEA here nice higher low pushing up towards 15 bucks right now the issue on this stock I'm not really too thrilled with the liquidity not really a big fan of the volume on the order book You know, I'll put this on our side list if you need me to Victoria's Secret looks like this is via CEO big pop earlier, but very choppy now. I don't like chop pass on that and We keep it going. I'm just kind of sift through here seeing if there's anything looking pretty decent This big lots trade actually is looking pretty decent in terms of trends and in terms of liquidity on the book little thin But good spread typically has a tight spread It's at the VWAP right now So I would treat that to be significant as resistance 544 to 550 that 50 cent level on top Yeah, I don't mind adding this here. Give this a quick look here big lots joining us here Zuo GSM GSM sticking at the highs here, but Yeah, a little flat for the meantime. I'll pass on it. Put it put it on the side list though GSM Now come back to it Markets were down today dropping off just a little before had a small bounce actually heading into this meeting So hopefully a lot more of that heading into the afternoon But you know, otherwise snapchat had a nice pop at the open, but obviously lower highs since been a bit of a pullback afterwards TGTX familiar name not a whole lot happening there UEC uranium stock, right? This one has been on our radar on and off for a little while now I just very steady trend dating back to May June time even and now pushing back up towards the highs We had back from like a week or two week or two ago. So you got UEC You got quadruple you which is another uranium stock and then CCJ Those are the three that we tend to focus on here when uranium is moving.  It's it's going with it So, you know, it's just kind of the whole sector making a push Beyond meat. Hey, this is kind of on its own accord right now as well making a nice little pop here BYND we'll take a look at the news here really briefly actually break open our trusty Benzinga pro for that one as we love so Take a look here. This is from November 9th. Here. We are November 30th There is no given news out on BYND here today. It seems and trust me Benzinga is up to date So with that said, you know, hey, there's no news. There doesn't need to be news We'll put this on our list see if this can make its own move on its own accord maybe just day traders trying to pump it pump it up and Over time the stock has taken a huge hit to to where eventually short to bill look to want to cover the more pumps Up anyway Yeah, it's Sun Run making a nice little pop earlier before you know, it's trying to get back up to the highs actually I don't mind coming back to this if anything. I'll put that on the side list Reconsider that in a bit Array, this is also at the high of the day here, too My friend Michael D probably a happy camper with those two stocks. I know he typically typically likes trading both of those All right now. We're pretty much below 5 or actually below 5% already looking at array So it's probably a lot that might look like this that that will you know, at least keep on the side on the back burner for right now Let me just hop over to the loser's list though here There we go. Just jack up the volume criteria All right, so all the runners from the last few days the VV OS our DHL FUV and then why? CDIO and keep going down this whole list here all the top percent gainers from the last few days are now your top percent losers This thing has been through the spin cycle. Look at this Daily chart from ten down to sub two maybe even sub one that is yeah, then back up to four and change Maybe that is five even then back. Yeah, that's a wild one All right ARW are this one. We've been familiar with and it's actually at the lows But really flat though for right now. I don't have a great Need to add that just yet if we're showing even further direction like breaking lower as we're talking If it wasn't as flat for the last like two hours, then Maybe I'd be interested AIOI now this one ended up making nice pot for us back on Monday this week and then well right back down towards that same You know area the open price for Monday this week and Again same deal with this. I'm not too interested in a dead cat bounce per se. It's down 11 percent, but I'm not expecting a full recovery up towards 13 60 ish 13 70 Again, if it was breaking lower, that's really what you want to focus on here for a stock on the loser side This is at the lows dropping off a little too close to the ground floor there. I'd say though Same with this. All right There's anything else folks looking good on the way up Let me know on the way down here, too If there's anything that we just didn't really check out just yet Game stop may another runner from yesterday top percent gainer becomes top percent loser All these are like pretty cheap stocks or stocks to be traded in the past But I could tell like otherwise aren't really going to be good shorts. That's a Blink lucid some of the EV companies some of the crypto stocks They're not worth it right now. I could just tell you right now All right, so if there's anything else looking good folks not trying to expedite it here But we do have class ahead at 305 Eastern time the phase two stock course continuing along today You know digging further into the tape time in sales and with that said, you know, hey, we'll look to further discuss Opening bell prints closing bell Halt prints what happens when a stock actually even gets halted and reopens up So there's a lot more to dig into that All right, so again, let me know if there's anything else looking good got ampe popping up on my Benzinga scanner Look at that. Yep Right on cue look at that, you know, it's a big one's up like 32 percent in the last five minutes That's how you look to use these scanners from Benzinga, but yeah for right now It's definitely gonna add ampe right away to our watch list That makes it about six stocks in total. So we don't need to have a big list here folks. I like what we got I think I had like two on our side list. I said I'd get back to if I needed needed to Let's jump to one or two more here East yeah when Benzinga's pumping stocks like these out Oh The MBSC here, I guess it wasn't on my scanner as much because it was below a dollar throughout most of the day a Couple flash pops above it just earlier But then really a strong break just before held above it just recently as well and moving on up to 150 Wow, I'm surprised I missed this just up until now, but this one also just popped up from Benzinga. So Two good ones nice ampe and nbsc All right, so going once going twice going three times not trying to rush you But again, we got class on ahead in just about 20 25 minutes I want to make sure our students have enough time to click the link make sure they're prepped away I'm gonna join class early You know have a small little discussion pre-class and just going over at least the list I'm just kind of going over miscellaneous questions if you have any But hey for all some social media Facebook live linked in Twitter YouTube a set you're once again at cyber trading you be a friend Tell a friend just make sure that you're subscribed right on all of our social media streams and platforms But if you're interested in joining us inside our live trading room skin that QR code just on the top left of the stream Just otherwise go to c2.co forward slash trial the sign up for a week long trial join our students like Bill Kathleen Richard Rod and all of us otherwise inside the trading room there We look forward to having a lead it back at least early next week as well Wishing her the best should she be watching this meeting on YouTube, but otherwise otherwise for all of us here Just in the trading room. Hey best of luck trading going into the clothes I look forward to seeing most of us coming up in class. Take care


Hello, my name is Jason Dobies and I'm with the Red Hat Cloud Platforms Business Unit. Today, we are going to be looking at the CouchBase operator in OpenShift 4.0. To install the operator, an administrator starts with the operator hub. This is where administrators can see all of the operators that can be installed into the cluster. The CouchBase operator is installed into a specific namespace as compared to being cluster-wide. Once the admin has installed the operator into a project, we can change back to the user that owns the project. The user can view all installed operators accessible to be used by the project through the installed operator's menu item. Before we install the CouchBase cluster, we'll need to set up a secret with authentication credentials ahead of time. This secret contains the username and password for the CouchBase cluster that will be created. The CouchBase operator introduces a new resource type into Kubernetes called the CouchBase cluster. This allows users to use the OpenShift API as they would with any other Kubernetes resource. When the Create CouchBase cluster option is selected, we see the normal YAML interface for interacting with OpenShift. One new feature in OpenShift 4.0 is a context-sensitive autocomplete when editing YAML files for resources. In this example, we update the AuthSecret field to refer to the previously created secret containing the username and password to use when creating the cluster. When viewing a particular custom resource, this tab shows all of the individual pieces that are created by the operator. In this case, we will see the pods begin to be created that will form the CouchBase cluster. Operator metadata contains UI clues that can be used to show configuration options for the resources created by the operator. We use the Expose Console option to trigger the deployment of the web UI pod in our CouchBase cluster. Once the UI service is running, we need to create a route so we can externally access the console. Using that route, we can access the web UI for the CouchBase cluster that we just deployed. The credentials for logging into the console are the same as those specified in the secret that we used when creating the cluster. Another configuration option exposed by the CouchBase operator is the ability to set the number of pods that will run in the cluster. Here we edit the YAML definition directly to change the size of the cluster from three pods up to four. The CouchBase operator monitors for changes to the CouchBase custom resource. When it detects that the size has changed, new pods are created to support the new configuration. The operator also contains domain-specific knowledge for dealing with CouchBase clusters. The newly created node is added to the CouchBase cluster itself and rebalancing is triggered to take advantage of the new resources. Thank you for joining me. Be sure to watch for more videos on OpenShift4 functionality in the future.


Good afternoon. My name is Therapy. I'm a teacher of Burmese. Burmese is the language spoken mostly, if not exclusively in Burma. It is the largest member of Tibet to Burma and firmly of over 250 languages. Nearly 70% of the population in Burma speak Burmese as the first language, but other ethnic minorities such as Kechin, Karen, Shen, Mo, Rakhine and others speak it as their second language. The official name of the language is Myanmar, but Burmese is more commonly used, also as a protest to the current military regime, which changed the name in 1989. Locals however use Bermaza when they refer to the language. Burmese has two forms, formal and colloquial. The formal style is mostly used in official publications, media and other formal locations such as weddings. But informal or colloquial style is used in everyday conversation. Usually particles and sentence endings mark the difference between these two forms. And like western languages, Burmese is tonal and verbs are usually found at the end of the sentence. It has four tones, namely creaky, low, high and stopped tone. For example, la, la, la and le.  Burmese has its own script consisting of 33 letters, which you can see here. It also has 14 vowels and 9 special symbols. Since Burmese does not have standardized Roman transliteration, it is worth the trouble to learn the script if you want to understand and pronounce the language better. Here is an example of how the word Burmese is written. Let's learn how to speak some Burmese. How are you? Yes, I'm fine. What is your name? My name is Nicola. What are you doing now? Now I'm learning Burmese. What is this shop? This is a fruit shop. What is this fruit? This is a banana. How about this one? That's all for now. Namaste.