Aloha and welcome to Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm Kili Ikeena, the president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii. You know, we all love living in Hawaii. Who could beat it? The beautiful weather, the scenery, the people, it's one of the most perfect places on the planet. And yet, something's happening that very few of us realize. We are losing our population. Hawaii has one of the highest per capita rates of residents who are moving out and moving out for good. Well, that would be a good thing if they were just sightseeing. But the fact is they're leaving the islands for good. We're going to talk a little bit today about why that's the case. But I have a remarkable young man with me today who has been researching this issue and learning the stories of so many people who've gone, who would love to come back to Hawaii, but can't do that right now. His name is Josh Mason. He's the director of communication at the Grassroot Institute. And I want to welcome him to the program. Josh, welcome to the program. Thanks for having me on, Kili. So glad you're doing such great work. And one of your research projects is to dig in and find out why people are leaving Hawaii. Why don't you get into that? Sure. Well, at the Grassroot Institute, we're really concerned with making sure that people have the economic freedom to be able to prosper. And I thought in a funny way, we're a nonprofit. And usually when I think of a nonprofit, I think of a charity. And so I thought, who's our sick kid that we're trying to help? Why do we care about this so much? And I realized it's these people who are leaving the islands there, especially those who were born and raised here, who have multiple generations of family here and are leaving because they can't afford it. So I thought, what if we went and found these people's stories? We see in the news a lot these statistics about how many people are leaving. But I thought, well, who are these people? What are their reasons? Let's ask them. Well, I like it when you're talking about stories, because one of the things that we want to do is help people understand that statistics have a deep meaning, that although we have a high number of people leaving our population in the state, there's a face behind each person who leaves. Tell me a little bit about the first story that you came across. Sure. So when I first got the idea, I reached out to some people online. And I talked with a woman named Katie Young. She lives in Beaverton, Oregon. She had grown up in Hawaii. She had graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She had even worked at the legislature. And we chatted on the phone for about 45 minutes as she told me about how she's always met people on the mainland who used to live in Hawaii and talk about how they wished they could go back to Hawaii, which is funny, because there aren't really many places like that. I grew up in Oklahoma. You don't really hear people saying, I wish I could go back to Oklahoma, right? With her. With all due respect to Oklahoma, so we're out there. Sorry. And I love to play Oklahoma. Right. Well, as we started talking, she said she noticed this issue with a lot of her friends who were graduating with graduate degrees from the UH. And they were still working at their cashier job they were doing as an undergrad. And now they had a master's or PhD. And she thought, why is this happening? So she got a job at the legislature. She was very interested in marine biology, wanted to get involved in environmental law. And she observed something really funny. I want to read the quote. She said, I was thinking of trying to influence policy that way through the legislature or doing a nonprofit. Even the legislators in their 30s were living at home. Because I got this insight look at the legislative process, it made me see there are a lot of policy decisions being made that are affecting us people on the ground. So I feel like the high cost of living, education, and health care can be attributed back to really bad policy. Well, that's something. It really is. You know, high cost of living, even for people who are legislators. It's kind of ironic because the legislature is supposed to help us with our cost of living. Exactly. But the fact is, studies have shown that that is one of the major reasons people are leaving the islands. In fact, a recent survey said that 45% of all people who've left cite the fact that the cost of living is too high. What are some other reasons that are given in that survey? Sure. Well, if I may amend that cost of living, one other issue is housing. And there's two aspects. It's a big factor, yes. Right. There's two aspects to housing, though. One is being able to afford a house. You know, Maui and Oahu are actually the two main islands where this population issue is happening. They're the only two where Honolulu County and Maui County, where the population is declining. And they're also the only two islands where the housing costs are seven times the average income. And where the housing costs are about, it's more than $500 per square foot for a house in Maui or in Oahu. Now, let me back up with you for a minute. You said that the cost of housing is more than seven times the average income of people who work and live on the island of Maui and the island of Oahu. That's right. The average cost of a house. How in the world would anyone ever save up in order to buy a home, let alone get a rent down payment? Well, they live together. We see lots of multi-generational homes. They work multiple jobs. Luckily, we already live in Hawaii, so we don't need to take a vacation, right? You can just walk outside. Well, we say, lucky you live in Hawaii, as you said right there. But there is another venerable saying. It's called the price of paradise. Absolutely. Now, when we take a look at that housing cost, it's not just for those who seek to purchase homes who may have given up that dream. It's also for those who are just looking for places to live while they're still working, places to rent. How is that factoring in? Well, interestingly enough, what we've seen is this trend of the average rent going down, in Honolulu at least. I'm not aware of the other county's data. And so that's really interesting because we hear about how prices are increasing. But what it really factors into is, I mentioned there are two issues with housing. It's not just the cost. It's being able to find housing. There's such a limited supply in Hawaii. We can only develop on 5% of the land for residential homes. And so as a result, we've created this artificial scarcity of housing for our people. So we'll talk about that a little later on. But you've mentioned the cost of living is being a big factor in why people leave housing, the cost of housing as to why people are leaving Hawaii. There's also the opportunity for jobs. Yeah, absolutely. Are a good number of people leaving just because they can't find jobs in the professions they want, or jobs that pay the salary that they desire? Absolutely. That same woman, Katie, her husband, was a software engineer. This is a very lucrative career, so to speak, on the mainland. And yet, when they were living here, he was working for a company on the mainland remotely. He couldn't find a job as a software engineer in Hawaii. There are jobs, just not a lot. One of the issues we have is our economy isn't that diverse. We lie heavily on tourism and a few other industries. Whereas people can move to, say, Oregon or even California, which are both also expensive, but there are diverse amounts of jobs. So that's someone like Katie Young, who was a marine biologist, can find a plethora of opportunities. That's something. Tell us another story of a person or a family that has moved away. Absolutely. So I have one from Leanne Jackson. She actually lives in Vancouver, Washington now. And one of my favorite lines that she said was, we loved the Hanabata days that we were not able to give to our cakey. She and her husband worked at UH. They both had undergraduate degrees, but they were working as a secretary. And he was working, I believe, in the post office. Do we have a photo of them? We do, yeah. If they want to bring up the photo. Let's call that up. You can see, this is actually a different story. Here we go. Leanne Jackson and her husband here, they have two little girls, and they just wanted to be able to provide for them. Give them the kind of life they had growing up in the 70s. And they realized they couldn't do that. And part of the reason they couldn't is they weren't able to get good quality jobs to pay for that kind of lifestyle. Well, there's been a significant shift here. There had been a significant trend of those leaving due to what we call the brain drain. And largely, those were young people going off to college and not coming back. Those were people who are entering their careers. What we're starting to see now, Josh, is in it the case that people in mid-career, people who look at their living situation and say, by now I should have a home. By now I should be able to have the capacity to raise my family the way I want to. We're seeing them leave. But also, isn't it the case that retirees are now leaving Hawaii? We have people leaving in every single one of these age categories. Absolutely. They used to be, well, the University of Hawaii's family center mentioned that it's mostly young people that are leaving. But there are also older people leaving. And they're leaving because they have these retirement benefits. And why would you want to pay to live here and lose so much of your money that way when you can afford a much cheaper place on the mainland? It's the same reason why people in their mid-careers are leaving. If you're earning $60,000 a year on the mainland, you can absolutely buy a house here. The average Hawaii resident has to save up for something like 40 years to be able to make a down payment. One of the interesting things that I discover when I travel to cities across the country, whether on the West Coast or even on the East Coast in Washington, DC, is that there have been little communities forming around ex-patriots from Hawaii. And they have all of the features of a Hawaii community, a hula-halau, for example, a Hawaiian cultural club. And they get together and share food and so forth. It's almost as if we have these colonies of ex-Hawaii residents they're forming in San Francisco, Las Vegas, all over the United States. What do you think about that? You know, funny you mentioned Las Vegas as we call it the ninth Hawaiian island, right? It's funny that you say that too, because that's how I found so many of these people is I noticed on Facebook there were all these groups of, they said Hawaiians, but they met Hawaii residents. Hawaiians in Arizona, Hawaiians in Nevada, Hawaiians in California. And it really shows you the heart that people have who have lived here. As I mentioned, you don't really have that same feeling towards say, Oklahoma, sorry, fellow Oklahomans. But people have a heart for Hawaii. They really miss it. They want to come back. That's a common theme that I've found as I've talked with people. What seems to be the most common factor that stretches over all the stories that you've come in touch with? It really is just the high prices. You know, going to the store and having to pay $5.40 for a gallon of milk and on the mainland I can get it for a buck 80, you know? Tell us another story. Well, there's a great story by a man named Michael Cheney. He's a young father. And he was actually from my side of the island in Kahuku in Hau'ula. We have a photo of him, yeah, of him and his wife with three beautiful children. And he gave some really interesting insight. He said, I would have stayed in my family's place, but it already had three families living in it. My thinking was, if I want to live in Hawaii, I need to leave Hawaii. I bet 99% of locals main struggle is money. So my plan was to leave Hawaii, be successful and have a career that earns enough to live in Hawaii comfortably. It's a great example of this idea of people who leave because of the job opportunities thinking, I can't grow in Hawaii. I can't develop my career here. I need to leave somewhere else and then come back. We're going to take a break in just a few moments. And when we do it, we'll come back and hear a little more from you and talk in particular about the causes and what we can do to fix this problem. So that people who want to stay in Hawaii and live in Hawaii can. But first, tell our audience a little bit about the website project that you've established that has collected so many of these stories. Sure thing. So you can find all of the stories at our website, www.grasteredinstitute.org. And if you want to find the stories specifically, just add a slash, why we left Hawaii. And all of them are collected there. They have photos of the families and the individuals who have left. You can also follow us on Facebook. We post them on there frequently as well as Instagram. And I would encourage everyone to take a look at those stories. At first, it's interesting. And then after a while, you go through a different emotion. I mean, one of the emotions that I went through was just basic heartbreak. When you read some of the stories of people who can't be together with their families and their relatives and can't be in the land in which they had grown up and so forth who desperately want to return. And then an interesting thing happens. You start to listen to what they're saying so that they show a picture, for example, of a two-bedroom home for only $350,000. Tell the story of the fact that they can work one job from eight to four and come home and play with the family. And then you start thinking, hmm, maybe I should go to the mainland. We're not trying to encourage that necessarily, but we're gonna be back after a very brief break with Josh Mason and a little more on why people are leaving Hawaii. I'm Kili Akeena on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network and we want you to stay tuned and learn more about this great issue. Don't go away. Aloha, I'm Gwen Harris, the host here at Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii nonprofit that depends on the generosity of the supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to thinktechawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thanks, so much. Aloha, I'm Daelyn Yonagita, a host here at Think Tech Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness in Hawaii. We are a Hawaii nonprofit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you'd go to thinktechawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Thank you so much. Welcome back to Hawaii Together with Kaylee Iakina on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm glad you stuck around because there's more that's very interesting. Josh Mason, director of communications at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii is gonna tell us a little more about this project that is tracking people from all over the world who originated or spent some time in Hawaii, have left and would like to come back. Josh, tell us a little bit about what you have learned in your research about the reasons that people are leaving Hawaii. Sure, one trend we're seeing nationally is there are very few states where they are experiencing what we are, which is a negative net migration rate and all of them are increasing taxes or already have high taxes. People are fleeing these high tax states and here in Hawaii, we're trying to pass more taxes. We were fortunate enough to dodge an increase in our GET, our general excise tax, but there are still more proposals whether it's on our properties, on our sales, anything. That's one of the main common themes both nationally and locally that I've seen as I've talked to people who've left. And we're looking at a couple of things in our research. One is a national trend where people actually leave places that increase their taxes and they flock to places that have lower tax rates. And a lot of times it's for very personal reasons. For example, if you're in a certain category, income-wise and your estate taxes are going up as they are in Hawaii, you might choose to live in Florida where they're going down or are very minimal. And so taxes play a factor in that. Would you say that the tax rates in Hawaii are amongst the highest in the country? Absolutely. We frequently rank in the top 10, top five for tax burdens, whether it's our sales tax, our income tax, all kinds of them. That's one of the main reasons too that we have so limited career opportunities because businesses have such a hard time starting up here and being able to afford to operate and pay their employees so they're not able to provide a good wage and meaningful careers. You've also found that the cost of living is boosted by housing. Did you want to say any more about that in terms of your research? Sure, well, once again, I know here in Hawaii, we're on an island. So there's very limited landscapes, so to speak. But even in the states where there's so much more land, there are high housing costs in areas where they have really strict land use and zoning laws. We here in Hawaii have some of the strictest in the nation as well. And we have the oldest laws that goes back to the 60s and 70s. And this makes it so that we can't build new homes for our residents. And so we see in places like San Francisco and even in Portland that they're experiencing the same problem, unaffordable housing costs. And so the solution is to allow for more residential development. We're not necessarily saying we want to see skyscrapers everywhere, right? But even just opening up 1% more of the land so that our residents can live here. Well, I think that's worth talking about because a lot of times there's a misconception when we talk about opening up a little more land that we can increase the housing supply. We don't have to develop on most of the island. Right now we develop only on 5% of all the land mass in the state. And if you just took 1% as you mentioned and went from 5% to 6% to your math that increases the supply by 20% or if you went to 5% to 7% it would increase it by 40%. And if somehow we could make sure that the housing that is provided on that land goes to local residents then we could easily bring the cost down. It's a very simple supply and demand formula. But unfortunately our political structure hasn't allowed that to happen so we need people to get up in arms. So to speak, do you think your project has the capacity to get people moving and get people calling their legislators and their city council persons and saying we've got to do something about providing more housing? Absolutely. One of the key things I've tried to do with my project is when I share these stories I don't make them into an article. I don't say here's what this person said and this is why they left and this is the policy affecting it. I just shared their quote. I didn't add my own commentary. It's pure, unadulterated what they said. I think that's touching people because they realize these are raw, real stories and they're being affected by the bad policies that we're passing here. Some policies that have good intentions but as we know the road to hell is paved with good intentions, right? Tell us again what that website is where people can take a look at lots of stories of people leaving Hawaii and maybe relate to them. Absolutely. So it's www.grassardinstitute.org slash why we left Hawaii. You have another example? Of a story? Absolutely. I've shown a bunch of families but a great example of a young person leaving if they want to put up the third slide that I brought is Christopher Peralta. He left Honolulu in 2009. His story is very short but it's very powerful, he said. Let's leave Christopher's photo up there because I think people can relate a lot to Christopher what he has to say. I know when I first heard his story, I thought it was a story that could be told by any number of tens of thousands of people here in Hawaii. Absolutely. He said, I left Honolulu in 2009 because I was working three jobs and had nothing much to show for it. My home was a cinder block apartment with jealousies and my ride was a moped. I was working just to pay off the essentials. Rent, bills, groceries, and gas. Any savings I earned were easily swept away. I had time for friends and surf, which I missed the most but even that couldn't keep me in the city. My move to Oregon was simply a financial one. Simply a financial one. And yet it has so many implications. People leave from cost of living but it affects the very fabric of society. It takes families and tears them apart. It deprives Hawaii from some of the most talented people there are and it just breaks the heart of people who have fallen in love with Hawaii. One of the things I like about your stories is they span the spectrum of all people groups in our state, regardless of ethnic background, religious background, political background. The phenomenon of people not being able to afford to live in the place that's on their heart is something that is universal, sad to say. Absolutely, yeah. We have everyone from people who came here in the military and decide to stay to born and raised, fifth generation, native Hawaiians, you know? Now, I hope people don't get us wrong here. We're not saying at all that people should pull up in Hawaii and never leave. In fact, we often speak to young people at the Grassroot Institute and encourage them to pursue their education and career paths anywhere in the world that will allow them to become the best that they can be, achieve the most that they can achieve and if it's their desire to return to Hawaii to do so. The problem is that when it is their desire to return to Hawaii, the conditions aren't such that it makes it very easy or very possible. But certainly, there is great value of being on the mainland and getting a great education and expanding one's cultural understanding. And we hope that many of them will be able to return to Hawaii and actually bring the benefit of that back to Hawaii. What do you want your legislators to do? What do you want your lawmakers to do of the handle the serious issue? Well, the first thing is to not continue to raise taxes. I think that's one that virtually everyone would agree with. And the second is to cut the current taxes to reduce them at least so that our burden is lightened there. You know, a lot of people, it's not just that the taxes are high, they see a lot of corruption. They see the rail project and issues and they say, well, I'd rather my taxes be going to maybe a government that I don't like over in Nevada or something like that, but not the corruption that I see here. And so we need to also be more transparent with our legislative process, have much more transparency in all of our state departments and counties. Well, you mentioned corruption in government. And you know, this is something that has factored in the news quite recently to a very large extent throughout the state, but largely in our largest county, Oahu Island, Honolulu, the city and county of Honolulu. We've seen corruption in areas that are supposed to be free of corruption, whether it's the police department or the prosecutor's office and so forth. It used to be idealic here, so to speak. People would think of the mainland or think of Chicago or think of New York City when you thought of corruption. But now Hawaii's name has been spread across the country as being not immune to this. Do you think this affects people's willingness to stay in Hawaii or does it disillusion some? Oh, absolutely. I think it's part of the reason they leave. And I think it's part of the reason they don't come back. Maybe like that story showed earlier from Michael Cheney where he says, I want to be able to make it on the mainland and come back where I've got full skills. But then they look at what's happening because our corruption is making national news. You know, our rail project was in the Wall Street Journal and they say, well, never mind. I don't want to go back because I don't want my money going to this. I know you like living here in Hawaii. You came to Hawaii, got your college education, live up on the North Shore, and you certainly work at a great organization at the Grassroot Institute. And we're encouraging you now, in your own plans, go on to some graduate training in terms of an MBA program that has a unique opportunity on the mainland for you. What are your feelings about Hawaii as home? You know, I came here when I was 18 and I've been here since 2011 on and off. I've only paid bills in Hawaii. I've only adulted, so to say, in Hawaii. And it's weird knowing that I'm heading back to the mainland when people ask me where I'm from. If I say Oklahoma, it's like, I don't know what it's like to be in Oklahoma or what it's like to be someone who pays bills and works in Oklahoma. And so it feels like Hawaii has just become this second home for me and my wife. How easy will it be for you to move back after you get your MBA? Well, hopefully, like Michael Cheney, I'm able to develop good skills to be able to secure a good career, come back here at the Grassroot Institute and be able to afford to live here. I think it's very likely. Well, you're very welcome. And we'll keep, in your absence, working on making Hawaii a more affordable place. Please do. For anyone who wants to return can do so. I'd like to pay $3 for a gallon of milk when I come back. There you go. Send us the price catalogs from the grocery store on the mainland. Thanks so much for the research you're doing and the work of communicating it to the rest of the state. It's a real service. There are a lot of people who've come to the website, who've commended it, who've said that it really helps to put a face on a problem that needs to be solved. And so we're moving in the right direction. Thanks, Josh, for being here. Thanks for having me again. Thank you so much. Well, my guest today has been Josh Mason, Director of Communication at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, working on a terrific project that I really want to encourage you to take a look at. So go to the Grassroot Institute website. We'll put it up on the screen again now. www.grassrootinstitute.org. Notice that after the word grassroot, there's no S. It's just grassrootinstitute.org. Go ahead and put that back up again, and we can see that. And when you go to the website, in addition to Josh's project in which there are dozens and dozens of stories of people who've left Hawaii, who are trying to communicate with you, you'll find all the information you need about policy in Hawaii, about the economy, about government, about society. We have a free newsletter that goes out every week, so please subscribe to it. And tell us what you think. Tell us how you think we can make Hawaii a greater place. We're here to help Hawaii live up to its full potential in terms of individual liberty for each and every person, free markets so that we can all trade with each other well and build a great economy and working together. Thank you so much for being on the program, watching us today. I'm Kilii Akina on Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. Until next time, much aloha.


The INEC Chairman also urged eligible voters who are yet to get their permanent voter cards that they will be given their peavuses before the expiration of the timeframe for collection. He mentioned that people who applied for transfer due to the change of location will only get their peavuses of their new location where they will also vote and not at the point where they applied. So the position of law remains that unless you are resident in Nigeria you cannot register and you cannot vote but I'm absolutely convinced that it's only a matter of time when these will be achieved. Voting by those in the diaspora as far as we are concerned should be a settled issue and if you ask me whether I support it or not I will tell you that you are preaching to the converted but the commission doesn't have the power to make it happen. The enabling law will have to be provided for it to happen. Not just because of the remittances because I've heard people talk about the remittance by Nigerians in the diaspora and therefore they should be given the right to vote. I think it's because they are citizens and citizens must enjoy rights. It's not about means otherwise the richest person in a country will probably have two votes but he has only one vote. So it's a matter of right. It's not a matter of the contribution that they make but of course the nation appreciate the contribution that diaspora make. You talked about the challenge of PVC collection. You know the number of PVCs we have uncollected is historical, is cumulative. It goes back to 2011. So much of the cards that are collected are actually from recent registration. So what we need to do after the election is to sit down with stakeholders and look at this matter thoroughly. Are these cards actually at the end of the day collectable or will just keep cutting them forward with every election and they are not collected but the historical cards are not collected as many as the more recent registrations. Isaac assures us to every citizen that there will be free and fair election. Election is a multi-stakeholder activity. INEC has been giving you this assurance. So I think we have demonstrated this particularly in some of the more recent elections and that is what we are going to carry forward to the general election. So as far as the Electoral Commission is concerned that one is a no-go area. The votes cast by citizens should determine who becomes whatever in our country and in our democracy.


More Nigerians may join the JAPA train as hardship worsens in the country amid fuel subsidy removal. Monthly fuel consumption drops by 18.5 million litres after deregulation. And on the programme as usual, we're going to take what the national dailies, some of the national dailies are saying as their headlines. Very good morning to you and thanks for joining us on the breakfast. My name is Nyam Ghul Aghaji. Today is Tuesday and we call it Technophile Tuesday. We think tech when it comes to a day like this. How much are you letting technology into your life and how much positive impact is it having in your life? As we explore all the avenues that technology can help us as a people and as individuals, then we should know that life should be better rather than worse now that we have all this technology. So we've told you the topics that we're going to be talking about today. But before we go into that, as usual, we have our trending topics that we'd like to talk about. Now there's an aggrieved officer. That's the first one here on our list. An aggrieved officer has written to President Tinobu about corruption amongst Nigerian prisons officials. An officer of the Nigerian Correctional Service, NCS, formerly Nigerian Prison Service, has written to President Paula Tinobu to complain about alleged corruption and poor remuneration in the service. According to the aggrieved official, the NCS personnel were being poorly paid and treated unfairly unlike their colleagues in other departments at the Ministry of Interior. He said some of the personnel now depend on inmates to feed their families. So that has been a complaint by one of the workers in the Correctional Service and if you've ever been close to the prisons, close to how it works, this didn't start today. I do not know the difference between their salary, their pay and the salaries of the people who also work in the Ministry of Interior that they are talking about. And I do not know what they expect of the government to do and all that. But I also know what they do as individuals within the prison system, at least in the experience that I've had working closely with inmates in religious capacity, so to speak, and having access into the prisons to minister to the people and talk to them, encourage them and do other things. And if you see the rot that is within the system, you will be appalled. You will know for a fact that the government is trying its best to make sure that the people that go into the Correctional Services or the institutions come out better. They provide things that will help them to become maybe tailors, maybe capentas, maybe same stresses as the case may be for the women, hairdressers and all that. And those things are provided. The government also provides soap, they provide toothpaste, to provide money for their feeding and all that. But you'll be shocked that when you go to the prisons, at least the ones that I know, these things are not available. All the things that were supposed to be in the workshop are not there. Not that they have gone bad, but they are not there. Sewing machines are not there. Carpentry tools are not there. They used to be there. Some of the prisoners saw them and they just disappeared. Some of the warder's wives have stores that they sell soap, they sell toothpaste, they sell other things that supposedly are to go to the prisoners and all that. So it is you who is visiting the prisoner that will now be the one to bring them soap, to bring them toothpaste and a lot of other things that the government has provided for them. And if you talk about borrowing money from the inmates, how do the inmates get the money that they borrow to warders and all that? So is that not reporting themselves that they allow a lot of things to happen within the prison system? In the experience I had, I saw a situation where prisoners were allowed to go out and work, get the money, when they come back, so long as they settle at the gate, they are allowed every day to go out. Most ones who have served their prison term and maybe are left with six months or so out of the maybe ten years or five years that they are supposed to serve. So they let them go out. Some of them have shops outside. Some of them go and do manual labor. Some of them do a lot of things and they come back with money and they settle at the gate and they come in. At the time I knew it, it was 115 era at the gate. So long as you don't come beyond six o'clock, you are good. So you go out early in the morning, do whatever you want to do, travel if you want to travel if you can, and then come back at six o'clock, settle at the gate and go back in. So who is monitoring them? So as they complain about what the government is failing to do, they should also look in what and see what some of their personnel are doing. You see when they are cooking for the prisoners themselves, a prison yard that will have up to like 100 people or 200 people, they are eating from one pot that looks like a drum, no fish, no crayfish even, nothing in that thing. And one of the days I was there ministering to the people and talking with them and I saw that in a very, very big party pot as I would like to call it, that there was one mackerel inside, what we call iced fish, one that was inside. And when it was cooked, they had to remove this, this same one, put it in a smaller pot and then cook it for the chief water on that day. Everybody else ate that soup without the fish but with just the smell. We have all these experiences. So who is monitoring them? That's one thing. And then if a lot of money has been voted for prisons to correct these people so that they come out into the society better rather than worse, who has been taking the money, we have to ask all those questions. The thing in Nigeria that is giving us the conniptions that we are experiencing is monitoring, the lack of monitoring in every of our government life as it were, our public life as it were. So nobody monitors the prisons, nobody monitors the schools, nobody monitors the contractors, nobody monitors anybody. So anybody can just do whatever they want to do. That's why we hear of ships in yester-years coming to our shores empty even when money was voted for those things to be, for fuel to be bought or for petrol to be bought and it will come empty. And nobody will say anything. Nobody monitors anything. So the roads are constructed. It was supposed to be let's say 10 feet thick and it is done. It's just 2 feet thick. Nobody monitors. Nobody cares what happens. And so in 2 years, 3 years it's dilapidated again. And possibly that is why the legacy burden expressway has been under construction from like Zebraia would say Taimi Moriva. So we will keep doing it and doing it and doing it because nobody's monitoring and everything just goes the way it goes. So as the prison warders complain, which is maybe possibly a very valid one, maybe their salaries are not good enough. They are at risk when they are taking care of prisoners and all that. So they should look into them and all the other security agencies, security personnel that we have should be taken care of really, really well. So if there's something that needs to be done, let it be done. But also as something is being done for them, they should look inwards and see how they can have a human face. Maybe it's because their salary is small. That's why they sell off all the things that government provides for the prisoners. I don't know. But whatever it is, as my people will say, when the hand washes the motor, the motor washes the hand. So while the government is trying to do all their complaining that the government should do something very positive and help them in the plight that they are finding themselves, they too should sit up and do their duty for which they were called. If you cannot do the duty, then leave for someone else who can do it so that they can do it wholeheartedly and make sure that the people who go into the prisons do not come out worse. As we know in the Nigerian prison system, a lot of them, maybe up to 80%, I don't know. I don't have the statistics, but it's really high. At least it should be up to 40% of the people who are in the prisons are just awaiting trial. Some of them, their cases may not even be those cases that they should stay in prison for six months or even be convicted at all. But maybe because they don't have someone to talk to them or someone who is higher than them to brought them there and all that, some people have spent five years, ten years awaiting trial. So the justice system also has to be looked into. So as we look at things about prison, the welfare of the waters is paramount, yes. The welfare of the prisoners even themselves is also paramount. It should be looked into. And everything around that sector should be looked into, not just one aspect of it. Okay, we have another trending issue, which is banks raise ATM cash withdraw a limit to 200,000 naira. So from 10,000 that they said you cannot withdraw above and then 50,000 a bit, 20,000 that they talked about during the cash crunch, now 200,000. You can just go over the counter and withdraw or you go to ATM and withdraw up to 200,000. So months after banks restricted withdrawals on automated teller machines, ATMs to 20,000 naira daily limit, commercial banks in the country are beginning to increase the maximum amount of cash. Not all of them at the same time, but a lot of them are doing that. Customers can withdraw on a daily basis up to 200,000 naira. The limit had been put in place during the naira redesign policy, which we do not know the direction right now. In an emailed notice to customers yesterday, Zenit Bank said customers can now perform cash withdrawals of up to 200,000 per day at its ATM terminals across the country. So this, it said, is irrespective of the bank that issued the cut. However, the 500,000 naira weekly cashless policy withdraw limit for individuals still stands. There are institutions that other banks in the country may follow these parts by allowing their customers to withdraw through ATM terminals large amounts in the region of 200,000 naira, even though they have not made it public.  Now I'm just asking myself this question. This is the seventh month of the year and by December, the new, the old notes are supposed to phase out as it were, even though they say in other countries they exist side by side. But we don't seem to see any new notes being printed. So if in the next seven months that deadline is reached, what is going to become of the naira? Will the present administration just say, okay, that policy is a useless policy. It shouldn't continue. And then whatever new notes have been put in circulation will be withdrawn or something. Will it be the new notes taking over from the old notes or the old notes taking over from the new notes? We do not know what it is. So we don't even know the kind of money we are supposed to be saving right now because whether we like it or not, if we want to do online banking, we want to do internet banking, whatever you call it, the E transactions and all that. Our, our equipments, our, whatever we need to be able to do that is not strong enough. We know what happened during the time of the scarcity of funds that everybody was encouraged to do transfers. We know what the POS machines also or operators also charge for every 5,000 or every 10,000 and all that. We even know how much the banks charge. The other day I was doing a transaction of just 10,000 naira and the bank charged me 250 naira for that transaction of 10,000 naira for whatever kind of name they called the charge, but it was 250. So what is the difference between the bank and the POS operator that is charging also 200 naira to trans, to do a transfer of 10,000 or to collect 10,000 from them? So if the bank would be doing this, if you go to neighboring Ghana, not so neighboring, but at least we, we see Ghana as just the next country here, you go to Ghana, transactions like this do not, do not attract any money. But in Nigeria, you end up spending. Okay, if I were to make a transaction to 10 people of 10,000 naira each and they're charging me 250 naira for every transaction, that would be 2,500 naira for that day if I've done to 10 people. If I do more than that, then let's say 20, that would be 5,000 naira. So if you keep losing 5,000 naira because you're doing bank transactions, why would people want to save their money in the bank to do transfers? Why would they not save it or decide to save it inside their pillows or under their mattresses so that they can just take the cash and then pay? There are a lot of things that if we need to change from one thing to the other, we need to put in place. So charges here and there. Now we have 7.5% value added tax for everything. We have fuel subsidy has been removed, which I do not know at this point whether it was a very, very good decision because we are clapping that the government has the political will and they have done this. And but the question is who is gaining after they have done this now that the money has been freed from the hands of the people that they call the cabal. Where is it entering? How much better is my life without the subsidy? So even we're spending trillions of naira to do fuel subsidy and I could still go to work without problems. I could buy food without problems. I could dress myself up without problems. I could still have some luxury without problems. And now the subsidy is removed and I'm clapping. What have I gained? There are some people who are even losing in relationships because a relationship will also be tied to the way of life that you can have, the cost of living that you have.  You can't buy your girlfriend a gift at Christmas. Valentine's is coming. A lot of people cannot buy because they're saving the money to even pay transport to workplaces and all that. So some people might end up not getting married. Funny as it is, but it affects every aspect of our life. So who is losing now that the fuel subsidy has been removed? And when the fuel subsidy was removed, we hear that the bill that Nigeria was spending was just something that was a lie all this while. So they found out the real data for the consumption of fuel in the country. So if it was like a trillion naira that they were spending and now it is reduced to maybe 5 million naira, that is manageable, isn't it? So the layman will ask, why not now that you have the data, you just continue doing it because you know that you are not spending too much. You just didn't know the data then. That's why you were spending humongous amounts of money buying nothing and also financing the fuel consumption of other countries and all that. Well, arguments will come from here and there, but at the end of the day the question, the big question is that how much better are we without the fuel subsidy, the supposed fuel subsidy that every government said was a scam? Well, we will have a lot of things from the tab or the newspapers, some of the newspapers that we will be taking this morning. We will see what the headlines are in what we call off the press. In the meantime, let's see what the weather is saying today so that we can plan our day better. Stay with us.


فسألوا أهل الذكري إن كنتم لا تعلمون الحمد لله رب العالمين والصلاة والسلام على من أرسله الله رحمة للعالمين وعلى آله وصحبه وإخوانه إلى يوم الدين أما بعد The question that was put to me is What is the ruling regarding contraception And what does Islam and the Sharia believe regarding it Is a woman allowed to use contraception To prevent having children due to an illness Or her body being unable to be pregnant She can't be able physically She has a body she can't carry a child Or her house is very tight Or her children are very little in age What does the Sharia believe regarding that If a doctor who is reliable Informs the mother or the wife بتضرري that she is going to find harm صحة في صحتيها in her health That she won't be able to have children In a sense where she can't have children now Then it is permissible for her at this time And she is allowed to distance between the children So she has a child She is allowed to say I want this child to reach 2 years old Before I have another child Or 3 years old before I have another child Because Don't kill yourself Allah is merciful towards you Allah also said Do not throw yourself with your own hands Into destruction Also the messenger said So the woman is allowed To organize her children In a sense where she gives And ages between them Sometimes it can be from the angle She is worried for the child If she has another child She is worried that this child is not going to get The motherly love that he needs from her Or the care that she needs Or she fears She fears that something is going to occur to her health Or the children might even have The cultivation of the children May not be that And the evidence for its permissibility Is that which Imam Muhammad narrated And Imam Al-Muslim And the authority of Usama Tablu Zahdi رضي الله تعالى عنهما He said That a man came to the Messenger of Allah A man came to that And the Messenger of Allah He said Oh Messenger of Allah I am isolated from my children Or Messenger of Allah I do quarters interruption Or withdrawal To my wife Meaning Before it was their way of contraception Before the man releases He pulls out فقال له رسول الله The Messenger said لما تفعل ذلك Why do you do this فقال الرجل The man said اشفق على ولادها Or على ولادها He said I have concern And towards the children I am worried for the children فقال له رسول الله The Messenger then said to him لو كان ذلك ضرد If that was a problem For what you are doing If it was a problem ضر فارس والرومة The pageants and the Romans Would have found an illness from it A problem Will you please allow me to do it So when it is doji It is permissible from the man To do quarters interruption To remove it from his family To do that او يستعمل Or for him to use ما يقوم مقامل Anything that stands in the position of A quarters interruption Such as condom He is allowed to use او حبوب Or he is allowed to use pills He can take it شريطاتا With the conditions اللي تكون مضرة بصحتي بصحتي ها That with the condition There is no health problems For both of the individuals لما نضغوما والعلم عند الله اتعال واخر دعوانا للحمد لله رب العالمين وصلى الله عليه وسلم وعلى محمد وعلى آله وصحبه وإخوانه لا يبدي وسلم التسليماء


So, let us begin today's lecture. We will be starting a new topic called integration. So we will revise what is called Riemann integral and then say something about integration on functions of several variables. So to start with the basic idea of integration is the concept of area. So geometrically, if you are given a set, say A contained in R2, the area of the set A is, you can say compute or known, so it is computable. If A is say close with rectilinear boundary. So, for example, if you have say a rectangle or a triangle or any other, so basically the set with this boundary is rectilinear. So, you can calculate if it is a triangle, you know the area is based into height, the formula which comes from a rectangle length into width and similarly you can divide, if you like, you can divide it into triangles and find out the area. For a general set A in R2, what is the concept of area of A? For what kind of sets one can define the notion of area, it is a rather a deep concept. How do you do that? So, in our course, we will try to find out a particular kind of area. Namely, we will be given a function f on interval a, b to r. So, we look at the graph of the function. So, the graph of the function is all points x comma f of x, x belonging to a, b and geometrically, so this is a and this is b and here is the graph of the function. So, that is f of x. So, we would like to give a meaning to the notion of what can be called as the x is equal to a and x is equal to b. What could be a way of interpreting this area which is below the graph of the function bounded by the lines x is equal to a and x is equal to b. So, in the picture, f is drawn above the x axis. Just to understand, it need not be. So, now, the basic concept in all such problems is that when you want to find out this kind of an area or in general when the boundary is not rectilinear, you try to approximate it by rectilinear things because those things are known. So, try to approximate. So, this area below the graph of the function, one would like to approximate it by known objects namely rectangles. So, one would like to sort of fit in rectangles below it. So, you can sort of.  So, if I look at the areas of these rectangles and add up these areas, then they give me some estimate for what could be called as the area below the graph of the function. So, make these things more formal. That means we are going to select some points in the interval a, b and then look at the rectangles with those as the width. So, let us define what is called a partition of a, b. So, it is a collection of points, p. Start with x is equal to, so a is x 0, take a point x 1, x n equal to b. So, this is x 1, this is x 2 and this is x. So, such a partition of p will be represented by this kind of a set. And now, what we want to do is, we want to fit in rectangles. So, for example, this rectangle if you look at, this is width is the sub interval and the height is, for example, if I go slightly here, then the rectangle will not fit in. So, the minimum value of the function. So, let us write m i equal to the minimum of f of x, x belonging to x i minus 1 to x i. So, i goes from 1 to n. And similarly, let us write capital M i to be the maximum of f x, x belonging to x i minus 1 to x i. Now, for this, the minimum value of the function and the maximum value of the function in that interval to exist, we have to put some condition on the function. In general, it may not exist. So, one has to put a condition on, for these quantities to be meaningful. So, we put a condition that f is bounded. So, that is the condition that we put. So, that f of x, x i, x belonging to this interval, it will be bounded set. So, it is a minimum and the maximum will exist. So, no problem about that. So, once we have got the minimum, so for example, this is the minimum value m i. So, area of the rectangle, so let us put those rectangles. So, define the minimum height inside times the length of the interval that is x i minus x i minus 1 and summation i equal to 1 to n. So, this is the sum of the areas of the rectangles which fit in below the graph of the function. So, largest possible kind of rectangles below that. So, let us give them a name because the minimum value and is with respect to a partition p for the function f. So, it is denoted by Lpf. So, this is normally called the lower sum of f with respect to the partition p. When we are estimating, you can also go slightly above. So, with the same base, I can look at this rectangle. So, that will also will estimate the area below the graph of the function, but slightly overestimate. So, let us do that also. So, define and what is called the upper sum. So, capital M i that is the maximum value into the length of the interval. So, intuitively this Lpf and Upf, both are estimates for the area, concept of area. We do not know what is it actually. We are trying to sort of capture the geometric idea analytically, but if we call that as say a, so this will be less than or equal to a less than or equal to Upf. This is only purely geometric consideration that this object called the area. We do not know what it is, but geometrically it is quite clear that the area this yellow portion will be below the sum of upper sum and the lower sum. But anyway, this is quite clear that lower sum will always be less than or equal to upper sum, because the lower sum is a minimum value and Upf is the maximum value. So, small m i is less than or equal to capital M i. So, this inequality is ok and this is the thing we are trying to capture in between. Now, the idea is that we try to sort of fit in these rectangles in such a way that the difference between the upper and the lower becomes smaller and smaller, so that we actually capture the required area. So, to do that, let us write what is called the notion of refinement. So, a partition Q is called a refinement of a partition P, if it is not a very simple sort of, if let me write P is a subset of Q. So, what does that mean? See, we have written P as a set, the partition. In set theory, we do not write a set like this actually, but we just denoted P as a partition to indicate that properties of the points. So, P and Q are two partitions. So, what does that mean? That P is a refinement, Q is a refinement of P means. So, let us explain this quantity. So, this means all the points of P are also points in Q, may be some more. So, Q, all the points in the partition P, they are also points in the partition Q, but Q may have some more points, additional points. So, for example, one obvious way of, so this is a, this is b and this is say x 0, x 1, x i minus 1, x i and so on and that is x n. So, that is a partition P, say. So, if you want to generate, I want to make a partition, which is a refinement of P, then I may add some points here, for example, y here. So, P is x 1, x 2, x n and Q is x 1, x 2, x i minus 1, additional point in between. So, you throw in more points in the partition P to get a refinement. So, that is the idea. Now, why we are doing that? So, the reason for that defining refinement is the following. So, let us look at, let us look at upper sums and lower sums. So, this is and this is b and let us look at x i minus 1 and x i and let us look at the graph. So, let me put it this way. So, that is the, so in between, I have drawn it nicely to indicate. So, this is my function f of x. So, what is, if I considering the lower sum for this partition P? So, this is x 0 and this is x n. So, in the lower sum, one of the rectangles that will be coming in this partition, for, this is the area below the graph of the function that we are trying to approximate. So, the lower small m i times, so this will be, so this will be m i times the length, that will be smaller. Now, supposing I have added one more point, where you find the partition P and the new point is in this interval, say somewhere. So, let us say the new point is somewhere. So, let us call that point as y. Now, when you want to consider the lower sum with respect to this new partition, so q is a refinement. So, P is a partition given and q is a refinement. Let us look at the corresponding lower sums with respect to P and with respect to q. So, the contribution in the lower sum with respect to P will be this rectangle. Now, when I want to consider with respect to q, I will have to look at the minimum value in this interval and in this interval. So, what is the minimum value in this interval? The first one, that is same as the earlier one. What is the minimum value in the smaller interval? That is here. So, the contribution for the lower sum with respect to the new partition will give me additional approximation, additional rectangle, which will add up in the lower sums. So, this picture tells me that the lower sums tend to increase if I refine the partition. So, here is a theorem, which we would like to state that the lower sum with respect to P and q is less than or equal to lower sum of the function f, q f, if the lower sum p, q is a refinement of p. You can also look at the upper sums in this picture. What will be the relation between them? For the earlier partition, the upper sum will be, for the big interval, the value is here. So, that will be the rectangle, the bigger one from here to here. But when you consider the lower, sorry, upper sums I am looking at. So, the maximum value will change. It will go like this. Maximum is here. So, this will be the value. So, let me remove this. In this bigger interval, the maximum value is here. So, this will be the rectangle we will be looking at. When I cut it up, up to here. So, in this portion on the right-hand side, so the maximum value is this. So, I will be looking at this rectangle for the refinement. But for the other part of the partition from x i minus 1 to y, the maximum value is here. So, I will be looking at this rectangle. So, what will happen from the upper sums? This portion in between, this will be removed. So, the upper sum will tend to decrease as you refine the partition. So, let us write that also, that the upper sum P f is bigger than or equal to lower sums, sorry, upper sums with respect to q, if P is a refinement of q. Is it clear what is happening? Now, mathematically why does that happen? So, you want to write the proof of this. So, what you will be looking at? You will be looking at the term m i times x i minus. So, this will be the only term 1. In the earlier, when you are looking with respect to P, I am looking at that portion. Only one point is extra added. And when you look at the new one, so let me look at, so and what is this m i? That is the minimum value of the function in this interval. When I want to look at with respect to q, I will be looking at the minimum value between x i minus 1 to y. So, the interval will be smaller. It is a part of the earlier. So, what is the relation between the minimum value of the function in a bigger interval with the minimum value of the function in a smaller part of that interval? So, that is the relation we have to look at. That is what we will change. So, the basic concept in this proof will be looking at the minimum. So, this is a general problem. Minimum value in a set A and minimum in B, if A is a subset of B, what is the relation between these two?  B is the bigger set. So, what is the relation? Minimum of A will be less than or equal to no. So, it is bigger than or equal to this. Minimum tends to increase when you shrink the set because on the bigger thing minimum could have been something which may have been eliminated in B. So, minimum tends to increase. Let us just look at an example. Look at the sets 1, 2 and 3 and look at the set 2 and 3. Simple, you can always verify such things. What is the minimum of this set A and this is a set B? A is a subset of B. So, minimum of 2, 3 is 2, where the minimum of 1, 2, 3 is 1. So, that is the main property that we will be using in writing a proof of this, that the minimum tends to. So, what we want to say is that the minimum x i. So, minimum in this interval x i minus 2 1 to x i. So, what happens to the minimum value? We are looking at minimum x i minus 1 to y or the minimum y to x i. So, either of this will be bigger than or equal to this. Both these minimums will be bigger because this is a part of this and this is a part of this. So, when you look at m i, that sum m i times x i minus x i minus 1. You want to go to the smaller interval.  This you can separate into two parts. Add in, subtract y and this quantity is less than. So, this is bigger than this and this also is bigger if I replace the minimums in those intervals. Are you following? See, for the minimum, for the respect to Q, I have to look at the base. This is the base, but the minimum in the smaller thing is bigger than or equal to. So, this m i will be smaller than minimum in the smaller interval. So, this will give you less than or equal to. So, that will be the terms coming in the lower sum. So, that will give you the lower sum with respect to P is less than lower sum with respect to Q if Q is a refinement of P. And when you look at the maximum, it is the other way round. So, the lower sums tend to increase and upper sums tend to decrease. So, let us define, look at the lower sums with respect to P a partition. So, as you refine, these lower sums will tend to increase. So, if I look at this set of lower sums, this is a set which is non-empty. Of course, you can take the partition to be the end points only. It is a non-empty set, which is bounded above. Why it is bounded above? Because the function is bounded, f. So, m times b minus a. So, all the lower sums will be less than that. So, it is non-empty set, which is bounded above. So, what should happen? The completeness property for a non-empty set, which is bounded above, you should have the least upper bound of this set should exist. So, that we denoted by f dx a to b and it is a lower sums increasing. So, one writes a bar below it is a lower sums. So, it is called the lower integral of f on a, b. Now, we have already taken the supremum with respect to the partitions. So, least upper bounds. And similarly, you can look at upper sums P a partition and they decrease. So, they decrease and it is bounded above, bounded below. So, the greatest lower bound of this will exist and that is called the upper integral of f. So, let us call it as upper integral. So, what we are saying is you will have approximations from below, you will have approximations from above. The lower approximations tend to increase, upper intends to decrease. So, they will come to a value. But those two values may not be equal. So, unless they are equal, we cannot say that we have captured the area below the graph of the function. So, one makes a definition. So, definition f on a, b to r is said to be integrable. So, it is a bounded function that we assume if the lower integral a to b f d x is equal to the upper integral a to b of f d x. One writes f x, but we need not, this does not matter actually, f of d x. And this common value is called the integral of f on a, b. So, whenever these two are same, we will call it as a common value to be the integral of f denoted by, one normally writes f x d x to indicate a to b. So, this is called the integral of the function. So, geometrically, this indicates what is, this defines. So, you can take this as the definition of geometrically to be the area below the graph of the function. So, now, the question comes. So, the question we would like to deal with are the following. How to check f is integrable? One and second, how big is the class integrable functions? So, given a function, how do we check it is integrable? The definition says you should look at the partitions, look at the lower sums, look at the upper sums and see whether they come closer and closer as you refine the partitions and so on. Is that the only way or can we have some other way of testing whether some function is integrable or not? And secondly, how big is this class of integrable functions? That means, we want to look at examples of functions or the classes of functions which automatically become integrable. So, these two questions are important from whenever one defines a new concept, give examples of that concept and check when given an object, when that object will have that property. So, these are general things. So, let us look at some of them.