Good morning colleagues. Thank you for turning out every single Monday and having patients Our very first speaker today is Honourable Kenson Kazemi, Minister for Youth Development and Sports and also MP for Grozily Morning everybody Of course another successful weekend for St. Lucia in Sport. St. Lucia back-to-back champions at the Caribbean boxing championship Held from well held on the weekend at the VG Sports Complex But at same token St. Lucia just edged out by Grenada in Under 19 cricket and not so good results in the netball the Caribbean netball championship, but Sports continues to be a shining light for St. Lucia especially over the last two and a half years and we certainly hoping to continue to provide as much support as possible to our athletes and To motivate them to do their very best In terms of youth we've continued to have conversation have conversation about our youth policy which will be on cabinet's desk next week and Of course, we would also be bringing together to cabinet a sports policy that has not been in existence in St. Lucia So I'm very excited about those two developments and later on this month We will be seeing youth parliament and youth activities continue throughout the length and breadth of this country Questions um on the youth policy Um, I heard some some rumblings by youth activists saying that they were not Consulted for the creation of this policy Could you explain? Really the process by which the policy was developed the policy was developed by youth practitioners We had the late mr. Charles beat do all the consultations with The youth practitioners throughout St. Lucia including the NYC and the constituency groups the district youth and sports councils What happened was that when we came into government we had some challenges with the printing of the policies And we had some we identified some errors some type of typographic errors some errors in the language That we had to hold back on We did engage young people again to inform them of those Those discrepancies lapses and infelicities within the documents and so By the time we had done all our due diligence The time frame for which the document was supposed to be identified lapsed and so we went back to the drawing board again Unfortunately, mr. Charles passed away and we engaged his wife to continue to really develop the document in a proper way the ministry Definitely consulted and will consult again the youth and sports councils the NYC With the actual information within the document that it will see Is no big different difference from what was originally in there and we are going to then present it to cabinet and move forward Yes, yes, we just recently had the Regional OECS regional sports youth sports council Dr. Jules spoke about You know the the input of youth in this development because you see some of these formulas have been outdated Would this be like a precursor in terms of you know moving forward with the wider OECS general council be Implementation of the youth policy absolutely if you look at the OECS territories the challenges faced by young people and not dissimilar It's not that dissimilar I think incumbent upon the nation to actually identify What the dissimilarities are what sets them apart from the other territories and the pretty much set a policy that that is Pretty much guarded towards that nations development. I Don't think it makes much sense to reinvent the wheel Necessarily to start from scratch for instance sports policy. We need a has a very good sports policy We need a in terms of its population in terms of its economy in terms of its People Athletes are not that dissimilar from Saint Lucia. So what we are going to do is we are going to Take a look at their sports policy Obviously engage the stakeholders from Saint Lucia in terms of the Olympic Committee the sports associations the administrators the PE teachers and Then tweak what is in there to set it apart and make it into Saint Lucia sports policy And this is what the OECS youth and sports ministers have agreed on Working collaboratively to ensure that we are more efficient and effective with what we are doing Instead of operating in silos. And so this is where we are going and this is the expectation for us as we move forward You know moving forward, you know, not an emphasis on youth development sports development. Now, we know of Physical education is part of PE is part of school school. But in terms of sports development Would you see somewhere down the line that there's been a criteria in in the school curriculum because I mean, you know Prospects for professionals for administrators for you know, take it Absolutely, it's a symbiotic sort of relationship with the PE teachers association It's supposed to be established that we with the ministry of youth and sport if you look at the glory days of sports development in Saint Lucia Anybody would tell you it was when the ministry of youth development and sports Fell under or was in tandem with the Ministry of Education and the Mary Michelle Since we've had that sort of separation It's been challenging in terms of getting these two ministries to function together But we saw that with Island Champs moving on the weekend We were able to come together and execute that in the interest of sports development youth and sports development in Saint Lucia And we also expect that as we move forward with all other developments because sports development is a pyramid You have the inclusion of all individuals at the bottom of the period the pyramid until you get to the top Which are the elite athletes and so the schools would give you the bottom of the pyramid where you can start Identifying the talent and putting them in the different programs to ensure you reach at the top of the hierarchy And so this is what we are doing if you look at for instance in cricket development We have a grassroots cricket program that is in tandem with most schools And then you have from there you have a under 15 national team and these individuals then The graduates will under 19 team and then a senior team and at the top of that pyramid We have a high-performance center where we've brought together about 30 of the best cricketers in Saint Lucia in a program of health nutrition Physical fitness and of course the mental capabilities of these individuals. So it's a very strategic way We are developing sport in Saint Lucia and we certainly hoping to reap those benefits within the next 10 to 20 years Okay on the topic of youth development right now the National Youth Council in collaboration with the Caribbean Youth Council is hosting their sustainable Advocacy and policy training in Bay Gardens your general comments on this and is there any plans for them to be incorporated? In the upcoming policy development as well. I didn't have a last part you went all the way down Sorry any plans for them to be included in the upcoming policy development as you have mentioned earlier. Well It's it's it's funny that there is a thought that they are not involved anyway I just I just think it's it's funny that that that is being pushed out there the National Youth Council Similar to the government of Saint Lucia it carries on So I don't think necessarily because you have a new executive that you necessarily have to go back to square one I don't I just don't think that is productive. It's incumbent upon the government that is coming in or The leadership of the NYC that is coming in to familiarize yourself with what the youth policy is what the conversations have been as it pertains to youth policy development and They are always free Always free to engage the ministry the director of youth and everybody that form part of the ministry on What their thoughts are and make their contribution? so we're not we are not a ministry that has sidelined anybody and I think at the end of the day we need to understand that this the government is not just the minister Government is all of us and so working with the government will allow for us to have more productivity Instead of every single executive that comes in believes that we need to go back to square one And on sports over the weekend see Lucia secured its second title again Champions for champion of the champions box in tournament just your comment on that itself. Thanks for correcting me Yes, it's champions of champions Caribbean boxing tournament I Think the shining light has to be on what's happening in view for to the view for Jim I know the cast is Jim gets a little jealous when I say that but we know what has been happening in terms of the social development of young people in the community of view for and we are seeing that this boxing sort of fraternity in view for really coming together and Doing so much work that is very impressive John DDA again from the community of library attended view for comprehensive Gold medalists and we had a nine-year-old from the community of view for also win a gold medal And so it means that the research is being done in Identifying those young persons that have the ability to box and boxing is a sport that you need a lot of discipline You know a lot of self-control you need to be able to time what happens in the ring And so these are the life lessons that are being taught in view for it right now And the fact that we have gold medals on the Caribbean region on a Caribbean level coming from view for Tells us that we have cause to celebrate in this nation I'm very proud of the Bruce Lee vendors Association as I've always said Bruce Lee vendors Association is an association that functions In the interests of not just their members But they have an important role of being the face of Grossly to tourists who come on a Friday night and they take that very very seriously And of course as MP even before I was MP You would have noted that we had during COVID fundraising events to ensure that they were happy that they were back on their feet Because we understood that the vendors really open the door to who grossly people are and so if they represent you Properly you can get more and more economic activities being held in your community There's not a single tourist who comes to St. Lucia who does not feel the need to go to grossly Friday night Especially when they're there on the weekend and so we continue to encourage these vendors to keep a smile on their face as the MP I always try my best to Provide whatever support that I can to them and we certainly Congratulate them on this achievement and we know there will be many many more to come Yes Good morning at the last briefing you described the rehabilitation for the George autumn stadium as ambitious But you did not quite outline how your ministry falls into that plan If you said it's technical oversight or some alignment Can you just give us some more detail as to how? Your ministry is working alongside on that project. Okay, so the technical aspect of developing any Grounds any sporting facility would fall under the ambit of the Ministry of Youth Developmental Sports So in terms of the design in terms of the 400 meter track itself There are specifications that are put by the Olympic Committee the International Olympic Committee that must be followed Positioning of the long jump it triple jump it the safety Protocols that must be put in place to ensure that fans are safe athletes are safe all those things would fall under the ministry of your development and sport and so It would be incumbent upon the ministry to to pretty much look at the designs and provide the technical advice for how those designs are supposed to be implemented to ensure that we Get to a point of having international approval So that is my main responsibility similar with the Darren Sammy cricket ground where as we may not be the financiers of everything that happened We certainly have a technical aspect to developing the facility that is very critical We saw in the Estimates some of 2.5 million dollars allocated towards that but the consultancy Allocation of 2 million Out of that amount. Can you explain to us further how they? Consultancy fees would be more than the allocation for the work That is a question for the Minister of Finance to address and so that is that does not fall within my preview at this current moment So you as minister you have no knowledge no Oversight to no involvement that is for the Minister of Finance And his team the Ministry of Finance to allocate and to provide that sort of leadership on this project but as your ministry have any say in the consultancy in terms of having any involvement in the candidates that are The Ministry of your development and sports will continue to be the Technical aspect of anything to do with a facility development We have a director who is responsible to ensure that what the international standards are are being Implemented at any venue in St. Bush and so for me as minister my sole role that one of my main roles is to ensure that whatever Development is being Implemented at the George Autumn Stadium It will ensure that we as a nation can meet the standards that are put together by the International Olympic Committee That's my responsibility So in terms of the costing of works at the Darren Sammy Stadium The grocery play in field, which I know is very close to you and the minnow for the park Do we have an overall estimate of what those works cost? We do we do have an estimate of what the works cost We do have as let me just explain this because I've heard this before We had a unique situation in the region where the US was being engaged by the International Cricket Council to host cricket and I think most of us here know that the US is not necessarily a global cricket nation There are many discussions about who in the region Were going to be the country selected to host cricket World Cup Jamaica was in the mix Antigua was in the mix Dominica was in the mix Despite the fact that St. Lucia put in the bid early. We were not informed About whether or not St Lucia was going to host cricket World Cup until very late in the game When the decision came and St Lucia was selected to host cricket World Cup We as a government felt that it was absolutely necessary to do all within our powers To ensure that we indeed host World Cup and we indeed develop our facilities to ensure proper hosting of World Cup and so Despite the fact that everything came in late we had to ensure that we could design and Construct and make adjustments to the facilities to meet again the standards Of the IOC and so the ICC and so it was very difficult for us to have gone to square one We'd have to design and make adjustments So this is why you would not hear me say that it took 25 million dollars for us to do all those renovations It's because while because of the time sensitivity of everything that we're doing we have to ensure that the work continues and so If you take a look at the Dharan Sami cricket grounds You would be more than satisfied that we have done a very good job and that we continue to ensure that we are Fiscally prudent as we continue to strive towards being the best venue for this competition this year So we know the contractors on the projects Okay, so the contractors and the selection process. Can you explain that to us? Okay, so the selection process is is very similar to what would happen when you Have any venue that you need done expeditedly? We engage as many contractors as possible to provide costing for for works based on the designs It goes to the NLA national launches authority And then they would sit on a pine on this with the aid of the actual Overseer of the entire project contractor has been identified that contractor actually went through the same rigorous process of Providing a resume providing a list of works accomplished and going through the entire process of selection and then those contracts are awarded and so we have multiple multiple multiple contracts being awarded and so we have The local organizing committee who on a Wednesday and a Sunday They come together and they set their targets and they ensure from monitoring monitoring and evaluation That those targets are being met and so so far we've had no issues Everything is happening very much above board and we continue to push towards hosting this cricket event in June Order contractors That's what I just said. We have multiple. I do not have the list before me, but we have multiple contractors We have contracts for for instance. We have optimum cooling for the air conditioning For instance, you would have a flow or another individual for the internet upgrades For instance for the media center You would have one contractor identified to ensure that the media center is up to the standard Requested by the IOC and all of those subcontracts so to speak would be tendered for but you have an overall Executing company. Yes, we do. What's the who's the overall company? We I do not have that information right now I do know the individual. I don't remember his company's name But I don't think it's necessary for me to at this moment put just the individual names out I Would prefer to give the company, but I don't have the company's name right now There's a registered company. Absolutely and the individual is a director owner CEO It's a registered company. You can't give the name. I don't want to give the name right now So the name of the individual and the company are two separate things. Yes That's difficult to understand I don't think so if I have a company St. Lucia Sports and Line I am Kensen Gassmer and there's St. Lucia Sports and Line as my company But you identify with the company. You are your decisions being made would be made by you not necessarily But in keeping with you not necessarily you could have a company and not necessarily you be the one making all the decisions We just give an example In the media I was very good at writing sports, right? But the actual design of my page The actual picture that would come out that would be done by somebody else And I'd give that person autonomy to really decide on how this thing is being done So but executive decisions would be made by you, but I do understand executive decisions are made by it I understand your response minister. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. Any questions on youth development from? I think the other journalists have covered I do have one of the questions pertaining to the constituency The heliport you last time you said you had not really followed That's not what I said Or you will not at the meeting. Have you been Reefed on what's taking place? No pertaining to that. No Why is that? Thank you madam first secretary that's my final question to the minister No, I've not been briefed and Why is that well apparently the person I can actually answer the question the person who is supposed to be responsible for? Engaging and briefing the parliamentary rep has not seated fit to do so But we all know your constituency is very close and dear to you Very have you have you not made the effort to Contact the relevant Individual authorities to understand exactly what's happening. Yes, I have but let's put it this way As a parliamentary rep I always want to be informed and I think it's respectable To inform me of meetings or developments that are ongoing or proposed from my community Before we have any engagements with the wider community that was not done And you've communicated your displeasure. I have to the relevant authorities and individuals. I have thank you very much minister the prospect Absolutely, they are afraid of the noise And it is comfort of having helicopters fly right next to the house at odd times during the day You said a relevant authority had not informed you is that the department of Aviation civil of the civil aviation they would be part of it and DCA I've had some conversations with DCA Yeah, any more questions people Okay I just want to make a short statement on the Unfounded and baseless and Misinformed statements of the leader of the opposition as it Refers as it pertains to the my visit to Brussels and tenacious CIP program leader of the opposition has quite recently trying to Then I great trying to Cause the solution people on you harm By spreading malicious and false propaganda about senior shells about its financial management And about its investment profile Recent recent he wrote the international more different and the World Bank With complete falsity The National Luch Association actually owns The Darren Sammy ground it owns it and all the surrounding lands Around the Darren Sammy stadium The national lottery has just completed payment of the Darren Sammy grounds It's a complete government assets when the leader of the opposition says that national national Association has no assets. It's absolutely untrue Absolutely untrue. There's no truth in National Luch Association It receives It's fees from the games That I use that are played in Zanussia. That's where the fees come from in July 2021 Just before the elections That leader of the opposition was in the cabinet and he signed a document Giving concessions To the provider so that fees could be paid to NLA But that was his work. So these statements are completely false Absolutely false The leader of the opposition believes that the old saying he can burn the house to kill a rat The fact that he's not in power in power, he's not in government that the people of Zanussia has Have rejected him have rejected his party by 15 seats to two He begins and spreads these falsities these falsities and that Rumor-mongering which has no basis in fact speculation Misinformation and innuendo no basis in fact last week I represented the people of Zanussia in Brussels are several important bilateral meetings with the European Union I met with Mr. Jonas Loster Who is the deputy director general for migration and home affairs in the European Commission and? Mr. Dimitrius Gitokas who is head of visa policy Regarding their proposed changes to visa free travel for the Sanjian zone and how these potential Changes would impact countries with investors in these programs like Zanussia Incidentally the visa free access was negotiated by the solution Labour Party government I was repeated The visa free access for the Sanjian zone Was negotiated by the Labour Party government, and I was a government at this time. I Also met with members of the European Parliament from the Netherlands and I Was not summoned to Europe Europe has no problems with us. I was not summoned to Europe Say there are some into Europe is ridiculous. I Was never summoned to Europe I traveled to Europe To meet the EU lawmakers and that was planned over a month ago. I Wanted to speak to the EU face-to-face and Explain to them the rigorous due diligence undertaken by our CIP investment program And I also wanted to speak to the EU before my government science Senutia to any Memorandum of agreement on citizenship by investment with our Caribbean neighbors Let me emphasize That's a lucifer spot of the discussions all the time There is no agreement the European Union. This is again a falsity on leader the opposition What is there's a memorandum of agreement between the countries involved in the CIP program not an agreement with the EU or if anybody else The only agreement that we have is if the American government Is not and what the American government gave us is six points that we should follow until Lucius fallen all these points So the matter of an agreement the EU government is a falsity This is a memorandum of agreement among the countries in the region who have CIP programs Not if the European government. This is not true And I want to tell you that I participated in all discussions solution was an active participant In the discussions among there is no conflict between St. Lucia and the OHS government So Lucia participated in all these discussions. In fact St. Lucia is already following all What's in that MOA all what St Lucia said is That We need to complete the contractual agreements that we have with investors Before we sign on to any price changes Incidentally these price changes were done by the leader of the opposition when there's minister of finance They were done by him. He was the one who initiated these price changes the leader of the opposition He's the one who removed The fact that anyone who wanted to get involved in our citizenship Had to have a net worth of three million US dollars. He's the one who removed it. He's the one here who removed the Benchmark that we could only have 500 CIP citizens every year. He was the one who removed it The leader of the opposition. He was the one who moved it in December. He was one who removed it not us He's the one who allowed his friends To open an escrow count overseas. He was the one not us the leader of the opposition These meetings were extremely productive And I got valuable insights into the challenges of both illegal and legal migration Which is confronting the European Union in the lead up to the parliamentary elections in June this year the fact is The proposal from the EU Commission Must be passed by the European Parliament and that has not happened Because the European Parliament the elections in the European Parliament in June this year The proposal states that the CIP is one of the reasons Just one of the reasons Adding to the other four that we can lose the visa access CIP has been added to one of the reasons One of the reasons adding to the four that already exists And that has not been voted upon by the European Parliament Because the elections are going to be held in June. That was a proposal from the European Commission Which has gone to the Parliament and the Parliament will vote for it for against it after elections in June. So the idea that there is a loss of of of Visor record visa immediately is Is very improbable the EU Or the British government Have never called into question our due diligence processes the British government Who in St. Lucia? They had discussions with the CIP units There is in discussions with the Bank of St. Lucia and I'm going to get back to the Bank of St. Lucia in a while To show you the regress nature of our due diligence processes Our CIP program continues to be one of the most robust secure and transparent in the world Our due diligence processes incorporates a multi-layered methodology that includes background checks By official law enforcement and the regional enforcement organizations Like the joint regional communication center Jrcc and impacts, and I'm going to prove to you in a while on the my government St. Lucia was added to Canada's partial Visor waiver scheme on the our government Me as Prime Minister Not the leader of the opposition We signed up with four other Eastern Caribbean states to six Citizenship by investment principles proposed by the United States of America in 2023 We were the first country in the region to stop accepting citizen applications from Russians We're the force after the start of the UK law. We were the force In fact, we rejected applications that already come to St. Lucia We rejected it We were the first country and the records will show that we were the first country To stop accepting Russian Russian applications. We were the first country the opposition leader is living in his own fantasy He is that he is living in his own fantasy of Misinformation and his own fantasy of trying to destabilize the economy of solution for his own private political purposes Regarding the matter of underpricing there's official memoranda from the citizenship by investment program dated April 15 2024 and is that it's reads on Lawful reduction of real estate investment sum and I'll read that memo for you from the inception of solution CIP program on 1st January 2016 Until for the first December 2022 the qualifying investment sum Into an approved real estate project was a minimum of three hundred thousand dollars along with the applicable Administrative fee is that things that you this is very important to you and That was changed by the leader to abortion. He His government reduced it his government reduced it in every instant Citizenship is only granted Pursuant to the applicant making the full Legislated minimum investment into the developer's approved escrow counts After meeting the necessary due diligence review in every instance That some must be paid by its successful applicants into the approved escrow counts St. Lucia cannot determine or regulate Fee-spaid to the offer rise agents So she can't his argument between two parties as an issue has but what's in Lucia ensures That happens is that the due diligence is rigorous and the due diligence is Complete I want to tell you the due diligence Processes and the due diligence the steps that are taken with due diligence in St. Lucia One any application is sent to Foreign due diligence companies that operate from others out of the country one To it is sent to the special branch and three it is sent to the J Are it is sent to? impacts and Up to March 22nd. We have correspondence impacts Recognizing the fact that St. Lucia's CIP program goes to them for vetting and has what it reads it reads the office of the executive director of Kaikom impacts in an effort to streamline and ensure All relevant data for its for CIP applicants are captured Fowards for necessary attention and immediate Implementation the amended CIP security vetting sheets along with accompanying SOP Standard operation procedures SOP for same Kindly make note of requests for passport issue and expiration dates occupation country of residence fields that have now been included an extra layer of due diligence in March 22nd 2024 That's what the GRC every applicant Every CIP applicant goes through a vetting process that In that very process local from within the CIP unit special branch GRCC and a foreign Due diligence firm St. Lucia is the only country That says that applicants must have a face-to-face interview through using by virtual means the only country There's a part of the regiments that we agreed to buy the United States But what is most important and dangerous about the leader of the opposition is That any money that comes into the CIP account Has to go for a vetting process from the bank all monies That come into the CIP account Must go through a vetting process from the bank So there's an extra layer of vetting from the bank that is called no your customer And it says the source is called the source of funds that all of you and me have to present If we have if you are depositing money in the bank resource. So that's another layer So solution doesn't accept CIP money outside of the country It comes in and has to be vetted by the bank So the leader of the opposition is a master of misinformation When he goes internationally And says to the world that's in Lucia's due diligence process is is questionable The money has come through the bank and it is there is a process of Vetting that takes place there in the New York customer the New York customer a situation right every applicant immediately Goes through these three levels of Jude of due diligence and St. Lucia does not accept any Applicant who has been rejected by another country There is no incident in St. Lucia of Any issues regarding our CIP program. There's not been one incident Because of the due diligence that happens in St. Lucia with our CIP program So that criticism is Unsubstantiated it is based on lies Is based on misinformation and the words of a desperate man who is seeking political power What the leader of the opposition doesn't want to happen? He does not want St. Lucia to enjoy the benefits of CIP program like our neighbors If you go to the Omnika now, you'll find that in the Omnika Literally thousands of people have benefited from the CIP program in terms of housing free housing The only attempt by the leader of the opposition failed when St. Lucia taxpayers had to pay a firm over 12 million dollars for his failed attempt to cross investment by a company called range and if you go to Omnika today that company has opened us Omnika's first six-star hotel property Because of the failed attempt by the leader of the opposition when it's leader of government to get this investment going What it doesn't want to happen? He understands the benefits of the CIP program can give to the people of the country Through housing through roads through community development. So he's trying his best to muddy the water to cause the confidence in St. Lucia To be diminished so that investors can be afraid and not invest in this country The amount of due diligence is completely not and the information is available The due diligence is not in question at all the leader of the opposition is just Basically Envious of the progress that St. Lucia is making and you will hear in our budget statement Where this country is heading you had the investments that happen in this country You will hear the results of potent financial management in in happening in this country You will hear Where this country is going and why the leader of the opposition is trying his best to stop these efforts by misinformation because he cannot with any He can't substantiate any of these accusations with any fact I heard the leader of the opposition speaking to a foreign journalist and making a point that the reason why St. Lucia's CIP program takes so long is because we do it directly The money must come for the bank The money for the CIP program must come through the bank and the bank has their own due diligence processes So I want to assure solutions that solutions integrity That the due diligence required to make our CIP program as robust and as rigorous as possible is wedding place I Thank you questions Can you just repeat that statement? Yes, the European Commission Has made a suggestion to the European Parliament. There are two bodies. You see what In that misinformation will what the leader of the opposition is doing he's mixing the two and make them look like one You understand which is very deliberate. There are two bodies There is European Commission and there's European Parliament two bodies the Parliament is Elected the elections in the Parliament in June. There's gonna be like we're gonna have a solution in 2026 Okay, whether people vote, but there's a commission which like the civil service and The Commission makes recommendations to the Parliament and the Parliament votes for these recommendations So what has happened is the Commission has made a recommendation that one of the reasons that Visor-free access can be withdrawn is Countries who have CIP programs That's all that has happened. Yeah, I think one of them is mass migration Body is because in Europe as you know for yourselves, there's a migration problem Serious migration problem illegal migration problem in in Europe and so I think CIP program has Had has been added to it one reason why but the Parliament has to vote for it And that's that's the point the Parliament must vote for it the Parliament So we have no idea what the Parliament will vote for and when that happens When happens if the Parliament votes for it, there are other processes which will will go to that's a little point Recommendations made by the No, that was not that was not a meeting for recommendations It was a meeting for information the EU didn't call us, you know, we went to the EU Didn't call us when I listen to me has what we have on the table and he said to us Here's what we have on the table. What we have on the table is that the European Commission had Miller recommendation Not solution CIP program, you know What's a new CIP program? It's not a solution CIP program. And this is this is the misinformation of the lay of the opposition in CIP programs. Generally What's a new CIP program See if I'm and let me say I'm saying further St. Lucia has been the country that has benefited the least from the CIP because we started the We started the latest and I'm telling you historically how we got into the CIP program We got into CIP program through a commission That included members of the opposition So they know very they knew very well what's happening there. It was a secret In fact, one of the members of the commission is a high ranking official of 19 August party High ranking official. He was involved in the commission that put the CIP program together So the CIP program wasn't done in any in any in any Kindness in manner they were involved in the enticing and we came in late and this way we've benefited the least Just Information sharing mission. Oh, hi. How are you? I haven't seen you for ages So since you shared information with the EU what was their feedback because you said you wanted to let them know About St. Lucia's the vigorousness of our CIP program how sturdy it is And that we're following all the rules What was their information to you the information to me as I said earlier The commission sends proposals to the parliaments What was the thinking on what you said you cannot say you cannot I cannot tell you what the parliament is thinking The parliament will vote What happened and I'm sorry came so late. Let's let's go for that again Let's go for it again. Because I wanted to be to be clear Because I want you to fact check me I've always said I've always said to journalists fact check me and the leader of the opposition, but you all lost him to fact check him And and and and that concerns me because you all don't you do your lord leader of the opposition to ramble You think that's a completely wrong and you never stop him He rambles with things are come and which can be proven to be wrong But you do not fact check him fact check me Anything I've said this morning. I want you to fact check me and if I've said what's not true come academic prime minister You lied because let's say I went to church and I saw the bible use the word in the bible. There's a word lie That's that's it. That's a biblical word. I will choose yesterday and I saw it in I think it was the the the episode of the third Sunday after Easter and in the in the in that there was line So the word line because I understand there are some people who say you insult if you tell me lies That that's a biblical word. So let's move on There was a Proposal from the european commission The european commission is the civil service of the european parliament In that proposal the repose has said because of the problem of illegal migration in the EU. Let us add country to cip programs as one of the reasons That you can remove their visa free leaders That proposal has to go to the parliament and it's going to be voted for in the parliament Is the parliament that takes these decisions The commission makes a recommendation and the parliament takes the decisions and there are elections in june And in june the parliament will take a decision on this aspect So how do you know what you said was effective? The parliament will tell me when they vote when they vote. So we just have to wait. Yes We always have to wait because you see I I want you to Put it I want you to understand it also, but you will lobby in the parliament is no I wasn't okay. It's a cip is not st. Lucia I want you to I want you to listen to that and honest and and check it out Even within european countries There have been some some level of discussion about cip programs. Were you the only prime minister of a cip country? Or on that part? Yes, I was only probably together with the cip unit. Yes. Why? Because the other countries have advantages that I don't have The other countries have thousands of cip's applicants thousands Thousands understand that the other countries have benefited From the cip program In a recently all your temp was a failed attempt by the leader of your position When you had to pay back some of your taxpayers money back to Developer 12 million dollars The only program that is Work that is happening now is a hotel project in view for This you know what's happening now as you speak, right? So which hotel project is it the hotel project at canyons in view for I had to go to europe to find out Get the from the horse's mouth What's the situation as it relates to migration? And I said that's what I went to do. Nobody summoned me Nobody summoned me. I went to file after myself and I want to say to you that We have no conflict with oasis countries in that moa We said lucha was deeply involved Have we signed we may say, uh, no, we haven't for the same reason why again Sorry that that you need We did not sign because we said we have construction arrangements of investors that you want to clever us What are those contractual arrangements? people who have purchased Or with applications to buy or sell Many people and that's what frightens them the leader of your position the confidence in senucia People who want to invest in senucia And he doesn't want it to happen Because what he doesn't understand is when the country progresses everybody moves uwp's Labour party independent everybody moves But he is so he is so stuck in old-fashioned Vindictive politics That he believes that when he He stops investment happening in the country Billiard party will lose election and get into government So we out of step with the other We not out of safety No, we not what you said is give us some time before we sign Did you indicate to them how much time we need we've we speaking about it? And we are in discussions on that. We have no conflict with our neighbors No conflict So there were price changes you mentioned earlier in your opening That price changes or that the cip occurred solely under The former official price changes official official changes So there were changes in january of 2023. These are not official price changes again, you see This thing has been so muddied by lady operation even you a little bit confused. I understand that Because if I didn't do better, I might have gone confused too. I'm not confused So we had changes that came into effect January 1st of 2023 And we had changes to the investment for the real estate So it's a 200,000 instead of the 300,000 Can you explain to us why those changes were necessary because we needed we needed we attracted from what our neighbors are doing So it was for competitiveness So the former changes were because Of what? Well, are you we never questioned that? What we questioned is the escrow cons that we held outside the country. So we never questioned the change So under our the real estate component the extra account we do not support escrow cons of the country And this is why it takes some time because many has come for due diligence in our local banks That's a difference. Okay, very well. I just wanted to emphasize that Can you just explain to us the infrastructure component? The infrastructure component is just like the The only difference in that and the and the thing is that the leader should feel the one and taxpayers have to pay money Taxpayers have to pay money for his failed attempts at getting And getting a hotel building solution. It's very simple very simple and you know It's unfortunate That in his attempt to stymie the growth of celusia What is putting is in doubt in the minds of investors This one leader is doing it's very simple An investor first of all It doesn't cost cost any debt on the period of country No direct awards that were given by leader of the opposition Which are inherited 246 million dollars worth of direct awards given without tendering To one or two firms at an interest rate of five and a half percent That's what I inherited that cost me to have to pay 40 million dollars to build roads in this country And if you look at the roads you you might ask yourself Where you must ask yourself some questions 246 million dollars are inherited This is this is very simple an investor is Decides that he's going to build roads A certain some roads which are vetted and verified by the ministry of infrastructure in exchange the investor is allowed to sell shares Or to sell sell shares in a company that will build the roads in exchange for the money to build the roads cost no debt to the country and And these come in the form of cip Cip Citizenships which is what has caused all houses in dominica to be built and there's a kids economy to be able to give 13 months sorry to see this so the investors will be selling the passports There is not selling the passports the investor is allowed passport citizenship By citizenship as an investment into the company That's what and this is not new, you know, you know It's passing strange that this is being made an issue now. That's how dominica was built I'm sure you've you've been to dominica. I'm sure you've you've seen the houses So this this is As I tell you the reason why this is happening now Because the leader will wants to stop. He wants to erode confidence and look sure because he knows That if the cip program begins to touch the people tangible in a tangible way That his chances of winning the election Which are very bleak now will get bleaker And that's his problem As I said before it's burning a house To kill a rat Mr. Prime Minister, I wanted to To find out a little bit more about You mentioned that there was a company called range that went that was wanted to work within nuca and is now Working with no it's now built a hotel in dominica right not working built it is called Um Is a six-star hotel is built on you built is there I stayed there once Yeah, I actually wanted to get a little bit more details on What is it that we lost? 10 million dollars 10 to 12 million dollars At 20 12 million dollar investments. Yes. No, that was money. He had to pay back to the investors for breaking the agreement Right, but we also lost our and we lost and we lost the investment. Yes And the investment in the hotel in the hotel and all the Jobs that became everything the investment And this is When did they do when did this happen? When did the investor and and actually again, that's provable I can show you the document the instruction for the minister of finance to pay the investor And if you want I can show it to you You see the problem with the resolution. He never has any paper, you know, he never has any facts all comes from his head He never has any facts He's never shown One document that put solutions due diligence in question not one just from his head ramblings It was I just want to get the name of the of the hotel um Could you ask the name of the hotel that's built by Muhammad in in dominica? Yeah, it's a major six-star hotel Possibly the major hotel Questions. Yes. You say I want you to ask me the hard questions Because you don't ask the lead-ups in hard questions You don't you allow him to to say things that you know Is not true You you you've you've There his record will tell you it's not true. So I wanted to ask you that questions because I want you to fact check me Mr. Prime Minister in setting the record straight Would you say would it would it wouldn't be prudent to say that the cip unit Could give an annual report St. Lucia goes on Saint Lucia St Lucia Gives an annual report Every year in the parliament That shows how the money is used an audited report in the parliament And that is that was just that's one of the reasons that was one of the things I've added on to the agreement with the Americans St Lucia has already been doing it St Lucia CIP program doesn't happen in a room, you know It's a it's a massive organization with a board You know, it's not a one-man show It's a board Independent is a board the the leader of the opposition makes a story About the national economic fund and cabinet changed the rules again again, you know much ado about nothing Let me tell you what happened the national economic fund the national economic fund Certain investments go to national economic fund the national economy phone has an independent board Previously it said the national economic fund could be used for x y z All what is government added to it? Is that any the cabinet can ask the national economy fund to make an investment? That's all So when he makes a big for the cabinet of the country the cabinet of the country that gives Directions on a 1.5 billion dollar budget the cabinet of the country But the cabinet of the country can't give directions to use the national economic fund. That's what it makes a fuss of That's what it makes a fuss of Pettiness that's what it makes a fuss of The first time you change it. That's what we change And we didn't change it secretly when the parliament changed it wasn't a secret Because if the cabinet can control the budget, why can the cabinet control the national economic fund? What's wrong with that? I make no apologies about that The cabinet in you see what the leader officials understand is the government was elected by the people The same he complains about speaking in parliament. The people are the ones who decided That towards them would be in the parliament two of them the people decided that, you know, not us So the people decided how can you dictate the rules of the parliament if the people decided we told you can be there The leader official behaves like a spoiled child The leader's have his way. He takes his his his his his and he runs to me the people who decided how are you? Because we didn't put ourselves in parliament, you know I didn't make myself prime minister I was made prime minister by the majority of people in the parliament after winning six elections six I was I became prime minister. So we and then when I was the official I Accepted my role as leader of the opposition again. You must go back and do the fact checking The fact checking but the leader of the opposition doesn't understand He doesn't understand that the people made him leader of the opposition Not me So the same way so like you have the gazette you have the gazette you have Documentation So this cip is something that is documented is gazetted. What the cip report is It's a document. I can give you a copy. Do you want a copy? Speaking about fact checking when those changes were made by the UWP back in 2016 I believe it was Yes, I know I was just drawing the fact that you were able to Make changes to the NEF And you asked for you to be fact checked So I just want to go back a bit to 2016 When those changes were made You were very emphatic the labor party was very emphatic that it would reverse those changes made by the UWP Why did you never I don't recall that but did you say that I don't recall that I never recall we may get any point of reversing It was even reported by the international media. There was a press release There were statements made by yourself And members of the same I think you're wrong. I think you're wrong about myself But you even stage the walk out. You even staged a walk out in parliament on what? On the cip on what? When those changes No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no again So why did you do the work out the work out we ever did was on the um the The T. O. R. King That's what he worked out on. Yes, that's part of part and come to say that the cia. T. O. R. King Where he was given a thousand acres of land at one dollar To acre that's what he worked out on a thousand acres of land and where he proclaimed That he would have built 200 islands And he also proclaimed that had to have investments of billions of dollars That's what you've only had one walk out of the parliament. No, no, we had several lots of them talking about the one I recall is the one that On the on that program But you were not happy then that the changes were made to the cip Yes, and it's of course because you mentioned it in your opening. Yeah, the three million dollars and so forth Uh, why did you not seek to reverse those changes because of competition? Because all the other islands had we're not doing it So we were in line then with the changes. Yes, so the changes brought us in line with the other islands. Yes Thank you, sir. So I did I just have one other question on on the Canals, I think it is You you visited the site you satisfied if the works very long time ago a very long time ago Okay, but you in your estimates when in your estimate statements You didn't make mention that the cip will be earning less money for the fiscal year Because and you didn't say I'm glad you brought up again misinformation. Let's go. Answer me. I think that was coming up 120 That's what I'm saying. I think that's previous year and we are likely to get 97 million and you said that you would elaborate on why the The difference in the in the revenue.  Are you in a position? You're asking good questions. I'm always in a position to rate But just that the estimates were figures and the policy is a policy. Well, I did know You see I did something I did something any question you can ask me I'll answer you any question. Ask me any any and I give you I give you the benefit I'll ask and I will you fact check what I say anything you ask me and if I make a mistake If I make a mistake you see let me I'll answer you. I'm not going to be When the prime minister says That he doesn't know something. He is really cool. I must be an expert in gangs. I must be an expert in engineering I'm as I'm not yesterday answer question. Yesterday. I was watching the hui tv about gangs The multifaceted and the complex nature of gang warfare and gun warfare in the region That hasn't began to be studied from the 1990s People of much higher intellect than me Have been studying it. They haven't found a solution They haven't found a solution but there are people here They have been in solution in the opposition Who their previous occupation Was not I wouldn't say that Because if I say that you I will take the whole the whole interview and put it on that. I'm not going to say that I'm going to say what is what the what the guy's previous occupation was. I'm not going to say that Have whole series on gang warfare and I should solve it whole series Whole I have never proclaimed myself to be a psychologist Be an expert on social behavior or be a sociologist I will school to now go to see what I am What I know is I'm a solution The nine families of solution whose basic philosophical principles is to put the people of solution first and to improve the lives of the people of solution So I don't profess to be I'm not an expert on gangs. You never even say that but the The opposition and I've heard the course of my resignation But the opposition believes I must solve gangs warfare. I must solve I must solve everything But I'm not getting I'm not getting caught in in that trap. I remain focused and that's what you said now I didn't forget what you said. I wasn't trying to divert.  He said I'm ashamed of you And he's not that's all he's doing journalists and you're supposed to be in jail I never I never did that and I will never do it. I'll take all the questions from you You see the problem in the leader of the jail is his history That's the problem.  He's trying his best to be what he's not I said biggest problem You understand? I mean you think if I got to back the pickup and sit flat That's a problem. That's a problem with him. He's trying his best. He's trying too much He's trying too much to be what is not that's a basic problem. Anyhow, let's get back to you That was built by by investor called Muhammad who is the real sport against the mission. That's what they're Yes, Lisa. Tell me come again. Yes. So the question Was This crap and see between the figures Right for this. Yes the cip right for you. Very good question this year The cip the leader of this right has three options direct investment Infrastructure and a business investment we had projected That 90 million dollars Will have come directly to the national economic fund And that's what we would would have done what they had to do with it. I had to pay debt or put put it in the continued fund this what happened is that The bond option Which says to an investor After covid and that introduced by him And we didn't change it that you can buy a bond and you get paid after five years That bond option attracted 34 million dollars So that was used to finance the budget 45 million dollars was direct budgetary support Which we used to pay debts and to run the car 45 million dollars added 45 and The remainder was sent into the economic that economic development Which was used for purposes, which I will outline no secret in the policy statement And there were 17 million dollars, which was direct investment in the social and economic life of the country which I'm going to outline Total 120 million dollars. That's how it was used. But you stated in the house that the real estate option uh Factored into the revenue collection That yeah, it did better So it did better better than than we anticipated You want me to you want me to go go for that again? No, it's okay. I will As you see facture, please Please And listen to me and listen I never I have never proclaimed to be infallible, you know Infallible, I mean You you all criticize me when I say I I I I made an error because what we've used to in St. Lucia Is people playing that they infallible and they can make a mistake and they're superhuman and they have the most brains in the country I'm not so I'm a simple guy Who's trying to conjure to the country when I make a mistake I raise man. I make a mistake easy I don't I'm not afraid of me. I made a mistake if I say I I wouldn't go to lie and component for another lie Once once I oh I air I choose my air You understand like again example the leader of the opposition Mimicked me because they say I'm a satirist The tape shows me did that but he said he didn't do it The tape there is a tape that says the little business was going in when they asked the prime minister. He said He said he didn't do it. Now. Why you all don't fact check him and tell me But the little position you said it why I'm choosing You all don't do that. I don't tell you what to do, you know, but I'm saying to you I want you to treat me I want you to fact check me I want you to tell me I said something that was wrong And if I made an error I'm going to say I made an error If you now listen, there's a difference in disagreeing with our policy They have policy disagreements if you tell me a little of the opposition says that we should not Anything you want I'll agree. That's a policy disagreement And this is what opposition is there for to have policy disagreement to the government But the idea that you can just say whatever you want Whatever you want just to prove a point. That's what I do. I agree. Yes So, um, given the concerns that have been expressed over the years About cbi programs cip programs Do you see this hours Being something sustainable is something that's a that's a very good question. Very good question. And and this is why We are trying to maximize the potential now But that's a very good question Because there are issues and you said what the point I want to make to you is not issues with st. Lucia because what The cip program does especially with the visa free access. It gives you 90 days. You can live somebody as this country That's why it does basically that's all it does, right? But you must understand that americans are also buying second passports And if you read the latest on bloomberg, you'll see how that business is is is multiplying There's also migration Where some people come to work in the country because of the peace and the quiet and they can work on the beach And again, which is part of the of of the of a cip program Cip program doesn't only mean the physical sale of citizenship. It has a lot of variations, right? So the question is Whether st. Lucia the time is right for solution out look to diversify his program and the ministers in dubai now Didn't move that because and there are many people who have no citizenship People have been displaced because of wars and and and all sorts of Disasters there will be they have no they have nothing The question is what do you do with these people? And the europeans are saying That that is causing illegal migration want to make a point But these people don't do not apply is my humble opinion. These people don't apply for cib passports Because they have no documentation They have no documentation. They were they were they were what you call? Stateless, there are many stateless people in in the world and that's a problem from of migration But they say you're very correct that we have to look at it because where it's sustainable is still a question You're very correct And that's that's a discussion we can have but you correct Okay, um some comments were made by um to college george on in can I help you College george is a grown man Hold on. Let me College george Is a so college george is a grown Very intelligent grown gentleman whom I must admit have a lot of respect for I was not there when he made his comment. I was not in the country. I didn't hear the comment I hear some people are saying because he's my friend he made that comment I mean, but that's what that's what you get. I haven't seen when you prime minister and no problem in that I don't know what he said I didn't hear what he said I'm not going to comment on what he said. I don't know. I don't know what I know about college george He's the one who caused us to be pain now What you're paying now for telephone rates that these are the good things I know about him What I know about him. He was a minister. He was involved in the agriculture Life is a Christian of solution. That's what I know about him But when he makes a comment which which you know, I did something All in a sudden we've got a very conscious of the word black all in a sudden suddenly, you know Black oh you boy you are racist all in a sudden We've got very conscious about that suddenly That was never something to when I grew up. I grew up with With with a thing called black power say it loud and black and I'm proud But all in a sudden now we've just got very bomb boy. This is you said you are you are racism I don't know This is of black americans afro american. This is in the lexicon of the of the world It's an ocean.  Will you ever listen? And I wasn't summoned to Brussels. Will you ever listen to the comments? I did not Will you listen to them?  That's his opinion. That's his opinion Yes, no, okay. I just I just I just I'm not you're not going to drive me into defending calyx Calyx can defend himself. So I'm not going there. What I'm saying to you Why are we so? sensitive When these historical facts are said Why are we so sensitive these are historical facts? What what historical historical facts is there was slavery? Historical facts is we came from Africa on a boat Historical fact is that we're not asking for reparation Historical fact not philip jps says so historical fact. So why do we get so excited? Also know us when someone brings that history to to current times as what's happening. Why do you got so afraid? But so you say up up to today up to today the jews are still Talking about the holocaust up to today this morning The jews are still talking about it, but we do not want to deal with these issues in rwanda in rwanda There was a complete massacre the people of rwanda are still benefit up to today, but not in rwanda in st. Lucia In st. Lucia Inconvenient truth of facts. We are trying our best to hide it because we want to shield one man We have a philosophical problem, you know, we want to shield one man for political reasons So we hide behind all these things instead of getting to the facts. I'm again bobbin that I know but you when I say if I say my father was a policeman I must have what I say that say my father my mother I'm not supposed to say that say I give a war dog's role And I'm supposed to say that nothing I don't get involved in that. I'm going to remain focused You see all these things these things are diversions take off the track. I'm so excited about next Tuesday That's what I want to talk about next Tuesday. I'm so excited about the one university program for the people of the young people of st. Lucia I'm so excited about the youth economy where where two million dollars has been given to young people to to to Expand the businesses. I'm excited about these things. I'm excited about the housing program I mean, I'm not I'm not involved in in petty petty things that are being blown out of proportion just to shield one man and not get involved in that Yeah, but you're speaking about historical facts and the things that happened and slavery and whatnot You who already said that you did not listen to what he said. So why are you talking about historical facts because I have been a victim of that Of what? I'm gonna feel that people accuse me if I go in the parliament and I say and I use people accuse me of all these these You know these things that just you see all that That's not a philosophical problem. You know It's just a political problem It's a political solution It's a political defense. It's a political cover-up To hide from reality and to hide from facts Never we never call anybody master look at who called anybody master check the records and you see who called bill master check it Yeah, yeah, just check it I will say you check it check the records check it. I'm not saying who check it next person Yeah, yeah, just just briefly um in the context of the global parliamentary forum you know I know the leader of the opposition supposed to be attending. I wish him luck. I hope he has a very good presentation I'm very proud of him. That's elucia is going there. Yes. What I'm saying is, you know, I mean, this is something of a I'm very proud of him. I applaud him, but just to clarify it does it and does it um Until just opposition members or is it parliamentary? parliamentarians generally that Honestly, I've never heard about it before And none of my members have been invited But to any solution Any solution who is going out to represent sellocia? I applaud it. I support it and I encourage it. I'm a proud solution solution solution is my Both is where my daughter was born solution. The piece where I grew up and solution piece. I want to I want to see Improves so any solution Any person who's represent sellocia I supported Some very proud that he's got this opportunity of a lifetime There's been such public outrage over a minister richard fedricks program. Can I help you? There's a minister in his last program made public the account Of a vendor believe it's to the ccc Maybe I can be fact checked here by my colleagues. I don't know but and what she's owing to the ccc You don't know the story. That wasn't here Okay, so you've not been briefed yet Just like so George since him table I've been done. I mean I'm working on my budget I'm working on on on my budget and we appreciate that prime minister, but it has been Causing some discomfort in the public And when you took office, you did say that you were expecting your ministers to You know serve with with integrity and and make sure that they are not I did see I still want them You still want them to I will never I I I'll commit crime in private never okay, however the the minister has been using his show to Attack quote-unquote attack Private citizen Does that not Cause you some degree of concern. I'll take you something. I'll take you something. Let me tell you something Let me tell you something If I'm convinced and any of my ministers Is doing anything that is injurious to st. Lucia By word or deed I will call them up. I did not hear what the minister said I hear what you say I'm going to find out what the minister. I'm going to see me cabinet in a while. I'll ask him what he said and if If I believe That any of my ministers Is doing as I say it again injurious to the people of the country I will pull them up So I'm going to ask him what he said No, the tape is also there But you see listen, let me tell you something What I also want you to do I want you to have the same standard of care For all of us all of us the same standard of care You see if there's that same standard of care for all of us for all the programs all the talk shows Or if there was that same standard of care, I would be very very pleased But what I'm afraid of Is some people are allowed to say the most damaging Things about other people And they never they never that that level of public outrage You might appreciate that we have much more access to some people than others So that some people are Much more accessible and much more able to to be attacked and to have to defend themselves to defend their statements Some people are not that available I understand that but what I want to say is that I want to make the point That I I'm ready Listen, we can even sit face to face And and and have a sit down because you see I want you to That's on the record. Yeah. Yeah, we can do it Yeah, we can have a sit down. I we can have a sit down. I mean I I You see I'm not hiding, you know Yeah, yeah You ask me because I'll answer you to the best of my ability, but I can't I can't I won't say but what I'm not afraid is I can't listen. I'm not afraid to say I can't I don't have the answer to all the stories I don't answer the question. I'm not infallible I'm a regular simple person who's given the opportunity to work for the country. That's all Honestly, I've not watched it for a long time Honestly, but you must understand, you know, you know, when people talk about Talk about Talk about talk about there They kind of help you can I help you host they pretend as if it's my creation, you know That's what they pretend to And this hypocrisy is so strong. They pretend as if it's our creation. You know our creation You know Of course, of course. No, no, no Hold on The last party he run for was the nightly workers party. No. No. No As of today, he's not As of today, he's not As of today, he's not quote me correctly As of today, he's not As of today, he's not but what I tell you is that the only party's joined is the nightly workers party Of course, of course because of my my my policy of inclusiveness The the former prime minister is the cabinet You know, and I've invited brady phoenix if you want you can follow this Once you can follow the the principles of of of our party Because we're inclusive we want to be there together all men and women of goodwill. We have become better. Come in But I just want you to check that he was not my creation. Okay. Thank you very much. Have a good week


Welcome back to another 5 minutes with Harold Feld where once again we're going to take topics that are insanely complicated mind-numbingly boring and try to make them slightly less boring because this stuff is important. So last time I talked about what we could do to make broadband more affordable. And I mentioned that we need to attack the root problem which is competition. How do we get more competition into broadband, the kind of competition where we're saying to these guys, pander to me, pander for my love. Give me the low prices and high quality that I want.  How do we get there? It's tough because as we used to say, this is a natural monopoly. There's huge cost to setting up these networks. In the case of mobile wireless networks, a lot of times because we're giving exclusive licenses, we've got a limited number that we can get out that sets a limit on competition. So here's the problem, nature is bringing this together as a duopoly or maybe three or four firms if we're really lucky. And we're trying to pry that apart and say, no nature, no, we want lots of competition. So how do we do that? How do we beat natural monopoly at its own nature game? Well, on spectrum, on wireless stuff, we have a couple of options. First is what we call unlicensed spectrum. You guys probably know it as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, but lots of stuff runs over that. That's the idea that we can have lots and lots of devices operating on the same frequencies without interfering with each other. We're getting a lot better at that when we used to be. When we started doing this back in 1989, we just had cordless phones and TV remotes. Now we're moving it so that we can actually bring you broadband, broadband of a quality that can compete with some of the other broadband that's out there, give you some of the mobile services, freeing up more of that stuff will do a lot to increase competition. So that's one. Two, when we have our spectrum options, we can also make sure that some of these license end up in the hands of competitors to make competition stronger.  This is critically important. We call this interconnection.  The answer is we require it. That's how we do it and we've been doing that for a very long time, very successfully. Next is something called special access. I'm not going to try to explain special access. I'm just going to tell you, click on the link below to see the video that I last made about special access. Short version, it's a way to give everybody access to the biggest choke points in the network so that all of this infrastructure that's lying out there right now, all of the competitors can access it. Now it doesn't give people a freebie. You pay for it, but the trick is you pay an actual honest rate for it rather than an inflated monopoly rate for it. So the FCC is looking at all of these things as ways to try to stimulate more competition. And if we can do that, if we can bring more competition to the market, we will make this stuff affordable in the best way possible, affordable for everybody.


The Columbia Police Department appreciates that your time is priceless. You work hard to take care of your home, family and possessions, and that's why we'd like to remind you of a few safety tips to keep your valuables out of the hands of would-be criminals. These are simple steps that are even easier to remember every day. Step one, lock your vehicle, even if it's parked in your driveway. Step two, don't leave keys in the ignition and no idling. Don't hide extra keys inside your vehicle either. Step three, don't leave valuables in plain view. Lock them inside the trunk or barrier. Take them inside your home for safekeeping. And perhaps most importantly, do not leave your firearm loaded or unloaded inside your vehicle. Here in the City of Columbia, there's a high percentage of firearms stolen from cars that are subsequently used to commit a crime. Step four, if your budget allows, consider anti-death security devices such as alarms. But don't forget, if you live in the city, call us to report an auto-breaking or theft of your vehicle. Let us know about surveillance video if you have any. Documenting crimes can help us solve crimes. So spread these tips to your friends and family. And remember, criminal search for opportunities, so don't give them an open invitation to make your property their property. Follow us on social media at Columbia PDSC for more valuable safety tips and information.


Changes in your diet not only affect you physically, physiologically inside, but also mentally, how well you think, psychologically, how well you feel. But you'll never know just how good you can feel until you put it to the test and try eating healthier. Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast, I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger. Today I'm on my treadmill answering a wide variety of your questions, from everything from the versatility of purple sweet potato powder to the benefits of a fermented soy food called natto, and the best way to manage menopause symptoms. First off, Himmi asks, would you recommend using purple, oh, purple sweet potato powder to mix with the orange or the white ones when you can't find purple sweet potato powder? Oh, that's a good, what a cool idea. Yeah, if your purple sweet potato powder is just as one ingredient purple sweet potato, fantastic. I mean, you don't have to mix it with orange or white. You can mix it in a smoothie. You can, in fact, in my upcoming book, How Not to Age Out in December 2023, I have a recipe for Okinawan Smoothie, which is based on purple sweet potatoes. But yeah, if you didn't have purple sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, you can add purple sweet potato powder. You can add it to oatmeal or add it to anything. So yeah, fantastic. Super. So it has all the wonderful stuff that sweet potatoes have, plus those berry anthocyanins, which are so important for brain health and all sorts of other things. And so yeah, that's great. I didn't even know such a thing existed, but I'm totally going to look into it. Cool. All right, next up. Ammo asks, I was put on medication that caused me to gain weight. Oh my God, not just gain weight, almost double your weight. Managed to lose weight by changing medications. Okay, any advice? I'm so sorry to hear that. And I'm glad that you've changed course. So I wrote an entire book just for you, How Not to Diet. All the proceeds from all my books are all done in the charity. So go to your local public library and get How Not to Diet in hardcover or audiobook or ebook. And it talks about, it looks like you're already eating healthy, but then there's all sorts of things you can add on to a healthy diet to accelerate the loss of body effects. We want to get you back down to where you were before. So, so glad to be able to help. Next up. Okay, Llewellyn says, cholesterol is high.  What else is out there that is better than drugs? So there's all sorts of things. So the first step is to get rid of foods that increase your cholesterol. And so there's three food components that increase cholesterol, and that's saturated fat, trans fats, and dietary cholesterol. So you've already eliminated, well you've eliminated dietary cholesterol by eating vegan, but there are still plant sources of saturated fat like coconut oil, palm corn oil, palm oil, found a lot of vegan junk food. So you'd want to stay away from that. And then trans fats have been largely removed from the U.S. food supply. But if you're in a, you know, this question is coming from another country where there's still had this partially hydrogenated oils. That would be something to stay away from as well. And usually just by doing that will bring your cholesterol down. So average cholesterol of people eating vegan, about average total cholesterol is about 140. We want to get it below kind of 150. If your doctor is talking about statins, your cholesterol is probably way above that. So unless you're just doing a lot of coconut oil or something, then the next step would be to add foods to your diet that actively pull cholesterol from your body. And so that was the thinking behind Dr. David Jenkins' portfolio diet out of the University of Toronto, where he came up with a portfolio of different foods that pull cholesterol from your body using different mechanisms and so have kind of this additive effect.  And so then you've eliminated foods to increase your cholesterol. Added foods actually draw down your cholesterol. And the portfolio diet should be working well as these first-generation statins. And if it's not, then you really should start looking for secondary causes of hyper-cholesterolemia. So for example, undirected thyroid gland can jack your cholesterol up, even if you're eating really healthy. Excess abdominal adiposity. There's a whole bunch of things you can deduct and look at before going to pharmacological options. OK, Yogi says, does long pepper increase absorption of turmeric like black pepper? Oh, such a cool question. OK, so long pepper. What's long pepper? Papali. So it's in the same black pepper family, but it may have scenolytic properties, which is one of the aging pathways. So I talk about adding long pepper to one's diet. And that's one of the recommendations in my upcoming book, How Not to Age, Something I've Done in My Own Diet. And the question is, does it increase absorption of turmeric? I don't think so. OK, well, does it have peppering? That's a good question. So I believe what's increasing absorption of, it's not so much the absorption of turmeric, it's the suppression of the detoxification of curcumin. So basically, there's something in black pepper that suppresses your liver's detox enzymes, which normally would detoxify this curcumin, which is like, what is this in the body? Which is the bright yellow pigment in turmeric.  And so I think it's the peppering, which is kind of the spicy compound in black pepper. Long pepper has a different flavor. It has a more kind of a numbing, white sejuan pepper kind of flavor. So it may not have peppering. And if it doesn't, I would not expect it to have the same impact on your liver that would increase the bioavailability of the compound in turmeric. OK, next question. Bitfines says, whoa, on a diet, three pounds of greens. That's a lot of greens. Greens are really light. So three pounds of greens, a massive amount of greens. Two pounds of sweet potatoes. Ooh, that's not making me hungry. Some berries during the evening. One to 4% fat. Whoa.  I mean, Okinawa is only like 9% fat. And although, yeah. So about 10% is probably 10 to 15% is probably normal for the human species. But that's extraordinarily low. But I ate one third of a pound of mixed nuts analogies. Face blew up into a giant cold sore.  And then you had a cold sore. So cold sores, I mean, presumably is around the lips. You think of cold sores as opposed to your face. Cold sores can be triggered by sun, by a bunch of different things. But not by nuts as far as I'm concerned, it's caused by virus. Herb is virus one. So yeah, I would diversify your diet. You're hitting a few on a daily dozen, but there's a lot of others you should hit including nuts. But no reason to eat a third of a pound. An ounce or a little less than an ounce a day is perfectly fine. Sorry about your cold sore. There are some things you can do about your cold sore. There's not great data about lysine. It's a supplement that's touted as being anti-cold sores. But what does work is antiviral drugs. So valocyclovir and acyclovir, even just a day, like two doses, can work as well as longer courses. And earlier the better. So if you get cold sores, you can have it on your person. So you can get a prescription for it and have it. And then as soon as you feel the tingle or whatever, you know you're going to get one, you can take it, and it reduces the duration by about a day. And then if you keep getting recurrent cold sores, then you can be on kind of a prophylactic dose of something like valocyclovir, like 500 milligrams a day. It's often used for like herpes II infection, like trying to suppress general herpes outbreaks, but can also suppress some cold sores as well. But hopefully you can find ways like, you know, some block or something if the sun is one of the triggers, that means you don't have to be on drugs your whole life. Fuchsia asks a menopause and high LDL 90 days ago, that's wonderful. Husband and I started a hopeful plan based journey, his numbers. Oh my God, wonderful, gorgeous. 238 to 102. But my LDL only works 20 points. Well, hey, 20 points, that's amazing. I guess it depends on how high your LDL was, but that's pretty good. Just stick with it and it should continue to come down. And so that's fantastic.  It doesn't go up as much as other people. And they're just kind of lucky that way. And so difference in genetics can offer a difference in impact of diet and lifestyle choices. And so it's not that, you know, there's different diets for different people with different genetics, but it's the, you know, some people exercises healthier than other people. Some people smoking is worse than for other people.  And that, you know, the tobacco, they're just waiting for those first few mutations from, from the cigarette smoke. And so, so it, if you're eating the same kind of food, then it may be just be genetic differences, but you're moving in the right direction. And that's the important thing. Stick with it. And, and if you don't come down to target, then, you know, start thinking about some of these other things that I talked about with portfolio diet.   So sorts of supplements that can do it as well. Okay. Scott says, can I exercise while doing 18, 600 men fasting? Absolutely. You can exercise. Yeah. I mean, if you're doing in men fasting to lose weight, to maintain muscle mass on any kind of caloric restriction, exercise is critically important. Obviously, if you're dizzy or lightheaded, you want to be careful.  I profile the study in my time restricted feeding video. And I keep looking at it. And every time I read about it, because I talked about it in my, how not the age side of all caloric restriction chapter in the, how not to age. Every time I see that study, I'm just like baffled by how, how powerful that is. So early time restricted feeding, you know, skipping supper, turning to shove as many calories in the morning as possible and stopping eating early. Even if you're eating the same foods can have remarkably different effects thanks to our circadian rhythms and exercise would be a great benefit to that. If you can do it, that's great. Okay. Nels, Nels Nels says, as I changed my mind on fluoride, what are my recommendations? So I gave a webinar recently talking about community fluoridation and new data out of Canada, which has got a lot of people concerned about fluoride in the water as a, as a neuro developmental neurotoxicant. And so pregnant women may want to try to avoid excess fluoride intake, but that's separate from topical fluoride, which can give you the benefits of drinking fluoride without the risks. And so I encourage people to stick with fluoride containing toothpaste, but for pregnant women to not be ingesting more fluoride than is, that you can get away with. And this is not just me, this next national toxicology program has come out with numerous draft statements reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences, et cetera, et cetera. So it's really kind of going the way of kind of similar to what we were kind of in the early 80s with lead where we see a significant detriment in IQ in child, mom, child pairs with greater exposure to community fluoridation. Okay. Remco says, is not so good for your health? And if so, what benefits might it be? So not so is a slimy fermented soy food. Well, it's not so good for you. Well, I mean, yeah, in that it's a, it's a slimy fermented soy food. I think people think of Nato, they think of a particular form of vitamin K. It's not necessary to get a Nato vitamin K. Your body can make that kind of vitamin K from the greens that we eat. So we dark green leafy vegetables and get all the vitamin K. I would eat Nato if you like eating Nato, otherwise probably the healthiest soy food is probably tempeh, which has lots of ergothinine and spermedine and all sorts of beneficial things or edamame, another whole soy food. Yeah, those are probably the healthiest sources of soy is Stephanie says, nutritional use safe to consume have heard of some type of issue with formation of harms the body should not be consumed. Nutritional use of safe to consume, except if you have hidradonitis separativa, which is this nasty autoimmune disease or another autoimmune disease called Crohn's disease, which is an inflammatory type of inflammatory bowel and videos on both of those and why nutrition is not good for them, but good for everybody else. Okay, Gabriella. What is my, what is my advice about managing menopause symptoms? Oh, boy. Well, that is a huge part of my book, how much age and my preserving your hormones chapter. And so it depends on which menopausal symptoms you're talking about. In terms of weight gain, I would probably go to my how not to diet book. But in terms of kind of these vasoactive symptoms like hot flashes and flushes and a night sweats, that kind of thing.  And there are kind of gender urinary symptoms of menopause, which used to be kind of have different names, but that can be treated with non pharmacologically with vaginal lubricants and moisturizers. And I talk about the best brands and then there are hormonal, both prescription and non prescription, local hormonal applications and different things you can eat. And so on down the list, but there's lots of things you can do. Check out the new book at your local public library when it hits it out this December. Okay, Wild Blueberry, what a name. There we go. Wild Blueberry asked if I had my blood, I had my blueberries today.  Should I pay particular attention in order to find where the meaning balance died? Should I test for certain? The USPSDF, the kind of preventive services guidelines committee really suggests just getting a cholesterol check. There's no reason to check for vitamins and minerals in particular unless you have particularly symptomatic or have kind of a strange diet where we would assume that you'd be off-kilter in some way. So it's better just eating a healthy diet and remaining healthy. And then obviously if you run into a problem, you can check for specific things. Unfortunately, I'm out of time, but thank you so much and I'll talk to you again soon. We would love it if you could share with us your stories about reinventing your health through evidence-based nutrition. Go to nutritionfacts.org slash testimonials which may be able to share it on social media to help inspire others. If you'd like to see any of the graphs, charts, graphics, images, or studies mentioned here, go to the Nutrition Facts Podcast landing base there you'll find all the detailed information need plus links to all the sources we cite for each of these topics. My last two books were How to Survive a Pandemic and My How Not to Diet Cookbook. Get ready this year for the launch of How Not to Age and of course all the proceeds for the sales of all my books goes directly to charity. NutritionFacts.org is a non-profit science-based public service where you can sign up for free daily updates on the latest new nutrition research with bite-sized videos and articles uploaded nearly every day. Everything on the website is free. There's no ads, no corporate sponsorships, no kickbacks, it's strictly non-commercial, not selling anything. I just put it up as a public service as a labor of love as a tribute to my grandmother whose own life was saved with evidence-based nutrition.


So throw it out there. I have a question for you. Mr. John F. Braun Do you use key base at key base dot IO? What's key base Dave? So key base has evolved I started using key base as a place to store my and and and look up my PGP keys right because these are our public keys that are out there And it's nice to be able to manage them and and see them in a directory and also find other people's keys in a directory And so that's what I started using key base for it has evolved since I installed it on my Mac though And I've just let it update over the years now it has like chat in it and file sharing and you can have groups in there too so that you're chatting not just with one person but with multiple people and you can connect to your Twitter communities and even read it and I think GitHub as well, so it it it yeah It's like secure messaging and file sharing leveraging these PGP keys that live out there So I don't think I saw it the other day. I saw it push an update or it push some notification I was like I gotta look at this again, and And I was like why why do I have this here? Like what what what's this for again because it really was just a place to look up other people's PGP keys Which I also don't do a whole lot of and cryptid email is not It's not all it's cracked up to be folks. It's a whole lot more of a headache than anything else. It it's it feels like a For the uses that I have seen in I have experienced for me It seems more like a novelty than anything that's actually helpful Certainly there are scenarios where sending encrypted email is Literally saving lives like I get it and I'm glad it exists But for me, it's a novelty with a with a side of headache that isn't really worth the novelty So I've abandoned all my S-mime keys. That was a disaster And I have my PGP keys because you don't have to renew them But I'm not sure that like I'll I don't think I will buy the next version of Mac GPG for example


As the time is running, I was asked to share some Estonian observations about becoming a member state of EU. We have now been in the EU for 10 years, and we have a reputation to be a very good pupil, to study everything on time and fulfil the tasks of harmonisation and compliance, and we were quite age old to to have euro, and so we are in a euro zone and also in Schengen right now. So starting point could be that there is something about being a small state. Ireland is also a small state, but Estonia is much smaller. We have 1.3 million people living in Estonia, and small states need to cope with actually the demands of the EU membership, and it's not easy at all. Being a small state means to prioritise everything, we cannot afford to go to very deep specialisation in each area, so there is more generalised knowledge and experts when very deeply specialised. What we need to have is really excellent coordination to make all this small country work perfectly, and of course super-efficiency in order to use the limited resources, and of course being very flexible and open-minded to adjust all the changes we could face. So when looking back at these years, when we prepared for membership, I was working at that time in Estonian government as a Secretary-General of Estonian Ministry of Environment, and I remember very well these times when we needed to process a huge amount of legal documents, and nobody actually asked whether you could have done really proper public consultation or anything like that. It was just not reasonable because of the time span. But what happened during that time, I think our small public administration learned very much how to be very, very quick in everything, and it was a learning exercise also in the sense that we learned how to recognise all the challenges, how to reorganise ourselves very quickly, adjust to new situation, and I think we learned a very valuable asset. It is this strategic agility at that time, and many big countries actually struggling with that. Too long decision-making processes, too much discussions and no decisions. So we have learned how to do everything in turbo-regime, and sometimes it is hitting us back because we can't maybe concentrate too much, a small state on every issue, and also we needed to learn after this very high speed of European integration how to do properly, public engagement for instance, and it doesn't going to happen on turbo-speed anyway, so it's a lengthy and slow process. Another thing what we learned is a very high result-orientedness in values and thinking. The only thing what mattered was whether you get the percentage of non-hormulised regulation down and keep things up to date. Again, we needed to be able to mobilise the very short resources, and all that happened in the context of very decentralised public administration, so every ministry had its own area where they were the kings, so-called, so there was little intervention into the other ministry's governing areas. Of course it again meant that we could be very fast, but it brought along a very low culture of cooperation and coordination, and it is something we are struggling right now. Everybody now is talking in a stoner about single government, a broad whole of government feelings, better coordination, and we are not so good at it right now. Of course it means that we now are experiencing difficulties in dealing with wicked issues which are spread across the policy areas, so it was some of the experience of Estonian very fast learning and European integration as a small state. European Union has always been a very high political priority for Estonia, there has been no question whatsoever about that. Being geopolitically between Western Europe and Russia, that's the only way you could make a choice, and Estonia has always been pro-European, and it meant that every issue which was related with European Union was on a very high political agenda, and it went through very well, and there was consensus, there were no really very, very fierce debates about that, and what it meant in the long run is that I think we took some time away due to that from our internal fears. There were some significant reforms in our country which were lagged behind, which still are unfinished. One of these reforms is the local government reform, we still are having more than 200 very tiny local government units which are very difficult to run properly and finance normally in order to provide public services, and of course another big priority was Euro, and it was a very rational calculation actually for going through for Euro, because Estonia had experienced before the economic crisis a very quick economic growth, like even two digit numbers, and economy was boosting, and the inflation rate was way away of this criteria we needed to fulfill to get Euro, and the crisis actually slowed down this inflation, and it was like the window of opportunity for us to adopt Euro, and the economists calculated whether this time will pass, and so we needed to get together and be very timely, and it was a very significant instance of a very, very high political commitment. They took everything what is needed in order to get Euro, they raised taxes, they made very many unpopular choices, and also they also cut a lot of public sector costs, but the only thing which actually brought the votes back to the same government was actually not touching the pensions, so the votes were for elderly people keeping the pensions up, and even growing was the price Estonian government paid for that, and I think it was a good price, really with no irony. When we think of our role as a small state in the EU, of course we cannot do everything, and we need to make choices as said. One of the issues and areas where Estonia has tried to become one of the leading countries in Europe and also in the world is related to cyber security and ICT. We are very pro ICT thinking, we love everything related to ICT, and for each Estonian free Wi-Fi is a human right, and we get really mad and you don't have Wi-Fi which is free in Copenhagen Airport like I did this morning, so you had it in Dublin, so congratulations. So with e-services is not only the question about efficiency and transparency, it is also the question about being a modernised country, make use of the best available techniques and technologies you could think of, and also it has become one part of our economic story to tell, so Skype is from Estonia and some other quite quickly growing world-class startups are from Estonia, so we have tried to think of ourselves in the future, but why not to become Nordic Silicon Valley? This is a long way to go, but this is one of the key agenda points we want to address in the EU, that's why this digital agendas thing and cyber security is a big issue.