Hello and welcome to this special conversation with Steve McDowell who's the principal analyst and founding partner at NAND Research and we're talking about the next generation of storage Steve, welcome. Hey, it's good to be here Dave. Hey, so tell me first about NAND Research, congratulations for getting that up and off the ground. Yeah, so NAND Research, we're just celebrating our first anniversary. We're a small analyst firm, we focus on kind of the horizontal technologies around the data center. So everything from servers and storage to kind of the software stacks that live right above that. So it's an interesting space to play. So let's talk a little bit about IT complexity. You know, cloud was going to solve all IT complexity, but you know how it is in this industry, we solve complexity with complexity. And so where do you see the state of IT complexity today and then we'll get into how that's going to change. Wow, so it's as complex as it's ever been. I think, you know, I've been in this industry now for 30 years and every time we think we've solved the complexity problem more comes along. I mean, there was a period, you know, maybe eight, nine years ago when, you know, the world believed that cloud was going to be the answer, right? Let's take all of this, especially when we're talking about infrastructure, let's take all of this infrastructure complexity and push it onto somebody else's plate. So I can just write an Amazon to check and I can focus on the business of digital transformation, right? But I think as we all know, hasn't played out quite as well as people predict, right? There's some workloads that just naturally want to live on-prem, right? Maybe whether it's for governance issues or latency issues or whatever, right? So what we've ended up doing was creating more complexity because now we have this whole kind of hybrid cloud infrastructure, right? I think you call it super cloud where, you know, now I'm a poor IT guy, I got to manage stuff in the cloud, maybe multiple clouds and on-prem and it just gets harder and harder. But what cloud has also done is it's reset the expectations of what an IT experience can be. It's told, you know, not just the IT guys, but their CFO and finance guys that, you know, I don't have to buy all of this equipment, right? Maybe there's a self-service, maybe there's a consumption-based model. So we're living in an extremely complex world that's a blend of clouds and then even on-prem it's a blend of, I own my rack, I rent my rack, I have a consumption-based, you know, as a service. So there's a lot going on, a lot going on for the poor IT guy. So let's explain that a little bit for people because some people might say, well, you could always, you know, lease. So it was OPEX, not CAPEX, but you're talking about something different. You're talking about the actual experience, that cloud experience coming to on-prem and hybrid. How has that evolved? And then I want to get into specifically how storage is really taking more of that burden. Oh, sure. And it's, you're absolutely right. I mean, I could always lease and, you know, the rise of consumption-based coincided with a couple of things. One is they changed some tax regulations in some countries that made leasing less financially attractive, right, from a tax basis. At the same time, you know, cloud has taught us that a managed experience is a pretty good thing. You know, if I can take storage, for example, you know, install a rack of storage and not have to rack and stack it and configure it and worry about the network and, you know, all of the technical details of the physical piece of it and just worry about the data piece of it. You know, as I'm driving my data or digital transformation projects forward, it's a good thing, right? So I think we've seen the consumption-based experience evolve from kind of a lease, which still exists in some context, but what's really growing and what's really popular right now is the managed experience. So I'm getting, you know, compute as a service. I'm getting storage as a service. Okay. And so let's double click on storage a little bit. How, where's storage's role in the value equation and is storage doing more of the work? And if so, how? Storage, storage is evolving rapidly. And we could talk about any number of things from, you know, flash consuming hard drives to the role of data and how storage is consolidating. But I think at a macro level, at a macro level, what's happening is, you know, data is becoming more critical to the digital enterprise than ever before, right? It used to be about, you know, we're putting processes onto compute and that's our digital transformation. But now we're not about data transformation. You know, and some of this coincides with the rise of advanced analytics.  I need to consolidate that data and manage that data because that data is now driving my organization. That's A, B is the cybersecurity aspect, right? We're in an environment now and it is kind of rapidly taken over, which is, you know, ransomware and bad actors are now targeting my data in a way that they never did before. It used to be I'll lock up a machine and hit some ransomware. Now it's all encrypted all of your data. So the role of data storage in terms of protecting that data is also evolving. You know, so we're seeing things like immutable snapshots and ransomware detection kind of in the storage device itself. So there's a lot going on in storage and it's taking, you know, more front and center role. So obviously flash is not new, but it continues to evolve. Where are we at in terms of flashes impact, you know, the all flash data center? I mean, we go back, you know, last decade, but there's still opportunities for organizations to apply flash in new ways. You could do obviously a lot more. You can compress more without the performance penalty. You can share data in a more facile way. So where are we at in that whole curve and the crossover with spinning disk? Well, I think we're about to hit kind of the second evolution of flash, right? 10 years ago and pure storage was, you know, I think key in pushing the industry in the direction of all flash because legacy storage vendors really had no desire to go there, right? It's disruptive to them as much as it is IT, but the value of flash proved itself. So, you know, kind of the first explosion of flash, you know, 2014, 2015, we started pushing flash into high performance workloads, right? It was still expensive, right? But you could not beat the performance or the density and all of the stories around that. But it wasn't going to replace disk drives, right? Not as it existed. As these things do, flash has evolved, right? So we're now, we're looking at technologies like QLC NAND, for example, which less performance and has some other, you know, kind of SLA characteristics, but it makes it much more attractive versus hard disk drive. So we're starting to see now QLC flash push down into near line storage, right? And if we look at the density curves and we look at the price curves over time, right? We're not far off where, you know, by the end of the decade, maybe, where we'll see Greenfield storage installations being all flash, and that's an exciting time. We couldn't have visualized this even five years ago, but you know, the densities, the price, the performance, the reliability that we put around QLC make it a viable alternative. So I've got your report from NAND research tackling IT complexity with simplified enterprise storage.  And then TLC NAND, OLTP, right, is the wheelhouse, and that's the right intensive workloads. And what I'm hearing from you is that flash is expanding its total available market, if you will, in terms of use cases. And that's a function of economics. Is that correct? And also the tech itself? Economics and capability, yes. So the price of NAND is, for some capacities, has already crossed over that of hard disk drives. And we can see a point in time where at the same capacity point, the NAND will be as cheap or cheaper than spending hard drives. And the other thing to think about when you think about the economics of flash storage is it's not just the acquisition cost, it's also the operational cost. Flash, when it's not serving data, doesn't consume power or it's so minuscule that it doesn't count, right? And the same can't be true of hard drives. So it's an economic point, but it's also a technology point. When we look at technologies like QLC flash, right, it arrived a little bit of baggage. They said, QLC doesn't have the endurance, doesn't have all of these things that the TLC, which is the high performance flash does have. And some storage vendors have taken some innovative approaches and said, well, we can engineer around that. And we're seeing that. If you look at pure storage in their E-Series, flash array and flash blade, which uses QLC NAND, right? They've put a lot of software engineering on top of the QLC to solve kind of the things that gave QLC a sketchy reputation to begin with. So it's proven itself as enterprise class, right? We've all been shipping QLC now for enough time where we can trust it as an industry. So it's both technology and economics and they're converging at this point. Right, thank you for that. So in your report, we have this, I want to talk about sustainability. You've got this stat data centers account for about one to 2% of global energy consumption with storage accounting for about 25% of data center usage. And most of that storage consumption of energy is from spinning disk. When you're moving disks around, you're obviously using more energy. So how does flash sort of address that problem and where do you see that headed? Well, flash is a semiconductor. So it consumes energy, but a minuscule amount relative to something mechanical. If you look inside your hard drive, you have a motor in every one of these hard drives that's spinning at 7,500 or 10,000 rotations per minute. So those things are consuming power. Even at idle, right? A hard drive doesn't completely stop. So from a sustainability perspective, right? There's no question that flash is more sustainable. I mean, just in terms of raw electric usage, we can measure this, we can look at this. So there's that, there's also the, not just the power consumed, but the heat generated. Flash doesn't generate the heat that a mechanical hard drive does. So if I'm looking at a data center scale, right? There's less that I have to heat and cool. So there's a little bit of a ripple effect. And then kind of thirdly is the density story. I can pack a whole lot more bytes into a flash array than I can a hard drive based array, just in terms of the physical footprint, which again comes to the environmental impact inside the data center. I don't have to heat it. I don't have to cool it. I don't have to have as many racks. So it's just an overall better story. Yeah, these are key points.  So whatever we can do to sort of attack even at 25%, because it feels like from an economic standpoint, you're really starting to, like you said, this is now the next wave. So it's sort of a no-brainer to sort of point flash at that problem. And then I'm sure there are many folks, smart people working on the heat of the CPU and the GPU and liquid cooling and the like, but it seems like flash as a replacement for spinning disk is imminent, at least in a lot of use cases. I think it's inevitable. And nobody's going to go in and wholesale rip out all of their existing drives, right? We're following the replacement cycle. So the hard drive based arrays that are being sold today, those will be replaced by flash in five years, right? And I think post, we're already in the kind of gray area now where if I'm looking in near line storage, things that's relatively hot and accessed, I'm going to consider QLC, right? I'm going to make that, I'm going to do that math and make that choice, whether I go hard drive and flash, right? It's not a choice that I would have made three or five years ago even, right? For a lot of these workloads, but I think by the end of the decade, right? If the trends hold, all new green field, right? With maybe a few exceptions is going to be flashed towards. So Pure has, Pure was always trying to be the first at. They were like the first with the evergreen model. They were the first, I think the first company to actually partner with NVIDIA as I recall. And so you've got a chart in here that shows improvement curves, capacity and over time, HDDs, SSDs, and then you've got a curve on Pure, which is much steeper. Why is it the Pure is able to do that? How are they doing in the market? Where do they fit? What's your perspective on Pure? So Pure is an interesting one. If you look at the OEMs that sell storage today, most of them have a legacy business, right? If you look at Dell, right? They consume DMC. They already had a storage business. They've got, I don't know how many product lines that are all kind of running a little bit different. They can sell you storage for whatever application you want, but it's a little disjointed. And when I'm looking at where do I evolve my product line if I'm a Dell or an HPE or a Lenovo, I have to take into account all this legacy stuff. What I like about Pure is, they have a few models, but at the end of the day, they really have one set of technologies. They have one operating experience. And I don't know that any other storage vendor can say that, certainly not a tier one storage vendor. So they've taken that and they started with a philosophy and their philosophy wasn't about, let's push flash into the market. I think they said, flash solves a real problem and we can use that as a lever to simplify the experience. And I think for as long as I've been watching Pure for a decade plus now, it's all been about simplifying. It's not just simplifying flash storage, it's simplifying the whole storage experience. So where I'm a fan of Pure is how they apply that philosophy of simplification to everything, whether it's consumption based, whether it's even procurement. There's a reason that Pure is probably the only storage company I think that publishes their MPS score, which is in the 80s. And that's insane for an infrastructure company. But it's because it's in their DNA to provide a simplified experience. And again, it comes back to where we started the conversation, IT is complex, right? And IT guy, man, he struggles every day. Anything you can do to solve this problem is gonna resonate and it's gonna be goodness. And that's where Pure's focused. And it's less about the technology and more about the approach, right? Well, that MPS score, off the shelf, I'm just looking that up, that's insane, is right. I think they're, I just Googled it. Pure is an MPS score of 86. And Apple, Apple's in the 70s, I think. That's unbelievable. So, and you're right. I mean, Pure has always been focused on simplicity. Storage, as you well know, you've been in the business as of I for a while. Storage, simple was never how you described storage back in the day. So, Steve, it was great having you on. Congratulations on your one year anniversary. I really appreciate you sharing the results of your perspective and research. No, thank you, Dave. It's good to see you always. All right, cheers. And thank you for watching the next generation of storage made possible by Pure. Now, to learn more, please check out the resources tab and the links in the description of this video. Bye for now.


ومصادرات ومصادرات في سيريا وإراغ. نحن سنتحدث مع المجردين here. س. صالح حسين، هدف الحكمة، دايلاق وكوبراريشن سنتر، جول ريبرن، دبيوتي أسيسن سكرترين ومدينة سيريا، غسان حسباني، دبيوتي برميناستر لبنان، ألاب الجاني، أسيسن سكرترين ومجردين، ولينا أليمي، أسيسن سكرترين ومدينة سيريا وإراغ. سأبدأ my question with you س. صالح الحكيم، your Eminence. What comes first? Reconciliation or reconstruction in these countries that have witnessed destruction especially Syria and Iraq. And the name of God most merciful most compassionate is now me first to express my heartfelt thanks to Al Arabiya and to all the media efforts covering this forum. We can see the efforts deployed in the coverage of this forum which is being held at a pivotal point in time and in a country as esteemed as Jordan. Once again I reiterate my thanks and let me tell you that we cannot have reconstruction without having community stability and peace. And to have that we need to have convictions where the community and the whole of society would feel the need to have coexistence and that the interest of the people lies in peace lies in cooperation. Cooperation must be based on the joint interests the common interests without this type of stability and peace we cannot have reconstruction. In fact peace is the first step to the building of spirits. In the Holy Quran there is a verse that states what means who believe enter into peace do not follow the steps of the devil meaning if we leave the state of peace even if it's a minority of you you will be entrapped with the devil or by the devil in the form of wars and destruction. So peace in the community is the basis of reconstruction but this did not happen in Iraq because after 2003 the war in Mosul ended in 2017 and up until now we still do not have true reconciliation in Iraq right? Yes that is true. Reconciliation is an ideology it must start from within and to make reconciliation we need to have politics and facing this manufacturing of peace we have the manufacturing of hatred and whenever society and the community insists on living on coexistence on tolerance and acceptance of others and this is what happened after our young people liberated Iraq from ISIS or Daesh they became convinced everyone all Iraq is became convinced that they have common interest and this is why now we have grown to be optimistic about this new phase which could be the true starting point of a true reconciliation Mr. Hasbani Lebanon went through a 15 year war which ended a long time ago Reconstruction took place and up until now no one apologized to anyone else and we still do not have any reconciliation so can we say that Lebanon could also be on the verge of a civil war which has or whose wounds have not healed? Well this does not happen in a certain point of time Reconciliation happens as a process it has to go through different stages it may require a generation a full generation of citizens for reconciliation to be fully achieved and reconciliation should happen at several levels because the problems that took place in the war are multi-dimensional it's not only sectarian it's not only partisan it's not only political or with external or internal ties in the previous civil war in Lebanon or in any other war reconciliation has to be a long term process that requires human, intellectual and cultural efforts also efforts at the procedural level because in reconciliation we need to have documentation we need to have agreements that are executed and implemented so that reconciliation is fully completed so you asked me a question yes if Lebanon is in danger Lebanon has many dangers but throughout its history it was able to overcome them one way or another when it was able to face these threats with all of its components and when we agreed on the main dossiers among all the Lebanese actors so do the Lebanese have reconciliation? yes but not according to what we understand of reconciliation the main challenge is how to build institutions to deeply concretize this reconciliation and to step up towards joint action to build the economy and the nation so reconciliation in itself is not sufficient it needs to be followed by practical steps such as documenting the reconciliation promoting it, enhancing it and working on building institutions that would guarantee and preserve the results of this reconciliation in order to build a state Mr. Bajani you are an investor and the head of Al-Futame Holding do you invest in a country which is economically promising but which did not have any national political reconciliation? thank you Rima as you know it is very difficult for any human being to look at a certain reality and be hesitant same thing goes for investment, for reconstruction for the natural cycle of life they cannot wait for any other procedure we could have reconciliation we could have certain procedures that are necessary but there are needs and there are opportunities that need to be used especially by the private sector first Al-Futame Holding is truly committed to the region and our presence in the region is essential for us we try to contribute to stability through creating jobs to having economic growth and investment when we take this into account and when we view reality we can see that there are some countries in the region that have some drawbacks or have certain situations that impeded their progress and development so we try to find investment opportunities and economic opportunities to be available regardless of anything else but here we are talking about two countries Iraq and Syria these two countries suffer from wars do they need to have security stability and reconstruction so you can invest or would you invest whenever you find an opportunity where there is some kind of political calm of course security stability is important but political stability is something else it can be discussed but for security this is necessary we cannot invest in a country which doesn't have a rule of law where we have a different law that is implemented or else investment would be difficult look at all countries that have gone through these challenges you see that internal and external investments are not available they cannot happen so that's very clear I English if that suits you so probably Americans have said it over the past weeks mission is accomplished in Syria that's not what we've said what we have said is that the US-led coalition along with our local partners including the Syrian Democratic Forces have been successful at destroying the physical caliphate of Daesh but we haven't said that that's the end of the story with respect to Daesh and there's a further phase to the campaign against Daesh that has to take place have to keep the pressure against Daesh so that they can't reconstitute themselves and present a new threat there has to be a stabilization phase for the territories that have been liberated from Daesh so that those local communities can be inoculated against the threat of Daesh coming back that means addressing grievances but that means also creating a secure environment where people can pursue livelihoods and so on at the same time that there is continued military pressure of a different kind it looks much more like law enforcement to keep pressure on the clandestine networks of Daesh they've ceased to be a caliphate they have reverted and they already had plans to try to revert to being a clandestine terrorist network that could still pose a threat and also an insurgency that could pose a threat against local authorities so we don't say the job is done we say a lot of progress has been made if you think about the way the situation looked at the beginning of 2017 when you had Daesh still in control of one of the great Arab cities Mosul and Arab capitals and in control of Raqqa and a great deal of eastern Syria I think to imagine that just two years later that that caliphate would be physically destroyed that was something that no one expected at the time two years after the fall the finishing off of ISIS in Mosul Mosul is even worse than what it was and I bet you in two years, three years Raqqa won't look much different why isn't the US involved in the reconciliation process but only the battles and the fighting of ISIS only well I'd say that we are involved in the reconciliation process first of all the difference as I see it the difference between sides in the Syrian conflict is not between regime opposition or Iranians and those who oppose them Russia etc the difference in the Syrian conflict is between those who believe that their aims can be achieved through a military solution and those who believe that there can only be a political solution to the Syrian conflict the United States is firmly on the side of the belief that this conflict has to be solved politically there is no military solution that's coming none of the parties to this conflict can get to their end goal through military means after more than eight years of conflict that reality should have sunk in by now unfortunately there are still those in the Assad regime first and foremost among them who are pursuing a military solution to this conflict that is just making peace further and further away there will be no military into the conflict because the causes of the conflict were political they were political and social that means that they require political and social solution you can't paper over those or you can't military over those let's say with a military solution and think that you've addressed the root causes of the conflict so you still say Assad must go we don't say that what we say is that there has to be a political settlement to the conflict there has to be a political process that has the buy-in of all the parties in order for there to be a sustainable solution and we also think that at the end of that political process there should be a government in Syria that behaves differently towards its people and behaves differently in the region so that it ceases to be hostile to its people fundamentally and that it ceases to be hostile to its neighbors fundamentally and that's the only way to get to a sustainable peace in Syria this is our laimi when we speak about ISIS when we speak about Mosul when we speak about Syria territories that were under ISIS we see a lot of youth involved in those battles how are they able to reconcile themselves they're either gone to prison or they're just roaming around because someone is going to arrest them when we talk about reconciliation it seems to happen between political parties whereby we're dealing with militias and paramilitary forces that the world is getting used to how do these young people reconcile so I mean just building on the comment that was just made one of the most memorable conversations I had in 2011 was with the Desmond Tutu Foundation and they were saying how they regretted waving so long to focus on development and actually involving civil society while they were fighting for a political solution because it meant that even after apartheid generations are still going through the same broken systems and this is what we're seeing today you can remove a leader you can change a policy you can end a war but what happens the next day all the societal conditions the economic inequalities the racial tensions they're still very much there and they can take generations to overcome so actually with youth what we need to do is peace and reconciliation is not the absence of conflict or war or humanitarian atrocities if we want to look at a more ambitious vision of peace which is a positive state of flourishing acceptance equity equality that needs to be built before we actually reach conflict we need to be peace building rather than looking at conflict and reconciliation as a point of departure a lot of these youth are not joining extremist movements for ideological reasons they're joining because of unemployment they're joining because they can't afford to get married they're joining because they were politically marginalized all of these reasons don't all of these grievances are actually made worse by military intervention and we can't if we expect them to reconnect with their humanity we can't dehumanize them as violent extremists actually don't experience things like empathy because a lot of them join extremist movements because they're empathetic so we don't put them in prisons no I didn't say that so being empathetic or compassionate it's not as soft oh we should just love them and not put them in prison or bring them to justice relax we need to bring them to justice but the intention shouldn't be punitive it needs to be that we are helping to rehabilitate them and protect them even when they're acting not in their own self-interest yes your eminence Lena spoke about the reasons of war and Mr. Rayburn was saying that the solution in Syria must be political Iraq did not have any sectarian strife in the last few years but only after 2003 that this has changed so is political reconciliation in the hand of partisan entities or political entities or clergymen because in the heart of the conflict we find a Sunni-Shia conflict or Shia-Shia or Sunni-Sunni or Christian Muslim I think ISIS kills more Sunni than Shias in some areas so it's sectarian par excellence they try to transform the conflict into a sectarian conflict but they weren't able to do so that is because the nature of the Iraqi society is double we are a tribal community and tribes themselves are or include Shias and Sunnis and the Christians are loved by everyone because they are a point of equilibrium in Iraq we never felt that we tend towards a certain entity or denomination it was a pure political conflict and not a societal conflict of course there were some messages sent by Zarqawi and others that kill more Sunnis and Shias in order to have more conflict between them the sectarian problem or the sectarian issue in Iraq was not successful although they wanted to have sectarian conflict our problem is the accumulation of a struggle of dictatorship of unemployment which made our society filled with tension and they became extremist and this needs to be treated clergymen played an important role of all faiths and they have proven not only because I am a clergyman I say that it's not paying lip service but this is a fact that the religious reference in Najaf the Sunnis, the Christians all these faith clergymen played an important role in stability and peace but they also put fire or put oil on the fire no, not from the clergymen maybe a minority or religious references they were taken advantage by the politicians the struggle in Iraq is between religious extremism which was imported or it was muggled into Iraq we never had this extremism whether among the Sunnis or the Shia there was no difference between them we had coexistence and I always say political Islam whenever we introduce religion politics it becomes like a political bazaar and it corrupts both religion and politics our Iraqi society is aware of that the Iraqi society knows that religion has its place politics has its place and they know how religion was taken advantage of by politicians and this awareness was born from the suffering I am highly optimistic by the Iraqi youth and by the Iraqi future when we say reconciliation it must start with awareness and we truly have awareness among our citizens and it was very clear when the young people of Iraq insisted on kicking out Daesh so now young people left the extremist Shia militias but they will join whom they need to begin with job opportunities they need to have paid jobs our religious reference is very clear about this we want to promote the state of law without that we cannot have reconstruction we cannot have reconciliation we need a people who understands coexistence who respects others and their opinions and citizens who have a state which is transparent which has the rule of law where everyone is under the law these are the basic points or basic foundations of the building of the Iraqi society or any society the Iraqi society has taken the right steps towards the right direction and there are even the people are demanding so the government feels under pressure to meet these demands Mr. Hasbani today while being a member of the Lebanese government you see people who are involved in the war which took place 20 or 30 years ago some of them are princes of war they have political parties and they used to be heads of militias during the war regardless of the fact whether they had reconciliation or not they are now sitting around the same table discussing government issues this happened in Iraq in Libya and perhaps it will happen in Syria will the international community today say to Bashar al-Assad let's turn the page now let us move on to solving the problems of refugees of reconstruction of ISIS to answer I am speaking on a personal status I say that every country has its own situation position and circumstances as his Eminence said if we do not have a law above everyone if we do not have regulations to control the economy the society to build the state and its institutions regardless of whether we have reconciliation at the level of the people or not we will not have sustainable stability of course if there were major crimes that were perpetrated and they need to be said to justice we can follow international or if the international community finds there is a need to follow justice they will do so and they will enter into a well known reconciliation phase after the long problems it suffered from it is on a case by case basis the only common denominator is when the state of institutions is built and when the rule of law starts after a preliminary reconciliation all reconciliation are promoted and we go towards citizenship and the issue of sectarianism and politicization is set aside and the whole community moves on to constructive competition even and not only cooperation this is promising this is beautiful to hear but in Lebanon you are the first victims of Syrian refugees or this is what the Lebanese government states in my personal opinion I believe that they are most welcome and they are at their home but the Lebanese government is suffering from this refugee status and you need a solution to achieve what you are talking about in Syria we need 10 years in this time in the meantime where will the refugees be when you talk about the return of refugees we do not target the people who suffered from the war and who came to Lebanon and who hosted by Lebanon the issue of return is for their own sake so that they can go and start with the reconstruction of their own country to go back to their own communities and to their own countries in addition to that Lebanon carries a large burden because almost 40% of the residents of Lebanon are refugees and they all came in a short period of time and this exerted great pressure on the infrastructure and social and this is why we want to collaborate with the international community so that they can return shall we return for a full end of conflict in Syria so that they return not necessarily they can return to the regions where we have minimum stability and security for them so that they can return because this also is part of promoting and enhancing security in Syria when they go back home safe and sound is to have areas that are safe for them this is the first step the second step is going back home so that they can contribute to the reconstruction and the stability of their own country and of course to contribute to the economic and social stability of Lebanon the country that has hosted them or any country that hosted refugees such as Jordan Mr. Bajani before I end up with the issue of multiple reconciliation we've heard from people among the people who took part in the government do you hold an responsibility as a private sector as businessmen as investors towards these countries the countries that are being reconstructed after a war undoubtedly from what we've heard recently that the main groundwork that led to a number of suffering in the region is the is the bad economic situation and to rate the economic situation in numerous countries in the region during the past years this led to the establishment of a groundwork and the establishment of an environment that have contributed to extremism and undoubtedly the private sector in the region which is playing a great role which can contribute in creating jobs and can also build economy is essential and primordial if we look at how the region have dealt with the private sector in general few other countries that know the value of private sector and the private sector was given the opportunities it needed we need the economic deterioration really is an incubator of extremism we cannot fight extremism without having strategic plans to build strong economies in the regions and this requires openness it requires a state of law it requires for the private sector to play a pivotal role in reconstruction in reconstructing the countries post war if we do not reach the solution we will always face problems because we will always have a fertile ground for extremism, fundamentalism and problems do you want the public sector to be part in the political decision making process because the decisions of war and peace are taken and then we ask the public sector to help you always are asked to come to the rescue you are asked for job opportunities otherwise the youth will go to extremism you are asked to reconstruct otherwise something will happen public sector yes of course I will not say the public sector is responsible in the extent that it is the party that should provide this but it is the party that is providing job opportunities to the government that are in the region there is a kind of conciliation not only be the sole source of employment for the youth the private sector has to shoulder this possibility and I doubt like it is in the west in extreme countries the public sector the private sector should be part of the political process I should take that into consideration because development is economic development the development of societies is based on economic development that allows to develop also other corners so this is why in the region we have to have more awareness on the issue we have to allow the participation of the private sector to build an effective groundwork for economic development before continuing our discussion we will take a small break and then we will continue with this panel thank you welcome back and we will continue with this panel discussion on reconciliation and reconstruction in Syria and Iraq and I will continue my talk with Mr. Rayburn before we address that question there is a question that has to be addressed before it and it has to do it also is related to the issue of the refugee problem that the gentleman will just comment if you want to solve a problem you have to address its red causes you have to treat not just the symptoms but you have to cure the disease on the refugee issue in particular so we all see that Lebanon that Jordan that Turkey are bearing disproportionate burden in hosting millions of Syrian refugees it's a situation where incredibly about half of the pre-war Syrian population no longer lives in their homes but the question the question isn't what is the process the question you have to answer first is why did they leave their homes it's not as though the weather changed these people were chased from their homes by a regime that terrorized them and hasn't stopped terrorizing them this conference today and tomorrow falls in between two really grim anniversaries one is the April 4th 2017 chemical attack against Khan Sheikhoun by the Assad regime and the other is the April 7th 2018 chemical attack against Duma again by the Assad regime not to mention the 2013 chemical attack against East Ghouta that killed over 1300 people and on and on and on the regime has not changed its hostile behavior toward its own people they chased those people out of their homes and the regime so far has shown no interest in having those people go back so it's not the refugees who are the problem for Lebanon Turkey and Jordan and others who are hosting it it's the Syrian government who are the problem and what's the US doing about that the US government was one of the first to say that there's no replacement to Assad he's going to stay there we know very well but he wanted Assad gone he would have been gone by now we didn't say that we didn't intend that either what we have said repeatedly is that it's for the Syrian people to decide their own leadership their own government through a political process that the Syrian people should own and lead that the international community can help to facilitate but that the Syrian people have to choose their own really if that process has to begin and the Assad regime has got to stop its hostile behavior its attacks against civilians its rounding up of people who disappear into their prisons because in addition to the refugees another obstacle to reconciliation and to political stability in Syria is we have the question about the fate of more than perhaps 200,000 Syrians who have disappeared into the regime's prisons but we know very well that the US has boots on the ground in Syria Turkey has boots on the ground in Syria Iran has boots on the ground boots on the ground in Syria through proxy militias and their own Russia too everyone is in Syria so the Syrian people are not left alone to decide their own fate but do I understand from your conversation is it too soon to talk about reconstruction let me put it this way what the Assad regime and its patrons Russia and Iran in particular appear to want is having been the main factor in the destruction of Syria they would like for the rest of the international community to fund the rebuilding of what they have destroyed but to do it without any political reform to address the root causes of the conflict without changing the nature of governance in Syria so that refugees will choose to go back because they feel safe in going back and without changing the participation of the people in the political system to determine their own political fate so in other words at this stage those who are talking about reconstruction 24-7 really are asking for the international community to underwrite a military solution to the conflict that is feudal because as I said before there is no military solution that can be sustainable so I think we have to be talking about a political settlement we have to be talking about a political process that can actually lead to political reconciliation in Syria and it has with it accountability for the atrocities that have gone before because people will not politically reconcile without some accountability for what has happened and they will not go home feel confident that they can go home safely if they are just facing the same killing machine when they go back so this might take another 10 years I don't know how long it would take for our part we are optimistic and we are hopeful that a political process can be underway, can begin to make progress far sooner than that in our view the conditions are there and those who want to continue on with the military solution are ignoring the reality on the ground in our view 2019 should be the year of a reality check for the parties to this conflict they should realize that they are not within reach of a military solution that will get them their aims and that this is the year to switch from the battlefield to the negotiating table and to come up with a sustainable peaceful solution this you mean Syria's I mean all parties Russians included you had a comment Ms. Alolaini yes I just wanted to go back to the role of business I think actually business has such an understated and powerful role not just in the things that you mentioned but also in instituting the values and the culture so through corporate culture through corporate policies big business can actually move society in advance of government policies so things like diversity and inclusion, values of you know tolerance, coexistence in the workplace and at the end of the day if we really think about it most of the threats the issues we face are a conflict or a crisis of values so this is where business can actually help in reconstructing these values and that societal awareness and consciousness I totally agree I mean she's absolutely right business has a big role to play and if I if I were to switch in Arabic I would say that private sector has a major role to play but also the private sector to have the ground work to be able to work we cannot ask the private companies and the private sector to work in an illegal framework and to work in the framework outside of the international community that does not allow it to work naturally in a natural ecosystem we have to have infrastructure and ground work for that and I believe to go back to our main issue reconstruction requires reconstruction of the current economies reconstruction of the legal frameworks providing of course legal security that allows businesses to work and prices to work yes businesses have a role to play they affect the development of countries on an ethical level on the level of values as well and it allows the youth to be to be safe and not to and not to drive them towards extremism but rather in businesses will help them to really to put more concentration on building the societies communities and families Your Excellency Mr Ambassador holding the Syrian regime as so responsible the Syrian regime was there before the problem before the conflict there are parties that contributed in really giving birth to this problem that really instituted chaos in our region as a whole the true solution as the real solution is in instituting a framework of peace reconciliation among the people to really rebuild solidarity among the people we believe or we feel that international community is not serious enough in fighting hatred terrorism we do not believe feel in the region that the international community is taking serious step to fight terrorism and extremism is the role of the Americans or the Iraqis and the Syrians the role of Iraq and Syria they are living in a part of the world in a region the world has a part to play in the solution and in the problem when we feel that the international community is serious when we are fighting terrorism we understand that our Iraq the problem is not only caused by the regime there are parties who have contributed in the conflict and they are still fighting in stoking problems in stoking hatred in the region since you are talking about Iraq I will take Mosul as an example and Mr. Rebern also can participate in this discussion we know war against ISIS ended in 2017 in Mosul did anything change on the ground did reconstruction take place was a building really reconstructed in Mosul one year and a half reconstruction is different than reconciliation it depends on awareness reconstruction depends on a state of law a law that is built on accountability transparency where government is accountable whose role is it is it the role of the Iraqi government or the role of the Americans or the coalition that have bombarded ISIS and that have led to destruction the role of the Iraqi government the others have to help the government the main burden is soldered by the Iraqi government our problem in Iraq requires ethics in governance which is something missing in Iraq we do not have transparency in government we have lost that reconstruction is not the work of the people it is the work of the state the state has to be a state of law so the capital can invest and can play part in reconstruction even the neighboring countries can invest if also if these countries do not want Iraq to be stable if they do not really support our reconstruction problem our main problem is from the neighboring countries I remember Prime Minister Hariri when he wanted to start reconstruction he first went to the neighboring countries he saw to what limit he is allowed to reconstruct today our problem is that the Iraqi people are understanding that there are countries who do not want Iraq to rise again Iran for example no the problem is not in one country there is a general atmosphere that is why the new steps the steps of the new government in Iraq to open and reconcile with Jordan Egypt Arab world and others finding this balance this equilibrium is really to lay the groundwork and this is what we need our problem is to have an ethical state right Russia has leveled to the ground so many cities and the Syrian regime as well but there is also a general impression that the coalition has destroyed a lot in ISIS strong health areas in Syria and in Iraq also post Saddam Hussein the main facilities that have been bombarded were not renovated by the international community that took these steps again who is going to pay the price for this reconstruction we understand that the international community is worried about worried from terrorists and ISIS and Al Qaeda but after destruction isn't there any responsibility on the same international community to rebuild those countries and cities and areas if you're talking about Syria I mean the vast majority of destruction in Syria has come in the major population centers of Syria that's been done by the Assad regime itself with the help of the Russian Air Force and with the help of Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps رقا أم بغوز don't look much better now رقا أم بغوز are an interesting problem because over 4 years or more than 3 years in رقا داش was able to turn most of رقا into one big into into one big bomb and was able to construct military defenses there and then fight from civilian areas in a way that made the fighting very very difficult and very costly so I as a former military person looking at the military problem as it unfolded in رقا and also in West Mosul in particular داش had a military plan to have those cities destroyed and to fight from civilian areas and to try to inflict as much try to provoke as much damage as possible so there's a lot of rebuilding to be done in رقا and in Mosul will the US take part in that رقا was a good example so far of getting rid of ISIS are you attributing to the rebuilding process sure the US the rebuilding I think rebuilding of رقا I've been to رقا and I've seen I think the people there are very resilient they just need the right conditions and I think the life of that city will take off it's already coming back to some degree which is a stark contrast to parts of هالب for example رحمة and همس which remain in ruins and depopulated so the conditions are quite different the conditions of Mosul are very complex the thing about Mosul I say this not as a Mosul is not something that I work on today I say this in my other life as a historian of the war in رقا we saw since 2003 Mosul changed hands I used to count I think 7 or 8 times and each time the proximate cause was a political struggle that extremists on both sides were able to hijack and turn into a conflict among different communities so as I look at Mosul out of the corner of my eye from Syria that would be the thing that I'd worry about first is that the community has to come together the fabric of the community has to come together or else you'll see it change hands again and again I want to come back to you and talk about the Caesar Act that probably stops anyone from rebuilding anything in Syria or around it but I want to go first to Mr. حسباني what is the recipe for reconstruction will the Lebanese have the opportunity to reconstruct Syria knowing that Caesar Act is a draft law in the US Congress that does not allow to give money to the Syrian regime currently the major opportunity in Lebanon is to reconstruct the Lebanese infrastructure to stabilize the Lebanese economy the infrastructure in Lebanon that was really affected by the crisis in the region talking about reconstruction in Syria is still early before having as we've said before having final solutions to the situation in Syria which allows the institution or the establishment of a permanent framework for reconstruction we have to look always at reconstruction they are not packs or packages of assistance that come without conditions just to reconstruct buildings facilities and infrastructure if we do not have a comprehensive reconstruction and rehabilitation of governance and of control systems of the solutions in order to manage the reconstruction if reconstruction is only an alternative for really rebuilding government this reconstruction might not be sustainable and which will lead to great burdens on the government from loans and other financial burdens on the long term because reconstruction is not sustainable without institutions so the main condition for success for reconstruction to any country post war post conflict is to rehabilitate reconstruct state establishment state administrations state legislations and use them in the reconstruction process in instability this way reconstruction will be sustainable will lead to a sustainable economic process that will allow sustainable investment without really having to recur to loans and this is we are speaking about experience in Lebanon after the war because reconciliation is the basis on which these state institutions will be built and accordingly we will be able to reconstruct facilities institutions infrastructure alternative the procedures and state of law the GDP in the region compared to the US is very low why are we optimistic when we are listening to all of this discussion that is not encouraging it is very low even if we compare it to the world the world the GDP of the world is around 88 trillion US dollars and this region only has 3 trillion in GDP yes the challenge is big but the opportunities are bigger yes it is true from what we are listening that we are living in a very difficult environment neighboring countries benefits interests but if I want to talk again about businesses if we look at the countries as a business all businesses have competitions we cannot think that our competitors that will help us we have to shoulder our responsibilities the Arab youth the Arab region needs development needs job opportunities it is not a matter of talking of thinking of waiting of reconciliating not reconciliating because really reality is ahead of us today are you ready to invest in Libya in Iraq in Syria listen we are committed to the region but we invest pragmatically yes investment should be according to what reason requires state law and international law that facilitates that procedures for investment to be there there is a saying that says that capital is a coward no that capital is rationalistic pragmatic I hope everyone will follow this rationale just to give you an example when when when open a shopping mall in for example Lebanon or Syria how many opportunities you will provide wherever we are we are in Lebanon if I give you Lebanon as an example that we have opened in Lebanon really created thousands of job opportunities 4,000 to 5,000 job opportunities also created more than 10,000 job opportunities or employment for example market thousands of job opportunities these projects are mega projects and really create sustainable job opportunities and allow the businesses to grow and allow certain people to develop et cetera so this is how we can build a serious economy but this cannot take place if we do not have a set of law if we do not have the correct groundwork big investors like Fatim think about Syria with Caesar Act coming well Caesar Act hasn't come yet from congress but our administration supports it fully and we hope to see it come because we see the situation I would turn the situation that you presented on its head which is that we think the Caesar Act which is an instrument of accountability for atrocities that have taken place in Syria that measures like the Caesar Act are necessary to get to that accountability that is essential for political reconciliation which is the only thing that can make reconstruction or outside investment sustainable if you do this without if you seek investment or reconstruction without reconciliation without the political reconciliation which is why it's very wise that this session is called reconciliation and reconstruction because they go hand in hand if you're reconstruct under those conditions without reconciliation you're building on sand because whatever you construct is going to be destroyed again because you haven't addressed the causes of the conflict I'll give you the final word especially that you have a book that's called Compassionate Counter Terrorism so actually what really worries me getting locked into this cycle of endless reconstruction is there is a القاعد a legacy document a manifesto called the management of savagery ادارة التوحش and it outlines in prescriptive detail how their strategy is to polarize to cause chaos, destruction to overextend predominately the US and they have succeeded so they see it as this is how the Soviet Union imploded and so the same can be argued this is their strategy with Arab governments and we are feeding into this strategy so that's really what keeps me up at night I would like to be just in brief there is an interconnected world today we have to find a human cooperation a human partnership that believes that humanity is one family without this feeling we will remain disconnected and not connected I would like to thank my speakers my panelists and I always remind you that wars end and cities flourish again but who lost a father a mother a family a child nothing can really compensate thank you


Dear students, in this module, we are going to discuss religion and society from three major perspectives point of view. Functialist perspective views religion as a social institution that helps to maintain social order and social cohesion in society. Functialists chonke iss chees ke upe belief rakti hain ke whatever or whatever institution exist in society, exist because of its functional nature, aur us object ka ya us institution ka main maksat hota hain, wo muashre ke andar amnua man ki surat-e-haal ko barkara rakhna hota hain. To iss hi tara se religion hain, iss ka bhi wo important function yeh dekhne hain ke religion se we hain social order ko maintain rakhsekhne hain aur logo ke dramean wo yagangat aur humangi ka ek taluk banane mein help karta hain. On the other hand, conflict perspective views religion as a tool used by the dominant groups to maintain their power and control over subordinate groups. To jab hum conflict perspective ki baat karte hain to chonke yeh her chees ko critical point of view se dekhte hain aur inke khyaal mein, her society mein ya her institution ke andar ek continuous tension yeh tussle hoti hain doh groups ke dramean power ki khater aur resources ki khater. To iss hi wajah se religion ko bhi yeh ek tool ke tara pe dekhte hain saa ke ek group dominating position ke upara hota hain wo dominated group ko ya subordinate group ko iss mazab ko use karte huye as a weapon ya as a tool use karte huye un ko us subordinate position ke upara berkara rakhsekh.  Aur yeh humani takdeer ya kismat ka hissa hain.  Then we have interactionist perspective which focuses on how individuals interact with religion and how religion shapes their beliefs and behavior.  To religion ya religious beliefs bhi jo hain yeh bhi socially constructed hota hain aur social construction of reality ke andar jo ahem role hota hain wo humare ini communication patterns ka hota hain. Pakistan ke andar majod jo humara predominant religion hain Islam wo usko agar humin tino perspectives ke point of view se dekhain. To functionalist ke point of view se yeh hain ke annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, jisko hum Haj bhi kayaate hain, is considered an important religious obligation in Pakistan and serves as a way of bringing together people from different parts of the country. To chonke yeh kayaate hain ke it's a whatever existence society exists because of its functional nature to Haj ka bhi ek boht important function hain aur Haj ki wajah se log jo hain wo social cohesion ke andar hain ek dosre ke saad bhai chare ke andar hain aur is tara se group behavior me jo hain unka cooperation berkarar rahata hain. Conflict perspective se agar dekhain to jo ongoing sectarian violence hai Shia Sunni ke dharmean aur is tara se aur baaki grohon ke dharmean to wo isko is sandal se dekhain ke mazhab ko jo hain wo humesha exploit kayaate hain, use kayaate hain as a tool ta ke logon ko joh hai subjugate rakh hain sa ke unko exploit kayaate hain sa ke political purposes ke liye. Isi tara se agar hum symbolic interactionist ki baat karein to wo kayaate hain ke iske andar majo different jo rituals hai, jo rasumat hai, jo religious practices hai wo unki madad se hum asal me apne zingi ke rose mera jo okaat hai, ye apne zingi ke rose mera avamil jo hain, unki andar unka istimaal karte huye hum apne interactional patterns develop karte hain. Aur yahi interactional patterns jo hain wo symbolikali humaari different religious practices ke andar reflect hota hain. To it's very important to see ke it's a food for thought for you as well ke ye dekhah jaya ke Pakistan ke andar jo mazhabi aqaite hain unki religious practices hain wo kis tara se reflect hota hain aur unki kya symbolic value utility ya significance hai aur khas toh pe hum dekhain ke masjid ka jo ek mahal hota hain uske andar kaun kaun si ase symbolic values hoti hain jinn ke zariye mazhabi aqaite jo hain wo symbolikali interactional point of view se jo hain wo ek dosre ko naa sehruf communicate ho rahe hote, balki uske zariye jo hain wo hum ek kisam ka spiritual experience bhi gain kar rahe hota hain. So it's a food for thought for you to have an observation, a deep observation from symbolic interactionist point of view when you go into the mosque.


In February of this year, we announced the funding of a new independent research institute that would be based in Berlin and dedicated to the exploring of the impact of the internet on society and I'm thrilled today to welcome you and you've already been welcomed but to add my welcome to the institute's official opening. 14 year old son actually asked when we said when we talked about, you know, Google and the impact how actually did you Google before the internet was there? It became very fascinated with what was happening on the internet at that time in 2004 with citizen journalism and blogging really emerging and having real impact challenging both conventional media and governments and you know, sort of political power and so on and I was very interested to follow that more particularly on the international side and I had spent a lot of time in China so I was very interested to see what was happening with the internet in China. Let me translate this from German. What if the audience would become a player? That's what's happening potentially now but it's also something that does not have to happen. Now, we might be happy in our wall guards, Disney lands or whatever and we might be willing to not fight for the audience to be a player.


I am here with identical twins. This is all to see if we really do think alike turn around three two one All right show each other So I want you to draw a circle, but I want you guys to try to do the same exact sized circle No No, you got it.  What day exactly were you born go summer 29? What year? 1998 okay 13 minutes apart, right? I have a question for you though. Why are you still in this video? Get out Oh my god, I gotta go behind the camera again Vacation down here, so we're super excited and you guys really really loved the last twin solopathy video this time We're gonna do a part to we're gonna do a bunch of new things So make sure you guys are watching this video all the way through if you did not see the last video though They got so many different things, right? It was insane. I just want to let you guys know We didn't have no idea like what we're doing where this is all to see if we really do think alike So make sure you guys give this video a big thumbs up and let's get right on Let's go so for this first one guys, I do you see what I have in my hand I have some chalk Meg you pick out a color first. So Mariah turn around All right now turn around don't show Mariah Mariah now you pick out Yes, now you pick out. Let's see. Oh All right show each other That's that's what it is though you have to really think so really really from now until the end of this video Really think I don't I don't yeah, I know think you like you have to put it together All right, so for this next challenge guys you over here Meg over here facing opposite directions I want you guys right now to bend down and draw a shape of your choice any shape it could be any shape It could be a circle a rectangle triangle trapezoid octagon All right turn around three two one I told you guys literally once you put your heads together the twin just go at it No, this is like it's like scary how we like we really think like when it comes to like writing stuff I don't know what I swear we did not plan this in the last challenge when you guys did the numbers You guys got every single number right so right now I want you to do the same thing turn around and I want you to write a number from 10 to 100 10 20 30 40 50 60 all the way up to 100 it could be any one of those solid 10 numbers Yeah, so you could do 60 you do 40 you can do 80 All right ready My gosh, that's pretty good though. That's honestly pretty good So for this last challenge outside over here before we move on to the next step without the chalk I want you guys to both go down and draw as many lines as you want as many as you want But you stop it whenever time you want so just draw as many lines and see if you guys draw the same amount of lines Okay, do I have a time limit or do we know just draw just stop whenever you could do two You can do 10 any any line you can Are you guys done? All right, so look Look right now Megan did it a little weird, but count how many lines my guys that's six and what did I do? Okay, that is insane did you guys hear each other when you were drawing because that was kind of loud Mariah had five and she literally almost didn't do six and then she was like I'll just do one more let's move on to the next challenge because right now you guys are tied to right and to wrong Let's go All right, so for this next challenge. They are both blindfolded. Don't ask me why Mariah she did her own blindfold I kind of did Meg's but what what are you doing, babe? She says she said it works so it works. Okay, right now. Are you ready guys? You're two for two hold up one hand on the count of three one two three No, you got it wrong You got it wrong. You guys did opposite hands. Oh my gosh. All right. All right Come on. No, you got it. You got it.  We still got a lot of challenges All right, so right now I want you guys to turn a certain way all right You can turn you could turn to face behind you can turn left you could turn right or you can stay facing You know forward all right ready on the count of three one two three go That's kind of weird. I don't know if I should hear both you lift it up That's kind of okay Would that be like I know you guys didn't turn the same way, but you kind of looked at each other They're like connecting their brains. Do we count that? I don't know that's like up in the air I'm just gonna say three to three all right All right, so for the last challenge outside because it is really really hot out today in Florida I want you guys to hold up a mount of fingers It doesn't matter if you use both hands or one hand just hold up as many fingers as you want to go Whenever you want all right Mariah has ten and Megan has six She's gonna do six Babe go with you. That's the instinct. That's the twin telepathy All right, Meg put back on your blindfold really quick now walk over to your left walk over keep going to your left Just keep going keep going all the way to your left. Just keep on going a couple more I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Let's take this challenge inside. I got a lot of stuff for you to do But let's get in the AC and see what's up All right guys so for this first challenge you have three plates. Can you show the camera what those three plates look like? So we have YouTube all right Instagram okay, so babe tell me what we're gonna do three social media platforms they have on each plate So for this first challenge, I want you to like grab your favorite social media platform It could be Instagram YouTube or tick-tock because that is the three that we have and hold it up for us on camera Are you ready in three two one hold it up? All right show each other Dang, what's your favorite? I feel like yours is tick-tock. Yeah But but she might have picked up tick-tock. That's a thing. That's some telepathy right there All right, he's mix them up right now mix full all them up because you had them in the same order and I want you guys To rearrange them in a random order. Okay random order from left to right. Okay? Are you ready?  This is your redemption right now. This is your guys's chance to take back your telepathy Yeah, man. All right And for everyone wondering if they could see each other look at this piece of cardboard is literally they can't see anything Oh, and if you're wondering we have a mirror across this whole wall we taped it off So literally they cannot see each other no matter where they are sitting in that chair There's no possible way they can see each other I want to make this as completely fair and non-cheatable as possible So are you guys ready for this first one? I want you guys to take the cans stack on top of each other and see if you get these same exact order So let's see what you do All right, I'm gonna ask is that your final choice both of you No, no, I'm just asking is that yeah. All right. Look at the colors Okay We really but then I was like yeah, I just I don't know why I didn't do it Can you guys do something for us and everyone watching right now? Can you guys both put your heads together and really dig deep for this next part of the video? All right, get your telepathy going because we want to see you win you guys took the title last video But are you gonna lose it here? No, I don't know. I don't know. All right But this is what killed us last time. I know what I'm saying drinks So put them all back down. I want you to pick up one pick up one random color You pick it. Is that it? Okay? Look No, I stopped doing what you what you think I just had a weird my heart was telling me dr. Pepper. Here's the thing I think you guys are you're thinking of what other person thinks I think the real telepathy is you just you sense it Don't pick their favorite. I sense the dr. Pepper. That's the thing. I'm telling you guys this one's a fail These are hard. All right. All right. Hey, it's fine. It's fine All right for this last one out of these three out of all three of them I want you to tip one of them upside down All right, look Yeah, we're thinking see how fast you did it you guys did it right away that that was something you guys just got to do it It's not the weird me and Megan are both over thinkers and have anxiety So, you know, we kind of relights in the videos. Yeah. All right.  Do you see it? Are you happy? All right? Let's get it dry a race for a time Because you guys killed it last time now. I don't want jinx it though. Yeah, I don't want to jinx it either I like dryer race sports a Dryer race sports. They're so cool Draw whatever you want because a twin telepathy is the best game. Okay? Okay? I don't I really don't know what both you guys are doing like dancing right singing. Please stop This is not part of the challenge All right guys, so for this first challenge, I want you okay. We're done with that. We're done with that No We're gonna do the same thing. Hey, you're just embarrassing yourself at this point All right, so we did a lot of numbers the last time we did dry raceboards We did shapes everything that you did with chalk, but we never done size So I want you to draw a circle, but I want you guys to try to do the same exact sized circle All right, so we could be giant or it could be a tiny tiny circle But let's see how close you get to drawing the same circle. Let's go. Let's see No freaking way show each other right now. Can you hold it up to the camera? Hold it up to the camera. That is exactly the same. Oh my gosh Anyone in the comments if you're hating if you think that telepathy is not a thing you are wrong that just proves it right there You could have drawn any freaking size circle ever. I know and it had to be the exact same literally looking the exact same too So that is actually I I honestly had no faith in that one. It's the dry raceboards. I don't know You it's different. It does look different. All right. I want you to pick a letter of the alphabet. Okay Okay, don't think of the last telepathy thing. I think you guys did e and f last time was really close I want you to pick a random letter and write it down All right, okay. All right show each other Oh wrong last time. So I totally understand there's literally Mariah did so basic she did her name first letter.  I'm trying don't fail us All right for this last whiteboard challenge because we still got some challenges left Something has to do with the wedding dress or maybe buying some stuff.  What are the freaking odds? I am saying that is crazy All right everyone for this next challenge as you can see they're on Pinterest right now and they got Wedding dresses up. We want to see if they have the same style in mind for wedding dresses So they're going to be scrolling through. I'm going to give you what 30 seconds to a minute To pick a wedding dress because I have a lot in mind. Let's see what they're going to pick I'm really curious to see if you guys have the same like style There is two up here that I just can't pick. Do you guys do ever talk about? I don't think you ever talked about wedding dresses either, right? No, and I don't really know I feel like Megan's style is a lot different than mine. I don't know So it's like hard just whatever you think use your telepathy There's two dresses that I would totally wear for my wedding and I don't know so pick one of them Because that could be one that mariah is picking right now. You never know I just don't see I don't can't see the front of the dress and I like the front of this dress All right. I have this one. I have mine. Is that like my first sure dress? This isn't a dress that I would even try stuff on but like this is a pretty dress Both of you guys picked a pretty dress. It's not your first sure dress Yeah, and I have no idea what it looks like because I'm obviously not on the phone right now Everyone watching the screen recording. Can you turn the phone to the camera so I can see? Oh, wait, that's similar. Show each other. I think that is I know it's like the flora. This was the one I was gonna pick. Oh, so it's a lot more so it's similar But no, no, no, but that's a poofy one Mariah's is poofy, but I think you guys here go back to the other one I like the style how like how like what my no that it's like clear and that was clear and has like flowers, right? Yeah, that is okay. I see that Hey Top of this one. Yeah, I think you guys I think you guys pick pretty close. That was good All right, everyone, this is the last one. This is your last chance to get this right You guys are now looking for wedding rings. We're gonna see if we have the same ring Let's see. I'm very curious to see if you guys actually like have the same style I went wedding ring shopping with mariah, and I know her style. I know which one she's gonna be looking for Let's see if mega has the same one. Meg. Do you have anything in mind? Or are you just like? I know what kind of ring that I wait, so you've looked at rings before. Yes Uh-oh Uh-oh, she might be hinted something to Jordan I have mine too. It's a video. It's a video. Oh wait. What about us to see exact same one? Dude got it. Okay. If it actually is I don't I don't know what you guys are looking at. Can you show me first? Show me. Okay. Those are no, they're not the same video, but I think they're pretty close Is that close? That is that is like almost there. No, they're both. They're both rectangles Yeah, wait, but does there does you have a halo? We live rectangular square. Oh, okay guys. That is insane. Is that I think that's it Guys comment down below how you guys think we did I think we got a lot right and as you guys saw when we did like the drinks We filled this again Like it was like a common thing that we keep failing at those types of challenges But there are so many crazy things that we wouldn't have got like you wouldn't have gotten right if it wasn't your twin You know what I mean? And you guys literally killed it. Shout out to you guys. Thank you so much for having your twin sister on here Guys, I hope you enjoyed this video I just wanted to leave guys, she leaves on sunday and you guys are seeing this video. So when you guys are seeing this video Oh my god, you guys see this video? She left She's gone and she's never coming back. You're gonna look at the little chalk outside and you'll be like, oh I'm gonna stop right here. I don't want you to leave.  You're trying to cry Yeah, I don't want you to leave. It's okay. Oh my god.  I want to start following my eyes Are you good? No, are you okay? No, I'm not good.  They're gonna come back on the occasion I'm down here. It's literally just a two hour flight You're good. You're good. Come on. It's okay Baby, it's literally Thursday right here. I'm probably gonna cry too when I'm flying. Oh my god Hope you enjoyed this. Please let the tear come down my eyes. This twin telepathy part two mariah can't handle it She can't handle the part two It's okay You can rewatch this video So I hope you enjoyed this part two You guys killed it on the part one and we had to bring it back again Mariah and meg any last words before we end out this video?  What's your leaves? I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Megan, what am I doing? Any last words that you want to say in the bar's bar? Team twin is don't leave tell them to move here team twin Read hashtag team twin in the comments. We will see you guys in the next video, but until then Peace. Love you guys


Have you ever heard of marketing to people's lizard brain? It's really a thing, and you can look it up on Google, reptilian brain marketing or neuro marketing. Yes, businesses are learning how to manipulate other human beings by knowing what triggers them to buy. Now, years ago I used to be learning from these kinds of experts and using lizard brain marketing. And here's the thing, here's the dangerous part of it, is that it works. Lizard brain marketing will get you more sales in shorter time.  Because it took me about three years to realize that I was building an audience that was more and more impatient about with me and with products and with my industry. And also I was drawing people to me that were more likely to be more desperate, more fearful, and just not as enjoyable to work with. Now of course there were some who were enjoyable to work with. But the majority of my audience I was drawing at that time was not people that I would consider to be kindred spirits, to be really of like heart. So I stopped doing reptilian brain marketing, which unfortunately is most of the marketing training that we see out there. Now what is reptilian brain marketing? It's basically going for people's fear, people's impatience, people's greed. It's the fear of missing out. It's the wanting to be in the tribe. And if you're not in the tribe, then you're missing. You're going to be alone, et cetera, et cetera. All the things that make us worse human beings is what marketers are trying to trigger within us. So that we'll buy their product or join their program or use their service so that we will no longer be lonely, sad, fearful, anxious, whatever. And there are of course wonderful services that help us with our negative states. But when we market to those negative states, we create an audience that is more impatient and more negative. And we end up drawing a community that we don't actually want to hang around. I had to learn that by experience. So basically three years into doing this, I broke down. I could no longer run my business because I was like, okay, I'm just stoking people's fear. And I'm drawing the people that I don't want. I'm drawing people in that are not my, you know, heart-based people. So I changed my ways and I said, I'm going to only do marketing to people's higher selves from now on. I'm going to market the people's spirit from now on rather than their baser instincts. So instead of, you know, going for their fear, I go for their love, their love of taking care of themselves, their love of taking care of others. I go for their inspiration to become the best that they can be. And I noticed that as I start doing higher self-marketing, I start drawing to people, to me, that are just people that I love hanging around. And by doing that, my business becomes more enjoyable. My clients like each other better. My fans like each other better. And just there's this wonderful virtuous cycle of continual growth and continual expansion that happens when we stop using the mainstream reptilian brain marketing and start saying, you know what, even though that stuff makes me more sales in the short term, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to instead use people, you know, not use people. I'm going to instead use my higher values to reach people's higher values. So I hope this is inspiring for you. And for those of you who want a way of marketing that really feels good, give it a try. Know that you can speak from your heart to other people's hearts and that it will work. Now it won't work as quickly as stoking their fear. It will take more patience, but you will build a real audience of people who actually like each other and then really like you and you really like them. When people join my things, my community, commenters, people who are my clients, whatever, they just like, George, you attract the best people. Well, it's because I speak to the parts of themselves that they are proud of and the parts that they're aspiring to. So long story short, we can ignore the teachings about reptilian brain, lizard brain stuff, short term marketing, fear based tactics, and we can dive into heart based, truly heart based. Now, by the way, there are a lot of people saying heart based, who are just using those words and still doing fear based marketing. But we can truly say, how can I inspire others to take care of themselves and to take care of each other and to take care of the world and to be patient with their timeline and process rather than always making them feel fearful that they should join something and if they'll be missing out, they don't. Now, there are still deadlines. We can use deadlines, but there are authentic deadlines instead of scarcity driven fear based deadlines. If you want more, this video is going a little bit long, but you can Google authentic deadlines and my name and there's an article that you can read about authentic deadlines if you want to. Anyway, I hope this is helpful. My name is George Kow. I love talking about authentic marketing, doing business from a place that we can really be proud of, from a place that we can really sustain. And thanks for joining me for this video. I'll see you in the next video. Take care.


I am certain that we are here this afternoon as a result of a voice note which no pun intended but has been blazing up over social media. You would recall at the last parliament session last week I read a statement given what was a summary of the various consultations that were held with various agencies by the commission that had been set up to look into the whole cannabis subject. In that statement I also indicated that I would have been going to cabinet for a decision on the way forward. But yesterday's cabinet meeting there was consensus with regards to one, authorizing the Ministry of Commerce and the Attorney General Chambers to draft the legislative and regulatory framework to assist in the implementation of a cannabis industry. That also included looking at personal use, religious use and medicinal use. We also included in that for us to look at scientific research and also to set up a sort of a licensed regime to govern the industry. The commission was also given for us to look into the expunge of records of people who had been incarcerated charged with amounts less than 30 grams without having a violent attachment to it. So this is what that was actually authorized by cabinet yesterday. I spoke to Mr. De Carius this morning as a member of the commission and also we would know him as a member of the Cannabis Commission as well because he was one of the people who had been pursuing what was cabinet's decision and I indicated to him exactly what I have stated this morning. I can appreciate that Mr. De Carius in all of his exuberance because Mr. De Carius has been one who has been at the helm of fighting for a different outlook on the whole cannabis industry for many years. I think over 20 years he has been at the forefront and I guess he jumped ahead and shared information with his colleagues and I noted in the voice note that he spoke to full legalization. I have since called on Mr. De Carius and said I never indicated to you full legalization exactly what I have said to you this morning was the scope of our discussion. So this is where we are. We would all be familiar that when a matter is sent to the AG's chambers what comes out is a sort of a draft framework. That draft framework would not only be reviewed by, well subsequently it will come to cabinet but it will have to be reviewed by various agencies for example the Bar Association and other agencies who put in in terms of reviewing these things and giving us their feedback and then we go to cabinet with that final decision and cabinet also reviews the draft legislation in terms of going forward to Parliament. So this is where we are and the work has just started as it relates to formalizing that framework. I'm open for any questions from the media if there's any question as it relates to a legal opinion I would lean to my legal officer in the ministry who is also a member of the Commission Mr. Dylan Norbert English who would also be able to better inform on that subject. In terms of a timeline for the drafting, how long will that take? You know I have learned that I don't give timelines because I've gotten in trouble before for giving timelines but as I said there are several countries in the Caribbean who have passed their own legislative framework in terms of dealing with that so it's not a matter of reinventing the wheel. As a government I think what will happen is we will lean on the experiences from the various jurisdictions and identify the one best suited for our country. Do we have any idea of when anything like that may actually come into place as well as the members of the cannabis movement in the Shah have been asking for kind of pausing on arresting people for non-ban and cannabis offenses. Is that anything that would actually happen in the short term? The refrain is sort of a moratorium before the actual no that has not actually been discussed it may when the AG commences his work depending on the time we recognize that we may decide to come back and make a decision on that but I will I will be out of place to give an answer to that at this point. You would all you would be familiar of the case in San Quetz where is it the last San Quota I think it was who took the the Commissioner of Police to it was it was the Commissioner of Police versus it was versus the Commissioner AG well you may be right I guess and and he actually won his case and I from from my understanding we also have two pending cases in San Lucia as it relates to to to to that as well so that would be a very interesting development in terms of you know how we move forward as well. Do you have any concerns that the police because I mean the Commissioner has indicated that they will still be carrying out a risk as usual as you know in adherence to the existing law. Marijuana is still illegal and it is still unless unless they this has gone through all the stages it is still illegal and so I would caution anybody out there with regards to you know taking the voice note or that hurdle as we as we call it to thinking that it's a it's a green light to to do as you please it is not in fact the the whole framework would also include a number of things which includes smoking in public it would also include not selling marijuana in public spaces the distance to schools in which you can actually smoke or there is a lot it's really about the whole privacy in addressing in addressing your smoking smoking cannabis. I know there's there will be also a look as it relates to the Rastafarian community and using marijuana as a sacrament and that also will be looked at in its own in its own timing and space as to how it's dealt with. With regard to the statements just made by minister I want to make it clear that there is a stark difference in the development of legislation and the development of policy and framework. We are currently at a stage of the development of policy and framework which will look at the discussions for the matters surrounding cannabis and industry in cannabis. So after you have developed a policy and a framework that goes through your consultative process you speak to your stakeholders and you determine from there how you develop your legislation for cannabis. So we are quite some some ways away from having anything on the books for cannabis. Is there and you said you're some ways away but we've seen that we've been talking about the work of the commission for quite a while we're still in the policy stages do you know when we'll graduate from the legislative stage? No we cannot say we have to wait on the AG's chambers who's assisting with the development of that framework. So what can we expect to come out of that for policy process? Well understanding as to how we will be developing our industry for cannabis we cannot see as of today that you will be able to have X amount of cannabis on your post so know that it will be legal for this purpose or that purpose that comes into your policy as you'd appreciate what a policy document is. So after a policy document has been approved then you develop your legislative framework and then your legislation. I mean let's say for the past year at least that we were close we were very close we had a white paper from the cannabis movement which morphed into a white paper handed to a third party an intermediary was per mandu to present to the government. Do you in your heart believe that the government has wasted time on this on this issue in the past year? So because I'm not sure my colleagues we felt like late last year we heard all the talks we felt like we gave us on the horizon very soon but now we're hearing we still have the consultative phase which we thought we went through already and other phases so can you do you believe that time has been wasted on this on this matter? I indicating making a statement waste of time I think is an unfair statement because we cannot rush into anything as sensitive as you know either decriminalizing legalizing cannabis industry there are a number of issues that have must be looked at foremost in all of that is the whole education that has that that we have been been addressing. In addition to that the licensing structure what what really do we want to get out of it? From an invest interest standpoint we see it as an industry okay where you can you could extract oils and process and we have we have quite a few external parties who have indicated interest in assisting in that regard so in terms of the farmers who will be the ones planting as it relates to you know what's the acreage it cannot be something that we can make a decision overnight there's I agree with you there's been a lot of information that has come to the fore but at the end of the day we have to satisfy the legal requirements in terms of pushing this agenda forward. And what sort of resistance are we getting with the consultation so far I know we have the public health groups parents the PTAs and these other has there been any resistance to decriminalization efforts? From the various reports I have received so far I think everybody is on the same page that we must have a regulated environment I don't think there are two ways about that you must have a regulated environment the concerns have been will this environment make the the the obtaining of marijuana in terms of miners using marijuana in terms of how it's going to be used generally I think these are the kind of concerns people are concerned about whether you in terms of your your your medical health bill at the end of the day will this will you see a spike in that what is in place for people who may may may may may use marijuana for the first time and develop certain psychotic responses so these are the kind of concerns that have been raised as as it relates to any environment where where you decriminalize or you legalize is the are there going to be any more town hall meetings by the commission or is that phase I think that's it that that is that is the end of the time hall meetings yes because you would appreciate there was quite a bit going around the island further to that we had the individual consultations with various groups plus we had the national consultation live via NTN so there have been quite a bit and and I think in terms of the process having been started somewhere early in 2018 former the minister of home affairs was first I'm in charge of the process then then it was passed on to to to me as the minister of invest and lucha and I think today we are we are here where we are you know as it relates to all of the various consultations and all of the conversations that have that have taken place in terms of children using the substance as it is right now they can get access to it and it's illegal when it becomes legal or if and when it becomes legal are you how can you assure parents guardians that the system will prevent them from having access to it and that is the whole thrust of of the education aspect of it as well in addition to that there's a very specific area that speaks to marijuana coming into the hands of minors not I cannot speak to you right now I don't know if you you want to speak to it but there is there is quite a bit that has been put forward by the various consultations as it relates to protecting minors did the constitutional claim put forth by anything to do with the consensus by the cabinet members no no in fact um I was only made aware of that um that um pending case this morning um but I'm aware of the the case in St. Gates I'm working at that time I'm working at that time and maybe to speak to the case and maybe president um on the point of minors um we have at the commission level had sealants in our minds throughout the process that we did not want cannabis to be in the hands of minors we do accept that currently the youth have access to cannabis but when you have a framework that that completely prohibits use of cannabis in any way it's difficult for you to say that it's prohibited entirely and it's also prohibited if you sell it to youth if you were to have a framework that either legalizes or decriminalizes then you can have penalties for persons who step beyond the legalized framework or the decriminalized framework so if you have a license for you to sell cannabis for example under a legalized or decriminalized framework and you are prohibited from selling to somebody under the age of 20 18 25 whatever age that the the unpolicy dictates then you may lose your license which would then make it difficult for you to sell to other persons so the considerations are then deeper than just breaking the law as it stands now you mean I get numerous students who somehow have access to alcohol every day well that that is an issue that we are looking at as well we had we did keep in mind that their issues with the current alcohol regime and the licensing regime I only wanted to make sure the cannabis regime did not suffer the same issues