What's up guys, it's Harry Haas here in this podcast We talk about Elon Musk and Twitter the FTX scandal as well as the overall market plus small caps these are all issues that traders should be kept up to date on if they're trading the markets daily and Paying attention so listen up.  What's going on guys We're back with another episode of the after hours podcast a lot has happened since we have recorded in the world There's been between the war continuing between Powell between Elon Musk and Sam Bankman Freed and all this shit So we're here to kind of discuss it and everything that's been happening So I guess the latest development in the economy has been that the Fed share Powell came out and basically said that he was they were Watching the idea of slowing the rate hikes coming into December They said they could yes, they said they could Which the markets reacted like super positively to I think we had like a 2% up there on the Dow Like I think it was it was markets ripped and it's been pretty good since then so Yeah, I mean, I don't I don't know. I was just saying that Harry like I have a weird feeling And I hope I'm wrong. I think that Powell has a weird relationship with like the way the stock market moves I feel like he is trying he tries constantly to calm Stocks because I think he gets pissed that like we're still printing high CPI and still like people are like super bullish on everything and like I don't think people have yet grasped that If we get a handle on on inflation like we're probably going if not already into it like a deeper recession, right? So so I don't know man. Like how do you feel about it? I mean, I think that the thing is is that I don't think that they want to risk hyperinflation I think that that is their biggest fear right now You know, if you look at any country that has just gotten super Hyperinflated Venezuela for instance or any of those countries, you know, it it does not end well So I I think just me personally I I think that they're going to just continue on with what they're doing I think they're trying to just it's just like in Canada in Canada in You know 2020 when all the COVID stuff was happening.  We're not gonna raise rates And what are they doing now raising rates raising rates raising rates? So I don't think that you can trust them at all and I think him saying well we could we might well think about it It is I guess in a sense bullish, but I don't think that that's where they're gonna go You know, I don't trust them at all. So, I mean, we'll see what happens. Yeah, I don't trust them Yeah, it's interesting like I've I've like three like little points that I've been thinking a lot about lately and You know one is I don't think Jerome Powell like if you look at Jerome Powell's like hero, it's obviously Volcker and And I think that he looks to him when in his fight against inflation And I don't think Jerome Powell wants to be the guy that lost to inflation, right? No, so I think I think if anything I don't expect him to be anything less than super aggressive and I think that's what's needed You know, like I think a lot about like the next political cycles like we have a presidential election coming up in a few years And it's already starting and you think about who's gonna be in charge of people in power Like we need people in my opinion in power that are gonna have their hands on the levers of the economy that are going to Keep us from like you said going into this hyper inflation route We're like our kids are gonna just live through a shit like like that's not what we want And if we just keep kicking the can down the road It's gonna get worse and worse and worse and especially in a country where we already can't afford our debts You know the interest payments going up and up or we can barely afford it It's almost too much for our actual like The actual amount of money that we're allowed to spend this like the our actual budget That is like a huge thing for me is that like I would rather them just crush the economy now and I kind of wish they'd just be honest about that because I think we're seeing a disconnect between billionaires like Jeff Bezos who obviously is the creator of Amazon came out and was like guys If you're thinking about buying stuff, don't do it save your cash and see what happens He was I mean like Elon Musk came out and said like we are facing a severe recession And like especially if the the Fed continues at its at space we are facing recession risk So I feel like there's this weird disconnect between the richest people who are like looking out for others I'm sorry, which is people who are looking out for others and the Fed So it's very it's very concerning to me And I do think though that they have to do it and they have to crush the economy and restart Like I I know we've talked about this idea like a great reset And like I almost feel like it's severely needed because Everything got too out of hand and now it's our time to kind of fix it and strome Powell's time to fix it a hundred percent Yeah, and I also think like there's there's a big issue With Bezos and Musk coming out and saying those things as well because it's like When did those guys ever lead us down the right path?    You know because it's like you had Bill Ackman come out on CNBC when all the COVID stocks were crashing and he's like I'm selling everything. I'm selling everything I'm selling everything sell sell sell and he was actually buying, you know, so it's like It has the crash already happened. Are these guys just coming out and scaring people, you know Like he makes a living Selling those TVs that he was talking about people not buying and selling those refrigerators and selling those this and that and the Other thing that's what's confusing.  You know are that or is this the one time in human history where they're trying to Look out for people. It's very confusing Yeah, I mean the truth is like I like to believe that nobody knows But the reality is like if you get to that level of wealth, especially through like a public company Like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos guys like that have a have a little bit more Insight into like where we're headed because they see it on a broader scale as far as like orders as far as price costs All that stuff and what it costs their business and I don't know I just I can't imagine a world where Jeff Bezos Comes out and says don't buy this don't buy that. I mean it just doesn't Make sense and like Elon Musk is very public on Twitter now about yeah, how they're pushing us into a recession if they don't hold Interest rates. I mean, I don't know I to me it's as crazy as it sounds like I'm maybe I'm Contrary in this way, but like I want them to keep going as much as it fucks up the economy Like I think people really need to wake up and I'm getting very like frustrated and set up with like the direction We're going people or we've talked to us all time people are lazy. No one wants to work You can't get people to work normal hours Businesses are closing super early. I my friend just thought he was at the airport in Florida at like eight o'clock at night All the restaurants were closed. They had no staff. That's what everyone was saying like there is some weird shit going on in the world that like I Almost feel like we need to get punished for which sounds like really dark, but like Yeah, I do we I don't I don't want to keep blaming stimulus because at some point like there wasn't that I mean, don't get me wrong as a country.  Most people I know got like Three grand or like four grand. They're not living off that four grand two years later So like we just something happened through COVID that has changed people's mindsets And they're just like barely stringing along what financially and I think it needs to get worse So people wake up like shit like I need to go back to work because as much as we want We want to think interest rates are gonna come down I think the generation at least for a long time of like free money or a zero percent interest rates Those are gone. Those are done. Yeah, if we win against inflation We're probably gonna settle in around like five percent and that's I think very positive I think that's very positive outlook that we sit at five percent and for an extended period of time And you know what that's probably what we're gonna have to live with for the long term And we have to get there sooner rather than later I suppose but again, we have to fight it. We have to keep fighting inflation So I don't know it's we're in a funky position for sure How do you how do you think that these people are like living? Like you're not going to work. They're not going to like you can't really I don't know how it works in In the the states, but you couldn't get EI at this point here in Canada Like if you were in that type of situation, so it's like where are all these people, you know It's working I Was doing a shit ton of like research into this and like also just from like knowing people So I'm 28 years old, right? So I have a lot of friends that are my age that are still living with like six people or they're living with large groups of people So their rent is very cheap. They either don't have a car They don't have a car payment because they're driving like a and this is not an offense will comment This is just noticing they drive like a really old vehicle, right? Which is not a bad thing, but they have no payment. They don't have like material things So they're living like almost a minimalistic lifestyle and they they work the bare minimum and What I've noticed is a lot of people now are like scamming systems like as a business I get old employees still trying to get unemployment through us like they're still I get it all the time We it's called unemployment insurance is like a website you log in I still get other people like writing in basically trying to claim unemployment They've worked with us for like two years or a year. So like I think there's a lot of scamming going on I think there's a lot of like, you know Yeah, there has to be because dude how how is it that there's a Dunkin Donuts right down the street from where I am and They can't get staff so they close at 2 p.m.  It's a Dunkin Donuts. How are they're not I mean either when we're at I don't know and I think I get I guess like Confused because I think I see like on tick-tock and on Instagram all these people flexing this like Lifestyle that they have and I think everybody wants it. I think that's why young kids aren't working I think young adults even yeah, even our age, dude. They think like oh I'm gonna I'm gonna Make a living on social media when really 1% of people do that and they're trying to live this dream That's not realistic like we've gotten so far from the American like dream as corny as that sounds It's fucking insane to me like no one wants to work hard No one wants to make an honest living or live within their their means at all Yeah, yeah, and one thing that I find very interesting If like we kind of like pivot towards like that kind of social media like landscape now is that if you look at the at the tick-tock now The Chinese have a different type of tick-tock right now. Yep, and it's it's all education It's all you're only allowed so much per day I believe it's 30 minutes like all you get 30 minutes on that shit and it's all like how to get better at this science experiments for kids this that whatever in Like here in Canada in the US and wherever it's Like people flying on private jets.  It's no education It's all people telling random stories or dancing or this That provides zero value in your life absolutely nothing zero value And so when you have an army of kids who are on an app created by the Chinese Okay, and they're all just wasting their time not working not doing this. It's like rotting their brains Like that is a problem, you know that needs to be fixed 100% and also you have it shaping kids political beliefs Shaping kids how they feel about certain things, you know It's it's extremely crazy to me to think that we just allow it to happen, you know Why do we get it? I might be like a super like aggressive on this stance But like I truthfully feel like kids under 18 should not be allowed social media I think it as I get older. I've realized like the harm it does to a lot of people Not saying everybody I think there's a lot of people like we grew up with like a version of Facebook or a version of Instagram, but it was nothing like it is now Yeah, I I deleted tiktok for like six months and I just downloaded it the other day out of boredom And so I've created a new account so it didn't know anything about me I know it's nice But in in that and but dude it's like the videos they show me now It's just I can see how if you're a kid or even like an immature adult how you get so sucked into this like world That's so fake and yeah politically Socially economically like they are like I don't want they're shaping us basically to fight each other like as crazy as that sounds like They're almost as making like they have two sides of tiktok when you either go the super conservative or like the super liberal And like there's nothing in between and it's just like it's very very odd, right? And like that's why I do applaud I'm I like what Elon Musk is doing with Twitter or at least what he appears to be doing I like that he wants to make a town square where people can come openly and honestly have like conversation and You know actually see like real-world people and not robots and like this Psychotic thing and like having a platform that we can call out these crazies because if you say that some of these people are and like the crazy liberal Cancel call all this crazy if you say they're anything less than crazy I just cannot understand what you're thinking is Right so that's why I like Elon as like and obviously He's on to something right because look at how many people are lining up against him now This is the man that they've called the smartest human being on the planet for years this guy. I we've heard Very into Tim Cook all these very smart people say these are smart guys calling him a genius and all of a sudden now That he's opened up a free speech platform He's like the he's the bad guy Apple's threatening to remove the app. I mean you have major companies a hundred Huge corporations pulling their advertisements from Twitter. How does that make any sense? That is scary to me That is where like we are in a weird spot with like like you said economically. We're not great socially, we're not great and We're headed in a bad a bad path Like I feel like we're headed towards like communism and like I hate to be that kind of like crazy I'm not a conspiracy theorist in the slightest, but like there's something wrong. Well, I also think that like it seems to be now like I've never like I mean if you even look at before coven like You know the Epstein situation that was going on people just didn't know about it Yeah, that whole Balenciaga situation with like the the I'm just gonna say CP and like the children and the stuff like that You know that was going on. It's just people didn't know about it, you know And now we we seem to have swung so far left that now we're going back to the middle You know and there are like crazy-ass conservative people to like Connate West praising Hitler like that's bad that Alex Jones denied the school shootings. That is bad Awful like we're not sitting here saying oh like like, you know liberals are the most evil, you know people in the world or whatever, you know Somewhere in the middle is where the truth kind of lies But like, you know, I don't think we've ever been in a situation in history where we have people who are rich coming out and just Explaining things to people who would have had no idea otherwise, you know, like yeah You had Trump when he ran against Hillary. She was like, she was like, well, you don't pay taxes He's like that makes me smart No, the Dave Chappelle skit.  It's perfect. It's right Exactly. Yeah, if anyone hasn't seen that That was really good, you know, but that exactly, you know, you had a guy who had money Coming out to the commoners if you will and saying this is how I did it This is what I did and that makes me smart because I did it and people were like, holy shit, you know He's on to something but it's just it seems to be that we're in this weird place of like They've censored so hard that there's like three or four people coming out who are really rich and and saying like, you know They're changing elections. They're changing this they're changing that here in Canada We learned like and of course they're not reporting on it because Canada is not the United States Canada is censored a lot harder And we're now learning That the Chinese government is paying politicians in Canada to vote a certain way to act a certain way To do certain things and now we're learning that they even interfered in our fucking election and the Prime Minister knew about it And what does he do he sits back and said oh, I learned about it But they said it didn't impact the election. It's like bro. That is election interference right there, you know Did you see president G? China's president you see them like absolutely like man and ultra dough.  I feel like he's like He's a look really crazy and like super far like far controlling But yeah, dude I think I realized that like 99% of people should realistically just they're better off like being almost like sheepy and like not Having access to like social media and news like if you think back to like the last like a hundred years that go back from 2000 to 19 like 1900 2000 People got their news through a newspaper or like the evening news at night like late at night, right and You always hear people talk about things were so much better back then things were so much better back then the world was so much better Right every old person says it.  Like Elon Musk just tweeted today that Twitter the company he bought had Interfered with elections, right previously. He hasn't shown proof or anything yet, but he did tweet that so obviously he has something He has no reason to not so it's like it's like I just it's hard I mean like again like we we either need someone that we can trust as a country But like you have someone like Elon coming out and praising free speech and saying that he's trying to help You have politicians coming out saying he should not be allowed to do what he's doing and again I'm not hating on them. I just want to know why they feel that way Like I would love to talk to interview someone a politician and just ask like Why are you so concerned with free with a man sticking up first for free speech? Yeah, what is the problem and like what how is that a bad thing for our country? Yeah, and I think the the problem is just that they feel that they're being threatened by it You know for so long. They had been Like you if you go out, I believe this interview was like two years ago Justin Trudeau was speaking in front of a large amount of people and He was talking about media bias and he's like, of course I don't have to worry about the media because we pay them 600 million in government contracts, right? So that obviously here we have the CBC. We don't have like CNN or anything like that. We have you know, we have the CBC or whatever and You know, they pay them. He does not get bad coverage at all You know, I'm not I would not be surprised if he won another election here because he's he's bribing his way through Yeah, but I think the minute that stops That's when you have a problem, you know, CNN if they if they weren't so Liberal or you know, some of those other ones if they weren't so this way, you know Could you imagine if you had conservative reporting all the time?  So like that's why it's like when it comes to this I hope by and if I will vote for whoever can actually come out and say They're gonna put their hands on the economy and they're gonna fix it And they're gonna make sure that as a country worth thriving for the next 50 a hundred years Because at this rate if I hear someone say Like we're gonna print more money and we're gonna do a billion other things for a billion other countries I am not voting for them. It's not it's just not happen We need someone with control and like you talk about all issues, right? Like there is a middle ground abortion There is a there are Unfortunately, nothing is black and white people need to wake up and realize that when it comes to issues in politics We need to figure out a way to come together Get the middle ground and then focus on fixing the economy and keeping us strong for the next like I said two lifetimes Yeah, and that's the problem is that let's say we had a third party in the United States. I truly believe that you know It is sad but like conservative like how many people our age are actually like conservatives like absolutely not You know, it's very low or that the wealth gap Like kind of like goes the other way like the more that the wealth gap widens, I guess is a word I was looking for The less people you're going to have vote conservative because they're looking for those handouts They don't want to work as hard, which is fine. And I mean the handouts aren't really that much like You know, like you're not really getting that much like You know like but still it's just they've I think those people have always been taught Conservatives are evil. They don't want to spend money on us. They don't want to do this They don't want to do that, but it's like we cannot afford it, you know, even here in Canada like like at least where I live We have people dying in the hospitals at least once a month twice a month three times a month You know where I live and this is not a big not a big Populated place, you know, it's not like Boston or Vancouver or a big city We have people dying and the reason for it is because or at least how I kind of see it is that Everyone after the whole vaccination thing came out and and everything like that, you know A lot of nurses never came back and I was talking to my grandparents about that and they were like, that's a good point You know a lot of the people just never went back to work again after that happened And that was the problem and you know, could you imagine if we were on this podcast like two years ago? We're like, oh, we don't want to get vaccinated like that outrage that that would bring. Yeah, and Yeah, it's crazy. There is no middle ground really. I don't think any more just because people are shown on social media all the time You know that their opinion is right and that they're validated and they keep watching and they see people with other opinion And they never actually listen to the other side, you know, I feel like we do a good job of like, you know Trying to at least understand these people not that we have the same opinion But we're like, oh, why don't you want to go back to work or oh, why don't you want to do this? Or oh, why don't you want to work as hard, you know, at least people like us will sit down and listen, but I feel like For the most part, you know It's very different like if you that like you're never gonna get any middle ground from the other side I feel like and it's very difficult for me to Like I feel like if you're let's say on the left, you know I feel like you are going to have a lot use your time talking to a conservative Then a conservative is going to have talking to a liberal because that's just how it's been like I'm not sure why but if I talk about certain issues people are like, no, no No, I'm not listening not listening plug my ears plug my ears plug my ears And I feel like that's how people were with the corruption as well, you know, maybe There are like maybe there are people who just don't want to hear about it who know that it exists Who know that it happens, but they don't want it in their face and that now that Musk is kind of showing them Like hey like look at the Epstein look at the FDX guy I mean how much political donations he also donated to the right as well, you know He just said he didn't want to disclose it however much he donated to the fuck knows because he didn't disclose it but you know look at The FDX scandal the Epstein the this the that all those things just people never knew about and If that wasn't in this day and age, I don't think people would know because Right now we just seem to be in this weird position where there are a few guys like coming out and saying hey This is happening this is going on and some people would rather not hear about it Some people would just rather work there nine to five and just never hear about it again And I think that that's you know to me. It's interesting because I'd want to know You know, I want to know if my government was corrupt I'd want to know if my neighbor down the street got you know something better because he paid this much You know, I'd want to know those things, you know, because as a country They're supposed to be working for the country and if they're getting paid, you know to give certain breaks to individuals Then that's not fair, you know, and so, you know, I'd want to know but some people I do believe just want to Do their nine to five plug their ears go on their vacation and not hear about it because for them, you know they They live this kind of you know, lifestyle that's like Insulated and they don't want to hear about anything else, you know Yeah, and I think I want to answer one of your questions of as to why the left probably has an easier time talking to Conservatives and the other way around I think that Being on the left you obviously are more focused on social issues. I don't think you're you're inept to the economy I think you still understand that like the financial world needs to exist they just want more freedom for the Underprivileged and like the middle class than the wealthy class, right? They are focused on the social issues and Equality and all that stuff Conservatives are focused on the economy and there's religion involved in a lot of their decisions They're more focused on keeping the wealth within within the wealthy It's gonna be a hard time for a rich person to say I'm going to give you money I'm gonna pay more money always it's just always gonna be hard to do that if they're talking about religion It's gonna be hard for them to say I agree with now your abortion stance, but this is my religion the reality is Most people are in the middle most people understand the economy needs to flow We're a new generation There needs to be equality there needs to be The social issues do need to be addressed and we have to find a way to meet in the middle Unfortunately, we hear the crazies on both sides We hear the major conservatives and we hear the major liberals because they're the loudest They're the ones with the biggest voices on social media tick tock everything And it's unfortunate because those are the people that get into the brains of a lot of people A lot of other citizens in this country and I think that influences them a lot Now we've unfortunately become a place where people ignore fact Like people don't want to look too much into politics They want to argue about the the loudest points, but like again like if you look into I was just reading this whole thing about how The democratic party was actually funding the campaigns and donating to the campaigns of a lot of trump's Picks for the senate or the house right in these countries. Why were they doing that? And you can look it up. I mean, I've had a lot of podcasts. This is about it too They were trying to promote these guys who were like the worst options for the republican party because they knew That their people would win in those states They wanted trumps hands all over it because it actually would help them in the in the election So like we are a corrupt in a crazy place right now and like a lot of that stuff is it's like the wild west And I think if more people more people just need to get educated on this stuff because the republican party too They're not great.  I've asked my that's my prediction That's how it feels well. Yep, and he's gonna pull all of the conservatives De santis will run he'll pull all the normal republicans and then there'll be biden or Apparently Gavin Newsom is throwing his hat in the ring.  So, you know, it's It is It is really nice. I think to have elon musk working on like I said A town square where people can actually get information like there needs to be I don't want to say an information board But like people need to be able to get actual news and actual facts I mean if you didn't go online, you wouldn't think sam bankman freed is a bad guy You wouldn't think he did anything you'd think. Oh my god.  Yeah, that that's literally how you would how you would see it right now They're making him a hero for gods. I mean kevin oliri Tweeted today. I'm I agree with bill ackman. He seems like a good kid. He was telling the truth You sam bankman forgave his parents 130 million dollars to buy property. What are you talking about?  Like people people like us.  Yeah, and his parents are compliance lawyers, right?   He had the right level of corruption He had, uh, you know this campaign of brady and all these other celebrities around him You know who are taking the fall.  He took money and the rumor was he put it in a jp morgan account It was paying people as asked for it I think this kid was just straight up gambling on the funds because really sickly if the crypto market kept ripping What would have happened? He would have been a genius. He would have been worth like 50 billion or something he would have had Everyone would have called him a hero, but you know what he gambled he yoloed He's no different than any of the small cap traders that we trade against He was just gambling funds away, you know, all it happened You're over leveraged you hear it all the time, but for some reason and I again I think it's political on both sides out each side will blame the other But I mean the fact is he donated a million dollars to mitch mcconnell. I mean this is all paper and transactions.  I mean, there's a lot of scandal and it's like it's really it's Unearthing and it's I don't love the feeling being a citizen and hearing this stuff right and like seeing it because Man, it's like you want to have faith in our government. I want to have faith I don't care who's enough who's the president.  We have a we have a lot of work to do.  How do you feel about the overall market real quick? um You know, I feel I feel like we're gonna, I mean like as funny as actually I don't really look at my 401k often I just ought to invest a lot of stuff um But I was looking today and like it's crazy how much how much of the gains and honestly like Decent year funny enough given all the turmoil and all the bullshit But I think we're gonna recover pretty much everything that we've lost I think a lot of people are gonna get bullish going into 2023 And then like I said dude once people wake up and realize that we fought inflation hard enough and when we win Because I think Jerome Powell will win. We're gonna be in a full-on recession.  And that's just my honest prediction And uh, how do you feel about small caps? Small caps. Honestly, man, I'm really happy. I I feel like um, I feel like unfortunately for longs the opportunities are still really far and few in between I feel like you really have to be a sniper. I feel like as a short if you're patient There's good opportunities because people need to know just because just because there's good shorts doesn't mean there's good longs like That's a problem. Yeah, you're not getting those like like your setup here. I feel like hasn't come around too often There's just there's kind of a lack of volume and a lack of excitement like right but like today aren't like RME details December 1st to stock like ran all pre market But I mean it really didn't go anywhere. It was like a hard long There wasn't many great opportunities to get involved Whereas the short it was kind of like the second it topped out It just kind of faded and then after hours went crazy, but that's a different story. So as a short I had a great month in November It was slow. I only placed I think like 25 total trades that include stopping out But I was really positive on the month. So and then December today started out really solid. So Yeah, I've been trading like once a while when the opportunity is there But like, you know, it feels like and I said this to my girlfriend It feels like I'm working like three out of the as far as just like Not like chilling in like the discipline workshop or anything like that, but I mean like I feel like You know, I'm actually trading it seems like three out of the five days we get Because two days are very very slow and the other three are like mediocre But I'm just surviving and kind of I feel like and I've been talking to a couple other traders I feel like for small caps we're gonna have a really good winter Um, I don't know why it's just the feeling I get that we're gonna have a really good winter We usually do I feel like this year Everyone's so fed up with like these shit moves Everyone's gonna fucking band together and we're gonna have a good winter. I think that's what's gonna happen and That's just how I kind of feel, you know, I just feel like we're gonna have a good one. I hope so I think I kind of agree. I think it's cold. I think people are back inside, especially You know the northeast and you know, people are people are gambling again Especially with even sports gambling man like people are back like just betting money And like I actually have been hearing people talk about stocks a little bit more Which is usually like that beginning sentiment that like maybe people are getting involved It's it's funny man when the world's not in turmoil Like when you're not seeing constant doom and gloom on the news The markets are doing good even small cap markets do good and like right now we see actually it's kind of positive There hasn't been that there's not that much coverage of like the war There's not that much coverage of all the bullshit and all the negatives They're trying to kind of I think promote a lot of positives So hopefully a lot of that energy does come into the small cap market Because dude 2022 was it was a tough year for a lot of people. So I hope 2023 gives us that range and opportunity Yeah, that's how I feel as well. Yeah, all right. Well good podcast bro. And uh, yeah, thanks everyone for watching And we'll see you guys for the next one


Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation and God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Good evening. Welcome to NCSSM's 36th Convocation. I have the pleasure of introducing our dignitaries this evening. Please hold your applause until everyone has been introduced. As I call your name, please stand. NCSSM Chancellor Todd Roberts, Convocation Speaker Maria Trent, Class of 1987, Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs Katie O'Connor, President of Student Government Vikram Akat, President of Student Senate Adam Schmidt, Board of Trustees members Steve Griffin, Eric Hall, Hugh Holston, Colin Larson, Tom Looney, Minnie Matau, Tom Williams, Foundation Board members Murray Aberson, Class of 1983, Brad Ives, Class of 1982, former NCSSM Chancellors John Frederick, Chuck Elber. Thank you. Good evening again to everyone. I'm Chancellor Todd Roberts, and I want to welcome you to the 36th Convocation for the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. I want to thank our distinguished guests and our faculty and staff and our students for being here this evening. And it's also wonderful to have so many of Dr. Trent's family here with us this evening. It's a pleasure for you to be here, and we're happy you made the trip with Dr. Trent.  It's also wonderful to have members of our faculty here, our Meredith faculty, two of our former heads of school, our foundation board, and our board of trustees. And students, I hope you enjoy seeing all of these people here this evening. Many have traveled from afar to be here, and appreciate the type of legacy that you're a part of and how important the school is to so many different people. I hope, students, I hope each of you has had a wonderful first day of classes and that all of you are settling in for what I'm certain is going to be a wonderful school year. We're very happy that all 680 of you are here with us. I want to take this opportunity to welcome our speaker, Dr. Maria Trent, for being here this evening. Dr. Trent is a graduate of the class of 1987, and as you will hear in a few minutes, has had a remarkable career. I believe that you will all be very interested in what she has accomplished since graduating from NCSSM. I'm so pleased each year that we start with an address from an outstanding alumnus. One of the things that I've found so special about NCSSM is the fond memories alumni have about the school and their willingness to give back to it. Whether it's through their financial support that allows us to provide you with many of the opportunities you have day in and day out over your two years at NCSSM, or whether it's by giving of their time and talent like Dr. Trent is doing tonight. Through her presence and story, she's providing you with a chance to dream about the possibilities that are yours to achieve in years ahead. To this point in your life, you've worked very hard to achieve success and lay the foundation for your future. Every student in this auditorium has a success story to tell, or you would not be here. Not all of your stories are the same. You come from all over the great state of North Carolina representing 87 of our 100 counties. And you bring with you a diversity of experiences that make you all different people. But you all share a commitment to learning, to being successful in school, and a desire to accept the greater challenge and to design your future. That's why you're all here, and that's why we are all here to help you succeed.  But I hope you're excited for what lies ahead. Seniors? Well, one thing is for sure, you're probably glad you're not juniors at this point. But I am sure you still have the same excitement for what lay ahead of you during your very busy next several months. And seniors, come May, while you'll still be glad you're not a junior at that point. I bet you'll wish you had just a little bit more time here. So with that in mind, just how fast your two years at NCSSM will go, I hope each of you makes the most of and enjoys every minute of the year ahead. So at this time, I'd like to introduce Dr. Katie O'Connor to introduce our convocation speaker. Good evening, and let me add my greetings to our special guests, our excellent faculty and staff, parents, friends of NCSSM, and to our fantastic students, the class of 2016 and class of 2017. It's my distinct pleasure to introduce our convocation speaker to you. She's a very impressive and talented person who has degrees from Yale University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, Harvard School of Public Health, and most importantly, NCSSM. On the back of your program, there's a wonderful summary you can see of our speaker. So instead of repeating those accolades tonight, I will supplement with a few numbers for you. So let's start with the number 208. 208. This is the number of invited talks and workshops she has presented or facilitated. 96. The number of junior faculty, medical residents, or research students she has mentored. 73. The number of peer-reviewed scientific articles, editorials, or book chapters she has published. 22. Although she looks 22, that's not her age. It's the number of sponsorships and grants she has completed or is actively working on for a total of over $3.5 million of funding. The number three, three treasures in her life who are sitting here in the front row. I'd like to recognize her husband, Dr. Gregory Hampton, a professor of Howard University, and her two children, Safi and Hadori, and we have a special gift for you. Thank you. You can wear these to remember the special evening honoring your mother, or each time you wear that shirt, try to talk to your parents and move back to North Carolina so you can come to NCSSM. And finally, the number one for one special memory. Our speaker told me that NCSSM was a place that encouraged her to build relationships, and she loved making friends from around North Carolina. She said NCSSM was a wonderful experience for her because of the family environment. So please help me welcome her back to her NCSSM family, Dr. Maria Trent. Good evening. I am absolutely excited to be here. I wanted to thank Dr. Warsaw and Dr. O'Connor for inviting me and Dr. Roberts for having me. I am absolutely grateful and overwhelmed with honor to have the opportunity to return to our school to participate in this important ceremony. I really feel, I have already felt welcome here. I was here a couple of hours ago, actually. We just rode into Durham and I was actually tearful, so I'm hoping that I can actually move this fort without becoming tearful because I wanted to be lovely for you. Some of the best experiences in my life occurred either while I was here or because I was here. It is my hope to give you a few words that not only inspire you to continue to do good work but think carefully about the decisions you make moving forward. You see, there have been just a few times in my life in which people saw me, I mean really saw me, and it is in those moments that I have been afforded great opportunity and the inspiration to believe in my own courage and act on my own ambition. My goal is to share with you a bit about those experiences and how they changed me. In this moment I will paraphrase a quote from Octavia Butler that my husband often uses in his writing and teaching about science fiction that all that you touch, you change and likewise it changes you. I grew up in Hertford, a small rural town on the east coast of North Carolina in Perquimans County. I am told that it's Native American name means land of beautiful women which I found promising as a child in terms of my ultimate development. I was recently described by my peers from that era as one of the smartest people they knew. I confessed that I was that kind of kid that rarely took a book home. I did all my homework before the end of the school day and leisurely spent the evenings in grossed and ballet, band or other extracurricular activities. I was cocky with my intellect scoring in the 99th percentile, standardized tests, challenging teachers about corrections to my work that seemed inaccurate from my perspective and my ego was intact. An important emotional protection for a lanky girl with glasses and braces who was coming of an age at a time in the life course when beauty and cogeniology were important. I was deeply religious and believed that as long as I did the right thing by myself and others that I would be blessed I was surrounded by peers in a community who used the raising resistors strategy to prepare youth with potential in a segregated community using a mix of love, support and honesty about the realities of the world. Instead of being shunned, which is sometimes the case, they came to respect me for my intellect and conviction and I wore it like a badge of honor and then I came here. Suddenly I wasn't the smartest person anymore. There were cool kids from the big cities who were already taking advanced placement classes that weren't even offered at my high school. There were those who could go home for dinner and after a hard day and get recharged by family and friends, it was also here that I finally faced the difficult subject and one to which I had no prior exposure, chemistry taught by Dr. Connect. It was here that a teacher first expressed doubt in my ability and it made me dig in. Perhaps it was his way of seeing me or challenging me. Even so, I knew I could not give up because well, that's not my personality and further, I'd always planned to be a physician and I knew mastery of chemistry and many iterations to come. General chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry were just a part of the package. I also felt that my local community was counting on me. It wasn't the blatant we're counting on you but a pride from friends who welcomed me back on long weekends in the way old ladies whispered affirmations of support and would press a few dollars in my hand so that I would have some spending money and that said, we believe in you. Moving from that segregated world in the late 80s also meant that being successful here was almost a political issue at home to prove what people like me could achieve. So it was here where the road got tough that I had to exert change over my situation. I had to recreate myself, identify my weaknesses, build on my strengths and to recover my ego where I had temporarily discarded it as inoperative. There were things, three things I had to do to do this. First, I had to actually learn how to study and to be more collaborative.  While chemistry was not necessarily my thing I was quite good with math and biological sciences and rather than envy my peers who had prior chemistry exposures I valued them as we all worked together to achieve. I also learned in my longer career path that scientific discovery requires teamwork and collaboration by individuals with different skills and talents. Being creative, being able to be creative and to create effective research teams is now at the core of my ability to answer important clinical questions and develop meaningful solutions that translate into improved health innovation through innovation. My current team consists of people who are all very different but who bring different skills to the table. They range from bench scientists using novel basic science techniques to determine the presence of emerging patients in our participants. Using laboratory tests they're not even commercially available for general use and computer programmers who have made my vision of automated interactive person-based communication using cell phone technology come alive. Administrators who create audio computerized assisted interviews using my voice to interview patients for impure quality of data collection. Engineers and biostatisticians who help analyze complicated relationships between biological behavioral and raw text messaging data as a window for understanding clinical outcomes and patients. There are also nurses and outreach workers who deliver the intervention and help keep vulnerable patients and hard to reach youth engaged in the study. Their roles are all very different but important parts of the scientific process require to execute just one randomized controlled trial. My first foray into creating collaborative scientific networks was here. Second, I had to find something outside of schoolwork to grounding. My roommates and new best friend Felicia was the star basketball player. Even though I spent 12 years extensively studying ballet, I thought I'm tall. People are always asking me if I play basketball how hard can this be? It was hard. Let's just say every tall person should not attempt playing basketball no matter how graceful they think they are. I later heard about the track team and started running with a senior, Melissa, a few times a week to the reservoir to get ready for the spring season. I remember the first practice as if it was yesterday. Science and math did not have a track nor does it have a track now. So we ran down to Duke's East Campus around campus, had a talk of some sort and stretched and then ran back. It was the longest run about five miles. As I rolled into campus about to hurl, I was encouraged by Emmanuel Waddell, another senior member of the team. I was certain that my display of weakness would mean my elimination. But as it turns out, I was one of the few people, new people to make it back. Mark Adams was knowledgeable, experienced and committed to seeing us through. There was also the story of him being an Olympian during the 1980s boycott and that his specialty was the Olympic meters and that solidified my trust in his ability as a coach. Simply put, he had athletic cred. We, on the other hand, had old t-shirts with faded unicorns on them and wore used spikes from supplies he'd accumulated over time. But somehow we became a really respectable team and that surprised people. We ate and traveled together as a team. Track, like my other new experiences, required that I work hard, collaborate and learn strategically to be successful. It also became my outlet. People sometimes describe my attaining as a state record in my junior year in the 800 meters and two in the 800 and 1600 meters in my senior year as a huge accomplishment, particularly since I did not run track at my local high school. Perquimus County did not actually have a girls track team. Note that I really consider myself an athlete. In retrospect, the reality was that I had used the years of conditioning and training in the field of ballet to shape my body and mind towards competing and was able to use that to compete in a new sport. I needed to transform prior experiences into something useful. I also had peer mentors like Amy Bingham who was an amazing long distance runner and the quiet star of our team. I realized now that Coach Adams purposefully paired me with her. She gave me something to aspire to, exuded leadership and sportsmanship by example, and taught me how to both pace myself and challenge myself. Athletics was extracurricular, but in academic exercise, nonetheless. Finally, I had to hold true to the things that allowed me to maintain my peace. I stumbled onto a small church across the street from our campus that was on the way to the mall when you go through the back way, not along the main street. Cutting through the local neighborhood and on Sundays, I would sit there by myself and it would remind me of my small country church that my great-grandfather founded and to participate in the altar prayer as I had been taught growing up, having faith that everything would work out. For two years I went there, never engaging anyone or changing my pattern. However, on the Sunday before graduation, one of the members who I had not met stood up to introduce me to the congregation. He was an assistant coach for another local track team. I had come in graduation, my acceptance to Yale, the details of my track awards and acknowledged my dedication to my education and my faith. While caught off guard and a bit embarrassed, he saw me and I realized that by staying focused on my work, being true to my new and old friends and falling in love with sport, someone saw me and it was just what I needed and each of these experiences I describe an adult saw me. It wasn't always a comfortable feeling but a good thing nonetheless. Edith Driver, the biology teacher of Perquimance County, who nominated me for this program, she saw me. Dr. Connect and Mark Adams challenged me. Their styles were different but the results similar. Ron Maxwell let me sing in the gospel choir even though my singing is on par with my basketball skills. Dr. Warren Baskett gave me my first real summer job after graduation so I could earn money before I went to Yale. My cousin Sharita, a graduate student at Duke, let me sleep on her couch that summer and was my connection to home and my NCSS friends from that time. Felicia, Robbie, Jerry, Helen, Leon, Oscar and Ray, they accepted me for who I was. My local community saw me and provided a safety net beneath me. The parishioners in that little church in this neighborhood saw me and afforded me the space I needed never moving me out of my comfort zone but looking out for me nonetheless. The state of North Carolina this place, this community both on campus and off campus is doing something special for adolescents with potential. The fact that you all hail a church in small rural urban coastal and Appalachian wealthy middle class and poor bringing nothing but your potential provides an opportunity to begin a new trajectory that will allow you to effect change through scientific discovery. The fact that the school was designed just this way to find potential and talent from across the state makes it even more special. The return on the investment for the state has been significant. Further, scientists and mathematicians will solve many of the problems currently facing our society. However, we must be careful not to just use science to generate new economies or articles that no one reads. Understanding the public investment in our development means that we must also produce work that benefits society. I see that commitment of students in my molecule, Kristen Lee, who graduated here many years after me. The multiple graduates of NCSSFM who have reached out to me over the last week or so from the Hopkins campus after receiving the most recent newsletter and even in my two colleagues who graduated from replica schools in South Carolina and Illinois. Coming back here has challenged me to think about adolescents and what adolescents and adults need today. Over the last two years, I have struggled as a pediatrician and mother in the divestment and urban minority youth when being hurt and unheard erupted in violence in Baltimore this year. I realized that we have to be more creative and committed to change. A few weeks ago when coming from a meeting at the Baltimore City Health Department, I stood at the corner of Pennsylvania and North Avenues, a part of Baltimore that was at the heart of the violence. I was overwhelmed by the thickness of urban poverty and the despair almost feeling guilty for the gifts that I have been given. Many of those gifts came from the state of North Carolina caring teachers at my local high school the exceptional opportunity offered to me by science and math some opportunities during college an institute of government internship and a full scholarship to the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. In Maryland, we must now model the people of the state of North Carolina but also figure out strategies to not only invest like you who have obvious potential but also those who feel unheard and unseen in our society. It is why I have and will continue to climb my own career ladder with one hand reaching back to bring someone else along. As a physician and researcher specializing in adolescent medicine I understand adolescent development and how my brain was wired in 1985. Coming here from the safety of my small town was a huge risk no parents to guide my every decision or rescue me from every little crisis to make me study or to determine how I spent my time no texting no FaceTiming either but I didn't hesitate to accept the challenge and neither did my parents they understood that it was a critical step in my path to becoming a successful and independent adult. As I leave you I want to reassure you and your parents that this decision this risk that you are taking is the right one. Data show that the tension created by allowing young people to manage their own futures while providing them with a safety net results in stronger more resilient adults. This place allowed me to see who I was and to glimpse a brighter future than I had previously envisioned for myself. After dropping my daughter off at her first overnight camp a couple of weeks ago I understand how hard it is for parents to just get in their car and leave how hard it was for my mother to send both of her daughters away to go on this journey. I know that this is the first time I've ever seen a child who is financially one for college at UNC and the other for NCSSM but even as you shed a tear and this is to the parents who might be listening even if you share a tear when you tear on the ride home you'll be proud that your son and daughter is willing to go on this journey. Even as you change use science and mathematics for the public good and when you have the chance be prepared to pass on this gift by bringing someone else along. Congratulations and welcome to the club. Thank you Dr. Trent for sharing with us your inspiring story and advice. First off I would like to formally welcome everyone to the 36th Convocation of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. To my fellow seniors out there congratulations on reaching this point. We've completed what has probably been one of the most challenging and yet most rewarding years that any high school in North Carolina will ever have to face. And even though graduation is only nine months and nine days away we have to make sure that we enjoy every moment that we have left here. Enter the juniors out there welcome to what will be probably the most life changing experience of your academic tenure. Now as Dr. Roberts put every single one of us comes here with a different story, a different background and from crazy different places across North Carolina yet when we step here to add NCSSM we're all suddenly connected. You can talk to someone that came to NCSSM from two years ago or even 20 years ago but yet you're able to connect with them and talk with them on the same level.  And even though NCSSM provides us with a common ground it's important to always be true to yourself and stay the amazing individual you are. A great childhood professor of mine, Dr. Seuss once said be who you are and say who you feel because those who mine don't matter and those who matter don't mind. You'll find success in a supporting group of friends here at NCSSM by being the same amazing individual that got into this school earlier this year. But don't get me wrong there will be times where you doubt yourself are unsure of where you're going or don't really know what to do and when times like this happen I want you to remember that you were accepted to the school for a reason because you are truly the best and brightest that North Carolina has to offer and it's during this that I want you to look around and see that throughout your journey you'll be surrounded by the wonderful people in this auditorium and they'll always be there to help you. Your classmates will become your family your support group and the people who will help you achieve the success that you'll be able to do. I wouldn't be where I am today without any of my friends and there will be points at which we experience a failure that we probably would have never had to see at our old schools where we probably did things very easily and didn't have to look behind us but as the year goes on and some things might not go your way you might fail your first test and might not get into the program that you really wanted to Oprah Winfrey told the Harvard class of 2013 that there is no such thing as failure that failure is simply life's way of leading you in a better direction and that statement embodies the NCSM experience NCSM is a place where you'll find a plethora of opportunities at every step you go when it seems like one door is closing on you you only have to look around to see all the other doors just waiting for you to step through and NCSM is a place where every result you have will be the work of your dedication so from cutthroat spoon holding competitions to majestic cultural performances on this very stage NCSM holds so much both inside and outside of the classroom NCSM offers a unique learning experience that will change all those who walk through these halls in a way that no textbook ever will the reason that this school is the heavy way it is today is because of every single teacher faculty student and administrator in this building who works day in and day out to achieve the success that we all came here to obtain and so my last piece of advice to you is this is to make sure that you slow down and take the moment to enjoy yourself here if you come to NCSM and view as solely a catalyst for college you'll never be able to have the fun that NCSM has I want you to take the time to traverse every inch of Durham NC to meet new people who are wildly different than yourself and to finally pick up a book to read and with that my fellow classmates I'd like to wish you good luck and what will probably be the best year that NCSM has had yet thank you thank you Vikram and again thank you to Dr. Trent for your inspiring words and for being with us this evening well as we close our 36th convocation at NCSM I want to thank the members of our convocation committee who and everyone else who made this evening possible again I want to thank Dr. Trent for being such an inspiring speaker and role model for all of our students and all of us in the words that she gave us I'd also like to take an opportunity to thank Mr. Laird and our orchestra here for playing this evening, thank you for that again thank you to all of our honored guests for being here this evening and your great support of NCSM and as I said when I started I think you can appreciate the legacy that you're joining by the fact that so many are here tonight to honor you and to our faculty and staff thank you for all your work in helping us get the 2015-16 school year off to a great start the start of the school year is always filled with great excitement and with possibilities that come with starting anything new so students as you experience learn, wrestle with and enjoy all that lies ahead of you this year I want you to remember what got you here your commitment to learning your motivation and your drive to challenge yourself to your highest ability and beyond NCSSM is not like other schools you'll have greater opportunities and greater challenges than ever before every one of you has the talent and ability to be as successful here as you have been in school all these years prior every member of our faculty and staff were here to help you succeed and you will find that there are no better and more committed professionals anywhere that you will go to school easily or after however it is your commitment to being successful that is most important more so than any other thing we spent a great deal of time over the past couple of years asking alumni and students how they would describe what their experience at NCSSM meant to them and how they believe we should best articulate that experience one of the common threads of what we heard was that NCSSM provided them the opportunity to design their future this opportunity this is your opportunity to design your future whether in the classroom, research labs on campus or off on playing fields or on stage out in the community providing service to others or on hall make the most of your time here explore your interests, grow your passions strive for your best and strive to make those those around you better NCSSM is a place that has an outstanding 35 year tradition of challenging and inspiring students it's also a place where we look forward each year focused on the future your future which is rich with possibility Unicorns the 2015-16 school year is yours yours for the challenge it presents yours for the learning it offers and yours for the opportunities before you I look forward to working with you this year into your great success so again congratulations to the start of the 2015-16 school year so after we recess from the auditorium there is a reception planned on the lawn for each of us to be there so I look forward to getting a chance to talk to all of you out on the lawn as we recess and again thank you for this evening and thank you for being at NCSSM good evening


The National Assembly has been urged to focus on insecurity as against the hijab bill. The advice was given by the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, which that Nigeria already has laws protecting citizens from religious discrimination. The president of CAN also stated that unemployment is fueling insecurity because the terrorists and the bandits are able to recruit with idle hands. Let's start with the issue of the hijab. It did cause a crisis of sorts in Kuala State. I think just last month here there was a crisis and the video was everywhere with students having to be told not to wear hijabs in certain schools because they think it's obstructing the uniformity of the outfits and of course the states saying that look these schools are no longer missionary schools they have been given back to government and government give back so it's supposed to allow people to dress in a certain way. But going as far as getting a bill to make this thing so that when people are in public places, women, Muslim women are in public places, they must wear hijabs. Is that really a priority that we should be bothering ourselves with right now? Evidently it's not a priority. It's a pointer to how we, let me say we reminded the people who are in the circles of leadership are that this is what they are considering the priority when ought not to be. It is also sad pointer to the state of affairs that our nation is in. Now, like I said we have been plagued by mostly all sorts that has built up to cause some form of insecurity as we speak.  I'm sure that you must have had. This morning the NSCDC found seven buddies in Calabar as yesterday there were attacks in Borneo, there were killings here and there. I mean we're still talking about insecurity. In Lagos, a shop very close to where I was yesterday was being robbed and my colleagues were in that shop. Broad daylight with sophisticated weapons, men on motorcycles, rather. This is how serious the situation of things is in Nigeria. But this bill I'd like to let you know has passed its second reading and the Christian Association of Nigeria is saying look this is not as pressing as our insecurity and they're saying we should be prioritizing our security right now because that is the major issue. So let's talk security Peter. Why do you think that it's become so bad in recent days? Well one of the reasons it has gotten this bad is that the general public has a greater level of distrust for government. So many people are more likely to take laws into their own hands as a manner of speaking. Also poverty has become, I mean is the news we all know it even if news didn't say it, poverty now works on two legs in the streets of Nigeria and people are doing everything that they can to survive. Even if it means they will take two illegal methods to prove food on the table. So with this invitation to Anaki, that is me handed out a question of poverty, we will see many, many more people take to crime in the days and weeks ahead. Also we know that we are underpoliced. There seems to be a lack of efforts. Let me say that we're from those who are who are to lead the charge against this insecurity and because of that it's almost free for all. In many of my four other, I have discussions with my colleagues across the world, they keep their friends in Nigeria as a failed state and even though I want to differ because of my pride, when I see the pointers to these things I tend to agree. But when you say that even those who are supposed to lead the charge seem to not be as encouraged or hyped as they should be, is it really their fault? Can you blame them? Like you have said, we're underpoliced and of course our security forces are overly stretched and we know what they're having to deal with in the northeast and of course now we have them in other parts of the north. We have banditry and we have the kidnappings. Can we really blame them for not being as hyped up or as encouraged as they should be? Doesn't mean that they're not doing their jobs but then you have said that they're overstretched, so should that bulk be passed to them? Well, I want to say yes. I'll use the recent incident in our national consciousness as a point of reference. Last year, when the agitation of citizens against police brutality and excesses of security agencies got to a head with the end sentence that we saw, we saw government or certain leaders from government display almost apathy and then disregard for people's sentiments. We've seen the fallout of it after that. In fact, it was just a few weeks ago, I remember I was on your station and we discussed how people were going to come out to protest the proposed reopening of the toll gate and how there was, the way the matter was tense, was charged up, didn't need to be because some of those who were speaking on behalf of government were hitting on the policy. So when you have people who are supposed to be coming to the situation or trying to inspire confidence in the system, doing the opposite, what we see is what's going to happen, it was bound to happen. Leaders have dropped the buck. Let's call it what it is. So let's continue to talk about this issue of the hijab crisis because it has also become a crisis which could become a religious war of sorts. And we know that Nigeria is a secular state even though we also know that the two major religions which is Christianity and Islam. And if the Muslims are saying we want our women to be covered when they are in public spaces, why can't we all, you know, go with it? I'm just asking as for security reasons and for safety because little things like this could spark into a thing that we might not be able to handle in the future. So shouldn't state governments be the ones handling this instead of the National Assembly passing a law or putting a bill, you know, into law to make that, make it a general law? Well, even if you ask state governments to handle this, and I do believe that I want to say, I'm sorry, Peter, when I say states, I'm talking about states that are predominantly Muslim where, you know, they have certain Sharia laws in place. Yes. I agree. And this is where I was going to. Even if you say those states should handle it, not everybody in those states, not even all Muslims hold the view that their women should be forced to wear hijab in public. So there's going to be dissenting opinions even from people of the same faith. So by which means that we aggregate the consensus and say, okay, this is what the majority says, and then we can then let them have their way. And then if we're going to have their way, does this violate the tenets of what we call a constitution in this country? Again, it also shows the flaws in the constitution. And I'm surprised that many of those who are frontline politicians or position politicians are not using this opportunity to address the failures of national constitution. Those who are calling for structuring prior to the last elections, they've all gone quiet. And I don't, I mean, it just beg, it just begs us to believe that a political class is also asleep. Okay. I want to keep pressing on the issue of dealing with little issues and little sparks before it becomes a fire. Can also spoke about creating jobs, having employment as a watchword and the National Assembly prioritizing those things that had cost us to have insecurity in the first place instead of paying attention to this bill. So I'm going to ask for someone who works in security and all of the things that you've seen and all the things that have been reported, can unemployment or rather creating employment be maybe some form of a remedy to the situation of things? Or maybe should this issue like an issue such as this be addressed now that it's budding instead of it blowing into out of a portion and then of course we'll now have our plate totally full with insecurity from outsiders that have cost insecurity from within. Well, there are several indices that give rise to increase in crime rates. One of those things is lack of employment for those who are to be actively employed. And evidently that is one of the issues Nigeria is suffering from now, that a larger portion of its youth is unemployed or not gainfully employed. We keep seeing, I mean look at what happened during the official lockdowns when coronavirus began last year. We saw in certain cities, in Lagos, in Oregon State, we saw young people who hid there too were supposedly low abiding. We saw them begin to march in the streets and go from house to house to rob, to commit crime. Those things were brought about because there was little work going on, there was little employment, and there was little honor means of getting food to eat. So you saw people literally become base animals. We saw people go back to the atavistic nature and those things will happen in a situation like we have now where the economy is failing, the naira and the dollar, I mean that's another story for another day. But like you're pointing out, I want to agree with you, the fact that there's a lack of employment is going to increase incentives for people to take to crime. And until government actually does something serious about this, we're likely to see more people take to crime in the days ahead. Well I want to say thank you to you, Peter Median is a security expert, thank you for being part of the conversation. Thank you. All right, well we'll take a short break now, I'll be giving you my take when we come back from the break. Here's my take. The judiciary they say in Nigeria is the hope of the common man. That common man may never have hope if the judiciary isn't working and functioning at its best. We want justice, but even the justices and the bench cannot get financial autonomy. Now this is detailed for local governments and states legislatures. Where is the justice in that? If governments especially in states must work and the governors must step away from all of this and let these other arms function independently at their capacity because we call us a democracy. We can't keep hoping for divine intervention when all we know, we all know what to do, but we're not doing it. Now on the issue of the hijab, I'd like to say that are we prioritizing the right things? Are we channeling our resources and our time to the things that are deserving? Let's major on the major things because we know that there are bigger things that need our attention and not minor. Okay, so because the days of minors will come, but that day is not today and Nigeria's got bigger issues. So let's make hay while the sun shines. Now dear leaders, let's get our priorities right. I am Marianne Corn. Thank you for watching. Have a good evening.