Welcome to Leaders Room. My name is Peter Webb. I'm a Director of Research and Curriculum here at the EECLIF Leadership and Governance Centre. It's my great delight to welcome Shukanth Bollah, a recipient of the Ilea Award for 2016. Thank you very much for joining us here today. Thank you, Professor. I'd like to ask, if I may, a little bit about how you developed the energy to continue to do what you did. It's part of the story of your life, but your life has a lot of energy and a lot of challenges behind it. How did you get the energy to overcome those challenges? First of all, I think I don't view challenges as challenges or problems. I see set of challenges as set of solutions. So that is why whenever someone comes to me and asks, how do you overcome all these challenges? I keep telling them, look boss, I see a potential opportunity to a potential challenge. So therefore, I'm not evidently overcoming it, but I'm trying to cross over and then achieve whatever I want in life. So I also think, see, in general, I definitely feel we as human beings cannot achieve something by sitting in the lap of luxury. In fact, as you might know, research always shows our human brains are hardwired to produce our best efforts, only when there is hardship. And I do think we can definitely create hardship for all of us by setting up higher goals. And people often wonder, how can we set higher goals and how can we achieve them? We can. And if our response to challenges is to say bring it on, I'm sure the world will conspire to make our ideas successful. And this is a sort of energy I as a leader has from the beginning. Maybe it has come from the birth or maybe as people believe, when God shuts down the external vision, he might have opened up the internal vision for me to aim and change the world to create a better future for all of us. Beautiful. So your personal leadership energy, how would you describe your personal leadership energy in business? Energy here, I'm sure we are not talking about the Ken America potential energy here because leadership energy is not either of those two. It's the energy that keeps on increasing every day, unlike the real energy that discharges when we utilize it. The leadership energy in my own sense keeps on increasing whenever you see a problem around you. Because this energy is unlike the regular energy is not billed by the power or by the work or the electricity or whatever. It is billed by problems around us. So we as children or we as teenagers or we as adults face several challenges in life and only few of us will mind to think about the problems that we are facing. And even fewer of us who will bother, who care or even bother to work on these challenges and those less than 0.1% of those human beings can become leaders. And I'm happy to be one among those elite people. Whenever I see a problem around me rather than moving away from it, I always try and solve it because as Gandhi always said, we are the problem, we are the solution and we are the change that we are waiting for. So I want to be the change that I want to see in the future. So personally whenever I faced problems in education, I faced several challenges in work, I faced several challenges in life, I faced several challenges as stigma. So whenever someone comes up to me and say you can't do this, I climb over his head and proceed to the next level to prove that I can do it. Because I believe if you look at the ground, it's always filled with people who say no because but as you go higher, you keep on meeting people who say yes and that's what they see and perceive the world. And that is the group of people I want to work with and I want to partner with to increase my personal leadership energy to create better future for India and for the world at large. That's wonderful. And I wonder how does that inform your leadership style today when you're in business now? How would you describe the way you conduct yourself as a leader for your own business? I'm a hardcore cutthroat business CEO today, unlike a social leader, which is also there because I have multi-split personality where you might say, what is this shit? But I conduct myself as that way only because half of me or rather if you call it as your two eyes, one of the part of myself is the social impact and one of the other side of the equation of me is the commercial aspect of the business. Because I believe in order to bring long-term sustainable change, you cannot do charity. Of course you can do charity, there's nothing wrong with it, but that might or might not be sustainable and that might be good in the shorter term. But when you want to have a fundamental change that you want to create for the rest of the world and for the rest of the generation, I don't think charity works that way. So only the model of social entrepreneurship works and is sustainable. So it was initially very hard and challenging for me to marry these two approaches together to create a novel and scaling solution for the business that we are in today. So it was even harder for us because our social motto and mission is to create employment opportunities for the uneducated and unskilled youth disabled or differently abled youth of India and also the underprivileged people of India. Because let me tell you a little background. Ever since when I was born, people look like I came from the other planet as an alien because I was totally blind and I remember this proverb now, the famous idiom, the atom, apple in the eye. So including my parents, everybody in my community have never seen an apple because we don't get them in South India or they have never seen the term apple in the eye. So because it anyway doesn't matter much for them because they have never seen an apple nor I had an eye. So but those and everybody advised my parents to kind of move away from me and get rid of me or whatever. But I think I was lucky enough because my parents did not listen to the ignorant comments and whatnot. So the reason for sharing this is even today after 24 years millions of parents across the world do listen to the ignorant comments of the other people and smother or get away from disabled kids and that's how the separation begins from their birth. And even at school, even at workplaces, the isolation continues. So most people do not send them to schools and most disabled people are not even qualified to attend mainstream schooling. So the education for the challenged people is heavily kind of secluded and run by the voluntary organizations in the country. And these guys train in life skills and not job skills. Therefore when they approach their teenage level or youth age, most of these people are unqualified to work in the corporate setting due to lack of education and even in the blue collared sector because they lack the skills. And more importantly the corporate houses and the companies do not entertain these people because they think these people are simply idiots. So this is the situation even today. So four years ago we really were thinking how could we solve this problem that nobody have ever tried to solve it in the country. And we went on and told corporates and inspired corporates to hire disabled people but nobody was willing to do that because one these people are not again skilled enough. Two, the corporate houses doesn't know how to train these people and accommodate these people in their work culture. So that is preventing from about 100 million from about 10 to 15 crore of the Indian population. That's about 10 to 15% of the 1.3 billion people today. That's a huge chunk of people who does not have jobs. Imagine if we kind of bring these people into the economy from out of the economy, I'm sure there will be a GDP increase of more than 1%. So that is the big goal that we had in front of us three years ago. It is not a simple goal. And it was very hard taking these people, training them and putting them on to mainstream work. So everybody including big guys simply thought it's a big headache of taking these people and turning them and empowering them into productive workforce or productive citizens of the economy.  We managed successfully these social enterprise model marrying the impact versus the marrying the commercial aspect. We were fortunate enough to attract top angels of India including Sri Ratan Tata himself interested in the company which is growing at 20% a month since inception till today. Today we are a company valued at 100 crores. That's about a billion Indian rupees doing about 0.3 billion INR turnover annually. Hiring about 500 people out of which 50% of them are disabled. Disabled you might think not hearing impaired or physically impaired. We take all kinds of disabled people including mentally challenged, artistic, down syndrome and physical, visual, speech and hearing what not. Whoever comes to us we screen them and provides appropriate work roles in our company and so far over the last four years we have zero attrition rate, we have zero accident rate among people with disabilities and we also had on an average we have a higher wage level among disabled employees when you compare to able-bodied workers. This proves given an opportunity anybody can thrive irrespective of their physical or mental obstacles and this is what I as a leader wanted to prove to the mainstream world and tell people look if we can break our stigma levels and if we can break our perceptions and try and open our eyes to see the world in a different way there are opportunities all over the place and this is what I have been proving and I want to prove to the entire world as we go on and achieve greater things with our company because our journey has just begun and we have miles to walk before we kind of land that big goal out. That's very good and I'm curious going back to an earlier comment of yours about how you reconcile the commercial imperative of business with the social sustainability that you want to achieve. I think as a businessman I don't even worry about the social aspect because for example we spend our money and we spend our energy in bringing these disabled people into our ecosystem and putting them at the workplace. Once we put them we forget that they are disabled because they give us best output equal to any of their peers and any of their buddies. So we really don't have to worry too much about their output once we train them at the workplace in the beginning. When you come to our commercial aspect we operate like a traditional cutthroat commercial enterprise from the outside and we don't even utilize a concept of our social mission wherever we pitch our investors pitch our products and pitch our stakeholders as well because we make products that people are proud of using using renewable sources of energies utilizing these disabled people who are so-called as useless in the beginning. So I as a CEO care only three aspects price quality and the viability of the product. So that is why we have no issues in marketing or distributing or selling our product irrespective of our social mission back of our mind. So we are traditionally a regular enterprise like any other company like the Amazon or like the Google or like any other company that you can think of. But I assure you in India today nobody is growing at 20 percent as we are growing typically in an unorganized heavily fragmented packaging segment in India which is even harder because when we came into business this industry was heavily fragmented, heavily boutique, seasonalized and marginally with mom and pop units. So it was very difficult for us in consolidating all these guys. So we had to consider various business models. First of all the reason why we came into this packaging field is that it is wide open. Like the Dixie or Solo in the United States there is no such company in India. So we wanted to be that Dixie or Solo Cup of India in making packaging and disposable products for the international market. So we worked on various aspects. Do we want to kill these mom and pop units or do we want to make them all stakeholders? That was our first question that we pounded upon and we decided rather than creating enemies we wanted to create friends in the business. So rather than pulling them out of the business we brought them all these cottage industries or cottage level players under our big umbrella. So over the last four years we have worked with over 100 cottage units across the country in supplying them all required ingredients of the product that they want to manufacture, giving them technical know how, suitable infrastructure, arranging them suitable small scale financing under our reputation and what not. So this actually enabled us to expand our operations country wide faster than we expected because if we in turn tried to pull them out of these, all these guys out of the business they would have retaliated like India retaliated last time so we didn't want them to retaliate against us. Instead we wanted to bring them up along with our journey. And the other concept was we have established ourselves as a consolidated player in not only providing essential raw materials to commercial industries, cottage industries but also finished product player which caters to corporate houses, international markets and what not. So this also enabled us to sustain our growth and to improve our growth as we continued our journey for the last four years. And the road ahead is not simple but it's not challenging. It's equal because we see challenges as opportunities as we go on. That's wonderful. I wonder if you have any advice for those young people like yourself who might be thinking of going down the same path of social entrepreneurship who might be wanting to do something similar. What advice would you give them? First of all social entrepreneurship is tough. It's not that easy. The word entrepreneur itself is hard to dream about because we need to sacrifice a lot of things. Because people don't understand why we want to do things differently. Why we put ourselves through a grinder doing things so differently than everybody around us who is like taking up nine to five jobs. Even today if you ask my father what he wants to do, he would happily smile and say I want him to get married to a beautiful girl and get a government job. But you know how it is right? Even you are entrepreneur. So the thought itself is hard to digest. And we can't work for someone. Instead we want to create our craft, our own future. That itself is challenging. So to overcome that we as entrepreneurs need stable mind, clarity of thought and the willingness to sacrifice all your luxury things. As I mentioned earlier it's always the hardship that prevails in the end. Hardship is what will give us that destination or goal reaching point. So it's not the end of the world when we face challenges. That means it's the new world is waiting for us next door. So we have to kind of go and figure that out where it is. As Helen Keller rightly pointed out whenever the door is closed somewhere the window will be open. But so long we look at the only closed door but we tend to not notice the open window. As long as we can notice the open window and try to figure out a way to reach our ultimate goal I think that's when we really can achieve whatever we want in life. Especially in this social entrepreneurship we need lots and lots of persistence, lots and lots of willpower because social entrepreneurs are considered stupid. The concept itself is pretty new to the world. Some people think it's fake, some people think it's going to be charity. All these banks will think it's unfundable model and your commercial investors also think it's unfundable model because they think they can't get 10x or 20x of their return. And philanthropists think it's unfundable because it's not a charity. It's a commercial aspect involved in it. So we as social entrepreneurs fall into a pothole. So we have to figure out a way to come out of this pothole and attract like-minded impact investors who are very less in numbers. You can count them on your fingertips across the globe. So as long as you manage to catch these impact investors who invest for impact and also for return that's when the tipping point will come to your business or to your mission. And I was very glad to find those kind of people in my earlier days of my journey as an entrepreneur and that is how I never looked back. And now everybody is looking at even the commercial venture funds and PE fund guys, every one of them are looking at us as a successful social impact model that has been proven in the country. I think you're talking about a new form of economic model actually. Oh yeah, actually. You're 100% right. It's a new form of economic model because you're not only making money for yourself and not only making money for your employees, you're making money for your investors as well and also at large for the entire globe because you're creating this change that will stay forever. So you're clubbing the social change versus the economic change. So it's a new economic transformation. That's wonderful. And just to conclude, I'd like to say how delightful it is to have somebody who was blind at birth and yet has such foresight and such ability to see through challenges that actually encourage the rest of us who apparently are able-bodied. Thank you very much Fiora. I think even people kind of look at that quite a lot now. I feel being blind and doesn't matter what you do now because it's hard to kind of compare a normal man doing the same thing versus a blind man. But I don't see a difference at all here because I might be blind externally, but I'm not blind internally right, but I was made blind by the perceptions of the people and not by the physical nature of it because having no eyesight doesn't prevent me at all in doing whatever I want to do to create my own future because to conclude, let me tell you a leader is someone who creates, who removes poverty from people by showing at most compassion because I believe poverty doesn't come from due to lack of money. It comes from due to lack of compassion for other people and a leader is someone who removes poverty from people by removing the loneliness and the leader is someone who does something good for other people, but we don't realize that in turn benefits us at the first place. Just it has happened in my career. So I think we all have to have this positive leadership energy to lit up the people who are living due to lack of this particular energy that is not evidently given by our parents. So we have to inculcate this and then that is when this big bold change is possible. Thank you so much for your inspiration. Thank you for joining us here at Leader's Room. We hope that you've been similarly inspired and that you receive foresight from this presentation. Thank you.


Okay, so I'm going to introduce you to a student that one of the students that I'm most proud of and he did an amazing job with his IELTS test. And now he's working as a doctor in London and I asked him to come on just to give you guys a little bit of extra motivation and he's also going to give you some tips on how he got the score that he needed. So I'll just welcome you doctor Idris can you tell me just a little bit of background information about you first. My name is Idris Elmi. I'm from Somaliland. I actually moved to the UK 10 months ago and I just live here with my wife. And what job are you doing there in the UK? In the UK back home I was a doctor so when I moved to the UK I wanted to start my career as a doctor. But one of the prerequisites is to pass IELTS exam and unless you pass IELTS exam nobody general medical council will not allow you to sit for the other medical exams to assess you whether you are a doctor or not. So I found it difficult to get into pass IELTS exam and the first place. So now I'm already moved to my life so I'm working on the other parts of medical exams which is tremendously easier compared to IELTS exam. Really? I wouldn't have thought that IELTS exam was more difficult than medical exams but that's interesting. So what did you really struggle with when it came to IELTS? Was there a particular skill that you struggled with or was it just everything? What did you really need help with? To be honest IELTS exam is a specific English test. It's a standardized test so they designed a special way that's different from other English exams. So in my first attempt I was trying to get experience on how it feels like the IELTS test so I paid the money and I realized that my writing was way below the standard because of the requirements they asked. For example in Task 1 I'm not used to writing about graphs so that was not part of my curriculum in my school. So I found it difficult and in my first attempt I got 6 and despite working harder and harder in my second attempt I got 5.5. So that was really the hardest part in my IELTS exam. And why do you think just hard work itself didn't help you improve? Why do you think that you worked really hard and you still got around the same score? What do you think was the problem? The problem was in my first attempt I was thinking like why don't you try your luck because my English background was taught in English in high school but we didn't communicate in English so English was my third language. So I just assumed that if I try my luck I might pass the exam so I paid the money. And I didn't realize that IELTS exam needs specific structures. There are thousands of structures, there are thousands of right structures and thousands also wrong structures. So I practiced a lot using a lot of free websites. I just googled IELTS writing and I got thousands of different advices. So I computed myself, I tried one of these advices in the first attempt and then I failed, I tried the second attempt and that also made my grades even worse. So I think because of the way I structured. It's one of the biggest problems out there that there's just so much conflicting information and some of it is correct, some of it's just not. But even if you're looking at five or six different websites all giving you the correct information that's all confusing because it's all different. So you've identified a really common problem there. So what did you do to get your writing up to the score that was required to be a doctor here in the UK? I have to say it was a good given gift to see your website in Facebook. And to be honest I've seen a lot of students recommending me your website because your website is just free. And then they said why don't you try there and I've seen a lot of people giving positive comments and that's when I decided to come into your course. And actually it was really helpful because IELTS lessons are really boring. But the way you structured your tutorials are very interesting. So that is really the difference because you need motivation. You need the desire to learn more because while you have something which is boring and you cannot continue learning. So I love the way you structured your videos and they helped me because they teach me step by step how to write introduction, how to paraphrase, how to plan ahead. Which is really the most difficult one in my first time because I have lost a lot of time writing. I didn't even plan because I didn't know planning was part of writing. So that really helped me because it gave me the compass which was telling me which direction I'm going to. Excellent. That's a really nice analogy for the plan. I usually say it's like having Google Maps that shows you exactly where to go and what to do. So if you were to give me some or give other students who are struggling with writing in particular, if you were to give them some advice, some free advice, what would you say to them? So we've already talked about planning a little bit. Anything else that you would say to students? I would tell them because I know as a doctor you don't have much time to lose preparation of eyelet exam which is not your area that you're going to work. But it's really one of the prerequisites that you have to fulfill. One advice I would give is really the advice I got from you which is like perfect practice makes perfect because I used to think like practice makes perfect. But that was wrong because I practiced it a lot of resources which were really, really bad and that showed in my result because I got from 6 to 5.5. So I would definitely tell them to not rely on any website that says Cambridge-Based Books because they have to follow the rules of the exam. And I would recommend them to come to ILS Advantage to see because it doesn't cost anything because it's a free website in the first place and nobody forces them to pay anything. I would definitely recommend them to visit ILS Advantage.com because that's really very handy for anyone who wants to pass the ILS exam. Yeah, that's a really important point because there's a lot of excellent information out there. So especially when it comes to practice tests, there's a lot of fake practice tests and things that don't really work. So a really good tip as you just said would be only use official practice materials. So you'll get those on Cambridge English website, IDP website, British Council website, ILS.org. There's a huge number of free tests there that people can use and they're real tests because imagine if you were doing the driving test but when you were learning they just told you to do it on a motorbike or in a truck or something like that. It's not reflective of what you're going to face in the real test. So just what are your plans for the future then and what are you going to be able to do with the ILS test? Yeah, ILS test really has transformed my life because now I can start planning other stuff like other medical exams and then start working in London and my plan is just to be part of NHS and National Health System of the UK which needs a lot of health professionals and actually I'm so happy and whenever I see a lot of, the other good thing about ILS advantage is that when I got into the Facebook group that you created which is really a private one, I've met there a lot of doctors who not only helped me, the discussions of ILS but also other medical questions we have and other requirements of the medical exams. So really it's a group that you can find your profession. If you are a nurse there are a lot of nurses, there are a lot of engineers. So it's really amazing. So I'm so happy that I'm moving on my life and my career. We're glad to have you as a doctor here in the UK. We need a lot more people I think after a Brexit so it's good to have one more good person here. So thank you very much for sharing your story with everybody and good luck in your future and if you need anything you have my email address just let me know. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much.


newid. The next item of business is a member's business debate in motion 1595 in the name of Liam MacArthur on the 50th anniversary of the long-hope lifeboat disaster. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put. Can I ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to press the request-to-speak buttons now, and I call on Liam MacArthur to open the debate. Mr MacArthur, please. Richard Patrick Coxin, James Johnson, Second Coxin, Richard Patrick Bowman, Robert B Johnson, Mechanic, Jimmy Swanson, Assistant Mechanic, Jacker Patrick, Robbie Johnson, Eric McFadden, Lifeboat Men. Those are the names of the eight men who punished when the long-hope lifeboat TGB capsized in high winds and heavy seas in the Pentlands Firth on the night of 17 March 1969. Fifty years on and neither the significance nor poignancy of that tragic event have diminished. In seven minutes it's not possible to do justice to what happened or the bravery of those who lost their lives that night. But it's right that Parliament has an opportunity to mark this anniversary and pay tribute to Dan Kirkpatrick and his crew. I'm grateful therefore to the many MSPs from all parties who signed my motion, allowing the debate to take place and to those colleagues who are in the chamber this afternoon. Of course, there have been many tragic events where the loss of life has been considerably greater, yet the fact that those eight men died in the selfless act of trying to save others helps to explain, I think, why it had and continues to have such a profound impact on the public consciousness. It would be to do a disservice to the memory of Dan Kirkpatrick and his crew to focus today solely on what happened that fateful night. They all, of course, had lives beyond the involvement with the RNLI, but even in this their wider achievements deserve recognition. This was a crew that had shown its worth, proved its metal over the years, saving many lives and receiving numerous awards for bravery. Indeed, the week following the disaster, Dan Kirkpatrick had been due to travel to London to receive the RNLI silver clasp for the bravest act of life-saving in 1968, acknowledging heroics that he and his crew performed in saving 15 men aboard the Grimsby trawler Ross Puma. That was their third such honour. He would have vigorously rejected any such suggestion, but Dan Kirkpatrick was something of a celebrity. As well as the RNLI silver medal in clasps, he received a British Empire medal and even appeared on This Is Your Life with Amon Andrews in 1963, all a far cry from the events of Monday, 17 March 1969. The life boat was launched just before 8 p.m. in response to a call from help for help from the Liberian cargo ship SS Irini. It was reported to be in difficult east of Orkney, apparently out of control, drifting in a south-easterly force nine gale that had been blowing for days, creating mountainous waves of up to 60 feet. As it turned out, the stricken vessels to run aground at Grimnys on South Ronsley, where the crew of 17 were brought safely to show by the Brocknys and Dyrnys coastguard teams, was a textbook rescue by Breaches Boy, for which those involved were later honoured. Yet amid the relief, there was growing anxiety about the fate of the Long Hope Lifeboat. She was spotted by the Pentland Skerries lighthouse keepers around 9.30 p.m., but radio contact with GGB had been lost an hour or so after she launched. As those onshore clung evermore desperately to the hope that this was just a radio fault, a massive air, sea and land search operation got underway. That continued all through the night and into the following day, when shortly after 1 p.m., the Thurzo Lifeboat sent word that it had found the upturned TGB four miles west of Tornes in Hwy. Precisely what happened will never be known, but a fatal accident inquiry in June 69 had evidence that it was likely that the mountainous seas broke two of the windows at the front of the wheelhouse, allowing water to rush in, sweeping the coxswain from the wheel and so losing control of the boat, which then went broadside to the sea and capsized. The vessel was towed to Scrabster Harbour where it was righted and the bodies of Dan Capatric and six of his crew were retrieved. Sadly, James Swanson's body was never recovered. Needless to say, expressions of sympathy, condolence and support were quick to flood in from all over the country and all parts of the globe. An appeal fund for the family soon exceeded £100,000, while the funeral and memorial services in Long Hope and St Magnus Cathedral drew thousands of mourners and well-wishers. Yet, as the Orcherian reported, the whole of Orkney sorrows over this terrible calamity, but only in Brims itself and Long Hope can the utter tragedy of it be felt. Brims is a small township at the time numbering 30 people, such a catastrophic loss at a stroke of a quarter of the population is quite unimaginable. More than that, the eight men who lost their lives included two fathers, each with two sons aboard, prompting the local MP Joe Griman to question whether the Arnalai should be allowing fathers and their sons to be going out in the same life boat on such operations. All told, the community of Brims was left with seven window widows and 10 fatherless children. However, as Howard Hazel explains in a fascinating account of events, there was no recrimination or bitterness from anyone who had lost their menfolk. He quotes Margaret Kirkpatrick, married to Dan for 29 years, who said, I have no regret about the boat being lost on its way to help others, because that's why it was there, adding I'm happy that the lives of the crew of the irony were saved. Margaret was named Scotswoman of the Year at a ceremony in Glasgow later that year. Her sentiments were once shared by the rest of the community in Brims and Long Hope, who were anxious to see the lifeboat replaced without delay. When that happened, albeit on a temporary basis initially, in August 1970, local lifeboat secretary Jackie Grote said, the arrival of another boat is what we've been working and waiting for. It is already bringing a new outlook to the community and a much-needed uplift. With no lifeboat here, we have felt something vital missing in our midst. Fast forward 50 years, now fitting that Kevin Kirkpatrick should be carrying the mantle of coxing, I'm in no doubt at all that his grandfather Dan and his father and uncle would be proud beyond belief. It just so happens that Kevin's wife Karen, like her husband, also lost her grandfather, father and uncle in the tragedy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, their son Jack and daughter Stella are crew members in Kirkwall and Long Hope respectively. It is clearly in the blood. Looking ahead to the commemorations this weekend, it will be an opportunity to reflect, pay tribute and give thanks. As Kevin Kirkpatrick says, what happened that night is part of our history. We want to mark the 50th anniversary as we want to remember them, probably in a quiet way, as that is normally the way we do it. Ahead of those commemorations, I'm delighted that the Long Hope Lifeboat museum has been refurbished, following a remarkable public response to an appeal for the nations. It really is a wonderful facility. 17 months after the fatal capsizing, as TGB returned to service and counted on it all, a memorial to the eight men who lost their lives was unveiled by the Queen Mother. At the ceremony, Reverend Ewan Traill spoke powerfully of the disaster and its victims. Those men were not saints, he said, but essentially they were good men. They had qualities that constituted greatness. As a crew, they were unsurpassed anywhere in the world for efficiency, judgment, for loyalty and for courage. Inscribed on the base of the memorial, in other words, greater love has no man than this, that he lays down his life for his fellow men. They were truly the heroes of Long Hope. I'm pleased that Parliament has a chance to honour them today and look forward to the contributions of colleagues. Thank you very much, Mr McArthur. I remind all members who wish to speak, to press their request to speak buttons now, Ms Grant. Colin Morrin, what do we follow by Jamie Halcro Johnston? Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Can I thank Liam McArthur for submitting the motion and raising it today as members' business? As soon as I saw it, I wanted to speak in this debate. I remember it very well. I remember all the media sources in our house being on for any update about this tragedy. That was because my uncle, and I think that his job title would have been chief engineer of the RNLI. His job was to go around all the lifeboat stations in the northern half of Scotland to check their sea worthiness and, I suppose, to give them regular services. He knew all the lifeboat men and he knew them particularly well as an Orkney man himself, with a name like Alec Cursiter. It was obvious that he was an Orkney man indeed from strongness. I remember, as I say, us listening to any update that we could get about the long-hope lifeboat disaster. I remember my uncle being very badly affected by it, because he knew all the crew very well as he was born and brought up in Orkney himself, although he lived in Aberdeen at the time. However, he had to dash up there. I remember seeing him on the television quite a few hours after the tragedy, while people were waiting for news and to see what had happened to the lifeboat. As Liam McArthur said, there has been a long-hope lifeboat in Orkney since 1874 and was replaced very quickly thereafter. So many members of the community of brims were affected by it. It was shortly afterwards, within the year, that there was a similar disaster at Fraserborough. The Fraserborough lifeboat was lost in one wintery January morning. It was responding to a call to go assistance to a Danish fishing vessel. It seems that the same thing happened with that one. Of course, both those tragedies led to the fact that the design of the lifeboats was changed shortly afterwards, so that there were now self-writing vessels and, fortunately, the RNLI and lifeboat disasters have gone down significantly since then. However, it is unfortunate that both disasters had to lead to new vessels being designed. It is important to remember that lifeboats and the RNLI is a voluntary organisation. I take my hat off to all those people who are prepared to put their lives at risk in the pursuit of helping others. I think that we should never forget that and donate to the RNLI when we can. Thank you very much. I call Jamie Halcro Johnston to be followed by Rhoda Grant. Mr Halcro Johnston, please. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to Liam McArthur for bringing this motion debate to Parliament, which is something of great poedency for our islands. On 17 March 1969, if you looked out across the Penland Firth, you would see a broad straight that had for several days been batted by gales, slashed by heavy rain and seen snow held across it by the winds. My home in Orkney overlooks the island of Hoy with long hope tucked behind. I have seen often how changeable the environment can be, the tides are amongst the fastest and strongest anywhere on earth. That energy, which today we look to harness as a power source, makes it an exploitable climate for seafarers. That night, the lifeboatman who sat out to assist another vessel, the Irene, did not come home. Their boat was a wooden construction much different to the lifeboats of today. Their vessels were strong but, as has been mentioned, unlike many modern lifeboats, they couldn't self-right when they found themselves capsized. Visibility was virtually nil, the waves were 60ft high. As day broke, lifeboats from Kirkwall, Stronsie, Stromnes and Thurzo searched the scene. The bodies of all but one of the long hopes lifeboatmen were recovered, still with their boat. The eighth, James Swanson, was never found, and the islands mourned. We see among the names of those eight men lost, three Johnstons, James Robert and three Kirkpatrick, Dan, Jack and Ray. Eric McFadden was the final name among the dead. Orkney is a small place, and tragedies like this are felt not just in the homes and in the streets but across our islands. For these two families, the tragedy must have been hardly bearable. Brims, that small community on high, mentioned by Liam McArthur, where the lifeboat was launched, has seen its population decimated. You still find the relatives of these men still faithfully serving the RNLI and Orkney. Another Kirkpatrick, Kevin, serves as coxswain at the Longhove lifeboat station. He lost his father, grandfather and uncle that night. But, as he says, being in the lifeboat is a way of life. It is in us, it is in my blood. My home in Orkney overlooks Scapa Flow, and the flow is one of the great, world's great natural harbours. When bad weather threatens, it is a refuge for some of even the largest boats in the world. Because if you stand on the cliffs at Yesnaby or you travel to the south isles in a storm, you'll understand just how ferocious the seas around Orkney can be. No one who lives in an island community like Orkney needs to be persuaded of the importance of the RNLI. It is part and parcel of the heritage of the islands, and touches so many of us directly. When I was young, my mother chaired the local ladies' lifeboat guild, so from an early age I helped fundraising efforts to support the lifeboat's work in Orkney, but more importantly I learned of the commitment of those men, of their sacrifice and of their bravery. We recognise that bravery of these men today, not just on that ill-fated voyage, but for every other launch where they put their lives in danger to help and rescue others. It was not the first night that the long-hope lifeboat crew were far from home amongst challenging weather conditions, nor was it the last, because still today the lifeboat remains at Long Hope, well over two centuries since it was inaugurated, still facing those same conditions that over the centuries Orkadian lifeboat crews have battled again and again. Outside of Orkney, lifeboat stations can be found at many other coastal and island communities across the Bridges Isles. They too have a long heritage, as has been mentioned, and a fair share of tragedies between them. Still those brave men and women, self-funded, mostly volunteers, venture out, facing down grave risks simply to help others. They share their successes, and when tragedy hits, they mourn together. It is fitting that, to mark this 50th anniversary, the R&L life flag will fly at half a mast at the organisation's headquarters in Poole. It will also be lowered at lifeboat stations around the country. However, as always, they will remain on call, ready to respond, as they have for centuries. That is the most fitting tribute to those eight men from Orkney who did not come home. I, too, would like to congratulate Liam McArthur on securing this debate and his moving tribute to him today in the Parliament. It is an issue that he has brought to the attention of the Parliament on a number of times, and it is fitting that he marks the 50th anniversary here, too. The disaster-devastated hoy, and especially the small community of brims, that experienced such a great loss. Eight people lost to a small community. Not only creates heartbreak, but it can also break a community, too. The people that were lost were not only essential to their community for their work on the lifeboat. They had other roles to fulfil. To lose a quarter of their community in one night is difficult to come back from, and it is a testament to the strength of those who remained, who have supported the families and gone on to provide a fitting tribute to those lost. Personal loss was enormous, too, as we have heard. To lose one family member is tragic. To lose generations is unimaginable. The events around the tragedy are well known. As others have said, the crew of the TGB did what lifeboat crews do, and they responded to a call from help from the iron. There was a storm, and the iron was adrift in the Pentland Firth, a notoriously dangerous stretch of water. The conditions were atrocious, and on the way home, the lifeboat cup sized. It is not altogether clear what happened, because all hands were lost. The tragedy brings home to us the sacrifice made by those who provide voluntary emergency services. Lifeboat crews and, indeed, mountain rescue teams are very similar, given the dangers that they face, doing what is largely voluntary work. They love the sea or the mountains, and that motivates them to do that. Since the tragedy, lifeboats have been developed to be self-writing, as Maureen Watt said. Therefore, if they do cup size, they will write themselves. Those in them have a better chance of survival. That makes their life-saving work a little safer for them, however it remains extremely dangerous. Trying to get close to other vessels in high seas, to be out on deck in conditions that are perilous, are still putting their own lives at risk. Therefore, it is right that we mark that sacrifice with this debate, not just for those lost on the TGB, but for all those who have lost their lives trying to save others. I would also like to pay tribute to the work of the community in Orkney, who have more than achieved their target for maintenance and repair of the Long Hope Lifeboat Museum. That is a memorial to the crew of the TGB and other brave lifeboat crews. That is a lot more than the community had to raise to establish the museum originally, but they have achieved it. There is also a memorial in the cemetery among the graves of those who died that night. As Leigh MacArthur said, the TGB itself was recovered and towed to Scrabster by another crew. I can only imagine how they felt while their recovered crew and boats as part of their normal activities, doing this for your own, must be very difficult. It also seems strange to me and it is difficult to contemplate that the TGB returned to service in Ireland. I wonder how the lifeboat crews felt sailing her. That said, she continued to provide a life-saving service and is now in the Scottish Mattertown Museum in Irvine. The tragedy led to the RNLI introducing self-writing lifeboats, which means that those lives were not lost in vain. I am sure that many lives were saved as a result of this development in the design of boats. However, we must never forget the risks that those crews continue to face and use this debate to thank them for that, to thank all those who volunteered to save lives in very dangerous circumstances. Thank you very much. I call John Finnie to be followed by Donald Cameron. Mr Cameron will be the last speaker in the open debate. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. As the customer, I congratulate Leigh MacArthur on bringing this motion, particularly in the very fine speech, which was a fitting tribute to the community that he is the constituency member for. I was 12 years old when the disaster occurred in living in rural Lechabur. Lots of communities had disasters. I recall a multiple fatal accident involving north-east fishermen returning where that had a significant impact on the communities there. I also recall the community grief when police officers, Detective Sergeant Aaron Lumsden and Constable Ian Ritchie, were killed in the Caledonian canal. They were part of the volunteer, then Inverness Borough Police sub-aqua team, searching in the canal locks for a missing person and both officers were trapped and lost in life. It was only a matter of four months later, on 17 March 1969, that the long-club disaster occurred. Many people have very vividly outlined the circumstances of that, capsizing and going to the aid of the Liberian vessel and the entire crew losing their lives. Communities deal with tragedies in different ways, and of course there would be a lot of people affected by that. I wasn't aware until speaking to Linda, a member of my staff, her father-in-law, Ian Williamson, was the policeman there. The medical profession would have had, the Coast Guard would have been looted to it. It would have had far-ranging effects. In earlier this year, we had the centenar of the Isle Air disaster that was talked of in here, and much comment was about how the communities in Lewis and Harris dealt with that grief, they dealt with it by not talking about it. However, what was apparent and will be the same, of course, in Orkney, is that communities will never be the same again. Looking at the weather conditions, a number of members have alluded to that, the force nine gale, the near zero visibility, the spring tide resulting in waves over 60ft high. That is something that I remember reflecting on, two and a half times the heightier house. That is an astonishing statistic. People have talked about one of the positive outcomes that came, which was the design change that saw the vessels being self-writing. A big fan of the Canadian folk musician, Gordon Lightfoot, and people may be familiar with the song of the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, who talked about a similar tragedy in the Great Lakes, much celebrated. At his concert, he has often said how many vessels perished that year, and the reality is that there were 48 ships lost that year. The importance of one being remembered by that song is that we have a unique situation in which the community will not allow the circumstances of the loss to be forgotten. More in what talked about keeping abreast of the news, and, of course, people might struggle to understand that there is no flow of news that there is now, and it would be radio and television to a lesser extent and newspapers. It is important to say that we occupy islands off the coast of continental Europe. There are many treacherous waters that have been alluded to, and none more treacherous than the Pentland Firth, which is why it is sought to be harnessed. We do indeed volunteer both on sea and on land to support that, and I am sure that those who have lost their lives would be very proud of their descendants and continue to do that. I spoke up in a household that placed great significance in helping others and valued public service and efforts for the common good. The men at long hope, and their successors in the RNLI, both there and everywhere else, display to my mind all that is best about humanity. Their legacy lives on, and I thank, again, Orkney's constituency MSP, Liam McArthur, for giving Parliament an opportunity to remember that sacrifice. The tragic loss of life, that community loss, will not be forgotten. I thank Liam McArthur for bringing this debate forward. I, too, would like to pay my respects to those men who lost their lives in March 1969. My thoughts go to their descendants and, indeed, to the community of Brims in Longhope on the island of Hoi. They say that time is a healer, but many local communities who experience such tragedies never quite heal. Having seen the heartfelt commemorations in Lewis recently, as John Finnie mentioned, for the Islay tragedy, it is abundantly clear that no community ever truly recovers from such a tragedy. However distant in the past, and tightening it, island and coastal communities in particular seem especially affected. As Liam McArthur may know, I stood as a candidate in the 2015 election in Orkney and Shetland, unsuccessfully, clearly. However, in that campaign, it was brought home to me how important the sea was in Orkney. It may be an obvious point to make, but travelling across the islands and speaking to locals, whether they worked offshore in oil and gas or if they were part of the fishing fleet or, indeed, were in the lifeboat, on-called going out to potentially save lives, the sea was very much part of their life and the sea clearly poses dangers as well as many rewards. I would like to join others in paying tribute to those who do work on our seas and in the context of this debate for the RNLI, the thousands of volunteers who volunteer with the RNLI. I think that the lifeboat crews provide plainly a 24-hour rescue service in the UK, and they have saved over 142,000 lives since 1824. They also provide education to local communities. Community safety teams of the RNLI explain the risks and share safety knowledge with anyone going out to sea or to the coast, and they help to support people around the world to prevent drowning in areas where there is a high risk. I am sure that many of us, all of us, when we are out and about in local communities, will find that it is rare that we do not see an RNLI sticker on a car, window or on someone's door, such as the public support for the RNLI, and it is important, as Maureen Watt said, that we support this terrific organisation in any way that we can. Maureen Watt mentioned that, following the disaster, it was heartening to learn that one of the lessons learned was to develop self-writing lifeboats, which prevented loss of life in 1979, when two vessels from Barra and Islay, respectively, were deployed to respond to a merge. They both capsized only to successfully write again with no loss of life to the crew. Like all maritime disasters, it is right and fitting that we remember those who put their lives at risk. I was very moved by the fact that, as Liam McArthur said in his speech, the grandson of one of the people who perished now works and volunteers for the lifeboat crew. I am delighted to hear that the descendants of the eight crewmen or some of the descendants will remember them by playing the song The Heroes of Long Hope at the Commemoration. What a fitting tribute in my view. I thank Liam McArthur again for bringing this debate to the four, to allow MSPs across the chamber to join with the community of Brims in Huy and to remember those courageous men who were so sadly taken away. Let me begin by joining members who have congratulated Liam McArthur for bringing his debate to the chamber, because it is entirely fitting that Scotland's Parliament should set aside time to reflect on the night of 17 March 1969 and the Long Hope Tragedyne. Alongside that, we have an opportunity to highlight the heroism of the crews of the RNLI. I pay tribute to Mr McArthur for his opening speech and others for their thoughtful contributions. The 50th anniversary of that dreadful tragedy in which eight men lost their lives were trying to save the crew of the SS Irene, Coxson, Daniel Kirkpatrick, second Coxson, James Johnson, Bowman Ray Kirkpatrick, mechanic Robert Johnson, assistant mechanic James Swanson and crewman Jack Kirkpatrick, Robert Johnson and Eric McFadgin. It serves to remind us all of the price that has been paid by our coastal communities, helping seafarers in peril, because it is from the ranks of ordinary men and women living in communities dotted around the coastline that the RNLI crews are drawn from. It is a hugely laudable and frankly staggering statistic that over the 195 years since the formation of the national institution for the preservation of life from shipwreck as it was originally titled, the RNLI has, as Donald Cameron highlighted, saved over 142,000 lives. Alongside that sits the sobering stat that 778 crew have paid the ultimate price while seeking to rescue those fellow mariners. Behind that second figure lies so many tragedies that have devastated the communities that crewed the lifeboats concerned, more in what reminded us of the Fraserborough lifeboat disaster. My constituency was touched by another such event, the loss 65 years ago of the Robert Lindsay, based in Arbroath, as it returned to Harbour from a rescue mission. Six crew perished, the tragedy remains woven into the fabric of the port, indeed the county, and so too the tiny 30 strong community of Brims and Longhope, which suffered the loss of a quarter of its population with the cap-sizing of the TGB in 1969. What made the Longhope tragedy particularly awful was the close and lasting family connections within the crew. As we have heard, there will be a commemoration of the tragedy on Sunday 17 March at the Longhope Bay Museum. As Liam McArthur revealed, the organisation of the commemoration has been wed by Kevin Kirkpatrick, coxman of the current Longhope lifeboat, who lost his father, his uncle and grandfather on the night of the tragedy. Kevin's wife Karen, of course, lost her, grandfather, father and uncle, and two families, as well as a small community, left utterly, unimaginatively devastated. The RNLI calls its crew members ordinary people who do extraordinary things. They are right. When conditions are of a tight, most of us would retreat from them. The RNLI crews head straight into them because someone is in peril, someone needs help. The comparisons with mountain rescue services that Rhoda Grant drew and perhaps Scottish fire and rescue are obvious. That was reinforced for me last year when I joined the current Arborod Lifeboat crew for a joint training exercise with the local fire and rescue. Two different emergency services, but with a degree of commonality around the circumstances in which they are so often called into action. Presiding Officer, like any charity, the RNLI is heavily dependent on fundraising and the nation. It is pleasing that Scottish Government officials have a long-lasting and continuing commitment to supporting an official civil service charity called the Communications and Public Service Lifeboat Fund. That started in 1866 when a handful of civil servants decided that they wanted to buy a lifeboat for the RNLI and raised the £300 that took them to do so. All the money that is raised by the Lifeboat Fund since has gone to help the RNLI's life-saving work. Down the years, the charity has supported the purchase of 53 lifeboats, as well as crew kit, lifeguard training and the refurbishing of lifeboat stations. The Public Service charity is the RNLI's longest-standing supporter. The Lifeboat Fund celebrated its 150th anniversary by raising £1.1 million for a Shannon-class lifeboat, the RNLI's latest design, with the efforts of the Scottish Government staff contributing more than any other single Government body. That has been followed by a new appeal that aims to reduce drowning in Scotland, the UK and overseas. Here in Scotland, children and young people are being helped to stay safe in and around water through a project in Fife, where RNLI lifeguarding has also been supported through the on-going appeal. The nature of the RNLI's role has evolved over its 195-year history, but the selflessness, the courage and the dedication that ran through the crew of the TGB when it set off that fateful day remains the characteristics demanded of crews today. In marking the 50th anniversary of the long-hope lifeboat disaster, as Liam McArthur has afforded us the opportunity to do today, what is acknowledged as a rhodigrant called on us to do? The enormous debt owed to those who put themselves at risk to assist seafarers in trouble around Scotland's mainland coast and islands. That concludes the debate, and I suspend this meeting of Parliament until 2.30.


This systematic review has shown that individuals who are infected with hepatitis B virus, HBV, are at increased risk of developing diabetes mellitus, DM. The authors found that the odds ratio or for developing DM among those with HBV infection was 1.24 times greater than those without HBV infection. Additionally, the or was 1.40 times greater when comparing cross-sectional studies and 1.76 times greater when comparing case control studies. Finally, cohort studies did not find any statistical significance between the two groups. This article was authored by Mushiara Nindiasari, Clarissa Agdalena, Darlene Bari, and others.


Everyone, Shave Bear 1000 here. Today we're gonna be doing another unboxing review, whatever, of these wireless mics I got. You can probably tell by the title, that's what we were gonna be doing. So let's go ahead and get into this, open it up. Let's see what it comes with and how well it sounds. Okay guys, so these came almost a week early. So that's good. I'll be able to use them this weekend when we go camping. So remember, we're gonna be doing a live stream while we're out there, so. You don't wanna miss that, stick around for that.  Hopefully we can do the live stream while we're fishing. Monkey's pretty excited. It's kind of, like I said, it's a place to down road. We've never been there. So we thought we'd check it out. I mean, just because it's close, don't mean a lot of people think, well, if you don't go out of town, you're not really getting away from home. But that's really not true. I mean, a lot of cool places can be found around where you live. So, this knife is dull. I don't think it's supposed to be, I think it's more of a novelty knife. It was one of her dad's knives. And I decided to keep for using for opening boxes, packages, whatnot. So, works fine for that. Somewhat. I just need to put it on the sharpening stone. I gotta have a nice sharpening stone in it. Well, it's old, but it's nice. I mean, it works really well. I got some poppers for monkey. And I usually put my shotgun mic on. I'm sitting to the left of the camera and I usually put my shotgun mic on and point it towards me. And I forgot to do that. So, what I'm gonna do, there's, well, that's a nice packaging. I mean, good job packaging. These were $65. So, let me get my mic so you're not just hearing it out of one side of your speakers. Okay, guys, hopefully that's better. No, there's no issue with your headphones if you have your headphones on. It's because, like I said, this camera has a left and right mic on it. And I'm sitting to the left of the camera. So, like I said, right now I got my little shotgun mic pointed towards me, so that way you should be able to get both sides. So, nice packaging, very nice, nice box. I never heard of this. Fee whorly. UHF wireless recording microphone system. Okay, working distance 100 meters, 16 channel. That's good because if I'm having trouble with planes going past, because remember my other mics, whenever a plane went past and I was outside, it would create some feedback until the plane was gone. So I can change channels so that don't happen. It's got a volume knob, a monitor. So, you can plug headphones in and you can actually hear what you are recording. You can hook it up smartphone, computer, camera, or camcorder. Okay, so, nice little carrying handle there. Like I said, I've never heard of this company, so I've never used their products. So, let's go ahead and tear into this thing. I'm getting a little excited for the weekend. We are leaving Friday night. Wow, this is cool. Now my other ones, they came, they had a little case for them too, but, or did they? I think the Booyah mics had a case to them. It was just a tiny case, but I mean, and they worked good, but I didn't buy them this time because last time what I give for them, 40 bucks or something, they lasted a few years, which is fine. I'm gonna take 40 bucks. I was gonna get another set of them there. Now the cheapest ones I could find was $79. I could find them for 45 used. I was like, no, because when did they buy them and how good did they work? Here's your, okay. Here's the instruction manual here. Go through all this stuff. Troubleshooting. This is the camera audio cable right here. So this is the one we will be using. This one is for your mobile phone. Audio cable. So this is for your smartphone and messaging monkey. This one is for, and this is the mic. Okay, cool. Now I don't see headphones. So it says headphones there, but it doesn't say it comes with it. But that's fine. I've got headphones. Got a little antenna here, okay. And also that one set that I bought, it just had clips on both the transmitter and receiver. Well, the receiver, you want one of these so you can clip it on your camera, put it on your camera on your cold shoe mount. Or you can clip it on to something there. And here's the on off switch. Here's the output. Here's your, for your headphones right here. Okay, there's that. Like I said, here is the mic. Hopefully it'll be a good sound to the mic. It had some pretty good reviews. It's like a 4.1 or 4.5 star. I can't remember which one. So it had a pretty good review. Someone did say that they would compare it to the Buyas. Okay, so this is your transmitter, okay. So there's your line in, your mic, on off switch, and again, your antenna. So it doesn't get broke. And I do kind of like the antennas. Now what I didn't think to check is, I'm pretty sure I got batteries, yes.  And your channel, right there. And I did not think to check, but I do have, these are double A batteries. I do have double A batteries. Thank goodness, where I'd be messaging monkey. When are you getting off work? See, again, volume and channel. So I'm gonna get some batteries. And we're gonna put some batteries in here. And we're gonna pair these up. And I'll get you plugged in. Also, a lot of times, guys, these mics, if you spend a few extra bucks on these lavalier mics, you can get a better-sounding quality. It's not always just these things that make the sound 90% of it. As long as these are paired good and they're working well, with no feedback or interference, it's up to your microphone after that. So okay, which I used to use my insignia mic. It was wired, but I would, you know, I would plug it into this, into my transmitter. And, of course, I had that long-ass cable with like 20-foot of cable or whatever cord. And I would use it and it sounded phenomenal because that was an excellent mic, okay? So let's go ahead and get this out. This is for the camera. All right, now I'm not sure what the difference is on these. I'm not sure if there is a difference. Yeah, yeah, there is a difference here. All right, there's the difference in these two pieces. This one's for the phone. See, there is a difference. So don't get them confused or it probably won't work properly. All right, again, let's go ahead. I think these sync up automatically to whatever channel they're on, but I'm gonna read through it just to make sure, but I'm pretty sure that whatever channel you put it on, I do believe they will sync up. So let me get some batteries. We'll put them in, then we'll try them out and see how it sounds, see and take a walk around the yard or something, see how well it does. Okay, guys, I've already got the batteries in this one. It's real easy to do. And yes, it says it should already be paired. It does have instructions on how to change the channels. So you gotta do there and you put this back on. All right, now it says the first thing to do is the receiver, which will be for the camera, which is this one here. The receiver, you'd always know the receiver if it has a headphone or an output because the output will go right into your mic port on the camera. It says mount it or whatever you're gonna do with it. Now I'm gonna show you, I'm gonna use monkey's camera. I'll show you how to do that here in just a minute. Okay, and then plug the audio cable into the receiver output right there. Monitor output connector. Connect the other end of the audio cable to the camera's mic audio output connector. That doesn't sound right, but just plug it into your mic port on your camera. Then it says turn the power switch on and the indicator light turns green. Then the transmitter is pretty much the same way. Insert the lavalier microphone into the transmitter's mic, microphone input connector, which will be, right there where it says mic, okay. Then it says plug the audio cable plug into the receiver output monitor output connector, whatever. So, wait, I just read that wrong. I just read the wrong thing to you. Okay, insert the lavalier microphone. It's gonna go in there. All right. Then it says plug the audio cable plug into the receiver's line in audio input connector, which would be that one. That would be for your phone. Okay, so we're not gonna worry about that. We're gonna be using this one here. All right. Then it says turn the power switch to on and the indicator light turns green. Clamp the device around your waist or in your pocket. It says if the radio signal of the receiver and transmitter are connected properly, the green indicator light of the receiver will be bright. The number of channels displayed by the digital light is the same as that of the transmitter. If it is connected, the green indicator of the receiver will flash continuously. Receiver and transmitter are paired already and can be used directly after booting, okay. So, what we're gonna do is first, okay, we're gonna, our receiver, which is gonna be here. We're gonna plug the audio cable into the receiver output monitor output connector. So that's this one. So what we're gonna do is I'm just gonna go ahead and do that right now. Now I'll show you how to plug it into the camera. Like I said, I'll use monkey's camera. Okay, so I'm gonna plug it into that just like that.  I have a hot slash cold shoe on here. You can use either one. Now the hot shoe mount is powered, which this is a power, it is a hot shoe, but you can also run just different things on it. Just put it in there if you want. So I don't know, I'm gonna have to see if this has got room because of this piece on top. It looks like it might. So let me get monkey's camera out and I'll show you how to hook this up. Okay guys, I'm on monkey's camera. This is how I can tell when the mic is working right there in the corner. See that? As I talk, that's how I can tell if it's working. I got this one on.  I'm gonna go ahead and unplug it here. Now I'll show you the difference. Now see, since this mic is, oops sorry, since this mic is off, if you can see, I'm sitting on the left hand side of the camera and I'm getting most of my input on the left side. So that's why I usually do this. Now, again, like I said in the review of the camera, I don't like that. I mean, I'm surprised I haven't snapped that off already. I don't like that at all. But anyway, we're gonna take our, I always try to point this, if I can, towards, yeah, it'll fit. Always try to point it towards the, hopefully this is not gonna get in the way, towards the transmitter. That way, you know, there's better chance of it picking up. Okay, so we're just gonna plug this in here. See, there we go. See, just like that. So it's going, it's coming from the output and it's going into the input onto the camera. Okay, hopefully it's not gonna pick up. No, it's not, it's not gonna pick up the antenna. Okay, now it says to turn it on. So let's go ahead and flip this switch on here. Just like that. It looks like it's on channel nine. Now, we're gonna go ahead, we're gonna plug our mic in where it says mic. Boom. Okay, now I'm gonna take, so I'm trying to do this one-handed because I knew if I set up a tripod, I would just keep moving the damn tripod around, so. So there's this. Now we're gonna turn this on, right there. Okay, nine and nine, okay. Green light, green light. I thought this was supposed to be flashing, but I'm talking right here and you can see that it is picking up my voice. Okay, right here. Check, check one, two. So, all right, so now we're gonna clip this. I'm just gonna clip it on my pocket right there. Then I'm gonna clip this on up here to me. Check, check, check, check. See, it's working, it's working great already. Can you see that? Okay, so let's put this on here and the next clip you're gonna see is gonna be with this camera here and this mic system. Okay guys, so hopefully this is not too loud, but I'm maxing out on my little gauge up here.  But right now we're gonna try this out. So, I'm gonna take you guys outside. As you can see, I've got it on here, see? And it looks like both sides are pretty much equal. What if I go like this? Pretty much equal, if I go like this. Pretty much equal, okay. Because I noticed on my other ones, if I turned my head too far or something, it would make a difference in the left and right. Now, according to this gauge, it seems to be okay. So, like I said, I'll have to check it out first and then I'll let you guys know what my final thoughts are. Now I'm gonna take you outside. I'm gonna walk around a little bit. Let's see how it does. Okay guys, we're gonna check the distance. It says 60 meters, which is what? Right around 180 feet-ish, somewhere right in there. Now I'm not sure how far that is, but I'm pretty sure it's not 180 feet. Now of course, when I get back there, I'm not gonna be able to see if this gauge is working. So I'm gonna walk all the way back to that red tote. I don't know if you can see it. There's a little statue there, a little bird bath. I'm gonna walk back to there and we'll talk to you guys.  So after this clip, that's what I'm gonna do. Then we'll go to the garage and we'll talk about it, okay? So I'm gonna just keep talking to you guys. Excuse me. In a normal voice, I'm just chit-chatting away. Hopefully it's still working. And like I said, I got it for $65 and well, let's call it. It was like $6 shipping. So it was like, you know, whatever, $71 or something. So I'm waving at you. Now I'm gonna go around the shed here. Okay, and so I'm walking around the shed. Now this may, you know, that at 60 meters is like a straight shot too, by the way. It's not, so I'm walking around the shed. It might not pick it up. So I don't know if you can see me over here or not, but I'm over here and now I'm gonna go over here by the garden and I've got, man, my peppers are really kicking ass. And, you know, it's pointing towards the end of October and I'll show these to you here, all right? So, I guess I was out of shot there for a minute. Okay, let me get you off of here. I'll get you turned around here so I can see what you're looking at. The tomatoes is weird.  Okay, so as you can see, I still got a bunch of peppers. There's one needs to be picked there. I still got a bunch of, well, cayenne peppers and then I've got up here on this thing, it's getting weighted over because I thought they were done, so I didn't tie it up or anything. Where's that? There's one here, right there, and there's one here, let me see. There's one here, pretty good size one. There's one here, pretty good size one. I've got, let me see, is there one up here now? So I've got three here. There's one, there's two, and there's three, that's gonna be a good one there.  So yeah, guys. All right, so sorry about that. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead, I'm gonna take this footage in, I'm gonna import it to the PC and then I'm going to listen to it and see how well it does and see if it broke up or if I got any kind of interference or feedback or anything like that. I also need to check the, which I can't do with you guys, but I will check it and let you know how the, trying to close this little door, there we go. I'm gonna go ahead and plug my headphones in and I'm gonna listen to them, but I'll let you know in the next clip how well they sounded. So I'll be right back with you guys in just a second, let you know what's going on. Okay guys, I thought I'd throw this in here for you. I know you guys can't tell, but I can really tell that it is working, seems to be working fine. It's kind of hard to say what your voice, you know. Now, if I had somebody else to talk for me, would be better, but I can tell it's working, it's working out both sides. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put, I've got a splitter, I'm gonna plug this into it with the mic that goes in these and I'm gonna see if that works. On second thought, I'm not gonna do that because that don't make sense because I won't be able to use these in the mic because I'm wired. So that wouldn't make any sense. I would just plug my, I'll plug it in the splitter and then plug my mic into the mic port and the headphone and the head port of the camera. So what I am gonna try to do though, I am gonna try, I'm gonna put my mic into here and then I'm gonna try to plug and use that mic instead of the lavalier mic and let's see how that works, hang tight. Check one, two. Okay, so this mic works fine with it. Of course, the headphones are not gonna, you know what I'm saying, I'm not gonna be because the headphones I would have to plug in. I've got my splitter on here. I would have to plug the headphones in there. I'm wired, doesn't make sense. But in a pinch, I could still use this mic and if it sounds really good, I can, you know, I could actually use this during doing other things like if I'm behind the camera and whatnot, I could still use this mic because I think this mic sounds pretty good. So that'll also be a comparison between this mic and the lavalier mic. So right now I'm using this mic. I'm going to unplug it and plug the lavalier mic in. Let's see what the difference is. Now the lavalier mic is plugged in. As you can see, I'll take this clear off here. So the lavalier mic is plugged in. So that kind of gives us an idea of what that mic sounds like and this mic sounds like. So pretty cool. So let me go in, let me get this taken care of, see how good it picked up and everything. I'll meet you in the garage. Okay guys, as you might be able to see if I do this, and you can probably tell, I am using the wireless mic on the last clip here because I like the sound of it. I think the headphone mic sounds better. I think it sounds better than probably any mic I've got other than the boom mic I've got for the computer. It sounds really good. But I think it's, as far as these mics, I think it's the best sound of mic, but this mic does sound really, really good. Let me know what you think in the comments below. But I think it sounds awesome for $71, 65 is what I gave for him. It was $6 delivery. So, or shipping, whatever you want to call it. So yeah, I'm really satisfied with them. I'll just, I'll have to let you know the longevity of these, of this wireless mic system here. You know, as time goes by, I'm sure you'll see me using this mic quite a bit. And if you noticed, when I walked around the shed, it didn't cut out once and that's a metal shed. So, you know, I'm pretty happy about that. It's not that I'm ever gonna be behind something like that, but you never know. If I doing something in here, got to run outside for something, grab a tool or whatever I know, it's gonna pick it up. So, I mean, I don't know how I'm gonna show you this, but I'll tell you what let's do. I'm gonna go outside right now and talk to you guys. Okay, and I'm gonna wave at the camera. So what I'll do, I'm gonna wave at the cameras up here. All right, now what I'm gonna do is I'll go outside. I'm gonna put you on, what is this camera for? I'm gonna put you on camera four so you guys can see it maybe a little bit better. Okay, let me get my glasses on and see what you guys are seeing. See if you guys can see that, not real well. Let me zoom in. Oh, by the way, I keep thinking when I got something on top of this camera here, the zoom button is right underneath it.  But then I'm looking on my touchscreen and I can actually use my touchscreen for that. So that's pretty good. So I'm gonna go outside and I'm gonna talk to you guys, excuse me, and I'll wave at you and stuff. And we'll see if that picks up good. You might hear my phone going off because of the ring doorbell. So here I am, I'm out here guys. In fact, you guys are in the garage. Oh, I don't know if you can hear that because my phone's inside and I got the mic out here, but I'm gonna go over here by the truck. Let's see if it picks up. Now you guys are in a garage. That is a block home, it's all block except for the ceiling, of course. So, all right. Hopefully this picked up. If not, I'll put it across the screen. Okay, I don't know if you heard that just as we came in, but my phone was going off. So, all right guys, there you go. There's that, oops, sorry again.  I only got four minutes on my car, but that's okay, I'm getting ready to go ahead and close this video out here. I'm gonna end it here and I'm gonna say thanks for watching guys, I appreciate it. Hopefully, if some of you guys are wanting to get a set of wireless mics, hopefully this helps you. Like I said, I don't know the longevity, I do know it's got good reviews, of course there was a couple where they had some issues with them, I don't know. Like one was it didn't come in on time or something like that. And I think they were a day late or something, kind of nitpicking stuff. And another one was they only gave it two stars because they said it should have rechargeables. I can understand that, I'd like them having rechargeables too, but I've always got extra batteries with me. So to me that's not an issue. Right now, you know, from what I can tell, just being able to go around a steel shed from about 75 feet. And then going outside here, hopefully that picked that up, if not I'll have to put it across the screen, but I'm going outside. So right now, I'm gonna give it a four and a half stars and if it lasts longer than a year, I'll give it a five star. Cause these things get beat around a lot.  So I'll have to let you know as time goes on, how well they're doing. But right now I'm very happy with them, four and a half stars right now. If it gets me through a year, I'm gonna give it a five star. But right now my rating is four and a half stars. And I appreciate you guys watching. Hopefully this helps somebody. And that's all I got to say about that. So, and I like the case, excuse me, the price is reasonable because some of these mics, you know, you can spend $1,700 on a mic system, but you get all kinds of them. Three or four transmitters, you know, for different people. But if I wanna use different people, I'll just use a splitter and run two mics. It's not that big of a deal to me because usually it's just gonna be one person, just me using it or maybe monkey, which by the way, fun fact, real quick story. When I told her, she said, you only ordered one. I'm like, yeah, why? She goes, well, I thought maybe you'd order me one. I said, oh honey, I'm so sorry, but your camera does not have a mic input. So an external mic input. So anyway, I told her when I make it big and become famous, I'll get her a nice camera. And a nice mic. So anyway, Monk, hang in there. We'll get you taken care of. Shea Bear, the myth and man legend. I'm gone for now. Thanks for watching, guys. Appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your week. Not long the weekend will be here. We'll see you soon and take care. Bye bye.


The nature of a power area. In a world striving towards betterment and a fair stance on equity, some states leaders have deliberately chosen the something ship of this seat and inefficient leadership, thus placing followers of citizens in hardship. Parai in this context is leadership league with structural fatalities, loopholes and ineffective policies, a red flag of pariah leadership. The people have little or no say in their face of the state or a system or even an organization. The dictatorial attributes got fatalism and recycled leadership among same persons of similar interests at the expense of other persons in the system or the nation. Systems that are heavily dependent on caste and tribal routines may call it traditional treatment of other persons in the system. These and more are the signs of pariah leadership in any given community. A move to eliminate this system totally would be unrealistic, hence the need for fairness in leadership, wayward and effective policies at whose negative means. Baby steps are what we need to approach this anomaly. Some of these could be a tensioner inclusion, equity to achieve equality, feedback approach, fairness and justice. Leadership should be about doing the right things in the right manner at the right time, respecting differences as seeking to share common value. Why do we pariah is about outlaw, outcast, ostracizing a set of people or a caste system, being partial in your dealings. So let's discuss this. So Victor, you know this issue of dealing with peasants in the country, why some peasants believe that they are not only stick to power, power belongs to them. Why some peasants have the opportunity to select the right people for the job? Simply because oh it's not from my tribe, oh it's not from my religion, oh it's not from this or that, oh it's from the certain place that we don't deal with a day. We bring the peasants and these people come in and click on the system. So that's what we're facing, where our institutions are smaller than people. So what's your take on this, Victor? Well I've said this before on the advocate, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely. And it's, I think the part of intentional inclusion, right, I picked that from what you said. It's really important that we begin to ask ourselves what kind of future do we want. I know I mean it's going to be really hard to really really evade this kind of system, the pariah system. It's going to be really very like practically unrealistic because of the way power is. And again it stems from our values. What is the value of a Nigeria? Even within a tribe people are still creating divisions, oh you're Igbo, there's this side of Igbo and then in that side of Igbo there's another side of Igbo. So there's a lot of, so our values, there's a lot of, I mean we don't have a unified value system. What's our value collectively? What unites us together? So what maybe you can say is I mean what is Nigeria's football? It's when you're playing football over, after football we're done. So I think we need to redefine what is the value of a Nigeria? I'm not talking about the value of an house or Igbo or Epic or Yoruba. What is the value of a Nigeria? And we need to strengthen those values, right, because the truth of the matter like I said earlier or sometimes on the show is it is the people that we are mingling with or talking with today that's going to end up in power, right? So I think we need to really fix our value system. Like I really don't even know myself what is the value of being a Nigerian. Yeah, I know worldwide the university does this. I say one of the values is living diversity. So what's your thought, diversity is the size of life, right? Yeah. So first of all, outside that I think getting people in position should be based on merit. So it shouldn't be based on if you are, let me say if you are from a classical tribe or based on sentiments that should be the same. It shouldn't be based on sentiment. So even if you're getting people like you have, because once you start getting people involved based on sentiment you are reducing the quality of people you get in that position. And in the long term it will affect the system. So if you check in, I think that's actually what's affecting the nation. Because getting the, rather than for you to get people with the right skills on board, you're getting someone based on sentiment. And in the long run, you will kill that system because if you get someone who is not good into that position the person maybe before he leaves, he gets someone to replace him and that person who is replacing him may not be that good in that position. So in the long run we're all losing that. Just before it goes sorry, just to buttress my talk on values. I mean, remember in secondary school, even in primary school, I'm the class captain. I'm just the right names of noise maker. I don't like to combo. The way he's always looking at me. So you say it's all coming wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Back. So let's vote for the next assistant class captain. So people are raising their hands based on, ah, he doesn't need to give me sweets in the bus when we enter a bus. Are you seeing people are reforming cabals? So you're not voting a maker because she's qualified to become the assistant class captain.  So we need to go back and fix that. It's a faulty thing. I'm going to fix it. It's part of our value system. I'm going to ask you a question. In primary school, it was class monitor this. Class monitor that time. We go to secondary school. It was class captain. There was this popular person. I think if I'm going to put, I think she's my manager. She says something about why she was in primary school. Class monitor in her own way. Simply because she was a girl. They said that the highest, the person that scored the highest that performed very well in the exam will become the class monitor. Then she and the guy had a tie. Now they gave it to the guy because she was a girl. She confronted the teacher that she wanted to be teacher. As you know, a woman cannot or a girl cannot be class monitor. Now the reason why I brought that out is I'm going to relate it to you.  I'm very quite sure. Your environment might be very good for you in terms of encouraging you to fight her, to push her. It doesn't matter who you are, you can do it anyway. But there are many girls out there that they desire to be where you are today. But they are in a wrong environment that keeps telling them that you are a girl. You cannot do this. You cannot do that. You cannot do this. Okay, so I can mention I have been blessed. I have been fortunate to be in an environment where I have had people put me, I mean, regardless of my gender. In fact, my gender is not a consideration. It has never been a consideration. I know the work. That's all that matters. And I understand that there are women that do not have such opportunities like I do. So it's very important to actually think about those things. What can typically work in those cases? I mean, this is an advice for someone that has never experienced it. So it might be a bit theoretical, right? So, but what might really work in those cases? Like in the case, Chimamanda has actually set the standard. You have to actually fight for your right eventually. Because if you get to a certain stage in my career, I know that I would have to always fight for my right. And I'm getting myself prepared for it. Because I know that some people are not going to always give me that space. So like I say, I saw a quote that was put up by one of my respected person. She said, she said diversity is a policy. Inclusion is an intention. So you have to make conscious efforts as a business, as a person to ensure that people are put into positions based on merits regardless of whatever gender or tribe or religion they are from. I like that diversity is a policy. It's good on paper. But in practical inclusion is intentional. It was put on. The thing is, from what we've got is 22 years of community. I hope Nigeria will learn to grow beyond our parochialism, religious sentiment, tribalism, who our leaders will be. Then also within our reach in our local businesses, the corporate family, let's respect everyone. Everybody cannot be like you. We will not be from where you are. Respect people and just let's stick to our common values and then the system will work. Well, time is never our friend on this program. However, the advocacy continues on our social media platforms, on Facebook, plus TV Africa, hashtag the advocate NG and Instagram at plus TV Africa, hashtag the advocate NG. To catch up with our previous brokers, go to plus TV Africa dot com forward slash the advocate NG. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel plus TV Africa. See you next week. Same time on this station. Let's keep advocating for a better society.