Corie Sheppard Podcast
Corie Sheppard Podcast
Episode 230 | Yellow Decode
We finally get a chance to catch up and talk about the election results and some other matters at hand.
Enjoy!
If you thought I wasn't coming back with a yellow background and you thought yellow wasn't the code.
Speaker 3:In short, this is what I have to say Let us forget spites and grudges and concentrate. Come, let us sit and try to relate, because now more than ever, we must show discipline, tolerance and production.
Speaker 2:Listen me, no DJ, you know. Good night, good morning, good evening, welcome back. You know, I mean this episode 200 and something of the Corey Shepard Podcast Because, to be honest, I'm recording this and I'm not sure when we're going to put it out. But I know no DJ to wheel no song and thing right. But I want you to know that Merchant write this song. This song could be 50 years old. The historians go check me on that right. And the last president we had who's on it?
Speaker 2:Salute to the Honorable Christine Kangaloo used this song in her inauguration. I mean, we call it inauguration here too, but I just trumpeted it. And the lyrics in this song, this song I want you to. Whether red is the code, yellow is the code, whether you still have a party or you resign your party and that party absorb your party, or whether you're done with party and you stay home and see about your wife, this is an important song for everybody to listen. To listen, not just listen the melody become. Merchant is a melodial genius. Melodial is a word is a word. He's a genius when it comes to melodies and putting songs together. But listen to the lyrics in this and tell me how to write a song that could be applicable and relevant 50 years down the road.
Speaker 3:Now the election back and I'll die away. In short, this is what I have to say. Let us forget Spites and grudges and concentrate. Come, let us sit and try to relate, because now More than ever, we must show Discipline, tolerance and production To build. We must show, basically, tolerance and production to build a strong and better nation. I say that is the main foundation. So come, let us walk hand in hand, because this is our land. Come, my brother, come my sister, and let us build a nation together.
Speaker 2:Voletano more brother, no, it's only sister and sister. Oh yeah, yeah, oh, oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're on the winning side, listen to the lyrics, right, if you win.
Speaker 3:Remember, the key to success is working hard For our country. We must have regard. Forget all your differences. Let me start to build, and on what to progress? We surely will, because now more than ever, we must show discipline, tolerance and production To build a strong and better nation. I say that is the main foundation. So come, let us put hand in hand, because this is our land. Come my brother, come my sister, and let us build a nation together, because this is our land. Come my brother, come my sister.
Speaker 2:And let us build a nation together. Reaching out to the PDP. The key words is let us build a nation together. Oh, oh, oh, oh, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Lyrics to make a politician cringe.
Speaker 3:So much of things that we need to see about. Surely I do have to spell them out, because you know as well as I do. The only way Is putting more effort and less play, because now more than ever, we must show Discipline, tolerance and production To build a strong and better nation. I say that is the main foundation. So come, let us put hand in hand, because this is our land. Come my sister, come my sister.
Speaker 2:Come my sister, come my sister, come my sister, come my sister. This should be about episode 230 or thereabouts of the Corey Shepard Podcast. Welcome back to everybody who's been listening. Welcome to all you new listeners. Plenty new listeners on board and plenty things to talk about today. Right, let me tell you something For all my day ones. Right, let me start with day ones Before we get into the election kutru, bacchanal, kankalan, confusion, mayhem and commerce. Right, it's all my day ones.
Speaker 2:And people who saying, boy, you think admin election come, you ain't saying nothing about the election. People tell me, um, influencers get 40 000 allegedly to to promote different thing, and they say, like I can have 40 000 to keep quiet. All of a sudden I nothing to say about election. All of a sudden. I used to record home background, this place blurry. Now the background is nice and yellow, thanks to the people who said affordable imports this. There's predictive analytics going on in affordable imports. You know they yellow me out long before. Yellow was the code. So I'm comfortable, I'm safe where I am and I expect calls for senatorial positions and chairmen of boards and so on. I'm looking forward to those phone calls. You know what I mean. Who listening, all you hear us here, eh, but it is difficult.
Speaker 2:Now again, a different journey and a different pivot something I always said I would have been able to talk to people and some, some important people in these spaces. So that is uh, that is consuming, it is tiring, it is exhausting. It takes a lot to sit down and research on some of the people who have coming through. It takes a lot of work to get that. It takes a lot in terms of scheduling just to get people here and then, of course, to edit and put clips out for the episode, something I've never been good at doing and I'm still not good at doing that.
Speaker 2:When you see, I sit down here and talk by myself. I don't really like putting out clips of what I see, and this election is a good example of why. Because when you're talking about sensitive issues like politics and them kind of thing where I might talk about politics, religion, all the things that people are uncomfortable to talk about I don't like to talk about, and things here too, too much, none of them like to talk about it, I should say. But I can't talk about that with a guest when I, when I, when I hear is about the guests, right, but when I talk about it by myself, I do like cutting little one minute clips of it, because how you go explain macroeconomic policy to address the unemployment, you cannot address that in a minute. And if I cut that down to a minute it will be misconstrued. It will sound like if I'm saying one bad thing about the other and a good thing about the next, and I'm not. I'm one of those people. Everybody. They say they're impartial and they don't like neither party. So I joined in that same list.
Speaker 2:I really am a bit uh, disenchanted with the political situation. So, uh, I don't see myself as either side or belonging to any party. I've, I've, I don't hold a party card. I've never held a party card and I don't like the word never. But I don't have any intention to join any party. I I just don't like it to be honest, I don't like it.
Speaker 2:Somebody, somebody thinks we see going around with man cussing man, black is white, and now both of them shaking hand. I don't like it. To be honest, I don't like it. Some of the things we see going around with man cussing man, black is white, and now both of them shaking hands, I don't know that I could do it.
Speaker 2:It's not so much that I don't want to be in the politics or I don't want to serve the country, and I respect all the people who put themselves up to serve the country and so on and put their nice little private life into public scrutiny. I respect them for doing that, but I don't know that I abled it. I can't do some of the things they do and laugh and smile at people and then if I vex, I vex in real life. So maybe I'm not cut out for it. I'm not good enough. I always say the best and brightest put themselves there and I'm not on that list. So who can't do this teacher?
Speaker 2:I come to do, I really just come to talk and I haven't been getting the opportunity, because of all these things, to come and sit down and talk to Oli by myself. So I'm glad to have Oli back. Let me play this applause again. I ain't like that enough. I find that applause making it sound like if my audience thinning out and the audience is grinning. So I appreciate that. So I'm glad for the opportunity to come and I'll tell you let me be honest with you. Right, you could expect episodes by myself most times. When guests cancel. That is when I have the time booked and somebody say they can't come or something happens, which happens. I mean the people who are asking to come on. I'm very, very grateful for the opportunity to sit with them and the time that they afford me and so on. So I accept it. And if they can't come, I'm so happy that I've built the muscle to sit down here and talk on on issues myself.
Speaker 2:So where we starting? We starting with that. I remember a long time I used to start with telling only what I do and what, what's been going on in my life and so on. Let me get a little capsule into my life now, before we start to talk about the election I most recently and again it takes a lot of research to sit with people. So and I promised everybody here that I talk about the culture so much I wanted to get a little more involved in the cultural issues and so on. So we can go on there.
Speaker 2:I went and take, you know, a show by freetown collective called tight spaces. I want to talk about that for a little while. Right, Freetown Collective is something special and we must recognize them for that. In other words, if I could play a guitar like Lou. I don't know that I had no sort of higher meaning. I'm just looking for the highest bidder who paid me the most and I paid any band that called me.
Speaker 2:I have a little bit of skill in a few areas. I tell all these guys to lecture. When time to lecture, lecture, the answer is yes. No. If they call me and they say cory, we have our e-commerce, I'm like yes, I'm available every saturday for the next. I looking for it, I looking for the bag. So I respect the fact that these folks have the level of talent that they have, uh, in terms of muhammad and singing the trinity and these girls harmonizing and things on the next level, the whole band rockers playing bass. If I could play bass like rockers, you can't catch me in no band trying to ascribe to no higher ideals and all these things.
Speaker 2:I'm looking for it. Yes, you know what I mean. All inclusive results are not cheap. Let me put it like that All inclusive results a little expensive. You know what I mean and I want out the deal, but I think, um, I'll stop by saying freetown collective is something special and we should all observe it. People who love the culture and think you should. You should take them in.
Speaker 2:But they had a show in cafe noir in senaga, senaga chance to go in and I didn't realize. When they said tight spaces, I was imagining people squeezing up, right, I say, well, I could disappear in the crowd. I'm not very good at going places where I had a standout for any reason, you know, but when I went, there is like 20, 25 people. They bring together people sit down on the ground, real bohemian style and I ain't looking the part, I looking completely out of place with this thing. Of course, the thing saying eight and one of the things you might know. Right, I'm very talkative, but when I do a podcast, I really thinking out loud for hour and a half, two hours. You know, it's not that I want to talk to people. So the people inside of this thing where I go and interact with people is always a little awkward for me.
Speaker 2:But I saw, if a thing starts at 8 o'clock, I just reach the half past 7 months sitting in my car until 7.59. Well, who told me to do that with free time? Because when I walk in the tight space I was in front of the crowd right next to Muhammad. Now it's like, oh God, the only seat in the place now is right in front of, with Rokas and them playing. Now I'm looking like a part of the. I feel like I should have walked out of Marrakech and had a shake or something. I was so close to the crowd at that point in time. Pause on that. Marrakech and action. Maybe I'll start to reach earlier and pick my spot in the back so I could fade to black easily in these events.
Speaker 2:But they put on a show, acoustic event and really, really a special event. So I get a chance to take that in. And I wonder sometimes if, um, I always remember a man named Robert Spector, right, but my father and I were in the early days of the company. My father put on a seminar for people to um, for executives, to learn from nordstrom, disney and ritz carlton. He brought a speaker from each one of those companies to do a keynote speech on what makes them special where customer experience is concerned. Right, and I always remember saying now I'm talking to robert specter he had written a book on the nordstrom way and, uh, really just documenting how good nordstrom is at customer service and building their customer experiences. And he was talking about he's from seattle, seattle, the one on the west coast, right northwest coast in the states, that's seattle. And he was talking about going and, uh, taking in a show where he was able to see bob marley and the whalers up close and personal because there was opening for one of his favorite rock acts, you know, soft rock or whatever it was and you know, you're in a little cafe and you're taking in Bob Marley and the Wailers performing. You know, and he's talking about Peter Tosh, bob Marley, bunny Wailer, so that's the special days of the Wailers. At that point in time, or that might be the only time you could see three of them together.
Speaker 2:And sometimes, when I'm watching Freetown Collective, either up close in places like tight spaces or on TV or on social media, sometimes I wonder if that is what we're looking at, if you're looking at the early days of a young Bob, or when I look at Chronix, his early days, where you could get to see him up close and personal, and maybe we might reach a point where you might never get to see a band like Freetown Collective up close and personal again. But I don't want to put any pressure on men, right? I just want to say that that was a great show. It's a part of a series that is, I think, tight spaces. They said it's four events. They have a yoga studio somewhere in Tonga that they're doing the next one, I believe on the 22nd people. I was trying to count these fellas' pockets too. I said let me check how much money these men and them are really making. I said, all right, if it's 200, I'll take it to 25 people. I was trying to do a little quick maths in my mind, but check it out if you get a chance to check it out.
Speaker 2:Other than that, over the past few weeks I've been extremely swamped Beyond finding the time to record between recording with guests. It's just been really, really difficult. We're going through some transitions in work. It's some of the hardest times I ever go through in my career. I have courses going on on weekends, so mostly I'm just real tired in between and I just need to rest. So I'm glad for this opportunity to do this today and to talk to you. I've not abandoned the format where I talk by myself and talk on some of the issues, but these are some of the things that have me there. I was saying on Facebook last week that I feel like I am the only man who still has red. I'm trying to get rid of everything I have red right now. Right, are you looking for alignment? You know what I mean. Are you looking for alignment? Only youarelli and stuart, young male, but I went and vote. I went and vote so many times.
Speaker 2:Only if you've been listening to this for a long time only know sometime you come here after election, I'm a finger you read at all and sometimes it might be read I, I, I, I will defend people rights not to vote. You see this idea that voting was fought for and I think that's important. But I think it's also important for people to appreciate the fact that this, this idea that voting is an obligation and if you don't vote, I just wonder if I I will. I will go along with that if people allow me not to pay tax when I don't vote. You see this idea that you don't vote, you don't have a say. And what, my friend? Yeah, if I pay in tax, I have a say on anything that happened in this country or any decision that anybody makes.
Speaker 2:So for the 50 people who didn't vote, which it seemed to be the case in this election, that quite a people, quite a few people, didn't vote, you know. Usually, uh, low voter turnout tends to signal that people are okay with the incumbent. Obviously not the case this time. Right, it looked like the red army is the one that stay home, you know. So I would say to people who didn't participate in the process at all do what it takes to hold the government accountable, whether your party win or lose, your party in power or not. Let us not go down this road where we still maybe I could understand it a little bit when the election going on and we campaign, where everything your party say is right and everything the other party say is wrong. But, in the spirit of what Merchant was singing about, we have to build a nation together. If UNC wins, everybody wins. There's no time that that has been more important than now.
Speaker 2:If the people in power you can't continue to hold on to your election type Me, I'm saying abandon your party. If you're NT, you're NT, well, still have NT. Matter is that If you're PDP, pdp and them. If you have a PEP, maybe it's still a two-party system, maybe, maybe two and a half. But if your party lost it, don't mean that now you have to go on Facebook every day and cherry-pick at everything the boss and them do. They're the boss. They're the boss for at least the next five years, and my theory is that the UNC, this current UNC, this current party in power, this current government, have an opportunity to sideline the PNM for a long time. They have that opportunity. What they do with the opportunity, we go observe. Right, because that's what we're watching now.
Speaker 2:They're in power and one of the things I never liked in 2011, not 2011,. More so 2015, not 2011, more so 2015 you see the idea of you win and you're still just. Everything is about the party wasn't poor before I. I. That makes me very uncomfortable and I'm starting to see a little bit of signs that that is where we headed, because the last headline I read before I started recording I say brace yourself for bad news as we find out what is the state of the government. I. I wonder if there's a better way.
Speaker 2:I have a few suggestions in terms of bettering the way this election process works and, and possibly even better, in the way the governance structure is in the country. Right, because if political parties have to do a manifesto where they promise different things, I think it's unfair to ask the parties to do that manifesto in in the in the dark, in isolation. It's like they don't have access to all the figures. They don't have access to exactly the way the how much money in the treasury, for instance, or how much? And again, I talking completely utopian, right, because I would assume that if I was party in power, I would not share information with my biggest rival. But maybe we should, because them, being in opposition for so long, could go and basically request any information they want through the parliamentary process, right? So if that is the case, share information with them that allows them to write a manifesto. That's realistic. I'm not saying the current manifesto is not realistic, but it must be that you, you cannot, we can't continue to live in our country I'm talking about the electorate now, where we vote based on promises from our party that they could just write wherever they want in the manifesto. And then, is is a good enough excuse or reason, or reason or rationale when they come in to say, hey, we was getting all this, but they'd be paying them and them around the country into the ground. That is not good enough, that is not acceptable.
Speaker 2:You were in parliament for the 10 years you were in power the five years before that. You know what does it say to the treasury when all they want to lick imbert or want to lick forest, I will learn to lick all. It has come very comfortably with mark, you know, remember him. He come there, he come in and ask for this document. From this day on, if you don't give him the figures, they're drilling him. So Oli was part of government too.
Speaker 2:You cannot come in, especially because it's clear that outside of the PDP salute to the PDP outside of the PDP, there's no third force of anything in this country. It is PNM and UNC, as Philip Alexander is teaching us live and direct right now. Right, they're going to get absorbed into the? U. I've never seen anything like that yet. But when they say government, the government is made up of the opposition and the party in power. So you can't just sit back and say, well, the government do this, the government do that, as if you wasn't part of the process. You was part of the process.
Speaker 2:Granted, part of the process means voting against everything. But it's not things you vote for, it's not things you abstain from and so on. But we had to get a little wiser as a electorate to be able to see. Okay, if you're promising all these things, when you come to your street corner thing or your doubles and coffee or whatever forums you have unc monday night forum or your re-ends or wherever there's going around west plaza or re-enzy or wherever there's go to do the rally it can't just be that you give me the promises we we are gate for how much years now and we had dollar for dollar before that?
Speaker 2:The society we're dealing with is a more informed and more educated society. You will even reach listening and reading, listening to podcasts and reading more articles and getting more involved. And even tiktok is so encouraging to see so many young people whether it's a yellow decoder and it's a paid thing or not so many young people involved in the political process. I feel so encouraged to watch kg um talks with kg and daniel loveless. I feel so encouraged to see younger people like them who in touch and you know, on the ground and in touch with you. I feel so encouraged to see them bring politicians on the platforms and talk to them. Fellas didn't bound to do that, but the part of why they're doing it is because they're interested in the process. The younger, the people we have in this country who interested in the process, whether they vote or not. Once they're more interested in the process, we lead in for a state where the government is more accountable to the people.
Speaker 2:I always say this these young people now them are answers. They're plenty brighter than we ever was Let me talk for myself plenty brighter than I ever was. So I respect the fact that they're involved and they're looking at it, but we must those young people, including all of us, must take a step further to hold them to account by asking them how, what's your plan? So the rumor is that they will go to the imf. The rumor is that they will float the dollar, force these politicians to discuss these things when they're on the platforms. We need to get away from this rara politics where everybody say I said yeah, I always remember one time and salute to chamfer. Chamfer lost like hell too, but salute to you.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean I always remember seeing her campaigning as part of the. You know I was so encouraged by the when the pnm had turned that corner and you see plenty young people as part of a rowley would be cabinet when he was running in 2015-14, whatever time. That was right and chamfer was one of the people. You know. You feel encouraged when you see young people are wrongly seen, you know, and it's she. She was like she used a little spoken word. You know they feel encouraged when they see young people around the scene. You know, and she was like she used to do a little spoken word. You know what I mean, a little spoken word. And when she'd go up she'd say anything I can't do spoken words, I can't even mock her properly, but you know, when she'd do that, everybody would say rah.
Speaker 2:In other words, we seem to don't care and maybe that is the truth about the political base of both parties. We don't care what they say. We go in there for entertainment. We want to go there and see Lady Lava sing and we want to see Young Brother come out and Kutain come out, and it seems to be that. And we want to hear dub plates. We want to hear dub plate from this one and that one and we want to hear Skilly Bang say short as the man. That seems to be more what we voted for, to be more what we voted for and I, on record of saying I vote for very frivolous things, because I don't think things change.
Speaker 2:So I mean, maybe I vote for the person who had the best up plate, but at the end of the day, if we don't move past that, that rara politics cycle and and get to the point where we have young decision makers sitting down and listening to what your issues really are, because any economic decision that you have, any any political decision that you make, the truth is it have ups and it have downs. There's a, there's a there's pros and cons. It's just reality the thing. So it would be nice if it have somebody there to walk through. What are some of the pros and cons? There are pros and cons to float in the dollar. We ain't gonna like it because the cons will affect all, like me and you. So the cons will affect the middle class immediately. The middle class will feel the pain and, matter of fact, I want to say that the middle class is usually the people who affected most by macroeconomic decisions.
Speaker 2:Right, but I mean, the other day, you know, in a world where somebody could just basically say I go pay everybody, I go pay back, pay next week, I go, do this, I go. So it means that the party in power never have a chance because them can't realistically say that, because the question will always be why you didn't do it all the time, which is a valid question. When you do that for 10 years and you're coming to tell me you go do and you go do and you go do now, that don't make sense. But the flip side of that is I, as an could come there and say anything. I could give out money. What I could do is get everybody you know they used to talk this thing about when ai become the ai replace all of our jobs.
Speaker 2:There's a guy in his states called I want to say it's andrew yang, if I have that right, was talking about universal basic income so that they have some income that everybody could get. Because jobs, entry-level jobs will become a problem when three things take over artificial intelligence, automation and robotics. When them three things take over, it will be hard for anybody to get and keep an entry-level job Make sense. So when you come in and you talk about that and you come and say, well, universal, what I'm going to do is pay everybody in Trinidad and Tobago $20,000. Everybody. You must vote for that, you must want that. Who don't want an extra $20,000? You know what I mean. Who don't want a food card or a grant or a laptop.
Speaker 2:It's good policies, but the truth is, if we don't know how we're paying for it, because I'm not sure that we do a great job connecting the fact that the money must come from somewhere. If you're going to put more money into wanting, the amount of money that our country have is just like your budget home it's finite. If you're making 10 grand a month net because you had to pay the government the money, right, you pay the government the tax already you're going home with eight thousand dollars. Now, if you want to buy ten thousand dollars worth of things that month, you have to explain to somebody or pick it up with yourself, basically where the extra two thousand come from. The truth is that in a household, the extra two thousand could only come from two places it could come from borrowing or it could come from savings, unless you do something to affect that eight thousand dollar figure. If you, if you, if you affect that8,000 figure, if you affect that $8,000 figure and you make some sugar cake whatever it is you do to sell, you do that and now you're making $10,000. Then you could spend your $10,000. The truth is also that if you make $10,000 and you spend $10,000, your savings could stay in the same place it was before. You wouldn't be incurring no more debt, which is nice, but what you understand is that your savings are not going to grow and if you have a rainy day, you're going to have some trouble.
Speaker 2:It's not much different. There are plenty of different layers and complications, but it's not much different at a basic level. What had to happen with a country, a country, making a certain amount of money? Are you making money by saying now I go to work every week On a weekend, I just go and I lecture, I just produce a few podcasts and I just get money from that. And I'm doing a podcast every week, that I'm looking for sponsorship and so on, for you know what I mean. Maybe that's a pressuring effect for the right reason, because that's exactly what happened when I call the sponsors. But at one point, at some point in time, the money will come in from there too. So those incomes that I have coming in, I had to decide why I want to do that income and I, at base, at most basic level, you can either spend it or save it or invest it. It's it's. It's not much different for country.
Speaker 2:We have a whole lot of areas where income is coming right. We'd have a a decent little light manufacturing sector means it's people who's making in this country, right, and when you make thing and sell if you sell it domestic, you get some money from that. If you sell it abroad, you get some foreign exchange from that. Right. We also have a nice little food and beverage place, because and when I say food and beverage, I talking about people like, um, when I say light manufacturing, I might be including people like, uh, my new minister, trade and industry, and them. Do you know? I mean it's trade and industry or something. So, or foreign affairs, whatever it is. Uh, camera from, from sasha I. I like that move. But when you talk about industries like those globally recognizable brands or at least extra-regionally recognizable brands, food and beverage you're talking about people like the Associated Brands, the Carib and so, who are getting full and full of beverage.
Speaker 2:What was my Mohammed friend's name? Again down in the Southland SM Jaleel and Chubby and so on. We have had these some things. So if you go anywhere in the Southland SMJ Lee Land, chubby and so on we have had this something. So if you go anywhere in the Caribbean, you will notice, in any Caribbean island or territory, you would find that we have a lot of products that might be dominating the shelves in the supermarkets in those spaces. And once you understand that, every time they sell to those other countries, it has some foreign exchange coming in. That's how we make our money as a society, as a nation, because some percentage of that money ends up in the government hand.
Speaker 2:When you export something, there might be taxes or something. When you import something, it has duties. You have to pay on your inputs to make this thing, and then you will have to pay corporation tax and green fund and business levy. Uh, those things are I'm trying not to say easily manipulatable. Right, but you could. You could adjust the amount of taxes you pay. But you will pay some form of tax there and you will employ people who will, in turn, pay income tax and you will employ people who the balance of their money. They will spend some of it in the economy. So that that's why economy made of how much money you're making, how much money you're spending. So the when, when, when you have people who come in to tell us we will do the world for you. You know, I mean I give you the sun, the moon, the rain, the stars and the mountain. You know, I mean, if I come and promise you all them things, I like the idea of it, I want to vote for you, but until you tell me, okay, how you're paying for all those things, because how you pay for that can in turn affect my standard of living and my quality of life. We vote for it and we obviously.
Speaker 2:The package that was presented by the UNC was obviously much better received by the population. I congratulate them for that. They run a good campaign. They outspend the PNM from a marketing standpoint by far. I think they out-technology the PNM too. I don't know why the PNM. The PNM have a little oldness and all. I don't know if it's how old the party is and things, but they seem to fail to keep up with the current times. I don't know if it's their budget constraints or what, but it's clear that digital marketing is where everybody needs to be, but they seem to still like boots on the ground marketing. Not that bad, but surely it will not work in isolation. It's proven. You need to have. So the.
Speaker 2:The PNM's response to influencers being a part of the UNC campaign is basically to say, hey, all of the paying influencers. I don't know if that was a good response. That was a pretty bad response. It's a pretty inadequate response. I always remember Francis Fashions one time put another radio ad saying don't go and get lost in the Amazon jungle, come to Francis Fashions. One time put another radio ad saying don't go and get lost in the Amazon jungle, come to Francis Fashions. I don't know if that's okay. You can't pull all over the consumer. The consumer know, just like that budget, I have a certain amount of money to spend which is limited, and more want unlimited. So they go all day again.
Speaker 2:So if you were to tell me upfront that the way I'm going to get this money to do these things is to go to the IMF, it would be great if we have a population of people who understand that. I want my back pay today. I want my negotiations up to date now, because I think the last government do a horrible job of keeping up to date with negotiations. I have people who talk about 2013 and 2014 salaries. They're working on stuff that is not good. It's not very far from the norm, unfortunately, but it's not good. We want a new normal. We want a better tomorrow. But if I was to have a population where I come to and I say I'm going to get back pay tomorrow, right, and the population stop and say how? Because if we don't have enough money and we don't have this and they believe the numbers that they're seeing and they say, well, I'll go into the IMF, and they have a population who says, okay, well, how does that affect me? Well, the issue is this If you go to the IMF, the IMF has the power to restructure, just like any bank.
Speaker 2:If you go by the bank now and the bank will simply tell you here was you seen, I could get a loan to buy a motor car, you know. But, number one, that motor car had to stay in my name until you pay off your loan. Number two, you see, that's the money you're paying for this loan and that loan and that loan. Uh, if you, if you're paying about 500 less, I could get a loan and then you could go and restructure your budget now and say, all right, well, I'm going to pay off that small loan I have. So consolidate this work on that or sell sugar cake, increase your income. It's the same thing with the IMF. Lender of last resort is what it's called these people. Well, no, that's the government, that's not the IMF.
Speaker 2:So when you go to world bodies like this, there are horror stories all over the world where people borrow money from the imf and could never pay them back because of how restrictive the conditions are. The imf gonna basically tell you here what you see if your income is x and your expenditure is y, I don't see how you will service this loan, because I I could give you 250 billion you're looking for, but mean you gotta pay me back 20 million dollars a month. And if your expenses more than your income I, I don't see how you'll pay me back. So here what to do cut all these expenses. You see these things here. Cut them. And you see these things you're working on here.
Speaker 2:When it comes to to income, I need the money to be invested in this, because if you invest in this, this can increase your income. Let me give you an example. Right, if, let's say, trend out of tobago decides tomorrow in my favor that podcasting is the way that we're going to get more revenue coming into this country, then you come on, your call quarry shop and you invest in that guy. Yeah, you put your money in me, put a little, put a little faith in I. If you put your faith in me, I go make sure we make back the money as a country, because now this could be exported and the money will come in. The IMF has the power to tell you to do that or to allow you to say, all right, well, this investment you could continue with.
Speaker 2:But you see, this money you're spending here which has no chance of making money, and usually they would call it transfer payments. Right, it transfers public funds into the private sector, but they call it a transfer payment because it's non-productive. So example of that would be dude cpep, urp. Let me call whichever era you was working in right, dude, urp, cpep 10 days, whatever the thing was when you was a wrong or that will be cancelled immediately, because the issue with that type of and I'm not saying it's a bad I want you all to understand something when I talk right Especially people who are new and might not hear me talk like this before All you hear me do is ask questions right. Me here to talk about right or wrong, me here to talk about good or bad. I certainly not here to talk about ketchup and mustard, or UNC and PNM, and you know what I mean, these fellas. I just come to explain the way the issues work. You decide if the rights are wrong with PNM or UNC. You decide them to go on your own after.
Speaker 2:If you put money into CPIP and CPIP does not produce anything, they make the place nicer, they clean up the place. All those things are good. That will make us feel better as a nation. Right, there was some intrinsic reward to seeing all these stones in the country painted white and so on. You know what I mean. It's nice, it's beautiful, but it produces nothing that anybody could buy. There's no production. So, in other words, smjl produces something that people could buy and when they produce that thing that people could buy, some of it will sell domestic, some of it will sell abroad. The ones that sell abroad will attract foreign exchange. The one that sell domestic will help move our domestic economy and employ people and so on. Make sense, it's simple, simply enough.
Speaker 2:So when you have money going into CPI and there's no productivity come up, the issue is not that the IMF is not a big bad wolf. The IMF is not a wicked place. It's actually a real good idea. But what they will tell you is you see the billions of dollars you're spending here, I will give you the money, but you cannot continue that and you must sign something that says you have to scrap and disband that program Because that money could be used to pay me back and it's not being used in a way that's going to generate any more money that will help pay me back. Actually, it puts the money I lend you at risk because, as you continue to transfer to that with no outcome and you do put that money into resource, into things that are productive, uh, or have the chance of being productive outputs, then I go, lost my money and I'm not going to let you. It's not not different from republic bank and the same kind of things that they will tell you they're mentally well boy at this time.
Speaker 2:Your debt service ratio you remember that's it. Your debt service ratio is this and that and that, and this is the maximum you could borrow. So forget that rubicon you wanted to buy, go and get yourself a nice little key in this life. You know, I mean this, this is as far as we could go and this as far as we could lend you. Hey, same thing the imf is going to do and again, I'm not telling you about good, bad or indifferent, and you know you tend to find that the debates, when you're talking to people about these types of issues, it ends up being a pnm or unc debate. It doesn't matter which party does this. I talk about economic fundamentals. I don't talk about anything else.
Speaker 2:So the other thing that is going to become a raising question is the size of the public sector. In this country the government is the largest employer of people by far. We have an army that is there with very little risk of war. We have a bloated police force that seem not to be able to get the crime under control or respond to it fast enough. We have a huge public sector for services that the country don't even feel working well. We complain about the public sector. If Conrad and them in affordable imports was public sector employees, I could not come and record today because I had a slipper there that told me to go for a shoe that now changed last month or month before something like that. So the public sector is not, by any stretch of by any definition, is efficient at this point in time. We're happy with the services we get and it's also not creating any productive thing that could sell and make money to help pay back the imf.
Speaker 2:So the imf is going to look at that and say you're employing too much people, you have too much a ministry, you have too much services, cut down them. Thing you forget. Oh, and they might be, might welcome, and tell them hey, what's he saying? Forget all these different things. You see that revenue authority only want to shut down, redeploy about 10% of the employees. You have to put them in the revenue authority because you have to collect your tax. And you see that property tax only thing you have to put it. That's the kind of thing the IMF is going to come and say, because they know that if you put out a revenue authority and you put in property tax as examples, then you have a chance of collecting enough money.
Speaker 2:I seen how I gained back my 20 million a month only with me. So if you were to tell me up front that this is the way you do it when you're going to pay all these things, I might realize that I work in for 10 000. Now when I get my back pay again, I 150 in hand and my money going up to about 12, 5, but I might realize that, hey, when I get a 150, if this is how I'm getting it, my, my 150 might actually be worth 70 because of what it could buy. The price, oh, I will be out of a job when I'm done with this. This might be all the money I have done, but that is it. And and the the total level of unemployment in the country going up, and then where we get work, and I could also say that my 12 500 is actually buying me less groceries than my 10 000 was buying, which is an inflationary effect. Right, it's a problem, but we, we allow, we allow and I say we, being the electorate, we allow for political process where even the party in power doesn't have to explain any of that. We don't ask them why, we don't hold them to task, we don't, we don't, we don't do it, and we take the, the smile and wave and I like to say very frivolous things and we vote based on that Same thing with devaluing the dollar.
Speaker 2:Devaluing the dollar has a big upside. The big upside is that we will stop importing, and it's happening already. You're starting to see where people are making choices to support or buy from local brands, even if by force, because when you don't have enough money to buy the same amount of groceries you was buying before, you might find yourself switching a little more from the frito-lay products and you might buy a little more sunshine snacks, and you know, I mean you might. You might buy the imported crackers, like ritz and them kind of thing is written, put it. You stop buying that as much and you start to buy cricks and things from domestic or regional suppliers. That shift already happening right now the gas price getting higher, you know, or the gas subsidy being removed, you have less money to spend on groceries and all the other things that you would typically spend on. So if the dollar go from 7 to 1 to 15 to one, where the rumors is now, what immediately happens is the price of imports, meaning the price of the things you buy on Amazon. The price can change on Amazon but get more expensive to you Because instead of spending 7 titty for every dollar you want to spend, you've got to spend 15 titty for every dollar you spend. It's going to correct. It's going to correct. What will happen is that people will stop importing so much and the wise words are crazy. You start eating local fruits. You'll shift and once you make that shift again, you'll find when, in economics ways, you start a trend towards equilibrium, you'll be at a new equilibrium point where people stop buying those foreign things, you think, and then they'll put downward pressure on that price of the US dollar. So it might go all the way to 15, but it will quickly start coming back down.
Speaker 2:And I was hoping to have I'd reach out to Roger Hussain, who's one of the best economics teachers I ever had, and he promised me that he would give me 15 minutes me, that he would give me 15 minutes. I asked him for a hour and a half, right, but he said you give me 15 minutes, and he also said he ain't coming. No, he could do it on zoom. I hope to have him come and talk through some of these issues because of all the econ teachers I ever had, he explains things in a way that's so easy for people to understand. It's almost like somebody who's not just, you know, in a classroom. Like me, I slow like hell, you know, but he explained it in a way that is very, very easy to get. So again, we have to know in a position where we could hold the, the current government, the new government. Congrats to them, congrats to all the mps who won.
Speaker 2:Sorry for the pnm and on the pnm nta um. You know kizil jackson was him here, she's my hero. You know she bust out the night before election. Go on singapore and start to advertise training course immediately. She didn't wait to find out if she would get back. She deposit. I didn't see she go on tv this year election coverage is one of the worst election coverage I ever see too. I just see about two constituents unc, unc leader next time. I see kirk may who's smiling like he itching. He want to go fast and and and for general. Only checking his phone to see if he still have a walk is the worst election coverage I ever seen.
Speaker 2:But sorry for all the parties who lost, sorry for all the people in the pnm who lost their seat. You know, on a personal level, right, this had nothing to do with nothing, right? I think the pnm losing gives them a chance to reset and rebuild. And you could see the nonsense that was happening within the pnm now with people being forced to vote for stuart, and you know this is one of my difficulties with party politics, that that idea that big man and woman had to throw the line, only clearly didn't want stuart there, but only do only internal meeting, only come and only try to sell stuart to we, even the ones who was silent on the issue, like faris, basically saying hey, you know what I was never. I was never with this. He come out and spoke about it and he was always for Penny from Inception. But something about it's so juvenile Now that I've seen people talking about Rawley as a dictator and he bully we in. It's like come on Rawley's part of this party. Rawley was behind it and if Stuart Young did it, rawley would have never seen none of this. Rawley would have pretended Raw bad lawyers behind him. This is why he can't take the politics, you know.
Speaker 2:But PNM, at a point now where, like I say, unc have an opportunity to be in power for a long time. Because I think people was genuinely fed up more than anything else with the talking down to and the buffing and the as of midnight. I think more than anything else people was fed up with that and on everything that happened, increase your salary above about the 1% and 2% or 0, 0, 0 and all them things or the smugness of. And one thing I'm saying is I only sorry. Some more of them in Lawson, I only sorry, or like in Beto and Faris and Manning.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, some more of them in Lawson, so that they know, hey, it's no joke. What we want is a complete rehash, a rehaul. Start over from scratch before you go and say, well, this one is only leader and only supporter. Are you watching Sweeney? Let me start with the opposition Sweeney before anything else. I saw it the night. You remember they say in Tobago, them fellas fall out and it was 11-9. And then in Balize House they fall back in and it was 20-zip and Stewart was leader.
Speaker 2:I watched them men come out of the parliament not the parliament. What was the next Red House name? Bally's House. I watched them come out of there and a whole scene from the end of the Godfather where everybody come and kiss Stewart Young rings and then Penny was nowhere to be seen. But they come and they shake his hand and he's like yes, I'm Stewart Young and we have 20 enrol. He said ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta, I was. This is a mob movie or something we should be watching, because when they're swaying Penny and congratulations to Penny I like the fact that. You know I was talking about Freetongue Trinity, but the country have its own little holy trinity going on. You know what I mean. We have a little trinity going on between three of them.
Speaker 2:So she come out now as leader, sworn in, as opposition leader, a reputation for hard work, a woman who I met once in a meeting and she's if I had to describe anything with her, she's very stern. I was very frightened. You know what I mean. I was very nervous. She was Minister of Public Utilities at the time. But outside of the parliament no, not the parliament, the president's house after they do the swearing outside of there is her next whole godfather scene going down, because them stand up in a circle right and every one of them pledge their allegiance to Penny. I never seen nothing like this outside a place like Scarface and the godfather and goodfellas and them thing, and Penny stand up looking forward straight to it and a man behind she talking about how he's always loved Penny and she said yes. Yes, I said what the hell is this? I'm watching here. This is part of governance too. These are the people we trust to be in opposition to keep this bunch in check. So congratulations to them. Congratulations to the mps who won. I had luck to foster them. So who lost? You know me, I hear foster was one of the best. You know. When you hear foster talk. First I sung, just like when, patrick manning's song, and now I see like they ain't want foster again. At one point they was talking about stuart, foster and penny being the three people who they want to play the helm of the party. Now, boy, listen, I would love to be a fly on the wall for internal party politics. Yes, but congrats again to the unc.
Speaker 2:The unc, when I'm on record again I'm saying that the kamala passad becessor can't get my vote because her statement she's made, you see that, that statement with that slave name thing. I can't vote for kamala passad becessor, but I will say that once she's prime minister, this country, yeah, my support. If you do well, the country does well. If, if unc wins, everybody wins. If kamala win, everybody win. And I do find that, um, before I get into the their cabinet on them thing, I always remember to have a fresh batch of people making every year. You know I forget that and I feel like everybody's my age and thing.
Speaker 2:But what's this whole debate about where she working from and them kind of thing? I try to understand something. Anybody expected kamala passad be sessa to live in the prime minister residence or work from the white hall I. I don't understand why this is a debate. When she was there from 2010 to 2015, she never used to work from there. She, she used to take her helicopter and come back up the road and them kind of thing. I expect that the helicopter couldn't start back flying soon because the woman reached late like hell.
Speaker 2:I used to be so annoyed and you know, every press conference during covid started late. All all these started late and not not. I want to. I want to salute to the technocrats or the public servants, right, the doctors, dr Hines there are a few of them and names I can't remember. It wasn't them, you know, it was everyone where it have the Alcing, the Alcing lost too, the Alcing or Rollers, and all them fellas, them fellas used to start late all the time. And then when Kamala reached late for the swearing-in or inauguration, whatever they call it, I see people who are on Facebook, people talking about she's late. Look what she's done.
Speaker 2:I was like all your boys, be late right through. What are we talking about? But again, fresh batch of people making all the time. So maybe there's people who, during 2020, because if you're 18 years old now and you now vote for the first time, it would mean that in 2010, when they was in power, you was, like what? Three years old, and when they leave, you was eight years old. So you don't understand the political process or you can't pay attention to that. That time you or let me put it in better context for you, if you was 20, if you's 25 now, which is a big working person, paying tax and living on your own, making sure and at least doing the things that lead to that you would have been 10 years old when them was in power and and and 15 years old and leave.
Speaker 2:You might not be paying attention, but I want to tell all the people who is died and think this woman never used to work from this. She used to work from home all the time. Them cabinet meetings at home. That was happening a long time that. So I didn't have any expectation that she was going to go. I naively thinking that everybody who votes on yellow is the code them kind of knew that that's what's going to happen when she went. She's not going to come out. Uh, surprisingly she's talking to the media after press conferences and think maybe it's because they just went. But that was one of the biggest complaints about the kamala passad be sessa led people's partnership that she stopped talking to the media and she was controlled or being think about cabal. But again, fresh match of people they might remember some of these things and she there. So the fact that padarat and listen, padarat is bursting at the seams again.
Speaker 2:I said these people have an opportunity to be in power for a long time, but the way padarat operating, I know if it will happen because this guy is going to lose. He's going to lose it on somebody soon. I don't know if he's the man they put. I guess he's a minister in the office or the prime minister, but I don't think he's the best person they should have put for communicating on her behalf or in her absence. And them thing about white wall and this man show a whole unplugged system there and he say it ain't working. But sometimes I don't know plugging anything it'll be easy. That's what I'm bending down here, right here on my back. I can't bend now too, but that mean I just waiting for again for entertainment purposes. I waiting to see he lose it and start to ball at people. I see the boss done so. I don't know how.
Speaker 2:Akash samaru salute to akash. Right akash, he had to protect his wife and his relationship home. You know your wife and his children and his parents and so on. I hope your parents still alive and I wish him the best for his, his nuptials, his marriage and his wedding and his, his home life is what I'm trying to say because them is the only people who love akashu.
Speaker 2:I never see a man who everybody dislike across the board. This man, when he take role, he say Akashu need come down and his next side used to be Chen. For him, yeah, get him, you take money and you take the money and the pension. Get him, get him, don't let him get away. Right the man. And back then as I'm talking as thick as you feel he might want to be he asked him the questions that again, rowlers feel he asked him questions to make him look bad. He feel he asked him questions that the people want to hear. The supporters of Rowlers hate him. The anti-Rowlers love him.
Speaker 2:The man. First question. He kept asking TV. Now he say Mom, I know you used to tell people, give me money to the children's life fund and things. This is documented because Akash wasn't 10 in 2010. So he remember he know he was working in media already. Say you remember, um, the children's life fund used to make everybody, oh, you had a thing where everybody donated money to that and so on and so on.
Speaker 2:And he acts it again because this has been his pet peeve for a long time. It was not, I don't think. Now you can see it's not a reallyy thing. The man genuinely feel it was a bad decision and he genuinely feel it was a slap in the face. You can see it. You can see it when he asks a question and say, given all this increase and thing, because now he was against the increase, now you're coming, you're getting the increase.
Speaker 2:So I want to know if you have something. I find it's one of the simplest questions. Boy, my, my lady didn't like that. My lady tell akash behave yourself. I was too nice last time, don't come here with that. I, I, I hate to think that akash, after being painted for so long as a unc apologist and I've reported as in the pocket of the unc. Akash, don't tell me neither red nor yellow. Nobody ain't gonna like you at all. You need to have the best possible home life. You could possibly have again appointmental made. Swearing in was done.
Speaker 2:Uh, the the speeches. I just want to touch on that for a minute. These speeches by both kamla pesad beceso and penelope beckers were extremely encouraging. Encouraging that is why I'm looking for, because it could be hard to tell me you taking this move or that move and get me too excited or too dumb about what you say you want to do with the economy. Concern because the truth is, any decision they come up with, they're both responsible parties, they've both run the country before and whatever decision they take, it will just have ups and downs. The opposition will highlight all the downs, the government will talk about all the ups and that's how it will go.
Speaker 2:But in terms of leadership, which I feel like again documented here, I feel like that's one of the main things we've been lacking over the last 10 years A sense that we have a leader who believes in us and we can believe in that leader. I haven't felt that way in a long time, or we have a leader who has a vision that needs my support and help to be a part of that vision so we can have, like the man said, build a better nation together. I haven't felt that way in a long time but based on his speeches by both kamala passad becessa and penelope beckers, I feel encouraged that at least I don't think penelope is officially leader of the opposition there, but we see where they're going right. So I'm encouraged by the two people who they have there and I already have some faith in christine kangaloo based on. She played two calypso when she opened the thing, so you always have my support with that right. And she said the pannier model needs us. You adopt her, she. She had my support right. She went back to. She was in primary school. I like her as a leader.
Speaker 2:So with three women there, I I'm hoping that you know they have a tendency to say we don't have too much women in our thing and it is thing and it's not like we cat fight and it's not, but it works with the men and them. When you look at who philip alexander versus gary or gary versus this one and annie roberts the cat fight seemed to be in this country happening among the men. So I am hoping that we have a different timbre of politics that we could look forward to, where these people could work together. Uh, you know, let me, let me see a different type of politics and let me see a different type of conversation and a different way of talking to one another and even talking to reporters.
Speaker 2:Let we kill that thing where we're trying to. We want to kill each reporter who acts like what? The people just asking questions, reporters are taxpaying citizens, just like everybody. Why we talk to reporters like if them is part of the opposition and then they start to talk about things like opposition mouthpiece something. If we could bury them kind of narratives, that would be nice. But I'll start, if you don't know about this, right, we play random calypso and think during this thing too, you know would you like to rock it with me baby?
Speaker 1:would you like to jump with me honey? Would you like to rock it with me baby? Would you like to in with me honey? Music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music, music.
Speaker 3:People so kind eyes in the body. And there she was, standing in a corner, looking so sweet and without a partner. So I went over, I spoke to her, she smiled and I said to her Would you like to rock it with me, baby? Would you like to jam it with me, honey? Sweet caroling soul music, jamming for soul. Come on, rock it with me, baby.
Speaker 2:Come on, jam it with me, honey. We had to fix this applause. We had to fix this applause, conrad. We had to work on this. So more in the politics, right, because I guess the politics is the hottest topic. Oh, it's at a kisha, cool. But Kamala, of course this is by Kim Budram.
Speaker 2:Kamala expect serious revelations. It's expect some serious revelations out of the 2024 Auditor General's report which must be laid in Parliament before going public. Prime Minister Kamala Prasad Bisesa has said the PM dropped the hints as she fielded questions following Thursday's post-Cabinet meeting news conference but decided to speak further on the report. Not to speak further on the report, sorry, stressing that the document must first be laid in Parliament. Prasad Bisesa said the Auditor General's report for the last fiscal year has been forwarded to the parliament and to the minister of finance. However, she added we did not speak on it until it's laid in parliament. I suppose that's the protocol. She said the practice and protocol, and maybe even the law, is that we do not speak on it until it is laid in parliament. Uh, but again, this is alluding to.
Speaker 2:What do you expect to come out of it? My expectation is that she's going to say things looking bleak, this, and that they make a mess of the thing. There's a bunch of billionaires missing. I saw her say it before when they take over from Manning. I saw Rowley say it about them when they take over from them. I mean, I even see Rowley win during COVID and he win the last election. And still talking about them so long ago I wanted to think I get fed up with you too far, you know, because it's like, all right, okay, at some point in time you had to move on. I wish we could move on today. This is the point I want to make. I wish we could move on today. I really don't want to hear too much about what was there before. I want to hear focus on your plans and what you doing and what you know you're doing for youth. So some of the initial promises that they said and I do like the way she has approached it so far, when, in the initial sort of media briefing after she was sworn in, or the cabinet was sworn in, as well as the first, uh, post-cabinet meeting or media conference, whatever you want to call it she's focused on low-hanging fruit. When she said, all right, well, the FUL thing had to be resolved. I agree to that 100%.
Speaker 2:I spoke here many, many times on the issue and I am not sure that I want to live in a country where I only feel safe if I have a firearm I'm working with all the time or I feel safer. It's like they outsource national security to the citizenry. But I do feel as if, if some it's like a, it's like a motor car license. For me it's like a car license. If, if you could get your license, it should have a very clear, simple process that allows you to get it quickly, without a hold to the red tape, like any other thing is like a bird paper.
Speaker 2:So if a man decide he want to have weapons whether it's because you, he wants to protect himself, or he just likes weapons, or whatever it might be why does the process need to be so cumbersome that I don't even feel to apply because of how long it will take? I can't track my application, I don't know where it is, I don't know if I will get through, and it seems to be one of those processes, like many in the country, that are designed, with bureaucracy, to create corruptibility. Designed with bureaucracy to create corruptibility. It designed and held that way so that somebody could get fifty thousand dollars and split it up among themselves and then they decide, uh, in their own little government with their own little demigods or semi-gods, you know. I mean they decide who could get a firearm or not. Well, I don't, I don't, I don't necessarily want one, I don't think I'm ready for that responsibility, but I do believe that everybody who should have one should be able to get one. So I was glad to hear say that.
Speaker 2:And when I have a prime minister who's talking about knock it again and again and again and again and again, I don't want one, but I ain't gonna be the only man without one, because when they start a wild, wild west, got this country culturally, we are already a selfish people. We care most about our immediate circle and family. We care about that much more than we care about society, country or whatever. And listen, if you ever read a fellow named Maslow, abraham Maslow, he talks about the types of needs human beings have, a psychologist right, and one of the things he talks about as well as you are, you have evolved when you start caring about the collective more than you care about yourself. Right, that's. That was a big part of his writing. So I'm saying that to say, we have not evolved.
Speaker 2:So when that firearm process goes through because I I trust that they're going to deliver on this and they're going to deliver on it quickly, especially when alexander is the manager what do you call it? Homeland security when it's going to happen first and I'll tell you this I don't want that. I don't know if I ready for that, but what I will not be is the only man without a firearm not me, not here. For bad drive, I don't care, see too well about bad driver. Man then shuts up my bonnet and I can't. I, I believe I don't. I don't know if we are very responsible. I know we're very selfish, but maybe we're really responsible and I underestimated it and, um, when it becomes something that and you know you could you could safely assume that everybody would have I don't want to be the only person without. Just in case, just just in case, right.
Speaker 2:They also said that they will look at Stanyagrong laws and home invasion laws. Stanyagrong laws tend to have some controversial things around it in the States because you see the people who are proponents of the American society or who like the way America is run and they like the idea of capitalism and free market economy and they may even like the idea of Trump, especially in the recent days of Biden. They are aligned with this kind of rhetoric and talk about crack it and knock it again and again and so on and make it available for everybody and all those things, and that's fine. But what people may not admit is that if you look carefully at stan your ground laws in states that have stan your ground laws, uh, or let me, let me talk about my general belief about the states. You see, the us is these are expiring, but I should talk about this but the states is a place where it is designed and a constitution written by the founding fathers.
Speaker 2:The founding fathers of the us at the time still did not recognize certain races in certain places as whole human beings or human beings at all. They were livestock right and that's where they came from. That is the thought process. That's what they believe me. I'm telling you whether they're right or wrong, you know me and telling you whether they're good or bad. I'm telling you what is documented in history. That is their belief. They grew up in households where because forget their belief, because when you tell people that, they will start to tell you. Well, abraham lincoln, his father and his grandfather and them come from an era where it would have been unheard of to in to to see people as equal and idea of freeing and political pressure is more likely to lead to that on anything else.
Speaker 2:So I say in all this to say that the laws in a country like that, when they say protect themselves, they are talking about themselves, and when they say protect themselves from somebody, they are talking about us. So, stan your ground. Laws it is. It is starting to be shown now where it is. The court is much after. You could choose modes carefully, since I have people listening to me who I don't know. I guess I'm talking to people who I know. I don't know why he's here. A lot of their laws are designed to protect themselves from the other, whoever falls on the other. So the courts are very sympathetic to a founding father and a son and a grandson and a great-grandson of a founding father when they stand their ground versus when the son of a slave or what do you call him, ados and so on. When you see Ados stand their ground, the court is not as sympathetic to them. And when they say jury of your peers, sometimes the jury of your peers don't exactly be your peers, so we see it in there a lot. So, when they use terms like stand your ground law and they use terms like homeland security versus national security, that we've always known, I will be keeping an eye on that. It's something that I will pay attention to and I'm hoping that there's not an us versus them attitude to who can stand their ground and it's actually not an attitude because I agree versus them attitude to who can stand their ground and it's actually not an attitude because I agree that I should be able to stand my ground. I don't Some of these things are wrong Firearms I don't understand.
Speaker 2:Like, for instance, I was listening to a podcast recently and they were saying that firing a warning shot in the air could cause you to lose your weapon or brandition Meaning if somebody come in and I just pull it out and shoot them. But to tell you the truth, that's the main thing I want. I want, I want that fire. So when somebody rush me, I don't, I don't want to shoot nobody. I don't want to shoot nobody. But again, uh, I'm sure they are very. I'm saying that I don't know what the reasons are. I'm not saying it's bad, I just don't understand it well enough. But I'm sure they have. They have solid rationale for why you can't bust a shot in the air, because I want to bust out in the air and run. I don't really want to shoot a person. I don't like the idea of it, but it is what it is. But so I'm just hoping that that is if it's a standard ground law where, for instance, if somebody uh is attacking me or making me feel threatened, it's a simpler process for me to use the tools that I have in my possession to protect myself and my family and my possessions.
Speaker 2:I'll say as well about home invasion laws and again, I don't have in front of me, because they have not laid the legislation yet what? How are we going to frame standing-ground legislation? I just based it on what I see in the state and I don't know what the home invasion legislation will look like either, but eager to see it because that is one of my biggest worries. I don't like the idea that I could just be home, a man could bus in my place and no more. I don't have anything to protect legally, to protect myself, and if I use the thing I have legally. Now I tie up in the court system and I don't agree with it. So I'm eager to hear what they come up with for both things for reform of how FULs are granted and the biasness that is built into that process and the corruption that is built, and I hope they eliminate it. Let me see what the San Diego laws look like. Let me see what the home invasion laws look like. I all for that.
Speaker 2:I see um again in terms of immediacy uh, children's hospital opening back, it's gonna have issues. So people say, no, the nurses. And it don't matter what you do, it have it, have it, have it have. Uh, there's friction to getting things done, but people who get things done live comfortably with the friction. If it had more nurses, there's jobs, that's a good thing. Uh. Or if you don't have enough nurses, we could, we could do it have. It's a plenty people who are nursing degree, who mother, mean to do have enough nurses. And then I saw them say as well, the laptops being granted, right. So this, this group, who going back to primary school, I said who now going to secondary school will get back the laptops and thing I, I, this's hard to argue with measures like those. I like that.
Speaker 2:What I want to hear a little bit more from them on is on the long-term planning for the economy. But you got to give them time. You got to give them time to get their hands on the books. Get the Auditor General report. Let me see how it goes, but I will say that my experience and looking at politics for a long time now, I always feel like the PNM is so much stronger on long-term planning. If they could just eliminate this fatherly nation nonsense where somebody feels he's my father and can help me make decisions. They tend to have a clearer and more well-thought-out long-term vision for the economy and take decisions that support long-term well-being, whereas I feel the UNC has a way better muscle, better strength, post way better strength, uh, in executing quickly and doing things that are short-term.
Speaker 2:And I always remember being very, very frustrated as a young man under patrick man. I'm now trying to start my life and leave my mother house and I started getting to that government and doing nothing for my mentality, because all the plans that you could have heard about when I had that 2020 vision was about how we would be good in 2020. But that song's so far away to me. I wanted to do things to be better now. I wanted to know how I could advance myself now, which I did and I think most people will find their way to. Trinidad isn't progressive. No, people just look for ways to better themselves, but I do feel as if the UNC, as a government, does so much better identifying what, what are the things that we need immediately and what are the things that we need to change so that society could start. You could start feeling the getting better and you don't have to sit down and wait for 20, 30, 40 years to pass to feel like, if, like, if the place changing you with me. So again, I wish them the best is something I'll continue to monitor.
Speaker 2:As I said, this is not a. This is not a a forum that has been abandoned in terms of our ability to to just sit down and sit down and talk for a little while. You know, I mean sit down and talk for a little while about things that happen in society. We will always get a chance to do that. So let me get them time. Let me get them time. Let me see where it is. Behind me is the code? Are you with it? Let me hope that it will work out. And again, if you're new here, it's random, kaiso, you know Adulph was always going on road.
Speaker 3:Leaving the woman home. Yes, well, she take until she couldn't take no more. Last night, he going out, she running from the door Chugging I coming too. I coming too. You ain't leaving me here tonight. If we have to fight, I come in two. I come in two. Local neighbours think I'm a mouse, but I ain't the host.
Speaker 2:I come in two. I come in two. They spend only 500. They spend only 1,000. They spend only 2,000. I'm thinking where's Kisha Cole?
Speaker 2:I see Kisha Cole come in and listen, paula Stacy tell me from the time she's in the airport. I don't give her credit. She say, hey, what's going on? That girl isn't looking happy at all. Now I personally find she's never really looked too happy. She's looking slightly bit upset.
Speaker 2:You know, I have these random thoughts, feelings and other things I process all the time. I don't trust people who, when they open their mouth to talk, their teeth will still be clenched like this. I don't trust it. I don't believe nothing they're saying Keisha Cole is one of them people, right? So I see her come in. She went by KFC, she got a little spicy crispy up and people start singing this song.
Speaker 2:Now I'll tell you something, right, one of the things I end up doing a lot like. When I first started off the podcast, I used to have to leave tuesdays free. I used to release on a tuesday morning, right, people remember them days. And when I done talk, I used to leave this free so that I could talk to people about what I talk about, because people call and say, boy, this, that, that, that than the other, and I just wasn't used to it. And sometimes I don't forget what I say, because when I put out Tuesday I might have recorded since the week before. So I don't forget what I talk about.
Speaker 2:And then too, you have to keep in mind, I talk about eight to ten topics every episode. Then, time again, true topic fast. And the truth is I might really only care about two of them. Things I might deeply be caring about, what happened in politics and what happened in culture. The other things are just throwaway things to me. So when somebody goes into debate about that, it's like it's not that serious. This thing's performative. You know what I mean. So I always in this space where you're talking about podcasting, I can't imagine what it's like to be an artist with a hit record, because that had to be real annoying when you see Keshav come out and then everybody starts to sing.
Speaker 2:Oh, kishok will come out and then everybody starts to say, oh, the whole kfc started singing. I never seen nothing like this woman. Just for she fall, she come for she fall, these people singing. But I guess he had a smile through that and then kind of I don't know if I got a deal with that, but all then she looked like she wasn't so happy to be here, but then we get to find out why she there. So the thing was an r&b show, right, several local artists.
Speaker 2:Salute to all the local artists, men like kutain, men like preedy, you know, I mean they came out there and put on a hell of a show. I think I see multi-symptom there, plenty, you know. I mean singers, singers going out there and perform. Uh, salute to preedy. I think I underestimate preedy a little bit, just singing ability, preedy kind of r&b up some of his songs and the little clips I see they look good. And uh, dexter dapps, who's always a great performer. I surprised palace say she ain't go by dexter dapps, because I waited to see. I know she gonna reach on stage and so I just waited to see. But she said she ain't going. Um, she ain't gonna go. Happy mother's day to all the mothers and so on. You know, I mean all the mothers of the nation, my mothers, my baby mothers. So happy birthday mother's day. I'm not a young man. So Keisha Cole, come out now.
Speaker 2:What I really find strange when I see the first clip, is how she dresses. I say, well, what is this? What trouble is this? This ain't looking good at all. This ain't looking good at all. I mean, I saw the diaper comments. Who was it? Was it she herself who came out in, in in her outfit in jamaica? When you look at, when you look, there was some performer and I can't remember if it's who, but somebody came out looking like it was looking. It was looking slight, um, it was looking like pampers if you had to put it like that, you know uh. But she come out in like the same clothes. She was in kfc, like she went straight from k.
Speaker 2:Whenever I'm scorching her committee and I'm telling the woman she had to perform because she just eat, she fall and went up on stage belly full still and sing three song and bus out, which is shocking to me. Now I know I'm not leaving home to see kisha come. You know rnb man, but I suppose the, the, the savannah was filled with people who listened to Richard Trumpet every Sunday evening and so on. So they go in for that and that is their kind of show. People dress up nice.
Speaker 2:The show looked good. I mean, the committee and Scorch plenty of experience at doing events, so it looked good. But it wasn't what they expected. She came back up with Dexter Dubs and she basically sang a few more songs with some prompting and coaxing from Dexter Dabbs, and she seemed quite surprised when people tell her about hey, you were supposed to perform a whole set. And the talk now is that she was only paid for three songs and the promoter's saying we pay her for a full set. So who knows what is the right thing or what really happened. But I want to flash back to a time where I leave my house in south with my old self and back problems salute to my boy bert and I pulled bert out the house and me and bert went and watched idonia, bounty killer and beanie man who I mean that is the ideal combination to get me to come out my house right, because I'm a big bounty killer fan.
Speaker 2:Uh, I see beanie many times. One thing you're sure you will get is a is a a great show. When you go and see beanie man or at least at some point in time you used to get it and I don't. Yeah, I didn't see in a long I I'm not sure if I ever see I don't perform live. I want to hear banga mana, banga mana. I want to leave home to hear that. And they also had a song, clash Partied. I think the name of it was Fully Loaded and they had a song, clash Partied, where you could go and hear. I want to say Taurus Jugglers, a few sound systems Play. So you know, that is the ideal combination and you could get me. You could get me out of my house If you have that, that combo there. I had a reach early. Yeah, looking for it here. It's Kishak Old self was in her drawers in Jamaica.
Speaker 2:Her whole diaper is, her whole pampers, her whole huggies. She put on and went to perform. So maybe she just don't dress up to perform, I don't know, but her huggies was crazy. But, yeah, I went down in the show. I take in a little slice. After me I see bounty killer no more. And then after a while I realized because I don't even have done performanting, I realized I said but wait, bounty killer ain't coming back. He do the sum total of songs that kisha cole do is what he do. He do about three song and bust out. So I said, but wait. So when I see the connection now I see scotch promoting kisha cool.
Speaker 2:Then I see scotch producing bounty killer and then I see scotch do a press release after bounty killer. Because bounty killer said he was not paid for no performance with beanie. That is a different price for a clash thing and or on stage together thing and he was paid for a show. So when they tried to force the two of them together, he ride out. And I see scotch put out a release. That time it was a. It was funny. I was looking for it back in fire to scroll back too far to find out some years ago. But it's funny because they put out the release as how bounty killer will talk to them. It's like hey, yo yellow, we pay every money for him. And scotch put out a release and then the issue was dead. Bounty killer never responded to it. Scotch never said nothing. Again. They say the same thing about legal action and so when I see scotch put out a release this time saying we painful, along with receipts, this time showing the painful and them thing and um, kisha cool, but kisha cool song she sung surprised. When she see the comments people saying they didn't get enough and all this kind of thing she it. It seemed as though she was paid for her parents and to do three songs.
Speaker 2:I don't know how that works as a performer, because I'm not sitting down on a plane for that length of time to sing no one song. I I that. That that not going to work for me. I might, I might, I might just end up on the vibes of the thing. I might just end up singing more and that could be to my detriment, for my management and them kind of thing too. So if, if that is the case, I might, I might just sing seven, eight, nine song and hope for the best, but I do not expect anything to come out of that kisha cool thing.
Speaker 2:I don't think she can do no more thing. I mean, I'm a pampered away in one year. I don't think she can remember back. No, and I don't think anything gonna happen with the promoters on them either, especially if they do their part. I always remember dave chapelle say I not be, I not paid to be funny, I paid for the attempt, which means once you use my name, you're gonna sell us with no amount of tickets anyway. So it's like bye, it was nice. So I hope people enjoy the r&b festival and so on and we get it together. But, as I said, I'm never here to talk about too much issues without playing a little kaizo, you know.
Speaker 3:Hey, let's have a party, a Caribbean party, the entire region together In one big splashdown fiesta. A Caribbean connection, a regional vibration. I say we jamming To the songs of the Caribbean, we grooving To Calypso and Silver. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh. This jam gonna be irie, it's one love. So feel free, for we are the people of the Caribbean, showing that we don't want no basin plan. A Caribbean connection, a regional vibration. I say we jam in To the songs of the Caribbean, we groove in To Calypso and Spielberg.
Speaker 2:Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh. Heavy mute there. I forget to press the on. I'm not a young man, but I was talking about. Now, let me tell you what I was talking about while I was on mute. I was talking about the unity cup. We have dwight york leading our team and if you know me well enough, you know our soccer warriors, man right and dwight york leading us into uh world cup and gold cup qualifiers. In the early june we have to play against the usa, haiti and saudi arabia, which is going to be a stern test for our national team. So I'm happy to see that they're in England now going into a Unity Cup.
Speaker 2:And here's how the Unity Cup is structured right. The teams in the tournament is Jamaica, trinidad, nigeria and Ghana, and the first match is Semi-Final 1, which we'll be playing on 27th of May. So it starts in the Semi-Final. It's Jamaica against trinidad, and then the second semi-final is nigeria against ghana, we will meet in the final and, oh, the winners will meet in the final and the losers will play a third place game. So we will play against jamaica and at least a one of nigeria or ghana, whoever lose that game, because I think jamaica could beat you right. But what I'm encouraged by is the fact that jamaica, jamaica, nigeria and ghana would be we would be the underdogs in the tournament. Let me play it like that, right, I don't think you have a chance.
Speaker 2:I was hoping we play everybody, but this is good because the exposure that we get, particularly for a very young team outside of the joven jones and molyneux and these fellas, you have a. You have a pretty young team or inexperienced team who might not face talent like this. Like I was seeing a podcast in england who I guess they promote in the tournament. He was basically saying hey, last time I see trend that play a white man was the midfielder referring to birchall, you know. So it shows you how long ago we were a force on the international stage and we haven't been seen that way in a long time. But I do feel like if this helps us prepare for the more important things, which, which is the Gold Cup and the World Cup, and this is one of the things I had predicted. Remember, I was telling you, dwight, you're being there, we're going to get different quality of games. Well, it's clear to see that that is happening.
Speaker 2:Now, before I write out, before Affordable Imports promotes, I wanted to talk real quickly about some of the background behind some of the conversations and the interviews that have been happening. Like, people keep asking, like, how you get this person waiting, how that was, how that was, and you know, maybe, maybe, I will keep a little five minute segment in each episode that I do by myself to talk about some of these things, because, of course, one of the last ones you would have seen is david rudder, and that was special, special, special. Just the chance to have that conversation at all with him is special to me and, uh, a lot of work went into it and I was let me let me start by thanking a list of people I have who would have helped with this episode, whether they knew it or not. Right, first of course, and always stacy parlor, palestice, villarreal, right, shepherd bab, you know, I mean, she's always there supporting my mother, uh, my father, people who I could call at that moment's notice, sometimes on the way, because they were there, they were in the band mix. And thing when rudder was who he was uh, people like omari ashby, ozzy, merrick, wayne, shepherd you know people who could call and get some information, bung, some ideas off of, uh, just how to approach it and how to do it.
Speaker 2:Mr shack, uh, when steel talks. Uh, pan on the net places that you could go and get a lot of information. Alvin, daniel and Calypso Showcase places you could get a lot of information on just how to approach this. And, of course, david Wales, who has been you might remember the name, david Wales right Photographer, just a cool guy overall, who happened to be listening to some of the episodes and start reaching to me and he was like boy, boy, I like your interviews. If I wanted to interview this fellow and I was like, um, I frightened, I will just call david. He's like, yes, I'll make contact with you and he has been doing that for a long time.
Speaker 2:So it's helped me in a lot of ways just elevate the way, uh, the way the podcast looks and feels. And, of course, che conrad and kyle at affordable imports, who helped me to be in a position where I could just focus on what I need to talk about with the guests and what we need to get done. I don't have to worry about the lens cap being on and thing. I mean, that used to be my worries long time, right, but these fellas putting it out on a level of quality where all I had to focus on is come and record and what clips I want to cut. So I want to take a minute in the end of the episode to thank everybody for that. But I will say that it's not a whole long story to be back at that now. It's really.
Speaker 2:Basically, I asked him. He said he could come. He was very specific about the times, a day that he could record where he in the best possible health and his speech and so on. He's not shy to talk about his battles with parkinson's, as you might have seen in the interview, and it came together really, really well. I was, I was, I was, I felt like when we were in the room we had something special and many, many of the interviews went like that again, people will, a lot of people will. They tell me it's adrian school publicist, but I'll say again that I reach out to him. Thanks for david for making that contact. I reach out to him and he said, boy, I'll do it. And he showed up and with.
Speaker 2:I respect the fact that he answered everything that I asked him. I asked some questions where I feel he'd just say no comment or I don't want to talk about that. But he, he was upbeat, he was cool, he was very, very affable and I don't know, I don't know him from nowhere, we don't know each other and you wouldn't think so when you look at the conversation, because he's extremely passionate about his brands and the and what he's doing in this space, extremely confident about his contribution, and he answered the questions to suit. So I hope people appreciate it. And I wanted to say as well that one of the one of the people who contribute a lot to me for that uh episode for david rudder and I hope to have him on when the football start is lasana lie bird, because between the school interview which had a lot of people questioning me, and what I can allow people to say and I listen, I I cannot allow they have some people duvon stewart, adrian school, these people opinionated mr shack, them, fellas and them coming to say what they had to say, you know, and they're not shy about what they're saying and I am not bothered or disturbed by anything they might say, whether people see it as controversial or not.
Speaker 2:I want these people's opinions, even if they state things that are incorrect. If I know it's incorrect, I might ask about it in a moment, but if I don't know, I'm here to get your story or your viewpoint. If you know me well enough, you know the right and wrong and the good and bad, and the facts and fiction thing is not my zone anyway, I just want to hear how you feel. I'm a feelings kind of guy. You know what I mean and I appreciate people like them coming to share with me who are nondescript and unknown to them, but they come and they share very, very openly. I was just talking to Conrad about Duvon before this interview started.
Speaker 2:When Duvon came in I was worried. And when Devon came in I was worried. He didn't say much. When he came into the room the second morning and he come in, he sit down and he was on his phone and I was a little worried. I was like, okay, I wonder how this is going to go, because he does seem like that talkative. But he opened up in a way that I could have never expected. I would rather come in here and laugh about, joke about Chag that they have. These people could go on for zero show and do that whole day.
Speaker 2:And lasagna contributed to that episode a lot because it was a whole lot happening. After a few of the interviews, after I have a weaker thing to deal with, I was telling conrad and I remember reaching out to lasagna, I was like lasagna how he is dealing with retraction and having to correct things that people say. And one of the things that stood out to me the most is lasana said boy, korea, to be yourself, you know, don't go against your brand. You can't be wired or you can't be for zero, you can't be hard talk. He said people must understand that if they decide to come by you he's a man, his talk will shit you like he'll laugh, you like he'll joke, and it's a light experience. And he said the listener must understand that when they come to talk about you it's a conversation.
Speaker 2:It's not an in-depth interview where you're going to interrogate somebody. I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do anything that makes this little space we created here uncomfortable. I am, I'm a true host and the guest is a true guest. My role here is to make them, everybody, feel comfortable and let we have a conversation that everybody wants to contribute to and benefit from. So that is me, that is me. But before conrad and them open back that door, I just wanted to put out there. So thanks to all the people who have contributed to the that episode. And I want, um, I want to leave it too. I want to leave.
Speaker 2:These songs might sound random, right that, if it wasn't here, but it's like I like merchant bad, you know, you know, and every year when I have the election I get a chance to come and play Build a Nation, but I like to play Summer, merchant Greatest. I could leave you with that guitar solo. I dream I was in Africa and I was a warrior, wanted lion and tiger Rage like my poor father, and when the darkness had come, we set along our fire, telling of the bravery and courage Of our great ancestors, and we chant it Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh, oh, I will talk to you. Usually I used to say I'll talk to you when I talk to you again. Bye, thank you.