诵 teachers of the Mark Morris Group for Dance Parkinson's disease programme and Prince Toto Newank Shwtty, multi-disciplinary artist, dancer and scholar from South Africa to speak and perform in particular in general, and it has done that beyond any personal goals. and Printz Toto Ngunshuti, multi-disciplinary artist, dancer and scholar from south Africa to speak and perform. In fact, some delegates may remember David Leventhal from the cultural summit in 2016, where he had us all performing dance from the podium and from the seats. I'm going to hand over an havoc and to David and Printz Toto. I'n ddenjon herf You saw your people losing humanity Evol felodd i'n concius yn meridemti Babies became a dirt before maturity Of orphans widows in the prison as a one Evol felodd byn, but nothing was done to stop the fire The enlightened in the sciences destroyed you Instead of saving us, are you well? I'n ddenjon herf You saw your people losing humanity Evol felodd byn, but nothing was done to stop the fire The enlightened in the sciences destroyed you Instead of saving us, are you well? I'n ddenjon herf You saw your people losing humanity Evol felodd byn, but nothing was done to stop the fire The enlightened in the sciences destroyed you I'n ddenjon herf You saw your people losing humanity Evol felodd byn, but nothing was done to stop the fire The enlightened in the sciences destroyed you Instead of saving us, are you well? I'n ddenjon herf You saw your people losing humanity Evol felodd byn, but nothing was done to stop the fire The enlightened in the sciences destroyed you You saw your people losing humanity Evol felodd byn, but nothing was done to stop the fire The only thing you saw to stop was time Evol felodd byn, but nothing was done to stop the fire And yours came out, but nothing effected it Gradd Lanconololol In the science的時候, my music was�yd Tiol mo dent remediaid raen mor e what are I I it's always hard to transition out of performance into conversation that that's what we're going to do so we have a brief time together and we're going to try to share as many different I think my first question is, for Toto, what's so special or powerful about the absence of words which is what dance is most notably to a first time viewer is about? There are no words and yet there's a lot of meaning. Why is that important? It's so important especially for me as a genocide survivor and many survivors. Not just a genocide survivor but a survivor of any crime or any unspeakable violence. I think we know what happens with violence against women or children or different abusers or different diseases. When you're dealing with something you cannot express in words. That's why I find dance so powerful, movement, because it goes deep at the heart of our souls, at the heart of our being. It connects us with ourselves, with nature, with other people in ways that are beyond what can ever be expressed in words. That's why I find movement and dancing so powerful even at the medium of art and expression. We were talking the other day about intuition, the intuition of the body. You talked about a point in your escaping because there were a number of years where you felt like you were constantly escaping. Where you had to make a choice. Can you tell us that story briefly and then what that taught you about physical intuition and why that's important? Embodied intuition, physical intuition, embodied knowledge. So many words people use. I will say it's kind of a wisdom and embodied wisdom. Again, something you know but you cannot put in words. So this is a long story but very, very briefly. There were many moments during genocide in 1994. In 1990 they started war for those who know the Rwandan story. In 1990 there was a war in Rwanda and then four years from 1990 and 1994 we had a period of huge propaganda, a head propaganda, a head speech. The tension were rising a lot in the country. In 1994, after the plane of the former president was shot down, the whole country really started burning. People we knew as neighbours and friends starting chasing us, wanting to kill us. We were going to hiding and in that hiding we didn't know if we were going to leave the next day. I survived because of someone who saved me and my family. When we left the hospital we were hiding in the mental hospital and the hospital in there was completely destroyed on the 17th of April. Thousands of people died there including my father. When we left that building in ruins and we started working hiding from places to places, from forest to people's friends and families, we reached a point where in one forest we reached a crossroads and we didn't know which way to go. Do we go left or do we go right? Majority of people I was with were women and children and the younger people like me. When you have been to school and I was just a high school student, I was very young then, but they seemed to trust me that I know I can help them go somewhere. I can be their leader but I really didn't know what to do. When we reached that crossroads I couldn't make a choice. I was afraid if I make a choice and then we die I'll put people in danger. For the first time we never argued, we never discussed like this before, but at that moment people started arguing where do we go? Do we go right or left? In that dilemma I called on a child. Her name was Ikeaza and she was about six or seven years old. I said, Ikeaza, where would you like to go? She pointed the direction without thinking immediately and we ran that direction. Some people went to the other direction the opposite way. After three hours of working and running we sat down and other people who took the other way came back running to us. Some of them were bleeding and injured. I don't know what happened at that moment but that child saved us because of that instinct and that intuition. Later at night when we were, because most of the time during the night we had the chance to rest and sleep because the militia were drinking so they went back home waiting to come back tomorrow to continue killing. Later at night one of the young people got high fever and he was very hot, trembling and shivering. Again I quickly told everyone to help me. I started digging in the soil using the leaves. We covered him with the soil and the leaves until here in the neck. Early in the morning around four or five the fever was broken. He stood up and we continued running and working. Again that is the kind of, there is an embodied knowledge of instinct and intuition but there is also bringing up, growing up in a family of people who are medical doctors and nurses and being in a space where I was listening and looking at what my parents were doing. I know when I was a child I had the fever my mum would bring a very water and cold clothes and they would put on my head and put me up. Many ways we used the soil to heal ourselves. In the forest I guess I had that kind of embodied knowledge. I had already internalised that I used to help that young boy and it saved him. Many times when the soldiers or the militia were shooting in the hospital for instance throwing grenades and bombs and killing people were dying all around us and moving quickly was saving your lives. You didn't know if I moved what was going to happen but many times I would run, I would move and immediately the spot where you just left a bomb hit there, a grenade hit there. People died there and my mother and my young sisters were very very small then. Sometimes they asked me what made you move? How did you know when you reached that road block that these people were going to kill us you made us turn around and everybody who was behind us was killed. How did you know that? I said I didn't know just that instinct and intuition I cannot put in words. When I'm dancing, performing or creating work with people it's that kind of knowledge and wisdom and instinct I'm trying to help people feel or get in touch with it because I know all of us there that capacity of being in touch with that. We all have that. It's interesting that you say that because you know there are overlaps certainly a very different situation when we're talking about chronic disease like Parkinson's we're not talking about war, trauma and genocide but some of that overlap of finding an embodied knowledge of understanding your body and your movement in a different way than has been described or prescribed is a parallel. I'm thinking of one of our participants some of you saw if you were here in 2016 Cindy Gilbertson in her living room talks about this feeling of even when she can't walk she can dance. She can source the knowledge of dance movement of being a dancer to initiate movement and to control movement that otherwise is so difficult for her there's something about that connection to movement as intuitive knowledge but also movement as artful knowledge that there's a consciousness to it there's decision making. Something that decision making or often that decision making is nonverbal. I'm not saying I'm making a choice to do that. Something it's about a feeling it's a sensory part and that's where I think there's that overlap. I would also say that there's this theme of resilience that in both of our fields our areas of work we're using dance as a way to generate not just an embodied knowledge but a resilience that regardless of what the circumstances have been challenging they have been no matter how degrading they have been the act of moving together of dancing together provides an uplift it provides a sense of confidence it provides a language to reconnect with one's own body and maybe with one's own people in this way so that resilience and community are very much tied together in any kind of community dance form I think we're trying to build resilience through community and build community through resilience. Is that sounds like a working model that we can be comfortable with? Completely, I agree and I would like to add that not far from here I think in Aberdeen there's a professor at the Maya very much Professor Timothy Ingold and he talks a lot about this embodied knowledge and knowing and learning and really trying to challenge these rigid fixed forms of learning in classrooms, universities and places and using art, performance, music or other experiential approaches to help us learn and tap into who we are but also creating or making knowledge and for me those experiential approaches art forms, community dancing, singing together I think there are many experts here who are more knowledgeable than me in neuroscience and neurologists and other science who say and prove that something we do together, singing together, dancing together has so much benefit, so much impact on our brain, our body, our emotional and psychological being and I would say that for many years before industrialization, before enlightenment our communities did that in connection with nature, with nature that we moved, with dust we didn't give these names we put today but they knew because they felt it they knew because they lived it daily constantly together and bonding was something essential to survive thousands of years ago we know that and to create that bonding, that connection they use movement, different rituals, different community oriented activities and today I think we have a huge resource we can tap into and if I may respond to one of the speakers earlier, Joshua, saying we are in a difficult time today in a time of technology and artificial intelligence and there is a distribution of power but at the same time we see a concentration of power on the other hand and there seem to be a kind of tension and contradiction what do we do with this huge power being concentrated on one side and on the other side a distribution of freedom of information going on and as he said throughout the years in evolution we had a moment of great change and unfortunately they were followed by also wars and conflict and what do we do I would suggest that dance maybe is our next stand or maybe our last stand or movement embodied wisdom and knowledge and connecting and bonding as people beyond any form beyond any region of science or whatever because dance moving singing has that capacity to go beyond any barrier any discrimination whatever may use and for me Thank you very much Can I just say that my intuition tells me we need to move on to the next item here so can I say thank you very much it was a lovely way to start our morning and I thank you both for the contributions you've made already to our summit Thank you Thank you we now continue this morning's presentation starting with Dr Asal Habibi assistant research professor from the Brain and Creativity Institute the University of Southern California who will talk on the creative brain and her work as a neuroscientist Good morning everybody My sincere thanks to the presiding officers, distinguished guests Sir Jonathan Mills for the invitation and incredible team that has organised our three days here together I have really enjoyed the presentations Thank you for the beautiful performance Toto and David this morning and I'm honoured to be part of the discussion today on culture and well-being I am here today to share with you some of the scientific evidence especially from the perspective of neuroscience, psychology and education on why every child regardless of socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity or nationality should have access to quality arts education Today I'm going to focus my remarks on music education because that's my area of expertise however given everything that we know about brain and development what I say today applies equally to dance, to visual arts and theatre I want to first make it clear that irrespective of research findings that I will share with you today I consider music and arts as essential components of childhood education We don't have to justify music's place in our education system solely based on research findings related to extra musical benefits such as on language, on intelligence and on maturation of the brain However, I believe that neuroscience research in this area has greatly developed and benefits of music education on the brain and behaviour are becoming increasingly more evident Educators, administrators and policy makers who are often faced with making difficult decisions about school curriculum and activities especially at times of limited budgets need to have the most up-to-date information to make informed decisions about the place of music and arts in school So what are some of the benefits of music? We know that experience shapes the brain This includes the creation of new connections and facilitation of communication between neurons or brain cells a process that we call myelination Neuroscience research shows that infants as young as nine months old when exposed to music can show enhanced brain responses to changes of pitch and rhythm meaning they notice when something doesn't sound right and not only in music but patterns of speech as well meaning like which syllable belongs to which word that is exposure to music does not only help their musicality but also helps their language development We also have evidence that music exposure can help infants perceive and recognize emotions in human voice including sadness, fear, anger and happiness This leads to more successful communication and interaction with family members and caregivers We now have clear evidence that learning and performing music engages and activates many areas and systems of the brain Consider some of the steps involved in playing a musical instrument Reading a music score consisting of abstract symbols and having to translate them into meaningful sound by adjusting fine-finger movement on an instrument listening and making necessary adjustments while evaluating the performance learning and remembering the nuances of a piece and often playing an entire piece from memory In addition, in ensemble playing, every musician has to attend to his or her own performance while coordinating with others Through neuro-imaging techniques including magnetic resonance imaging or MRI and electroencephalography or EEG we cannot identify the brain system that are involved in this orchestration They are the sensory and perceptual system involved in tactile, visual and auditory perception The cognitive and executive function system involved in planning, attention and decision making the motor system that coordinates fine and grows motor action the reward and pleasure system and the learning and memory system In short, making music actively engages many major systems of the brain and there is good evidence that it increases brain capacity through neuroplasticity In other words, music shapes the brain by making new connections and increasing the strength of existing connections between the neurons What are some of the specific findings on the benefits of music making? Let me start with more obvious ones Learning and performing music during childhood improves listening skills by tapping into the plasticity of the brain regions that process sound information including the auditory cortices One important feature of better listening that has been shown to improve with music training is the ability to detect relevant sound amidst noise For example, when there is ambient noise in a classroom children who have had music training can perceive the relevant information and instruction more successfully This is very important for all of us throughout the world who live in noisy environments From a neuroanatomical perspective brain regions involved in sound processing such as the primary auditory cortex and brain regions involved in sound motor integration such as the inferior frontal gyrus have been shown to be anatomically enhanced in trained musicians and differences are even more pronounced in musicians who started training during childhood If these were the only findings the implications would be truly significant but there are many benefits beyond auditory processing Let me give you a few examples We have strong evidence that music training in childhood facilitates language learning, reading readiness and general intellectual development We have evidence that it can foster a positive attitude and mindset and ensures that children at every stage of development are able to understand that effort and discipline can lead to success It is also true that learning to play music enhances creativity and promotes prosocial behaviour Let me now give you some specific examples from a five-year longitudinal study that my colleagues and I at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California have been conducting in collaboration with the Los Angeles for Harmonics and their youth orchestra programme, YOLA We have been tracking how participation in this music programme impacts the brain, cognitive and social development and overall well-being and success of its participants We compare the group of children ages six to seven from the programme with children who did not have access to music or any enrichment programme When the study began five years ago the children were no different from each other in any of the brain measures or the measures of social, emotional or cognitive but after just two years of music training we began to see significant differences Children in the music programme not only became better musically but they also show more mature brain auditory pathways meaning they are better at processing all kinds of sounds They also show significantly more improvement in executive function and social skills compared to children who did not have music training We also observed that children in the music group had more robust connectivity between the right side and the left side of their brain I want to take a moment to consider the implication of what I just said Stronger connections between the two hemispheres of the brain can facilitate communication and integration of information across the entire brain This can potentially give a child an advantage when it comes to synthesis of information as well as to creativity This change in the actual anatomy of the brain was observable after just two years of music training I want to leave you with a story of one of the students in our study a student who I call Daniela comes from a family of six She lives with her parents, siblings and grandparents in a small two bedroom apartment in the Rampart district neighbourhood in Los Angeles the country's second most densely populated neighbourhood that is affected by extreme poverty, gang violence and drug trafficking Her parents are hardworking immigrants who spend 10 to 12 hours a day on cleaning and construction jobs and their demanding work schedule does not leave time for cultural activity or social interaction and learning with their children At the same time, they cannot afford to send their children to after school programmes and her public school does not offer any arts or music programming In 2012, she was selected to enroll in Yola a community youth orchestra sponsored by the Los Angeles for Harmonic that provides free music training and instruments to children from underserved communities of Los Angeles Now, after five years of participation in this programme not only has she become a skilled young musician but she recently spoke to me about how through her music training she has learned how a complex skill is developed through effort and mindful practice and discipline She is a significantly better student at her school She is more compassionate and empathic towards her family and friends and most of all she has gained self-confidence and believes in her natural abilities She recently told me that she has committed herself to become a physician to help her community but also plans to continue playing the violin to maintain art and music as part of her life We all agree that our greatest resource for the future is the potential intellectual, creative and social capacity of our children Those of us in this room are tasked with the responsibility to support development of these capacities through all available means and I'm excited that we now have compelling evidence from neuroscience to support what we already intuitively know that music and arts can play an important role in helping children to become successful, creative and caring individuals I appreciate the opportunity to share this work with you and admire all the work that you are all doing Thank you very much Thank you very much, Dr Habibi Our next speaker for the session is going to be Professor Paz Bloom, director and consultant neurologist from Rabdew University Medical Centre in the Netherlands Professor Bloom works with brain diseases and malfunctions disorders including Parkinson's disease Pass over to Paz Let's see if the microphone works I have slides I can start by saying that it's a tremendous honour and a pleasure to be here with you I'm a medical doctor and this is a typical physician in the Netherlands Typical grassy field, the lowlands and at first sight this world of medicine could not be more different from the world of culture and the world of art another piece of magnificent art from the Netherlands that requires no further introduction In the next ten minutes or so my task is to tell you that these two worlds the world of medicine and the world of art and culture are not only closely intertwined they are in fact inseparable and for me as a neurologist specialised in one particular condition called Parkinson's disease it is really fascinating to see how the brain has created one molecule that binds these two worlds together and that molecule is called dopamine if you have a lack of dopamine it causes a neurological condition called Parkinson's disease if you have lots of dopamine it makes you creative and it helps you to produce art and contribute to culture and it's all bound together by one molecule and for those of you who do not know what Parkinson's disease is this is one of my patients here you see the characteristic tremor which I think most people equate with Parkinson's it's an asymmetric disease for reasons we don't fully understand there is slowness and clumsiness of the movements which you can nicely see in this tapping score the movements start okay, we'll come to that later in a minute but the movements become smaller and smaller as he tries to continue to maintain these movements and another debilitating feature of the disease is the impairment of gait and balance which is shown here in this video what is so fascinating is that you can correct the lack of dopamine with medication and there is now some very good scientific evidence of patients with Parkinson's disease who had never been an artist before in their life who have been treated with dopamine who now become artists and really beautiful art you see painting so this lady had never been a painter developed Parkinson's got drugs and now becomes a painter a sculpturer, a photographer and you would agree with me that this is beautiful art but sometimes dopamine can take its own course and when it works too much creativity and addiction are very closely related and this is an example of one of my patients again with Parkinson's disease who was treated with dopaminergic medication and now became addicted to memorising telephone books but again he used art to counter this and he made, I think this is a stunning painting where he used the telephone book pages and he said who am I and just bear with me if a chemical substance that you take as a drug changes you as a human being and a personality I think this question is compelling if a drug changes my total being so I'm just going to illustrate a few ways of how medicine and culture are closely intertwined one is art as a diagnostic tool there is now good scientific evidence that by analysing paintings you can have an early detection of neurological diseases Salvador Dali had Parkinson's disease each artist has their own and they call signature and the signature is what characterises you as an artist and it gets better and better throughout life as the artist matures but if it goes down on a steep slope it could be an early sign of disease we know that you can diagnose Alzheimer's disease from paintings and this is how you can change how the artistic expressions of Salvador Dali changed and going from what you see on the left to the more structured more typical lack of dopamine type of paintings on the right and the signature already reveals what later became Parkinson's disease another compelling example is this man called Julian Herman he is the concertmaster the former concertmaster of the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra and a wonderful wonderful man but more about that later he noticed in his violin play that his Parkinson's disease was hampering his performance and I brought a video so you can hear it so you can hear how he starts off in a magnificent way but you see the performance decline over time and remember the tapping scores in the Parkinson's patient you can hear the signature sign of Parkinson's better than a neurologist can tell you by looking at the motor symptoms and in fact when we asked another violinist to analyse his play you can see there are hardly any errors in the beginning the red bars but they progress over time and when we analysed the sound of his performance quantitatively this is the typical decrement and now we started a whole new project about hearing and listening to Parkinson's disease but inspired by art and you may have seen this film if you haven't I highly recommend it a late quartet where Christopher Walken was a cellist of a string quartet in New York where he develops Parkinson's disease and his fellow musicians noticed that there's something wrong they say our vibrato doesn't match and it's the earliest sign of what later becomes Parkinson's before a neurologist had noticed now what about art and medicine as culture we've heard about David Leventhal's compelling story about how he uses music in a wonderful way as a treatment there's another example this is Mr Siebold Hilsberger one other patient of mine who's got Parkinson's disease and he's made this painting which is already, it looks nice, it's gold on blue and I like those two colours but in fact in this brain it's a picture of the brain embedded is portions of the brain serving particular functions so there is actually a little ballet dancer it's precisely the area of the brain that subserves movement and coordination and the whole painting is built it's on YouTube, you can see it and it's really brilliant this is another patient of mine and she's got a terrible disease called myoclonus you see these jerks that interrupt all of her movements and she's truly debilitated she's in a wheelchair but she made this painting for me where she abused, exploited her myoclonic jerks to create a painting and every time I see this it gives me the goosebumps and she made this painting for me that's now in my office where she used her disease to produce art which I think is incredible and just one other one is this man with Parkinson's disease who is unable to walk he's from India and we know that patients with Parkinson's disease have a deficit in the automatic pilots in the brain so anything that needs to go automatically is awry but when people for example try to climb stairs they can walk they can compensate for their disease now this man climbs stairs every day but as you know there are no staircases everywhere in your house and now his niece who is a designer and an artist created the three-dimensional illusion of a staircase on the floor allowing him to walk and now she's painted these three-dimensional staircases throughout the house in fact she is now giving away for free three-dimensional carpets to people with Parkinson's around the world the only thing she wants in return is not money but a video of how well the patient has improved and just finally in this little section this is fresh nobody's seen this we've got two papers out where we looked at patients with Parkinson's and looked at the job they chose as a 21 year old at a young age and as it turns out if you as a 20 year old choose to become a bookkeeper or an accountant you're slightly at risk of developing Parkinson's but if you choose to become an artist at a young age you're protected against Parkinson's this paper just came out you're the first one to hear it so my point is that Parkinson's and culture are inseparable worlds and they are like Romeo and Juliet a couple, a love couple for life and I can see how in times of crisis and there are many challenges ahead of us it is very easy to close a museum or to cut your budget on an orchestra but I think you harm the population's health by saving on culture and in fact my very point is that culture and the world of arts should maybe lead the world of medicine because artists by definition are free thinkers whereas the world of medicine is by nature much more conservative if anybody is in crisis it is the medical world we published this paper in the movement disorders journal where we said we could not have designed healthcare worse it's totally wrong and healthcare costs are mounting so we need new models of care and I think artists can help us and just in closing I will give you three very brief examples of how I see where art and culture could help the world of medicine one is I visited Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic on the 35th floor it's one of the largest clinics in the United States has architects observing doctors as if they were anthropologists and looking at our behaviour as doctors and then make suggestions how to improve care another example is Sir William Oslar he was the founder of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States and he made this statement that there is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation any doctor knows that it's key to observe but who is a better observer than an artist so in our hospital at the Rudboud we now have a new initiative where doctors and artists together examine art produce art so they learn to look like an artist and they are instructed to draw what you see and not what you think you see which is very often going wrong in the hands of doctors and just one example you know this painting it's The Potato Eaters by Van Gogh another beautiful Dutch piece of art when they asked medical students to look at it they identified little bits and pieces funny nose, old woman but nobody said it's a family eating potatoes so they zoomed in on the details but failed to see the overall picture which is exactly what doctors need to do is zoom in and zoom out which is what artists do by nature and finally I think this is a beautiful slogan by Pablo Picasso learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist I think medicine and doctors are maybe sometimes too conservative so this is my final slide, pre-final slide this is a building in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and it was from the heyday of the Netherlands in the 17th century, our golden century and it says de kost gaat voor de baat uit colleagues from the Netherlands and Flanders will know what it means it means when you make an upfront investment you will reap the benefits later that's what made Holland great in the 17th century and I'm asking you and I'm telling you don't cut your budget on culture and art invest if we invest in culture and art it will improve and lead to a better population's health I'm totally convinced so that's as far as I'm going and it gives me extreme pride confidence and joy to announce Mr Julian Herman he was in my presentation, remember the violinist Julian is a wonderful wonderful wonderful man he's here today you've seen his play and he actually withdrew from public performance because as an artist his standard was here and to his mind his standard was there with personalised treatment and occupational therapist looking at his hand position the medication that I prescribed as a neurologist we were able to uplift his performance and although he still thinks that his performance is here in my humble opinion he is way up there and it gives me extreme pleasure I'm actually asking for your applause for Julian Herman who's going to do a performance Baz and Julian, can I say how utterly wonderful that was a beautiful performance heartwarming, moving, brave I really thank you very much for what a lovely way to contribute to our morning today thank you very much Julian and Baz for that indeed and now follow that I'm going to ask, if I may for our final contributor this morning or before the ministers actually Faisal Abu Alaja who's a fellow from the Georgetown laboratory for global performance and politics Faisal What a view from here it's kind of a great atmosphere after the music and it really makes it harder for me as somebody I want to talk about laughter and comedy I hope I will pass it to you nicely first after this nice music really I feel I need a group hug with everyone which is good so yeah I'm Faisal, I'm from Palestine I'm an actor and a comedian I would like to thank the Culture Summit for this chance to be here you can't imagine how much I'm happy of the fact that the clown is speaking in the parliament something like I appreciate it very much and I would like to thank also the laboratory for global performance and politics from Georgetown University the people who put me in touch with the Culture Summit so my theme is culture and well-being and I don't know how to explain to you what I want to explain because when I thought about it I was preparing myself what I should say I have to be good, it's a parliament it's so official thing I wrote a couple of a presentation and then I changed my mind and it's up to you to make it the connection between the well-being or not so first story I will tell it's about my friend Ahmed Ahmed is a close friend of mine this story in 2002 during the second intifada in north of West Bank in gene refugee camp during that time was really difficult time there is a big Israeli attack to our camps you talk about tanks, abatches hundreds of soldiers everywhere there is a lot of homes being destroyed more than 370 houses so it's a big trauma for everyone and the house of my friend Ahmed he has been destroyed also too so his nickname is Roch we call him so Roch was like everybody looking for his mother for his sister, for his family but Roch was researching between the stones between the stones and he focusing and researching and researching and researching all the breasts around they came around him hey boy who's there your mom said no your father no your what, why you're searching for said my blastation and all the breasts disappear because I think they are this is not the right story they want to tell in the media they want more drama and it was always inspiring for both of us now this was 2002 we always talk I always talk with Ahmed about this story why, what is was in your mind during that moment that your home being destroyed and the only thing you care about is your blastation he said you know that's after we joined the theatre after we got like a bit educated about art and about comedy he said it's make me happy and it's away because it's the only blastation in the camp so I can make a friend through this blastation so this blastation of Ahmed it was the state of mind of culture will be like he reached this through his blastation second story I would like to share with you it's my story in the same year 2002 by the way this year 2002 for West Bank it was very difficult because the Israeli Prime Minister during that time Ariel Sharon launched a big attack to all the cities in West Bank so the soldiers came to our home came to the area and talk everybody's out of their places like they have you have to leave and when the soldiers say you have to leave it's mean you have to leave you don't have time even to put your shoes on you just leave so I got lucky I was the only man in my area because all the men they were arrested already and I was 13 years old during that time so when I went out of the streets there is tanks soldiers everywhere so I just like you know in my mind as a child I felt I'm a Silvivir Silvivir Steloni and I'm living the action real which is what make me like survive my fear a bit and later on when we left the camp so I was around with 30 40 ladies from the camp and I'm the only boy we passed a checkpoint so in the checkpoint when they saw me like as a young boy they stop everyone because it's not allowed for you to leave the camp you have to take your trousers off and you have to take your shirt up so you can leave and there is 30 ladies around so we stop guns on me and yeah what I should do they say take your pants off like I had and now I'm in this moment I freeze I wasn't afraid actually because during that time I was as a Palestinian child I was used to tanks and soldiers so I'm not afraid I am shy and how to convince the ladies that I'm shy I'm not afraid because all of them because we are late they stop us the soldier and 30 ladies is screaming at me take your trousers off and how to tell them in this moment that I'm shy because I'm having red underwear and this is the idea of red underwear I couldn't share it there is tanks and a batchy and all of these around me but I'm shy of my red underwear I don't care about what's going on and then I took it and then I passed after I passed the story it took me a long time to share this story and to understand what was happening with me during that moment because what was happening it's like it could happen to everyone but in different circumstances but it's a break the stereotype about what fear is sometimes we think we know we know everything from the media we read a couple of articles about what's going on in Palestine or Syria or whatever but who was expecting in that moment I am shy of my red underwear and here's my point about the role of a clowning and the role of comedy because it's a way to break our stereotype about many things about who we are and what we want to be and also to share stories it's not easy to share a story guys that's why I got inspired to be in the hospital as a clown because these children have a lot of fear of many things not only the doctors and the nails and chemotherapy and all of this smell, the medicine there is more than this and the clowning in the hospital it's kind of a I will not say therapy because that's a big word we are not doctors but I will say make it easier for them the same for the families like I come from a conservative family a conservative community in general and conservative family is not a secret like when they see the clown especially for the ladies, for the woman in Palestine you know it's forbidden for the tradition regarding to our traditional rules in some places it's not easy for a lady to interact with a man because that's haram, it's not good it's whatever but they go like this with the clown and I'm clearly a man I'm tall, I'm big but the only thing is different I have the red nose so the nose it's a break the stereotype for the ladies about what is a man mean and put the man in different concept which is that what I mean of make it easier and that's why I believe like clowning and laughter it's it's important and more than important to everyone because everybody in this room I believe have a clown somehow inside of him but you know you hide it because you are in the parliament you want to be cool, you want to be serious you want to be official but everybody but you are I look at you all, all these three days all the clowns I have around me so yeah last thing I want to talk about last April I've been touring around the UK with a great British comedian Mark Thomas we did a show called Showtime from the Frontline it's a story about the comedy club in Palestine the funny thing like we had a great tour in many places in the world in many places in the UK inshallah we'll go to the world soon one of the things that inspired me the difference between the audience like example if there is in the audience like people who is involved with the Palestinian issue like activists, politicians all of them they come to our show it's a comedy show remember that they sit in the first line with a Palestinian coffea and they never laugh because it's Palestine we can't laugh it's freedom and the people who is not involved with the Palestinian issue or political issue they laugh and that was interesting to see how it's comedy it's also a way to communicate like I don't want to be in a studio type okay you are a Palestinian you are a victim or a terrorist that's it you are done go but we are more than this more than this more than this not only as a Palestinian and that's one of the why I believe in comedy I believe in clowning and I believe in jokes I got inspired by George Orwell when he said every tiny joke it's a tiny revolution so every time just think about this and remember it every time you laugh you make a revolution inside your body first and we hear from my colleagues about the art and the laughter and I was just talking with a great professor sorry I forget your name it's like about the power of humour some people say laughter is a way to survive some people say laughter is to hide fear or to despise fear some people say laughter is a relief some people say laughter is a communication it's a way of expressing who we are but for me I believe we all as a human we laugh before we speak before we talk and laughter is a reminder for us that we are human and we deserve this life thank you very much and thank you for bringing us our we're sitting next week I'm so tempted it's one of my colleagues if the minister wears one then perhaps I thank you again Faisal I'm out introducing the first of our youth delegates Nicholas Key from Jamaica I believe we'd like to pay a contribution Nicholas, just where you're standing if you're at yes hi morning everyone so in going to be speaking about I guess Jamaica's perspective first and in a land of just in a multicultural land filled with people of many races various classes different identities such as Jamaica we often take an instinctive approach to how we view and activate culture it's never really quantified and this happens to be the case for a lot of countries especially those that are also filled with multicultural identities in Jamaica we usually operate from a space of scarcity which is not exactly it's polarising firstly of course we have our economic challenges of course we have we tend to have decently high rates of violence however we still hold on to our culture we have a scene in Jamaica it's I'm going to say it and then loosely translate it it's called take things and make take things and make it into a joke which I guess loosely translates to making things that are of a bad situation into that which is lively and enjoyable and it really speaks to how we operate and I think on a global scale even though we all have our challenges it's important that we pay attention really carefully to how we introduce culture into firstly our schools into the spaces that we call safe and how we use culture to combat things like crime and violence and we have seen successes of or cases of successes of that in Jamaica there are I'm going to share one example so there's a programme in Jamaica run by a non-profit I can't exactly remember the name of it but they essentially rehabilitate criminals there was one man in particular he had spent about 25 years in prison for I don't remember the crime either but while there he spent his time training to be a musician a musical artist that is and so on leaving prison he became a recording artist not sure if you probably remember his name or probably know his name but his name is Jaqior he spent a few years in prison for a crime that would possibly alienate him from society however on his release he was entered into the working world as a musician and now he's able to tour the world to share his story and to spread positive music through the lens of reggae reggae has been seen as the dominant force in Jamaica to spread love positivity and unity and I believe culture as a whole can do that for all of us and so as I stand here I'm imploring to not just my own country but you all to really consider the effects that introducing culture and just investing in culture will have on the people as a whole for sure it will increase dopamine levels but I think when we consider quantifying things like this we really need to hone in on how we instinctively feel we need to bridge that gap between taking the studies that we find to really merging our instinctive reactions to everything that we feel and I implore you all to do that thank you Nicholas thank you very much indeed I'd now like to call a colleague from Singapore Shafika Ada Salehyn Thank you for citing officer a very good morning to everyone I'm deeply honoured to be here to be standing before you as the youth Singaporean delegate to offer my response to the messages that have been delivered today and to share with you my perspective and experience as a young artist in Singapore regard to today's topic which is culture and well-being so I am a full-time musician freelance musician I identify myself as a composer, a performer and educator of the arts so understanding the power of music and the significance of culture is very important at the heart of what I do it forms a basis of why I do what I do so for the past two days it has been really encouraging and empowering as an artist to listen to the shared understanding and commonality that there is importance and value of culture it is also a humble reminder to me as a young artist that art making is beyond mere self gratification that whatever I do as my output as an artist has a reach out to a far wider community beyond myself so knowing all this it reassures me of my purpose and meaning meaning in life as a musician and I think that this in itself is a statement of the artist's well-being with all the positive vibes that is going on in this sub-main I feel that I am in a safe and I am in a good time position and place to be an active contributor to the arts and culture as an artist I am safe well and good and moving on we have heard from Dr Asa Habibi about the benefits of music and I would like to share with you a personal experience in which I saw the positive impact music happened before my very eyes in Singapore one of the most meaningful work that I've had the opportunity to do was to perform as a roving musician in a hospital I played the accordion and together with two other musician friends of mine we performed for the patients were awarded there and we moved from board to board performing several songs that would remind them of their past or would entertain them it was a very fulfilling experience for me and I clearly remember I was playing for an elderly lady who was clearly a bit redden she was very ill and I was asked to perform a traditional song for her in which I did and while I was performing I was very surprised to see her smiling and she was humming to the song she was performing she was moving her head and after finishing that song her daughter came up to me and she said thank you for that performance because she had not seen her mother smile because the mother was constantly in pain and I felt so honoured to be able to make that kind of impact to her mother so this experience for me truly proved the power and magic of music in getting through to someone to bring about human emotions the culture and the arts should be accessible to all people people with disabilities in palliative care or have terminal illnesses because they have as much right to enjoy the arts as the others for a person with a terminal illness for example I think that the very act of bringing culture to that person is to dignify him and to make him feel validated as a human being Singapore is becoming increasingly aware of this and we have the example of hospitals in partnerships with our performing arts centre as planet that enables the running of such programs with local artists one other aspect of culture and well-being that I would like to share from my perspective is the function of culture to bring people together which then promotes the well-being of a nation as a whole so as you might understand Singapore has a multi-religious and multi-ethnic society but as a young nation of 53 years a unique Singaporean culture is increasingly emerging and perceived in solidarity with my fellow Singaporeans I have an affinity with our English colloquial English called Singlish and we enjoy our food which celebrates the coming together of different cultures it seems that things that make us Singaporean brings us together and forge a common understanding between one another so just an example just two weeks ago Singapore celebrated its 53rd birthday and to commemorate that the Singapore Symphony Orchestra programmed a very special national day concert that featured a multi-generation of Singaporean composers really the first of its kind and amongst the works of my contemporaries and senior composers my own orchestral work was performed in this concert under the patron of our renowned Singaporean conductor Daryl Ang the orchestra also performed national songs that speaks to the hearts of every Singaporeans and as a result the concert actually received a full house attendance and it was even broadcasted live on Facebook so that netizens, Singaporeans and non-Singaporeans alike could enjoy that concert I think this is groundbreaking because it provided people who have not seen an orchestra before to have that opportunity to do so for example my own parents it's the very first time that they actually saw an orchestra perform live and to have this performance I think it creates a sense of ownership and connection to the orchestra because any Singaporean who was able to see that performance can have a sense of connection to the songs that were being performed and looking at the artists that were being featured in that concert they have that connection to see that this is my people this is what Singaporeans can do as a whole and therefore the concert is not to ex-validating the nation's emerging as well as accomplished composers in a field of classical music and I think that this continued culture of celebration of Singapore's born and bred and what makes us Singaporeans can increase the sense of pride of their people and their home thus fostering the collective well-being of a nation so I've given my perspective my Singaporean perspective of how culture promotes well-being in an individual and collectively as a nation and I hope that you can take some of these points to your country as well unless I would like to say that as much as culture contributes to the well-being of people let us not forget that the well-being of the people who contributes to culture that is artists themselves should not be forgotten Thank you That brings us to an end of the morning session I would just encourage members if they wish to join in on the social media debate there are some challenging comments about freedom of expression and allowing dissent and some not entirely supportive comments about funding for the arts so maybe you need to get in there and challenge some of those remarks Before I hand over before you go into your workshops looking ahead this afternoon I'm very aware that a number of, particularly of ministerial delegates would like to make a contribution and to be honest, speaking entirely selfishly as an elected representative I know how important it is that ministers are able to make a contribution in the plenary however we've got up to a dozen people who wish to speak already so I'm sure you can do the maths you cannot give a speech if you all want to contribute so can I suggest that if you make a few remarks of maybe three minutes maybe four at the top then I'll try and get as many people in as possible and it'll be more participative because I'd like it to be more participative so with that admonition encouragement, three minute speeches I look forward to seeing you this afternoon I'm going to hand over if I can to Joanne Kendall who will tell you where to go next