 Different places at the opposite ends of the world, one being Honolulu, Hawaii, with Pyshek Music Historian, Kusoto Brown, and the other one, Kusoto Brown. Good day, everybody. Same. Yeah. Hi, Kusoto. Good morning, Martin, or good afternoon for you. So, I just said we're broadcasting live from exactly opposite ends of the world, you're being back home in Honolulu, Hawaii, and me being near Munich, Germany. This is in the midst of the COVID-19 scenario. And if you take the first page up, there is a very recent demographical and statistical data here, and what are we seeing? Well, we're seeing the rankings of two batches of countries, and as you pointed out when we discussed this earlier, this ranking is going to be changing constantly. But as of the time when you saw this, this is ratings that were done by a British company named Deep Knowledge Works, the top 20 countries for the United States is number two, whereas the top 20 countries for the least lowest risk for COVID-19 is Germany. So, we are talking about the two countries that are second in the list of worst countries and best countries at this moment for the risk of COVID-19. Absolutely. And since we're representing this of these countries and cultures, we want to take advantage of that and basically, you know, exchange our experiences and hopefully get something out of that for improving the situation. And at the bottom, you can see that I recently joined you in also obtaining the American passport. And so, these two passports I had when I was getting back home last minute. And just when I arrived here in Germany and we could go back to the second slide here, please, you provided me with these images here, what was going on back home in Hawaii. And we also have another statistic here that you sent me as of yesterday and this might be historic because you have to share the sad news that they're going to discontinue the print as a hard copy version of our main newspaper in Honolulu, the Star Epitizer, right? Well, right at the moment, they're only stopping it just for Saturdays only. Oh, okay. But it could be, you know, this is a very difficult time economically for everybody, including newspapers because there's no advertising because everything is shut down. But this article shows that of the 50 states, Hawaii is number three in the list of least affected by COVID-19. So that actually is a good sign for me here, not as good as what you have in Germany, but it's still better than many other states. Now, the other pictures show us social distancing as it's being practiced or as it's being directed to be practiced at the Whole Foods Market at Kahala. And you see the lines on the sidewalk in orange tape to show you where to stand when you're waiting to get into the store. And then inside the store itself, there are various lines and stickers on the floor that direct you to not get too close to people, which of course is one of the important things that we're being told to do during the COVID-19 plague. Absolutely. And moving on to the next slide that shows us is that moment when I went out going back and was here at the Union, here at the airport in Munich, you see something that's familiar to us. You see this sort of gated off pathways. And you see people there. It looks pretty normal. I heard a few masks. And, you know, it doesn't say it doesn't seem overcrowded, but it also doesn't seem really empty. And I have to say, I surprisingly, that was one of my soonest travel ever. Although, as you read, it got me out to the last minute because after that everything was shut down. Number four, this is the later that looks familiar to you. That is Susanna. There she is. Hello, my dear. We talked to her. We talked to her last night. Her at a bakery near where you are now living. And it looks very normal there, although she pointed out that area has been removed. And that's true here, certainly in the Hawaiian Islands and throughout the United States too. So there's only takeout service available. And otherwise it looks very normal. Exactly. And so the next slide makes you feel less bad because we're even here because we got these way finding side devices. Tastes on the floor. The grocery store as well that tries to put people in their places. Yeah. You know, I noticed something when you said this to me that the social distancing there is, as I remember it said 1.5 meters. Than us here because we're told 6 feet. And so 6 feet would be more like 2 meters. So it's a little, it's slightly different. The unit of course is different, but it's a slightly different distance. And that's also different from institution to institution. I've just been at the bank this morning. There was the 6 feet, 2 meters there as well. But if we go on the next slide, there's also other sort of methods to, and they might be more effective as we said, because here in front of the counter, this is another bakery store here in town. They put these craves where you usually deliver the bread up there. So this also gives you a physical reminder when you're told, you know, a hit type box that tells everyone probably more clearly no further because then you would have to step on the box, which you unlikely to do, right? Right, unless you're a child. Exactly. Which is the most problematic to keep them in the warriors, right? So, and next slide is an even more severe measure that you said you've been thinking about back home, and all of a sudden you saw your idea implemented here. And that's the next slide, number 7. Now, this is really clever, I think, because what they've done is piled up boxes in front of the delicatessen counter that physically keeps people from getting too close. And I thought of that when I was in Whole Foods last week or the week before, because there was no clear delineation of how close you could get to the counter to receive food that you were ordering. This physical barrier keeps you, forces you to not get too close. It's really clever that they're using materials that are already in the store there that they don't have to order special. Exactly. And going to the next page, this is something that we've been watching for most of our shows about the allure of greener on the other side, being about the tropical exotic. And so this was once again intriguing you how we, even in COVID-19 corona days, are still obsessed with your culture, right? Yeah. And this is in the supermarket. And this is a special display set up for exotic fruits. It's got a fake pantry with a purple light on it. It's got bamboo slats around the base of this counter. And yet, if you look at the people, they're all dressed up in very warm clothes, because it's still cold in Germany. And I was just thinking also, that's one reason that people will be less likely to go outdoors, although now it's getting warmer. Whereas here, we want to go outside all the time, because it's warm. But nonetheless, what we're talking about is there's still this normal economic flow of transporting goods huge long distances to people in other countries far away from where they're originate. And this is the antithesis of the grow local and support local farmers movement that's, I'm sure, also happening in Germany, but we certainly see it here in Hawaii, too. Especially that one, there is a more than ever contemporary spot shed on that one, because that's what people say is less vulnerable to system errors and disasters. If you don't rely on external supply chains, if you don't have any control over if they fail, rather than providing from yourself from your own region, right? Right. And along the same lines, the next page here, slide number nine, you were complaining to me particularly about something I was very worried about. Well, in the center of this display, and this is all seafood that's displayed on ice in a store, contains a dead octopus. And you had seen a live octopus swimming off Waikiki when you went from one of your daily swims, back when you were here at home. And I said, no, you were worried, is that my same octopus friend? And I said, no, it's not. Sure, was shipped in from the Mediterranean at least, because they don't have octopuses up in the North Sea where you are. So this is something, again, which has been transported a long distance to be offered for sale in Germany, far from where it originally lived. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the next slide is what Suzanne was giving us a lecture about the different mentalities and expressing themselves differently through scarcity situations like we have it right now. And we were very intrigued by that. So how can we sort of summarize what we had learned from her? Well, she was pointing out that people in different cultures and different countries are hoarding different things and trying to make sure that they have supplies of them. And one of the things that struck her in me, too, was that people in France were buying baguettes, the really long, skinny loaves of bread, and stockpiling them and freezing them, because that's something that's very important to them. But something which is worldwide is this toilet paper hoarding thing. And I conjecture that that actually got started here in the Hawaiian Islands back in 1971 when we had a dock strike. And lots of things were very scarce because they weren't being unloaded from ships or being shipped at all. And toilet paper we actually did run out of. And so a few years later when this, and we had another economic catastrophe, that's when people started hoarding toilet paper here. And I think that's one of the reasons that this became something that people do worldwide. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we all certainly agree that a man can hoard something that might be in their genes. And this is hoarding weapons. Crush out and buy guns, and then think that they're going to defend themselves against the rioting hordes of people coming after them. Exactly. So the next slide is showing us the place. And so we're actually, we're in a small town in the outskirts of Munich that we could call the couple layer of Munich location-wise. But something is different that rather than, as you reminded me, that basically the freeway H1 sort of was promoting, you know, sprawl to the fact once, you know, this wasn't going anywhere literally, intuitively because it was, you know, clogging up in traffic jams. So then we think it's more than a conspiracy theory, but actually facts that the developers would press you on the politicians and said we had another medium of transportation which becomes the heavy rail, which we all know, in case of this development here, the rail, the commuter rail was actually first. And that was promoting, you know, just becoming a very, it's called after neighborhood for families who won't have a yard for their kids to play in and out of Munich. Right, and that's something which in the USA is called a bedroom community, meaning you go home to your bedroom and then you go back to the city to go to work. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this case here, everyone, we can go to the next slide and see that it's a pretty vivid little small town that has actually commercial infrastructure that covers most everything. So you don't just leave there, but you have a pretty robust holistic comprehensive infrastructure. And people are still on that, you know, most possible transportation, your bicycle, and what do they carry? Toilet paper just like on our bike in our basket. Exactly. So on the next slide, this is me standing in line of the small post office here. So we're all spaced out, we're all distance. And we said it provides both challenges as it takes way more time, but also opportunities because you have way more time. And if you're lucky to be able to work at home or take vacations as we are, and then we can afford if you're out of work, that's a big problem and you have a lot of time, but that's what you actually don't need because you need to generate income, right? Right. The next slide is another similarity because different than one would sing when you think there is a lockdown and nothing happens anymore, something is actually happening and you might not see this as an optimistic thing. Sign is actually construction is still working. Here you can see in the town, in the center of the town, you can see an old building used to be there and now they're building a new one. In Honolulu, however, you were reporting a even more extreme, particularly in Waikiki. Tell us about that quickly. Well, with the lack of people in Waikiki, which is almost never, ever seen, this is affording the opportunity for the city and county to do a lot of infrastructure work, repairs, repaving the streets, fixing up the beach, putting down more sand, pumping sand, all of those things which would normally be very difficult to do because it's so crowded as a very densely populated urban area. Now suddenly we've got the space and the time to do it, so they're rushing all of these projects into effect right now while they've got this window in which they can do them. Yeah. And speaking of Waikiki and things getting done, the next picture here, we have one thing to you who you're eventually out taking advantage of instead of just belonging to the media and press and journalism, you venture out and capture the moment of time. So where did you, where did you get that cast here? This is the Aston Waikiki beach hotel and as you can see it's boarded up with plywood. And there are other buildings that are boarded up in Waikiki as well and as well as downtown. And normally we see this when there's a hurricane approaching. There's no hurricane this time, but that is more seen as human beings rather than nature because this is to prevent theft while everything is abandoned. And you pointed out that this is not optimally what we would want to be doing in terms of how we're using plywood. Plywood is an imported foreign product. It's not made locally. And can we instead use other things which we can do locally. And we'll get to that when we get to the end of this presentation. Yeah, absolutely. This is one of the things which she did here. This is what my sister, Cynthia, she is some way, let us foresee what's coming when she was designing, when we were designing this building for her and her firm, which is our southern branch and it's called the office home. And it's obviously the reverse of a very known these days in the form of home office. So she's going to be an active as an architect and be active as a mother and to combine both. And the building is in a very typical way kind of facilitating both. And what we see as being wood here, referring to the previous picture where you said it's not a very intelligent and innovative use of wood here. In fact, it is because what looks like wood is also wood substantially on the inside which is currently in September. We did it so many years ago. And there's this show from the previous show that I had early transcendence and technically very bad because I was the one man band guy with my Lenovo computer and a window movies maker and so please apologize for the technical difficulties but if you get over that you can learn more about the project. We also have something as we use cars as vehicles for thought we have our now nearing quarter of a century old with no twinkle there and you being a license plate you notice something when I showed you previous pictures of the car. Well you showed me pictures of this car over time in different locations and when I first looked at these pictures I thought wait a minute this can't be the same car because it doesn't have the same license number and you pointed out that just like in the United States when you move to a different part of Germany you have to register your car there and you get different license plates but you also said last night to me that the license plates are coated with the district or the county we would say in the USA where the car comes from and this allows people in Germany when there are during like this current situation where you're not supposed to be driving around that county code or the numbering allows the police to spot your plate and say you're not supposed to be driving around outside of your district what are you doing? That's exactly how it works and the next picture staying with our material of wood which actually here is a very abundant building material because it's a very forested region while I'm missing my specific open front yard a little bit of a substitute compensation is my forest here in the front yard there's another sort of problem of dilemma that's that's been lingering around for a while there's climate change there's a lot more storms here and little mini tornadoes and hurricanes so the traditional German forest is hit and beaten pretty hard so they have to cut down a lot of timber which happens in Hawaii as well especially where they all be here I don't know if they can speak to them as well and here and however John said this is the woods grown in the very out so they'll travel and make something out of it Is that before we changed is that firewood? No, well these branches they were kind of looking more random and different sizes I think they actually cut this into more you know, lumber the ones on the piles might actually be firewood your architecture will show your architecture will be more interested in building with woods and this is my history I built on the right side of the page I built these highrises way back when I was a kid and the other young gentleman here is building his tree house so that makes us think about building and indigenous and demand of housing increasing because of the crisis many more people will move into homes which again is occupying you out with a really fascinating very kind of tragic innovation which is so Now that the streets are so empty and there are so few people around you really notice the homeless people so you see in the picture on the left the Waikiki view of no traffic and no pedestrians but on the right is your friend who you used to see on Kawakawa Avenue in Waikiki who made lay by and I noticed this guy on King Street who I photographed a short time ago lying on the sidewalk but next to him is something that's noticeable there's a lot of rice for some reason cooked rice that's in a box and it's warming with birds so there are pigeons and there are doves eating and that's something that we've been seeing worldwide happening which is that animals are coming out of hiding and going into urban areas yeah and then we see we're getting on the next slide number 20 here where we used to be tourists not birds that's right they're going to be taking over so nature reclaims a fancy natural environment right and this is in front of the Sheraton Waikiki which is always proud of your vehicles there you go and I guess we're taking the last slide number 21 here which is hopefully if anything the crisis makes us aware of things that don't really work so well and before we go back or rather than going back to business we try to change things for the better and this is a project here we've been doing an entire show about the affordable at least wanting to be power by power used that we went so good to begin with but after the recent article that we're putting on the top rise because the people barely afford to move in there and I can't anymore because they were bumping up the maintenance fees and there were other deficiencies in the building right so it was a misleading way to get people to purchase things that eventually was not sustainable economically absolutely she was always ending on a positive and uplifting note that gets to them with what you remember from what was about well this is your friend Kaylee and Kaylee is making use of the coconut tree and he's showing how economically you can make wood and wood products out of this tree which is very abundant here very abundant throughout the tropics throughout the entire and one of the things that can happen with these hicks or nail-like things that are made of coconut wood can be used in lieu of nails and they can be shot into construction with a this in use and so this is something that's being explored now to make use of a resource that we have here in the tropics which is very abundant exactly and the pictures you see in the middle is Kaylee she saw cutting the logs by himself in the middle it's just very important we still want to think globally but act locally and he was reaching out and actually flying around the world to a company called Backhaftening and there are the market leaders in metal plans and then they started doing this product which is very genius and friction welding the wood dowels into the wood and then he was allowing as Kaylee demonstrates at the very bottom he then had structural testing with Professor Robertson from the engineering department here at 2 age also the prior testing that went very well at the top right and then in the middle on the right he is working with Kaylee was demonstrating is actually something that we can do as we talk grow your own food through international collaboration you can actually make it happen that people in the future hopefully can even build their own buildings and there is an international trend right now about cross-eliminated and solid timber higher rises and they're competing against each other and we can join that competition and again build these buildings ourselves and we would cut out vulnerability for future disasters Americans might be further pandemics or might be further economic resources all these insane maintenance costs and if you build in your own equity because training ourselves we could actually do that this is a fascinating outlook of this emerging generation build a future that will be less vulnerable to these other reoccurring situations that's exactly right and of this show and we will continue to report about what's going on and be very special in my place and around the world in the next couple of shows and I'm going to let you please all stay very vital yep, goodbye everybody bye bye