Thursday, May 21, 2020 - International Tea Day

Video Subtitles:

hello happy international tea day May
21st
Thursday 2020 we celebrated
international tea day before but today's
is extra special because today is the
first official one that is sponsored by
the UN which is a big deal the UN is a
big deal obviously but this
international tea day has actually been
a holiday that's been around for a while
I don't know how much of a holiday it is
other than just a day of observance of
the people of T so in the past this
international tea day had always been
celebrated on I think it was December
13th and you know I've gotten a contact
a couple of months ago or a couple weeks
ago actually this is a very last-minute
thing that's the UN had officially
announced that they were gonna do
international tea day and I was a little
surprised you know that uh that the the
UN would create a different holiday but
then came to find out that actually the
the holiday is the same one it's just
the UN took it took it over and is
trying to make it better so today is
special I'm gonna be on for the next
couple of hours to invite people to come
drink team it with me but also to
announce something very exciting from
from our warehouse and from you know our
computers we are launching a tea tasting
tour around the world the opportunity to
taste the people's teeth and people
being tea farmers that we've been
working for or working with I shouldn't
say working for definitely working with
throughout the years so throughout the
month of June on Tuesdays and Thursdays
we will be hosting exclusive live events
private you know by private link only
for those who purchase tickets to join
us in these life tastings to taste three
teas from different tea people from
different tea growers tea makers that
we've been working with throughout the
years in addition to the tea tastings
I will also be giving presentations
telling both you know the history of the
places that these people come from as
well as everybody's personal story about
how they became tea people and they
became tea makers and they became our
friends and our family as well as some
personal anecdotes you know of my
experiences of traveling and spending
time with each of these folks so I'm
really excited about this I decided you
know to launch this today you know
people have actually been asking me
about you know about how they can do
more education base experiences with us
and you know I kind of hesitated on
doing the classes but now that it seems
that for the unforeseeable future we are
going to be spending more time at home
not a negative thing you know we want to
make this a very positive thing a very
positive experience for us to enjoy our
time at home so I decided yeah I'll step
up and do some more education experience
with you guys so this is special I've
never done this before we of course have
our T 101 video that's online on Vimeo a
video on demand which you are all
welcome to to go check that out anytime
it's a 45 minute five chapter video that
explains the history of T the science of
T myths and and you know you know
busting the myths of T as well as
brilliant T but this is gonna be
different because it's going to be an
interactive experience we're going to be
making friends with each other we're
going to be asking for advice so the
these will be in
you know zoom like settings so you'll be
able to not only ask your questions but
even ask if you're doing things right
you know and not to say that there's a
white right way to brew tea or tasty but
sometimes people just need that
encouragement and that confidence to
know that they are doing things right so
today I have no real agenda other than
explaining what what's going to be going
on in this education series next month
so again it's Tuesdays and Thursdays in
the month of June the very first ones
gonna start on June 9th so the first
week of June we won't be doing anything
just because I want to make sure that
you guys all have enough time to
purchase your tickets as well as receive
your tea so you will be receiving with
your ticket this is not just a virtual
event that you buy ticket to go to this
exclusive link and and and see this
exclusive content you will be receiving
a box that goes with the events of
course will have your tea samples that
you will be brewing and as well as some
other information or you know what other
stuff I end up putting together in those
boxes for for each session and the live
events will happen noon at the same time
as right now on Tuesdays and Thursdays
12:00 to 2:00 p.m. Pacific time so I
figure that's kind of a good time you
know across the different time zones
including Europe you know a little bit
of a night time thing but yeah so if
you're not based in the US and you're
interested in this please don't hesitate
you know to participate you know we will
work something out for you to make sure
you get your teas on time also if you
are not able to attend the live events
we will be replaying those events again
that will only exclusively
be accessible for ticket holders or if
you know you watch the live events you
enjoyed it very much but there was
something that you wanted to rewind and
watch again all the videos will be
available for playback so you know don't
feel the pressure that you have to
physically be there in order to to get
the full experience out of this of
course of you therefore the live event
you will be able to have your questions
answered immediately but if you know me
at all you know that I'm always happy to
answer any questions at any time that
anybody has so I just put the link up
you know across all the different
platforms and please join so that link
bit ly / t let tea party will actually
bring you directly into my team room you
know at the tea table where we can sit
and enjoy tea together we can talk you
know I'd love to talk with you about how
you're enjoying this International tea
day and what you're doing to celebrate
tea and to acknowledge the efforts and
the hey Bitcoin that's going C even
Bitcoin is enjoying international tea
day so okay so I'm pretty much shared
everywhere we're online again please
join this link here fit dial y / t let T
if you want to join the livestream so
just a little bit of history about
international tea day it's let me let me
lick this up so I can give you guys all
the exact
information on it there's a little bit
of confusion on it because the date
moved and there's new management on the
hall is hey I'm kind of funny that
there's a management on the holiday what
happened
and that happens to the facebook video
oh let's see
sorry about that guys looks like the
facebook video dropped out
we'll get going on and get it on
Facebook all right cool looks like we
are up okay yeah so International tea
day got taken over by the UN
specifically the Food and Agriculture
Organization which is segment of the UN
it's an observance day and here is the
official definition its aims to raise
awareness of the long history in the
deep cultural and economic significance
of tea around the world the goal of the
day is to promote and foster collective
actions to implement activities in
favour of the sustainable production and
consumption of teeth and to await raise
awareness of its importance and fighting
hunger and poverty Wow yeah that's a big
one so you know I'm very excited it
seems that like our work is something
you know that we're constantly uh
acknowledging these these parts of tea
and trying to share that so strange home
sorry guys if you were on Facebook and
got cut off our video all right we're
live again
so this day actually starting 2004 so it
is a recent and this was before the UN
took over it so the main architects the
main architects were in Suba of the new
trade union initiative as part of the
world Social Forum in 2004 and it was
started in India and 2005 was the first
time it was celebrated and then it
spread to Sri Lanka in 2006 and then
joined with the global tea conferences
by some trade union movements so in 2015
was when the Indian government
encouraged the FAO to get involved and
so I guess it's taken five years for the
UN to to assume ownership and so in
December of 2019 you know this year
that's just passed the UN made their
official announcement that's oh that's
so interesting this thing makes me keep
the link there I'm sorry Facebook all
right good down and so it's interesting
this this day used to be held in
December and there was quite a bit bit
of contention about this day in the past
and you know something that like I
didn't really gripe too much about I
just tried to focus on remaining
authentic and focusing on the purpose of
this holiday and that is that this is
not to celebrate tea exclusively as this
cool product that we all like to drink
but to celebrate it as
a lot of people involves and more people
than just us that sit and drink the tea
and talk about the tea and learn about
the tea but also the people that work so
hard to grow it and not even just the
people but the whole system's that
they're within right because as I had
read to you from the UN statement about
what this day means it's about
understanding teas role in the lives of
so many people in in in poverty you know
its role in of lifting people out of
poverty which you know a lot of times
the conversations as they rightly should
be around tea are talking about how the
business and industry of tea is actually
holding down people into poverty
and I had actually received several
messages from people yesterday hi good
to see you happy international tea day I
have received several messages from
people asking me to use this day and use
this platform to talk about all the ills
and tea and all of the companies that
are still practicing what some people
blatantly called slavery I I don't call
it slavery because you know slavery is a
very specific thing that is not just
oppression and and holding someone down
for mobilization but it's literally not
paying them it's literally not valuing
their their efforts and so you know as
far as I know other than the bought leaf
factories not paying for the green leaf
that the small growers bring to them
every tea producer is at least pain
sub-minimum wages as much of a joke as
that minimum wage could be so you know
slavery the the real definition of
slavery really doesn't exist
and it may exist among the small tea
growers and and that's the point of
transparency that always gets lost and
and our commodity tea even the famous
beloved tea estates of Darjeeling and
that we love so much they don't talk
about the small tea growers that they
buy their leaf from and they don't talk
about how little in a price that they
pay for that leaf because they don't
have to now they do have to talk about
the minimum wage they pay their workers
they do have to talk about that because
that's legal the government requires
them to one pay a certain minimum wage
and to to to share with their clients to
share with their buyers how much exactly
they are paying for their labor but
anyway I kind of got off subject a
little bit but people wanted me to talk
about this and like even named the
brands and the producers that are guilty
of this kind of oppressive indentured
labor condition and really to be honest
if I want to do that I'd need like a
two-day long livestream to really get
deep into that and to name everybody
that is guilty of that because to be
honest they kind of all are you go to
the grocery store even Whole Foods even
Fairtrade certified things they are all
responsible and meaning to have this
very low-cost labor it's the only
expense that can really be controlled on
the production end of tea to make
producers competitive in the
international commodity markets the
international commodity market price has
not increased if anything it's decreased
over the past 50 years fifty years is a
long time for a market price not to
increase and the reason why is just
because we've all been trained to expect
lower prices we've all been explained to
be competitive on pricing you know
Walmart
doing it and now Amazon makes it even
easier for us to do that to compare the
price across the board and do our price
shopping now when it comes to specialty
tea it's a very different story and so
that's why in my development philosophy
as well as in you know our business
ethic we do exclusively focus on the
higher echelons of quality even if a
producer that we work with is capable of
producing in ctc or low range teas
commodity level teas we don't promote
those teas we may broker that if that's
something that both the producer and the
buyer consent to but when it comes to
what we introduce to you all and what we
talk about and what we want the world to
know about tea it is the top quality
that's something that you value because
the the pricing game is very different
the value game is very different you
know I hate to to use that word price
because that's not what this is about
it's adult value in the commodity market
it is all about price it's nothing to do
with value and that's always going to be
oppressive to the worker so I conceded
in saying I you know I'm not going to
focus on the negative I'm not going to
try to call people out because yeah
we'll just take too much of my time and
then also it just it would take also
more friction or not take but it would
increase the friction with folks that I
actually want to work with and I want to
see them make the right decisions about
how they operate their businesses to be
more empowering to the workers right and
I learned this lesson really hard the
last time I was in in India and Nepal I
had gone there after dealing with some
pretty heartbreaking bullying of sorts
with something right here in Las Vegas
and the tea business somebody that sells
tea in Las Vegas and is very competitive
and you know I just felt very
discouraged and bullied and and then one
on this trip and it was just like a
constant theme of my conversations with
everybody I was meeting of just feeling
like people are just trying to take me
down for the sake of taking me down and
and then a bunch of old wounds from you
know past relationships in in India that
have lied and taken advantage of the
help that I offered to them and that my
business offers to them their needs kept
popping up because yeah they're going
around and trying to develop
relationships with all the artisanal tea
growers that I'm working with now and
you know trying to buy the tea at a much
lower price and then you know bring it
to the international market as this
premium thing and take all of the the
value from that business transaction and
the American in me just wanted to talk
about it and like make everybody aware
of how low this person is hi Joanie good
to see you low ha happy tea
international tea day I've got the Sun
out of course it's sunny beautiful here
in Vegas but you know I figured a happy
cheery Sun it looks like the Sun the Sun
up there has been drinking quite a bit
of tea today looking looking pretty
relaxed and happy I am drinking some
again my job yeah so all I wanted to do
was just tell my friends uh how could he
be talking to that guy that guy is so
bad like he's totally ruined my trust
and he did this and this and this and he
bullied me in this way and you know my
friends are like you know these patients
like calm down
I think all this is going to do for you
is one put you into a negative space
where you're just gonna be in these
constant cycles of feeling bullied and
feeling disempowered and feeling like
you can't go anywhere and then it's
gonna make us feel bad so you're like
even though like you're complaining
about
and your relationship with that person
you know it's it's making us feel bad so
that's gonna affect our relationship and
then the third thing is like it's
affecting your relationship with that
person who is actually a very powerful
person that has a lot of influence and
power to make change if if if they're
able to be inspired to make that change
and that was a hard bit of information
for me to swallow because the American
culture as well as several of their
cultures around the world that this is
something that Americans you know
definitely identify with is like justice
yeah yesterday I mean I was going over
the the US Constitution yesterday and
like yeah it was like a constant theme
and in our culture of what the the power
of the government is and you know the
rights of the people are is that we we
have the right to justice we have the
right to equality and so yeah it was
hard it's like I know everybody needs to
know how much of a dick this guy is and
they didn't even not do business with
him and they say no they don't you know
like if that guy's really a dick like
everybody's gonna learn that and you
know they're gonna go on their own path
and deal with it on their own the best
solution for you is to focus on the
positive path focus on your path and
then everything will fall into place and
these people that are bullying you these
people that are trying to bring you down
you're gonna rise above them and not
just them as individuals you're gonna
rise above that low bar that they're
working within so with that said I'm
going to be talking about the positives
of tea you know so contrary to the
messages that I had received yesterday
about people wanting me to expose the
industry and expose the slavery and the
indenter tude in the industry I'm gonna
focus on the positive and so that was
the reasoning of launching this tasting
educational series so that we can't
focus on the positive and the positives
are the people that are doing the good
and the good work is not just like
charity work of like oh yeah we're you
know we're making sure that a certain
amount of our profits gets back to the
the workers and that they have health
care in schools because that's not the
solution either you know that's the
Fairtrade solution and that's just
further deepening that indenture tude
that exists in the the tea fields what
is empowering is entrepreneurship what
is empowering is skilled labor what is a
towering is high quality products
artisanal products that require a high
skill and so yeah someone posted
yesterday asking for a link of all the
brands that have slave labor in their
tea that's a seka just every brand in
the grocery store even if it's Fairtrade
it's it's got some level of oppression
and lack of mobile mobilization and yeah
I just like I don't know if that's what
I said at my solution was just look for
the high quality look for things that
like if you were a tea drinker or a
connoisseur start that journey of
understanding what is quality don't just
follow the fancy brands and definitely
don't follow the flavour it's tough the
flavour blood didn't stuff like try to
experience tea for as it is as a like
bare-naked
high quality product and then when you
discover what high quality is then just
drink that regardless of what
certifications or what ethical statement
is written on the back of the box
because a high quality artisanal product
it's impossible for a press to labor to
make that it's impossible like even the
you know you might ask me Oh some tea
estates make really fine quality teas
yes the labour is not making that tea
the labor is you know out laboring to
make the bulk teas that they make so you
see articles every year
some Darjeeling estate that sells a kilo
of tea for $5,000 or whatever you know
sensationalized price that they put out
there you know which justifies that high
quality tea is being made in the
estate's if you look at the fine print
the detailed print on those articles and
it says oh yeah a kilo and a half of
this tea was made or five kilos of this
tea was made yeah just a small little
batch was made by like one manager or
one you know owner of the estate or
whoever was that put that extra
attention and skilled craftsmanship into
creating that by pilas a tea but the
other five tons of tea that were made
that week sold for you know less than
five dollars a kilo and that's that's
the actual labor right and that's what
actually makes it into the grocery store
into the tea bag that we all enjoys so
you know even though you may think oh
some of these estates or or even some
merchants that you work with that tow
these you know high in fancy estates
yeah they're buying those micro batches
that are made by a very select group of
people within the organization but the
majority of the operation is being
produced by the labor by that indentured
labor and by indentured I mean not
having the ability to mobilize so
Mobileye mobilization is something as a
privilege of the American dream I mean
that is the American dream or you know
whatever you know type of opportunity
wherever you are in the world where you
have the opportunity to educate
yourselves you have the opportunity to
build some type of wealth for yourself
or some type of value creation for
yourself or your family you know and
there in the United States not everybody
gets to enjoy that American dream and
that's like a big conflict that we're
dealing with right now is having these
real conversations about what are the
commonalities between the people that do
get to enjoy mobilization versus the
ones that don't get to enjoy
mobilization
a conversation that makes people feel
very uncomfortable and I'm not gonna
have that conversation right now but
it's something that like everybody faces
you know what we're not all immune from
it but when it comes to monoculture
agriculture even whenever it's
autonomous and by autonomous that's like
small growers and when they say oh yeah
you know this guy Owens his own crop
like he Owens his own land
he's empowered he's not you know a slave
for someone else that owns it that can
be deceiving because they're still
playing within that commodity system and
never have an opportunity to save money
never have an opportunity to move out of
that position and mobilize themselves
into a higher position maybe their youth
ha and that's another conversation that
you hear a lot at the tea expose are
among the tea industry meetings is that
there's a problem in labor because all
you know we we built all these schools
to educate our employees kids and now
their kids are all grown up and they
left and working in the cities because
they don't want to work in the tea
gardens anymore as they were great
awesome we shouldn't be worried about
that which is celebrating that and if
you're having a labor issue then that's
your problem to figure out you know
that's not the educated kids problem you
know there there are solutions and
usually those solutions mean evolution
it means changing and so those are the
stories that I want to highlight and
that's the positive path that I want to
feature and focus on in manifesting what
we want to see what we want to see for
the future I'm sure you guys would all
agree with me that that's the future
that you would like to see 40 I don't
think that I'm the only crazy person
that wants to see people happy and
mobilize so yeah I mean so there is a
little bit of a silver lining on this
whole story that the in this like labor
issue it means that people are getting
mobilized they're leaving teeth they're
going
to work tech jobs or they're going to
work other jobs in the cities what's
happening right now because of the
pandemic actually is that a lot of these
folks are coming back home and that's
creating some issues because the
infrastructure in these communities has
evolved to to cater to these younger
people to leave to go to the cities but
now that these cities are on lockdown
I'm still at least nyan in the month
they've pretty much been all kind of
herded back to the villages I was
watching a video the other day of this
process and it seemed like such a
nightmare
you know from because the lockdown was
announced and a pretty strong rush it
was like one day they said okay we're
gonna go on lockdown in two days and you
know if you're working in a city and all
your family all everything that you are
connected with in your life is actually
in a village somewhere else and you've
got to like close up all of your
situation in the city to get back home
it might take a couple extra days I know
for me it would take some time I
actually for me I probably would have
booked it out of there immediately but
you know you had to think about what
people are dealing with and so yeah
there was a lot of people that had
trouble difficulty getting out because
the the roads had all pretty much closed
down the buses weren't running the
trains weren't running so the government
in this video I watched the government
was actually sponsoring this migration
of sorts of people back home and yeah
they were testing people once they got
off the buses and made sure that they
weren't coming back into the villages
contaminated so I'm sure that there was
concern in those communities of people
bringing you know different germs in I
remember at this whole beginning of this
pandemic I was just thinking to all of
my friends that you know live in these
rural communities how lucky and
privileged they must be
a situation like this because they are
so isolated and they do have the ability
to support themselves and grow their own
and you know just hunker down for a bit
I'm just you know wait this out and do
it comfortably versus us that it we're
doing it with all this crazy politics
and fear and people not knowing how to
cook for themselves and not knowing how
to buy grocery for themselves but you
know come to find out that even these
villages are facing pain because of
situations like this everybody coming
back so yes back to the positive the
positive story in the positive path that
we want to encourage this new tasting
series event series that's going to
start on June 9th so that's every
Tuesday Thursday of June there's gonna
be six different series let's just see
here the schedule all of the events are
posted to tea let's Facebook page so you
should be able to RCP you to all those
events to at least get them on your
calendar for now I do suggest that you I
do suggest that you purchase your
tickets earlier on just to ensure that
you receive your package in time for the
event and okay so another important
thing is if you for each on the event
page on the tee and it's people website
for each event there's the option
there's a pulldown menu for like the
product option that you want to purchase
you can choose to either purchase a
single ticket for each event or you can
choose to purchase a ticket for all six
events and if you do that the price so
the price for all six events if you were
to buy them individually is a hundred
and ninety dollars but if you purchase
them all together at one time it's only
a hundred dollars so I and then that
will include free shipping yeah because
on the website
have free shipping of orders over 75 so
$75 so that's a great deal the year
you're gonna be getting you know at
least a 50% discount on that and again
if you can't make the actual live events
join us in the live event let's say you
you get the full package of tickets if
you can't make one of those events it's
fine the event will playback you can
watch it later on your own time and get
that value so here's the schedule June 9
2009 and all of these are 12 to 2 p.m.
Pacific so like this exact time right
now on Tuesdays and Thursday so June 9th
is going to be the tees of our great
friend Alfredo Linn and Taiwan nan totai
Wan and his class we will be drinking
Jishan oolong his eighteen ruby black
tea as well as the ruby white tea on
Thursday June 11th we will be tasting
the teas of young tamam of Darjeeling
India and with her we will be drinking
mach-2 chia which is a green tea at
Darjeeling green tea so here ever been
interested in learning about during the
green tea and then a Blood Moon black
tea as well as a blinking cup city black
tea so two different black tea is one of
them is much more in the profile of
what's typical of Darjeeling kind of
that lesser oxidized black tea that's
but the Blood Moon is a very highly
oxidized to black team that was actually
harvested and processed during a Blood
Moon
so it was like withered under the the
Blood Moon it's a very interesting story
and for all of these presentations and
classes I will be giving presentations
on the history of the
information on the terroir as well as
you know the story of how each one of
those teas is processed on Tuesday June
16th we will be tasting the tease of
toshiaki Kim Iizuka
who is a pioneering organic tea grower
and she's Olga Japan we will be drinking
his get my cha cookie cha and Japanese
black tea so kind of a cool little range
of teas there on Thursday June 18th we
will be tasting the teas of Alexander
Helene of Indonesia Benton Indonesia
he's got a very unique story and I'll be
sharing that and we'll be drinking his
T's which are always a crowd pleaser and
that will be the honey along the bow
John Green as well as the Banton red
which is a high oxidized rolled black
tea you know all these Caesar in the
style of the Taiwanese tea processing
aesthetic but coming from Indonesia on
Tuesday June 23rd will be tasting the
tease of Rajan Bora of Assam India he is
a dear friend of tea let's and probably
dear friend of many of you in the
community and we will be drinking his
Orthodox longleaf firewood green and
masala chai and then the final class
will be on Thursday June 25th and that
will be Li Shu lien of you none of nano
Shan and Yunnan China and we will be
drinking his sticky rice Shama pour his
handmade show pour as well as a very
interesting tea and this was like a very
limited edition purchase of tea that I
made last time I went to visit his
family last year of a white tea made
from the purple variety tea plant so all
really fun interesting teas
to be had in all these classes so yeah I
highly recommend that you just pick up
you know all six tickets even if you
don't know if you can commit to joining
each of those live sessions you can
enjoy it through the replays and and
then get access to all of these fees
which then you can you know enjoy and
drink on your own time so the first
event happens on June 9th you want to
make sure that you have your tea by then
so I'd recommend that you try to get
your tickets by the end of this month by
the end of May hi Owen happy
international tea day good to see you
Cheers so yeah you can find all this
information on the front page of our
website tea and it's people calm there's
a little section you know right at the
top of the page for international tea
day so yeah the the launch of this event
series is to celebrate the UN's
International tea day which is happening
today very exciting no one has tried to
join me in the room you are all totally
welcome to come in share a cup of tea
with me you know I understand if you are
not prepared to do that I take no
offense by the end of this stream I will
be Owen
good friend Owen Carver from Vegas
coffee roaster here in Vegas is watching
saying give me his Aloha he's recently
gotten into tea we had a nice chat this
morning about his his newfound love and
excitement for tea and he is actually
selling tea at his booth at the farmers
market in downtown some downtown
Summerlin right where you are I believe
if you were yeah I think so
yeah maybe it's not down that's it maybe
I'm sorry Owen I'm forgetting which
market you're at on Saturdays and okay
so yeah downtown Summerlin so any Vegas
if you're watching this right now you
can catch owen Hirose great coffee
actually I gotta be honest it's uh
oh and Sunda Islands cool so if you're
either in Southern Highlands or downtown
Summerlin visit those farmers markets
and get some coffee and tea from Owen I
came to learn that Owen is selling the
tea really cheap so if you're looking
for the best price on tea I'd recommend
that you get it from him versus me so
yeah he's selling milk oolong forever
spring along the chola black tea as well
as the chola moto guava wood smoked
black tea and the cafe matcha and you
can get some great roasted coffee does
coffee is what I usually drink at home
nice small-batch artisanal again you you
can always know that everybody is happy
and that Oh in the Blood Moon the Blood
Moon black tea which will be a part of
yonkou
amongst tasting tour next month in that
event series we'll be talking about the
Blood Moon black tea and the story of
yongku and her family and the tea that
they're making yeah so at the end of
this stream at 2 o'clock which is in
just a little over an hour I will be
joining as usual the tea talks with our
friend Sam Kaplan in Los Angeles and
we'll be going into more detail of
international tea day as well as talking
about some of these issues I'm sure you
know in that group people will be asking
me quite a bit more about the the human
condition and in the tea industry in
places like India and Sri Lanka because
you know in specialty tea most of the
niche specialty you know connections
that specialty tea vendors have are
exclusively in China or
exclusively in Japan or exclusively in
Taiwan and fortunately those tea
producing regions are actually quite
empowered not to say that it's 100%
empowered because in those places there
is a bigger issue with chemical
agriculture chemicals being used and
very unhealthy monoculture practices
being used which does negatively affect
the people it's not direct you know and
that's why it happens because these
business people can come in they set
this business system that works for them
this this commodity monoculture business
system that is producing value for them
and they actually may be sharing some of
that value with the local community
through money taxes to the government or
whatever so you know it's not directly
negatively affecting affecting them that
community may actually be welcoming to
these kinds of practices in the
beginning but over time they start
realizing the negative effects and
that's that's in their water you know
the health and the availability of water
so water is threatened by monoculture
because when you remove all the trees
remove all the biodiversity remove all
of the roots it's a lot less to do with
the roots and trees are important part
of roots because trees have big root
systems when you remove those things
from a mountain which you know tea is
typically grown on a mountain so that
you can optimize the land space to put
these tea plants to monoculture the tea
plants across that mountain you know it
makes more economic sense to remove a
tree so that you can put you know 10
more tea trees there which will produce
that much more tea for you every year
when you remove all that root system and
biodiversity in the soil the soil loses
its ability to hold on to water and all
soil has this ability even here in the
desert
if you were to go out and dig a hole
deep enough you'll find water it's
called the water table and we all have
it like the water actually lives
underneath us and it's a it's important
that it's underneath us but when you mom
culture a space the land loses ability
its ability to hold a water table and
for a lot of folks especially rural
communities they rely on that water
table for their water sources wells you
know they have to dig down to get to
their water and you know you've heard of
the well running dry like that's what's
happening
and so they don't have the
infrastructure that we have I live in a
desert right here you know we have the
obstruction of bringing water in to have
water accessible to us but a lot of
these places have always just relied on
their own natural sources of water their
own water table and a lot of Chinese
business people have found opportunity
and growing monoculture systems of tea
and coffee too so Starbucks is doing a
lot of damage in China and China in this
regard as well Starbucks has like a
12,000 hectare coffee garden just
outside of Shushan Bona and Yunnan China
I can't imagine what damage that that
operation must be doing to the land
there but yeah these business people
find these opportunities they make these
opportunities and there may be some
initial benefit to the local community
through taxes or monies or licensing
fees but you can't put any price on your
water right and additionally fertility
and this is not just fertility of the
humans this is fertility of your own
soil for producing food fertility is
lost with monoculture so you know places
like China they may not be dealing with
as direct oppressive business practices
like what we think of and the labor
issues in India and Sri Lanka Bangladesh
and Kenya and name the country it's
happening you know there's a lot less of
that happening because in in China the
labor is a lot more empowered and does
have the ability
to say no I'm not going to do this work
moving on so justin is asking there's a
only benefit would be jobs for the
people yes there's jobs for the people
but they're not great jobs so actually
Justin most of these like monoculture
industries that are getting developed in
China do not rely on local labor they
import the labor yeah it's a very
interesting dynamic because a lot of the
local people like may make a lot of
money off of these these licensing and
taxes or leasing their land for this
type of work so they they're not looking
for jobs and money they're getting that
so like that's why they're not seeing
the long-term effects because
immediately right now they're making
money they're making value off of
allowing these businesses to come in and
do their work but you know in time
they're realizing shit we don't got
water like this happened
I want to probably the most highly
valued green tea in China is something
called
ng by cha really confusing because if
you if you translate that word and ng is
the region that's the town where this
tea comes from by cha means white tea
but it's a green tea it's white because
of the way that they kool-aid in process
it's very downy it's very you Besant and
very young and fresh and supple that the
tea itself actually looks kind of white
even though it's a green tea and the way
that they do this and it just broke my
heart to see this is that every spring
for the first flush their harvest it's
it's like it's like a baby plant every
time but they're not planting new baby
plants every year to do that what they
do is they prune the tree down to the
root to the soil immediately after the
first harvest so that by the next year's
harvest the next year's spring it's all
a brand-new growth it's like baby new
growth that came out
and if it's just one plant and itself
doing that kind of behavior like I'm not
you know having any beef with like the
torturing of that plant to prune it down
to its brew but here's the problem when
you have an expansive
area of land of mountains and they are
all monoculture with this system
it's like bald you know those mountains
become completely bald after the first
flush when they when they prune
everything down to the roots and so
there is zero capacity for holding water
and in that land and so when I was there
I just and I was meeting a lot of local
people and none of those local people
were farmers none of them you know owned
the tea plants like all of that industry
had been built by foreigners like not
foreigners out of China the problem
Chinese business people but foreigners
from that region
you know these were all just like local
people I've been there for hi Gabby
happy international tea day thank you
for joining hope you're drinking lots of
good tea yeah the local people and they
were all living in big houses they have
cars they had you know cell phones and
TVs and so very comfortable like and in
rural China that's how you can tell
someone is comfortable or not you know
are they in a big house do they have
cars and so yeah they were fine it but
none of them were working in tea itself
they had all they were all just part of
that system and that they were leasing
their land out or you know they were
just supporting these businesses and
coming in and I was asking them how's
your water that's what I'm curious about
like how is your water like are you guys
able to have your own water is it
healthy and and they say yeah we don't
little have water anymore how like
doesn't that worry you you know how you
know you don't have your own water I
mean what if something cuz everything
has to be trucked in then or you know
infrastructure has to be developed to
move water from outside in and like
that's unsustainable too I mean even
living in a desert like we are like that
scares the heck out of a lot of people
is if something happens
you know something happens that
jeopardizes our structure for bringing
water in you know I'm sure we have a
much more diversified infrastructure to
support you know with one piece of it
goes out then there's other pieces that
can come in and protect it but in a
situation like that and a monoculture
situation like that where your economy
is dependent on one thing so like let's
say for example the entire you know tea
market goes dead or I don't know
something that happens that kills all of
their tea bushes as if the whole
industry goes dead overnight like that's
all they're relying on their their value
and their income is all coming from that
one crop so you know and they don't have
other industries and other economic
drivers that are supporting that
infrastructure to bring water in so it's
like this industry came you know raped
the whole land and ruined all the water
and then left you know they haven't left
yet either the the the the place is
still flush with value I mean of course
this pandemic is probably changing the
dynamic there and we can only wait to
see what the effects of that are
okay so Joanie asked a very good
question she says do you know if those
living comfortably in rural China come
from a lineage of tea farming and moved
up in socio-economic mobility after they
brought in other migrant workers okay no
and then and I'll go into more detail
and I'm asked the second part of your
question which is or did they move there
for the industry because it's lucrative
for them okay so Joanie the answer is no
and the answer is no because this may
shock some of you guys is that the way
that we see the Chinese tea industry as
like this empowering high-value big
opportunity for these communities that
are growing and making tea is a very
very modern phenomenon very modern likes
water and it's like only within the past
20 years 30 years that the business of
growing and making high-quality tea in
China has become a thing yes China has
been growing and making tea for
thousands of years but majority of that
history was this very humble small
business opportunity it wasn't like this
big expansive business opportunity that
like it's become now so even the the
business of tea in India is is older
than the business of tea in China
so these communities and I think a good
example to say the stories so like that
that ng by cha plays I was talking about
like that place is like only within the
past 10 years has it really blown up
into what it is so like all these people
that have money there they didn't grow
tea before ng and do you buy Chows a
very new thing before it became an
industry there they were growing other
crops they were just like rural China
like you know growing other subsistence
crops for themselves and having other
industries but then this cash crop
opportunity came in and kind of swept
over and then and then so they're all
comfortable and they're looking for
workers so they have to bring the
migrant workers in so that industry is
brand new a place that's a better
example and story that that would answer
your question better is weecha
so we sean is said to be the birthplace
of long tea that's where the the rock
along T's like da Hong Pao and Broadway
and all those famous guys come from a
very beautiful place in China and
bustling business please now I'm like
shocked too the first time I went to
wheesh I'm like what the heck like
there's like neon everywhere there's
high-rises it's like it's like a big
city but it's all like shiny and I was
asking my friends you know that I visit
there and we work with her family and
their teas and I was asking her like has
we shadow always been like this and
she's like no like it is said that the
you know along tea was developed there
maybe like three hundred and sixty years
ago which in the grand scheme of China's
tea history is also very modern
phenomenon
for American history we would say 360
years is a very long time right so
that's like supposedly how old the
original da Hong Pao trees are and when
when long T production first came about
so for three hundred and thirty sixty
years it only was until like the past 20
years or so that that that tea became a
business it was a very humble thing
families did have lineage you know so my
friend that I visit her there her family
does have lineage of always been from
there and always growing and making that
long tea but it was really just like
this very humble business they were able
to do it in very humble lifestyle and
very humble processes but when the
economy in China has started to come up
you know after when when you know kind
of the evolution away from comedy as
communism came and then the business
came and and that's when the migrant
workers started coming in so and and you
know it is kind of a similar story as
well
very interesting so Instagram I'm about
to go off but I'll come back on so you
guys can can hear me finish talking this
story because I do like your question
Joanie and I want to talk more about
that and these are exactly the perfect
questions to be asking on international
tea day or supposed to be asking these
kinds of questions
and Justin thank you for your questions
- so you say it sounds like short-term
profits here and non-sustainable exactly
so that's the issue you know that we see
in China to a limited degree in Taiwan
you know the Taiwanese government is
doing a lot of great work of
safeguarding the land and their
resources from this short-sighted
profiteering in fact they're like
requiring people to uproot their bushes
because in Taiwan they have the issue of
limited land space and so when they
start mana culturing and they're on
these like steep high mountains that get
like big rainfalls there's a really big
chance of landslides
so you know it's not just a profiteering
issue it's actually an environmental
it's an environmental issue let me just
get live on here again
Instagram only gives you an hour I'm
doing an extra long stream here today to
celebrate alright guys I'm back let's
see we got rainbows now well beyond repo
okay so I'll see if anybody comes back
on this crap ioann sorry I didn't answer
your call I still have to go on this
stream for another maybe another few
more hours like in an hour or so or a
little less an hour
some friends of mine we do an event
every Thursday called tea talks and
you're welcome to join that too if you'd
like a lot of us he folks get together
mostly tea business owners we get
together and we talk about tea different
topics so last week we were talking
about the the virtual tea house that we
had created as part of the virtual tea
festival the week prior and then the
week before that we we talked about
polarity and the week before that we
talked about tea in Latin America tea
culture in Latin America as well as tea
culture in Sri Lanka so that like tea
talks that was kind of a play on TED
Talks so meant to be like kind of
presentation base and and sharing
information so yeah I wonder if Joanie
is gonna come back on here she has such
a great question about about that in
China you know and it's interesting cuz
this International tea day that we're
celebrating today originally wasn't
meant to be really addressing the
concerns in China it was really meant to
be addressing the concerns of the more
extreme situations like what you see in
the the colonial regions or the X
colonial regions such as India and Sri
Lanka dealing in in labor issues but I
think it is important to understand that
these types of issues can be happening
everywhere even here in the states with
with people that are working to here
maybe not growing tea of course there is
there's plenty of tea grow
in the United States and there's no
shortage of challenges there because
everything is significantly more
expensive here as far as Water Resources
land even your agriculture tools the
agriculture chemicals whatever you're
using in your and your process
everything is significantly more
expensive labor being the most one so
you know here in the United States when
you have proper labor legal proper labor
it ends up being something like 22
dollars an hour when you calculate in
minimum wage plus benefits plus
insurances plus taxes you know when
you're when you're looking at it from a
business perspective of how much it
costs to have labor it's like twenty two
dollars an hour in West Bengal where
darjeeling tea has made the minimum wage
is a hundred and thirty six dollars an
hour or 136 rupee is an hour or maybe
one hundred sixty five rupees an hour or
a date not an hour oh my god when I talk
about I'd say Nestle whole day's work
it's like eight hours of work all for a
hundred and sixty-five rupees which is
equivalent to like two fifty two dollars
and fifty cents a day so I mean you can
see that from a business perspective the
disadvantage of making a product like
tea which is a global commodity we can't
escape that when it's a global when
anything is a global commodity it is
subject to very fierce price competition
an unfair unfair price competition
because when it's a global commodity the
buyers have a lot of power because the
buyers can say well we can just go get
it from this place we don't have to get
it from from this place no one it's a
high quality product the seller can say
well you know this is unique you can't
go get this from some other place you
can't go get
this from some other supplier so the
producer has or the seller has a lot
more power and and how they can
negotiate and bargain what they're doing
so commodity is dead in basically that
is the term of the story and if you all
want to properly celebrate international
TV I'd recommend that you stop drinking
tea bags
stop drinking tea that you get at the
grocery store stop drinking Fairtrade
certified tea and start drinking good
tea and it doesn't have to be good tea
and how we do good tea where we like
proactively tell you as much information
about the maker about the origin about
the communities about the people as we
possibly can to assure you that it's
ethical and good and everybody is taken
care of in that system you can use your
own intuition and your own taste ability
or not even just tasty and it's feeling
you know a feeling the goodness in the
tea and so that means that it should be
complex it should be well balanced and
flavor and aroma and texture and even if
the label doesn't tell you everybody was
paid fairly and taken care of in this
tea you can know that they were just
based off of the quality because you
cannot make quality artisanal level
product like that with any type of
oppression it's all in tension it's like
making a meal you know if your intention
is to save money save time and do things
as quickly as possible so what that's
gonna lead you to go to the the grocery
store and pick up like a frozen meal and
stick it in the microwave and serve that
great that that would be low intention
and that would lead to a pretty shitty
meal you know but if you were to say
okay my intention
is to do the best I can here
you know even if I don't know what I'm
doing I'm gonna put my efforts into
figuring out what I'm going to do then
you're gonna go buy all the raw
ingredients you're gonna look for
quality in those ingredients you're
gonna take your time reading recipes and
figuring out how you're gonna put this
thing together
and yeah it may end up taking you a lot
more time but you're going to produce so
much better of a meal and experience
than that microwaved dinner and same
thing applies in tea and coffee and
chocolate yeah so if you want to
acknowledge and respect the work of the
people behind tea just drink good tea
you of course can use us as a resource
that is what we are presenting ourselves
to the world as but you don't have to
either you know I'm not trying to say
that the work that we do is the end all
be all of this because there's in
addition to what we are importing into
North America and in promoting through
our channels there are a whole lot of
other good tea as well and you know
perhaps one day soon we will be involved
in in collaborating with those producers
and with those businesses but you know
we are limited to what we are able to
influence now and work with that so
cheers to international tea hey I hope
you guys are all enjoying thank you so
much for joining today
there's still time you can join in my
zoom room if you want to come hi and
good to see you it's International tea
day I mean a special celebration today
yeah you see this link here on the
internet or on Instagram if you want to
join it's bit ly / tea light tea party
hey Lisette happy international tea day
hope you're drinking a cup of tea today
and
acknowledging the the work the hard work
of of tea growers tea makers tea
business people and yourself as a tea
lover you know that this holiday is not
limited just to the producers of tea
it's also acknowledging and empowering
the practitioners of tea the artists of
tea and that's us it's all of us so it's
it's our day - yeah it's so nice I've
been like really happy to see how all
this holiday is expressing itself
through social media it is like I've
never seen it promoted so much you know
back whenever they used to celebrate it
and in December you know I see it a
little bit and actually to be honest
most of what you saw of it online was
purely commercial you know like you know
pictures of a beautiful setting of the
tea bag and the in the cup and and you
know they're just trying to sell their
brand of teabags not really knowing that
the holiday is meant to be acknowledging
the the struggle of the people of tea
and the role that he plays and in
reducing poverty but this year and and
today what I'm seeing on social media is
people really understanding the meaning
of this holiday and you know those you
know it's it's such a hard thing you
know cuz it's baby steps right so
there's baby steps and seeing that that
people are starting to acknowledge these
things and are starting to hold space
for it yet they are still you know
supporting and and sourcing these teas
and they say oh well we're taking baby
steps in the right step away were
Fairtrade so fair trade is such a great
example of that you know the model of
Fairtrade is that there is a premium and
a default premium that is automatically
added to a product based on the merit
alone
that it's a fair trade product based off
of that brand alone and that premiums 20
percent premium so like let's say for
example a product is always gonna cost
one dollar I think that's the commodity
price in the market if it's got a fair
trade label on it it automatically jumps
up in price to a dollar twenty just
because a fair trade and so that premium
is met hi Cynthia happy international TD
that premium is meant to be used as
additional support for the workers but
of course if that premium that 20%
premium half of it goes back to the Fair
Trade Organization to support their
efforts which is a for-profit business
that fair trade is not a non-profit
business it's for-profit so half of that
profit half of that premium goes back to
fair trade and then the other half does
go back to the garden or the tea farm or
the factory or the business that's
producing the product and the fair trade
organization tells them how they're
supposed to use that money so it's not
just additional profits for them to put
into their business and it's it's not a
cash bonus that goes directly back to
the workers no no because of course the
workers wouldn't know what to do with
that extra money right so it's that
fucking sucks like that is like removing
any kind of dignity when you do that but
that's the reality that slike what
progress in the corporate world that's
what progress is is thought of as like
oh yeah how you know how could we give
them extra money they wouldn't even know
what to do with it
so let us figure out what they need and
so that's fair trade will tell them hey
are you good to see you happy
international TD fair trade will tell
you what you're supposed to use that
money for so be it plumbing for your
workers housing or electricity for your
workers quarters or schools or hospital
facilities so you know and there's a lot
of doubts and in expose is there are
plenty videos online that you can find
i'm not going to link to them because i
I want to focus on the positive path you
can go find them yourselves if you're
curious I just google search reality of
fair trade and Assam I think Assam is
the main region where a lot of these
explosives have been done and you know
there's a lot of skepticism and and
reality on caught on camera and
documented about the lack of
accountability of and sustainability of
these infrastructures that the fair
trade money is going towards but I don't
want to talk about that I mean I really
want to talk more about the dignity
peace autonomy that's such a powerful
word and I think that's a word like
through this pandemic so many of us that
word is becoming so important to us
right because we're discovering our own
autonomy the head the government
ordering us to society is ordering us to
which is good you know cuz we're all
kind of learning how to be dependent
upon ourselves and take care of
ourselves but there are people in
indentured situations where they don't
have that and they don't even have the
ability for that you know if you're a
millennial here in America maybe you you
could you know self-inflict
a lack of autonomy by living in your
parents house for your whole life and
that's the joke now in the u.s. you know
you can self inflict a lack of autonomy
but like in in these fair trade
you know tea growing environments where
the workers are dependent upon lack of a
better word master to provide things
they need they don't even have that
ability to self inflict that lack of
autonomy they don't even have the
ability for autonomy themselves if they
were to leave the TR I think they
wouldn't have any resources to take with
them like they're not making enough
money to save up so that they could go
do something they're kind of stuck there
and that's a lack of dignity you know
and it's not about money building
dignity and building autonomy for
the tea workforce is not about money
it's not it's not about taking that
Fairtrade premium and putting it
directly into the pockets of the workers
that's not the answer the answer is
giving the workers the ability to build
their own prosperity to build their own
autonomy hi Alexia happy international
tea day and that's not about money at
all
right you know some of the happiest
people all that is people that I've
known in my life don't have money they
just like they just have a very intimate
connection with the things that they
need and they may be working their ass
off and there's nothing wrong with hard
work there's nothing wrong with being
busy actually that's where happiness is
found happiness is found when you have a
purpose and you're doing something and
especially when you're busy doing
something for yourself and for your
family and for your community versus
doing something you know working hard to
do something for someone else so you
know the answer is not charity and
finding you know ways to get money into
the pockets of these people we have to
find ways to bring dignity to them and
in that it's all can be done in baby
steps too right so if you think about
this like plantation system where the
worker the laborers you know are living
on site instead of the Fairtrade money
premium or whatever premium that the the
tea garden reserves for infrastructure
social infrastructures for the workers
letting the workers figure it out for
themselves you know and I got a lot of
this inspiration from my time as a Peace
Corps volunteer and that's another
reason why if you have interested
international development work or doing
you know help help helping people around
the world joining the Peace Corps is far
better education and experience for
yourself as a development worker than
any NGO work because NGOs
nongovernmental organizations are
nonprofits so you know you see those
commercials on TV you donate money to
help feed starving children or whatever
you know that's a nonprofit that's an
NGO and they have employees there's a
lot of work opportunity to work in these
organizations and to travel around the
world and do the development work and
they're very like money base and they're
very they're very like we know best and
we're gonna come in and fix this problem
and we can we can raise the money and we
have the talented staff to fix this
problem and it's not very sustainable
you know versus the Peace Corps so the
Peace Corps is the opposite of that the
Peace Corps sends educated young people
to a rural place with no money I think
all you get is the person and in fact
the local place the village has to
support that volunteer so that's the
condition of a village getting a
volunteer and it's not like it's not a
huge cost but for some village it is
like the village that I went to and each
era them having me there was a huge
investment for them you know it was
probably an investment of a lifetime for
them and and and that investment was
having a housing for me so they had to
provide housing
I shouldn't that's pretty much it they
have to provide the housing but the
housing has certain standards that the
the US government sets that like they
don't want you know these US citizens
living you know in the back alleys
somewhere then an unsafe environment so
you know the house that they built for
me was definitely one of the fancier
houses in the in the village meaning
that there had to be like coverings on
all the windows of my hut or bars or
some some some type of protection but a
closing window and then also the latrine
so that was the big investment my house
was the only house in the entire village
that had a latrine in it a latrine is
like pooping hole everybody else would
just like take walks out into the bush
the bush being you know just like the
outskirts of the village you know you
just they had a you know the village was
here and there was all these like roads
that went out into the desert and
nothing where you would get you know you
could take a walk to go to the next
village you know five down five miles
down the road and so every road had like
a little pet name to it like Oh take
that road to go to the onion fields take
that road to go to the well take that
road to go there but there was a road
called Hanyu to to hang out to do means
poop poop poop path pooper road and so
yeah if you had to go to Hanyu everybody
knew what you're doing if you're walking
done fun yet to do and that's all you do
if you went down there you wouldn't go
there to go look at the birds or hang
out you went there to take care of
business but anyway this funny well side
note my my house which was provided by
the village had had to have a latrine it
wasn't the greatest Latorre but it was
the latrine and that was a big
investment for them to have me so like I
liked the Peace Corps does not bring
these resources and money in they just
they bring a person and and you know
that person is an incredible resource
you know I I of course came in thinking
that I was the greatest resource in the
world like I went into the Peace Corps
thing you know I'm a food scientist I
graduated top of my class I've been
working in the food industry for so long
I'm gonna solve all of those villages
food problems I'm gonna be the best
Peace Corps volunteer ever and yeah I
quickly learned that that wasn't the
truth I had so much more to learn from
them that I could have ever taught you
know them which is what's got me on this
path now you know doing what I'm doing
but you know I saw so many situations
with these nonprofits that were just
like coming in and just like giving
something or building something that
like quickly would just go to waste and
wouldn't be sustainable for the
community schools so for instance around
the village there was three different
frames of structures that you could tell
used to be buildings and now or you know
they've blown away and destroyed over
the years and I'm like what are those I
know that the school you know this this
nonprofit came in three years ago and
built this school but it blew away and
went
now it's gone and it's like oh what's
that building oh that was a second
school they came in you know year after
that they built us another school and
then now they're working in new school a
new nonprofit made and then there's all
these like broken-down wells all around
and it's like oh yeah we're just waiting
from the next nonprofit to come build us
another wealth because these keep
breaking and going out of service you
know and it's like well don't you build
your own welds or build your own schools
and they're like no no we just wait for
the nonprofit's to come in and do that
and I personally had to deal with that
too because I go you know I go up for
hikes just send away my time and I go
walk to a new village and you know this
be it village that never had a Peace
Corps volunteer before didn't know me
but they saw the color of my skin and
they automatically assumed that I was
coming there to give them something you
know it was always the same drill I'd
walk into the village and all the kids
running out to me inside and talking a
lot a nasara' means white person was
over my person my Brazilian person and
you know you come greet the kids and
yeah I play some games with the kids and
have fun with them and they were all
shocked you know of healthful with my my
house a language was that was the local
language of the area and then you know
like the the the mothers would start
coming out to greet me and then
eventually the chief would come out to
greet me and they'd say oh where are you
coming from what you could bring for us
and say I brought me my name is Aisha I
live you know I live in Tonga second OMA
I'm just going for a walk today I
thought I'd come in and introduce myself
and have some fun with you guys and
they'd always be like oh well we thought
we you know when we see white people
come through they always come and bring
us something so we just assume you came
to bring us something and yeah I'd have
to always fix that misconception for
them so yeah that's not good that whole
system of charity that whole system of
dependency is not dignity it's not
empowerment it's not mobilization and
you know this movement towards
mobilization is not about money either
so you know and I think that's like a
lot of people's fear that if if we are
really to tackle this mobilization issue
we're gonna need lots of money but we
don't
what we need is empowerment and people
willing to put in the work to inspire
and that's you know the whole goal with
the business platform that we have is
that we wanna we want to provide that
inspiration and that connection for not
only us to share with them what they
need to do but for for the community
itself to share with each other and so
this tour that's I've launched today the
tasting the people's tea and celebration
of international tea day is that
celebration of other people that are
doing the good work of highlighting what
they're doing how they're doing it to
inspire others in their community to see
there's ways of building autonomy
there's ways of me doing this on my own
and it doesn't mean that I need to build
this huge factory you know so that's
always the misc consumption
misconception of small T growers so
there are a lot of tea brewers that do
have autonomy they don't have
empowerment because they're selling
their green leaf to a bot leaf factory
that's not paying them well and so then
when you ask them well why don't you
just make your own tea hi Kelly you
might like this conversation I know the
work that you're doing is very much
related to this you guys you actually
small tea growers why don't you just
make your own teeth you can hand make it
you know like the most valuable tea in
the world is made in the most
rudimentary simple factories and they
say oh no no we need big factory that we
need you know the license from the tea
board and the license from the tea board
won't won't come unless we you know and
we can't get our gas line then we can't
get our other infrastructures that up
unless we have CTC factory and CTC
factories big big production it's like
no like you can do things humbly you can
do things quietly and slowly and they
may not bring immense amount of cash
flow in but immense amount of cash flow
is not what's needed in life maybe here
in the States
yes in the Western world cash flow is a
is a much bigger issue but when when
you're living in rural parts of the
world cash flow is not the issue time
recedes community those are much more
valuable resources that we should be
focused on trying to develop for poor
people that are struggling with
mobilization
yeah and just get get away from this
whole commodity mentality like
absolutely need to get away from that
mentality and focusing on quality you
know because then when you do that if if
you're making you know five times more
on your price of tea then that means
that you can produce twenty percent of
what you usually produce which opens up
so much more of your resources to focus
on the things that you need to be
focusing on such as your families such
as your local subsistence agriculture
for supporting your family in your local
community yeah I really think that
international commodity crops such as
tea should never be treated as a
monoculture they should just be they
should be like a marginal what's called
a marginal crop diversify in agriculture
and majority of what we're planting and
our soil should be for ourselves if
you're a farmer
you're thinking about it from the
perspective of each individual farmer or
agriculture community majority of what
goes into the soil should be for that
local community and things like tea
should be a smaller part of it and they
should be extremely high valued and they
could be pride but you know your your
local food should also be pride too
you know and that's that's a big problem
for for workers and these estate systems
is that they're not supporting for
themselves and so maybe they are getting
their food you know the viewstate is
providing the rations that they need to
survive
like that's not dignity dignity is like
being intimately connected and and the
one responsible for the things that you
need and so yeah and in that village in
Indonesia was Africa where I live the
stories I was sharing earlier those
folks were so happy I think that that's
been the biggest influence in my life to
like really shake up my whole
perspective of how I think about food
and how I think about everything they
were just so happiness okay infant
mortality is over 20 percent so that
means a woman that that has five
children it's guaranteed that that one
of them is going to die so in an average
child rate of women there was eight
average woman we had eight children so
yeah like every woman is at least gonna
lose one child in their life and I saw
it happen a couple of times and they
were like unfazed by it it was like
immediately could just move on to the
things that they are blessed and
grateful for and it's like how like you
were dealing with so much despair you
know most of the families in the village
I lived in a once every other day they
had like a nighttime meal they did have
some other things like there's like this
fermented milk porridge with millet seed
and that they they'll drink in the
middle of the day to satiate the stomach
but the their dinner meal like their hot
meal that they would cook the mom would
when would really only cook that meal
once every other day the teacher in the
village he was the most wealthy and his
family would eat every night but all the
other families would eat only once every
other night and I was just like well I
ate every night you know I I was
accustomed to that and you know even
though the Peace Corps Allah provided me
a stipend of you know seventy dollars a
month that was more than enough money
for me to afford you know my rice and
beans and things that I needed but like
the the people my village didn't have
that luxury yet they were so happy like
how are you so happy and it's because
yeah
like they are taking care of themselves
you know I'm sure they you know the
there were cities there in new share and
I would interact with people in the
cities and those people were much less
happy than the ones in the village and
the people in the city were having jobs
and making money a lot of them even
owned vehicles and you know were able to
eat whenever they felt like they needed
to eat like had those things available
to them but they also had some layer of
oppression above them someone or
something in some system that is that
you're working for is that's not
providing back to you fully or
transparently you know maybe it's
providing back but it's not providing
back to its full ability
there's someone profiting off of it but
in the village there was no one I mean
there was nothing to exploit so you know
those business people those profit ears
were not there trying to profit off of
it but in the cities there are and so
yeah there's a lot of happiness to be
felt
purely in that autonomy and and that's
dignity all right so yeah we're
International tea day you're seeing that
word a lot I'm seeing that word a lot
and it's like yeah let's get it let's
get that dignity it's not about money
it's not about possessions some people
say it's a you know I'm not going to say
that these workers are having dignity
until each one of them has internet in
their house it's like no I mean that
that is a tool and in something you know
that we could argue is a necessary tool
these days but it's it's not a necessary
tool for for a dignity the necessary
tool for dignity is autonomy is
independence it's self-reliance so yeah
I hope we can move towards that goal so
it looks like tea talks it's gonna be
started soon I'm excited
if you want to join the tea talks and
sign up for it and get the
get the link that is T talks calm so if
you visit that URL you can sign up and
then you will be sent a link the site
yeah you'll be sent a link of how to
join the T talks and so you can talk
live with us as we are celebrating
international together yeah so yeah this
again my tribe in drinking this is
coming from naturality and she's open
Japan and his class is actually his
tasting event is part of our newly
launched tastes the people's tea in
honor of international tea day his class
is going to be on Tuesday June 16th at
12 p.m. Pacific so yeah you can join
that class will drink this tea as well
as the cookie shop which is the stem tea
green tea and his Japanese black tea and
so if if you join that class try to join
that I I'm you know please go visit our
web-site tea and it's people calm you'll
see it from the first page there try to
sign up for your tickets by the end of
this month by the end of May to give
ample time for your box to arrive to you
so in addition to the virtual class you
will be getting a box of the teas for us
to drink together and we are open to
international guests so please feel
welcomed but allow time with a coated
there have been delays with shipping
so oh and ask a good question this is a
good one for it for us to finish out on
he says since many wealthy people are
obliged to save on taxes by donating it
will lead to charity are there any
charities that you would suggest people
to donate if they have to donate to
something I would say to the taxes
donate to the taxes that's like our own
community he know I understand that
sentimental and I understand like
feeling like taxes are not but like our
own you know city states and federal
government infrastructure that our taxes
invest into is I don't know I I don't
have data to back this up but this is my
thoughts it is far more effective of
supporting our communities and
supporting us than nonprofits I'm I'm
you know I'm I'm not a big fan of
nonprofits I don't find them to be
effective they run even more
inefficiently than the government so we
talked about the government running
inefficiently which is absolutely true
and like there's a lot of room for
improvement on that about the levels of
bureaucracy and the wasted energy not to
say that people that work within
bureaucracies shouldn't be paid for
their time and their value that they add
but a lot of the activities that are
happening and the value that's being
created there is inefficient and could
be improved but NGOs and nonprofits are
far more inefficient than even our
governments and in addition to being
inefficient they are unaffected and
actually create more problems because
they're purely welfare right so you
think about government like people can
complain that taxes are going towards
welfare but not all of it is welfare
some of it is like literally like
keeping our roads functional that's
something I like to get places I need to
get places for my business and for my
work and for my life yeah I want that
road
in tact every time I need to use it but
like nonprofits are like purely welfare
they're purely supporting people that
need support like giving that thing to
someone versus trying to empower them if
it was something to try to empower them
then it'd be business it be
entrepreneurial and that's far more
effective you know and so that's why I
like I'm a big fan of social
entrepreneurship over charity meet see
we heard the question said if they are
donating anyway are any of the NGOs
doing good empowerment work I don't know
of any you know there are NGOs like
there are some things like my friend
Dina who it's her birthday today so you
may want to go donate to her nonprofit
if there's something and that's a
non-profit it's health based it's uh and
it's dealing in a segment of health care
that is often overlooked and kind of
looks down on if anything and that's a
pediatric HIV and so yeah it's like we
don't have an issue of it here in the
states because transfer transferring of
HIV from mother to child has been pretty
much eliminated through you know
municipal practices or you know modern
medicine practices here in the states
but it's in at you and other countries
and so yeah these nonprofits are her
nonprofit in particular it's called
healthy sunrise they work with hospitals
and and mothers with HIV to ensure that
they can safely give birth to their
children without transferring and if
they do transfer it the children can be
cared for and I think HIV care for
children is a very tricky situation
because the medications are very strong
and it's a very niche thing to know
about and to know how to execute
properly and safely for the children so
something like that is like
it's a hard thing and so maybe the
nonprofit is the most effective way of
dealing with those issues but as far as
like nonprofits and and like food
security areas like I just I just feel
like there's so much more a wealthy
person could invest in creating these
business systems the wealthy people can
you know just pay your taxes why not you
know support your local community and
and become civically engaged so if if
you're gonna pay those taxes and not
feel comfortable with how those taxes
are being executed get involved and
trying to influence that and and guide
and inspire versus just you know and I
totally understand to say no and I'm not
trying to like argue against you I I do
understand that wealthy people do need
to diversify their stuff and and and and
and they feel like they want to you know
do that and nonprofits have been an easy
solution to just put it there and feel
good but you know if you really want to
be an engaged investor and engaged with
where your where your value is going I
think it requires a little bit more work
you know but yeah I think tackling
government first and inspiring that
civil civic engagement is really
powerful thing to do you know I'm not
afraid to pay taxes if I become wealthy
I'll pay my taxes but yeah I'm gonna be
involved in saying hey let's fix this
this isn't efficient this is my money
I'm giving a lot of money here let's
let's fix what's going on and I don't
know like it's easier said than done
I've never been in that position I you
know I don't pay much taxes because I
don't make it pay you know so yeah
you're Doctors Without Borders is
similar you know like that's health care
but you know so that's like that's
immediate so that's why if you are going
to invest money into donating or
non-vested donate
two things I think health care-related
like health care related nonprofits that
are addressing and emergency things so
doctors without borders' do that
although I'm sure Doctors Without
Borders operates very and efficiently as
well but they still they they deal with
something immediately it does need to be
taken care of immediately and there's
not infrastructure in those places to do
it with those things immediately but a
long ended goal if I was wealthy and you
know investing or donating into
something like Doctors Without Borders
I'd also want to equally invest in
empowering the local infrastructure to
be able to take care of itself you know
and not their donations know through
business through legitimates you know
empowering solutions and again easier
said than done I know all these things
are you guys have been done but they are
possible and they're possible only if we
set the intention of doing them and I've
seen that future so that's the first
step is setting that intention we're not
going to solve it right away but if we
at least set that intention and say yeah
like how could we empower this local
community to own its own infrastructure
of handling its own health care versus
Doctors Without Borders is needed like
forever we'll just have this
organization forever you know I yes we
need it now it's it's handling problems
right now as we speak but it's also
giving an excuse and and what's the word
they always say enabling enabling the
lack of progress in those local
communities to do what they need to do
for themselves yeah a lot of religious
groups are actually involved in health
care support around the world and each
era where I lived
all of the hospitals we're all like
Christian missionaries so all of your
health care with came with a side of
indoctrination which is
whole thing you know versus you know
local community being able to take care
of itself you know health care it
doesn't have to be this expensive
resource draining operation you know
Eastern health care is very simple our
Vedic health care I've got a Calcutta
it's like Indian you know Hindi Hindi
and that's written in their religion and
if you do get a side dose of
indoctrination with your health care and
Ayurvedic India it's more philosophical
than the dogma and it's very similar to
like traditional Chinese medicine and
that stuff's all cheap you know cuz it's
proactive health care you know when I
know that there's there's emergency
health care that we know but even like
this thing with HIV there's so much like
proactive work that could be done and
that was like so when I was in the Peace
Corps we did a lot of HIV outreach we
definitely weren't treating HIV and the
we're not you know health care
professionals or anything of that matter
but the the issue with HIV in places
like Africa or certain parts of Africa
not all parts but certain parts is that
there's just misinformation about it
there's definitely knowledge of it and
fear of it you know cuz everybody has in
some way or another like been exposed to
knowing the story of HIV and AIDS but
there's a lot of information
misinformation about it and about how
how you could proactively protect
yourself against it that could reduce
the need for the services of nonprofits
like my friends Dena so you get her
nonprofit is called healthy sunrise so
you know when you ask me for a
non-profit that you could donate into I
would recommend that one and today is
Dina's birthday she's doing a fundraiser
for
or nonprofit so I would totally
encourage you to go check it out healthy
sunrise healthy sunrises and they they
of course like do the actual medical
work of healthy healthcare providers in
Nigeria is actually where they do a lot
of their work but she also does a lot of
work in India she's from India herself
they work with these health care
providers in these places to help them
deliver healthy babies but then also to
help with treating youth that are
infected as well as the sensible is a
shion's of helping people understand how
to remain unaffected you know which is
like same stuff that we talked about
here but there's so much like stigma you
know especially among cultures that have
very different viewpoints about the
relationship between men and women and
you know the use of things like condoms
so that was the big issue where I was in
Tunisia I was like how dare you tell me
I should use a condom that's like yeah
well it's for your health you can choose
to use it or not use it we just want you
to have that information have that
information and you can do with it what
you like so yeah oh and if you want to
recommend to your dad healthy son rice
that's a good one
it's a pediatric HIV care and they do
here work in the States here which is
interesting because I was saying that
transferring of HIV from mother to child
is almost non-existent in the states
because our health care level was at a
point where you know like the doctors
delivering babies know how to handle
that so the PD the the children that are
infected are all immigrants so there's
like a very interesting dynamic there
and and Dena was actually part of the
clinic at UNLV that cared did pediatric
HIV care and they were the only ones in
Southern Nevada that were doing it but
all of their patients were were
immigrant children and there was some
very nasty drama that ended up with that
clinic getting closed and some you know
sentiment that there was discriminatory
basis of why that got closed so
something interesting to research and
look into healthy sunrise good nonprofit
how do birthday Dina I was supposed to
send her a happy birthday message I
never got to it I was just a little
dizzy getting stuff done for today that
I didn't get to it so Dina I hope this
is a good way that I can make up to it
you know mentioning you're a nonprofit
on my life video so I am going to okay
I'm gonna close my link now because tea
talks is about to start so I'm gonna go
join that room see what everybody is up
to Sam should be there I wonder who also
be there hello topia this will be fun
I'll join intopia
oh there's people here sitting next to
the fire
Elise is here hi guys alright alright
you should hear me better now yeah yeah
I mean Travis wonder if last night's
emphasis on the nuts should probably
Brisson Tia huh you must hey if I do
this is my mic muted if you click on
your click on your own picture it'll
mute your mic cool just just making sure
yeah
or you could also just like click on
another program to didn't use that
person the only issue that was I can't
see everybody's name you know it's the
only difference from from zoom so I know
NAT I know Brian I know Sam who's the
last one Travis that's me oh hi Travis
I'm no one roasting myself
I'm the teal
man do you do that's a good question
technically Berlin but I won't be there
for a minute
still haven't Hawaii right now say most
nights against if you know there's oh
yeah yeah yeah just around the corner
yeah and actually at least might know or
at least has met Rob as well Rob cots
Rob cots right
totes well he was an li B you might have
met him briefly you might recognize him
if she saw
Robbie's also know ah who I know Kyle
Kyle Cowell she's into tea she lives in
house eight I actually Jodie I was just
talking to Joyce North Shore nice I've
been there a few times and say cut it
yeah I passed through I've been here for
a little bit and uh here a little bit
longer
well uh the world's calms itself I just
got an email so I have summer camps that
I offer from June starting on June 15th
and I just got an email from all the
towns that I contracted with that said
that camps are gonna be their earliest
we can open camps as July 5th and
those are like social distancing camps
where the kids that's it stay six feet
apart and there can only be small groups
and the groups can intermingle and like
switch activities of half of kids from
this group go to that group and this
room go to that one so it's like what 15
kids per group and they have to stay in
the same group all day and like for
carpentry each one will have to have
their own saw and their own hammer their
own tool with their name on it
so the fall programming after-school
programs now they're putting in
contingency plans to be able to move
their classes online because they think
others will be back in August and
they'll be after school programs in
August again but they're like preparing
for a second wave as a result of the
school's reopening so they're like we're
only offering classes that can be moved
online in case they need to be you can
send a saw on a hammer and a bunch of
you know where each kid well luckily I
have another curriculum I can do this
like online eight available Ike
ready or whatever right that's good but
but yeah I just might I'm just saying
this might be we might be waiting it out
for awhile if their predictions are and
we kind of just I mean looking at
looking at the climbing let's just
assume that everybody's gonna be an
idiot or at least enough people let's
just make some awesome digital stuff so
we're actually I mean you're you're in
our wedding venue bTW does this is our
wedding venue
it will be decorated hey you guys I've
been streaming I just in like kind of I
was I've been streaming since noon for
this international tea day I was
wondering are you guys cool if i stream
this please thank you yeah I'm excited
so this topia Brian can you explain a
little bit what this is what world we're
in right now topia is in space for
gathering and wandering simplistically
speaking is proximity-based video so if
you walk away from someone and their
video fades out they walk towards
someone or you find someone then it
opens up a video channel it's all
browser browser encrypted and quickly
developing it was just like it's it
starts is one thing and then you realize
how much fun you can use it for
everything else it's like just its face
it's the magic of space within proximity
yeah I think there's if you go far
enough our two dozen of Manero okay like
a trash bag area yeah you can also plant
flowers soon you'll be able to walk
through portals into other spaces
there's a lot of a lot of cool things
they have coming out they're gonna be a
cow level
oh what a cow level cow level no it's
like Diablo too rough
yeah I'm sure we have nerd that overlaps
somewhere oh yeah they were talking
about llamas which is really funny well
they were talking about how like it can
be difficult to keep a large group of
people together and connected we like
trying to go for a walk with like ten
people and it's like just as hard as
keeping people together at Burning Man
and talking about a feature where if you
have like a podcast host that you know
if you want to listen to the people who
are talking but you don't want to like
keep up with them as they're walking um
basically a feature in the way that they
decided that they were gonna do it as
have everybody on Mama's and then like
the hosts would be like walking the
llamas someone else told me and then
referred me here I did not realize today
was today always the thing no no no no
so this is the first year the first time
that it's on this day it's usually on
December 13th since 2005 it was
originally celebrated in India and then
it moved to Sri Lanka by the end of her
before 2010 and so yeah this holiday has
like really only been supported by the
Indian in Sri Lankan government but then
in 2015 they introduced it to the FAO
which is part of the UN and this
the UN finally decided that they were
gonna adopt it so in December they
announced that they were gonna move the
date from December to May 21st and they
were gonna take over it and they've done
a really great job of marketing and kind
of expanding it to the bigger world of T
and and all the cast when it had been
celebrated it was mostly just like a
marketing tool and it was kind of
annoying because the day is actually if
you look at the manifesto what this day
is supposed to be it's supposed to be a
day of acknowledging the workers and the
the role in T of in poverty you know but
you know and in the past years t it was
always just posted you know by RT it's
like a picture of you took a picture of
like tea bags and whatever et they're
trying to sell with it so I think that's
why they wanted to move it away from the
holiday gifting season celebrate T it's
meant to like think about weird feed
comes from the people behind it cool
there's so much to learn deficit Stefano
one of those worlds that the more that
is discovered the more I feel clueless
and I'm like 10 years deep but it's
still as I am I there's so many things
to specialize in it I think as far as
like knowledge and access to tea and
what it does for us my first time
drinking like gongfu cha style tea was
that Om Shanti in San Francisco back in
like
yeah like 2010 CEO ten years I know so
that that's somebody else right we
talked about I heard about it yeah I
heard about it did not know about it and
then heard about this amazing tea temple
there and then yeah the dots connected
shortly after I finally did make it into
him Shanti and then in maps the San Jose
Maps was the first thing I actually
volunteered for and that was yeah that
was like right before bicycle day in
2010 so just over ten years ago that was
the first time volunteered but I'd been
into the tea house like like January I
think 2010 yeah how was ocean I don't
actually Silas actually spoken them yet
not he dropped into one of the tea
meetups that we had on Sunday and he was
broadcasting his his music playlist for
us while we were all having tea together
and he seemed to be really happy to be
able to cook his own meals and take a
bath and he's in I guess David what's
Dave the house that he's in in the East
Bay is really nice he's on house for us
so he can't believe except for to go to
work and he works for my dad and he
drives by my house on his way to work so
I've seen him a few times when he swings
by and I can go visit him at work like
for his lunch break and stuff which
anyone can if you check with him Oh
obviously not if you're in a Wahoo but
he seems to be doing really good like
he's definitely not taking his freedom
for granted
that much that he has he's still pretty
much like restricted by his ankle
bracelet but yeah he's he got a job at
called the lounge which is closed down
so he can't do that anymore but he in on
University sure I'm not I think it's in
I think it's close to a halfway house so
in this city somewhere Oh probably under
the one on two visitin okay
yeah and that lasted only for a few days
before they had to close down but that
was a little bit of extra like nightlife
and getting out of the house for him
they have that was when he was still on
the halfway house which with the halfway
house you have a union a little bit more
freedom because they give you like
waivers for things like going to the DMV
every Sunday good at religious services
which no one actually goes to church
they just go they just say they're going
to church and then they go somewhere
else but they're not GPS tracked you
know they're they're just like on a
waiver and they have to be back at a
certain time whereas the house arrest
even he's in a his house which is nice
but anytime he goes anywhere they know
where exactly where he is so it's a
little stricter than the halfway house I
think many of us are and in it together
in solidarity in our own version of
house arrest where is it you're living
yes this is like the main launching
launching pad after people the Vegas are
leap away I'm just thinking a lot of
points right yeah
and then people have family that are
already living here so a lot of times
whenever you're living you know you want
to go settle in someplace where you have
family and infrastructure to support you
say I'm like going around looking for
people and people are coming in well how
does that work like when you click the
link and come does it take you does it
always take you to one default place or
does it just like randomly like pop you
down somewhere and you have to find
where where the partner present
presently I just loaded your live stream
I presently it loads in relatively the
same spawn but they've talked about
doing like GPS drop ins and stuff like
that yeah it's it's it is fun I like I
find myself invited I'm like in a
conversation with people but they did a
remote burn like 250 something people in
the same space and you know we were like
there's all people around and I messaged
your friend he's like I'm like I'm like
go here yeah we're north towards the
caves hike past you know yeah virtual
virtual wolves and actually one of the
people and in that group is it's heading
up the virtual burn the official one and
so I like invited all of them we usually
meet and zoom and we're always
complaining about how like two
dimensional and and you know weird that
whole experience is and so I put the
link to this and I'm like hey let's meet
here and you know these are all like
advanced technology people and they're
like oh well we don't know this site
we're not going to get access to our
camera so I almost have to like provide
a report to them of like who's behind
this and
you know Betty vetting it so that
they'll trust me to actually click the
link and go I have been doing that with
mythos because for a different reason
but like rapping rapping the link with
the mythos number to say Tokyo was was
co-created by these three people those
people are part of our community we love
and appreciate them here are the stories
you know here's here's our perspective
of how much we we appreciate them
same thing for you take that like outer
layer and say hey WR TC encrypted
connection browser browser like you know
they don't have they don't go into that
much technical detail but it is from a
from a nerd standpoint super fucking
impressive so that's yeah I mean I'm
happy to help you write that for the
nerds because I if it starts with
Facebook I don't use it okay highly I
highly doubt it sunny good I mean even
just like messenger video call is
probably one of the worst video calls
I've used a slight quality and lag and
everything so I imagine they're yeah
they're like video conference rooms are
even worse they're pushing it so hard
right now they want people to try it
that whenever you create a room it's
like the first thing that anybody that's
your friend when they open up Facebook
is the first thing they see and they're
like really attracted to to click it and
go to it so the likelihood of like
filling a room and getting a captive
audience is really high at least right
now I'm sure once it's no longer a
novelty Facebook will deep prioritize it
on its UI
hmm it's what's it called it's a room
I'm pretty sure I've been banned on
Facebook because I apparently many
articles about facebooking authoritarian
technology you're you're penalized but
you're not told that you're penalized so
whereas previously pretty much anything
I would post we get 100 plus likes from
friends just because I years of being
online have that's persisted for a year
so it's yeah dark dark future is another
thing I love that it's created by a
bunch of burners yeah yeah one thing
that I just thought of that might be a
kind of a cool feature is like you were
talking about the llamas like if
somebody's go leading a group discussion
and you guys are going for a walk
together they could be riding wallets
there also it occurred to me that like
sometimes when you're having a
one-on-one conversation in another group
of people you your attention goes to
them and that's enough to like bring the
level down on the other voices around
you and to bring the level up on the
person that you're having that
one-on-one interaction with like maybe
if you're going for a walk with someone
through a crowd of people yeah yeah
they're they have speaker view is on or
list so like basically someone will hold
up a little cardboard sign and then you
can like click on it and then it zeroes
in on that person and then the other the
other way that they've represented that
is I don't know what they're calling it
like quest people like you know like the
thing that you wish you could do at
Burning Man
keep people together so you like you
like getting the pod and then it's like
it kind of if someone gets too far away
then it drags them forcefully you know
if we if we all tried to walk to the
left right now like it it can be a
little difficult to keep all of us in
the same proximity to keep all of our
videos connected I see so load us all up
into an art cart basically also just
like a compass marker where the word
like the center of mass of your group
has moved too if you get distracted by
something you know and and if you you
don't want to be dragged along but you
but you also want to be able to catch up
on everybody or something yeah yeah a
magical connection in the zoom room by
the way I wanted to share a friend of
mine from the co reality collective
popped in to say hi and it turns out he
is staying just around the corner from
Priscilla a lot of them are on mobile a
couple of them had some difficulty get
Jeremy was having trouble getting it to
work and for the people on mobile it is
definitely a bit more challenging so
wanted to offer both and the the
hopefully we can move more energy into
this space cuz I think it's a little
more organic and like not and I could
step into a breakout room by just taking
a walk which is a nice a nice touch yeah
sounds great you should be able to do
both you just click on yourself and
yourself here yeah
or just walk away from you guys right
yeah yeah
what if we follow if you make dirt if
you meet yourself yeah we got like nine
people in zoom right now no so Hans in
there but he's also his shops open
totally and just like kind of dropped
the ball on it I agree with that except
for that it's not in my wheelhouse so
it's in my wheelhouse I just didn't feel
the need to offer it yeah and I didn't
know that they were gonna be doing
something interactive I until yesterday
I just found out yesterday it was on
them to like notify their collaborators
of an opportunity and they didn't do
that I gotta um I gotta take off y'all
but uh oh good timing to need to take
off if anyone would like a warm spot in
the fire I'm a lovely time another happy
international today I'll call you later
you can read it to me personally if I
get a readout too
I know I know I know but you have to go
to the market it is a street full I mean
you have to enjoy it at the street I'm a
vegetarian now so I don't need guinea
pig anymore but my grandmother used to
cook the best thing ever
vegetarians it tastes like chicken
it tastes just like guinea pig
it is no other way to describe it really
high-quality protein I mean they've been
even domesticated I mean eating them for
thousands of years you know you think
about it they they don't they don't take
up a lot of space it's very inexpensive
to get a group of keep it going for you
know protein for a family out in the
middle of nowhere who doesn't have room
or or can't afford they don't take very
long to grow to the thighs where you can
keep them they multiply agree you can
feed them and their manure is the thing
is the guinea pig is a very traditional
dish in on this mountain so in the cows
with the coast of South America you
won't get guinea pig easily this is an
from Andes Mountains
so indigenous people they prepared the
best ones yeah I know they are so cute
and it's terrible when you are when
you're a little kid and you know you
know your grandma your mom comes home
with a guinea pig and you say yo he's so
cute
and then you see it on the plate when
they're edible way when you eat them
like I'm jelly is it like a chicken how
much does it weigh is it like a chicken
is it is it has white meat but is a
little bit more
see said with more such than regular
chicken imagine imagine if you bought
like a half of a roast chicken you know
like the breath in the leg and the thigh
and the whole wing like a half of a
pretty big big being served by parts but
usually they they serve the whole animal
complete like this it has head hands
feet or so people then it was funny just
to get faces like am I going to eat a
pet you guys like kids it's me like
similar to rabbit that you know like
because I've eaten rabbit before rabbit
is really popular you know meat but it's
like really bony and the meat is kind of
I was delicious but it's like a little
bit more you know difficult to come by
is it like that like you have to like
really you know go at the bones to get
the meat of it yeah it's very funny
especially in the rib cage it's why I
remember like I said I don't need guinea
pig anymore but it was a it's a great
memory when you have a bunch of cousins
and you're playing with a guinea pig and
then eat cancer in your plate it's kind
of freaky it's a good memory so I hope
you are enjoying guinea pig yeah we put
meat potatoes cook on purpose right
I've been a little bit gamey it doesn't
have the same flavor as as rabbit I say
it's a little bit
oh you Lina depending on what they're
eating I think one that they need a lot
of like like fresh green grass you know
it's thinking like if you aiding
anything that was eating like regular
teeth pellets of like pepto in the US it
seems like fish because I think a lot of
those are made up they're good but you
can you can eat them fried you can eat
them kind of like roasted or you could
eat them like I made with a Guinea with
the gumbo it thread the meat up and then
and then cook it in he drink tea bay
leaves probably you didn't hear but Ben
isn't the exactly same Syria Young
Living oh yeah so that's why he's show
the pictures and well that's that's for
Ecuadorian people sometimes sometimes so
when are you guys gonna get together and
drink tea I hope next week right right
because you know with this coffee thing
I have I have permission for going to
district on Mondays so I think on Monday
to downtown and we can visit you with my
boyfriend and I can show you so much
glory auntie I really coffee we also
have very nice
kakaw and we are starting with t so
contact me and we can some say bull
coffee I know on your baba K before I
got here to Ecuador on this trip I was
an even keel a here yeah my face from
the south of Seoul South America I used
I tried to drink it when I was living in
in Argentina but he was to be there for
me she said that she's got to take a few
weeks off apparently something is
happening he's okay no it definitely did
not sound like a like bad stuff is
happening
it sounded like stuff is happening and I
don't know if I'm gonna have space to be
part of detox for a bit yeah you know uh
then Danny she's from Brazil and she's
part of this group and she's always
educating us on on yamate and we put on
a virtual tea festival and I have like
this very nice you know like 12 minutes
or 14 minute presentation she gave on
like the history of it and the
processing of it and the future of it
too because she's working on some
project to to figure out how to process
it in a more like artistic way similar
to how tedious process because currently
it's just a very simple process where
they like most herbs is just harvested
and dried and then consumed but like
with tea there's all these extra steps
we do to like bring out different
flavors and different characters she
wants to try doing that two different
herbs and
days of course a big one in Brazil so
yeah yeah I mean I was found in
Argentina doing a kayaking trip with
some River activists from the like all
the way across the Patagonian fest to
the ocean like on kayak you would be it
would be like leading up water you know
and then using the thermos isn't like we
could just say deeply ingrained in their
culture
I agree the thought you said you feel
like it's a little bit it's very bitter
for me and I like it when they add some
sweetener to it a little bit of honey or
something like make it go down right
like I was when it was leaving like two
weeks in Argentina some of my friends
gave me today I know you heard about it
it's my team prepare in orange juice
they didn't advertise me but the next
day I couldn't go College I was throwing
up and throwing up it was way too strong
for me it's the things you have to live
when you are up for it but it's it's way
too strong for me one thing you need to
try here in Ecuador it's try to get or
chata it's delicious it's a mix of
twelve different basic Earth's from on
these mountains it has no tea but has 12
different Earth's it's delicious
so I hope I can share or chata from
Ecuador to you guys someday I need to
destroy ends because I cannot ship I
cannot get cheap I cannot buy from you
guys
the amazing
DC hug I kind of block now right well
this is how loud it is now yeah new
unexpected ways of getting together with
people and meeting people from halfway
around the world right down the block
right a woman the woman who is
interviewing me today asked me do you
guys have plans for doing this kind of a
thing
after the restrictions begin lifting and
people of course we do like I mean I'll
still go to live concerts in the park
and dance and have fun but I can't have
my friend in Germany and the UK and
California and Ecuador and Chile and in
Australia their time but we could do
that online
hell of a lot cheaper I think it's gonna
be maybe a wonderful addition to the
world we're creating you see how they
blend together how we get to attend live
events remotely
I mean festivals have been playing with
that just with like live streaming sets
like I've been attending Coachella on
YouTube for the last three or four years
because there's usually one or two click
people playing Coachella that I'm like
super into and the rest of it is like no
thank you for the couple of sets that
are there like they produce it really
well so I'm excited to see how that
develops but like I could go back to
Coachella virtually for sure to Burning
Man and Coachella and like whatever else
theories out there electric forest for
big burn or Africa burn or any of that
you could go to all of them and then
less than you would at one Chester back
to
Black Rock City so there was going to to
be this gas of Roses concert hmm let me
see April lighting and of course it got
canceled and they reschedule for
November but we don't know it is going
to happen
I know Excel is kind of different now
but I'd like to see again
roses this whole virtual thing is like
it's gonna are meant our live events you
know like conferences for instance like
royalty Expo for instance since we're
it's tea day and we're talking about tea
you know like there's opportunity to
have apps or experiences that we can
engage with prior to the conference to
you know help connections get formed and
help you know a context be formed
together with the attendees even before
we all go to that conference which then
could allow the conference to add more
value at that in-person event so like a
lot of the the things like networking
events and you know opening ceremonies
and a lot of the time that's spent to do
stuff like that could be spent actually
like a holding space for the people that
have already connected online prior to
the conference to actually engage with
each other do you know what's going to
happen with the work yet so is it going
to happen
yeah it's rescheduled in October but
it's the placeholder name yes
because and we'll so Northwest T
Festival which happens in November or
October and they've also canceled they
canceled they just made their official
announcement yesterday so you know I
think even October like you know back a
few months ago we thought October was
forever ago and we'll be back to normal
that now October has become canceled
culture too so yeah but I think for a
lot of us now it's like it's not even a
matter if we're gonna be open again it's
like it's now a matter of busy is it
financially responsible for us to travel
or for me to travel and invest in going
to this event
whenever I have so much on my table here
to work on and try to build I think
events need to think about that angle
too it's not just about whether or not
it's safe and feasible for us to meet
but like is it financially responsible
for our businesses to invest in those
activities right I think it in the same
way because probably it can be I don't
know probably because of this situation
it will be a little bit cheaper to
travel I mean I'm in South America so
flying the flights are more expensive
probably will be a little bit cheaper
than usually but I do know how
responsible is it leave everything I
don't know I don't know so in the past
few weeks the whole flight situation has
really changed you know they weren't
really cheap for a while right in the
beginning or is like oh yeah we could
travel it's cheap right now flights are
cheap but the airlines have readjusted
their business models because they were
all losing money you know so they've
reduced the number of flights there you
know you know so flying actually has
become a lot more inconvenient and more
expensive no yeah because I'll be taking
tickets for Germany for Christmas
because I would like to see my family
but they keep changing day by day
good good thing the government gave them
billions of dollars I think it'll be
interesting to see how they blend we
blend back in when things go back to
somewhat normal how we integrate virtual
events with real events again it can go
they can go a lot of different ways that
in some of those I don't think are great
if it's driven by people like us it
could be great because it could it could
app it could open up so many things it's
a good combination of live events with
people that you're local with with
virtual events with people that you
aren't makes the world smaller in that
way and more connected but it could also
especially if we just let the
technologists and other some some people
don't want us together so ok before
spiritually out like if we can keep
everybody out of the streets
then like you know without right it can
go a lot of different ways you know
especially with the creeping fascism we
have in our world right now but the way
that we're gonna drive it the way we're
gonna drive it is good shit yeah just
pointing just pointing out from the UN
about international TV we'll celebrate
together and discuss how we can promote
and foster collective actions to
implement activities in favor of
sustainable production and consumption
of tea and raise awareness of importance
in fighting hunger and poverty that's
the discussion we're having so we are
doing international TV program right
winners but everybody we might already
bet it but I'm relatively new what's
everybody drinking I'm drinking a
Taiwanese long
eight freaking the Shu ku air from local
tea house yes yeah I've been to the
healing tree that's where I really
learned way more about culture when I
was living out here and after bridge
that gap between and yeah 20 mile
probably 20 miles away from that
learning to learning about tea from so
it's all this weird in-between they used
to have a deal where you can try do
three rounds of tea for $15 and you can
pick any team you wanted even some
really expensive stocks and one of the
rounds that you could do an herbal blend
and so they would make you a blind of
like you know sometimes like eight or
nine different herbs so it was a really
cool place to kind of dive deeper cool
people awesome I will go check them out
bonus points
I'm drinking along as well but it's a
garbage I have three different Garbus to
happen were fun define teas in Portland
I learned about through all of this
virtual stuff and then one of them has
20 Huck so it's really I'm looking for
some night I all maintained so it's fun
to taste them and the cut-up I learned
today a little bit just from Seattle to
win
her from floating leaf see and she did a
live session with just brewing it in the
cup it was really interesting so I'll
let you know sure it is gamma is one of
my favorites
immediately crop mean to me advised
Felix so quickly which is which is very
nice yeah it's because of the GABA yes
yes it's amazing I'm using it with a
patient of mine well I like it
I've had a hard time finding something
that looks really good tasting tea fine
teas in Portland is very tasty no
Seattle I think it is no wait I've got
my yeah I was watching the long lady
from Seattle but the tea is from
Portland she fine teas sounds delicious
what did you say at least what kind of
teeth a black tea from Assam India
handled konoka Assam J what are you
drinking like the server asking how's
your food in the middle of a bite not
the last tea party the one that we had
down like downtown and that like open
space public space
yeah you got a good you got a good deal
on that team yeah whoa Oh No Alfredo
work be pretty good did you say
Alfredo T like Alfredo did did spaghetti
- no Alfred Oh the t rockstar he's a tea
maker from Taiwan that comes out for
world to explore a lot of times first
language so yeah it's really good
spaghetti Alfredo as well no yeah he's a
tea maker and now until a good friend of
mine one of one of the first tea makers
that I started working with but he makes
long tea he's in Shushan which is right
next to dong Deen so actually majority
of the tea made on that mountain is
mislabeled as don'ting tea but he
studied under famous tea master in Sun
Moon Lake area that popularized the Ruby
18 cultivar oh so he studied with him
and so he's got like a pretty sweet spot
for what he calls 18 Ruby he he switched
it up he likes calling at 18 Ruby and he
of course makes black tea with it but he
also makes a white tea with it that's
really interesting that's cool is that
so did you say he's near Sunland like I
was supposed to be there in April and
really want to make it back at some
point I mean everything in Taiwan's near
someone Lake of course but no the tea
master that he studied with is is near
some lake so yes that whole area is
known for broader leaf varieties black
tea production so yeah you'll get a lot
of like the Ruby 18 and and then also
the Asama class
like the more punchy multi black cheese
but someone like itself is a really nice
tourist destination it's beautiful yes
that was that we were gonna go out there
I got married about a year ago and my
wife Toni so we're gonna go back for a
celebration with them and we were gonna
go to something like to do the touristy
thing and take some pictures and have
fun out there so we'll definitely do in
the future and I'm just like very I
don't know much about like where to go
and I want to test out different keys
and stuff like that but I'm super
excited to learn more yeah there's lots
of places to go and so someone like
there's a really cool Museum there just
go there and there's a tea house but
like yeah they do black teens there and
the way that they enjoy it is actually
it's weird because it's kind of like in
the British style
yeah near that that Museum right next to
the museum there's like a British style
tea house that you can enjoy but like
you can go to someplace like oli shine
like you know take a tour up there it's
really beautiful but and and you know
you can even see tea farms and pull over
and you know stop by and hang out with
the tea grower and and try their tea but
it's probably not their tea actually
even the tea growers are gonna sell you
fake thing you know so don't go there
thinking that you're gonna get the
authentic thing but if you're going
there just so like enjoy the views and
then you know drink some nice tea like
you could definitely just do that
without even a tour guide or anything
like that you can just go do it there's
lots of tourist opportunities and
museums and activations that you can try
out that's great for my first shot and
you know kid deeper once I actually have
an idea what I'm doing
yeah yeah there's there's a really great
family in Elan which is just east of
Taipei most of the tea growing has
happened in non tall like that's where
Sun Moon Lake is but Elan in at the
beach town it's a coastal town so there
are some cool tourism there and great
seafood really great seafood but there's
a place there called gentie and they
have a very small little
tea room that you can you can visit in
they're gonna they're gonna serve you
the authentic honest thing because
they're all women you know so they're
gonna be honest on that I got from you
like a BB whose ego was just like great
and now I've been like it's summertime
I want Taiwanese along with you a little
bit I wish that like the time difference
wasn't so bad cuz Alfredo he would
totally hop into one of these with us
and hang out with us you know he's he
actually did hop into one of ours Oh
last week I think on Friday he came in
and and was talking with me and my
brother but he was driving he's always
driving we can we could but it's early
in the morning like this time for him is
like you know four or five in the
morning for him so let's do it at a time
that's convenient for him yeah he would
do it that's what's so great about him
he's so accessible and fun to be around
where is he now he lives in Shushan
which is the base of is really close to
Dom being really close to the mean Jen
Ming John is like big expansive tee city
it's actually a snake oh great yeah but
you know like they're pretty much
operating like
tchau restrictions and without fear you
know like they take a very aggressive
approach and an intelligent approach to
the whole coma thing from the beginning
so they're still able to move around and
do their things so yeah he's making tea
doing his thing he also roast tea
he's in a partnership with somebody in
median they share a warehouse and a
roasting facility they do charcoal
roasts as well as electric gross I'm out
of Nepal balls
good thing I still have like a papaya
good good for you
you're lucky such a good team Jeremy
what are you drinking
I think I'm the fourth to have a
Taiwanese oolong today it's a missing
mountain oolong I got from beautiful
Taiwan team yeah some your dog aspires
me see
yeah she's inspiring me I would like to
do what he's doing now taking a nap and
having strange dreams right we'll be
great the strange dreams you like
strange dreams this that is what she
does all day we went we went for a more
epic than usual hike this morning and
now she just like hasn't moved in hours
literally just like I think she
off of the floor to get onto the couch
when there was an open spot I heard or I
read an article they said that like when
your dog is dreaming it's very likely
that they're dreaming about you was it a
man I seem to remember to it
me three the other one is over there
sleeping under the piano
there was another dog yeah no she's
sleeping under the piano does one of the
dogs get priority of the couch or do
they both so actually a really funny
there was a very funny like political
event this morning
amongst the dogs I was sitting here on
the couch doing my writing my morning
pages and one of the dogs was asleep on
the couch next to me and got out of bed
comes out into the room and realizes
there's not enough space on the couch
for her she goes outside
barks one the dog on the couch gets up
run outside and go bark and then she
couldn't them mine came in and steal her
so we come to the understanding that
they have one brain and usually it's
about 50/50 who has it but sometimes one
dog gets the entire breakers out a way
to manipulate the other one
that reminds me of the eye from her tea
leaves the three the singing ladies
having only have one eye
yes Bobcat morning pages is a practice
from the artists way I've been doing
that for two and a half years and like
it totally changed my life
I would not be here if I hadn't started
doing artists way morning pages type
stuff where would you be somewhere else
in the fifth dimension I mean where I
was was unhappy in a accounting job I
mean I would be where I was when I met
you I like when you and I first met I
was probably maybe it was like a year or
so before I started these practices so
you you have seen me grow up a little
bit over the past few years I'm sure and
those practices are probably some of the
most potent ones that I can attribute
that growth to not to say that I
wouldn't have grown otherwise but it
would have been a different direction
and is it that way sound gee Sam he
probably brought me to that actually
it's the other way around that the
person the person who introduced me to
the artists way and like hey this would
be something that's good for you which
is really like it's a spiritual path to
higher creativity and all getting back
in touch with and nurturing the child
artists with it the person recommended
me to that I met through
it's great so yeah I met him through the
ohm shanthi teahouse who I got involved
with at lightning in a bottle which I
was going to and then went to a
different festival and met so hard and
so Han connected me into the lightning
in a bottle tea crew and that's my story
of like getting into tea taking me into
the artists way taking me to hear it now
these are great sounds great
it's been such a fun ride and I think
I'm learning to enjoy it more as such
and more and more every day great chimes
sorry don't be sorry it's nice yeah the
wind is blowing and I have a wind chime
on the front are you using that as a
gateway to writing the art of writing or
as some other artistic expression it
just comes through writing um meters
your is your end goal to be a writer
no no no I'm actually I mean I'm
realizing that I'm a good writer because
of it uh-huh
the idea is that so you spend an out you
spend about an hour every morning doing
three pages of stream-of-consciousness
freethought writing just like connect
connect the brain to the pen bypass all
filters yeah and and there's really no
intention of going back and reading it
it's more about just like processing it
and like that the the idea of bypassing
that internal sensor sensor
see with a sensor with a seat like this
little thing inside of us that like
sensors our thoughts and sensors our
feelings right go practising spending an
hour a day practicing bypassing that no
recognizing that it's there accepting
that it's there but not giving it the
power to like filter your thoughts and
your feelings and that's like it's
turned into this safe space that I can
reflect on my feelings in the way that I
am experiencing things so that is it's a
super potent practice not really
anything to do with writing per se yeah
and then I just I asked because well
because I wanted to know I was curious
but there's a similar more writing
focused by an author
Natalie Goldberg it's called writing
down the bones and it's very similar in
that you just take a keyword someone
throws out a keyword like tea and you go
right for 10 minutes or 20 minutes of 30
minutes or two hours and you just write
you write without stopping you write
without going back correcting all that
stuff and you know it's writing practice
it's a way of stream of consciousness
and getting that out there and if a
writer is what you want to be it can
make you a better writer and just like
everything in life she heard her
philosophy as a writer is that writers
are perceived and this applies just to
everything really a lot of people can
see conceive of whatever it is your gift
is or whatever it is that you want to do
that like you have to be good at it
right away like if you're good at it
right away you're gifted and but like
all these things take practice and her
idea is like that's her writing practice
she she is a published writer she is a
quote writer that's her title because
some of that maybe she says maybe 1% of
that writing practice she does is
something publishable and the rest of it
is practice it makes for a better writer
and it makes her a better thing and it's
like we say in Yoga Yoga is a practice
it's not a it's not an end it's not an
end to the journey it's the journey
right it's not like okay you've got a
head spin move on to handstand now it's
like uh uh you know whatever it's it's
how you get there and it's practice to
get there and you know you sometimes you
don't even know what you're practicing
for but it has applications but
everything anyway the the idea of the
morning pages as a practice is really
something that turned me on to
understanding that everything that we do
in life is practice in practice right
tea practice I have a music practice and
like about reframing that as things as
practice is a way of giving yourself
permission to not be perfect
permission to screw up yeah and the idea
of reframing everything as practice
versus this is practice of missus
performance right they don't need to be
separate Yeah right and plus but also
but also this is life so even when we're
practicing we're living right it's not
like okay I can't let people see that
because it's not this is just practice
so I built people don't get to see that
this is the real me or this is my real
what I do your practice is your life so
you got to pay for people to see your
practice as well because your practice
is the real you
the performance is not the real your
solution time because you're performing
y'all write it down thank you
go ahead Sam I went to school studying
classical piano performance and that's
the kind of thing that they never talk
hmm there was always so much emphasis
the performance when you are showing up
yeah this is yeah this is for me this is
my five decade journey through life as
an average dude like everything I did I
was maybe I was good at it or maybe I
was mediocre at it there's nothing I
mean I'm not I don't think I don't have
a gift for any one thing so as a soccer
player I was a good team player you
gotta have those on your team I wasn't
the star I was never and all of those
things I wasn't in I mean when I coach
soccer you should have seen your faces
of the adults when I like have our team
meeting at the beginning of season rec
soccer and I'd be like look into the
kids ago we're gonna have fun real learn
to play soccer we're not gonna care what
the score is I'm not gonna get you under
the under barcelona's B team you got
those gifts but you know what we're
gonna do I'm gonna teach you to play
soccer so that when you're 50 in your
fifties like me you'll still enjoy
playing it and you'll still be able to
play and the parents would be like yeah
too much pressure be number one yeah and
this is something I really don't like
yeah because I spend like my much of my
life with the idea that I need to be the
number one the number one number one
Bharath I was the best student you know
awarded student until my classmate
med school I always try to be the best
and this is really exhausting and I went
when I discovered T it got me free
because I don't know if I have tell you
guys about this before probably if I did
I'm sorry for being repetitive but I
grew up in a family of doctors so in
this city
everybody knows who dr. Vasquez are
family of dr. Vasquez so they there are
there were a lot of expectations about
me another doctor baskets and sometimes
it was very exhausting and all the times
I think it was I was not being honest
with myself feeling like I'm doing okay
I'm happy with this I'm happy being
number one and being awarded and that
stuff but it's when I discovered me I
saw I fell this is very exhausting
because he it's not a one-way street you
know and you can choose different ways
and they are healthy it's not the best
it's not worse they are all healthy all
beautiful and that's what he keeps
teaching me there are different ways of
doing it different way to appreciating
art for example and different ways of
approaching medicine I'm not a typical
doctor at all cuz I see my patients as
you can see me now I can use a white
coat or anything I tell my patients like
this so I'm having more fun and I
learned even more because he's not you
know like a heart strong
and well that's what he's teaching me a
possum so he has led me to amazing
people amazing places and amazing
experiences and changing my pond up here
so strap this in it's it's like I'm
totally agree because I don't wanna I
don't want to get into you know a
character when I'm Priscilla dr.
Priscilla the friend Priscilla sister
you know I know I just wanna be he's
gonna she is so simple
yeah right simple but complex to use
like the metaphor for life right so what
you were talking about kind of reminded
me of a song that I heard a long time
ago that I now take the heart and in
terms of considering myself of
professional or earning a living it it
was a there's a song by a woman named
Kenya's awesome and one of the lyrics
those her mother says someday you'll get
paid to be Tim Hadassah and I like what
you were saying it you know now you may
be a doctor you may be trained at all
that but you're you're being paid to be
you and a doctor but the you version of
that and it's really beautiful you know
no one's like they don't don't need a
role they want a human being you bring
about it very freeing you can you can be
lots of things at the same time that
you're being yourself and not losing
yourself in those in those roles in
those behind those math of expectations
right no soundtrack yeah I don't think I
ever watched you know all the way but
she's um she's a really fun one
singer-songwriter give you give you
Dossett is amazing she's an odd he's
actually part it's so funny but so small
world like but camp I work with she's
connected to that camp that I work with
deadly like a lot of the people in that
attack you know they're a lot of
musicians come out of that because it's
a camp for unschoolers I'm school
teenagers in basically for people that
don't know what unschooling is you you
you study what you want and when you
study what you want you tend to go to
things that are liked you love like
music you know he not us history you
know yeah so Kimya Dawson he's awesome
yeah you know what's interesting this
got this all kind of sounds like the
Norwegian model because a couple years
ago there was an American who flew over
in Norway to study those because he
wanted to figure out how such a tiny
country could produce so many Olympic
medalists so he studied their sports
program and what he found out is that to
put the two generations ago what they
did is they introduced a system where
we're not gonna the kids are gonna play
whatever they want but they're not gonna
compete so we're gonna give them maximum
exposure to every possible sport and
without the competition they're gonna
naturally gravitate to the thing that
they enjoy the most and then I think
it's like at the age of 12 or 13 they're
gonna introduce competition and then if
they sort of basically fall in love with
this and want to pursue this
professionally I think it was like it's
16 or 17 then the government will step
in and help you find you to become a
professional he said that's how this
little country can produce such great
athletes they have they let the kids
decide what they love and then they test
themselves at a later date
competition and then they say this is
what I want to do where wait wait wait
where do the parents get to decide what
the kids
there's certain things that we're not
taking in consideration which is foolish
so international TV and part of the the
you know text that that Sam had read to
us from the UN of what you know how they
described we're supposed to be talking
about this day is you know the people
right and I I've been live streaming for
a couple hours before coming in here
with you guys and just kind of having my
own stream of consciousness because no
one came into the zoom room with me so I
gotta just talk talk my mind about it
but like you know we're talking about so
much privilege right now of like any
kind of ability to like mobilize
yourself to what you you want to be what
you minute want to manifest yourself to
be and there are like entire communities
of people specifically in tea producing
areas where like mobilization and like
what we're talking about right now I
would be like completely unfathomable
you know like the ability to even play
sports or the ability to to think about
playing sports in any other context and
with you know this flat ball like on
this makeshift soccer fields that you
know is you know the the tea factory
while your parents work some yeah I
don't know the point of it I just kind
of wanted to run it back out to
international tea day and you know like
regardless of what type of upbringing we
had you know any type of it it's a
privilege you know that we can even
think about you know manifesting into
what we want to be and then you know not
just like addressing that this negative
path does exist but like ads t levers
how do we support those people that are
producing this product that you know is
inspiring us you know how can they get
access to that privilege or you know how
could we you know I don't know is that
too crazy good question to ask here
stairs I think it's fair to ask
even if we didn't ask or sell this it's
a good time for doing it we enjoy tea
and what's next and how do we how do we
make that privilege accessible to more
people especially to the people that are
like involved in creating this product
that's inspiring us so much you know
it's interesting it's such a weird a
weird you know dynamic like that those
four or five days increased my
appreciation for tea for the people
producing it and really like shining the
spotlight on that privilege that I that
I can think of in recent history I love
to be able to support and the love with
which they put into their product like
that that's it set a new standard for me
as far as the type of tea that I want to
that I want to share that I want to
drink myself like that's the standard
now hmm that it's like if it's not
produced in the way that these people
who I know are like really putting their
life into it that I I derive so much
personal value from it
it's in the Chi of the team because I
have that contact so I definitely am
always seeking context on the tea that I
am drinking or sharing I like to have
that available to others that I'm
sharing tea with I probably could be
better about not pushing it on them I
can see myself being the guy who like
hey this is the keyword review can
here's like it's like I can see that
being a little overwhelming to people
sometimes especially the ones who are
like new to tea but I think the best
thing that we can do from our place of
privilege is stand on top of the
mountain and scream about how awesome
tea is and how awesome are that are
making it bigger this community grows
and it's growing in a way that values
those stories and those contacts I how
do i elevate the frame of trickle-down
economics or not like that's that's like
the lowest possible frame that I could
think of for it but it's like economics
out of it the more we can fuck the more
energy we can funnel to them yeah
trickle down something besides just
money a chocolate maker and we go and
visit the farmers there's only Costa
Ricans Iqaluit those visit farmers who
are using regenerative funding practices
like personally like visit their farms
learn how they're doing the harvest and
and whether they're using Beyond Organic
up and it's not just like being a bar
but it's like great
it hurts from the roots of the tree and
yeah Percy as well as something that
brings an AB so much to our quality of
life like all of the guys are talking
now about particularly matrices before
like that seed culture and how it's
helped you change a perspective and he
didn't get around who you are and what
bility pause in the kind of experiences
you want to be having really glad you
brought that up what we on the computer
end the privileged can do to increase
and ensure high quality of life for the
people whose labor and generations
understanding are providing quality of
life really glad you brought that up
yesterday with a gentleman who is
leading a project called the dollar
donation Club and they are it's an
organization where there the idea is
that everybody contributes a dollar we
can do massive things and like the cut
there they're one of the organizations
that they are partnering with to like
funnel donations towards as they have
the ability they have demonstrated the
ability that they can plant or trees for
every dollar donation that they received
so the idea that if they can get the
math building X amount of people
donating a dollar for eczema once a
month for X amount of time they can
reclaim like 9,000 acres in places and
convert them to like regenerative
farming practices that are like really
really supporting the communities that
they exist for so I definitely am
interested
perhaps exploring how to align them with
two key communities with tea as well we
can we have places that can that are
damaged we have placing the tea
community that are demonstrating the
ability and demonstrating how
regenerative farming practices and
thinking about doing operating
sustainable ways provides this evidence
of community of how it really helps
support their community at large like if
we can dump fuel on that little fire
that's something that we can do to
really move with a needle so talking
with people that are thinking on that
kind of scale that that's the jump that
I take it may not take 90 million
dollars or something being funneled to
reclaim to do big projects that like
small projects as well big differences I
gotta run everybody great talking
everybody
good seeing all these new people as well
talk to you later see you next week or
are there other special guests for their
classes are there you know discussions
agenda with orient me we have we have
done a more TED talk style format where
Priscilla gave a like 15 minute
presentation on tea in Ecuador and then
another 15 minute presentation on TV Sri
Lanka and then we like broke out in the
breakout rooms for the casual
conversation like this we've done panels
on we did a panel on contraceptive tea
house it kind of runs the gambit I love
it
I think it's really great to have like
lots of different social circles in your
life you know like men's group over here
it's like the reality collective of the
bed and a pretty name samples are here
and like peak on down here it's just
wonderful to have friends who don't all
necessarily overlap I think it's a
beautiful thank you for being how do you
guys know each other
I assume that bobcat and Sam you guys
know each other yeah yeah so do you want
to each other story okay so I mentioned
the thing the coal reality collective I
don't know how it happened but just
started taking over a lot of my mental
phase I'm down here in Ecuador and I'm
in this apartment
without without like my normal like
professional computers on but I can't do
any editing of any of the files from my
big cameras that I could like it around
so I don't know I got invited to this
party
and was offered the opportunity to
co-host the room and did that and then
after that it just got crazier and
crazier and where are you I'm gonna
friend if somebody who's already
involved but we somebody showed up to a
party and then you were like oh yeah I
wanna know so Chris works on an
project called mind murmur and we we
hosted a space in the body throws
bi-weekly parties that are that are like
multi their multi room zoom events last
weekend was we were like twelve rooms or
so and had like 400 people come through
the parties it's like we're kind of
innovating off-label uses for this video
conferencing technology you know there
there are a lot of stories out there
about Club hosting DJs and people with
the blinky lights and their volley of
dancing yet so there's going online with
use of it
I think what we've been able to do
fairly well is not just provide a space
to go and with some sort of but almost
like a really well put together house
party with a team you've got a dance
floor you've got an upstairs dance floor
on the roof or something and then you've
also got like a cuddle puddle room where
people could go and like show out and
actually talk to get to know each other
we've got a room with experts on this
stuff the others are having intellectual
discussions on a room with you know pole
dancers and hula hoopers and others so
the fucking mermaid and a little bit
hard to describe but you what was what
we're able to do is create a space that
allows for like intimate connections
between people and like I think the
ability to build true friendship while
still allowing us to maintain social
distancing and it's been been a really
cool experience we we take advantage of
you know like this box like I can't sit
there and paste your teeth you know like
I don't know what kind of incense is
burning in the other room I I don't I
don't know what the fun feels like if it
comes there is where you guys are so
there's a lot of business you're losing
dimension suspension with
edia however it also allows you to have
a little bit of imagination and create
an experience where people can go to the
moon or something like that
so it can you know within this you can
you can get together and people to
create a collective experience where
like the last party we did really we
were climbing it out in the Tree of Life
there's a treehouse of a under down root
system and canopy where people are
discussing the nature reality you know
talking about some plant medicine
consciousness expansion it's like a it's
like a house party where there's all
these different spaces and though I
train of thought here I'll be able to I
did really been raising money through
donations a artist and so people who
don't have the opportunity to like go
and ej4 people losing their income
really quickly and we've been able to
take collections up or how people pay a
donation for a ticket and then with
working out ways to distribute that to
the artists to help creating this event
and making an article and also to
educate you that are helping people who
Lily are in deep forest we are in fact
that we have a device whether it's a
phone or a tablet or computer
Hahnemann we're not out there slaving
away at the powerful things that you get
so hopefully were able to use use that
privilege and take the world a bit of a
better place and it's a very very very
very international community with lots
of people in the UK Australia and all
over Europe that as far as I can tell
they are winning the like the internet
and just be absolutely the silly as we
can possibly be they're winning that
game
yeah it's powerful we were we were at
the bottom see every room is like
corresponding to a part of the body so
there's the heart and the funny bone and
drunken funk in the trunk when people
are dancing and we're in the bladder and
like the clitoris that he could find it
and so like I was being the light brain
with a like a very well known dictionary
artist using a class of meeting people
through creative expression and making
art we're all sitting there with a
canvas of materials creating art while
there's a DJ you pay playing live like
he'll guitar ambient music who is like a
well-known guy South America North
America and Europe all there together in
one eye
hey wouldn't it happen otherwise pretty
cool cool hey thanks for coming by to
our little party over here yeah
absolutely to get to and I need to
shower beforehand virtual date but I'm
afraid that now me through the tablet so
I won't say goodbye and I'll get another
email about the upcoming event is that
right I am learning how to use the email
system to be able to communicate with
everybody who registers now that we have
the registration process a little better
figured out step one was figure out the
registration process step two is figure
out how to use the Gmail system but the
nice thing is that it's all like custom
built within the wedding cooperative and
like built with the ethos that we are
all talking about rather than building
it through
Eventbrite and Google and all these
other things are really like looking at
the ethos with which we build these
platforms and how we respect user user
content and user identities and that
kind of stuff and taking that SuperDuper
seriously you're not going to tell my
email address for like key companies and
I'll start getting fuckin BAM we start
selling to you our selves marketing so
good it's not spam its bacon yeah don't
get me to too gassy today and let's see
we can have some tea on Monday don't
forget I'll show you guys in facebook
messenger you wanna see that whatever
you bought here okay all right guys I
think I'm gonna go to I've been on for
the past four hours so what yeah my day
but I didn't want to let you guys know
that I launched something today like my
the special thing that I did for
International tea days launched a series
of tasting events that are gonna happen
on Tuesdays and Thursdays in June from
12:00 to 2:00 so like right before tea
talks on Thursdays I'll be doing them
featuring a different tea maker and
tasting three different teas from
those tea makers and giving presentation
on their story and their terroir and and
then also tasting the teas so what's
that examples of the teas ahead of time
yes of course yeah yeah yeah and so each
class is like you can purchase it
individually but then I'm doing a whole
package that if you do all six then you
get like a 50% discount so yeah you can
see it on my website it's on the front
page of my website the the tea and it's
people website you can see it there but
I mean if you guys are interested in
just kind of auditing the class or
auditing the experience I can work that
out for you too I know personally you
you probably would have some challenges
receiving the t's so that you're
interested in auditing what I'm doing
just viewing it you know for your own
purposes of seeing how I'm gonna do
these classes yeah let me know I can I
can get you in you know you may not be
able to get the tea but you can at least
see what's going on the first class is
Alfredo is Alfredo lens teas so we'll be
tasting his shoe shot along the 18 Ruby
black and his Ruby whites a newly baked
I'm telling everybody to like order by
the end of the month that way that
there's ample time for them to receive
the teas before the classes starts yeah
there should be fun community a little
interactive thing I've been like putting
off doing like actual classes that I
figured this could be a good a good
excuse to put something together and is
it's more about the people it's not so
much about like tea service education or
tea tasting education it's it's more
about like getting exposed to the people
of the tea and so hopefully if I can
work it out and it can work on people's
schedules you know we'll actually get
them to join us and the in the stream or
in the classes and actually connect yeah
when the the getting every but I was
writing Jeremy you talked a lot about
take the way to take this experience to
the next level is to get everybody
drinking the same to have definitely
been looking at that and how can we make
that happen and Elise it sounds like you
are already starting on the process
which is great yeah yeah yeah so I'm
gonna do this this is kind of like a
test run and it's like it's in honor of
international tea day so it kind of gave
me an excuse to do this series and it's
it's six classes so it's like something
manageable I could put the curriculum
together and do it and then of course I
can I can read run those classes again
or change you know kind of modify the
curriculum and change the themes but
yeah I look forward to doing because
I've done so much of these like videos
now and it's always just me drinking tea
and if I'm drinking with someone else
like we're drinking different tea so
it'll be kind of fun to see how the
dynamic and experience changes when
we're all drinking the same tea at the
same time make the experience much more
immersive so yeah like 100% I wanna I
would actually love to talk to you more
on that connected me yeah we are talking
a little bit about virtual event like
might look like and that's what you're
talking about is stuff that I've been
writing about in understand how we might
be there's like a timeline to figure out
how to do it at a big scale we love to
chat with you more about that when you
have five hours straight already
yeah yeah yeah let me know yeah tomorrow
might be a good day oh I'm pretty I'm
pretty open tomorrow so okay cool
awesome guys well hey happy
International tea day thank you so much
love you guys Cheers