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President Obama Visits Indonesia; FBI Rescues 69 Children From Prostitution; Singer/Songwriter John Legend on Education and Giving Back; Commodity Prices Soaring; Volcano Disrupts President's Trip
Aired November 09, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi. I'll be with you for the next two hours today and every weekday. I'll guide you through the maze of information coming your way. Together, we'll track what's going on at home and around the world. You'll get access to some of the brightest minds who can explain what it means today and the impact beyond today.
We'll showcase the best ideas in innovation and philanthropy and public education. My mission is to help you have figure out what's going on around you fits into your life. So let's get started right now; here's what I've got on the run down. A legend is dropping by our studio, John Legend, the Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, actor, and philanthropist is here with a message about giving and an important life lesson for college students.
President Obama returns to Indonesia where he spent part of his childhood but a dark cloud is hanging over his visit. Ash from an erupting volcano forces Air Force One to make an early exit. And how do you track the mental health of troops after they return? There's a new app for that and it's changing technology. It's today's "Big I."
But American children - I want to tell you about this - are being marketed and sold for sex in American cities. That's a quote from the head of the national center for missing and exploited children. It's a fact that none of us likes to think about but advocates and local cops and federal agents think about it every day and that's how we get stories like this one; a coast-to-coast crackdown on adults who've allegedly forced kids as young as 12 into sexual slavery.
Operation Cross Country V went down over three days in 40 cities involving more than 2,000 law enforcement officers from every level. They are all part of a nationwide network called Innocence Lost. In their latest sweep rescued 69 children and underage teens. Almost 900 adults have been arrested - at least 98 of them are alleged pimps.
Now since Innocence Lost was launched in 2003, 1250 kids have been saved, 625 traffickers tried and convicted. The numbers are staggering but we want to understand how this happens and how the good guys stop it. Kevin Perkins is the Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division. He joins me now from our studios in Washington. Kevin, thank you for being with us. Tell me how you characterize what has happened. This three-day sweep has netted a lot of results. Have you put a dent in the scourge of child prostitution in this country? KEVIN PERKINS, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION, FBI: I believe we have, Ali. And I appreciate you having me here to talk about this important issue. If there's one child on the street being exploited for child sexual exploitation that's one too many. We were able to rescue 70 children over the weekend who have been exploited, who have had their lives damaged. This is really an investigative effort by the FBI and our state and local partners across the country to rescue these kids. That's our first mission here.
VELSHI: Kevin, it's kind of hard to believe in this society that kids can get forced into prostitution. What happens in a kid's life that they are absent the normal things that kids do that allow them to slip into prostitution largely undetected by people around them?
PERKINS: And I think that's a key point - they are largely undetected. These are children from dysfunctional backgrounds. These are children who are very vulnerable. And the people who conduct this criminal activity target those, prey upon those kids. They initially give them food, shelter and some sense of well-being and then begin the exploitation. That's what lures them in and that's what's so important here is that we get to these kids before they do.
VELSHI: What are we talking about in terms of the age group, how young were you seeing?
PERKINS: We've seen as young as 11 years old and all the way up to 17.
VELSHI: And in these cases are the parents involved?
PERKINS: Many cases no - and that's part of the dysfunctional background. Many times these kids are alone or they're from broken dysfunctional family backgrounds that puts them on the street, that gets them out to where nobody is caring for them. And these criminals see that and they provide a need in this kid's life.
VELSHI: Are there adequate laws to deal with the people you arrested?
PERKINS: I believe there are. I mean, the vast majority of the individuals arrested in these cases will be prosecuted at the state and local level. There will be some prosecuted at the federal level and there is a Title 18 Statute against child exploitation that carries sentences up to and including life without parole.
VELSHI: And have we historically been successful prosecuting people, at least in recent years, who engage in this sort of thing?
PERKINS: Yes, we have been very successful in these cases and we have achieved several life sentences out of these matters.
VELSHI: Let me ask you this, what happens to these kids once they're rescued?
PERKINS: When the kids are rescued as in the cases over this weekend, it depends on the state they're in. FBI agents and state local law enforcement officers will have turn the children over either to that state's social welfare agency's Child Protective Services or if there's a family structure in which the child can go back to that's appropriate they'll be returned to the family.
VELSHI: Kevin, tell me how you end up catching these perpetrators.
PERKINS: Well, there's any number of ways. And the thing that has to be -- you think about, is while it was only this weekend, there was a lot of work by our state and local partners that led up to this weekend - a lot of intelligence going after these individuals. We target specific areas where they know this type of criminal activity is prevalent and then work toward a takedown such as this. This is the fifth one. We'll be doing another one.
VELSHI: Alright, Kevin, good work. Thanks very much and thanks for the participation of all those that worked with the FBI. Kevin Perkins is the Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division talking about this amazing sweep.
Alright, singer/song writer John Legend passionate about education. You may not have known that, but when he talks about it he's not one to hold back. Today's "Sound Effect."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN LEGEND, SINGER/SONGWRITER: For black Americans, we weren't deemed valuable enough to educate throughout the history of America.
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": That's society's fault?
LEGEND: That has been society's fault. We were slaves for a long time and we were in segregated schools for a long time and for a long time black Americans weren't valued enough to think that we were worth investing in in this country. And part of this is a legacy of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: It's not just education John Legend he feels passionate about. He wants to light a fire under you when it comes to giving. Coming up, the singer/songwriter and philanthropist talks about his latest push to get money into the hands of those in need, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: John Legend has been passionate about education for some time, he even showed up unannounced at Howard University one day to lecture at a class on education in Black America. That's John Legend you just heard performing "Shine." He wrote that song for "Waiting for Superman" a new documentary about the need for education reform. John Legend joins me now from our New York studios. John, good to see you, welcome to the show.
LEGEND: Good to see you, Ali. How are you?
VELSHI: I'm good. What's your passion about education for people who don't know? What's your connection to education? Why do you want to talk about education?
LEGEND: Well, I feel like education is so important when we talk about making this country one where equal opportunity is real, making this country one where justice is real, social justice. And when we talk about fighting poverty and breaking the cycle of poverty we feel like education is the key to do doing that.
For too long, in this country, where you live, where you grew up, what neighborhood you're from, what color your skin is, the income your parents have, determined what kind of education you were able to get in this country. We believe the only way for us to have true equal opportunity in this country is to make sure every kid has access to a quality education.
VELSHI: You went to one of the great historically black colleges, part of MTV, you, and the college board's program -- but you went in and surprised some students there. You went in and gave a guest lecture. What was that like?
LEGEND: Yeah, that was fun. I got to surprise some of the students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. We talked about issues of civil rights and social justice particularly as they pertain to the struggle for black Americans to get a quality education throughout the years. And we had a great discussion. It was fun.
VELSHI: You said something interesting there. You said avoid the soft bigotry of low expectations. What did you mean by that?
LEGEND: Yeah. I was actually stealing a quote from former President George W. Bush when he was talking about education reform. Part of the obstacle we have to overcome is that sometimes we expect too little from kids from poor neighborhoods and from the wrong side of the tracks. We expect them not to do well.
And if we expect low things from them, then usually we'll be rewarded with that kind of result. But if we expect high things from them and we put the systems in place to make sure that happens, then we actually have been shown to -- that great schools and great teachers can achieve amazing results with kids that people didn't believe in before. And so we've got to stop that cycle of low expectations and low results.
VELSHI: You played a big role in "Waiting for Superman" by singing. What after looking at education for this long and after being involved with that project, what do you think the biggest thing or things we can change are that will help public education in this country?
LEGEND: Well, I'm excited. First of all, the film "Waiting for Superman" has helped to spur an important conversation in this country about what's needed and what's happening when people go see the film is they're connecting on a human level with the children in the film and the parents. And too often we blame the victims in this situation.
We assume that the kids don't want to learn. We assume that their parents don't care about what quality education they have. And if you think about those things on the face of them they're ludicrous because we know most parents want the best for their kids and we know most kids don't go to school hoping to fail, hoping to drop out, they want to succeed. And now we need to make sure that every kid has access to the option of getting a quality education.
That means leadership in the school systems and in the actual schools. And then that means making sure a quality teacher is in every classroom and in setting those expectations high, doing whatever it takes, having the passion, having the accountability to make sure that whatever we're doing is working for the kids and we're seeing that all around the country these things are working and we just have to extend that so that more schools are able to do that.
And I work with a school here in Harlem called the Harlem Village Academies and we're seeing amazing results that we're able to achieve by doing those things -- setting the expectations high and making sure every child has a quality teacher, having great leadership to ensure that the kids are really learning and that the teachers are accountable for that. And we can do those things all across the country. We have to have the political will to do it and we have to fund it correctly and as citizens we have to clamor for that.
VELSHI: Let me ask you about something else that you're involved in. You're involved in a charity called "50 Days of Giving". Tell me about that.
LEGEND: Yeah, I'm working with Western Union actually. Everyone knows Western Union does money transfers. One of the things they're trying to do is transfer some of the money that they've made over the years to communities that need it. And they're allowing customers and people all around the country to vote and say, you know, this is where we think this money should go.
Some of the organizations are Unicef, C.A.R.E., Mercy Corp, Boys and Girls Clubs of America. You can go to 50daysofgiving.com and vote where that money should go. I'm glad they're giving their customers and I'm giving my fans the opportunity to give back just by going to a website and getting involved in becoming more aware about what the charities are doing.
VELSHI: You've been a participant in CNN "Heroes", one of our proudest moments every year on Thanksgiving.
LEGEND: Absolutely. I'm going to be back.
VELSHI: That's it - I just heard you're going to be back with us at "Heroes" on Thanksgiving day.
LEGEND: Absolutely. I'm excited about that. You all are doing great work highlighting the work that so many people are doing around the world to improve people's lives; ordinary people doing extraordinary things. And we're glad to be able to help recognize them.
VELSHI: Well we're honored to have you here. Thanks for you. You are not an ordinary person but you're doing extraordinary things and I think it helps a lot of people connect because a lot of people like you who may not be thinking about issues like education and giving and by seeing you involved in them that might spur some action. So thanks very much, John legend, I'm a big fan. It's an honor to have you on the show.
LEGEND: Thanks, Ali.
VELSHI: All right. Good talking to you.
Listen, there is nothing more red hot in this economy right now than commodities. We're going to tell you all about them next. Everybody's been talking about them. But, first, I'm going to give you a quick quiz. Which of the following is not an officially traded commodity? Which of these does not trade on an exchange? Cotton, tea or coffee? Take a guess. I'll tell you on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK, just before the break I asked you, which of the following is not an officially traded commodity on an exchange, cotton, tea or coffee? The answer surprises a lot of people. It's tea. Look at everything I've got here and let's take a look at this, Mark, on this table. I've got coffee, OK. You can see that. The price of coffee is up substantially. In fact, the coffee prices -- $2.13 a pounds for anybody who cares about these things. This is silver. This is at a 25-year high. Gold, we've been talking about this, above $1,400 an ounce. Even sugar is up. It's at a 30-year high.
Commodities across the board are up. Crude oil, the biggest ingredient in our gasoline, is at its highest price since 2008. That's the year, by the way, our gas climbed above $4 a gallon. It was a lot higher back then, but the fact is, we've already been warned, I told you about this yesterday, that gas prices are probably going up in this country.
The real question is, why are all these economies going up in price? Well, Christine Romans, you may or may not know, started her career as a wee commodities trader all those years ago. So she understands this better than anyone. She joins me now from New York to talk about this.
Christine, there's never a simple answer with commodities --
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CO-HOST, "YOUR MONEY": No.
VELSHI: Because all commodities trade for two reasons -- one is because you need the coffee or the sugar and the other is that you're betting on --
ROMANS: Supply and demand. VELSHI: And the other one is speculation. And we used to think speculation was a terrible thing but it's necessary. So some people speculate. They may never need the coffee or the gold, but they're buying it because they think it will give them a better return than investing in something else.
ROMANS: Or it's a safe haven. It's something that is a hard asset that they know and they can feel as the value of the American dollar, for example, is declining.
Also, all of these commodities are priced in dollar, right? So as the value of the American dollar decreases, it takes more of those dollars to buy the same amount of oil or whatever it is that you have.
Is your shirt made out of cotton, Ali? Are you a cotton fabric kind of guy?
VELSHI: The shirt is made out of cotton, and that is one of those things that's been going up.
ROMANS: Because -- and I brought my favorite -- as you know, my favorite accessory to any meal, bacon, which is up 2 -- you're not the only one who can bring a prop, Ali, on a money story -- 200 percent bacon is up. The pork belly prices are up 200 percent over the past year or so. And you're talking about, you know, $4 a pounds, $4.45 a pound for bacon now and all of the fast food chains are having to take a look at their bacon input prices. Whole Foods, where I bought this, frankly, has not raised its prices yet, but this is something that eventually it could come down and affect you. The two reasons, supply and demand and then also quantitative easing.
VELSHI: Oh, I knew you were going to say it. You always bring up this QE2 thing.
ROMANS: Ah, you love it when I say it.
VELSHI: So a lot of people are saying that this quantitative easing, this decision by the Federal Reserve to put $600 billion into the economy over the year, maybe up to $900 billion, is going to cause inflation and this is related to commodities. Please draw me a picture, draw me a line between quantitative easing and the Federal Reserve and commodities.
ROMANS: It's made -- it's made -- it's cheapened the dollar, which makes all of these other things more attractive to speculators and more expensive to people who have to use them or are buying them because they're priced in dollars. So, that's one way to look at it.
Also, we do have supply and demand issues for a lot of these things. Now, for oil, no. Believe it or not, there's not increased demand for gasoline at this point. So a lot of what you're seeing and a lot of people are talking about $90 a barrel crude, Ali. A lot of that is this global, macroeconomic picture (ph) of quantitative easing.
But you look at, for example, coffee, caffeine is at a 13-year high I keep saying. And one of those reasons is, frankly, wet weather in Vietnam, in Colombia, in parts of central America. The green coffee crop, that is a traditional supply and demand issue there. When I talk about bacon and meat, it's at 30-year highs in some cases here because the input, wheat and corn, what you feed to make --
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: To feed the animals is high. Also in the case of bacon, the recession decreased demand for bacon so farmers didn't raise as many -- you know, they didn't raise as many --
VELSHI: Right. And that's the same thing with cotton. In the recession, people bought less cotton, so fewer farmers made it. And now the demand is back up, but we've had flooding in Pakistan and in China where they make all this cotton. This is always the issue with commodities, right? There's two things at play right now.
ROMANS: Yes.
VELSHI: And one of them, Christine, and let's just talk about this for a second.
ROMANS: Sure.
VELSHI: You look at China, you look at Asia without China, you look at India, they're all growing 6, 8 or 10 percent. Their economies are growing at that rate. So very, very populous countries growing at that rate this year.
ROMANS: Right.
VELSHI: So some of this is just plain out demand. There are more people --
ROMANS: Yes, that's right.
VELSHI: Getting more money who are buying stuff.
ROMANS: And there's a drought in Russia. There's a drought in Russia that had affected the Russian corn crop. So you add in big demand from emerging middle classes for corn and for wheat and for bread, you know, for the inputs for bread and then also the inputs for meat.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: And when economies become middle class, they tend to want to eat more meat.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: All of this stuff is happening against the backdrop of nervousness about the global economic recovery and money moving into these commodities. It's been remarkable. That $1,400 an ounce gold has been very interesting as well. Silver is not near its all-time high, but it's a 25-year high for silver here. The silver was higher in the '80s, in the super inflationary period of the '80s, Ali.
VELSHI: Do you like my props here? I've got silver.
ROMANS: (INAUDIBLE).
VELSHI: I've got silver.
ROMANS: I love -- I love your props. And you need an armed guard to walk around with that silver.
VELSHI: Silver, gold. With that gold that's there.
ROMANS: But, look, let me just say that when we look at the Consumer Price Index, we don't see a big spike in food prices yet in the Consumer Price Index. It's not there yet.
VELSHI: Yes, it's very -- it's happened very recently, yes.
ROMANS: Some -- and some, because the economy is not growing gangbusters, some producers don't want to pass on these higher prices to consumers because they're afraid that consumers will pull back again. So watch carefully. I think you're going to see McDonald's raising some prices, you could see higher coffee prices, you'll see other places maybe absorbing the cost increases, Ali.
VELSHI: On Thursday I'm going to talk to the CEO of Heinz. We'll discuss that with him. But for people who are not -- who don't think they're interested in currencies or the value of the dollar, this is a very good example because all of these commodities are priced -- including oil, by the way. This is my fancy oil barrel. But oil and all of these things are priced in dollars. So when the dollar becomes less valuable, when it can buy less, the price of these things goes up.
Christine, thanks very much. I love drawing on your experience as a commodities reporter and seeing the bacon.
Good to see you, my friend, Christine Romans. If you want to talk more about this, I guarantee you we'll be talking more about this, this weekend on "Your Money," Saturday's at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sundays at 3:00. Christine's also the author of "Smart Is The New Rich," which is available now on bookshelves.
OK, here's a check of top stories right now.
A cruise ship is still stranded off the west coast of Mexico. The Carnival's Splendor lost power after the engine room caught fire yesterday. No one was hurt. The ship is operating on auxiliary power, but 3,300 passengers are still going without air conditioning and hot food. The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan is on its way to assist.
Well, some refugees are beginning to return to Myanmar now that post-election violence is easing. About 10,000 people fled to Thailand at the height of the unrest. Critics have dismissed the Myanmar elections, the first in 20 years, as a charade. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, their city council essentially, was expected to voted today to ban most fast food happy meals, at least in their current form. Critics say the meals don't meet nutritional standards and the ban is expected to win final approval today with enough votes to override an expected veto by Mayor Gavin Newsom.
An erupting volcano forces Air Force One to make an early exit from Indonesia. We're following the president's every move.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Well, a brief homecoming for President Obama in Indonesia today. The president said it was a little disorienting to visit the place where he spent several years as a young child because it's changed so much. The president pointed to Indonesia's growing economic and strategic influence as a big reason for expanding trade and security ties with that country. Indonesia, as you may know, is the world's largest Muslim country. The president was asked about his outreach to the Muslim world in a news conference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our efforts have been earnest, sustained. We don't expect that we're going to completely eliminate some of the misunderstandings and mistrust that have developed over a long period of time. But we do think that we're on the right path.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: This is the second leg of the president's trip. He's cutting it short because of volcanic ash from the eruption of Mt. Merapi, which we've been talking about for a couple of weeks now. That eruption has already killed 156 people, it's displaced thousands since it began last month.
Tell us about this.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You don't realize how populated these islands truly are. I mean, Indonesia, there are people everywhere all along this. And we know this has the ring of fire. Right there is where the big tsunami earthquake happened and there was another earthquake just a few weeks ago that happened right there. All the ring of fire. You can even see the crease here on Google Earth.
VELSHI: Right. Yes.
MYERS: That crease is where this abduction zone is going down. Part of the Earth's crust is being absorbed or covered up by another piece of the crust as --
VELSHI: And that's where the friction occurs, that's where these earthquakes tend to develop.
MYERS: And that's where you get lava and magma down below and it wants to erupt.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: Right here, Mt. Merapi. Right there is where the president is. Right there.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: And the problem is, these little boxes here. The boxes are where the ash is.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: You cannot fly a jet plane through ash.
VELSHI: Right. We discussed that with the Iceland volcano.
MYERS: The ash melts in the jet because the jet's so hot. Then as the air is ejected out of the back of the jet, it in fact coagulates or hardens on the back. And then you've completely ground that engine to a halt.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: That's something you don't want with your jet. You fly a lot. You don't want your jet stopping in midair. There's Mt. Merapi. I have two different layers. One, the surface layer to 25,000 feet. That's where the ash is actually blowing a little bit toward Jakarta. The other ash plume is actually blowing down toward Australia, 45,000 to 55,000 feet. That can be flown around. But here's the ash cloud --
VELSHI: When it's down in the low part you can't get through it. You can't take off and you can't land.
MYERS: Correct. You know, you're at 40,000 feet, you want to land. You go, uh-oh, what's down there? That is down there. But the Jakarta area is over there so the president was able to get out of there before.
I have one more map that I'll do real quickly because this is out of the European satellite. There is Mt. Merapi. It's a green cloud -- it's color enhanced. But the ash cloud is coming this way.
VELSHI: And Jakarta's over there?
MYERS: And Jarkata up over there.
VELSHI: We'll keep an eye on that. The other thing about Australia, that, of course, messes up Qantas, which has been having a rough --
MYERS: This isn't done.
VELSHI: We'll keep a close eye on it. Indonesia has been having a lot of trouble with this. The extraordinary story of a teenage girl who was abducted in the middle of the night from her home and sexually abused by her kidnapper for months. You've heard the name. Elizabeth Smart, back on the stand today. Her riveting testimony right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Today's Crime & Consequence starts with more wrenching testimony from Elizabeth Smart. She is the young woman originally from Utah, who was kidnapped out of her own bed in Salt Lake City back in June of 2002. Her tormenter was or is a deranged self-professed prophet named Brian David Mitchell.
Today she talked about an encounter with a homicide detective months after she was kidnapped and months before she was freed. The cop seemed suspicious, Smart testified, but went away before he learned the truth. Yesterday Smart testified that Mitchell told her he'd planned her abduction for months so that she could join him and his wife in a, quote, "celestial marriage."
She told the court and I quote again, "I remember him saying I have a knife to your neck. Don't make a sound. Get out of my bed and come with me or I will kill you and your family." Smart said Mitchell raped her daily at the very least at a crude campsite in the mountains. Mitchell's lawyers don't dispute the facts but say he was and is crazy.
In Michigan, the assistant attorney general who launched a personal crusade against a gay university student has been fired. The student wasn't suspected of or connected with any crime but in a venomous blog, Andrew Shirvell accused him of pushing, a quote, "radical homosexual agenda." The controversy caught fire when Shirvell appeared on CNN and soon after he was suspended. His boss defended his First Amendment right to speak his mind but now says Shirvell lied to investigators engaging in quote, "borderline stalking" and inappropriately used stated resources. A lawyer for the student wants Shirvell not only fired, but disbarred.
Well, Afghans know a thing or two about farming. They've been doing it for centuries. So, why are American farmers now being sent to that war-ravaged country as advisers? I've got the surprising answer next in Globe Trekking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Time now for Globe Trekking. Our first stop is Afghanistan.
Imagine, if you can, what it would be like to wake up every day and go to work at a country that's been at war for more than 30 years. That's life for Afghans. A vast majority of them are farmers working in the fields as Afghans have done for centuries. Now, American farmers are in country sharing what they know about modern farming. It's part of the overall U.S. strategy aimed at winning the war and the hearts and minds of the people.
CNN's Jill Dougherty now with a look at how it's working.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Interrogation team, I'll be with you guys.
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're in Wardak Province, Eastern Afghanistan, with advisers working for the U.S. Agriculture Department. Eighty percent of Afghans are farmers, so boosting the country's agricultural industry is crucial to the U.S. strategy here.
GARY SOISETH, U.S. AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT ADVISER: And I'm an orchard manager for my folks back home.
DOUGHERTY: Twenty-four-year-old Gary Soiseth. He's far from his almond farm in Turlock, California.
SOISETH: That's kinds of my real-life job but for right now I'm focused here.
DOUGHERTY: He's teaching old farmers new tricks.
The elders get a little rambunctious sometimes and say, hey, kid, what can you teach me? And you know, what? I know this stuff. And I say, I agree. I defer.
One of the main solutions is to make sure your orchard floor is clean, keep your weeds down, and to also make sure all your fruit that is infected is removed.
DOUGHERTY (on camera): Did you have learn something today?
Some new ideas on how to keep insects at bay this man tells me.
A lot of times this father passed on to the son. Well, if this father was off fighting (INAUDIBLE), or if the father died in some war, that knowledge doesn't get passed down.
DOUGHERTY: Why would you pick up from sunny California and come to sunny Afghanistan?
SOISETH: I just kind of had to look at myself and say what do I really want to do? As an American and a farmer, where can I serve?
DOUGHERTY: Gary's dream is to help Afghan farmers to move from living off their crops to selling them. In Kabul, Pakistan, maybe even India or Dubai. It could take a while, he says, so he's signing up for another year in Afghanistan.
Jill Dougherty, CNN, Wardak Province, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Jill joins me now from New York.
Jill, how do you measure success in this sort of endeavor? DOUGHERTY: I think probably sustainability, because these are short-term projects, Ali, meant to jump-start things there and get people working, give them some money, get them some education. Also it's projects -- civilian projects around the country. But it's really the sustainability. And that's the question.
This is part of the civilian surge, as we're calling it. And if it doesn't continue, that could be a major problem because after all, you know, the key to this is getting people self-sufficient so that they don't turn to the Taliban such as growing poppies.
VELSHI: Right. And part of that is, though, American farmers going over, I'm assuming, use much more sophisticated techniques.
Can we get that to happen in Afghanistan?
DOUGHERTY: You know, I was watching what Gary was up to. It's not very sophisticated. There are some basic things that he was talking about -- grafting. I'm not a farmer but some really basic concept. Because, as he pointed out, for 30 years they've been at war and all of that knowledge that you would think these guys who are much older than he is would have, they don't have. So a lot of it's very, very basic and can be translated.
VELSHI: All right, Jill, good to see you. Thanks very much. I know you've got a series of these very interesting stories on Afghanistan. We'll be running them all week.
Jill Dougherty joining us from New York.
All right. Mental health among U.S. troops is a huge problem. We've discussed this before on this show but it's really -- it's more serious than I even thought. Check out this question. What percentage of troops returning home develop serious mental health problems within three to four months of their return -- 10 percent, 20 percent or 30 percent? I'll give you the answer after the break, and, a potential solution for them.
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VELSHI: OK. Before the break, I asked this question -- What percentage of troops develop serious mental health problems within three to four months of returning home? Sometimes the answer is a trick, this one is no trick. It's 30 percent. Thirty percent of troops have serious mental health problems when they come back.
Now, mental health is complicated. I'm not going to try and encapsulate it, but mental health issues, in order to diagnose and properly treat them, the best way to do it is to know what somebody is suffering from, how they're suffering, and on a very regular basis.
But how do you do that? If I come back and think things aren't right, how do I account for how I'm feeling at different times? And if I leave it until later in the day and I think back, my view may not be accurate, maybe I won't do it as regularly. People keep journals, but they're not all that effective. So what happens if there were an app on my smartphone that I can just use and that sort of reminds me to check in and give some estimation of how I'm feeling on an ongoing basis? That would help in the treatment.
That app exists. Let me introduce you to two gentlemen. One of them is Dr. Perry Bosmajian, he's the developer and a psychologist, he's with the T2 Mood Tracker app. And Dr. Robert Ciulla is a population -- he heads the Population and Program Division and the National Center for Telehealth and Technology.
Basically, this is a digital journal. Perry, let me ask you first, how does it work?
DR. PERRY BOSMAJIAN, DEVELOPMENT TEAM, T2 MOOD TRACKER: Well, Ali, in your introduction you hit it right on target. Basically, this is a smartphone app that we built to help soldiers, servicemen, families and veterans actually do the type of assessment that you were talking about around psychological issues and MTBI or traumatic brain injury.
We do have --
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VELSHI: Sorry, go ahead.
BOSMAJIAN: I was going say, we do that specifically by allowing them to rate their moods in a very quick, easy and efficient manner using a touchscreen scale on the app. That gives them the opportunity to maybe -- you might call it take their emotional temperature.
After they've done that, they are able to evaluate themselves in one of several areas. It could be posttraumatic stress, anxiety, traumatic brain injury, depression, a number of areas.
And it's important that people be able to do this because research has shown that they can actually begin to feel better by paying very close attention to how they're doing.
VELSHI: OK, well that was going to get me to the next question.
Robert, let me ask you about this. What can you have actually do with this information? On one level it helps people feel better, but there are -- are there treatment options because you have this data?
DR. ROBERT CIULLA, POPULATION & PROGRAM DIVISION, NATIONAL CENTER FOR TELEHEALTH & TECHNOLOGY: Right. So I use the analogy of the tricorder that Dr. McCoy used to use in the old "Star Trek" series. While that tricorder was a bit larger in the form factor than a smartphone, it was essentially a handheld device that Dr. McCoy to capture medical data.
So 300 years ahead of its time, smartphones and the application that we call Mood Tracker does a similar thing. It allows a person to literally capture electronically their feeling states and allows health care providers to get more precise information about how a patient is doing.
VELSHI: I may be concerned about the fact we're not so sure about security in this digital world and here I am going to on an hourly basis enter my emotions, my feelings, my mental state. How do you address that?
BOSMAJIAN: Well, that's a concern. It's a very big question that many people ask.
If you think about it, though, when you are rating yourself or rating your moods, taking your emotional temperature, that is information that is your information that belongs to you and that as long as it remains on your phone, it certainly is private.
And since it's your information, if you think about if you have took your temperature at home and you wanted to share that information with a friend or family or even post it on your social network, you could do that. That information belongs to you.
The security issues come up when that information is transmitted to a health care provider. And then it is the health care provider's responsibility to make sure that that data is safe.
CIULLA: I want to emphasize that this is not a diagnostic tool. It gives the person a way of tracking their feelings, but an actual diagnosis needs to happen with a sit-down consultation with an actual provider.
VELSHI: So if it's a tricorder, you still need a doctor to make some sense of what it means.
Guys, thanks so much for being with us. Dr. Perry Bosmajian and Dr. Robert Ciulla, thanks, guys.
If you want more information on the T2 Mood Tracker application, head to my blog, CNN.com/Ali, and I'll ling you to it.
Democrats have won two more House seats, Republicans are talking about the transition and the new poll may be a wake-up call for New Jersey Senator Menendez. That's all coming up in our political update.
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VELSHI: As we speak, Republicans preparing to take control of the House of Representatives in January, but some House races are still being decided.
Mark Preston and Peter Hamby are standing by in Washington with the latest on politics.
I don't see Peter. I just see Mark. Mark, good to have you back.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Ali. My voice finally came back. I found it, I don't really know where it was for the past week. But so much for the midterms or maybe not.
Look, as you said, we still have seven House races that remain unresolved at this point, they're still being contested. They're all Democratic incumbents and this spells a lot of trouble for Democrats, they've already lost 60 House seats. Very well expected that that number is going to climb, but they did get some good news today. Two Democrats, two incumbents won.
First one is Jerry Connelly, he represents a Virginia suburb or rather D.C. suburb here in Virginia, and up in Washington state just north of Seattle Rick Larsen won as well. So Democrats got some good news there, but still, we still have seven races unresolved.
But, Ali, in addition to that, Republicans did very well and they won, but now they have to learn how to transition. And in fact, Greg Walden, who is a Republican from Oregon, is overseeing those efforts. Our own Deidre Walsh has a great story, a very informative story up on CNNPolitics.com.
What she has up there is that Republicans understand this was such a change election that four freshman Republicans are going to be on this transition team. It just goes to show you that the House Republicans right now realize that where they are right now is because of these freshmen winning. In addition to that, there's going to be a freshman put at the leadership table.
But look, in addition to that, Ali, it was a bad midterm election for Democrats. It doesn't look so good in 2012 either and Peter has got that.
PETER HAMBY, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: Yes, Ali, actually, the man who chaired the Senate Democrats' effort to pick up seats in the Senate this cycle, Bob Menendez, a New Jersey senator who was elected in 2006, a new poll from Quinnipiac has his approval ratings upside down. Only 38 percent approve of the job he's doing, 41 percent disapprove. He's up for election in 2012. He'd better get started on the next campaign if he's going to be reelected again.
And I talked to a smart Republican insider up in Jersey today, and there were four names that came up. And some of these are interesting, listen to them real quick -- Tom Kaine Jr., who ran against Menendez and lost in 2006, the son of former Governor Tim Kaine, that name a gold standard in New Jersey. State Senator Joe Kyrillos, an ally of Chris Christie. Also, John Crowley, who was played by Brendan Fraser in the movie "Extraordinary Measures," and Jets owner Woody Johnson. All of those guys could challenge Menendez in the next cycle -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right, thanks, guys. Good to talk to you and good to see you, Peter. Mark, glad to have you back in the mix, take care of that voice.
Coming up in an hour, we'll have our next political update.
Listen, our fantastic iReports team hunting for iReports from every country in the world. We don't have them yet. They're getting close, but let me give you a quick quiz. Which countries still have countries that have not -- which have continents have countries that have not submitted iReports to us yet? North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia Antarctica or Australia? Pick two. I'll give you the answer on the other side.
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VELSHI: OK. Right before the break I asked you about iReports. What continents still have countries that have not submitted iReports to us? And I named all the continents here and asked you to guess which two are left.
Let's show you -- Africa and Australia. That does not mean we have not received iReports from them, it means there are countries in these two continents that have not submitted iReports to us.
And our iReport team is on a mission to get iReports from every country in the world. Let me talk to Katie Hawkins-Garr about that, she's a producer with CNN iReports.
What's the mission, Katie?
KATI HAWKINS-GARR, CNN IREPORT PRODUCER: Well, we're calling it the iReport Global Challenge, and the mission is to get an iReport from every single country in the world. At the beginning of this year, we realized we had about 50 countries left and we're like, we can totally do this. Now we're down to 12 countries.
VELSHI: Twelve countries, OK. And you want to get this by when?
HAWKINS-GAAR: We would like to by the end of the year. We're not putting that pressure on ourselves, but that would be excellent.
VELSHI: What are the countries?
HAWKINS-GAAR: Like you said, we have two regions. We've got Oceania, which is the area outside of Australia. There we have Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Tonga.
And then we've got several in Africa -- Cape Verde, Congo, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Gabon and Sayshals (ph). So the Guineas we need.
VELSHI: We're going to put the word out there. How are you getting the word out there from people? Because the great thing about this tool, we use it in breaking news and getting opinions and use it in getting a real pulse for what's going on. We're a global organization. We want people in every country sending us stuff.
HAWKINS-GAAR: Right, exactly. And in this case, we're just getting really interesting stories. Personally, I haven't heard a lot about these countries and that's what the global challenge is about, is to learn about these lesser-known places. We're using Twitter. We are going on other sites like Flickr and YouTube and looking for people who have visited these places, and just reaching out to them. VELSHI: Very good. Well, good luck to you. You'll keep us posted on how that goes. And that is part of what makes CNN the global organization that it is.
Katie Hawkins-Gaar is a producer with CNN iReport.
Remember, very easy to upload your photographs and upload your video. Just go to CNN.com/iReport. It walks you through the whole thing.
