A woman has her legs slung over the shoulders of a man, bent backwards like a stone comma. One of her feet is on the mans headdress, while he rests his chin on her yoni. Im hunkered down on my knees in a back room of the British Museum, staring at a carved depiction of oral sex. Not your typical Tuesday.

My guide tells me that the statue is 11th century, possibly from the Elephanta cave temples near Mumbai, and came to the museum in 1865. It venerates the vulva, or the source of creation, she explains, even though oral sex was considered transgressive at the time. On the other side of the sculpture, a woman stands between two men, one impressive lingamheld between her breasts.

The carving is called erotic maithuna, a Sanskrit term often translated as sexual union. It is just one of the items that will be on display in the museums upcoming tantra exhibition. Im getting a sneak preview of Tantra: enlightenment to revolution, which opens on 23 April. It promises to be the first exhibition to look at the whole history of tantra, from ancient inception to impact on global modern culture.

The rest is here:
Sting, Shakti and sex: The exhibition changing our understanding of tantra - The Independent

The history of liberalism is entwined with racism, wrote Imraan Buccus in these pages, drawing parallels between Hitler and the liberal tradition.

One should probably dismiss such a crude attempt at reductio ad Hitlerum out of hand, but lest anyone think there might be a grain of truth in this piece of historical revisionism, I will spend some time critiquing it.

Classical liberalism, to put it clearly, was racism, he asserts, aiming his venom not only at modern apartheid apologists, but also at a liberal and often English-speaking version of white denialism, which he believes can be found at classical liberal think tanks like the Institute for Race Relations.

This is patently absurd. Buccus confuses the early development of liberal thought in an era that was deeply racist with the belief that those liberal principles actually supported racism then, and still do so now. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Liberal thought emerged in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment of the 17th to 19th centuries. Racism and slavery, however, had been ingrained in societies across the globe since time immemorial. They were not products of the Enlightenment or of liberalism. They were not even products of pre-Enlightenment Europe.

Africans themselves engaged in slavery long before the Atlantic slave trade began. Many Africans became wealthy not only by selling other Africans into slavery, but also by expropriating their properties. Taking conquered peoples into slavery was as routine in Africa as it was everywhere else in the world.

North Africans took slaves in England. There were white, British and Irish slaves in America in the 18th century. The Ottomans took Christian slaves for centuries. Slavery was common in China, Japan, Korea and South-East Asia. Slavery dates back to the very first civilisations, such as the Sumerians in Mesopotamia.

Although slavery is technically illegal everywhere in the world now, the practice persists in places like West Africa, India, Myanmar and the Middle East, without needing any help from white racists.

Buccus argues that early pioneers of liberal thought, such as John Locke, John Stuart Mill and Immanuel Kant, were racists and slavers. Of course, they were a product of their age, in which slavery was normal, not only in Europe, but around the world.

It is true that Locke was invested in the slave trade. However, his writings did not endorse slavery. Let me quote academic research on exactly this point:

Locke owned stock in slave trading companies and was secretary of the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas, where slavery was constitutionally permitted. He had two notions of slavery: legitimate slavery was captivity with forced labor imposed by the just winning side in a war; illegitimate slavery was an authoritarian deprivation of natural rights. Locke did not try to justify either black slavery or the oppression of Amerindians. In The Two Treatises of Government, Locke argued against the advocates of absolute monarchy. The arguments for absolute monarchy and colonial slavery turn out to be the same. So in arguing against the one, Locke could not help but argue against the other. Examining the natural rights tradition to which Lockes work belongs confirms this. Locke could have defended colonial slavery by building on popular ideas of his colleagues and predecessors, but there is no textual evidence that he did that or that he advocated seizing Indian agricultural land.

To put it clearly, classical liberalism, as a historical reality, meant rights for whites and genocide, slavery and colonisation for everyone else, Buccus writes. But the idea that Lockes writing somehow supported or advanced racism and slavery, instead of laying the intellectual foundations against them, is simply wrong. In fact, Lockes philosophy contradicted his own actions. At worst, he could be accused of hypocrisy.

(As an aside, the adjective classical is used to distinguish a philosophy premised on economic liberalism and individual liberty from the more left-wing social liberalism that Americans would call simply liberal.)

John Stuart Mill explicitly argued against slavery and against the idea that race determined the nature of human beings. Again, we go to the academic literature:

It is shown that Mill although he did indulge himself in the discourse based on race, geography or climate to a minor extent made strenuous efforts to discredit the deterministic implications of racial theories and to promote the idea that human effort and education could alter beyond recognition what were supposed to be the racially inherited characteristics of various human groups.

Immanuel Kant really was racist, and expressed many deeply offensive prejudices about race in his anthropological studies. His place in the classical liberal pantheon, however, is a point of considerable dispute. Some of his views were substantially liberal, but many were distinctly illiberal. His ideas about social order and duty to the state are in no way liberal. It is in Kant that one can make the best argument for the idea that liberalism and racism coexisted in a single persons philosophy.

However, one cannot attribute all of Kants ideas to classical liberalism. He also influenced Marxism and critical theory, yet neither of those philosophies can take the blame for everything Kant wrote.

That some early liberal philosophers, living in a racist age, held ideas about race that conflicted with their political philosophy does not change the fact that liberal principles inherently preclude racism.

A core tenet of the liberal school of thought is that individuals are born equal, are free to act, within the law, as they see fit, and ought to be judged according to their own thoughts and deeds. This anti-collectivist conception of liberty logically precludes the group categorisations that are essential to racism or nationalism.

Liberal ideas took time to develop into a more coherent political philosophy. Societies, in turn, took time to adopt these ideas into their political organisation. That illiberal features of society, or authoritarian tendencies in government, remained while liberalism began to spread is not the fault of liberal ideas.

Buccus provides no source for his claim that only tiny minorities of liberals opposed slavery. Thats because he cannot. The movement to abolish slavery began in Britain and France, in the 18th century, as a direct consequence of the evolution of Enlightenment ideas and liberal thought. In this respect, the liberal democracies of Europe were far ahead of their slave-owning peers in the rest of the world.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted in 1948, which explicitly grants equal rights to all and prohibits slavery, is a direct descendant of the early liberal manifestos such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789.

Liberals were also at the forefront of other human rights struggles, such as the movements for the universal franchise, gender equality and gay rights.

The Liberal Party of South Africa was founded in 1953 by Alan Paton. It was multiracial and opposed to apartheid right from the start. Does Buccus propose to call Alan Paton or the old Liberal Party racist?

During the apartheid years, the only outspoken critic of the regime inside Parliament was its lone liberal member, Helen Suzman. Was she, too, a racist?

If so, why did the racist establishment routinely deride liberals? Why, if liberalism was racism, as Buccus claims, would liberals oppose the racial discrimination of apartheid?

Buccus expresses the laughable view that Hitler was inspired by liberal ideas and figures. Everything about Hitlers totalitarian, nationalist, collectivist, dehumanising and genocidal approach to government contradicts the liberal ethos of individual liberty, the consent of the governed, and equality before the law.

Everything he did contradicts the liberal principles of peace, democracy, tolerance, limited government, individual civil and human rights, gender and racial equality, free markets and trade, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.

Assuming Buccus is neither monumentally stupid nor historically illiterate, one can only conclude that he intends a heinous smear by suggesting that Hitler either admired, or was admired by, liberals.

In trying to re-appropriate non-racialism for the radical left, he runs headlong into the preposterous claim that the Black Consciousness movement was non-racial. It explicitly defines itself by reference to race and racial solidarity! How can one possibly describe it as non-racial?

The new liberal zealots are trying to appropriate non-racialism from its radical roots in order to misuse the concept to oppose attempts at anti-racism, Buccus writes. Yet the term non-racialism not only rejects racism and racialism. It also, as an ideology, positively affirms liberal democratic ideals.

His suggestion that one can support non-racialism but oppose attempts at anti-racism makes no sense, unless one assumes that by anti-racism he means policies aimed at racial redresses such as affirmative action and black economic empowerment. Whatever their good intentions, these policies are explicitly racial in nature. They are not the same thing as anti-racism. It is entirely defensible to oppose racial redress on purely anti-racist grounds.

One might wish to argue whether one ought to oppose racial redress policies, but it is certainly not grounds to declare classical liberalism to be racist.

It is worth conceding that some of those who identify as classical liberals today might indeed be racist, but that is not because classical liberal principles are racist. This is a consequence of the fact that those people, who used to benefit from racial policies that favoured white people, now profess to prefer non-racism to racial policies that favour black people and disadvantage them.

Tarring all classical liberals with that brush, however, is not justified. This phenomenon cannot reflect negatively on classical liberal principles, any more than it reflects negatively on the African National Congress that the New National Party, the successor to the architect of apartheid, ended up merging with it.

The history of liberalism, as theory and as a practice, coexisted with racism, but was never deeply enmeshed with it, as Buccus argues. It certainly never advocated, justified, supported or condoned racism, genocide or slavery.

On the contrary, its fundamental philosophical principles always professed that people by nature are equal, have inherent natural rights that include the right to life, liberty and property, and that individual rights trump group identity. Racism, racial discrimination, slavery and indeed genocide inherently contradict all these liberal principles.

Buccus does not present historical fact, as he claims, but a crude attempt at historical revisionism that appears to be designed to defame and discredit the classical liberal movement as being associated with the radical, racist right.

What his motives might be one can only speculate, but the entire basis of his argument is riddled with flaws, inventions and absurdities. His attack on classical liberals and its modern supporters as racist simply cannot be sustained, and should be rejected out of hand. DM

Full disclosure: the author recently became a member of the Institute for Race Relations, and was elected to the Council, which directs the organisations policy and ideology.

Ivo Vegter is a columnist and the author of Extreme Environment, a book on environmental exaggeration and how it harms emerging economies. He writes on this and many other matters, from the perspective of individual liberty and free markets.

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Continued here:
Painting classical liberalism as inherently racist is a revisionist smear - Daily Maverick

In 2008, the world successfully pulled together with Britain playing a catalytic role when faced with the threat of financial collapse. In 2020, confronted with the threat of a global pandemic, it is every country for itself. There has been no international health summit of national leaders supported by the World Health Organization although the World Bank has announced a $12bn package of assistance. There are frantic national efforts to create a vaccine and no effort to ensure that, when found and produced in sufficient scale, it will go to the places of need in all our interests. Britain, with no vaccine production capacity of its own, is especially vulnerable.

Instead there are national bans on exports of key products such as medical supplies, with countries falling back on their own analysis of the crisis amid localised shortages and haphazard, primitive approaches to containment. The standards on isolation, quarantine and contact tracing medieval approaches to disease control in any case, according to Prof Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine vary hugely between countries.

The WHO, underfunded for decades, with the threat of further draconian loss of funds made only last month by Donald Trump, struggles to make itself relevant, undermined and ignored by its own members. China applies immense pressure so that its manipulated data or effectiveness are not challenged. Trump has airily dismissed the WHOs warnings of an imminent pandemic because they do not conform to his hunch that the health risks have been wildly overstated. In short, if you want to create a pandemic with wholesale abdication of global leadership, do what is happening now.

The approach extends to the economy. Stock markets rightly worry about an approaching global recession flagged by collapsing air passenger revenues and the parallel collapse of seaborne trade signalled by the lowest freight rates since 2008. However, government and central banks are not coordinating their economic response to the threat. When the US Federal Reserve cut interest rates by half a percentage point, no others followed suit. The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is preparing his budget under the close direction of Boris Johnsons malign amanuensis Dominic Cummings rather than as part of an international economic response.

It is the triumph of nationalism and anti-Enlightenment values across the world. So of course Johnson, leader of the supremely anti-Enlightenment and nationalist Brexit project, complete with its disdain for experts, gave a press conference last week in which he could not call for an internationally coordinated response and the rebuilding of European and international public health capacity. Gordon Brown, in parallel circumstances during the financial crisis, did call for such coordination. Britain would contain, delay, research and mitigate on its own, Johnson declared fighting Covid-19 metaphorically on the beaches. There would be no surrender. Britain alone would beat this foreign incubus.

Yet Covid-19 spares neither Leave nor Remain, neither imam nor Chinese doctor, and respects no national border. So even as national leaders fall back on atavistic national responses, the dictates of science and reason have to surface there is no other way forward.

The awfulness of Johnsons sub-Churchillian press-conference rhetoric was mitigated by him being flanked by two representatives of the best of Enlightenment thinking the governments chief medical officer, Prof Chris Whitty, and chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance. They at least talk sense based on evidence and reason. That is cause for hope, for all the babble that Covid-19 has fatally killed globalisation and that the new era will be all about competing populist nationalisms. Whitty and Vallance were sobering at Tuesdays press conference, counterbalancing Johnsons breeziness with recognition of the policy trade-offs, the potential for economic dislocation, and the imminence of the disease becoming a pandemic.

Covid-19 spares neither Leave nor Remain, neither Imam nor Chinese doctor, and respects no national border

But then they are part of a global scientific community talking to each other even if national leaders are not. A reliable test was established within days as Covid-19s gene sequence was fast decoded. Vaccine prototypes exist and will soon be trialled on humans. Antiviral treatments are already being clinically trialled. There is an emerging consensus about the risks of infection, the mortality rate and the effectiveness of varying containment strategies. This can and will be beaten.

The only questions are how long will it take and at what cumulative cost. The lack of global public health capacity, standards and enforcement are crippling. The USs problem is not only that it is led by a fool and a knave, but that its hugely expensive private healthcare system does not invest in public health capacity such as isolation beds for patients stricken with a contagious virus.

Yet Americas problem just like Chinas problem over unregulated markets for wild animal meat is our problem, too. One of the foundations of the rise of the left in the 19th and early 20th centuries was the growing recognition that no individual, however wealthy, was insulated from disease epidemics. Sanitation, clean water and immunisation were public goods necessary for everyone to stay alive. The left was their champion.

Now, one form of unregulated, free-market globalisation with its propensity for crises and pandemics is certainly dying. But another form that recognises interdependence and the primacy of evidence-based collective action is being born. There will be more pandemics that will force governments to invest in public health institutions and respect the science they represent with parallel moves on climate change, the oceans, finance and cybersecurity. Because we cant do without globalisation, the imperative will be to find ways of managing and governing it.

Todays Brexiters are of a mindset that is certain to wither. No more Britain alone. Faced with a deadly virus, working with others is a matter of life or death. This emergency will open the way for more, not less, international governance.

Will Hutton is an Observer columnist

Read the original here:
Coronavirus wont end globalisation, but change it hugely for the better - The Guardian

CBSE 10th History board exam is scheduled to be on 18th March 2020. Students who have started their last-minute revision must check the important set of questions & answers of Chapter 5 (Print Culture and the Modern World). The given questions are from the latest Social Science sample paper and CBSE prescribed NCERT book. These questions are also expected in CBSE class 10 Board Exam 2020.

Q1- Why theeffect of easily available printed booksfeared some people?

Ans- The availability of the printed books feared some of the people because they were worried about the consciousness and enlightenment that the print culture will bring among the people. The voice of reason will rise giving way to the social reforms.

CBSE 10th Social Science Board Exam 2020: Important Questions & Answers of History - All Chapters

Q2- Discuss the way in which theprint culture assisted the growth of nationalism in India.

Ans- The growth of nationalism in India was assisted by the print culture as it gave easy access to nationalist ideas. The idea of freedom was communicated to the masses. Social reformers started putting their views through newspapers and encouraged the idea of public debates and struggle.

Q3- In what way the spreading of print culture of India in nineteenth-century affected women?

Ans- There were major educational reforms in India for women due to the print culture. Women were encouraged to be educated by their liberal husbands and fathersat home.Some even sent women to school. They also began to write in journals or newspapers.

Q4- Why Gandhijisaidthatthe fight for Swaraj is a fight for theliberty of the press,liberty of speech and freedom of association?

Ans- Gandhi believed that the fight for Swaraj is a fight for the liberty of the press, liberty of speech and freedom of association because he considered them to be the powerful mode of expression. These forms of freedom were important for self-rule and independence.

CBSE Class 10 Social Science Board Exam 2020: Check Important Questions & Answers of Civics (All Chapters)

Q5- Why Martin Luther was in favour of print and why he spoke out in praise of it.

Ans- Martin Luther spoke in favour of print and praised it because print media gave him a platform of spreading his ideas and popularizing it.

Q6- How the poor were impacted with the spread of print culture in the nineteenth century?

Ans- The poor were benefitted from the spread of print culture in India because it made the low priced books available, there were also libraries with the essays and books which talked about caste discrimination and social injustices.

CBSE Class 10 Social Science Previous Years' Question Papers (2012-2019)

Q7- Why some people in eighteenth-century Europethoughtthat print culture would bring enlightenment and end despotism?

Ans- Some people in eighteenth-century thought that the print culture will bring enlightenment and end despotism because the easy availability of literacy will mean that it is not only limited to the upper class. They feared the awareness and questioning that will rise against the set ideologies.

Q8- Woodblock print only came to Europe after 1295.

Ans- Woodblock print was invented in China around the sixth century.In 1295, Woodblock print came to Europe with Marco Polo. He travelledto Italy after many years of exploration in Chinaandbrought the knowledge of woodblock print with him on his return.

CBSE Class 10 Social Science Syllabus for Board Exam 2020

Q9- What was The Vernacular Press Act?

Ans- The Vernacular Press Act was passed in 1878. With this law, the government got the tyrannical rights to censor editorials in the vernacular press. In case a seditious report was published and the newspaper did not pay attention to an initial warning, then the press was seized. This law was an example of a violation of the freedom of expression.

Q10- Write a short note on The Gutenberg Press.

Ans- Johann Gutenbergestablished The Gutenberg Press.By 1448, Gutenberg hadperfected theprinting systemwith olive and wine presseswhile also using contemporary technological innovations. Biblewas the first book that he printed and made180 copies in 3 years.The Gutenberg Press was the first-ever knownprinting press in the 1430s.

See the article here:
CBSE 10th Social Science Board Exam 2020: Check Important Question & Answers of History Chapter 5 (Print Culture and the Modern World) - Jagran...

International Womens Day has existed to promote the rights of women for well over 100 years. This year the theme was equality based on the belief that an equal world is an enabled world. But what does equality really mean in a gendered world?

If you bring a group of women together and ask them what equality means (and I have done this, so I know), the conversation, and ultimately the consensus collects around well-documented and much-discussed issues such as female visibility in the workplace, stereotyping, gender bias, and equal opportunities. All very real issues, which years of discussion and associated actions have done little to resolve.

But heres my challenge in a global culture where binary definitions of gender are rapidly losing traction, should we even have a day dedicated solely to women?

Its a complicated question, because to answer it first you need to define what it is to be a woman. Is our definition based on the biological concept (sex) or the societal one (gender)? And what happens when the two concepts overlap?

The reality is that we are living in an increasingly fluid world. How we define sex and gender is changing. More than ever, people do not believe in gender as a binary construct.

In the UK, NHS figures show that the number of young people with gender dysphoria (the belief that your emotional and psychological gender identity does not match your biological sex) referred for gender treatment has increased by over 4,000% in just ten years.

A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Centre in the US found that almost 60% of Gen Z (those aged between 13 and 20) believe that the terms man and woman are not enough to describe the full range of gender identities in society. Half of Millennials (22-37) and just over 30% of Baby Boomers (54 to 72) agree.

These findings are hugely significant for two reasons. Firstly, because of the speed in which opinions have changed, and secondly, because of the scale of these opinions in society. Generations are not equal in size which makes them not equal in the impact they have in shaping the society in which we live. Millennials and Gen Z together represent nearly 50% of the UK population with over 50% of spending power which will only increase as the younger generation comes of age. The way these generations think and behave has the power to change our social, cultural and commercial future forever.

There is no doubt the world is changing and change is seductive. Whether worrying or wonderful, the newness of change has a tendency to steal attention away from what went before. Its true that we are living in an increasingly gender-fluid world but its also true that the female collective (however you define it) remains a social underclass.

Research from the American Psychology Association found that a persons gender has little to no bearing on their personality, cognition and leadership abilities and yet women are still less visible in many of the most respected industries and in the best paid jobs. Women still dont get equal pay for equal work, and dont even have total ownership of their own bodies.

Whatever your biological or social identity, if you identify as a woman, it is likely that the world does not look equal from where you are standing right now.

So, going back to the question in a global culture where binary definitions of gender are rapidly losing traction should we even have a day dedicated solely to women?

The answer is undoubtedly yes. Women represent half of the worlds population.

Whether cisgender, transgender, heterosexual, bisexual, lesbian, pansexual or any other identities, discrimination is in our wake, but the ambition must surely be to eliminate it from our future for the widest possible definition of womanhood.

As marketers we have a responsibility to help make that happen, but an even greater responsibility to ensure that our actions are based on fundamentally held beliefs and not a cynical attempt to joyride the wave of cultural enlightenment.

Here are three actions marketers can take next International Womens Day to help create an inclusive and equal world for all women.

Challenge yourself: Ask yourself what you believe in. Does your purpose align with an open belief system that supports and promotes equality? If it doesnt align how truly committed are you to change and how do you plan to do so?

Look into your past: Look at what you have. Products, services and messages may have been created in a different time. Explore how relevant these are in todays world and how they might need to change.

Plan for the future: Look ahead. Align your purpose with new actions and put your best corporate and cultural foot forward to become an instrumental force for a more equal and enabling world.

Erminia Blackden is strategy director at Engine

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Reflections on IWD: is it still relevant in a non-binary world? - The Drum

In line with its objectives to reawaken the consciousness of tax payers, the Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AiRS) recently embarked on tax education with a view to boosting the state internally generated revenue through voluntary tax payment. OKECHUKWU ONUEGBU reports.

There is no doubt that tax is one major medium through which governments all over the world generate revenue for their day-to-day activities including prompt payment of workers salaries and provisions of basic amenities to the entire populace. Therefore, Nigeria is not an exception.Likewise, the constitution of the country, Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2007, the Tax Administration(Self Assessment) Regulations 2011, the Company Income Tax Act 2007, the Personal Income Tax Act 2011, the Petroleum Profit Tax Act 2007, the Value Added Tax Act 2007, among others, uphold taxations with reasons and procedures. That is why civil servants and public servants and workers at private sectors have theirs deducted from their monthly emoluments in what is known as Pay-As-You-earn (PAYEE).

Constraints to tax payment

But available records show that citizens especially those in non-formal sector such as barbing, hairdressing, taxi business, etc. have little or zero compliance to tax payment probably due to lack of tax education and ignorance.In Anambra state specifically, Mrs Sylvia Tochukwu-Ngige, the deputy director/head, Taxpayer Education and Enlightenment Team (TEET) of Anambra State Internal Revenue Service (AIRS) believes that low level of tax awareness in the state is responsible for poor compliance in tax payment among the citizenry. The enlightenment campaignTo bridge this gap, AIRS in partnership with Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) last week embarked on a week public enlightenment campaign entitled Anambra 2020 Tax Awareness Week under the theme: Voluntary Compliance to Tax Payment.The exercise, which was aimed at sensitising the citizenry on the whole process of taxation and why they should pay, featured other activities like breakfast meeting with stakeholders in tax administration including the civil societies and media, road show, visitation and engagements of people across the 21 local government areas with the aim of intimating the people about filling of Tax Returns, Anambra Revenue Stamps, Anambra State Social Identity (ANSSID) number, Whitholding Tax, Capital Gain Tax, Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE), Direct Assessment, among others.

Stakeholders speak

Speaking at the occasion, the president of CITN, Dame Gladys Simplice, said tax is the civic responsibility of every Nigerian to comply with and backed by law. She said, Whatever we are enjoying today are provided by the government. Have you asked yourself how the road youre driving on were constructed? The government was able to carryon those projects through tax.Simplice, who inaugurated a District Society of the Institute at Onitsha, equally charged the government not to relent in its duty of providing services to the populace.Chronicling the challenges and prospects of taxation of the informal sector, the chairman/chief executive of AiRS, Dr David Nzekwu revealed that there were an estimated 1.2 million people trading in the state but only 7,150 of them pay tax via Direct Tax. He identified non keeping of proper records by most businesses operating in the informal sector as the biggest challenge. According to him, unavailability of data makes it difficult for an independent party to accurately evaluate the financial position of the businesses in order to determine the amount of tax payable.Tax administrators face major operational difficulties in trying to tax informal sector due to its transient in nature of operations, lack of proper book keeping and the large number of unregistered businesses. However, the informal sector tax payers are able to pay taxes when they are assured of tangible benefits and where there is an effective institutional mechanism for enrolment and administration. The most straight-forward administrative strategy for improving informal sector taxation is simply to reorganise tax administration so as to strengthen monitoring and provide more focused incentives for administrators to target at the informal sector, Nzekwu added.

He, however, disclosed that the state has created an avenue for effective capturing of tax payers in both formal and informal sectors via Anambra Social Service Identity Number (ANSSID), a unique identification number for every transaction with the state government, which according to him, has captured over 300,000 tax payers, even as the state has started deploying Community Revenue Officers (CROs) charged to effectively relate with tax payers across 181 communities in the state. But Professor E Nwadialor, who spoke on Tax Education: Stakeholders Engagement, urged more engagement and continuous sensitisation of the populace on why they must pay tax and what had been achieved with the tax already paid. He argued that majority would be inspired to fulfill the civic responsibility when the government improves on welfare especially on infrastructural development.People need to know what tax is all about and the type of tax they need to pay. The AIRS and FIRS should not relent in educating the tax payers on tax laws why they must pay, who to pay to and how to pay. They should see them as those not knowledgeable about tax and should be educated to comply. You dont need to employ force. Identify their critical stakeholders and educate and motivate them to pay tax. The government should also provide for their plights; good road network, electricity and others. This would inspire them to comply, Nwadialor echoed.

Another speaker, Prince Ikpo Okereke, while speaking on Managing Self-Assessment and Voluntary Compliance in a Growing Tax System, advocated for what he termed self assessment method and voluntary tax compliance, as according to him, they were essential ingredients for effective and efficient tax administration and by extension, the realisation of government revenue objectives.

Okereke emphasised that, Self assessment enhances voluntary compliance and the net effect would be increased revenue generation, decrease in compliance cost, a more satisfied tax payer and better nation. When people voluntarily carry out an action, the resultant effect is that it would be cheaper and easier and at the same time likely to yield more satisfaction to all the stakeholders.Two major ways of achieving such a win-win situation is the term self assessment in the context of taxation refers to the responsibility bestowed on the individual taxpayer to compute his tax liabilities and make the tax returns accordingly to the relevant tax authority. The FIRS circular- Understanding Self-Assessment, the term self-assessment was described as a method whereby a tax payer is required to correctly compute own tax liability, properly complete the tax return, pay the self-assessed tax and submit the tax returns together with the accompanying documents on or before the due date according to the relevant tax law.To achieve this, the scholar listed procedures to achieving it as tax payer education, equity and fairness in treating tax payers, impartial and speedy judicial process, simplicity of tax laws, efficient tax payer services, effective tax payer complaint management procedure, tax incentives accountability and transparency and low compliance cost.But Prince Chris Azor, the chairman, Anambra Civil Society Network, urged the government and her agencies to do more in tax administration and management as according to him, the task for tax administrators is majorly to drag more big businesses into the tax net rather than focusing mainly on the informal sector, especially, the micro and small businesses.Azor maintained that, Again and more importantly, sensitisation, enlightenment is very key and imperative. There is need for partnerships with the civil society, the media and all citizens/stakeholders. Citizens should know why they pay taxes, who are authorised to collect and what their taxes do for them (dividends) in terms of development. There must be referrals and feed-back mechanisms to engender buy-in and ownership. Authorities must eschew all forms of double/multiple taxation and malpractices in collection, transparency and accountability.

Link:
Taking tax awareness campaign to the grass roots in Anambra - Blueprint newspapers Limited

While the Enlightenment of the late 17th and 18th centuries was a time when science blossomed and revolutions in the United States and France occurred, it was also a time when millions of people were enslaved and transported from Africa to the Western Hemisphere.

It can be helpful "to think about the Enlightenment as a series of interlocking, and sometimes warring problems and debates" wrote Dorinda Outram, a history professor at the University of Rochester, in her book "The Enlightenment: Third Edition" (Cambridge University Press, 2013).

"The English term Enlightenment is itself a translation, coined in the late 19th century, of two distinct terms, both in use in the 18th century: the French term lumires and the German Aufklrung. The two have in common the idea of 'light,'" wrote John Robertson, a professor of the history of political thought at the University of Cambridge in his book "The Enlightenment: A Very Short Introduction" (Oxford University Press, 2015).

In this so-called time of light, several major ideas became popular. There was growing skepticism toward monarchs, particularly the idea of an absolute monarch one who could make laws on a whim. There was also growing support for individual liberties and freedoms. "The palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise," wrote Thomas Paine (1737-1809) in his pamphlet "Common Sense" (published in 1776).

These ideas helped spur the French Revolution (1789-1793), during which French King Louis XVI was beheaded and a republic was founded in France. Louis XVI and his ancestors had ruled France as absolute kings from the opulent Palace of Versailles, which served as an emblem of the French monarch's power. Skepticism of the monarchy also grew in the United States, which resulted in it becoming a republic after driving out the British during the U.S. Revolutionary War (1775-1783).

Early in this period people were also growing weary of religious authorities having strong political power, and the idea of religious freedom was becoming more and more popular. The Peace of Westphalia, the series of peace treaties that ended the Thirty Years' War in 1648, saw a reduction in the pope's power across Europe. This reduction in religious power continued into the 18th century, particularly during the French Revolution. Additionally, when the U.S. became independent, it refused to adopt a national religion, instead stating in the constitution that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

This time period also saw a burgeoning interest in understanding and using science rather than religion to explain natural phenomena. Isaac Newton, Daniel Fahrenheit, Benjamin Franklin and Alessandro Volta are but a few of the scientists and inventors who flourished during the Enlightenment. Their discoveries such as advances in understanding electricity helped pave the way for the industrial revolution and the technologies used in the world we live in today.

The development of new institutions dedicated to the advancement of science fueled the spread of knowledge throughout Europe. And with novel, more efficient techniques for printing, disseminating information was easier and cheaper than ever before. For instance, volumes of the Encyclopdie published in France between 1751 and 1772 contained a vast amount of information and attracted thousands of subscribers in France and beyond. Coffee houses became trendy in Europe and, for the price of a cup of coffee, a person visiting a coffee house could read what material was available, such as newspapers and fictional novels making written material more accessible to all members of society.

There was also a greater interest in economics. Most notably, the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith published his work "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" in 1776. In this pivotal book, Smith examined how markets work and was critical of mercantilism an economic system in use in much of Europe that tended to create high tariffs, therefore stifling trade between countries. Some experts consider Smith to be the founder of modern economics.

More people were also becoming critical of warfare and torture. The French writer Voltaire (1694-1778) spoke out against these evils in his famous novel "Candide," which was published in 1759. The novel's protagonist, Candide, experienced love and romance early in his life, then is forced to take part in a war in which he learns firsthand about the cruelty and torture it engenders.

While the Enlightenment was a period in which coffee houses, scientific advancements and skepticism toward monarchs and religion burgeoned, it was also a time when the slave trade flourished. Millions of people were enslaved and forcibly transported from Africa to the Western Hemisphere. Many of them didn't survive the journey in the cramped conditions of slave ships, and many more died in the harsh working conditions they encountered in the Western Hemisphere. Voyages of slave ships continued well into the 19th century.

Even Thomas Jefferson, the former U.S. president and main author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, owned slaves, despite the fact that he was influenced by the Enlightenment and wrote that "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence.

Outram wrote that part of the reason why slavery flourished was because of the vast amount of money that could be made from it. Plantation owners in the southern United States, the Caribbean and South America used slave labor to rake in the profits. Those in the shipbuilding industry responsible for constructing and maintaining slave ships also benefited financially, as did the financial companies that loaned money to finance the transport of slaves.

The First French Republic also had policies that contradicted the ideas of the Enlightenment. Between 1793 and 1794, a period called the "terror" occurred in France.

During this time, France's fledgling government was afraid that it was going to be toppled and therefore arrested and executed as many of its perceived enemies as it could find, which resulted in the execution of thousands of people. The episode put a blight on the government and helped pave the way for the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte, who would eventually become emperor of France.

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What Was the Enlightenment? | Live Science

What was the Enlightenment? According to a recent PragerU video featuring Israeli author Yoram Hazony, it was an era that ushered in two centuries of disaster from the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars to the horrors of twentieth-century Marxism and Nazi eugenics by inordinate reliance on reason. As for the wonders often attributed to Enlightenment reason modern science, medicine, political freedom and market economies they are, Hazony claims, actually a legacy from religious conservatives who venerated history, tradition, and experience.

But is Hazony right? Does he accurately paint a picture of what the Enlightenment was, how it came about, or what it rests on? In a word, no. According to analysis by Yaron Brook, Onkar Ghate and Greg Salmieri in a recent episode of the The Yaron Brook Show, Hazonys presentation fails to capture the essence of the Enlightenment and its development. Instead, Hazony distorts the achievements of Enlightenment thinkers by offering a parade of straw men, false alternatives and package deals.

READ ALSO: The Vice of Nationalism

The commentators urge viewers not to take their word on this topic or any other for that matter but rather to acquire a first-handed view of the subject by reading from the several recommended sources mentioned in the episode. For anyone interested in how to analyze complex historical movements, this discussion is a must-watch. You can access the full discussion on your favorite podcast platform or listen on YouTube:

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PragerU's Dishonest Explanation of the Enlightenment - New Ideal

We are living in an age where it seems almost as if someone moves the goalposts with every new day. Its like the reverse of Groundhog Day. You wake up and everything feels exactly the same but out there, in the digiverse, things have somehow changed. Theres smart this, smart that, smart something we havent even thought of yet. And somehow our brains are supposed to instantly process this exponential mayhem. Its mind-boggling. Literally. And everything is wireless and brain-rewiring can happen and lead to many things, including career enlightenment.

And yet, theres one thing that isnt wireless. And its still the smartest thing on the planet. Our brains. Our brains contain some100 billion neurons according to Medical News Today. That is some serious wiring. Those neurons are connected to every single aspect of our bodies. They make us work.

Like any system, overuse, new information, can get those wires crossed. So, how do we get ourselves refocused? Well, some very smart, untangled brains, have come up with a plan based on Neuroplasticity. In its simplest terms, its about utilizing the brains natural ability to evolve by getting back to the source. And when we decide to explore this, we can achieve career enlightenment.

Dr. Tara Swart, a world-renowned neuroscientist, medical doctor, and executive coach has published two books that enlighten us as to the possibilities of re-wiring our brains.Neuroscience for Leadership was her first book and details scientific analyses. Her more recent bookThe Source suggests that the things we all want in life; health, happiness, wealth, love are governed by our ability to think, feel and act. And if we can train our brains, and master our minds, we can be successful at whatever we want.

Some of the re-wiring steps at first seem incredibly simple. But if they work for you, you could find your life and career immeasurably enhanced with relatively little effort.

The Source, in essence, is your brain working as a whole. Your emotions, your creativity, your intuition all working together towards one objective, (or several). Its knowing how to make the most of things. Dr. Swart has suggested that unlocking the brains potential makes use of the law of attraction whereby positive thinking inspires positive results.

In Dr. Swarts thinking, a belief in abundance is a mindset that can shape our lives. We can choose to believe those good outcomes are probable or choose instead to fear the negative possibilities. Tailoring our mindset to the optimistic outcomes has the potential to attract greater success and happiness. A belief in abundance, can be infectious and regenerating.

This step is basically about wiring the brain to almost believe or accept that the dream or goal that you have in your life has, at least in your own head, already happened. In simple terms, by constantly, affirming to yourself that you have already succeeded, you are more likely to succeed.

We all understand the potential power of positive thinking but Dr. Swart takes this a step further with the idea that positive nurturing of our ambitions builds up our self-confidence and therefore makes the fruition of those goals more likely.

We live in a world of instant gratification. If we dont see instant results in terms of our success goals, we fume and get disheartened. Instead, we should keep re-visualizing our dreams and have faith in their eventual success. In a sense its simply accepting setbacks in life and not allowing them to turn us from our path.

We can re-wire our brains to the extent that we are able to align our rational desires with our emotional wants. Rationally, we want a job promotion, recognition, more money. We want career enlightenment. But what are the emotional goals here that work together; stability, protection of the family, safeguarding the future? When we feel the rational desire for more money, how much greater is our focus when we link that more money to daughters education fees, for example.

We all have the ability to better understand that we are not singular beings but are affected by the thoughts and feelings and behaviors of others, whether they are friends of family or work colleagues.

The above six re-wiring principles are based loosely on Dr. Swarts bookThe Sourcewhich goes into much more in-depth analyses of how we can start making those 100 billion neurons start working for us in a different way. Its worth remembering though, that, training our brains isnt limited to career enlightenmentbut can enhance our health, relationships, and moods in a very beneficial way.

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Six brain-rewiring principles that lead to career enlightenment - Ladders

Ken Baker, Ph.D., Columnist Published 11:14 a.m. ET Feb. 11, 2020

Ken Baker and Cocoa(Photo: Submitted)

I would warn you that I do not attribute to nature either beauty or deformity, order or confusion. Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused. Baruch Spinoza

As mid-seventeenth century Dutch Enlightenment philosophers go, Spinoza would have to be considered something of a rebel. Expelled from Jewish society by age 23 for heretical views on the Hebraic Bible, his writings would soon enough also make the Catholic Churchs Index of Forbidden Books.

But an interesting guy. His writings on God, nature and human ethics would influence philosophical discussion for generations to come. A rabble-rouser to be sure he once refused a prestigious professorship saying, I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace he nevertheless lived a quiet personal life, making do on a modest income as a lens grinder for microscopes and telescopes.

And yet, I suspect Spinozas no inherent beauty or deformity in nature axiom would, for many, be sorely tested by a first encounter with the star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata). Sporting a face that only a mother could love, the 22 tentacle-like rays adorning the tip of its nose constitute one of natures most curious, if not exactly beautiful to our eyes, solutions to the perennial problem of, Whats for dinner?

The Star-nosed Mole is a one of nature's oddities.(Photo: Submitted)

The rays of the star are covered with some 25,000 tactile Eimers organs, each of which is innervated by fourto eightnerve fibers. No more than two-fifths of an inch in diameter, the star is nonetheless much more sensitive to pressure and vibration than the human hand, which is only served by a total of about 17,000 touch fibers.

Neuroscientist Ken Catania of Vanderbilt University has played a pivotal role in uncovering many of the astonishing features of this small (about 7.5 inch) animals unique sensory system, which appears to be dialed in to finding and consuming minute prey like insect larvae better than any other North American mammal.

In addition to addressing how the moles brain processes the massive amount of information coming in from all those thousands of nerve fibers as the rays flail about brushing over every stone, root and potential prey item, Catanias lab has also shown the star-nosed to be the likely mammalian world champion at speed-eating.

From the time a ray first sweeps across a beetle grub, the brain distinguishes it from surrounding soil particles as edible and triggers the tweezer-like incisors to pick the grub out of the dirt for ingestion, as little as 120 milliseconds (one-twelfth of a second) has elapsed. This ability to devote so little time and energy to identifying and handling tiny prey items means the star-nosed can focus on minuscule but potentially abundant food items other moles would ignore as simply not worth the effort.

Moles may look superficially mouse-like, but they are not closely related to the rodents. (It probably doesnt help that the word mole sounds a lot like vole, which is another name for the field mouse.) There are only 42 species of moles in the world, three of which live in our areathe Eastern (Scalopus aquaticus), hairy-tailed (Parascalops breweri) and star-nosed moles.

Although all three species dig foraging tunnels just below the soil surface, it will be the Eastern mole that raises those maddening networks of ridged tunnels in your lawn. The star-nosed prefers wet areas along the borders of swamps, lakes and streams, while the hairy-tailed mole commonly frequents the soils of moderately moist forested areas

In "Mammals of the Great Lakes Region," Allen Kurta reports the Eastern mole can create its shallow tunnels at a rate of about 15 feetper hour. It first loosens the soil with sideways sweeps of its broad, heavily clawed front feet and then turns on its side to push the soil upward. Once made, it patrols the tunnels for earthworms and insects that may have burrowed through their walls.

In the colder months, all three moles typically revert to deeper tunnels, 10 to 30 inches down. But as of this writing, our winter has been so warm that the brown dog and I have been seeing a lot of new surface tunnels on our daily walks.

Back to the star-nosed mole for one last intriguing tidbit. Unlike the Eastern and hairy-tailed, the star-nosed mole commonly forages for invertebrates on the bottoms of streams and ponds. Amazingly, Catanias lab has shown the nearly blind mole hunts underwater by smell, first exhaling an air bubble over a substrate to be sniffed for possible prey and then re-inhaling the same bubble.

If youve got 3 minutes, I highly recommend the quirky but wonderfully filmed video True Facts about the Star Nosed Mole (with Ze Frank) on YouTube. You should check it out.

Really.

Ken Baker is a retired professor of biology and environmental studies. If you have a natural history topic you would like Dr. Baker to consider for an upcoming column, please email your idea to fre-newsdesk@gannett.com.

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