Category Archives: Abolition Of Work

Teachers on strike at Dominican College, Griffith Avenue, Dublin last year. Photograph Nick Bradshaw

Any new public service pay agreement must provide a clear pathway towards the full restoration of teachers remuneration to precrisis levels, the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) has urged.

The union, which represents about 18,000 second-level teachers, also says a successor to the Lansdowne Road Agreement must end the two-tier pay structure for staff recruited in recent years and ensure equal pay for equal work.

The ASTI, in its submission to the new Public Service Pay Commission, says any new agreement should bring to an end the requirement for teachers to work additional hours for no additional money.

The ASTI believes that the most recent national pay agreement, the Lansdowne Road Agreement, is seriously flawed. It does not provide for the restoration of the pay differential for new entrants to the public service and it underestimated the strength of the growth in the economy.

For the next agreement to be acceptable, it must address the major grievances of public-sector workers; both general and sectoral. This is essential if industrial unrest is to be avoided.

It said the key elements of any successor to the Lansdowne Road Agreement must include:

* Equal pay for equal work

* Full pay restoration

*An end to unremunerated additional working hours

* Accelerated abolition of the pension-related deduction (pension levy)

* Pension parity restoration.

The ASTI in its submission to the commission, says that while all sections of society were massively impacted by the economic crisis , teachers and other public servants have earned the right to share in the benefits of any recovery.

Government has had additional funds available for 2017 and sustainable growth has been forecast for the coming years. The economy has improved faster than envisaged in recent years as, for example, projections on which recent public service agreements were signed have been overreached.

A compelling case can now be made for full restoration as better than expected growth and fiscal space has emerged.

The commission is due to report after Easter and this will be followed by negotiations between the Government and public service unions on a successor to the Lansdowne Road accord.

Last week the Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe told the Dil that the bill for ending the two-tier pay structure for teachers would be about 70 million.

Continued here:

Any deal must provide route to full pay restoration, says ASTI - Irish Times

The City of Lockport violated no laws when it abolished Melissa I. Junke's job as the city's youth and recreation director, a state hearing officer has ruled.

Law Judge Martin Erazo Jr.'s decision is a complete win for the city. The Buffalo News obtained a copy of the ruling under the Freedom of Information Law.

Erazo wrote in his 11-page ruling, dated Feb. 10, that the city presented "legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for its actions that were not a subterfuge for unlawful discrimination."

It's the second time Junke's allegations have been rejected. The Buffalo office of the State Division of Human Rights had ruled in May 2015 that Junke had no case, but changed its mind nine months later and ordered a formal hearing, which was held in July and September 2016.

Junke had claimed she lost her job in June 2014 because the city was retaliating against her after she complained that former Mayor Michael W. Tucker sexually harassed her, or because of an investigation that the city had opened over Junke's alleged misuse of a city credit card to help organize a golf tournament sponsored by a restaurant owned by her brother.

Junke, 35, also contended she was discriminated against because she was off work on a medical leave at the time of her ouster. She suffered a back injury when she fell on ice outside her city office Jan. 6, 2014.

Junke remains on worker's compensation to this day, Mayor Anne E. McCaffrey said Thursday.

Erazo ruled that Junke failed to prove her discrimination and retaliation charges, while the city argued successfully that the youth director job was abolished because of the city's financial crisis, which resulted in special state legislation that allowed Lockport to borrow money to pay off its accumulated deficit of more than $4 million. In all, the city abolished or left vacant 27 jobs between November 2013 and October 2014.

Erazo did not rule on the merits of the more lurid allegations Junke raised against Tucker, including a claim that Tucker asked her in June 2013 to text him a nude photo of herself and that she helped Tucker cover up an affair Tucker was allegedly having with another city employee. Junke claimed that as far back as 2009, she drove the other woman to a remote location in Orleans County, where Tucker would pick up the woman.

Tucker has called those accusation's "garbage," and Erazo did not address them because they allegedly happened outside of the one-year window that state law sets for such complaints to be filed. Junke said none happened after January 2014, and she didn't file her complaint with the state until January 2015. Tucker did not testify at the hearing.

"It's all time-barred, and it was apparent from the outset that it was time-barred," said attorney Ryan G. Smith, who represented the city in the hearings. "The city's obviously pleased with the well-reasoned order from Judge Erazo."

George V.C. Muscato, Junke's attorney at the time, in February 2014 gave the city's attorney a copy of Junke's threat to go public with the harassment allegations against Tucker. He resigned the next day. Erazo said that notice was protected under anti-discrimination law, but Junke couldn't prove that her ouster was retaliation for that act.

McCaffrey, who succeeded Tucker, testified that when she was on the Common Council in November 2013, she sent her colleagues an email suggesting the abolition of Junke's job, among other proposals, for financial reasons.

Junke and her attorney for the hearing, Lindy Korn, did not return calls seeking comment for this article.

They have until March 15 to appeal Erazo's recommended ruling to the Division of Human Rights.

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Ousted Rec Director Loses Case Against City - Athletic Business (blog)

Religious bodies have misguided views on the issue of child marriage says Government Minister Maxie Cuffie as he pointed out that there were also religious arguments against the abolition of slavery. Cuffie spoke on the Miscellaneous Provisions (Marriage) Bill, 2016 at last Fridays Parliament sitting at the International Waterfront Centre, Port of Spain. Debate was adjourned on the Bill which now no longer requires Opposition support for passage. The Bill seeks to make 18 the legal age for marriage. Cuffie, the Minister of Public Administration and Communications, said while he respects the work that has been done by religious bodies, theirs is a misguided view and on this issue they are wrong, and theyre as wrong as the people who stood up to defend slavery; theyre as wrong as the people who were against giving women the right to vote; theyre as wrong as the people who were against universal adult suffrage and those who said the world is flat. He reminded the Parliament that some of the most far-reaching and landmark pieces of legislation were objected to by religious bodies. During the time of slavery, there were people who were arguing against the abolition of slavery on the grounds that God wanted things that way to protect African people. In the 1920s there were religious people arguing women should not have the right to vote because things will fall apart. In fact, some people in Saudi Arabia still believe that things will fall apart if women are given the right to drive. And throughout history youve seen some of the greatest advances, in terms of society, being objected to by religious persons, said Cuffie. Protection for children

Cuffie said at present this country has legislation that allows women to be objectified and this must be changed. For me this bill is not about young boys and young girls, its about creating a culture that respects our young people and respects young women. When we have legislation that allows women to be objectified, it leads to a culture where rape is prevalent, where violence against women is prevalent... he said. Cuffie said it was untenable for the Opposition to pretend they are supporting the marriage age of 18, yet add caveats to their support. I support this legislation... to assist the young people of this country, to protect children and to do all that is possible so that we do not have a dichotomy in the legislation where you can be treated as a minor on one hand if you dont take marriage vows and youre treated as an adult if you have, he said. He said the legislation is intended to treat with how the country sees itself, explaining that when a young girl is asked or is forced to get married at an early age, its not just the girl who suffers but her siblings and extended family. Cuffie added that having listened to the arguments, no one from the Opposition bench has advanced reasons why there is need for a three-fifths majority to get the bill passed. He said no one outlined how having the three-fifths majority will enhance the bill or what has been taken out of the bill that will affect a young man or woman because it does not have the three-fifths majority clause.

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Religious bodies misguided - Trinidad & Tobago Express

Saudi Arabias Ministry of Labour and Social Development has reportedly given employers one month to return passports to their employees.

Saudi Gazette reports that the countrys Council of Ministers first banned employers from keeping passports seven years ago.

The labour ministry has also said that employers will be fined SAR2,000 ($533) if they failed to return the passports of their non Saudi employees.

Read: Saudi affirms SAR2,000 fine on employers who withhold workers passports

However, the response from employers has been slow.

The National Society for Human Rights previously called for the abolition of the countries current sponsorship system in 2010.

It called for the removal of the requirement for workers to seek their companys permission to call their families or perform Haj, as well as the cancelling of responsibility of the employer for the employees actions outside of work.

The societys secretary general, Khalid Al-Fakhiri, was quoted as saying holding on to an employees passport was a form of human trafficking.

What binds the employer and the employee is the contract. The passport is a personal document. No one has the right to take it because it becomes a crime of abuse and denial of rights, he said.

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Saudi employers given one month to return passports - Gulf Business - Gulf Business News

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During the 1960s such a revolution took place in social and sexual attitudes that the decade will always remain the Swinging Sixties.

After it, nothing was ever quite the same again. Huge swathes of bigotry were swept away. Some good traditions also went but the overall effect was to give us a fairer and more tolerant society. But seen from 50 years later, it was a decade of noisy revolt.

I suspect we are now going through an era of quiet insurrection. Lord Heseltine has announced he will in his dotage lead a campaign to destroy Brexit (if he can) and restore the age of national subordination to the One-Europe dream under nonelective government to which he and others have dedicated their lives. He and his peers (in every sense) are needless to say very elderly now.

Clearly there are some working people who support the Euro-Federal dream.

But the fanatics are the ones we see dominating the headlines and hardly one has ever done a hands turn of manual work in their lives.

Broadly, I call them all the luvvies and they are outraged at being contradicted by us proles. The attitude of the Remoaners after that devastating referendum of June last year is of uncontained outrage.

Pro-EU measure after measure was passed into law without a vote and that was all right.

Then finally the people were allowed to speak and, according to Lord H and his mates, we said the wrong thing.

Now their version of events is that we all turned xenophobic, anti-European, chauvinist, nationalist, populist, even neo-fascist. But we havent.

They have the chicken-and-egg sequence the wrong way round. Every society, across the ages and the longitudes, has had two components, one large and one small.

The large one is the broad masses of the people (the BMP) and the tiny one an amalgam of vested interests called the elite, or the establishment.

In a healthy society the establishment treats the BMP with respect. This is wise. It prevents insurrections and bloody revolutions such as the French or Russian versions.

In return the BMP treats the establishment with trust. When that breaks down, national dissatis faction ensues.

The people become surly, the elite fearful and defensive. What has happened here, which Lord Heseltine cannot understand, is that the socalled great and good are not trusted any more. They have lied to us too many times.

The luvvies may demonstrate, noisily screaming with their placards and headlines, but the BMP has quietly used its only weapon the vote after all those years.

Standing alone in all those voting booths, pencil poised, we did not turn anti-foreigner or anti-world. We just asked: What do those lying so-and-sos want us to do?

Well, we will bleeding well vote the opposite. So out went the Old Etonian, in came the vicars daughter.

Out went call me Dave and in came Prime Minister will do nicely. If Lord Heseltine and his cronies think they can order us about any more, they may be heading not for the abolition of the Lords but its root and branch reform.

EPA

It was done in 1999 when the 750 hereditary peers were culled down to 92 and it can be done again with 700 created peers reduced by internal vote to 300.

Lord H should become aware we are not in a subservient mood any longer. Perhaps our time will later be called the age of insurrection. We want our country back; from Brussels and from him.

TOO traumatised by the shambles at the Oscars I switched my attention to the stars that the ceremony always attracts.

It was quickly noticeable that for many the theme was to emulate the glamour of the celebrities of yesteryear.

Particularly successful was model Karlie Kloss (no, me neither) who was a ringer for Sophia Loren circa 1960.

My mind went back to the time when her pout and cleavage adorned the inside of my locker during National Service 60 years ago. Balmy days!

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ANALYSTS who study these things have now estimated that Vladimir Putin is worth a truly staggering 160billion (yes, billion), making him far and away the richest man in the world.

Given that he has never had a salary more than that paid to the president or prime minister of Russia there appears to be a slight mathematical problem here.

It is no secret that all dictators make themselves immensely rich by scalping their own countries economies but 160billion is abusing the privilege. Nor is it just one man.

The whole Kremlin machine is so mired in corruption that not a single business deal or government contract goes through without the machine taking its cut.

But there is a price to pay for such institutionalised corruption. When oil and gas prices were going through the roof, there was money to burn so glorious promises of jam tomorrow could be made to the Russian people. But that was then, this is now.

Despite constant military provocations in the Baltic, English Channel and Middle East the Russian economy is creaking like a barn door.

The ordinary Russian just soldiers on in poverty. Lucky old Vladimir to have such a docile and donkey-patient populace.

MUCH of the country was consumed last weekend by the annual Oscars ceremony a saturnalia of mutual and self-adoration.

Those mystified by the term La La Land had to watch only for a few minutes. When you think about it, acting is a very odd profession.

There are only two jobs in the world where the protagonist will say absolutely anything if paid to do so. One is that of lawyer but that is not a loved profession.

A barrister in court will do all he can to send a man he knows privately is innocent to jail or to set at liberty one he knows is guilty as hell.

It is his job but he does not have columns of fans clamouring for his autograph afterwards. Then again, there are only two callings in which the practitioner tries to persuade you he is someone he is not.

One is actor, the other is conman. The latter is caught and jailed.

The former is given statuettes. What is fair about that?

MORE than half of the Lords think they have the right to amend the Bill that will authorise the Prime Minister to trigger Article 50.

It is what the upper house is there for, we are told. But do they really have that right? Every Bill coming up from the Commons is the policy of the incumbent government which is a political party.

Such legislation is indeed susceptible to emendation under the constitution.

But this Bill is the first in history that is not the product of a political party, with which their lordships have the right to agree or disagree.

This Bill derives from the verdict of the entire British people.

(The 1975 referendum advocated no change, so there was no Bill to enact its finding. Hence fi rst time in all our long history.) This Bill alone is not a party political decision. It is the voice of the British people. The Lords should leave it alone.

GETTY

LIFE is rarely fair. A plump goalkeeper is fired for eating a meat pie on camera during a game.

It seems the club was offended that those who had bet he would do so won some money. Surely the pie company now owes him a supply of the product as compensation.

If he thus gets any larger, he might be restored because his enlarged frame will fi ll the entire goalmouth.

Not their right

MORE than half of the Lords think they have the right to amend the Bill that will authorise the Prime Minister to trigger Article 50.

It is what the upper house is there for, we are told. But do they really have that right? Every Bill coming up from the Commons is the policy of the incumbent government which is a political party.

Such legislation is indeed susceptible to emendation under the constitution. But this Bill is the first in history that is not the product of a political party, with which their lordships have the right to agree or disagree.

This Bill derives from the verdict of the entire British people. (The 1975 referendum advocated no change, so there was no Bill to enact its finding.

Hence first time in all our long history.) This Bill alone is not a party political decision. It is the voice of the British people. The Lords should leave it alone.

AN ELDERLY lady in my village needs help around the house and employs a cleaner from Romania.

This young girl experienced severe pain from her sinuses. She went to our NHS, which she was perfectly entitled to do as she pays income tax and national insurance.

They would be delighted to treat her but sometime next year. So she motored across Europe to her home in Bucharest and was treated by a specialist within a week.

Then she motored back. I have the impression something has gone wrong. This was not what Nye Bevan envisaged.

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We are sick of being told what to do, says Freddie Forsyth - Express.co.uk

***Calls for N50,000 minimum wage By Henry Umoru ABUJA- DEPUTY Senate President Ike Ekweremadu said yesterday that if corruption must be nipped in the bud, it has become imperative for the abolition of security votes presently being enjoyed by State governors and the executive, just as he called for the need to peg the minimum wage at N50,000.

Ekweremadu who decried a situation where the minimum wage was put at N18,000, while some State governors and executives could pocket as much as N2 billion under the cover of Security Vote, also called for the urgent decentralisation of the war against corruption if it must be worn and decisively too.

Ekweremadu spoke in Ibadan at the weekend, where he delivered the 4th National Public Service Lecture of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association, on the theme: Federalism and The Legal Framework for Combating Corruption inNigeria.

He also called for the decentralisation of the federal anti-graft agencies and urged the 36 states in the country, to make conscious efforts at setting up anti-corruption agencies, so as to complement the efforts of the federal anti-corruption agencies, in the fight against corruption.

In a statement by his Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Uche Anichukwu, the Deputy Senate President noted that a situation where the two major anti-corruption agencies in the country, Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission, ICPC and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, do not have presence in the entire country, made the fight against corruption ineffective, adding that for instance, that the ICPC had just six zonal offices and nine state offices, in addition to its headquarters in Abuja, while the EFCC had offices in only eight states, apart from its headquarters in Abuja.

Ekweremadu insisted that these do not scratch the surface, as they are grossly inadequate for a vast area like Nigeria and leave the agencies highly overstretched.

On the way forward, he said: We need a far-reaching and in-depth reorientation. Importantly, Nigeria being a federation, the war against corruption must itself be devolved, and federalised, not centralised as is currently the case.

To this end, I wish to make the following suggestions: Decentralisation of federal anti-corruption agencies, establishment of State anti-corruption agencies, domestication of anti-graft laws, enthronement of fiscal federalism, decentralized policing, establishment of State orientation agencies, State social intervention/security schemes, State prisons, true economic reforms and public participation in the anti-corruption war.

Sadly, only Kano state currently has a state agency to fight corruption- the Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-Corruption Commission. This should be emulated, and urgently too, if we must make a headway in the war against graft.

Similarly, a Code of Conduct Bureau should be established in the states with a Code of Conduct Tribunal to handle cases of civil servants in the states and local government councils. Beside setting up such agencies, there is also the need for the states to domesticate auxiliary federal laws such as the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), Fiscal Responsibility Act, among others, to help curb corruption. Rivers, Oyo, Anambra, Enugu, Ekiti, Lagos, and Ondo are the only States that have so far adopted the ACJA.

Ekweremadu who urged the country to discard the current arrangement of robbing Peter to pay Paul, to make the war against corruption more effective, since people are more likely to show more interest in how the money they truly worked for was being spent, than one thrown on their laps, for doing little or nothing, said, Entrenching fiscal federalism will replace the current feeding bottle arrangement where the centre holds tightly to the purse string and feeds the components, with a better arrangement that is predicated on self-reliance, hard work, enterprise, resourcefulness, ingenuity, taxation, transparency, and accountability.

In the various kindred/family meetings, the illiterate farmer or palm wine tapper becomes literate when it comes to how the fines and levies he contributed were spent because it is the product of his sweat, not a windfall from anywhere.

Listing the various mineral resources in the 36 States of the country, Ekweremadu noted that The good thing is that every State of the federation is sufficiently endowed to survive from its own resources and sweat.

When a man who earns N18,000, cannot buy a bag of rice, how then can such a person take care of his family? Does it make sense to him if you tell him not to find alternative means of catering to the needs of his family?

Is it not also possible to abolish the Security Vote and replace it with Contingency Vote so it can be appropriated and accounted for, he queried.

Ekweremadu, however, observed that while it is easy to point accusing fingers at the governing elites in public and private sectors, we must all embark on individual soul searching from the highest to the lowest rung of the social-economic strata.

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Corruption: Abolish security votes, peg minimum wage at N50,000 Ekweremadu - Vanguard

Hull's role in freedom and the abolition of slavery is part of its history we are fiercely proud of.

So it is no surprise it will feature heavily in Season 3 of the City of Culture 2017 programme.

Hull 2017 have promised an 'incredible' next six months of events after revealing their plans at the start of March.

As well as performances from Jeff Lynne's ELO, festivals and a celebration of equality and diversity, there are many performances and artworks heading to the city.

Here you can find ten of the top events which will be coming to the city this summer.

Hull 2017's third season will see the reopening of Hull New Theatre following its 1m rebuild, the most significant since being opened in 1939 as a successor to the Hull Repertory Theatre Company.

You can enjoy several performances from The Kings of Hull which sees the return of John Godber and the classic story of the trailblazing Jane Eyre.

From September 18, Hull New Theatre.

This is a ten day celebration of colour in Humber Street Gallery and Fruit Market, with installations by some of the most exciting creative figures in contemporary art, design and architecture using the specialist coloured paper Colorplan from Hull company G F Smith.

Also revealed at the launch of Paper City will be the launch of an international survey to discover the world's favourite colour.

From June 30 to July 9, various locations.

From July will be a biographical exhibition on Philip Larkin at the University of Hull, where he spent three decades as librarian. It promises to lift the lid on the life of one of Hull's most influential creatives.

Curated by Anna Farthing, and featuring unseen letters, photography and personal possessions, the exhibition will explore connections between Larkin's life and his work in Hull. Complementing the exhibition, this year's Philip Larkin Society Distinguished Guest Lecturer will be acclaimed British artist Grayson Perry on July 5

From July 5 until October at the University of Hull.

Read more: 10 must see events in Hull 2017 season two Roots & Routes

For generations in Hull, fortunes were made and a distinct way of life was created by the city's fishing community. But the freedom to make a living came at a cost for relying on the resources of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Seafaring communities on both sides of the Cod Wars reflect on confrontation, co-operation and loss in this film and photography exhibition.

From July 15 to September 24 at the Hull Maritime Museum.

From September, Hull will host one of the world's most prestigious awards, the Turner Prize. The exhibition of the four shortlisted artists' work will be held at the Ferens Art Gallery until January 2018, and is free.

From Damien Hirst's cows in formaldehyde to Anthea Hamilton's 16ft sculpture of a bare bottom, this provocative exhibition always generates debate.

From September 26 to January 18, at Ferens Art Gallery.

The Northern Ballet and CBeebies have teamed up for this fantastical ballet with a wonderful wizard, and a story that takes you from a world of greyness to one of brilliant technicolour.

The Great Blueness will premiere with live performances in Hull before being shown on CBeebies to pre-school children and their families across the UK.

From August 14 to August 19 at Airco Arena.

More news: BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw and Kings of Leon members attempt a Hull accent

International pioneers of site responsive performance dreamthinkspeak present ONE DAY, MAYBE, which they say will conjure a "kaleidoscopic dreamscape" where live performance, installation and cutting edge technology combine to create a vividly dystopian vision of a world spinning out of control.

Deep within a hidden office complex in the city centre, a mysterious new Korean technology company is about to change the way you view the world.

From September 1 to October 1. The location is still to be revealed.

As part of LGBT 50, a week-long festival signifying the 50th anniversary of the decriminalisation of homosexuality, Humber Street Gallery will host The House of Kings and Queens.

This will exhibit especially commissioned photography by Lee Price. Captured in Sierra Leone, where homosexuality remains illegal, Price's powerful images offer a glimpse into The House where inhabitants can live without oppression, exposing what it means to be gay in Hull's sister city Freetown.

From July 27 to September 24, at Humber Street Gallery.

Taking place in different locations with inspiration from a famous Hull street, Land of Green Ginger is designed to infiltrate everyday life.

An exciting cohort of artists, including Lone Twin, Davy and Kristin McGuire and Macnas will be spinning myth and magic across Hull neighbourhoods, transforming places which can feel unnoticed into places of possibility, where "Acts of Wanton Wonder" can occur.

Artists have described it as the antidote to boredom; and have promised astonishment, delight and curiosity to spread across Hull as each chapter leads on to the next.

Visit http://www.hull2017.co.uk for further information.

Known internationally as 'Theatre of the Struggle', the theatre challenged the apartheid regime and became a powerful voice for freedom and emancipation.

Their production of The Suitcase will have its UK premiere at Hull Truck Theatre. It is a short story by Es'kia Mphahlele, that follows a young couple from the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal who seek a better life in the city, soon to realise that urban life is cold, cruel and unwelcoming.

From August 31 to September 9, at Hull Truck Theatre.

Visit http://www.hull2017.co.uk for further information on all the events.

Read more: The Royal Ballet will open Hull New Theatre after 16m refurbishment

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10 must see events in Hull 2017 season three Freedom this summer - Hull Daily Mail

So you think youre so smart?

Somewhere in one of his novels, David Lodge gave us the game of Humiliation. You know, the one where people who are supposed to have read everything (yes, Im talking about you people in literature) have to admit to what they havent read.

Think Truth or Dare, the Doctoral Edition.

There are lots of Important Books that we dont read. And I mean those of us in the Reading Business (dont worry, Ill run out of capital letters soon), whatever our fields. But there are works that speak with such what to call it? continuous urgency, that not to read or have read them cuts a hole where we imagine our brains and hearts to be.

So heres my confession for today (and my list is long, let me tell you): The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois published it in 1903. Its the famous document in which he enunciated one of the great truths of American modernity: that the problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line.

Im reading it now, for the first time, and with two calendars in my head: one set in 1903, one in 2017. I want to recover, if I can, Du Boiss sense of immediacy this was a great mind thinking about race four decades after at least the official abolition of slavery in the United States while also reading it as a document written today.

Im not a Du Bois scholar. Im barely a Du Bois amateur. Yet Im turning the pages with an electrifying sense of the books appositeness to the damaged world of 21st-century America.

The problem of the color line may be Du Boiss most famous phrase, but the essay-chapters of The Souls of Black Folk present us with even more of what teachers and students want, namely, language to think with.

Let me bring up just one phrase: Du Boiss characterization of America specifically white America as a dusty desert of dollars and smartness. Two familiar potentially generative obsessions, and then that dusty desert speaks volumes.

Du Boiss perception about dollars has lost none of its punch. But smartness? Now that cuts close to the academic bone. Surely smartness is that quality we in universityland prize above everything.

Washington Irving may have given us the phrase the almighty dollar in the 1830s. (As far as I know, nobody has deployed the phrase almighty smartness or should.) But those of us who work in education know far too well our own almighties the obsession with measurables and deliverables, with calibrating scores, with winnowing and sifting, even long after the agricultural metaphor has lost its cultural potency.

Du Bois was writing about African-Americans caught then they are still caught now, as so many other Americans also are in a place where dollars and smartnessconverge.

Its no coincidence that Du Bois, the first African-American to earn a doctorate at Harvard, spoke to the necessity of the humanities and humanistic inquiry.

Whatever it is, humanistic inquiry is surely something beyond the literature classroom. Its a way of positioning oneself in relation to ideas, to people, and to the world, and that means it can happen in any field, from astrophysics, microbiology, and nursing to politics, music, and anthropology.

If you think Du Bois is a historical curiosity, youre partly right. He wrote of a moment and is a window onto it, for those of us who are curious about the urgencies of the past and the living problems of our own modernity.

So why read him? You dont work in Afro-Am, you say? I dont either. And thats my point. A celebrated and surely underread, century-old text can bring us back to important questions, like casting smartness in an ethical perspective.

Why were teachers.

Why thinking like a humanist is critical to using our intelligence.

And why being brainy is as least as much an obligation as a gift.

Follow me on Twitter @WmGermano

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Heart of Smartness - Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription) (blog)

The Taoiseach has again insisted the government will not facilitate any new system of water charges which is contrary to EU law.

The Minister for Housing Simon Coveney has said he cannot abolish water charges in their entirety - claiming it would result in large fines imposed on Ireland by Europe.

Yesterday thecommittee failed to reach an agreement on a total abolition of charges with a new draft of the final report set for debate next Tuesday.

Fianna Fils water spokesperson Barry Cowen has warned that if Minister Coveney refuses to legislate based on the recommendations of the Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Water the minority government could collapse.

Speaking today, Enda Kenny refused to back down on Fine Gael's refusal to legislate for any system which it believes could result in EU fines.

The party willonly support the recommendations if they include a charge for excessive use thus side-stepping the EU regulations.

The party is due to make its own submission to the committee tomorrow.

That committee has not finished its work, said Mr Kenny. It was given a paper by the chairman.

I would expect them to deliberate on that and continue their work until such time as they bring forward their views and their recommendations to the Oireachtas and I dont want to go beyond that at this stage.

Clearly you are not going to be implementing something that is illegal.

This morning, Joe McHugh, Minister of State for the Diaspora and Overseas Development Aid suggested there was still scope for negotiations between the two main parties.

Warning that the committee needs to be given a chance to complete its work, Mr McHugh said there is an appetite within Fine Gael to reach a solution and avoid another election.

There is always the potential in the minority situation that we are in, he said. We have a confidence and supply with Fianna Fil.

I am sure there are people within Fianna Fil who I speak to privately as well that can find a solution with this impasse.

Meanwhile it has emerged that a small number of households are still claiming the 100 water conservation grant despite the fact it was scrapped a year ago when water charges were suspended.

The state spent 89m covering the grant which was introduced to help households pay their water bills and cover water conservation measures.

The Public Accounts Committee has been told this morning that a small number of households are still claiming the one-off grant - having not received it in 2015.

Read more here:

Taoiseach refuses to back down on water - Newstalk 106-108 fm

Simon Coveney speaking to reporters at Leinster House this evening.

Simon Coveney speaking to reporters at Leinster House this evening.

HOUSING MINISTER SIMON Coveney hassaid he will not legislate for the water committees agreement if it doesnt include a charge for excessive usage.

The majority of those on the Oireachtas joint committee on the future funding of water services have indicated that they are in favour of abolishing domestic charges and are opposed to charging for the excessive use of water.

The committee met today to discuss a final draft report, with Fianna Fil, Sinn Fin and the Anti-Austerity Alliance-People Before Profit (AAA-PBP) agreeing there should be no charges even for excessive water use.

I will not introduce legislation that potentially exposes the country to very severe penalties and fines from the European Commission I wont do that, Coveney told reporters tonight.

EU law

Last year, the European Commission said Ireland will be in breach of European law should it remove the charges completely.

Wehave clear advice from Attorney Generals Office, I have legal advice from my own department and the expert commissions advice that was very clear and we have a European Commission that has shown flexibility and willingness to work with Ireland, but are also clear that there has to be some consequences for households wasting large amounts of water, he said.

Coveney said Fine Gael are willing to compromise, but added that other parties have to be prepared to do the same.

We have compromised on the Fine Gael view very significantly, and were asking other parties seeking a working solution to do the same.

If that compromise involves exposing the State to legal action, I dont think as an office holder I can facilitate that, said the minister.

Fianna Fils position

He said Fianna Fil had hardened its position on the issue, and accused the party of altering their stance on charges in recent days.

What Fianna Fil seem to be saying today is that it is okay by them for the general taxpayer to waste water that wasnt the Fianna Fil position until a few days ago.

Coveney insisted tonight that the work of the committee isnt finished, adding that he still wants consensus.

When asked what the outcome would be if the committees final recommendation was for the total abolition of all water charges, he said:

I would be very surprised if Fianna Fil asked a government minister to introduce something that was against the AGs [Attorney General's] advice.

We cannot ignore independent legal advice it is hugely irresponsible to ask us to do that.

Breaching confidence and supply agreement

Coveney said Fine Gael were not breaching the confidence and supply agreement (the deal between Fianna Fil and Fine Gael which essentially keeps the government in power).

The agreement was never intended to instruct a minister to act contrary to the advice of the Attorney General, he said.

We will continue to abide by it and I hope Fianna Fil will too.

The agreement states that the government will facilitate the passage of legislation for the implementation of the recommendations in relation to domestic water charging (whether it be abolition, a reformed charging regime or other options).

This line was put to the minister this evening and he was asked what would happen if the Oireachtas approved and voted in favour for the abolition of the water charges regime.

Facilitating is not the same as introducing, he clarified.

What I am saying is I cannot introduce legislation that I regard as effectively illegal.

Bullying the committee

Sinn Fin spokesperson on water Eoin Broin has accused the minister of trying to bully the Oireachtas Water Committee.

Tonights intervention by Minister Coveney prior to the Committee concluding our business is wholly inappropriate. He is trying to bully the Committee with exaggerated claims on the supposed illegality of complete abolition of water charges.

While a final decision is expected tomorrow or next week it is clear that the Government is losing the argument.

The minister should stop interfering in the work of the Committee. He should adhere to the process he set up and respect the outcome of the Committee.

He said the minister will have plenty of time to respond to the committees final report when it is debated by the Dil and Seanad later this month.

OBroin said Coveneys attempts to influence the outcome of the committees deliberations is wrong and smacks of desperation.

The group of 20 TDs is expected to finalise its report tomorrow ahead of a Dil vote due to take place by the end of March.

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Coveney says he will not legislate for water charges abolition as it would be illegal - thejournal.ie