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Poona Pact: The advent of Chamcha Yug in Dalit politics
Kanshi Ram believed that by forcing Ambedkar to sign the Poona Pact on 24 September 1932, Gandhi pushed the Untouchables into the 'Chamcha Yug' (the era of stooges). Kanshi Ram's only book, Chamcha Yug, dwells on the nature and the form of the post-Poona-Pact Dalit politics. Alakh Niranjan throws light on the significance of this book
By Alakh Niranjan अलख निरंजन On September 28, 2020 No Comments इस लेख को हिंदी में पढ़ें
Kanshi Ram's Chamcha Yug: The manifesto of Ambedkarite politics
The day 16 August 1932 holds special significance in the history of modern India. It was on this day that the British government announced the Communal Award for India. The Communal Award was a milestone in India's Constitutional. It was an approval in principle to universal adult suffrage and communal representation in India. It officially recognized the Untouchables, who were already a distinct social, cultural and religious community, as a separate political grouping. Although Gandhi and the Congress strongly opposed the recognition of Untouchables as a community distinct from the Hindus, British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald found the facts and the arguments presented by Dr Ambedkar at the Round Table Conference convincing and forceful enough to announce a separate electorate for the Untouchables. They were also to get the right of double vote.
Gandhi corresponded with the British government for more than a month, pleading for the withdrawal of the decision, but nothing came of it. So, he began a fast-unto-death at Yerwada Jail in Poona (Pune) on 20 September 1932 to protest against the separate electorate and double-vote system. Tremendous pressure was brought to bear on Dr Ambedkar and ultimately, the Poona Pact was signed between him and representatives of the Hindus. Under the pact, the Depressed Classes (Untouchables) agreed to give up a separate electorate and the right to double vote. Thus, on 24 September 1932, the Dalits were deprived of the rights they had won on 16 August the same year. But their recognition as a community distinct from the Hindus continued. The Dalits were forced to elect candidates nominated by the Hindus instead of the candidates selected by them.
Kanshi Ram
After Dr Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram was the only politician who changed the course of electoral politics in India. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) that he founded managed to form its government in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh within just 11 years of its coming into existence. But this did not come about just because of the goodwill that he inspired. Kanshi Ram's vision and masterly strategizing, his capacity to argue convincingly and lucidly also contributed to the spectacular success of the BSP. Kanshi Ram was not just a politician. He was also a thinker. Before entering the sociopolitical space through the BSP, he had studied in depth the social, political and economic situation in the country. He studied the works of Jotirao Phule, Periyar Ramsamy Naicker and Dr Ambedkar. He made his thinking actionable by floating social organizations like BAMCEF and DS4. In 1982, before forming the BSP, he wrote a book titled Chamcha Yug (the era of stooges). In the book, he outlined his future politics. Two years later, he formed the BSP.
Kanshi Ram's book 'Chamcha Yug'
Chamcha Yug was published on 24 September 1982 to mark 50 years of the Poona Pact. On that day, fifty years earlier, the Dalits were deprived of their right to choose their genuine representatives and instead an arrangement to foist representatives handpicked by the Hindus was unveiled. These representatives had no option but to work as instruments and stooges of the Hindus. Kanshi Ram believed that the Dalits were pushed into the era of the stooges on 24 September 1932. He organized programmes all over the country to mark the 50 years of Chamcha Yug, in which the Poona Pact was flayed and the Dalits and other exploited people were made aware of how the pact had wronged them.
Kanshi Ram dedicated Chamcha Yug to Phule, Periyar and Dr Ambedkar. The book is divided into four sections and 17 chapters. The first and the second sections are about the struggles of great souls like Phule, Periyar and Ambedkar while the third section presents an analysis of the contemporary social and political situation. The fourth section is devoted to the ways and the means of waging the future struggle. Thus the book is about the past, the present and also the future.
Divided into four chapters, the first section, "Introduction to Poona Pact", systematically describes and analyzes the historical events from the beginning of the 20th century up to the day of the signing of the Poona Pact. It traces the changes that came about in the governance of the country with the arrival of the British and describes how Phule ensured the sprouting of natural human aspirations in the hearts of the Untouchables, who had voluntarily condemned themselves to serfdom. Democratization of India got a boost with the founding of the Indian National Congress in 1855. Initially, a large section of Congressmen were in favour of social reforms but the Congress dumped its social reform agenda in 1895 due to the stiff opposition from Bal Gangadhar Tilak. The Untouchables protested this decision of the Congress. In 1917, the Dalits held two huge public meetings in which they demanded representation in proportion to their population in legislatures, and other provisions. In 1920, the Untouchables got the leadership of a capable and farsighted Dr Ambedkar. It was due to the leadership qualities of Dr Ambedkar that the Untouchables were initially given a separate electorate and the right to double votes – both of which were snatched away from them by Gandhi. This section of the book has extensive material on the Poona Pact. The correspondence between Gandhi and the British government, published in the book, helps the reader understand the finer points of the issue.
Phule, Periyar and Ambedkar: Kanshi Ram's beacons
The second section, "Ambedkar's thoughts on Poona Pact", contains a detailed exposition of Dr Ambedkar's views on the matter. Ambedkar was not in favour of the Pact but he had to give in to the tremendous pressure mounted on him. He put his signature to the pact with a heavy heart. Then, in the 1937 polls, the vicious propaganda unleashed by the Congress against him as part of a conspiracy saddened him even more. Ambedkar continued to denounce the pact till his last breath. In this section, Kanshi Ram quotes extensively from two books of Dr Ambedkar – What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables and State and the Minorities, which are helpful in understanding the implications of the Poona Pact.
Kanshiram and his book 'Chamcha Yug'
The third section of the book, "Chamcha Yug", is very important. It begins with a quotation by Dr Ambedkar: "The joint electorate is from the point of the Hindus to use a familiar phrase a 'Rotten Borough' in which the Hindus get the right to nominate an untouchable to sIt nominally as a representative of the untouchables but really as a tool of the Hindus." Based on this interpretation of Dr Ambedkar, Kanshi Ram claimed that joint electorates had pushed the former Dalits into Chamcha Yug and that the political leadership of the Dalits was nothing but a tool in the hands of the Hindus. Post Independence, the Hindus created stooges among the OBCs and the Muslims as well. Kanshi Ram has minutely analyzed the reasons for the Hindus' vice-like grip on political power.
In the fourth section, "Samadhan" (Solution), an outline for building the future on the basis of the experiences of the past has been laid out. It gives a detailed description of the endeavours of Dr Ambedkar. Kanshi Ram says that three books by Dr Ambedkar can show the path to the building of an egalitarian society: 1) Mr Gandhi and the Emancipation of the Untouchables 2) What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables and 3) State and the Minorities. In this section, Kanshi Ram has described the idea behind the formation of the BAMCEF and the principle of paying back to society. Kanshi Ram has given an outline of the short-term and long-term measures for ending the Chamcha Yug.
(Translation: Amrish Herdenia; copy-editing: Anil)
Forward Press also publishes books on Bahujan issues. Forward Press Books sheds light on the widespread problems as well as the finer aspects of Bahujan (Dalit, OBC, Adivasi, Nomadic, Pasmanda) society, culture, literature and politics. Contact us for a list of FP Books' titles and to order. Mobile: +917827427311, Email: info@forwardmagazine.in)
The titles from Forward Press Books are also available on Kindle and these e-books cost less than their print versions. Browse and buy:
The Case for Bahujan Literature
Mahishasur: A people's hero
Dalit Panthers: An Authoritative History
Mahishasur: Mithak wa Paramparayen
The Common Man Speaks Out
Jati ke Prashn Par Kabir
Forward Thinking: Editorials, Essays, Etc (2009-16)
Tags:ambedkar BAMCEF BSP Communal Award Congress DS4 Gandhi Kanshi Ram periyar Phule Poona Pact Ramsay MacDonald Round Table Conference separate electorate Tilak
Alakh Niranjan अलख निरंजन
Alakh Niranjan is a Dalit commentator who writes regularly for various newspapers and magazines. He is the author of 'Nahi Raha ki Koj mein: Dalit Chintak' (Penguin)
Legacy of the Poona Pact: Caste hierarchy preserved, minorities alienated
The 'unity of Hindus' argument that Gandhi used to oppose a separate electorate for the Untouchables is in currency today and is used to oppose reservations for OBCs and women and spread Islamophobia
How anti-Brahmanism movements lost their way
The State's focus on Dalits may have created the rift between the two potential social allies against Brahmanism. But political parties espousing social justice have failed in addressing the question of development among the backward and Dalit castes. This has left most of these castes desperately looking for growth opportunities, and the right wing has smelt opportunity to draw these castes to itself
अपनी राह से क्यों भटके ब्राह्मणवाद-विरोधी आंदोलन?
राज्य का फोकस दलितों पर रहने के कारण भी ब्राह्मणवाद के विरूद्ध लड़ाई में दलित और ओबीसी एक साथ नहीं आ सके। कुछ लोग कहते हैं कि यह ''ब्राह्मणवादी'' राज्य का खेल है। ओबीसी का एक अलग नेतृत्व उभर गया है। मंजूर अली का विश्लेषण
OBC discourse in Hindi literature
Dr Rajendra Prasad Singh's new book is an important step in the direction of establishing the concept of OBC discourse. The book presents an indepth analysis of the concept and logically presents the tradition, values, beliefs and principles
हिन्दी साहित्य में ओबीसी विमर्श
डा. राजेन्द्र प्रसाद सिंह की नई पुस्तक ओबीसी विमर्श को प्रतिष्ठापित करने की दिशा में एक महत्वपूर्ण पहल है। उन्होंने इस पुस्तक में ओबीसी साहित्य की अवधारणा के संदर्भ में अत्यंत गंभीर विवेचन- विश्लेषण प्रस्तुत किया है और ओबीसी साहित्य की परंपरा,मूल्यों, मान्याताओें, सिद्धांतों को तार्किक ढंग से रेखांकित किया है
Governments should establish Dalit Sahitya Academies


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Public Notice Publish April 27, 29, 2022
Published April 29, 2022 01:05 AM
Public Notice Publish April 27, 29, 2022 NOTICE OF DATES FOR FILING AFFIDAVIT OF CANDIDACY FOR MUNICIPAL PRIMARY ELECTION TO THE VOTERS OF THE CITY OF ALEXANDRIA, MINNESOTA: Pursuant to Minnesota Statute 205.13, Subd. 2, notice is hereby given that the dates for filing an Affidavit of Candidacy for the following offices are May 17, 2022, at 8:00 a.m. through May 31, 2022, at 5:00 p.m.: Council Member for the First Ward for a four-year term Council Member for the Second Ward for a four-year term Council Member for the Fourth Ward for a four-year term Martin Schultz City Administrator 54620
Youth, family ice skating day planned at new Discovery Middle School ice rink
6th structure fire of the year, $67 million sewer system, Jackson Burns and More
Seminar for tornado victims to focus on coping skills

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Linda Hogan Net Worth
Does the name Linda Hogan ring a bell? Yes, you are on the right track. We are talking about the ex-wife of Hulk Hogan, professional wrestler. If you are not aware, she gained popularity for her appearance at the "Hogan Knows Best" television show. Though she is most popularly known as Hulk Hogan's ex-wife, she still has her own talents for remaining famous even after getting a divorce from Hulk. Now let's have a close look on the net worth of Linda Hogan in 2019.
Linda Hogan's maiden name stands as Linda Marie Claridge. She was born in 1959 on the 24th August. She was born and brought up in Miami, Florida of U.S.A. Linda being born in a Christian family was raised as a Catholic and is an American by nationality. Interestingly enough she is known to have a mixed ancestral root comprising of the Italian, Swedish, German and English.
Her schooling was done from the 'Chatsworth High School' in California. She has not been a single child as she grew up with her sibling named Christie Claridge. Even Christie was in the acting profession that too in Hollywood. So, now we know Linda is not the only talented celebrity in her family. From a very early age, Linda had a fascination towards the modelling profession along with her interest in acting and singing.
She prepared herself in the right way to achieve her goal and live her passion. She is a gorgeous woman with a beautiful curvy figure. You would find numerous modelling pictures of Linda Hogan over the net that are considered absolutely sensational. She has been quite dedicated to her passion and made her way successfully into the glamour world through her marriage.
The stunning beauty was matched well with the famous wrestler and actor, Hulk Hogan. According to sources they met at a restaurant in Los Angeles and then they were romantically in a 2-year long-distance relationship. They got married in 1983 and had two kids named Brooke and Nick Hogan. But later in 2007, Linda filed a divorce against Hulk complaining about mental torture and erratic behaviour towards her. She successfully got out of the marriage by 2007 and also received 70% of his assets. Linda Hogan has always been quite a spicy topic for the media. After her divorce, she went into a relationship with Charley Hill, who was much younger to her, which again attracted the media's attention.
She had an exciting career which started in 1970 by winning the "Match Game", at.v. panel game show. She also featured in the "Hulk Rules" album as a playback singer which was produced by the Hulk Hogan's production. In 2005 she appeared in 'Hogan Knows Best' American reality show. The same year witnessed her casting in 'Vehicular Lunatics', a documentary series. She wrote a book 'Wrestling the Hulk: My Life Against the Ropes'.
She has an estimated net worth of $25 million, and most of her income was due to her acting and singing career later topped by her sensational field of work. Definitely, her divorce helped in everything.
Linda Hogan stands as an example of a strong and gutsy woman who knows how to make dreams come true.


New full-length Review on the Review page. I wouldn't mention it, but the stats tell me more people read them when I do. This time, we've tackled "A Celebration In Time" featuring Ranee Lee, Oliver Jones and The Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir.
Here's the new single from Orlando's Before You Exit. "O Silent Night" seems to be an iTunes exclusive at the moment.


WORLD WAR I PvP Resource Pack [32x] is one of the ultimate texture packs which was themed after the actual first World War. This texture pack was created by SachoSenior. The texture pack contains tons of custom blocks, custom textures, and amazing looking spectacles. This includes WWI themed weaponry and country uniforms.
This texture pack runs on 32x32 resolution and is available for multiple versions of Minecraft. It is available for 1.8, 1.12, and 1.13 making it very ideal for some fun PvP. Envision yourself as one of the soldiers in the World War and fight your way to bring glory and honor for your country.
If you love this pack and want to have more in the future, you can show your love to its original creator. You can see credits of who made this pack in texture packs section of Minecraft settings. You can check his Youtube Channel to support him. You can check more PVP packs over here.
How to install WORLD WAR I PvP Resource Pack [32x] for Minecraft?
If you don't know how to install the WORLD WAR I PvP Resource Pack [32x] for Minecraft? just look below, we'll provide you with a short tutorial there. This installation guide should work with all Minecraft versions. To see the Official Download Links just scroll down.
2. Download the WORLD WAR I PvP Resource Pack [32x] for Minecraft? from the official links.
Next articleLHMC 3D PvP Texture Pack for Minecraft 1.11 – Stunning !


Please welcome Sapheare, a brand new artist in 96 Musique's roster. Sapheare blows a fresh wind on the label's catalogue with ethereal and clean Chillout productions. His first single "Nightfall" is a safe bet for beach clubs, bar terraces and all Chillout playlists this Spring. Get a head start and listen to Sapheare right now.


Kahuna Krew members receive admittance to special invitation only appreciation events throughout the year!
Every time you refer someone you receive 2 tickets to an invitation-only event.
Refer 5 people & you get 2 Lifetime Passes!
Click here to see highlights of our last Texas Rangers Game Suite.


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Budget 23 Summary
Irish Unity
2019 Statements
A Budget For Change
Different Priorities, Better Choices
Sinn Féin's budget is a budget for change. Our proposals are about giving people help and certainty to get through the winter months while building for the future and delivering the housing and healthcare that is needed.
Our fully costed proposals are about making different political choices to this government. We are prioritising those on middle and low incomes and a younger generation locked out of opportunity.
We cannot continue to see a rehashing of old tired policies that have failed for 20 years. We need fresh ideas and a change of direction. That is what Sinn Féin's budget is about.
Mary Lou McDonald TD
President, Sinn Féin
EMERGENCY COST OF LIVING PACKAGE 2022
Households need immediate action and relief. Sinn Féin's measures match the scale of the impact on people's lives.
A Sinn Féin Government would use this opportunity to assure householders firstly their electricity bills will be reduced and capped back to 2021 levels and secondly that they will not rise this winter. Below is our Emergency Cost of Living Package:
Click on the icons to reveal more detail
Cut household electricity bills to summer 2021 levels and keep them there
This would be achieved by reducing the price that electricity suppliers can charge householders and keeping them at pre-crisis levels until the end of February. This price reduction would provide certainty to households this winter. Under our proposal the state would compensate electricity suppliers for the difference between summer 2021 rates and the wholesale price that the suppliers themselves must pay to electricity generators. We would task the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) with the management of this compensation scheme.
We would allocate €1.6 billion for this measure, €900 million in 2022 and €700 million for January and February 2023. Our cost projections are based on average annual electricity bills and CSO data on electricity usage in the winter months. It covers the price increases that have been signalled already and includes a further buffer of €230 million in case wholesale prices rise further during the winter.
In addition in keeping with the European Commission proposals, we propose to reduce and cap the prices of non-gas electricity generators, primarily wind generators, which would put an end to their excess profits and further limit the amount of funding required from the Exchequer to compensate suppliers. We also support the introduction of a windfall tax on energy companies to stop them exploiting the crisis at the expense of workers and families.
Cash payments to assist with other energy bills
Cost of Living Payments would be paid to adults through Revenue and the Department of Social Protection to provide significant and targeted support, with payments ranging from €500 to €100, based on individual income (whether this comes from work or social welfare). The lower your individual income, the bigger your cash payment. For example, an individual with income of less than €21,300 would receive a payment of €500, an individual with income of €40,000 would receive a payment of €300. Individuals with income above €70,000 would not receive a payment. This financial support would help households with the higher cost of living this winter. This measure would cost an estimated €1.5 billion.
Double Child Benefit payment
The more people in your house, the more energy you must use. An extra child benefit payment worth €140 per child would be paid on the 4th of October. This measure will cost €170.4 million.
More help with petrol, diesel, home heating oil, electricity, and gas
The taxes charged by Government at the pumps should be reduced to the greatest extent permissible. Excise on petrol and diesel should be reduced by an extra 13 cents and 9 cents per litre respectively until the end of 2022. Households who depend on home heating oil have been given zero support to date by Government despite skyrocketing costs – the excise duty on it should be removed, which would reduce the cost of a 1,000 litre fill by €118. Reduced rates of VAT applying to electricity and gas should be extended to the end of the year. The combined cost of these measures is €323.9 million.
No Carbon Tax increase
The Government plan to increase the carbon tax on motor fuels on 12th October. This hike must not proceed. This will cost €19.3 million.
Increase Fuel Allowance and extend it to more people
Increase the weekly payment by €5 and open the payment to families who are in work on low incomes. This will cost €40.3 million.
Help people who are in arrears on their energy bills already
We would establish a €15 million Discretionary Debt Utility Fund to be run by community welfare officers.
Christmas bonus for social welfare recipients
This is a double payment of the normal weekly amount, which will differ depending on what scheme you are on and how many dependents you have. This would cost €333 million.
Introduce tax relief for renters
We propose putting a month's rent back into renters' pockets and the measure should be introduced now on a pro-rata basis, costing €75.7 million for the remainder of the year.
Slash childcare fees
Cut childcare fees by two thirds. A one third cut immediately followed by a further cut next year. Full- time childcare fees currently average at €810 per month per child and are even higher in parts of Dublin. Our plan could result in a cut of over €6,500 to a parent's annual childcare fees, depending on the age and location of their child, at a cost of €34.4 million this year.
Reduce student fees by €1,000
Sinn Féin has long committed to abolish student fees. We would begin by making an immediate reduction of €1,000 to the student contribution charge. Many students, especially those from lower income households, pay their fees incrementally and would therefore gain the benefit of this pressure being lifted from them straightaway. Others, who have already paid, may experience a delay but we would expect the colleges to work with their students to ensure refunds are issued as promptly as possible. This measure would cost €85.4 million.
Give patients relief from healthcare charges
Out-of-pocket charges for healthcare have been putting pressure on patients for many years. This is felt all the more acutely now in the context of so many rising costs for households. As part of our emergency package, we propose abolishing prescription charges, reducing the drugs payment scheme threshold to €70 and halving hospital inpatient charges at a cost of €23 million.
Extend the 20% transport fare reduction to commercial operators
We would extend the 20% fare reduction currently in place for all PSO public transport providers until 31st December 2022 to commercial bus operators (CBOs). This is to ensure that more customers can avail of a 20% fare reduction to help ease the pressure of the cost of living crisis at a cost of €6 million in 2022.
Save jobs and livelihoods by supporting businesses with rising energy bills
Shops, cafes, pubs, and other small and family-run businesses, are facing energy price hikes that threaten them with closure – risking livelihoods and jobs as a result. We propose a scheme for businesses, similar to one in Luxembourg, whereby a portion of a qualifying business' energy bills increase will be covered by the state with appropriate limits. This €500 million scheme would be targeted and tailored according to an agreement between employers' representatives and trade unions to ensure that the criteria for access and levels of support extended maximise the protection of jobs. Support would be available until the end of February, at which point it would be reviewed. The cost in 2022 would be €300 million.
Introduce a €2 billion Energy Support Loan Scheme managed by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland and lent through the commercial banking sector, similar to the Covid-19 Credit Guarantee. Loans would be zero interest with no repayments for the first 12 months and with affordable rates of interest thereafter.
Businesses would also be supported through our proposals for petrol, diesel and home heating oil outlined earlier in this section.
Increase emergency supports for farmers
We propose increasing funding by €30 million this year to provide emergency supports for the agricultural sector to maximise European Crisis Reserve Co-Financing.
FUNDING OUR EMERGENCY COST OF LIVING PACKAGE FOR 2022
At the time of Budget 2022, a deficit of more than €8 billion was expected for this year. The Fiscal Council now expect a surplus of €4.5 billion, an improvement in the fiscal position of more than €12 billion. Furthermore, the Fiscal Council have noted that €2.5 billion of non-core expenditure earmarked for 2022 remains unallocated. This puts the State in a strong position to support households and businesses.
Sinn Féin's plan to support workers and families this winter would cost €4.1 billion in 2022 and result in a modest surplus this year, allowing for a dynamic and flexible response to the cost of living crisis in the time ahead.
This crisis demands fiscal intervention but also supply-side reform. Both go hand in hand. Our energy market is broken – the price electricity generators are paid is not based on the cost of production but the cost of gas, hiking prices for suppliers and bills for consumers, and securing windfall profits for energy companies.
Sinn Féin has for months argued that this broken market be reformed, breaking the link between gas and electricity prices, and imposing windfall taxes on energy companies that are enjoying obscene profits. These reforms would reduce bills for households and costs for the Exchequer. For months, the Government has opposed these reforms, domestically and at a European level, inflating electricity prices and household bills. These reforms must now be implemented.
A Sinn Féin Government would support households through the winter months by reducing electricity prices, rolling out cost of living payments to assist with other energy costs and protecting the most vulnerable. In 2023, we would deliver an income tax package put money back in people's pockets, reduce the cost of fuel, support renters and shield lower and middle-income households from the impact of inflation. Sinn Féin would give workers and families a break.
Pearse Doherty TD
Finance Spokesperson, Sinn Féin
Giving Workers & Families a Break
Ag Tabhairt Suaimhneas Do Oibrithe & Teaghlaigh
The energy crisis has taken hold when households already faced persistent failures in housing, health and childcare. A Sinn Féin Government would cut childcare fees and reduce rents. We would tackle the housing crisis by delivering genuinely affordable homes, and we would put dignity, respect and fairness at the heart of our healthcare service. We would implement a fair plan to tackle climate change, providing affordable alternatives for households rather than imposing punitive taxes. Our plan would give workers and families a break.
Mairead Farrell TD
Spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Reform, Sinn Féin
PUTTING MONEY BACK IN YOUR POCKET
In Budget 2023 there must be one clear priority. We must give workers and families a break in the face of an unprecedented cost of living crisis. No one should be heading into this winter concerned about whether they will be able to heat their homes or feed their children. Families should not be falling into debt to pay energy bills.
The government has been too slow to act. Their response has been inadequate and piecemeal. The crisis which we are now facing is compounded by the government's failure to tackle housing costs, rents and childcare costs.
Budget 2023 needs to give those on low and middle incomes relief from the rising cost of living, in particular soaring energy prices. Addressing the high costs of rents and childcare is also essential if we are to lift the burden from people who are facing into the winter already struggling to make ends meet. To deal with the rising cost of energy and to meet our climate targets we must facilitate those on low and middle incomes to retrofit their homes. The government's new Retrofit scheme fails because it favours those who are better off. It's time for a new retrofit scheme that prioritises those on low and middle incomes.
We need a Budget that will bring real relief right now and also give households the breathing space they will badly need next year. We need a Sinn Féin Budget.
Our priorities include:
The upcoming budget will take place in the context of high inflation, a cost-of-living crisis and economic uncertainty.
The global economic recovery following the pandemic has been hindered by high inflation, an energy crisis driven by the war in Ukraine, and persisting supply-chain disruptions.
Domestically, there has been inadequate action to address high inflation and its impact has worsened living conditions and increased hardship. To date, the Government's response to support households and businesses from the increases in energy costs has been among the weakest in the European Union, while Government opposition to reform of the wholesale energy market has facilitated high energy prices for consumers and windfall profits for energy companies.
High inflation has taken hold at a time when workers and families were already contending with persistent Government policy failures in areas such as housing, health and childcare provision.
Sinn Féin's budgetary strategy is built on the primary objective of supporting households through the cost- of-living crisis, while supporting employment, delivering affordable housing, and fixing our broken health system.
This strategy is underpinned by a credible fiscal plan, delivering sustainable increases in core expenditure to meet the needs of our society, together with temporary measures in response to high inflation, humanitarian support for refugees arriving from Ukraine, Brexit and COVID-19.
This plan will also ensure sustainable and resilient public finances, allowing for a dynamic and flexible response to the cost-of-living crisis in the time ahead.
At the time of Budget 2022, a deficit of more than €8 billion was expected for this year. The Fiscal Council now project a surplus of €4.5 billion, an improvement in the fiscal position of more than €12 billion.
Sinn Féin is proposing an Emergency Cost of Living Package to support workers, families, and businesses for the remainder of 2022. Government measures to date have been wholly inadequate and deaf to the struggles that citizens are facing. This package would amount to €4.1 billion and is set out in Part 1 of this document.
For 2023, Sinn Féin are proposing a net budget package of €9.4 billion.
This includes pre-committed expenditure of €3 billion related to existing levels of services, demographics, existing public sector pay agreements and non-pay inflation and the National Development Plan. It will also provide for an expenditure package of €6.1 billion in core expenditure for new measures and €0.9 billion in non-core temporary measures in response to the cost-of living crisis.
This increase in core expenditure includes €3.7 billion in current spending, partially funded by additional tax revenue of €2.2 billion to ensure increases in day-to-day spending are put on a sustainable footing, and €2.9 billion in capital investment to deliver affordable housing at scale, increase hospital capacity, retrofit homes and accelerate our transition to a low-carbon economy.
Provision is also made, consistent with the Summer Economic Statement, for a non-core expenditure provision of €4.5 billion. This will providing funding for COVID-19 expenditure, Brexit, Mother and Baby Homes Redress and the response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis, including pressures it has placed on student accommodation.
A tax package will also be provided of €1.3 billion, with €0.2 billion in temporary tax measures.
Sinn Féin's plan will support households through the cost-of-living crisis, respond to the needs of our citizens and put the public finances on a sustainable path.
BUDGETARY STRATEGY
(€billion)
Net Budget Package 9.4
Expenditure Pre-Committed
• ELS
• NDP 3.0:
Expenditure New Measures
- Core
- Non-core 7.0:
Taxation New Measures
• Core
• Non-Core 1.5:
Taxation Revenue 2.2
Net Revenue 0.6
Net Expenditure 6.4
General Government Balance -0.2
General Government Balance
(Excluding Non-Core) 1.0
Budget 2023 – DIFFERENT PRIORITIES, BETTER CHOICES
Sinn Féin knows that no Government can protect everybody fully from every price increase, but we believe that more can and should be done by Government. And more would be done by a Sinn Féin Government.
Households are under serious pressure with the cost of living crisis, and ordinary workers and families need a break from these spiralling costs.
The cost of household energy has rocketed, with more than 50 different price increase announcements from Irish energy suppliers over the past 18 months. Average annual electricity bills have risen by some €1,200 since summer 2021.
A Red C poll earlier this year found that 37 percent of people have cut back on essential heating and electricity use and 17 percent have cut back on other essentials such as food. The Society of St Vincent de Paul saw a 49 percent increase in the number of requests for help with energy costs in February 2022, compared to the same period last year. And energy poverty projections from the ESRI in July 2022 indicated that almost 70 percent of people could be plunged into energy poverty.
Some of the cost of living pressures faced by the public are driven by factors outside of the Government's own hands e.g. war in Ukraine, Brexit, global supply disruptions.
However, other factors heaping ongoing pressure on households pre-date the war, and are entirely of the Government parties' own making e.g. house prices, rents and childcare fees.
All of these pressures must be responded to by Budget 2023 and serious headway must be made towards making basic essentials affordable for workers and families next year.
Sinn Féin priority measures include:
Putting one month's rent back into renters' pockets and ban rent increases for three years – cost €302.9 million
Cutting electricity bills back to summer 2021 levels and keeping them there until the end of February 2023. For details see page 14 – cost €700 million in 2023
Cutting childcare fees for parents by two thirds – cost €179 million
Increasing the minimum wage by €1.40
Cutting USC to give workers back €300 – cost €629 million
Increasing working age weekly social welfare rates by €17.50, pensions by €15 and €17.50 for those living alone, disability-related payments by €20, increases for qualified children by €5 and €3 for over 12s and under-12s respectively – cost €1.29 billion
Abolish student fees commencing with a reduction of €1000 and increase SUSI maintenance grants by 25 percent compared to 2020/21 levels – cost €57.7 million
Support businesses with rising energy costs through a combination of subsidies and loans – cost €225 million additional Exchequer funding in 2023
Sinn Féin has a fair and deliverable plan to tackle climate change that will ensure meeting our climate targets goes hand in hand with delivering a more secure and affordable life for workers and families.
We recognise that the causes and effects of climate change are not equally shared, with the top 10 percent of the Irish population by income level emitting nearly as much consumption emissions as the bottom 50 percent.
Indiscriminate carbon taxes not only place a disproportionate burden on those for whom alternatives are either unaffordable or unattainable, but fundamentally fail in deterring the greatest emitters. Our plan takes the opposite approach. By increasing and redirecting state investment, we will ensure that ordinary workers and families can avail of the alternatives and the benefits of a just transition.
Whereas the Government's climate approach to ordinary workers and families is defined by punitive action, Sinn Féin believe that affordable and attainable alternatives should come first.
Government policy remains insufficient and at times contrary to its climate targets – their approach to data centres is a case in point. Of all EU member states, Ireland has been reported to have the third highest Greenhouse Gas Emissions per capita. If every state followed the policy trajectory of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, the chances of keeping global temperatures below 1.5°C would have dissipated.
Our proposals will fundamentally reform how retrofits are funded, targeted, and delivered. In Budget 2023, we would invest €480 million – an additional €150 million compared to the 2022 allocation by Government for retrofits – for residential and community retrofit schemes.
Under the Government's retrofit programme, many households can only access support for a decent home energy upgrade if they have €25,000 on hand – this locks out low and middle income households while giving those with money more money for a more comfortable home.
Sinn Féin propose an entirely new approach. Across our retrofit schemes, public funding will be proportionately allocated based on household income, so that those least able to afford home energy upgrades and most at risk of energy poverty are given the greatest levels of support.
Sinn Féin also propose to allocate the necessary resources to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, in a manner which maximises energy security and affordability for individuals and communities. Poor policy choices and failure to invest by successive Governments has meant that unlike Denmark, Ireland failed to transform our immense natural resources into national wealth.
This failure to realise the potential of our own wind and solar resources and consequent failure to reduce our dependence on imported fossil fuels at pace also left us excessively exposed to the negative impacts of energy crises arising from global events that are out of our hands. From increasing funding in community- owned renewables to improving the affordability of solar PVs for households, our proposals would ensure that our citizens and communities retain the benefits from our natural wealth, both in the long and short term.
The Covid-19 public health crisis demonstrated what can be achieved when everybody pulls together. Climate plans pursued by Governments will only work if they are experienced fairly.
The punitive and regressive carbon tax, which punishes those least able to afford their basic energy and fuel bills most, is felt all the more painfully when the wealthiest in society flaunt their climate-destroying lifestyles. From pollution taxes on private flights to wealth taxes, Sinn Féin will instead tackle excessive carbon pollution and its underlying root in inordinate inequality.
We need a new Government to change the focus from aspirational climate targets to real, fair, and ambitious climate actions. This will only happen with a Sinn Féin Government.
Investing to accelerate the transition to renewable energy including through resourcing the planning system to speed up the development of offshore wind generation, putting solar panels on school roofs and enhancing grants to support those on low and middle incomes to install them on their homes – cost €44 million
Making the temporary 20 percent fare reduction on public transport permanent and extend it to commercial operators, and reducing fares for children by 50 percent throughout 2023, accelerating the roll-out of the Connecting Ireland rural bus scheme, expanding school transport capacity and phasing out fees permanently – first year cost €160 million
Imposing a Pollution Tax on private jets with a levy of €3,000 per departure – raises €18 million
Sinn Féin would reset relations between the public, healthcare workers, and the State to place dignity, respect, and fairness at the heart of healthcare.
The cost of living crisis is compounding the health crisis. The burden of healthcare on households, including visits to GPs, cost of hospital stays, and prescriptions is felt all the more heavily when energy and food bills, rents and mortgages are rocketing.
The lack of affordable housing is also a major barrier to the recruitment and retention of staff in our health system.
The crisis in healthcare shares similar causes with the housing crisis. Both are a result of a failure in planning and a failed ideology which has damaged public services.
The Sláintecare consensus has failed to deliver meaningful change for workers and families because it is a myth. There is no consensus. The current Government parties have failed to implement Sláintecare because they do not believe in it. They view healthcare as a privilege for those who can afford it not as an equal right for everybody.
This is holding up the radical change needed to deliver universal healthcare with free GP care and short waiting times.
Sinn Féin's priority in health is to deliver an Irish National Health Service which ends the two-tier health system and delivers timely health and social care on the basis of need, not ability to pay.
We would significantly cut out-of-pocket costs for healthcare from inpatient charges to prescription drug costs. We would make immediate expansions and investment in GP access and primary care staffing.
We would plan on a multi-annual basis to deliver a universal health service within 10 years. That will require substantial investment in hospital capacity, community capacity, primary care capacity, digital transformation, specialist services, and training the future health workforce.
In 2023, a Sinn Féin Government would invest more than €1.1 billion in new measures towards an Irish National Health Service. This is comprised of an additional €657.8 million for current expenditure measures and €461.7 million in capital or one-off spending.
This €1.1bn is for new measures over and above provision for outstanding Budget 2021 and Budget 2022 measures, NDP commitments, and other pre-committed expenditure items relating to pay including the latest deal currently under consideration by the trade unions, demographics, carryover, ELS, and other non- pay pressures.
Funding an expansion of GP Visit Card eligibility to provide free GP care for additional 300,000 people – cost €40 million
Reducing other costs of healthcare by capping monthly drugs payments at €70, abolishing prescription charges, removing inpatient charges over two years, and reducing and capping car parking charges for patients – cost €94.8 million
Expanding acute hospital capacity including more than 500 hospital beds, 37 critical care beds, a 10 percent expansion of theatre capacity, and 150,000 diagnostic scans – cost €313 million
Establishing a clear, multi-annual strategic workforce plan across the health and higher education sector to expand healthcare degree places by 1,500; increase medical specialist training places by 10 percent; expand GP training places by 20 percent; and expand training places for advanced practice and specialist nursing as well as clinical, counselling, and educational psychology – cost €21.8 million (Health) and €9.3 million (Further and Higher Education)
Investing in a significant expansion of mental health services to deliver early intervention, out of hours, and emergency services – cost €81.6 million
Funding the recommendations of the Disability Capacity Review out to 2032 – cost €152.7 million
Through these measures, expanding the healthcare workforce across primary, community, and acute care by 5,000 workers next year
Sinn Féin would cut childcare fees by two thirds, putting money back into the pockets of hard-pressed families.
The rising prices of some things are outside of Government control, however, the sky-high prices of others, like childcare, are of their own making.
Delivering affordable childcare should be an urgent priority for Government because it is one area where immediate action could be taken to tackle the cost of living crisis. Unfortunately, the Government has previously made glossy announcements for childcare which have only served to disappoint families as they fail time and time again to deliver fairer fees. It is time to deliver real change for families.
Sinn Féin's proposals will deliver affordable, good quality childcare, well paid careers for highly qualified professionals and sustainable services.
We would cut childcare fees by two thirds to make childcare affordable for parents. This can be done.
Parents' are currently spending approximately €400 million on childcare fees. We would provide two thirds of this [€270 million] in additional public investment on condition providers reduce fees for parents by two thirds – one third in 2022 and one third next year.
Reducing parents' fees by one third for the remainder of this year would cost €134 million for 2023. However, we propose a second one third fee reduction in September 2023 which would cost a further €45 million. The annual cost of a full year of the two thirds reduction is €270 million.
We would offer childcare facilities the option of entering a scheme where the state provides additional funding to cover some of the costs currently covered by parents' fees, such as wages or overheads. In return, providers would reduce fees for parents by two thirds over the next two years. This would be guaranteed under legislation.
This would make a real difference for families' finances and ensure they get a much-needed break from the cost of living crisis. Full-time childcare fees are on average €810 per month per child and even higher in parts of Dublin. For example, for an 18-month-old child in creche full-time in Dublin, our measures would reduce their fees by €6,639 per annum.
Cutting childcare fees for parents by two thirds – cost €179 million in 2023, full year cost €270 million
Sinn Fein will fix our broken housing system. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael's policies made the housing crisis, and their vested interests and choices are making it worse. A change of Government is needed to unravel and reverse decades of bad housing policy.
A Sinn Féin Government is needed to deliver 20,000 public homes next year to meet social and affordable housing need, to ban rent increases for all existing and new tenancies and to put a month's rent back in every private renter's pocket with a refundable tax credit.
In the last two years, rents have increased by 15 percent and house prices by 20 percent. A new rental in Dublin is now more than €2,000 per month.
An entire generation is locked out of home ownership. The number of young people forced to live with their parents because of the high cost of housing is remarkably high.
Since the Government ended the ban on evictions in April 2021, homelessness has increased by 30 percent, pensioner homelessness has increased by 27 percent and, shockingly, child homelessness has jumped by 43 percent.
Meanwhile, despite the reality that Ireland is a wealthy country and the existence of tens of thousands of vacant properties, delivery of social and affordable housing continues to lag way behind demand and the Government's targets are simply too low.
Sinn Féin would increase the government's 2023 targets of 12,600 social and affordable homes, by allocating the additional funding necessary to deliver an extra 7,400 homes. We provide for 2,900 social homes, 2,250 affordable cost rental homes and 2,250 affordable homes for purchase above the Government's targets.
We would deliver on our target of 20,000 public homes through a combination of greater use of vacant and derelict properties, accelerating existing public housing delivery, use of turnkey pre-purchased developments for affordable housing and the use of new low carbon building technologies.
We know that it takes time to build homes, but renters cannot wait for relief any longer. Action to reduce rents is needed now and only a Sinn Féin Government would deliver this.
Delivering 20,000 social and affordable homes – cost additional €1.08 billion voted capital expenditure, €1.48 billion general Government expenditure
Put one month's rent back into renters' pockets and ban increases for three years – cost €302.9 million
Sinn Féin believe that a special focus from all of Government is needed to ensure that people with disabilities are not further disadvantaged by the cost of living crisis.
We are also fully committed to implementing the recommendations of the Disability Capacity Review 2021-2032 to address unmet need and demographic change over the next decade.
We would also use the opportunity of this Budget to begin to address pre-existing scandals and shortcomings in provision.
Significant and sustained public investment is needed to address unacceptably long waiting times faced by children who need assessments and therapy interventions, insufficient numbers of places in schools for children with special educational needs, persistently low levels of employment amongst people with disabilities despite a widespread desire for work and career aspirations held by many which could be realised with the correct supports, and the appallingly high rate of poverty and enforced deprivation across households headed by a person with a disability.
The Government's record on equality and inclusion is poor. The failure of Government to ensure that every child had a place in school, the thankfully withdrawn but ultimately appalling suggestion that children in need of special classes in mainstream schools be segregated in disability centres instead, is illustrative of a Government incapable of planning for the predictable or delivering the basics and willing to heap the negative consequences on our most vulnerable.
These parties have also inadequately funded this sector for many years. A Sinn Féin Government would both invest and plan ahead.
Increasing Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Illness Benefit and other related benefits by €20 per week, Carers Allowance and Benefit by €17.50 per week and the annual Carer Support Grant to €2,000 – cost €369 million
Investing in lifelong inclusion in learning by increasing funding for pre-school provision though AIMs, hiring 600 additional Special Education Teachers, 1,200 SNAs and 20 educational psychologists and rolling out career supports for young people with disabilities across the country based on the WALK PEER model – cost €27.6 million
Reforming the Disabled Drivers and Disabled Passenger's Scheme – cost €22 million
Investing in the future growth of disability services by expanding the number of undergraduate places in occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and psychology – cost €9.3 million
Funding targeted recruitment and retention measures for children's disability services – cost €10 million
Making greater provision for people with disabilities to live in appropriate accommodation by investing in decongregation, group and independent living in the community, 150,000 Personal Assistance and Home Support hours and making public transport accessible – cost €122.4 million
Creating more spaces in adult day services and opportunities for respite – cost €28.3 million
Planning for Irish Unity
Change is in the air and people across the island are assessing, debating and discussing the type of future that is possible.
The pace of this discourse is accelerating, both inside and outside of the political systems in Dublin, Belfast, London, Brussels and beyond.
Sinn Féin believe that, within this decade, the people will have the opportunity to freely choose new constitutional and political arrangements on this island, as underpinned by the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement.
Government needs to start preparing a White Paper for Irish unity. This should be led by the Department of the Taoiseach, from within existing Departmental resources.
Everyone who has a stake in this transformation from across this island must be involved in designing what shape that takes.
Sinn Féin is committed to investing in connectivity and growth across the island of Ireland including funding of the A5 as provided for in the NDP. The time to start planning for Irish Unity is now.
A Citizens' Assembly – cost €1.5 million
Increasing investment in Tourism Ireland and Foras na Gaeilge – cost €7 million
For a full breakdown of costs and expenditure please download our Budget document below.
Sinn Féin Head Office, 44 Parnell Square, Dublin 1, IRELAND
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In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?
by Charles M. Sheldon
"For hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow in his steps."
It was Friday morning and the Rev. Henry Maxwell was trying to finish his Sunday morning sermon. He had been interrupted several times and was growing nervous as the morning wore away, and the sermon grew very slowly toward a satisfactory finish.
"Mary," he called to his wife, as he went upstairs after the last interruption, "if any one comes after this, I wish you would say I am very busy and cannot come down unless it is something very important."
"Yes, Henry. But I am going over to visit the kindergarten and you will have the house all to yourself."
The minister went up into his study and shut the door. In a few minutes he heard his wife go out, and then everything was quiet. He settled himself at his desk with a sigh of relief and began to write. His text was from 1 Peter 2:21: "For hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that ye should follow his steps."
He had emphasized in the first part of the sermon the Atonement as a personal sacrifice, calling attention to the fact of Jesus' suffering in various ways, in His life as well as in His death. He had then gone on to emphasize the Atonement from the side of example, giving illustrations from the life and teachings of Jesus to show how faith in the Christ helped to save men because of the pattern or character He displayed for their imitation. He was now on the third and last point, the necessity of following Jesus in His sacrifice and example.
He had put down "Three Steps. What are they?" and was about to enumerate them in logical order when the bell rang sharply. It was one of those clock-work bells, and always went off as a clock might go if it tried to strike twelve all at once.
Publisher: CrossReach PublicationsReleased: May 18, 2018ISBN: 9788828325673Format: book
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In His Steps - Charles M. Sheldon
Henry Maxwell sat at his desk and frowned a little. He made no movement to answer the bell. Very soon it rang again; then he rose and walked over to one of his windows which commanded the view of the front door. A man was standing on the steps. He was a young man, very shabbily dressed.
Looks like a tramp, said the minister. I suppose I'll have to go down and—
He did not finish his sentence but he went downstairs and opened the front door. There was a moment's pause as the two men stood facing each other, then the shabby-looking young man said:
I'm out of a job, sir, and thought maybe you might put me in the way of getting something.
I don't know of anything. Jobs are scarce— replied the minister, beginning to shut the door slowly.
I didn't know but you might perhaps be able to give me a line to the city railway or the superintendent of the shops, or something, continued the young man, shifting his faded hat from one hand to the other nervously.
It would be of no use. You will have to excuse me. I am very busy this morning. I hope you will find something. Sorry I can't give you something to do here. But I keep only a horse and a cow and do the work myself.
The Rev. Henry Maxwell closed the door and heard the man walk down the steps. As he went up into his study he saw from his hall window that the man was going slowly down the street, still holding his hat between his hands. There was something in the figure so dejected, homeless and forsaken that the minister hesitated a moment as he stood looking at it. Then he turned to his desk and with a sigh began the writing where he had left off. He had no more interruptions, and when his wife came in two hours later the sermon was finished, the loose leaves gathered up and neatly tied together, and laid on his Bible all ready for the Sunday morning service.
A queer thing happened at the kindergarten this morning, Henry, said his wife while they were eating dinner. You know I went over with Mrs. Brown to visit the school, and just after the games, while the children were at the tables, the door opened and a young man came in holding a dirty hat in both hands. He sat down near the door and never said a word; only looked at the children. He was evidently a tramp, and Miss Wren and her assistant Miss Kyle were a little frightened at first, but he sat there very quietly and after a few minutes he went out.
Perhaps he was tired and wanted to rest somewhere. The same man called here, I think. Did you say he looked like a tramp?
Yes, very dusty, shabby and generally tramp-like. Not more than thirty or thirty-three years old, I should say.
The same man, said the Rev. Henry Maxwell thoughtfully.
Did you finish your sermon, Henry? his wife asked after a pause.
Yes, all done. It has been a very busy week with me. The two sermons have cost me a good deal of labor.
They will be appreciated by a large audience, Sunday, I hope, replied his wife smiling. What are you going to preach about in the morning?
Following Christ. I take up the Atonement under the head of sacrifice and example, and then show the steps needed to follow His sacrifice and example.
I am sure it is a good sermon. I hope it won't rain Sunday. We have had so many stormy Sundays lately.
Yes, the audiences have been quite small for some time. People will not come out to church in a storm. The Rev. Henry Maxwell sighed as he said it. He was thinking of the careful, laborious effort he had made in preparing sermons for large audiences that failed to appear.
But Sunday morning dawned on the town of Raymond one of the perfect days that sometimes come after long periods of wind and mud and rain. The air was clear and bracing, the sky was free from all threatening signs, and every one in Mr. Maxwell's parish prepared to go to church. When the service opened at eleven o'clock the large building was filled with an audience of the best- dressed, most comfortable looking people of Raymond.
The First Church of Raymond believed in having the best music that money could buy, and its quartet choir this morning was a source of great pleasure to the congregation. The anthem was inspiring. All the music was in keeping with the subject of the sermon. And the anthem was an elaborate adaptation to the most modern music of the hymn,
"Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee."
Just before the sermon, the soprano sang a solo, the well-known hymn,
"Where He leads me I will follow,
I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way."
Rachel Winslow looked very beautiful that morning as she stood up behind the screen of carved oak which was significantly marked with the emblems of the cross and the crown. Her voice was even more beautiful than her face, and that meant a great deal. There was a general rustle of expectation over the audience as she rose. Mr. Maxwell settled himself contentedly behind the pulpit. Rachel Winslow's singing always helped him. He generally arranged for a song before the sermon. It made possible a certain inspiration of feeling that made his delivery more impressive.
People said to themselves they had never heard such singing even in the First Church. It is certain that if it had not been a church service, her solo would have been vigorously applauded. It even seemed to the minister when she sat down that something like an attempted clapping of hands or a striking of feet on the floor swept through the church. He was startled by it. As he rose, however, and laid his sermon on the Bible, he said to himself he had been deceived. Of course it could not occur. In a few moments he was absorbed in his sermon and everything else was forgotten in the pleasure of his delivery.
No one had ever accused Henry Maxwell of being a dull preacher. On the contrary, he had often been charged with being sensational; not in what he had said so much as in his way of saying it. But the First Church people liked that. It gave their preacher and their parish a pleasant distinction that was agreeable.
It was also true that the pastor of the First Church loved to preach. He seldom exchanged. He was eager to be in his own pulpit when Sunday came. There was an exhilarating half hour for him as he faced a church full of people and know that he had a hearing. He was peculiarly sensitive to variations in the attendance. He never preached well before a small audience. The weather also affected him decidedly. He was at his best before just such an audience as faced him now, on just such a morning. He felt a glow of satisfaction as he went on. The church was the first in the city. It had the best choir. It had a membership composed of the leading people, representatives of the wealth, society and intelligence of Raymond. He was going abroad on a three months vacation in the summer, and the circumstances of his pastorate, his influence and his position as pastor of the First Church in the city—
It is not certain that the Rev. Henry Maxwell knew just how he could carry on that thought in connection with his sermon, but as he drew near the end of it he knew that he had at some point in his delivery had all those feelings. They had entered into the very substance of his thought; it might have been all in a few seconds of time, but he had been conscious of defining his position and his emotions as well as if he had held a soliloquy, and his delivery partook of the thrill of deep personal satisfaction.
The sermon was interesting. It was full of striking sentences. They would have commanded attention printed. Spoken with the passion of a dramatic utterance that had the good taste never to offend with a suspicion of ranting or declamation, they were very effective. If the Rev. Henry Maxwell that morning felt satisfied with the conditions of his pastorate, the First Church also had a similar feeling as it congratulated itself on the presence in the pulpit of this scholarly, refined, somewhat striking face and figure, preaching with such animation and freedom from all vulgar, noisy or disagreeable mannerism.
Suddenly, into the midst of this perfect accord and concord between preacher and audience, there came a very remarkable interruption. It would be difficult to indicate the extent of the shock which this interruption measured. It was so unexpected, so entirely contrary to any thought of any person present that it offered no room for argument or, for the time being, of resistance.
The sermon had come to a close. Mr. Maxwell had just turned the half of the big Bible over upon his manuscript and was about to sit down as the quartet prepared to arise to sing the closing selection,
"All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
All my being's ransomed powers, …
when the entire congregation was startled by the sound of a man's voice. It came from the rear of the church, from one of the seats under the gallery. The next moment the figure of a man came out of the shadow there and walked down the middle aisle. Before the startled congregation fairly realized what was going on the man had reached the open space in front of the pulpit and had turned about facing the people.
I've been wondering since I came in here —they were the words he used under the gallery, and he repeated them— if it would be just the thing to say a word at the close of the service. I'm not drunk and I'm not crazy, and I am perfectly harmless, but if I die, as there is every likelihood I shall in a few days, I want the satisfaction of thinking that I said my say in a place like this, and before this sort of a crowd.
Mr. Maxwell had not taken his seat, and he now remained standing, leaning on his pulpit, looking down at the stranger. It was the man who had come to his house the Friday before, the same dusty, worn, shabby-looking young man. He held his faded hat in his two hands. It seemed to be a favorite gesture. He had not been shaved and his hair was rough and tangled. It is doubtful if any one like this had ever confronted the First Church within the sanctuary. It was tolerably familiar with this sort of humanity out on the street, around the railroad shops, wandering up and down the avenue, but it had never dreamed of such an incident as this so near.
There was nothing offensive in the man's manner or tone. He was not excited and he spoke in a low but distinct voice. Mr. Maxwell was conscious, even as he stood there smitten into dumb astonishment at the event, that somehow the man's action reminded him of a person he had once seen walking and talking in his sleep.
No one in the house made any motion to stop the stranger or in any way interrupt him. Perhaps the first shock of his sudden appearance deepened into a genuine perplexity concerning what was best to do. However that may be, he went on as if he had no thought of interruption and no thought of the unusual element which he had introduced into the decorum of the First Church service. And all the while he was speaking, the minister leanded over the pulpit, his face growing more white and sad every moment. But he made no movement to stop him, and the people sat smitten into breathless silence. One other face, that of Rachel Winslow from the choir, stared white and intent down at the shabby figure with the faded hat. Her face was striking at any time. Under the pressure of the present unheard-of incident it was as personally distinct as if it had been framed in fire.
I'm not an ordinary tramp, though I don't know of any teaching of Jesus that makes one kind of a tramp less worth saving than another. Do you? He put the question as naturally as if the whole congregation had been a small Bible class. He paused just a moment and coughed painfully. Then he went on.
I lost my job ten months ago. I am a printer by trade. The new linotype machines are beautiful specimens of invention, but I know six men who have killed themselves inside of the year just on account of those machines. Of course I don't blame the newspapers for getting the machines. Meanwhile, what can a man do? I know I never learned but the one trade, and that's all I can do. I've tramped all over the country trying to find something. There are a good many others like me. I'm not complaining, am I? Just stating facts. But I was wondering as I sat there under the gallery, if what you call following Jesus is the same thing as what He taught. What did He mean when He said: 'Follow me!'? The minister said, —here he turned about and looked up at the pulpit—"that it is necessary for the disciple of Jesus to follow His steps, and he said the steps are 'obedience, faith, love and imitation.' But I did not hear him tell you just what he meant that to mean, especially the last step. What do you Christians mean by following the steps of Jesus?
"I've tramped through this city for three days trying to find a job; and in all that time I've not had a word of sympathy or comfort except from your minister here, who said he was sorry for me and hoped I would find a job somewhere. I suppose it is because you get so imposed on by the professional tramp that you have lost your interest in any other sort. I'm not blaming anybody, am I? Just stating facts. Of course, I understand you can't all go out of your way to hunt up jobs for other people like me. I'm not asking you to; but what I feel puzzled about is, what is meant by following Jesus. What do you mean when you sing 'I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way?' Do you mean that you are suffering and denying yourselves and trying to save lost, suffering humanity just as I understand Jesus did? What do you mean by it? I see the ragged edge of things a good deal. I understand there are more than five hundred men in this city in my case. Most of them have families. My wife died four months ago. I'm glad she is out of trouble. My little girl is staying with a printer's family until I find a job. Somehow I get puzzled when I see so many Christians living in luxury and singing 'Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee,' and remember how my wife died in a tenement in New York City, gasping for air and asking God to take the little girl too. Of course I don't expect you people can prevent every one from dying of starvation, lack of proper nourishment and tenement air, but what does following Jesus mean? I understand that Christian people own a good many of the tenements. A member of a church was the owner of the one where my wife died, and I have wondered if following Jesus all the way was true in his case. I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other night,
'All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
All my being's ransomed powers,
All my thoughts, and all my doings,
All my days, and all my hours.'
and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they meant by it. It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following His steps? It seems to me sometimes as if the people in the big churches had good clothes and nice houses to live in, and money to spend for luxuries, and could go away on summer vacations and all that, while the people outside the churches, thousands of them, I mean, die in tenements, and walk the streets for jobs, and never have a piano or a picture in the house, and grow up in misery and drunkenness and sin."
The man suddenly gave a queer lurch over in the direction of the communion table and laid one grimy hand on it. His hat fell upon the carpet at his feet. A stir went through the congregation. Dr. West half rose from his pew, but as yet the silence was unbroken by any voice or movement worth mentioning in the audience. The man passed his other hand across his eyes, and then, without any warning, fell heavily forward on his face, full length up the aisle. Henry Maxwell spoke:
We will consider the service closed.
He was down the pulpit stairs and kneeling by the prostrate form before any one else. The audience instantly rose and the aisles were crowded. Dr. West pronounced the man alive. He had fainted away. Some heart trouble, the doctor also muttered as he helped carry him out into the pastor's study.
Henry Maxwell and a group of his church members remained some time in the study. The man lay on the couch there and breathed heavily. When the question of what to do with him came up, the minister insisted on taking the man to his own house; he lived near by and had an extra room. Rachel Winslow said:
Mother has no company at present. I am sure we would be glad to give him a place with us.
She looked strongly agitated. No one noticed it particularly. They were all excited over the strange event, the strangest that First Church people could remember. But the minister insisted on taking charge of the man, and when a carriage came the unconscious but living form was carried to his house; and with the entrance of that humanity into the minister's spare room a new chapter in Henry Maxwell's life began, and yet no one, himself least of all, dreamed of the remarkable change it was destined to make in all his after definition of the Christian discipleship.
The event created a great sensation in the First Church parish. People talked of nothing else for a week. It was the general impression that the man had wandered into the church in a condition of mental disturbance caused by his troubles, and that all the time he was talking he was in a strange delirium of fever and really ignorant of his surroundings. That was the most charitable construction to put upon his action. It was the general agreement also that there was a singular absence of anything bitter or complaining in what the man had said. He had, throughout, spoken in a mild, apologetic tone, almost as if he were one of the congregation seeking for light on a very difficult subject.
The third day after his removal to the minister's house there was a marked change in his condition. The doctor spoke of it but offered no hope. Saturday morning he still lingered, although he had rapidly failed as the week drew near its close. Sunday morning, just before the clock struck one, he rallied and asked if his child had come. The minister had sent for her at once as soon as he had been able to secure her address from some letters found in the man's pocket. He had been conscious and able to talk coherently only a few moments since his attack.
The child is coming. She will be here, Mr. Maxwell said as he sat there, his face showing marks of the strain of the week's vigil; for he had insisted on sitting up nearly every night.
I shall never see her in this world, the man whispered. Then he uttered with great difficulty the words, You have been good to me. Somehow I feel as if it was what Jesus would do.
After a few minutes he turned his head slightly, and before Mr. Maxwell could realize the fact, the doctor said quietly, He is gone.
The Sunday morning that dawned on the city of Raymond was exactly like the Sunday of a week before. Mr. Maxwell entered his pulpit to face one of the largest congregations that had ever crowded the First Church. He was haggard and looked as if he had just risen from a long illness. His wife was at home with the little girl, who had come on the morning train an hour after her father had died. He lay in that spare room, his troubles over, and the minister could see the face as he opened the Bible and arranged his different notices on the side of the desk as he had been in the habit of doing for ten years.
The service that morning contained a new element. No one could remember when Henry Maxwell had preached in the morning without notes. As a matter of fact he had done so occasionally when he first entered the ministry, but for a long time he had carefully written every word of his morning sermon, and nearly always his evening discourses as well. It cannot be said that his sermon this morning was striking or impressive. He talked with considerable hesitation. It was evident that some great idea struggled in his thought for utterance, but it was not expressed in the theme he had chosen for his preaching. It was near the close of his sermon that he began to gather a certain strength that had been painfully lacking at the beginning.
He closed the Bible and, stepping out at the side of the desk, faced his people and began to talk to them about the remarkable scene of the week before.
Our brother, somehow the words sounded a little strange coming from his lips, passed away this morning. I have not yet had time to learn all his history. He had one sister living in Chicago. I have written her and have not yet received an answer. His little girl is with us and will remain for the time.
He paused and looked over the house. He thought he had never


text:
Laura Santhanam Laura Santhanam
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/u-s-evacuates-more-americans-from-china-amid-novel-coronavirus-outbreak
U.S. evacuates more Americans from China amid novel coronavirus outbreak
Health Feb 5, 2020 3:54 PM EST
The United States this week is preparing to receive four more planeloads of Americans airlifted from the epicenter of the novel coronavirus outbreak — Wuhan, China — and place those passengers under federal quarantine orders to monitor their conditions for two weeks to prevent further spread of the illness.
Most virus cases in the world remain in China, where 491 people have died and 24,363 more are sick, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday. Outside of China, one person has died in the Philippines and 191 people in 24 countries have been diagnosed with novel coronavirus, which belongs to the same family of viruses as the common cold, SARS and MERS.
The number of confirmed U.S. cases of novel coronavirus rose to 12 on Wednesday, after a case was confirmed in Wisconsin. A total of 293 people in 36 states are under investigation for the virus, including 206 people who have negative test results in the U.S. and another 76 whose results are pending.
So far, everyone with a confirmed case of novel coronavirus in the U.S. is "doing well," said Nancy Messonnier, director for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.
Meanwhile, the United Nation's health agency is asking the global community for millions in funding to help stop the virus from spreading heedlessly in nations that are less prepared.
More Americans evacuated from China
The planes that will return U.S. citizens from Wuhan, China, land this week at four military bases in three states: Travis Air Force Base and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California, Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, and Eppley Airfield in Nebraska, Messonnier said during a call with reporters Wednesday. She did not have on hand a headcount of how many passengers were on board for those flights.
Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet passengers as they deplane for screening and intake. The passengers then will remain under quarantine for 14 days — the apparent incubation period for the virus — from the time their flight left China.
"The measures we are taking may not catch every single returning traveler" with a possible case of novel coronavirus, Messonnier said. "If we can catch the majority of them, that will slow the entry of the virus into the U.S."
The first flight of 195 Americans evacuated from Wuhan to escape the illness arrived on Jan. 30 in Southern California. On Feb. 11, federal quarantine orders are expected to expire for those passengers, Messonnier said.
Since that flight arrived last month, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared novel coronavirus a public health emergency. The U.S. then implemented travel restrictions on some people attempting to fly into the country from China.
These restrictions include suspending entry for foreign nationals who have traveled to China and who are not immediate family of U.S. citizens or permanent residents. U.S. citizens who have traveled in the last 14 days to Hubei province will undergo medical screening and could be quarantined and monitored for up to 14 days.
The American public is paying attention to news of the outbreak. Two-thirds of U.S. adults said they think novel coronavirus is a real threat, according to a recent survey from the PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist Poll, and 61 percent of Americans think the U.S. government is doing enough to prevent the virus' spread.
WHO asks global community to help fund supplies
Having declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern, On Wednesday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked the global community for $675 million to shore up supplies, including respirators, medical gowns, latex gloves and facial masks, to protect health care workers who will serve as the front lines of fighting this virus in countries with weaker health systems that may lack the capacity to detect or diagnose the virus.
"It's a lot of money, but it is much less than the bill we will face if we do not invest in preparedness now," he said. "We cannot defeat this outbreak without solidarity."
FDA greenlights diagnostic tests to detect virus
That global response will include distributing more diagnostic tests so public health workers can determine who is sick, who is at risk and who needs immediate medical care. Late Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of CDC's tests. Today, more than 100 kits were being shipped out to CDC-approved labs nationwide, Messonnier said, improving capacity and efficiency to detect cases around the country. More diagnostic kits will also be distributed internationally.
While the "current threat to the American public is low," this is a moment of possible pandemic preparation that public health officials have spent years preparing to meet, using lessons learned while fighting influenza as "the foundation for our response to this virus," Messonnier said. She cautioned that nothing should be taken for granted, and that it could be a long time before the global effort to control novel coronavirus could pay off.
"Despite the years of planning, we need to remain humble and expect we may have not planned for everything," Messonnier said.
Left: An aircraft, chartered by the U.S. State Department to evacuate Americans from the novel coronavirus outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, arrives at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California, on Feb. 5, 2020. Photo by REUTERS/Denis Poroy
Novel coronavirus unknowns complicate quarantines around the world
By Kim Tong-Hyung, Associated Press
Most Americans think novel coronavirus is a real threat, poll says
By Laura Santhanam
U.S. restricts travelers from China amid novel coronavirus threat
WATCH: Health officials unveil strategy to combat novel coronavirus in the U.S.
Track the spread of novel coronavirus with this map
Laura Santhanam is the Data Producer for the PBS NewsHour. Follow @LauraSanthanam
@LauraSanthanam


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One flew off but the other joined the audience and then proceeded to have a standoff with security before being shooed away.
MALIBU - A video is going viral of two pellicans crashing the Pepperdine University graduation ceremony. One flew off but the other joined the audience and then proceeded to have a standoff with security before being shooed away.
The Pepperdine campus is situated in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean.