John, when you drafted Chick out of Maryland, what stood out about his performance that made you want him to become a Titan? Well, I think it was his versatility. You know, they used him in a lot of different areas offensively. He played on the end of the line of scrimmage. He played detached in the slot. He played wing. He played fullback. He was athletic. You could see his speed, his fluidity and route. He was good with the ball in his hands after the catch and was competitive as a blocker. So just a lot of different roles as he played there for Maryland and, you know, he's improved on those here. Speaking of good with the ball in his hands, what about Tiaartart? That was some kind of interception he made in Indianapolis. Yeah, big play for us defensively. He was gripping it after the game tighter than a kid with a new toy at Christmas, I think.  You know, we've gotten some versatility moving some guys around with flexible pieces here and there. And, you know, Tiaart continues to improve and we're going to need that down the stretch here the rest of the season. What allowed you to get the running game going at Indianapolis in spite of the fact that the Colts were number three in the league against the run? Well, I thought we did a much better job of hitting our landmarks as blockers. You know, that was something that we focused on all week was getting to the right angles, getting to the right spots on the blocks so that Derek could get going. Derek had got some speed built up. He was able to punch through the line pretty good. There were a couple runs in the second half that were, you know, we got caught up in the fray a little bit, but they were really, really close to punching through as well. Looking at the commander's offense, a lot of versatile pieces. What's the challenge of trying to defend them? Well, they do. They've got a lot of pieces over there. You know, Gibson in the running back, he played down the road at Memphis. He played slot receiver there at Memphis and they use him out of the backfield somewhere, Washington that way as well. Catches the ball well. He's got great highway speed. They're really fast at receiver.  Samuel plays in the slot. He's a great catch and run player. Dotson's the first round pick out of Penn State. Really good route runner, really fast, good with a ball in his hands as well. And then Wentz, he's big, he's athletic, he's got a big arm, he can extend plays. So they've got a lot of threats over there on the offensive side of the football. All right, John, as we wrap up, one, two in a row, what do you want to continue to improve upon as this team heads to Washington this weekend? Well, I think it's those details that we talked about last week that, you know, kind of came up in the second half, some that we executed in the first half. It's staying on those landmarks in the run game. It's hitting some of those targets on the pass plays to give us a few chunk plays. Defensively, it's continuing to stay stingy against the run. You know, we did a great job against Indianapolis stopping the run. We got to continue to affect the passer and not give up a handful of chunk plays down the field to allow drives to keep going.


Hi everybody and welcome back to our blog from the Kamasutra to 2020 where we respond to your questions, your concerns, even your worries around all things to do with sex and sexuality. So as always we have with us Dr. Anvita Madan Bahel. Anvita is a psychosexual therapist and she brings the clinical perspective to the advice that the Kamasutra has to give. Welcome Anvita. Thank you Seema and welcome to our blog this week. So Anvita, I thought today let's discuss the question of masturbation. Again, it's one of those questions that so many people write in about and it's men and women, dozens and dozens of messages every single week on this one subject. And even though some of them are very specific, most of them cover the same issue, the concern, the fear, the worry around masturbating, whether it's good for you whether it's sinful or not. And I think I can understand to some extent because I know that from our growing up years, there have been so many myths around masturbation. I mean there's so much guilt attached to it. We've been told constantly it's a bad thing. If you masturbate, it'll lead to blindness. This will happen that, you know, it's just been such a bad thing altogether. And I think it's generally because the idea of pleasure was such a bad thing around sex that you were told that anything that was pleasurable was just not okay altogether. And I think that's where the myths generally came from. But when it comes to masturbation, what are your thoughts on it? I think first let's define masturbation for maybe some of the viewers who don't know what we're talking about. Masturbation is self-pleasure, basically individuals pleasure themselves and there might or might not be a second person. So it's a relationship between an individual and them pleasuring themselves. This is gender agnostic, so both men and women masturbate. And it's one of the most normal or natural or healthy things that people participate in. Because a lot of times it can release a lot of our sexual energy and also help us build a relationship with our sexuality. That's how we get to know what we like and we dislike. I'm so glad to hear you say that. I know you've always said that the psychological community within this arena, they always feel that it's a good thing for people. And yet every single question, no matter what part of masturbation they address, whether it's men or women, the last sentence is always, is it okay? Is it a sin? And I find it so frustrating that we look at every part of our sexuality as something bad, as something sinful. And the idea that this is just something that you're doing for yourself, for your own pleasure to release stress, it should not be considered a sin and certainly not be considered bad. And I think that, like you mentioned earlier, because sex and sexuality is so consumed by morality and stigma and taboo and all of those things, that the idea that sex should only be something that we do to have babies and nothing else. And masturbation is very much of our self pleasure. There's no babies being produced by it. There's no partner in the picture. It's only me and myself in some ways in this. And it is purely for self pleasure, or like you said, it has been proven that it helps with stress release and people feel relaxed after it. They feel calmer or more peaceful after it. And also that it is, you know, for younger people, they are learning about their body through masturbation, you know, because it's sometimes difficult to have a partner. So the first step of actually understanding your own body and your sexual self might or might not be masturbation. You know, that's always the second question is, is it bad for my health? So I guess you answered that by saying it is definitely not bad for your mental health. Is it bad for your physical health? No, not at all. We found no links between masturbation and any medical illness, as in there are no links between those two. And then it has never seemed to have a correlation with a physical or a medical problem. Excellent. So the next one that I that I'm kind of going with the ones that you get the most amount of questions on the next one is always I'm addicted to masturbation. And so and I know that we've worked with a lot of clients on that question together, because that comes always as a concern. And a lot of times when I ask them when you say what do you mean by addicted, they would say, Oh, I masturbate three times in a week, or I masturbate every day. So firstly, I think people should ask the question of what does being addicted to masturbation mean, you know, it's not even we have a book called the DSM five, it's not even a disorder in the DSM five. So is there really a thing called addicted to masturbation. So if I simplify it a little bit, there is nothing, you know, if you're addicted to anything, be it masturbation, alcohol, you know, sex, porn, whatever, the criteria simply will be, is it interfering with your daily functioning. So are you not being able to go to work, are you not being able to eat, are you not being able to attend your responsibilities as a partner or as a family member or, you know, you're not reaching meetings on time and you're getting delayed or as a student you're not actually attending classes. If it is interfering with your daily functioning, then yes, there is something to be concerned about. But however, if you're masturbating once twice or five times, but you're being able to attend to all your responsibilities, then we don't call it addiction in any way. So don't worry so much. If you're masturbating, maybe even multiple times a day. There is nothing known as addiction. The only thing I know we mentioned it in one session before is that if you masturbate too much, you might feel soreness. They might, you know, they might because of the friction, they might be a little bit of swelling or discomfort that you might experience. But that's because of the excessive, you know, friction that is taking place. And masturbating is not going to reduce a man's ability to have children, for instance, not going to suddenly decrease his sperm count or something.  Semen does not come in a finite quantity. It is unlimited. There are unlimited supplies of it. So just because you masturbate, it doesn't mean that, you know, there is a pot of semen and that pot of semen will get over. There is an unlimited supply. So in some ways it's like a tap, you're just opening it and then, but there is a flow always there, you know, there's a supply of semen always there. Tell me something. There has been one person who's written and said that since he started masturbating, he finds that he's losing weight and that he feels that his, his penis is actually becoming thinner. Now, do you think that this is something that can happen with masturbation or do you think that this person needs to seek help because it might be another issue altogether? Yeah, you know, I think one would have to investigate this further than just give a simple answer as they masturbation has no correlation with losing weight.  Now, there could be reasons for why the blood doesn't rush in and they could be some medical reasons behind it. But, but I think what would be important is to go and get a medical checkup done. I don't, but there is no correlation between weight loss and masturbation. Okay, now there's also a bunch of people who've written in and this is on both sides of the spectrum.  And others who said we've stopped masturbating now and now our erections have become weak. Yeah, you know, I just, I once again, there is, there is no correlation between erections and masturbation. There might have been something that has happened while you were masturbating that maybe is not letting you have a full erection, you know, it could be a bad experience or a bad thought. Then, and there might be something there that's more psychological.  That's not something that can happen. You know, it's not a bone that can break. So that also, but I know people worry a lot about that. And that's not something that can happen. It's incredible how much actually people worry about this idea of masturbation.  And I just don't understand. And I know that you've said that there's no correlation between health and masturbation that the medical community have found. But I've actually said all these questions, because these are the ones coming in and I want people to hear it, literally to know that it's okay. You know, that's why I'm asking you to actually articulate it. So thank you so much for saying that, Anwarth. And I really hope it puts a lot of people's mind to rest now. So I just want to say something. So one of the things that we need to consider is that there are some medical conditions that will impact people's erection quality, right? And that will be something to do with cardiovascular disease or diabetes. And that impacts people's quality of erection, you know, how soon or how long they can have an erection. And that is actually sometimes when there is an inability to have an erect penis, if there's an erectile disorder, one of the first things we say is, have you gone and checked for sugar and any heart disease? So that is a correlation. You know, there is a medical correlation there. But there's no correlation with masturbation.  And if you've just eaten, the body's energy goes towards digesting the food. So yeah, there are different times when it's not useful to try and have sex, but because you won't have good sex. But that's not necessarily to do with masturbating or not masturbating. Again, with that, now I want to address yet another myth. Now, whenever we talk about masturbation, we only ever talk about men. But of course, women also masturbate. They equally self pleasure. But we somehow don't seem to consider it as much. And I don't know why. And interestingly, women, of course, as I'm sure you're going to talk about this masturbation. So many different ways because they have the capacity to masturbate almost mentally sometimes without even penetrating or touching any part of their body. But what is also really interesting is that the kamasutra has quite a lot to say about women's masturbation. Now, it doesn't talk very much about men's masturbation, but it does speak a great deal about women's masturbation because it says that a woman takes so much longer to come to pleasure. And that it was very important to bring a woman to pleasure before sex even was started because it takes her that much longer to have her orgasm. And so there are entire chapters written about how to use the fingers to pleasure a woman.  And that it doesn't necessarily have to be done by herself alone that her partner also had to learn how to be able to pleasure her in this way. So that is really interesting because I feel so much of it is lost, you know, I feel like today women truly believe that masturbation is only for men, they don't even try it. When in our clinics we ask what's your masturbation routine because that's a set question that we ask everybody and they look at us and they think masturbate like women don't masturbate. And it is, you know, and but there's some women who will say oh I started masturbating at this age I masturbate every day and they have a whole routine. And then the others would just look at you like that's the craziest idea that I'm asking you know that that doesn't exist. And like you said, women masturbate in very many different ways.  So what I do want to say is that a clitoral when you you know masturbate clitori when you're trying to pleasure the clitoris. That's the easiest way to masturbate so it might not every individual is different so they might find pleasure in different ways. But I'm just saying that the clitoral masturbation is the easiest masturbation. And of course there's some women who will use vibrators or fingers and other things. So that is something that is possible. Sorry. I was just going to say you know which is my favorite from the one that the Kamasutra says it's really interesting because like you said, some people will use fingers and so on and sort of penetrate more deeply. So it talks about different types of fingers and it says that in Ayurveda, each finger has its own energy so there's earth, air, water, wind and fire. And it says that when you combine fingers in different ways, the energy changes and the shape of your fingers changes so you could have three fingers together you could have two, you could have this and this I mean there are all sorts of combinations. The shape changes the energy changes and hence the sensations change. And it's an entire study on it. And it also says I must add that the forefinger is not good to use on its own because it's too powerful, and it won't pleasure you it'll just agitate you so just for women out there who are listening.  One of them had a little conquer in it like a little bell. And the other one would have a drop of mercury in it.  And as you did your housework the mercury would get heated up and it would actually vibrate and it would pleasure you while you did your housework it would just keep you happy. And the musical sound was supposed to just be a really good accompaniment to the whole thing. And I just think it's fantastic that so much thought went into the pleasure of women. I, you know, I, it's, it's so exciting to hear you say that and at the same time I feel so sad because I think we've lost so much of it and where I think men because the penis is in the exterior. It just becomes an automatic thing and people think I need to pleasure it I need to like figure it out I just know how to masturbate various masturbation is so essential for women. Because that's where they learn about their body that's where they learn about the different parts of the vagina. And so many women don't know and might be in a relationship and don't know where the penis should penetrate you know which part of it. So I actually so heartwarming to hear everything that was written and so exciting and I really wish some of these traditions come back and women try it. And you know I'm with this little thing with the two silver balls was so popular that it actually became a black market trade during the East India Company's time in India. Because the the East India officials would actually come there and they'd heard about these magical little silver balls and everybody was wanting to buy these up. And the locals in India decided that they could sell them with some other liquid instead of mercury. Because it was cheaper and easier to find another liquid than fill it with mercury.  This is how you test out whether or not it's the real thing or not so it was. I mean I'm just fascinated with the fact that this idea of women's pleasure was obviously not such a bad or secret thing but it's just been treated as such a bad thing. Seema I think it's time to start a line from your name Seema Anand Silver Balls. I think we need that production again. I think you'll have lots of people wanting these silver balls. I think it sounds fascinating that it was there and it would be joined with Kegel exercises. We can just make them a little bit better and then it could be Kegel exercises as well. Absolutely. Actually the Kegel exercises, do you want to tell our audiences about maybe one little Kegel exercise that they could try just, you know, in terms of measuring themselves. Yeah, yeah. So a Kegel exercise or pelvic floor exercises is something that we suggest to both men and women to relax their pelvic floor muscles. And it is really, really essential, especially for women, especially after pregnancy if they've delivered a baby, the vaginal muscles tend to become a little bit weak. And literally all you need to do for men and women both is basically squeeze your buttock in your, you know, vaginal area basically as if you were going to stop pee. Like if you had a pee coming and you're stopping how to pee, like exactly just squeeze it, count it maybe five and then relax.  Just contract your muscles count to five and then relax and you can do this sitting anywhere anytime. People don't notice I just did two while talking to you while explaining so you can do it anywhere and it's really helpful for the pelvic floor muscles. And I think that's a really good one I do hope everybody will try it after they've heard us talk about this. I know that you've already said that the medical community do not think that there is anything harmful or bad about masturbating. It is a good thing. Generally, it's really beneficial. But I'm going to ask you this question one more time because again the women have written in each time and said, does it impact women's health in any way. It does not impact in women's health in any way. In fact, I would say it definitely helps in their sexual and mental health, it helps them. Because think about it suddenly you're aware of your body suddenly you'll be aware of, is there a sensation is there burning is there you know is penetration possible, you will learn so much about it. One of the things that we really need to understand is masturbation allows us to fantasize and imagine where we find pleasure, you know places fantasies body you know what we like. And that's half the battle when we think about having sex, you know, it's about the thoughts are present the feelings are present, and then we can move on to the physical aspect. So in some ways it's a really amazing tool to connect with our fantasies. And I want to say actually under that that I find in men and women of course but particularly in women because the narrative has been that pleasure is really for the man it's not necessarily for the woman that the idea of finding your own source of pleasure to know that you actually feel it that you have that ability inside you is very empowering. It actually makes you feel a lot better about yourself to know that you have a source of pleasure, and that you are permitted to have that source of pleasure. Absolutely and I, you know, so many times we work with women because it always becomes is like you teach my partner my partner is not getting it right my thing, and we keep saying, you are responsible for your own sexual pleasure, own it, learn it, find out about it. And when we accept that sexual pleasure is something that we enjoy and we like and we want half the battle is one automatically you will see that your sex life will become better. Like you said the problem is there's so much to boo and shame around it that we actually build a relationship of guilt and shame, rather than of empowerment and feeling pleasure, when it comes to masturbation. So I think if we are going to leave everybody with a gist of everything that we've said that, you know, the medical community do not think that there is any correlation between masturbation and illness. As a matter of fact, they believe that it's a good thing, and that you recommend that everybody should masturbate at some point or the other to either release stress release their sexual energy, or even just to access their own sexuality and to build a relationship with themselves. Is there anything that you want to say about age, like, is it, does it make a difference what age you are. Absolutely not like we will be surprised that you know that we will still find a way women even in the ages of like 70s 80s or men and the ages of like 70s 80 still continue to masturbate. Obviously it might take a little bit longer. They might actually also find ways of masturbating without an erection or women might use lubrication because they might be vaginal dryness, but age has no correlation. The only thing that I would say is that, that, you know, when we meet a lot of young people, a lot of people in maybe college and otherwise, they speak about frequently masturbating, you know, multiple masturbating maybe multiple times a day. And sometimes they get scared by that idea. They think, Oh my God, there must be something wrong with me. Why do I need it so many times. Because it's not interfering in your daily functioning. Don't worry about it. It's just the hormones and it's just the excitement of it. It's all right. There's nothing wrong with you. And you know what I would like to say if I had to give the advice from the Kamasutra because Kamasutra is very much about pleasure, and wherever they feel that two people can find pleasure together they really really recommend that. What I would like to say is take a leaf out of the Kamasutra and see if you can actually help each other to masturbate if you do have a partner, a lot of people masturbate because sometimes they're on their own. And sometimes they feel that it's something that should be done by themselves. It's actually a great way to pleasure each other. It makes a difference from regular sex, which means that it'll add a bit of variety to your sexual life, but actually help each other masturbate or do it for the other person and you'll find that it adds a lot of excitement and just a little bit of spice to whatever you're doing. Yeah, and don't judge your partner for masturbating. So many couples come and ask and we ask them, what is your masturbation routine? And they're like, oh, I have a committed partner now. How can I masturbate? The other person will feel offended. You know, just because you have a partner doesn't mean masturbation needs to stop. It is something that you're doing for your own pleasure, your own sexual health and everything. And if you are a partner, don't feel offended if somebody's masturbating. Like, think about it, say if you masturbated in the morning fantasizing your partner, the next time you have sex, it'll be very exciting. So stop judging masturbation. A lot of people judge it and think, oh, it's only meant when you're single. It's totally normal that couples, each individual couple will masturbate at some point or the other. You can have sex and you can masturbate. That is a really brilliant point, actually. I hadn't thought of that and I think you're so right because when people are in a committed relationship, they feel guilty because they think, no, no, this is the wrong thing to do because now I have somebody and they try and hide it from each other even more. So yeah, don't judge each other for this. And they actually then make it all dirty. They'll do it in the toilet, on top of a toilet, not in a nice place and especially for women, they might hide themselves rather than have candles around them while they're masturbating. So it then actually makes the relationship even worse. You feel more guilty, more dirty about it. It's normal, it's natural. Do it openly. Talk to your partner if you have. It will be part of the foreplay if you speak about that you thought of them and masturbated or masturbated thinking of a fantasy. So it'll be part of the foreplay. I love that. Thank you. I hope that we have managed to bust some of the myths. I hope that we've managed to put some of your concerns at rest and I certainly hope that we've managed to answer most of the questions that you've sent in. As always on the video, do like, comment, subscribe. If you have more questions, send them in. God, I always forget my email address. info.seema.onan at gmail.com. And of course if you need to consult with Anvita, connect with her directly on anvita madanbehealth.com. We'll see you next week. We'll see you next week.


Appalachian Wireless has a plan to make your life simpler. It's called forward pay. No contract, no credit check, no problem. Plans start in 1999 a month and include unlimited talk and text or ticket to the max with unlimited data plus for only 89.99, which has 50 gig of high speed data because we are you. We are Appalachian Wireless. Shaping our Appalachian region, also known as SOAR, in collaboration with seven other nonprofit organizations are taking actions to support small business recovery in the areas affected by the catastrophic flooding. Really in the hours after the disaster on July 28th, we all started communicating. We all worked together 365 days a year anyways. We're working advocating for small businesses and helping those with ideas launch businesses. And then really in the wake of this flooding disaster, we wanted to figure out a way that we could work with a sense of urgency to expedite and coordinate information specifically related to small businesses and emergency loans that were in place by a lot of our nonprofit partners that are CDFIs. And they are lenders that are working in the business community a year round. Those organizations worked immediately to set up emergency loans that are available. Some of these are no interest for a while, low interest, really good terms and things like that. So we wanted to get that information out to business owners that were impacted. SOAR, Mountain Association, Southeast Kentucky Economic Development, and many others are going into communities to spread information and resources to those in need of help in recovering their small business. You know, instead of operating in seven silos, we're in communities and we're at centers and we're working and when one individual is there for a small group, we are representing all seven of the nonprofits that are a part of this so that we don't operate in silos and that we can disseminate the information to those families and businesses that have been impacted in an efficient way and to be able to serve them, you know, if we can as quick as we can to get them the right information and to get them through the process to get their rebuilding started. Small businesses are the backbone of many communities and many who own small businesses have not only lost their business, but also their homes. You know, if we don't have small businesses, our communities lose their, they really lose their character and, you know, we can't recruit large industry, you know, into the region if we don't have a good small business backbone. So, you know, it's important to serve to serve these businesses and do everything we can to make sure that they can rebuild and that these main streets and streets in general can eventually come back to what it used to be. Those seeking information about the small business recovery effort can visit the SOAR website at sore-ky.org. There are resources there for both government and non-government assistance. For Mountain Top News, I'm Kelsey Dean.


Hi, I'm Sandrine, Head Educator at ProNeil's and today I want to give you more info about the Extreme Matte View Formula. So the Extreme Matte is a brush on gloss in a bottle. It will give your nail a fantastic matte finishing look and also under any kind of ProNeil's lamp you will get a fantastic matte result. So this matte result is very long lasting and is also non yellowing. Now how do we apply the Extreme Matte? It's very easy. You have the brush inside so you place it like another gloss above the color gel. You will apply it over five nails at the same time.  You do your five nails. When it's wet, it's shiny but then you cure it under the smart light for 30 seconds full and when it's finished the nails comes out perfectly matte and it's also without a sticky layer. So if you are a matte addict, go for the Extreme Matte.


This survey course covering concepts and computational thinking in computer science is well suited to students that are interested in technology and want to get an overview of how computer science is used in different fields. In this hands-on class with multiple projects, students will learn about the principles of computer science by exploring topics like how algorithms shape our world, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and programming languages like Python, HTML, CSS, scratch, JavaScript and mathematical modeling. Students will meet mentors, leaders and historic figures in a wide variety of STEM careers and discuss some of the obstacles they faced. The class is fun and challenging. Students will leave excited about future STEM coursework and possibilities for careers in STEM fields.


It was great to be involved today talking about the global digital market. I think there were some really great points. We need some uniformity. We need to look at educating kids. They need to be educated to look at the importance of purchasing music and the value of music. I think once we do that, certainly that's a really good start in terms of helping with the streaming and making it more effective.


Please subscribe to this YouTube channel mentor. Talk can do press bell button for notifications. Well, let us now discuss the public speaking techniques from the action place. This is when the actual public speaking is happening. Firstly, regain composure and self-control. Anxiety is an emotion which is integral part of any human being. The degrees of anxiety and apprehension may vary from person to person, but it is there in each one of us. Once you have got it under control, your potential to speak or do for anything for that matter optimizes your potential optimizes once your anxiety is under control. Do not attempt to display your importance or position by reaching just on time or a little late at the event where you are speaking just to exercise your dominance. Don't do that. You should reach the venue of speaking fairly in advance so that you get the complete idea, you know, sense and feel of the ambience and the mood and the vibe all around the whole interaction before your session commences will put you at ease and calm your anxious emotions further. You get to know exactly and literally the, you know, the format of your session. It will also give you an opportunity to set up your notebook or PowerPoint, position yourself and test any ancillary audio visual equipment so that there are no last movement, you know, glitches, you know, and end those last movement or last minute glitches, you know, can really spoil the whole public speaking module and put you in an unnecessary strain. Secondly, start with comfort and reassurance. When commencing your talk and speech, do not sound or look flustered or histy, keep your body language calm and reach out to the audience with some expressions of greetings. To begin with, this, you know, shows you are in control and any command.  This is like channelizing the attention of the audience. Give a brief introduction about yourself, brief introduction about yourself if you are not already introduced. Then, you know, introduce fleetingly, you know, about the theme or the talk of your talk or speech. This, you know, connects the audience and the speaker.  Audience will love honesty. Have a joke or two handy to crack for a nervous situation. Acknowledge that you are good in everything you do. You're good in being nervous as well. Turn it into your favor by saying that, you know, for example, saying that, you know, an applause or two makes my nervousness disappear. So why not you cheer me up once? You could say something like that or something similar, you know, to kind of break the ice and and to to bring your anxiety levels to under control. Thirdly, keep your volume moderately high. Yes, keep your volume moderately high, but tempo and pitch low and slow. Try to differentiate. You should be loud enough to be heard by all in the audience without them requiring making any effort, extra effort to hear you.   They speak as if, you know, they're they're running a marathon. Never ever commit that mistake. Be concise and clear and easily understandable. Do not sound as if you have to catch a flight next minute. Use simple vocabulary. Fourthly, visually engage with the audience. As I had mentioned in one of my previous videos, when you address and speak to the audience, you should be looking at them. This creates a natural attention span between you and the audience or between the audience and you by looking. I do not mean looking at them.   Imagine that even if they are in hundreds, then you know, do not shake your body, but feel free to look at different in different directions in the audience so that no section or segment of audience is left out. Try having eye contact with as many people as possible in the audience. Yes, that's very important because the, you know, this establishes a sense of belongingness and natural and introduces a natural, I would say, mutual mutual respect between the speaker and the audience. Play to the gallery. That's my fifth point. When you're speaking, have complete presence of mind and be fully aware of how audience is reacting. If they applaud, give a pause and let them enjoy that movement of response. And you also enjoy that recognition and acknowledgement where they reflect some confusion through their facial expressions elucidate that point of communication little more so that they understand it better. Where you find them unsettled, try to divert by divert their attention by sharing some anecdote or a humorous piece of information or a comical illustration. This is known as reboot technique to bring back the audience into an attention span. Or you could even share a short brain stimulating quiz to get the audience more attentive and involved. While speaking, feel free to move your arms and hands as you must have noticed. I'm moving my hands and arms, but in moderation and it should synchronize with your script. This is known as body language. Then sixth point, be your own judge. Do not get entangled in a thought of rejection. Or apprehension. This is a common feeling, you know, many speakers get the moment they climb up on the stage to speak. They start to think and get in a web of fear regarding how the audience will react.  You should just be concerned about your delivery of speech or talk when you are on the stage period. And you will you will see yourself things falling in place and do not sound like a preacher or a teacher, you know, or some sort of a spiritual guru, but sound like a communicator, a friend, a philosopher and guide. Well, friends, this ends the third lecture, video lecture and finally, you know, we will move to the to the final lecture in the next video, which is about, you know, technical specifications regarding virtual public speaking and video talks, including webinars. Please subscribe to this YouTube channel mentor talk and do press bell button for notifications.


Okay, thank you. Okay, I'm gonna start counting now. Okay, I was going to make a presentation that was a much more objective about equality and politics, but I was told by Philip Road that no, what they were interested in was a very personal account of personal experiences, so I will be talking about personal experiences But first, I like to say that private ownership and the market by themselves may produce great restaurants or wonderful computers But they do not produce great cities Cities are community products and governments regardless of whether we like them or not are the best Representation for communities even kings or sultans did Adam Smith Thought us how wonderful it was that selfish interests Produced the best for all because each person trying to become richer produce the best products at the lowest cost But what is good for the be what Adam Smith said is not necessarily correcting cities for example each person in a selfish way may want everybody may want to use his private car but if everybody uses them at the same time the city may collapse and Clearly we cannot let developers do whatever they want with land if it was for private interests Maybe they would not be even public space for streets much less for parks for or for anything so they clearly Cities is an area in society where regardless of our belief in the efficiency of the market We need a lot of intervention the market by itself. I also As I was was told to say a private thing in a couple of weeks I will receive this Gothenburg award for sustainable development For things that I did in as a mayor, but actually I never tried to do sustainable development when I was mayor What I was trying to do was to do to create equity social equity Quality of life and what is surprising is that there is no contradiction But not only there is not a contradiction But the same policies apply when we are talking here about walking and cycling and busways We did these things not because we were trying to create sustainability But because we were trying to create equity and it's good to mention here that Columbia Bogotá has about half the income per capita of Istanbul about but still it would take us if we grow very fast Maybe a five six percent annually in Columbia more than a hundred years To reach what is today London's income per capita not to catch up to London But to reach what is today London's so it's Important for Istanbul or for India or for any city to to really be careful not to try to copy Technologies that are not related We wanted quality pedestrian spaces in order to improve people's lives for equality Sakes to show respect for human dignity Sustainability I would say begins with social sustainability with equity and democracy Every concept I don't know the Turkish Constitution But I'm sure the first article in the Turkish Constitution as in any other Constitution says that all citizens are equal before the law And a consequence of that is that public good prevails over private interest This is not just poetry if public good prevails over private interest for example, there should not be private waterfronts Especially not around in urban areas This is democracy does not communism if public good prevails over private interest for example a boss with a hundred people Has a right to a hundred times more road space Than a car with one person This is and also I would say we cannot have equality today in the market economy But you can have equality of quality of life at least for children But seeking the public good as I am going to tell you is Very painful and very difficult as we are going to try to do for a for a goal Children children we have to seek quality equality Maybe not of income but equality of quality of life for children that all children should have the same possibility Of realizing their potential of being happy Children in great nurseries schools parks libraries sports facilities, and this is not things that the private sector is going to provide Government is needed to provide all these things so We built lots hundreds of Children nurseries schools great now Bogota not only my administration, but others we have maybe a hundred and fifty great schools in the poorest neighborhoods and slums But if we invest in roads Like this and we forget these lumps. We are not going to achieve these things So we you have to if you want to build great libraries and schools and parks perhaps you have to cut a little bit in the main Thing that absorbs government money developing cities, which is road infrastructure So you can build great schools libraries these library seasons for example, which we built now We are taking almost five hundred thousand people every month And all of these things were possible because we decided instead of making giant road infrastructure to restrict car use And instead to invest in housing schools parks and the life There are other things in which the market does not work well Clearly we have slums everywhere in the planet in developing world It's not because all mayors are stupid It's impossible all over the world is clearly because the system does not work Private property and the market do not work well in the case of land around growing cities when prices go up It's not as in the tomato production the the supply of land does not increase and so the market does not work So you there has to be in order for environmental reasons. This is in Bogota You wouldn't imagine Bogota is very healing of what has hundreds of thousands of hectares of flat hectares But this is in private hands such as this So clearly the market does not work. This is why countries such as in Sweden or in Finland all land around growing cities Belongs to government here. I heard in Turkey most land belongs to government around the cities, but unfortunately also sometimes Private pressures end up making this government land being managed almost as if it were private land So we made this kind of I think we have to buy land around the cities do great urban design And only then private builders can be great building homes, but not in generally doing great urbanism The city types of things that were done Private pressures not only have problems for low-income housing also They create these type of things the low density environments Which of course is terrible for for energy consumption for transport for quality of life But why Why do we have these things? It was because it was a great plan in the united states to produce suburbs No, it was because every time there was a traffic jam They went and made bigger roads If we do that sooner or later, we will end up with this Even in europe where they have the best land use controls in the planet They ended up to a large extent after the world war two with similar things. Maybe not so bad as this So density is the most important element of good transport But upper-income citizens are going to these things all over the developing world happily not so much in istanbul Why do they go there? istanbul has a wonderful density Why haven't they had more suburbs? Thanks not to great planning perhaps but more to traffic jams They are the most useful tool to create density There are more intelligent ways to achieve that but that's a useful one This is what we have in bogota. Why do people use public transport there in bogota? It's because they love public transport the environment No for decemberis and they use it in london or manhattan because they have to Because it's quicker or cheaper or something like this. Why do people go to the suburbs? It's not because they are stupid It's because they seek green or places for their children to ride bicycles So I think it's possible to achieve higher densities And provide the same things people are seeking these suburbs a lot of green safe spaces For people to for children to play for example, I would see central park as a vaccine against suburbanization This thing by the way was created when new york was in around 1960 When new york was much poorer than any developing country city today And we are not doing unfortunately much of this This in bogota see how similar it is Except this is a country club in a highly dense area. So we So we started to the effort to turn this into a public park the most exclusive country club in the city very painful Very difficult. We only achieved to turn the polo fields into a public park But This is the type of fight that you have to do if you have democracy. It's very difficult So you have parks parks again and plazas here these things are necessary. This is not some sort It's as necessary if we think plain is unnecessary It's not it's as necessary as schools or hospitals or roads I like you to see this picture This is the same picture as the next one. We are going to see this is the space for children This is what we did and this is this the same picture The space for cars Look the space for children and the sidewalks. What do you do first? I would love to do both But if you don't have enough money Public space is a government product again like this Jaika the japanese agency had proposed the cooperation agency which proposes highways and subways all over the planet Uh had proposed an eight lane highway We did a 35 kilometer greenway linking some of the poorest to the richest areas in the city of bogota and tens of thousands of people ride to bicycles We also did another project which is interesting at 24 kilometer Pedestrian and bicycle street through the poorest areas of the city where the city was going to grow The the citizens did not want initially because they preferred the traditional paving of the streets So we have to do a lot of communication and talking to communities and they it transformed their lives because it showed respect for the human dignity They feel important It's an even underground cables 24 kilometer now the city is all around it except once you are not a major It's hard to get into a helicopter It's a 24 kilometer pedestrian street. And I think this is the kind of thing now that the city is growing around it Look at the car in the mud and then next to it defensive pedestrian street Of course in these low-income neighborhoods 99 percent the people don't have cars But it's a different way of consuming cities But this is not just for the poor. This is in germany I think anybody here's life would be Greatly better if a few blocks from their home they could enter at 100 or 200 kilometer network of pedestrian and bicycle streets only just to sit to ride a bicycle to ride It's a radically different way of organizing a city And it's very simple And it's very difficult perhaps in new york or paris, but it's very easy in the new areas Cities where the new cities are growing such as in developing countries in india in kenya We could have hundreds thousands of kilometers of this with completely Irresistible for mobility for quality of life for everything And it's just a matter of political decision and a little imagination of things doing cities different than have been done before This is again in muster in germany Quality sidewalks or pavements. I don't know how they call them in here I would say that's the most what really makes a difference between an advance and a backward city is not highways Even in the poorest african cities where they don't even have water they have highways What really makes a difference between an advance and a backward cities If you were talking in terms of infrastructure is quality sidewalks But low income people are not even conscious. They have a right to this like this is in india or in kenya They are not even conscious They have this right on the country the upper income people who have the They are the owners of the television stations the newspaper They can convince the poor that to make a great highways great progress even when they don't have a place to walk So it's very difficult for a politician to fight for these things Especially because most of the time you have to get cars out of here For example here we went yesterday from here to the restaurant all along the the waterfront like 15 kilometers And first of all it's sad that we have a such a high velocity road next to the waterfront But worse that there were cars parked all along the waterfront 15 kilometers all along from here to the restaurant we went It was called. Well, what a side-hulling paschal yalisi or what I don't know how to say it So This is Lack of democracy. This is what it shows that citizens with cars are first-class citizens and those who walk are third-class citizens I was almost impeached for doing this kind of thing getting cars out of sidewalks We had many advertising We told in tv, for example, just as people cannot we had this uh, we don't have time because Showing just as cars as people cannot be in the middle of the street We had some people playing cards in the middle of the road and hey having a traffic jam Cars cannot be in the space for of people. We also taught people that sidewalks are not relatives of streets They are not for going from one place to another. They are relatives of parks and so It's absurd. It's just as absurd to say that you can Park have a parking bay as well as having enough space for people to walk by as it would be to say that you could turn the main park Or plaza in a city into an opener parking lot so long as you live in no space between cars for people to walk by My team. I mean I was almost impeached in this process It was very painful My team told me we should Let go We even had to send my 12 year old daughter out abroad because it was such a horrible Environment the whole city was because the upper income people were against that only 22 percent of homes in bogota have cars But they have all the power so it was extremely difficult But this is the kind of thing that is painful at first But people will love it in the end So this is the kind of cycles that we did We also told them I mean parking is not a constitutional right Governments have many obligations governments have to provide roads education hospitals Anyway, let's go quickly shopping malls are a big problem because of course shopping malls in our I mean why such a perfect weather such as istanbul we have shopping malls gate closed shopping malls They are almost clubs designed for upper income people at middle classes So that low income people feel uncomfortable. They are almost clubs When people are in public space, they are all made as equals The the shopping mall is designed to make poor people feel inferior To be feel feel uncomfortable Let's go quickly because I don't have enough time quickly waterfront. These were the waterfronts of Before democracy See these walls there Now you have these wonderful waterfronts and that's the future, but let's go quickly Clearly we are not going to solve traffic jams making bigger roads in the united states traffic Jams are increasing in every city in the united states despite giant highways Because it is not the number of cars, but also is The number of trips and the length of trips. So clearly this is not a solution I'm not going to have enough time, but nowhere in the planet Do you know one city where traffic has been solved making bigger roads? So clearly This doesn't happen anywhere. So the only solution is public transport But it's important to understand. I mean by the way One of the reasons why manhattan has most of the people using public transport is because there is very little access This is a great advantage Because you don't have so this is what you have in istanbul So you may do one or two or three or more bridges But still I would say not having many accesses are an advantage rather than a problem the same as in manhattan Long time ago. They decided they would not make any more bridges But let's go very quickly There is no such a thing As a natural level of car use in a city If you make more space for cars There would be more cars if there was more space for cars in london There would be more cars in london if there was less space. There would be less cars Look at this. Do you think it's because some transport engineer gave them permission to do so And so just to finish and don't have time to go into anything else Just to show this is the London has 1800 kilometers of rail 1800 it's like from here to Athens or something like this And still they move one million more passengers by bus than by rail You can do more Subways if you want It's extremely expensive to build and it's extremely expensive to operate London subway the cheapest fare is about four dollars and it can go up to almost ten dollars And it has a 14 billion dollars a year subsidy So even if you make a few more rail lines in Turkey or in the only possible solution Is to go with buses all over the city and buses in exclusive lane if we have a democracy buses have to have Priority in the use of road space. Of course, there are many political battles battles against these informal operators I don't think you have them here in turkey and have 30 seconds more Okay battles against the people with cars people with cars They want subways Not because they have the intention of using them mostly but because they think the people in buses will go underground So they have more space for their cars So this is a wonderful solution, but this can be much improved A system like this Can be improved you can improve the access of the buses Of course, this is a democratic symbol. It shows Public transfers has a priority over private cars. You have to have overpasses So you can have express buses overpasses at the station this increases the capacity to five I say just to finish that Look at two seconds more Solving Istanbul's mobility is not a technical but a political issue Look at this street in the Netherlands just for buses if you if there is the political will to create hundreds of kilometers of busways in both large and small streets Mobility can be solved This is very easy But this is a political it's it's very cheap. It's technically simple But of course It's politically difficult, but it's the only solution Thank you very good. Thank you. I'm sure how to follow on that exactly


The Capstone College of Nursing would like to thank you for all you do. Thank you for giving back to the University of Alabama Libraries. Thank you for giving back to the Graduate School. The College of Education truly appreciates your good support. Thank you for giving back to the School of Social Work. The School of Law appreciates your support. On behalf of the Culverhouse College of Business, thank you for your support. We appreciate all you do for the College of Engineering. On behalf of the College of Human Environmental Sciences, thanks for your support. We appreciate all that you do for the College of Continuing Studies. We appreciate all you do for the Honors College. The College of Communication and Information Sciences appreciates your support. On behalf of the College of Arts and Sciences, we thank you for your support. Roll Tide. We've enjoyed celebrating you for Thank a Donor Week. We appreciate all you do for the University of Alabama. Thanks and Roll Tide.


Meat Boy is back. I'm going to show you three healthy, delicious marinades that you're going to love, your family's going to love, and whether you're having beef, pork, or chicken, I've got you covered. And these have actually been in my head since I started Frankie Surrange Meat back in 2019. Even when I was doing MasterChef a couple years back, I just haven't been able to sell them on the prepared meats yet due to logistical issues. Hopefully that happens within a year or two and we do have more prepared products. In the meantime, it's already been quite a while, so let me show you guys these delicious recipes. So we'll start with the teriyaki because I know you guys mostly eat beef and you will need some high quality filtered water, coconut aminos, honey, garlic, ginger, black pepper salt, ideally everything organic and the highest quality possible. You could get local raw honey, you get fresh garlic, fresh ginger, and do this a little bit higher than this, but this is definitely really, really good. So first we have one cup of our mineral water, one quarter cup of coconut aminos, very similar to soy sauce, sweet, salty, not as much umami though. Umami. We have five tablespoons of honey, one teaspoon of garlic powder, one half teaspoon of ginger, half a teaspoon of fresh cracked black pepper, and half a teaspoon of salt. We're just gonna mix this up to incorporate the honey with the spices. You could throw this in like a blender if you want to, but that might oxidize everything a little bit. So I'm gonna put some steak in here and this has to go for at least an hour, ideally overnight, two or three days, probably not much of a difference, but definitely at least one hour. Next up, we have a classic Greek style marinade that I added my own little twist to. We're using butter instead of olive oil and a little bit of honey for sweetness, but yogurt, lemon, garlic, oregano are very, very classically used in Greek cuisine. First, we want one third of a cup of yogurt, one third of a cup of butter. I'm using store-bought organic yogurt and grass-fed Finlandia, which we have on Frankie's Surrange Meat, but by all means, you can go raw local. We're gonna do one tablespoon of honey here.  Get a lot of nice flavor from the rind as well. Two tablespoons of oregano, one tablespoon of garlic powder, and then half a teaspoon of our black pepper, as well as salt. There we are, very simple, yet concentrated and flavorful Greek style marinade that I love on chicken. You could also do this on lamb, probably any meat and it'll be delicious. Last up, we have our pancake pork chop where you will need some filtered water, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, butter, vanilla, salt and pepper, and really just apple cider vinegar and maple syrup are gonna be the bulk of this flavor, but any other stuff definitely doesn't hurt. So we have one cup of mineral water, one quarter cup of apple cider vinegar, five tablespoons of maple syrup, one third of a cup of our Finlandia butter, dash of vanilla extract, or you could use vanilla powder, half teaspoon of pepper, half teaspoon of salt, and then you have a marinade that will make your kids start loving any type of pork. So thank you guys for joining me today. Definitely try out these marinades. Let me know how you like them. If you could please drop a like on the video, leave a comment down below, re-subscribe because we all know YouTube unsubscribed you last week. Be sure to check that notification bell so they don't notify you of my videos. Therefore, you can go to frank-defano.com, support me through all of my businesses so I don't have a stroke next week. Thanks again guys, I'll see you tomorrow.


Mika, please. Thank you very much, Yooka, and I have to say it was surely after supervising you I decided to leave the academic world But that was completely uncorrelated events But it's a pleasure to thank you again for for inviting me. It's a great pleasure and honor to be here It's been a I think a terrific event I've learned a lot and I've been impressed by the passion with which many of our presenters have spoken I'm English, so I'm passion is not my strong point But a few things perhaps I'd like to get your views on Maybe a good as good a place as any for me to start is there was a member an interchange yesterday between François Bourguignon my colleague Andy Berg on on the fund and its Place in the issues we're discussing at this conference And I think it's certainly true that in terms of the kind of big macro picture issues of links between Inequality redistribution Backer of performance growth now the dimensions has come to the fore at the fund in in recent years, of course it at a more Practical hands-on Country level we've been closely involved in many of the issues. We're talking about for for a long time for for many years many decades and certainly the part of the fund where I work I work in the fiscal affairs department and A large part of our business is what we call technical assistance and as many of you will know one of the Many benefits of membership of the fund is that you can ask for technical advice on a range of topics but including on tax reforms spending reforms and So the fund provides a lot of very detailed advice to countries on these issues and have I has done For many for many years and in fact one of the reasons you'll see there's a 50 on my on my slide Which is because this year is actually the 50th anniversary of the fiscal affairs department and so we've been looking back in the archives and It turns out that when the fiscal affairs department was Founded there was actually quite significant opposition to to forming it from a number of countries because they took the view that well It's clearly the fund should care about you know big T total revenue should care about big G total spending Should care about D some measure of the difference between the two But in terms of the kind of more detailed issues of composition of taxes and spending clearly to get into that you had to touch on very sensitive issues of Distributional concerns fairness you're really going to the heart of Social and political issues and they really think the number of countries didn't think that was Appropriate, but of course those countries lost FAD was founded But of course they were quite right as soon as we do give advice on these technical issues of I don't know reforming income tax Changing tax administrations all these kind of things think about spending policies We're getting right into the issues that are at the heart of a heart of this conference Typically, of course, we don't just by way of context what we typically do of course is we don't Impose our own views. We don't say the tax system isn't progressive enough spending is not progressive enough We tend to kind of spell out options thinking it's really for national authorities to take decisions on these wider wider issues But it does that background doesn't lead me into a first or first of a several general points I wanted to make By way of background to the kind of puzzle I wanted to talk about So the first point is of course, well, you know, there's a big literature of big debate about Essentially the equity efficiency kind of frontier Whether it slopes up or slopes down slopes up over some range Maybe down over others and of course that's something to we know. There are many reasons why it might slope up We know the reasons why it might slope down And I've all kinds of shapes and of course one of the things that some of the things we've heard about at the Conferences trying to do is to get to some sense of what that you know, what what we're talking about in this kind of dimension I'm not really going to be talking about that I'm really focusing on much more the kind of thing that we get into in advising countries Which is well, we may not know if this frontier slips up or down, but at least we would like to be on it That is if we can actually improve efficiency at no equity cost so I'm sure that that's a good thing and The other way around as well if we can kind of move northeast on this picture I always get east and west wrong, but you know what I mean do better on both Then surely that's a good thing and essentially a lot of our advice. I think what we could think of in a kind of metaphorical sense We're not calculating these things in a precise sense, but in a kind of you know, poetical metaphorical sense I think we try to get countries onto the frontier We're going to be talking about as some of the parent puzzles we have in trying to to even do that The second point I think is a familiar one and Joel's mentioned it But I think it's again just always worth stressing And it'll be a theme again in what I'm going to talk about is again Though this is a session on taxes of course when we think about redistribution inequality role of government It's really only it's really the joint impact of taxes and spending that matters It doesn't it really makes very little sense to talk about one side of the budget of the government's budget constraint or even one tax one spending item in in isolation and of course It's an obvious point, but it's still Thing that you know recurs all the time in public debate people talk about this tax is progressive Well, that's a well-defined statement, but in some sense, you know Doesn't really matter doesn't really tell you anything unless you tell me something about what's going on on the spending side as well Again, we all know this but again, I think we're not you know, we should insist on this I think rather more than than we often do even if thinking about the effects of of these simple measures We have a redistribution. Let's sort of think about the whole thing and that's the point I'll come back to and I think I put there as I've saying that we are bad really taking this holistic view and when I say we I Mean probably all of the communities that Joel mentioned. I was trying to think which community I belong to. I'm not quite sure Mainly the community of Chelsea supporters, but that isn't really very helpful observation For today, but I think we here means everybody is certainly it includes people who contribute to public debate on these issues really just Just get this wrong and misleading And we here certainly includes the fund and I think some of our other international organizations I may for this time I can say a little bit more about that But I think we've been very bad at putting into practice the this holistic view of tax and and spending instruments spending it here I mean both the kind of cash transfers of the kind Joel mentioned but also sort of the various items of public spending The third point I wanted to make is really nothing to do with what I'm going to be talking about But it's just a point. I wanted to take the opportunity to mention which is incidents A lot of these discussions we have about redistribution effects of government policy We talk as if we knew what the incidents of all these tax and spending things really was in terms of you know How the effector who really bears the burden who really gets the benefit and I think it's worth remembering reminding ourselves now and Again in the same spirit of humbleness Humility that Tony Shorrock said yesterday that we know remarkably a little about the incidents of many public Sector instruments even if you take simple things like the VAT We really know very little about the impact of the VAT in terms of who bears the real incidents We have some sort of studies for you know restaurants and things like that but in terms of you know Evidence that meets the standards we expect these days really very little We're doing some work on the VAT at the funder which I could talk about but when even for these simple taxes We know very little and what about the more complicated ones when you think about tariffs. What is the incidence of tariffs? Well, you know, we know they're partly a consumer tax partly a production subsidy all kinds of Cascading going on because on intermediate products figuring out the incidence of that is pretty hard. What about the corporation tax? Well, we don't really know how much of the incidence of that is on owners How much of that is on labor we could certainly talk more about that and so quite often people say well I don't really know about tariffs I don't really know about corporate tax or throw those away But of course in many developing comes you just thrown away about 20% of all revenue of course many the best studies don't do this But even the best that is I think are not not entirely We can't we just can't be entirely confident on the incidence many things similarly on the spending side with a number of cash transfers as well and So that's that's kind of that was that was fairly gratuitous. I'm afraid that was a point I thought was somebody at some point ought to make But let me then come on to the particular kind of puzzle that I wanted to talk about maybe puzzle may not be the right word That's really just to get your attention It's kind of a frustration as much as anything in that there are kind of areas of advice that we give at the fund What that we've been giving for about 20 30 years that never seemed to actually stick never did very hard to get countries to Follow our advice and this is one of those areas that I want to sort of raise with you and see if you have any Brilliant ideas about it So the issue is well We know that lots of countries try to support the poor by various measures of kind of generalized price support They may subsidize particular goods they may tax other goods or services at particularly low rates and they often do this Rationalize it on while this is our way of protecting the poor. We're raising revenue, but we're protecting the poor by this kind of differentiation but of course we know and As a general lesson that this could be a very expensive way of helping the poor Why is that well the basic point is straightforward if you think about say the argument that says well Let's have a low rate on food as a way to protect the poor So basically you the observation is well the poor spend a larger proportion of their income on food than the rich That's certainly true But of course the rich may well spend and a larger absolute amount on food than the poor They almost certainly do when we define food in this in this very very general sense So what does that mean that means that if you're forgoing revenue by essentially having a low tax rate say on food Most of the cash benefit of that actually goes not to the poor but to but to the rich This is just a kind of a mathematical Necessity and there are plenty of examples of this and there are two I think that strike home particularly to us one of course it is whole issue about reduced rates of value added tax So here are some numbers for Mexico.  It's OECD data So basically Mexico food base has a zero has a zero VAT rate And so you can think about well compared to taxing food set the same rate as everything else This is kind of effectively is acting as a subsidy now. What is the how does the benefit of the subsidy look? Well This is the subsidy received by income group as a percent of their of their income So this slopes down which is basically saying, you know the poorest percentile The subsidy is worth more to them as a proportion of their income than it is to the topic top Decisive the 10th decide so this is picking up the fact that the poor spend a large proportion of their Income on food, but now if you ask well of the money that's being gone for gone by the government How much of that is going to each of these different deciles? So we think of this as now a spending measure We're kind of spending a hundred dollars say by forgoing by having this reduced rate Who's getting the benefit? Well, this is the benefit as a percent of income and you can see the ones who are Essential percent of the total subsidy sorry so you can see that if you take the bottom Decisive they're getting less than four percent of the of the value of the subsidy and the top quintile the top Decisive sorry is getting more than twenty percent. This means we're spending a hundred dollars four dollars of which is going to benefit the poorest group 20 percent twenty dollars of which is going to benefit the highest Decisive looks a very expensive way of helping the poorest the other sort of classic example Of course is energy subsidies and so this basically is some Numbers put together by colleagues on the distributional effects Essentially who gets the benefit of fuel subsidies and this is average for over five or six countries And I forgot to put the labels on which quintile is which but you can pretty much guess The big area is always the top quintile So if you look at gasoline that's saying sixty percent of the cash benefit is going to the top Quintile go all the way around to the blue one the blue one is the bottom the bottom lot are getting three percent So they're getting a hundred dollars being spent. They're getting three dollars Similar for the for the other fuels a kerosene. Of course, it's a little bit different, but I won't I won't particularly linger on on that So what is this saying? This is saying? These generalized price support measures very extensive still are Very expensive. They're a very expensive way of getting money to the poorest But of course that doesn't necessarily mean they're a bad idea Suppose, you know, you have a just a maximum objective. Suppose your objective is simply your concern is simply with the welfare of the poorest person Well, if this is the only way you can get some money to the poorest person, maybe that's sensible policy You know if you if the only way you can get any money to the to the bottom Decisely in that Mexican case was by spending a hundred dollars of which the bottom will get four dollars If that's the only thing you can do well, maybe that's a sensible way to do it Maybe that's just the price you have to pay to pursue your equity objectives But of course the real issue is then this leads to the to the real issue I mean that the argument so far doesn't say these things are a bad idea The question is really whether they're better targeted ways to support the poor and as a reminder I mean these we're talking about subsidies that actually Do matter for these groups they can be a significant proportion of their income I have an example here for for fuel that says, you know fuel changing fuel prices really does matter for the poor So we do have a there is a real issue of how we can buy better ways to support them So are there better ways of targeting and protecting the poor clearly for advanced economies? The answer is or should be at least yes Inter in given that the wide range of instruments they have so this is another example that we did for there for the Merleys review in the UK that you can UK also zero rates food So this basically this chart basically shows the loss by income group if we simply Charged food at the standard rate in the UK and you can see big losses to the to the lowest deciles But on the other hand if we we've all kinds of income related benefits and social support measures We can upgrade in the UK and one way of doing that for example I think what we did was just increase them at the bottom by 15% you get this pattern of gainers and losers So clearly that the people at the bottom on our net are gaining as a consequence of eliminating the zero rating of food and Reforming the structure of income related benefits instead Top groups are not doing so well of course And of course just to bear in mind what you're doing here is your rate You're you're essentially also raising some revenue because you're only you're only compensating people at the bottom You're not compensating people at the top. So the way this works in the UK I think the numbers are something like we eliminate zero rating at least and when we did the exercise that raises about 25 billion pounds Compensation costs you at 11 billion pounds So you're left with a net gain of 14 billion pounds. This seems kind of like a pretty good a pretty good idea Well, I'll come on to that But I think maybe also just Also leads me I think for a little bit of a nuance on on on Franco's argument yesterday that you know in in advanced countries We sort of at the end of the we need to kind of out of the box ideas But how to pursue our equity objectives more effectively I think in some cases there are still some ideas in the box that we haven't quite scraped up and Used I think there are still things that can be done It's not to say that there are other things I think property tax I think and so on is is underused in many countries But I do think again, this is just an aside It's certainly true that we should be thinking about About out of the box ideas and one set of issues I think just to think about because I don't sorry. This isn't a side but just to say I don't we've thought about these enough is What technology can do for us? We've thought a lot about what technology can do on the administration side We haven't thought much about what it can do on the policy side Just one example is we tax income on an annual basis. Why on earth do we do that? We could certainly move away from having annual income taxes We could tax over much more much more sophisticated Ways than that a lot of the things in the Glitches some of you may know the sort of new dynamic public finance which link Which use information on various aspects of your behavior look at your income But also your savings indicators of your wealth a lot of these things actually look far less outrageous as practical ideas And they did a while ago, but again, sorry. I digress So advanced economies we can certainly do better than these badly targeted measures What about emerging and developing economies? Well, they're of course, you know We have to face the fact that the exit the available instruments are much blunter in that sense the case for differentiation for price support of various kinds is likely to be rather stronger but The question really is well If we essentially what we then have to think about is how well targeted are the spending instruments We have available spending instruments a week, but they nevertheless have some targeting properties How well targeted do they have to be to be better than? These kind of generalized price support and here's the sort of condition that you come up with if you think about this Suppose again suppose our objective is simply a maximum one We just care about the poorest person and we're thinking about raising the tax on some item Let's call it food and spending the money on something or other What are the conditions under which this the poorest person will gain? Well, it turns out if we ignore behavioral effects and I can talk more about that It's a condition like this You simply have to compare the proportion of all food they consume with the thing at the bottom there Which is essentially how much of the additional how much of an additional dollar of public spending do they benefit from and this could Be either sort of you know health. It could be some public good or sort of classic public good You multiply that by the valuation they place on that dollar which maybe which of course may be Different from a dollar if this is something other than a cash transfer if this if this condition is met Then basically you do better for the poor by putting the tax on the food and using the spending measure So let's take a couple examples One is cash transfers in that case this thing this this lambda thing at the bottom is simply one because we're just talking about cash Well, then the cut that condition simply becomes that your consumption share is lower than your share in the total cash benefits if that condition is met you benefit by eliminating this reduced rate and Having the cash benefit instead and suppose you simply take the case where what we do with the cash is we pay out a Pole subsidy we give everybody the same amount well in that case this policy Raising the tax spending the proceeds has got to be better for the poorest so long as their consumption is below the average of this Good, which is a pretty weak which is a pretty weak condition And just to say this is a pole subsidy you may think well pole subset is very hard to do well Actually, no not necessarily and I'll come back to that the classic example here is Iran So Iran had these huge oil subsidy petroleum subsidies absolutely huge Essentially, then undertook a major exercise that involved paying up all subsidies same amount to everybody It's a huge thing. They had to set up ATMs all over the country And it worked maybe worked too well, but we'll come back to that later But it worked in the sense that once they did one reform of the subsidy Would of the of the subsidy to energy prices by the time they people had received their cash transfers They were asking well when is the next reduction coming because we're looking forward to getting some more cash Of course if there's some pro-poor element in these in these cash transfers, that's going to be even better than a pole subsidy What about in kind benefits? Well in kind benefits are a little bit more complicated because now we have to think about Individuals valuation of these goods, but we could have for example in my earlier expression now lambda is greater than one We value you know a dollar of health expenditure received is worth more than a dollar to us So and then we get into this issue of benefit incidents that is which I'm by no means expert on But here's one example for example for which is for India, which is looking at the essential distribution of Spent public spending on curative health care by by death cell So if you look like one time, so if you look at the bottom 10% They're getting they're getting 10% of the benefit the cash benefit of this kind of spending What does that mean that means they're going to do better By increasing tax financing this if they account for less than 10% of food consumption, which is pretty Quite plausible that they would be food. I'm saying food I'm thinking of kind of as a you know a metaphor for whatever the item is we're thinking of having a reduced rate on So what is the moral the moral seems to be the price subsidies can be so badly targeted That spending measures don't have to be very well targeted to be better even in kind of low-income countries There's some work on this in Ethiopia, but there's certainly more needed To bear this Conjecture out lots of qualifications here. We could have kind of inferior goods Just to jump to the last one, of course, there's always going to be in all these reforms There's always going to be someone who can't be protected that is very difficult to protect or to be able to ensure Benefits from these spending measures. That's just the kind of problem. We have an all kinds of policy You're there's almost inevitably going to be someone some group who's going to suffer so I'm trying to make a case that in many instances even in countries that have don't have very sophisticated spending instruments We can probably do better than these kind of generalized price subsidies including Reduced rates of tax on various things. So why on earth aren't these better targets what these better policies adopted? You see that the thought is we're not on the frontier that the suggestions with these policies They mean we're not on the equity efficiency frontier in Some kind of Bruce broad loose sense. Of course one argument is well Actually, you know, you've really ignored efficiency considerations here that when you do these kind of reforms You are going to play around with marginal effective tax rates if I take for example the the UK tax reform where I eliminated zero rating and then kind of Strengthened income support at lower income levels Mathematically it must be the case that over some income levels. We're actually increasing Marginal effective tax rates. That is we're making earning income less attractive That must be the case Because the wider question then is the kind of optimal tax issues that Joel gets in the Joel's referring to We have to think about whether you know the case whether that's going to have an adverse effect on work incentives Actually the empirical evidence on that on the food example in the UK is not very strong But such as it is it actually goes in the opposite direction says that these things should be taxed more heavily for those reasons What about in efficiency considerations in emerging and developing economies? Well, those I think are much less developed than they are for for advanced economies So we have this whole apparatus of well-developed optimal tax ideas to to guide us Well, if we put efficiency considerations aside then clearly we're left with sort of political economy arguments of various kinds What might those political economy political economy considerations be? Well, one is of course that well just as you know the poor aren't receiving much of the benefit the rich are getting a lot of Benefits the rich are the powerful. So they're the ones who have an interest in actually keeping these things going There's clearly I think in many cases some kind of distrust that when the government says I'm going to I'm going to raise the tax on This good, but don't worry because they're not going to compensate you on the spending side It may be natural for many people to be rather distrustful that that will actually happen or to believe that it will be sustained I'll come back to that. I think there are clearly cultural sensitivities on particular goods For the UK, I think it's not as I think about the UK. Why don't why do we still have zero rating on food? My conjecture would be that this actually probably goes back at least nearly 200 years Since the repeal of the Corn Laws taxing food has been political death In the UK the Conservative Party has split twice In the last 150 years both times on taxing food So there are sensitivities It could be that you know you could tell us sort of slightly over clever story to me over clever story that says well The way you signal as a politician That you really care about the poor is that you implement really very costly ways of helping them because that's the way you signal How much you're willing to to forgo to support them and less important these days? I think there are issues of stigma What might then be the ways ahead if we accept that this is you know, there's this kind of Potential to move closer to a frontier. How might we actually do that? Well, you might have well certainly we at the fund rather hope that crisis might help but if you look at For example, what countries did in advanced economies? You know was it you know, we might have had some naive hope that when the UK was thinking about its revenue needs They might think about doing something on the zero rating of food rather than playing around with the rates But of course in the end of the end of the day they played around with a rate rather than doing something on the base That's pretty much true in in most other advanced economists They didn't bite the bullet in terms of some of these rather pointless rate differentiations. They have clearly there are cases Which crisis help if you look at Egypt the last few weeks With quite dramatic action on subset is that clearly just comes on the fact that this is just fiscally Unstainable this is you know, I don't know what the last number was it's eight nine ten percentage points of GDP Going in substance. You can't use it at some point. You just can't carry on What other things might help well this whole of course we like to talk about transparency that what you need to do is make It clear to everybody that how expensive all this great differentiation is well, that's certainly true but I Think it's clearly not enough. You know if you think about the UK again It sort of tends to be my favorite example. There's no great mystery in the charts I gave you there's no great mystery in the fact that you could Eliminate zero rating and make the poor better off and have some more money It's not that no one understands this. It's simply some other reason. It doesn't it doesn't happen What about ear mocking ear mocking is the idea of Hypothecation which says well, let's actually try to say to kind of commit ourselves to overcome the distrust issue I mentioned let's have a commit ourselves to say well We're going to raise this revenue But we're going to kind of somehow tie our hands to make sure we only spend it on This particular stuff that you like which might be health education transfers whatever and sometimes that has been used by governments Ghana raised the vat rate from 10 to 15 by by ear marking Of course the trouble with ear marking In a sense either it really constrained there are two possibilities One it really constrains your spending on some items. It's really the marginal source of finance Well, if it's really constraining your spending You have to think what is that constraint one I want? Do I really want my education spending to depend on how much revenue I get from the vat this year? Maybe not on the other hand if it doesn't really constrain your spending if it's just Can some kind of trick that you kind of sell to people? It's not really going to constrain it because we have money is fungible will finance this stuff somewhere else Then this is completely then presenting in its ear marking is misleading non-transparent all these other things On the other hand you could say well really as a last resort if this is the only way you can do it Maybe it's a price worth paying but I think does also point to links between tax reforms also and Changes to the system of public financial management, which are designed to give people more faith in That money is going to be well spent Lessons from subsidy reform of course I have to give a small plug to the book produced by my colleagues at the fund which looks at essentially a whole series of episodes of Energy price reform efforts in in a range of countries both successful ones Unsuccessful ones comes out with a number of number of issues here the idea that you should have a comprehensive reform plan communications sequencing so on I Think the evidence is those those things all matter crises in some sense cases can also help But I think perhaps the last part I'd make is just and I'm not sure Maybe this is going to sound a bit more optimistic than I thought and again. I think it's picking up something Francois mentioned yesterday, which is that in many ways the possibilities of what we can do in particularly lower income Economies are actually changing quite rapidly if you think for example just about biometric cars biometric cars basically identify you That essentially in principle helps you out of the main problem of giving a poll subsidy the main problem with that has been identification potentially that becomes much more much more something one could think about just a Straightforward poll subsidies have a you know have a number of theoretical and political attractions We know that targeting by income or cruder indicators of needs, which we do in some You know, we've been doing it and it's been being done in in the US for a long time But we know it's also becoming much more feasible in lower income countries again, Egypt Is an example where as part of the removal of the breadcubs it is They essentially use smart cars that limit you to a certain number of loaves per day And the bit that you don't use you can actually spend as I understand it You can essentially use as as cash. So all these things are I think helping us See better how we can address some of these issues and maybe Bring ourselves closer to the front here, but so but I'm slightly torn that in one sense That makes me optimistic, but I sort of keep coming back to maybe maybe I'm too fixated by it But it's still come back to the UK example where everybody knows what a sensible policy is No question of feasibility, but it doesn't happen. So with that you've got thank you very much And thank you for your attention. Thank you