Some Conversations Just NEED To Happen

A lot of people have preconceived ideas regarding races and cultures, which more than once cause misunderstandings.

The absurdity in today’s “Woke” culture is that people prefer to exclude certain words and terms and replace them with other words that in turn could be misunderstood in the past, or cause problems in the future.

In Belgium, for example, one can no longer speak of a “negro” or a “black” person, but one has to say now a “white” person when talking about a “Blanke” (someone of the white race) or Caucasian type person (or relating to a racial group having light-coloured skin), who is therefore not white at all and to whom there may not be “black people” opposed to them (?!?). So why is a “White” not racist while “Black” would be racist?

Same for “fat” and “thick” (or in Dutch “dik“)where the English publisher of Roald Dahl’s books has now printed “enormous” (very great in size, extremely large in size or amount, extent) or in Dutch “enorm” (very big, gigantic, huge), while we do imagine something very different with an enormous building or enormous creature than with a shapely or plump person. The chosen word “enormous” or “enorm” is far worse and far more offensive than “fat” or “vol slank”, “full slim” we would say.

Already having some years in this world, we had to change the use of words more than once. Every time they found another word because the one in use had become “offensive”.

In this day and age it is going absurdly far, how some words are abandoned, like we may not say any more Eskimo, igloo, cabane or hut, etc.

Racism is the wrong view of things and people with misjudged word choices.

*

To remember

• There are always subjects that people feel aren’t proper or sensitive issues that may cause a war of words or some form of conflict
• one race may feel that whatever they say = offensive to the person of another race.
• unspoken/unwritten rule

+

Find also to read:

1. Word banning
2. Absurdity of present “woke” rage: The rewriting of Dahl
3. Why censoring Roald Dahl is a dangerous step
4. What about irreverence and sharp-edged spirit of the original text
5. New term names at London School of Economics
6. Not liked or Hated Questions
7. How far does this “Woke” world wants to go
8. Wokeness wars
9. Why Woke? When Will it Wander Away?

The Sapphire Scripts

Sept. 4 Why do you think it is so difficult for people to talk about race?

There are always subjects that people feel aren’t proper or sensitive issues that may cause a war of words or some form of conflict. Some examples are politics, battles of the sexes, and the ultimate, race. Race has been a topic (without being a topic) for a very long time. It has stood the test of time with some changes happening but different races have a hard time facing this conversation.

I think that people have a hard time talking about race because one race may feel that whatever they say may be offensive to the person of another race. Not being sure of the reaction, people tend to avoid those conversations even when a national issue has been brought to people’s attention like a slap in the face.

I also feel that people…

View original post 162 more words

How far does this “Woke” world wants to go

Day by day, it becomes more and more laconic or rather sad to notice how we so-called woke culture shakes our foundations by declaring all kinds of words as sinful, null or useless.

Even one of the greatest children’s book writers cannot escape the current censorship embracing our reckless world.

Perhaps we shall find some science fiction or future tellers their stories becoming true before the time they had in mind.

The time is near or the time is at hand when

Children’s author Roald Dahl’s timeless classics have been deemed no longer up to scratch with modern times and will now only be available sealed in black plastic within the deepest corners of adult stores amongst marital aids and vibrating trouts. {Classic children’s books now only available at adult stores}

Please come to read:

1. White versus black in a woke world
2. Absurdity of present “woke” rage: The rewriting of Dahl
3. Why censoring Roald Dahl is a dangerous step
4. Everywhere I Look, I Read ‘Protection’

To Blog or Not to Blog?

Many people have lots of desires to belong to a community and to share ideas, whilst they are feeling part of a group where they are accepted, and their thoughts are appreciated.

On the net we can find a girl with the name Lola, who looks at what a blog is and questions to blog or not to blog.

She considers the word “blog” to be the short form for the word weblog, referring to an informal website or an informal discussion on discrete topics and written in a conversational way. But the latter is certainly not true of most blogs, which over the years have evolved to present a wider range of topics with extensive descriptions or detailed discussions.

She requests:

Let’s compare a blog to a diary. The blog site is the book and the entries in the diary are the posts. In the diary we write our personal encounters – family, social activities and travel experiences. We also write our thoughts and opinions on certain situations and events in this book. {What is a Blog?}

One may love to write, but that does not one want to write on the net. The old-fashioned diary was always for private writing and reading, but now the internet has offered a place for many to write their own thoughts, readable by millions of people.

Some like the writer of the reblogged article look at a blog being it like a diary.

But while a diary is kept private, a blog is shared either with a small group of readers or published in the World Wide Web. {What is a Blog?}

She also thinks Blogs are displayed in reverse chronological order, but that should not always be so. The owner of the blog may decide to place the oldest blog on top or have them ordered by category.  But we agree that the majority chooses for the most practical and easiest way for being updated with the writings, meaning the most recent entry showing on the top of the blog page in one or more columns vertically downwards or with pictures horizontally per three or more. Furthermore

Aside from pictures, a blog’s content may also contains videos and scanned copies of offline documents. {What is a Blog?}

Some may find immense gratification in writing down something, which they know shall be read by several people. They do not mind if they do not know all those readers, though they do hope several of their friends will be some of their readers. It is for those friends, and acquaintances that many go behind the keyboard to let words roll over the screen.

For some, at first, there is that obstacle that wants to limit them and keep them on the “unknown” side of town. Some keep their blog private, while others (the majority) publish them on the World Wide Web, where we are overloaded with millions of texts luring for our attention.

Zillions of reiterations of topics could make people not want to blog at all. At first, there were the many message and fora platforms that caught the pen of many, but where not so many ‘full articles’ could be found. With the greater accessibility and dissemination of internet possibilities, more people could also find their way to that internet and felt stimulated to interpret their say there too.

In the last few years, we also can find more journalistic webblogs where journalists, historians and several blog writers have joined hands to bring truthful journalism or bringing the news of events of the day from a particular angle. Our blog Some View on the World wants to bring such an up-date of what happened in our world, providing the newsfacts as well as extra commentaries.

With the vast abundance of material to borrow on the internet, it is so what that one can no longer see the forest for the trees, and that one drowns in the swirling water mass of copious text material seeking our attention on all sides.

There are loads of articles out there, which may bring up that question:

 Why should I blog about it? Why would readers want to read mine?

Because is it not that when we write something on the net, we also want someone to read what we have written?

In any case, to start blogging, it is best to plan in advance which direction you want to go. Will it be a personal blog, or will it rather be a blog where you want to sell something or put forward a clear opinion?

It is nice that everyone can find a type of blog to his or her liking. There are political, religious, travel, historical, archaeological, cultural and so many other blogs, allowing us to tap from an infinitely full wine barrel.

To remember further

• blogging industry = millions of bloggers
• wanting to share ideas, opinions + experiences with other people
• wanting to maintain communication with others => we blog.
• writing blogs requires a lot of communication skills = to be good in grammar & punctuations, word usage & spelling, formats + a lot of creativity.
• Receiving comments from readers = rewarding experience.
• to blog or not to blog > depends on your desire + determination to learn + excel in this endeavour

 

+

Preceding

Blogging into the New Year

“Our World” Moving from Blogspot to WordPress

Asking for a Re-Blog

When you think you have nothing to say or to show

Readers, likes and comments

++

Additional reading

1. Wagner the NAR and new wineskins
2. Traditional News Turns into The Journalism We Know Now
3. Presenting views from different sources
4. What do we know about the future of journalism?
5. Hello world!
6. A convinced voice to debunk false allegations
7. A busy 2017 #3 Fake, gossip and real news
8. WordPress appears to have fallen off its best horse
9. A Classic Editor versus Block Editor
10. From old times and sites to new linkings
11. Five years on WordPress
12. From MSN Groups and MSN Spaces via Multiply to Blogspot now transferring to WordPress
13. In case Blogger goes further with her new interface
14. Blogger seems too slow to be practical
15. Our World on Blogger coming to its end
16. “Our World” Moving from Blogspot to WordPress
17. Notification and news feed for Facebook users
18. Walking alone? (Our World) = Walking alone? (Some View on the World)
19. What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
20. Companionship
21. Presenting views from different sources
22. Newspapers: Dying or Changing
23. Pleased to find Christadelphian World on the net
24. 2010 – 2014 in review
25. First blog post
26. My World…
27. Blogging in the world for Jesus and his Father
28. Immanuel’s first two years of blogging on WordPress
29. If no one died because of War – how different would worlds appear to be
30. 💬 Misquotation Pandemic and Disinformation Polemic: 🧠 Mind Pollution by Viral Falsity 🦠

+++

Related

1. WordPress on Linux Servers
2. Why I will be writing a blog, and why you should too.
3. To blog or not to blog? (Asha Seth)
4. To blog or not to blog (Miss A.J. My thoughts exactly)
5. 5 fun facts to celebrate 100 years of broadcasting
6. Glasgow community newsroom shows how local news can return to the UK high street
7. Journalism and Mass Communication Syllabus
8. Journalism On The Front Lines In Ukraine
9. Causality Journalism: Can Academics Help?
10. Beyond The Labels
11. For Whom Do You Write?
12. Overwrought Reflection about Blogging “Anonymously” & a PSA
13. If You Don’t Post a Bloated Reflection on Writing, Are You Even a Blogger?
14. A Goal on the Horizon
15. My 2022 Year in Books
16. What kind of blog reader are you?
17. This Little Light o’ Mine
18. Devising a social media strategy – a step by step guide
19. The Potpourri of Blogging Comments
20. Draft Queen
21. No Way Home
22. 4 things that helped me make affirmations work for me
23. Carol Anne asks
24. An Ode to Courage
25. 2022 Wrap Up | 2022 Favourites and 2023 Goals
26. A Fresh Start
27. The Mystery of January
28. The Column: Read all about it!
29. A Brave New Year
30. Happy New Years
31. My New Year’s Resolutions 2023
32. How strong are your resolutions as we face a Brave New Year?
33. Daily Blog #412: It’s been weeks (Part Two) Weird Dreams, Manifestations/Goals, New Years Blog
34. As Horrific As Lord Of The Flies
35. guest posting is super OK
36. December wrap-up!
37. The Morning After
38. 3 Reminders for the New Year
39. About Those New Year’s Resolutions …
40. A random memory
41. Happy New Year!
42. Share Your World 2nd January: my response
43. Share Your Blog 2023
44. Author Journey (January 2, 2023)
45. Confusion Rant- Not my best Post, a break from PVX
46. My first collaborative project !

The Lola Talks

Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash

To blog or not to blog? That is the question.

Every now and then we find ourselves wanting to share ideas, opinions and experiences with other people. Furthermore, we also want to maintain communication with our clients and customers online. For this reason, we blog.

Receiving comments from readers on our blogs is a rewarding experience. More so when the number of readers and loyal site visitors increase. It’s like being compensated for the hard work we have put into writing our posts.

But writing blogs requires a lot of communication skills. We need to be good in grammar and punctuations, word usage and spelling, formats and a lot of creativity.

We have to remember that in the blogging industry, there are not only a few but millions of bloggers. Thus, we really need to write our materials exceptionally well to stand…

View original post 65 more words

Blogging into the New Year

Blogging into the New Year, in a certain way as bloggers we might feel connected with other bloggers from all over the world. Its the magic of the internet that catches us.

How many bloggers are not on the internet willing to shine a light, not wanting to hide, hoping to bring some nice reading and some positive vibes to others, somewhere in the world. Some target a specific public, others do not mind sharing their diary with the world. Whatever reason they blog, is that what they write would be read by ‘some one’.

Janie Leeds writes

I happen to think that there’s a teensy bit of fear in all of us from time to time that squelches our ability to shine our heartlights and I’m choosing to figure out how to allow my heartlight to shine without fear! {This Little Light o’ Mine}

Many therefore just let the words roll over the screen, without fear. Perhaps they too think like J. Leeds that

we have to build our confidence and find someone trustworthy to shine with when we feel that desire to shine and to brilliantly explode our special brand of light into the universe. {This Little Light o’ Mine}

Though many might feel

It’s scary when we choose to be our authentic selves without fear. It’s being vulnerable which sometimes makes people feel uncomfortable. {This Little Light o’ Mine}

We always can wonder why or for whom those bloggers write. For themself? For their community/friends? For the world at large?

Judgy Young Pessimist or Jewish Young(-ish) Professional has the same question as us on her lips:

Maybe we write for different people at different times or maybe we write for all of them. {For Whom Do You Write?}

New Year’s Day finds one reflecting on some of their past resolutions and their outcomes. Bloggers might then perhaps think about what they wrote in the past year or how many blogposts they managed to create.

Lots of bloggers shall express and live by the hope that this fresh year will bring us something better than we had for the last years. So many want to forget Covid (though it is still not finished) and want to see an end to ‘that war‘ going on in Ukraine. Many bloggers leave that war in the fridge, only writing about other and hopefully also better things. Good tidings.

Let’s hope for the best and do our level best to make this year a memorable one for the people around us. Let’s resolve to spread happiness, empathy and goodness in the world. Let’s be humane and humble. {Happy New Year 2023}

writes a freelance writer who finds he is doing fine and has a lot to be thankful for, because “Allah, the Almighty” has been so kind to him. He is also aware we do not know much about the future. He thinks we can not predict the days ahead.

Can we not rid ourselves of unfounded fears? Can we not enjoy this precious MOMENT (present), instead of living in the past or worrying about the future? {Why Do We Worry About The Future? Why Don’t We Enjoy The Present Moment?}

Those who believe in God can find enough advice in the Book of books, the Bible, where the ‘bloggers’ of ancient times wrote down what we should know. In those books is enough said about times still to come, and as such do we know what to expect. Concerning those end times there are several bloggers on the net talking about how we can prepare for those times.

Many other subjects gain much more attention. Many blogging platforms are being used, but also many disappeared and bloggers had to change platforms again last year. The greatest change last year was the leaving Blogger and Blogspot by many bloggers, because those blog systems had become too slow and unworkable. This could be an asset to WordPress, but it was also discussed last year, due to its introduction of the less practical Gutenberg Block editor system.

Several bloggers let themselves be guided by prompts or requested tasks by other bloggers.

sometimes, prompts provide that inspiration for a piece that may have been ruminating,

writes JYP. We also admit some blogposts find their origin in something we notice on the net or some event that reached the news. In any case, the main reason to write such a post is for many to share something they find interesting or has something to do with their community or faith. As such, JYP for example wanted to share about Jewish community prompted by one of Fandango‘s Provocative Questions

– and it’s since become the basis for the whole pond/community/housing search tortured analogy saga. Prompts can provide both the inspiration for something I never expected to write and the necessary nudge to write something that were already ruminating. {For Whom Do You Write?}

Some bloggers like to tell the world about their very private things, whilst others prefer to stay in the anonymity or would not dare to talk about something personal. For some personal self-expression is the primary motivator for writing their blog and wanting to get an audience.

These are the posts that arguably could have been written in a private diary. These are the posts that might have less “polish” because sharing a message with an external audience isn’t the primary goal. These are the blog posts that feel less like public speaking, and more like casual conversation, or even just venting. {Blogging About Judaism: Promotional vs. Personal}

These posts are the casual conversation, maybe even the therapy sessions, of blogging – intimacy, sweats, and all. Photo by Ekaterina Bolovtsova: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-women-talking-to-each-other-4051134/

The problem with some of those blogs is that we feel more like in a café, catching up on some conversations. Others have a message they want to promote like we too have some good new to tell.

According to JYP promotional blog posts are those that:

• Have a message that the author wants to share externally. (eg. This is not a post that the author could have written in their private diary)
• Because the author wants to share this message, the post tends to have some “polish”. {Blogging About Judaism: Promotional vs. Personal}

she rightly compares this to public speaking

– the most heartfelt, sincere, genuine speaker is going to make a point of revising and editing, practicing, and putting on more professional attire/ hygiene/ grooming/ makeup etc. (vs. brain dump whilst looking disheveled) to look more presentable to an external audience so the message comes across better. {Blogging About Judaism: Promotional vs. Personal}

For her

the promotional vs. personal classification applies to all kinds of blogging {Blogging About Judaism: Promotional vs. Personal}

What we notice, looking at the Blogosphere and social media, is that lots of people want to be part of a community.

JYP thinks

the sense of community is probably the greatest strength of a well-run prompt. {For Whom Do You Write?}

In our globalising industrialist capitalist world, where there are so many people walking around, most people are just lost in the mass. Several people hope to escape their loneliness, but on the internet, they also find such an empty space. By blogging they do hope to have some reactions by which they would not feel so on their own. By writing a blog they want to break the silence and their loneliness.

Look, the internet is a big, lonely place. Blogging helps build community. Prompts can create a sense of community rituals and norms. It’s been fascinating to see the way bloggers will show up for each other, even within the simple forum of a prompt response. And it’s incredible to see how a prompt “ritual” goes beyond that, like when fellow bloggers share sad news with other prompt participants who respond with tributes and memories. {For Whom Do You Write?}

It is by such reactions the blogger may feel his or her work is appreciated and worthwhile doing. Responses on blogs also may trigger curiosity to go and look at that blogger his pages. If answers are given to a blog post, those comments may prompt the blogger to check his or her blog with that responding person. In this way, an exchange of ideas can arise among certain people who eventually become part of a small or larger group of regularly exchanging people.

To be clear, I think blogging without prompts can build community as well. But if you imagine the blog world as a religious community (bear with me), while you absolutely can and should socialize with fellow congregants outside of regularly scheduled services, some members will really appreciate the regular weekly meeting times to connect with their fellow congregants. {For Whom Do You Write?}

writes JYP. As such we can find bloggers who make it a custom to publish every week on a certain day an article. They even go to apologize when they did not. Or certain bloggers want to see for every day another sort of blog, be it a poetry day, haiku day, tanka day, garden day, short story day, thriller day, relaxation or meditation day  …. Some even want to have days for an amount of words.

We may not forget

Not all of our followers will care about everything we say. And even in blogging where we create more community through prompts, not all of our fellow prompt participants are going to be interested in our other writings. {For Whom Do You Write?}

Another aspect we may not forget or overlook

The reality is that almost none of us will become famous or make any real money from blogging, so you might as well write for yourself in addition to whomever else you’re writing for.

If, in the course of blogging and responding to prompts, you don’t feel like you’re writing for yourself, it might be a sign to take a step back and figure out how to incorporate prompts in a way that feels more authentic to you. {For Whom Do You Write?}

In our busy world, we have limited time to do certain things for ourselves, like reading. On the net there is so much to read, it is impossible to read everything or to follow every blog full-time. Even when we are following a blog or others are following our blog, we can not expect that they read every blog, and certainly not that they notice or look at every blog on the day it is written.

we’re not necessarily interested in every post that another blogger writes. {For Whom Do You Write?}

It is logical that everyone has their own preferences for certain subjects and will look for interesting literature in this area. In that respect, it is not bad that the internet offers such a variety of subjects so that everyone can find something to their own liking.

We from our site are happy you came to read this post, and honestly do hope you’ll have also got a taste for reading here a bit more than just this article.

Welcome to From Guestwriters in 2023, and hope to see you more.

+

Preceding

Asking for a Re-Blog

When you think you have nothing to say or to show

Readers, likes and comments

++

Additional reading

1. WordPress appears to have fallen off its best horse
2. A Classic Editor versus Block Editor
3. From old times and sites to new linkings
4. Five years on WordPress
5. From MSN Groups and MSN Spaces via Multiply to Blogspot now transferring to WordPress
6. In case Blogger goes further with her new interface
7. Blogger seems too slow to be practical
8. Our World on Blogger coming to its end
9. “Our World” Moving from Blogspot to WordPress
10. Walking alone? (Our World) = Walking alone? (Some View on the World)
11. What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?
12. Companionship
13. Presenting views from different sources
14. Newspapers: Dying or Changing
15. Pleased to find Christadelphian World on the net
16. 2010 – 2014 in review
17. First blog post
18. My World…
19. Blogging in the world for Jesus and his Father
20. Immanuel’s first two years of blogging on WordPress
21. If no one died because of War – how different would worlds appear to be

+++

Related

1. WordPress on Linux Servers
2. Why I will be writing a blog, and why you should too.
3. To blog or not to blog? (Asha Seth)
4. To Blog or Not to Blog? (The Lolatalks)
5. To blog or not to blog (Miss A.J. My thoughts exactly)
6. My 2022 Year in Books
7. What kind of blog reader are you?
8. This Little Light o’ Mine
9. The Potpourri of Blogging Comments
10. Draft Queen
11. No Way Home
12. 4 things that helped me make affirmations work for me
13. Carol Anne asks
14. An Ode to Courage
15. 2022 Wrap Up | 2022 Favourites and 2023 Goals
16. A Fresh Start
17. A Brave New Year
18. Happy New Years
19. My New Year’s Resolutions 2023
20. Daily Blog #412: It’s been weeks (Part Two) Weird Dreams, Manifestations/Goals, New Years Blog
21. As Horrific As Lord Of The Flies
22. guest posting is super OK
23. December wrap-up!
24. The Morning After
25. 3 Reminders for the New Year
26. About Those New Year’s Resolutions …
27. A random memory
28. Happy New Year!
29. Share Your World 2nd January: my response
30. Share Your Blog 2023
31. Author Journey (January 2, 2023)
32. Confusion Rant- Not my best Post, a break from PVX
33. My first collaborative project !

What 2022 brought to us and looking forward to 2023

Liberation

Lots of people thought 2022 would be the year of liberating us from that terrible virus which got the world in its grip. Though not a liberation became several people on their part, an even more senseless killing ‘disease’ came unto Europe.

The leader of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, who would love to find a renewed Soviet Union, said at the beginning of the year he would bring liberation to the Ukrainians. Instead, his “bloodstained” tyranny plunged Europe into the war on a scale not seen since 1945 as Russian troops advanced on Kyiv on Thursday night, February 24th.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is shocking and disgraceful. It is the latest terrible aggression by the Putin regime and the latest damaging conflict in our world, with so many people being killed or injured, losing loved ones and seeing their homes destroyed.

2022 has been a tough year to navigate, with a series of political and economic crises that continue to shape our world.

One powerful man

Who could have ever imagined that one man, from up north, would single-handedly turn the world upside down? However, he has succeeded very well in not only bringing black snow over several people, and literally turning the landscape blood-red, he has severely disrupted economic life in several countries.

Following two long pandemic years – with many still experiencing the effects – we’ve witnessed the outbreak of war in Ukraine and could feel in our purse how it affects us also in our region. We cannot ignore this war that has affected many citizens. At our new WordPress Site “Some View on the World” we have given a voice to those suffering in the conflict as well as reporting the situation on the ground and providing the expertise needed to understand geopolitics.

Picturing what is happening in the world

As best we can, we try to give a picture of what is happening in the world on the continuation of “Our World“. 2022 was another year of figuring out how we would be able to keep up with bringing political and religious news alongside our other spiritual websites. We hope to find that balance further in 2023.

By nature, I am not an easy person and have dared to clash several times by speaking my mind outright. Even in the articles, I publish here and on my other websites, my thinking is based on my personal opinion. One can agree or disagree with that view. I, therefore, appreciate that people also dare to express their opinions. But in general, there is a little reaction in that area. Still, I hope the articles brought, can make people think. For instance, I was happy to find that my op-eds on Christmas in the Daily Telegraph were able to bring a debate after all.

Hoping to expose wrongdoings

With the news we place at Some View on the World we do hope we also could be able to expose the mistreatment and deaths of migrant workers in Qatar for almost a decade as well as other wrong attitudes towards people as well as animals and plants. At my personal site and this site as well, in particular on “Some View on the World” we continue to bear witness to the climate crisis as it destroys lives, uproots whole communities and changes the course of our shared future. We hope for 2023 to be able to bring regular news about our environment.

The fallout from the January 6 hearings and Donald Trump’s presidency could get our attention, and we hold our hearts for the intentions of Mr Trump, wanting to come back as president of the U.S.A..

Independence of my websites

For all the reporting we do here, and on my other websites, I would like to remind you, readers, that there is no financial support from companies anywhere and that all reporting is based on personal and independent reporting, where I keep searching for this site among texts that appear on the net what could possibly be fascinating for you to read as well, and thus to reblog them here.

2022 could bring lots of blogs on the net of which we presented some selections over here too. At Firefox several could find their way into ‘Pocket’, like: Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid, How to Want Less, A Neurologist’s Tips to Protect Your Memory, Why You Should Really Stop Charging Your Phone Overnight, A Guide to Getting Rid of Almost Everything, a.o. most read.

Uncovering and unravelling

Whether on social, political or religious issues, we are eager to seek the truth and expose false reports. Exposing wariness is not always appreciated, but is very important in our view. To do that, we can count on several investigative journalists and some newspapers to join in the pursuit of that muddle, so that together we can make certain things known to the world while others would rather see them covered up.

At Some View on the World we have maintained round-the-clock coverage from several places, not always bringing nice news, like mass graves of Bucha, Izium and many war crimes.

The war accelerated a global economic slump, sending costs soaring, throttling energy supplies and raising the spectre of blackouts, malnutrition and a winter of discontent across dozens of countries. As global food supplies fluctuated, we reported on the hunger gripping the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan. In 2022, it became impossible to ignore those victims in poorer countries. But sadly, we had to observe how little the public cared about those people living far from their homes. And closer, many did not wish to have refugees, so we could speak of a refugee crisis again this year.

Here in Belgium, the influx of refugees seems completely uncontrollable and many, even with small children, shamefully had to sleep outside several nights through rain and wind. This while in Great Britain, the reception was also not going smoothly and people started looking for a housing solution in Rwanda, and proceeded to deportations.

Condition of mother earth

A lot of people do not want to realise that things are very bad for Mother Earth. To this, in 2022, several scientists again tried to make it clear to the world that we need to think seriously about this and take action. We were confronted with UK’s hottest summer, a very early and long great Summer in Belgium, drought in Europe, and the accompanying fires.

Heating the houses became for many difficult to keep in the household budget. It looked like mother nature felt the pressure on the energy market, as well. Everywhere in Europe, we had extremely high temperatures for the time of year. In Belgium 2022 became the warmest year since measurements.

The climate emergency ran as a constant thread through much of our Some View on the World journalism in 2022.

While many European countries were suffering from a shortage of water, they had it in other countries, like Pakistan, too much. Devastating floods in Pakistan, encountering one of its worst natural catastrophes, Sydney’s wettest year on record, ferocious heatwaves in the US southwest and the costliest Atlantic hurricane for years, could catch our attention.

At Cop27 in Egypt, the Guardian asked the tough questions. Though, we did not give so much attention to the changing tactics of activists, now more likely to throw soup at a painting as they are to glue themselves to a public highway.

Uprising

In my view, many other protests could get our attention earlier, as they were carried out in a more correct way. Coming from a not expected corner, sparked by the death in custody of a young woman, Mahsa Amini.

Once again, we were able to conclude in Afghanistan and Iran that there is no improvement in human rights yet. The Iranian authorities tightly control reporting inside the country, so we counted on the teams of the Guardian to redouble efforts to reach protagonists to tell their stories. Social media remained also important for this, so it was satisfying to see the Guardian Instagram video on why Iranians are risking everything for change reach more than 2 million viewers.

It is impossible for me to have news sources everywhere, which is why we must also call on professional companies, for which we must also pay. Financial aid is therefore very welcome to cover these expenses. Nevertheless, we try to be as aware as possible of the general events, for which we also make further use of the known news channels and reliable TV channels and newspapers.

United States debacle

In terms of exposure, it was imperative to look at the Trumpists who still claim high and low that the US elections were forged.

The country which was formed on the idea that it could be a free world where everybody could express himself freely and would not be bounded by limitations through a government, in 2022 came to see deep political divisions, caused by a man who as 45th president of the U.S.A. did mutiny on that state and brought democracy in danger. His party made the ongoing climate crisis and racial, economic and health inequalities worsened. It was impossible to ignore the fallout from the January 6 hearings and Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as his willingness to come back as president.

The repeal of Roe v Wade provided a divisive backdrop to the November midterm elections. The conservative, or better said, the extremist Christians in the U.S., made it possible that women lost even the right to their own bodies. They also did not want to give an eye for mother nature nor for all those poor Americans who have no house or anywhere to live except on the streets, where many in the last weeks of the year found their dead by Winter storm Elliott. Buffalo got the worst hit by that bomb cyclone.

Political storms

In 2022 there were more significant elections in America which caught our attention. In Brazil, there were an anxious few weeks as Jair Bolsonaro wanted to do like his friend Trump, saying the votes were falsified. Finally, he suffered a chastening defeat by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who completed a comeback from prison to the presidential palace.

To our annoyance, we in northern Europe had to observe an inverse movement towards South America. The far right in Sweden, Italy and Israel, could get most seats in parliament. Despite her political prowess, the 45-year-old from Rome, whose strong will and determination has drawn comparisons to Margaret Thatcher, Giorgia Meloni has spent three decades fighting her way to the top of Italian politics. She is clear evidence that go-getters win. In October last year, after Brothers of Italy managed to draw votes away from the Northern League in its northern strongholds in local elections, a secret recording revealed Matteo Salvini hitting out at Meloni, calling her a “pain in the ass”.

In Belgium, too, the newspapers disguised several polls, clearly showing that the right is making a strong rise and where voices can already be heard that NVA will have to make the choice to form a majority coalition with Vlaams Belang.

As for British politics, prime ministers came and went with alarming regularity and the nation buried the pound, Queen Elizabeth and its global standing in quick succession. For 10 days in September, the future of the monarchy dominated the newsroom. The crazy game of the English conservatives who wanted their leader to put his capsones under the benches and to ask the people to stay at home because of Corona and not to have parties seemed to think it normal that their leader could do that and lie about it too. The whole world could laugh at the blunders of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, while the British citizen seemed not to mind. In any case, they did not demand new elections and left it to the Tory members to elect the new prime minister.

In Australia Labour could note a historic federal election victory.

Economical storms

The struggle between Russia and Ukraine is also a struggle between the Putin regime and Western Europe.

The war accelerated a global economic slump, sending costs soaring, throttling energy supplies and raising the spectre of blackouts, malnutrition and a winter of discontent across dozens of countries. But we also noticed that certain companies were abusing the war in Ukraine to raise their prices.

Cereals and gas were not released enough by blockades from the Russians, which caused major food problems, especially in Africa. In Western Europe we felt our energy prices skyrocket due to the pressure on the export and import markets. In Belgium, it took forever for the government to take measures to mitigate the costs of its citizens. After several months of calls by the Labour Party PvdA/PtB to reduce VAT to 6% and by their appeals to the public to put pressure on the government, things finally came to a head.

Health matters

2022 received big leaps forward for Alzheimer’s treatments, bowel cancer prevention and understanding depression.

In several countries there was joy that people could come together again to party and that the elderly should no longer be separated from their children and grandchildren. The lockdown had made it very clear how important personal contact is. It was striking how in 2022 teenagers and twens still had many psychological difficulties, which were not resolved. Bad enough, many could not be admitted in time, causing unnecessarily too many young people to die, while this could have been avoided.

Post-pandemic in Europe in danger

For months Europe tried to combat Covid-19. We started the annual overview with the relaxation of the Corona measures. But at the end of December, they now appear to be endangered because Europe does not want to take strict measures for the Chinese who are now allowed by their government to travel outside China again, which will allow them to spread the increased disease further outside China. With the coming Chinese New Year, they could start a new pandemic as in Belgium, it started in Antwerp.

For much of the world, a sort of post-pandemic normality has resumed – with one striking exception: the country where it all began. Chinese leaders faced a rapid spread of public anger caused by their draconian Covid lockdown policy. Only after some activists could ignite a revolt against the lockdown and more people joined them on the streets, even coming to shout to get rid of the Chinese leader and communist party, the government got seriously afraid and eased the lockdown measures. After they had done that another hell broke down, the virus rapidly spreading and killing so many people the mortuaries could not handle it anymore.

While the Chinese seem to be in the first Corona wave, as it were, the rest of the world has gotten out over time and everyone is now looking forward to a shock-free 2023.

We too look forward to an ending of the war in Ukraine and to a peaceful solution between Kosovo and Serbia.

At Some View of the World and at my other personal Space, we shall try to bring you up-to-date news of the happenings in the world, and here on this website, we hope we shall still be able to offer you and share with you, some worthwhile articles to read in this coming New Year.

 

*

A sincere thank you to our readers and supporters – wherever you are in the world,
we wish you a wonderful end to 2022 and an optimistic 2023.

°°°

In case you like our work,
do not forget that we always can use your support.

To help us defray the costs
any gift is welcome at
Bankaccount: Giro: BE37 9730 6618 2528
BIC: ARSPBE22
With mention: support websites

For which we thank you wholeheartedly

++

Additional reading

1. G7 agreed to ban or phase out Russian oil and gas imports
2. 2022 the year of fearing some wars

Available information for the youngsters and readers of my websites

John Humphrys does feel a sense of guilt that his parents scrimped to pay a weekly shilling to the Encyclopaedia Britannica door-to-door salesman so that they as kids would always have the world’s knowledge at our fingertips. He says:

What a noble intent. What a waste of money it seems today.

Though I also twice got the full encyclopedia version and for a long tim bought the additional yearbooks. Now I still do pay my yearly subscription, so did and still do support the Encyclopeadia Britannica, so that I can search for truthful information. Once the kids were on their own legs they did not seem interested to search in the books, or on the internet version, because they found other sources on the internet in which most of the youngsters put their faith. For some of them, they do forget that it is people, like me, who are offering our knowledge for free on that internet, but are also not all masters in different subjects.

The volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica. The Macropædia is the set of volumes 13 to 29, with single colour spines.

What bothers me most about those searches on the internet is that not all search machines bring the ‘searchers’ to the right answers. The Britannica is there also at fault, Not bringing people to their full articles on a certain subject. I must say, often my searches in the Micropaedia and Macropaedia deliver much better answers than the ones on the net.

The 17-volume Macropædia is the third part of the Encyclopædia Britannica; the other two parts are the 12-volume Micropædia and the 1-volume Propædia, intended as a compendium and topical organisation which is an interesting guide to self-study.

The last edition of the print Britannica was published in 2010, and today it provides only the electronic version. I am happy that I have still the printed versions next to the two main electronic versions I can do my research with. I find it important that people should be able to find out more about certain subjects, and for that reason, I still try to include further links in the articles presented on my various websites. I do hope people would use them to find out more about certain subjects. I am happy to see that until now certain links are clicked.

To Colour Or Not To Colour?

When children first start to draw, we teach them to colour in between the lines. We reward accuracy rather than interpretation. Neatness, not expression. This says a lot about our own predispositions.

The problem with kids’ colouring is also that often their elders guide them not to use certain colours for certain objects and come to teach them that they have to colour skies in blue and not in green or red for example.

Last few years the publishers sought it also right to print colouring books for adults where they now also have to feel the restriction to colour between the lines.

Perhaps fine motor skills may be trained by colouring between the lines, but it does not give so much freedom to self-expression, and that is much more important to stimulate.

We even interfere with ” to hold a crayon correctly” as if we do know the best way to hold a pencil or pen. (This reminds me how we as children got a tick on our hands when we dared to write or draw with our left hand.)
How many of us did not get directives on how to fill in a blank piece of paper. Some of us got to learn we always had to keep a white border and should not have the drawing pass the paper.

We should give all children the liberty to express themselves freely. Why not present the sky to be green, mauve and not blue, the grass being red and not green, clouds being blue or orange?

Many people are so ingrained in calibrated settings and dare not allow ideas other than those as we perceive things in real life.

+++

Related

• Stop Conforming – Day 302 of 365 Days to a Better You

 

justabitfurther

The past few days at the start of 2022 has reminded me, that “putting away the crayon box and/or colouring between the lines” may actually be the most devastating move I could make at the moment. A strange opening, but hang in there with me.

Generally, most of us would agree that rules are necessary in a wide expanse of situations. You know – “stop at a red light”; “wear a life jacket when canoeing”; and the oldie but goodie “don’t eat yellow snow.” You get the idea.

Rules(real and imagined) can be a good thing, but they can also be the most restricting and strangling when it comes to who we are and should be as an individual.

Often family, society and/or our upbringing force; slot or “passive-agressively suggest” this is how we “should be or act or live our OWN lives.”

Conformity has it’s place. But, it…

View original post 1,043 more words

The growth of Wikipedia

Words and data to look for

For some years now, voluntary writers make the effort to provide enough serious information for all people to find for free on the net.

We have hardback copies and a subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica and provide links to it on our articles so that people also can find more information on subjects. Some of our writers also contribute to articles on the multilingual free online encyclopedia (or encyclopaedia) Wikipedia, started in 2001, to which our readers also can find additional links. It is a fantastic enterprise, that operates under an open-source management style and allows everyone to find sufficient background information on multiple topics.

Nupedia, the beginning of a free online English-language encyclopaedia

Screenshot from the Wayback Machine Nupedia 2003

Homepage of Wikipedia, which runs on MediaWiki, one of the most popular wiki software packages

Perhaps inspired by objectivist “openness,” Jimmy Wales, a successful bond trader, founded a free online English-language encyclopaedia called Nupedia, which sought free contributions from scholars and other experts and subjected them to an intensive peer-review process. Frustrated by the slow progress of this project, Wales and Nupedia’s editor in chief, Larry Sanger, in 2001 turned to a new technology, a type of software called wiki, created by American computer programmer Ward Cunningham, to create Wikipedia, a companion encyclopaedia site that anyone could contribute to and edit.

Wiki software and Wikipedia

As a feature of Nupedia.com Wikipedia entered the world of the internet on January 15, 2001, but, following objections from the advisory board, got relaunched as an independent Web site a few days later. The Wiki engines allowed content to be written using a simplified markup language, sometimes edited with the help of a rich-text editor. Ward Cunningham, the developer of the first wiki software, WikiWikiWeb, originally described wiki as

“the simplest online database that could possibly work”

It was incredible to see how many enthusiastic writers from all over the world could bring some 20,000 articles in 18 languages, including French, German, Polish, Dutch, Hebrew, Chinese, and Esperanto its first year. In 2003 Nupedia was terminated and its articles moved into the non-profit effort Wikipedia.

By 2006 the English-language version of Wikipedia had more than one million articles, and by the time of its 10th anniversary in 2011 it had surpassed 3.5 million.

The only regret we have to note is that too many readers insist that Wikipedia tells THE truth and that everything it says would really be so. They don’t realise that over the years certain writers have repeatedly taken advantage of it, to sell disinformation or totally untrue matters as well-founded. Luckily, several writer-readers are willing to invest their time to control the added articles so that individuals who will maliciously attempt to thwart the open-source website Wikipedia by introducing false or misleading content, shall be unmasked and excluded from the system. Rather than worrying about every user’s actions and intentions, proponents of wiki software rely on their community of users to edit and correct what are perceived to be errors or biases. The good thing about having continuous writers make additions and corrections is that the encyclopaedia can be kept very up-to-date. Very quickly, necessary background information can thus be delivered to the inquisitive public. Although such a system is certainly far from foolproof, wikis stand as an example of the origin of an Internet counterculture that has a basic assumption of the goodness of people.

The website’s coverage of the events of the day and controversial topics such as American politics and major events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine has received substantial media attention and has exposed weaknesses as the system’s strengths.

Wikipedia pages on female and minority scientists and engineers

It is incredible how many people use Wikipedia and trust it for its information. But one must realise that it is not an all-explanatory work that also does not reflect all information correctly balanced all the time.

Jessica Wade in 2017

Jess Wade a British physicist in the Blackett Laboratory at Imperial College London, specialising in Raman spectroscopy. noticed she could not find any information on Wikipedia about some very important people.

In 2017 after meeting American climatologist and professor Kim Cobb she wanted to know more about her and went on Wikipedia to be astonished not to find an entry on that very young but also a good professor and publisher with over 100 peer-reviewed publications in major journals.

Having the idea that Wikipedia is “used by pretty much everyone,” Wade realised that

“despite it being this incredibly important resource, it was suffering from a lack of content, particularly about women, but also about people of color.”

Since then, Wade has completed more than 1,750 pages for female and minority scientists and engineers, she often spends her evenings reading journals, scientific papers, archived documents, and social media to find potential subjects. It takes Wade a few hours to write each Wikipedia entry, but she’s not doing it all alone — she also teaches others how to research and put together pages during training workshops. Wade describes herself as a

“tiny fish in a massive sea,”

but she’ll

“keep doing everything I can to make science a more accessible and inclusive place to be.”

It is with people like her that Wikipedia is in a position to grow further into a place where people can easily go and look something up to find further more information about someone or about something.

Holiday season and BBC being questioned

Since we came back from our Summer trip, we noticed at BBC Breakfast and in other news broadcastings on BBC 1 we are not able any more to watch the local or London News. We only come to see a red page with the notice we are not allowed to see that broadcasting in our area (Belgium).

Normally, my day starts with the Breakfast show, me wanting to know what might or should get our attention that day. It is strange the notice let us know it is a matter of copyrights, that we are not able to see that part of the news, whilst at BBC World, luckily we still can see the whole newsbroadcasting.

Furthermore, in recent years, we cannot rid ourselves of the opinion that the BBC seems to be repeating more and more. Since BBC First was all about repeats, we had given up on that channel, provided we felt the extra payment for that channel was then unnecessary. For BBC 1, BBC 2 and BBC World, we still pay extra in our television subscription (which includes Science and Discovery Science in that package)

ITV we cannot receive here in the middle of Belgium, but we are lucky the VRT (or Flemish television) buys a lot of its series so that we can enjoy them even without annoying advertisements in between.

Concerning the BBC we are not the only ones who get the impression the national public broadcaster is taking fewer risks in the last few months. The number of new shows on the BBC has fallen by almost half. In its annual report, Ofcom, the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries of the United Kingdom, said that the BBC is increasingly reliant on returning series, many of which have been going for decades.

I am sad to note that this also happens on Flemish television, where on VRT 1 they have been broadcasting repeats of “FC De Kampioenen” (F.C. The Champions) a long-running Flemish sitcom chronicling the (mis)adventures of a fictional local football team, for “ages”, for which there are remarkably still many viewers. But last year, the television season seemed to end as early as March/April, on which then almost no new productions were shown.

The private channels seem to be in the same bed ill, but there one may wonder why they have created so many channels, when these then fill up their programming anyway with repeats of each other’s programmes. Sure, it’s all about sending as many adverts into the world as possible. But they would do better to charge more for these commercials and send fewer of them to the viewer. In any case, we at home only watch VTM News and ignore everything else. We don’t feel like being orendulously annoyed by the adverts that constantly interrupt films and series.

Stalwarts of the BBC schedules include Have I Got News For You, now on its 64th series, and Bargain Hunt, which returned this year for its 62nd series. Since 1963 the British science fiction television show broadcast by the BBC, Doctor Who, seems still going strong, approaching its 60th anniversary. The BBC began producing new episodes in 2005, which quickly proved popular. Lots of people wanting to follow those adventures of the extraterrestrial being that with various companions combats foes, works to save civilisations, and helps people in need, it surprises me that still so many are eager to see the new episodes.

Other shows which have been around for years include Mastermind (series 48), Top Gear (series 33) and Silent Witness (series 25).

In its report, Ofcom said that

“the balance of new and returning series sheds light on the BBC’s level of risk-taking”.

But when one looks at new productions one can see there are less new shows or series since 2021, showing a high reliance on returning series.

The lack of new shows is illustrated by this year’s BBC Christmas schedule. Continuing the trend set in recent years, it predominantly comprises festive specials of familiar shows including once again the period drama series about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s and 1960s, “Call the Midwife”. Originally, we also watched every episode, but in the long run it seemed like it was always the same, and we had had enough.

For those who love the British–French crime comedy drama television series created by Robert Thorogood, starring Ben Miller, “Death in Paradise”, there shall again be an offering this Christmas season. (Oh boy, oh boy.) Though that series has enjoyed high viewing figures and a generally positive critical reception since its debut, leading to repeated renewals, I hate it, and find the jokes not classy enough and the plot so predictable. (Not worth spending your time on it.)

The Irish television sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys, with moments, can get me smiling, but for me this would be better left to be played in the 1970s though it was only developed from O’Carroll’s works going back to the early 1990s.  The Christmas special broadcast on 25 December 2011 could have been good fun, but the last two years, it all seemed too noisy, exaggerated overcasting. Already in December 2020, O’Carroll announced that additional Christmas specials had been commissioned up to 2026, stating

“This new deal we signed last week goes all the way to 2026, which means I will be able to grow into the part, and we’ve a clause in which guarantees Mrs Brown is aired at 10pm on Christmas night, or else we don’t have to make it.”

But I would not interrupt a family gathering to go sit in front of the television, nor record that Christmas show to see it later. On 19 February 2022, it was announced that Mrs. Brown’s Boys would be returning for a fourth series set to air in 2022, in which I wonder how long people will “milk this”, and how long shall the public accept, or come to terms with, to watch those ever-recurring running gags?.

A lot of games are brought to many television stations, and the end-of-year days are not spared. The British comedy game show which started in 1979 and is still running today, albeit with some sizeable gaps, Blankety Blank, shall also be on the viewing calendar for some people. That show, with Mrs Brown’s Boys, may then provide distraction and relaxation for lonely people, where they can put that loneliness aside for a while and still experience a pleasant fun night in these dark days.

Provided there are so many sports fans then anyway, several state-run channels such as VRT and BBC will also bring enough of this on the board. The “world’s longest running TV sports quiz” shall also be present during this coming end-of-year period.

Unfortunately, such a world-renowned organisation lacks the guts to come up with refreshing and new ideas during these days, where family time is after all important, without having to present films that are too chamois-sweet and certainly not to present “The Sound of music” or “Home Alone” for the 100,000th time (which, for example, the commercial channel VTM would dare to do).

Ofcom’s research found that audiences rate the BBC low for risk-taking.

“Taking risks and innovating in how and what it commissions is key to how the BBC can set itself apart from competitors,”

the regulator said.

If television stations don’t pay attention and keep broadcasting so many repeats with an abundance of commercials being sent into the living room, more and more people will drop out of simply watching a TV channel or paying for cable TV. We can already see that the younger generation prefers not to take out a cable subscription anymore, but to order what they really want to see on the Internet when they want to make time for appropriate entertainment on their TV.
In the coming years, one can therefore expect the popularity of streaming services and companies like Netflix, Disney, a.o. to increase, while many people also bring larger screens into their homes with Dolby stereo sound.

Like me, the regulator also finds that

“Risk-taking can also help the BBC evolve its offering to stay relevant and appeal to a wide range of audiences, including those currently under-served.”

It is now, that one will have to be more mindful of those who are so often overlooked or forgotten.

Viewers and listeners from the lowest socio-economic groups – accounting for a quarter of the UK population – are less engaged and less satisfied with the BBC than their wealthier counterparts, the report found, concluding that they were “persistently under-served” by the broadcaster.

Fortunately, we can still be charmed by the many wonderful nature documentaries and excellent police and detective series, but the BBC has to make choices with its different channels to reach certain viewer groups during certain hours on certain channels.

It is a pity to hear that young audiences for the children’s channels, CBeebies and CBBC, are in decline, with increased viewing to iPlayer failing to make up the shortfall. Another problem with iPlayer screening is that people living outside the UK are not able to see those productions. Because of that, many children are missing an interesting boat. Though good to hear that as of 2022, CBeebies-branded channels exist in the United Kingdom and Ireland (their original flagship service) India, Poland, Asia, South Africa, Australia, MENA and Turkey, while branded blocks currently air on KBS in South Korea, and as well as Kids Station in Japan.

A BBC spokesperson said:

“The BBC invests more in original UK content than any other broadcaster and provides an unrivalled range of programming which includes new and exciting shows such as SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Traitors, The English, Am I Being Unreasonable? and The Elon Musk Show alongside favourite returning series, which our audiences love.”

It is true that we should see that the BBC does its best, and does not perform badly with the amount of money which is available for them. This year they also once more have proven to be cracks in presenting life television.  2022 with the death of the Queen showed the world how BBC is a master in such historical times and how they can bring audiences together for major national moments. We also should admit that on the part of bringing news there is the significance of their trusted, impartial news, which means they’re delivering on their remit and delivering value for audiences. I only can hope they shall find a solution for HD viewers so that they soon shall be able to see the news sections of local news again so that in Breakfast and the Nine o’clock news we shall not have those interruptions for 8 à 10 minutes (with just an image of an announcement board that in our region that news cannot be viewed).

Furthermore, we can only hope that the government will continue to recognise the extent to which the BBC is an international signboard that also still has an important job to perform of informing and infotainment, and therefore shall provide enough funds to do that job properly.

 

The missing mystery writer

In 1926, the mystery writer Agatha Christie went missing. The story of her 11-day disappearance — as strange a plot as any of her novels — is part of a new biography by Lucy Worsley.

After her husband, Archie, began an affair with a younger woman, Christie fell into a depression. While out for a drive, she crashed her car down a hill and into a hedge. The car was found, but she was not; she had fled to a spa hotel, staying there under a false identity that shared a surname with her husband’s paramour. Finally, after more than a week, two musicians recognized her as the famous missing author.

“Whatever the true circumstances of Christie’s severance with reality, the media had a field day,” Molly Young writes in a review of the biography. “Her book sales shot up.”

J.B Mackinnon’s The Day the World Stops Shopping: Book Review

A very good question is to wonder if we have to buy things or to exchange things, and what would happen if we come to a society where nobody shall have to shop.
For sure in this capitalist world there is too much individualism and greed for having personal things, no matter what it might cost to others or to nature, to have those things in personal possession.

Sabbaths or Sundays used to be days when everybody took time for themselves and/or for God, not being bounded to work or material goods. Many, in the past, considered that one day of the week as a ‘holy’ day, in which there was no place for material gain, but all the more for spiritual gain. There was that one day in the week that people stopped, relaxed, and recharged for the week ahead, and stopped consuming for the day.

But in the capitalist world, such time for oneself is considered damaging the economic world and our society, which has continued to thrive on the expenditure of money. Money has become the modern god. Most people have come to worship Mammon, the god of money, and feel bad if they become limited or restricted in their game of gaining more and more personal stuff.

People should come to understand that the way of consumerism like it has gone with a bullet train since the 1980ies has to be stopped. Demarketing, the concept of using marketing to dissuade people from consuming, or encouraging them to consume less, offers a solution that marketing could provide to the problem of climate change and overconsumption.

 

+

Preceding

P5 The Empire we’re in: Individualism & Consumerism

Summer holiday time to knock and ask, and time to share

Watch out

What climate activists can learn from Sunday School leaders

Less… is still enough

++

Additional reading

1. A look at materialism
2. Capitalism and economic policy and Christian survey (Our World) = Capitalism and economic policy and Christian survey (Some View on the World)
3. Gang Fascism: How Capital Weaponizes the Social Ills It Creates
4. Daily thought for July the 8th and the Summer months
5. Today’s thought “Fools despise wisdom and instruction” (March 23)
6. A way to prepare for the Kingdom
7. Utopism has not ended
8. Entering 2022 still Aiming for a society without exploitation or oppression

+++

Related

1. When Will Enough Be Enough? Our Society Has a Serious Obsession with Growth.
2. Overconsumption
3. Overconsumption is what happens when an ecosystem can no longer sustain the use of its resources
4. Overconsumption: uncovering the dark side of economic growth
5. On overconsumption and Christmas shopping
6. A Reality Check and A Challenge 
7. The Unedited Truth About Why Americans Are So Unhappy In Life
8. “I Don’t Want to Know”
9. Column: Overconsumption has no place in the holidays
10. overconsumption and the dulling of the senses
11. The Occupiers Claim: Working for A Living is Slavery
12. The case against consumerism: Part 1 – The real cost of our everyday purchases
13. P5 The Empire we’re in: Individualism & Consumerism
14. Consumerism’s Effect on Creating an Addictive Society – Pt. 3
15. Buying more stuff won’t make you happy
16. 11.11 sales are a symptom of the greater disease of mindless consumerism
17. Green Consumerism: Who Cares About The Environment?
18. “…Drop your weapons of greed and gluttony …for when you do, peace will return to society….”
19. Sustainable Fashion: Less is More
20. Explaining Fast Fashion
21. The Curse of Fast Fashion
22. Supply line panic
23. There is no green growth
24. Hunger Cycle
25. From Sustainable Development to Developing Sustainability
26. Overcoming Overconsumption
27. Choosing a time to listen to God

Melissa in her Twenties

What if the world stopped shopping? J. B. Mackinnon shines a light on the damaging effects of overconsumption on the planet and our health, wellbeing and happiness.

View original post 970 more words

A serious inflammation of the liver and dark corners in American medicine

When World War II began, the US military discovered that it had a huge health problem: hepatitis. Nothing much was known about the disease and the military wanted to know how to prevent it and cure it.

So, from shortly after Pearl Harbor in 1942 to the end of the War and continuing to 1972, American biomedical researchers deliberately infected people with hepatitis. Government-sponsored researchers were attempting to discover the basic features of the disease and the viruses causing it, and to develop interventions that would quell recurring outbreaks.

A new book from Yale University Press, Dangerous Medicine: The Story behind Human Experiments with Hepatitis describes the medical and ethical issues behind hepatitis experiments.

Please read more:

Hepatitis research: more dark corners in American medicine

+++

Related

1. Tips For How to Prevent Hepatitis and how to control it
2. Hepatitis B and C: A new test protects against liver damage
3. “Health Net” will really be “tired to bursting liver”?Doctor: Acute liver failure is not necessarily related to staying up late for a long time
4. Hepatitis (plural hepatitides)…
5. Liver expression of IL-22, IL-22R1 and IL-22BP in patients with chronic hepatitis C with different fibrosis stages
6. Hypoglycemia associated with direct-acting anti-hepatitis C virus drugs: An epidemiologic surveillance study of the FDA adverse event reporting system (FAERS)
7. Prevalence of Hepatitis B Calls for Further Intervention in Asia
8. 3rd Death Possibly Linked To Pennsylvania Hepatitis A Outbreak Reported
9. Nonprofit ‘Tulsa CARES’ Adds First In House Doctor To Help Patients With HIV, Hepatitis C

Comforting Thought: Destiny doesn’t create success, determination does

By extension of reading the book Words of a Kaumātua by Haare Williams, you will also discover your own spiritual connection to time, place, people and community wherever you are – also known as tūrangawaeware. There is a spiritual weight and heft to this book that is capable of eliciting gasped intakes of breathe at the beauty of the language Williams uses.

+

Find also

Haare Williams: A Child of the Community on e-Tangata

A Collection of Māori proverbs for you to keep and use

E Pii, e Paa: A poem by Haare Williams

 

Mana Wahine: The Female Moko in Māori Culture

+

Preceding

Comforting Thought: Without darkness we wouldn’t see the stars

+++

Related

1. Words and music: A Homage to Tāne
2. Words and Music: Pets, plants, places and people long for the intimacy of touch
3. Words and music: Go East To Your Mountain
4. Kaumātua Wisdom: Raparapa
5. The Songs of Tangaroa ~ Ngā Waiata o Tangaroa
6. How New Zealand Musicians are Revitalizing Maori Language
7. Let’s not forget who reo Māori revitalisation is most important to
8. Words and Music: Kua rongo ake au
9. Ardern, Lange and Cabinet cabals
10. Vintage portraits of the last traditionally tattooed Maori women before the Ta Moko tattoos were outlawed by British colonialists, 1890-1910
11. He Waiata Pepeha
12. Hauraki, My Tokotoko; A Story
13. Mount Taranaki, New Zealand
14. Maori Tribe Tells Anti-Vaccine Protestors To Stop Using Popular Haka
15. by Cristiano Corsini on Flickr.Kaiteriteri, Abel Tasman National Park – South Island, New Zealand.

Content Catnip

Kua rongo aku au..

Ētahi ka tau ki tōna taumata

Nā te whai rawa rānei

Kō te tini maha ka ū tonu nā te kaha rawa

O tē whawhai manawapū

---

I have learned that…

Some succeed

Because they are destined to

But most succeed

Because they’re determined to

~ Haare Williams, Words of a Kaumātua

View original post

Na 17 jaar vernieuwde Bijbeluitgave

17 jaar na de publicatie van de Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling van 2004 werd vorige woensdag een herwerkte versie ‘gedoopt’ in de Grote- of St Jacobskerk in Den Haag.

Kunsthistorische Bijbeluitgave NBV21

Er is ook een luxe cultuurhistorische uitgave van gemaakt die alle Bijbelboeken die door joden, protestanten, katholieken én lutheranen als gezaghebbend worden beschouwd voor legt, terwijl het het literaire karakter van het Oude en Nieuwe Testament benadrukt, doordat de tekst, anders dan in de meeste Bijbeluitgaven, in één brede kolom is opgemaakt.

Deze editie bevat een verklarende woordenlijst en diverse inleidingen die de lezer helpen om de weg te vinden in de historische achtergronden van de Bijbel. De inleidingen zijn geschreven door de belangrijkste oudhistorici en Bijbelwetenschappers van Nederland en Vlaanderen.

Matthijs de Jong, de hoofdvertaler van het NBG stelde trots deze herwerking voor en zei

“Met die inbreng van de lezers hebben we nu een verbeterde, vernieuwde en aangescherpte versie klaar van diezelfde vertaling, de NBV21 noemen we die.”

Vanaf 2016 hebben de vertalers zich over heel de Bijbel gebogen en zowat 12.000 wijzigingen aangebracht in de vertaling.

“Soms gaat het over een punt of een komma, soms over het Nederlands op zich, soms over een nieuw inzicht in de teksten. Maar over de hele lijn is het vooral de consistentie van de vertaling waar lezers het meest over vallen. Dus geen onnodige variaties in de vertaling, gelijke situaties of zinnen zijn nu ook identiek vertaald.”

geeft de jong aan.

Deze versie is om en bij de 2.000 bladzijden dik en mag dus een lijvig boek zijn waarbij wel een behoorlijk klein lettertype is gebruikt daar het anders veel te dik zou geweest zijn. Maar dit maal is er ook naast deen standaardeditie, eentje met grotere letters om gemakkelijk voor te lezen. Eveneens is er een gemakkelijk meeneembare versie, eentje voor huwelijken, een kunsteditie en ook een specifiek literaire uitgave.

Volgers de makers en uitgeverij leeft de Bijbel nog altijd en wachten nog altijd veel lezers op een Bijbelvertaling die hun kan boeien in hun eigen taal. Volgens de makers is het ook een boek dat in de huidige cultuur zijn plaats heeft en in de huidige maatschappij een spiegel voorhoudt en troost biedt.

Ook al leven we in West-Europa  in seculiere tijden en konden we zien dat in de loop der jaren, zelfs in het zogenaamd conservatief christelijk Nederland, de Bijbel een mindere rol is gaan spelen in de opvoeding,is er toch noch steeds een nieuwsgierigheid naar dat ‘Boek der boeken‘.

“Weet dat nog altijd veel kinderen en jongeren uit gelovige gezinnen en in het godsdienstonderwijs in contact komen met de Bijbel.”,

zegt Rieuwerd Buitenwerf, directeur van het NBG, die het werkproces looft:

“Net als in 2004 is het een samenwerking tussen Nederlandse en Vlaamse vertalers en dat liep zeer goed en vlot.”

“Mooi is dat de NBV21 helemaal interconfessioneel is, dus van waarde voor alle christenen: in Vlaanderen vooral katholieken, bij ons vooral protestanten, maar ook evangelischen of leden van de Pinkstergemeenschap. Het boek kan ook van waarde zijn voor de joodse gemeenschap. Wie in God en Jezus gelooft, is gebaat met de nieuwe vertaling. Wie niet gelooft ook trouwens.”

+

Vindt ook:

Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling 2021

+

Voorgaande

Gewortelden in Christus en factoren voor het succes van de reformatie

Niet Hebreeuws machtigen die toch de Tenach willen lezen

++

Aanvullend

1. Boek der boeken en groot meesterwerk
2. Ongelezen bestseller
3. Voorzien om te lezen
4. Oude spreekwijzen kennen om de Bijbel te begrijpen
5. Effectief Bijbellezen: Woordgebruik – Boek Genesis
6. Mogelijkheid de Bijbel zelf ter hand te nemen
7. Het Boek in onze Handen: Bijbels in de omgangstaal
8. De verjaardag van de King James Bijbel als aanleiding voor prediking
9. Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling: Bijbel in Gewone Taal
10. Bijbellezen bij nat weer
11. Een kerk naar smaak en taal
12. Verspreiding van Gods woord steeds meer op digitale wijze
13. De Bijbel in 451 talen beschikbaar
14. De wereld telt 459 volledige & 2049 gedeeltelijke bijbelvertalingen
15. Wanneer een Kerk gelooft dat de hele Schrift van God komt
16. Psalmen en gezangen in het Gronings
17. Concordantie Statenvertaling – concordance to the Old Dutch Staten Translation
18. Herziene Statenvertaling beschikbaar voor het publiek
19. Continuïteit van eeuwenoude kerkelijke teksten
20. Strong-coderingen en Nederlandse Bijbelvertalingen
21. Grootletteruitgave van de Bijbel in de Herziene Statenvertaling
22. Joodse bijbelvertaling
23. Dasberg Vertaling naast Orthodox Joodse Bijbelvertaling en andere Joodse vertalingen bij Jeshua-isten
24. Een Naam voor een God #2 Optekening en Kenbaarmaking
25. Belangrijkheid van Gods Naam
26. Hebt u een Engelse Bijbelvertaling?
27. Geloof door het horen
28. Broeders en Zusters in Christus door de eeuwen heen #11 Vredelievende waarheidzoekers

“Our World” Moving from Blogspot to WordPress

On April the 2nd 2005, Marcus Ampe, after having commented on several MSN Groups created his own chat group on MSN which would grow into the website “Christadelphian world” on Multiply. Like so many Microsoft users at that time, he too, had his Space on MSN. When Microsoft discontinued the MSN Groups, Mr. Ampe followed their suggestion to switch to Multiply, presenting its Multiply Groups and Multiply Spaces. Several groups did not do this, quit or switched to other systems such as Yuku, of Ezboard, Inc.‘s internet forums (Yuku Message Boards), or the content management system (CMS) WordPress. Both were also considered by us, but unfortunately not chosen at that time. But a few years later Multiply stopped with providing room for bloggers. This made that all the material had to be exported when one wanted to keep the material.

The hierarchy of labels in a fully qualified domain name

For that reason, Marcus Ampe wanted to save his writings and placed them temporarily on the other American online content management system (CMS) Blogspot, enabling multi-user blogs with time-stamped entries. Though that, what seemed just for a “waiting time” to find a new place, came to run its own life on Blogger. From that time onwards online journals or Blogs could also be accessed from a user-owned custom domain, an identification string that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet, (such as http://www.example.com) by using DNS facilities to direct a domain to Google’s servers.

Christadelphian World

The Blogspot “Christadelphian World” received some further new messages and having received a new birth in 2014, having its name changed in “Our World“ it grew out, becoming an ‘adult’ presenting more than 4 000 messages in 2020. Google, that year, made several changes in its sites as well as in Blogger. From then onwards connections with the older blogs on Blogspot did not seem to work so well. The system became very slow to load down. In earlier computer days that would not have been such an abnormality, nor problem, but in present times the consumer does not like some time-consuming websites and leave them alone.

The World Wide Web had become a place where lots of lots home pages, functioning as a table of contents or index, with links to other sections of the site, called for the attention of the reader. Many companies also wanted to play host to present websites to the worldwide public. The public became also more interested in blogs that operate mainly as news filters, collecting various online sources and adding short comments and Internet links. “Our World” its intention was also to do that and to show the public the connection of this world with the Highest Divine Source of this all.

Other blogs concentrate on presenting original material and wanted to go deeper into certain topics. Marcus Ampe for that reason brought his MSN Space over to a Multiply Space, and when Multiply stopped its service, transferred it to WordPress, with as title Marcus Ampe’s Space to present his own personal views and offer a look in his personal diary.

In addition, many blogs provided a forum to allow visitors to leave comments and interact with the publisher. Such interaction became the most important target and this provide a new ground for several platforms bringing social media as a new driver of the convergent media sector, into their core business.

The growth of the blogosphere has been nothing short of remarkable. By October 2005 there were 19.6 million blogs, a number that has been doubling roughly every five months, according to Technorati, Inc., a Web site and organisation dedicated to mapping and searching the blogosphere.  You can imagine how by this growth of approximately 70,000 new blogs being created each day — or, more vividly, nearly one every second, how difficult it has become to find the most interesting or complete one. Due to the abundance of material on the internet and the fact that people often cannot see the wood for the trees anymore, Marcus Ampe created in 2014 (03/26) “From Guestwriters” on WordPress as a platform where a selection of interesting websites could be presented. He also wanted to offer a platform for writers themselves to present their own website articles and to introduce people to more in-depth articles. But until now he does not seem to succeed getting enough writers willing to offer their services to talk about such subjects as history, nature, a.o..

From blogging is (in a way) expected that it might also be a conversational activity seeking to create a community or reflect an existing community. With “From Guestwriters” Marcus Ampe hoped to do so, but also with “Our World“, he wanted to open a view on the world, tough from a Christian viewpoint. He is still convinced such a viewpoint should have a place in our world, though he does not expect a lot of followers or interested people, because he is fully aware that there is not such an interest in Jehovah God.

As a Christian Marcus Ampe is convinced that it is part of the tasks given by God and by His son Jesus Christ, to go out into the world to preach the coming Kingdom of God. In many of his websites Mr. Ampe wants to bring some positive notes and want to show people that when things don’t work well, or are not working at all, although there’s plenty of sun, and when it’s starting to get annoying, there are ways to get out of that black or dark mood and to find sunshine in heaven. “From Guestwriters” want to contribute in such a way, and now you also may find “Some view on the world” bringing such a positive view on the world.

Please come to find this renewed website by Marcus Ampe:

Some view on the world (WordPress site by Marcus Ampe)

Where you shall be able to find some news updates, thoughts and reflections by different people (inclusive reblogs) and articles about man, history, faith, religions (in particular Christian religion), God, His world and His Word, the Bible and quotations from it.

Blog of Some view on the world

+

Find also to read:

1. Do you have a writer or presenter in you?
2. Change of the Microsoft Network Spaces
3. Messages leading to an earthly utopia
4. From MSN Groups and MSN Spaces via Multiply to Blogspot now transferring to WordPress
5. Invitation to renew connection
6. Going to the end of our 5th year of presenting interesting views from different authors
7. A Classic Editor versus Block Editor
8. Notification and news feed for Facebook users

++

Additional

1. Necessary to be known all over the earth
2. Need to inspire others
3. How To Get Started In Sharing Your Faith As a Christian
4. To find ways of Godly understanding
5. From house to house #2: Continuing to bring the good news right to the world
6. The untiring response of some Christadelphians
7. Taking as many opportunities as possible to proclaim the Good News
8. Reason to preach #5 Trained to do it God’s way
9. Beautiful feet of those who announce the good news
10. Witnesses of Christ and of his gospel
11. Preaching to an unbelieving world
12. A magazine with Each month a true story

+++

Related

1. What is an Internet Forum? Everything you need to know
2. Yahoo Answers is shutting down. Why are companies ditching discussion features?
3. Social media outage highlights how vital Facebook has become worldwide
4. ❣️The Message Boards Turn 21 Today! ❣️
5. Types of Content Management System
6. Facebook, Google Attribution, Chatbots
7. Your Singaporean Twitter History – Get to Know Your Country’s Social Media Trends
8. What’s Google Up To?
9. WordPress Training
10. Thinking Through: WordPress Border Controls
11. Launching & Managing your websites with CMS
12. W04 Reflection: Site Builder & Hosting
13. Best VPN for WeChat – Bypass Censorship & Chat Anonymously!
14. 5 Tips for Blog Post Ideas
15. Things That Make Me Wish I Wasn’t A Blogger
16. Joseph Pulitzer’s Retirement Speech & The Traits of Journalism
17. Reader Is Dead, But What About Writers?
18. When Bloggers Get Angry
19. Filter only coffee
20. Bloggers Who Write About Food!🍔
21. Translation and Social Media Language- A New Chapter
22. No Internet
23. Are we being controlled by unseen entities?
24. The Empathy Library
25. The bittersweet taste of traditional publishing

Decisions about your own death

Euthanasia is often described as the ultimate expression of autonomy but a former chair of the Danish Council of Ethics Ole Hartling stresses in his book Euthanasia and the Ethics of a Doctor’s Decisions: An Argument Against Assisted Dying, published by Bloomsbury that he does not rely upon “sanctity of life” arguments.

“These lines of thought are metaphysical and easily become dogmatic and hence unconvincing,”

he writes. His arguments are secular and aim to  show that legalisation is simply untenable.

In his essay in The BMJ, he writes:

Decisions about your own death are not made in normal day-to-day contexts. The wish to die arises against a backdrop: of desperation, a feeling of hopelessness, possibly a feeling of being superfluous. Otherwise, the wish would not be there. Thus, it is under these circumstances that the right to self-determination is exercised and the decision is made. Such a situation is a fragile basis for autonomy and an even more fragile basis for decision making. The choice regarding your own death is therefore completely different from most other choices usually associated with the concept of autonomy.

The essay is thought-provoking and well-worth reading.

Do you feel or lover writing about Food

From today onwards we added next to the tag Food, the Category Food. (For this, we went looking at our previous postings to see what could be related to Food.)

It would be great if we could find someone who would not mind writing for us and our readers a regular blog about food, cooking and our way to treat or handle cereals, vegetables and fruit. In case you feel the bug in your hand for writing about the goods we may eat and how we may eat them, you are welcome to show your kitchen talent in writing.

Are you a person who would love to show other people the value of plants for food and medicine to help keep our world and ourselves in good health?

Why would you not be one of those who puts herself or himself at the site at the service for others, bringing forwards ideas for having a better environment and for enjoying lovely meals?

Are you the suitable writer we are looking for?

> Writer wanted

+

Find also to read

1. Do you have a writer or presenter in you?
2. Sharing for pleasure and for love
3. A charter for a truly free world and why we need it
4. Looking at man’s closest friend

Has Bible Engagement during Coronavirus Increased or Decreased?

When coronavirus hit, churches scrambled. Those that weren’t online figured out solutions fast, and those that already were online embraced remote church as a new normal. Since then, churches have worked tirelessly to ensure their congregations can continue meeting for weekly services, Bible studies, and the like (albeit online) and that people feel as connected as possible.

And things seem to be working.

Online services and meetings might be going swimmingly, but have faith communities been able to maintain Bible engagement during the coronavirus?

Not so much.

On July 22, American Bible Society and Barna Group released the 10th Annual State of the Bible report, and the information is sobering. Bible engagement has declined amid the coronavirus outbreak, pointing to a clear relationship between Scripture engagement and in-person church participation.

According to American Bible Society president and CEO Robert Briggs, Bible engagement was already experiencing a downward trend. But the July 2020 study revealed that trend has accelerated since January 2020.

Briggs states:

The study shows a direct correlation between increased Scripture engagement and those efforts typically organized by a church, including mentorship programs and small group Bible studies. Church closures due to COVID-19 are, therefore, likely contributing to decreased rates of Scripture engagement.¹

But it’s not all bad news. In fact, Briggs sees it as a huge opportunity for Christian organizations to make an impact on Bible engagement.²

What is Bible engagement?

Bible engagement is more than attending church services or even reading the Bible. Dr. Fergus McDonald, past general secretary of National Bible Society and United Bible Societies, says it is

. . . interaction with the biblical text in a way that provides sufficient opportunity for the text to speak for itself by the power of the Holy Spirit, enabling readers and listeners to hear the voice of God and discover for themselves the unique claim Jesus Christ is making upon them.³

It’s the process of diving deep into Scripture, turning verses and passages around in our minds like bingo numbers in a round, metal cage, and letting them drop from our heads to our hearts. By sifting through and processing God’s Word, we come to experience the author in a profoundly personal way.

We come to know God intimately, and through the process, we are changed. And according to the study, this transformation most often occurs when relational church engagement goes up. American Bible Society Director of Ministry Intelligence Dr. John Farquhar Plake says,

“It’s probably the relationships people have with one another through the church that really make the difference.”⁴

It’s time to reverse the trend

Now more than ever, it’s paramount that churches commit to reversing this downward trend. The Church must

“transition from ‘survival’ mode back into ‘discipleship’ mode,”⁵

says Briggs.

But in a coronavirus world, discipling people toward this type of engagement with the Word of God and each other will take a bit of innovation.

And Faithlife has the tools to help your church do just that.

Faithlife, the world’s first integrated ministry platform, helps churches shift from disconnected discipleship to a biblically rooted, step-by-step discipleship strategy — whether your church expects to hold in-person gatherings next week or next year. It puts a wealth of biblical resources within reach for your entire congregation, from a Bible study app to devotionals and small group Bible study guides to theology courses.

Bible engagement is critical for growing a healthy congregation in any season and must not be paused because of today’s crisis. The current pandemic might make the task seem daunting — but you don’t have to go at it alone.

*

Notes:

 

1. ABS News Blog, “American Bible Society Releases 10th Annual State of the Bible Survey,” July 22, 2020.
2. “State of the Bible Survey,” 2020.
3. Dr. Fergus Macdonald, Taylor University Center for Scripture Engagement
4. “State of the Bible Survey,” 2020.
5. “State of the Bible Survey,” 2020.

 

For beginners to the Bible to help them to access its message

For many, the Bible seems a very old book with such an old language that it can not be pleasant to read. Lots of people think it is too difficult to grasp.

Can it be that the present generation have a too limited view of that Old Book of books? Perhaps lots of people have no idea why it could become such a Bestseller of all times. They consider it a book that is not worth getting out of the dust.

However, they might be amazed at what the Book of Books has to say and what it can offer us today for interesting things or valuable subject matter.

If you think the Bible is just too hard to grasp, we can advise you “Telling it simply: the stories of the Bible” which can shed some light on the content of that library of books. If you think the Bible is only for old out of date boring conservative people, you might be surprised what that Library has been presenting already for ages but not so many came to see and understand.

Hilary Higgins may be a helping hand to uncover the secrets of that mysterious book. A woman standing with both her feet on the soil of the 21st century does not mind shedding some light on stories of thousands of years ago, showing that they are still relevant today.

In today’s language, you might come to know more about so many characters of the many Bible stories. Why not tackle that Bestseller with Mrs. Higgins her book at your side?

If you are new to the Bible and need to get to grips with what it says but are finding it just too big this is the ideal book to help you become the Bible expert you would like to be. Telling It Simply contains virtually all the stories in the Bible in fun and easy to read chunks.
You will quickly find out who is who and what they are doing. You can use it as a reference together with your Bible in study groups to keep up with the flow.

* Did you know Noah had a vineyard as well as an Ark? And the trouble it got him into? * Or why Balaam’s donkey suddenly turned round and started talking to him? * What part Nebuchadnezzar played in God’s plan and why God made him eat grass? * Jael’s murderous activities with a tent peg? * Paul and the runaway slave? * How Jesus paid his Temple tax bill?

Armed with this book you will quickly grasp the key facts that others are debating enthusiastically round you. Now you can join in. And even put them straight! More importantly, this book will enable you to read the Bible itself easily. To understand God’s vital message for you, for life, for ever.

Publisher: The Choir Press
ISBN: 9781789630893
Number of pages: 600
Weight: 793 g
Dimensions: 229 x 152 x 31 mm

Please ask for her book in your bookstore or find it in a Christadelphian bookstore and/or ecclesia.

Or you can order it by Bol.com or Amazon