The Conservative movement is the second largest of the three main religious denominations within American Judaism, claiming 18 percent of American Jews, according to a 2013 study by the Pew Research Center. Historically it has occupied a sort of middle ground between Reform and Orthodox, maintaining (unlike Reform) that Jewish law remains binding on modern Jews, but affording far greater leeway than Orthodoxy in adapting those laws to reflect modern realities.
• The movement tolerates a range of religious practice in its commitment to halachic pluralism — the idea that multiple (and opposing) opinions concerning the requirements of Jewish law can be considered equally legitimate.
• Most (but not all) Conservative synagogues are egalitarian on gender issues, and the movement has endorsed religious rulings both in favor of and opposed to same-sex marriage.
• While its rabbis are not permitted to officiate at interfaith weddings, the movement has in recent…
Jelmer Mommers in zijn boek “Hoe Gaan We Dit Uitleggen” mag dan al oplossingen brengen om de klimaatverandering te temperen, want we moeten er bewust van zijn dat we ze niet zullen kunnen stoppen. Maar zeker mogen wij ons hoofd niet in het zand steken en moeten we onze verantwoordelijkheid nemen om de na ons komende generaties een goed leefbaar klimaat te geven.
Wij kunnen het niet nalaten stappen te ondernemen, anders zou dit getuigen hoe zelfzuchtig wij als individu wel durven zijn. Als maatschappij moeten wij samen verantwoorde stappen nemen om de opwarming van de aarde tegen te gaan. Dit vergt eerst en vooral politieke moed, waarna ook economische gevolgen onder ogen moeten gezien worden. Men kan niet ontkennen dat het algemeen een economische impact zal hebben voor meerdere jaren. Ook naar beroepen zal het een impact hebben. Er moet namelijk op landbouwgebied een hele herziening komen. Mensen moeten er toe komen om minder vlees te eten en beter om te springen met het voedsel en voedselvoorraden. Het is hoog tijd dat ons consumptiegedrag ernstig onder de loep wordt genomen.
De Aarde en de toekomst van de mensheid liggen heden in onze handen. Er mag geen lafheid en geen egoïsme zijn. Elkeen moet tot het besef komen hoe kostbaar onze planeet is. Zij die niet willen zien moeten wij de ogen open doen. Er moet openlijk durven over gepraat worden. We mogen onze tijd niet passief ondergaan. Het kan makkelijk zijn om te zeggen
“We doen wat we doen en de toekomst zal haar oordeel over ons vellen.”
De vluchtelingen- en de bankencrisis van vorig decennium is niets in vergelijking met de groter wordende stroom van klimaatvluchtelingen, die nu al waar genomen kan worden en zal toenemen met de komende jaren.
Het neoliberalisme met haar geweld van de vrije markt heeft er voor gezorgd dat het leven van een mens klein en futiel werd, maar ook verstoord in zijn eigen achtertuin. De gehele technische revolutie ligt mee aan de oorzaak van wat we nu en in de komende jaren nog tegemoet moeten gaan zien, van hoger wordende temperaturen en aangroeiende woestijnen.
Sinds de technologische revolutie van de 19de eeuw hebben we generatie na generatie zien profiteren van vooruitgang. Nu echter is er een kantelpunt bereikt waarbij onze kinderen en kleinkinderen, het slechter hebben dan onze generatie. De globalisering en de overconsumptie laten zich voelen.
Erg genoeg zien we heel wat gepalaver en nodeloos heen en weer gepraat dat blijkbaar niet veel schijnt op te lossen. Men moet geen deskundige te zijn om in te zien dat we die vooropgestelde doelstelling uit het Parijse klimaatakkoord niet gaan halen. Zelfs met heel uitgebreide en drastische maatregelen zal het moeilijk zijn door het niet eensgezind zijn van de geïndustrialiseerde landen en hun bewindsvoerders.
Krista Bruns bij het behalen van haar Phd bachelor diploma aan de Universiteit van Utrecht, waar na ze een premaster jaar in Econometrics aan de Erasmus Universiteit van Rotterdam volgde en een uitwisselingsemester aan de Universidad de Complutense in Madrid.
De 28 jarige Krista Bruns, sinds kort woonachtig in Den Haag en onlangs gepromoveerd in de Economie, en zich bij een ouderwetse blog verkiest te houden, wordt, zoals wij, toch ook een beetje verdrietig als zij over de klimaatproblematiek nadenkt. Net als wij gelooft zij dat het nog niet te laat is en beseft ze dat het momentum en de noodzaak beiden aanwezig zijn. Ze drukt zelfs de hoop uit:
Wij kunnen de geschiedenis in gaan als de generatie die het tij van 200 jaar industrialisering en vervuiling deed keren. Hoe mooi zou dat zijn? {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}
Zij durft ook te kijken naar het huidige menselijk (wan)gedrag, waarbij de politiek onze dagelijkse belevenissen wel (on)handig weet te verstoren.
Wel met een economische blik, niet gehinderd door wetenschappelijke conventies of al te veel jargon. {Blog}
dringt zij zich nu ook op in de bloggerswereld, met haar eigen persoonlijke standpunten, los van haar functie als beleidsmedewerker van het Nederlandse Ministerie van Financiën. Ze hoopt zo met haar stem ook iets te kunnen verwezenlijken. (Wat wij toch allemaal hopen, is het niet?)
Zij schrijft verder:
Wij kunnen de geschiedenis in gaan als de generatie die het tij van 200 jaar industrialisering en vervuiling deed keren. Hoe mooi zou dat zijn? {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}
Met heet besef dat we te weinig doen en te laat stelt zij dat er geen tijd meer is voor uitstelgedrag.
Klimaatverandering is een probleem met mogelijk desastreuze gevolgen, maar deze ontwikkelen zich vergeleken met een mensenleven vrij langzaam en onzichtbaar. We hadden het dus pas door toen het al bijna te laat was, en zelfs nu we het weten doen we er weinig aan.
Dit innerlijke conflict, waarin we weten dat er iets aan de hand is, maar het gevoel hebben dat we er niks aan kunnen doen wordt cognitieve dissonantie genoemd. Het treedt op wanneer gedrag, emotie en cognitie (kennis) niet op één lijn liggen. Dit leidt bij mensen tot een groot intern ongemak, en als reactie daarop gaan we klimaatverandering negeren, bagatelliseren of ontkennen. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}
Ons hoofd nite in het zandsteken eist het durven aanzien van onze eigen invloed op wat er voort het ogenblik aan het gebeuren is.
Probleem is dat mensen die op de problemen willen wijzen of hun vinger uitsteken, wel meer dan eens als lastigaards worden aanschouwd. Onze met haatberichten en lelijke woorden vollopende brieven bussen bewijzen dat zelfs dagelijks.
Psychologe Florien Cramwinckel (zie video hieronder) toonde in haar onderzoek ook aan dat we mensen die sterk hun morele waardes proberen over te brengen vaak een beetje irritant vinden, omdat ze ons confronteren met onze eigen tekortkomingen op dat gebied. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}
Algemeen moeten we iedereen er toe komen om de hand in eigen boezem te steken.
Het beste tijdstip om te beginnen was 20 jaar geleden, het op-een-na beste tijdstip om te beginnen is vandaag. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}
Het is waar dat het geen zin heeft om te blijven zeuren over wat er in het verleden verkeerd gegaan is. Men moet de koe met de hoorns aanpakken wanneer dat geweldig dier langs komt.
De politici van vandaag zijn geen grote hulp. Vooral de populisten trachten met allerlei verzinsels de mensen te misleiden. Ze schamen zich niet om zelfs bevinden van erkende wetenschappers te negeren en nog erger, hun bevindingen in twijfel te trekken of als onzin af te schepen.
Betreft de klimaatskeptici schrijft Bruns:
Een derde reden dat we last hebben van uitstelgedrag is volgens mij dat klimaatwetenschappers, meer dan hun collega’s in andere vakgebieden, nog steeds vaak worden uitgemaakt voor een soort religieuze fanaten en dat hun resultaten in twijfel worden getrokken. Onderzoek proberen te reproduceren en falsificeren is nobel werk, maar in dit gebied gaat het er soms heftig aan toe met alternative facts en voor- en tegenstanders die zich beiden te sterk door hun eigen agenda laten leiden. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}
Het wordt hoog tijd dat het gewone volk hun leiders ter verantwoording roept, maar ook dat zij zelf gaan inzien dat we zogvuldiger moeten omspringen met het gebruik van gronden, zij het om landbouw er op te verrichten of om het te bebouwen met woonelementen (huizen of apartementen) die op een milieuvriendelijk wijze moeten onderhouden en verwarmd worden.
De economiste geeft aan als je zelfs niet zou geloven in de menselijke bijdrage aan de opwarming van de aarde, dat er dan andere duidelijke signalen zijn.
We zitten momenteel in de 6e grote uitstervingsgolf, bijna een derde van de 27.600 landgebonden zoogdieren, vogels, amfibieën en reptielen neemt sterk in aantallen af. Ter vergelijking: de laatste van de vorige 5 grote uitstervingsgolven was 65 miljoen jaar geleden en betekende het einde van de dinosauriërs. Ook met de onderwaterwereld gaat het niet goed, volgens een rapport van WWF is er in 2047 geen wilde vis meer als we zo doorgaan. Zelfs de insecten, doorgaans toch één van de meest robuuste soort organismen op aarde, hebben sterk te lijden. Nu lijkt dit op het eerste oog niet zo erg, maar biologen hebben ons voorgerekend dat zelfs het uitsterven van één diersoort kan leiden tot het ineenstorten van een compleet ecosysteem, met grote gevolgen voor de hele planeet en de mensheid. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}
Al enkele jaren kunnen wij getuigen zijn van uitzonderlijke weersomstandigheden.
Het extremere weer zal ook niemand ontgaan zijn. 2017 was het jaar met de meeste bosbranden, het duurste orkaanseizoen als het gaat om schade, ijskappen die afbreken in een niet eerder gezien tempo. 2018 lijkt wat betreft temperaturen alle records te gaan breken, in Nederland althans. Zélfs als je van mening bent dat al deze processen zich voornamelijk buiten de schuld van mensen voltrekken, dan zou je in een wereld waarin we alles en iedereen proberen te controleren, toch zoveel mogelijk willen doen om dit proces tegen te gaan? {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}
We kunnen slechts hopen dat er wel degelijk langzaamaan aan het besef begint te ontstaan dat er iets gedaan móet worden.
Een stijgende zeespiegel, extremere weersomstandigheden en het vernietigen van de natuurrijkdommen die in miljarden jaren zijn opgebouwd, zal ontegensprekelijk, leiden tot meer conflicten, oorlogen, migratiestromen, hongersnoden en economische crises.
Paaseiland, één van de door Diamond beschreven beschavingen die teniet zijn gegaan. Als ik dan toch nog een keer teveel CO2 ga uitstoten, dan wil ik hier wel heel graag heen.
Wat kun je doen? Stap 1: informeer jezelf. Ik ben er van overtuigd dat deze verandering van inzichten van binnenuit moet komen. Het is niet erg als je vroeger dingen deed die je met de kennis van nu beter niet meer kunt doen. Maar ééns gelezen kun je het niet meer ontlezen. Doe wat met die kennis! Vroeger wist ik ook dat er vegetariërs bestonden. En dat vlees van dode dieren kwam. Maar ik besefte me nog niet de echte impact van vlees op het milieu, de bizarre manier waarop in de bio-industrie met dieren omgegaan werd. Hetzelfde geldt voor vliegen, een reisje naar een lekker warm eiland waar ik een paar jaar geleden geen seconde over twijfelde, wordt nu toch heel wat minder aantrekkelijk.
Leestips
David McKay
Sustainable Energy without the hot Air
Paul Collier
Plundered Planet
Kate Raworth
Doughnut Economics
Jared Diamond
Collapse
Jorgen Randers et. al
Limits to Growth
Tim Jackson
Prosperity without Growth
Ik snap wel dat het lastig is om structuur en helderheid te scheppen in de enorme stroom van goede en foutieve informatie die er omtrent dit alomvattende probleem te vinden is. Dat iedereen moeite heeft om dit probleem te omvatten en de informatie te structureren blijkt wel uit het klimaatakkoord, waar na maandenlang nadenken door deskundigen uiteindelijk geen concrete maatregel in bleek te staan. Een helder boek was voor mij Sustainable energy without the hot air van David McKay. Het wordt ook wel het ‘Freakonomics’ van de klimaatproblematiek genoemd en het zet in heldere tabellen en figuren uiteen welk potentieel er nog is voor milieuvriendelijke energie-opwekking en hoeveel we zelf kunnen besparen op onze uitstoot. Op de website van McKay zijn ook leuke rekentools te vinden. De belangrijkste boodschap uit dit boek is: maak een plan wat onder de streep uitkomt. We kunnen leuk allemaal onze opladers uit het stopcontact halen als we ze niet nodig halen, onder het motto ‘alle beetjes helpen’, maar dit is alsnog maar een miniem percentage van ieders verbruik en uitstoot op een dag. Zelfs als we dit allemaal doen gaat het dus weinig zoden aan de dijk zetten: er zijn grote beetjes nodig. Kijk wat er echt een verschil maakt en ga hiermee aan de slag, ook al betekent dat soms afstand doen van verworven luxe.
Wat dan wel? 200 jaar economische ontwikkeling heeft ons een hoop welvaart en ontzettend veel gemak gebracht. Maar onder de ronkende motors van het kapitalisme is ook een feedback loop ingezet die zichzelf niet zal stoppen. Producenten geven weinig om negatieve externaliteiten en zijn op zoek naar de goedkoopste productiemethode om zoveel mogelijk spullen aan ons te verkopen. Wij als consumenten hebben weinig weet van waar die spullen vandaan komen en wat daar voor nodig is en blijven ze dus kopen, wat de producenten weer sterkt in hun verdienmodel.
Je energieverbruik binnen de 4 muren van je eigen huis is zeker belangrijk en makkelijk te sturen. Begin eens met elke maand de meterstanden opschrijven en experimenteer om te kijken wat daar veel invloed op heeft. Maar besef ook dat het grootste deel van onze uitstoot niet ontstaat binnen ons huis maar door de productie van goederen die wij aankopen. Volgens mij moeten we weer terug naar een cultuur van genoeg. Vraag je eens af of het nodig is om elke dag vlees te eten. Of om elk jaar een mooie vliegreis te maken. Laat die kaki-vruchten, hoe mooi ze er ook uitzien, eens liggen en koop lekkere stoofpeertjes in de winter. Repareer een kapot kledingstuk in plaats van voor een paar euro iets nieuws te kopen zonder je af te vragen hoe dat in godsnaam voor die prijs geproduceerd kan worden en vanuit Bangladesh hier naartoe verscheept. McKay rekent uit dat 60 van de ca. 195 kilowatt uur die een gemiddelde Westerling per dag nodig heeft komt van het produceren en verschepen van onze spullen.
Het lijkt misschien een opoffering, maar ik heb dat zelf helemaal nooit zo ervaren. Vlees eten mis ik helemaal niet, maar zelfs als je niet zonder kunt: smaakt het niet lekkerder als je het bewaart voor speciale gelegenheden? Wat vakanties betreft: natuurlijk zijn er plekken op de wereld die ik ooit nog wel eens wil zien. Hier ga ik voor sparen en dan ga ik alles eruit halen wat er in zit. Maar de afgelopen 2 jaar heb ik ook ervaren dat ‘staycations’ of vakanties dichtbij huis ontzettend relaxt zijn: je hebt geen lijstje van bezienswaardigheden die je moet afvinken, je bent vrij om te doen waar je zin in hebt en ook korte afstand van huis is er zo ontzettend veel moois te ontdekken!
Het prachtige Zwarte Woud waar ik dit jaar op vakantie was
Wat kan de overheid doen? Bij dit soort grote transities kijkt men vaak (terecht) als eerste naar nationale overheden en supranationale instituties. Met belastingen, subsidies en regulering hebben die grote middelen in handen om gedrag te beïnvloeden. De Nederlandse overheid heeft deze taak serieus genomen en gaat ambitieuzer dan de in het Parijsakkoord gemaakte afspraken aan de slag. Toch passen hier ook een paar kanttekeningen.
De eerste is dat belastingen vaak werken als het zwaard van Damocles: ze gaan vaak ten onder aan hun eigen succes en teveel instrumentalisme heeft ongewenste bijwerkingen. Kijk maar naar het verstorende effect van de verschillende bijtellingen voor hybride auto’s op de automarkt. ‘De vervuiler betaalt’ is een mooi principe, maar als dit betekent dat rijke vervuilers hun schade af kunnen kopen en dat het arme vervuilers verder de armoede in duwt schiet je er weinig mee op. Daarnaast zal een effectieve belasting op vervuiling uiteindelijk zijn eigen grondslag uithollen en daarmee niet meer het primaire doel van een belasting vervullen: geld ophalen om publieke middelen van te betalen.
Een tweede kanttekening is dat er momenteel erg macro gedacht wordt. In Parijs zijn stevige afspraken gemaakt. Daarnaast heeft de regering besloten dat de gaskraan in Groningen dicht moet. Als er echter geen vertaalslag gemaakt wordt naar wat dit voor een gemiddeld gezin betekent, zijn we niet dichter bij huis. Bij gelijkblijvende consumptie zullen we de energie dan gewoon uit het buitenland importeren. Schotel mensen het eerlijke plaatje voor: wat gebeurt er als we niets doen? Iedereen wil een leefbare wereld voor zijn kinderen. Wat is er voor nodig om dat te halen? Kan een gemiddeld gezin nog 2 keer per week vlees eten en eens in de 5 jaar een verre vliegreis maken? Als we die cijfers helder hebben, wordt de gedragsverandering ook makkelijker te bewerkstelligen.
Een derde overweging is wel dat dit soort veranderingen zich vaak eerst langzaam, en dan ineens snel en onvoorspelbaar voltrekken. Het is voor overheden lastig om in te schatten welke kant de technologie opgaat en in het verleden zijn hier ook grove fouten in gemaakt, door bijvoorbeeld flink te subsidiëren om een kritische massa te bereiken voor een technologie, die enkele jaren later ingehaald bleek te zijn door iets beters. We kunnen dus moeilijk op de realiteit vooruit lopen. De markt kan dit doorgaans beter inschatten, maar is nog niet altijd bereid om zich in te zetten en risico te nemen op het vlak van sociaal ondernemerschap. Al komt dit wel steeds meer op gang.
Tenslotte is er voor de transitie een grote investering nodig. Economisch gezien betekent investeren vaak geld lenen voor hoge startkosten, die later terug zullen worden verdiend. Dit geldt in brede zin ook voor veel milieuvriendelijke hervormingen, zoals het isoleren van huizen, het aanleggen van infrastructuur voor elektrisch rijden, het verbeteren van het internationale treinennetwerk en ga zo maar door. Ik ben van mening dat de huidige kapitaalmarkt massaal aan het investeren is in projecten waarvan de negatieve externe effecten nog niet in de prijs doorgekomen zijn. Wanneer deze kennishiaat in de markt omslaat, zou het ook wel eens snel kunnen gaan met private investeringen in duurzame projecten. Tot die tijd is het echter een medeplichtigheid van de overheid om te bedenken hoe dit eerlijk en kosteneffectief gefinancierd kan worden.
Eerlijk is hier een lastig begrip, want hoe spreid je de lasten over huidige en toekomstige generaties? Paul Collier heeft hier een heel inzichtelijk boek over geschreven, waarin hij betoogt hoe de romantici die het probleem ‘tegen elke kosten’ willen aanpakken en de ‘struisvogels’ die liever hun kop in het zand steken nader tot elkaar moeten komen. De crux is in Collier’s ogen dat we toekomstige generaties niet precies dezelfde natuurlijke omgeving hoeven terug te geven als degene die wij nu hebben, maar wel een wereld met exact dezelfde verdiencapaciteit als hoe wij hem aantroffen. Dit zou bijvoorbeeld kunnen door de opbrengsten van het delven van fossiele brandstoffen in een fonds te stoppen waarmee investeringen in duurzame ontwikkeling worden gefinancierd. Dit model is in Noorwegen gehanteerd, en daarmee hebben zij een buffer van 1 biljoen USD opgebouwd om publieke voorzieningen als pensioenen mee te financieren.
Wat ga je morgen doen?
Zoals ik eerder al schreef, er is een hoop informatie en die lijkt soms onmogelijk te doorgronden. Daardoor krijgen we het gevoel dat we er niks aan kunnen doen en steken we liever als struisvogels onze hoofden in het zand of doen we aan gevoelsmatige gewetensbestrijding zoals de tv niet op standby zetten. Toch ben ik ook hoopvol, het momentum is aanwezig en we bezitten meer technologie en kennis dan ooit tevoren.
Vandaag is t-0 en morgen komt wat mij betreft het algemeen klimaatpardon. Schud dus je schuldgevoel van je af, maar lees je in en analyseer welke grote beetjes jij zelf kunt bijdragen. En bovenal: vertel je omgeving wat je hebt geleerd. Niet als moralistische betweter, maar omdat we allemaal hetzelfde doel nastreven. Kennis is macht, en als wij als samenleving eisen dat het over is met de race naar de bodem op het gebied van massaproductie en vervuiling, dan moeten producenten en overheden wel luisteren. En net zoals wij tot kortgeleden niet beter wisten dan dat spullen en eten uit de supermarkt kwamen en dat je je daar verder niet druk om hoefde te maken, zo zullen onze kinderen en kleinkinderen niet beter weten dan dat het normaal is om lokaal in te kopen, niet meer spullen te kopen dan je nodig hebt en jezelf zonder uitstoot voort te bewegen. {Geen tijd meer voor uitstelgedrag}
On the 26th of March 2014 this blog started with calling you welcome at “Guestwriters for you” at a site on which we hoped to offer readings from several writers with different ideas. Our hope was that both the lifestyle magazineStepping Toes and this “Guest-speaker” corner would be able to find writings by different authors, who could deliver material of interest for many.
At Marcus Ampe his personal WordPress blog could be found his own personal political views and at his religious sites, like Our World and his ecclesia site Free Belgian Christadelphian Ecclesia people could find articles written from his Christadelphian view as a Brother in Christ. Though well aware there are not enough Christadelphians willing to share interesting writings and thoughts from non-trinitarian but also from trinitarian and even non Christian writers he invited others to join the platform to create a readers digest of interesting articles on the World Wide Net.
Five years later we can only say we are a little-bit disappointed that not many writers presented themselves to write about historical, ecological, science and lifestyle matters like fashion and architecture, but also none who wanted to write about arts and / or education. So many subjects are not yet tackled at this blog.
We still would love a variety of articles about many aspects which may concern us to build up a better life. Once more we call for people to join us and to share their thoughts. Together we can build at better living conditions for everybody around us, humans but also animals.
We are convinced that whatever religion you may have, from whatever country you may be, whatever race you may have, we can and should be able to live together in peace. For that reason Marcus called for blogwriters to join the Movement Bloggers for Peace. But also there, not many were willing to connect.
At first we at the end of each article we presented a list of articles of interest by others. We stopped doing that, because of the continued complaints and several people asking us to take them out of the list (because the did not want to be associated with us – though they should not have to be associated with us). They should have been aware we provided free advertising for their writings and had many of our readers sent to visit their blog. This not being appreciated we thought it better then to keep our readers at our own place and at our own affiliated blogs.
In 2014 we had 234 articles published getting us 1847 visitors offering us 3 124 views. 296 articles the year after got 4 333 views and in 2016 7 782 views could be reached and 358 articles added. A dip in 2017 brought us 5 018 visitors for 395 articles, the site catching 6 888 views. With lesser articles for 2018 (366) we could reach 5 751 readers with 8 260 views. On February 9, 2018 we got our best views ever.
Up to today we have 1 736 posts which caught 22 211 visitors giving us 33 061 views. We are thankful we may count on 304 followers by Word Press and 3 per e-mail. – which is not much -. The 616 followers on Social Media do not always deliver readings, and as such we can not cunt on them really. We are in any case very grateful for those who are willing to take the time to read and to react at the writings. Thank You!
In case you know much about styling, fashion, gardening, interior decorating, inner being, psychology, anthropology, history, political analysation, arts, you are always welcome to present yourself as a guest-writer for us. Even when you like to bring articles of other people to our attention you are welcome to let us know or to share them with us as an author presenting guest-writings.
Five years should be the sign we are getting out of our baby-years. You as reader may help us to grow.
Not only come to visit us regularly. Let this site be known by others. Let us know what you would love to see or find at this site, or give us some guidance to make this site better. All advice is welcome. Do also know that we do not mind some encouragement now and them. We are thankful for those few who do not mind to click the “Like” button. Thank you very much for that small but oh so important sign that can give us some encouragement.
On the 8th of April 2019 we still call everybody welcome who some way comes along this site.
Hopefully it shall not stay by a one visit.
May we look forward to more than one visit?
Welcome to this club of Bloggers for Peace and Understanding
Thank you very much for coming along this site and reading our articles.
My hope for starting this site was to present a sort of Readers Digest and to present some of the many articles published on WordPress which I thought would be worthwhile to be read. My idea was also to present articles with at the end of them links to some related articles. Soon I came to learn that not everyone was pleased to find themselves linked to. Several times we got requests to take away the link to their article, because they did not want to be associated with our community. It took already a lot of time to select articles to link to them and when requested to take those links away that involved once more some extra work. We hoped to help the readers but also the writers with such links, because those links could bring more readers to their article. But because not favoured by many, from this year onwards you shall be finding less links to articles from non-associated people.
Our intention was also to present articles from non-christadelphians and sometimes even from non-religious people. The matter to select the writings was their importance for the community and their relevance for adding to the peace process.
In the first year of this publishing platform we presented 234 posts, catching 3124 views. the year later we got 4333 views for an added 296 articles. In 2016 358 articles got published whilst the site received 7782 views. In 2017 395 articles were added but not so many views gained (6888). Last year we got 366 articles added, fetching 8260 views bringing the total of views to 30 437 for 1646 articles. The most popular day seemingly to be the Sunday with 18% of the views.
We do not have many followers but are pleased with the 304 followers on Word Press of which the Opinionated Man, C Washington, michelledipaola and The Mystic SandBox are subscribed from the first month and from the first hours. Our thanks goes to them and to those who followed. On Facebook we may reach 275 followers, whilst Twitter might catch 274 followers and Tumblr 121.
Thanks also for those who did not mind sharing our articles on social media. As such we got 670 times a share for those five years. (Not so magnificent, but something.)
We are also pleased to find some readers who regularly mention they “Liked” our writing. Some of those regulars supporters are a.o. which also present beautiful pictures of this world which also can be great and enjoyable. Such “Like” is very much appreciated and we are very thankful for that appreciated gesture which gives us also a feeling of support.
At this site we wanted to show people that the world is not just Black and White and that the political system is not linear. But also we wanted to point out that people can and should do much more than they think. Much more people should be aware of their possible power which has to come from them selves. The inner being by connecting to many others can present a greater power and be a rebuttal against the standard political parties. This site wanted to bring such possibilities more into the light. Therefore I had hoped to find many more writers willing to join us to write about positive elements in our life. There are already enough sites writing about the bad things in this world. As counter balance we could use some positive news. though that seems to be very scarce and hard to find.
Our offer for receiving voices who want to speak up and willing to bring some positive thoughts is till going.
We still miss a psychologist who can write about making a marriage life work of how to cope with one self and with others. We also could do with some historian who would like to compare what is happening now with what happened in the past, or who can shed a light on political situations in this world.
Wanting to be a lifestyle magazine we still can use some fashion freak or people who want to write about fashion, architecture and art.
In case you have already a blog on WordPress, do know that an extra writing platform can also help you to generate more readers to your main blog. At this site we do not mind, better … we also prefer you link also to other articles concerning the topic discussed, and as such you may also link to other articles written by you on your own or on other sites.
If you are a writer without a high opinion of yourself, able to write not very complex articles, not having too many hidden meanings or twists and turns, you could be the one we need. In case you are a logical, rational thinker who tries to write that way as well, you too perhaps could be the one we are looking for. If you can play with words and can create poems for sure such poetry should not stay in your own cupboard but could be shared on this platform.
All those who have much time to read, why do you not want to give those who have not so much time, a glimpse of what the written word has to offer? Why not telling others about what is interesting and a “should read”?
If you feel called, do not hesitate to contact me or to offer your services here. We love to find more writers willing to share positive news and lifestyle matters.
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Related
Goodbye 2018! ~It’s good to take a minute and look back over the year. My goals for this blog were to write about life in Israel
2018 Year in Review While it’s true my plans for growing my blog readership didn’t happen which had everything to do with being overwhelmed with working to get my first book published
In this present world lots of short notices or messages are posted on social media, but to find serious writing on the net has become limited.
There is a serious need for analysing what happens in the world. We could do with some more bloggers recording for history what is going on and how we feel about it. Analyses of people giving an idea how a culture experiences the events.
It is for any person impossible to know what future shall bring, but by the knowledge of what happened in the past people can have an idea how things can evolve.
For sure all people should try to work for a better future and if they do not fix the disinformation problem, the divide will only widen.
You have very good reasons to point to Nazi Germany, because many factors are pointing that direction, and people could be surprised it can be as bad as then sooner than people think.
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To remember
Journals. Blogs. Letters to the editor. Letters to others. Letters to representatives. Emails. Facebook posts.
> recording for history
history written by those who have most to gain by revising history.
‘recording’ history =/= ‘rewriting’ history.
current problem = large number of people been brainwashed by lies + who think they are informed.
=>
Be the scribe. Record your experiences. Tell history the facts.
Journals. Blogs. Letters to the editor. Letters to others. Letters to representatives. Emails. Facebook posts.
We need to be recording for history what is going on and how we feel about it.
They say that history is written by the winners. I don’t agree. I believe history is written by those who have the most to gain by revising history.
There is a difference between ‘recording’ history and ‘rewriting’ history. We are seeing this happening in 2017. There are those in public life who don’t seem to understand that technology makes it easy to find the videos from the past that document a statement. You can try to deny that you said something but someone will find that video and publish it to prove you are lying.
The current problem is not just the lying about the past, even the recent past. What is most…
In 2014 ging dit lifestylemagazine van start. Van de 1847 bezoekers konden wij er 115 uit Nederland aantreffen en 106 uit België. Het Nederlandstalige artikel met het meeste bezichtigingen was “Zit je in de put? Stop dan met graven.” van 19 november voor maar 29 bezichtigingen. Na 3 jaar werking staat het engelstalige artikel “Freedom and amendments, firearms and abortions” aan de leiding met 237 bezichtigingen en in het Nederlands “De Familie Palache. Joden en ontroerende onzin” van 23 januari 2017 met 78 bezichtigingen.
Vorig jaar mochten wij van de 5018 bezoekers er 469 aantreffen uit Nederland en 199 uit België met een totaal van 5018 bezoekers en 6888 pagina bezichtigingen.
Ons lijkt dat niet zo veel.
Indien die lage cijfers de enige opbrengst kan zijn voor al het harde werk, kan men de vraag stellen of het dat allemaal waard is. Maar elke lezer telt en elk verhaal heeft op zich haar eigen waarde en haar eigen levensloop. Wij staan nog in onze kinderschoenen en moeten nog uit onze luiers geraken. Ook beseffen wij dat artikelen over seks, seksueel gedrag, koetjes en kalfjes, over eigen of persoonlijke ervaring meer succes zouden hebben dan datgene wat wij hier trachten aan te bieden.
Bezoekers aan onze site zijn diegenen die meehelpen om ons te doen groeien en om ons groter te doen worden. Zij kunnen anderen van ons bestaan laten weten. Ook zouden zij kunnen gebruik maken van de “Like” knop alsook van de “Sharing” mogelijkheden. Dit gebeurt echter zelden, nochtans lijkt het ons toch niet te moeilijk om van die knop gebruik te maken en ons dan zo te stimuleren om voort te doen of verder de opgeslagen weg te gaan. Vraag hierbij is of ons materiaal dan niet boeiend genoeg is of slechts een zeer beperkt publiek aanspreekt.
De opzet van deze site was om een soort van Readers Digest te creëren zodat mensen met beperkte tijd een selectie van interessante artikelen van allerlei slag en een keuze van over de gehele wereld gepubliceerde blogartikelen kon voorgeschoteld krijgen. In het Engelstalig gebied is er heel wat meer te vinden dan in het Nederlandstalig gebied en aan de kijkcijfers is ook te merken dat de Engelstalige artikelen meer bezichtigers kunnen aantrekken wat ook maakt dat er voor hen ook meer artikelen worden aangeboden.
Wij mogen misschien wel in een wereld leven waar er volop duizenden meningen worden gespuid op allerlei sites en waar sommigen echt overtuigd zijn dat zij het volle recht hebben om ongezouten zo hun eigen mening mogen uiten zonder boe of bah, want zij voelen zich een onvolprezen scherprechter, en wie weet ook een ondergewaardeerd recensent. Hier staat niemand klaar met een stok om niet graag gezien reacties weg te kegelen. Wel staan wij klaar om elke reactie naar waarde te vatten. diegenen die hier langskomen zullen wel moeten beseffen dat wij hier niet enkel onze eigen opinie weergeven. Wij durven gerust het woord geven of linken naar pagina’s die met hun denken niet in lijn liggen met ons denken. Wij willen juist een onbevooroordeeld overzicht geven van wat er op het internet te vinden is van, volgens ons, boeiende lectuur. De opzet van dit platform was juist om het mensen, die weinig tijd hebben, het makkelijk te maken om toch lezenswaardige artikelen voor te schotelen en een selectie van aanvullende lectuur te bezorgen, zodat eenieder die wat meer tijd kan vrij maken op zijn of haar ogenblik tijd kan maken om verder te lezen over een bepaald onderwerp.
Op het internet is een heel kleurenpalet te vinden en naar ons inzien is er zo veel dat wij zelfs tijd te kort hebben om voldoende na te kunnen zien voor onze selectie. Daarom nodigen wij nog steeds vlijtige lezers uit om hun selectie van lezenswaardige artikelen hier op dit platform voor te stellen.
Dit platform is niet echt een forum, maar wel zouden wij het leuk vinden indien wij nu en dan toch nog wat reacties zouden kunnen krijgen. Nu blijven die echter veel te lang uit. Het is zo spijtig dat wij zo weinig respons krijgen. Onze elektronische brievenbussen geraken wel goed gevuld met spam, of met scheldtirades. Je moest eens weten hoe dikwijls worden toegeroepen dat wij zullen branden in de hel. Gelukkig geloven wij niet in zulk een eeuwige folterplaats die zulke vervloekers voor ons in oog hebben. Meer constructieve reacties zouden wij liefst willen zien en durven u daar vandaag ook toe aanzetten.
Misschien is het best dat wij vandaag enkele vragen oproepen, waarop onze lezers dan misschien eens tijd willen voor maken om ze te beantwoorden.
Onze vragen voor vandaag
Vragen die u van harte welkom bent om te beantwoorden
Zijn de artikelen die we hier presenteren niet van enig belang voor iemand die hier langs komt?
Is een persoonlijkheidsgevoel dat ontbreekt of echt noodzakelijk?
Is het verkeerd om te denken dat onze woorden niet zomaar willekeurige woorden zijn? Of zijn onze woorden niet van belang voor de huidige generatie?
Zou u nog steeds graag een “lijst” van “Aanvullende informatie” en van “Verwante artikelen” willen zien?
Wat vindt u van een dergelijke selectie die we onze lezers willen presenteren?
Kijkend naar de statistieken kan het de indruk wekken dat het niet goed gaat met ons. Dus wat kunnen we doen om het beter te maken?
Wil je dat we nog steeds regelmatig naar interessante blogs zoeken om ze te herbloggen of om ze hier te bespreken?
Hou je van de kleine gedachten, citaten of overpeinzingen voor de dag. Zou je het waarderen om ze regelmatig gepubliceerd te zien?
Zou je niet bereid zijn om enkele lezingen die je leuk vond of interessant of belangrijk vond om te lezen te delen op dit platform?
Als je van je werk houdt, zou het dan niet interessant voor je zijn om er enkele gedachten over te delen met onze lezers?
Als u een historicus, een psycholoog of een filosoof bent, zou u het niet erg vinden om enkele artikelen te schrijven over historische feiten, menselijke evolutie en menselijke activiteiten, manieren van leven, menselijke manieren en gebeurtenissen, misdaden tegen de mensheid, e.a.?
Behoort u tot de mensen die geen commentaar hebben op de toestand van onze samenleving?
Zou je niet een extra plek waarderen waar je af en toe wat gedachten kunt delen die voor anderen interessant zijn om te horen?
Betreft de hier aanwezige “Like” en “Share” of “Deel” knoppen: Wanneer het zo gemakkelijk wordt geacht om op een dergelijke knop te klikken, waarom gebeurt het dan niet meer? Waarom kunnen we niet meer “Likes” hebben?
Is er een bepaalde angst die je weerhoudt om hier te reageren?
U ook mag u verbinden met een beweging die deze wereld nodig heeft: join a movement the world needs.
Mostly the articles placed on this and our other platforms are not so much placed to open a debate, or better said are no part of a “forum”.
that does not mean we do not like to receive reactions like “likes” or some comments. You can imagine that it takes time to create a post and when we can notice in the statistics that they are read. That may be a stimulant to continue, but also to see a reaction brought by the reader, either by clicking on the “like” or “share” button, this last one giving us the opportunity to receive more readers for that particular article.
Voxate Writing & Editing which was established in 2008 and since then, has been providing writing, editing and SEO services for South African and international clients writes
Reader comments aren’t only a little boost to the blogger that spent hours crafting a post, although they certainly help! They’re also important for search engine optimisation and for letting the blogger know what his or her readers value in terms of content. A good comment can be integral to generating leads, and the commenter may also benefit by directing other readers to his or her own content or blog, since they can usually click your username to be taken directly to your site. It’s an all-round score.
On this site you may find a.o. news articles which discusses current events or recent news of either general interest. Bringing such headlines or talking about recent incidents we do want to bring up some thoughts around those affairs. They are used to focus the reader’s attention on a particular (or main) part of the article or that what we think is important for people who want to make something of our society. At the same time looking at what we think may be a major event we also try to give facts and detailed information following answers to general questions like the Five W’s: who, what, when, where, why and how.
Our intention is also to offer some encyclopedia articles or reference works, offering a more in-depth informative article with a primary division of content. For this we are still looking for more contributors, willing to share their knowledge around specific subjects like ‘life’, ‘living’, ‘history’, ‘culture’.
This Blogas such may have blog articles which are like magazine or newspaper articles whilst others may be written more like entries in a personal journal. More important as lifestyle magazine we do hope we may offer some different opinions about several important life issues, of which the religious and spiritual aspects are not gone out of the way.
Being aware that today not many people have lots of time to read serious articles, we do love to present on this site an overview of articles we think would be interesting to read. Therefore we offer next to our own articles a selection of reblogged posts. We may not bring a Listicle, or a specific article whose primary content is a list, but at the end of the postings presented over here we also do try to offer a listing of other additional readings or related articles we could select from the blogging world. We also do hope to bring here a sort of Readers Digest and are still hoping some more writers would join us to help us to succeed in those efforts.
Concerning the “Related articles” service we offer, we regularly do get some irritated bloggers who ask us to take their writing of the list. This discourages us a lot for doing all that research work, checking all those posts, looking for them of being of interest. Therefore we reduces already the time for searching and reading so many blogs, to look for something to share. We also can use more people to help us looking for interesting writers, photographers, to present their articles or work to our readers.
Normally we would think there must be enough people who read several blogs and would be able to find something worth reblogging, this being an extra place to do so, next to their own blog, and at the same time giving them the opportunity to link to their own articles. As such we can offer additional readers to those who are willing to join this effort of sharing information and promoting a multicultural and multicoloured world.
In our articles we talked already a lot about how we use are time and on what we are willing to spend time in our time limited day and world. Being aware that not enough people do take time to retreat and to take some time to look at things, wondering how everything is going good or bad and why certain things evolve a certain way, we are trying to bring some balance and are willing to give some material for thought. Having only certain moments a day for ourselves or to do something else than our job, being limited in time we sincerely do hope to be able to offering some interesting material. If not so let us know.
The small thoughts or quotes we offer a day, we do hope can give something to think and are a welcome meditation for the day. Perhaps they can bring you to some daydreaming or musing.
In 2014 we started and reached 1847 visitors with 3124 views offering us 263 likes. Last year we got 5018 visitors fetching 6888 views willing to give us 486 likes. We are pleased to find 279 WordPress followers and only 2 e-mail followers, making us not such a popular blog it seems. Or do you find we do not do enough our best as a team? What can we do more?
Comparing with my personal (political) site I generate 256 WordPress followers and 9 e-mail followers. It is also not so much but there I bring very personal views and spend not so much time as on my other (religious and lifestyle magazine) blogs.
Looking at the statistics it may give the impression we are not doing well or it may be very discouraging. So what can we do to make it better?
Steve Hayes also may have a similar feeling like me. He writes
Speaking for myself now, one of the reasons that I write blog posts is that I have some half-baked ideas floating around, and I’m hoping that others will read them and help me to bake them. So it’s pretty discouraging when there are no comments at all. {The importance of blog comments}
WordPress does a wonderful job diverting spam from the inbox.
For me the talking we do bring here on certain matters and bringing comments on some expressions of others or on certain blogwritings is giving comments on the quoted blog, though most often nothing of our comments is quoted on the discussed page or no link to the article is mentioned. When we get some feed back it is mostly somebody who is angry that he is quoted or that we dared to link to his article. Most often when we get such reply we are asked to delete the link or the mentioning of that person’s name. For that reason it can be that after some time you come to read an article again some related articles may not appear any more in the list. Those negative reactions concerning the links to related articles made us also to decide to reduce this service we thought would be productive for both sides. What surprises us that several blog writers do forget that when they with writing on the net and not making their blog private, have the possibility that from everywhere all sorts of people may come to see and read what they have written and should as such also not be surprised when people react on their site (what we also do, but not have it appreciated all the time – certainly not on the religious front.)
One big problem is also that we daily get in a lot of spam or ridiculous mail nothing to do with the article or articles. Spam luckily enough gets straight in the Spambox to be deleted.
Spending hours moderating comments and determining what is or isn’t spam can be extremely frustrating.
I do agree this blog and my ‘personal’ blog are not really blogs about me or an other person his personality. when I look at some very popular blogs I notice that most often they are about the person himself or herself or really commercial blogs without the followers noticing it or being aware of it that it is a blog full of advertisements or promotional articles. Dominic Sceski (Aul) a sixteen year-old home-schooled student formulates it this way
You might have a huge following, but if you don’t have a sense of personality, people will stop treating you like a blogger. They’ll see your blog posts, they’ll Like them, hopefully they’ll read them…but if you are only putting your writing forward, or whatever you’re trying to promote, people won’t care about you. They won’t know YOU.
People might like your blog, but they aren’t going to comment unless they like you.
Think about it.
If your blog, your writing, lacks a sense of YOU, what will people be seeing? Just words. They might be some good words. But if they aren’t able to attribute them to you, then why would they comment? Who are they commenting to? Not a person. Just words. And no one praises or converses with random words, however good they are.
Of course, maybe you ARE putting yourself into what you write…but maybe it’s too much of yourself. I see this sooooo often. Those bloggers who get big and popular and then all they do is blog about themselves and their own personal endeavors. The titles of their posts are eternally:
“Hey, check out my new book”
“PLEASE buy my new book”
“Hey, guess what? My new book is out”
“Update on my story”
You get the picture.
I’ve said this multiple times and I’ll say it again. If you want followers and an active audience, blog about things people CARE about. Blog about things that HELP people. Make them WANT or NEED you.
Are we according to you then not blogging about matters that can help you or others? We do agree we talk more than once about God and the way of life according His rules, and not so many people are interested in that. Is that a reason why we have so few followers? Is that what we try to offer our readers not something some people want?
Voxate comments
Although time is scarce and we’re often reading other blogs between other must-do’s on our daily schedule, making the time to comment is important – both for the link it may allow you to include to your own blog or site, and to the blogger.
The comments on this blog post of mine have been the most special to me because of the wonderful feedback I received from various people. It showed just how fond people were about the area of Tsitsikamma and how willing they were to share the love for it. This is why I blog – I love seeing comments like these!
The comment by Nomtha Gawe on this post. It gives a complementary experience to that described in the blog, and thus a different persective on it, while remaining on topic. She immediately grasps what the post is saying, relates it to her own experience, which is similar in some ways but different in others, and explains it lucidly.
She really appreciated Ilona Fourie’s comment, which read, “What a awesome post. Whilst I was reading it so much rang true to me. I have been on a roller coaster with my weight. I have lost 26kg but have not been able to move any more in the last year. I have tried and tried and are failing miserably. It has made me so negative and I keep asking myself whats wrong with me. This is a war that few people understand and I am so grateful to have read your post!” Lizna said:
It meant a lot to me because I am not alone, me and her became such great friends that we are actually living together now, you find best friends when you least expect it.
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JustEllaBella also shares some really personal stuff. Ella says:
Over there years I’ve opened up about losing my son. Sometimes it felt a little self indulgent and that people would surely be rolling their eyes at me BUT I speak about him because of comments like these. People who can relate, I have somehow told them it’s okay not to be okay and for that I am grateful. This one particularly struck a chord, “i simply love this blog. lost my baby girl also two days after she was born in hospital 7 February 2017 and to this day she is a big part of our lives. This is the first time i ever spoke about her to anyone besides my husband.God decided he needs her more and she is now one of heavens angels im just glad to have had the opportunity to meet her. i also hope that the best part of her 48 hours on earth was meeting mom&dad.
-Forever Gianni Hendricks-“
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In Africa and Beyond is one of my favourite travel blogs. Sara shares some of the reader comments that touched her the most:
On my post about “30 Photos of South Africa That Will Fuel Your Wanderlust” Erika said, “I was tearing up looking at these photos. Going to South Africa has always been a dream of mine. I loved seeing it through your eyes and hope to see it through mine one day soon.”
On my series about Lesotho, I received many comments from people who had never heard of Lesotho before.
On the hotel review, Yukti said, “I never heard of Lesotho and thanks to you as it is now added into my wishlist” and Raghav said, “I feel so bad because I had not a clue Lesotho even existed.”
I love influencing people with my travel writing and photos and making them aware of new places to discover and explore. It is gratifying and makes me feel as though I am doing something worthwhile and helpful. I also get told often that I am a great ambassador for South Africa which feels good as I love showcasing South Africa’s beauty.
I’ve narrowed it down to this post, but I can’t choose a specific comment. A lot of comments are also sent to me privately because my blog is so raw and personal but each and every comment on my blog is a reminder of why I blog. The sense of community, that feeling of not being alone. The understanding that it’s okay to not be okay. The affirmations from other women who are in the same position as me. I treasure every comment, many of them moving me to tears because other women GET me and other women feel what I feel and in many cases, it’s a rawness that they share with me about their own experience with loss, grief, parenting and just being. Comments remind me in the times that blogging feels like too much that this is my tribe, these are my people and I’m never alone!
In this article, Zena posted a comment that was meanginful to me. She said, ” Jonelle you have such courage to have written this great story, a tribute to your hero. You have inspired me. I work everyday for a foundation in memory of Hassan and its been 8 yrs since his passing and 4 years working here, and still have not had your courage to even speak or write a sentence, I believe the time will come.”
Beautiful Shante, your story touched me so deeply that I found it difficult not only to find words, but to actually find my voice. You told your story in such a delicate yet profound way and I’m in awe of you right now. Reading your story, your pain and then how the birth of your daughter opened your heart to this incredible love again is wonderful. And isn’t it amazing how the opening of your womb caused an opening of the heart! Like a flower you have opened and become even more beautiful than you already were.
I also lost my brother 34 years ago. I was 23 and he was 26 and because we were the last two of 8 kids, we were very close. So one sunny morning 34 years ago, I kissed him goodbye as I dropped him at work, not knowing that as I watched him walk away I would never see him again. For many years I would search for him on a crowded street or shop or anywhere thinking, it was just a mistake and that he was alive somewhere and I suppose that was how I coped.
So thank you for your story, we all need to be reminded of how God, in His infinite wisdom can bring us out of darkness and into His beautiful light.
Never forget how strong, courageous and breathtaking beautiful you are.
love n blessings
Connie
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For the Bloggers
To encourage your readers to comment more on your posts, you could:
Ask open-ended questions that prompt them to answer in the comments
Have a numbered list (e.g. 9 Ways To Clean Your Ears) and then ask them to add to this number
Write a controversial post; this often leaves readers chomping at the bit to include their pro or anti opinion
Reply to the existing comments – this starts a conversation
Comment on other blogs
Encourage commenting on your social media platforms
To Wrap It Up
Don’t underestimate the power and reach of your comments on the blogs and posts of others. By using this powerful tool, you play a big part in SEO and engagement – both for the post on which you’re commenting and on your own site.
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Now we come to the end of this article, we dare to ask you some questions and perhaps you would not mind to answer some of them or to give us some advice.
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Questions you are welcome to answer
Are the articles we present over here stuff nobody or not many are interested in?
Is a sense of personality lacking or really necessary?
Are we wrong to think our words are not just random words? Or are our words not of any interest to the present generation?
Would you still like to see a “Listicle” of “Additional Reading” and of “Related articles”?
What do you find of such selection we like to present our readers?
Looking at the statistics it may give the impression we are not doing well. So what can we do to make it better?
Do you like us to regularly to search for interesting blogs to Reblog them or to discuss them over here?
Do you like the small thoughts, quotes or musings for the day. Would you appreciate it to have them regularly?
Are there any subjects you want to see covered more?
Would you not be willing to share some readings you liked or did find interesting or important to read?
When you love your job, would it not be interesting for you to share some thoughts about it with our readers?
When you are a historian, a psychologist or a philosopher would you not mind writing some articles about historic facts, human evolution and human activities, ways of life, human manners and events, crimes against humanity, a.o.?
Do you belong to the people who have no comment on the state of our society?
would you not appreciate an extra place where you now and then can share some thoughts which would be interesting for others to hear?
When it is considered so easy to click a like button why does it not happen more? Why can we not have more “Likes”?
An Orthodox Christian got confronted by a friend who recently posted a link to an article on anti-Semitism which claimed that anti-Semitism of the left was more dangerous than anti-Semitism of the right. He found the article biased and tendentious for several reasons and writes
For one thing, the author seemed to characterise “the Left” in much the same way that antisemites characterise the Jews — with stereotypes based on innuendoes. Just as for antisemites there is no need to substantiate any accusations against “the Jews”, so for those authors there is no need to substantiate any allegations against “the Left”, because those are something that “everyone knows”.
Anti-semitism from which site it may come in whatever country it may be uttered is also something which is wrong and should not be accepted. the writer of the article may have been writing about the “the Left” in the American sense, which means still a very conservative group, because the left for Americans can be a group which belongs to the Democrats.
Steve Hayes aged 9
The writer of Khanya, Steve Hayes considers himself a a liberal who believes that theological liberalism leads to political conservatism and vice versa. According to him there is primary an ascetic struggle as part of the training and discipline we need in order to engage in other aspects of the struggle. {Thoughts on Spiritual Warfare (synchroblog)}
The primary aspect of spiritual warfare, therefore, is the struggle against the passions leading to theosis (divinisation, godliness). {Thoughts on Spiritual Warfare (synchroblog)}
When we look at today’s society we can see al lot of ungodliness and it is just because so many people are so far away from God’s rules that there are so many problems in this world.
Soon after seeing the anti-Semitism article, someone posted one of those quizzes on Facebook that purport to show whether you are left or right. Hayes questions
Is it accurate? I don’t know, but I thought it would be interesting to do it to see what the quiz authors regarded as “left” or “right” characteristics, which can itself be revealing of social trends.
Funny to see I had exactly the same result as him, getting following result:
I can assure you I am not for Tax-increases but I am for a better distribution of wealth and a better differentiation for the wages and a better performance related pay.
Hayes is anti-war, anti-abortion and anti-capital punishment and writes
Most of those who claim to be pro-life are less than solidly so, and are rather full-of-holes pro-life. If you want a more accurate test to take your political temperature, try the Political Compass.
Having tried it myself it showed my Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: -6.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.67
My position plotted against the UK parties in the 2015 general election would be
which I think would not be a bad picture.
Hayes remarks
Be that as it may, very few of the characteristics ascribed to the left, either in the test or in the antisemitism article, appeared directly in the quiz questions. There was nothing about intersectionality (whatever that may be) or “identity politics” (which sounds like a pretty right-wing thing to me). But there were quite a lot of questions about Christian values. One of a group of four that I opted for was “kindness”, because it came closest to the Christian value of love, though whether the test counted that as “left” or “right” I’m not sure, but I noticed that it does place the Christian value of forgiveness on the left. {Anti-Semitism, anti-leftism and anti-Christianity}
I consider Jesus a “communist avant la lettre” and have seen several tests where the agapè love is considered to be “leftish”. The Christian value of forgiveness is also many times placed on the left.
Though what shocks me and troubles me a lot is that several people in the U.S.A. who call themselves “Christian” or “Born again Christian” have not much feeling for other people and or not much interested in sharing with those around them. Many of them oppose anything what has a smell of socialism or systems where is demanded that people help each other or provide money in a fund or system like Obama Care to help others. Lots of those so called Christians have also a very averse attitude to true or non-trinitarianChristians, Jews and Muslims. All that worship the Only One True God and not their Trinity seem to be people they would like to see to “burn in hell”.
Clearly when hearing lots of North Americans talking on the little screen, they give an impression all those who do not belong to their Christendom are disgusting people which should be thrown out of the country. Some have such weird ideas about other faiths that we in Europe can wonder if they did not learn about them in their schools and if the media does not give any good advice. Looking at some TV-station , like Fox, we see lots of de-information and no objective information.
In the American media we see a lot of anti-black racism and a lot of Islamophobia, plus the choice of many to consider those with a “white” skin (I would say an light tainted orange skin) superior to those with an other coloured skin. As such the Jew comes into the picture as well, having not the Caucasian looks. Jews all over the world comes in all shades — from blonde to black. In Israel the conflict between Jews and Palestinians isn’t about race. Nor are the tensions between Jews from Europe and those from the Muslim world — though activists and academics sometimes import the terms “black” and “white,” in defiance of their lying eyes. But on many American platforms the looks of the Jews bring sayings against them which I would prefer not to hear in a civilised country.
Already in the preparation for the previous American election we could find several lies about Obama his origin and birthplace. This was for us already an indication that there was more brewing and that a significant portion of Americans felt horror that an Afro-American could become president.
Race is the most pervasive reason that some Americans believe they can discriminate against and despise others. When you see certain Jews their body clearly shows certain marks, which are good enough a sign for those so called Christians to call them murderers of Jesus and to hate them.
Some may think anti-Semitism just isn’t as bad as other forms of racism, but it is. Worse is it when there is an attitude of
Jews don’t count as a group worth protecting.
Jonathan Taubes, a student activist at Binghamton University who worked with progressive campaigns in Binghamton, on and off campus, writes
Jewish people face bigotry in this country, and the history of institutional anti-Semitism here is real, but today we find ourselves mostly free of persecution. We should recognize that privilege and use it to fight for the vulnerable. {Dear Allies, Don’t Downplay Anti-Semitism in Trump’s America}
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) showed at the beginning of this year that the number of anti-Semitic incidents remained significantly higher in 2017 compared to 2016. In addition to the significant bump in the first quarter of this year, there was also a distinct increase after the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August.
Since 1979, ADL has counted anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. and reported the numbers in its annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents. It can be said that also in the U.S.A. the amount of injustices to Jews became too high. New York State (267 incidents); California (197); Massachusetts (117); Florida (69) and Pennsylvania (58) incidents of crimes against Jews for their race.
In August, ADL recorded a “meta-event” rarely seen in America: the white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va., which featured shocking and violent expressions of anti-Semitism and racism, including the display of swastika flags, chants of “Jews will not replace us!” and other overt anti-Semitic acts.
There seems such a fear that they would replaced by Jews and Muslims or that their world would become Islamic. Though then why do they not question their own religion and their own religious members. In case they would be strong believers there should be no fear that they would leave their faith. When they are standing strong in their faith they should even be able to come to witness to Muslims and Jews and have them to come to Christianity.
Anti-Semitic incidents spiked on and immediately following Charlottesville. Of the 306 incidents reported in Q3, 221 took place on or after the August 11 rally.
The Charlottesville rally was one of at least 33 public white supremacist events in the U.S. so far this year, which were supplemented with 188 incidents where white supremacists used fliers to spread their message to new audiences, especially on college campuses.
Police departments and human rights groups across the United States of America and all over Europe show that there is a dramatically rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes. When the president’s chief counterterrorism advisor, Sebastian Gorka, was found to support a violent anti-Semitic militia in his parents’ native Hungary, there showed a situation where the left talks about white supremacy as if Jews aren’t affected and anti-Semitism is just a distraction from real issues – when, in fact, anti-Semitism is at the core of the white supremacist ideologies today’s leftist movements seek to upend.
In addition to the belief in a shadowy group with the power to affect large-scale outcomes, conspiracy theories also reflect a worldview in which reality is the product of a timeless and cosmic struggle between good and evil. These kinds of dualistic narratives are especially enticing to groups that view themselves to be under existential duress, and as Elaine Pagels has shown, this has profoundly shaped Western culture. Jews under Roman occupation and early Christians under Jewish ostracism and gentile persecution developed theologies of the oppressed in which the devil and his demonic host squared off with God and his angels.
Hayes believes that there is a cosmic struggle between good and evil,
though I’m not sure that it is timeless. The Christian take on it is that in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the decisive battle was won by good, and we live in the last days of mopping up operations.
That we live in a time close to the end-times we may see in the signs given in the bible, which we can recognise clearly. But that should not have to mean we should let everything happen like it goes now.
Hayes thinks that
Western Christianity tends to be legalistic, to share the values of the Right rather than the Left, preferring punishment to forgiveness, and justice to kindness (in the left-right quiz mentioned above).
but than he forgets to see what real Christians preach.The real lovers of God recognise what the Nazarene Jew has done and do now that there is no such place as a hell to torture people for ever. Real Christians keep to the bible teachings and not to the human doctrines and human fear-mongering to have their flock under control. though Hayes recognises the appalling falsehoods that several Christian denominations
smack of perversity even to attack its perverseness.[1] And the conclusion is altogether evil. {Love the sinner, hate the sin}
For him is in his Orthodox theology the Church a hospital where sinners can be healed rather than a courtroom where they are to be judged. He should know that it is also in other Christian denominations, like the Christadelphians for example. In the Christadelphian faith it is even so that we consider no man to judge others, except those in function as judge, but still it being up to Jesus to give the end verdict.
He rightly says
if we are Christians we must love the sinner but hate the sin.
We must
Love the oppressor but hate oppression
Love the corrupt politician and businessman, but hate corruption
Love the warmonger but hate war
Love the exploiter but hate exploitation
and I would add that we should protect all those who have no voice and should come up for all those who are discriminated or done wrong.
Lest it seems that Hayes is saying that the line between good and evil runs between Eastern and Western Christianity, making “us” superior to “them”, he quotes a Western Christian, G.K. Chesterton, on this:
The whole case for Christianity is that a man who is dependent upon the luxuries of this life is a corrupt man, spiritually corrupt, politically corrupt, financially corrupt.
There is one thing that Christ and all the Christian saints have said with a sort of savage monotony. They have said simply that to be rich is to be in peculiar danger of moral wreck. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to kill the rich as violators of definable justice. It is not demonstrably un-Christian to crown the rich as convenient rulers of society. It is not certainly un-Christian to rebel against the rich or to submit to the rich. But it is quite certainly un-Christian to trust the rich, to regard the rich as more morally safe than the poor.
A Christian may consistently say,
“I respect that man’s rank, although he takes bribes.”
But a Christian cannot say, as all modern men are saying at lunch and breakfast,
“a man of that rank would not take bribes.”
For it is a part of Christian dogma that any man in any rank may take bribes. It is a part of Christian dogma; it also happens by a curious coincidence that it is a part of obvious human history. When people say that a man “in that position” would be incorruptible, there is no need to bring Christianity into the discussion. Was Lord Bacon a bootblack? Was the Duke of Marlborough a crossing sweeper? In the best Utopia, I must be prepared for the moral fall of any man in any position at any moment; especially for my fall from my position at this moment.
“French-Jewish families are being forced from their homes in Paris suburbs as Europe continues to be convulsed by levels of anti-Semitism not seen since the end of the Second World War.
Rue Gabriel Péri, a pedestrian zone in Saint-Denis, in 2012.
The Paris commuter newspaper 20 Minutes documents an “internal exodus” during 2017 of Jews from the Seine-Saint-Denis department, saying
“it is emblematic of broader concerns that French Jews, like their brothers and sisters across Europe, are finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile their faith with the changing demographics of the continent.”
Who would ever have thought that after the lessons of World War 2 we’d see this sort of thing in Europe again. Well, we are, and we may not do if our node bleeds, or turn our heads when a car drives over the pavement to hit Jewish pedestrians, or have our ears shut when people shout
“Dirty Jews, You’re going to die!”
The third largest Jewish community in the world has seen growing anti-Semitism in France since the 2000s. Increasingly, the Jewish community in France no longer feels safe. The most salient events were the murder of Ilan Halimi in 2006, the attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 and the attack on the Hypercasher in Paris in 2015. These three events alone accounted for the murder of nine Jews, including three children who were murdered at close range.
In 2014, there were 851 antisemitic acts of violence in France as recorded by the Protection Service of the Jewish Community. Indeed, some Jews in their private lives in France have given up wearing their kippa or the Star of David for fear of insults or aggression. This video from 2015 shows the kind of intimidation a Jew can face depending on what part of Paris they walk through.
The Aliyah In Israel
The growing antagonism towards them has led some French Jews to make the drastic decision to leave the country.
For several decades now, Jews in France have been leaving for Israel. The attacks of 2015 doubled the figure of departures, which is now about 6,000 to 7,000 per year. Following the 2015 attacks, Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu traveled to Paris, and while there did not miss the opportunity to mention that Israel was open to French Jews. The president of the Jewish Agency for Israel went further, stating that there was “no future for Jews in France.”
2016 was already a year of great dissonance, 2017 was not so much better. It did turn its back unto us, but left a big stamp on what we might expect for this year. The world looked with astonishment to the one who managed to become the 45th president of the United States of America. What most people in the West thought would not ever happen did happen. It shows how mistaken we can be.
Like their leader,who thinks he can decide which place has to be the capital of a certain country, several of the citizens of that so called ‘united’ States think they may decide which word people have to use to speak about their god or how to call God. On many internet platforms and chat-groups or Facebook Groups, those Americans want to forbid people in whose languages already thousands of years before the U.S.A. was founded, the word Allah was used to denote “God” to call the Most High Maker “Allah”. They forgetting that this title’s origin can be traced back to the earliest Semitic writings in which the word for “god” was il or el, the latter being used in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Allāh is the standard Arabic word for God and is used by Arab speaking people as well as in many other languages by Christians as well as by Muslims .
Those English speaking Americans having the pretentious to decide which word other language speaking people may use for speaking about their God. Worse is that several of those stubborn Americans do not want to see that they commit blasphemy against the Divine Creator. One can wonder if it is because of their education of lack of education that those Americans go so much against the word “Allah” they even do not come to see or understand that it is a common title for “God” in many languages and in many countries outside the United States of America and in many religious groups.
Just to few some active bloggers, we can find a person living in in Troutdale, Oregon USA, who loves cats and perhaps likes to crawl like one. Though she writes to be a lover of Christ we can not see that expressed in her writings which are a continuous attack on a group of people as well on those who dare to use “Allah” to speak about their “God”. Strange that an “average man who tries to do his best at being the kind of person the Bible tells us we are all suppose to be” likes to follow and duplicate her writings doing just the opposite the Bible tells and also bringing blasphemy to the Divine Creator. Though both have a writing where they quote (Exodus 20:3 KJV) they both, like many other Americans love an other god, are even not afraid to draw pictures of their god and worship in front of graven images (though that is against the commandments of the Only One True God). In the cartoons they publish they also say umbilical things and want their readers to believe “Jesus is the only one god”, instead of recognising that Jesus is the son of God. Naturally the Old Poet and Kristi Ann are free to take whatever god they want, but they should not forbid others to use the title “Allah” for the Only One True God, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah. If they do not want to see that Jesus is the way to the Only One True God, that is their problem and their right, but they should not hinder those who want to loveChrist Jesus and take the God of Jesus as their “Allah“.
Though the oldpoet56 agrees he has heard about the 3 Abrahamic religions
In a certain way he is right because Jews, real Christians and Muslims worship the Only One True God, Whose Name is Jehovah, whilst the majority of those who call themselves Christian do not worship the same God as Jesus but have made Jesus into their god, and in fact are ‘hidden’ polytheists, having a three-headed god with different qualities as the main god.
But the Old Poet has an other view on that and see other reasons for not believing that they worship the same god. He writes
This statement would be nice, if it were true, but it isn’t at all correct. Mostly the people I have heard say this nonsense have been the Hollywood types or talking heads from the NYC area. People who make this assumption tend to be people who have no knowledge of what the different religions teach and usually have no knowledge of even the teachings of one religion. {Do All 3 Abrahamic Religions Pray To The Same God? That Answer Is Simple: No!}
The Old poet recognises that there are different divisions in the Christian communities, of which he claims that they
Though he condemns all those Catholics and Protestants who use the word “Allah” and condemns all the Bibles and Christian teaching books where the writers use “Allah” when they speak about their God, be it a Trinity or a Binary or Unitarian God. Very strange it becomes, when he continues
One of the many things I have never understood in life is how groups that believe that Jesus Christ is our Saviour and King can raise their weapons against another person who believes the same thing, in the name of Religion, in the name of Christ! This confusion isn’t just among Christian Churches, let God be the Judge, we are not qualified. {Do All 3 Abrahamic Religions Pray To The Same God? That Answer Is Simple: No!}
But he himself and his favourite female writer do throw stones to all those Christians who worship Allah and have Jesus Christ as their saviour. He asks God to be the judge, but he himself judges all those people who do not speak English and use the words of their language to speak about God and not his English title he likes so much. By his writings he also condemns the books which got an imprimatur from the Roman Catholic Church and have the title of God written as “Allah”. By her writings Kristi Ann indicates than that that Roman Catholic Church is the instrument of “Satan”.
In her article He is (Yahweh-Jehovah) God!! she brings a lot of quotes from the Holy Scriptures, which she herself does not seem to belief, because she has made herself an other god than the God of the Bible. She may do that, but then she may not throw stones to those who prefer to believe those verses which declare that there is Only One True God.
When she then also attacks those people who use their own language and not English, it becomes to much to bare or to let it circulate the internet without any reaction. It is not up to her, or any other person who calls himself or herself Christian, to dictate that the words to describe the Most High Divine Creator of all things should be their English word “God”. We and all those for which “Allah” is the word to describe the title of the Most High God should not be dictated by American nationalists and/or Neo-Nazis which title to use, or should not be dictated by them to have such or such city as their capital. They may have freedom of speech but should also have others to have the same freedom of speech and the freedom of language.
Several American Christian magazines try also to bring confusion and have those who use the word “Allah” to denounce that God or those using that title
“The key condition behind calling the Christian God Allah is that Allah must refer to the same God as the one in the Bible. However, this requirement presents “a huge problem for both Muslims and Christians….” From its very starting point Islam denies what Christianity takes as its central truth claim – the fact that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father. If Allah has no Son by definition, Allah is not the God who revealed himself in the Son. How then can the use of Allah by Christians lead to anything but confusion …and worse?” {passage from the ‘Christian Post’, U.S. (Is Calling the Christian God ‘Allah’ Wrong? – August 23, 2007)Ustaz Azahar A Pluralist?}
That writer like many Muslims seems to forget that lots of Muslims may be confused by the son part, though they still also call Abraham their patriarch and themselves children of Abraham.
From Muslim site there is also a grudge against all those who use the word “Allah” as if they have the sole right to use that word.
“Allah” in the Bible – Two copies of the Bible in Malay (L) and the Iban dialect are seen in this picture illustration taken in Kuala Lumpur January 2, 2014. REUTERS/Samsul Said
To the West and East it is clear the U.S.A. would not love more to have an American take-over. Their president like a little child boasts about having a bigger button than the North Koreans have, and by always shouting about having better and bigger weapons he and his Alt-Right friends and those who call themselves Christian but fight against all who have an other idea or use other words than they, are a danger for world peace.
As we can see what happened in certain Muslim countries wanting to have the sole use for the word of “god” them claiming they alone should be allowed to use “Allah” we now find the opposite by fundamentalist Christians (mainly North American U.S.A. citizens) who claim that everybody should use their word and nobody alse should use the title “god” for any other god, though they forget that the bible itself calls angels, Moses, Pharao, Baal, Apollo; Zeus, “god” (notice the small letter), even when they (according to us) are not their god Jesus , nor the Real Divine CreatorGod above all gods, the Host of hosts, which has in certain languages also the title “God” (with capital) or “Allah”, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah, the Only One True God.
The smear of certain Christians, their strong reactions against users of the title “Allah” and their strong reactions against those who prefer the Islamic Faith, doing as if all Muslims are Islamicterrorists and haters of God, makes it that we see it coming closer to the times the Bible mentions that religion shall come up against religion.
Lifestyle and Readers Digest Magazine founded by Marcus Ampe on the 26th of March 2014
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“The story of Esther is familiar to us. You have quite likely heard more than one talk about her, sat in more that one class exploring the book named for her. If it’s been a while, you might want to reread it, maybe in a translation other than your usual. Read it as a movie […]
Over visuilen, aalscholvers, kamelen of dromedarissen Jaren geleden spraken heel wat christenen over God en gebod met woorden die naar de buitenwereld een duidelijk beeld gaven tot welke kerkgemeenschap of denominatie zij behoorden. Katholieken en Protestanten kon men zo heel makkelijk uit elkaar houden. In de Noordelijke gebieden van de Nederlanden werd heel lang aan […]
THE TIDINGS is pleased to introduce “Coming of Age in Christ.” This special issue for 2021 is dedicated to briefly examining several issues young people face. The Special Issue is largely authored by young writers for other young adults. They share their experiences and advice on how to implement spiritual principles in modern days—how to […]
Om de wereld met haar vele problemen aan te kunnen zijn wij best ons te laten vormen door de Allerhoogste God. dit vergt openheid, vertrouwen en goodwill om ons door Hem te laten verbeteren en te leiden.
De Allergrootste Bron van Licht heeft een bron van licht aan de wereld geschonken dat men moet kunnen opmerken om zo de verlichte paden aar God te kunnen vinden en zien naar waar dat licht de mens kan heenbrengen om een eindeloos vredig licht te kunnen aantreffen.
Iedereen krijgt in het leven zaken te verwerken en wordt op allerlei gebieden gelokt om bepaalde dingen te doen of niet te doen, te geloven of niet te geloven. De vele verleidingen kunnen ons verstikken en daarvoor moeten wij ten zeerste opletten om al hetgeen rondom ons door een juiste filter te laten gaan.
Sinds dat Jezus na zijn verrijzenis de wereld heeft verlaten totdat hij weer zal komen, hebben zijn volgelingen geprobeerd anderen tot het geloof in Christus te brengen. Wij denken dat ij mogen stellen dat wanneer Jezus terug zal komen hij geloof zal vinden op aarde. “Ik zeg jullie dat hij hun spoedig recht zal verschaffen. […]
Bible prophecies do not deal only with the ancient past. They also accurately foretell events that are taking place in our day. But at the moment we focus at numerous prophecies preserved in the Hebrew Scriptures (commonly called the Old Testament) which long before the man was born told about events which would happen in his time and around him, his betrayal, humiliation, torture, execution, death, and burial. From those writings of the Old and New Testament nobody should have doubts who that man is who is called Immanuel, the son of man and Messiah, born out of the root of Jess in the tribe of king David.
In Scripture, all things are directed towards a man who was a servant of servants, in whom people should come to have faith. First we saw the connection with Eve and her seed, and in this article you may see the connection with Abraham.
Already in the Old Testament we find the focus on a son of man who is called the son of God, who shall be the most pure set apart (holy) servant of God who was been told about in the Garden of Eden, to be the one bruised.
Many Old Testament writers wrote about the prophet to come, about whom is spoke in the book of Moses and who shall be the special “Seed of a woman” given by God and who will bruise Satan’s head whilst his heel would be bruised with nails on the wooden stake.
Jewish and Christian literature since the time of Yeshua or Jeshua have pointed to Genesis 3:15 as the first reference to the Messiah in the Torah. Genesis 3:15 NHEBJE I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his […]
Recent Posts: Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten
Review Questions on Chapter Eight What miracle did Jesus duplicate? What warning did Jesus give regarding the Pharisees? Who did Jesus heal in Bethsaida? What was the reaction of Peter to Jesus’ words about his death? What rebuke did Jesus give Peter? What does it mean cw Jesus? + Preceding Mark 8 – The Nazarene’s […]
Mark 8:34-38 – Disown Self and Follow Constantly || Matthew 16:24-28;[1] Luke 9:23-27 MK8:34 Now after he assembled the crowd, as well as his disciples, he said to them all: “Whoever wants to follow me must first renounce self,[2] and then shouldering a stake,[3] follow me. MK8:35 For whoever tries to preserve the soul will […]
“27 Now Jesus left with his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And along the way he asked his disciples: “Who are people saying I am?” 28 They answered: “John the Baptist.” But others said, “Elijah.” Still others: “One of the prophets.” 29 Then Jesus asked them: “But, who do you say I am?” […]
Mark 8:27-33 – Death Foretold in Caesarea || Matthew 16:13-20;[1] Luke 9:18-21 MK8:27 Now Jesus left with his disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi. And along the way he asked his disciples: “Who are people saying I am?” MK8:28 They answered: “John the Baptist.” But others said, “Elijah.” [Malachi 4:1] Still others: “One of […]
Mark 8:22-26 – A Blind Man in Bethsaida MK8:22 Then Jesus arrived at Bethsaida and the people brought to him a blind man,[1] and they begged Jesus to touch him. MK8:23 So Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of town, and after he had spit on his eyes and […]
Recent Posts by bible Scholars: Bijbelvorser = Bible Researcher
Al zijn het niet bepaald tijden waar er veel aandacht aan God en Zijn Woord wordt geschonken blijkt uit de aankoop van de Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling in de voorgaande jaren er toch een bepaalde interesse te bestaan die de uitgevers niet ontgaan is. Vooral omdat naast de hoge verkoopcijfers er nog eens vele opmerkingen bij de […]
Temples have been found throughout the ancient Near East. Mostly we do not have a very good idea of what and how things went on at these sites. Along with reconstructing architectural remains, we can wonder if scholars can piece together ancient worship practices. Over the years, many ancient temples have been discovered and laid […]
The Book of Judith — considered canonical by Roman Catholics, Apocrypha Literature by Protestants, and non-canon by Jews, included in the Septuagint (Greek version of the Hebrew Bible) —tells the story of the ignominious defeat of the Assyrians, an army bent on world domination, by the hand of a beautiful Jewish widow named Judith who […]
Van de Horens van Hittim – een top op de weg van Nazareth naar Tiberias – voert een pad bergafwaarts in de richting van het meer van Genesareth of Galilea. Van dit pad heeft Jezus mogelijk gebruik gemaakt, wanneer hij op weg was naar Kapernaüm, over de oude verbindingsroute van Damascus naar Egypte. Zoals bekend […]
First of all to come to a good relationship with some one, one has to talk with that person and has to listen to what that person has to tell. God talks to the people by the way of His Word, presented to mankind by the many Bible translations, so that most people can read […]
The One Who created everything and Who gave His Word, did all He did with a purpose and out of love. The Bible teaches us that “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Everything God does is motivated by love. Out of love created man in His image also with the intention to have a good relationship […]
In the previous writings we saw that the Divine Creator gave His Word to the world so that people could come to know Him. The Bible is a gift from God. It gives us information that we can’t find anywhere else. For example, it tells us that God created the heavens, the earth, and the […]
Originally posted on Ohr Rishon: Sukkot 5782 “In that day I will raise up David’s fallen sukkah.” Amos 9:11, Tree of Life Version “‘Have you heard when Bar Nafle [the son who is fallen] will come?’ ‘Who is Bar Nafle?’ he asked. ‘Messiah,’ he answered, ‘Do you call Messiah Bar Nafle?’ ‘Even so,’ he rejoined,…
Originally posted on Ohr Rishon: Torah portion: Leviticus 22:26 – 23:44; Numbers 29:12-16 Although the Torah reading for the second day of Sukkot is the same as the first day, the haftorah is different. The haftorah for the first day of Sukkot (Zechariah 14:1-21) concerns the events leading up to the Final Redemption of Israel,…
Originally posted on the Hebrew Gypsy: Today is the 14th day of the (revised) Hebrew calendar and the day I set up the sukkah for the Feast of Tabernacles/ Sukkot here in Tennessee. I say “revised” because, a few days ago I realized (finally) that we have been a month late all year, even missing…
The fall Feast of Tabernacles is an “ingathering,” a celebration of harvest, and of thanksgiving for the provision God has given. In Israel, families will spend the week of celebration living in, or at least gathering in, temporary dwellings, rejoicing together while remembering the days of old.
The shock passes and the synagogue erupts in noisy conversation, all talking at once. Everyone is amazed! What to make of it all! New teaching they’ve never heard before — and with such authority! With a command he can heal a man they all thought was beyond hope…
Geschreven Woord: Gebruik en verklaring van een sleutelwoord in de grondtekst: lossing Het woord in het Hebreeuws en het Grieks Het Hebreeuwse woord voor ‘lossen’ is ga’al. De Griekse vertaling van het OT vertaalt het op verschillende manieren, maar het meest gebruikt worden de woorden lutroō (loskopen), met enkele afgeleiden daarvan, of als ruomai (behoeden […]
According to Mishnaic teaching, the New Year festival ushers in the Days of Judgment for all of mankind. Despite its solemnity, the festive character of Rosh Hashana is in no way diminished. In Scripture it is called “a day when the horn is sounded”; in the liturgy “a day of remembrance.” Again this year there […]
De aoristus (Grieks: ἀόριστος, vertaling: onbepaald, vaag) is een tempus die voorkomt in verschillende talen, zoals het Oudgrieks, het Sanskriet, het Oudkerkslavisch en het Georgisch. In het Nederlands is er geen formeel equivalent van de aoristus, maar wel zijn er werkwoordsvormen die dezelfde betekenis kunnen uitdrukken. In het Latijn wordt dezelfde betekenis uitgedrukt door het perfectum.
Met Rosj Hasjana denken wij aan de wondere scheppingsdaad van de Allerhoogste. Spijtig genoeg moeten wij toegeven dat de mensheid van die schepping een janboel heeft gemaakt.
Door de eeuwen heen zijn er steeds mensen geweest die inzagen hoe alles rondom hen mogelijk was en hoe er geloof kon gesteld worden in Die Maker van alle dingen en hoe ze Hem als het ware als een schild en toevluchtsoord konden gebruiken.
In en met hun geloof durfden zij te spreken over hun geloof en wat de wereld mocht verwachten in toekomende tijden.
Telkens als er een dag voor je ligt moet je deze nemen alsof het de laatste dag van je leven is. En daar moet je dan van genieten en sterk maken dat je Leeft!
Meer dan een jaar zijn wij beperkt geworden in onze mogelijkheden en vrije beleving met anderen. Nu er versoepelingen aan komen mogen wij niet over het hoofd zien wat ons in die penarie heeft gebracht en hoe wij dit voor de toekomst moeten vermijden.
When having many questions an interesting blog to look at: their old and more recent Posts: Questiontime - Vragenuurtje
Does one need proof to come to a certain belief? We can look at the signs in nature and find out what happened to certain people in the past, such as Noah and Paul. With the Book of Books, Allah has provided the world with His Interpretative Word.
Heeft men bewijzen nodig om tot een bepaald geloof te komen? Wij kunnen naar de tekenen in de natuur kijken en nagaan wat er in het verleden met bepaalde mensen, zoals Noach en Paulus is gebeurd. Met het Boek der boeken heeft Allah de wereld van Zijn Alzeggend Woord voorzien.
When we speak about “Faith” (iman) we look at acceptance of the Belief in the existence and oneness of God (Allah).and the existence of the Book of books of which God is the author, existing of five main parts, the Torah (revealed to Moses),,the Psalms (revealed to David).and the Writings of Kings and prophets as well as the Gospel (revealed to Jesus) with the writings of his apostles,
Wanneer wij over “Geloof” (iman) spreken, zien wij op de aanvaarding van het Geloof in het bestaan en de eenheid van God (Allah) en het bestaan van het Boek der boeken waarvan God de auteur is, bestaande uit vijf hoofdstukken, de Torah (geopenbaard aan Mozes), de Psalmen (geopenbaard aan David) en de Geschriften van Koningen en Profeten, alsmede het Evangelie (geopenbaard aan Jezus) met de geschriften van zijn apostelen,
One may wonder in which or what kind of god people want to believe. It is striking that many people like to have a certain form of mystery around their deity and therefore do not choose the God Who pours clear wine and sends very reliable Words to earth.
Recent Posts: Unmasking anti Jehovah sites and people
When we scroll onto the net about Jesus and God we often encounter lots of name-Christians who use verses to reply to others with questions about the divinity of Jesus which not at all say that Jesus is God, but they either do not understand what those verses are saying. Or they deliberately bring a […]
At the beginning of our contemporary age a son of man was hailed, by some triumphantly praised as a king entering Jerusalem, by others regarded as a dangerous person undermining their power. About 2 000 years later it are still religious leaders who do not want people to come to know that Nazarene man or to accept him as the son of God and future King of this world.
Jesus told his disciples that he will return only once and that when he does, after a time of great tribulation, it will be visible to everyone and be followed by immediate and dire consequences for those unprepared and for those who were adversaries of God.
The disciples expected that Christ would “come” as King, with a royal presence, and to remove the Romans and thrown down the corrupt temple, all at the same time and soon! It was a disappointment for them it turned not out that way, but they came to understand we could have an even much better future because of what Jesus had done. Though they also became convinced of the necessity to be prepared for the time that Jesus would return and that each believer could add by his effort of preaching, to bring the time closer.
Ek het ‘n prentjie, sê ek vir hom. Ek kan nie onthou wanneer ek dit die eerste keer gesien het nie. Ek klim die berg (never-ending) en dit duur my hele lewe lank. Uiteindelik (ek het nooit verwag dit sal in my leeftyd gebeur nie), kom ek bo-op die berg. Daar wag ‘n baie ou, […]
Dit was ‘n besluit. Iets wat ek my voorgeneem het om te doen nadat ek my nier geskenk het. it is finished… ‘n Tattoo op my voorarm om my te herhinner dat ek niks meer het om te gee behalwe liefde, tyd en aandag nie. Verlede week vertrek ek oudergewoonte na ‘n stil plek om […]
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Biblestudents – Bijbelstudenten
A Google Site presenting the Biblestudents with articles in English and Dutch – Voorstelling van de Bijbelstudenten met artikelen in het Nederlands en Engels
Christen Focus
Vanuit de Bijbelonderzoekers oogpunt kijkend waarop de mens hoorrt te focussen
Getuigen voor Christus
Tegenover de Getuigen van Jehovah zijn er ook de Getuigen voor Christus die Getuigenis afleggen voor Christus en zijn God Jehovah.
Relating to God wordPress Blog
Proving there is Only One True God which should be honoured and followed and how we can come in a better relationship with Him by following His only begotten son Jesus Christ as the Way to God.
Unmasking anti-Jehovah people
Debunking all the false sayings of those who fight against non-trinitarian groups and people
Blogroll
Hoop tot leven
Platform van Marcus Ampe voor hulpverlening en hoop geving
Christadelphian
Belgian Christadelphians
Google site with articles in English from the Belgian Brothers in Christ or Christadelphians
C4All
Christ For All – Presenting ways to find Christ in your life
C4U – Christ for you & Christadelphians for you
Site of Brothers and Sisters in Christ, who love the Creator and His creations and want people to show who is the way to Him and to His Kingdom where there shall be peace for ever.
Our World
News and thoughts about what is happening in the world, brought by the Free Christian Marcus Ampe. – Een kijk op het wereldgebeuren vanuit het standpunt van de Vrije Christen Marcus Ampe
Relating to God wordPress Blog
Proving there is Only One True God which should be honoured and followed and how we can come in a better relationship with Him by following His only begotten son Jesus Christ as the Way to God.
Immanuel Verbondskind
A site where issues of Judaism, Christianity, Islamism, their search for continued authenticity and relevance for today are discussed and looked at the position of the Jeshuaist community wrestling with the non- or anti-religious world
Jeshuaisme
Het Jeshuaisme brengt volgers van de Nazareense rebbe Jeshua (door velen beter gekend als Jezus Christus) te samen en verenigd Jehudiem (Jehoediem) of Joden zowel als goyim of niet-Joden en doet een oproep naar alle soort gelovigen en niet-gelovigen om Je
Jeshuaist
Personal pages of a Flemish Jeshua-ist – Persoonlijke paginas van een Vlaamse Jeshuaist
Jeshuaist communities
A community of real followers of Christ, assembling for sharing the Good News of the works of the Moshiach Jeshua and his heavenly Father the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.
Jeshuaist Focus
Uiteenzetting hoe eenieder tot het Volk kan behoren dat het Koninkrijk van god zal mogen binnentreden
Jeshuaisten – Jeshuaists
Een plaats van en voor liefhebbers van de Joodse Nazarener rabbi Jeshua om het bijbelkennis te versterken. – A site of and for lovers of the Nazarene Jewish rabbi Jeshua to strengthen their knowledge of the Scriptures.
Jeshuaists (or Yeshuaists)
Jeshuaists (or Yeshuaists) are followers of the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua who presented himself as a sent one from the Adonai Most High Elohim, Hashem Jehovah.
Jeshuaists for Jehovah
Followers of the Nazarene rebbe Jeshua witnessing for him and his God, the Only True God of Isrrael, the Elohim Hashem Jehovah.
Our World
News and thoughts about what is happening in the world, brought by the Free Christian Marcus Ampe. – Een kijk op het wereldgebeuren vanuit het standpunt van de Vrije Christen Marcus Ampe
Some View on the world
Marcus Ampe presenting general and religious newsitems. – Wereldse en religieuze nieuwsfeiten bekeken onder de loep van Marcus Ampe.
Stepping Toes
A Lifestyle magazine which can be for some a provocative site created by Marcus Ampe
My hope for starting this site was to present a sort of 
which also present beautiful pictures of this world which also can be great and enjoyable. Such “Like” is very much appreciated and we are very thankful for that 
Jonathan Taubes, a student activist at Binghamton University who worked with progressive campaigns in Binghamton, on and off campus, writes
Just to few some active bloggers, we can find 
though seems to overlook that no Jew or no real Christian would ever believe in her three gods: a God the Father, 
alsowritten
Belgian Biblestudents - Belgische Bijbelstudenten
belgischebroedersinchristus
Bijbelvorsers
Christadelphians
Guestspeaker
Immanuel Verbondskind
jeshuaist
Vragensteller - Inquirer
lizaborstlap
Marcus Ampe
Success Inspirers' World
Fan of Pequeña Sudamérica
Relating to God
Readers, likes and comments
Mostly the articles placed on this and our other platforms are not so much placed to open a debate, or better said are no part of a “forum”.
that does not mean we do not like to receive reactions like “likes” or some comments. You can imagine that it takes time to create a post and when we can notice in the statistics that they are read. That may be a stimulant to continue, but also to see a reaction brought by the reader, either by clicking on the “like” or “share” button, this last one giving us the opportunity to receive more readers for that particular article.
Voxate Writing & Editing which was established in 2008 and since then, has been providing writing, editing and SEO services for South African and international clients writes
On this site you may find a.o. news articles which discusses current events or recent news of either general interest. Bringing such headlines or talking about recent incidents we do want to bring up some thoughts around those affairs. They are used to focus the reader’s attention on a particular (or main) part of the article or that what we think is important for people who want to make something of our society. At the same time looking at what we think may be a major event we also try to give facts and detailed information following answers to general questions like the Five W’s: who, what, when, where, why and how.
Our intention is also to offer some encyclopedia articles or reference works, offering a more in-depth informative article with a primary division of content. For this we are still looking for more contributors, willing to share their knowledge around specific subjects like ‘life’, ‘living’, ‘history’, ‘culture’.
This Blog as such may have blog articles which are like magazine or newspaper articles whilst others may be written more like entries in a personal journal. More important as lifestyle magazine we do hope we may offer some different opinions about several important life issues, of which the religious and spiritual aspects are not gone out of the way.
Being aware that today not many people have lots of time to read serious articles, we do love to present on this site an overview of articles we think would be interesting to read. Therefore we offer next to our own articles a selection of reblogged posts. We may not bring a Listicle, or a specific article whose primary content is a list, but at the end of the postings presented over here we also do try to offer a listing of other additional readings or related articles we could select from the blogging world. We also do hope to bring here a sort of Readers Digest and are still hoping some more writers would join us to help us to succeed in those efforts.
Concerning the “Related articles” service we offer, we regularly do get some irritated bloggers who ask us to take their writing of the list. This discourages us a lot for doing all that research work, checking all those posts, looking for them of being of interest. Therefore we reduces already the time for searching and reading so many blogs, to look for something to share. We also can use more people to help us looking for interesting writers, photographers, to present their articles or work to our readers.
Normally we would think there must be enough people who read several blogs and would be able to find something worth reblogging, this being an extra place to do so, next to their own blog, and at the same time giving them the opportunity to link to their own articles. As such we can offer additional readers to those who are willing to join this effort of sharing information and promoting a multicultural and multicoloured world.
In our articles we talked already a lot about how we use are time and on what we are willing to spend time in our time limited day and world. Being aware that not enough people do take time to retreat and to take some time to look at things, wondering how everything is going good or bad and why certain things evolve a certain way, we are trying to bring some balance and are willing to give some material for thought. Having only certain moments a day for ourselves or to do something else than our job, being limited in time we sincerely do hope to be able to offering some interesting material. If not so let us know.
The small thoughts or quotes we offer a day, we do hope can give something to think and are a welcome meditation for the day. Perhaps they can bring you to some daydreaming or musing.
In 2014 we started and reached 1847 visitors with 3124 views offering us 263 likes. Last year we got 5018 visitors fetching 6888 views willing to give us 486 likes. We are pleased to find 279 WordPress followers and only 2 e-mail followers, making us not such a popular blog it seems. Or do you find we do not do enough our best as a team? What can we do more?
Comparing with my personal (political) site I generate 256 WordPress followers and 9 e-mail followers. It is also not so much but there I bring very personal views and spend not so much time as on my other (religious and lifestyle magazine) blogs.
Looking at the statistics it may give the impression we are not doing well or it may be very discouraging. So what can we do to make it better?
Steve Hayes also may have a similar feeling like me. He writes
WordPress does a wonderful job diverting spam from the inbox.
For me the talking we do bring here on certain matters and bringing comments on some expressions of others or on certain blogwritings is giving comments on the quoted blog, though most often nothing of our comments is quoted on the discussed page or no link to the article is mentioned. When we get some feed back it is mostly somebody who is angry that he is quoted or that we dared to link to his article. Most often when we get such reply we are asked to delete the link or the mentioning of that person’s name. For that reason it can be that after some time you come to read an article again some related articles may not appear any more in the list. Those negative reactions concerning the links to related articles made us also to decide to reduce this service we thought would be productive for both sides. What surprises us that several blog writers do forget that when they with writing on the net and not making their blog private, have the possibility that from everywhere all sorts of people may come to see and read what they have written and should as such also not be surprised when people react on their site (what we also do, but not have it appreciated all the time – certainly not on the religious front.)
One big problem is also that we daily get in a lot of spam or ridiculous mail nothing to do with the article or articles. Spam luckily enough gets straight in the Spambox to be deleted.
I do agree this blog and my ‘personal’ blog are not really blogs about me or an other person his personality. when I look at some very popular blogs I notice that most often they are about the person himself or herself or really commercial blogs without the followers noticing it or being aware of it that it is a blog full of advertisements or promotional articles. Dominic Sceski (Aul) a sixteen year-old home-schooled student formulates it this way
Are we according to you then not blogging about matters that can help you or others? We do agree we talk more than once about God and the way of life according His rules, and not so many people are interested in that. Is that a reason why we have so few followers? Is that what we try to offer our readers not something some people want?
Voxate comments
I take the liberty to reproduce the result of Voxate his inquiries posed in his article Why Reader Comments Are The Cat’s Pajamas concerning
Gaynor from Tulips and Phoenixes said:
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Steve, who blogs at Khanya, said:
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Luchae, from My Spreadsheet Brain, added:
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Lizna, from With Elizabeth H, shared a candid post about her weight struggles.
She really appreciated Ilona Fourie’s comment, which read, “What a awesome post. Whilst I was reading it so much rang true to me. I have been on a roller coaster with my weight. I have lost 26kg but have not been able to move any more in the last year. I have tried and tried and are failing miserably. It has made me so negative and I keep asking myself whats wrong with me. This is a war that few people understand and I am so grateful to have read your post!” Lizna said:
JustEllaBella also shares some really personal stuff. Ella says:
In Africa and Beyond is one of my favourite travel blogs. Sara shares some of the reader comments that touched her the most:
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Jonelle, from Tyranny of Pink, had an understandably tough time:
Shante Hutton of Rose For Thorns shared a very personal post, and valued this comment:
Beautiful Shante, your story touched me so deeply that I found it difficult not only to find words, but to actually find my voice. You told your story in such a delicate yet profound way and I’m in awe of you right now. Reading your story, your pain and then how the birth of your daughter opened your heart to this incredible love again is wonderful. And isn’t it amazing how the opening of your womb caused an opening of the heart! Like a flower you have opened and become even more beautiful than you already were.
I also lost my brother 34 years ago. I was 23 and he was 26 and because we were the last two of 8 kids, we were very close. So one sunny morning 34 years ago, I kissed him goodbye as I dropped him at work, not knowing that as I watched him walk away I would never see him again. For many years I would search for him on a crowded street or shop or anywhere thinking, it was just a mistake and that he was alive somewhere and I suppose that was how I coped.
So thank you for your story, we all need to be reminded of how God, in His infinite wisdom can bring us out of darkness and into His beautiful light.
Never forget how strong, courageous and breathtaking beautiful you are.
love n blessings
Connie
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For the Bloggers
To encourage your readers to comment more on your posts, you could:
To Wrap It Up
Don’t underestimate the power and reach of your comments on the blogs and posts of others. By using this powerful tool, you play a big part in SEO and engagement – both for the post on which you’re commenting and on your own site.
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Now we come to the end of this article, we dare to ask you some questions and perhaps you would not mind to answer some of them or to give us some advice.
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Questions you are welcome to answer
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Preceding articles
From Guestwriters 2015 in review
From Guestwriters 2016 in review
Be realistic, do not pretend
The Culture of Excesses- Losing Humanity
Thoughts and reflections taking only a few minutes
The Scensual World – Mission & Vision
Awards, prizes, Peace and Working together
Again nominated for the same award
Do you have a writer or presenter in you?
1000 articles placed on From Guestwriters
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Additional reading
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Related articles
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Tagged as 2014, 2017, 5 W's, Articles, Blog, Blogging, Commenting, Content, Encyclopedia article, Gaynor, In Africa and Beyond (blog), Information sharing, JustEllaBella (blog), Khanya (blog), Lifestyle magazine, Liking, Listicle, My Spreadsheet Brain (blog), News article, Personal journal, Reader comments, Reader reactions, Readers Digest, Reference work, Rose For Thorns (blog), Search engine optimisation (SEO), Sharing, Statistics, Steve Hayes, Travel blogs, Tulips and Phoenixes (blog), Tyranny of Pink (blog), Weight strugles, With Elizabeth H (blog)