In this world there is so much to read. I just have no time enough to read everything which might catch my interest. I also know there are certain articles and books which certainly deserve my and your attention.
We can help to bring more eyes to such interesting writings, be it articles and books for adults but also for children.
On the net we may find lots of interesting writings from people who write about the things they have experienced. Lots of people bring a self-reflection, and share a view on their self-awareness. Many also give their thoughts about society and social issues.
Some also mention they would love to find like-minded people or want to share their thoughts. With “From Guest Writers” there is a place for many guest writers, people who do not mind sharing their ideas, be it musings, poetry, thoughts about our way of living, criticism, reviews, etc..
Martijn Scheijbeler, currently VP Marketing at RVshare RVshare, wrote blog posts (2019, 2018, 2017 & 2016) listing the books that he read in the past year and that he wanted to be reading during that year. Problem with him, as with me, is to find time to read all those books one wants to read. He confesses,
As always, the past year I didn’t read all the books that I’ve listed out in the blog post as I discovered some new ones and changed my focus on some others. But I did read a lot, as I finished ~25 books (and put two books aside that weren’t worth finishing). {What books am I reading in 2020?}
Hope to help people, let them know that all emotions are valid and necessary, they are pointers to where we should or shouldn’t go. {About}
She always had a special place for books written for children, be it the unassuming descriptions, marvellous adventures, vivid descriptions of the country and food or the lessons that many adults seem to have missed out on. As parent and later as grandparent we are confronted by bringing something inspiring to our kids and grandchildren, which we do hope can give them some lessons for life. Peerzada presents a list of 10 such books that have brought not only her sustained joy (10 Children’s Books that will bring you Joy).
We would love to find such writers who also could present our readers such lists and reviews of stories to be known and read.
Are you an avid reader? Do you think there is something interesting to read? Let it be known to us and our readers.
A big problem with our present society is that lots of people do not know their history. Because they have no idea what went on, right or wrong in the past, they do not see certain dangerous trends.
I find historical teaching a necessary subject in the education of people and in the formation of a society.
People also have to understand that different views on a specific subject should be tolerated, but also be known. Therefore, I would love to find some people who would not mind to write on “From Guestwriters” about what happened in the past and how we have to look to the future in perspective what history can teach us.
When I started with this website, I wanted to share common thoughts or give similar minds an extra open door to reach others, as well as to present a selection of websites, blogs and writings I thought (and think) worthwhile reading or looking at.
For years on all my websites I also presented a “Related” articles list, to give my readers other opportunities to find more writings on the subject. After the many complaints having linked to their article, and having to search for placed links I was asked to remove, from this year onward, I stop to invest time looking for related articles, investing time to read them for after approval, placing links after the posted articles. Now much more time shall come available to publish more articles which are in unison with my thoughts and not bringing readers away from my own sites. (From the statistics more readers from this site went looking at the mentioned site, than receiving readers from the linked site.) At the same time on my websites I shall not any more bringing people to websites which are against me or my beliefs.
After giving all my energy to the world of dance my body could not fit any more the physical world of exuberance and graceful unlimited mobility. Having reached a certain age where they consider a human being not able enough to give enough to the world, I was made redundant, considered to be part of the ‘third age’ group.
First having been very disappointed by the way I was treated, the first two years I did not want to do much with ballet or theatrical dance. Not having to work full time for our living, receiving retirement fund, I could spend more time to my church work. My religious activities started even taking so much time I had less time to write at my own personal blog. (Because pensions not enough to survive I still have a few days a month I work for my living.)
I feel blessed that I am allowed to work at three Bible translations, even when it might consume also a lot of time and lots of thinking-work, being it a seriously very faithful responsibility, not to add or change anything in the saying or purpose of the original words supplied by God. Therefore, those translations in Judaic Dutch (Yiddish Dutch or Flemish), with the eye of two (or three) different groups (namely a Jeshuaist, a Jewish and an Orthodox Jewish public) is and shall be a time-consuming job with lots of thought and consideration).
This does not take away that I would have lost my interest in humanity and how man treats other people, animals and plants. I even became more active, spending also time in meetings concerning our way of life, necessary political actions a.o..
I must admit at meetings and conferences I seem to belong to a minority who strive to get unity in Europe, with some liveable world for everyone. Convinced we have to do something against this capitalist greedy world which does not show respect to the gross of people, animals and plants, I keep going strong and letting my voice being heard.
From the moment I got retired I did not stop to seek a connection of like minds, to share common positive beliefs, and to be able to learn from each other about how to live life to the fullest.
Jonathan Hilton seems also on such a track. He writes:
Even when things don’t go as we plan, we all know no matter how hard we plan, life will throw us curve balls designed to engender growth. Our lives are defined by the lessons we learn at this moment and the way we handle ourselves. {Mind Connections}
Raising his level of consciousness has become Jonathan Hilton’s passion in life.
and understanding that when I follow and focus on certain core principles in my life and live in alignment with them, things go well. {Mind Connections}
He writes on the opening of his blog Mind Connections, admitting:
When I fall off, and my focus isn’t so sharp, then things are not so pleasant. Conscious thought about where my attention goes allows all of my energies to flow in that direction. {Mind Connections}
With the knowledge that each viewpoint may bring a different set of emotions, a different thought process, and a different reality to the perceiver it only can be enriching to share thoughts and to get to know more people from all over the world and getting to know how they manage to make the best of their life.
We have little control over the perceptions of others, but we may not forget that when we utter our ideas, share our thoughts, we might bring others to other ideas too.
How often do we not wonder if what we are doing is or would be right? How often do we not wonder if we should openly write what we think or if we should write in ways and words others would love to hear? I always have been a bad one at that. By creating my ballets I did not mind criticising the way our society was moving. I never tried to be popular by my creative works. [Choreographing fashion shows was a totally different matter, there I tried to bring the customers to find a connection in a future world to form. (We always had to be seasons ahead, manipulating the fashion trends – and yes, there stimulating human desires of consumption.) There it was also part the business to know beforehand what others would love to wear and see. ] In such way I also kept busy to try to find out what others would like to see and read.
On the surface, it is a simple choice, but in reality, it is a constant battle, {Life is a Mirror}
Hilton notes.
According to him
There is only a short time allotted to each of us to write the story of your life and with that time, we are tasked with a lot of things to accomplish. You have really only one life to get things right and sing the song that you want to sing. {The Story of Your Life}
We can try to make our dreams so compelling, that we will that we can’t wait to work on them, because waiting to experience them, in reality, is too painful. Often it is that enthusiasm which gets us to be restless and gets us up in the middle of the night to scribble something down or even to write certain texts.
A difficulty might be to:
Tune your enthusiasm to the size of your goals and attack it like your story depends on it because it does. That is how you write the story of your life. {The Story of Your Life}
At this blog I want to give, as many people as possible, the opportunity to share their thoughts which they and I find interesting enough to think about. I keep chasing my dreams that we can find enough people all over the world willing to bring others to see how we have to be careful which way of life we want to choose. As a Christian I also would love to see more people sharing the faith in One God and in His Gift and Good News of the coming Kingdom.
Once more, I dare to invite people to join us to share positive thoughts, but also to bring warnings how to tackle ecological and other problems.
Please do not hesitate to contact me, for becoming a part of joining hands across this globe.
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.
+++
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 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.
Català: Símbol per als 1000 articles fonamentals (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Today we noticed we past the mark of 1 000 postings on this platform. This is the 1001st posting in which we like to express our thanks to the authors who where willing to share their thoughts and wanted to bring some other writings in the light, offering a readers digest and an overview of interesting articles.
In the few years we exist we did not gather so many views and not so many followers, but we try not to lose patience and enthusiasm.
On the 12th of June 2017 we gathered 253 followers and got in our first year (2014) 3124 views, followed by 4333 views for 2015 and 7782 views for 2016, adding 3078 views for 2017 until today, totalling 18 317 views from a total of 11 641 visitors.
From now on, we must admit we shall present less related articles. Because of the regular complaints when referring to other articles of websites with an other opinion, and them asking to remove the link to their site, we stop doing all the research work. It always took a lot of time to search for the articles, to read them and seeing if we did not have to add a reply to them. All that extra work to bring our readers away from our site and to give the other website an opportunity to get higher in the Google ranking, and then they not being pleased by our mentioning them and they wanting us to delete the link to their site, which brought again some extra work, makes us to stop with that service. Though we do hope you as a reader shall find enough reasons to come back to our site and the sites we shall still mention by the related literature.
We shall still refer to the like-minded sites and to specific articles in the discussions or when presenting a certain person his or her writings, or if we do find a website of interest we want to expose to the public.
In any case we do hope to continue our work, wishing you to offer some interesting material about all matters concerning life and way of life as well about our relationship with the Divine Creator.
Thank you very much for being with us and for reading our articles & Special thanks also for those who encourage us by clicking on the “Like” button.
Each day million articles are published, looking to find a reading eye. Every day thousands of new articles appear on WordPress. In 2016 one hundred seventeen billion nine hundred thirteen million one hundred forty-eight thousand three hundred fifty seven words got published on WordPress. {Automattic WordPress year-in-review-2016}
2016 in view
The year that David Bowie and Prince passed away, like several very well known figures of the arts world, it looked like some people who made it in their life did not want to stay here any longer. It was also the year of lots of terrorism and political correctness, where those who are different than the mainstream (disabled, transgender, refugees, extreme religious and non religious groups, jihad fighters,) got lots of attention.
In the United States of AmericaObama Care which at last had become a reality came back under threat. North America saw in Boston in November, the Disability Policy Consortium accepted proposals and held a Disability Intersectionality Summit. Presentations included topics on the intersections of being undocumented, being LGBTQ+, being a person of colour, having mental health disabilities, on #DisabilityTooWhite – the hashtag and movement around the the disability community’s failure to represent racially diverse voices – and more. Lots of things came on the American roller-coaster, having Michiganbanned non-emergency restraint and seclusion for disabled students and Georgia’s governor speaking in favour of Employment First policies for disabled people in Georgia.
Route of the attacker from west to east at the Promenade des Anglais, Nice
With the 15th anniversary of 9/11 the jihadi‘s made sure they would not be forgotten; ISIS/ISIL and BokoHaram being the new strongholders. In Europe the fear took so many people that politicians saw the opportunity to fuel the extreme right and come with absurd laws, like banning burkini‘s. All the fearmongering having fueled by the March 22 suicide bombings at Brussel’s Zaventemairport and Maelbeekmetro station, leaving around 35 victims dead and 360 seriously injured, ISIS claiming responsibility.
America also got its portion of ISIS-madness with a gunman claiming allegiance to the Islamic State opens fire at gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49, injuring 53 – one of the bigger mass shootings in the U.S.A.. September 17 a terror bomb in Chelsea, New York injured 29 people. Lots of Americans got so frightened of Muslim people, looking at them if they all would be terrorist, though they under their own white Christian population had more victims by weapon violence this year than by terrorism. Several times the world could see how racism is still a big problem in the States and how police can not keep themselves in control when arresting black people. (African AmericanAlton Sterling shot by Louisiana police in Baton Rouge and Philando Castile shot by police in St Paul Black on July 6; American Keith Lamont Scott September 20)
The Islamic militants for sure where very active all over the world. Some events called for more attention worldwide, having foreigners also under the victims or by being considered the country’s worse terror attack for the year, like at a cafe in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where a fighter killed 20 hostages and 2 police on July 1. The next day (July 2) a large lorry bomb in Baghdad killing at least 125 people and wounding 150, Islamic State claiming once more responsibility. On December 11 a bombing at a chapel in Cairo, Egypt, killed 25 and wounded 45. December 19 again a truck was used to kill many people, like in Nice on the 14th of July now the target was a Christmas market in Berlin killing 12, injuring 48.
Aftermath of the 2016 Berlin attack
In the States of America on January 17 the Fourth Democratic presidential candidates debate showed how Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed over healthcare and gun control in Charleston, South Carolina, and gave us an idea that though perhaps the best candidate of all Bernie Sanders would not going to make it to president elect. Two days later Sarah Palin officially endorsed Donald Trump‘s presidential bid at a Trump rally in Ames, Iowa. What nobody thought possible occurred when this man made it to the preselections, then to the selection to finally become what nobody would ever dreamed possible, him becoming president elect. November 8 Republican Donald Trump became elected President of The United States of America, defeating democrat Hillary Clinton despite Clinton winning 2.9 million more votes. Europe fell on its back for the second time, the first one having been the vote for the Brexit (June 23), who nobody had thought would come through. These two unexpected events show clearly how careful we must be when we think it not necessary to spend time on such personalities and situations.
Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
For that reason we should much more react on what is going on on ecological level. The ParisAgreement on climate change signed in New York (on April 22) binding 195 nations to an increase in the global average temperature to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5°C is only the beginning of a long road to run. Global warming is not only blamed the cause of many people having to flee for the rising water-level. On August 1 there was an anthrax outbreak in the Russian districtYamalo-Nenets, Siberia killing one and infecting 8 others, also killing 2,300 reindeer. Indian government declared levels of air pollution in Delhi an emergency situation, closing schools and construction sites on November 6.
Though 2016 seemed to be the year that people where more concerned about the whereabouts and the look of their friends on Facebook and Twitter. Social media being the major interest gainer of the year. Most people more concerned about their outfit, fashion, style and strangely enough books and films again.
Astronaut Scott Kelly
Lots of people running with their heads in the skies did not notice that US astronauts Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to earth, on March the 2nd, after nearly a year (340 days), setting an ISS record. For the earthly matters it became time that the U.S.A. did something positive to restore the relations between them and Cuba. March 20Barack Obama became the first US President to visit Cuba since 1928, arriving for a 2 day tour.
The ‘Big Joke of the year’ (in April) was to see how many politicians who said something had to be done against fraud and how people had to pay honestly their taxes, their names could be found on the 11.5 million confidential documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca , the Panama Papers exposing widespread illegal activities including fraud, kleptocracy, tax evasion and the violation of international sanctions by the world’s elite in the world’s largest ever data leak.
On April 11 UN-backed ceasefire came into effect in Yemen conflict between Iranian-backed Houthis rebels and government forces.
June 7 with a car bomb attack on a police bus in central Istanbul killing 11 was just a beginning of a whole series of bombings in Turkey of which there is no clarity if they are orchestrated by some political forces to have Erdogan in an even stronger dictatorial position. June 28 presented again a suicide bombings and gun attacks, at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport killing 42 and wounding more than 200. We have no idea if the coup d’etat was something set up by Erdogan himself. It gave him way to hold a big clean up and to get rid of all those who stood in his way.
In Colombia more than 50 years of conflict came in its last stadium, the governement and Farc rebels signing a ceasefire agreement on June the 23rd, followed by many talks to have the rebels not being sued.
Of the 595,795,035 posts written on WordPresswe only presented a mere 358 articles, hoping our humble little site could catch some interest by the many people who are scanning the worldwide internet for something interesting to read. From our tiny country not having any funds, not having serious backing and not able to afford much money on writers, designers or even having our own publishing space, just using the private limited funds of the editor and responsible publisher Mr. Marcus Ampe, we sincerely try to find some interesting literature on the net and present it to our readers and visitors. Because not having much GBites we are limited in re-blogging because pictorial content eats our internet data space, but when a must read is found with lots of photos we still do hope to be able to discuss it or to present it in one of our articles.
Stats on Cross-ideological Blogging (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We must confess that we did not catch many readers for the many work-hours we invest searching for additional and further reading material. Luckily this was the first year we did not very angry letters of people being onerous that we included their article in the listing. In 2016 for the first time we even got a letter thanking us for having brought 1000 readers to someone’s site. Though we put a lot of work in creating all the links in the articles and in the accompanying list of interesting articles, to our sense or liking not enough people make use of those links and referential titles. For that reason from now on we shall perhaps start putting less url-backgroundlinks to words or tags, but still shall continue to try to offer you a list of noteworthy article by other bloggers.
It is a pity we only could find 7 782 views of only 4 827 visitors coming along.
Officially opened to the public on 2014/03/2 we got 1 847 visitors the first year and 2 764 visitors in 2015, so we may be satisfied it is a line going upwards. Though published from Belgium in the European Union, our ‘home-country’ only delivered 269 views. The United States being at the top with giving us 3745 views, followed by the United Kingdom delivering 852 views and our northern neighbours the Netherlands offering us 532 views may encourage us to continue.
The home page caught 2 118 views, followed by 349 for the About page. Of the articles “Religious celebrations in May 2016” got the most views (only 103) and got only 4 likes.
U.S. advertisement for the 11th edition from the May 1913 issue of National Geographic Magazine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The most used search terms were ‘hoopvolle slogans’ and ‘bezinningsteksten zelfkritiek’ with each 3 hits.
We ourselves brought 110 readers to our other site “Our World” and for for other sources Wikipedia got 56 readers from us, whilst the Collins dictionary got 21 and the very good Encyclopaedia Britannica only 18 views. Abortion and crime rates by wordlifeandlight managed to get 6 views from us and Lizaborstlap received also 6 visitors, as far as we can see from our statistics.
This last person who has always been a person with a to-do list is also one of the people who wanted to share some writing on this platform. But there were many days when she became a slave to her lists and she had to face that things don’t always happen as planned and that she would feel like a failure if she wasn’t able to cross out all the tasks that she allocated to a specific day.{a goal should scare you a little and excite you a Lot!}
She may perhaps had to become, like us, more specific and to be realistic in what she can (and can’t) achieve in one day; but we did want to reach so much and sometimes got frustrated not seeing our accomplishment for the day.
We are still looking for authors who would not mind to write about lifestyle, interior design, fashion, cooking, family life, gardening, nature and ecological matters and some persons who would not mind tackling the history and people who would love to write about education and health. There are so many subjects not covered yet by people who can tell more about it than we can.
From the end of 2016 onwards we added two viewpoints, namely two comparators, on one site the Muslim world and on the other site the Judaic world and traditions.
We do know that certain subjects are not tackled here. Marcus Ampe would love to find some one talking about family matters, family life being one of the cornerstones of our society. To his regret he must also establish that in 2016 not enough regard was given to ecological matters. Man having to live in surroundings which are too polluted and which are filled with buildings and cars, but not given the freedom to have enough green to bring enlightenment and fresh air to people. It is really getting time that more people warn others about us, man, to take care of mother earth, before it is too late.
Whilst on WordPress in general 112 million posts were liked, we did not have many likes. 8 billion e-mails were send on WordPress, but in those there are not counted the very many e-mails we got in our own e-mail box, instead of reacting on the blog articles themselves. This is a pity, because other readers can not read the reactions and oh so often we have to reply to very similar questions, which is more time consuming than having a reply which can be read by thousands on the internet.
For 2017 may we hope that if there are even more articles written on the internet than the 595,795,035 posted on WordPress in 2016 and the huge amount of comments, making it up to 457,596,906 comments on WordPress, you shall be able to find some very interesting articles and comments here too.
Donald Trump enters the Oscar De LA Renta Fashion Show, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In 2016 we saw that it is possible that those with the biggest mouth and do not mind trampling over many can get their cause. 2016 may have been a disastrous year on several issues and lots of important issues where not even mentioned or got not the right attention. For this new year we love to repeat our call to get more people daring to come out for the poor and the maltreated. We also once more want to ask people to wake up the majority of the population who still keeps their eyes closed for what is really going on in this world. There is a need of more people who are willing to stand up to preserve and encourage the progress of humanity while resisting the forces that threaten to turn it backwards.
We have to be very cautious for what certain people try to do with their nation but also with the world. As citizen we should be aware that politicians are nothing without their people and that folks if they really want can be much stronger than those politicians, who dare to look away from the citizen who needs help and encouragement. Those who call themselves Christian should be there to give a hand to all that need help, not forgetting nature, plants and animals who do not have a voice. therefore we do hope to find more blogs tackling their problem, and would love to have an author on ecology writing for us from this year onwards.
Without you reader we are nothing and can do nothing. We thank you for being here with us and for the followers we are grateful and do hope we can please you with a varied menu.
Though humankind is daily confronted with people around each other, man often does not manage to communicate. In this world were everything has to go so fast and where every one expects to receive something for something, real communication does not always go so fluently and easy as it should be.
Our capitalist system made it that sharing ideas, knowledge and wisdom are not real goals of many. What is shared on social media is not really of consistent value and not many are really willing to show their own ideas.
To have people sharing ideas and helping each other to know more proves not so easy. On the lifestyle magazine From Guestwriters we promote a peaceful world where people will love to share with each other.
Since 2014, when we started the site we are looking for different writers in different fields to share their knowledge and to build up a positive thought lifestyle magazine.
I must confess this does not goes easily. Not many acted positively on our call. Most of the people contacted wanted to get paid, something we cannot afford. (In case many would contribute and make something successful of it it could become lucrative. But that demands energy and patience.)
We can only hope many pore people would come to see that not always money should be given in return to bring something positive to the world and to the benefit of future generations.
Hopefully there are enough positivists and world loving people who can see that with the advent of Capitalism, the human spirit of mutual sharing began its slow decline and erosion, but that when we fight against it there is still hope for a better world.
Dear readers, for those who are new, we like to repeat our aims and about the idea behind our sharing.
Sharing Writings and linking
This website wants to bring an overview of interesting articles which were published on the worldwide internet and present some additional views on how we could come to a better world. Up until now we also wanted to bring additional literature in sight of our readers. For that reason we have, up until a few days ago, included several links into the articles, which opened automatically in a new window. But somehow WordPress changed the way to include url links and made it more difficult or time consuming, not allowing the enclosure feature to remember the previous used url codes and having each link to be separately indicated to open in a new window, instead of remembering it for all links on that page. This means we always have to look again for certain links and have to do much more work to include them. This makes writing our articles even more time consuming. For that reason we regret from a few days ago we did not include so many links any more and from today onwards you shall have to chose how to open the link. Until we do not find a solution to keep the fill in for the links remembering what we filled in previously, we shall have to limit such linking to tags and other articles than those of the particular website (in this instance From Guestwriter).
Secondly, we also received regularly complaints from people that we linked to their website or article and had to undo such links or write a letter first explaining why we included that link and asking what they wanted we did with it. Though most agreed then to have the link staying on the article, we had lost lots of energy writing back and controlling everything.
For that reason we are going to refer less to outside articles, but still use Zemanta for presenting some articles, but this time we are going to choose more those sites we do know and for other sites we are not always going to read them all, before placing the Zemanta link, and will withdraw them directly when a complaint or request for “why linking” is presented to us. (Simple as that.)
Now you know also why one or an other site shall be linked to more than others. Those who would also liked to be linked to, can always ask us to examine their website and to follow their writings, so that we can may have a choice out of their articles as well.
Authors sharing their writings
Concerning the writers on this platform, we still wait for more writers willing to share their ideas. Many who we have contacted wanted money to write or to help this site evolve.
We are very limited in funds and as such can not pay our staff. We also believe not everything has to be arranged by money. A money-free future is perhaps not possible, but lots of things could and should be done without money in the back of the head.
We still can do with people writing about the history of way of living, to show us how our lifestyle changed by the years of technological evolution. We also would love to find an author who want to talk about nature and show the world the beauty of it and/or can let our readers now what is important to look at at a certain moment in the year. (Parks to visit, special exhibitions, etc.)
A political and economical analyst is also welcome.
Because of our interest how human beings should try to make the best out of living with each other, we also could use some more writers who talk about keeping the family healthy, spiritually and health wise. Talks about marriage, brining up children are more than welcome.
Not everything for money
All That Money Wants (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We are convinced there are many benefits for not having everything in return for money. Most reasonable people will have no trouble accepting a money-free where people want to share with each other out of brotherly love. That will give better quality of life for all, less inequality, poverty, crime, greed, corruption, pollution and waste; greater health, education, trust, respect, awareness, sustainability, community values, technological advances, etc. Most people want these things, but are they convinced of the feasibility. How is a moneyless society possible?
I am convinced that there is a misconception about the need of money.
Imagining a world without money usually raises the following objections immediately, each of which is linked to a particular lifelong held belief (in brackets):
1. You need to have exchange (You can’t get something for nothing) 2. No-one would do anything (money motivates people) 3. People would take advantage (greed is human nature) 4. I will lose everything I have (fear of loss, ownership) 5. Chaos and violence would ensue (society requires control) 6. Society would stagnate or regress (markets fuel progress)
The good news is that all of these objections can be overturned quite easily using just plain common sense and basic observations.
Something for something or nothing for something
I do agree that most people want something for something else. For generations we people are brought up with that idea. Even worse, often people consider somebody not right in his head when he just wants to do something, not requiring anything in the place. Naturally we all need something to eat and we need a roof above our head, whilst we can not all have the same skill. Not everybody has enough competence to do the things he need. So we often are for many things dependent on others.
I am a believer in the Divine Creator and I am convinced He created all beings in His image and with the idea that all creatures are there for some good reason and to complement each other. Rabbi Jeshua, better known today as Jesus, reminded his listeners to look at the birds who have no money but manage to have their food and everything they need to live.
The master teacher and the prophets of God asked the people to look at nature where we can see what man came to call “symbiosys“. Everywhere in the creation of the Most High where man did not interfere there is balance. We can see that in nature two species benefit each other (the bee taking nectar while helping the plant to pollinate is the most obvious example), but there is no intentional transaction taking place. Both species are ignorant of the desires of the other. Some look at it as purely an accident of evolution that has caused both species to survive and flourish. In nature we can find many plants or animals which make use of each other, but not really demanding a return as such, and most of all not being repaid by something we can compare with money. We invented that idea of intentional exchanges as an essential ingredient to life or to community, to cope with scarcity in more primitive times, and with more complex needs.
Motivation by money not the best motivation
Serious Money (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The money / value system that we humans operate in has its origins in more primitive times, but which has now made us hell-bent on keeping score and accounting for everything in a numerical sense, and at the expense of common sense and sustainability. It is true that people are motivated by money, and that the communist system failed because of people being too egocentric and not willing to work together for a communal idea, building up a society where everybody could live on the same terms and being considered of equal value. We love to have a hierarchical system and I do agree somebody who is just lazy and does not want to co-operate in the system can not have the same advantages as somebody who works hard.
But like in nature those animals not having money, we as humans also do not nervelessly need a currency to provide payment, which proved not always to bring that luck hoped for.
We all have look at “Money” as a handy tool or a commodity accepted by general consent as a medium of economic exchange. In industrialized nations, portion of the national money supply, consisting of bank notes and government-issued paper money and coins, provides a value or currency. Everybody expects everything to be “prized” and expresses the value of things in currencies or in money. In the so called “third world” or among less developed societies, we can see that currency encompasses a wide diversity of items (e.g., livestock, stone carvings, tobacco) used as exchange media as well as signs of value or wealth.
Human motivators Better values
We should come to see and understand that there are much better values than money. Think about the many other human motivators:
the desire to love and be loved, to meet people, to have children, to help others, to improve ourselves and our surroundings, to look good, to feel good, to learn, to challenge ourselves, to express ourselves, to innovate, to demonstrate our skills, etc.
Every person alive is motivated by these desires to some degree. Because, after survival, these desires are what give our lives value and meaning.
Nature doesn’t keep score and why should we put everything in figures and balance it out to get even? Do you find it normal that people would seek exchange in their families or in their circles of friends? So why do we seek exchange in others? Among our loved ones, loving people shall tend to help each other out when they can and no-one will keep score.
Permitting exchanges between people having prices
Trying to get everything for yourself is not a natural instinct but a created attitude which can be transformed back to the innocent position we have a s a toddler. At the beginning of life the human being only asks and takes what it needs. Greed is not a basic element of human nature – it is even a deformed desire to stockpile something what the person may consider scarce and which he need to live, or a wrong attitude having come into the personality by the envy looking at others and comparing to others.
Like a squirrel collecting nuts, some may find greed makes good sense – because we don’t know what the future will bring. In a monetary world, the greatest scarcity is money itself, so it makes sense to accumulate it, and, since there is no upper limit to the money and property you can have, there’s no reason to stop accumulating it.
Map of the global distribution of economic and physical water scarcity as of 2006
Price systems may be considered the result of scarcity but for the first time in history, we have the technology to eradicate scarcity (or paucity) and to create an abundance of necessities for all humans on Earth with minimal physical effort. Primarily by coordinating the decisions of consumers, producers, and owners of productive resources people have taken refuge with their monetary system. Prices have become an acceptable expression of the consensus on the values of different things, and every society that permits exchanges between people has prices. Because prices are expressed in terms of a widely acceptable commodity, they permit a ready comparison of the comparative values of various commodities.
Machines to do the work of man
Normally we have enough technology to make work light for man. For lots of jobs the machines could do the work for man. What is going wrong today is that certain people, who do not do much work, can earn more than 300% than those who do the dirty work. And that is too much inequality. Such a difference should not exist. This way not having people being rightly paid according to what they do or which responsibility they take at a reasonable reward, prevents a nice way of living for everybody, as it intrinsically requires scarcity to perpetuate itself.
Ownership
Throughout history mankind has tried out several systems which all failed in a certain way. I as a Christian am convinced no human system can bring the right solution, but until the return of the Messiah we have to find ways to make life as smooth as possible and to have the creation in balance, not demanding too much of nature and not destroying so many things around us, which we have in loan and do not own. And there is the difficulty of it all, too many people think they “Own” and want to possess more. It is their fear of loosing what they “own” which makes them behave this way and often makes them blind for the way others (other humans, animals and plants) have to live.
The whole notion of ownership should be revised altogether.
We all need privacy and a certain amount of exclusivity, right?
Who wants to share their toothbrush, or have strangers walking around their home, for example?
Our normalised belief tells us that we define who uses what through something called ‘ownership’. Our laws define and protect ownership, with the threat of punishment to those who disobey (ie. stealing).
But where does this concept of ownership came from in the first place? Did we own nothing before someone wrote the law?
Given in loan
We think we own something and that the earth is ours. Believers in God do know that it is a gift from the Divine Creator and that we have received this earth in loan. It is not ours, it is God’s.
Growing up we make things our own. We create our personality. Growing up we collect certain things we consider our own. But we should know that once we die, the breath of life goes out of us, and we shall be nothing any-more with those treasures we collected. We can’t take those treasures with us in our grave, to an other life. It shall be of no purpose in our death. We shall just decay and become dust like many of those goods also shall become dust.
The point is that most things in the community belonged to no-one. Whatever items within the community that were not morally or logically entitled to anyone were used and shared by all.
So without ownership, what stops people from stealing? What actually stops people from stealing from each other is that it is anti-social, disrespectful and invasive, and people who do so are liable to become deeply unpopular. This social incentive for certain behaviour is far stronger than any rule could ever be, as it is dictated by how we feel about ourselves and our position in society. Yet we commonly mistake the rule of law as being the only thing that governs this behaviour.
Crimes, violence and Respect, privacy and exclusivity
Value for Money (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If we understand that respect, privacy and exclusivity are, in fact, already hard-wired into our social psyche – not dictated by external controlling forces – then we can begin to move beyond the traditional inefficient limits of ownership and with it, any fear of loss.
Throughout history we can see that it was the desire of power and the greed of certain people that brought misery to others. The last few moths I encountered many who said religion is the base of violence. When they would look closer at what really happened in history they would see that most criminal acts where done by non-religious people for political reasons and on second place or by people who used a religion as an excuse for their war of conquest. Today we see this by ISIS who present a similar war as the crusaders and do the same atrocities as the inquisitors a few centuries ago. Their killing had a duration of more than one century, whilst ISIS is only busy for a few years. Their terror is as abominable as the terror other terrorists bring. They bring fear and terror in the hope increasing their power. But most crime and violence is driven by desperation through lack of basic requirements for living, ie. theft, armed robbery, burglary, etc. and by having a low moral. Almost all other crimes can be seen as the secondary effects of poor upbringing. ie. where parents are poor, over-worked, unemployed, frustrated, depressed or disillusioned, etc. – all factors that can contribute to an unstable and unloving environment for children, who may later turn to crime as a result of low self esteem or maladjustment.
No incentive for crime
When you succeed into taking away the inequality and create a world where everyone will have free access to good food, housing, education and technology, it still won’t be perfect or eliminate all crime, but if everyone has a good quality of life and free access, then crime will have little or no incentive.
Driven by passion
In our commercialised society we are so used that everything is valued by a currency and money. The economists or entrepreneurs look at the system we are used to and cite economic incentive and competition as good for progress. Have you ever wondered with what they compared their luxurious system? Might it not be that because they start of with a false key that they come to false conclusions?
Are we really to believe that all innovators, inventors and artists will down tools the moment someone calls time on money? Obviously not, since we all know so many creative people that never achieve financial success, it shows us that they are not driven by money, but rather by their passions and desire to innovate.
Sharing people
I would love to call onto people to come to think about sharing more.
Often I do meet people who are very much afraid of a sharing system and think we can not do without money, though they themself use lots of tools without paying for them. We can find lots of people who are using Open Source Applications, which they take it for granted they can use them because everybody is using them. Often they do not see other large scale innovative projects which are becoming the optimum means of production without a monetary incentive.
Lots of people behind the screens try to invent things which can be used by others, and use themselves things others created. Lots of people do forget that many computer programs like Linux, Chrome and Android have been developed freely by enthusiasts in their spare time,. It ware those people who were willing to spend their precious free time to create something for the good of the whole community and not just for themselves or to gain lots of money. The computer industry has led the way on this, but of course, there is no reason why ‘open source thinking’ cannot be applied in agriculture, crafts, construction or education, etc.
Difficult to get people to share something which they consider of their own
The big problem we are facing today is that there has been created a generation of people who mainly think about themselves. Their ego comes on the first place and they look for gaining as much as they can for their own, often at the cost of others.
In the past the economical factor, being of wealthy parents of a having a privileged background was the creating facility for equanimity or for daring taking risks. Comfortable upbringing, access to good food and education, often provided the luxury of time – not labouring for their keep – but spending it on developing their ideas and skills instead. But we also find lots of creative minds who had no financial security, though created masterpieces.
Having money does not mean being smarter. If society can work better without money, then all potential young Einsteins and Mozarts will have the optimal opportunity to exercise and advance their talents.
If we create a society where talents are recognised and stimulated and people can receive equal opportunities, so much more can come off the ground.
Why not believing in a a moneyless future?
You can see that money does not bring that happiness many people hoped for. It is not a bad tool to be used in exchange for things, but we should not put all our hopes on it.
We should go back to the natives. We best dare to look at those living in the Amazon or other not yet by capitalism spoiled places. We too can learn from populations where money is not the key factor to order their way of living.
We should also come to understand that in our society we do have so many things we do not need or do not need any-more. Why not giving that stuff away that is filling your cupboards? If you have certain talents, why not sharing them with others and letting them also enjoy them?
In case a moneyless future seems something interesting to think about or when you like the idea, why not join “a movement of believers”?
Please have a look at the underneath brief introduction to the charter for a truly free world.
With Guestwriters for you this website was officially opened to the public on 2014/03/26. It was the first of 230 messages for its fist months or the year 2014.
We wanted to bring an open platform where people could share their ideas about ways of life and could inspire and motivate others to make the best of their life. Lots of people do have questions about life and how we should live on this planet. We should come to understand that we are just a little clasp or shackle of the very big chain. Being part of the creation we can not consider ourselves the mightiest in this creation able to do everything we want. We need to be conscious about how the world is developing and how we do have to be careful not to lose very important elements of this universe, plants and animals, who are in danger of extinction.
We had hoped more writers and photographers would be interested to show others in the world the beauty which perhaps could disappear if we not treasure it. We also wanted others to sensibtise to come to an other way of living, giving more attention to more important things than all the commercial gadgets.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,100 times in 2014. If it were a cable car, it would take about 52 trips to carry that many people.
We invited many writers but got very disappointed for the no-replies and not finding many candidates presenting their services. Though we managed to present to our readers in 2014, 228 new posts, which Word Press considered not bad for the first year!
We are very grateful we could find several visitors returning, 94 people prepared to follow us and some willing to like some postings. Thank you very much for those people who did not mind joining us from the first year and to give any reaction, by clicking the ‘Like’ button or by giving a reaction at the comment page.
We are grateful for the Opinionated Man who was born in Pusan (Busan), South Korea, who got to live in Memphis, to move to live in Colorado, who follows us already from the beginning, 9 months ago, and who so lovely knows to tell about he seasons:
We are the definition of love and our hands are linked as we dance amongst the growing and the grown alike. We enjoy timeless sunsets on picturesque settings creating canvases waiting to be painted at each moment. We love. {Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter}
We would love to bring all the seasons of the year closer to the people all over the world, showing all their colours and beauty, but also their mysteries and hidden factors. The beauty of the language we can use to communicate.
Based in little Belgium, West Europe, we got visitors from 71 countries in all!Most visitors came from The United States. U.K. & India were not far behind.
We do like it that under our followers we may find all sorts of people, young, middle aged and older readers, people who would like to stay anonymous and others who tell us much more about themselves on their blogs or want to leave their old diaries behind. We seem to have people who follow us who love life, nature, who put their focus on themselves, on other s around them, on the beauties of nature and others who look at death death as a “Superficial Value”. We are pleased to find under our followers: dreamers, poets, photographers, avid readers, crazy persons, people who like to enjoy the small things in life but also people who look for many answers.
We do hope we shall be able to offer for everybody something they like. And we look forward to find more enthusiast writers and photographers who would like to join us.
We do hope we can take with more writers a tram or cable car to higher sunnier places, finding passengers from all sorts of regions or countries. – San Francisco cable car cresting a hill with Alcatraz in the background (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Op 26 maart 2014 verscheen hier het eerste artikel, in het Engels. Wij stelden dit nieuwe Levensstijl magazine voor en verwezen naar ons andere levensstijl magazine waar wij wel eens tegen de schenen durven stampen of “op de tenen trappen”. In tegenstelling tot “Stepping Toes” willen wij hier in dit ‘lifestyle magazine‘ het leven van een positieve kant trachten te benaderen en willen wij hier hoofdzakelijk de mooie dingen van het leven voorleggen.
In eerste instantie zou dit hoofdzakelijk Engelstalige teksten over elementen in het leven brengen en de ‘muzings’ of de poëtische gedachten voorleggen van verschillende schrijvers. Alsook hoopten wij op beeldvlak mensen te kunnen vinden die hun fotografisch talent ter beschikking zouden willen stellen om anderen mooi beelden van onze wereld voor te stellen.
Graag hadden wij jonge schrijvers hier ook de gelegenheid gegeven om hun talenten bot te vieren, en wensten wij een aangename selectie te brengen van boeiende lectuur welk er op het internet en in de boekhandel te verkrijgen is.
De hele bedoeling is dat u in “From Guestwriters” betrouwbare geschriften zal kunnen vinden van verschillende auteurs. De hier voorgestelde auteurs kunnen van allerlei strekkingen zijn en uit verschillende lagen van de bevolking over geheel de wereld. De selectie van het materiaal gebeurt wel van uit onze christelijke visie. De meerdere teksten die door de ‘Gastspreker’ of ‘Guestspeaker’ zullen geplaatst worden, zullen wel hoofdzakelijk van gedoopte Christadelphians zijn, maar kunnen ook van leden zijn die in de Christadelphians geïnteresseerd zijn of behoren tot een gelijkaardige beweging of tot een geassocieerd groep. Wij drukken ten stelligste de hoop uit dat meerdere mensen zich hier op dit Blog zullen kunnen vinden en hun gedachten op een vredevolle manier willen delen. Betreft de herbloggingen of ‘reblogs’ zullen de teksten vrij gekozen zijn van wat er op het internet te vinden is. Hierbij kan het gerust voorvallen dat wij de geloofsvoorkeur van de auteur zelfs niet kennen, maar wijzen wij er op dat onze selectie hoofdzakelijk gebaseerd is op de tekst van het voorgestelde artikel. De auteurs wiens werken wij hier als een “Readers Digest” zullen plaatsen hoeven helemaal niet tot onze geloofsgemeenschap te behoren of zelfs gelovig te zijn in een goddelijk wezen. Wat voor ons belangrijk is, is dat ze iets interessants te zeggen hebben.
In tegenstelling tot “Op de Tenen trappen” of “Stepping Toes” wordt hier niet specifiek uitgegaan van een geestelijk onderwerp of speelt niet altijd de geestelijke benadering zulk een rol. Op deze site verwelkomen wij ook andere schrijvers, die over zeer verschillende onderwerpen willen schrijven, die niets te maken hebben met het materiaal gepresenteerd in het Stepping Toes Lifestyle tijdschrift. Hier voorzien wij een heel andere aanpak en willen wij ook meer oog hebben voor de menselijke kant en voor de algemene schoonheden van het leven en de leefomgeving. De natuur en hoe wij als mens ons in die natuur willen gedragen zullen wij dan ook meer op het voorplan brengen dan in Stepping Toes.
Het belangrijkste doel van “From Guestwriters” is dat iedereen dier hier een tekst presenteert, dit ook vanuit zijn of haar eigen standpunt doet. Dit kan betekenen dat een schrijver kan kiezen voor iets op een bepaalde wijze te bekijken en er een oordeel kan over geven, terwijl een ander juist het tegenovergestelde kan zeggen. Wij vinden het niet erg verschillende meningen over een en hetzelfde thema of evenement hier tegenover elkaar voor te stellen, en vinden zelfs dat het verrijkend kan zijn om verschillende benaderingen naast elkaar te plaatsen.
Wij hopen dat in de toekomst verschillende auteurs zullen bereid zijn om een aantal van hun ideeën, artikelen, gedichten, verhalen hier te presenteren, om een verscheidenheid van bezoekers, uit verschillende culturen en religies ook te verkrijgen en om de verschillende culturen een inzicht te geven van de verschillende denkwijzen en verscheidenheid van culturen. (Na een half jaar hebben zich spijtig genoeg nog niet veel kandidaten voorgesteld.)
De in dit platform gepresenteerde geschriften zullen hier dus ook niet noodzakelijkerwijs volledig in lijn moeten liggen met onze denkwijze. Wij willen open staan voor andere denkwijzen en die in alle openheid hier ook presenteren. Iedereen mag een eigen mening hebben en zal hier ook de vrijheid van meningsuiting op deze site kunnen vinden. daarvoor nodigen wij ook onze lezers uit om indien zij wensen hun commentaren te plaatsen of aanvullende informatie weer te geven.
De wereld is niet ‘zwart wit’ en wij willen hier die kleurenvariëteit ook voorleggen ter verrijking van iedereen. Omdat wij hier verschillende meningen naast elkaar zullen durven presenteren, hopen wij de lezers de kans te geven om te vergelijken met de pro’s en contra’s en zelf een eigen beeld te vormen.
We zouden graag meer schrijvers vinden die bereid zijn om hun gedachten te delen op dit forum, maar we willen dat de lezer weet dat de meerderheid van de schrijvers zich misschien wel het meest zouden kunnen toeleggen op hun eigen persoonlijke sites. Hun meeste geschriften zullen dan ook daar kunnen gevonden worden of op de site van de Stepping Toes Lifestyle magazine.
Het is niet de bedoeling dat de voor dit blog schrijvende auteurs enkel voor hun eigen websites reclame zouden gaan voeren, maar iedereen, die zich geroepen voelt om hier samen te werken aan dit platvorm van positieve nieuwsvoering, is welkom om ook naar hun eigen blog en artikelen op andere websites te verwijzen. Het bekend maken van eigen materiaal of beter bekend maken aan anderen van zelf interessant gevonden materiaal, zal op deze site worden toegestaan.
We adverteren niet echt op deze pagina’s, maar iedereen mag zijn steentje bijdragen om ander boeiend werk kenbaar te maken, door er naar te verwijzen en er zelfs linken naar te plaatsen, omdat we onze lezers kansen willen aanbieden om vele andere gerelateerde artikelen te vinden.
Mogen wij u daarom uitnodigen om onze geassocieerde ‘Gast auteurs’ te vinden op hun eigen persoonlijke blog, welk in de zij marge ook vermeld wordt met hun laatst geplaatste artikels.
Wij wensen u veel leesgenot.
+
Nota: In België wordt het Nederlands makkelijk terzijde geschoven ten voordele van het Engels waarmee meer mensen bereikt kunnen worden en waarmee het makkelijker is de multiculturele maatschappij in eigen land te benaderen. Maar wij moeten er ook toe bijdragen dat men zich ook blijft uitdrukken in het Nederlands en die taal levendig houdt. De taal is ook rijk aan pareltjes in de literatuur. Wij hopen dat zo enkele mooie Nederlandse gedichten onder de aandacht zullen mogen geplaatst worden. Gehuisvest in Vlaams-Brabant is het ook een kwestie van respect en erkentelijkheid naar de plaatselijke bevolking om hen ook in hun eigen taal toe te spreken. Van hen vragen wij ook begrip dat hun landstaal niet door velen gesproken wordt en omdat wij veel meer buitenlandse en anderstaligen bereiken is er voor dit blog de voorkeur gegeven aan de handelstaal Engels.
Wij maken deel uit van de “Bloggers voor Vrede” beweging. Door op dit embleem te klikken kan u meer informatie verwerven over deze beweging.
On the 25th of April 2013 I wrote, on my personal pages, the page Bloggers for Peace. Over there on Marcus’s Space I wondered if it would still be possible to get several people come together to share like-minded thoughts of love and peace. Nearly a year later I must admit I am a little bit disappointed with the meagre result. On the 29th of March 2014 there were only 4 likes and not one real response or reaction, though there were 9 Pingbacks.
Linking to peacebloggers
Give Peace a chance by promoting it and by sharing your positive thoughts.
I myself did some search and placed links to several other “Bloggers For Peace”, but they never gave me a personal sign or contacted me further to really take further action. Perhaps because I placed it on my personal blog, nobody dared to join. So, I do try at this place. Perhaps a Club does not frighten them off and would give more people confidence enough they may say what they want and write when they want. Those who want to join the guest writers shall be able to publish when they want and how much they want, so they should not be so afraid of restrictions.
Awards givers and receivers
I do find it strange that I can find a lot of American blogs where they throw with all sorts of Awards and Prizes, and do seem to appreciate others writings on peace, spiritual and religious living. But I do never see them getting together and taking action with others or really sharing articles. To me it more often looks like an adventure of getting free advertisements for certain websites or blogs (the initiator of the award). Mostly they say to feel free to accept the Such or such Award, like the Inner Peace Award and to add it on your blog, asking you to keep to just one or two rules. The one to pass the award on demanding to share some kind words with that person, is not a bad rule and can help to spread some nice words, which this world for sure can use more. Some present other rules where we can question what it has to do with peace or happiness. We can see that by a lot of such awards the interest is more placed to the persons themselves, having them to tell about themselves, what they like to eat, read and watch on television or in the cinema. Not really about the project or telling more about their action how to bring peace to others and how to contribute so that people could live better together.
Altogether it looks like the maker of the award can receive more readers to his blog by all the links back to his or her blog.
We are not so much interested in awards, but we would love to see many more people coming together and sharing their ideas, bringing understanding joy and peace to people from all over the world. This is the magnificent element of the new technology of internet.Everywhere in the world people can read and get to know people from everywhere in the world.
When we look at the world we may find one big mess. For many uncertainties about the future increase every year or even every month.
Our world has, to some degree, got used to living with uncertainties about the future – so much so nearly all plan for the present, for this year and maybe next, especially if they have children. There may be a lot of problems in the families and in the world, but every where may be living people who can shed some light in the darkness. When you would put all those little candles, those little light-bulbs together, you would find a major light attracting more people.
Internet offers a lot of noisy and spectacular things and tries to lure people into many adventures looking at certain things and buying lots of things. Insistent invitations to look at a picture, video, or the latest trend lots of people come to live in a sub-real world stuffing themselves with the junk food of audible and visual ‘noise’ and ‘information’.
No longer are there pockets of peace in the places we frequent. Medical waiting rooms, once havens of quiet where the only sound might be the pages of a magazine turning, now have blaring televisions, sometimes competing with music from an overhead sound system. Even the relative silence of libraries is interrupted by clicking keyboards. Places of worship, too, have become stimulating, noisy spaces in their congregations’ quest to become relevant. And, when was the last time you saw a sign that said, “Quiet. Hospital Zone”? {The need for quiet}
Instilling moments of silence and reflection
QuietKeepers has similar aims like some here at the club of writers. It wants to contribute to instill more silence and quiet in our sometimes busy lives. When we look at the masses we can see them rushing from one place to the other, having no time any more to take time to stand still, to contemplate, to look at nature, to talk with each other, to share ideas and to share feelings. That last element has nearly become taboo. Most people hide their feelings and hide their own personality by running with the majority of the population and with tradition.
We would like to find more souls who do not mind sharing ideas with each other and getting others to know such blogs where time is taken to look into the soul of man, and to look at wonders of the world. Nature has so much to offer, and so many people are gifted to bring the beauty of nature closer to the heart. It would be lovely if we could have such persons who would not mind to bring their talents together on a place like this one, and enable those interested to go from here to the many proposed interesting sites.
Because time flies and we do not have much time it would be marvellous if we could have some people who present us with their selection of interesting material. Yes you perhaps could call it a “Readers Digest” of contemporary times. If you have qualities you would not mind sharing with us, why hesitate, and not join us? You may find here a place where you can place articles which could not find a place on your personal blog or which ad to or even may direct to your blog(s) and blogs you feel could be of interest to others. By presenting your selection you can help others to save time searching, but also wasting time reading less interesting blogs. Because of our limited time short presentations, reblogs of interesting articles will be more than welcome by many readers which can be build up, because there can be found several authors at one place.
Month of Peace
Image of the Oslo Business for Peace Award (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In a few days time we are facing the month of April as “Peace Month”. Perhaps lots of activity shall take place in the press and in your neighbourhood. Perhaps more people also would like to look fro more information or would like to do something against all the controversy and fighting which is going on in this world. Serious teen problems like bullying, violence, drugs, depression, and suicide shall be able to find some more attention. and this would be some subjects we would love to see spoken off on this site. But what also could be interesting is to hear personal experiences how people could cope in live and how they think they could make their live and that of others better.
Looking at the world and reaching to the world
Whilst my lifestyle magazine “Stepping Toes” is more concerned about the way we are spiritually living and looking at it all, from a more religious point of view, here at “From Guest-writers” all subjects can receive a place, seen from non-religious as well as from religious points of view. Most interesting can be also to find some writers, who would not mind to bring up political issues and show us different ways how a society could work, to become a better place to live for every body.
We would like to offer young and older writers the opportunity to reach more readers. The writers themselves shall also be able to ‘earn more’ from writers of every colour, ethnicity, religious faith, sexual orientation, political viewpoint, and country of residence or origin. The public finding more writers in one place, willing also to direct them to still more other writers, by presenting links and reblogs to interesting articles can enrich us all.
Speaker and audience
Here the writer may be the guest-speaker and the audience at the same time. As such he or she will have the responsibility to engage the audience (internetters from all over the world) and triggering the debate, discussions and conversations, this in a world where there is a lot of competition in a (virtual) world where it is not easy to engage the head and heart of the audience which has a short attention span.
By sharing each others work we also want to world to show that there is more unity in the universe than many think.
Our common goal will be to show that by increased focus on each of core areas of expertise we shall be able to give a broad spectrum to our public, and shall be able more successfully bring over our message of understanding and peace.
Getting our of comfort-zone
In order to collaborate, many of us will have to get out of our comfort-zones. Those of us working in the non-profit sector have to learn to operate effectively along side each other so we aren’t trying to “do it all”. We do have to trust that others can do that what they are best in. Each having an other speciality or an other main interest is best to concentrate on the subjects they are good at or which are not yet been tackled or spoken off. We need to focus deeply on our core capabilities and trust others to fill the gaps. But naturally there have to be others willing to come to full those gaps. Therefore we would like to ask all who come along this site and who read this article, to think about joining us and helping everybody to create a way to reach more people with our message for making a better world for all around us.
Better than giving awards and prizes we let others know those sites which could be of interest and do take actively part in spreading good news, up-building words, uplifting stories and designs or pictures, showing the world the beauty which is to find if we want looking for it and seeing it.
Caring people
All those who join us should be people who want to care or who have the right spirit to look and find the “unlimited loving kindness of others”. It should be people who carry the “caritas” in them, the philanthropy and charity, to help others and reduce inequity and suffering while in process becoming caring individuals.
I am convinced, though we may not know the persons individually, with our writings we can reach them and have something to bring to them which can relieve them. In the articles we can point out roots of problems and show solutions to problems. Seeing and recognising the problems in the world, lying them in the “open”, we do have no other choice than to act and react, to relieve the pain of our neighbours. Looking at giving chiefly through the lens of amount of money is inappropriate and belittles the efforts of those who are giving far more of themselves.
Giving is about helping humankind and becoming better people in ourselves; It is a willingness to know your own position and to be aware of the position of others. You shall always find people who are better off and also whoo are worse off. there also would always people you like more than the other. It even can well be there are persons you hate. there are many people in this world who loose a lot of energy hating someone. We would love to bend that energy in the positive sense. We do believe that the more you start to care for that person the more each of you will be growing to each other respecting for what you are.Showing love not hateShowing to the world that we care, this will in the end bring some changes. Every little change will be worth the effort. Whether or not they will react, if they are going to say something to you, and whether they actually feel something towards you.
Hate takes to much time out of your life. It destroys your relationships and makes you a person you don’t want to be. {Hate is for the Weak}
We would like to bring the message to the general public:
Why hate someone and show them that you care more than you say? Why put in all that time and energy for someone you don’t want apart of your life? {Hate is for the Weak}
We want as many people as possible to become part of our world. We would love to see a rainbow-nation, where many ideas may find their appreciation and may construct something nicely.
Nothing is wrong to have an own opinion and being passionate about it. We do hope more people shall be coming out of their shell, to be wanting to become more determined to come out on top and show people they have the right to be where they are or stand in their life.
Jukebox of positiveness
Saswata Mitra tries to bring a box full of shimmer, being fresh, imaginative and alluring, like a jukebox, their perhaps you may ask and get, but also here we would like to offer such a sort of jukebox. We do believe the best medicine is the positive thought. We would love to find more writers and photographers or plastic artists who can share their positive ideas and beautiful pictures to inspire others.
The blog “The Mystic Sandbox ” initiated by Saswata and Navneet, revolves around crisp and precise about stuff that you will be able to relate. We too would like to find writers who manage to offer enough material to which many could relate and get inspired from.
We do not mind presenting people here who may have notions that are contradictory to mainstream conjecture. We do not have to go along with the majority in life. We also could try to convince others they are not so strange or mad to have other ideas than the mainstream. We would like to show others they might have confidence in the way they are thinking and the way they want to go, though it is not how the majority wants them to go.
Saswata wrote:
“In life, we come across many challenges. Some of them make us who we are while some tell us what we should be. Sometimes it is the opposite. There will be struggle, there will be bad days. Days which would never seem to end. Days which would go on and on, which would keep hurting us till the end. Many of us actually most would give up but the people who wont will be the ones to face the brighter side of the day. The night is darkest before dawn but how can we forget the rainbow after the rain? We understand to love, to give, to endure, to find pleasure, to please but what we do not understand is ourselves during all of this. Life can lie to us and no one will stop it, it can play all sorts of games with us without us even knowing because there is no one controlling it. But whatever happens in life happens for good. Good of all in it..” {Sorry For The Long Absence and What’s Been Going On In My Life!}
We would love to let others see that we all can learn from our own badexperiences and turn them into something good. By sharing each-others experiences we would like to show the love for our neighbours and allow them to have a peep in our own bad and good experiences so they might learn from them as well.
Internet enabling us to bring over a message of peace
We may be happy we do have such great instruments, like the internet and WordPress, enabling us to put our fragile words on the internet and embracing the blogging world a little more each day, savouring the words of other bloggers, practising control from inundating you as a reader, inspired by the blogs we follow. Together we can unite and show this union by having group blogs next to our own private blog. There we can bring a short overview of what we published or of what we found interesting the last few days. It is in such group blogs like Stepping Toes and From Guestwriters that people may bring many voices together and show their main interest and give others chances to connect with other writers or people from all over the world, of many cultures, minds, lovers, in short: writers and humanity.
Let us all always remember:
“Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
-Martin Luther King
and that: when we do not speak, we also give a voice or “speak”, and enable that good, but also bad things, can happen.
Therefore I do hope many will be willing to join and give a voice to spread nicer messages than all the violence we hear every day on the wireless. We also do hope some will like to share some nicer pictures than the awful images we every day get to see on the screens of television and computer.
A small word or many words
We invite everybody who would love to spread a thought of love and peace to join us. Even when they only would contribute once a year, with having twelve writers this would give once a month a thought bringing some positiveness to others. It might be telling about something positive that happened somewhere in the world. Not focussing on all the bad things that happen in this world but giving once attention to something positive, the media may forget or put it somewhere forgotten in a small corner of the so ‘maniest’ page. We sould love to find some facts, but also would appreciate some fiction as well, that can make us dream or look at the world in a positive way. We would love to see stories that may have a human connection. A real life story. Please remember no story is big or small. Every story matters.
Every one may come forward to share their stories or pictures. they may do it by acting or reacting on something what is published here or they may offer their services as a co-author. It is a free choice. We also offer a platform where people are invited to share ideas and to talk their heart out.
In case they would prefer to stay anonymous they are also welcome to send in material and we will publish it not disclosing their identity.
In the hope to find many people who would like to come along here to read and to share,
I do thank all those who came along and took some time to linger on this site, and do hope to see them coming back again.
Looking forward to find more people from all over the world willing to share their contributions and letting us know other interesting websites, writers and artists,
Lifestyle and Readers Digest Magazine founded by Marcus Ampe on the 26th of March 2014
Translate – Vertaal – Traduction
Welcome
New to this site. You may like to read this first
If this is your first time you visit us, you might like to know about our aims and intentions.
This site does not want to be a specific religious site, though now and then religious articles may be presented. The main interest on this site is about worldly matters, social affairs and the behaviour of human beings in this universe.
Our aim is to bring first articles about our responsibility in the progress of human relations and peace involvement.
Please find to read about our aims and aspirations:
Messengers of Peace and Positivism – Boodschappers van Vrede en Positivisme
We belong to the Bloggers for Peace and you can join them too. (Click on the picture to know more and to connect.)
Club members their own blog-writings – Clubleden hun eigen persoonlijke blogs
Articles by Guestwriters members – Artikelen bij Gastschrijvers leden
Most club members "From guestwriters" do not have their own blog, but shall write under their own name as "Guestspeaker" on the Lifestyle magazine Stepping Toes.
Those who do have their own website can be looked at underneath:
Please do find those independent authors their recent postings on their own website:
Van de schrijvers die een eigen blog hebben kan u op hun site als laatste artikels vinden:
Thoughts by and a Look at the world by Marcus Ampe on: Marcus Ampe's Space
Originally posted on Akemsblog.com: Do you remember life before the internet? Life before the widespread use of the internet was quite different compared to the world we live in today. Here are some notable aspects of life before the internet: Communication: People relied heavily on traditional methods of communication such as landline telephones, letters,…
Turkey is still very far from being a possible bridge builder between East and West and between Russia and NATO countries, and the 2023 Turkish elections showed us that Turkey is driving away from democratic values.
In addition to being a once-in-a-generation talent that changed American music, Tina Turner, who died Wednesday 24, 2023, her voice shall sound forever.
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often? – Heeft u een citaat waarnaar u leeft of waaraan u vaak denkt? Doe een ander niets aan wat je zelf niet zou willen dat met jou zou gebeuren.
Het leven is zo dierbaar voor een stom wezen zoals het voor de mens is. Net zoals men geluk en pijn vreest, net zoals men wil leven en niet wil sterven, doen andere wezens dat ook graag. door Dalai Lama XIV Engelse versie / English version > Life is as dear to a […]
An other look at the world by Marcus Ampe on: Some View on the World
Whether or not Ukraine is behind the recent attacks on Russian soil, it will not change the fact that the war is now starting to spread to both states.
If you thought the electoral appeal of populism was on the wane, think again. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s victory in yesterday’s presidential runoff in Turkey is the latest evidence of its staying power. He extended his 20-year rule despite a cost-of-living crisis, a slumping currency and public anger over the bungled relief effort following February’s […]
Negotiators expect to have a draft at the end of this round of talks after agreeing last December to develop a legally binding deal on plastic pollution by 2024.
Dear Reader, Inflation remains rampant in Britain at 8.7pc, still in excess of forecasts – leading many to question whether the Bank of England has the credibility to contain the situation. Szu Ping Chan and Melissa Lawford investigate just how high interest rates will need to rise to tame inflation, and just how devastating the […]
Rishi Sunak has been warned off his plan for price caps on staples like bread and milk. You can also read the latest on the fallout from Phillip Schofield‘s departure from This Morning, and our critic’s thoughts on the final episode of Succession. Price caps will create food shortages, Rishi Sunak warned Ministers and supermarkets […]
Recent Posts on the other Lifestyle Magazine: Stepping Toes
April 18, 2023 event: The U.S. and its NATO allies must remain alert for signs Russian President Vladimir Putin could use a tactical nuclear weapon in a “managed” escalation of his war in Ukraine, the second-highest U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman issued the warning during the opening session of […]
Christians in politics have been accommodated through a policy of don’t-ask, don’t-tell, but some argue endlessly about which bathrooms trans people should be allowed to use. Cisgender psychologists and sexologists pathologise the transgender experience according to their own biases, cisgender insurance executives arbitrarily what is and isn’t “necessary care” for transgender policyholders, and so on.
Originally posted on Quo Vadis: Zionisme is het (blijven) streven naar en behoud van een Joodse staat. Anti-zionisme is dus het verzet tegen de enige joodse staat. Behalve de genoemde landen met een islamitische meerderheid, zijn praktische alle andere landen, incl Israel, seculier, geen enkele religie is dominant en er is godsdienstvrijheid. Godsdienstvrijheid is één…
Event Turkey has broken Nato unity on Finland and Sweden’s push to join the alliance, blocking an initial vote on accession after President Erdogan demanded that the two countries hand over dozens of Turkish exiles he accused of “terrorism”. The veto came hours after Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary-general, hailed a historic moment for western […]
The Times, May 2, 2022 Event Ukraine, one of the most fertile and productive countries in the world, has been known historically as the “bread basket of Europe”. Now it is facing a complex and unprecedented agricultural crisis, in which landmines are only one of numerous interlinked problems. The United Nations estimates this year’s harvest […]
BBC, April 22 + Audit of antisemitic incidents Event The number of anti-Semitic incidents around the world dramatically increased last year, a study by Tel Aviv University has found. The report identifies the US, Canada, the UK, Germany and Australia as among countries where there was a sharp rise. This was fueled by radical left- […]
The short letter of Paul to Philemon has some valuable lessons for us about spiritual relationships one with another. Paul is writing as “a prisoner of Christ Jesus” (verse 1) and Timothy is with him – and other visitors support him, “Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke” (verse 24). He tells Philemon, “I remember you in […]
In Joshua 14 we read of the blessings received by a man who “wholly followed the LORD”. Caleb was the other man who with Joshua spied out the land and brought back an optimistic report; this was after the people had miraculously escaped from Egypt, been fed in the wilderness, built the tabernacle and received […]
Door Jezus Christus zijn wij vrijgekocht en horen zo niet meer gebonden te zijn aan de wereld, maar aan God met wie wij één willen zijn en Hem toebehoren.
Door zich als loskoper aan God aan te bieden kunnen allen die in Jezus willen geloven genieten van die vrijgave in Christus, maar dan wordt er van hen ook verwacht dat ze God, Jezus en hun naaste liefhebben.
Sommigen zullen zeggen dat Bijbellezen geen nut heeft omdat er gedeelten in staan die geen toegevoegde waarde hebben voor het geloof. David schreef dat hij meer van God begreep uit zijn studie van de wet, en zo is dat ook voor.
Het centrale thema van het evangelie van Lukas is discipelschap. En gezien zijn nauwe banden met de bekeerde schriftgeleerde Paulus mogen we hier ook zeker diens inzichten verwachten aan te treffen. En inderdaad zien we verschillende koppelingen tussen de kennelijke bedoelingen van Lukas’ beschrijvingen en de leer die we vinden in Paulus’ zendbrieven. Lukas begint, […]
Het Evangelie van Mattheüs is, net als dat van Marcus, een van de drie synoptische Evangeliën. Bijna alle gebeurtenissen die we bij Marcus vinden, vinden we ook bij Mattheüs. Maar Mattheüs voegt er veel leer en gelijkenissen aan toe, die we bij Marcus niet vinden. Het bevat daarmee ca. 60 % meer tekst dan dat […]
Als wij beweren Broeders in Christus te zijn, moeten wij getuigen van een houding die waardig is in de geest van Christus. Als Broeder in Christus moeten wij “in Christus” zijn en hoort onze levenswijze in lijn te zijn met de levenswijze van Jezus Christus, de zoon van God en onze Heiland. In de Bijbellezing […]
Zij die geloven dat Jezus God is zouden best eens nagaan in hoeveel Bijbelfragmenten Jezus zijn plaats tegenover God kenbaar maakt en hoe hij met God in communicatie gaat en ons leert bidden tot God zoals hij tot God bad.
In voorgaande artikelen kon u al lezen hoe Jezus als hij wonderen had gedaan, tegen de mensen zei dat ze niet hem, maar God moesten danken. (Één van de onmisbare tekenen dat Jezus niet God is.) Voor hem was God danken ook een vorm van gebed waaraan hij en zijn discipelen zich ook aan hielden. […]
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 Two Describe the birth of Jesus. To whom did the angels appear? What happened on the eighth day of Jesus’ life? Who were two of the people present? What do we know of Jesus’ early years? Jesus was what kind of youth? + Preceding Luke 2 – The Nazarene’s Commentary: Luke […]
Luke 2:41-52 – Twelve Year Old Jesus in the Temple LK2:41 Now each year [Jesus’] parents traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. LK2:42 So when Jesus was twelve years old[1] he went up with them according to the custom of the festival. LK2:43 After fulfilling the days [of the festival][2] [the parents] returned but […]
Luke 2:39-40 – The Young Child Grows LK2:39 Now when everything had been fulfilled according to YHWH’s law they returned to the village of Nazareth in Galilee. LK2:40 And so the child continued to grow stronger and stronger being filled with wisdom, and God’s unmerited favor was upon him.[1] * [1] God’s unmerited favor was […]
Luke 2:36-38 – Anna’s Thanks before Those Waiting LK2:36 Now there was a prophetess,[1] Anna, a daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, [a widow] who had only lived seven years with her husband from her virginity. LK2:37 She had been widowed eighty-four years and was never missing from […]
Luke 2:25-35 – Simeon’s Blessing and Warning LK2:25 Now look, there was a person in Jerusalem named Simeon. And he was righteous and reverent[1] and was waiting for Israel’s consolation,[2] and holy Pneuma was upon him. LK2:26 For it had been revealed to him by holy inspiration[3] that he would not experience death until he […]
Recent Posts by bible Scholars: Bijbelvorser = Bible Researcher
20 jaar geleden bracht een triller een debat op gang dat vervolgd en verder uitgediept zou worden in 2006 bij het uitbrengen van vertalingen van Nag Hammadi geschriften.
Twenty years ago there was a lot to do about discussions brought forward by the speculation that Jesus would have fallen in love with Mary Magdalene and would have had children by her. In the previous posting you could read that after his third novel, Deception Point (2001), Dan Brown returned to Langdon with The […]
Twenty years ago a novel saw light in a world where already more people were coming up against the Catholic Church, but this time also telling a lot of historical lies.
In several places around the world, one can find portraits, paintings and sculptures depicting Jesus as a white man. But that is not at all consistent with the real appearance of the man who was born in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth. By the way, there is scientific evidence to back that up.
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 […]
° In Jewish life, actions transmit more than words. Lighting Hanukkah candles; blotting out Haman’s name; cleaning out the hametz; tashlikh; fasting; dancing with the Torah. Yes, all of those things come with a story. And there’s so much more background and history and ideas and textual sources that go along with the story. But […]
Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again. If we bear all this suffering […]
Er zijn gelukkig heel wat jonge kinderen uit de getto’s kunnen gesmokkeld worden en naar veiliger oorden gebracht. Verborgen bij anders sprekende leerden vele van deze ondergedoken Joden een andere taal en gebruiken, waarbij zij en later hun kinderen geen Hebreeuws meer konden spreken. Vandaag kan men wel de vraag stellen of zij de Elohim in hun eigen landstaal kunnen blijven eren of Hebreeuws moeten gaan leren? Vast staat wel dat de hele wereld aan die afschuwelijke Jodenvervolging moet herinnerd blijven.
Looking at the Biblical terminology used to denote the term “righteousness”, the Hebrew tsadiq translated by the Greek dikaiosune and its various forms in both the LXX and the NT.
God heeft alles Zelf in de hand en daarom spreekt de Schrift soms zelfs over dingen die nog moeten gebeuren, alsof ze al zijn gebeurd, en in termen die aangeven dat ook de consequenties daarvan al blijvende werkelijkheid zijn.
Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad emphasised the solidity of the relationship between Damascus and Tehran during his final meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, who visited Syria in recent days.
Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2023. Event The US Air Force has sent a chilling message to Iran after sending warplanes armed with ‘bunker busting’ bombs. The US military confirmed it has dispatched powerful 250-pound bombs on A-10 Warthogs in a bid to give pilots a better chance of deterring Iran by destroying ammunition bunkers. Forces have been repeatedly […]
We present the article “We Are Custodians of This Memory. 80th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising” by Piotr Gliński, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland. We Are Custodians of This Memory. 80th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising In April 1943, on the eve […]
Dit jaar zijn er nog 2 sjabbatot tot Soekot en is er voor elke sjabbat een parasja en de sjabbat voorafgaande aan Rosj Hasjana lezen wij nu de de parasja Nitsawiem.
Verwonderlijk kreeg ik vandaag het bericht van WordPress dat ik tegen een jubileum mag aankijken. Gefeliciteerd met je jubileum bij WordPress.com! Je hebt je 5 jaar geleden geregistreerd op WordPress.com.Bedankt voor het gebruiken van onze service! Ga zo door met bloggen. Wat zijn die vijf jaren voorbij gevlogen. Voordat mijn pen al mijn gedachten kon […]
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.
Recent Posts: Unmasking anti Jehovah sites and people
The apostle Paul wrote about the dispersion, the dispersed House of Israel. They had been “without covenant“, but Paul was sent out to recover them. So they were “grafted in again“ (Romans 11/23). Or, Grafted back in“. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been […]
Rob Mac wonders when the door to door will return? He wrote this a while back, and went sharing it again. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses hate the door to door ministry, although they won’t readily admit it. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses have developed ‘creative’ ways of counting their time doing this work, and many strategies for avoiding actually […]
Constantine wanted unity in his realm, and his call in 325 C.E. for a council of his bishops at Nicaea, located in the Eastern, Greek-speaking domain of his empire, across the Bosporus from the new city of Constantinople was in a certain way his goal to achieve some agreement by which many could live. Constantine […]
Superstition, misunderstanding and hatred caused the Christians trouble for many generations, and governmental repression they had to suffer occasionally, as a result of popular disturbances. No systematic effort was made by the imperial authorities to put an end to the movement until the reign of the Roman emperor (249–251) who fought the Gothic invasion of […]
Self-enhancing When the apostles had died there came a time when those in charge of teaching and going around telling about the gospel, started coming to see themselves as special people. Some even started to consider themselves as ‘clergy of the highest order’. After a time the organisation of the church was given only to […]
When having many questions an interesting blog to look at: their old and more recent Posts: Questiontime - Vragenuurtje
God heeft de wereld van Zijn woord en Zijn profeten voorzien, maar niet altijd wensten de mensen van die leiders of profeten weten, waardoor er verscheidene groeperingen ontstonden die elk dachten of denken de juiste aanbiddingswijze te hebben.
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,
Vergeet niet dat u bij elk van bovenstaande blogs u als volger kan registreren.
Remember that at each of the above blogs, you can register as a follower.
When you have a Facebook account, you may also connect to following Facebook Pages ("Like" them), to get updates of newly published articles.
+
Wanneer u een Facebook Account hebt kan u de volgende Pagina's ook "Leuk" vinden en aangeven dat u berichtgevingen wenst te ontvangen zodat u steeds op de hoogte wordt gehouden van nieuwe publicaties.
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
With the knowledge that each viewpoint may bring a different set of emotions, a different thought process, and a different reality to the perceiver it only can be enriching to share thoughts and to get to know more people from all over the world and getting to know how they manage to make the best of their life.
There is only a short time allotted to each of us to write the story of your life and with that time, we are tasked with a lot of things to accomplish. You have really only one life to get things right and sing the song that you want to sing. {
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 
This last person who has always been a person with a to-do list is also one of the people who wanted to share some writing on this platform. But there were many days when she became a slave to her lists and she had to face that things don’t always happen as planned and that she would feel like a failure if she wasn’t able to cross out all the tasks that she allocated to a specific day.{
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
From guestwriters 
What might there be interesting or not to miss to read
We can help to bring more eyes to such interesting writings, be it articles and books for adults but also for children.
On the net we may find lots of interesting writings from people who write about the things they have experienced. Lots of people bring a self-reflection, and share a view on their self-awareness. Many also give their thoughts about society and social issues.
Some also mention they would love to find like-minded people or want to share their thoughts. With “From Guest Writers” there is a place for many guest writers, people who do not mind sharing their ideas, be it musings, poetry, thoughts about our way of living, criticism, reviews, etc..
Martijn Scheijbeler, currently VP Marketing at RVshare RVshare, wrote blog posts (2019, 2018, 2017 & 2016) listing the books that he read in the past year and that he wanted to be reading during that year. Problem with him, as with me, is to find time to read all those books one wants to read. He confesses,
Saadia Peerzada is one of those many bloggers who
She always had a special place for books written for children, be it the unassuming descriptions, marvellous adventures, vivid descriptions of the country and food or the lessons that many adults seem to have missed out on. As parent and later as grandparent we are confronted by bringing something inspiring to our kids and grandchildren, which we do hope can give them some lessons for life. Peerzada presents a list of 10 such books that have brought not only her sustained joy (10 Children’s Books that will bring you Joy).
We would love to find such writers who also could present our readers such lists and reviews of stories to be known and read.
Are you an avid reader? Do you think there is something interesting to read? Let it be known to us and our readers.
Help us to build up a “Readers Digest”.
Share this:
Like this:
4 Comments
Filed under Announcement, Cultural affairs, Educational affairs, Knowledge & Wisdom
Tagged as Book / Books, Book critic(s), From Guestwriters, Guestwriters, Like-minded people, Martijn Scheijbeler, Reader comments, Reader reactions, Readers, Readers Digest, Reading books, Reviewing books, Saadia Peerzada, Sharing knowledge, Sharing thoughts, to give Impression(s), to Share Experience