Tribalism

Here are some gems of wisdom from the Chabad website's "Ask The Rabbi", Tzvi Freeman. Read the whole article and you'll gain a better understanding of Jewish reasons for Torah Observance, as well as some insight into aspects of sociology. This is a must-read for missiologists, emergents, anyone who wonders about the importance of culture ...

Here is but a small quote...

Sociology became a science with the publication Emile Durkheim's monograph on suicide in 1897. Durkheim was a nice Jewish boy who had studied in yeshiva to become a rabbi, as his father, grandfather and great-grandfather before him, but then left to think for himself and challenge his teachers at the Sorbonne. In his paper, Durkheim blamed most of society's woes (especially suicide) on the abandonment of tribalism. He coined the term anomie, which means a state of society where nobody knows who they are, what they have to do with one another or what on earth they're doing here. Durkheim demonstrated, through the first methodological, scientific study of a social phenomenon, that in turn-of-the-century France, suicide was the realm of the tribeless—meaning the Protestant and the agnostic. Catholics and Jews rarely committed suicide. Because they felt no anomie.

What this runaway-yeshiva boy ironically demonstrated, and others after him confirmed is that a human being without a tribe is like a polar bear without ice—he can survive, but he'll be awfully confused. It's through his relationship with the tribe that a human being knows that the earth beneath his feet is solid ground, that tomorrow is a day like today, that he is who he is and it's okay to be that way. Take the tribe away and none of that remains necessarily true.

There's a lot more. Read it for yourself...

It's Read an E-Book Week

E-book information and free e-books define Read an E-Book Week. From March 7-13th major e-book retailers and authors offer free, or deeply discounted e-books for the event. These e-books will be available in the E-Book Store. Many of our participants have free, or discounted e-books throughout the year, so please return often to see what is available.

Some of my ebooks, free during E-book Week are:

• The Story of Saint Catrick -- Free for this week only
• Eetoo -- Free for this week only
• The Zondon -- Free for this week only

To take advantage of the offers, go to the links, and find a coupon code on the right hand column to include in your order so as to activate the offer.

Catrick has been reviewed at Readers Favourites

The Story of Saint Catrick has been reviewed at Readers Favourite:

In this fantasy, the animal kingdom was at war. The Cats felt superior to all other species. The Rodents battled for their freedom from the Cats' rule and the Cats battle to escape the Dogs' rule. There was one lone voice of reason in the midst of war. Catrick was inducted into the service and went off to war, just a tiny kitten. He was injured and nursed back to health by a family of mice. He became a professor at the university and he related his story to the kittens. The kittens revolted against their own species. Catrick`s message,live together in harmony, was spread throughout the land. Catrick and his followers faced riots, political adversity and prejudice from their own families.

There is a strong message behind this story. The author clearly defines his point. The plot is well developed, quite interesting and very deep. Robby Charters is very talented and creative.

read it...

Pepe has been reviewed at Readers Favourites

Here's the latest review of Pepe, at Readers Favourite:

Pepe and Po live on the streets after a fire destroys their apartment building. They find shelter in an abandoned building along with other street kids. Jose is a drug addict. Raquel and her twin brothers also live there. They make friends with Raul, a rich kid and computer whiz. He realizes Pepe is in grave danger and tries to help him.

Danger lies ahead for Pepe when he faces corrupt government, killer robots and his true identity. This is a futurist book. It is action packed and held my attention to the last page. The characters interact well with each other. Fans of science fiction will enjoy Pepe.

read it...

Global Warming -- or not Global Warming?

An interesting article was re-tweeted by Bob Hyatt, entitled The great global warming collapse, by columnist Margaret Wente.

My own thoughts -- So, some of the air has been let out of the global warming bubble but I'm afraid of air being blown into the consumerist bubble.

Now that we realise that some data on the far left of the centre was politically tainted, are we now going to rush to the opposite extreme, and give corporations (and our greed) unbridled freedom to pollute the environment as they wish?

I'm wondering if there's any room for the opinion that maybe it's not as bad as we previously thought -- sigh of relief -- but realise there is still some substance to the warnings? I'm afraid that, because of so much extreme politics on either end of the spectrum, the sound and level headed warnings may be buried. It's too hard to judge what it is 100% truth, and what is political tainted. Is that good new?

My Very Long Bio

In case anyone wants to know my life story -- here it is...

Short Story: The Film-maker and the Sceptre

I've just completed a short story that has been buzzing around in my head for the last few months. It's got two main characters: a knight who's off to retrieve a sceptre that was stolen by the evil dark lord of Weswold; and the film-maker who's creating the story about him, using futuristic digital animation techniques that have made today's cinema industry obsolete. Here's the blurb:

Mark Snobbel, using twenty-second digital film-making technology, is testing a new medium that renders things in greater than 100% reality 3D. He and the support team don't realise what they're in for...

enjoy...