Its not about Ethnicity or Contract its about behaving. by Naomi Wolf

Okay, so I was challenged below: “Read the Bible! God gave the land of Israel to the Jewish people.” So….I may get crucified for this but I have started to say it — most recently (terrified, trembling) to warm welcome in a synagogue in LA: Actually if you read Genesis Exodus and Deuteronomy in Hebrew — as I do — you see that God did not “give” Israel to the Jews/Israelites. We as Jews are raised with the creed that “God gave us the land of Israel” in Genesis — and that ethnically ‘we are the chosen people.” But actually — and I could not believe my eyes when I saw this, I checked my reading with major scholars and they confirmed it — actually God’s “covenant” in Genesis, Exodus and Deuteronomy with the Jewish people is NOT ABOUT AN ETHNICITY AND NOT ABOUT A CONTRACT. IT IS ABOUT A WAY OF BEHAVING.
Again and again in the “covenant” language He never says: “I will give you, ethnic Israelites, the land of Israel.” Rather He says something far more radical – far more subversive — far more Godlike in my view. He says: IF you visit those imprisoned…act mercifully to the widow and the orphan…welcome the stranger in your midst…tend the sick…do justice and love mercy ….and perform various other tasks…THEN YOU WILL BE MY PEOPLE AND THIS LAND WILL BE YOUR LAND. So “my people” is not ethnic — it is transactional. We are God’s people not by birth but by a way of behaving, that is ethical, kind and just. And we STOP being “God’s people” when we are not ethical, kind and just. And ANYONE who is ethical, kind and just is, according to God in Genesis, “God’s people.” And the “contract” to “give” us Israel is conditional — we can live in God’s land IF we are “God’s people” in this way — just, merciful, compassionate. AND — it never ever says, it is ONLY your land. Even when passages spell out geographical “boundaries” as if God does such a thing, it never says this is exclusively your land. It never says I will give this land JUST to you. Remember these were homeless nomads who had left slavery in Egypt and were wandering around in the desert; at most these passages say, settle here, but they do not say, settle here exclusively. Indeed again and again it talks about welcoming “zarim” — translated as “strangers” but can also be translated as “people/tribes who are not you” — in your midst. Blew my mind, hope it blows yours.

 

LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE 

Trickle, Dribble and the Shower

How different are so called progressive organizations from the regimes that build iron/bamboo curtains to keep their people insulated? 

CXOs are ambivalent on allowing social media in the workplaces.. the HR takes pride in being strict about it. Yesterday I presented to a group of Senior HR managers from the manufacturing sector on how social media activity will benefit them.  They seemed to nod their heads in agreement after the presentation. The question they had was “How will the organization benefit from this?”  

Social Media is too complex an activity to get transactional. In social media engagement you are not talking to people you are talking with people. 

Here is the presentation 

Advertising in Twitter..

Interesting tweet from my friend and then I noticed an even more interesting stuff below the picture.. I thought I must share  it. At the bottom of this picture you see two logos.. I have circled it.One of them linked me to Reditt Ads twitter page and other to the twitter page of Ashish Dimri.  May be its been there for long but I got to see it for the first time. 

M SALIM was an innovative advt.. though the resin on the sticker may not be a favorite dish for the plant. 

NOW HERE IS THE BIG IDEA

If Twitter can allow links to advertisers pages based the keyword of the tweet they can open up a huge advertising opportunity.  They have the space for 8 such logos.  Just like how FB allows targeting and advertising Twitter mush allow people to do just that.  This way twitter will open up a huge opportunity for generating ad revenue without being intrusive. TRY IT TWITTER we love you. 

But don’t forget me I am trying to make a living out of social media so need your support 🙂

 

 

 

The problem with the academia today by Rowan Moses

The problem with the academia today is articulated beautifully by the technicians themselves and they call it “limits”, “zero-point” and lots of other crappy jargon. We hear that and get befuddled!! Some guy using great language probably a great “atheist” or a “Buddhist” or a “very apologetic politically-correct Christians” so on and so forth…each defending their faith, the Theologians have successfully defended the faith through their amazing interaction with texts and dazzled us with their brilliance….A warm applause!!

And then there is a human being living in a shanty part of the town, interested in small beautiful things, we find buildings, corporate spaces, spaces for education expanding and the “good old religion” failing to meet our needs and we then celebrate a form of Stoic Nihilism or the most form of radical atheism accepting the worst…somehow people care more about the Mall than the Church and this form of logic somehow results in a form of mind which is filled with horror and resignation.

This is the real climate of the world today. We pretend we find peace in some particular world view which requires us to take it seriously and do our bid and the “principles” of that particular system will respond to your need…eg if you were a Buddhist, you have the belief that practicing some form of meditation would give you nirvana or if you are a Christian then if you pretend to love and be good to everyone then God would respond to your need so on and so forth. And a genuine atheist like Camus would then say that the most pertinent question in philosophy is “Whether  or not you should kill yourself?” (Derrida that Jew bypassed that question!!)

The shit hit the fan, the academia is revealed for what it is “A radical failure” but the only sector worth saving are the Natural Sciences simply because (Science works 😉 ) we could open the world to a new form of knowledge!! But the problem here is scientists like all the people of this age are presented again as “tragic heros”. Radical atheists or Buddhist or if you go further into history you will find Christians too as a surprise when your friend the apologist points that out to you !!! So smug we all feel good about ourselves !!

And then we are left with nothing after this whole project of history !! Now THEOLOGY will show its face saying that we need to adhere to some code and ultimately discipline ourselves because the worst result would be meeting the God whom we preach !! People shudder and run to churches fearing that God to the bone !!

Theology is the ultimate deceptive field of knowledge. “Eschatology” “Christology” “Negative theology” “process theology” “liberation theology” so on and so forth…Politically correct and theologically impeccable !! A round of applause please for they have justified their presence in the academia and some brilliant boys have already deconstructed Derrida !! WoW !!

We the hear about the great war, global poverty, economic recession, new forms of fundamentalisms, apartheid, ecological disasters and so on and so forth we think about the end of the world and now the academia has found the ultimate answer thanks to theology…Theology operated perfectly with the Natural Sciences and has come to the conclusion that we will perish but the Earth will last, we are “Homo Sapiens”   (suddenly we turn to our bare biological identities stripped naked) anyway, what good are we like another failed mutation and we are all happy in the present but we shudder when we think about the future. Hopefully we will all be in Nirvana when the disaster happens 😀 (I really do)

We go extinct, the sun dies, the earth is consumed and its another nothing that took place…this is our day’s ultimate deception !!

If we read the Bible as a comedy and not a tragedy..we know how ticklish death is because the one who was crucified was raised from the dead. God  is not a tragic hero….Death din’t happen to God, God happened to death. The only real death is the Son’s godforsaken death and since death is unveiled as what it truly was all along…a parody.. life and death are rendered comical and we seek things that are really worth living for…We should be what we want to be but full of real love, joy and peace.

Make Sure Your Employees’ Emotional Needs Are Met by Susan David

9:00 AM July 8, 2014

Source : HBR – for original article hit the link on the headline 

In the early 1940s, Abraham Maslow started asking questions about human motivation— questions I study, too. In 1943, he published his first article on a theory he called the Hierarchy of Needs.

Today, the theory is usually depicted as a pyramid, although Maslow didn’t use one in his original writings; it’s a textbook creation. At the bottom are physiological needs: food and water. The next levels represent safety needs, then love needs, then esteem needs. Self-actualization (personal growth and fulfillment) is at the pinnacle, suggesting that it can only be reached when the other four needs are met.

People latched onto this pyramid structure immediately. But, in doing so, they forgot Maslow’s many notes about the dynamic messiness of human motivation, which we usually experience in one conscious stream rather than small parts. “We have spoken so far as if this hierarchy were a fixed order but actually it is not nearly as rigid as we may have implied,” Maslow wrote. He would probably be appalled at how we use his theory today.

Case in point: In my work as a psychologist and organizational consultant, I recently sat in on a strategy session at a global company. The managers were discussing how to better engage their employees. One senior executive suggested they focus on cash-based incentives. Why? She cited Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, explaining that salaries and benefits would provide people with food and shelter – physiological needs. Employees could then move up the pyramid to achieve career success and, eventually, a higher purpose – the feeling that their work bettered society. She felt that the organization had to get compensation right first.

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard Maslow’s name in a meeting of managers. The hierarchy has become something of an unquestioned “fact”. It’s cited in HR manuals, business class syllabi, and leadership presentations. People use it to push the idea that the basics – like a fair salary or a safe work environment – are the employee engagement tools that matter most. But here’s the problem: the pyramid version of Maslow’s theory doesn’t usually apply to the world of professional work.

In today’s developed-world workplace, physiological and safety needs are, for the most part, already met. Salary and benefits can enhance motivation, but organizations shouldn’t focus on them disproportionately because emotional experiences can matter equally, if not more.

In a recent study of outstandingly engaged business units, I asked people what drove their high engagement scores. Only 4% of respondents mentioned pay. Instead, they highlighted feeling autonomous and empowered, and a sense of belonging on their teams. We all know people who trade high salaries and even safety for love, esteem,and self-actualization at work – the accountants who become high school teachers, or the journalists who move to war zones with pennies in their pockets.

The reality is that human needs can’t be neatly arranged into a pyramid. Motivation isn’t simple, and it’s certainly not linear. Different people are motivated by different things. Even Maslow began to worry about the uses of his theory at the end of his life, arguing that the most important way to achieve personal satisfaction was to face one’s inner demons. He entered psychoanalysis himself at age 61 to deal with long-repressed anger.

I understand why we’ve latched onto the hierarchy of needs. A motivation checklist would be nice. But we’re not working with a fixed or universal process. There are many factors that contribute to engagement, including teams, autonomy, interesting work, recognition, and individual development. So don’t let the basics of compensation and benefits drive your people strategy or the way you lead. Your employees deserve much more than a pyramid.