Conferences Books

This is a necessary tool to every person, not only to lawyers, interested to know how the "personal data protection" works in the European Union. You will be surprised with the similarities between the privacy regimes in Europe and the United States, notwithstanding this systems differ in important particulars. The book includes the study of the ways in which restrictive data protection law may clash with free trade agreements signed by the US and the members of the EU, as the World Trade Organization. The book is highly recommended.

Excellent book, clear,and to the point!!!
The articles from Hilda Larrondo are excellent.
Her articles show experience and understanding of the mathematical chalanges and the solution with simplicity and clarity.
I highly recomend the book but specially the ones from Hilda Larrondo.

This landmark Pastoral Exhortation from His Holiness the humble intellectual Pope Paul VI regarding our requirement to preach and practice the Good News of Jesus Christ grows more timely as time passes, now some 31 years. Hopefully, we may soon catch up in time to its wisdom; hopefully, we soon may grow up enough in understanding to learn from Our Holy Father Pope Paul VI's strong and thoughtful words of instruction, and most importantly, to put them into practice, even as he preaches.

For it is not enough simply to preach the Gospel and walk away, as the Pope reminds us here; we must also preach by our practice. As any good teacher knows, we must also demonstrate fearlessly and faithfully that all-giving and self-sacrificing and total love which Jesus Christ Himself taught and lived. Thus may our preaching have meaning, mission and message for our world wherever we find ourselves, including among the most poor and abandoned, especially among the most poor and abandoned by this world. Thus may our preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ truly bear fruit in this temporal space, this time and place, by not only our preaching but through our total living, and our dying.

Permit me please to quote a few brief passages from this most important later encyclical of Our Holy Father, ranking in importance for today with his Populorum Progressio, etc.

Our Holy Father writes that the Church "has the duty to proclaim the liberation of millions of human beings, among whom are many of the Church's own children; the duty to help bring this liberation forth in the world, to bear witness to it and to make sure it is total. None of this is alien to evangelization." (EN 30)

The Pope furthers writes: "The Church is not willing to restrict its mission only to the religious field and dissociate itself from man's temporal problems." (EN 34)

This Papal Exhortation further relates the struggle for human liberation from oppression to salvation in Jesus Christ (EN 35). And I will add one further quote for the purposes of this positive review of this landmark Papal document which every practicing Catholic worthy of that well-respected and holy name must carefully study and put into daily practice:

"The Church strives always to insert the Christian struggle for liberation in the universal plan of salvation which it proclaims." (EN 38)

This pastoral Papal Exhortation, calling us not only to preach but to live the Gospel message of liberation of the poor and freedom for the captive (see Luke where Jesus reads Isaiah in his local synagogue, first announcing the themes of his ministry) needs to be studied and read and put into practice today, now more than ever, when we have so much to lead us astray and to confuse us. Turn off that television. Contemplate this message from Our Holy Father speaking to us clearly, concisely, intelligently, compassionately, challengingly, even now, today. Live this Good News of salvation and liberation, in our lives and in our world, despite all obstacles we meet from the powers and dominations of this world.

Pacem in terris.

and it is unavailable.

Go figure.

The capitalist monopoly of our culture? Of our Church?

How can this most essential document for humanity's development not be available, and thus not discussed any longer and thus forgotten.

We forget at the risk of our devolution into the quagmires we now stand.

For guidance and comfort and a way out, read Economic Justice for All by the National Council of Catholic Bishops until this fresh pure fountainhead again opens its rich waters

I would like to review about the Press Conference Proceeding

We had a copy of the haggadah. We loved the illustrations and the text.
We will be using it at our family sader this passover.

My shul used this haggadah this past Pesach and I was very impressed with it. My husband (who is not Jewish) enjoyed it so much he has suggested getting this for our house. This haggadah used gender inclusive language. The prayers were elegant and all the prayers had an English translation under them. It also has a part dedicated for Miriam's cup and beautiful sketches. The sections that had songs -- the authors thoughtfully included the page numbers so you could find the song without stumbling through the book. My favorite part of this haggadah, it had commentary from many people, even people who are not Jewish, such as Martin Luther King Jr., to help illuminate parts of the seder. The only downfall of the book is it is a bit large and a bit cumbersome, but overall, well worth it.

Organizing meetings can be a bit of an arduous task when the amount of participants reaches nearly two thousand. "Open Space Technology: A User's Guide" introduces a new concept for businesses to follow known as open space technology, where groups can self-organize in a short amount of time. To implement the technique into one's business, "Open Space Technology" lays out a step by step guide including all the resources one needs to get ideas off the ground. The third edition features a survey of open space technology's current usage around the world and an updated list of resources. A highly recommended book for both personal and community library business collections.

Ordinations of U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1790-1989 : A Chronological List by Charles Bransom is an interesting study in what the Catholic church teaches as "Apostolic Succession" (the concept that every real bishop has succeeded by the physical laying on of hands all the way back to the apostles). It actually makes for some rather dry reading...but as a historical document it is outstanding. No other work of its kind exists that brings together an entire episcopal "genealogy" between two covers. The only question is - given the fact that every Catholic bishop in this country has records stored somewhere on their ordinations - why this book? What real purpose does it serve? To me that question is never properly answered. However - it does not detract from its historical significance or value to those interested in the subject.

This was my stepfather's grandfather and his namesake. So this became very personal for me. He gives great detail of what was going on in his time, mentions very many names of persons in the congregations he served through the years. Also much commentary of those ministers attending conferences. There are so many personal insights into his life and those around him, including the poisoning of his own infant by a nanny too busy to bother with a crying infant. It is historic as well as philosophical, so it is a bit of a dry read, but well worth the effort. Amazing how the early church was organized and administered. I think anyone involved in ministry would find it inspiring.

This collection of papers from a 1989 conference has lasting value. The papers cover the late Qing, the Republican Period, New Culture and May 4th years, the Mao era, and the first 10 years of Deng Xiaoping's reforms. The book is a must for any East Asian Studies or Modern Chinese History student.

The contents are:

"Emperors and the Chinese Political System" by Alexander Woodside

"The Structure of the Chinese Economy During the Qing Period: Some Thoughts on the 150th Anniversary of the Opium War" by Madeleine Zelin

"Models of Historical Change : the Chinese State and Society, 1839-1989" by Frederic Wakeman, Jr.

"The Enlightenment Mentality and the Chinese Intellectual Dilemma" by Tu Wei-ming

"The May Fourth Movement as a Historical Turning Point : Ecological Exhaustion, Militarization, and Other Causes of China's Modern Crisis" by Lloyd E. Eastman

"The Social Agenda of May Fourth" by Evelyn S. Rawski

"Modernity and its Discontents: The Cultural Agenda of the May Fourth Movement" by Leo Ou-fan Lee

"The May Fourth era: China's Place in the World" by Michael H. Hunt

"Powers of State, Paradoxes of Dominion: China 1949-1979" by Vivienne Shue

"The Pattern and Legacy of Economic Growth in the Mao Era" by Barry Naughton

"State and Society in the Mao Era" by Martin King Whyte

"Chinese Communism in the Era of Mao Zedong, 1949-1976" by Thomas P. Bernstein

"The Deng Era's Uncertain Political Legacy" by Michel Oksenberg

"The Lasting Effect of China's Economic Reforms, 1979-1989" by Dwight H. Perkins

"The Renegotiation of Chinese Cultural Identity in the post-Mao Era: An Anthropological Perspective" by James L. Watson

"Reflections on the Opening of China" by James R. Townsend

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Woodside examines the basic norms and political culture of the imperial era, and how it influenced modern China's path, contrasting China and Europe along the way; while Wakeman describes the adaptation of political ideology to new situations over time.

All the May 4th papers are excellent, but especially Lloyd Eastman's on the economic and environmental causes of the modernity crisis, which led to May 4th. His paper pairs nicely with Zelin's earlier examination of the Qing economy.

Martin King Whyte's paper is especially good as well, comparing the imperial and Maoist states, and their relationship to society. The Maoist state is presented as realizing the imperial dream of total penetration of society, which was previously impossible due to technology and the weakness of the imperial state.

Economists Naughton and Perkins give balanced accounts of Mao and Deng era economies.

Vivienne Shue summarizes the controversial argument in her book _The Reach of the State_, which is, that the Maoist state was not able to penetrate the village and ensure obedience to its directives as thoroughly as it aspired to, that local leaders protected villagers to an extent, and the Dengist reforms accomplished this penetration more thoroughly.

Thomas Bernstein has long been among the most respected China scholars, and his contribution on the Mao era is balanced and insightful. He notes the PRC won mass support and popular legitimacy in the 1950s through its idealism in theory and practice, but that by the end of the Mao period, this faith had was eroded due to "ideological burnout" and the predictable impacts of Mao's view that "left" errors were well intentioned zeal gone too far, while "right" errors were subversive. Given the lack of political freedom after the collapse of the 100 Flowers, left-wing extremism was thus unavoidable. Bernstein gives credit to Mao for his warnings of the party-state becoming a bureaucratic vested interest group (as in the USSR) but correctly notes that he had no solution to this problem other than launching chaotic Cultural Revolutions every 8 years, a "doleful prospect" as Bernstein notes.

The papers on the Deng era are interesting to review in hindsight considering the situation was in radical flux at the time.