Excerpts from a Good Book!

 I am publishing these excerpts from a new book I am reading called The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. The book is excellent and reading these pages will be valuable. 

Letting Go of Leaders Does Not Create Change

The main argument of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, 20th Anniversary Edition is that letting go of a poor leader is the best way to make a team function again. Patrick Lencioni, the author, writes "Someone had to be accountable for the mess, and Jeff was the man at the top" (Lencioni 9). However, the person at the top is often not the personal responsible for a team's issues. Problems in fact may be created by people lower down in a chain of command, and the person at the top may not even know what is happening. 

Oxford Latin Desk Dictionary

 In the Oxford Latin Desk Dictionary, James Morwood writes that "In a modern dictionary, the Latin into English section is of the greater importance." This is absolutely true, as reading Latin is the most common way people interact with the language today.

 

Many of the words in Latin are similar to words we use in English today. For example, the Oxford Latin Desk Dictionary has the following entry:

 abacus, ī m counting-board; side-board; square stone on the top of columns.

 An abacus in Latin is exactly the same as an abacus in modern English.

 

Source: Morwood, James, editor. Oxford Latin Desk Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2005. 

 

 

Democratization

"Insecurity and political values in the Arab World" by Melani Cammet, Ishac Diwan, and Irina Vartanova, deftly argues that feelings of perceived insecurity can reduce support for democracy in Arab countries. This contradicts longstanding assumptions that Islam or Arab culture makes the Arab world authoritarian.

This paper's findings are also in agreement with findings in an article by Mazaheri and Monroe that lower-middle class business owners supported mobilization against incumbent authoritarians in 2011 but opposed democratic activism when instability negatively impacted their businesses. 

Melani Cammett's current research explores development politics and social services provision, identity politics, and politics after conflict.

 The views in the article are the views of the authors and not of Taylor & Francis. 

 Melani Cammett, Ishac Diwan & Irina Vartanova (2020): Insecurity and political values in the Arab world, Democratization, DOI: 10.1080/13510347.2020.1723081. 

 Mazaheri, Nimah, and Steve L. Monroe. "No Arab Bourgeoisue, No Democracy? The Entrepreneurial Middle Class and Democratic Attitudes since the Arab Spring." Comparative Politics 50, no. 4 (2018): 523-550.

Excerpt from Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean

He believed the dog was immortal. "There will always be a Rin Tin Tin," Lee Duncan said, time and time again, to reporters, to visitors, to fan magazines, to neighbors, to family, to friends. At first, this must have sounded absurd––just wishful thinking about the creature that had eased his loneliness and made him famous around the world. And yet, just as Lee believed, there has always been a Rin Tin Tin.

My Daughter Considers Her Body by Floyd Skloot

She examines her hand, fingers spread wide.
Seated, she bends over her crossed legs
to search for specks or scars and cannot hide
her awe when any mark is found. She begs
 me to look, twisting before her mirror,
at some tiny bruise on her hucklebone.
Barely awake, she studies creases her
arm developed as she slept. She has grown
entranced with blemish, begun to know
her body's facility for being flawed. She does not trust its will to grow
whole again, but may learn that too, freeing
herself to accept the body's deep thirst
for risk. Learning to touch her wounds comes first.

Aterrada

No estoy confrontando un huracán de un problema, pero estoy confrontando un problema pequeñó. Estoy aterrada al idea de alguien—más guapo, más gracioso, más genial—en particular, Garrett—viniendo al equipo del debate y causando todos los participantes a gustarle más que yo.  Es mál para tener los celos, pero es my personalidad. No quiero otra persona controllando el equipo que creí. Y no quiero este extranjero cambiar las reglas, cambiar el equipo, y robarme de la lealtad del equipo. Pragnya dijó que se sonida muy mál. Pero es que me siento.

Recibí el premio segundo a las nacionales, y me siento mál a este día. Pero estoy orgullosa de este premio al mismo tiempo. Y algunos veces, quiero gritarlo al cielo. Al todos. Pero hoy, cuándo dijélo rápido, sentí mál, porque nadie le gusta una fanfarróna. Pero me siento amenazado. Me gusta ser el tío genial, quien todos le encantan. Pienso que quiero más amor en mi vida, de personas quien no son de la familia. La gente prefiere hombres. Es la verdad. Son más graciosos, más geniales, más relajados. Las mujeres son madres, las personas quien hacer las decisiónes para la familia, formar las reglas, trabajar, trabajar, trabajar para generar niños de éxito. Pero no son geniales. Son aburridas. Mi sentimiento personal es que Hannah fue una entrenador y capitán de la personalidad “analítica.” No podía tener amigos del equipo o no la escuchaban. Es una posición difícil, y mientras les gusta a ella, yo estaba la favorita en el pasado–al menos, una persona genial. Pero ahora, estoy preocupada que otra persona será el entrenador favorito.