Socrates: Brazilian Soccer Meastro Dies

The tall Brazilian Soccer Magician of the 9180s, Dr. Oliviera (Socrates) dies at age 57. He too was a medical doctor and a writer.
Read Here:
http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/latinamerica/story/socrates-dead-age-57-brazil-legend-hospital-infection-food-poisoning-120411

POLYGAMY: ETHICS, SPIRITUALITY AND MARRIAGE, A TRAGEDY

I am Joseph R. Alila, the author of Sunset on Polygamy (ISBN 1424166845).Sunset on Polygamy is the first of six novels and two collections of poems that I have written. This novel speaks to the sociological, spiritual as well anthropological underpinnings of governance, courtship, marriage, polygamy, remarriage, conflicts, death and disease among the Luo of East Africa. I have also addressed how these aspects of life affect the understanding and management of the New Disease epidemic (read AIDS epidemic) among my people (the Luo).

As a social critic, I believe that my role is to blow the horn, to warn, to praise, to mourn, and to ask questions whenever there is an emergent cultural problem. In this role, I have tried to be an innocent presenter (and sometimes an active presenter) of facts as I see them, and calling human folly what it is.It may come as a surprise to some of my readers that my female heroines (Felicia the Nyadendi, Nyapora, Megan and Gina) tend to influence the destiny of their homes and husbands and a whole people. But this is a natural consequence of the fact that, among the Luo, marriage is a spiritual institution, and the woman is at the center of worship within the home. When polygamy is factored into the marriage equation, marriage becomes one complex religious institution with its own dos and don’ts. Now, when the ethical references and goalposts are frayed and weakened by social decay, marriage in general (and polygamy in particular) becomes a complex deathtrap in the face of emergent disease epidemics such as AIDS. When the symptoms of AIDS are confused for that of chira (deadly curse), the tragedy of our human folly becomes immeasurable.

SUNSET ON POLYGAMY

By Joseph R. Alila

www.publishamerica.com

OF TWO WOMEN OF HOPE AMID REJECTION

I am Joseph R Alila, author of such novels as SUNSET ON POLYGAMY and THE MILAYI CURSE.
In my newest novel, WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART, I have employed a story about the trying times of two widows to lead my readers along an anthropological journey into some cultural aspects of marriage, kinship and inheritance among the Luo of Eastern Africa. WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART is an ansty cry of a strong-willed, unfortunate widow (Apiny) with the "spiritually-untouchable" tag hanging on her neck, who, together with her widowed mother-in-law (Awino) insist that they belong with the clan into which they married, even as their immediate in-laws consider the younger widow to be a living "a curse," who must go. In this choice, the women have taken the higher cultural moral road than their heartless in-laws. Moreover, the women are on the right side of Luo Customary Law, which states that women and their children belong with the clan, and not just the immediate family of their husbands.
In Awino accepting a distant brother-in-law’s hand in marriage so that her burdened daughter-in-law ( Apiny) can find a kitchen in which to sleep as the latter awaits the birth of her next husband, I tell my readers a story about undying faith, courage, patience and humility, on the part of the women, and charity, on the part of the widower (Misuru). That Awino agrees to give her daughter-in-law a tender son to marry is a steep moral hill she, Awino, has to overcome amid daily echoes of laughter and ridicule of both women by their contemporaries.
But my readers should remeber that this is eighteenth-century Luoland, in which due process in matters of birth, marriage, death has to be observed religiously, lest unsettled spirits run amock. Moreover, the Seer says that the future of a whole people is tied to the strength of arms of the yet-to-be-born children and grandchildren of the two widows.

READING IS LIFE

Hi ,
I am Novelist and Poet Joseph R. Alila. My wife asked me this morning to remember you, my readers, this X-mas. Happy Holidays, to you my visitors too! I wish your a literary 2008!
Reading reminds me that I am still alive! Being able to talk or sing reminds me that I am blessed with a tongue, and can verbally communicate. Being able to write is a sign that I am still functional.
I hope you add WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART (www.createspace.com/3341373 or www.amazon.com ) by Joseph R. Alila to your Must Read List. The book has a new cover, and a new formatting. Like its sister novels, SINS OF OUR HEARTS (www.createspace.com/3339874, www.amazon.com ), and THE MILAYI CURSE (Lulu (www.lulu.com/810018 ), this book talks to our humanity. They are relational novels, and are about us and our daily neighbors, and how we relate to them, and why we need to oil our relationships for our mutual benfit. The writings remind us that mutual silence and prejudice are a curse and a cancer to good neighborliness. Read. Talk one to another.
Have a good 2009.

Welcome.

JR Alila

BOOK RELEASE: NOT ON MY SKIN

NOT ON MY SKIN

A Novel By Joseph R. Alila, ISBN 143-825527-6; EAN 13: 978-1438255279. Published by http://www.createspace.com/, An Amazon.com Company, IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR SALE from http://www.amazon.com/.

FROM THE BOOK JACKET

In JR Alila's "NOT ON MY SKIN," the all-American City of Harmony is not exactly harmonious. That is the conclusion of Ochome, a poet and suburbanite, who has staked out his evenings compositing verses in the city's Oak Street Café from where the American life plays itself out before his analytical eyes. Ochome discovers that Harmony City's peace is only skin deep; wherever he turns, he sees, hears, and constantly feels souls cursing in various nuances of "not on my skin"-- a protest mantra against nuances of prejudice he sees, hears and feels in the city café and beyond. The Café crowd has a few regulars, notably the verbally-disengaged Quartet of Sam, Pierre the snoop, Ochome , and Frank. But the hero is the diabolical Alex, a man considered a mad nuisance by all, but who, in reality, is the only mirror and gong off which Harmony City perhaps can see and hear itself--the same way a child's innocent words are the real measure of the moral quality of life in a home.

Posted by Joseph R Alila (AUTHOR)

AIDS SCOURGE

DEADLY MIXTURES:

1. FISH TRADE--POVERTY--AIDS--APATHY--MALICE

2. CULTURE--AIDS--IGNORANCE--MISINFORMATION

Here are some old UN-sponsored Videos on AIDS. Pass it along as a service to your community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBpCKuRvUQg&eurl=http://www.mashada.com/forums/kenya-2008/84390-nyanza-province-tops-hiv-aids-prevalence-kenya.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWw1O9Fqf04

JR Alila (Author: SUNET ON POLYGAMY)

NOT ON MY SKIN (A Novel)

NOT ON MY SKIN (A Novel By Joseph R. Alila) ISBN 143-825527-6; EAN 13: 978-1438255279.
Published by http://www.createspace.com/, An Amazon.com Company www.amazon.com/books.

Fans,
My next literary voyage has landed me on the shores of the Americas. It is from here that I bring to you a work of fiction I have struggled with for a couple of years--long before I received any inspiration to write, THE MILAYI CURSE, SINS OF OUR HEARTS, RATENG' AND BRIDE, or WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART--all of which have seen the light of day.
Here comes NOT ON MY SKIN, a novel in honor our many Safaris and awakenings in the wider diaspora.

SYNOPSIS

In Alila's "NOT ON MY SKIN," the all-American City of Harmony is not exactly harmonious. That is the conclusion of Ochome, a poet and suburbanite, who has staked out his evenings compositing verses in the city's Oak Street Café from where the American life plays itself out before his analytical eyes. Ochome discovers that Harmony City's peace is only skin deep; wherever he turns, he sees, hears, and constantly feels souls cursing in various nuances of "not on my skin"-- a protest mantra against nuances of prejudice he sees, hears and feels in the city café and beyond. The Café crowd has a few regulars, notably the verbally-disengaged Quartet of Sam, Pierre the snoop, Ochome , and Frank. But the hero is the diabolical Alex, a man considered a mad nuisance by all, but who, in reality, is the only mirror and gong off which Harmony City perhaps can see and hear itself--the same way a child's innocent words are the real measure of the moral quality of life in a home.

BOOK RELEASE

WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART
[ISBN 1438207514. EAN-13: 978-14 38207513]

A novel by Joseph R. Alila

Published by CreateSpace An Amazon.com Company
(http://www.createspace.com/3341373)]


JR Alila’s WHISPER TO MY ACHING HEART is a story about two widows overcoming great odds to become mothers of a future people. In this moving-yet-romantic, love story, a young widow (Apiny) finds herself to be the bearer of the damning, spiritually-untouchable label in the male-dominated Eighteenth-Century Africa. Ejected alongside her widowed mother-in-law (Awino) and ridiculed by friends, Apiny waits for fifteen years before she receives another man in her bed. But this comes only after Awino remarries and raises a miracle son (Otin) who is called upon to walk into Apiny’s house while still in his teens. But, even after getting all the handsome sons and beautiful daughters she wished for from her youthful lover, Apiny is not at peace in her heart. She mourns and struggles in her heart as her youthful husband is compelled by cultural traditions to receive his own wife.

Expect copies to be available at http://www.amazon.com/ within the month