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| Bahá’í News | August 1989 | Bahá’í Year 146 |
The Hand of the Cause of God
Ugo Giachery: 1896-1989
Bahá’í News[edit]
The Hand of the Cause of God Ugo Giachery passes away in Samoa | 1 |
Nancy Reagan helps dedicate Bahá’í-planned anti-drug exhibit in L.A. | 2 |
Introducing Glosa, a ‘global language’ of great simplicity and charm | 4 |
Vermont’s School for International Training shares many Bahá’í ideals | 7 |
Bahá’ís must take positive steps now to help protect earth’s future | 8 |
United Nations prepares to tackle some tough environmental issues | 10 |
Around the world: News from Bahá’í communities all over the globe | 12 |
Bahá’í News is published monthly by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community. Manuscripts submitted should be typewritten and double-spaced throughout; any footnotes should appear at the end. The contributor should keep a carbon copy. Send materials to the Periodicals Office, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A. Changes of address should be reported to the Management Information Systems, Bahá’í National Center. Please attach mailing label. Subscription rates within the U.S.: one year, $12; two years, $20. Outside the U.S.: one year, $14; two years, 24$. Foreign air mail: one year, $20; two years, $40. Payment in U.S. dollars must accompany the order. Second class postage paid at Wilmette, IL 60091. Copyright © 1989, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
[Page 1]
The Hand of the Cause of God Ugo Giachery is taken to his final resting place near the House of Worship in Samoa
Hand of Cause Dr. Giachery dies[edit]
Deeply grieved loss valiant, indefatigable, dearly-loved, distinguished Hand Cause Dr. Ugo Giachery. His passing in course historic visit Samoa adds fresh laurels to crown already won during ministry beloved Guardian, and reinforces spiritual distinction vast Pacific region, already blessed by interment four other Hands.
His magnificent accomplishments as member at large of International Bahá’í Council in connection raising superstructure Shrine of the Báb, which prompted Guardian to name one of the doors of that noble edifice after him, his painstaking efforts in promoting on the local, national and international levels paramount interests of the Faith, his notable achievement in establishment Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assembly on eve launching Ten Year Crusade, his outstanding qualities of zeal, fidelity, determination and perseverance, which characterized imperishable record his arduous labors—all combine to richly adorn annals Faith over period his superb, assiduous exertions, and undoubtedly assure him bountiful reward in Kingdom on High.
Advise all National Spiritual Assemblies hold befitting memorial gatherings his name, particularly in Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs in recognition his unique position, splendid services.
July 6, 1989
United States[edit]
‘Lifestyle Choices’ exhibit fights drugs[edit]
On June 7, former First Lady Nancy Reagan and recently appointed federal drug czar William Bennett were in Los Angeles to help dedicate a unique substance abuse exhibit, “Lifestyle Choices,” at the California Museum of Science and Industry.
The nation’s first permanent exhibit designed to educate children and adolescents about the consequences of drinking, drug use and smoking, “Lifestyle Choices” was conceived some two and one-half years ago by David Langness, a Bahá’í from Los Angeles who has worked for many years in the health-care field.
The exhibit is co-sponsored by the National Health Foundation, of which Mr. Langness is executive director, and ARCO, who contributed $750,000 to its $1.3-million cost. Twenty-seven other private-sector contributors have also supported the project, which was built solely with donations from corporations, foundations and individuals and using no taxpayer funds.
It features computer-driven interactive video stations where viewers take part at various decision-making points in realistic peer-pressure situations and can then see the results of their decisions.
“Lifestyle Choices” also houses a specially-designed drunk- and drugged-driving simulator where participants can test their ability to drive under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Many other stationary and interactive exhibits fill the hall, delivering factual, honest information about substance abuse and its consequences.
“The ‘Lifestyle Choices’ exhibit,” said Mrs. Reagan, “represents a new approach in preventing the tragedy of drug use among our young people.
“It is so important that children learn to make good decisions about alcohol and drug use. For them to ‘just say no’ isn’t always an easy thing to do. And that’s why the ‘Lifestyle Choices’ exhibit is a vital part of the learning process.”
Following her remarks Mrs. Reagan, who serves as honorary chairman of the new drug abuse prevention project, hung a plaque that reads “In the spirit of substance abuse prevention, I dedicate this exhibit to all those whose lives have been hurt by drugs.”
The dedication ceremony, which formally opened “Lifestyle Choices” and honored Mrs. Reagan for her efforts in drug abuse prevention, was presided over by Mr. Langness and attended by a host of the country’s most well-known figures in the war on drugs.
After praising Mrs. Reagan’s anti-drug campaign, Mr. Bennett said, “I have been in this job (as head of the government’s anti-drug operations) for three months, and the clearest and most important signal we can send in this issue of illegal drugs is to stand up and say loudly and clearly that drugs are wrong.”
“Lifestyle Choices” will be seen by an estimated five million visitors a year, about half of them school children, and has been incorporated into the Los Angeles Unified School District’s and Los Angeles Police Department’s DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) curriculum.
Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, other DARE program officials, the leaders of many of California’s largest hospital drug treatment centers, some 400 business and community leaders, and many media representatives were among those who attended the event.
Immediately after the dedication Mr. Langness, joined by ARCO chairman and chief executive officer Lodwrick M. Cook; National Health Foundation board chairman Dickinson Ross, and a visiting group of school children from Los Angeles, escorted Mrs. Reagan on a tour through the exhibit.
“This exhibit is very important,” the former First Lady said, “because it has already reached and will continue to reach thousands of teen-agers with a strong message about the dangers of drug abuse.”
“I want to thank Mrs. Reagan for her support,” Mr. Langness told the assembled guests, “because her initial involvement, when she was still in Washington, and her efforts here today mean visibility for ‘Lifestyle Choices’—and visibility means more kids will visit this important exhibit.”
Designed by a consortium of health professionals, education and prevention specialists, museum curators, the Boston exhibit design firm of Wetzel and Associates, and a specially formed national task force of substance abuse experts, “Lifestyle Choices” is constructed to develop and hone decision-making skills in young people from ages eight through 18.
“The decision to experiment with drugs, alcohol or tobacco is potentially the most long-lasting and devastating lifestyle choice a young person can make,” said Mr. Langness, “so the message here is ‘choose not to use.’
“This was a labor of love for me,” he continued, “in which I tried to combine the two Bahá’í ideals of freedom from addictive substances and a commitment to telling the truth.
“I wanted ‘Lifestyle Choices’ to be straightforward, factual and devoid of scare tactics. If we tell kids ‘drugs will kill you,’ and their friends demonstrate to them that this isn’t always true, they won’t believe anything we say.
“So this exhibit, in the spirit of the Bahá’í principle of independent investigation of truth, says, ‘here are the
[Page 3]
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan is
congratulated by Los Angeles Chief of
Police Daryl Gates during the dedication ceremony June 7 of ‘Lifestyle
Choices,’ an anti-drug exhibit for children ages 8-18 at the California
Museum of Science and Industry in
Los Angeles. David Langness (standing at right), a Bahá’í from Los Angeles who conceived the idea for the exhibit, chats with federal drug czar William Bennett while ARCO chief executive Lod Cook (left) and Dickinson
Ross (seated at right), chairman of the
National Health Foundation, look on.
facts—make up your own mind.’ ”
The “Lifestyle Choices” exhibit is the second phase in a plan to take drug abuse prevention services to each large urban area in the country.
Beginning with the opening of general health and nutrition exhibits at the museum during the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the first phase of the project, called “Health for Life,” won the President’s Private Sector Initiative Award in 1985 and has been termed the country’s finest general health exhibit.
The third phase, now in the planning stages, will include a mobile version of “Lifestyle Choices” capable of visiting cities and towns across America.
Besides his work with the non-profit National Health Foundation and his work on the “Lifestyle Choices” exhibit, Mr. Langness serves as president of the board of directors of the Los Angeles Homeless Health Care Project, is chairman of the American Heart Association’s Public Policy Committee, and is a member of the executive committee of the Coalition for a Healthy California.
He has also been involved with several social and economic development projects, most notably as the founder of Project HELP (Hospital Emergency Airlift, Philippines) in 1987 and as a participant in an ongoing effort to build an internationally-supported hospital for civilian wounded in El Salvador.
Essay[edit]
Glosa: a language for the world?[edit]
Language is a fascinating topic, and equally intriguing is the quest for an international language referred to so many times by Bahá’u’lláh in His Writings as one of the principles for the future Bahá’í Commonwealth.
For those with the motivation and the time to spare, a study of The Loom of Language by Frederick Bodmer (edited and arranged by Prof. Lancelot Hogben), first published in 1944, would be of great interest. As it says on the cover of the most recent paperback edition:
“This is a richly rewarding treasure-chest of a book to be read and re-read, dipped into again and again and kept as company for a lifetime.”
However, Bahá’ís, being the extremely busy people they are, with clearly defined goals, might well turn to the last two chapters—“Pioneers of Language Planning” and “Language Planning for a New Order”—which record the history of constructed languages over the last 300 years, and, finally, as a result of the many lessons learned over the years, enumerate the necessary requirements for
“a common medium for people who speak (so many) mutually unintelligible tongues ... a world—or at least federations of what were once sovereign states—where people of different speech communities would be bi-lingual. Everyone would still grow up to speak one or other of the existing national languages, but everyone would also acquire a single auxiliary for supra-national communication.” (p. 481)
This is even more important today than when the book was written since
... sadly, many people are unable to share their information because of the barrier of thousands of competing languages, of which even the simplest is difficult to learn. The Global Village requires a Global Language!
modern technology has given everyone in the world the means to communicate, to speak with and see any other individual anywhere; yet sadly, many people are unable to share their information because of the barrier of thousands of competing languages, of which even the simplest is difficult to learn. The Global Village requires a Global Language!
If anyone today were asked to name a constructed language, they would immediately answer (if they knew one at all) “Esperanto,” which was invented by Dr. Ludwig Zamenhof in Poland and which celebrated its centenary in 1987. Esperanto is, in fact, only one of several hundred languages constructed during the years from the latter half of the 17th century following the decline of Latin as a medium of scholarship.
One cannot elaborate here on all the fascinating experiments of those intervening years, so fully described in Mr. Bodmer’s book. The immediate precursor of Esperanto was Volapuk (1880), the first constructed language which human beings actually spoke, wrote and printed. It had many drawbacks, and its success was short-lived, to be followed by Esperanto in 1887.
According to Mr. Bodmer’s book, Esperanto, although based on the desire to “reconcile racial antagonisms by getting people to adopt a neutral medium of common understanding,” has several defects, “the most glaring of which (is) that it is not consistently international.” The unfamiliar aspect of the five accented consonants is also criticized. It is indeed easier to learn, however, at least in its initial stages, than any of the natural languages, and has a considerable and devoted following of some millions all over the world including China, which, with several other countries, broadcasts in Esperanto.
The book offers a list of requirements deemed necessary for a constructed international language, paying due regard to the criticisms of all the efforts that have gone before:
- It would be an isolating language (that is, the word would be an unalterable unit). Its rules of grammar would be rules of word-order, and as uniform and as few as possible.
- It would be essentially a language with Latin-Greek word-material, so chosen that the beginner could associate items of the basic word-list with syllables of internationally current words.
- It would have word-economy at least as great as that of basic English.
- It would have regular spelling, without accents which reduce the speed of writing and add to the cost of printing.
| This article, “Glosa: A Language for the World?” was written for Bahá’í News by Evelyn C. Jerrard, a Bahá’í who lives in Sevenoaks, Kent, England. |
“A language purged of irregular spelling, irregular and irrelevant grammar, unusual word collocations (i.e., idioms), and redundant word-forms, would take its place unobtrusively in a program of general elementary instruction in semantics and etymology. Learning it would be learning to associate roots common to different words and to gain facility in the art of definition. Proficiency would thus come with little effort in a small fraction of the time now devoted to the teaching of foreign languages.” (pp. 509-10)
[Page 5]
So much for the conclusions of the
book. As Bahá’ís, we know that the international auxiliary language will be
chosen by a Council of all countries
“and must contain words from different languages. It will be governed by
the simplest rules and there will be no
exceptions; neither will there be gender, nor extra and silent letters. Everything indicated will have but one name.
In Arabic there are hundreds of names
for the camel! In the schools of each
nation the mother tongue will be
taught, as well as the revised Universal
Language.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá in London,
p. 95)
So we know that whichever language is chosen, it will need to be revised by the Council of experts. It would seem that if there were a language in existence that conformed as nearly as possible both to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s statements and the conclusions drawn in The Loom of Language, the simpler would be the task of the Council when the time came to work out a universal language. I should now like to tell you about what I think is such a language.
Prof. Lancelot Hogben has already been mentioned as the editor and arranger of The Loom of Language. He was a biologist and linguist, and had already come to the conclusion, as he later stated in The Vocabulary of Science (published in 1970), that
“The world-wide vocabulary of Western Science is the nearest thing to the lexicon of a truly global auxiliary language that mankind has yet achieved. It derives its stock-in-trade almost exclusively from two dead languages (Latin and Greek) ...”
In 1943 he published Interglossa (Pelican Books) which attempted to provide a framework that could make use of this global “lexicon.” Owing to the fact that it was wartime, and for other reasons, the book made little impact at the time. In 1978, Ronald Clark and Wendy Ashby, the present authors, who had long since seen the potential of Interglossa, received Prof. Hogben’s approval to take on the task of its propagation. Prof. Hogben died soon afterward, and after much translation into Interglossa, it was felt advisable to introduce a few minor alterations, and as Prof. Hogben was no longer available to approve the changes, it was thought proper to change the name to Glosa, thus stressing the fact that double letters are unnecessary (Glossa is Greek for “tongue, language”).
Glosa seems to conform quite closely to the principles laid down by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and to the conclusions reached in The Loom of Language. It is an isolating language, it practices word economy, the words are brief, there is regular spelling. It is therefore governed by the simplest of rules with no exceptions. There is no gender, nor any extra or silent letters; each word in Glosa stands for only one concept, and any word can act as any part of speech. Always the context provides the precise meaning. As with all good translation, it is the meaning rather than the individual words that is translated.
Glosa has two vocabularies: a Central Vocabulary of only 1,000 words, carefully chosen from the already long-established International Scientific Vocabulary, and so generally useful that any kind of intelligent conversation can be carried on by means of them; and, for those who prefer a larger vocabulary, Mega-Glosa, which is enormous, certainly larger than English. In the course of its evolution as an international language, Glosa has recently adopted phonetic spelling which, it is felt, will simplify it for many people.
As for pronunciation, the rules are as follows:
Vowels are pronounced as in “fAther,” “hEy,” “machIne,” “mOre” and “lUnar.”
A Glosa C is always pronounced like “ch” in “CHurCH.” A hard C is always represented by K. The Greek CH (as in “CHaracter”) is pronounced (and spelled) as K.
G is always hard, as in “Gland.” Greek PH as in “PHilosoPHy” is pronounced (and spelled) as F. TH as in “THeatre” is pronounced (and spelled) as T, while J is pronounced like the Y in “Yes.”
R should always be pronounced, and preferably trilled. An initial X is pronounced like Z.
Every letter is pronounced, i.e. “HABE—hahbay.” The accent is gently on the vowel before the last consonant. There are no double letters in Glosa; it makes no difference to the pronunciation.
Here are a few internationally known words of which the Glosa content is in capital letters:
- PERI-SKOPE (literally means “around-look”)
- KARDIo-GRAPH (heart-write)
- PLUTO-KRATIc (wealth(y)-govern)
- INTER-NATIOnal (between-nations)
- GEO-GRAPHy (earth-write)
- TELE-PHONE (far-sound)
- AUTO-BIO-GRAPHy (self-life-write)
The mechanics of Glosa are simple, as there are no genders or inflection. Instead of an inflection, a functional word is used, in the same way as English uses “shall” and “did” to form the future or past tense of a verb.
FU forms the FUture tense in Glosa and PA the PAst tense. For example, MI SKOPE (I look); MI PA SKOPE (I did look; I looked); MI FU SKOPE (I shall look).
The plural is formed by the word PLU. “The” or “a” is U(N). A bird in Glosa is AVI, as in AVIary (a place for birds) and AVIation (flying like a bird). So, UN AVI (the bird); PLU AVI (the birds).
Twenty functional words from Glosa 1000 do all the work of the grammars of the older languages: PA, FU, NU and DU are four of these 20 words, NU meaning “now” and DU (DUration) being used for constructing continuous tenses. For example:
MI NU AKTI ID (I am doing it); MI FU AKTI ID (I shall be doing it); MI PA AKTI ID (I was doing it); MI NU-PA AKTI ID (I have just done it); MI NU-FU AKTI ID (I am just going to do it).
Here are a few sentences as examples to give you the flavor of Glosa:
- Mi grafo poesi (I write poetry).
- Mi sporta tenis (I play tennis).
- Mi amo skope televisio (I like watching television).
- Mi lekto e grafo (I read and write).
- Mi pa akusti u radio (I listened to the radio).
- Mi patri ne sporta tenis (My father doesn’t play tennis).
- An es minus ergo (He is unemployed).
- Mi patri-matri soni u piano (My grandmother plays the piano).
- Mi fratri eko in Paris (My brother lives in Paris).
- An es u medika-pe (He is a doctor).
- Tu sorori eko extra Paris (Your sister lives outside Paris).
- Fe nima es Margreta (Her name is Margaret).
- Mi habe deka anua (I am 10 years
- old).
- Place lekto mi bibli (Please read my book).
- Gratia de tu grama (Thanks for your letter).
Glosa is ideal as a first language and could easily be taught at a primary level as a means of extending the native and other European languages, and for helping students understand, enjoy and, therefore, easily memorize scientific terminology. Because of the absence of the old type of grammar, with its multitude of irregularities, Glosa is ideal for computerization.
Glosa is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end—to help rid the world of ignorance and poverty. Through the system of satellites, a two-way information exchange can now be applied to any part of the earth. The 1,000 words of Central Glosa can cope easily with any kind of information. Given the incentive, any Third World artisan can memorize 1,000 picturable words, and the incentive is to be able to receive and understand the excellent appropriate technology information now so abundantly available from the industrialized nations—to receive it directly without having to have it translated first into the local dialect.
For English-speaking students, one of the latest editions of Roget’s Thesaurus is quite useful. There are about 1,000 categories, corresponding to about 500 positive ones, since any category is usually accompanied by its opposite. In Glosa the opposite is formed by prepositing “no-”; so the Glosa word for pleasure, “hedo,” is balanced by its opposite, displeasure, or “no-hedo.”
At the end of 1987 the Glosa Education Organization (GEO) was established as a registered charity. Its aims are to:
- Publicize the language.
- Provide information about Glosa among the public, students and educationalists worldwide.
- Encourage the teaching of Glosa in educational establishments.
When funds allow, a GEO Journal will be published called EDUKA-GLOSA. It will emphasize that apart from being an international auxiliary language, Glosa makes a valuable contribution in promoting the understanding of international scientific terminology and in the speedy acquisition of the Latin and Greek vocabularies.
For Bahá’ís, the aims of Glosa can be viewed with sympathy and understanding, since they accord closely with Bahá’u’lláh’s vision of the new World Order, the foundations of which we are trying so hard to erect at the moment. So I will end this brief overview with two translations from the Bahá’í Writings into Glosa:
“The day is approaching when all the peoples of the world will have adopted one universal language and one common script. When this is achieved, to whatsoever city a man may journey, it shall be as if he were entering his own home.” (Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 166)
“U di ki proxi, kron panto demo de munda fu adopta mo universa lingua e mo komuni grafo. Kron u-ci gene akti, ad ali mega urba un andro posi viagia, id fu es komo si an ki ad-in auto-lo.”
“I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship Thee. I testify, at this moment, to my powerlessness and to Thy might, to my poverty and to Thy wealth. There is none other God but Thee, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting.” (Short obligatory prayer)
“Mi testifi, O mi Teo, que Tu pa krea mi te ski Tu, e te adora Tu. Mi testifi, u-ci momenta, de mi no-dina, e de Tu mega dina, de mi pove e de Tu pluto. Il es nuli hetero Teo, un Auxi tem Perilo, un Auto-krea.”
Papua New Guinea[edit]
Fifteen young Bahá’ís ages 9-15 gathered April 1-2 at the Bahá’í Center in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, for a deepening program sponsored by the Bahá’í Child Education Committee. Participants made teaching posters and enjoyed a variety of sports, music, videos and fellowship. Lessons were held on teaching the Faith, living a Bahá’í life, and learning prayers. Discussions were held that enabled those present to learn how others had reached the important decision to become Bahá’ís.
On March 23, the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Rabbie Namaliu, received a three-member delegation of Bahá’ís who presented him a copy of “The Promise of World Peace” and material about the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran.
After a cordial discussion about the principles of the Faith, Mr. Namaliu graciously thanked the Bahá’ís.
A newspaper article and photograph appeared on March 27 and 31 in the Niugini News, while National Radio also carried news of the presentation.
United States[edit]
School strengthens bonds of friendship[edit]
Friendship among all the people of the world is the common concern of Bahá’ís and the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Another common theme is world peace through international cooperation, and through unity in diversity.
The School has successfully served hundreds of Bahá’ís by giving them the practical skills to carry out their religious goals.
“Our highest aspiration is for a more peaceful world, achieved through improved intercultural understanding, environmental and population balance and economic and social development,” says the mission statement of The Experiment in International Living.
Its academic arm, the School for International Training, has become a natural training and degree center for Bahá’ís.
While dedicating their lives to social change, Bahá’ís have found a common bond with SIT, which offers degree-earning programs in international administration, world issues, and language teaching.
“The Experiment’s purpose,” says Peter Hayward, a Bahá’í who runs the Professional Development Resource Center at The Experiment’s School, “is to educate people toward global understanding, whether through exchange, development, training, or in academic programs.
“For Bahá’ís,” he says, “attending SIT is a natural progression—you have the international community aspect, and a shared philosophy which is bringing about understanding and peaceful coexistence among people.
“It’s a place where you can get the international training and skills you need to work successfully in developing countries.”
The wide cultural and ethnic diversity of its students is seen in this photograph of some of those attending the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, Vermont. Many Bahá’ís have attended the School, whose goals include world peace through better understanding.
SIT prepares students at the undergraduate and graduate levels for international careers in management, teaching, and dealing with contemporary world issues.
Graduates work abroad or with multi-cultural populations in the U.S. and hold responsible positions worldwide with major international development and service organizations, educational institutions, community service agencies and international corporations in law, business, and health care.
For those attending two-year colleges who may wish to transfer in their junior year, SIT offers the World Issues Program, a two-year, upper-level undergraduate degree program that features a seven-month internship in another culture.
After junior year classroom work covering the environment, Third World concerns, social development and global peace studies, students are required to go into the field and apply in an international internship the theory they’ve learned.
The World Studies Program, a four-year collaborative undergraduate program offered by the School in cooperation with nearby Marlboro College, is another option. It focuses on international studies and includes a six- to eight-month internship in another culture.
Opinion[edit]
Bahá’ís must act to protect environment[edit]
In its Riḍván message this year, the Universal House of Justice says that “assisting in endeavors to conserve the environment in ways which blend with the rhythm of life of our community must assume more importance in Bahá’í activities.” To better understand how we can blend conservation into the rhythm of our community life, it would be useful to explore some of the many insights the Bahá’í Faith has to offer on the topic of environment.
It is important for Bahá’ís to expand the vision of environmental activists so they can recognize the full dimensions of the environmental problem. Sometimes people who are deeply concerned about disasters in the environment develop a kind of “tunnel vision” which keeps them from seeing the interrelatedness of the environment to other social and spiritual problems. These people see only one sympton of mankind’s sickness and try to treat it as a disease in itself; they want a simple and immediate solution. Such an approach is reminiscent of the boy who stuck his finger in the dike to plug the hole and thus saved the community. The problem today is that the dike has many, many leaks, and it wastes time and energy to try to plug the holes on a dike that cannot be repaired. Social problems are not simple; they are complex and interrelated.
Bahá’ís believe that the application of spiritual principles will solve every social problem including the problem of man’s mistreatment of the earth. This does not mean that Bahá’ís should only sit and pray for the environment and hope that things will get better. What is first required is that Bahá’ís have a deep understanding of the root causes of environmental problems. At the most essential level, the environment will improve when we eliminate poverty, ignorance, disunity, materialism and sexual inequality, to name but a few of the illnesses afflicting mankind today. The second requirement is for Bahá’ís to transform this understanding into effective action.
| This brief essay concerning Bahá’í views on the environment was written for Bahá’í News by Eileen Tyson, a Bahá’í from Rahway, New Jersey. |
Environmental protection requires unity. Bahá’u’lláh wrote, “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” As environmental groups courageously speak out against the dumping of toxic wastes and other harmful materials in the environment, companies motivated only by profits have found a callous, ingenious new way to solve the problem of wastes: dumping in the Third World countries. Thus, companies comply with the law but do not solve the problem; rather, the spreading of these deadly wastes to a new part of the world compounds the damage to the environment. In like manner, the adoption of stringent environmental laws in one country now increasingly causes companies to simply move their polluting industries elsewhere. Desperate for employment and foreign currency, many governments will turn a blind eye to the harm such industries will cause.
Most environmentalists recognize that pollution is an international problem. Contaminated rivers pose a water source problem for many countries, and air pollution respects no national boundaries. A unified, universal solution is imperative. First of all, world unity in thought is necessary to begin to formulate and enforce laws that will help to eliminate the problem. Without a world government we have our present status quo: a world body that passes resolutions but cannot enforce them while the environment continues to deteriorate. A universal recognition of the dignity and worth of all people, not only those who live in the privileged West, will reveal the moral bankruptcy of those who do not wish to soil their own environment but have no qualms about polluting the lands of Third World peoples.
Bahá’u’lláh says that the present order is “lamentably defective.” We see evidence of this in the destruction of the environment by people in the underdeveloped countries who are forced by the unfair distribution of wealth to ravage the land they live on in order to survive. Destruction of the environment comes as well from ignorance of basic scientific principles of farming and land use. If we want to improve the environment, we must address the question of the disparity between rich and poor, and we must be involved in programs of universal literacy and education.
People can protect the environment by working to establish the equality of the sexes. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá says that, unlike the past, this age will be a time imbued with more feminine qualities. The qualities of nurturing and protecting have not been valued by the decision-makers of society in the past. Should it be any surprise that we are now faced with the consequences? Yet as women become more educated and are accepted as equal partners, their voices will be heard in society, and the priority women give to nurturance will influence decisions regarding care of the earth.
Materialism and greed are the primary causes of environmental destruction. The Universal House of Justice tells us that “the working of the material world is merely a reflection of spiritual conditions and until the spiritual conditions can be changed there
[Page 9]
can be no lasting change for the better
in material affairs.” The grey, fouled
rivers, the withering forests, and the
fetid, choking air bear horrifying,
striking witness to the reality of these
words.
Once Bahá’ís have a clear understanding that materialism, inequality of the sexes, ignorance, disunity and economic injustice are among the root causes of the degradation of the environment we can proceed confidently with the task of blending concern for the environment into the rhythm of our community life.
The experience of Bahá’í social and economic development, with its emphasis on the application of spiritual principles to material problems, can serve as a model for our involvement in environmental issues. In Bahá’í development we are concerned with using methods that will increase human dignity, not demean it. These methods, of course, are to be found in spiritual principles such as purity of motive, consultation by all members of the community regardless of sex, education or economic standing, and unified action. Bahá’í development takes place at the grassroots level; it is not imposed from above. Thus when people are able to define problems for themselves, consult on them and take unified action, it will result in (1) a deeper commitment to the problem being addressed; (2) material well-being (the material goal of the effort, such as the digging of a well, literacy, or the clearing of a piece of land); and (3) greater unity among members of the community. This last result is by far the most important of the three, for when a community uses spiritual principles, and is united, there is no problem it cannot overcome.
Bahá’í development plans are now being carried out worldwide as part of the organic growth of our communities. Although the projects may at present be small, they are nonetheless important, for they give us practice in using the tools and guiding principles that can change society. Bahá’í communities can use the same tools—the institutions of the local Spiritual Assembly and the Nineteen Day Feast, and their ability to consult and work together—to help preserve the environment.
Thus Bahá’ís can plan projects to help the environment that will be of immediate and practical value while demonstrating the value of using spiritual principles to solve material problems. For example, Bahá’ís can take part in or initiate recycling drives, as this will have a good effect on the environment, but if we do it according to guidelines for Bahá’í development, the activity will have far greater impact than the mere recycling of several tons of glass, aluminum or paper. We will be showing the world how to effect social change using spiritual principles. If our tree-planting projects are carried out in a spirit of consultation among equals, with purity of motive and unified action at the grassroots level, we are planting far more than trees—we are sowing the seeds of a new understanding of what will truly heal the ills of mankind.
Every Bahá’í can search within himself to identify habits of overconsumption and materialism in his own life. Curbing our own excesses will not only benefit us spiritually, but will have an effect on the distribution of resources in a world where one-fifth of the people are hungry all the time. Deepening classes, summer schools and Bahá’í children’s classes can help raise our awareness of the environmental crisis and help us to see the problem in both its spiritual and material dimensions.
Nature is a reflection of the glory and splendor of God. Unfortunately, under our stewardship nature has become a grotesque reflection of mankind’s spiritual relationship with the One Who created it and then placed it in our keeping. It is our challenge, as Bahá’ís, to revitalize the spiritual life of all mankind so that our material world can live and flourish.—Eileen Tyson
United Nations[edit]
Environmental issues high on agenda[edit]
Twenty-one years ago, Malta’s chief delegate to the UN proclaimed the resources of the seabed to be the “common heritage of mankind,” setting in motion the events that led to the Law of the Sea treaty. Now, at the initiative of Malta once again, the General Assembly is being asked to proclaim the earth’s climate too as part of that “common heritage.” In making the proposal at the most recent General Assembly session, Maltese Ambassador Alexander Borg Olivier called for a major UN study of threats to climatic stability, which would lead to a global strategy for dealing with climatic change. The result could very well be a Law of the Air.
A coordinated inquiry into climatic change appeals strongly to Assembly delegates. And although the idea of applying the “common heritage” concept to the winds, the rain, the sunshine, and the seasons has raised questions among Western delegates, they voted with the rest of the General Assembly to take up Malta’s proposal.
Borg Olivier’s timing was obviously right. During the Assembly’s general debate, minister after minister expressed deep concern about the increase in greenhouse gases, global warming, rising seas, and damage to the ozone layer. Proposals for urgent UN action have come from all over the world. Secretary-General Pérez de Cuéllar has called for an international agreement to coordinate government policies that have an impact on the climate. Canada offered to host an international con-
Secretary-General Pérez de Cuéllar has called for an international agreement to coordinate government policies that have an impact on the climate. Canada offered to host an international conference that would address laws to protect the atmosphere.
ference that would address laws for the protection of the atmosphere. Cyprus proposed a special session of the General Assembly on the environment. Britain declared that the UN must not leave a problem of this magnitude to technical bodies but must conduct a serious debate on it. The Soviets called for three UN emergency meetings on different levels and for the establishment of a UN Environment Council “capable of taking effective decisions to ensure ecological security.” Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze also suggested that Soviet-American cooperation was especially important in this field, recalling the moral of the fable about the two elephants: Whether they make war or love, it is the grass that suffers.
This explosion of demands for UN action on the climate is new, but the issue has been on the General Assembly’s agenda for many years. The first UN Conference on the Environment took place in 1972, giving birth to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Since then, while UNEP has drawn criticism for not doing enough, governments have been stingy in their contributions to it. Despite this, UNEP has several achievements to its credit.
The most significant of these is the Montreal Protocol, scheduled to come into force on January 1, 1989, which requires a 50 percent cut in the production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) within the next decade. CFCs, commonly used in refrigerants, plastic foam, and many aerosol sprays, destroy the ozone that protects the earth from lethal radiation. However, the ink had hardly dried on the agreement before there was new scientific information to indicate that the protocol, dramatic as it is, does not go far enough. To prevent further ozone depletion, CFCs must be cut by 75-80 percent.
UNEP, together with the World Meteorological Organization and the International Council of Scientific Unions, has also been studying the phenomenon of global warming with a view to providing governments with an authoritative assessment of the seriousness of the threat and the kind of action it requires.
| This article on the United Nations and the environment was written by Jane Rosen, UN correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, and is reprinted from the fall 1988 issue (Vol. 14, No. 4) of the inter dependent, a publication of the United Nations Association of the U.S. |
Many other groups, national as well as international, have been studying the causes and consequences of climatic changes. The Brundtland Commission, headed by the Prime Minister of Norway, drafted a vast report on “sustainable” economic growth, meaning growth that does not degrade the environment or injure the climate. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is monitoring food supplies affected by climatic instability. The British Antarctic Survey identified damage to the ozone layer; the U.S. Department of Energy has done vital research on carbon dioxide; the Russians, Canadians and Americans have programs on the dynamics of Arctic ice. Universities, scientific institutes and other organizations all over the world are investigating different aspects of climatic change.
Under Malta’s proposal to the General Assembly, the first step would be to coordinate all the findings of all these groups. “The Secretary-General
[Page 11]
should establish an inter-agency mechanism,” Borg Olivier says, “to give us
a report on what has already been
done, what information is available,
what are the areas in which action is
possible, and what kind of strategies
should be adopted in order to save the
world’s climate.”
Borg Olivier expects that once the information is available, political leaders would begin to frame “a global response, a global ethic. Obviously,” he says, “no one country has the right to alter the climate in ways that could be detrimental to others.” While Western delegates agree, they anticipate a battle over Borg Olivier’s insistence that climate is “the common heritage of mankind.”
Britain’s Ambassador, Sir Crispin Tickell, is an expert on climate and the author of the highly praised book, Climatic Change and World Affairs. “We certainly don’t regard climate as a common heritage,” he says. “It’s not a resource like seabed minerals. Moreover, the use of that phrase raises hackles all over the place because of the way in which it was used during the Law of the Sea negotiations.” Many of the industrialized countries feel that the non-aligned majority used “common heritage” as a weapon to restrict legitimate national activities having to do with the seabed and to extract concessions. “ ‘Common heritage’ is a non-aligned war-cry,” said an American diplomat.
But Borg Olivier doesn’t see it that way. Malta has “a very strong sentimental attachment to the concept of common heritage and a sincere interest in expanding it,” he notes. “As far as climate is concerned, ‘common heritage’ means it must be managed for the benefit of all mankind.”
To that end, some delegates are already talking about an international treaty to prevent global warming along the lines of the Montreal Protocol on ozone depletion. Such a treaty might provide for a 10 percent reduction in consumption of fossil fuels by the year 2000 or 2010. Since the developing countries could not afford either to reduce their energy consumption or to switch to cleaner technologies, the industrialized countries would be expected to provide the necessary aid.
Further down the road many scientists foresee an international law to prohibit or restrict all actions that change global, regional or local climate. Besides the use of fossil fuels and other industrial pollutants, the ban would apply to the permanent diversion of major rivers, construction of far-reaching irrigation systems, deforestation of large areas, destruction of top soil, oil-drilling in certain areas, and perhaps even the construction of large cities. The activities of virtually every country in the world would be affected.
The world[edit]
Donation aids New Era Foundation[edit]
The New Era Foundation for International Development has received a generous donation of land and property in Stamford, Connecticut.
The donation has not only given the Foundation a major asset for its balance sheet, but will serve as its future administrative headquarters.
The New Era Foundation, which was formed by the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly in response to the Six Year Plan’s emphasis on social and economic development, has already funded projects in such diverse areas as Bolivia, Brazil, India, the Philippines and on American Indian Reservations.
While the Foundation will be seeking its principal funding from other charitable institutions, Bahá’ís can help in its growth by becoming member supporters for a moderate membership fee of $9, thereby helping to expand its membership base.
The Foundation’s address is 866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 120, New York, NY 10017 (212-752-5738).
Pictured during a recent meeting are members of the Board of Directors of the New Era Foundation. Seated (left to right) are Alfred K. Neumann, Farhang Javid, Mildred Mottahedeh and John Wong. Standing is Shahab Fatheazam. Also on the Board, but not present when this photograph was taken, are Richard D. Betts, William Smith and Roy Mottahedeh.
Uganda[edit]
Lauretta King (standing second from right), a Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre, is shown with some of the Bahá’ís of Kampala, Uganda, at the Bahaé’t National Center next to the House of Worship in Kampala. During her two-week visit to Uganda, the Counsellor met with the National Spiritual Assembly and members of the Auxiliary Board.
Trinidad/Tobago[edit]
On May 21, the National Chinese Teaching Committee of Trinidad and Tobago held its first National Chinese Teaching Conference.
Topics discussed included becoming familiar with the Chinese culture, becoming closer to the Chinese people in our communities, and understanding general cultural differences that exist between eastern and western societies.
Workshops were held on use of the media in reaching the Chinese population, teaching methods, and the proper use of teaching materials.
It was recommended that more Chinese traveling teachers be requested, and that Bahá’ís reach out to the Chinese population of students at the University of the West Indies.
Cameroon[edit]
During “Youth Week” last February at the Higher Teachers Training College in Yaounde, Cameroon, the Bahá’í University Club held a roundtable conference on “The Role of Youth in a World in Search of Peace.”
This is the second year in which the Bahá’í Club has sponsored such a conference as a public forum for consultation on an issue related to youth. Last year’s theme was “African Youth Facing the Challenges of Modern Society.”
This year’s speakers included Dr. Ekema Agbaw, lecturer at the University of Yaounde; Dr. Boyomo Assala, sub-director of the Ministry of Information and Culture; Dr. Peter Agvor Tabi, director of the Institute of International Relations; and Dr. Dion Ngute, deputy general manager of the National Center for Administration and Magistracy.
Besides helping to develop relations with these and other prominent members of the community and educating the public about this important issue, the conference resulted in the publication of two newspaper articles.
Guinea Bissau/Macau[edit]
Two more National Spiritual Assemblies, those of Macau and Guinea Bissau, were formed at Riḍván, bringing to 151 the total number of National Assemblies worldwide.
In Macau, the Hand of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum represented the Universal House of Justice; in Guinea Bissau, the Supreme Body was represented by Counsellor Rolf von Czekus.
Also present in Macau were representatives of the National Spiritual Assemblies of Hong Kong, Australia, Japan and Malaysia.
The celebration included a dinner in honor of Amatu’l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum which was also attended by the chief of the Cabinet of the Governor of Macau, representing the governor; officials of the Xinhua News Agency; and other government officials and community leaders.
In Guinea Bissau, Counsellor Husayn Ardekani represented the Board of Counsellors in Africa while a member of the “mother” Assembly of the Gambia was present with one Auxiliary Board member for Guinea Bissau, 15 delegates and 26 guests.
The seat of the new National Spiritual Assembly is in Bissau.
Western Samoa[edit]
Two students at the Montessori School in Apia, Western Samoa, are involved in their studies. The school, which is adjacent to the Bahá’í House of Worship, operates under the direction of a board appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly. Students come from diverse cultural backgrounds; many are from families that are not Bahá’í.
Taiwan[edit]
To help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the independence of Tuvalu, a small island group north of Fiji in the South Pacific, a group of Bahá’í youth performed with another youth group during the commemorative dinner last September at Government House.
Other official commemorative events were attended by a representative of the National Spiritual Assembly of Tuvalu.
Ecuador[edit]
To help celebrate Naw-Rúz this year, Radio Bahá’í in Ecuador sponsored a “Marathon for Unity.” In the spirit of the ancient Inca empire, runner-messengers left the Bahá’í radio station to spread the message of unity.
Eight messengers started, each carrying copies in Quechua of a summary of “The Promise of World Peace” and a booklet in Spanish entitled “El Camino Grande de Bahá’u’lláh” (Bahá’u’lláh’s Great Path).
The runners passed through 45 communities, and in each one they were joined by more runners. By the end of the marathon the group was 200 strong.
Progress of the marathon was broadcast throughout the day on Radio Bahá’í. The program ended at 8 p.m. with a performance by eight local folk music groups.
Fiji[edit]
The second phase of Fiji’s Olinga Teaching Project resulted in 48 people embracing the Cause in May including representatives of the Indian, Fijian and Chinese communities.
Italy[edit]
Maria Pia Fanfani (left), director-general of the International Red Cross in Italy, accepts a copy of the Universal House of Justice’s peace statement from representatives of the Spiritual Assembly of Ischia Island, Sharaf and Yazdan Subhani.
The National Spiritual Assembly of Italy recently reported the acceptance of the Faith by an Italian from the Albanian minority living in Sicily, the first of his people to embrace the Cause.
The new believer, Pietro Pandolfini, from Gela, Sicily, speaks ancient Albanian as his mother tongue and comes from an orthodox Byzantine religious background.
The Albanian minority emigrated to Sicily almost 500 years ago after resisting conversion to Islam during the conquest of Albania by the Ottoman Empire.
Belize[edit]
A full-time teaching team spent December and January in Belize City and Corozal, Belize, where 53 new believers embraced the Faith. Significantly, a large number of the new Bahá’ís are young Garifuna Indians.
Further teaching efforts in January and February were dedicated to the memory of two Bahá’í martyrs in Iran, Dr. ‘Alímurád Dávúdí and ‘Abdu’l-Husayn Taslímí.
Nightly meetings have drawn many seekers in Belize City. Many of the new Bahá’ís have been deepened at these meetings, and are now actively engaged in the teaching work.
The new Bahá’í youth have formed a youth club which meets once a week.
During the first few months of this year the team’s activities were aided by Bahá’ís from Canada whose presence made possible the initiation of new and successful projects.
More than 100 new believers were enrolled in Belize City, and follow-up deepening visits are made regularly. Classes and other activities for children were begun, and the team helped new believers as they began to hold firesides in their homes.
Nigeria[edit]
The Marian Crofford/South Plateau Teaching Campaign, carried out last January 29-February 12 from the Ipaa Bahá’í Center in Plateau State, Nigeria, resulted in 323 enrollments, the formation of seven new local Spiritual Assemblies, the opening of 10 localities to the Faith, visits to 46 communities, the holding of 10 children’s classes, and the presentation of copies of the peace statement to the headmaster of the Adabu Tudun School and the Emir (chieftain) of Lafia.
The campaign, centered in the rural bushland home of the Tiv people, required considerable work to maintain daily living requirements including a 30-minute drive to Lafia to collect clean drinking water.
The Tiv people had been introduced to the Faith over the past 20 years, especially since the arrival of Marian Crofford, a pioneer from Canada who lived in Lafia from 1976-83.
Honduras[edit]
“Project Muhájir,” which began in January in Honduras, has so far visited five Garifuna Bahá’í communities to teach, deepen and proclaim the Faith. At the end of the week the aim in each community is for the team to have enrolled new Bahá’ís, established children’s classes, ensured the observance of the Nineteen Day Feasts, and trained several key people to carry on its activities. Return visits are planned to reinforce the efforts and continue the process of consolidation.
Conditions are physically arduous, with all transportation on foot or by dugout canoe, and food is scarce even for the indigenous population. New enrollments, however, are more than 100, and team members feel that a firm foundation is being established for entry by troops.
Australia[edit]
Bahá’ís took part early this year in a World Assembly in Melbourne, Australia. The conference, sponsored by the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP), brought together 600 delegates and observers from 60 countries representing 10 religions to discuss peace issues from the perspective of their various cultural and religious backgrounds.
Representing the Faith were John Davidson of the Bahá’í International Community; Graham Hassall, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia; Tahana Waipouri-Voykovic from the National Spiritual Assembly of New Zealand and WCRP of New Zealand; Martin and Barbara Kleyne and their daughter Chantal from the WCRP of Holland; and Miguel Gil and Vafa Payman from the Multi-Faith Resource Center in Melbourne.
The World Assembly in Melbourne was the fifth such gathering held by the WCRP since its formation in the late 1960s. Its theme was “Building Peace Through Trust: The Role of Religion.”
Madagascar[edit]
Individual initiative is resulting in an average of 40-50 new believers each month in Madagascar.
In Antsirabe, an exhibit about the Faith is on display in each neighborhood. More than 10,000 people have visited the exhibit, and by the end of February, 26 had embraced the Faith.
The Bahá’ís of Fianarantsoa, with the help of Counsellor Roddy Dharma Lutchmaya, placed a similar exhibit in Manazura and plan to repeat it in all towns within a 200-mile radius of Fianarantsoa.
More than 700 people visited the exhibit in Manazura, four of whom enrolled in the Faith.
Hong Kong[edit]
Juana Conrad, a member of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly, and her husband, Sam Conrad, visited Hong Kong in April.
During that time Mrs. Conrad gave a 90-minute radio interview, spoke at a luncheon for 25 guests, and presented a fireside talk to about 40 others at Bahá’í Hall.
During the radio interview she spoke about Women for International Peace and Arbitration, a non-governmental organization based on Bahá’í principles of which she is a co-founder.
At the fireside, Mrs. Conrad showed slides and spoke about her two trips to the Soviet Union, the first as guest consultant for International Women’s Day, the second as a member of the U.S. delegation to the World Congress of Women held in June 1987 in Moscow.
A total of 120 new believers in Hong Kong and another 280 in Macau was reported as of the end of November 1988.
The enrollments were a direct result of teaching institutes held in October, after which full-time teaching teams were formed for each territory.
Barbados[edit]
Thirteen new believers were enrolled in the Faith during a mid-January teaching campaign in St. Philip Parish, Barbados.
Pakistan[edit]
Pictured are members of the Bahá’í community and local Spiritual Assembly of Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. The recently elected Assembly is the first to be formed in the disputed territory of the Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan. There are 19 Bahá’ís in the community including two doctors who have opened a clinic as a socio-economic project.
United Kingdom[edit]
Major breakthroughs in teaching resulted from a month-long visit to the United Kingdom this spring by Donald Rogers, a Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre.
Mr. Rogers spent two days in each of eight communities. His purpose was to embolden the Bahá’ís, making them more audacious in their approach to teaching and inviting others to enter the Faith.
The approach led to enrollments at each meeting held during his stay, indicating the readiness of people in the United Kingdom to embrace the Faith in greater numbers.
During a weekend project in Liverpool, about 80 Bahá’í youth from throughout the country invited 2,000 people from various parts of the city to a series of public meetings.
The theme of these gatherings, “The Remaining Years of the Twentieth Century and the Bahá’í Faith,” challenged those attending to recognize Bahá’u’lláh and to join with the Bahá’ís in completing the work of the Faith which is outlined for this century.
Six enrollments followed, with each person representing a different element of the city’s population, thus providing an opening for teaching the diverse strata of society in the area.
Following last year’s successful Anglo-French Bahá’í Weekend on the Channel Island of Guernsey, a four-day reunion called “Cross-Channel Co-operation” was organized March 24-27 by the Spiritual Assembly of Guernsey.
More than 40 people from Belgium, England, France, Guernsey and Jersey took part.
Included was a devotional program that featured a reading of the first Bahá’í prayer to be translated into Guernsey French. Its translation fulfilled a goal of the Six Year Plan.
Other features included a public meeting; a graveside memorial service for Florent Hanafi, a youth who collapsed and died while waiting to return to France after last year’s event; and the participation of the friends in the “World Aid Walk,” a major event in Guernsey held to raise funds for Oxfam, the Save the Children Fund, and Christian Aid.
Many of the Bahá’ís, wearing their “One Planet, One People ... Please” T-shirts, completed the 20-mile walk and received the thanks and admiration of its organizers.
The day before the reunion, a creative arts exhibit called “Free Expression,” planned by the Bahá’í youth of Guernsey and sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly, was held, drawing many artists, the media and visitors.
The exhibit ended with performances by four of the island’s youngest music groups. Proceeds from the performance were donated to the Comic Relief Fund.
The April 2 issue of The Universe, the leading Roman Catholic newspaper in the United Kingdom, mentions the Bahá’í House of Worship in India.
The article, submitted by a Catholic monk who visited India in January, describes the Bahá’í House of Worship as “one of the most elevating places of worship I have had the privilege to visit.”
Members of 14 Bahá’í communities took part last September in a “Weekend for Peace and Community Service” in the goal town of Southend-on-Sea, Essex.
Included was a presentation of “The Promise of World Peace” to a representative of the mayor, a clean-up project, an entertainment and fund-raising program, an interfaith peace service, and slide programs about the Faith.
A National Teaching Conference last October drew 850 adults and about 100 children to Hull in Humberside, England.
The conference, which was preceded by a week of organized Bahá’í activities in Hull, was followed by a program that included a wide selection of activities and workshops.
Dr. Anthony Kenny (right), an Aristotelian scholar, professor of philosophy and retiring Master of Balliol College at Oxford University, Shoghi Effendi’s alma mater, receives a copy of the Universal House of Justice’s peace statement from Sherlock Graham-Haynes, a Bahá’í who is a student in philosophy at Williams College in Massachusetts. As Master of Balliol, Prof. Kenny says he was aware that Shoghi Effendi had attended the school, and he has written letters to the government of Iran asking that it end the persecution of Bahá’ís in that country.
Chile[edit]
Radio Bahá’í in Chile has been chosen as the primary vehicle for publicizing a government-sponsored development project.
The project consists of bi-lingual literacy classes for adults in Spanish and Mapuche. It is a joint effort between the station and the regional Ministry of Education. While the Ministry will provide materials, scripts and planning, Radio Bahá’í is responsible for taping and transmitting the broadcasts.
Ten schools in five districts in the area will serve as liaisons between the station and students. Two rural Mapuche Bahá’í schools are among those chosen to take part in the project.
The National Spiritual Assembly of Chile feels that being invited to help with this project is an indication of the recognition accorded by the Ministry of Education to the capacity of Radio Bahá’í and the two Mapuche Bahá’í schools.
Two hundred seventy-five young Bahá’ís from 15 countries took part in a recent five-day conference in Chile.
Inspired by a taped keynote message from the Hand of the Cause of God William Sears entitled “Toward a New World Order,” seven of the youth offered to give a year of service to the Faith while 40 others volunteered to take part in seven satellite teaching projects following the conference.
Also present at the conference were Counsellors Eloy Anello and Shapoor Monadjem, several Auxiliary Board members and seven members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Chile.
Pictured is the recently elected National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Chile, which for the first time in its 29-year history includes three Mapuche Indians. From left to right are Antonio Lizama, Felipe Jara (vice-chairman), Elena Velasquez de Reid (chairman), Robert Siegel (corresponding secretary), Doris Millalén, Nelson Sánchez, Fazael Youseffi (treasurer), Paula Siegel, and Roberto Jara (recording secretary).
Benin[edit]
Benoit Huchet (right), a recent pioneer to Benin, and Emile Houngnonga, a Beninese Bahá’í youth, are pictured outside the Mobile Institute on their departure in January from Cotonou to Parakou. Mr. Houngnonga helped Mr. Huchet in making arrangements to visit villages during a week-long stay in Parakou before Mr. Huchet took the Institute to the north of the country.
The five-day Lerche Uniben Teaching Project, called for by the National Spiritual Assembly, was the first large-scale teaching and proclamation campaign at the University of Benin and had as its primary goal the enrollment of one academic staff member in each of its colleges.
As a result, a lecturer in sociology, a librarian, seven students and four non-academic staff were enrolled in the Faith, while more than a dozen senior academic staff members who expressed their sympathy with the teachings were given enrollment cards and are investigating the Faith.
Copies of the peace statement were given to 90 staff members, 39 of whom expressed such interest that more information about the Faith was presented to them through use of a teaching booklet.
and describes the development of the Arc on Mount Carmel
| The way is now open for the Bahá’í World to erect the remaining buildings of its Administrative Centre, and we must without delay stride forward resolutely on this path.
THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
OF GOD’S THRONE Who can gauge what transformation will be effected as a result of the completion of each successive stage of this great enterprise? SHOGHI EFFENDI National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States |
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