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Newsletter of the Baha’ International Community April-June 2008 Volume 19, Issue 3

Perspective: Crossing, the divide between. science and religion — a view on evolution.

In Iran, escalating “plainclothes” violence is directed against Bahd'ts.

National recognition in Vietnam represents an historic milestone

= a WIKINOMICS

Review: Wikinomics — Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams consider how “mass collaboration changes everything,”

“The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens” - Baha‘u‘Hah

In Haifa, a global election showcases global diversity

More than 1,000 delegates from 153 countries, using a

distinctive democratic electoral process, gather to elect the international governing body of the Bahai Faith

A delegate casts her vote at the International Bahd’t Convention on 29 April 2008,

AIFA, Israel — For nearly three hours on 29 April 2008, more than 1,000 people from 153 countries filed decorously onto a stage in this Holy Land municipality and, one by one, dropped ballots into a simple wooden box.

Many wore national costumes, contributing to an event that showcased the global diversity of the worldwide Bah#1 community — along with a high-minded spiritual dignity.

The result was the election of nine individuals from wide-ranging backgrounds to serve as the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha Faith.

The newly elected are an Iranian-born physicist who specialized in development in Colom- bia, an African-American law professor, an agronomist who worked some 27 years in Africa, an Australian-born electrical engineer of South Asian descent, an accomplished painter and. former Hollywood actor who spent many years in Nicaragua, a Colombian mathematician, an American educator, a psychologist from India, and a business consultant from London.

While the specific outcome is likely to be of concern mainly to the worldwide Bahai community of some 5 million people, the event and the processes behind it were neverthe- less noteworthy as a study in how to conduct a global election that is free, democratic, and transparent.

The balloting reflected a unique election process that emphasizes qualifications over prom- ises, and inclusiveness over money or other barriers to office. [Page 2]is published quarterly by the Office of Public Information of the Bahda’i International Community, an international non-governmental organiza- tion which encompasses and represents the worldwide membership of the Bahai Faith

For more information on

the stories in this newsletter, or any aspect of the Baha’t International Community and its work, please contact:

ONE COUNTRY

Baha'i International Community — Suite 120 866 United Nations Plaza New York, New York 10017 USA

E-mail: onecountry@bic.org http://www onecountry.org

Executive Editor: Douglas Moore

Editor: Brad Pokorny

Associate Editors:

Vladimir Chupin (Moscow) Christine Samandari-Hakim (Paris)

Kong Siew Huat (Macau) Arezu Braun (Germany)

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Subscription inquiries should be directed to the above address. All material is copyrighted by the Baha’t International Community and subject to all applicable international copyright laws Stories from this newsletter may be republished by any organization provided that they are attributed as fol- lows: “Reprinted from ONE COUNTRY, the newsletter of the Baha’t International Community.”

© 2008 by The Baha'i International Community

ISSN 1018-9300

Printed on recycled paper @

Crossing the divide between science and religion: a view on evolution

MoM: people today question the place of religion in an age of science. This

is understandable: the extraordinary suc- cess of the scientific method at providing a nearly seamless explanatory framework for the physical world has acutely challenged traditional religious beliefs.

Perhaps nowhere is this challenge more apparent than in the theory of evolution. For some, evolution is the ultimate scientific the- ory: simple, powerful, and elegant, it offers an explanation of the great mystery of how life, order, and complexity can arise from lifeless- ness and chaos. For others, evolution threat- ens to undermine deeply held beliefs about the meaning and purpose of life: it pushes the Creator from the cosmic stage, replacing a universe suffused with meaning with one that is cold, pitiless, and utterly indifferent to human suffering.

For many thoughtful people, believers or not, neither extreme seems adequate. They in- tuitively understand that there ought to be no contradiction in both embracing the theory of evolution and holding the conviction that human life has a higher origin and a larger purpose than the mere struggle for survival.

Yet coming to a satisfactory resolution of the tension between those two ideas cannot rationally take place without a seismic shift in perspective.

And it is in the Baha'i writings that one finds just such a perspective, one that both embraces the scientific truth behind evolu- tion and yet also upholds the Divine nature behind ultimate reality.

The starting point for Bahd’ts is the rejec- tion of the excessive emphasis on received wisdom, accompanied by the striving to see the truth with one’s own eyes and the willing- ness to acknowledge the limitations of one’s deepest assumptions. “Nor shall the seeker reach his goal unless he sacrifice all things,” Bah@ullah stated. “That is, whatever he hath seen, and heard, and understood, all must he set at naught...”

Closely allied to such a commitment to the unfettered investigation of reality is the

conviction that, in the words of ‘Abduw’l- Baha, “religion and reason are the same; they cannot be separated from each other.” Since reality is one, and the truth cannot contradict itself, it follows not only that religious belief must be in harmony with scientific fact, but that “if religion does not agree with science, it is superstition and ignorance.”

These ideas prepare the ground for ad- dressing a central issue that lies behind the debate about evolution, and that indeed ex- tends to every front in the conflict between science and religion: how can the idea of an active Creator, who continually cares for and occasionally intervenes in His creation, be reconciled with the idea of a world whose workings can be traced in every detail to the operation of fixed mathematical laws?

The problem, according to the Baha’t Writings, is that human language is an in- adequate tool to describe ultimate reality and that the mind is an inadequate tool to comprehend it.

“That which we imagine is not the reality of God,” wrote ‘Abdu’l-Baha. “He, the unknow- able, the unthinkable, is far beyond the highest conception of man.” If God is beyond our high- est thoughts, then the language that describes God's existence, His design of the universe, and His intervention in human history, however powerful and evocative, must in the end fall short of the reality, like the proverbial finger pointing at the moon.

But if human thought cannot touch ul- timate reality then what possible relevance does that reality have to the world? While inaccessible in its essence, traces of it can be discerned in what ‘Abdu’l-Baha has called “the book of creation” and “the written book.”

The first “book” is nature, which ex- presses the purpose of the unknowable es- sence as it unfolds in endless patterns in the observable universe. As Baha’u’llah stated, “Nature is God’s will and is its expression in and through the contingent world.”

The second “book” is revelation, by which is meant not a static and arbitrary set of doctrines delivered to mankind in finished

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 3]form, but that progressive and dynamic power, conveyed through the written word, that has transformed human consciousness throughout the ages and which draws indi- viduals out of the narrow confines of their own self-interest into ever-widening circles of regard for others.

This book of revelation has expressed it- self through the succession of manifestations of God — Krishna, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, and, most recently, Baha’w'llah — that have given to humanity the sacred scriptures of the world’s independent reli- gious systems.

How are such considerations useful in the context of the evolution debate?

First of all, and independently of the compelling evidence of the fossil record, the Baha’t concept of the world is at its core both organic and evolutionary. Nature and religion are defined in virtually identical terms in the Baha’t Writings as “the essential connection” inherent in “the realities of things.” So the two “books” are both inextricable parts of a single evolutionary story which begins with the first primitive cell and culminates with the emergence of global consciousness.

But traditional religious beliefs, including the Baha’ teachings, emphatically uphold the uniqueness of man and his special destiny. How can this perspective, which sets man apart from the animal and which implies that evolution has a predetermined course, be rec- onciled with the undeniable fact of common descent and with the apparently blind forces of chance mutation and natural selection?

A metaphor drawn from the Baha’i Writ- ings may offer a solution. In them, man is referred to as the “fruit” on the “tree” of ex- istence. By implication, the other plant and animal species can be likened to the other parts of the tree: leaves, roots, bark, and so forth. Each part shares common descent from one seed and becomes differentiated in time. Last to appear is the fruit, which existed in potential from the beginning — and in this sense it was always the fruit, never leaf or root or bark. As Shoghi Effendi stated, “man was always potentially man, which is just another way of saying the Cause contains the power to produce the effect; in this planned and integrated universe, he was part of the plan from the beginning, so to speak.”

In the growth of a physical tree, as in the development of the evolutionary tree, chance can play a major role. The chaotic forces of wind and weather can greatly alter the course of the tree’s development, and entire branches

may even be broken off in a storm — as sug- gested in the case of evolution on Earth by the sudden extinction of the dinosaurs. There is no way to predict in every detail the final shape of the tree, or on which branches the first fruits will appear. What is certain is that if the tree survives to maturity, somewhere the fruit will appear — that fruit being not the physical form of man but that power of self- awareness which is capable of pondering the mystery and meaning of its own emergence.

“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Tertullian famously asked at the end of the second century of the Christian era, al- luding to the dissonance which existed even then between the secular and the sacred views of reality. Some eighteen centuries later, the Baha’i teachings offer this answer: there has ever been only one city, which has been viewed from different perspec- tives—as those who explore

its twisted alleys and dead-end streets on foot and those who fly over in an airplane and see the larger pattern that it embodies.

Such an organic conception of the emer- gence of human life need not imply — as in some versions of so-called “intelligent de- sign” theory — that the blueprint of life was fixed at the beginning. It does predict that, throughout the universe, and wherever con- ditions permit, life and consciousness will be emergent tendencies of matter.

“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?” Tertullian famously asked at the end of the second century of the Christian era, alluding to the dissonance which existed even then between the secular and the sacred views of reality. Some eighteen centuries later, the Baha? teachings offer this answer: there has ever been only one city, which has been viewed from different perspectives — as those who explore its twisted alleys and dead- end streets on foot and those who fly over in an airplane and see the larger pattern that it embodies. #*

— by Steven Phelps

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 4]The 2008 UN Commission on the Status of Women exam- ined the theme “financing for gender equality and the em- powerment of women.”

Oo EE

Women’s equality can improve economic performance, economist tells the UN

NITED NATIONS — Equality between

the sexes can have a real world econom- ic effect, potentially improving the economic performance of nations and corporations.

That was among the ideas offered by noted economist Augusto Lopez-Claros, speaking in February at the United Nations on behalf of the Baha’ International Community.

Dr. Lopez-Claros, director of the Global Competitiveness Report 2006/2007 at the World Economic Forum, addressed the UN Commission on the Status of Women at a High-Level Roundtable on “Financing for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women” on 25 February 2008

“The efficient operation of our increasingly knowledge-based economy is not only a func- tion of adequate levels of available finance, a reasonably open trade regime for goods and services, but, more and more, is also dependent on our ability to tap into a society’s reservoir of

Augusto Lopez-Claros, left, at a High-Level Roundtable on “Financing for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women” on 25 February 2008. At center is Fulya Vehiloglu, a Bahdt International Community representative to the UN.

talents and skills,” said Dr. Lopez-Claros.

“When, because of tradition, a mis- understanding of the purpose of religion, social taboos or plain prejudices, half (the) .. population is prevented from making its contribution to the life of a nation, the economy will suffer.”

Dr. Lopez-Claros was one of some 40 Bah@t delegates to the meeting of the Com- mission, which ran this year from 25 Febru- ary to 7 March.

This year’s focus on money was reflected. in the Commission’s outcome document, which stressed the importance of matching verbal commitments with financial resources in the global effort to advance the equality of women with men.

After reaffirming the various commit- ments to providing adequate financial re- sources, the Commission said several areas require special attention, including “the growing feminization of poverty,” “lingering negative consequences, including for women, of structural adjustment programs,” and “the under-resourcing in the area of gender equal- ity in the United Nations system.”

“The Commission states that the global commitments for the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of women since the Fourth World Conference on Women, including through the Monterrey Consensus, have yet to be fully implemented,” said the outcome document.

The Bahai International Community (BIC) addressed issues related to financing and the advancement of women during the Commission by organizing or co-sponsoring anumber of side events, issuing a statement, and holding face-to-face discussions with delegates.

“One of our goals was to bring forward a perspective that the lack of financial resources for women’s advancement in the world stems in part because of traditional beliefs and cul- tural practices that make women less visible in the decision-making structures of govern- ments and businesses,” said Fulya Vekiloglu,

4

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 5]aBIC representative to the UN.

In particular, Ms. Vekiloglu noted, the BIC issued a statement to the Commission that addressed the cultural and religious dimensions of the gender gap, connecting gender disparities to issues of financing.

The statement, “Mobilizing Institutional, Legal and Cultural Resources to Achieve Gender Equality,’ recommended the adop- tion of along-term perspective to guide short and medium-term efforts to finance gender equality, the use of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) to evaluate na- tional budgets, and the engagement of reli- gious perspectives and institutions.

“Too often, policy makers have been resis- tant to addressing the cultural and religious dimensions of attitudes governing the treat- ment of women — fearing the potentially divisive nature of such an undertaking or lacking knowledge about whom to address and how to proceed,” the statement said. “Yet the achievement of gender equality has been painstakingly slow precisely because questions about the roles and responsibili- ties of women challenge some of the most deeply entrenched human attitudes. Given the tremendous capacity of religion to influ- ence the masses — both to inspire and to vilify — governments cannot afford to tum a blind eye.”

Side events organized or co-sponsored by the BIC during the Commission included:

« “Empowering Women through Mean- ingful Work,” a panel discussion that exam- ined the various motivations women have for playing an active role in the workplace, aside from answering basic needs. The panelists also looked at the effects that discrimination has not only on women themselves but also on their families and communities. It was co-sponsored with the European Baha'i Busi- ness Forum (EBBF) and the UK National Committee of the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM-UK).

+ “Business Empowers Women? Who Adapts to Whom?,” a workshop co-spon- sored with the EBBF that featured business leaders from different sectors and different countries who discussed the situation for women in business in their countries.

+ “Global Issues, Local Voices: the Role of NGOs in Building Sustainable Capacity,” a meeting that considered ways that non- governmental organizations (NGOs) can be influential in holding governments ac- countable for the international agreements

they commit to at the United Nations. The event was supported by FATIMA Women’s Network, the National Alliance of Women’s Organizations, and UNIFEM-UK.

Importance of the girl child

“In Beijing, three words changed the lives of millions of people,” said Zarin Hains- worth, director of UNIFEM-UK, at that work- shop, discussing the impact of international agreements. “Those three words — the girl child — changed our ability to work for the special needs of girls.”

Ms. Vekiloglu, who is co-chair of the Working Group on Girls of the NGO Com- mittee on UNICEE also addressed the 25 February High-Level Roundtable. She like- wise stressed the importance of girls.

She urged the commission to make a greater effort to promote social policies that protect, empower, and “invest in” girls at the national and local levels.

“Investments in girls have amazing cas- cading benefits,” said Ms. Vekiloglu. “When girls are healthy, well-educated and empow- ered to contribute to their families and societ- ies, we all benefit.”

She also urged the commission to pro- mote policies that would help provide better data about women and girls.

“In too many places and at too many times, girls continue to be invisible, lumped together with women by some and with chil- dren by others,” said Ms. Vekiloglu. “Gender equality and women’s empowerment cannot be accomplished unless we adopt a life-cycle approach to this critical issue. Unless we ensure the visibility of girls, we can never guarantee womens rights.”

Bahd’t International Community delegates to the Commission on the Status of Women included men and women from 15 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, El Salvador France, Germany, India, Japan, Malawi, Mauritius, Nepal, Sweden, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States

“When, because of tradition, a misunderstand- ing of the pur- pose of religion, social taboos or plain prejudices, half the popula- tion is prevented from making its contribution to the life of a na- tion, the econo- my will suffer”

- Augusto Lopez-Claros, director, Global Competitiveness Report 2006/2007

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008, [Page 6]In its contribu- tions to the 2008 UN Commission on Social De- velopment, the Baha‘ Interna- tional Commu- nity focused on an integrated approach to work and em- ployment issues.

xa 2 2 2 2

At the UN, a discussion of poverty, employment, and the meaning of work

NITED NATIONS — The Baha’t Inter-

national Community issued two state- ments, one on poverty and one on employ- ment and work, and helped to organize a panel discussion on youth and employment at the UN Commission on Social Develop- ment in February.

The statement on poverty, “Eradicating Poverty: Moving Forward as One,” calls for a coherent, principle-based approach to the eradication of global poverty.

It was introduced at a luncheon on 14 February 2008 during the Commission at the BIC offices in New York.

“This year, the Commission is focusing on the themes of promoting full employ- ment and decent work for all,” said Tahirih Naylor, a BIC representative to the UN, who also served as one of the coordinators for the Civil Society Forum during the Commis-

Among those present at the 14 February 2008 presentation of the statement “Eradicating Poverty: Moving Forward as One” were, from left, Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations; Nikhil Seth, director of the UN Office for ECOSOC Support and Coordination; Julia Berger, senior researcher and writer at the BIC; and Tahirih Naylor, a BIC representative to the UN.

sion. “These are important aspects of poverty eradication, but we wanted to advocate a more coherent approach, one that looks at the wide range of issues that must be ad- dressed in an integrated way if global poverty is to be eliminated.”

The statement, which was published in edited form in the last issue of ONE COUN- TRY as a Perspective editorial, calls on institu- tions and individuals internationally to put essential moral principles, such as unity and justice, first. It recasts the underlying nature of poverty, saying it “can be described as the absence of those ethical, social and material resources needed to develop the moral, intel- lectual and social capacities of individuals, communities and institutions.”

The BIC also issued a shorter, more fo- cused statement on “Full Employment and Decent Work,” addressing directly the main theme of this year’s Commission meeting.

That statement urged policy makers to recognize that the conception of work should “transcend” economics, encompassing also the “the human and social purpose that em- ployment fulfills.”

“Work needs to be seen not only as a means to securing an individual and family’s basic needs, but also as a channel to develop- ing one’s craft, refining one’s character, and contributing to the welfare and progress of society. Work, no matter how humble and simple, when performed with an attitude of service, is a means to contribute to the advancement of our communities, countries and global society,” the statement said.

In addition, the BIC helped organize an interactive discussion at the UN on “Full Em- ployment and Decent Work for All: Where are the Youth?”

Co-sponsored by the BIC with the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Christian Children’s Fund, the 8 February event explored the issues relating to youth employment from the per-

6

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 7]spectives of government, civil society, and the International Labor Organization (ILO).

The panelists included Mario Barbosa of Brazil’s Ministry of Work and Employment, Elena Gastaldo of the ILO, Devorah J. Miller of the Christian Children’s Fund, and Neissan Alessandro Besharati of the Baha’f Interna- tional Community.

Ms. Barbosa of Brazil said the youth were facing the same unemployment problems as everyone else, which is why employment needs to be put at the top of policy-making priorities. She cited the example of Argentina to illustrate the unfortunate fact that a coun- try’s economic growth doesn’t necessarily support employment growth.

Ms. Gastaldo discussed the difficulties young people face entering the labor market, noting that while employers are often eager to provide opportunities for youth, these jobs are often limited in time and scope, of lower wages, or don’t lead to substantive future work. “They do not receive the employment protection they deserve,” Ms. Gastaldo said. “They're not really considered full-fledged employees.”

She recommended an integrated ap- proach, enlisting not just the ministries of youth, but also ministries of finance, labor, health, and other relevant departments.

Devorah Miller of the Christian Chil-

dren’s Fund stressed the need for young people to complete their education. “Youth need to be trained. They need to be given the skills to do the jobs that are available in the marketplace,” she said. After-school work op- portunities need to be provided so that they are not forced to choose between getting a job and going to school. This is particularly im- portant for youth heads-of-household, who represent a growing vulnerable population due to the prevalence of AIDS and in areas of armed conflict.

A particular focus of Mr. Besharatis pre- sentation was youth in conflict situations. Employment is important, he said, so youth do not fall prey to warlords, terrorist indoctrina- tion, drugs, crime, or becoming a child soldier. “Unemployment among youth in conflict areas causes instability among adults,” he said.

Multiple strategies are needed, said Mr. Besharati, to make sure youth find decent employment. In a rapidly advancing job mar- ket, education and skills are essential, he said, as well as early opportunities to participate in the job market even ifit isan unpaid position, just to provide an introduction toa particular field or industry. “The private sector could take a larger role in training,” he said. “Learn- ing doesn’t have to be in the classroom; it could be on the job.” *

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In Egypt, the government decides not to appeal Bahai decision in religious freedom cases

AIRO, Egypt — The Egyptian govern-

ment has decided not to appeal a lower administrative court ruling that cleared the way for Baha’is to obtain proper identifica- tion papers.

On 29 January 2008, the Court of Adminis- trative Justice in Cairo upheld arguments made in two cases concerning Baha'is who had sought to restore their full citizenship rights by asking that they be allowed to leave the religious affili- ation field blank on official documents.

The deadline for an appeal passed 60 days later, and Egyptian news media re- ported that the government had decided not to appeal the case, but rather will strive to implement the court’ decision, clearing the way for Egyptian Baha’is to obtain official identification cards and other documents.

“We are grateful for the government's decision not to appeal the lower court de- cision, which came as a much welcomed

event for Egyptian Bahd’is and others who are concerned about religious freedom,” said Bani Dugal, the principal representative of the Baha’ International Community to the United Nations. “Our hope now is that the government will work to implement the courts decision without delay.”

Before the lower court’s decision, the government required all identification pa- pers to list religious affiliation but restricted the choice to the three officially recognized religions — Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. Baha’is were thus unable to obtain identifica- tion papers because they refuse to lie about their religious affiliation.

Without national identity cards, Bahd’is and others caught in the law’s contradic- tory requirements were deprived of a wide range of citizenship rights, such as access to employment, education, and medical and financial services. %

“Work needs to be seen not only as a means to secur- ing an individual and family’s basic needs, but also as a channel to developing one’s craft, refining one’s character, and contributing to the welfare and prog- ress of society.” — Baha‘ International Community

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 8]Iranian Baha‘is are facing a wave of escalating vio- lence from the government — and at the same time are discov- ering surprising pockets of sup- port among the population.

Seven Iranian Bahd’t leaders who were arrested in spring 2008 had posed together earlier for a photograph. Seated from left, Behrouz Tavakkoli and Saeid Rezaie, and, standing, Fariba Kamalabadi, Vahid Tizfahm, Jamaloddin Khanjani, Aff Naeimi, and Mahvash Sabet. All are from Tehran,

' aE

In Iran, new anti-Bahaii tactics come amidst surprising pockets of support

ENEVA — Last March, after being threat-

ened twice, once by anti-Bah@t graffiti at his workplace and then by a hate-filled letter, a 53-year-old Bah#i businessman in Shiraz, Iran, was chained to a tree, doused with gaso- line, and assaulted by an unknown assailants who threw lighted matches at him.

Fortuitously, none of the four matches that were tossed at the man ignited the deadly fuel. The first failed to light, the second went out immediately, a third hit his clothes but did not spark the gas, and a fourth fell harm- less to the ground. At that point, the assail- ants — apparently nervous — jumped back in their car and fled, shortly before neighbors arrived and freed the victim.

The entire incident, from the extreme nature of its assault to the neighborly rescue, offers a striking glimpse of the general situa- tion facing Iranian Bah@ts today as they strive to practice their religious beliefs in the land where their religion was born.

In recent months, Iran’s 300,000-mem- ber Baha'i community has faced a wave of escalating violence — and at the same time found surprising pockets of support among the population.

The violence and harassment comes with the obvious blessing of the government, which has fueled hatred against Bah@ts in re-

cent years with a defamatory campaign in the state-sponsored news media — and through outright religious discrimination in schools, the workplace, and the courts.

The government has acted directly against Bahdis as well, through stepped up arrests, de- tentions, interrogations and harassment, princi- pally by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence.

These agents also often act in disguise — or on orders or court judgments that are kept secret, said Diane Alai, arepresentative of the Bahai International Community to the UN, who closely monitors the situation in Iran.

“What Iranian Baha'is are facing is a kind. of institutionalized ‘plainclothes’ violence — barely disguised attacks by government agents and their proxies, hoping to make the outside world think it is the people of Iran that are ris- ing up against Bahd'ts,” said Ms. Alai.

“The obvious aim is to allow the govern- ment to distance itself from international condemnation for its treatment of Baha’ts, by claiming that they can’t help it if the people themselves feel prejudice against them.

“No doubt there are some individuals who believe the government’s lies about Bah@ts, and have been moved to act — such as per- haps those who doused the Baha’ with gaso- line in Shiraz.

“However, alongside stories of harass- ment, persecution and oppression, we are also receiving reports that tell how ordinary Iranian citizens are rejecting the propaganda of their government and, instead, offer- ing various kinds of support to their Baha’ friends and neighbors,” said Ms. Ala’i. “In some cases, even government officials, judges and others have stood up for Bah@ts.”

The most recent example of such support came recently when Grand Ayatollah Hos- sein Ali Montazeri issued a decree saying that Bah@ts have the right of citizenship and should be treated with “Islamic compassion,” even if they are not recognized as an official religious minority, as are Christians and Jews.

Ayatollah Montazeri was one of the lead- ers of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and for a time was the designated successor to the former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. He has more recently been identified with

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 9]those seeking reform. Despite such events, the government cam- paign against Bahd’is is severe and escalating.

Seven leaders arrested

The most notable example was the recent arrests of seven Baha’ leaders, which received extensive attention in the international news media. The entire group of men and women who help see to the minimum needs of the Baha’t community of Iran were arrested in two steps, in March and then May, in a sweep ominously similar to episodes in the 1980s when scores of Iranian Baha’t leaders were rounded up and killed.

As of this writing, all seven remain in prison, with no access to lawyers and no formal charges against them — although a government spokesperson told the news me- dia in late May that they were being held for “security reasons.”

Such “allegations are not new, and the Iranian government knows well that they are untrue,”said Bani Dugal, the principal repre- sentative of the BIC to the UN, adding that those arrested, “like the thousands of Baha’is who since 1979 have been killed, imprisoned, or otherwise oppressed, are being persecuted solely because of their religious beliefs.”

Other attacks on Iranian Baha’is in recent months include:

¢ On 8 September 2007 a number of Baha’i homes in Vilashahr were defaced with graffiti that stated “unclean Bahd’is, stipendi- aries of Israel,” “Bahd’is are enemies of God”, and “Bahd’is are traitors to their country.”

¢ Between 18 November 2007 and 10 Jan- uary 2008, the government-backed Kayhan newspaper published a series of 40 articles about the Baha’is in pre-revolutionary Iran, portraying the community as a powerful and wealthy group that was bent on undermin- ing the teachings of Islam. In these articles Baha'is are described as cruel and dishonest, ruthless in business, tax-evaders, of dissolute character, involved in drugs, and long known as looters and murders. Among other wholly unfounded allegations in these articles is that the Baha’is are part of a political movement against Islam that introduced western ideolo- gies to Iran.

¢ On 28 December 2007, officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards entered four Baha’t homes in Shiraz, searching and seizing Baha’t books and materials. The secretary of the local group that coordinates the affairs of the Baha’i community there was arrested and taken into custody, where she was inter-

rogated several times by agents using a high intensity light and video or film recording equipment. She was released on 10 January 2008 on the equivalent of $11,000 bail.

Although the figure changes almost daily, at last count there were more than 20 Baha’is in prison in Iran. More than 70 are out on bail and awaiting trial on various charges, all related to their religious belief. At least 75 others are free pending an appeal or a sum- mons to serve their sentence.

At the same time, however, as with the declaration by Ayatollah Monterzi, a few seg- ments of the population have clearly rejected the government’s campaign against Baha'is.

On 15 March 2008, the appeal court of the Province of Hamadan overturned guilty ver- dicts against four Baha’is from that city who had been arrested and then found guilty by a lower court on charges of “teaching against the regime.” The appeals court ruled that not only are Baha’is not against the government, but they are also absolutely obedient to it and that teaching the Baha’t Faith cannot be regarded as teaching against the regime.

Similarly, on 26 September 2007 the Sem- nan Court of Appeal overturned the convic- tion of a Bahai who had been sentenced to four months’ imprisonment on a charge of anti-regime activity by distributing the 15 November 2004 letter from the Baha’ com- munity of Iran to then President Mohammad Khatami. The Court of Appeal found that the letter “was in fact a way of petitioning and conveying an expression of the situation and treatment of the Baha’is” with no “intention to protest against or defame the regime.”

Ordinary Iranians, as well, have recently shown support for Bahd’is in a number of in- cidents. In January, for example, after a Bahat family was attacked in Abadeh by the para- military Basij Resistance Force, friends and neighbors gave shelter, expressed sympathy and even offered to compensate for damage.

The incident began when the Basij closed the entrance leading to a Baha#i home owned in Abadeh and drove a bulldozer into it, demolishing a wall. Twenty Basij personnel, whose faces were covered, raided and ran- sacked the house. The women and children who were in the house fled in terror, taking refuge in the homes of neighbors.

Despite this semi-official attack, the family was supported by Muslim officials and friends, who denounced those who had attacked them. Others visited the family, ex- pressing sympathy and some even offered to pay for damages caused by the attack. %

“The obvious aim is to allow the government to distance itself from internation- al condemnation for its treatment of Baha’is, by claiming that they can’t help it if the people themselves feel prejudice against them.” —Diane Ala‘i, Baha‘i International Community

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 10]Delegates from the Cham. minority communities prepare for balloting at the first Bahd@’i National Convention in Vietnam in 33 years.

After 33 years, and for the first time since the unification of the North and the South, a national Bahai governing body has been elected in Viet- nam — with the blessing of the government.

In Vietnam, a milestone for Baha'is

O CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — The Baha'is of Vietnam have reached a his-

toric milestone with the election — for the first time in many years — of a national Baha'i administrative body.

In Vietnam, the Bahai national conven- tion and election held 20-21 March 2008 were the first since the unification of North and South Vietnam in 1975.

“This is important because it was the first time in 33 years that the government had ap- proved thatsuch a gathering could take place,” said Joan Lincoln, a special emissary of the Uni- versal House of Justice, the international gov- erning body of the Bah#t Faith, who traveled from the Bahai World Centre in Haifa, Israel, to Ho Chi Minh City for the occasion.

Preparations for the convention, including drafting the charter for the Bah#1 governing body in Vietnam, were undertaken in consul- tation with the government, which sent three representatives to observe the election.

The voting took place at the Baha'i Center in Ho Chi Minh City on the first day of the convention, followed the next day by a con-

sultative session in a large hall that had been decorated with flowers of congratulation sent by various government and police agencies. More than 20 officials from the central, pro- vincial and district governments attended, which was highlighted by the adoption by the Bah@is of the new charter.

Documents now will be submitted to the government for the next stage in the official recognition of the Bahai Faith in Vietnam.

The Baha’ Faith was established in Viet- nam in 1954. In 1957, Bah@ts there joined with a number of other countries in southeast Asia to form a Regional Spiritual Assembly, and in 1964 the first National Spiritual As- sembly of the Bah@ts of Vietnam was formed. The Bah@i Faith is established in virtually ev- ery country of the world, and in most nations the Bah@ts each year elect a National Spiritual Assembly of nine individuals to administer their affairs and guide the community.

A number of people attending the activi- ties had joined the Bah#’t Faith in the 1950s and 1960s and had remained firm in the teligion despite the years of restrictions on

10

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 11]certain activities.

“The high point for me,” Mrs. Lincoln said, “was seeing the Bah@is from all over Vietnam, the north, the central, and the south, who had been so steadfast for over three decades, remaining obedient to the government and to the Universal House of Justice and waiting patiently until they could re-establish their activities fully.

“It was thrilling to see the delegates greet one another, and that the older believers had been able to bring up their children as Bah@#is, and to see so many young couples with their own children — the third genera- tion of Bah@is — at the convention.”

Mrs. Lincoln expressed appreciation for government gestures toward the Baha’ts. “They had taken many measures to show their support,” she said, noting that representatives from the government-run press and television attended some of the activities and reported on them. “The warm relations between the new National Spiritual Assembly and the govern- ment were impressive to me,” she said.

She also mentioned the Baha@t youth and “how present in the organization of the con- vention they were — saying the prayers, sing- ing passages from the Bahai writings, man- ning the computers, handling the logistics, the food, the microphones, raising the spirit ... doing all the things that youth do.”

As part of the convention, Mrs. Lincoln presented to the government of Vietnam a gift from the Universal House of Justice consist-

ing ofa framed, color facsimile of two of the personal seals of Bahawllah, the founder of the Baha’t Faith.

Nguyen Thanh Xuan, vice chairman of the Government Committee on Religion, accepted the gift, and also gave the Bahda’ts a framed portrait of Ho Chi Minh. Mrs. Lincoln earlier had paid a courtesy visit to a govern- ment office in Ho Chi Minh City where gifts also were exchanged.

During the convention, a special message from the Universal House of Justice to the Bah@is of Viemam was read.

“The Bahai Community of Vietnam is regaining ground on a trail that leads to a constructive future,” the message said, in part. “In restoring your National Spiritual Assembly, with the gratefully acknowledged support of your national government, you now enter upon a period of dynamic develop- ment of far-reaching virtue and influence.”

On the night of 20 March, more than 200 Bah@tis and friends from around the country joined in a new year’s celebration — one of the largest gatherings of Vietnamese Bah#is in three decades.

Special guests for the convention and the new year’s celebration, included representa- tives of the Bahai communities of Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Singapore, and Thailand, and Mr. Jaya Gopan Ramasamy of Malaysia, representing the Bah@{ Continental Board of Counsellors in Asia. ¥

— Baha't World News Service

The Vietnamese government “had taken many measures to show their support. The warm relations between the new National Spiritual As- sembly and the government were impressive tome.”

— Joan Lincoln, special emissary

Joan Lincoln, a special emissary of the Universal House of Justice, paid a courtesy call to the vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City at the seat of government there.

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 12]Delegates from around the world lined up to consult about issues facing the Baha’é community,

There are no parties or plat- forms, all forms of campaign-

ing are strictly avoided, and no nominations are made. Rather, after prayer and reflection, each delegate simply writes down the names of nine men who he or she feels are best qualified to serve.

In Haifa, a global election showcases global diversity

Global election, continued from page one

There are no parties or platforms, all forms of campaigning are strictly avoided, and no nominations are made. Rather, after prayer and reflection, each delegate simply writes down the names of nine men who he or she feels are best qualified to serve.

The delegates to the convention are the members of the Baha’t National Spiritual As- semblies of the world, who were themselves elected by delegates chosen at the grassroots level in their own countries. Thus virtually every adult Baha in the world had the op- portunity to participate in the election of their supreme body, an event that occurs every five years.

About 500 of the 1494 delegates could not be present for voting, for personal or oth- er reasons. Those who could not attend sent ballots by mail, and there were numerous pauses in the procession as tellers brought forward absentee ballots, removed an identi- fying outer envelope, and dropped the inner contents into the ballot box.

In the case of Iran, where 300,000 Baha'is face intense persecution and Baha@t admin- istration has been outlawed, the absence of delegates was noted by the placement of 95

ted roses at the front of the stage and the read- ing of a message from Iranian Bah@ts.

The entire process took about a week, as delegates spent several days in advance of the actual voting on visits to Baha’t holy places here in an effort to cultivate an atti- tude of prayer and reflection. Then, after the voting and the announcement of results the next day, delegates remained for two days to discuss topics of concern to the Bahai world.

After the election, one key topic for dis- cussion was an analysis of how a recently launched initiative, which seeks to provide service to humanity around the world through four “core activities,” was faring.

Many delegates said the initiative, built around children’s classes, devotional meetings, study circles, and programs for young teens, was starting to yield results.

In India, for example, it was reported that more than 80,000 people have studied a basic booklet that discusses simple moral virtues and the nature of human spiritual reality. Some 6,000 people in India have advanced to the seventh book in the same series of mate- tial, which was created by the Bah@{-inspired

Global election, continued on page 14

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ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 13]With no nominations or campaigning, how does the Bahai electoral process work?

AIFA, Israel — In a world where democratic elections

are valued in principle but strained in practice, the electoral process used by the worldwide Baha’t community suggests a distinctive alternative.

Those who have studied the Baha’i system say its features are unlike anything in common use — but are nevertheless manifestly democratic, transparent, and representative. Distinctive aspects of Baha’ elections include:

¢ No nominations. Instead, the entire adult community is eligible for office, giving electors ultimate freedom of choice.

¢ No campaigning. As such, money, negative advertis- ing, and ego are entirely absent from the process.

¢ No parties. Instead, the emphasis on choosing quali- fied people, not making promises or linking to a platform.

Taken all together, these and other features, combine to create a system that is “eminently democratic — indeed more so than any other system in existence,” said Michael Karlberg, author of Beyond the Culture of Contest, which among other things examines the Baha’i governance system.

Dr. Karlberg and others state that such procedures shift the emphasis from the dynamics of power, personality, mon- ey, and constituencies to a paradigm of service and rational consultation, with an emphasis on the good of all.

“There is no professional path a person must follow or political roles he or she must take before being considered worthy of election,” said Wendi Momen, who was a member of the national governing council of the Baha’t community of the United Kingdom for 23 years. “The qualities of those elected are not political capacities but qualities of the spirit reflected in the day to day actions of that individual.

“In other words, we believe a person’s life is reflected in their service to the community, and so we would be looking at candidates in terms of how well do their words match their deeds,” said Ms. Momen.

How it works

At all levels — local, national, and international — Baha’ elections follow a common procedure.

First, the electorate is composed of all Bahd’is over the age of 21 in the given geographic area — whether a munici- pality, a nation, or the world.

The electors gather (or use mail-in ballots) and, after prayer and reflection, each elector writes down the names of the nine people that he or she feels are most qualified to serve.

At the local and national levels, any adult Baha’i within the electorate pool is eligible for election. Women make up between 35-40 percent of the total membership of national and continental institutions worldwide. For the Universal House of Justice, any adult male Baha’t from anywhere in the world is eligible for election. Membership on that body is limited to men because of a specific stipulation in the Baha’i

sacred writings, the wisdom of which, it is promised, will become clear in the future.

Balloting is secret, with no nominations, campaigning or pledges to specific policies, parties, or platforms.

After the votes are counted, the nine people who receive the most votes are elected. At the local and national levels, elections are conducted every year. At the international level, for the Universal House of Justice, elections are held every five years.

In general, said Brian Lepard, a professor of law at the University of Nebraska, “the fact that everyone is eligible to be elected opens up the whole process in a way that is far more democratic than the current process in any country.

“In many countries, not only do you have to decide to be a candidate and to run, but you also need lots of money to do that. And there are many talented and capable people who don’t have the money or resources to run. So that severely restricts the choice that people have,” said Dr. Lepard.

Moreover, said Dr. Lepard and others, the focus is on choosing individuals for their experience and inherent ca- pacities, rather than their positions on issues.

“There is no need to know the ‘positions’ that indi- viduals have on specific issues because individuals are not elected for their positions,” said Dr. Karlberg, who is an as- sociate professor of communication at Western Washington University. “Rather, they are elected for qualities such as trustworthiness, integrity, loyalty, selfless devotion, a well- trained mind, recognized ability, and mature experience.

“They are, in effect, elected based on their ability to apply principles, within a process of collective decision making, to the solution of problems, to the articulation of policies, and to the identification of courses of action,” said Dr. Karlberg.

These and other concepts in Baha’ elections tend to lead to the election of candidates of considerable breadth of background and experience.

“Last year the election of our National Spiritual Assem- bly in Guinea, three new members were elected — all very capable and with a record of devoted and selfless service,” said Thelma Khelghati, a member of that body.

“One was a university student who had been very active in organizing our national youth conference and also in con- ducting study circles and children’s classes. Another was a farmer from a community where they have daily devotional meetings at six in the morning. The third was a devoted Baha’i with a PhD in Industrial Psychology froma university in the former Soviet Union who works for an NGO in the education sector in Guinea.

“For me, that these three capable, selfless and devoted individuals could be elected without any nomination, propaganda or electioneering was tangible proof that the system does work,” said Ms. Khelghati. #

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008

13 [Page 14]Newly elected members of the Universal House of Justice on 30 April 2008

Left to right: Farzam Arbab,

Kiser Barnes, Peter Khan, Hooper Dunbar Firaydoun Javaheri, Paul Lample, Payman Mohajer, Shahriar Razavi, and Gustavo Correa.

Global election, continued from page 12

Ruhi Institute in Colombia and overall strives to empower individuals and build the capac- ity to work together in service to humanity.

Delegates from Brazil said an effort to reach out to young teens around Porto Alegre now has hundreds of participants. Such class- es for “junior youth” do not teach the Bahai Faith but rather focus on improving literacy, thinking and articulation skills, and encour- aging better moral choices — all designed to “empower” young people.

The classes have been so successful, said Katherine Monajjem, a delegate from Brazil, that some local public school officials have embraced them as a model. “One school su- pervisor was so impressed that, although she is a Baptist, she asked that her young son be trained in the program,” said Ms. Monajjem.

The situation in the world at large was also very much on the minds of the some 1,000 delegates at the convention. In addition to the mechanics of systematized study and outreach, delegates discussed wider topics re- lating to the deteriorating social conditions in the world, from the crisis in moral education to the impact of HIV/AIDs in Africa.

For many delegates, as well, the conven- tion was an encounter with the community’s diversity.

Gregory C. Dahl, who formerly worked at the International Monetary Fund and has attended many U.N.-related meetings, said he had never seen anything like it.

“This is easily the most diverse gathering of people on the planet,” he said of the conven- tion. He compared it toa UN meeting but said the diversity at the Bahai gathering came not just from the different nationalities but from

the backgrounds of the participants.

“At the United Nations, there are represen- tatives from many countries, but not from so many different social, economic, and profes- sional classes,” said Mr. Dahl, who attended the Bah@i convention as a delegate from Bulgaria. He noted that the others from Bulgaria in- cluded someone who works for a coal-mining company, another employed by an insurance company, a musician, and a secretary.

More than 40 percent of the convention delegates were women. The oldest delegate, from Niger, was 82. The youngest was a wom- an from Belarus who tured 21 last August and was elected to her National Assembly in a by-election in November. (The minimum age for election to a Bah#1 assembly is 21.)

Alan Smith of the Virgin Islands was at- tending his sixth International Baha’t Conven- tion and said he noticed a difference this year.

“Its feeling far more international,” he said, attributing the change not to additional countries but to more diverse groups of del- egates from within each country.

Among the delegates from Russia, for example, were two ethnic Russians; one Rus- sian with Estonian ancestry; two individuals of Buryat-Mongolian ethnicity from Eastern Siberia; a Tatar, whose family background is Muslim; an Osetin woman from the Cauca- sus; and an American-born man descended. from Russian Jews who is married to a Rus- sian and lives in Siberia.

From the United States came a federal judge, a psychologist, a medical doctor, a cor- porate retirement plan manager, and an ad- ministrator who works with health-care issues for Native Americans. Some are white, some are black, and one is American Indian of the Rasebud Sioux Tribe of the Sicangu Lakota.

From Albania came a police officer, a lawyer, a teacher, and a secretary. And from Venezuela came “younger” and “older” — three of the delegates were 25 years old, and two were in their 60s or older.

Daniel Woodard, an engineering student from Caracas, said he realized at the conven- tion thatnot only is the Bah#i community di- verse but that it truly encompasses the whole world. He was even more heartened by the unified spirit, as Bah@ts and others work to- gether to create a better world.

“Despite the fact that there are now many of us, and we are so diverse, nobody is being left behind,” he said of the people he saw. “We are so intertwined that as we move forward, if someone falters or has difficulties, they will be sustained and helped by the others.” %

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 [Page 15]Wikinomics

Review, continued from page 16

Technology (MIT) Open Courseware program —a free online catalogue spanning the entire curriculum of this prestigious university.

Wikinomics cites four core principles which define this new mode of collaboration: openness, “peer production,” sharing, and acting globally. These are contrasted with the “hierarchical, closed, secretive and insular multinational [company] that dominated the previous century.”

All are evidence of a shift in values — and perhaps an emerging ethic — that is gradually dissolving the attitudinal, intellec- tual and structural obstacles that maintained earlier patterns of collaboration. Against the backdrop of complex global problems including security, poverty, climate change and gross violations of human rights, such a shift is eminently practical as it breaks with those norms and patterns that have proven incapable of moving us out of the social and economic quagmire in which the peoples of the world are bogged down.

The authors situate the current develop- ments as the latest revolution in communica- tion technology: the concept of the Internetasa static tool is giving way to a dynamic, participa- tory environment, one in which the individual shifts from passive user to active co-creator.

The Internet has gone though a number of significant transformations since its inception in 1969 with the expansion of electronic mail toa global scale and the creation of the World Wide Web. We are now witnessing the suc- ceeding revolution — some have called it the “participation age” — defined principally by its ethos of collaborative content and knowl- edge generation. With the aid of interactive media, readers of news are no longer passive recipients of information, but participate in how that information is distributed and ultimately interpreted. (While the spread of internet penetration has been grossly uneven, growth statistics are promising; Africa’s usage, for example, has increased nine-fold over the last seven years and is steadily climbing.)

The phenomenon of mass collabora- tion has already yielded an unprecedented outpouring of innovation, both in substance and in process. As the authors note, by ap- plying the principles of wikinomics, “we can transform the way we conduct science, create culture, inform and educate ourselves, and govern our communities and nations.” In

the process, we are reminded about the true sources of human motivation, namely the desire to be part of a greater whole, to col- laborate, to create and to know.

For Bahda’is, the new trends outlined in Wikinomics are largely consistent with the vi- sion of humanity’ future outlined in the Baha@t sacred writings. Bahd’is understand that the key to a peaceful and prosperous future lies in the recognition of our global interdependence and essential oneness as a single human race. Indeed, the Baha’ Faith calls for a consultative process in which the individual participants strive to transcend their respective points of view, in order to function as members of a body with higher level interests and goals.

Moreover, Bahd’is envision that the en- gine powering such a construction is the em- powered, global-minded individual, working in cooperation and collaboration with others. This paradigm is outlined in the Baha'i con- cept of consultation, a distinctive method for group decision-making — which in many ways parallels the wikinomics model.

“So vital is [consultation] to the success of collective endeavor,” asserts a 1995 statement of the Baha’ International Community, “that it must constitute a basic feature of a viable strategy of social and economic development. Indeed, the participation of the people on whose commitment and efforts the success of such a strategy depends becomes effective only as consultation is made the organizing principle of every project.”

From the broader perspective of history, the Baha’t Faith views the current patterns of social transformation and innovation as a transition from collective “childhood” to collective maturity. The barriers raised by the thoughts, attitudes, and practices of the childhood of humankind are gradually being uprooted, and structures of a new civiliza- tion that reflect the capacities of a maturing humanity are taking shape.

“If certain social assumptions...have ceased to promote the welfare of the general- ity of mankind, if they no longer minister to the needs of a continually evolving human- ity, let them be swept away and relegated to the limbo of obsolescent and forgotten doc- trines,” the Baha’i Faith states.

Wikinomics offers yet another powerful ex- ample of how old ways are being swept away in the face of new paradigms — paradigms which are driven in many ways by the social and spiri- tual realities of humanity's new age of interde- pendence and individual empowerment. ¥

—hy Julia Berger

“We can trans- form the way we conduct science, create culture, inform and edu- cate ourselves, and govern our communities and nations.”

— Tapscott

and Williams, Wikinomics

ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008

15 [Page 16]Wikinomics: How Mass Colfabora- tion Changes Everything

By Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams

Portfolio

New York

0 Sa

The “new Alexandria” and global change

W: live in a period characterized by di- versity, chaos and an intense search for solutions to increasingly complex and global problems.

Within that context, Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything ex- plores what may well be one of the most profound changes in our time — a shift from hierarchical lines of creation and production toa model in which almost anyone, anywhere, can contribute ideas and innovation toa given economic or social project.

Authors Dan Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams trace the evolution of this shift, ex- plaining how a new type of “mass collabora tion” that encompasses virtual networks and teams — drawn from the 1.3 billion individu- als now connected via the Internet — are writ- ing encyclopedias, creating computer operat- ing systems, proposing solutions to poverty, reporting on events around the world, and building social networks.

Mr. Tapscott, a business strategy consul- tant and Professor of Management at Canada’s University of Toronto, coined the term wiki- nomics to describe an economic model for generating value based on community, mass collaboration and self-organization. Perhaps most familiar to us is the Wikipedia — an on- line encyclopedia containing some 9 million articles authored by thousands of volunteer contributors from around the world. The term “wiki,” meaning “quick” in Hawaiian, is apt: the developments have been rapid; most of the online communities have formed in the last seven years.

While the authors conceive of wikinom- ics in primarily economic and corporate terms — highlighting opportunities for firms and entrepreneurs, the significance of this trend is far greater and extends into every sphere of human activity.

These emerging modes of collaboration, based on the desire of individuals to add their voices and efforts to the myriad of collabora- tive enterprises and the growing conscious- ness of belonging to a global community, are giving rise to a transformation that is both internal and external: as individual attitudes

and values embrace the concept of a global community so, too, are they reflected in the social structures that members of society create.

The authors see many of the new initia- tives and the vision behind them as the “new Alexandria” characterized by the “fastest and broadest accumulation of human knowledge and culture,” now estimated to double the stock of human knowledge every 5 years. Among these online initiatives are: Linux —a collaboratively created open source com- puter operating system; Facebook — a social networking website with 60 million users; YouTube — a video sharing website hosting about 68 million videos; Kiva — a website that connects individual lenders with small

MySpace Fricke

Wikipedia, Second Life

Linux

YouTube Inn6Centive Human Genome Project

WIKINOMICS

How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything

Don Tapscott

and Anthony D. Williams

businesses in the developing world; InnoCen- tive — an online community connecting indi- viduals, businesses and academic institutions with a global network of over 125,000 indi- viduals to solve some of the world toughest challenges; and the Massachusetts Institute of

Review, continued on page 15

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ONE COUNTRY / April-June 2008 �