doberman pizza. a baha'i (bahai, bahá'í) blog.

those lovable Carleton CABS people are at it again. If you’re around Carleton tomorrow (Thursday), come on out to a singularly eco-logical talk, titled “The Environmental Crisis: Spiritual Problems, Spiritual Solutions”, by none other than my very own neighbour, Diana Cartwright, Baha’i delegate to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (2002), and policy advisor at Environment Canada. The talk will take place at 7:00 PM, Thursday, October 28th, at Room 208 of the Tory Building at Carleton (see map).

If you survive that and you’re still ready for more, then venture over to Saunders Farm on Friday evening, October 28th, for the Ottawa CABS Halloween Party. People will be meeting at 6:00 PM at Room 123 of Simard Hall, Ottawa U, to leave at 6:30 PM SHARP for the farm. Transportation will (of course) be provided from and back to the university. Regular admission to the farm is $17, and everybody is asked to bring an awesome costume - because the best one wins a prize!

And if you happen to survive that and STILL emerge unscathed, then an uber-Halloween Party on Saturday night should finish you off. Our (not) exclusive source says: “Slip on your scariest or most outrageous costume for an evening that promises to be full of fun and frightening times! Dance the night away while our DJ plays your favourite tracks. Admission of $6 will include pizza and soft drinks and there will be a prize for the best costume!” The party starts at 8:00 PM, Saturday, October 29, 2005 at Harmony Gardens, 1777 Montreal Road (see map).

And if you survive that, well, I’m just gonna have to come over and beat you unconscious with a fish.

I’m very saddened by this news… Dr. Javanmardi was a real inspiration to me and all the Baha’is of Quebec. His warmth, his all-embracing love, his passion and courage, and his capacity to encourage, inspire and rally the troops of the All-Beloved were unique and irreplaceable. He will truly be missed, and his memory will be cherished for a long time to come.

From: stanphillips
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 12:57 AM
Subject: Shapoor Javanmardi

To all the friends of Shapoor Javanmardi,

The distinguished and beautiful soul of Shapoor Javanmardi, which has enriched our lives in Montreal and those of countless other Bahá’ís across Canada and elsewhere, whose home welcomed all for so many years with matchless hospitality, whose devotion to the Cause was a constant inspiration to greater action, and whose ceaseless encouragement has strengthened and uplifted so many of us in our paths of service to the Blessed Beauty, has concluded its work for the Faith in this life, and has taken its flight to the Abha Paradise yesterday morning.

While we grieve along with his family who enveloped him with love over the past weeks, we do so with hearts full of gratitude for knowing him, and having benefited so richly from his bright, restless and passionate spirit.

His funeral will be held at the Louis Bourgeois Centre on Saturday, October 29, 2005 at 2:00 p.m. You are all lovingly invited to come and honour a life that has meant so much to us all.

With sadness and tenderness,

THE SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE
BAHA’IS OF MONTREAL

Stan Phillips, secretary

Here’s something I found quite disturbing. Below is an excerpt from the Baha’i International Community’s newly launched website, Closed Doors: Iran’s Campaign to Deny Higher Education to Bahá’ís. It sheds light on the denial of higher education to the Baha’is of Iran — a denial that contravenes the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights, to which Iran is a signatory.

Since 1979, the government of Iran has systematically sought to deprive its largest religious minority of the right to a full education. Specifically, the Islamic Republic of Iran has for more than 25 years blocked the 300,000-member Bahá’í community from higher education, refusing young Bahá’ís entry into university and college. The government has also sought to close down Bahá’í efforts to establish their own institutions of higher learning.

This action comes against a wider picture of persecution of the Iranian Bahá’í community that has included arbitrary executions, unjustified imprisonment, the confiscation of property, and severe restrictions on freedom of religious practice and worship. Since the Islamic government came to power, more than 200 Bahá’ís have been killed, hundreds have been imprisoned, and thousands have had property or businesses confiscated, been fired from jobs, and/or have had pensions terminated. Bahá’í holy sites have been destroyed, the community’s elected administrative structure has been dismantled, and Bahá’ís have been denied a host of other rights, ranging from freedom of movement to simple inheritance rights.

Against that backdrop, the efforts of the Iranian government to deny Bahá’ís the right to education can only be seen as a coordinated effort to eradicate the Bahá’í community as a viable group within Iranian society.

Read More at denial.bahai.org.

Further to the information about the denial of higher education to Baha’is in Iran, the following is an excerpt from an article included in the April-June 2005 issue of One Country, the newsletter of the Baha’i International Community, about an upsurge in arrests and arbitrary detainment of Baha’is:

In a striking upsurge in persecution, some 37 Bahá’ís were arrested and taken into custody in Iran during the months of March, April, and May 2005. Most were arbitrarily detained without any charge being filed against them. […]

The wave of arrests in spring 2005 follows a number of other incidents earlier this year. In the city of Yazd, starting in late December and continuing through January, a number of Bahá’ís were arrested, detained, and interrogated. Several were beaten in their homes, at least one Bahá’í-owned business was set afire, and the Bahá’í graveyard there was desecrated.

[ Read the entire article ]

For more on the situation of the human rights situation of the Bahá’í community of Iran, visit question.bahai.org.

hey - check out this Friday’s CABS seminar, at 7:30 PM, Room 123, Simard Hall, Ottawa U. The speaker is Livia VanderDussen, a Baha’i student at Carleton, and she’ll be talking about her experience at the North American Regional Consultations on the UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence Against Children, hosted by UNICEF. Check out the Ottawa CABS Website for more information.

so, the past week has been (mostly) good. Last Friday was Dr. Janet Khan’s talk at Carleton University on Bahíyyih Khánum - coinciding with the release of her new book, Prophet’s Daughter: The Life and Legacy of Bahíyyih Khánum, Outstanding Heroine of the Bahá’í Faith. She gave a well-researched portrait of Bahíyyih Khánum, describing her life and contributions to the Baha’i Faith and the worldwide Baha’i Community. Hearing about her role in the administration of the Baha’i World Community in the early days of Shoghi Effendi’s mandate as Guardian gave me a much better understanding of why he was always so grateful to her. I think you should read the book. Go for it.

Sam and I went out to Chelsea on Saturday night for a french-canadian music night organized by the Baha’is there. It was fun - we just sat around singing all night, punctuated by bouts of eating and drinking and making merry (for the most part, sans alcohol). There was even some dancing, and accordion-playing. omg.

Tazz and I spent a chilly Sunday afternoon hanging out in New Edinburgh, after which we went to the well-attended 19-day Feast in Sector 9 - where we scored phat Persian food. Oh yeah, not to mention that my family started the day by inviting me and zeta to join them for breakfast at Perkins on St. Laurent. Matante Rose (the poet) was down from Moncton for a conference - it was cool to see her. (I could do without the 9 AM wake-up call on a Sunday, but, well - you know. it’s family.)

Monday and Tuesday were crazy at work as we prepared to launch a majorly important special report and then watched our entire web server crash violently just as people were going on the radio to advertise it. It’s days like these when you really earn your pay. Not to mention that it’s more exciting than posting agendas and powerpoint presentations all day.

Tonight was a fun fun celebration of the Birth of The Báb, with a very nice program full of music and good food. There were lots of people there and everybody shook hands and said how do you do. I met new people and it was fun. And now I’m tired and I need to go to bed so peace.

alors je me suis levé plus tôt que d’habitude ce matin, donc j’ai allumé mon ordi pour vérifier mes courriels. et qui d’autre aperçois-je sur msn que catherine BIGO et gege allison, vaillantes jeunes baha’ies en année de service au Gabon? on s’est mis à clavarder, à allumer nos webcam, et la conversation s’est poursuivie - avec les photos en primeur.

elles souhaitent le bonjour à la gang de Sherbrooke, tous les baha’is du Québec - en effet, tous leurs amis et amies de partout - et demandent aux gens de se mettre en ligne sur msn entre 7h00 et 8h00 (heure de l’Est), car c’est quand elles sont le plus susceptibles d’être en ligne - l’heure correspond à 12h00-13h00 au Gabon. Elles se mettent en ligne grâce à un café internet muni d’un webcam pour clavardage vidéo, et des écouteurs avec micro pour clavardage audio.

Delara offers this announcement on behalf of the Campus Association for Baha’i Studies (CABS) at the University of Ottawa:

Bahíyyih Khánum’s Role in
Advancing the Status of Women

A talk by Dr. Janet Khan

When: Saturday October 15, 7:30pm
Where: University of Ottawa
Colonel By Building Room D207

This talk will focus on Bahíyyih Khánum’s unique role as a female leading figure in the history of the Baha’i Faith. Her life story delivers a strong message of encouragement and hope to anyone concerned about humanity’s ability to combat ignorance, prejudice, and repression.

By the way, Sam B. notes that Dr. Khan will also be speaking at Carleton University on Friday October 14th, 7:30 pm, at 5050 Minto Centre. Dr. Khan is the author of the newly released book, Prophet’s Daughter: The Life and Legacy of Bahíyyih Khánum, Outstanding Heroine of the Bahá’í Faith. Read the Canadian Baha’i News Service article on this topic.

bleah. everyone is sick around here. I’m fighting off a lingering cold that’s got me coughing and congested. My weapons of choice are soup and OJ. It seems to be working OK - colds never last long anyway so they’re a good excuse to eat lots of soup. Mmm soup. I love soup. with homemade bread.

Work at the Conference Board has been going well. We’re getting into a busy time chock full of conferences and other events, so things are busy and still picking up. I deal with a lot of design issues during the course of my work - it’s a fairly artistic job, and I learn a lot as I go. Lately, they’ve had me working on a lot of HTML emails. Yes, I create spam for a living. Don’t kill me. At least it’s nice spam.

I also recently worked on a web site for the Niagara Institute, a division of the Conference Board that offers leadership development courses and executive leadership programs and whatnot. I’m really happy with the way the site turned out, I think it’s really nice (and so do a few other Ottawa webmasters, by the way).

Other than that, life has been pretty busy. Thanksgiving weekend was pretty good, what with family dinner out at Mom & Dad’s place, and aram + natalia’s wedding last Friday (pics are up on flickr). On the Baha’i side of things, I’ve been juggling some committee work with the prospect of starting a French-language children’s class soon. It’s proving to be a challenge to get started, because we haven’t really found someone who can handle the logistical aspects of running the class - just brave souls who feel comfortable teaching. That’s been one of the things that’s been holding me back, actually - the prospect of being tied up with logistics, phoning people up, doing follow-ups, and so on. Anyway, that’s a work in progress. Prayers definitely needed.

Speaking of work, time to get back to it. Peace.

congratulations to aram + natalia on your wedding!

it was a beautiful, masterfully prepared Baha’i marriage ceremony, and an excellent dinner and reception - an unforgettable day for all of us.

pictures will be going up on my flickr blog for the next week or so!

Check out Martin’s exclusive new feature: plans for the new Ottawa Baha’i Centre. It’s located on MacArthur St., at the location previously occupied by the La Favorita restaurant. I’ve eaten there, it’s good… their pizzas are excellent. Go check them out at their new location on Preston St. [A pizza recommendation from a website called doberman pizza… what next? -dj.] There’s an article about Baha’i centres throughout the world on Baha’i Blog, if you’re interested in learning more about centres in general, and the process by which communities acquire them.

hé tout le monde… allez voir les plans pour le nouveau centre baha’i d’Ottawa!!! c’est un ancien restaurant italien que l’Assemblée spirituelle a acheté et va convertir en centre d’information et salle de rencontre. c’est vraiment un espace intéressant; il y aura de l’espace pour à peu près 80 personnes au rez-de-chaussée, et le même nombre au sous-sol… ça veut dire qu’on aura la chance de tenir de multiples réunions en même temps… peut-être deux fêtes de 19 jours en même temps! trippant non? ça a l’air qu’on rattrape la communauté de Montréal petit à petit ;)

So in case you weren’t in the know or you haven’t checked Martin’s web site lately, it was Basim’s birthday last Friday. So in order to celebrate all together, Tazz alpha-maled us (to use Sam’s term) into going to Zak’s Diner for eats & treats (including famous Zak’s milkshakes). Martin and I took a whack of photos; I’ve just posted all of mine on my flickr blog. Check it out, reminisce, see what you missed, or just have a good laugh watching a bunch of friends goofing it up. Don’t miss Sam Benoit’s patented motion blur freak-outs.

And speaking of wierdness, check out the photos (one, two)I took of this odd bollywood movie from the seventies. Catherine and I were groggily watching tv this morning when it came on. it was actually pretty funny. everybody was dancing it up in traditional bollywood style - while wearing the most atrocious clothes. you know, bell bottoms, wide collars, and the like. all they were missing was the gold chains. the main guy reminded me of Herb Tarlek from WKRP - clothes-wise as well as personality-wise (he even looked a bit similar). why is it that the characters in these bollywood movies are always falling all over some beautiful woman (or man) so much? maybe it’s not that they get so j, maybe it’s just that they choose to sing about being j for half the movie. anyway, I digress. photos for those who wish to witness the wackness.