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

up bright and early today. there’s a huge swath of snow covering the city, so, just to be on the safe side, i got up early and called a taxi to bring me to my dentist’s appointment this morning. turns out it wasn’t needed, and I ended up arriving 45 minutes early for my appointment. so I did what any sane, God-fearing individual would do in this situation: I went to have breakfast. I’m blogging from Cora’s right now - apparently they offer free wireless internet (that, or they just haven’t secured their router). just thought I’d post a little something while I was here. work is pretty crazy right now; there’s a massive deadline coming this weekend that I’ll have to come in to work for. that, and there are children’s classes to plan (although the stress is a little lower now that I have help lined up) and a number of other web-related projects coming due.

on that note, I’m off to have my teeth cleaned.

The recent Canadian election season offered me time to ponder and reflect about the Baha’i attitude regarding politics. I find it quite difficult to place myself within the Canadian political system, given Baha’u'llah’s command to refrain from involving oneself in partisan politics. (And living in Ottawa, you tend to hear a lot about politics no matter what time of year it is.) I’ve heard different things from many Baha’is about what forms of political involvement and expression are appropriate. The following quote from a letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi pretty much sums up my take on the matter:

The Guardian wishes me to draw the attention of the friends through you that they should be very careful in their public utterances not to mention any political figures-either side with them or denounce them. This is the first fact to bear in mind. Otherwise they will involve the friends in political matters, which is infinitely dangerous for the Cause.

From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada, January 12, 1933: Bahá’í News, No. 72, April 1933, p. 3 Lights of Guidance, p. 441

That’s why, for example, I leave my “Political Views” line blank on Facebook. It’s also why I never blog about political figures, either to compliment or criticise them, either to express. When I get emails from people criticizing this or that politician—yes, even unpopular ones (who shall remain nameless)—I kind of bristle, just like I would when hearing someone backbiting about a friend.

What do you think? Is it appropriate for Baha’is to openly express their hopes that one or the other candidate in a partisan election will win? Is the opposite appropriate? Why or why not? Oh, and here are a few links as fodder for discussion: Bahá’í Involvement in Politics (from bahai.org), The Spiritual Character of Baha’i Elections (from the Compilation of Compilations), a short Compilation on Criticism. (on that, since my lunch break is over, I’m out!)

“really, though,” I thought to myself while jotting down notes about blog action day’s chosen topic of poverty, “what am i doing sitting here, sipping on a milkshake, when the three dollars I paid for it could have paid for a meal for a hungry child?” I still don’t have an answer. But it did get me thinking—thinking hard enough to put together a few thoughts on a topic I admittedly don’t think much about. thinking about wealth, family, and social position, and how I tend to take them for granted, just because that’s the way things are. thinking about what poverty means in Canada, one of the more affluent nations of the world—where, according to my own employer, the Conference Board of Canada, and to OECD statistics, one out of every seven children lives in poverty. thinking, and wondering what in the world one person could do to stem the tide of what has been and continues to be a global epidemic that afflicts billions of people.

In 2001, the United Nations set eight overarching goals for development, the “Millennium Development Goals” (side note: I’ve gotten real tired of things being named “Millennium”. they named a bus stop near my old high school “Millennium” for pete’s sake). The first of these goals—which also touched on topics such as education, gender equality, and the environment—concerned the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger. Specific targets? halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day; achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people; and halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. That’s no small task, I pondered to myself as I looked for a way to tackle this issue from my own perspective. How in the world are they supposed to do that, especially given the repeated failures of aid programs through corruption, misappropriation of funds, the creation of dependency in the receiving nations that elicits cries of “neocolonialist pigs!” in the radical West? Sure, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, there’s enough food in the world to feed everybody, but aren’t there still 780 million people who are still chronically hungry? What are they going to do, air-drop hamburgers?

Thankfully, through the agency of some good-natured spirit, I happened to find out about a study session on the Baha’i International Community’s recent statement, Eradicating Poverty: Moving Forward as One that happened tonight. After attending and taking a bunch of notes, I put together a few highlights in typical dan-jones style that I’d like to share with you.

read more… »

A lot more than two weeks later (x_X), here’s another track from the prayercast; this time, instead of being an improvised melody, the melody is a well-known one accompanying this sweet and beautiful prayer of blessing revealed by Bahá’u'lláh.

Blessed is the spot, and the house, and the place, and the city, and the heart, and the mountain, and the refuge, and the cave, and the valley, and the land, and the sea, and the island, and the meadow, where mention of God hath been made, and His praise glorified.

Bahá’u’lláh, Bahá’í Prayers, p.1

want to hear more of these? leave me a comment on this post or via email, and subscribe to the prayercast in iTunes or your favourite podcast player.

I was curious about some of the web stats I’ve had over the past year. In decreasing order of hits, these are the top 20 countries sending visitors to doberman pizza, a baha’i blog: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, India, Germany, Philippines, Malaysia, Israel, the Netherlands, Ireland, Romania, Portugal, China, New Zealand, Iran, Italy, Spain, and Vietnam.

How about the top 10 content? Apart from the home page, the most popular page on the site is the photos page. after that comes the about page (understandable). next comes Raelee Pierce’s article on Baha’i marriage culture (aha!). further down, there’s the yearly list of Baha’i fasting times, then the videos page. after that comes the always-hilarious Ottawa Baha’i youth slang glossary, and then the list of interesting search terms that people have used to find the site. afterwards comes the “quotes” blog category—people searching for Baha’i quotes—and, finally, one of my photo albums comes in at #10, a small album capturing a refresher on Anna’s presentation.

This quote popped up recently one evening during my reading, and I thought it was quite apropos to the current global economic situation.

By God! In earthly riches fear is hidden and peril is concealed. […] Fleeting are the riches of the world; all that perisheth and changeth is not, and hath never been, worthy of attention, except to a recognized measure.

Not sure what else to say about this one, other than stating how obvious this becomes, especially at a time like this when the foundations of world economy are being shaken to their core.

hahaha i love my new macbook pro. not only can I do just about anything with it super easily—like manage photos, create songs, remix video, run IM and IRC clients—I can also carry it around wherever I go and jot down things when they pop into my head. suddenly i feel like my life is a lot more organized. i’m sure this is something of a honeymoon period, but it’s a nice one %)

things are going well. work is set to be busy this month, with a rather challenging deadline at the end of October, but that’s nothing I haven’t seen and dealt with before. I’ve been going to the gym fairly regularly for the past two months or so and I seem to be losing some weight now; several people have commented already about that. I love getting the exercise, it keeps my mood on the up-and-up too. children’s classes have started up and are having a rather rough start, probably because I’ve been dividing my attention between preparing the lessons and working out logistics—calling the parents, trying to find a new co-teacher, etc. such is service sometimes. also, i am hard at work hatching some dastardly plans, but those are still under wraps. you’ll just have to sit and wait for now. other than that, the past few days have been pretty good. went to Louis’ Pizza with Nathan (new Baha’i in our neighbourhood) last night and then mosied over to starbucks for a little while; we also got to have a brief visit (and introductions) with Jay & Diana, who are our long-standing Baha’i neighbours. on Sunday, I went to visit my parents; my dad was busy digging up the front lawn, so I joined him with that and we ended up busting the pipe for their sump pump (whoops). after that, I helped dig up potatoes from my mom’s garden, and we all enjoyed a dinner of turkey pot pie and apple crumble. yum! looking forward to thanksgiving next weekend. it should be a wonderful family affair. ok, it’s getting late and I need to go to work. more soon!