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

the work of a regional institute coordinator is pretty hard…

Here’s a really cool version of everybody’s favourite musical fireside song, These Great Oppressions—performed by Canadian Baha’i musician Dean Kalyan.

These great oppressions
That have befallen the world
Are preparing it for the advent
Of the Most Great Justice

These fruitless strifes
These ruinous wars
Shall pass away
And the Most Great Peace shall come

And, as an added bonus, here’s JB Eckl and Eric Dozier performing another musical fireside song, O Son of Man, at a concert in Austin, TX. See more!

If thou lovest me,
turn away from thyself
If thou seekest my pleasure,
regard not thine own
That thou mayest die in me
And I may eternally live in thee
O Son of Man!

Polynesian music group Mana wins the awesomeness award of the month with their new music video pulled straight from the pages of Ruhi Book 1 and the writings of Bahá’u'lláh:

That seeker should also regard backbiting as grievous error, and keep himself aloof from its dominion, inasmuch as backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul.

Bahá’u'lláh, Kitáb-i-Iqan (The Book of Certitude), p. 194

well it’s certainly been a while since the last update, hasn’t it? I blame the season. I love winter, but for some reason, every time it comes around, I just slow down like nobody’s business. sad. I guess it’s more of the winter blahs (I keep blogging about them every year… I sense a pattern developing). On a positive note, I got a chance to get out and visit ottawa’s winterlude festival—no skating that day, but got to admire the ice sculptures and have a taste of some maple taffy on snow:

this winter, I definitely want to go out and visit a sugar bush somewhere out in the country. I haven’t even taken a vacation this winter for crying out loud! last year at around this time, I had just come back from a week’s worth of travelling across Canada—visiting friends in Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg. …Actually, that’s not quite true. At this time last year, I was recovering from a sudden attack of kidney stones… well, more like a massacre, actually, but it did teach me some things.

[English below the first video.] Voilà une perle rare! Il s’agit d’un film documentaire archi passionnant qui montre le premier essai d’un projet collectif d’enseignement centré sur les pré-jeunes—c’est à dire les jeunes ayant de 11 à 14 ans—dans un groupement près de Paris, en France. Passionnant parce qu’il s’agit de l’apprentissage en temps réel—la première fois que les Baha’is de cette région ont tenté de prendre leur élan de façon tellement systématique. Passionnant aussi parce qu’il s’agit d’un projet très semblable aux projets collectifs lancés à Ottawa l’été passé—et en plus de ça, certaines personnes qu’on voit dans le vidéo avaient aussi participé dans les projets à Ottawa! Ils chantent même des chansons écrites durant le projet “Fire and Snow” à Toronto! Le monde est petit non? Allez voir les vidéos sur Youtube: Parties 1 et 2.

Now here’s a special treat: an amazing documentary about the first attempt at a collective teaching project centred around junior youth—youth from 11 to 14 years old—in an area near Paris, France. Amazing because it documents real-time learning—the first time the Baha’is of this region took on such a systematic project. Amazing also because the project is very similar to the projects launched in Ottawa last summer—and not only that; some of the folks seen in the video actually participated in the Ottawa projects! They even sing songs that were written for the Fire and Snow project in Toronto! Small world huh? Go check out the videos on Youtube: Parts 1 and 2.

most of you will have already heard the news about the planned closure of the Bahá’í-inspired Maxwell International School, which was quick to spread when it broke back in mid-November. you may not have heard, though, of the recent grassroots efforts by students, parents and local community members to gather enough support to allow the school to stay open under a different administrative and financial structure. Victoria, B.C.’s A-Channel recently reported on the situation.

Learn more on the Maxwell International School’s website, or on the Save Maxwell International School Facebook group (if you’re into that sort of thing!)

As I’ve already blogged here before, “Anna’s presentation” is a nickname referring to several sections of Book 6 of the Ruhi curriculum, “Teaching the Cause”, in which participants explore how to effectively share with receptive souls a general overview (or presentation) of the Baha’i Faith that is detailed enough to be considered complete.

When people talk about using “Anna’s presentation” they are generally referring to using notes they have distilled from these sections in order to present an accurate and complete overview of the Baha’i Faith. More and more, people are using these notes as a guide on how to present the Baha’i Faith in a clear, transparent and direct fashion—which is resulting in an increased number of enrollments in the Baha’i community across the world.

Robert Henderson is a lifelong Baha’i and member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States. He and his wife, Paula, recently gave an eloquent and beautiful interview for a programme on a public access cable show in Chicago; there’s a short clip on YouTube. This brief excerpt from an hour-long interview gives a quick overview of the Baha’i Faith and its spiritual teachings—good for forwarding on to those spiritual seekers who are looking for a new answer to humanity’s age-old problems.

Update: There’s yet more… check out the newly-posted part 2 on Youtube.

Here’s wishing all the fans and readers of doberman pizza a happy celebration of the Birth of Bahá’u'lláh. 190 years ago, a new day dawned and a new sun rose from the horizon of Persia to illuminate the whole world. Last night’s celebration in Ottawa was pretty epic—over 700 people attended! Here’s a video presentation that was shared as part of the celebration.

This is a lamentably late post—along with all the others I’ve posted recently—but this one makes me so angry I couldn’t bear not to share it. Not content with the relentless (yet increasingly secretive) persecution of living Baha’is, Iranian authorities are sinking to desecrating the graves of those Baha’is who have passed away. Barnabas Quotidianus carries commentary about the bulldozing of Baha’i cemeteries in Iran—an insane, barbaric and callous act of malice. To quote the post’s author, Barney Leith, “[t]he destruction of the Baha’i cemetery in Najafabad is clearly part of a systematic campaign by the Iranian authorities to intimidate, persecute and destroy the Baha’i community in the land of its birth.” With the help of Youtube, we can see the destruction up close.

Update: The following video offers a voice-over and before-and-after video from the Najafabad cemetery, making its destruction all the more chilling.

The Muslim Network on Baha’i Rights also features this video, as well as additional photos of the cemetery’s destruction.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to America was newsworthy enough to make the front page of local, national and international news everywhere. You may have heard about his remarks to the American National Press Corps—in which he completely ignored a question posed to him about Iran’s Baha’is— or his talk at Columbia University and “public skewering” by Columbia president Lee Bollinger. Then, in a galling display of duplicity, Ahmadinejad delivered the following non-answer to a direct question about the persecution of Iran’s Baha’is at a United Nations press conference on September 25:

I doubt Ahmadinejad would ever read this blog, but just for the record:

1. The name of the religion mentioned is the Baha’i Faith.
2. The name of its divine prophet is Baha’u’llah.
3. He first revealed His mission to mankind in 1863.
4. You’re welcome.

Also blogged at Baha’i Faith in Egypt and Barnabas Quotidianus.

…so that’s why youtube was down yesterday. they upgraded! for those of you who are into it, check out the new look youtube (and big boss google) brought out of beta. pretty sweet… along the way, check out this short NBC TV segment on “Faith in America” that offers a quick peek at the Baha’i Faith!