Posts from — October 2007

I’ve just spent a good portion of the day upgrading the Apple OS on my MacBook Pro to OS X 10.5 (aka Leopard). The upgrade took time because I was ultra careful with ensuring that I had an up-to-date bootable backup, that I had cleaned out caches and ensured my back up was as free of cruft as possible. Then I did an “Erase and Install”, so that the hard disk was erased before installing the new OS and pulling my apps and files back in from the bootable backup.

I’m glad to say that it has all gone exceptionally well and I now have a fully functioning laptop with a nice clean install of the OS.

Alex, Charlie and the kids are staying this weekend - it’s really nice to see them all, our children and their children.

Technorati Tags: computer, Apple, Mac, OS X, Leopard, family, grandchildren

One of the things I do in life is to advise the Attorney General.

I could try to persuade you that I’m not saying this as a boast - but I know you wouldn’t believe me. So just accept this as a name-drop. And, more importantly, as an illustration of how the UK government (or part of it, at least) takes great care to hear what civil society has to say about its policies and proposals.

Needless to say, I do not presume to give Baroness Scotland legal hints on affairs of state - I have no legal qualifications and precious little knowledge of the legal system - but I do give my two-pennyworth on matters of equality and diversity insofar as they affect the various prosecuting agencies in the criminal justice system in England and Wales (such as the Crown Prosecution Service, the Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office, the Serious Fraud Office).

Of course, it’s not just me. I’m only one member of the Attorney General’s Equality and Diversity Advisory Group (AGEDAG), which comprises representatives of voluntary organizations that work in the six equality strands of the Equality Act 2006 (race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief, age). I sit on the advisory group in my role as Chair of the Religion and Belief Consultative Group on Equality, Diversity and Human Rights (on which I represent the UK Baha’i community).

The group, chaired by the Attorney General, meets quarterly and consults about the latest draft equality and diversity policies that affect the criminal justice system.

Today, for example, Dru Sharpling, who is the Chief Crown Prosecutor for London, spoke about the Crown Prosecution Service’s draft policy statement on prosecuting crimes against the older person. Dru leads the team that has drafted the policy and will revise it in light of comments made by the AGEDAG and other bodies that are being consulted. She was congratulated by AGEDAG members on an excellent and thoughtful draft policy that will do much to raise awareness amongst prosecutors, the police and older people themselves of what the criminal justice system can and should be doing to support older people who are victims of a wide range of crimes.

We also had updates from a couple of other prosecuting agencies whose draft equality schemes had been quite heavily criticized at a previous meeting of the AGEDAG. Both agencies had been taking steps, based on comments at that meeting, to improve their equality schemes. Patricia Scotland commented that the group clearly had power, since it had been able to influence these two agencies into working to improve their schemes.

Actually, I was impressed by the positive way in which the representatives of the agencies concerned had accepted the criticisms and clearly found them helpful, even though the criticisms had been quite strongly expressed.

These kinds of interactions with the agencies of state, government departments and so on give some very interesting insights into how government works. Or doesn’t work. On Monday I had a meeting with the head of one of the government units that relates to the faith communities and it became clear that there is a certain fogginess about who is responsible for which bits of government deal with which elements of faith-related policy.

It’s an object-lesson for all those whosuppose, wrongly, that government is all-powerful and that officialdom conspires to fix things to suit themselves.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Baroness Scotland, Attorney General, Crown Prosecution Service, equalities, criminal justice system, faith, religion and belief

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I have to draw your attention to the new LittleGuru site. Well, truth be told, I don’t have to, but I want to.

LittleGuru is actually my daughter-in-law, Vicky, who is an enterprising and lovely person. If you go and have a look you will see the wide range of writing, artistic, health and spiritual activities she’s involved in - more than just involved in, she initiates many of these things, often in partnership with others.

Technorati Tags: LittleGuru, spirituality, health

Lord Avebury (right) with Bemma Donkoh, representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees

Lord Avebury has posted his speech at the Blomfield Award reception on 17 October on his blog.

Let me say without qualification that there’s no honour I would sooner have received that the Blomfield award, established in memory of Sara Louisa Ryan, Lady Blomfield, one of the most remarkable women born in the second half of the 19th century.

Do read the speech. It will give you a deeper understanding of a very special man.

Technorati Tags: Lord Avebury, Lady Blomfield, human rights

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Does it matter whether we agree that global climate change is happening or not? Does it matter whether or not we take action to ameliorate the effects of global climate change, even if it isn’t happening? These are the questions that this video sets out to answer.

It seems to me to make a compelling case for action to prevent or ameliorate the effects of climate change, even if no climate change is taking place. If climate change is happening, the cost of doing nothing is global catastrophe. If, on the other hand, climate isn’t happening, the costs of needless action may be a severe economic depression, but that would actually be less of a cost than global catastrophe.

We should act in a precautionary manner in our own best interests.

The argument that the video puts forward makes it completely unnecessary to decide whether climate change, if it is happening, is caused by human behaviour or by cosmic factors, such as changes in the sun’s output.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVzfI]

Whatever we think about the video, whatever we think about climate change - Is it happening or not? If it is, what are the causes and what can/should we do about it? - it seems clear to me that each of us has a responsibility to act as stewards of our planet and all its species. The sacred writings of the Baha’i Faith elevate this question of stewardship to a moral and spiritual level, thus taking it beyond mere self-interest:

Every man of discernment, while walking upon the earth, feeleth indeed abashed, inasmuch as he is fully aware that the thing which is the source of his prosperity, his wealth, his might, his exaltation, his advancement and power is, as ordained by God, the very earth which is trodden beneath the feet of all men. [Bahá’u'lláh, Bahá’í writings]

Technorati Tags: climate change, global warming, stewardship, Baha’i, Bahai

One of my heroes is a quiet man, generally unnoticed by the media, unsung, not the recipient of glittering awards. He is a veteran British parliamentarian and advocate and defender of human rights of the oppressed in many parts of the world. He is Lord Avebury.

Yesterday afternoon the UK Baha’i community honoured Lord Avebury for his consistent, thorough and outstanding work in support of the human rights of the Baha’is in Iran and Egypt by presenting him with the Blomfield Award. Around 35 of Eric Avebury’s family, friends and colleagues came to the Baha’i Centre in London’s Knightsbridge district to mark the occasion. Guests included Mrs Bemma Donkoh, London representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and the Rt Hon Anne Clwyd MP, the Prime Minister’s special envoy to Iraq and Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group.

Lady Lindsay Avebury, Mrs Bemma Donkoh and Lord Avebury

Rob Weinberg, Secretary for External Affairs, welcomed the guests and gave a brief introduction to the Baha’i Faith, highlighting historical links with Britain, and reminding everyone of the current worsening of the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran.

It then fell to me to pay tribute (and the tribute came right from the heart) to Eric Avebury and to thank him for his constant support for the Baha’is in Iran and Egypt. Back in the summer of 1998, not long after I had been elected Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the UK for the first time, I received a phone call from a member of the Universal House of Justice, the community’s world governing council, to say that Mr Ruhollah Rohani had been executed in Iran because he was a Baha’i; I was to inform our government. Were that call to come today (God forbid), I would know exactly what to do. But in 1998 I had no experience of that kind of work and we had no specialist external affairs staff as we do today.

I managed to locate the correct Foreign Office official and went to see him. Not long after, somebody suggested I talk to Lord Avebury. I went with our newly appointed public information officer, Carmel Momen, to Eric’s home and explained the situation. He listened carefully and sympathetically, and, being a person of action, he wrote to the Foreign Secretary.

He was the first parliamentarian at that time actively to support our work to protect the human rights of the Baha’is in Iran. And he was a founder member and officer of the All Party Parliamentary Friends of the Baha’is that we set up in 1999. He is still very active as an officer of the group.

Eric may be self-effacing, but he is absolutely thorough and tenacious in his human rights advocacy. If he doesn’t receive a satisfactory reply to any question he puts to a minister, he writes again until he gets the truth.

In his reply to Rob’s and my speeches, Eric spoke warmly of the Faith, saying how much he admires Baha’is principles such as the equality of women and men and bringing an end to racism. He also spoke of his admiration for Lady Blomfield, who - inspired by her faith as a Baha’i - was very active for the rights of children in the years after the First World War (she was a co-founder of the Save the Children Fund) and tireless promoted the rights of women and the new League of Nations. Interestingly, the present National Baha’i Centre in London was partly paid for in 1954 by a bequest from Lady Blomfield.

Lord Avebury with Anne Clwyd MP

Anne Clwyd MP, long-time friend and parliamentary colleague of Eric Avebury, also paid a warm tribute to him. She explained that she had taken over from him as Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group. He had really dedicated much of his parliamentary career to human rights and, she said, we need more parliamentarians like Eric Avebury.

If you visit Eric Avebury’s blog you will see that he is very much a family man. His son John was at the reception with his girlfriend. And there was a refugee family there, whose asylum in the UK Eric had helped to secure. They clearly loved him very much.

I felt deeply honoured to be able to present the Blomfield Award to Lord Avebury. Anne Clwyd is right. We need more parliamentarians like him: tenacious, principled, free of ego and exercising his capacities for the benefit of others. Eric’s wife said privately that he had never received any awards for his human rights work. She had seen a glittering award in New York go to some celebrity or other who had done some little thing for human rights, but Eric had never been thus honoured. He was, she said, very pleased indeed to have been selected by the Baha’is for the Blomfield Award.

Dan Wheatley, Barney Leith, Shila Behjat, Eric and Lindsday Avebury, Rob Weinberg

[All the photographs in this post are © Hamid Jahanpour.]

Technorati Tags: Eric Avebury, human rights, Baha’i, Bahai, Iran, Blomfield Award

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Something like 20,000 blogs contributed to Blog Action Day 2007.

You can read the wrap here.

Technorati Tags: Blog Action Day

We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moulds the environment and is itself deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions. [From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Baha'i Faith from 1921 to 1957, to an individual]

I have heard Trevor Phillips, Chair of the UK’s new Equality and Human Rights Commission say on a number of occasions that there are two questions we need to answer and answer well in the 21st century:

1. How do we live with each other?

2. How do we live with/on our planet?

We cannot answer these questions separately from each other. And we cannot answer them satisfactorily unless we abandon the illusion that focusing on material needs and resources alone will solve our social and environmental challenges. We must examine ourselves and our spiritual reality:

No matter how far the material world advances, it cannot establish the happiness of mankind. Only when material and spiritual civilization are linked and coordinated will happiness be assured. for in material civilization good and evil advance together and maintain the same pace. [From the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá]

The 1995 Copenhagen Declaration, produced by the UN World Summit for Social Development, contained this ringing call:

We heads of State and Government are committed to a political, economic, ethical and spiritual vision for social development that is based on human dignity, human rights, equality, respect, peace, democracy, mutual responsibility and cooperation, and full respect for the various religious and ethical values and cultural backgrounds of people. Accordingly, we will give the highest priority in national, regional and international policies and actions to the promotion of social progress, justice and the betterment of the human condition, based on full participation by all.

Noble language, but the reality has been rather different. Why?

Our framework for solving the world’s problems right now is largely materialistic - and it has failed us. We need another picture, another world view, another story about who we are and how we relate to ourselves, to our fellow humans, and to the planet we all inhabit.

The Baha’i International Community published a seminal statement for the Copenhagen summit. The Prosperity of Humankind. It’s a document that repays study and it offers us a new frame of reference:

The bedrock of a strategy that can engage the world’s population in assuming responsibility for its collective destiny must be the consciousness of the oneness of humankind. Deceptively simple in popular discourse, the concept that humanity constitutes a single people presents fundamental challenges to the way that most of the institutions of contemporary society carry out their functions.

So what’s the new story? Prosperity tells us how, in a letter to Queen Victoria, Baha’u'llah, the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, compares the world to a human body. This is, according to Prosperity…

…the one model holding convincing promise for the organization of a planetary society… Human society is composed not of a mass of merely differentiated cells but of associations of individuals, each one of whom is endowed with intelligence and will; nevertheless, the modes of operation that characterize man’s biological nature illustrate fundamental principles of existence. Chief among these is that of unity in diversity.

The statement continues:

Justice is the one power that can translate the dawning consciousness of humanity’s oneness into a collective will through which the necessary structures of global community life can be confidently erected…

…justice is the practical expression of awareness that, in the achievement of human progress, the interests of the individual and those of society are inextricably linked…

The implications for social and economic development are profound. Concern for justice protects the task of defining progress from the temptation to sacrifice the well-being of the generality of humankind - and even of the planet itself - to the advantages which technological breakthroughs can make available to privileged minorities.

These, too, are noble words. But what evidence do we have that we can turn them into gritty reality?

Baha’is, along with other faith communities, are getting to grips with the challenges of sustainable development, as this story from One Country magazine illustrates. 2005 saw the launch of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development . Peter Adriance is a board member of the International Environment Forum, a Baha’i-inspired NGO that addresses issues around environment and sustainable development:

“Many faith communities are already well practiced in terms of environmental protection and concern,” said Mr. Adriance, who is also a member of the executive team of the US Partnership for the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and also the US Bahá’í community’s NGO liaison. “So now it is a matter of making the transition to the larger question of sustainability — and how to promote it through education.

“Faith communities recognize the moral dimension of the need to achieve sustainability,” Mr. Adriance continued. “The sacred writings of the world’s religions are a powerful source of motivation for many people, and an essential ingredient in making the transition to sustainability.

“Without the spiritual principles brought by religion, how are we going to generate the political will to make the necessary changes in behavior? Religion has a key role to play in motivating people to contribute to the ongoing well-being of humanity, instead of just to their own immediate comfort,” said Mr. Adriance.

According to Mr. Adriance and others, recent efforts by faith-based organizations to respond to the Decade include a wide range of efforts by religious groups to begin to incorporate education for sustainable development in their curricula, outreach, and other activities.

Education is crucial, but we will need to do much more to ensure a sustainable future for humankind. And to do the much more we will need to understand that we are in a time of transition from our collective childhood to our collective adulthood. As the human race passes through its coming of age, we face a time of unprecedented turmoil and danger. As Prosperity says:

A world is passing away and a new one is struggling to be born… What is required of the peoples of the world is a measure of faith and resolve to match the enormous energies with which the Creator of all things has endowed this spiritual springtime of the race.

Technorati Tags: Blog Action Day, Baha’i, Bahai, sustainable development, environment, unity in diversity, justice, spirituality

There is nothing sweeter in the world of existence than prayer. [From the writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá]

Erica and I are co-tutoring a group who are studying Book 1 (Reflections on the Life of the Spirit) of the courses of the Ruhi Institute in our home on Wednesday nights. There are seven of us. Four are not Baha’is, three are Baha’is, and I am the only man in the group.

Baha’is across the globe invite their friends to join them in small groups in their own homes to study the Baha’i sacred texts and teachings by means of the Ruhi courses. It’s one of what we call our “core activities” - things that we do to encourage our friends, whether Baha’i or not, to embark on the spiritual journey with us. We also have devotional gatherings, spiritual and moral classes for children, and classes for 11-14 year old “junior youth”.

Last Wednesday we began to study the course unit on prayer. Oh, that was a sweet and wonderful thing to do, to spend an evening sharing and deepening our understanding about prayer. Sadly, Beverley and Lindsay were unavoidably absent, but Mary, Valerie, Fariba, Erica and I plunged into the ocean of the Word of God.

Mary is a practising Catholic and relates what we are studying to what she believes and how she acts. Valerie, on the other hand, is reserved and hasn’t said anything very much about herself - and there’s no call for her to do so, if she doesn’t want to. Both Mary and Valerie maintain a privacy about themselves in what seems to me to be a very English manner. We don’t necessarily want everyone to know our life histories, nor do we want to tell people what we think and believe before we have created a relationship of trust.

Mary attended a 9-week meditation course (using the CALM - community approach to learning meditation - handbook) that our Baha’i community ran in a neighbouring village hall; we held the last three sessions in our home and it was then that Mary, like others (including Beverley), felt able to be more open about her spiritual life. The whole group shared some deeply personal things and created a very strong bond at that time.

Ruhi Book 1 is rather different from the CALM meditation course. It is really designed for Baha’is who are new to the Baha’i Faith, so there are concepts and language in the course that need to be explained to those who aren’t Baha’is. Erica and I were rather anxious about this when we started this particular group, fearing that our non-Baha’i friends might find the concepts difficult or alien to their experience. For example, the first unit of Book 1 explains that Baha’is don’t confess their sins to priests or other individuals. Would Mary find that difficult to accept? Well, no, she accepted that Baha’is don’t do this, but she explained quite cogently why confession to a priest is important for her as a Catholic. And we moved right along.

Section 2 of the Book 1 unit on prayer mentions, without any explanation or introduction, the Long Obligatory Prayer. Obligatory prayer is a concept and practice which is important to Baha’is but which may be unfamiliar to Christians. So we took a little time to explain the nature of daily obligatory prayer and the three prayers from which Baha’is can choose one each day.

Section 1 asks participants to say who ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is. Again, OK for Baha’is, but Mary, quite understandably, asked, “Who is ‘Abdu’l-Bahá?” Time to say something about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and to tell some stories of His life.

All of these potential difficulties turn out not to be difficulties at all. In fact they provide opportunities to share information about aspects of Baha’i life and history.

The intimate and trusting atmosphere of the study circle encourages participants to share their own thoughts and feelings about the subject under discussion. I spoke about the challenge I have in maintaining a consistent prayer life - some days prayer opens what a friend once described many years ago as the “trapdoor” that separates from the worlds of God; other days the trapdoor shuts on my head. The days the trapdoor opens, even if only a crack, bring an inner peace and joy that other days lack.

When I said this, Mary looked at me quizzically and said, “You’re very honest.” Well, what else was I to be?

At the end of the evening, Mary said that she now felt very comfortable sharing her personal feelings and experiences of prayer and the spiritual life. Valerie said little throughout the evening; I’m trying to figure a way of inviting her to open up (but without putting any pressure on her). At the moment it’s as if she’s observing the course but not fully participating.

To finish the session everyone read the following quotation out, and then we spent a few moments in silent meditation, so that we could absorb the meaning of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words:

There is nothing sweeter in the world of existence than prayer. Man must live in a state of prayer. The most blessed condition is the condition of prayer and supplication. Prayer is conversation with God. The greatest attainment or the sweetest state is none other than conversation with God. It creates spirituality, creates mindfulness and celestial feelings, begets new attractions of the Kingdom and engenders the susceptibilities of the higher intelligence.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Ruhi Institute, prayer, spirituality

I have just been amazed and cheered by this video. Dr Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University, who is facing death within a few months from pancreatic cancer, reflects in the university’s “Last Lecture” series on his life, on achieving his childhood dreams, and about what he’s learned from life. He’s funny, he’s positive and he’s not in denial. He says he won’t talk about spirituality and religion, but he has had a death-bed conversion - he’s just bought an Apple Mac (good man).

At the time of the lecture, Dr Pausch was facing, with extraordinary strength, the greatest journey that we all have to make. Inevitably the video has set me to wondering how I would face death if I knew that I had only a few months to live. Knowing how long he had to live, Randy Pausch decided to make the best use of his remaining time to live his values, to help others achieve their dreams, to created good memories for his wife and particularly for his kids. The family bought a new house, moved, he bought a new computer; and he demonstrated that he was in really good physical shape.

I don’t think I would have the spiritual and psychological fortitude, if I were faced with what Randy Pausch was (still is?) facing - but, then, who knows how they will respond to the ultimate challenge until they actually face it.

You can watch the whole lecture by searching the ABC News site on “Pausch” you can find links to the whole lecture.

Technorati Tags: death, cancer, spirituality, virtue, family