Changing Times Blog

Iran: A Nation of Bloggers

“Iran: A Nation of Bloggers” by Aaron Chiesa (Vancouver Film School)

This impressive video essay is well worth watching. Blogging is not just an idle pursuit for Iranians. Blogs provide essential two-way links with the world outside Iran, governed as it is by people who would make every effort to completely control what information Iranian citizens have access to and what information they can impart.

Iranians, as I know from my friends in the Baha’i community, have very strong family and social networks and are not short of technical and scientific skills. It’s almost impossible to isolate them!

Source: Barney Leith

Model of the House of the Bab Confiscated

Model of the House of the Bab in Shiraz - Confiscated August 2007

Iran Press Watch has been online for just over two months and during this period, the site has received tens of thousands of visitors and is followed daily by thousands of concerned individuals. Now they are online with a new design and a new site.

Their latest post reports the confiscation of a model of the Residence of the Bab in Shiraz, an exact replicate of the house of the Bab was built on scale of 1:10 using wood, stones, bricks and other construction materials. It took five years of intense effort to build this work of art.

Agents of the Ministry of Intelligence searched the model’s artist’s home and among other things took the model. An undertaking of artistic expression thus exposes artists to criminal investigation, imprisonment and other legal problems. An outrage.

Iran Press Watch shares more pictures of the model (published from the original Iranian article): http://www.iranpresswatch.org/2008/11/latest-victim-of-iran’s-abuse-of-human-rights-artistic-expression/

We strongly suggest you follow Iran Press Watch: http://www.iranpresswatch.org

You Need to Film

Don’t think filming is for pros only. Read on, this is your chance to support the Baha’i Students in Iran. The American NSA is sponsoring an online video contest to help raise awareness about the denial of access to higher education to Baha’is in Iran. You have two months from now until the deadline, plenty of time to create a 2-minute video or animation. In fact, there is two categories for beginners, ‘Under 22′ and ‘Amateur Filmmakers’.

Find out about the details of the competition: http://www.youtube.com/group/bahaistudentsiran

Where do I start?

• Contact friends that could give you a hand.
• Ideas Ideas. For instance, you could put to film the story of one of the many youth expelled from university.
• Get out your camcorder or finally put the video function on your digital camera to good use.
• Read a few easy and basic tips on video and filming:
  CameraTim: Video Production Tips
  JustSayYes: Basic tips and techniques for filming
• Do some background research. Try these sites:
  Iran Press Watch
  Official Baha’i Iran Update
  

Remember, film imagery is one of the most powerful tools for raising awareness. This is one great opportunity to support our brothers and sisters who are denied the most basic requirement for the advancement of civilization, Education!

Remembering to BE a Baha’i

Pizza. When I was walking home from Uni tonight (a cold night), I had a sudden urge for pizza. After my favorite pizza baker Mohammed hooked me up with his finest funghi, the rain drops took their chance to rush down. Unimpressed I took a nice cheesy slice from the white cardboard box and made my way home passing through our beautiful city centre with its semi-romantic renaissance buildings and decorative lamp posts right and left of the cobblestone-paved road.

I saw a man sitting in the doorway to a house. He must have been between 50 and 60, his face rough, his pants torn, his boots without shoelaces. After a second of hesitance and internal negotiations about my wonderful pizza, I decided to walk up to the old man.

“Here, have a piece of this pizza?”
“Oh oh. But will you have enough for yourself?” !!!
“Sure, I am not that hungry, here.”
“Wow, thank you so much, I will just take a small piece”
“No, please. Take more, its a good pizza!”
“Oh. Thank you.”

Two smiles. A smile on his face. A smile on my face. Although I must admit the smile on my face was bigger.

Soon after I arrived home. My flatmate welcomed me: “Hey, i just made dinner, there is enough for both of us!” Wow, God is quick at recompensing.

This just as a short note amongst the buzz, the media, the work where it’s easy to forget the small things.

Thank you to anonymous for sharing the story.

Official Baha’i Photography Collection - Torrents

(rl) A couple of weeks ago the official Baha’i website put up over 500 photographs that were commissioned by the Baha’i World Centre for the International Baha’i Convention that was held back in April in Haifa, Israel.

For those of you that like to do your photo-browsing offline, we’ve torrent-ized the entire presentation, wrapped in a tasty flash coating. This way you can download it and take it over to the homes of those that are less internet-fortunate. Grab the torrent:

ATTAINING_THE_DYNAMICS_OF_GROWTH.torrent

As an added bonus, you can also download all of the high-res photos that can be used for all kinds of personal and non-commercial type things or just to print out and hang all over your walls (Please read the copyright information contained in the folder!) High-res photo torrent here:

ATTAINING_THE_DYNAMICS_OF_GROWTH_HIRES_PHOTOS.torrent

You may want to try this: WikiHow on How to Download Torrents

A Soul-Stirring Account of the Uvira Conference

A war close at hand, difficult financial straits, the need to travel long distances under unsafe conditions, and blazingly hot weather did not stop 776 people from attending the Regional Conference in Uvira, a city on the eastern edge of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the heart of Africa.

Nasim Parsa shares her heart-warming, enticing account of the conference, with wonderful descriptions of the circumstances at and around the conference:

(NP) Burundi is really a beautiful country. Roads are paved and the place looks very green and clean! When we arrived to the border [to the DRC], and got our visas done, suddenly the other side was a complete change. Roads were made of mainly dust and rocks and the place looked drier.

When the car finally stopped, we were facing two very big cloths attached to different trees that were welcoming the Baha’is to this Regional Conference. As we were coming out of the car, people started coming to us and hugging us with lots of joy and love, saying “Allah’u'Abha!”. We followed them between houses made of mud and the huge mango trees, walking on dust, underneath a burning sun and they took us inside this sort of tent made of wood and orange plastic sheets. The venue was a school belonging to the Baha’i community. The tent was built in the “outside” of the school, while some of the classes were used by the friends as dorms for those few nights during the conference. The venue was also decorated mainly with pink toilet papers! On the last day, they also added some balloons!
Do not miss your chance to read the rest of this story here and now

The Wayfarer Makes Its World Debut

(ky) The Wayfarer has made its world debut in London at a Soho Cinema. Over one hundred guests came to watch the first showing of documentary at the Curzon, in which one man explores the Baha’i faith.

Jess Firth, set off on his journey to learn more about the faith, after hearing a school friend was leaving her home in New Zealand behind to volunteer at the Baha’i World Centre in Israel.

The film starts in Haifa, and follows Firth, who himself comes from a secular background, as he travels to various countries where Baha’is live around the world.   During his travels he learns about the beliefs of the faith, it’s various humanitarian projects, as well as the persecution and struggles of some of its followers.

“The Wayfarer must be among the first independent documentaries to investigate the Bahá’í faith,” said Robert Weinberg, a spokesman for the UK Bahá’í community. “(the film) uniquely combines thought-provoking content with stunning images of the various locations where Bahá’ís are active in the world.”

The film is due to be screened by Jess Firth in Sydney at Govindas cinema on the 30th of November followed by a screening at the NZ Film Archive in Wellington and then in central Brazil on January 25th.

Purchase the DVD today at Quest Media Productions: http://questmediaproductions.co.uk/The%20Wayfarer.html

Watch the trailer to the documentary here:

http://www.vimeo.com/1963643
http://www.vimeo.com/1963643

Une agréable surprise!

On the occasion of the anniversary of the first airmail flight between Israel and France, the French post office has issued the stamp depicted below showing Haifa with the Shrine of the Bab.