Changing Times Blog

A First-Time Presenter’s Perspective

My name is David Henderson, and I have been asked to blog from Changing Times, as a first-time presenter at the conference. So, as an American who has come to this remarkable event, here are a few words …

Between now and the end of the year, I am participating in the events and giving a series of lectures and workshops at the Changing Times European Young Adult Forum. It’s held at the Townshend International School in the southern Czech village of Hluboka nad Vitavou.

I have never before known of such an astonishing conference that brings together 230 young adult professionals from 40 countries to learn and share information. The best comparison, I believe, is to say that Changing Times, now in its 7th year, is approaching the caliber of the annual Davos Economic Forum … except Changing Times is for tomorrow’s world leaders. The young professionals at this conference are among the brightest people I have ever met. They come from academics, medicine, technology and business.

A few of the speakers include Dr. Moshe Sharon from Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Italian business leader Giuseppe Robiati; Mr. Ian Semple; Mr. Burhaniddin Afshin; actor Phillip Hinton; award-winning fiction writer Holiday Reinhorn; and, the popular American actor, Rainn Wilson.

Here is a music video of photos from the first day:

Dissertation on Blogging and Persecution of the Bahais

To what extent can the ‘blogs’ of sympathisers and representatives of the Baha’i Faith be seen as interactive channels of communication that report on the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran?

Afshin Rohani (UK) is beginning his dissertation for his undergraduate study in Communication and Media Studies and it will be researching just that. The effectiveness of blogging in the context of new media and communication, by analysing key blogs which have reported on the issue of the persecution of the Baha’i Community in Iran.

He will be using a multi method approach with some online surveys to supplement his main documentary research approach. Be sure that the CT Blog will stay on it!

Afshin will be sharing his research progress regularly at:
http://afshinsresearch.wordpress.com/

An excellent initiative Afshin! We hope to see more of it soon!

Uni-Tea for Unity

(mf) Our university has never quite learnt where the apostrophe in “Baha’i” actually lies. Every year, when publishing the list of active societies for that academic year, the university manages to misspell our name, and replace it with something along the lines of: Ba’hai Society, or B’ahai Society or my personal favourite, B’a’hai’ Society.

But other than reoccurring episodes of apostrophe misplacements, our Baha’i Society  has generally been much of a success story.

Admittedly, we are small in number. The actual society exists of maybe a handful of people – and most of which are Baha’i youth. But that’s not what’s important (Or at least that’s what we like to tell our scarcely-numbered selves).

Ultimately, it comes down to that golden rule: quality v quantity. The most important thing is that the society be cohesive, organised, recognised throughout the university and active.

Baha’i Societies throughout Australia are centred around 3 main activities:

• Tranquility Zones – devotional meetings based on different themes involving readings from the world religions, philosophers, scientists and other great minds and accompanied with music and multimedia presentations
• Reflections on the life of the Spirit – Ruhi Book 1
• Blurbs – discussion forums based on important social issues where participants are shown a short multimedia presentation on a topic and are then asked to exchange their thoughts
• Uni-Tea for Unity – free distributions of various international teas in the name of promoting unity on campus

These form the core activities of the society and a run on a regular (weekly/fortnightly) basis. But it doesn’t end there. Often activities like sports nights, yoga classes, art and music sessions and other not-so-in-your-face activities are good way for Baha’i societies to casually meet new people or further ties with existing contacts and are thus included in the society’s list of activities. And sometimes affiliating with like-minded societies for certain one-off events is a good move, like teaming up with the UN society for a blurb on international peace-keeping or inviting other religious societies to a multi-faith devotional meeting. Think about it:

Your society + Your friends + Other society + Other society and their friends = a lot of people, good crowd, good teaching opportunity, many great refreshments and more people who you could potentially ask for notes in your future subjects.

Everybody wins.

Best is – keep it simple and manageable, purposeful and attractive (the program, not yourselves – although we have found brushed hair and clean clothes do attract more people). Be flexible. Be creative. Be enthusiastic.

And above all, be sure to tell your university the apostrophe comes after the second ‘a’.

Special Thanks to Mona Forghani (Australia) for this brilliant piece.

Ruhi Courses at the University of Ulaanbaatar

In the last two weeks, all first year students doing Nursing and Medicine at Ulaanbaatar University, Mongolia, have started doing Book 1.

The head of the school, former Minister of Health, completed Books 1 and 2 and immediately wanted all the first year students to take Book 1 as an additional component to their studies, focusing on the moral and spiritual development. There are 400 students in total, split approximately 200 for each discipline. The head of the school herself is very inspired and often speaks to the students about the importance of moral and spiritual development through acts of service.

Such achievements are not only possible back on the other side of Eurasia. In fact, in 2002 Baha’is at the University of Bari, Italy, established a permanent course on ethics and economics based on Baha’i principles. Read more on BWNS.

Pictures: Massoud Derakhshani

Why do Baha’is Need Organization

Open and direct, Counsellor Sohrab Youssefian (Italy) talks about the current need of organization in the Baha’i Faith at a conference in Portugal.

Such is one of the brilliant videos available on Bahai-Videos.com, one of the most valuable Baha’i media websites out there! Watch it out!

http://www.bahai-videos.com

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!

Badasht Musical Empowerment Tools

This is good news for guitar/piano beginner/professional alike. The entire fantastic Badasht CD produced by JB Eckl and Eric Dozier is now available with guitar tabs, sheet music AND video instructions on how to play the songs. They provide three videos to every song: A live performance, guitar instructions, and guitar instructions with simple chords.

Your contribution to the next musical fireside?

Everything here: at Badasht Community
http://www.badasht.net/community