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200 Articles in 200 Days for the 200th Anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh’s Birth
21 and 22 October 2017 mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh, the prophet-founder of the Baha’i Faith. The event will be celebrated around the world. This is the first of what I hope will develop into 200 articles in the days until then. Bahá’u’lláh has been my guide and inspiration for much of my life. And his teachings guide the work and lives of millions of members of the Baha’i Faith who are found in virtually every country. Yet most of humanity still hardly knows of Bahá’u’lláh’s life – let alone being familiar with the concepts embedded in his teachings. Perhaps someone may have heard that he founded the…
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Silence
Silence. One day I visited a bookstore. It’s one of those clinging to survival in an increasingly post-book world. Aimed at a “discerning” audience it carries a rich diversity of titles – fiction and non-fiction on virtually every topic. It is particularly well stocked with historical works – Europe, America, Australia, Germany, Britain, France and others. Plenty to choose from. But that day I was looking for Italian history. I was looking for my history, for “Italy”. I found the Italian history section. It consisted of two books. One was a book on Simon Bolivar, the great liberator of South America, misclassified as “Italian”. The second was a book on the mafia. Here was all…
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Cowra Peace Bell tolls a warning
As many know, Cowra once held a Japanese prisoner of war camp. The tragedies that happened there when the prisoners tried to break out, has become the stuff of Australian legend. Less well known is that Japanese civilians were also interned in Cowra during the war. Some never left Cowra. A World Peace bell, donated by the World Peace Bell Association, was erected in Cowra in 1992, in recognition of the city’s contribution to peace and its enduring connections with Japan. I wrote this poem after a visit to Cowra. The Cowra Peace Bell, like those erected in other cities around the world, follows a traditional Japanese design. In Japan…
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Adelard of Bath: When English Kings Studied the Learning of the Arabs
Once upon a time, Norman kings of England studied the learning of the Arabs. A strange story indeed, largely forgotten. At that time the “English” were subjects of their Normans rulers. And Norman “cousins” also ruled in another island to the south. Before they arrived it had been called the Emirate of Sicily. The hero of our story is Adelard of Bath (1080s-1150s): an English scholar monk greatly learned in ancient and foreign tongues. The secret languages of science he acquired: Greek, Latin and Arabic. Born in England, and likely an Anglo-Saxon himself, Adelard travelled widely. His life took him on long journeys – France, Southern Italy, Sicily, Greece, Syria and Palestine. As…
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The Middle West hiding in the Middle East
There is something wrong with the term “the Middle East”. To come straight to the point, it should really be the Middle West. Of course it won’t escape the reader’s attention that this thought bubble occurs in a moment angst about the relationship between the “West” and “the Middle East”. And in the western public mind, as projected by popular media, danger lurks everywhere. Some dangers (religious fanaticism and terrorism) are sadly all too real – and the victims are all over the world, although it has to be said largely in the Middle West. Other existential dangers are well, fanciful. The “burkini”, or to describe it accurately “modest” or…
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Beginnings Old and New
It might seem odd to start an article about beginnings by talking about the end, but that’s the whole point. Our assumption is that time is linear. The beginnings are behind us, and, inexorably, we will arrive at “the end”. And culturally, much of our story telling encourages us to have the sneaking fear that our collective end will be horrible. The dystopian stories of our future – the amplified dysfunctions of our time are the common fare of movies such as Gattaca, and Elysium. Our accounts of the past also forebode bleak “end times” story as is the case in Agora. The list is endless, but includes movies such as the Planet of the Apes,…
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The Poetry of Langston Hughes
Racism and problems of race relations continue to generate injustice and racial animosity around the world. The problem is not confined to any one people or country, but the case of the United States is better known in the English speaking world. The poetry of Langston Hughes comes from a period in which racism had reached a peak – what is known as the “Jim Crow” era. The United States civil war ended slavery, but it didn’t end racism. Gradually racism took a stronger hold in society and by the early 20th century it gave rise to toxic theories of racial supremacy and scientific racism. A fierce segregation was instituted between…
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Electing the President
There is something fascinating about the “contest” which elects the President of the United States. The 2016 election is no exception. Candidates who weren’t imagined before the election year have come to the fore and with them the discourse and the “contest” has been thrown open. Issues of gender are right on the surface. And the fact that a women has never been elected as President is one of the issues. Gender issues are present in other ways. Women’s bodies and women’s rights have repeatedly surfaced as a political football. Issues of race are prominent, who is allowed to belong – who needs to be locked out. Who can claim…
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Reality
Not seen, Not heard. Not smelt, Not felt. Unspoken. Undone. Unthought. Not known. Not loved. Not no thing. Beloved.
