Happy Naw Ruz

a happy new year to all of my people out there. i hope you all have beautiful celebrations and will start this new year full of energy gained from the fasting month. =)

Little Addition to "Axis of Evil"

my dear friend jess in her comment asked which countries participated in the questionnaire and how they decided about which countries are actually evil.
the participating countries were: Argentine, Australia, Egypt, Brazil, Chile, China, Germany, France, Greece, Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Italy, Canada, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, Hungary, the USA, and the UAE.

the countries that were being evaluated were: China, France, Great Britain, India, Iran, Israel, Canada, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the USA, and Venezuela.

the main factor shaping this negative image of these countries is their military behaviour. i do not think that i need to discuss the issue any further, as all three of these countries are very conspicuous about their military ambitions.

for the german speakers, here is a link to the site that talked about the study: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,470061,00.html

thats it for today.

the new axis of evil

so today the results of a new study came out. according to it, there are three countries that have a very bad reputation on a global scale. in each of 27 countries 1000 people were asked about the positive vs. negative influences of certain countries. apparently the top three evil countries were israel, iran, and the united states; in that order. my first thought, of course, was that the united states will be disappointed to be categorized on a more evil spot than north-korea, a thought that amused me i must admit.
however, my second thought was that these three countries are probably the most important ones for my fellow Baha'is and myself. iran is the birthplace of our religion, and Baha'u'llah has said that if there were any place more degraded than iran, He would have been born there. well, now iran is officially evil, so His words are confirmed again. iran is the "Cradle of the Baha'i Faith" and the country that suppresses our religion the most. secondly, we got israel, the place were both of our Messengers, the Bab and Baha'u'llah, are buried. due to that fact, it is among the holiest countries in the world to us. now the united states were called the "Cradle of Baha'u'llah's World Order" by Shoghi Effendi, our Guardian. he explained their privileged role with the fact that it was the most politically corrupt country in the world.
it is interesting how religion works. it always choses the most degenerated places and people for its purposes. i guess this way the real power of religion becomes manifest. to give examples of that: Moses was born as a slave, Jesus was born in a stable, and His father was unknown to other people, Muhammad was an illiterate simple man, Baha'u'llah was a political prisoner. all of these Messengers of God ultimately succeeded over their oppressors as history shows.

thats it for now, enjoy.

"downshifting"

some weeks ago i read something interesting in a german 2006-review magazine. the article talked about a new phenomenon the author had noticed to occur frequently during that year: "downshifting." apparently a big number of people in influential and high positions throughout different realms of life had given up these respective posts to reorder their priorities in life. among the examples listed were prominent show-hosts that ended their shows to engage in something more meaningful, the coaches of the german and italian football teams - both being highly popular in their countries -, and some others that i cannot remember now. so the term "downshifting" refers to people who are fed up with their high and successful position and turn it in for family, love, ethics, or whatever other reason.
interestingly enough for me, over 150 years ago Baha'u'llah gave hints about the "coming of age" of humanity. He said that there are three signs that would herald the maturation of humanity, the first one being the ability of science to transmute elements, based on the aspiration of alchemy, while the second one being the adoption of a common language on a global scale. the third one is the one that sparked my initial interest in that article: kingship shall become unbearable and rulers will not want to carry that load anymore. all my life i had thought that this would take centuries to occur, as rulers are generally somewhat attached to their power and will try as hard as possible to maintain it.
this new development of downshifting, however, though being merely an embryonic sign of that high goal of detachment, showed me that the time for the maturation of humanity may not be that far off after all, at least compared to what i always thought it would be.

enough thoughts for my first proper blog i think. there will be more to evaluate.

first post

so this is officially my first post. i think i made my blogspot appear too philosophical. and my profile pic probably adds to it. =) it just seemed funny, so i put it up there.
hopefully there will be useful events to discuss, otherwise i set this thing up for nothing.