Baha'i culture...art, film, literature

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Honours List: Varied career began with song and dance

4:00AM Wednesday Dec 31, 2008
Caron Copek

Mabel Wharekawa-Burt won her first talent quest aged 4 at the Waihi Soundshell.

"I sang a song called Mahi's Making Eyes at Me and can still remember the dance to accompany the song," she says.
Born in Katikati, the rural town where she still lives today, the 61-year-old has had a variety of roles including actor, television and radio presenter and producer, theatre director, coach, umpire, anti-domestic-violence advocate, chairwoman, agony aunt and arts administrator.
But she is better known as Auntie Mabel from the TV programme Ask Your Auntie.

Now she can add member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to performing arts and
the community to her repertoire.

"I can't understand why I'm more worthy than the thousands of people who made me what I am," she says.

"If I am an awesome individual it's because of the thousands of people in my life who made me what I am."

Ms Wharekawa-Burt credits the seaside soundshells in the 50s and 60s, her marae upbringing (she is of Ngati Ranginui and Ngai-Te-Rangi descent), a strong association with Catholic communities "with their love of pageantry", her whanau and the Baha'i faith as her great inspirations.

Source:

Honours List: Varied career began with song and dance - Arts - NZ Herald News

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A good cross section of Baha'is from around the world can be seen in this video:

41 Conferences on Vimeo

You can get a view of the cultural diversity of Baha'is.

- Art

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Interview with Foad: Using music to increase awareness on the plight of Baha’is in Iran

Author: Kawthar (Sudan) - January 9, 2009

Music has had a great significance in human culture, whether used in religious ceremonies, for educational purposes or for entertainment. But for young Foad, an Iranian Baha’i who was forced to flee the country after the intense persecution his family was subjected to, it’s a medium to voice anger at the violation of human rights, and raise awareness on the importance of taking action.
After featuring one of Foad’s songs at the Network. we were highly impressed and determined to give him an avenue to share his story. He kindly consented to an interview, and below is the text of it:
Q. For a start, can you give us a short introduction about yourself?
My name is Foad. I was born in one of the little towns of the Mazandaran province, which is located in Northern Iran in June 1987 (month of Khordad, year 1366 according to the Iranian calendar), but I was brought up in Tehran. Due to the numerous problems Baha’is face in furthering their education in Iran, I took refuge in Turkey when I was 16, and at the moment I am a student of electrical engineering in the USA. From the early years of my childhood, I have adored Iranian traditional music, and I play Persian musical instruments. However, at the moment I find that the Rap genre is best suited for me to express my inner feelings. My efforts are mostly focused on addressing the problems of religious and ethnic minorities - especially the Baha’is - through my songs.
Q. What inspired you to start singing?
These days, it is not easy to get things off your chest, or confide in someone about what goes on in your mind. Most of the people, when you talk to them about the breach of human rights in the world, they either don’t care or get bored. My personal idea is that through music, one could have a closer relationship with people and be more influential.
Q. Why did you choose rap and hip-hop over other music genres? What differentiates it?
There are many reasons for that, the most important being my own inner feelings, which are more about the problems I faced as a member of religious minority and the sadness of living away from my homeland in a lonely world. I wanted to speak out about all these issues in my songs. Using Hip-Hop, you have an opportunity to transfer most of what you want to say in the least time possible. The most important feature of Hip-Hop music is its being the language and the medium of opposition; it could be said that this music helped the African-Americans in Europe and the USA to liberate themselves from the chains of discrimination, and this is something that I find very inspirational.
Q. Do you feel at risk creating this music, which some may consider to be controversial?
I know I am not going to be personally threatened because of my music, as my songs are only meant to increase people’s level of awareness and I am currently living in the USA. I sometimes do feel worried about the future, though, and I wonder if my family or my friends back in Iran would face some problems. However, I am hopeful about the future and I am sure that very soon things are going to change in Iran, because the situation is explicitly catastrophic, in a way that people are loudly opposing it and speaking out.
Q. Have any Iranian citizens listened to your music, and if so, what has their reaction been?
Yes, with the help of friends and through the websites I managed to send my music video to some Iranians who appreciated the songs, because it indeed reflects the untold stories of those who live in Iran at the moment. One week before I moved out of Iran, I wrote a free verse poem called Mazhab” which means “religion”, and I later on used the song in my rap music and a music video was produced using the same lyrics.
Q. Who do you wish to address through your music? Bahai’is? The international community? The citizens and government of Iran?
So far, my audience has been mainly Baha’is, but my aim is to increase the awareness of the respectful Iranians who are not Baha’is themselves, because there are many people who really don’t know what happens to the religious minorities in Iran. If I try to address people in a global scale, I will need to write my lyrics in English and I still don’t find my English skills to be supportive of my objectives. Nevertheless, I have some plans that might as well be of interest to the people who are not familiar with the Persian language.
Q. No doubt, your experiences in Iran have shaped you and influenced your music, but of all your experiences, which had the greatest effect on you?
I think being away from my motherland, being away from close relatives and family from the age of 16, has had the greatest effect on me. The bitter memories of my childhood, like the confiscation of all my family’s possessions and properties, the persecution I experienced in school, and the baseless accusations made against Baha’is in Iran, they all influenced my way of singing and my songs. From now on, the encouragement of friends and acquaintances, and the audience would definitely help me to revitalize my music.
Q. What do you hope to achieve through your music? What message do you hope to send?
The public opinions are much forgetful, even those of the Baha’is who live outside Iran. It seems even they are not much bothered by the conditions of the Baha’is in Iran, so my music would first address them and make them remember what they have probably forgotten. Next I would like to reflect my own ideas.

To read the complete article go to:

Interview with Foad: Using music to increase awareness on the plight of Baha’is in Iran - Mideast Youth - Thinking Ahead

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CBE Recipient "Over the Moon" on Award

BY NINA TUHAIKA
Recipient of a Commander of the British Empire medal, CBE, in the Queen's 2009 New Year Honours List, Earl Cameron.
(Source: Photo Supplied)

The man behind Honiara's B-Kool Dairy ice-cream was "greatly overwhelmed and over the moon" over the news of being made a recipient of a Commander of the British Empire medal, CBE, in the Queen's 2009 New Year Honours List.
In an email to Solomon Times, Earl Cameron's daughter, Serena Cameron, said her Dad was "greatly overwhelmed and over the moon by the news of being made a recipient of the CBE award ... and is greatly looking forward to meeting with the Queen at the Investiture ceremony in May."

Mr. Cameron, 91, was a veteran actor who has appeared in more than 30 films, taken part in more than 60 Television series, and his most recent film appearances include a major role in The Interpreter in 2005 in which he played the fictitious African dictator alongside leading Hollywood actress, Nicole Kidman.

He was delighted to hear that The Interpreter was shown in the Solomons.

In 2006, he appeared as the portrait painter in the recent film The Queen, discussing with Helen Mirren, as Queen Elizabeth II, the British electoral system.

Serena said that the set up of B-Kool came about following a visit to the Solomons.

"[Dad] went as a visit to the Solomons Islands, liked it very much and discovered that there was an ice cream business in the Honiara market place for sale and decided to buy it."

His trip was alongside his first wife, Audrey, to serve his Baha'i Faith and as a member of the Baha'i religion, he was happy to give service to the Faith he loves.

Source:

CBE Recipient "Over the Moon" on Award | Economy | Solomon Islands News

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Garcia and his wife show up in amazing places across the south pacific, and how they got there!

See this for some idea....

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Russ Garcia is making more news - or rather a journalist is making news about Mr. Garcia!

See The Case of the Misplaced Oscar:

"…. So I went over to the site of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. There, I discovered that three Oscar statues for Limelight's score were awarded to Chaplin, Raymond Rasch (the credited arranger) and Larry Russell. Russ Garcia was not among the recipients. …"

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"Inquirer Book Critic

When Philadelphia-born Alain L. Locke (1885-1954), the first African American to win a Rhodes Scholarship, wrote home to his mother shortly after beginning undergraduate life at Harvard, he didn't exactly express solidarity with his few black student peers.
According to Leonard Harris and Charles Molesworth in their superb, eye-opening biography of the man they call "the most influential African American intellectual born between W.E.B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King, Jr.," Locke complained that he couldn't understand how his peers "come up here in a broad-minded place like this and stick together like they were in the heart of Africa."
Having grown up four blocks from Rittenhouse Square as a member of Philadelphia's free-born black elite - a community that, the authors write, "did not look with special indulgence on lower class people from any race" - Locke found many of his Harvard classmates "coarse," a flaw he believed his fellow black students compounded by their separatism.
"[By] common consent," Locke wrote to his mother about dining-room habits at Harvard, black students had "unanimously chosen to occupy a separate table together. Now what do you think of that? It's the same old lifelong criticism I shall be making against our people."
Like many a philosopher, Locke knew himself that his work would celebrate cultural pluralism, both philosophically and personally. That work is now seen as the fount, in African American thought, for what came to be called "multiculturalism." From his early postgraduate studies in Oxford and Berlin to his embrace of the Baha'i faith, vast collection of African art, and decades (from 1912 on) as a professor and head of Howard University's philosophy department, Locke more or less created the image of the black cosmopolitan emulated by black Americans from jazz artists to professors..."

Source:

A fine first biography of thinker Alain Locke | Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/05/2009

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NO LAUGHING MATTER
I need to bring to your attention the following disturbing news:
In May 2008 the Iranian Authorities arrested seven leaders of the Baha'i community on trumped up charges of 'espionage'. The Baha'i Faith is a peace loving world religion but has suffered a great deal of persecution at the hands of the Iranian government simply because they choose to practice their faith in a different way to the majority. It is feared that this week the seven will face very grave consequences. This of course, is unthinkable in this day and age but I assure you is a reality.

Some of you may know over 200 Baha'is were executed in the 1980s after the Islamic revolution, not to mention over 20,000 in the 19th Century. Already having been in prison for over 8 months (the men are in a cell with no beds which is a violation of their basic human rights) pressure groups and governments have voiced their concern with formal protests to the Iranian Government. I hope to add to the sense of public outcry with a press release on behalf of the comedy community to get this story the publicity it deserves.

My friend Rainn Wilson (an actor on the American version of The Office) has already written a piece for CNN (see below) and now I urge you to visit the Amnesty International website (see below) and register your complaint via e-mail or fax. Amnesty: http://iran.bahai.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/amnestyua-irany-0209.pdf
Recent press releases on behalf of other action groups as released through the Bahai's of the UK are here: http://bahainews-uk.info.

Rainn Wilson's statement is here: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/02/17/wilson.faith/?iref=mpstoryview

Source:

Omid Djalili

[Ahanu]

Tired of hearing rhymes about rims, hoes, and apparel? Here I have a great list of spiritual hip-hop for weary hip-hop radio headz!

The Baha'i Faith

Common Market

commonmarket

Blue Scholars

Blue Scholars - Super-Official Website

Fort Tabarsi

FORT TABARSI on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

Islam

Various artists

MuslimHipHop.com - Islamic Music: Muslim Hip Hop, Islamic Nasheeds, Muslim Rap | 100% Halal Lyrics

Christianity

Lecrae

Reach Home

Braille

Braille on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

Da T.R.U.T.H.

Da T.R.U.T.H. on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

[Ahanu]

Anis Mojgani

Anis Mojgani, a Baha'i, is a poet. He has also shared his poetry on the def jam poetry stage. If you wish to see one of his spoken word performances, just click on the link above. There is some explicit language at the beginning of it.

Personally my favorite poem is the third one at the end called Shake the Dust. It reminds me of Jesus saying, "shake the dust" (Matt 10:14). I love the imagery in the poem; I usually think of dust piling up on antique desks, books, and so on. These are things that are hardly used. Later, he talks about not letting the waves of blood to settle and "the dust to collect in your veins." The "dust" can be anything in our lives that we might let wear us down to the point where we feel useless. Shake the dust!!! That is my interpretation.

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Lasse Thoresen

Norway

Lasse Thoresen, professor of composition at the Norwegian State Academy of Music, is one of Europe's outstanding contemporary composers. He has had works commissioned by all the major Norwegian Philharmonic Orchestras and the French National Radio, among others. He was the music festival composer/composer in residence for the 1996 Bergen International Music Festival in Norway.

I would say that most classical or "serious" music is a language -- a nonverbal language -- in which profound meanings can be found. I would say that in the music of the great European masters -- Josquin, Monteverdi, Bach, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Bruckner, Brahms, Messiaen, to mention some of my favorites -- one can really find mysteries embodied in metaphors of structured sound. These composers communicate through a language that requires that the listener be willing to exert himself. The language has to be learned; more or less concealed meanings have to be found and interpreted. It is like the Bahá'í writings : they are not something you understand without making an effort and diving into them. Music -- like the writings -- rewards your efforts by revealing meaning after meaning, delight after delight, though not until you have given it devoted attention for some time. When people feel they understand a piece of music -- particularly one without a text, for example a symphony or a sonata, they have proven themselves capable of understanding a nonverbal message.

Music can thus be a means for developing an individual's capability for understanding nonverbal messages. This capability is essential for any religious individual, since the holy writings tend to express their meanings through symbols and metaphors, images rather than abstract concepts. Bahá'u'lláh uses a very poetic language by which He evokes wonderful images and inner vistas. In order to understand these images and draw on the spiritual power they can release, we must first of all call forth these images from our imagination -- using our inner senses rather than the outward ones. Thus, when Bahá'u'lláh speaks of "rustling of the Divine Lote-Tree and the murmur of the breezes of thine utterance in the Kingdom of Thy Names," He suggests auditive impressions that we can imagine internally.

Source:

Profiles

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A clip from the PBS Radio Show "World Focus" about the Bhaa'is in Iran..

World Focus online radio show on the Baha’is in Iran | Persecution of Baha?is in Iran

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Dan Seals passed away March 25, 2009, following a valiant struggle with mantle cell lymphoma. He leaves behind thousands of fans, countless friends and a loving family. He enjoyed a musical career which spanned four decades and included hit records both as a member of pop duo England Dan and John Ford Coley, and as a solo country artist. In 1986 he won Country Music Association Awards for "Bop" and "Meet Me in Montana." He will forever be remembered for his gentle smile, easy going demeanor, his enduring faith and endless generosity.


Much of Seals’s character can be traced to his faith. Seeking to promote the international unity of all people, he participated in the 50th anniversary Voice of America show in Washington, D.C., in 1992. Later the same year Seals traveled to the remote town of Alma-Ata, located in what was once the Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, in order to attend the Voice of Asia Festival. Brotherhood was also the theme of the single “We Are One” on his Walking the Wire album, released in 1992. Seals was quoted as saying in the Tennessean, “We’re all members of the human race…. If we were unified with each other we could knock out the problems in the world a lot quicker.”

YouTube - One Friend -Dan Seals

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Lotus Temple communicates with people, says architect



Sukalp Sharma Posted: Mar 31, 2009 at 0119 hrs IST

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New Delhi: With its concrete petals and beautiful gardens, the Baha’i House of Worship or the Lotus Temple, is today a part of the identity of not only Delhi but also of India. It attracts more than 35 lakh visitors every year and has won numerous prestigious architectural awards.


It’s not surprising, therefore, that Fariburz Sahba (61), its architect, thinks of Delhi as his second home. “This temple is like a child to me. In fact, I have spent more time on it than I might have with my children,” he says with a smile.
When asked as to how he feels when he sees people flocking to the Lotus Temple even after 22 years, he says: “It feels good. I feel this happens when a building communicates with the people. The thing I like most is that people from various religions come here with a lot of respect in their hearts.”
Explaining his reasons for modelling the structure on the lotus, Sahba says: “The teachings of the Baha’i faith are unity of God, unity of religion and unity of mankind, and these had to be reflected in the structure. The lotus is seen as a divine flower by most religions and is also the symbol of purity. We also wanted the temple to be unique and modern.”

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Videos of the Baha'i World Center:

Arc Flowers, Baha'i World Centre, Haifa Israel

YouTube - Baha'i World Centre Haifa

Choral at the House of Worship in Wilmette, Ill.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1mjb...eature=related