Mona

Mona in My Morning, Research Inquiry, Agriculture

By John Taylor; 2007 September 09, 1 Izzat, 164 BE

We slept in this Sunday morning. Marie was woken by her ride and rushed to get ready and run off to her choir practice with Cheryl. I rushed Tommy downstairs to Grandpa's place, and escorted Silvie to her choir performance at St. Paul's Anglican church down the street. I got back home and realized I had forgotten to read the writings and pray. Being lazy, I let Youtube do the reading and praying for me. I fed it the keywords "Baha'i" and "Writings" and got "A wonderful mingling of inspirational song and profound excerpts from the Baha'i Writings," a song by singer and guitarist Joe Crone at this URL:

<http://youtube.com/watch?v=vOj4P_SR3eE>

Among the writings highlighted in this song featuring a medley of selections from the Writings is a "Great Being" statement from the Lawh-i-Maqsud,

"The Great Being saith: The Tongue of Wisdom proclaimeth: He that hath Me not is bereft of all things. Turn ye away from all that is on earth and seek none else but Me. I am the Sun of Wisdom and the Ocean of Knowledge. I cheer the faint and revive the dead. I am the guiding Light that illumineth the way. I am the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight." (Baha'u'llah, Tablets, 169)

For me the highlight of the music video (made up by Penny Filias of London, Ontario) comes when, at an emotional peak, it shows two shots that I think are of Mona, the Martyr of Shiraz, arms outspread in joyous praise of God. She is dancing in the first picture, in the ocean waves -- relating back to the quote at the start about immersing thyself in the ocean of my words, while he sings the lyrics:

"You give meaning to my life. I offer it to you a sacrifice.

And I love you more than I can say, I want to be with you..."

The tears flow like wine, I tell you. I have heard with my own ears the testimony of a sister of Zarrin about her life. Zarrin was one of the seven young girls who taught Baha'i classes in Shiraz who were killed together with Mona. In Zarrin's case, she knew from the earliest age that she had been chosen for martyrdom, and she prepared for it diligently during her entire education. No doctor ever studied harder in medical school to become a healer as she did to become a martyr. She spent all her spare time memorizing tablets, studying the Writings and the Qu'ran, knowing that soon her time would come. Mona too must have known what was coming, and seeing her so happy here in her anticipation, as if she had sent these photos of herself to her divine fiancee ... I think I can see how martyrdom is like giving the Huqquq: not acceptable to God unless it is given from a heart overflowing with joy, the feeling that makes you feel cheated at only being permitted to give 19 percent of equity. The feeling you get from this song. For God's sake, Mona and Zarrin gave so much more than 19%, then why can't I?

Time for my morning prayer, Youtube style. I punch in "Baha'i" and "prayer" and get, "Prayer for mankind. The Celtic harp and angelic voice of Caroline Mackay make this Baha'i prayer perfect for interfaith devotionals, World Religion Day, etc..." at:

<http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xv2WmaD8l28>

The prayer that this singer has put to music was revealed at the end of a talk on the unity of God that Abdu'l-Baha gave at Unity Church, in Montclair, New Jersey, on 12 May, 1912. A superficial web search reveals that there is still a Unity Church in Montclair, but they are in a new building and seem to be a different group that came there in the 1930's. Whether the original building in which the Master spoke is still standing is not clear. Anyway, here is the complete prayer, not all of which is included in the song,

"O Thou kind Lord! O Thou Who art generous and merciful! We are the servants of Thy threshold and are gathered beneath the sheltering shadow of Thy divine unity. The sun of Thy mercy is shining upon all, and the clouds of Thy bounty shower upon all. Thy gifts encompass all, Thy loving providence sustains all, Thy protection overshadows all, and the glances of Thy favor are cast upon all. O Lord! Grant Thine infinite bestowals, and let the light of Thy guidance shine. Illumine the eyes, gladden the hearts with abiding joy. Confer a new spirit upon all people and bestow upon them eternal life. Unlock the gates of true understanding and let the light of faith shine resplendent. Gather all people beneath the shadow of Thy bounty and cause them to unite in harmony, so that they may become as the rays of one sun, as the waves of one ocean, and as the fruit of one tree. May they drink from the same fountain. May they be refreshed by the same breeze. May they receive illumination from the same source of light. Thou art the Giver, the Merciful, the Omnipotent." (Promulgation, 115)

Here I find that -- doh! -- I have spent my whole writing day on the morning reading and prayer. But still, how wise it was of Baha'u'llah to require us not just to hold His word sacred, but to pick up the books and use them every morning and every morning. And for the lazy lumps, we now have them on Youtube. Mo Tzu said something wise about doing enough reading and listening to understand the situation.

"Mo Tzu brought numerous books in his wagon drawers on his southern journey as an envoy to Wei. Hsien T'angtse saw them and was surprised. He inquired: "Sir, you have instructed Kung Shang Kuo just to consider the right and wrong of any case, and do no more. Now you, sir, bring very many books along. What can be the use for them?"

"Mo Tzu said: In the past, Duke Tan of Chou read one hundred pages every morning and received seventy scholars every evening. Therefore his achievements as minister to the emperor have lasted till this day. I have no superior above me to serve, nor any farm below to attend to. How dare I neglect these books?

"I have heard that different ways may lead to the same end but they are not presented without deviations from one another. And the common people do not know how to place proper importance in what they hear. Hence the large number of books. When one has reviewed the ideas and has thought deeply on them, then he understands the essentials which lead to the same end. Then he no longer needs to be instructed by books. Why should you be so surprised? (The Ethical and Political Works of Mo Tzu, tr: Yi-Pao Mei, Arthur Probsthain, London, 1929, at: http://www.humanistictexts.org/motzu.htm)

Word got out that the readers of the Badi list are venerable scholars like Duke Tan, so here is a research request for you from Jim:

"I was wondering if you could ask your readers if they know of any downloadable pamphlets that could be modified for local use.  I did have an outstanding one but I lost it.  I believe it was from Montreal and advertised the Core Activities, it was really neat.  It would be great to have a repository where this type of material could be shared."

All I have found myself is the rapidly ageing pamphlet, "The Baha'is." Oh yes, and this site listing introductory Baha'i material of all sorts set up by Bill Huitt of Valdosta State University in Georgia:

<http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/religion/bahai.html>

None of this seems exactly what Jim is looking for, something rapidly adaptable for local use. I remember back in the late 1980's there was a group in Dundas who went to great effort to make up a unique pamphlet, a sort of folder with several leaflets inside. What happened to that initiative I do not know. Certainly it would not take much knowledge of perl or xml to devise an interactive Web application that would automatically adapt general material to local use by filling in an online questionnaire. Has anybody done it?

Agriculture

As members of the "farmer comes first" Faith, we all have to have an ongoing interest in the fortunes of agriculture. Macleans has had several interesting articles on this lately. One is "The Garden of Eating; McGill leading the way in urban food production," (by Joey Coleman, Macleans.ca, Jul 23, 2007), which describes an initiative to grow food on roofs and donate the veggies to the Meals on Wheels program, food for seniors. You can read the full article on the web at:

<http://www.macleans.ca/education/postsecondary/article.jsp?content=20070723_141420_9172>

My father has meals on wheels sent to him three or four times a week, and believe me, they could use fresh veggies. The Dunnville meals come from the local hospital cafeteria, whose food, while acceptable to some, is not exactly what I would call health food

I conclude with most of the text of an article about Cuba. Whatever you may think of its politics, the agriculture of Cuba is exemplary. Now that "local is the new organic," suddenly the isolated agriculture of Cuba is what the rest of the Americas should have become, if we had not been afflicted by virulent corruption. The following Macleans article describes how suddenly the Cuban system of eating locally-produced produce is being understood to be the healthiest possible, with the smallest carbon footprint of anywhere else on the continent. Not only that but, as you will see, farmers make more than doctors and lawyers. If there is any justice in the world, that alone proves that some of it is alive and living in Cuba!

Why don't we have gardens like this?  (Macleans, September 03, 2007, p. 60)

Canadians are just starting to think about eating locally. Cuba's been doing it for years.

CANADIANS SPEND up to 12 calories of non-renewable energy to produce one calorie of food on our plate. In Cuba, the ratio is reversed.

BY JENNIFER COCKRALL-KING  Jorge Carmenate edges his stocky, mid-40s frame under the canopy of a neem tree and our small, pink-cheeked group follows suit. Even in the mid-morning, the heat in central Cuba is searing. Carmenate welcomes us to El Rabanito, a three-hectare market garden in a mixed commercial and residential neighbourhood in the city of Ciego de Avila. He's thrilled that yet another group of Canadians and Americans have come to see what is one of the nation's top-producing organoponicos, the urban organic farm co-operatives that are the cornerstone of how Cuba manages to feed its 11.4 million citizens, using as little as five per cent of the energy that it takes its neighbours to the north.

EI Rabanito is one stop on a 14-day food tour of Cuba, organized by Bowen Island, B.C.-based agronomist Wendy Holm. She coordinates sustainable agriculture exchanges between Cuban and Canadian farmers and organizes a yearly tour specifically designed for chefs and foodies curious about how Cuba has emerged as a world leader in community-based agriculture, urban farming, and organic food production. It's not a gourmet tour de force, rather a frank look at the reality of the Cuban food production and distribution system. Largely state-orchestrated with a few free market concessions, it's also state-supported. Farmers in Cuba are at the top tier of state salaries, some earning more than doctors and lawyers. And the state provides incredible resources to farmers. As such, it was the only country in the World Wildlife Fund's 2006 living Planet report that even came close to meeting targets for sustainable living and development. In the same report, Canada had the fourth-heaviest per-capita ecological footprint.

Canadians spend up to 12 calories of non-renewable energy to produce one calorie of food on our dinner plate. In Cuba, the ratio is reversed. Welcome to "slow food," Cuban-style, born out of economic constraints rather than philosophical ideals: it was the Cuban economic crisis in the early '90s that forced the country to buckle down and grow over 80 per cent of the fresh produce it consumes. Cubans eat only what they grow within a reasonable proximity to where they live (fuel for transport is scarce); they eat only what's in season (energy to freeze and refrigerate is expensive and unreliable); and food is produced using labour-intensive organic farming methods (chemical inputs, which would be too expensive anyway, are unavailable, and the farms are located within the cities, so people don't want the pollution of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides).

"The public decides what we plant," says Carmenate, pointing out some 50 vegetables North American chefs would fall over themselves to get. Picture-perfect Chinese cabbages, tomatoes, lettuces, cucumbers, culinary herbs and medicinal flowers drip over beds raised less than a foot off a flat, rubble-covered lot. Sunflowers stand at the end of beds to attract pests away from the other plants; marigolds are interspersed to control unwanted bugs.

The leaves from the neem tree, soaked, macerated and mixed with lime, are sprayed as a homegrown biopesticide. A compost bin of California red wigglers turn decaying plant matter into nutrient-rich loamy soil.

This 13-farmer co-operative supplies local schools, hospitals and daycares as its "social contribution" quota, but the rest is sold freemarket-style, at a small kiosk at the entrance. With so many organoponicos (there are 31 in Ciego de Avila alone), competition keeps quality high and prices reasonable. Last year, EI Rabanito sold 227,000 pesos' worth of produce, leaving the co-op a profit of 97,000 pesos. Half the profits at EI Rabanito are reinvested in infrastructure, the other half are split between the 13 workers. The land is rent-free courtesy of the state.

It's hard not to chuck our cellphones, grab a spade and join Cuba's "green revolution." The system attains ideals we are just beginning to wrestle with: lessening the ecological footprint of the food we consume and ensuring a secure food supply, one driven by nutritional needs, not profits for multinationals. But then Carmenate and the other farmers gratefully accept our seemingly odd tokens of appreciation for their time: bars of soap, disposable razors, pencils, pads of paper, deodorant, shampoo, and small household trinkets that will be shared with their families. Yes, there's good food on the table in Cuba these days, but other basic comforts, it seems, are few and far between in this workers' paradise.

(here is the bonus mini-article on the same page. Not unrelated in spirit.)

Today's Special: A Coronary-themed Grill. Patrons who manage to stuff down one of the 8,0OO-calorie "quadruple bypass burgers" and "flatliner fries" are delivered to their cars in wheelchairs pushed by sexy waitresses dressed as nurses. In the ultimate in-your-face response to healthy eating, the Heart Attack Grill in Arizona serves up artery-clogging food with the slogan "taste worth dying for." Cigarettes and beer with your meal are not just permitted but encouraged.