Where do we stand?

"The crisis consist precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new
cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms
appear." Antonio Gramsci - Prison Notebooks

I went to watch a movie that the spanish professor was screening at Uni, there ought to be English subtitles... well, I end up watching it all in Spanish and Catalan, understanding the general idea, though it was interesting from the linguistic view point as discovered the many similarities with Italian (I never studied Spanish, therefore have no clue about this language).

The movie: Salvador Puig Antich, is about one of the last execution that Francisco Franco ordered, in a Spain not yet in transition towards the democracy.

I must admitt that I'm totally ignorant about Spanish history of the 70' and have no idea of what meant living under Franco tiranny... what I well understand is that like every dictatorship, many things weren't allowed (like speaking Catalan); freedom was a word many were longing to actualize, but all were afraid to even utter it.

Of course there were people enjoying such a life as had an axe to grind. Salvador is depicted as this handsome, well-educated, brilliant student. Is loved by his parents and his 4 sisters, is a sweetheart in the eyes of those that come to know him, even to his prison warder.

But there is a reason if such a person is in prison... with his university's mates he has set up an anarchist movement called MIL (Movimiento Ibérico de Liberación), which they fund through an escalation of robberies... he is a bank-robber!

The boy is also charged for the death of a young policeman and convicted to death penalty through a painful system... soon becomes the symbol of the need of change.

Things turns very emotional and Salvador is regarded as a hero, a martyr. I wasn't crying (though horrified for the cruel death)... no matter what Machiavelli says... "Il fine giustifica i mezzi" ----> "The end justifies the means"... (sorry for the pour translation... is the only one I found), but I don't agree! How could we think that to eliminate injustice we should use the same tools? Tiranny, lies, war... can't be overcome by their equals... sure, what was happening moved the coscience of his countrymen, but I suspect that they started to wonder and react when the worst occured.

Salvador's life is put to an end in a horrible way, the death was given by a medieval tool, which doesn't kill immediately and the poor boy is left in agony as no one has the heart (or doesn't have??) to finish him.

The debate that followed the movie was pointing out the necessity we have to rationalize and regain the memory of events which have been obscured while happening... is it really like this? No one, in power to do something, knew what was happening in Franco's Spain?

For sure today's media are in power to let know and can reach every level of society, informing throughout the world what happens in the lowliest country... still reactions are slowly, in certain cases even non-existent.

I wonder how many death, how many people suffering injustice occour today before we start reacting.... I bet today Hitler would have been stop.... or not???

Or are we that numb that we let things happen and then grieve over them?? Decreeing Memory Days and let our children judge what we did on their history book!! Having them to watch touching movies to know the truth... what really happened and why no one did nothing to change things, to prevent things!!

Will we say that a mad man accidently came in power and that the horde of blind, order-followers couldn't help... will we excuse ourself somehow??

Is this what we will see in the future for the Bahai religious minority in Ahamdinejad's Iran??

How many signs of oppression and injustice should we count before realizing what is happening under our own very eyes?? Yesterday as Today...

The Bahais in Iran have decided to act differently from Salvador, their means aren't the oppressor's means... no! Their weapon is love! Love towards God, Love and Service for their fellow countrymen and women!!

Deaf & blind, the world goes on

This challenge, so severe and insistent, and yet so glorious, faces no doubt primarily the individual believer on whom, in the last resort, depends the fate of the entire community. He it is who constitutes the warp and woof on which the quality and pattern of the whole fabric must depend. He it is who acts as one of the countless links in the mighty chain that now girdles the globe. He it is who serves as one of the multitude of bricks which support the structure and insure the stability of the administrative edifice now being raised in every part of the world. Without his support, at once whole-hearted, continuous and 131 generous, every measure adopted, and every plan formulated, by the body which acts as the national representative of the community to which he belongs, is foredoomed to failure. The World Center of the Faith itself is paralyzed if such a support on the part of the rank and file of the community is denied it. The Author of the Divine Plan Himself is impeded in His purpose if the proper instruments for the execution of His design are lacking. The sustaining strength of Bahá'u'lláh Himself, the Founder of the Faith, will be withheld from every and each individual who fails in the long run to arise and play his part.
(Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith, p. 130)


ARSONISTS IN IRAN TARGET BAHA'I HOMES, VEHICLESNEW YORK, 28 July 2008 (BWNS) --

Acts of arson targeting homes and vehicles are the latest violent tactics directed against the Baha'is of Iran."In the early hours of the morning of 18 July, the house of the Shaaker family in Kerman went up in flames, only weeks after their car had been torched and in the wake of a series of threatening phone calls," said Bani Dugal, principal representative of the Baha'i International Community to the United Nations."As would be expected in the light of the mistreatment Baha'is in Iran are routinely receiving, the officials who investigated the fire either ignored or dismissed obvious signs of suspicious activity, including a muffled explosion, simply saying that it was the result of an electrical problem," she said.At least a dozen cases of arson that target Baha'is have been reported in Iran in the last 15 months, Ms. Dugal said. She gave the following examples:-
- On 15 July at 1:15 a.m., Molotov cocktails were thrown into the front courtyard of the home of Khusraw Dehghani and his wife, Dr. Huma Agahi, in Vilashahr, only months after anonymous threats directly related to her being a Baha'i forced Dr. Agahi to close her clinic in nearby Najafabad where she had practiced medicine for 28 years.-
- On 25 July, the car of a prominent Baha'i in Rafsanjan, in Kerman province, was torched and destroyed by arsonists on motorbikes. Soheil Naeimi, the owner of the car, and 10 other Baha'i families in the town had received threatening letters from a group calling itself the Anti-Baha'ism Movement of the Youth of Rafsanjan that, among other things, threatened jihad (holy war) against the Baha'is.-
- On 10 June, an outbuilding on the property of the Mr. and Mrs. Mousavi, elderly Baha'is living in the village of Tangriz in Fars province, was destroyed by fire when it was doused with gasoline. The Mousavis, along with their two sons who were sleeping close to the building, narrowly escaped injury when the gasoline tank used to start the fire exploded. The Mousavis believe that the perpetrator thought they were all sleeping in the hut when he set the fire. Mr. Mousavi issued a formal complaint against the person they suspected, but the legal office has declined to pursue the case because the suspect swore on the Qur'an that he was not guilty. Out of respect for the Qur'an, the Mousavis have dropped the charges.-
- On 4 April, the home of a Baha'i was set on fire in Babolsar, in the north of Iran. -
- In February in Shiraz, a 53-year-old businessman was attacked on the street, chained to a tree, doused with gasoline, and assaulted by unknown persons who then attempted to throw lighted matches at him. -
- Also in Shiraz in February, several arson attempts were made against vehicles and a home belonging to Baha'is.-
- On 1 May 2007, arson destroyed the home of 'Abdu'l-Baqi Rouhani in the village of Ivil, in Mazandaran.-
- In Karaj, the burial section of a Baha'i cemetery was set on fire."These latest attacks follow the authorities' attempts to deprive the Iranian Baha'i community of its leadership," Ms. Dugal said, referring to the arrests in March and May this year of the seven members of Iran's national Baha'i coordinating group, all of whom are still locked up in Evin Prison in Tehran without any charges and without access to an attorney or to their families."

As Baha'is worldwide watch with alarm this escalation in violence," she added, "their fears that a sinister plan of persecution is unfolding become increasingly confirmed. Their only hope is that enough voices of protests are raised around the world to compel the government in Iran to put an end to this violence."