review of the year

Every TV and radio program at the moment, as well as each of the newspapers, is doing a review of the year, so naturally I have been thinking of the year just ending, and what I might expect in 2009.
It has been an eventful year and the media have made new celebrities (Olympic sportsmen), and villains (Bankers, mostly). I do not subscribe to this cult of the celebrity stuff myself. If there is any role model that I follow it is teachings of those whom I consider truly great - the Founders of the religions. I try to live simply, without being a show-off. I try to be kind and helpful to those around me, and take responsibility for my actions.

For me, I have noticed an increase in receptiveness to the message of the Baha'i Faith in all the people that I have met. Poor health has at times limited what I am able to do and I need to take more care over my diet and get more exercise.

"Bring thyself to account each day, lest death, unheralded shall come upon thee." Baha'i Writings

search engine to the rescue

What a time for the boiler to break down! Heating we could get, but no hot water for the kitchen. The pressure was clearly on zero, even though there were no error lights. Phone call to the engineers elicited the fact that it would "cost at least sixty pounds, and more if we come out of hours. But we did show you how to do this yourselves when it was installed."
I looked in the user manual but could find no mention of how to increase the pressure.

So I went to the computer, opened a web browser and sent a request to my favourite search engine, looking for "condensing boiler low pressure". I was happy, but not surprised to find several references, one of which not only described the problem and how to fix it, but came complete with diagram and photograph as well.

Ten minutes later I had fixed my boiler for free. One up for internet search engines. Now, if only the engineer had simply told me how to do it.

20 years on - thoughts on Locherbie

Whatever the reasons behind it, the bombing of the Pam Am flight from London to New York can never be justified. All human life is sacred. "Thou shalt not kill" is just as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago. And yet there are those in many parts of the world who feel that any means is justified to achieve their ends.

One thing that I think is amply demonstrated by all the wars and fighting that has been carried on over centuries, is that fighting never solved anything. The only solution is through dialogue between peoples of the earth.


"The oppressed who have right on their side must not take that right by force; the evil would continue. Hearts must be changed." Baha'i Writings.

Human Rights

Yesterday was the anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights, although it seems to have been unnoticed by many people. We do not realise, many of us, how fortunate we are. Only by observing the atrocities and suffering of others do we seem to recognise our own good fortune.

Sadly, although there are numerous problems that are daily reported in our news, there are others that go unreported. The plight of the Baha'is in Iran is one such example. Without any recognition by the state, they are denied education, employment and pensions. They are continually harrassed and daily face the prospect of imprisonment.

reconnected and remembering times past

spent a little while off ill, and then lost my connection to the world. "Problem at the exchange" was all I could find out. Still I am now connected again, sharing thoughts with friends in emails, dealing with committee minutes and finances, and so on.

How we have come to rely on the internet! One of my colleagues the other day suggested we all swap details of all the jobs we have had in the past - just to see how things have changed. Indeed so. There was little knowledge of computers when I first started using them back in the late 60's when 8 kilobytes of memory was considered a large store. Now of course we measure in memory a million times larger! Back then we made careful use of every byte. I still have a collection of several hundred emails from about 20 years ago and the total size is less than 1 megabyte. And, yes, being all in plain text, I can still read every one of them.