Nafisto the Great

SO I think a little shout-out is in order here for all the new friends and
family that are visiting my blog.  A special thanks to Shingo, Lindsay, Devin, and of course Farshid for being blogroll
buddies!

And for those who don’t know, here is an update on what Shirin and I are up to these days:

We got back to the United States in November 2004 after almost four years of volunteer service at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, Israel.  (That’s where we met all of the friends above, as well as others like Peter, Sahba, Violetta, and Ryan)

Soon after we returned, Shirin got a job as a teacher at a Montessori school in our area. Deciding that she wasn’t too thrilled about chasing after poopy diapers for 8 hours a day, she recently took on work as the marketing coordinator for an insurance company.

I started work in February as a technical trainer (and sometimes software developer) at a major government contractor. Specifically, I am working on a contract with the National Cancer Institute developing grid-enabled data and analytical services for cancer bioinformatics (translation:  we’re building the World Wide Web of cancer research).

Work stuff aside, we just moved to a new home in lovely Brambleton, Virginia. It’s a little townhome which we have stuffed to its limits with the thousands of things that we have somehow acquired over our short 20-some-odd years of life on this planet. If you’re reading this blog, chances are that you’re a good friend so you’re more than welcome to visit and stay with us (AFTER we set up our guest room in a few weeks).

That’s about it from this part of the world. Drop us a comment below so we know you’ve stopped by and let us know how you’re doing!

I’m testing a new tool called Abilon News
Aggregator.  This is my first post from the tool itself!

In case you haven’t seen it already, make sure to check out Google Blog Search.

Also, today’s blogroll buddies:

.farshid sedghi.
devin|Rychetnik
Ishikawa

A new report just came out today criticizing the United Nations for a variety of corrupt and illegal practices stemming from the Oil-for-Food Programme.

It’s not surprising, then, that the Bahá’í International Community issued a series of recommendations for United Nations reform during hearings in July at the General Assembly. This is in addition to the historic document, Turning Point for All Nations, presented to the UN at its 50th anniversary by the Bahá’í community.

It’s sad that the organization designed to unite the world has become so ineffective and, at times, even counter-productive at doing so. The Bahá’í community’s recommendations reveal the fundamental disconnect between the spiritual and social reality of the human race and the politically- and economically-driven constructs of the United Nations.

Perhaps the best words to summarize the problem come from the statement presented to the General Assembly in July:

“The realization of the great themes of the UN Charter – peace, justice, and human dignity –
remain the great but elusive dream of the human race. The guiding principle that must now animate our vision and efforts towards reform is the oneness of humanity – a spiritual principle that underpins the very nature of human reality. We are one human family, and each member of the human race is born into the world as a trust of the whole. It is on the basis of this recognition of our essential oneness that a process of reform can be successful.”

You can read the full statement here.