The Gospel of Wealth

Update (May 8, 2014): Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a book written by Thomas Piketty, a French economist. The book has gained critical acclaim and set off hot political debates. Mr. Piketty has used extensive empirical data to argue that global disparity between rich and poor are steadily widening. His emphasis on the role of inherited wealth reminds me of Andrew Carnegie's argument in the Gospel of Wealth.  These two are coming from radically different backgrounds. However, potential similarities in their argument is worth considering for the sake of building up rational consensus in public debates.

Read more:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/may/08/thomas-piketty-new-gilded-age/

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2014/03/31/140331crbo_books_cassidy?currentPage=all

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The present state of global economy, as defined and practiced today, is incompatible with the 
vision of a just and peaceful society. It promotes rivalry, expansionism, glorification of crass materialism, and a culture that stands identified with conspicuous consumption. Endemic poverty, growing unemployment, widening gap between rich and poor, and failed development plans have degraded and exploited millions and caused wars. In the midst of abject poverty and misery, there exists a concentration of wealth and power that is unparalleled in human history. 

In this time and age of convoluted doctrines and ideologies of of greed and conflict when the body politic is rent with crisis and fragmentation, it's worth rereading Andrew Carnegie's the Goepel of Wealth. In the Gospel of Wealth, written in 1889,  Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), a wealthy industrialist, argues that it's fallacious to preach that an unbridled system of free enterprise will automatically bring about peace and prosperity. His argument may surprize many of today's billionaires!

THE GOSPEL OF WEALTH .pdf

Open access in scholarship and research

“Open Access” to information – the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research, and the right to use and re-use those results as you need – has the power to transform the way research and scientific inquiry are conducted. It has direct and widespread implications for academia, medicine, science, industry, and for society as a whole.

Get Involved! Keep up the momentum!

Official site of International Open Access Week

http://www.openaccessweek.org/

For Disruption, MOOCs Beat Open-Access Journals

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/for-disruption-moocs-beat-open-access-journals-scholar-argues/47673?cid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Silent treatments of the killing of Mr. Ataollah Rezvani is continuing

 


The Iranian government is continuing its silent treatment of the killing of Mr Ataollah Rezvani.

http://behroozsabet.blogspot.com/2013/08/murder-of-mr-ataollah-rezvani-was.html

International community and human rights activists must make sure their voices are heard. This sinister killing is similar to the chain murders of the 80s and 90s and manifesting active operation of the dark forces of fanaticism and violence, lurking beneath the thin veneer of hypocrisy.

Ardeshir Mohasses: Images of a political satirist

With rich allusions to Persian miniatures, Western artists like Goya and episodes in Iranian history, Mr. Mohassess has depicted life in Iran before, during and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The drawings have a fanciful yet descriptive line quality, comically exaggerating facial expressions while giving full weight to bullet holes and severed limbs. Some of the meanings may be lost on American viewers, but the artist’s deep suspicion of religious and political authority comes across clearly.


http://sites.asiasociety.org/arts/mohassess/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardeshir_Mohasses






                   

    


          



















  

Vanities and delusions of communist dictatorship

 .

 


 A lost city: Photos of Bucharest's past

The next series of photographs showing everyday life under Ceausescu is like a haunting silent movie. We see desolate streets when there was no petrol, queues for food that never came, trams straddled by desperate commuters, useless cars buried under snow and a wedding party picking their way through the streets. No-one is smiling.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24368485

 http://estost.photoshelter.com/gallery/Romania-Life-1975-89/G0000E5xgbtlGc7w/

Children and Guns

Many horrifying events have taken place in the past few months which have caused people to question and debate the prevailing accessibility of guns. It is my understanding that a distorted interpretation of the Second Amendment advocated by a strong gun lobby has contributed to a culture of violence in America. The right to bear arms has been misconstrued. It is interpreted as an eternal disposition that stands beyond and above the passage of time and the chances and changes of the world. A perception has been cultivated that guns are indispensable part of American culture and religion symbolizing identity, strength, and family protection.  

We need sane and reasonable gun control policy. I also believe we need a profound educational process in order to reverse this culture and replace it with a peaceful one.

Although I am sure that guns have protected some people in dangerous situations I still believe that gun control needs to be implemented and enforced much more strictly. Guns have also been known to cause and increase aggressiveness. Among the industrialized countries, the United States has the highest number of death and injury caused by firearms. The Second Amendment was written at a time when bearing arms meant bearing a musket. Today, however, we are witnessing automatic guns with large capacity magazines that can kill many people in a second. The number of people guns can injure or kill in only a matter of seconds make them highly volatile and potent instrument that need to be regulated by strict laws.

Guns have only one purpose and that is to shoot a bullet at a very high speed at a target. Its goal is to destroy whatever the object may be, and that includes a person as well. It seems to me a deeper examination of the issue, free from the fierce partisan polemics and zealous passions that have fogged rational discourse, is necessary if a way out is to be found.

Guns are not toys and never will be. Unfortunately many young lives have been lost due to easy accessibility of guns. Find more on children and guns in this eye opening article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/29/us/children-and-guns-the-hidden-toll.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130929

Mohammad Nourizad’s Summons to Sweeping Away the Idea of “Untouchable”

 

Mohammad Nourizad is an Iranian activist and journalist advocating freedom, religious tolerance, and peaceful coexistence. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Nourizad

His summons are reminiscent of declarations by reformers who opposed ecclesiastical malpractice, religious dogmas, and persecution of "heretics" in Europe and advanced transition from medieval mentality to modern thinking and from the Inquisition to free inquiry.


I invite all the people of Iran and the world, in particular the Shi’ites, to accompany me in sweeping away the ideology of the ritual “untouchable” [i.e. Najis نجس *]. This ideology has gone too far with its indirect comments regarding certain groups of human beings, with the consequence that Iran’s reputation is harmed, and such actions are attributed to Iran’s immaturity and unwisdom. These days, the problem we Iranians face is not that we are governed by a group of the ultimate self-interested people, who do not follow any regulations and laws; rather Iranians’ real problem is their incorrect and unwise understanding of Source of Imitation [i.e. Maraji'**], the supreme Shi’ite legal authorities, and Islamic officials’ distribution and promotion of such misunderstandings in governmental fiats.

In this summons, I directly consider the ignobility of the Sources of Immitation**, who with their misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the Qur’an and and Islam via the religious authorities label pagans, communists, Baha’is, and atheists “untouchable” [i.e. Najis نجس]. With this feeble-minded and cowardly fatwa, they take away established citizenship rights from a group of our fellow-countrymen.

Arise and respond to my summons as follows:

As an individual or as a group go on visits to the homes of Baha’is and atheists, and associate with them in love and harmony. Bring them gifts as expressions of repentence and shame for having made them subjects of maltreatment and persecution. Eat food together with them. The next day after your visit, directly or indirectly distribute news about your visit through uncensored media and social networking tools. There is no solution except for the separation of our practices and principles from those misunderstandings of the Sources of Imitation**. We should demonstrate that in our human and religious consciousness, all humans have been created clean, good, and noble, and an inclination towards any particular belief system can never make anyone dirty or unclean.
 
Accompany me in this great summons to demonstrate the following:
If it is agreed that pagans and atheists are unclean because of an incorrect understanding of the Qur’an, the believers in God and those who say their prayers at night, who with their actions and manner have been taking advantage of the station of scholars, of the Qur’an and of the example of the prophets ˗ no doubt they are far more unclean and dirty.
In this summons, we do not want to cleanse the blessed beauty of our Baha’i, communist, and atheist fellow-countrymen because of such unjust and incorrect understandings and fatwas. Instead, we strive to eliminate the filth of [the idea of] untouchables from the face of humanity, from faith, from Islam and from Shia Islam, and to demonstrate the following:
Our spiritual authorities and Sources of Imitation** do not have permission and are not able on behalf of God to divide the servants of God into bad, good, clean, unclean, and untouchable. They cannot give benefits and privileges to some people whom they consider good, nor can they deprive even bad people of their well-established human rights.
—

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<div data-href=”https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=717124578315161&amp;set=a.153879031306388.40015.153044948056463&amp;type=1″ data-width=”550″><div><a href=”https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=717124578315161&amp;set=a.153879031306388.40015.153044948056463&amp;type=1″>Post</a> by ‎<a href=”https://www.facebook.com/m.nourizad”>محمد نوری زاد</a>‎.</div></div>

* The Islamic term is najis, “ritually unclean”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Najis. This law of Islam, originally referring in the Qur’an to certain animals and bodily fluids, has been extended by many Shi’ite clerics to Baha’is.
** Plural of Marja’ al-Taqlid, or “Source to Imitate”, a designation of certain Shi’ite Grand Ayatollahs. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marja%27

Source:

https://www.facebook.com/m.nourizad

Translation by Iran Press Watch

http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/9369?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+iranpresswatch+%28Iran+Press+Watch%3A+The+Baha%27i+Community%29