|
|
Cave May 2005
IMAGINE AN ELECTION where no-one is allowed to put themselves forward, where there is no canvassing or campaigning yet 100% of the eligible voters voted, where there were no spoilt ballot papers, nine people were elected to office and the whole process took place in a calm atmosphere of harmony and love. Fiction you might say. Pie-in-the sky. But not so, for it was a very real election and I have just participated in it.
It was, in fact, the annual election to fill the nine places on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’is of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and took place at National Convention, held in the magnificent Conference Centre at Llandudno, in North Wales. For Bahá’i administrative purposes, the country is divided into 95 Units. Each Unit elects a delegate to send to the National Convention, mandated to consult with each other and then to cast their votes.
The Saturday and first part of Sunday were taken up with consultation. Every delegate had a number on a large card and if he or she wished to speak, they waved the number at the chairman, who, at the click of a mouse, added their name to the list of those already displayed on the screen. |
|
|
The name of the current speaker and the area they were from was posted in bold letters; the next speaker’s name and area was delineated in slightly smaller type and then followed the, sometimes long, list of those who wanted to make a point. Five minutes per person were allotted and if one over-ran one’s time, the little blue figures clicking away the minutes and seconds turned red, to be followed fairly swiftly by the chairman’s gently cutting the speaker off.
Just before we delegates filled in our ballot papers, prayers were said. Ballots were then completed, bearing in mind the guidance that those whom we chose should ‘be of unquestioned loyalty, of selfless devotion, have a well trained mind, be of recognised ability and of mature experience.’ Personalities were not the issue and ‘the elector is called upon to vote for none but those whom prayer and reflection have inspired him [or her] to uphold.’ Later in the day, the result was announced. The nine people who had secured the highest number of votes were elected. Anyone in the Bahá’i community in the UK aged 21 or over could have their name put on a ballot paper and in fact ninety-four people received one or more of the 855 votes cast.
What a vast difference from the snarling, backbiting, muck raking, mud-slinging, personality-trashing that has been clogging our TV screens, radios and newspapers for far too long, to the exclusion of all but the most dominant other items of news. Imagine our parliament, if the primitive baying and point-scoring of Prime Minister’s Questions was replaced by a loving consultation among the Members, with no-one afraid to step out of party line because there would be no party line, only people with the qualities previously mentioned reaching decisions for the genuine benefit of all.
Well, it did not happen on Thursday 5 May 2005 (and how dare they hold an election on my birthday!) but it will happen someday, that is certain. Bahá’is believe ‘That the violent disruption which has seized the entire planet is beyond the ability of men to assuage, unaided by God’s revelation’ and that ‘The old order cannot be repaired; it is being rolled up before our eyes. The moral decay and disorder convulsing human society must run their course; we can neither arrest nor divert them.’ So, although the world is going to continue to endure a rough time for a while, indubitably better days will follow.
Although the election of the NSA is the main purpose of Convention, there is more to it of course, including the making of, consultation about and voting on resolutions affecting the running of our community in the UK. However it is not my purpose here to offer a dissertation about the Faith, merely to show that there is an alternative to the system that currently exists and which is being rejected by more and more of the electorate voting – or rather not voting – with their feet as it spins down to the murk of rock bottom.
Anyone interested in learning more can contact me at earthtracer@hotmail.com
* * * * * *
I read somewhere that waste energy in this country is 17% of our total need! Might it not be cheaper to do something about that, before subsidising big business to put factories on our hill-tops?
Which reminds me, there was an offshore wind power station at Llandudno, with 40-odd turbine units and five large but stumpy ones somewhere on the west side of the M6. Of the two, the cluster of five was far less obtrusive. The multiplication of mobile telephone masts is visually pretty horrible too. And all so that people on the bus can say “Hello. Yes. I’m on the bus…!”
* * * * * *
I have not left a lot of space to mention the seminar I went to, run by the Walter Segal Self Build Trust. For those who do not know, Segal was an architect who championed the cause of simple house-building, devising a system whereby hefty foundations and all ‘wet trades’ such as plastering and cementing, are done away with. It was true self-build, not what some people do today, which amounts to no more than being overseer to the erection of their kit house.
In essence, almost anyone could build a post and beam Segal-type house. The early ones did tend to look a little bit like prefabs but things have moved on since then and some of the slides that were shown were of stunningly beautiful buildings. One of the great advantages of Segal’s system – which is not so much an invention as an adaptation of much older techniques to today’s conditions and materials – is that there is no need for expensive ground clearance because the foundations rest on pads and do not consist of solid concrete. Thus a sloping site is easily adapted to and uneven ground catered for, simply by varying the length of the poles below floor level. They are also environmentally friendly because so little concrete is used (don’t forget one tonne of cement requires three tons of CO² to produce it); they are made from a renewable resource, timber and their ‘footprint’ on the earth is very small.
Anyone interested should look at: http://www.segalselfbuild.co.uk or contact Mary Kelly at info@segalselfbuild.co.uk – but hurry! The Trust is in financial difficulties and very regrettably, may not be around much longer
|
