Vox Cosmicos

Reality explored

2012-10-02T19:52:00.000+13:00

Recently I created a new website for philosophical reflections and poetry, www.realityexplored.com

Today I put up a blog post there, Sartre - theist in disguise?

Feedback welcome.

Simply human

2011-04-11T17:44:00.000+12:00

Avid man makes out of the clay of him
temples where choirs sing ethereally
ascending away from gravity's grip
so giving dull matter glorious dreams
as wings composed from the breath of God.

Not born of sky we flap bogged in mud

willful children of nature needing more

held back and driven on by what we are
loving the world craving eternity
knowing more than we should and yet lacking
and bleeding to get what the angels know.

What point explains the volatile cosmos?
That benign mother nurturing our growth
abruptly venting cataclysmic force
dumping tsunamis of terror on towns
where random innocents drown and vanish
in vast impartial tides of global flux.

Each generation has its day to be
from nothingness came forth with eyes and ears
to see to hear to taste to touch to love
appears on earth and lasts its moment while
the turning of emergence and decay
creates us and decrees that we shall die.

What are we to the universe but ants
in evolution's unrelenting march
and yet each soul contains a world within
encompassing the eons of our past.
The reason for our singing is we breathe
and with that gift of God we start our flight.

JBD

Copenhagen Conference better than some say

2009-12-22T19:18:00.000+13:00

In some quarters the recent Copenhagen Climate Change Conference is being called a debacle. This view is too harsh.

Yes, the conference failed to achieve a binding agreement at the end. But this was the kind of failure that is partly a success because the attempt was made in the face of great obstacles.

Consider the depth of the issues that are coming to a head because of the threat of climate catastrophe. They include the divide between the rich and poor nations, the still-bitter legacy of colonialism, conflict of rival political systems, confronting the obsolescence of state sovereignty, and the inertia of millions of voters who are more preoccupied with economic worries than ecological doom.

The conference delegates had to struggle to find agreement with these huge issues coming into play between them. Watching BBC news reports I was struck by the earnestness with which they approached the task.

This event may yet go down in history as a significant early occasion when world leaders and civil society, in great numbers, gathered to seriously address global problems globally.

At this stage though, everything depends on whether the momentum keeps going, or the will to act fades away. The figures that scientists are giving us these days on climate change are concentrating minds like never before. This is not a time to let patterns of the past determine the future.

Artist highlights plight of Baha'is of Iran

2009-12-04T11:16:00.000+13:00

Shahriar Asdollah-zadeh of Auckland Baha'i community will be exhibiting his multimedia artwork on the Baha'i martyrs of Iran alongside two other national touring exhibitions.

The three concurrent exhibitions open on 14 December and go until 7 February.

The opening will be at the Whangarei Art Museum on 14 December. The exhibitions will be officially opened by prominent local Baha'i personality and tohunga whakairo Te Warihi Heteraka.

Shahriar's exhibition is well timed to coincide with International Human Rights Day on 10 December. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva has asked the public to celebrate and support Human Rights Day by advocating non-discrimination, organizing activities, raising awareness and reaching out to local communities on 10 December and throughout 2010.

More information can be found in press releases issued by the Whangarei Art Museum. Please follow these links:

Baha'i Martyrs press release

Ey! Iran press release

Following Curnow at Karekare

2009-11-28T16:49:00.007+13:00

A poem inspired by Karekare beach. Allen Curnow, who was one of New Zealand's best renowned poets, had a holiday home (bach) at the Karekare settlement. My poem gets its start from a poem by Curnow. And it includes quotations from the "Long Healing Prayer" by Baha'u'llah.