A Baha’i blog.
Rainn Wilson clowns around with Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show. He is doing the talk show rounds to promote his movie The Last Mimzy and towards the end he is asked about his Faith.
Here’s an interview he did at the US Baha’i Website.
The Baha’i TV stars are really starting to pile up. Omid Djalili, Bevin from The Bachelor and now Rainn Wilson.
So here’s some news:
Both the Baha’i community in the US and in Canada are in financial dire straits.
In a urgent letter dated 5 February 2007, the National Spiritual Assembly informed… that, in response to its great concern about the present status of the Funds, it has asked its Treasurer and other members to visit major centres across the country before Ridvan, in order to speak directly with the friends about our response to the critical requirements of the second year of the Five Year Plan and “the pressing national and international needs of the Cause”.
And in March the NSA of the United States informed all LSAs and Baha’i registered groups that the budgetary shortfall for the year was projected to be more than 50%. The budget was for $25 million and with two months to go the contributions were $13.5 million.
Of course, this is “news” in the same way that violence in the Middle East is news.
It reminds me of a hilarious bit that George Carlin did a few years ago. He turned his acid tongue on the TV Christian evangelists and said:
“Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time!
But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more.”
Alright, if I can address all the National treasurers in a huddle over here. As for the rest of you, I’ll give you another topic… The Partridge Family, neither family nor partridge, discuss.
The treasurers and I will be over here:
“ok, now listen up team. This isn’t that difficult. Money comes in. Money gets spent. Sure, we know that things aren’t going that well, what with the declining enrollments and the stagnation that has come about from the Ruhi-fication of Baha’i communities. But Come On !! This is not rocket surgery boys and girls!
As I said, money comes in. Money gets spent. As treasurer you have one job and one job only: make sure no more gets spent than comes in. Got that? Think you can handle that?
Alright, Richard, hit the lights, we have a special video presentation. Now this is advanced stuff, so you’ll have to pay real close attention. I know math isn’t most of your strong suits but if you concentrate, I have no doubt that you’ll get the complicated ideas in this video. Remember, you will be quizzed on this later.”
[lights turn down as the screen comes on...]
Alison was kind enough to rummage through the archives of Talisman and forward me a brilliant post from more than 10 years ago which explains the incumbency inherent in Baha’i elections. I’ve changed a few things here and there but for the most part, I can not take credit for what follows. I wish to share it with you because it is a clear and lucid explanation of what is going on within our communities:
The following presents a specific hypothetical scenario to illustrate how incumbency can not only occur but be the default within Baha’i elections.
First the assumptions:
In our scenario there are 100 community members, 100 ballots and 900 total votes. Of these, following the assumptions above, 300 go towards incumbents and the remaining 600 to non-incumbents.
The catch comes when we realize that those 300 votes have been randomly distributed within 9 people, while the 600 votes were distributed within 91 people.
With these types of odds its quite clear that the Assembly will most likely remain the same unless:
Paradoxically, the problem gets worse the larger the community is and much less in smaller communities. The key is the ratio of the non-incumbents to the ratio of incumbents. Where the LSA members are a significant share of the community (small localities) the ratio is much more even than in larger communities.
For example, in a 20 member community, holding all above assumptions the same, we have a total of 180 votes:
Interestingly enough, in the small community, with the same parameters there is actually an anti-incumbency bias.
However if we extend the size of the community to say 1000, under our stated assumptions, incumbency is virtually guaranteed. We would have 3000 votes distributed among 9 people and the remaining 6000 within the other 991.
Anecdotal evidence of the Assembly voting dynamic is that almost everyone who is eligible to receive votes, does. Most everyone expends 3-4 votes on existing LSA members, however there is rarely a strong preference for one LSA member over another. This type of voting behaviour is similar to that implied by the above assumptions.
So how can we address the inherent incumbency bias within medium and large Baha’i communities? What adjustments and changes can we make to the Baha’i election process?
By the way, before I go further, let me address what some Baha’is fallaciously believe: that no changes, whatsoever, can be made to Baha’i elections. Shoghi Effendi and Abdu’l-Baha outlined principles and elements of Baha’i Administration. They did not create a straight-jacket. In fact, they both left things to be determined and tweaked in the fullness of time.
Just because “we don’t do things that way” doesn’t mean that we can’t. Change is tough. We all hate change. But guess what? That’s what life is all about.
So please, be aware that the changes and ideas that I am suggesting are in keeping with the principles of the Faith. Whether they are ultimately implemented or not is up to the House of Justice as the administrative and legislative authority within the Faith. But there is no question that such adaptations are necessary and vital.
Especially when we can see clear signs that the current situation is causing stagnation, ossification and group think, dragging the community down.
(to be continued)
