Writing in the World Order of Baha’u'llah, Shoghi Effendi envisioned the future:
A mechanism of world inter-communication will be devised, embracing the whole planet, freed from national hindrances and restrictions, and functioning with marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity. A world metropolis will act as the nerve centre of a world civilization, the focus towards which the unifying forces of life will converge and from which its energizing influences will radiate. A world language will either be invented or chosen from among the existing languages and will be taught in the schools of all the federated nations as an auxiliary language to their mother tongue. A world script, a world literature, a uniform and universal system of currency, of weights and measures, will simplify and facilitate intercourse and understanding among the nations and races of mankind.
Keeping in mind that the above was written in 1938, you can’t help but be awed by his prophetic vision. We can easily identify many of the things he outlines.
The internet – connecting everyone, almost instantaneously; allowing for the world to bear witness to the violent crushing of protests on the streets of Tehran.
A supplementary language? English obviously. It is spoken and taught in almost every place on earth. It has become the de facto language of commerce, naval and aerial navigation, computer programming, etc.
A uniform and universal system of weights and measures? The metric system is the standard in all but 3 countries.
And just recently – at the G-8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for a “supranational” world currency and to have something to show the world leaders, he gave them a sample coin minted in Belgium:
It even has a website: Future World Currency
To be fair, this is not the first coin to be inspired by the phrase ‘unity in diversity’. In 2006 India minted a 10 Rupee coin designed by National Institute of Design which had the symbolic representation of the concept: 4 lines and dots coming together:
I know that this proposal won’t amount to much but it is remarkable news nevertheless. A world currency is still a long ways off, of course. But with the success of the Euro, which united Europe’s main group of countries and has since expanded to several others, the idea of a supranational currency is easier to imagine. Who knows, this vision of Shoghi Effendi may come true sooner than we think.
By the way, does anyone have any reference of a global currency in the writings of either Abdu’l-Baha or Baha’u'llah? As far as I can tell, there aren’t any but maybe I haven’t looked hard enough.
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