As per his long-established tradition on the eve of trips abroad, Pope Francis traveled across Rome on Thursday afternoon to the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
He paused to pray for a moment before the ancient Roman icon of Maria Salus Populi Romani.
According to the Holy See Press Office, the Pope entrusted his upcoming visit to Iraq to Our Lady’s protection.
He is scheduled to depart Rome on Friday morning for his 33rd Apostolic Visit abroad, which takes him to Iraq on 5-8 March.
Devotion to ancient Roman icon
Pope Francis laid a bouquet of flowers on the altar below the ancient image of the “Salvation of the Roman people”, which is housed in the Borghese chapel.
Tradition holds that it arrived in Rome in the year 590 AD, during the reign of Pope Gregory the Great.
Maria Salus Populi Romani has twice received a canonical coronation.
Pope Gregory XVI crowned the image of Our Lady in 1838, and Pope Pius XII repeated the gesture of devotion during the Marian year of 1954.
The Vatican Museums cleaned and restored it in 2018.
Based on new research, it said on Thursday that more than 330 million youngsters have been stuck at home for at least nine months, since the virus spread uncontrollably this time last year.
We must emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic with a better approach to child and adolescent mental health, and that starts by giving the issue the attention it deserves. https://t.co/hhUMeUlx2A
This has left them feeling isolated and anxious about their future, said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder: “Tens and tens of millions of youngsters have been left feeling isolated and afraid and lonely and anxious because of these enforced lockdowns and isolations that have become as a result of this pandemic.”
He said countries needed to emerge from this pandemic “with a better approach, a better approach to child and adolescent mental health, and that probably starts just by giving the issue the attention it deserves.”
Half of all mental disorders develop before the age of 15, according to UNICEF and the majority of the 800,000 people who die by suicide annually, are under 18s.
The UN agency also said that the pandemic has disrupted or halted critical mental health services in 93 per cent of countries worldwide.
UNICEF Executive Director, Henrietta Fore, said that when day after day “you are away from your friends and distant loved ones, and perhaps even stuck at home with an abuser, the impact is significant.
“Many children are left feeling afraid, lonely, anxious, and concerned for their future. We must emerge from this pandemic with a better approach to child and adolescent mental health, and that starts by giving the issue the attention it deserves.”
For children experiencing violence, neglect or abuse at home, lockdowns have left many stranded with abusers. Children in vulnerable population groups – like those living and working on the streets, children with disabilities, and children living in conflict settings – risk having their mental health needs overlooked entirely.
According to WHO, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted or halted critical mental health services in 93 per cent of countries worldwide, while the demand for mental health support is increasing.
UNICEF responding
To respond to growing needs, the agency has offered support to Governments and partners to prioritize services for children.
In Kazakhstan, this has led to the launch of a UNICEF platform for individual online counselling services, alongside distance training in schools for mental health specialists.
In China, the agency has also worked with social media company Kuaishou, to produce an online challenge to help reduce anxiety in children.
Later this year, UNICEF will dedicate its biennial flagship report on the state of the world’s children, to child and adolescent mental health, in a bid to increase awareness of the global challenge, exacerbated profoundly by the coronavirus.
Boost investment
“If we did not fully appreciate the urgency prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, surely we do now”, said Ms. Fore.
Countries must dramatically invest in expanded mental health services and support for young people and their caregivers in communities and schools. We also need scaled-up parenting programmes to ensure that children from vulnerable families get the support and protection they need at home.”
Multinationals will have to disclose amount of tax they pay in each EU country
The public and tax authorities will be able to see what taxes are being paid where
Negotiations on final shape of EU bill set to begin very shortly
Four years after Parliament adopted its position on draft legislation on public country-by-country reporting, EU governments come to the table to negotiate a deal.
On Thursday, Parliament’s lead negotiators, Evelyn Regner (S&D, AT) and Ibán García Del Blanco (S&D, ES), were officially given the green light to enter into negotiations with the EU governments’ representatives, based on the position the EP adopted in 2017. Last week, member states were able to agree their negotiating position. These negotiations are now set to begin very shortly.
Evelyn Regner said:
“This is a breakthrough for tax fairness in the EU. Public country-by-country reporting will oblige multinational companies to be financially transparent about where they make profits and where they pay taxes. Especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where companies are receiving considerable support from public spending, citizens have an even greater right to know which multinationals are playing fair and which are free-riding.”
Ibán García Del Blanco said:
“We have been waiting for the Council for too long. We are ready to start negotiations immediately in order to reach an agreement under the Portuguese Presidency, thereby making progress on tax and corporate transparency. We urgently need meaningful financial transparency to fight tax evasion and profit shifting. Citizens’ trust in our democracies depends on everyone contributing their fair share to the recovery.”
the information requested from multinationals should be presented separately, including for each tax jurisdiction outside the EU;
multinationals must make their annual report on income tax information publicly available and free of charge, and file the report in a public registry managed by the Commission;
a safeguard clause for sensitive corporate data has been added, allowing multinationals to temporarily omit information when disclosing it would be seriously prejudicial to their commercial positions;
additional items of information will be provided in the tax reports to help achieve a more complete picture, such as information on the number of all full-time employees, fixed assets, stated capital, preferential tax treatment, or government subsidies;
subsidiaries with a turnover of EUR 750 million or more would also be subject to country-by-country reporting requirements.
Background
This legislation is part of the EU’s regulatory measures to implement the OECD’s Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Action Plan 13. In essence, multinationals with annual turnovers of more than EUR 750 million will be required to provide an annual tax statement that breaks down key elements of the statements by tax jurisdiction. This will provide the public and tax authorities with more visibility on what taxes are being paid where.
On 4 July 4 2017, Parliament adopted its amendments to the Commission’s proposal. It then reconfirmed its position in its first reading on March 27, 2019. On 24 October 2019, MEPs passed a strong resolution urgently calling on the member states to break the deadlock and enter inter-institutional negotiations.
Taklung Matrul Rinpoche, Head of Taklung Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhist tradition speaking at the All Religions Prayer for World Peace and Special Talk on Inter-religious Harmony, an initiative of Kullu-Manali Settlement Office. Photo/Kullu-Manali Settlement Office
By – Shyamal Sinha
Religious harmony in India is a concept that indicates that there is love, affection in between different religions in India. The Indian constitution supports and encourages religious harmony. In India, every citizen has a right to choose and practice any religion.There are examples of Muslims and Sikhs building temples. In India, different religious traditions live harmoniously. Seers of religions call for religious harmony in India
The ancient Indian scripture Rigveda endeavors plurality of religious thought with its mention “ekaM sadvipraa bahudhaa vadanti ” (Sanskrit: एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति)– meaning wise people explain the same truth in different manners.
On 3 March, the auspicious White Wednesday of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the Settlement Office of Kullu- Manali organised the first of a kind inter-religious dialogue, titled ‘All Religions Prayer for World Peace and Special Talk on Inter-religious Harmony’ under the auspices of the Central Tibetan Administration.
The Central Tibetan Administration led by the 15th Kashag dedicated the year 2020-21 as ‘Year of Gratitude to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It is in this spirit that TSO Kullu Manali has taken the initiative to organise a special talk, bringing together representatives of various religious traditions to talk about one of the four principal commitments of His Holiness the Dalai Lama: the promotion of Inter-religious harmony.
Honorary representatives of the different religions who graced the event include Taklung Matrul Rinpoche, Head of Taklung Kagyu sect of Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Lochen Rinpoche, Khentsap, Kais Dagpo Shedup Monastery, Gelug sect of Tibetan Buddhist tradition, Pandit ji Mahima Nautiyal, Bodh Nath Mandir at Manali, Imam Molana Sajit ji, Masjid at Manali, Reverend. Naresh Lall ji, the Lady Willington Hospital, Manali, Sardar ji Bhagtishwar Sigh ji, Gurudwara Temple based in Manali. Local pradhan, members of Tibet Support Group also attended.
Mr Thupten Chophel, Settlement Officer of Kullu-Manali Tibetan Settlement delivered the welcome address, followed by all the representatives of various faith who spoke on inter-religious harmony.
On behalf of the CTA, the Settlement Officer felicitated each representative with a traditional Tibetan scarf and souvenirs and thanked the Kais Dagpo Shedup Monastery, Kullu-Manali for sponsoring the luncheon and refreshments for all the guests and audience at the gathering.
The special talk concluded with a vote of thanks by Mr Thokmey, President of Local Tibetan Assembly, Kullu-Manali.
The second segment of the event included Buddhist introductory teaching and conferring of initiation by Kyapje Taklung Matrul Rinpoche.
Mandala offering by Mr Thupten Chophel, Settlement Officer of Kullu-Manali Tibetan Settlement to Taklung Matrul Rinpoche during the Buddhist introductory teaching and conferring of initiation. Photo/Kullu-Manali Settlement Office
Rinpoche blessing members of the audience. Photo/Kullu-Manali Settlement Office
“The beloved of the gods, king Piyadasi, honors both ascetics and the householders of all religions, and he honors them with gifts and honors of various kinds. . Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought “Let me glorify my own religion,” only harms his own religion. Therefore contact between religions is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. The beloved of the gods, king Piyadasi, desires that all should be well-learned in the good doctrines of other religions. ”
Right-wing Hungarian leader Viktor Orban has pulled his Fidesz party out of the European People’s Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament, the culmination of years of mounting unhappiness among MEPs over the authoritarian turn of the Budapest leadership.
<p class="no_name">All five <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_organisation=Fine+Gael" rel="nofollow">Fine Gael</a> MEPs were among the 81 per cent of the pan-European EPP group that voted in favour of new rules that would have allowed it to suspend or expel party colleagues, a change seen as making the suspension of Fidesz MEPs only a matter of time.</p>
<p class="no_name">As soon as the change was approved, Mr Orban announced the party’s MEPs were quitting the group, effectively opting to leave rather than be expelled.</p>
<p class="no_name">“The amendments to the rules of the EPP group are clearly a hostile move against Fidesz and our voters,” Orban wrote in a letter to the EPP leadership. “The governing body of Fidesz has decided to leave the EPP group immediately.”</p>
<p class="no_name">Some Fine Gael MEPs expressed relief at their Hungarian colleagues’ departure. “Finally,” tweeted Midlands–North-West MEP <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_person=Maria+Walsh" rel="nofollow">Maria Walsh</a>, while <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_person=Frances+Fitzgerald" rel="nofollow">Frances Fitzgerald</a> described it as “a welcome development”.</p>
<p class="no_name">Mr Orban’s strongman leadership, which has combined the erosion of the rule of law with the curtailment of civil society, minority and media freedoms has long rankled with the EPP’s more liberal members. However, the Hungarian leader retains allies among its more conservative and radical wing, and the issue of how to deal with Fidesz has been a perennial problem that has split the group for years.</p>
<p class="no_name">The departure of Fidesz from the EPP group in the European Parliament is not the final conclusion to the affair as the party remains within the overall EPP structure for now, albeit as a suspended member with no voting rights. </p>
<h4 class="crosshead">Autocratic rule</h4><p class="no_name">The EPP’s political assembly suspended Fidesz in 2019 due to Mr Orban’s increasingly autocratic rule in <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_location=Hungary" rel="nofollow">Hungary</a>, which has seen NGO Freedom House assess the country to be no longer a democracy.</p>
<p class="no_name">Yet moves to expel Fidesz outright have been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic and bridge-building attempts to try to rein in the party while keeping it as an ally, an approach championed by members of German chancellor Angela Merkel’s <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&tag_organisation=Christian+Democratic+Union" rel="nofollow">Christian Democratic Union</a>, an influential force in the EPP.</p>
<p class="no_name">However, the exit of the MEPs from the EPP’s group in the European Parliament means a vote on expulsion will be held as soon as Covid-19 conditions allow.</p>
<p class="no_name">Under its statutes parliamentarians of member parties must adhere to EPP groups in all assemblies, the party said in a statement, meaning that “Fidesz is now facing an exclusion procedure from the party”.</p>
<p class="no_name">This requires an in-person political assembly “which will meet when it is safe to do so given the current pandemic situation”, the statement read.</p>
COVID-19 continues to exacerbate existing inequalities and place a disproportionate burden on women, including in health-care settings. Women health workers are faced with increased workloads, a gender pay gap, shortages of personal protective equipment that fits them, and harassment and violence as they respond to the pandemic on the frontlines.
Although women make up 70% of the health workforce, they hold only 25% of senior roles.
“The pandemic has been a setback to the advancement and progress of women. Many women find themselves in an impossible situation of having to assume multiple care responsibilities at home and outside the household. We are extremely concerned about the impact that the pandemic has had on the mental health and well-being of women in the health workforce and beyond,” says Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat, Director of the Division of Country Health Policies and Systems at WHO/Europe.
Here, 4 women holding influential leadership positions across the WHO European Region share their experiences and call for change.
Dr Marija Zdravkovic is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the University Hospital Medical Center Bezanijska Kosa in Belgrade, Serbia, where she has worked for over 22 years. In her role, she has not only witnessed but also managed first-hand the challenges posed by the pandemic in a health-care setting.
“In June 2020, our hospital started working as a COVID-only centre, and this period has been very challenging for all staff at the hospital and, of course, for me as the CEO. Once we moved to full COVID mode, we had less than 24 hours to move 248 non-COVID patients to other hospitals and make all epidemiological preparations to operate as the main COVID centre for the entire Belgrade region. But we did it successfully,” says Dr Zdravkovic.
Health workers have experienced high levels of depression, anxiety, insomnia and distress as a result of responding to the pandemic. Women health workers have been disproportionately affected.
“The main goal was to organize work. In order to make an optimal organization, we set working hours of 6 hours in standard care and 4 hours in the intensive care unit. This was important because we wanted to have doctors and nurses completely concentrate on the patients and avoid exhaustion, because we didn’t know how long it would all last. Life had to be changed in a day,” explains Dr Zdravkovic.
Dr Zhamilya Abeuova, Director of the Enbekshikazakh Multidisciplinary Interdistrict Hospital in the Almaty Region of Kazakhstan, echoes Dr Zdravkovic’s experiences. “The pandemic has created an unprecedented health system environment. In a short time, we retrained the entire medical staff of the polyclinic, hospitals, primary health-care centres and the infectious diseases department,” she says.
“Our work has become more intense because we are now mainly prioritizing emergency surgeries and more complex operations. The pace of change was fast and we are constantly learning and adapting,” says Dr Deborah McNamara, Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon at the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin, Ireland.
“I have also been involved in designing national policies to help surgeons through this period, to ensure they and their teams are safe, and keep our patients safe. I am still motivated by every patient that I see, and being able to do something to radically change and improve their life,” Dr McNamara adds.
Breaking stereotypes
Gender inequality and patriarchal attitudes and stereotypes in medical training, at work and across society mean that women in health care earn less and are less likely to advance in their careers, often due to having multiple care responsibilities.
As Chair of Ireland’s Royal College of Surgeons working group on improving gender equality in surgery, Dr McNamara and her team found multiple barriers to women’s career progression in surgery, which remains a male-dominated field. Currently, women make up only 7% of surgical consultants in Ireland.
“We found that even students in school have a clear perception about who is a surgeon and what a surgeon looks like. And often they are not thinking of women when they think of a surgeon. Many women medical students didn’t even consider a career in surgery,” she says.
Yet Dr McNamara points out, “In the last couple of years, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing women consultant surgeons appointed around the country, including in my own hospital. It has been superb to see that women have progressed, supported by the work that we’ve done investing in measuring the gender gaps as well as training and mentoring.”
While there has been progress, the pace of change for gender equality continues to stagnate.
“The media plays a major role and needs to do more to promote women’s leadership and to avoid inappropriate and misogynistic comments. We need to start promoting gender equality at an early age, starting from kindergartens, schools and universities, including in health management education,” notes Dr Zdravkovic from Serbia.
Strengthening women’s voices in leadership
Women deliver global health while men design and lead it. Women remain largely absent from national or global decision-making on the COVID-19 response.
“Here, women are represented at all levels, from practical to mid-level executives. However, this is not the case in all areas – in the management system of the civil service in Kazakhstan, women traditionally occupy grassroots positions, while men are widely represented in managerial positions,” Dr Abeuova says.
“And if our society values typical male leadership, it is very hard for women’s leadership to be heard because of the norms in our societies,” adds Dr McNamara, who has been a mentor and an inspiring figure for fellow women surgeons throughout her career. “The visibility of women in leadership positions and being prepared to stand up for younger colleagues who may be facing difficult times in their career are important.”
“We need women and men in leadership together because we bring different experiences and perspectives around the table. We need women in leadership at all levels of management, from local to regional, national and global – in all sectors. This is especially important in public health, where we make decisions affecting the lives of millions on a daily basis,” Dr Natasha Azzopardi-Muscat concludes.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party has quit the centre-right European People’s Party in the European Parliament amid a suspension row with fellow MEPs.
Orban announced the decision in a letter to the chairman of the EPP, Manfred Weber, on Wednesday, making good on his threat to leave the grouping over changes to its internal rules.
The changes, which were voted in by the EPP on Wednesday, allow it to suspend entire political parties rather than just individual MEPs.
Orban said that the reforms “are clearly a hostile move against Fidesz”, which had been sanctioned by the EPP since March 2019 for its anti-Brussels stance.
In his letter on Wednesday, the leader said that the rules were “undemocratic, unjust and unacceptable” at a time when “hundreds of thousands of Europeans are hospitalised and our doctors are saving lives.”
It was shared by Fidesz vice-president Katalin Novak on Twitter, who said the party “will not let our MEPs be silenced or limited in their capacity to represent our voters”.
The EPP said in a statement it “respects and welcomes the majority vote on the adoption of the new rules of procedure” in the European Parliament.
On the Hungarian party’s departure from the group, it added that Fidesz “is now facing an exclusion procedure from the party, under Article 3 of the EPP Statutes” and “this must be decided by the EPP Political Assembly, which will meet when it is safe to do so given the current pandemic situation”.
Orban’s move will have little consequence for Fidesz or for the EPP, which will retain its status as the largest political grouping in the European Parliament even without the 12 Hungarian MEPs.
One Hungarian MEP, with the Christian Democratic People’s Party (KDNP), which is a coalition partner of Fidesz, will remain part of the EPP.
The rule changes were voted into force by 82% of members of the EPP. In response to the Orban letter, Esther de Lange, of the Dutch CDA, said that Fidesz’s departure was “inevitable.”
“Mentally, we had already said goodbye to him,” she said.
“Our door is open to all parties who agree with the core values of the EPP. In recent years, Orban has unfortunately drifted miles away from these core values, crossing a moral boundary time and time again.”
Since becoming prime minister a decade ago, Orban has regularly clashed with the European Union over issues of judicial reform, media freedom and the rule of law.
In 2015, his hardline reactions to the migrant crisis saw Hungary’s response sanctioned by the European Court of Justice.
Seuss Enterprises announced Tuesday that it would discontinue six of his titles—setting off a culture war and prices of the book sky-rocketing,
Design by Forbes
On Tuesday morning, Seuss Enterprises, which handles the estate of Dr. Seuss, announced that it would discontinue six of its less popular titles due to racist imagery. None of the books—If I Ran the Zoo, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super! and The Cat’s Quizzer—are Seuss bestsellers, and few thought the announcement would set off a culture war. But it did—and drove a stampede of buyers to booksellers. After all, if Dr. Seuss, who passed away in 1991, could earn $33 million last year, why shouldn’t shrewd collectors and Seuss lovers act like Horton and hatch a nest egg?
A day after the announcement of the cancellation, nine of the top 10 books on Amazon’s best-selling charts were by Dr. Seuss, though none were the six controversial titles. Those books are now much harder to get, and their prices on the secondary market have skyrocketed. On rare book site AbeBooks, first editions of And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street are going for up to $9,000, while If I Ran the Zoo is selling for $8,200. On Barnes & Noble, both titles are already out of stock. Rare and children’s bookstores, which typically get calls about The Cat in the Hat or How the Grinch Stole Christmas, have been handling increased requests for the six nixed titles.
“Fielding those calls was basically our entire day yesterday,” says Marissa Acey, a manager at New York City’s Book Culture. The store only had one copy of If I Ran the Zoo, she added, explaining that none of the titles listed were popular enough to keep in stock.
“We spent the whole day yesterday on the phone answering calls about Dr. Seuss,” adds Peter Glassman, the owner of New York City’s fabled children’s bookstore Books of Wonder. A lover of Dr. Seuss who contributed to the Your Favorite Seuss compilation, Glassman hopes the six books can be edited to remove the objectionable characters and illustrations. “Having met Ted [Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss], I think he would’ve been the first to say, ‘Just change it!’ … If these stories can be kept alive in a way that is not offensive, that would be wonderful.”
Dr. Seuss raked in $33 million in earnings last year—and as his titles soar on the best-seller list, his estate can expect more this year.
Zohar Lazar for Forbes
The surprising announcement by Seuss Enterprises followed a 2019 study by the Conscious Kid’s Library and the University of California-San Diego that found themes of orientalism and anti-Blackness in some of his books, and coincided with President Joe Biden excluding Seuss’ name from his Proclamation on Read Across America Day. Across conservative media, the titles were the latest victims of “cancel culture,” with Newsmax and Fox News hosts spending significant airtime on the matter.
What they didn’t acknowledge is that these six books make up only a sliver of the Seuss library—and the money-making machine that that library has become. Seuss Enterprises earned a record $33 million before taxes in 2020, up from just $9.5 million five years earlier—thanks to a flurry of lucrative Hollywood deals, including Netflix.
“We put our big boy pants on,” Seuss Enterprises president Susan Brandt told Forbes last year, referring to the company’s business strategy.
Brandt brought Seuss to Netflix, which turned the classic 50-word Green Eggs and Ham into a big-budget animated series. Season Two is currently in production there. That helped lead to a deal with Warner Bros. Pictures to make two films based on The Cat in the Hat and a third based on Oh, the Places You’ll Go!. (All three of the titles are among the top 10 bestsellers on Amazon today). All of the TV and movie projects are still a go, despite The Cat in the Hat and Oh, the Places You’ll Go! being cited in the study as transmitting racist imagery, including the use of blackface stereotypes. A Black elevator operator working in Geisel’s office in the 1950s was even the inspiration for his iconic Cat character. Seuss Enterprises declined to comment on these books.
Presumably that’s the real reason why Seuss Enterprises preemptively self-canceled the books—to protect its other valuable intellectual property. After all, the company will collect seven-figure checks for the rights to use the source material in the films, plus bonuses depending on box-office performance Seuss has also taken live entertainment by storm: Once the world opens up again, the traveling Dr. Seuss exhibit will continue. During its five-month run in Toronto pre-pandemic, the show sold 175,000 tickets and $1 million in merchandise.
As for the soaring sales of his titles? Book sales made up more than $16 million of Seuss’ earnings last year. Even with six fewer titles in his catalog in 2021, expect that number to grow bigger than the Grinch’s heart.
SINGAPORE — Singapore’s National Heritage Board (NHB) has added the Bahá’í Nineteen Day Feast to its intangible cultural heritage list following a national mandate to document and preserve the diverse cultural expressions of the island nation.
The Bahá’í Feast refers to a spiritual “feast” of prayers, consultation, and fellowship and is held once every 19 days by Bahá’í communities throughout the world.
“The Feast serves as the bedrock of Bahá’í community life,” says Meiping Chang of Singapore’s Bahá’í Office of External Affairs. “Its inclusion on the heritage list is a recognition of the Bahá’í community as an integral part of Singaporean society.”
Slideshow 6 images“The Nineteen Day Feast helps us to keep connected to something beyond ourselves, but has required creativity during this time,” says Peta Yang, a member of Singapore’s Bahá’í community.
Ms. Chang explains how at the Feast, Bahá’ís come together to consult on how they can better serve their society. “It is a space where the relationships between members of the community and institutions, such as the Bahá’í Local Spiritual Assembly, are strengthened.”
Peta Yang, a member of Singapore’s Bahá’í community, states: “Consultations at these gatherings allow people to reflect together on their experience in community-building efforts. People of all ages explore how they can support one another. The rich discussions often lead to ideas for further practical action.”
Slideshow 6 imagesAn online gathering for a recent Nineteen Day Feast in Singapore. Peta Yang, a member of the country’s Bahá’í community, says that the Feast has played an important role during the pandemic. “These regular gatherings are a powerful remedy for isolation.”
Dr. Yang continues to explain the important role of the Feast during the pandemic. “These regular gatherings are a powerful remedy for isolation,” she says. “The Nineteen Day Feast helps people to keep connected to something beyond themselves, and creativity during this time has allowed this feeling to intensify. Many are making a special effort to include poems, stories, songs, and other art forms to contribute to a vibrant atmosphere.
“If we want to build the world anew, spiritual foundations marked by devotion and consultation need to be laid among individuals, the community, and institutions. With our interactions limited by the pandemic, we’ve seen more than ever that the Feast is a point where these elements all come together.”
Slideshow 6 imagesFamilies in Singapore mark a recent Feast in their homes before joining others online or in small gatherings while maintaining safety measures put in place by the government.
/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/6040082ec968de4d280df5bd/0x0.jpg?w=696&resize=696,0&ssl=1 "The Dr. Seuss Empire Is Only Getting Bigger After Discontinued Books Send Sales Soaring")
