nice article on bahais in iran

here is an article on the situation of the bahais in iran, which tries to present the situation of the bahais in a fair manner. please read it, its well written and worth read. here is the (link)

there is definitely propaganda in iran which vilifies the bahais. there is rapports of anti-bahai organizations in iran (link). i find that scary and it saddens me to see it. i hope all arrested bahais in iran are at the best possible health. you can read the history of persecution here (link)

on happier note, i am really digging the french/british band the teenagers and the american/african band vampire weekend. check their music, its definitely worth a listen.

more free music...

found this mixtape from the guy WALE. thru one listen its pretty sweet. so either listen to it or download it and listen to it on at your leisure.

so far the best line is from bun b on track 3: "i lay you down, you only getting up if your name is kevin everett"

peace peace peace

lennon meets youtube

i found this thru my google reader. its pretty sweet. love the graphic portrait of a interview based on speech. its an interview with john lennon, i dont know much about the history of it - i'll update you on it if i find out what it the story is. please enjoy

harder better faster stronger

i just found this while looking at kanye videos. please enjoy. its pretty awesome!! just wait for them to get started...

kanye flashing lights

'ye has done three versions of the video for his song flashing lights, personally i like this one



of the other two the i like this one the most (sorry for bad sound quality)



i am really feeling the stop motion action. but i am so not down with the third one (link). the last one i think might actually be the official one - but that would be a waste of the other two.

nice songs...

some rapper i never have heard of mixed with justices song d.a.n.c.e., i am definitely a fan of the mix. enjoy!

free music

as of late, i have been finding all kinds of cool dj sets/mixtapes online. there are som really nice mixes out there and the best part of it is that they are free. some i found through searching for podcasts on iTunes. the one i will link to, i have found through formatmag.com (an online magazine that looks at music, art and clothing).



i dont know much about the djs, but their names are dj vibe & max barbaria, they have a few mixtapes up, but so far my favorite is their newest "love your family" (link). its a good mixture of mashup, rap & hip-hop and electronic. generally pretty good.


another thing is the remake of jay-z american gangster. its pretty sweet with some nice smooth beats and the tight flows from american gangster. there has been added a few appearances to each song. the name of the cd is black caesar. you can download the whole album here (link)


in other news i am pretty hyped for the new n*e*r*d cd, they have a new single out "everyone nose". its not the best song, i do enjoy the video, but the remix is mad. the remix has lupe fiasco, pharell and kanye west spitting hot verses. you can find it on pharells blog (link). here is the video

update: bahais in iran

bbc and cnn has some news of condemnations of the arrests of bahais in iran. good to see the global media are picking this up fairly quick. next up denmark. (link) (link)


picture of the seat of the universal house of justice

Iran is at it again

I dont have much time to write it myself, but here is a quote from Bahai News Service.
"The six men and women, all members of the national-level group that helped see to the minimum needs of Bahá’ís in Iran, were in their homes Wednesday morning when government intelligence agents entered and spent up to five hours searching each home, before taking them away. The seventh member of the national coordinating group was arrested in early March in Mashhad after being summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence office there on an ostensibly trivial matter. " Here is the original source (link).


it is sad to hear such news, especially so few days after the joyous occasion of the election of the Universal House of Justice (link).

My prayers go out to the Bahai of Iran and not to forget the thousands suffering under the natural disasters in Myanmar and China.

gnarls barkley video

quite amazing music video by gnarls barkley from their new cd. i like.



i love the african dancers, its nice to see the use of that in pop culture. sorry for the link post alone. i have been very busy with my bachelors project the last couple of weeks. it is unfortunately not moving forward at the speed which i would prefer it to, but it is moving forward. i hope to be done with it in the beginning of june. after that all i have is one exam in a course about india and then i have summer break. thats going to be really nice. anyways enjoy the music...

word to blu

artist blu made this animation of wallpaintings. its pretty sweet, i am very impressed.


MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

i can definitely very impressed. its long but stay with it.

this has to be the best 'get up and vote song'

just put it on, turn up the speakers and dance!



"this is real and not for play, imma vote obama way!"

*throwin up tha "O"*

basketball and obama

here is an interesting video of obama talking about basketball. the interesting part is in the end when he talks about how basketball fits into the african american culture. but i also appreciate the the way he is described, not as a black man, but as a bi-racial person. the american media (as most of the world) focus on him being black. but really he is bi-racial. i dont fully agree with him on all his political stances (do i with anyone?), but he does have a pleasant demeanor. here is the video:

bahais in iran

i have blogged about this before. but i just read an 'old' article about bahais in iran and the persecution that they are facing. in this bbc article (link), there are reports that four members of the bahai faith were jailed for proselytizing in shiraz. it says the were proselytizing under the guise of helping the poor. wow! here is the bahai news services report about the case, accompanied by amnesty internationals and the us state departments call for their release (link) and (link). as bahais we are encouraged to be philanthropists (definition link) and i guess that is not a positive action in iran. at the same time the young bahais in iran are banned from higher institutions of learning (link).

all these things come to show that the iranian government is instituting systematic policies to ruin the fabric of the bahai community in iran.

Some of the ladies at the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women in Indore, India.
Source: bahai.org

in light of these crimes against the bahais in iran, it is nice to see that there are people who through peaceful methods are trying to promote change. one of my friends shariar from new zealand is creating a art piece to create awareness around this project (only for facebook members link). where he uses the visual arts to create awareness around the problem. so i ask you to keep these facts in mind when looking at the iranian government.

on a better note, favorite my danish football team aab is currently number one and looking like they will win the danish championship. so shout out to them.

for more information on the persecution of bahais in iran check bahai news services website (link)

boom tho!

one of my favorite sports columnists bill simmons works for espn and while espn is trying to expand its reach they have made these short clips online. here he is meeting rod benson, a blogger and basketball player. i really like rods stuff, i once had his boom tho girl song stuck in my head for a day (link skip forward to the song part). anyways here is simmons and benson in north dakota, actually a good clip.




check out rod bensons stuff on yahoo.com, thats some good stuff as well (link)

new roots song

i remember reading ?uestlove from the roots, talking about that he was unhappy that andre from outkast had beat him to making the first black modern pop rock song, when 'dre made "hey ya!". now i think the roots finally managed to make a pop rock song that topped "the seed 2.0":



i hope that their new cd which will be released on april 29, which i plan to buy, will be as good as all their other cds. for my opinion on the roots check this [link].

berlin

i spent last weekend in berlin, where i met with jared - a good friend from my service in haifa. none of us had been there before, which had its challenges and blessings. it was a great experience, we walked everywhere and experienced a city many contrast. the new modern architecture around the center of town, stood in great contrast to the communist style architecture in other parts of town. my experience of germany is that it is very aware of its history, the jewish museum fx., which showed how the jews had been persecuted for many generations before the holocaust. this unselfconsciousness is something i find that admirable.


i enjoyed the street art which was all over the city, as well as i enjoyed the museums displaying classical and modern art. it was refreshing to go to museums and walk the streets, where i was able to experienced different styles of art.

i managed to take a few pictures (link) while i was there and i hope that they can convey part of my experience.

i will definitely be going to back to berlin, where i will go and re-experience the places i enjoyed. next up my bachelors project on the political discourse on hijabs in denmark. holla

DAMN!

it has been a while since i posted anything on this blog. i dont know why, but i guess i lost the motivation during exams and then i forgot that i had this thing. i havent changed much since last time i posted, still in denland, still studying pol. sci., i guess its really all the same.

i have managed to travel a little since last time i posted. i went to the us for a week to see the family - good times were had (link). i also enjoyed a good time at the vikings conference in oulu, finland. before that i spent a couple of days in helsinki with ginger - where bettina showed up for a day as well (link). good times.

i am gonna start posting more, so hopefully people will start reading again. if you are bored, go to freerice.com which gives 10 grains of rice to "hungry human beings" for every word you get correct. give rice HERE