Monthly Archives: February 2011

9th Youth Assembly at the United Nations

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Subject: 9th Youth Assembly at the United Nations
As part of our outreach at the United Nations, the FEZANA UN-NGO committee partners with like minded Non-Governmental Organizations to increase opportunities for our individual members in humanitarian work worldwide.  One such organization with which we made contact in the  year 2002 through the efforts of Suzie Karani is the Friendship Ambassadors Foundation (FAF). We continue to collaborate with the FAF on account of their focus on youth development, which is also a focus for FEZANA’ s UN-NGO committee.

In our work at the United Nations, we hold it as a policy not to engage in proselytizing.

The FEZANA UN-NGO committee, as a co-ordinating body, facilitates such participation by making carefully chosen and relevant information available from time to time. The following information about an upcoming Youth Conference at the UN Headquarters in New York is shared.

Please note, that costs for travel, participation, visas and stay are the responsibility of prospective participants.

Behram Pastakia
Afreed Mistry
Homi D. Gandhi
Co-Chairs FEZANA UN-NGO Committee

REGISTRATION for the 9th Youth Assembly at the United Nations, set for August 3, 4, and 5, 2011 will open on February 7, 2011. For details of registration and the report of the 8th Youth Assembly, please visit http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=h94dvwbab&v=001dsGnuBrFqEENobiRH0L7Ap7OrKfk4Ny1FUugxWp7NP_AjMqoQrURk7jYlq9ZYYX1wvaSmAQiPYY0CARiOGnUmPnVpTO7bg06ZFBAE5UVxww%3D

 

It is Friday and Behram Roj ‘motto daro’

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MAJA KARO.


It is Friday and Behram Roj ‘motto daro’.

 

The Fire Temple is buzzing with people. All sorts and all ages.

 

Every face is at its serene best.

 

The Flame is leaping with delight gorging at the large diet of Kathi and Sukhad and in return is offering patient ears to the various request prayers. Some serious, some almost comic, some trivial, some greedy, some incessant and the odd one out of only Thanks.

 

A little girl is poking her dimples with a sukhad until mom says ‘M nai karvanoo’.

Some daily regulars are in corners swaying and shifting their weight. Some ladies have stifled the circumstance of their face with a tight scarf and are hobbling ahead pushing aside any in their way. Some men are darting around hurriedly as they are at the brink of a busy day.

Coomi is praying— pug no sojo ochho thai.

Jamshed is praying — bawa bike apavey

Dorab is praying – dikra neh Dubai maa naukri maleh.

Hosi is praying – madum jevi bairi muleh.

Gustad is praying – restaurant majenoo chaleh.

Kersi is praying chaavi ghoomai gaich te mali jai..

Katy is praying – bheja no mad boss paadhro reh.

Jaloo is praying – nallee ne eskool ma admission maleh.

Nawaz is praying – bhess jevi sassoo bargaum jai.

Jal is praying – saajeh Daisy satheh baar javanooch te eh jara ghela-chhera ochha kare.

Jangoo is praying – aajeh deekri noh America thi phone aveh.

Viraf is praying – shaitan jevo landlord khapri jai.

Zenobia is praying – navi janas maleh.

Firoze is praying – daat koih gayoch te pelo dakoo jevo dentist korhwa nih vaat nai kareh.

Marazban is praying – hu Godrej jetlo paisawalo thao.

Jasmine is praying – ghatan neh khakravich tae naukri chhorvani vaat nai kareh.
Siloo is praying – heart majenoo thai jai operation vagur.

Rayomand is praying – shares oopur jai.

Maharukh is praying – paylee teevee Udwadia nooh appointment juldi apeh.

Najoo is praying – Keki ne tau dikro aveh.

Sammy is praying – baddha gehrna sarikani reh.

Gai is praying – thankyou Khodai – ghanoo apech.

Now the Flame is ready to courier the amassed wishes to the high Heavens.

Freny is hurriedly walking out of the Temple murmuring – Khodai kareeneh taxi mali jai.

 

Khodai baddha ni duva paar pareh!

Courtesy : Jehangir Gilder

Burzo Namoo Resurrected

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After a gap of nearly fifty years, Burzo Namoo an ancient Iranian epic has been brought to life. A function to release Burzo Namoo was held on Friday, 28th January 2011 at Sethna Agiary hall, Tardeo when Ms Shernaaz Engineer, editor of Jame Jamshed was the Chief Guest and Ervad Aspandiar Dadachandji and Mr.Adi Doctor were the guests of honour.

Mr. Viraf Chiniwalla has in continuation of his ancestors’ legacy resurrected Burzo Namoo. Burzo Namoo is the epic story of the family of Rustom, the world renowned hero. It was written by two disciples of Firdaosi, Abu Taher and Atai. The first 11 pages of Burzo Namoo relate to Rustom Sohrab episode. Burzo was the son of Sohrab and the grandson of Rustom. Burzo was a warrior during the reign of Shah Kaikhushru.

Viraf Chiniwalla’s ancestors were in contact with Ustad Saheb Behramshah Naoroji Shroff at Surat. Jehangirji was the orator. Faramroze was the author and their brother Rustomji Chiniwalla after fifty years of labour translated Burzo Namoo into Gujarati. Besides Burzo Namoo, there are other books such as Bahman Namoo, Faramroze Namoo, Kersasp Namoo, Rustom Namoo, etc. Burzo Namoo is the story starting with Rustom-Sohrab episode about 10,000 years ago. Burzo had three sons. Their names are recited in our prayers by our priests but our community at large is ignorant about them. Burzo Namoo mentions about woollen and silk clothes, gems, jewellery, metals, wine making. Reading Burzo Namoo will enlighten the readers about major world wars fought between Iran and Turan.

Click Here for  the FULL report on release function of Burzo Namoo.
Marzban Giara

Microfinance Briefing at UN

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DPI/NGO Relations invites you to the
Briefing
“Microfinance: Ending Poverty One Loan at a Time”Date: Thursday, 10 February 2011
Time: 10:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
Location: North Lawn Building, Conference Room 6

Background Information

“One day our grandchildren will go to museums
to see what poverty was like.” -Muhammad Yunus


In 1976 in Jobra, Bangladesh, economics Professor Muhammad Yunus noticed the disproportionate impact that a simple $27 loan could make to an impoverished family.  Motivated to do something to address this issue and do his bit to eradicate poverty he went on to create the Grameen Bank which made small loans available to low-income clients who traditionally lacked access to banking and related services. His work on developing micro-credit into an every more important instrument in the struggle against poverty spread beyond the borders of his native Bangladesh and eventually won him a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts “to create economic and social development from below” and help to promote democracy and human rights. We are fortunate enough that we can simply go to a website for our loans. While these micro credit  provides credit services to the poor, microfinance, the topic of today’s Briefing, offers a broader category of services,  to as many poor and near-poor households as possible, giving them the opportunity to  have “permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.
[Robert Peck Christen, Richard Rosenberg & Veena Jayadeva. Financial institutions with a double-bottom line: implications for the future of microfinance. CGAP Occasional Paper, July 2004, pp. 2-3.]Microfinance is an important contributor to achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (UN MDGs) in particular the goals of ending poverty and hunger, increasing universal access to education, and improving health services.  Progress achieved as a result of microfinance services was highlighted in the 2009 UN MDG Report. Some of the successes highlighted included increased enrolment in primary education in developing nations (88 per cent in 2007, up from 83 per cent in 2000). According to the Report, the number of deaths of children under the age of five has also declined steadily worldwide — to approximately 9 million in 2007, down from 12.6 million in 1990.. Use of microfinance services has also contributed significantly to global progress in moving closer to actually meeting the target of eradicating poverty.  Success can also be seen in data from Mix Market, the number one source for financial and social performance data on microfinance institutions, which finds that the rate of return on borrowed money is 97%.

Although the number of the world’s poor people, as reported by the World Bank, has dropped from 1.3 billion to just less than one billion in the last decade, there is still much more work to be done.   A recent study by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) has found that, “Despite the rapid growth of the microfinance industry in the past ten years, it is estimated that between two and three billion people still lack access to a broad range of financial products and services on a sustainable basis.”   Today’s Briefing will look at the history of microfinance, its role in alleviating poverty, what the UN and others have done in support of the poor, and the what NGOS, civil society and the private sector can still
do to end poverty.



All Briefings begin promptly at 10:15 a.m. and we ask that our audience be seated by 10:00 a.m. sharp.MODERATOR

María Luisa Chávez; Chief, NGO Relations, Department of Public Information (DPI)

SPEAKERS

Mr. John Tucker, Deputy Director of the United Nations Capital Development Fund, United Nations Development Program

Dr. Ira Lieberman, President of Lipam International Inc.

Ms. Deborah Drake, Vice President, Center for Financial Inclusion, ACCION International (invited)

Dr. Todd Watkins, Director of Microfinance Program and Professor of Economics at Lehigh University

The venue for the weekly Briefings will be provided as soon as the information is available.  United Nations-produced videos relevant to the theme of the Briefing are sometimes screened during the session.  For Briefing information please call the DPI/NGO Resource Centre at +1-212-963-7232 / 7233 / 7234 or e-mail dpingo.briefings@un.org. To receive the Briefing information electronically, please email dpingo.briefings@un.org. You may also visit the DPI/NGO Relations Cluster website at http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection, where archived web casts and audio (both, when available) of the Briefing may also be accessed

Requests for guest passes should be faxed on organization letterhead to the DPI/NGO Resource Centre at +1 212-963-2819 or e-mailed to dpingo.briefings@un.org AT LEAST TWO DAYS PRIOR to the Briefing. [Please note that pass requests received at any other email address will not be processed.] All guest passes should be picked up at the DPI/NGO Resource Centre, Room GA-37, on the morning of the Briefing.  NGOs are reminded that the Briefing starts promptly at 10:15 a.m.

Yours Sincerely,

NGO Relations, DPI
United Nations
http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection

Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony

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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT – RESCHEDULED

RESCHEDULED: Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony will take place on Thursday, 10 February 2011, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in the General Assembly Hall

The United Nations will observe the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on Thursday, 10 February 2011. The annual solemn ceremony will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. in the General Assembly Hall at New York Headquarters.

As you may know, the event initially scheduled for 27 January 2011, was rescheduled due to the closure of the UN building as a result of inclement weather.

The event will honour the courage of women during the Holocaust, which continues to inspire and empower women today.

The ceremony is expected to feature remarks by the United Nations Secretary-General, the President of the 65th Session of the General Assembly, and the representative of Israel to the United Nations. Kiyo Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, will host the event. Keynote remarks will be delivered by Ms. Lenore Weitzman, Professor Emeritus, George Mason University. Mrs. Nesse Godin, a survivor of a ghetto, four labour camps and a death march, will share her personal story.

An educational study guide and companion DVD titled “Women and the Holocaust: Courage and Compassion”, produced by the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, will also be launched on that day. This year’s commemoration aims to further understanding of this history as seen from this important, but often less visible, perspective and to pay tribute to the individual accomplishments of women during those times.

The ceremony is open to the general public. Please register by inserting [Memorial Ceremony RSVP] in the subject line of the message, and please provide your name, title, and organization in the text. Kindly email us at holocaustremembrance@un.org

If you have already registered, please kindly send us an email confirming your registration for 10 February 2011.

 

Shahnameh exhibit in Germany

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Heroic Ages – Thousand Years Persian Book of the Kings

Exhibition

18 March 2011 – 19 June 2011
Museum of Islamic Art, Bodestr. 1-3, 10178 Berlin, Germany
An exhibition of Shahname manuscripts and single folios from the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin and the Berlin National Library

Organised by

Supported by

The Iran Heritage Foundation, Bahari Family Foundation and Total.

Introduction

The National Epic Shahname by the poet Ferdausi is one of the great works of world literature. In nearly 50,000 verses, it recounts a partly mythical, partly historical past of the Iranian people right up to the Islamic conquest of Persia.
Legendary are the stories of its famous kings and heroes, especially of Rustam who so fearlessly defended the Persian kingdom in many spectacular battles against the hostile Turanians from the North. The epic also relates the important features of ideal kingship. It narrates the battle between Good and Evil, and is a constant reminder that Life is just a transitory memento. Ancient Kings of Persia figure in prominently, like Shah Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian Dynasty (224-239/40) or Shah Bahram V Gur, the fourteenth Sassanid King (421-438): Historical figures transformed by poetic imagination into quasi-mystical figures transformed by poetic imagination into quasi-mystical heroes. The exhibition will thus confront archaeology of these periods with the stories of those figures both historical and heroic, and sometimes mythical in the Shahname.
Beside a thematic show of the Shahname ‘through the ages’ with masterpieces of Persian painting, the exhibition will present the rich and extremely rare Sasanian collection of the Museum of Islamic Art thus illuminating the important historical past of the mythical legend.
The exhibition will include around 50 manuscripts and folios from the Keir Collection, the National Library, and the Museum of Islamic Art (amongst others the world famous folios from the yet far too little known Diez-Albums, the Great Mongol Shahname and the Shah Tahmasp Shahname) as well as medieval ceramics, textiles, metalwork and weapons plus artifacts from the Sasanian collection. These artworks will be supplemented by important loans from the Berlin Museum of Asian Arts, the Berlin Museum of Ethnology and the Deutsche Historische Museum (DHM).

Admission

Free

Enquiries

Museum für Islamische Kunst
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – SPK
Bodestraße 1-3
10178 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30-2090-5405
Fax: +49 (0)30-2090-5402