“I am from the Windows company…”

The telephone rings. I answer with my number. “I am from the Windows company… I am ringing to tell you that there is a problem with your computer.” The lady does not actually know whether I have a computer. She cannot tell me what type of computer I have. She does not know what Internet Service provider I am with. She does not have my account number, but she is after something. She probably wants to take over my computer for criminal purposes, and is likely to leave me with less money than I started with.

Recently, I have had several calls from the “British Telecom Broadband Blocking Department”, trying to tell me that my Broadband line will be blocked in two hours’ time, because my computer is not secure, or something of the sort. Meanwhile, “Visa Secure” and “your bank” have both taken to telephoning me in the last couple of weeks, with pre-recorded messages telling me that someone has just taken £600 from my bank account. If I want to speak to someone – for example, to tell them that it was not me who took the money out – then I need to “Press One” on my telephone. Then what would happen? What electronic trickery does that set in motion?

How can human beings do this sort of thing to other people? Do they have no conscience, as well as no feelings? Very often, the people who are duped are those who can least afford to lose money. Around one hundred years ago, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (the Son of Bahá’u’lláh) said that, “In a time to come, morals will degenerate to an extreme degree.” All these people who spend their time ringing round their fellow human beings with spurious information seem to be manifesting total dishonesty. They have no consideration for their victims, and are showing that they are either immoral or amoral. Maybe they think that they are clever, being able to trick others with their stories.

But we are also being offered other types of dishonesty. There are some politicians across the world who openly offer complete untruths as if they were fact, or steadfastly deny things which are obviously true. Likewise some people circulate completely made-up news online. At the same time, facts supported by research, video evidence and the like, are now summarily dismissed by many as “fake news”! There are newspapers who do not report the facts, because their owners and editors have a separate agenda of their own. Bahá’u’lláh urged newspapers to serve humanity, by attempting to print the truth: “The pages of swiftly-appearing newspapers are indeed the mirror of the world. They reflect the deeds and the pursuits of divers peoples and kindreds. They both reflect them and make them known. They are a mirror endowed with hearing, sight and speech. This is an amazing and potent phenomenon. However, it behoveth the writers thereof to be purged from the promptings of evil passions and desires and to be attired with the raiment of justice and equity. They should enquire into situations as much as possible and ascertain the facts, then set them down in writing.” The same principle must surely apply to online news.

Meanwhile, supposedly bona fide companies such as banks lure customers in with an openly stated (and lucrative) rate of interest. After a few months, the rate is changed, downwards, with complete disregard for the effect on the customers involved. Other companies, utility companies for example, attract new customers with a lower rate of charges, but leave their existing customers on a higher rate. What they are actually doing is charging their loyal customers a higher price for the same services. Loyalty is being penalised by such companies! Bahá’u’lláh emphasised trustworthiness as essential for the promotion of all human enterprise: “Trustworthiness is the greatest portal leading unto the tranquillity and security of the people. In truth the stability of every affair hath depended and doth depend upon it.” If we cannot trust one another we cannot build a successful society.

Some people do not seem to realise that the good of the part is to be found in the good of the whole. In the Bahá’í view, children should be raised with the idea that they are part of society, and should be contributing towards it, rather than taking from it. For this reason, Bahá’í communities institute neighbourhood children’s classes, based on the promotion of virtues, such as honesty, trustworthiness, empathy, generosity, kindness and so on.

There needs to be the sense of all mankind co-operating, working together, as one. Each should be trying to promote the well-being of their fellow human beings, rather than trying to take money off them. People should be in gainful employment, not involved in illicit activities. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, explaining the Bahá’í view of work, stated that: “In the Bahá’í Cause, arts, sciences and all crafts are counted as worship. The man who makes a piece of note-paper to the best of his ability, conscientiously, concentrating all his forces on perfecting it, is giving praise to God. Briefly, all effort and exertion put forth by man from the fullness of his heart is worship, if it is prompted by the highest motives and the will to do service to humanity.”

There is also the teaching in all religions, known as the Golden Rule, in which people are advised: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. This should have prevented people, in any culture, from trying to trick other people out of money. Bahá’u’lláh expresses this in even sharper contrast: “Blessed is he who preferreth his neighbour to himself.”

If everyone tried to follow that rule of behaviour, the world would be blessed with much more kindness, and much less trickery, and we would all prosper together.

Keeping the balance

However short-sighted mankind’s treatment of the planet may be, the beauty of nature will reassert itself. Bahá’u’lláh proclaimed this truth in the nineteenth century, when He said:
“All praise be to God Who hath adorned the world with an ornament, and arrayed it with a vesture, of which it can be despoiled by no earthly power, however mighty its battalions, however vast its wealth, however profound its influence.” I have always found this very reassuring. We can never totally destroy life on this planet, but if we don’t keep within a natural balance, the planet could change drastically, with much of it becoming unfit for human habitation. Unfortunately, there are some political leaders who consider our natural environment to be of little consequence, not understanding our total dependence on our environment to support human life.

The forests of the world are its green lungs. Trees take in carbon dioxide, of which we currently have too much in the atmosphere, and give out oxygen, which humans most definitely need. Ever since Europeans first landed in South America, its forests have been cut back. The largest of these forests are in Brazil, where there are still nearly a million indigenous people living in the forest. Brazilian law gives them rights in theory, but these are not always carried into practice. The recent election of a new Brazilian president, who gives precedence to the perceived short-term needs of business interests, has accelerated the rate at which the forest is being destroyed. This is of course at the same time as the Paris Agreement of 2016 has inaugurated massive programmes of tree-planting world-wide, and some researchers are saying that restoring this natural vesture of the world is the single most important move that can be made to help protect us from more severe climate change. Of course, this will be nowhere near enough on its own, we need to reduce harmful emissions drastically too, but it is an essential part of the solution. Over the last few thousand years, humanity has been gradually removing forest in many parts of the world, to make way for agriculture, houses and so on, but it is becoming clear that rapid action is necessary to restore the balance. A “Great Green Wall” of trees is being planted across Africa, from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the East. Pakistan has planted a billion trees already, and has adopted a new target of ten billion trees in the next five years. In one state in India, sixty-six million trees were planted in a single day, by well over a million volunteers. But however wonderful these results of the Paris Accord will be for the future of the planet, the trees will take perhaps thirty years to reach a size at which they will make a big difference to the balance of gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Each forest is a great resource for humanity. It provides wood for fuel, for homes, for furniture and other purposes. It provides nuts and fruits for us to eat. It provides thousands of species of plants, including potentially medicinal plants. It was when malaria was accidentally transplanted into South America that a cure was discovered. Quinine occurs naturally in a south American plant, and the cure was discovered by Native Americans. But what we take from the forest has to be subject to the law of moderation. Bahá’u’lláh advised: “It is incumbent upon them who are in authority to exercise moderation in all things. Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation will cease to exert a beneficial influence.” At present, humans tend to think that economic growth should be never-ending, whereas what is most needed is for the lives of the poorest to be made more comfortable.

A Bahá’í sees nature as part of God’s plan for our care and well-being. As Bahá’u’lláh puts it: “Nature in its essence is the embodiment of My Name, the Maker, the Creator… Nature is God's Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world.” The planet itself is part of the natural world, and nature is part of our planetary home. Some years ago, the Universal House of Justice, which is the elected body of the Bahá’ís, called upon the world at large to add World Citizenship into the school curriculum, as a response to Bahá’u’lláh’s statement that “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.” This subject would teach our young people to regard themselves as citizens of the world, with all which that entails. Such an education would, for instance, help the people who live near forests to understand how they are keeping them on behalf of the whole of humanity, not to mention the planet’s wildlife. The fact that many people who live in countries with rainforests have no idea how special these forests and their wildlife are, was brought home to me very forcefully recently. My brother teaches educated people from Nigeria who come to Britain for various purposes. He finds that they are simply not aware of the importance of what their country holds. On one occasion, he was speaking to a group about the remaining forests in Nigeria, and the demise of the African elephant. One of these highly educated professional people said, “Why do we always have to hear about the African elephant? Why can’t we hear about how you treat your elephants?” My brother, who was totally taken aback, managed to respond with: “I am very sorry. We managed to kill all our elephants about thirty-seven thousand years ago!” His audience was amazed - they did not regard elephants as special at all!

In the same way, most of us in the UK do not realise that we use far more than our fair share of the world’s resources and that we need to reduce this drastically. Bahá’u’lláh said: “Take from this world only to the measure of your needs, and forgo that which exceedeth them.” Unfortunately, we cut down most of our forests in the UK many years ago, so, in this respect, our contribution must be to plant as many trees in our country as is practically possible.

An important part of World Citizenship is surely highlighting the different responsibilities of different countries as part of the coherent whole. Each nation needs to understand the importance of what it has, and what they are keeping in trust for all of mankind. This would be a big part of achieving a sense of balance in the life of the world. Bahá’u’lláh, speaking about the common desire to put one’s nation above all others, stated: “Let not a man glory in this, that he loves his country; let him rather glory in this, that he loves his kind.”

There is currently a strange situation. People in some countries who have forests nearby wish to destroy them, to create more grazing land or more arable crops; while people in other countries which are suffering from droughts and flooding are rushing to plant saplings which will take years to grow. This problem will not be solved unless all mankind is in unity, with some form of global co-operation and co-ordination established. The good of the part should be seen in the good of the whole. Bahá’u’lláh puts it like this: “The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” If we work together we can combat climate change, and one aspect of this is protecting and increasing our forest cover.

The well-being of mankind demands that the rate of deforestation should be drastically reduced, and the natural balance should be restored.