Official Statement of Baha'i Guardian Neal Chase on Turkey Earthquake...
In the last few weeks since the earth quake I have mentioned this in my talks and writings. The buildings there were made knowingly in a known earthquake zone with deliberate substandard materials and wrong design that all should have been up to standards and real costs and earthquake proofed. But some greedy people wanted more profits than spending the proper money on the proper materials with the proper design for a known earthquake zone. Had they done that and were the people educated to the fact that they were living in a known earthquake zone, they may have been shaken up, little to no property damage and potentially zero casualties. Buildings in San Francisco and Tokyo for example are earthquake proofed.
This is a similar problem to the Abadan building collapse in Iran last year that we also publicly responded to people not building to code to cheat and steel money for extra profit at the cost of human life. The collapse in Florida had a similar basis in the greed of only one or two other people who benefitted from the deaths of many others. The turks knew better than to build those types of buildings in that type of quake zone! Now that the culprits have been identified and the root of the problem exposed the turks will be able to build a new fully earthquake proofed habit for the people who wish to continue to live in that active zone.
From the pile of rubble in Syria, one of the aid & rescue workers, a Syrian man and survivor of the destruction called out on the news "Help us! We're human beings!"
And this is what this is all about the establishment of the Oneness of Humanity in hearts minds and souls in our deeds and not mere words--our deeds that silently speak the truths we enact in the mitzpa of love!
These types of tragedies of natural disaster will always occur and always present the opportunity to come together and deepen in our international cooperation because we love one another! We love all the people. We love all the Syrians and all the Turks, and we weep along with them at this time, and beseech God for solace and remedy, even as those in Israel and Palestine, and Ukraine and Russia, and Yemen and Iran, and China and Taiwan, and so many other peoples and places are wracked with troubles disasters and calamities.
But it is the man made part of this disaster that caused the greatest damage and suffering like Abadan. When will people stop cheating in the building industry at the high costs of so many human lives? Syria has already been destroyed by man in the war, and homeless children play in mud and oil spills. "Damascus is a heap of ruins!" (Isaiah 17:1) from what man has done to man in Syria and Syria has been reduced to a narco-state.
Because all the peoples and nations are in express violation of the Covenant of the Peace Pact (#2137 1928), nations like Syria are concerned and suspicious that if a army of foreign aid works came into their country to aid and assist their devastated peoples, it would become a Trojan-Horse type of a deal, and the foreign powers would never leave but instead stay and occupy their nation. Therefore, in order to remedy this problem, as we cannot eliminate natural disasters, so-called "acts of God", we can eliminate the man made part of the calamity that makes it all tragically so much worse.
First, we can uphold the Most Great Covenant of the Abolition of War revealed by Baha'u'llah and delineated by Abdu'l-Baha and legislated into the current and permanent foundation of all international law. Then countries like Syria and Turkey in a case of earthquake would not be prior crippled by the ruins of war and would be quake-ready. Also, countries like Syria would immediately allow and welcome all foreign aid workers from everywhere and anywhere knowing full well with absolute certitude that because everyone was upholding #2137 and was FIRM in that Covenant, the aid workers would leave afterwards. When the paranoia of violation is lifted the peoples and nations will cooperate and nations like Syria will welcome foreign aid workers and insist that they stay as their guests so that they can repay the love of aid and assistance with the love of real Syrian hospitality and cultural delights. When the aid workers would leave it would be a heart felt parting.
The point is this: people need an attitude change from war and confusion to love and cooperation born out of our love for God and for man.
Then, also, no one is going to build a rickety slum ready to collapse and crush the people at any instant when their attitude is changed to loving all human beings and placing human life and its preservation and protection of rights, safety, and freedoms first and foremost as the bottom line and job1. Even if the foundation is firm, and the house is built upon the rock, a sub-par building like Abadan and in Turkey will still collapse:
"Turkey detains those suspected of violating construction codes"
February 12, 20236:18 PM ET
"Authorities in Turkey have detained more than 130 people who were allegedly involved in the construction of buildings that collapsed in last week's earthquake."
My view here in the wake of Abadan and Turkey is that we are going to see the last of the man made problem here to be replaced be real earthquake proofed habitat, ones without skyscrapers that-- like all human societies should be --are agriculturally based, arts sciences and green industries being sustained by the farming substrate. The outcry against the corruption of substandard codes knowingly violated is so egregious here 84,700 substandard homes destroyed (thats 84,700 Abadans) with so many innocent victims of this housing-earthquake disaster killed, that God willing, this evil practice of building man made death traps ready to collapse shall finally cease. And all old buildings will be removed or upgraded to actual earthquake proofed standards and those living in quake zones educated, and those agencies ready to help, always sustained and fully stocked and supported to do so.
Also I feel these terrible wars combined with the threat of thermonuclear anhilation will lead to the people upholding the Covenant and democratically electing the Supreme Tribunal according to Article II of the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact. This will allow international aid and cooperation in these types of disasters to be responded to swiftly and efficiently.
The League of Nations and the World Court at the Hague were two houses built upon the sand, imitations of Baha’u’llah's house, and they collapsed. The United Nations is the House built upon the Rock of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact! But like Abadan and Turkey, where an estimated 50,000 and more have been killed, substandard materials, wrong design, shotty constuction have caused it to collapse from within as the war over Ukraine between Russia and NATO shakes the very foundations of all the world!
We need earthquake proofed buildings and secure prepared habitats in places like Turkey and Syria! We need an earthquake proofed democratically elected Supreme Tribunal so the world won't constantly be shaken up to the core by the unjust causes behind the scenes that provoke the open acts of aggression of bloody war.
In the exact same area where Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha had their earthly ministries, the exact area where this war is occurring from North to South, Ukraine to Syria and Israel, this very quake has struck! If we do not sieze this moment to wake up to the Oneness of Humanity from being shaken awake out of our lethargy and apathy--then these 50,000 martyrs will have all died in vein. Therefore, we will come together to assist the survivors. We will build new neverbeenseenbefore safe and secure habitats. We will democratically elect the SupremeTribunal, we will end all acts of war, and these 50,000 will not have died in vain, because we, in the wake of this tremendous destruction and human loss, will arise as one single united humanity, and will overcome, cooperate together and shall ultimately prevail!
How tragic this calamity! How unimaginably horrific its aftermath and devestation! But no where near the horror and tragedy of one third of mankind being killed in one hour of thermonuclear war with every American city population 100,000 or more targeted by Russian missiles. We must come together to aid those in need, and to stop the war.
We are the only people who have a message for the world. The purpose of the descendant of King David being the president of the Universal House of Justice of Baha’u’llah is so that we can recognize the true UHJ from fakes frauds and imitations. And the purpose of the real UHJ is to maintain the Lesser Peace and today that means upholding the message of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact that is the Most Great Covenant revealed by Baha'u'llah and delineated by Abdu'l-Baha for all Baha’is and all people today.
When the Baha'is are united in their Covenant inside our own community with the guardian (president of the UHJ) as an equal member, then the outer society of the world will also have achieved unity in cooperation to end war and for fast earthquake relief and real preventative measures in the first place. If the Baha'is are dysfunctional the world is dysfunctional. When the Baha'is overcome, the world overcomes.
Blessed are they who overcome!
May this letter bring you solace and boundless invigorating energy in these days if tests, fitnih, and trials.
I remain yours, your servant,
Neal.
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