"Grapevine"

WITH omgoing media reports about people being afraid to travel to Jerusalem, Bahai Jerusalem representatives Kern and Barbara Wiseman set out to prove that this is not entirely true. There were quite a lot of non-Jerusalemites at their Bahai New Year celebration at the David Citadel Hotel. Aside from a large deligation of Bahai World Center staff from 26 Countries who came from Haifa where they are stationed, there were several diplomats such as Kazakhstan Ambassador Byrganym Aitimova, Pan Zhanlin, ambassador of China, Albanian Ambassador Bashkin Dino and his wife, Lirika, Austrian Ambassador Wolfgang Paul, Latvian Ambassador Janis Lovinks, Mhinda Bandusena, ambassador of Sri Lanka and his wife, Lathia, Subrata Das, first secretary at the Indian Embassy, Zhang Qingyang, counsellor at the Chinese embassy, Judith Hurditch, first secretary (Administration) and consul Australian Embassy and a good representation of the Wisemans' many friends from Tel Aviv, Herzaliya Pituah and Kfar Shmaryahu. Glorious plants from the Bahai Gardens in Haifa were brought to decorate the hotel ballroom where a lavish supper was served. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, despite a busy schedule seemed in no hurry to leave and commended the Bahai for their contribution to the greening of Israel. Peres, who always has an eye for a pretty woman, spent much of the evening chatting to Indian restaurateur Rena Pushkarna who came with her husband, Vinod.

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