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Wedneday * Prevalent vicitm mentality As if the American version of purported victimization and whining coming from minorities and immigrants of all brand were not enough, we now have to hear about the "evil" practices of the Canadian government in form of the extended diatribe of Nakissa Sedaghat ["Polite racism"]. It seems Iranians have acculturated well to the vicitm mentality prevalent in the U.S. and in many Western countries. Canada has been one of the few countries in the past thirty years to have had the most liberal open door policy for a good number of refugees, political and religious, as well as for immigrants of all class and color. The fact that there may be delays and complications regarding the paperwork of prospective immigrants is well understood and had to be accepted as part of the bargain. How dare they have standards and requirements for the hungry masses longing to be free?! How dare they NOT accept anyone and everyone who simply desires to grace the Canadian landscape with his presence, without asking any questions?! Get a life friends. Wake up and smell the roasting coffee. Be less demanding in your Americanized perversion for entitlements, acting as if the world, or Canada, owes you something or everything just because you ask for it. * How I spent my lottery winnings Eighty-five is the number of emails that I received from mostly Iranian readers of Iranian.com regarding my article on winning the lottery! ["I hit it big"] What nice people! I am proud to be an Iranian. People congratulated me, asked various questions, suggested ways to spend, how to be successful, asked me to donate to various organizations, asked to meet me, wanted to have chelokabob with me, invited me to the movies and even their homes, asked me out on a date, and wished me luck. I appreciate all of you great, wonderful people. Unfortunately, I was unable to respond to each email individually, so I try to answer a few questions here. I hope that's okay with you. (And oh, I received two negative responses as well!. The first one was a negative verbal -- or written!-- email, and the other one was a virus, which Norton Anti-virus caught! Whew!) Now the questions (some of them): - The numbers were quick-pick. On the first day after my article was published on Iranian.com, I received more than a half of all the emails, and of course it gradually got slower. Instant messages are unavoidable since I get 3-4 of them every time I log on to my account. And believe me, if I tell you I cannot talk right now, I really don't. I am not being rude or anob. I do enjoy chatting with people, if I have the time. One of the questions was very interesting and creative. Someone wanted to know what it would take for me to take her on a date just for ONE time! I emailed her that she would have to pay :-) I might even forward her creative email to Iranian.com if she allows me to. Again, thank you all for your well wishes, your support, your jokes, and your ideas. I wish I could meet all of you and thank you in person. Bija. * Know it all One problem with Nooneh's stories is the fact that she has not decided whether she is offering us a short story or a philosophical lecture. Nooneh, no offense, but you are not Tolstoy! None of your writings resemble "War and Peace". Among many reasons that "Sex and the City" sold well in the United States is the fact that it humbly asks simple questions and mostly leaves the answers to the audience. Our Nooneh, on the other hand, prefers taking the arrogant position of someone who knows all the answers. People fall in love everyday everywhere in the world. Many learn from their past relationship and build new ones. Some keep tieing their failures to all the large and small concepts surrounding them. Life is deeply simple. The fact that some people can't handle simplicity does not justify projecting complication. * Haven't female writers been punished enough? I find it absolutely distasteful to call Nooneh "Jendeh with an agenda". I am sorry and I hope you don't mind me writing this (bringing it to your attention) but even reprinting the same sentence on the first page of Iranian.com was not pleasant to read/ see. After all haven't female writers throughout history been punished enough? Mr. Nariman Neyshapouri has the right to express his opinion and so does Ms. Nooneh but attacking is not a wise way of proving one's opinion of a matter as seems to be the case here. With Kind Regards, * Proud of you I can't tell you what your article did to me ["Under the shade"]. I buried my head in my arms and cried and cried. When you spoke about watching your father sleeping, when you wished to be at your farm in Mashad, when you had to bury him away from his homeland... Your dear father, wherever his soul may be, is proud of you, I am sure. I live in Los Angeles. They say there is a big cemetery here only for Iranians (Muslims?). I just hope I won't have to bury my father there. He has already given strict instructions to be taken back to Shahroud, his family home. Take good care, * Dopey Can someone tell us how much we can pay this Setareh Sabety ["Under the shade"] so she will stop writing her dopey articles, which are either about putting down Pahalavi kings who did so much for our country and/or about her father who was superman, battman, god, and just about all of that wrapped into one? * Not the end of the world Dear Naz, ["Getting over first love"] I read your letter. I think no matter what, you should never feel this is the end of the world. I was dating a guy for almost a year, everybody was saying that we were so right for each other. His family loved me and I could not imagine life without him. He wanted to move to another state for his job and he didn't want to settle down and he wasn't sure what he wanted to do so we broke up. I was heartbroken but then I thought everything happens for a reason. I think it's all in your mind. Everyday when you get up just tell yourself you are the luckiest person in the whole world and you will find the best guy on the earth. I got over this guy in about a week, which was very surprising for everybody. That doesn't mean I didn't love him but I believe there should be someone out there who is better than him. I hope my email helped you a little. You are so young and you should enjoy every moment of your life. Don't blame it on your parents either because they always see the things that we don't. Wish you the best. Nazanin * We need to critique ourselves In response to your letter, "Where are the Romans", Shervan jAn - doret begardam... Ey bAbA! khAkeh Sareh-poleh-zahAb bar saram! Why does my name bother you so much? Is it the Shah part that is ridiculous or is it the Agha part that is ridiculous? I am an "Agha" believe me - not a "khAnoom". If "Shah" bothers you, well tough :-) I am asserting my right to call myself Shah since others seem to do it too. Why can't I do it? Are you jealous? :-) You can be Shervan Shah if you want. Just make sure your friends don't call you Shi Shi or Sha Shoo. It is a bit risque. :-) As far as "what difference does it make who is to blame for the lost Persian Empire" - none really. Other than the minor fact that as a people and culture, Asghar Shah thinks, Iranians need to look at themselves as the problem. As Iranians, we collectively have only ourselves, rather than others, to blame - indeed if blame is the cure - which is not. And to dissect the term "ourselves" in this context, it is our collective culture and way of thinking and certain attributes therein (such as "shakhs-parasti") that is the root of all of these problems. We need to be able to criticize and critique ourselves, both as individuals and as a multi-ethnic multi-religious multi-racial group. And try to do away with those ruling attributes that have mis-produced. Very idealistic approach, I know. At least as you say, we do exist. Why bother improving and progressing, eh? (I learned to say "eh" in Canada :-) And I am sorry I picked on Kourosh. He is just an example. Current regime is also an example - even though 22 years (1979-2001)is only 0.88 percent of 2500 years of history. The issue transcends all of these. But I guess you are right. We should not condemn killing. Killing is good - a tradition from our ancestors. We should celebrate it. In all cultures and in the old world, killing was in vogue. Just like using cell phones today. Since I log a lot of minutes on my royal-cell-phone, I should agree that killing is OK. Hey - at least we are here. Aztecs are not. Good argument! "har dam az in bAgh bari miresad, tAzeh tAr-o tAzeh tari miresad" Asghar Shah (beh kooriyeh cheshmeh doshmanAn va bad-khAhAn :-) * Museum thieves Sometimes i think iran is in another univese all-together. Imagine a movie in which museum thieves hit Kerman and escape carrying Knadinsky. No alarm, no equipment! See here
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