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August 22, 2003 * How have they improved the lot of humanity? What a strange reaction to Sadeq Hedayat's comment on the Hiroshima bomb ["The morning after"]. The novelist says Iran's technological backwardness is an "even a more terrible consequence" of the explosion than death and destruction. What nonsense. What can be worse than a bomb that kills thousands and spreads radiation and cancer? How is Iran's access to the same type of "technological progress" a good thing? Just because Hedayat wrote good Persian prose, it hardly follows that he is also some kind of socio-political visionary. The gap between Iranians and foreigners is, as it was then, not in machinery but in outlook. Why is there a blind worship of science among Iranians? How about a little more attention to law, personal creativity or morality? I can hardly believe anyone would mention the idiot Sartre today. Sartre, Camus, Hedayat: examples of infantile literature and worthless as moral guides. Woe to anyone who still reads Sartre in their 60s and 70s. What have Hedayat and Sartres done for Iranian or any other society? How have they improved the lot of humanity? Sartre, as anyone informed will tell you, was the consumate hypocrite: a vain, philandering Marxist who discreetly and safely lived through the German occupation of France. He admired Mao Tse-Tung, the murderer of millions. I suspect you are an admirer of some of these great materialist figures of the 20th century, Mr. Hoveyda. I am guessing you were educated in France: hence this bizarre reflection on the significance of the atom bomb. May I suggest you take a thermonuclear leap in your reading: you can start with the British historian Paul Johnson's book "Intellectuals", a necessary read for a whole generation of Iranians, then move onto Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and The Qur'an, read very carefully. * Too simplistic Freydoun Hoveyda's reminiscences ["The morning after"] of the day that was carved in human history with a mix of horrors and hurrays, depending on which side of the Pacific you lived, is somehow hard to believe. Not only because his reporting of the date and time of the events is so amusingly wrong but also the image of Hedayat, as described by Hoveyda, is too simple to be true. Let me explain. The world's first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 at 8.15 AM (Tokyo time). America first learned of the gruesome news on the same day at 10.45 AM (Washington time) through President Truman's radio announcement (see this). Given that the time in Tehran is Washington time plus 8 and a half hours, Tehran could not have learned of the news earlier than 7.15 PM on the same day. The meeting between Hoveyda and Hedayat took place at 5 PM when Hoveyda entered the Paradise Cafe in Tehran, that is some 2 hours before Truman's announcement. By that time, Hoveyda insists, a Tehran's evening paper had already published the big news. If true the paper in question must have pulled off the greatest scoop of the 20th century. So Iranians knew of the dropping of the A-bomb on Hiroshima at least two hours before Americans learned from their President!! Are you sure, Mr Hoveyda, that you met Hedayat on 6 and not on 7 August? It is also interesting that, papers such the NY Times published the news on 7 August, a day after Iran's newspapers did the same, according to Hoveyda! I knew that we Iranians were gifted with an amazing sense of telepathy but could never have guessed that we actually put it such a great use! The next questionable point made by Hoveyda is his portrayal of Hedayat. Sadegh Hedayat had a reputation for coming up, at times, with quite outrageous remarks. Well, I suppose this must have been a side effect of his genius. But reading Hoveyda's account of their meeting and Hedayat's reaction to the news of the A-bomb and its implications for Iran, makes me wonder if this part of the story has suffered from the same treatment as the time and date had earlier. For a man of letters of Hedayat's stature, with fluency in several languages and a good grasp of history, it sounds too simplistic to have suggested that Iranians were at the mercy of the West only because of their falling behind with splitting the atom. Was this the only thing that we, Iranians, had not achieved by then and otherwise we were on equal footing with Western technology? Had it not occurred to Hedayat that since that invention of the steam engine, not to mention the printing machine, we began our steep decline in terms of technical progress? How about the West and the East (i.e. Japan) supremacy in firepower over us in those days? Were we capable of manufacturing guns, artillery, tanks, bombers, battleships, submarines or aircraft carriers? With no steel industry we were not even capable of making kitchen cutleries let alone an atomic weapon. It is hard to believe that Hedayat had no idea about such capabilities. My explanation is that either Hedayat, whose regular haunts were Ferdowsi or Naderi Cafes (and not "Pardiss" as Hoveyda suggests) was served with a double Vodka (which is unlikely as he was teetotaller) or Mr Hoveyda has given Hedayat a dose of his atomic clock! * Mullahs are very intelligent (unfortunately) Dear Mr Hoveyda, ["The morning after"] It is always an absolute pleasure to read your articles and this time more than ever before since it refers to Hedayat and his perception of the world. I'm afraid what he predicted then is totally true unless magic happens over night. As a proud Iranian I have to say "As mast keh bar mast". We are an intelligent nation with history and culture but we are also our own biggest enemy. I spent my young formative age in England and was always eager to go back to Iran and explore the country. I have always loved Iran and always will but what I understood was that, our lack of unity and self-Centre has taken us to where we are now. If the course history eliminates the clergies from Iran then, our priority should be to educate our younger generation in how to unite and care for each other. This should start from childhood. The other important matter to wipe out from our lives is Islam and then revive Iranian-ness. It is far too unfortunate to see the so called Iranian intellectuals, whom one day claims to be a Zoroastrian and the next day you see him fasting in Ramezan. Until we do not decide what we want to be, we can not overcome the mess we are in. I say mullahs are very intelligent (unfortunately) and taking 100% advantage of the nations lost identity. Let's hope there come a day the we put aside our differences and live for what we have in common. Reza K * Pity those who know nothing about their language Dear Dr. Baghaei-Yazdi, I totally agree with you about iranians being good at assimulating
into a foreign culture. I don't think assimulation is that bad since
it is
one way of making sense of the world around us but we need to not forget
about who we are and remember to enrich our own hertiage at the same
time. I only see pity in those iranians who know nothing about their language or culture. * I'm Greek! The subject of some Iranians refraining from speaking Farsi [Persian in peril] often is addressed and everyone has a sorry ass excuse to justify their insecurities of hiding their true identities. I remember during the hostage crisis my then American husband and I went to a club to attend a Halloween party. Shortly after he told me that on his way to the bar he had run into someone he had met when courting me and he had told her "mojgan khanoum salaam, hale shoma chetoureh. "Well," she had said, "you have mistaken sir, I'm Greek!" I thought he was joking so I went to check it out and sure enough she kissed me and quickly whispered in my ear "I live with this man and I have told him I am Greek". How pathetic, I thought. I never lied and a few times I was cursed at but I refused to say I was anything else but Iranian. As for parents and their kids begging them to speak English, I do not buy that. My kid has been with American kids since he was 5 weeks old and his sitters were all American but I only spoke (and still do) in Farsi to him. He has nobody else to speak Farsi to. He answers me most often in English but when he is around Americans he switches to Farsi and his friends think he is so cool because he can read flyers in Farsi. How we feel about ourselves affects our children and after 25 years of living here and often being the only foreigner in my workplaces, I celebrate the fact that I am different. I project and image of confidence and pride in who I am and speak about history and my people‚s accomplishments. I say this over and over. The educated and successful Iranian who are well read and cultured (and speak flawless English or other languages) are die-hard Iranian fans. Most of the losers, illiterates, uncultured and lowly Iranians deny their identities because they want to create a false one. I still chuckle when I recall at a party an Iranian man showed up with his spiffy designer tennis attire thinking that he was so cool. A friend of mine and I set out to embarrass him so we turned on the TV to watch the news while watching the loser. Well, it did not take long for him to show that he was illiterate and made a complete ass out of himself by saying (in his atrocious accent), GNP chee meeshed? I controlled myself but my friend said with a straight face "gooz not present" which means Fart is not here. The loser looked baffled and asked: Americans use the word Gooze? I could not take it anymore so I burst into loud laughter. Then, I explained to him what GNP really meant and what was going on (he had been in the US nearly 10 years). I also suggested that he might want to learn Farsi and its grammar first because you can only become eloquent in any language if you know your native language first. Baghaei-Yazdi, do not worry because there is enough educated and proud Iranians to make a difference everyday. Those losers will be as we say in Farsi will be left all alone and not welcomed in either circle. * Not a Persian problem I agree with almost all of doctor Baghaie-Yazdi's points regarding Finglish, [Persian in peril]. but I disagree with his statement about the problem being specific to Persian Diaspora. I have contact with Arab, Ethiopian and other expat communities in the US and without an exception, all of them practice this phenomenon at least as intensely as we do (mixing words from English in their native language conversations). To my knowledge, there is no statistic data that proves this to be a Persian problem! * Separatism? No way I just want to say one thing to all these people who are raising the issue of a separate Azarbaijan from Iran [Opinion]: it will end in a disaster for both the Azarbaijanis and the rest of Iran. There is no way on this earth that the government and 99% of the people in Iran will allow this separatism to take place even if it has to lead into sending the whole army into Azarbaijan. Can you see all the misery and death and destruction in other separatist movements in the world such as the Chechens in Russia, the Basque separatists in Spain, the Kashmir separatists, etc. etc.? What has it brought the people of these regions except death and misery and poverty? This whole issue of Azarbaijan separatism will only play into the hands of western powers who want to see a conflict in Iran and the rest of the region so that the people would always suffer and die in fighting over stupid issues. Once they are busy fighting each other and dying, they won't have time to advance and improve their lives and that is just what imperialism wants. The whole instigation of the Azarbaijan issue also plays into the hands of the oil companies who are hovering over the Capian Sea oil reserves like vultures and they are waiting for such an ethnic conflict so thay can fish in muddy waters. So my dear Azarbaijani "hamvatans", wake up and don't fall into this trap. It will not bring a separate Azarbaijan for you, all it will bring is war, destruction, death and misery for your people and the rest of Iran. And don't put too much faith in the support of a few US senators or this and that organization. These are all politicians and politicians are the incarnation of the devil himself. They change positions overnight and only work for their own interests. May God give us all a little wisdom and farsightedness instead of these stupid and destructive ethnic prejudices!!! * Search for interns The Iranian American Political Action Committee (IAPAC) is searching for vibrant interns for the fall of 2003. Interns will be working out of IAPAC's Washington, D.C. office. Applications will be accepted until September 15, 2003. Qualifications: The best-suited individuals will be undergraduate or graduate students of political science, public policy, history, economics or journalism. Excellent written and communication skills and computer fluency (mainly MS Office and Windows OS applications) is necessary. Persian fluency is not required but considered an advantage in selection of the successful applicant(s). Responsibilities: Interns work on various projects
and assignments. Assignments consist of covering Political Events and
Congressional hearings on Capitol
Hill,
drafting articles for the IAPAC website and News Bulletin, assisting
with IAPAC fundraising activities, database research and inter-organizational
liaison with other Iranian-American organizations. * Be a bit more adventurous How refreshing to see an artist experimenting with new approaches and dimensions in her art [Cage]. I loved her use of cultural as well as religious symbolism in conveying messages that can be interpreted many ways depending on who views the drawings. My only suggestion is to expand and be a bit more adventurous with the same approach. Incorporate other social issues plaguing our society in your art. For example why not showing bigamy in the name of religion? The veil and the cage were beautiful drawings but the subject matter is mundane because we all know about the problem. You have the talent and the innovative mind so use it and do not fear offending some small minds. An artist should never fear anything or her art becomes the prisoner of "routine and ordinary" Keep up the good work. * We have to be proud of ourselves Dear Mr.Sharafi [Colorful
missiles], But keep this in mind, even if when we invent a new bicycle in Iran and are not obliged to buy foreign bicycles, we have to be proud of ourselves. But as long as Iranians like you who just
make fun of something like a missile which even I read the article
in our local paper that America commented on its range and capability,
we , the poor Iranian nation will get nowhere and foreing government
can make use of this attitute for their own benefit. More
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