Letters
September 25-29, 2000 / Mehr 4-8, 1379
Today
* Sadaf Kiani:
- Truly gifted
- Laughs and tears
- Got a problem with LA-type women?
* Music:
- I am in love
Previous
* Iranians:
- Backward mentality
- Killer article
* Art:
- Creative genius
* Copyright:
- Literary theft rampant
* Shah:
- When will we learn?
* Erotic:
- XXX
* Violence:
- Educated Haji Bakhshis
* Religion:
- Gutless
* Racism:
- Try Prozac
- Tackle your resentments
- Any great scientists before Islam?
* Googoosh:
- Sucks
email us
Friday,
September 29, 2000
* Truly gifted
Wonderful as expected ["Gisheh-ye
shomaareh 2"]. Appreciated as usual I am sure you already know
what a great and perceptive writer you are.
If you would allow me to humbly chip in my two cents: It's sad, depressing,
and most of all as real as it gets. You have the magic of making the Iranian
being so delightful and irresistible that I actually enjoy being reminded
of it instead of continuing to fool myself and ignore it.
I have never seen anyone spell out the modern Iranian existence with
such honesty. You are truly gifted.
Nezam
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* Laughs and tears
What a great piece ["Gisheh-ye
shomaareh 2"]. It is quite poignant and it managed to make me
laugh very hard about your friend who had to sleep "damaroo"
for two nights and also made me tearful about the lady who lost her husband
-- all in the space of 20 seconds. I really enjoyed it. By the way did
you get your visa or not?? :)
Afshin
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* Got a problem with LA-type women?
akharin kareto khoondam. jaleb bood mesle hamishe ["Penthouse
Haj Aqa"]. dar mahale kare ma dar Cisco koli Irani kar mikonand.
va ma ba ham interanal connection darim. man kareto forward kardam. nazdike
200 Irani oono khoondand.
dar neveshtehat 1 chizi ke baram soal hast inke hamvaerh be 1 teep zan
ya dokhtar be noee tane mizani. Nazali. Negar. va ya dokhtari ba arayaeshe
anchenani. ya LA typi. lol. enteghade to az in teep dokhtarha az koja nashi
mishe?? nemikham az inha defa konam.
vali test kon, bebin aya too inha ham mishe dokhtare honest payda kard??
aya inha in hagh ro darand ehesasteshoono onvan konad. khob in teep khanooma
teephaye mamoolie in donia hastand. va adamhaye zamini. lol. hame ke nabad
intelectuel bashand. lol >>>
FULL TEXT
Reza
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* I am in love
I just wanted to write in and comment on Mr Nikbakht's album, "Synethesia".
I am in love with it. Mr Nikbakht is obviously a very gifted artist whose
talent should not be ignored or forgotten. I cannot wait for more music
by him.
Farnoosh PK
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Thursday
September 28, 2000
* Backward mentality
I think that your article is symptomatic of the backward mentality present
in the Iranian communities in many parts of the world ["Doctor...
Doctor..."]. In Los Angeles this mental backwardness seems to
be all the more accentuated.
Iranians seem to place an important emphasis on professional, religious,
and academic titles as they serve as social identifiers used to distinguish
among people. We call people who have been to pilgrimage in Mekka Haji
and those who have been to Mashad Mashti. During the Qajar period many
people were Shazdeh or Doleh or Saltaneh. Nowadays people strive to establish
an identity for themselves by somehow prefixing their names with "Doctor"
and thus acquire notoriety.
I have seen many charlatans amongst these so-called doctors. They are
very good actors. They look at people and are eager to see how dumb people
are to squeeze them out of money. It is quite common to see that they make
patients come and go to their offices unnecessarily just to charge the
government or the insurance companies till they reach their income ceiling
>>>
FULL TEXT
Mohammad Ali Yamini
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* Killer article
Awsome job at humoring the true spirit of most iranians in Los Angeles
["Doctor...
Doctor..."]. Killer article.
Alireza
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* Try Prozac
After reading "Okay,
I'm a racist" and looking at Mr. dAyi Hamid picture for a few
minutes, I really had a hard time accepting a person with such facial characteristics
AND I tried hard to stop laughing...
How can anyone even say such crazy things about a place and its people?
No wonder, a lot of Iranian Arabs, Kurds, Turks, Sistani and others, have
some bitterness. It is because of people like Mr. dAyi Hamid who without
knowing their country's social formation, throw up garbage from their mouth!
AND honestly, I don't blame them for their resentments toward people like
Mr. dAyi Hamid!...
The problem is, racist people, like Mr. dAyi Hamid, can not comprehend
their own history, culture, literature or country. Iranian racists attack
Kurds, and the funny thing is many German racists say that Kurds are among
the purest "Arayans" in Iran......they can't even keep their
own story straight! They want to use anything and everything to further
their racist argument! Just like what Hitler did during WW2, when he tried
to use the Bible to further his racist propaganda. The irony is, he was
a half Jew who hated Jewish people and others!
Last but not least, I would like to add that MAYBE, just may be, Prozac
can help Mr. dAyi Hamid and people like him! >>>
FULL TEXT
Daniel Zang
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Wednesday
September 27, 2000
* Literary theft rampant
As one whose doctoral thesis was abridged in Iran and then shamelessly
printed and distributed in the United States under the name of another
person, I have something to add to Mr. Haddad's story ["What
goes around..."].
Literary theft too is rampant in Iran. A traveler recently arriving
from Tehran recounted that he had seen the gist of one of my postings on
iranian.com translated and published in Bahar Noe, a Tehran newspaper,
under the byline of a person writing from the United States.
One of the items on any agenda that leads to the renewed commercial
relations between Iran and the United States must be the issue of copyright
and other intellectual property protection in Iran for works created in
the United States.
Guive Mirfendereski
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* Tackle your resentments
In response to "Okay,
I'm a racist", I must agree with dAyi Hamid on the fact that most
of us don't like Arabs... Now hate me as you may. I really don't give a
damn. Not to feel obligated to explain myself or anything, but the main
reason why I still don't like Arabs is because every single one I've conversed
with tries to completely justify the actions of their filthy ancestors
by giving me a load of crap about the glory of Islam and how lucky we should
feel that we were BLESSED with the gift of Islam. Really? Seems more like
a bunch of horny Arabs lusting after some fresh "loot" to me...
Pinpoint the emotional hangup and tackle it with some intense conversations
with the subjects of your resentment. And if you feel like it takes more
than just conversations to settle your disputes, by all means be my guest.
Just don't call me from the county house and don't get your ass kicked
>>>
FULL TEXT
Alireza
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* Creative genius
Bravo Mr Hoveyda for sharing with us the creative genius of Iranians
abroad who are our real heroes for having stretched beyond the walls of
exile and diversity and found their inner calling ["Salt
desert tree"].
Cyrus Kadivar
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Tuesday
September 26, 2000
* Any great scientists before Islam?
It seems that Mr dAyi Hamid is completely mixed up ["Okay,
I'm a racist"]. He explains racism and how bad it is and tells
us how he suffers from it in Europe. On the other hand he says "I
hate Arabs and admit I'm a racist."
You can not love or hate someone, simply becuase he's from a specific
race, but can do so becuase of his good or bad actions. It's very obvious
that Mr Hamid is not against Arasb becuase of their race but because of
their religion.
He mentions the Persian empire. And my question is "What did this
great empire do for poor people?" Go and read the history. Were ordinary
poor people allowed to read or write in Daryoush's great empire, or only
the elite?
Read the history very carefully. Did the great Iranian scientists like
Razi or Abu Ali Sina appear before or after Islam? Wasn't it Islam that
encouraged learning for ALL and not only to a specific type/class of people?
Can you mention one Iranian scientist before Islam whom the world benfited
from?
History can not be writen by building big castles and palaces. I lived
with among many different nations. My principle is that irrespective of
a race/nationality, a man can be considered good or bad only based on his
actions, attitude, thought and teatment. I think the days of racism and
descrimination have alraedy passed.
Ahmed Toorani
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* When will we learn?
This is a reply to the letter by Bardia Saeedi ["Want
to throw up"]. I suppose this honourable person has forgotten
many facts regarding the past and the current situation of our country.
Dear Bardia, I don't know where you live or what political faction you
support, but you seem far removed from the feelings of the average Iranian
back home.
I was recently in Iran and the number of people who praise the Shah,
wish light on his grave and sole, is unprecedented. I am no supporter of
the monarchy and yet am touched every time I visit Iran and hear the average
person sing the Shah's praise.
Mr. Kadivar ["Requiem
in Cairo"] has every right to feel the way he does and is entitled
to write about it if he wishes. I suppose most of us in that situation
would have felt similar emotions. Likewise, you too have the right to feel
disgusted at those sentiments and tell us about it on a free forum as you
like.
But just consider this, don't you think our people have had enough of
someone telling them how they should feel and how they should think? When
are we going to learn and respect other people's feelings and opinions,
I ask you? Let's not be like the Hezbollahis and the Mojahedin who in desperation
to dominate have taken ordinary people's rights away and have lost support
among ordinary Iranians.
B. Khorasani
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* Sucks
Your work sucks man ["Googoosh
live!"].
Sina Rassam Haghighi
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Monday
September 25, 2000
* XXX
I have been reading The Iranian for almost for four years. I
look at it almost every day. Your articles and pictures are well chosen
and you are a good writer.
I am usually very quiet and do not mention my views to every one. But
some articles during the past few weeks have promted me to write you this
note.
First of all., one of the front page images was a nude
painting, a good painting. But my terminal is faced to the hallway.
I was worried that some of my co-workers would see that and would think
I am on a XXX web page.
I am not against these kinds of images, but it would be nice, if you
would put a warning like "Do not open this page if you are offended",
so I know I should not open it at work. I am sure, you have received a
lot of comments about that image.
The other thing is about the short story, "Karin".
I did not like it. My Farsi is not very good, but "Karin"
has a lot of grammatical errors and it is bad. Who cares if somebody's
friend's girlfriend spends a night with him? Who cares what happens in
the bedroom?
You have Massod
Behnoud's articles, which make me read each article a few times and
think about it for days. But it is not nice to select essays like "Karin".
S.
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* Educated Haji Bakhshis
After reading "Ansar-e
Los Angeles," I felt how much the Iranian opposition outside Iran
is similar in its actions to people like Haji Bakhshi in Iran. I don't
understand them.
Somehow, I can understand Haji Bakhshi. There are reasons why he became
"vahshi." He is illiterate, he is not exposed to any other culture
or way of life and probably has a low IQ.
But what about "Ansar-e Los Angeles?" They are supposed to
be educated and intelligent. They are supposed to be pro-democracy. They
are supposed to be the leading Iranian intellectuals.
For those of you who are in Iran and read my comment here: Prepare yourself
for another kind of Hezbollahis. In case of any change in Iran toward a
more democratic society, these new haji Bakhshis are ready to beat you
up: MKOs, radical communists, Cherik-haaye fadaayi Aghaliyat and monarchists.
They haven't learned anything about democracy here. They haven't learned
even one percent of what we learned in Iran during the last 20 years.
Sourena Mohammadi
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* Gutless
I am extremely disappointed in the Iranian for featuring this inane
piece in the Wednesday's
Anyway section. I guess the editorial board of The Iranian has
thrown in its lot with the rest of America and determined that the only
religion unprotected by the politically-correct banner is Christianity.
The gutless thing about it is that you know your Christian readership
is nearly non-existent. I dare you to run a similar piece on the holy prophet
of Islam peace be upon him.
Elizabeth Dourley
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