Date

WEDDING

Beautiful, loud & international

Beautiful, loud & international

Photos: A mixed Indian Iranian affair with the best food, music and rituals of both cultures

by Siamack
05-Nov-2007

>>>

WEDDING

Beautiful, loud and international

A mixed Indian Iranian affair with the best food, music and rituals of both cultures

05-Nov-2007 (8 comments)
A week ago we attended a large family wedding in Toronto – the second trip to Canada this year for the boys. The first time, February, was tough. They both had bouts of flu and we asked everyone to stay away in case they fell ill too. This time we decided to acclimatise them to North America by visiting cousins in Raleigh, NC first before flying on to Toronto for the wedding. My cousins in Raleigh are also twins, only identical twins (my two aren’t identical), older and luckily for us, they have built houses next door to one another. So we could visit either brother and their wife, whenever we wanted to.>>>

FREE SPEECH

 آزادی و مسئولیت

امیدوارم حکم دادگاه تورنتو بتواند به درخشان بیاموزد که از آزادی خود مسئولانه بهره بگیرد

05-Nov-2007 (60 comments)

«فکر می‌کنید بدن شما تحمل آتش سوزان انفجار یا داغی گلوله رو داره؟ به خون حسین قسم می‌خورم که پای شما به خارج از آمریکا برسه گوشت کثیفت رو تکه تکه می‌کنیم. فدائیان اسلام، سرباز سپاه قدس» ... «شما به دشمنان ایران دارید مشاوره می‌دین اسم شما خائن است نه خلجی ... وای به حالت اگه از دور و ور خاورمیانه بگذری...» نوشته‌های بالا نمونه‌ای از تهدیدهایی هستند که من هر بار پس از نوشته‌ای از حسین درخشان علیه خودم دریافت می‌کنم. این نوشته‌ها می‌تواند به تحریک و ترغیب مستقیم حسین درخشان و به دست کسانی این سو و آن سو، به نیت سلب امنیت روانی، نوشته شده باشد و می‌تواند واقعاً نوشته مأموران اطلاعاتی، امنیتی و نظامی جمهوری اسلامی باشد؛ به قصد سلب امنیت جانی و زمینه‌سازی برای ترور

>>>

FREE SPEECH

$2 million lawsuit against me

Mehdi Khalaji, with the backing of his friends at the Israeli lobby's think-tank, is trying to bankrupt me

05-Nov-2007 (65 comments)
Mehdi Khalaji, an Iranian 'expert' at the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy (WINEP) has now officially filed a libel and defamation lawsuit against me in Canada and has claimed $2,000,000 damages. َQuite a modest champion of free speech, isn't he? Why? Because I've been very critical about him serving the likes of Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, James Woosley and the rest of those filthy warmongers at the Washington Institute for the Near East Policy (WINEP), which was established by and is strongly associated with the Israeli Lobby's in the United States, according to Mearsheimer and Walt.>>>

BOOK

Poets and Pahlevans

In search of traditional wrestling and Persian poetry

05-Nov-2007 (one comment)
I needed to find a ride back to Kerman. There was one taxi in front of the gate. I walked towards it and girded myself for another battle over the fare. The driver was old and disheveled, his mouth a mumble of pale green teeth. "You want to go to Kerman?" he said. "Yes." I was surprised he spoke English. "How much will that cost?" I grit my teeth. He quoted me a price that was suspiciously low, less than what I paid for the five kilometre trip from Shah-e Vali's shrine. "You will bring me all the way to Kerman for that price?">>>

FOOD

Restaurant confidential

The best meals aren’t always served in Michelin star restaurants with celebrity chefs

05-Nov-2007 (10 comments)
Grrrrrrr!!!! Nothing frustrates me more than poor service in restaurants and hotels. Unnecessarily arrogant and condescending mannerisms that should, quite frankly, get thrown out with the trash as far as I’m concerned. Eating out is the social lynchpin of business and private life alike and therefore deemed necessary, at times. So what worse way to spend an evening with a client, friend or date, than to be patronised by some jumped up, wet behind the ears, accent-laden, barely-older-than-myself waiter. My recent experience at a famous London Italian Restaurant called Cecconi’s was precisely this. >>>

NATIONALISM

ملی گرائی افراطی چه صيغه ای ست؟

بی اعتنائی به تاريخ و فرهنگ، مليت را پديده ای ناقص و ملی گرائی را امری بی محتوا می سازد

05-Nov-2007 (9 comments)
براستی در گرايش جوانان امروز ايران به ملی گرائی بنياد گرفته از بازگشت به ارزش های پيش از اسلام فرهنگ ايرانی چه خطری وجود دارد که عقلای قوم ملی گرا را وا می دارد تا در کنار هشدار دادن نسبت به خطرات مختلفی که انديشهء امروز سياسی و فرهنگی جوانان ما را تهديد می کند، نسبت به خطر پيدايش «ناسيوناليسم افراطی» نيز هشدار داده و صحنه های ظهور هيتلری ديگر و برقراری فاشيسمی نو را به رخشان بکشند؟>>>
Jahanshah Rashidian
05-Nov-2007 (26 comments)
Le hijab islamique ne signifie pas forcément un degré élevé de respect de l’islam, mais démontre plutôt l’existence d’un dogme islamique qu’on appelle « non-mahram » >>>

POETRY

انتها نيز کلمه است
05-Nov-2007 (2 comments)

* فايل صوتی

هر شب خواب آن ماهی را می بينم
که در تنگه ی غرق شده می گردد
و در دی. ان. ای ِ شرابی باستانی
نام تو را می جويد

نامت کلمه است
نشسته ميانه ی آفتاب
و هر که می گذرد از آن
عاشق می شود

>>>
bahmani
04-Nov-2007 (6 comments)
...let's call the whole thing off! Burma learns first hand how US foreign policy works [or doesn't]>>>
Bahman Mahmoudi
04-Nov-2007 (one comment)
A subcontractor had brought his Swedish girlfriend to the island, and the young and blond enterprising lady had started providing R&R for the oil drillers at premium prices >>>
alimostofi
04-Nov-2007 (one comment)
with a Qom ticket >>>

WOMEN

The freedom bus

They are using women to appease Islamic extremists. Why?

04-Nov-2007 (22 comments)
The scenario of Ms Bhutto's return is classic or better described a cliché... The international media knows this job only too well, to sell her as the angel of freedom to the frustrated people, stuck between two evils, one military dictatorship and the other an Islamic one. This game of political and media engineering is too transparent to miss. However, what struck me was, the way she was described repeatedly, as the first "Moslem woman leader in the Moslem world." Why did they have to mention this repeatedly? What purpose does this serve?>>>
Kamangir
04-Nov-2007 (36 comments)
Imagine the IRI has collapsed. Would you go back for good? >>>
Ghool
04-Nov-2007 (25 comments)
Declaration of war on the United States of America by the Islamic Republic of Mullahs... >>>