Archive - Jun 2008 - Article

Sanity vs Insanity

First and foremost let’s be clear on the fact that madness and insanity is a global problem and not limited to specific regions or cultures. However, in most places, the insane are almost always products of unfavorable environments, and never products of pre-planning and training. What we have today in the Middle East is a network which finance, plans and organizes development of insane humans for the sole purposes of engaging in terrorist acts against the general population. This process of “producing terrorists” requires a favorable social and cultural groundwork which has been provided by what has evolved as the post-Islam Arab cultures and religion>>>

Love knows no partition

Who would have thought? Marylou is in love! The queen of mean, the whistleblower of the year, the spy who hates me, she is in love. The woman, that people would re-route their path in the maze of the office cubicle isles just to avoid crossing her path, is in love. How do I know? Her teeth are whiter, her eyes are brighter, her cheeks are blusher, her lips are more vermilion, and her sagging breasts are perkier. Last week I figured out why there was so much change in her. She was talking to Joe, and I recognized her giggle over the partitions that separate my cubicle from the people who residing on the next isle. No one has ever heard her giggle before as long as anyone can remember. But, the giggle was unmistakably hers, a mimic of her voice, which sounds like a tree slamming into a house on a stormy night>>>

Layer after layer

The general belief prevailing among common people, Zoroastrians or not, is that the Avesta constitutes the “Sacred Books of the Zoroastrians.” Looking at the sacred scriptures of other living religions, it should be so. Baha’ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, and Sikhism, have their relevant sacred books. A closer look would, however, reveal that the conscious or unconscious founder of each religion or order had his or her inspired or thought-out message conveyed in person. Later the successors added much around the nucleus of the founding message and consequently produced a collection of writings, some of them in a different dialect or language>>>

کارت منزلت

صفر پناهی آموزگار بازنشسته بعد از 30 سال تدریس ، سرانجام با اصرار زنش رفت و کارت منزلت گرفت. همکاران سابقش وقتی در پارک محل او را می دیدند چنان از مزایای کارت منزلت که می توانی با آن مجانی سوار اتوبوس های شرکت واحد و یا مترو بشوی حرف می زدند که انگار به قول فرانسوی ها" Pass Par tout" گیرشان آمده و با آن می توانند به هر جائی خواستند سرک بکشند. در اداره بازنشستگی آموزش و پرورش، اغلب کارمندان از معلمان سابق بودند که حالا بد تر از مش صفر بالای 70 سال داشتند. بیشترشان دارای سمعک و عینک بودند و وقتی می خواستند فرمی را پر کنند، گوینده باید در گوششان داد می کشید.مش صفر پرسان پرسان مسئول صدور کارت منزلت را پیدا کرد. وقتی مقابل صندلی او نشست ، هر دو دقایقی به قیافه همدیگر زل زدند. >>>

رويــداد

دستی به هوا رفت و دو پيمانه به هم خورد
با آن دو دل عاشق و ديوانه به هم خورد

دستی به هوا رفت و نگاهی به نگاهی
پيچيد و دو دست و دو دل و شانه به هم خورد
>>>

Rumbling from Mount History

Everyone at the recent Iran Human Rights Seminar in San Jose got a copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). During the presentations there was much discussion of religion, and it is possible to review the event by comparing the UDHR to a much older declaration in the Bible. There are ten commandments in the laws of Moses, and three times as many in the UDHR. The first four laws that came down from the mountain aren't at all about how humans should treat each other; rather they establish the authority of the lawgiver: 1. I'm God,  2. Don't worship anything else,  3. Respect my name,  4. Every seventh day is "God day." >>>

Boa

Well, let me tell you about myself, my name in BO and for some unpleasant reasons some call me BOA, mistaking me for a reptile, but I see that as an insult, so hopefully no one in this audience will fathom throwing this at me again, or there will be consequences, as there are penalties for defamation, and I am sure you agree with me that stigmatizing a person with snake-like identity is rather slanderous, no matter what the justification. I want to preempt the question that is on the mind of so many people about my special powers and what it means to use or it to live with it, knowing that it can be abusive or, at the least, engrossing or, perhaps a better word is, absorbing or even obsessive>>>

مرا دریغا دریغ...

همین چند وقت پیش بود که فیلمی از خانه بامداد تهیه شده بود و وسایل و یادگارهای احمد شاملو را در آن فیلم دیدیم و آیدا از عشق برایمان حرف زد و من از دیروز که خبر حراج وسایل و چوب سیگار شاملو و پیراهن و لباس تنش را خوانده ام از شدت کلافگی و خشم مثل مار به خودم می پیچم. شما را نمی دانم ولی خواندن این خبر برایم دردناک تر از خواندن خبر شکستن سنگ قبر شاملو توسط اراذل و اوباش بود و باز دردناک تر از قطع کردن پایش. آدمیزاد از نزدیکانش بیشتر خنجر می خورد تا از دشمنانش، چون می داند که دشمنانش کی هستند؛ آدمیزاد از دشمنش توقعی ندارد اما از اطرافیان و نزدیکان توقعی اندکی شرف و انسانیت و مدارا دارد. >>>

گره کور احزاب مذهبی

هنگامی که يک تشکل حزبی از واژهء «آزادی» در نام خود استفاده می کند همواره به يکی از دو موضوع توجه دارد: يا خواستار آزاد شدن از دست يک نظام ديکتاتوری است، و يا می خواهد آزادی های بدست آمده را پاسداری کند؟ اما وجود اين واژه در نام «نهضت آزادی» رسانای چيست؟ آيا آنها در پيش از انقلاب اعتقاد داشته اند که رژيم شاه (يا حتی بگوئيم «قانون اساسی مشروطيت» که رژيم شاه آن را کنار نهاده بود) برايشان آزادی هائی را فراهم کرده که بايد از آن پاسداری کرد؟ اگر دکتر مصدق از آزادی سخن می گفت مسلماً منظورش آزادی های مبتنی بر قانون اساسی و کوشش برای احياء و استمرار آنها بود. اما چه چيزی جز آزادی برای استقرار حکومت اسلامی می توانست منظور بازرگان و يارانش در استفاده از اين واژه باشد؟>>>

Need to hear your voice

You may be surprised at the answer; there are already over 205 cosponsors of H.Con.Res. 362. Is yours one? This bill calls on the president to stop all shipments of refined petroleum products from reaching Iran. It also “demands” that the President impose “stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains and cargo entering or departing Iran.” Analysts say that this would require a US naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint through which nearly a quarter of the world’s oil passes>>>

Unholy Alliances

On the first weekend of May 2008, Berlin was host to two extraordinary conferences. On the one hand, a crowd of altogether 1,600 predominantly young people from all over Europe met at the Humboldt University in order to discuss and reflect the turbulent, globally unfolding events of 1968. On the other, not far away, about 400 participants gathered at the classier, guarded »Auditorium Friedrichstrasse« under the theme of “Business as usual? The Iranian regime, the holy war against Israel and the West and the German reaction,“ organized by the recently created »Mideast Freedom Forum Berlin (MFFB)«>>>

Monsters

My memories of my childhood are mostly vague but still I can remember being on the playground of my old school; while other children played hide and seek, I was only hiding, trying to make certain nobody would ever find me. I knew they hated me as much as the teachers liked me. I was the one with all the answers. I used to read as many as books I could to maintain my status of a nerd; I was transforming into a huge, mute, lonely devourer of words, and still hungry for anything real. “With each book you read, you’ll grow,” Father used to say. “In my time, I didn’t have this chance. I’m sure you will not disappoint us.”>>>

موضوع انشاء؛ یک روز تعطیل

از رختخواب به زور بیرون می آیم. باید یک شنبه باشد! پرده را کنار می زنم. آفتاب مثل کلاه زرینی سر بلوک روبرویی را تزیین کرده. پس نباید یک شنبه باشد! سرم را از پنجره بیرون می کنم. هوای خنک و تازه ی صبحگاهی صورتم را می نوازد. با نگاهم محوطه را، بلوک ها و پنجره ها و چمن را دور می زنم. هیچ کس هیچ جا نیست. پس صبح یک شنبه است! گوشه ی یکی از خیابان های باریک بین بلوک ها، خانمی ایستاده. افساری در دست دارد. پس باید سگش را برای گردش صبحگاهی بیرون آورده باشد. کمی آن طرف تر سگ به پایین تنه ی درختی می شاشد. اوه، حتمن یک شنبه است! با فنجان قهوه کنار پنجره ی آشپزخانه، رو به محوطه ی چمن می نشینم. آفتاب کم کم از بالای پنجره به داخل آپارتمان می خزد. شبنم یخ زده ی روی چمن ها می گویند صبح سردی باید باشد. هیچ پیاده یا دوچرخه سواری در محوطه به چشم نمی خورد. >>>

Out of the question?

The nuclear issue has dominated the relationship of the west with Iran over the past several years. The issue is still unresolved and it threatens to get worse and lead to military confrontation. Many Iranians find themselves torn in between siding with either. Siding with the west means siding with an obviously hypocritical unjustifiable position against Iranian sense of nationalism and pride. Siding with the Islamic Republic means siding with a tyrannical regime that is severely oppressing Iranians. What is one to do? I believe there is a solution that all individual Iranians and Iranian organization striving for freedom for Iran and Iranians should campaign for>>>

Green liberation

Congratulations to Iranian women for achieving another milestone, the official inauguration of the first women-only park in Tehran, called Mothers' Paradise Park. Many Westerners might not know that women in Iran have been going to parks for centuries, however in the old days it was called bagh (garden), a place where they would go to have a good time (hal kardan). But, in recent history the word "bagh" has been changed to "park", which originally is an Arabic word pronounced "bark", which means the outer covering of woody stems and roots of trees and shrubs. In another word, it meant a landscaped place where people went to let their donkeys roam freely while they relaxed in the shades>>>