Archive - Apr 3, 2009 - Article

The Hero and Heroin

Iran borders Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of opium and the drugs come through Iran on their way to lucrative western markets. Historically there has been a tradition of opium smoking in Iran in which older men would gather at home to talk and share an opium pipe. This was a social activity and the opium smoking wouldn't interfere with their lives. The big change is the move to intravenous heroin use, a change that can be partly attributed to opium prices skyrocketing after the Taliban's ban on growing the poppy and heroin became cheap and available instead -- a hit of heroin costs less than a packet of cigarettes. Add to this the largely young population of Iran, living with high unemployment rates>>>

The Secret Agent

Some months before he vanished, Golbaz had said something about a new law about to be passed that would affect his job. Soon he started skipping town on short notice for days at a time, sometimes coming home with a tan, sometimes having lost weight. He wouldn’t say where he had been. Until one day Aunt Merhri found airplane tickets in his jacket. “When were you going to tell me?” she fumed. “At the last minute.” he replied. He was going to Europe for training, but wasn’t allowed to say more. Aunt Mehri showed me Golbaz’s letters. They were dated a week apart from London, Paris, Munich, Amsterdam, Vienna, and some cities I hadn’t heard of. There were no return addresses, and gave no clues as to what he was doing or when he might return>>>

Simple truth

There’s a reason why we learn math. It’s not just to know how to do basic arithmetic or calculating the speed of train A and train B. Mathematics is important to us on a much deeper level. Philosophically speaking, math can explain the building blocks of existence and giving us the answers to the questions that we seek. Like what is the meaning of life? Yet being apart of the answer to those problems is essential to what we are without realizing it. Being an Architecture student, I’ve taken into account how many structures, objects and things can be broken down into simple shapes that are much simpler than their complexity portrays>>>

Breakfast at Gracie Mansion

Monday morning I had the great honor of meeting personally with New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, on the occasion of the old and traditional Norooz celebration at his official residence at Gracie Mansion. I had met him before; however, this morning was a turning point in my judgment of him as he proved to be a practical and a no non-sense human being, not just a politician. Himself a descendant of an immigrant family, he demonstrated many understandings the communities are going through now. But first, allow me to convey to you his message of great contribution of immigrants, including Iranians, to the New York City community>>>