Archive - May 2009 - Article

You Must Remember

You must remember to forgive
but not to forget
to hold on
and let go
to hold hands with the
wind blowing to the end of the earth
taking what's left and what shall remain >>>

A Privilege Long Forgotten

A vote; an amazing right capable of extraordinary change. Where a vote used to stand as something worth fighting for, we now see the great degree to which some people have lost sight of this fact. This power and control is a privilege taken for granted. How long ago it now seems that the forefathers of the United States waged a revolutionary war to declare their freedom from Great Britain and give the choice of government back to the people. How long ago it now seems that women marched the streets in demand of the rights of suffrage. How long ago it now seems that people of all different colors banded together to achieve their rights as equal citizens in the selection of their government. But the truth is, that it was not so long ago>>>

Tel Aviv's best friend

The Durban Review Conference held in Geneva in April was set to examine progress made toward the goals of the previous conference in 2001: to eliminate racism, xenophobia and related intolerance. Many expected the conference would condemn Israel's attack on Gazan civilians, but what transpired was indeed the opposite. The resolution passed in Geneva helped Israel's stance by commemorating the Holocaust. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had a lot to do with this outcome, albeit inadvertently. The conference was filled with a sense of premonition even before it was convened. Ahmadinejad's presence had made participants uneasy>>>

Morality & marriage

The 1979 Islamic revolution was not a wholesale return to the past; rather, the new state reinvented and expanded certain retrogressive cultural practices and presented them as what Foucault has called a “regime of truth” through modern technologies of power. As part of its commitment to modernity, the Islamist state continued the literacy and health campaigns of the Pahlavi era. It also created, alongside the army and the police force, a parallel series of paramilitary forces. As soon as the regime attained some degree of authority, it established a new juridical discourse on sexuality, whose underlying theme was granting more power over women’s sexuality and reproductive functions to the state and to men, while also reversing modern trends in love and marriage.>>>

مترجم ساعتی

دو هفته پیش ترجمه همزمان دادگاه متهم فارسی زبانی را بهم داده بودند که با خودش نزدیک یک کیلو تریاک از مشهد آورده بود و مدام اصرار داشت که دکترش برایش تجویز کرده و معنی این سوال را که حالا چرا دکتر دو و نیم پوند تریاک آنهم برای مدت کوتاه یک ماه سفر توریستی به آمریکا را تجویز کرده را هم اصلا نمی فهمید. آخرش هم کلی به من فحش و بد و بیراه ناموسی به من داد که تو هموطنت را فروختی و خائنی و پدر مادر نداری. هرچی هم با احترام سعی می کردم برایش توضیح دهم که بابا وظیفه من فقط مترجمی است و کاری به جز ترجمه حرفهای شما و ترجمه حرفهای قاضی برای شما ندارم، رگ گردنش کلفت تر می شد و سرآخر هم با کلی احوالپرسی از اقوام اناث نسبی حقیر به بازداشت برگشت>>>

Repentance

Oh, Lord, forgive Thou me,

Not as Thou forgavest Thy children, Eve and Adam.

They tremble still

Behind the trees of Eden,

In awe of Thy mighty strides.

And they clutch the stolen green fruit

In their small hands >>>

The Wise Woman's Stone

A wise woman with a heart of gold
Travelling in the mountains ice-cold
Found a priceless gem in a river
And concealed it in her satchel fold.

Next day she met another walker
Who was a worn and hungry hawker
The woman opened her bag to share
Her food with the youth, a smooth-talker. >>>

امنیتِ انسانی

رئیس جمهور بر اساس سوگندی که یاد می‌کند، از جمله وظیفه دارد از آزادی و حرمت اشخاص و حقوق ملت حمایت کند، پاسخگو باشد و از خود‌کامگی بپرهیزد و قدرتی را که ملت به عنوان امانتی مقدس به او سپرده، همچون امینی پارسا و فداکار به کار برد. من بر این اساس و بنا بر اختیار و تمایل قلبی خود، پیشا‌پیش با مردم پیمان می‌بندم که چنانچه برای تصدی مقام خطیر ریاست جمهوری مورد اعتماد و حمایت اکثریت قرار گیرم: استقرار حکومت قانون را به عنوان شرط لازم تحقق حقوق بشر و حقوق شهروندی، یکی از اهداف اصلی خود قرار دهم و اصلاحات حقوقی لازم را به عمل آورم تا قانون توسط همه مقامات و سازمان‌های حکومتی مورد رعایت قرار گیر>>>

Not worth the effort

While the Obama administration has been formulating its Iran strategy, Congress and many pundits have touted the need for Russian support. At the opening session of the hearing "Prospects for Engagement with Russia" held on March 19, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) observed that "Vital to our efforts toward a nuclear-free world will be a greater effort from Russia to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. The president is right to open the door to direct engagement with Iran. But it is imperative that we back a strategy of engagement with a commitment to more effective multilateral sanctions if negotiations do not bring progress. To do this effectively, we need Russia on board.">>>

The Resurrection

Resurrector: So you’ve gift wrapped the body in white linen for me. Did you remember to bring the money?

Man: In the bags next to the stretcher. But please kind resurrector, I’m a few million Tomans short and she’s at you mercy.

Resurrector: Mercy? This is not a charity. That diamond chandelier above our heads is there to tell you just that. Payment in full. Borrow if you have to.

Man: I have, resurrector. My friends are tapped out on what they can lend. My bank accounts are all emptied, and I have no more lands to sell. I wanted to keep one house and the store. It was for her, not me >>>

Night's Mistress

In the late evening hours
When the sun has long set sail,
I watch the moonlight casting
That silvery satin veil
Her see-through silky white sheet
Covering the long Night's bed

I listen to what the "Night" whispers
His love songs echo in trees
Music carried by the breeze into
The quiet of dark blue skies >>>

مردان میهن

در این گرداب خواب و بیداری
ز زخم تاول تسلیم
میچکد کینۀ عصیان.
در این گودال عقربها
ز زهر منبر تقلید
می بارد سنگ سار لاله ای زیبا.
در این مرداب نامردان
ز خشم نعرۀ تحقیر
می پاشد بذر بیزار جوانمردان. >>>

A Better Way

The assumption that the Iranian theocracy is unchangeable leaves no room for any possible opposition groups to work together. After the revolution of ’79 and the power struggle within the undefined system, the Iranian people and political groups have become more divided for not wanting to be the pawns in yet another revolutionary movement, unless there are some power guarantees. Unfortunately there are no guarantees. Essentially the issue goes deeper than normally is discussed. There are no unifying ideologies and/or attractive movements that are supported by the Iranian people. The experiences of the last revolution have put a bitter impression that will not vanish for a long time>>>

مانی

این ترم درس جدیدی بنام "مذهب و جامعه" برای دانشجویان مبتدی رشته جامعه شناسی گفتم و این بهانه ای شد که بار دیگر در مورد الهیات شُرور مطالعه کنم. توجیه بیعدالتیهای مشهود در عالم را در الهیات مسیحی "تئودسی" میگویند. کلام ادیان ابراهیمی پاسخهای جالبی به این مسأله داده است که صورت ساده یکی از آنها را در کتاب خواندنی "عدل الهی" اثر مرحوم مرتضی مطهری میتوان سراغ کرد. ریاضی دان و متألّه مسیحی لایب نیتس در بحث مفصلی ادعا میکند که خطا بر قلم صنع نرفته است واگر نارسائی در عالم میبینیم اشکال از قامت ناساز بی اندام ماده است و نه تشریف زیبای خلقت خداوند. بعبارت دیگر ِاشکال از آفرینش نیست بلکه این نقص ذاتی ماده است که قابلیت پذیرش خیرمحض الهی را ندارد. پس شرور عدمی اند یعنی خدا فقط خیر و نیکی آفریده و جنس همه بدیها از نیستی است، همانطور که ظلمت نبود نور و مرگ نبود زندگی است>>>

This great moment of change

Swaying from this moment to another, I’m going from age to age, looking back with resentment or thrill, to define this singular instant that carries its weight on me, and I’m disfigured, haunted, stabbed, distorted, disappointed or content – over and over -- by times, by faces, by who I were. By who I didn’t want to be. I’m three. Running in between dying trees of my grandmother’s backyard, I’m surrounded by the shadows of the tallest walls of the world. I leap over dead roots of oaks and I touch the sadness of Grandma’s weeping tree. I pass by that broken seesaw that nobody else has ever shared with me, and the sky gets lost and the trail that could take me back to the house. It’s raining and I’m scared>>>