Archive - 2009 - Article

Good New - Bad News

First the Good News: We – The Iranian Immigrants of all ages - just made a great showing in New York, of representing our much oppressed countrymen inside Iran. I was there for both days and certainly saw enough to know the majority of Iranians will build on their cumulative showing and will do even better in the future. I am certain of that – especially now that I see so many of our youth, breaking the old taboos and getting involved in politics relating to Iran.>>>

هوس

صدای پارس سگها، تاریکی شب، بیگانگی با محیط و بیشتر از همه خشم و سراسیمگی او را درمانده کرده بود. هرچه تلاش می کرد نمی توانست در آن فضای کم نور عقزبه های ساعت را ببیند اما می دانست چیزی به طلوع خورشید نمانده و بزودی شب شکسته و روز آغاز خواهد شد. نمی توانست پیش از برآمدن آفتاب خود را به شهر برساند و در روشنایی روز هم نمی شد با آن حال و روز و سر و وضع در برابر چشم مردم ظاهر شود. تازه فرضا هم که خود را به خانه می رساند مگر چقدر فرصت داشت در آنجا بماند و به سر و وضع خود برسد.>>>

درحسرت ُهرم آفتاب

وسردمان بود ما،
در عنفوان بلوغ.
تب ِ داغی دربطن تن داشتیم و
لرزش موجی بر جدار جان؛
و در انبوه ِ ازدحام ِ شهر شلوغ
ما مدام سردمان بود >>>

The cheating card

For weeks, if not months, Obama borrowing a page or two from George Bush's ghastly playbook, worked hard to create a "coalition of the willing." 1) The post-election unrest and its aftermath involvement of security forces in Iran provided a golden opportunity for Obama's administration to rally a united front of the imperialist nations against Iran's nuclear program and at its center the uranium enrichment industry. 2) In Eastern Europe, Obama scrapped the plans for a ballistic missile defense system with an eye to attract Russia to the coalition and finally, 3) he slapped tariffs on Chinese tires to pressure them to remain a silent opposition>>>

Akmed Strikes Back

I was getting on a flight to start my vacation. When I approached my seat, a nice Texan lady in the seat next to mine started eyeing me with a bit of suspicion. "What's wrong with you?... Your hair is all... dark and ethnic. Your eyes are so... not blue... so demonic. You look so... unlike us. Oh my god! I'm scared." Before I could react she began screaming frantically: "Marshal! Air marshal!" A mean-looking large man and a tiny one trying to look mean by chewing a toothpick jumped out of their seats, pulled out their Tasers, approached and assumed shooting postures. "Don't move, scumbag," yelled the large one>>>

The News

There are good days and bad days, even good years and bad years. But then, there are years like the year my son was born. It was the same year my father died. Who knows how these years are supposed to be called? A simple ringtone started this all. It was my mother. Father’s stroke was two months behind us and everything, like in fairy tales, was going to work out just fine. Father was going to wake up one morning, remembering us and remembering who he was and we were going to talk about the past the same way we used to tell a story with happy ending>>>

زاهد مکار

یارب ار زاهد مکار نهد چهره به خاک
نیک داند که کند خاک پلیدی را پاک

دامن آلوده، تن آلوده، ردا آلوده
این بود زاد ره رجعت او در فتراک

ظاهرش پاک و درون ناک و عمل در لاک است
نییت‌اش ناسره، معجون ریا، جوهره ناک >>>

Fuzzy Logic, fuzzy thought, and fuzzy Dardedel

Strolling on a foggy night,
Talking to Zadeh, a witty scientist,
I discovered how fuzzy our minds are.
When I told him that my lover wore red silk
He asked me: 'What shade of red?'
I said: 'Well, it was not maroon or magenta or pink,
But a sexy red just a little lighter than the stoplight
That freezes people in their tracks.' >>>

A military strike would be a disaster

Why would anyone be shocked by the so-called revelation that another uranium enrichment facility exists somewhere near Qom? It amazes me how even Iranians of the Diaspora, who know the Islamist regime well, seem distressed by it all. I am not claiming to have known any more than anyone else about this, but I certainly never believed that the Iranian government was capable of being transparent about anything, least of all about its nuclear program. Deception is a form of negotiation. And transparency is as alien a concept to this regime as fairness and justice>>>

انقلاب مجازی

ایدئولوژی اینترنت فردگرا و دمكرات و حتی بی سالار است ولی از نزدیك كه نگاه كنید می­بینید كه این فقط همان ایدئولوژی كار است نه حقیقتش. این وسیله در عمل به هیچ­وجه مروج توسعهٌ یكسرهٌ آزادی فردی نیست و در شبكهٌ وسیع اینترنت فرد بسیار تنهاتر و بی دفاع تر از آنیست كه تبلیغ می­شود. این تصور كه وسیله ای تكنیكی پیدا شده كه كار سیاسی را آسان یا بی مخاطره می­كند، جای كوشش و سازماندهی در صحنهٌ جامعه را می­گیرد و آنرا نالازم می­سازد حرف مفت است. دمكراسی با این تكنیك و آن تكنیك تضمین نمی­شود، فقط با همت و هشیاری مردم است كه شكل می­گیرد و بر پا می­ماند>>>

The Men of the Islamic Republic

I was one of the thousands of protestors who gathered in front of the United Nations on September 23 to say NO to Ahmadinejad and yes to democracy in Iran. We were not 400 people as CNN claimed. There were thousands of us, from different groups that had gathered at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, from the Mojahedin and the royalists to the green movement supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi and Karroubi and independents like me, who came together or rather, appeared at different stages to show our support for a righteous cause, to support our people’s quest and struggle for democracy>>>

Starstruck

Since they were children in Iran, the sisters Shirin and Nasrin Asgari dreamt of becoming opera singers. They spent their playtime pretending be Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music. Later they made friends with Kamelia Dara, who had also been training to sing since early childhood, and practiced together. Yet hard work and ambition could only take the aspiring artists so far. They quickly realized they needed better training than they could find in Iran. Opera is rooted in Europe; you can’t perfect it in Tehran any more than you can perfect the Persian radif of music in Vienna. So the three came to Austria on tourist visas, hoping they could pass the auditions to be admitted as students>>>

The Earth Will Be Pawing

The words are pealing
on a moist Tuesday morning
to be a reminder of the mortality
of all. The pain, a burning ocean causes
while it pours through the fist,
and the fist pushes through the heart. >>>

In Praise of Big Noses

I am the only one of four sisters
who hasn’t gone under the knife.
I resisted the pleas of my aunt and sisters
to become “more beautiful,” “more you.”
I’ve kept my stately proboscis
in-tact—choosing not to excise its grandeur.
It suits me, I suppose—evidence of my father,
those people who live in the dryer, hotter climes >>>

Balance of deterrence, or a catastrophe?

After several years of IAEA inspections, accusations of a clandestine production of nuclear arms, UN security council sanctions and even threats of preemptive strikes, Iran continues its nuclear program. The question remains whether the possibility of Iran joining the Middle East nuclear arms family would destabilize the region. Or would it stabilize the balance of deterrence and with that only empower Iran’s position without causing a security threat to Israel and the US interests in the region? This review essay focuses on these questions and provides a critical analysis on these issues>>>