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دريغ است ايران بماند به جای!

دريغ است ايران بماند به جای
خوش ايرانِ ويران ز سر تا به پای!
خوش آن لحظه ی خوب بمباردمان
که آتش ببارد ز بام جهان
خوش آن دم که در گرد و خاک اتم
ز نقشه شود کلّه ی گربه گم
پس آنگه رسد نوبت دست و پا
که گردند از پيکر او جدا
چو بی دست و پا گردد و نيز سر
در آريم از او قلوه، معده، جگر
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Not again!

Should it be true that a President of Iraq has once again unilaterally declared the internationally recognized and binding treaty null and void -- moreover, has previous to this occasion talked about its nullification with as he puts it: “we have talked with our brothers Iranians before about it”. Then it would be yet another signal that the current players have not learned a thing from the history that some of them were intimately involved in. The Islamic Republic needs to take this provocation a lot more serious than it has which has been limited to tepid friendly denunciation statements by low level functionaries>>>

تولدت مبارک

این چند خط را برای تو، پدر عزیزم، بهرام بیضایی و به پاس تلاشهای خستگی ناپذیرت در عرصه ی فرهنگ و هنر کشورم ایران می نویسم . می دانم که بسیار خسته ای و بسیار رنجدیده و می دانم که زخمهای بسیار بر روح و روان داری از سوی آنها که گمان می کنند آمده اند تا برای ابد بمانند، اما نمی دانند که ضدیت با جریان رونده و شونده ی فرهنگ ایران امری است گذرا و آنچه می ماند، فکر است و اندیشه و نیروی خلاقه ی انسانی که خود خالق است. نیز بسیاری در لباس دوست و دوستدار که پنهانی و از سر تنگ نظری زخم می زنند، گاه از سر بخل و گاه از سر خودشیرینی برای این و یا آن دستگاه قدرت.>>>

Nobody's enemy

In the face of hostility, recently more and more Iranians find themselves stuttering when asked a very simple question: Where are you from? A proud people whose heritage has heavily influenced the Western culture, they become stuck somewhere between the I and the P: Many Iranians, in fear of retaliation or being scorn refuse to identify themselves as Iranians unless necessary; some opt to use the alternative Persian (the Greek, historical, transitory word for Iranian,) few even go as far as introducing themselves as Italian, Greek, Armenian, or Northern Iranians who fit the profile, as Irish, or other. This is a deeply disturbing phenomenon that is very typical and indicative of their existence in the United States, and one that is a growing trend, elongating parallel to the strange animosity that is brewing against them>>>

شباهت های ناگزیر!

مقایسه و همسان دانستن هرشخص و حکومتی با اسدالله لاجوردی و حکومت اسلامی ایران , شاید توهین به آن شخص و آن حکومت تلقی شود , من اما قصد چنین توهینی ,حتی به مایکل هایدن , و حکومتی چون حکومت جرج بوش ندارم , ضمن اینکه نمی توان بر شباهت های ناگزیر اینان , که در نگاه من شباهت های ناگزیر نوعی ازقلدری سیاسی , و تفکر و رفتار ارتجاعی ترین جناح مسیحیت و اسلام است , چشم پوشید. برای نمونه کاربرد و تایید شکنجه و شکنجه گری یکی از این شباهت هاست.>>>

Not an imperial year for the Empire

Being reflective; personally taking stock of a situation, or issue, seems to be antonymic to the nature of most people who prefer that matters be handled by leaders of groups they belong to. Whether the issue is government, war, crime, drug-addiction, or most anything else, they are quick to pass the buck, determining that it really isn't up to them to take stock... with that 50's mentality that "father knows best." And as a year comes to an end, instead of personally taking stock and weighing what is happening to their nation, Americans' choice is to keep the mind relaxed and let the President tell them in January's State of the Union speech "how things really are." Let the lies and b-s roll! >>>

Remember Jesus?

This is the first Christmas that I am without my children. But I am not sentimental about Christmas not having really grown up with it. As a child in Iran I remember having a tree in my room and singing carols in Mrs. Hekmat and The Community schools, the former run by a wonderful Jewish woman and the latter by old American missionaries. My mother having also attended the same missionary school run by American’s in Iran had a soft spot in her heart for Christmas and indulged me in my requests for a tree. But Christmas was, in truth, an import, something taken from the westerners and enjoyed, a novelty like Lego blocks. I am an atheist with very little tolerance for the pseudo-spirituality that has gripped the secular world of perfectly educated people>>>

Encounter

Once again, it was he the same pervert who followed me the moment I fell asleep. It’s hard to believe but it’s true. The minute I fall asleep, I have to run for my life. He’d never caught up with me yet because when I run out of breath and seconds before he reaches me, I trip and hit my head on a curb or run into traffic light pole on the street corner and wake up in sweat. I’m living a rerun episode of the same nightmare over and again. Last time as I was escaping from this maniac I said to myself, “I can’t go on like this, I can’t run forever especially in my sleep. The main purpose of sleep is to rest not to run! A rapist or a murderer he might be, I will face him.”

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بیماری خود برتربینی

ما ایرانی ها در آن آخرین سالهای عصر پهلوی بر این باور بودیم که این همسایه های ما – که غیر ایرانی اند - حالا حالا ها کار دارند تا به پای فرهنگ و سواد و دانش و ثروت ودیگر محسنات ما ایرانی ها برسند. حاصل ِ آن طرز تفکر که متاسفانه، فراگیر هم بود آن بود که ما ایرانی ها که خیلی بهتر از بقیه بودیم فقط یک درد داشتیم و آن درد "تنهایی" بود، هیچ ملتی در منطقه هم شان ما نبود.ما بودیم و خودمان و اگر قرار بود خود را با کسی مقایسه کنیم باید به خیلی دوردستها شاید اروپا، آنهم نه تمام قاره، و یا به امریکا نگاه می کردیم تا شاید ملتی در خور ِ قیاس می یافتیم. >>>

My Tameless Trickster

with bouncing steps and smell of wild
she walks on the streets cornered
by tickle for trembling rapture
halts in the middle of a side show
half ogre, half angel, fully androgynous
dressed in psychedelic red and blue
baggy suit with big buttons
she laughs like a hyena

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Elena

When you are writing a series it is fatal to stop. If it takes too long between episodes readers, even the most avid fans, tend to lose track of the story. When you take as long as I have this time they lose interest completely. So it is with a very humble amount of hope of recovering my readers’ interest that I am writing this piece. The only thing I have going for me is that I write in a genre in which the plot and coherence of a story matters little. What matters is how well the writing conveys sex. Basically if the reader is turned on by what I write I have succeeded. So I will give you a Christmas episode from a while back that I have wanted to share for a long time and now that I am free from the linear confines of diary writing I will indulge you.>>>

قهرمانان

آقا این واقعاً چیز عجیبی است، از آن روزی که ما پا را توی این آمریکا گذاشتیم، از هر پنج مرد ایرانی که ملاقات کردیم، دوتاشون ادعا داشتند که در ایران قهرمان شنا بوده واز دست شاهپورغلامرضا (ع) یا فلان تیمسار مدال قهرمانی گرفته اند! قول میدهم برای شما هم یکی دوبار این اتفاق افتاده باشد. آدم از تعداد قهرمانان گمنام آن مملکت مبهوت میشود! اولین سئوالی که پیش میاید آنستکه چرا اصولاً ارتش در کار شنا و ورزش دخالت میکرد، و اگر خیلی عرضه داشت زیر کون خودش را باید بیل میزد، که تحت توجهات ملوکانه کار مملکت به اینجا نکشد؟ غلط عرض میکنم؟>>>

The wild soul

Ever since her tragic death in a car accident in 1967, Forough Farrokhzad has been drawing thousands of visitors to the Zahir-al-Doleh cemetery in Tehran. They come to lay flowers, recite poetry and light candles on the grave of the poet who has become an inspiration to women not only in Iran, but wherever women’s rights are severely curtailed. If she had survived her car crash, the poet would have celebrated her 72nd birthday this year. Forough Farrokhzad was one of those poets for whom Poetry (with a capital P) was not solely about the "writing" of "poems" or versification, but about living life to the full without compromise or equivocation>>>

شهر آرمانی «دموکراسی»

اتوبوسی که به سوی مقصد دموکراسی روان است، اگر فقط بخشی از مردمان را با خود ببرد و بخشی ديگر را اجازه سوار شدن ندهد، هرگز ملت را به مقصد نخواهد رساند. شرط وصول به مقصد دموکراسی برای يک ملت آن است که وسيلهء نقليه ای که بر آن سوار می شود اعمال کنندهء تبعيض نباشد. اتوبوسی که بر در آن نوشته شده باشد «ورود سياه پوستان ممنوع است» هرگز به مقصد يک جامعهء واقعاً دموکراتيک نخواهد رسيد. وسيله ای که بر پيشانی اش نوشته شده باشد ما به سوی مقصد «جمهوری اسلامی» حرکت کرده ايم، خود، هم از آغاز، اعلام داشته است که «جمهوری اسلامی» نمی تواند شهر آرزوئی دموکراسی خواهان باشد؛ چرا که در آن مقصد بخشی از مردم بر بخشی ديگر اولويت و برتری خواهند داشت.>>>

Funding Democracy or war?

The ‘Iran Democracy Fund’ was recently warded $60 million. There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason to this re-appropriation, especially since more than two dozen Iranian American and human rights groups appealed to Congress to eliminate the program given that the program had backfired, undermining democracy efforts in Iran and leading to wider repression of activists. It therefore begs the question why the United States would deliberately waste tax payers’ money while causing hardship on aspiring democrats in Iran? Perhaps the answer lies in the lead up to the Iraq invasion.>>>