LEFT

چپ پسامدرن

اصلاحات و عصر جدید پسا مدرن گرایی

30-Nov-2007 (2 comments)
تاریخ چپ گرایی در ایران پس از انقلاب تا پیش از دوم خرداد صحنه نقش آفرینی چپ های سنتی بود. دوم خرداد اولین فرصتی بود که چپ مدرن توانست عملا قدرت را به دست بگیرد. با این حال ۸ سال اصلاحات به دلیل تندروی هایی که خاص چپ مدرن بود شکست خورد و اصلاحات با یک بن بست روبرو شد . بن بستی که تا امروز هم ادامه دارد. ام...>>>

AHMADINEJAD

نبرد روستائیان و روشنفکران؟!

رئیس جمهور عملاً چشم امید بر طبقه متوسّط شهری ایران بسته است

29-Nov-2007 (2 comments)
سفرهای استانی رئیس جمهو از منظر های متفاوتی مورد توجّه منتقدین دولت قرار گرفته است. اینکه این سفرها برغم هزینه دار بودن و دور کردن رئیس جمهور از رسیدن به امور مملکت داری، همچنان از آنها دست نکشیده است پرسش درخور تامّلی بوده و ذهن نقاّد را به خود مشغول می کند؟امّا از جنبه ای دیگر نباید از خاطر دور داشت شعار ِ اساسی که منجر به پیروزی وی در انتخابات گذشته بر حریفان شد مسئله مردم گرایی و حمایت از اقشار کم در آمد بود .>>>

ADVICE

Don't immigrate to the US

If you have the choice to immigrate to more civilized countries, do so

29-Nov-2007 (106 comments)
I immigrated to the US well before the so-called “Iranian Revolution of 1979”. I always thought I had one leg up ahead of those Iranians that “had to run away” from the tyranny of the Ayatollahs -- to anywhere, including the US. Being born in Tehran, I watched the flock of Iranians from Khorassan, Ahvaz, Esfehan, Yazd, Kerman and Shiraz to the US - you know – the ones we used to call Daahaati – if you were born and raised in Tehran. I used to shun those Daahaatis immigrating from Iran in the aftermath of post-1979, thinking “what are they doing here”? >>>

INTERVIEW

Targeting Iran

David Barsamian spoke to Foaad Khosmood about his 2007 trip to Iran and his latest book Targeting Iran.

29-Nov-2007 (10 comments)
No, those are just excuses. I’m talking about the strategic reason which is as I just described it. In order to perpetuate US hegemony over the world and domination and control, any state that says no to Washington is singled out. And a state that is particularly rich in oil and natural gas has even more of an attraction to the United States.>>>

WHATEVER

Kharistani envoy visits Iran

Kharistanis are apparently some very close relatives of the Jews, not Iranians

28-Nov-2007 (22 comments)
After the publication of my article about planet Kharistan, the new envoy of Kharistan to planet earth urgently contacted the Iranian authorities and offered their sincerest apologies to the Iranian government, the supreme leader, especially the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the great people of Iran, for any possible offence that an illegitimate lunatic, code-named Ben Madadi, supposedly working for the enemies of Kharistan and Iran, has brought to the dignity and honour of the proud people of Iran. >>>

NUCLEAR

No rights no peace

Ms. Ebadi’s insistence that Iran surrender sovereign rights would do little to preserve peace

28-Nov-2007 (42 comments)
One can not argue with Ms. Ebadi’s statement that nuclear energy is the absolute right of every nation and that all nations including Iran and the US must uphold and respect international laws. But her declaration that “the United States cannot have the right to deal with Iran outside the framework of international law” and insistence that Iran must abandon its rights under an international treaty to enrich uranium exposes her naïve unawareness of the very facts leading to Iran’s referral to the UN Security Council which was scrupulously executed by the United States through coercion and intimidation outside that very framework of international law.>>>

MUSICAL

Phantom unmasked

Ramin Karimloo speaks on his lead role in “Phantom of the Opera”

28-Nov-2007 (2 comments)
I have always greatly admired Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Musical shows, From Jesus Christ SuperStar, Evita to Cats all have been great international success’ for more than three decades running regularly on the London Stage and elsewhere worldwide. Ramin Karimloo has been performing Phantom of the Opera's title role since September 10, 2007, and this year will also mark the Phantom's 21st anniversary in London's West End. I was happy to interview Karimloo on his new challenge in a demanding yet rewarding role of The Phantom of the Opera. >>>

ADMIRER

Salaaam Iran

A story was told of a land filled with gold

28-Nov-2007 (30 comments)
My road to Iran began with the flames of September 11 and led me two years later to Forough's poem on light. And so it has been a road suffused in light, albeit two different kinds of light. The history of Iran has been suffused in light but it has also been veiled in darkness. I am an Eastern European Jew so I know well the ways of both darkness and light, and still I believe that Light will find the way >>>

WAR

Allied inavsion of Iran

Who is going to actually fight the allies if they enter Iran?

28-Nov-2007 (65 comments)
As an Iranian, I can't wonder if we are headed towards similar events that took place when allies invaded Italy in 1943, after the country was already invaded by the Nazis? But before I get to that I want to write a paragraph about "Fools". The most dominant characteristic of fools is that they never fail to behave like fools. The fools in charge of Iran are no exception>>>

LOVE

رنگ آمیزی چشمان تو

ابر و باد لباس های زمینی مان را از تنمان بیرون می آورد

28-Nov-2007
آرام از کنار خانه ی تو گذشتم بی آنکه درش را بزنم .آرام بی آنکه حتی گل های آفتابگردان سرشان را بگردانند و نیم نگاهی به رد پای من بکنند .از کنار نرده های خانه ات که می گذشتم به رنگ آمیزی در و دیوار نگاه کردم و به یاد آن روزی افتادم که برای نقاشی صدایم کرده بودی . ساعت نه صبح بود که زنگ خانه ام را زدی .تازه میز صبحانه را جمع کرده بودم ، فنجان قهوه به دست در را باز کردم .با کلاه حصیری قهوه ای رنگ و لباس کار ایستاده بودی .دوچرخه ات را به نرده خانه تکیه داده بودی باصدای نرمت گفتی هنوز آماده نشده ای ؟>>>

CHARACTER

Iran beyond Iranians

We are humble people. It is in our blood

27-Nov-2007 (21 comments)
Architecture is the art of living which is documented sometimes in the heart of a rock or it is molded as a mud brick or raised in the shape of a dome. Studying the architecture of a nation gives one insights on its peopleís personality and their characteristics. Iranian architecture is humble, pragmatic, and progressive as much of its creators the Iranians. I am not talking about the bad copies of Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, or Le Corbusierís master pieces in northern Tehran. I am talking about the architecture of the old fabric of Yazd, Isfahan, Shiraz, Boushehr, Kerman, Mahan, Semnan, Kashan, Zanjan, Tabriz, and so on>>>

MEDIA

What has happened to us?

Where blowing up children is no news?

27-Nov-2007 (14 comments)
Early Saturday morning, poured myself a cup of coffee lazily threw myself on the sofa and turned the TV on, Aljazeera’s news. One suicide bomb after the other had torn people into pieces in Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan. When the news got to Afghanistan, I felt sick to my stomach. This bomb had taken its victims among children. 6 kids were blown up. The faces of their mothers and fathers came in front of my eyes, crying, pulling their hairs, kneeling on the ground, their faces covered with tears, blood and mud. This is not any thing out of the ordinary any more. It is part of every day life in Afghanistan and Iraq. And exactly this is the problem. We have got used to it.>>>

AUTHOR

The nature of freedom

A conversation with Manoucher Parvin on his latest novel, "Alethophobia"

27-Nov-2007 (2 comments)

Recently Dr. Parvin sent me a copy of his just-published novel, Alethophobia. Before reading it, I always assumed that the ultimate sanctuary of truth is the world of academia. Apparently this is not always so. The main character in Alethophobia, Professor Pirooz, tells how the fear of truth (alethophobia) affected the lives of a nexus of students, faculty and administrators on the seemingly serene campus of a midwestern university in the 1980’s, and how it threatened to compromise academic freedom as well as his own career. I offered to interview Dr. Parvin about the book, and he agreed. Since we have not yet met in person, this conversation was carried out via phone and email

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POETRY

Fal-e-Ghahveh
27-Nov-2007 (3 comments)
Why are you scared of me?
You say it is my eyes
But my darling, my eyes are only a reflection of yours
Why will you no longer hold me?
You say it is my pain
But what pain I have, you have given me
It dripped from you and I drank it up
It sustains me
And as I look down into the cup from which it pours
At the dark residue it leaves burned at the bottom >>>

ANNAPOLIS

Late-night re-runs

Same old peace talks, again!

26-Nov-2007 (15 comments)
The Annapolis summit is not about peace between Israel and the Palestinians. It is about the Bush Administration wanting to show the Chinese and Russians and Iranians that it can still command other governments to a round table. The summit will sink because Israel and Palestinians cannot have peace. If they were capable of or desirous of peace, then they would have consummated something a long time ago, just like Jordan and Egypt did with Israel. This summit is designed to achieve nothing and it will not achieve a thing other than to let the participants say, “we tried.” Nothing ventured, nothing lost. >>>