OBSERVATIONS

Good question

When is the next war with Iran?

09-Nov-2007 (34 comments)
Recently, I visited one of my relatives who had returned from Iraq to Iran for good. I asked about a limited war like “surgical strike” by Israeli or American air force. He said, “That will not happen. Israelis know not to engage directly with Iran, since they know they will instigate the wrath of Iran. If Israeli’s attack Iran, the Iranians have quite good map of all the Israeli nuclear installation and they know where to hit it with great accuracy and minimum charge and cause great pain to them. They always can say you attacked our civilian nuclear program, we attacked your military nuclear program. Besides that, Israelis have the Americans in their hand and they can force the American to do what they want to do.>>>

WITNESS

روز های آفتابی

نگاهی زیبا و موشکافانه دارد به دوره ای از تاریخ ِ گوشه ای از کشور مان

09-Nov-2007
قاچاقچی های مسلح، که سیگار و مشروب حمل می کردند، برای رهائی از تعقیب قایق های حفاظت شرکت نفت، شروع به تیر اندازی می کنند، ولی به دلیل رسیدن نیروی کمکی کاری از پیش نمی برند و با محموله ی خود به دام می افتتند ....اما حاصل اندوهبار آن از کار افتادن قلبی بود که شور عشق در ترنم طپش های آن جاری بود وجز عطوفت و مهر ذخیره ای نداشت، و شوق انتظاری شیرین در آن موج می زد. >>>

BEAUTY

Speaking of Angelina Jolie

The concept of extreme beauty and its power

09-Nov-2007 (22 comments)
One of the things we as Iranians have in common with the West (surprised?) is the appreciation and an almost religious worship of extreme beauty. So strong is this in Iranians, that many of us can feel outright physical pain when we are confronted with "heavy duty beauty". To Iranians, the attainment of beauty is looked at as a birthright that even God (or Allah) cannot take away. Historically the pursuit of beauty has been well documented. In books and literature, art and architecture, and even as we have seen recently, Tehran has become the plastic surgery capital of the world, as big nosed beauties, do anything to mend the seemingly singular defining (obvious at least) flaw between their flawless doe eyes.>>>

MONEY

When CDOs kill CEOs

Crises in subprime mortgages

09-Nov-2007
Up to now two CEOs of fortune 100 companies have fallen from grace because of the collapse in CDO markets and more shoes may have to drop before this crisis is over! So what is going on?! This is my take of the situation: CDO stands for the Collateral debt obligation. We don't need to get to the technical definition of it. So much to say that it is a financial derivative instrument. Now, since Black and Scholes published their paper in mid 70s people know how to price the derivatives. Here is finance 101. >>>

IRAN

Life goes on in Tehran

(in a messy way)

08-Nov-2007 (24 comments)

I am taking a break right now. In which I want to write about life goes on in Tehran, written by a friend of a friend of a friend on the net: "To show that regardless of what any president would have you imagine, despite what any media outlet would have you believe, life goes on in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran"

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PROFILE

Drawing the past

Marjane Satrapi and "Persepolis"

08-Nov-2007 (3 comments)
It is unusual for the French press to agree on anything, divided across the political divide as they are. But when it comes to hailing Marjane Satrapi’s new animated movie, ‘Persepolis’, they speak as one. From the right wing newspaper ‘Le Figaro’, to left wingers ‘Humanité’ and ‘Libération’ and centrist ‘Le Monde’, all have hailed Satrapi’s movie as a work of pure excellence and highly successful in breaking down stereotypes on Iranians and Iran. Gloria Steinem has even gone so far as to proclaim that with this film, Marjane Satrapi “may have given us a new genre” while ‘USA Today’ called it “a mighty achievement”>>>

OPPOSITION

Destroying Iran

Shortcomings of extremist secular nationalism

08-Nov-2007 (74 comments)
Today, a great many Iranian opposition blogs and websites trumpet the secular nationalist ideology as the flag of opposition to the current Islamist government of Iran. The pre-historic glory of Persepolis is the other component to the complex Persian/Islamic binary of modern Iran. In its extreme form, this ideology is harshly anti-Islamic, denouncing the current IRI servants of the Arabs who have forced the yoke of Islam upon the Persian masses who would yearn to cast off this alien ideology. Such rhetoric may serve well in riling up opposition to the current government, but it is grossly inaccurate in its analysis of Iranian society and politics>>>

WAR

 به ۹ دليل

بوش به ايران حمله خواهد کرد

08-Nov-2007 (31 comments)
سردبير «القدس العربی» در مقاله ی خود توضيح می دهد که بعد از تابستان امسال، ديپلماسی غربی دچار نوعی تنش شده است؛ و همه ی نشانه ها حاکی از آن است که اين ديپلماسی ناچار است که به طور خاص به خاورميانه و شرايط متغيّر آن نظر بدوزد. او اضافه می کند که در خاورميانه، نقطه ی تمرکز، ايران خواهد بود: هدف فوری آمريکا. او از يک تحرّک اوج گيرنده ی سياسی، ديپلماتيک، مدياتيک، و نظامی بی سابقه عليه ايران می نويسد. چرا که فرصت چندانی برای جرج بوش باقی نمانده است؛ و او بايد هرچه می خواهد عليه ايران انجام دهد را به سرعت عملی کند. >>>

EXTREMES

98% Muslim

PART 2 of "Where do we go from here?"

08-Nov-2007 (13 comments)
You and your generation have been living under the most brutal, savage and radical regime on the planet. For the past thirty years Islam have been forced on you from the barrel of a gun and more importantly you have been bombarded with their propaganda day in day out, and forced to learn their ideology at school. However I am yet to find a faithful Muslim among you. If what your claim about Islam being forced on our ancestors is right then you all should have become good little Muslims as well. But we can all see, this enforcement and brutality have not only did not win you over but it also had an opposite effect on you. >>>

CHOICE

 گل  یا  گور

دنیا اگر گلستانی باشد، ایران می تواند گلی از آن و اگر گورستانی، گوری از آن خواهد بود

08-Nov-2007 (one comment)
آیا کشور ما بالاخره خواهد توانست بدون گسترش بی وقفه رشته های گوناکون پیوستگی وهمبستگی با کاروانهای پیشرفت وتمدن در دنیای کنونی راهی کم هزینه به سوی توسعه ای با شاخص های جها ن متمدن قرن 21 بازکند؟ کسانی براین باورند یا چنین مینمایانند که مصالح ایرانی آزاد وبا ثبات درتقابل آشتی ناپذیر بامنافع حال و آتی کشورهای پیشرفته سرمایه داری غرب قراردارد.>>>

POLITICS

Under the umbrella

Why Iranian opposition refuses to take responsibility?

07-Nov-2007 (3 comments)
Many of the known figures from well recognized Iranian political groups and individuals who have been residing outside the country for many years and while keeping their opposing views and stance against Islamic regime, they have not been able to perform as they expected their departure from the country would allow them to do. Part of this issue can be blamed on the style of living in western countries which consumes most of the time of any individual to support their own life and paying for the bills in order to avoid putting themselves under debt of any source.>>>

AUTHOR

خواننده ای درون من

اسیر گاری خاطره ها

07-Nov-2007
در مثلث نویسنده، متن و خواننده، خواننده نیرویی خدایی دارد، زیرا اگر او متن را نخواند، هیچ چیز به وجود نخواهد آمد و نویسنده درون حروف بی جان متن خود گرفتار می ماند. به علاوه آغاز کار خواننده به پایان نگارش متن موکول نمی شود، بلکه نویسنده به محض اینکه قلم بر می گیرد خواننده ی خود را در ذهن دارد و تصویر خواننده هرگز در جریان کار نگارش ناپدید نمی شود. به عبارت دیگر، هر نویسنده، درون خود خواننده ای دارد که نه تنها به او گوش می دهد، بلکه هم چنین با او سخن می گوید، و حتی گاهی چون همبازی خیالی کودکان، دارای نام است.>>>

AUTHOR

The Reader Within Me

Captive to the cart of my memories

07-Nov-2007 (3 comments)
In the triangle of author, text, and reader, the reader has a divine power. If one does not pick up the text, nothing comes alive and the author remains trapped in the lifeless letters of the text. Moreover, the reader's role does not begin when a text is finished. As soon as authors pick up pens, they have their readers in mind, and the image of the reader never vanishes during the writing process. Every author has a reader within who not only knows the art of listening, but also speaks and, like a child's imaginary playmate, sometimes even has a name>>>

POETRY

Hold the Receiver
07-Nov-2007 (2 comments)
I know your ring; who else would call on the first day
of Spring to wish me Happy New Year,
with seven S’s laid upon a table I have seen
in photographs embedded in your email

I hold the receiver
flush to the ear that hears the clearest,
my right, lips pursed at the mike.
I would whisper but for static
in the line >>>

POETRY

Recursions and resignations
07-Nov-2007 (2 comments)
You said, "I'll come back."
As the train was snarling and hissing
At first refusing to budge
Then abruptly yanking you away
And you waved and shouted,
"See you later, see you later."
Remember? >>>