Life

Tehran's Coming Disaster

"Baba jan, look, there is so much they could be doing, that is basic, simple, established read it and do it type protocols for this sort of thing, that they could have rescued far more people than they did. It is absolutely un-necessay for this many to have died." he replied. Later that week, in the shiny offices of his San Jose consultation firm Enviro Safetech, I spoke with Jamali about exactly what the government of Iran could have done better to rescue more people than were saved in Bam. Jamali outlined a basic plan that now seems all but elemental, and not only sounds obvious, but happens to be backed by the emergency response policy here in the US.>>>

Blinding lights

The heart of rabbit is pounding hard as she cruises along the bushes to get home. With every single step, she knows that any moment she can be trapped. This forest is full of wolves. Hungry, angry, devastated wolves waiting for her tender flesh. Wolves already salivating at the thought of jumping at her and seeing the extreme of fright in her eyes. But despite all this, all this fear and paralyzing ansgt, she has to go on. Simply because life goes on...and she has to live right here in forest. The story is a simple metaphor for police cars cruising the streets of Los Angeles nowadays. I am not sure if it is the state deficit or the global recession that has put the pressure on them. Turning them into non-human predators scanning every single movement>>>

NIAC beats AIPAC

It was David versus Goliath: the classic underdog matchup. In the battle over a Congressional resolution calling for war with Iran, the lines were drawn between the smaller grassroots Iranian-American movement (NIAC) on one side and the hawkish American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) mega-lobby on the other. No one expected the Iranian Americans and their coalition partners to be able to stand up to the belligerent giant intent on amplifying hostility with Iran. But with the Congressional session expiring this week, our proverbial David in Washington has delivered the knock-out blow to the pro-war forces' Goliath. The Iran war resolution is down for the count. Yes, you read that right - NIAC beat AIPAC >>>

The Hollow Hills of Nain

If you travel a hundred miles or so eastwards out of Isfahan, through a landscape of pink-coloured mountains and desert wastes inhabited by strange willowy trees and clumps of yellow grass, you come inexorably to the ancient city of Nain. Situated on the very edge of the great Kavir desert, Nain was once an important station on the Silk Road. Today, however, the concrete cubes of Modernity have lent it an air of apathy and neglect. Only the magnificent fortress of Nareen Ghaleh, towering over the city like a broken tooth, still speaks proudly of a rich and illustrious past. But Nain has secrets not disclosed to the casual visitor. On the main road leading to the centre is a low sandy hillside, honey-combed with countless caverns>>>

Forget pneumonia, V's pregnant!

VideoBlog>>>

Setting you free

Imagine me going to a trip to say… Italy, then getting very emotional seeing this person who is very hot, and say… kiss him once, a deep French kiss, a very passionate kiss. Let’s also assume that it stays by a kiss and it does not go further (it’s just an assumption, we all know that if a kiss is that passionate, it can have some other implications…). Further, we can assume that I have a relationship and I decide not telling my partner about the KISS. In a very odd way though, the minute I arrive back home, my partner has an idea that something has happened. He will then ask me: “is there something you want to tell me?” I will then say: “no.” Let’s analyze this for a minute, shall we? What is the truth? Am I lying? >>>

Effective control

Too often Great Powers assumed that the world was their playground. They drew lines on a geographic map, creating political entities -“facts on the ground”. This meddling in regional politics has come to haunt the world in the form of multiple border disputes. The Powers ignored the fact that no inhabited land is a “clean slate” and an unacceptable line in the sand sows the seeds of future conflicts. Thus border conflicts have become part of the tradition of the postcolonial world. One such dispute is brewing between Iran and the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf over the status of three islands, Abu Musa, the Greater Tunb and the Lesser Tunb >>>

نوعی تحقیر ملی

فردای دستگیری آيمی گودمن و زنان چپ فمینیست در آمریکا، ما در فرانسه به علت توفان، نه تلفن داریم و نه اینترنت، سر کار هستم و هنگام تنفس، به سالن استراحت کارمندان می روم و در حالی که سیبی گاز می زنم در سکوت به ایرن نگاه می کنم که مثل همیشه دارد روزنامه لوموند را از اول تا آخر می خواند. ازش می پرسم: "خبرای جالب داری برامون؟" و ایرن داستان "آنا گلدی" را به طور خلاصه برایمان تعریف می کند. سرگذشت آنا گلدی، ساحره ای سرانجام محبوب را در روزنامه لوموند ببینید. آنا گلدی، زنی که روزی به جرم جادوگری محکوم شد و سرش را با گیوتین از تنش جدا کردند حالا پس از دویست و بیست و شش سال پارلمان سوئیس به بیگناهی او رأی می دهد!>>>