But, why?

The collaboration of various sectors of society with the centers of power and the religious authorities can be attributed to ignorance, and one could say that every society has its share of ignorant individuals, who are used and exploited by influential and powerful elements or its ecclesiastic orders. But what about the group that calls itself progressive, intelligent, on the intellectual vanguard, supporter of the people, and such names, and its claim to moral authority has filled every ear? Should we close our eyes to the truth that almost every political organization, whether on the left or the right, religious or secular, nationalistic or otherwise, in the most self-serving way have colluded in this suppression? >>>

Dream On

I take my prayers and start
To kneed them into creamy dreams
And from that rich texture
I will sing encapsulating songs from the void in my heart
To wrap them into bitter sweets
Then I wakefully task myself again
To taking these dreams and with them
Create a hammock that sieves my anger -into singing daffodils >>>

In Iranian eyes

The findings of the WorldPublicOpinion.org (WPO) and Terror Free Tomorrow (TFT) surveys offer two messages to those wanting to see change in Iran's policies: (1) Iranians want their government to talk with the U.S. about specific issues and approve of their government's making policy concessions on both regional issues and its nuclear program in order to achieve normalized relations with the U.S. (2) At the same time, Iranians are relatively content with their government's responsiveness to their needs. The shortcomings many Iranians perceive in their economy are not widely blamed on President Ahmadinejad's government. While most Iranians reject the idea of a religious autocracy, most are not unhappy with the way they see their leaders being chosen and governing the country>>>

The Iran I saw

As painful as it may seem to the nearly three million expatriate Iranians in Diaspora and their few million brethrens, highly educated westernized elites and technocrats inside Iran, there are independent studies that if a national referendum were to be held in Iran today that the majority of the people, against their own long-term interests and without their cognizance, would still cast their ballots in favor of retaining the current Islamic Republic, perhaps with some in-house reforms. When the conditions are ripened for a fundamental political change, as history has repeatedly indicated-the case in point is the overthrow of the Pahlavi Dynasty- a society would rise to rid itself of the incumbent system, irrespective of the hitherto harsh repressive measures imposed on it>>>

Welcome to London! Just kidding.

A few weeks ago I returned from close to four months of fieldwork in Iran conducting research for my doctoral thesis. However, I and the 460 other IranAir passengers were caught off guard by an unwelcome greeting from UK immigration officers. As we set foot off the airplane, our passports were checked, an experience I have never had flying in from other countries. Having just spent hours in Imam Khomeini airport, I was witness to the thorough and professional examination of passports and Visas; thus, I could not understand the logic behind this act except harassment of those who decide to fly with IranAir. >>>

حرکت بیباکانۀ پوتین

آیا روسیه ، با یک ارتش دو میلیونی ، تکنولوژیِ پیشرفته نظامی-فضائی و هزاران بمب اتمی قصد دارد گرجستان را ببلعد؟ آیا پوتین همانند استالین ، می خواهد گرجستان را زیر چکمه هایش خُرد کرده و به بقیۀ جمهوری های جداشده از اتحاد جماهیر شوروی ، پیامی بفرستد؟ آیا پوتین از اینکه آمریکا از یک طرف گرفتار جنگِ عراق و افغانستان و از طرف دیگر در یک بحران شدید اقتصادی دست و پا میزند ، فرصت را برای اعمال نفوذ مناسب یافته است؟ با اتکا به تفسیر متخصصین آمریکائیِ جمهوری های جدا شده از روسیه شوروی ، علت اصلی درگیری آمریکا و روسیه در گرجستان ، انرژی (نفت و گاز) کشورهای همجوار دریای خزر می باشد و در این رودر روئی ، پوتین موفق شده که بوش را مات کند. >>>

No hero

The Republican presidential candidate John Sidney McCain III is a con man. The term “con man” comes from “confidence man,” an individual who swindles his victim by first gaining the mark’s trust. Having nothing to do with the word convict, a prisoner, nowadays, the term “con man” refers to anyone who is all about deceit and lies, it is about passing fiction for reality, or inventing a myth to bolster one’s image. John McCain is a “con man” extraordinaire: his Vietnam War legacy as accepted by supporters, the media and even his sheepish opponents is not what it seems. McCain fancies himself as war hero. His supporters do not waste any moment to remind the public that he was an ex-POW (prisoner of war), who spent time at the “Hanoi Hilton,” the infamous Hoa Lo Prison, where the North Vietnamese held the American prisoners of war>>>

Smart choice

McCain's choice for VP was a very smart move. This presidential campaign will be something to remember and something quite interesting for future political advisors and analysts to ponder about. What Mr McCain did was to borrow almost everything Mr Obama was successful with, without giving up any of what he already had. McCain was known for a few things, whether true or not! He was, and is, quite an old man, a white Christian, which bodes well with most Americans (who are also white Christians), a known maverick among the Republicans and somebody who has some strong principles (sometimes more conservative, other times more liberal), and he usually acts according to those principles. He didn't have Obama's youth, and Obama's slogan of change, and these two went together>>>

چند خط

این روز‌ها از صدقه سر یکی‌ از این پایگاه‌های اینترنتی، کانال های تلویزیونی داخل ایران را تماشا می‌کنم. هر شب یک چند دقیقه‌ای از این کانال به آن کانال میروم تا ببینم چه به خورد این ملت بد بخت میدهند. برنامه‌ها که البته اکثرا همه مزخرف و بی‌ محتوا هستند ولی‌ نکته‌ای که جلب توجه می‌کند کثرت تعداد گویندگان و مجریان ترک در صدا و سیمای جمهوری اسلامی است. بعضی‌ که بطور کلی لهجه دارند و دیگران که لهجه را به قول خارجی‌‌ها "ماسک" کرده اند،شکل و شمایلشان داد میزند که از خطه اذربایجان به تهران آمده اند. وقتی‌ هم که گزارشگران برای تهیه گزارش به میان مردم تهران میروند، که دیگر واویلا، انگار از قلب تبریز گزارش میکنند. البته اشکالی ندارد. یعنی‌ بنده سگ که باشم که بخواهم اشکال بتراشم.>>>

Viva Viagra

We are the nation of forward lookers. Often we wish things happen before their time. We sell Sunday news paper on Saturday. We wish our colleagues and coworkers a nice weekend at the middle of the week. We sell next year’s models of automobiles few months before the end of this year and books that are released this year are copyrighted for next year. What if we sell wine before its time? Wouldn’t that be something else with poor quality and bitter taste? What if a child is born today and his birth date is moved a few months ahead. Does that make him younger or that is plainly weird? We may even invent a solution for imaginary problems that have not materialized yet. No no I am not talking about war with Iraq and preemptive strike and WMD tale, I am talking about erectile dysfunction, ED>>>

A Good Night's Sleep

"Let's go to an American bar and have an American beer," I said. "All right," he said. I could see he was thinking of why did somebody have to stop going to a bar and ordering a beer in order for somebody else to know what it was. Somehow I thought that if it really was like that, if there really was a time when everybody in the world could do that, could just walk right in and order a beer wherever they were, there wouldn't be any need for any beer to order. There was a way we could each walk into a bar individually - sit down, have a look around, check the score of the game - and there was a way we could walk in together. I felt sorry for him. I felt sorry for me too, and I felt sorry for everyone in the bar. I felt sorriest for them because at least we knew the value of a good night's sleep. It was a losing business to look at Americans and wonder what they thought of the war >>>

On the political map

Darius Shahinfar, the first generation American of Iranian descent who captivated the attention and interest of the Iranian American community from coast to coast, lost his bid to be the Democratic nominee for New York’s 21st Congressional District last night. The disappointing result was the culmination of a ten month journey which saw Mr. Shahinfar embrace his Iranian-American heritage and identity. The long-shot candidacy of Shahinfar in a five-person field was particularly notable for the serious amount of money he was able to raise for a political neophyte in his first election>>>