Little Lambs

The blinding lights of the bullet from the soldier’s bayoneted rifle knocked me out of consciousness and, my face dropping on the wet asphalt thinly covered by falling snow, I could instantly taste the blood dripping from my head to my mouth and then my ears registered the second blast that hit Majid in the eye killing him instantly. A moment earlier we were writing a silly graffiti on the school’s wall, long live live Pars Team, zendeh bad Pars, taking the risk of getting caught by the soldiers enforcing the curfew, or not thinking about it at all, this after Majid questioned my bravery while we were playing cards and I made a bet on his playboy magazine that I could do it>>>

ای بخارا، شادزی!

حضرت امیر نصربن سامانی در "زایشگاه" نشسته و دارد زور می زند تا "تولید مثل" کند. در همین لحظه چشمش به آفتابه ی طلای پیش رویش می افتد. متوجه شعری حک شده روی آفتابه می شود. ناگهان خم می شود تا نوشته را بخواند، همین خم شدن باعث فشار روی عضلات شکم امیر می شود و حضرت در لحظه، "فارغ" می شود. همین امر باعث مسرت خاطر امیر می شود. دنبال اسم شاعر می گردد، اما این بی ذوقان "دستمالچی"، نام شاعر را روی آفتابه ننوشته اند. امیر از همانجا یکی از خدمه را صدا می زند و امر می کند تا برود و نام شاعر را بپرسد. آن بنده ی خدا هم سراسیمه به خدمت وزیر و وکیل می رود تا بالاخره نام شاعر "شعر آفتابه ی طلا" را پیدا می کند و فوری به خدمت امیر می رسد و نام را به سمع مبارک می رساند.>>>

From Empire With Love

James Bond is arguably the mother of all ‎on-screen celebrations of white, European ‎masculinity. More than two billion people – ‎two fifths of the world's population – have ‎watched a 007 film. Only Tarzan or Indiana ‎Jones might rival his stature. For Your ‎Eyes Only: Ian Fleming And James Bond – the ‎exhibition currently running at London's ‎Imperial War Museum – sets out to outline ‎the relationship between the fictional ‎secret agent and the man who created him, ‎Ian Fleming.‎ Fleming (pictured) was born to a wealthy Scottish ‎banking family. He went to the elite school Eton and then the military training academy ‎Sandhurst. His father Valentine Fleming, an ‎aristocratic MP, was killed in 1917, ‎serving in the same unit as Winston ‎Churchill in World War I. Peter, Ian's ‎older brother, was handed the mantle of ‎family patriarch>>>

Axis of change

With Israel rehearsing an attack on Iran and the Bush administration considering the alternative of a low-level diplomatic mission in Tehran, it is necessary to revisit your June 4th speech to the AIPAC convention in Washington. In that address, you denounced the Iraq War as a conflict which strengthened Iran and asserted that Iran has always constituted a greater threat to Israel than Iraq. You stated that Iran now constitutes the greatest challenge in the region. You even asserted that Iran is part of a “tyranny of oil” in which the high price of oil is “one of the most dangerous weapons in the world” because petro-dollars abet the killing of Israeli civilians and American soldiers. In so doing, you are taking an easy road to “toughness” on national security issues that still allows you to trumpet your opposition to a war that is now overwhelmingly unpopular>>>

Please don’t nuke us!

By now I’m sure you’ve all seen Voices for Peace: Fifty Iranian-Americans Promoting Peace with Iran. Perhaps the idea behind it was decent enough. And maybe, at the end of the day, having it is better than not. And yet, as a fellow Iranian (ixnay the American), there were many things that made me uncomfortable. I do not think it is prudent at the moment to promote the idea of: “don’t attack Iran”. While many of us are extremely worried, publicly, we should promote the idea of direct, unconditional requests for talk with Iran. Lest we forget, she too remains a sovereign nation and has the right to decide when and if she wants to open her doors>>>

Epiphany

Uprooted
from Persian gardens
of my dawning bed,
I was a cypress tree replanted
in eternal ice of Montreal, muttering
Gilles Vigneault’s "Les gens de mon pays"
for the saffron sun, sidewalk café sitting
in summer’s shade, reading my mother’s
letter from Tehran >>>

Obama's Jimmy Carter Disaster

President Carter's misguided approach to raising human rights (catered to fundamentalists and communists) in the context of US-Iran relations, led to the Shah's fall. Iran then became a theocratic abyss, whose radical fundamentalists tolerated far more abuse and torture of political prisoners than the Shah ever had, and supported a stream of terrorist acts and causes. The individuals who comprise Iran's theocracy are now the worlds, as well as the vast majority of the Iranian people's greatest enemies. Now, Barack Obama has said that he is inclined to meet with the internationally controversial Iranian President at the right time after due preparation and advance work by US diplomats>>>

Banking on God

Khums and Zakat are two charitable sums paid respectively by Shiites and Muslims collected by religious authorities in charge of them. Although, they are primordially supposed to be contributed among poor Seyyeds (descendents of the Prophet Muhammad) and the poor in the community.To some extent, they cover the questions of financial support for Jihad and terrorist activities in and out of the Muslim community, legitimacy of booty, and the financial benefit of the collectors, in Iran, the clergy. Booty (Ghanima / Ghanaemis taken by Mulims from “Infidels”) is legal after paying Khoms / Zakat. However, the lands which have been seized as spoils of war belong to the Muslim society>>>

بی سیر یا با سیر!

آقای علی اشتری را به جرم جاسوسی محاکمه و به اعدام محکوم کرده اند. تا اینجای مطلب هیچ چیز غیر طبیعی وجود نداره. این که یک جاسوس محاکمه بشه، طبیعیه. این که جرمش سنگینه، طبیعیه... اما بالاغیرتن "فریب خوردگی" این جاسوس، یک پایش میلنگه! اگه آقای علی اشتری یک دختر چهارده پونزده ساله ی خوشگل مامانی بود، خوب، می گفتیم "فریب خوردگی" تا اندازه ای طبیعیه. ولی آخه با این پیشونی بلند که تا مغز سرش رفته (واژه ی "کچل" در مورد کسانی مثل من که هنوز چند تار مو روی سرشون هست، واژه ی مناسبی نیست!) و با این بینی درشت (همین الان دوباره تو آینه نگاه کردم، دیدم سزاوار نیست بینی آقای اشتری را "خربزه ای" خطاب کنم!) خلاصه این که این منار را به کدوم جای کدوم گنجشگ بدبخت فرو کنیم که بگنجه؟ >>>

استقلال، ديروز يا فردا؟

دکتر مصدق، که بزودی به چهرهء اصلی ملی گرائی ايران تبديل شده بود، با بدست گرفتن رهبری «جنبش ملی» علم استقلال خواهی را برافراشت و از آنجا که در ميان گيره های استعمار امپرياليستی و استعمار استالينيستی قرار داشت ناگزير به مفهوم استقلال ضد استعماری نوعی معنای انزواجويانه و منفی بخشيد که در فرمولبندی سياسی او به نام «موازنهء منفی» معروف شد و ذهنيت يارانش نيز، در بلند مدت، در تنگنای همين تعريف باريک باقی ماند؛ حال آنکه اگر نيک بنگريم می بطنيم که سياست موازنهء منفی تنها يکی از انواع شکل های مبارزات استقالال طلبانه است و هر جنبش ضد استعماری لزوماً دارای ميژگی های نفی گرايانه نيست. استقلال به معنای انزوا و سختی کشيدن ناشی از آن نيست، بلکه می تواند حضور باز و همه جانبهء ملتی را در صحنهء بين المللی به ذهن متبادر کند که روی پای خويش ايستاده است، خود دوست و دشمنش را بر اساس منافع ملی خويش بر می گزيند و هرگز دارای دوستان و دشمنان دائم نيست بلکه، بقول چرچيل، دارای منافه دائم است>>>