The real choice

Is war between Israel and Iran inevitable? To listen to Iran's radical President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or Israel's Iranian-born transportation minister Shaul Mofaz, or even recent reports that Israel carried out a major military training mission over the Mediterranean to rehearse an attack on Iran, you might be left with that impression. Mr. Mofaz's comments last month indicating he would attack Iran didn't help perceptions either. The immediate effect of his statement was a record increase in oil prices – giving Mofaz's Iranian nemeses a windfall of several million dollars... Any serious effort to address the Iranian challenge must recognize the true nature of the conflict. There is nothing apocalyptic about the nuclear stand-off or the Israeli-Iranian rivalry. Rather, these are strategically driven conflicts that can be managed and even resolved through the appropriate level of diplomacy>>>

Yeh toop daram Khal-khali-yeh

Iranians in general are strong believers of the Conspiracy Theory. We thrive on political skepticism and for many years I had blamed that on the intellectuals, who pondered over taboo issues, read forbidden books and stirred suspicion. Much like the main character in My Uncle Napoleon, most of us blamed the British for our country’s problems and believed any misfortune befalling us was caused by outside powers. As I reflect on some old Persian nursery rhymes, hidden messages begins to surface, voices that have been there all along, except no one ever bothered to listen hard enough to hear them. Unlike the spider in Reverent Fulghum’s book, our rhymes fail to teach perseverance and one in particular seems to be aimed at taking away what little autonomy was left us>>>

Listen, please!

We start to have problems with listening to others and hearing them properly, when we are angry with each other. When our ego is hurt and we feel that we have been insulted, we often want to get back at the person responsible and so we stop listening to them. In these circumstances, we sometimes get very carried away and interpret everything that they say in the worse possible way to make them look bad and foolish to ourselves and others, so as to confirm what we think of them. We might even convince ourselves that they cannot be saying anything sensible or kind because then they would have been kind and sensible to us>>>

The Man in the Moon

I had begun my military service as a draftee, and like the other greenhorns out of college, was looking at a two-year tour of duty. A few days before reporting to the base, I went to the barber and asked for a sefr-chahar. He obliged by shaving off the curly afro I had spent years cultivating and I left feeling several kilos lighter. As time progressed, there were further signs of the government’s decay and loss of control. After every weekend, the number of soldiers in our unit dwindled as more and more heeded the call to desert the infidel army>>>

Is the Sky Falling?

Spare us the pain of yet another repetition of the “Chicken Little, the sky is falling” syndrome, as journalist Seymour Hersh so accurately stated about his own writings on Iran... It seems one of the motives in writing this latest ‘expose’ of the Bush Administration’s well-financed covert operations against Iran was best illuminated in Hersh’s discussion and retelling of the Pentagon’s version of the Iranian patrol boat incident back in January 2008. “Weariness with the war in Iraq has undoubtedly affected the public’s tolerance for an attack on Iran, but this mood could change quickly”, writes the investigative journalist, citing the Iranian patrol boat incident as a clear example of the “potential for escalation”. >>>

A Canadian tale

It started on another blue summer day in Lake Cowichan. We were kayaking in the river. The water was warm and transparent. Dina stopped at a small sandy beach to go for a dip. I kept diving in as deep as I could, or at least as much as the pressure in my ears would allow. The sun was illuminating the depths in shafts of light simmering with clarity. I picked up two bottle caps from the bottom and Dina was laughing. "You're always finding things!". On the last dive I saw something sparkle. When I reached it I was almost out of breath but I could see that it was a watch. East European, was the thought that entered my mind when I was looking at it on the beach. >>>

The place to be

Amor Perdido

In a heartbeat
In a smile
In a kiss on the cheek
In a look filled with passion but disguised in friendship
Love was lost
In waiting for a train on a platform
In the loud sound of speakers announcing your departure >>>

Preventive military action against Iran

When considering preventive military action against Iran's nuclear program, one must remember that such an exercise is purely hypothetical at this point. In fact, with some renewed vigor, diplomacy still might succeed in convincing Iran to suspend its nuclear program, as was the case in 2003. Context matters when discussing preventive action against Iran. For example, if Iran's leaders announced they were developing nuclear weapons, leaving the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and intending to test a nuclear weapon, the debate for using preventive military force would be entirely different>>>

The stone will not roll back

A Re-born Christian, the world’s most powerful president believes: "Behind all of life and all of history, there's a dedication and a purpose, set by the hand of a just and faithful God." His tyranny disguised, he continues his barbaric assault on humanity. One civilization already destroyed with a death toll of over a million and counting, the mainstream media having conveniently sent the Afghan war to oblivion, Mr. Bush puts attacking Iran at the forefront of his agenda. This time, his message from a ‘higher father’ will drown the whole Middle East in blood and leave America bankrupt for decades. All the while the ‘voices’ tell him that he must continue to arm Israel so that the Palestinians can be slaughtered>>>

Are we worried about wrong things?

As we all witnessed, the decade of 90s was the triumphant era for the US economy. Affluence was all over the place. Massive investment in highly innovative information technology triggered the proliferation of high tech businesses and the emergence of e-commerce and the pending surge in productivity and growth. Moreover, United States was the major beneficiary of the colossal events that took place in 90s such as the disintegration of Soviet Unions and the fall of Berlin wall, giving her an opportunity to cut the military spending and to devote more resources to economic development>>>

Fire

i can feel the string of your palm
against my skin
the delicious moment of connection
like a perfect brandy
in a hazy
always remembered night >>>