2007
Bush has recklessly led us into bankruptcy
Being reflective; personally taking stock of a situation, or issue, seems to be antonymic to the nature of most people who prefer that matters be handled by leaders of groups they belong to. Whether the issue is government, war, crime, drug-addiction, or most anything else, they are quick to pass the buck, determining that it really isn't up to them to take stock... with that 50's mentality that "father knows best." And as a year comes to an end, instead of personally taking stock and weighing what is happening to their nation, Americans' choice is to keep the mind relaxed and let the President tell them in January's State of the Union speech "how things really are." Let the lies and b-s roll!
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POINT
An email to my thirteen-year-old daughter
This is the first Christmas that I am without my children. But I am not sentimental about Christmas not having really grown up with it. As a child in Iran I remember having a tree in my room and singing carols in Mrs. Hekmat and The Community schools, the former run by a wonderful Jewish woman and the latter by old American missionaries. My mother having also attended the same missionary school run by American’s in Iran had a soft spot in her heart for Christmas and indulged me in my requests for a tree. But Christmas was, in truth, an import, something taken from the westerners and enjoyed, a novelty like Lego blocks. I am an atheist with very little tolerance for the pseudo-spirituality that has gripped the secular world of perfectly educated people
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STORY
I paused to give him a chance to recognize his victim and to start his routine
Once again, it was he the same pervert who followed me the moment I
fell asleep. It’s hard to believe but it’s true. The minute I fall
asleep, I have to run for my life. He’d never caught up with me yet
because when I run out of breath and seconds before he reaches me, I
trip and hit my head on a curb or run into traffic light pole on the
street corner and wake up in sweat. I’m living a rerun episode of the
same nightmare over and again. Last time as I was escaping from this maniac I said to myself, “I
can’t go on like this, I can’t run forever especially in my sleep. The
main purpose of sleep is to rest not to run! A rapist or a murderer he
might be, I will face him.”
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SUPREMACIST
سخنی در باره ی ملی گرایی ایرانی و لزوم بازسازی آن
ما ایرانی ها در آن آخرین سالهای عصر پهلوی بر این باور بودیم که این همسایه های ما – که غیر ایرانی اند - حالا حالا ها کار دارند تا به پای فرهنگ و سواد و دانش و ثروت ودیگر محسنات ما ایرانی ها برسند. حاصل ِ آن طرز تفکر که متاسفانه، فراگیر هم بود آن بود که ما ایرانی ها که خیلی بهتر از بقیه بودیم فقط یک درد داشتیم و آن درد "تنهایی" بود، هیچ ملتی در منطقه هم شان ما نبود.ما بودیم و خودمان و اگر قرار بود خود را با کسی مقایسه کنیم باید به خیلی دوردستها شاید اروپا، آنهم نه تمام قاره، و یا به امریکا نگاه می کردیم تا شاید ملتی در خور ِ قیاس می یافتیم.
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POETRY
with bouncing steps and smell of wild
she walks on the streets cornered
by tickle for trembling rapture
halts in the middle of a side show
half ogre, half angel, fully androgynous
dressed in psychedelic red and blue
baggy suit with big buttons
she laughs like a hyena
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EXPERIMENTAL
When you are writing a series it is fatal to stop. If it takes too long between episodes readers, even the most avid fans, tend to lose track of the story. When you take as long as I have this time they lose interest completely. So it is with a very humble amount of hope of recovering my readers’ interest that I am writing this piece. The only thing I have going for me is that I write in a genre in which the plot and coherence of a story matters little. What matters is how well the writing conveys sex. Basically if the reader is turned on by what I write I have succeeded. So I will give you a Christmas episode from a while back that I have wanted to share for a long time and now that I am free from the linear confines of diary writing I will indulge you.
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CHAMPIONS
بله، در سرزمین کوران مرد یک چشم شاه است و طبیعتا چند قهرمان نیز بیرون دادیم،
آقا این واقعاً چیز عجیبی است، از آن روزی که ما پا را توی این آمریکا گذاشتیم، از هر پنج مرد ایرانی که ملاقات کردیم، دوتاشون ادعا داشتند که در ایران قهرمان شنا بوده واز دست شاهپورغلامرضا (ع) یا فلان تیمسار مدال قهرمانی گرفته اند! قول میدهم برای شما هم یکی دوبار این اتفاق افتاده باشد. آدم از تعداد قهرمانان گمنام آن مملکت مبهوت میشود! اولین سئوالی که پیش میاید آنستکه چرا اصولاً ارتش در کار شنا و ورزش دخالت میکرد، و اگر خیلی عرضه داشت زیر کون خودش را باید بیل میزد، که تحت توجهات ملوکانه کار مملکت به اینجا نکشد؟ غلط عرض میکنم؟
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POET
Lament for Forough Farrokhzad
Ever since her tragic death in a car accident in 1967, Forough Farrokhzad has been drawing thousands of visitors to the Zahir-al-Doleh cemetery in Tehran. They come to lay flowers, recite poetry and light candles on the grave of the poet who has become an inspiration to women not only in Iran, but wherever women’s rights are severely curtailed. If she had survived her car crash, the poet would have celebrated her 72nd birthday this year. Forough Farrokhzad was one of those poets for whom Poetry (with a capital P) was not solely about the "writing" of "poems" or versification, but about living life to the full without compromise or equivocation
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DEMOCRACY
حکايت مسافری که اتوبوس را مقصد بپندارد!
اتوبوسی که به سوی مقصد دموکراسی روان است، اگر فقط بخشی از مردمان را با خود ببرد و بخشی ديگر را اجازه سوار شدن ندهد، هرگز ملت را به مقصد نخواهد رساند. شرط وصول به مقصد دموکراسی برای يک ملت آن است که وسيلهء نقليه ای که بر آن سوار می شود اعمال کنندهء تبعيض نباشد. اتوبوسی که بر در آن نوشته شده باشد «ورود سياه پوستان ممنوع است» هرگز به مقصد يک جامعهء واقعاً دموکراتيک نخواهد رسيد. وسيله ای که بر پيشانی اش نوشته شده باشد ما به سوی مقصد «جمهوری اسلامی» حرکت کرده ايم، خود، هم از آغاز، اعلام داشته است که «جمهوری اسلامی» نمی تواند شهر آرزوئی دموکراسی خواهان باشد؛ چرا که در آن مقصد بخشی از مردم بر بخشی ديگر اولويت و برتری خواهند داشت.
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QUESTION
Why approve the Iran Democracy Bill when it means more crack down on the pro-democracy movement?
The ‘Iran Democracy Fund’ was recently warded $60 million. There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason to this re-appropriation, especially since more than two dozen Iranian American and human rights groups appealed to Congress to eliminate the program given that the program had backfired, undermining democracy efforts in Iran and leading to wider repression of activists. It therefore begs the question why the United States would deliberately waste tax payers’ money while causing hardship on aspiring democrats in Iran? Perhaps the answer lies in the lead up to the Iraq invasion.
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MILK
خانم من واقعا حیرت میکنم. خوب نذارین سینه تون در اختیارش باشه. خودتونو بپوشونین
با شنوندۀ ارجمند بعدی گفتگویی خواهیم داشت. رادبو مرز پر گهر، بفرمایید.
الو با من هستین؟
بله خانم بفرمایید.
سلام آقای دکتر. ممنون از وقتی که به من دادین.
خواهش میکنم بفرمایید.
آقای دکتر من یه مشکلی با پسر شیش ماهم دارم.
بله بله.
بله آقای دکتر. تا یکی دو ماه اول خوب شیر میخورد. ولی بعد از اون شروع کرد بازی درآوردن.
خودتون بهش شیر میدین؟
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LIFE
I can change the world if I can change ”myself”
And here I am, listening to the opera letting it penetrate my soul, and relaxing my mind, it is about love I know this one song, she is totally in love, I am thinking we should cherish the moments we were or are in love. Let the positive thought and the feeling of ”yes I am able to love” be dominating. This way I as a woman will be easier with myself and consequently with everyone around me and when another woman tells me what a wonderful time she has had I can rejoice and be really really happy for her and not let the martyr feeling come out and get frustrated. We women often have a lot of frustrations which is related to our cultural background but who doesn’t
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STUDENTS
اشتباهات گذشته را مرتکب نشویم و جلوی اشتباهات امروز را بگیریم!
اگر کسی تصور کند با بالا بردن یک پرچم و دادن چند شعار در جمع وبرچسب زدن به یک گروه دیگر رهبری و یا به اصطلاح هژمونی جریانی گسترده ای را بدست می آورد و دیگران را بدنبال خود می کشد خیال خامی در سرپرورده است ؛ چنین کارهایی فقط موجب گریز دیگران می شود. این تجربه ناموفق را هم در داخل و هم در خارج کشور دیده ایم و هنوز هم البته عده ای به این گونه اعمال ادامه می دهند و معتقدند « دونده برنده است » معنای دیگر این اعمال اینست که به شعور دیگران اعتقادی ندارند وغیر خودی ها را ساده لوح فرض کرده اند.
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NOTE
The truth behind Christmas
So is it merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah or merry Kwanzaa? This year, let us celebrate it for what it really is. It was originally the Yule or Yalda festival meant to commemorate the birth of the Sun God Mithra. Perhaps it had something to do with the Ice Age, which bedeviled ancient Nature Worshippers for so long that the day following the Winter Solstice, when days start getting longer, the day when light is born again, that day, the 23rd of December, was the happiest day of the year for our freezing pagan ancestors and celebrated accordingly.
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