War on error

Lounging contentedly on the bed in her apartment some thirty-five stories directly above the FDR, Roxana looks at me standing over her and proclaims, "Interview me," as though she were Julia Roberts promoting her next blockbuster. I know this is going to be difficult. I have known Roxana for over eight years now. We met in college at Wesleyan when she was a senior and I was a freshman, and within days, we were inseparable. She was the only other Iranian girl I had heard of at Wesleyan, and she seemed to know everything and everyone there was to know there. We were both loud,opinionated, sarcastic, and naive.We were also both virgins and agreed that men were useful almost solely for opening unyielding jars of pickles and hooking up electronic equipment>>>

Day 52

With the Christmas season in full swing and the day rapidly approaching, I thought it might be a good idea to recollect on a Christmas past. The date was December 25, 1979. The location was Tehran, the American embassy, a building on the grounds known as the Mushroom Inn. This was day 52 of the global shift known as the hostage crisis. “Hello, my name is Joseph Subic Jr. I am a Sergeant in the Marine Corp. I would like to begin my statement with the personal. I traveled this country before the embassy takeover. I saw different towns, different villages. I saw a way of life>>>

Dignity and justice for all

December 10 we not only celebrated Human Rights Day, but also the launch of the year long campaign leading to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The theme for 2008, the year long campaign is “Dignity and justice for all of us”. As we reflect today, there are many reasons to celebrate how far human community has come since 1948, in it’s journey of protecting and ensuring fundamental freedoms for each member of human race. The life of the declaration, conceived as an outcome of the soul of a world severely injured by the horrors of the Second World War has been a very dynamic life.>>>

غزل -١

جهان را کند مهر درونٍ سینه بند

چه کوهها وچَرَا چوپان و گوسفند

شکرِ خداتعالی که چشمم نمی رسد

سرِ شانه مار هستند که دِلم راگزند

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در باب غنی سازی اورانیوم

- میگم عباس آقا، این جریان آقای بوش چیه که میگن دستگاهای اطلاعاتیش ریدمون زدن، و هرچی در مورد غنی سازی اورانیوم در ایران میگفتن غلط از آب در اومده؟ راسته؟

- نه بابا، اینا همش برنامه است. مگه بلا نسبت شما، اینا خرن، که بیان برضد خودشون حرف بزنن ورئیس جمهورو بیخودی کنف کنن و بگن اشتباه کردیم؟ این از جای دیگه آب میخوره.

- آخه اینا که میدونی آمریکائی ان، تا یخورده دستشون به آدم میخوره، زود میگن "آیم ساری" شاید ازین نظره؟
 

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Familiography

I was born in Tehran, Iran also known as the ancient Persia the land of Cyrus and Darius the great. I was born on January 26, 1984 in a hospital called Mehr which is located near the state building in Tehran. Since I was over 11 pounds in weight and over 55 cm in length my grandfather called me Rostam which is an old Hero (like Hercules in Greek writings) in Persian writings by Ferdousi (an ancient writer who wrote the Shahnameh that resembled the true culture of Persians and their tales of bravery and loyalty toward the King). I was raised in Northern Tehran an area that is called Tajrish and nowadays is considered uptown Tehran due to the great numbers of buildings and shopping malls>>>

Iran vs. the Empire

Considering the significance that the Bush Administration in its world foreign policy attributed to Iran’s nuclear program, the revelation of the National Intelligence assessment (NIE) represents a major setback for the U.S., along with unimaginable global implications. In turn, the U.S. retreat and its admission of perjury with regard to Iran’s non-existent nuclear weapons program, at least since 2003, is a clear sign of great victory for the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the entire nation of Iran that did not cave in under the relentless threats and pressures of world imperialism, headed by the United States.>>>

People's priority

The discussion about the nuclear program of the IRI regime has been going on among the Iranians of the diaspora, and those within Iran of course, while the attention has often been on some issues while ignoring some other very important issues completely. Iranians have usually been saying that having access to nuclear energy and technology is an undeniable and important right of the Iranian people and no-one ought to deny it to us, Iranians. And most Iranians have been attacking the US administration for not letting the Iranian regime develop its "peaceful" nuclear activities>>>

It's called a crush!

The rain has just stopped
I’m sitting on a bench
Listening to the music
Played by the notes of the fountain on the campus
I look at the water
It used to be very calm
Until someone turned it on
Now it jumps to the sky
And makes a free fall to the ground
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Cutting rope

Piers Bannister, a researcher on the death penalty for Amnesty International, has had an active role in international lobbying for a global moratorium on the death penalty. A resolution calling all states for a moratorium on executions, passed at the UN General Assembly Third Committee in November 2007, leads up to a vote by the UN General Assembly. Piers, who has kindly answered some of my question about the death penalty in a previous interview, kindly agreed to talk more about international lobbying for the resolution. >>>

Inviting intervention

Last week, Akbar Ganji received the annual award from Rights and Democracy (or International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development), a Canadian government-funded organisation which is known to be the Canadian version of the American National Endowment for Democracy. In his speech, he openly called for Western government's support to spread democracy and human rights in Iran, according to the Persian version of his speech, published by Dutch-funded 'pro-democracy' projects, Rooz Online and Radio Zamaneh. The award was given to him by Saad Eddin Ebrahim one of the most avid supporters of the now-defunct Neo-conservative plans to spread democracy in the Middle East>>>

Shall I light another cigarette?

What should I do? Go out and face them under the pretence of lighting another cigarette? Or shall I hide and try to save what can be saved? What would it serve and to what end would I face them anew? Another round of me pushing them back, showing my own teeth and they barking at me as lose dogs, once beaten by me in the past? Naaaa …. I chose to stay in. No point in indulging them a re-run of our past encounters.>>>

احمدی نژاد در پوست شیر

اکنون احمدی نژاد از پیروزی سدساله اخیرسخن می گوید در حالی که حکومت اسلامی با وجود حقانیت حقوقی ایران در امر باروری هسته ای به سبب فقر دیپلماسی نتوانست مساله را پیش ببرد و جهان را علیه خود برانگیخت و اگر تضاد واقع گرایان و دموکرات های آمریکا همچون مآده ی آسمانی به دادش نرسیده بود ملت ایران با فاجعه ای مهیب و عظیم روبرو شده بودکه هست و نیستش را بباد می داد. چه کسی تاوان ندانم کاری های حکومت اسلامی و آمریکا را می پردازد؟ >>>