POINT
Aryanism, a threat to Iran and the region
Western governments, especially the US administration, must think many times before wishing for the annihilation of the Iranian Islamic government. Although the IRI is a relatively dangerous one it has not proved yet prepared to do anything serious other than annoying Israel. Such fundamentalist regimes are usually more in danger of implosion than being destroyed by an outside force, so time may just be enough to solve what is seen as an imminent threat. The same also happened with Communism, which was far more dangerous than Iranian Islamism. Many Iranians, and Westerners alike, hating the Islamic regime of Iran, for simply being Islamic, do not contemplate about what is going to replace it.
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PEOPLE
Photo essay: Iranians in the countryside
by
Shiva Tadayoni >>>
FOOTBALL
Interview with Reza Pahlavi
by Arvand
I have to say that football (or soccer, as it is called here) was definitely my favorite team sports. I played the game, along with my classmates, during most of our school years. I would not be exaggerating if I said that we played over 250 days a year! I have many good memories of playing; not only with my classmates, but also joining an impromptu game with people I would meet during my travels around the country. For instance, playing with locals on Kish Island, our in an Air Force base in Ahvaz, or some village kids in Kalardasht. The best memories are from the practice sessions we used to have in Sa’ad Abbad with members of the Iranian National Team!
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ARCHITECT
It’s like playing Tetris in three dimensions all day long
I had waited for this moment for a long time - ever since I was a little boy, my father would take me to construction sites. I have vivid memories of the slender, brown, glazed tiles in the stairwell of the seven story office building my father built in Tehran more than thirty years ago. I have vague recollections of him and his architect trying to figure out how to add a second basement after the building was nearly completed - something which they did while everyone held their breath. I remember going to pick out land with my parents and my sister for a house in a new development west of the city - Tract 103. I remember going to the Design Architect’s office with my dad.
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EMAILS
I plan to write a whole bunch of new e-mails before I depart
Writers often talk about the urge to write their sudden inspirations on whatever comes handy, and frankly, I don’t really care to know how many bestsellers were conceived on a roll of toilet paper. I never experienced such urge, at least not until 4:00 a.m. this morning. Amid allergies that made breathing impossible and reminded me of imminent mortality, a sudden discovery flashed in my mind. Millions of visions of what may come once we die appeared before me, none of which had to do with sorrow, fear, or even regret. In fact, it was a most optimistic moment, so uplifting that by 4:11 I was out of bed and at my computer.
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WOMEN
Iranian women are not the best lovers. Here is why.
Bluntly; in response to an Iranian female friend of mine, who the other
night at length discussed her point of view on relationship, sexuality
and intercourse without giving me a chance to breath I then promised to
make my point clear by writing about it, even broadcasting it to a
broad spectrum of audience perhaps to provoke a few “logical” feedbacks
from our countrywomen. Ladies please put your emotions aside for a
moment and read on. Let me start with my lady friend’s point of view about American
(Western) women tendency to experiment with sexuality without
considering rules of ethics, without framework of understanding and
love, without a mental or emotional connection with someone
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OUTDOORS
Street Festival, Saratoga, Northern California
by
kfravon >>>
IDEAS
تنها راه نجات ناسيوناليسم از خطر فرو افتادن در چاه ايدئولوژی پيوند دادن آن با معنای متوسع سکولاريسم است
تکيه کردن بر يک مذهب، يک زبان، و يک قوميت، و کوشش برای ملت سازی بر حول
اين محورهای منفرد، به لحاظ اينکه اينگونه نهادها بر بنياد همسان پنداری و
گريز از تنوع اجتماعی عمل می کنند، خودبخود داری ماهيتی ايدئولوژيک است و،
در نتيجه، برای سلامت جهان آدمی خطرناک بشمار می آيد.
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POETRY
It was somewhere between yesterday and tomorrow
When I heard a sound
I turned and saw
My zealous goal approaching
How? I wondered,
Was I pushing the carriage,
But moving in an opposite direction?
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HAMJENS
Couple lashed for being gay
Generally speaking, the reaction from the Iranian community at large falls into two camps: those who feel that organizational activity and resistance by the Iranian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community would provoke a strong government reaction, which in turn could lead to an international reaction against Iran as a whole, and those who seek a return of their full civil rights. The difference between the first and second group is that the second is not under pressure from the government due to their sexual orientation. I believe they can be asked to demonstrate for our full civil rights, as well.
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COUNTRY
I don’t know maybe I have some serious mental problems, I mean, there are other young Iranians here who are all too bikhiyaal and haven’t been to Iran for years. When I ask them if they miss it at all they shrug and say the old “I miss my family I guess”. Or maybe it’s because everytime I go back, I have such a good time with baahaal people and then come back here to this boring, soccer-crazy, whisky-drinking freckled-faced, freak of a country. I don’t know. I asked my mamman about it a couple of days ago and she said the same old “you just think it’s like that because you were there for a short time” crap. Which may be true for some people but not me.
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PISHI
There is something just so unthinkably horrible about the silence, the vacuum, the hole in the world of those left behind wondering
One day three weeks ago our favorite cat disappeared. She was the most beautiful cat we have ever owned. She was smaller than a full size cat but she had a very leonine profile, grey with black tiger stripes, a bushy tail and yellow eyes. She could do a higher standing jump than any creature I have ever seen. She could launch from the ground to the roof of our house or a neighbor’s house in a single bound. At night I could hear the wooden gate rattling outside my bedroom window when she would jump up on it... that is the only sound she would make as she stalked through the night but it was enough to let me know that she was there. She spent a great deal of her time high above the ground walking along fence tops or roofs in the darkness and shadows like a Ninja.
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