In seeing this years persian parade on madison avenue, billed to show pride in our heritage, I was insulted by the way it was planned and carried out. If anything it showed the laziness and half assed approach which has charactedized Iranian civilization. This year the insult was more personal.
In mid February I was attending a NIAC meeting at MIT. I originally had not planned to attend, but Mr. Tehrani, when he heard I was the one who got george noory to stop his anti-Iranian rants on the radio and had glenn beck banned from brown University for threatening anti-Iranian statements, paid for me to got to that NIAC meeting. While there Babak Talebi and Javad Fakharzadeh invited me to march in the persian parade planned for this march, even asking me to bring the same Shir-o-Korshid there that sparked the rift in international answer in september 2003 and to wear the Sipah Salar insignia given to me by Iran’s Defense Ministry in May 2005. I said would attend on two conditions. The first was that I be given transportation to and from the event, and I was told this could be easily arranged.
The second was that I must not march behind the people from norooz productions. During my tenure as Editorial Contributor for persianmirror not only did I help that magazine grow and make it’s niche but I got involved with norooz productions, as the founder of persianmirror was an executive for persianmirror. My active association with persianmirror ended on bad terms in may 2005, partly due to personal differences with the founder. One thing that really nagged me was the fact that I was in the midst of a civil rights lawsuit where I was suing for being denied the right to pray in jail while held as a political prisoner and the management at persianmirror was denying me support, all the while asking me to spand my time and resources which were needed in my suit to assist them at norooz productions. Needless to say the rupture was a rough one.
In the long run both persianmirror and norooz productions have gone downhill, the former being an ersatz for other Iranian media sites by it’s rehashing of old news, the latter relying too much on marketing gimmicks. Interesting enough when the founder of persianmirror would try to pull down my articles people would contact them en masse and insist my works remain. After my rupture with persianmirror that publication fell into a pattern of using writers and contributors, as most contributors would only last after a few articles, and proving me right in my slams on persianmirror as the founder showed herself to be a self absorbed user.
In contrast I became more involved with organizations, be they government, military, educational, literary etc. in Iranian affairs, and saw the effects my writings had on others, including my works on persianmirror. If anything the invitation I recieved was the fruit of my work.
I ended up exchanging contact info and was told I would be contacted. By mid March nobody had gotten back to me and once again I was left in the lurch. Neverhtheless I continued to recieve invites to that parade.
When I saw the website for the persian parade for this year I wanted to smack the goh out of the people who put that event on. As it turned out the nypd and homeland security were so involved in planning that event that they were demanding the exact names and marching order of those marching in the parade. Such a request is the type one would expect from a gulag taskmaster and too demeaning for any individual to accept. Also, on their site the explanation for the choice of word persian instead of Iranian or Farsi was insulting. The way it was esplained they said was not to scare away people and to highlight Iranian culture and it’s influence.
If they had wanted to do that they would have been better off using the indegenous Farsi instead of the greco-Roman patronymic persian, or just use the more all encompasing Iranian. After all, the title Kurush, Daryush, Ardashir, Shabour, Khosrow, Ismail, Abbas etc. used was Shahanshah e IRAN, not the greco-roman persia. And in citing the use of the term persian cat they forget the reason the cat was called a persian has nothing to do with the country of origin, but because persian cats are TANBUL and persian is more popular to use than a word like nigger, spick, heeb, etc. NOt to mention some pervert used a pic of a persian cat with the caption “persian cats are sexy” to promote IranianPersonals, turning off many including myself. And to add insult to injury the biggest promoter of the parade is, you guessed it, norooz productions and persianmirror.
In response to this I will NEVER attend another persian parade in manhattan, as those who organize and promote it are selective, sneaky users in it for themself who jeopardize our culture. If anything we are better off organizing Iranian heritage parades around No Ruz in major cities across the country and world. Cities like Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Houston, denver, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, Vienna, London, Paris, Rome, Sydney have large Iranian communities and our resources would be better spent organizing locally and in doing so better promoting our culture rather than wasting our time travelling long distances to be used by others.
