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Monday * Awareness brings change Rasheed's point is well-taken ["Let's accept our weaknesses"]. It's my fault that I've been so concise in my writing ["Camel's neck to a dolphin's body"]. You are right! From what I said, it is implied that change is impossible. However, I don't think it can be implied from what I said that maa az damaagh-e fil (yaa az jaa-ye digari) oftaade'im, and I certainly didn't mean to suggest that. I'm sorry if I sounded self-centered. But about change... Well, I think real change will not come about unless we, as a nation, gain awareness about the why and how we ended up where we ended up and the West ended up where they ended up. (Again here, I am not judging either ourselves or the West as good or bad, mind you.) What's for sure, taqlid-e kurkuraane will get us nowhere except adding confusion to confusion. There is an invisible but immensely omnipresent history behind the behavior of people of each culture, that shouldn't be neglected, nor can they be ignored. Now this awareness in turn will realize only by Education. And by Education, I don't mean a mass production of Ph.D.'s. Iran has produced a lot of engineers and scientists and medical practitioners in the past, and is still continuing to do so, but the mere existence of these gol-haa-ye sar-sabad (=creme de la creme) of our nation will not bring about a substantial change. And mind you, this is not only because many of them flee from Iran never to return, but most importantly because, with all due respect to them all, they mainly operate not better than parts of a disassembled engine, put next to each other on the floor! >>> FULL TEXT * You're a loser I agree with Bijan that the educational level of the lottery winner can have a great impact on the final outcome of the winner's life ["I hit it big"]. But the article made me realize that even the highest "educational" level (a PhD or a CFO) does not necessarily guarantee a better outcome. You see, in the PhD and CFO population, there are those that participates in the lottery, and there are those who do not. I submit that most of those who do, are losers in the first place, even if they win the lottery. There are CFOs and PhDs that reach their highest plateau (their level of incompetence) in an organization, merely due to their degree (called "education"). Then they are fired and become unemployable because they lacked vision at the first place, even though they were "educated" and somehow reached their highest position. Let's look at the vision of our Iranian Lottery Winner. He says that in his dreams he had planned to donate 25% of the winnings to some charitable organizations right off the bat. The rest, he had planned to divide into three equal portions. One third for long-term investing, one third for immediate spending such as a couple of nice cars, a house, clothes and accessories, toys like electronic gadgets, a boat, etc., and the rest for helping his relatives and friends in Iran and hopefully bring them to the U.S. How come our Iranian "winner" had not allocated any funds to help bring democracy in Iran, or actively get involved in creating means to eradicate ignorance on this planet (as opposed to merely delegating these nobel efforts to a third party called "charitable organization")? * Get ready for the shock Dear Ms Esfahani, You are not the first nor the last Iranian who lives under the illusion of being American ["You are American!"]. The shock comes when one day you will be rudely awakened from this sweet dream by an all American national will reject you for having been born to Iranian parents who have done no service to your adpoted country except enjoying its wealth and riches and have given very little, if any at all, back to it. So get ready for the shock. When it comes it is going to be very painful. Your mommy has done you a great disservice by fooling you to believe you are American. If in doubt ask the State Department for a security clearance or, better still, see if you will be treated as an "American" if Iran declares war on the U.S. tomorrow? With that surname I am sure you will have some explaining to do. Remember the fate of the Japanese, German and Korean-Americans who, just like you, were fooled to believe in being American! Think about it. * We are not primitive I am responding regarding the article "Embrace", and I 'd like to drop several comments regarding the article and the follow up letters. What is exactly is the definition of the American ? Yariz, It seems that you believe that "America caters to every race and every taste. I think it's about time that Americans who are of Persian heritage, begin embracing this nation with an intense interest ..." My question is then how do you define American nation? Did the land not belong to Native Americans originally? Do we not have Mexicans who have lived in the West for a long time before the West-ward expansion? Do we not have black people who form their own communities? And what about the Korean and Chinese who have their own special communities in many large cities. People of many ethnicities are born here and are citizens and yet they retain their own heritage. Some speak their ethnic language at home and some don't. So belonging to one of these ethnic groups is o.k. but belonging to the Iranian group is "backwardness"? Why should Iranians act any different than the rest of these groups? Are we supposed to embrace this nation any differently than these other groups? All I know is that when I passed my citizenship test I received a lecture by my INS speaker that in no way any of us are urged to change anything about our cultural practices >>> FULL TEXT * It's the music, stupid! Those striving to unravel the enigma of Googoosh's popularity in light of her immensely successful recent concert tour should find Nika Sancho's letter enlightening ["Spanish Googoosh fan"]. Setareh Sabety goes to great anthropological lengths trying to decode what she sees as the "Googoosh myth", but "never having been a great fan" of the diva, she manages to ignore the simple yet fundamental reason for Googoosh's popularity: her music. The same goes for Ramin Tabib, who suggests that people paid exorbitant sums to attend Googoosh's concerts not because they love her music, but to romanticize the past and show off the latest fashion! ["Romanticizing the past"] It is quite simple really: Googoosh is a master performer with a captivating voice, and as such, she became the most effective delivery vehicle for the great works of brilliant lyricists like Iraj Janati Ataie and Shahyar Ghanbari, not to mention distinguished musicians like Hassan Shamai-zadeh, Babak Afshar, Farid Zoland, and the legendary Varooj Hakhbandian, a.k.a. Varoojan. Her music helped usher in what can now be regarded as the (short-lived) golden era of Iranian pop music, eloquently blending Iranian melodies, rhythms, and the expressively vivid language of modern Persian poetry with non-native musical forms. That era, of course, was brought to an abrupt end when the Islamists declared the music "corrupting," and silenced the singers, lyricists, and musicians, forcing many into exile. So there is no need to be astounded, observing loyal Googoosh fans exulting in her reemergence following a twenty-two year silence. For those fans, Iranian or otherwise, the recent Googoosh concert tour simply presented a superb opportunity to hear and see her perform live. By breaking her silence and performing in public again, Googoosh has brought tremendous joy to tens of thousands of fans attending her concerts. And with the prospect of more concert tours in the near future, she will no doubt continue to bring joy to her fans worldwide. In the meantime, those not interested in Googoosh's music can continue to amuse her fans by speculating on the reasons behind her success. * From all corners of the world Thank you for printing my letter ["Spanish Googoosh fan"]. I dont know what to say. It was so quick and since then my mailbox is overflowing with letters. I can't give answers to all of them. I really can feel the greatness of Googoosh's legend now. People from all corners of the world seny messages to me (Canada, Iran, ... even Japan). Some of them suggest in order to learn Persian I'd better get romatilcally involved with an Iranian girl. A lady in Tehran has invited me to stay with them and promised to make the best jojo kebab I have ever had. Another gentleman from Toronto has also invited me. I don't know what to do. You are a great nation with a magnificant cultural heritage. It makes me so sad that the stupid Western mass media is depicting such a wrong picture of your country. I loved your country when I was there, I love your (our) pop diva, and I loved your kind letters. Thank you, Thank you , Thank you * BEKHODA fans are mardom If googoosh is not mardomi so who is? ["Googoosh not mardomi"] Those 15,000 in Toronto, 18,000 in LA , .... were not mardom? Just go through her different sites and look through the guestbooks which are awash with love letters. Are they not mardom enough for you? I was in her London concert, and I saw some 10,000 people there, and BEKHODA all of them were mardom. In fact who has been able to gather more than a couple of hundreds of Iranian for a gathering in the past 20 years? The Farsi radio stations all the time ask for demonstrations in front of the Federal Building in Los Angeles but just 200-300 people show up. Are they mardomi? Have you heard about inside Iran and do you know about the waves of love and support which comes from inside the country for Googoosh? If not just ask your relatives in Iran. If she is ever allowed to have a concert in Iran, do you think there is a big enough place for the people who buy the tickets and go to the concerts? * Symbol of women's freedom Hello Dear Mr. Peerooz, ["Must like your favorite singer?"] A lady once told me that "The root of many of our problems comes from the lack of civil discourse." (When I say OUR problems, that includes you and me too). A basic part of any such discourse is to give reason and evidence, and not just excuses and alibis. We are on square one again. You have used baseless and false claims again. I would like to point them out for you. 1. You and people like you had the same behavior with other Iranians before. When Saeedi Sirjani went to the US people like you called him jasoos and just see his tragic end. You did the same thing for Akbar Ganji and Shamsolvaezin, Mehrangiz Kar,... Now you shed corcodile tears for them and talk about the injustices behind the walls of Iran's jails. There were some people abroad who said Daryoush Foruhar and his wife were agents of the regime then a few years later they were murdered. No need to mention Amir Entezam. Now it is Googoosh and Kimiaee's turn. 2. Googoosh has had at least six interviews with the Iranian mass media. (Two in Toronto, three in Stockholm, one in London, one in Paris). If you mean she does not like to talk to Royalist and Monafeghin, that's something else >>> FULL TEXT
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