Letters January 2006 Pass the word aroundOn Hossein Derakhshan's trip to Israel and the filtering of his blog in Iran: Dear Colleagues, Friends, and Family, I am sending this mass email around requesting you to forward the link below to whoever in Iran that has access to the Internet. Hossein Derakhshan, the Iranian weblogger, is now travelling in Israel, and has presented at a few Israeli universities about his views on weblogs, freedom of speech, and filtering. Unfortunately, Hossein's weblog has been filtered and people in Iran would not be able to read his travelogs. Therefore, I have posted, in a rather amateurish way, his recent travelogs on my weblog, as my weblog has not been filtered as of yet. As you know, the filtering of many websites, including the BBC Persian, has increased recently, and the sources of information for many people are becoming less accessible. Whether you agree with Hossein's views or not, I find it important that he made it to Israel and was willing to take the risk. I also regard as extremely important that as many people as possible inside Iran become aware of his trip to Israel, and the word gets passed around. This is the link to my weblog, and the post where I have cut and pasted his travelogs. Bon voyage!On Hossein Derakhshan's trip to Israel: I sincerely hope Hoder Derakhshan enjoys his trip to Israel. It's a gorgeous country. While he's there, he should be sure to check out what Israelis call "Judea and Samaria", and what the rest of the world call the "Occupied Territories". If Hoder thinks the psychological barriers between Iranians and Israelis are bad, he should see the real-life physical barriers that Palestinians have to put up with. Overseeing the Truth!On Hossein Derakhshan's New York Times piece, "Democracy's Double Standard": Derakhshan's statements in his article published by NY Times are absolutely false. It was not a democratic or semi-democratic election in Iran. It was a mockery of an election. Instead of writing to bring more attention to the cases of Human Rights Abuse in Iran... he calls the election a semi-democratic election!! I guess no publicity is bad publicity! Elections take place in democratic societies only... and not a country where you get executed for your political belief, practicing the Bahai faith, head of journalist and writers are chopped off and people are imprisoned for blogging! Don't let your hate for the Bush Administration make you oversee the Truth! Don't like it? Don't do itOn Sarah's "Family first": Your personal piece is yet another argument by an uninformed reader who seems to want to voice opinions, equipped with nothing more than a conviction to ignorance and little knowledge of law, medicine or history. If you are against abortion, don't have one! It is as simple as that. As for other people's private medical affairs, stay out of it. Making decisions about other people's lives, is none of your business. Pro-choice, pro-penis, pro-AmericanOn Shahla Bebe's photo essay, "My body, my choice": It is interesting to see photos of NOW staging a rally for the 33rd anniversary of Roe vs. Wade in Orange County, California. Isn't California pro-choice? Shouldn't NOW be holding a rally in the bible belt in order to sway the beliefs of the backwards red necks? It is typical for such an organization to hold a rally in a location that holds similar beliefs to that said organization. Where is controversy when we need it? If it was up to me I would fill a bus with female porn stars and bus them to Tennessee and have them rally for Roe vs. Wade waving 12 inch black dildos in the air. The theme of the rally would be "pro-choice, pro-penis, pro-American". The lobe of emotionOn Azam Nemati's "Devil's maiden": The short story is so well written and so expressive that I almost believed every bit of it . Azam you have the mastery of mind and emotions so beautifully expressed. Are you a fiction writter? e mail me more of your writtings .The lobe of emotion is the frontal lobe keep your emotions alive and your frontal love active and never get in the hand of these neuro surgeons who operate many times unnecessarily or without good reasons and hurriedly . Potantial Iranian statesOn Amir Nasiri's "Iran is not Yugoslavia": Dear Mr. Nasiri, Scandinavian or Arab states are mainly complimentary to each other and not each other's enemies. Potantial Iranian states could be in a similar position, until they have reached a level to be voluntarily united! In fact Iranians should be the first to welcome and promote an independet Kurdistan, if they beleieve in the equal rights of all Iranian people! Collaborating with enemies of IraniansOn Kia Atri's "Axis of democracy": The above article could not have been written by an Iranian with even slight affiliation with his country. This is because a true Iranian with a proper up-bringing and Iranian blood could not, at any price or for any fees, resort to betraying his country and its people with writing such a scandalous piece against his country. Particularly at this crucial times when a coalition of western countries are fully focused on desperately pushing the world public opinion with their anti-Iranian agenda with the sole intention of preventing Iranian's future progress towards a stronger nation - free from foreign powers' interference in its internal and foreign affairs. Shame on those people who do not follow this and refuse to put their value differences aside and see themselves united with Iran and their interest aligned with Iranian people rather than collaborating with enemies of Iranians. Those enemies who unashamedly assisted the war criminal - “Saddam” in his war efforts against Iranians in 1980 with use of chemical weapons against the innocent civilians including the children, during the 8 years of war which the west instigated on the Iranians. My question to you is where is your pride in our own identity as an Iranian and your appreciation of dignity and humanity and allegiance to one’s country in what you have written? Puuuuuuuleeaaaaaze take out the junky onesOn Jahanshah Javid's photo essay "Rosie's birthday party": When u put pics online (like the party pics today), puuuuuuuleeaaaaaze take out the junky ones. It’s a pain to go thru 10 out of focus pics to see one decent one... SM
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