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Letters
September 11-15, 2000 / Shahrivar 21-25, 1379

Today

* Film:
- No surprise
*
MKO:
- Those folks at the airport

* Googoosh:
- Gay Googoosh

- Right thing

Previous

* Gaff:
- Eating vegetarians
*
Film:
- Conspiracy theory -- again
*
Humor:
- Democratic tradition

- Satirizing a popular president
*
Shah:
- Be a little less cruel

- Utterly pathetic
- Certainly not brainwashed
- The right to throw up
- Where's your decency?
- Want to throw up
*
Race:
- Aryan, German, Iranian "kinship"
*
Googoosh:
- Under veil of praise

- Resisting temptation


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Friday,
September 15, 2000

* No surprise

It is no surprise to me that Jafar Panahi won the Lion D'Or at the Venice film festival, given the make-up of the jury. I have not seen the film; I am sure it is worthwhile. But in the picture showing Samira Makhmalbaf amongst other members of the jury, their is also Jennifer Jason-Leigh who happens to be Reza Badii's step-daughter.

This is the same Reza Badii who directed many TV shows including the "Six Million Dollar Man" with Lee Majors, "The Incredible Hulk" and "The Magician" with Bill Bixby. I wonder whether The Iranian Times could get hold of Reza Badii for an interview on his career. It would indeed be very interesting to hear from him.

Darius Kadivar

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* Those folks at the airport

And to think that I thought those folks at the airport with their 3-ring binders of 8 x 10 glossies were really trying to help the oppressed ["Millions lost in Iranian charity black hole"]. Man, was I naive.

William Phillipson

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* Gay Googoosh

Letter to Googoosh.Com: I am writing on behalf of the large Iranian gay and lesbian group in Los Angeles. Your concerts have been great and seeing you was long overdue. We hope that you are happy and in peace and that we will continue hearing from you from now on.

We know that everyone wants a personal glimpse of you, but we thought to ask you to consider coming to a party in your honor whenever you are in Los Angeles. We promise you that you will have a good time. We also promise you we will not bother you with any questions nor will we expect you to perform. We just want to have the honor and pleaseure of your presence.

We have a gay Iranian man in our group whom we have nick-named "Googoosh", since he always impersonates you with your old songs/dancing and style. His impersonations of you were the closest we could get to seeing you again.

Well, our fantasy came true. Finally seeing you again, in concert in Los Angeles. If you want to get in touch with our group, please call ...

Best wishes and love from all of us.

H.D.

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* Right thing

I applaud your kind and generous gesture in trasnferring the ownership of Googoosh.Com. I think you did the right thing and I think Googoosh-e aziz will do the right thing as well by allowing you to carry on the good work on Googoosh.Com.

Sattar

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Thursday
September 14, 2000

* Be a little less cruel

In reply to Bardia Saeedi ["Want to throw up"], My dear friend, it seems we have also lost our compassion and sense of occasion. Be a little less cruel. I never liked the Pahlavis but the fact that some guy still gets emotional about it ["Requiem in Cairo"] is really not worth throwing up.

We all have our cultural baggage we carry. So what if the author has someone in the family who has influenced him. Is it a crime not to be a-political. Or has all the TV we watch here numbed us to the point that we can not harbor any ideology or any sence of history? Are we to only get emotional about pop singers? Ex-kings are somehow too old fashioned to be icons.

Anyway please save your vomit for those who are at the moment depriving our sisters and brothers their basic human rights on a daily basis. Those same people who sent little children to war. And murder people without explanation.

Maybe Mr. Kadivar remembered all this when he stood before the tomb of a man who many believe was the lesser of two evils. Maybe he was crying not so much for the Shah but the country that we (or at least some of us) lost. In fact if the people in Iran read this they would find Mr. Kadivar's emotions proper. Because they at least have not lost their emotions.

Mashhadi

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* Utterly pathetic

In response to "Where's your decency?" by Hojabr, I must also admit that I also truly felt like throwing up when I read "Requiem in Cairo". That article was so utterly pathetic that I even felt ashamed of wasting my time reading it!

Babak Aminian

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* Aryan, German, Iranian "kinship"

Regarding the article "Qaziyeh-ye nejad" by Mohandas, and the letter by Nick, I think Nick missed the point. Mohandas didn't say that Germans don't think we are Aryans--just that they don't believe we Iranians are related to them.

Mohandas and the Germans are right, since Germans aren't Aryans but Nordic. This notion of Aryan superiority was propagated by the likes of Hitler to make Germans feel special and different from the rest of Europe. It was a political ploy pure and simple.

Most Germans are ashamed of their behavior during WWII and are made uncomfortable by any mention of Hitler and his ideology. One can hardly imagine what they must think of us when an Iranian tries to ingratiate himself or herself by bringing up this notion of our "kinship"!

Heidi

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Wednesday
September 13, 2000

* Certainly not brainwashed

I am sorry that one of your readers felt like "throwing up" after reading my article "Requiem in Cairo". It surprised me to receive such a crude response from someone who has never met me. I too can say that the events I witnessed during the 1978-79 revolution and the tragic waste in human and economic potential suffered by Iranians in the last 20 years also make me physically ill...

Freedom of expression is a luxury of Western democracies and I exercised it. I am certainly not brainwashed nor did any member of my family persuade me to write my feelings about an event which in my view was both personal and necessary >>> FULL TEXT

Cyrus Kadivar

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* The right to throw up

In "Where's your decency?", Hojabr wrote: "Don't we have the right to express our emotions without some pervert THROWING UP?"

I think you have got the meaning of freedom wrong. We have the right to express our emotions, but we don't have the right to tell other people how their reaction to our ideas must be.

The same way that you are free to express yourself, others are free to throw up! (It is another way of expressing emotions).

What you suggest sounds like what is going on in Iran! Many of the people in prisons are the ones who threw up....

Neda

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* Under veil of praise

I wish to commend you for "resisting temptation" to undergo a lengthy legal battle over googoosh.com which you most certainly would have, at great expense, lost... To me Mr. Golbabai's condescending message is, "Hey fool, you had the chance to make a buck and you blew it!" >>> FULL TEXT

Omar Iam

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Tuesday
September 12, 2000

* Conspiracy theory -- again

It's very interesting to read the letters in response to the article "Not THAT good" ["Bubble gum cinema", "Film du jour"]. Ah the conspiracy theory again. Those bad Westerners exoticizing Iran, robbing us of our cultural riches, etc. etc. And of course if European and American film festivals had not paid any attention to Iranian films, there would have been another conspiracy at work, that of silence...

A big part of this is the decline of European cinema's presence in North America, caused in large by the emergence of the so-called Indies in the United States. It's very hard for foreign films to do well in the U.S., hence marketing the exotic, the unknown is essential. And remember that this is a niche market, consisting of urban intellectual and other chance taking souls, not the stuff of suburban movie complexes >>> FULL TEXT

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* Democratic tradition

In reply to Changiz Tavakoli's "Satirizing a popular president", I would like to point out this site and show you that it is the tradition of those who call themselves "honarmand-e baa farhang va demokraat" to do cartoons such as Saman's.

Ramin Tabib

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* Where's your decency?

You indeed did THROW UP by what you wrote for The Iranian Times ["Want to throw up"]. How can you permit yourself to act as a spokesman for the entire Persian nation? Don't we have the right to express our emotions without some pervert THROWING UP ["Requiem in Cairo"]?

If anybody has escaped any sort of a camp, I am afraid to say, it is your self. How long do you have to live among Western people to learn to respect the opinions of others, rather than THROWING UP?

Neither Internet nor The Iranian Times is a place for anybody to THROW UP. Are you Persian? If you are, where is your traditional decency?

Hojabr

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* Eating vegetarians

Yet another (perhpas more important) reason Zagros is a gross place to eat: Some people may find eating kabobs gross but I think EVERYONE would object to eating VEGETARIANS.

Pedram Moallemian

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Monday
September 11, 2000

* Want to throw up

I have an unusual habit of becoming physically affected by emotional and intellectual confinements and restraints. Every time, I find myself trapped in situations where everything about the situation is against my beliefs, emotions and my whole being, I start to sweat and itch and want to throw up. Unfortunately that's how I felt when I read "Requiem in Cairo" >>> FULL TEXT

Bardia Saeedi

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* Resisting temptation

As much as this (transferring googoosh.com to Googoosh) to a lot of people might seem like the right thing to have done, I know many others would not have done it.

As a telecom marketing consultant and someone who spends a lot of time on the Net, I know first hand the great potential this site had for making money.

Unfortunately a lot of our fellow Iranians, if in your position, would have seized the opportunity of Googoosh's tour to exploit the name to no end. You resisted the temptation.

I commend you, Mr. Ardalan, and Mr. Bahmani for a wonderful job, and a very very special encore (forgive the music pun, I could not resist!).

Kamran Golbabai

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* Satirizing a popular president

Hich honarmand-e baa farhang va demokraati baa president montakhabeh aksariat-e ghaate' mardomash kaari keh shomaa dar safheye kaartoon kardid raa nemikonad [Saman's cartoon].

Changiz Tavakoli

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