USA

Abarmard

Just a couple articles right off the top of my head... there was one that was far more documented but I can't find it now. 

//iranian.com/MassoumePrice/2002/October/Slavery/

//www.venusproject.com/ecs/Slavery_in_the_Middle_East.html

//ancienthistory.about.com/b/2007/03/15/ancient-persian-slaves.htm

This is not to suggest slavery in Iran was equal to the slavery practiced in modern times in the US.  Just to emphasize to those who don't believe that virtually EVERY civilization's economic and personal existence was based on slavery.  

I'm sure an argument on the definition of slavery would introduce a whole new discussion.  I'm not of the opinion that a bag of rice... or whatever but just to use that analogy because it's presented in this blog... constitutes a situation that is anything BUT slavery.  For that matter, one could further that analogy to include present times.  It's pretty subjective, don't you agree?

To the comment that I assume was made to me AGAIN, I think it's pretty much human nature that ANY individual is going to be proud of their etnicity.  Not only human nature but one that I personally consider the be one of the strongest and most admirable traits of proud Iranians, particularly those who are visible on this site.  However, opinions are like ass*****... everyone has got one. 

WE, The PEOPLE!

It seems to me people of different origin put too much honor into a birth place, typically their own! I think one is better off look at history in a scientific manner and widen the lens more than "I," and the centuries of racism and nationalism that has blinded clear judgment in all parts of the world. To that point,

1. Genome project once and for all showed that ALL people are pretty much identical in innate potential.

2. History has a tendency to go forward, although this forward arrow can have zigzags, but the forward direction overcomes the shorter lived zigzags.

3. Different time periods fell with different system of governance in different parts of the world. It was not really the "people" somewhere who were "better" or more advanced than others, it was different social orders that afforded better achievements. The better social order prevails until it becomes corrupt or bad and when there is a better one to substitute it, according to history's mandate of going forward.

4. The progress is objective, although one can adorn it with a lot of subjective arguments, yet the progress can always be defined with some criteria of objectivity.

One can appreciate the past history and have hope for future if we look at history of the world in the above framework.

The past Empires all were created with the original hope given to large number of people, made great strides, became corrupt and that corruption gave revolutionary power to people to help disintegrate the scum of the past. The ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Persians, Indians, Greeks neither had anything unique in their great contribution to civilization nor any of them proved immune to the subsequent fall.

The next level of improvement brought the Islamic Empire which took the fruit of many ancient cultures in one universal language, gave hope to a large number of people trapped in their local tyranny, and reached Europe. By the time when Islamic Empire was getting corrupt and its stench was not being tolerated in many places it had reached earlier, the Europeans of Enlightenment had translated many of the great works of the dying Islamic Empire, and built the more advanced and wonderful centuries of progress based on those knowledge.

When the European Enlightenment matured to the stinky colonialism that reached Asia and Africa, the disfranchised Europeans , many of whom escaped the injustice and corruption of the dying colonial system of Europe, found a great new world in America.

Revolutionary Americans  were the greatest hope for all humanity. Equipped with the wisdom of millennia before them, through knowledge accumulated from ancient times, past to them through Europeans who themselves got it from Islamic Empire, the Americans did not have to re-invent the wheel. They invented the greatest form of government that humanity has yet seen.

The American system enhanced the entire humanity, with the short zigzag of horrendous thing happening to a native aborigines. The prehistoric, the agricultural period, the slavery, the industrial revolution, capitalism and Inforation revolution all the way to the decadent Imperialism in the US took a mere few hundred years; what the rest of the world invented piece at a time during many centuries was squeezed and built upon speedily in the American experience. One of the greatest things America did was the defeat of European colonialism as this article nicely attends to.

Now some people, in particular Israelis who love to compare the great American experience which was in part built upon the back of getting the land of native Americans, to that of their own stealing of Arab land! They miss the central point of history: that of its going forward!

Israelis like to compare America's monumental experience of pushing the history in its most amazing FAST FORWARD, with the land theft of bunch of European colonizers of a land which has been once cradle of civilization itself! They want to bring back European colonialism and apartheid which was almost dead in the 19-20 century, and perpetuate it in the 21 century.

They miss the point of history by their own make believe history and propaganda. Israeli experience would die soon just like the weak and irrational links always do, so will the most backward forms of the American order now, as more and more Americans demand the great liberty and prosperity that American revolution brought to them, defined America, and is is fast decaying.

Jenaab e Agha ye Parsa

Sir, thank you for the wonderful article and the follow up comments by yourself and everyone else.  It is a truth that no one is hurting America more than she is herself.  Let us hope that with a new administration we can start the healing process from within.  And to the greater end, a reconciliation with our Iranian friends.

With the deepest respect for you, I appreciate your acknowledgement of what America used to stand for... and will again.

"Slavery and invading a nation did NOT begin with America."

American wife is right. In fact the founders of America made the largest scale attempt to free themselves and abolish slavery. No one can deny this historic fact. Sadly enough however, slavery has been making a comeback. Call it "Corporatocracy" or whatever. But perhaps the most proper name for the present slavery is "Neo-slavery" which is taking away the freedom of the people by controlling their mind, body and pocketbooks.Please read my website for more detail.

Just a point-American Wife

As far as the historical research, there are no evidence that Iran ever had slavery. I would be open to hear or read a historical argument that Iran did have slavery though.

As far as I know, even in ancient Iran, all men and women were being paid by the job they preformed, and women were paid for maternity leaves (A bag of rice and some coins)

You do however make a good point.

Salvery is present in the US of A, hehehe

Salvery is present in the US of A today, hehehe.  It is called corporatocracy. 

World Bank and IMF are also used to slave people of other countries.

Economic slavery is the new form of slavery and debt is used to control people and make them work like dogs.

FYI

Slavery started in Portugal.

faribors

What does one have to do with the other?  Does it change any of the facts stated in the article?  What TRUTH has been half told?

From the beginning of history... the beginning of mankind... exploration and dominance has been the driving force.  The Norsemen invaded Ireland in the 8th and 9th century.  If the Irish had resisted in great force, not likely because they truly are a passive people, THEY would have been massaced.  As it was, they allowed the assimilation of the Norsemen until the 11th century when they rose up and took Dublin back. 

There was slavery in Iran in the 19th century.  There was slavery in ancient Persia and Rome.  The Spaniard had a slave based society.

Let's be real and fair.  Slavery and invading a nation did NOT begin with America. 

Sir, come back and defend your comments.

As Mark Twain said

As Mark Twain said eloquently many years ago; paraphrasing, 'there is not one piece of land in this world that has not belonged to someone else since beginning of time'.

It is deeply hypocritical of Islamic colonialist who destroyed cultures, languages, civilizations, and identities of entire continent even reaching Europe until they were stopped at the "Gates of Vienna" with their 7th century jihad. At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war.

Iran and all other "Arab" states - including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, as well as the entity under the Palestinian Authority - were originally non-Arab nations that were conquered by the Muslim Arabs when they spread out from the Arabian peninsula in the first great wave of jihad in the 7th century, defeating, killing, enslaving, dispossessing, converting, or reducing to the lowly status of dhimmitude millions of Christians and Jews, Zoroastrian exodus to India, and destroying their language (Phoenicians in Lebanon didn't speak Arabic)(Iran is the only country that was able to sustain its own language thanks to our brave poet, Ferdowsi) ancient and flourishing civilizations.

Prior to being Christian, of course, these lands had even more ancient histories. Phraonic Egypt, for example, was not an Arab country through its 3,000-year history.

Islam being wrapped in deception as a spiritual dogma or religion or ideology is more dangerous than Nazism, Communisms, and Fascism of any other kind.
Because unlike non-religious dogmas and other totalitarian systems, the emotional and the so-called spiritual appeal of this fanaticism (infidel vs. ummah, God’s Devine Agents and rulers on earth, blind faith to authoritarian clergy and their dogma) is pervasive and a potent and a dangerous brew that lasts centuries (as we have seen) and we see the end results in every Muslim country. And that is precisely why no other power good or bad has been able to penetrate this pestilence brought about by a bunch of Bedouins.

We need to work on Islamic de-colonization of mind and souls and identify the devastating Pathological affect of this totalitarian ideology.

A state of war only serves

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. .... True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else. ~Clarence Darrow ...

We need a major "war on

We need a major "war on ignorance" in Iran as well. As long as there are people like Faribors Maleknasri M.D.Anonymous who have bought the Islamic colonialist propaganda hook line and sinkers. If all the M.D.'s in Iran are as ignorant as FM, then we have a long battle ahead of us.

Expecting perfection!

Dear Farrokh,

Please do not expect perfection from the American founders or anyone for that matter. Yes, many of the founders held slaves and many treated the Native Americans wrong, but that was the world order at that time. It is unfair to expect those men to solve problems that are still with us after some 250 years. It is the algebraic sum of the attributes by which we judge others and not only their flaws or their occasional good words and deeds. What those men did was to prove that educated and informed people are necessary ingredients of governement of the people. It worked for quite a long time until the adverse effects of ignorance, arrogance and greed dominated the American scene and spread worldwide. Although this huge problem seems insurmountable, it can be averted with educated and inforemed public. In fact injustice has reached has reached a point where the only way our is more involvement in changing our destiny unless we want to usher in another dictatorship.

khody

With Oil Down, Will Iran

With Oil Down, Will Iran Follow?

//www.cfr.org/publication/17626/with_oil_down...

Truth vs. historic facts!

Greetings Dr. Maleknaseri,

I hope I did not give you the impression that I had condoned the massacre of the American Indians in my writing. In fact I have always been an advocate of the underdogs no matter what color, race or ethnicity.
I also believe that there is a sharp difference between the truth and the past historic facts. Please note that those facts were not necessarily based on truth. Can you imagine the chaos we would be facing if all nations started to claim the land they lost to stronger local, regional or global powers? Those are accepted as facts of life even if they were unjust. We are not perfect human beings!
It is interesting that we have made little progress if any to change that trend, but we have made some dent in reducing the predatory nature of human beings. The credit I give to the founders of America is for their scholarly attempt to fight colonial mentality through educating and informing the public. This worked for a long time before a mockery was made of education and ethics. This has nothing to do with the nature of their treatment of the American Indians as the Indians would be subjugated by some other powers if not by Europeans simply because they could not meet the challenge of their time or preparing themselves to effectively defeat  the invaders.
Perhaps in the bigger scheme of things the punishment America is facing is because of injustice it has recently done not to the world, but even to its own people. It must also be said that this injustice is not limited to certain race, color, and creed. It is not uncommon to find some Native Americans to prey on their own people. Nothing can stop that like effective education and ethics.
Many educated, philosophers and gurus, including the founders of America have struggled to save the human societies from preying on each other by educating them to behave as civilized human beings. As I indicated in my writings uneducated and uninformed people could be more dangerous to our world than the beasts, for beats do not kill more than their fill, but uneducated and unethical human beings kill their kind endlessly and even feel good about it.

khody

Wake up calls to listen to

These are the Wake Up calls that if the leaders of this Country don't listen to, there will be a total collaps of the system.

Fariborz has a great point. The forefathers of this Nation created this Country on the graves of the Natives here, and they still have not acknowlegded their guilt.

The current leadres and the foremer leaders of this Country have a lot of innocent blood on their hands. But what will destroy this system is the arrogance and ignorance. The same things that have destroyed other "Empires" in the past.

Obama said they act like they are proud of their ignorance. He is right.

War on IgnoranceAmerica’s founders defeated the biggest colonial

America’s founders defeated the biggest colonial power AFTER THEY HAD MASSAKERED THE NATIVES. Why allways half of the truth? Greeting

Post-Americana

Dear Friends

20 years ago, our dear president, G.H. Bush, made a speech about New World Order. It is so interesting that it might take place. The new published book called Post-Americana mentions not only U.S. as the future superpower but INDIA, CHINA, BRAZIL, RUSSIA, IRAN, E.U. etc. They are not longer depended on us. Their economy is booming. The French leader, Sarkozy, adviced the West to join him to inorder to reshape our economic system.