Iranian of the Day

Mr. Ala

The reason why Mr. Esfahani can obtain a judgment against another dealer for defamation while, as you say, a politician can say much worse about Iranians and not be taken to court is very simple.

What was done to Mr. Esfahani affected his business. A business where he has dozens of employees who rely on Mr. Esfahani remaining a viable dealer principal. The negative impact that this other ignorant dealer and his staff engaged in is tangible.

In the case of what a politician says about us, no matter how much worse it is, in a court of law it amounts to not much more than hurt feelings and wounded pride.

As to the offending dealer? Well, it's possible that he will have to answer to Southeast Toyota Distributors, and Toyota Motor Sales. After the recall and subsequent public relations mess that they had to endure, they don't need a franchisee who engages in this type of behavior, especially when Toyota franchises are coveted by dealers everywhere and sell for premium money.

Good post Hirre

Democratic Republics die from within, not without. Injustice some how causes freedom to be lost.

Hirre

The American constitution is not God's law. It has been ammended many times. And will be changed many times again. Initially it allowed for slavery; then got changed. It almost passed the ERA.

It wiill probably pass it in time. You got to work to change it if that is what you want. It is hard but not impossible. I am not to worried about being president. The game is rigged by money. I rather put in a requirement for public financing.

Well, that is prejudice by

Well, that is prejudice by "law" which shouldn't make sense... This is one problem with America, the constitution. For most americans the constitution = god's law on earth. But reality is that as society changes, rules/laws will have to change aswell...

Dear Hirre

An immigrant may not be a USA persident because of the constitution. It was written over 200 years ago. The same document gives automatic USA citizenship to anyone born in USA. 

An illegal may cross the border; give birth and the child is a US citizen. Not just that but also allowed to become president. I figure the reasoning is that a naturalized person may not be fully loyal to USA. Does it make sense to me: yes.

American immigration policy is one of the most liberal in the world. I figure in time that restriction may be lifted. Right now I am fine with my rights here. Persidency is highly overrated given you may do better as running a lobby ask Mr. Parsi.

...

Yes it's true, america is less racist in some ways, it has solved it partly because each nationality belongs to a community (persian, indian, chinese etc community) rather to a "main community" and each community has a "purpose". But what is strange here is why an emmigrant can't become the president of the USA? Why is that so dangerous?

America is

much less racist than Europe. I live in USA my personal experience is pretty good. Most racism I got was from White Europeans in USA.

The moral is: don't mess with Isfahanis or Isfahan nesve jahan plus 7.5 million.

2nd Iranian car salesman in the news in a month!

        What's with Iranians and car sales?! :-)

        Remember the first one was arrested allegedly plotting to kill the Saudi's Gigolo!

Iranian Americans vs Iranian Europeans

My impression is that most iranians who emigrated had basically followed these rules when it came to country selection:

1) Do I know anybody in the foreign country already? E.g. do I have friends or relatives?

2) If the answer to 1) was Yes, then most probably the person would travel to that country. If answer was No, then the person evaluated his own current situation: what do I have (education, money, etc) and how do I maximize this?

3) If you didn't have much money and had (or didn't had) some education and at the same time country didn't matter, you most  probably picked a european country because Europe was easier to travel to and they had/have a lot of free system. Especially if you had children Europe would be the ultimate choice.

4) If you however could afford to "gamble" or had money and/or education and watched a lot of TV during the 70's (which dominated with promotion of american culture) you would most likely choose America. This was also more probable if you lived e.g. in Tehran. Many iranian movies even promoted America one way or the other. People who e.g. emigrated to Sweden etc only got the information from other iranians living there.

So basically your own goals/preference combined with the information you received ~30 years ago determined the country you would emigrate to. In the case of american iranians I would argue that you could see a difference in mentality between iranian americans and iranian europeans as you can see a difference between foreign iranians and iranians living in Iran.

When it comes to freedom and democracy many americans (american iranians also) either feel or want to create a connection between those words and the american constitution or staty of liberty or any other symbol. In the case of europeans (european iranians also) national real-world symbols are not used to describe freedom or democracy because nobody really owns these "entities" which unfortunately america tries to imply in media. Countries with much more "democracy" and fairness than american are very modest in promoting themselves as the "greatest democracy" and so on.

My personal belief is that you really need to be careful when you use the words democracy and freedom because many countries see them as a social and political phenomenons for justice while others see them as directly refering to capitalism itself and individual enrichment unregarding the consequences. That is why you have different slogans:

America - "The greatest democracy in the world ... freedom..."
India - "The biggest democracy..."  (?)

...

In my view democracy & freedom should not be achieved for the words itself. In a fantasy world I'd rather live in a dictatorship which makes sure you have a strong economy, free healthcare, free school, free education etc than to live in a "free democracy" where the resources can't be divided equally among its citizens due to some lack... E.g. I live in Sweden because most of my requirements are met, not because it has "freedom and democracy", or else I could aswell live in Greece or India... Fortunately until now democracy has been proved to give way to other good things in life, but it might not be so in the future if democracy isn't willing to challenge capitalism! This problem is what we see now in the world during the financial crisis...

The real threat against democracy and freedom is not bombs, terrorists, dictators and so on. The real threat is unfair division or lack of resources and "capitalism".

...........

His victory is probably symbolic, but it has still its ramifications!

Mr Ala you are right

The Sun newspaper in the UK and perhaps similar papers in the US make anti-Islamic and anti-Iranian and middle eastern remarks every day. They spread hatred all the time. I think Mr Esfahani might be able to get his money too. I wish him luck anyway. The establishment is trying to be nice to probably one Iranian and screw the rest as they are preparing an all out attack against the Iranian regime. They want to give a caring image. But, they have their own cunning methods. one person winns a lottery and the rest gets screwed. For example, at the same time this guy was referring to Afghani students as Taliban and this was happening to me, the college helped one of my Afghani stdents became Miss United Kingdom. The people who promoted her never stopped the BNP supporter calling Ahan students Taliban. He still works there. I took a goverment instituition to court. That was the ultimate crime. God knows what is going to happen to me for writing these lines here on iranian.com. I might have to write to you from behind the bars. My problem that I have a few big enemies. conservatives of all kinds.

Being awarded & being able to collect are two different things.

There are different issues involved here.  There was defamation and the jury awarded $7.5 million dollars  Being awarded and being able to collect the money are two different things.  Mr. Esfahani might end up getting zero dollars.

The other dealership could fire the person or buckle up file for bankruptcy.  By the way, most Toyotas are made in the USA, they are not imported as the article said.  I bet if you were looking for Bob Tyler another salesman would say, "He doesn't work here anymore.”

It is interesting how some people here are happy for Mr. Esfahani while have attacked several IC members for their views…. It is all the same close-minded hate… unless you can support the freedom of people who disagree with, you don’t  believe in freedom that you are talking in this thread.

Going back to $$, in the majority of cases, lawyers get half or more of the money.  

Something bold…. Why a car salesman can be taken to court and obtain a judgment against him but why cannot politicians be taken to court who have said worst things against Iranians?

Freedom of speech is different than what people think.  Many do not express themselves but discriminate people without saying a word.

Well done Esfahani, but what about those who don't have money to

Well done Esfahani, but what about those who don't have money to hire a good lawyer to defend themselves and end up going to court as litigant in person.on 25th July 2005, the day London bombing took place, I was absent from work. It happened that on that on that day two people in our community got hurt(one died and one badly injured), I knew both of them and I was very upset sitting at my desk. A day after, when I went back to work, a BNP supporter, in my place of work, approached me and said “You Iranian terrorist, where were you yesterday, police was here looking for you, ..." I got the sock of my life. I used to write anti-hardliner (hard liner Islamists) and ani-Bush rhymes. For example "Be quite you must shosh, there is no need for ambush, he is hiding somewhere safe, he is hiding behind Bush" and a rhymes like the ones I have published about hardliner Muslims" here in iranian.com. I got the person on tape admitting about 15 terrible anti-Islamic, anti-Iranian, anti-afghani and Pakistani students in the College. He used to refer to Muslim students as Talaliban(plural for talabah, somehow he knew what Taliban meant). The Regional Officer for the University and College's Union gave a statement in my support saying that "I have not seen institution racism of this magnitude in my entire life". In the internal hearing, the person received a final written letter of warning. The judge ignored all that and I lost the case and gave me the maximum possible financial penalty for being "unreasonable and misconceived. Other word,  for wasting the court’s time. In my case I was an Employment Trribunal(no jury) who made such a decision.  This court case has financially ruined my family, my wife nearly died of heart attack(seven specialists worked together to save her life) and I am still trying to cope with the financial penalty. You must see this side of the coin too. Perhaps you could help in someway.I hope Iranian.com will continue showing this video for another day or so, so people can write comments about this incident too.

.......

This article says that Esfahani's lawyer asked for whopping $28 million in lost business and punitive damages:

//blog.al.com/live/2011/10/jury_awards_75_million_to_east.html

the jury awarded the guy $7.5 million.

I doubt the Tyler dude can come up $7.5 million, he probably has to fold his business!

There is a difference between jury "awarded" you $7.5 million and you actually received the $7.5 million.

During OJ Simpson civil lawsuit, the jury awarded Goldman and Nicole Simpson families $12.5 million........I doubt they got even $1 million.....

Well, I will stay tuned!

It is sad that Tyler dude lied about his rival.....can't tell the difference between Iran and Iraq....I am sure he learned his lesson.....at least learned something on Geography!

Thanks for all your replies

America is a great place!

Very happy for him.

Well, you can get the justice if you got the $$$

           Basically he had more money than the other guy! Justice is nice to people who have the $$$!

           Nonetheless congratulations to Mr. Esfahani. That racist, bonehead loser who lost the case should have known NOT TO MESS with Esfahanis! :-)

What if?!

What if he didn't have deep pockets to hire a top notch legal team to get him through the judicial marathon? What if it was an immigrant who could not afford the legal bills?!

Here is one who wasn't as lucky: //www.hambastegimeli.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10837:2010-08-17-07-41-45&catid=67:2010-07-26-12-28-30&Itemid=110

//www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/2011/11/111102_l30_bk_iranian_freed_us.shtml

Enhancement of pockets

Most of us in the US who've been here pre islamist takeover came here to study and return to make big bucks (quids, that is)! Alas, it did not work out. So phile jaan, the answer is neither. I (we) came and stayed because it was a choice between living free and living under a theocratic dooms day regime. Now, why, I say why did you choose to immigrate or stay in VAT land? It ain't because of the weather, I know.

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IRAN FIRST

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Anglo

You are oversimplifying a rather complicated human story.

Here is my story that I posted about a year ago.

//iranian.com/main/blog/faramarz/iranian-...

Dear anglophile, for some it was not black and white

For some, it was not totally free will but it was not being refugee either. As 1980s progressed, many Iranians realized that if they stayed in Iran, they ran a risk of being excluded from school and jobs if not outright imprisoned or killed, so many left Iran. Not everyone who left Iran, became a refugee, but many took refuge in other countries.

Considering that some of the English…

Even look down on Europeans and don’t consider themselves as Europeans, it is a long leap of fate to compare their tolerance for immigrants (if they are from the not White/Western race) to those of Americans.  I lived a week one night in Germany and even though never experienced any harsh reactions myself and treated rather decent, but saw well how those of foreign back ground were treated and viewed.

  I dare say no place on earth is as tolerant to immigrants as in America, specially the coasts.  On that note, if we had the choice, we would perhaps divorce the south and set them free to be their own backward country but that is not in the queue just yet.

'Hambastegi' is the main key to victory 

Mehrdad

anglo, what is enhancement

anglo, what is enhancement of soul?  if a woman leaves iran for the west to be able to have more rights, does it mean her soul is being enhanced?  if she's able to get a job and earn more money than iran, does it mean that she's enriching her pocket?  what does mutually exculsive entities mean to you?  i don't think that i understand you not to mention you're being off-topic. 

or are you just trying to be divisive for fun?  ;)

I immigrated because it was easier to live here than Iran. Duh!

Everything is sacred

A question to all "immigrated" Iranian-Americans

anglophile jaan: WRONG!

Greed is a human trait, equally distributed among the humans. Given the opportunity, we are all equally greedy. As for tolerence, I agree that the Brits are among the more tolerant ones in Europe compared to say Germans and some of their immediate neighbors. I've spent time in England (pretty much all over the little land) and know that their major cities harbor a huge population of muslims and some north Africans (NA's are mostly in France).
In Us, however, there are large expat population from....every friggin' nation on earth....

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IRAN FIRST

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Esfehani

Congratulations!

I always heard the "Esfehani"s were good businessmen. Here's prrof I guess! Congratulations, sir - and I commend you on your perseverance - this was indeed a "moral" issue.

ALL European countries have lost their tolerance on foreigners.

It USED to be that when it came to foreigners different European countries acted differently.  Now they all have the same attitude, perhaps Germany being the worst.

UK same crap! 

Everything is sacred

On the subject of 'Bama

and rednecks:
Of course it is true that not all are rednecks, that would be silly.
I know Iranian people who have married into American families in 'Bama and their (grown) children, mind you half Iranian, look and act like genuine rednecks, not that there's anyhting wrong with that....LOL..It is just funny to hear a guy whose (middle) name is Persian speaking with a deep southern accent. It cracks me up.

AO jaan, good one on the clips.

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IRAN FIRST

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On Europe vs USA's degrees of tolerance