Archive - 2007

Watch out, here they come!

"We’re not Pink Floyd" he says. "Why do they expect us to be Pink Floyd?" Those are words from Arash Sobhani, singer/songwriter of Kiosk, the Iranian rock band that has been making quite a name for itself in the past two years. Since the days I wrote and published the conversation we had on Orkut in November 2005, the band has made a major leap in making itself known to the general public, and quite successfully, I might add. As I also run the Kiosk fan community on Orkut, the release of their second album a few months ago gave me the opportunity to have a second conversation with not only Arash, but also with Babak Khiavchi, head of Bamahang Productions (Kiosk’s record label) and Ahmad Kiarostami, the director of the now famed Eshghe Sorat video. >>>

Die, you filthy insect

What do you do with a cockroach? You kill it, most likely. How guilty do you feel if someone dropped one of those exterminator bombs in a hole infested with roaches? Not really guilty, you may even thank them or at least feel relieved. Well, Iranians are now cockroaches and Iran is a roach infested sewer. This cartoon appeared in both Investor’s Business Daily and The Columbus Dispatch. What really gets my goat is not the racist, stupid nature of the cartoonist, Michael Ramirez. No, not at all, I expect that such individuals exist. The real tragedy here is born of us, Iranians.

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Portraying Iranians as insects

Let me assure you that I'm not writing at the behest of any certain group or organization but solely on behalf of our shared humanity in the meager hope that I may arouse some level of moral decency at your paper that would offer an apology to the 70 million Iranian people you have offended.
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America fights back

Bahman Mahmoudi writes: President George W. Bush and his Vice-President Dick Chaeyney have concluded that it is time to straighten the record so that history would reflect a better image of their imperial rule and collect better speaking fees. Mr. Cheyney suggested to deport all Iranians and let them go home and enjoy the fruits of the Islamiic revolution in 1979. >>>

اندر جدل ناصر زرافشان با عباس میلانی

متن نوشتار عباس میلانی در روزنامه کیهان را شاید بسیاری به یاد دارند. آن در زمانی دیگر و در شرائطی متفاوت نوشته شده بود و درست و یا نادرست بودن آن قابل گفتگو ست. ولی پرسشی اصلی در این مورد که در واقع زیر بنای نوشتار آقای زرافشان است، اینستکه آیا مصالحه سیاسی در شرائط ویژه، دارای یک انسجام از قبل پیشبنی شده و همه پسندی است که در هنگام گرفتاری همگی ملزم به رعایت آنند؟ و یا این در حد و مرز یک پدیده شخصی باقی میماند؟>>>

نهضت مشروطیت و دیانت بهایی

در حالی که انقلاب مشروطه ایران در سالهای اخیر به طور علمی و دانشگاهی مورد نقد و بررسی مبسوط دانشمندان قرار گرفته است لکن رابطه دیانت بهائی و انقلاب مشروطه ایران تا حد زیادی مجهول مانده است. دیدگاههای بهایی در مورد جنبش مشروطه به اشتباه ساده انگاشته شده و یا به یک یا دو جنبه محدود گشته است. نمونه واضح نوع اوّل ساده اندیشی را می توان در آثار ادوارد براون یافت. او که مهم ترین مستشرق اروپائی آن دوران به شمار میرود معتقد بود که بهائیان به دستور حضرت عبدالبهاء موضعی انفعالی در پیش گرفته بودند.(۴) به عقیده براون بهائیان فاقد برنامه ای جامع و همه شمول برای اطلاحات در ایران بودند>>>

Pentagon ‘three-day blitz’ plan for Iran--anyone see this article?

News >>>

New Weblog

This Weblog denoted to Honar & Adabiat Farsi. >>>

Silver Lining To A National Tragedy.

"Tasliyat." The recent election of a known scoundrel to the leadership post of an important decision-making council in Iran's body-politic amounts to nothing short of a national tragedy, and a reconfirmation of repeated observations and experiences over 28 years establishing either the inability or unwillingness of Iran's "rohaniyat" (as evidenced in the outcome of their vote in this very same election) to properly address the challenges and needs facing the Iranian nation.>>>

So close

She comes so close
From behind the hope
Wearing an ordinary t-shirt
Which says;
an old friend of mine, once said to me, ...
the escape perfume screams. >>>

In tomorrow

It wouldn't be too far fetched
to say that you'll need
everything you got to face
your blue tomorrow.

I've looked into this for years,
through thick dusty books
filled with alchemy
and theatre of absurd,

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Iranians Depicted as Cockroaches by US Newspaper

In the early 1990s, prior to the Rwandan genocide, the minority Tutsi group in Rwanda were constantly called inyenzi, or cockroaches, by those who sought to destroy them. The strategy was to dehumanize the minority group, making it easier to inspire others to join in destroying the minority group, thus resulting in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. The same rhetoric has often been used by Israeli soliders and generals which have been connected with Palestinian massacres.>>>

welcome to real iran

welcome to real iran >>>

Pavarotti on fire

I had bought the season tickets to the opera at New York's Lincoln Center months in advance and by the time of the performances, I had almost forgotten about them. One day I looked at my tickets and noticed that two of them were for a performance on the following day. Since I had no one to go with, I took the tickets to college the next day and after the end of my afternoon class, I decided I would walk the halls and stop random girls and ask them if they would like to go to the opera -- in two hours. Why not? I would have said yes! >>>