Archive - Sep 2007 - Article

Remembering the unforgettable

It is said that "powerlessness frustrates and absolute powerlessness frustrates absolutely; absolute frustration is a dangerous emotion to run a world with." Sometimes I wonder why I am so restless, why I cannot cease thinking! It seems like the world we live in reveals to us incessantly, at certain moments or in certain circumstances, just how little we are and how vast the universe is. This world of ours is a very complex world. The world we live in is a world of many brutal voices. It is a world of heavy blows and delirious trances, but it is the only world that we know.>>>

Not important

The world has changed dramatically ever since the 9/11 attacks because of some changes completely irrelevant to the causes or consequences of the attackers or the Western reactions to the attackers. The world has changed over the past 6 years in a very good way, technologically, materially and in many other ways, and some of changes have not been that great. The 9/11 attacks and its consequences have been nothing but news in fact. It has not been like World War II when people's lives were affected and the whole world suffered and changed becasue of the war.>>>

Citizen of the world

I am a citizen of the world

Yet, I don’t have a passport

Issued by a world government

I have regard for all people

Not only my kinsmen and compatriots

I acknowledge the humanity of all

Without regard to their religion, culture or nationality >>>

Wrap it right

One has to have nerves made of copper wires to unwrap some of these holiday gift packages imported from China. These packages are put together in such a way to withstand the elements, constant mishandling by porters, impacts against cargo containers, and onslaught of buyers who constantly try to inspect the items before purchasing them. Let’s be honest, when was the last time you purchased an item that was already manhandled. Somehow, we don’t like to buy things when their wrappings have been torn already. There must be a sociological reason for this, maybe fear of missing parts, I suppose. >>>

Roger's story

Roger was a ladies’ man, who frequently scored dates with the prettiest girls on campus, as his perfect charm somehow got girls to give in to his dating demands. He did attend church regularly so the combination of church related activities and functions enabled him to meet a myriad of interesting gals. After graduating from college, Roger landed a sweet job with Morgan Stanley inside the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. He learned to enjoy the city, loved his job and a few years later fell in love with his neighbor, a young Asian lady attending Medical School at Columbia. They both attended the same church. >>>

«جناب اشرف،» احمد قوام السطنه

برخورد دو جريان خواهان و مخالف تغيير آن ديناميسمي را به وجود آورد كه هيچ يك از آن دو رسته را ميسر نيفتاد تا بنا بر ميل خود بر آن بر مهار زنند و تغييرات را در جهت خواست هاي خود برانند. نگونبختانه، با اينكه قسمت اعظم اين گرده ي سرنوشت ها به نگارش در آمدند، گرفتاري ها تدريس، پايان دادن پژوهش هاي پيشين، و نيز بيماري مانع از اتمام پروژه شده اند. چند نسخه ازين طرح در اختيار چند متخصص ادبيات قرار گرفت تا از كمك و همكاري آنان براي نگارش گرده هاي پيرامون اديبان بهره مند شود. حال، نظر به توجهي كه اخيراً به برخي ازين «شخصيت» ها داده شده است، درست آن ديدم كه گرده هايي را كه نسبتاً آماده اند در اختيار خوانندگان قرار دهم. اينك يكي از آنان: >>>

فقها و فحشا

پس از حدود سی سال مبارزه ی اسلامی با فحشا, بیداد فحشا هنوز یکی از ویژگی های حکومت اسلامی و حاکمیت فقها ست.روش های مبارزه ی اسلامی با فحشا, برای چندمین بار در تاریخ , در سی سال گذشته نیز تجربه شد. آتش زدن و تخریب محل کار و زندگی فواحش( تن فروشان ), سوزاندن و اعدام تن فروشان, شکنجه و اعدام پااندازان خرده پا , محجبه کردن تن فروشی و دایر کردن " شهرنو" های اسلامی روش های به کار گرفته شده از سوی فقهاست .علی رغم اثبات نا کارایی این روشها ی ضد انسانی و ابلهانه, مرغ فقها در بکار گیری این روش ها "یک پا دارد" و کوتاه بیا نیستند, حتی به قیمت گسترش حیرت انگیز فحشا و عوارض آن >>>

Nature's oasis

"What is so special about your flowers?" I ask. "Je besoin (I need) le nature," she replied eagerly. When I was a small child, I used to visit the Jura (mountains) and I took in the colors of the flowers. They gave me a kind of therapeutic feeling. I tried to bring this organic calmness to this village we call Geneva." Nicole enlightened me with stories of her youth, free in the mountains, surrounded by a bounty of soft flowers. She explained how privileged she was to be able to spend every day these past six years seeing, touching and breathing flowers. >>>

Too hot to handle

Southern Europe needs air-conditioning. Switzerland with it’s ski mountains, lake Geneva, chalets needs summer time air-conditioning. But we always think the good old days will return. The climate will reverse itself. That will never happen. The problem is serious. Heat comes to the surface at a higher rate now, lingers on if there is no breeze or gets absorbed in the lakes, ponds or any other cool place. The limits of temperature for human comfort are minute. Between 24º and 26º degrees with slight air-movement to be felt. Without air-movement, within the limit of those temperatures, one will not be comfortable behind desks with a suit and necktie. >>>

به امید دیدار!

جدّی میگی نیما ؟

بالأخره حمید جان؟
رفتی؟
باشه.
ما هم دیر یا زود میایم! >>>

شرافت کاری و اخلاق حرفه ای

حسین درخشان ...دست به جعل زده است و از خود چیزی ساخته و به من بسته است. برای من جالب است که کسی که فحاشی مردم را به خود منتشر می کند تا مثلا آزادمنشی خود را به رخ بکشد تذکر حقوقی مرا ادیت می کند. او نگران است که روشهای غیراخلاقی اش با نقد حقوقی و اخلاقی همان اندک تاثیری را هم که ممکن است در بعضی اذهان داشته باشد از دست بدهد. بسیار با معنی است که او اگر هر کامنتی در هر جای وب بر خلاف خواست و نفع او باشد رسما می نویسد و اعتراض می کند و خواهان برداشتن آن می شود اما کامنتی را که در برابر رفتار ناجوانمردانه او گذاشته می شود و در آن هیج اصلی از آزادی بیان و احترام به مخاطب مخدوش نشده کوتاه می کند.>>>

A path to nowhere

It was the second day of winter 1986. The sun had already set and the snow-spotted Alborz Mountains to the north of Tehran were still visible behind a haze of smoke hovering the city. Two nights earlier I had toasted the birth of the Iranian god of Mehr (Mithra: god of the Sun) in a cave in the Alborz with some fruits and nuts along the longest night of the year in an inn in the City of Mashhad; and now I was at Khazaneh Bus Terminal in south of Tehran taken a seat by the window of a bus full of uniformed men like myself bound for Khuzestan in southwest of Iran wondering whether that would be my last trip from that terminal or it was just the beginning of a series of such trips that I had to take to the war fields in the south and west to fight an endless war regarded holy by many, unholy by many.>>>

امام مرده سخن می گويد!

گاه شرايط آنگونه ايجاب می کنند که رهبر فوت شده را بصورتی شگفت آور به ميان بازماندگانش برگردانند تا مشکلات و اختلافات را سريعاً حل و فصل کند. و از آنجا که احضار ارواح نه ممکن است و نه پذيرفتنی، نزديکان رهبر از دست رفته بايد او را از طريق بازگفتن خاطره های خويش بازسازی و احياء کنند.>>>

Wright is wrong

Someone please tell me if Robin Wright is a journalist or Haleh Esfandiari's PR manager. How dare she can get away with such a blatant lie that "Esfandiari and the [Woodrow Wilson] center have long denied receiving any U.S. funding for the lecture series she runs." The about page of the Woodrow Wilson Center reads "Approximately one third of the Center's operating funds come annually from an appropriation from the U.S. government.">>>

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. >>>