Archive - Nov 24, 2008 - Article

The magnificent fjords

I came to Norway with certain predilections. They were mostly based on reading about the country and personal encounters with a few Norwegians. Two were especially memorable. A budding journalist attended a summer school with me in college and a veteran diplomat shared a l with me last panel year to discuss international relations. In the fifty years that separated these two meetings, as the saying goes, “Ekofisk changed Norway.” The discovery of oil in that offshore field in 1969 has transformed Norway from a small, poor, and almost inconsequential country to a very rich state that often plays an active, generous role in global peace projects. The image of Norwegian as a people has undergone a commensurate transformation.>>>

خروج از قدرت، نا ممکن و نا مطلوب

می گویند "سیاست هنر ممکنهاست" (نه باید ها) و انتخابات اخیر آمریکا در این نکته خوش استدلالی است. پس از اتمام مراحل انتخاباتی مقدماتی انتخابات در ماه اوت سال 2008 گزینهً اوباما یا مک کین در برابر مردم آمریکا قرار گرفت، گزینه ای که برای بسیاری از آرمان طلبان و عدالت جویان از ایده آل مطلوب دور بود. کاندیداهای دیگری بودند که شجاعانه اصول موضوعهً سیاست داخلی و خارجی آمریکا را به چالش کشیده بودند. آقای رالف نیدر از جناح چپ و آقای ران پاول از جناح راست مواضع غیر عقلانی و غیر انسانی آمریکا در خاور میانه، تاثیرات مخرب لابی های سیاسی، اقتصادی، و مذهبی در فرایند سیاسی کشور، و میلیتاریسم نهادینه شدهً آمریکائی را زیر سوال برده بودند ولی جو سیاسی آمریکا حکم می کرد که هردو آنها در همان مراحل ابتدائی اتنخابات از گردونهً نامزد های دو حزب بزرگ خارج شوند و شانس انتخاب شدنشان به "امکان دوام یک گلوله برف در جهنم" (بنا به ضرب المثل آمریکائی) تقلیل پیدا کند. با اینهمه هردو آنها به فعالیتهای انتخاباتی شان ادامه داده هواخواهان پر شور (و کم شماری) نیز پیدا کردند و توانستند مواضع خود را با استفاده از تریبون های انتخاباتی تبیین کنند. >>>

Los Olivos – A Day

How is it that I find myself seated across from him in a romantic setting such as this, on a warm sunny August day, alone and allowed to soak in the moment? It takes a good bit of practice for me to gather my thoughts and release them to the passing breeze. I want to be wholly at this table – it is hard though. I have to chase the stubborn thoughts; which refuse to leave, insisting that they be witness to this. I will to focus on the mere pleasure of a simple fare with a person who happens to have slithered his way into my heart. Who is he? Do we ever know? Well, I have only shared a handful of days with this man and fewer nights even. This time around, I don’t have to ask ‘who am I’ – a much more pertinent milestone. So I settle to enjoy this “familiar stranger”>>>

Reading Kafka at Harvard (2)

At day break on Wednesday, January 17, 1996. A tremor shaking the old house to the roots I thought, but the surge of sounds drilling into my peaceful sleep bespoke of an impending crisis of a different kind, one that would instantly transform my life for years to come by imposing on me all the existential horror of a Kafkasque nightmare. Luckily, that night my wife Sylvia and our little Sabrina were staying with my mother-in law who was recuperating from an ice-related car accident. Winter had arrived in full force that January. Lying in bed with the bedside lamp on, I didn’t move but tried to grasp what was happening. A luminous fresco of clouds was gazing through the bay windows; expectant mother nature had found an empty theater to mount a small absurdist play. The heavy knocks on the door sounded as if I had been hit in the head.>>>

Deliciously complicated

The love affair with the story in the game of Prince of Persia led the creator to explore areas of the story that he had always wanted to do, but never got around to it. Until now. The adaptation of his story in the form of the Graphic Novel, enabled him to flesh out some of the more dramatic details as well as to do some research into the culture and it's vast and rich history. It has resulted in an outstanding new story, which is a unique adaptation taking various elements of both ancient Persia, as well as the more important inclusion of our traditional character and culture. But as in the story, all is not what it seems and there are mysteriously provident strings being pulled from afar.>>>

The Newlyweds (20, Conclusion)

It's over. She is gone. I am left behind. I went to her and tried to stop her, plead with her, convince her that I had not betrayed her. Geraldine told me she had already left. She took my wrist and placed her other hand on my heart and told me it's over. I lost Kati like I lost my "other friend", the one who "is in the dark." I blanched. I had not told her or anyone here about Leili. I came home, crazed. I felt like I was the one stuck under the rubble, the rubble of a sham marriage, an unwanted child, a pretend-life. I had dug and dug until I caught a glimpse of sunlight and now it had been taken away from me. This will be the last of my correspondence to you dear brother. I thought when I saw Kati that first day that Leili had come back from the dead>>>

توهم

"گل شبدر چه کم از لالهء قرمز دارد؟"
تو اینرا می خوانی
تو اینرا می دانی
و باز هم در دست
چاقوی تیز قضاوت داری!
تو اگر پیش آید
گل شبدر را به لالهء قرمز می فروشی روزی >>>