Archive - Mar 2008 - Article

Reporting for Destruction

When it was reported in May 2007 that Rupert Murdoch's "surprise" $5 billion bid for the nation’s largest financial newspaper, the prestigious Wall Street Journal, it was received with great apprehension lest this paper of record for the U.S. economy lend itself to Murdoch's conservative leanings. The anxiety felt was not misplaced. Murdoch now has The Wall street Journal from which to propagate misinformation to the public; the latest such scandal being an opinion piece by Amir Taheri. What prompts Murdoch to allow such an incredulous opinion piece to be published in his paper? >>>

For tortured souls in our midst

With the switchover to a more bloggy style format, and the ease by which readers can comment on articles, I figure enough experimentation has gone by, to spend this piece defining a code of conduct that I think we can all agree on and hopefully abide by. It's probably not perfect, but it'll do, for me anyways. As I am sure you have by now seen, there are several problems. First, the sniper comments have exploded. These are those pointless, harm intending, vicious, often personal attacks on the site, by those tortured souls in our midst, who feel the inexorable urge to express what is obviously their own deep demonic torment. Except that they do it with comfortable glee>>>

The Spider Killings (11)

Azadeh took her time approaching the passenger side. She looked in as the driver reached over and rolled the window down.
-- “Hey haven’t seen you in a while.” The man said smilingly.
-- “That can be changed,” Azadeh replied, “if you have five thousand tomans.”
-- “Panj-hezaar-taa meegiri! Five thousand!” The man scoffed, “Who do you think I am, a millionaire mullah?”-- “Listen buddy, you wanna haggle, go to the Baazaar,” Azadeh fired back, unfazed, “I’m not selling chaghale-badoom, spring almonds, here.” >>>

Blind & cool

I am a 23 year old Iranian blind boy looking for better relationship. I have always wanted to write about my life but I don't know how to start. I was just 13 years old when I approached a girl for the first time, a girl with soft voice and good sense of humor and every thing that can be desirable for a man. I asked her to go out but she refused. Her reason was her parent and police. I told her we are both blind, who can find out we are friends? At the end of the year she wrote me a letter and said "you are the best of the boys that a girl can reach. I wish you success and a good life." >>>

America's duty

What is going to happen in Iraq will be the turning page of history for what is going to happen with a very large chunk of the Muslim world, especially Iran, and Iranians, inside or outside of the homeland. Whoever becomes the next president of the US will take decisions regarding Iraq that will be crucial for the future of the security of the Middle East and the wider world. America witnessed one of the results of the radicalisation of Islam on 11th of September 2001 and that radicalisation is still there waiting to harm freedom and democracy, not so much potently in the West, but more believably and practically in the Muslim world>>>

Iranians deserve better

Some may argue that all religions at one point in time have committed crimes against humanity. That may be so, but none of the existing world religions' foundation has been based upon shedding the blood of its innocent conquered. Islam lives, breathes and grows on blood. Once we take away this red element from Islam, Islam will vanish completely. Islam cannot possibly live in the hearts and minds of its believers. Islam needs to shed the blood of the infidels, meaning all non-Muslims. Islam is about world domination. Fear of pain and punishment for non-conformism is part of being a Muslim>>>

باغچه ای در تهران

کنار حوضچه
غنچه ها شکفته در آفتاب
در سکوت چک چک آب
عاشق جیک جیک سار
دربهار ایران
باغچه ای در تهران
>>>

Letter from jail

Dissolving milk in the sea of green
the body drifted, naked, clean.
Delicate hands motionless in the waves
a faraway voice calling his names.
Every step descended further
from the vertical wall of water. >>>

Speed on snow

“Darkness rises from the grave, seeming as limitless as the sky above us,” wrote Peter Hoeg of Greenland in ‘Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow’. Here too the dark sky sits very low. Sharing the same latitude as the novel’s setting, the Kiruna region is known as the last untouched wildness in Europe. I’m above the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland. The landscape is kilometer after kilometer after kilometer of fresh, unblemished snow, interrupted on occasion by charcoal-colored wiry tree branches. >>>

Busy behind the scenes

Ansary family have been very good friends with Bush Family since the time they moved to United States and resided in Texas in year 1979. The friendship is so close that at this point, Mr. Ansary is CEO of Bush family trust fund while continuing to maintain very close relationship. Mr. Ansary has also had many generous contributions to presidential campaign for George Bush sr., George Bush jr. and other Republican Party candidates for the House and Senate. In most of these investments, we can see some familiar names of American famous politicians as Mr. Ansary's partners. Mr. Ansary has a daughter, Nina, and a son, Nader, who both have been given extensive amount of wealth and investment by their good father!>>>

اصالت عقل و تعقل

مشروطیت برای نخستین بار آگاهی ایرانیان نسبت به حقوق لاینفک انسانی، سیاسی و اجتماعی شان را به منصه ظهور حافظه ی ملی رساند و نهال آن را در ذهن و فکر اجتماعی ملت کاشت و زان پس دایماً در بستر تحولات زمانه آبیاری و تنومندش کرد. با استقرار و تداوم حکومت های مشروطه بین سال های ١٢٨٦ تا ١٢٩٩ و سپس جلوۀ درخشان آن در دوره حکومت دو سال و اندی دکتر مصدق، مردم ایران این گنجینۀ گرانبها را در حافظۀ تاریخی خود، یعنی در جایی امن و به دوراز دسترس عُمال و داروغه های شاهنشاهان و حزب اللهی ها و بسیجی های ملایان، گرامی داشته اند. اما چه کسانی پرچمدار ملازمت و توسعه بخشی این گنجینه تاریخی بوده اند؟ کدامین روشنفکران، متفکران و نویسندگان این گنجینه را از گزند حوادث و ویرانگری نظرات گذرا و متعصبانه حفظ کرده اند و همچنان در ذهن ما درخشنده اش داشته اند؟>>>

«حکومت اسلامی تصوری»

اکنون، پس از گذشت سه دهه از «خلافت» آقای خمينی (لفظی که خود ايشان در اين کتاب برای «فقيه ولی» يا «امام» بکار می برد)، ما همهء مراحل پيروزی «حکومت اسلامی» بر «حاکميت ملی» را گذرانده ايم و دستگاه مقننه، قضائيه و اجرائی حکومت اسلامی مستقر در ايران دقيقاً بر اساس الگوی مورد نظر آقای خمينی بخود شکل گرفته و دربست در اختيار ولی فقيه قرار دارند. در عين حال، وقتی به اين سه دهه می نگريم متوجه می شويم که تنها عدهء معدودی از مفسران سياسی متوجه اين تعارض شده اند و اکثريت ما، آنچه را که در ايران پديد آمده با عينک «دولت ملی بين» و «مدرن» که دارای «قوای منفک و مستقل از هم و خدمتگزار منافع ملی است» ديده ايم و، دقيقاً به واسطهء همين «سوء تفاهم»، وقت خود را از طريق سخن گفتن بر بنياد چنين برداشتی تلف کرده ايم.>>>

Worshiping stone

Last year I achieved one of my personal ambitions. I spent a week at the stone-carving workshop on the Island of Portland. Portland is a rock outcrop that stands out from the Dorset coast into the English Channel, linked to the mainland only by the great sweep of Chesil Bank. Portland was shaped by quarrymen. For centuries these men have carved the landscape and given it distinct contours. They also formed the local culture and even the superstition, for instance the word “Rabbit” is not used on the Island as running Rabbits were associated with falling Rocks and bad accidents. The course was at the Tout Quarry. I walked through a landscape part shaped by man part by nature. A series of gullies and wild plants and stacked up rocks>>>

desire lives in a cold grave

The spot where your hand lay still is warm.
Your words hang suspended in the air
where first they flew forth.
They resonate
but I cannot hear them.
Your wails of love and sorrow,
bittersweet intruders,
breathe forth >>>

اصلاحات پارلمانتاریستی؟

در حقیقت اصلاح طلبی پارلمانتاریستی باید یا آرزوی خود برای رسیدن به حکومت دمکراتیک توسعه گرا را به سطل زباله انداخته با اسم فریبنده اصلاح طلبی در پی بازی های سیاسی برآید یا این واقعیت را که قانون اساسی ما قدرت نهادهای انتصابی را بر نهادهای انتخاباتی افزون تر قرار داده است بپذیرد. تازه در این صورت نیز اصلاح طلبان امروز یک گروه بدون اعتبار سیاسی محسوب می شوند. در حقیقت سرمایه سیاسی این گروه امروز بسیار اندک است و این گروه هم اعبتار خود را در نزد رهبری از دست داده و عمال خودخواسته یا ناخواسته آمریکا تلقی می شوند.>>>