Archive - Jun 2, 2008 - Article

Maman jan

My mum has come to visit from the UK. [Brief description of my mum: a feisty lady whose age is a state secret - the very mention of it (or her height) will see her expression change to one of contempt. So nobody who knows her will ever go there. Except that is, my sister. My sister, Soheila, is fast turning into my mum. They share so many traits and similarities that they have been mistaken for sisters. Which has left my mum feeling elated and my sister staring daggers at the person who made the observation.]>>>

Dinosaurs & Religions

Religions obviously have created a niche for themselves and have survived and multiplied for millenia on earth. That brings up the analogy between religions and dinosaurs. Dinosaurs ruled the earth for millions of years and some biologists believe that they created an impasse for evolution. Meaning the meandering of the genes and random mutations took evolution on a path in the fitness landscape that was pretty much an impasse. Appearance of humans and intelligence would have been unlikely as long as this behemoths were ruling the earth.>>>

The Geniuses

Neither of them were bums, first off, the black bum or the Mexican bum. They were men, and a world that had somehow decided that it was going to include bums had decided to include them, and it was very nice to think that their situation was fixable, that hard work and determination could lift them out of it, but none of that changed the fact that a man who was down on his luck for a day was a man who was down on his luck for a day, and a man who was down on his luck for years was a bum. The Mexican bum could do fine among the people of the Richmond District of San Francisco. He could smile with them and he could hold the door open for them outside Gordo's Taqueria on Geary Street, making sweeping chivalric gestures towards women>>>

قداست و عقب ماندگی

روزگاری نيمايوشيج، پدر شعر نوی فارسی، داستانی نوشت به نام «مرقد آقا» تا نشان دهد که چگونه ذهن قداست بين و معجزه طلب از درخت و چوب خشگ هم می تواند امامزاده بسازد و آنگاه بر اين «قداست خود پرداخته» دخيل ببندد و از آن شفا و دفع بلا بطلبد. اگر آنچه او نوشت قصه بود و محصول خيال، ما اما، در همين بيست و چند سالهء اخير، با چشم خود شاهد ايجاد يک «مرقد آقا» ی ديگر بوده ايم. اول فقيهی از اهالی قم را مقام امامت بخشيده ايم و آنگاه، از «اين همانی» ی امامت او با امامت امامان دوازدهگانهء تشيع، او را صاحب معجزه و کرامت دانسته ايم، عکسش را در ماه ديده ايم، و رفته رفته او را به مقام عصمت و معصوميت رسانده ايم. سپس، امام که ساخته شد، بايد برايش مرقدی در خور امامتش بسازيم، بارگاهی بنا کنيم، به دور قبرش ضريحی فراهم آوريم، برايش زيارتنامه درست کنيم و زيارتش را با تشريفات خاص امامان همراه سازيم؛>>>

Things have to change

Israel recently marked its 60th anniversary, at a time of great upheaval all over the Middle East and while the Israeli society is divided on a number of issues. In many ways, the leaders of the Israeili State have not achieved what its founders meant to do - create a secure, democratic state based on social and economic justice for all the citizens. Israelis may enjoy freedom but the freedom of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians whose land, property, livelihood, trees, gardens and homes have been destroyed is nowhere in sight. For the majority of Palestinians, this is, instead, the anniversary of what they call "al-Nakba." In Arabic, it means catastrophe>>>