Archive - Aug 2008 - Article

The Reed flute

It was a summer day year 2000(I think it was 2000). I was in New York City to visit some relatives and enjoyed the stay. A cousin of mine who was interested in Sufism told me about a Rumi conference that was going to be held in the Columbia University. I have had read little about Rumi and remembered some famous lines of his poetry and his love for Shams Tabrizi, but I really did not know so much about him. Also, the only thing about sufism I knew was the paintings of old dervishes with their axe. Back at my parental home we used to have a very elegant copy of the Omar Khayyams Rubaiyat. I enjoyed reading its poems so much that I made my high school special assignment about Khayyam>>>

Fifty Ways To Kill Your Lover

In the beginning was the word, says the Book, but which word and did a sentence follow, and was it funny or all too serious, like Him? You see, this is the question that sort of attacked me one day out of nowhere and, yet, He kept evading my question, so after a while, when I was starting to think vacation and how I should busy myself, being the most workaholic soul in the entire universe, I said to myself: I can be an author! He laughed at me of course and mocked me and eventually we made the bet -- that I would prove my literary skills by getting published by a respectable publisher and, searching the directory, we settled on you, that is why I am here>>>

سوژه ساعت هشت و چهل

یک روز یک مردعکاس که برای یافتن سوژه ای به باغ ملی رفته بود. دختری را دید که از در اصلی باغ داشت می آمد با قد متوسط و موهایی مشکی و شلوارکی سیاه با پیراهنی صورتی پر رنگ و کفش پاشنه بلندی به پا و کیف کوچکی به دست. مرد عکاس از دختر شروع به عکس گرفتن کرد و از زوایای مختلف در دوربین اش از او کادر ساخت. مرد از همه زنها متنفر بود و هیچ وقت دوست نداشت عاشق بشود ولی صورت این سوژه با همه صورت هایی که دیده بود خیلی فرق داشت. به خانه برگشت و در استودیو عکاسی اش شروع به ظاهر کردن همه عکس هایش کرد. وقتی اولین نما از صورت دختر را که دید یک لحظه ایستاد و در آینه به خودش نگاه کرد رنگش پریده بود، عکس ها را در کادر بزرگ چاپ کرد و همه را به رخت آویخت از اتاق بیرون رفت. >>>

خون دادن

انگلیسی‌ زبانها نمیتوانند "خ" را تلفظ کنند، به جای آن "ک" تلفظ می‌‌کنند. احمدی نژاد یک روز تصمیم گرفت خون بدهد. وقتی به محل خون دادن، که درون یک چادر بود، رسید دید صف برای خون دادن بسیار دراز است، ولی‌ وقتی مردم دیدند احمدی نژاد به آنجا آمده است به او گفتند بفرمایید جلوی صف، شما لازم نیست در انتهای صف وایسید. شما بفرمایید اول صف و هرچه زودتر خونتان را بدهید و به کارهای مملکت برسید. وقتی احمدی نژاد رفت جلوی صف، نفر اول صف گفت: " به به چه روز خوش آیندی! بفرمایید خونتان را بدهید." >>>

Buying time

SHAUL MOFAZ: Iran's nuclear program is geared toward attaining military weapons capability -- something that constitutes an existential threat to the state of Israel. With such ability, Iran not only could attack Israel directly, it could also increase financial and material support under its nuclear umbrella for terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Hizballah, as well as for Syria. Iran has already provided Hizballah with long-range missiles that can hit most Israeli territory, and one day, Iran could also use this power against the United States and Europe>>>

Poor Man’s Equalizer

The current framework of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is almost non-performing. It may not be dead, but it is non-functional. This, as many other totally unpleasant outcomes, is another by-product of the Iraq war. In “post Iraq” world, an overwhelmingly majority of nations learned that the Bush administration invaded Iraq not because the administration “thought” Sadaam had weapons of mass destruction; it invaded Iraq because the administration “knew” Sadaam didn’t have weapons of mass destruction. In this regard we must recognize the two years UN inspection of Iraq and destruction of its weapons as part of military strategy of the United States>>>

For lack of a Solzhenitsyn!

I thought of Solzhenitsyn and his recollection of being an officer in the Soviet Army, observing the inhumane treatment that the Soviets had inflicted on the Germans, military and civilians, in 1945 as WWII came to a close; perhaps crimes that many would excuse as retribution for what the Germans had done years earlier to them; a retribution that he would not find acceptable. Today’s counterpoint is simply the ease in which the American military accepts crimes of war, often candy-coating them and making them PR-acceptable, as simply “collateral damage.” Our American military has gained vast experience at decriminalizing many repugnant acts of war during the past six decades, from No Gun Ri to My Lai to Fallujah, expecting future generations to be the ones passing judgment, if at all>>>

دوستی به همین سادگی؟

آنچه مسلم است دنیا در مرحله گذارو رهایی از زیرسلطه نظام امپراطوری قراردارد. انقلاب ایران در منطقه استراتژیکی خاورمیانه نقش ارزنده ای در این گذار رهایی بخش ایفا کرده و می کند. لذا هر اظهارنظری از جانب مسئولین بویژه دولت عدالتخواه زیر ذره بین دشمنان انقلاب (امپریالیزم و صهیونیزم) ودوستان انقلاب، یعنی نیروهای عدالتخواه قرار می گیرد. بنابراین حتی اصل ظاهرا مسلم دوستی بین ملت ها می باید با نگرش علمی مورد بررسی قرار گیرد.تجربه عملی در راه مبارزات استقلال طلبانه و عدالتخواهانه نشان داده است که بی اهمیت دانستن بسیاری از این گفتمانها و گذشتن از آنها بعدها به مانند ویروسی در جامعه پخش میشود که احتیاج به صرف وقت و انرژی بسیار دارد تا بتوان با آن مقابله کرد. بنابراین مقابله به موقع از اهمیت خاصی برخوردار است.>>>

یاد آرفتوی خون و جنون را!

رابطه ی فقیه و خون, و مفتی و جنون در تاریخ میهنمان مثال های خوبی برای توضیح وتبیین " تداعی مشابهت" اند. این امر نه تصادفی, و نه از دین ستیزی و اسلام ستیزی ست , ملتی واقعیت های دردناک و هراسناک رابارها دیده و تجربه کرده است, وچنین دیدن ها و تجربه ها یی تشابه ای در ذهنیت تاریخی و فردی اش حک کرده است, که ماندگار به نظر می رسد. بی تردید شماری از فقیهان بودند , و هستند که تاب تحمل دگراندیشی را داشته و دارند, که اینان انگشت شمارند. اما اکثریت فقها و مفتی یان خونریز و دارای افکار و کرداری جنون آمیز بوده , و هستند . کافیست تاریخ مان را ورق بزنیم تا با نمونه های فراوانی از این موجودات,که به چندنمونه از آن ها اشاره می کنم, مواجه شوید .>>>

Our blended imagination

In my eighth year as a child growing up in Iran, I spontaneously composed a stanza, a poem, observing the falling of snow, when something took over and I knew it was poetry I was jotting down in a nylon-covered notebook. That notebook remained in the piles of things left behind. This was the country in which I recited over and over again “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, / But I have promises to keep, / And miles to go before I sleep, / And miles to go before I sleep” for our fifth-grade English class. In the fourth grade, the entire class would stand up from our wooden benches and recite an homage poem to mothers. At home, it was Sohrab Sepehri, “Wherever I am, let me be / The sky is mine / … Our work is perhaps / To run after the song of truth/in the distance between the lotus and the century.”>>>

ex-super power

Americans are fascinated with bigness. We believe we should have the best and the biggest of everything. Only ten years ago, the United States was at the top of the world’s biggest lists in most categories. That is the thing of the past according to Mr. Fareed Zakaria the author of a book entitled; The Post-American World. Consider the following facts: “The tallest building in the world is in Taipei, The world’s richest man is Mexican. Largest publicly-traded company is Chinese. The world’s biggest plane is built in Russia and Ukraine, (the) leading refinery is under construction in India, and (the) largest factories are in China. The biggest movie industry in terms of both movies made and tickets sold is Bollywood, not Hollywood. Of the top ten malls in the world, only one is in the United States; the world’s biggest is in Beijing” according to Mr. Zakaria>>>

The Scream (3)

Sure enough, David was gone from his pedestal. Soon to follow were the Venus of Milo and the Nike of Samothrace both skipping town the same day. The Thinker no longer thought. Oslo’s Vigeland Sculpture Park, once like a fully functioning city within a city, was but a ghost town. The Vatican was the hardest-hit, losing Jesus Christ from their famous Pieta. The Virgin Mary now cradled just a bunch of air where her slain son had once laid, expiring. Like their painted brothers and sisters, the marble and terra cotta and stone creatures dreamed up by geniuses from the Far East to the Wild Wild West had inexplicably disappeared>>>

Why doesn't Tarzan have a beard?

...>>>

آشتی ملی

باری، بعد از سالها تفکر و اندیشه در مورد پیدا کردن یک راه حل منطقی برای فیصله دادن به درگیری تمام نشدنی بین ملت ایران با دولت و حکومتشان و امید تحقق به آنچه که برخی آنرا آشتی ملی میخوانند، سرانجام به یک نتیجه گیری و راه حلی رسیدم که به امید خدا اگر شما آنرا مطا لعه بفرمائید و بدون غرض ورزی و چوب لای چرخ گذاشتن سبک ایرانی مفاد آنرا مورد بررسی قرار دهید، شاید بلطف حق آنرا متفقاً تاُیید و به دفتر سازمان ملل ارائه دهیم تا در یک رفراندم با تمام هموطنان در میان بگذارند و ملت ایران سرنوشت خودرا انتخاب کند. حالا بنده کاملاً آگاه هستم که با خواندن حتی همین چند سطر، بعضی بلافاصله پرگار شک و تردید را باز کرده اند که دلیلی پیدا نمایند تا دور مارا خط و دایره بکشند. لذا قبل از اینکه آن چند هموطن از گفته ما دل ببرند و بقیه مطالب را نخوانند، بنده باطلاع و سمع ایشان برسانم که: نروید! چون مسئله مهمی است و خیلی پول توشه! >>>

War of words

If you favor a forward, nonviolent strategy to tackle the Middle Eastern challenges of the 21st century, “diplomacy” is the only game in town. To illustrate my claim that, for us liberals of the Middle East, talk or negotiation with adversaries has become the only alternative for ending a row that has triggered regional tension, I shall discuss the recent shift in the US policy toward Iran. When Senator Barack Obama expressed his readiness to pursue diplomacy with America’s adversaries should he win the November election, President Bush was quick to denounce such plans to engage the enemy, saying: “We have an obligation to call this what it is—the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.” >>>