Archive - 2008 - Article

Here to stay

The problem at the heart of the current controversy over the Iranian nuclear issue is not one of knowledge but of regulation. Believe it or not, at exactly 08:15 local time, August 6, 1945, “Little Boy” opened Pandora’s box of nuclear knowledge and all hell broke loose over Hiroshima. The world woke up to a new technology; steam and internal combustion were old; “fission” and “fusion” were the new buzzwords. The mysterious “unknown” atom had become “known” and engineers everywhere started looking at its potential utility and destructive ability. Now, some 60 years later, some people think that they can turn back the clock to that pre-Hiroshima era of mystery. It cannot be done.>>>

Modern maturity

We should be grateful to the publishers of this journal for providing this public forum so that fellow Iranians and others can express their opinions and post their comments. We should certainly be able to do that with outmost respect for each other and no verbal harassment. Those who responded to my article with their thoughtfully crafted comments, I appreciate your sincerity. Those who were agitated by my arguments and made hostile remarks merely revealed a lack of analytical capacity to engage the topic. I intentionally didn’t respond to individuals because I didn’t want to legitimize their ad hominem attacks>>>

Freedom to explore

"I ended up discovering how many things we all share - especially in music. I first thought about doing these beautiful songs in their original languages but I soon realized that I can express myself more openly and effectively in my native language, Farsi. So I married the work of some Persian master poets such as Rumi and Shamloo to the melodies. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to use musicians from Iran as well as non-Iranian musicians and I am so thrilled with the combination of players on this album from folk traditions, contemporary world music and from the jazz scene">>>

یک اسرائیلی ویک ایرانی

در نوشته (من دلم فرار میخواهد)، درد دلهای مشکلات و مسائل خاورمیانه را با یاد راشل زرگریان، دوست یهودی دوران کودکی ام در میان گذاشتم. 35 سال پیش قبل از اینکه دست سرنوشت مارا ازهم جدا کند، ما یار ودوست و همکلاسی دوران کودکی هم بودیم. من فقط این را میدانستم که اواز ایران رفته واحتمالا در اسرائیل زندگی میکند. اما او بطور اتفاقی نوشته مرا در سایتی اینترنتی میخواند و بلافاصله در جستجوی من از اسرائیل با من تماس میگیرد و باهیجان و اشتیاق غیر قابل وصفی برای دیداری با من درلندن، بار سفر میبندد.>>>

Set that heart straight

Set that heart straight
So all else aligns,
Stars line up,
Cloud breaks down,
Desert gives up,
welcoming carnation under its sky.
Set that heart straight,
So reckless child calms down >>>

Good old days

I don’t remember problems when I lived in Iran during the Shah. I remember that we were not wealthy but had everything that we wanted. I guess the reason was that Shah took care of the government employees. My father was a teacher. We lived in a one bedroom apartment, four of us. The school was about 10 minutes from our apartment. At the time I thought that we are living in a backward nation. I thought if we had such happy life in Iran, how life would be in the west, especially in the United States. I envied the kids that were born in the west. To me, going to the west was an impossible dream>>>

Lesser evil

While America's Fuehrer tours the palaces of his moneyed-buddies in the Middle East, ranting incessantly -- and stupidly -- about Iran... and the inconceivable and "personal" promise of regional peace, the present Democratic pretenders to the Pennsylvania Avenue domicile, who also anticipate dominance over a Reichstag just a short jog away, deliver soft blows at each other as if all these non-sense, non-issues really meant anything. Anything relevant, that is, to the chaotic economic and foreign policies that define the sorry state of our nation these days!>>>

Messing with your mind

The propaganda aimed at social change through creating new norms and values is being directed more and more towards children. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, this new target group was selected in an earlier stage, in the early 1980’s when the new babyboom was old enough to go to school and learn about the values of the Islamic Republic. Schoolbooks had changed, resulting in text books with stories derived from the Qoran, carrying values of martyrdom, submission to Islam, our brotherhood with the Palestinians and last but not least the fight of the good (the Islam) against evil (the West)>>>

مافیای عشق

خورشید که میتابد
پاهایم دراز می شود
در شهر دنیا و میگذرد
از مرز تمدن
با خلخالی از گل بوسه های آدمی
>>>

Hidden cash

The existence of corruption is fundamentally a philosophical problem and has roots in human nature and ethics. Though from a political perspective, this writing is concerned with the percolation of corruption throughout political life. I seek, here, to outline the causes of political corruption, with a focus on Iran. Political corruption is widespread in Iran almost to the proportions of an endemic disease. The modus operandi of Iranian political life requires a recipe of bribery, nepotism, cronyism, secret deals, and financial collusions, among others, camouflaged by the rhetoric and visage of Islamic justice>>>

شاهزاده و گدا

ترجمه قطع جیبی شاهزاده و گدا رابه راحتی در بین کتابهایش پیدا کرد. با دقت زیادی انگار که دعای مقدسی را دارد ورق می زند، صفحات را با واسوس لمس کرد. اولین ترجمه محمد قاضی از شاهزاده و گدا در سال 1333 در آمد و او همان موقع که جوان رشیدی بود کتاب را خرید و آن شب تا آن را تمام نکرد خوابش نبرد. از نتیجه گیری کتاب وحشت کرد، یعنی اینکه کسی شاهزاده و یا گدا می شود فقط یک اتفاق است. آیا همه ما در شخصیت واقعی خود قرار داریم. نکند واقعاً شاهزاده ایم و لی به ظاهر و در اثر سیر حوادث لباس های گدایان را بر تن کرده ایم.>>>

Are we ready for democracy?

If we want to change policy, we have to change the present circumstances, the clichee iranian type. We can change that, by changing the medias attitude. It is us in the west, who have to draw the media´s attention to the, let us call it a fact, that Iranians are Democrats and deserve to be supported. But a fact is something, which needs evidence. Every Iranian can proove and contribute by taking time (5 minutes), just clicking in the survey... I will pass on the results to the media in Germany. Despite the survey naturally may not be representative, it could be seen as a very small step>>>

Three short ones

Some seek truth by soaring the heights,
there where they would become one with the Boundless.
Others seek it plumbing the depths,
there where they would surrender and be Bounded.
And both of these ways are good for a time.
But the Boundless one soon becomes prisoner of his freedom
while the Bounded one in bondage knows little release. >>>

Back to the future?

Kianoosh Sanjari, a human rights activist and an ex-political prisoner himself, demonstrated against the human rights atrocities in Iran by showing his protest in a gathering together with Amnesty International in front of the Norwegian parliament in Oslo on January 12th. It is an alarming fact that the number of death sentences in Iran are on the rise, comparing 177 death sentences by hanging in 2006 to 298 in 2007. Not only is there a rise in the number of death penalties, there also seems to be more cases of “alternative penalties” like amputating limbs or pushing people off cliffs>>>

At what price?

Dear Mr. Taheri, and alike, we know that you, like all of us here in the west, have to earn a living and pay rent -- but at what price? You are willing to provoke conflicts where there are none with consequent bloodshedding just because you are against the present regime in Iran? Maybe, we Iranians of the diaspora that earn a living by legitimate means and working our asses of to make ends meet, should also set aside a fund where we can contribute to these has-beens so that maybe they will not commit these stupidities and just sit at home and SHUT UP>>>