Archive - Jan 2009 - Article

Circled the world 3 times over

I feel like Marco Polo
I’m circling the world solo
Then I met u
An hour turned into a day, a day turned into a mid summer nights dream
The future I’ve already seen
There’s no white picket fence
Things are very tense >>>

Voting in the Dark

In a few months Iran will hold presidential elections, which most likely will result in Ahmadinejad remaining as president. This will not be due to an expression of what the majority of Iranians want but due to the fact that there still remains a slight chance that Iran will be attacked. After America invaded Iraq preparations were made within the Iranian power structure for war, and this included installing Revolutionary Guard hardliners throughout government organizations, with Ahmadinejad being the most visible. Essentially a shadow military junta has been created so as to back up the theocracy in the event Iran has to go on a war footing>>>

Welcome new source

We finally had some good news: BBC Persian TV, the second professional news and television program, is slated to launch by the end of this month. Many of the journalists and editors of PTV -- as the BBC refers to it -- are my old friends and colleagues and most of them have no TV background. But there is no need for panic, the BBC always offers the best (or one of the best) training programs. Almost all of the 140 PTV employees have now completed their courses on TV journalism. BBC PTV has only one rival: VOA Persian, news and feature programs run by VOA out of Washington. DC, but many experts believe the quality and content of the VOA programs do not meet BBC standards>>>

British, Persian or German?

Reza Shah truly instigated the wide ranging modernization of Iran from a filthy, backward and lawless shell-of-an-state, to a functioning and advancing society. With the new roads and trucks, the all too frequent famines of the earlier twentieth century disappeared. Under the new army’s watchful eyes, bandits and tribes could no longer rob the caravans or invade towns and villages. The new schools and colleges gave hope and purpose to many youths for a better future and the flourishing of their talents. Emancipation of women encouraged that half of the population to play a more active role in public life. Municipal modernizations, public health initiatives and vaccinations, lowered the infant and general mortality rates and provided a brighter outlook for young families. >>>

غوغا

زنجیری که به پای من است
عشق نوباوگان وطن است.
مگر تو نمیدانی
قلبی که در سینه اِشان میرقصد
طبل جنگ گیلان من است.
خونی که در رگشان میجوشد
انتقام مام وطن است.
این ابریشم نتابیده
حرف حساب من است. >>>

Lost in a Dream

I dreamt of you last night
lost, I could see the end near
on the road I walked to reach you
trees of apple tall, flowering in the hands of the wind
drinking from my heart
and I wished you
like the moment gone... >>>

Stop the bloodshed

The beginning of this war was remarkably similar to the July 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon, when you asked me a similar question. At that time, the Lebanese Hezbollah had captured two Israeli soldiers and killed several others and this was said by many to have been the cause of the war. I said then that tension had been rising between Hezbollah and Israel for some time and a flare-up had been inevitable. What I would add now is that both the Lebanon and the Palestinian people have been at war with Israel since the partition of Palestine and creation of Israel in 1948. While the Fatah movement has recognised the state of Israel, other Palestinians, most notably Hamas, have refused to do so and continue to see themselves in a state of war with Israel>>>

Blind trap

The recent Israeli attack on Ghaza has shown the world that the Middle Eastern peace process is not on the right track. What’s important to note is that neither Israel nor Palestine is gaining from this conflict. Palestinians are losing lives, territory and security and Israelis are losing lives and security. So who’s winning? In whose interest is it for this conflict to continue? By looking at the events around and post the Iranian revolution in 1979, one can easily conclude that the biggest beneficiary of this conflict is the Islamic regime in Iran. The regime has made the conflict a vital survival tool, a life support system if you will. Without it, the IRI regime will be no longer>>>

جنایت جنگی یا تروریسم از بالا

اقدامات لازم برای تعقیب بین المللی حمله اسرائیل به غزه از نخسیتن ساعات آن شروع شد. نامه اعتراض آمیز ریچارد فالک، استاد بازنشسته حقوق دانشگاه پرینستون و راپورتر ویژه حقوق بشر سازمان ملل در سرزمینهای اشغالی حمله اسرائیل به غزه را به سه دلیل جنایت جنگی میخواند. نخست اینکه این عملیات در واقع نوعی "تنبیه جمعی" محسوب میشوند به این معنی که دولت اسرائیل بنام مجازات عده قلیلی از چریکها همه مردم غیر نظامی منطقه ای را تحت فشار گذاشته تا دست از حمایت از حماس بر دارند. این همان سیاست محاصره اقتصادی غزه است که امروز با بمب و موشک دنبال میشود. ثانیاً با بمباران مناطقی که از پر جمعیت ترین نقاط جهان محسوب میشوند اسرائیل به بی مبالاتی در "کشتار مردم غیر نظامی" متهم است. و بلاخره ریچارد فالک (که خود کلیمی است) "تلافی بی تناسب " نظامی را دلیلی دیگر برای اتهام جنایت جنگی علیه اسرائیل میداند. >>>

سكوت علامت «رضا»؟

آقای اوباما از هنگام انتخاب (و حتا پیش از آن) در باره بسیاری از مسایل مربوط به سیاست‌های داخلی و خارجی آمریكا، به خصوص در مواردی كه با سیاست‌های حكومت فعلی متفاوت بوده، نظر داده و سیاست‌های آینده خود را تشریح كرده است. این اظهار نظرها و برنامه‌ریزی‌ها دخالت در سیاست‌های فعلی آمریكا تلقی نشده و مورد اعتراض قرار نگرفته است. در مورد حوادث اخیر در فلسطین نیز آقای اوباما می‌توانست نظر و موضع خود را ابراز كند. او نه تنها سیاست‌ خارجی خود در باره اسراییل و فلسطین را مطرح نكرده است و بلكه از دید انسان‌دوستی نیز تنها پس از چندین روز حاضر شده است در مورد تلفات غیر نظامیان اظهار تأسف كند و از طرفین مخاصمه بخواهد كه از حمله به غیر نظامی‌ها اجتناب كنند. به جز این، او ترجیح داده است در این مورد هیچ سخنی نگوید - و این سكوت در شرایطی‌ كه آمریكا صریحا طرف اسراییل را گرفته است علامتی جز «رضا» نمی‌تواند باشد.>>>

کـــرد ويـــــران، کـــرد ويـــــران

می شنيدم
از لب شيرين پيران خردمند
مستمر  اين برترين و بهترين پند :
آه ای خوش باوران کم سوادِ پر افاده
اين چنين بی فکر و تدبير و درايه
مرز و بوم و مملکت، کردن اداره
آخر ای مستان قدرت ، اين روش  تا کی ادامه؟ >>>

Sunday in Copenhagen

Copenhagen always had a special place in my imagination. It was the first city I saw in the Western world. My visit was brief; several hours between flights gave us an opportunity just to see Tivoli and the City Hall square. That was decades ago. Going there for the second time this summer, I found myself looking for more than what I remembered. My observations were framed by curiosity about several Danish phenomena. What accounts for the Danes’ reputation as the happiest people in the world? Why are they at the epicenter of the bunker mentality against immigration? What happens to a country when it is no longer an empire? What could a nation of five and a half million contribute to global civilization which is also shaped by others with vastly larger populations and resources?>>>

Feeling superior

Iranians can be extremely racist. I was first made aware that Iranians were perceived, by others in the region, as arrogant racists by a Pakistani professor of Islamic literature at Boston University. Professor Rahbar taught in the Religion department and most Iranians took his literature course for an easy grade. He also conducted the Farsi exams which, if passed, made the University wave the second-language requirement for Iranian students. The poor man, who was well-versed in Persian poetry and loved Saadi and Hafez, was routinely ridiculed by his Iranian students. This was mostly because of his Pakistani accent. Although his eccentric habit of cooking curry in his office, in the Theology building on Mass. Ave., did not help either. >>>

Pulse

At the office Christmas party, my boss told me about a new gym that recently opened in the area. On the way back home one day I drove past the plaza and looked up to see a big neon sign announcing the arrival of ‘Pulse’ to my neighborhood. I fell in love with the name. So I punched a reminder in my Blackberry to take my personal pulse to the one down the road sometime soon. We had been out the night before and hadn’t got home till late – the last of the holiday parties eke out every ounce of joy and goodwill. So when the alarm goes off at 7 a.m. on the first Sunday of January, I am none too thrilled to remember my New Year resolution. His leg plops over mine – his code for “how about a little”. >>>

40-year-old dream

The Iranian nuclear enrichment program and its potential to create weapon- grade uranium that could be used for making bombs is the hottest topic of discussion among the western powers and international community. In order to better understand Iran’s intention, one must look back to its origin and study the history behind its current activities. Iran’s ambitious plan to acquire nuclear power is nothing new and dates back to the late Shah of Iran. It was his government’s desire to acquire the nuclear technology of the present time. During the past several years, a number of misguided attempts have been made to uncover the truth behind Iran’s nuclear activities>>>