Archive - Jan 18, 2010 - Article

Moulding minds

As they struggle to fend off their political opponents in the here and now, Iran’s rulers are also taking a longer-term view with an ambitious project to indoctrinate future generations from an early age. Plans to inject school education with more Islamic content, anti-western values and pro-regime and separate content for boys and girls amount to an attempt at an Iranian-style “Cultural Revolution.” The plan is reminiscent of the upheavals in education that followed the 1979 revolution. >>>

قانون فدای مکتب؟

مرتکبین قتل های زنجیره ای مانند بانیان محکومیت درایفوس، یک عده مزدور و قاتل بالفطره نبودند.... معتقد و منضبط بودن جنایتکاران نه تنها ذره ای از شناعت اعمالشان نمی کاهد بلکه به مصداق دزد با چراغ آمده قبح اعمالشان را دو صد چندان می کند... منطق قاتلین این بود که معاندین خطرشان از قاچاقچیان و اشراری که اعدام می شوند بیشتر و امکان مجازات قانونی شان کمتر است. بنا براین، و با فتاوا و اجازه هائی که از معدودی مجتهدین و روحانیان متصدی امور برای این اعدامها گرفتند دست به خون متفکران، روزنامه نگاران، محققین، و فعالان سیاسی ایران آغشتند>>>

I Scream, You Scream

A world full of differentiated products is like a kitchen cabinet stuffed with a variety of vitamins. Although, they are good for you, too much of them may be detrimental to your health. It seems people in rich countries like the United States have an endless craving for variation, from SUVs to electronics to even simple products like ice cream, yogurt, and not to mention, Beanie Babies. No matter how many different versions of a product are already in the market, it seems manufacturers always have newer ones coming and consumers have an insatiable desire to buy them>>>

The Persians

Fifty thousand years back, a group of Africans moved into Asia and Europe. When the last ice-age ended 10,000 years ago; a group of those migrants created the first world civilization (Sumer) in today’s Iraq. Later on, the Sumerian civilization was flooded by waves of Semitic immigrants (forefathers of today’s Jews and Arabs) and at about 5,000 years ago, morphed into the Akkadian civilization. The Akkadians in turn were defeated and absorbed into the Assyrian and Babylonian states>>>

This moment it is

For a Moment Freedom tells the story of three groups of heroes, a communist family with a son, two young hip friends with their cousin’s two children, and a simple Kurdish man and an Iranian man, who become good friends after living in Turkey for too long. They all reside at a rundown hotel in the ghettos of Ankara. They share the same daily schedule: going to the UN headquarter, standing in the line for 8 hours to talk to someone in charge and being told to go back home and come back the next day>>>

Perseus Rex

As I daydreamed in class
I often wondered about the face
hung over the blackboard
above Ferdowsi's famous rhyme
on wisdom being power.

But power is a funny thing.
Never a mean to an end,
it permeates your core.
>>>