Archive - Jan 4, 2010 - Article

So what to do?

Pretend for a moment that you are the president of the United States and you have gotten yourself into a bit of a hole with your Iran policy. First you offered to negotiate with Iran over nuclear (and potentially other) issues without the Bush preconditions. But there were powerful political forces that felt this was an example of your inexperience and even appeasement tendencies. So you unwisely accepted a six month deadline for the negotiations to show that you meant business.>>>

The Fall of 2010

At year’s end, pundits are prone to partake in New Year’s predictions. It is a pursuit often done lightheartedly. But every so often facts align themselves in ways that require genuine assessment. And a willingness to make a prediction that may be so bold that it cannot later be hemmed or hawed or rationalized away. That gives a pundit an advantage over those other folks who prognosticate for a living at the CIA. They have so much intelligence at their fingertips and under their fedoras that they are very good at prophecies of geopolitical nuance – but not at sensing truly seismographic regime changes that may be at hand>>>

تنش خلاق

یکی از معما های تاریخ بشر فتوحات برق آسای اعراب مسلمان شده در قرن هفتم میلادی است. علل بسیاری برای این پدیده تاریخی نقل شده که مهمترین بقرار زیر اند. نخست اینکه روابط سیاسی و فرهنگی قبایل عرب جاهلی از جنس جنگ بود. عضویت در هر قبیله ای بمعنی شمشیر بستن و شمشیر کشیدن و مبارزه به سنان و بنان برای فخر و پیروزی قبیله خودی بود. وقتی اسلام جنگ میان مسلمانان را منع کرد قبایل عرب به نوعی بحران فرهنگی برخوردند. طی قرون متمادی اعراب در جنگ و تفاخر و رجز خوانی خود را تعریف کرده بودند>>>

Leili and Kaveh

Last November some Iranian.com writers began a collaborative project to write an experimental story. The premise was that someone would write the first paragraph of a story and then the next writer had to add his or her part and so on until the last person who had to write the ending. Order of the writers was determined randomly, except for the first writer. We had a lot of fun working together, but when it was finished we had to hold on to the story for a while in view of the sad events in Iran. We would like to share the finished story with you at this time in the hopes that you might enjoy reading it as much as we did writing it>>>

حرامزاده

چشمهایش را به نرمی گشود و با نازی که ویژگی همه نازپروردگان بود از خواب بیدار شد. هنوز هوا تاریک بود. مطابق معمول برنامه روزانه اش پیش از هر کار به حمام رفت و دوش گرفت. آنگاه سجاده سبز رنگش را روی زمین پهن کرد، چادری سپید رنگ بر سر کرد و مشغول نماز خواندن شد. دعاهای رنگارنگ همیشه پایان نمازش را شکل می دادند. پس از نماز برخواست و سجاده و چادر را گوشه ای گذاشت و پنجره اتاقش را گشود>>>