VIEW
Signs of a different kind of promise -- of the birth of self, the will to live
February 11, 2010 did not turn out to be the end of the regime in Tehran. But in time, it may prove to have been the end of something even more important for Iranians, and perhaps, for the Shiite culture. It was the end of an ancient love affair with death. It was the end of blind sacrifice—of martyrdom. We Iranians have always cherished blood. If there were no fresh supplies to stir us, the old were reliably in our memory. Year after year, the Ashura mourners, grieving the martyrdom of Imam Hussein in 680 AD, passed through the streets, beating their chests—the clinking of their chains ominously echoing in the air.
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WAR
War game shows how attacking Iran could backfire
The Brookings Institute recently conducted a war game between Iran, Israel, and America. You can read all about it here, "War game shows how attacking Iran could backfire." Well here is a leaked excerpt from a war game that was recently conducted in Iran at "Oops WW3 Institute"...as soon as Israeli jets were identified over Iranian airspace, and the bombing on Natanz was confirmed, Iran launches over ten missiles towards Damon, where Israel's nuclear industry is based. Simultaneously a volley of five hundred missiles from southern Lebanon hit Damon and several Israeli military bases
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PROFILE
Who was Fereidoun M. Esfandiary?
by Benjamin Tiven
“No civilization of the past was great,” Esfandiary insisted. “They were all primitive and persecutory, founded on mass subjugation and mass murder.” Against a tide of books warning of global crisis, decline, and alienation, Esfandiary proclaimed the first Age of Optimism. Technology would universalize abundance; nations would disappear; identities would shift from cultural to personal. “The young modern is not losing his identity. He is gladly disencumbering himself of it,” he wrote. “In the 21st century, no one will say ‘I’m Egyptian, or Romanian, or American,’ but ‘I’m global,’ or ‘I’m moon-based,’ or ‘part Martian.’”
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IDEAS
مردان و زنان ایرانی سقراط های قرن بیست و یکم اند
by M. Aidani
آزادی تفکر و بیان، تنها روش سازنده و سالم زندگیست هم برای فرد و هم برای جامعه. این راه سقراط بود و راه کسانیست که با وجود و هستی خود از هر طریق به انسان احترام گذاشته و برای حرمت و آزادیش فداکاری میکند. روشنفکران و سیاست مداران خیر اندیش و آزادی خوا ه برای اولین بار در ایران در کنار ملیو نها ایرانی دیگر چه درون آن سرزمین و چه در غربت آن این اصل را آهسته آهسته در گفته ها و عملكرد های خود دارند هم به همدیگر و هم به دیگران نشان میدهند
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NOVEL
ناجی نگاهی به صورتش انداخت و با خود می گفت این شاید آخرین نگاه بود
جلسه دوم خانم معلم روسریی آبی بر سر داشت و جلسه سوم روسریی سرخ. اما در جلسه چهارم که در اولین روز هفته برگذار شد مقنعه ای سیاه به سر داشت هر چند تا حد ممکن آن را عقب کشیده بود و موهای سیاهش کاملا از سرپوش سیاهش متمایز بودند. خانم معلم در این چهار جلسه نشان داده بود کارش را خیلی خوب بلد است و مهارتی کامل و ستایش انگیز در تدریس زبان انگلیسی دارد. از همان ابتدا گفته بود که انگلیسی را با لهجه آمریکن تدریس خواهد کرد که لهجه مورد علاقه اش بود و آن را زیباتر از لهجه بریتیش می دانست
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