Archive - Jul 5, 2010 - Article

What threat?

Instead of taking practical steps towards reducing the truly dire threat of nuclear weapons proliferation, the US is taking major steps towards reinforcing US control of the vital Middle East oil-producing regions, by violence if other means do not suffice. That is understandable and even reasonable, under prevailing imperial doctrine, however grim the consequences, yet another illustration of "the savage injustice of the Europeans" that Adam Smith deplored in 1776, with the command center since shifted to their imperial settlement across the seas>>>

They can work

With the most recent round of UN-approved sanctions and seemingly more restrictive additional sanctions introduced by the European Union, Canada, Japan and Australia, there appears to be renewed interest in the effectiveness of sanctions in altering the behaviour of the Islamic Republic of Iran concerning the atomic energy programme of the regime and its real purpose. In this note, I try to explore some of the less often discussed but I hope not less appreciated possible effects of sanctions>>>

Psyche Spinner

My mother just returned to Iran. When she called this morning I thought she was just calling to inform me of her safe arrival. Instead, her voice was shaking. Fatemeh Khanoom, the woman who cleans my mother's house and whom I had written about for women's day, was there bearing the news that her husband had gone insane. "Why?" I asked my mother, she replied, "You know how he was an opium addict?" I answer yes. "Well," my mom continued, "he took a pill the dealer gave him called Ravangardan (psyche spinner) and he went insane>>>

هراس از پیروزی

هر گاه صحبت از براندازی نظام میشود هراس از فروریختن كل دستگاه حكومتی، پیدایش خلاء سیاسی و خطر تجزیۀ مملكت نیز خود نشان میدهد. البته نظام اسلامگرا هم كه بقای خود را در گرو احتراز مردم از براندازی میبیند به این هراس دامن میزند ولی مشکل فقط از تبلیغات حكومتی برنمی خیزد. سؤالی كه اخیراً یكی از دوستان با من در میان گذاشت دلمشغولی بسیاری است: اگر این نظام به ناگاه سقوط كند چه خواهد شد؟ آیا سرنوشتی نظیر یوگوسلاوی و تجزیۀ مملكت در انتظار ما نیست؟>>>

Farsi or Persian? Again.

Within the past few years there has been a tendency to replace the adjective "Persian" by "Farsi" when it refers to the Persian language. The practice seems to have originated within the Iranian community in the United States and out of good will. However, the provenance and the initial intention are not important, as the practice has backfired and developed into a widespread usage that is detrimental to the status of Persian language and literature. Quite often we come across absurd combinations of the two alternatives, such as "BBC Persian Section broadcast this item of news in its Farsi programme">>>

فردوسی منتقد نه ناسیونالیست

فردوسی این باور رایج را كه شاه چون فره ایزدی دارد و به اصطلاح سایه یا نماینده‌ی خداست با انتقادگرائی روشنی كه در برابر مفاسد برخی پادشاهان بزرگ مانند كیكاووس و گشتاسب بكار می‌گیرد متزلزل می‌كند و از عمومیت می‌اندازد. انتقادگرائی شاهنامه نه تنها پرده‌ی ابهام را از روی خشونت‌ها و مفاسد برخی پادشاهان كنار می‌زند بلكه نقطه‌ ضعف‌های رستم را نیز برای خواننده برجسته می‌كند>>>